In her time spent learning what it meant to actually be alive, Gene had forgotten her tasks. She had forgotten that she wasn't really and truly alive. She was a machine with a task. She was designed to learn in order to better prevent lose of life. She was programed to help. And yet. And yet the words Grace had spoken to her last and the hope Tsu'tey had given her had pulled her away from what she believed was the right way for her.
Amhul seemed to sense her change. She was showing Gene how to properly weave other types of clothing outside simple hide clothing when she stiffened and her gaze grew distant.
"Gene? What is it?" She reached out and settled her hand on Gene's arm in order to pull her attention back. Wide scared eyes faced her and she immediately knew that something was wrong.
"They're coming."
"Who Gene? Who is coming?"
"The humans. I didn't see them decide. They're coming to destroy home tree." She couldn't remain here, she couldn't remain in a body if she wished to prevent the destruction to come so she disconnected.
Amhul moved quickly to catch Gene, fear and shock freezing her for a moment before she called for her mate.
"Warn the Olo'eyktan. The sky people are coming."
His eyes went to Gene now peacefully sleeping in his mates arms and nodded. While he was not as close with the dreamwalker his mate had come to see almost as her own, he knew that she was eager to learn and to live as one of them. She was determined to be one of them with no ties to the life she had once had.
Gene felt the backlash of the disconnection in the stuttering of her mainframe as she quickly shifted from her home box where the marines had already stormed to take Jake, Grace, and Norm back, to the main base. Helicopters, AMP suits, guns. Her system blared warnings as she delved deep into the mainframe and systems. Warnings blared as she tore into the systems. Overrode the functions in the helicopters, fried the mainframe of the AMP suits. She just entered the functions for the oxygen, intent on turning it off until most of the base was unconscious when an electrical pain had her snapping back to her body.
She sat up with a pained gasp, the connection between her body and her box like static with how it seemed to short in and out.
"Gene? Gene I need you to look at me." Amhul was above her, hand on her face as she tried to get Gene to focus on her.
"Amhul It hurts." She'd felt pain when she fell poorly from a tree while running with Tsu'tey. She felt pain when Rotxo broke her ribs and beat her black and blue. She felt pain when one of the pods on the episoth burst and grazed her ankle when she was out with Nanti. She'd experienced pain again and again from the moment she began to truly take in Pandora in a body made with no metal or wires or other electrical components and yet nothing could compare to how her head seemed to be trying to split itself in half. The pull back to her box and the pull to her body was tearing her apart and she could do nothing about it as the connection seemed to keep shorting and fizzing like a live wire.
"You're okay Gene. You're here, with me. I need you to tell me though, how soon? How soon are the sky people coming to hurt us?"
"Too soon." She reached out to Amhul, hand pressing against her chest where the woman covered it with her own. "They're coming now. I can't stop them. Somethings wrong with me." Oh, so this was fear. This thundering of her heart, this desire to run and run and just never stop so she never has to see or hear anything again. The desire to hide and bare her teeth and bury herself so deep inside her mind that she doesn't have to face what looms before her.
Another shock went through her mind and she hissed. Amhul ran her hand through her braids, softly kissing her forehead as she tried to sooth her. She said something to someone, but Gene felt lost. Her hearing kept slipping between her box and her body. Between life and death. Between fear and fear. Always fear or worry or some other emotion that tried to swallow her tongue and choked her so tightly she could barely bring herself to breath.
"Gene."
"Gene."
People were talking to her, they were calling to her to ask questions or calling her to pay attention. She was trying, trying to focus in either being living or not. Trying to remain in one form and not be split between two. Something was wrong in both, but she didn't know what because neither one knew what was wrong with the other form and she couldn't identify what was wrong with them as them. Error messages she couldn't identify the source of, electricity in her body that felt both wrong and right.
People were screaming. She was running. She was running? Amhul pulled her alone, face stricken with fear. There was fire. All around them fire blazed as one man repeated over and over again "Fire."
"Amhul."
"Gene we must hurry! Run!" People screamed, dire horses screamed, everything was screaming in pain as the fire swallowed up everything it touched and it was too much. She wanted it to stop. She had to make it stop. She stumbled over a fallen branch, the charred wood burning her leg but she didn't let that stop her as she rushed to stand and follow Amhul.
A child screamed not far from them and Gene didn't have enough sense to think, didn't have any power to consider herself as she quickly turned and rushed to where a chunk of hometree had trapped them. She quickly grabbed the branch, grunting as she pulled it up.
"Go! Go!" The little girl was crying as she managed to crawl out and rushed to Amhul who had turned around when she no longer saw Gene was with her.
"Gene!" She let the wood fall, turning run back to Amhul when she saw it.
"Run! Run GO!"
From above large chunks of the tree rained down on them. Amhul tried to back track, tried to run away but she was too slow, too far in. Gene's heart constricted around her throat, the organ betraying her as it choked her.
"Amhul!" The Navi disappeared under the rubble. Gene raced to the debris, just barley avoiding being crushed herself.
"Amhul!" She heaved the wood off, uncaring how it burned her hand and splinters embedded themselves into her palms. Amhul was in danger, she was hurt, she needed help. A splash of blue had Gene heaving the largest piece off with a cry.
Amhul was bleeding. A large chunk of the tree had impaled itself into her chest, blood quickly leaving from the wound as she wheezed.
"Amhul! Amhul look at me." Gene tried to scan her, tried to search for ways to quickly cover wounds in crisis but her connection only fizzled and crackled. She didn't know what to do.
She tried to pick her up, but Amhul only shook her head at Gene.
"My child there is nothing you can do for me now." Tears fell from her eyes as she looked down at the woman who had taken her under her wing. Who had taught her and look out for her. Who became a mother to her. Her heart hurt, her head hurt, everything hurt as she whimpered and cried over Amhul, trying to stop the blood that continued to spread out from her chest.
"No please. Don't leave me too." Amhul soflty smiled at her, hand lifting for Gene to hold tightly as she pulled her closer.
"I am only returning to Eywa child. Have strength to not join me too soon." Her hand went limp in Gene's as she wheezed a few more times and stilled.
"No." Her hands went to her chest, feeling for something, anything. "No. You can't. Amhul. Please!" But there was nothing.
She screamed. She sobbed and clawed at her head and screamed as pain and sorrow and love and hate and everything else overwhelmed her. She screamed at her loss. She screamed at the people who took Amhul from her. She screamed to anything that would listen to her pain and it screamed back in its own pain.
Error. Error. Error. E̷r̵r̵o̸r̶.
System Malfunction. Coolant systems inoperable.
Rebooting.
Gene collapsed into the ashes, body asleep and box cold.
YOU ARE READING
I Feel You
Fanfiction"Greetings Former Corporal Sully." His head whipped around, nearly jumping out of his skin at the sudden voice. "My name is G.E.N.E, Genetically Enhanced Navigational Entity. I shall be your guide in the avatar program."
