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Spider has felt joyful over the last few days. They've stopped dragging him around like a field guide, constantly poking at different plants and asking what they are. After being asked why "we still haven't found anything," Spider laughed and told the truth. Despite the Recoms' impressive muscle mass, their bodies weren't strong enough to freely cover long distances on Pandora.
Spider smirked smugly when the squad took off their boots, stepping barefoot into the grass. He had to hold back from laughing at their expressions when the ground touched their soles. Z-dog looked like she had stepped in something disgusting, which immediately earned her a jab from Lyle. Mansk seemed satisfied with the feeling of the grass. Prager and Ja looked more or less normal, though the movement of their ears showed this was new to them.
"Don't be afraid, your tender feet will toughen up quickly, and the best way to speed that up is to climb a tree," Spider laughs in their faces, grabbing a thick branch and pulling himself up.
Quaritch raises an eyebrow, looking at the boy's smug smile. His tail sways slowly behind his back before he turns to the Recoms.
"You heard the kid, climb the tree," he commands, trying to suppress a slight chuckle. Spider has made them do silly things more than once, just to mess with them. This could be another one of those cases, but Quaritch lets him lead.
Spider knew he was good at climbing. It was no trouble for him to scramble to the very top before leaping onto a branch of another tree and looking down at the bunch of blue idiots who were hugging the rough bark and trying to climb up.
"Boo, move your asses, losers, or I'll start thinking you just like hugging trees," Spider laughs, shifting his weight from one foot to the other to get a better view of the Recoms' results.
He can't hold back his laughter, grinning widely and smugly, his golden dreads falling slightly into his face before he brushes them away. He giggles even louder when Lopez falls on his butt, seemingly not hiding that he enjoys watching grown men fail at something every Na'vi child can do.
The boy listens carefully as Quaritch chews out his subordinates, whose bodies aren't yet obeying their brains well enough, and navigating Pandora's terrain was becoming a pain in their big blue asses.
"Maybe you want to give a master class yourself, big asshole?" Spider taunts, dangling from the branch so Quaritch can see his smug face. "I don't think barking commands is helping anyone,"
The Colonel's ears immediately press flat against his head as he looks up. His brows are furrowed, and he looks like his eye is about to start twitching from the wild boy's antics. Quaritch hadn't regretted bringing Spider into the forest even once, but the kid knew a hundred and one ways to get under his skin.
"Enough, you're pushing it," Quaritch hisses in irritation, clenching his teeth, not wanting to lose his temper with him.
"And what are you gonna do about it? You gotta catch me first," Spider smirks and sticks out his tongue before walking backward along the branch he was standing on, moving away from the Recoms.
Quaritch's expression darkens, his nostrils flare, and his ears twitch irritably. With a light shove, he moves Z-dog aside before gripping the rough bark with his hand and climbing a bit higher.
He tenses the muscles in his body, forcing himself to climb the tree trunk. Quaritch pulls himself up before swinging his leg over a branch and looks at Spider, who is still standing just a bit higher.
The boy waits a moment longer before making a wide leap and crashing into a branch, hastily scrambling onto it to put distance between himself and the Colonel, while still staying within sight.
Quaritch grunts angrily but continues moving upward, climbing the tree fairly successfully even though his feet slip on the bark. His tail lashes from side to side, helping him keep his balance as he steps onto a rather narrow branch.
The Recombinants cheer him on from below and even whistle, which makes Quaritch roll his eyes, dissatisfied that they're still fooling around at the base of the tree.
"Don't fall behind," he shouts to his squad before brushing aside a thin, leafy branch that nearly hits him in the face.
Surprisingly, the Colonel leading by example actually helps, and the Recoms start moving upward, covering more ground and grabbing each other's hands whenever someone slips and threatens to fall.
Quaritch approaches the spot from which Spider jumped to another tree. His gaze drops downward, assessing the height. There's no fear, but falling would hurt. From the branch he's standing on to the forest clearing below is about 17 feet, making Quaritch think about how shitty it would be to land down there.
He gauges the distance and grumbles under his breath about how reckless Spider is. Quaritch knew that for the kid, this was the most ordinary thing, but if he fell from such a height, he would definitely break something.
He takes a couple of steps back to get a running start and jump, before landing on the other side. Quaritch takes a few small steps, trying to maintain his balance; his tail whips behind him like an antenna, preventing him from falling.
His ears twitch in the opposite direction when he hears Spider's laughter. A couple of minutes ago, the boy was standing right here, but by the time Quaritch arrived, he had managed to move a fair distance away, once again laughing at the Colonel's attempts.
Quaritch lets out a stifled growl before taking another step along the branch to catch up with the brat. He feels like a circus monkey. And the fact that he was jumping from branch to branch didn't improve his situation.
Military training definitely didn't prepare him for something like this. But to complete the mission, you have to adapt. The pads of his feet sting slightly as Quaritch speeds up and moves faster along the branches, gaining momentum.
Spider is still ahead, smirking smugly as he slips between two closely growing branches, then grabs a vine and swings like Tarzan over the chasm.
"Damn you," Quaritch curses, looking at yet another empty gap between the trees.
Spider quickly ties that vine to the branch he's standing on and rises to his full height to get a better look at Quaritch's irritated expression, who has no other options but to try and find a way around.
"Don't be a baby," Spider shouts from the other side, watching as the Recom's gaze darts around the surroundings, choosing the safest path across.
"When I catch you, I'll gonna whip your ass," Quaritch growls, testing a weak branch with his foot before fully stepping onto it.
"Relax, I'm not trying to run away or anything, you can still see me," Spider calls out, his voice dripping with unmistakable overconfidence.
Quaritch muttered something under his breath, his ears drooping slightly in irritation, before he began plotting a detour. It wasn't difficult, but he wasn't exactly thrilled about the possibility of falling down.
The rest of the squad caught up with them just as Quaritch was halfway to where Spider was standing. They seemed to have started enjoying the tree-running, as they were racing each other in speed, occasionally teasing whoever stumbled and nearly fell.
As soon as Quaritch was within a few steps of the boy, Spider would start running along the branches again, now climbing even higher. The trees grew close together, forming a network of tangled labyrinths with their limbs. He slipped through two overlapping branches before reaching the tree's crown.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves as Spider crouched on a ledge, waiting for the Recom squad to finally catch up to him.
The tree swayed slightly, prompting Spider to poke his head between the branches to see what was happening below. Two young 'angtsìk males were fighting for dominance in the hierarchy. Judging by their appearance, they had just grown enough to compete for the position of the herd's lead bull.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Z-dog says this as she runs closer. She was the third Recom to make it here.
"'Angtsìk bulls are sorting out who's in charge," Spider replies, still observing Pandora's wildlife.
"Hammerhead Titanothere? Cool," the female Recom responds, leaning out alongside him to watch the fight. "Guys, get your asses over here, we're placing bets."
Prager moves closer, leaning over Z-dog, interested in what she's trying to show them. Mansk stands nearby as the female Recom places her bet on one of the young bulls.
"And how are you gonna tell them apart?" Spider asks mockingly. Both 'angtsìk looked practically identical, only distinguished by a small part of their pattern, and if it were night, their bioluminescence.
Z-dog shrugs, seemingly pleased anyway that she can bet on a bull. Her excitement grows when Lyle bets on the opposite one, making watching the fight more interesting.
The 'angtsìk crashes into the tree where Spider and the Recoms are sitting with a thunderous impact, causing it to sway. The blow is so powerful that the boy falls from the ledge-branch he was perched on, flying a little over a meter before grabbing onto a larger, sturdier branch.
"Not so cool now, huh?" Lyle taunts, watching as Spider sprawls across the tree, trying to keep his balance.
He lets out an irritated huff, tensing his arm muscles to shift slightly and get back on his feet. Spider rises, maintaining his balance, before another blow strikes the tree. He blinks and doesn't even have time to process what happened before he feels nothing under his feet.
"Spider!" he hears Quaritch's voice, who quickly reaches the spot where Spider just was.
A couple of seconds pass before the boy realizes he's falling. His back hits another branch, making him flip over and continue falling, now face down. Spider flails his arms, trying to grab onto something; his fingers slide over the bark, which tears his skin.
The wind whistled in his ears as he continued to plummet downward, occasionally slowing his fall by crashing into various plants, desperately trying to reach the other side of the tree. Spider was sure the fall itself wouldn't do much to him, but if he ended up under the feet of two raging bulls, it would mean certain death.
Only a few feet remained to the ground; he saw the grassy clearing getting closer. Spider stretched out his arms, trying to shield his exopack so it wouldn't shatter from the hard landing.
A sharp pain shot through his wrist as he hit the bottom. The boy barely held back a scream. He bit his cheek, feeling the burning sensation persist, before trying to get up and move aside. 'Angtsìk could smash trees during their clashes, as Pandora made way for young and healthy trees.
His wrist was swollen and continued to ache as Spider ran a short distance away, holding the injured hand. He slid down a tree trunk, sitting down and touching the injury. The pulse of pain seemed to shoot through his entire body.
"Well, fuck," Spider muttered, feeling his wrist throb.
He leaned back, resigning himself to the fact that he just had to wait for the Recoms to come down to him. Quaritch was probably already tracking his ass with the tracker. It would likely take him about five minutes to find the boy. Spider closed his eyes and just counted, irritated that he couldn't do anything right now. He could try to find some paywll to reduce the swelling, but then the Colonel might actually tan his hide for trying to leave.
After about five minutes, the rustle of grass was heard, and Spider opened his eyes, watching as Quaritch and Ja approached him. He sighed, preparing for a possible scolding.
"Is the exopack intact?" Quaritch asks before crouching down and running his finger over the transparent surface, checking the seal.
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," Spider grumbles in response, trying to brush the blue hand away from his exopack and face.
"What's with the hand?" Quaritch says in a stern tone as his yellow eyes focus on the swollen wrist. "Ja, check him,"
"I don't know," The boy grows increasingly irritated, turning his face away from the Recom so he can't see it.
Ja's fingers land on Spider's wrist, carefully examining it and occasionally palpating. The boy hisses in pain as the blue fingers press lightly on the swollen wrist.
"Looks like a fracture, sir. We need to return to Bridgehead and get an X-ray," Ja replies before opening the first aid kit and securing the wrist with elastic bandages.
Spider glares angrily at Quaritch, his heart skipping a beat at the thought of them going back. The pain still throbs in his hand, but he clenches his teeth.
"I'm fine!" Spider shouts, slightly pulling away from Ja's grasp to prove he's okay.
"You are not fine. Sit still," Quaritch replies sharply, lightly pressing his hand on Spider's shoulder to keep him from moving. "Blue One to Lefty Kid. We have a wounded here. wrapping up the operation,"
Quaritch holds his hand to his throat mic, sending his coordinates before turning to Spider, placing both hands on his shoulders.
"Hey, how are you, kid? Does it hurt a lot? The eggheads at Bridgehead will have your arm fixed up in no time," Quaritch says, trying to keep his tone calm, but a flicker of anxiety passes through his eyes.
He thought his heart would stop when Spider disappeared from view, falling through the branches. Thank Pandora's gravity that the boy only broke his wrist and didn't turn into a bloody mess from hitting the ground. His tail lashed from side to side, occasionally thumping against the earth.
"Damn it, you should have been more careful. We'll have to wait about half an hour until Michael arrives," Quaritch doesn't take his eyes off Spider as he speaks.
The boy recognizes the pilot's name. All the recent Recom flights had been with him, and it seemed he was supposed to keep flying them. Quaritch had decided to introduce Spider to Michael before the next flight, hoping it would help the boy handle flights on the Kestrel better.
"I'm fine, we could have kept going. You didn't have to call," Spider grumbles, examining the bandage on his wrist. It was much better than before, but he still thought he was in good enough shape to continue.
"You might have fucking broken your arm. That's not 'fine.' I'm not continuing the mission with you having a fracture. End of story," Quaritch cuts him off.
Spider glares back angrily but doesn't seem inclined to argue. Inside, he's seething, but he stays silent, biting his tongue. It's clear he disagrees with Quaritch's decision, he genuinely believed that even like this, he could keep up with the Recoms. Bruises and falls had never been a reason for him to stop or fall behind.
"Have you broken bones before?" Quaritch asks. His face softens slightly, making his features gentler as he looks at the boy.
"None of your business, why do you care?" Spider snaps back before mumbling an answer a couple of minutes later, "I broke my leg and had a concussion,"
"Because I'm worried about you," Quaritch says insistently before smiling slightly when the boy finally tells him a bit more about his childhood. "Oh, yeah? I think you should take what's happening to your arm more seriously then,"
Spider snorts irritably. He feels his heart beat treacherously at the thought that an adult is worried about him. Someone is genuinely, damn it, worried about him. Why, out of all the people on this planet, is the only one who seems to truly care a blue, genetically modified clone of his dead father.
"Why do you even care?" Spider asks distrustfully, still not fully grasping the Recom's motives.
"I don't think your parents would have wanted everyone to not care about you," Quaritch replies, his ears drooping slightly, as if saddened that the child is surprised by his attempt to care.
"They didn't care about me too! Otherwise, they wouldn't be dead!"
Spider's chest heaves after he blurts this out. He clenches his good hand into a fist, nails digging slightly into his skin. Suddenly, the words he's held inside for years spill from his mouth. And it seems he can't believe he actually said it.
He never brought this up with anyone. It was too painful because there was no right answer to these words. He once asked the scientists something similar, but in response, Spider only got ambiguous silence. Say yes – and it means Spider was unwanted from birth. Say no –and you have to find something good about Quaritch.
The boy's lips pressed into a thin line as he tried to cope with a completely childish resentment. Spider thought he was acting very childishly when his chest was flooded with anger and resentment toward his biological parents. He was angry at Quaritch not only because he was a genocidal maniac but also because he had started a pointless slaughter. If he hadn't done that, many Na'vi would still be alive, and the survivors wouldn't have had to mourn their children and parents who died in the battle. If he hadn't done that, Spider might have had at least one person who cared about him simply because he was born. He always kept this hidden deep inside, believing it was wrong.
Of course, Spider didn't want to live with Quaritch as a father. He wouldn't have wanted to never meet Kiri or Lo'ak, because if he had grown up with his biological parents, he would never have met his friends. They would have just been the children of a sworn enemy.
But Spider couldn't deny that he wanted to be the child of parents who truly wanted him. All he knew from others about Paz was that she really wanted to become a mother. Despite the scandal it caused, she was very stubborn and truly wanted to keep the baby for herself.
"Hey, kid," Quaritch says this quietly, removing his hands from the boy's shoulders and gently stroking his arms.
Spider's silence dragged on. He only sniffled slightly, forgetting the physical pain and feeling only the emotional one.
"Who the hell told you your parents didn't care about you?" Quaritch hisses, but very softly and quietly, trying to catch the teenager's gaze.
Spider lifts his face to see Quaritch in front of him. He flinches reflexively but doesn't look away. For some reason, it reminded him of childhood. He quickly learned that his father was a bad man. That many disliked him for their own reasons. And Spider didn't like him either. But sometimes, at night, like something forbidden, he would watch recorded briefings alone.
"No one. No caring parent would start a war with a child in their arms," Spider grumbles before shifting slightly. His healthy palm presses into the loose soil, the soft grass slipping through his fingers.
Quaritch frowns slightly, studying the boy's behavior. The child is trying to close off even more after saying what seems to have been tormenting him for years.
"Listen, I know your stance: blue traitor good, humans bad," the Recom begins, straightening up a bit to give Spider space. He gets a distrustful look, but the boy also adjusts to a more comfortable position. "And you probably think your father was a shitty person. Okay, maybe he was, "
A slight smile tugs at Quaritch's face. Of course, he couldn't just assure the boy now that the previous Quaritch was a saint. Because he wasn't. The Recom knew perfectly well that his human predecessor had done many terrible things that the "animal-loving scientists" endlessly complained about. He always knew the savage Na'vi were smarter than they seemed and understood it was a genocide of an intelligent race, though for a good cause.
Spider was still eyeing him warily, pulling his knees closer to his chest. He drilled into the Recom with his dark eyes, as if expecting some kind of trick. His heart was still pounding wildly, echoing even in his fingertips.
"Listen, you probably won't understand, and that's your right, but your parents cared about you," Quaritch continued speaking. He could clearly see that the boy was interested in his words, which was a perfect opportunity to build rapport and gain his trust. "Hell, I can just tell you everything if you want,"
Spider looks stunned. He shakes his head slightly, as if chasing away intrusive thoughts. His brain, ever since he was kidnapped, had refused to process what was happening. He refused to accept that a clone of his father had literally fallen from the sky, who for some unknown reason cared about him.
"I'll just tell you. It's up to you whether to believe me or not," Quaritch says with a smile, raising his hands slightly as if in surrender.
Spider bit his cheek, chewing on it slightly as he considered the offer. He knew enough about his biological parents to leave it alone. But a spark of childish curiosity burned in his eyes. This was new; it couldn't be compared to eavesdropping for scraps of information.
"I want to know about my mom," Spider says, finally looking at the Recom again. "Why did she become part of this slaughter?"
"It was a war, kid. And your mother loved you very much and wanted to secure a peaceful future for you here," Quaritch replies, his ears drooping slightly as he speaks. "Your mother was stubborn. She fought for you to live. It started even before you were born,"
Quaritch closed his eyes, diving into the memories he inherited. He remembered how Paz fought for her right to keep the child. Absolutely everyone was against it; he remembered how Selfridge and his bureaucratic cronies were hysterical about having to support a child who wouldn't contribute. Quaritch also got caught in the crossfire, which almost turned into a scandal. He had to cut off close contact with Paz to avoid all the fallout. Though everyone still knew who the father was, they managed to hush it up officially.
He wasn't supposed to become a father. Quaritch had seen Spider when he was little, he was quite funny and cute, but the Colonel had already chosen to fully dedicate himself to his work.
He had decided this long ago, back on Earth, even if there was no compelling reason to immerse himself completely in military affairs. Quaritch was married, but it was never a family. He knew that woman was cheating on him, and he did the same when he was on military assignments. He never thought about retiring to settle down.
But now Recom Quaritch was looking at the grown son of the human Quaritch. A child from one of the women with whom he had nothing serious. And he felt a pang of regret. A child whose growing up he hadn't witnessed. And he himself was to blame for it.
He couldn't explain the nature of the warm feelings he had for Spider. Neither of the Quartiches had ever thought that either of them could be a good parent. But his heart ached at the thought that the boy lived in a hostile environment with no one to care for him.
"My mom loved me," Spider whispered, shifting his gaze somewhere toward the sky. He felt an unknown relief; he didn't understand the reason for it, but it felt so good inside. He pressed his lips tightly together and took a noisy breath through his nose before daring to ask something else. "And you... Well, I mean, did he care about me?"
Quaritch fell silent, his head tilting slightly to the side, and his brows furrowing a bit. Quaritch wasn't a loving or present father, and he had no intention of trying to portray that man as a saint. Though he couldn't deny that something in him wanted to make up for those lost years.
"He promised your mother he would take care of your safety if anything happened to her," he says before giving a light smile, "And now your safety is my problem, since I'm fulfilling what he couldn't do."
The memories come flooding back. He remembers that night. Quaritch held the child in his arms; the baby fidgeted restlessly, grabbing his fingers and mumbling something. Paz had asked him to raise the child if she died in battle. It was a very "fresh" memory, literally just a few hours before the memory copy.
Spider looks at him in surprise but later smirks and lets out a slight laugh, feeling a strange warmth. He didn't know why. He wanted to get angry again, he didn't like the idea that the terrible man who was his father had promised to take care of him. And now his blue copy was doing the same thing.
The worst person ever on Pandora promised to take care of him. It sounded both hilarious and terrifyingly stupid, like two incompatible things. It shattered his constructed worldview, making Spider laugh once again.
"Well, must be shitty for you, stuck with that promise," Spider continues to smirk, seeming to enjoy causing trouble for Quaritch by making him take care of the kid. He knew that to most people who had to look after him, he was a pain in the ass.
"Yeah, yeah, someone's gotta do it if you're gonna run around the forest like a psycho," Quaritch snorts and rolls his eyes, not wanting to argue with the child after he opened up. Not wanting to miss the chance to bond.
"I'm not the only one who does it."
"That's no reason to copy the savages," Quaritch continues to grumble, deep down irritated that those egghead morons and Sully let the kid do whatever he wanted.
"That's not what I meant, I think it's in the genes. My father was a fucking psycho," Spider retorts, seeming to relish the Recom's reaction.
"Watch your language," Quaritch tries to sound irritated as the corner of his mouth twitches upward, making him look happy.
He knew the boy's recklessness was something genetically inherited from his father. Despite explaining safety protocols himself, Quaritch occasionally neglected those rules in risky situations for a small chance of success. Did Spider do the same? The Recom thought yes.