Prologue
Plot: Hunter never really thought there was a connection between the clones' vampire abilities and the fact that the Jedi share a heightened version of it, and why would he? It's not until after Order 66 when the Empire captures him that he realizes there's way more to both the galaxy and the clones' creation than he realized. But mostly? He just wants to go home.
His mind is hazy, blurry at the edges, and his body aches. He doesn't remember why. The light is bright, but it's sort of buzzy. Blurry. Something's wrong, and he feels unsteady. He's sore and tired. He wants to sleep.
"9901!" The voice is familiar, and he's practically tackled by someone familiar and small and warm. 9902.
"I'm okay," he whispers. He's been gone for a while. Doesn't remember how long. It's been a very, very long time. A time he doesn't even remember. "I'm back." He thought 9902 and 9903 were gone. They'd been gone when he was taken, he thinks. Maybe?
9903's arms come around him, tight and crushing. 9901 collapses into his arms, gasping and shivering. He's warm. So warm. Safe.
They're both crying.
9904 ducks under their brother's arm, looping his arms around 9901's waist and squeezing. His nice brothers are here. He's okay. He's back with them, and he won't have to worry about being decommissioned or whatever that word was.
"So," 9904 asks, face squashed against his chest, "How are your fangs?"
"Pokey." They're sharper than the previous ones were, and it's weird.
"They're supposed to be used now," 9902 says, face buried in his shoulder, "But we can't use them."
He wants to use them. He's so hungry, and he doesn't want food. He wants something else. Something more. His brothers smell of a mingled machinery and warmth and fog.
But he's okay; he's with his brothers now.
Except – except they haven't all gone and come back safely yet.
**w**
9901 still doesn't remember anything. A couple of weeks out, and he still feels hazed out. He's tired. He still gets hungry sometimes.
9903 has bounced back to all cheerfulness already, but he still sees his little brother crying sometimes. He's big and he's always hungry. It's even worse now. He eats more, but it's never enough.
9902 wakes up crying about every night there is to wake up in. That's what worries him the most.
"You aren't supposed to talk about it," he snaps when 9901 tries asking him what happened. He doesn't remember anything. All he knows is they're cycled through a something that no one knows anything about, but it's standard procedure.
"But it's important!" 9901 argues.
"Don't talk about it!" his little brother snaps back, glaring even through his tears. "We don't get to talk about this. It just makes it worse."
"But it hurt you!" 9903 argues. "It hurt me, too! I remember that."
9901 doesn't remember a full week of time. His mind is still hazy-blackout sometimes. It's annoying, and scary. Very scary.
"Don't ever let anyone hear you talk about it," 9902 orders, glaring fiercely, "It's bad. They can't know."
"Why? What do they do?" 9901 asks, squeezing his shoulder.
"I don't – remember most of it."
"I don't remember any!" 9903 whines, "That's not fair!"
"It's fair," 9902 snaps back, "I... I think it has something to do with our fangs."
01 sees it when he cries. They sleep in the same row, and he can feel it sometimes, beating in his heart and flickering in his palms. It's there, always there, and it's so wrong, it hurts. But there's nothing he can do to help, so all they can do is try to be here and wait for the night when their littlest nice brother disappears, too.
**w**
9901 counts the days. The minutes. The hours into infinity. It's an obsessive fear of watching and waiting, because the hunger is so, so constant and it never stops. 9902 still cries every night. He's getting better at hiding it, but it's still there, and he'll alternate between clinging to them all at random and staying as far away as he can. 9903 still cries all the time.
9904 will be taken eventually. Sometime.
9901 doesn't know how he knew, but he just... knew the night it would be. He stays awake at night all the time, trynna just feel and see if he can tell when they'll come so he can stop them, because his littlest brother shouldn't hafta get hurt, too.
He wakes to a very, very distinctive "lemme go!" from 9904.
He hits the button beside him to let his bunk-thing slide out of the wall.
The droid's dragging him out. Nala Se is here, too.
"Stop," 9901 demands, clamoring out of his rack and sliding to the floor. His heart is pounding. Chest clenched with panic. He can't breathe.
The droid's too big, and there's no way out. 9901 doesn't remember when this happened to him, but he knows it did. He doesn't know what happened, but he's scared and 9902 somehow remembers, and he cries all the time.
He's not letting another of his brothers get hurt. Not again.
9904 is struggling against the metal hand holding his arm, but the droid's too big and metal and there's nothing he can do.
9901 lunges forward, but the droid grabs his arm and just throws him. His back smacks the shelf and he falls, grunting.
"Stand down, or you will be slated for decommissioning as well," Nala Se replies.
"I don't care!" 9901 yells, "You're hurting him! Let him go!"
He's angry. Furious that there's nothing he can do, and he won't accept there's nothing he can do, because if there's one thing all of them have ever been, they're fighters. And he is not stopping.
He's seconds short of thinking he might actually make it, back to the droid and maybe borrowing its arm to hit it with or something when 9902 grabs his wrist, jerking him back.
"What?" he asks breathlessly as he's jerked backward.
"Stop," he orders.
Their little brother's eyes widen with betrayed hurt.
"There's nothing you can do," 9902 continues, glaring. The lighting's dark, but he can still see the wetness in his brother's eyes.
"I have to!" 9901 yells back, wrenching away, but his little brother grabs him again. He's willing to fight him to keep him from going, and he's so, so angry. "We have to help him."
"Think!" he yells back. "You can't stop this."
9901 looks over his brother's shoulder as their youngest is dragged from the room. The door slaps behind them, leaving them alone. His heart is hammering, and he tries to run. Wants to run.
"Don't!" 9902 shouts, shoving him. "You can't go!"
"I can't let them take him! Let me go, Two."
"No," he says with stubborn defiance, "I won't."
"She's gonna hurt him!"
"One is better than all of us."
"Not him!"
"Lay back down!" 9902 yells, shoving him again. "There's nothing you can do, One."
His hands clench.
He's not going to be called a number for the rest of his life. He's not going to let anyone and everyone hurt his brothers because they said so. He won't.
He won't let them stop him, either.
A quiet sound snaps his attention upward to 9903's bunk. He's watching, too. He's crying. It shatters his heart in a millisecond, and 9901 feels his heart break further. He wants to help, but 9902 is right. There is nothing he can do, so he does what he can – crawls back into his bunk and curls up in a miserable ball, trying not to think about how terrified their youngest brother must be out there alone. But that's all he can think about, and maybe it should be, because this is his fault. He should've stopped this.
**w**
9902 doesn't eat the next day. He just sits there, staring blankly and vacuously at his tray, and 9901 kicks him awake. "You need to eat," he insists, no matter how angry he is over last night, shoving his little brother's tray closer to him.
He stubbornly shakes his head in the negative, refusing to touch it.
"We still have training," he reminds, "You'll need it." He's hungry himself, even if every time he looks up and sees the very obviously missing spot of their youngest brother, he immediately concludes he can't eat at all himself. He's gone, and they have no idea what's happening to him. Well, 9901 doesn't know, but... 9902 does, and he's been insistently stubborn about not telling them.
9902 shakes his head again, shoving his tray away and burying his face on his arm. Is he sleeping, or is he crying?
His breathing's uneven.
9903 sniffles to 9901's right, and he sighs. "I miss him, too," he mutters, touching his little brother's arm.
The seat by 9902 stays stubbornly open and void, a pointed reminder of who's missing. No one can take his place.
9902 stays quiet and distant the rest of the day. It never really stops.
It's not until bedtime that he finally comes to 9901 about what happened last night. "I didn't mean to let him get taken," 9902 confesses, avoiding his gaze, though it's not as though he ever looks at people he's talking to.
9901 sighs. He can't say he's not angry, but he knows being angry isn't gonna change that their littlest brother is being hurt right now. It's not gonna get him back, either. "I know," he says instead, because he does. He knows 9902 would never try to hurt them. He might be sharp and sometimes very, very annoying, but he wouldn't hurt them.
"I thought they'd hurt you, but if I helped you, we could have stopped this."
"You couldn't've helped," 9901 promises, pulling his little brother into a hug. Yeah, he screwed up, but they're still young and they're going to make mistakes. It was his own fault, too. "It wasn't your fault."
What's happening to their little brother, he doesn't ask again, because he knows it's not something 9902 can talk about. He's afraid to, and it's not fair to push him.
9901 has to take care of all of them, not just 9904, and he loves all of them even if they made stupid mistakes that were maybe not so stupid. There was nothing he could do, and he's still angry.
All he can do is hold his little brothers when they cry, and vow that someday, he'll find a way to protect them all.
**w**
Days of nothing blur together, overlapping over and over.
It's been days before he finally spots a familiar gray-haired figure.
9901 runs to him, drawing him into a hug. His little brother sinks into his arms with a quiet gasp. 9903 practically tackles them, yanking his little brother against his chest in a crushing embrace and burying his face in his hair.
"I'm alive," 9904 grumbles, voice muffled. "'m not goin' anywhere, either."
9903 just hugs him tighter.
"Are you okay?" 9901 demands, pulling back and trying to look at him, though he can't see his face at all right now.
"I don't remember anything."
"That is a good thing," 9902 promises, squeezing in between them and touching his shoulder. "There's not much to remember."
That's a lie and 9901 knows it, but he's not gonna press. It's obvious he doesn't want to talk about what happened for some reason. "You're okay," 9901 promises, pulling his youngest brother closer to him. "It's normal. You'll be fine."
"I know," he mutters, shivering and leaning closer.
He doesn't know if 9904 remembers any of their last interactions, but he hopes not. 9901 feels awful every time he remembers the moments their youngest brother was dragged out. It was so – and 9902 just let it happen. He's still hurt. It's not fair their youngest brother was caught in this.
9904 spent all that time alone. Whatever he went through was – was 'cause they failed him. Maybe there was nothing he could do, but it still feels like it, and he's not letting them be hurt again.
He's not going to let them be taken apart ever again.
**w**
9901 should've guessed keeping his brothers in line would be hard. He knew something was wrong for a while, because his twin little brothers just keep giving each other these looks, and their heartbeats feel all weird. They're too calm and hyper and he didn't get it. He doesn't until he rounds the corner of their beds into them.
They jerk apart the moment someone sees him, but with blood smeared mutually on their faces and their guilty expressions, the secret's already out.
"Are you kidding me?" 9901 snarls, heart hammering. His hands are freezing and his chest is tight and breathing is hard. What are they doing what are they thinking what –
"I was hungry," 9903 whines.
"We just ate!"
"Not for that," 9904 argues, arm still around his twin's waist. He's the tiniest bit taller than 9901, but he looks so tiny and dwarfed by 9903. His other hand is pressed against his twin's chest.
He tries to breathe. Can't over the desperate pounding of his heart. Everyone knows this isn't allowed. They can't do it. "You know what can happen if you're caught!"
"We wouldn't get caught," 9904 whines.
"Then how did I find you?!" He can't breathe. Stars, the panicked desperation clawing his chest apart is strangling and he can't – can't –
They look down, sullen.
"How many times have you done this?"
"Uh," 9903 says, "Three?"
How do they make it to the 'fresher to clean up without anyone noticing? What do they even do, lick each other's faces off? Ewwwwww. He'd ask but he doesn't want to know and stars this is so, so stupid. They're gonna get themselves killed or hurt and he promised he wouldn't let them be taken apart again. "You know we can't do that!"
"When did you get so stuck on following orders?" 9904 snaps back.
His throat feels tight. "I don't want us to be taken apart again!" He stalks closer. "Don't ever, ever do this again."
"Maybe if you did it, too, you wouldn't be so cranky," 9904 snaps.
Is he – stars – he –
"You'll be hurt," he argues, hands clenching and nails digging into his palms and struggling to try to breathe. He wants to cry or scream his throat raw. "I can't – We can't –"
"'m sorry," 9903 mumbles, shuffling, "We were just hungry."
He's been tempted, too, but the threat is too much and it's more important. He hates having to ask this of them. He hates everything. It's hurting them. That doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem right – if – they've been told it makes them go feral and crazy and 9901 doesn't want to risk that happening to his brothers.
The scent blood is driving him crazy and he wants to taste it. He never has, and it smells – good. It always has, but it's more now, and Hunter can't stop staring at where it's still dripping on 9904's neck. 9903's wound isn't bleeding anymore, but it's not scabbed over yet.
"I know," he says, sighing.
The silence is heavy, and 9904 finally slips his hand up to his brother's neck, tugging him closer again. "Close it up," he requests softly. 9903 leans in instantly, pulling him closer against him. It looks comfortable.
He tries to ignore the burning something in his heart. Doesn't know what it means.
"If you hafta bite each other, keep it to your arms," he advises while hardly meaning to, "And keep them smaller. We can't let anyone see."
That's how they keep it.
It's not until after they're finally sent to the field that they have the liberty to feed, as Tech calls it. Hunter doesn't know if that's the proper name, but it doesn't really matter. They're used to the scent of blood, and each other, even if there are still moments it drives them crazy.
Blood is linked with their abilities – things Hunter doesn't even know, but Crosshair always gets hyper after, and from experience, he's way too strong after. Hunter's seen it on himself.
They've taken to licking each other's wounds clean, because that's the most they can do without risk. They learned it on Kamino.
"We can do it all the time now," Crosshair says, sprawled face-down on his rack.
Wrecker laughs, patting his back. "Yeah."
Neither of them moves.
They can, but none of them do it.
Some things are too deeply ingrained into their minds to change.
(That doesn't stop them from trying it just once. Hunter pulls Tech tightly into his arms to bite him, brief and light, but the calmness is instant. Tech clings to him, finally relaxing for the first time since before he was taken. He bites Wrecker, and Wrecker bites Crosshair with way to much glee. When it's Crosshair's turn, he climbs into Hunter's lap – he's the only one not bitten yet – and clings to him, fangs in his skin and mouth on his neck. Somehow, it makes everything okay.)
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