-.-Over the Years-.-

She hadn't thought she could love Pandora any more than she already did.

But she was wrong. Oh, was she wrong.

Because her fascination and love for Pandora just kept on growing. And she started to relive first seeing it all through the eyes of her daughter.

"You have a daughter," Mo'at announced. Nix just continued to cry, slamming her face into her pillow. "Will you hold her?"

"No!"

"Will you look at her?" urged Jocelyn, one of the female scientists.

"No! No!" She refused, and buried her face deeper in the pillow, her own wails mixing with those of her newborn daughter.

It wasn't until hours later that she finally gazed upon the baby for the first time. "I'm sorry," she cried, even though the baby couldn't understand her. "I'm sorry, I'm just so scared."

She had never really thought about having kids of her own, and now here she was, a mum, mum to the second born human on Pandora.

This was supposed to be a new start, right? Maybe everything would be okay.

Mo'at demonstrated how to sing a Songcord for her daughter, to mark a new beginning.

"I thank you, oh Great Mother, for the life of my daughter, Gracie..."

Gracie Vallencourt, named after the most bad-ass woman Nix had ever known.

In the changes for the rest of the Clan, Jake had become Olo'eyktan, Clan leader, following Tsu'tey's death in the Great Battle, while Mo'at remained in her position as Tsahik.

Bless the older woman, for she would never disregard any of Nix's many, many, many questions.

The Clan had taken to calling her txep, which meant fire, thanks to her hair, or could be short for txeptun, which meant orange, or fire red, also cause of the hair.

"The People say everyone is born twice..."

Her daughter took after her more in the looks department. Her darker skin, reddish hair, small stature. It was her eyes though, that she got from her father, that intense, sharp blue. A constant reminder.

She had to let the past die in order to move forward. It was easy to let most of it go, except for one thing, one person, and she hated that she couldn't. She had clearly meant nothing to him, so she tried to make sure how much he had hurt her didn't mean anything to her either. And so she suppressed it, shoved it deep down. It wasn't helping as much as she hoped it would.

From then on, her heart was shielded, guarded, protected, not about to let anyone in, let alone close. "I've given up that part of my life." It became her mantra.

The Sully kids, like Spider, grew up calling her Auntie Nix. Neteyam, Kiri, Lo'ak, and last, but certainly not least, little Tuktirey, or Tuk for short.

Nix had never had any siblings of her own, and boy was it entertaining to watch.

One such time, Kiri and Lo'ak were in an argument over a toy. Based on the expression on Jake's face, he was trying to figure out exactly what they were yelling at each other in Na'vi. Nix knew, and she was laughing.

"I hate you!"

"I hate you more! I hate you times infinity, Lo'ak! You penis face!"

"Hey! Don't make me come over there," Jake said. That put an end to the arguing, but not Nix's laughter. He turned to his friend. "Don't make me come over there either, Nix." She just kept on laughing.

In the scientist side of things, instead of burying Grace's Avatar, they kept her in the incubator, a constant reminder that their leader was always watching over them. This was her lab after all, and, especially as Kiri grew older, a chance for her to connect somewhat with her Ma. Nix had taken to wearing Grace's necklace every day since her death, but as Kiri grew older, it only seemed right for her to have it and so Nix passed it on, more of Grace's legacy for her daughter to cherish and hold close.

She even named her Ikran Augustine after the Doc, not only her daughter. Let's be honest, she was here because of Grace, all thanks to her. She would never forget Grace's words to her: "We need you back here... You're an important part of this team, Nix." She hoped Grace knew how grateful to her she was.

Her video logs hadn't slowed down either, though these ones she kept under max security, after what had happened with her logs the last time. He's gone Nix, you don't need to worry, she kept reminding herself, but to no avail it seemed. They're all gone now. We're safe.

She needed those logs, for the discoveries just kept happening.

"I've logged hundreds of link hours over the past several years. Since I've spent so much time in my Avatar body, and Na'vi age differently from humans, I think... Well I think it's slowed my natural aging down." She turned to face Grace's Avatar. " What do you think, Doc? Am I crazy?"

She could clearly picture Grace herself bent over a microscope across the room. "Just as crazy as the rest of us, kid."

A smile quirked her lips. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

On the other side of things, she had completed her training to become a hunter and Ikran Makto, under Neytiri's guidance, though Nix still felt she had so much to learn. Neytiri wanted her to consider a full consciousness transfer, like Jake had done, and as they had tried with Grace, but Nix wasn't sure she was quite ready for that. In fact, though she didn't dare breathe the words to anyone, she didn't know if she would ever be ready for something like that, something so huge and life-changing... However, it sounded like many of the People wouldn't accept her as truly one of them until she did so. Did that include Neytiri herself? And not only that, but she had given birth to a 'demon child' in the eyes of many. Spider and Gracie would have that legacy hanging over them for the rest of their lives.

She knew several people who would do anything to be in her position, with an Avatar of her own: Spider for one.

From the day he was old enough to start to understand the world around him, Spider was just as fascinated as her. Gracie was into the science side of things from day one. Both kids showed interest where their father never had, one Miles vs. another in Spider's case - but she tried not to think of it that way, to compare them. After all, Spider and Gracie never knew their father, and in Spider's case, his father had never really bothered with his son, from what Nix understood.

"Later you guys!" The wild-haired boy practically flew out of the shack, Gracie hot on his heels.

"Spider, take your spare!" Norm brandished another exopack.

"We're just going to the village!"

"Spider, take it!" Nix hollered after him.

"I have mine!" Gracie grinned proudly.

"But-"

"Spider Socorro!"

"Fine," he huffed, and came to retrieve the second pack.

Yup, that boy would do anything to be Na'vi like his friends. He idolized the Sullys, and Nix didn't blame him, not one bit.

She had also continued her morning tradition of watching the sunrise and then promptly returning to bed. One morning she awoke to something landing on top of her over and over and over again.

"Wake up, Mummy, wake up!"

"Come on, Auntie Nix! You said you'd show us!"

The kids were bouncing on her bed, as energetic as ever, even at this ungodly hour.

"Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up-"

The dragging your ass out of bed at such a disgusting hour was, and continued to be, even though she did this every morning, the hardest part, but the reward was always more than worth it.

The sun and the colours it brought were just gracing the skyline when Nix felt a weight against her: the kids. They had fallen asleep. Not wanting to disturb them, she stayed there as the new day began. She did not return to bed that morning.

Life had fallen into an unexpected but brilliant rhythm, so long as she didn't dwell on the past too much, which was difficult, but maybe, maybe, it was becoming just a little bit easier with each passing day.

It would only haunt her for so long - until it was staring her right in the face.

The part with my OC laughing their ass off when Kiri calls Lo'ak penis face was taken from my other Avatar story! New favourite insult! Gotta love that sibling energy! ;)

Jumping right in! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)