[one-shot] I see you, brother đČÖŒđą
This is Pt.2 of i see you,sister
Pairing: female!Sully reader x Sully family, female!Sully reader x Neteyam
Warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, grief, war themes.
Summary: Loss of the eldest daughter and big sister had been difficult for sully family, especially her twin brother, but what happens when eywa decides that itâs not the end for her?
Words: 5.3k
àȘââŽ
âŠWeeks later after your deathâŠ
The Marui was shrouded in the deep blues of the eclipse. The rest of the family was asleep, or pretending to be. Neteyam was staring at the roof of the tent, Loâak was curled tight in a ball, and Jake sat by the entrance, keeping watch with a hardened stare white stripe of paint covering middle of his face and chest.
Neytiri sat in the corner, the light of a single bioluminescent lamp illuminating her hands.
In her lap lay the Songcord.
It was long, winding through years of memories. She traced the beads of her own life, then moved to the smaller cords attached to hers her children's. Her fingers trembled as they found yours. She touched the first bead. The birth. She remembered the chaos of it, the double heartbeat. Her two babies You and Neteyam.
She moved her fingers down. Your first steps,First hunt,The time you fell from the tree, The time you caught your first fish. And then, her fingers stopped at the end.
A new bead was added,It was a pearl, dark and iridescent, harvested from the depths of the Cove of the Ancestors,She brought the cord to her chest, rocking slowly back and forth. The melody started low in her throat, a vibration before it became a sound. It was the melody she had hummed to you when you were inside her, and the melody she sang when she held you for the first time.
âZolaâu nĂŹprrteâ ma y/nâ(Welcome, my Y/n)
âNgati oel munge soaiane â(I welcome you to our family)
âLie si oe atanurâ(I experience the light)
âPĂ€hem parul, tĂŹâongokx âawtutaâ(The miracle arrives, a birth out of one person)
âLawnol a mĂŹ teâlanâ(A great joy ,which is in the heart)
âNgaru irayo seiyi ayoe, tonĂŹri tĂŹreyĂ€ Ngaru irayo seiyi ayoe, srrĂŹri tĂŹreyĂ€â(We give thanks for the nights of life ,We give thanks for the days of life)
"My fierce heart... my warrior true."
She squeezed the pearl tight, her eyes closing as she pictured your face the smile that was exactly like Neteyam's, but sharper, wilder.
"A father protects and A mother protects..."
"But the water calls and the spirit connects."
"You faced the fire... you welcomed death."
Her voice hitched, turning into a low, keening wail that she quickly stifled, forcing it back into the melody.
"Where are you now?... My beautiful child, my light?"
"With Eywa you sleep.. with Eywa you stay."
"Until I come... to guide your way."
Neytiri stopped singing. The silence that followed was louder than the song.
She looked down at the Songcord one last time. In the past, she sang to celebrate your life ,but tonight, she sang to acknowledge the end of it.
And actoss the tent, Neteyam turned over. He hadn't been sleeping. He had been listening. He let out a shaky breath, pulling his knees to his chest.
àȘââŽ
The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, leaving Pandora bathed in the bioluminescent glow of the eclipse. The ocean was a mirror of the stars, but tonight, Neteyam wasn't looking up. He was looking down.
He sat on rock that jutted out over the Cove of the Ancestors. Below the surface, deep in the trench, the Spirit Tree pulsed with a rhythmic, ethereal light,It was a heartbeat,your heartbeat, now joined with Eywa.
Neteyam ran a hand over his chest. The white ochre paint felt dry and tight against his skin, cracking as he breathed. He felt phantom pains in his chest. You two had been twins. You had shared a womb, shared a childhood, shared a rhythm of existence and now, there was just silence on his right side. A void where your presence used to hum.
The sound of footsteps scuffing against rock broke his trance. He didn't turn , He knew who it was . Heavy, hesitant, dragging with guilt.
"Bro?"
Neteyam exhaled smoke into the cool air. "Hey, little bro."
Lo'ak moved slowly, as if afraid he was intruding. He sat down a few feet away, pulling his knees to his chest. His eyes were red-rimmed, the dark circles under them stark against his blue skin. For a long time, neither spoke,The only sound was the gentle lap of water against the stone and the distant chittering of night creatures.
"I can't see her down there," Lo'ak whispered eventually, his voice thick. "But I know she's there."
"She's there," Neteyam confirmed, his voice flat. "With the ancestors. Probably telling them how to run things."
Lo'ak let out a weak, wet chuckle that died quickly. He picked at a loose piece of moss on the rock. "It should have been me, Neteyam."
Neteyamâs jaw tightened. "Don't."
"I'm serious," Lo'ak insisted, the tears finally spilling over, cutting tracks through the white paint on his cheeks. "Iâm the one who wanted to go back. Iâm the one who got us pinned down on that ship. She...was hit because of meâŠthat bullet... it was for me."
"It was chaos, Lo'ak," Neteyam said, turning to look at his younger brother. His own eyes were burning, but he refused to let them fall. ââWe all were targets."
"But she was covering me." Lo'ak wiped his nose aggressively. "She was always covering me,and you and she never stopped moving Even when she was bleeding... she pushed me onto the tulkun first."
Neteyam looked back at the glowing water. The memory of that moment was painful shard in his mind ,the way the light faded from your eyes so terrifyingly fast. As a twin, he had felt the exact moment the cord was cut. He had felt his soul tear in half.
"I was the oldest," Neteyam said softly. "By five minutes. But I was the oldest. It was my job,Dad said... protect the family. Thatâs all I had to do." He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. "I was right there,I was right next to her,I should have been faster."
"You couldn't haveâ"
"I should have taken the hit!" Neteyam snapped, his voice cracking, the soldier facade finally crumbling. "She was my other half, Lo'ak! You don't understand... itâs like walking around with one lung. Like I failed her."
They sat in the heavy silence of their shared guilt. The weight of it was suffocating, enough to drown them both right there on the rocks.
Then, a sudden breeze swept through the cove, ruffling their braids
Neteyam took a shuddering breath then He looked at Lo'ak, who was burying his face in his knees.
"You know what sheâd say if she saw us right now?" Neteyam asked quietly.
Lo'ak sniffled, looking up. "What?"
"Sheâd kick our asses," Neteyam said. The corner of his mouth twitched upward, a painful, tiny smile.
Lo'ak blinked, and then a genuine, albeit watery, smile broke through. " yeah,Yeah, she would."
"Sheâd walk right up to you," Neteyam continued, his voice gaining a little strength as the memory of you washed over him, "and sheâd flick that spot on your forehead.
"And sheâd call me a skxawng," Lo'ak added, letting out a breathy laugh. "Sheâd say, 'Baby brother, stop crying and load the damn magazine.'"
"Sheâd tell me to fix my face," Neteyam laughed, the sound rusty but real. "Remember when we got caught sneaking out to the Hallelujah Mountains? And Dad was losing his mind?"
"And she stood in front of us," Lo'ak remembered, shaking his head. "She told Dad it was her idea. That she wanted to see the ikran nests,She tried to take the grounding for both of us."
"And then she hit us both in the back of the head as soon as Dad walked away," Neteyam chuckled, wiping a tear from his cheek. "She said, 'If you two idiots get me grounded during the eclipse festival, I will skin you alive.'"
Lo'ak laughed, leaning back on his hands. "She hated it when we got mopey,Remember when I crashed the ilu during training? I was sitting on the beach feeling sorry for myself, and she literally threw a fish at my head."
"A live fish," Neteyam corrected, grinning. "It slapped you right in the face."
"She said, 'The ocean doesn't care about your feelings, Lo'ak. Get back in the water.'" The laughter faded into a comfortable, warm silence. It wasn't the heavy silence of before. It was filled with your presence.
"She wouldn't want this," Neteyam said, gesturing to their slumped postures, the despair radiating off them. "She wouldn't want us sitting here, blaming ourselves for something she chose to do."
"She chose to save us," Lo'ak whispered.
"Yeah," Neteyam agreed, looking down at the spirit tree one last time. "She was stubborn like that. She never let anyone else have the last word. Including the Sky People."
Neteyam stood up, his legs stiff. He reached a hand down to Lo'ak.
"Come on," Neteyam said. "Mom needs us. And if we stay out here looking like wet feral cats, she's going to haunt us."
Lo'ak took his brother's hand and pulled himself up. He looked at the water, then at Neteyam. "Sullys stick together?"
Neteyam gripped Lo'ak's hand tight, pulling him into a rough embrace, resting his forehead against his brother's.
"Sullys stick together," Neteyam whispered.
àȘââŽ
The woven walls of the Marui blocked out the wind, but they couldn't block out the cold that had settled in the center of the room.
Neytiri sat on the floor, surrounded by the small, tangible remnants of a life cut short and In her hands, she held a woven top one of yours,that she made for you. It was stained with sea salt and dried blood ,She ran her long fingers over the stitching, tracing the pattern where the beads had been sewn in. She wasn't crying crying anymore , her face emotionless, eyes staring at a spot on the fabric as if trying to conjure the warmth of the skin that used to be underneath it.
Across from her, Jake sat cross-legged, his movements sharp and precise.
He was working on her arrows ,He was meticulously binding a small, explosive charge to the tip of a long reed shaft, his hands were steady, but his jaw was clenched so hard a muscle feathered beneath the white stripe on his cheek.
They hadnât spoken since he returned from the beach, The air was thick with the words they were too afraid to say. If they spoke her name, she was truly gone,If they stayed silent, maybe she was just sleeping in the other room.
Jake finished the binding and picked up the heavy blackened bow, Neytiriâs bow, the one Lo'ak had retrieved. He had restrung it.
He moved across the mats, his knees cracking slightly. He set the bow down gently in front of her, placing the explosive tipped arrow beside it.
"I know you wonât give up your bow" Jake said, his voice rough, sounding too loud in the quiet space.thhen he put arrows in front of her. "Keep a good distance when you hit it"
Neytiri finally looked at the weapon. Her hand trembled as she reached out, picked up arrow ,but slowly dropped it closing her eyes.
"You bring fire to a house of water," she whispered.
"I bring you a way to kill them," Jake said, the desperation leaking into his tone. "When they come back. Because they will."
"Is that all there is, Ma Jake?" Her eyes rose to meet his, and they were endless pools of grief.
"Itâs my job," Jake snapped, the guilt flaring up like a struck match. He sat back on his heels, running a hand through his hair. "Iâm supposed to keep this family safe. That is the one thing... the one thing I am supposed to do. And I failed."
"We fought," Neytiri said softly.
"We ran!" Jakeâs voice broke. "We ran from the forest to save them, and I just brought the war here. I put her in the line of fire." He looked down at his hands, seeing blood that wasn't there. "I look at Eywa... I look at this spirit tree... and I don't see a plan, Neytiri. I see a grave. Where was she? Where was the Great Mother when our daughter was bleeding on that deck?"
Neytiriâs posture stiffened. She dropped the shirt and grabbed Jakeâs wrist, her grip iron-tight.
"Do not," she hissed. "Do not speak of Her with that poison in your heart."
"She took my child!" Jake yelled, the sound echoing off the water outside. "She took our baby!"
"She is holding our baby!" Neytiri screamed back, her voice shattering the stillness.
The anger drained out of her as quickly as it had come, replaced by a wave of agony so profound she doubled over,She clutched her chest, right over her heart, gasping for air.
"Faith..." Neytiri sobbed, her voice crumbling into broken pieces. "Faith is all I have right now, Ma Jake. If I do not believe she is with the Great Mother... if I do not believe she is safe within the eywa..." She looked at him, tears finally cutting through the white paint on her face. "Then she is just gone. And if she is just gone, I will die."
She picked up the shirt again, burying her face in it, inhaling the fading scent of you. "I cannot hear her," she wailed, a sound of pure, maternal torture. "I listen to the shell, I listen to the wind... my baby,My first daughter,She was part of me.â
Jake stared at her, his composure turning to ash.
He moved forward, collapsing the distance between them. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her shuddering body against his chest.
"I know," Jake choked out, burying his face in her neck, his own tears finally falling, hot and fast. "I know, baby. I know."
Neytiri clung to him, her fingers digging into his back, wailing into his shoulder. They rocked back and forth on the woven mat, the deadly bow forgotten on the floor beside them, two parents drowning in the ocean of their loss, holding onto each other to keep from going under.
àȘââŽ
The sky was the color of a bruise a swirling mix of smoke, storm clouds, and the unnatural orange glow of burning ships. The Metkayina village of Awaâatlu was in ruins. The RDAâs new fabrication modules, bolstered by the terrifying aggression of the Ash People clan lead by their tsahik Varang , had pushed the reef clans to the breaking point.
Jake fired his last magazine, the recoil jarring his exhausted shoulder. He threw the empty rifle down and drew his axe. Beside him, Neteyam was fighting like a demon, He moved with a reckless speed, cutting down Ash warriors who tried to board their commandeered skimwing.
But there were too many of them.
"Fall back!" Jake roared, his voice hoarse. "Get to the rocks! Loaâk stay with your sisters!"not knowing he was already out in the sky.
Neytiri was screaming in rage, her bow singing death, but even she was being forced back. The RDA Recoms were advancing, their heavy machine guns tearing through the cover. The Ash People, coated in gray dust and wielding obsidian edged spears, surged forward like a tide of darkness.
"Ma jake Itâs over," Neytiri gasped, holding onto her ikran.
They were trapped against the cliff edge. The ocean raged below, churned up by the engines of the demon ships,Hope was a dying ember ,They had fought for weeks, fueled by grief and vengeance, but vengeance could not stop bullets.
In the center of the chaos, Kiri dropped to her knees. She didn't pick up a weapon. She grabbed her queue, her hands shaking, and slammed the neural connection into a patch of bioluminescent moss clinging to the rock.
"Ma Eywa," she screamed, and walked towards light , trying to resist the powerful wind ,which was holding her back. "Hear me! You took my sister! You took our heart! Do not take our home too! HEAR ME!"then spider and joined her , to walk towards light. The battlefield went silent for a split second, a vacuum of sound.
Then, the planet answered.
It started as a vibration in the teeth, a hum in the bones, The water erupted. Hundreds of Tulkun breached the surface simultaneously, their armored bodies acting as living shields against the RDA ships. They weren't just the outcast Payakan this time,it was the pod. From the sky, the clouds broke. A screeching wall of sound descended as thousands of Ikran, storm gliders, and even the smaller stingbats dived. They were wild, and they swarmed the Ash People's aircraft, clogging the rotors with their bodies, tearing at the cockpits with talons.
"Eywa..." Kiri breathed, watching a massive payakan launch itself onto the deck of a Sea Dragon, crushing a squad of soldiers. "She answered." The tide of battle shifted violently. The people on RDA shops panicked. The Ash warriors looked to the sky in fear.
But the greatest miracle wasn't happening on the surface. It was happening deep, deep below.
The water here was usually still, but today, the Spirit Tree was thrashing. Its glowing tendrils, usually a soft calming violet, were pulsing with a blinding, golden white light.
You floated there, suspended in the roots. You had been dead for weeks,Your skin was pale, your eyes closed, your chest still. The sea life had begun to claim you,tiny luminescent barnacles dotted your arm guards, and sea grass was woven through your hair.
But Kiriâs scream had traveled through and It had hit the Spirit Tree like a lightning bolt.
Eywa, the Great Mother, does not give and take in the way humans understand. She maintains the balance,She holds all energy,But sometimes... sometimes the energy is too fierce to be held and Sometimes, a warrior's song is not finished.
The roots wrapped tighter around your waist and chest,the golden light intensified, becoming searingly hot.
The bullet wound in your chest the dark, ugly hole that had stolen your life began to glow and heal,The tissue knitted together. The blood, stagnant in your veins, was suddenly charged with bio-energy.
Just then your heart gave a single, violent kick.
The water around you vibrated,the energy transferred from the Tree into you,It was a jolt, a shock of life more painful than the death had been.
Your eyes snapped open.
àȘââŽ
The sky above the was a churning cauldron of black smoke and screaming engines.
Neteyam urged his Ikran, into a steep dive ,the wind roared in his ears, tearing at his braids,He was exhausted. his quiver was down to his last three arrows, and his heart was hammering against his ribs ,not with fear, but with a hollow, desperate acceptance.
He was fighting like a man who had nothing left to lose. Since you died, a part of him had been trying to find a way to join you without dishonoring the family.
"Break right!" Loâakâs voice crackled over the comms, breathless and panicked.
Neteyam banked hard, narrowly missing a burst of machinegun fire from an RDA SA-2. He returned fire, his arrow piercing the cockpit glass, sending the pilot into a spin.
But the Ash People were different. They didn't fight with machines,they fought with hate and fire.
An Ash warrior, riding a massive, scarred mountain banshee with skin the color of charcoal, surged up from the smoke below,He was painted in grey and ochre.
Neteyam pulled back his bowstring, but his fingers slipped on the sweat and blood. The shot went wide.
Damn it.
He tried to reload, but his banshee shrieked, barrel rolling to avoid the Ash warriorâs spear. The maneuver disoriented Neteyam for a split second.
In that second, he lost the advantage and the Ash warrior banked sharply, disappearing into a cloud of thick, oily smoke. Neteyam scanned the horizon, his chest heaving. "Where is he..."
The Ash warrior had pulled a silent loop and was now hovering directly at Neteyamâs right, the warrior raised a modified RDA rifle a heavy, ugly thing meant to tear through a bone.
Neteyam yanked on the neural queue, trying to dive, but he knew he was too late ,He stared down the barrel of the gun. The Ash warrior grinned, a cruel expression.
Time seemed to slow down. Neteyam squeezed his eyes shut.
But bullets never came, instead a piercing cry shattered the air,It wasn't the guttural roar of the Ash banshees. It was a high, musical, terrifyingly familiar shriek.
Neteyamâs eyes snapped open From above, a streak of blue and yellow appeared. It was your Ikran. It had been missing since your death, vanished into the wild, but now it was here, diving with a speed that defied physics.
And it wasn't empty.
You sat there, effortless in the saddle. You were soaking wet. Your hair was loose, loating in the wind. Sea water dripped from your nose and chin But the most terrifying, beautiful thing was your eyes. They were burning with a fierce, electric gold energy, the same energy that flowed through the Spirit Tree.
You lowered your bow, resting it on your thigh. A small, crooked smirk the one you used to give him when you beat him in a race tugged at the corner of your mouth.
"Hello, big bro," you said, your voice raspy from the water but undeniably, miraculously alive. "You look like shit."
Neteyamâs mouth opened, but no sound came out,His hands shook so hard he almost dropped his bow.
"Y/N?" he choked out, the name tearing from his throat like a sob.
"The one and only," you winked, though your eyes softened as you looked at his terrified face. You gestured with your chin toward the battle raging below. "Now, are we going to finish this, or are you going to keep staring at me like Iâm a ghost?"
Suddenly, the emptiness in Neteyamâs chest the void that had been there for weeks slammed shut.
He felt your pulse,and let out a wet, hysterical laugh, wiping tears and soot from his face. He gripped his bow, feeling strength flood back into his limbs.
"Let's kill them all," Neteyam said âSullyâs stick together!â
"Lead the way, Ma 'eylan," you replied.
àȘââŽ
The battle had bled out into a smoky, trembling silence, the ash people had retreated, fading back into the volcanic smog like ghosts.
Quaritch, battered and outmatched by the renewed ferocity of the Sullys, had chosen fire over capture, plummeting into a burning ravine rather than facing Neytiriâs blade.
On a large, flat outcropping of rock jutting from the sea, the Sully family reunited. they were a wreck,Jake was favoring his left leg, his chest heaving. Neytiri was wiping black soot from her face, her eyes scanning the sky frantically for her children. Loâak was sitting on the ground, holding his head, while Kiri and Tuk clung to each other.
"They're coming!" Tuk squeaked, pointing upward.
Two Ikrans broke through the haze. One was Neteyamâs familiar teal mount. The other was a beast they hadnât seen in weeks a darker, sleeker creature that had vanished the day you died.
Jake stiffened, his hand instinctively going to his knife,his eyes narrowing. He recognized the mount, but his mind couldn't process why it was here because It should have been in wild. The Ikrans landed heavy and hard, their talons scraping against the stone. Neteyam slid off his mount first, He didn't look like a soldier who had just survived a war,He looked like a man who had seen Eywa,He was grinning a wide, tear-streaked grin that looked manic on his face.
He didn't walk to them ,He turned back to the other Ikran, He reached up a hand, offering it to the rider. "Careful sister," Neteyam said, his voice carrying clearly across the silence. "You're still getting your land legs back."
Neytiri froze,her bow slipped from her fingers, clattering loudly against the rock.You landed on the rock with a soft thud. You were soaking wet, your skin glistening with sea water and a strange, faint bioluminescent sheen that seemed to pulse in time with a heartbeat.
But there was no blood. There was no hole in your chest,Just a swirling, golden pattern of energy where the bullet had been, glowing softly against your blue skin, you looked at them, your golden eyes adjusting to the faces of the people who had buried you.
"Saânok,Sempul," you whispered, your voice raspy and small. "I... I think I took a really long nap."
For a span of five seconds, nobody moved, the wind whistled through the rocks. Then, Neytiri made a raw, guttural noise of pure, agonizing disbelief.
"No..." she breathed, stumbling forward,Her hands shook violently. She looked at Jake, as if asking him to wake her from this cruel dream. "Ma Jake...?"
Jake was paralyzed, he was staring at you, his warrior's mask completely shattered. His lower lip trembled. He blinked rapidly, tears spilling over, washing clean tracks through the war paint on his cheeks.
"Baby girl?" Jake choked out, the name barely audible.
You took a hesitant step forward, and that broke the spell.
Neytiri lunged she threw herself at you, She collided with you, dropping to her knees and dragging you down with her, burying her face in your wet, cold stomach. Her hands were everywhere touching your face, your arms, your hair, frantically searching for the wound, checking for the blood that wasn't there.
"Oh, Great Mother... oh, my sweet child... my heart...my daughter " Neytiri sobbed, her voice breaking into wails of hysteria and joy. She gripped you so tight it bruised, terrified that if she let go, you would turn into sea foam and vanish.
"Mom, I'm okay," you cried, tears finally spilling from your golden eyes as you wrapped your arms around her trembling shoulders. "I'm okay,She sent me back,I'm here."
Jake fell to his knees beside you. He wrapped his massive arms around both you and Neytiri, pulling you into his chest. He buried his face in the crook of your neck, inhaling the scent of the ocean and the ozone smell of Eywa's energy,He sobbed openly, a deep, heaving sound that shook his entire frame.
"I got you," Jake whispered over and over, rocking you. "I got you,I'm not letting go. I'm never letting go."
"Y/N!"
Loâak crashed into the pile next, tackling you from the side and he was crying so hard he couldn't speak, just pressing his forehead against your shoulder, gripping your arm.
"I thoughtâI thought it was my fault," Loâak gasped, his voice wrecked. "Iâm sorry, Iâm so sorry."
"Shut up, skxawng," you laughed through your sobs, freeing a hand to smack the back of his head lightly. "It wasn't your fault. Never your fault." Tuk squeezed in, burrowing into the center of the mass, wailing your name, You kissed the top of her head, feeling the warmth of your family, the solid reality of them.
Only Neteyam stood back, just for a moment, watching. He was crying silently, his chest rising and falling with relief ,He looked at Kiri.
Kiri stood a few feet away. She wasn't crying,She was smiling, a serene, knowing smile. She walked over slowly, crouching down. She didn't hug you immediately,Instead, she placed her hand over the glowing, golden swirl on your chest.
She closed her eyes, feeling the pulse of the Great Mother beating beneath your ribs. "She wasn't ready to say goodbye," Kiri whispered softy. You looked up at Kiri and smiled. "She told me I had work to do."
Jake pulled back, just an inch, cupping your face in his large hands. He looked into your eyes those new, electric eyes and saw the fire of the planet burning in them. He wiped a tear from your cheek with his thumb.
"I see you, my daughter," Jake said, his voice thick with a gratitude he could never express in words.
"I see you, Dad," you replied.
Neytiri pulled you back down, refusing to share you for another second. The Sullyâs were whole once again.
âŠ.Week laterâŠ.
You sat on a large, flat rock that jutted out over the drop off, your legs dangling into the cool water.
You were looking down through the clear water, you could see the distant, glowing of the Spirit Tree.
You absently touched the center of your chest the skin there felt different now warmer than the rest of you,The golden swirl where the bullet had been pulsed softly, a second heartbeat against your fingertips.
"Mom says you shouldn't be out here alone."
You didn't jump, because you had felt him coming long before he spoke.
Neteyam stepped onto the rock, He sat down next to you, close enough that your shoulders brushed.
"I'm not alone," you said quietly, your voice still carrying a slight rasp from the seawater. "I'm with you."
Neteyam let out a breath, leaning back on his hands. He followed your gaze down into the abyss.
"Does it..." He hesitated, struggling with the words. "Does it scare you? Looking at it?"
"No," you answered honestly. "It looks like... home. In a weird way. Itâs quiet down there, Neteyam, Thereâs no war there ,no sky people ,no painâ
Neteyam looked at you then, he looked tired, dark circles under his eyes hadn't fully faded, even after a week of peace. "It was too quiet up here," he whispered.
He looked down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them. "When the bond snapped... it wasn't a noise,It was just... silence. Like half the world just turned off,I kept reaching for you, out of habit. Every time I saw something funny, or stupid, or dangerous, Iâd reach out to push the feeling to you,and there was just...nothing."
He turned his head away, staring out at the horizon,âI thought I went crazy. Mom was quiet and Dad was trying to keep us moving... and I was just standing there, feeling half a person."
You reached out, covering his hand with yours "I heard you," you said softly. Neteyam looked back at you, eyes wide. "What?" "In the tree," you said. "It wasn't words ,It was... feelings and I felt you drowning,I felt your guilt,It was so heavy, Neteyam. It was pulling me back down." You squeezed his hand. "Thatâs part of why I woke up,You were being so loud, big brother. You wouldn't let me sleep."
A tear slipped down Neteyamâs cheek. He let out a wet, shaky laugh. "So I annoyed you back to life?"
"Basically," you smiled, bumping your shoulder against his. "You and Mom,She was singing and It vibrated through the roots,It tickled."
The humor faded quickly, replaced by a heavy solemnity,Neteyam turned his hand over, interlacing his fingers with yours. He gripped tight, as if checking your pulse through your palm.
"I failed you," he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper "My one job was to protect the family. And I watched you take a bullet meant for me."
"Neteyam, stop," you said firmly, turning to face him, your golden eyes flared slightly, a visual echo of your emotions. "You didn't fail, You fought, we fought, That's what we do. I didn't jump in front of you because I wanted to be a hero,I did it because..." You paused, searching for the words. "Because a world without you isn't one I wanted to live in anyway."
Neteyam stared at you, his jaw working. "You can't do that again,You can't leave me here to explain to dad why his daughter is gone."
"I don't plan on it," you said,You looked back down at the glowing tree. "Eywa sent me back for a reason, Neteyam. I don't know what it is yet, Maybe itâs just to annoy you. Maybe itâs to fight the enemy,But I know one thing."
"What?"
"Iâm not the same," you admitted, your voice trembling slightly for the first time,âI feel... old and I feel the water moving before the waves crash, I feel the Tulkun miles away,Itâs a lot of noise inside my head now."
You looked at him, vulnerability cracking your calm mask. "I need you to help me stay grounded, ma Teyam. If I start drifting... you have to pull me back.
Neteyam shifted, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pulling you into his side, resting his chin on the top of your head, right between your ears."I got you," he vowed, the vibration of his chest rumbling against you.
He held you there for a long time, listening to the water lapping against the rock.
"Your eyes are weird now, though," Neteyam mumbled into your hair, ruining the moment intentionally. "You look like a furious owl."
You elbowed him in the ribs, hard. He grunted but didn't let go. "And you look like a skxawng who needs a haircut," you shot back.
"Good," Neteyam exhaled, squeezing you tighter. "You're definitely still you."
"Yeah," you whispered, closing your eyes and leaning into his warmth, finally feeling the cold of the grave leave your bones. "I'm still me."
âI see you ,y/nâ
âI see you ,brotherâ
àȘââŽ
Side note: soo i did what I couldnât do with movies, i reunited Sullyâsđ„č
Twin idea came from my younger sisters, they are twins, and growing up with them taught me that there isnât stronger bond than twin siblings have, they are basically inseparable, and I canât imagine them being without each other.
And also excuse my poor writing. I searched up lot of words in dictionary đ„Č
© 2026 tsahik-cherry











