AC: Firefly Chapter 15

Rating: Mature
Languages: English, Na'vi
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
2nd Genre: Romance
Character A: Harry J. Potter
Character B: Tsu'tey
Summary: When they went to sleep, they hoped of a better future. But with Gaia insane and Magic as dead as his friends, Harry has no reason to stay. Escape and exist was all he had in mind when he stowed away on a ship to Pandora. Not another war. Slash.

WARNING: Slash, Character Death, AU, OCs, Dark Themes.

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Sylwanin's death rocked the Omaticaya's world.

Eywa's scream of outrage was felt the planet over and messengers from near-by Clans flocked to Hometree, the forest came alive with her fury and it was with no small amount of satisfaction that The People realised that the Sky People had been driven back to their cold place of dark stone and poison by Eywa's fury. Corralled and contained.

Harry had taken to river diving for Zuleika and seeking out Zeus for very long flights away from everyone else. He felt guilty, responsible for Sylwanin's death. He knew she had overheard a lot of what he told Tsu'tey and Neytiri, he knew Neytiri had told her of his memories, the ones Eywa echoed back and through to her people. He knew of her rage against the Sky People. How it hadn't become the all consuming towering inferno of hatred until he came and brought their wrong doings to the light of day.

His self-imposed isolation did not last long.

He would be lying if he said he hadn't expected someone to hunt him down and force him to return to Hometree, what he hadn't expected was Eytukan to do it. He greatly respected the Olo'eyktan, thought fondly of him as a person as well. Eytukan was a good leader who thought of his people first and foremost, he spoke plainly and made clear his position on everything. He thought twice and listened to advice from both his wife, his Warriors and even from the children when they brought forward their concerns. He made time for all of them, he knew all of them, down to the youngest child's name, the young woman expecting, the younglings hoping to find their Ikran. He had been utterly heartbroken by his daughter's death and enraged over the cruel murders of both her and the children of his Clan. Enough so that, even while he respected and was actually quite fond of Grace in a stoic and proud kind of way, he banished all Sky People and Dream Walkers from the Omaticaya lands.

Eytukan had firmly grabbed him by his ear and given him a scolding the likes of which Harry had not received since Molly Weasley had been amongst the living. Wet, naked and holding a basket of Mother's Bone, Harry had been marched back to Hometree. By his ear. At least it got Neytiri to laugh for the first time since her sister's death as she came to his rescue. Later that evening Eytukan made sure he was sandwiched into their family Hammock, everyone curled up in one knot of limbs and flesh. It seemed empty and cold without Sylwanin. There weren't enough people.

Both Neytiri and Tsu'tey threw themselves into their duties. Barely a year past, Neytiri became reborn as one of the People, her Ikran Seze actually being one of Zeus and Hera's hatchlings. Tsu'tey began his training with Eytukan in earnest, shadowing the man for the majority of the time to observe and learn from him, he trained with the Warriors in the off time and attempted to get Neytiri to warm to him in the others. But it seemed as though Sylwanin's death had caused a hole that he couldn't plug and while they were friends, perhaps the best of, he could not seem to bridge that gap and turn it into more. Often times, he ended up on the river side with Harii where he went diving, the two of them talking or sometimes running through the trees for the hell of it.

The Tipani Clan showed up at their doorstep not long later to try and claim Neytiri in place of Sylwanin, this showed a shocking amount of disregard for Harii but it seemed to have been expected from Eytukan. He refused because she had already been promised to Tsu'tey who was training to take over but allowed them to chose a female or male from the rest of the Clan. The Tipani clan member was a young male by the name of Ry'nan who seemed to have his nose stuck in the air, arrogant seemed to be the only way to refer to him. Harii didn't like the look of him and endeavoured to stay far away.

This behaviour however, was noticed. Ry'nan, in a fit of childish curiosity, took to following him everywhere. It was frustrating to Harry and neither Tsu'tey nor Neytiri were any help because they found it absolutely hilarious. Traitors. His only sanctuary was Zuleika's forge because she refused to let the puffed up Tapirus anywhere near it, he may get hurt as Forge work is dangerous. At least, that was her excuse when the Tipani Clan members got bent out of shape over it. The real reason was that she didn't like him sniffing around Harry whom she had become rather protective of, he was a good and hard worker.

Zeus was the one who put an end to it.

Ry'nan was following a long-suffering Harry as usual, the Magi was fast losing patience with this and started running, hoping to lose him in the trees. It would probably fail, for all his swagger, Ry'nan was very fast and he wasn't pegged as the next leader for the Tipani for nothing. That had been the moment that Zeus identified the Na'vi as not someone he didn't know and thus saw his person running away from what clicked in his little head as a threat. Cue the vengeful shriek and falcon dive.

Ry'nan rolled out of the way just in time as Zeus landed with a shudder and shrieked in his face, tails whipping up and around. The Tipani Clan member's eyes were wide in shock, and not without good reason. Unlike most Ikran, Zeus was huge and powerfully muscled. No one knew exactly way, Harry had his suspicions that it probably had something to do with his diet of Bitch!Fish and Harry generally being such a softy that he would feed his beast instead of letting him hunt for himself. Either way, things were about to get bloody.

"Zeus!" Harry barked, fearlessly ducking under his idiot's thrashing tail and clonking him on the side of the head, it would in no way hurt him, Harry didn't have the physical strength to even leave a bruise if he hit with all of his strength. But it did immediately get the Ikran to calm down and actually cower away from his upset person, turning large amber eyes up at him. And damnit, there went his annoyance. Harry sighed and slung his arms around the bronze monster's neck, "No, I'm not upset, Zeus. But you can't just attack random people, y'know?" he told the huge creature while Ry'nan backed away warily and almost ended up walking into an amused Tsu'tey.

"He is large, isn't he?" the Omaticaya Warrior said cheerfully, bearing a fanged grin at the look of shock on his Tipani Counter-part's face. Zeus tackled Harry to the ground with a happy shriek and pressing his snout against his person's chest and thrumming. Tsu'tey laughed at the look on Ry'nan's face. "Zeus is very protective of Hari. We all are," he added with a rather threatening grin that had Ry'nan bristling at the perceived threat.

Harry grumbled as he shoved the bronze coloured beast off of him. "Alright, alright you gluttonous dragonfly. We'll go and get some food. Good grief, you're lucky I've been practising with Tsu'tey or I'd never be able to feed you, lazy brute." Harry looked over at the pair and saw them at a stand off, he rolled his eyes and reached out with his magic. He had been practising with it, carefully, oh so carefully, he braided the grass around Ry'nan's feet to tie him down. He didn't notice and neither did Tsu'tey until Harry flicked a clod of dirt into his face. "You want to come hunting with us, Tsu'tey?" he called, grinning a little at the evil eye he received from the Warrior.

"I'll go hunting alright, but you're the target," he growled, wiping mud out of his eyes.

Harry eeped and Zeus shrilled in excitement, the two of them whirling around and taking to the air as Harry swung himself onto the bronze Ikran's back with deceptive ease. The large male calling a challenge to the lazily circling Kelren who jerked in mid-air and dove down to collect Tsu'tey.

The race was on.

In the end, Ry'nan left empty handed. He had attempted to lay claim to Harry himself, only to have Mo'at inform him that Harry had no Tsawin for their Bonding. And since no other male or female was to his liking, perhaps he should look closer to home.

Hell's Gate had one worrying incident where they ran out of food before the Marines swallowed their pride and asked the scientists what fruit and meat was safe for humans to eat and thus started hunting and growing their own food around the base. Warriors would try to drive away any mining machinery whenever it encroached upon their territory which they attempted almost daily.

More and more youngsters were being encouraged to become Warriors as things got increasingly dangerous and antagonistic between the Sky People and Na'vi. Grace was found every once or twice outside of their territories collecting samples and doing her job, but to all the Omaticaya who saw her, she seemed to subdued and unhappy. But Eytukan was firm in the face of their requests to allow her back in, he would not budge. If they made one exception then the other Sky People would think they were weak. He refused to allow that and Harry could only agree, they would press into Grace for information and treat her as even more of an outcast than she already was. It was only the fact that she was irreplaceable in the Science Department that prevented Quaritch from shooting her.

Then the Tipani Clan was wiped out.

Their entire village was wiped out, the trees burned and pulled down, their Clan scattered to the four winds, those of them that survived anyway. Ry'nan's body was found sprawled out across a young Tipani woman who's bowl shaped hips pouted outward with the beginnings of pregnancy.

Things were getting dark and desperate.

Then, one day in late spring, the air was filled with a metallic sound that Harry had not heard for a long time. Flying up on Zeus he watched from a considerable distance as a ship broke the atmosphere and began to land. And Eywa began to sing, what was left of Gaia within his head following suit.

Harry watched as the ship landed and began to disgorge its passengers, he wanted to get closer but knew that if he did, the gun turrets would shoot him down, but he saw it almost immediately. Both Eywa and Gaia fell into a kind of anticipatory hush as the last of the people from the ship came out, a tiny figure on a wheelchair, looking left and right in fascination.

Wheeling away, Harry glanced over his shoulder to Hell's Gate as he made for the Omaticaya. Was that Muggle what Eywa had been waiting for?

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Tsu'tey frowned at him, "What do you mean?" he asked, swallowing his food, his tail flicking.

Harry sighed as he rubbed his aching lower back, "I mean that both Eywa and Gaia are excited about this guy. Like they've been waiting for him for some reason. Eywa isn't much into the whole Fates business, otherwise you'd have Seers. But Gaia... Gaia had it bad. If she's involved then this guy must be important in the future. In a good way though," he added when he saw the beginnings of a threatening scowl grow on Tsu'tey's features. "Its completely the opposite kind of vibe I get from the Leaders of the Sky People. Its more... like Grace."

The Warrior hummed unhappily as he chewed on his dinner, the two of them were gathered with the rest of the Clan in the Eating Hall, crouched down on the ground, food in hand. Ninat was singing, her high voice had often been likened to the wind so pretty much everyone was paying her more attention than their conversation, which Harry could only be thankful for. Because even if Prophesy and Destiny were one thing, Free Will was another and this Sky Person was a muggle from a world where Gaia and the fates no longer held sway.

He shook his head, "From the look of him though, he..." Harry glanced at Tsu'tey and amended his words, "He's a Warrior. And he must be a good one if they brought him here despite his injury."

"Injury?" Tsu'tey echoed.

"He is unable to move his legs," Harry explained.

The Warrior snorted in a mixture of amusement and scorn as he sucked on a fruit, "That is no Warrior," he stated before beginning to gnaw on the empty fruit skin. "What good can he be if walking is even beyond him?" He shook his head at the arrogance, cruelty and foolishness of the Sky People. It would be kinder to return such an unfortunate being to the Mother, before other people had to suffer for their weakness.

"He could be a Dream Walker," Harry pointed out, making Tsu'tey pause in his meal. "And the Sky People treat those who have been hurt in such fashions with care, especially if they were Warriors of certain clans." It was always difficult amending his words into a way that the Na'vi could understand in their own culture. "The problem is, if he is a Dream Walker and a Warrior, the Sky People will use him to gather information on us."

Tsu'tey frowned, "Why would they need to? Teacher Grace could answer their questions."

"But she won't," Harry pointed out, handing a small girl his fruit when she scampered over and crouched in front of him looking hopeful. All the children knew they could beg scraps off of him because he didn't eat as much as they did, even though he was served just as much as they were. Tsu'tey frowned at him in confusion. "The ways of the Sky People are... difficult to explain. But those who focus their lives to knowledge are often at odd with Warriors and those who follow more physical disciplines. It is like a war within a Clan, but one without blood. The Scientists that Teacher Grace leads only wish to study and learn from us and from Pandora. The Warriors are under the command of those who wish to tear open Eywa and steal from her. Ultimately though, Teacher Grace is answerable to the same people as the Warriors. She doesn't want Eywa to be harmed though, so she does little things, passing information that would be pointless to the Sky People, refusing orders the Warriors give her."

Tsu'tey swallowed the last of his skin and flicked his tail in thought, Ninat's voice streaming through the air, now in a chorus with Zuleika's powerful smoky tones. He had never understood the way the Sky People operated, but Hari made it seem like they weren't so different from the Na'vi but different all the same.

"And this Warrior will tell them those things Teacher Grace would not?" he asked.

Hari nodded, "Yes. The fact that none of the Sky People have tried to destroy Hometree yet proves it. If they knew what I was, they would burn the whole forest to the ground in the hope they would burn me along with it. They feared by people a great deal." Which was another thing... He got the feeling that this new Warrior would have been a very powerful Wizard had Gaia not been dead. Perhaps, like Grace, he held a sliver of her within his soul, enough so that he would find more joy in Pandora than the other Sky People who feared it.

"Then we should kill him, the moment we see him," Tsu'tey decided, baring his teeth in distress.

Harry shook his head, "I thought so too but both Eywa and Gaia are interested in him, they don't want his death." The Magi rubbed at his back again with a wince as he felt the bruises from his last river diving – there were some real unpleasant characters hiding in the water. "I'm just concerned because for a Sky Warrior, to disobey an order is punishable by death and dishonour."

Tsu'tey's nose wrinkled unhappily at the thought of forcing someone like that. A leader should listen to his people, if there were disagreements, then the leader should either remove the Warrior from what had distressed him so, or find a way of laying his or her concerns to rest. He was not sure about what to feel when it came to the Sky People Warriors and the way they were treated by their leaders. Still, it would explain their insanity. They had been treated this way since Hari had been walking among them and possibly even longer, this was an inbred almost evolutionary reflex.

"The Sky People leaders are fools," he decided, handing off a begging child the last of his foot and standing. Harry chuckled and did the same, saving a shred of fruit skin to chew on.

"They are, mainly because the rest of the Sky People chose who leads them based on what they promise to do. Not on whether or not they have any skill or ability in leading them," he explained and Tsu'tey actually hissed in disgust at the thought of such carelessness. "It was a long told joke that you could never trust them because they never stopped lying. But people never stopped putting them in charge."

The Warrior shook his head as he led the way into the upper canopy with great bounding leaps that took him from branch to branch, Harry skipping along side.

"If they lie, why do the Sky people place their trust in them?" Tsu'tey asked as they stepped out into the upper branches, listening to the familiar crooning hisses and thrums of the Ikran.

"Honestly, I left the Sky People before I was old enough to learn. At best I can assume its because they knew they would be betrayed and chose the one who would cause the least damage," Harry guessed before making a whistling chirp to call Zeus.

Tsu'tey called for Kelren and shook his head again, "Sky People are insane," he repeated.

Harry laughed, "They are. Well, most are. Fear can make you do silly things and they've been so scared, for so long, they don't know how to live without it."

"Insane and cowardly," the Warrior summed up.

"Its kind of sad really," Harry mused as Zeus landed and began to menace him for food and attention, much to Tsu'tey's amusement. The smallest rider for the biggest beast. "If they weren't so scared, they may have been able to find happiness somewhere down the road."

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Chapter Fin...

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