He never planned on taunting death. He never planned on surviving to the next day. It just….. happened.
Day 26 of living. The Kaminos discovered an error in batch 200. The error would cause the clones to be overprotective and loyal, to a point that it would override any chip or biological code. So they destroyed the batch. They could always start again.
Somehow, they missed one. One case was mislabeled and sent to batch 100 just an hour before the discovery.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .
He was known as the runt. Others taunted him, predicting that his fate would be like ninety-nine's. You'll be broken before you ever step foot on the training center.
"Dog, dog!" They chanted. "Rex, Rex!"
He couldn't remember how many times he was shoved against the wall. Or how many times a blaster would fire and barely miss him. Or how many times they would go for his throat during sparring.
He only remembered how to survive. Head down, slip past them. Eat fast, watch your back. He cleaned the training blasters, made sure to lock them to stun. He watched every fight, watched their moves, and outsmarted them.
On his first life day he chose a name. The others whispered their names under their breaths, reveling in being more than a number. He used to lay awake, hearing them murmur to each other.
Each batch had about a 100 clones in it. This evenly divided up into 5 men in each squad. Those men would grow, learn, fight, and die together. They were vod.
Sometimes he wondered why he had to be the 101 clone. The odd one out. The runt. The dog.
So, listening to the boys murmur around him, he chose his name.
"Rex, rex." He whispered to no one. Dog, dog. He held back hot tears. A Mandalorian does not cry. The boys above him, calling themselves "Kicker" and "Bomb" do not cry. He rolled over and began to recite mando'a in his head.
When he turned two, Rex had cheated death 25 times.
*Clears throat
Um, so this is kinda angst? It's going to get happier?
I know that Rex is respected and stuff in the GAR, so I kinda wanted to play with his back story and see How much I can break him what I can do! I am excited.
I was inspired by 'the book thief,' which may or not be one of my favourite books.