Unmasked Love | The Mandalorian

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"We revealed ourselves. We knew what could happen if we left the covert. The Imperials arrived shortly thereafter and this is what resulted," the Armorer explains, holding her hand out to the pile of beskar armor that she had been carefully picking through. She sounded tired, but her stance radiated anything but that. 

"Did any survive?" Mando asks, looking over to her while taking a small step away from Greef. I let out a small breath of relief, glad to see that Mando wasn't going to absolutely obliterate Greef. 

"I hope so. I believe some may have escaped off-world," she answers, nodding her head. 

"You could come with us," I say, taking a step forward as I presented my offer to her. She looks over to me and just stares, her blank visor practically burning a hole in my head. I take a deep breath and hold it deep in my chest, not knowing whether or not she liked me or if she wanted to kill me. From our last interaction, she seemed to think that I was somewhat alright and trustworthy, so... I suppose I'll just have to take my chances right now. 

"Your offer is kind, but I simply can not accept. I will not abandon this place until I have salvaged what remains here," she says, looking back towards the pile and then the cart that was hovering close to her knees. She turns around and starts walking away, glancing over her shoulder once as if she were checking to make sure that we were following her. I look over to Mando and he nods his head towards the direction the Armorer was heading in. 

We follow her back to the forge that we had once stood in before any of this chaos happened. I mindlessly play with the beskar ring on my finger, thinking back to when Mando had first given it to me. I watch the Armorer place the many pieces of beskar she had brought back into the burning forge, melting them down. We all stand there for a few moments, awkwardly waiting in silence as we wondered who would be the one to speak first. 

"Now, show me the one whose safety deemed such destruction," she says, turning around while rolling her shoulders back to straighten her posture out. She had a strong authoritarian aura that made me feel a little more than just intimidated, but I think I respected and admired it more than I feared it. 

"This is the one," Mando says, stepping out of the way of the IG-unit to reveal the tiny child. 

"This is the one you and the girl hunted, then saved?" she questions, flicking her gaze over to me for a few moments. 

"Yes. The one that saved us as well," he continues, nodding his head. 

"From the mudhorn?"

"Yes."

"It looks helpless," she quips, letting an unamused hum trail her words. I purse my lips into a smile and hold my tongue, knowing that I shouldn't say anything about what she had just said. I think I've heard that sentence one too many times in my life. It's how most people saw me before they got a taste of what I could really do. 

"It's injured and tired right now, but not helpless. Its species can move objects with its mind," Mando says, shaking his head while he explained what the kid could do. I open my mouth slightly to correct him, but I decide to just hold my tongue and let him speak. 

"I know of such things. The songs of eons past tell of battles between Mandalore the Great and an order of sorcerers that fought with such powers," she explains, nodding her head once. I hold my breath and my eyes widen a bit. 

Well, this is a little awkward. 

I remember sneaking into one of the data libraries on the Imperial ship that I was living on when I was a kid and reading up on the battles between Mandalore the Great and the Jedi. It had become a common thing for me to sneak into the large data libraries on my breaks when Gideon and Vader didn't need me. So whenever they weren't trying to make me succumb to my own darkness, I had a little time to do some light reading.