RP Excerpt [Ft. CF99]: Distant Echo

Wham!

The blow was fast, hard and was swiftly followed with at least two more that the group was able to see, though it sounded like several more had been hidden within.

Crosshair was not prepared to have the osik knocked out of him.  He should have considering it was a normal reaction to his snarky but brutally honest remarks.  Regs didn't take it well when he didn't sugar coat things for them.  They didn't seem to appreciate having the truth spelled, drawn and organized right in front of them without the extra padding or distractions.

Still, this time was vastly different.  This Reg was absolutely homicidal.

Fives had entered into a red-zone rage that made his vision tunnel and his entire body light off with the slightest impulse.  He really had tried to stand there and take the harsh words for what they actually were, which was the truth.  It was logical thinking, emotionless, but logical and the way Troopers were supposed to consider this situation.  They could not have their judgements clouded by delusional hopes.

He knew that... but he didn't care to adhere to it.

He'd heard it.  He knew that voice better than anyone.  There's no way the Seppies would've been able to recreate that voice so flawlessly unless it was his twin...

Trap or not, ARCs didn't leave men behind...

The Citadel haunted him every second of every rotation since... They had not been able to retrieve their fallen... He should've stayed behind alone to find him... He'd wanted to and nearly did... He knew Echo would've told him to go to finish the mission... but that didn't make it any easier to come to terms with guilt.  If Echo was in fact alive, then that just made Fives feel even worse...

He'd been brooding those thoughts and emotions for nearly two years... They'd finally boiled over and exploded under the tongue lashing from the younger sniper.

As soon as Crosshair hit the ground on his back, Fives was on top of him and pounding into him again.

"Fives!" Skywalker snapped authoritatively.  "Stand down!"

Rex was torn between allowing the ARC to continue and stopping him.  He'd been about to pummel the lanky Trooper himself, but his younger had gotten a head start.  It was satisfying to watch, even if he knew it wasn't necessarily the right way to respond.

Both General and Captain stepped forward to intervene, but a bigger body blocked them from doing so and interrupted the brawl.

Wrecker effortlessly picked up the thrashing ARC with ease by the back of his cuirass and pauldron collar, lifting him off his sibling and clear from the ground.  Fives was left dangling several lengths between his feet and the rocky mountain trail below, then he was plopped back down out of reach.

"Why don' cha pick on someone not yer size, Reg?" the giant rumbled in warning.

Snarling through his modulator, Fives bristled and swung at him too, but he missed that shot.

"Get scrapped you kriffin' reject!  Echo is not a Reg and neither am I!  We're ARC Troopers!  I don't give a dosh if you're modified or just plain crosswired, you have no right to talk the rest of us down!  Show some respect for the people who gave everything to protect you, me, and everyone else in this Force-forsaken galaxy!  I hope to the Maker you never experience having to leave a brother behind and have someone else question his loyalty to your face!" he seethed with the venom of a serpent almost physically dripping from his words.

His entire body was violently shaking and burning hot under his layers.  Every muscle flexed in preparation to continue the all-out assult on The Bad Batch.

He didn't care if they were right.  He didn't care if there was a risk.  He didn't care if they were still brothers despite the startling differences between them.

All he cared was that he rectified the wrong-doing he believed he'd done so long ago.

What he was unaware of were the hot tears staining his face under his bucket and the ragged breaths that sounded more like sobs each time he took lungfuls of air...

"Enough!" the Jedi interjected with a much harsher voice this time, putting himself between the enraged ARC and the towering hulk and using his hands to give hard shoves to both men's cuirasses.

That was enough to break most of the tension and separate the two for the time being.

Skywalker's dark blue hues leveled on the nearby Sergeant who was assisting his sniper to his feet.

"Sergeant!  Take your men and scout a path to the towers and find us an entrance!  I need to talk to my Captain and the ARC Trooper alone."

Not a word was uttered by the remaining three Batchers.  Hunter lingered behind in the rear to keep distance between his younger siblings and the Regs.  Wrecker was headed down first, undoubtedly relieved to be leaving the higher height for the time being.  Crosshair seemed to be staggering a little, likely having his bell rung some but not enough to disable him for long.

Once they'd disappeared down and around the first curve, the Jedi centered his focus on the still trembling Fives.

"Fives..." he called patiently, the hardness in his voice completely gone and replaced with sympathy and compassion.

When the T-visor of the Trooper met his gaze, he continued.

"I understand how you feel, Buddy, I do... but we have to consider the possibility that even if Echo is alive, he may not be on our side anymore..."

Fives didn't answer.  His head dropped again and he just stood there quaking and shaking his head side to side with his hands coming up to grasp at the sides of his head.

Rex took pitty on him.

"General..." he began, drawing the attention away from the Trooper and to himself.  "Fives knows Echo better than even I ever did.  Even still, I don't believe he'd have turned on us.  What's more... we were all raised to believe that we can't leave brothers behind.  Knowing we did the exact opposite, then knowing the chances that he was taken prisoner, kept alive and possibly tortured all this time... We've come to accept the losses of so many brothers, but this is different.  We have to believe we have a chance to correct that mistake..."

Skywalker slowly inhaled, then quietly sighed, again with an expert patience.  It was a rare response, but ever since Ahsoka departed the Order, he'd become strangely... mature and wise.  It was perhaps his own brooding that had made him a little less foolish, much as it had changed Fives when they believed Echo had died.  Some part of that fun-loving side of them had died at their losses of the closest living beings to them.

"I hate to ask, but what if you're wrong?"

"Then we'll... deal with it after..."

Both General and Captain turned to their companion.  His gravelly drawl had reminded them he was still there, and it was a sign he was starting to calm down and regain some of his senses.  He sounded exhausted and still disheartened, but he was trying to behave himself...