Vibrant Eyes | Din Djarin

37: Something

They let him go at her command.

Ira. Beautiful, lethal Ira stood with a child at her hip and a saber of light in her hand before an army of men. 

And they bowed to her whispered command.

Din stood and joined her side as quickly as he could, drawing a blaster and aiming it at the warlord. The man who looked so sure and cocky before, now staring with wide eyes at the woman he stood beside. Then at the people she flung.

Grogu giggled from the depths of the bag in which he hid. But Din could still remember his cries.

Ira said, "Where lies the armor of the lost?"

Din saw firsthand the effect of her voice on them all when she was like this, reverting to one of mist and shadows and the endless universe. He knew now it was a sign of the power she became.

It meant she could likely kill them all with half a thought.

But most of all he thought of the way his heart beat for her. The tension that eased in his limbs, knowing she focused on the same thing he did. Recovering the beskar of fallen Mandalorian warriors and honoring their memories. Avenging the dishonor thrust upon them.

Something she'd chosen to focus on, to care about. For him.

This wrath she rarely showed, all there for him.

"My..."

She tilted her head in the man's direction.

"My safe," he answered with a gulp. He shuffled in place and glanced at the saber in her hand. "You're a Jedi."

Ira stomped one step forward, a blur of violet light beside her when she spun her lightsaber once. "No."

Confused murmurs broke out and anger resurfaced in his chest, new and harsh. They still dared to test their limits in the face of death?

"They all died long ago," she snarled.

The man crossed his arms and tried to fake bravery. "Is that what you plan to do to us?"

"Yes," she said simply. "Run into the forests if you wish to avoid the touch of death at my hand."

"But—but we'll freeze to death!" he protested.

Ira blinked.

Din asked, "Why should we care what happens to you?"

Then Ira smiled and her other hand brushed by his arm when she stepped back to show them the pair they were, the solidified force that would gladly kill them all where they stood.

"You've killed and dishonored warriors of his people. You were going to force me to watch as you stripped him of all he holds dear. You have threatened the safety of the child in our care. We came to help and you let fear consume you."

Fear. It ripped through every one of them. And she lifted her chin high, reveling in it. Letting it become her.

"He's right. We do not care what happens to you," she murmured to them, many straining to hear her. "I only care which you choose."

They paused. "Choose what?"

Ira smiled and purred, "Will you burn or will you freeze?"

The guilty of that village, with the warlord and his men, walked into the surrounding forests that day and never returned.