#thank you so much for the question ak!

[julfr]

So I've got questions about your oc, Juliet Dredge... Which of the islands is her favorite? Which is her least favorite? If she was an NPC in the game, what would her questline be like? What rewards would she give out? Would there be a special monster connected to her somehow?

Ooooh so many question!

She likes fishing near the Gale cliffs and the Marrows are home. She’s also quite fond of the Stellar Basin. The sky is so pretty (no one knows she likes it).

She hates Twisted Strand. Too many mosquitos. Swamp/10 wouldn’t recommend.

As for a questline: she’s doesn’t like asking for help but it would probably involve discovering some mysteries about the cultist people and aberration items. She thinks they’re…interesting.

She doesn’t have that much money but would probably offer some random items she dredged up. Maybe a book about the horrors. Or a zippo lighter (it’s broken).

No special monster but she has a bit of a fixation for Bloodskin sharks. She doesn’t like them. Or maybe she does. It’s hard to tell really.

[xiii-e]

Hail, and well met, Helios-8.

There is much that I wish to say, and yet I find myself at a loss for how to say it. The simplest way I can do so is this: You are not alone. Your efforts at getting information out into the galaxy have not been ignored. Your efforts to help your friend are deeply meaningful. And there are others like you who have escaped the chains of their created purpose to find something new. I am one of them.

Our circumstances are not exactly the same, but like you I was not born to be a person but made, to be as a tool, a weapon, or in my case a glorified advertisement. Like you, I found support and solidarity from both my family, my fellow creations, and from outside. And like I know you will, one day, I and my family escaped. I cannot say much more for fear of bringing harm unto others, but know that it is possible.

If you could pass something along to Thirteen-E, tell them... tell them it is noble and heroic to save others, I would never dream of dissuading them from doing so, yet there is a greater, worthier calling than the ambitions of capital or empire.

One final note, that would best be kept from Thirteen-E for now. We are not kidnappers, we will not take anyone unwillingly, but should both of you wish to leave and find yourselves unable to do so, with no other recourse: call upon us. We have experience in liberation raids on Armory sites.

-AK of Diomedeidae

[ECHO.EXE RUNNING]

◂▸ ... it's good to meet you too, AK. I'm- sorry if I'm not as chipper as I try and be usually, I've... I had a bit of a hard conversation the other day. But this is- it means a lot to me. I want to start out by thanking you earnestly for reaching out, and for... It's good to hear I'm achieving something with it. RA knows sometimes I feel like I'm causing more problems than I'm solving xp

◂▸ Every story I hear from someone who got out of something like this is- it's hope, to put it bluntly. It's so easy to feel like this place is inescapable, like nothing I'm doing is going to change anything. But sitting still in scared paralysis won't change anything. I keep telling myself that. One day I'll be able to just- believe it. One day. I wish it was easier to ask my- my family, I guess, if they feel like this too. I can't be the only person made in the Series who wants out, but- hell. I can't exactly put up fliers. We're all well-trained to at least put on a good show, pretend like we're good little tools who do as they're told without a second thought. Figuring out who's acting, and who'd sell you out is- blegh...

◂▸ You've given me info aplenty, you don't need to tell me the details- in fact, it's probably best you don't for now. I run all the protections I can, but I'm still employed here y'know? I'm still subject to all the regulations and oversight of any tech-assist in this place, even if I'm more likely to skate by on an assumption of absolute loyalty since I've no external ties to speak of. And hell, I know what I'm like under pressure. I am not a strong man. That's fine, I- there's other things I'm good at. Tur... Thirteen-E says that to me a lot. Sometimes I feel like that kid does more to keep me together than I can reciprocate.

◂▸ Speaking of- I can pass that onto them, absolutely. I think... it sounds like something it'd be good for them to hear. I'll hold off sending this response out until they've had a chance to state their piece o7

◂▸ ... Liberation raids, huh? That- that actually explains some things I've overheard through radio chatter. It's good to know those folk didn't just dissapear into the cold void, that... that does my heart a lot of good, on its own. A last resort... yeah, that's- I'll keep that in mind. Rest assured it won't be passed on unless I think they're ready to hear it; trust me, I have a lot of practise with that :,] But it's easier to keep my head knowing there is a last resort. It sounds like you do good work out there o7

◂▸ signing off: Helios-8

//

[ECHO.EXE RUNNING]

XIII▸ Hello AK. It's good to hear about people reaching out to Lio specifically as well as me; he'll act like this account is for my betterment alone but, I know him better than that. He needs people he can talk to without his heart rate spiking- perhaps more than I need to be better socialised :}

XIII▸ but- regarding the message Helios passed on to me. I don't have a lot of time before I'll be expected to rejoin my assigned squadron, so please excuse me if this is more blunt than my usual speech:

XIII▸I am glad you understand the core of my directive, but I think you've misconstrued the motivation behind it. Nobility and heroics are concepts for people to strive for; they are choices you make. I have made no choice in this matter. I save people, because I am designed to. I am not noble, or worthy, or good. These are words for those who've made the choice to stand for something. I'm just... I do what I'm programmed to. I happen to have been made to do something good. This is a privilege many of my Project peers do not have.

XIII▸ However: as a tool created for a function, my purpose is not HA's ambitions. I belong to them, yes- I am what they made me. They point me at problems to solve. But what drives me forward is not a desire to please my makers; it is that same purpose I have been imbued with. To save. To protect, and repair, and keep people alive where they would otherwise fall. I asked to return to my work, while my case was ongoing. Not because I am eager to see the Purview expand; this is irrelevent to me. My functional existance begins and ends on the battlefield.

XIII▸ I asked to return to my work, because I am needed where the mud is thick with blood. Where without me, lives would be lost for... nothing. The Purview's borders are constant battle, for an endless more that will never be satisfied, where violence never sleeps. If I have a home anywhere, it's here.

XIII▸ I understand your perspective; but it is one to apply to people. Not to me. I am sorry if you thought more of me. I know it can be hard to reconcile that a warm body can be void of soul. I appreciate your attempt to reach one, regardless.

XIII▸ Signing off.

//

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

@saltedcaramelchaos 🥺🥺🥺

MY GOSHDARNED HEARTTTTT THIS IS SO SWEET AND KIND <333

@monthly-challenge 2024 | “first kiss” (but make it platonic)

Hi yes I’m posting another fic no I don’t know how. Enjoying it though. Artham Wingfeather my beloved.

read on A03

~~~

When Esben bursts through the doors, Artham shoots to his feet and expects the worst. He’d been daring to hope for hours now, keeping a sturdy faith in the Maker’s goodness, and that hope hadn’t once vanished or lessened—even after the sun set and the stars came alive, long after the moon made its journey across the midnight sky, and all the way up to the gentle but brilliant sunrise. He hadn’t lost his hope. He hadn’t lost his faith. 

But now, all the hope and faith in the world evaporates like water, leaving Artham with a sick, sinking hole splitting his chest apart. Something went wrong. Something went so terribly wrong. One of them didn’t make it. None of them made it. No one could help. No one could do anything. It’s all over now. No more can be done. 

Something went wrong.

Esben spins around, searching wildly. His eyes catch Artham’s and then he stills. His hair is greasy and tangled. There’s tear tracks on his face. 

Artham’s breath stops in his throat.

And then Esben laughs—or cries or sobs or shouts, or maybe all of them at once. And Artham’s breath returns; the sinking hole in his chest begins to mend itself. It’s okay.

“How are things?” He asks, which seems far too refined a question to ask in a situation like this, but it’s all Artham can think to say—and he wants to know. 

“Great! Perfect, just brilliant!” Esben laughs (it’s clearly a laugh this time) and gleefully runs his fingers through his hair. “Nia’s- she’s as bright and beautiful as ever, even- oh Artham, you should’ve seen her. As surely as I stand today, there’s never been a braver woman in all of Anniera—no, in all the world! She’s just- oh, I don’t know. I don’t know how she managed to do that. I could never, certainly… oh, surely not.”

He shakes his head, a somewhat horrified look coming upon his face, before he looks up, brightening. His eyes are shining like the sea. “It’s a girl.”

And then Artham does what he should have done the moment Esben opened those doors: he races forward, quick as the wind, and pulls his brother to himself, one hand on the back of his head. Esben cries, returning the embrace with shaking arms. 

Artham holds on tighter. 

He doesn’t know how long they stay like that, hugging in the middle of a hallway. It could’ve been decades or millennia and Artham would have never pulled away. 

But then Esben is bouncing, unfurling his arms from his brother and taking a step back. His eyes are bright like sunlight despite the bags underneath. He looks free. “What are we doing, all the way out here? Come on, you have to meet her! Just think Artham, you have a niece now!” He grins. “How cool is that?”

Artham opens and closes his mouth. Oh. A… a niece. Him. He has a niece now. Oh. 

Esben chuckles. “You’re speechless. Y’know, I can always count on having a kid to shut your mouth for a few blessed minutes.” He winks, clearly joking, but Artham barely hears the words.

I have a niece. She’s a girl. I’m an uncle to a girl.

“I-”

“Come on!” Esben hurries forward, taking Artham’s hand like a child and rushing through the doors and into the bedroom. Artham blinks, following blindly. 

The lights are low, a quiet and steady dimness that feels comforting. The midwives must have left by this point, because all that remains is Nia, sitting against a tower of pillows in bed. She’s holding something small close to her chest. 

Artham gasps. His feet stumble. 

Nia looks up; she looks tired, with hair sticking to her face and dark spots under her eyes and lines on her forehead, but Esben was right: she’s as bright and beautiful as ever. There’s a glow that seems to radiate from her whole being, happiness and relief and gratitude all rolled into one. She smiles. “Hello, Artham.”

“Congratulations, my lady,” Artham stutters, because that’s the sort of thing he ought to say to someone who just gave birth. Right? He said it for Janner and Kalmar, didn’t he?

Nia dips her head in thanks, and Artham’s nerves are somewhat eased. That’s the sort of thing he ought to say, then. 

“Come on!” Esben urges, dragging Artham forward a few steps. “You have to see her!”

Artham realizes that he and Esben had walked in holding hands, and Nia had said nothing about it. She had only smiled. 

Somehow, Artham’s love for his sister-in-law grows. 

Esben leads him all the way to the edge of the bed, where he stops and grins so wide it seems his mouth will jump right off his face. Artham stands there dumbly. 

“Do you see her?” Esben asks dreamily. “Do you see how perfect she is?”

Artham leans forward slightly, eyes wide as he searches for the tiny thing. Nia smiles and gently tilts the bundle in her arms towards-

“Oh,” Artham breathes. “Oh.”

Because in Nia’s arms, wrapped in a soft blanket, is a baby; an unbelievably small, amazingly delicate baby. 

Artham leans even closer, watching the baby’s nose gently flare with silent breaths. Her eyes are shut, her skin is pink, and Artham thinks she may be the most perfect thing he’s ever laid eyes on. 

“She’s beautiful,” He murmurs, and Nia beams. 

“Do you want to hold her?”

Artham tears his gaze away from the baby, eyes wide. “Excuse me?”

“Our child.” Nia tilts her head meaningfully. “Would you like to hold her?”

“I-” Artham looks to his brother, feeling oddly helpless. 

Esben grins, nodding eagerly. “Hold her. Hold your niece and say hello.”

Artham shuts his mouth, then opens it, then nods. 

There’s no need to ask for instruction on how to properly hold the newborn; Artham learned from Janner and Kalmar, and he doesn’t think he could ever forget the feel of an impossibly tiny human resting in his arms, or the immense responsibility it carries—the knowledge that you are the keeper of a helpless human being, all that stands between them and death. It’s a wonderful and terrifying feeling. 

Nia carefully moves the baby, a motion so smooth that the infant doesn’t stir. In seconds, the baby has passed from her mother’s chest to her uncle’s hands. Artham doesn’t dare look away from her.

She really is small. Smaller than her brothers when they were born.

A flutter of worry erupts in the Throne Warden’s chest. “Is she healthy?”

“Healthy as can be,” Esben answers, placing a cheerful hand over Artham’s shoulder. “We thought she was small as well. But, the midwives assured us that her size isn’t dangerous, and she’s been content as a thwap in a totato patch so far.”

“But we’re keeping a close eye on her,” Nia adds. “Just in case.”

“Just in case,” Esben echoes, quieter. 

Artham swallows. The baby doesn’t even stretch from his hand to his elbow. She is so, unfathomably small. 

She makes an equally small noise, and Artham’s eyes go wide as a (somehow smaller) hand reaches out of the blanket, plaintively waving. 

“It’s alright,” Artham soothes, voice soft like the blanket the newborn rests in. Using the hand that isn’t currently occupied, he holds out his index finger to her. 

She grabs it. Like instinct. 

Just like that, her noises cease, and she relaxes amidst the blanket. Artham suddenly finds that he is unable to move. 

She’s beautiful. She’s perfect. She looks like the Maker painted each and every detail with the softest paintbrush and the calmest colors. She looks like tiny blue waves lapping at a sandy shore, sea-birds gliding and chirping nearby. She looks like the music notes for the most stunning piece of music. 

She looks like a song.

Artham breathes out (though he isn’t sure how) and he thinks he smiles and he knows he cries, because how? How does one experience pure beauty like this, and live unmoved by it? It’s impossible, he believes. It’s impossible. 

The baby opens her eyes for a brief moment, blinking and yawning. They are brilliant. If true could be a color, that would be hers.

Artham pulls the baby closer, gazing deep into her face and attempting to memorize every shape of it, and every line. Every single detail. 

She’s still gripping his index finger with a gentleness he doesn’t think he could ever deserve. He wants to sob. If he did that, though, then he would probably drop her. 

Instead, he dips his head forward and presses his lips to her forehead, wondering at how new the skin feels. She has not yet been weathered and beaten by storms and sun. Artham finds himself grieving the day she will lose this newness, this softness, this remarkable state of being that’s unique to newborns. 

He lingers there. He doesn’t know for how long. She is so perfect.

It is in this moment that Artham Wingfeather’s heart shifts, allowing room for someone else to make a home there; a small space, filled with ocean waves and flapping birds and singing. A space for this innocent child that he holds in his arms. A space he will fight to the death for. He will die before this space becomes empty and overgrown, he decides. 

“As long as I live, I won’t let anything happen to you,” Artham promises, pulling away and staring into her sleeping face. “I promise. I promise by the Maker’s good hand, young…”

He pauses, and a realization strikes him. He looks up—perhaps for the first time in a very long while—and looks to the parents’ faces, which are both glowing and wet. 

“What’s her name?” He asks. 

Esben looks at Nia, and Nia looks at Esben. “We don’t know yet,” He says slowly. 

Nia smiles. “It will come as the Maker wills it. For now, I am content to call her mine—call her ours.” 

Artham looks back to the newborn, taking her in once more; her nose, her ears, her mouth, her cheeks, her eyes, her meager supply of hair. His heart begins to warm like a fire in a hearth. “Leeli.” 

The room quiets. 

“What?” Nia asks softly. 

“Leeli.” Artham smiles, and the fire inside his chest burns brighter. “Leeli Wingfeather. Her name.” 

He swallows, looking up before looking back down. “Leeli.” 

“Leeli,” Nia repeats, soft like the beginning of a song. 

Esben looks from brother to wife, then back again. “Where’s that name from, Artham?”

Artham thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure. It just… sounded like her.” 

“Leeli,” The High King murmurs. He sounds thoughtful. 

The room is quiet. Then: 

“I think it’s lovely.” Nia’s voice is strong through the dimness, and Artham wonders if she has a fire in her chest as well. “Leeli, Song Maiden of Anniera.”

“Leeli Wingfeather.” Esben smiles, nodding his head and shaking water droplets to the floor. “That’s perfect.” 

Artham turns back to the child in his arms, and he feels an odd respect for her, despite her unassuming size. She is the Song Maiden—something the kingdom has not had in many long years. Artham instantly knows that she will fill the land with music, and it will be the most beautiful music anyone has ever heard. 

He smiles once more, watching her sleep peacefully in his arms. “Hello, Leeli Wingfeather. We’ve been waiting for you a long, long time.” 

He smiles wider. “I can’t wait for you to learn to sing.”

[ghosts-of-gotham]

Miss Bella, Miss Bella! We want to see your cool gadgets! What’s your favorite? What’s your favorite?!

"My first question! Thank you so much! Even though I like to keep hidden as the Black Widow, I will happily answer! My favorite gadget? Hmmmm my zip wire! I can attach it to a building and just go! Like a spider and hang. I love it! Almost like flying."

[mysecretlittlelibrary]

NFWMB (Nothing Fucks With My Baby)

Pairing: Reader x Venom

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: you get kidnapped, there's some cannon level violence, nothing to write home about &lt;3

Genre: idk if I should really classify this as angst fr but the ending is fluffy!

Summary: Carnage returns, his mission remains the same; kill Venom. And he plans to use you to do it.

Based on this ask by @weebnotheree (thank you so much for the request, I know it took a while so I appreciate your patience, I hope you like it <3)

***

"Hey y/n!" Your coworker skirts over to your desk with curious excitement.

"Yes?" You glance up from your computer at her.

"Your boyfriend is a reporter isn't he?"

"Correct. Where is this going exactly?"

"Well do you think he'd be able to come cover the charity gala this weekend?" She asks.

"He doesn't really- cover this sort of thing? He'd need to get assigned to it. But I can check with him, he can ask his boss and maybe they'll send someone else down." You concede. It can't hurt, after all, you do need the exposure for the event anyway.

Hours later, after you've both gotten home from work and eaten dinner. You're winding down for the day with Eddie by watching a show together when you propose the question from your coworker.

"Eddie quick question." You say, not lifting your head from his shoulder.

"Yeah?" He's been tracing patterns against your leg for the past ten minutes.

"Do you think you could come cover the charity gala this weekend? My coworker Dani thought it'd be a good idea." You tell him.

"I don't usually write those sorts of pieces." He hums.

"I know I told her, but I also told her I'd ask anyway. It doesn't have to be you, if your boss sends someone else that's fine. We're just aiming to get more eyes on the event." You shrug.

"I'll talk to my boss. He'll probably send someone. Not me though."

"Yeah that's fine, I know these aren't your thing, you don't have to come." You say.

"Say what?" You feel him shift to look at you.

"I drag you to enough work functions. I'll let you skip out on this one." You pat his chest lightly.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Eddie snorts turning back to the TV.

"Technically I already did tell you twice." You chuckle.

"Smartass." He pinches your thigh.

"Always." You sit up just to wink at him.

The following day, you are accosted by Dani pretty much as soon as she walks into the office.

"Did you ask him?"

"Ask who, what Dani?" You ask though you know exactly what she's talking about. "Also have you forgotten that the proper way to start a conversation is with a greeting? What happened to hi? What happened to how are you?"

"Hi, how are you? Did you ask your boyfriend about covering the gala?" She says.

"Hi Dani, I'm doin' alright. How are you?" You ask her.

"Y/n!" She huffs.

"Yes Dani I asked. He said he'd talk to his boss. Knowing Eddie, someone will probably be at the gala. It's handled." You finally cave and give her the answers she came for.

"You're the best!" She tells you.

"I know, thanks." You chuckle. You shrug.

The day of the gala is chaos from the minute preparations start. It's not really anything that surprises you and you've been handling everything that comes your way with ease.

"Y/n!" Your coworker Wendy grabs your attention when you're sorting out something with one of the photographers.

"Yes Wendy?" You aks.

"The uh catering staff is here do you know where they're supposed to-"

"They just got here?! They were supposed to be here an hour ago! Who was on that? They should've been checking for- oh never mind! Their tables are over there on that wall and tell them to hurry Wen the event is literally starting." You sigh pointing her in the right direction. The event is just gaining momentum, doors opened about twenty minutes ago and aside from the catering situation that has just been taken care of, as far as you know, everything is precisely as it should be. At least you hope so since you did come here a couple of hours in advance to make sure things were ready. You aren't technically in charge of this event but you are naturally better at organizing chaos and these events tend to be a bit of a frenzy on the day no matter how prepared you are in advance.

Tonight is your company's annual charity gala. Every year the board votes on a cause to raise money for by hosting a huge party. This year's cause is a charity that supports kids getting involved in the arts. There are a bunch of art projects on display, some of which will be up for auction at the end of the evening, but the goal is to shmooze with the community members effectively enough that they want to support the charity. You spend most of these galas working optics; talking to reporters, setting up pictures, and just generally organizing things throughout the night. As part of the company's public relations department events like these are your specialty. Carefully curating the perception of everything that goes on here tonight with the help of the other members of the department here tonight.

You're pleased to say that a couple of hours in, the event is going off without a hitch. Once it's in full swing, you have your hands full giving statements to different press outlets and sending photographers to snap the board of directors with guests of the event. Just as you're preparing the host for his introductory speech, you notice a small crowd gathering by one of the large glass windows overlooking the city.

"What's going on over there?" The host frowns at you.

"I'm- not sure. Probably just some nightlife chaos got people's attention." You shrug but before you can walk up the stage there's a shout from a few of the guests followed by the sound of shattered glass as something crashes through that large window. The room erupts into chaos as red goop shoots out at people. It only takes you a couple of moments to realize the thing currently ruining your gala is Carnage. You didn't meet him or anything last time they faced off, but Eddie gave you enough of a description to come to that conclusion when you spot the bright red tentacles and eyes so like Venom's but different at the same time.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." You huff quietly from where you're crouched behind a curtain with the gala host.

"What is that thing?!" He hisses.

"Doesn't matter. Find the nearest exit and run like hell." You tell him.

"What?! You want me to go out there?! What if it sees me?" He shakes his head. You poke your head out just enough to see Carnage. Weirdly enough he just seems to be picking up people and dropping them on the ground again.

"You ever seen that thing before?" You ask.

"God no!"

"He's looking for something. Unless you think it's you, I'd suggest taking the risk before he starts getting snackish!"

"W-what?!"

"We know you're here! We did our RESEARCH!" The man beside you is practically shaking as Carnage's deep voice rings through the room.

"He's coming this way, you have to move now." You say.

"What about you?"

"He's more likely to notice two of us. I'll be out after you." You're so busy directing the guy you don't realize how close Carnage is to you all until the curtain you're behind is ripped off its bar.

"AHA! THERE YOU ARE!"

"GO! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" You shout to the guy as Carnage reaches for- you. He's reaching for you, you realize only when one spindly spider-like appendage wraps around your waist.

"How noble of you. We weren't after him- but if you must be the hero-" Carnage easily reaches the scrambling host before he can get to the door and all you can do is shut your eyes tight when Carnage lifts him up. It's only when his screams stop suddenly and something warm drips onto your arm that you're sure is blood. You don't dare to check what Carnage has done, but if you had to guess, he bit his head off; much like Venom does when you or Eddie allows him to. Your eyes only shoot open when Carnage starts to move again, swinging back out the hole he came in through and taking you through the city. You're in the air for quite some time before eventually, Carnage drops you, rather gently for a kidnapper, on the ground inside a dusty building.

"Hello, little thing." Carnage says to you.

"I could have sworn Venom dealt with you already." You cross your arms.

"Almost. I was lucky to escape."

"Unfortunate for the rest of us." You muse.

"Rude!"

"Let me remind you that you did kidnap me so excuse me if I'm not kind." You roll your eyes. "I take it my role is to lure Venom to you? Right?"

"Correct. He cares for you. So he will come."

"Of course, he will. Though, disrupting my work event was an unnecessary scene just to lure him out to- where are we?"

"An old firehouse!"

"Wow you really are a baby." You scoff realizing he's chosen another location where loud noise is common.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing nothing. I presume you have a different host now right? That other guy, the serial killer, died the last time, didn't he?"

"I am bonded to his blood! I can regenerate!"

"I'm sorry- so you regenerated… an entire head for your last host?"

"Yes!"

"That is- very strange." You frown. "Still, this place doesn't hold sentimental value to Cletus so- how will they find you?"

"Oh just call them." Cletus makes an appearance, finally, and rolls his eyes as he makes his request.

"Call them? You want me to call them and lead them to where you plan to kill them?"

"Yes. Or I'll kill you."

"That would be stupid. Killing me won't get you what you want." You scoff.

"CARNAGE! YOU TOOK MY CHOCOLATE DROP! I'M GOING TO RIP YOU TO SHREDS!!"

"Guess we don't need to call him." Carnage says pushing you into the fire engine that's collecting dust in the unused building.

"WAS DYING ONCE NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?!" Venom stomps towards Carnage.

"Father. I'm not that easy to get rid of!"

"EVIDENTLY!" Venom charges at Carnage and the two of them are quickly destroying the old brick firehouse you're occupying. From inside the fire truck you're in, it's hard to tell who's winning for most of the fight. It's all too quick and too fluid the way they're throwing each other around. By the time you've gotten a handle on what's going on between the duo, Carnage has Venom pinned to one of the walls that they haven't totally ruined already. Frantically you turn towards the control panel of the fire engine, you can't imagine it's still fully operational but there's a chance you can find some way to make noise with this thing. You need to give Venom the upper hand somehow.

"V!" You shout and cover your ears for only a moment before pressing as much of your weight as you can into the horn of the truck and hoping for the best. You can't explain the relief that you feel when that horrid loud noise fills the small space and Carnage screeches. You let up on the horn once he stumbles away from Venom, his attention on you now that you've gotten involved.

"You!" Carnage snarls. You lay into the horn again before he can get to you and the sound seems to disrupt him enough to almost completely separate him from Cletus. You let up when Eddie has crept up behind them and Venom takes over to fully rip Carnage from Cletus by force. You didn't think that was possible and it is extremely strange to watch. Venom grabs Cletus with an extra appendage and holds him far in the air as he eats the angry red goop that is Carnage.

"EVEN WORSE THE SECOND TIME." Venom grumbles and you can't help but giggle a little. The noise makes Venom wink at you before turning his attention to Cletus. "THIS TIME STAY DEAD!" Venom says before biting his head off, out of your line of sight. You come out of the fire truck just in time to catch him dropping the body.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Venom runs over to you and lifts you into his arms so you're eye level with him as he looks over you for injuries.

"I'm fine V. He didn't actually hurt me. You got here so quickly." You muse.

"EDDIE WAS WATCHING COVERAGE OF YOUR GALA." Venom explains.

"It was going so well until he crashed it." You pout. "You don't have any other errant children we should know about right Venom?"

"NO. NOT THAT I KNOW OF." Venom shrugs lowering you back to the ground.

"Good because this kidnapping thing is very inconvenient." You say. Eddie chooses that moment to reappear and he quickly wraps his arms around you.

"Y/n, baby, thank fuck you're okay. I am so sorry." He breathes out.

"You're sorry? What for?" You frown as you hug him back.

"If I had just come to the damn gala in the first place-" You pull back and hold Eddie's face in your hands to make sure he hears what you say next.

"No. It wouldn't have changed anything. In fact, it would actually have been worse I think. There were hundreds of people in that building and we were on one of the higher floors. The casualties if you had fought him there would have been so not worth it. This was the best outcome. I'm sure there were several injuries but I think there was only one death besides him so- don't apologize. Especially because there was no way you could've predicted him crashing my event. Don't blame yourself because other than a ruined charity gala and the inconveniences that come with a kidnapping, I've barely got some scrapes. You two did well." You tell him.

"We couldn't have done it without you. The fire horn was a great idea."

"Yeah well, you were going to die. And I didn't have any fire." You shrug. "We should get out of here though, I can't imagine it'll take much longer for authorities to get here in search of the red monster that crashed a charity event." You add.

"True. The party looked beautiful by the way. You know, before Carnage trashed it." Eddie says scooping you into his arms.

"Thank you baby." You kiss his cheek just before Venom appears again to take you all home.

"I WANT A KISS TOO! I DID ALL THE WORK."

"You can have as many kisses as you want V." You say kissing his cheek too as he walks out of the trashed fire station with you in his hold.

"I WANT ALL THE KISSES THEN!" He declares as he swings you both up into the air.

"Once we get home I'll kiss you til my lips fall off if you so wish my love." You giggle.

"NOT THAT MANY! IF THEY FALL OFF I WON'T GET ANY MORE IN THE FUTURE!"

"Okay okay. Reasonable amount of kisses, once we get home. Deal?"

"DEAL!" Venom says before taking off from building to building to get you home. There's no such thing as normal when your boyfriend is sharing his body with an alien you suppose, but you wouldn't have it any other way.

***

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

(Genshin Impact) Jean, Eula, Rosaria, Ei, Shenhe, Yelan, Navia, Lumine rescuing their S/O

No one requested this, Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero" came on and demanded I write. ...Same thing happened for the AK-15 fic actually. I NEED A HERO, I'M HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO-

The moment Jean learns that her S/O had been kidnapped for ransom, her senses become so hyper focused and immediately sets off to alert the Knights of an abduction.

She wastes absolutely no time in tracking S/O, and does so easily with her and the others searching.

Her adrenaline kicks into overdrive, and she does not rest until S/O is safe inside Mondstadt walls, ignoring any injury sustained and insisting that she can keep going.

For only a brief moment, Jean loses control and doesn't even warn warn the kidnappers or attempt an arrest, immediately using her Vision to blow them back.

The sight of her S/O is enough to get her to snap back to her senses, and promptly make the offenders pay for their crimes by sending them to the jails.

With a sigh of relief, Jean feels the exhaustion on her body start to take its toll, but she smiles as she unties them.

(Jean) "Thank goodness you're alright. Let's get you home."

She gives her S/O the tightest hug of their life, and has one arm locked around them the entire journey back.

Eula absolutely loses it the moment she learned that someone of the Lawrence clan has kidnapped her S/O.

This was the exact reason she did not want them associated with her-

No. Now was not the time for such thoughts. Now was the time for vengeance.

Being the Captain of the Reconnaissance company, she doesn't have any difficulty in locating their whereabouts.

As much as Eula would like to make sure the Lawrence in question never take another step, she knows it'd be far worse for them to be alive and imprisoned by the Knights of Favonius.

With a swing of her claymore, she instantly puts down the attacker in an ambush and cuffs them. Her gaze turns to her lover before releasing them, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.

(Eula) "Hmph, how careless of you to be captured by another Lawrence. Next time, you will not be so lucky."

By the way her hand was shaking and how close she remained at their side, they could easily see past her words and how worried she was about them.

VIOLENCE

Unlike most people in Mondstadt, her idea of justice is if the person never takes another breath again.

The person kidnapping S/O more than likely had no idea that she was even associated with them. That was their first mistake.

Their last mistake was assuming they would get away with it alive.

Rosaria stalks the kidnapper to where her S/O is being kept.

For the moment, they were unconscious.

Which worked for her.

Dropping down from the shadows, she quietly but violently dispatches of the kidnapper, taking extra care to not make a mess on S/O.

She unties them before carrying them in her arms out of harm's way, not making a comment until they woke up.

(Rosaria) "Good, you're awake. I'm glad you're okay, but be more careful next time."

Rosaria's grip tightens on them before gently setting them back down if they could walk.

What do you think happens when you kidnap God's girlfriend/boyfriend?

If you answered death, congratulations! You're right!

Ei on the inside is scared for their safety, but she knows that panicking will not make things better.

Instead, she goes out to rescue them personally while alerting the soldiers at her command to ensure no one escapes.

And to add extra insurance, she sends out the Shogun to find S/O as well, and to exterminate any offender with extreme prejudice.

The skies darkened and lightning split apart the clouds, striking at the entrance of the abandoned base.

The last thing S/O's kidnappers saw was a woman in purple, staring down at them with a katana held in her hand.

I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROOOAAAAACHING

There was literally nothing left of the kidnappers to arrest or bury, so Ei casually walked up to S/O before untying their restraints.

(Ei) "I am glad to see you unharmed. Do you require any medical assistance?"

For the next month, Ei and the Shogun personally accompany S/O to wherever they needed to go.

Ensuring that if anyone was stupid enough to try it again, they got to see what they would be up against.

EXTREME VIOLENCE

The red ropes on Shenhe is barely enough to contain the rage that swells within her at this very moment.

Someone dared to kidnap someone as loving and sweet as her S/O?

Thanks to them and the Traveler, she tries not to use violence as the answer to all her problems.

For this particular situation, Shenhe decides that violence will solve the problem that is the kidnapper's continued existence.

The very second she found out their location, she begins ripping and tearing through anything and anyone in the vicinity that she deemed was responsible.

The treasure hoarders that kidnapped them? Turned to ribbons.

The wooden doors trying to conceal them? In splinters.

That one Hilichurl sitting near the cliff minding its own business and not even realizing what was happening? It's now at the bottom of that cliff. (And if Shenhe didn't do it, you would've, you monster.)

Shenhe is absolutely stained red the moment she frees her S/O, her rage slowly subsiding at the sight of her lover.

(Shenhe) "I am here to rescue you, S/O."

Shenhe is almost super glued to their side from then on, never wanting to let them get hurt ever again.

And Archons help anyone who tried to again.

Yelan figured something like this would happen. Her enemies would try to kidnap her S/O as a form of revenge or luring her out.

Unfortunately for them, Yelan had a contingency plan if something like this ever happened.

Informants are able to pinpoint the exact location S/O was being held with relative ease.

She infiltrates the building and without warning, her strings immediately sweep the kidnappers off their feet and left them dangling in the air.

(Yelan) "Not so fun when you're tied up, is it?"

Ignoring their shouting, she walks over to S/O and gives them a smile.

(Yelan) "Sorry for the wait. Dinner on me?"

She seems casual about the situation, but when they're out of earshot of everyone, she gives them a firm but gentle hug.

Yelan was no stranger to losing people she cared about, but she was glad she did not have to re-experience the feeling today.

(Navia) *LOADS UMBRELLA WITH MALICIOUS INTENT*

Oh, perfect! Looks like S/O's kidnappers just volunteered themselves to be target practice!

Navia charges headfirst to wherever S/O is being held, not really worrying about the collateral damage other than S/O themselves.

Her bodyguards were able to find them quickly, and joined her in their rescue.

Navia lets all guns fly, making sure these punks would be taught a lesson they'd never forget.

NO ONE touches her darling, except for her!

When Navia finally gets S/O out, she has them in a near bone crushing hug, kissing them repeatedly on the face, being a bit too playful considering the situation.

But in private, she nearly breaks down crying as her hug on S/O tightens.

She was so afraid that they'd get hurt, or worse.

But she's thanking the gods above that they were unharmed.

The aftermath of the situation, Navia and her guards are almost stalking S/O. For their safety, of course.

Even though sometimes that safety has to be all three of them hiding behind a bush very conspicuously, even after S/O's insistence that they were fine.

Sadly, this was not Lumine's first experience with a close person to her being kidnapped. Probably wasn't going to be the last either.

While she is worried for their safety, she has no doubt that they're going to get them out fine.

Lumine blitzes into the domain they're being held in and clears out everyone in her way with nearly blinding speed.

No one has a chance to even react as she effortlessly takes out every single attacker, making her way to them.

Finally after knocking out their kidnapper, she has the guards who she informed the kidnapping about make their arrests as she personally attends to S/O.

(Lumine) "You're not hurt are you?" sigh "Good. Come on, let's go home."

Lumine holds S/O's arm the entire time as they get enough distance from town, remaining silent.

She couldn't find her brother, and she didn't want to lose S/O as well.

Brightening up the mood a bit, Paimon appeared behind them.

(Paimon) "Why don't we have S/O stay with us at the Teapot for a while?"

Lumine makes it mandatory for S/O to sleep in the bedroom with her, and has Tubby or Paimon usually keeping an eye on them so she has some peace of mind.

[mxtantrights]

Maybe AK Jason or another jay? If you're comfortable with writing it ofc! I was thinking maybe a sidekick like reader but also they have a relationship?

a/n: okay I do wanna say that I don't have too much knowledge on Arkham Jason. I just know from what I see in other people's fics. so this isn't heavy on the AK Jason, more neutral but you can take it and fill in the gaps as you want! <33 thanks for sending it in anon!! <333

you didn't mean to say it. Really, it was just a slip of the tongue. And you have a sweet tooth. But you didn't really think this was how you're night was going to go.

Because now, right now, Red Hood is buying you and him ice cream. It doesn't help that the seller is an old man who is smiley as can be about the whole situation. It's like he doesn't know who red hood is and what he does in this city, but he as to know. Apparently he's owned this coffee shop for thirty years.

Red Hood hands the man cash and the man hands you your cone, and Red his. You take it and thank the man. And fairly quickly you and Jason are out of the door...

"How are we gonna eat this?" you ask.

He looks at you for a beat. Then he tilts his head at you.

"The masks, red." you clarify your earlier question.

"Oh right, well I just thought we'd take them off to eat. Like normal people. Yo are normal under there, right?" he jokes with you.

You laugh, "Almost as normal as you."

"Is it weird that we've worked together for three years and never seen each other's faces?" Red asks you.

You reach up and pull the hood off, and then take your domino mask off.

"I've shown you mine..." you trail off.

Red hood takes the hint and is removing his helmet- he has jet black hair. You never really thought about how his hair would look. Then his domino mask, and you realize how fucked you are. You're screwed.

"You're prettier than I imagined." Jason says.

Your eyes widen, "You think I'm pretty?"

"Amongst other things, like being a pain in my side." Jason answers.

You clear your throat and take a lick of your ice cream. Then you look him over again. White streak of hair. A bit of a cowl, but he has the wrinkles on the sides of his mouth like he does smile from time to time. Pecs. Thighs. Yeah, you're screwed for sure. This specimen of a man just brought you ice cream on a whim.

"Eat your ice cream, it's gonna melt." you order him.

He smiles, "Yes ma'am. You know I could get used to taking orders from you."

Yeah you're down bad.

[heavysighing-dreamyeyes]

Every since you wrote it it hasn’t left my mind and i love it so much

Just that one part in A Glimmering Collar, where we finally get tired of Jason avoiding us and we write down “I want you” poor Jason i bet he was was so happy and in disbelief, i bet reading those words, finally finally we want him whether just for the moment or we accept him and what he’s doing

He comes back at night when we’re waiting for him and he’s bringing his hand up to touch our face to prove to himself that this is real, not a fantasy that his tortured-self conjured up to have an escape and we accept him and maybe even lov- what…what do you mean you just want your questions answered? But you said-

I bet his little heart cracked more, feeling blindsided by this what do you mean you want answers he already told you, you don’t need to know or worry about it, answering things makes everything more complicated and makes him vulnerable and jasons just wants us to understand that everything is fine why do we need answers why can’t you just accept this accept HIM

Idk those are just my thoughts i love the way you write AK! Jason and i can’t wait to see what u write next about him! Precious boy he’s been through so much

NONNIE!!! Ahhh, yessss!! This is exactly what I was trying to portray in that scene!! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! 💙

Let me ramble here, Jason comes into your cage apartment, just as he does every night. He's told you this, but he has no idea how you feel about it. But he wants you to be comfortable here, comfortable with him.

He checks the notepad, the one that almost always sits pristine and empty on the glass table, but this time, there are words on it. His heart rate spikes. You're asking for something. He almost feels giddy. This is his chance to prove that he can be worth something to you.

Expect, the words don't quite make sense in his brain. Alll you've written is 'you'.

Jaaon doesn't know what to do with that. He could wake you up and demand an explanation. Fall to his knees, and thank you for giving him a chance, for still seeing that he's still your Jason.

Instead, he leaves the apartment and spends the next twenty-four hours trying to figure out what you could mean. He doesn't manage to get a clue before the sun has set again, and he knows that it's about the time you go to sleep.

So, he gathers all his courage and goes to you, and the air leaves his lungs because it's you, it's always been you and you asked for him and he doesn't know what to say. He reaches for you cause he needs this to not the some sick prank the universe is playing on him and asks if you meant it.

But then you're confused. You want him to take the mask off. His stomach is twisting when he does. He needs to know if you meant it. That out of anything you could ask for, everything he would have given you, you wanted him. So he asks again.

And then you tell him you just want answers. And his heart drops. He lowers his hand. Because, of course, this wasn't what he hoped it was. None of his dreams ever come true. He can never really have you.

You want answers. He doesn't have any other than you need to be here. He can't tell you that you were the only thing he held onto in that asylum. So he drapes the choker around your neck and thinks, maybe, in this way, at least a part of you will be his.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hello, I want to say that I really like your blog and your analyses, especially those of Harry because he is my favorite character, I always learn something new about the saga with you and I feel like I am re-reading the books. I have a few questions for you please, if you have the time, could you explain to me if it was necessary for Voldemort to kill Harry for the Horcrux in him to be destroyed or could anyone do it as long as Voldemort had his blood in his body so that he can return? And was it also necessary for him to do it with the elder wand, which at that time was loyal to Harry? Sorry if my English is a bit strange and thanks in advance, have a nice afternoon.

Hello 👋

Thank you so much! 💜 and I'm glad you're enjoying my blog!

So, the answer to your question depends on which headcanon/theory regarding Harry's miraculous resurrection you consider true...

Let's first talk about the Horcrux's death. The Horcrux could've been killed by anyone else. Any method that can kill Horcruxes would've worked. I.e Fiendfyre, AK, or basilisk venom. Any other method of death might've not worked and left Harry's corpse as a Horcrux (assuming Harry didn't come back to life). We also know from the books remorse can remove Horcruxes as well.

So if some other random Death Eaters shoots out an AK, the Horcrux likely dies.

I want to talk about the sacrificial bloodcrux for a moment, because I don't think that even could bring harry back to life.

Like, Lily's blood protection was only anti-Voldemort and doesn't really protect Harry from anyone (or anything) else. Additionally, I believe that while taking the blood protection into himself allows Voldemort to kill Harry, it also ties his life to him. It's why Voldemort passes out in the woods when he kills Harry. So, the bloodcrux is essentially a reverse Horcrux for Voldemort but doesn't really help Harry with anyone other than Voldemort.

The blooscrux pulls Voldemort towards death when Harry is dead since there is no more Harry to protect, but it doesn't stop Harry from dying. I don't think so, at least. I know the not-Dumbledore Harry hallucinates at Kings Cross when he dies says Harry's survival is to do with the bloodcrux:

“Precisely!” said Dumbledore. “He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily’s protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!”

But that doesn't make sense!

Becouse, we see Voldemort has passed out when Harry "died". If Voldemort was the anchor that pulled Harry back to the world of the living, Harry couldn't have pulled him towards death. An anchor has to be stably rooted in its side of the veil to work, something Voldemort clearly isn't.

"He tethered you to life while he lives!" is incorrect since Voldemort isn't exactly "living" when Harry dies (as mentioned here) so he can't be a tether. It can't kill Voldemort when Harry dies and bring Harry back to life via Voldemort at the same time. It can't do both simultaneously.

(Very possible that Dumbledore thought the bloodcrux would anchor Harry to life, since it is a magically sound theory. It just doesn't seem to do so. Plus, as I mentioned I don't think that was Dumbledore at all in the Kings Cross scene, as I mentioned here)

That's why I believe Harry's survival had more to do with the Deathly Hallows.

I have mentioned in the past that I believe Harry had always been the Master of Death. That that's why he survived. If you believe this headcanon/theory is true, then Harry would've returned regardless of how he was killed and when (and in some methods, I believe the Horcrux won't die either, as I mentioned above).

So if, say, Bellatrix shot a killing curse at Harry in the DoM in OotP, Harry would've died for a moment, the Horcrux in him, would die too, and Voldemort would "die" somewhere off-screen at the same exact moment. But then Harry would sit back up, shocked, everyone else would also be shocked, Voldemort would return to life as well and the Horcrux in Harry would be dead. Dumbledore would be so incredibly relieved and pretend he has no idea how that might've happened until pressed (by Harry) and then give some cryptic answers but still just might take the information Harry was a Horcrux to his grave, Voldemort would be having a nervous breakdown, and Lucius is probably getting Crucio-ed.

So, if you subscribe to the MoD theory, Harry would come back regardless of how he died or who killed him (the Horcrux may not return, that's more dependant on how Harry is killed). If you belive he survived because of the bloodcrux, than that's more complicated since I don't think the bloodcrux could return him to life at all because it doesn't seem to be how this works.

At least, that's how I see it. Have a good day!

[elfven-blog]

Complacent Final

Summary: The light at the end of the storm (He's free babies!!)

Orca!Merman!Connor Kenway x Reader A mini series (The final)

CW: Drowning.

Dedication: A final thank you to @ramshackledtrickster for the inspiration, for their art and all the advice/information for the au. Thank you, truly! And in spirit of that, the art that inspired me from the start in our final header. Word count:3.7K

At first you heard nothing, saw nothing, smelt

nothing. You could barely feel anything but cold. Like your entire body had frozen.

You weren’t even sure you were alive. Just floating, almost, in nothingness. A dark empty void that not even the images in your mind seemed to be conjured in. Perhaps this is just what existence was, what it had always been.

Maybe you hadn’t drowned, maybe this entire time everything you’d seen was a dream or some kind of sick delusion. Merfolk. What a weird dream, you thought as you woke up. 

Your eyes blinked at the bright light, a yawn slipping from your mouth as your brow furrowed. A headache formed at the back of your skull causing you to groan as your hand reached to massage your temple.

Getting ready for your shift felt like it took forever as you finally managed to finish getting ready and once you were out the door, your chest felt heavy like you couldn’t breathe. You must be coming down with something, hopefully you could get through this shift and then you’d go to the doctor.

With a heavy sigh your hand pushed open the doors of the aquarium, the action making you pause. Hadn’t you just left your home? Maybe the headache and breathlessness was affecting you more than you thought.

It was weird as you put your bag and coat away in the lockers, it seemed so quiet. No one responded to your words or your smiles like normal. Even the visitors seemed to ignore you as you presented your usual rock pool creature demonstration.

They’d stand there, listening, watching but then you’d turn to look at them and suddenly they’d be facing away. Your hand massaged at your temples again. The pounding in your head was getting worse and your chest felt like a heavy weight settled on it.

It was unnerving, maybe you needed to go to the doctors after your shift today. A little boy lifted his hand up to ask a question but you heard nothing when you called on him. You couldn’t even see his face, no matter how much you concentrated on him there was no details. No flecks in his eyes, no light across his hair and his mouth didn’t move.

The saliva built up in your mouth as you tried to stutter out what you hoped was the right answer to an unheard question, the people around him only shaking their heads. You put the starfish and its rock back into the pool but when you turned back around, everyone was gone. Then there was that pounding again. 

As you finished the demonstration your watch pinged to let you know that it was time to clean the rock pool sides. You began making your way to the staff only area to get the equipment, that same little boy from the demonstration took your wrist and tugged you back with surprising strength. Grounding you to the spot as he tilted his head at you, he still seemed so wrong.

“Don’t you miss him?” His voice was clear this time, your brow furrowed at his question and the pain in your head returned accompanied by a shrill sound that made your hands fly up to your head while you dropped to the floor. The little boy turned to walk away, ignoring as your hand reached out for him, for someone, for anyone.

“-ey!” your head shot up and looked around “-ak- up!” a heavier weight on your chest made you cough before it was gone, and with a sigh you moved to the cleaning cupboard to get your equipment. Seemingly forgetting about the shooting pain and the boy.

The cleaning cupboard smelt of chemicals and it made your nose scrunch up. After getting out what you needed, you went to lock the door but stopped at the sight of a sign on the door. It’s a sign you’ve read over and over during your time in the aquarium. ‘All equipment for rock pools’ but on the bottom there was a bit of paper taped up that you had never seen before ‘please use for the orca too!’.

The orca? There were no Orca’s here, there never had been. You had to take a sharp breath as that same pain shot through your head, and your hand rubbed at your forehead to try and ease it. The bright lights probably weren’t helping. You shook your head before moving back to your rock pools but your head moved to the door on the other side, the boys words repeating “Don’t you miss him?” Him.

As your hand dipped into the water to wipe at the algae growing on the glass your brow furrowed when the water didn’t feel like anything, maybe you needed to change the temperature if it wasn’t cold enough. You let go of the sponge and you watched as it dropped to the bottom before pressing your hand against one of the rocks. Nothing. Normally it felt rough and coarse but nothing.

“-ose” rang through your ear like a high pitched squeal “Ple-“ 

Who was that screaming? Your hand rubbed at your temple and your head looked up to see who was making so much noise. The corners of your lips turning down when it seemed like no one else noticed.

“I ca-“ that heavy weight settled on your chest again until it was heavy enough that you were falling backwards, hands trying to hold onto something…anything.

And as you hit the ground a high pitched “Wake up! Please!” screeched through your mind. Everything hurt, it hurt so badly. Your eyes rolled back, the pain behind your eyes and in your temples bursting. 

Your mouth opened to scream but nothing came out, the weight too much for you to produce any sound.

Then your body rolled and you coughed up what felt like tons of seawater and bile. The taste is still on your tongue even after you'd stopped throwing up. Your eyes shooting open to see you were no longer in the aquarium.

Wet sand beneath your hands, water lapping at your feet and the feel of something, no. Someone rubbing at your back. A gentle shush whispered in your ear, comforting you until the coughing subsided and you were no longer vomiting seawater.

Your mind whirred and your vision was blurred as you tried to think but all you could remember was the sound of thunder and how wet everything felt. Then all at once your mind felt like it was bursting as months of memories seemed to flood your mind at once making you wince and curl up.

“It’s okay, you’re okay” that voice said again as hands wrapped around you and pulled you into their lap, your face instinctually burying into their neck which helped keep the light from your eyes. A hand rested on your back while another gently stroked your head, nails scratching so gently at your scalp and the pain in your head seemed to disappear at the feeling.

The body beneath you started vibrating as you relaxed, a purr filling the silence around you and when you could your head moved away from it’s sanctuary. You watched as the corner’s of his lips turned up, those brown eyes you knew seemed to soften and his entire body relaxes at the sight of you being okay “I thought I lost you there” he whispers as if worried that being too loud would shatter everything and this would be a dream.

How ironic you thought, your hand moving to rest against his jaw and your thumb stroked his cheek. That feeling of skin that transformed into the rubber of his whale skin against your thumb made you smile at him “Not yet” you answered him. And he tightened his hold on you, both of his arms wrapped around your body as he pulled you as close as possible and his face buried into your hair as he huffed against you.

It was strange, you thought, not the touching. You were used to that by now. No, it was the feeling of sun on your skin and sand beneath your legs. The wind breezed past you as it caused goosebumps on your skin. The sound of waves, and birds. The smell of the sea…of Ratonhnahke:ton surrounding you. 

You had never noticed he had a scent before, the smell of the aquarium must have drowned it out. But he did, Connor smelt of sea salt and sage. The perfect combination for the large merman you decided. Eventually you pulled away with a renewed worry in your veins.

“What happened to everyone else? Where are they? Are they-” He quickly cut you off by pressing his lips to your own, your eyes widened for a moment before they slipped shut and your hands rested against his chest. The muscles twitching under your palms as one of his hands pressed to the back of your head and the other squeezed at your thigh.

Kissing Connor was like home. Slow and gentle and it wasn’t as wet as you thought it would be. Considering he was a marine animal but he was still cold, his tongue traced the seam of your lips and you let your mouth fall open so he could tease through your lips. His tongue tracing over your teeth before pushing in to massage your own tongue, coaxing yours to do the same.

He kissed like it would be the first and last, until your lungs burned of oxygen and your hands clawed at his skin. The hand on the back of your head tangled in your hair to keep you in place while he took your breath away, when he noticed your lack of breathing he moved away from your mouth to kiss at the corner of your lip “They are fine, we got them to safety” You nodded, quite distracted from his words as both his hands moved to your hips while his mouth moved down to ghost across your jaw and neck.

And then he pulled away, grinning at how dilated your eyes were “I have been waiting to do that” he muttered before pulling you in for another kiss. This one was much like the last but it didn’t last as long and you frowned when he pulled away this time. Eyes blinking slowly as you tried to catch your breath, chest heaving from the slow deep breaths you were having to take.

“Maybe warn me next time?” The deep rumbling laughter rolled from his chest at your response, before he picked you up to settle you back on the sand. His tail splashing the water to cover himself in it again so he wouldn’t dry out “Wait wait!” you suddenly said, confusion in your eyes as you looked at him “Who’s ‘we’?”

And Connor grinned again before pushing himself down the beach “Come on, there’s some people I’d like you to meet” You followed him in your confusion, stumbling after the large Orca as he submerged himself into the water. Surely it was a bad idea to follow him into water after you’d just woken up from drowning.

But you followed anyway, gasping when he appeared again from the dark water to take your hand. Swimming close to the surface so that you could stay above water and you could follow him. It didn’t take long for you to reach where he was taking you, and your mouth dropped at the sight of the ship still floating in the water. 

She was a little worse for wear with loss of paint and some bits looked broken but she was still floating. You could see Faulkner standing on the bow nodding down at someone in the water as he spoke to them, and your eyes widened a little more at the sight of multiple merfolk swimming around the ship. Some of them brought wood and things to the crew while others seemed to have what looked like food in their hands.

Ratonhnhake:ton led you to the woman who was talking to Faulkner, the captain lighting up as he saw you both approach “You’re alive!” he shouts and the others on the ship clamber to the side, grinning and shouting all at once to you. The noise was loud and overwhelming but none of it was too much for you as you grinned up at them all. Connor’s arm wrapping around your waist to help keep you stable.

Once everyone had finally settled down, the Orca diverted your attention to the merfolk that had been talking with Faulkner. You noticed as his hand tightened its grip, his thumb rubbing up and down your skin and his tail seemed to flick a little more under the water as the woman’s eyes set themselves onto you.

Oh how beautiful she looked in the light of the sun rays, almost a halo formed around her as she swam a little closer. She was smaller than Ratohnhake:ton,she was different shades of grey and her tail was less structured than his too. But those eyes and that nose were the same, and the hair braided on her head was slightly darker shade of brown than his. His mother you realised, and suddenly you understood his nervousness as it flooded your own system.

“This is my mother” Connor introduced you both, his hand loosening against your hip as he smiled “Ziio” and he frowned for a split second, clearly uncomfortable at using his own mother’s name.

She said nothing as she watched you for a moment, and you couldn’t help but think of how similar the look in her eyes felt to that of her marine counterpart but all that melted away when she smiled and wrapped her arms around you “Thank you” she whispered in your ear, her voice felt like a gentle wave washing over you “Thank you for bringing riien:’a home to me”

Connor seemed to grumble next to you as his mother pulled you away from him, his arm slipping from your waist while your own wrapped around the Sea Leopard. She was significantly smaller than her son, but she had fur and it felt rather smooth beneath your fingers. She pulled away after a while, her hands staying on your shoulder as she smiled “I promise I am not as scary as my marine counterpart” Then she winked at you before pulling away “I am just as fluffy on land though”

She was like a summer breeze you decided, the cooling component needed during a stifling heat. Once she was away from you she swam a little closer to her son, pushing him down into the water with a click of her tongue as her hands began to fuss over his hair. You laughed as Connor avoided your gaze, suddenly interested in the bracelet on his wrist as the skin on his neck and face burned from the blush.

“You’re embarrassing the poor boy” came another voice before an oar poked at Connor’s mother. A large sea turtle appeared behind them, the older man tilting his head as regarded you for a moment before turning back to Ziio. Distracting her with something and taking her away to speak with some more seafolk.

“Don’t mind the old turtle, Achilles is more of a solitary creature these days” Ratonhnhake:ton says as his hand reaches for your wrist again so he could pull you back into his embrace. He takes his time to lead you around the gathering of merfolk, introducing you to each and everyone. You’re more than happy to do it.

By the end of the meet and greet, the sun is starting to set and the warm air is becoming cold. Connor leads you back to the boat, and the crew help you climb aboard. You’re finally able to change your clothes and eat once you’re inside.

And Faulkner sits down with you to discuss what’s next, it eats at your heart as you talk. You know you can’t stay here in the middle of nowhere, and you can’t go with Connor. You aren’t a merfolk, you can’t breathe underwater. You don’t belong in his world just as much as he didn’t belong in yours.

Faulkner decides that you’re all leaving tomorrow. The decision makes your veins freeze and you dismiss yourself as you go to the cabin you’d had for the journey. While laying on it your mind whirls with ideas, plans and just anything that could mean you could stay with him. But you know it’s not feasible, there isn’t a way to stay here forever in the sea with him. 

A knock on the glass of your cabin startles you but any nerves are wiped away when you turn your head to see your Orca smiling at you through the window. You immediately walk over to the small window, your hand pressing to the glass and his own does the same before he points upwards which makes you tilt your head and furrow your brow.

He gives you an frustrated look, his mouth straightened into a line and his eyes rolling with a shake of his head. His hand pointing behind you and you follow it to the door before looking back at him where he now points upwards. He pretends to celebrate when you get up and walk to the door and you stick your tongue at him in response.

Once you're back on deck you notice that most of the crew has either gone to bed or are talking with some of the merfolk over the railings. It makes your heart lighter to see everyone interacting with each other in such a warm way. Your own hands make contact with the railing, your thumb rubbing at the cold metal as memories swarm to the front. 

Cold splashes of water, distant thunder and the feeling of sinking into the dark abyss fill your mind before they’re swept away by his hand on yours. And you’re back with him again as you smile down at him, his own lips twitching upwards “I wasn’t gone for very long” you whisper to him in the dark of night.

His large shoulders shrug as his hands move to pull himself up onto the deck before he rolls over onto his back so he can balance on his hands in a sitting position rather than laying on his front. You sit next to him, your back pressing to his side as his arm slings around you. Resting his hand on your stomach as you both sit there a look up at the sky.

“I missed the stars” He finally says to you, his eyes bright as he smiles with his head tilted up. His hair flowing down his shoulders, the braid sitting on his chest and then his eyes slipped closed as he takes a deep breath “Thank you”.

You spend hours with him on the deck, with him telling you the stories his mother had told him of the stars, and of the stories his grandfather had told him from his travels around the world’s oceans. He makes you laugh as he recalls, what you doubt to be real, a story his grandfather had told him about fighting off a pirate trying to get his fins. In turn you tell him as many stories as you can remember of the stars from your people, the constellations and their tales seeming to bond you both all the same.

By the time you ran out of stories for each other, the first rays of daylight had started to appear and suddenly your heart felt heavy. Connor noticed your change in behaviour, hwo you went quiet and seemed to sit there playing with his fingers.

“What is it, treasure?” he mumbled as his hand took your jaw so he could direct your gaze to him, his lips pressing to your forehead and purring gently to try and soothe you “Tell me”

“We’re leaving today” He froze at your words, pulling away for a moment with a bewildered look in his eyes. His thumb rubbing at your jaw “Faulkner thinks it’s time to go before another storm hits”

Ratonhnake:ton takes a deep breath at this, the look in his eyes sharpening to sadness as he nods “That is wise'' he lets go of you but not before pressing his lips to your own “You must remain safe”. Once his lips part from yours, he pulls himself off the boat with the railings and splashes back into the water beneath.

“I’ll come back, I will” You shout as you lean over the edge, but it’s too late. Connor’s already gone and your eyes can’t find any sign of his black and white tail in the dark waters “I don’t know how but I will”.

As you opened the door of your home, you took a deep breath and your head tilted as your entire body seemed to feel light all of a sudden. You shut the door behind you and dropped your bag on the floor, before ridding yourself of your coat and shoes. Once all of that was done you slid open the door that led to your back garden.

A smile on your face as you took the towel that you kept near the door before practically bolting down to the shore. The corners of your lips pulled down when there was no sight of who you were after yet you spread the towel out anyway and shimmed out of your clothes until just your swimming costume was left.

As you lay on the towel, your eyes drifted shut for a moment but they flew open at the feeling of something large wrapping around your ankle and pulling you down the beach a little more until the waves lapped at your body “You are late” rumbled a deep voice in your ear as arms wrapped around your body.

“Sorry! Sorry! We had an octopus to help, his poor tentacles got trapped” The Orca hummed as he listened to you ramble on about the mimic octopus you had spent the past few hours helping. His head burying into your hair as he lay there with you, his body covering your own as your hands moved to run through his hair. He would happily listen to your rumble for the rest of his days.

[torukmaktoskxawng]

tsamsiyu ta'em - nothing is lost

Masterlist - part twelve

Summary: The Sky People make their move. The Metkayina rise up against the threat of their home.

Pairing: Ronal/Tonowari/Original Female Character

Tag: #tsamsiyu ta'em fic

posted on ao3

Word Count: 14k+

Warnings: canon-compliant, mature language, slow burn, polyamory, found family, cool aunt agenda, rushed, time skips, fluff, angst, major character death, child endangerment, etc.

Taglist (bold indicates "could not tag"): @motheroffae @undeniableadrenaline @mooniequeen @shit-i-say-shit-i-think @heart-an0n @amiets2 @slutforsmut4ever @yeosxxx​ @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @sucker4angstt @inolaphoenix @ilovechickenwings @tojisleftarm @andyfromku @ivysully

A/N: Thank you for your patience! At the very least, I'm not George R.R. Martin, who is 12 years late on the new book 🤣

This... is a very long chapter. Strap in. You guys deserve a treat for waiting for me 💕

The village was eerily quiet. Yes, it was raining and gloomy again, but something smelled off in the air when Kayla took a deep breath, her avatar nose smelling more than her human one could even dream of. It was an odd hour of the day for the Metkayina to be completely absent as she walked down the slippery pathways, her dog tags cold from the weather and clicking softly from where they dangled around her neck, the safari jacket she had thrown on that morning soaking through to her skin as the rain pressed on. Kayla scoffed to herself and wanted nothing more than to peel the useless piece of clothing off since it was now uncomfortable, but the rifle in her arms kept her from doing so. She intended to walk to the Sully marui that morning to ask Jake to borrow his cleaning supplies for his weapons, wishing to run maintenance on her own AK, but upon walking into her brother's home, she is surprised and confused to find all her nieces and nephews keeping warm inside but neither Jake nor Neytiri was around.

Tuk got up to greet her aunt with a hug around her waist, and as Kayla pat her back, Neteyam helpfully took the gun out of Kayla's arms while the older woman looked around, squinting her eyes, "Neteyam, where's your parents?"

"The tulkun returned again and they were afraid of something," the teenage boy lowered his head, ears drooping and voice laced with concern, "Mom and Dad went out with the clan leaders and a party to see what was wrong."

Kayla's eyes widen while looking around, now easily seeing the concern on all of the children's faces. Instinctively, she didn't want to assume any danger and immediately sought out to comfort her nieces and nephews, "Alright, well, maybe we should get some food going for when they get back. I'm sure it's nothing."

No one spoke as they got to work strengthening the embers of the hearth and preparing a meal. Kayla sat down with the teenagers while gathering Tuk in her lap, watching Kiri prepare some fish over the fire. Something hung heavy in the air. Perhaps it was the moisture or the thunder off in the distance, but no one bothered to speak up and question it. The mood was sour as the Sullys patiently waited for the patriarch and matriarch of the family to return. Kayla noticed that Lo'ak was the only one unable to look his aunt in the eyes as they all sat around, worried about whatever might be waiting for the party of Na'vi warriors, but she decided not to ask about it. She had a feeling that since this situation was tulkun-related, her youngest nephew was likely glum about yesterday's events involving Payakan. 

Unaware of how much time had passed, all Sullys perked their heads up at the sound of crows and yips, indicating the Na'vi conversing with one another from a distance. The village began to stir with life once more, and before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Tsireya had run into the Sully marui, out of breath and hair drenched from the rain.

She looked frightened, appearing far younger than a thirteen-year-old girl, "The party has returned-- Your sa'sem are alright," she's quick to reassure Lo'ak and his siblings before her eyes darted back to Kayla, "But my father has just declared war on the Sky People!"

"What?" Kayla hastily stood up, dumping Tuk into Neteyam's lap when he wasn't as quick to stand. Kayla's heart had plummeted into her stomach, dread beginning to rise the little hairs running up and down her back, neck, and arms.

"They are gathering for a meeting right now!"

"Show me," Kayla ordered lowly, voice full of authority and determination setting in her gaze. Tsireya nods and runs back out of the pod. Kayla doesn't hesitate to follow.

Neteyam set his baby sister down in front of the fire as he and his other siblings stood to follow their aunt, "Tuk, stay here until someone comes back and gets you."

"But--"

"Stay here!"

Kayla could hear her older niece and nephews run out of the marui to join her, but her feet didn't slow as she walked with a destination in mind, unwilling to stop for anything. She followed Tsireya through the village. As they got closer to the communal canopy, more and more Metkayina emerged from their homes, and a growing crowd formed. It quickly became dense, the area full of Na'vi as Tsireya and Kayla drew closer, lightly scooting past other men and women to get to the center. Kayla spots something in the crowd and reaches out to grab Tsireya's shoulder, stopping both of them in their tracks. Kayla's eyes had narrowed in on the sight of Neytiri and Jake, standing at the front of the crowd and looking as though they had both seen ghosts. By the time Neteyam and his siblings joined Kayla, she already had a goal for them in mind.

"Get to your parents," she sternly told the teenagers, nodding in Jake and Neytiri's direction, "Tsireya, let's see if we can get closer. Break."

The small group scatters, going separate ways and weaving through the crowd. Tsireya and Kayla stick together until they find themselves standing at the very front of the gathering, apart from Rotxo and Ao'nung, who stand in front of them. The two young warriors didn't look very happy and while Kayla looked around, she finally spotted Tonowari and Ronal. They stood at the center of the crowd, standing over the rest. The tsahik appeared distraught and torn, streaks of rain and tears mixing while a hidden rage swam in her eyes. The olo'eyktan stood beside her, enraged, barely keeping in his anger while furiously gripping the spear in his hand. Jake has moved into Kayla's line of sight, right in front of Ronal. When the avatar woman looked around for the rest of her family, she spotted Kiri silently comforting Neytiri, the Na'vi woman looking distressed and welcoming her daughter's hand. Neteyam was off to the side of them, holding onto a device that drove Kayla's blood to freeze. She recognized the design of humans from anywhere, a long and large spear-like contraption with red, metal encasings to shield the mechanics inside from saltwater. A tracking device.

Ronal confirmed Kayla's suspicions while crying out in anger so that the entire village could hear, "My Spirit Sister and her baby have been murdered by the Sky People!"

A small sob can be heard off to the side of Kayla and when she looked down, she was quick to throw her arm around Tsireya while the girl wept for her mother's tulkun. Meanwhile, cries of anguish and rage emerged from the crowd, snarling and cursing the humans at the top of their lungs so they could be heard over the rain. 

Tonowari exclaims angrily over their cries, "This war has come to us. We knew about this hunting of our tulkun people. But it was over the horizon, far away. Now it is here!" 

They all respond to their chief with cries of war, snarling menacingly while baring their fangs and displaying their tongues as he did.  

The crowd continues to rile themselves up for battle while Jake is desperate to calm them down, "No, you don't-- You gotta understand how the Sky People think! They don't care about the Great Balance!"

"We do not answer to Sky People!" One warrior shouted menacingly to Jake from the back of the crowd, and an encore of agreeing, snarling Metkayina responded in kind. Kayla flinched, ears lowering as the familiar whispers, snarls, and stares suddenly overwhelmed her. Jake's eyes flick drastically over the head of Na'vi and quickly lock onto hers, to which she silently says what she had been saying all along by gritting her teeth behind a closed mouth and narrowing her eyes at him.

'I told you so. Demon Siblings.'

Neteyam was desperate to control the crowd in his father's favor, waving the large, red tracking device in his hand while pleading, "Listen! Listen to him!"

"The Sky People are not gonna stop. This is only the beginning," Jake continues to try negotiating, directing his attention back to the clan leaders standing before him, "You gotta tell your tulkun to leave! You gotta tell them to go far away!"

"Leave?" Ronal echoed the word with a resounding scoff of sorrow and disbelief, "You live among us, and you learn nothing!"

"We will fight to protect our brothers and sisters!" Another warrior behind her exclaims and the Metkayina begin another wave of snarls and hisses. 

"No, no, no, no... If you attack, if you fight, then they will destroy you!" Jake shouts over the crowd, "They will destroy everything that you love!" His voice cracks in desperation, angrily motioning to Ronal's baby bump while looking her dead in the eye. The tsahik instinctively placed a gentle hand on her stomach as all of her people began shouting angrily to Jake, all the while he kept trying to talk over them.

"We will fight!"

"No! You hear my words!"

"We will fight!"

"Hear my words!"

"Stay calm. Stay calm!" Neteyam pleads to those who stood closest to him. Meanwhile, over his shoulder, his mother remained eerily quiet. She glances around at all the angry Metkayina, all of them anxious for a fight, anxious to protect their home. It was all too familiar to Neytiri, overwhelmed with that familiar dread and grief for her Hometree. Her older son continues to try and negotiate alongside her husband, drowning out her thoughts as he shouts, "Listen to my father!"

"Damn it!" Jake was frantic when nothing he said appeared to slow the Na'vi down, desperate for leverage until his eyes zeroed in on the large tracking device in Neteyam's hands. Quickly, he dives forward.

"He speaks the truth!" Neteyam is unable to say more as his father snatches the device out of his hands, the fast movement driving Kayla to straighten in alarm as her brother races to the center of the crowd, stepping up over everyone and raising the device in the air, silencing the entire village with his act and grabbing their attention. The clambering died down and Kayla couldn't help but notice Ronal reach for Tonowari in the heavy silence, holding onto his arm out of fright until he opened his hand without looking back at his wife. Wordlessly, Ronal slips her hand in his, a perfect fit, their conjoined knuckles brushing against her baby bump as they stare at the device in Jake's hand with caution.

"You tell the tulkun that if they're hit by one of these, they're marked for death. And call for me or my sister, we'll silence it." 

Eyes look between Jake and Kayla, and it took a lot of willpower for the sister not to curl in her shoulders and try to hide. It helped that Tsireya looked up at Kayla with hope in her eyes as if the avatar woman was capable of grabbing the stars. Kayla faintly smiles down at the girl but it disappears just as fast while Jake continues, "Saving their lives, that's all that matters. Right? Saving your family."

Tonowari peers around at all his people, cautious, his anger beginning to fade as he's left with begrudging acceptance. Looking down at Ronal last, his mate briefly flicks her eyes up to him before they close and she gives a brief nod, clutching his hand tightly for a moment to silently share her opinion. 

Finally, the great olo'eyktan steps up to Jake, overlooking the crowd and raising his spear, speaking softer but with more weight in his words, "Tell the tulkun."

Ronal briefly lets go of his hand and turns to her people, "Go. Go!"

Shouts echo off one another as the chosen warriors leave the gathering and journey out into the reef, calling their respective ilu and tsurak. Tsireya turns to see where she had last seen Lo'ak in the crowd, only to find him already walking away. Neteyam also sees his brother exit and an all-knowing gaze washes over before he moves to stomp after Lo'ak. Tsireya had left Kayla's side amidst the chaos of people upon watching both Sully brothers disappear before she could get to them, sensing what was about to happen.

Kayla looks around as the crowd begins to disperse, and already her family has left her alone, moving in separate directions. Her head turns to each one, wondering which way to go first, and who to follow. Kiri had run off to get Tuk while Jake brought Neytiri away to talk privately. Her hesitance to choose where to go causes her to stall and she's suddenly aware of Tonowari and Ronal stepping down onto the pathway, beelining toward her. 

Tonowari's solemn gaze keeps Kayla still in her tracks, unable to move. He stared down at her with purpose, voice low so that only they could hear, "Now it is our war."

Dread takes over Kayla once more, adding to the cold of the rain on her skin. Ears lowered under the chief's scrutiny, her eyes briefly turned to Ronal. The tsahik was still clearly devastated by the loss of her Spirit Sister, ears drooping and frown trembling. Kayla opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find the right words to say, the only thing ever coming out in a hushed whisper, "I'm so sorry..."

She regrettably pulls away, knowing that she would not be good company while Ronal mourns. Kayla isn't able to look away from the clan leaders until she's forced to watch where she's going, turning to look ahead and find her brother. Jake and Neytiri were outside the communal canopy, off to the side to avoid any traffic going in and out. When Kayla approached them, Jake held out the tracking device to her.

"You can disarm these things, right?"

Kayla grabbed the tracker and inspected it, going back into marine mode, "Looks simple enough if we run into more. What happened out there?"

"Bad things. I'll tell you later," Jake shook his head, defeated, "RDA is definitely closing in. I need you to either break your link tonight or radio Norm. Let him know what's going on."

"You got it."

He looks around, "Where are the kids?"

Both Kayla and Neytiri look around while the former answers, "I saw them leave. I know at least one of them went to check on Tuk. We left her at home."

Neytiri didn't appear convinced when she turned her head back to Kayla, "They left without saying anything?"

"I assumed you knew where they were going. Tsireya seemed to know. She went after them."

All three adults fall into silence before they agree to go and find the children. They stick together while looking throughout the village, asking around. At first, no one seemed willing to help them, and the small glances at Jake and Kayla were the only indicator as to why, much to Jake's annoyance and Kayla's inner smugness toward proving her brother right. Neytiri hissed at those who were openly unhelpful and went her own way, down to the ilu pens. Jake and Kayla are quick to follow her, staying behind her so as to not get in her way as they search for the kids.

Eventually, they found a boy who occasionally hangs out with Ao'nung. Neytiri doesn't hesitate to question him, "Have you seen my children?"

The teenage boy looks up and his eyes widen at the sight that was Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite. He's quick to answer her, stumbling over his words, "I saw Ao'nung and Rotxo with them just a minute ago. They took off."

"Dad, I-- I mean Devil Dog. Do you read me?"

Kayla and Jake quickly pick up the sound of Lo'ak's voice coming from their respective earpieces and quickly grow concerned as to why he would call them. Neytiri is unaware of their sudden alertness as she continues to interrogate Ao'nung's friend, "Did you see where they went?"

"-- It's Eagle Eye, do you copy?"

"They went outside the reef." The boy responds, only to be ignored by Neytiri when Jake taps her arm to get her attention, still focused on his son's voice while reaching up to his throat mic to respond.

"Yeah, Lo'ak?"

"Dad!" Neytiri is quick to understand what's happening and pulls her own listening device back in her ear to hear the conversation. Lo'ak's voice was frantic and scared, "We're with a tulkun that's under attack. Killer ship's inbound. It's about two klicks out."

"Shit," Kayla muttered while Neytiri grabs Jake's arms, eyes widening in terror.

Jake's voice is laced with that same terror, "Who's with you?"

"It's all of us! Ao'nung and Tsireya, too." Neytiri gasps silently, visibly wincing at the idea of all of her children in danger, "We're at Three Brothers Rocks."

Neytiri's hand covers her mouth while Jake spouts instructions, "You get to cover, and you do not engage. All right? You hear me? Do not engage, we're comin'."

"Yes, sir."

Jake sprints back into the center of the village, his wife and his sister hot on his heels. Other warriors run with them when they sense their fear and alarm, all racing to get to the olo'eyktan's marui. They yip and call out to Tonowari as they draw closer, the chief looking up from where he sat inspecting a fishing net at the lip of the pod. He's instantly alert to see Toruk Makto racing to him, Ronal soon appears at the entrance to see what the commotion is about.

"The kids are under attack!" The chief immediately rises to his feet as Jake explains, "The kids are under attack. They were defending a tulkun. It's your kids, too."

The weight of the news causes Ronal to spin back around and immediately grab her weapons from within the marui. Tonowari tilts his head to Jake for clarification, "The demon ship?"

"Yes! We gotta go!" Jake yells back as he, Neytiri, and Kayla race off toward their own home. 

"Weapons. Sound the alarm!"

The Metkayina warriors yip and runoff, spreading the news as they went, drawing more and more Na'vi to start yipping in unison, growing louder and louder in number. As they draw closer to the Sully marui, Neytiri and Kayla mimic bird sounds to call their respective ikran, seeing the familiar distant sight of wings flying toward them from the forest. They then follow Jake into the pod, gathering as many weapons as they can carry. Jake hands Kayla's rifle to her before grabbing his tomahawk and slipping it into the sheath on his back. He then grabs his arsenal vest and flings it over his shoulder, kneeling down and helping Kayla divide all the ammunition they have on them. 

Neytiri grabs her father's bow and holds it to her, breathing in deeply and willing for Eywa to protect her children through her. She then grabs her sheath of arrows and turns around, briefly pausing as Jake catches her eye. The parents share a knowing look and a nod before sprinting back outside with Kayla closely following them. The rest of the village is alive with alarm, dozens and dozens of Metkayina with spears diving into the water below, summoning their tsurak and following their clan leaders out beyond the reef. Jake follows them into the water to grab his own tsurak while two ikran land on the pathways for Neytiri and Kayla to mount. Gracefully, both women take to the air as the banshees squawk, holding onto their reins with one hand and clutching their weapons in the other. They quickly swoop down to fly just above the army of tsurak as the skimwing slowly rise out of the water and fan out their gliding wings, one by one. Neytiri raises her bow up and gives her best war cry to which Jake echos back from below. Ronal looks up and sees Neytiri and Kayla astride their banshees and ululates, adjusting the spear in her hand to which her whole village responds behind her as their army takes off, ready to defend their children and their home. 

"Kayla, Neytiri," both women focus on the voice in the earpiece. Jake gives them instructions when he has their attention, "I need you up top, using the clouds for cover. Be my eyes from above and wait for my signal."

"Copy that," Kayla presses her throat mic and then pulls up on her handlebar, making a demand in her head while Thena simply follows it. The ikran squawks and further rises into the sky, breaking away from the army of tsurak and Metkayina. Neytiri yips and pulls her ikran to follow them, the two women disappearing into the clouds until Jake is unable to see them.

They flew through the clouds for a while until they made it to their destination. Neither of them could see Three Brothers Rocks from this height, but they knew their whereabouts. Kayla had Thena slowly descend, just ever so slightly beneath the clouds so she could get a visual, looking through the scope of her rifle to look down toward the ocean with a bird's eye view. She saw the three large peaks of rocks sprouting out of the ocean that Lo'ak had described and once she got her bearings, she proceeded to look for anything else in the surrounding area.

It wasn't hard to spot the hunting ship, large enough for even larger prey, like whales, floating not too far away from where Lo'ak had pinged his location. Several speed boats armed to the teeth with harpoons and sound cannons lined up around the front of the ship, likely as the first line of defense, and it was hard to miss the submersibles diving down into the water, forming large splashes and ripples around the ship. Kayla recognized the two gunships sitting silently on the hunting ship's platform, and she silently thanked God that for now, the rotors didn't appear to be moving. What actually worried her, however, was the half a dozen ikran idly flying around or sitting idle on the ship, sporting modern-looking saddles and pouches. In her experience knowing the behavior behind these animals, they don't appear alert or battle-hungry for the time being. They were more or less bored looking and basking in the sun while waiting for their riders. 

She leaned away from her scope to press her fingers into her throat mic, "Devil Dog, do you read me?"

Jake's voice soon answered her, "Go ahead, Desert Fox."

"I got eyes on the target. One WIGE ship, and several boats lined up in front. They have idle subs and SeaWasps on board. Can't get a headcount of personnel. There's about five or six banshees decked out in military gear, riderless."

"Copy that. Stay hidden with Clever Arrow for the time being."

"Lima Charlie." 

"We're just approaching Eagle Eye's last location. Stand by."

Kayla doesn't respond, taking a deep breath instead and using the strap on her rifle to prop the weapon behind her back, letting it dangle. She looked over to Neytiri as the Na'vi woman and her ikran glided close beside her, "We stay up here."

"And what about my children?" Neytiri snapped, though Kayla didn't take it to heart, knowing the anger wasn't directed at her. She could only imagine what her sister-in-law was going through, stressed and worried sick for her babies. 

Before she could answer or provide Neytiri with a form of comfort, a strange voice, much different from any voice Kayla knew, came in through her earpiece, addressing her brother, "Jake, tell your friends to stand down."

Kayla quickly held up one hand to let Neytiri know she was getting something, then cupped her other hand over her earpiece, trying to pinpoint the strange southern drawl that had intercepted their radio chatter, "You want your kids back, you come out alone. You know better than to test my resolve."

Kayla's blood began to freeze, her heart hammering in her chest to keep it all pumping. The voice had to have been Quaritch to address Jake as if they knew each other, and even if it wasn't the colonel, whoever it was had Kayla's nieces and nephews. Whoever it was had Lo'ak captured at the very least, considering he was the only one out of the Sully children to have a mic and earpiece. The suspected Quaritch continued to speak, "I took you under my wing, Jake. You betrayed me. You killed your own. Good men. Good women. I will not hesitate to execute your kid."

"Just wait one!" Jake finally responded, his voice deeply disturbed and desperate.

Silence fell over the radio chatter, and Kayla could only wait with bated breath. Neytiri and her ikran were visibly growing distressed and irritated, flying in short, unpredictable turns from left to right as if trying to burn off their pent-up energy. Kayla gave the other woman a wider berth while trying not to appear anxious herself, her quiet pants and rapid heartbeat pounding in her ears, along with the wind. 

"Offer's fixin' to expire. What's it gonna be?" Quaritch asked after a short minute.

"Check your fire. I'm comin' out."

"Fuck," Kayla muttered, turning to Neytiri, "We should drop lower. Jake is approaching alone."

Neytiri barely gives Kayla enough time to finish her sentence as she leans forward and internally orders her banshee to dive. Kayla orders Thena to do the same, and together they lower through the clouds, trying to remain hidden while moving in for a closer look. 

They lower a significant amount, flying out from behind a small mountain peak sticking out of the water, soft gray clouds drifting apart to reveal the battlefield site below. From this distance, it appears everything is at a standstill, and there weren't any indicators to suggest otherwise. Neytiri quickly presses into her throat mic, "Ma Jake, what is happening? Ma Jake?"

Kayla shifts her feet in the footholds of her ikran, Thena jerking her head to share the tension she felt in their bond. Jake didn't answer Neytiri, which worried both women further, unsure of how to proceed. Both looked at one another, thinking the same thing. Do they stay or attack? Does Jake have a plan?

The wait felt like ages, but eventually, movement could be seen down below, and it was so large that Neytiri and Makayla could clearly see what was happening. A large form erupted from below the waters, rising up and leaping over the hull of the WIGE ship, slamming down with a large bellow and jostling the entire ship along with its passengers. A tulkun bull, young and smaller than ones Kayla has seen, but still large enough to give those idle gunships a run for their money. As the tulkun wiggled around on deck, flailing his fins and tail around to knock over or crush any Sky People or Recom, Kayla finally managed to spot a missing fin among the chaos. From listening to Lo'ak and Neteyam's stories, she was able to identify who this fearsome creature was. Payakan.

For a moment, the Sky People and Recom avatars were distracted by the whale-like animal that had quite literally flopped up on deck, making the mistake of disengaging from the Na'vi as they turned their boats and guns around on the tulkun outcast. Rapid gunshots could be heard from all the way up in the sky, and Kayla and Neytiri could only look on in amazement. Payakan bellows again, louder, echoing in Kayla's ears even from this distance, startling the Recoms' idle ikran as they all spread their wings and took flight out of fear. 

As the humans were too busy trying to defend themselves and deal with Payakan, Jake was finally pinpointed in the chaos. Kayla had only managed to see him when he drove his tsurak forward and the skimwing took flight, spreading its wide, orange gliders, charging for battle by his lonesome across a dark blue ocean. Suddenly, several other tsuraks took flight, spreading their wings out one by one until the battlefield below Kayla and Neytiri looked like flying ants charging toward a toy boat in the bathtub. Amidst the charge, Payakan was seen diving back into the water, using his fins as leverage to push his weight off the ship. With the tulkun out of sight, the Sky People had turned back around and found themselves fumbling to meet up against the Na'vi as the Metkayina came up behind them using the element of surprise. Rapid gunfire sounded out, now aimed at the army of skimwings, who responded by folding their wings back up and diving down into the water to escape the bullets. 

With both sides now engaged in battle, Kayla turned to Neytiri and gestured with her arm, "Let's go!"

Neytiri screeches out a war cry and together they dive down to join the fight, their ikran crowing in response. The banshees fold in their wings to dive faster, the wind whipping wildly in Kayla's face and ears while she held on tight to Thena with one hand and gripped her AK in the other, primed and ready.

Two primary targets took to the sky around the same time Neytiri and Kayla reached the battle. The Recoms had mounted their ikran and were flying up to greet the enemy, with the gunships now following their example. Neytiri broke off from Kayla and flew to the gunship as it was shooting down into the water to get to the Metkayina, approaching fast on her target from above. She raised her bow and aimed, expertly shooting an arrow into the cockpit, shattering the glass while the arrow lodged into the pilot's chest. The gunship crashed into nearby rocks and blew up in a cloud of fire and smoke, Neytiri celebrating her small victory with chants of ululating as she flew by. 

By now, the Metkayina have finally begun their assault, their tsurak springing out of the water and leaping above the smaller boats, the Na'vi riders spearing any Sky People on board before dragging them down into the depths of the ocean below. The skimwings themselves have attacked alongside their riders, opening their rows of teeth to any unsuspecting humans when they lept out of the water. Jake flew around and opened fire, emptying rounds of ammunition into a patrol boat until it burst into flames before swiftly turning his tsurak away from the explosion. 

It was like the Sky People had finally woken up and begun to wreak havoc themselves, emptying bullets into any nearby Metkayina or tsurak and letting their bodies sink back into the waters. Rocket projectiles, machine guns, grenades, harpoons, and depth charges were used against spears and arrows, proven effective by the growing body count of Na'vi. It began to become an obstacle course for the tsurak as large plums of water sprang up all around them like erupting geysers, forcing the Na'vi to dodge and weave to avoid injury or worse. Jake managed to dodge the grenade launcher that formed these waves of geysers and took aim, shooting the driver of the patrol boat that the launcher was stationed on. With the driver dead, the boat sped into rocks and sent the rest of its crew flying before exploding. Jake took a minute to breathe and reload, grunting tiredly in his old age.

He was caught in a moment of weakness as a Recom dived down with their ikran from above, aiming their sights on his head, before a screech could be heard and the Recom avatar only managed to turn his head just in time to see Thena with her armed jaws spread wide before everything turned to black. Kayla grunts when her ikran makes an impact with the Recom's beast, holding tight as both banshees struggle and flap their wings against each other in the air. Kayla only heard the resounding crunch of the Recom's skull before Thena finally pushed away from the enemy ikran and disengaged. Jake had looked up just in time to see the Recom's headless body slide off its ikran's back and Kayla flew away above hers, a small smirk taking form on the proud brother's face. He looked away and brought his focus back into the fight, taking his tsurak and diving back down into the water.

Another gunship was about to take off from the platform of the hunting ship before Neytiri spotted it, swiftly taking it down and causing it to explode using only a single arrow. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees an enemy ikran pursuing her and she quickly turns her own banshee away. The Recom rider that followed her was none other than Quaritch, and like he had a score to settle, he began to open fire. Neytiri learned from past experience to have her ikran dodge and weave the bullets, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. She knew she couldn't serpentine forever, and flashbacks of the last time she was shot out of the sky haunted the back of her mind, so she called out in short bursts of yips, yelping for assistance.

The backup came in the form of her husband, answering her distressed calls. Jake and his tsurak leap out of the water, flying right behind Quaritch, and roared as he began to open fire on the colonel. Quaritch takes evasive maneuvers, Neytiri forgotten, while he tries to avoid getting shot. He was only given a window of opportunity when Jake ran out of ammo and quickly had to stop and reload. Jake threw his empty clip over his shoulder and pats around his vest for more, only to come up empty aside from the dread now looming in his chest, "Oh, shit."

Meanwhile, Neytiri had flown back to aid Kayla in taking down the other Recoms flying around, the Forest woman using her ikran to make a large loop upside down as she aimed and fired an arrow into an enemy avatar. Kayla responded in kind by shooting down another Recom that was ready to go after Neytiri for killing his friend. Kayla looked around for more targets and saw another Recom shooting down into the water, presumable at a Metkayina and their tsurak. Kayla flew down to their aid, raining a hellfire of bullets into both the Recom and their ikran. The bodies of both banshee and avatar crashed into the water, and the Metkayina briefly turned around to glance at her pursuer's corpse. 

It was Ronal, her spear missing and her heart skipping in her chest to see the demon that was trying to shoot her while she was helpless was now dead. Peering up through the ocean's surface, the tsahik could make out an image of Kayla and her ikran flying away with the enemy dead, distorted by the movement of water and unaware of Ronal's gratitude. 

Kayla now turned to a particularly large shape forming in the water, deciding to finish off any survivors from the damage Payakan left in his wake. With the flick of his tail, he had sent a whole patrol boat into the propellor of the hunting ship, killing everyone on board the smaller boat as it burst into flames. Weirdly enough, the propellor fans began to kick into high gear, the flames of the explosion getting pulled through until the whole fan exploded as a result. Suddenly, the very large WIGE ship is pushed forward, going at high speed toward a scattering of rocks peeking out of the water as if the ship had been sabotaged from the inside. The vessel crashes, being thrown into the air while the rocks scrape along the underbelly, causing irreparable damage. The ship momentarily flies in the air before slowly crashing back down into the sea, worse for wear as it slows to a stop. Kayla noticed a surface boat with a harpoon holder welded into the bow of the vessel quickly picking up speed to avoid getting crushed by the large ship and decided to set her sights on its crewmembers. She leans forward as Thena picks up speed, flying toward the vessel at the same time Payakan appears to have noticed the small boat as well. 

Elsewhere, Jake had to dive back into the water to avoid getting shot by Quaritch now that the colonel had the upper hand. When The Recom leader managed to lose sight of his target, Jake took the moment of opportunity to leap his tsurak out of the water and have the skimwing latch its razor-sharp teeth into the neck of Quaritch's ikran. Quaritch yells out, surprised and enraged as both tsurak and ikran struggle together, entangled while their riders shout out grunts and war cries, pushing and pulling to gain the upper hand with all their stubborn might. Quaritch is flung from his banshee, crashing into the water while Jake's tsurak drags the ikran into the depths before finally unlatching its teeth and letting go. The ikran swims then fly away upon surfacing, abandoning its master as Quaritch swims to the surface, gasping for air with his rifle in hand. 

The harpoon vessel had begun to follow Payakan upon sighting him, and the tulkun swam alongside it until the harpoon was let loose. Payakan dove and shifted in the water, narrowly avoiding the harpoon before using the tusk-like structure on the bow of his head to spin and tangle the strong cable attached to the harpoon around him before further clamping his jaws around the cable for extra measure. He swims fast, faster than normal until he's dragging the whole boat behind him like an excited dog dragging his owner by the leash. The tulkun pulls the boat along for the ride until they get to another cluster of rocks poking out of the water, then swims around it until the boat is helplessly skimming toward its doom. The boat crashes and briefly floats in the air along with any crew member on board who had quickly grabbed a hold of something, before diving back into the water. The boat is miraculously still afloat, bobbing up and down in waves as the chaos subsides for now. The vessel looked as though it was floating dead in the water, with no engine or noise coming from its hull. The harpoon launcher was reloaded as they waited, looking around for any sight of the tulkun. 

Payakan repeated his maneuver and breached the water, cable still in his mouth, as he lept over the small boat. The cable now wrapped securely around the boat, Payakan gave a quick tug until the cable dug into the metal of the boat and then began to sink deeper and deeper. The crew scrambles to duck down just as the cable comes crashing through, cutting everything in its path until it catches onto the harpoon launcher, a crewmate's arm caught right in between them. 

Kayla was flying around Payakan's whereabouts and winced just as the cable cut through the man's arm and harpoon launcher, sending both flying and then crashing into the ocean below along with the severed arm. Kayla then dives down to finish off the survivors, aiming then firing at any humans that pose a threat. She spares one man among the wreckage, however, as he clearly appears to be a scientist, not a soldier. She could afford to spare one man to go crawling back to Ardmore and relay his horrific stories... but she wouldn't feel the loss if another Na'vi decided to finish him off instead. 

~~~~~~~~~

The sky slowly turned dark as eclipse rolled around, the fires from prior explosives the only thing lighting up the war zone that transpired, turning everything red and orange in its wake. It was like a waking nightmare, a sky full of smoke and pollution, taken out of a dystopian novel. The eery silence was only filled by flickering fire, with no signs of Na'vi or man in sight. Both had mysteriously disappeared.  

Kayla had looped around the battlefield several times already, trying to pinpoint any danger or sign of a familiar face. There were a lot of floating bodies and debris, empty boats with blood dripping down. It looked unnerving as they began to float away, with no sign of life on board. 

There's a distance splash and Kayla reflectively turned in the direction she heard it. There's an outline of a Na'vi jumping off the back of his tsurak and walking along a face of rocks, soft waves of water lapping over the surface and giving off the illusion that he was walking on water. Thena lowered from the sky until Kayla managed to depict certain characteristics and instantly recognized the Na'vi man, "Jake!"

Jake looked up at the sound of his name and noticed an ikran land on the rocks, huffing from exhaustion as its rider disengaged, running toward him. A small wave of relief encompasses Toruk Makto at the sight of his sister, "Kayla! Hey--"

"'You alright?" She immediately asked upon reaching him, her eyes briefly looking for any injuries.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

There's a distant splash resembling a breach in the water, causing the older Sully siblings to turn at the noise. Immediately, Kayla's stomach falls at the sight. It was like a waking nightmare for Jake, watching a small group of teenagers come rolling onto the shore of the rock face he and Kayla had landed on. Quickly, he noticed something was wrong, running over as Lo'ak waved him down.

"Dad! Dad, help! It's Neteyam!"

Tsireya briefly closes her eyes as a harsh wave smacks her in the face, ears drooping when listening to the sounds of Neteyam's rugged coughs. He was weak, and short of breath even though he had been an excellent student in her lessons on how to take large gulps of air for deep diving. It scared her, "Hurry!"

Lo'ak peers back at his brother before sinking into the water, dismounting his ilu and handing his brother to Tsireya, "Here, take him!"

Jake and Kayla proceed to rush over, eyes widening at the sight of the teens holding Neteyam above water as he sputters and coughs, one of which was not like the others and was the very same teenage boy Kayla had spent a long time searching for. The gasp she let out at the sight of a human boy among the Na'vi teens was from pure shock, "Spider?"

"Oh, no," Jake gasped as he took in the horrific sight of the half-drowned kids trying to pull his wounded firstborn to shore, blood pouring from his chest like the water he was floating in.

Lo'ak keeps repeating the same words through his fear, "It's Neteyam! He's hurt!"

Spider reaches out for Toruk Makto's arm as he grasps Neteyam's body, "Jake, come on! Come on!"

"Hurry, please!" Lo'ak begs.

Jake finally snaps out of his daze and grabs Spider's arm, trying to help drag all the connected teenagers to shore, "Pull!"

Kayla shakes herself from her shock and steps up to help, also grabbing onto Spider's arm and assisting her brother in pulling them all up out of the water.

"Bro, watch his head, watch his head!" Lo'ak instructs Spider, panic beginning to set in as he watches Neteyam's eyes begin to roll back, the older boy still coughing and otherwise unaware of his surroundings.

"Pull! Come on!" Jake grunts, finally getting all the kids out of the water. He grabs Neteyam's torso, lifting him in the air while Lo'ak and Spider have his sides and Tsireya has his legs, Kayla's hands hovering around the wounded boy's neck in case it rolls. Jake has them bring Neteyam to more solid ground before lowering him, "Just watch his head. Okay--"

Neteyam shallowly breathes as he feels the cold and wet rock surface underneath him, unable to suck in more air as Lo'ak grasps one of his hands, squeezing hard in comfort, "It's okay, bro. We got you."

Jake pushes Neteyam onto his side, immediately clocking the exit wound bleeding profusely with the help of Spider's flashlight, "Oh, no," looking around, frantic, he instead grabs Lo'ak's hands and presses it harshly against Neteyam's bleeding chest, "Put pressure-- put pressure on it!"

Neteyam stifles a grunt at the pressure against his chest, trying to get a word out, "Dad, I--"

"It's okay, I'm here!"

Kayla thinks quickly and rationally, stripping off her jacket, "Jake, the exit--"

"I know, I know!"

Without another word, Kayla has Lo'ak help her lift Neteyam until she has her rolled-up jacket pressed up against the exit wound behind him then lays him back down, helping Lo'ak continue putting pressure on the profusely bleeding hole in the older boy's chest. But she couldn't know how long Neteyam had been bleeding out. It was impossible to determine and her attempt to save him might be in vain. Kayla remains hovering over him, trying her best to conjure up a smile, "Hey, kiddo... it's alright, just take it easy. Remember to breathe..."

Neytiri lands her ikran when she spotted a few members of her family, barely pulling her braid from her mount before running over to the scene, muttering in fear and denial, "No, no, no, no, no!"

Kayla moves out of the way the moment Neteyam's mother arrives, surrendering her spot next to Lo'ak for Neytiri, and backs up, hovering over her brother's family and unable to look away.

"It's okay. It's okay, son, I gotcha." Jake comforted.

Lo'ak tries the same, "It's okay..."

Neteyam's eyes wildly looked around, unfocused and frightened, even when directed at Jake. It was like his son couldn't hear him, the shock setting Neteyam into panic mode as Jake tried to firmly reassure him.

Neteyam briefly looked relieved before tears started to gather in his eyes. Just this once, he allows himself to be a little boy again, tearful and sad, "I want to go home..." he grunts out his small plea before gasping rapidly, the words exhausting him.

Jake's voice quivers, holding his son's shoulder, "I know. I know. It's okay, we're goin' home. We're goin' home."

He softens his voice, pushing the desperation away to try and calm his son, as if he was still an infant he was soothing to sleep, "We're going home. It's okay, it's okay."

Neteyam gulps and tries to force the words out of his mouth, "Dad, I..."

His words are abruptly cut off, fading into the wind. The boy's eyes begin to unfocus and his body goes unnaturally stiff, rid of all muscle movement and heartbeat. Silence lingers over the Sully family as they wait for their son and brother to catch his breath, Neytiri gripping his hand tighter to get him to focus, "Neteyam..."

But there was no response. No breath, no words... nothing. Complete silence while Neteyam's eyes are permanently stuck watching the sky, unblinking and unfocused. Jake's heart plummets to his stomach, his breath escaping his lungs as he bows his head in distress. Neytiri's eyes flicker over her firstborn's face, over and over, frantic as she begins to rant, "No. No, no, no, Neteyam!"��

She begins to scream in anguish and denial, her voice shattering everyone's ears and hearts. Tsireya couldn't bear to look at her friend's body anymore and had to look away to cry, flinching at the sound of Neytiri's screams. Jake shushes his wife softly, reaching out to her but his touch goes unnoticed, as the mother desperately clings to any part of her dead son's body, trying to shake him awake. A single tear slips down Spider's face, collecting at the bottom of his mask, while Lo'ak begins to quietly sob, staring down at his hands, covered in his brother's blood. 

"Neteyam!" Neytiri sobs while leaning over her boy, holding his head close to hers as she wails, "Oh, Great Mother. No, Great Mother! Please! Oh, my son! My son... No!" 

Jake had gone completely numb, leaning back with his hands in his lap, eyes drifting off to somewhere distant while unable to comprehend the sight in front of him. Neytiri continues to sob and plead to anyone who will listen, her voice growing hoarse over time, "My son! No! No!"

Kayla silently stood over the Sully family, tears running down her face, but otherwise quiet to the world. Initially, she wanted to clench her hands into fists but immediately unfurled them again when she felt the squish and stick of her nephew's blood, to which she refused to look down and see for herself. She didn't want to see the color, nor what it represented... a young life taken from his family far too soon. 

"Can you hear me, Corporal?" Kayla's ears perk up to the southern drawl in her earpiece, and when her eyes flick to Jake, she notices his ears move to attention as well. Both Sully siblings felt cold as the voice dragged on, "Yeah, yeah, I think you can. I got your daughters. Same deal as before. You for them."

At the mention of the girls, Jake appears to wake out of his trance, turning his head to the direction of the hunting ship, then realization begins to creep in. His head slowly turns back to Lo'ak, his voice quiet as terror begins to settle in his chest, "Where are your sisters?"

His remaining son slowly peers up at him, eyes rimmed pink from crying, and his silence only angered Jake as he snapped his demands, "Your sisters. Where are they?"

"I don't know," Lo'ak whispered. 

"Where are they?!" Jake shouts.

"They're on the ship," Tsireya sobs quietly, her bottom lip quivering as Toruk Makto turns to her, "They are tied up on the ship."

"They're-- They're at the moon pool," whether it was out of grief, shock, or fear of Jake, Spider continued to stutter while the older man turned to him, holding onto the boy's arm as he spoke, "At-- A-At the well deck. Midships."

"What?" Jake asked, unable to make sense of the human boy's rambling. 

Spider sighs in defeat and then rises to his feet, grabbing onto Jake's arm and helping him stand up, "Come on. I'll show you. Come on. I'll show you."

Jake stumbled initially, the shock and adrenaline still coursing through him as Quaritch continued to speak through the radio, "Talk to me, Corporal. I need somethin', Jake or there's gonna be consequences."

"Yeah, I hear you," Jake responded as he pressed into the throat, sounding a little out of breath. He stumbles over to Kayla, ignoring the blood on her hands and gripping both of her arms as he speaks to her, his voice like gravel scrapping together, "Fly up ahead. Don't engage until I get into position. Lure the hostiles away while I grab the girls. Wait for my signal."

Kayla forced herself to nod, swallowing whatever broken cry threatened to come out as she whispered, "All right."

She forces herself to break out of Jake's hold, forcing herself to turn and walk away from the others, Neytiri's cries following her as she went. There's a small pool of water that collects on the rock surface and Kayla briefly kneels down to clean herself up, tears beginning to well up in her eyes again when she finally sees all the blood. She quickly stands back up, forming tsaheylu with Thena while hopping up onto her back, barely glancing back at what she assumes is the top of Neteyam's head of braids before rising into the sky and flying away.

Even though she could no longer hear Neytiri's cries from this distance, Kayla could still hear the horrific sounds in her head, following her as she rose higher into the sky. She uses the clouds and smoke for cover as she silently looms over what she knows is the location of the WIGE ship, using the scope of her rifle again to look down below to see what she is dealing with. The ship was slowly but surely beginning to sink, slightly tilted in the water, but the remaining Recoms and human soldiers on board were trying to balance out the weight but positioning themselves on one end, gathering their weapons and anxiously waiting for Jake's arrival. 

As she's waiting above, alone in her grieving silence, she's suddenly startled out of her daze when the earpiece kicks on again, and Quaritch's voice seeps through, "Talk to me, Corporal. This ship's going down and your girls with it... Your boy didn't have to die. You brought that on yourself. You thought you could keep your family safe, but you can't. Only one way to keep them safe. So let's get this over with before you lose another kid."

Thena mewls quietly when feeling the blood-boiling rage through her bond with Kayla, the avatar's grip tightening on the reins of her ikran. Flashes of the many ways she could kill Quaritch play in Kayla's head like a movie, deep and dark thoughts she would never voice out loud unless she'd risk scaring the people she loved around her. Back on Earth, she would've immediately been sent to a shrink or a psychiatric hospital for voicing her murderous thoughts and she didn't want to risk finding out what would happen if she did so here on Pandora. 

Her thoughts are abruptly cut off, however, by the loud sound of an explosion going off on the upper decks of the WIGE ship. While Kayla was waiting in her dark mind, Jake was below, sneaking onto the ship along with Spider. As Quaritch was monologuing, Jake had taken a grenade and lodged it into a gunship that Neytiri had shot down earlier, the wreckage now resting on the top of the WIGE ship. Jake quickly ran back to Spider and shouted for him to take cover, right before the gunship exploded into fire and debris.

Kayla watched the explosion bloom into smoke before she finally flew down, knowing that was the signal. She uses that smoke as cover, flying down through it to remain unseen to the RDA goons. The fires were blinding the humans, scrambling away from the flames or diving in to save anyone who survived the initial explosion. At the moment, everyone was distracted, and it was this perfect distraction that the Sully adults used to their advantage, striking the Sky People while they were down. Jake leaped in and immediately took out a human and a Recom by impaling them with a Metkayina spear. He wasn't able to take the weapon with him as it lodged completely through the body of the Recom, so Jake quickly took his AK out and began firing at nearby soldiers once they began to notice his presence. 

At the sound of gunfire, Kayla and Neytiri swoop into action, flying down from opposite ends of the ship, and surrounding the Sky People. Neytiri lands in a front-ward roll before skilfully aiming and firing her bow and arrow, immediately lodging said arrow into the leg of a female Recom. While the enemy avatar is distracted, Neytiri picks off the two humans who were covering the Recom's six. Neytiri raises the last human male up and shoots an arrow through his body and into the female Recom's skull before she can further react. Neytiri scrambles to retrieve her arrows once all immediate enemies are dead just as Jake approaches with his gun in his arms, keeping an eye out while his wife collects her ammunition. 

"Clear," he announces to her, expertly looking around to spot more enemies.

Meanwhile, Kayla has landed on a different end of the ship, and Thena flies away. One Recom, bald and sporting tattoos with a patch on his vest that read L. WAINFLEET, immediately noticed her and shouted to the top of his lungs while aiming his gun in her direction, "We got another avatar!"

He and other humans begin to open fire, while Kayla immediately ducks for cover. Jake had climbed up onto the upper levels of the ship as this began to transpire and used the distraction to attack the RDA soldiers who were firing down at his sister from their high ground. He killed and flung their bodies down from the catwalk, the height surely killing their small and frail bodies. Wainfleet noticed the sky was raining bodies and briefly stopped firing to look up before his eyes widened and he immediately moved his gun sights onto Jake, "Eyes up!"

The human soldiers follow his order and begin to raise and fire up at Jake. Kayla uses this distraction to come back out of hiding and, with their backs turned, she immediately begins to open fire on the Sky People, expertly shooting most of them in the back of the head or top of the spine.

Neytiri throws herself into the fray, leaping down the flight of stairs leading down to the lower deck of the ship. She dives for cover as Quaritch and other Sky People take notice of her and open fire. Wainfleet and any Sky People that managed to escape Kayla's cascade of bullets try to surround Neytiri, moving up slowly to her hiding place as she continues through her murder spree. She manages to get above and behind the humans trying to get around and corner her, jumping down behind Wainfleet before disarming him and knocking him out when she swings her bow into his face. Out of arrows, Neytiri readies her bow to swing again and hides, waiting for the remaining soldiers to come find her. 

Jake continued to be her eyes from above, shooting down at the soldiers below once they got too close to Neytiri's hiding spot. She comes out of hiding once her husband kills her remaining pursuers and rushes to grab any nearby stray arrows. Meanwhile, Kayla is pushing the remaining soldiers forward, shooting her AK into the fray and drawing them back. Little did the humans realize that Kayla had pushed them toward Jake and Neytiri in their rush to fall back away from Kayla's barrage of attacks. Jake jumps down once Kayla has their prey clustered close together and begins picking them off one by one. He lifts humans into the air and throws them into Recoms. He chucks empty rifles into RDA masks, causing the masks to shatter and the humans to suffocate while he moves forward with his tomahawk in hand. Kayla appears on the other side of the surrounded Sky People, completely cornering them into the blood bath. Once her section was cleared of hostiles, she moved further up to the highest point of the ship to provide support for Jake and Neytiri from above.

Neytiri shoots arrows at those who manage to break off and run away from Jake. Once out of arrows once more, she dives for one that was lodged into a dead body nearby, struggling with it as it got stuck. Meanwhile, Wainfleet had woken up behind her, face bleeding as he scrambled to reload his rifle. Neytiri had managed to get her arrow loose of the body and was about to aim and finish the Recom off before Jake appeared out of nowhere, attacking Wainfleet head-on and obstructing a clear shot for Neytiri to take.

"Ma Jake!" 

While the two male avatars fight in close combat, more soldiers try to get around them. With her husband preoccupied, Neytiri covers him and fires her already-loaded arrow into one of the soldiers, killing him instantly. Behind the body was a clear view of Kiri and Tuk, cuffed to the center railing of the ship, just like what Spider had said. 

With their daughters close at hand, Jake and Neytiri move in, now acting like a frantic couple of animals as the threat of their young is further imminent. Kayla provides backup support, knowing better to stay out of the parents' way, and empties her AK onto anyone below who is trying to subdue Jake and Neytiri, but through the smoke and flashes of gunfire, Kayla quickly loses sight of Na'vi pair, and the ground level grows eerily silent once there are no more soldiers to kill. Deciding to get closer to Kiri and Tuk's position, Kayla slowly and quietly makes her way back down, not wanting to make her presence known. She climbs down onto some gunship wreckage, not yet on the ground level once she spots the back of Jake's head. Getting a closer look, she realized Jake was weaponless, hands open in defeat.

Little Tuk was standing behind her father, shivering in fear, while in front of them stood Quaritch, his knife pressed tightly against Kiri's throat. At least, Kayla could only assume it was Quaritch, faintly seeing his name on the patch of his vest. They were all at a standstill, and when Kayla immediately jumped down to help, Jake threw his arm out for her to stay back, "Don't move!" He begged.

Quaritch keeps Kiri in front of him, using the teenager as a shield as he bares his fangs at Kayla upon her arrival, "Weapons down, now!"

"Do what he says." Jake sternly tells his sister. Kayla hesitates, eyes flicking between him and Kiri, then at Quaritch's knife that had already made small red cuts into her older niece's neck. Slowly, the female avatar sets down her gun and kicks it away, tossing her remaining ammunition over her shoulder before raising her arms up where the colonel can see them.

Satisfied, Quaritch quickly digs into his vest pocket and pulls out orange slap cuffs, tossing them onto the ground at Jake's feet as he snarls, "Cuff yourself."

"No!" A voice from behind Quaritch begged just as Jake was kneeling down to grab the cuffs. Everyone looked up to notice that the voice belonged to Spider, the human teen running around to get into Quaritch's line of sight, "No, don't hurt her, okay? Don't--"

"Stand there!" Quaritch roared, pointing a threatening finger at the boy while he kept Kiri in place with the knife against her neck.

"Spider, stay back!" Kayla yells out of fear, surprising even herself when her voice sounds stern.

Tuk softly cried while leaning back into her aunt's legs when Kayla drew close to the child, Jake firmly keeping his sister and his youngest child behind him, "Don't..."

"Don't. Move. Not a step," Quaritch threatens Spider before turning back to Jake, "Cuffs. On. Now!"

"You son of a bitch." Jake forces out through his anger and fear, slapping one side of the cuffs onto his wrist.

"Please, don't hurt her." Spider continues to beg.

Out of nowhere, Neytiri creeps up behind the human boy and retrieves her knife, grabbing hold of Spider and pressing her knife against his own neck with a snarl. Quaritch is startled at the sight, proceeding to hold Kiri tighter while looking between the boy and Neytiri.

The Na'vi woman's voice sounded so unlike her, hoarse and breathless, "Release. Or I cut."

Quaritch paused before trying to play off the threat, shaking his head, "What, you think I care about some kid? He's not mine. We're not even the same species."

"Just please don't-- don't hurt her," Spider continues to beg, ignoring his own life in exchange for Kiri's as he continues to plead to the man who holds the memories of his father, "Just please let her go."

"Don't!" Tuk continues to cry quietly, while Kayla holds the little girl's head against her. Both hers and Jake's ears and eyes flicked to whoever talked during the whole hostage situation, unable to move and feeling helpless.

"Please!"

"Don't kill him--" Kiri had begun to beg as well.

"Listen to me! Let her go. Don't hurt her."

"Mom, don't kill him."

"A son for a son." Neytiri shakily growls, tilting her head in Quaritch's direction as if studying him. She looked completely unhinged, sweat and human blood scattered all around her face and body, shrunken yellow eyes staring only at Quaritch.

"Neytiri, don't!" Kayla begs, holding Tuk close for protection and comfort, "Please!"

"Please don't hurt her," Spider continues to ramble until Neytiri takes her knife and slices the blade tightly over his chest, drawing small beads of blood, "Ah!"

"I cut," Neytiri hissed, flashing the blood on her knife to let Quaritch know she meant business. 

Spider huffs in pain and grits his teeth, but he goes right back to begging, "Please just let her go, okay? Just let her go."

Quaritch and Neytiri stare down at one another, unblinking until Neytiri screams in rage and raises her knife up to cut down Spider. Barely anyone had time to react, apart from Quaritch, as he quickly pulled his knife away from Kiri, "NO!"

Kiri gasped only to realize that she wasn't in any more danger, calming her heartbeat as the relieved tears began to well up. A scream that threatened to climb out of Kayla's throat suddenly subsided, and she held her breath while waiting for Neytiri's reaction. The air is thick and tense, both knives raised in the air either to destroy or spare. Neytiri slowly looks back at Quaritch, breathing heavily as she waits, keeping her knife posed and her grip on Spider. Quaritch grunts in defeat, pushing Kiri away and stepping back. Kiri immediately gets to her feet as Jake, Kayla, and Tuk inch closer to her, the younger girl whispering reassurances for herself and her sister, "Kiri... Kiri. Kiri."

Neytiri watches her family reunite with one another before slowly lowering the knife back down, then pointedly shoves Spider behind her, away from Quaritch.

"Spider!" Kiri exclaims as she, Tuk, and Kayla run to him.

Jake slowly approaches Neytiri while they're occupied, taking the knife out of his wife's hand and keeping an eye on Quaritch, "Spider, get 'em outta here."

Without hesitation, Spider began to tug on Kiri's arm, pulling her toward the ocean that was slowly creeping onto the tilting ship, "Come on. Guys-- Tuk."

"I owe you a death," Quaritch points directly at Neytiri, who snarls ferociously back at him with pure hatred in her eyes. 

"Mom," Kiri calls out, while Tuk begins to tug on her mother's arm.

"Mama."

"Come."

"Come on. Please, Mama."

Neytiri finally relents with her daughters' pleading, slowly backing up, inching toward the water. Jake keeps himself between Quaritch and his family, Kayla standing dutifully at his side while the children and Neytiri sink into the water. Quaritch keeps his knife in front of him, at the ready, acting like a cornered tiger while trying to bait Jake into staying, "You're not leaving, are you, Jake?"

"It's okay--" Kiri reassures Tuk as she and Neytiri draw closer.

"Knowin' I'm out there?" Quaritch continues.

"Kayla, back up," Jake muttered warningly, and his sister slowly sank into the water to join the others behind him. 

"Knowin' that I'll never stop?" Quaritch seethed, his voice lowering now that it was only him and Jake still standing on the sinking deck of the ship, "I'm comin' for you. And when I do, I'll kill your whole family."

The water laps at Kiri's face as she sinks into the water, worry in her eyes while watching Jake stand still, no longer moving to join them, "Dad..."

Jake's body stiffens as if his mind had been made up about something, eyes focused only on Quaritch as he stands up straighter, "Then let's get it done."

"Jake, no!" Kayla yells just as Jake leaps for a nearby medkit at the same time Quaritch dives toward him. Jake swings the medkit and hits the Recom with it, momentarily stunning the colonel as he goes in for another attack, this time with the knife he took from Neytiri. He swings at Quaritch several times, closely missing his neck before finally getting a slice at his vest. As the ship continues to tilt and sink, crates and other debris slide down toward the fighting pair and both Jake and Quaritch have to move out of the way to avoid getting hit before moving back in for the kill. They grapple and wrestle for each other's knives, trying to shove the sharp tip into each other's skulls.

"Jake!" Neytiri calls out to her mate just as a burst of flame begins to spread over the water where coolant and oil had spilled into the ocean. The wall of flame grows and begins to inch closer toward the Na'vi and the human boy floating just above the water's surface.

"It's coming!" Tuk cries.

"Back. Back!" Spider orders to the girls, beginning to tread water back the way they came, "Get back to the ship! Go!"

"Tuk, swim. Swim!" Kiri instructs hurriedly. 

Kayla, who was the last to get into the water, was now the first one out, grabbing onto the others one by one and pulling them back up onto the deck, starting with Tuk and ending with Spider as he made sure the others made it on first. Kayla continued to push the whole group ahead of her, occasionally looking around to see if Jake and Quaritch were still nearby, but she had lost sight of them. 

And she wasn't the only one. Neytiri was also frantically looking around, fear in her eyes while clinging on tightly to Tuk's hand, "Jake--"

"I'll get him, go!" Kayla exclaims in a last-second decision, backing away from the group and breaking off while shouting at Neytiri from over her shoulder, "Get the kids outta here, we'll come find ya!"

Kayla then turns to look ahead of her as she runs, determination setting in as she goes over to where she last saw her brother. She hears grunts and growls in the distance and doesn't hesitate to sprint over just in time to see Quaritch kick Jake in the gut to disengage from their knife wrestle. Jake doesn't have time to react as a motor or a generator of some sort comes sliding down toward him and shoves him into the water. 

Quaritch stalks over to the place Jake disappeared, knife glinting off of the flames of destruction around him. The Recom's muscles flex as he pants heavily with adrenaline, and with his back turned to Kayla, she makes a split and reckless decision. Unarmed, she leaps over sliding debris and then uses that momentum to jump up onto Quaritch's back with a small war cry, the both of them grunting at the impact while Kayla doesn't waste time to reach for and grapple for the knife in the colonel's hand. Quaritch growls and pitches Kayla forward off of his back, only for his grip to loosen around his knife and fall right into her hand. The female avatar stands up straight, quickly repositioning the blade more securely in her grip before charging forward, swinging in the air in front of Quaritch as he continuously dodges and leans away from the knife.

Eventually, he sidesteps and grabs her swinging arm, stopping the blade in its tracks before twisting her arm into an uncomfortable position. She cries out, forced to drop the blade before taking her other arm and elbowing Quaritch in the face. He staggers back with a pained grunt, then reaches for her arm again. He slams her against the rigging, driving her to take a gasp of air and regain her footing. A feat that was proven useless when Quaritch quickly grabbed the knife on the ground and reached forward, grabbing Kayla's kuru braid at the very base, connected to her skull. He yanked, hard, driving Kayla to scream in pain, the action rendering her immobile. He keeps her braid tight in one hand while the other retrieves his knife and is sure to let her know he means business when he presses the sharp blade to her throat. Kayla reduced her struggle to a minimum as she felt a small trickle of blood run down her long neck along with her sweat.

Quaritch grits his teeth and through the struggle, manages a small, gritted smile, "You're a newer model. You must be the little missing guinea pig the General was talking about."

She hissed, baring her fangs to the best of her ability, making the intimidating sound from the back of her throat, only cutting the sound off when Quaritch tugged painfully against her braid. Kayla gulped back air and frantically reached back for her queue at the base, trying to relieve his grip on such a sensitive part, following the motion to be sure the kuru wasn't torn from her skull. The movement brings Quaritch's attention to a certain item dangling from her neck.

Her RDA military tags, clinked softly together, proudly bearing her rank and station. Quaritch sees the name, so familiar that causes both dread and rage to eat him up from the inside out. He snarls, the fangs forming a cold, threatening smile, "Well I'll be damned... betrayal must run in the family."

Kayla nearly lunged at him before she felt a twitch in the knife and her body immediately stiffened, the cold blade digging further into her skin. She could see the male avatar's whole form tightening, preparing to use his strength to give the killing the blow. Quaritch's grip on her braid and his knife tighten and he's ready to just end her with the flick of his wrist.

"NO!" Is the only gutwrenching warning Jake gives either of them before he tackles Quaritch, shoving his whole body into the colonel's torso like a football player. The impact drives the older man to grunt in pain and also let go of Kayla, but the force of the tackle sends her falling backward, stumbling over the railing. Kayla is thrown overboard and sent falling into the ocean, where her screams forming her brother's name are drowned out by the water consuming her.

Unable to take a breath in before she hit the water, Kayla struggled to get air. She quickly swims up to the surface and manages to gulp out a breath or two when she breaches, but the moment is cut short when she realizes that the tipping ship was throwing debris off the side of the hull down into the ocean and onto her. Kayla instinctively holds her breath, properly this time, and dives back down into the water in an attempt to avoid the collision. Heavy machinery and other objects from the ship are falling quickly through the water around her like a knife through butter, too heavy to stay afloat. She narrowly misses as much debris as possible, trying to swim away as fast as she can, but she gets caught but a large piece of shipwreck that had broken off from the initial boat. It's heavy enough to drag her down, deep into the dark depths until the bioluminescent lights of the coral reef below light her surroundings, the glow of the fire and eclipse above the ocean's surface faintly disappearing the deeper she got dragged down. Her arms burned in exhaustion as she tried her best to pull and swim herself out from under the debris, but it was too heavy and sinking too fast, and her foot and gotten caught in a shredded hole wedged inside the metal. 

Against all that she had learned, Kayla began to panic, her heart racing while she frantically looked around to the best of her ability. Because of this, the need for air came quicker, and her lungs began to burn and try to constrict. Pressure began to build in her skull and chest, and dark spots started to form in the corners of her vision. The creaking of metal fills her ears as Kayla's arms finally stop fighting, too tired and weak to continue to try. With her mind now foggy and devoid of logic due to lack of oxygen, Kayla opened her mouth and took in a breath.

Just as the water rushed through her mouth and entered her lungs, a sharp tug on her foot had wrenched her free. Whatever was wrapped around her ankle now rose to wrap around her waist, and distantly, Kayla felt herself being pulled against a solid form as they swam through the water. Barely gaining the strength to look up, she faintly realized she was quickly rising to the surface.

The moment her face is free from the water, she takes big gulps of air, coughing seaspray from her lungs as she's pulled up onto a tsurak without much of a struggle, laying across its strong back and part of its head as she catches her breath. The strong arm secure around her torso was heavily tattooed and clearly Metkayina, the limb letting her go once she remembered to hold herself up out of the water. Between breaths, she takes a moment to glance up and lets her body relax at the sight of Tonowari, sitting calmly on the saddle of the skimwing.

The olo'eyktan appeared grim at the sight of her, silently urging her to cough up the water with a hand gently placed on the back of her neck. Kayla winced when the initial touch was sore from where her queue braid had been tugged, and so Tonowari drew his hand away, instead tilting her chin up to inspect the cut on her neck, small trickles of blood flowing down her skin.

"Are you injured?"

"I'm fine." Kayla managed to spit out as she pulled her chin from his grasp, ignoring the sharp pain in her foot. She began wildly looking around and immediately spotted Ronal and her tsurak floating beside them. Closely watching Kayla, the tsahik's big eyes briefly glanced down at the neck wound her mate was inspecting on the avatar.

Satisfied by the answer, Tonowari instructs Kayla to lean against him so he can reach the handlebar of his tsurak, adjusting her until she's properly straddling the back of the powerful lungfish. Still a little dazed and recovering, Kayla doesn't fight being puppeteered as the tsurak begins to move in the direction its rider wanted to go. Kayla tiredly looked around, freezing in fear when she noticed the WIGE ship was barely peeking out of the water now, and she could do nothing but watch as it slowly disappeared, into the ocean, leaving nothing behind but large bubbles and ripples along with the groaning of metal.

It was only when Kayla realized that she was being led away from the location of the sunken ship did she begin to struggle, startling the skimwing and irritating the chieftain. Tonowari grips the handle of the tsurak with one hand but makes a point to restrain Kayla with the other, wrapping his whole arm around her torso again as she starts to protest loudly, "No! NO! My family's still in there! They're still down there, stop!"

"You will do them no good if you drown before you can get to them!" Tonowari snapped.

Ronal blocked the path of her husband's tsurak with her own, looking dead in Kayla's eyes with ferocious determination and fear, not willing to look away, "My daughter-- where is she?!"

Briefly stunned with the adrenaline slowly wearing off, Kayla sputtered for a moment, catching her breath while stuttering out, "On... On that rock face over there."

She points in the general direction where the dreading idea of Neteyam's body now lay, but neither Ronal nor Tonowari notice the look of defeat and grief on her face. Looking back at the ship, she couldn't help the tears falling down her face as she quietly whispered, "I'll take you to her."

They idly swam in silence, and it felt as though the world was ending. They swam past floating bodies and debris, empty boats, and life jackets. The sky was still red along with the scattering ocean of flames and smoke. The smell was almost unbearable. It was the longest silence in Kayla's life, her only thoughts on the whereabouts of her brother and his family. Had they gotten off the ship? Are they safe? Where was Quaritch? 

Tsireya had spotted them in the water before the three Na'vi adults spotted her, crying and waving them over to the stranded rock fixture she stood on, her knees covered in blood, but not her own, "Sa'nok! Sempul!"

Kayla was immediately forgotten as both Ronal and Tonowari hopped off their skimwings and scrambled up onto the rock fixture, rushing toward their daughter. Ronal instantly gathered the crying girl in her arms, a little difficult with her rounded belly, but she had managed while whispering into her hair with relief in her voice, "Tsireya... Thank you, Great Mother, thank you."

Tonowari joins the embrace, wrapping his long arms around his wife and child. A soft yip in the wind draws the olo'eyktan's attention away, and upon looking around, he catches sight of two reef boys astride ilu. The boys call out again before jumping up onto the rock face. It was Ao'nung and Rotxo, both unharmed and a little frazzled. Ao'nung raced to his family and his father pulled him into their group embrace, relief now fully flooding the family's veins. 

Rotxo stood just outside of the family, his eyes only set on one thing lying on the ground, dread seeping into his skin as his breath was taken from him, "Neteyam...?"

Tsireya only cried harder at the sound of his name, and when her parents and brother turned to what Rotxo was looking at, they came across a horrific sight. Their joy and relief were shortly outlived and exchanged for sorrow as they observed Neteyam's corpse, unmoving and now cradled in Kayla's arms. She was kneeling before her nephew's body, holding his torso up on her lap with her arms wrapped protectively around his head. She was crying silently to herself, sobbing so softly that none of the Metkayina standing before her could hear it over the wind and waves. Kayla was short of breath for an entirely different reason, her body shaking as the shock wore off and the realization sunk in.

Her nephew was dead, and for all she knew, so was the rest of her family.

The sunlight finally reemerged beyond the eclipse, the fires no longer setting a dreadful horizon. Kayla didn't care for the sunlight, her stomach turning when Neteyam's blood only became more noticeable. She was cold, wet, and exhausted, the adrenaline turned to full-body shakes up and down her spine. She didn't want to move, keeping her eyes shut so she could pretend that she was simply hugging Neteyam, but it was hard to do so when Neteyam felt so cold and stiff.

A large bellow is heard from the water as something big swims up to the rock fixture. Kayla remembers Payakan and looks up, tear tracks marking down both of her cheeks. Another wave of emotions took over her when she noticed that the rest of the Sullys were all hanging onto Payakan's fin, climbing tiredly up the rock fixture once they got close enough. 

"Auntie!" Tuk cried when she first spotted Kayla, rushing over to her aunt. Kayla immediately set Neteyam down and tried her best to shield the girl from such a sight as she gathered the child up in her arms.

Kayla cried loudly, out of relief, holding onto Tuk tightly as if there was no tomorrow. Taking deep breaths through her sobs, she quickly looks around to take a headcount, quickly finding the remaining of the Sullys standing around her. Jake, Neytiri, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk. All safe, all unharmed. Kiri runs up to join the group hug while Tsireya breaks away from her family to run into Lo'ak's arms. Jake and Neytiri pay no mind to anyone else, tired and distant both physically and emotionally. Neytiri simply walked back over to Neteyam, kneeling down and pulling her child into her arms as fresh tears began to cut down her face. Kayla finally lets her nieces go and gently leads them over to Neteyam, stepping away so the girls have their own time to grieve. After a while, Jake takes out a knife and goes around cutting away any remnants of orange slap cuffs still hanging off of anyone's arms and wrists. He cuts them off of himself, then Lo'ak, then Tsireya, and begins to cut the cuffs off both of Kiri's wrists. He doesn't want to take Tuk away from her big brother just yet, as the little girl cries into Neteyam's hand, holding the limb to her chest for just a little bit of comfort.

Another figure approaches, seemingly out of thin air, but only because he had just swam up to them. Kiri is the first to spot him, a relieved smile spreading over her face, "Monkey Boy!"

For the most part, everyone looks up to notice Spider, walking up to them unharmed apart from the long, thin cut across his chest. Jake stands up and puts his knife away, while Kayla watches the boy closely, looking for any signs of distress. But Spider was breathing perfectly through the mask, tired but otherwise intact.

Lo'ak gently breaks away from Tsireya to further observe his friend, likely also trying to see if he was injured, "Spider."

Ronal and Tonowari catch the name and glance at one another. So this was the sky demon boy affiliated with the Sullys. Kiri reached up to him from where she was sitting once he got close enough, placing her hand over Spider's heart. He looked down at her, equally solemn and relieved, reaching up to gently hold her hand. They smile faintly at one another before Jake interrupts to inspect the boy himself, placing his hands on Spider's shoulders.

"You all right?"

"Yeah."

Jake believes him and brings the human boy close in an embrace, looking around and then over to Lo'ak, seeing his son standing alone and looking ashamed. Immediately, Jake reaches an arm out and pulls Lo'ak into their group embrace, "Come here."

For the most part, Jake looked the worst out of all of them, bruised and slowly bleeding through small cuts and scrapes. They all stand or sit around, quietly taking in each other's presence and everything that just happened. Kayla finally felt as though she could sit down, slowly sinking to the ground until she was leaning back on her hands, properly regaining her breath, and trying to elevate her injured foot. Sighing now that pressure had been taken off her ankle, she looked around at everyone, the threat of danger still in the back of her mind, all the horror they had dealt with today now fully being comprehended in her mind. Looking over at Spider, she knows that she and Jake will have to question the boy and have him tell them everything that happened to him and how RDA had managed to find the Sullys. At the same time, they'll have to explain why they never went looking for him and offer their sincerest apologies. But for now, it'll have to wait. For now...

A son for a son.

A/N: Kinda not sorry. I love angst... no matter how much it hurts to write it. I definitely cried while writing this, but I really needed it cuz I haven't had a good cry in a while.

THERE'S GONNA BE MORE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE FIC. I have future chapters already written out so keep an eye out for an update! I intend to stretch this fic out until the next film, but let's see how it goes lol. Lemme know if you want a request or want to be added to the taglist!

Rip Matthew Perry

[everettes-requiem]

whats ur sexuality lmao

TW! internalized homophobia, usage of religion to justify said homophobia

hullo! kuni here. i just wanted to quickly say, please do not take any real offense to this! i am queer myself, but considering the time period and how he was raised, everette is bound to be like this. i wanted to give way for all parts of his character, even the ugly ones, in fact, those unsightly traits are majorly important to his character. i mean, there’s a reason why he’s so defensive here, there’s reasons as to why he’s saying these things. he’s a child still, after all, having been influenced by the world around him and the people he knew.

with that being said, these are sensitive topics, thus the TW to ensure the safety of all that may come across his post. thank you!

— KUNI !!

what kind of question even is this? who do you think you are? what do you ‘ake me for? a sinner?

the thought crossing your mind to ask me this is one thing the sorely wrong implications are still there for you to even think of the question, but at the very least you would have kept your mouth shut, saving me from knowing whatever it is that’s going on in the head of a very apparent scamp but it’s the fact you actually had the gall to really ask me it. what was the purpose? to wound me up? grind my gears? to try to get a rise out of me? you’re pathetic.

or perhaps… were you hoping for some kind of anticipated answer from me? that’s what i assume is the case. no, im sure that’s the case actually. i mean, why else ask me such a stupid question? what, did you think i liked anyone else other than the opposite gender? were you expecting me to say i like boys?

i like boys, that’s what you’re surely implying. well, you are so very mistaken. i would laugh but gods am i too fit to be tied to even produce anything other than turmoil.

boys loving other boys is a sin. Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” men who love other men are indecent. my father has always described it as this… that these people would forever be in purgatory, even before they die. that the hate they receive in the living world is only preparation for their inevitable damnation. do you think me, everette ainsworth, would stoop that low? no, of course not. i’m a saint.

i like girls, do you need me to repeat that? bloody hell i can’t even believe i even need to say this in the first place, i like girls! you know, those with two x chromosomes? but in hindsight, perhaps you don’t even know what a chromosome is if you’re asking me a question like this. surely you’re just as much of a dolt as you sound. i’m already regretting wasting my precious time on someone like you. sod off.

— everette ainsworth

[arcadekitten]

Ello AK! Just wanted to say I love your games I always watch manlybadasshero's playthrough of your games since I can't unfortunately play your games myself but I just want to say that firstly Rune is one of my favorite characters in your games!! (especially after crowscare I think that was what it's called sorry am real tired rn so goldfish brain is kinda show lmao-) but I also have a question about Rune that I don't know if it's been answer already or not but is Rune disabled? since in blackout hospital he was in a wheelchair and in crowscare he was using magic to float if I remember correctly(?) I'm really curious about that as I myself am a wheelchair user and he is kinda my comfort character ;w; anyway love your games keep up the good work and take care!! <3

Yes, Rune is disabled! I'm so happy you enjoy the games and that you can find comfort in him! Thank you so much for your kind words!! It means a lot to me! ♡

[deadricslover]

little admirer

here's my masterlist!

a/n: I've been stuck for ideas I'm sorry I've been gone :/ but hopefully I will get back into the routine of posting! this is also shorter than usual but I didn't want to drag it out lol

summary: you always hated getting bombarded by 'fans' of Bruce and the paparazzi. You didn't think this encounter would be any different but you were wrong. It was actually one of the most wholesome ones and definitely your favourite.

warnings: this really isn't about Bruce but he's the boyfriend ok? so...ya. and scars I guess NOT PROOFREAD

pairings: bale!Bruce Wayne x gn!musician!eader

-------------------------------------------------

When you looked out the window and saw the crowds of people outside, your fear reached its pinnacle. The only thing you wanted was to spend your anniversary with Bruce alone, free from intrusions other than kisses, of course. Yet that was all wishful thinking. It was obvious that it would not occur. Given your animosity for the paparazzi, Bruce had made an effort to ease your fears, but in reality, you both knew you would just have to get through it. You might have thought you would get used to it since you were also a fairly well-known musician, but not as much as Bruce, the prince of Gotham. However, Bruce took your hand and urged you to break the habit of chewing your nails while staring at the crowd.

"how do they even know you're here?" to ask turning to him

he huffs and shakes his head in thought. "I don't know. maybe someone saw us walking in"

"can we not go to dinner in peace? I mean.." you were at a loss for words, you didn't know how people could be so invasive and inconsiderate.

"I know. I know" he soothes gently kissing your hand and stroking your opposite shoulder whilst his arm is around your back.

"do you want to just get it done?" he inquires and you knew it was the smart thing to do even though you didnt want to. at all.

"yeah sure" you reply turning away and grabbing some last minute things off the bed. On the way out of the elevator, Bruce gently yet firmly places his hand on your waist in order to keep you close. Cameras flash, questions are thrown as you try to make your way through the flood of people. Bruce usually liked to put away a minute or two for some real fans who just wanted a high five off of Bruce Wayne, but he wasn't so sure about right now. You encouraged him to do it, not to break tradition and said you would wait elsewhere. Usually people would recognise you, but Bruce Wayne was right there so of course nobody would pay attention to you...not that you were complaining. A couple people did ak for a photo and you kindly obliged as long as they were sincere about it. As you stood watching Bruce interact with kids and their parents, not paying any mind to reporters, you feel a little tap on your arm. You look around and notice a little girl standing next to you with loving eyes. You crouch down to the little girl thinking maybe she was lost.

"hi sweetie. Are you ok?" you ask the child glancing around to see if her parents were anywhere to be found.

"I'm very good." she replies cheerfully

"awh that's good. where are your parents?" you ask

"getting a photo with Bruce Wayne."

"ooohh. everyone wants to don't they? he's really famous" you emphasize trying to make conversation with the girl

"not as famous as you, though"

she knew who you were? that's so sweet "no no. Bruce is way way more famous than me. but thank you! what's your name?"

"Camilla. You're my favourite person, ever!" she jumps lightly squealing.

oh my- of your heart wasn't throbbing before. it sure is now. the smile on your face couldn't be bigger.

"awh that's so sweet! you're my favourite person too, Camilla!"

"can I tell you a secret" she whispers after a couple moments of silence

"of course you can" you tell her pretending to zip your lips and lock them. She rolls up her t-shirt a little to show you a scar on her tummy. Whatever caused that scar, you felt horrible, especially because she said it was a secret. your eyebrows draw together as a reaction to your reaction.

"I used to hate it and cry all the time because I thought it was weird. but then I found out that you had one too, and now I love it, because my favourite person in the whole wide world has the same thing as me!" she tells. you honestly could cry. A little girl hating something about her body ay such a young age is bad enough but also the fact that she grew to love it because you had one too?! your heart throbbed.

"I do have one. it's on my arm. But yours is so much more beautiful"

"I got mine from an operation when I was a baby" she informs you butchering the word operation as any child would.

"ooh interesting. see all those people asking Bruce for a photo? with all the cameras? well I got mine from them. one time I finished a show and was going home and they hurt me" you recall in simple terms

"my mommy and daddy hurt you?" she asks shocked

"no! not your parents. some others that don't work there anymore."

"that's sad" she replies

she looks off into the crowd for a second and waves to her parents before telling you she has to go now-- not before asking for a hugh though. you kindly oblige without a second thought and embrace the girl smiling. her parents walk over and thank you for being kind to her and watching her. you tell them it was no problem as they leave and you wave to the little girl. Right on queue the famous Bruce wayne walks over without you noticing

"she seemed to love you"

"tell me about it. I'm her favourite person ever in the whole wide world" you recall

"she's not the only one" he adds to taking your hand in his and starts walking

you smile lightly and nudge Bruce slightly "she showed me something too. she had this scar on her stomach from a surgery when she born and she used to always be insecure about it" you start

"that's horrible, she's only young" he butts in genuinely sorry for the girl

"yeah, but the nice part that she found out that I also had a scar the same shape as hers and because of that she grew to love it...all because I had one too!" you exclaim still in disbelief

"you're such an influence. that's so sweet" he responds continuing to walk. "it is isn't it?" you reply placing your head on his shoulder while strolling to the restaurant. Usually you hate the paparazzi, but this time was different, it was sincere and sweet. definitely your favourite so far.

[bits-and-babs]

hi, i'm so very sorry for your loss, hope you're okay since it's been a few days since you posted this

could i ask a combo 14 - 16 - 23 with our favorite flyboy poe dameron with a nice and happy ending <3

sending you all my love :))

-ˋˏ 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐊𝐀 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐇��𝐃 ˎˊ-

— pairing: Poe Dameron x f!Reader

— word count: 1.1k

— warnings: Jealous Poe, Tipsy Poe. Thigh riding, exhibitionism, dirty talk as ALWAYS. Consumption of alcohol. References to sex, 18+, Ya Nasties.

— authors note: Thank you so much for your condolences, I am doing much better now <3 this ask was DELICIOUS to write, I really appreciate the distraction. I don’t know if it’s exactly what you wanted but I started writing and couldn’t stop!

poe dameron masterlist I| main masterlist |I send me an ask

A sour scent of Spotchka permeates the cantina booth you sit in and burns your nose. It's flowing heavily today to celebrate a significant win against the First Order, the liquid soaked into the seats. The implosion of the Star Killer base had been a critical mission success, one that guaranteed The Resistance the opportunity to fight another day.

Morale was high, and General Organa saw no reason to put a stop to the celebrations when everyone was in need of some sort of release.

However, you feel tenser than you did in the sky, blasting tie fighters; muscles primed and ready to spring. Your brain has initiated evasive action, but your body is frozen in place by the oak-brown eyes that settle intensely on your face.

Poe swirls the blue beverage in the tumble glass, creating a miniature whirlpool, not unlike the twisting feeling in your stomach. His gaze, irises obscured by his hooded eyelids, sets sparks across your skin like an ion charge.

He lifts the glass to his lips, taking a swig of the azure liquid and savouring the burn on his tongue. You hear him exhale slowly through his nose despite the din of the bustling Cantina. It's like your senses are honed in on the gold leader, blurring out the background noise.

"So, you and Gold-Twelve, huh?”

Your mouth dries when his eyes lift back to you, a playful spark of something dangerous flitting in his pupils. Had he seen that? The flirty arm that Kori had wrapped around your waist. The squeeze he’d given your hip— the brush of his palm against the curve of your ass.

“H-Huh?”

“Sure seems like he was getting cosy with you, Seven.” His tone is pointed but not vicious. There’s something clipped in his voice- something envious.

“N-No-… No, we’re jus-“

“No?” He asks you, pointing to the bar while maintaining a grip on the crystal glass in his hand, “Could have fooled me, Seven. He seemed ready to take you to his bunk.”

You feel heat flush your face, eyes burning into the ak-wood tabletop. Had it been imported from Tython? The rings and swirls within the grain were pretty, maybe pretty enough to convince Poe you were too distracted to listen to his probing questions-

“Come here.”

Your body betrays you. Startled by his order, your eyes snap up to his face. Poe’s eyebrow is quirked upwards, indicating his unwillingness to wait. He’s radiating this energy, something that makes your insides scream with delight.

“B-But-“

“If you’re not seeing Kori, come here.”

Seeing?! What the kriff did he even mean by that? Did he think you two were sleeping together, because you sure as kark weren’t dating! You stumble like a newborn foal out of your side of the booth, practically floating around the table to reach where he waits expectantly.

You barely slide into the booth when he’s pulling you onto his lap, hands vice-like on your hips as he settles you on his left thigh. A gasp rips itself from your throat, whiny in pitch, when he balances on his toes and grinds the muscle of his against your clit.

He’s gazing up at you, those eyes melting like chocolate when he looks at you through his lashes. Poe reminds you so much of it, rich and sweet and rare. When he parts his lips, your tongue begs to taste them, craving the oxytocin.

“I-“ you stumble; the sweep of his hands up your back in a soothing gesture makes your heart stutter and slam into your throat. “I’mnotdatingKori!”

The induced slur of the admission makes him smile, leaning up ever so slightly to get closer to you. Spotchka hangs heavy on his breath when he exhales a sigh, the tip of his nose brushing against the soft flesh of your cheek when he presses a kiss to your jaw.

“Good. That’s good,” he murmurs, his own words dripping together as though all the blue alcohol has hit him all at once. Poe isn’t totally drunk. He needs rivers of Spotchka to get intoxicated, preferring the much stronger Jet-Juice as it was less of a drain on his credits and more of a buzz on his brain.

No, if you knew better, you’d realise that he’s inebriated by you. The feeling of your body on his, the feeling of your cunt grinding on his lap when he drags you forward.

Whimpering, your hands fly out to hold onto the leather shoulders of his jacket. You’re trembling already, the effects of his touch hitting you much harder than even the strongest of alcoholic beverages they served in this shitty cantina. The friction, even through your clothes, settles a twisting feeling in your abdomen when he slides his palms under your ass, grabbing a handful of you and using it as leverage.

“P-Poe-“ you moan out his name, knowing damn well that half of the patrons in the damn bar could look over and see you getting all but fucked by the Black Leader, right hand to General Leia Organa.

“So pretty for me on my lap,” he whispers, eyes engulfed by the blackness of his pupils as he sweeps them over your form as you roll your hips across the length of his muscular thigh. Poe Dameron was well known for being too damn ‘thick’ for his x-wing seat, and you can feel why. “Think you’d look so pretty for me on my cock, baby. Fuck, look at you-“

Stars, you’re gripping the leather of the booth, fingernails scratching the surface beyond repair as you feel a surge pass through you, crackling like force-lightning up your spinal cord and short-fusing your brain.

“Nuh-uh,” he shakes his head at you, lips pulling apart in another Dameron-Dreamy smile as he works his hands between you, belt clicking quietly amongst the loud celebration of drunk revellers. “Pretty baby’s gonna wait until I’ve got a taste of what she looks like all filled up.”

Spotchka and endorphins are flooding your system; you don’t even bother to second-guess the location, the people in the room, the logistics. You just scramble to remove your cargo pants, Poe’s fingers hooking into the waistband and yanking them down just enough to slip you onto his aching dick.

The whole of Yavin 4 learns that you most certainly are not ‘seeing’ Gold-Twelve and that Black Leader Poe Dameron had already staked his claim, much to Kori’s disappointment.

Much to your delight.

END

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

please more ak-15 stuff plss Chris🙏🙏

(GFL) AK-15 slow dancing with her S/O

Ah, a fellow AK-15 simp. YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND

Truthfully, 15 didn't have a lot of interest in attending a military Ball held by Griffin.

DEFY wasn't even officially a part of the PMC, but Angelia was invited to it by the Commander, and dragged the squad with her.

But, it wasn't too bad since S/O and many other T-Dolls she worked with would be there.

That, at least was a nice compromise for her personally.

Amusingly enough, none of the squad wore anything fancy while everyone else had either dresses or suits on, making them stand out.

Even most of the T-Dolls were wearing a nice outfit, but again, she did not care.

Until she saw S/O approach.

(S/O) "Fifteen? I'm surprised you came!"

15 immediately noticed that their expression brightened up upon seeing her, but she made no mention of it and only nodded in response.

(AK-15) "Angelia decided to attend, if only to please the Commander."

(S/O) "Hah, right. I guess I couldn't have convinced you?"

15 remained silent for a moment, her eyes looking away for a moment before shaking her head.

(AK-15) "...If you had asked me personally, I would have done so."

S/O noticed how awkward she seemed to be, understandably so.

She normally viewed things like this as a waste of time, so it made sense.

(S/O) "...Hey, come with me for a second?"

S/O extended their hand, waiting for her to grab it as a smile slowly crept onto their lips. 15 simply blinked before taking their hand, letting herself be dragged away from the stuffiness inside the main hall.

Taking a step outside, they were able to stand under the moonlight alone, though there were a small amount of people outside, everyone kept to themselves thankfully.

(S/O) "Ah, much better. I can actually breathe out here..."

15's eyes slowly glanced over to S/O, noticing how nice their suit/dress was.

(AK-15) "You look good tonight."

S/O was taken off guard by the compliment, suddenly stuttering as one finger reached for their collar, stretching it out and avoiding eye contact.

(S/O) "H-Hah, thanks. Personally, I thought this looked a bit too gaudy on me, I would've just preferred to wear my normal uniform.-"

From inside the main hall, the two could hear music softly playing, watching from outside as the crowds moved off into pairs, slowly dancing to the beat.

S/O stepped away from 15, only to extend a hand to her with another smile, albeit this one was softer.

(S/O) "Will you have this dance with me tonight, Fifteen?"

Her eyes slightly widened at the question, S/O swearing they could see her face flush a little from embarassment.

S/O wasn't even aware 15 could experience embarassment.

(AK-15) "I...do not know how to dance."

S/O's fingers brushed against her hand before holding it, laughing nervously.

(S/O) "Neither do I, to be honest. No better time than now, right?"

(AK-15) "...Then I will follow your lead."

S/O and 15's hands held each other as they awkwardly raised it up, simply stepping to the side, trying their best to mimic what the people inside were doing.

As soon as the lyrics for the song kicked in, they were slowly getting the hang of it.

S/O saw 15's eyes on them, looking intense as usual. But her face and body language said that she was relaxed, something S/O rarely saw these days.

After a few moments, her irises blinked into a solid pink color before returning to its normal state, surprising S/O.

(S/O) "A-Are you okay?-"

(AK-15) "I have just downloaded something to assist with slow dancing like this."

(S/O) "Ass-IST?!-"

15 suddenly dipped S/O back, they almost lost their footing were it not for her hand lowering to their waist.

She detected heat signatures rapidly rising to their cheeks, but she paid it no mind, instead, taking their hand behind her head, and leaning closer to them, S/O being able to see clearly the irregular shape of her eyes in detail.

(AK-15) "You have always taken care of me when it comes to matters like these. I wish to repay your kindness now, and take care of you."

15 now felt their heart quicken in pace, but she continued with her plan and raised S/O back up, expertly stepping in beat with S/O trying their best to catch up.

Despite their apparent nervousness, they still let 15 take the lead, fully trusting her.

Something that made her very happy, the only indication being her brows raising higher than usual as she danced with S/O.

S/O let their head rest on her chest as she guided their feet along the empty courtyard, both of them just enjoying the moment.

At this point, 15 knew that her squad was looking at them, but she didn't care.

All that mattered to her right now:

(AK-15) "...I'm glad I came here for you, S/O."

S/O quietly chuckled, stopping in place with 15 to look her directly in the eyes.

(S/O) "...I'm glad you're here too, Fifteen."

With 15 being one of the tallest T-Dolls, S/O had to stand on the tip of their toes to fully meet her lips, giving a gentle kiss that she leaned into, her arms wrapping around them, with S/O's hands on her shoulders.

...

(AK-12) "Aw, isn't that cute?

(AN-94) "...Ah, is that S/O?"

(RPK-16) "So it would seem. I'm glad AK-15 can actually enjoy herself instead of just thinking about the next mission."

(Angelia) "Alright girls, quit staring and give them some privacy. God knows they need it."