Twenty Two
You and me were always with each other
Before we knew the other was ever there
You and me, we belong together
Just like a breath needs the air
Echo studied the manifest and began to make the modifications.
He was calculated and ruthless.
The Empire's new battle ships would be in service for approximately five months before the main hyper drive would fail, and with it, set in play a series of catastrophic on board events.
He sat back satisfied.
There was no one at the shipyards that would even pick up the error code; no one with the knowledge and experience who could reprogram the ships main computers like him.
A smile crept across his face as he silently watched the hologram map swirl in front of him.
Fives would've loved this.
And he was right.
Fives was always at his happiest undermining the enemy.
Now the tables had turned.
Even though Echo had finished with the army, the feeling of sticking it to the very people that left him for dead had never left the former special operations officer.
I was an ARC for feks sake!
The Republic had invested time and credits in his training.
They should have known better than to leave me behind on Lola Sayu. They should have known I could have survived a blast like that!
He remembered it as if it were yesterday.
Heading into the Hanger Bay, the small group led by Kenobi had everyone accounted for, all they had to do was disable the canons and make a run for the ship. Once inside Fives and Echo would have split and manned the two forward guns, pulverising anything that stood in their way.
That's how he planned it in his head.
Echo may have held a grudge against his former commission, but it was the cold reality he couldn't come to grips with.
He only had himself to blame.
He was the reason the mission had been put in jeopardy and he alone was responsible for his injuries.
Not his brothers.
Not Fives or his generals.
Echo squeezed his eyes tight as his mind played the usual trick whenever he allowed it to wander off course.
"Echo, no! Echo! E-C-H-O-!"
It was Fives' voice yelling from behind, his own voice shouting out over the laser fire calling him back.
It wasn't like he wanted to be the hero, he just knew that someone had to lead that gun away from the ships ramp, and the Jedi were doing an osik job of it up to that point.
The truth be told, after being frozen in carbonite, passing undiscovered by the life form detectors, landing in the damn place and obtaining the midget Piell and the ungrateful shabuir Tarkin, Echo had simply had enough and wanted to go home. But moreover, he was most annoyed that Ahsoka had disobeyed all orders and found her way on board.
This was the mission's first variation, and Echo detested variations.
He didn't mince his words when he let his oldest friend know via a closed comm message exactly how he felt.
"What the fek is she doing here?"
"Easy ner vod," Fives replied, "you never know, she might come in handy." Fives wasn't worried about the surprise inclusion of Commander Tano.
"What hope have we got if a fekking Jedi can't follow a simple order?"
"Let it go brother. Eyes on the prize remember?"
"Yeah, yeah, eyes on the prize."
He had more reason than anyone else that day to play it by the book.
To make it back.
But now, it didn't matter that he hadn't managed to disable that pulse canon, all the events from that day led him to where he was now.
And it wasn't such a bad place to be.
Sitting in his office in the Scillal shipyards working on how he could wreak havoc on the new Empire.
He felt nothing for the men that would be blown to smithereens in the ensuing blast.
They weren't his true brothers.
Not any more.
He had showed little to no interest about what was happening on Coruscant. The job however, was important to him. It kept his mind active, and he knew he was good at it; reading the manuals and implementing systems in which an entire battle ship could be built. He had friends, well, men that looked to him for guidance. They were a good team, and although they were not as disciplined as a clone they could work hard when pushed or given the right incentive.
But what he loved more than the job was his family. They always brought a smile to his face, even after pulling a fourteen hour shift, nothing could dampen his enthusiasm the second his foot hit the verandah.
Marek would blast through the door like a Murlak pup, followed closely by Stoyan to welcome him home, Freya, frazzled in the kitchen would be nursing the baby, food bubbling away in a pot on the stove. It would mark the end of another day, without the one person he thought he could never live without.
So how could it be, that the man who appeared to have everything, felt so alone?
.
I told you if you called I would come running
Across the high and lows and the in-betweens
You and me we've got two minds that think as one
And our hearts march to the same beat
Fives leant against the kitchen sink and looked out into the darkness.
It was 0500 and he always loved this time of the morning, when everything was quiet and still.
'Have you ever wondered why is it always darkest before the dawn?'
'That's not necessarily the case brother. Sometimes it isn't the darkest time of the night, airglow which is light given off by the atmosphere can cause light variations.'
'Do you have an answer for everything?'
'Fives, there is always an answer for everything.'
But apparently Echo was for once, wrong.
There was no answer to the Citadel.
Fives continued to stare out the window, his face reflected perfectly in the window.
Tash would sleep for another two hours, until he would bring her a caf, balanced perfectly in his left hand as he used the walking stick in his right. Then he would wait for her to shower, dress and join him at the table for some food before heading off to her clinic on the other side of town.
He looked around the kitchen. It was a large home, and they had barely used any more than three rooms, closing off the remainder of the house for no one in particular.
But he had his musings, and in a perfect world the rooms would all be occupied.
Fives would predominately use this time to reflect.
The good memories, the ones with him and Echo, always got the better of him, so instead, he would work through the events of the day he lost him. Just like a debriefing after a mission, Fives would nut out the decisions and orders made by the men in charge that fateful day. Writing them down, even using kitchen utensils as a mock up of where everyone was placed as it happened.
The images in his mind were so fresh.
It had been a tough day, the Jedi were never going to be in a position of control.
The Citadel was just too heavily fortified.
But every way he looked at it, Fives couldn't work out just what was running through Echo's mind, it was so out of character for him to make a rash decision.
"Stupid di'kut," he said aloud, his voice breaking the perfect silence, "how could you do that to me?"
Do what brother?
'Leave me. Like this, not good for anything. I would never had done that to you.'
But you did leave me.
'What were you thinking? You should have waited, the Jedi could have...'
The Jedi? They waited too long, you knew that. They alone lost the element of surprise, not us.
'I still remember your helmet. It was just lying there, and Kenobi ordered us out. I knew better than to leave it. I should have picked it up.'
"Picked what up?" Tash stood in an oversized shirt with a pair of his socks. Fives swung around surprised as she looked dazed and still half asleep.
"Nothing, just talking to myself."
"To a psychologist that's not a good sign."
Fives chuckled, "come on, come back to bed."
She followed him silently, hopping in next to him and crawling up onto his shoulder before drifting back to sleep.
The guilt was still there.
The what if's and the could have's, all hovering above him as the sun began to creep it's way through the pulled curtains.
Fives continued to stare at the ceiling as she slept.
If only he could have that conversation with Echo.
If only he could tell him how he really felt.
'You know I love you brother?'
I know Fives, I know.
And they say everything happens for a reason
You can be flawed enough, but perfect for a person
Someone who will be there when you start to fall apart
Guiding your direction when you're riding through the dark [5].
.
But in reality, nothing ever really happens for a reason. Nothing guides our destiny, just decisions we make in a split second that change the course of our lives.
Forever.
.
[5] You and Me. Alecia Moore, Dallas Green. Rose Ave. 2015.
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