"Captain stop!"

Rex immediately lowered Dagger until her feet made contact with the ground and released her. He knew right then that he had messed up. She stumbled away, falling to the ground and gasping for breath. Everyone whipped around to see General Skywalker standing in the entrance to the hangar. The spectators took that as their cue to rush out of the room via the far entrance. That tone of voice and Jedi Masters did not mix well and for once they did not want to stick around to see what happened.

Rex and Dagger snapped to attention as the Jedi approached the pair and asked them, "what the hell do you think you are doing?"

Rex had his mouth opened to respond when Dagger cut him off, voice slightly raspy, "its my fault sir, I challenged him to a fight. We got carried away. I'm sorry sir."

The jedi looked over them, "carried away seems to be putting it mildly. When you are outmatched you are supposed to surrender. Not let your Captain beat you to the point of bleeding. And you, Captain, I expect you to have more self restraint, being a superior and an officer means that you are to be in control of your actions and not let things get carried away. You currently have full control over the training of your unit. However, if I see that you are mistreating others then you will not have such freedoms. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir," was Rex's immediate response, "I accept responsibility for my actions and it will not happen again."

"See that it doesn't," he said before turning on his heel and leaving them in the empty room.

Rex waited until the Jedi was well out the door before turning to Dagger, "are you ok?"

She nodded, "I didn't mean to get you in trouble Captain, I just wanted to win."

He chuckled, "don't we all. It'll be ok. If you are hurt next time just tell me before the General has to come in and chew us out. And don't be so damn stubborn kid."

She laughed with him briefly before asking, "am I actually bleeding, sir?"

"Yeah, right out of the mouthpiece," he said gesturing to the spot on his own helmet, "go wash up and see the medics if you need it."

She nodded and swiftly exited the room, she decided against the medics. She wasn't in pain, she had just bit her lip and it bled like crazy. No way was she going to the medics with a face wound. That was out of the question.

Dagger was gone Rex lifted off his helmet and ran his hands down his sweaty had escalated more than he had anticipated. He didn't think that the general was actually that mad, but he also knew that he wasn't kidding about taking away the freedom of his training. He was proud of the fights that Dagger had put up. He hadn't given up, that was a good trait in a soldier.

As long as it didn't get him in trouble for not surrendering when he was clearly outmatched. Rex would need to watch Dagger closely, he could get himself hurt in situations like that if he refused to give up when he clearly should.

Maybe he had gone a bit hard on the fight. He had gotten carried away, in the process of proving that he could win. Rex knew his leadership wasn't in question but something about a new recruit fighting with such an intensity was new and he felt like it was necessary to crush him in defeat.

Wow. When he thinks it in his head like that it sounds crazy. Something to work on then, he wondered what it was about the new blood that had caused that. It had never happened before when anyone else had joined. Even when the unit smart ass joined.

Echo had been a riot when he arrived. He had quickly gone from reg reading clone to a more laid back jokester. Cracking jokes at the wrong time or sassing back to the wrong person. When he mouthed off to the visiting Jedi Krell, oh boy, that was not a good day. Echo had now found a balance between the two personalities. That kid knew those manuals inside and out, if Rex asked him what was in Chapter 15 in Manual 10 he would be given a detailed summary no doubt.

But Dagger was a whole different problem set, first there was the helmet that he said he wouldn't be taking off. Then there was the quiet part, he had a tendency to not say anything more often than he chose to say something. It made it hard to know what the brother was thinking, but it wasn't necessarily an issue. So slow to speak but also quick to act.

Then there was the height and age thing. He hadn't understood why Kamino had let him out so early, then they fought and he was starting to get a better idea of why. Dagger was more skilled than most infantry clones were coming out of training. He obviously had special training.

Rex wondered if Dagger had been tasked to specialize like he had and had failed out, it didn't happen often but sometimes it did. Those failed specialists or officer candidates were usually top performing infantrymen. If he had been disqualified because of some sort of accident it may explain why he kept the helmet on, a bad scar or deformation perhaps.

Either way it was in the past and they couldn't change that now, the only thing was that Dagger was so small. He truly hadn't meant to throw him across the room. It just happened by accident. Dagger was a good deal lighter than most clones were and Rex had been using enough force as he would for a full sized brother. He would have to be wary of that in the future. Also it may be prudent to not pair with Dagger again, even though there didn't seem to be any negative repercussions or feelings.

Perhaps he would assign Dagger a mentor, someone to train with, to ask questions, help him get to know the unit better. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone watch over Dagger. He knew just the brother for the job.

Thank you for everyone who has read this far. I know updates aren't that consistent, but I am trying to update every few days. I hope everyone is enjoying the story. If you have time I would really appreciate comments on what you think of the story and the characters so far. Have a lovely day everyone!