Thanatophobia | Ao'nung

⋆˚✿˖°ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟛𝟜⋆˚✿˖°

"Would someone like to explain to me what the hell just happened?" Spider asked in disbelief, and everyone besides Lo'ak looked at him. "Since when has she been able to do whatever the hell she just did?" He screeched.

Everyone glanced at each other as if they didn't know. Ni'la hadn't told them about her ability. They didn't even know how what she'd just done was possible. It didn't make any logical sense, and yet as Jake and Neytiri looked at the slow movements of their son's chest as his eyes fluttered open, their confusion grew more. "Dad?" Neteyam said, and both parents leaned towards Neteyam.

"What's wrong?" Neytiri asked, wondering if he was in pain.

"Why did it stop hurting?" Neteyam brought his hand up to his chest, and he no longer felt blood rushing out of his body. "Why am I not bleeding?" He murmured.

"Dad," Lo'ak said softly as he noticed that Ni'la didn't appear to be breathing, but no one heard his words as they were all too focused on the boy who'd been dying moments prior. "Dad," The youngest Sully boy repeated, but still he was ignored, and his panic surged.

"Dad!" Lo'ak screamed, causing everyone to look at him.

"What, Lo'ak?" Jake hissed.

"Ni'la's not breathing," He breathed out, and Jake and Neytiri paled as they didn't see any movement in their daughter's body.

Jake quickly sprang into action as he took his daughter out of his son's arms before he laid her on the ground beside Neteyam. He started to do chest compressions as he counted out loud to himself. Then he tilted Ni'la's head back and lowered himself to give her mouth-to-mouth as he plugged her nose.

Neytiri fell into hysterics as everything started to overwhelm her. Everything was closing in on her, and she felt like there was nothing she could do about it. Those demons had almost taken everything away from her. They killed her sister, her father, and her betrothed, and they took down her home tree. There would be hell to pay if one of her children died today.

Cries raked over her body as she watched her mate perform CPR on their oldest daughter. First, Neteyam had been shot, and he was extremely close to dying. Everyone there knew that if Ni'la hadn't healed him, he would be dead by now. But because of Ni'la, he was still alive and breathing.

Her son was alive, but at what cost?

Was this the Great Mother's way of making her choice?

Was Eywa telling Neytiri that if one child didn't die she needed to choose another?

Because Neytiri would never do that. Her children were her life. They mean everything to her. She didn't want any of them to die.

After the lives her kids had lived, this was far from what they deserved. Both she and Jake knew their children were a product of war. The way they ruthlessly protected each other had been a sad reality of how they had to grow up.

No child deserved to grow up the way Neytiri's kids did, and she knew it. If she could go back in time and allow them to be kids for even a minute longer, she would, because that's all they were. Every last one of them was her babies, and she forced them to grow up too quickly.

Especially Ni'la and Neteyam.

Neytiri grabbed one of Ni'la's hands as her tears continued to fall. The mother knew that Ni'la had never gotten much of a chance to be a kid or a teenager, which was why she'd been so persistent in allowing her daughter to hang out with Ao'nung. Even though Neytiri wasn't particularly fond of the Metkayina boy at first, she saw how happy he made her daughter, and after everything, she'd put Ni'la through, the least she could do was allow her to live in peace.