I have finished commission for @silvermoon383 ! Thank you very much for being patient with me!! I had fun doing your ocs and the challenge they brought me!! All in all it was fun and thank you very much for commissioning me!!💜🥰
Dedication to: @inolaphoenix for coming up with the idea and brainstorming with me!
Word Count: 1.9k+
Pairing: None (mainly focused on the Sarentu siblings)
Warnings: gn!reader, angst, PTSD, violence, children of neglect/abuse, mentions of brainwashing and residential school trauma, open-ended ending with the intent of writing more 😉
Aha'ri, so brave and fierce, whittled down into a small, scared child, just like you, only this time... it left her physically scarred.
Mercer's shot had left the young Na'vi girl in and out of consciousness, the medics barely able to keep her stable. It was bad enough the TAP personnel didn't appear to care about the children's needs, but their welfare? It was hardly even on the list. No one in the med bay was prepared to treat a Na'vi child with a bullet wound in her back. Sure, they had the means to treat a human, no problem, but a Na'vi? Who's body didn't react to the same medicine and treatment a human's would? You would think, that if TAP were going to house Na'vi children as Alma was teaching, they would be better prepared for it.
There will be a time when, once you get older, you will come to accept that no one in TAP ever cared enough to learn or do better. But for now, you're scared, innocent, and confused. Why was no one bandaging Aha'ri right away? Why are they poking and prodding at her wound and wondering out loud about how a bullet affects the Na'vi body?
You hardly slept. Barely anyone did. Ri'nela managed to get Teylan to shut his eyes for a few hours, but the occasional twitch in his tail told everyone he never truly slept.
Aha'ri was in and out of surgeries for a week before she finally turned a corner. Alma informed you and the other children of this with a quiet voice, explaining that Aha'ri would have a scar, but she would live.
Alma's version of "living" was breathing and moving around. But to a Na'vi, the way Aha'ri looked when she returned to school, that wasn't living. From then on, she was simply surviving.
She was a shell, her eyes almost always bearing a one-thousand-yard stare, empty of any warm emotions. She didn't sing or hum, and never mentioned your mother when you tried to prompt her in an attempt to see a small spark of life in her once more. Nothing.
The scar was on her back. A round, small bullet-shaped wound that made her wince every time she moved her left arm while it was still healing. If any personnel dropped the temperature of the children's room, she would whine and softly cry to herself from how badly the muscles in her back and arm would spasm and ache. Now, whenever she sees someone with a gun, even if it were strapped to their hip, Aha'ri would flinch and curl in on herself.
Mercer had made his warning loud and clear. Next time, she would not be so lucky.
It took months for her to fully heal physically, but once she did... something subtly shifted in her eyes. A small, tiny spark of warmth returned, and you hardly had time to feel relieved to have a small part of your sister back, let alone question it. You were so relieved, in fact, you missed the small bit of determination that returned to Aha'ri's spirit.
Neither you nor Teylan was prepared for the abrupt wakening in the middle of the night, months after Mercer had shot Aha'ri.
"Come," Aha'ri spoke softly, even gracing you with a small, familiar smile, "We're leaving."
"What...?" You questioned while rubbing your eyes, your brain not entirely caught up with your surroundings.
"B-B-But we can't!" Teylan whimpers from his bed, where Ri'nela quietly soothes him. "I-I-If... if the same thing happens again-!"
"It won't," Ri'nela shushes with an encouraging smile, "There is another way out of here, Teylan."
"It is time to go home," Nor spoke sternly, more confident than ever. His own personality had shifted since Aha'ri's injury.
The three older Na'vi children led you and Teylan up into the TAP facility's vents, hands gripping pillowcases full of carefully collected supplies from the months they had spent planning a more thorough escape. Ri'nela had expressed patience over the months while Nor was anxious for Aha'ri to heal so they could get a move on. Ri'nela would take a little bit of food here and there during meal times, stowing that and any little bit of supplies up in the vent above her bed to preserve until the moment was right. If any human at the facility noticed they were missing a small bandage here and a compass there, they always chalked it up to misplacement, none the wiser.
Nor managed to distract his eagerness by keeping a close watch on the guards, something that Harding had unintentionally taught him between lessons where she'd force him to hold a gun. Timing their patrols and shifts, Nor eventually saw a small window of time when hardly anyone would be walking by the children's rooms at night, a small flaw that Harding would be furious to whoever designed the patrol schedule, which made Nor internally smug. He made sure the same window of time happened for a full week before sharing this small information with Ri'nela and Aha'ri, vowing to himself to be more thorough so the last escape attempt wouldn't repeat itself.
As for Aha'ri, she dutifully played her role to perfection. Yes, her traumatic experience and her injury had changed her, but she exaggerated it a little more than she had originally felt. Sure, she would spend years later flinching at the sound of a gunshot, but her will to survive overpowered any fear she had gained after Mercer had shot her. She wanted him to believe he had won, so she kept her head down, her eyes drifting off to stare at the walls as if no one else was in the room. She had let Mercer believe he had broken her, despite his appalling actions further strengthening her.
The vents were large enough for the children to walk through, only having to bow their heads slightly to fit. There were some tight spots where they would have to carefully and quietly crouch down and crawl, hardly breathing if they passed over a vent and noticed humans walking beneath them. Otherwise, part of their natural Na'vi instincts kicked in, their tails keeping them balanced while their feet kept them quiet, sharp ears twitching at any unknown sound.
Finally, Nor stopped and held out a hand to the rest who traveled behind him, his voice barely above a whisper, "Teylan."
The youngest Na'vi child slowly crawled over to the other boy's side, peering down through a vent to follow Nor's gaze. Beneath them was a hallway, and attached to a wall was a control panel that was obviously meant for the double doors beside it. Upon observing the doors, Teylan recognized it to be the entrance to the mess hall.
"The next patrol meant to pass our rooms will come from there," Nor explained quietly, "Can you lock the doors to buy us some more time?"
Teylan lowered his ears, and his big eyes widened with fear. "I can't do that! We'll be caught!"
"Shh!" Nor hissed, small fangs bared, "We'll be caught if you do not keep your voice down. Can. You. Do. It."
"Y-Yes, I can do it, but not from up here."
"If you went down?"
"I-I-I-I can't go down there... they'll see me."
"I have watched these boring Sky People walk these exact same hallways for days. I promise they will not even be around to see you," Nor snarled, beginning to grow impatient, "Not unless you continue to delay."
"I will go with you, Teylan," Aha'ri's hand gently settles on Teylan's shoulders.
Nor's ears stick straight up in alarm, and his eyes fix on Aha'ri, crouched behind Teylan. "No. I will go with him. Keep a watch on us from above."
The boys cautiously, so very gingerly, remove the vent cover and pass it over to the girls before quietly jumping down, their feet meeting the cold floor of the hallway. Their ears move wildly in search of any sound in either direction as they sneak over to the control panel. Once at the screen, Teylan is quick at work, starting to relax once in his element, efficiently locking the doors to the mess hall before slinking back around until the open vent is just above his head. Nor is close behind him and helps lift Teylan back up into the vent before closely following suit with one big leap and Ri'nela swiftly closes the vent once more.
With one more obstacle out of the way, the kids begin to get a little eager, the taste of freedom just at the tip of their tongues. Pressing forward through the vents with less quiet steps, the Sarentu children can feel their hearts racing in their chests and hear them pounding in their ears. Even after buying themselves a little bit of time, they didn't want to take any chances in case Mercer got the drop on them once more.
There's a large, sealed-tight door within the vents, separating the oxygen within the facility from the carbon dioxide and other lethal elements in the outside world the children were told about in Alma's lessons. Teylan makes quick work of this door as well, and by this point, Nor shouts at everyone to break into a run in this final leg of their race. The exit, a large vent that leads out into the world of Pandora, is close at hand and looms over all of their heads. Once right at the foot of it, Nor eagerly takes a screwdriver out from Ri'nela's pillowcase and begins to unscrew all the corners of the large vent.
Aha'ri's grip on your hand momentarily slips. As she whips her head back around in a panic, she finds herself staring at wide, tear-filled eyes. You tug and pull on her hand desperately, stepping back down the way you came, "Wait! We forgot sa'nu's songcord!"
Your older sister relents for a moment, the horrible reminder that Mercer kept your mother's songcord as a trophy around his wrist still hung heavily in her heart. With as much sorrow as she could afford, she gently grasped both of your little shoulders in her hands, making you look her dead in the eyes, "We can not go back for it. We have to go."
"But we will forget her--"
"No, never," she said firmly, and with a determination you had not seen in her eyes in a very long time, "We never will forget, so long as we have the song she sang to us. We may not remember the words, but we can still sing the songs of our people."
"I got it!" Nor happily exclaims, disbelief in his words as the vent comes free and falls outside, the clatter it makes drowned out by the rush of noises that fills the children's ears.
Bright light surrounds all of you, forcing you to put your hands in front of your eyes before they can adjust. Blinking, you lower your hand and you're met with a vast, enormous jungle, heavily encompassed in vegetation and wildlife. The colors... nothing like you have ever seen before, taking your breath away and distracting you even as Aha'ri takes hold of your hand once more. You finally tear your gaze away from what awaits you, meeting your sister's eyes as she smiles softly.
"Come. Our home is waiting for us."
Whatever you find in her gaze brings a newly found bravery in your chest. You take a deep breath and firmly nod with a small pout on your little face. Together, and with your friends, you and Aha'ri jump out of the vent and sprint as quickly as possible into the world of Pandora, the leaves and branches of the trees stretching out when the wind picks up as if the Great Mother was opening her arms out to you in relief that you are home once more.
~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Main Masterlist Here! If Inola and I brainstorm more on the potential of this story I may write more, so keep an eye out for that! Thank you for reading, and thank you Inola for always being a caring and supportive mutual. I'm so thankful that we've become friends 🥰 Happy Birthday!
Hunted in the Rain
Inspired by @visionsofpandora
I followed your advice and got smacked around a little. Totally worth it~
Some fun/creepy mouth refs in the last few.
