Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter 21: Jake vs Jake
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
JJ watched as the new Omatekayan chief got crowded.
His eyes traveled the open space, analyzing everything and everyone from the most discreet and shadowy corner he could've possibly find in broad daylight. The ambiance was somber as everyone mourned the departure of their beloved chieftains.
JJ held Reyn on his back to avoid her being seen or hurt by people who might find her lurking around and mistake her for a trespassing human as both teens stayed silent, watching the ceremony unfold. She with a pensive and distant look in her eyes, and him with a sour and distasteful look on his face.
Everyone was there. Children, adults, families, healers, scientists, and their trusted pet humans, and he could also perfectly recognize many familiar faces amongst the crown who were not looking at the new Omatekayan's chief coronation, but looking at what should've been their own Na'ri future chieftains. The grief and heartache were clear on their faces, knowing that they too would have to leave indefinitely as well.
The only time JJ's defaulted sour expression wasn't etched on his face, was when he turned his attention to his infiltrated people to give them a reassuring smile. His eyes held a certain softness when he saw the saddened faces of apprentices and younger children crying who most certainly idolized them and were sad and disappointed that they would never get the chance to learn from or impress their heroes. The Na'ri heroes.
Reyns head and front were completely thrown into her friend's back and he happily supported all of her body weight pressed against him. He discreetly turned his attention back to the ceremony just in time to see what he thought was Jake's narcissistic, flowery cape being taken off his body and put onto the new chief.
His face scrunched in distaste.
Why Neytiri herself wasn't the one crowning the new chief, when she was supposedly the real heir of that position, was beyond him. That entire family and their traditions were confusing, and that frustrated him greatly.
Perhaps all the rage he felt that day stemmed from the fact that he still couldn't wrap his head around his new reality. That after years of running away from his true identity and cursing the world for making his blood-related family who they were, everyone now knew who he was. The one part of himself he always thought would die with him. The one part of him he spent a lifetime trying to disconnect from. The one part of him that his younger self dreaded, wishing his own people would stop referring to him as the 'traitor's kid.'
He had always wanted to make a name for himself, separate his first name from his last one, the Sully name that had haunted his dreams and nightmares for as long as he could remember.
