Reborn - Pandora's Box (Book 2)

-.-Over the Years-.-

She hadn't thought she could love Pandora any more  than she already did.

But she was wrong. Oh, was she wrong. 

Because her fascination and love for Pandora just kept on growing. And she started to relive first seeing it all through the eyes of her daughter.

"You have a daughter," Mo'at announced. Nix just continued to cry, slamming her face into her pillow. "Will you hold her?"

"No!"

"Will you look at her?" urged Jocelyn, one of the female scientists.

"No! No!" She refused, and buried her face deeper in the pillow, her own wails mixing with those of her newborn daughter. 

It wasn't until hours later that she finally gazed upon the baby for the first time. "I'm sorry," she cried, even though the baby couldn't understand her.  "I'm sorry, I'm just so scared."

She had never really thought about having kids of her own, and now here she was, a mum, mum to the second born human on Pandora. 

This was supposed to be a new start, right? Maybe everything would be okay.

Mo'at demonstrated how to sing a Songcord for her daughter, to mark a new beginning.

"I thank you, oh Great Mother, for the life of my daughter, Gracie..."

Gracie Vallencourt, named after the most bad-ass woman Nix had ever known. 

In the changes for the rest of the Clan, Jake had become Olo'eyktan, Clan leader, following Tsu'tey's death in the Great Battle, while Mo'at remained in her position as Tsahik. 

Bless the older woman, for she would never disregard any of Nix's many, many, many questions.

The Clan had taken to calling her txep, which meant fire, thanks to her hair, or could be short for txeptun, which meant orange, or fire red, also cause of the hair. 

"The People say everyone is born twice..."

Her daughter took after her more in the looks department. Her darker skin, reddish hair, small stature. It was her eyes though, that she got from her father, that intense, sharp blue. A constant reminder.

She had to let the past die in order to move forward. It was easy to let most of it go, except for one thing, one person, and she hated that she couldn't.  She had clearly  meant nothing to him, so she tried to make sure how much he had hurt her didn't mean anything to her either. And so she suppressed it, shoved it deep down. It wasn't helping as much as she hoped it would. 

From then on, her heart was shielded, guarded, protected, not about to let anyone in, let alone close. "I've given up that part of my life." It became her mantra. 

The Sully kids, like Spider, grew up calling her Auntie Nix. Neteyam, Kiri, Lo'ak, and last, but certainly not least, little Tuktirey, or Tuk for short. 

Nix had never had any siblings of her own, and boy was it entertaining to watch. 

One such time, Kiri and Lo'ak were in an argument over a toy. Based on the expression on Jake's face, he was trying to figure out exactly what they were yelling at each other in Na'vi. Nix knew, and she was laughing.

"I hate you!"

"I hate you more! I hate you times infinity, Lo'ak! You penis face!"

"Hey! Don't make me come over there," Jake said. That put an end to the arguing, but not Nix's laughter.  He turned to his friend.  "Don't make me come over there either, Nix." She just kept on laughing.