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After much fight and restrain with the capture of the Sully kids and Spider. Spider was given to Quaritch, not by sacrifice..or ill intent but for collateral. Neytiri threatened to kill the boy if Quaritch had not sent off Varang and her army with her kids and Spider. Neytiri didn’t like Spider. She really didn’t, but her kids did. As much of a pain she thought of Spider she didn’t want the boy under the care of Quaritch, and especially..not Varang.
Will Mrs.Sully come back for Spider?
She will, what are the kids even thinking their mom would leave him..This was a plan. It is a plan.
“Sir..Quartich—Dad! Stop this! What is this bitch going to do with me?!?!!”
Quaritch looked back at his son, hurt by his voice.. but knowing that Varang wouldn’t do anything deep. He trusted Varang well to know that she wouldn’t give up her only source of weaponry to harm one being.
“Miles, you’re fine..” Quaritch reassured but it did not look very endearing to be in the captor of him and the Sully kids arms. He kicked, fought, and begged for mercy. He thought death was upon him whenever they were to stop walking and find a spot.
How could Neytiri just give me away?
Spider kicked hard into Varang’s stomach making her flinch and release her painful grip. She threw him on the ground, in front of Quaritch.
“Pxasìk! Just take the boy!” Varang yelped, reaching for her stomach and straightening her posture after the blow.
Spider growled at Quaritch as his father looked at the ground to face him.
“Miles, quit it. Tsahìk not doin’ nothin’ to you.” Quaritch went down to grab his son’s hand.
Spider gripped onto the avatar's hand strongly to get up and find balance on whatever rock they had been climbing.
Surprise to Quaritch, Spider didn’t necessarily let go but lightened his grip. “Where are we going,” He sounded so tired and rested but persistent in getting answers, although, his sentence didn’t sound complete.
Quaritch didn’t let go either. I don’t think any of them realized either. Varang had still been following to whatever place they were going but Spider didn’t care. His dad wouldn’t hurt him, wouldn't dare to anyway. Jake will come—maybe Lo’ak.
“We’re going to the village—my home.” Varang answered sharply, walking calmly and leading the two in the right direction. It seems Varang and Quaritch park their Ikrans or nightwraiths—whatever Varang called it far from their actual home.
Spider sighed. He was tired. Tired of the wars, the deaths, the destruction—everything. “What are you guys going to do to me”
”We’re not going to do—”
“—Captivity.” Varang interrupted.
Spider’s head ran crazy but nothing seemed to come out of his mouth. No energy, no sense to even say anything. He hadn’t even remembered how he’d gotten here. Was I drugged?
Spider immediately let go and began to run, not knowing his place or where his legs stood. He needed to get out. If captivity was the outcome, he wanted no part.
Quaritch groaned and Varang rushed to grab the boy's waist and pull out her knife to his chest.
”Resist once more and you’ll be unfavorable to those in captivity.” Varang always went straight to the point it seems. She had no patience or empathy with whatever plan she had put her mind into.
“Varang..” Quaritch warned. She wasn’t actually going to do it but he didn’t want to test that..neither did Spider.
Spider rested completely. He gave up. There was no point then to even want to know what could happen. “Miles, ain’t nothin’ happening to you, boy. Get up and keep movin’!”
Spider unknowingly listens to much his father says when it doesn't include anything about other Navi’s or Pandora itself. He got up and followed them without any problems after. Yes, he was behind the duo but he didn't dare run now. He was human, she was not.
Upon reaching a decorative-leafed-doorway it seemed Varang stopped and signaled a pause.
“What?” Spider questioned.
“You dare open your mouth when put in possible danger..You’re tough” Varang smiled. Unexpectedly she then leaped at him for a quick scare—making Spider cling immediately to his fathers leg.
Varang laughed softly, she had no malice towards the boy for now.
Quaritch patted Spider’s head as his nails loosened on his dads leg. “What’s the hold up?” Quaritch asked, still having a hand on Miles' head.
“Im warning you, Junior. Do not touch what isn’t yours or talk to my people. It will burn..” Varang said as she pushed the leaves to an entry of what it seemed, a downward slope with tiny rocks to serve as stairs.
Spider looked up to his dad. He didn’t know for what..possibly confirmation to even walk but either way Spider was still stuck.
He followed Varang's lead to her fortress. Impressing her quietly with his small to no mistakes while quickly going down rocks and getting down a slight jump.
As Spider walked close to his father and behind the leader he got looks and comments from the Mangkwan people.
“What is that color of hair?” A Mangkwan kid pointed out.
“Just touch it.” “Burn it.” A brave kid went forward—almost touching the air-breather’s hair.
Varang turned quickly “Away!” She scolded the kid and continued to create a path to Spider’s residence.
The child obeyed in no time.
Spider looked back at the people. They all listened very intently to Varang. They truly did worship her. That was usual in the Omaticaya but the people weren’t as obedient to everything Neytiri or Mo’at said. Damn.
Upon entering where Spider would stay for a while he looked around as he heard his parents speak. It wasn’t a cell, nor a room meant for encagement. It was just a room, with an actual bed and everything. It didn't look like it all belonged to him but beside another Navi who stayed there. He hoped it was just Quaritch, not another Navi and especially not Lyle.
“Miles” Quaritch shouted but Spider hadn’t heard, he was fascinated in what was infront of him. The herbs, plants, stones, weapons, gadgets, and the interior all were so different from the Omaticaya and Metkayina. He acted the same way when first being introduced to the Metkayina clans homes.
“Miles” Quaritch said out loud again as he went up to grab Spider’s bicep.
“Quaritch, oh. Sorry.” Spider sunk into his own skin and lessened his shoulders.
“Alright, you’ll be sleeping here and all that other shit. I’m your ‘roomie’ unless you don’t want me to be. You spend your days here until we go out, alright?”
“What—no. Stay here.” Spider responded clinging to his arm.
“Alright, alright. I’m here, ain’t no need to keep grabbin’ me. I’m not going nowhere for now.”
Spider sighed and sat down, laying his head on a wooden bedside. He closed his eyes—not to sleep, but to think and rest his body before really trying to understand everything that was happening.
“Dad.” Spider said out in the air. He hadn’t even knew if he was still in the room and if he did sleep forreal.
“Yes, Miles?”
”What’s up with you and that girl?”
”Oh, nothing. Really. Varang is just my ally…” He wanted to say more but wasnt sure what more could’ve been said to the young one.
“Really, Quaritch? Seriously? She’s not just your ally.” Spider remarked while getting up and leaning on the bedside, still very exhausted.
Spider continued, “You’re replacing Paz. You’re replacing my mother!”
Spider tried to yell as strong as he could but he wanted to sleep, he wanted to shower in whatever the recoms had and sleep immediately.
”Not even close, kid. Go to sleep, young one. Or go eat, your choice.”
Spider will get his questions out tomorrow. He’s so tired but he wants to get washed up before putting his battle-wounded-self on the fresh mattress randomly placed on the floor of a very Navi room. Probably accustomed to his dad’s liking.
“Just show me where the showers are.”
Quaritch led Spider farther in this time—past the carved stone and roots, into a section that didn’t belong to the Mangkwan at all.
Metal.
Dull, scorched RDA plating fused awkwardly into the rock, cables snaking along the walls like veins that didn’t belong. The low hum of generators vibrated under Spider’s bare feet. His eyes widened. “No way…”
“Told you,” Quaritch said.
“RDA hauled in a portable unit. Water recycler, heat coils, the works. Varang wanted our tech—this was the trade.” They stopped in front of a reinforced door. Quaritch punched a code in. It hissed open. An actual shower stall sat inside—steel walls, fogged glass, working nozzles. A far cry from Hell’s Gate, but still unmistakably human.
Spider let out a shaky laugh.
“I could cry.”
“Don’t,” Quaritch muttered. “Water pressure sucks.”
Spider peeled off the rest of his gear and stepped in. The water hit him hard—hot, steady, real. His shoulders sagged immediately as weeks of grime and blood washed down the drain. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Quaritch leaned against the wall outside the stall, arms crossed, eyes fixed anywhere but on his son.
The sound of water filled the space. Then— “She’s comin’ back.” Spider’s head snapped up, water streaming down his hair.
“You don’t know that.” Quaritch exhaled through his nose.
“Yeah. I do. She’s not the one to abandon something her kids care about.”
Spider’s voice cracked, despite himself. “She put a knife to my throat.”
“Yeah,” Quaritch said quietly.
“She would’ve.” Spider turned, staring through the glass.
“Then how the hell do you think she’s comin’ back?”
Quaritch finally looked at him. Really looked.
“Because she didn’t kill you,” he said. “And because she made sure Varang left with you alive.”
Spider shook his head.
“She hates me.”
“No,” Quaritch corrected. “She hates what you represent. Big difference.”
Spider swallowed hard. “She gave me to you,” he whispered. “How am I supposed to believe that was a plan?”
Quaritch’s jaw tightened. “Because Neytiri don’t trade lives unless she’s plannin’ to take somethin’ back.”
Silence.
The water kept running. “She was buyin’ time,” Quaritch continued. “For her kids. For herself. For you.”
Spider laughed weakly. “Real comforting, Dad. Being collateral.”
“Welcome to war,” Quaritch said flatly.
Then, softer, “Doesn’t mean you were disposable.”
Spider rested his forehead against the cool glass. “You think she’ll actually come for me,” he asked, barely audible over the water.
Quaritch didn’t hesitate. “She will,” he said. “And when she does? This place is gonna burn.”
Spider shut the water off. Wrapped in a towel that smelled faintly of machine oil, he stepped out, exhausted beyond words.
“Then what happens to me?” he asked.
Quaritch handed him clean clothes—RDA issue, cut down to fit smaller.
“That,” he said, “depends on which side gets to you first.”
”Dude.” Spider huffed.
”Dude what?”
”I don’t want to wear this! Where are my other clothes?”
”Miles, those are so dirty. I ain’t throw ‘em away but I’m not givin’ them to you either. Just wear the sweatpants at-least.” Quaritch tried to convince.
Spider was now in bed, he knew he was tired but he didn’t feel like it anymore really. After washing himself up and wearing human pants after years he felt different.
“Y’know how hot it is for you to be making me wear this?”
Quaritch sighed. The boy just loved arguing.
”I know. Just don’t cover yourself. It ain’t even hot up here, Miles.”
Whatever..Spider whispered as he turned on his side to sleep. But it had been days since he talked to Quaritch after months of being side-by-side. As much as he didn’t want to share a bond with the most arguable “Evil” man of Pandora, it was his father. And his father had a soft spot for him. All the times on the boats or ships or bases his father never made him do something he didn’t want to. Nor, did he make Spider dress or eat what he don’t like. Maybe now is negotiable, Spider had no other clothes.
“Soooo.. is the Tsahìk replacing my mom yet?” Spider asked sarcastically.
Quaritch sighed. “Son, I’m not replacing no one, okay? Varang, she’s.. She’s my date for now. Yeah, let’s say that.”
“She’s not my mother.”
“Not askin’ her to be. You ain’t even know Paz. She died when you were too little.”
That hurt. He was right. He loved Paz, but in all truthfulness, he didn’t know her.
“She’s still my mom.”
“She passed, Miles. The closest parent you got was Norm or Jake or whatever foster parents you were given. I ain’t know ‘em.”
Spider went quiet.
His eyes were closed, sure—but his mind was still loud. Too loud. He shifted under the blanket, huffing softly.
Quaritch caught it immediately. “You ain’t asleep.”
Spider cracked one eye open. “You breathe too loud.”
Quaritch scoffed. “Wow. That’s the thanks I get.”
A beat.
“…Sir?”
“Yeah, Miles.”
Spider stared at the wall again. “If Neytiri comes back… she’s not gonna kill you, right?”
Quaritch went still. He didn’t joke this time.
“She’ll try,” he said honestly.
Spider frowned. “That’s not what I meant.”
Quaritch sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Kid, Neytiri’s got every reason in the world to hate me. If she gets a clean shot—”
“That’s not what I meant,” Spider repeated, firmer now. He turned his head to look at him. “You’re not gonna let her kill you.”
Quaritch met his eyes.
“…No,” he said. “I ain’t.”
Spider nodded once, satisfied with that answer. His eyelids drooped again.
Another few seconds passed.
“Sooo,” Spider mumbled, voice already slower, “if she does come back… am I gonna have to choose?”
Quaritch’s chest tightened. He leaned back against the wall, arms folding loosely.
“No,” he said. “You’re a kid. You ain’t a prize and you ain’t a weapon. Anyone who makes you choose is wrong.”
Spider hummed, like he was filing that away somewhere important.
“…You promise?”
Quaritch didn’t hesitate. “I promise.”
Silence settled again, but this time it was softer.
Spider’s breathing slowed, words blurring together. “I don’t like Varang.”
Quaritch snorted quietly. “Yeah. Noted.”
“She’s scary.”
“Also noted.”
“And if she tries anything—”
“She won’t,” Quaritch cut in. “Not while I’m breathin’.”
Spider relaxed at that. His shoulders sank into the mattress, tension easing out of him in tiny increments.
“…Okay,” he murmured.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Spider’s grip on the blanket loosened. His face smoothed out, exhaustion finally winning the war it had been fighting all day.
Quaritch stayed until Spider’s breathing was deep and steady, until the kid’s jaw slackened just slightly, until there was no doubt left.
Only then did Quaritch allow himself to close his eyes for a moment.
“Sleep, Miles,” he whispered.
And to suprise, Spider closed his eyes.