Fixing Our Broken Pieces || The Bad Batch

Chapter 14: A Good Friend

"Yes, you do Echo. If you won't tell the others then you can trust me. Just tell me, tell me like no one else is here."

He slid down his seat into a more comfortable position. It was the first time someone ever really asked how he felt about anything. Fives was the only other who would openly talk about his opinions of the war, the rest were fine with following orders. But having a Jedi that's never worked with a battalion of clones, has rebelled against the council and didn't work for anyone was very rare. To Echo, she was widely different to the Jedi generals he was used to, less soldier, more friendly and trustworthy therefore making her a good ally. No, a good friend.

"Alright, well I don't know what to do, everything's changing quicker than the suns are setting. One minute I'm fighting clankers on Kaller and I turn around and the regs are shooting at the general? Then I find out there are these chips in our heads that control our behaviour, and now Crosshair's shooting at us too. The Republic is now the Empire and the Chancellor is now an Emperor. Is this still even a democracy?"

"Well, I know one thing that I've learned through all of this is that we can't dwell on the past. What's happened has happened, all we can do is be ready for what's coming."

He planned on saying nothing and just nodding her statement away but given he felt so accepted for the first time in a long time, he knew whatever he said, she would listen. "But how do I forget about something that haunts me every night?"

"Well, it's not something that can happen overnight, Eco. But we can start by talking about it."

"I'm not ready. I can't now, I'm too exhausted."

"That's ok, get some sleep then."

Echo nodded, thankful but too exhausted to say more.

"Are you ok to sleep, or shall I stay?" Orla offers, seeing Echo's eyelids getting heavier.

"I probably need that yes, thank you Orla, I owe you one."

Echo wished he could say more than thank you but he slept with a weight lifted off his shoulder.

☆☆☆

Orla always woke up at the crack of dawn, as soon as a light creaked over the horizon. She didn't let the squad get in the way of her normal routine. All she could have for breakfast was a ration bar, but it didn't look like they had enough for themselves, let alone her too. So she missed it and took off on her adventure. She marked down where each scrapper group was and drew out a map so when the group went looking out for parts, they knew the best locations.

When they finally did join her she split them into groups while Wrecker took Omega for a disarming test with an explosive Orla found for them, Wrecker secretly made sure he took a smoke bomb and not a real one.

Orla stuck with Echo after what happened the previous night, keeping an eye out for signs of stress, thankfully he was doing better. The only sound detectable were rodents chattering in the distance, which were empty of scrappers for now. They ventured on to find Wrecker, his laughter gave away his position. The test had concluded and smoke sunk to the ground. Omega was not looking as happy as him. Still hiding her face from possible scrappers, Orla raised her hood only an inch so Omega could see her eyes. Echo tells them that Hunter wants them back on the Jedi cruiser and Omega asks how the test went.

"I don't want to talk about it," she grumbles with her hands crossed.

"Cheer up kid, I failed my first disarming test too, with my help you'll be a pro in no time."

Echo and Orla shared the same puzzled look, pro seemed like a stretch. On their journey, Orla spots a Scrappers Guild hidden among the cluster, spying through binoculars. Orla makes sure her face is covered and discreetly points them out to Echo.