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At first, Echo wasn't sure what it was.
He was happy with the Bad Batch, of course. They'd welcomed him once he proved he could be trusted. They didn't compare him to the regs as they'd called them; for them, there was nothing for Echo to be compared to. They hadn't known him before.
All this to say, Echo was happy with the Bad Batch. But there would be times he'd be hanging out with them, and he just felt sad. And he had no idea why.
But one day, Hunter and Tech were arguing - not a serious argument, just trying to get under one another's skin, each trying to annoy the other. As vode tend to do. Hunter had just said something particularly obnoxious - and scientifically incorrect - that caused Tech to lunge -
And Echo remembered.
Crosshair and Wrecker saw Tech trying to knock Hunter off of his high horse. But Echo? He saw himself, lunging at Hevy, trying to get his big brother to shut his kriffing mouth -
Echo swallowed, looking away from his younger brothers tussling on the floor, and tried to keep it together. He would say he hadn't thought about Hevy in ages, but that would be a lie. He thought about his oldest batchmate at least once a day, wondering if Hevy would be proud of him.
Now that he was consciously thinking about him, he couldn't help but see similarities between Hevy and Hunter. The most obvious similarity was that they were both over-protective, and the oldest of their respective batches. But he could also see that Hunter was just as steadfast as Hevy was. Loyal, too. It got to the point where Echo was seeing so many similarities between them that he had to catch himself, about to call Hunter a name that wasn't his.
Once he noticed the similarities between Hunter and Hevy, he started noticing other things connecting the Bad Batch to Domino Squad. Crosshair unleashed that sharp wit of his, perfectly timed to make them all crack up; in the back of his mind, Echo heard Cutup sassing Bric for the millionth time, while the rest of them tried to hide their laughter. Wrecker would be roughhousing, or suggesting the wildest possible solutions for their missions, and Echo would be seeing Fives, encouraging them to push through with crazy ideas when they realized that Bric had sabotaged their second attempt at the Citadel exam. Even Tech, telling the Batch about any information he found was reminiscent of Echo himself, when he was a shiny to echoed all the orders and read the reg manuals for fun.
Since he'd been thinking about it so much, it was no wonder that Echo's dreams started taking a depressing turn. He back on the Rishi Moon base, as he was rather than as the shiny he had been, and the batch was there alongside Sargent O'Niner and Nub. Echo knew the attack was coming, but every time he tried to warn them, he could feel something choking him, stopping him from speaking. That wasn't the worst of it, though.
When dream-Droidbait looked at Echo, he let out a little screech of fear, before letting out a nervous laugh.
"Damn, vod," he said. "And here I thought I was the only droid bait in our squad."
Echo let out a wounded noise, but before he could say or do anything else, a blaster bold came out of nowhere, sending Echo's batchmate to the ground. Then, there were droids everywhere, mowing down Echo's brothers, but leaving him alive. Echo let out a scream, trying to move, pick up his blaster, anything -
And then he woke up.
Echo gasped, thrashing in his bunk. Before he could hurt himself, or anyone else, a hand rested on his.
"Easy, Echo. Deep breaths, vod. You're okay."
Hevy?
Echo did what his brother said, trying to breathe. When he finally got his breathing under control, Echo spoke without thinking. "Thanks, Hevy."
"Hevy?"
Kriff.
Echo forced himself to meet Hunter's eyes. Hunter didn't look upset, just confused. "Who's Hevy?"
"He - err..." Echo rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Hevy was one of my original batchmates. From Domino. You're... You're a bit like him, Hunter."
Hunter hummed thoughtfully. "Should I take that as a compliment?"
Echo snorted. "You know what? Yeah, you should. Hevy was one of the most steadfast brothers I've ever met."
"Steadfast, huh?" Hunter looked pleased. "I like the sound of that."
Wrecker, who had apparently been listening, chose that moment to speak up. "What about me, Echo? Do I remind you of someone from your batch?" Echo smiled at the hopeful expression on Wrecker's face.
"You, Wrecker, remind me of Fives."
Echo relished in the way everyone's mouths dropped open at that. After all, Echo and Rex had told them all about Fives. Echo's twin, one of the best ARC troopers the 501st had ever had. That Wrecker reminded Echo of Fives... They understood the significance of that.
It seemed like the floodgates had been opened, and Echo spent the rest of the night telling his younger brothers how they each reminded him of Domino Squad. He was able to laugh about their antics, talk about their victories. The hardest part was when Echo finally told the Batch about what happened at the Rishi Moon base. He couldn't stop himself from crying; he missed his brothers so much.
Even so, when all was said and done, and Echo was bundled up in a vod pile with Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Crosshair, he couldn't regret any of it. As much as Echo missed his original batchmates, he still loved his vod'ike with all his heart. And he could only be grateful for the love they gave him, the love that reminded him so much of his Domino brothers in the first place.
Echo let himself feel that love, and when he fell asleep with his little brothers, he didn't have a single bad dream.