Stargazing: Neteyam x reader

26. Heat of battle

Watching the water silently, I waited for any source of movement at all. Rounding the corner was a force of Skimwing's and their riders charging towards us. I recognised the riders at the front to be my father, my mother and Jake. My shoulder's relaxed ever so slightly at the sight of my parents but we're still tense due to the weapon being pointed to my head.

"It's dad!" Tuk said happily.
Quaritch who I recognised as the main leader of this operation took off the coms communication from Lo'ak attaching it to himself.
"If you can hear me Jake Sully, as you can probably tell I have your kids. You betrayed your own Jake Sully. Good men, good women, and I will not hesitate to kill one of yours either." He announced, putting his own gun to Lo'ak's head.
"No please don't." My sister begged.
I gritted my teeth, knowing I couldn't do anything in this situation.
"I'll make a deal with you, come out alone on this ship, and we will not shoot the kids, simple." The man blatantly said, no remorse behind his words.

Slowly, Jake started to make his way silently, my parents had stopped in their tracks signalling that all other troops stopped too.
Looking at my sister, she hung her head low, trying to hide her fear but I knew her well enough to understand why she was scared. I had been sitting still in fear of being shot at any point for one simple mistake. It was a fear I had never experienced before in my life, I wouldn't even wish it upon my worst enemy.
"It's a clean shot." One of the men aimed towards Jake with a sniper.
"No, let him get on the ship. We shoot now and they all attack." The man muttered.
"Understood Colonel."

Before I processed what came next, the loud wailing of a familiar Tulkun echoed in the air. Payakan had jumped out of the water, landing straight in the middle of the ship knocking many over.
My eyes widened as he used his tail to send men flying and off the ship.
Lo'ak kicked one of the men in the legs allowing him to crush him with his fin. One of the other boats tried firing a spear at him which he easily deflected with his armoured head. Payakans cries echoed across the ship, but not painful cries, angry cries.. cries of war in his heart. The chaos could have been deafening at this point, everyone was shouting orders, screaming in pain or just yelling anything that they could. I looked forward seeing my family charge forward to us, taking down the smaller ships, whilst Jake shot his gun as much as he could causing ships to explode on impact.     The whole scene awakened a new sense of determination, I wanted to get into the action and fight like my life depended on it.

As Payakan jumped off the ship, the remaining men ran inside in order to receive new orders. Their mistake was leaving us behind.
To my right I heard a thud of metal on the ship, and my eyes widened as Neteyam got on the ship.
Running over he cut Reya and Tuk loose first, telling them to get to safety.
When he got to me, he gave me a quick kiss on the top of my head before cutting me free.
"Who's the mighty warrior hey?" Neteyam joked cutting his brother loose.
As Neteyam turned to leave I noticed Lo'ak picking up one of the guns.
"Where are you going Lo'ak?" I asked.
"Our friend Spider is in there, we need to help him!" He answered.
The name sounded vaguely familiar due to Kiri mentioning him a few times in conversation.
"I'm coming with you then." I said blatantly.
"No Y/n, I need to down there in the water, safe." Neteyam said to me, holding me by the shoulders.
"Neteyam, I told you from the beginning, I will be fighting with you, until the end. Nothing else will stop me." I said seriously back.
"Fine, but you stay by me okay?"
"I will, now let's go." I said, deciding to grab one of the other guns that had been flung out of the hands of one of the other men.

Slowly as we made our way inside, we climbed up on the poles in order not to be seen. It was a slow process as we ventured to look for Spider, who I assumed was the human boy.
There were still many soldiers running around, shouting orders to get to the safety boats as the ship was sinking rapidly. Alarms were blaring, my heart was pounding and my eyes scanned every corner of my vision.

The two boys whipped their head to the left as what I assumed was a familiar voice echoed through the ship.
I looked to see a teenage boy being dragged by some men to what I assumed was the escape boats. Collectively we all nodded in unison before jumping down, attacking the first guy that came into our sights. Punching one in the face and knocking him to the ground, I turned to one that Spider was hitting and pushed him over the railing. My eyes widened as one that had been knocked to the floor aimed the gun at Lo'ak. Without thinking I gripped the gun in a similar way that I remembered Jake hold it, before firing at the man straight in the chest.
Neteyam gave me a look as though to question how I was able to do that so swiftly, but I didn't have time to reply. Soon after in the corner of my eye I saw three other men appear from the corner, guns raised at us. Lo'ak went to aim for them but Neteyam and I quickly pushed him out the way, backing us all in a corner for cover.
Neteyam grabbed the gun from Lo'ak's hand, looking at me for a moment as though to signal to fire.
Nodding, I turned the corner for a second, firing bullets in order to distract the men before Neteyam fired some more precise shots, but all the metal equipment made it difficult to land a specific shot.

"Go go go!" I yelled at Lo'ak and Spider to jump down the hole in the ship that led back to the sea. Looking at Neteyam, I knew we would be in the line of fire as we jumped off. As we ceased fire, I looked at him for a second, before we both dived down, the sounds of bullets blaring in my ears.
I felt a weird, painful sensation curse through my body as we landed, gritting my teeth to hide the pain. An unfamiliar sort of pain.

"I've been shot." I grunted, gripping my arm.

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Ouch..
-Author out