a/n: Maybe I'm beating the dead horse here, but I'd like to make it clear that this story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Season Three. I don't want to accidentally spoil someone. That being said, title comes from Stevie Nicks, and I do not own Star Wars.
Name
It takes time, but all clones adopt names over identity codes. Names are easier, more distinguishing; they make individuals of the men that the galaxy called the same. 99 sometimes rued that he didn't have a name, one besides the "Cripple" or "Mistake" sometimes spat at him, until one morning, with no prelude at all, he finally realized that he did: he was 99. It was a number, but it was a name nonetheless, and it was his, and he was damned well proud of it, too. He was 99, and there wasn't a single thing wrong with that.
Looks
He was skeptical when he first heard of the mercenaries being hired to train the next wave of clones, but as time went on, 99 came to prefer them to the tall, pristine Kaminoans that glided through the corridors of the training facilities. The bounty hunters were crude and made messes, looked at him like he was waste tossed up by the ocean's churning waters. And 99 didn't mind that. It was better, he thought, than the Kaminoans, who didn't even bother to look at him. They didn't like to see their failures displayed as prominently as he was.
Remember
None of his brothers ever remember him unless it's in an inside joke in the barracks or in the mess hall, and 99 isn't fool enough to think otherwise. He's just a part of the background, one of those perpetual happenings on Kamino, just like the rain or the echoing steps of cadets running down the hall. He remembers every single one of his brothers, though, from the ones cloned at the same time as he to after. At night, when his back hurts him, he recites the names like a prayer, and it helps him get to sleep.
Thanks
It's a worthy job to perform, the cleaning up of droids. 99 is glad to do it. He was bred to serve just as these droids were built for destruction, not to be showered with appreciation. Still, it surprises him when the Togruta Jedi orders him to clean up after Domino Squad. It isn't because this is the first time he's been spoken to by a Master –although it is. What surprises him is how she doesn't thank him for his service. 99 thought she would understand how important his job really is. He expected better from the Jedi.
Death
The bolts rip through him, and he's unsurprised –someone as slow as him couldn't dodge them if they had been shot in his direction from a kilo away –but it still hurts, like fire thrashing and rising in his chest, until the pain starts to fade away just a few seconds later, which is a bad, bad sign, and the last thing he thinks is that he always thought that he'd just go to bed one night and never wake up, not be blasted down in action, like a real soldier, but he likes this death a lot better.
