A/N: - Hate to leave you hangin' TopKat90 ;)
Chapter One
"See." Ansit gestured towards the sky, visible through an opening in the canopy of leaves above them, which was starting to turn a dusky blue under the onslaught of night, still visible were four distinct vapour trails, the trails of a people carrier. Jake felt something in his chest tighten as he stared. "Something exploded over there, two hours ago." He gestured the way. Jake, like the others, had already lifted his face to the skies, making a sharp, cat-like sound, smiling when he recognised the returning cry. His very own Ikran, his mountain banshee, landed elegantly in front of him, the rather monstrous looking creature making a sound that could almost be described as a purr as he patted its neck, raising the braid of his hair in order to bond with it. He breathed outwards as the bond, which came faster than he could ever imagine now, washed over him and their awareness's washed together. He lifted his face to the skies, felt the Ikran beneath him tense as the stepped upwards into the air, the wind swept past him, his hand tightening on one of the antenna of the bird, the other one free in the air. For a moment, just a moment, he allowed himself to forget the problem that had reared its ugly head and lost himself in the freedom of flying. Beneath him the Ikran banked, following the others and Jake opened his eyes again, becoming the fearless leader once more as his Ikran pulled out to level with Neytiri's, she looked at him as they flew, anyone else would think it was just a glance to see if he was alright but Jake could see the myriad of questions that lurked behind her eyes, barred by her lips and kept in check only by dignified will.
"Look! Down there!" One of the warriors pointed out, beneath them, through the canopy they now drifted above, was a party of Na'vi, moving swiftly on their steeds of Direhorse.
"Hmm. Hardly worth coming out." Jake murmured. He only had to glance over to Neytiri, communicating without having to speak that they should wheel back. He squinted as the wind briefly cut up under his flying glasses as Ikran turned gracefully, diving with long practiced and much loved skill through the complicated network of forest branches, vines and creepers. He was aware that Neytiri was flying close by, laughing as he tried to avoid both her and the trees. It was a game they had started playing last year…she always won. They landed lightly together in the clearing around the tree of souls, as the scout party arrived, alighting from their steeds gracefully.
"Find anything?" Jake asked as he jumped from the Ikran, feeling the warm earth beneath his feet once more – never taking that feeling for granting – and bracing himself as the creature took off, blasting them all with back draft.
"There was a human ship, half destroyed, it looked like it had crash landed. We found a human. One. No more." One of the warriors replied, gesturing over his shoulder. The warriors parted en masse, revealing their captive who was held between two.
"Grace Augustine!" The human, a woman yelled between gasping for air.
"She hasn't shut up since we found her." One of the warrior women spoke, wrinkling her nose and letting her lip curl in disgust. "I'd forgotten how much humans smell."
"Hey!" One of the humans who had chosen to stay, yelled up.
"No offence intended." The warrior murmured, sharing a look with Jake that made them both smile.
"Grace Augustine! Grace Augustine!" The human woman was still yelling, panicked and wide eyed, struggling awkwardly, her hands were tied to the top of her head. Jake leaned down and re-adjusted her glasses, they had been perched at an odd angle…one of the lenses was shattered. "Grace-
"Fnu!" Neytiri raised a hand, her voice harsh and low. "Quiet." She grated out, using the English that hadn't been spoken for such a long time.
"Yup, ok, whatever you say." The woman panted out, seeming almost relieved to be allowed to sink to her knees, gulping at the air…or rather, gulping at the air that her oxygen mask was providing. "Do you speak any more English than that?" She asked, looking up and then further up still as she misjudged the height. "wow. Tall."
"She doesn't look like Army." Jake murmured, more to himself than anyone else. He was surprised, shocked even, to see that another human being had dared to come to Pandora…and so early, so soon after the war that had torn the Na'vi, his people apart. "Or government…" He stared at the human for a moment. She had her eyes shut, lips moving as if she was praying before she started speaking.
"Uh, k-kawrr nume, um, Na'vi, uh yeah, kawarr nume Na'vi…or, uh, quite possibly kawrr nume Omaticaya considering your dialects are so different and -." She broke off, looking around the clearing at the uncomprehending and slightly hostile faces around her, swallowing hard she lowered her voice. "I'm looking for Grace Augustine…I had to find out if it was true about her…about her…about…" The woman broke off, letting her head drop. "So she's dead then?" She managed to make herself sound completely clinical and dry though they couldn't see her face anymore. Slowly Jake knelt down, leaning down further still, bringing his face down to her level, he could feel the eyes of the tribe on him. She was maybe mid-twenties, tall but running more to round than lithe, blue eyed and blonde that was almost strawberry hair scraped back into a low tail that was starting to come out into a mad frizz, bubbling over the straps of the oxygen mask she wore strapped to the thick khaki trousers and shirt she wore…one boot was missing from her feet, revealing a pink fluffy sock with the words 'snuggle-time bear on the edge'. There was something, just something about her…perhaps it was the narrowness of her nose, or the shape of her mouth…and something, definitely something in her scent.
"Who are you?" Jake asked, eyes narrowed as he sat back on his heels. The woman's jaw dropped open as she raised her head sharply to look at him.
"You do speak English. American accent. Cool." The woman nodded slightly, difficult considering her hands were still tied. "Did you learn that from the base that was here? From Grace Augustine's school?" She looked up into his eyes. "Does that name mean anything to you?" She fired questions at him, one after the other, as if she wasn't kneeling in the dirt with one shoe, as if she wasn't a small, almost child-like figure surrounded by superior warriors.
"Are you her daughter?" Jake asked quietly, rocking back slightly at the explosion of laughter – louder, raucous and not at all what he was expecting.
"Me?" The laughter died down. "Oooh hell no. She was my aunt. My name is Hope Augustine, my mom was Charity, she was a feminist, didn't want me to have my dads name." She rambled on, Jake could see the fatigue in her…had he ever looked so fragile? Maybe she had just come out of stasis or cryo?
"Hope, daughter of Charity." Jake said flatly. "And your aunt was Grace?"
"Family joke." She replied, trying to shrug but restricted by the ropes. " 'Aunt was Grace'" She repeated, trying to mimic his voice. "Cunning use of the past tense there. Can you get rid of these? I mean, honestly, do I look like a threat to you?" She looked down at herself and Jake followed her gaze, bending over to pick up the glasses that slipped from her nose. "Thanks." She murmured as he picked them up.
"What is that?" Neytiri picked the glasses from him, speaking in Na'vi as she turned them over for her hands. "These are for flying yes?" She looked down at Hope Augustine. "She is a pilot?" She asked, her voice clearly disbelieving.
"No." Jake took the glasses from her and carefully placed them on Hopes face once more. He'd never before realised how tiny and delicate human things were, he could have crushed those glasses easily. "They're for seeing, her eyes aren't strong enough."
"How your race survived…" Neytiri murmured to herself and Jake smiled to himself, knowing she was only playing.
"Why are you here?" He asked. Hope stared up at him, blinking owlishly. "How many more of you are there? Did any platoons come with you? Corporations? Governm-"
"I came on my own. To learn." The words made Jakes teeth grit together, drawing blood from the inside of his cheek. How he remembered the mocking echo of his own words, his own betrayal as he said that many years ago. "To see Grace and to learn."
"Learn. About what?" He heard the steel in his voice as he stood up, "about the Na'vi? Is there more of us coming?" He asked sharply.
"Us?" She looked up at him, comprehension dawning in her eyes. "Us? Damn you're Jake Sully! No, no there's no one else coming. She sent for me years ago…I've been in Stasis, cryo, stasis, what do you actually call it when they put you to sleep and wake you up and tell you it's five years later?" She was struggling again, trying to get to her feet.
"Find her somewhere to rest, make sure she's fed but don't let her go." Jake ordered in Na'vi,
"Wait! Wait I need to talk to you about Grace!" The woman who called herself Hope yelled as she was dragged away, fighting against the hands that held her gently and firmly. "I need to talk to you! They told me she was dead! That everyone was dead!" Jake glanced over at her with a frown before she was taken out of sight.
"So?" Neytiri prompted, every line and curve in her body seemed tensed as she looked at Jake for answers.
"Norm? Anyone seen Norm?" Jake asked. There was general murmuring and shifting to the negative. "Someone go find Norm, get him to talk to this Hope woman, he knew more about Grac-" Sudden, unexpected grief tightened Jakes throat and he coughed, clearing it. "Just find him." One or two of the warriors detached themselves from the group and loped off into the foliage, leaving the circle of firelight and becoming bio-luminescent in the beautifully dim light, cast by the planet that perpetually loomed overhead. Jake turned back to Neytiri. "We'll talk to this woman in the morning and decide what to do then."
Norman Spellman, former botanist turned teacher of English to the Na'vi, looked up at the repaired unit that still held three of the machines used for turning humans into Avatar pilots. After the others had left, the Omaticaya and the humans that remained, had spent a lot of time fixing the unit, sealing up the window that had been shattered in the fight and straightening out the metal. It served as a medical unit for ill humans, as a place they could go to breathe without aid of their masks and, occasionally, a place for couples that had formed. Now it served as a prison. Norm tried to ignore the fact that his hands were shaking as he stepped into the airlock, balancing two crude plates on one arm in order to remove his mask as soon as the red light turned green. He knocked on the door politely before entering, looking around to see a woman, curvy, blonde, one lens of her glasses shattered, sat on the edge of one of the machines, her feet dangling off the floor.
"Uh. Hi. I'm Norm Spellman." He attempted a smile. Jake had been right, there was something about her that reminded him of Grace…a slightly younger, much less cynical Grace but there was something. "I used to work with Grace."
"So there are humans here too." She muttered. "I'm Hope, her niece."
"I know." He smiled at her, nodding, watching as she stared at him before letting her head tilt to one side – just like Grace, he found himself thinking. "Uh, I bought you something to eat." He lifted the two platters to indicate them. "I was starving when I first woke up."
"Hmm." She pretty much grunted, staring dispassionately at the plates.
"How come you only arrived just now?" Norm asked, placing them on the desk in front of her, stepping back as she stood up, leaning forward to poke at the food experimentally.
"She called for me a few years back, I had to save the money…I guess…I was asleep, three, maybe four years ago when all this happened?" Hope murmured, straightening out and sucking her finger to clean it off. Norm didn't say anything, shuffling his feet awkwardly when she finally looked at him for the first time, the one eye he could see through the none-shattered glass burning bright blue. "Look I woke up from stasis, cryo - whatever the hell they call it I woke up and they told me that everything had gone wrong on Pandora." She was yelling now and obviously didn't care, walking towards him as she yelled making sharp gesticulations. "Wrong, do you understand? No telling me that the indigenous population had over-run, no telling me that the base had been abandoned, nothing." She reached out and grabbed his shoulders and shook him with more force than he thought would be possible from her. She was a lot smaller than he was. "Tell me about Grace." She breathed, letting him go with an obvious effort, raising her hands. "Please." Norm bit a thumb nail, waving to the Na'vi, to his friends, who stood outside to tell them that everything was alright. One of them had rapped a spear against the shaky window, causing a small puff of toxic air to set the alarms off before the oxygen unit compensated. Outside, the warriors reluctantly lowered their weapons, settling down slowly…the memory of the death of the Hometree was still fresh enough to cause grief and more than a little hatred. Norm was actually comforted by the fact that they were outside.
"Alright...alright" He said to Hope, pushing her gently to sit down on the edge of the machine once more, kneeling in front of her. "I'll tell you about Grace."