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Just like old times.
The words keep repeating in Echo’s mind as he goes up the stairs of the Marauder following Rex.
How could it be like old times? Echo had been changed beyond recognition and been used to kill his own brothers. Rex is not the same either. He looks so much older now. The war is clearly taking his toll on the captain.
How can life go back to normal when one person is missing?
Echo’s legs suddenly feel so heavy. Of course, they are made of durasteel but it is more than that. It’s like he is wearing magnetized boots under water. The ambient sounds are drowned by his blood rushing in his ears. The ARC trooper focuses on breathing and putting one foot up after the other.
Was the sun setting? Everything looks so much darker.
Echo grinds his teeth and manages to step inside the shuttle. The hatch closes behind him so fast that the only thing stopping him from falling face first is a hand gripping the joint between the remains of his right arm and the scomp.
The cyborg tenses at the touch. No one should have to get in contact with the ugly excuse for an arm Techno union leaves him with.
He pulls away, feeling he is crumbling to the ground. Echo braces himself for impact but meets two largest hands. Darkness is creeping on the edge of his already blurry vision.
“Easy bud…” A loud voice sounding like a brother says near his ears.
“Echo…” Another one, this time familiar. Safe. Rex.
“… Bunk now… Rest.” Distinctly a clone but sound more gravely.
“Adrenaline crash…” This one seems to have a coruscanti accent.
So many clones but none are the one Echo wants to hear. Have been needing to…
“Fives…” He breathes out as he loses his fight against the darkness.
The strong smell of bacta and antiseptic is the first thing Echo’s brain catches as he slowly regains consciousness. Their beeping and humming medical equipment are second and he tenses. It is nothing comparable to his metal coffin back on Shako Minor. He keeps trying to convince himself he wasn’t there, but he feels so out of it. Like after they add something else in his body. Might all this be just another hopeless dream of his tortured mind?
There was suddenly movement on his side.
“Kix! He’s waking up.” Rex says.
There are other footsteps and the sound of a medical scan. The light. No! He is not back on that table.
“Easy trooper. You are safe.” His captain reminded him in a gentle but firm voice. “You are back about your brothers.”
Echo let Rex guide him to full awareness. He blinks a few times trying to focus on the faces looking down on him. He slowly recognizes the second clone.
“Kix…”
“It is nice to see you Echo.” The medic smiles gently as he taps something on his datapad.
The cyborg opens his mouth to return the feeling but couldn’t make a sound before he begins to cough.
“Don’t push yourself too much.” Kix scolds him lightly as he helps him to half sit up and press flimsiplast cup in his hand. “Take small sips. Not sure how much you digestive system could support at the moment.”
Echo nods weakly, not trusting his voice. He listens as Kix presents a quick report on his physical state as he sips the water. As the medic briefly goes over the interventions, they have done on his arrival to give his body a chance and the day in the bacta that follow. He knows he should react more, but he feels so numb still. Like his mind not fully comprehending Kix is talking about him.
His eyes keep drifting at the end of the bed. It’s empty.
The few times Echo had stayed in the medbay in the past, Fives would sit on that particular spot, holding one of his ankles like he could stop Echo from physically leaving him. Most have worked, since Echo is still there against all odds.
Seeing that Echo has stopped listening long ago, Kix checks his IV bag and orders him to get some more sleep. Kix pulls a curtain and leaves Echo and Rex alone. It is only then that the ARC trooper realizes he is isolated from the rest of the medbay by a thick grey privacy curtain. He is grateful. He was not sure he could support feeling like a freak show around people he trusts the most.
“I know it’s a rhetorical question, but how do you feel?” Rex asks, resting his hand on Echo’s flesh wrist.
“I finally thawed enough sir.” The cyborg jokes weakly.
Rex only sighs and sends an unimpressed glance. “Echo…”
Seems that humour to deflect wasn’t the way this time.
“I don’t want to think about it.” Echo confesses suddenly feeling drained. “Yet expect to wake back there…”
“This is real Echo. You won’t go back to this nightmare.” Rex says with such conviction that he nearly believes him.
“Then why does this feel like it’s stuck in the worst one.” Echo whispers, his eyes still fix at the end of the bed.
“What do you mean?” The captain really sounds confused.
A dry laugh escapes Echo.
What about this wasn’t a nightmare? The modification, the torture, his imprisonment and wake up in a world without his twin, his best friend.
Echo looks up toward Rex. “Where did Fives die?
He feels a pang of guilt at the devastated look on Rex’s face. Normally the 501st captain is better at covering his emotions but seems the question takes him by surprise.
“Maybe now is not the time to talk about this. Kix has been clear, not stressing you.” Rex answers, holding his stare.
“I know he is dead. I just want to know where it happened.” Echo pleads, his voice rising.
“Why are you asking where?” Rex demands clearly confused.
“I killed too many brothers already. I need to know I didn’t murder Fives either.” The cyborg hisses his flesh hand clenching in a shaking fist.
“Echo, please, don’t be so hard on yourself. You haven’t killed anyone.” Rex tries to calm him down.
“I did. I give Trench all the information to beat our strategies. I saw the victory result. Rex. All the brothers that die because of me and my weakness.” The ARC trooper snaps loudly.
Echo could hear Kix curses from somewhere around them. “Captain, stop upsetting my patient or I will get you out myself.”
Everyone knows it is not an empty threat.
Echo tries to regulate his breathing as a heavy silence sets between them.
“You didn’t kill those troopers, Echo. The separatist forces that steal those informations from your mind in the most sadistic way. You were their prisoner.” Rex finally says after a while. “And you haven’t anything to do with Fives’ death… Because he didn’t die on the battlefield.”
That makes Echo look at Rex so fast that his fresh healing wounds on his neck and shoulder complain.
That doesn’t make sense.
Rex continues but Echo wishes he hasn’t.
“There is a lot I can’t talk about. Something happened, might have been a bioweapon targeting clones and wreaking havoc on their mind. Fives probably got contaminated as he goes to Kamino with Tup… Sickness messes with him so badly that…”
Echo shakes his head so violently that he feels dizzy, and his eyes hurt with all the tears he tries to not unleash. That can’t be.
Fives is … was one of the finest GAR could ask for. The one always ready to go to the front and do his kiffing best to bring as many back men as possible with him.
To think he had been killed by some sickness is … insulting. No clone wishes to die but if they have too, it would be with the brother in arms doing what they were created for.
“I wanted to wait for you to be in better shape to tell you….” Rex says softly, face so sad.
“How can I ever improve?” He asks weakly.
“Echo…” Rex signs and moves to hug him close.
That is when Echo just crumbles against his big brothers. His flesh hand grabs the edge of Rex’s armor as that is the only thing keeping him from literally shaking apart. He’s been feeling like this since he was unhooked from the Techno Union computer.
“I got you.” Rex whispers in his ears.
Echo believes him and lets himself fall. For long his world was tears and yelling until it went black again.
When he wakes for the second time, he is alone and his mind is fuzzy. Kix must have given him a sedative.
He looks around his bed and tilts his head when he spots the armour set on the chair Rex was occupying before. It is nearly looking like a shiny one but with a bit of light blue. One thing that attracts his attention is a red skull over the left side of the cuirass.
Echo keeps his eyes on that point as his mind is already planning to turn tables on the battle of Anaxes to the Republic’s advantage.
For all the clones that die because of him… He will find a way to avenge them.