"Are you sure Captain? I would love to!" was the excited reply that Echo gave when Rex told him what he wanted from him. The brother was practically buzzing with excitement, smiling from ear to ear.

Rex responded with a nod, Echo would be a good battle buddy. He was loyal to a fault and knew all of the regs forward and backward. Also, he was new enough to still relate to Dagger for being the newest in the unit. He was high energy enough to counter Dagger's quietness and he could definitely talk enough for the both of them. The only thing he wasn't so sure about was Dagger getting overwhelmed by Echo. He'd figure it out and be ok once he got used to the brother.

Before Rex could even tell him to do anything Echo took off down the hall yelling back that he was going to find his new battle buddy. Rex shook his head, he was sure that Fives, Echo's old battle buddy would understand the switch.

"Captain Rex, may I have a word with you for a moment," came the calm and smooth voice, sliding from around the corner. General Skywalker.

The clone stiffened to a respectful posture, "of course sir."

"I'm sure you already know what I am here to talk to you about."

"Yes sir, I would like to apologize for my actions to you. I have already spoken to Dagger about it," Rex replied.

"Good. What happened then Captain? You are always so composed this is an odd occurrence for you. Even when you and your men spar it never goes this far." the Jedi said.

"I agree sir, it usually never happens like this. It's just this brother that has me confused. He was released from Kamino early and yet is far more skilled than the usual new recruit. I was not expecting such a fight and I got carried away trying to win. I will accept the repercussions for my actions General," he explained.

Anakin nodded, thinking for a moment. When he finally decided to speak he said, "I don't think it was serious enough to have repercussions, but I'm sure you understand my presence earlier. I'm just not used to seeing you strangling a subordinate."

Rex nodded, wincing under his helmet, and the man continued, "please keep me updated on anything and as always if you need anything that I can provide do not hesitate to ask. We have a week or so of patrol left until we are to be assigned an on world mission. Get your unit ready."

"Yes sir," was the sharp answer. The Jedi walked away, so smoothly that it looked as if he was floating. That could have gone a lot worse. He wasn't expecting anything terrible, it was General Skywalker after all, but he still was worried that he would be sent to evaluations for aggression among his peers. He would do his best to get the unit ready to the best of their abilities before they were sent on a mission again.

There were always rifts that were formed when new blood joined the unit. Little cracks until everyone got to know each other. And dammit if it wasn't always the quiet ones who got into trouble.

It was unsettling, even more so when you can't see his face. It makes there be polar opposite personalities in the unit. The high end of the energy spectrum, always talking, sharing, and being hyper would be Echo and by far the quietest and most reserved brother he has ever met being Dagger. This would be interesting.

That night at dinner Dagger came in late and sat with the unit holding only an apple. Echo was by his side still talking about whatever he had just shown the newbie. Echo had immediately latched onto Dagger and was showing him around everywhere on the ship. He would talk about past missions and answer off of his questions. Echo was proud to be able to help one of his brothers become more a part of the unit. He was happy that his Captain had trusted him to do the task and he wouldn't let him down.

Rex watched as Dagger slowly rolled the apple between his hands, helmet still on. That wasn't conducive to eating. He was starting to see an issue with the new kid. He would have to get that helmet off him so he didn't starve to death. If he straight up ordered him to take it off he would be ruining any respect Dagger had for him.

Alienating a brother in front of the unit by making him do something he didn't want to do was not the way Rex did things. That's not the type of leader he was. When he ordered someone to do something it was for a mission or for something important. While this was important Dagger would have to take the helmet off of his own accord. Rex trusted his brothers and even though he was new he trusted Dagger to make the right decisions.

But how could he make sure he was getting enough food if he couldn't eat in the dining hall that was never empty? Kid was small enough as it was. He didn't need to cut any weight due to poor nutrition on top of it all. Resisting the urge to growl in frustration he got up and grabbed another plate. He went through the line and piled a plate up with food.

He walked by the table towards the door calling Dagger's name and signalling him to follow him. When they got through the door, he handed Dagger the plate, "go down this hallway, take a left and it's the second door on the right. Meet back in the barracks after."

Dagger tilted his head in slight confusion, but took the plate in understanding and let out a quiet, "thank you sir."

Rex watched as Dagger disappeared down the hallway, then he finally let out the sigh that he had been holding in. He had seen the type before, Dagger would have never asked for special attention or permission to go elsewhere. He would have just suffered in silence.

Rex didn't like making special exceptions for brothers, then the rest of the unit got the wrong idea. He figured everyone would understand, no one seemed to mind Dagger keeping his helmet on much anyway. If they had someone would have pinned him and taken the helmet by now.

Dagger walked quickly down the hall, going to the exact room that the Captain had given her directions to. She found that it was an office. The plate next to it was kind of smashed. It used to say something that she couldn't read but now there was a piece of paper that said "Cpt. Rex's Office."

Oh. He was letting her eat in his own office. Wow, she hadn't ever been in an officer's office before. She felt bad for being a problem that he had to send away to eat, but she knew that it was for the best and she was very thankful.

If she didn't eat it would become a bigger problem. She didn't want to pass out because then they would take off her helmet and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Dagger knew she wouldn't be able to survive on the fruits that she was sneaking every meal. But it hadn't become a problem yet so she wasn't that worried about it, hadn't thought about what to do when it did become a problem.

She sat and quickly tucked into the food on her plate. Everything smelled so much better when it wasn't coming through the mouth plate in her helmet. The filters worked as a gas mask and kept out airborne toxins but it also did a good job of keeping out almost all smells.

Sat in the visitor chair, she looked around the room. There weren't a lot of decorations, but a few medals in their cases. The desk was clean, metal surface clear aside from the screen and a tablet. There were a few file drawers with various labels on them. She wondered if he had her file in here, had he read it? How much did the Kaminoans put in it? She had no idea who all knew about her and who all had access to that information.

So far, she knew that the Jedi knew who she was. They could sense it with their force magic or whatever. She also knew that her General, Skywalker, had an apprentice, but she hadn't met her yet. Did the other commander's know? Did her Captain? She could easily look in his files and see her file.

Yet she knew that she never would. She had too much respect to go through another's things. Especially not her Captain's things. He was her superior, but more than that he was tolerant of her. He hadn't ordered her to take off her helmet and for that she was grateful.

As soon as she finished she gathered her tray and took one last look around the room. With her helmet secured on her head she left the room walking back to the dining hall to drop off the tray before heading back to the barracks.

She flinched as she walked in, there was a lot of skin and she was not prepared. Brothers were walking in and out of the shower room at the back of the barracks without a care in the world. Dagger kept her eyes down even from under her helmet and tried to walk as quickly as she could go back to her bunk.

This worked well until someone walked right in front of her and she got mooned. Oh no. She felt bad for having seen that, I mean they were all the same anyway but still. Her cheeks were red and she was grateful twenty times over that she had her helmet.

Back on Kamino they had never let her see any of the males undressed, obviously. This was quite the rude awakening. Why didn't they prepare her for this?! She had never seen so much skin in her life, she felt like a scandalized human woman. Well, she was a human woman, but you get what she means. She climbed up on her bunk and laid on her back staring vigilantly up at the ceiling. There was nothing she could see there. Oh god why did they have to shower now?

"Dagger, glad to see you made it back" came the voice from her left. She didn't have to turn to see that it was the captain sitting on his own bunk typing up reports on his tablet. She had seen him in her peripherals earlier. He, at least, was wearing clothes.

"Yes sir. Can I ask a question?"

"Of course," he responded.

"Do they always shower like this?"

He looked around briefly then laughed, "yeah pretty much. We all are very comfortable around each other as you can tell. You'll get used to it eventually."

She nodded, not caring whether or not he saw her response, he was busy on the tablet anyway. Everyone was hollering across the room and just causing general mayhem. It would have been more amusing if they had clothes on but that's what she gets. Couldn't have made it easy on her could they?

Her mind went back to the day she had just had and she smiled. She got to be with her brothers. Fighting and having fun, sure they got yelled at, but that's ok. Back on Kamino they didn't let her be with her brothers. The madam that oversaw her training always told her that she needed to hide for identity. She didn't trust the clones, even though they were her creations.

The madam told her that men were unpredictable when faced with something they didn't understand. She thought that Dagger's gender would have an adverse effect on the unit she was assigned to. Dagger had been raised in secret, trained specially to give her skills to make up for anything she lacked.

Now that she was in the unit she didn't know if these brothers would hate her if they knew what kind of mistake she was. A glitch in the machine. She didn't know what they would think if they found out that she lied to them. Dagger had decided long ago that she would never tell anyone that she was a female, everything else would just have to work out around that. Even if it was at the cost of her own comfort she thought as she felt her bruised lip tingle. It had been a good fight and perhaps she should have gone to the medbay. She wouldn't do it, not for a small injury.

Suddenly her bed frame was rattled by someone on the ground. She didn't look, she could already guess who it was. Her suspicions were confirmed when the suspect began speaking. Who else but Echo, "you gonna shower or not, ya nasty?"

"I'll shower later," she responded, really not wanting to look at him.

"Yeah it is kinda crowded now, so where did you go at dinner? Are you not gonna eat with us?" He asked.

"Leave him alone Echo, he's gonna eat somewhere else for the time being," Rex answered, saving her from having to respond.

"Awww but Captain, I missed my battle buddy," he whined.

Dagger raised an eyebrow at 'battle buddy' but didn't comment. She just shrugged and assumed she would be spending a lot of time with Echo.

"Go to bed Echo," he said, leaving little room for argument.

"Fine."