ʙᴀʀʀɪᴄᴀᴅᴇꜱ: ᴠᴏʟ. 2 | Jake Sully X Reader (Book 2)

| Chapter 19 |

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Italics: (Na'vi language, Metkayina sign language, and Jake's inner thoughts)

A/N: This chapter is 10.2k words long- No matter how hard I tried to make it the last one, I realized I still have to divide it into another one lmao Anyway, read the author's note in the end! It's super important 🤍 It's 2 AM when I post this so I'll be revising this later on.
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Both Spider and Lo'ak rushed to swim to Neteyam's side. The boy continued to struggle to stay afloat, and the fact that he was losing more blood and strength by the second wasn't helping at all. "Give me a hand!" Lo'ak urged Spider. The two boys noticed Neteyam started to slowly sink while losing his inhibitions.

They both grabbed onto him and brought him back to the surface. It was not a good sign. at all. "Keep him up!" Lo'ak said to Spider as the two boys started to bring Neteyam over to Tsireya's ilu. "I got him! Come on!" Spider replied back. Tsireya had left her ilu and was now helping the two boys carry Neteyam to her awaiting creature. Pressure and fear was rising amongst all of them, so first things first, getting Neteyam out of there was their best bet.

As Lo'ak and Spider assisted Neteyam on getting onto the ilu, the boy himself used all of the strength that he had left to pull himself up. Tsireya had swam over to the other side to help steady Neteyam. "Grab him," Lo'ak said to Spider, who climbed onto the back of the ilu to help Neteyam sit up. Speaking of which, the boy continued to gasp for breath as he shut his eyes closed, trying to lessen the pain he was in.

As Lo'ak and Tsireya helped a very weak Neteyam get onto the creature, Spider was at a loss. One of his best friends was in such a dire situation that he had no idea how to react. "Holy shit..." The human boy muttered, distracted for a few seconds until Lo'ak's goice brought him back to reality. "Hold him up," The young Sully brother said, and Spider did as told, grabbing onto Neteyam's shoulders from behind and pulling him back so that he sat up.

Tsireya's face was riddled with anguish as she felt tears brimming her eyes, her ears tipped back with fear, all the while breathing heavily while helping get a barely conscious Neteyam onto her ilu. As Lo'ak moved to sit in front of Neteyam and Spider sat behind the mortally injured boy, Tsireya helped the best she could by staying in the water to keep him upright, reassuring Neteyam with kind words.

"It's okay, bro. I got you," Lo'ak reassured his brother behind him, already beginning to command the ilu to ride forward. Lo'ak held Neteyam's arm over his shoulder while Tsireya stayed in the water, off the ilu, but hanging onto the side as the creature moved forward. There wasn't enough space for all 4 of them, but she continued to hang on. "Go, go, go!" Spider said, and Lo'ak complied by making the ilu go as quickly and fast as it possibly could.

Tsireya's eyes widened at a realization that just ocurred to her, that Lo'ak, Neteyam, and Spider still had no idea about. "They have Kiri and Tuk!" The princess pointed out, making Lo'ak's heart drop as he looked back at the ship while they continued to ride. They would go back for his sisters later, but Neteyam could not afford to wait to be tended to. "I can't go back," Lo'ak admitted, as much as it pained him at his sisters were still in the ship As the group continued to ride forward through the currents of water, Neteyam kept blinking in and out of consciousness erratically as he held his chest where the bullet shot penetrated and was now bleeding out from uncontrollably.

The sun was slowly beginning to set behind the plant that Pandora orbits, which means that the ecplise would happen soon. You and Jake still had no idea what the situation with Neteyam was. While you were taking care of remaining stragglers and spotting more enemies from the air, Jake could see Lo'ak, Tsireya, Neteyam, and Spider approaching him on an ilu. Jake saw their arrival and leaped off of his Skimwing onto a nearby rock. The ex-marine ran over to where his children were, waiting by the shores of the rocks. By what he could see, Neteyam didn't look so good.