Chapter 4 - White Room

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Word Count: 2648

Sitting in the barren room, you were calmly up against the wall.

After arriving at what Quaritch called 'Bridgerhead' you were led inside by the recombinants, getting either horrified or disgusted looks by the humans around – it was clear that most weren't a fan of Na'vi.

Yet you noticed that it wasn't just you. The recombinants were getting those looks just the same.

Footsteps outside of the room caught your attention as you felt your ear turn to the noise, keenly aware of the double sets of prints. Yet they walked past the room you were in and you huffed silently, leaning your head back to lean against the wall, your eyes closing.

You just hoped No'gue and Yalai made it home safe.

-

"Colonel, I cannot authorise this."

Swallowing softly, Quaritch stood before Ardmore, his ears angled slightly back and twitching ever so nervously.

"You bring one of the people who kill my men here." She chastised, an angry look on her face as she turned a screen to directly face the recom, showing a scan of your face from within the prison cell, dots of the face-tracking program matching to the still image beside it – taken from one of the shipment raids.

"I think-"
"I don't care what you think, soldier." Ardmore interrupted, her gaze stern. "Not only has she reportedly killed good men and women, you have also just returned with a dead recombinant. That is five billion out of the RDA's pocket. Thrown down the drain!"

"Rowan-" Quaritch emphasised the name, "-was killed before any of us could react. With all due respect, we were sent out there by your order, general. That was a casualty of the forest before it was any mistake of mine. You wish to do this the hard way? That's what happens."

Crossing her arms, Ardmore couldn't fight with that, looking from the colonel back to the hologram of Bridgerhead as she picked up her coffee mug.

Shifting slightly, Quaritch then breathed out sharply before he put his hand on his hip and bent forward, turning the screen in his face back to be right in front of the general. "Look. A soldier is precisely what we need. Sully is still the greatest liability. He was conducting the raids. Now from this native-" He pointed at your face. "-we've learnt that Sully's fled. Since then, no raids have occurred."

"What are you saying, colonel?"

"You wanted my team to try and trick the immune response of the planet. We now know the animals won't attack us directly but any transport we take? Doesn't change; it will get taken down." Quaritch spoke, standing back up straight as he crossed his arms. "Making an alliance with the Na'vi – she can teach us how Sully does it, making us able to get in his head and find him. Not only that, I say we rehash the plan from fifteen years ago."

Putting down her cup, general Ardmore narrowed her eyes, looking up at the recombinant. "Explain."

"We sent Sully into the Omaticaya clan so that he could get them to move."

"Which resulted in your- and hundreds of soldiers' deaths, if I recall correctly?" Ardmore spoke, her brows furrowing angrily.

"Correct, ma'am." Quaritch responded, walking over to the hologram of the hallelujah mountains. "However, if we want to bring earth here, we need to make sure hostiles aren't attacking soldiers, let alone normal citizens."

"You want to learn their ways to... what? Know what they do in a day?"

Closing his eyes, Quaritch breathed softly to try and keep himself stoic, the general's stubbornness getting on his nerves. "Taking out Sully is step one. But once that is done, then what? We need to make sure no other natives pick up his mantle. Like it or not, we cannot murder every Na'vi on the planet. If we know how they tick, we can figure out how to best integrate human life. If I know they like to bathe in mud, we can build our cities away from their mud ponds." He spoke, moving his hands while he talked to point to a proverbial pond and city site.

"Are you suggesting co-habitation, colonel?" General Ardmore questioned, straightening up a bit.

"Yes I am." Quaritch nodded, turning a little more professional as he straightened up. "Ma'am."

"And you want to be the pioneer of that project?" Ardmore raised a brow but the recombinant shook his head.

"Negative, general. As I said, Sully comes first. Yet using this plan, it is simply two birds with one stone."

Sighing, the general turned to the control panel in front of her, leaning on it as she inwardly conceded, turning back to the colonel. "Alright. What did you say the condition for this was?"

-

Playing with your own fingers by slowly moving and squeezing them, you sat, bored out of your mind. You'd been stuck in this forsaken room for who knows how long. Your thoughts felt slow and you didn't know what to do. Yet despite all of that, you hadn't gotten any less alert as you instantly heard the heavier steps approaching.

Moments later, the door opened with a soft hiss and you had a good view of Quaritch crouching through the doorway, both your heights not made for the smaller sized room.

"Afternoon." He hummed, his posture more relaxed than you'd seen him before and your eyes squinted slightly as you took him in.

Keeping his stance open and relaxed, the colonel analysed you back while the door closed behind him.

You'd gathered yourself at the far wall, curled up on the ground. From his point of view, you were sitting just beside the table, the corner of his mouth lifting just a bit as he thought about it. You looked comically big compared to the table and chair, reminding him of how small Spider had seemed just a few days earlier, fitting perfectly between the furniture. It made sense why you'd chosen the floor and wall over either of the metal contraptions – your knees lifted up as you sat.

If he didn't already know, it was clear from your outfit that you were a warrior back in your clan, the hunter cummerbund around your midriff and the knife sheath evidence enough. Yet as his eyes moved up, he noticed something very different. Furrowing his brow in confusion, he tapped at the oxygen mask hanging around his neck, seeing it permanently around your mouth.

"Why are you wearing that, darling?"

"It was put on." You grunted back, seeming unamused by his presence and Quaritch briefly bit the inside of his cheek. He'd been having to do way too much diplomatic talk lately.

"You're not supposed to keep it on permanently, the battery pack will run out." Turning slightly, he showed the black device hanging on his hip, tucked into the waistband of his pants.

"It. is. stuck." You repeated, demonstrating as you lifted your still tied hands up, pushing at the thing yet being unable to budge it even a single bit.

"What goddamn idiot did that?" Huffing in exasperation, Quaritch put his hands on his hips and you were a bit taken aback. "Can I come take it off?"

Swallowing softly, you then nodded, keeping a keen eye as his taller figure approached, crouching down to one knee right after he passed the table, scooting a little bit closer before he motioned you over with a reassuring smile.

Not entirely comfortable, you still did as he said, scooting closer, feeling how cold the floor was now that you were no longer sitting on the part that you'd heated with your own body.

"Thank you." Quaritch hummed, leaning forward so that he could reach behind your head. Having him at such a vulnerable spot, your eyes were wide while your heart was racing in fight or flight, yet the man worked carefully, un-tying the knot before loosening the straps of the mask.

Leaning back, he then carefully took hold of the mask for you and pulled it down, cringing slightly as it stuck to your face, revealing deep creases in your skin from how tight it had been.

"There." Smiling a bit at you, the colonel then let go of it, sitting down on the floor as he held up his hands, showing he meant no harm. "I think we got off on the wrong foot."

"You threatened to kill my family."

Your deadpan response made Quaritch kiss his teeth, looking down briefly as he grabbed his own mask and took a breath, lowering it back down before sighing out softly. "And that threat still stands." With his words, he raised an eyebrow while your own brows furrowed, your tail swishing in agitation behind you. "But I have a different proposition."

Narrowing your eyes, you said nothing but nodded, waiting for him to speak.

"You teach me and my team the Na'vi way, you get us to Jake Sully, and I will make sure any search for the Omaticaya clan stops." Tilting your head slightly, you looked at the colonel, seeing no deceit in his eyes. "As long as they stop raiding our shipments and trains, I'll make it so that no one there is in danger anymore. You see, I really don't wanna hurt kids if I can avoid it." He smiled slightly, motioning with his right hand.

You were silently for a moment, processing his words. "I teach you and the clan is safe?" You questioned, your eyes taking him in while you thought.

"I swear." He nodded, that small smile once again present, though you didn't know what to make of it.

"Why should I trust your words?" You then asked, Quaritch raising his brows as he nodded in thought, slightly looking up at the ceiling.

"That's a fair question" Looking back down, he then held out his hand for you. "Let me properly introduce myself. My name is Miles Quaritch." He spoke, pausing for a bit before he continued. "I know I'm a lot of things, but a liar I am not. If you trust me, I will trust you."

Furrowing your brows in confusion, you looked from him, down to his hand that he reached out for you, only for him to lower his thumb and push up a black device that had been resting in his palm, now held between his fingers – the same one as on the aircraft.

Understanding, you lifted your arms and he put the unlocking mechanism to the cuffs, to which they instantly snapped straight, magnetised to the key and leaving you free to move for the first time in hours.

"You can trust my words. Can I trust you to not kill me or my men first thing?" The colonel asked, leaning forward a bit to look at you with a small, teasing smile.

"Yes." You breathed softly, pulling your arms back to your chest.

"Well that's good. Can you tell me your name at least?"

"Y/N."

- - - -

The next time Quaritch came to your cell, he had a small shadow.

"Y/N!" Breaking off from the man, Spider jogged over, stopping in front of you with a little smile on his face as he looked up at your standing form.

"You seem happy." You smiled back, purposefully ignoring the colonel, to which he fully knew that you were doing yet let it happen anyway, simply crossing his arms as he watched you two.

"Happy to finally see someone normal in this place." Spider joked back and you chuckled, nodding in agreement.

"I've never been to a place like this." You mused, walking over to the table and sitting on top, keeping your back to Quaritch. Spider's eyes darted to the colonel, failing to stifle a laugh as he took in the man's annoyed stance and expression, his tail flicking.

"It's pretty similar to the homes back at the mountains that were built." The boy then answered, turning back to you, pulling out the chair and jumping to stand on it, making him on eye height with you.

You'd never actually been inside one of the human settlements back at the clan so you'd have to take his word for it, simply humming a bit. Yet with that out of the way, your expression softened slightly as you looked at the striped human in front of you.

"How long have you been here, what happened?" You asked softly, tilting your head a bit, which made some of your braids fall down your shoulder and clack together.

"Asshole over there held me and Jake's children under gunpoint. There was a fight, they got out. I didn't." Spider mumbled, your brows furrowing as you looked at him. He was just a kid still. Human or not, he was alone in a world he shouldn't be in and a protectiveness flared in your chest – the same that you felt back in the forest when you first spotted him, right before your own capture.

You were about to answer when Quaritch instead stepped up. "I might not be fluent but I have learned some actual Na'vi. Watch what you say about me, kid."

Immediately, a scowl took over Spider's face as he – even though he was standing on the chair – looked up at the taller man.

Huffing silently in amusement, you shook your head before taking a breath through your mask while turning to look back at Quaritch. "Can you blame him?"

At that, the colonel smirked a bit at you and shook his head. "I can't and I don't. I can still warn him though."

Puffing out his chest a bit, Spider glared, though you knew it wasn't truly genuine.

"Anyways, I came to take you out of here." Quaritch then spoke, resting one hand on his belt nonchalantly while you turned to him in confusion. "We're rolling out into the forest tomorrow. But given there's not much of a room or space here to sleep, might as well take you to the barracks and introduce you to the team properly."

Looking from Quaritch to Spider, the boy smiled encouragingly and you turned on the table, now permanently facing the recom.

"I can even get that checked out for you." The man pointed at your left arm, where the graze shot still sat, only hastily tied with a cloth before.

"Alright." You nodded, not particularly feeling like staying in this room.

Smiling slightly, the recom stepped over and you scooted back a bit, your ears angling down in warning. "I need to put this on, sweetheart." The man hummed, holding up a black circle.

"What is it?" You questioned and Quaritch – embarrassingly enough – felt his ears perk at your accent.

"It's a tracker. We're gonna let you out into the forest but we do need a little insurance that you're not gonna run." Holding out the device for you, you tentatively took it from him, inspecting the strange looking – metal, you assumed. "It goes around your wrist." Quaritch then spoke, making you look up and watch as he held his right arm up, wrapping his left hand around his wrist to emphasize.

Making a little disgruntled click with your tongue, you slipped it over your hand on your left arm, only for it to beep softly.

Pulling your hand off of it like it burned you, you watched the small circle unfold, rolling down your wrist and tightening around your flesh, looking more like an arm guard than a bracelet now, covering your entire wrist.

Hissing in surprise, you then snapped a glare up at the colonel who quickly held his hands up. "Need to make sure it stays on. It's flexible so you can still move just fine."

Narrowing your eyes, you then glanced down slightly, rolling your wrist a bit before huffing. You were stuck with it now.

"Let's get going then."


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