A few days later, Ava was crouched on the jungle floor, stuffing her patched-up and worn-out backpacks with the loot from their latest scavenging trip.
The tension in the air was palpable; Na'vi attacks on human outposts had been ramping up, and while the risks to get caught in the crossfire were higher than ever, the rewards—fresh supplies—were worth it.
Each one left behind a trove of useful items: discarded weapons, medical kits, even the occasional luxury like chocolate.
The Na'vi operated swiftly, blowing up outposts and train cars, then vanishing into the forest, leaving Ava and Kit to pick through the remnants.
Ava inspected a small knife she'd pulled from the wreckage of a recent train attack. It wasn't much, but it was better than the rusted blade she'd been using.
As she turned the knife over in her hands, lost in thought, Kit appeared out of the underbrush, his face streaked with dirt and sweat, his eyes wide with a mix of urgency and something else—excitement, maybe.
"I saw something today," Kit blurted out like a child, his voice vibrating with barely contained enthusiasm.
Ava glanced up, her brows furrowing. His tone immediately put her on edge. "What did you see?" she asked, her voice edged with caution.
Kit dropped his backpack and took a step closer, his words tumbling out in a rush.
"There were Na'vi kids playing in a clearing. But that's not all. They had a human boy with them."
Ava's heart skipped a beat, her grip tightening on the knife. Anger flared in her chest, and she let out a low, frustrated growl.
"Kit! How many times have I told you? Stay away from the Na'vi! It's not safe. If you see them, you run. As fast as your damn feet will carry you. And what do you mean, a human boy? That doesn't make any sense, did you hit your head on a tree trunk again? "
Kit's expression hardened, frustration flashing across his face.
They'd been butting heads more often lately, Ava always taking charge, always dismissing his ideas. He had grown tired of her constant criticism.
Usually, he yielded to her decisions but this time, he wasn't backing down.
"Ava, I saw what I saw. I watched them for a while. And don't be so quick to judge, I know my way around these woods. I know how to hide, thank you very much. The boy was definitely human, wearing an exo-pack just like the ones the soldiers used to wear at the lab. And the Na'vi kids were playing with him, like he belonged with them."
Ava's skepticism was immediate, her eyes narrowing as she considered his words.
"Kit, the Na'vi must have seen you. Don't be foolish by underestimating them. They're more attuned to this forest than we'll ever be.
And even if you did see something, it was probably just a smaller Na'vi kid with some funky kind of headgear. You're imagining things."
Kit's patience snapped. He'd had enough of her constant doubt, her refusal to see beyond the survival mode she was stuck in.
"I'm not imagining it, Ava! The boy was human, and the Na'vi were treating him like one of their own. This could be our chance! Don't you see?
If they've accepted him, maybe they'd accept us too. We can't keep living like this, scavenging and hiding forever."
Ava's expression darkened, her disbelief turning to irritation.
"Even if what you saw is true, it doesn't change anything. The Na'vi don't trust humans, and we have no reason to believe they'd make an exception for us. We're hybrids, Kit—freaks to them, just like we were to the humans. We are as foreign to them as they are to us. We don't belong anywhere on this planet. We have to stick to our plan and focus on finding our siblings. That's our mission."
Kit's anger boiled over, his voice rising in frustration. "But what if they're gone, Ava? What if we're wasting our lives searching for ghosts? Dax, Lita, all of them - why are you still so sure they're out there? It's been years. And we need more than just survival. We need an actual future. And this human boy might just be our way in."
Ava felt the sting of his words, her heart twisting with the pain of their unresolved grief. She knew Kit had given up hope of finding their lost siblings, but she couldn't let go. She had to believe they were still out there, waiting for her.
"I won't risk everything now, not when we've come this far. We've managed without their help, we will manage in the future. I do not understand why you think that we will have some kind of future amongst them.
We're all we have, Kit. Me and you and our brothers and sisters somewhere out there. We can't afford to make foolish mistakes. We stick to the plan. That is final."
Kit fell silent, his shoulders slumping in defeat. Ava turned her gaze to the dense jungle around them, the glowing flora casting a purplish glow in the darkness.
Another night, another argument. It felt like Kit was slipping away from her, but she couldn't let him throw their lives away in search of a fantasy. Her heart ached with the burden of their mission and the unspoken tension between them, a rift that seemed to grow wider with each passing day.
But Kit's restlessness was a force of its own, and it wasn't long before he decided to act on it.
One early morning, driven by a desperate need to understand what he had seen, Kit slipped away from their camp, as quiet as someone who was about to do something incredibly dumb.
He moved quietly through the lush, humming jungle. His thoughts raced as he retraced his steps to the clearing where he'd spotted the Na'vi children before.
The forest around him buzzed with life, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and growing beings.
When he reached the clearing, Kit blended into the shadows, his heart pounding with anticipation. He waited, his eyes scanning the area, straining to hear the sounds of laughter that had drawn him in before.
Time seemed to stretch on forever, but then, finally, they appeared—the Na'vi children, darting through the clearing, their movements a blur of blue in the dappled sunlight.
And there, among them, was the human boy.
Kit watched them intently, his emotions a tangled mess of longing and confusion. The Na'vi children played with a wild, unrestrained joy, their laughter echoing through the trees as they tugged at each other's tails, causing each other to trip and fall onto the soft, mossy ground.
The human moved among them as if he belonged, his exo-pack and mask a stark reminder of his origins, yet he seemed entirely at ease in their company.
A pang of something deep and painful tore through Kit's chest, a reminder of the children they had lost, the siblings they'd left behind in the burning wreckage of the lab.
He remembered the way they used to play, even in that hellish place, trying to hold on to some scrap of innocence in a world that sought to strip it away.
Ava's laugh was echoing through his mind as he remembered pillow-fights, secret plans and shared nights. The lab was cold, but his family kept him warm.
The reality of losing them crept up his mind harshly, like a giant stomping out the happy memories as if they were ants.
But here, in front of him, was a boy who had found a different kind of belonging, a different kind of family.
Kit shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He analyzed the scene before him, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. The boy interacted with the Na'vi children as though he were one of them, accepted in a way that Kit had never imagined possible. The sight filled him with a sense of hope, a possibility that had seemed so far out of reach before. If the Na'vi could accept this boy, then maybe—just maybe—they could accept him and Ava too.
But he knew Ava wouldn't see it that way. She was too focused on the mission, on finding their lost siblings. Kit wasn't ready to give up yet, but he also wasn't ready to abandon Ava. Torn between loyalty to her and the tantalizing hope of a different future, Kit knew he was at a crossroads. The decision he made next could change everything for both of them.