𝖁𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎 !
XIII. CAPTURED

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THERE IS A BLISTERING and unyielding cruelness to the galaxy, every twist and turn, every nook and cranny. From a much too young age, Kera had learnt this, in all sorts of ways. She had been revealed to her mother's freedom relief movements as a child, the longlasting weight her mother bore on her shoulders even after her term ended as Queen and how her mother continued to serve the Republic during the duration of the Clone Wars.

     Kera didn't really have much of a childhood. Not really. Those eight years with her mother could hardly be considered a childhood ── those years were corrupt by the torment of war. And by the time Kera was sent to Jedha to live with her uncle the damage had been done.

     All that remained was a fleeting heart as fragile as glass. All it would take was a moment for Kera to slip, to finally smash, thousands of crystalline pieces, coated and shimmering in aureate sunlight as they shattered across the floor.             

     It had been made evident that she was nothing, worthless enough to be abandoned for something she couldn't even control. Maybe that was why Bo-Katan and her crew had looked to her with pity under the arrayed coloured hues lavender, and rosy pinks of setting sun.

     Kera glanced around the docks, she ached for the company of K-3SO. Her poor droid had probably burned out his circuits in wondering where she was. She'd been gone for hours.

     The words burned on the tip of her tongue as she spoke them, looking towards the three Mandalorians of the Night Owl Clan, "Thank you for taking me back here."

     Kera was itching to move away, she didn't really know what to say. She was too little when her mother died to have been taught any major pivotal lessons. "It was nice to finally meet you. My mother spoke a lot of your sister, the Duchess Satine. She was a friend of my mother. I hope we could be the same." 

     Bo-Katan smiled compassionately and ever so slightly bowed her head to Kera's surprise. Kera had taken that gesture as a definite yes and sign of respect. It was then Kera decided that it was truly time to leave, "I am unaware of how long I'll be here on Trask but it was an honour to meet all of you. . . Goodbye." 

     Kera was quick on her feet, wandering aimlessly as she found her way back across the dock to the Razor Crest dazed in the setting sun. But Kera should have been more careful. She should have been ready for anything but she wasn't.

The figure glazed in black came from behind, launching themselves on Kera and pulling her back into the alleyway. Kera knew how to fight. Of course, she did. Kera had spent years on Takodana as the 'Pirate Princess' mentored relentlessly and trained by people of all sorts of occupations, lifestyles and species that dabbled in all sorts of skills and talents.

Kera already had them in a solid hold, the back of the individual pinned against the wall as the drew the knife from her thigh, pressing it against the attacker's throat.

"What do you want?" Kera demanded, tugging at the dark cloak to reveal the goggle-like eyes and hardened red-skin of a Mon Calamari.

"What do I want?" The Mon Calamari repeated rhetorically with an airy chuckle. "Is to distract you, Keirah Dorwin."

A sharp stinging pain throbbed at her neck and Kera lifted her hand, feeling the tranquilliser dart wedged in the flesh in her neck. Already feeling woozy, Kera hastily removes it, feeling the blood trickle down her neck.

    Kera rolls the tranquilliser dart in her fingertips and her brown eyes widen as she takes in those words spoken by her attacker. They know who you are, the voice in the back in her mind echos. You've been discovered. All over again.

"Oh no," She mumbles as she stumbles forwards, into the arms of the Mon Calamari attacker, fighting against the chemicals that flood into her bodily system that was inserted into the dart. Kera can hear K-3SO over the comms unit secured to her holster at her hip because she's finally in range.

Eventually, Kera can feel her eyes flutter closed as she is lifted into the arms of her attacker and the world fades into hostile darkness.

It must be sometime later when Kera begins to regain consciousness. She could hear something dripping in the background, a water leak? Muffled voices whispering angrily? A squeal of a chair against stone flooring?

Kera notices that shes sitting upwards upon some sort of bench, against something hard and smooth  ── a wall. Whoever has captured her has moved her to another location. And now she has to access the situation, gather as much information before she reveals that she's awake.

A door slams and those muffled voices almost disappear completely. Footsteps echoing upon the concrete surface. However is walking to her, is wearing heels.

"You can cut the act," A familiar voice echoes, stilling Kera to the bone, "I know you're awake Keirah. You've always been a terrible actress."

It's the voice of Tia Rakoda. Tia is supposed to be dead. She isn't supposed to be here.

Kera peels her eyes open. It is Tia and she's standing right before her, dangerously close, a hairsbreadth away from her own face, illuminated by the white artificial lighting. Something claws and tears at her heat, decaying and rotting those fragmented pieces. Somehow this is worse than Tia being dead. Kera had spent years getting her shit together and attempt to heal to the fact that Tia's death was her fault but all along it hadn't been.

And now everything she's ever known was nothing but lies.

It makes it worse that Tia hasn't changed. Well, not really. She still looks the same, flawless emerald skin, curled ebony tresses dipped in red, slender frame, adorned in leather, still radiating that commanding dominance. She's still just as heartbreakingly beautiful as Kera remembered. There are more scars etched upon her skin than Kera remembers more laugh lines around her dark eyes. Kera soon recognises that her silly observations are stupid and a waste of time. They aren't kids anymore, helplessly in love with one another. They're just exes, past lovers, shells and hollow incarnations of who they used to be.

And the revelation that Tia had betrayed her to the Imps ── to Moff Gideon, stings sharper than it should. It's been so many cycles, it shouldn't hurt.

   "T-Tia?" Kera croaked, her voice sluggish and slow from the effects of the tranquilliser dart, "Is that really you?"

Tia rolled her eyes, "You were always so sensitive. So weak. Of course, it is me you fool. Can you not understand that it was a setup on Coruscant? A perfect facade as you'd call it? It worked out wonderfully for me when you killed my adoptive brother at the Outlander Club. It was great for me to finally have that waste of space killed. . ."

   "I don't understand. . . ?" Kera mumbled, her brown eyes glossing over with sudden tears, her mind dancing with nothing but happy and jocular memories, "I loved you."

    I still do.

Tia sighed, her green fingers rubbing at her temples. "I'll make it simple for you, Keirah. Tell me where they are."

"Who exactly?" Kera questioned with a tilt of her head, a bubble of laughter bursting from her lips. "I am acquainted with a lot of people."

It was starting to look as if Tia was starting to get fed up with Kera and somehow it was almost perfect vengeance because Kera could be really annoying if she wanted to be. "That Mandalorian and the. . . force-sensitive infant you've been travelling with? Ring any bells?"

Kera rested her cuffed hands against her lap and rested her back against the cold stone wall, crossing her feet out before her as a vicious smile curled her lips. "No. Not gonna happen."

Tia laughed, her blade glimmering in the light then pressed the tip of the blade under the curve of Kera's chin lifting and tilting it upwards as she spoke in a sickeningly sweet tone, "Keirah, my flower. You have no choice."

Kera arched a brow in response at the nickname, her voice a purr. "You always have a choice, my darling. Pity, I've just made mine."

Tia frowned, her ebony brows knitting together in confusion. It was then that Kera rose upwards, her knee rising with momentum, slamming it against Tia's face with a sickening crunch. Tia collided and rolled to the hardened surface of the floor for three seconds before she arose again.

"You kriffing bitch," Tia snarled in anger, her fingertips touching the blood that trickled down her nose but even Kera noticed that her tone was surprised. Kera feels her lips curl into a sudden smirk ── Tia hadn't expected that. She'd expected that Kera from years ago, obedient and loyal, who'd do anything for the woman she had loved.

But this was no longer playful sparring, an excuse for flirtatious banter and fleeting touches. This was live or die.

   "Huh," Kera mumbles, her voice deeply drenched in sarcasm, tensioning her muscles for any sort of unexpected attack. "That such an extreme insult, it's so sad you never were very creative or imaginative in your words, Tia. If you had been we would have had more fun in the bedroom."

"Shut up," Tia roared, her jaw taut. "I should kill you, Keirah. You killed my brother."

Kera furrowed her brow, her voice light and airy, clinging her bravado. "I thought you didn't care for your supposed brother. I thought you were happy I killed him."

Tia rolled her dark dreamy eyes, turning her back to Kera. "Stop talking. I'm getting a headache."

The holding room where Kera has currently being held captive is tiny, only a couple metres in width and length and its utterly filthy.

   "Alright, my darling," Kera grins, her voice laced in a warm tone when Tia reaches for the doorknob to leave. "I can be quiet just for you."

For a couple of seconds, Kera is able to see beyond the room she's trapped in through the doorframe. It's a large rectangular space. It's damp and wet. The small windows show that it's night. The scent of rotten fish wavers through the air. Kera pieces together that she's being held is an empty warehouse. It means that the probability is very high that she's still on Trask.

Kera glances upwards, her brown eyes skimming the ceiling. There are no cameras. Nothing. Kera internally ticked that off on her mental checklist. It was one thing less to worry about.

It was time to get out of here.

    Kera cannot name the number of times she'd been held captive and every single time she'd escaped. She hoped that this time would be no different. Bringing her leg up to the wooden bench Kera was seated upon with careful and nimble fingers, pulled at the thin rod of metal Kera had hammered into the heel off her boots for a situation such as this.

"Stars!" Kera cursed in frustration. She'd wedged it in too hard. It was dug too far in. No one would be coming for her. No one knew where she was. But deep down Kera knew that K-3SO would never abandon her. K-3SO was her friend.

Kera could feel it come looser and all at once and she couldn't deny the excitement that fizzed in her veins when she had the lock pin in the palm of her hand.

Rising from the bench sluggish and slow, Kera acknowledged that the tranquillizer dart had a much more profound effect upon her than she recognised.

Staggering forwards, Kera would have expected the door to be locked and to her surprise it was open. Automatically, Kera could feel herself back away from the door. It had to be a setup. There was no way in hell Tia would forget to lock a damn door ── she wasn't stupid, Tia had worked for the Guild, trained by mercenaries of the Empire as a child than to be taken in by Jao Rakoda and his family, she was a trained Assassin. She knew that there was no way an escape would be that easy.

Kera's fingers lingered on the circular knob. Was she willing to take a chance? Be reckless and stupid with no secure plan or strategy in place and get possibly herself killed? A smirk dances upon Kera's lips.

Hell yes, of course, she would.

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ORIGINALLY, THE MANDALORIAN HAD assumed that Kera and her droid had fled Trask finding some sort of transportation to Takodana, abandoning their deal completely. He wasn't an ounce surprised ── possibly, slightly and unwilling to admit a little disappointed.

     There was no trace of Kera Verr or should as it be Keirah Dorwin. Nothing. The Mandalorian had been preoccupied with assisting Bo-Katan and other Mandalorians in taking down Imperial Gozanti freighter for exchange of information to which he received.

    Take the foundling to the city of Calodan on the forest planet of Corvus. There you will find Ahsoka Tano.

    He had gotten what he had wanted ── that rewarding feeling he was serving his purpose as Mandalorian and a step closer in completion to quest bared upon his shoulders. It went deeper than that of course but when that information of a Jedi was revealed he hadn't suspected a part of his heart to wish to prolong the saddening inevitable that they'd have to part ways. The child would be returned with his own kind.

    But still, it echoed throughout his mind: You are a Clan of two.

    Whoever had repaired the Razor Crest had done the worst job imaginable. So unreliable. So unsatisfactory. It was still a wonder when he settled the child in the passenger seat in the cockpit and settled into the pilot seat and began to flick switches on the dash.

    Maybe if Kera was here now, the Mandalorian imagined, attempting to predict and watch a scene uncurl in his mind's eye ── she'd be undoubtedly be mumbling about how she would have done a better job than that lousy Mon Calamari and his poor and very unacceptable repairs. The Mandalorian could feel his lips curl into a secret smile hidden behind his Beskar helmet.    

    Dank farrik. What in the Maker was happening?

    Kera had lied to him. Betrayed his fragile trust even when she'd wanted it so badly. She'd withheld information, vital information that would have put the child at risk. It was selfish. Reckless. He'd been right to question her motives and trust on Tatooine, from the very moment he'd laid eyes on her ── no matter of the child's instantaneous curiosity and blind, unwavering trust.

    The child whined, snagging him away from his thoughts, beneath the helmet his eyebrows knitting together in confusion and he swerved in his chair to the right just enough to look back at the child perched upon the red leather seat.

   "What is it, kid?"

    Again the child whined, sombre and sad, tears pooling in his eyes. The Mandalorian tilted his head to the side, sometimes his time and experience and bond with the child had become almost useless when Kera, only a few days ago, was thrown into the mix.

      "She's gone, bud. But it'll be alright." The child whimpered in response to the Mandalorian's words, those bright rounded eyes were terribly sad and filled with melancholy. The sight of the child miserable had made his heartache, fall into temptations he shouldn't have dared to dwell. The Mandalorian sighed deeply, his gaze behind the visor meets the child's and it had only taken a moment to fall to the child's whims before he powered down the Razor Crest.        

    The Mandalorian knew deep down that he'd now have to find out what had happened to Kera Verr. Whether she'd abandoned their deal or still remained on Trask ── he'd unfold those pages of that story and navigate his way to the truth for the sake of his foundling and possibly hidden in the corners of his heart, his very own.