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kalevalakryze · 9 months

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Under Fire

For Bo-Katan Week Day Two: Prompt Wedding/Marriage Pairing: Bo-Katan Kryze/The Armorer Characters: Bo-Katan Kryze, The Armorer, Din Djarin, Axe Woves, Koska Reeves, Ragnar Vizsla , Din Grogu Warnings: canon typical violence, author trying to be funny, and probably failing. Summary: Blaster fire rained heavy on the ground around the small squad of Mandalorians, dirt, sand, and other debris tossed into the air with each shot around their stomping boots. A gloved hand shot out to grab Bo-Katan by the leather strap of her holster, tugging her under cover just in time for a burning red bolt of plasma to whizz through the air where she’d been only moments before. Bo dug her boots into the ground to change momentum, settling her elbows into the durasteel that The Armorer had pulled her behind. Yellow bolts fired from her Westar’s found homes in stormtrooper plastoid. The next one to pull her from an inevitable headshot had been Koska, who’d caught the E-11’s glint as the shot charged. “Hey!” Bo called to her golden helmeted companion as she reached for the blaster of a fallen stormtrooper. The sturm dowels were removed from their power packs, before she was launching them into the offensive firing line. Explosions reflected in The Armorer’s visor as she turned her attention to the Mandalore. “You remember what we talked about, a few weeks ago?” A blaster whizzed past, she felt it graze the side of her helmet and sear the paint. Shaking her head, Bo fired back. “I’m ready, I want to say the vows, with you, if you’ll have me!”

AO3 Link: here

“There’s an Imperial base that’s in operation in the remains of Concordia,” Axe informed the leaders as he and his apprentice, Ragnar Vizsla, entered the war room. Koska followed behind the pair, helmet tucked under her arm, her brows pulled in a contemplative expression.

“Scans have proved the existence of the Beskar alloy they’d been using to make the super commando armor, and heat signatures prove that the old factories are back in working order,” Koska added in as she set her helmet on the war room console.

The Mand’alor frowned as she pulled the star map up. They’d only recently managed to get the proper equipment in the atmosphere to keep an eye on the healing Mandalore sector, the storms slowing down after they’d bartered trade with the New Republic to fix the environment. They were even on track to restarting the old Mando-Motors buildings, and started to get details in the books to renew ship manufacturing, so having Imperials on Concordia when they could be using the planets resources for materials instead of bartering, just wouldn’t work for her.

“Ragnar, what do you think we should do?” She questioned the young apprentice, lips quirking as he tensed from the spotlight. He was meant to be learning strategy by now anyways, and his inexperience could prove useful in dealing with the troopers.

“Well, Lady Kryze, we could take a small squad for a scouting operation, and decide from there how to continue depending on what we see? Our scanners could still be faulty with the storms,” His hand traced the chin of his helmet in thought, though Bo-Katan was nodding her head.

“That’s a good plan, Ragnar. Does anyone oppose?” Bo-Katan looked around the room, nodding her head at the shakes of everyones head. “Perfect, Din, Grogu, could you two run interference and surveillance from the Gauntlet while we hit the ground?” She turned to the Clan of Two, where Din was pointing out different locations on the map.

“It will be done, Lady Kryze,” He affirmed, his hand resting on Grogu’s head, where a miniature helmet covered the brunt of his head, though there was no visor, and his ears were also uncovered, the beskar would protect from anything fall, something she was glad to see the Jetti apprentice wearing.

“Alright, if you’re in this room, congratulations, you’ve all been drafted for recon, load up,” She patted her hand on the table, a smile pulling at her lips at Axe’s laugh as the man threw his arm around his apprentice and led him to the newly reconstructed hangars. Bo-Katan and The Armorer were the last to file out of the war room, mostly so the Mand’alor could press a soft kiss to the hard gold metal of the woman’s helm.

Letting Din and Grogu pilot, Bo-Katan, The Armorer, Axe, and Ragnar loaded into the drop transport, while Koska stuck in the cockpit to run the scans. The ship rocked and rumbled as they breached the storms in the atmosphere, when they broke the edge, The Armorer’s hand reached to settle on Bo’s waist, under the impression of helping her stay steady, since the Mand’alor refused to strap into one of the seats.

“We’re breaching atmo, there’s activity on the surface,” Din called over comms, the ship rattling as he pulled it harshly to avoid hostile scanners. “I’ll drop you as close as I can, and then we’ll sit until you call,” The floor of the gauntlet started to shift, until Bo was leading the drop, the others unstrapping and freefalling after her.

They couldn’t activate their thrusters until they were closer to the ground, which meant it would be close, especially since Ragnar didn’t have nearly the same amount of skill as the others. The comms were silent as the air rushed around her, her head turning just enough to catch the gold and blue of her squad. In the last few feet they had to spare, five sets of thrusters engaged in tandem. When her feet touched the dirt, her rangefinder dropped to scan their immediate surroundings, watching for some indication that they’ve been seen.

“It has been some time since I have been here,” The Armorer spoke with a hint of nostalgia, though Bo and her Niteowls all nodded their head in agreement. They’d all been a part of Death Watch, had hidden themselves from New Mandalorian rule under Pre Vizsla’s order, and had terrorized their people under his command, until they’d had no choice but to flee.

“It has been some time,” Bo agreed her head as she started towards the closest facility, where she last knew the most secure facility to have been. “The manufacturing centers were all forced to shut down, or to transition into making ship pieces for Mando-motors, though while Concordia was under the rule of Pre Vizsla, Death Watch managed to restart the production of Beskar alloys, and make produce enough armor to renew each set that had been given up by families who’d bent to the New Mandalorian’s pacifistic ways,” The redhead explained quietly as they walked, keeping her head on a swivel as they moved.

Koska nodded her head with her gauntlet held in front of her face. “Though, the mass production was nothing compared to what the old armorer’s were doing, before the new laws.” The Armorer listened to them speak as she marched on beside Ragnar and Axe. She hadn’t seen life inside Death Watch, as her clan had derived from those who managed to break away, she’d only been subjected to the consequences of their actions, and then the consequences of The Niteowls actions in turn.

“We’ve got movement ahead,” Ragnar called, pointing towards an observation balcony built into the side of the facility. The trooper was turned around, so the team had enough time to move in and press themselves close to the exterior walls. “We can’t drop him, yet, I don’t want them knowing we’re here until it’s too late,” She signed using dadita to keep their cover.

Nods of affirmation came from the four others in the squad. They waited in anticipation for several minutes, until the sounds of a door sliding open and the retreating of footsteps met their ears. Bo-Katan shot a line from her gauntlet that wrapped around the railing, pulling herself up quietly the balcony. No cameras met her eye when she landed, so she gestured to the others to follow.

The moment they got the doors open, Koska and Axe pushed forward to breach the interior, leaving Bo to cover the rear as they picked their way through old halls. The two Niteowls in lead had more experience than Bo-Katan in any of the production facilities, since her spot as Pre’s lieutenant had kept her away from the ‘grunt work’ of the job.

The resistance in the base was minimal, so Axe brought Ragnar to the front of the squad so he could work on his silent takedowns. The team managed to get all the way to the control rooms and place the charges before they’d ran into their first major issue. The guard rotations had been completed, and a janitor had stumbled upon a plastoid armored corpse in a closet.

Klaxons blared as an Imperial called orders over the ringing. Soon enough, the halls were filled with the sounds of shouting and blaster fire as the squad of Mandalorians made their way back to the exit. “Din, we’re going to need a fast pickup!” Bo called into the comms, only getting static in response. “We’re jammed, push outside and we’ll try again,”

A thermal detonator was chucked into the fray, though Bo couldn’t tell who’d thrown it. Before she could react, a bezoar hammer was smashing into the side of the explosive, sending it barreling into the squad of troopers keeping them from the exit.

Leaping past the prone bodies of stormtroopers, Bo-Katan was the first into the dim sunlight, her shield ejecting and raising in perfect timing to deflect a blaster bolt that would have destroyed her visor.

Clearing a path, The Mand’alor managed to secure room for the entire squad to take cover behind as more troopers rallied both in front and behind them. “Axe! Ragnar! Koska! Keep our shebs clear!” Bo commanded as she started firing into the troopers in front. The Armorer pressed ahead to the riot line with her hammer and tongs, leaving Bo-Katan to pick off anyone who tried to snag her while she was occupied in melee combat.

The thrusters of a jetpack sounded as another rifle joined their cause. “Where’s Grogu?” She called as Din landed beside her, his whistling birds striking home in three trooper’s chests.

“Piloting!” The mandalorian returned, his rifle mounted on the Imperial barricade wall by the entrance, yellow plasma ejecting from his rifle to take down the growing numbers.

It was truly only mildly concerning that Grogu was piloting, but she trusted Din enough to not leave any of them in bad hands.

“Heavy turret!” Bo called, her gauntlet’s cable shooting out to wind around The Armorer’s waist and drag her back before the blaster fire could open on her position. “Cover me!”

Without waiting for a reply, Bo-Katan’s thrusters engaged to send her into the air. In one fluid motion, the Mand’alor was dropping from the sky, allowing gravity to control her speed and the troopers body to cushion her fall. The trooper on the turret caved under the weight of her boots, with the feeling of bones cracking as she pushed herself off of him a relief in her mind that he would not be getting up.

Her shield engaged, while she pressed into melee combat to free up enough room around the turret. When she made the room, Bo-Katan smacked an ion grenade against the barrel, before springing back off in the direction of relative safety.

Blaster fire rained heavy on the ground around the small squad of Mandalorians, dirt, sand, and other debris tossed into the air with each shot around their stomping boots. A gloved hand shot out to grab Bo-Katan by the leather strap of her holster, tugging her under cover just in time for a burning red bolt of plasma to whizz through the air where she’d been only moments before. Bo dug her boots into the ground to change momentum, settling her elbows into the durasteel that The Armorer had pulled her behind.

Yellow bolts fired from her Westar’s found homes in stormtrooper plastoid. The next one to pull her from an inevitable headshot had been Koska, who’d caught the E-11’s glint as the shot charged.

“Hey!” Bo called to her golden helmeted companion as she reached for the blaster of a fallen stormtrooper. The sturm dowels were removed from their power packs, before she was launching them into the offensive firing line. Explosions reflected in The Armorer’s visor as she turned her attention to the Mandalore. “You remember what we talked about, a few weeks ago?”

A blaster whizzed past which she felt graze the side of her helmet and sear the paint. Shaking her head, Bo fired back into the enemy line. “I’m ready, I want to say the vows, with you, if you’ll have me!”

Din’s head snapped to the two warriors, though he remained silent as he covered where The Armorer’s defense faltered. “Would everyone bear witness?” She questioned to the closing squad.

“This is the way,” Echoed from the two children of the watch, while Koska and Axe took three seconds to slide credits into waiting gloves, before they called their approvals over the blaster fire.

“Keep us covered!” Bo-Katan tugged The Armorer so their heads were covered by the barricades. It was far from rare for Mandalorians to say the vows on the battlefield, all they truly needed to do was recite the vows with a witness present, and then trade a piece of armor (or, on the off chance one of them did not make it, the armor would be given before the last rites and the songs were sung before the pyre.

Bo took The Armorer’s hands in her own, lasers like fireworks overhead as the two took cover between their friends. ”Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde” They spoke together, The Armorer shifting so her helmet rested against Bo-Katan’s in a keldabe kiss. Truly, it was what the redhead had always imagined the situation would be like for her, though she had never really considered there would ever be somebody on the other end.

“Ibic haar Yust.” Sounded from those who bore witness, and the Mand’alor gave herself a moment to breathe, before she and The Armorer were rising as one.

The pair moved past their defenses in tandem, Bo-Katan nearly pressed against The Armorer’s back, firing over her shoulder as her newly appointed Riduur bashed her tools into troopers, cracking plastoid, flesh, and bone as they went.

The gauntlet soared overhead, turrets raining blaster fire down to help clear the path, as the rest of the squad filed in close order, covering their leaders backs as they found their opening.

Grogu was an exceptional pilot, they learned. When they piled onto the gauntlet, the apprentice was at the controls, using the Force to man the turrets and his hands wrapped around the throttle, standing on the console to be able to reach. Din slid into the seat to get them in the air, as Axe and Koska jumped onto the turret controls, allowing the Jetti turned Mando to fall into his fathers arms, clearly spent from using his abilities.

Bo-Katan pulled her helmet off the moment the ramp was raised and they were shooting back into atmo. “Ragnar, blow it,” Came the order, which the teenager was more than happy to comply with. The explosions from the factories control rooms shook even their ship as they started to breach from the moon’s gravitational pull.

“We can send squads to ensure there are no survivors, and set up our own base of operations in whatever remains, to search out any other factories they may have gotten running,” The Armorer decided, looking to Bo for approval.

“I’ll put out a call to volunteers as soon as we land, Axe, Ragnar, would you two take lead on the operation?”

“Of course, Lady Kryze,” Axe nodded his head as he turned from the console. There were no TIE fighters swarming their position yet, promising that if the hit wasn’t a total wipe, it was still substantial enough to put them on their ass.

“So,” Koska started as she pulled her own helmet away, leaning back in her seat as she looked between Bo and The Armorer. “Bo, you owe me fifty creds for not waiting until next month,”

Axe laughed openly from his seat where he was cleaning his blaster, and Bo snorted. “Seriously? You two made bets?”

“Speaking of,” Din turned in the pilots seat once the autopilot engaged, causing Koska to groan and pass over more credits.

“Really, Din?” Bo shook her head in mock disappointment, though her expression changed to shock as Din handed the credits to Grogu. “My favorite green nephew, seriously?”

“Patu,” Grogu babbled with a crooked smile, his ears laying flat as he stuffed the credits in his pouch.

Shaking her head, Bo-Katan dropped herself into an open seat beside The Armorer, letting herself lean into the warmth of the woman behind her, instead of against the backrest. “I see how it is,”

“Do we still get to come to the wedding?” Koska asked, causing Bo to roll her eyes as the younger niteowl plastered a shit-eating grin onto her face

“You were literally just there,”

“You two still need to exchange armor,” Axe pointed out, kicking his feet up on the console, “Then it’ll be official, then she really will be walking the way of the Mand’alor,”

“Why are you two like this?” Bo questioned, though she knew she would receive no response. Instead, she turned towards The Armorer. “Have you thought about what piece you’d like to exchange?” Typically, a gauntlet or a pauldron would be traded off, though Bo-Katan’s full armor varied greatly from The Armorer’s helmet and chest plate.

The golden helmeted warrior paused in thought, before reaching to her own armor. “I give you my heart, Lady Kryze,” She spoke softly as she pulled the kar’ta from her armor. Even with the Riduurok taken, the woman still waited for Bo-Katan’s permission before removing the Mand’alor’s own Iron Heart.

Bo-Katan’s hand closed around The Armorer’s once both their hearts rested in her palms. “I readily give my own,” She confirmed, squeezing the hands in her own. The Armorer slid the red heart into the open space in her chest, as Bo-Katan did the same with her own against The Armorer’s chest. They weren’t perfect fits, but Bo-Katan had the perk of being with the tribes best blacksmith to perfect the fit.

Translations Jetti - Jedi dadita - Mandalorian morse code shebs - ass/rear Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde - We are one when together, we are one when parted, we will share all, we will raise warriors. Ibic haar yust - this is the way Riduur - spouse kar'ta - iron heart Riduurok - vows

#bo katan kryze #the armorer #bo katan x the armorer #nitearmor #armorkatan #the mandalorian #star wars #take off your helmet #the mandalorian season 3 #riduur #riduurok #mando'a #crack #i tried to be funny #this might be the funniest stuff I've ever written #I can't tell if that's sad or not #bkw2023 #Bo Katan Week #Bo Katan Week 2023

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kalevalakryze · 8 months

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Foundlings

For Bo-Katan Week Day 7: Free Day

Prompt: The Niteowls Pairing: Bo-Katan Kryze/The Armorer, Bo-Katan Kryze & ‘Original Female Character’ & The Armorer Characters: Bo-Katan Kryze, Axe Woves, Koska Reeves, Other Niteowl Mandalorian Characters Warning: Children of war, canon typical violence, grief, accidental child acquisition Notes: I was rewatching guns for hire and started thinking about the way the fleet was looking at Bo when she walked up a little too hard. Also, I want alien and disabled Madalorians idk. This is also my first attempt at writing a zabrak Armorer too. Also, accidentally made an original character, and We’re going back to Skira as The Armorer’s given name ( making note of that bc I’ve been avoiding it in some of my more recent works ). Summary: “not a drop of Mandalorian blood,” Axe Woves had once said, as if his fellow Niteowls were not comprised of foundlings brought into their aliit across their travels. As if the woman to his right had not been found by Lady Bo-Katan a decade prior, and trained by the Mandalorian who cared too much. “Selfless and uncaring,” They’d called her, unknowing that those who bore the sigil of the Niteowl had each been foundlings of her own. Uncaring that she had trained each and fitted ill-fitting armor to their bodies, that despite the lack of the Living Waters, they had all taken their creed under her care. Word Count: 2,224 AO3 Link: Here!

“Easy, easy,” Bo-Katan called to the waking child. The Zabrak’s eyes blinked ope, before widening as she took in her surroundings. Blue and grey armored warriors stood around her, with her head pillowed in the rigid armored lap of a redhead, whose helmet rested on it’s side in the dirt. Grime and debris smeared across her face, brows pulled into a knot of worry, though relief shown clear in yellow-green eyes.

“Lady Kryze, we are running out of time,” The man to her side called. All their armor was damaged and covered in grime, like the smell of burnt plasma and sulfur hung thick in the air around them.

“I know,” She snapped when her head turned to him, causing the young girl to shift uncomfortably at the venom in her tone. She relaxed her features the moment she’d felt the discomfort, a small frown passing onto her lips. “Hey kid, we need to get moving, can I carry you?”

The girl shifted her weight again. “I can’t feel my legs,” She grumbled, voice low and hoarse.

When she tried to look down, a gentle hand grabbed her chin and turned her gaze back to the redhead. “Don’t,” The command was soft, more of a plea than a direct order. “Not right now,” The girl nodded her head, before she raised her arms. With a little bit of shifting and a dull pain in her hips, the Zabrak was soon wrapped around Bo-Katan’s neck.

The city was in ruins, masses of bodies strewn across the fallen debris of buildings. Stormtroopers, warriors in blue, and townspeople alike, fallen along the landscape. The child hung onto the strange redhead, allowing her head to be tucked close to the humans neck. Gentle fingers brushed against the back of her head, near the horns protruding from the top of her head in a comforting manner. The other blue soldiers walked close together, weapons at the ready as they blocked whatever view she could have with the closed in formation.

“Koska, could you…” The redhead started as they approached a ship landed in a clear part of rubble.

“On it,” One of the female soldiers brushed past before the woman could finish speaking. The sound of the ramp creaking open filled the crackling silence.

“Axe, Ka, Asun, can you three collect the fallen?” She turned on the ramp to face the small squad behind her.

“Yes, Lady Kryze,” The child couldn’t see who spoke, but he had a kind voice, if not a little stuck up sounding.

“Keep comms active, I’ll have Koska return us to the fleet before she returns,” It sounded more of a suggestion than an order, but the blue soldiers nodded their heads in agreement before three sets of feet started away from them.

They pushed further onto the ship, where the child was lowered into a pulled out cot behind the cockpit. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride,” The redhead frowned. “I am Bo-Katan, of Clan Kryze, we’re Mandalorians, and we're here to help,” She started to explain, digging through a medpack for something to do.

The small Zabrak on the cot stared, not just because of the real, living Mandalorian before her, but also because she’d seen a glimpse of the legs she’d been told to not look at yet. The lack of pain made sense, then. Yellow and black limbs had been mangled by the debris that had knocked her out. The memories had started to come back, then. The air raid sirens, Imperial patrols flooding the streets and shooting anyone who’d been outside, to the smell of jet fuel and the sounds of jetpacks landing all around.

The world was shaking a lot before she’d lost consciousness, she couldn’t remember anything past her home shaking and creaking with the explosions. “Hey,” Bo-Katan’s voice pulled her from the war zone that had been her life, a hand resting on her shoulder now and a look of understanding in her eyes.

The girl’s lip quivered as tears stung her eyes, until she was once more throwing her arms around the humans neck. The armor on her chest was cold and hard, but not entirely unpleasant as she sobbed into her chest, while the woman rubbed her back in a comforting manner.

There was an awkwardness to the woman holding her, a stiffness to her actions, but enough of a combined understanding that she rolled with what she’d thought was right. Not once did Bo-Katan shush the girl, or try to quiet the sobs that wracked her small frame. “Koska, can you engage autopilot and give me a hand?” She called softly to the pilot.

There was a bit of rustling and the sound of controls being hit, before the woman from earlier approached. “Get some Bacta around the wounds we treated earlier, everything looks clotted, but I’d rather be safe. Once we’re back to the fleet we can get the droids up,”

The other woman, Koska, did as she was told. The child couldn’t feel any of it though, aside from the pressure around her hips where she was able to feel.

Staying hidden in the offered safety of Bo-Katan’s arms, the overwhelmed child quieted at last, only the sound of their heaving breaths passing dry lips. One of the woman’s hands moved from her back at last, her upper body shifting and a quiet grumble following her actions, in some language she didn’t understand, until she was being gently forced away from her chest.

“Here, take a drink, nice and slow,” The small metal canteen was pressed into her hands, when they raised it to their lips, the woman helped her take slow sips. “There we go,” When the water was depleted and the ache in her head went away, she became briefly aware of the ship jostling. “We’re just docking with the fleet now, then we’ll see what we can do. We’re safe, here,”

The canteen was left on the bed, forgotten, as Bo-Katan once more urged the child’s arms around her neck and picked her up. The capital ship they boarded from the starship was old, and had a lot of the imagery her father had showed her from the Clone Wars emblazoned on the walls as they passed. Crates were stacked along the halls, full of more blue warriors, and even armored people not wearing blue, but reds, greens, yellows, it became a plethora of color once they passed through one of the larger halls.

The pair got odd looks every so often, though the child could not tell, only the blue people seemed to take off their helmets. There was a challenge in Bo-Katan’s eyes however, her head held high and her chin jutting out as they walked.

“Hey, did you get my comm?” She questioned after bouncing the toe of her boot off a doorframe once it slid open. Inside, a golden helmeted warrior stood surrounded by medical supplies.

“I have, the droid is prepared,” She gestured to the 2-1B series med droid standing idle by one of the many cots in the med wing. “Who is this?” She seemed rather attentive to the small Zabrak in Bo-Katan’s arms, causing her to shift anxiously.

“Hey, kid, this is The Armorer,” A pause, as the two exchanged a look. “She’s my Riduur, er.. my partner, The correction came quick as the Mandalorian reacquainted herself with basic’s term of a life partner. “She’s probably the safest person on this whole ship, and that’s hard to do with these guys,”

The child nodded before she’d finally allowed Bo-Katan to lower her into the cot by the droid. “My name is Staqi,” She finally spoke in a quiet voice, timid with anxiety and fear now that she was released from the secure hold of the first woman.

“I was once called Skira,” The Armorer shared. Stagi assumed this was some grand gesture, with how Bo-Katan’s eyes had widened and her lips had parted. Skira settled on one side, while Bo-Katan came around to the other to take her hand again.

“You don’t have to look,” Bo’s voice was soft when her eyes drifted to watch the med droid. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” The redhead’s hand squeezed around her own as yellow-green eyes shifted to the work on the lower half of the cot, her own nose crinkling at the sight.

“I don’t want to,” Stagi admitted, where upon her admission, The Armorer shifted from her perch on the side of the cot so her broader shoulders covered the procedure.

“You are doing very well,” The Armorer reassured her as she settled into place, her hand that wasn’t grasped in Stagi’s reached across the child to rest on Bo-Katan’s leg. A silent look was shared between the two, unreadable to the child who did not understand their unspoken language.

“I’m alright, Cyare,” Bo-Katan finally spoke aloud, her hand reaching to brush along the rim of the golden helmet. “Bumps and bruises, truly,” She’d promised in that same soft voice, with a kind smile pulling on her lips. It reminded Stagi of her parents, before the Imperials had come.

The Armorer seemed to take this answer as acceptable, as her attention shifted back to Stagi. For the remainder of the operation, the three passed stories, told each other about themselves, and kept the child’s mind occupied, far away from the operating table, somewhere almost nice.

Even when Stagi had fallen asleep, the two women did not leave her side, though she had a brief moment of wakefulness, when the gold of a helmet had been set down on the bed near her head. Her eyes had been blurry when she’d looked around, though she thought she saw Bo-Katan curled up in Skira’s side in one of the chairs beside the cot. Her skin was as red as the stories of Dathomir’s skies, with inky black markings outlining her face. The hair that tufted out around small horns seemed soft, and Stagi had fallen asleep with the thought that it was probably as soft as it had looked, as she’d tucked the golden helmet into her arms and fallen asleep hugging the cool metal.

When she woke up again, the helmet had been removed from her arms, though it had been replaced with the blue and white owl painted design, wrapped tight in her arms. Neither woman was around, but the med droid that was checking her over promised they’d only be gone a short time.

Curious, the Zabrak lifted the blue Niteowl helmet and slid it over her own head. It was comically large, though her horns pressed against the top in just the right way so she could see out of the dark visor.

It was awkwardly shaped enough that she couldn’t see out of the entire visor, however, so when knuckles rapped against the durasteel door frame, the girl had jumped, her head snapping to the side to find Bo-Katan, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest and a smile pulling at her lips. “Good morning, The Armorer needed her helmet, so I figured I’d slide in a replacement,”

“It’s so cool,” The child finally pulled it off of her head, going to hand it back to Bo-Katan, who’d just shook her head.

“It’s even cooler when you find all the buttons,” The redhead perched on the side of the bed once more, taking the helmet and holding it in a way so Stagi could see the buttons. “So this one engages the rangefinder, here, put it back on, we’ll see if you can see out of it,”

A guiding hand helped lower the helmet back onto Stagi’s head, before the weird stick on the side was lowered. Peering through the transparent glass, the room lit up with the heat seeking optic. “Woah!” She exclaimed as the rangefinder was raised and set back in place.

“Then, if you press this,” Fingers fumbled along the side of the helm, before smoothing over a button and reaching for Satgi’s hand to guide her to the button. When the child pressed it, a bright light lit up from a headlamp. She pressed it again shortly after powering it on, since it seemed hard for the redhead to see with the bright light in her eyes.

The Armorer returned, and the morning continued much like the night before. The Mandalorians had given her the ability to search for surviving relatives, though when none were found, there was no question about where she would go.

In the coming months, it had been clear that Skira had more familiarity with children than Bo-Katan, though when it came to learning how to use her wheelchair and learning how to fight despite it.

Navigation on their home planet of Mandalore had been tricky, though The Armorer and Stagi had worked together to engineer easier access all around. She’d even been able to help make her own armor, learning alongside The Armorer and her apprentices. Bo-Katan, who’d taken up her mentorship, had helped her carefully paint the Niteowl sigil and the combined sigil of the two women who’d raised her over the years. Stagi became one of the many Niteowls personally trained by Bo-Katan Kryze, and after the loss of her ‘clan’, she’d been readily accepted into Clan Kryze, along with the Mandalorian way of life.

#bo katan kryze #the armorer #bo katan x the armorer #nitearmor #the mandalorian #star wars #niteowls #foundlings #bo katan week #bkw 2023 #bo katan week 2023

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