See, the rain is nice, but…
Echo hadn't always been close with his brothers; they'd found him repeating orders annoying. But they had learned to love him, just as he had learned to love them. They always stuck together, watching each other's backs.
I-I don't really like getting wet.
They'd always been there for him. Fives, Cutup, Droidbait, Jesse, Hardcase, and Rex had always been there to protect him. They'd sheltered him from the storms of life, protecting him from the downpour of sorrowful rain.
Echo opened his eyes.
Wh-What in the world?
Wires protruded from his arms, his legs, his chest. There was a huge fiery pain in the back of his head that made him scream. Made him tear his vocal cords with the agony that bled into his skull.
No...I-I went under the awning.
Fives would be here to save him from this nightmare. Rex would be here to save him. They had to be. They'd come for him; Echo knew they would.
It...it's still raining.
He was suspended between two places, between the living and the dead, between the mercy and the pain, between the sky and the rain. Where was Fives? Where were his brothers?
Why is it still raining?
Hands were grabbing at him, clawing his skin, putting metal where his bones had been. Something covered his face, smothering him. Echo felt his limbs being pulled like puppets on a string, dragging him into a large metal chamber. The door latched shut, sealing him inside. Mist poured over the knobs in his skull, the wires plugged into his chest, freezing them.
I did what I was supposed to.
He'd taken the fire from his brothers and directed it toward himself. He had sacrificed his life when they went to rescue Jedi Master Even Piell. He'd done all the Republic had asked of him.
So why was he trapped in a fate worse than death?
That's not fair.