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

| Epilogue |

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Italics: (Na'vi language, Metkayina sign language, and Jake's inner thoughts)
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Ecplise was over a few minutes after the Sully's reunited. The sun was beginning to peek out once again from behind the planet that Pandora orbited. That said, natural light was beginning to return and everything was much clearer. The SeaDragon sank and there was nothing to see on the horizon apart from the three looming and giant rocks on the shores. So many things had changed from the moment before and after the sun had set behind the neighboring planet. It seemed like a fitting metaphor to how things can change from the blink of an eye, from one moment to another.

By the time that the sun came out, Spider had made it out to the surface with Quaritch still on his back slowly regaining consciousness. The boy started to bring the Colonel over to the choppy shores of a rocky surface that Spider had been the closest too. Water crashed back and forth against the rocks while Spider began to bring Quaritch over to the edge. The Colonel had already gained enough strength to start climbing on his own, so the man groaned as he began to make his way up the shore with Spider pulling him by the back of his vest.

When Spider and Quaritch were both on the rocky surface on a stable side of it, they both were breathing heavily with exhaustion. Spider was looking at the Colonel with furrowed eyebrows and a conflicted expression, trying not to let his mind convince him that he messed up by saving this man. Meanwhile Quaritch himself looked at his som with a surprised and puzzled look. Why had Spider saved him? After he said that he was not his son, Spider still came back for him. But why?

Neither of the two said a word to each other, especially when there was really nothing to be said. Spider didn't want to explain himself, and he couldn't. He was still figuring it out himself. All of a sudden, Quaritch's Ikran landed with a screech between the boy and the Colonel still loyal to the Colonel he had bonded with. Quaritch panted for a few seconds as his Ikran screeched in his face as a greeting. The man groaned as he started to get up weakly. "Let's move out," The Colonel muttered, but Spider stayed put and didn't move a single inch. The man was crazy if he thought that Spider would still go along with whatever he said, much less go with him. Not in a million years.

Quaritch limped over to stand by his Ikran's next, preparing to mount the saddle. Spider had taken off his life jacket in order to remove the emergency floatation devices on the sides, and looked into the distance to see if he could see the Sully family anywhere. "Son," Quaritch started, and Spider snapped his head over to look at the man in front of him with widened eyes at what his father just called him.

A few hours ago he had dismissed Spider as nothing close to him, not even as his flesh and blood, but now he was finally acknowledging him? Quaritch extended his hand out to Spider while still breathing heavily, but not as much as before since he was still trying to catch his breath. "Come with me," The Colonel said, holding his out to his son, but Spider's opinion hadn't changed. Even if he couldn't let him die, Spider would never go along with anything that Quaritch said ever again. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice, never, ever again.

Spider didn't say anything else except for scowling at Quaritch, seething at the man with a hiss before dropping his life jacket behind him and jumping into the water. The Colonel's eyes widened at what he witnessed. "Spider!" The man called out to his son, but it was futile because the boy was already submerged. The Colonel panted heavily as he felt more blood trickle down his nose and mouth, so he didn't waste any time in mounting his Ikran.

It was a painful thing given that the man was still injured from not only almost drowning but also the fight with Jake. He hissed in discomfort when adjusting himself onto the saddle and connected his queue and bond to the Ikran. With a gruntled tug on the saddle and a command on his Ikran, Quaritch took off into the skies and left Three Brothers Rocks, leaving the Sullys behind with their fallen son.