Chapter Text
Clan politics had been of no interest to Tamtey; that was a Ri’nela problem. She was Tsahik. Tamtey was the loose canon they let off whenever they needed blood shed and couldn't be bothered to get their own hands dirty.
“Death on wings” the RDA deemed her, and she and her ikran lived up to the namesake with no question.
It had been easy for her, ever since she’d taken that bow from So’lek for the first time. The follow through and thud of an arrow making impact with her target came like a second nature.
It worked for her; in a way she loved deep down but would never admit. In the same place that cherishing feeling for the blood on her hands and the adrenaline drumming under her skin resided, was her mourning for the peaceful Na’avi she could have been.
Had she never been taken, would she have been a storyteller instead of a murderer? A nomad instead of just someone with nowhere she truly belonged.
The self-loathing secretly plaguing her thoughts was only more reason for her to never have expected the decision her fellow Sarentu had come to. The decision apparently all the clans had come to without her knowledge.
When she’d been called into a meeting with all the clans, she'd expected it to be about the still sizable threat of the RDA. After everything with the Mangkwan the RDA was sparse but still present.
Only on the exact opposite side of Pandora.
She did not think that it was an ambush ceremony for her induction as Olo’eykte of the Sarentu clan.
By Eywa she hadn't even known about it!
Obviously, she knew at some point they'd need a clan leader, distantly she'd assumed it would be Rasi. The newly found clan member was the oldest and knew much more of the clan than any of them.
The same woman laughed in her face when she expressed this thought, admonishing that she would never take the role.
The more the idea settled in her mind, the more she thought that this would have been much more suited to Aha’ri.
Her late sister had always been a leader; she'd been the rock of their little group before Mercer selfishly took the gift of her life into his own hands and crushed it.
Her stomach did flips at the thought of her sister, she’d barely had time to mourn between being stuck at TAP, years upon years in cryo , and then the RDA and the Mangkwan.
She shook the thoughts from her head, tail swishing behind her as she focused on the present. Tamtey was up high above one of the scattered RDA bases still plaguing the charred Kinglor Forest.
Telisi crooned beneath her, their bond pulsing with a special kind of understanding. Ever since their time spent in the spires their bond had been nothing short of unbreakable.
She thought initially that being Olo’eykte would make her feel different, but alas here she was doing the exact same thing she'd been doing before her impromptu ceremony-
Slaughtering RDA soldiers.
When she’d first started to take down these bases she'd relied rather heavily on stealth to take the operations down from the inside, only killing when absolutely necessary.
Lately though, there was some sort of electricity that thrummed in her bones. She’d not forgone stealth entirely, but now she used it to dismantle the soldiers before the bases where they resided.
Tamtey relished in the bodies dropping, terror aiding her growing reputation. She'd learned since taking out Mercer that none of these people were innocent. They'd destroyed their own planet and now came to colonize the moon she called home.
Mercy was never an option for them.
She pulled an arrow from her quiver, one of the electrified ones she’d managed to make from spare parts and sulfur pods and pulled it back in her bow string. Tamtey guided the arrow to one of the incoming helicopters, letting it loose right into the spinning blades of the flying machinery.
She watched in strange delight as the helicopter short circuited, she clicked her tongue, the low noise resonating from her throat had her bonded swooping in and tearing the machine apart. A battle cry fell from her lips as she watched the broken metal fall from the sky, her arms waving the heavy bow So’ek helped her craft above her head.
Telisi roared her own victory cry, swooping down to allow Tamtey to shoot off arrows into the weak spots on AMP suits and detonate gas tanks next to human soldiers.
Chaos bloomed like that of her clan's beloved Tarysu plant in the wake of her slowly straying morality. She let herself get lost in the violence, the familiar feeling of the connection with her Ikran, let herself relish in the fact that she could let go here and not be judged.
Her mind emptied as the base did, leaving behind only a serotonin boost at the sight of her victory.
A static erupting in her comms distracted her. She lifted a hand to her face, tucking a stray braid away as she listened intently to Teylan rambling to her, “Tamtey! You have got to come back to the resistance base; we just got news from another clan. There's mention of the Mangkwan. “
The Ash clan's name had her hitching her breath, murmuring a light affirmative to her little brother. Her ears pinned against her skull, her ikran whining below her at the sudden energy shift. She dares not utter a word, only patting Telisi before urging her back to the resistance.
Tamtey allowed Telisi to do her thing, with little to no guidance from her. She relished in their bond, humming the song of her people while the wind whipped through her hair. She let her thoughts consume her. Let the memories flood back in, her being taken, thinking her mate was dead.
She recalls her heart almost beating out of her chest when Bukowski let her know her Dog Tag Warrior was alive and well. The confidence that had fueled her hope and replenished her need to fight and prevail as she always did.
By time she’d made it back it felt like she’d relived the entire thing, the capture, the fire, the ash.
Yet, as she stepped into the warm embraces of the Resistance HQ, a nagging feeling in her gut told her this was not the end. There was more for her, not only as Tamtey, but as Olo’eykte of the Sarentu.
The leader of her people.