Luminous Nights [Neteyam x Aonung]

Dark Nights : Part 17

A while ago, the Sullys were contacted by the hospital for Neteyam. The whole family went to see him, though he was resting at the time. Kyro was there as well, to explain exactly what happened. Knowing of the boys' situation, Jake asked about Aonung, and was told he was taken in for questioning, and that the odds were against him.

With an idea, Jake took Lo'ak and headed to the station with Kyro to help the boy. There, he introduced a new factor to the case; Aonung's pacifism. Though it was caused by the very incident he was taken in for, they didn't know that, and had to take it into account. He ended up getting Tonowari to bring Tsireya to the station, and together they gave examples they were a witness to.

Unfortunately, to see if their words were true, Aonung was put against one of their officers, with permission from his father first. Even though he was attacked, with restraint, naturally he didn't defend himself. It proved the trait Jake and the others said he had, but it was still Rotxo's word against theirs.

The case wouldn't be solved within just a few hours, though, so the wait was on. For Aonung, he was less worried about himself and more focused on what he heard happened to Neteyam. Over the next few days, the boy was still recovering. He had no permanent injuries, but was kept an extra day to make sure he was fine. The same day he was released to go home, Tonowari brought his old friend in to help Aonung's case in court.

Jake and Lo'ak still did everything they could to help him, and to the man's surprise, Lo'ak knew the daughter of his old friend. Niráli had come with her mother to discuss anything she may have seen Rotxo and Haeda involved in during school. Much to Lo'ak's delight, just her or her mother having an opinion had such an effect on their side, things were looking up for Aonung.

The girl could've told a straight lie and won over the judge. The last problem they had to face was Aonung's opinion, which he had withheld. He had remained mostly quiet, other than saying he wasn't a murderer. Even through court, all he could think about was seeing Neteyam be okay, but in order to do that, he needed to offer more than he had, to help himself.

Though saying Rotxo beat a man to death was an obvious lie, everyone seemed to be believing it, thanks to his refusal to fight. So, sticking with that, he confirmed every truth he could, plus one lie. Which wasn't completely untrue, if it weren't for Rotxo, that man would've still been alive. Thinking that way, and putting every blame there is on the shameful, hellish being called Rotxo, Aonung rested his case.

After much anticipation, the accused marine boy was found innocent, and released to go home. Because of the many things that happened to him, though it doesn't seem to have done damage, his parents were encouraged to monitor him very closely from now on. He was offered therapy, but refused it, because in his mind, Neteyam is all the treatment he needs, and said boy is certainly capable of the task. His mother didn't agree with him, but she wasn't about to force him to do anything he didn't want to, for obvious reasons.

By the time everything was over, Aonung had missed many courses even though he was instructed not to just before this all happened. But that weekend, even though he was back home, and his parents hardly cared about the days of school he missed, his mind was still stuck on one thing; Seeing Neteyam. The boy who finally ended it all and set him free.