Chapter Text
6 Years Ago...
Jake stares up at the large computer monitors. Being somewhat of a jarhead, he’s never really been one for maths or science. So, he blinks again, looking between the data of which he has no idea of what he’s really looking at, and to Norm, who’s grinning like a kid who just found a candy store. Finally, Jake takes one step back, folding his arms loosely over his chest as he asks, “What am I looking at, Norm?”
Norm’s excited smile drops slightly. “Tell me you, at least, recognise the human body still?” He asks with a little sarcasm as he points one of his big blue avatar fingers at one of the screens.
“Uh, yeah.” Jake sarcastically chirps back. “But I–“ He pauses when he turns back to the screens, squinting when he finally notices the small profile photo of Jane. “This is Jane?” He asks, perking up as he steps forward and points towards the digital diagram of her inner body; x-rays, and CAT and MRI scans, and what looks like blood work (if he recognises it correctly.)
Norm nods enthusiastically. “When you first brought her here, I took a sample of everything; blood, DNA and whatnot, normal crap, same shit you had me do with your kids.”
Jake nods, listens intently, because it actually seems like there’s something to the guy’s excitement.
“Well, everything about Jane is normal...except for the way her body takes in oxygen.” Norm’s grin widens as he asks, “You ever noticed how jittery she gets sometimes? Without even noticing? Hell, if it wasn’t for Neteyam, I definitely wouldn’t have noticed. He mentioned it a couple of years back, but keeping things running here after The Resistance finally fucked off, I didn’t think much of it. But now, these last two years, I’ve been able to go back to doing my own thing, and...” He laughs, shaking his head in awe. “She’s a freaking leech!”
Jake blinks, feels amused, but also rather offended for his and Neytiri’s girl. “I beg your pardon?”
Norm pauses, eyes widening a little when he realises how he just sounded. “Oh! No, no, no. I mean, like, leeches use their skin to breathe, because they lack lungs or gills to do so.”
Jake blinks again, looks confused instead. Maybe feels a little dumb when asking, “You’re saying Jane doesn’t have lungs?”
“Dude...come on.” Norm blinks, shaking his head slowly while shooting the great Toruk Makto a withering stare.
Jake scowls lightly, huffs and says, “Well, it sounded like that’s what you were implying.”
Norm rolls his eyes, though, his excitement lights his face up again when he dives back into his explanation. “She has a pair of lungs, don’t worry about that, daddy-O.”
Jake glares at him while flushing lightly. “I told you to stop calling me that. That’s your last warning.”
Norm purses his lips to keep from laughing, or taunting him any further. It really is just too easy to wind Sully up ever since he became a father. Neytiri is actually the more laid back one these days. It’s simply incredible.
Norm goes on to remind him, “The night Neytiri found her, you said she wasn’t wearing an oxygen mask.”
Jake nods. “Neytiri thought maybe it was because she was born on Pandora, but that wouldn’t explain Spider needing to wear one, and Jane did say she had trouble breathing.”
Norm scoffs, “Because of the smoke inhalation. Neytiri wasn’t looking so hot herself when I checked her over. And I specifically remember being kind of weirded out and thinking maybe Jane was some kinda freaky new hybrid human-na’vi.” He smiles sheepishly when Jake shoots him a withered look. “I have an overactive imagination. You know this.”
Jake rolls his eyes, but can’t help smirking slightly.
Norm sighs. “Look, I’m still not exactly sure how it works. She still breathes using her lungs. But her skin seems to give her that extra tool she needs to suck up as much of the low oxygen levels of this planet. A human, as you know, can last mere seconds without a mask. And yeah, she needs to recharge by eating, same as any other being, which is also why she still uses the masks sometimes, but man, I’m telling you, she could probably even breathe under water. And she rarely ever even needs the masks anymore. The older she gets, and all that.”
Jake looks impressed by that. “I guess she is rather fidgety.” He thinks back, but ends up smiling fondly as he adds, “But when she’s with Neteyam, she’s calm. And she’s with him most of the time, so, I guess I just never noticed much.”
Norm grins mischievously as he asks, “Do we hear further wedding bells?”
Jake chuckles, shakes his head, but there’s a sad smile now tugging at his lips. “You better not be encouraging the boy. She’s already all he ever talks about. He’s been smitten since he saw her.” His own fault, he’s sure. Though, Neytiri isn’t annoyed with him, like he thought.
Norm scoffs lightly. “The hypocrisy is quite something on the Great Toruk Makto.”
Jake shoots him another withered look, but is smiling as he says, “That’s different, and you know it.”
Norm shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe in another 10 years or so, I could learn to grow avatars.”
Jake laughs. Then, stops laughing immediately when he sees the serious look on Norm’s face. Jake points a firm finger and says, “Don’t even think about it.”
(Fucking hell, they’re still trying to figure out how Kiri was born. One step at a fucking time, Norm, damn.)
Norm chuckles nervously.
Jake sighs, turns back to the screens and asks, “Did Quaritch do this to her? If so, why? He treated her like a fucking dog.”
“He treated her like he treated everyone. Like she was a tool he could use to get what he wanted. I think...” Norm points to her blood samples. “I think he was trying to build super soldiers of some kind. And I think Jane was his first prototype.”
“Son of a bitch. Who the fuck experiments on their own children?!” Jake snarls.
“I was going through his blogs last night.” Norm says, “He was obsessed with sleeper agents, and...and, um, there’s a video of...um, I...”
Jake feels the dread slowly seeping into him as he asks, “Norm...what was the video of?”
Norm hangs his head low with a heavy sigh as he lifts a hand to the keyboard and presses the space bar.
Jake blinks as the video suddenly pops up on the screen and begins to play.
There, on the screen, is his and Neytiri’s girl. She’s strapped down to a surgical chair. Her eyelids are being kept open and there’s a plastic bit in her mouth. She’s barely a few years younger than when Neytiri found her, barely out of her baby years.
Off-screen, Jake can hear the unmistakable voice of Quaritch as he says, “This is why it has to be you, baby girl. Look how strong you already are. You’re the one, my little cog in the machine. Just a few words from your old man, and you won’t even blink, my darling, you’ll wake up again, and be standing by my side with the end of na’vi race at our feet.”
Jake clenches his jaw so hard he feels it click loudly. He watches, winces, glares and breathes deeper and deeper with every electrical current being sent to her head then. And finally, he feels tears welling up and stinging his...
...Jane whimpers as the pain suddenly seizes away and her body is left limp in the chair. She takes a few breaths to steady her nerves, fighting off any more whimpers (not wanting to give him that satisfaction.) He slowly curls his fingers under her chin and with his other hand then pulls the plastic bit from her mouth. She sucks in the spit that follows, gritting her teeth and glaring up at him once her muscles have stopped twitching again.
Quaritch tilts his head as he stares down at her, curious and hopeful when he asks (for the fifty-seventh time), “What is your name, girl?”
The 7 year old Jane simply scoffs, stares defiantly up at the horrible man she’s supposed to call her father.
Quaritch is both proud and annoyed. He can still see recognition in her dark little eyes of fury. His lips quirk in a small smile, but he huffs and grabs at her chin again. Though, when he goes to shove the bit back into her mouth, he misses a split second of concentration and that’s enough for his daughter to bite into his hand as hard as she possibly can. Thankfully, she’s not strong enough to break bone quite yet, but as he snarls back at her and tears his hand from her, he can see the blood seeping from the deep little puncture wounds. He hisses as he takes a look over his wound, narrows his eyes almost playfully back when he says, “You’re gonna have to stop actually believing you’re one of them some time, baby girl.” He chuckles, shaking his head as he tears off a rag and begins to wrap his bloody hand. “I’m trying to make you the best version of yourself.”
“Jane! My name is Jane! You’ve taken everything from me! You’re NOT taking that away from me! Where is my brother?! Where is Miles?! Tell me!!” Jane starts off her angry outburst in English, then, into her mother’s native Russian tongue; “I will never hurt anybody! You can’t make me! Let me go, you pig!” and then, descends into full-blown fury as na’vi comes pouring out of her mouth, “You demon! You King of Demons! Let me go! You let me go right now! I’ll bite your throat out! I’ll kill y–“
Jake lurches forward and presses pause on the video.
Norm takes a deep breath as Jake tries to steady his own. Norm blows out a sigh and says, “It’s an 8 minute video, cutting out both ends. I’m guessing there’s a ton of them, but they’ve all been recorded over. I’ll see what I can do. We need to see how far he got, we don’t need any more loose ends on this war we’ve just supposed to have gotten over.”
Jake nods, but can’t quite bring himself to speak at the moment. His throat is too tight, his eyes stinging with more unshed tears. He rubs a hand over his face, takes another deep breath.
“I’m nowhere near as smart as Grace was, so, I don’t exactly know what I’m looking for in Jane’s DNA. I know I said she’s normal, but it took me this long to figure out the skin thing. Whatever Quaritch did to her, he did it real good... She’s always been able to hold her breath for a long time. She’s rarely ever cold or hot. She never sweats. She can adapt to any language after just a couple of lessons, she’s smart, got quick reflexes. I mean, nothing off the charts, not like she’s a superhero, but more like she was actually born of this planet. It’s freaking weird. And I’ve never seen ANY human get along with the animals of Pandora, let alone, being offered a free fricking ride by one.”
Jake takes yet another deep breath, mostly just trying to think straight after seeing such a horrible thing. “OK, so, what now?”
Norm looks just as stumped, though, he says, “I mean, you tell Neytiri whatever you want, but I suggest you keeping this from Jane until we have all the facts. She’s a teenager, and the last thing they want is to feel like they don’t fit in.”
“Yeah.” Jake puffs out a chuckle, nodding his agreement. “She already feels like that anyway, so...yeah, let’s keep this to ourselves.”
“Works in theory...” Norm says, suddenly deflating and smiling sheepishly as he waves.
Jake swirls around to see Jane standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and a brow raised at them both. His eyes widen for a split second before he slaps on his stern dad expression and sternly snips, “I thought I told you to wait outside. Where’s Tuk?”
Rippa raises her brow a little higher as her eyes slowly drift from Norm to Jake. “Neteyam is obviously still with her.” She says, calm but lightly tinged with attitude.
Jake deflates, too, then, huffs and sulks slightly as he asks her, “Exactly how much of that did you hear?” Really, he’s trying not to panic over her seeing that fucking video.
Rippa doesn’t waver in her calm exterior as she blinks once and says, “I’m a leech, apparently.”
Fuck!
And now, Jake is panicking. He may hide it well enough, but he has to turn away from her a take a couple of deep breaths again. He screws his eyes shut, opens them again, glares at the screens in front of him before giving a subtle nod to Norm.
Norm nods back before making his swift exit. He probably should change out of his avatar and shower anyway. It’s been a long few days.
Jake slowly turns around, seeing she hasn’t moved from the doorway. He sighs and opens his mouth, but she cuts him off sternly with, “You promised no secrets.” He can tell she’s annoyed, but she doesn’t seem as angry as he’d have thought. She sounds more like she’s reminding him of his promise. Jake nods, says, “I’m sorry. I didn’t wanna–“
“I know... Thank you. I know you’re just trying to protect me.” Rippa cuts him off with a soft smile this time, a knowing look in her eyes. “And...” She huffs lightly, nods towards the screens behind him and says, “I know.”
Jake blinks. “You...”
Rippa nods. “The best version of myself.” She scoffs out a bitter chuckle. “He always thought that meant just the body. And that was always his problem.”
Jake frowns. “What’d you mean?”
Rippa looks at him like he’s insane. She chuckles, more humouring herself this time when she says, “I’m no one’s best version of anything. Hunting and killing aren’t the same thing. Warring and murdering are not the same thing.”
Jake puffs out a chuckle, and holds up a hand when she scowls at him. “Kid,” He shakes his head, smiling fondly at her. “You’re not a murderer. You’ve killed, yeah, but you did that to protect yourself and others. You’re nothing like your old man, girl. And that’s a fact.”
Rippa doesn’t look so sure as she mumbles sadly, “I’m only 15, sir, I still got time to be an evil jerk.”
Jake rolls his eyes, still smiling as he walks over to crouch in front of her. “You’re 15, which means that all of this–“ He gently flicks the tip of her tiny pink nose, smirking when she glares at him, “–is just normal self-loathing teenage crap. And I’m not equipped to deal with that. That’s what Neteyam is for, is it not?” He grins when she blushes so easily at he mere mention of his son.
Rippa rolls her eyes and quips back with a pleasant smile, “I totally get what Neytiri sees in you...daddy-O.”
Jake’s grin drops. “Alright, smart-ass, get out.”
Rippa laughs her way back out.
Now...
Quaritch sits back at the base of a tree, both his wrist and ankles bound by thick vines. His ears twitch every few seconds as he tries to listen to whatever the cute couple are talking about in hushed whispers just a few meters away.
“We should call my dad.”
“Absolutely not.”
“But–“
“Net, if we do that, your mom is gonna go insane knowing that we’re even alone with him right now.”
“...Good point.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, then, what are you thinking? We can’t deal with him ourselves. A lot of people want him dead, and my mother will go insane at us if we do.”
“Good point.”
“Hm.”
“Fuck sake. He’s always gotta ruin my life and everyone else’s!”
“Ma Jane, breathe.”
Rippa instantly relaxes the moment he places his hands over the balls of her shoulder. She breathes in and out with him, blinks and smiles up at him and says, “Thanks. I was...kinda beginning to see red...”
Neteyam chuckles at her cute little sheepish grin. He can’t help suddenly leaning in to press a soft peck to her lips.
He pulls away quickly, glaring over her shoulder at Quaritch, who’s now staring calmly at him. If Neteyam didn’t know any better, he’d say that’s an intimidation stare. Neteyam puffs his chest out with a little hiss, knife still in his hand at his side, tightening as he takes a step forward.
Rippa turns to glance at Quaritch and rolls her eyes with a smile as she turns back to look up at her brave strong warrior to so lovingly tell him: “Dude, chill.”
Neteyam blinks, scowls, but nods and takes a step back to calm himself.
Rippa turns her back on Quaritch as she presses her forehead to Neteyam’s chest and quietly tells him, “I know he killed me, but that shot was meant for you, Neteyam, and that’s...” She grits her teeth in pure fury, eyes screwing shut as she says, “Well, that’s just something I can’t ever let go.”
Neteyam blinks, both shocked and touched as she pulls back and looks up at him and tells him, “I know you think I am, but I’m not a good person, Net. So, we’re gonna take him to your parents, but first...”
Rippa glances over her shoulder at Quaritch and looks her so-called father in the eyes with all the hatred she has ever had for him as she tells him, “You’re finally gonna see the best version of me.”