Capacity | neteyam x reader

Ch-7| Layering bits of the past

"yeah if, by little stunt you mean taking a bullet to my arm AND A MASSIVE stab to the gut to save your life then 'you're welcome'?" 

"funny! I don't remember asking you to do either of those"

"goodness my leave it to you to be grateful for something for once in your life-" 

"and leave it to you to kiss up to Miss can't-help-but-want-to-dropkick-me-in-the gut near the lockers and follow her around like a lapdog." 

"OUCH?" Conner scoffed in disbelief. 

"cope harder."

Cielle kept looking forward with a straight face, seemingly unbothered by the banter while James and Brooke knew better than to ask more about the situation.

"If you're done with your cat fight would you care to pay attention to what I have to say now?"

the two snapped their necks to James with the same sulking expression, "easy now" James spoke, with a warning, "Cielle- you know how you used your powers?"

 "oh speaking of which, you have powers," he said nonchalantly as Brooke let out a puff of air in frustration sinking her face into her hands. 

"I mean if it wasn't obvious enough-"

"-not so fast kid" James broke her off in the middle, Cielle held her hands up in defense catching the annoyed look in his eyes. 

"This should've happened when you turned 22 but I'm guessing now's fine too" 

"wait- what do you mean? there's a cycle?" she asked, still not quite believing him. 

"yes, but you- can you not jump in the middle? keep all your doubts for when I'm done." he spoke, emphasizing the 'd'. 

"ok mom, go off" Cielle huffed resting her head on her arms. 

"your mother- well your mother, Brooke, and I, we've been to Pandora before.." he spoke not over a whisper as if afraid someone would hear him. 

silence engulfed the four, neither brave enough to want to speak or hear what comes next.james took this as a sign to continue, "We worked under the RDA, which at the time was headed by Dr.Grace Augustine, under the avatar program." 

"Are we talking about like-action figurines? you know the ones you get in-" 

"And to say he took a bullet for you, I mean take a load of this guy," James spoke, pointedly gesturing towards Conner. 

Brooke couldn't help but snicker at the two since he reminded her of a younger version of someone she knew. 

meanwhile, Cielle was eerily quiet, carefully drawing in every piece of information. this was a chapter that had remained closed for a good 13 years of her life, so naturally, she would give and take anything to want to open it again. luckily for her, this was her one shot. 

"The RDA stands for the resource development administration, and its the large-" 

"-largest single non-governmental organization in human space?" she asked warily 

"Yes." James nodded sadly, Judging by the look in her eyes, he knew she'd been up to her own little research of the latter. 

"but what does Mom have to do with all of this? I mean- the last time I remember I wasn't born on a floating rock in space" she joked in a matter of disbelief. there was a long pause as Brooke and James exchanged a look. 

"you know curse that intuition of yours kid." Brooke laughed out of frustration and amusement

"and she talks," Conner joked as well, earning a hit on the head 

"shut your trap piss baby" Brooke reached for a book to throw at him, 

"-look just because I'm blonde doesn't mean you have the right to just unanimously call me fucking piss baby" 

"yeah and you better not use that language with me or I'm not gonna think twice about leaving you behind on this godforsaken planet of yours" she warned him. 

"wait hold on- are you serious?!" Cielle broke away from her trance catching a look from James, "And this is why we don't interrupt someone in the middle of a discussion ladies!- and well Conner" James said irritatedly. 

"look for the time being all you need to know is, your mother, and Brooke worked with grace for the longest time on Pandora, they were fascinated about all that it was I mean come on we're talking a whole celestial form of life other than our own existing right out there!" James beamed, reminiscing on the time he spent with his brother, Lily, and Grace. 

"and let's just say things didn't turn out for the better, and that is where you-" he said pointing towards Cielle and Conner, "-two come in." 

"but wait what went wrong? and where do I- we come in from?" Cielle asked, gesturing towards the two of them. "am I the reason she's dead?-" Fear laced her voice as she finally said the unspeakable, she'd be a lying fool to say she hadn't thought that over a million times over a blank canvas, only now her past was painting itself before her, and with the way things got clearer, she couldn't help but paint herself under a bad light. 

"oh sweetheart no-" Brooke cut her off only before James said, "It goes deeper than that elle, don't-" 

"but you're not saying no so-" tears welled up in her eyes while she instinctively held onto Conner's hand. 

"love no- what I'm trying to tell you is that this is all very new for you, you're going to have a shit ton of questions, but the last thing I want for you to do is to jump to any conclusions. this is all coming in hot and fresh, I do not want you thinking you're the reason behind this." James huffed, trying his hardest to make a point while also coming across as calm and collected as he could, he didn't want to instill any more panic than he already had.     

"We're going to need to go to a safer place and while this is a lot for both of you to process, i promise you ill answer your every question. That is on me." he reassured holding their hands from across the table. 

"Who exactly are we running from-?" conner asked, as he finally broke, dread tainting his eyes. 

"your brother."  

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