Hardcase wasn't too smart. It was something he knew about himself, and he had long-since accepted it. He had a lot of other things that he was good at, and he'd rather focus on those than his flaws.

He knew how to have fun, even during the war that their lives revolved around. He didn't let the constant fighting and blood-shed get to him, because he had figured out how to focus on the moments of brightness and fun in-between the battles. And he knew how to help his brothers do the same.

And though Hardcase struggled to focus sometimes, he was attentive. One didn't become an expert in firearms unless they could have an eye for detail. Hardcase couldn't notice everything the way that Kix and Dogma seemed to, but he still noticed more than most other clones did. He noticed when something was a little bigger or a little smaller than it should be. When he saw movements or shadows out of the corner of his eye he fixated on it until he knew what it was. He couldn't dismiss it like apparently most brothers could.

So Hardcase noticed when they were being followed. He and Tup had finally found the right time to bring Dogma out onto the town. He'd been resistant. It was hard to get Dogma to let go and relax. It had taken the combined efforts of Hardcase's persistence and strong-arming, Tup's tooka eyes and assurances that they would return to the barracks as soon as he wanted to, and Fox' insistence that Dogma take a day off for him to reluctantly agree. Even then he'd only gone willingly when Jesse had pointed out that Hardcase had a tendency to find trouble, and that maybe he should have someone there to make sure he didn't find himself in a mess he couldn't get out of.

They had started by going down to the lower levels, but they hadn't stayed as long as they wanted to. Hardcase had wanted to go to that store with the flimsi books and pages, or to look at some of those smaller restaurants and diners that were only on the lower levels because the snobs on the upper levels would have kicked up a fuss if they had to look at it at all.

Dogma probably would have liked those places, and he might have been able to relax, but they had to get through the streets to get there, and that was where the problem was. They weren't on the very low levels, but they were low enough that things were fairly sketchy. Nobody caused trouble, but Dogma couldn't help but keep an eye out for suspicious activity.

He was acting like he was on the job, which wouldn't be that bad except that he was supposed to be taking it easy. If they saw a crime in progress they would all step in to do something about it, but Dogma was actively looking for said crime.

What Hardcase was worried about was that if Dogma saw, say, a burglar, he would run off after them without telling his brothers why. They would go after him, of course, but on Coruscant, regardless of what level you were on, it was far too easy to lose sight of someone. Fox had hammered it into all of their heads that no clone should be alone on Coruscant, no excuses. A month ago Hardcase would have dismissed the warning without a second thought. Now, after knowing about the Demonstrations, and seeing Fox recovering from his Sith encounter and/or disciplinary meeting with the Chancellor, Hardcase wasn't going to take the chance.

So staying on the lower levels was out of the question. That was fine. There was other stuff to do with Dogma on the upper levels, and Hardcase could always come back here later to grab something for him.

It was when they were waiting for transit to get them back to the surface that Hardcase noticed their stalker, though he wasn't sure what he saw at first. There were a lot of suspicious figures around, and most of them barely spared them a second glance. He probably could have convinced himself that he was letting Dogma's paranoia get the best of him, but his mind couldn't help but fixate on the shadow that he had probably imagined.

Hardcase stared intently at the corner where he had seen the movement from. He continued to stare until their transport arrived. Tup and Dogma got on, and it would have left without him if Dogma hadn't gone back and grabbed his arm, pulling him on.

"What are you doing?" Dogma hissed, half accusatory and half curiously as the doors started to close. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing." Hardcase spared one last look towards the corner before turning away. He was ready to brush the whole thing under the rug, but then, right before the doors closed, he saw movement and a flash of white out of the corner of his eye again.

He was on high alert after that, though Hardcase pretended that it was nothing, because maybe it was. Their day continued on, and the longer they were out the move convinced Hardcase was that he wasn't imagining anything.

He saw a flash of movement again when they were at the small museum. When they went to the botany garden he noticed some white and blue that just didn't match the colors of the rest of the place.

Hardcase acted normal through it all, not saying a word to the others. At first he stayed silent because he thought he was just seeing things. After seeing the movement for the fifth or so time he was fairly confident that something was actually there, but he still didn't tell Tup and Dogma. They were enjoying their day out. Dogma was smiling as he rambled on about things that Hardcase was too distracted to follow. Tup seemed enthralled though, hanging on to Dogma's every word.

Both of them were acting young, like kids, and Hardcase was more than happy to let them keep doing so. Clones had never gotten the chance to be kids, and Dogma especially hadn't been able to just grow and enjoy himself without impossible expectations.

They had been soldiers their whole lives, and they would be until the day they died. What was the harm in letting them take just a single day to pretend they could be something else?

When they went to one of Coruscant's few parks Dogma took over the role of tour guide. Apparently the guard frequently came to the parks during their patrols. They said it was because there were a lot of illegal transactions and suspicious activity that happened here, which there was, but the parks were also one of the few quiet places on Coruscant, and the patrolling guards came here when they needed a break but couldn't leave their patrol.

Dogma, being Dogma, frequently came to these parks on his patrols, because he would regularly get overwhelmed at work and refuse to admit it. His patrolling partner at the time would bring him to the park so they could continue doing their job, but not have to deal with the two-faced senators or the hustle and bustle of the city.

Back in the 501st, Dogma would have fought any and all accommodations that someone would try to make for him. He would insist that he wasn't a cadet, and that he was supposed to be better. Better than what, he wouldn't say. Just better.

Hardcase didn't know what type of magic the Coruscant Guard had managed to pull off, but Dogma clearly didn't struggle as much with accepting help as he used to. If one of the guard offered to let Dogma have the bed an hour earlier than usual, he accepted the extra sleep with a quiet appreciation, instead of insisting that he was fine because he couldn't fathom the thought that he was as entitled to sleep as anybody else.

Before, Tup was always the one who had to ask Dogma if he would brush his hair, and Dogma had always agreed with clear reluctance. Now Dogma was the one who went to Tup when he needed the grounding and comforting motions.

It wasn't perfect. Dogma didn't accept help all the time, and not from everybody, but he was making progress. Just the other day Jesse had 'accidentally' bought too much of a sugary treat (using money that was given to him by General Skywalker for this very purpose). Jesse had offered the extra to Dogma, and he'd accepted it. Sure, Dogma had first asked if Jesse was sure he didn't want it, and then he'd offered it to Hardcase, just in case he might want it more, but after that he had accepted the treat.

Maybe not everybody would see this as a big deal, but Hardcase did. He didn't think Dogma would ever be able to be completely selfish. It was hard to find any clone who was capable of pure selfishness. But he was thinking about himself more, and if that wasn't a sign that he was doing better than Hardcase didn't know what was.

It was nice to see the kid excited to show them his favorite places to relax. Hardcase wanted to see them, but he saw that movement out of the corner of his eyes again, and he wanted to try something. Obviously they were being followed, but which of them was the primary target?

When Dogma pulled Tup towards a series of bushes to show him a small pond and waterfall that was hidden behind there, Hardcase stayed behind. "Nah, you guys go ahead. I want to rest my feet for a minute."

Dogma looked just a little disappointed, but it didn't last. Tup grabbed his hand and pulled him along. His enthusiasm was more than enough to make up for Hardcase's temporary absence. The two kids disappeared behind the bushes and trees. Hardcase went to a bench in the opposite direction, where he would have a better view of the place where he had seen the movement and shadows.

He leaned back and made his body relax even as he remained completely aware. He looked like he was resting his eyes, but he was focusing intently on the corner. Sure enough he soon saw the movement again. White and blue, and sure they weren't being noticed. It was his first good look at their stalker, and he wasn't at all surprised at who it was. He had half expected this. It just made him glad that he hadn't told the others, because he knew that Tup wouldn't be happy with their follower, and Dogma would put all of his walls up again.

"Hey, Fives." Hardcase said easily. There was a moment of stillness before Fives made his way out of the darkness. He looked more uncertain that Hardcase had ever seen him. He'd always been so confident and sure of himself.

"Hey, 'case." Fives said with forced casualness. "Haven't seen you guys in a while."

"Sorry 'bout that." Hardcase scooted over on the bench to make room for Fives. "We've been busy."

"I know." Fives said. "Though nobody's told me with what."

Hardcase shrugged. "Didn't think you cared."

Fives sighed and sat down. He looked tired. "I don't hate Dogma." He looked at Hardcase. "Kix said there was a medical emergency, and that's why you had to leave. But he seems fine, and I know you're all fine. So did you guys come here because something was wrong and it's better now, or did you come here because you wanted to see him so you bent the rules?"

Hardcase gave Fives a careful look. "You know the answer." Anybody who knew anything about Dogma would know that he wouldn't tolerate such a blatant display of breaking the rules and abusing the system. He'd barely tolerated their presence even when he knew he genuinely needed their support. He wouldn't stand for them being there if it was just for fun.

"Yeah, guess I do." Fives seemed to slump. "Is he…is he doing better?"

Hardcase had gotten so used to looking for secondary meanings in what Dogma said that he noticed the slight inconsistency between this question and a previous comment. "You said he seemed fine." That implied that Fives thought that Dogma was doing better, so why would he ask?

Fives huffed. "Dogma's good at faking he's okay. He has a thousand different masks that say 'I'm fine'." He shook his head. There was a hint of something in his eyes. Hardcase didn't know if it was sadness, regret, or resentment. "I don't know how to recognize when he's wearing a mask. I just know they're there because me and Jess would tear them away so often. We could always get him to freak out, and it just makes more sense that he was always freaking out, and he just had his masks to hide it."

So Fives had noticed things about Dogma. The whole mask thing made sense, and it was something that Hardcase had noticed but hadn't really thought about or bothered to put words to. He didn't think Jesse knew about the masks. As far as he was concerned, Dogma really did seem to lose it over absolutely nothing.

Hardcase was fascinated by Fives' observation, because it went against something that the other had made perfectly clear a long time ago. "Echo didn't have masks. He didn't pretend."

Fives flinched ever so slightly at the mention of his twin. "No, he didn't." He sounded resigned, like he knew where Hardcase was going with this.

"You've called Dogma a shadow of Echo." Hardcase said. "Numerous times."

Fives' eye twitched. "I did."

"But you saw how he was different." Hardcase said. Fives had found a difference that the others hadn't, or at least hadn't realized they'd seen. "You focused on it, all while trying to convince us and yourself that he was just a 'cheap replacement'."

Fives clenched his hands into fists. He looked pained and frustrated. "I didn't…I didn't mean that. I just-"

"He reminded you of Echo." Hardcase said.

"He reminded me of what Echo used to be." Fives said. "Before we left Kamino. He was such a stickler, and a suck up. I could barely stand him." Fives smiled bitterly. "I only tolerated him because we were part of the same squad, and we all knew we would never leave Kamino if we couldn't work together."

Hardcase frowned. Fives and Echo hadn't always been the inseparable twins? That was news to him. "What changed?"

"I don't even know." Fives said. "Maybe he eased up on the rules a bit. Maybe after so long of forcing myself to get along with him he just grew on me. Maybe he just needed to get away from the Kaminoans and those assessment classes."

Hardcase's chest tightened before he even registered what he had heard. "Assessment classes?" He'd never heard that term before.

"That's what Echo called them." Fives said far too casually, like this was normal for him, even though Hardcase was so unfamiliar with it. "Echo and some others in different squads had a few more classes every week. When we asked him what the classes were about he said they were just more of the same of what we were already learning."

Now that was something that Hardcase was familiar with. Dogma had said the same thing before, and it didn't take them long to figure out that it was definitely not true. Hardcase knew that there were other clones out there who had gone through the same training as Dogma, but he hadn't thought that Echo would have been one of them.

Hardcase didn't know what expression was on his face. Horror. Anger. Something else completely different. Whatever was there it made Fives chuckle slightly.

"I know. I made the same face when I heard about extra classes." Fives said. "Who wants to spend more time with those long-necks? What's even the point?" Fives' casual and somewhat playful expression slipped away as he looked at Hardcase, whose stomach was twisting up more with every second. "Why are you so mad?"

Hardcase didn't know how much to tell Fives. Would he care? Maybe. Maybe not. There was only one way to know for sure. "Dogma had extra classes."

Fives rolled his eyes. "Figures."

"He was in them starting when he was five." Hardcase said. Fives grew still.

"Funny." He said. "Echo was in them when we were eight. It didn't even last a whole year before they cancelled the classes."

"Why'd they cancel them?" Hardcase asked.

Fives was quiet for a minute as he thought about it. It had been years since they were eight. "They were getting ready for a test or a demonstration or something. Echo can normally ace any test, but he was nervous about this one and never told us why. Then one day he came back and said the classes were over and they weren't going to be tested. When I asked why he just said that the Kaminoans thought it would be a waste of resources to continue. That they needed more time to make a real judgment."

"More time." Hardcase didn't pay a lot of attention to clone ages, because once you were on the field it didn't really matter how old you were. But he knew how old Fives and Echo were, and how old Dogma was. Echo's classes would have ended around the same time when Dogma's started.

"What does assessment classes mean?" Hardcase said. "Were they assessing the skills of the clones? Or teaching them how to assess better?" Both seemed like they could be the case. The Demonstrations, and the tests that Echo had been nervous about, suggested that the Kaminoans had been watching and testing them carefully, even more so than they did with the rest of the clones. On the other hand, Dogma was able to assess situations in a way that most others couldn't, and they assumed that was something he'd learned in those classes. Could both be the case?

"I don't even know." Fives said. "I have better things to do than think about classes that stopped years ago."

"But they didn't stop." Hardcase said. "They just started over with younger cadets."

Fives looked uncomfortable, but that stubborn dismissal remained in his eyes. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't want to think about it. Hardcase pushed the issue.

"You said Echo was scared of being tested." Hardcase was sure that it wasn't a traditional test. It had to be a Demonstration. The Kaminoans weren't planning on testing their knowledge or skills, they were going to test their loyalty. Their effectiveness as soldiers. "Dogma's been through those tests. Seven times now. The last one, it happened here, on Coruscant."

Fives' mouth thinned and he wouldn't look at Hardcase now. He just stared ahead. He didn't point out that Dogma couldn't have been tested by the Kaminoans recently, because the long-necks didn't really care what happened to the clones when they weren't on Kamino anymore. Maybe Fives knew that this wasn't a normal test either.

"What happened?" Fives asked, his voice lacking emotion.

This was it. The final chance to see if Fives was willing to give Dogma a chance.

"A Jedi told him to shoot a brother." Hardcase said. Fives' breath hitched in his throat. "So he did."

"Why would he do that?" Fives asked. He wasn't shouting. He didn't even sound confused. He just sounded broken. "What test is worth harming a brother?"

"He had to." Hardcase said. All of them understood that much by now, though Hardcase remembered how horrified and confused he'd been when he'd first heard the news. "He was ordered to. And good soldiers follow orders." That was what Dogma said. What the Kaminoans said. What the little voice in the back of Hardcase's head that he didn't want to think about said.

There was far more to it than that. Dogma had fired the shot because he'd been made to feel like he couldn't say no. It wasn't his right. Skywalker understood it better than any of the rest of them, including Dogma, did. They didn't know how to fix things, but the General was working on it.

"Dogma's more than just a good soldier." Fives said defensively. Something about his tone was hard to understand. At first Hardcase thought that he was speaking badly of Dogma's 'choice'. That Fives was going to go on another rant about how they weren't meat droids, and they shouldn't act like they were. But this tone was different. This was how Fives sounded when someone tried to speak badly about a brother, or if he thought that teasing was going too far. Fives sounded like he was defending Dogma.

It was a step in the right direction.

"He is." Hardcase agreed. "But it's been hard to try to convince Dogma of that."

Fives was quiet for a moment. "You guys came here for a medical emergency. For Dogma. Did it have to do with him…with the test?"

Hardcase nodded. "He shut down. It was pretty bad." Hardcase hadn't seen it for himself, and he was glad for it. He got antsy and anxious at the thought of being completely still and silent for just a few minutes. The thought of seeing a brother completely unresponsive for a whole week was terrifying. "He couldn't handle thinking about what he'd done, so he blocked it out, just like he blocked out the other tests."

None of them knew what kinds of horrors he'd been made to do during the Demonstrations on Kamino. They would probably never know.

Fives groaned and rested his head in his hands. "Echo was so scared of the test. I didn't get it. He was impossibly relieved when it was cancelled. He'd be horrified if he knew that a bunch of kids were tested instead." He grew tense and dug his fingers into his head. If he had longer hair he would probably be pulling harshly at it. "He'd be horrified if he knew how I treated one of those kids." He scoffed and shook his head. "And the fact that it did it in his name…Jesse's right. He'd be ashamed."

It was the first time Fives had acknowledged that he might have done something wrong when it came to Dogma.

"So what do you want to do about it?" Hardcase asked. "That's why you were following us, right? You wanted to check on Dogma, and you didn't know how to approach him."

"I still don't know what to say to him." Fives said. "I know he's not Echo, but every time he looks at me I just see him, and it hurts all over again."

"That's why you pushed him so much." Hardcase didn't know for sure, but he suspected. "You wanted to bring out the part of him that didn't remind you of your vod."

Fives smiled in a self-deprecating way. "I guess I did." And Hardcase didn't know if it had been cruel or not. Yes, it hadn't been nice, and Dogma had all sorts of problems with trusting his brothers because of it, but it wasn't as simple as teasing that went too far. No matter how much Fives pushed Dogma, he would surely still be reminded of Echo, but he did it anyway. He wanted to interact with Dogma. He wanted to get to know him. This was just the easiest way for him to do so, even though it just ended up hurting both of them.

Hardcase didn't understand nuances and complicated relationships that well. Would it have been better for Fives to have just ignored Dogma completely so he didn't treat him badly, or for him to be mean and yet include him with Torrent. He honestly didn't know.

"I don't know how to start making things right." Fives said. "He's happy now. He's comfortable. That's going to change as soon as he sees me around. Me getting closure isn't worth it if I have to upset him to do so."

"I think clearing the air could be good for both of you." Hardcase said. If Dogma could start to make a tentative relationship with Jesse, then he could have at least tolerance and a small understanding with Fives. Though Hardcase didn't think Dogma needed to know that Fives had said that nobody would miss him. That knowledge would just be needlessly harmful and not get them anywhere.

Hardcase knew that Fives hadn't entirely meant it. He'd just been trying to convince himself of it so he didn't feel guilty for suggesting Dogma's transfer. It had been a mistake. Acknowledge it, don't do it again, and move on.

"We're trying to help Dogma." Hardcase said. "It's hard, because we don't know what's wrong. Everything we figure out just adds more questions. The classes are the key, but Dogma can't tell us what's going on because he doesn't really understand what we're looking for. He was in those classes since he was a kid. He doesn't know what made them different."

Hardcase gave Fives a careful look. "Echo didn't start until he was older. He told you about the classes."

Fives didn't look like he understood where Hardcase was going with this. Hardcase honestly wasn't sure if he knew himself, but this felt important. It felt like the last missing piece that would make everything make sense.

Hardcase wished Echo was here. He had gone through the classes, but not so much so that Hardcase would call it reconditioning the way he would with Dogma. Echo had been the middle ground. The cipher to solve the code.

Echo wasn't here, but Fives was.

"Can you help?" Hardcase asked. He wasn't sure what that help would look like. Maybe he would look over Dogma's notes and see if any of them rang a bell. Maybe he could tell Shaak Ti more about the lessons that Echo had taken, because from what Hardcase could tell she seemed to be having a hard time finding any information. Maybe he could just talk to Dogma. After all, Fives had been able to get information from Echo. Maybe he could get information from Dogma.

Maybe this wouldn't get them anywhere, but Hardcase wanted to try. Fives was his vod. Dogma was his vod'ika. All of Torrent, including Dogma, was his family, and Hardcase just really wanted them to be on friendly terms. He didn't want to feel like he had to pick a side.

They were all brothers. They should all take care of each other. As far as Hardcase was concerned it really was as simple as that.

Fives looked reluctant, but he nodded as he stood up. "I don't really understand what's going on, but if you need something from me just ask. After everything, it's the least I can do." He looked towards the bushes that Tup and Dogma had gone behind. "And for the record, I'm sorry. I honestly didn't think you cared about him as much as you do." And Hardcase couldn't blame him. For so many of their brothers Hardcase showed affection in the same way. He did it differently for Dogma, because that was what he needed, but for Fives, who had tried so hard to not look at Dogma, he would have just seen the different treatment, and not the reason behind it.

He hadn't understood then, but he did now. He was willing to at least open his eyes and see Dogma as more than just a painful reminder. It wasn't a lot, but it was a start, and it was more than Hardcase thought they would get.

"There's a small dive bar near Dex' diner." Fives said. "Echo used to love to go there. It was quieter, and they have a secret menu of non-alcoholic drinks that have similar names to the alcoholic ones, so the people around you don't have to know that you're staying sober. I know Dogma wouldn't like 79's, but-" He trailed off and looked uncomfortable. Hardcase just smiled at him.

"I'll see if he wants to go." Hardcase said. "And I won't tell him it was your idea." Dogma didn't need to know about this conversation. He wouldn't like being talked about behind his back, so he didn't have to know.

Fives nodded his thanks and walked away. Hardcase watched him go as he made himself comfortable on the bench. He closed his eyes, genuinely relaxed this time, and waited for Tup and Dogma to return.