Echo - Blog Posts

asked my friends who play overwatch to give me one random ow character each and this is what they gave me.. i had literally never drawn any of these guys in my life omdskglsd i hope i did them justice ✌️

Having uncle Henry Lopez withdrawals and there is barely anything out here for him 😭. Fine I’ll guess I’ll do it myself.

*inhales* EEEEEEEEEEP!!! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! The mash-up I didn't even know I NEEDED!

just imagining an AU where the Bad Batch meet the Serenity crew

The Crew

Jayne and Crosshair shooting contest

Jayne and Wrecker. (That's it.)

Jayne and Hunter and knives

Jayne teaching Echo Cantonese swears

Mal teaching Omega cantonese swears

Mal and Hunter staredown when they realize they're both Sargeants. Hunter slightly confused when the Crew call Mal "Captain".

Wash and Tech trading crazy flying stories

Wash:I'm a leaf on the wind Tech:What does that even mean?

Wash teaching Omega more about "flying is about a feeling" (Leaf on the Wind)

Wash responding to Crosshair's snark with the cheekiest sarcasm

Wash asking Zoe which Sarge they're gonna listen to

Zoe, annoyed by the Sargeants, and seeing how well The Crew (except Jayne) get along with him, decides Tech is in charge because "it's his ship, Sir... Sirs"

Zoe teaching Omega the 1st Rule of Battle

Zoe and Crosshair holding direct, unreadable eye-contact, arms crossed, for about 3 seconds before slightly nodding to each other. They never say a word to each other, but there is just pure understanding and respect between them. Neither the Crew or the Batch really get it.

Zoe asking if they can trade Jayne for Wrecker

Simon being overwhelmed at the idea of bacta and medical droids, staight up fainting when he finds out Echo was literally blown up, and is now half droid

Kaylee repairing the ship with Echo while Simon is passed out

Kaylee making improvements to the ship that Tech was too Tech-y to think of

Kaylee helping Omega paint her room

Kaylee being unbearably cheerful with Crosshair (she paints a tiny flower on one of his reflector discs he sticks it to the lid inside his wepons kit because it reminds him of his nickname for you)

River playing hide and seek with Kaylee, Omega, and Wrecker. They resort to asking Hunter to track her down, and she's almost too good even for his senses

River balled up in the copilot seat just absorbing every single thing Tech says, occasionally interjecting with her own theories/calculations/corrections

River, to Echo: He's proud of you. ("Who?") Your twin. The others are too. You lived to fight another day.

i had more ideas but i made myself cry with that last one. will probably add to this over time and do a list from the side of The Batch

Tech's behavior throughout this whole story is CHEF'S 👏 FUCKING 👏 KISS! 👏💋 Sympathized and agonized thought the whole thing. Well done!

Burning House

The sound of screams are easier than just my thoughts with no one here. But it’s too late, but it’s too late

─── ❖ ── ✦ ── ❖ ───

Sobbing. That's what filled Havoc when the jump was complete. Omega fell to the ground and started crying. Wrecker picked her up and she continued to wail, even as he tried to calm her down. "We'll get him back, we'll get him back-" Wrecker whispered, rocking her back and forth.

In the cockpit, Echo took off his helmet, biting his cheek as he thought what they were going to have to do. Tech sat there, unable to move as he listened to Omega cry, his skin begun to crawl. "Hunter use to cry a lot..." Tech muttered. His voice was barely above a whisper, "Omega sounds like him-" Echo looked over, "He'd cry, he never stopped crying, they'd take him away, put him in a sensory deprivation tank, then when he came back, he'd cry even more-" Tech rambled. But his voice was dull, as if it wasn't even his voice at all.

"-We need to go back! Wrecker! We need Hunter!" I need Hunter! Omega screamed, hitting Wrecker's chest. Who, of course, took all the pain, took every hit, and made not a single reaction. He only continued to hold her and love her.

"We'll get him back-" was all Wrecker could say, he wished she'd stop crying. Hunter, you need to stop crying, it'll make it worse.

"Get him to stop crying, please-" Tech held himself tightly as he begun to shut down. He needed Hunter to stop crying.

"Omega, Omega's crying." Echo said, Tech's head jolted to look at Echo, pure shock on his face. Tech opened up his mouth to speak but all that came out was a squeak as his eyes started to tear up. He never made mistakes like that, he never made mistakes like this. But this, was the second time it happened.

Echo's eyes went wide, seeing Tech's eyes fall apart and in a second, Tech took off his helmet and Echo couldn't help to notice the way his hands shook, Tech's hands never shook. "Omega," Tech spoke, telling himself not to make that mistake again. He tried to hold his helmet, but his hands would start shaking, his bones started to ache, he had to move them, he couldn't keep still. Tech shook his head, discomfort growing until, at last, he threw his helmet on the ground, slamming it on the ground.

"Tech!" Echo jumped up, but Tech, all his moving, and shaking, he'd stopped, he'd forced himself. Inside, Tech was forcing himself not to move, not to blink, not the breath. "Tech." Echo went to his brother as Wrecker came in to see what happened, Omega still crying. Echo gave Wrecker a blank stare, "Tech we're gonna get him back, we just gotta make a plan-"

"I'm aware that we'll get him back!" Tech hissed, standing up, making his brothers jump and Omega turned to look. She stopped crying. "I'm aware of what needs to happen but this never should have happened! We should never have been placed in such a situation where we are missing two of our brothers!" He screamed as he fumed, crying as he did, unable to control everything inside that had just broken loose. They all stared at him. He hated to be stared at.

He looked at them as they looked at him, he tried to pull himself back together, holding himself as if that would shove everything back inside. But he had simply shattered. He couldn't look at them and he didn't want to be in his body. He wanted to disappear, to hide away, he hated this attention. He had been frozen but he couldn't help his shaking. Scared of what they'd say, scared of what they'd think. He was completely terrified, he was only terrified. "I," He looked at them, eyes wide, filled with that terror that crept up his body, whispering in his ear, 'You left them, Crosshair and Hunter, they're going to hate you-' it whispered in Tech's ear. "He ordered me to leave him-"

"He ordered all of us to," Echo spoke softly and slowly. He didn't see past the terrified look on Tech's face, "It isn't your fault." We're not gonna blame you if we never get him back. We're going to blame ourselves.

"No, no he didn't. He said my name, he ordered me." Tech corrected Echo, "It's going to be my fault, just like it would have been my fault if Wrecker hadn't woken up, how it's my fault we keep leaving Crosshair-

"Tech-"

"Don't inturrupt me!" Tech yelled, "I hate it when you do that!" He knew he was being irrational, he'd talk himself down soon enough. So right now, he didn't care. Hunter was gone and for all the logic in the universe, Tech felt it was his fault. It was his fault. He couldn't be here any longer. He needed to hide from his shame brought upon by the wide-eyed look of his brothers and sister. He looked down, cursing himself, all he could do was leave the room. He needed to leave.

As he left, there was a stillness that flowed through them all, defeat. Their brother, they just abandoned, but this brother, the absence of this brother was as if they had one lung instead of two, possible to live, but much too hard and failure to adapt is always possible. Tech, was failing. "Sorry.." He mumbled as he left. He had nothing else to say. Echo and Wrecker just watched, they did not blame him for being unable to exist without Hunter. This was different. Losing Hunter was different. They didn't have a replacement for Hunter.

"Tech!" Omega cried out, unable to do anything else. It was the only thing she could do, yell. Which made Tech freeze. He turned his head slightly, waiting for Omega to speak, "Don't leave us too-" She begged through tears. Tech lingered there in the doorway, thoughts racing, he then looked forward, away from his brothers, away from Omega, and all she could do was beg, "Please," She whimpered,

"Please don't leave me."

─── ❖ ── ✦ ── ❖ ───

You can't be "bitches" by yourself, the word is plural... but since I'm in the same boat, it makes sense.🤣

bitches be like “i love the bad batch.” No, you love the specific found family trope because chances are you grew up lonely with no friends and the fact that the bad batch members are all different and are accepting of differences feels like a big warm hug because you’re probably queer and/or neurodivergent and felt alienated because of it since a young age. It’s me, i’m bitches

I'm guessing that means Omega would be along the lines of, "Looks like a cinnamon roll, yet won't kill you despite being able to."

So there are these guys…

And then there’s Echo…

…who looks like he could kill you, could actually kill you, but still manages to be a sweet (albeit slightly crusty) cinnamon roll. 😍

I'm afraid this mystery may never truly be solved... but I imagine this is likely true, and I wouldn't be surprised if he occasionally teased them about it, too.😆

Okay but wait

If you and someone from the Bad Batch (excluding Hunter) were having sex in the middle of the night, would Hunter be able to sense it in his sleep and would he wake up?

Or like does he always know when everyone is horny?

Does he know when not to go into the bunk area because someone is busy in there?

This is too sweet, I'm gonna get cavities!🥰

Just some doodles of Omega trying to be like her big brothers 💕 I love her and I think she’s adorable, but it doesn’t look like Crosshair shares my opinion lol

You know he jumped on this the moment he heard his opening.🤣 Fives had to be laughing from beyond the grave.

Is there an Echo in here?

S01x06: Decommissioned

He's the chaser among rares, definitely worth more than that shopkeeper can afford.💯😎💰

THE BAD BATCH | 1.04 CORNERED

Tech, I adore you, but you need to work on your communication skills before you get someone hurt.

How are you so calm, Tech?

happy echo day guys!!! (14/09)

(ik this isnt echo but its his vod’ika from Our Own Choices saying happy echo day)

(im scared to mess up drawing echo so yea)

Our Own Choices

Chapter 10

The Bad Batch found an entrance to the city, and contacted General Skywalker, me and Rex. It's really windy up here, it's a good thing I'm wearing a helmet because I think there's sand in the wind. General Skywalker doesn't look very happy, of course he isn't. Sand's coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere, just like Crosshair. At least, when I finally get a chance to stab him. I kinda wanna rip his guts out while he's still alive, no one talks shit about Echo and makes it through the night.

"We're in business, General. Tech regained Echo's signal," Hunter says as we reach them. "It's coming from this tower. How's it going Tech?"

Tech doesn't reply, he's busy hacking the door, and in a few moments, the door opens.

"Sorry it took so long."

Shut up and stop flexing.

"Hey Crosshair, go and check it out," Hunter says and Crosshair walks into the place. 

"Yea, it's a lift."

No need to state the obvious.

"Well we already knew that," Tech says as we all walk in.

"Wait wait wait, a lift?" I hear Wrecker's sounding a bit scared. "How far up are we going?"

"Don't worry Wrecker, I'll hold your hand," Hunter replies, receiving a shoulder knock from Wrecker. "Hey cut it out Sarge. Just gimme some droids to crush."

The lift door closes and we ascend.

"Remember, this is a stealth mission. No blasting, no blowing things up. Nobody knows we're here," General Skywalker says and the doors open, revealing a bunch of droids, and the batch and I run in, blasting the remaining droids that Wrecker hasn't destroyed or thrown off the building.

Hunter and Crosshair take out the ones near the edge, while Tech and I take out the ones guarding the hallway. I manage to get 3 of them with my sword as Tech rolls and takes cover behind the crates. 

Some more droids come out from the hallway and Wrecker starts taking care of them, running over to the 2 droids at my place, but I take them out with a shot to the head in one and I throw my knife at the other, hitting it square in the head.

Once they all get taken out, Wrecker starts shouting "YEAHHHH" like he just won a battle royale solo in the legendary rank in Call of Duty.

Shit don't think about that. Anyways, cringe.

I cringe slightly and all of us stare at Wrecker with that "tf bro" look under our helmets.

"Uh sorry. I just got excited," he says, walking over to us.

"I've still got a lock on Echo's signal," Tech says.

"Alright men, let's hunt some droids," Hunter says and we walk into the hallway. We walk for about a minute before we reach a door, Hunter's the first to look out, and then signals to Rex, and they go out and blast the droids. The rest of us walk out.

"Where exactly is Echo's signal coming from?" General Skywalker asks.

"Strange. I just lost the signal," Tech says as Rex takes off his helmet.

"What? How can that be? There's no 'atmospheric disturbances' up here."

"Well, I have a new theory. I'm surprised I did not consider it earlier." Tech sounds like an AI. "The signal is only traceable during data transmissions. So until Echo dispenses more intel, I cannot pick up the signal."

"Okay, we're splitting up," General Skywalker says. "Search every door. If someone finds Echo, contact the others. We go in together, just in case there's trouble."

So Crosshair and I follow General Skywalker while the others follow Rex, running off in the other direction. I'm only following them because maybe I'll get the chance to rip Crosshair's eye out. 

General Skywalker takes one door, Crosshair takes another, and I take the furthest one, walking into the dimly-lit corridor, full of crates. 

"Echo?" I call out, and there's a slight echo throughout the room. No pun intended. There's no reply, so I turn my heat visor on, and I don't see anything, so I head out and check on General Skywalker, Crosshair is there as well.

A droid is just about to hump/blast General Skywalker and Crosshair fires a shot at the same time I throw my knife at the droid. The knife hits the droid's head and the shot hits the body of the droid. 

General Skywalker whips around, lightsaber ignited, as Crosshair lowers his rifle. General Skywalker picks up my knife from the droid's head, throwing it back at me over Crosshair's shoulder, and retracts his lightsaber. I catch the knife by the handle and sheath it back into my wrist compartment.

"Nice throw," General Skywalker says as we walk out.

"Nice shot," I say to Crosshair, and he gives me that downwards nod of respect.

HELL YEA

We head to where the others are, General Skywalker leading the way. We see a bunch of droids surrounding them, and General Skywalker force pushes some of the droids out of the way, slicing them in half with his lightsaber. I run ahead and steal some kills from Hunter with my sword, pistol in the other hand. 

Crosshair shoots from behind, and then doing that Call of Duty slide, shooting 2 more droids in the process and hitting one with his rifle before shooting it.

General Skywalker finishes up the last droid, and then there's a moment of silence and we all look around, before more droids come from the hallway, blasting at us. I duck as a blaster bolt whizzes over my head, going to take cover where Hunter, Rex and Tech are at.

"GUYS SHOULDN'T WE LIKE OPEN THAT DOOR OR SMTH," I shout as I blast a few droids that are coming from the opposite hallway.

"Tech, open that door for Rex!" General Skywalker commands, and Tech gets to work. Rex and I run to the door as it opens and we find ourselves in a room lit by yellow floor lamps, electricity crackling at some pillars, and there's a control panel below what looks like one of those escape pods.

"This doesn't look good," I comment as Tech goes to press some buttons on the control panel, which causes some white gas to come out of the pod. "I'm definitely picking up a life-form in there," Tech says as he presses more buttons. "It seems to be a stasis chamber. I think I can get it open." 

And then when the stasis chamber opens, a bunch of white gas flows out, followed by what I can barely recognize as Echo, connected to the thing by wires, hanging out, his eyes lifeless. He looks almost droidlike, with all the machinery connected to him. I can almost hear him transmitting "CT-1409", and I resist the urge to back away, creeped out by Echo's dead-looking eyes.

"Echo," Rex says, before standing on the control panel and disconnecting a wire from Echo's legs, and carrying him, setting him down on the ground. I now have a clear view of him, his right arm has become a prosthetic one, it looks like the machinery that the droids use to open doors in the republic ships. 

"Tech, we gotta get him outta here," Rex says. "Figure out how to unplug him from...from this mess."

We both take off our helmets and look down at Echo. His skin is really pale, and I can see Rex's horrified expression, while I keep a neutral one, I'll deal with it when I'm alone. "What have they done to you?" Rex sounds like he just lost a battle royale solo when he was one of the last 2 guys remaining and got sniped.

"We-we have to get to the shuttle to escape the Citadel...no...I'll go first..." Echo's voice is weak, and Rex puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down, and I do the same. "Echo-"

"No...no...no..."

"Echo, it's Rex. I'm here," Rex says, and Echo's shaking slightly, breathing heavily. I know how it feels like. The choking feeling as memories of injuries are recounted. 

"Rex? You-you came back for me," Echo says, grabbing Rex's arm. I kneel down next to his side.

Of course we did. We don't leave our own behind. 

"Yes, yes I did," Rex replies, a concerned expression on his face, staring down at Echo. 

"What-what happened? Where am I?" 

"It's okay Echo. You're safe now," Rex says, holding Echo's arm reassuringly. "Just sit tight, trooper. You're going home."

He motions for Tech to come over and try to help disconnect Echo, and my hand's still on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

You're gonna be okay, Echo. You're gonna be okay.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 9

"So how'd you know I was on that gunship? I was specifically extra stealthy that time," I ask Rex as we jump off the vehicle that Crosshair was driving as we arrive back at the base. I put on my helmet. 

"You've done it 19 times, kid. I know when you've clipped yourself to the outside of the gunship just by the sound of it," Rex replies, not bothering to look at me. He's not even bothering to scold me for coming here without his permission. I think he's just tired of me, he does have a job to do as a captain as well.

But why should I listen to him anymore? Even though he's technically my superior in the GAR, I don't need him anymore. I'm biologically 20, I can handle myself. But clearly he doesn't think so, considering how he usually doesn't let me on missions anyways. He says the reason that he grounded me was because he didn't want me getting myself killed out in the battlefield because of my impulsiveness.

"But there was no sound-" I protest as the bad batch walk past me, and I stare at them as they walk to their ship.

They're really cool. They don't fit in here, just like me.

Rex nudges me in the side, I take it as a sign to go to the ship as well. Rex says he talked to General Skywalker and he says that he'll have to wait for the council to approve of the mission to Skako Minor to get Echo. I'm surprised that he lets me come along on this mission. I guess he knows that there's no stopping me when it comes to saving my brothers.

As I head into the ship, I receive looks from the batch. 

"What?" I ask.

Tech looks back to his datapad, Wrecker goes to lift the gonk droid in the back of the ship, Hunter just sits there staring at me, and Crosshair is checking his rifle. I take off my helmet and lean against a wall, staring at Wrecker and the poor gonk droid, and then to toothpick boi.

Gotta admit, their armor is really cool. Crosshair's got that belt thingy with a bunch of places to store ammo, almost like my own. And then he's got that bar thingy on his left shoulder armor, probably for his rifle or something. Hunter has a random bandana for the dog shit on his head, with a small skull on it. Wrecker's helmet would scare the absolute shit outta me if I saw that first thing in the morning. Tech's helmet is cool, at least it hides his receding hairline. Whatever.  At least now I'm not the only one with dark-colored armor. 

Anyways, Rex and General Skywalker board the ship soon enough and we set off for Skako Minor. Tech's flying the ship, while General Skywalker checks out Crosshair's rifle and Wrecker's still lifting poor Gonky.

"So, how many missions has your team been on, Sergeant?" General Skywalker asks Shithair as he passes Crosshair's rifle back to him.

"Honestly sir, I've lost count. All the action sorta blurs together," Hunter replies, and that felt like a big "skill issue lmao" smack in the face.

"I know you work with Cody sometimes, but who do you guys report to?" Rex asks.

"Hm, good question," Hunter says, crossing his arms. "Can't say I've got an answer." 

And then I'm reminded of that "good question" Shrek meme that I saw on the holonet a few days before I came to Anaxes, and I try to keep a straight face.

Wrecker, who's still lifting Gonky, chews on a big ass chicken drumstick which I think was kept in the ship's storage area for days. Then, the ship suddenly shakes.

"We are approaching Skako Minor," Tech reports. "It looks to be a difficult landing."

So we strap in and Wrecker gently sets Gonky down, before going to the co-pilot's seat with Tech. The ship shakes a bit until we land on the ground, and we stand up and head towards Tech and Wrecker.

"Rex, what do we know about this place?" General Skywalker asks, Rex standing next to him. Toothpick boi and I stand behind them as I play with my knife, because I'm just kinda bored and need something to do with my hands.

"On this part of Skako, there's a race of locals, the Poletecs. All we know is they're very primitive," Rex replies.

"Primitive is being kind," Tech says. "My intel says the Poletecs worship flying reptiles."

Suddenly, one of those flying reptile thingies land on the front window of the ship, cracking it slightly. I look out, sheathing my knife into my wrist compartment.

"Oh! What the heck was that?" Wrecker looks out the same time as I do. "It's one of those reptiles," Tech says.

"I want that thing off my ship," Hunter says, sounding really annoyed, before moving to get off the ship.

"Hold on! Hold on! Don't just run out there," Rex tries to warn them but we all run out anyways because which one of us even follows orders?

We see the Poletec and a flying reptile thing jumping on the ship. General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber and Wrecker points his blaster at it, and I'm tempted to do the same.

"Hey! Get off of there!" Wrecker shouts.

"Hey, calm down. We needa talk to them," General Skywalker says.

"Why?" Hunter asks.

"The General's right," Rex says, and then I hear some more flying reptiles in the distance, and I spin around to look at them, blaster and sword drawn. General Skywalker pushes Rex out of the way so that Rex doesn't get clawed to death by the reptiles. We all point our blasters towards them, unsure of whether to shoot or not.

Suddenly, the flying reptile and the Poletec on the ship swoop down and grab General Skywalker. He's caught off guard, dropping his lightsaber, and I throw my knife at the reptile before it can get too far away. It hits the reptile in the chest, but not deep enough to be a lethal shot, although I can hear it screeching as it flies away. Rex fires his pistol at the reptile but none of the shots hit.

"I have a thermal reading," Tech says. "Point two five east, elevation 175." His visor is lowered.

"Relax. I'll handle this," Crosshair says, before attaching a grappling hook to his rifle and using Tech's shoulder as support (we'll never get to see this again this is so sad), shooting it at the reptile. It hits and Hunter attaches the cable to himself.

"What are you doing?" Rex asks.

"Going for a ride." And then Hunter's lifted off his feet, flying into the air.

I just stare at Crosshair, eyes widened. Holy shit that was fucking cool. Bro really has to be so pro at sniping.

And then I think of my own sniping skills which are slightly decent at best and suddenly I'm filled with a slight jealousy of his skills. Like bro he gets to be badass and do all those fucking trick shots and I'm stuck here throwing knives.

Shut up.

"Tech, I'm with the General. Hone in on my signal," I hear Hunter say through the comms. Tech and the rest of us head back to the ship and do so, before heading to Hunter's location. We land on a ridge near what looks like the Poletec village and run down to Hunter, who's near the edge, looking across at the village.

"That creature still has a hold of the General," Hunter says.

Rex zooms in on the village, and I do the same, seeing the General getting pinned under one of those reptiles' claws. "We're going in, but remember what the General said. No casualties, disarm only," Rex says.

"We're on it, Captain," Hunter says. "Wrecker, Crosshair, rockslide."

The rest of us slide down the ridge to the village as Wrecker and Crosshair push a really big rock down the ridge, and we run behind it as it knocks down some tall but not-so-advanced structures, using the dust as cover.

We shoot at the weapons that the Poletecs are holding, disarming them. I throw a few knives at their weapons, they all hit their target and disarm them. 

We run to the place where General Skywalker is, and I see some electrified thing hit the claw that's holding General Skywalker, probably shot by Crosshair, and the reptile jumps back, letting General Skywalker dodge the rock that's rolling towards him. We all point our blasters at the Poletecs in case they try to do anything. 

The Poletec that Hunter's pointing his blaster at speaks some alien language, and Hunter asks Tech to translate what he's saying.

Tech steps forward, presses a few buttons on that control panel on his wrist, and moves his visor down above his eyes. "He says he does not want our war on his planet. That is why he took our leader."

The rest of us still point our blasters at the Poletecs. 

Can we just hold them at gun/knifepoint and just get them to give us whatever info we want?

"We didn't bring the war here. It was Wat Tambor and the Separatists," General Skywalker says.

Tech translates what General Skywalker said into the alien language, something that both Crosshair and I find kinda funny as I'm tryna hold in my laughter as we all lower our blasters. Definitely gotta roast Tech for that.

"Tell him we apologize for what's happened," Rex says. "But tell him the enemy is holding one of our men prisoner in Purkoll.  As soon as we rescue him, we'll leave his planet for good."

Tech translates what Rex said into the alien language again, and I try my best to keep a straight face. This is just too funny. 

As Tech and the Poletecs talk some more and agree about sending scouts and stuff to help find the city, I run to the reptile that I threw my knife into and rip it out. It's wedged kinda deep in there, and when I pull it out, it's covered in red blood, dripping onto the floor. The reptile screeches and tries to attack me, but I shoot it with a stun blaster a few times and it's knocked out. The other Poletecs move to attack me, but then Rex and Tech help to calm them all down.

"Woah woah woah, calm down, she's just tryna get her weapons, no need to panic," Rex says, and Tech helps translate it. The other Poletecs calm down when what I think is their leader nods at them.

I pull my other knives out from the weapons that I threw them at and head back to the others.

"Nice going," Crosshair knocks his shoulder into mine as we set off with the other scouts, the sarcasm in his voice is obvious. I cross my arms as I follow behind him. "Thanks."

We follow the scouts quite a bit of distance and find ourselves on a really high cliff. The Poletec scouts point at what looks like Purkoll in the distance before walking down the direction we just came up in.

"Hope nobody's scared of heights," General Skywalker says. I try not to let it show, although sometimes heights get on my nerves.

Hunter and Crosshair look at Wrecker.

"Well I'm not scared of nothing. I just...When I'm up real high, I got a problem with gravity," Wrecker says.

"That's being scared of heights, Wrecker. You're real smart," I roll my eyes under my helmet, standing next to Rex.

"Speaking of problems," Tech, who's standing behind Wrecker, speaks up. "I am no longer picking up Echo's signal."

"I...I don't understand," Rex says. "You said it was coming from this city." He points towards Purkoll.

"I can only speculate, but it is possible there's a latency issue with the frequency caused by all these atmospheric disturbances."

"Or, maybe they sent the signal to lure us into a trap," Hunter suggests. "And maybe your friend's actually dead." He folds his arms. "Well, I can't be the only one thinking of that."

"Every mission could be a trap," Rex and I say at the same time, and I glare at him, falling silent. "This one is no different," Rex continues. "I'm telling you that signal is being sent by Echo himself! He's alive!" I nudge Rex in the side. "Be realistic, Captain. There's not really a high chance that that's gonna happen."

"I think you're letting your personal feelings get in the way because you left him for dead at the Citadel," Crosshair says, and I clench my fist around one of my knives, which is sheathed in my belt right now. That eagerness to punch him in the face out of pure anger, it's strong, but I resist it. Not really the logical thing to do right now.

"I had no choice, you hear me?!" Rex, unlike me, isn't doing much of a good job hiding his anger.

"Oh, I don't blame you. I would've left him for dead too. Besides, he's just another reg."

I'm breathing heavily under my helmet, one hand gripped on the hilt of my knife, the other with my nails digging so hard into my skin, even though my glove, it leaves marks. Even though Crosshair is directing his words towards Rex, it's having an effect on me as well. 

And then Rex punches Crosshair in the face/helmet, knocking him to the ground. 

"Yoooo Rex, just chill!" I try to get him to calm down, but he's not stopping. I pull out my pistol and point it to Crosshair's head as Wrecker picks Rex up by the back of his armor. "I called first dibs."

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone not your size?" Wrecker throws Rex to the ground, who almost instantly gets up, walking up real close to Wrecker. "You'll be a whole lot smaller when I'm through with you."

My pistol is still pointed to Crosshair's head, my finger resting on the trigger, my other hand drawing my knife and pressing it under his helmet and to his neck, I'm breathing heavily, all sense of logic gone, it's the same feeling when Fox killed Fives. And it's strong.

"That's enough!" General Skywalker puts a hand on Rex and Wrecker's shoulders, pushing them away from each other before Wrecker beats Rex to clone mush, and then he pushes me and Crosshair apart before I can get any more blood on my knife. 

"Sergeant, take your men and scout the area for a tower entrance. I want to talk to my troopers alone," General Skywalker orders, sounding slightly fierce.

Rex and I stay behind as the batch walk away. Toothpick bitch glances back at us for a moment, before looking away.

"Rex, Aris, I hate to say it, but...you have to prepare yourself for the possibility that Echo is dead, and this is all a Separatist trick," General Skywalker puts a hand on our shoulders.

"Sir, I have watched so many of my brothers fall during this war, and I try not to hang on to any one of them," Rex says, taking off his helmet. "But that changed when I heard that Separatist transmission. It was no algorithm. That was Echo's voice. I know it."

"And if there's any chance that Echo, my brother, is still out there, alive, we have to take it," I add on, taking off my helmet as well.

"I hope you're right," General Skywalker says. "But if, for some reason, you're wrong..."

"Then I'll deal with it," Rex and I say at the same time.

And I've learned to deal with it on my own. No "Dad" to comfort me or help me. That's what I did with Fives. And if I have to do it again with Echo, I will.

All I'll need to do is constantly wipe the blood off my knives, and make sure no one sees the wounds on my arms.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 8

I hate Rex so much. He hasn't let me on any missions for a few weeks now, and I'm somehow getting bored of writing stories and playing call of duty. Actually no, its just writing stories. Haven't been playing much of call of duty since that happened. Reminds me of him too much. 

I also practice throwing knives sometimes. I've made a compartment in my armor to house about 20 or so knives, I always hit my mark when I throw them. At least if I'm in close or mid range. 

Besides, I usually don't follow Rex's orders anyways, so I've snuck on about 19 missions without his permission.

Fives' death has definitely affected me in worse ways than it should have. I can barely sleep at night, having nightmares of both Fives and Echo's deaths. It's not like Rex notices the dark circles under my eyes anyways, he's been on Anaxes for a while now with the 501st. I wanna go there so badly, just to get some action for once, waiting in the hangar as reinforcements are being sent to Anaxes for a ship that I can get on.

I've been calculating my chances of being spotted getting on a cargo transport that's headed for Anaxes that aren't being checked, and my odds are pretty good. 

So when I check that none of the troopers are looking, I run aboard the cargo transport just as the ship door closes and I get ready for a long trip to Anaxes.

In the cargo ship, I check my gear, making sure that some of the modifications that I made to it in my free time were working. My helmet's visor has a setting which allows me to see the heat signatures of people in my line of sight, which is also orange in color and makes my visor orange when using, which I think is really cool. I added an extra grappling hook that's attached to the armor on my wrist as well, because the only way I could sneak onto missions while I was grounded is if I clipped myself to the outside of the republic gunships and went along for the ride. 

When I arrive on Anaxes, the door opens and I see some troopers unloading the cargo. It's easy to blend into the darkness of the ship with my armor painted black and all, and when the troopers turn away from a moment I slip out of the ship and see Rex, Jesse, Cody and Kix talking to group of some really tall ass clones. Well at least 75% of them are tall. One of them has dog shit for hair and is almost as short as I am.

I see them getting onto a republic gunship and I run to it, using my grappling hook to attach myself to the side of the gunship where the door is closed, and I enjoy the ride as the ship takes off. 

We fly across the reddish terrain that kinda looks like trees but also not really, I can feel the wind against my body, not in my hair cause my helmet's on. I don't even know why I'm coming along for this one, it's literally just instinctive now that when I see a republic gunship with Rex inside I just clip myself to the outside and ride along. Sometimes Rex finds out and happily lets me come along. Yea. Happily. Totally.

It's quite nice out here. Fresh air's so much better than in my room on Coruscant, it doesn't reek of blood that I've had to clean off from my knife a lot, when I accidentally cut myself with it. It's kind of satisfying, sometimes, to just get a small slit on my arm, and watch the blood slowly flow out.

I know, something's definitely wrong with me.

Fives would have really liked this view. Bet he would invite me to get a drink with him after this mission and then play a few rounds of Call of Duty Battle Royale. 

And then as I'm lost in my thoughts, quietly pacing back and forth on the side of the ship, the door opens, and I'm hanging in front of the open door, with Rex folding his arms and staring at me.

"Hi," I wave awkwardly at everyone inside the gunship. 

"I don't think you wanna be out there if we get shot down. " Rex doesn't sound happy. I roll my eyes from under my helmet and curse under my breath, before swinging into the gunship and retracting my grappling hook. The door closes behind me and the inside of the gunship turns dark with a dim red glow.

"So anyways, who's the old man?" I ask, pointing at the dude I landed next to, receiving a death glare from him. I can see Jesse, Kix and even Rex trying to hold in their laughter, because they know I have a point. The dude's hair is literally grey, and there are FUCKING WRINKLES on his face. Or maybe he's just so thin that his skull decided to become really clear.

"That's...Crosshair," the dude with the dog shit for hair says. "Yea, and I'm betting you're Shithair." I receive an elbow in the side by Rex, and I take that as a warning to stop speaking facts. 

Rex pulls me into a corner in the gunship and half-whispers half-demands, "What are you doing here?! I gave you a specific order not to come!" The dude with a receding hairline that's next to me looks at me and then back at his datapad.

"Oh cmon Rex, when have I ever followed orders?" I try to shrug it off. "I'm here now, so it's not like you can throw me off."

"I would very much like to," Rex mumbles under his breath and I hear it, but I don't really care. I move away from Rex and head over to Kix. "Care to give me some introductions on the new guys?"

"That one's Hunter," Kix points at Shithair. "That one's Tech," he points at the dude with the receding hairline. "And that one's Wrecker." He points towards the buff guy. "You ever heard of Clone Force 99, genetically altered clones? Well, here they are."

I think I remember seeing Clone Force 99 back on Kamino, I've tried to sit with them in the cafeteria a few times but I wasn't very successful. 

I stand next to Jesse now, he's receiving a really weird look from Crosshair. Ayo, is the old guy simping? I mean, that could be incest-

Anyways.

"What are you looking at?" Jesse asks.

"We don't usually work with rEgS," Crosshair says, flicking a toothpick at Jesse, which bounces off his armor. Crosshair's voice sounds so (Imperial) weird, not like the normal clones. Then again, I can't really blame him. Is that what clones sound like when they grow old? Or was his voice always like that?

"Regs?!" Jesse takes a step towards Crosshair, but is stopped by Hunter (Shithair). "He's talking about regular clones," Hunter explains. "But don't take it personal."

"Well, I guess we know what's his genetic alteration," I say to Kix, doing a head tilt towards Crosshair. "He's a master at being an asshole."

Kix snickers slightly, nodding. "Yea, that's true."

"We're all on the same team, so cut the attitude and listen up," Cody says, and we all turn to him. Toothpick boi crosses his arms as he turns to Cody. I can almost imagine what's going through his mind right now.

Attitude? I'll show you attitude. *Crosses arms like an irritated child*

"Here's the mission. Our target is this Cyber Center," Cody says, showing a hologram of our target. "It's the brains of this entire Separatist campaign here on Anaxes."

"I can demolish that with one hand! Yeah!" Wrecker says, and I cringe, putting a hand to my helmet and shaking my head. Force, help me.

"This isn't a demo job, Wrecker," Cody says, and I silently thank him. "It's strictly a retrieval operation."

Retrieval means I get to slice up less droids but still some, as long as Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch doesn't steal all the kills. 

"Incoming fire," I hear the pilot of the gunship say, and the gunship shakes a bit, we struggle to keep our balance. And then I hear some hits landing on the gunship, and we're starting to decend, and fast.

"We're going down!" Wrecker laughs like an absolute psychopath, and I'm starting to wonder if he's okay.

I feel the side of the gunship crash against a wall, and I instinctively hold onto Rex for balance, but immediately let go when I realize what I'm doing.

It's not a nice landing. We crash on the side of the gunship and some of us are thrown off balance and get up, coughing at the smoke from the flames of the engine. We quickly get out of the gunship and onto the ground, which looks a bit like blue-stained glass.

"We always get shot down when we travel with regs," Wrecker complains, and I shoot a sideways glance at him. "Stop complaining," I roll my eyes. I hate it when they say we're regs, because not all of us are. At least, not me. But I don't wanna reveal it to them yet, or ever, because so far my impression of them is that Crosshair's an asshole and Wrecker's a psychopath.

I hear Kix calling out for someone to help Cody who's trapped under the gunship debris. I wonder what happened to the pilot though. Probably dead.

"I'll get him," Rex runs forward, but is stopped by Hunter.

"Woah woah woah, easy captain. Wrecker, get him out," he says as he moves Rex to the side and we all watch.

"Get back," Wrecker warns, stepping forward.

"This is ridiculous! He's gonna need help to get Cody outta there," Kix says. Crosshair chuckles at bit, smirking. "He's gonna get the gunship outta there, not Cody."

I stare at him for a moment, before turning back to Wrecker, who literally lifts the whole ass thing up and turns it on the other side, freeing Cody. Wrecker carries Cody on his back and walks away from the debris.

"Boom."

Boom indeed. The gunship explodes and I flinch and step back a bit, because I have no interest in getting paralyzed today. Wrecker sets Cody down on the ground as Kix checks on him. Definitely not good. Cody looks like he just got kicked in the balls, really hard.

"He has internal damage," Kix reports. "I can cut the pain, but he needs help fast."

"We all need help," Crosshair says as he looks ahead, and for a moment I think he's saying that we all need mental help, which isn't exactly wrong, but then I look in the direction that he's looking and see a bunch of droids headed towards us.

"That blast gave away our position," Crosshair says.

"I thought getting shot down gave away our position," Hunter argues.

"I think both did," I cross my arms and say from behind.

"Everyone, find cover. We'll hold this position and let them come to us," Rex says. 

"I don't think so, Captain. That's not our style. We prefer going to them. Bad Batch, plan 82, "shockwave"," Hunter says, and I'm starting to like these guys already. So I just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Wrecker grabs a piece of metal from the gunship that's literally big enough to cover the 4 of them and they run into the blaster fire, the piece of metal blocking them from getting shot. Then I see one of them throwing a stun grenade and then Crosshair fucking shoots it mid-air, which I gotta admit IS FUCKING AWESOME, and they do it a few more times before splitting up and dealing with the remaining droids.

I run over to Wrecker, Tech and Crosshair. "THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL BRO," I look at Crosshair, and he just puts a toothpick into his mouth and turns away.

"Aren't you a little short to be a reg?" Tech asks. 

"That's none of your business," I say, shooting a glare at him. I still haven't warmed up to them yet, but I wouldn't mind warming up to Crosshair, he's so fucking cool and maybe I could get him to teach me how to shoot a sniper sometime, I'll probably have to bribe him with toothpicks though.

So anyways, Rex and the others start walking ahead and we follow them, I stay at the back and Crosshair seems to be the one who wants to walk behind everyone else, including me. 

And here I was thinking that I was gonna be at the back.

We walk for a while, and we decide to set up camp in the forest, it's turning night now. Hunter goes to eat dirt or smth and I sit next to Kix and Jesse.

"So I get what makes the other Batchers unique, but what's so special about Hunter?" Jesse asks.

"He can put up with the other three," Kix replies, and all of us smirk slightly.

"He was engineered with heightened senses. A place like the Cyber Center, Hunter can feel the electromagnetic frequencies from anywhere on the planet," Tech says. 

"And here I was thinking we were smart just using a holomap," Jesse nudges me and Kix with his elbow.

"Well, maps can be wrong. Hunter never is."

"So is he eating the dirt or something?" I ask, and Kix and Jesse burst out laughing, I try to keep a straight face under my helmet. 

"He is feeling the dirt, not eating it," Tech says, and I roll my eyes. I hear Cody groaning in the corner, he doesn't look so good, and Rex is beside him, telling him to hang in there. Then he stands up. "Listen up. We have to move out."

Crosshair stands up and walks towards Rex. "Commander Cody's in no position to move."

"Already called in evac. Kix will stay with Cody until it arrives. I'm in charge now. And I've got a plan to get into that Cyber Center."

Crosshair takes his toothpick out from his mouth and points it at Rex. "If your plans are so good, why did Commander Cody have to call us in?" 

Wrecker stands up as well and walks over. And so does Jesse. "You can't talk to Captain Rex like that!" 

I roll my eyes from under my helmet, sighing. Can we not do this right now? 

"Says who?" Wrecker growls, picking Jesse up by the neck. Rex tries to get Wrecker to put him down while Crosshair puts Kix in a choke hold, and I give him a punch to the face and a kick in the balls for that. Crosshair's definitely not happy as he stumbles back a bit, and he kicks me in the chest, sending me down to the floor, and my helmet falls off. 

"Uh guys-" Tech tries to get everyone to calm down.

"Wrecker, drop him. Now," Hunter commands, and we all turn to him as Wrecker drops Jesse onto the ground. "Fellas, cmon! We're all fighting for the same thing, right?"

I take out my vibro-knife and move behind Crosshair, holding the knife to his neck and him in a choke hold from behind.

Hunter sighs. "All right then. Let's cut the chatter and finish what we started. We'll do it your way, Captain. For Commander Cody."

I let go of Crosshair as Rex gives me that "don't make this worse" look, and toothpick boi dusts himself off.

"Okay. Let's gear up and move out," Rex says.

Now that the batch know that I'm a female, there's no point putting on my helmet until we're in battle, so I just carry it under my arm for now. Crosshair and I stay at the back of the group, and he glares down at me, he's like a whole head taller than me, and I glare up at him.

"Didn't expect you to be a female," he says as he puts a toothpick into his mouth. 

"Didn't expect you to be addicted to toothpicks. Why not try chewing gum or something? You could get splinters if you chew the toothpicks too hard." I'm being slightly nicer now.

Crosshair rolls his eyes. "Gum's too soft. Just like you." 

I glare at him again before moving in front of him, but not before I knock my shoulder into his, showing my annoyance.

Soon, we all put our helmets on and scan the area, making our way closer to the cyber center, blasters drawn. Hunter raises his hand, motioning for us to stop. I see an outpost over the others' heads, we're probably either gonna take it or go around.

"Not our primary target," Hunter says. "It's an outpost. Should we take it?"

"Probably easier than going around," Rex replies.

"Alright, what're your orders? We pick them off from the tree line one by one?"

"Actually, I was thinking we take a page from your book. Rush them head on."

HELL YEA.

"Heh. I like your style."

So we take some shots at the droids and then we run out from where we were hiding, blasting at the droids. I stab one in the head just before Hunter can, and I smirk at him from under my helmet as we run into the lift, I can feel his annoyance at me stealing his kill.

"Too slow?" I ask, as the lift ascends, and we each face different directions, shooting the droids. I go for melee this time, drawing my sword in one hand and my knife in the other, and I slice up a few droids. Crosshair throws one against the wall and I throw my knife at it, it hits the middle of the droid's head. As Tech blasts the last droid, Wrecker comes up through the lift.

He looks around, blaster ready, but all the droids are already dead. He takes off his helmet. "Is it over already? Aw man!"

We all take off our helmets. "Not bad," Hunter says to Rex. "For a reg."

We head over to the window of the outpost, and look out.

"Well, there it is. The Cyber Center," Rex says.

"It looks like the Cyber Center itself has minimal guards, about 30 droids," Tech says as he does some stuff with the control panels. "Oh, wait, wait. I got a massive signal coming in. A whole platoon of droids is headed this way."

"Someone's noticed our handiwork back at the crash site," Hunter says.

"Yeah. Make sure you keep an eye on those incoming Separatist forces. I wanna know when they reach this outpost. We gotta move swiftly."

"We'll grab some speeder bikes and flank them from the back," Hunter says.

I follow Jesse and Rex and we sneak behind 2 battle droids, tackling them from behind and shooting them down.

We hide behind a tree and look out at the battle droids guarding the cyber center.

"Is everyone in position?" Rex asks.

"Affirmative," I hear Hunter say through the comms, and then Crosshair says the same thing.

"Cap, you wanted to know when those Separatist forces breached the outpost. Well, they're getting there just about now," Tech says through the comms.

Rex, Jesse and I get ready to shoot the droids guarding the entrance. Rex aims and shoots the head off the yellow-headed one, and we all run in, blasting droids left and right. Rex throws a stun grenade at the group of droids, knocking them down, and we take cover behind some crates.

We move forwards, still taking cover and blasting the droids. I can feel the adrenaline rush that I missed so much. 

Hunter and Wrecker come out of the doors behind the droids that we're blasting at, taking care of them quickly. We run over to them as a transport comes into view. Definitely carrying more droids.

"Better get in there, Cap," Wrecker says as him, Hunter, Jesse and I wait to blast the droids that will be coming out any second now.

Beams carrying dozens of b2 super battle droids extend out, and the droids drop to the ground and start firing at us. We move to the side a bit, avoiding their blaster fire and firing back. In most cases, I could sneak behind and cut them all in half, but there's too many of them, and I don't feel like dying today.

The battle droids advance and we take cover behind some crates.

"Crosshair, we're gonna need a lift," Hunter says into the comms as the rest of us continue blasting the droids.

"Not gonna be a problem," Crosshair replies through the comms, and suddenly I'm thinking about how he's gonna solo the entire group of battle droids like how those pro snipers do in Call of Duty. Having one on your team is useful, but having one on the opposing team is an absolute nightmare.

The battle droids are getting closer and we retreat into the Cyber Center, still shooting as many droids as we can, and then we reach the room where Rex is in and tell him to go. We run through the hallway and out through the back door, where we're surrounded by a bunch of droids, but we're still blasting at them.

Then a vehicle descends behind us and Crosshair is driving it. We all get in and he drives us outta there.

I climb to the seat behind Crosshair.

"Didn't know you could fly," I say to him as I take off my helmet. "You got any of those toothpicks that I can chew?"

Crosshair rolls his eyes. "No. Go chew your gum." I roll my eyes back at him and sit behind him, turning to Rex.

"Hey Captain, what intel did you get?" I ask him.

"Transmission from Skako Minor. I asked them who it was. They said CT-1409," Rex says, and my eyes widen, but I try to keep my composure.

"Echo..." 

"Yea kid. Echo's alive."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 6

Everything's blurry when I wake up. I see bright lights shining onto me, and when I turn my head to the left I see some medical droids scanning me. I try to move, but my body won't listen. I'm panicking.

Why won't my body move?

The only thing that I can move right now is my head, and that hurts about as much as the rest of my body. I look around the medbay, there's no one else here.

Echo...

I see Rex walk into the medbay, and he takes a seat beside the bed I'm in, and he grabs my hand. He doesn't make eye contact with me. 

He looks worried. Did I make him angry? 

I look up at him. "...Dad?" My voice is shaky, it's just slightly louder than a whisper.

"Hey ad'ika." Rex looks up at me. "You had me worried over there."

Please don't give me a lecture, I don't think my brain can handle this shit right now.

I think Rex can read my thoughts, because he gives me a tired smile. "I'm just glad that you're safe, kid."

"Why can't I move?" I try to move again, but it's not working. I'm not going to be like this forever, right? This is gonna go away...right?

Rex sighs. "You took a pretty bad hit back there at the Citadel, it's a miracle that you're still alive. You have some bruising on your spine that's causing temporary paralysis, according to the medical droid over there, but it'll go away eventually."

He forgot to add the "I think" at the end of the sentence.

"Where's Echo?"

Rex sighs again. "Kid...Echo's gone."

I try to raise my head up from the bed, but a sharp pain shoots through my skull and I wince, resting my head back onto the bed. Rex gives me a slightly concerned look.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU GO BACK FOR HIM?!" I raise my voice as loud as I can, which isn't very loud.

Rex looks down. "Kid, we couldn't go back for him, there was no chance of saving him."

"THEN WHY DID YOU SAVE ME? WHY ME AND NOT HIM?!"

"Kid-"

"HE'S THE ARC TROOPER NOT ME! HE'S MORE VALUABLE, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HIM?!"

"Kid, we couldn't find his body. He's completely gone."

I rest my head back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "How long was I out for?"

"4 days," Rex replies, his grip on my hand is still tight. "Medical droid's been taking out shrapnel from your body, they're almost done, but they're gonna remove the last bits in a while, okay?"

I nod. "Where's my armor?"

"It's in the barracks, don't worry about it."

"My knife?"

"You lost it during the blast, we'll get you a new one once you're healed, don't worry about it."

I fall silent, and Rex and I just stay there for a while, until Rex stands up. "They're gonna take the last bits of shrapnel outta you, I'll come back in a bit when they're done, alright ad'ika?"

I nod, smiling slightly.

"Be careful with her," Rex says to the medical droid, before leaving the medbay.

The medical droid gives me the anesthesia to knock me out before the surgery, and it feels like only seconds after that I wake up.

 For the next few months, I'm forced to stay in the medbay. Rex visits me at least once a day, if he's on a mission he usually gives me a transmission. Sometimes Fives comes along with Rex, and they both tell me stories about their missions, and the exciting stuff that happened. 

Fives also made it to the top 5000 players in Legendary rank in Call of Duty, and now I'm at a lower rank than him, which is definitely not something I like.

I can barely move my body, but I can move my fingers slightly. 

Fives and Rex are always telling me that I'll recover soon, but I've been starting to lose hope. It's already been a few months, and I almost no better than I was when I arrived at the medbay.

It's so boring in the daytime, I have nothing to do, so I just stare at the ceiling, thinking of storylines, I've made up quite a few. There's this one where I crossed over this world and Ninjago and the movie Pacific Rim, where General Skywalker and Commander Tano piloted one of the giant robots called Jaegers along with my original character and some of the other people from Ninjago that Rex told me about. I even made up names for the Jaegers. Titan Grave, Striker Phoenix, Dark Interceptor, and Challenger Rex (Named after you know who). I even made up a name for the story, it's called Cancelling the Apocalypse.

Sometimes I think about what it would be like if Echo survived, but I try not to think about it too much. Would he be in my situation, paralyzed like me? It would be nice to have someone to talk to in the medbay.

The nights aren't any more enjoyable than the day. I always get nightmares of the explosion, and I keep waking up in the middle of the night, sweating. Rex seems to have noticed this, and he says that I have dark circles under my eyes, and he always asks if I get enough sleep at night.

One time, Rex and Fives came back from a battle on Umbara, and they told me about this Jedi General who was making men die on purpose, and how they killed the Jedi. 

Rex and Fives stay with me through the night.  As usual, I wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, breathing heavily. Unfortunately, Rex and Fives aren't heavy sleepers, and the moment they hear me wake up, they do the same.

Rex squeezes my hand gently. "You're okay kid, it's just a nightmare." I nod, still sweating, squeezing his hand back with the limited movement of my fingers.

A few weeks pass, and I've been able to move my limbs slightly, and I can turn my body now. I can sit up shakily in my bed, sometimes being able to slowly type out my stories on a holo-pad that Fives gave me, it takes me about a few hours to write a chapter. I tried playing Call of Duty ranked once, but my fingers can't move fast, and my team lost.

I've been discharged out of the medbay, and I'm in a wheelchair, I can't walk. Rex says that I've visibly grown thinner, I have no appetite. I don't really wear my armor anymore, I'm mostly just wearing my hoodie.

Rex has been trying to get me to walk again, but it's not working. I've managed to take a few shaky steps, and that's with my arms supporting me. My arms aren't doing any better either, I've lost so much muscle, I can barely support my own weight with them.

I keep asking Rex whether I can get back to physical training, but he keeps saying that I gotta recover fully first, which is annoying as hell.

A few more weeks pass, every day Rex or Fives or sometimes even Commander Tano try and help me to walk again, but every time, after a few steps, I fall to the ground, shaking.

I don't wear my helmet around her anymore, I trust her enough to not snitch. Not that Rex even allows me to wear my helmet anyways.

Rex comes back from Onderon in a few days, and as usual, he brings me to the training area and lets me use the wall to support myself and try to walk.

"What's the point of this?" I ask Rex as he extends a hand to help me stand. 

"Ad'ika..."

I stare blankly ahead, as usual. "We've been doing this for weeks, and I can barely take a few steps without collapsing. Not to mention, I can barely hold a gun steady, and ECHO'S GONE."

"Kid...just trust me on this, okay?"

I roll my eyes and grab his hand, helping myself up and leaning against the wall. My legs are shaking, but at least they've been shaking less for the past few days.

 If you wanna get back to the field, you better fucking be able to walk, how else are we gonna avenge Echo?

I think about this every time I try to walk. I feel the urge to kick clanker ass, I wanna make them pay for what they did to Echo. 

I manage to take the first few steps with one hand against the wall, supporting myself, like usual, and then now comes the part where my foot doesn't wanna move forward and I start feeling the resistance, it's less than usual today.

I see Rex staring at me from the side. I take a few deep breaths. 

Just get this over and done with...

I take a shaky step, closing my eyes and trying to relax. I can almost see the explosion that killed Echo and made me like this, I clench my fist, shutting my eyes tighter.

I take another shaky step, and take my hand off the wall. My legs are shaking more. 

Fuck my legs bro.

I force myself to take a few more steps, it feels like my legs are gonna give way soon, I lean against the wall, I can feel sweat running down my forehead.

I clench my fist again, and force myself to release my grip on the wall and take a few more steps. They feel lighter than the first few, and it's getting easier now, still slightly shaky.

I glance at Rex, he nods at me, and I take a few more steps, less shaky now. I speed up my steps, they're getting easier and easier, and soon I'm running around the place, feeling the wind in my hair, laughing for the first time in months.

And then I run over to Rex and hug him, and he's slightly startled and pats me on the back awkwardly, before hugging me back after a few moments.

"Thanks dad," I bury my head into his shoulder.

"Your welcome, ad'ika."

I can feel him smiling, and he hugs me tighter.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 5

Captured! Returning from a perilous assignment in the Outer Rim, Jedi Master Even Piell's cruiser has fallen under attack and been boarded. Seeking vital information he carries about secret hyperspace lanes called the Nexus Route, Separatist forces have taken him alive. Now, the Jedi are preparing a stealth mission into the heart of Separatist space in an effort to rescue Master Piell from the deadly prison known as the Citadel.

I wait for Fives and Echo to come back to the barracks from their briefing of breaking into that maximum security prison which I am so hyped up to break into. I can't sneak into the venting system, because I remember someone trying that before and it didn't really go too well for them. I've grown like 10cm, so I've had to adjust my armor to fit my new height.

I receive a holo-transmission from Rex. He's somewhere on a jedi cruiser or probably on another mission, but I'm stuck here on Coruscant. 

I open the transmission and open the hologram on the floor. Rex's image appears in front of me, he's like half a head taller than me. 

"Hey kid," Rex takes off his helmet.

"Hey dad, please don't tell me this is something about the bad batch minifigures that I've been building."

"What bad batch minifigures?"

"Nevermind. I'm guessing this is something about the Citadel mission?"

Rex nods. "Look kid, I know you wanna go, but this isn't the place to get experience. There's a high chance that you'll get killed, and I can't be responsible for that. So-"

I groan, putting a hand to my forehead. "You said I was good enough to be an ARC trooper, why can't I go?"

"Kid, it's too dangerous, and I can't have you getting killed. You're not going. That's an order."

"Dad please-"

"You're not going, and that's final. Fives and Echo will make sure you stay here." 

The hologram turns off, and I lean against the wall, sighing.

Fives and Echo walk into the barracks.

Echo puts a hand on my shoulder. "Sorry kid, but you can't-"

I roll my eyes and put on my helmet. "Yea, I know, I know, I can't go on that prison break in that I've been wanting to go on for days now."

"Yea, sorry kid," Fives says. "Rex told us to make sure you wouldn't come."

I glare at him from under my helmet. "And you're gonna defy the bro code just because Rex said so?"

Fives and Echo look at each other. "Sorry kid, you ain't coming with us. On the bright side, Commander Tano isn't going either, so you can hangout with her while we're out."

I sigh and head to the hangar with them, and go up to Commander Tano, who's talking with another Jedi. My anxiety's rising, I hate talking to Jedi so much. So I just stand at the side and wait for my chance to speak up.

"Master Plo? May I speak with you?" Commander Tano asks the other Jedi.

"What is it, little 'Soka?" the older Jedi replies.

"It's about the mission. Master Skywalker doesn't want me to go."

"Rex doesn't want me to go either," I speak up.

"That is their choice," the Jedi says.

Commander Tano sits down on the wing of the ship that the other Jedi is fixing up and I sit down next to her.

"I know, but I think he's being overly protective. He's picking and choosing which assignments I can be a part of," Commander Tano says.

"I know right, Rex literally does the same thing to me, even though he says I'm good enough to be an ARC trooper along with Echo and Fives," I complain.

"He is your master," the other Jedi says.

"Yes...but it's not for him to decide when and how I should put my life in danger. That should be my choice." 

"So after the others get carbon-frozen, they won't know if we go with them, and we could just sneak onboard," I suggest, and the other Jedi nods at us.

After the others get carbon-frozen, we get in and get carbon-frozen ourselves. It is definitely not a pleasant experience.

Soon enough, we get unfrozen by the droids. I see Rex getting unfrozen next to me as well.

"Hey kid..." Rex groans as he gets unfrozen.

"Hey dad," I reply, cracking my neck slightly.

"What are you doing here?!" Rex folds his arms.

"Fives, do I have carbon sickness or is that Aris," Echo asks as he cracks his neck. I walk up to him and slap him in the face. "Does that seem like carbon sickness to you?"

Echo rubs the place where I slapped him, chuckling. "Good to see ya, kid."

Rex grabs my arm and turns me to face him. "I gave you a direct order not to come!"

"I got orders from General Plo Koon and Commander Tano to come anyways," I fold my arms, smirking, putting my helmet on before any other troopers can see me. Rex rolls his eyes.

"Welcome aboard, kid," Fives and Echo clap me on the back and I smile slightly.

We walk to a ledge which overlooks the lava. Definitely don't wanna fall into that. General Skywalker takes out some binoculars and scans the building.

"I see the entry point," he reports.

"You were right," Cody says. "The wind conditions are too strong for jetpacks."

"Yes, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. With ascension cables and a steel grip," General Kenobi says.

I already don't like this idea. Burning in lava seems like a painful way to go down, and I already had a problem with climbing that ledge back on the Rishi outpost, I'm starting to regret my decision of coming along.

"I don't think so," General Skywalker says.

"What do you mean?"

He looks through his binoculars again. "Electro-mines. There's nowhere to put a grappling hook at that height. And we hit one of those, the mission's over. They'll know we're here."

"I suppose that means we free-climb it," Rex says, and I look at him.

Echo puts a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, kid, if you fall, I'll catch you."

We continue walking along the ledge and manage to make our way to the bottom of whatever shit we need to climb.

I'm climbing behind Rex, and Echo and Fives are below me. Rex constantly looks down to check if I'm still alive. 

I really hope Echo actually meant what he said because my arms are burning and I'm losing my grip on the rocks.

The electro-mines are sparking with electricity, and I really hope that doesn't hit me or I'm definitely gonna die. My speed of climbing starts to slow down, and Echo and Fives are almost overtaking me, Rex is really far ahead.

"Cmon kid, we're right behind you, don't worry," Echo says below me. I'm breathing heavily inside my helmet, my hair's wet with sweat, it's so warm in there. The wind isn't helping either.

And then I lose my grip and I slip off the rock, and I'm thinking "Oh shit" until Echo catches me and helps me up.

"Thanks..." I'm breathing heavily, I think my heart rate just spiked up after that. I'm shaking from the adrenaline rush, and it takes me a few moments to get back to climbing.

I see everyone stop, and I stop as well. I look up and see a few droids on the platform above me, and I cling to the rock as close as I can, holding my breath, hoping that they won't hear any of us.

And then everyone starts climbing again, and I finally take a breath, pushing myself up to the next grip I can find, I'm below Commander Tano now, don't worry I'm not looking up her skirt, although I would really like to, I heard General Skywalker and General Kenobi say they told her that space underwear wasn't a thing so every time you looked up her skirt you could see her orange-

Anyways.

I hear General Kenobi saying they locked the door, and that it's ray shielded, and General Skywalker's kinda freaking about how it wasn't part of the plan.

Commander Tano climbs up and sees an opening up there and reports it to us.

"We know, they're ventilation ducts, but they're far too small for us to gain access," General Skywalker says.

"Too small for you maybe, but I think I can squeeze through," Commander Tano says.

"I could as well," I speak up.

Rex nudges me in the side and gives me the "don't you dare do it or I'll kill you" head tilt. 

"He can come along as well," Commander Tano points to me. 

General Skywalker nods at us and we climb to the ventilation duct. Commander Tano reaches up there in no time, opening the cover to the vent duct, while I'm struggling to climb up there.

When I reach the platform where the vent duct is, she helps me up. 

"Thanks," I'm panting, breathing heavily. Then Ahsoka slips inside the vent duct and I follow behind her. She looks down from the cramped space to check if there are any droids, before jumping down. I follow her, keeping my pistols drawn to cover her if there are any droids as she opens the ray shield.

I see the others climb up and I help Fives and Echo up. 

"Good job kid," Echo's breathing heavily as well.

"See Rex? I can handle myself," I fold my arms and look at him. I don't call him "dad" here for obvious reasons.

I see the last trooper reaching the platform, but then he slips, and starts to fall. I extend my grappling hook out to him, hoping that he can grab it in time, but he can't, and gets absolutely destroyed by an electro-mine.

The alarm starts to sound.

"They know we're here," General Kenobi says.

So we start running along the hallways, checking the corners to see if there are any droids.

"Take out their surveillance," General Skywalker says, and I shoot one of the security cameras with my pistol. And then some stuff from the ceiling start shooting down at us, but the boys and I take them out quite quickly.

And then, as I stand behind Rex, I hear someone shouting that the walls are electrified, and we run towards cover. I see one clone left behind, and I extend out my hand to grab him, but the wall gets him first and I get an electric shock in my hand. I shake it away, it feels like it's burning but I don't care, and I run towards the trooper who got caught in the electric wall and check for a pulse. There's nothing.

"We must keep moving," General Kenobi says, and I reluctantly leave the trooper behind and follow the others.

Soon, we reach the room where the dude we're supposed to rescue is kept, and we start blasting the droids inside the moment we open the door.

Some of us stand around the room while the others guard the door, and I hear the Jedi dude that we just saved talk shit with the Generals about how we gotta rescue his captain for some reason.

So we continue running through the hallways, checking to see if there are any droids. Suddenly, 3 commando droids appear at one end of the hallway, and a few more at the other end. I stay close to Rex, Fives and Echo as the Jedi draw their lightsabers. I draw my sword and hold my pistol in my other hand.

The droids start firing at us, the Jedi are blocking the blaster bolts with their lightsabers as the droids start jumping off the walls, they're getting closer, and one of them gets close enough and pins a trooper to the wall, and before I can reach him he's getting stabbed. 

I throw my knife at the commando droid who's still stabbing the trooper, and it hits the droid in the head, and I slice it in half with my sword to make sure it's dead. I see another commando droid behind Echo, so I shoot it with my pistol.

The Jedi slice the remaining droids with their lightsabers and Fives gently punches me in the shoulder. "You stole my kill."

I chuckle a bit. "Too slow?"

"We need to keep moving," General Kenobi says, and we start walking through the hallway again.

Suddenly, I hear some high-pitched noise, it's hurting my ears, so I cover them, even through the helmet I can still hear the sound, and all our weapons get attracted up to the ceiling, including the sword on my back and my hidden knife, carrying me up to the ceiling as well. Anakin's up there with me as well, attracted to the ceiling by his hand.

And then some electricity goes through the ceiling, going to both me and General Skywalker, it feels like my body is burning, it's shaking so much, and then it stops, and I'm trying my best not to black out, everything's spinning, everything sounds muffled...

I reach for my knife and General Skywalker reaches for his lightsaber, and I'm about to throw it at the place where the electricity comes out of, and then electricity comes out of it again. The burning feeling comes back, I'm losing the feeling in my legs, and my body...

I throw the knife at the electricity generator as General Skywalker cuts it with his lightsaber, and we fall to the ground, I'm trying so hard not to black out right now, everything's blurry...

The rest of the action happens in a blur until Echo and Rex help me up. "You good kid?" I can hear the concern in their voices. The feeling in my legs starts to come back and I nod.

"Yea I'm fine."

And then we start running through the hallways again, reaching the place where the other prisoners are kept. The Jedi handle the droids and General Kenobi suggests we split up.

Fives, Echo, Rex, some others and I follow General Skywalker and Commander Tano.

General Skywalker's looking at the holo-map, and then suddenly plunges his lightsaber into a wall, cutting a circle through it.

"Everybody in," he says.

Echo, Fives and I push through the circle that General Skywalker cut through the wall, and we find ourselves in one of the old fortress tunnels.

Commander Tano goes off to check the tunnels.

"The tunnel's clear," she reports.

"Looks like Obi-Wan's distraction worked," General Skywalker says. "Things seem to be going as planned."

"Don't jinx it," I tell him.

"It's when things do not go as planned that concerns me," the captain dude says. "What then?"

I go over to Echo and Fives and stand around with them for a bit. There's still a slight tingling feeling in my arm from the electricity just now. I can still hear my heart pounding in my chest, I gotta calm down.

Echo seems to notice this, and he puts a hand on my shoulder. I flinch slightly, but relax after a moment. "Thanks," I tell him.

Then we put the piece of metal that we pushed through just now back into the wall and head off.

We walk along the narrow sides of the tunnel which overlook the lava, making sure to be careful not to fall in. General Skywalker goes to guard the flank while I walk in between Fives and Echo.

"So uh, what are yall gonna do when we get back?" I ask them, to break the silence a bit.

"I'm probably gonna go get a drink at the cantina," Fives says. "And maybe Echo would come along as well."

"Can I come?" I ask.

"Nah kid, you're too young to be drinking alcoholic stuff, you're not 18 yet," Echo says.

"Aw cmon," I protest. "Please???? I'm like 16 years old biologically, I can handle it."

"Sorry kid, can't go till you're 18," Fives says. "I heard you're working on writing that story of yours about our missions and stuff, maybe you could do that after the mission."

"But I wanna hangout with yall," I protest again.

Echo chuckles. "Maybe we could go to the arcade or something after we go to the cantina, how does that sound?"

My eyes light up. "I'll definitely have to carry yall in battle royale today, maybe we could play some hardpoint, but we can't play ranked cause I'm legendary rank and yall are like pro rank-"

"Yea kid, we get it, you're a lot more pro than us," Echo sounds slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong?" I nudge him playfully in the side. "Jealous?"

"...No..."

Fives and I laugh, clapping him on the back. "Don't worry, you'll get better in about 30 years."

Our laughter's cut short when I hear Rex say we hit a dead end.

Fives, Echo and I stay at the back to defend the flank, and I hear the faint sound of footsteps behind us. Fives turns around the corner, checking to see what's there, and almost gets headshotted by a droid.

Fives and I manage to get some shots on the droid, knocking it off the tunnel and into the lava, and General Skywalker slices the other 2 in half.

Then some commando droids jump in from the walls with shields, and start shooting at us again. I see Commander Tano put grenades to the wall and roll some at the commando droids as Fives and I try to blast them, and the grenades on both sides explode, clearing out the commando droids and causing a whole lotta dust. At least the dead end's not a dead end anymore, and we continue walking through the tunnel.

We reach the pipe.

"This pipe leads to the top of the ridge," General Skywalker says. "Where R2 will pick us up and get us out of here. There's the hatch."

He goes to open it, and the rest of us walk towards it.

"Let's go, everyone in," General Skywalker says. "Don't use your lights, and make sure your weapons are locked. The slightest electronic pulse could ignite this whole tube." Rex and the rest of us nod, checking that our weapons are locked and our lights are turned off. Echo and I are the last ones to climb into the pipe.

We climb up the ladder in the pipe, it's kinda dark in here, and it smells terrible. Smells worse than Fives's socks, and that's saying something. Commander Tano's flexing by climbing on the outside of the ladder, swinging herself up to the high ground.

"How much longer are we going to wander through this tunnel in the dark?" Captain Tarkin asks.

"Stop complaining," I say from the back. Tarkin and General Skywalker start discussing stuff I can't quite hear, until Commander Tano says, "I think I found a way out." She points at a hatch above us, and goes to check if the area's clear.

"What do you see, Snips?" General Skywalker asks.

"The coast is clear," she reports.

"Any sign of Obi-Wan and the shuttle?"

"No, I don't see him or R2 anywhere," Commander Tano says as she opens the hatch and starts to climb out, but stops. I can hear the sound of the droids from down here, but a severed metal hand falls into the pipe and I assume that she's taken care of things.

"We've gotta go," she shouts into the pipe, I can hear the sound of blaster fire now. We all start climbing up the pipe, hoping that no blaster bolts hit us in the head and kill us. We slide down the pipe and take cover behind a rock.

General Skywalker throws a charge into the pipe and we all take cover behind the rock, bracing ourselves for the explosion. The ground shakes, and a droid lands in front of us. We get up from our positions on the floor and General Skywalker says we're gonna do plan b: meet R2 at General Kenobi's position. We start walking over the droid and head off.

We reach their position in a short while where the blaster fight has already started. I shoot one of the droids manning a turret, and we run over to where General Kenobi and the others are, taking cover behind some containers.

"We gotta take out those turrets," I say to Fives and Echo. 

"I think we have a bigger problem," Echo says, as some droids on flying thingies fly over, shooting at us. One of the turrets shoot at our position, hitting the containers and sending some of us to the floor. I instantly get up, trying to clear my vision, holding my head with one hand and my pistol in the other.

The Jedi and taking care of the flying droids, there are some 4-legged ones advancing to where Fives and Echo are hiding, and I run over to them.

I really regret not stocking up on grenades before I came, because I only have one grenade left, and I through it at the 4-legged droid, where it explodes and kills it.

"How do we take out those turrets?! If we try anything, they'll blow up our ship," I shout.

And then a bunch of commando droids with shields come out, shooting at us. I hide behind the boxes, breathing heavily, the odds aren't good, we might not survive this, and I'm telling my brain to shut up right now because Fives just threw a grenade which knocks some of them back.

"General Skywalker, a droid is manning one of those turrets. They're going to blow up the shuttle, sir," Echo says into his comlink, and I check to see which turret it is, almost taking a blaster shot to the face. 

I see the turret shooting at the incoming General Skywalker and that other short dude that kinda looks like Yoda but with human skin tones, and they crash-land near the turret.

"This is our only chance, we've gotta stop him," Echo says, before running out and grabbing a shield, running towards the shuttle. Fives shoots from behind, keeping his distance from the turret. I see the turret firing at him, and I run to pull him away from the shuttle which the turret is going to fire at...

I see flames. I'm knocked backwards, I land on my back, I can't move, pieces of shrapnel are digging into my skin, I can feel myself burning, my gloves are on fire, and I can't do anything...

Where's Echo?

I can't see his body anywhere, only his helmet at the side. I see the Jedi running back to the shuttle, and I want to shout at them, to tell them that I'm still alive, but I can't.

And then Rex looks back at the explosion site and see me lying there, my vision gets blurry as he runs over and picks me up and carries me. His voice is muffled.

"You're gonna be okay ad'ika...you're gonna be okay..."

And everything fades into black.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 4

Separatist attack! After the destruction of the outpost on the Rishi moon, General Grievous and Asajj Ventress plan an attack on the planet Kamino, home of the cloning factories. Meanwhile, aboard a Jedi cruiser, Jedi knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi examine an intercepted message from General Grievous.

Rex comes into the barracks soon enough, and I'm showing Fives and Echo this new song on the holonet called "Toxic" from Boywithuke when Rex walks in. My helmet's sitting at the side, I trust Fives and Echo enough to not reveal my secret to the Kaminoans.

When Rex walks in, Fives and Echo stand at attention and I'm just leaning against the wall behind them.

"I'm guessing you have something to tell us?" I ask Rex.

"Mhm. Separatists are planning an attack on Kamino. We're going home."

And then Rex walks out of the room.

"Kamino?! This just got personal," Fives says, Echo agrees with him.

"I'm guessing I'm gonna be the only one out of you three looking at the bigger picture and not just personally," I roll my eyes. "As much as I hate that place, if it's destroyed, the production of more clones will be stopped, and we will definitely lose the war and all of us will die."

"Hey, you're not the only one looking at the bigger picture," Fives nudges me in the side.

Soon enough, we head out of the jedi cruiser with the other troopers, as usual I'm walking behind the rest, my helmet on.

So we take a stroll through Kamino, a place that I never wanted to go back to.

"Ah, look around Fives. Feels like yesterday we were here," Echo says as a group of younger clones pass us. "Heading to target practice."

"Heh, remember that?"

"Do I ever."

"Feels like yesterday I was here, heading to cleaning duty," I mutter under my breath.

And then in front of us I see 99, struggling with carrying a few guns, dropping a few on the floor. I run over and help him pick some up, he doesn't recognize me with the helmet on.

"Hey, 99!" Echo calls out.

Well, 99 can recognize them, but not me.

"Heh, you actually remembered us," Fives sounds slightly impressed.

"Oh, I remember all my brothers. Is Hevy here? Where's he?"

I don't even think he remembers me.

"Hevy's dead. Sacrificed himself on the Rishi outpost," I explain for Echo and Fives. I can talk about his death so casually now, I get over these kinds of things quite quickly.

"He saved our lives, but he gave up his own," Echo continues.

"Oh, uh, I see," 99 says, showing Echo and Fives some random medal thing that they probably got in the past.

"Hevy...gave you his medal?" Fives asks.

99 closes his eyes for a moment, before asking,"So, why have you returned to Kamino?"

"Wasn't my choice," I tell him. My helmet's still on, I can't take it off with all the Kaminoans and other troopers here.

"The Generals received word of an impending attack here," Fives explains.

"Well, how can I help?"

Fives and Echo give each other a look before nodding at each other, and they tell 99 the plan.

"So uh, 99, do you remember...me?" I ask.

"Not with your helmet on," 99 replies. "Why not you take it off? We're safe for now."

"Not safe for me. I have no interest in going back to cleaning duty."

"It's you...you're that female clone, aren't you? So...you're a soldier now?"

I nod. "Keep your voice down, we don't want others to hear that."

"Oh right, sorry," 99 whispers. "So are you gonna join those...yknow...group of different clones?"

"You mean the ipad kid, the one with dog shit for hair, the buff af one, and the old man?"

Fives and Echo hold in their laughter, but I can see it on their faces.

99 chuckles, "Yea, you ever thought about maybe joining them?"

I think for a moment, and as I'm about to reply, the lighting turns red, signaling an attack. I see other troopers running to the front, and Fives and Echo are called in by the commander, and I follow them.

We reach the dude that sent for Fives and Echo. 

"Sir, you sent for us?"

"It's a dangerous assignment, but I want you two up on the bridge in sniper positions."

"Yes sir, we're on it."

And then as Fives and Echo head up to the bridge, the dude stops me before I can run off with them. 

"Aren't you a bit young to be fighting?" he asks. "Get in there with the others."

"With all due respect sir, I can handle myself," I say. "Besides, someone's gotta cover Fives and Echo." Without waiting for a response, I run off to the bridge.

I can hear the blaster fire already starting, I don't look back, I just keep running.

I reach Fives and Echo, where they're dealing with some of the droids already. I narrowly miss a blaster bolt to the face, and take cover next to them.

"There's gotta be a better defensive position than this, this place is shitty to snipe from," I say as I start shooting at the droids down below.

I see 99 coming up behind us. "I...I brought you some ammo," he says, dropping the bag on his shoulder.

"Is there a better spot than this, a better defensive position we can take?" Fives asks.

"Droids! Behind us!" Echo shouts, and Fives pushes 99 to the ground to let him take cover.

I notice that there are grenades in the bag that 99 was carrying, which is now lying on the ground, so I take one of them from the bag and throw it at the droids.

The grenade explodes on contact, knocking all the droids down. 

"There's more," 99 says, pointing at where the smoke is clearing.

Echo, Fives and I point our blasters at that area, until I see some kids walking out. They look like 12 year olds, 2 years younger than me.

"Cadets, what're you doing here?" Echo asks.

"We got separated from our group," one of the kids says.

"Where were they taking you?"

"The barracks."

"Oh, I know the best way there," 99 says, and we all follow him as he half-runs to the barracks.

We reach the barracks and the kids sit down on the beds.

"What are we gonna do?" one of them asks.

Fives and Echo look down at the floor.

"A separatist victory means...death...for all of us," 99 says.

"Oh hell nah I have no interest in dying today," I lean against a wall.

"The cadet is right. What are we gonna do?" 99 asks.

"We fight."

I look to the side, and see commander Cody and Rex taking off their helmets.

"Ayyy Rex, what took you so long?" I ask when I see him. Rex rolls his eyes. 

The cadets stand up. "But our training's not finished."

Fives steps forward. "Look around. We're one and the same. Same heart, same blood. Your training is in your blood. And my blood's boiling for a fight."

"That's one of the most useful things you've said today," I nudge Fives in the side.

"This is our home. This is our war," Echo says.

"What about weapons?" one of the cadets asks.

"The armory," 99 suggests. "It's just a few corridors away, here in the barracks. I can retrieve all the firepower we need. So who wants to blast some droids?"

Rex, Cody, Fives, Echo and I give a downwards nod of respect to 99 and Rex, Cody and I head to the armory with 99.

"Here it is, everything we need is here," 99 says, he's panting a bit. 

Rex and Cody get some weapons and I get a few pistols, a few grenades, and just stuff them on my belt, running out of the room and passing a few to the cadets.

"What about you?" one of them asks as I hand them my second last pistol.

"I only need 1 pistol."

I hear one of the droids shooting at the door to the barracks, and as the door opens, we start shooting at them through the door. As the droids advance, we back up, finding whatever cover we can get behind boxes or the beds.

I hear some blaster bolts whizz past my shoulder, and I take cover with Fives and Echo, shooting at the droids. As they advance, we continue backing up, taking some more cover behind the boxes. Rex throws a grenade at the droids, which misses, and I can feel the force of the explosion from here.

"Cadets, now!" Rex shouts into the comlink and the cadets start shooting at the droids from the high ground where they were initially hidden from view. They manage to knock down quite a few droids, making it much easier.

Cody throws another grenade at the droids, and as the smoke clears, more droids start coming in.

I hear 99 get shot, and he's tryna make his way to the armory. I run towards the droids, strafing so that I avoid blaster fire, and I try to slice up the droids as fast as I can with my sword, and when Fives and Echo help me shoot down the last one, I look back and I see 99's body on the floor. It feels like someone tightened their grip on my stomach, and I run to 99, kneeling beside him as Echo holds him in his arms.

"We..." Cody sighs. "Lost a true soldier."

"He really was one of us."

I bite my lip under my helmet, I can feel the tears coming but I don't let them flow, so I just walk away and sit on one of the beds, looking away, softly singing under my helmet to distract myself from 99's body. ("Toxic" from Boywithuke my new fav song lmao)

Later, all of us start walking out to the outdoor platform, the battle has ended. I'm leaning against a wall, watching Echo and Fives do their thing. I still have the grenades clipped to my belt, I'm throwing my knife up in the air and catching it, just like I always do.

I see Rex motioning for me to come over with Echo and Fives, and we all stand at attention (I'm just following what Echo and Fives are doing, just because I have no idea what I'm supposed to do)

"You all really stepped up in the heat of battle," Cody says.

"We did what we had to do, sir," Echo says.

"What any clone would've done," Fives continues.

"All of you showed valor out there. Real courage. Reminds me of me, actually," Rex says.

"Don't flatter yourself, we all already know," I smirk under my helmet, Rex chuckles a bit, looking at me.

"Echo, Fives, Aris, you're officially being made ARC troopers," Cody says. Echo looks at Fives, and we're all kind of a bit in shock.

"I don't think the Separatists will be coming back anytime soon," Rex says. "But if they do, Kamino will be lucky to have clones like you defending it. Good job, men."

Rex and Cody salute and Fives and Echo does the same, so I just follow them.

As I walk away with Rex, he pats me on the back. "Good job ad'ika."

"Rex, I don't wanna be an ARC trooper," I say quietly.

"Why not?" Rex looks confused.

"Too many expectations. I'm not like Fives or Echo. I'm just a kid. And besides, I don't deserve this, 99 does."

"Kid, 99's-"

"Dead, yea I know, and I've accepted that, just don't make me an ARC trooper, okay?"

Rex sighs. "Okay, ad'ika."

I nod at him. "Thanks dad."

Rex chuckles a bit.

"Okay fine, you can call me that."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 3

After Rex said that he would let me go on some less dangerous missions with him, I've been training harder than ever. I'm still better at melee than shooting pistols or blasters and Rex has taught me how to disarm explosives and use some of those droid poppers on droidekas.

I haven't joined him on any battles yet, but when he told me that I could help him hunt down General Grievous on Saleucami a few days ago, how could I say no to that?

I've gotten a set of clone trooper armour for myself, I've made a few modifications to them considering I'm still quite short, about 163cm for now. Rex even gave me the permission to paint my armour black to blend in with the night sky if I ever needed to, and I added some orange highlights. I've got some grenades clipped to my belt, and a knife compartment up my sleeve. My helmet has a voice modulator so that the others don't recognize that I'm a girl by my slightly higher pitched voice.

I fly a ship to Saleucami and I see a bunch of jedi cruisers making their way down to the planet's surface, and I follow them. When we land, I see a bunch of speeders heading down from the cruiser and Rex and General Kenobi walking out. I run towards them.

"Who's this?" General Kenobi asks.

I awkwardly stand behind Rex, not sure what to say.

"His name's Aris. He's on the younger side, but he's a good soldier. He's just a little shy," Rex says. I look up at him. "I'm not shy."

I can see General Kenobi's eyes widen slightly when he hears my name, but it's not that obvious to Rex or any of the others. 

The general turns to Rex and says that we're gonna go towards the wreckage of the landing transport first.

"Go get a speeder," Rex nudges me in the side and we both go to get a speeder each before we head off with some walkers.

The greenery of Saleucami feels so different than the barracks and machinery that I'm used to, it makes me feel a lot more calm. I mostly move behind the walkers and other speeders, so that they hopefully won't pay much attention to me.

We reach Grievous's ship in a while, and some of the other troopers are checking out the wreckage, while I'm staying close to Rex and Jesse.

We go report in to General Kenobi.

"The crew compartment's almost entirely destroyed," Rex reports.

"We'll split into teams. Rex, take Jesse, Hardcase and Kix and search those wetlands," General Kenobi says.

"Yes sir," Rex says, before motioning me to follow him and Jesse as we walk away.

"And, Rex, if you get a visual on Grievous, contact us before you engage."

Rex nods before putting his helmet back on and we get on our speeders and drive off into the wetlands. 

I never get to see so much green on Coruscant, this would be a nice place to train. Maybe I should suggest that to Rex. 

Rex and the others are driving so fast, I try to keep up but I'm still lagging behind, I don't wanna drive too fast because I have no intention of dying today.

And then I see Rex get shot down in front of me, he flies off his speeder. I freeze, my breath hitches, and I hear gunshots not too far away.

I stop my speeder and jump off, running towards Rex's lifeless body, kneeling down beside him.

"Rex?" I shake him by the shoulders gently. "REX?" I shake him harder. He still doesn't move. My voice cracks. "I swear if you are dead...I'm gonna kill you. Rex? Rex, wake up, please..."

Dad...

My vision starts to blur inside my helmet, I know tears are starting to form but I cant clear them right now because I can't take off my helmet, so I just try to blink them out of my eyes. 

I barely notice Kix coming over to check on Rex, they take off his helmet and then tell Jesse to come over here, I'm still shaking Rex by the shoulders, trying to get him to wake up.

Jesse and Hardcase come over. 

"How bad?"  Jesse asks.

"Pretty bad. I need to remove his armor to see the full extent of the damage," Kix replies.

I check Rex's pulse, it's weak, but it's there.

"Those snipers might have called for backup," Hardcase says. "Unless we wanna start getting picked off one by one, we should find better cover first."

Some animals start walking over to us, they kinda look like the walkers, and they're noses are probably longer than most of the clones' dicks. How do I know? Rex may or may not have told me the sizes of all the clones' dicks.

"Wait a minute. Those critters are domesticated," Jesse says.

"Sir?"

"I think we're on farmland. And where there's a farm, there's usually a farmer," Jesse says.

I roll my eyes from under my helmet. "No shit smartass."

Jesse ignores me. "Let's find his homestead."

Jesse and Kix sling Rex onto their shoulders and puts him on a stretcher which Kix attaches to his speeder and I just follow them from behind.

It's sunset now. The sun casts an orange glow over the land as we reach a small house. Kix arrives up next to the door and this female Twi'Lek holds up a rifle and points it at him.

"We want no trouble here," she says.

"Easy with that weapon, ma'am," Jesse says as he takes off his helmet. "We're here as friends."

"State your business," the Twi'Lek says pointing the rifle at him.

I arrive back up behind Jesse, remaining silent.

"Our friend's been hurt. We need-" Kix gets cut off by her. "I'm no doctor. So just-"

"We have a medic ma'am. We just need a place to tend to him overnight," Jesse says.

 2 kids run out behind the Twi'Lek. My eyes light up. I haven't seen kids for a long time. Not since Kamino.

"Get inside, both of you," the Twi'Lek says and the kids reluctantly head into the house. "Look, there are some benches out back in the barn. It's the best I can do."

"That'll be fine ma'am. Thank you."

So we head to the barn and set Rex down on one of the benches, I lean against the wall at the far end of the barn, spinning my knife and keeping myself distracted while the others take care of Rex.

I hear Rex waking up and I run over, pushing my way past Jesse. He's shirtless, and has a medpatch on his chest.

"What? What happened?" Rex asks as he opens his eyes. 

"Commando droids took a potshot that would've gone straight through your heart had it been two inches to the left," Hardcase says.

"I can't move my arm," Rex says.

"You have some nerve damage," Kix tells him.

"Understood. Now patch me up and let's get on with it," Rex turns to the side.

"Sir, you're in no condition. It will heal, but it'll take time."

"We're getting under way, Kix. That's an order."

"Sir, as the team medic, when it comes to the health of the men, including you...I outrank everyone. So I respectfully order you, sir, to get some-"

I hear someone clearing their throat. "Excuse me." I turn around, it's that Twi'Lek again, she's carrying a plate of fruit. "If that's not enough-"

"That's plenty. Thank you, uh..."

"Suu."

Some droid ball-like thingy comes into the room and one of those kids I saw just now runs in, picking it up.

"I told you to stay in the house," Suu says.

"I couldn't help it, mom. It got away."

Then the kid looks at Rex and stares at him. "You look like my daddy."

"Shaeeah. Don't both the soldier. Now get inside with your brother."

"Yes, mom."

"My husband is away, delivering our first harvest," Suu says as she passes the plate of fruit to Jesse. "Do you require anything else?"

"No. Thank you, Suu."

Kix takes a pistol and puts it beside Rex's good hand.

"Resume the search without me," Rex says. "Jesse, you're in command." Jesse nods. "I'll be fine." He sighs.

"I'm staying with the captain," I speak up.

"Kid, you're going with them. That's an order," Rex says.

"I'm staying with you here, captain, whether you like it or not."

Rex sighs. "Fine."

As Jesse, Kix and Hardcase leave the room, I finally take off my helmet and set on the floor beside him. I throw my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. Rex chuckles a bit and hugs me back with his good arm.

"I was so worried," my voice cracks.

"I'm alright kid, I won't die from a simple shot like that."

I let go of him and sit down on the floor beside him, playing with my knife again.

"You want some water?" I ask, looking up at him.

"Nah ad'ika, I'm fine."

"I'll get some anyways." I put my helmet back on, standing up and heading out of the room. 

I head to the house where Suu came out of just now, and I knock on the door. Suu opens it, and lets me in.

The place is well-lit, and it seems quite cozy. Better than the barracks, at least. 

"I need some water," I tell Suu, and she goes to get some, returning in a short while. I see the kids looking at me from a corner, and I awkwardly wave at them.

"You're a little short to be one of them," Suu says as she hands me the water. "And you don't take off your helmet like the others."

"That's none of your business. Thanks for the water." I walk out of the house and back into the barn where I give some water to Rex.

"Thanks ad'ika ," he says as he drinks it.

I take my helmet off and set it down on the floor, sitting next to it.

"Yknow you can trust some of them to not reveal your secret. They're good men," Rex says.

"I don't trust any of them."

"Well, you should. It's good to make some friends."

"I don't need friends.  I already have you, Fives, Echo and Hevy-"

"Kid."

I look down, sighing. "Hevy's gone, I know."

Rex pats my head with his good arm and messes my hair up a bit. I smile slightly and lean against the wall.

"Don't move too much. We don't want the injury to get worse."

I forgot there was animals in the barn, so in the middle of the night, some random animals go drool on both me and Rex, and on my armour.

When I feel the liquid dripping on me, I instantly wake up and wipe it away. Some of it dripped on my helmet.

"Hey! I just got the new paint job!" I push the animal away.

And then I hear the faint sound of metal and footsteps. Rex's hand reaches for his pistol, and I draw my knife and sword and inch along the walls to where the sound is coming from.

I see the person making his way closer towards Rex in the room, he doesn't see me because of the colour of my armour. 

I see Rex try to shoot him but his pistol gets knocked out of his hand and the person points his weapon at him.

I quietly run behind the person, and grab his shoulder, pulling him backwards and putting my knife over his throat. "I wouldn't try anything if I were you."

I see the person's eyes widen. "Who are you?" he asks. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the one asking the questions, not you." I press the knife to his throat. "Drop your weapon."

"Let go of him. He's a clone," Rex orders, and I kick his weapon to the side, slowly drawing my knife away from him and putting it back in my wrist compartment, and slinging my sword onto my back.

"So...I see the war has finally made its way out here, and I guess I can expect a visit from some droids soon," the clone says.

"What's your number and rank?" Rex asks, sitting up. 

"Heh. My name is Lawquane. Cut Lawquane, and I'm just a simple farmer."

"You're a deserter."

Cut chuckles. "Well, I like to think I'm merely exercising my freedom to choose, to choose not to kill for a living."

"That is not your choice to make," Rex says, as the lights in the barn turn on. "You swore an oath to the Republic. You have a duty."

"I have a duty, you're right. But it's to my family. Does that count or do you still plan to turn me in?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Yea you do, he seems like a nice guy," I speak up again.

Cut looks at me. "Well thanks, kid. And I suppose you won't try to kill me again, will you?"

I look at him. "Only if you give me a reason to."

"Daddy! You're home!" the kids come running over and hug Cut. I instantly reach for my helmet, but Rex puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Fine," I groan, before sitting down on the floor next to him.

"Look what I drew you, Dad!" the other kid holds up a drawing. Cut chuckles and pats the kid on the head. "That's great Jekk."

"I see you two have met," Suu says.

"He looks just like you, daddy. I told him," one of kids says.

"Ah, you did, huh? I was just making our guest, Captain, um...what's your number?"

"Rex. I also have a name, believe it or not."

"He was injured. His men brought him here," Suu says. "I told him he could stay, just for the night."

"Of course he can. We never turn away those in need, do we?"

"No, we always help anyone we can," one of the kids sasys.

"You look hungry, Rex," Cut says.

"No, I'm fine, I'll stay here," Rex replies quickly.

"No, you have to eat with us, pleaseeee?"

"Please????"

Cut chuckles. "They're never gonna stop until you say yes."

"Alright, I'll join you."

Cut helps Rex stand up and as I watch them as they walk out of the barn, still sitting on the floor.

Cut turns back and looks at me. "You coming?"

I nod and put on my helmet. "Yea sure."

I keep quiet at the table as I eat. I don't take my helmet off, I just eat from under my helmet, Rex nudges me in the side to tell me that I can take my helmet off, but I shake my head.

"Yes, well you and I may be clones, but we're still individuals. You have a name rather than a number, Captain. Why is that?" Cut asks.

"Perhaps our leaders feel it's a more efficient way or distinguishing us," Rex replies.

"More efficient than a number? Hmm. I doubt the Kaminoans think that way. Still, a name has to make you feel unique, especially in an army where everyone looks like you and talks like you."

"Not everyone," I speak up.

"Actually, I've never really thought about it," Rex says.

"Yes, you have."

"Well, how would you know?"

"Because I'm as close to you as any life-form can be." Cut passes Rex his food and leans in. "I've seen how you look at my family, our home. Come on, Rex, admit it. You've thought about what your life could look like if you were to also leave the army, choose the life you want."

Rex looks at me. "What if I am choosing the life I want? What if I'm staying in the army because it's meaningful to me?"

"And how is it meaningful?"

"Because I'm part of the most pivotal moment in the history of the Republic. If we fail, then our children and their children could be forced to live under an evil I can't well imagine."

"If you were to have children, of course, but that would be against the rules, wouldn't it? Isn't that what somebody programmed you to believe, Captain?"

"No, Cut. It's simply what I believe. It doesn't matter if it's my children or other people's children. Does that meet with your approval?"

"Perfectly. To each his own. That's what I always say."

"What does that mean, daddy?" one of the kids asks.

"It means you can do anything with your life that you want to."

"Why don't you take your helmet off?" Suu asks.

"I'd...prefer not to," I reply.

"Aw cmon, please? We wanna see your face," the kids say, and they starts begging me to take off my helmet. I look at Rex, and then Cut, and then they both nod at me, and I hesitantly take off my helmet.

"You're a girl version of Daddy?" one of the kids asks.

I chuckle. "I guess you could say that."

"Why are you out in the field so early? Don't you have training to do back on Kamino?" Cut asks.

"I ran away from Kamino when the war started, got caught in a skirmish, Rex found me and took me in."

"And I'm guessing you had no choice?"

"No. I chose this life. I want to fight for the Republic. No matter how much of a mistake I am to the Kaminoans, I'm still a soldier, and I wanna do my duty."

"Isn't that what you were programmed to think?"

I fall silent. 

"How old are you?" Suu asks.

"14," I reply. 

"You're fighting in a war when you're so young?" one of the kids asks. 

"I wouldn't consider it young but-"

"Yea, she is, I trained her myself," Rex says, and I can hear a hint of proudness in his voice.

"Do you have a name?" Cut asks.

"Yea. It's Aris."

"That's a cool name," one of the kids says.

I nod at them.

After dinner, Cut and Rex go play some Dejarik and Cut tells Rex his story, and Cut lets the kids go outside and play for a few minutes, and he tells me to keep an eye on them. I nod and follow them outside. 

They're playing hide-and-seek in the fields, and I put my helmet on, following them. I see the older kid called Shaeeah scare the living hell out of Jekk, and I smile to myself under my helmet. 

I wish my childhood was like this.

"Look. In the field," Jekk says. 

I look out in the field and see a metal structure that looks like it crashed into the field.

"Stay back kids, I'll go check it out," I say, before running inside the structure.

Clearly they have a hearing problem, because they follow me inside. 

I walk through a dark hallway, pistol and sword drawn, and find myself in a dark room full of lifeless commando droids. I get ready to shoot them before they can do anything, and then they suddenly power up. I look behind and I see Shaeeah who accidentally pressed the button to power them up.

"Run!" I shout to the kids. "Go tell dad!"

I shoot as many of the droids as I can before they start moving, and I run out of the structure, hiding in the field, hoping that they won't hear or see me. I hold my breath. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, it's so loud.

I make my way through the fields and back to the house. I see 3 commando droids circling around it. 

I take a deep breath and steel myself before drawing my knife and stabbing one in the head, drawing my pistol and shooting the other, and Cut shoots the last one with his rifle.

I nod at him. "Thanks."

I hide with him behind the wall, it's all quiet, but I can hear footsteps around the house, my breathing quickens, the inside of my helmet is warm.

Suddenly, a commando droid holds Cut by the neck, and I shoot it in the head with my pistol, almost hitting Cut. 

Another commando droid comes from the door and Cut shoots it before I can. I don't like this. 

"Why isn't Rex here?" I whisper to Cut.

"He's backup in case we die," he replies.

"So you think we're gonna die?!??!?"

"That is a possibility."

"Okay, point taken," I gulp as I hear a creaking sound coming from the floorboards.

I cautiously walk over and open the trapdoor, and then a bunch more commando droids come out. I stab one in the head before backing up and shooting at them. They're also shooting at me and Cut, and a blaster bolt grazes my hand, it cuts through my glove and I can feel the burning on my hand.

I take cover behind a wall, and shoot the droids from there. I see Cut get trapped under some debris that fell from the ceiling, and I draw my sword, slicing through 2 of the commando droids and shooting another in the head, and then suddenly I feel a strong grip around my neck, I look back and see another commando droid, the grip is getting tighter and I can't breathe...

Cut forces the debris that he's stuck under off of him, hitting the droid that's strangling me, and it falls to the ground, the lights from it's eyes turning off. I'm breathing heavily, my throat feels like it's pressed in, I cough a bit as Cut takes out the rest of the droids.

I hear blaster fire from upstairs, Rex must be taking care of the last ones. I see Cut wrestling with one of the commando droids and I go over to help him, stabbing it in the head.

And then Rex falls from the ceiling and the last commando droid grips his neck, trying to strangle him like its counterpart tried to strangle me, and Cut shoots it in the head, causing it to let Rex go. Rex staggers back, coughing a bit.

I hear the kids calling out for Cut, and he reassures them, telling them that it's over.

Rex puts a hand on my shoulder. "Good job, kid."

"Thanks Rex," my voice is hoarse and I cough a bit, receiving a bit of a concerned look from Rex. "I'm-" I cough a bit. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

I cough again. "Y-yea."

The kids and Suu come down the stairs and hug Cut, and Rex and I lean against the wall. I sigh. "Rex, have you actually thought about leaving the army before? Yknow, you could have a family, be away from all the war for once."

Rex looks at me, and I take off my helmet. 

"I already have a family. I wouldn't have it any other way." 

And then he pulls me into a hug and I hug him back tightly. 

In the morning, Rex and I have to leave, we put our stuff onto one of these animals and then we get ready to leave. 

"Captain Rex, are you going to turn in my husband?" Suu asks.

"I'm sorry Suu. It's my duty." I glare at Rex. "But in my condition, I probably won't remember any of this."

Suu looks happy.

"You're still a deserter, Cut, but you're certainly not a coward."

The kids come and hug my waist. "Promise you'll come back sometime?" they ask, and I nod, smiling at them before putting my helmet back on.

Rex receives a transmission from General Kenobi.

"Captain Rex, are you still with us?"

"Yes, General Kenobi. I'm still with you and thankfully on the mend sir."

"That's great news. We certainly missed you at the party."

"Does that mean I missed out on some action?" I speak into the comlink.

"Quite a lot of it, actually."

"Sorry sir, I...had to attend one of my own."

"Can't wait to hear about it. We're standing by."

"You're welcome to stay, Rex," Cut says.

"This is your home, Cut. My family is elsewhere." Rex looks at me, before we get on the animal thing and wave to Cut and his family, before riding off into the sunset.

We meet up with General Kenobi, and then we get back onto the Jedi cruiser, and before I head to my barracks, Rex stops me.

"You did good, ad'ika," he says. 

"Thanks, captain," I smirk under my helmet.

"Yknow I could get used to you calling me that, right?" Rex laughs a bit.

I chuckle.

"I know you'll never get used to it."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 2

Clone forces rally. As the war escalates in the Outer Rim, the Jedi Knights are spread thinly across the galaxy.  Many new clones are rushed into service to support their Jedi generals. Unfortunately, because of the relentless demands of battle, many young clones must join the struggle before their intensive training has been completed. These clones, manning a vital network of tracking stations, are all that stand between the Republic and invasion.

I gotta admit, training isn't fun. Rex says it's hard at first, but I'll get used to it. Rex and some other troopers from the 501st train me, and physical training is a literal nightmare. When I wake up the next day my limbs feel like they're gonna fall off. To be honest, it would be better if they did.

I haven't seen Kix after that first time we met, and I haven't interacted with any of the other clones either.

"We want as few clones as possible to know that you were a deserter," Rex says.

"What's a deserter?" I ask him.

"Someone who left the army without permission. People like you."

"But I'm back now, right?"

"Still, we should be cautious."

Most of the time Rex isn't around for my training, he's planning battle strategies with the Jedi Generals and out in the field. 

There's one time Rex comes back from the Battle of Christophsis and he tells me General Skywalker has a new padawan.

"She really thought since she was a commander she outranked me." Rex and I sit on a bench at the side while I'm taking a break from my training. 

"I'm guessing she doesn't, because-"

"In my book, experience outranks everything."

"In your book, experience outranks everything."

Rex and I say it at the same time. Rex chuckles and pats my head. "I see you've at least learned something from me."

"How could I forget that one line you say at least once a week?"

"You got a point kid."

"If experience outranks everything, then why won't you let me get out in the field to get experience?" I ask, probably for the 4th time that week.

Rex's expression hardens. "We had this conversation before, kid. It's too dangerous out there for you for now, you gotta focus on your training first, and when I say you're ready to get out there, you can join me and the boys in the 501st. Got it?"

I roll my eyes, sighing. "Fine."

Rex hands me a few credits. "Go get yourself some new clothes when we land on Coruscant tonight, okay? Your old ones are getting a bit tight." And then he pats me on the back and walks off.

I put the credits in my pocket and get back to training.

I'm still better using a knife than a blaster, but I'm pretty decent with a sniper as well, my long-distance aim with a pistol is shitty, but in close range I can get a good headshot in. 

Rex let me keep my knife, and he even got me a larger one which looks a lot more like a sword, the orange highlights on it match the ones on my old knife. 

Recently, Rex and Cody have been checking the Republic outposts for inspection, and I haven't seen Rex in weeks. 

When Rex finally arrives back on Coruscant, I'm already standing at the hangar waiting for him, crossing my arms.

"What took you so long?" I ask.

"I told you that it was gonna be a few weeks," Rex sighs. "Nice hoodie you got there, by the way."

"Thanks. And what did you say about teaching me how to use those deflector pucks for trick shots before you left?"

"I said that was after you mastered shooting a pistol." 

"But I already have! I can get a headshot from like 3 meters away." I protest.

"3 meters isn't far. You'll be shot down by clankers before you could even get that close."

"Aw cmon, captain, at least give me a demonstration," I smirk. I know he hates it when I call him "captain".

"No time for that. Commander Cody and I are going to the Rishi outpost in a few minutes, I was just checking in on you."

"Oh, how kind of you," I reply, before walking away.

Once I see Rex turn his gaze away from me, I run behind a box near the ship, and wait for Rex and Cody to get into their ship. As the door of the ship starts to close behind them, I slip in at the last second quietly and hide in the darkness, hoping that no one heard me.

As the ship lands on Rishi, the lights at the back of the ship, where I am, turn on. I draw a quick breath, there's nowhere to hide, and Rex and Cody are coming. So I stand up and smile awkwardly.

"Hi guys."

"Kid, what are you doing here, I told you to stay on Coruscant and train," Rex sounds annoyed.

"Who's the kid?" Cody asks.

"Hey commander, name's Aris, I'm basically like the captain's secret trainee," I say, casting a quick glance at Rex, who puts a hand to his forehead and groans.

"I never thought Rex would personally train a kid like you," Cody says. "Where'd he find you?"

"We-we can explain that later, let's just get this inspection over with first," Rex says hastily.

"Just don't get in the way, alright kid?" Rex asks, not waiting for a reply and walking out of the ship with Cody. I follow behind them.

They're busy complaining about having no deck officers on duty here at the outpost, and that the clones here are sloppy. I don't think they are. Something feels off. I can see faint lights coming from behind the boxes, and I don't really think that's normal. I quicken my pace and move closer to Rex.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Cody says as the door to the outpost opens and a clone walks out.

"Welcome to Rishi, commander. As you can see, the outpost is operating at peak efficiency. Thank you for visiting, and have a safe trip back," the clone says, with some weird-ass hand movements. Something's definitely off, and both Rex and Cody glance at each other.

"We need to inspect the base just the same," Cody says.

"Uh, there is no need," the clone says. "Everything is fine and fully operational."

I pull at Rex's arm. Rex nods back at me.

"Take us to the sergeant in command," Rex says.

"Roger roger."

Rex and Cody look at each other, and I'm slightly confused. Suddenly, I see a flare rising up behind us.

It's a droid attack flare, I was just taught that a few days ago.

"A droid attack flare," Cody and I say at the same time. Rex shoots that clone in the head, and he falls to the ground.

"Woah, Rex, what the heck are you doing?" Cody sounds alarmed.

I don't say anything as Rex goes to inspect the body.

"Relax," Rex says as he takes the helmet of the clone, revealing a lifeless commando droid under the helmet. "Looks like one of those new commando droids."

"That flare must have come from the survivors," Cody says.

Suddenly, blaster shots come from all directions and Rex and Cody start firing.

"Get behind me kid," Rex says as he dodges a blaster bolt. I don't protest, staying as close to Rex as I can. Just the sound of blaster bolts whizzing over my head is enough to make my blood run cold. It's not the same as in training. If I get shot here, I will most likely die.

Some of the commando droids are using the boxes to shoot from the high ground. Cody manages to get a few shots on one of them, but they just get back up again.

"Those clankers have tough armor," Cody exclaims. 

I run as fast as I can behind a box to take cover, covering my ears and closing my eyes tightly, curling up into a ball. I can almost feel the shot on my shoulder again. My breathing quickens.  Rex and Cody go to take cover where I am.

"We're cut off," Cody says, he and Rex keep firing at the droids. His voice sounds muffled in my head.

"Get me outta here...get me outta here..." I whisper to myself, pressing my knees to my forehead.

And then I hear the sound of grenades landing near our area and Rex grabs my arm, shoots a grappling hook to the platform and lowers us down to the ground. Cody's next to us as I hear an explosion.

When my feet touch the ground, I lean against a rock to stabilize myself, my legs are shaking, my shoulders are tensed, I just stare straight ahead, breathing heavily.

"Kid, are you okay?" Rex puts a hand on my shoulder. "Are you hurt or anything?"

I look down at the ground, avoiding eye contact. 

"Aris? Look at me. Are you okay?"

I look up at Rex. "I shouldn't have come."

"Yea, you shouldn't have. But you're here now, and you're still alive, so I'd count that as a win," Rex smirks.

I nod, trying to slow my breathing down, my shoulders relaxing slightly. 

"This is just like training, okay? Don't worry about it."

Rex turns to Cody. "Well this sure complicates things, Commander. No worse than that time on Tibrin."

"We had jedi with us on Tibrin," Cody says as we stare at the flaming wreckage of the ship. "They helped."

"What...happened on Tibrin?" I speak up in a small voice.

"Not now kid," Cody snaps, and I go quiet again.

3 clones walk towards us through the smoke of the wreckage, and Rex and Cody raise their blasters at them. "Hands above you heads. Take your sun bonnets off."

I think he means helmets. But seriously? Sun bonnets? You couldn't come up with something better?

My hand reaches for the pistol at my belt as I stand behind Rex and Cody, wondering if I should follow them and point my gun at the clones.

"Uh, sir?" One of the clones sounds confused.

"Take them off. Now!"

The clones raise their hands in surrender, take their helmets off, and they're not droids.

Suddenly, an really big eel-like thing crashes through the rocks at our side and roars at us. I stand there frozen while Rex shoots the thing and kills it in one shot.

Rex takes off his helmet and goes to check whether the eel is dead. 

"Nice shot," one of the clones says.

I back away from the eel's body but behind me is darkness and I don't wanna get ambushed by any more droids, so I just stay close.

"The name's Rex," Rex says as he checks the eel's body. "But you'll call me "Captain" or "sir"."

"Sir, yes sir!"

I really don't wanna talk to Rex when he's like this. I have a slight fear or superior authoritative figures.

"I'm commander Cody, your new boss," Cody says as he takes off his helmet.

I smile awkwardly and wave at the 3 clones. "Hi..." 

They ignore me. 

"My designation is trooper 27-5555, sir," one of the clones says. 

"We call him Fives. I'm Hevy. This is Echo." Hevy points to the last dude.

"Where's your sergeant?" Cody asks.

"Dead, sir. We're all that's left," Echo says.

"Looks like we got a batch of shinies, commander," Rex says as he walks up to the clones.

"Shinies, sir?"

"That's right. Your armour, it's shiny and new, just like you," Rex says.

At least they have armour.

"Sir, me and my batchers are trained and ready. We'll take back our post, shiny or not."

"There's hope for you yet, rookie," Rex says.

"Hey kid. You're not supposed to be here. It's dangerous."

I look up, Hevy's talking to me.

"I know, I was following the captain along without his permission, cause I thought I could get some experience here, but..." I look down, my voice is soft.

"It's scarier than you thought it would be?" Echo asks.

I nod. "I wanna go back."

"Well, you can't get everything you want, kid. And if you're looking for some experience, you're sure gonna get a lot of it here," Hevy says. "What's your name?"

"Aris."

"Like the leader of the 504th Legion?" Fives asks.

"Rex named me after her."

"You look like a clone. Are you?" Echo asks.

"Mhm. Female clone. Wasn't meant to exist, but here I am. Made to be physically weaker than the others." I chuckle, looking down. "But I'm definitely not weaker. I'm equal to them."

"Alright boys, keep quiet and follow me," Rex says, before starting to climb up a ledge. 

The others all follow, and I'm at the back. 

Okay. You can do this. Just like training.

I take a deep breath and start climbing.

Don't look down, don't look down, there's no harness, just don't look down and don't fall or you're gonna become a piece of roti prata and die-

I cling onto the rock that I'm climbing on tightly, and I make the mistake of looking down. My whole body tenses up, and I draw a few quick breaths before looking back up again. I can feel the sweat running down my face. My arms are shaking. All I can hear is my heartbeat now.

After what seems like forever, we make it up to the top of the ledge, and Hevy helps me up. My breaths are shaky as I wipe the sweat off my face.

"Look sharp, rookies," Rex says. "As long as those tweezers occupy this post, our home planet of Kamino is at risk."

I look up. Kamino? 99's still there, isn't he?

"But there's so many of them," Hevy says.

"Doesn't matter, kid. We have to retake this base, so we will retake this base."

"How do you propose we get through those blast doors, Rex, old boy?" Cody asks.

"I have a few ideas."

I gently tug at Rex's arm.

"What is it, kid?" Rex asks, turning to face me.

"Can I...sit this one out, sir?"

"Look kid. We need all troopers for this. Including you."

"I don't wanna go. I don't wanna die. I'm scared."

Rex puts both hands on my shoulders. "You're not gonna die kid. You'll be fine. What happened to getting experience, hm?" He playfully punches my shoulder. "You'll be okay. I promise. Just remember your training, okay?"

I take a few deep breaths to calm my nerves. It's not working, but I don't show it, and I nod. 

We reach the front blast doors of the outpost and Cody and the others hide at the sides, so I follow them, pistol in one hand and my vibrosword in the other.

Rex walks up to the front door.

"Unit 2-6, is that you?" the commando droids in the outpost ask. 

"Roger roger," Rex says.

"You sound strange. Is something wrong with your vocabulator?"

"Roger roger."

"Take off your helmet. Let me see your faceplate."

"Roger roger."

Rex ducks and uses the commando droid's head from just now and shows it to the camera.

"This is never gonna work," Cody puts a hand to his helmet.

The blast doors open and Rex holds up his pistol.

"Clones!"

"Roger, Roger."

Rex takes out the droid in the middle and the others take out the remaining 2.

"Right, let's move."

The others run into the main room and take cover at the sides, shooting at the droids. I stay behind and take cover from the main hallway, not looking behind me. I can see blaster bolts whizzing past me, but they're not going to hit me.

I hear Fives getting shot and Cody telling them to focus. I look back and see Rex in the main room, where a commando droid is trying to melee him.

I draw my vibrosword and run into the main room as Rex dodges the swings of the droid, and I slice the droid in half from behind. The others take out the last 2 remaining droids and the room is clear.

"Thanks kid," Rex gives me a downwards nod of respect.

I sling my sword back onto my back and lean against a wall at the side while the others roast the droids that they just shot down.

"Get to the window. It looks like we have more visitors," Cody says.

We all run to the window and look outside.

"It looks like a separatist fleet."

"That's why the commandeered the outpost," Cody says. "They're mounting a full-scale invasion."

"We have to warn command," Rex says.

"Shouldn't we hide? If they're gonna mount a full-scale invasion we don't stand a chance," I speak up, and everyone stares at me. "What? I'm telling the truth."

One of the clones goes to try and transmit a signal. 

"Those clankers sabotaged our transmitter, and they hard-wired the all-clear signal. It'll take time to-"

"We don't have time. Look."

A ship is descending in front of the outpost.

"Guys we really should go," I'm making my way towards the vent, ready to run.

"Well kid, you're gonna get a lot of experience from here," Echo says.

"We can't protect the outpost long against that army of clankers," Cody says.

"Then we'll destroy the outpost instead," Rex says.

"But sir, our mission is to defend this facility at all costs."

"We have to warn the Republic about the invasion. They'll take notice when the all-clear signal stops."

"That's right. When they stop receiving our beacon, they'll get the message something's wrong," Fives says.

"We'll need every thermal detonator in the inventory," Rex says.

I slowly open up the vent cover, ready to slip inside.

"It'll take more than a few detonators to destroy the outpost."

Then someone suggests an idea to blow up the outpost using liquid tibanna.

"Good. Bring the tanks here and prime the detonators," Rex orders.

Just as I'm about to slip into the vent and run away, Rex notices me.

"Hey kid, don't think about going anywhere."

I freeze, looking up at him.

"I have no interest in dying today," I reply. 

"I thought you weren't weak?"

So I help the boys carry the explosives to the main room as I hear the battle droids marching towards the front gate.

When we manage to get it all to the main room, Rex and the others gather around, and I stand behind Fives, Echo and Hevy.

"Alright listen up. There's only one target of interest in this sector: Kamino. It's the closest thing we clones have to a home. Today we fight for more than the Republic. Today we fight for all our brothers back home. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

Rex looks at me.

I take a deep breath and steel myself for the high possibility of dying. "Sir, yes, sir." 

We head into the weapons room where the others take their weapons. My hand rests on my pistol, and the other on my vibrosword. I turn to Rex, who's making his way to the main room. He nods at me.

I can feel my heart in my throat now, and it must have been pretty obvious to Cody, because he puts a hand on my shoulder and says,"We're gonna survive this kid. Trust me.

Hevy goes to the front and takes out a bunch of battle droids with that gatling gun of his, and then Cody, me and the others come in. 

I shoot at the droids with my pistol and blaster bolts narrowly miss me, and everything's going so fast, I can't comprehend what's going on.

One of the clones throws a grenade at the battle droids, knocking most of them off the platform while the rest of us fall back, closing the blast doors.

They get blown up from outside and the battle droids enter, still shooting at us, and I run into the main room, with the others following behind after a few moments.

I hear Rex say that the handset wasn't linking up with the detonator, and Hevy says he'll handle it, telling us to get out of here.

We run to the vents and crawl through them, with Rex leading the way. We reach the outside in a few minutes, hiding behind a ridge.

"Hevy, hit the-" Rex looks behind, and Hevy isn't there.

"Where's Hevy?"

Echo and Fives shake their heads.

Rex talks into his comlink. "Hevy, get out of there."

"The remote isn't working," Hevy reports. "I have to detonate it manually."

I move to run back into the vents and try to make it back to the outpost, the others follow me. I'm running as fast as I can, and crawl into the vents, trying to make it back.

I hear the others trying to contact Hevy, but they're not in the vents yet. I gotta get there.

And then I hear the sound of explosions and debris falling, the vents shake, and I curl up into a ball, covering my head.

When the shaking stops, I open my eyes, and I see Rex pulling me out of the vents.

"You okay kid?" Rex asks.

I nod, staying close to him as we head back to the others.

Hevy's gone.

"We've got those tinnies on the run," either Fives or Echo says, I can't really tell. 

"Thanks to Hevy."

I hear the sound of gunships descending.

"We're getting of this crater boys," Rex says.

We all get on the gunships, and I remain silent for the whole trip back to the cruiser.

Fives and Echo are getting some random award thing from General Skywalker, and Rex says he's considering adding them to the 501st. I head back to the barracks and just chill there for awhile, thinking about everything that's just happened. It all feels so fast.

About an hour later, Rex comes in.

"Hey kid, how're you doing?"

I remain silent.

Rex sits down next to me.

"Yknow if it wasn't for Hevy, we wouldn't be here right now," he says.

I nod, staring up at the ceiling. "I shouldn't have come."

"Yea, it's a lot more different than training, isn't it?"

"It's so...scary, my mind just goes blank, and I forget everything I learned during training. Being a soldier's hard."

"The first few battles are always like that, but...you'll get used to it."

"I'm not gonna be in another battle. I'll just stay on Coruscant and continue training. That's what you want, right?"

"Hm. I could let you come on some of the less dangerous battles, how about that?"

I hesitate. I can almost imagine the sickening feeling in my stomach when the outpost blew up, when I realised that Hevy was gone. I can almost feel my heart pounding in my head every time I see live fire whizzing past my head, when I narrowly miss death by an inch.

I sit up and look at Rex.

"I don't wanna go."

Rex looks at me, confused. "What?"

"I'm done with being in battles. I'm not going to fight out there in the field anymore. I'm done. I'm leaving."

Rex sighs. "Look, ad'ika-"

Fives and Echo come into the barracks. 

"Hey kid, how're you doing?" Echo asks. "You were pretty good out there with your knife and your pistol."

I look up at him.

"I know what you're thinking, kid. You wanna leave after your first skirmish, and to be honest, I can't argue with that. It's a hard life, being a soldier."

I nod.

"But we're fighting for the Republic, for a cause that we believe in. Out there, we gotta be strong, we can't show weakness, and we show those clankers what we're made of, got it?"

I nod again, and Echo and Fives walk away.

Can't show weakness. They always said I was made to be weaker than the others. Gotta prove them wrong.

I turn to Rex.

"Maybe I'll take a few weeks on Coruscant to train and prepare myself, and then maybe I'll consider coming along on those less dangerous battles."

Rex smiles, and nods. "Okay then ad'ika, we've got a ship leaving for Coruscant in a few hours, and I'll see you in a few weeks."

"What does ad'ika mean?" I ask.

"You already know, kid. All clones do."

I roll my eyes. "Fine. Cya, captain."

Rex groans.

"And for the last time, DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

🖤❤️My designs❤️🖤

Masterlist

Echo's Nightmares

Crosshair and Echo

Crosshair stared down at his brother from across the bunkroom on his own bed above Hunters, his sharp eyes catching the shadow of movement each time he thrashed in the dark.

He was quiet, for once. Echo was a sleep-talker, especially when having a nightmare, but he was completely silent this time. Normally this would have meant Crosshair would shrug, roll over, and go back to sleep, but the way Echo was moving- It was like he was in pain.

And it wasn't like Crosshair had really been sleeping to begin with. He'd just happened to look across the room and notice him twitching.

Echo suddenly froze with a sharp inhale, telling Crosshair that he'd finally startled himself awake.

Crosshair continued to watch him as he breathed for a few seconds before turning on his side, his back to the sniper.

And.. yep. There it was. A very faint sniffle, but a sniffle all the same.

Crosshair sighed quietly and pushed his covers back. Then he dropped to the floor with barely a sound and took the few steps that would bring him to Echo's side.

"Echo." He whispered, ever so gently puting a hand on his shoulder.

Echo turned sharply to look up at him, quickly drying the tears on his sleeve. "Cross..." he said quietly, "I-I'm sorry.. didn't mean to wake you."

"Oh, don't get me started" Crosshair murmured.

Echo gave him a small smile and Cross poked him in the ribs, making him flinch back. "Budge over or I won't except your apology."

Echo gave a low chuckle at that and shifted sideways, allowing Crosshair to slide in next to him.

Crosshair settled himself against Echo and wrapped his arms around the former ARC, who wedged his head beneath his chin. Crosshair sighed in an annoyed but fond way and rubbed his cheek against the top of Echo's head.

"I was already awake." Crosshair mumbled.

Echo huffed into his shoulder. "Yer sucha prick, makin' empty threats."

Crosshair pressed his fingers into Echo's side, making him squirm and press his face into Crosshair's chest. "A prick, huh?"

"Cross," Echo whined. "Why you gotta do that?"

A low chuckle vibrated through Crosshair's chest against Echo's cheek and Echo took comfort in the steady beating of Crosshair's heart.

But listening to Crosshair's beating heart let his mind wander to his nightmare, to all of his lost brothers who's own hearts no longer beat, to the adjustments made to his body and the time he spent away from the 501st, his family, to Fives, to the end of the war..

"Y'wanna talk about it?" Crosshair's voice hummed and only then did Echo notice his tears soaking his brother's blacks. Echo made to pull away and apologize, but Crosshair hugged him tighter.

So Echo just pressed his face into Crosshair's chest and cried.

Crosshair held him tightly and let him, hardly caring about the uncomfortable pricking his wet shirt made against his skin as he rubbed comforting circles over Echo's back. He wouldn't call himself the best comfort to his brothers, but he always tried and hoped it was enough.

And it seemed to be, as Echo's trembling slowly eased and his breathing evened out.

His breathing evened out and slowed down and Crosshair couldn't even muster an exasperated sigh as Echo drifted off to sleep.

I think Echo and Crosshair get along very well eventually, mostly because they're both ridiculously sarcastic and would love to start friendly banters.

Also, Echo's definitely the little brother of the Bad Batch.

My love for this man knows no bounds

Masterlist

I love this but I think I’ve had enough of the internet making me sad today. 🥲

(click for better quality)

me?? drawing angsty clone wars art?? in this economy?? more likely than you’d think.

(sorta-redraw of this thing from a year ago)

Ok , it's been so long since I drawn a sans , so I decided to draw Echo....'cause why not ?!

It's was also really fun to draw him (⁠つ⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)⁠つ

Echo!sans belongs to @hheisa

Hope she likes it

This was an artfight attack I did on @katiethedane12 of her charcters Farold, Casey and the coffee cat there with the adorable stain. And his other cats. Black one is named Echo. The brown one might be Jack the Ripper or Dr. Bell and he has another cat who has the other name that the cat in the picture doesn't have but katie hasn't decided who gets which name. So. Oh well

My alternative ending/wishes for the bad batch:

So my idea would have been that the bad batch get caught on the planet and brought back to Kamino.

Now, they don’t kill them there, because they use them as leverage on order to get Omega.

We know that Omega is a good strategist, so she puts one and one together and decides to use Cid’s contacts in order to get into contact with Fennec (or Nala Se, who is on Kamino gets into contact with Fennec and tells her to find Omega)

(We also know from prior episodes that Fennec is still new in the bounty hunting business so chances are low she knows Boba Fett, but who knows…)

Together (and maybe with allies [how about Hondo ;)]) they embark on a rescue mission with high stakes. Maybe we would see Commander Cody fighting the batch for extra angsty feelings.They make it out, take crosshair with them, take out his chip and we get a nice reunion!

Just my thoughts… what do you guys think? :)

I can't be the only one that noticed this

heyyyyy I got my scanner working, come get y'all's juice! A short story from one of the Ninjago magazines featuring Echo!!!!