19. Chapter 19
**FIREFLY**
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**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN WAS POSTED EARLIER TODAY!**
Explosion after explosion.
Harry gasped for breath, feeling the air pressure steal it every time both he and Ninat were knocked down again and again and again. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight.
It was like a scene from hell itself.
It was like a scene from the Beauxbatons' Massacre.
Harry's eyes became mirrors as the scenes replayed in his eyes, the students in their silk uniforms, staggering as explosives tore their school to shreds, pieces of masonry flying through the air, shrapnel and bullets tore through the retreating preteens, all the senior students dead at the doors of their school in one valiant last stand to try and by enough time for the youngsters to escape. They never knew they were walking into a kill line.
He shoved Ninat off of him and staggered to his feet, closing his eyes and crouching, streamlined against the ground as another shockwave blasted over him.
No. He would not allow this!
And then... it went quiet.
Harry felt Ninat rise behind him, but he didn't pay her a blind lick of attention, his eyes fixed on Hometree, on the burning roots beneath it. It felt like the world was holding it's breath.
And then they crumbled under their own weight. The tree, beginning it's ponderous tilt toward them.
Slowly, slowly, shuddering and filling the air with fallen leaves.
People began to scream.
Harry's eyes burned, falling as his legs folded beneath him, unable to hold his weight as he stared up at the great tree, taller and more powerful than any from earth, began to fall.
"Hari! HARI WE HAVE TO RUN!" Ninat screamed, grabbing at his arms, unable to tear her gaze from the encroaching behemoth bearing down on them. They were going to die if they didn't move! Move now!
Harry looked at her, his face was blank, his eyes tortured and then... he blinked, and something seemed to click into place inside of him.
He jumped to his feet and pushed her, "Get as many people away from here as you can, quickly!" he barked, pushing her again.
"Hari! No, I have to get you out!" she refused, reaching for him but he was already gone. Racing towards the fire.
This was going to hurt.
He skidded to a stop and opened all the flood gates on his magic.
It stole his breath away.
It burned him from the inside.
He drowned.
He froze.
He burned.
He suffocated.
He exploded.
He imploded.
Everything and nothing.
Eywa was there.
Gaia was there.
Too much.
Too strong.
He was gasping and choking on the magic that filled him, like a balloon with too much water. He needed to release it or he would burst, he would be ripped apart by the magic storming and raging like a shaken up cola bottle inside of him.
Barely coherent, he thrust his arms upwards and released the simplest spell he knew. The first one all Witches and Wizards learned to harness.
And one that would save the lives of everyone he cared for.
"_WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!_"
_**000**_
Hometree stopped.
And so did _everything_ else.
Quaritch stopped breathing, his eyes widening as his coffee mug slipped from numb fingertips to shatter on the grated floor below.
Selfridge at Hells Gate felt his blood turn to ice.
The Na'vi stopped and stared as their home hovered above their heads as if cushioned by the air.
And then Ninat started screaming at them to move.
And the world exploded into action all at once.
_**000**_
Tsu'tey stared, Kelren slicing through the air with a shriek of confused awe as they stared down at their home, flying beneath them. That wasn't natural! That was... He breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted men and women fleeing from beneath the great structure.
And then it wobbled, dipping dangerously to the ground and realisation ripped through him like a physical pain.
Hari was holding it up with his magic.
Hari whom he told Ninat to get away.
Hari who was still down there.
"Go, go, go!" he screamed at his Ikran, the creature already folding his wings into a steep dive. A furious shriek filling the air as a coffee coloured blur shot past them – Zeus – and quickly followed by an ivory white one – Hera.
They had to find Hari.
_**000**_
His magic was burning him. He found feel it scorching his bones.
His arms trembled as he forced himself to bear the weight of Hometree with his magic. Pinpricks of light across his skin glowed like miniature suns on his flesh, and just as hot and painful.
He was screaming. He could hear it in his own ears over the roar of his own blood and the power Eywa fed through him.
Just as he could hear it over her screaming at him to stop.
But he couldn't. There were still people down there! There were still people who needed to escape!
He fell.
Cold.
Gone.
Empty.
The tiny shard of Gaia had pulled the magic out of him, cut his connections off.
Hometree fell.
A Na'vi woman, Un'tsikna, caught him under the arm and half carried, half ran with him to escape, her face was filthy and tear stained as the two of them staggered away from the falling behemoth. All around them was screaming and sobbing and wailing as the sky fell dark and the air filled with ash.
Un'tsikna threw him to the ground, covering him with her body as tree branches thicker than an Ikran skewered into the ground, splinters like swords snapping and flying through the air.
Everything went dark.
_**000**_
He gasped, consciousness returning.
He must have been out only for a few minutes, the air was thick with smoke and ash and the smell of blood, he could hear the People wailing and sobbing like a background melody of misery and pain. He felt bettered and bruised. Burnt from the inside out as he slowly struggled to sit.
"Ma Un'tsikna?" he questioned, touching the woman's shoulder, she was sprawled on top of him but... she wasn't moving. He reached for her throat, hands shaking slightly as he tried to find her pulse.
There was none.
His breathing hitched as he noticed the spears of wood lodged in her back and stomach. She had shielded him.
He bent over her, crying and smoothing her hair from her face, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he choked, hating himself for being so weak, hating Gaia for stopping him, hating Eywa for letting her, hating Jake for bringing this on them, hating the Sky People for doing it. Hating himself for being so naïve to believe the Muggles would leave the Na'vi in peace. Hating himself for not _destroying_ them when he had the chance. Before this all came to pass. He kissed the woman's face, tears dripping onto her skin, cleaning away the ash that coloured her now still and cold flesh.
He slid out from beneath her and climbed to his feet, eyes stinging from the heat as he staggered through the trees, "Eytukan? Mo'at? Neytiri?" he called, choking on the smoke as he tottered through the drifting embers and airborne ash, eyes watering and lungs stinging.
"Ma Hari!" a voice called, young, childish. He staggered forward towards it, feeling his heart break all over again as he spotted Kirina, a young girl who often hunted down the prettiest feathers she could find to put in his hair when he resigned himself to the children's hands. She was half crushed under a tree branch, blood bubbling from between her lips as she stared up at him with pained eyes. "Na'ring," she rasped, moving one arm.
Harry's eyes widened as he staggered forward. A baby. Her younger sister. Unmoving and hidden under the protective umbrella of her sister's arm, clutched gently with infinite care against her chest, even as the rest of her body was pulverised and crushed.
"Is she..." the little girl asked, unable to finish as she coughed blood.
Harry gently scooped the child up, she was still warm and soft, gently, he placed an ear over her tiny chest and felt the tight lines of his shoulders relax. A heart beat, strong and steady.
"She's alive, and unharmed," he reassured the girl. Kirina smiled up at him, eyes brimming with tears, fingers reaching out to touch the tiny precious figure in his arm.
"Ma Na'ring... I love you," she whispered, bloody fingers grazing her baby sister's cheek as she sobbed and coughed blood. "Ma Hari, please, ma Sa'nok(mother) didn't... she..." Kirina was crying in earnest now, great heaving sobs that only made her coughing worse until she couldn't talk.
Harry leaned down and pressed a kiss to the child's forehead, "I'll take care of her. I promise, ma Kirina. I promise. You've been very brave, I'll never let her forget you." He held her, angling his arm so she was face to face with her sister, to reassure her the little one was alive, that she would be taken care of. That she didn't have to hold on anymore.
Kirina smiled, her eyes closing. "Na'ring..."
Harry choked, holding the baby close.
Voices calling through the fire and smoke surrounded him, men and women calling for loved ones, friends, crying and screaming when they discovered the bodies and all Harry could do was clutch that one precious baby against his chest and rock himself backwards and forward, tears streaming silently down his face unable to move.
That was how Neytiri found him.
She dropped down beside him, her arms wrapping around him and... he leaned into her, screaming into her shoulder.
He couldn't blame her. Not for this. Not for Jake.
He loved her.
He loved her and he didn't want to let her go. He didn't want her to get hurt.
How close was he... to losing her today? How close was he to losing everyone he loved and cared for?
He clung to her, "Never leave me," he pleaded his voice breaking. "Never leave me Neytiri, you're my sister, my family, never leave me like this. Don't you dare," he sobbed.
"No, never, ma Hari. Never," she promised, sobbing into his hair, holding him tightly. She pulled him up, "Ma Sempul(father) is still out there," she told him, pulling him along, "I'm not leaving you, ever, come.
Come," she told him, taking him by the hand and leading him through the smoke and the trees to find their father.
Together, the two of them staggered through wreckage, ruin, smoke and flame, until they found him. It was like having his heart ripped out all over again as the two of them fell beside the Olo'ekan's body. Skewered on a sword of wood, gasping for air as they held his hands. Harry couldn't see, his eyes were blind with tears, the world drowning in scarlet and orange fire glow.
"Father, we need you, don't die," Neytiri wailed, hands fluttering around the wood jutting out of her father's spindly body.
Eytukan groaned weakly, staring up at the both of them, "Daughter," he breathed, weakly lifting his arm, "Take my bow," he gasped, nudging her weakly with it by accident. Neytiri sobbed, refusing, shaking her heads. "Protect... the People," he breathed, as she took the bow, his fingers weakly falling to the side – into Harry's grasp.
"We will. We will," Harry assured him, gripping his hand tightly.
Eytukan smiled, his grip tightening briefly, "Thank you, my son." Before going lax. Completely.
He lived in a daze, watching silently as Jake tried to comfort his mate, only to be rejected again, watched the heartbreak on his face and understood, distantly, he never intended for this. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he juggled the lives of thousands and he tried to save them all, and lost the one he fought the hardest to protect. But Harry felt nothing. He only knew and understood as Neytiri cried over her father's body and Jake left, unable to comfort her, unable to bear witnessing her pain.
Harry couldn't move. He just sat there, silent and dazed, unnoticed tears dribbling down his cheeks as in one hand he clutched Eytukan's slowly cooling body and in the other he hugged Na'ring. It wasn't until Zuleika came to them that either of them moved, no matter how hot the fire got.
It took the Blacksmith actually slapping and screaming at Neytiri for the younger girl to stand up and push aside her grief for her people. Zuleika could only watch as the younger girl untangled her father's dead hand from Harry's and led him away, gripping his hand tightly.
"Where do we go now?" the Blacksmith asked, following them, keeping an eye out for any other survivors.
Neytiri swallowed, "Vitraya Ramunong," she stated softly, "Eywa will provide," she whispered brokenly as she led her broken little brother away from this scene of death and pain.
_**000**_
They walked all night, Pa'li were used to carry the injured and the children. Warriors gave the elderly piggy-backs and traded places on the backs of Ikran who ferried the worst to the Tree of Souls so they could rest properly. Harry staggered through it in a daze, ushering the children along with him. He felt hallow and empty as he picked up another little one who stumbled and fell from exhaustion. He set the lad back on his feet and took his hand, the other still clutching the infant close to his heart, wondering when she would wake and hoping and praying it would be soon.
Zeus and Hera had landed some time ago and took the youngest of the children to the Tree of Souls so they could rest, right now, they were waddling gamely through the forest with even more children and N'deh perched upon Zeus's back, his leg wrapped in leaves and cloth from where a piece of shrapnel gouged a fist-sized chunk of flesh from his leg. He couldn't walk.
It was dawn as they finally staggered into the basin where Harry first met Eywa. Already he could feel her reaching out to her children, soothing as much as she could.
Almost immediately, parents were swarming him, reaching for their children who sobbed in relief and clung to them like monkies. Harry was too out of it to realise them gently guiding him towards Mo'at, Neytiri and Tsu'tey beneath the Sacred Tree.
Neytiri gripped his free hand, she promised to never leave him and she would never break that promise. Her grip tightened on both Harry's hand and her father's bow. She would never break a promise. Never again.
Hari just stared at them, his eyes red rimmed and almost dead before he pitched forward, leaning his forehead against Tsu'tey's chest, his eyes sliding shut as he passed out. Consciousness slipping through his exhausted fingers like water as he felt hands catch him before his legs gave out completely.
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**End of chapter.**
**Yeah, this was more than a bit of a tear jerker. It was shockingly difficult to write without bursting into tears myself, and I did that several times. Still don't think I got the feeling quite right.**