Work Text:
Call me, Echo - ARC Trooper
When they found me, I was but skin and bone.
No longer human but almost a machine, or at least hooked up to one held up right by so many strings. Attached to them I was, holding on for dear life.
A pretty sight most likely not. Being hardly able to breathe on my own. My body, my whole being frozen solid the surface cold. There was nothing much there compelling, to take a hold of.
But they did. My brethren did.
Rex, Tech, the others too. They all came for me still.
All of them lending a hand, literally and figuratively getting me out. The gentle touches, the hugs, the arms around me, the warmth overwhelming but not. All those simple things, made me feel once again whole.
It took some time and effort, after the first shock of being alive . Not just on my side, but also those closest to me realising the same. That everything had changed. I, had changed.
Not that I had not jumped into action upon thawing, perhaps even before that. Guess it was at first hello.The very first who are you query after such a ling time having been all alone.
But then I started on the process of healing, of proving my very worth. Not just myself but the lot.
And then soon enough, I found myself back in the action, like nothing really bad or life altering having happened .
And yet, a lot had, happened. Nothing remaining the same.
I had some choices to make. And I tried to choose wisely.
So here I was with this, new team. A new family really.
Doing different things in different ways from the before. And guess somewhere there between mourning all the loss of it all, processing what had happened not just physically but mentally too, I found myself and my purpose again.
It’s not that hard to explain. We live to serve and I, well, guess I found my place, to serve again. The GAR, then later, my new family. They needed me as much as I needed them.
But the most assurance wasn’t coming from those around me caring what would happen to me. No, rather from the one I really needed to hear it from.
The acceptance of myself and whom I had become was all up to me. Would I accept myself as I was now and move along or then… Well. You get the gist.
Not quite human, certainly not a machine. Never just a machine with this, beating heart.
But something different. Something, good.
Something needed. And as Tech called it, quite unique.
A thing of beauty some might have said. Perhaps even myself sometime seeing a person to be heard and seen.
A trooper, a brother, friend, and some time later, a parent as well.
An ARC Trooper, standing here proudly, always ready to serve those in dire need.
For I am Echo. Here and now to be seen.