"S-sorry... uhm..." 

"...It's... I dunno... We were ten..." 

"It was military camp. W-where, uhm, where I come from, like, uhm, we get our careers... picked out for us. My generation... we were suppose to become, uhm, to become soldiers. Our King... chose children from different families of all classes to attend to... a special, uh, s-special training camp. He said it was to, like, help us learn and prepare for our... futures. Yea... he even paid our families to let us... go..." 

Echo sighed before continuing. 

"...I didn't learn about... about the bombing rumour... until a long time after. I... We were s-suppose to be dead. They told our families that... that a kingdom we were at war with... surprise attacked us with bombs... They told our families we were dead... so they could keep us..." 

Echo took a breath, feeling tears resurface. She wiped her eyes and continued. 

"A-anyway... military... training... I..." 

Torture wasn't enough to describe the hell they were put through. No, it was worse than hell. There wasn't a word to describe it at all, there wasn't a word to describe the suffering each child felt. 

That's where Echo's brain became fuzzy, where the dates and memories all swirled and became flashes. Where her childhood faded and was replaced. 

"...I... she would speak to me... a little... a little more after they..." 

Needles full of what they called "medicine" made the children drowsy but... inhumanely strong. They were sleepy but they couldn't sleep. No, they only trained. They didn't eat for days. They didn't complain. No, their little energy was used on taking orders and training. They didn't have time for anything else. 

Octave would whisper in Echo's ears, though, to continue a little longer. Maybe that's why she didn't stop her work. Maybe that's why Echo didn't let anyone else stop working. Maybe that's where she learned to lie about how she felt, because if she didn't then they would... 

They would take her to the concrete stage and like the sick children, they would bring the gun to her head and... 

...And that would be the end. 

"... They would... needles... my arms..." 

Echo burst into tears suddenly, scratching at the insides of her elbows. The place where they would shove needles everyday, it hurt and itched and Echo wanted to tear her skin off of it to make it stop. The only thing protecting that area was the long sleeves she wore, but Echo was sure that if she scratched long enough, the material would wear through and she could achieve taking her skin apart and start feeling better. 

"I... I can't remember that well! I just know... I just know they would..." 

Echo shook her head and screamed. It felt like her whole body was aching, it felt like the needles were being put back in. 

"I just know it was painful and it still hurts! And they... they didn't care we were dying! I... I wish they just killed me like the other sick kids! I wish I didn't lie about my health! I want it to stop! I want the pain to... just... just make it stop!" 

She got quieter near the end, realizing she was screaming and that the screaming wasn't helping. Really, none of this felt like much help. She still scratched at her arms, though, and she still was crying. But Echo lowered her voice. She felt bad for yelling like that so suddenly. Maybe it was the pain the resurfaced itself each time she thought about... all of that, but Echo knew she shouldn't be yelling. Especially at Time, who seemed to at least be... well, helping? Echo wasn't sure. It was getting hard for Echo to calm down, despite that she knew crying and yelling wouldn't help. 

Quietly, Echo sniffled, "...Sorry... I'm... being loud... sorry... sorry... I'm sorry... I'm... I'm sorry..." 
 

"...Yea..." 

"O-okay..." Echo nodded. 

Echo turned slightly to look at him then faced away again, wiping her eyes. She didn't know what to do either. 

"...Sorry... " 

Echo didn't say anything after that. 

"I... I dunno... uhm..." 

 "Is, uh, five... yea, five minutes okay?" 

Echo watched him for a bit before rubbing her face. She then stared up at the sky. It was dark and cloudy, bit it didn't seem like it would rain anytime soon. 

Lol. 

Five minutes passed. 

Echo seemed a lot calmer now. 

Echo didn't say anything either. She kinda just chilling now, although she probably is still on the emotional side. Honestly, though, when is Echo not emotional? 

It takes a long time for Echo to realize this. And when I mean long, I mean painfully long. Like, Echo just. Doesn't. Talk. First. She never does. 

When Echo finally realized what Time wanted her to do (which it also took her a painfully long time to muster up the energy and courage to get up), she shuffled over quietly and stood near the tree. She didn't sit down and didn't say anything, not sure really of if she should say anything yet or if Time wanted to acknowledge her first. Gods, she was probably over thinking about what to do. 

"...Hi..." 

"I... think so."

"...Uhm... I dunno, uh..." 

Echo wasn't really sure of how to exactly respond.