Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aonung surfaces right where his sister is resting on a large reef sticking out of the ocean. When he grabs the edge, he pulls himself up next to Tsireya. “Sister?” he asks when he notices she’s sobbing.

She looks up at him, tears dripping down her cheeks. “He’s gone, Aonung,” she whispers.

That’s when he notices another body laying with her. Neteyam, the boy who had no problem punching him to stand up for his brother and sister, lays out along the reef with a hole in his chest and blood leaking steadily into the water. His sister’s legs and arms are also covered in blood like she’d tried to stop the flow but it’d become too much for her. Slowly, Aonung moves closer to the boy, one hand going to his cheek and the other resting on his chest. “Neteyam, you cannot go, your family needs you,” he whispers. He doesn’t know why he’s suddenly so upset, all he knows is that this isn’t right.

This isn’t what Eywa has planned for any of them. It can’t be.

Behind him, Tsireya cries harder and he hears Rotxo climb from the water to comfort her. “Lo’ak asked me to stay with him,” she says. “His sisters are on the ship with that man. They’re awful. Oh Aonung, it was awful.”

Rage burns in his gut. This isn’t right. None of this should be happening. Unable to help himself, he leans down and presses his forehead against the Neteyam’s still—

Neteyam’s chest is not still. It is a very small movement, one that if he were not so close he wouldn’t notice. Aonung presses his fingers to the boy’s neck, his pulse beats weakly beneath his fingers but it’s there. “H-he’s alive!”

“Wh-what?” Tsireya says.

He sits up and very carefully moves so he can pull Neteyam into his lap so his back is to Aonung’s chest. If he can slow the bleeding, it will give them more time. “Tsireya, go below and get a txampaysye and the healing herbs mother used when you stabbed me with your spear. Roxto, find my parents, and be fast!”

The two quickly do as he says, neither arguing as the very dangerous feeling of hope blooms in all of them. Aonung prays to Eywa his mother arrive soon, Neteyam’s heartbeat is so weak there can’t be much time. “Hold on, just hold on,” he whispers.

An image of the forest Na’vi comes to his mind. Aonung remembers a week after they first arrived spotting Neteyam on the docks late one night. He’d been there staring up at the sky with a look so full of longing that it made Metkayinan’s heart pound. He didn’t understand what the feeling meant, or why every time after he felt that same heart-pounding feeling and flushness in his cheeks. He’d covered it up by being, well, a bully. That was why he’d begun tormenting the younger Sully kids. That feeling never went away though, it was only accompanied by shame when he saw the anger from Neteyam.

“You have to hold on,” Aonung says, “I know it hurts. I know going to Eywa is easier, but please just stay here. Your family needs you.”

Splashing water washes up on the reef. “Here!” Tsireya passes him a bundle of herbs. Some of them glow and other do not. “There weren’t any txampaysye anywhere close and I didn’t want to take too long.” She uses a rock from the bottom of the sea and grounds up the herbs, turning some into a finer almost paste-like material as she mutters prayers and chants their mother taught her.

He only nods as he watches her work. Aunong can’t help but think that she will make an amazing tsahìk. They’d once joked that should Aunong never mate, she would help him lead the clan. While many tsahik and Olo’eyktan do mate, it is not unheard of for them to just be close friends or even siblings.

Once she finishes, he very carefully begins packing at the hole in Neteyam’s back, his sister following his lead and doing the same to his chest. The herbs aren’t much, they’ll prevent infection and slow the bleeding, but it may not be enough to save their friend. Neteyam needs something to help ground him, that’s why he wanted the txampaysye, not only will it help Neteyam breathe, but the connection just might be enough for his consciousness to remain with his body.

A connection.

Aonung grabs the end of his kuru then Neteyam’s. Doing what he’s about to do is one of the most intimate connections a Na’vi can make. It is usually reserved for life mates, but the action just might be enough to tether the other to life. Tsireya watches him with wide eyes, tears still spilling down her cheeks. For just a second he considers not doing it, not making tsaheylu but the alternative is much worse.

He didn’t like these people when they joined their clan. Outsiders with demon blood, he’d been afraid of what would happen with them joining their clan. That fear had not been misplaced, but he does not regret them coming here. He does not regret Neteyam joining them.

Aonung knows that if he doesn’t do this, he will regret the decision for the rest of his life. So, with a deep breath, he presses their braids together and lets the connection form.

The second their minds touch, everything seems to come alive all at once. A flood of pain and emotion fills him so fast and so hard that it takes him a nice long moment to catch his breath. Even then, he has to take a while to sort through what feelings are his and which are Neteyam’s. The most notable is the fear and the coldness seeping into every edge of his mind.

Aonung tries not to let it consume him. Instead, he does his best to wade through everything and find Neteyam and not just his feelings. Somewhere deep in the coldness and fear, he finds the smallest speck of light. The light is dim, fading in and out as the cold tries to take it away. Aonung does the first thing he can think of and throws his arms around it.

Who….who is there…?

The voice is so small but it’s unmistakable Neteyam. It’s Aonung.

Aonung….I want to go home.

The pure need in those words nearly shocks Aonung to his core. He’s seen Neteyam be so strong, he’s seen him take care of his siblings with such ease and master their clan’s ways while barely blinking an eye, but now he seems so…small. He suddenly has the image of a small child curled up hiding from the dark.  Just breathe, and I’ll get you home.

Neteyam’s consciousness flickers and pulses for a moment before seeming to huddle closer to Aonung. And the Metkayinan does the only thing he can think of, he holds on tighter, imagining himself lending breath and peace to the Omatikayan who so desperately needs it.

“Aonung!” He’s pulled halfway from the connection by his father grabbing his shoulders. “My son, are you alright?”

“I…” he has to blink a few times to focus on what’s happening now. Neteyam’s light, that dim little light, is still there in his mind, and keeps a strong hold on it. “I’m fine. Neteyam, he’s still alive. Where’s Mom?”

“I am here.” Ronal is leaning over Neteyam’s chest, carefully checking the packing Aonung and Tsireya did. She nods approvingly. “Your quick work may have saved his life. We must get him to the Cove.”

Tonowari calls his mount closer. “Come, Aonung, you will hold him while we ride.”

With his father’s help, they gather Neteyam on the tsurak, Aunong keeping a tight hold on the tree-dweller.

“I’m staying,” Tsireya says. “Someone has to tell them when they get back.”

Ronal grunts, she does not look very pleased by this. “Rotxo, you stay with her. If the Sky People come closer, you drag her away if you must.” The boy nods and moves out of the way of the tsurak before they take off. She gives her daughter and Roxto a hard look. “When they return, bring them to the Cove. Do not delay. If Neteyam is to survive, their presence will be needed.” She says nothing more as she takes off after her mate and son.

Aonung has half his focus on keeping his arms around Neteyam’s still form and the other half on the Omatikayan consciousness. The longer they’re linked, the calmer he can feel Neteyam becoming. The light doesn’t brighten, but the flickering is less and less as it seems to try and hold on. Aunong isn’t sure if it’s wishful thinking or not, but he swears he can feel Neteyam’s chest moving just the slightest bit. The relief and excitement he suddenly feels nearly makes him fall off his father’s mount but he holds on. Losing concentration right now isn’t an option.

Tonwari keeps a steady hand on his son as they ride toward the cove. The fighting continues around them and he hears shouts from their people.

Aonung tries not to feel guilty that he’s not fighting alongside his clan as he should be, but none of those they pass seem angry. In fact, those who catch sight of the unconscious Omatikayan understand. This is a boy under their protection. They must ensure his survival for their clan’s honor.

And many of their clan have come to care for the Sullys. Despite the teasing and the…bullying from the younger members, the Sullys have all been nothing but respectful in trying to learn their clan's ways. Embracing the traditions with open and humble hearts.

Aonung wishes he’d treated them better when they’d arrived.

His father’s tsurak breaks through to the Cove and they race for the tree. Tonowari helps him with Neteyam and they lay him in Eywa’s grasp. The seagrass pulses and dances around them until it seems to suction to the Na’vi laying motionless.

Disconnect the tsaheylu, Tonowari signs.

Aonung has never so violently wanted to reject something in his life. The very thought of letting go of Neteyam’s consciousness seems like a death sentence.

Soft hands rest on his shoulders. His mother. Aunong almost forgot she’d been right behind them. It is alright. You both must connect to Eywa now. You have made a bond with him. It will help guide him back with Eywa’s healing hands.

Then she backs away, beginning to ask Eywa’s aid in healing.

Slowly he reaches for where they’re connected. Neteyam, he whispers into the fledgling bond, I need you to hold on for just a little bit. We’re at the Cove of the Ancestors. I must leave you for just a second.

He can feel Neteyam’s hesitance and fear spiking. You’ll come back?

I promise. I will not leave you.

With not much more time and reassurance, Aunong reluctantly disconnects their kuru. Despite not having the tsaheylu any longer, Aunong can still feel Neteyam. It’s like the Omatikayan carved himself a little space inside the Metkayinan’s heart.

Blinking back the sudden tears he feels lays Neteyam’s braid against the tree. It takes a second longer than Aunong would like for the connection to take but when it does, the pretty sunspots that dot Neteyam’s body light up.

Aunong feels like he could cry as he watches. Even the tiniest signs of life bring great relief.

Tonowari, kneeling next to his son, gently removes the herbs and plants his children used to pack the wound. Dad, Aunong signs, I don’t know if I did the right thing.

What if he’d only put off the inevitable?

His father grabs his shoulders. You did what Eywa guided you to do. It was the right thing, even if it does not bear fruit. I am proud to call you my son, the future Olo’eyktan.

All he’s ever wanted was to hear those words from his parents. He knows they love him, and he knows they want him to do well, but he’s missed their praise the older he’s gotten. The older he’s gotten, the bigger the expectations have become. Becoming the next Olo’eyktan is a great honor Aunong will bear, but that does not mean it doesn’t terrify him. Tonowari presses their foreheads together for just a moment and Aunong allows himself to feel selfish and cling to the comfort it brings him.

After another second they both pull away. As Aunong prepares to connect with Eywa, Tonowari shakes his head and has him make the bond right where Neteyam is connected. He doesn’t question his father.

A whirlpool-like feeling envelopes him, yanking him deeper and deeper into Ewya’s grasp. Memories flood his mind, his own, his people’s, then ones he does not know. Those of a forest and clouds, soaring through the sky on the back of great creatures. Despite the jarring memories, he’s able to catch glimpses of a small Na’vi boy. Moments of him learning to fish, making his first bracelet, weaving his song cord, learning from his grandmother.

Memories that are so much like Aunong’s yet so different all at the same time.

It all comes to a halt and Aunong finds himself tumbling through a treeline at the top of a beautiful cliff. Along the edge of a cliff is a large tree and there, at the base of the tree, is Neteyam.

The Omatikayan is sitting with his knees pulled to his chest and a shaw, one Aunong has seen Neytiri wearing, wrapped around his shoulder. The Metkayinan's heart seems to leap into his throat and he rushes to the other, carefully kneeling in front of him. “Neteyam?”

He looks up, blinking back tears as he does. “I can feel her, Aunong. I can feel her everywhere.”

“I can feel her too,” Aunong says. He can’t help but lay his hands on Neteyam’s arms, needing to touch him in some way. “She is going to heal you.”

One of his tears drips down his cheeks. “It doesn’t hurt. If I say here. It doesn’t hurt.”

“I know you’re in a lot of pain, but my mother and Eywa can heal your wound. It will take time, and you will hurt for some time, but you will be ok.” Another tear slides down Neteyam’s cheek and he can’t resist reaching up and brushing it away. “I know I have hurt you, you and your family, but I want to help you.”

Neteyam looks out over the cliff. It’s a beautiful sight, the way the sky looks out over the mountains and the forest. He can understand why some would choose to live there. “I miss home,” Neteyam whispers. “I-I didn’t want to leave.” Once one tear has fallen, more follow until they’re just pouring down his pretty cheeks.

And suddenly Aunong feels even worse for how he treated the Sullys when they came here. They came for safety, for protection, and Aunong and his friends bullied and teased them mercilessly. Called them demons for their blood, something they can not control. They have done nothing to deserve any of it, just as they did not deserve to be driven from their home. “I’ll take you there when you’re healed.”

Neteyam looks back at him. “You will?”

He nods. “Whether it's to stay or to visit, I’ll get you back to see your home.” The floating mountain range is breathtaking, and right now it’s only a memory. He wonders what it would be like in real life. “I think I would like to visit. But I will need someone to show me the way of your people. I don’t think I’d like to learn from Lo’ak. Think you could teach me?”

He sniffles. “I-I think so.”

Aunong smiles and stands. “Let’s go back then. I’m sure your parents and siblings miss you.”

Neteyam looks up at him, teary eyes filled with pain and fear but also a little bit of hope. “You won’t leave me, right?”

“I swear, I’ll stay with you the entire time.”

Neteyam takes his hand.

Chapter Text

Lo’ak feels a chill in his bones as Payakan brings them to the reef they left Tsireya and Neteyam. The fight is over, they’ve won this time, and brought home their lost friend, but now they have to return to Neteyam’s body. Lo’ak’s lips tremble and guilt turns in his gut. This is his fault.

His big brother is dead because of him.

A large hand lays on his back and he suddenly finds himself tugged into his father’s arms. “It’s not your fault,” he says, “I never should have blamed you. It’s not your fault.”

Lo’ak can't hold back his tears any longer. “I want him back.”

“I know, I know.” Jake holds him tighter and he hears Neytiri holding both their girls tighter along with Spider. “I want him back too. We all do.”

“Tsireya!” Neytiri suddenly yells. “W-what’s happened? Where is Neteyam?”

Jake and Lo’ak pull away from each other, their eyes wide as they try to find Neteyam’s body. Tsireya stands up on the reef, the blood that previously covered her is gone through traces of it still lingering on her skin here and there. Roxto is next to her, both of them look exhausted from the events of the day. “He’s alive,” Tsireya says.

His words make them all pause. “W-what?” Jake asks.

“Aonung, he sensed his heartbeat,” Rotxo says. “He and his parents have taken Neteyam to the Spirit Tree in the Cove. We must hurry and meet them there.”

Tuk laughs in relief, her childish joy and belief in everything good overtaking her. “Teyam! Mama, Teyam’s ok!”

Neytiri grabs her daughter before she slips from Payakan’s back. The tears come along with her thanks to Eywa as the words sink in.

“Yo-you’re sure,” Jake asks.

Tsireya nods. “Yes, we must hurry.”

No more words are shared and Lo’ak conveys the urgency to Payakan who immediately starts towards the Cove. Tulkins can’t go all the way to the spirit tree down there, but they can get pretty damn close and Spider will be able to safely wait with Tuk.

Tsireya and Rotxo go first, together the two gather enough txampaysye for all of them. Tuk wants to go with them, but Neytiri demands she remains with Payakan and Spider. She doesn't want her youngest to see her brother die if all of this is for nothing.

When the tree comes into view, they see Ronal at the head of it performing a ritual. Her kuru’s connected to the center of the tree and when she turns, she catches sight of the six of them swimming for them. Make the bond, the tsahík signs. Then she points to Kiri and Tsireya. You two, up here with me.

No one argues as they quickly do as the woman bids them. Neytiri settles at the place by her son's head, her hands smoothing over his cheeks. Jake takes the spot next to her and the two of them link hands over their son.

Tonowari nods to them from his place by his son. His heartbeat is steady, the Olo’eyktan signs, my son is keeping him tethered to life with Eywa’s guidance.

It’s then Jake notices that Neteyam and Aonung’s kurus are bonded over top of each other. It is nearly as intimate of a bond as when mates form their tsaheylu. Jake and Neytiri have done it now, and Ronal and Tonwari did it at the last ceremony when they were able to be near one another.

Neytiri is the first to react. She leans down and presses her lips to Neteyam’s forehead. Choosing to focus instead on bringing their son back to them and not on the apparent bond forming between the two boys.

Lo’ak on the other hand, can’t help but stare at the two. He and Aonung have made peace ever since the akula incident, but he doesn’t know how he feels about this development. Roxto rests a hand on his shoulder. Make the bond.

Breaking from his thoughts, he goes to do as asked but finds himself stopped by Tonowari. Here, he points to a spot over Neteyam’s shoulder. Right over where the bullet hole is covered by the glowing seagrass.

If they weren’t in the water, the tears that fight to stream down his cheeks would be visible. Slowly he takes his place. Lo’ak stares at his brother’s face. He looks almost peaceful. So much different from when they’d pulled him from the water only an hour ago.

Will Eywa really heal him? Will She really give Lo’ak his brother back? He looks at his parents, both clutching at one another and Neteyam where they can. Eywa isn’t a cruel being. This planet is Her creation, they are Her creations. She can’t just want them to die so violently. Right?

With that hope in mind, he lays his Kuru in the seagrass and closes his eyes.

As he’s pulled through the whirlpool and swirling memories of everyone from the Metkayina clan, a memory comes to him. He doesn’t know where from, but suddenly this is all he can think of.

They’re not that far apart in age, he and Neteyam. When they were little, they did everything together. Lo’ak has always been the rowdier one, he liked making sure people knew he was there because he wanted to be part of everything. Neteyam is not like that. He likes sitting quietly and working on something with his hands. The very necklace he wears now is one he made before they left home.

It's one of the few times they’re sitting quietly with the other kids in their tribe. Each of them was working in silence on whatever task they’ve got in hand. Lo’ak is working on sharpening some of his arrows while Neteyam is working on some medicines for their grandmother. He’s been working more and more with Mo’at over the last few months. 

Lo’ak didn’t understand why his brother suddenly began working more with their grandmother than with their father. All of them had lessons with her, of course, basic medicines and healing have been something they’ve all taken time to learn as well as their spiritual lessons but this is more. Neteyam has seemed to spend most of his time learning about the plants than hunting recently.

Another boy, one older than both Lo’ak and Neteyam, barrels into the quiet little cluster of Na’vi brandishing his kill from whatever hunt he’d just been on. “Check it out! I got the biggest kill while all of you were here doing boring chores!” He holds up his kill, brandishing it like some sort of trophy.

It’s a big kill. Not the largest they’ve ever had in the clan but still pretty big for someone their age. Lo’ak doubts it’s the biggest of the hunt. It’s the new season, and many of the herds migrate at this time of year. It's the perfect time for hunting. The large kills probably came from another hunting party.

Lo’ak ignores him the best he can with the guy waving the bleeding animal corpse around, but it becomes impossible when he sprays blood all over the younger Na’vi. “Hey!” He jumps up, his arrows falling to the ground. “Watch where you’re waving that thing!”

“Oh what? Can’t take a little blood?” the other says. He wiggles the carcass in Lo’ak’s face. “Oh great offspring of Toruk Makto, is that why you didn’t go on the hunt today? Didn’t wanna get a little blood on you?” 

He’s not sure what came over him that day, maybe it was a combination of the blood being sprayed everywhere and his smugness, but suddenly Lo’ak finds himself pushing into the other’s face. “I did not go because assistance was requested here.”

“That is an excuse and you—”

Lo’ak tackles him. The scuffle doesn’t last long, the two only get to roll around on the dirt for a few seconds before Neteyam is pulling them apart. “Enough! Both of you need to relax!”

And he tries to relax, really he does, because he’s not an idiot and he knows he escalated the situation for no reason. Then that skxawng throws a punch and manages to clip Neteyam’s chin knocking him back to trip over the edge of the arrow sheath Lo’ak had been working on. The older Sully boy stumbles to the ground, his calf hitting the edge of the firepit, the still burning embers. He shouts, immediately pulling his leg from the flames.

Lo’ak jumps at the other Na’vi again because how dare he cause Neteyam to get hurt!

The memory bobs and weaves around him, emotions swirling around him to the point that Lo’ak can’t tell if this is his memory or his brothers. More instances from their childhood show up, each one of him leading his brother into some ridiculous hair-brain adventure. Usually, something where one of them got in trouble.

Neteyam always took the brunt of whatever the outcome was. Usually the scolding they’d get from their parents. How could Lo’ak never seem to get that through his head? His brother is a very good warrior, but he is not one to go looking for fights. He is one who prefers quiet and working with their grandmother.

Oh Eywa, please just let Lo’ak make it right. He never should have put his big brother in these positions, to begin with.

The memories end, and instead, he finds himself on the edge of a cliff face. He knows this ridge, it’s not far from where the ikran’s make their nests. It’d been Neteyam’s favorite place back home. During the rare times, his brother got free time and wasn’t with him doing something stupid. Or, well, trying to keep Lo’ak from doing something stupid.

He doesn’t understand why he’s here until he spots them. A little ways away from his brother’s favorite tree is Neteyam and Aonung. Aonung has one of Neteyam’s hands in his own and the other resting on his lower back taking most of the Omatikayan’s weight for him. Lo’ak’s eyes zero in right on the bullet hole in his brother’s chest, still there even here with Eywa.

Hesitantly, Lo’ak takes a slow step from the tree line, then another and another. “Teyam?” he whispers, his ears flattening slightly as he looks at the two before him. This is his fault, Neteyam has to be so mad at him.

Where he expects anger, he receives warmth. Neteyam tries to take a step toward him but ends up stumbling instead. Aonung catches him and Lo’ak rushes the last few steps to help steady his brother. He doesn’t know what to do or say so instead he just throws his arms around Neteyam and lets his tears fall. “You have to come back. You have to. Mom and Dad need you. Kiri and Tuk are a mess, they miss you so much. I…” he chokes back the tears suddenly clogging his throat. “Please come back. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I got you hurt.”

Because it is his fault. He got his brother hurt, dead if it weren’t for Aonung showing up. He’ll never forgive himself for how reckless and stupid he’s been. 

“I would do it again,” Neteyam whispers, his weak arms coming to wrap around his little brother. “A thousand times over.”

Tears burn in his eyes again. “But—”

“Payakan is your spirit brother. If we had left him he would have died, that would have been unacceptable.” With each word he speaks, Neteyam’s arms feel sturdier around him. Strength seemingly returns to his very core as the truth of those words comes to him. “This wasn’t like back home, you were trying to do the right thing, not throw yourself into the thick of danger for the hell of it.”

Lo’ak’s ears twitch and he looks down. He doesn’t know how to respond to that. He doesn’t regret helping Payakan. That is something he knows with certainty.

“The tulkun have been part of our clans for many generations,” Aonung says, finally interjecting between the two brothers. “I would have done the same, had it been my spirit brother out there.”

Before more can be said, a silvery-blue hue seems to wrap around them all, and Ronal, Kiri, and Tsireya’s voices reach them. Their words are indistinguishable, but there’s something comforting about them. Neteyam closes his eyes, his body swaying slowly between Lo’ak and Aonung. Both take hold of his arms to steady him but Neteyam is shaking so much that remaining upright on his own is far too difficult. A shaky hand goes to his chest, right where the hole gapes opens below their mother’s shaw.

The tears come back, burning his eyes as he watches his brother struggle. “Please, Neteyam, please, you have to come back.”

Aonung throws an arm around Neteyam’s waist, doing his best to support the slender Na’vi as best he can. “Come on, Forest Boy, I swore I’d help you. Don’t make me a liar.”

“It hurts so much.” Neteyam sniffles. “I don’t know what I’ll be able to do.”

And Lo’ak knows what he’s talking about. There have been Na’vi from their home who have been permanently injured by these injuries. Most of them have adapted well and relearned to do whatever it was their injury that prevented them from doing. The only ones who don’t are the few who had their kurus severed, a cruel injury that none have been able to recover from.

“We’ll help you,” Lo’ak says. “All of us. You’re always looking out for us, it’s about time we do the same for you.”

The voices of their sisters and the tsahík become louder, the words still unidentifiable.

Lo’ak gently tugs on his brother’s arm, the one he didn’t realize he’s still holding. “Come back with us.”

Slowly, Neteyam takes a step to follow his brother. Aonung continues to support the Omatikayan’s weight, refusing to let him fall even if they’re with Eywa. Their Great Mother guides them through the passage of memories.

Each time Neteyam stumbles, Lo’ak and Aonung are there to catch him. They have to stop frequently for him to breathe, to cling to the two as the pain becomes nearly too much. The closer they get to what they know to be the conscious world, the harder it seems to convince Neteyam to keep going. His face becomes paler and paler and the shaking is worse. Sweat drips down his face and his legs can barely keep him up. A few times he tries to tug back, where the pain is less, where it melts away and peace flows freely.

Neytiri’s shaw wraps around Neteyam like a shield, the two ends held tight over the ever-present hole in the boy’s torso. It bleeds steadily, even in this spirit world, soaking the pretty woven material. “I can’t,” he whispers. His legs seem to give out then and he sinks down, Aonung catching him before he hurts himself. “Please, it hurts, I can’t.”

Lo’ak brushes his tears away, he hadn’t been able to stop them as he watched his brother struggle. “You can do it, bro, we’re almost there.”

Aonung brushes the braids that cling to Neteyam’s forehead out of his face. “You’re so close. Your parents and sisters are waiting.”

As if summoned by those words, the voices of their parents become a low hum around them. Both of them pray to Eywa for her to be merciful and to show Neteyam the way back. Their father asks for Tsu’tey and Tom to lend their nephew the strength to come back to them while their mother asks for Sylwanin and Eytukan to give him the love of the people to encourage him.

Kiri’s voice becomes louder among Tsireya and Ronal. Begging and pleading, not just for Eywa’s help and guidance but for Neteyam to keep going, to keep fighting, the tears in her voice obvious to those all around.

Distantly, even Tuk’s voice drifts through the spirit realm to them. Her voice is not quite as loud as her parents' and sister's as she is not with them underwater, but it is still strong.

Neteyam closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, a pained grimace curving his features, before forcing himself up. Aonung helps him, all but carrying the darker-skinned Na’vi now, while Lo’ak keeps both of Neteyam’s hands in his.

They continue on, the voices of their family spurring them on further. Where they had previously been walking on their own, figures form as if guiding them home. They feel familiar to the Sully boys though they had not met them before.

One appears behind the boys, helping Aonung support Neteyam’s weight. The woman walks on the other side, laying a four-fingered hand over the bullet hole in his chest and the other rests on the opening at his back. Another man, a human man, walks beside Lo’ak. He lays one hand on the younger Sully’s arm.

The final figure, this one older than the rest, walks ahead of them, his head held high and an air of finality to him. The walk is easier. Neteyam’s labored breathing is not quite so worrying now.

None of them are sure when they cross the threshold, but suddenly everything is a whirlwind of color and sound. Lo’ak and Aonung grab hold of Neteyam as the force of it all threatens to throw them apart. It goes on and on for minutes, maybe hours, they’re not sure, but when they’re next aware it’s to the calm waters of the spirit tree.

Lo’ak’s vision swims for a moment before he’s looking down at his brother.

Neteyam’s body is still covered in the golden seagrass, the tendrils wrapped securely around him in a hug. Across from him, Aonung blinks to awareness and they both stare at one another. What they just experienced had not seemed real. Spirits from another clan, one not even of this world, to have crossed so far to reach them and guide them. Even their stories don’t say anything about something like this happening.

A sound from Neytiri draws both their attention and they see her leaning over Neteyam pressing kisses to his cheeks. His eyes are open, blinking sluggishly and filled with so much pain.

It all happens so fast then.

Tonowari appears with another txampaysye and something for them to carefully shift the injured boy onto. Ronal will not allow them to move Neteyam until she’s secured the bullet hole properly. The seagrass has slowed the bleeding, but not stopped it. As soon as they leave the tree’s safe embrace, the danger for Neteyam will begin anew.

It will be up to the tsahík to keep him alive. Roxto keeps a steady hand on Kiri as she sits there, almost as pale as Neteyam, while Tsireya does the same for Lo’ak. Now it’s up to their parents to do the rest.

Hurry, Ronal signs. She kicks off with Tonowari and Aonung, pushing the little boat thing with Neteyam resting on top. Neytiri and Jake are quick to follow, and though they are not as fast as the other three both manage to remain close to the three Metkayinans.

Tsireya has to help Lo’ak, he’s so tired from the fight, and the absolute emotional wrack from everything that’s happening to his brother. Her gentle fingers wrap around his waist and she pulls him from the tree, Rotxo helping Kiri a little further ahead of them.

He’s so tired he doesn’t notice them getting back to Payakan or returning to the village. He only starts paying attention when Tsireya is sitting in front of him using medicine from her mother to dab at his wounds.

Blinking to awareness, he realizes they’re back in the Olo’eyktan’s marui. His sisters are huddled together with Spider and Roxto off to the side. Tonowari has Jake just outside, clearly trying to comfort the man as his emotions finally begin to break through his resolve.

Aonung is with Ronal in the furthest part of the marui helping his mother as best he can. Neytiri sits there too, Neteyam’s head in her lap as she whispers words of prey. “I need to help them,” Lo’ak says.

He makes to get up, but Tsireya pushes him back down. “No, sit. My mother will care for him now. You have expended much energy tonight bringing him back from the brink of death.”

He frowns. “So did Aonung.”

“He is to be Olo’eyktan, and he is older. He has been training for such energy to be driven from him. It is not just the tsahík who are vessels for Eywa.” She spreads more of the poultice against a cut on his neck. “You must rest.”

Tsireya looks over her shoulder. “Eywa would not keep his heart beating so long to take him away. I have faith in Eywa.”

From the opening at the very top of the marui, something very small with the softest glow flutters in. Its presence draws all of their attention. Tuk’s soft crying turns even quieter sniffles and Ronal’s firm directions to her son stop. Neytiri’s tear-filled eyes lift up and a soft gap leaves her lips. “M-ma’Jake…”

Jake and Tonowari come back inside and they catch sight of what’s happening.

A woodsprite, not one like those found in the Metkayinan clan, but from the forest flutters freely through the room. No one moves, no one breathes, too afraid to somehow make it disappear. It twirls around the marui, circling the room before fluttering it’s way to Aonung.

The ends of the sprite brush the future Olo’eyktan’s chest once, twice, three times, before it finishes its journey by landing on Neteyam’s forehead.

Chapter Text

Ronal works all night.

Tonowari, and even Neytiri, try to get her to rest but she refuses after the sign from Eywa appeared to them. “He will live,” she snaps. “I will ensure it.” Neytiri stays awake with her, offering what aid she can, as she’d been training to be a tsahík before being forced from their home.

By mid-morning, they’d cleaned the wound and managed to close the injury on both sides of Neteyam’s torso with great difficulty. Without Eywa intervening at the tree, it may have never worked. Now, the oldest Sully boy sleeps deeply in the Olo’eyktan’s marui. His face is completely slack with sleep, and no signs of pain are evident on his features.

Tonowari and Jake very carefully lift Neteyam from the blood-covered mat and lay him on a clean one. The two Metkayinan leaders do not expect the Sully family to leave, especially since Ronal will not allow Neteyam to be far from her watchful eye for the first few days of his recovery. Instead, Tsireya, Aonung, and Kiri collect extra mats and other supplies for the family to sleep on and settle around the room.

Neytiri and Jake claim spots on either side of their eldest son, both resting a hand on him in some way to sense if there is a change in his breathing in the middle of the night. The two parents both have tears rapidly rolling down their cheeks, relief, and fear at what they’d almost lost coming together in a confusing muddle of emotions. Neytiri presses soft kisses to her son’s temple just as she’d done when he’d been small.

Lo’ak, despite his want to stay awake, had fallen asleep not long after the woodsprite appeared. Aonung and Roxto carefully moved him to one of the extra mats and Tsireya laid a sleeping Tuk next to him. Kiri sets her up near her siblings, pulling a reluctant Spider along with her. The human has been unnaturally quiet the entire time he’s been with them. Mainly helping to keep Tuk distracted when needed. Rotxo, Tsireya, and Aonung take their usual mats, although they move them closer to the Sully kids.

As their guests settle down to rest, Tonowari meets with a few of his warriors in the village. Their dead have been gathered and the injured tended to by the other healers in their village. The worst injury, by far, is the one Neteyam has suffered. For now, it seems the Sky People and their Demon Ship are gone. Payakan still circles their village and they are not sure what to do. “Leave him,” Tonowari says, “our children are alive because of him. Let him find peace here for now.”

With the decision made, the village will begin its healing. More decisions will be made but for now, a patrol will be set up by their least injured warriors. Although, with Payakan circling their borders, they probably will not have much to worry about.

As if Eywa herself decree’s it, the entire village sleeps well into the next morning. Except for Ronal, who wakes every few hours thanks to the baby in her belly and her duty to check Neteyam’s injuries.

When the rest of the village does awaken, they set to work putting their lives back into order. Surprisingly, not many of their people had been lost but those they did, are felt throughout the community.

Aonung, as the next Olo’eyktan, takes the responsibility of helping the grieving families prepare their loved ones to be taken to Ewya. It is not a task anyone wants, but one he wants even less so with Neteyam still unconscious in the marui.

“You must do this,” Tonowari says, a hand on his shoulder, “our people need to know our future leader understands their pain.”

So Aonung does not argue, because he does understand. These are his people, as much as he’s always wanted the approval of his parents, he needs the approval of his clan if he’s going to be leading them one day. The battle had changed things for him, not only what he saw with Neteyam but with everything. There are responsibilities that he has to uphold.

Besides, everyone who died, Aonung knew and the village will not be the same without their faces. So he takes one last look at Neteyam’s unconscious face before exiting the marui.

“How long until Neteyam wakes up?” Kiri asks after Aonung has left. She’s sitting on one side with Tuk in her lap, the younger girl holding one of Neteyam’s hands in her two smaller ones.

Ronal very carefully pours a thick liquid into the boy’s throat, using her fingers to gently massage his neck to get him to swallow it down. “Only he can answer that. It will take time for his body to heal, the pain will be great.” She puts the bowl aside. “There will be much he cannot do for a long time. We—”

She’s cut off by a very loud and insistent screech. Ronal stands quickly, as does Tsireya, but the Omatikayan all recognize the sound. From the little window right over where they have Neteyam resting, an Ikran poke’s its head inside. It eyes Ronal and Tisreya wearily, before seeming to recognize Neytiri, Kiri, Tuk, and even Spider, then her eyes land on the unconscious Na’vi below them. She screeches again, this one lower and more mournful, and leans down to press her snout against Neteyam’s head.

Neytiri approaches the creature, placing a comforting hand on her head. “Oh, sweet girl, I know you are sad.” The ikran chirps mournfully and again nuzzles Neteyam’s unconscious form. “He will wake soon, Naira, shh.”

“What is she doing here?” Tsireya asks. “I thought ikrans only come when called.”

Kiri shakes her head. “Our ikrans and we are connected even when we do not have the tsaheylu. She probably felt him ebbing away and has been circling all night.”

Ronal huffs and goes back to work, carefully peeling away the bandages to replace them with new ones. “She will not be able to remain there. She will make the clan nervous.”

“Oh please, can’t she stay?” Tuk asks. “She really is sweet.”

Someone from outside must get too close because she growls and turns to snap her sharp teeth at them. The person shouts before backing away and Naira brings her head back into the little window to look down at her rider.

“We’ll watch her,” Kiri quickly adds when Ronal gives them a look, “keep her fed and out of the way, we promise. Neteyam has missed her so much since we have been here.”

Tsireya looks at her mother. “It…may help. Just as our bonds with our tulkun help us when we are injured.”

Ronal purses her lips and then turns to the two Sully girls. “You will not allow her to eat the fish and meats not meant for her, understood?”

They nod. “Yes, tsahík!”

Jake enters the maru then, carrying with him a bundle of herbs and plants from one of the women in the village Ronal sent him and Roxto for. “Roxto is staying with her to help with the ilu pen. Her mate is one of those who passed.”

Ronal pauses in her work, and for a moment a sorrowful look crosses her features before she smooths it away. She will have to remember to visit later. “Thank you.”

Jake goes to his son and settles on an empty spot near his head. He smiles when he sees Naira, not at all surprised the ikran made her way here. Of all of them, Neteyam and Neytiri have always had the deepest bonds with their ikrans. “I’ve contacted Norm, he’s going to bring us some supplies to help us find anything dangerous the Sky People may have left in the area. For now, Tonowari is telling everyone to keep their distance from the debris and to send for me to examine it.”

Ronal did not like these people when they arrived. Not because of what they are—although that is how it seemed when she poked and prodded at them—but because of what they brought. Had they come for any other reason her reaction may have been different. Her fears ended up coming true, of course, but she is unsure what to do with that.

It is because of them that her spirit sister is dead, it is because of them that members of her clan are dead, and it is because of them the Sky People know where their clan is. They could back. She knows they will come back.

Despite all of this, she cannot find it in her to blame this family for what has been wrought on them.

Her eyes drift to the boy by Kiri with the strange mask on his face. There are bruises all along his skin. Small, five-fingered hand-shaped bruises as well as larger ones and a long cut on his chest. Him, she is not so sure about. The stitching in the boy’s chest looks like Neytiri’s work and the slight grogginess she’d seen in features earlier tells the tsahík the other woman had taken something from her stores to help the boy.

Ronal purses her lips at the thought but doesn’t say anything, for now. Neytiri is not fond of Sky People, she watched how viciously the woman attacked the invaders only a few days ago. If she, of all people, is caring for this monkey then there is a reason.

She turns to Kiri, Tuk, and Tsireya. “Out, tend to the ikran until I allow you to return.” The three scatter, taking the monkey with them. She waits a few moments until the Ikran is not leaning through the window before returning to work.

“Lift him,” she says to Jake, very carefully kneeling with Neytiri’s help. “Carefully, I need to see his back.”

Jake follows her instructions, placing one hand at the small of Neteyam’s back and the over on the opposite side of the wound. The entire expanse of the boy’s back and chest are covered in bruises from the forces of the bullet tearing through flesh, bone, and muscle tissue. Eywa may have saved Neteyam, but that does not mean She will make his path to recovery easy.

Neytiri bites her lip and blinks away tears as the old bloody bandage is removed, the material peeling away from his skin slowly and what looks like painfully. Mutters a curse under his breath as he watches it be tossed aside. “You must not act this way when he is awake for this,” Ronal snaps at her, her previous chilly exterior returning. “He will be in pain. He will scream, he will cry, he may even beg to return to Eywa. Through it, he will need you to be strong. Do not show your horror at his injuries, his pain. If you cannot handle it, I will not allow you to do this. Tonowari has aided me before, he will do it again if you cannot.”

“We can do it,” Neytiri says. Her hands shake but her voice is stronger. “I will not leave him.”

“Just show us what to do,” Jake says. His voice is not as strong as his wife’s but there is determination in his eyes.

Ronal will allow them to show their weakness in front of her, but the moment they do so in front of Neteyam she will remove them. It will do the boy more harm than good. It is why she had Tonowari send Aonung to help tend to their clan, he should not have to see this. Call her protective, but she wants to preserve a bit of her cub's innocence.

“Hold him steady, like that, good. Now to secure the bandaging.”

Neytiri helps spread the poultice across the stitching with Ronal guiding her hand and together they cover the boy’s back with clean bandages. They repeat the same process on his torso, this time a little easier since Jake doesn’t need to hold the unconscious boy up.

Instead, he holds Neteyam’s hand in his own. His eldest has grown rapidly over the years but he takes more after his mother in his slender lethal form. Lo’ak has already begun to broaden in the shoulders filling out more and more like Jake each day. The difference in his sons seems to become more and more apparent the longer he thinks about it. “We almost lost him.”

“But you did not,” Ronal says. “Do not think about what could have been, because it did not happen. Be grateful to Eywa that you have a chance to be with your cub again.” She puts her supplies aside for when they will be needed later, once again accepting Neytiri’s help with standing.

“You will deliver soon,” the Omatikayan woman says.

Metkayinan woman scoffs. “Ah, this cub will wait for when I am ready.”

Neytiri smiles slightly and looks at Jake, an amused look on both their faces at the tsahík’s words. She’d been similar with all three of her pregnancies back home. She’d hunted and helped Jake lead their clan all the way up until the moment she was in her mother’s hut pushing their cubs out to greet the world. The most difficult birth had been Neteyam’s merely because there’d been a small encampment of Sky People that had, somehow, remained undetected in their lands. They’d attacked their clan when Neytiri went into labor and, despite this, the woman still fought to help protect her people, her family.

If Mo’at and another warrior had not physically dragged her away, Neteyam would have been born on the battlefield. Most cubs are born screaming and crying as they’re taken from the warmth of their mother. Neteyam did not cry. The small newborn cub merely blinked at his grandmother as she quickly wiped away the blood and afterbirth before placing him in Neytiri’s waiting arms.

When Jake had come bursting in, dirty and blood covered from battle, he’d stared at his mate and child with so much awe one would have thought Eywa herself appeared before him. No lives were lost that day, not counting the rogue Sky People who attacked them.

Jake gently strokes a few strands of hair from Neteyam’s face. Their son will be sixteen years old. In three months his birthday will come and back home it would have meant a great feast, and his coming-of-age rite of passage. A hunt, with nothing more than his bow and no other hunters with him or his ikran. In their forest, where the plants and wild animals run amuck. It's dangerous for any Na’vi to be out alone that deep in the forest but for a cub, even more so. Coming back alive with a good kill is a celebration that every young Omatikayan looks forward to.

It’d also been when he and Neytiri planned to officially introduce Neteyam as the tsahík who would take over after Neytiri. It was a surprise to Jake when their son had come to them, head bowed and his hands shaking, telling them his choice. He’d been so sure his son would want to be Olo’eyktan after Jake was ready to step down.  It took some getting used to, but in the end, he’d been proud of his son for choosing the path he wanted to follow. Mo’at immediately began his training alongside her daughter, while Jake and Neytiri left the decision to tell his siblings sooner up to their son.

Then the Sky People came back, and they needed to leave their home behind.

Neteyam hasn’t said a word about it, but he and Neytiri know that it’s been bothering him that he won’t get to participate in something so special. Before the attack, he and Neytiri had been trying to come up with something they could do for him but now, with this injury, he won’t get to spend his birthday doing anything other than recovering.

Jake pushes that away. None of that matters right now. All that matters is that they help their son heal and get back on his feet.

Their quiet musings are interrupted by Tuk poking her head inside the marui. “Mom?”

Neytiri looks away from her son’s face. “Yes?”

The little girl looks at Ronal who nods and she very slowly trails inside. “Spider’s upset, but he said he’ll only talk to you.”

Neytiri looks at Jake. She’s never been fond of Spider, though, after the fight on the Demon Ship, she’d come to a startling realization.

Spider is only a child. Left here with nowhere to go and no one to care for him but the people at High Camp and their family. She’d been cruel to treat him with cold-heartedness and cutting him last night had been a mistake. Like Jake, he has no control over where or to what species he was born nor can he control who his parents are.

Slowly, she pulls herself away from her son’s side. “Would you keep Dad and Neteyam company for me?”

Tuk smiles and immediately runs over to Jake, letting her father pull her into his lap. “Remember, we have to be gentle now,” he says. Neytiri lets their quiet chatter follow her from the marui as she goes looking for the boy.

She finds Spider sitting at the edge of one of the docs with his feet dangling over the edge. The mid-afternoon sunlight reflects off his pale skin and messy hair. The locs he’s so painstakingly tried to mimic have become more of a tangled mess during his time with Quaritch and his soldiers. Perhaps Neytiri can find some proper oils and help him fix it later.

Slowly she approaches, scoffing her heels along the wood to alert him to her approach. The tightening in his shoulders tells her enough and she tries not to react as she sits on the dock next to him. The bruising on his skin seems to have darkened more.

Neytiri suddenly wants to hiss at how they could have gotten there. When she last saw him, they had not been there.

Both are quiet as they sit there watching the water. Neytiri waits patiently for Spider to find his words, her ears twitching as she listens to the slight whir from the mask on his face.

Then he crumples in on himself, arms wrapping around his stomach and sobs shaking through his small body. “I’m sorry!”

Neytiri does the first thing she can think of. She wraps her arms around him and pulls him into her lap like he were one of her own cubs. “Shhh, it is alright. You are safe now. I am sorry I harmed you.”

“But I deserve worse!” His hands both push at her and try to grab on at the same time. The need for comfort from someone and the guilt he’s carrying making him push it all away. “I don’t!”

“Aye! Yes, you do, you have done nothing—”

“I saved him! I saved Quaritch.”

Chapter Text

Neteyam dreams of a warrior named Tsu’tey.

During the first battle against the Sky People, he fought bravely at the side of Taruk Makto. His ikran is the largest of the clan the two perished together fighting to protect the people they loved so much.

Neteyam has met this warrior before. Tsu’tey greeted the young Na’vi during his first connection to the spirit tree back home. As the last Olo’eyktan, it was his duty to bless the new one’s children during their first connection with their ancestors. Had Neteyam died, Tsu’tey would have been there to welcome the boy to Eywa.

Now, Tsu’tey flies with Neteyam on the back of his ikran, Mato. Joy at being in the air swells deep in the pit of Neteyam’s stomach and he can’t stop laughing as they swoop and twirl through the skies. He’s missed flying, swimming has been great and he loves the ilu he’s bonded with, but nothing beats being in the air.

“Hold tight!” Tsu’tey yells.

Neteyam does as he says and the warrior gives a great call as they twirl even faster, bursting through the clouds until they reach the highest peak of the mountains. Mato screeches loudly and another ikran appears at his side, this one smaller in size but no less great.

They swoop lower, the ikrans circling each other before they finally come to land at the cliff face. The same one Neteyam always went to back home. 

Tsu’tey dismounts first and, although Neteyam doesn’t need it, he helps the younger one done as well. The other ikran had landed with them, and he couldn’t help but be drawn to her. He approaches slowly, but she takes one look at him and chips happily, as if she knows him, and tilts her head down.

Reassured, Neteyam grins and runs his hand along her head. “Hi, girl.” She reminds him of Naira, her colors are similar but the pattern of her scales is a bit different.

“That is Seze,” Tsu’tey says. “She was your mother's first ikran.”

His eyes widen. He’s heard stories of Seze, his mother told all of them about her as they grew up. It’s one of the reasons he’d pushed so hard to make his bond with Naira. “She’s beautiful.”

Tsu’tey appears next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “You ride her hatchling.”

Neteyam looks up at the tall warrior. “Naira?”

He smiles and brings his own hand up to scratch her head. “Bonds between ikrans and riders are great. Sometimes they even pass down generations.”

“I always wondered why Mom cried when she saw Naira for the first time,” he whispers. Seze leans forward and nuzzles her snout against his cheeks and he laughs.

Tsu’tey hums and pats the boy’s shoulder. “Come, we have much to show you before you awaken to your family.”

With one last pat to the ikran’s scale, Neteyam follows after the other. Instead of taking the path that would lead to the trail down the cliffs, they head into the forest. He knows every inch of this forest and this cliff, the path they’re taking isn’t there. At least, not in the waking world. The dirt trail they’re on winds and twists through the woods until they finally make it to a river.

The very river his dad taught him to fish in. The one that gets deeper up the bend near the top of the mountain. It’s where he first learned to swim. There, at around one more bend where the river narrows to a thin stream, is a very pretty Na’vi woman standing in the water with a human man. The human wears no oxygen mask and he’s dressed in similar clothing to what Norm and Max wear in their labs.

The woman resembles his mother a great deal, though her features are more angular whereas Neytiri’s are rounder. The man looks exactly like his father. Neteyam’s seen the video diaries and pictures of his father before he’d fully become Na’vi. These two are the same.

“Ah! Skxawng, do not touch that!” The woman slaps the human’s forehead. “Do you wish to die?”

“But we’re already dead, Sylwanin,” the man says. “It won’t do anything to me.”

“Just because you can does not mean you should.”

Tsu’tey shakes his head at the two. “Yawne you cannot expect Tom to learn as we do.”

Sylwanin turns, her feet splashing water every which way. “Ma’Tsu’tey, do not feed into this one’s habits.”

Tsu’tey laughs. “I have brought you another student.” He gently pushes Neteyam forward.

The teasing smile on her face softens and she approaches the boy. “Oh, you look so much like your mother,” she says. She holds a hand out. “Come, let me see you.”

Neteyam doesn’t hesitate to move forward. He steps over slippery rocks, being mindful that he does not step wrong and go tumbling over. Sylwanin takes his hand and helps steady him as he steps into the river. “You are my mother’s sister,” he says.

She smiles, and her smile reminds him so much of his mother that his heart squeezes in his chest. “I am.” She places both her hands on his cheeks. “Oh you are beautiful, Neytiri has raised a wonderful boy.”

“Good thing too,” Tom says, “Jake would have screwed up being on his own.”

Tsu’tey scoffs and crosses the river drop on the stone next to Tom. “Ah, he would have been fine. He is Taruk Makto.”

“He is an idiot,” Tom counters, flicking a leaf off his knee. “I used to help him with his homework. His math and science scores were abysmal.”

Sylwanin shoots them both a look before turning back to her nephew. “You have grown into such a fine young Na’vi. I wish I could be there to guide you as I should.”

Neteyam rests his own hands on hers. The kindness in her eyes and warmth in her touch makes the want in his heart grow. “When will I go back?”

Her arms pull him close, wrapping him in a tight hug. “Soon, my nephew. You must sleep for now so the tsahìk may work.” Her hand presses to the spot on the back of his torso where the bullet shot through. “It was a grave injury. Trust me, you want to sleep for a little longer.”

But he wants to wake up. The last things he saw of his mother and father were their tear-filled eyes and he needs to wipe that look away. He has to reassure them he’s alright. “But I want to see everyone.”

“I know.” She pulls away but keeps one arm tight around his shoulders. “It will not be much longer. When you wake, you will be in pain, and your recovery slow and frustrating, so take this time of peace to get to know your aunt and uncles, yes?”

He feels his throat closing up but he nods. Memories of the bullet tearing through him are still fresh in his mind and despite everything, he doesn’t want to feel that pain so soon.

Tom stands, remaining on the edge of the land instead of stepping into the river. Since Neteyam is still standing in the water with Sylwanin it puts Tom at the same height as his nephew. “Each of us has felt the same pain you did, Neteyam. I was shot on Earth. I died with no one there to help me, my brother had to identify my body to the police.” He tilts his head to Tsu’tey. “He was shot fighting the Sky People before he fell from their aircraft.”

“And I was shot at Dr. Augustine’s school,” Sylwanin says. “We are so incredibly grateful Eywa has given us the chance to protect your spirit while the tsahìk heals your body.”

Neteyam sniffles, the tears suddenly coming unstoppable. “I…it wasn’t that bad. I did it to save my brothers.”

Suddenly he finds himself spun to face another man. He’s older than the other three, his dark blue skin wrinkled similarly to his grandmother’s and there’s a stern frown on his face. “Do not lie, Grandson,” Eytukan says. “You fought bravely, you saved your brothers. You brought honor to yourself in doing so, but you are still a cub.” His hands are firm where they hold Neteyam’s arms. “Ah, you should not have felt that pain, the one who did it will suffer.”

His eyes widen. “H-He’s still out there?”

Tsu’tey hisses. “The demon will suffer greatly for what he’s done.”

Fear suddenly coils deep in Neteyam’s gut and his ears lay back against his head, tail suddenly curling close like a newborn. “I…he-he had my sisters I-I–”

“They are safe,” Eytukan assures. He brushes his fingers against Neteyam’s cheeks. “Taruk Makto and my daughter saw to that. Your family is safe, but yes, the demon is still walking among the living.”

The tears he’d been trying to stop suddenly fall then. What is going to happen when he wakes? He doesn’t want to have to run again, he likes their new home as much as he loves the forest, but he doesn’t ever want to face that man again. His hand finds its way to his chest where the bullet pierced him. All he can think about is the same thing happening to his family and he doesn’t want that to happen. What is he supposed to do?

Eytukan pulls him into a warm embrace. “Calm, Grandson, you do not need to concern yourself with such worries.”

“But–”

“My brother’s already got it handled,” Tom says, “Jake’s not going to let something happen.”

Eytukan grunts, gently squeezing the boy in his arms reassuringly. “Come, my daughter has much to teach you before you wake.”

He tries to pull himself together and he finds it easier with his grandfather, uncles, and aunt all there with him. Their mere presence seems to chase away his fears and doubts. Much like his parents do when he’s looking for them. “Teach me what?”

“About being tsahìk,” Sylwanin says. “There is much to teach you still. The Metkayinan tsahìk will teach you when you are ready, but there is much of the forest that is different from the sea.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your path has become intertwined with the Metkayinan’s future Olo’eyktan,” Tsu’tey says. “You have much to prepare for. Best get started now.”

“Come, I will not bop your head as I do Tom,” Sylwanin says.

Tom crosses his arms. “Oh sure, play favorites.”

She hisses. “He is my nephew. Of course, he’s my favorite.”

~*~*~*~

The words are clearly spoken, tears filling the boy’s voice.

Neytiri feels a sudden cold envelope her being. The image of her son, bloody and barely bleeding on the reef flashes in her mind. The beast almost killed her cub. Her sweet Neteyam, who never once fought any change that came his way. Neteyam, who preferred helping his sisters make their bracelets and necklaces to hunting with his brother.

Images of her children on that Demon Ship trapped with weapons to their heads flash in her mind. Little Tuk huddled close to Kiri as they set there under the knives of those false Na’vi, Kiri snapping and snarling at the ones who come too close, and Lo’ak…her brave reckless Lo’ak with a gun pressed to the back of his head.

Quaritch, who tried so hard to snuff out the light that is her children, still lives. Her heart aches at the thought of what that means, the peace that had just been within reach, suddenly seems so far away. Her eldest still lays unconscious in the marui barely a few feet away.

Neytiri looks down at Spider, human has his eyes squeezed closed and his neck bared in submission. There’s a ring of bruises around his pale neck like someone had grabbed him by the throat. The size of them is too small to be from a Na’vi so it couldn’t have been one of the demons who did that. Her fingers gently graze the marks, her heart beating frantically in her chest.

She understands now, why he wanted to speak to her and not Jake. Jake, her sweet mate, would be comforting and kind and that is not what Spider seems to believe he deserves. The boy flinches when touches the bruising Neytiri hisses at the pain.

How could someone do this to a cub? One of their own kind, no less. But then, she remembers how Jake had been treated all his life, especially after his injury. Kindness, it seems, does not go very far for many of the Sky People.

Very gently, she turns the boy’s face to hers. She wishes she could remove the mask and brush away his tears. “Tell me why.”

Spider’s eyes open, wide and confused. “I…he…”

Wrapping one arm around his back, she shifts Spider so he’s leaning against her. “Tell me why saved him.”

He’s quiet for a long time before his body seems to give out in the Na’vi’s arms. “Everyone was…harsh. That woman put me in a machine, it-it hurt so bad.” He sobs and his hands tighten on her arms. “Ot-others would push me around, smack me, they were horrible. Quaritch stopped it. He-he didn’t let them hurt me or put me in that machine. Wh-when I saw him in the ocean, I…I should have left him but I couldn’t do it. Something wouldn’t let me.”

Neytiri breathes deeply, the words flying around in his head and swirling with every emotion she has in her body. “I am angry. You should not have saved him.”

Spider tenses, his head dipping low and his arms coming to wrap around himself.

“But you felt a debt to him for helping you, and you repaid it in the only way you could.” Once again she tilts his head back. “You are a cub, he was your father.”

Spider shakes his head, messy locs flying every which way. “No! H-he’s not! He didn’t raise me! You and Jake, and everyone at High Camp did.” He rubs his hands against his knees. “I grew up in the forest, I-I learned to walk in the lab, I explored the forest with Lo’ak, I-I…I’m not one of them.”

She hums. “Yes, and we love you so.” She looks out over the horizon. “But that does not change who brought you into this world. You did not choose it, it is what was given to you. I have treated you as an outsider from the time you were just a small babe, perhaps if I did not I could have prevented you from being taken in the first place.”

“What? But–”

“Ah, do not argue.” She gently bats him on the head. “Many decisions lead us here. Eywa wills much, She has seen to saving Neteyam. It is by Her will you are here now.” Perhaps if Neteyam had died she would be having a very different conversation. “Come now, we must speak with Jake. Then, we shall decide what to do.”

With a gentleness she has not displayed to Spider in his entire life, she very slowly leads him back to the marui. They pass Kiri, who gives her mother a concerned look, but relaxes when she sees how Spider is clinging to Neytiri she relaxes a bit.

When they enter, Ronal is no longer present. Lo’ak has returned on is sitting on the opposite side of Neteyam’s mat, staring at his brother’s face as if he can wake him with the sheer force of his mind. Tuk is still cuddled in Jake’s hold chattering about some of the friends she’s made on this little island.

“Tuk, Lo’ak,” both turn to look at her, “would you go find me some oil and freshwater? Spider’s hair is a mess and needs tending to.”

Lo’ak looks at her with wide eyes. “But–”

Jake sees the look on his mate's face and very gently lifts their daughter from his lap. “Go on, you two. Just give mom and me a few minutes alright?”

The look on Lo’ak’s face says just how much he doesn’t want to do that. “We will come to get you if something changes,” Neytiri says. “I promise.”

Lo’ak takes one more look at his brother’s face before reluctantly getting up. “Just oil and the water?”

Neytiri looks down at the boy's hair. “And some ties, it’s going to take a while to fix this.” The two leave, Tuk skipping along ahead and Lo’ak patting Spider’s shoulder as he passes.

Spider keeps his head down as he’s guided to an empty stop between Jake and Neytiri. It’s quiet for a few minutes while she begins working at picking a few of his locs loose from the mess they’ve become. “Quaritch is alive,” Neytiri finally says.

Jake’s entire body goes still and he instinctively turns to shield Neteyam from danger. A million emotions cross his face, rage, sadness, pain, before settling into a cool mask. “How?” he asks, barely concealed rage burning in his voice.

Spider hunches in on himself, his entire body shaking. Neytiri places a hand on the back of his neck to calm him. “Spider repaid a debt.” Then she calmly explains what Spider had told her, calmly picking at the tangles in the human boy’s hair as she does.

The rage in Jake’s body remains, and his hand tightens around the hilt of the knife he’d been cleaning as he processes the information. The cool rage on his face scares Spider, he’s never seen that look on the Na’vi’s face before. He’s always associated the man before him with safety, despite everything Spider always knows he could go to Jake for something if he needed to. He’s always been the one who understood Spider’s feelings of not belonging in the labs with the other humans.

Now he’s not sure what the look on his face means.

Suddenly, Jake leans forward and lays his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “You are not in trouble. You are our cub, we would not abandon you for this.”

And Spider can’t do anything more than throw himself into Jake’s waiting arms. Jake holds him tight, gently rocking the sobbing boy and trying to calm him.

“We have to tell the kids,” Neytiri says, “and Ronal and Tonowari, they deserve to know.”

Jake nods. “Let’s wait until Norm arrives.” He keeps his arms tight around Spider. He should have gone after him that day. Maybe he could have prevented so much pain if he had. “If Tonowari and Ronal react badly, then at least Norm can protect him at High Camp.”

“I don’t want to be away from you,” Spider cries. He’s been kept away from them for so long he can’t bare the thought of being kept apart for any longer.

“And we do not want to separate you from us,” Neytiri says. “But we are guests of the Metkayinan, they have lost much to help us. If it comes to sending you away, it will not be for long.”

“We’re family, bud, family sticks together.”

Chapter Text

Lo’ak stares at his brother’s unconscious face, rage burning in his gut as he listens to his parents explain what Spider had done.

They’re all here, him, his sisters, Rotxo, Aonung, Tsireya, Ronal, and Tonowari. Spider’s got his head down, shoulders hunched in while Jake keeps a hand on his back. Norm radioed and said he and Max would be arriving in the next hour and Lo’ak knows his parents waited to tell them about this until then. 

Quaritch is still alive. That bastard could come back at any second and he could hurt Neteyam or one of his sisters all over again. Fuck, he’s so angry he could go cross-eyed right now. All that’s playing over and over in his mind is Neteyam bleeding on that reef, hearing the fear in his voice, seeing his eyes close and practically feeling his heart stop.

He can’t do it again. He can’t see his family hurting like that again.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Aonung staring just as intently at Neteyam. Lo’ak wonders if the anger that’s so obvious on the other’s face is just as blatant on his own. “Why are we even discussing this,” Aonung finally snaps. “He allowed the enemy to get away! He should not be allowed to stay here.”

Kiri snaps up, her lips pulled away from her fangs. “Did you hear nothing? The Sky People tortured him! Quaritch used that so he could manipulate Spider.”

“And your brother almost got killed!” Aonung shouts back. He jumps up from where he’d seated himself by Neteyam. “People from my clan are dead because of that demon. They are never coming back. What are we to tell Na’lani? She’s Tuk’s age and both her parents died out there. Our clan will protect and guide her but that does not replace her mother and father!”

Spider drops his head down and his shoulders shake when he hears that. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, “I’m sorry.”

Neytiri pulls the boy closer to her side. “We understand your reservations about keeping him here,” she says, “but he is our cub despite not being blood.”

Ronal, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet during the entire encounter approaches, laying a gentle hand on her son’s shoulder before stopping in front of Taruk Makto. “You were a Sky Person. How did you become Na’vi?”

Jake frowns at the question. “The Sky People created these bodies that were replicas of Na’vi so they could survive on this planet, they’re called Avatars.”

“We called them dream-walkers,” Neytiri says. “It is what our friend Norm is.”

Ronal crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at the Na’vi before her. “Yet you are not like that now?”

He shakes his head. “Ewya granted me a new life as a Na’vi. Omatikaya has been my home since the first battle with Sky People. I have lived and grown to be who I am now. Spider,” he looks at the boy currently trying hide in Neytiri’s arms. “Spider never grew up with the Sky People other than our friends back home. He’s been invited to clan ceremonies, he’s been to the spirit tree, he’s ridden on our ikrans, he’s…he’s Na’vi, just with the body of a human.”

Ronal shoves past him and leans down to examine the human boy. Everyone holds their breath as they watch the scene in front of them. The two stare at one another for a long time, Ronal keeping her intense gaze fixed on the human as though she’s picking apart each mark on his body and what they mean. It’s worse than what she had been examining the Sullys when they first arrived on the island. Her decision will really define the fate of what happens to this boy.

Finally, the tsahík stands, her mask firmly in place. On the wind, they can make out the sound of Norm and Max’s arrival. “He will be judged by Eywa, as you once were,” she concludes. “Bring him to the tree at the eclipse.”

“He cannot survive long underwater,” Kiri says. “He has no kuru, if–”

Ronal places a comforting hand on her shoulder. “He will be judged. This is what must happen if he is to stay among our clan.”

Aonung shoots a withering glance at the human but does not question his mother’s choice. Instead, he chooses to reclaim his spot next to Neteyam.

Lo’ak doesn’t know what to do. Spider is his friend, his brother, there hasn’t been a moment of his life where the other wasn’t there. They’d celebrated birthdays, holidays, everything together. But he saved the man who nearly murdered their entire family. It hurts, it hurts so bad. It felt like his heart was being ripped out. He doesn’t understand how this all happened.

Jake runs a hand over his head. “We understand if you’re not going to him here. If it comes to it, he’ll go back to High Camp with Norm and Max.”

And that hurts more. As angry as he is, he doesn’t want Spider to be away from them. The very thought makes his stomach cramp up. What if something happens? Lo’ak doesn’t want his friend to get hurt.

“More will be discussed after he visits with Eywa,” Tonowari says, speaking for the first time since Jake called them all together to talk. “For now, he is to remain with you or Neytiri at all times. You two will be responsible for him.” When he receives a nod from both of them, his stern features soften. “Come, let us meet your friends. You said they bring supplies, yes?”

Jake nods and lets the Olo’eyktan lead him from the marui. He holds his hand out to Tuk who immediately runs to grab it. Kiri and Ronal follow, and after a minute Neytiri leads Spider out as well. Lo’ak chooses to stay with his brother. He’d been made to leave earlier but he doesn’t plan to again, not until he’s awake. From the look on Aonung’s face, he doesn’t plan to leave either.

“Do you remember what happened when we connected with Eywa?” the Metkayinan asks.

Lo’ak nods, holding his brother’s hand tightly. Occasionally he can hear whispers when no one is there. He’s not sure how he knows but it’s his family, the ones who have joined Eywa. Their constant presence has been one of the few things keeping him together right now.

“Who were all of them? They were all so strong. Their spirits…I’ve never felt anything like that.”

Lo’ak wipes the sudden tears in his eyes away. “My aunt Sylwanin and uncle Tsu’tey and my grandfather. The human…I think that was my uncle Tom.”

Aonung frowns. “You think?”

“He died before my dad came here. I didn’t know they were twins.”

Naira chirps, poking her head through the little window above Aonung’s head. She eyes the Metkayinan with a narrowed-eyed look before huffing and leaning her great head down to sniff at Neteyam’s hair. Kiri took the time earlier to straighten the braids and fix his beads. He looks more and more like he’s just sleeping instead of just being passed out.

“Twins are sacred in our clan,” Aonung says. “It’s said to be a blessing from Eywa.”

“Yeah, our clan believes the same.” He frowns. “I wonder why my dad never told us.”

Aonung doesn’t offer any kind of answer and the two sit in silence. Naira keeps her great head in the room, occasionally chirping at Neteyam as if to get his attention.

“Hey, Lo’ak,” Norm says as he enters the marui with Max. Both of them are carrying with them large boxes of supplies, Jake coming in with another one a few seconds later.

“Hey Uncle Norm,” he says. Shit, he didn’t realize how much he missed his uncles until they were standing in front of him now. A glance at the boxes looks like they’ve brought enough stuff to last a while.

Ronal glides past the two and places herself between them and her patient. “And what exactly do you plan on doing with all of that?”  

Norm puts down his box and Lo’ak can see a few tools from the lab but he’s not sure what they’re for. “I’m sorry, tsahík, I mean no disrespect.” He leans down and pulls a woven pouch from his box. There’s a beautiful pattern beaded pattern that mimics the forest's foliage and little woodsprites.

“That’s Grandma’s bag,” Lo’ak says. He’d recognize it anywhere. Mo’at told all her grandchildren how their grandfather weaved the bag with his mother’s help as a courting gift. It’d become her medicinal pouch when she’d begun her tsahík training.

Norm nods. “Yeah, Mo’at is worried sick. She wanted to come when we told her what happened but there’s a sickness passing through the clan right now and they need her there, and she didn’t want to bring it here.” He holds the pouch out to Ronal. “These are herbs and plants only found in the forest. She said they might help you, not just with Neteyam but with your clan.”

Ronal accepts the pouch and looks at the contents. She gives a nod of approval before closing it again and turning towards her workstation.

“I’ve also brought a few of our own devices to help check on him.” He waves to the box. “It’s nothing major that will harm him. All it will do is let us take a look at what’s happening on the inside of his body. It will help us make sure nothing’s wrong that could hurt him later.”

Ronal shuts her herbal chest with a loud snap and turns to face them again. Mo’at pouch held protectively in her hands.  “Sky People did this to him, and now you wish to use more Sky People things on him?”

Norm scratches the back of his head at the comment. He hadn’t considered they’d be worried about their tools but he shouldn’t be surprised. “Well, these wouldn’t be anything that would cause harm.”

“They’re tools made to help us heal people,” Max adds. He picks up one of the items from the box. It looks like one of the tablets Lo’ak has seen before but it’s bigger, about as wise as Max’s torso. “This here will show us an image of what’s happening inside his body. If there’s anything that was hit that we don’t know about it would show up on this screen.”

Ronal glares at the device like it personally offended her, but Lo’ak thinks he can see a slightly intrigued light shining in her eyes. “This machine will not harm him?”

Norm shakes his head. “No, all it does is give us a picture.”

Jake cautiously steps forward. “They’ve used this on them before when they were little and would get hurt. Mo’at has even sent a few of the clan to them for these pictures to help her.”

The tsahík purses her lips before nodding. “Fine.”

Lo’ak reluctantly moves and lets Norm take his place on Neteyam’s side. Aonung, on the other hand, refuses to move. Max takes the hostility from the Metkayinan in stride and instead shows him how to work the tablet. They hold it still a few inches over Neteyam’s chest and the familiar beeping and whirring sounds from it. It doesn’t take long, maybe only a minute or two, for it to take the pictures but Norm wants to get a few angles. 

The entire thing only takes a few minutes and when he’s done Norm’s face goes from concentrated to concerned to confused. “Max, come look at this.”

Max looks at the images for a few minutes. “That’s not possible.”

“What?” Jake asks. “What is it? Is he ok?”

Norm places a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “He’s fine. Better than fine, actually.”

Max turns the scanner around to show them. There’s an image of Neteyam’s skeletal structure as well as one of his internal muscular and nervous systems. He clicks on the skeletal one first. “The bullet went through at a slight angle, it nicked these two ribs here.” He points to them in the image.

Ronal leans forward, for a closer look. “These can be managed.” She turns her narrowed-eyed look to the human. “What else?”

Max switches the image. “This is what we find weird. Neteyam has gotten hurt before, I’ve got scans like these from less than a year ago.” He switches to the muscular and nervous systems image, then he zooms in on the right lung. “This warping here,” he points to a very small oddity that none of them really know what they’re looking at other than Norm and Ronal, “is where the something poked a hole in his lung. Since this wasn’t here a year ago, I can only assume it’s from the bullet wound. This kind of injury usually requires surgical intervention. Mo’at has struggled to heal this kind of injury.”

Jake blinks, his mouth falling open. “Are you saying…it healed by itself?”

He nods. “Whatever you did to save him probably stopped him from a great deal of suffering.”

“Eywa…” Aonung whispers. He looks down at the bandages covering Neteyam’s chest. “She saved him.”

Ronal grabs the tablet and stares at the image, a frown on her face. “I did not understand until now…” she whispers.

“Understand what?” Lo’ak asks.

She doesn’t answer. Instead, she stands up and heads to her chest. She roots around for a few minutes before coming back with a silver and golden shell. It almost doesn’t look real as she lays it right where Neteyam’s lungs rest in his chest. Everyone holds their breath as they watch her work, chants and mantras falling from her lips as lays one hand on his forehead and the other hovers over the shell.

Her voice draws Neytiri, Kiri, Tuk, Spider, Tsireya, and Rotxo from where they’d been working outside. Each one of them keeps their eyes intently focused on the woman as she works. Aonung, as the closest, can see the shell vibrate under his mother’s hands. The silver markings on the shell seem to pulse in time with Neteyam’s breathing and the gold seems to ebb and flow like water.

As fast as she’d begun, Ronal stops, her hard eyes turning to her son. The look on her face seems almost awe shocked. After a moment, she smooths the look away. “In all my life I have only heard of this happening one other time, and that was when I was a cub.”

“What is it?” Neytiri asks.

Ronal looks at her son, her eyes proud and happy. “My son, he is the reason for this healing.”

Aonung blinks. “What?”

Ronal sits back, keeping her eyes on her son. “You created tsaheylu with Neteyam. This bond, it…” she looks down at the shell in her hands, “bonds are sometimes so strong they heal. This only happens when Eywa creates two souls so perfect for each other.”

Neytiri gasps as the implication hit her. “That is…it…Eywa has blessed them so.”

Aonung stares at his mother, unable to form words. So many emotions seem to be swirling around in his chest as he tries to comprehend what she’s saying. Soulmates, a gift so rare that many believe it to be just a story. Aonung had believed it all to just be a story, but now he’s faced with an entirely new reality. His hands shake where he’s holding Neteyam’s limp fingers in his. For a second he considers letting go and backing away but he can’t do it. He can’t bare to let go of Neteyam. He’s held on so tight he’s not sure he’ll ever be ready to let go. 

Ronal takes another moment to watch her son before turning back to the people assembled behind her. “Leave, do not just stand here gaping at them. If you do not have anything productive to do find it.”

The dream-walker and Sky Person are the first to react. “Uh, yes, right,” Norm jumps up. “Neytiri, Jake, I actually have something to talk to you guys about really quick.”

Max pulls the tablet back to him. “I’ll get started on the assessment Mo’at asked for.” They’ll be leaving first thing in the morning but with Norm being in his Avatar he’ll be able to speak to Mo’at before then. 

Ronal thrusts the medical pouch out to them. “Be sure this is returned to the Omatikayan tsahík. This should not be parted from her for long.”

Max shakes his head. “Actually, she told us to give it to you for safekeeping until Neteyam is able to receive it.”

The shock on Ronal’s face is obvious as she looks down at the item. Tsahík medicinal pouches are deeply personal and sacred items. They’re usually laid with the body when the tsahík passes on to Eywa. For her to be giving it away means a great deal in the belief in the skill of the next person. “She would give her medicinal pouch to a future Olo’eyktan?

Neytiri looks at the pouch. “Neteyam asked my mother to train him alongside me to be tsahík,” she says. The words make everyone’s heads snap in her direction. “He told us before the Sky People made their return.”

Lo’ak’s hands shake and his eyes blur with sudden tears. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

Jake drops a hand on his shoulder. “He wanted to, but after we left home he felt he had no reason to say anything.” He looks at Ronal’s still-shocked face. “We were going to announce it at his coming-of-age ceremony.”

Ronal purses her lips. After a minute, she gently folds up the pouch and holds it close. Nothing more is said as she goes back to her chest to sort through her work. “I will watch the demon spawn while you speak to the dream-walker.”

Jake pats Lo’ak’s shoulder once more before he and Neytiri show Norm out of the marui. The kids all come close taking space around Neteyam. Tuk curls up next to her brother and Kiri returns to fixing his braids, this time focusing on fixing the beads her brother loves to wear so much. Tsireya and Rotxo settle next to Aonung, Rotxo taking out a knife and a piece of wood from his pocket. Tsireya leans on her brother’s side silently offering him comfort in the best way she knows how.

Spider hovers on the outside by Max, clearly not sure what to do or where to go. Lo’ak stares at the human, at the bruises littering his smaller body and suddenly he can’t bare the way his friend, his brother, looks so lost. He takes the human’s arm and pulls him over to sit with the rest of them.

Because that’s where he belongs.

Outside, Neytiri and Jake follow Norm to the chopper he flew in on. Most of the supplies they brought have already been distributed or are being distributed by Tonowari and his men. Norm checks to make sure no one is around before finally turning to his friends. “How are you guys doing?” he asks.

Jake looks at his mate. There are bags under her eyes and a wariness in her stance that has not been there since they left home. “We’re managing,” he says, “we’re just glad Neteyam is alive.”

Norm nods. “Yeah, Mo’at and the clan were irate when they heard what happened. If not for the sickness, riders would have been sent with more aid for the Metkayina. Once Mo’at and our people get it all figured out there, I expect you’ll have visitors.”

Neytiri rubs her eyes. “Thank you for bringing what you could.”

“Of course, anything for my family.” He rubs the back of his head. “Speaking of, I…Max and I managed to make something for Spider. I-if this thing tonight goes well, I think it’ll be the perfect time to give it to him.”

“What is it?” Jake asks.

“Max and I, well, we figured it out a few years ago but didn’t want to tell anyone and get their hopes up.”

“Figured what out?” Neytiri asks.

Norm hesitates for a moment before a sheepish smile comes to his face. “How to create an Avatar. We made one for Spider, and as of a week ago, it’s fully functional.”

Chapter Text

Norm and Max are not permitted to go to the Cove of Ancestors. Neither are surprised by the decision and they don’t argue with the decision. Instead, they remain with Neteyam doing whatever they can to make the boy more comfortable.

Tsireya opts to stay with them too. “I want to be there, but I would feel better staying with Neteyam,” she says when her parents question her. She smiles at them. “Besides, if he wakes up I think Aonung would like for me to be with him.”

Tonowari nods in approval and hugs his daughter tightly. “We should be back before the moon reaches the highest point in the sky,” he says.

Neytiri takes one last look at her son in their marui. He’s propped up on a firm triangular pillow that Norm brought with him. It helps take the pressure of the wooden floors off his injuries so he can rest easier.  The new positioning does seem to help; his breathing seems smoother and the slight crease in his forehead is no longer there, but Neytiri is still worried. Her cub has still not woken up, and she’s desperate for him to open his eyes and say something to her.

Ronal places a hand on her shoulder. “Come. He will rest safely with your friends and my daughter here.”

She follows, her heart pounding in her chest as she leaves her eldest. She doesn’t want to be far from him for a moment but she knows that this is necessary. Her eyes find Spider, the human walking between Kiri and Lo’ak.

They haven’t told him about the Avatar. Not until they get through whatever this is and Jake goes to see it. He might not be a scientist, but he’s at least seen the Avatars before and he wants to make sure this isn’t just some lab experiment. Not that any of them think anyone at High Camp would do that with Spider but, well, they’re not taking any chances right now. Especially with Quaritch still on the loose, there’s no doubt in her mind that he’ll try and make a grab for Spider or to get back at Jake again.

They travel to the Cove. Ronal and Tonowari lead them through the village. There aren’t many of the Metkayinan clan out, whether that’s on purpose or not Neytiri isn’t sure. It may be a little of both, considering the time of night and the fact they’re bringing a human to the most sacred location in the entire clan.

When they reach the water, Jake takes Spider on his back after making sure his mask is properly secured. The one he’s wearing is made specifically for diving, even if it doesn’t look much different from the regular one he wears.

Swimming through the water with fish and other sea creatures flowing around them almost feels like a normal day. Some of the gentler animals swim close to them, looking nervously at the human they carry with them. If Neytiri didn’t know what it would mean when they reach the tree, it would almost be peaceful.

Ronal watches them pass, her eyes never leaving the animals curiously poking at Spider as they swim by. A fish golden in color swims around Spider’s hair before swimming in front of his mask. Slowly, the boy reaches his hand out to the creature and it twirls between his fingers. The golden scales seem to ripple and glow brighter as it skims along the human’s hand.

Just as fast as the fish appeared, it swims off with its pod. The calmness around them is a great contrast to the worry between all of them.

When they finally reach the tree, Spider’s eyes practically bulge out of his head. He’s seen the tree back at the Omatikayan village, but to see one under water is an entirely new experience. Ronal signals for Aonung to bring Spider to the base of the tree with her and he does as his mother bids, despite the sour look that twists his lips and narrowing of his eyes.

Spider kneels right at the base of where Ronal sits during ceremonies.

They’d already gone over everything with Spider on what he needs to do, not much, and what they believe will happen. He has not learned to sign, yet, but there’s no need for him to understand what is being said.

They all take their places, Kiri tries to take the place next to Spider but Jake holds her back. He will be fine, he signs to her. You must let the Metkayinans do this.

Kiri gives the human a worried look before settling between Tuk and Jake.

Aonung still has that distrustful look as he glares at Spider. He’d like nothing more than to rip that mask off and let him die. The only reason he doesn’t is because of his mother. He’s not sure what her aim is but he expects she’s got some reason to be keeping the alien alive and to allow him so close to their village. He wishes he could have stayed back with Neteyam, but his parents both insisted that he be there. Not just because he is the future Olo’eyktan, but because of his connection to Neteyam.

Whatever it may be.

Ronal begins the ritual, her hands weaving in intricate arcs as the tree seems to glow brighter. They all follow suit, their bodies weaving with the energy surging around them.

Thin tendrils from Eywa begin slowly wrapping around Spider’s legs, up and up until his arms and torso are wrapped in her embrace. He has no queue so cannot form tsaheylu but from the look on his face beneath the strange mask he feels something.

None of them know what will happen, but if Eywa is not happy with him they will all know.

Spider is practically covered in the soft glowing threads. Aonung can’t help but wonder what the boy is seeing, if it's anything at all. Here, connected to the tree, all Aonung can feel is the presence of those Omatikaya warriors who stood with him and Lo’ak as they helped Neteyam.

Aonung closes his eyes for a minute. An image of Neteyam running through a forest fills his mind. Neteyam laughs as he jumps to climb a great tree and when Aonung looks, he sees Spider climbing even higher.

When Aonung opens his eyes, a watersprit has floated closer to Spider. The sprit circles the boy for a moment before finally settling just over his heart. It rests there for a moment before finally swimming off.

Eywa has made her judgment.

_____

“I don’t want to leave,” Spider says, tears blurring his vision. “I-I thought Ewya was alright with me. Wa-wasn’t that the judgement she made?”

Jake rests his hands on Spider’s shoulders and crouches down so they’re eye level. “She. Ewya made her judgement in your favor but that does not erase the unease the rest of the clan feels.” They’re standing a little ways away from their marui so as not to upset everyone while Neteyam needs quiet. Norm and Max have returned to their helicopter for now so they don’t upset the rest of the clan.

“Spider,” Neytiri gently lays her hand on his cheek. “It is only for a little while. Norm and Max will be there to protect you.”

“And I’m going with you,” Jake adds. “At least for the beginning. Ronal has given me some herbs to bring to Mo’at to help with the sickness spreading through the clan.”

Spider sniffles and wraps his arms around himself. “When are we leaving?”

“After Neteyam wakes.” Jake doesn’t want to leave that soon after his son wakes, but he needs to see this Avatar Norm and Max created for Spider. Hopefully it will mean that when Jake returns to his family, so will Spider. “Ronal believes it should be sometime tomorrow.”

Spider looks away from them. “Okay.”

Jake hugs the kid before gently pushing him in the direction of the marui. “Go on and spend time with the others. We’ll be there soon.”

They watch him go, both of them unsure of what is going to happen next with Spider. Neytiri may not blame him for what’s happened anymore, but he is still part of the reason it all happened. The time away from her will be good for the both of them, at least for now.

“You are going to leave so soon after our son wakes?” Neytiri can’t help how bitter she sounds about it.

Jake takes her hand in his. “I don’t want to, but I need to see this Avatar they’ve created for Spider.” He steps in front of her so they’re facing each other. “The last thing I want to do is leave our family when Neteyem is hurt, but Spider is our responsibility now too.”

She knows this, she accepted it the moment the boy told her what he’d done. That doesn’t mean she’s got to like it. “You will tell the children.” Neytiri pulls away from her mate and heads towards their marui to be with her cubs.

Jake isn’t ready to go inside, not yet. So he goes to where Naira is resting, her head poking through the window to watch over her rider. He remembers the day he took Neteyam to make the bond. How nervous he’d been to find his own ikran. Neteyem had always been a gentle soul, he should have seen it back then that his son wasn’t meant to be Olo’eyktan.

He runs a hand along Naira’s neck. “Hey girl, you keeping an eye on him?”

Naira huffs as if to say of course I am.

Jake hands her a fish to snack on and she gulps it down in one snap.

At first, he didn't react well to Neteyam wanting to be tsahìk. It wasn’t because he looked down on them, Mo’at would not stand for that, no it was because Neteyam was so good. People were drawn to him in a way that many couldn’t be and he defended his brother with the same fierceness Jake once defended Tom when they were young.

Then he’d thought back on it, Neteyam is only like that because Jake had put so much responsibility on his shoulders. Yes, older siblings always look out for younger ones, but he never should have put any kind of blame on Neteyam for Lo’ak’s actions. That feeling in his chest when Neteyam asked to go home as he lay there with a bullet hole in his chest just…

Jake takes a deep breath to keep from screaming. He never wants to hear any of his children sound like that. Not ever again.

Quaritch will pay for what he did. Jake will make sure of it, but for now he wants to focus on Neteyam’s healing and that will only happen once they get Spider situated.

He peeks into the window. 

Neteyam is right below it, sleeping that deep sleep he’s been in since they pulled him back from the brink of death. Aonung is right next to him, the Metkayinan attempting to fix a few tangles on Aonung’s braid.

And that’s another thing. Aonung had been such a little brat to all of Jake’s cubs but suddenly he’s all protective. Oh, Jake knows he owes the kid a lot for realizing that Neteyam is alive and saving him, but he’s having difficulty rectifying that with the way he treated Lo’ak and Kiri.

Jake knows that Aonung is the reason Lo’ak was attacked by that akula. Tonowari had mentioned it to Jake himself back when the fear and adrenaline of that day had faded away. Dammit, Jake should have apologized to Lo’ak for being so hard on him.

He misses when the boys were little and Jake knew how to handle it all. Things were easier back then, all he had to do was put them in time out.

“Ma’Jake,” Neytiri’s voice grabs his attention and he looks at her. “Come inside, be with our cub.”

Jake gives Naira one last pat on her neck before finally going inside the marui.

Kiri and Tsireya are sitting with Tuk, showing her how to weave and bead a necklace, Lo’ak is sitting by Spider, and Aonung is right next to Neteyam.

A wave of grief and relief washes through him as he settles on Neteyam’s otherside.

Jake stares at his son’s face. His eyelids are moving every now and again with whatever Neteyam is dreaming of. A crease appears in the boy’s forehead and Jake very gently smooths the line away. He knows when Neteyam wakes he’s going to be in so much pain. A bullet to the chest hurts a hell of a lot more than one to the back.

At least when Jake had been shot he lost the feeling of pain below his waist. Back then, Jake had viewed it as one of the few saving graces that day. Neteyam won’t have that luxury, even with Ronal’s remedies and the medications from Norm and Max not much will be changed. Neteyam will still feel immense pain from the severity of the injury.

“Mom, Dad,” Tuk says, “when is Teyam gonna wake up?”

Neytiri smooths a hand through their youngests’ hair. “Soon, Tuk. Eywa will allow him to return to us when it is time.”

Tonowari, Ronal, and Roxto arrive with food for all of them. None of the Sully’s feel up to eating with everyone else right now and Aonung and Tsireya have remained close to the Sully children. They pass out the food, Neytiri assisting Ronal so the tsahìk can go through her herbal bag again.

The shaman comes closer and carefully checks the wound on Neteyam’s chest before re-securing the bandage. “It will not be long now,” she murmurs. She looks at her son. “You may not wish to be here. It is very likely he will wake in great pain.”

Screaming.

She means Neteyam may wake up screaming. Jake looks back at Neytiri who looks down at Tuk. They don’t want any of their children to hear their big brother screaming in pain but they especially don’t want little Tuk to hear it. Not only does she idolize her big brother but they don’t want her to have this to add to the nightmares she no doubt will already have.

Neytiri clears her throat. “Maybe we should send all the cubs to—”

“No!” Lo’ak snaps as he gets to his feet. “We all want to be here.”

“Yes, he’s our brother,” Kiri adds. “Don’t send us away. Please, Mother.”

Aonung looks at his mother and father. “I will not leave. You say Ewya has bound our fates then I must be here when he awakens.”

Ronal watches him for a long time before giving a satisfied nod.

Tonowari turns to his daughter. “Tsireya, please take Tuk to our marui after you both eat. Please keep her there until one of ”

“No!” Tuk says, “Mom, please. I want to be here when Teyam wakes.”

Neytiri pulls her daughter close. “Oh Tuk, I promise you that we will come for you as soon as we can but Neteyam would not want you to see him like this. He will be in much pain when he wakes.”

Tuk’s lip wobbles but she doesn’t argue as she hugs her mother right.

_____

Neteyam can feel his tether to his ancestors weakening. He will wake soon.

He lays his hand over his chest, right where the bullet had penetrated him. It hurts, it shouldn’t hurt in his dreams.

A hand lays on his shoulder and he looks up to see Sylwanin smiling down at him. “It is time, nephew.”

He nods, a lump forming in his throat. “I’m scared.”

She sits next to him. “Yes, if I were you I would be as well, but remember those who love you are right on the other side waiting for you.”

“And we will be here on this one watching over,” Tsu’tey says. “You and that Metkayinan boy are meant to be great leaders.”

He looks between them in surprise. “What? But Aonung hates my family.”

“He does not,” Sylwanin says, “he is just a fool as all children are. You live now because of him.”

Neteyam has fragmented memories of a walk from a cliff back home to the Spirit Tree. Aonung had been there, had kept him propped up as they made the trek. When Lo’ak had joined them, both had kept Neteyam from just giving in. “T-that was all regret over how he had treated us.”

Tsu’tey laughs. “Ah, you truly are Jakesully’s son.”

Sylwanin gives him an annoyed look before turning back to her nephew. “Perhaps it began that way, but your fate and Aonung’s are intertwined now. As was fated long ago by Ewya herself.”

Soulmates. It’s so rare and seems almost silly to even think of. “Wh-what? But I-we are from different clans.”

“And your mother and father were of different worlds,” Tom says as he joins them. “Distance and species do not matter in this world. Not when it comes to Ewya.”

The pain in his chest is growing stronger and he’s losing focus. “It hurts.”

Sylwanini holds him close. “I know, nephew. It will be all right.”

Tsu’tey sits on Neteyam’s other side. “You are your mother and father’s son, you will survive this and be stronger for it.”

Then Sylwanini begins to sing, her arms never leaving their place around him.

Neteyam focuses on her voice, anything but the pain engulfing him as he’s pulled from Eywa’s embrace. He wishes to stay here, where nothing hurts.

But then he thinks of his mother and father, of his siblings. Of the trees back home and soaring through the air. He wants that more than anything in the world.

So Neteyam does the only thing he can do.

He embraces the pain.

_____

It’s dawn when it happens. The son is just beginning to rise as morning comes upon the clan.

The early hunting groups have gone out as they try to bring back some normalcy to the world.

Others wake to tend to their duties.

Jake and Neytiri have remained awake all night, watching their cub’s face. Aonung has fallen asleep next to Neteyam with Lo’ak on the other side. Spider is asleep off to the side with Kiri. Tonowari has gone to join the hunting party. Ronal rests in a light sleep close by.

Then, like a shot has been fired from Quaritch’s gun, Neteyam’s eyes snap open.

Neytiri and Jake move instantly but a second later their son’s mouth opens and he screams.