Chapter Text
21-1409 watched his brother pace below the pods, they were waiting to make sure 27-5555 made it back safely.
“He isn’t back yet.” He stated simply, it would be lights out soon, he was getting worried.
“Think I didn’t notice that?” 26-0782 snapped sharply.
“If he’s not back before lights out, and the long necks find him, we’re all going to get it.”
“I know that. We all know the rules.” He groaned at him, “if he hadn’t gotten so worked up we’d all be fine right now.”
“Nah, I don’t think so.” 30-2010 piped in suddenly, he and 29-4040 were leaning over the edges of their pods watching the brothers below them, “you might’ve gone too far this time.”
“Yeah, ‘55 hates his numbers, you know that. You went and told him that’s all he was after a really long day with Bric. Course he got mad and stormed off.”
“We are just numbers, di’kut .” 26-0782 returned, venom dripping from the words, “if he can’t accept that, it’s not my fault.”
“Maybe to you, and the long necks, but not to him.”
“Yeah, look I bet if we hurry up we could find him before they do. But you’re gonna have to apologize or he’s gonna make it everyone’s problem.”
“Yeah fine whatever.”
21-1409 wanted to add something, but found he didn’t quite have the words to express his thoughts, as Domino squad got ready to sneak around the City and find their missing kih’vod, he tried to remember if any of them had ever tried to make 782 feel like more than just a number.
——
If getting around the City during the daytime was difficult, sneaking around during the night cycle was a breeze. They had to sneak around the First Gens sure, but it seemed like the ARCs were either off duty or on rotation on another side. Droids were easy to dodge.
For everyone except for 30-2010, that is, who had bumped into three, lied through his teeth and convincingly begged the units not to report him and he’d head right back as soon as he got back from the ‘fresher. 26-0782 decided to put him in the back.
“I’ll take point, guys.”
“What good will that do? It’s not like he wants to see you first!”
Before anyone could say anything else the soothing and chilling voice of a kaminoan pinged overhead.
Attention, all personnel, day lights will be shut off for the night cycle in fifteen kliks. Attention, all personnel, day lights will be shut off for the night cycle in fifteen kliks.
“We’d better hurry, only 15 kliks til lights out-“
“Yeah, we heard her.”
“Why do you have to echo back every order we get?”
“Somebody has to pay attention to instructions.” He huffed, wishing they’d at least acknowledge that he was only trying to help, “besides, when the lights go out they have the trainers run a sweep of the city sector by sector if they find us we’ll be lucky if they just give us extra training with Bric.”
The long satisfying pause among his squad made him smile for just a moment as they all nodded silently and moved forward with greater caution and vigilance. They gave him a lot of trouble about his adherence to regulations, so it felt good to be right, even if it put them in some very real danger.
As they wandered, searching, the lights went out. They still had no idea where he could even have gone, no brothers around, which was good and annoying all at once. None of their peers liked Domino Squad, but no one wanted to see a brother decommed over something stupid like infighting. The long halls of Tipoca City were identical, the straights were easy enough, but hugging the curved exterior walls was the safest bet, as they had fewer viewports into the main city and incubation facilities, more than once the squad had to stop and quietly argue about whether they had been to a certain crossroads before. It was very unproductive, and they’d all lost track of how much time they’d been out since the night cycle started.
“Yes we have been here before!” 30-2010 whispered viciously, “That’s the same air traffic light as before, it’s out of time with the others!”
“Every third light is out of time, it’s a safety precaution.” 21-1409 offered, “so that there’s always one light on.”
“ Osik . Well, we’re lost, again. Now what?”
The group fell quiet for a few moments and looked around, the walls were the same as every other main hall and room in the entire city, but for a second, it felt wrong, misplaced. 29-4040 was the first to realize why.
“Look, there’s a mark here. It’s white, you can barely see it.” He knelt to an unusual spot on the wall, just below the railing, where the Kaminoans would never see it, “It’s a .. skull? It’s stuck on, some kind of weird adhesive patch.”
The rest of the squad scuttled over to get a look, the skull itself was handpainted onto what almost looked like an empty bacta patch. More interestingly was a small, faintly glowing arrow pointing to the wall with some scribbly aurebesh that simply stated “here”.
“But there isn’t anything here. It’s just more wall!” 30-2010 sounded exhausted by the obvious discovery.
“Well…” 26-0782 mused, standing and facing the wall, “Maybe it’s not a wall?”
“What else could it be, 782?” 29-4040 piped up, looks like every other wall in the city!”
They all nodded in agreement, still, none of them could shake the feeling that they needed to figure out what the little sticker meant. As they stared and switched between the wall and the little image, a strong wave crashed against the generators below. Flickering lights were normal during especially big storms, but 21-1409 jumped at the sound of 26-0782 gasping suddenly.
“What??” apparently, 30-2010 had seen it as well, because only 29-4040 appeared to be surprised.
“It disappeared!”
“It’s right there, 2010!” 29-4040 claimed, sounding less irritated and more demanding.
“It faded, the same as the lights. It’s a projection.” 26-0782 said, still staring at the wall ahead of him.
“Plus…” 30-2010 muttered, “I think I almost heard a voice when it blinked out. Like, it’s some kind of shield.”
“OK, how do we lower a shield without getting caught?”
21-1409 was a little lost at how they had decided to try and get through what was an attempt to keep the uninformed out, but he wasn’t about to be useless.
“Well… what kind of shield is it? It’s not making very much noise, so…” He stood, and moving fairly slowly, he reached to touch the suspect wall. He closed his eyes, it felt so silly to be nervous about touching a wall, but suddenly he felt a brief gust of air and the floor rose to meet him.
A dummy wall, not even a proper shield, a simple disguise just to hide a mostly empty hallway with a single door on one side. Why waste the energy? But as the others started to test his theory and carefully step through as well, he froze.
“Security cams.” He whispered, “Watching the shield, and that door.”
“How much do you guys want to bet 5555 managed to wander into a secret lab or something.” 26-0782 grinned unconvincingly and stepped in front, “Look, we go in, get him, get out and get back to bed before any guards come looking, yeah?”
The other three glanced among each other and nodded as 21-1409 got back to his feet, without any further grace they approached the door which was no different from any other real door in the city, a simple flip of the open switch and the open panel revealed a large conference room. No, the table was too small, and even from the entryway, it was clear that this room had bunks in it. Not storage pods, real actual beds! Before any of them could properly react to the thought, a familiar voice spoke quietly.
“Doesn’t matter, we’re all numbers, right? Just a bunch of fives in a row…” The words were spoken so softly, so weakly, and the pain that saturated them was practically tangible. 26-0782 looked down at the floor and opened his mouth to speak.
“That’s not-”
“Well, “ fives ”,” he was cut off by someone inside the room, “ you can be a miserable pile of digits if you want, but go do it out of our room.”
The voice was younger than theirs, the accent was close enough, but the tone was wrong and so full of venom and something that wasn’t quite malice, but was pretty close.
“Cut it out, ‘04! He’s not trying to cause problems, he got lost, this is one of those Dominoes I keep trying to tell you about.”
“Ninety-Nine?” 26-0782 gaped for a second, “5555, you’re alright!”
“Oh! Hevy! You’re just in time, looks like-”
“More Regs. Great. Is this one yours .” a boy with barely traceable features, so thin and topped with a patch of nearly white hair, he was the one who’d spoken before.
Suddenly, 5555 looked up, long-dried tears still visible in the unusually dim light of the room, “I don’t belong to anyone.” He snapped, looking fiery and angry and tired.
“Well, technically, we all belong to the Kaminoans. There’s no reason to get so upset like that, over something we all know as an obvious truth.” Another boy, hair laid back tightly, and unusually light, wearing some kind of work goggles despite the late hour.
“Who the hell are you lot?”
“We’re Experimental clones, designed with defects that make us more desirable soldiers for various reasons.”
“Are you saying you’re better than us?”
“That’s exactly what he said.” A third boy, this one actually looked like a clone, a regulation cut but with a wild look in his eyes and a frame that seems like it would outgrow the room before he reached deployment, “We’re faster, smarter, and stronger than any Reg, especially the teams that can’t work together.”
The three looked on at the squad with a prideful, boasting glow in their eyes. But before anyone could say anything else, yet another one, laying in a painful-looking position on one of the bunks spoke up, voice hushed but clearly, the others of his team looked suddenly on him ready to take an order.
“Could you lot shut up for ten kriffing minutes? We’ve got testing tomorrow and I don’t want to go into that damned tank without sleeping at least four hours first.”
The three other clones looked disappointed but didn’t bother to voice their complaints, and nodded before quietly stepping toward their bunks.
“Why don’t you boys head back, I’ll take you myself so you don’t get into as much heat with the trainers, yeah?”
5555 paused, looked down, and walked past his squad “Sure Ninety-Nine, as long as you don’t get any trouble for it.”
The old clone smiled closed the door to the room behind him as they left the room. He started walking and led the Dominos down a much more direct path than the one they’d taken to get here.
“Ninety-Nine who were those guys?” 30-2010 started suddenly.
“Oh! That’s my squad, my batchmates!” He grinned proudly, “Sorry about them, they don’t really like normal brothers too well, we all get treated a little rough by some of ‘em”
“W- wai- wait.” 26-0782 stammered, “Those guys are your batchmates? You have a squad? Are- Ninety-Nine are you younger than us?”
“Yep, yes, and yes. Stars, Hevy, you didn’t think the Kaminoans ever make just one clone at a time, did you?”
“Well no, but-”
“I know, I’m not pretty,” Ninety-Nine chuckled, looking at the Dominos “I just didn’t quite work out like they wanted me to, that’s all. So I can’t keep training, but I still get my brothers, so I’m alright.”
“You-... didn’t work out?” 29-4040 looked upset at the idea, “what do you mean?”
“Oh, well, like Oh-Two said, we’re experimental, I was a failure, just about everything went wrong.” the smile faded slightly, “Oh, hey he’s getting pretty far ahead of us.”
Domino Squad looked up and 27-5555 was nearly to the next door.
“Hey, 5555, wait up would you?” 26-0782 called ahead, “you’re practically there without us.”
There was an irritated sigh, but their last member did stop and let them catch up to him.
“We were worried about you, you just vanished out of nowhere.” 21-1409 stepped up to him first, “We were starting to think the kaminiise got to you.”
“‘M fine, 1409.” He huffed, not quite making eye contact.
“Hey, listen.” 26-0782 stepped up, putting a cautious hand on his brother, “Look I- I’m sorry. I know how much you hate it, but I said it anyway. I don’t know why, I was mad and you were right there, I’m sorry.”
27-5555 looked at him, he still looked upset, but his expression softened a little, then lightened more into a near smile. “I can’t believe you just said you were wrong.”
“I didn’t- .. yeah yeah fine, whatever.” He grinned back, pushing 27-5555 away by his chin, “Don’t get used to it.”
“Y’know I think I will.” He smiled and they shoved against one another the rest of the way into the bunk rooms.
As they clambered into their pods and said their goodbyes to Ninety-Nine, they quickly realized none of them was closing his bed up.
“5555 what happened? How did you just waltz through that wall?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think it was there when I went in. I don’t know if they turned it on, or if it’s part of the lights-out settings.”
“How long were you in there? It seemed like you’d been talking with them for a while.”
“Sort of, 1409, I thought it was an empty conference hall, so I just kind of threw myself onto a bench to mope. I don’t actually know how long I was in there before they came in. Those clones are… different.”
“Yeah, that’s no joke.” 29-4040 chuffed quietly, “Can’t believe Ninety-Nine was some kind of experiment.”
“They all are, they’ve got.. Special abilities or something, Oh-Two was bragging about while he was working on that thing he’s building.”
“Rude as hell.” 26-0782 said quietly.
“I kind of liked them.” 21-1409 barely whispered.
“You? Really?”
“I dunno they were… built different, and they really proud of it, they’re supposed to be soldiers too, and they get along… maybe we ought to take a hint…”
A pang struck each of their chests, and they all grew quiet before slowly, one by one, closing their pods and shutting their lights out. Something to think about, 21-1409 hoped he hadn’t hurt them all too badly, but it had felt right… he knew he needed to think on it too.
“Hey
vode,”
27-5555’s voice muffled between their pods, he was quiet for a few moments, weighing his words, or maybe he’d fallen asleep before finishing, “Call me Fives.”