𝖁𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎 !
X. SPIDERS

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HOURS PASS AND THE condition of the Razor Crest isn't all that much better. Judging from experience and lack of equipment and vitality of part replacements, Kera knows it's going to take a lot more than a few hours to fix the almost ancient gunship.

   Her fingers ache from the rewiring and the freezing temperature. And Kera's turning walking ice-popsicle due to how cold she is. Kera shivers, dropping her selection of tools that pool at her feet to pull up the collar of the leather jacket then pauses when her fingers automatically move to trace the white brandishing made by the Empire. Fire burns through her veins, sizzling, smoking.

   For a moment ── for a splinter of a second Kera both aches and mourns for that little girl she knew long ago. That girl stained with legacy and promise instead of blood and ruin. A question ponders the back of her mind: would her mother be proud of her? No, Kera eventually decides an instant later, swallowing the lump in her throat. Mama would be horrified at what you've become. Then words echo in her mind over and over like a prayer. A continuous mantra to soothe the stinging torment in her heart ── survive.

   It's the very fact that Kera wants to get off this blasted frozen planet that pushes her through her depleted energy. It surprises her how she writhes for some rest, for some sleep despite the repeated horrors that reoccur in her slumber. Kera kneels before her battered green toolbox, hating the sensation of the cold powdery consistency of the snow seeking through her clothes as her nimble fingers rummage about through tools and other bits and bobs.

   She hears the reprogrammed Imperial droid before she sees him. The plan she briefly and minimally discussed with the Mandalorian was to repair as much as possible to working order. Ultimately, in Kera's mind, it meant: Mando repairs that side of the Razor Crest and Kera repairs the other. Kera nearly smiles. What happened was in the events prior ── Kera had annoyed the helmet head with so much of her chatter he'd sent her to the other side of the ship.

   "Kera!" K-3SO repeats, his robotic voice slathered in distress. "The tin can and the womp rat have vacated the area!"

   "Huh?" Kera discards her tools to stand, whirling to face her droid and notices the bits of ice stuck to his metal body. "Wait! Don't tell me! I don't want to hear it!

   "We were left behind!" The droid wails.

   When K-3SO's words finally hit her Kera laughs, dismissing the matter with a wave of her hand. "Pfft. Yeah, right. Just because I haven't seen Mando for, uh, a good couple of hours doesn't mean anything. The Mandalorian isn't very chatty, unlike you, unfortunately. I was directed especially to work on the furthest way away from him, apparently, it covers more ground. . ."

   Kera stares at K-3SO in realisation for a moment before turning on her heel and trudging through the snow towards where the Mandalorian was working. The towering droid follows after Kera and she's already fuming when she discovers the Mandalorian isn't there where he was working and possibly about to burst when he, the child and the Frog Lady are not in the hull or the cockpit of the Razor Crest.

   "We're going after 'em," Kera confirms, even if it isn't the best of survival logic or whatever seems to ramage through her brain. Then Kera points to the tracks made by the boots of the others who have all mysteriously disappeared in the snow, "The two of us ── the infamous duo can track after them. It's easy enough."

   Still tracking after the others never occurs down the ice tunnel. First, it was the sounds of blaster fire. Second, it was the gleam of the Beskar armour and the fearful screeches of the child nestled in the curve of the Mandalorian's arm, the Frog Lady close behind them. Third, it was the hundreds of strange, all varying in sizes and possible stages of life, pale blue spider-like creatures chasing after them.

   Kera's features were enraged, drawing her blaster from the holster on her left hip, firing twice with perfect precision hitting two of the spiders. "You've got to be kidding me! Really?! Kriffing spiders!──"

   K-3SO pulled at Kera's wrist, dragging her along in order for her to run. The others had reached them and Kera knew K-3SO would stop at nothing until she was safe in the Razor Crest. In a matter of seconds, Kera was pushed through the hole in the hull wall of the Razor crest and inside the safety of hull by K-3SO who collected both the child and Frog Lady's the eggs canister from the Mandalorian.

   The Frog Lady, the child and K-3SO darted across the hull and climbed the ladder into the cockpit. Kera remained, darting out the hull, firing her blaster with a near-perfect aim at the spiders with the Mandalorian. A string of web flew forwards, attaching the Mandalorian's wrist to the side of the Razor Crest.

   "Damn it," Kera cursed under her breath when her blaster had ceased to fire. Without any thought, knowing that she had no more ammo, Kera hurls her blaster at a spider who had launched itself at the two of them as the Mandalorian rips his arm free from the spiderweb.

   Kera is ushered inside the hull by the Mandalorian and Kera knowing that she's helpless, darts up the ladder to the cockpit. The Mandalorian follows after Kera almost instantly, continuing to fire at the ice-spiders that follow after them. When the door to the cockpit begins to close the spider's pile, jamming the hatch door enabling it to close.

   It was hard for Kera to recognise that she's truly unable to do nothing when spiders crawl through the gap of the doors to the cockpit. Kera turns on her heel when she hears the distressed wine of the child and the spiders that dangle from the roof, she scoops the child into her arms hoping that she provides some sort of safety and protection.

   A spider dangles and plants itself upon Kera's head and automatically K-3SO knocks it to the ground with a fluid swing of his arm, only to have the Frog Lady fire a mini-blaster at the particular spider and the other ones that circle Kera, the child in her arms and the security droid at her side. The Frog Lady croaks, smoke emitting from her mini-blaster, her other hand pressed over her canister, looking to meet the gazes of the group as they look to one another.

        The Mandalorian, just as he had on Tatooine at the Tuskan Raider's camp ── orange and yellow flames roared as they devoured through the air from the vambrace at the Mandalorian's wrist, burning and wilting the spiders and possibly, the door too.

   The air in Kera's lungs is knocked from her chest when the doors finally seal shut. Kera's brown eyes met the visor of the Mandalorian's helmet as he turns to face the group and she grins at him, breathless from the events that occurred. And for the very first time, unknowingly, beneath the Beskar helmet, in what almost feels foreign, the Mandalorian feels his lips curl ever so slightly and returns a slimmer of a smile.

        It's the sound of the cluster of spider's numerous legs tapping over the windshield of the Razor Crest which fades the relief and smiles. The Mandalorian scales to the pilot seat, automatically collapsing into the chair, spinning to face the dashboard to tamper with the controls. "Strap yourselves in. This better work."

        Immediately, the Frog Lady and Kera settle in their seats, securing their safety belts. In spite of lowering the child to the floor moments ago, Kera finds the child with its little green fingers pressed against her leg. Kera cannot help the lazy smile that etches upon her lips as she lifts the child onto her lap and feasibly on instinct, Kera runs a soothing hand over the child's green wrinkly head, littered with fuzzy patches of short hair.

        It isn't unnoticed when the Mandalorian looks back for a hurried moment, his helmet settled in the direction of Kera and the child nestled upon her lap. Kera recognises that he's looking for the child and ensuring that the child is safe, Kera winks playfully and quicker than she's ever seen the Mandalorian move, he turns face forwards to the dashboard and informs the group, "I've got limited visibility. It's gonna be a bumpy ride."

        "That totally reassuring, tin can. My diagnostics calculate a forty-nine percent chance of failure. Further diagnostics suggest a higher possibility of success if Kera pilots," K-3SO confirms, once again, his robotic fingers, clinging to the red leather headrest of Kera's chair. The Mandalorian ignores the droid obviously too focused on piloting and Kera wishes to evaporate into thin air for the possibility the first time ever ── K-3SO has never had a filter a day in his life.

        Yet, the Razor Crest shudders as it levitates upwards and once again, to Kera's dismay crashes. Kera feels anger bubble within her, she spent hours working on those repairs.

        "I told you so!" The droid confirms a little too smugly. 

        "Kaythree!" Kera whispers, her arms securing a little tighter on the child as it giggles. "I have no idea what that was! Don't say 'I told you so!' It's bad for your health."

         "I'm not technically alive as much as you seem to believe," K-3So soothes a little too enthusiastically. "I have no need for such alive answers──" The largest spider Kera has ever seen tramples over the Razor Crest, only to have a leg burst through the windscreen and cut off whatever K-3SO seemed to prattle on about.

          A hundred different emotions and a hundred different thoughts wash over Kera like waves when the spider, possibly even the size of the Razor Crest looms forwards, its ugly monstrous face tilted to the side pressed close to the glass, its large rounded eye looking through. Then it rises, living upwards to reveal its teeth attached to its peculiar circular mouth and slams its mouth against the glass, scraping and scratching at it.

         Kera winces at the sound, the child coos softly and Kera has a feeling, somewhere deep down that assurance from the child was for her.

         Streaks of the red blaster fire, scale through the air colliding and hitting the spider, again and again until it slides off the windscreen and discards to the snowy surface. It was those New Republic Pilots, they'd found them. Kera's gaze follows the Mandalorian and she moves to remove her belt, follow after him but the helmet shakes at her side to side as he unholsters his blaster.

        Kera rolls her eyes, already knowing what it means: stay.

        The child looks to Kera and she meets those twinkling brown eyes and Kera sees the worry dancing at the surface for his father, she smiles as brightly and positively as she can, "Your papa can handle this, just as he handles everything else perfectly. Don't worry, kiddo." 

        It was barely two minutes passed and Kera had already had enough of waiting. "Alright, I've had enough. I'm goin' down and seeing what all the fuss is."

        The Frog Lady croaks something sharp and dismissive from her seat. Kera sighs and truthfully admits despite their language barrier, "I don't care. Mando isn't the boss of me. I can help him if I want too."

        Unbuckling her safety belt and standing, the child snorts and Kera narrowed her eyes him and exclaims, "Kiddo, why are you looking at me like that? Your papa could be arrested?! And I have no idea what for! Either way, Mando needs backup. And I'm excellent backup."

        "Kera you need your blaster for that." K-3SO contributed.

        Kera rolled her eyes. "You all are falling at distracting me. And you forget, I am the Deputy of Mos Pelgo! I don't need a blaster to kick ass and be a badass."

        "Not anymore, you had to resign as Deputy," K-3SO informed.

        Kera ground her teeth together. "Technically I still am."

        The sounds of the X-Wings taking off made Kera sigh. "You all are so mean to me. And I've done nothing wrong. I hate you all."

        K-3SO remains silent and it seems that the Frog Lady is laughing and Kera basks it all up because they all distracted her from the actual moment at hand. The child coos sadly and Kera smiles a little, "No, no. You an exemption from the list, kiddo. You're actually nice to me. Now I'm going down to the hull to help Mando and let's thank the Force that he isn't arrested. Kay-three you're on baby duty. Ma'am, you're watching over the droid, the child and your spawn, that is if that's okay?"

────────── ☆ ──────────

FUNNY THING IS THE Mandalorian isn't actually arrested. Kera had expected there to be a whole lot more to go wrong, for there to be more consequences and disasters. It was a surprise when Kera ventured down the hull to see the Mandalorian but it was a welcomed one.

        "Ah, so you didn't get arrested," Kera murmurs to no one in particular.

      "No," The Mandalorian affirms before continuing. "All right. I'm gonna repair the cockpit enough for us to limp to Trask ── and before you say something, Kera you can help. There's nothing I can do about the main hull's integrity, so we're gonna get cozy in the cockpit. It's the only thing I can pressurize. If you need to use the privy, do it now. It's gonna be a long ride."

       Kera raised her hand. "I have a brief question. Am I pressurizing the inside or the outside?"

       The Mandalorian sighed deeply. "Does it matter?"

        Kera smiled as she knew the most grittiest, dirtiest secret in the existence of the galaxy and she shrugged her shoulders, lifting the scrap of the dark material and followed the Mandalorian through the hole in the hull. "Nah, not at all."

        A blaster coated in the snow was pressed to her hands, it was her blaster, in fact, the one she threw at a spider. "Don't lose it again."

        "I was out of ammo. You were stuck with a spider web attached to your wrist. A spider was going to jump me. I had to throw it."

        The Mandalorian scoffed. "I don't care about the circumstances. Don't lose it again."

   Kera rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest, "I won't Mando. Can you even see? You've got ice stuck to your visor and practically all your Beskar armour. I have a rag in my toolbox, let me get it. I can wipe it away on your visor or you can, not being able to see, it must be horrible!──"

         The Mandalorian's tone was harsher than necessary. "Get to work, Kera."

         Kera rolled her eyes, the Mandalorian probably thought that sounding scary would send her running or something along those lines. "Now, this is the most you've ever talked to me. This is pleasant, you should talk more to me sometime."        

         "Get to work, Kera," The Mandalorian repeated, his patience evidently thining.

       "Alright, alright. I'm going, I'll work to pressurize the outside, just because you're grumpier than usual and I'm honestly quite tired of your grumpiness. And you look quite cold."

   The work was simple for Kera in the next few hours, maybe too simple. Those couple of years she'd spent with her uncle Morham on Jedha had never been proven to be more useful. She'd finished pressuring the outside of the cockpit at ease and made her way from the frozen cavern into the hull of the Razor Crest, climbing up the ladder into the cockpit.

   Kera smiled to K-3SO and the Frog Lady as she settled into her seat. Not too long after, the Mandalorian made his way into the cockpit, the child nestled in the crook of his arm as he returned to the pilot seat. "Okay. Repair's all done."

   "Yes, it's what we've been working on for some time now," Kera confirmed begrudgingly.

   It didn't surprise Kera when he completely disregarded her previous comment, "Let's see if we can get this thing going once and for all."

   The Mandalorian reached for a switch overhead, then for another on the dashboard as the Razor Crest was brought to life, buzzing and whirring, its condition improved but limited to an extent. Kera watched as the Mandalorian pushed down the lever on the dash and the Razor Crest shook as it hovered upwards.

   Kera let out a breath she didn't know that she had been holding when the Razor Crest finally emerged from the cavern, shooting towards the atmosphere, bright light dancing over her eyes.

   "Wake me up if someone shoots at us," The Mandalorian says, setting into his chair with the child curled up on his lap. "Or if that door gets sucked of its rails."

   Kera's face grew puzzled and very much bewildered at the Mandalorian's words. Was he actually joking? Did he catch a cold from hours submerged on a frozen ice system and get sick?

   The Frog Lady let out a fearful croak at the Mandalorian's words.

   The Mandalorian swerved in his seat to face his passengers, to see the flicker of disbelief in Kera's expression, the towering droid radiating questionability and the overwhelming horror in the Frog Lady's large rounded eyes.

   As she spoke, the Mandalorian swerved back to face the controls, folding his arms across his Beskar chest plate. "I'm kidding. If that happened, we'd all be dead. Sweet dreams."

   "Not all of us," K-3SO admitted. "I can survive in space. I'm not technically alive. I don't need oxygen to function as many species throughout the galaxy require."

   Kera seemed very amused as she sunk more comfortably in the leather chair and exclaimed in a whisper, "Stick talk of death up your ass, Kaythree. Mando actually made a joke. Or was it my imagination?"

   The Frog Lady let out a series of croaks in support that it was in fact true. Kera grinned, despite the fatigue falling over her like a weighted blanket, "Ah, of course. I knew I was a positive influence. Sweet dreams everyone."

   Then there were only the lulling sounds of the Razor Crest it autopiloted to Trask as everyone onboard fell into a peaceful sleep (and K-3SO powering down), well, all apart from Kera Verr.