As Rex and Echo came up to the walker Rex pulled out a comm and said "Hey, you two mind letting a ladder down." A chipper voice came through saying "Rex it's good to see you, what brings you by?"
A gruffer voice then said "Don't you have a rebellion to help in, what are you doing here with those jedi?" Rex smirked as he said "I brought a friend over that I think you two should meat."
The two didn't answer for a moment till the chipper voice said "On it captain." And then a ladder started coming down. Once down the two started climbing, though Echo felt somewhat unsure, would the two be happy to see him?
If Rex was right about them then maybe this wasn't such a good idea. All his brothers thought he was dead. As they reached the top and finally entered the walker they were greeted by two elder men, two elder clones to be exact.
Echo recognized Wolffe right away and he guessed the other man was Gregor. As Rex helped him up he could see the way Wolffe was staring at him with shock and uncertainty as he finally said "Your dead."
"Really Wolffe that's how you're going to start this." Rex said as he crossed his arms. Echo looked down as he said "It's okay captain, its understandable." Gregor then said "Well everyone thought I was dead and look at me, alive and kicking. So kid what's your name and how did you end up staying so young?"
Rex then started explaining what had happened. At the end of it all Wolffe looked outraged while Gregor looked saddened. Wolffe then said "If I ever find another one of those scumbags I'll…."
Rex then said "Easy Wolffe, I already lost my temper about that. Nothing we can do now anyway." Gregor then said "Well except for one thing." Gregor went to a small fridge like object, put in a code and brought out a small file with a syringe.
"Okay kid. You ready to age normally." Echo looked up shocked but said "I, I guess." At that Wolffe came up and held his shoulder, shocking the younger clone as he said "Hey, give yourself the chance. We found it too late but maybe at least one brother can live to have a full life. Take it."
Echo nodded still frowning as he looked at his brothers. He felt saddened as he looked at their aged forms, forms that where too old for their true ages. Before he could think more on it though he felt a sharp stab, saying "Ouch."
As Gregor said "Better to just get it done vod'ika. Now come on. We got some stories and some joopa to share."
Gregor threw his arm around the younger clone and started dragging him away as he said "So did Rex tell you about how a bunch of astro mechs, and a little corporal helped me remember who I was and get the chance to blow up a bunch of droids."
Rex and Wolffe couldn't help but smile at the sight and shake their head as they fallowed the two. As they did though Wolffe asked "So how's he taking it?" Rex sighed as he said "As well as you'd expect."
Wolffe nodded and said "He did the last rights didn't he?" Rex nodded and said "That and got the chip out as you could see by the new hairstyle." Wolffe sighed as he said "Good, but watch him. Sometimes going through something as harsh as this can have bad affects on our minds."
He tapped his own scar and said "I know." Rex frowned sadly and said "Don't worry. I'll watch him and I'll make sure he keeps in contact. I think knowing about as many brothers as possible will help him heal."
"What about when we we're gone." Rex sighed and said "Hopefully he'll have friends and Ahsoka to help him along. Who knows, maybe he'll find something besides war to give him a purpose."
Wolffe smiled slightly as he said "We can only hope." And with that they came over to the dinner table to find Gregor trying to introduce Echo to the delicacies of joopa.
Poor Echo looked pale and somewhat scared as he looked at the strange meat. The two couldn't help but laugh at the sight and went to see if they couldn't make the situation any better, or worse, depending on your point of view.
Echo stared down at the piece of pale worm like skin and felt like gagging. He held himself though, he'd had eaten some pretty strange stuff as a trooper in order to survive and ARC training taught you to have a hard stomach, but this. He felt he had to draw the line somewhere.
Gregor then said "Come on just take a bite, how do you know you don't like it till you tried it?" Echo looked incredulous at that, had Gregor just used a parenting technique on him? Before he could respond to that though he heard two booming voices laughing up a storm as they walked up to the table.
Rex said "Seriously Gregor I never thought of you as the parenting type." Wolffe then scoffed as he said "Technically we're old enough to be his burr (parent) rather than his vod."
Rex rolled his eyes as he sat down "Technically yes, but we are still and always will be vod. Now Echo, I'm surprised, didn't ARC training teach you how to strengthen your stomach."
Echo replied with "It did but even I have to draw the line at some point." Wolff scuffed as he replied "It's not like it's poisoned kid. We lived off the stuff for years." Echo raised his brow at that, it did make sense, but he wondered how exactly they did it.
Rex then said "You're not going to win this Echo, just take one bit and if you don't like it we'll leave you alone." Echo asked "Promised?" They all nodded at that as Echo finally sighed and said "Okay, here's goes everything."
With that he grabbed a forkful and stuffed it into his mouth. At first it felt squishy but then the flavor came through and his eyes widened, how had no one ever heard of this before. The elder clones smirked as they recognized that look, another one hooked on joopa.
After lunch, which lasted till Echo got a third helping, making the elder clones laugh at his enthusiasm, they all sat about and talked about the old days and asked Echo how he was doing so far.
"I'm okay." They nodded knowing that okay was as best as he was going get for now. Wolffe then said "How does it feel to be around that motley crew."
Echo shrugged as he said "Their interesting that's for sure. They've been real nice so far. They keep wanting to hear about some of the things I got into. Especially Ezra and Zeb." Gregor then said "Make sense. I heard Zeb was a guard or something at some point so hearing about ARC skills would entertain him."
Rex then said "And Ezra's always been the curios type." "Hey I thought you liked me asking you about the old days." They all turned to see Ezra coming through the hatch and Rex chuckled as he said "You're getting better, none of us heard you coming."
Ezra smiled at that as he walked up to the clones. Gregor asked "How you doing kid." "Pretty good. Bean getting better at jedi training as well." Wolffe then said "Rex bean training you as well right?"
Ezra nodded as he then came up to sit next to Echo and said "So how have you guys bean. I saw you got a new joopa, by the way got any to spare." They all laughed at that as Gregor said "Come on kid I'll set you up with a plate. Echo what about you?"
Echo laughed as he said "Actually, I am still hungry." Wolffe then asked "Still?" "Hey I've been stuck in carbon for fifteen years. Give me a break." And with that the three headed off to get some more food.
Once they left Wolffe asked Rex "So, you thinking of taking him to see the farmer?" Rex looked at his brother and replied "At some point, yeah. Right now though, I think he just needs some time."
Wolffe nodded as her replied "We all do, it's been too long since we've seen another brother." Rex replied, "Far too long." As they both looked at the others, who were at the table eating and laughing as they spoke about who knows what.
After some more time telling stories, talking about life the past 15 years, even a bit about weapons, Kanan finally called the group back to the ship. It was time to head back to base.
As they said their goodbye Echo gave a respected saluted to his SO's but they wouldn't have any of that, instead Wolffe and Gregor pulled him into a hug.
Echo eyes grew in shock at the surprise hugs, especially from Wolffe, who replied "Don't be so shocked. We've lost so much in this time vod. To gain something like a lost brother in this time is something well received."
Echo smiled and nodded, and he hugged back his elder brothers. They were still so strong but in a way he could feel the frailty in them.
They no longer had the same strength as before, and somehow, he could feel the weakening of the bones and skin yet the same strength in energy and determination had never left them and with that he couldn't help but smile.
Hope you all enjoyed that, please leave some reviews. I might make things a little more exciting next time, still working on the chapter so we'll see.
