Chapter Text
“We have to find the bad colour.” Brother said in his squishy brain holes, brother had good voice, kind and safe, 9999 liked the kind voice.
“Bad colour… bad colour…” He repeated as he moved through the halls that were empty of colours, “Find bad colour… why find bad colour?”
“A brother is in danger, we have to find his colour before bad things happen, he’s with bad colour.” Brother replied, “Remember what 99 told us?”
“Help each other… be brothers…” 9999 nodded as he moved.
“Exactly, we have to make sure the Mistress doesn’t find us either but if we help the brother then we can get him to safety, understand?” Brother continued and he nodded again, brother was so smart, “Okay, he’s behind this door…”
“Door open… how to make open?” 9999 asked as he looked at the rolling colours.
“See that weird panel thing?” He nodded, “Press the big shiny thing… yes, right there.”
The door slid open and he entered into the room, looking for the colour of brother in danger, “Who are you?” He looked to the form that appeared.
“Orange colour… happy colour…” He said, “Brother… friend… help maybe?”
“What…?” The person appeared in front of him, “Do you need help?”
“Help brother… come.” He took hold of the man’s arm, “Safety nearby.”
“I don’t know you, why would I follow you?” The man stood firm, “I have to help Tup.”
“Bad colour… scary colour.” He replied, he didn’t like the colour of the man in the next room but brother in danger wanted to help him, “Door open for you…”
“Okay.” The man nodded, “I’m Fives by the way, CT-5555.”
“Name of many numbers? Name of many numbers I am too.” 9999 replied with another nod, “Bestest best brother said number was… 9999.”
“Hey cool, we’re alike.” The man with the name of many numbers replied, “Can you help me?”
“Help name of many numbers.” He nodded.
“You nod a lot, surprised you haven’t got a sore neck.” The man with the name of many numbers replied chuckled weakly, “Come on.” The white halls took away the colour, he really didn’t like not having colour… it was bad… “Okay… in we go.” The man with the name of many numbers whispered and the door slid open, he followed after the man with the name of many numbers into the room but the bad colour was swirling and whirling through the air making him stop briefly, “Tup? Tup can you hear me?”
“We need to be careful, if they’re locked up then the Mistress might come back at any point.” Brother said, “She might have others with her… bad people that want to scare you.”
“Bad colour… inside… new brother not well…” 9999 said as he moved to the man with the name of many numbers.
“No… he’s not well but we can help him, I just need to find that medical droid AZI…” The man with the name of many numbers sounded scared, 9999 didn’t like being scared but the Mistress made brother scared and that made him scared too.
“You are out?” He looked to the thing floating in the air, sparkling like lights.
“Droid…” He said, “Friend?”
“He’s a friend.” The man with the name of many numbers moved to the droid and talked to it.
“Bad colour…” He looked to the brother bound to the medical bed.
“He needs help fast, don’t know how long he’ll last in this state.” Brother said, “The bad colour is moving too fast in him.”
“Bad colour… inside… making pain in squishy wrinkles.” He said with a nod.
“In his brain?” The man with the name of many numbers asked, moving to him again, “You sure?”
“Mm.” He nodded.
“We need to run a scan.” The other man said to droid friend.
“Scans on him have shown up nothing, all tests returned negative.” Droid friend replied.
“Then what would you recommend?” Brother of many numbers’ colour was different now, red…
“I recommended an atomic brain scan, but that request has thus far been denied.” Droid friend explained and he and brother of many numbers started a discussion so 9999 went to brother with bad colour, his colour was off and it swirled in a bad way.
“We need to move, quickly.” Brother said again, “He’s not going to last much longer.”
“We… need to help brother with bad colour.” He said to droid friend and brother of many numbers, “Brother says bad colour moving too fast…”
“AZI, we’re doing this scan, with or without you but he will die if you don’t help.” Brother of many numbers said firmly to droid friend, his colour was shifting to and fro, like a dance… it was pretty.
“Brother of many numbers… has pretty colour…” He said, earning a confused look from the other man.
“Uh… thanks?” Was the answer, “Can you help me set up?”
“I… can try but colour makes things… confusing.” He replied as he fidgeted with his fingers, “B… brother does things I can’t.”
“Brother? Can you contact this brother of yours?” Brother of many numbers moved to him, “We need all the help we can get.”
“I… I like blue and…” He closed his eyes.
“I like green.” 9999-1 said, looking to Fives who wore a very weird expression, “I can help you.”
“Right… okay…” Fives replied and moved to the clone called Tup, “AZI set up the scanner.”
“The scan is almost complete, everything appears to be normal… wait a second.” The droid moved away from the scanner to another machine, both he and Fives followed after him.
“What is it?” Fives asked.
“It appears this clone has developed a tumour.” AZI said looking to the two of them.
“Colour… never like this…” He said, “Clones don’t have things like that… right?”
“I have never witnessed anything like this in your kind.” AZI replied.
“Then... what is it?” Fives asked.
“I cannot be sure without a biopsy.” AZI turned to face them fully.
“You're gonna take it out of him?” Fives sounded nervous and angry.
“Won’t… won’t that kill him?” 9999-1 asked, “Shouldn’t we get… a medic? The nice ones?”
“We’re on our own, if Nala Se finds out we’re doing this… we’ll all be decommissioned.” Fives sighed angrily.
“I… I can help you get to the hanger… you can get him off world and… you can help him.” He explained, causing the other two to look at him, “I… I know we don’t look like normal clones… that our colours are wrong… but we want to help him, even if we’re not the same.”
“What’s your number?” Fives asked as he walked over to him.
“9999-1.” He nodded.
“Right, Dash One, you are a brother regardless of everything you think is different or wrong.” Fives put his hands on his shoulders, “Let’s get out of here, yeah?”
“I… we’ll make a distraction, you go when the alarms start going… okay?” He asked.
“Stay safe out there, don’t want to lose anyone because of this.” He nodded to Fives, “Meet us in the hanger, you’re coming with us.”
“Oh… I… we’ll try.” He knew he wasn’t going to make it to the hanger in time to go with them and safely depart, they would have to go without them, “But… if we don’t… don’t trust the… the Republic, their colour is… wrong.”
“I know a guy, he’ll help us.” Fives replied, “And you will make it and you will come with us, trust me okay.”
“M… mm.” He nodded, “Remember… once the alarm starts, get him to the hanger.”
“And you remember to get there.” Fives stepped back and 9999-1 made his way to the door.
“Brother likes you, says your colour is good.” He looked back at the man, “Goodbye… name of many numbers.” He knew the Mistress was close, she was going to be bearing down on Fives and Tup at any moment, he put his helmet on and ran because if he did it fast enough then they could get away and Tup would be okay.
“What are you doing CT-9999?” He had just finished his task when the Mistress appeared.
“I… I like blue…” 9999 said, confused by the button in his hand, it was a weird thing with a big red button on top.
“CT-9999 put that down, it is not a toy.” The Mistress said, cautiously moving to him.
“Pretty…” He examined the thing, “Thing?”
“It will make big sounds and lights but don’t push it till I tell you too… okay?” Brother asked him and he nodded.
“Eyes in the light… make them colourful?” He wondered if they could make colour… they never had colour and that was scary, he didn’t like that they didn’t have colour and he just wanted everyone to have colour.
“They will have colour but we have to wait until the right time to give them colour.” Brother explained and he nodded again.
“Put it down CT-9999.” The Mistress said firmly, still moving to him.
“Press it now.” Brother said, “Make colour happen.”
“Colour.” He pressed the pretty button.
“No!” The Mistress said quickly before loud noises appeared and the colour went weird as weird wailing noises joined in.
“We need to run brother.” Brother said, “She will scare you if we don’t.”
“Run…? Where?” He asked, “Brother of many numbers?”
“Yes, he went to the outside, the rain? You like rain remember?” Brother replied and he nodded, “Run, run as fast as you can.”
“Shoot to stun.” He heard voices in his head, “Don’t let him get away.”
“He is a valuable asset, do not kill him.” The Mistress said, “Detain him.”
“See? Rain.” Brother said, “Go look for brother of many numbers, he should be here.”
“Brother of many numbers…” He didn’t know what was happening but Brother said to do something so he did it, it wasn’t easy but he saw brother of many numbers’ colour and he made his way to him.
“See? Told you you’d make it.” Brother of many numbers said, “AZI is coming too.”
“We had better get moving, CT-5385 is in critical condition.” Droid friend appeared.
“And the cavalry is arriving.” Brother of many numbers said in a bad voice, “Come on 9999.”
“You should go… get him to safety, we’ll be okay.” 9999-1 said, “She won’t hurt or decommission us… we’re too valuable to her.”
“You’re coming to vod.” Fives said firmly but he shook his head.
“Get to safety… be safe brother and keep each other alive.” He nodded, “Go.”
“I’ll come back for you.” Fives said as he ran up the ramp, “Trust me.”
“I do.” He watched as the ramp went up and it took off into the rain.
“Stand down!” He turned to look at the people that had come to a halt.
“Put it down!” Another yelled when he produced another detonator.
“This game is over CT-9999, that is not a toy, put it away.” He looked to the Mistress who appeared with a weird looking woman, she had weird horn things on her head with long tail things coming from them, “Put it away and we shall forget your involvement in this.”
“I… I like blue…” 9999 said, he was holding another of those weird things… it had a yellow button, “Yellow…” He liked yellow, it was a good colour and made him feel happy.
“Easy trooper.” He blinked at the suddenly there person, it was a lady with pretty skin and a shiny colour.
“Shiny… pretty.” He had never seen any colour like hers, “Nice colour… safe colour…”
“That’s right, I am here to help.” She replied, “Can I see the yellow button?”
“Like yellow… too?” He asked, looking to the button.
“I love yellow, can I see it?” She asked and he nodded, putting the thing in her hand, “Thank you trooper.”
“Colour… bestest best brother said… 9999.” He explained.
“It is nice to meet you 9999.” Her colour was nice.
Kind.