Miles Away From Yesterday

Chapter 3 - Will I Ever Know

Author's Note: This fic IS Crosshair-centric, but there are POVs from other characters. There will be a total of five POVs: Crosshair, Hunter, Echo, Fives, and Emerie. ;)

Have fun learning more about Echo's past! :D

~ Amina Gila

Echo wakes up slowly, and he can almost swear he hears his processors whirring as his brain – or what passes for it – tries to regather the last pieces of memory. He's in a medbay – he'd recognize those walls anywhere – and as his eyes open, a med droid comes into view. It's scanning him, and that instantly sets off a self-defense reflex, and he jolts upright, knocking it away from him. He doesn't want scanners or medical devices anywhere near him, not unless it's Tech who's behind them.

"No! Get them off!"

"But my tests are not yet complete," the droid protests, and Echo does his best not to shudder visibly, pieces of broken, fragmented memories assaulting him.

He doesn't remember much from after the mine exploded, but he remembers enough. He remembers the burning, searing pain, remembers being taken into Separatist custody, remembers them poking at him in the medbay, trying to keep him alive so they could torture information out of him. They did torture him, but he was so injured and so out-of-it that it didn't amount to much. It's something he's never told anyone, what he remembers from his captivity. They gave up on him, and he was transferred to the Techno Union, which promised to use him to get "useful results". He tried to kill himself to escape them, so he wouldn't give away anything that could be used against his General and brothers, but he'd been so weak and injured that he hadn't gotten very far. The next thing he consciously knew was when he was being rescued on Skako Minor.

"Echo. Echo, it's okay." He recognizes the voice, and he blinks, the memories fading away as he focuses on Omega's face, but he's still shaking, his breath coming in short gasps as he tries to reorient himself. "It's me. Omega," she continues, reaching out to touch his arm, his right one, at the elbow of his scomp piece. He can see her hand, but he can't feel it. "I understand. I don't like being hooked up to their machines either."

Why – why would –?

"Hello, CT-1409," announces the droid, interrupting the half-formed question.

"His name is Echo," Omega corrects.

"I am AZI-345211896246498721347, your assigned medical droid," it continues, ignoring Omega entirely. Is he supposed to remember that number? No way will he remember that number.

The door opens, and Echo relaxes when he sees the rest of the Batch. "Told ya he's alive!" Wrecker calls with a laugh, shoving Crosshair's shoulder playfully. "You owe me two credits."

They gather around the foot of his bed, and he takes a couple deep breaths to chase away the ghosts and memories that haunt him. Even if Hunter is... off, it's still relieving to have him here. Echo might not be able to trust that Hunter will make the right or moral decision with respect to missions, but he does trust that Hunter will protect him from anyone who might seek to turn him into a lab experiment or worse.

"CT-1409's condition is stable," the droid – AZI – says to them, "But I have some distressing news for the rest of you. According to your test results, you all appear to be genetically defective clones. I will leave you to process the shock of this revelation."

Echo blinks at the droid, confused – doesn't everyone know that the Batch are genetically different? – as it leaves the room, before turning to the others. He remembers how he ended up here now. The cafeteria fight had happened, and then, he'd happened to look up and seen... "We've got a problem," he states. Hunter had mentioned someone being sent to evaluate the clones.