Chapter Text
“The next thing I know, this dumb ass marine is tearing through the forest with a three ton Thanator on his ass. I figured he was as good as gone. Imagine my surprise when we get back that not only is he not alien meat, he has All Might letting him stay the night next to his oh so precious prince!” Aizawa regales the breakfast table.
Denki, Jirou’s normal door gun, sits with us and pretends to bow.
“Ah shut up Pikachu,” I scoff, Pikachu is what I’m calling him due to the fact that he has been gone because apparently he was struck by lightning and in the sick bay for a week.
Uraraka has spoken a word to me , but I’m not exactly heartbroken over it. I can sense the jealousy coming off her in waves as she angrily chews her bacon.
Dr. Hizashi slaps me on the shoulder, “That’s amazing man!”
”For reasons unknown, the Omaticaya have chosen you. Eywa help us all,” Dr. Aizawa says with a sigh.
Colonel Todoroki and some younger douche-nozzle Monoma, who I guess pretty much runs everything, are sitting in the control room as I recount my previous evening. The colonel is in his usual camo. Monoma looks like he just got back from a golf trip with his buddies. Slicked to the ugly slide hair, ugly ass khakis, and a ugly teal button up with sleeves rolled.
“The Jarhead clan?” Colonel laughs, “And that worked?”
I grin along with him, “Yeah. They want to study me, see if they can make me into one of them.”
The colonel crosses his arms, “Now that’s how you seize the initiative. I wish I had a few more like you. Now that’s an idea…” He seems to be on a different train of thought.
“Listen Bakugou. Find out what these blue monkeys want, “ He starts bossing around some tech to scoot the map into a better view of Hometree, “We’ve tried the usual things, medicine, roads, education. They don’t care. They like their plants and their loincloths. Which sucks for them because their village is sitting on the richest unobtanium deposit for a hundred klicks in any direction. Sucks, as in, sucks for them, because they’re gonna have to relocate.”
That raises more than one red flag in my brain, “Does Aizawa know about this?”
Monoma answers, “Yep, and he’s out of here if he tries to try anything to the contrary.”
“Let me guess, I’m gonna be the one to talk them into moving? What if they won’t go?” I give a half-glare up at Monoma.
The look on Colonel Todoroki’s face is as icy as his normally fiery expression has ever been, “Oh they’ll move.”
Monoma puts up his hands placatingly, “Killing the indigenous looks bad, yes, but shareholders hate a bad profit more than they hate bad publicity.”
”You got three months. Then the dozers move in,” Colonel Todoroki says with a finality.
Aizawa drills me later, flash-card style. He holds up a picture of Shinsou. All glares and dark hair.
”Eye Bags Junior,” I snark.
He smacks me upside the head.
”Fiiine, Shinsou.”
Then he shows me Izuku’s mom, with her green-tinted hair in many long, silky braids, “Inko.”
Next, Izuku’s father. Well, it looks like it, but this guy is way scarier. While Deku’s dad definitely gave off intense vibes, it was nothing compared to the hulking, impressive warrior in the photo, “Toshinori? He’s the clan leader. ”
Aizawa nods, “Yes, but I hear he is not quite the warrior he once was. He gave this place so much hell he got given the nickname All Might.”
”Like from the movies? The warrior king guy?”
”That’s the one, but unfortunately, about four years ago, he suffered a major injury during one of the raids against Hell’s Gate. It took a lot out of him, severely damaging his ability to fight. Half of the dumbasses here think they killed him, but those of us who are actually out in the field know better,” Aizawa spoke with an almost fond reverence for the Na’vi man.
“You seem to know him well enough?” I prodded.
“Well, initially, he was my foot in the door to their world. He has always been noble, rational, and fair. He knew the greed of humans from what I had explained, but it took the death and destruction we humans carry with us in every footstep to truly make him see. We broke his trust, and so far, you are the closest we have gotten to that trust again,” Aizawa trails off and heads towards the link room.
I push my wheelchair forward after him and Uraraka, “Okay, so I’ve gotten the family tree figured out, but who is this Eywa I keep hearing about?”
Uraraka lets out an irritated sound as she whirls to answer me, “Who is Eywa? Oh, only their goddess. A deity made up of every single living thing on Pandora. See you might actually know that, Bakugou, if you ever actually did any training or studying whatsoever.”
She stomps towards her own link bed as I taunt back, “Oh yeah? Well one of us has a date with the chief’s son?”
I know it’s Aizawa’s hand that clocks the back of my head, “Would you two knock it off? It’s like I’m teaching high school around here.”
I open my eyes, my Avatar’s eyes, to the spiraling columns of Hometree that reach high above my hammock. Sunlight streams through each branch and column, dappling everything in warm, early afternoon sunlight.
As I make my way out of hometree to find Izuku, I walk among the villagers. Younger women are singing as they weave a large basket or thread fletching onto arrows. Two older men, still clearly able bodied despite the wrinkles in their faces, scrape the hides from foreign animals they seem to have hunted. Children, just like children on earth, squeal as they chase each after a little creature that reminds me of a lizard.
Izuku shows me later how to ride one of their horses. A direhorse, as Aizawa had so enthusiastically explained. I had never ridden a horse on Earth, that was only something the richest people could do. But how hard could it be, right?
He holds onto the horse while I scramble onto it’s back. Izuku holds out a long, antenna-like thing and tells me to connect. I connect the end of my long, blonde braid to the horses. The tendrils of each latch onto each other and the feeling is immediate. I can feel it like an extension of myself.
Izuku’s voice is soft, “This is shahaylu- the bond. Feel her heart beating. Feel her breath. Feel the strength in her legs.”
I close my eyes, feeling the horse beneath me.
“You may tell her to go,” Izuku encourages me.
“Forward,” I command, and promptly fall right on my ass. I land with a thud in the muddy creek bed. I push myself up as Shinsou rides in. And of course, he rides perfectly, that bastard.
“You should go away,” he calls.
I flip him off and grin through the mud, “Nah, you’d miss me. And I knew you could speak English, asshole.”
He gives me a grin and then turns to speak to Izuku with a different sort of smile. They speak in Na’vi, and then Izuku gives Shinsou a smile before sending him on his way.
I can’t tell you why, but my stomach turns at Izuku’s smile and it fills me with… anger?
“Hey! Deku! You giving up on me already?”
Izuku smiles a little at me and shakes his head. It tosses his viridian curls, allowing little braids and beads that are hidden in his hair to show.
“Again.”
I know Aizawa has caught on to Colonel Todoroki and I working together. I see it in the way he stares at me, dissecting my face after each briefing I return from.
I roll in one morning to find Aizawa, Hizashi, and Uraraka packing gear.
“Uh, what’s up guys?”
Aizawa’s voice stays its constant, soothing monotone, “I’m not letting Colonel Numbnuts get his claws into this project. We are going up into the mountains. We have a remote site we can operate out of.
Uraraka’s eyes light up, “The Hallelujah Mountains??”
Aizawa nods once, “That’s correct.”
”Yesss,” she smiles and first pumps.
I try to hide my confusion, but Uraraka catches it, “ The legendary floating mountains of Pandora? Ever heard of them?”
I growl and mutter under my breath as I start helping them pack. If only looks could melt faces off.
Jirou steers us through the skies in her Samson. Uraraka sits up front with Jirou. Aizawa and I sit in the back with our respiratory masks firmly in place. Aizawa and Uraraka’s avatars are tied into seats as we fly through increasing clouds.
“We’re getting close, everyone. Check out my instruments Ochaco,” Jirou’s voice came through on the speaker system.
“Oh wow! How are you flying with them going haywire like that?”
”Old school. With my eyes,” you can hear the smirk in her voice.
“We’re entering the flux vortex,” Aizawa states. I’m not sure if he’s just stating it for my benefit, but I don’t care to ask.
Giant islands of rock hover hundreds of meters in the air. Their unnatural aura was breathtaking. Each was topped in its own rainforest habitat with thick vines chaining them together. Waterfalls seem to spontaneously spill from the mountains, with the flow freefalling into the jungle below.
“You should see your faces,” Jirou says with a smile in her voice.
They land at the remote research station, which is apparently a fancy way to say two airlift modules that have been retrofitted for link pods. It’s nestled on an outcropping just on the side of the Hallelujahs.
Jirou and Uraraka (begrudgingly) help me into the airlock, my wheelchair not doing well on the terrain. Aizawa is already inside, dusting off covered tech and equipment.
I know Aizawa is trying to get on my good side, since I’m the only connection he has now to the people. It doesn’t take a scientist to guess that’s why he lets me take the best link pod and has started just trying to help me out instead of offering a sassy side-comment to go with it.
“Let’s get you linked in, problem child,” he says, calibrating the machine.
“Don’t be getting soft on me now doc,” I tease. He huffs a laugh before closing the clam-shell top.
I follow Izuku through the large branches of Hometree. I am not one to be afraid of heights, but being up so high with nothing but my own blue legs to keep me safe is quick to turn my stomach. Izuku leaps from the trunk supporting us onto another, then walks down its length.
“As wonderful as this climb has been, Deku, we are hitting a dead end here.”
The sunlight catches the sapphire skin and emerald haired male as he turns to give me a smile. He lets out a series of clicking sounds and steps a little further onto the branch.
A massive Banshee, taller than the already giant Na’vi and a 30 foot wingspan, lands heavily onto the branch. Its body is large and leathery, green and dark gray mottling its skin like camouflage, paired with a small head. That head is filled with backwards facing daggers for teeth.
“Holy shit.”
”Do not look in his eye,” Izuku instructs. He throws it a large chunk of meat and the creature snaps it from the air with a powerful click of its jaws. It rustles its wings in my direction as I do my best to look anywhere but its large yellow eyes. Izuku smooths a blue hand down its muscular throat as it lets out a piercing shriek.
Izuku puts his braid, his kuru, to the banshee’s antenna. The beast stretches and flexes as the connection is made. Izuku explains, pointing at the banshee “Ikran. Ikran is not horse. Once shahaylu is made, Ikran will only fly with one hunter his whole life.”
In one smooth movement, Izuku is perched on the ikran’s back, a sort of saddle offering places for him to hold and place his feet. ”To become taronyu- hunter - you will choose your own Ikran. And he must choose you.”
The thought of flying through the air on the leathery back of one of these creatures is as terrifying as it is exhilarating, “When?”
His jade irises sparkled slightly as he crouched and tensed, “When you are ready, Kat-suki.”
With a cry, Izuku tenses and the ikran’s wings snap open. It plummets from the branch before banking hard and climbing higher with powerful wing beats. As it completes the turn, they turn right back towards me. I duck on instinct and Izuku’s laugh rings through the tree canopy as he flies.
I stare into the video log’s camera. I’m exhausted and want nothing more to pass out before I have to get up with the sun the next day for more lessons with Izuku.
“Do I have to do this? I need some damn sleep.”
Aizawa sits in his weird yellow sleeping bag and monitors samples through a microscope, “Now. While it’s fresh and your “jarhead clan” brain remembers it.”
”Tch, whatever. Fine. The days are starting to blur together, I couldn’t tell you what day it is or how long we’ve been out here. The whole walking again is great, but the language sucks ass. But I figure it's like field stripping, repetition.”
I think back to this morning, kneeling in front of Izuku, as he tried to teach me more of his language.
“Seyri.” He touches his fingers to his lips. I try not to look too hard as he continues.
“Ontou.” He touches his nose. I repeat.
“Mikyun.” He touches his ears. I repeat.
“Nari.” Eyes. Forest green eyes…
Clearly I pronounce it wrong because he corrects me, widening his already large eyes, “Narri.”
He tries to teach me archery. He stands beside me, correcting my posture as I hold the longbow. Instead of him gently guiding me like I kinda wish he would, he corrects me with barking commands, smacking my body where I am not correctly standing or flexing. He calls me Skawng, it means moron. But it’s usually followed with an eye roll, so I know he can’t hate my skawng ass too much.
Uraraka has gotten better, attitude wise. She has actually started working with me again on the language, which is nice, but she thinks I’m a skawng too.
I can feel my body becoming conditioned to the way of life here. My feet are tougher, my legs stronger, meaning I can run further each day. Maybe one day I’ll be able to keep up and even surpass Izuku.
Izuku’s style of instruction seems to be: try repeatedly, even if failure is extremely painful. I have to be able to trust my body, because Izuku seems to absolutely trust his in “learn fast or die” sorts of situations. He will throw himself into space, free-falling until he catches himself on leaves and fronds to slow his fall. And this is followed by him not really expecting me to do the same, but I’ll be damned if he thinks I can’t do it.
So of course, I take a running leap and go for it. I fall from leaf to leaf, which just slightly slow my fall before I catch onto a large one. It’s enough to break the speed and allow me to land on the forest floor on my own feet. The look on his face was worth the sickening drop. Izuku’s face was surprised, and yet, entirely pleased with me for once.
I could stay there for hours in that moment if I could. His hair curled and unruly from his decent, a smile ever so slightly gracing his lips, his cat-like ears pointed forward in that way they did when he was interested in something.
Izuku’s started showing me how to track in the Na’vi way. He shows me how to use my heightened senses to hunt, but says that I am not yet allowed to make a kill. That the forest has not yet given permission.
He takes me to a herd of sturmbeast, those rhino creatures like that first day. We sit, hidden in the branches and leaves of the jungle foliage. Their armored steps are heavy as they play in a watering hole. Babies play around their mothers’ legs and the large males trumpet. Flocks of dinosaur-like birds fly from the undergrowth in bright explosions of color.
He takes me to see their creatures and plants, and I can hear his mumbles and explanations as he gives details about each. He only stops his quiet explanations to allow the sounds of the forest to filter through in moments, like when we came across the same sort of creature who tried to pack-ambush me months ago. A viper wolf, as Aizawa had called them, is licking the faces of its pups. Seeing the creature that caused so much anxious fear in a moment of maternal love is confusing. Izuku is confusing too. He goes on and on about the flow of energy, spirits of the forest, animals having souls, all that jazz. And while I’m not entirely sure I buy into it, I can’t ignore the fact that he does entirely.
I speak into the video log and try to not notice the state of my human body. My human skin is pale and greying with hollowed cheeks.
“I’m just hope all this tree-hugger shit isn’t on the final,” I continue speaking into the camera.
The camera picks up Aizawa hurling a ball of paper at the back of my ashy blonde hair, “This isn’t just how fast or strong you are out there you know. You need to listen to what he says, see through his eyes.”
”Oi, this is my vlog here.”
Izuku spends each day teaching me, molding me to become one of the people. He teaches me their ways and I do my best to keep up. Each day in the forest seems to open my eyes. Izuku continues to instruct me in how to use a long bow, though his corrections have become less harsh though. Once he would smack to correct, instead, his hands are gentle as they adjust my posture and arms. His four fingers caressing my arms pull my attention from the task at hand, and I meet his eyes. For just a moment, we feel a magnetic pull, bask in it, before Izuku breaks the moment and pulls his hands away.
I keep getting these moments where real life and this life blur together. Moments where I watch Izuku, and start to believe in that whole connection thing. Each day, as I devote my time to this world, I find myself less inclined to caring about my human body and my human life.
I pull back on the bowstring, my breath even. In a beat, I let the arrow fly. It lands in a deer-like creature, but the creature isn’t dead yet. I dispatch it quickly with my knife and begin the sort of prayer that Izuku had said that first night.
Izuku nods, his eyes shining, “A clean kill, you are ready.”