FIC: Hukaat'kama ~ Star Wars Prequels ~ Jango/Obi-Wan ~ Mature ~ Chapter 6/6 COMPLETE
Title: Hukaat'kama
Fandom: Star Wars
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairing: Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Warnings: Asexual!Jango, AU, hurt/comfort, pre-relationship, established relationship, mentioned drug addiction and withdrawal, mentioned slavery, mentioned genocide, canon-typical violence, Mandalorian culture, Jedi culture, non-binary clones, grief, angst, Kamino is the worst, Jango's questionable parenting, mention of reconditioning, hopeful ending
Summary: Five times someone threatened Jango for Obi-Wan's sake.
A/N: This is less of a +1-or even particularly related to the theme, tbh-but I woke up one night with the idea for it already half formed, and it is extremely relevant to this fic. And I don't know where I'd put it, if not at the end of this set. So.
The Kaminoans are the worst, and the clones definitely deserved better. But so did Jango.
Nod to watch it grow, child of woe by afearsomecritter; I'm not sure if this fic can be wholly blamed for sparking the idea of Jango getting reconditioned, but I did end up thinking about it a bit while writing this chapter. (Gen, the Kaminoans recondition Jango to the point that he doesn't remember who he is.)
Lama Su was just about to begin the shut down cycle for his office terminal, intending to get some sleep, when an alert popped up. Frowning a bit, he selected it, and a video window opened, the donor's face frozen as it loaded.
Ah, it was never good news when their donor made video entries after its sleep cycle should have begun.
Lama Su selected the translation program he'd had to find, since the donor spoke a language that none of the Kaminoans understood. Irritatingly, there were very few resources for it, and six videos had piled up before Lama Su had found something. They'd had to call in Lord Tyranus to halt the donor's attempt to steal all of the decanted product, as its plans were already too far along for a simple reconditioning. Unfortunate; Tyranus always made them pay for the assistance.
As soon as it had finished loading, the video began to play, the translation into Kaminoan appearing below the video window.
The human's eyes were wide and its breathing coming in quick, short gasps. "Something's wrong," it said, low and hushed, like it was afraid of talking too loudly. "They're not droids. I know the Kaminoans want them to be droids, completely without personality or individuality. There's- I can remember, almost, fighting with..."
The human's eyes unfocussed and it stared at nothing for a moment, mouth hanging half open.
And then it seemed to shake itself. "Kriff. What was I saying?" It looked down, towards its lap, and then nodded. "Not droids. Except, sometimes, they go sort of, of blank. Ob-"
It choked, hunching forward and grabbing its head, curses spewing from its lips.
It took a deep breath, then another. Glanced down towards its lap again. "I'm getting worse," it whispered, almost to itself.
Lama Su paused the video and comm'd Ko Sai. As soon as she appeared in the holo, glowering, he said, "Fett is having memory problems."
Ko Sai's glower turned sour. "I can't help that whatever Tyranus did is negatively impacting my process."
"Tyranus asks too much when we require his help; find a way around the problem, or you will be replaced."
Ko Sai let out an irritated little 'tssk' sound. "Was that it?"
"No. I haven't finished watching Fett's video."
"Fine," Ko Sai said, and the comm ended.
Lama Su resumed the video.
The human stared down into its lap for another moment, then sighed and looked back at the recording. "I came across a couple of cadets today. One of them was, stars, was trying to beat the other's head in. Doing a pretty good job of it, too," the human added quietly, expression twisting with emotion.
"Kept saying something about being a good soldier and following orders. As they're trying to put their fist through their sibling's head. What the kriff. Not even the Nulls are that bad!"
Lama Su paused the video and comm'd Ko Sai back. "Fett saw a chip activate," he informed her.
Ko Sai growled. "That, yes. The product in question has been terminated and its chip extracted for observation. We'll fix it."
"Fix Fett, too," Lama Su ordered.
Ko Sai looked off to one side and snapped, "Go flood Fett's rooms with gas and collect it, bring it to the reconditioning room."
"Good," Lama Su said, and ended the comm. Then he turned back to his terminal and set the program to erase the donor's video recording; best it not find any sign of it, next time it logged into its own terminal.
And then he turned off his terminal and left for bed.
In Slave I, a terminal hidden behind a bulkhead blinked on, a percentage counter blinking as something was uploaded onto its memory.
Carved into the metal plate of the terminal with a shaky hand, was the Mando'a word Ret'lini.
Just in case.
A/N: Not a fix-it, but I'm an unapologetic sucker for fix-its, so have a whisper of a chance that Jango's survival could result in the chips being discovered before they could be activated.
Chapters 1) Satine Kryze 2) Dexter Jettster 3) Quinlan Vos 4) Alpha-17 5) Cody (CC-2224) -1) Kaminoans Glossary
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