Fight Or Flight
Summary: Omega explores Mantell City with Echo and discovers a harsh reality of the galaxy.
Word count: 2.7k
Warnings: Blood, attacks, fighting, degrading remarks, discrimination, self hate, mental breakdown, lack of self care. Swearing.
A/N: Cid is a lot nicer in this au, she's more like a critical, shrewd but still caring aunt than what she is in the show. Let me have my nice aunt/grandma Cid headcanon.
Bad Batch Loth-Werewolf AU link here.
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Omega ran down one of the streets of Mantell City, her brothers had let her go exploring with Echo. Their last mission to Corellia was still fresh in her mind, it had been exciting but a little scary. She took a sharp turn down a smaller path.
"Omega slow down!" Echo called out.
"Okay!" Omega skidded to a stop and waited for Echo to catch up.
"You're excited today." He said, ruffling her hair.
"Yeah! We get to explore today!" Omega cheered happily.
Echo chuckled and patted her head again. "Just be careful, we never know who we'll run into." He warned.
She nodded obediently and grabbed his hand so he could keep up with her.
They walked, and ran, around Mantell City for hours, the sun was low in the sky and made long, silly looking shadows. Omega stomped around, watching her shadow make silly shapes, she giggled and looked around.
They were in an area she'd never seen before. It was pretty clean compared to the rest of the city. And it smelled strongly of humans. Weird, usually there's a bunch of different smells. She didn't pay much mind to that thought and kept going happily on her way.
Echo however, was a bit more skeptical of the area. It didn't look as seedy and shady as the rest of the city did, but he could only smell humans, that usually didn't mean anything good. His experiences had taught him just how speciesist humans could be, especially in places where they'd feel 'threatened' by the abundance of non-humans. They weren't in any real danger, most authorities, who were coincidentally human, sided with humans, or just didn't care and the aliens didn't want to deal with the human shit.
He had an unwanted feeling of being watched. The feeling of being hunted wasn't one any Loth appreciated.
"Omega, stick closer to me." He called out.
The young clone stopped and turned back to him with a confused look.
"Why? Is something wrong?" She asked.
Omega suddenly felt like someone was watching her, sneaking up on her. Somewhere deep down, her mind screamed that she was being hunted. She shivered and moved towards her brother.
A shadow fell over her.
Someone laughed.
The sound was cold and unsettling.
"Look at this. A clone and a half clone kid." A cold voice said from behind her.
She could feel the fur coming in on her back sticking up from fear. She looked to Echo, unsure of whether to go towards him or stay put. He was reaching towards his blaster, Omega hoped he wouldn't use it.
"We're just passing through, let us head on our way and nobody has to get hurt." Echo said as calmly as he could manage.
Omega saw his gaze flick between her and something else. She froze at the click of a blaster.
They're gonna kill me! Her head screamed, all the noise ramped up as her mind frantically scrambled to find a way out of this.
"You are in our land, this place is off limits to any clones, even half clones." The person behind her paused, "Especially wolf clones." They hissed.
Omega got even more scared if that was even possible. She whimpered and wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing them.
"Leave the kid alone, she's not a clone, your problem is with me." Echo said.
Omega whimpered when she was shoved forwards. She looked to Echo for help, he gave her a small nod and took his hand away from his blaster.
"You think we'll listen to a pathetic droid clone like you? You're a stupid lab scrapper." They scoffed.
Lab Scrapper. The words froze in her mind. She didn't like them. They were bad words. A growl rose in her throat. Echo shook his head.
"Ha! Kid's like the clone, no wonder the mutt is hanging around you." She was shoved to the ground.
She rolled back and away from the group of humans, they all had blasters out. Echo let out a sigh and glanced at her regretfully.
"Sorry about this kid." She would ask what he meant but he answered the question before it left her mouth.
He changed and now stood at his full, nearly eleven foot height, towering over the humans. He let out a low, threatening growl. Omega knew it was a warning, Echo didn't really want to fight but he would if he had too.
The humans hardly waited after he growled to start firing. Echo swatted their blasters down with his tail, his thick skin and fur soaking up most of the damage. Most blasters weren't much against Loths, that was one of the reasons the Kaminoans had tolerated their existence.
Omega turned away and covered her eyes, she didn't want to see Echo do what Crosshair did. She couldn't imagine him doing that, he wasn't like Crosshair, he was kind and understanding and never mean to her. She didn't want to think of any of her brothers doing anything like that again.
Her head shot up as she heard Echo curse. Her blood froze yet again. There was something sticking out of Echo's side, it was wedged behind his shoulder and dug in deep. There was blood dripping down his dark fur.
They hurt him.
They hurt him?
They hurt him!
They hurt my brother!
Shock cascaded into rage.
There wasn't a voice telling her to stop this time.
She stood up, the ground was rough against her padded paws. She snarled and snapped at the nearest human. Warm liquid filled her mouth, it spilled out as she let go, dripping down her jaw.
She growled and snarled, her ears flat against her head and her fur fluffed out. She tasted blood in her mouth. It coated her chest, warm and salty and sticky.
Rage was fueling her.
They had dared to insult her brother and had the audacity to hurt him after!
She dimly heard Echo calling out for her to stop, she didn't listen. She stalked towards the humans who'd hurt her brother just because he was a clone and Loth.
That isn't right! He's a person!
She saw only red.
"Omega! Stop!"
Omega growled and lashed out at whoever was pulling her back. She felt a large paw holding her down.
"Omega, calm down. It's done, it's over. You won." Slowly, she came back to her senses.
She blinked and wiped at the sticky blood in her eyes that made it hard to see. She felt a rough, wet tongue lick the blood off for her.
She opened her eyes and instantly wished she'd kept them shut.
She stopped breathing. She swore her heart stopped too. Echo nudged her with his muzzle.
"Omega, I know it looks bad but-" He broke off as she pulled away from him.
She was wolf! Everything she'd ever been told not to do she had just done!
Echo is here! He saw!
Panic and shame and fear tumbled around in a gigantic mess of emotions and adrenaline. She made herself smaller, tucked her tail between her legs and stared in horror at her brother.
He was still wolf too, and the weapon, a knife, was still lodged in his side.
"Omega-" He started.
Her fear took over and she bolted, hardly hearing Echo calling after her. She blindly followed her nose back to Cid's, forcing herself into as complete of a change back as she could.
It hurt more than it ever had before but even the pain was dulled by an intense need for a small, safe space she could hide in.
She darted into Cid's and didn't stop, not even when her brothers were shouting in alarm and worry at her sudden arrival without Echo. At the blood on her.
She could feel it drying on her skin, hair and fur.
Without any thought, she bolted for Cid's office and hid in the darkness under the Trandoshan's desk.
She pressed herself into a corner and fought back the urge to shift. Her body was screaming, screeching at her. She dug her claws into her arms as she squeezed them, focusing on that pain instead of her body's screams.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't go back to being human, she couldn't make her body be normal again. She was stuck in her half shifted form.
Her mind was racing so fast and replaying every instant of her fight, over and over. Echo's frightened, worried face, blood on her paws, blood on the streets, blood on bodies. Just so much blood.
She cried and screamed and thrashed about, clawing at her body and clothes.
The door opened, she caught Hunter's scent.
He couldn't see this. Echo had and that was terrible already!
"Kid? Are you-"
She hardly gave him a chance to speak before she shouted and screeched and barked at him to leave.
"Go away! Go away! Go away! Get out! Get out! Get out now! Osik! Get the fuck out!" She screeched from her hiding place.
It wasn't often that she cursed, and she hadn't known many common ones until meeting her brothers again. She'd overheard those in an argument between Echo and Crosshair.
She panted heavily, holding her ears against her head as she waited for Hunter's reaction. There was a long stretch of silence.
And Hunter left.
He was going to be so mad! She was going to be in so much trouble!
Omega trembled and broke down into tears and screaming.
XXX
Omega curled further into herself as the door to Cid's office opened. It wasn't one of her brothers though, it was Cid.
She whimpered and cried again. Cid would be so mad at her for coming into her office like this and ruining it. She wasn't supposed to go in, but it had been the only hiding spot she could think of, and she didn't want to leave it now.
A bowl of warm, fragrant water was set down near her, Cid grunted and sat down heavily. Omega caught a glimpse of something pale in Cid's clawed hands.
"Need help cleaning, Tiny?" Cid spoke to her in a much softer voice than she had ever heard from the Trandoshan.
Her ears perked in surprise, Cid was sitting calmly and patiently waiting for her to respond with a towel and fur brush in her hands. The look on her face was almost worried, but it was definitely sympathetic.
She gave a small nod and scooted forwards slightly, leaning her head towards Cid. The Trandoshan had a surprisingly soft touch as she took the damp towel to her blood stained face, gently scrubbing the dried blood away with the warm water.
Omega tried not to pay attention to how much dried blood was coming off.
Cid muttered and took the brush to her ears, yanking out clumps of dead, matted blood stuck fur. It didn't hurt much until Cid got to one of her painful ear spots.With a whimper Omega held her hands over her ears to keep Cid from touching it.
"It looks like you've got a hot spot, Tiny." Cid said.
"Whats that?" Omega asked quietly.
"Moisture collects under your matted fur and lets bacteria grow and it makes a painful sore, they can get infected, good thing I'm cleaning it now." Cid told her.
The Trandoshan used a soft fluffy ball with some medicine on it and wiped at the painful spot, it stung, but Omega didn't protest.
She didn't say anything as Cid kept cleaning her ears, didn't even make a peep when Cid dipped a warmly wet towel into her ear to clean the blood there.
"This stuff is a pain, it'll get in your ears and cause an infection if you don't clean it fast enough." Cid said.
The Trandoshan was fine with her silence. She kept talking anyway, to distract the kid's active mind from inevitably going to those dark places.
Cid finished washing the dried blood out of her ears and grabbed a fur brush to dislodge anything stuck in her matted clumps. She whimpered a little but didn't do anything to stop her. It didn't feel great but it also didn't feel terrible.
"I'm done for now but you need to take better care of your ears kid, they'll get pelted." Cid told her.
Omega turned to the Trandoshan, her eyes felt puffy, she knew they must've looked swollen. She saw understanding and sympathy on Cid's face. Cid wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer.
She felt the woman's large claws trace circles gently on her back. She curled into the Trandoshan and cried.
She cried about how awful she felt, how hard it was to sleep, how tired she felt all the time. She cried about the mess she'd made. She cried about how much of a mistake she felt like. She rambled and cried about everything that had gone wrong with her and how sorry she was for intruding on Cid's space.
She just cried for what seemed like hours.
"It's alright Tiny, there's nothing wrong with you." Cid told her in an attempt to comfort her.
"Yes there is! There's a lot of things wrong with me!" Omega cried.
"Just because your head works differently than most humans doesn't mean something is wrong with you." Cid said.
"What? Of course it means something is wrong!" Omega fought back, not questioning just how Cid knew about her closely kept secret.
"If it was wrong then why do natborns come out with a mind like yours, and your brother's? It's not all that rare given how many humans there are, other species have similar conditions. It's something that just happens, having it doesn't make you wrong, because you're not wrong." Cid's conviction was stronger than Omega had expected.
It made her further doubt what she'd been told by the Kaminoans. Nala Se had never told her she was wrong but some of the other Kaminoans said it right in front of her, others when they thought she wasn't listening, Lama Su had done both. Is my brain like being Loth? Is it really just something that happens? Why didn't Nala tell me?
"r-really?" She asked softly.
"Yep." Cid affirmed with a nod.
The kid didn't look like she believed her.
"You know, I've got a friend who's a lot like you." The way the kid's bloodshot eyes lit up made Cid feel a little something that was reserved for very specific people. Sympathy.
Sorry Blue, you'll understand why I talked when you see her.
"Do you want to know about her?" Cid asked.
"Yes! Er, that would be very nice." The kid's tail wagged around wildly.
XXX
Cid closed the door to her office, Tiny had fallen asleep on the floor and Cid hadn't wanted to wake her up by moving her so she had just tossed a blanket over her and given her a pillow.
She sighed and turned to face the five overprotective clones.
"Before you start going off, Tiny isn't physically hurt, she just fell asleep and shit, she needs it so for fuck's sake, be quiet." She snapped in a low voice.
The five clones all looked between each other, confused and unsure of what they were supposed to be doing with a child in the situation of Tiny. Cid sighed in annoyance and face palmed.
These idiots don't know anything! Who let them have a kid?
"You boys don't know anything about kids, do you?" She guessed.
"We're soilders." Moody stated.
"Wasn't Cut a soldier too?" Cid prompted.
"How-"
"Kid talks." She cut Goggles off.
"How much more do you know? You don't have kids." Moody put in.
"I had friends with kids, I know a lot more than you think." Cid snapped at him.
"Now, Tiny doesn't want to be bothered by any of you once she wakes up and I have a job for you, this one will pay well." Cid told them.
"You want us to leave her here after what happened today?!" Scomp asked in shock.
"Yes, she needs time to herself and she doesn't need to talk about it. She'll be fine. I promise." Cid told them.
They didn't look sold, she'd need to do more pushing. Maker knew that kid needed time alone to self-reflect.
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Omega is traumatizeder now!😃
One of my favorite things to do is take a character and traumatize the fuck out of them, I'm not done with Omega just yet😈
Yes, I'm a little evil sometimes.
It's really stupid fun to do.
I'm scared for the next episode, how about you guys?
It's going to be either a gut punch or more waiting to make us all go insane! So lot's of fun!
Alright, I hope you all have a good day, whatever that is for you!
VJS Out!
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Anyway, if you are looking for new fantasy books to read that aren't racist and transphobic, for middle grade and YA, I'd recommend
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. Magical school! A boarding school for kids who come home from portal fantasies and don't know how to cope with being in regular old Earth anymore. Each book focuses on a different character, and they alternate between school adventures and flashbacks to the portal fantasies
Lobizona by Romina Garber. Magical school! When Manu is forced to go on the run after ICE detains her mother, her instincts lead her to a school for witches and werewolves, and she discovers that her father was a werewolf and mating with humans is forbidden. She must hide her half human status while trying to learn how to harness her magic so she can free her mother
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. In a world where magic is the norm, Elatsoe has the power to raise ghosts, but specifically animal ghosts, as raising a human spirit is forbidden. When her cousin's spirit comes to her in a dream and says he was murdered, she must go to his town and use her abilities to investigate the magical conspiracy that lead to his death
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Yadriel is a young brujo whose family won't let him participate in his coming of age ceremony to harness his power because they think their gendered magic system won't accommodate the fact that he's trans. In order to prove that he's a real brujo, he tries to summon and guide a ghost to the afterlife. He accidentally summons the spirit of the recently murdered bad boy at his school who refuses to go to the afterlife unless Yadriel helps him solve his murder
Percy Jackson and all it's spinoffs. While Riordan is far from perfect, he does at least make an active effort to listen to minority fans and do better
Anything in the Riordan presents imprint. While I've only read one of them so far (Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse- it was great), it's my understanding that the imprint prioritizes minority authors and representative stories that have the same feeling as the Percy Jackson series, so if you liked it, there should be plenty to pick from here
And for new adult and adult,
The Wrath & Athenaeum trilogy by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun. Split between two perspectives in parallel worlds. Eric, a young man living in San Francisco, learns he is descended from gods and is forcibly enrolled in a training program to fight beings from their parallel world trying to invade Earth. Lil, a librarian and witch apprentice living in said parallel world, is thrust into the deadly political court system as the regents try to find a way to fight the force destroying their world and forcing them to flee to Earth
The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin. Split perspectives from people who can manipulate the Eath (called orogenes) in a fantasy world that discriminates against them. Essun's husband, after discovering that their children are orogenes, beats their son to death and flees with their daughter. Essun tries to track him down and rescue her daughter. Damaya is a young girl who just found out she's an orogene and was abandoned by her parents because of it. She is taken to a school to learn how to control her powers. Syenite, a powerful orogene in their city where they isolate themselves from humans, is ordered to have a child with another powerful orogene in order to maintain their society. Also, the apocalypse is happening
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Split between four perspectives in a fantasy world where dragons exist and half the world worships them and the other half despises them. Ead, a powerful mage, is sent to protect the queen of a realm that declares her people savages because it's claimed that Queen Sabran's bloodline continuing is the only thing that will stop dragons from rising. Tané is about to be trained as a dragon rider when she breaks the law to help a refugee and has to hide her crime. Loth, a knight in Sabran's court is sent on a suicide mission to negotiate with one of the dragon worshiping kingdoms. Roos, an exile from Sabran's kingdom agrees to hide Tané's refugee as he works on a plan to return home
The Hell's Library trilogy by AJ Hackwith. Afterlives house libraries that contain every work written and unwritten by humanity. When it's rumored that a book written by Lucifer has resurfaced and a war threatens to break out over control of the book, Hell's librarian and her friends try to get the book, broker peace, and discover the truth behind the existence of the libraries
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Split between three perspectives as the return of an old god topples the power balance in a theocratic holy city. Serapio, the vessel for the god, must reach the holy city in time for the eclipse. Xiala, a member of a hunted magical minority, captains the pirate ship that ferries Serapio to the city. Narapa, a priestess who serves the reigning god in the holy city, fights for class equality, unaware of the old god's impending arrival
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall. Split in two perspectives. A young imperial woman is being sent towards her arranged marriage, but the ship she booked passage on is a pirate ship intending to sell her and the other passengers into slavery. A desperate orphan turned pirate on the ship is assigned to guard her. When the crew captures a mermaid, the pair bond over trying to protect and free her, fleeing the ship and winding up at the mercy of the sea and a powerful witch
Our Bloody Pearl by DN Bryn. Perle, a mute siren, has been captured and held hostage by a ruthless pirate trying to destroy sirens. They're rescued by another pirate who vows to protect them and help them heal from the wounds inflicted in capture, but they can't be sure if they can trust another human, and the original pirate will never stop hunting them, trying to capture Perle again
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