You know it’s funny… originally, neither Fives nor Echo were supposed to appear in our most recent story, but then  Nesciens and I got a little sidetracked and… well… Now we’ve got them starring in their own dedicated story.

This is a sort of follow up to ”A Harsh Lesson”, not required reading, but it will offer some nifty context.

This story features a young Padawan accidently shrinking himself and getting a pair of off-duty clones to help him out.

Thumbnail art by @ZarynScribbles over on Twitter, check out the full version too!

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Slippery Slope

The sun’s first rays had only just beamed from beyond the horizon, when Den made his first steps up the long, sprawling staircase of the Jedi Temple. While the megapolis around him never truly slept, he was not supposed to stay up all night, let alone doing what he was doing, spending his night beneath the table of two off-duty clones...

Granted, it was not as shameless as it initially sounded, but he was fairly certain that using a highly dangerous artifact from the Jedi Vault to shrink himself in a civilian area to satisfy his inane, carnal desires was not going to fly with the Jedi Council. At least if they had ever found out.

It wasn’t his fault, really – he reasoned – after finding out about his interests from Wolffe; Comet and Booster absolutely refused to be placated, teasing the poor, impressionable Padawan with one suggestive remark after another, until he finally succumbed to peer pressure. Which, of course, lead to a night at the bar – isolated private booth in the back, two clone troopers casually discussing the Commander of their battalion simpering over their socked feet just beneath the table… Not to mention, Sinker joining them later into the night, with nobody informing him of their little guest.

Oh, Force, he’d never live this down if they ended up telling anyone, even if he doubted they would. Still, he had to get this relic and himself back before anyone else noticed he was missing. Then again, even if he did get caught, it would still have been worth it.

The beams of light were only just starting to pass over the Coruscant skyline and Den already dreaded the day ahead. What were the chances that Master Plo would let him sleep in for one day? A small, juvenile part of him wanted to fake a sickness, but he wouldn’t be caught dead lying to his mentor; tactfully withholding information, maybe – but never lying.

For now though, his mind was still somewhat lucid. He kept rolling the shrinking relic between his fingers inside his pocket, the subtle motions grounding him, keeping him focused. However, one slip of the finger cut his plans for the day short – a simple twitch that activated the artifact and sent the Jedi-in-training shooting down in size. No longer was he climbing the stairs, but instead standing, stunned, in front of a sheer wall as the spherical relic slammed into the ground beside him with a resounding *thud*.

Den watched in horror as it slowly rolled closer to the edge, and with just a little too much momentum, careened right off it, rolling down the monumental staircase at rapidly increasing speeds. The shrunken man let out an agonized, defeated whimper as he helplessly followed it with his gaze, watching it disappear from sight in less than ten seconds.

This… This was bad.

Relic gone, stuck halfway up the humongous staircase to the Jedi Temple, barely at the brake of dawn and with not a soul around, likely for the next few hours… He was, at least, not nearly as puny as the last couple of times, but Den still lacked any decent options here. He could either continue his ascent – which would now take at least ten times as much time and effort – and desperately try to find some Jedi or, with luck, his master; or he could take his chances going down to find and activate his lost relic to regain his height. Neither option seemed particularly encouraging, leaving the young Padawan to slump down in defeat as he mentally slapped himself. How did he always manage to end up in these situations?

Barely a minute into his mental self-flagellation, a distant rumble above sounded. A noise and sensation Den was very familiar with at this point – the sound of a heavy boot slamming into the ground and the subsequent, distant shudder from the impact zone. Someone was closing in from above and, judging by the identical noise and shaking right behind it, they weren’t alone.

Who would even be leaving the temple at this hour? Den didn’t want to waste this chance, but at the same time he had learned well how dangerous oblivious passersby could be at these tiny sizes. He’d step back and evaluate the situation – see if he could get these strangers’ attention… or, failing that, come up with another plan… Maybe he could cling to their leg and hitch a ride down the stairs or something.

A surge of relief filled him at the sight of two titans in familiar white armor, decorated with streaks of dark blue – clone troopers! While he was not too familiar with ones outside of his master’s battalion, Den knew could trust clones – they’d help him out!

His heart still fluttering, the tiny Padawan began making his way closer. He could hear the distant rumbling voices, just about managing to make out bits and pieces of their conversation as the two clones came to a stop. Their towering forms suddenly grew shorter, the armor bent and clicked into place as – with a slight quake – their backsides lowered down, getting comfortable on the stairs.

This… this was perfect! A pair of stationary troopers was so much easier to deal with!

Den couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d seen those two somewhere before, but, choosing to ignore the nagging feeling of familiarity for now, he quickly began his climb – leaping up one stair at time. This wasn’t his first experience with Force-empowered athletics, but Den found chaining so many jumps together oddly satisfying. A flood of adrenaline rushing through his body – he supposed this would make for excellent endurance training! Something Master Plo had encouraged him to try more often, since he had already nailed down the basics. A quick glance ahead revealed the clones were about fifty or so steps away – with five down, he just had forty-five left – he could do this!

Forty, thirty, twenty – the closer he got, the easier it became to parse what these clones were talking about.

“So wait, since when was General Skywalker not allowed into the Holocron Vault?”

“I’m fairly certain, most Jedi aren’t allowed in, Fives – just the council members.”

“Oh yeah, right. But then… didn’t we just sort of waltz on into relic storage last time?”

“Well, technically, we were granted permission by a council member. But I guess, whatever secrets those holocrons are hiding, they gotta be more dangerous than a bunch of random artifacts most people don’t even remember how to use.”

“Doesn’t that seem kinda shady to you, Echo?”

“Not really. Some of the data in those archives is ancient. Forbidden techniques, dark secrets, master copies of star charts… you wouldn’t want just anyone messing with stuff like that.

“I suppose so.”

General Skywalker – right, blue was his battalion. But wait… Echo? Den paused for a moment, wasn’t that…? Oh…

Oh.

Memories from months ago suddenly flooded Den’s mind. Two gigantic ARC troopers – Fives and Echo – that he had run into back in the Relic Vault. They had, in equal parts, saved and nearly killed him back then… multiple times… in the span of a few minutes.

The revelation put a bit of a pause into Den’s strenuous athletics, but he couldn’t stop now… even though he did feel somewhat hesitant to put himself at the mercy of those two again. It wasn’t like he was spoiled for choice, besides – he was much bigger this time, surely nothing untoward would happen for a second time?

With a slight cry of exertion, Den leapt up one more time as his lean muscle convulsed with exhaustion. Slumping to the ground slightly, the Padawan groaned and looked up – body stilling at the towering sight before him. Standing firm, tall and powerful in its own presence, was the right boot of Fives – resting flat on the step, one down from its partner.

Force, it was huge. Not as world-shatteringly massive as last time but even so… even like this, it emitted an invisible power to it, ominous in its warning – a warning Den was all too happy to listen to.

There was no chance he would be approaching it while Fives remained unaware of him – he could conjure up more than enough images in his head of the clone suddenly moving and bringing that boot square down on top him to dissuade any notions of getting closer. Instead, he simply tilted his head back, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted directly towards the sitting trooper.

“Hello?! Look down! I’m below you!” He kept going, shouting out various pleas, even trying out Fives’ name. Nothing. The two soldiers remained stuck in their casual conversation, paying him not the slightest bit of heed. The only response he got was when Fives lowered a hand halfway into Den’s latest cry for help, instinctively sending the little man sprawling onto his back in fear… only for the gloved appendage to reach out and rub absent-mindedly against the clone’s shin – dealing with some phantom itch behind the armor, no doubt.

“Dammit…” Den whispered as he looked around again. He was too quiet – he had to narrow the distance further. Despite the reluctance to get too close to these conversing titans, he pumped himself up and, with a grunt, deftly leapt upwards, rolling onto the surface of the next step with fine, practiced grace as he steeled himself and glanced up again.

He was right next to it, he could feel the power behind every idle shift of Fives’ boot. Force, this was unnerving – not helped at all by a glance further up the stairs the revealed Echo stretching his legs a little; those lovely boots, one lifted slightly off the ground, exposing the dusty sole, just one drop away from smearing Den across the surface of it…

The Padawan shook his head. “Fiiiiiives! Echooooo!” He tried shouting again, only to find his words easily drowned out. His throat was getting a little raspy, and Fives’ highly animated retelling of his run-in with Commander Cody’s men wasn’t helping. Loud voice, waving hands… the little Padawan was completely off the two clones’ radar.

With a frustrated growl, he hopped back, making just a little bit more space between himself and the two giants, more for peace of mind than any practical reason. He did have another idea in mind – an old classic, that had helped him grab Master Plo’s attention on quite a few occasions before.

With a quick motion he unsheathed his lightsaber, paused, and then unsheathed another. He wasn’t used to dual-wielding yet, but given his natural aptitude for faster-paced, lighter movements, he was happy to acquiesce when his mentor had suggested this. And in this instance, twice the blades, meant twice the chance to actually draw the clones’ attention.

There was something… impertinent about this. Powerful blades, attuned to the Force itself, with a pair of specially-honed kyber crystals serving as their cores… now being used as glorified glowsticks that Den was desperately waving around for attention. Weapons, capable of easily slicing through metals struggling to get a pair of allied troopers to so much as glance at him…

At least until a passing glance from Echo finally alerted him to the small visual anomaly. The titan looked down – stern, emotionless helmet staring right at Den for a solid five seconds before the ARC trooper gently nudged his partner’s side.

“Uh… Fives? Is it the sleepless night messing with my eyes or is there a tiny man next to your boot?”

Fives rolled his eyes, lazily glancing towards his brother. “Yeah, I’m not falling for that one, Echo— oh… There is.”

---

“So let me get this straight.” Fives sat there, arms crossed, lightly tapping his foot; his brow was furrowed as he regarded the tiny Jedi with a scrutinizing glare. “You are General Plo Koon’s Padawan, you were out of the temple on a ‘classified assignment’ with a highly dangerous relic that you managed to accidentally activate and promptly lose?”

Den shuddered a bit as Fives stared him down. He may have had authority over clone troopers but it was hard to exercise it when he was literally standing in the middle of one’s palm, surrounded on all sides by tree-trunk fingers that could effortlessly wrestle him into submission. Not to mention the years of experience this weathered ARC trooper likely had over him, the sheer inadequacy of Den’s supposed command made him gulp. Force… he was way out of his depth here. “Y-yeah?” He mumbled.

But before Fives could say another word, his comrade – Echo – gently nudged his side. “Uhm… Fives, buddy? You do remember that General Koon’s Padawan technically outranks both of us? Maybe you should lay off a little, unless you want to get us into trouble.”

“Ehh…” Fives rolled his eyes a little, looking away from the tiny Jedi as the conversation continued overhead as if Den wasn’t even there. “It’s like Captain Rex says – experience outranks everything, just look at this greenhorn!” A chuckle escaped the trooper. “Besides, General Plo wouldn’t mind us putting this rookie through his paces a little, especially since he managed to misplace a dangerous artifact that we have to go help him find now.”

“I suppose so.” Echo sighed, glancing down towards the little whelp of a Jedi. “Still, it wouldn’t kill you to be a bit nicer, the little guy’s probably scared shitless right now.”

“Oh!” Fives gasped, eyes widening behind his helmet as he finally glanced towards the puny being in his palm – for the first time realizing how the two of them must have looked to the little guy, and what risk he took in just approaching them at this size. He was all for holding his supposed higher-ups to certain standards, but he was not about to just bully the kid. “Apologies, sir.” He said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “I got a little carried away there.”

“Hah! No worries, you guys, it’s a pretty strange situation, I get it. I’m just thankful you two seem willing to help!”

“You said it rolled down the stairs, right sir?” Echo asked, leaning in a bit to hear the response.

Still standing in the middle of Fives’ palm, little Den couldn’t help but stumble back as the enormous clone trooper’s helmet zoomed in towards him. But, catching himself mid-fall, he nodded. “Y-yes! If… if you wouldn’t mind giving me a lift down and grabbing it for me…?”

“Of course, sir, won’t even take a minute!” Echo responded, earning a slight chuckle from Fives.

“Right…” Fives nodded, having a quick look at himself for somewhere to put the little guy. “You uhh, just sit tight in here, sir.” Gently lifting the little thing closer to the pouch on his chest, Fives flicked it open, wordlessly inviting the tiny Padawan to hop on in.

Den took the offer without hesitation – this wasn’t his first time being transported about by looming titans, after all. The two clones though, exchanged a quick glance, a bit confused by how readily the little Jedi went along with this. Echo shrugged and Fives responded in kind – both assuming that the kid must have had at least some nerve to make it to the rank of Padawan.

Carefully, Fives adjusted the strap of the little pouch, making sure his tiny Jedi passenger was nice and secure in there. “C’mon, Echo.” He said, lifting himself up and dusting his kama off a bit.

Meanwhile Den would feel the sheer strength behind that simple motion – the massive titan he had boarded rose himself up, leaving the tiny Padawan clinging to the pouch around him as a sense of vertigo practically swallowed him up. And then… the stairs… As Fives walked downwards, one step at a time, each footfall would send a jolt through Den’s body – not anything the soldier himself would notice, but the puny Jedi felt like he was being hit by one Force shove after another. It took him a moment to even just adjust himself into a comfortable position – rather than feeling his chest echo with dull pain after each subsequent impact.

Finally getting the chance to properly look about, he gasped. He was now about as high up as he would have been at his normal height – that is to say, chest level with a clone – but with his view warped by the sheer scale of everything around him, it was a whole different feeling. The majesty of the sprawling staircase was astounding, as was the sight of the clones themselves – a pair of glorious, armored titans, their plating seemingly glowing in morning sun, carrying on with such tangible momentum. It took Den a good five minutes to climb these fifty stairs, while these two had crossed that distance in less than ten seconds… Force...

“Oh – I think I see it! Small, metal orb, right? Kinda shiny?”

It took Den a moment to even realize someone was speaking, so lost was he in his daydream – not to mention his rapidly growing exhaustion. He jolted upright and looked towards Echo. “Y-yeah! That’s the one! Whew… You guys… thank you so much for this, seriously! I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Not a problem, sir – just doing our job.”

“Always happy to help out a Jedi.” Echo concurred with a nod.

The two clones continued their slow trot as Fives took the lead. Making his way down the final stretch of the staircase, he squinted, spotting the little orb – it was still slowly rolling back and forth along the stone floor.

“This thing, then?” Fives asked, taking a few steps forward and casually resting the tip of his boot over the relic, stopping it in its tracks. “Kinda small, isn’t it?” Mindlessly, his boot began to press down – less a conscious thought and more an attempt to settle his stance.

Den didn’t have the best view of what was happening down below, but he could just barely make out the relic disappearing beneath the tip of Fives’ boot – a sight that had him flashing back to the time Echo had done the exact same – to the time where this little relic was the only thing between the young Padawan himself and a careless, all-encompassing sole of a giant clone’s boot…

It was… distressing, seeing this artifact treated like this – an ancient, powerful relic rolled about like some cheap toy dropped underneath the desk. Then again, he couldn’t really judge Fives for this – it was this exact desire to idly fiddle with the thing that got Den into this mess to begin with.

“Well, sir did say it was small, Fives… what were you expecting?”

Fives felt the sturdy metal underfoot – it wasn’t giving way beneath his step at all. “Eh, dunno…” Still though – if he really wanted – he bet he could warp it a little by actively shoving some weight down on it… a thought that had him smirking gently.

Den meanwhile was listening to the two clones comment on the relic with slight trepidation. He understood it might look unassuming… but this relic really was powerful! Besides – his last encounter with these two had led to them both examining the very orb that they were looking at right now… surely, they’d remember that?

“This um… isn’t actually the first time you’ve seen it! I’m not sure if you remember it fully, but when you visited the Jedi Vault you actually—”

“Don’t mess around with that, vod – you know anything Jedi or Force related like this can be dangerous shit.” Den blinked at the sudden interruption from Echo but nodded his firm assent as he continued.

“Yeah! It might look small but it’s actually incredibly powerful and—”

“C’mon it’s fine! Look – I’m barely even touching it!”

The tiny Padawan blinked as he realized he wasn’t just being interrupted… he was being completely ignored! Though probably not… intentionally. Echo seemed an attentive, respectful man and despite the slight initial – and unbeknownst to them completely justified – doubt, Fives really did appear to be a genuine guy too… but Den was small. What hope did he have of being properly heard if neither titan was actively paying attention to him, especially when shoved into a pocket like this? It was a slightly humiliating experience, made only worse by the fact that outside of the uncertainty and awkwardness of it, an embarrassingly large part of Den found the whole situation weirdly exciting.

Neither aware of the inner conflict going on inside Fives’ chest pouch, the two clones continued their little tiff.

“Yeah? And if you accidentally step on it and activate it – what am I supposed to do?”

“I dunno, Echo – guess you’d be carrying me and the Jedi here back up there to get up some help. Can you lay off? I was just trying to stop it from rolling away!”

It was a pretty minor bicker – Fives and Echo were some of the closest clones out there thanks to their shared history and could never truly hold any serious resentment towards one another… but the closeness did inevitably lead to inconsequential flare-ups like this, even if they were usually solved in minutes. This was another such conflict, and just like any other spat between the two, it would have similarly been free from repercussions… if it weren’t for the fact that both clones’ attention was so focused on the other. Neither one of them was paying attention to the tiny relic anymore, neither catching the moment it slowly resumed its roll – a gentle motion carrying it away the second Fives’ boot was no longer pinning it down…

“…besides – what I’m trying to say is—”

“Fives!”

“What? I don’t get to finish my point?”

“No, dikut, the relic!”

The other clone trooper’s helmet whirled around to scan along the ground as he caught sight of the little orb rolling away… right towards some rushing clone trooper, clad in pristine, white armor and seemingly almost out of breath. Exchanging a momentary glance, the two quickly realized they were dealing with a shiny – a clone fresh from Kamino with no idea what was going on yet.

Those boots slamming down were coming right in the direction of the small relic and before anyone could react-

*tink*

Without so much as a passing glance down, never even noticing what he had done, the rushing shiny sent the little ball flying with the tip of his boot.

“Shit!” Fives half-lunged along the ground, skidding across the stone as he reached out a hand to try and halt the relic’s movement. But it was already too late, only just missing his hand, the relic rolled along the ground. It bounced and bobbed, seemingly hitting every little bump in its path before landing on a nearby sewer grate… promptly slipping right between the metal slits and disappearing into the dark abyss below.

The sheer comedy of errors required to allow for this to happen would honestly have been hilarious if it weren’t for the fact that their rescued Jedi had just lost his sole way of growing back.

Den, meanwhile, let out a panicked yelp as the motion of Fives’ lunge nearly sent him flying straight out of the pouch. Instinctively, he grabbed onto the sturdy leather of pouch, keeping himself in place while the huge flap swung down from above, clasping shut. The little Jedi was left alone in the dark, light and fresh air cut off, leaving him disoriented and confused, with no idea what the hell had just happened.

Similarly oblivious to the gravity of the situation, the rookie clone moved to rush past… only to freeze as his glance fell back to the two troopers. No – these weren’t just normal clone troopers like him! The kama and symbols… these were ARC Troopers! A rung up the chain of command from him!

Weirdly, one of them was lying belly-down on the floor just below him… he didn’t know what that was about… but good soldiers didn’t question their superiors. He gave a hasty, if somewhat belated, salute. “Uh… uhm… CT-39-8945, sir!” Should he… was he supposed to apologize for failing to initially salute them!? It couldn’t hurt – right? “So sorry! I am on my way to my initial station, sir! Uh… sirs!” He gave another salute as he stared at the two ARC Troopers… both were looking at him and even with the helmets on, 8945 could tell he was being stared at. Instead of dwelling on it, he gave a short nod and at the lack of admonishment from either of the men and simply dashed off, scaling the stairs three at a time without looking back.

The lull of silence continued as both troopers watched the shiny rush away. “Should… we have stopped him?”

“For what? Kid didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

Their gazes shifted to the metal grate as a loud sigh escaped Echo.

“Shit… sorry, Fives – I should’ve spoken up sooner. Didn’t even see the damn shiny until…”

“No uh… I think I’m to blame here. Shouldn’t have been stupid and messed around like that – this wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

“Well I’m not going to argue with that… but I definitely dropped the ball too. Guess we’re as bad as each other, eh?”

“Hah! Ain’t that the truth!” The two clones exchanged a familiar nod before their focus shifted to the little pouch on Fives’ chest. “We should uh… probably tell him what happened…” Both of them paused, pondering how exactly to explain this.

Den was still squirming about in confusion. He could hear both clones very well and had even heard the distant vocalizations of this newcomer… a clone too, judging by his address. Had something happened? Why were the two apologizing to each other? Light suddenly invaded as Den watched those familiar, gigantic fingers fiddle with the pouch opening… and the scary yet thrilling sight of a massive clone trooper helmet filled his view again, joined shortly by a second one. Briefly, Den wondered if this was what a caged pet might feel like, with two giant clones staring down at him… Meanwhile the titans above began to speak.

“So… I have some slightly bad news, sir. Me and Fives were… just about to grab your relic when… hm.”

“A shiny came. We call em’ shinies because they haven’t earned their armor paint yet, so the pure white is all shiny… well, that’s beside the point. This… new clone accidentally kicked your relic away from us and right before we could catch it, well…”

“It fell into a sewer grate, sir.”

Den froze, eyes wide with horror. Fell… into the sewers!?

“This… this is bad! I mean how big are the sewers!? We’re on Coruscant – there’s… there’s trillions of people here! How would we ever find—”

Echo’s stern but gentle voice interrupted. “Sir. Calm down – the Jedi Temple has its own water processing systems, remember? It’s independent from the rest of the city – so it can’t be that big, especially in comparison to the rest of Coruscant.”

Den gently nodded and let Echo’s firm tone comfort him. “Oh! Yes, of course! You’re… you’re right. I guess… I’d need to ask the Temple Guard to search the sewers for me?”

Fives let out a snort. “There’s more than enough clones in the area to get em to do a manhunt for it. But uh…” He paused as he looked up at the sky. “…it might take a while to get everything going. Between getting clearance from the higher-ups, grabbing the necessary equipment, organizing and briefing our men for a full-scale investigation… we’d need at least a day before we can even start looking.”

“Yeah, that makes sense… Commander Wolffe always complains about the red tape here on Coruscant, so I thought it might be something like that…”

“Commander Wolffe? Oh right, you’re General Plo’s kid. Ouch – don’t envy you there! He as scary as he is around Rex?”

Echo cleared his throat. “Anyway… you want us to take you somewhere, sir? I think most of the Jedi would be busy right now, but I’m sure we could find someone and explain this to them…”

“Aww Echo – we’re gonna be late if we do that!”

“Considering the Jedi’s in the situation partly because of us, we’re obliged to, Fives.”

“Yeah well, we weren’t the ones to shrink him in the first place! C’mon it’s the last day of shore leave!”

Den paused inside the pouch. He was a bit too tired to explain all this to Master Plo at the moment anyway… besides, he didn’t want to bother his master like this, especially since it was mostly his fault. Maybe, with a bit of luck, he could get the clones to be discreet and help him grow back without alerting others to his error? He raised an arm up to weakly wiggle the lid of the pouch which Echo just barely noticed.

“Sir?”

“Uhm… did you two have something planned?”

“…well, we did have some meetups and outings outlined, but if you want us to take you anywhere...” A sigh of displeasure from Fives above led Den to shiver at the warm gust of wind blowing against him unintentionally. “…me and Fives would be happy to do so.” Echo finished, shooting his partner a withering glance.

It probably would be smart to get them to take him back to the Temple… but that would take time. Then he’d have to explain himself to the Temple Guard, probably be lectured and get into trouble. It’d be so much stuff to deal with and Den was… tired. Hours of being rolled about underfoot, courtesy of the Wolfpack, and the exertion of getting to Fives and Echo had left his body aching. Right now, lying in the warm, strangely comfortable interior of this chest pouch? Den felt drowsiness beginning to take hold. Strangely enough, this place made for a pretty comfortable sleeping spot. With that in mind, Den nervously put together his next sentence.

“I… think you should enjoy yourselves like you were going to.”

“Huh? Sir—”

“I mean it! Like you said, most of the Jedi would be busy right now and the clones won’t be ready until tomorrow… not much point trying to do anything until then, right? So, I don’t see why you should have to miss the last day of your shore leave because of me.”

Fives above seemed to chuckle, and Den froze as a big finger came down to gently pet him over the head. “Thanks, sir! Promise you that we’ll get the boys out first thing tomorrow to help you out – alright? But uh… until then, should we… put you somewhere? Leave you with someone?”

“Actually… if you wouldn’t mind… I’m perfectly happy staying here.”

“Here? In my uh… ammo pouch?” Fives gave his chest a testing shake as Den clung to the sturdy material for security.

“Yes – only if you don’t mind though!”

A slow nod from the trooper above. “Well, if you’re happy in there, then I don’t mind at all. Uh… I am gonna be out with Echo pretty much all day hanging out with other guys from our battalion – not really going to have much chance to actively engage and talk to you assuming you want to keep this between us for now. Is that… alright?”

“Oh – yes that’d be fine! I might um… try to get some sleep.”

Fives snorted. “I’ll keep that in mind, sir. We’ll try to keep the jostling down – eh?”

“If you wanna switch over to me at any point, just let us know.” Echo mentioned, leaning in. “We’ll check on you throughout the day, alright sir?”

The two exchanged a quick look as Den smiled and gave a thumbs-up. He’d get just a few seconds to glance at their nod in response before the huge fingers swooped down once more. With a short, easy motion, Fives flipped the pouch lid back over and secured it tight, casting Den into a warm, cozy darkness.

It was still a bit stuffy, but – as tired as the young Padawan was – he felt himself easily drifting off regardless; with the rumbling sounds above of the two clones talking only half-registering in his mind.

---

“Well… this isn’t what I expected would be happening today.”

“Just be grateful he was so understanding, Fives. We could’ve gotten in serious trouble if he wanted to push it.”

“Ah – most Jedi are nice enough. With the exception of a certain four-armed fucker—”

“Less about him, the better.”

“Agreed. Besides – didn’t you see him? All small and polite… kinda cute, eh? Wouldn’t hurt a fly… or well couldn’t at that size, but you get what I mean.”

“He’s not cute, Fives – he’s our superior – a Jedi with rank over us.”

“Rank this, rank that – c’mon Echo. He’s tiny, helpless, and reliant upon us. Didn’t you see him all curled up and quiet in my pouch? You’re just jealous you didn’t get to pet him.”

Echo sighed in response without a word. Fives took that as a point in his favor, and gracefully didn’t rub it in.

After about a minute, Fives spoke up again. “We’re not allowed to keep pets on board, right?”

“Huh? No – handbook is very firm on that. It’s chaos enough on the ship without having to herd around animals.”

“Does it say anything about tiny Jedi though?”

“…what?”

“I’m just saying – assuming we can’t find that relic, we’ve got a shrunken Jedi on our hands. He’s kinda our responsibility, like you said. So I figure we could keep him, yeah? You’ve got that box next to your bed—”

“Fives—”

“—and I’ve got some old slacks we can pad it with. Shouldn’t be difficult to bring back chunks of food from the canteen for him, and we’ve got plenty of guys there to watch over him when we can’t!” There was a clear teasing tone in Fives’ voice.

“…I think General Plo would have some objections to you stealing his Padawan, even if he’s stuck like this.” Echo said with a roll of his eyes, refusing to laugh at his fellow trooper’s dumb joke.

“Hah!”

“Besides – if our… heh… little commander here is going to be stuck like this, then he’s not going to be handed over to you of all people, Fives.”

“Hey… what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that if I was his size, you’d be the last person I would want to be around.”

Fives gave a mock sound of hurt. “Wow, Echo – with how many times I’ve saved your sheb, I’m a little offended! I’d take great care of our little Jedi – you saw how comfy he was down there!”

“Hmm… yeah that’s true. I guess you’re not the last person on the list… you’re just above Commander Fox.”

“Ouch! Low blow, Echo – low blow! Keep that up and I’m telling Rex!”

“Yeah, and I’ll tell Rex you got our new shiny to do your chores for you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would – eyes up, street ahead.”

Settling into an easy rhythm, Fives and Echo continued to playfully bicker and chat while deep inside the walking clone’s chest pocket, Den softly smiled and let the hazy familiarity of unconsciousness overtake him. He was safe here after all.

Fives and Echo would protect him.