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Red. The only difference was red.
Revan stared into her eyes, the young Mandalorian frequently glanced away, kicked her feet, played with her piece of beskar with her name on it, and hummed along to the same song the force echoed from her. But they did not stop staring.
“Revan, you have spent enough time with the girl,” Malak said as he stood in the doorway. “We have things to do.”
Ciera, the little Mandalorian girl, looked up and frowned. She hasn't eaten anything since Revan picked her up from the ruins of the mandalorian vessel of which she lived. She hasn't slept, or even drank. It's been two days.
Revan turned, glaring through the visor of their mask. Mandalorian. Stolen. Ciera took great comfort from mandalorian armor, but Revan did nothing but strip her safety from the galaxy… was I… ? A lightsaber hummed in their mind, echoes of gunshots and a shouted: “viinir, eve'ika!” Revan swatted the memory away and spoke.
“ You have things to do. The things I must do are take care of her. She's scared,” they snapped.
“She's nothing but a mandalorian, and frankly you are being foolish, Revan.” His words were smooth and cold, yet they did nothing but fuel the raging inferno of their thoughts. He can't hear her song… her mask doesn't hide her face like mine…
Revan shot to their feet. “She's a child!” they glanced behind them, a break in their unwavering rage, hurt, a crack in their heart. Unreadable darkness masked Cieraas gaze, and Revan knew she understood what they were saying. She's quite smart… prodigal… bile rose to their throat at the thought, Revan swiveled back to malak.
“Look, I don't care about all that we have been through, the sickening hurt that goddamn group caused! I—” their voice broke, “she— I—”
“Yes? Are you able to enunciate what you need to say, Revan?”
Ciera was alarmingly still, watching, listening. Eyes reblooming as she absorbed the conversation around her. She murmured something to herself. Revan heard. Their vision blurred shortly after, tears streaking down their masked face.
“You're acting like you're not my goddamn boyfriend—! My childhood best friend! You're acting like you don't know me at all!” They cried.
“That's a horrid accusation, I do care for you! I fought beside you!” Malak stepped toward them, glaring down. Revan.merely steps forward, glaring up with a much fiercer stare.
“I fought for you, for your vengeance. For your healing.”
“You said you wanted to protect the galaxy, quit your snake lies.”
“Malak, I was a child. Children are bound to have mixed morals and confusion.”
“I was younger than you.” Malak growled, he did not hide his anger. The spikes through the force shot toward Ciera. She's tense, curled into herself, terrified.
“it was for the greater good, can't we agree on that!?”
“Oh and the greater good is murmuring that cursed language to a vile enemy child?”
Ciera stood, the volume of her song faded away into oblivion. Nothing more than a faint hum that could be heard only through utter silence. She approached Revan, grabbing their cape and hiding behind them. Their muscles tensed, their blood rolling and boiling, their rage almost audible.
“You know nothing about me. As if you didn't listen to me cry for my buirs as children,” they said with a voice like the horizon. speaking as if they felt nothing. Serenity was hounded unto them as a child after all… but it's difficult to ignore the rolling hills and cliffs and buttes on Dantooine's surface.
Malak pushed Revan aside, grabbing the girl's right wrist and holding it up to eye level. She began crying at the abrupt actions.
Revan shrieked, lunging at Malak and pushing him. He dropped Ciera’s wrist, staggering back.
“Her parents are unharmed! She has what we never got!” Malak roared.
Ciera's wails drowned out any thought Revan could have had.
“ I can give her what we never got! Look at her eyes— green— like mine-!” Revan glanced at her again, face flushed and glistening, bright eyes with vibrant red around her pupils.
“You're projecting. She's nothing like you. Quit whining about eye color.”
“She's from Dantooine!” Revan's voice rasped with desperation.
“And? She has a family. That is a luxury , Eevie. Family is a luxury. ”
Silence. Even the scared little Mandalorian girl halted her tears and wails.
“Get out.”
“Fine.” And he left. Swiftly.
Revan sighed, crouching down before Ciera. “You have a home, ad'ika…” they whispered the next sentence in mando'a with a shaky voice, hollow from the lack of rage, “I have to take you home, little one. A new home… it's scary, but you'll adjust, like I did… maybe you'll even get a lightsaber…”
The girl nodded. “ Grammy had one…”
“Then you will be just like her…” they stared into her eyes once again. Hers were accepting this time, not fearful, not anguished… there was more of a contrast than just the red around her pupils now…