#Umbarans | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mwolf0epsilon · 6 months

Text

The Umbaran Pathogen - Day 31: PTSD/Crying

Summary: The war is coming to an end, and the vode's lives are ready to truly begin. It's not going to be easy for some of them to climb back out of rock bottom, however. Still, better to have hope than to give in to despair.

Warning: Mentions of a violent death via shotgun to the face (Palpatine never saw it coming) & a brief mention of an attempted suicide (I'm sure you can guess who tried).

Twitch belongs to @gaeasun

Here's what Tup and Dogma currently look like!

Prev / END

[In which the events on Umbara are worsened by an unknown pathogen taking hold of both the 501st and 212th. These series of drabbles will follow a non-linear timeline based on the AI-less Whumptober prompt list for 2023.]

THIS STORY IS ALSO ON AO3

---

"Hardcase, be more careful!"

"I AM being careful!"

A lot had changed in a month, but honestly that hadn't really come as much of a surprise. After departing from Umbara, both the troopers of the 501st and 212th had been prepared for things to never quite be the same ever again. Had all anticipating that their surrender, would bring with it both terrible consequences and many alterations in the order of things.

That said, they hadn't really foreseen something quite like the spectacle that had gone down between the Senate and the Coruscant Guard...

Now, If anyone asked Kix for his humble opinion on the matter (which, much to his chagrin, people rarely did), it honestly felt like what transpired had been something that had been a long time in the making. And, the more he thought about it (the more he really dug through his brain), the less certain aspects of GAR to Guard relations felt like mere happenstance...

Not one singular clone trusted a politician as far as they could throw them. Were fully aware that natborns in positions of power were often wont to abuse said power with reckless abandon, unless they were simply just made different (like senator Organa for example, a man so surrounded by wealth and yet so humble and kind, that it left you scratching your head).

Yet, many a time while on leave, there had been some rather bizarre exchanges between frontline and homefront troopers. Accusations of luxurious pampered lives that boggled the mind. Ideas that came from seemingly nowhere and that caused strife between the GAR soldiers and the Guardsmen.

Transgressions that had caused a rift between vode...

No one had ever really stopped to think about who had started those baseless rumors. No one really felt the need to, because shore leave on Triple Zero was rather finite, and at the end of the day it was better to just party until you didn't have time to party at all. Live a little.

Now that the proverbial rose-tinted glasses had been lifted off their faces however, they were suddenly more than a little aware that it had not been a vod who'd started the dispute between the GAR and Guard. No. The real culprit behind that had been the Sith Lord that Commander Fox had brutally murdered during a Senate Meeting.

Caught the bastard by surprise with a sawed-off shotgun that he'd confiscated during a drug bust. The footage was both shocking and quite glorious to behold, especially considering Palpatine's brain matter had splattered every single prissy senator that had been arguing over this or that at the time. Their pods in range of the gory splash-zone.

Unsurprisingly, Commander Fox had been apprehended and taken to prison. His own men had come to take him away, simply requesting that he give up his weapon and present them with his hands, so that he could be cuffed and leisurely strolled past all the shocked and hysterical natborns with almost smug satisfaction.

The Guard had been in no uproar about the death of the head of state. If anything, they rejoiced over it. Even if they had to keep up appearances and drop their commanding officer in prison, until someone came in to look for a motive for his rather unexpected act of treason.

The piles upon piles of damning evidence, as well as some kind of mystical shift in the Force itself (or whatever), had certainly been enough to more than justify the Marshal Commander's actions. Not enough to get him out of prison immediately, but enough to substantially reduce his sentence by a crap ton of years.

All things considered, 3 months for murdering the Chancellor wasn't too bad. Commander Fox even seemed to snort at the humor of it all. Had graciously accepted his first ever vacation with a gleeful grin.

Things were honestly better now.

With Palpatine revealed as the Sith Lord that had been playing both sides of the war, General Kenobi expressing the absolute importance of strengthening mental health care among the Jedi and troopers, and General Skywalker finally relenting and accepting a trip to the Mind Healers after he and General Kenobi had a heart to heart, the lives of many had definitely improved.

They had a new Chancellor that strongly believed in a more diplomatic approach, rather than prioritizing securing power for himself, so the war was nearly completely wrapped up. Many members of the Senate and CorSec were undergoing sackings and sanctions, after an extensive investigation revealed corruption, abuse and even quite a fair share of illegal endeavors. The GAR and Guard were being permitted a deliciously extensive shore leave so that they might all recuperate properly. And General Ti and the Alpha Class were currently working on moving every single trooper, cadet and tubie off Kamino into various Jedi Corporation locations, after they'd won a very tense legal battle that would ensure the freedom of all vode.

Life was impossibly good.

"Kix, tell him to stop!"

"Hey, don't drag Kix into this!"

"Then stop trying to stride like you're not as wobbly on your legs as a newborn fathier!!!"

Rolling his eyes, the medic smiled fondly as he watched Dogma try to keep up with Hardcase, who'd recently been allowed to move around without the aid of a hoverchair. Provided he used crutches.

Hardcase being Hardcase, had taken to over-swinging to take bigger and faster strides than what he should. His balance still not quite what it used to be, but his confidence remaining virtually untouched by his harrowing experiences. And that caused the mutated sergeant a fair bit of anxiety, considering he was currently taking a few modules to properly help around the medbay (seeing as he spent so much time in there anyway to keep an eye on Tup, they'd decided he'd make a fine reserve medic).

"Casey, stop scaring our kih'vod..." He chastised lightly, doing nothing to really stop his batcher. When Hardcase was full of energy, it was often better to let him get it out of his system, than to try to force him to sit still.

"I'm not trying to! I'm just glad to be able to run around again!" Hardcase whined, giving the medic a mighty pout unbecoming of a decorated soldier. "The hoverchair was nice and all, but my skin felt like I was on fire just having to sit all day..."

"Your skin felt like it was on fire because you're covered head to toe in burn scars." Dogma huffed, rolling his head to the side to show that he was actually rolling his eyes.

He'd begun to use more obvious body language to compensate for some of his physical alterations. A suggestion Twitch had made once it came to light how difficult it had been for him to approach other vode. Especially after what had happened on Umbara.

"Badass burn scars you mean." Hardcase grinned.

"You're smiling right now, but once you have to put on your cream, and start complaining that you're constantly cold, it won't feel nearly as badass..." Dogma grumbled and stamped his foot, his gaster and wings briefly twitching as a result of the sudden movement. "Although, that said, at least the sweaters and loose pants work on you... We still haven't found a material that won't pinch on Echo's cybernetics, and that won't irritate him because of the texture..."

"I still think they should use the same stuff they got for our buggy vode's clothing." Hardcase pointed out, motioning towards Dogma's heavily modified clothes. "Least then the join issues would be sorted."

Another thing that had recently happened had been Echo's discovery and rescue. The details were a little vague, but those who asked were told that a whistleblower had sent some rather incriminating footage of one of the Techno Union's projects. A project pertaining the conversion of a POW into some kind of algorithmic weapon.

To put a long story short, Echo was back. Changed, traumatized and not exactly in one piece. But back. Fives had been nothing if not a wreck of emotions since, and was now helping his twin through a much more steeper hill of recovery while he himself tried to process his own feelings over the matter.

The PTSD that Echo suffered alone, would be a massive challenge to overcome. But it was one he wouldn't be forced to endure on his own.

And Kix was honestly grateful for the medbay to be so full of movement that did not involve recent injuries. Fives, Echo, Hardcase and Dogma's semi-permanent company, gave him something to focus on and work with instead of stewing away in negative thoughts. Especially about things he was nowhere near qualified enough to handle, but that both he and his fellow medics were working around the clock to educate themselves on and further improve treatment plans...

The shrill beep of his comm startled Kix out of his thoughts.

Looking down at his comm unit, he hummed in slight surprise as he read the name of the contact. Twitch was calling him. He wondered what the younger medic needed that he'd call him through comms instead of coming to get him instead.

That was a little unusual.

"Kix here, what's--"

"There's a situation!"

Almost immediately his good humor plummeted. Things had slowed down considerably in terms of medical duties, yes. But that didn't mean they didn't get the occasional incident. And if Twitch was calling him sounding this stressed, then something bad had definitely happened while he'd been accompanying Hardcase and Dogma to the mess hall.

"How bad?" he spared no time with formalities. He had to know what he was going to walk in on.

"It's Tup!" Twitch cried out. "He's woken up! But something's wrong Kix, he went crazy and bolted!"

"Tup?!" Mentally cursing Dogma's improved hearing, Kix barely had the time to rush over to Hardcase to grab a hold of his brother before the mutated sargeant darted off, knocking him slightly off balance.

"Dogma's on his way, I'll be there once I drop 'Case off."

"I'll comm the Captain. He's probably already on his way from visiting Commander Fox." Twitch gulped. "I'll... I'll comm Pitch and Sponge too. To warn them! They're still very skittish around Dogma. Seeing Tup back on his feet without prior warning might freak them out!"

"You do that. Kix out."

Dogma's heart was racing as he tried to track down his wayward brother. Cursing himself in at least three different languages as he sprinted down the hall on all six legs, for having been gone from the medbay as long as he had.

He'd stood vigil by Tup's bedside from the moment he'd been told his brother was in a coma. Watched over him day after day while awaiting patiently for the moment he might finally come out of it. To think Tup had indeed woken up, and that he hadn't been there when he'd needed him most...

It made him feel awful.

And selfish too, since he'd recently been spending time around the other vode. Focusing on bonding with them rather than sitting with his slumbering twin.

He still spent the great majority of his time in the medbay, of course. Was even making himself useful and learning to be a proper medic too! But a part of him had still longed for the companionship that Tup had temporarily been unable to provide him.

After all he hadn't been much for conversation in the past month...

Still, guilt-ridden or not over this slight mishap, Dogma didn't have the time to continuously kick himself over what he could have done better. He had to find Tup before he either hurt himself or scared someone half to death.

To tell the truth, he had no idea where the other might have gone. They were twins, sure, and they did know each other better than the back of their own hands. But that didn't mean they were mind readers. In fact, they were very different from each other and had very different ideas of what was or wasn't a fun time, and which places were the best for them to hide in when they were overwhelmed.

But, even if they didn't spend a day or two together, they always found their way back to one another. Full of tales to tell and chatter to fill the void as they relaxed.

Dogma's fingers deftly untangling his brother's long locks, and braiding them into interesting configurations. Tup's soothingly soft voice calming him as he recounted what he'd gotten up to in his absence.

No matter where Tup had gone, even if it were somewhere unexpected, Dogma would inevitably find him.

Luckily he did have something to work with that he hadn't had before, when he'd been fully human. An astonishingly acute sense of smell and a scent trail that he could follow so long as it was nice and fresh. And, given the fact Tup had only just woken up and come through, the trail was indeed very fresh.

It just bothered him where exactly on base it was leading him to...

There was no way in sith-hells that his brother would have stumbled into the firing range on accident. Especially if one were to take into consideration Dogma's own reaction to waking up after his parasite had been removed.

He just hoped the weapons lockers had all been tightly padlocked.

"Tup...?" pausing at the door that led to his destination, Dogma grimaced as he noted something quite jarring.

In his haste he hadn't really noticed it before, but there were scratches all over the duracrete and walls. Scratches that looked suspiciously like uneven numbered claw marks. And both the door to the firing range and the keypad were in pretty bad shape. Like something had tried to bash the former down before simply destroying the keypad.

When that hadn't worked, whatever (or rather, whoever) had attacked the door had simply smashed through the wall like it wasn't made of dense sturdy building materials. Although, given the nature of their alterations, to them it really wasn't that big of a deal anymore.

Dogma braced himself for the worst before climbing through the hole in the wall. And, fortunately, he hadn't walked into a bloodbath. Although the situation was still not ideal. If anything, it was heartbreaking to see his twin in the state he was in.

"Oh Tup..." Dogma's antennae drooped, expression pinched as he approached his brother.

The other was curled up on the floor, long tail coiled tightly around himself as he tried to look as small as possible. All around him were several blasters that had been smashed to pieces. Likely because his pincers were simply too strong to hold a weapon with so many delicate parts anymore. The few destroyed vibroblades that he'd also tried to take a hold of, hadn't fared any better...

It was lucky that, in his state of despair, Tup hadn't thought to use his own in-built weapons against himself. Otherwise Dogma really might have just been walking in on a cooling corpse.

"Tup..." Kneeling down before his weeping brother, Dogma tried to reach for his face to dry some of his tears like he used to do when they were cadets. Only to be pushed away in response to the attempted contact. "Tup please..."

"N̸O̸!̵" Coiling himself even more tightly (if that was even possible) the long-haired mutant wailed pitifully. His tail beginning to thrash erratically as he tried to will himself into invisibility.

And wouldn't that be a useful ability right now?

"Tup it's ok..."

"N̵O̸ ̴I̶T̶'̵S̷ ̵N̷O̸T̶!̵ ̶I̸'̴M̵ ̵A̵ ̶M̴O̵N̵S̶T̴E̷R̸!̸" Tup screeched, his clumsy limbs fumbling slightly as he tried to push himself away from Dogma. Away from any efforts to comfort him. "I̶T̷'̵S̴ ̸N̶O̴T̷ ̴S̶A̶F̴E̷ ̶T̶O̴ ̷B̵E̶ ̶A̵R̸O̷U̷N̷D̶ ̸M̸E̴!̷"

"You're not a..." Dogma shook his head, trying to keep his face neutral in spite of Tup's words. "It's out. You're not dangerous anymore... The parasite's out."

"U̸R̶G̶H̵!̶ ̸Y̴O̸U̵ ̶D̸O̶N̵'̶T̶ ̶G̵E̴T̵ ̶I̴T̵ ̵D̴O̶ ̴Y̶O̸U̸?̶!̴" Tup looked up. His face wasn't blotchy like it used to get when he cried. The scales on his face didn't change color like regular skin, and the mandibles at the side of his mouth and fang-like scale plating made it difficult to read his expressions. The way his brow was furrowed and his eyes shone with pure anguish was all Tup however. Very familiar to him. "A̷l̵l̵ ̷o̵f̶ ̸t̶h̷a̸t̶.̷.̵.̸ ̴A̶l̶l̷ ̸o̷f̸ ̴t̴h̶o̵s̵e̶ ̵t̶h̵i̶n̸g̷s̷ ̵I̵ ̸d̵i̷d̶ ̷t̴o̶ ̸y̷o̴u̶,̶ ̷t̸o̷ ̶e̸v̵e̶r̷y̵o̸n̴e̵.̸.̶.̴ ̵I̸T̴ ̴W̵A̵S̶ ̴A̷L̷L̸ ̷M̶Y̴ ̶F̸A̸U̵L̷T̸!̴!̵!̶"

"It wasn't."

"I̵T̸ ̵W̷A̶S̷!̶ ̵I̵ ̷L̴E̶T̴ ̵T̵H̴A̶T̷ ̴T̴H̷I̵N̷G̸ ̴U̴S̷E̵ ̴M̷E̷!̴!̴!̵" Tup roared, jumping up into a proper standing position and using his height to tower over Dogma with ease. "̷I̷T̴ ̶F̶E̶L̴T̴ ̶G̷O̴O̴D̸!̴ ̴H̴A̴V̷I̷N̶G̸ ̵A̶L̵L̶ ̴O̶F̷ ̷Y̸O̸U̵ ̴U̵N̶D̵E̷R̸ ̷M̵Y̴ ̶C̶O̶N̵T̸R̷O̴L̶!̶ ̸A̸S̶ ̸M̶Y̸ ̶S̶E̶R̸V̷A̵N̶T̷S̷,̵ ̴M̸Y̴ ̵P̴L̷A̸Y̴ ̸T̸H̸I̴N̸G̴S̷.̵.̶.̸ ̶I̴T̴ ̴F̵E̷L̵T̶ ̴S̵O̶ ̷K̶A̸R̷K̵I̸N̵G̸ ̷G̷O̵O̶D̶!̵ ̵I̶ ̶W̶A̸N̶T̸E̶D̷ ̸I̷T̷!̷ ̷I̸ ̵W̷A̵N̸T̴E̵D̷ ̸M̴O̶R̶E̵!̵"

"No it wasn't!" Dogma stood up as well, refusing to be intimidated even if his heart was starting to race once more.

The fear, sorrow and anger he could smell coming off of his twin in waves, making it so hard for him to concentrate on his own actual emotions.

Despite no longer being under the parasites's control, Dogma's body was still wired to respond to Tup's emotional responses. Karking pheromones...

"I̵T̸ ̷W̶A̶S̵!̴!̶!̷!" Tup reared up suddenly like a startled fathier. Standing on his two back legs and kicking the front ones slightly. Dogma backed away immediately, afraid the other might hit him accidentally on the way back down. With how upset Tup was, lashing out was not out of the question. "A̴L̷L̶ ̷T̷H̴A̵T̷ ̵T̸H̶I̵N̸G̵ ̵D̶I̵D̵ ̸W̸A̷S̸ ̴B̵R̶I̵N̸G̵ ̸I̶T̴ ̷O̵U̷T̸ ̵O̵F̷ ̷M̶E̸!̵ ̷A̴L̶L̴ ̷T̷H̸E̶ ̵B̷A̸D̵ ̷T̶H̶I̴N̵G̶S̷!̶!̷!̴"

Oh, that certainly wouldn't fly. No one was allowed to slander his brother. Not even the stubborn idiot himself.

"STOP LYING TO YOURSELF JUST BECAUSE YOU FEEL GUILTY OVER SOMETHING YOU HAD NO CONTROL OVER! I KNOW IT WASN'T ALL YOU BECAUSE I KNOW YOU TUP! BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF, APPARENTLY!!!" Dogma roared back, letting his temper rule him for once if it meant his much more vocal vod might actually listen. "I don't know if you remember this, but I was also under that stupid thing's control! I tried to fight it, I knew what it was trying to make me do was wrong, but it felt... It felt good to give in. I didn't want to do any of the things it made me do, but I still did them... Because it made me feel amazing!"

Tup stood there, tense and shaking. Staring at him with fury and something else. Something he couldn't quite discern since it was just so many emotions in one. Since he didn't say anything else however, Dogma carried on.

"I didn't want to ambush and capture any of our vode. I didn't want to infect anyone else. I didn't want to hurt or kill the medics. I certainly didn't want to eat them!" Dogma paced, his wings twitching uncontrollably while he clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly. Tried to do something with them, otherwise he might try to gnaw on his wrists to feel something other than the whirlwind of emotions that were threatening to choke him out before he knocked some sense into Tup's thick skull. "I didn't want to hurt anyone... What I did want, was to make you happy. Because your happiness meant a lot to me... I wanted to be useful. And to protect everyone... Because Umbara was awful, and Krell was awful, and feeling sick and out of my depth was awful! And that thing it... It twisted it all up! It made me obey you without question, and rewarded me for making you 'happy'. It felt so good Tup... Making you happy felt so good, even if deep down we both knew what was happening was beyond our control... And that... And that we would live to regret it..."

Tup's expression shifted. The anger slowly melting away.

"I'm... I'm not good at this. I'm not good at explaining what happened back there, or how I feel about it, or even how you should feel about it but..." Dogma sighed. "It wasn't all you. The parasite used something you wanted against you... It tried to make you into a monster. But you're not. None of us are... Even if... Even if it's hard to believe after we did what we did..."

Tup continued to shake before he dropped back down onto the floor, trying to hide his face behind his pincers as he crumpled into a sobbing mess. Dogma wasted no time in sitting back down next to his twin. Ready to comfort him if he were allowed.

He was infinitely relieved when the other mutant didn't pull away, instead wrapping his tail around them both. Letting him in.

"I just wanted to protect everyone..." Tup cried as he buried his face into Dogma's shoulder. Tiny and vulnerable despite having become so much bigger and so heavily armored in this new form of his. "We were all dying... I just wanted to help!"

"I know..."

"I never wanted this! I just wanted everything to be ok!"

"It's ok now...I've got you."

"I̷'̶M̴ ̶S̷O̴ ̷S̴O̶R̷R̵Y̵!̸!̷!̸"

Dogma let his brother continue to cry. To let all of the things that had bottled up to near exploding point, rush out uninhibited. There was no one to judge him.

Really, he understood what Tup was feeling even if it was hard to put to words. He'd been just as horrified over his own actions once the parasite's spell had been broken. Still woke up crying sometimes, when he dreamt about the ambush. Still felt the guilt clawing away at his psyche whenever Coric, Pitch or Sponge flinched at the sight of him.

It would get better one day.

But for now Tup would just need to cry it out until he was done crying. And diligent that he'd always been when it came to offering his twin some solace, Dogma was there to dry his eyes. Just as he hoped he'd always be, now that the war was slowly coming to a halt It's what good brothers did.

#Eps Writes #star wars #the clone wars #whumptober #Umbaran Pathogen AU #clone trooper dogma #clone trooper tup #clone trooper hardcase #clone medic kix #clone ocs #clone medic twitch

24 notes · View notes