He tracked down Kix, who ended up being in the Jedi temple taking a class with younglings from the Jedi healers. Rex had been invited in and saw Kix excitedly waving him over. The medic sat at the back on a pillow as the younglings were. He listened intently to the Jedi healer. The Jedi had been very kind to extend an invitation to the medics of the 501st.

Corric was busy training the new medic and Kix had enthusiastically wanted to go. So that is where he found the medic. Sitting in a classroom like a trainee again, learning new techniques from the Jedi.

Rex leaned patiently against the back wall. He waited for the class to be done. As soon as the padawans, and Kix, were dismissed the medic bounded up to his Captain.

He started chattering excitedly about everything he had learned and how it was going to help him save more brothers in the field. Rex smiled and allowed him to talk while they started to walk down the hall. He figured if he was going to drop this depressing bomb on the medic he could at least let him have this happiness for a minute.

He asked questions when he could figure out what he was talking about. Which was not often, Kix had a habit of going so far in detail that non medically trained clones could not understand.

Kix, however, was not unreasonable. He knew that the Captain had not come to find him to listen about his new training. So he finished his thought before getting serious, "so what did you come to me for, Captain?"

"You have access to the medical files of the unit. I need to look at Dagger's medical file from Kamino," he stated.

Kix stopped momentarily, "Dagger? Is everything ok sir?"

"Yes Kix, but it would be really helpful if I could see those files. Or even any files of his squad mates during training," he explained without really telling the medic what was going on.

He nodded as he thought for a moment, "if I do have access to the file we can look for it in the Jedi library. Nu said that I could come in anytime I like. We talk a lot about medicine."

Rex did not protest and followed Kix to the library. At the computer, he logged in and started typing. He pulled up Dagger's medical file, then he turned to the Captain, "sir, what is this about? This file is from a long time ago on Kamino and is heavily redacted. What are you looking for?"

"I think that something happened to Dagger during training. I intend to find out what happened and make a wrong turn right."

"Ok, here goes nothing," with a click he had the file opened. There was no picture of Dagger's face, and many of the description lines were blacked out. Yet the file was more pages than a usual Kamino training file.

Kix clicked the tab that was labeled 'Medbay Entries'. There were many entries, too many. He started scrolling through them all, "wow, he really has had a lot of training accidents. Good to know he was a troublemaker before he got to the 501st too."

He stalled in his scroll and his speech when he came across a picture attached to one of the medbay entries, "holy fu-"

The picture was of a small kid, probably year six in a growth sequence. The photograph was shot from the back and in stark lighting they saw a large gash on his back. More than twenty stitches holding the skin together. The entry said, a training accident involving knives. There was no other information.

Kix looked up to his Captain who had a grave look on his face, yet he was not surprised. The medic licked his lips before speaking, "since when do trainees that young train with sharp knives?"

"Download that file and keep scrolling," Rex said, "we are looking for something."

Kix did as requested of him and soon enough came across another file with a picture, a bruised and bloodied hand. The fingers were crooked and set in splints. The whole hand was swollen and colorful. The description said, "hand caught in a conveyor belt by accident."

Rex frowned, "this is seeming like a lot of accidents."

Kix kept scrolling. There were more and more pictures of injuries all with claims of being accidents. Never any injuries to the face and most were focussed on the back.

Then they came across the worst of them all. A body, Dagger's, laying face down on a medical bed. More than twenty gaping wounds in his back. They looked raw and jagged, there was no way a knife had made those cuts. The injuries looked like they were glossed with bacta, but it was clear that Dagger had been unconscious when the picture was taken. Either from blood loss, excruciating pain, or from being sedated, it was not clear.

There was no description, anything that had been written was blacked out. And there was a lot that had been written. Rex thumped his fist against the table, Kix looked up at him solemnly.

"Captain, these were not accidents. Someone did this to Dagger. Look at the downward strokes of the cuts," he said, gesturing to the picture, "all in the same direction. All at the same time. From the fraying of the skin and the inconsistency of the depth I think I know what caused this, even without the medic's notes," he explained. He paused, not quite wanting to say it, Kix would wait for Rex to ask.

The Captain swallowed, stealing his nerve, "what caused it?"

"A whip sir."

Rex squeezed his eyes shut. No. No. No. He took in a deep breath, he had to get his head under control. He had a job to do, "can you prove that?"

"Yes sir, it's not that hard, the marks are distinctive," he thought for a moment, "are you going after the bastard that did this to Dagger?"

"Yes Kix. I am," there was rage burning through his veins. How dare that monster touch one of his brothers. Wait, one of his brothers. What about Dagger's squad? Were there others who had suffered under this treatment?

"Look up what training squad Dagger was in. I want to see if he was the only one this happened to. And if we can figure out who was supervising his training we can figure out who did this. Dagger mentioned a Madam," He said.

The medic, once again, started typing. He looked in Dagger's file for his assignments. The only official unit that Dagger had been assigned was the 501st Battalion.

Where was his training squad? Under training leadership, the file simply had one name. It read, "Supervisor of Training: Madam Ker'Taa."

What? It was just her? There were so many questions swirling between the Captain and Medic that they did not notice a Jedi coming up behind them.

"You alright boys?" General Skywalker said suddenly, causing both of them to jump.

"Ah! Yes sir, we were doing research. I actually wanted to talk to you today. You said before that you would always help the men in your command. I need your help for one of my men today," Rex said.

Anakin straightened up at the bluntness of the Captain's words. Rex did not ask for things often, and if he was asking for help it had to be important.

"Of course Rex, anything," he responded sincerely.

"Not here sir. Kix, may I have that drive?"

Kix handed over the drive to Rex and they shared a glance. Kix didn't have to say a word for Rex to know what he was thinking. You better get the bastard that did this. The short moment ended and Kix watched as they walked away. He really needed a drink after seeing that. And maybe, if he was lucky, he would be able to forget it all.

Kix knew it would be in vain, he never forgot. Every single brother he saw injured he remembered. He remembered everyone he lost and everyone he saved. He remembered every last bloody detail. This would be no different.

Except it was different. He hadn't been there to heal his brother's wounds. It hadn't been an enemy that had inflicted the damage. It was someone who was supposed to be trusted, a traitor to his brother. A traitor to all of them.

~B~

Anakin and Rex walked in silence. The Jedi led the way through the halls of the temple until they came to a room. It was secluded and empty, a holotable sat in the middle. It would be a fine place for whatever Rex wanted to talk about.

"Captain, what is going on?" he asked, he was worried that perhaps someone had gotten in trouble.

"Sir, I need your help in finding someone. I have evidence that one of my troopers was mistreated during training on Kamino. The person responsible needs to face judgement for their actions, their crimes," Rex said.

Anakin was taken aback, mistreated? During training? It had to be bad enough that Rex came to him about it, what had happened?
"What happened? What kind of crimes?"

Rex swallowed thickly, he realized for the first time that it may not be his place to seek out justice in Dagger's place. Especially since the clone had never willingly talked about it or even hinted at the mistreatment. Rex shook the thought from his head, it was his duty as Captain to protect the best interest of his troops.

He placed the holodrive on the table and started to pull up the newly downloaded files, "it just came to my attention that one of my men, while training on Kamino, was trained alone and- and was beaten by someone there. He-he thought that it was normal to be beaten when he made mistakes."

Rex's jaw was clenched and his hands formed fists at his sides. He refused to acknowledge the pricks of tears in his eyes as he pulled up the images, "General, they whipped him. They betrayed my brother's trust-"

Anakin looked at the images. His face a mask of calm when he could feel his anger rising. When he came across the image of Dagger's bloody and gruesome back he lost his control. He slammed his fist against the holotable, shutting the images off.

"Savages," he growled. Rex knew in that moment that Skywalker would help them. He had heard rumors of the Jedi's past and had hoped that he would, now he was sure.

"They had no right to do this to anyone, especially not a trainee. Who Rex? Who was it?"

"It was Dagger sir," he stated, he almost didn't want to say, but he knew that it was necessary.

Anakin's face twitched at the name, he knew about Dagger. He had never told anyone leaving the decision to her. He would have to run defense to protect her secret as Rex obviously did not know.

"Did Dagger tell you about this?" he asked.

Rex shuffled his feet, "not exactly sir, we had to put the pieces together in some places."

"Don't talk in riddles Rex, how did you find out about this?"

"We had to find Dagger this morning, he had gotten drunk last night and ended up at a female's house. After we got back I was going to assign a discipline when Dagger started acting... strange. He flinched away from me and started talking about how disobedience has to be punished. Sir, you can't ask me to sit here when I know that the one who hurt my brother is still out there getting away with it and possibly doing it again."

Anakin put a hand on Rex's shoulder, "they won't get away with it for much longer. Make a report of what you know beyond this and bring it to me tomorrow morning. I am going to go talk to the Jedi council immediately about this. No one should ever be treated this way. We will bring that scum bag to justice."

"Thank you sir," Rex saluted before striding out of the room. He would go find Kix again, he needed his help to make that report. He also knew that he had to go and talk to Dagger, but at the moment he didn't think he could handle it.

~B~

Rex found Kix crying on Jesse's lap. The tattooed clone looked up at the Captain with a helpless expression, "Captain I have no idea what happened, but it wasn't my fault. He just laid on me and started crying, he won't tell me why."

The Captain put his hand on Jesse's shoulder in consolation. As Kix saw the Captain come into his field of vision he started furiously swiping at his face. Trying to get rid of all evidence that he was crying.

"Sir, this is not what it looks like. I am NOT crying, my face, uh, my face is just leaking," he tried to defend, still not letting go of Jesse.

The tattooed clone looked Rex dead in the eye as if to say, don't believe his load of Bantha shit. Rex just gave him a tight lipped smile, "it's ok Kix. You aren't a droid, you are allowed to have emotions."

Kix nodded and Jesse asked, "what happened buddy?"

"It's not my place to say Jess, I'm sorry," Kix responded, still trying to dry his 'leaking problem'.

"Kix I need your help again, just for a little while. I know you probably don't want to, but General Skywalker has agreed to help," Rex said extending his arm to help the man stand up.

Jesse pulled Kix in closer making the medic look rather small, "it's your fault he is crying, you don't get to ask him for help again."

Rex's jaw went slightly slack in surprise. Jesse didn't usually snap at anyone, especially not him. Before Rex could even protest Kix put his hand soothingly on Jesse's chest causing the clone to break eye contact with the captain.

"It's not his fault, Rex is just trying to help a brother out. I am too, I have to go. Be back soon Jesse, you better not be in the same spot when I get back."

As the pair walked away Jesse crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his tongue. Kix responded in kind. Rex just rolled at the antics of the two; children, he worked with children.