๐–ฒ๐– ๐–ญ๐–ข๐–ณ๐–ด๐– ๐–ฑ๐–ธ | ๐Ÿข๐Ÿข๐Ÿฆ.๐Ÿข๐Ÿค

6.4K 215 81
By cityinny


















It had taken Cerelia hours until the children would let her take the child to the hut she would be staying in. It had given her enough time to shield her tears from anyone who would ask her what was wrong.

She had finally got the little green creature away from them when it was time for them to sleep.

She wasn't sure where Cara Dune was, but she wasn't in the hut when she came in with the baby in her arms.

She set him down on the ground while she managed unfolding and laying out the several blankets Omera had laid out for them.

The bed may have looked like just another haystack to someone else, but to Cerelia at that moment, it looked like paradise.

She went to pick up the baby to set him in his cradle but upon looking around the hut, she had realized that the cradle was with Mando.

Cerelia absolutely refused.

She set the open blankets out onto the stiff bed and nudged them so that it would be easy to tuck herself in.

Picking up the child, she plopped him down onto the bottom of the bed with a curious smile on his face. She slid into the bed and reached down to grab him.

She set him on the pillow beside her head and rolled onto her side, facing the child but laying down comfortably. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to take over once again.

Within seconds of shutting her eyelids, she heard the child shifting around. He cooed loudly and she listened as he waddled over to stop in front of her face.

She thought for a minute she might be dreaming so she did not open her eyes to investigate.

Suddenly, she felt a poke on her cheek.

She swiftly opened her eyes. There he was with his tiny green finger aimed at her face.

"What are you doing?" she groaned, knowing full well that he could not say anything and that he didn't remotely understand what she meant in the first place.

He cooed once again, his shiny black eyes staring at her own impatiently.

"What do you want, kid?" she mumbled, sitting up to look over at the child. His big eyes just stared back up at her as he made more unintelligible sounds. She innocently glared back at him, knowing well what he wanted.

She grumbled as she got up from her comfortable bed and reached out to pick up the child in front of her. He wooed as he was lifted high into the air.

She held him close to her chest as she packed up the blankets and her pillow as best she could in her other arm. She huffed as she was overwhelmed by the thick blankets and the curious child in her other arm.

She stomped out of the hut and across the village.

The Mandalorian was seated on the bed when she entered the barn, still armor-clad and grumpy as always.

He watched silently as she threw the blankets down on the ground next to his bed and shifted the child in her arms.

She didn't even look his way. Maybe he was still upset about their argument. Maybe he was in one of his quiet moods. Not for long, at least.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she walked over to the baby's cradle to plop him down in it. She had to make up an excuse quick.

"If anything is curious about this village or anything were to happen in the night, I would feel better knowing that you and I were both watching over the baby." she blurted out, trying her best not to seem like she was making it up on the spot. Her lips thinned out into a straight line as she pushed them together, awaiting his response.

"Fine." he said, standing and walking over to his weapon chest, acting as if he had something to work on, trying his best to avoid the girl before him.

Even though they had spent the last few weeks together, tonight felt different. They were different.

She began to straighten out one of the blankets on the ground and situate the other one on top of it, laying her pillow at the top.

"I'll sleep on the ground. It's not like it's the first time," she muttered. Mando stopped putting together one of his weapons and looked over at her. She began to pull off the wrap on her head.

"You can have the bed if you want it." Mando offered. Cerelia began to object, but he quickly cut her off. "I'm not going to beg you to take it."

She huffed quietly at his attitude. He made her so frustrated, all the time.

"I'm fine on the ground." she responded before shaking her hair out of the loose wrap and setting it down.

She laid down on the hard blanket-covered ground and tucked the other cover around her cold body, setting her head down on the soft pillow. She had the baby's cradle in her sights. He was already sleeping soundly. She smiled as the echoes of buzzing noises coming from Mando's weapons filled her ears and she drowned them out the best she could, falling asleep soon after.











โค










The next morning, Mando was fixing his trident as the child looked on from his pod with wide eyes. Cerelia groaned loudly at the clanking noises of his metal weapon.

She was sleeping so peacefully before he got up with his loud Beskar steel shifting around as he walked and began picking up his loud weapons and banging them around every which way.

He then woke up the child who cooed loudly as he watched him. Cerelia couldn't catch a break.

She sat up from her spot on the uncomfortably hard ground and squinted as she looked over at them. She stretched widely and yawned as she plopped back down on the ground.

She jumped up from her questionable sleeping arrangement when she heard someone tapping on the wooden doorway of the barn.

Grabbing the headwrap from beside her makeshift bed, she quickly threw it over her head as if it was a towel. She leaned on the pole holding up the tent as she nearly lost her balance.

"Knock, knock." a voice rang from outside. Cerelia could see past the openings in the walls made of sticks. It was Omera, who seemed to be carrying a tray of food.

"Come in," Mando said.

She stepped inside the barn, quickly glancing over at Cerelia before putting the tray down on the edge of the windowsill. Her young daughter followed her, standing with her arms uncomfortably in front of her, twiddling her thumbs as if she was trying to seem uninterested.

It was obvious what she wanted when Cerelia spotted her looking over at the child in his cradle. He cooed as he watched the little girl, clearly waiting for her to play with him.

She looked over at Mando and Cerelia before looking up at her mother, who nodded down at her. She then looked back over at Mando.

"Can I feed him?" Winta stuttered, clearly expecting Mando to lash out. Cerelia didn't blame her expectations at all.

"Sure." Cerelia smiled.

Winta walked over to kneel in front of the baby's cradle, offering him some type of food which he didn't understand what was. She questioned if he was hungry before he quickly consumed the food in her hand. She giggled at him.

She looked up to Mando. "Can I play with him?" she asked.

"Sure," Mando responded, mimicking Cerelia's prior response, sighing as he walked over to pick him up out of his cradle and putting him on the ground in front of the little girl. He made his loud baby noises as Mando lifted him in the air. Cerelia could only smile at the little creature.

Mando watches reluctantly as Winta leaves with the baby, her running and him waddling slowly after her.

"I brought you both some food. I noticed neither of you ate." Omera said as gestured toward the tray of food.

"Sorry, we've been sleeping." Cerelia apologized.

Omera nodded with a smile as if saying she could tell. There had to be huge bags under her eyes and not to mention, the wrap she had thrown over her head.

"Okay, well, let us know if there's anything else you need." the woman said generously as she exited the barn. She must have thought Cerelia was crazy.

Cerelia sighed as she plopped down onto the bed and pulled the cloth from off of the top of her head and looked over at the Mandalorian.

She heard what almost sounded like a snicker come from beneath his helmet. She glared over at him.

She took the wrap and began to pull it around her hair, much sloppier than Mando had done before but it didn't matter much.

"I'll take mine back to my hut so that you can eat," Cerelia said and Mando nodded in response.

As she finished wrapping up her hair, she grabbed what food she could carry in her hands and began to walk towards the door of the barn.

She stopped before she exited, looking back over at him curiously.

"When is the last time you took it off?" she questioned, clearly referring to the helmet on his head.

"Yesterday." he replied. Cerelia rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, you know what I meant. When's the last time you took it off when you weren't by yourself, sulking or eating?" she interrogated as politely as she could as she balanced her lunch in her hands.

He gestured out to the children playing with the baby outside through the window.

"I wasn't much older than they are," he said, truthfully. She was shocked at that. She didn't feel like herself even with only the headwear covering her hair and not her face. He had worn the helmet for years and years.

"How are you able to do that?" she questioned and when he glanced over at her, she felt the need to reaffirm her question. She wasn't sure if he would be any less intimidating without the helmet.

"Does it make you feel any less human?" she asked, looking up at the stiff man in his armor of steel. She wondered what he was like beneath it.

Was he just as stiff or was it all just a facade? Was it the armor that made him so tough or was it just how he had survived this long?

"I was grateful that they took me in. My parents were killed and the Mandalorians took care of me." Mando said, trying to hide any emotion that might have seeped through his revelation.

She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to worry about showing emotion, not around her and not around anyone. He could be whatever he needed to be. He didn't have to be so cold.

"I understand your gratitude. My parents were killed by Darth Vader and no one was there to take care of me. That's why I'm 'missing', that's why there's a bounty on my head, that's why I'm here right now with you." Cerelia revealed, looking down at her feet as grief began to take over her own emotions.

"I didn't know he was really real. I had only heard stories." Mando disclosed as Cerelia wiped away a tear sliding down her cheek, narrowly avoiding the food in her hand.

"Yes, he was real. It was my parents who were the closest to him." she couldn't quite understand why she kept going, but she attested it to needing to get out some of this information.

She hadn't told anyone who wasn't on Lysaria to see it all go down. He was the first.

"He slaughtered my father, his mentor, and when the invasion happened, my mother sacrificed herself to get us off of the planet before the Empire could take us prisoner." she continued, silent tears dripping down her face.

"Is that when you went missing?" he inquired. His tone seemed genuinely curious.

She looked up at him, catching her reflection on his steel armor. She must have looked stupid crying in front of him, but for some reason, she didn't seem to care anymore.

She nodded at him.

"Yes, that was when I got separated from them," she confirmed. She remembered running and hiding and running some more. She remembered thinking that she would never stop running from the Empire and she prayed that she would be done running soon.

Maybe this village would be a good place to settle down where whatever was left of the Empire couldn't find them. She paused for a moment before continuing, letting him know her intentions and her mission, something that he hadn't shared with her yet.

"And now my sister and my brother, and my people, are out there somewhere, and I need to find them."

When he didn't respond, silent in remembrance of the past, she looked down at the food in both of her hands and looked back at him once more before exiting the barn and leaving him by himself.











โค











After a while, Cerelia had knocked on the door and been allowed to enter, abiding by the rules of his culture and obeying them.

She was, of course, curious to know what he looked like underneath his helmet, but so long as he didn't plan on letting her see, she wasn't going to find out or press further about seeing what he truly looked like. It wasn't her business, anyway.

She walked with him and Cara Dune through the forest to track where the raiders came from, what they were planning, the route they took the last time they raided, and the route they were planning to take the next time.

The Mandalorian and Cara used their infrared technology to help study the trails left behind by the raiders but all Cerelia had were her eyes and her feelings, if the Force decided to send any indecisive energies her way.

She struggled to keep up with the professional trackers as they advanced further and further as she tried to look around for any clues they might've missed, not to mention her little legs could only follow behind them so fast.

Suddenly, Mando came to a halt way ahead of her and by the time she reached where he was standing, she nearly ran into the back of him.

Deciding she didn't need another bruise on the top of her forehead, she was cautious enough to throw her hands up to cover her head, just in case she did hit him. The first time had hurt plenty enough.

Cara stopped beside him and he pressed a few buttons on his armor. He pointed at the ground ahead of them.

"About fifteen or twenty of them came through here on foot," Mando observed.

Cerelia had no idea how he deduced that but assumed that it had something to do with the advanced technology decorating his armor.

His head turned upwards into the trees and the women looked up in that direction after him. He gestured into the splay of green leaves and branches, hanging down from clear damage.

"And something big sheared off those branches," he stated. That didn't sound good.

Cerelia's attention was still focused on the destruction that had been done to the nature around her as Mando and Cara seemed to walk off in another direction.

When she noticed they weren't in front of her any longer, she panicked, looking around in every direction. Until she found her reflection in his Beskar steel armor and knew she was right where she needed to be.

Mando was kneeling down in front of some prints made in the mud with Cara at his side. Cerelia rushes over and looked over his back, to which he looked back at her to see why she was standing so close before turning back to look at the tracks.

"What the hell made that?" Cerelia questioned, loudly.

Cara gave her a look as if she was stupid and Mando didn't even make a motion to turn around as he sighed. "AT-ST." Cara answered. Oh, this was not good. This was not good at all.

"Imperial walker. What's it doing here?" Mando inquired. Cerelia was unsure if he was pondering to himself or if he was asking the two of them for an answer. Cerelia, for one, had no idea. Cara didn't seem to either.

"I don't know," she answered. She stood from her spot kneeling on the ground, glancing around at the broad forest ahead.

There were more of the walker's footprints and it scared Cerelia even more, knowing that it was close enough to them that the tracks weren't yet covered. "But this is more than I signed up for."

Cerelia couldn't agree more.











โค











Cerelia didn't want to be the one who had to tell the villagers what they didn't want to hear, so she let Mando and Cara take over.

"Bad news. You can't live here anymore." Mando told the large group of people, bluntly. He didn't even try to sugarcoat it. He was telling them that they would have to leave the village they had likely been raised in since birth and grown up in, and he was forcing them out with no other option.

It reminded Cerelia of how she was casted out of Lysaria, but of course, the circumstances were much different. However, it was similar in the sense that he was ordering them to leave their home.

"What?" someone in the crowd demanded as the rest of them begin to murmur and whisper between them.

"Why?" another voice, Stoke, questioned. It was clear they had no intention of listening to Mando.

Cerelia placed a hand on her forehead, realizing that there was no way the villagers were going to leave, no matter what dangers they told them of. Mando's blunt style of informing them of a much-needed evacuation didn't help matters either.

"Nice bedside manner." Cara commented, glancing over at Mando as the crowd in front of them rioted amongst themselves, outraged at the proposition of vacating their village.

"You think you can do better?" he questioned the ex-shock trooper. Cerelia didn't think there was a way to do worse. Cara agreed, saying more of the same.

The villagers seemed to quiet as Cara stepped forward to address them.

"I know this is not the news you wanted to hear, but there are no other options," Cara informed. It was the truth. There was no way the three of them were going to be able to hold off a group of raiders and an Imperial walker.

"You took the job." Caben, the farmer who had hired them, reminded.

"That was before we knew about the AT-ST." Cara responded, once again as if they should know what the hell she is talking about. Cerelia sighed to herself.

They assumed everyone had knowledge of tracking, weapons and machinery the same way bounty hunters do. The villagers stood confused.

"What is that?" the man asked once again. How were they supposed to be made to leave their homes if they didn't know what they were up against? For all they knew, the AT-ST could've been a tiny droid. Unlucky for them, it was not.

"The armored walker with two enormous guns that you knew about and didn't tell us." Cara reminded.

The villagers seemed distressed and blatantly ignored the fact that they didn't tell them, instead seeming more worried at the prospect of having to abandon their homes.

"You were supposed to help us. We hired you." the farmer shouted up at them.

Cerelia looked over at Mando who could apparently feel her gaze and glanced back at her, drowning out the noise from the crowd. He turned back around as they began to get louder and louder, apparently with nothing to respond to that.

Cerelia stepped forward. They seemed to quiet as she approached them.

"Your lives are worth more than your village." she told them.

She watched as their faces dropped and their angry expressions quickly became frowns. Cerelia knew better than anyone what it was like to escape from the place she loved the most so that she could choose survival over slavery or even death. It was the only option. She didn't need to tell them that, but she needed them to understand. "Either you leave, or you die."

"My grandparents seeded these ponds." one of the men pleaded. They just weren't getting it.

"It took generations." another man piped in. Others agreed and Cerelia quickly became frustrated at their stubbornness.

She couldn't blame them though. If she could have Lysaria back, she'd go home in a heartbeat. But that wasn't the case.

If she couldn't go back home, maybe she could make sure that their home wasn't taken from them.

"There are only three of us." Cerelia pointed out. It would be a suicide mission even with a Mandalorian, an ex-shock trooper, and a Jedi.

"No, there's not," Omera argued, gesturing around at the people surrounding her. "There's at least twenty here."

The villagers began to rally at the idea of fighting to keep their home and Cerelia found herself smiling at their unstoppable resilience.

"She meant fighters. Be realistic." Cara stated, looking down at them as if they were useless.

"We can train them." Cerelia proposed, looking back at Cara who seemingly scowled. She then looked over at Mando whose steadily stiff body language seemed to be out of the conversation. He was so nonchalant. She knew that if it came down to it, Mando would fight to the death.

"We can learn." Caben shouted up at a disapproving Cara. The others agreed wholeheartedly, chanting up at her.

"We can." Stoke rallied.

"Give us a chance." Omera pleaded. The rest of them wanted so badly to keep their homes that Cerelia couldn't understand how Cara didn't at least want to try to help them.

The Rebel mentality must have faded from her long ago because from the stories about her sister Cerelia had heard, the Rebels never backed down and never strayed away from saving the innocent.

"I've seen that thing take out entire companies of soldiers in a matter of minutes." Cara attempted to scare the villagers, but they did not budge at the statement instead staring back at her with the same level of intimidation. Cerelia admired them. It reminded her of back home.

"We're not leaving." Omera stated, simply. She was telling her that they could either stay and help them fight, or they would do it on their own.

But no matter what, they would do it on the ground where they had grown up.

"You cannot fight that thing." Cara contended, frustrated that they weren't going to cower at her threatening tone of voice.

"Unless we show them how," Mando spoke up. At his words, the village seemed to be inspired to learn and train and fight for their homeland. Their will to stay and fight told Cerelia they were as much soldiers as any stormtroopers ever were.

She shared a look with him and she knew beneath his helmet that held a look of determination. She wanted to be as strong as him. She wanted to be as fearless as him. Maybe he could teach her how to be unafraid, without being so cold. That was one thing she couldn't take, losing any positivity and will to keep going for something, something more than just surviving. She wanted to change something. She wanted to be as inspiring as her sister was, as brave as her mother was, and as loyal as her father was. She knew this was a good place to start.

"They are not going to back down, and we can help them," Cerelia told the woman standing behind her. She turned around to look her in the eyes. She glanced down at the tattoo clad on her arm then glanced back up at her.

"We will resist."

She saw the glint of hope spark for a quick second in the stern woman's eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest even tighter. She knew Cerelia was right. She knew she had to at least help them fight back.

It was going to be a hard fight, but when was any victory ever easy?











โค











Later on in the long, thought-provoking day in the tiny village on the planet Sorgan, Cerelia joined Mando and Cara Dune in a circle surrounded by the group of determined villagers, ready and willing to listen and learn, and to do whatever it took to protect their home.

Cerelia stood with her arms crossed over her chest, uncomfortably and unsure of how well this was going to work.

She didn't want to sound like a hypocrite, as she had encouraged them earlier, but as time passed, she became more and more uncertain about whether or not they were going to be able to pull this off.

"You got two problems here," Mando announced to the anxious crowd hanging on to his every word.

They were scared, but their noticeable fear was overshadowed by their undeniable courage. "You got the bandits, and you got the mech."

"We'll handle the AT-ST, but you gotta protect us when they come out of the woods. And I don't have to tell you how dangerous they are." he further explained to the group. He gestured toward the muscular woman at his side.

She wore a scowl, as she always seemed to. Her arms were also crossed over her chest and she looked as if she was ready to fight at all times. Cerelia wondered if it was all an act, if she cooled off some of the time and smiled on occasion.

She had yet to see her be anything but stern and harsh. Cerelia admired her toughness, but she wondered if the years of war had taken a toll on her happiness. Was she happy once?

Weren't they all happy once?

"Cara Dune here was a veteran. She was a drop soldier for the Rebellion, and she's gonna lay out a plan for you, so listen carefully." The Mandalorian said, sternly and seriously, as if he had any other tone.

Cerelia wondered if his voice sounded different outside of the helmet. Maybe he was cheerful behind it. She doubted it. She would never know anyway, so she let the thought go.

"Now, there's nothing on this planet that can damage the legs on this thing, so we're gonna build a trap," Cara explained. The villagers watched intently as she gestured to where the trap was going to be set.

"We're gonna need to dig real deep, right here, so that when it steps in, with help from Cerelia if needed, it will drop," she said, and all the attention turned to Cerelia who, although she was listening, seemed to be zoned out with her eyes on the ground ahead of her.

Mando cleared his throat and Cerelia looked up at him, then shook her head out of the trance she was in.

Mando hadn't liked the idea of Cerelia using her abilities to pull the walker forward, if they needed her to, but if it came to be their last resort, they had no other choice. He would have to get over it.

She looked around at the people watching her and stood up straight as she gestured for Cara to continue. The woman eyed her strangely before picking up where she left off.

"The three of us are going to hit their camp. Provoke them. That'll bring the fight out of the woods and down here to us." Cara finished with a nod of assurance.

It was almost as if she was trying to convince herself that it was going to work. Cerelia sure hoped it would. If it didn't, she was ready to hop on the Razor Crest and soar back to her least favorite planet so far, Arvala-7. At least no one would expect them to go back to that shithole.

"I'm gonna need you to cut down trees and build barricades along these edges," Mando ordered some of the men of the village. They nodded, ready to start cutting them down for what he needed.

Cerelia had to admit that they were ready for a fight, whether they were going to lose or not. "I need it high enough so that they can't get over, and strong enough so that it can't break through."

As Mando and Cara dealt with who of the villagers could shoot, of which Omera was the only one, Cerelia tried to seem busy elsewhere.

She wasn't much help when it came to combat. She was good at running away from a fight, not necessarily engaging in one.

Cerelia observed The Mandalorian as he taught the villagers how to shoot, using old pans as a target in the distance.

None of the pans had even got a scratch on them, considering no one had hit them yet. He seemed to be frustrated with them and Cerelia wasn't shocked, in the slightest. He was always grumpy. He would've been even if all of them hit the bullseye every time they pulled the trigger.

None of them were hitting the target anyway. Even Omera was rusty, of course. Cerelia hadn't seen many guns on Sorgan, and none of that few belonged to the villagers. She began to count the missed shots and she began to worry.

As Cara began to train some of the villagers with sticks, Cerelia turned to find the eyes of several children peaking outside of the tent they were told to stay inside. They weren't very good at hiding their snooping, as their tiny fingers were visible on the windowsill they were looking out of.

She began to walk over to the tent and she heard gasps coming from inside as the little hands moved from the window and she heard shuffling into a corner, presumably to hide or act as if they weren't watching the training of the adults.

Approaching the tent, she walked to the doorway and peeked inside.

The wide eyes of the large group of children met hers and she fought the urge to jump at them. She would scare them to death if she did that, so she only smiled innocently at them.

They warmed to her quickly as she stepped inside. She sat in the chair in the corner of the room and gestured for them to gather around her.

She smiled as she saw the little green baby in his pod make his way over to float beside her. She lifted her hand to rub his oversized ears and he cooed at her, with love in his big dark eyes.

The expression of each of the children's faces was a mixture of fear and curiosity. They clearly didn't know what they were up against, and if she was being honest, neither did she.

The group of kids sat criss-cross in front of her, looking up at her intently, waiting for her to say something. The baby watched her curiously, tilting his head at her.

She needed to distract them from the training drills going on outside, the loud bangs of the gunshots and the grunts of Cara Dune as she instructed the group with their wooden sticks.

"Do you guys wanna see something cool?" she questioned.

They shouted an excited response as they impatiently awaited the promise of something cool she had made. Their bright eyes staring up at her and the widening of their smiles assured her that she was handling the situation perfectly.

She pointed at the pot of flowers sitting in the windowsill where they had been snooping earlier and all of their attention went to the vase. They glanced that way and then looked back at her in curiosity. They were wondering what she was going to do.

"Look." she encouraged, gesturing toward the flowers.

Cerelia focused her eyes in concentration as she reached her arm out toward the direction of the window.

Slowly, the vase of flowers began to lift off of the wooden windowsill. The mixture of shocked gasps and exhilarated screams from the children nearly broke her focus, but she kept going.

They watched in awe as she lifted it above her stretched out arms and she let go, the pull of the Force escaping her body and leaving her breathless as she caught the pot of flowers in her open arms.

They clapped loudly and cheered even louder as she successfully took their minds off of the upcoming battle.

She smiled as the baby cooed beside her, lifting his arm out in front of him. He clenched his eyes tight in concentration.

They all watched as he lifted the pot out of her arms. He moved it around the room and over to the bed in the corner, dropping it on the clean blanket. It tilted over and dumped out but he watched happily, exhausted, and pleased with his actions.

Cerelia never saw herself being a mother, but she could get used to it.











โค











When the night came and the sky was as dark as it was going to be before light came once again, Mando entered their tent after having a chat with Omera.

Cerelia sat in front of the baby's floating cradle and she was making funny faces at him, waving her arms around to excite him and tire him out before the action began.

Mando watched her curiously with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyebrows were jumbled beneath his helmet as he observed the tiny Lyrian princess flailing her arms around and sticking her tongue out at the child, who cooed in response at her actions, with a big smile on his small mouth.

He cleared his throat and Cerelia whipped around in shock at his presence. She quickly stood, wiping the dirt off of her clothes where she had been sitting and walked over to stand in front of The Mandalorian,

"What is it?" she questioned. She predicted he was smirking beneath his stupid steel helmet.

"We're leaving soon. Get what you need. Cara's waiting outside." Mando told her. She nodded, immediately going to retrieve her saber from where she had placed it in his chest.

She collected it as well as one of his blasters and then turned around, finding that he was standing in the same position, with the same expression behind his helmet. She could tell from his tension that he wanted to say something.

"What is it now?" she repeated, sighing and leaning on her back foot where she stood, waiting for his response.

"You're real good with the kid." he said. His tone was slightly softer than his regular grunting. She smiled at his compliment, looking over at the child who watched them both curiously with his wide, glassy eyes.

"Especially when you're flailing around like a distressed Jawa." he added, having to ruin the rare, sweet moment.

Cerelia scoffed at his attempted joke. She walked forward, shoving his blaster into his chest.

He reached up to grab it from her hand. She looked up at him and then leaned up to where his ear would be behind his Beskar helmet.

"I liked you a lot better when you were the grouchy silent type." she quipped, patting his shoulder over the steel of his armor and exiting the tent.

It wasn't the truth by any means.











โค












The three ran throughout the forest, one after the other, as silent as they possibly could.

The others were experienced in stealthy combat, but Cerelia surely was not. She struggled to keep up, but she kept going after them.

They soon arrived to the campsite, where a group of the Klatooinian raiders had a fire going. They hid behind individual trees and they waited for a moment, Cerelia unsure of any of the tactics Mando was using. She sat patiently for his signal.

Mando gestured at the two of them, then came from around his tree and began moving quickly but quietly toward the campsite.

The ugly raiders were speaking a language even Cerelia didn't know as they sipped a purple beverage around the fire. Mando held an arm out to block Cerelia from the advance as he and Cara separately choked out the two raiders.

Cerelia stood awkwardly, without a job to do.

She wanted to tell him that she didn't need to be protected; she might not be buff or have Beskar armor, but she had a lightsaber and, more importantly, she had the Force on her side.

The two began to tiptoe toward the main tent of the outpost and Cerelia followed after them. They got there quick enough and stood with their backs to the entrance, waiting for the perfect time to enter as they observed a much larger group of raiders surrounding a separate campfire.

Ambushes are better when they're not ambushes.

Cerelia stood aside Mando as he nodded his head over to Cara who nodded in response. They each pulled out their blaster.

He turned to his side to look down at Cerelia who then tilted her head up at him. She nodded, mockingly and pulled out her lightsaber from where it sat on her holster.

Suddenly, they all entered the tent which was, surprisingly enough, empty, aside from the two large tanks of a glowing blue liquid which bubbled loudly. Each of them lowered their aimed weapons and sighed softly.

Cerelia stepped closer to observe the liquid as Mando and Cara planted detonators around the tent. Mando nodded over at Cara, who then stepped over toward the entrance and whistled loudly.

Cerelia clasped her lightsaber in her hand and activated it, watching as it glowed a fluorescent blue in front of her eyes.

The color of the liquid in the tanks dulled in comparison to the vibrance of the Kyber crystal that shone from her weapon.

Two Klatooinians casually entered the tent, only to be met with the nearly-steel fists of Cara Dune and the quite-literally-steel fists of the Mandalorian. They took the two of them out quicker than Cerelia could even react. She wondered for a moment if they even needed her.

Several more of the raiders then rushed through the door, no doubt hearing the grunts from the fighting between the raiders and her two partners. Few of them went after Mando who seemed to take them out easily enough.

One of the raiders rushed at Cara who immediately lifted her arms up in anticipation of defending herself, but before she could even lunge for the raider, Cerelia had rushed forward and slashed through him.

Cara watched, stunned, as Cerelia smirked over at her. She had made the mistake of doubting her, and it wasn't something she would do again.

Mando seemed to be overrun by three Klatooinian raiders and Cerelia and Cara both rushed over to help, the ex-shock trooper taking out one with her fist-fighting and Cerelia cutting down the other with a swing of her saber. Mando took out the final raider with a shot from his blaster.

Each of them panted profusely in exhaustion as the beeping of the detonators became louder and louder. They took one look at each other before sprinting out of the door, in the neck of time before the tent exploded into flames.

They jumped, or were thrown by the blast, and landed outside on the tough ground.

Cerelia, who was the slowest of the three, landed on both Mando and Cara who grunted at the impact. They were at least glad she was also the lightest of the three.

Cerelia rolled off of the two of them, heaving as she hit the prickly grass and the rock-solid ground beneath her.

"I hope the plan worked." Cara breathed out.

Cerelia scoffed and she felt a pang of pain in her ribs for a moment. "You and me both." she sighed.











โค











The trio laid on the ground for a moment, catching their breaths before each of them spotted the glowing red viewports of the AT-ST walker resembling eyes which were far too close for their liking, aimed straight at them behind a flurry of trees.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Cerelia shouted as she stumbled to find her footing.

Mando grabbed her arm instinctually and pulled her to her feet, nearly giving her whiplash from the quickness of his movements. Better whiplash than death, she figured as they all shouted at each other to go and sprinting toward the direction of the village.

They ran, branches and leaves crunching beneath their boots, threatening to twist and turn their ankles as they hurried back to the safest place they could be, where they could execute their plan.

The loud, obnoxious stomping of the large machine filled Cerelia's ears as she rushed to keep up with the much longer legs of Mando and Cara Dune.

Her breathing was quickly overshadowing the noises made by the walker as they continued to sprint at full speed toward the village.

As if it wasn't chasing them fast enough, it began to fire off lasers at their feet, narrowly missing blasting them into dust particles. Each of them grunted loudly as they avoided the shots being fired at them.

Cerelia pulled out her lightsaber and quickly activated it.

"Cover me!" she shouted at them and she spun around and began to block the laser fire from the AT-ST. The blasts rang back at the Imperial walker, but did nothing to damage it.

She cursed under her breath as she focused on not tripping as she peddled backwards, as well as blocking the blasts coming their way.

Soon, there were no more trees ahead of them and they had made it back to where the village was.

Cerelia put away her saber and turned to run after Mando and Cara who quickly made their way past the bridge of the pond and to where the traps were set and the armed villagers sat.

They launched themselves behind the traps and landed on the ground, quickly getting into a defensive crouched position.

"This is it! Once that thing steps into the pond, it's going down!" Cara shouted at them. They stiffly moved their fingers toward the trigger of their guns, which they had set in place. Their shifty eyes told Cerelia that they were terrified, but still, they stood to fight.

The trees moaned in the distance as their branches were slaughtered by the enormous metal machine. They each watched patiently, fearful but ready, as the AT-ST approached the exit of the forest and made its way toward the open land of the village.

"Weapons ready." Cara called out.

Mando handed one of his blasters to Cerelia and she took it from him with a nod. He seemed to look at her longer than he normally had and she gave him a reassuring look, unsure if he could see it or not behind his helmet. They both turned at the noise coming from out of the woods.

The villagers looked at each other with wide eyes as the thudding stomps of the Imperial walker grew louder and louder. Its glowing red eyes came forward from behind the shadows of the trees and it stepped out fully into view.

Cerelia breathed heavily as she hoped with all of her heart that their plan would work smoothly.

"Just a few more steps." Mando whispered as their focus turned to the feet of the walker which slowly approached the pond, apparently unaware of the water ahead of it. Their plan was working. It was actually going to work.

Three more steps.

Two more steps.

One more step.

Then suddenly, with an inch of space between the bottom edge of the 'foot' of the Imperial walker and the water which would incapacitate it, it stopped and retracted its leg. Shit. The loud thud of the AT-ST's foot hitting the hard ground made Cerelia flinch. It seemed to sigh, furious with the water ahead of it.

"It stopped." Cara pointed out, as if everyone else had not watched it stop in front of the pond.

"Keen eye you got there, Cara," Cerelia uttered and the woman glared over at her.

Suddenly, the walker shone a bright beam of light to scan the village, eyeing the barricades and the traps they had built.

As if in an act of revenge for their failed plan and their ruse to keep it out, the AT-ST walker shot a laser blast at one of the houses and it exploded before their eyes. Cerelia jumped at the action and was grateful that the children were not hiding in that one.

The villagers, understandably, began to feel uneasy. They had seen what they were up against and all of their bravery had escaped their bodies as easy as letting a breath go.

"Hold your positions!" Cara exclaimed. They reluctantly stood their ground as they watched the walker aim to fire at their village.

As if the walker wasn't doing enough damage, the Klatooinian raiders came charging out of the forest and through the fields. Cara shouted at the villagers to open fire and the following ringing of blaster shots made Cerelia's ears ring.

"We gotta get that thing to step forward," Cara told Mando who sighed to himself, clearly looking for another option. Cerelia crawled over to kneel in front of both of the crouched fighters. Mando wasn't going to like it, but it was their only option.

"My turn to try." Cerelia stated with an exasperated sigh. This was going to be a demanding challenge.

"No, we'll figure out something else." Mando insisted, worry unavoidable in the sudden shakiness of his voice.

The eruption of blaster fire in the distance and the shouting of the raiders as they advanced on the village drowned out any attempt at objection Cerelia was willing to listen to.

"Mando." she demanded his attention.

He looked her in the face, shutting up his objections.

Her bright ocean blue eyes were full of determination and purposefulness, a fiery expression that he wanted so badly to fight, but he knew he wouldn't win.

"It's my call. I have to try," she stated.

When he didn't raise any protest other than a heavy sigh at being unable to control the stubborn girl, Cerelia ordered the two of them to cover her as she concentrated. They nod at her instruction as she slowly crawls closer to the walker, trying her best to cover herself with the tall grass in the darkness.

Mando watched her back closely and he was unable to ignore the concern he felt for her that he hadn't felt since his parents were alive. He shook the feeling as he aimed his blaster in the direction of anyone with the intention to harm her.

"It's now or never," Omera told her people as they advanced forward with all that they had, charging at the raiders with the knowledge of combat they had learned mere hours earlier.

The Mandalorian and Cara Dune watched as the Lyrian princess halted her crawling and laid flat on the wet ground beneath her, reaching her arm out toward the Imperial walker which managed to still be unaware of her presence.

She closed her eyes, clenching them so tightly that her lids hurt from the forceful concentration.

She thought of Lysaria, her home taken from her so cruelly. She wouldn't let that happen to these people, not if she could help it. The walker remained unmoving, and she begged to the ghosts of her past, the Jedi companions she had loved and lost. Her father. Her mother. Her sister. Her brother. So many she had, and so many she didn't have anymore.

Please, she begged. Please help me. Help me save them as I couldn't save you, she pleaded.

Suddenly, her focus was clear and her consciousness went blank. The legs of the AT-ST walker jumped forward in the air, dangling overhead the trench filled with water.

Cerelia's eyes flashed open as she realized it had worked, it had really worked. She pulled her arm back and let go, releasing her hold on the Imperial walker as it dropped into the pond and it's controls soon shut down.

The impact of letting go of such a hold of the Force nearly knocked her unconscious. She was exhausted like she had never been before. No wonder the Jedi went through so many years of training.

She heard the footsteps and the following explosion as Mando had thrown a thermal detonator onto the AT-ST, blowing it into a million dust particles.

Soon after, the Klatooinian raiders fled into the woods without their Imperial walker as protection. She smiled from her unmoving position on the wet ground, clutching at the wild grass around her, as she heard the cheers of the villagers as they had successfully protected their home from destruction.

She closed her eyes, just for a moment.

Mando found her hidden in the tall grass, unresponsive. She was breathing, slightly, but she was unmoving and clearly drained of all energy she once possessed. He fell to the ground beside her, collecting her in her arms of steel and pulling her close to his chest.

"Cerelia." he panted, bringing his ungloved fingertips to push back her damp silver hair away from her face, gently pulling her wrap back up on her head from where it had slightly fallen. He saw the little pulse in her cheeks as she lightly breathed in and out.

"Cerelia." he whispered.

Her eyes opened shortly thereafter, not shocked that he was there, but delighted to see him. She coughed as she sat up in his arms and he began to release his hold on her, slightly embarrassed at his panic.

Cerelia didn't notice anything other than one thing that startled her more than anything.

"That's the first time you ever said my name," Cerelia said, softly.

Mando fought the urge to roll his eyes, expecting something profound to come from the mouth of the fatigued Jedi. He should have known that if anyone could handle it, she could. "I was beginning to think you forgot it."

Before he could catch himself from saying anything stupid, he began his response.

"No, I didn't forget. You're the only-" Mando stopped abruptly at the words that seemed to flow freely from his mouth.

Cerelia's eyebrows jumbled together as she stood up on her own and reached out her arm to help him up. He grabbed onto her tiny hand and lifted himself up.

"I'm the only what?" she questioned, as he opened his arm to let her lean on him. She accepted the gesture, but still remained curious as to what he was going to say.

When she kept looking up at him awaiting an answer, he sighed.

"The only one that's stayed around this long." Mando admitted. That earned a grin from Cerelia, who had, up until now, doubted his alliance toward her. Now she knew that he was in it for the long run, and so was she.

"Well, I don't plan on dying anytime soon, so you're stuck with me, Mando," she informed him.

He scoffed as she leaned further into him as they slowly made their way back to the village where the others rejoiced in celebration.











[EDITED as of 3/16/22!]

Continue Reading

You'll Also Like

4.2K 48 17
.ใƒปใ‚œใ‚œใƒปI hate being suspicious about everything but damn, my gutt feeling was right .ใƒปใ‚œใ‚œใƒป
1M 33.5K 114
"๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐ก๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ญ, ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ- ๐ข๐ญ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐›๐ž๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ." "๐จ๐ก, ๐š๐ง๐ข, ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐ญ๐จ...
34.7K 230 62
One shot about characters from the mandolorian
155K 5.7K 43
"๐—™๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐˜†, ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ท๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ธ...๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚'๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜." "๐—”๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ...