Chapter Text
Barren.
What exactly did that word mean? Echo had looked it up hundreds of times in both his father's old notebooks, and the best conclusion he could come to was that it was a place that was lifeless.
That was a perfect summary for the lighthouse. A barren, lifeless void ever since his father left with the strangers that burst down his front door. Echo had been forced to hide in the basement, not allowed to come out until he was told it was safe.
But he got curious, and boy did he pay the price for it.
His only human experience, the only person inside the lighthouse that gave him even an idea of the outside world, his creator, his father, was gone.
Echo was alone. He was abandoned. All because he got curious.
He's hated himself ever since that day. Ever since his father left him stuck here on this barren rock. He can't help but wonder if it was the strangers that took him, or the very fact he didn't ever want to see Echo himself again and took the first opportunity to get away from him.
To say Echo was miserable was definitely an understatement. All he could think about is how he could've been better - he could've been seen as worth something to keep in his father's eyes. He could've been deemed valuable.
At least he wasnt left fully alone. At least Gizmo was there, too. Speaking of whom, where was he?
Echo sat up in the bed - the first time in an endless string of hours he was able to say he did that - and glanced around the room. Gizmo wasn't there.
He stood up, believing Gizmo was be in either the main room or the basement. Walking down the stairs, he took note of how dusty the place was. Definitely not what his father would expect the place to look like. He should give the place a clean before his father comes back.
By the time his thoughts were focused back on Gizmo, he was already in the main room. Another scan, and Gizmo still wasn't there.
He must be in the basement, and Echo reprimanded himself for not jumping straight to that conclusion. Of course Gizmo would be in the basement. He should give himself the same punishment father would've done for him thinking otherwise. Echo casually swung open the door to the basement, taking a mental note to not force the door open as hard in case it breaks.
That would not be well received by father.
"Gizmo, I know you're in here, you can stop hiding now. You've won the last 173 times we have played hide and seek!" He called out, half expecting for the small robot to wheel up to him. He adored Gizmo, he's the only thing that has kept Echo sane the entire time father was away.
No response. Maybe Gizmo didn't hear him.
"You can come out now, you already won!" He called again, voice noticeably more hesitant.
Maybe he should do a quick scan to show where Gizmo is hiding. That way this little 'game' doesn't make Echo panic.
"Very funny Gizmo. I suppose I'll have to work to find my--"
There was no traces of Gizmo in the scan. He wasn't in the basement.
What?
Echo scanned again. The same result. Gizmo wasn't in the basement.
However, Echo had done this scan in both the bedroom and the main room as well. If Gizmo wasn't inside the lighthouse...
Panic immediately flooded ever part of Echo as he raced as quickly as he could outside in the hopes to find Gizmo, the only person he cared about besides father, the one person Echo had as a companion this entire time. He burst out of the door to the lighthouse and onto the rocky terrain...
...only to catch a glimpse of something that had the same size, shape and overall colour scheme as Echo, sinking just below the surface of the water and being swept out to see.
Echo felt something on his face in that moment and touched his face. He felt the same consistency and texture as oil, the same type of oil used as his blood, running down his face. It originated from his eyes.
Father had told him about tears before, how they were a human's way of expressing their sadness.
His father was right. He was a freak. What type of human or human replica cries their own blood?!
No wonder Gizmo thought drowning was a better fate than being resigned to a life of having to deal with Echo. He did always create a lot of mess Gizmo was forced to clean up.
He deserved to be alone.
With that consensus reached in Echo's mind of swarming thoughts, he headed back into the lighthouse to at least clean up his appearance. If father was coming back today, he cant let him know he caused Gizmo's death. Echo couldn't bear losing Gizmo and any hope of leaving the island in the same day.
He entered the main room only because it was the only pathway to the basement. He didn't deserve the basement after causing Gizmo's death.
However, what Echo certainly wasn't expecting was a knock on the door.
Father was back.
Echo immediately started panicking as he was clearly unprepared, and millions of thoughts entered his mind:
'what if he finds out about Gizmo?'
'what if he leaves you on the island?'
'what if he doesn't remember you?'
'what if he doesn't take you with him?'
Echo was snapped out of his spiral by another, louder knock at the door. Father was clearly getting impatient with Echo's antics.
So Echo tried as best he could to clean himself up to look at least presentable to father.
What he absolutely wasn't expecting to see was a nindroid, roughly around him height, wearing pitch black with one red eyepiece standing at the door.
Holding Gizmo in their arms.