On the eve of A03 going down for 15 hours (at least where I am lol), I let my inspiration from @varangx of a Mangkwan Spider AU take over and tossed in my sweet boy, Kalintu. 🕷️🧿
Check out their art and fanfic for RDA!Mangkwan!Spider, it’s incredible! ❤️🔥
For this one shot wonder - the RDA returned to Pandora when Spider was only six, had no choice but to assimilate back into said RDA for three years, was grabbed by Varang when the humans were all migrating to Bridgehead City, and she liked his spark SO much, she kept the little feral human all to herself…
The Spider & The Moth
Another successful raid on the Tlalim. After so many losses against the Mangkwan, one would think they would switch up their travel routes or even their defensive tactics. But no! Following the wind wherever it takes them. All the kid had to do was stand out in the breeze for five minutes to know where to direct the ambush party...
“Hell yea!” commented the leader of today’s pack. The ‘kid’ in charge had a lot to prove. It wasn’t his first time leading a raid, but they never ended this good. No casualties to the Mangkwan and a hell of a haul to bring back to the Tsahik.
It wasn’t easy being human in a Na’vi world.
“Spider!” called one of the warriors. He was a year younger than Spider but almost a meter taller. He motioned for the human to come see what he’d uncovered in an Aranahe style woven basket.
Despite his naturally smaller stature, Spider walked with the attitude and strength of a palulukan. He easily pushed aside other warriors to get through the excited war party. The bone beads that hung from his loincloth rattled in the process. Like all Mangkwan, the loincloth was made from heavy leather dyed black. It matched the arm and leg covers secured around the major joints to allow protection and flexibility.
As he approached, Spider slid his bowstring across his chest so the weapon was prone across his back. It pushed aside the messy braid of dreadlocks he’d tied up for the raid. Battle was no place for vanity. Though he did pride himself in adding black streaks to his everyday red stripes. Though he knew, no matter how he looked or was accepted by the Mangkwan, he wasn’t them.
And that was fine...because the only person whose opinion mattered chose him as her own.
Varang.
His Tsahik; his second mother.
When the Mangkwan raided the human transport departing Hell’s Gate for Bridgehead City when he was still in single digits, the Mangkwan showed no mercy. Except for him...because Varang saw him. Maybe it was the fire in his eyes or the way his body was painted red by the blood of the humans he’d been left with when the RDA returned.
Either way, Spider had been adopted by the new clan. Whether he wanted it or not...
When Spider reached the warrior who flagged him down, his eyes widened to match the surprise of the Mangkwan. Nestled in the basket were human breathing masks.
“No shit.” Spider said as he crouched down, picking one up and turning it over in his hands. It was an older model, but a standard RDA-issued breathing mask for humans to survive the toxic air of Pandora. He lived most of his life in one. Well, ALL of his life once the Mangkwan took him...needless to say, it spurred Mangkwan attacks on human airships solely to recover masks so he didn’t die.
Seven years of it...seven fucking years with the frame of his mask embedded in his skin. The few times he’d take it off to give his face a break were like a glimpse of heaven among the hellscape that was home.
“Resistance, probably.” Spider remarked, hiding his glee of when he’d report the findings to Varang. He kept one as he stood then ordered, “Leave them outside Tsahik’s tent.”
The warrior nodded dutifully, hauling the basket up on his shoulder with ease. Spider continued to turn the mask over in his hands as if it held a secret. Eventually, he stopped and stared at his own reflection in the surprisingly unscratched glass then turned on his heel. The raiding party could handle the rest of divvying up the spoils.
“Hey, where you going?” a female warrior asked as she was pouring out zangke to celebrate with. “Drink with us!”
“Got something to do. Get drunk off your asses on your own.” Spider said with a smirk. Despite being only sixteen, he wasn’t too young to celebrate his victories with the rest of the warriors. The Mangkwan chuckled, more than happy not to have to share the drink with another mouth. But they soon noticed the direction the human boy was walking in.
“Really?” the same woman quipped, “You’d rather hang out with that freak than us?”
“Hey, freaks gotta stick together!” Spider said as he turned to walk backwards and hold his arms out to showcase his own different appearance. The warriors all laughed again and brushed it off, going back to the zangke. The human turned back towards one of the gaps between the burnt roots of home tree and, as he did, his punk smile faded to a look of irritation and he muttered, “Skxawngs...”
Spider left the village and walked around the massive foundation left behind by the destruction of the Mangkwan home tree. He had hundreds of vivid memories of the forest the Omatikaya called home. This tree must have been just as big in its prime...before Eywa let it all burn. Or so Tsahik taught him with the bedtime stories she told him by the fire when he was younger.
Outside the center of the village, where the tents all stood huddled together as if for warmth in a storm, was a conical house of thorns. It was unappealing at best, no more than a pile of kindling at first glance.
“Go away.” Spider said with a wave of his hand to the man sitting by a small cookfire outside the bramble hut, “There’s much better food and drink in the village.”
The Na’vi needed no further convincing to abandon his sad excuse of meat scraps he was cooking and picked up his Y-shaped bow before running off to join the fun. Spider tilted his head to watch the man fully disappear around the large root before looking back to his intended destination. As he approached the leather flaps of the entrance, he removed his bow and used it to push them aside.
“Kalintu.” Spider said, not bothering to ask permission to enter or announce himself. His eyes snapped to the ash-haired Na’vi as he dropped a small clay bowl filled with red powder from the sudden intrusion. It didn’t break, but whatever the contents were scattered everywhere in a cloud. He smirked and rested his bow against the side of the entrance while saying, “What? Didn’t see me coming?”
Kalintu, one of the Tsahik’s many apprentices, only sighed as he stared at the settling cloud of red power he’d been storing on a shelf. It was ground from a rare herb only found in the Upper Plains that had been found when some of the Mangkwan decided to do some searching by foot. Naturally, they’d found some unassuming victims at a small camp, killed them all, and stole their goods. It was proving exceptionally useful in reducing infection for his recent...injuries.
His ears flicked back as he looked to the cocky human still standing by the door. He ducked his head slightly and held out his arm, as if inviting Spider into the home he’d already entered.
“Spider...you’ve returned.” Kalintu observed, “Successfully.”
“Yea, you could say that.” Spider said as he walked further in, glancing at the many piles of crude drawings on the floor hastily drawn from the Na’vi’s visions. He watched Kalintu limp back to the fire and sat all the way down instead of crouching. The human’s brown eyes roved over the Na’vi, taking in the soggy leaves and strips of old cloth wrapped around his right foot. He’d spotted the poorly applied patchwork of leaves on his back when he entered.
“I heard you ran while I was gone.” Spider said, crouching down on the opposite side of the fire and tilting his head low to catch Kalintu’s gaze. This particular apprentice was so timid and pathetic, but the Tsahik insisted he was the most important. Honestly, Spider had nothing against the guy. He might be a little weird, but it was a small price to pay for the unexplainable advantages he provided the clan.
Kalintu’s ears folded back even further and he lowered his head, admitting sheepishly, “Yes...”
“How many times you gonna do this, bro? No one gets away from Varang.” Spider said with a dark chuckle, “Won’t be much left to you if you keep this up.”
“I was...” Kalintu started, running his kuru through his fingers out of nervous habit, “...foolish.”
“No, you were fucking stupid.” Spider said, his tone changed to a more authoritative one in an instant. He drilled his gaze into Kalintu, watching him squirm and secretly enjoying it, before sighing. “Maybe you should fucking listen to me while you still have all your goddamn limbs, yea?”
Spider rarely noticed when he went from carefree teen to hardened warrior. They were two sides of the same coin for him. His years under Varang’s tutelage was vastly different than Kalintu’s. Different than all the other Mangkwan, really. He was human. Spider had to run faster, fight harder, aim truer...he had to be more merciless than Varang when the moment called for it...
“You got what you deserved. She could’ve done a lot worse than a whippin’. Just...stay useful.” Spider said in a poor attempt to console Kalintu. Not that he was really trying.
Kalintu chewed on the bone piercings of his lower lip. Yes, Tsahik could have ordered something worse...but it didn’t make his back string any less or his walking any easier. He sighed quietly and held out his hand for the mask.
Spider smirked and handed it over, happy to see Kalintu knew why he was there. The Na’vi did the same thing as the human teen, turning it over in his hands to look at every inch of it. The only difference between the two was that Spider knew the Na’vi could uncover its secrets. Kalintu amused Spider but he believed the Na’vi’s mind was touched in a way no one else’s was.
“This has passed through the hands of traitors...to other traitors...” Kalintu finally deduced, almost as if the hands of who held it before were there in the flesh giving it to him. “Broken things made new. Sent from one forest to another.”
“Traitors to other traitors?” Spider repeated. Kalintu shrugged slightly, as if the word didn’t feel correct, but it was the best he could provide with what he knew. The human teen sat down and crossed his arms, “There’s a decent human resistance in the west...maybe someone in the RDA has been getting them supplies somehow...”
Spider went quiet as he thought about the options. If there were more defectors in the RDA helping the resistance, maybe that meant the RDA had units spread out further than they knew of. Truth be told? Spider couldn’t give a fuck about the human resistance. He was part of that life until he was six. It was when the RDA returned and most humans, including his foster parents, surrendered that his life started to suck.
Life in the RDA was all structure and school and being fed all the bullshit propaganda about how they’d returned to ‘save them’ from the savages. Sure, the Na’vi could be savage...but Spider knew humans could be worse if they felt like it. He remembered his life in the forest...he had friends and freedom he’d never known since.
When Varang decided to take him under her wing, he’d just turned nine. Hell’s Gate was being ‘decommissioned’ or whatever fancy word they wanted to use for not paying for its upkeep and getting all the humans in one place. One giant, metal village to keep all the humans in line.
Spider had to fight to survive among the Mangkwan. Literally, fought tooth and nail for his place among the Ash. His inflated sense of pride was almost justified. He was stronger than any human, molded by a harshness those motherfuckers in their metal city could never understand.
“I will not look into the fire...” Kalintu mumbled, his voice cracking slightly.
Spider snapped back to reality and looked at Kalintu. The Na’vi was staring at him, unblinking, with those pale eyes with their faint hint of yellow making them glow in the flicking flame. The human let out a chuckle and arched his brow. He’d been caught in the other intention for his visit.
“Really?”
“I will not.”
Spider sighed but kept the grin on his face. It just grew darker as he narrowed his eyes, standing to pose himself above Kalintu. He noticed the Na’vi’s ears flick down, and his tail curled closer to his body on the dusty floor.
“Kalintu.” Spider started, taking a slow step around the fire to where Kalintu sat, “I like to think of myself as the closest thing you have to a friend in this village. If not a friend, then at least someone who doesn’t hate you for your gifts.”
As much as Kalintu wanted to slink away from Spider’s predatory encroachment of his space, he stayed put.
“Your visions have helped the Mangkwan thrive. What you can see serves the Tsahik and she raises us up.” Spider closed the space between them, slowly dropping to one knee and placing a hand on Kalintu’s shoulder, close to where some of the old medicinal leaves stuck. The slight tremble of his shoulder actually made the teenager happy. Kalintu would crack pretty quickly...
“As a friend, or whatever the fuck I am to you, it’s not a lot to ask for you to look for me. To see if the fire can answer my questions. You know how long I’ve been looking for a way in...” Spider said lowly, sliding his fingers down to push away the leaves and slip his fingers onto a shallow, healing lash on his shoulder blade. Kalintu winced but set his jaw, not speaking and staring at the ground.
“I need to destroy the RDA. And you are going to help me do it.” Spider said firmly, “I’m someone who can keep you from harm...if I feel like it.”
Curling his fingers, Spider dug his fingernails into the wound. Kalintu closed his eyes and hissed through his teeth. The human’s small fingers dug into his flesh, reopening and deepening the wound. He braced himself by putting his hands down on the ground and his tail lashed, but he did not physically act out against Spider. Not against the Tsahik’s golden child...never!
“You think you’re hurting now?” Spider mocked, loving the way Kalintu tried to repress his pain, “One word from me and you’ll be sleeping on your stomach for the next six months...and walking? I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that anymore...”
The threat was heavy. It was crushing Kalintu and he managed to narrowly open his eyes to look at the Spider. The human looked completely content with his threats. Even though he hadn’t done anything, Kalintu knew Varang would be more than willing to punish on him based on Spider’s word...even if it was a lie.
Reluctantly, feeling thin streaks of hot blood start to roll down his back, Kalintu nodded and said with a raspy voice, “...make your sacrifice.”
Spider pulled back his hand enough to clap it on Kalintu’s back with a sickening squelch. He stood back up, wiping his bloody hand on his arm guard where dried blood from the raid still stuck, and drew his knife. In a quick motion, Spider cut a shallow wound, nothing that would scar, into the palm of his hand and held it over the fire. After a few moments of pooling in the cut, the blood overflowed and dripped into the fire.
The minimal amount of liquid did nothing to stifle the flames, but Kalintu’s nostrils flared at the smell of it burning away. Not that Spider could catch it, or even the other Na’vi with their sensitive sense of smell. But it infected Kalintu and his eyes drifted from Spider to the flames then froze. The rigid way the psychic now sat and stared into the flames told Spider everything he needed to know.
Kalintu was locked into a trance.
The human knew it could take a long time for Kalintu to see anything. Minutes, hours, even days. But as long as the Na’vi was in the trance, it wouldn’t end until he saw something...
Spider had plenty of time to spare but got bored quickly. Within ten minutes, he found himself looking through the contents of Kalintu’s hut. The drawings were always interesting even if they didn’t make sense. The shelves of herbs and powders weren’t as exciting since they reminded Spider of his own home with Varang. Eventually, he helped himself to Kalintu’s sad excuse of a bed and laid down on the furs.
He dozed for maybe an hour, based on where the sun was streaming in through the roof when he woke up, and Kalintu was still staring into the fire like Spider had left him. He stood up and stretched, cracking his back in the process, before walking over to the psychic. After observing Kalintu for a few minutes, even waving his hand in front of the Na’vi’s eyes and getting no response, Spider walked around him to get some air.
As he did, Spider stopped short and looked at Kalintu’s lean back covered in soggy leaf bandages. The warning he gave Kalintu had managed to slide all the way down to his midback before it dried enough to stop bleeding. He sighed at the sight of it and cursed under his breath as he went back over to the shelves along the wall. He was no healer, but he did have basic first aid knowledge for himself and his Na’vi comrades.
All while Kalintu stared into the fire, Spider ground together a mix of leaves carefully selected from the shelves. He’d been patching up his own scrapes and bruises after Varang taught him which herbs and ingredients to use. He had to be a quick learner because she only told him once. Kalintu was adept as a healer but was also usually on his own with his recoveries, so Spider understood the struggle.
”I don’t even know if you can hear me, bro, but keep doing what you’re doing…”, Spider said as he carried the herbs he’d crushed into a paste and several large dried leaves over. He knelt behind Kalintu and peeled away the old ones. He whistled when he saw the damage and commented, “What the fuck did you say to piss her off this much? Skxawng…”
Of course, Spider wouldn’t get an answer. Even with a dozen or so angry, borderline infected, cuts from a leather cord being cleaned, Kalintu was too far into a trance to notice he was even being touched. Spider wasn’t exactly gentle either, but it was still a courtesy to treat the Na’vi’s wounds. It was the least he could do…
Spider occasionally rambled about this and that. Random bits of information from the raid and what they’d found. All the while, he cleaned off Kalintu’s back of ash, paint, and dried blood and applied a thin layer of the ointment on the larger leaves. They were rigid at first but softened as they absorbed the oils from the crushed herbs. When they were soft enough, he slapped them against the Na’vi’s skin.
”Really? Nothing?” Spider asked, craning his head forward to watch Kalintu for a reaction. But his silvery eyes remained on the dancing flames, listening to a lecture the human boy couldn’t hear. “You really do zone out like this. I could stab you and you wouldn’t flinch…I wish all the warriors had that kind of focus…”
Figuring he could replace the materials from the spoils of the raid, Spider used a spool of tacky gauze to secure the leaves in place. Slowly and purposefully unwinding the material around the Na’vi’s long torso. Even moving Kalintu’s lanky arms to wrap the gauze around his front wasn’t enough to break the trance.
”It’s getting dark, Kalintu.” Spider started with a sigh then stood. He was hoping Kalintu would have answers for him quicker but settled for checking back the next morning now that the sun started to set. “Varang will be on my ass if I don’t check in with her soon.”
Still nothing. Kalintu just sat there, freshly wrapped up, staring at the low flames like he had been for the last few hours.
Spider shrugged and turned to leave, but as he did, something fuzzy brushed against his foot. He glanced down to see the silver tuft at the end of Kalintu’s tail sweeping across the ground. It hadn’t even moved when Spider accidentally knelt on his tail while wrapping him up. He immediately crouched down and put a hand on the Na’vi’s arm.
”You back?” Spider asked, raising a brow. Kalintu, who had been breathing perfectly normal while entranced, huffed out a breath with a shakiness like he’d been holding it. His ears flicked up before he finally let his eyes flutter closed.
”He waits…” Kalintu started, prompting Spider to wonder if he should grab a hide for the seer to draw on, but was stopped when the giant Na’vi hand slapped down on top of his. “He waits for you…in the metal village…”
”He?” Spider asked, wondering which RDA prick he need to put an arrow through, “Who is he? Someone I know?”
”Yes.” Kalintu said, his eyelids tightening as he changed his mind and shook his head, “And…no. He is waiting but he does not know it. You cannot fight him. He will stop you…you will not…fight this one…”
”Who is it?” Spider asked urgently. His pride immediately saw red when Kalintu said there was some random asshole outside the range of his knife or bow. Spider lowered his weapon to no one…especially a sky person. Varang trained him to track and destroy any foe and no metal city was going to stop him.
Kalintu opened his eyes slightly, racked with a fatigue the young human couldn’t understand. He stared at Spider. He could see the wrinkles pinching between his eyebrows and the slight pull at the corners of his mouth twitching in place of openly snarling at the challenge. He leaned a little closer to him, causing Spider to clench his teeth at the challenge but not back down.
Spider never backed down…that was why he was so angry.
”The sky man will force you to lower your bow.” Kalintu said with a tired tone, “You will never loose another arrow at the sky…when his hand holds the string…”
Spider scoffed, wondering if he accidentally slipped a topical hallucinogenic in the ointment. He grinned something wicked at the challenge and growled, “Some weak ass human will never control my hand.”
”Not human…” Kalintu said quietly, letting his eyes close as his head started to slump forward, “Not anymore.”
Spider went from itching for a fight to freezing in confusion. The ash-haired Na’vi was always strange with even stranger riddles to explain what went on in his brain. Planting a hand on each of the large shoulders, the human teen pushed Kalintu back so his head jerked back upright.
”Not anymore, like an avatar?” Spider asked, tapping into the knowledge of his youth when he lived a good life among the scientists and Omatikaya. But an old life that didn’t prepare him for the RDA or the Ash.
Kalintu looked confused for a second. Spider had told him stories of the people from the forest many times. How some of the humans could walk in Na’vi bodies. But the word ‘avatar’ was still foreign in his vocabulary. He closed his eyes in thought for a moment then shook his head.
”No…the sky man was dead before he was born into his blue skin…”
Ok, now it was Spider’s turn to look confused. All he could think of was Jake Sully - the great Toruk Makto - leaving his human body behind. But Kalintu had said the sky man was dead before he had a blue body. He needed more information.
But…
”Cool…” Spider said with a nod, accepting he wasn’t going to get anything else out of Kalintu at that time.
Spider stood, pulling the exhausted Na’vi up by his arm, and catching him when he stumbled. Kalintu absentmindedly ran his hand over his chest, just then realizing Spider had wrapped his wounds, as the teen helped him walk to his bedding. The Na’vi prophet was more than twice his weight and had well over a meter on him, but the sturdy human managed to get him to lie down without gravity doing too much of the work.
”You need to rest now.” Spider stated when it seemed Kalintu was trying to get back up.
”Spider.” Kalintu said, wrapping his long fingers fully around the human’s bicep, “The sky man…he will not let you go. Like Tsahik. You will belong to him. Only the forest can protect you…”
An unusual chill went down Spider’s spine. He’d adapted to the Mangkwan…survived everything they put him through. Under the careful eye of the Tsahik.
He had freedom…with Varang’s blessing.
Didn’t he…?
”Rest, Kalintu.” Spider said, prying tje gangly fingers off from around his arm, “You’re gonna need it once I convince Varang to let you come with me…to find the sky man. And kill him before he gets me.”
Kalintu’s eyes widened slightly at the prospect of leaving the village, even temporarily. He had a hard time believing she would allow it. Even if it was Spider making the request. Varang would never risk her golden-haired child or her silver-eyed seer.
Grabbing his bow as he left the house of thorns, Spider’s eyes were drawn to the bright glow of Polyphemus above him as the stars started appearing the blackness of space. He didn’t have any arrows but he raised it up and pulled the bowstring taut as if he did.
Closing one eye to focus on nothing in particular above him, Spidee released the bow with a snap that echoed over the wasteland as a determined grin crept across his face.
”Come and get me, sky man.”