Ao'nung x Neteyam slow burn

Day 64 part 3

Kiri

A strange prickly feeling washed over me as I grabbed Neteyam's hand.
"I will pray to Eywa every day. And then she will listen to us and we will meet again. I know that. And that's going to be very soon - I can feel it."

I wasn't able to feel just this.
I felt everything.
Everyone.
Even the tiniest of life forms around me.
I felt Neteyam being inside of my head - ir was I in his?
But most importantly, I felt Eywa.
She was so close to me, like a word about to be spoken.
And then I opened my mouth and spoke the word.

I closed my eyes and gave up trying to regain control. The feeling was so familiar, but so strange at the same time.
My whole body was tingling, a million times more intense than anything I've ever felt before.

I felt the surprise and worry of every single na'vi around me.
My body started trembling just like the one time where I'd connected with the Spirit Tree.

Someone grabbed my hand and I just knew that it was Ao'nung, who had Tuk in his arms. He tried separating me from Neteyam, but I knew it wouldn't ever work. Eywa had different plans.

My consciousness now expanded from my hand to the arm of my brother which I had grabbed.
Slowly, searching for his consciousness, I started feeling more and more of his body - and eventually it felt more like I was him rather than me.
As I reached his brain, I hesitated. He was dead, no doubt, but something was different. I braced myself and then pushed through the barrier. With my mind I dove into this beautiful swirl of colors, gradually fading.
I had to hurry.

My eyes opened and in front of me was Eywa.
She was literally glowing, but I couldn't make out any features or anything. Not even a rough silhouette or anything revealing something about how she actually looked like.

There were voices.

Tuk asked what was happening right now. "I have no idea. But I think -", Ao'nung paused. "I think your sister is contacting Eywa."

If he only knew.
I bowed down to Eywa. "Great mother, oel ngati kameie."
A cool breeze washed over me and the words Oel ngati kameie, Kiri te Suli Kìreysì'ite popped up inside my brain. Or should I say Eywa'ite? But I don't think that you're surprised by that.
She was right. I've always felt this wonderful connection to her. In the past few weeks, ever since we've moved, this connection had grown so much and I was even able to hear her heartbeat every moment of my life.
"What will happen now?"
I know you already know that.
"Am I really able to to it?", I finally asked, hesitating.
The way of water has no beginning and no end. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world. The sea is your home, before your birth and after your death. The sea gives and the sea takes. Water connects all things: life to death, darkness to light.
But know this: just like anything else, this too comes at a certain price. Are you willing to pay?
Without hesitation I nodded. "Neteyam is worth everything to me. And even if I had to die for him, I would gladly do that."
A wave of positive emotions hit me and I realized that she was laughing. There's no need for something this drastic. So I will ask you again: are you ready? It will weaken you and it will hurt.
"I am ready."
I felt her being proud of me. Then, my child, may you have all the strength you need for this. And remember: I will always wait for you and catch you, when you fall. Until we meet again.
Her presence faded from my mind, but still. There was this giant amount of power waiting for me.
Carefully I tried chanelling this energy.
It was overwhelming and I was in some kind of ecstatic state.
I wished that it would last forever; but I knew that Neteyam needed me before he completely vanished from existence. In my thoughts I took a look around his brain.

His memories, his character traits and his emotions all had separate places.
I reached out to the first - his very first memory ever - and touched it.
Energy flowed through me and made the memory glow in all colors. It felt so damn good but I felt agonizing pain at the same time.
Then I understood that Eywa was right. To revive and restore every single memory would take forever.

Days passed.

All I did wae focusing on his memories, one by one. Finally I've lived his whole life again and the last one was right in front of me. Through his eyes I saw Ao'nung and Lo'ak crying.
Then, everything went black.
With an aching heart I also revived this memory and another wave of pain washed over me.

I tried to focus on myself for a second. Then I turned around to his character traits and dove into them with a sigh.

It wasn't taking as long as his memories, but still. I was busy for hours and wiped the sweat from my brows again and again.

Only his emotions were left.
Oh, and of course the whole bring-him-back-to-life thing.

Kiri, you're almost done, hold on, I told myself.
With clenched teeth I forced myself to continue going through his feelings. He needed me.
It was horrible.
In the beginning of all it was pain mixed with ecstasy. Now all that was left for me was extreme pain. My eyelids shut more and more often and the exhaustion was on the verge of overwhelming me. But still, I didn't stop.

I was digging through his whole mind searching for... hm, for what exactly? I knew that I would recognize it when I saw it. So I continued.

Until I found it.

I didn't know what exactly it was. But I had the really strong feeling that I was in the right place.
With my eyes shut I focused.
To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do. But the strange, now so familiar force seemed to know.
It flowed through me and I began heating up until I was convinced that I'd burn the both of us alive. Well.

I was screaming in pain and tried escaping it, but I didn't exactly tried to stop this force. I was almost done.
If I had only known how long I had to keep going, I might have actually stopped.
The seconds lasted forever and it was getting more and more difficult to hold on to my sanity.

I'd lost track of time an eternity ago. Maybe it's been hours. Maybe minutes. Or maybe I've been in here for weeks; I didn't know.

Completely wrecked I slowly and carefully tried going back to myself. My work here was done. At least I hoped so. I took a last look on what I had done.
Even though I was almost too exhausted to even hold myself alive I took a look at what I had done. His personality shone and sparkled in all possible colors and more. His soul - I just decided that it was his soul - was so beautiful. No wonder Ao'nung had fallen in love with him.

My muscles were screaming in pain and exhaustion and as soon as I completely left Neteyam and gained back the control over my own body I fell asleep. Or at least I hoped that it was just sleeping.