War of Hearts

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WHEN NEYIRA WOKE UP, she groaned and sat up in her family's hut. As soon as she got to her feet she was basically tackled back to the ground by Kiri and Lo'ak as Neteyam stood behind them with his arms crossed, leaning against the hut as he shook his head at them.

"Neyira!"

"Yiri! Are you okay?"

"How do you feel, you hungry?"

"Uhhh.." Neyira just stared up at them before she remembered a certain human missing. "Where's Spider?"

Her question caused Kiri and Lo'ak to stop in their tracks and pause their rants. Kiri noticeably deflated while Lo'ak just had one of the deepest frowns she'd ever seen on anyone. Neteyam shifted on his feet with his eyes on the floor of the hut like it as suddenly the most interesting thing ever.

"Uh-..Yira..Spider's gone. The avatars took-"

"WHAT?!"

• • •

AFTER EXPLAINING everything that happened after Neyira fell unconscious, some yelling, and a pretty good bucket of tears, Kiri and Tuk were standing outside of the family hut as their parents spoke. Tuktirey was crouching, or almost lying on the floor, to see through a small space between the hut and the ground as their parents talked.

"This thing— this Quaritch," Jake started as he stood in the hut, while Neytiri cleaned around the place, partly listening, and partly trying to ignore the fact that he's right. "What's going on?" Lo'ak asked a little too loudly as him, Neteyam, and Neyira walked up to where Kiri and Tuk were sitting.

Kiri quickly shushed him and Neyira lightly slapped his shoulder while he countered by shoving her. Just before the two could start their wrestling match, Neteyam pulled them apart by their ears. Neyira was about to yell at him but they all paused when they heard their parents raising their voices.

"He can walk right in here, right under eywa's nose."

"This is our family—"

"This is about our family!"

"—this is our home!"

"This is about our little ones." Neytiri paused to look at him and her eyes softened for a moment before she turned and continued cleaning. "I cannot, you cannot ask this. I cannot leave our people." She brushed past him and grabbed a small bucket with fruit, putting it in its correct place.

Jake watched her as she cleaned to avoid the conversation, but he kept pushing anyway. "He's hunting us. He's targeting our family—"

"You cannot ask this!" Neytiri turned around to face him. From outside of the hut Neyira frowned as their parents raised their voices and she slipped her hand into Kiri's, tightly interlocking their fingers. "The children, everything they've ever known, the forest. This is our home!" Neytiri voice gradually began to raise as she became more frustrated with her lover.

"He had our children," Jake began, his voice dropping to be just above a whisper. "He had em' under his knife, think about what he did to Yira!"

Neytiri stopped at that, thinking back to her second youngest daughter. It's like she could feel the ground shake under her at the memory of Neyira bleeding, and collasping, not responding and being unconscious for so long. She sighed before grabbing her father's bow of its stand.

"My father gave me the bow," She started and Jake immediately put his head down and shifted on his feet. "As he lay dying, and he said protect the people..You're Toruk Makto!" Jake clicked his tongue and he raised his head from the ground so he could look at her. "This will protect the people!"

"Quaritch has spider— and that kid knows everything, he knows our whole operation!" Neyira frowned at that. How could he even think that spider would help the avatars after everything? Jake took a forward and dipped his head a little to keep eyes contact with Neytiri. "If the people harbor us, they will die."

Neytiri knew he was right. Hell, they both did, but that didn't change how hard the decision was. "Look," Jake stepped forward once again putting his hands on her shoulders and she looked back up at him. "I got nothing. But I can protect this family, that I can do."

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