Work Text:
Her cell walls are gray. Omega tosses and turns on her bed most of the night, barely sleeping, but then the bright morning sunlight hits her face, and she has to wake. She’s been here for days. Scratches the count along the side of her widow, marking the time she’s been confined on Tantiss.
She’s not the only one.
Having to walk past the other clones daily is half of what makes being here so hard.
That, and Emerie.
Her sister.
She’s a kid. She’s six.
Tech’s twin.
She ought to be away with the rest of her brothers. Does she remember Wrecker and Crosshair are twins? No, how would she? She was separated before she had the chance. Thanks, Nala Se. Not even Omega remembers her.
Well, she’s like eighteen, and it’s been fifteen years or so, so she’s pretty justified to forget. But still. Emerie? And no one even knew her to miss her? Does Tech feel it somewhere in his heart? That his second half is missing?
She needs to get out. Hard, when Hemlock has her under such close watch. Even Emerie’s. Not that it won’t be time before she understands. Omega means to show her the truth. She knows her sister isn’t happy, and she’s not leaving her here.
Has Emerie ever had a toy in her life? Omega has no idea, but even trapped here, she’s not going to stop trying to take care of her sister. She’ll do whatever she can to make her life easier, and as good as possible. Hemlock makes it hard, but one thing she’s learned from her brothers, it’s that kids are adaptable. They can take the best out of nightmares. And she’ll do the same for Emerie.
She’s waiting when her sister comes to the door, datapad in hand in a way that reminds her terrifyingly of Tech. “Good morning,” she offers tentatively.
“You, too,” Omega replies. It hurts that Emerie doesn’t understand the extent of imprisonment. They’re both confined here. But Emerie isn’t old enough to see it yet. Or maybe she’s too attached to Hemlock. The only parent figure she ever knew. “Is that dripping important?” She motions to the sink faucet, perpetually dripping. It’s annoying.
“I don’t know. Probably not.” Emerie shuffles, “Come on,” she requests, nodding to the doorway. “We’re supposed to go to the lab.”
“Have you ever thought about what if you didn’t?”
“No.”
“We’re prisoners, Emerie.”
She shakes her head in stubborn defiance. “No, we’re not.”
Yeah. Yeah, they are. “I think you know we are.”
“At least we’re not out there.” Emerie motions to the window with her datapad.
“Why? What’s out there?”
“Some kind of creatures. They destroy all ships that crash outside, and they’re strong enough to even kill our best hounds. You can hear them at night sometimes.”
“Huh.” Sounds like something a Jedi would like. But Omega's not a Jedi. “I guess we better not keep Hemlock waiting.”
***
They want something with her blood. Omega doesn’t know what, but there’s a reason Hemlock hasn’t hurt her, despite being a sergeant and the leader of a clone squad. Only a half grown clone squad, but still rebels who have fought the Empire.
Echo, though he’s gone. Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Crosshair.
Who’s taking care of her brothers now? Echo’s mechanical parts? Did he stay with her brothers? The hardest part is not knowing. So, she just keeps moving. Tries not to think too hard about what it is Hemlock wants with her blood, why he keeps taking it, and how every moment here is benefiting the Empire.
For Emerie, she tells herself. It’s for Emerie.
Oh, and Batcher. The hound desperately needs someone to care for her. She’s still pretty feral, but she barely eats anything. She must be starving. That’s part of the treatment. Hemlock thinks starving them will make them more efficient. Idiot. There’s nothing like a well-trained, healthy puppy. Omega would know.
Every day is the same. She gets up, talks to Emerie, eats, spends a while in the lab, goes to take care of the hounds, sneaks away to check on the clone prisoner branch she can get access to, does several other random odd-jobs, and eats again, and is sent off to bed at a way too early hour for a sergeant, thank you, Hemlock.
“Yeah, yeah, I know who you are,” Fives sasses when she creeps up to his cell, “can you believe that? I still remember who you are.” He stops to rub his head. It’s weird, and Omega’s face pinches with worry.
“Are you okay?” she whispers.
“I’m locked in a giant lab. Do I look okay?” Her frown doesn’t lessen, so he sighs. “Fine, fine, I’ll live. For a little while. Hey, if you ever see Echo again, tell him not to get captured chasing me this time.”
“If he doesn’t make it here, I’ll go to him,” Omega vows, “I’ll find a way out of here. I’m a sergeant. You can’t keep the leader of Clone Force 99 locked up for long.”
“Yeah, tell that to Hemlock.” Fives’ face is pinched into an impressive scowl. “And he’s still managed to keep you in here, hasn’t he?”
Omega sighs. “Yeah. He has, but not long. You got anything?”
Fives shrugs. “Nothing that’s useful. He wants something with us. Some sort of…” He sighs heavily. “He’s doing something to us, Omega. Everyone in this section, he’s trying to turn them into some sort of mindless assassin.”
She swallows. “That clone assassin,” she breathes. “He came from here. I thought it was something Rampart did.”
“Nope. Hemlock’s his…” Fives waves a hand, then drops it back behind his head, leaning back. “He does the work and hands his clones out to whoever asks. We need to get the word out of here. If it comes to it, Omega, promise you’ll leave.”
She jolts. “I’m not leaving you!”
“You might have to. Gotta be honest when I say I don’t know how long I have. Boys die every day.”
She exhales, shaking her head. “No. I’m not leaving you. That’s not what we do.”
“Don’t compromise the mission for me. Get Emerie out of here. That’s all that matters. But be careful. She’s a kid, but… she’s also easily manipulated.”
“I will be. I’m a sergeant, remember?” Omega offers a crooked smile that she feels none of. “I know what I’m doing. I can do this.”
“Careful,” Fives warns firmly. “Hemlock is watching you.”
“I know.” She leaves. She’ll be back. But someday, they’ll go together. She will.
***
Every day falls into the same routine. Omega takes some straw from the hound’s place, brings a bit f her food for Batcher, who’s still struggling to eat the food she gets, and works on… her doll.
And mostly, she watches her back, trying not to worry about everything too much, and obsessively thinks about what her brothers are doing instead. She has no idea if they’re okay or what’s happening to them. They nearly died the last couple missions. And Echo… he’ll take care of the others, but she’s so worried.
She needs an escape plan. Just a good excuse for Hemlock to be busy.
Right now, though, she has Emerie. She needs the girl’s help, and Emerie needs her more than her brothers ever did.
“Emerie,” she calls after her sister before they part ways and go to separate rooms in the hall. Her sister turns back dutifully – the way she blindly follows orders is honestly infuriating. What did Hemlock do to her that she’s so submissive? That’s not normal. She’s so sweet, but so scared, and she deserves to have fun even if she’s trapped in an environment like this.
“Yes?”
“Come here.”
Emerie comes into her room and Omega nearly breathes a sigh in relief, shuffling through her lunch box to pull out the doll. “I made you something,” she says by way of explanation.
“Something?” her sister echoes.
“Yeah. My brothers have one of them. I thought you might like it.” Omega pulls the straw Lula from her box, slowly lowering it. “I don’t think you’ve ever had anything of your own before.”
Emerie slowly takes it, turning it over in her gloved hands, eyes wide. “It’s so…” She trails off. “What is it?”
She thinks of Cut and Suu explaining about children to her. Of all the things she’s learned on the way, and sighs heavily. All this time, Emerie has had nothing while at least her brothers had each other. “It’s a toy,” Omega explains, lowering herself to one knee and laying a hand on Emerie’s shoulder. “To make you happy? It’s not for anything. Just so you don’t feel so alone.”
“It’s amazing.” Her eyes look a little wet. “But… Hemlock says I can’t have things.”
“Hemlock’s not always right,” Omega replies steely, “About anything. You’re a child. Everyone is entitled to items of their own. It’s what makes you who you are. You are Emerie, and you are my sister, not Hemlock’s pawn.”
“He’ll be angry.”
“He won’t be here forever, and neither will we.”
“What do I call it?” Emerie asks, fingers tracing its face.
“It’s yours. Whatever you want.”
She clutches it close to her chest. “Thank you, Omega.”
“Of course.” She reaches out, pulling her sister into a tight hug. “It’s good, not being alone. And… it’s what sisters do.” Emerie will watch her back, and finally, her sister has someone to watch hers.
***
Things… continue the same, until Batcher comes back injured, and Omega takes some cleaning supplies to treat it since the droid won’t. Stupid droids. She doesn’t know what else to do, even if Fives would chew her out. The hound needed help, though they’re both in trouble for it.
She would leave. Take all of them and go, but they have no real, secure way out, and getting Fives from the prison level is the biggest thing to slow her down. She won’t leave him. She can’t. He’s Echo’s brother – how could she just walk away?
She won’t. She can’t.
Omega didn’t know what repercussions to expect – until she comes back and the droid announces Batcher is to be terminated. “What?!” Omega hisses panickily, standing from in front of the cell. “She’s recovering!”
“Her recent domestication is concerned inappropriate.”
“But that’s my fault, not hers,” Omega argues, heart pounding, casting a backwards glance at the hound.
“Those are the regulations.”
No. No.
Weeks – months of not fighting kick in, and Omega flies at the droid, tackling it, ripping the datapad from its hands and sprinting across the room, unlocking Batcher’s cell’s shields. She has to go. Now.
The droid is sounding the alarms. Omega rolls towards it, grabbing its electrostaff away and slamming it into its head. The droid drops, body sparking. She walks past, heading for Batcher.
“Batcher!” she calls urgently, crouching in front of the hound. She reaches through the cage bars, fumbling to rip the collar off. “You have to run away and never come back, okay? And try not to bite anyone. I can’t go with you. I have to get Fives and Emerie.”
Batcher whines. She doesn’t want to go.
The shields will close. She hears distant footsteps. “Batcher, go!”
The hound runs, and none too soon when the door opens and Hemlock walks in, backed by a couple security guards and… Emerie, her figure small and nearly an invisible shadow.
“Breaking the rules, I see,” Hemlock remarks way too calmly. It’s good at making her hair stand on end, but that’s about it. “Releasing a weak lurca hound into the wild? How can you be so cruel, Omega?”
Her brows shoot up incredulously. “Me?! You wanted to kill her.”
“And you think you changed the outcome? A few rotations ago, one of our shuttles crashed right over the mountain here. But that didn’t kill the crew. No, they were creatures from the local jungle. Even our strongest lurca hounds have trouble with what's behind the walls. And your domestication of LH-201 has only weakened her.”
“She deserves a chance,” Omega snarls back, eyes narrowed.
Hemlock scoffs. “Oh, the misjudgment of an idealistic child. We have no place for emotion and sentiment here. You’d do well to remember that.”
Omega squares her shoulders and looks him in the eye with nothing but disgust. Fear is too strong a word for her. She’s not afraid of him. “That’s sergeant, sir.”
“Perhaps I should take her back to her quarters?” Emerie ventures behind him.
“Oh, no,” he interrupts, raising a hand, “I would like to hear what else she has to say.”
“You won’t hurt me,” Omega tells him smugly, the fury burning in her veins lighting her. Her hands shake a little form the rage, but with it is a heavy dose of smugness. “I know you won’t, because you can’t. Your experiments need me alive and functioning, or they won’t work. But in the end, your efforts will always fail.”
“Oh, I’m not going to hurt you.” He actually laughs. “I know about your friend in the detention level.”
Omega keeps her face blank despite the racing in her own heart. “Uh, which friend? I knew a lot of clones. I probably have many. If you haven’t killed them all yet.”
“Nothing goes on within these walls unless I allow it. You think I don’t know of your fixation with CT-5555? Of course, I do. But it means nothing, I have plans for him. And soon, he will be in no condition to aid you.”
He can’t know about Fives. She’d been so careful. Omega throws a fleeting glance at Emerie, who looks away. She doesn’t know if it was her sister, or… how he knew. But either way, he shouldn’t have. How did he find out? Not that – no. “He has nothing to do with this,” she snaps, defensive, but regrets her choice a second later.
She really needs to learn to keep her mouth shut.
Batcher might die out there. But at least she has a chance now.
“Actions always have consequences,” Hemlock answers mildly, “Sometimes, not in the ways we imagine. Emerie, take her back and restrict her access.”
She nods, eyes down, and they shuffle away. In Emerie’s case, anyway.
“You alright?” she asks when they finally get there.
No.
What is he planning to do to Fives?
“I will be,” Omega answers instead, “We’re going to get outta here. Is… that something you want?”
It’s been months. Months of Emerie hearing about the twin she never got, and the brothers she should have been raised with. “Of course, it is,” she answers without hesitation, “But there’s no way out of here.”
“Yes, there is. Every stronghold has a weakness. I know a way. I just have to get to Fives. Can you try to find out what Hemlock’s doing to those clones?”
“It’s not in my division.”
No, it’s not. And she doesn’t know how to sneak. “Never mind. Just stay down.” Omega takes a shaky, desperate breath. She can do this. She can do this, she…
Can’t.
“I am going to get us out.”
“This… is where I belong.” Emerie’s voice is so soft and defeated.
“No,” Omega promises firmly. “It’s not. None of us belong in here. Except Hemlock, in Tantiss’s ashes.”
And she’ll see to it that he is.
She stays up long after her sister left, alone in the darkness of her room. Tantiss is so dark and cold and empty. The loneliness never goes away, and she can’t stop thinking about Fives. She can’t go back there. At least not until…
Then.
And Batcher…
A distant howl suddenly breaks through her thoughts. Omega jolts to her knees, leaning over the window ledge to look outside. She presses against the bars, fingers curling over them as she looks into the night. A figure, silhouetted against the sky behind howls, familiar.
Batcher.
She’s alive.
She made it. She still has a chance.
Somewhere, Omega thinks she could cry in relief. She remembers Echo’s supportive hand on her shoulder, Hunter’s believing smile, Tech’s blind certainty, and the twin’s chaos. And, for the first time, she knows she’ll make it home, because even in this dreary place, she still has a chance.
***
Animals howl in the distance. The hounds. Maybe Batcher. It could be, though Emerie tries not to think about anything too hard. She can never stop.
She thinks of her squad all the time, and what could have been, though…
Maybe there is a way out.
Emerie hugs the still unnamed doll against her chest and stars at the star-covered sky, and knows for the first time that she is going to make it out.
She is going to find her brothers. Her twin. Her squad. Her home. Because Hemlock… isn’t any of those things.
***
The cell is empty. Omega stops still when she sees, waits for a snippy comment, but gets nothing more than a void.
She should have known.
Hemlock doesn’t give empty threats. He eliminated Fives, just like he said. Fives is gone. The very person they all risked themselves to find. She failed him, and she failed Echo.
Desperation floods over her grief. She failed Fives, and she can never undo that – but she will not fail Emerie. She will get her sister home. She’ll get Tech his twin back. And Omega is done waiting.