Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 7: P.S.

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When the two of them arrived back at the village, they spotted Jake, Tonowari and the advance team getting ready to head out to investigate the scene Ni'teya and Lo'ak had just returned from. Without thinking twice, the two dove off of Lo'ak's ilu, racing to reach the pod, wanting to waste as little time as possible.

Lo'ak got there first, yelling out for his father from outside the pod, not wanting to stride in unannounced. "Dad! Dad, Ni'teya has something to—"

"Lo'ak? I thought your mother was with you?" Jake cut over his son, leaving the crowd he was just about to address. When he spotted Ni'teya standing just behind Lo'ak, he crossed his arms, a brow raising. "We were just about to leave for the Three Brothers, why—"

"I know." Ni'teya spoke, staring directly at Jake, wanting him to see just how serious she was. "But you need to see this." She said, not breaking the eye contact.

He stepped forward. "See what? I—"

Jake seemed to notice their very clearly soaked figures, coming to a rather abrupt but correct conclusion. "Hold on... Don't even think about telling me you two went out there by yourselves?" He raised his voice in a whisper, making sure the men inside the pod couldn't hear him. He paced towards the two of them, particularly eyeing his son who merely looked down. "Who am I kidding?! Look who I'm talking to, of course you did!" He aimed his words at his son, unaware the decision to leave was a joint effort.

"Sir, we know we weren't supposed to and we're sorry. We'll accept the punishment for this later but please. Please, listen to me." Ni'teya stepped forward, placing a hand in front of Lo'ak to distract Jake from him, making him give her his full attention.

She held her stare, somehow making Jake realise the gravity of the situation. He leaned back as he straightened his posture, allowing Lo'ak to take a long breath out as he was no longer being held accountable. As Ni'teya opened her mouth to speak, reaching into the pocket of her satchel, she was interrupted.

Kiri ran up to her, yelling. "Ni'teya! There you are, thank Eywa!" She shouted, out of breath, with a smaller Na'vi running alongside her. "Me and Tuk have been looking everywhere for him but..." She paused, her brows furrowing as she began to appear anxious. — Ni'teya turned herself towards the girl entirely, tilting her head downwards to watch her. She could visibly see Kiri's distress. After a lengthy silence, she revealed the outcome of her search for her friend. Her friend, Spider, that had been acting differently, acting strangely.

"...He's gone."

If she was able to somehow explain the feelings that both erupted and shut down inside her as she heard those words sound, Ni'teya wouldn't know where to begin. She didn't know or understand what had happened, but something did; Something clicked, something suddenly made sense to her. Her thoughts were both deafening and desolate, her mind somehow scrambling for words, instances and explanations she didn't know she had. The distant noises of people talking sounded like mere sounds, the density of her mind turning them into a constant ringing, muffled noise.

"He's gone? What do you mean he's gone?" Lo'ak said, talking to Kiri who was beginning to panic.

"Who's gone, who are you talking about Kiri?" Jake joined in, holding his daughter's shoulders, trying to calm her down and make sense out of what she'd said.

"Ni'teya?" She heard a faint voice say beside her, though again, she couldn't focus on it. "Ni'teya, what are you thinking? What is it?"

Ni'teya payed no mind to them. She couldn't have, not with what she had going on in her head. As time slowed, so did her blinking, her breathing however moving against it and rapidly speeding up, her eyes staying in one spot. — She began to see things, hear things too. She could see her arrows, pierced through bodies laying dead on the ground; She could hear muffled cries, her cries as well as other's.

She could see Neteyam, a shot straight through his chest, his eyes wide open.

"Teya?" Lo'ak touched her shoulder, much like he had done earlier that same day, resulting in a startling gasp. Ni'teya looked at him unsteadily, her head beginning to shake back and forth, her unbalanced breathing becoming clearer to everyone.

"It was him." She breathed out, gasps for air being heard both before and after she spoke, making it clear to everyone around her that she was beginning to, or already was, deeply panicking and troubled.

"What?" Lo'ak whispered, moving his hand down to her wrist, clinging to it as he started to worry for her.

"It was him, it's his fault, he—" She spoke quickly and breathlessly, turning her head to face Jake.

He kneeled down in front of her, taking his hands and placing them on both of her shoulders. Lo'ak didn't let go of her wrist as he did so, simply wanting someone to do something to help Ni'teya. — "Hey, hey. It's alright." Jake said in a quiet voice, aware of Ni'teya's reaction, though he didn't understand what had caused it.
"Just tell us what you know, whatever it is, we can help you."

The girl's eyes started to cloud, her head continuing to shake 'no', her bottom lip quivering as she avoided the man's eyes. She gasped once again, the drops of tears beginning to fall, making Jake's hold tighten and Lo'ak take her hand instead of her wrist.

She knew she needed to tell them what she knew. They had to know, there was no avoiding it. But she also knew that it would cause them pain; Great, unavoidable pain. The type of pain she could feel then and there, only worse. She closed her eyes shut tight for a second to rid them of their tears, looking back up at Lo'ak once she'd opened them. She saw his worried face, squeezing his hand that was holding hers, wanting nothing more than to tell him 'sorry, I'm so, so sorry', knowing what she was about to reveal would make him crash.

She reached into her satchel with her free but shaky hand, grasping the crumpled piece of paper and bringing it out into the open air. Jake looked down at it, not taking it from the girl until she let him do so.

"Uhm..." She gulped, taking a sharp breath in. "I found this— In a - a box on the tulkun's back." She held out her hand, letting Jake take the paper from it, opening it up and beginning to read. She looked at Lo'ak who looked back at her with a confused glint in his eyes, unaware of the paper's contents. She sniffled, peering up at him with a soft stare. She then mouthed the word 'sorry' to him, not being able to look away even though he'd turned towards his dad, who had his head in his hands.

"Dad? What—" He began, however he didn't have to finish. Jake passed him the slip of paper, allowing him to read it.

As he did, the pieces started to fit.

Ni'teya couldn't bare it, she could see him start to repulse upon understanding what was going on; Why she'd reacted the way she did. He knew then why she looked petrified, why she had been so secretive. He knew what she meant by 'it was him', too. He knew who he was and what he did.

The way Ni'teya viewed it, there may as well have been something added to the note, it would've made no difference.

It should've said, in bold, red ink:

P.S. It was Spider.

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