Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One

Chosen

Zidri Maldova screamed as the spell hit the base of his wing right where it met his body. Pain burned across his back as he began tumbling through the air. He tucked the injured wing against his back and threw out the other, trying to catch as much of the air as he could. He spun like a top, but he was still falling too fast. He gritted his teeth and braced for impact. Suddenly, the ground opened beneath him. Before he could try and catch himself on the edge of the sparkling hole, he was through, now falling toward a thick forest of tall trees.

He shouted, disoriented and confused, but it was a mistake. When he tried to breathe back in, there was no relief tied to the action. The air that whipped past him made his lungs ache and spots began to appear in his vision. He was falling slower now, like the earth beneath had less pull on him than usual. Huge leaves were whipping past him and he managed to reach out and grab onto one. The muscles in his arm pulled, and he tried to scream again as pain lanced through his back, but he had no air with which to do so. More leaves caught him as he fell and, before he knew it, the ground had knocked what little air he had left from his lungs.

Zidri closed his eyes against the pain. He could feel the cool dirt beneath him, and something pulsing beyond it. He was no Druid, but he knew better than to dismiss the power of nature. Desperately, weakly, he reached out with his mind. The last time he had called out indiscriminately like this, it had been to save his sister’s life. Now, he pleaded for his own.

A thousand voices called back to him. Images of tall, blue people flashed through his mind. They breathed. They moved. They were what he needed to become. He was… reluctant. This had become his form. He no longer saw it as something that had been pressed upon him. He’d promised Zinnish that he would be himself. But he could see now. See how they worked and moved and lived. He wanted to live. So, he reached for his magic. For the innate ability that had been given to him when Malkonthet changed him. And he Shifted.

His insides changed first. He knew when he’d done it correctly because he gasped in air that filled his lungs and cleared his mind. He coughed, suddenly aware of the dirt on his skin again. But he wasn’t done. He needed a body that could survive here. The ground beneath him shifted, and his clothes began to feel tight as his frame grew taller. Narrow hips, wide shoulders, long arms and legs. He squirmed, fumbling with the buckles of his armor which had constricted painfully around his wings. Soon, it was off, as were the rest of his clothes, and he was able to continue, concentrating on the image of the people he’d been shown. A tail, for movement and balance. Then, with a shiver that went through his entire body, a stalk of nerves that splayed into delicate filaments at the end reached from the top of his head to beyond his waist. The pain in his back hadn’t faded, the injury still burned, but he gritted his teeth and concentrated on his wings. Another image flashed into his mind. A flying creature with very similar wings. Zidri grunted as muscles shifted under his skin, anchoring the new wings better. The tail flattened at the base of his spine, spreading out smaller, secondary wings that then folded close to the body of the tail. The tip flattened, and he deliberately swung the tail around, testing the muscles.

Finally, Zidri opened his eyes and looked down at himself. He was standing now, and the forest floor was significantly further below him than he remembered. He held out his hands and color bloomed across his pale skin. His horns had gone, but they no longer mattered. His wings would be more than enough to make him feel like himself. He watched as his hair darkened and lengthened, growing to the length of the exposed nerves that hung down his back. The coppery red darkened to the color of dry blood. His skin was now a deep indigo, with almost black stripes decorating his entire body. Pale speckles spread over his chest and all the way down his legs. Likely up to his face as well, though he couldn’t be entirely sure. Slowly, he reached up with his long fingers and felt his face. The nose was wide and flat, and the ears were long and soft, rather like a cat.

He took a deep breath, feeling the air whoosh in and out of his lungs. His new form settled, and a feeling of correctness spread through him. He knew then. Knew that he would not be returning home. Soldas was lost to him now. His family, his troops. He would never see them again. He collapsed to his knees, curling in on himself as the knowledge settled in his mind. When he had first left his home, he was happy. Aithe held far more claim to him than the world that he’d been born in. With Zinnish gone, there was nothing to tie him to his past. He had gone into Soldas with an open heart and an eager mind. He became Soldasi as thoroughly as he could. He fought for them. He married his husband. Eventually, he got to raise his son. To be ripped from them caused a gaping hole to open in his chest even more painful than the wound on his back. Zidri let out a guttural scream and the forest around him went quiet. He gripped the dirt beneath him as tears slid down his cheeks. He didn’t know how long he sat there, sobbing into the dirt, but eventually he knew he had to move. He lifted his head, surprised at how much darker it had gotten. There would be time for more mourning later. Right now, he needed shelter and information. He managed to rip his old clothes into a passable loincloth, and wrapped the armor up so that he could carry it. It no longer fit, but he wasn’t ready to leave it behind. He took one last moment to touch his fingers to the blue rose embossed on the chestplate, and the scrap of Evard’s cloak that was stitched to the inside, and then he began to walk.

As the sunlight faded, the plants around him began to glow, and Zidri was a bit distracted by their beauty. He’d never seen anything like this before. Each step sent a ripple of glowing light across the ground which quickly got absorbed by the plants around him. The new form was much taller than he had been, and he found his movements slightly awkward, though significantly less so than they would have been if he’d also done away with his wings. The tail confused his movement slightly, shifting his weight in odd directions. Trying to correct his balance with his wings like he usually did often caused the tail to twitch instead. He tried to listen to the forest around him as he walked, keeping his steps as light as he could. There was plenty of movement, both of small bugs and of larger beasts. He hoped that his magic would still work here if he encountered something out to eat him.

It had to be at least an hour or so later that Zidri was finally confronted by something sentient. The blue-skinned warrior was slightly taller than him and pointed a long spear in his face as he rose out of the bushes slightly ahead of where Zidri was walking. Zidri held up his hands, pointing his palms away from the man. “I mean no harm,” he said in Common, hoping that the man would understand. “I just need shelter for the night.”

The man spoke, and Zidri repressed a groan when he didn’t recognize the words at all. It was completely foreign to him. “Shelter,” Zidri said again, slowly moving his hands over his head like a roof. “Sleep,” he pressed his palms together and tilted his head to lay against them like a pillow. “Please,” he made what he hoped was a pleading expression and put as much of the emotion into his tone as he could.

“Ngeyä mesyal lu na ikranä pum,” the man said, sounding a bit amazed and a little concerned.

Zidri sighed. “I would just use my telepathy, but I really don’t want you to freak out and stab me.” Very slowly, Zidri pointed behind himself at his wings and began to turn around, showing the injury to the man. Then he turned back around and made the gesture for rest again. “Please.”

The man’s expression had changed when he looked again. He looked concerned and a little fearful. Slowly, he shifted his grip on the spear and gestured for Zidri to follow him. Zidri sighed again. “Thank you,” he said, pouring as much gratitude as he could into his tone again. The man gestured again, and began walking, leading Zidri further into the woods. Thankfully, he didn’t move too fast, and Zidri was able to keep up easily. It didn’t take much longer before Zidri could hear the sounds of a camp. They were much friendlier than the sounds of a military camp that he was used to, with pleasant calls between adults, and the sound of children a bit further off.

They broke through a ring of bushes, and into the open space that had been made for the camp. With the brightness of the plant life around them, Zidri wasn’t surprised to not find any fires lit, at least none that he could see. The blue and purple lights were likely more than enough for people used to this place. The people closest to them went quiet when they saw him, and he carefully schooled his features into what he hoped was a calm expression. His injured wing was beginning to ache far more than it had before and it took all of his concentration to not wince as he kept it folded against his back out of the way.

The silence spread as they walked through the camp to one of the central huts as many of the people began to follow them. Zidri heard whispers spreading through the crowd, though all of it was in the unfamiliar language. He followed his guide into the big hut, where a fire was burning in the center, and straightened automatically when he saw three people inside with much more elaborate clothing than he had seen so far. Well, clothing was a bit of an overstatement. Everyone he’d seen was in a similar state of undress, with only the essential bits covered for each sex, and anything else seeming to be optional or decorative.

There were two women and one man. One woman was draped with what looked like a shawl of red strings. She had a headdress that hung down around her face and was clasped in the middle by a long solid piece. The other woman dressed more simply, though Zidri did notice a circle of metal stretching the base of one earlobe. Her main feature was that she was cradling a small child in her arms which she held closer to her when they entered. The man wore what looked like feathery pauldrons that were all part of one piece that hung around his neck and down his chest. His hair was shorter than Zidri’s but not by much, and was mostly twisted back into thick, rope-like structures.

The man sat up straight and addressed Zidri’s guide who gestured to him and replied. Zidri bowed as much as he could, still suppressing a wince when the shifting pulled his new muscles and aggravated his injury. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Zidri blinked, almost surprised when the man spoke perfect Common. “Oh! Thank the Stars, someone who speaks Common.” He bowed again. “I am Zidri Maldova. I was sent here against my will by a being called Allorin. I only seek somewhere I can rest and heal. I am happy to contribute what I can in exchange, or leave if that is your preference. But I ask that I please be allowed to rest for the night.”

The woman in red stepped toward him, and Zidri held still as she circled him. His skin was much darker than theirs, he finally noticed. That dark purple that is right on the edge of blue rather than the lighter, clearer blue that theirs was. The woman caught his tail briefly, and he didn’t quite manage to suppress a flinch as it wrapped briefly around her wrist before she let it go. Her fingers trailed down the membranes of his injured wing and he winced away, hissing slightly at the pain that spiked through his body. Rather than getting angry, the woman studied him with concern and spoke to the couple still at the front of the room.

“We will shelter you for the night,” the man said. “And treat your wound. We will speak more in the morning. There are many questions I have for you.”

Zidri bowed slightly. “You have my thanks, My Lord.”

The man’s mouth twitched into a slight smile and gestured to the woman in red. “Mo’at has offered to treat you. You may go with her. She will give you a place to rest as well.” Zidri turned and inclined his head to Mo’at. “Thank you. Before I go, may I have permission to speak to you telepathically? I do not wish to offend, and this will let me learn your language quickly.”

“I speak the language of the Sky People,” she said in heavily-accented Common. “What is this word you say?”

Zidri blinked, but bowed his head apologetically. “Telepathically. I can speak into a person’s mind and hear their thoughts in return. Though I would never use it without permission, which is why I didn’t use it with this man who brought me here.”

Mo’at exchanged a significant look with the couple, then hummed thoughtfully. “Come. I will treat your wound.” Zidri bowed to the couple again, and followed Mo’at out of the hut. She waved her arms and spoke in their language, clearly dismissing the crowd that had gathered around the big hut. Zidri followed her to a smaller alcove that was shielded from the rest of the camp by a few huge leaves that they ducked through to get in.

Zidri winced again as his wing brushed the foliage. It was getting harder to hold it up out of the way. “Sit,” Mo’at directed, pointing to a stool to one side of the space while she began pulling things from shelves that were fixed into the sides of the space. Zidri sat, hissing as his wing shifted, but sighing when he could finally relax the tension and let the limb settle into a more comfortable position. “What are you?” Mo’at asked as she came to him. She settled behind him, examining the wound before beginning to dab at the leaking blood with a damp cloth.

Zidri hissed again at the touch, but held himself still. “Honestly?” he shook his head. “I don’t know anymore. I used to be an Incubus. Made so by My Lady, Queen Malkonthet. But now?” He shook his head. “I needed to be something else when I got here. I didn’t have time to ask what I was turning myself into. I just knew that I needed to change to survive. My wings have become a part of me, so they needed to change too. I don’t know what that makes me.”

Mo’at hummed. “Move your hair.”

Zidri reached back obediently and pulled his hair over his uninjured shoulder, bringing with it the sensitive ‘tail’ that had sprouted from his head. “May I also ask questions?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes.”

“What is this?” He shifted his hair so she could see the ‘tail’ but was careful to keep some of his hair wrapped around it. He’d noticed that everyone he’d seen had a long, central braid down their backs and assumed that it protected the appendage from the outside world.

“Queue,” Mo’at replied. “You will want to braid your hair around it.”

“Queue,” Zidri tested the word slowly, then nodded in understanding. “What do you call yourselves?”

Mo’at had moved on from cleaning the blood away to smearing something cool over the wound. Zidri sighed at the easing of pain that this brought. “We are the Na’vi. The People. We are the Na’vi of the Forest. The Omaticaya.” Zidri hummed thoughtfully, repeating the words quietly again. Before he could ask anymore, she spoke again, “From where do you come?”

“The country of Soldas in the land of Aithe,” Zidri replied. He traced his too-large fingers over the embossed rose on his armor again. “I lived in the Darkened Shore and commanded my troops, the Blue Roses, in battle against our enemies.”

“You are a warrior?” she asked. Something was being pressed against the wound, sealing the medicine in.

“Yes,” Zidri agreed, a sad smile crossing his face. “I suppose I am.”

Mo’at’s long fingers wrapped around his upper arm, turning him to face her. “Eywa has brought you here for a reason,” she said, staring fiercely into his eyes. “You will learn.” She gestured to a palette of leaves in one corner of the alcove. “Rest here tonight. You will speak with Olo’eyktan in the morning. Sleep.”

Zidri bowed his head gratefully. “Thank you.” He settled onto the leaves, lying on his uninjured side and folding his wings against his back as he usually did. He expected Mo’at to leave, but instead she began chanting rhythmically behind him. He didn’t bother turning to look. He closed his eyes and let himself drift off, wondering just what Allorin had gotten him into this time.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

Flight

Zidri dreamed of his childhood. Not Soldas, which was strange enough, but his younger days on the mountain with Zinnish. It had been years since his dreams had consisted of anything other than visits with Malkonthet, or anxieties over the coming battles. In the dream he sat quietly with his sister looking out over the lands below their lofty peak. Her copper hair hid her face from him, and when he saw her laugh, the sound was silent. It had been so long. The mists of time hid her features, but her presence was the same.

When his eyes opened to the shaded green light of a new day, Zidri had to wipe away tears before he sat up. The little details of the dream still lingered in his mind, mainly the flash of his sister’s coppery hair. He looked down at the long strands that now hung from his head. Once the same color as hers, now darkened beyond recognition. Perhaps that was just as well. Shaking away the dark thoughts, he checked his range of motion and was pleased to find there was no pain left. He often had others help him to braid his hair, but he had not entirely lost the skill himself. Reaching back, he separated his hair out and began to braid it around the queue as he’d been advised. Each hair was thicker than he was used to, so it took some fiddling to get the effect he wanted. Eventually he finished, though he had nothing to tie it with. He pulled a strip off his old shirt and carefully tied the braid, mindful of the delicate strands at the end.

Finally, he stood and noticed that a loincloth had been left for him beside the leaves he’d been sleeping on. He listened for a moment, making sure no one was nearby, and then swapped out his makeshift one with the proper one. It fit well, and he felt better about it than the strips of cloth from his old clothes. Zidri took a deep breath and stepped out of the medicine tent.

The sun was barely peeking through the trees, but there seemed to be a decent amount of activity already happening around him. “Oh, good, you’re awake.” Zidri turned to see the man from last night approaching alone. He wasn’t wearing the feathery pauldrons this morning, but he still exuded the air of a man who was confident in his leadership.

Zidri bowed slightly in greeting. “Thank you very much for your hospitality, My Lord. It was much appreciated.”

The man chuckled lightly. “My name is Jake Sully, no need to call me ‘Lord’. Come on, walk with me.” He turned and began to walk through the village, so Zidri followed, keeping his wings folded tightly to his back out of the way. “Mo’at told us what you said to her last night.” Zidri straightened his shoulders, prepared to defend himself, but Jake was quick to continue. “I’ve never heard of any of the places you mentioned. We were worried, you see. Worried that the Sky People had sent you. I don’t think they did, I’ve never seen anything like you. But I’m also not a scientist, so we’re going to see the only humans left on the planet.” He tossed Zidri a large round fruit that he caught easily. “Think you can keep up?” He bit into a matching fruit, his eyes full of questions.

Zidri nodded, maintaining eye contact as he bit into his own fruit. “I’m all healed up. I think I can keep pace.” Jake nodded and continued walking through the village. They’d finished their fruit by the time they made it to the edge of the trees, and then Jake began to run before catching a vine and swinging up into the trees. Now clear of the other people, Zidri spread his wings and launched himself into the air, easily following the path that Jake set on foot.

It was honestly exhilarating to be back in the air again, pain free. The new wings were strong and large, catching the air easily. They were segmented slightly, like insect wings at the top with the more fleshy style that he was used to on the bottom. The secondary wings at the base of his tail also added more stability to his flight, giving him an easy glide. The tail itself acted as a rudder, which made it easier to execute turns with less bodily movement, which was perfect in the claustrophobic area of the forest. By the time they broke from the trees entirely, Zidri was grinning broadly.

“Oh, I could get used to that!” he laughed, landing beside Jake as the other man watched him with his arms crossed. “That was even better than my old wings!”

“Well, you certainly kept up!” Jake seemed both pleased and concerned again.

Zidri raised an eyebrow. “I told Mo’at the truth. I was not sent here by humans. I have never been human. I suppose I could still be considered an Incubus, this is just my default form now.” He gestured to his body. “Is there anywhere I can get a good look at myself, by the way? I can only see so much looking down.”

Jake gestured to the open space they were in which Zidri hadn’t paid close attention to until that moment. “They’ll have something you can use.” Zidri’s eyes widened at what he saw. A huge, paved area full of sharply constructed buildings and silent equipment. It was clearly human-made, though Zidri had never seen architecture like it before. Jake began to walk toward one of the buildings, so Zidri followed, a little uneasy.

Sounds of life were soon heard from the smaller building they were approaching. There were plenty of plants here, looking a bit more like the forest they’d come from. Jake approached one of the doors and gestured for Zidri to follow as he swung the heavy thing open and stepped inside. Zidri did so cautiously, keeping his wings folded tightly to his back again. Once they were inside, Jake shut the door, and held out a strange contraption. “Here, hang this around your neck, you’ll have to hold this part. We can breathe their air for the most part, but they can’t breathe ours, so just take a breath from this occasionally, and you should be fine.” There was a loud whooshing sound as the air around them changed, and then Jake opened the door at the other end of the chamber.

Zidri was surprised that he could taste the difference in the air, this being a heavier and smelling of metal, rather than the lighter moistness of the forest outside. While there was room in here for beings of their size, Zidri still felt a bit claustrophobic with the ceiling so close. “Hey, Jake! So, this is the guy, huh?” A human had stepped into the room and was gazing up at Zidri with interested eyes. He had brown hair, and light skin with the light stubble of a beard along his jaw. “I’m Norm Spellman, you can just call me Norm,” he said, holding out a hand to Zidri.

“Zidri Maldova,” he replied, reaching out to carefully shake his hand. The size difference was suddenly put into perspective for him, and he was amazed at just how much larger he was than he had been.

“Nice to meet you, Zidri. We’re just gonna run a couple tests, nothing too crazy. Has Jake explained what’s happening here?” Zidri shook his head. “Okay! No worries! Quick history lesson then!” Norm began walking through the building, leading Zidri through a series of rooms while explaining how the humans had first come to the moon they called Pandora. He explained the Avatar program and its aim of learning about the people and the culture, and about the human company that had been determined to wipe out the tribe in order to get to the resources they wanted. “But Jake and the rest of us scientists weren’t gonna let that happen, so Jake led the Omaticaya and some of the other tribes in a battle against them and when we won, they kicked the rest of the humans off the planet!” He gestured to a white bed-like contraption, and Zidri sat down, shuffling his wings. “We got to stay because we fought for them, and they like us.”

“Most of the time,” Jake added, a teasing note in his tone. Zidri smirked, but was suddenly distracted by the image that he could see reflected back at him from a window. His eyes were large, as he’d expected from looking at the other Na’vi. His wings, despite how tightly he’d been folding them against his back, were huge, and visibly folded differently to what he was used to. He’d been right about the speckles, which trailed up his neck and face, swirling into a pattern on his forehead that he couldn’t quite work out. The stripes were there as well, spreading thin lines behind the speckles on his forehead and trailing down his temples. His hair was the most normal part of him, as even the green of his eyes had changed, brightening and looking almost luminescent in the bright lights of the human building.

“Yeah yeah.” Norm began pulling things off shelves and moving to attach wires to Zidri’s body. Zidri flinched backward, startled. “Woah! Easy! It’s alright. I’m just gonna run some tests, see if I can determine where you came from. You’re really different from anything we’ve seen before, and we really need to make sure that Earth didn’t manage to sneak you over here somehow.”

Zidri sighed again. “I understand the need to be thorough, but I can promise you that I was not sent here by any human means.”

“Okay! Cool! Awesome! Still need to check you out. I promise, it’s not gonna be painful, though if you would let us take some blood, that would be awesome. Or not!” Norm quickly backtracked when Zidri raised an eyebrow. “Don’t have to if you don’t want to, that’s fine. But there are some other things we should test to make sure that you’re gonna do alright out there.”

“You can trust Norm and the other scientists here,” Jake assured him. “And this will put my own mind at ease as well. I have people to take care of, understand?”

Zidri inclined his head in understanding. “I do. I’m sorry for my reactions, I’ve never seen things like this before.”

“Why don’t you tell me about your world then?” Norm suggested. “I’d love to hear about it.” So, while Norm pressed invisible buttons on clear tablets with glowing words on them, Zidri talked about Soldas. He talked about the Civil War between the North and South, about the particular challenges of commanding troops in the Darkened Shore due to the demon attacks that were common there. He talked about his husband, Evard, and his son, Fikri. About his patron, Malkonthet, and the expectations she had for him.

Time passed quickly, and he was surprised when Norm began pulling the wires off his body. “I’m sorry you got taken away from them,” Norm said gently. “We’re all done here for now. It’s gonna take a few hours for the data to come back. Jake, how about you bring him back after eclipse, and we should have some results for you.”

“Sounds good. Come on, I know exactly what we should do in the meantime.” Jake led him back outside, dropping their breathing masks in the entrance before they left. Jake took off running, quickly launching himself back into the trees, though not heading directly back toward the village. Instead, he mainly seemed to be climbing up. Zidri spread his wings and launched after him again, easily landing on the huge branch that Jake had climbed to. The other man made a series of clicking and chirping noises, before turning to smirk at Zidri. “Time to see what you can really do.” A screech echoed through the air before a whooshing sound signaled the arrival of a large, winged creature.

Zidri immediately recognized it as the creature that had been shown to him when he was figuring out what to do with his wings. It was much bigger than either himself, or Jake, but the wings were what he’d observed on his own, a few segments of insect-like iridescence before the fleshier pattern took over for the majority. “This is an Ikran,” Jake explained, reaching out to pet the creature’s face. “Don’t look it in the eye. Ikran only bond with one rider their entire lives. It is a right of passage for a hunter to be chosen by an Ikran.” The creature breathed, and Zidri noticed the large nostril-like holes in its torso that whooshed with air.

Jake pulled his queue forward and the tendrils at the end bonded with similar tendrils that Zidri noticed coming from the Ikran. Jake leapt up and settled himself on the creature’s back, then grinned down at him again. “Let’s see how you keep up with this.” The two of them moved in perfect sync as they fell off the tree, and then began to fly. Zidri quickly followed, more than eager to fly alongside someone for the first time. It was just as exhilarating as he’d expected. They were up in the open air, away from the trees, within a few minutes, and Zidri wasn’t having any trouble keeping up. Jake kept darting in different directions, but Zidri generally copied his movements easily, shifting through the air naturally and genuinely enjoying the ease of movement that the tail brought to him. They were flying for much longer than Zidri had flown in a long time, yet he was significantly less tired than he would have expected himself to be.

It was getting darker when they flew in sight of something that nearly knocked Zidri out of the air with how distracting it was. Huge, floating islands that hovered in the air above the ground, connected by nothing, were suddenly floating all around them. Jake laughed at his reaction and gestured upward, urging his Ikran toward one of the rocks. There was vegetation on them, which was what they soon landed on, and Zidri took a moment to get used to standing again while Jake dismounted and let the Ikran fly away. “You fly well,” Jake praised, producing some more fruits from a pouch on his belt. “I’m impressed.”

“It’s a different experience to what I’m used to, Zidri said, taking the food. “It’s been some time since I needed to fly for longer than a single battle. And it isn’t often safe to go for leisure flights. I could be mistaken for an enemy and attacked.” His expression darkened as he realized he’d spoken in the present tense. “But I really enjoy the control I have with this form. Much less labor-intensive than I’m used to.”

“Come sit with me. We have a couple hours before Eclipse is over and I want to talk to you about what you want to do.”

Zidri sat beside him, looking up properly for the first time as the huge shape in the sky blocked the majority of the sunlight. It was round, like a moon, but so much bigger, that it had to be something else. “What is that?” Zidri asked, amazed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Jake was quiet for a moment, long enough for Zidri to look at him and see the thoughtful expression on his face. “That’s a planet. Pandora,” he gestured at the world around them, “is a moon orbiting what the humans call a gas giant called Polyphemus. We’re in the closest star system to Earth, but they still have to go into stasis to get here. That’s why we were worried when we saw you.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Jake held up his hand, the four fingers and thumb wiggling in a wave. “This was my Avatar. Eywa helped me transfer into this body from my human one after I helped defeat the Sky People and send them away. Avatars are a combination of human and Na’vi DNA designed to be linked to by one controller.” He gestured to Zidri’s hands, which had the same number of fingers. “I’m not a scientist. I didn’t know if they’d prepared a backup in case things went badly. But you know nothing of this place. You don’t even know anything about Earth. So, I believe you.”

“I try to avoid lying when I can,” Zidri assured him. “I’m sorry I worried you all, but I haven’t exactly been known in recent years to lie for others' comfort.” He gestured to his wings. “I have the ability to change my appearance, but I chose to remain as my true self even though it would cause the Soldasi to treat me poorly until they knew better. Demonic heritage wasn’t exactly looked upon favorably.”

“You mentioned that when you were talking to Norm. How do you…” Jake stopped and shook his head. “Norm would be the better one to ask that. What I wanted to talk about now are your options. Do you know if there is any way for you to get back?”

Zidri shook his head. “I haven’t tried to deliberately reach out for my patron yet, but last night was the first time that I haven’t visited her in my dreams.”

“What do you mean by reaching out for your patron?”

“I am a Warlock of Queen Malkonthet. She gave me power in exchange for doing her bidding. She was also the one to turn me into an Incubus. I can usually reach out to her through the bond created by her magic and speak with her. Or, she can reach out to me.”

Jake glanced up at the dark sky above them. “Can you try now?”

Zidri shrugged, “I mean, I suppose I can. It’s not very exciting from the outside.”

Jake waved his concern away. “I’ll be fine. Do what you gotta do.”

So, Zidri nodded and settled down cross-legged and rested his hands palm up on his knees. He closed his eyes and reached inside himself for his magic. He was pleased to find he could still feel it. Following the trail of it outside himself, he was quickly confused. Rather than going outward and finding himself in Malkonthet’s realm, he felt the distinct impression of going downward. His magic suddenly splintered into a thousand threads anchored in the ground beneath him. He could hear the multitude of voices again, speaking soothing words into his mind. It was beautiful. Ethereal. He reached for the voices, wordlessly asking for help and understanding. They were surrounding him, speaking louder and louder, but then he heard a voice speaking in Common. He focused on it.

He opened his eyes to see a human woman with curly red hair eyeing him curiously. “You’re not supposed to be here, are you?”

He looked down at himself, unsurprised to see that he was back in his familiar Incubus form. “I was sent here against my will,” he said.

The woman snorted a laugh. “Well, you’re here now. Might as well make the best of it.” She made a shooing gesture with her hand. “Go on. Jake is getting worried about you.”

Before Zidri could respond, he felt a hand wrap around his arm and heard a voice calling to him. Reluctantly, he followed the threads of his magic back to his body and opened his eyes. He blinked in the bright sunlight that shone in his eyes. “What the fuck was that?” Jake’s voice brought him fully back to himself and Zidri shook his head, turning to look at Jake’s worried face.

“I could not reach Malkonthet. Not even close. I think… I think I’m connected to the planet now.”

Jake sighed and stood. “Alright. We can discuss this more back at the lab. Norm’s got your results for us.”

Zidri stood and stretched, groaning in satisfaction as the muscles pulled. “How long was I out?”

“Three hours,” Jake replied, looking at him in concern again. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah… I just didn’t realize…” he shook his head to clear it. “I’m alright. Long story short, I can’t get back home.”

Jake nodded, then called for his Ikran without any further comment. The flight back to the lab helped pick up Zidri’s spirits a bit, and when they landed he was in a slightly better mood. They went into the lab and were immediately confronted with an overly excited Norm. “I need answers from you right now!”

Zidri frowned in concern. “Is there something wrong?”

“I don’t know! You tell me!” He led them further into the building, and gestured to one of the huge, transparent displays which was currently showing a glowing scan of Zidri’s body. “Care to explain what I’m looking at?”

Chapter Text

Chapter Three

Decisions

The transparent displays showed a glowing outline of Zidri’s body, and what looked like his insides. Zidri stared at it in fascination. It didn’t quite make sense to him, as he’d never seen his own insides, but it certainly looked correct. He identified muscle tissue, organs, and even bones. The only particularly odd bit was the oddly indistinct visual nature of each part. The bones were solid, but didn’t seem to have the same structure he’d observed in other bones. The organs functioned as intended, but their tissue looked ready to shift out of its structure. The muscles were toned and strong, but their attachments looked not quite as solid as they could be.

“I have never seen my own insides,” he said, tearing his gaze away from the display to look back at Norm and Jake. “But I seem to have all of my organs and bones and muscles.”

“The bone and muscle structure is exactly what I would expect looking at a native Na’vi,” Norm explained excitedly. “Other than the wings, the structure is perfect. Your queue is even in the right spot. But the muscles for your wings look exactly like they should as well. They don’t interfere with the rest of your structure, they just exist in perfect harmony, working with the rest! Nothing on Pandora looks like you, but your body is perfectly designed to function as it is! And there’s no trace of human structures, like there would be in an Avatar.” He grinned at both of them. “You’re definitely not from Earth.”

Zidri noticed a tiny relaxation of Jake’s body language, but he just returned Norm’s smile rather than comment on it. “I am not from this place at all. If you’d like, I can prove it even more definitively.” He smirked a little at Norm’s eager, curious look. “From what I can tell, you have never seen a being like myself. I am an Incubus. There is an ability I was given when I was changed that has allowed me to take the appearance that will best suit me here, but I can still access that ability.” Without any further explanation, Zidri closed his eyes and took a deep breath. With a slight shifting of his shoulders, he began the transformation, his body shrinking back to its familiar shape of pale skin, long red hair, green eyes, dark horns, and bat-like wings.

He opened his eyes and laughed when he saw the looks on Jake and Norm’s faces. Jake towered over him now, while Norm was only a little shorter. Norm immediately launched into a babble of questions, while Jake simply looked at him thoughtfully. “I don’t know the specifics of how I can transform,” Zidri finally said, cutting into Norm’s ramblings. “It is an ability known as Polymorph. I can change species, I can change sexes, I could change little things about my appearance if I wanted. But I find it more honest to be my true self. I also honor my sister by doing so.”

Jake stepped forward and held his hand out toward Zidri. “A pleasure to meet you, Zidri Maldova.”

Zidri smiled, bowing his head in understanding as he took the offered hand and shook it. “The pleasure is all mine, Jake Sully.”

Jake stepped back, “I need to get back to the village. Why don’t you stick around here for a bit? Get to know these guys. You can let me know tonight what you decide you want to do. If you want it, I would be more than happy for you to learn our ways and offer you a place with the Omaticaya.”

Zidri nodded back and thanked him. “I will see you tonight then with my answer.”

Norm and Jake said goodbye to each other, and then Norm turned back to Zidri. “Okay, wow, I have so many questions. Do you mind if I do another scan? Maybe we could figure out how your. Polymorph thing works if we combine our knowledge.”

Zidri nodded. “I think I would like that. Don’t let my military background fool you. I’ve been an explorer since I could walk.”

“Okay, so explain what you meant by, ‘being changed.’” Norm insisted as he sat Zidri down on the examination table and began attaching wires again.

Zidri explained about his childhood on a remote mountain, restricted by the insulated community, with his only access to outside knowledge coming from the pilgrims that came there to pray. He told about his sister, her sickness that they couldn’t cure, and his desperation to help her. About his first patron, and her quest for him that he never got to complete. Then about his first meeting with Allorin. The demigod’s charming personality and smooth words that convinced Zidri to step through a portal and into a world he knew nothing about. He talked about his new friends, and the bonds he soon created with them, and his growing suspicions about Allorin. Finally, he talked about Malkonthet and her offer to keep him physically safe from Allorin.

“I accepted and she took me to another room away from the others,” he explained as Norm began to remove the wires, having collected the data he needed. “She drained my blood from me and replaced it with something else. When that happened, I looked as you see me now, horns, wings and all. It was only much later that I learned that Zinnish was dead and had been almost since I arrived in Aithe.”

“Damn,” Norm had been quiet throughout his story, simply listening in fascination. “Dude, I’m really sorry. About your sister, about everything. I’m sure it can’t be easy getting thrown from universe to universe like that.”

“Thank you,” Zidri hopped off the table and stretched as best he could. “I am at least happy to have found people to help me here, as I did there.”

“Yeah, dude, we got you. Come on, let me introduce you to the others!” Norm led him deeper into the facility, and introduced him to some of the other humans who lived there, including a few children, which made Zidri smile. He was more than happy to answer what questions he could, though he did have to ask them to keep their curious little fingers away from his wings.

Time seemed to pass both quickly and slowly. The humans were eager listeners and Zidri talked about his life and culture, and were more than happy to reciprocate. They were all Seekers of Knowledge in various ways, learning about this world they now lived in, and doing what they could to maintain it and keep it safe. Norm had to be the one to pry him away, reminding him that he should get back to the Omaticaya camp before it really got dark. Zidri said goodbye and shifted back to his new Na’vi form before stepping back outside and launching into the slowly darkening sky to fly back.

He used the flight to let himself think as it was his first time alone since he’d woken up that morning. The humans were nice. They were eager and inquisitive, and could probably stimulate his curiosity in ways it hadn’t been able to do for years. But as he listened to the sounds of approaching night around him, and tasted the sweet moist air as he flew through it, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stay with them and make a new home there. He could visit, certainly. But he needed something more tangible to ground himself to this new world.

It was easy to find Jake when he arrived back at the village. “I would like to learn your ways,” he said, speaking both to Jake and his wife, Neytiri, who was with him, holding a baby in her arms. “If you will let me, I would like to learn how I may contribute and make a home here.”

Jake looked at Neytiri who, after giving Zidri a long, critical look, turned back to her husband and nodded. She said something in her own language, and Jake nodded and sent Zidri a smile. “Your new life starts tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Four

Adoption

The language was hard. Zidri had spent the last few months with the Omaticaya, learning their ways, adapting to this new life, and finding a place where he could be useful. He could hunt and fish. He moved through the trees just as easily on foot as he did in the air. He felt grounded in the culture and the people around him. But grasping the language was proving more difficult than he’d expected.

Jake had assigned him to a warrior in the tribe to be mentored by. As Olo’eyktan, Jake had better things to do than be with Zidri all day, not to mention his family. Kiiolewo seemed both pleased with his assignment, and also irritated by it. But Zidri didn’t blame him. He knew he was different, foreign, even more so than the Humans and their Avatars. But it was clear that Kiiolewo was eager to gain favor with Jake and make himself look good in his eyes. So, Zidri’s days were filled with learning the forest, the animals, the language. His difficulties with the language started early, with his name. The sounds to make his name simply didn’t exist in their language, so he had to accept being called Zirri instead, which felt… wrong at first. The more immersed he became, however, the less he minded it. Like his new form, his new name simply needed getting used to.

Luckily, getting used to his new form was surprisingly easy. Besides the new and bigger wings, the larger body felt remarkably comfortable, more so than his previous changes had. He found himself marveling at himself at night sometimes, lying in the hammock next to Kiiolewo. The luminescent forest around him playing with the shadows his long fingers made.

“You said you have telepathy, right?” Norm asked one day, about six months after Zidri had landed.

“Yes,” Zidri shifted his grip on the basket he was holding, helping the scientist gather samples in the forest.

Norm placed another plant in the basket, standing up and looking Zidri in the eye, which was easy in his Avatar. “Why haven’t you just linked with someone’s mind then? It sounds like that’s how you’ve learned languages before. Wouldn’t that be easier?”

“No one has given me permission,” Zidri replied simply. “And at this point, it’s about pride. I’m understanding the basics. I can carry a conversation. It helps that I’m surrounded by it all the time except when I come here. But I also don’t use my telepathy without asking. When I left my first home, I made an effort to always ask. I’m not going to stop doing that now just because it would be convenient. And…” He sighed and began following Norm back to the human base. “Have you ever had a powerful woman be in charge of you?”

Norm looked a little sad as he nodded, “Kiri’s mother was the leader of the science division when Jake and I first got here. She was intimidating as fuck.”

Zidri chuckled, “As much as Neytiri is Jake’s wife, and Jake is my friend, Neytiri is also the spiritual leader of the tribe. It’s important to me that she approves of my joining the tribe as much as Jake.”

“Neytiri will come around,” Norm assured him. “The kids seem to love you!”

Zidri chuckled. “That, we can agree on.” It was true. Neteyam and Kiri were still young, barely toddlers, but they both had taken a liking to Zidri. They giggled and babbled at him, making grabby hands whenever they saw him, especially Kiri. Zidri tried to be considerate of Neytiri’s feelings, which were often visible on her face, but it was easy to care for the kids.

Jake seemed to be of a similar mind. Despite being busy with all the responsibilities on his plate, Jake seemed more than happy to help Zidri where he could. When they each had free time, they often spent it together. Jake was more patient than Kiiolewo was with Zidri’s mispronunciations, and took the time to explain the differences in how the mouth needed to move to make the sounds come out correctly. It didn’t take long before they were using these language lessons and hang out sessions to talk about their pasts, and it was astonishing how much they had in common. Twins who had lost their other half in tragic circumstances. A new world that they’d had to learn about the hard way. Even a history with being military. The day they discovered that, they’d spent hours laughing at each other and cracking jokes about their differences in rank.

It made them equals. Neither of them were native to this place, both were doing the best they could under the circumstances. Jake had made a home here. Zidri was hoping to do the same. The night after Zidri’s acceptance ceremony, where he was officially named a part of the tribe, Jake took him up into the trees to talk. “You don’t think you deserve it, do you?” Jake asked, sitting down on the tree branch beside Zidri and looking up at the stars.

“You know your wife is intimidating, right?” Zidri countered, not wanting to talk about it.

Jake laughed. “Of course I do! Why do you think I married her?” He bumped shoulders with Zidri, finally looking at him. “Come on, dude. Talk to me.”

Zidri looked down at the white paint that swirled over his skin. “I thought this would settle me. That once I was accepted, I would feel at home. Maybe…” he sighed, hunching his shoulders in and drawing his wings around his shoulders. “Maybe I’m not meant to have a home. Maybe I never have.”

Jake lifted Zidri’s wing with the back of his hand, scooting in close so Zidri couldn’t shut him out. “What’s brought this on? I thought you’ve been doing great!”

“I have always had a desire to travel, Jake,” Zidri said, lifting his wing to cover the other man as rain began to patter down around them. “That’s all I’ve had for as long as I can remember. Even in the early days on the mountain, I wanted to be anywhere but there. The only reason I didn’t just run away was Zinnish. She was incapable of running with me. Even as a child she was sickly. So I stayed. I stayed until she was dying. And then I was given the excuse I needed to go. Queen Titania wanted me to travel and help her, so I did. I traveled everywhere. I saw so many amazing things! And then Allorin yanked me away. He bound me to himself, but I was still traveling. I was learning about a whole new world and new people and making friends and it was all so exciting and terrifying.

“I knew when I let Lady Malkonthet change me that it was a turning point. And then I learned that Zinnish was gone. My only reason for existing had died because of choices I had made. So I turned back to the only other thing I knew: Travel. We killed Allorin and I took the commission that was offered to me. I never stopped moving. Sure, I got married, but Evard was also the adventurous type. I fell in love with him because his free spirit matched mine. He never begrudged me my time with the Blue Roses. Even as he started getting older, and stayed closer to home, he knew why I had to keep going out.” Zidri turned to look sideways at Jake who’d been quiet the whole time he spoke. “I’m tired of running, Jake. But I don’t know how to stop.”

Jake was quiet for a long time, but Zidri could see him thinking, his eyes flickering over the raindrops dancing on the glowing plants. “I know what it’s like to want a purpose,” he finally said, his voice steady and deep. “Learning what I really wanted out of this life was harder than I thought, but then it was so easy. But I think we can help. You like to move and explore, so you’ll hunt. You’ll scout. But you’ll always have home to come back to. Start there.” He turned to look intently into Zidri’s eyes and reached out, clasping his forearm. “We’re brothers, Zirri. You and I. Brothers in and out of arms. So let our family be your anchor.”

Tension eased slightly in the wings that covered them both. “I think I can do that,” Zirri agreed.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten Years Later

~~~~~~~~~~

The wind whooshed through Zirri’s long hair as he dove through the open sky toward the tree canopy. The ikran behind him screeched, swiping at the air behind him. Zirri tucked his wings against his body and rolled, his tail whipping behind him as he changed course, though still aiming for the trees. The wind shifted, and Zirri snapped his wings out, climbing again just in time to avoid another ikran that had dived through the air on the other side of him. Twin screeches pierced the air, and Zirri continued to climb, soon losing sight of his pursuers in the clouds.

He leveled out, keeping his senses trained on the air around him. The screeches were further away now, and he dipped lower, peering through the mist to see what was happening. Sure enough, they were going the wrong direction. He grinned and tucked his wings in, falling through the air almost silently. Just before he hit the canopy, he snapped his wings out with a whoop. Answering screeches split the air, and he dove beneath the leaves, landing on one of the branches not  far away.

He could hear the grumbling before the two ikran even broke the trees. Kiiloewo laughed as his ikran landed, waving to Zirri as he slid off the animal’s back. “How is it that you keep getting better at that?” he asked, clasping Zirri’s arm and pulling him in for a hug.

Zirri chuckled, folding his wings back and returning the hug. “When you get to be my age, you stop thinking about skills as things you can master. You can always learn new things, even about skills you think you know everything about.”

“You know this is why Norm hates you, right?” Jake slid off his own ikran as it landed, coming to congratulate Zirri on his win. “You’ve encapsulated the whole point of science in just one sentence.”

Zirri laughed. “He hates me because I keep encouraging Spider to do things that Norm thinks are dangerous.”

“The kid tried to build a glider last month, and what did you do?”

“Gave him pointers.” The three men laughed and began making their way down through the trees toward the village. Zirri always looked forward to their flights. It was a time for them to bond as brothers and friends. He’d invited Neytiri along a few times, but she always turned him down, stating that if Jake was going to be away, someone had to stay and keep an eye on things. Lately, he hadn’t even bothered, though that was mostly because she was quite busy with Tuktirey. Little Tuk was a sweetheart, but she had just as much curiosity as her older siblings and her parents.

Zirri loved Jake’s kids. Kiri, Neteyam, and Lo’ak had been one of the best parts about his new life. While it did make him wish he’d gotten to be around for Fikri’s younger years, it also made him grateful that he was getting this chance. Jake’s plan to help him feel grounded and to build a home had been a good one, but it was the children that really cemented it for the Incubus.

Explaining his immortality to Jake and Neytiri had been an… interesting day. A year or so after he’d crashed, he knew that he needed to tell them. They weren’t the type to simply not ask about his lack of aging. Neytiri had been angry at first, seeing it as more proof of his alienness. But Jake had seen an interesting side of it that even Zirri hadn’t considered before. “You’ll be there to protect our family long after we are gone. You will always have a purpose in this family. Protect them.”

Zirri took to Jake’s request like he’d been made for it. He babysat the kids when Jake and Neytiri needed alone time. He was often one to accompany the kids in the early days of their explorations into the forest. The older they got, the less he had to keep an eye on them, but he still did. Especially when Spider was around.

Zirri had a little soft spot for the human kid. It wasn’t hard to develop as he watched Spider try so hard to learn and do and follow. He was fascinated by Jake’s family, and Zirri couldn’t blame him. The amount of freedom they had was inspiring, and Zirri couldn’t be more proud as he watched them grow up.

Jake reached the village first, splitting from their little group with a wave and scooping up Tuk from where she was toddling toward him. Kiiloewo clapped Zirri on the shoulder, and trotted off to find his own family. Zirri didn’t let the ache that tried to rise in his heart linger, pushing past it to instead go find Kiri.

Ever since she was a child, Kiri had been a little different. She was only a few years old when she tamed an ikran simply by asking it to be her friend. Zirri had taken her flying often, and found her to be an excellent flier. Even so, she tended to wander off and not return for hours, so Zirri had gotten into the habit of looking for her every so often just so he could make sure she was alright. Even Neytiri appreciated this after one night of the little girl disappearing for almost the entire night and only returning in the early hours of dawn.

Zirri asked around if anyone had seen her recently, getting a few greetings in return, but no confirmed sightings. So, he ventured out into the trees, flying up so he could get a better view.

“Are you looking for Kiri?”

Zirri startled, turning when he heard the little voice nearby. Neteyam was crouched on a branch, looking up at him. Zirri landed next to him and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Yes. What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for dinner?”

“Mom said to come find Kiri. She wanted to talk to Dad about something.”

Zirri nodded, “Well then, let’s go find your sister.” He crouched down and turned his back to the boy who quickly clambered on, wrapping his legs around Zirri’s waist and clutching his broad shoulders. “All set?”

“Yep!”

“Alright!” They launched into the air, Zirri taking an easy glide as they checked Kiri’s usual places with no success. He was starting to get worried. “Did Kiri go to the facility today?”

“No, Mom wanted her to stay close.”

“Doesn’t mean she didn’t try. Let’s head that way and see if we catch her.” He banked and began flying toward where the humans lived. They were half-way there when Zirri finally spotted a flash of brighter blue against the green trees. “Thank the Stars.” He glided in and landed, keeping his steps light as Neteyam slid off his back and scampered over to his sister.

“Kiri! Wake up! It’s time for dinner.” Neteyam patted Kiri’s shoulder while Zirri scanned the forest around them, keeping an eye out for threats. Darkness was beginning to descend, and the plants hadn’t quite begun to glow yet when Zirri felt the ground begin to rumble.

Zirri leapt upward, beating his wings once to give him just enough height to see over the larger plants. There was movement in the distance, plants bending out of the way. Immediately, Zirri landed and crouched next to the kids. “There’s a stampede coming, we need to move.”

“Kiri isn’t waking up!” Neteyam’s voice was scared, and he looked up at Zirri with a frightened face.

“I’m going to wake her. Climb on my back.” Zirri helped the little boy get settled, and then spread his wings, ready to take off. “I want you to yank on my hair in fifteen seconds, okay?” Zirri felt a little hand fist in his hair, and then reached out to get a grasp on Kiri. For the first time in years, he reached out with his mind to touch hers.

A sense of comfort and peace surrounded them. They were being cradled in the arms of a being who cared. A million voices sang in unison. They were all one with Eywa. “Kiri, we need to wake up.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, but we need to move!”

“Zirri?”

“Zidri!”

Sharp pain snapped Zirri back to the forest, his eyes snapped open and he looked down to see that Kiri’s had opened as well. Within moments, she’d reached up to him and he scooped her into his arms before launching straight up into the treetops. The ‘angtsik thundered beneath them, the herd moving rapidly through the underbrush. Zirri sighed in relief and banked, heading back toward the village.

As they flew, Kiri looked up at him, “I’m sorry, Uncle! I didn’t mean to!”

“I know, little one, it’s alright. Maybe keep an eye on where you are before you lay down for your naps, yeah?” Kiri nodded and snuggled against his chest, which felt fuller than he’d ever thought it could. Zirri glanced over his shoulder at Neteyam. “You did great, Buddy! Good job.” Neteyam giggled and loosened his death-grip on Zirri’s shoulders, spreading his arms out to mimic the wings he was nestled between.

It didn’t take them long to reach the village, and Zirri landed near the central hut, setting Kiri down and letting Neteyam climb off his back. “Mama!” Kiri ran to Neytiri who’d emerged from the hut. “Uncle Zirri found me and saved me from a stampede! I’m sorry I wandered so far. I’ll be more careful, I promise!”

“It’s true!” Neteyam chimed in running over as well. “And I helped!”

Neytiri took a moment to hug them both and then shooed them into the hut. Zirri smiled and turned to walk away, but Neytiri’s voice stopped him. “You should join us for dinner.” He turned back, a little startled. “Thank you for saving my daughter.” She touched her fingers to her head in the Na’vi greeting, bowing slightly before looking back up and making eye contact. “I see you.”

Zirri smiled gently. “I see you,” he returned, giving her the greeting back. “I would love to join you.” As he followed her into the hut, a strange sensation settled over him. A sense of peace and calm. Zirri was home.

To Be Continued