Chapter 3- Notes

Not much to say about this part. But the uploader, contrary to what I said, is not and idiot, and is forcing me to type this, bound to a chair and using only a half of a straw. Give him credit on the ingenuity front. On a more serious note, no offence meant to ANYONE here, but PLEASE. Do more constructive reviews! I mean offence to everyone, I've gotten some decent reviews (thank you for those who did decent reviews,) but please. Penguins are indeed cool. They're in the fucking Antarctic. No need to point that out in the reviews. And yes, Thana-thingy and Na'v-ator are indeed rather witty. I also considered using Na'vi-'gator.
Play nice, now.

(Sergeant CJC: Hahahaha a chair...ah. Any way fixing is done, editing is taken care of and I got the author to get more into Jake's personality. However due to mistakes and misplaced words, this chapter now bares several editorial fixer sentances. About seven words and a question mark in all. Happy reading)

Chapter 3- Twenty Questions

As Jake and Neytiri followed the chimera-esque being back, Jake was concerned for his mate (who by now was walking by herself) and confused. Why did this... thing know so much about them both? And more to the point, what the hell was it? And was really bad enough to be held a bow point? Jake had a small voice in the back of his head saying 'Bad guy! Fire the arrow! DO IT!' over and over, although another voice was conflicting, saying 'He has aid, he can't be evil. Even so, you outnumber him!' Jake decided to ask the thing and get it over with. Attempting to make himself sound slightly intimidating, he asked-

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Jake had never seen one of his kind before, and he'd not paid much attention to it's appearance, which was basically a mishmash of all of Pandora's creatures to him, and some things he hadn't seen before, but overall, it looked like a Na'vi-Thanator hybrid.

"I'm sorry, what?" it replied, craning it's neck around. He sounded less angry than before, but fairly annoyed nonetheless. "My name is none of your business. Not yet, anyway."

"I don't mean your name." Jake replied, making himself appear hostile, and keep his aim steady. "What are you?" Upon hearing this the beast's face looked slightly more understanding, but still rather peeved.

"No point in me explaining. Neytiri can explain better." Jake knew by looking at his face that he had expected him to ask this. "Trust me." He said, almost as if to reply to his thoughts. Neytiri had remained entirely quiet, centring her angered gaze on this 'acquaintance' of theirs. The newcomer's somewhat impatient eyes turned to Neytiri. "So... you going to tell him?"

"Fine." Neytiri mumbled back. The creature chuckled a little, smirked, and turn his neck around. He was acting oddly smug about all that was going on. Neytiri then turn to look at Jake. "Jake? Have you ever heard of the Reptus?" Jake's ears lowered and he briefly stared into space.

"No. Never."

"Well..." Neytiri sighed, "Their people and our people are not civil." She explained in an oddly blunt tone compared to what Jake was used to.

"What? Do you mean we're enemies?" Jake couldn't help but flare up at this comment. Being leader of the Omaticaya clan, and an ex-marine, he knew to detect threats as soon as possible.

"Yes. At least we used to, but they haven't attacked in a long time. Since before I was born, perhaps."

"That's right. Before... Mo'at, is it? Well, before she was even your age." The (apparently) Reptus individual piped up. Jake wasn't sure on that comment on Mo'at, but sounded respectful, oddly enough. "But before you hate, I'm not one of them."

"One of who?" Jake asked, still asserting himself slightly.

"I said I'd let Neytiri explain." Neytiri's scowl faded a little. She began to see her initial views may have been prejudiced, but she didn't let her guard down.

"Well, you know that our people live in extremely large settlements, and that is because we took them first. Without anywhere to live, the Reptus started to wage wars on our people." Jake was felt himself wanting to fire the arrow, but didn't in favour of hearing the Reptus out, and he had now begun to take a dislike to this 'new' species.

"Yep." he responded with an almost guilty tone to his voice. "But as I've already said, before our time. Long before even Mo'at's this time." Neytiri took this comment slight wrongly and thought it was an insult to her mother's age. The Reptus could tell this by the look on her face, and quickly amended this comment. "It-it's ancestral stuff. No offence." Jake was still missing a point, however.

"But if they are so bad, then why haven't any humans seen them?" Jake asked. It was somewhat out of the blue because he had remained mostly silent. When the Reptus heard this, his expression immediately changed to a somewhat depressed one, and he said in a somewhat sad tone-

"With all due respect Avatar, it's none of your concern." Jake could tell there was something he was hiding, but this seem more sincere than his last comments and he looked genuinely sad. Not wanting to get a possible enemy of his clan into a conflict, he digressed-

"What else is there to know about these 'Reptus,' Neytiri?" Jake was starting to feel deja vu, about the time when she was teaching him the then new ways of the Na'vi.

"Well, since the Na'vi held out, the 2 species were raised to hate each other. And we presumed they had given up."

"And I do think we have." Jake couldn't help but appreciate this sarcasm slightly, but he was still confused with one thing.

"But... if you're our enemy, and you never stayed with a Na'vi for long, how do you speak our language?" The Reptus thought for a minute, and replied in slightly broken English-

"I pieced it together. With this language, too. Avatars, Na'vi, you know. They cooperated." Jake was slightly impressed. He had previously thought that the Na'vi were the only sentient life. Even after Jake became one with Eywa, he did not expect this.

"Damn."

"Damn's right." The Reptus smugly replied. He was far smarter than Jake had first thought, and he had actually begun to respect him very slightly. "You done explaining, Neytiri?" He spoke in a slightly more polite tone this time. Neytiri might have actually smiled at him for a moment and she replied-

"Yes."

"Good. Anyway, those 'bad' Reptus Neytiri was talking about, those are what we call the Loyalists. 'We' being the Rebels. Consider us... 'the good guys.'" Jake thought he caught the gist of it.

"So... you're split from the Loyalists?" The Reptus smiled, although in an almost friendly manner this time and responded-

"Correct." Jake was caught up in his curiosity.

"Are you fighting them?"

"Yes. That is all you need know." He sighed. "Look... Are you sure want aid? I mean, I could give you an escort..." Jake looked at Neytiri. Neytiri replied confidently-

"Yes."

"Fine, then. We're here now, anyway. Through here, and..." He turned abruptly and walked through a gap in some trees, and Jake and Neytiri followed. Given the comment that the Na'vi had taken the good land, Jake was expecting a cave, or a small clearing. But what he saw was shocking. Judging by Neytiri's expression she was too. It was an old human mining craft. Abandoned by the humans since their departure, and Jake saw a few other Reptus scattered here and there, some holding old human weapons. Because of the heat on this particular day, some were asleep. It looked almost militaristic. Jake couldn't contain his awe and said-

"Whoa." Neytiri muttered something beside him, although he didn't hear what it was. The Reptus they were following smiled in an almost inviting manner, and walked towards a ladder.

"Well? Medical room's up he-" He then remembered Neytiri had a leg injury and reacted to this with a quiet, continuous 'ffffffffff' before asking, "Should I carry her or should you?" Jake couldn't help but chuckle at this, and before he could say he could carry her, Neytiri said-

"I can climb." She said it almost as if to prove a point. The Reptus sighed almost gratefully and said-

"Okay. Follow me."