𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 ── ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴᴅᴀʟᴏʀɪᴀɴ ✓

4.4

I gulped and slowly let go of its arm. I pursed my lips to prevent any tears from falling out of my eyes. I watched in silence as IG-11 climbed out of the boat and into the lava river. I wiped away the tears forming in my eyes with my arm.

"IG?" Greef's eyes widened as we all stared at IG-11. "What're you doing?!"

But it was too late. He had already stepped off the boat, sinking its metal feet into the lava river.

Kuiil, IG-11, and so many others had sacrificed their lives for our safety and survival. All those sacrifices.. did they really have to end their lives that way? For us.. for me?

Our eyes followed IG-11's silhouette as it walked through the lava river -- the lava slowly eating away at its metal. It reached the mouth of the lava river and stopped. IG-11 looked around at the stormtroopers and scout troopers.

"Manufacturer's protocol dictates I cannot be captured." IG-11 announced. It activated its bomb, causing the troopers to lower their weapons in shock. "I must be destroyed."

BOOM

🔹️🔹️🔹️

Everyone stared at the explosion with sadness in their eyes. Mando placed a hand over my shoulder, comforting me. I sighed and just shook my head, pulling out my blaster. I had to stay strong. We all prepared ourselves just in case any troopers survived.

Mando placed the child down at the bottom of the boat to protect him from any danger. We all aimed our blasters around at the mouth of the river, but it seemed as though IG-11's sacrifice had neutralized the platoon. Its destruction allowed us to reach the plains safely.

Before we could even think about relaxing, an Outland TIE fighter began circling around us. We all aimed our blasters at the TIE fighter and prepared to shoot.

The person inside the TIE fighter wasn't Derek. If it was, I would've felt a more dangerous and familiar energy surrounding the TIE fighter. However.. this wasn't the case. Someone else was trying to attack us.

I growled, "Moff Gideon!"

As the TIE fighter came closer to us, we shot at it repeatedly, but its metal was too strong to take any damage from our blasts.

Simultaneous of our attacks, Moff Gideon had tried to strafe us but, luckily, missed. We continued to fire at the TIE fighter as it quickly flew back up in the air and behind a large hill, hiding itself.

"He missed!" Greef exclaimed. Mando cursed under his breath.

"He won't next time."

"Our blasters are useless against him..!" Cara announced; we all lowered down our blasters a little. Greef turned to look at the child.

"Let's make the girl or baby do the magic hand thing." Greef mainly pointed at the child and tried to pressure it. "Come on, baby! Do the magic hand thing..!"

The child ended up waving a hand at Greef with a coo. I pinched the bridge of my nose out of frustration.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but the child doesn't understand you."

"Then what about you?" Greef turned to me. "I saw you do it on command. You summoned  lightning last time -- now just do it on the TIE fighter!"

".. I don't know if I have the strength to do it right now," I huffed, clenching my fist. "But I can try."

I dropped my blaster and held my right hand out in front of me. I aimed my hand towards a small boulder to test my current abilities.

Everyone stared at me as I closed my eyes. I tried to focus on all my energy and strength on lifting up the boulder, but I felt absolutely nothing.

That's when I heard a deep, soothing, evil voice call out to me -- telling me that 'it was all my fault' and that 'I was weak'. It had a painful effect on my mind and body. To add onto that, there was an intense burning sensation in my left arm. It was as if it was trying to prevent me from using the Force. And.. it was working.

"Adalyn..."

Suddenly, a swarm of voices repeated my name over and over again inside my head. There were warm and friendly voices, but there were also cold and dangerous ones as well. Voices of my friends, enemies, teammates, loved ones.. the dead.

I opened up my eyes and gasped; all the voices had disappeared. I fell on my knees in pain. I squeezed my left arm with my right hand and groaned. I closed my eyes again, trying to calm myself down -- I was trembling. Eventually, I was able to finally stabilize my breathing and shaking.

Before anyone could ask if I was okay, I slowly stood up and picked up my blaster. The headache and pains inside my body went away within a matter of seconds. However, the burning sensation in my left arm remained.

I growled and clutched onto my blaster, "We need to think of another plan.."

Greef spat, ".. Well I'm out of ideas."

"I'm not." Mando announced angrily. Cara looked up at the sky and cursed.

"Here he comes!"

While the rest of us aimed our blasters at the TIE fighter, Mando grabbed his jetpack and placed it over his back. He looked up at the incoming ship and activated his jetpack. My eyes widened.

"Mando, what're you--"

As if on cue, Mando jumped up and pursued the TIE fighter. He activated his grappling hook and attached it to the back of the ship. The ship began dragging him along with it.

Cara, Greef, the child, and I stared up with blank expressions on our faces. I face-palmed myself as I realized what he was trying to do.

I quickly picked up the child and placed him in my arm. I rushed out of the boat and onto the plains, staring up at the sky. The others followed my actions.

"He's trying to put detonators on the ship and blow it up..!" I announced to the others, biting my lip.

We walked away from the lava river and tried to keep up with the fight. But by the time we had stepped into the middle part of the plains, the TIE fighter was out of our sight. I sighed in frustration, tightening my grasp on the child.

I didn't need another death.. another sacrifice. But there was nothing I could really do; I was basically useless with my injuries at this point. All my teammates and I could do was hope -- wish that this would all turn out well.

".. This better work."