Chapter Text
You follow the military personnel quietly, almost scared.
You only accepted this job cause of Tommy, your best friend from college who, unfortunately was killed three days before departing for Pandora.
Tommy was sure his clean energy project would take huge leaps in Pandora, and asked you to join him cause your degree as linguist and your half a course as nurse could help with the locals.
But now Tommy is dead... and in his place is his twin brother Jake, you've seen Jake like twice in your life, towering like Tommy but twice as broad, always trying to make a joke and calling his brother's ideas dreams.
Now he looks... broken, and not only cause of the wheelchair he maneuvers with expert precision, but also his eyes, they look dimmer than you remember.
"Hi... I'm not sure if you remember me.... I'm..."
"Hey if it isn't Y/N! you're here too?"
You nod. "I... Tommy asked me to come to help with the locals... I... I'm sorry Jake... about Tommy"
The smile he gives you is sad yes, but also honest.
"I know you are sweetheart... he always considered you like a sister so... you can expect the same treatment from me. After all you and I are the only ones who'll miss him here"
You smile a bit and accompany him through the Hell's gate base to the presentation, the coronel strikes you as a douche, an effective one yes, but a douche never the less. Then you and Jake go to the labs, where Doctor Grace Augustine makes one hell of a first impression.
"I was expecting your brother to be here, you know the man who prepared himself for this for years"
"With all due respect ma'am" you cut her with a frown. "I don't care who you are, how dare you say that to a man who just lost his brother? do you not have any family that you're close with?!"
Grace has the decency to apologize even though she looks angry, perhaps understanding your point that her issues have nothing to do with Jake personally.
"That was... nice, stupid but nice" Jake chuckles.
"Hey you're my friend, I have to defend you right?"
"Now I get why Tommy liked you so much, you're shy and relaxed most of the time, but when someone messes with your close ones... you become a firecracker"
You can't help but smile a little bit, is nice to still have someone in your corner even if it's not your best friend.
"you watch my back and I'll watch yours" you smile a little, Jake's grin is again honest, and it makes him look so much like his brother.
----
You look around fascinated, Norm, other of the scientists and Grace are collecting samples from the roots, Jake looks around with a huge gun strapped to his body and you just are fascinated by a particular animal print.
Grace didn't want to bring you at first till you mentioned that you actually started medicine studies before switching to linguistics, then she found you very useful.
"this thing has too many feet" you murmur.
"it's probably a Hexapod, most animals in Pandora are"
"Hexapods, that's... fascinating actually their biomechanics must be so wild"
Suddenly a bunch of red flowers closes with a loud sound, and the biggest animal you've ever seen starts roaring at Jake.
"stand your ground!" Grace advices him through the comms.
You can't help but try to move closer, wanting to yank him away from the sight of line of the thing.
Tommy's words ring in your mind then, a long forgotten memory of the day he introduced you to Jake.
"Jake is a good man, but he's reckless to a fault, not cause he's a moron, but more so cause he's curious like a child sometimes"
Damn that sentence was true in that moment.
The big animal recedes, Jake starts getting cocky, but from the corner of your eye you see a black shape, and a shiver runs down your spine.
"Jake...."
The leopard like creature starts roaring at him.
"RUN!" Grace's voice rings scared.
And Jake does indeed run, he runs away and in an effort to not lose your only friend in this hell outside of earth you run behind both of them.
"this is the worst idea I ever had" You speak to yourself a couple of hours later, wandering through the Pandoran jungle alone with no weapons or knowledge of how to situate yourself.
Fortunately you've found by pure dumb luck you don't need fire to see in the dark, the entire jungle is bioluminescent, and the sight is breathtaking.
You walk through the deep jungle following the river that Jake fell into, hoping to find him at some point.
The sounds of animals get closer... it sounds like a Hyena if you're honest, and although you're worried you're hoping the small sandwich you carry on the bag is enough to distract them.
After a bit the animal makes an appearance, to your surprise is just one, and it seems wounded, it limps towards the water.
You feel pity for the poor thing and take down your bag to see if some of the things you carry can help it.
The animal looks at you wary when you offer it some of the sandwich.
"come on... I know is not fresh meat but is not that bad... it has ham..."
Once it starts eating you can take a look at the wounded leg, seems broken, bit it doesn't have any bones protruding so that's good, you just need to splinter it....
Splinter a leg on a thing that has six legs and opposable thumbs on four of those, with four eyes and teeth as sharp as knives.... pinnacle of stupidity if someone were to ask you.
"Alrighty... please don't bite me" your whisper is soft when you start bandaging the leg of the animal with a nearby stick.
The animal growls a bit but for some reason doesn't attack you, it might sense you're not trying to hurt it, it allows you to help it.
"Good... thingy, good thingy...."
You can't help but smile when the creature finishes the sandwich and actually lays by your side, breathing slowly, you admire the design of the animal it's black skin, with pink spots at the feet, almost like socks.
The two of you stay calm in silence, as if resting from your respective strifes, the creature even allows you to pet it's side.
Then suddenly it starts growing, getting up with a yelp when putting weight on the injured leg.
"hey! what is it?" you look in the direction the animal is growling at.
the creature even puts itself in front of you, almost as if protecting you, when a Na'vi gets out of the jungle, a male, looking at you disgusted and angry, surrounded by strange dandelion like flowers that move on their own, surrounding you.
The male looks between the creature and you, then at the flowers, even more disgusted.
"Za'u" his voice is angry, but you understand the word, your knowledge is basic, but that one you understand, it means come.
For a moment you stay seated by the growling creature, wondering what would happen to you if you followed the male, who turns around frustrated.
"Come, demon" he demands, frowning angrily.
You get up slowly, following him with a tinge of fear, the creature walking slowly behind you.