Stowaway | A Mandalorian Love Story | Din Djarin x OC

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Mines, Part II

Suggested Listening:
Lab Raid - Hans Zimmer (from The Creator) | ...the cyborg's den
Camp - Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow (from Civil War) | ...kyra & bo-katan
The Living Waters - Joseph Shirley & Ludwig Goransson (from The Mandalorian) | ...the living waters

Up ahead was a strange, flickering orange glow. Instinctively, we drew our blasters and hugged the wall, approaching as silently as possible.

There was Din — alive, thank the stars, but seriously hurt. My mouth went dry as I saw his small movements and tense frame. He looked like he was in pain. A hot rage flashed in my chest.

"Look," hissed Bo-Katan, and I turned my gaze to the other source of movement in the room.

Some sort of cyborg was stalking toward the cage where Din lay. It made chattering noises that were almost droid-like, but inside the mechanism was something organic. It had long, spindly limbs and carried a glowing blue staff — I had never seen anything like it before.

"Another native?" I hissed to Bo-Katan.

She shook her head.

"I don't know what that is."

Whatever it was arrived at Din's side and I squinted to see what it was doing. To my horror, it lifted a long, sharp needle over him and plunged it down, causing him to groan and writhe in pain. Without thinking, I moved to run to him, but Bo-Katan threw out a hand to stop me.

The thing whacked its machine with its staff, and a large pump began moving back and forth. It was then that I saw the tubes running from the machine to Din's body — and they were slowly turning dark.

"It's taking his blood," I hissed, furiously. "I'm going in."

"Right behind you," growled Bo-Katan, and immediately we opened fire.

The thing wheeled around in shock as blasts rang off of its machine. We emerged from the shadows, closing in on the cyborg — but it had recovered from the shock. It held up it's staff and jammed it into Bo-Katan's chest, sending icy bright waves of electricity into her. She screamed, falling backward.

"Hey!" I shouted, getting it's attention.

It whipped around it's head-like piece and rounded on me. I peppered it with hot orange blasts, but they didn't shred the metal — what the hell is this thing made of??

The jets of burning light shoved it backward, but it managed to knock many of them to the side before swinging its staff into me. I felt a disgusting zing through my entire body, simultaneously painful and numbing. I cried out as I dropped to the ground, my knees buckling. It towered over me, lifting it's staff high and preparing to strike me down for good, when suddenly a strange light caught the corner of my eye.

Before I could register what was happening, the thing was knocked off balance by the slice of a glowing dark force.

Bo-Katan had got ahold of the Darksaber.

I watched in awe as the cyborg turned on her, wielding its staff like a sword. To my utter shock, she fought nimbly and deftly — I remembered what Din had told me about learning how to use the Darksaber, how long it had taken him to be able to carry it with any semblance of balance. She wielded it as though it was an extension of her arm, like it was made for her.

Finally, she plunged the Darksaber into the "heart" of the cyborg, and after a moment of paralysis, it dropped emptily to the ground.

Bo-Katan ran to me and held out a hand. I let her help me up and clapped her on the arm before running over to Din, my chest suddenly on the verge of sobs.