Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
Ja'lia was sitting between Kiri and Tuk as she slowly ate her breakfast, and stared into space, "Are you okay, Lia?" Kiri asked, and Ja'lia lazily glanced at her friend.
"Yeah, I'm still tired," Ja'lia said as she placed the last of her food into her mouth.
"You went to bed right after you finished dinner," Lo'ak grumbled. "How are you still tired?" He asked, and the teen girl shrugged her shoulders.
She slept quite well last night, which made up for previous nights when it felt like she didn't even get a wink of sleep. For Ja'lia, sleeping through the entire night without waking up at least three times was a rare occurrence, so maybe that's why she was struggling to keep herself awake.
"I don't know," Ja'lia muttered, and Lo'ak rolled his eyes at his best friend. "What are we doing today?" Tuk asked as she was hopeful that they would be going to explore the forest.
Neteyam, Jake, and Neytiri had already left to go on a mission, which meant the rest of the Sully children, Spider, and Ja'lia, were left on their own to do whatever they wanted, within reason. Obviously, they weren't allowed to visit the battlefield from the first war, but anything was possible with Lo'ak. Even though, Jake had warned them multiple times to never go there under any circumstances.
"I was thinking we could go explore the forest," Lo'ak spoke, and Tuk's eyes lit up in excitement.
"Who's gonna tell Norm?" Kiri asked, and Lo'ak groaned in frustration.
The only way any of them were allowed to leave the campsite was if they told Norm where they were going and when they would be back. Norm didn't usually care how long they were gone as long as they returned before eclipse. That rule had been implemented by Neytiri because the mother knew how dangerous the forest was at night.
"Why do we have to tell Norm?" Lo'ak said, annoyed.
"Because you left camp for hours without telling anyone where you were going, causing the rest of us to be punished for your stupidity," Ja'lia informed, and Lo'ak feigned hurt.
"Such harsh words," He said, and Ja'lia smirked at him.
"I'm done eating, so I can tell Norm," Spider volunteered.
"Thanks, Spider," The other three teens said all together.
As they watched Spider walk away to tell Norm that they were going to be leaving momentarily, Tuk suddenly grabbed their attention, "Can I come?" She asked.
"No," Lo'ak stated, and Tuk looked at him in disbelief. "Why not?" She whined, and Lo'ak ignored her.
"Lo'ak!" Tuk said, raising her voice.
"Because we are going to go check out the old battlefield, that's why," He said, and Ja'lia looked at him with wide eyes. "We are not going to the old battlefield. We are never supposed to go there," Ja'lia said, refusing to go.
"Oh, come on, Lia. Live a little," Lo'ak teased.
"No," She said.
"Please, Lia?" Lo'ak asked, and Ja'lia saw that he genuinely wanted her to come, and it was hard for her to refuse him. "Fine," Ja'lia groaned. The boy said a loud 'Yes' before looking back at his little sister, who had already been looking at him with her arms over her chest.
"If Lia's going, does that mean I can go too?" Tuk questioned.
"I already told you no, Tuk." Lo'ak rolled his eyes.
"I'll tell Mom if you don't let me come," The little girl threatened, and Ja'lia smirked at her blackmailing tactics.
Lo'ak glared at his sister before he ultimately gave in; and told her that she was allowed to join the teenagers on their adventure.
Soon, Spider returned from letting Norm know that the Sully children, Ja'lia, and he would be gone for the day, and the group was off.
They jumped on the floating rocks and started their journey for the day. Lo'ak led the group, while Ja'lia stayed behind everyone to make sure that Tuk didn't fall behind. Sometimes Tuk would stop walking to look at a plant or to observe an animal because she didn't get to enjoy the forest as the older kids did.
Tuk was too young to explore the forest by herself. Unlike the teenagers she was with, sometimes even they weren't allowed to leave the campsite. It was unfair, really. The girl was so young, and she couldn't even roam freely because her parents were afraid that the Sky People would possibly kidnap her.
As Tuk stopped to look at a plant and giggled when it closed at her touch, Lo'ak yelled at her, "Tuk, keep up!"
"Why'd you bring her anyways?" Spider asked.
"She's such a crybaby," Lo'ak said before he started impersonating his little sister, "She's all - I'm telling. You're not supposed to go to the battlefield. I'll tell Mom if you don't let me come," Ja'lia quickened her pace to pull the boy's ear as she gave him a pointed look.
"Don't pick on her," Kiri defended, and Tuk stuck her tongue out at Lo'ak.
Lo'ak rolled his eyes as he turned around and continued to walk on the fallen trees. The group moved higher and higher as they noticed an abandoned Samson in a tree. Lo'ak climbed into the Samson, and Spider soon joined him.
"Are there any dead bodies up there?" Tuk yelled, and Ja'lia slowly walked up behind the youngest child.
"Boo!" She shouted, and Tuk screamed in fright.
"Lia, what'd you do that for?" Tuk whined, and the teen girl proudly smiled at Tuk. "Well, you asked if there were any dead bodies, so I was impersonating the ghost of one," Ja'lia said, and Tuk walked away from Ja'lia.
Ja'lia laughed lowly as she noticed the frown on Tuk's face. "Can I come up there?" Tuk asked.
"It's too dangerous, Tuk. Dad would kill me if you got hurt," Lo'ak responded.
"He'll kill you if he finds out where we're going," Ja'lia murmured.
"Did you say something, Lia?" Lo'ak asked, looking at his friend with furrowed eyebrows.
The girl shook her head as she looked around at the group and noticed that Kiri had disappeared, "Where's Kiri?" Ja'lia asked, and everyone stopped what they were doing to see if they saw her.
"I'll go look for her," Spider said, exiting the Samson.
Once Spider left the group, Lo'ak also got out of the foreign object and climbed back down to stand beside Ja'lia and Tuk. They all waited a couple of minutes before they left to find Kiri themselves.
When they stumbled upon Kiri and Spider, Kiri looked as if she had just been asleep. "Kiri!" Tuk yelled, running over to her older sister.
Tuk looked at all of the teens with a worried expression, "We have to get back," Tuk said, and Ja'lia glanced at her confused, before she realized that it would be eclipse in a couple of hours. Of course, they could probably get away with walking deeper into the forest, but Ja'lia didn't want to take any chances of not making it back in time.
Spider held out his hand and helped to pull Kiri onto her feet. The group started heading back to the campsite as they jumped over fallen tree branches or walked on them until suddenly Lo'ak stopped and bent down. Spider jumped off of the branch that he had been kneeling on to lean beside Lo'ak.
"What is it?" Kiri asked, and Ja'lia tried to peek over their shoulders to see what had caused them to stop. Kiri stepped to the side as she went to stand beside Spider, and Ja'lia stood beside Lo'ak.
"We're always supposed to be back before eclipse," Tuk warned, and Ja'lia looked back at her.
"Don't worry, Tuk. We'll be back before eclipse," Ja'lia assured, and this seemed to ease the girl's worry slightly. The teen girl then turned her attention back to the footprint that Lo'ak had spotted. "That's way too big to be human," Lo'ak said, looking around.
"Avatars?" Spider suggested.
"Maybe," Lo'ak paused, "But they're for sure not ours," He said, standing up to follow the tracks.
"Lo'ak! What the hell are you doing?" Ja'lia hissed, and the boy waved his hand at her dismissively. She gaped at him as the group continued to follow the boy who was going to get all of them into some serious trouble.
As they continued to walk, Ja'lia knew exactly where they were heading. She had been here only one other time, and that's when her father brought her there to tell her stories of the first battle.
Her father's words echoed through her head, "Don't ever come here without me, got it?"
Then her response followed, "Yes, Daddy. I promise."
However, this time Ja'lia only had one of two options. Either stay with Lo'ak and risk getting killed or abandon Lo'ak and risk him never speaking to her again. To Ja'lia, it was honestly a no-brainer. Of course, she would follow Lo'ak. The second option wasn't much of one, to begin with.
Ja'lia would always choose Lo'ak.
"We are never supposed to come here," Kiri warned. Ja'lia looked at Lo'ak and wondered what exactly was going on in that thick head of his. In the distance, she could see approximately six Avatars, and they smelled like trouble.
Still, Lo'ak and Spider continued to close their distance from the Avatars, and Kiri, Ja'lia, and Tuk hesitantly followed to two boys. Once they got close enough, Lo'ak stopped walking and peered through the tree branches to get a closer look.
"Dad is going to ground you," Kiri said.
"And I'm going to kill you," Ja'lia mumbled.
Lo'ak shushed the two girls before looking at his sister, then Ja'lia, "Can you two stop?" He asked.
"For life," Kiri finished.
"Bro, we have got to check this out," Lo'ak said, nudging his head in the direction of the Avatars. Lo'ak and Spider continued to inch closer to the enemy as Ja'lia shot daggers into her friend's back. Jake was going to kill Lo'ak, and then Ja'lia was going to bring him back to life just to kill him again for the mess he was going to place them in.
"Bro," Spider said, speaking to Lo'ak, "That's where your dad-," He pointed to Lo'ak, "and my Dad," Spider paused so that Lo'ak's full attention could be on him, "Fought," He finished.
"That's your Dad's actual suit," Lo'ak said as he pointed to the massive hunk of metal that was rusted and covered in plants.
"Holy shit," Spider chuckled.
Ja'lia walked over and gave Kiri a look before she leaned against Lo'ak, "Call it in," She demanded, and Lo'ak looked at her in hesitation.
"Call it in, Lo'ak, or so help me-" Ja'lia started, but Lo'ak interrupted her, "Okay, okay." He sighed.
"I have to call this in," Lo'ak told Spider and the human boy nodded his head as he continued to watch the Avatars.
"Devil dog- Devil dog, this is Eagle Eye. Over," Lo'ak whispered as he pressed the button on his communication device.
"Eagle eye, send your traffic," Jake's voice emitted through the device.
Lo'ak sent Ja'lia an anxious look as she sent him one of reassurance, "I've got my eyes on some guys, Avatars, six of them,"
"Where are you?" Jake asked, and Ja'lia squinted her eyes.
"We're at the old shack," Lo'ak mumbled.
"Who's we?"
"Me, Spider, Kiri, Ja'lia... and Tuk," Lo'ak said, slightly wincing at the sound of his little sister's name falling off his lips.
"Son, you listen to me very carefully," Jake said slowly, "Pull back now. Do not make a sound. Get the hell out of there. Go! You copy?"
"Yes, sir," Lo'ak confirmed, "Moving out,"
Kiri glared at her younger brother, "I told you," She hissed, and Ja'lia nodded her head in agreement.
"Come on!" Spider yelled.
Tuk ran ahead of the rest of the group before she turned around, "It's almost eclipse! Come on!" She said before she screamed when an Avatar came up from behind and grabbed her.
"Tuk!" Kiri yelled, and Ja'lia pulled out her bow and arrow while Spider and Lo'ak did the same thing.
Soon, the four teens were surrounded by four other Avatars who all aimed their guns at them, "Put them down," They ordered. Ja'lia hissed at the man, and he looked at her with his cold gaze, "Put it down, or I'll shoot you," He threatened, and Ja'lia growled at the man before she begrudgingly placed her bow onto the ground.
Lo'ak soon repeated her action, and now Spider was the only one who still had his weapon in his hands. "Spider!" Kiri pleaded, and the human boy slowly put down his bow and arrow.
As soon as Spider placed his weapon on the ground, the Avatars roughly grabbed the Na'vi children, and Spider as they dragged them toward the old site. Ja'lia wanted to pull out of their grasp, but she didn't want to risk one of those demons shooting someone she cared about.
Once they reached the old site, the Avatars stopped walking, and a man walked up to the children. Ja'lia assumed that he was the one in charge by the way he carried himself. Confidence and arrogance were a disgustingly potent mix.
"What have we here?" The man said as he smugly smiled at them.
"Colonel," A man voiced out, and Ja'lia's head immediately snapped in the direction of his voice before she saw that he was holding Kiri's hand up, inspecting it. "Four fingers. We've got ourselves a half-breed." He said, showing the Colonel Kiri's five-fingered hand.
"Shit," Spider said under his breath.
The man eyed Kiri before he walked over to Lo'ak, "Show me your fingers."
Lo'ak glared at the man as he brought both of his hands up to flip the man off. Ja'lia snorted, and the man glanced at her over his shoulder.
"You're his, aren't you?" The Colonel asked, and Lo'ak hissed in response. "You're his alright," He said before he turned around and walked toward Ja'lia.
"And what about you? Are you Jake Sully's?" He asked. Ja'lia glared up at him, and he roughly grabbed her chin and pointed his finger in front of her face, "I asked you a question girl,"
Ja'lia rolled her eyes before she lunged forward and bit down hard on the Colonel's finger until she had a metallic taste in her mouth. "Son of a bitch!" He cried out in pain before he raised his hand to hit the girl who bit him. "Stop!" Lo'ak yelled, and the Colonel gave Ja'lia a warning look before he walked back over to Lo'ak.
"Where is he?" The man spits as he was no longer holding an amused smile on his face. Lo'ak released a groan when the Colonel grabbed a hold of his queue and tightened his grip. The boy looked up at the man and spoke to him in Na'vi, "Sorry, I don't speak English," Lo'ak said, pausing momentarily, "To assholes,"
"Where is your father?" The Colonel repeated in horrific Na'vi. Lo'ak however remained silent, "Really? You want to play it this way," He asked as he tugged on Lo'ak's queue, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Don't!" Kiri pleaded, and the man released his grip on Lo'ak to walk over to Kiri.
"Kiri!" Spider yelled. "Hey! Hey! Don't touch her!" He said as he struggled to break free from the Avatar's grip. The Colonel stopped in his tracks before he faced the human boy who had been yelling at him.
"What's your name, kid?"
Spider was silent for a moment as he contemplated on whether or not he should answer the man, "Spider," He said before adding on, "Socorro,"
"Miles?" The man asked.
"Nobody calls me that," Spider informed.
"Well, I'll be damned," He said in disbelief, "I figured they'd send you back to Earth,"
"You can't put babies in cryo, dipshit," Spider said.
Spider's 'father' gave him a hard stare before he motioned for the Avatar behind Spider to come back and get a hold of him. "What are we doing, boss?" One of them asked.
"Iron sky, blue on actual," The Colonel said on his device as he waited for a response. "We're standing for extraction. Over," He said, and Ja'lia's eyes widened when she realized what he said. It hadn't clicked for her at first, but as she repeated the phrase over and over again in her head, it finally made sense.
"Be ready, we're bringing in high-value prisoners," He said.
Kiri tried to plead with the Avatars to let them go, but it was of no use.
As Ja'lia looked around at everyone, time went on agonizingly slow. She hated to admit it, but she was extremely bored, and she wished that they were permitted to at least talk. But, unfortunately, they couldn't, so she allowed herself to get caught up in her thoughts.
Ja'lia prayed that Neytiri and Jake would make it to them in time.
Eventually, without the girl even realizing it, the sun had completely disappeared, and it had started to rain. "Heads up. Three minutes," The Colonel said as he walked past the Avatar holding Kiri. "Watch our six,"
The Avatar holding Kiri brought his gun up to her neck as he yelled at her to shut up. Kiri had been quietly praying to Eywa, and the man didn't seem to appreciate it.
Ja'lia's ear twitched as she heard a noise that didn't come from a forest animal.
Neytiri. She thought to herself.
The girl discreetly glanced at Lo'ak and Spider as she saw them doing the same thing to her.
"Shut up!" The Avatar holding Kiri hissed, however, Kiri's words did not waver as she continued to pray to the Great Mother, "Shut up!" He raised his voice, and that was the last time anyone would ever hear him speak as Neytiri's arrow shot through the air and made its way into the man's skull.
"Lo'ak!" Neytiri yelled, and Lo'ak pulled a pin out of one of the men's gas bombs before biting the man who was holding him, hostage. Ja'lia followed Lo'ak's lead as she dug her fangs into the Avatar's skin, drawing blood.
Ja'lia pulled out of the man's grasp as she gently pushed Tuk in front of her and took off into the forest once she noticed Lo'ak was behind her. "Go, go, go!" He yelled, and Ja'lia frantically looked around to make sure no one was following them.
Suddenly, Ja'lia heard the rustling of branches coming from her left side, and she stood in front of Tuk protectively. She was preparing to launch herself at the unidentified target, but once Jake and Neteyam revealed themselves, she let out a sigh of relief.
"There you are," Jake said as he pulled Lo'ak and Tuk in for a hug. After Jake was done hugging his children, he also wrapped his arms around Ja'lia, and she instantly relaxed at his touch. "Let's get these off," He murmured as he pulled out his knife to cut off the cuffs.
As soon as Jake cut Ja'lia and Lo'ak's cuffs off, the girl tightly wrapped her arms around the boy and buried her face into his neck as she exhaled and silently thanked the Great Mother.
While Ja'lia and Lo'ak had been hugging, Neytiri and Kiri showed up, and Ja'lia released her grip on her best friend to pull Kiri into a hug as well. When she pulled away, she noticed that someone was missing.
"Where's Spider?" Lo'ak asked.
"They took him!" Kiri cried out, and Ja'lia felt her heart clench at her friend's sadness.
Ja'lia felt Lo'ak place his hand on her shoulder as she turned around to look at him. This time, it was Lo'ak who initiated the hug. One of his close friends had been taken away from him, and he felt like it was his fault.
Lo'ak pulled away and looked to see a stern look on Ja'lia's face, "If you ever do something like that again, I swear I'll kill you myself," She threatened.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Lia."
Unedited. 06/19/23
Word Count: 3,352
Hey everyone!
Hopefully you enjoyed - I love this chapter. It was so fun to write.
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