#chapter6

Ao’nung blinks away the shock from his fall and glares at the forest girl’s back as she walks away from him. Sure, he was being a jerk to her, he knows but he believes his actions are justified, sort of. 

Ever since that forest family came to stay, his life has been nothing but hell. Y/n and her family have made a rather good impression on the clan already despite what they themselves might think. Ao’nung hears what his friends and the other kids say about them, at first it was words that made fun of the forest kids, which was perfect, it still had everyone looking up to him and looking down on them or rather her. However, she was a quick learner, she can ride an Ilu, weave baskets, braid hair, make accessories with what the sea provides, make healing pastes. In other words, she was perfect. It was as if everything was second nature to her.

He heard others start to talk differently about them. Even during family meal times, he would have to endure his parents and Tsireya praising the forest family. Praising her. He hates it. He has had dreams where she is standing before him, everyone praising her and looking down on him. He’d die before it ever comes to that in real life. She is a forest person and she has no business here with the sea. 

Oh Ewya she annoyed his very being, the corners of his mouth turned up to let out a snarl as he watched her dark blue figure enter her Mauri. He got up and walked the other way, he was pissed. So pissed at her, and her family, and his father and at himself.

“Ao’nung!” He heard someone call out to him. He looked over at it was his friend.

“What.” He was irritated already, if his friend decides to be annoying he’ll actually-

“You got to check this forest girl out, she’s actually lost it.”

What-

Now ao’nung was interested. He followed his friend who led him back to the direction of the forest family’s mauri, just below was very shallow water where a forest girl was laying on her stomach, head in the water.

‘Is that y/n?’ Ao’nung thought as he watched from afar. His other friends were watching her, laughing quietly amongst themselves. When ao’nung approached them, they made space for him to stand in the middle of the group, a clear view of a dark blue girl minding her own business.

Ao’nung smirked.

“Let’s go closer” he said, his friends let out a few excited words, laughing quietly again, following ao’nung as he walked closer and closer to Y/n.

He was going to get back at her.

“She’s just looking at the sand”

Wait…

“Ahahaha”

Wait no that’s not-

“Huh?” The forest girl lifted her head and ao’nung had to hold in his shock when he saw that it wasn’t Y/n but her sister, Titi. No.. Piri? Oh he can’t remember.

“What you’d say?” She shook the water off her face and stood up. Ao’nung can’t back down now though.. not when his friends are watching. He really did think it was Y/n so he was fine with teasing and annoying her. But it isn’t y/n. It’s her sister.

So what? They’re both the same. Both are forest aliens.

“Are you some kind of freak?” Ao’nung asked.

“He asked if you are a freak.” His friend clarified.

Y/N’s sister sighed and shook her head. “No.” She began walking away but ao’nung and his friends followed her.

“Are you sure? I mean, you’re not even real Na’vi.” Ao’nung smirked, walking around her. When she didn’t say anything, he tried provoking her further. “Look at this hands.” He tried grabbing her hand but she pulled it away.

So he went to grab them again.

“I mean look at them” he emphasises.

“HEY!”

Ao’nung and his friends turned around at the voice. It was Y/N’s younger brother, noah. No. It began with L right?

“Back off fish lips.”

Whatever, his name is irrelevant anyway.

“Oh~ another four fingered freak!” Ao’nung laughed, the smaller forest boy may have came acting like the hero but he was greatly outnumbered, ao’nung and his friends began to tease and taunt him.

“Leave us alone!” Piri or titi, whatever her name is shouted. But her voice was ignored. Ao’nung kept laughing.

Yes. This is it. Make everyone look down on them so they can look up at him. This is how it should be. This is perfect.

Ao’nung felt a hard hand grab his shoulder and force him to turn around. It was neteyam. His friends and lo’ak stopped squabbling. Ao’nung glared silently at the older boy.

“You heard what she said.” Neteyam’s voice was alarmingly calm. “Leave them alone”

“Aww~ big brother coming-“ ao’nung’s friend spoke up, his voice taunting but ao’nung stopped him for speaking any further. He hated the sully’s that’s true. But he isn’t a fool. He knew it would be unwise to start a fight with the eldest son of the sully’s.

“Back off.” Neteyam let out his last word through his teeth. “Now.”

Ao’nung smirked and put his hands up, mimicking surrender.

Neteyam kept his eyes on ao’nung as he spoke again. “Smart choice.” He looked at his friends. “And from now on, I need you to respect my sister. Both my sisters.”

Ao’nung said nothing but kept glaring. That dumb friend let out a hiss as if still wanting to fight, ao’nung held him back with a single hand.

“Let’s go.” Neteyam took his two siblings and walked away.

—-

Y/n had been sent out by her father to go catch fish, enough for dinner to feed the whole family. She was only allowed to hunt by the shore line so she was limited with how many fish she could hunt.

By the time she came back, 10 fishes in her large pouch and a few fruits she found, she was confused when she couldn’t find her dad.

“Dad?” She called out in the empty mauri, putting her bag down to the side. She was about to go and look outside the marui pod when she heard footsteps nearby, her dad’s footsteps. She turned around and within seconds Jake came in with her brothers.

She gasped at the sight of them.

Both had looked like they were beaten up, neteyam sporting a busted lip, lo’ak’s skin having patches of dark red, irritated skin that will bruise over night.

“What happened?” She muttered as she walked over to them.

“What was the one thing I asked? One thing.” Jake ignored Y/N’s question, his mind too busy buzzing around with the thought of his idiotic sons.

“Stay out of trouble.” Both boys whispered. Y/n inspected both her brothers, she went to lo’ak first, holding his chin and making him look at her so she she could see his injuries closer. His nose was bleeding. Lo’ak shook her off.

“It was my fault.” Neteyam stepped forward.

“I don’t think so. You got to stop taking the heat for this knuckle head” Jake glared at his youngest son.

Y/n moved over to Neteyam, too shocked and worried to even remember that she and him had argued and had not spoken to each other for days.

“Ao’nung was picking on Kiri, called her a freak.” Lo’ak explained himself, Jake sucked in air through his teeth, looking away.

“He did what?!?” Y/n is was mid inspecting Neteyam’s injuries when she turned her head sharply to look at lo’ak when she heard what happened. “He called her what??” She need to hear lo’ak say it again. She was gonna fuck that sea Bitch up.

“Go apologise to Ao’nung.” Jake spoke softly.

“What.” Both lo’ak and Y/n spoke. Clearly ao’nung is in fault, why should lo’ak apologise.

“He’s the chief’s son. Do you understand.” Y/n looked at her father in disbelief. Neteyam held onto her arm to stop her from going out to find ao’nung herself.

“Just go. I don’t care how you do it, just go make peace.” Jake sighed and lo’ak went out to go find Ao’nung.

“Socks, you will stay put.” Jake warned her.

“Whaaat???”

Neteyam’s hold on her hand tightened.

“Let lo’ak do it himself. You stay here in the marui. Patch neteyam up or something.” Jake then left after giving her a final warning.

Once her father left she looked at neteyam in disbelief.

“Did you hear what I heard?” She asked him.

“Socks..”

“Dad is unbelievable.” She moved to go through a few small pots in the corner.

“Y/n listen-“

“That dumb overgrown fish decided to flap his tiny flippers at you and Lo’ak and it’s your fault?” She pulled neteyam down to sit next to her.

“I said listen-“

“Why should lo’ak apologise? It’s that son of a bit-“

“Y/n!” Neteyam held her shoulder and pushed to make her torso turn and face him. She stopped talking at looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears that barely clung to her waterline.

“It’s not fair.” Her voice came out quieter than before. She looked down and picked up a clean rag and dampened it in a bowl of water.

“Y/n, dad knew it isn’t our fault.” Neteyam spoke softly. This probably is the first real conversation they have had since their argument. Before it was just small words and quick replies, most of the time they would avoid and ignore each other.

“Then why did he go and say all that?” She tried blinking away tears as she cleaned off dry blood on his face.

“He had to. He’s doing what he can to help our family fit in here.” Neteyam watched as his sister held in her tears. He moved a hand to hold her face.

“Y/n, sister, why are you crying?”

Her hand trembled as she continued cleaning his cuts.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Neteyam I’m-“

“You said it.”

She looked up at him, confused.

“What?”

He smiled softly.

“You said my name. It’s been a while since I heard you say it.”

She continued to look at him confused as he grinned stupidly at her. Her bottom lip wobbled and she smacked his shoulder.

“Ow!” He flinched back, rubbing his shoulder and lifting his eyes to glare at his sister but his eyes softened immediately when he saw a stream of tears running down her face. “Socks..” he moved closer to her, holding her in his arms even though he was still sore from the fight.

She cried for a while before calming down, her sobs reduced so small hiccups.

“What’s wrong? Are you crying because me and Lo’ak got hurt?” Neteyam asked.

“I’m never there.”

Now neteyam looked at her confused.

“What? Where do you need to be?”

“With you! With Kiri, Lo’ak and Tuk! I’m never there when I need to be.” Her voice wavered and neteyam brushed away her tears. “Even back when we are in the forest. I wasn’t there when… when you four were attacked by those human na’vi. I wasn’t there today when something as bad as a whole physical fight broke out. I know I’m not as reliable as you but I still want to be the big sister and protect you all…”

Neteyam closed his eyes and held his sister’s hands.

“Socks.. no.. Y/n, you do know that the younger three look up to you as much as they look up to me, right? If not then more.”

Y/n let out a small hiccup and looked up at him. Neteyam continued.

“We are twins, sister. You and me. However that does not mean we must compare ourselves to every little thing. You are Y/N. You are socks. You are the first daughter of Toruk makto. You protected our siblings from ao’nung before I even stepped in and did anything. You hit him with that shell remember? You protected Tuk and all I did was shout at you for it.”

Y/n felt her eyes water again, Neteyam kept holding her hands.

“I am sorry. I got too caught up in trying to do everything in a strategic way, my way, that I forgot to understand your way. I even refused to understand where you were coming from. You are amazing Y/n and I’m sorry I got too blind to see it.”

Neteyam looked into her eyes. Her eyes that were the exact same as his. Same shape, size and colour. He looked at her. He looked at his sister, his twin sister, his other half.

“I see you, sister.” He whispered.

Y/n chocked back on a sob and blinked away tears. She hated arguing with neteyam the most out of all of her siblings because it hurts the most. They hadn’t even spoken or looked at each other properly since their argument and it took neteyam getting physically hurt for her to talk to him again.

“I see you, brother.” She whispered back. Her arms wrapping around his body as she hugged him. He hugged her back and they stayed like that for a while.

“So how badly did you beat up ao’nung?” She asked, pulling away from him.

Neteyam chuckled.

“Well he is the cheif’s son, so I didn’t hurt him too bad but his friends however…” he trailed off but Y/n knew what he meant.

She lightly smacked him this time.

“Those poor boys. They probably don’t even know what a punch was, much less the types of punches. You should have gone easy on them.” She teased.

“I did go easy on them!”

She laughed. “Yeah right. You probably gave it your all, I know you weren’t holding back.”

“No socks, believe me, I was still holding my true strength in. I was holding my mighty warrior strength back.”

She laughed even more while going back to tending to his cuts and bruises.

After she was done patching neteyam up she was about to put all the healing paste and blood stained cloths away before she remembered she has another beaten up brother. She looked out of the marui and saw it was late already, the light of the day was gone and now stars littered the sky.

Y/n looked back at Neteyam.

“Lo’ak should be back by now, right? I was going to help him with that bloody nose of his.” She sighed.

Neteyam got up. “I’ll go get him, you should probably make more paste, he has bruises on his legs everywhere.”

Y/n nodded and went further in to the marui pod while neteyam went out, his steps calm as he went. Time passed and Neytiri came in with Tuk, chopping up the fish Y/n had caught earlier, however Neteyam still didn’t arrive.

Being a little worried that perhaps another fight broke out, and if that was the case then Y/n would not hesitate to jump in and fight as well, so she was about to head out of the mauri pod when she saw her father and Kiri talking.

“Mighty..” she heard Kiri say. What was mighty?

Just then Y/n heard footsteps and turned her head to see who it was. It was Neteyam and Ao’nung. Y/n couldn’t help the disgusted look on her face when her eyes landed on the sea boy. Why is he here?

Neteyam pulled Ao’nung over to Jake.

“Tell him. Tell him what you told me!” Neteyam’s voice wasn’t calm like it always was, no this time Y/n could hear the pure fear in his voice.

As she heard Ao’nung talk, she quickly understood why. Each word made her heart drop.

Lo’ak. Lost in sea. Alone. Missing.

Ao’nung you son of a bitch-

—-

It was a quiet night on the beach, the gentle lapping of waves against the shore offering a soothing rhythm to Blaire's troubled thoughts. She sat down in the cool sand, staring out at the dark expanse of the ocean. The events of the day replayed in her mind like scenes from a chaotic play.

The sinking of the Dark Core oil rig weighed heavily on her conscience. It was a necessary action, she knew, but the consequences were still unsettling. The smoke lingering in the air served as a constant reminder of the risks they had taken.

As she gazed up at the stars, Blaire wondered about Sabine. Where was she now, and what role did she truly play in Dark Core's plans? Despite the doubts and warnings from her friends, Blaire couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Sabine than met the eye. Could she really trust her?

A sigh escaped Blaire's lips as she ran a hand through her hair, feeling the cool night breeze against her skin. She felt a sense of isolation, even amidst the beauty of the beach and the tranquil night. The weight of responsibility as a Soul Rider pressed down on her shoulders, reminding her of the countless challenges still ahead.

Lost in her thoughts, Blaire remained on the beach, silently contemplating the uncertain future that lay before them.

Sabine crawled herself out of the ocean, coughing and holding onto Khan's reins tightly, as she leaped onto the sand of moorland beach.

Blaire snapped out of her trance, “Sabine? Oh my god!”

Sabine coughed, struggling to sit up despite her injuries, her braid long gone,her hair falling around her face, her amber eyes almost glowing as she looked up at Blaire.. Her voice was hoarse but filled with venom. "You. What the hell happened? That explosion—was that what you're doing, Soul Rider?"

Blaire approached cautiously, her concern mingling with guilt. "We had to stop Jay and Katja. It was a last resort, Sabine."

Sabine sneered, her eyes narrowing. "Typical. Always thinking you're the saviors of Jorvik. You just made things worse."

"We had no choice," Blaire insisted, kneeling beside Sabine. "We couldn't let Jay and Katja continue their plans."

Sabine gritted her teeth, wincing in pain. "You think you know everything. But you've just unleashed chaos. We are this close to war now!" Sabine said hoarsely.

“ you know we wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t have to! They were gonna blow up hollow woods and Valedale!”

Blaire shook her head, her voice firm. "War was already looming. We had to act."

Sabine scoffed, her breath ragged. "Act? You've jeopardized everything! Do you even understand what Dark Core is capable of?"

"I understand more than you think," Blaire replied, her tone steady. "We're trying to save Jorvik, just like you."

Sabine's eyes narrowed. "Save Jorvik? By destroying everything in our path?"

"It wasn't about destruction," Blaire countered. "It was about stopping Dark Core before it's too late."

Sabine turned away, her jaw clenched in frustration. "You don't get it, Blaire. You never have."

"And you've never trusted anyone but yourself," Blaire shot back, her patience wearing thin. "Maybe if we worked together—"

Sabine cut her off with a bitter laugh. "Work together? With you? That's never going to happen. Especially not now. I was debating it, with the whole prophecy thing, but… we're too different." She slowly moved onto her back, releasing Khan's reins.

Blaire hesitated, her concern evident. "Sabine, I'm sorry, but it was a last resort. Come on. Can I at least help you out? You look very hurt."

Sabine took a slow, deep breath, blinking against the pain. "No."

"Come on," Blaire urged gently, kneeling beside her. "Let me make it up to you."

Sabine's gaze hardened, her voice tinged with bitterness. "You've made your choice, Blaire. Just leave me alone."

Blaire sighed, feeling the weight of their strained history between them. "Fine. But if you change your mind…"