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“Crosshair, I don’t know about th-“
“Just trust me.”
Echo bit his lip, shivering just a bit at the cold smirk in the sniper’s voice. He swallowed heavily. Trust. Such a funny thing wasn’t it. Echo could feel Crosshair’s eyes on him. Could feel them dragging over his body. Could feel that hungry gaze, even if he couldn’t see it.
The Empire apparently didn’t see the point in giving him cybernetic eyes. They’d repair the cybernetics Echo already had and would even give him a proper second arm. But no eyes. Probably so he couldn’t fight back.
When the Empire had taken over. Echo had been the only one in his squad to not react to Order 66. Mind you, the Bad Batch had all reacted differently to it compared to the regs . But they still reacted.
Echo had tried to get them to see reason, had tried to be the moral compass, had tried to figure out what was happening. And then proceeded to get shot because of it.
Shot by his own squad more precisely.
So trust was a fickle thing.
“I trust you,” Echo whispered so softly, settled in his little cot in the back corner of the barracks room.
The others were out… training. Supposedly. He couldn’t hear them. But then again. After the Order, they had all been quieter.
They’d convinced Tarkin to let them keep him. How? He never asked. Nor did he really care. What Echo cared about, was that there was enough of them in there, that they still wanted him around. They still wanted to protect him and watch his back.
“Good. Now tip your head to the side.”
Echo swallowed, tipping his head. Away from the spot where he knew his inhibitor chip was supposed to be. He trusted his vod, but he didn’t trust that thing in their heads.
Fingers danced over his unseeing eyes for a moment before lifting up to the ports on his head. Crosshair normally avoided those. Why was he-
“Cross?”
The fingers continued feeling over the ports, one hand staying on one and the other disappearing. Echo twitched as he heard something slide across the floor, clanging just a bit. A… a pipe? No. Too stretchy sounding. Too much like rubber. A… a cord? Why would-
“Crosshair,” Echo asked again, confused and terrified.
“Hush, reg.”
That nickname. He hadn’t heard that one in a while. Not since before the order went out. Echo opened his mouth to speak again and then something was jabbed on to his skull and attached to him .
It was like he was back on Skako Minor. His mind was attached to a computer, asking question after question after question. Demanding answers. Echo didn’t know how he reacted outwardly, all he could feel was his mind breaking and splitting in half and-
Execute Order 66
No…
Execute Order 66
No, please no! “C-Cro-Crosshair?”
Execute Order 66
“It’ll be over soon, reg. Tech is testing something. You can hold out, can’t you?”
Execute Order 66
“Make it stop- please- make it- no- please- not again- make it stop!”
Execute Order 66
Execute Order 66
Execute Order 66
The mantra repeated over and over and over again. Echo felt like he was clawing his own skin off. Felt like he was being killed from the inside. And then… it stopped.
Echo didn’t realize he had been screaming. His voice felt raw and torn. His eyes burned. Crying? Pit pat . Crying. He had been crying. His chest was wheezing from panting. His heart was pounding against his skull.
He felt the cord detach from his skull and the connection with the computer was cut. The hands were back. Long and thin fingers. Crosshair again. Echo flinched when the ports on his head were touched again.
“You did good. Very good.”
“ W-wh-why ?”
“The Empire is creating new interrogation techniques. Tech has been put in charge of making the technology for it. How else are we supposed to make sure it works?”
Echo felt like he was going to be sick.
“They threatened to take you away from us. But you’re our vod. Our reg. So we had to make you useful. Don’t worry, we’ll protect you. Mostly. Some of the technology I’m making will hurt, but we will try to keep the pain down.”
Tech. Oh what have they done to your beautiful mind? A hand steadied his shoulder. He hadn’t realized he had nearly toppled over.
“Soon, we won’t have to protect you. You’ll be able to protect yourself. And you’ll be loyal to the Empire.”
Crosshair again.
“I do need to update this if we are going to accomplish that, though.”
Tech.
“After all. We need our ARC Trooper and ori’vod back.”
Crosshair.
“Oh,” Echo whispered, trying to process what had just happened.
They were trying to… to chip him… without the chip. In their heads, they were saving him. In their heads , they were protecting him.
To him?
It was just another Skako Minor.
How fucked up was that?