A huff of air was released as she got up from the mat. A sigh of disappointment, Dagger knew that sound well. She lowered her head in shame. Her sparring partner was just so big and she still had so much growing to do.

She didn't know how she was expected to beat the faceless partner. Yet the expectation was there nonetheless.

"CT 19580, why have you been unable to surpass this training point?"

She didn't dare look up at the Madam who was speaking to her. She didn't know her name, even though she had been overseeing Dagger for her whole life. She told her that she didn't get to know her name, clones are not worthy to know her Kaminoan name. So she was the Madam.

The long neck craned now to look Dagger in the face, "are you going to answer me?"

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am. I have been trying, I really have, I'm just not big enough to win yet."

The creature tisked, "it looks to me as if you aren't trying hard enough. Real troopers don't give up in fights. If you had learned that by now you wouldn't be so far behind."

Dagger's head hung lower, tears stung her eyes. Even though the Madam had no attachment to her, Dagger felt the need to please the one creature she saw everyday for most of her life. There was rarely anyone else who spoke to her, except for him.

He was even more important than the Madam, yet she only saw him a few times every month or so. The Madam swept out of the room leaving Dagger alone.

It had been a long day of training, her muscles ached and her heart was heavy. She had tried everything and she still couldn't win. She sank to her knees on the mat and the quiet of the empty room was broken by her soft sobs. Dagger had been holding in the tears for as long as she could, but alone she could let them out, just for a moment.

The door opened again and boot steps approached her, the figure crouching low. She didn't even realize that they were there until a hand landed on her shoulder. On instinct she grounded the hand to her shoulder and lashed out with the other at the offender's face.

Her fist was stopped by a gloved hand catching it. She gasped at the realization of who it was. He smiled down at her kindly, "don't cry verd'ika."

" Mr. Fett, why? Why are you here?" she asked through hiccuping breaths.

He looked down at her, the little girl looking to be about the size of a human twelve year old. It made him sad to see her cry, she was the special one, he always checked on her training specifically.

"You know that you don't need to call me that. Tell me why you are crying kotep runi?"

"What does that mean?" she asked, she had never heard those mando'a words before.

"Brave soul, you have nothing to fear. You will learn all you need to know and you will grow strong. You have to be kotep runi. Everything will be ok, just wait and see…"

She awoke with a gasp, throwing the blanket off her in a hurry as she sat up. Scanning the room quickly she determined that she was on her bunk. Relaxing marginally she laid back for a moment looking up at the ceiling.

Dagger hadn't dreamed in a long time, much less dreamed of Jango Fett. He was one of the only comforts to her long and isolated training. She was saddened at the memory, he was gone now.

Extricating herself from her mind and from her bed she climbed down. Scanning the barracks she realized that almost everyone was looking at her. Shifting uncomfortably she searched for Echo. He would know what was going on.

She strode over to him as soon as she spotted him, "Echo. Why is everyone staring at me?"

He straightened up from where he had been leaning against the wall behind his bunk, having been one of the only ones to not see Dagger wake up. Everyone was starting to go about their business again, although the air remained thick with a quiet tension.

"Worry," he responded curtly.

"Why?" she asked, just as short.

He turned to look at her fully as she sat at the edge of his bed. His face incredulously studying her helmet. Even though she knew that he couldn't see through she was almost nervous that he could see her expression. His head tilted and his lips parted, he seemed to run though multiple thoughts before finally settling on what he wanted to say.

"We haven't seen a brother fall in a long time. You scared us today. Scared me. They are worried about whether you are ok."

"Is anyone mad?" she asked, her dream bringing her past failings to the forefront of her mind. She was just waiting to get chewed out for being insufficient.

Echo shook his head, "no, Captain was looking for you earlier, but I asked him to let you sleep. He didn't seem mad though."

Dagger almost trembled, Captain wanted to talk to her. She was getting kicked out for sure. Her stomach dropped, she had only been here for two days. Echo noticed Dagger's head and shoulders drooped down, like he was curling in on himself. He reached out and touched his shoulder, "hey are you ok?"

She nodded slightly, "he's going to send me back isn't he?"

"What?!" Echo gasped, how could he have even made a leap to that conclusion, "No! Dagger, you just fell off the obstacle course. Captain wanted to make sure you weren't hurt, he wouldn't send you back to Kamino."

She heard him, but the words didn't compute in her thick skull, "but I failed."

Echo barked out a laugh, "on one thing. If we all got sent back to Kamino for messing up on something so small, there wouldn't be an Army. Who told you that you would get sent away for messing up?"

Instead of answering she stood to leave. He sprung forward and grabbed Dagger's wrist, his grip was strong without being painful, his voice was soft, "hey, you aren't getting sent anywhere. I promise you that."

Dagger nodded and he released her grasp. She didn't know how Echo could promise such a thing but the conviction in his eyes made her believe it. She believed him.

Exiting the barracks, her stomach growled and she decided to go get food from the dining hall. She knew she would have to find the Captain soon, but she wanted to wait at least a little while so he hopefully would calm down from her failure.

What she didn't realize is that she would be seeing the Captain so soon. Looking back she should have realized that it was in fact his office, but at the time she was just hungry.

Dagger walked into the room where she had been allowed to eat alone. Never before had she been there when the Captain had actually occupied his office. This time he was though.

Rex looked up from the maps and data pads spread across his desk when the door opened. He was expecting Commander Tano to be honest, she had said she was going to come down at some point to go over the mission again. He certainly wasn't expecting to see Dagger standing in the doorway with a tray in his hand.

Oh.

"Dagger, good to see you up and about," wasn't great, but it was the first thing that Rex could get out.

"I'm sorry sir, I just assumed- 'cause this is where- umm. Yeah, ok. Good evening sir," she had no idea how to speak at that moment and turned to flee.

"Wait," Rex called. He had just been surprised at Dagger's appearance, but he knew that this would be a good opportunity to talk to him in private. His brow furrows when he sees Dagger's shoulders curl up and in ever so slightly. In defense?

"Please come in," he tried to say gently as to not startle the retreating trooper.

He seemed to droop lower at the statement but did turn and come into the office. The door slipped closed behind him and closed them off from the rest of the ship. Dagger did everything she could to not flinch at the sound of the dior latching closed. She was still to riled up from her injury and dream to be able to think at 100 percent capacity.

She stood there for a while, watching Captain Rex. While she analyzed his form for any sign of anger she was surprised to not find any, she only saw worry.

She didn't really know what to do or say. Luckily enough Rex spoke up, "sit, stay a minute then I can head out. I'm almost done here anyway."

"Sir I can't ask you to leave your office," she protested, but she sat.

"You didn't ask, and you need to eat," he said, there was little room for argument in his words.

"Captain, can I ask you a question."

He was surprised at the sudden change in conversation but nodded his head, "I am extremely appreciative that you haven't, but why don't you just order me to take off the helmet?"

Rex thought for a moment, studying the tense form of Dagger as he set the tray down on his side of the desk. The Captain took a breath and leaned back in his chair crossing his arms over his chest, "are you a spy?"

Dagger gasped, "NO! No sir, never!"

"Then I know what your face looks like. I know where you come from. I know who you are, a brother. I don't care what happened to you before and if you want to keep your helmet on that is fine. It will only not be fine if you can't do your job properly."

He saw Dagger's head turn down at that, obviously thinking about the training exercise today. Rex continued anyway, "that high beam should never have been in that course. What is most important to me is that you and all of our brothers are safe and the missions get completed. Now that can't happen if you keep getting yourself hurt now can it?"

Dagger felt relief in his answer, but tilted her head in confusion, "keep, sir?"

He nodded, "you didn't tell me that I had hurt you in that sparr enough to leave bruises. Then today when you fell, I-"

His fists clenched from where they sat on the arm rests. Dagger mistook his worry for anger and shied away, just a fraction of an inch. Just enough that Rex noticed. Kriff.

"I'm sorry sir. I will do better, I promise. I didn't mean to fall today," she tried.

He held up a hand, "Dagger, I'm not angry. I'm worried. I knew that obstacle shouldn't have been in training today. Every time you have gotten hurt so far it has been my fault. It should be me apologizing to you. How is your back?"

Dagger hesitated, unsure of how to respond to that. Everytime she had gotten hurt or not performed properly on Kamino she had been scolded at the very least. Now her Captain was apologizing to her? What did she say to that?

"It's fine sir, nothing that I can't handle."

He let out a puff of air in a laugh, "so I've gathered. You are a tough kid, hard worker too. You need to go to medbay and let Kix take a look at your back."

The response was instantaneous. Dagger stiffened violently and even with the helmet, Rex could almost see a look of betrayal on the troopers face as he began to protest, "sir, it's fine. I already got some meds for it and nothing is broken. It won't slow down training, I promise. Please don't make me go to the medbay."

Rex sighed, great this shiny was one of those, "how can I trust that if you didn't even tell me about the bruising around your neck?"

Dagger looked down at her lap, she didn't have a good answer for that.

"Are you sure you are ok?" he asked gently.

She looked up but nodded.

He sighed again, "don't pout ok kid. I won't unleash Kix on you. But you gotta promise to tell me if you get hurt in the future ok?"

"I promise Captain."

With a nod he stood and left the room. Dagger just sat there, this was different. Everyone who was her superior on Kamino had behaved so differently. Rex seemed to care what happened to his men as much as what they could do. He cared whether or not they were hurt. This would certainly take some adjusting to get used to.

Mostly, she was thankful that he wasn't going to order her to take off her helmet. She would have thought for sure, but he didn't seem to mind and she wasn't going to push that subject.

Wow. She really had lucked out when being assigned to the 501st. She was starting to understand now what it was like to have brothers.

Thank you! Thank you! I received so many wonderful reviews from the last chapter and every single one made my day! i am glad that you all are enjoying the story as much as I am writing it. Dagger has a way of getting into trouble, but that is part of the fun. As always please let me know what you think in the comments.