𝖁𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎 !
XV. EXPOSURE

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PANIC HAD GROWN, SIZZLING throughout Kera's bones. The very sight of explosives and the preparation with the Tuskan Raiders and the townsfolk for what was to come had made it real. It had truly brought to light exactly how perilous the task of killing the kyrat dragon was. Kera no longer felt in control, no longer that fearless leader she had always wished herself to be.

    A hand squeezed her shoulder comfortingly and Kera turned to face the gaze of Cobb Vanth, his wind tousled grey hair shimmering from suns, his hazel eyes gentle, warm and thoughtful. "Ya always worry for nothin' y'know. It'll be fine."

    Kera snorted and rolled her eyes. "I know it won't go according to plan. Nothing ever does."

    The Marshal held up his hands in surrender. "Don't go all-wise, on me now, Deputy. I don't always understand what comes out that pretty mouth of yours."

    "Thanks, you're such a charmer, Marshal. I'm so flattered."

     "No need to be so dry in ya sarcasm. I'll tell ya again, there's no need to worry," The Marshal nodded in the direction of the Mandalorian and Kera rolled her eyes at the words that came next, "We have that Mandalorian on our side."

     "Oh, my! All my worries have ceased to exist!"

     "Kera," Cobb Vanth, murmured, his voice laced with sudden exhaustion.

     "What? Sarcasm is my coping mechanism, okay? I know, I know. Mandalorians are badass, you don't have to tell me twice. I figured that one out when I was ten years old! The novelty of a Mandalorian wears off after a while."

     Cobb Vanth sighed, his fingers massaging at his temples. "You're no fun."

     "I'm not supposed to be fun. We're supposed to be working, like everyone else but instead, you decided to have a chat with me and──," Whatever Kera Verr was to say next was cut off. The townsfolk and the Tusken Raiders worked together to load the Banthas with explosives and one had been dropped and an sort of argument between the two ── a man whom Kera knew, a respected miner named Ras and a Tusken Raider.

      Automatically, Kera had stepped forwards. Her arm gripped tightly, snagging the man away, only to force him to make eye contact with her. Her tone was sharp and commanding. "Hey. Listen to me. It was an accident. Let it go."

     It must have been something in her brown eyes or perhaps something menacing in her tone, for the man simply nodded and let it go. Kera turned aimlessly on the wooden platforms, forced to face the Mandalorian who had been silently observing her, nestled with his Beskar armoured body against a barrel with a hand on his hip.

     Kera arched an eyebrow in his direction, unable to control how her cheeks grew rosy pink. There was something about the fetching composure in his stance that Kera couldn't help but admit that it was undeniably attractive.

     The Deputy let out a sigh, shifting her footing before she spoke. "Do you think this plan will work?"

     The Mandalorian straightened his stance, "It better. Joining forces with the Tusken Raiders is their only hope."

       "I come to you for assurance and I don't gain assurance in your Mandalorian expertise. Thanks." Kera sighed again at the silence, her glittering brown eyes locking onto the Mandalorian's visor as she tilted her head thoughtfully. ". . . You're a man of few words, aren't you?"

     "What makes you say that, Kera?" All Kera Verr was able to register was that he, the Mandalorian aka helmet head had said her name. Kera. Despite his cold, brash tone, there was something in the way the Mandalorian had spoken her name ── so gently, so bewitchingly in his deep baritone, Kera had wanted him to say her name again. And Kera almost hated him for it.

     Kera folded her arms across her chest, childishly turning her gaze into the Dune Sea, refusing to look at the Mandalorian. "Where's the kid?"

    The Deputy had glanced back at the Mandalorian for a moment, only for the shiny deep sliver Beskar helmet to nod towards the child and Jo playing a game with a soft, leather rounded ball. It surprised Kera that the Mandalorian had even allowed the child to participate, he had always seemed to be an overprotective, helicopter type of parent.

    "Do you trust me enough for a suggestion?" Kera asked honestly.

     The Mandalorian was quick with his response. "I haven't decided yet."

     Kera sighed then shrugged her shoulders. "Fair enough. . . I guess? I was just gonna say that Anza and Kaythree could watch the child for you. All the children are staying behind where it is safe."

     "Wherever I go, he goes."

     "How. . . honourable?" Kera Verr said quizzically, unsure of exactly what to say. "But creed or no creed, he'd be safe here. I just know from my own experience that it could possibly just get a little dicey."

     "I can handle it," The Mandalorian assured grimly, a hardness to his tone that Kera undoubtedly noticed and it made her smile a little too much. She was getting under his skin or he wasn't accustomed to having a woman or anyone in particular constantly flaunt their opinions at him. Sometimes, Kera gathered signs that he liked to work alone or at least he used too. But it wasn't entirely fair that she was making such assumptions. She didn't even know anything about the Mandalorian. Only that he was an honourable warrior, could speak Tuskan, extremely stubborn, had a tendency to be sometimes grumpy (blunt too) and had adopted a sweet little green force-sensitive child?

          "Very well. Just know that option stands, okay? Give it some thought."

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IT HAD TURNED OUT that the Mandalorian had taken Kera's advice. She had no idea what had compelled him to actually listen to her. Nevertheless, Kera Verr couldn't wipe that damn smug smile off her face. Even now, many, many minutes later when everyone was travelling on foot, speeders and Banathas towards the Sarlacc pit to kill the Krayt Dragon.

       "What's got you smiling so much?" Jo asked nestled behind Kera on the speeder bike, her voice a delicate whisper in Kera's ear.

       "Don't worry about it," Jo couldn't help but notice the dismissive, protective tone that lingered in Kera's voice. Kera then cleared her throat, changing the subject. "Anyway, promise me you'll try to stay out of trouble, yeah? I mean it, Jo, this is dangerous and I don't like the idea of losing the girl I consider my little sister. Especially being gobbled up by a Krayt dragon. I can't imagine it would be a pleasant way to go."

     Jo hummed in agreement, before letting go of her tight grip around Kera's waist to fix her cap, tucking stray bits of hair out of her face, "I promise, Kera. This time I'll listen too."

      "Good choice. I really don't want Anza to kill me," Kera deadpanned.

    The Dune Sea was harsh. The suns were hot, sweltering downwards, affixed to the backs of the Tuskan Raiders and the townsfolk as they finally made it to their awaited destination ── the Sarlacc Pit. After dismounting and discarding their transport, the Mandalorian conversed with the Tuskan Raiders in a discussion of what was the plan and in a matter of moments it was settled.

     Between both the Marshal and the Mandalorian, Kera observed with her hands on her hips as a single Tuskan Raider skillfully stalked halfway towards the Sarlacc pit and pressed a palm to the rough sand.

Silence basked through the air, hearts thumping in their chests as they heard it, soft as whisper brushing against their ears. The lulling snores of the Krayt Dragon.

"What'd he say?" Cobb Vanth queried with narrowed eyes.

"He says it's sleeping. If we listen carefully, we can hear it breathing."

"Good. We can all get to work then," Kera murmured to the Marshal and the Mandalorian, carefully sipping the sea urchin fruit with a clenched jaw at the unpleasant taste and then she was gone ── wandering around aimlessly in search of a shovel and discarding the fruit to the ground.

Kera Verr was once a child of Naboo, adorned in gold and ivory, once to be raised as a peacemaker, a possible ruler and candidate for the planet's future. It was what she was illuminated and formed by, yet those threads had snapped and corroded the day her mother had died, sputtering down a slope into an abyss of nothing. Over time her memory had waned, each piece crumbling and chipping away. But it was easy to remember certain things. The orange swish of her mother's skirts. Fingers braiding her lengthy obsidian tresses. Kera's bare feet running on the milky marble floors. The scent of freesia and sunlight. . .

You have your mother's heart. . . and her spirit. Those tender, considerate words of Obi-Wan Kenobi had always spun to be true.

The firm orders, spilling out of her pink lips came at ease ── a sudden incarnate of her mother's fearless spirit and temperament, following and continuing to abide by the plan as she and others dug up the harsh, hardened surface by the openings of the cave until the pit. Eventually, the pit was deep enough to bury the charges and to cover them. The belly of the Kyrat dragon was the creature's presumed weakness and it was all apart of the vigilantly crafted plan. Burry the charges. Wake it up. Make it angry. Hit the detonator and blow the Kyrat dragon to pieces.

Beads of sweat trickled down her brow and Kera hastily wiped it away, narrowing her eyes in annoyance at the sight of both the Mandalorian and the Marshal ── who remained stagnant and still and observing. Kera's eyes followed Jo ── who had powered up detonator strolling cooly towards the Mandalorian stained with a gleaming shine and the Marshal who stood beside him.

Kera observed the interaction from beside the charge field, a little distance away. "Careful Marshal."

   "Thank you, Jo. And you stay safe, yeah? I don't want Kera to murder me."

The teenager had nodded twice with a pearly smile which flushed against her dark skin and alike the two authorial leaders before her, she had turned only to see that Kera pointed a finger to the Marshal. Then Kera, very menacingly dragged her forefinger across her neck a fluid notion, closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out to indicate an untimely death. The Marshal chuckled, his gloved fingers looped in the belt loops of his dark brown pants and shook his head ever so softly.

Everything was set. The plan was commencing. Kera had located herself to be at the side of both the Mandalorian and the Marshal as three Tuskans bellowed in a call for the Kyrat dragon to appear. The growl of the monster and the upturn of the sandy earth was stilling, compelling Kera Verr to unmoving stone yet she somehow found her voice. "Oh, stars. That was defiantly to scale!"

The Kyrat dragon had textured sandstone coloured scales imprinted across its head, tiny rounded charred black eyes and long, jagged teeth as its body slammed downwards onto the surface, only to recoil and surrender to the safety of the cave.

"Dank farrik, it's going back in!" The Mandalorian cursed.

Kera chewed at the inside of her cheek, her eyes drifting to the Mandalorian. "We need to draw it back out, now. Do you have any good ideas rollin' about in that helmet head of yours?"

"I'm going to hit it," Cobb Vanth confirmed to the two.

"No," Kera and the Mandalorian chorused together in unison. Kera's face rumpled a bit, her onyx brows knotting together.

The Mandalorian raised the circular binocular to his visor. "Wait. We only have one shot. It has to be done right."

Heavy fire was applied to the Kyrat dragon to draw it out. The smell of explosives and gunpowder burned Kera's senses. Her eyes slammed shut, compelling the scent to be driven away. It was almost snaring her away, calling her back to that sinister crimson red night on Jedha. Kera's hands curled into fists, willing to stay firmly on the ground and drew her eyes open. Not to fall down into the whirlwind of her past.

"Now?" The Marshal asked.

The Mandalorian was firm. "Not yet. It's gotta come out further."

"Kera," Cobb Vanth suddenly murmured noticing how she trembled, how she had looked displaced at the sounds of the screams of the victims from the venom of the Kyrat dragon. The pain at the nape of her neck burned as it did when they branded her skin with white ink, forcing the girl to be marked of the symbol of the Galactic Empire and hunted forevermore for the blood in her veins.

   "I'm f-fine," She had stuttered before widening her eyes at the perfect placement of the Kyrat dragon above the buried charges and Kera evened her voice, gaining semblance. "Press the button, Cobb! Now!"

Bits of dirt flew flying high in the air as the Kyrat dragon took the explosives to its body and it wailed. A gush of dusty wind danced and tangled through Kera's hair only to find that the Kyrat dragon had succumbed to the sanctuary of the earth.

      Damn it.

Silence fell and Kera found herself at a loss for breath. "I don't think it's dead. Like at all."

"Neither do I," The Mandalorian quipped.

"Me too," Cobb Vanth also contributed.

Then almost as expected sooner or later, the Kyrat dragon roared, bursting through mountain sculpted surface of the above cave, only to drench below in venom, dissolving a selected few to nothing.

"It's picking us off like whomp rats," Cobb Vanth concluded, dawning himself with his helmet and his rifle, shooting into the air.

Kera observed that the Mandalorian had collected his pulse rifle and had turned to her, only to nod once and scale into the air after the Marshal. Kera shook her head as she moved, frustrated that she was reduced to 'stupid watch over everyone duty' as she collected her own rifle.

Looking around her surroundings, she recognised that she was too far to aid the duo any way as they settled on the rough, peaked surface of the cave. Instead, she refitted the leather strap on her rifle which was riddled with ammo, swinging it across her shoulder as she clambered forwards with great effort, her half-gloved fingers gripping the stone and her light booted feet finding footholds as she heaved and clambered herself upwards to higher ground.

Kera groaned and launched her self onto the ledge, rolling as she settled upon her knees, positioning the rifle for the perfect shot. She watched as bits of rock flew, scaling through the air, creating a smog of dust as both the Mandalorian and the Marshal made it to the safety of the surface.

As soon as she saw the Kyrat dragon Kera fired twice. But to Kera's dismay, her calculated shots had done little to nothing against the scaly impenetrable armour of its skin. Kera fired again yet it was impossible to aim for the eyes in an attempt to blind it, for all Kera had was the view of its reptilic behind.

     Kera Verr was reduced to do nothing but sit and watch. And she hated it.

Kera frowned as she watched Cobb Vanth suddenly sweep the air and the Mandalorian remain, alone with a Bantha saddled with explosives. She sighed, lowering her rifle, tilting her oval chin and narrowing her eyes as the Kyrat dragon scaled the air. Each was second pressing closer to devour him and Kera couldn't help but feel how her insides fizz with concern and uneasiness. Did this Mandalorian have a death wish? Did he not even think of that child of his for even a moment? Kera couldn't think of anything more selfish.

Before she knew it, Kera had pulled the leather strap of her rifle over her shoulder and she descended downwards at an alarming speed, her boots slipping in the sand and rubble, almost tumbling over a few times before she raced towards the Marshal who had crash-landed not so expertly and gracefully.

"You okay?" Kera wavered gently. The Marshal nodded once with a thin smile.

The earth rumbled and Kyrat dragon emerged and the Mandalorian tore through the opening of its jaw and scaled the air as it finally blew, slamming against the surface, dead. The Mandalorian, heroically landed only for it to be bedizened with bits of sand and rubble.

Kera couldn't deny the wide smile that grew upon her lips at the cheers echoed in her ears and the sight of the Mandalorian covered in green muck. Even Kera couldn't deny that was badass. A badass Mandalorian, who knew, right?

The cheers eventually faded and the Tuskan Raiders had already begun to salvage the flesh and whatnot of the dragon, even watching from a distance the metallic scent of blood made her dizzy.

Kera moved, her foots thudding softly against the earth, wavering of nothing but confidence as she followed after Cobb Vanth with the pile of his Mandalorian armour both walking towards the Mandalorian. A chunk of the Kyrat dragon meat, restyled upon the speeder as the Mandalorian covered it in cloth.

"Sorry, I didn't have time to explain."

"No need," Exactly when the Marshal spoke, so did his deputy.

"You gave me a heart attack!" Kera scolded, only to realise as the Mandalorian collected the set of armour from Cobb Vanth that he actually wasn't talking to her, not even a little. A deep rosy blush drenched her cheeks. "Stars, I'm sorry. The kid ── y-you . . . I thought and the plan . . . nevermind. I'll go get Jo. Mandalorian, I'll meet you back at Mos Pelgo."

When Kera returned to her speeder, Jo was already waiting by the speeder and noticing the look on Kera's face she spoke, "What happened?"

   "I humiliated myself and there was no saving myself from it."

Jo was bathed in a fit of laughter, "I saw. The Marshal will probably tease you about it for a week or two."

Kera sighed, watching as the Mandalorian and the Marshal shook hands before turning back to the teenager, wishing to fade into dust, "I know."