𝖇𝖑𝖚𝖊
flying through the hallelujah mountains, imani led the omaticaya warriors with a cry. "have no fear! have no fear!" she yelled, earning a series of war cries in return.
they flew behind jake who was on the back or toruk, holding a large weapon from the sky people. to his left flew neytiri, grasping her fathers bow, painted in yellow and green war paint. to his right was tsu'tey, painted in blue and green war paint.
imani and keke were both painted to match, bright green and purple paint adorning their skin. tradition for the leaders of the war parties, to distinguish them from their warriors.
jake looked at her from over his shoulder as they approached the battle field. as their eyes met she nodded sharply.
jake nodded once before turning back around as they swerved through the mountains, the ikran people of the sea perched on the rocks, blending in and waiting for their commands.
"attack! attack! attack!" imani shouted, giving them their cue as toruk turned to a dive, quickly following. the ikran people and omaticaya all followed, crying out and ululating as they did so, bows raised and ready for battle.
diving after jake and neytiri, she snarled as she released her arrow, hitting the pilot in the chest with perfect precision. the pilot died immediately, the plane turning on it's side to crash into the mountains below.
toruk grabbed a plane in his talons, turning in the sky he threw the plane into a mountain with a roar.
the war had begun.
ikrans hailed down from the sky, latching onto air crafts as their riders took out the pilots, tossing them around the sky and causing explosions to shake the mountains around them.
the air crafts began to shoot back, knocking na'vi and ikran from the sky like flies, wails and screeches filling the gaps between the sounds of missiles and gun fire.
imani swerved and twirled in the sky as she urged keke to dodge the bullets mercilessly fired at her, hissing in annoyance. flying upwards, she swerved into a mountain stack, the tight turn causing the plane to crash into the rocks.
she cried out before pulling keke towards herself, flying him upwards. flipping over in the air, they turned to a dive, aiming towards a pit of sky people shooting from the top of a large ship. she grabbed a small device jake had given her and pressed the red button like he showed before tossing it at them with a cry. shooting past the aircraft, she looked over her shoulder as the device exploded, destroying the pit and killing the sky people.
a sudden, searing pain in her arm grabbed her attention and she yelped, keke faltering in the sky as a bullet skimmed his wing. regaining her balance, keke flew away from the ship, only for the aircraft to race after her.
imani tried to shoot over her shoulder but it was almost impossible steering her injured ikran, dodging missiles and shooting at once without looking at where she was going.
she flew towards a mountain, crying out as a bullet hit her shoulder. keke screeched as it did, the two of them sharing the pain through the bond.
suddenly the ship exploded and another aircraft flew over her head, painted in blue and white paint. imani pulled an arrow to aim but lowered her bow at the sight of the woman inside, painted in na'vi warpaint with feathers in her hair.
trudy, jake's friend.
she thanked the woman with a nod, trudy nodding back with a small smile before they departed, imani shooting down another aircraft as she did.
hearing a familiar war cry, imani looked towards it and saw neytiri being chased by an aircraft into the forest. "keke, follow!"
keke screeched and swerved downward, diving after his riders mate. imani raced after them, shooting arrows that continued to miss as they swerved through the forest trees. she flew above them before shooting an arrow at the ship, the strange angle making the arrow bounce off of the glass.
the pilot looked up and said something she couldn't hear but turned his ship to follow her instead. at least it got him off of neytiri.
"imani do you copy? neytiri?" she heard jakes voice call through the human device in her ear. she pressed her fingers to her neck to reply.
"ma'jake!"
"imani! where are you, are you okay!" jake shouted through a staticky voice.
"close to the forest, i'm being followed. ma'jake, i don't think i'm going to make it, keke is hurt." she told him gravely, turning to fly upwards and out of the trees.
"shit, imani you need to get out of there-," then the line cup off. imani pressed her fingers to her throat.
"jake? jake!" she called but gained no reply.
suddenly, the ship behind her crashed. she looked up expecting trudy but instead saw four wild ikran dragging the ship to the ground. the sky filled with screeches and roars as thousands of ikran rained down from the sky.
"eywa." she whispered in awe. "keke, the great mother has saved us!"
keke screeched in victory, racing higher into the sky to help his brothers and sisters.
locking her eyes on the mother ships in the distance, heading towards the spirit tree she snarled. shooting an arrow into a final ship, she flipped keke to follow, jake's faint figure seen jumping from toruk's back as he blew up one of the ships.
they dashed after him, shooting an arrow at the glass with a snarl as she saw a bald human that sneered back at her.
"imani!" jake yelled, throwing something to her. "propellers!"
she caught it, flying above the ship as the man watched.
"shoot her down!"
imani pressed the button on the device and threw it into the propellers as the ship swerved abruptly. the wing exploded, imani ululating over the noise.
"imani!" jake cried out, catching her attention. she gasped, barely dodging the bullets fired at her as the ship began to fall from the sky.
"ma'jake!" she yelled, turning keke in the sky to dive after him as he fell. keke's wings whistled as he sliced through the air, tucking his wings as close to his body as possible to take away resistance. "jake!" imani held her hand out, catching his own as keke opened his wings, the three of them in the forest below.
keke screeched in panic as he tried to swerve through the trees but ultimately ended up crashing. imani and jake were flung from the ikran as they crashed, rolling down rocky hills and crashing through foliage until they came to a stop.
they looked up to the sky as the ship crashed, mild satisfaction on their faces until they saw the figure jumping from the ship and into the woods around them.
"shit, he's going for the shack, we gotta go!" jake grabbed her arm and the two raced through the forest on foot. imani wasn't too worried about keke, she could still feel his bond and he wasn't in any major pain. so she followed jake.
~~~~~~~~~~
"neytiri!" imani shouted, leaping over the large fallen tree, landing in front of the shack.
"that's enough quaritch!" jake landed next to her, facing the man who lead the war. he stood in a huge metal suit, making his height tower over their own. in his hands he held a large knife, caked in blood. below his feet, wedged between a large black creature and a log was neytiri, struggling to push the palulukan off of her body. "it's all over!"
"nothing's over while i'm still breathing!" the man snarled through his suit, flipping the knife in his hands.
"i kinda hoped you'd say that."
with that, jake and quaritch charged at one another. imani snarled and dove around them, heading for neytiri. "imani!" neytiri gasped, still trying to push the dead palulukan off of herself.
"shh, i'm here. come on, push." imani instructed before grabbing the animals shoulder and trying to lug it over, off of her mate. but it was almost impossible, even with neytiri helping her.
"go, help him." neytiri grunted over her frustrated snarls.
"no, i'm not leaving you-,"
"go! imani, i can do this! help him!"
imani stared at her mate before snarling and ripping her knife from her belt as quaritch burst through the glass of the shack where jakes human body was laying.
she sprinted towards him as jake leapt into his shoulders, slashing at him with his knife. quaritch grabbed jakes queue and threw him off of the metal suit before swinging his arm at her in the form of a punch. imani ducked, kicking out the leg of the suit before rolling to the ground and tossing him away from jake, neytiri, herself and the shack.
"so this is the second one, huh jake?" quaritch questioned, standing the suit up. "she's pretty."
imani hissed at him, crouching over jakes body as he dipped in and out of consciousness.
"feisty too. too bad she'll have to watch you die." he ran at them, imani jumping at him too. they clashed in the middle, imani attempting to rip the arm of the suit off whilst dodging the knife in it's other hand. she snarled in pain as he sliced the side of her waist before punching her, tossing her to the ground like she was nothing.
he stared at her for a moment before moving to jake.
imani could barely see, her head throbbing from the pain of his hit. her ears rung painfully as she squinted her eyes, slowly rolling over into a half-arsed crouch. a weak hiss left her lips as she heard jake screaming in pain. then it all stopped.
her vision cleared as a blue figure stood in front of her. neytiri shot an arrow from her fathers bow, impaling quaritch through his chest. he dropped jakes avatar body to the ground and the suit stumbled. imani gasped, pushing through the pain to rush towards her second mate as neytiri shot another arrow, killing quaritch once and for all.
neytiri joined her side after he fell, confirming his death. "jake?" she questioned, dropping eytukan's bow to the floor. "ma'jake!"
"his human body, neytiri the shack. he's dying!" imani cried out, holding jake tighter as neytiri dashed into the shack. she held jake tightly to her chest, her ears pricking at the sound of his panicked breathing.
"imani! help!" neytiri shouted, struggling to put the mask over jakes face.
imani let his avatar body go gently before rushing towards the shack and jumping through the glass window. she leapt over his body and crouched next to neytiri on his other side. taking the mask from her hands, she placed it over his face and held it there. when he gasped, his eyes opened in shock. quickly, his hands reached up to adjust the mask.
taking in a deep breath, he looked up at imani and neytiri with a smile.
"ma'jake." neytiri whispered, holding his tightly.
"sup?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
as the war came to an end, the na'vi sent the remaining sky people back to their home. earth. standing guard next to jake and neytiri, imani glared down at the intimidated sky people that walked towards their ships.
she hissed angrily at a man that stopped in front of them. he jumped in fright before shaking it off and looking at jake. jake simply nudged his head in the direction of the ship and looked away.
toruk makto was no longer needed, the time of great sorrow was over.
they were free.