My Silver Lining (Marvel/Star Wars Crossover)

Chapter 22: Clan Of Two

All of the sudden, we heard an explosion not far from us. The stormtroopers and I turned to see the assassin droid from the encampment back on Arvala-7, which I thought Din destroyed. And yet here he was on a speeder bike, holding the child in a backpack strapped to his chest. My heart clenched. But where was R8?

The stormtroopers spun around, aiming their rifles at the droid and the child. As they fired blasts, the droid quickly spun his torso around to protect the child. I took the opportunity to run out of the way. The stormtroopers were too preoccupied with firing at the droid to notice me. I ran towards the door, which opened in a heartbeat. Din hastily ran towards me, placing his hands on my cheeks.

"Are you all right?" Din asked.

My heart fluttered upon feeling his hands on my cheeks. I mentally shook my head. Now's not the time, Ayla. Realizing that he was waiting for an answer, I responded. "Yeah, Mando, I'm so sorry. You were right. I should've stayed on the Razor Crest."

"It's fine. You don't need to apologize. What matters is you're here, you're safe, jai'galaar." He assured me.

My heart skipped a beat upon him using that nickname. An explosion broke out from outside, gaining our attention. Din turned towards Cara. "Cover me!"

Cara hopped onto the bar table, raising her rifle, blasting down several stormtroopers. Din turned towards me, giving me a nod. I followed Din's lead, storming out of the place. Din fired his blaster at a couple stormtroopers, while I covered Din's back, shooting down stormtroopers with my rifle. Karga trailed behind us, joining us. The droid quickly joined us, taking down stormtroopers left and right. A stormtrooper rushed towards me, throwing an arm towards me. I blocked his arm before retaliating, slamming my hand down against his arm before firing the rifle at his chest, knocking his chest. Immediately, he collapsed onto the ground.

I then spun around to see another stormtrooper. He tackled me to the ground. He quickly scrambled back up on his feet, but before he could attack me, I swung a leg around, knocking both his legs. He slammed against the ground, helmet first. As we fought on, Din saw the E-web not far from him, and quickly grabbed it, using the E-web against them. Many of them were hit, thrown back onto the ground. Several of them jumped out of the way, not wanting to get hit.

"Ayla!" Din's voice rang out.

I spun around to see Gideon, raising his pistol towards me. Before I could react, Din intervened, pushing me out of the way. I landed on the ground near the building. I raised my head to see Din being thrown back onto the ground. My heart dropped. What hurt me even more was the fact that he wasn't moving. Din lied on the dirt, completely still.

"Din!" I exclaimed in horror.

I couldn't believe it, he took that hit for me. I rushed over towards him, resting my shaking hands on his helmet, where his cheeks would be. I heard him groan as he croaked out. "Cyar'ika..."

I let out a sigh. He's not unconscious. I moved one of my hands towards his arm, prepared to help him up. Why would he do that? He shouldn't have taken this hit.

"I'm here, Mando. I'm not going anywhere." I assured him. "But I need you to stay with me."

Cara then approached us, helping me lift Din up and back into the cantina. We laid Din down against a broken table that lied on the ground. My mind was running faster than the Razor Crest, wondering how we'd get out of here.

"Stay with me, buddy. We're gonna get you out of here." Cara urged.

Karga turned towards the droid. "This is our only path out. Can you clear it?"

The droid gently placed the backpack with the child on ground. The droid then turned his head to face Karga. "If you go near this child, I will have no choice but to kill you."