The Clone Wars One Shots

Hearing Impaired Part 1

The life of a clone wasn't easy. Far from it. All they knew was war and loss, and the dehumanization they faced was unbearable. You knew all about it. How could you not? After all, you were a clone too.

You had been part of a second, experimental cloning project a few years before the war started. With how much money the Kaminoans were making from the clone army, they couldn't bear the thought of sacrificing the operation if anything happened to the army's donor, Jango Fett. They didn't want to put all their eggs in one basket. To prevent the potential money loss, Lama Su had Jango search the galaxy for another warrior that he deemed suitable of cloning. Jango's choice was another bounty hunter named Averill Reza, an old friend and feared hunter. A batch of fifty clones were made from Averill's DNA... and that was where things went horribly wrong.

A few months after the first batch was created, Averill was assassinated. They had refused an important job given by Jabba the Hutt shortly after they had been hired to be cloned, and the crime boss was having none of it. He put a bounty on Averill's head, which was delivered to him by Cad Bane, an aspiring new bounty hunter. The job had won him the Hutts' favor, and had left the Kaminoans with only fifty first generation clones of Averill.

It wasn't long before problems began to emerge, and that number dwindled. Something had gone wrong during the cloning process, and it affected every one of Averill's fifty replicas. They were weak and sickly, with only twelve living past three years. After five years, only one remained - you.

You had been born deaf. Like several other clones of Averill, your ears hadn't fully developed, and you lived in a completely silent world because of it. You had been strong enough to survive even as your siblings fell around you, but that wasn't good enough for the Kaminoans. They wanted no reminders of their failure, and you were to be executed after the project was abandoned.

That was when you met the Bad Batch.

The older clones bumped into you in the hall while you were trying to keep your distance from the Kaminoans, and the four were curious about who you were and where you came from. They had never seen you before, and you looked nothing like a clone of Jango Fett. Three of them began firing questions at you, but you just stared blankly, unable to figure out what they were saying. You gathered the general idea from reading their lips, but you still couldn't respond. When you tried to sign to them, they fell silent and glanced back at their fourth member, who was busy typing away on his datapad. The goggle clad clone noticed his brothers staring at him and quickly picked up on the situation.

"Hello, I'm Tech," the six year old clone signed. "What's your name?"

You smiled, grateful that a fellow clone could understand you. It was rare. "I'm Y/n," you signed back happily.

"I've never seen you around here before," Tech admitted. "What are you doing on Kamino?"

"I live here," you responded simply, unsurprised that he had never hard about you. You and your batchmates had been a secret project, after all. This was one of the first times you had ever been outside of the few rooms you had been confined to your whole life. "I'm a clone, like you."

Tech shot you an odd look and dropped his hands in confusion. The others began asking questions that you couldn't decipher, and Tech quickly responded before picking up his silent conversation with you.

"You don't look like a clone," Tech stated, looking you up and down. His brow was wrinkled in confusion as he pushed his goggles up his nose.

"Neither do you," you shot back with a small smirk

"I suppose that's fair."

Your gaze drifted to the trio of clones behind Tech, who were bickering as their brother spoke to you. Tech noticed your attention drift and let out an annoyed sigh before turning towards the others. He pushed between them and lectured them until they shut up, at which point he turned back to you.