Chapter Text
An explosion from behind, a foot wrong on the vine. A thud, then darkness.
**********
He couldn't open his eyes. His mind was foggy. The first thing he became aware of was the wind - why was it so windy? With a jolt, he suddenly remembered everything that had just happened. Quaritch. Quaritch. Was Kiri safe? Tuk? Lo'ak? He desperately wanted to move his body, but found all of his limbs unresponsive. His mask and exopack were still in place, thank Eywa. He was lying face down, he could feel the damp grass and the strong wind. He could feel the strange material binding his hands. The noise was loud too - shouting, and a thunderous chopping in the air. At that moment, fear ran through him like an icy drip. He knew that sound. Blinking his stubborn eyes open, he was almost immediately blinded by a huge white light shining down on him from somewhere in the sky. Without any time to process this however, a large, looming face peered over him from above. It was him. His hands were on him, rolling him over, scooping him up, and now Spider was over the back of this man who terrified him, completely helpless.
They were moving through the forest, and Spider still wasn't truly awake. His mind was slowly clearing though, and blood rushed to his head from being slung over Quaritch's shoulder. How could he get out of this one? Suddenly they came to a stop in the middle of the clearing, and Quaritch let go of his legs. Groaning, Spider seized his opportunity and began to struggle off of the Avatar's body. If he could just make it off this guy, he might be able to make it to the trees where he could find somewhere to hide. The Sullys would be on their way to help him, all he needed to do was wait the Avatars out.
He took a deep breath and felt for his exopack. Bracing himself, he pushed against Quaritch's back and neck as hard as he could, and it was strong enough. As soon as he slipped off Quaritch's shoulder, a strong blue arm caught him easily. He growled in frustration - how could this happen? How could he be nothing more than a ragdoll in Quaritch's arms?
"Easy there kid, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Hold tight."
Before Spider could process the meaning of these words, he was being pulled upwards - or rather, Quaritch was being pulled upwards while holding tight to Spider's legs over his shoulder. The lights, the wind, the noise - it all meant that Spider was being hoisted up into a Death Ship on the back of his would-be father. This was so not good.
It could only have been seconds, but being so powerless made it feel like a lifetime later. They were hoisted right into the depths of the ship. Cold metal doors closed beneath them, and Quaritch's hand grabbed both of Spider's ankles while he unclipped himself from the hoist. Seizing his chance, Spider used his entire remaining strength to hit Quaritch's back as hard as he could with his bound hands. Banging, bashing, scratching, anything to try and get Quaritch to release him.
"Woah kid-" Spider heard distantly while other Avatar arms came into focus and grabbed his wrists. Quaritch lowered his shoulder finally and Spider slipped off, although there was nowhere for him to go. He pulled away from the Avatar holding him while desperately casting his eyes around his surroundings. He was more awake now than he'd ever been in his life, adrenaline pumping through his veins and taking in everything he could. The hanger they were in was large, grey and not yet pressurised. There were two doors on either side of the ship, both leading to additional air locks. There was no exit to the outside anymore, as they were presumably already high in the sky. Before he could even consider a reasonable escape route, the Avatar holding him pulled him harshly in the direction of the left side door.
"This way, traitor." The female Avatar sounded excited and disgusted at the same time. Spider hissed and dug his feet into the cold metal, trying to get some traction to prevent himself being pulled anywhere. Of course it was useless and his feet slid easily on the metal to follow the Avatar. He hissed again and let out a string of insults in Na'vi, not caring whether they understood or not, only venting all of his anger at the Avatars for capturing him, and also at himself for allowing himself to be caught. Before he could be dragged all the way to the airlock, he yanked one more time at the Avatar holding his arms in one hand, and to his surprise he managed to pull free. "You little shit!" the female Avatar shouted after him as he made to run to the opposite side of the hanger, away from the 6 or 7 Avatars, only to be caught again, this time by a male Avatar who grabbed him around the waist, trapping his arms, and pulled him up off the floor with ease.
"Let me GO!" he shouted, in English this time, as he continued wrestling with the male Avatar.
"Can someone get his legs for Christ's sake?" muttered the Avatar holding him, and it was the female Avatar that came over and grabbed hold of Spider's feet, effectively preventing him from being able to struggle at all. Spider howled again in frustration as he was carried through into the airlock. The door locked behind them, and with nothing else to do, he resorted back to insulting everything he could think of about the recoms, in both languages.
"Who the Hell is this kid?" exclaimed one of the other Avatars, looking at Quaritch.
"He's completely feral," muttered the one holding Spider again with difficulty.
"Oh, he's not so bad," Quaritch drawled, with an evil smile spreading across his face.
The airlock dinged and the display light on the door turned green. One of the Avatars not holding Spider opened the door and then they were in a short corridor, with doors leading off, leading to what looked like some sort of control room. There were humans all around, on screens, at chairs, walking through to other rooms. It was a busy atmosphere but Spider wasn't able to take much in. His mask was ripped from his face, and multiple Avatars were struggling to unclip him and it from the exopack attached to his waist. He could hear in the back ground Quaritch talking to a human woman.
"-get some good intel out of him."
"Good work Colonel, put him in a cell for now until it's ready."
"Ahhhh!" Spider shouted as he was once again dragged roughly away by two Avatars, down the corridor, and then another, then another, until they were in a much quieter area of the ship, into a brightly lit room with a security guard outside. Quaritch punched some numbers into a keypad next to some glass doors, and they slid open. The Avatars threw him in, and Spider landed hard on the cold floor.
"Stay down," Quaritch's voice instructed, as he keyed the doors to close again. Exhausted, and with a bloody cut over his eye from the fall, Spider slowly got up and turned to face the man that had captured him. Quaritch was looking him dead in the eye, and there was something in his expression that Spider couldn't place at all. It was a look he had never seen before, and it scared him.
Spider returned the glare, and in that moment he was thankful for the glass that separated them. Then just like that, Quaritch turned and left. Spider looked around at his cell. It was bare and empty, except for a table and chair, and completely white. What had he got himself into?