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A gentle drip echoed through the cavern when he awoke. Spider shifted his position on his oversized sleeping mat and attempted to curl tighter into himself there. Returning to sleep proved impossible. He tried to distract his mind with fond memories in the forest with Lo’ak and Kiri, but it only made him more upset. He shuffled again, repositioned his shoulder, adjusted his mask, moved his feet around, but nothing could make him comfortable. His mind wouldn’t settle no matter how he tried to fall back into blissful oblivion. The constant temptation to flee, climb down the trailing branch-like vines in the dark of night crept incessantly into his mind. But he would always find a flaw: his only exopack was bugged. He wouldn’t risk that, even if he could get some distance between right that moment and when the sun returned. But something else felt off, like his brain had been overcharged while he rested.
Defeated, he sat up and surveyed what he could of the room. All around him, the recombinants slept soundlessly save for those keeping watch toward the entrance to their encampment. Glowing lichen illuminated what it could of the space around them. Spider’s eyes adjusted quickly, as they always had, looking over the Na’vi hybrid soldiers. By process of elimination, it seemed Prager and Ja were the ones on watch. Spider considered wandering over to sit with the men, them being two of the squad members he got along with well. If only he didn’t know what kind of ear-full he’d get from the colonel about distracting personnel at their post. He might even hear a short dialogue on the importance of sixteen-year-olds getting proper sleep.
“Kid?”
As though his thoughts had been broadcasted, the clone of his late father awoke at his side. He always seemed to throw down his own bedding next to the human boy. Never would either of them voice their true or theorised intention behind it.
Spider turned back toward the commander, bright yellow eyes half cracked open in the dark of the cave. He’d sat up on an elbow to face the boy, a questioning expression struggling to break through the sleep that still held him.
Lucky.
“Sorry.” Spider answered back in a whisper. “Can’t sleep. Just waiting to feel tired again.”
“Well, hurry it up. We got ground to cover tomorrow.” The giant of a man returned to lying on his back and shut his eyes. “You fall asleep on the ride, I’m not chasing after your ass when you fall off.”
Spider heaved a sigh as quietly as he could and fell against his back on the mat. Either through sheer coincidence or the will that was the colonel’s command, the boy began to feel weight at his eyelids. He rearranged himself to be comfortable in earnest and his mind was gone before he could realise.
But he could never have it easy, could he?
The sound of water dripping came again and Spider groaned. He’d almost had it, almost managed to fall asleep again. He would drag his hands across his face, rub the remaining sleep from his eyes, if he wanted to risk the removal of his mask. Though his life was spent in the forest and he’d give anything to keep it that way, he did miss the luxury of sleeping in an oxygenated lab pod.
“Thought I told you to sleep.”
Spider rolled his closed eyes to himself. “Trying.” He muttered to the colonel.
“I don’t much like orders being disobeyed, soldier.” He heard Quaritch speak far more sternly than he thought necessary.
“What?” The boy cracked an eye open and rolled over toward the recombinant, only he wasn’t there. In fact, nothing Spider knew was there. What he did know, and see, was the detention room he’d been kept in. The scratches on the blindingly white walls, the scuffs on the two-way mirror, and even the broken chair were all there.
He tumbled from the table he’d apparently been lying on and came face to face with a human man with silvery grey hair, a military uniform, and large scars over the right side of his head. Spider backed away in fear of the man he knew as his father. The source of great pain and shame for the teen only scowled and stood taller than he thought such an already imposing figure could.
“What the fuck-?”
“Language!” Quaritch roared. “You wanna get reprimanded that badly, private?”
“Repri- what?” Spider questioned, confused and afraid in equal measure. Only then did he notice that his legs felt oddly warm in the facility. Glancing down, to his horror, Spider was dressed in military clothing similar to the ones he remembered the recombinants wearing. These were made to fit a human, but they still felt terrible to the touch of his stripe-free skin.
The colonel, fuming, came marching toward the boy and attempted to grab him by the shoulder. Spider dodged sloppily, narrowly missing the calloused fist grasping at air. He scurried back toward the mirror, which proved to be another mistake. In his reflection, he noticed that his hair had been shorn close to the scalp. Tears pricked at his eyes then, looking most unlike himself he ever had. Spider’s mouth wobbled as it hung open in shock. He couldn’t even move away when the colonel stormed over to take his son by the shoulders and force him to march out of the room.
Already moving, Spider wouldn’t fight to stay in the room. Maybe he could find a moment to break away, run and run through the maze of hallways and find an exopack. Then he could find an exit and keep going until he found the forest again. But that all hinged on the ability to distract the very real, very angry colonel steering the distraught boy toward another room. Looking around briefly through hot tears, Spider noticed men and women in white coats instead of security personnel. Somehow he’d ended up back in the lab.
Realisation came far too late for Spider to run. They entered a horrifyingly familiar room filled with flashing green light. The brain scanner whirred and screamed for his approach. Faceless scientists watched as the boy kicked and clawed at the man forcing him toward torture device. He could already feel the inside of his cranium burning and blood seeping from his nose. This time, it wept from his eyes and ears. The taste of it filled his mouth as he spat at the irate colonel forcing his own son up the platform.
“NO!” He shrieked as Quaritch held Spider’s arm in the restraints, the younger being unable to raise the strength to make any sort of resistance. He could muster no more force than a leaf falling from a branch. Spider watched, helpless, as the featureless bodies in lab coats pressed buttons and attached the last components to his head. He couldn’t move while he wept openly, the colonel’s sour expression never once fading or allowing any kind of sympathy to give Spider some hope. Help! Spider tried to scream, but he could only manage sobs of fear and pain.
“Waste of my own blood.” The colonel growled to the whimpering boy as he stepped back amongst the lab coats. The machine began to spin faster and faster, the sound and light searing every corner of his brain. Only this time he was unable to resist for long, already weakened by the emotional turmoil. He looked on as the image of High Camp came alive amongst his brain matter, renderings of Jake, Mo’at, and Kiri materialising there.
“No! No, stop!” Spider begged and pleaded but none would hear him. Even Quaritch turned his back on the boy, having effortlessly dismissed any relation while leaving every sin to stain him forever more. “Please, they’re not there! I’m lying!”
“Sure you aren’t, kid. Thanks for the intel anyway.” The scarred colonel dryly replied to his begging. He slammed his fist against the red button and Spider collapsed onto what suddenly became a forest floor. The lush greenery and entwining branches brought a modicum of comfort to the tortured boy. Spider knew the clearing, something fearful once again gnawing at his skull. The air was polluted by smoke of wood, flesh, and something metallic. The wind through the plant life felt wrong, and Spider knew Eywa was displeased. He rounded the trunk of a vine-enwrapped tree and felt his heart drop out of his chest.
The shack.
There at the edge of the clearing was the link station that Jake and Norm had used in the great battle that ended the Sky People’s presence on Pandora. Turning to expect it there, he found the fallen AMP suit. Only there were no arrows protruding from within the cockpit or any signs of the forest claiming the machinery. It had only just fallen, it would seem.
“No! No, no, no! I can’t be here!” Spider panicked and searched for any friendly soul, so lost in this nightmare that he forgot his own bearings in a world that was his home. He hurried back to the trees. If he could take this opportunity to flee, to return to what might remain of the village, he could find someone to take him back to High Camp. He had to warn them of his own betrayal, as devastating as it was. Kiri would defend him; she had before! Lo’ak wouldn’t abandon him either. He had tried, nearly getting himself killed to protect them. This time he had been weaker, they’d see. They took his clothes, his stripes, and his hair. They took his identity and put him in another wrong body. This wasn’t him.
Spider began to climb over the massive tree limb and nearly lost his hands and face to a paw much larger than his head. He leapt back onto the ground, the impact driving the air from his chest. The human boy’s vision spun faster than the scanner machine did and he struggled to right himself before yet another image of horror pulled itself forward.
Palulukan . A thanator growled and snarled its way into the clearing. Spider crawled back to his feet in time to notice it bore a rider. Perched atop the beast in all her enraged terror was Neytiri. The war paint she wore was stained and streaked with tears, her teeth clenched in rage and sorrow as she and her mount leapt from their perch and circled back around the boy. Spider felt fear grasping his heart and he backed toward the link station until the back of his thigh hit the foot of the fallen AMP suit.
“ You .” Neytiri seethed and dismounted the beast. The large, black feline-like beast paced the perimeter of the space around them. He was trapped, either by the woman who loathed him or a beast with no remorse for his species. If the recombinant crew was to be believed, there truly was no difference. “You led them to us. You let them kill the Great Mother! This is your fault! Your fault!”
Spider’s denials stopped at his throat and choked him there. The pain in his chest bloomed before he saw the bow in her hands. With the heartbreak he endured, it was no different at first. But the familiar fletching of the arrow shaft there to the side of his heart told him it was not over, though it would be soon. He could not draw breath even enough to apologise or beg for his life. Spider wept once more and collapsed against the metal machine. Through the tear-distorted eyes, he saw Neytiri draw back her bowstring. An apology died at his lips as the second arrow flew.
The impact never came. Spider practically flew away from his bedding. A choked cry came from the agitated teen. A few blue heads turned to wonder what the issue was. Spider looked around in confusion and then embarrassment. He settled in on himself and crawled back onto his mat to steady his breathing. The gentle air and the rocky surface under his hands helped to cool his skin. He moved his hands to his hair and his arm bands, quietly rejoicing in their unchanged presence. Spider’s eyes closed and he listened to what he could of Eywa’s presence, imagining what he needed when he couldn’t find it. Kiri had sat with him for hours countless times to help him feel more connected than he ever truly could. How terribly he missed her now, not that he stopped at any other time.
Movement disturbed him and his eyes fluttered open to find the recombinant colonel kneeling next to him. In his hands were two steaming mugs of what his nose detected was coffee. Wordlessly, Spider was handed a mug with a smaller portion of the bitter liquid. He held the RECOM-sized mug with both hands and took a small sip. The cloned squad leader did the same before setting the mug down beside himself.
“Get any sleep?” He asked in an innocent tone. “You were tossing around a fair bit.”
“Yeah,” Spider lied uselessly, “I think so. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
The cloned Quaritch nodded after a moment of thought and patted Spider’s shoulder. He jumped at the touch, the images of mere moments ago coming screaming back into his mind. If the man noticed, he said nothing and barked orders to his crew to begin moving out. Spider clutched the warm mug to his aching chest. He attempted to purge the guilt and fear from his addled mind so that he could focus on the day. Would he ever truly be free of such hauntings? Perhaps not so long as he remained with the enemy, not while they remained keen on hunting Spider’s family and his people.
The boy drank what he could stomach of the bitter black coffee and poured the rest out for the ground to absorb. He rolled the mat quickly and changed out his exopack batteries that someone had left for him. The marines packed up with precision and Spider followed after them. He flattened a hand to his chest where the arrows had been, exhaled as much air as he could, and refilled his lungs with filtered oxygen. He made for the dark blue and orange ikran and left what he could of his nightmare in the depths of the cavern.