Mimetic | Tsu'tey

II

Remembrance of fear
'Ok te Txopu
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There was a commotion in the avatar department. A rogue avatar. Too excited to use his new legs. First thing he did was bash the door open and break out into a sprint. She didn't see him coming.

The morning air was fresh, and Riley had taken to harvesting the fruit that grew in the agricultural fields around the avatar compound. She had placed another melon fruit in her basket when the air was knocked out of her, and her balance was thrown off. All her fresh fruit, dirty or bruised.

"Ae! What the fuck man?!" She grumbled, looking over at the stumbling avatar.

"Sorry!" He said, stunned. He stood and offered her a hand.

She accepted and looked over the odd man as he helped her up.

"Sully, right?" She asked.

"Yeah? How'd you guess?" He responded, out of breath.

"You don't look like your name is Norm. I saw your avatars getting hauled off the ship." She extended her hand for a shake.

He paused before accepting it. But it came with an obvious question.

"Who're you?" He asked a little less politely.

"Riley, I'm pretty new here, same as you. 'Sounds like we'll be working together." She introduced.

Jake looked like he had sighed throughout his whole body. No mention of the fact that he was a replacement. It felt good to be recognized as a person. Not a soldier, not a replacement, not a shade of his dead brother.

Grace walked up happily to the science experiment and her new security escort.

"Grace?" Jake recognized with a smile.

"We'll who'd you expect numb nuts?" Grace affirmed. She bent over and picked a yovo fruit off the tree that grew stout and small.

"Think fast!" She exclaimed while tossing it to Jake, and when he caught it, "motor control's looking good." She noted.

Jake took a bite and chuckled appreciatively.

Grace came up to meet Riley, squatting and helping her pick up and dust off the produce she had just picked while Jake finished eating the soft fruit.

"I'm sorry about the marine." Grace apologized.

"I'm just glad these weren't trampled." Riley replied.

•—————•—————•—————•—————•

Night fell over the valley as the trio turned in for the night. Riley had the opportunity to meet Norm and introduce herself. It was only then that Jake had put two and two together that Riley was Quaritch's kid.

He knew the man seemed haunted by something and he knew the guy had family from the ring on his finger. It didn't stop him from seeing Paz and whoever else he was hooking up with. Paz was a good friend of the Colonel's and a friend to Riley while she was re-experiencing childhood.

It was complicated. Riley knew she was pregnant. It had only been a few months, but she was acutely aware of this fact. Paz didn't really know it yet. But it was up to her to keep it or not.

That's what she thought about as she fell asleep on her cot.

•—————•—————•—————•—————•

In the morning, she woke up late. She had another day to prepare so she went about unpacking her small, but densely packed bag and noted everything inside.

Spare MRE's, multi tool, and medical supplies. On her military grade wear, she had everything from a rope to a smoke canister. The item had metal playing thick enough to stop a bullet on the back and front, and she had her belt, much like a garter was around her hips and thighs and it had multiple holsters. Machete, knife, sidearm. Not to mention the large rifle from her dear old dad.

She dismantled the weapon and cleaned each bit better than it had been before.

"You really taking that thing out there?" Grace asked, her hands on her hips.

"I don't have a choice. Orders came from Parker." She grumbled.

"Since when have you cared about Parker?" Grace quipped.

Of course, Grace always knew better. She practically raised Riley.

"I..." Riley paused, "'s still terrifying." She mumbled.

Grace made a sound like sympathy and sat down next to her underling.

"I didn't realize you remembered... that attack." Grace acknowledged.

"I try not to, and I didn't for a long while, but I remember the pain and the fear and dad's face. I remember how it smelled. And nothing after that." She sputtered her words.

She set the cleaned gun down and wrung her hands in her lap. As much as she tried to hold it in, Grace could see her fear.

"Isn't that more reason to keep the gun home?" Grace asked, attempting to pull her from her fear, "what happens if it all goes right, according to plan and then one na'vi gives you a scare? You'd start that cycle all over again." Grace reasoned.

Riley frowned deeply and shut her eyes.

"I know, I'm sorry." She mumbled in a quiet tone, "I have to. I can promise I won't use it on people, na'vi. But I can't promise I won't use it on that thanator thing." She fumed at the thought of that creature.

"Okay, just be careful." Grace accepted.

Riley sighed with relief and just slumped back. She didn't feel ready.

The forest was dark on their first patrol.

It was a cold and humid night. The sun set behind the eclipse and the sounds of the forest intensified. Something was pumping through her body like hoofbeats or heartbeats. But it was massive. And it shook the ground before she could register what it might be.

"Thanator!" Lyle screamed. And began evacuating as many people as he could into the Sampson.

He couldn't reach Riley. Not with his voice, not with his body. She was frozen with fear as the creature unfurled its crests and flared with a rattling hiss from its lip-less jaws. But Quaritch could.

"RILEY!" He tore his way through his subordinates and tackled his daughter to the ground. The beasts' claws had caught him across his head. And it caught her, through her tactical vest into her shoulder, nearly tearing the muscles in her shoulder completely through down to the bone.

She began to register the pain as Quaritch tried to get her up and moving. But they were slow, and she was losing blood quickly. Just as they'd gotten to the perimeter of the Sampson's clearing, the beast caught her with its jaws and pulled with all its might. Her legs had been shredded by its teeth.

She passed out from shock and died on the flight back. Wainfleet was completely cold and unresponsive as he looked at her body. He took it all in.

Quaritch was like any father who'd lost a child. With utter disbelief. He had married his wife, loved her, helped create and bring this child into the world, and raised her. And then he had to do it alone. He had countless memories of her. Years he could not ignore. A life he should never had asked her to risk.

And then she was just there again. And two years later she was going to go on a trip outside of the fence. She laid on her cot watching people buzz around with their data pads and food and samples like it was all within seconds.

•—————•—————•—————•—————•

It was night.

Everyone was asleep except for her. Strolling was against curfew for avatars because they could be mistaken for na'vi. She learned that the hard way when she was young. But she wanted to run away.

She just wanted to do anything but lay there. She wanted her father. She wanted whatever remnants she had of her happiness back. She felt trapped.