Disclaimer: I so don't own Avatar…James Cameron does and I am immensely happy that it came from his wonderful mind. However, still not mine!
Warning: This will contain slash, as I am a slash freak, it will be with my OMC and one of the male members of the story, I still haven't really decided yet. So please review and tell me who he should be with.
Pairings: Jake/ Neytiri and OMC/??
English: "Hello, I am speaking English."
Na'vi: "Hello, I am speaking Na'vi."
Random fact: Title comes from this excerpt from William Butler Yeats' An Irish Airman forsees his fate.
I know that I shall meet my fate
somewhere among the clouds above;
those that I fight I do not hate,
those that I guard I do not love
Meeting Fate
Chapter One: Arrival
I could hear the sounds of drums, steadily growing louder as I flew through the mist that only showed the outline of trees and the occasional animal. I could see a dark colored bird staring up at me as I flew; I have always wanted to fly. It was the one thing my mother told me of with strong emotion, flying. She said it was the magic of doing something that no other can do, becoming a miracle. Because humans are not made to fly, but perhaps I would fly someday, it was my dream after all. Mother created me in her lab, a mixture of two of the Na'vi aliens that the RDA had found dead, their DNA still good to use. I was born from her efforts and while I was in gestation, she was traveling to Pandora, the land of my real species, not that Mother wasn't part of my family. She was, all of my best memories are with her. She simply did not know what it was like to be the only eight foot tall blue person on Earth.
But, now was not the time to be focusing on that, I had much more important things to think about, like how I was flying, I could feel nothing below me, just the wind brushing along my bare feet. Not that it was cold, it simply felt heavy. As though I was cutting through the very air as one would water. My flight sped up and I stopped abruptly, as the drums did as well, I was staring into the yellow eyes of the Alien race my Mother studied, it was the eyes of my people. The golden eyes of the Na'vi.
My eyes snap open, taking in a sharp breath as I awake, it's always the eyes that wake me. They don't exactly seem like the bestial eyes of a killer that I was told about since the RDA contacted me and my mother. I feel the coffin like metal vault open and I am pulled out into a white room that makes me shut my eyes at the brightness. When I opened them, I was greeted by a fairly good looking woman who was smiling down at me with weariness evident in her chocolate brown eyes.
"Are we at Pandora?" I asked excitedly, my first alien planet, of course I would be excited, thrilled and over all jubilant.
"Oh, why yes. Been a long trip hasn't it?" She responded, her chocolate eyes crinkling at the edges.
I smiled and nodded at her, I really in all truth had no true gage of how long our actual trip was. The only thing I knew was that the journey itself was supposed to have taken at minimum six years. That was a long time for those who weren't in deep freeze I suppose.
A male voice that is one of the Med Tech called out and the entire area went silent, as to listen to the man. "People, you have been in Cryo for five years, nine months and twenty two days. You will be hungry, you will be weak. If you feel nausea, please use the sacks provided for your convenience. The staff thanks you in advance."
That was longer than I've been capable of conscious thought. But thanks to Mother, I had my own downloadable knowledge disk; it was kind of like a very primitive earth disc, a CD. It held six years worth of the Na'vi culture and language. As well as English and human customs, mother was a genius, that much was certain.
As I exited my Cryo station, I noticed many looks of interest and some loathing on my appearance, I was not that much of a monstrosity, they had seen even worse animals on their home planet. They continued to stare and I kept my head as high as I could, afraid to let their stares pierce my heart. As I pointedly ignored them I noticed the largest moon that orbited Polyphemus, Pandora. Pandora was blue and from what mother had told me, it was very earth like.
The Med Tech's take us to massive shuttles that will deliver us to the Human Compound on Pandora. I look out the nearest window, which every one of the humans seemed to avoid; I was curious and looked at them to figure out why. But as soon as I did I realized it wasn't the window that was being treated as a virus, it was me. I shook my head and turned my eyes onto the landscape that we were flying over. It was full of massive cliffs and gigantic plateaus that were covered in a dense rainforest. An while the beauty of the cloud covered mesas tops get to me, I could still sense that there was something…off about the forest. It felt so forbidding and full of secrets that I closed my eyes and cleared my head for a second, just to get the foreboding thoughts from my mind. I instead focus on the trees that are cyan and great, much larger than any tree on earth. There are waterfalls and winding rivers that captured my eyes and I squinted trying to see further down. A flock of winged creatures flew over head that I realized were Toq'al and I smiled faintly as they turn to look at our metal contraption.
I turned my gaze north and notice a lifeless crater, like a giant fist took a chunk out of the lush foliage that I was sure was there previously. There are excavators and trucks that are unfathomable in size and as I looked up I saw it. The human colony, where my mother has been staying for the past six years.
Just outside of the compound is a squat concrete and steel structure that is surrounded by a fence that was topped with razor wire. In the corners of the towers are automatronic sentry funs swiveling looking for threats. As I took in the structure we landed inside the safe zone, I smiled, I didn't care if my canine teeth showed, and I was going to see my mother.
The Crew Chief, whose name I had no interest in knowing is parading up and down the aisle, exclaiming "Exopacks on!"
I ignored his yelling as I know of the ability I have to breathe in the Pandoran air, as I gazed around I found nearly all of the crew members had their exopacks on, all except one lone man who looked clueless as to what was going on in terms of putting the pack on.
"Remember people, you lose your mask you're unconscious in 20 seconds and you're dead in four minutes. Let's nobody be dead today, it looks bad on my report." The chief yells and I smiled at his safety warning, I sincerely hoped the man would find a way to get his mask on.
I hear the Crew Chief yelling at the humans and I pay him no heed, it is until he opens the cargo ramp and I am the first to exit, speeding past the humans with masks on, and ignoring the obscenities yelled at me by the original mercenaries that have been on Pandora. My main goal is to get inside and meet my Mother.
I do not stop and listen to the safety speech that I know was in store for me if I had stayed with my group, instead I follow my Mother's scent, I can feel her, well, I can feel her presence and I was going to follow that, no matter where it took me.
I nearly sprint to the section that I know my mother is in, the area marked Bio-Lab and I rush into the area, careful not to destroy anything in my haste to meet my mother. I see a man I immeadiatly notice as one of the first humans I had ever seen, other than mother.
"MAX!" I cry, making several humans look up in shock as I pick the large man up and hug him tightly.
"Asa, let me down." He said calmly, smiling brightly at me as I placed him on the ground.
"Where is Mother?" I asked, smiling down at him, he straightened his glasses and looked up at me, preparing to say something, but he was cut off as to men enter the lab. One walking and the other in a wheelchair. I ignore their stares in favor of going over to the Link units that house the human body while they are in their avatar. I can see mother sleeping in one and I cautiously touch the screen where her face is resting peacefully.
I can hear Max speaking to the two men but I stay focused on mother, willing her to be awake, so I can touch her for the first time in nearly forever. I hear footsteps and I turn my head quickly to see the three human's enter. One nattering away about Dr. Grace Augustine, my Mother.
"Grace Augustine is a legend. She's the head of the Avatar Program, and she wrote the book -- I mean literally wrote the book -- on Pandoran botany." The one walking says.
"That's because she likes plants better than people," Max whispers lowly and I giggle a little at the comment.
At that moment, my mother sat up in her link. Her face the same as I remembered and eyes just as intelligent as they had always been. She steps out of the Link and clears her throat before asking "Who's got my goddamn cigarette?" A young woman scurries over and hands her the already lit cigarette. Mother turns and looks at Max and the two other men, not seeing me crouching behind one of the Links; I wasn't crouching out of fear. More like just wanting to surprise the mother I hadn't seen in such a long time.
"And here she is, Cinderella back from the ball. Grace, I'd like you to meet Norm Spellman and Ja --," Max begins but is cut off by mother.
"Norm. I hear good things about you. How's your Na'vi?"
"May the All Mother smile upon our first meeting." Norm responds bowing slightly. Mother nods approvingly and takes a drag on her cigarette.
"Not bad. You sound a little formal."
"There is still much to learn."
"Uh, Grace, this is Jake S----"
"Yeah, yeah, I know who you are, and I don't need you. I need your brother," Mother says harshly to the man in the wheelchair. "You know, the PhD who trained three years for this mission."
"He's dead. I know it's a big inconvenience to everyone." Jake replied to her harsh words with a sharp glare and I a bitter smile.
"Have you even had any actual lab work at all?" Mother asked frowning.
"I dissected a frog once."
"Mother be nice to those who have no knowledge, it is your duty to teach him." I said standing up from my crouched position from behind the psionic link.
"Asa, you are a child, hiding behind things just to spy on me." Mother exclaimed as she grabbed my hand and took me to, I could only assume, her quarters. Smiling at the bemused face of Norm Spellman and Jake.
As we walk away I can her Max say to Jake, "Here, tomorrow, oh eight hundred. Try to use big words."
OOC! Grace a little bit at the end, next chapter I am hoping to go more in depth with Asa and Grace's relationship as Mother and son.
Also, I am starting a poll for who Asa should be paired with so send me some reviews saying who you want, so far I have in mind three people, but I am going to let you think of some, so please tell me who to pair him with or else he will fall in love with Quaritch.
Please remember to review!
MadMarchHare