With the Semester starting soon, I have decided to get the most current chapter of this story done. Let me know what you all think of it.
Chapter 4: The Mind of a Skyperson
Mo'at had lived a long life before the Skypeople had come to her lands. Over the years she had raised two caring daughters, who due to fate had inherited her fiery personality from her youth. Then came that day where she lost her eldest daughter through the actions of the Skypeople. Now her only child she had left was Neytiri, who through the actions of Jakesully had come to terms with the events of her sister's death. Given that Neytiri had been pushed into a role that wasn't of her choosing. It was as if Eywa herself was placing her through a set of trials for something greater.
When Mo'at had seen Jakesully's Skyperson body and the acceptance that he would go as far as he would to protect the people even at the stake of his own life in either body he possessed, she realized why Eywa had made her choice. That and seeing her daughter happy for once in a long time took the sting off the loss they all now bore a little less painful.
Eywa have mercy on her daughter's future mate as he guided them through this time of healing which was on the crest of dawning.
Now kneeling besides her Dreamwalker son-in-law, Jakesully in an attempt to save one of the leaders of the Skypeople. The images that were flooding her mind as the Spirit tree attempted to engulf the young leader were of not of sadness or anger, but fear of not being able to put things right for her people. All of the People of land of Eywa.
She reached into his mind of ParkerSufferage and let his will guide her to where he was in Eywa's spirit.
The storms of memories of all of the Na'vi that had joined Eywa as well as those who were still among the living were battering his mind as the confusing images scared him. Like a child performing their first Tsay'lu his mind was loud, and screaming all over not with any clear focus that most Na'vi developed over time.
Jakesully reached out to the young Skyperson and sensing familiarity became calm. The will of this Skyperson sought out the shelter from the winds of a great storm of all of minds of the Na'vi from ages past, before it got worse.
Images from Jakesully's mind were that of a warrior, but it was the familiarity of something of Parkersufferage's own people that allowed the inexperienced leader of the Skypeople to rest and gather his thoughts.
"Jake... Why do you play those flying games?" A young version of Jakesully in his Skyperson body said to his double. Then it hit, this was Jake's brother. His Ti'win. Tom...
"Where am I?" Parkersufferage called out as he landed in the boys' room.
"You are in Jakesully's memories." Mo'at spoke as she realized that she was the same height as the human.
"Who are you?" Parkersufferage spoke falling back across the bed in the kid's room to watch the boys play their game.
"I am Mo'at." The Skyperson looked scared as he looked around the surroundings trying to figure out where he was at.
"What's happening to me?" The pink humanoid pleaded.
"You were attacked by warriors." Mo'at explained as she sat down on the bed. "They wished that your mind would be swallowed up by Eywa. Jakesully and I are attempting to prevent you from falling into the Eye of Eywa." The Human looked around to realize that he had seen the boys.
"You mean that this is..." the Human patted the bed then looked over at the game on the projected screen.
"Jakesully's mind." Mo'at spoke softly as it hit him.
"Oh, Crap..." Parkersufferage spoke softly as he started poking at the bedding before swallowing hard. That was when the room started to shift.
"Parkersufferage... Stay calm... Or the memory will shift and we..." Mo'at was unable to finish the sentence as the Human was pulled hard away from her out of the memory.
Mo'at fell through the memories of the various spirits looking for the human. Then she found him.
He had fallen into the memories of another Skyperson.
Grace.
Sufferage felt like he was in a nightmare that was when he realized that he was hooked into some sort of cyber neural link. He had experienced something like this when he had his nervous system tied to a computer once in college with that of a really hot girl he was dating named Alesia. Alesia was a full neuro-connect cyborg and she wanted him to experience the world through her eyes and using a temporary Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) on his head. The sensory fill of it was great, and it lead to an interesting night after he had taken it off and the two had kissed.
It was strange after encountering that female Na'vi Mo'at who was moving around the place with him... That he would be thinking of something like that. But it was that sensation that was sticking to his head of a linked neuro communications technology. The Na'vi didn't have that level of technology. Fuck...then how was this happening.
Winding up in Jake Sully's childhood memories wasn't something he wanted. That was when he fell again after getting scared. Was this what it was like when you were in the throes of death? With that Sufferage felt reality form around him again.
Where he was at now was some sort of field shack... Definitely Pandora...
"Dom... You brought a Squid unit with you?" It was Trudy's voice.
"Oh Thank God... Chacon you are such a good sight to..." Sufferage ran into the bunk area to find a very naked Trudy Chacon straddling an equally undressed Dominic Toretto Riddick.
"...see."
"Trudy... I want you to see the world through my eyes and I yours..."
"But, this..." Trudy felt the skull webbed structure that would go on her head. "Dom... The tech is the same as what the Avatar Drivers use."
"Trudy..." Sufferage reached out and tried to get her attention, but the moment he placed his hand on her shoulder, which he knew would get him slugged by a rather pissed off Marine who was in the mood for some major Lovin. That was when his hand went right through her and came out a few inches above Dominic's crotch. "Okay that was weird." As Sufferage withdrew his hand as the scene continued on.
""Yeah... Trudy... I was thinking about learning what this Tsaheylu means and from what I have learned is that it is the Na'vi equivalent of doing a neural link." Dominic said as he reached over and popped a bottle of scotch.
"So... the Na'vi a like cyborgs, so what?" Trudy spoke softly as she took a swig from the bottle. This was a strange scene to be played out before Sufferage, but if this was the past then it was probably something important. It was as if he was being place somewhere to learn something.
"Tsaheylu is what a Na'vi couple does when they decide to become mates. It is seen as a way of establishing a permanent relationship."
"You mean you want to be in a permanent relationship between..." Trudy snuggled closer to Dominic.
"Yes, and this way afterwards we can dream of whether or not we want to go to the next step." Dominic took a slug from the bottle to build some liquid courage. That was when Trudy giggled as she slid on the rig on her head. That was when there was a crash as Grace rushed in.
"How dare you..." Grace looked like hell. The rushed over and ripped the bottle away from Trudy and tore the rig from Trudy's head. "Now you wish to learn to be like them. To understand them." Grace looked at the rig in disgust and slammed it down on the floor. "You Jarhead... Military... Trigger Happy... Brutes should have learned that before your kind opened up fire on those kids..." Grace was crying as she spat the words to the two unclothed former Marines.
"Grace..." Trudy moved to cover herself up...
"People like you are the reason Mo'at banished me from the Omaticaya clan."
"Oh, My God..." Sufferage realized that this was a memory of the past with that Grace ran off with the bottle. A moment later Trudy chased after her and after a fight between the two of them. Grace broke down in Trudy's arms. Grace's and Trudy's words couldn't be heard, but seeing the female pilot comfort the scientist tore at him.
"Parkersufferage..." Mo'at was standing next to him as she saw Grace's reaction to the events. "I had no idea that took her Banishment so hard." Then the image shifted again as Sufferage was taken outside to the events of the day that lead to Grace's banishment.
Mo'at was coming to grips with seeing Grace's memories. She wasn't so much learning about Parkersufferage's life, but the events of the great pain in her life. What she saw shook her to her core.
What was Eywa's action to her seeing these events?
Then she saw the events around her Eldest Daughter's death.
Grace was happily teaching the children of the village the Skypeople's words of Inglisi. Within the small structure were her daughters Sylwanin and Neytiri. Most of the lesson was introductory language and terms. But what Grace was looking for was to learn more about the Na'vi. The questions she asked illustrated most of this as well as her study of the plants.
Mo'at got a glimpse at times at what Grace was looking for:
Grace was looking for a way to help heal her mother from all the destruction the Skypeople had done to their mother.
There were glimpses of the destruction, but also hope.
Somehow, several of the plants that had gotten tracked back to their mother had taken root and started to repair their world. What caught her attention was the image of a forest made up of nothing but mushrooms that had taken root in one of their deserts.
Realizing this discovery, the idea that other plants could be used to repair the damage done and allow their mother to heal.
That was why Grace was so desperate in pleading to her the day of her Banishment.
Then ParkerSufferage moved through the memory to look outside to see the tree destroyer.
Mo'at could see her daughter's anger, she and ParkerSufferage could see Grace's anger to... ParkerSufferage's predecessor. There was a ruler before him that had caused the loss of Sylwanin. Grace had yelled at him to give her space to speak with the Na'vi.
He was blind to Grace's demands and pleads... then she saw this leader's second... It was the scared one who had tried to destroy the Tree of Souls...
Then Sylwanin out of anger along with her friends decided to set fire to the tree destroyer.
That was when ParkerSufferage started to run when he saw where her daughter and her friends were heading.
They were running to Grace's school.
Sufferage didn't care if this was a vision of the past. He had to stop those guys... Those kids, little prank and given how trigger happy those soldiers were, probably would get them killed. He had to save those kids. He wasn't going to have those children die again.
He had to make it up to Grace...
He had to prevent the deaths, both Human and Na'vi.
How many needless deaths were brought about a decision about greed?
The Ore...
Fuck the Ore...
He had never thought he would run like this.
He had never joined track in school. He had always played golf. But this... You never knew what you were capable of until you were forced to save someone's life.
"Jake... If you are here, please... Help me get a head of these children. "
Mo'at had seen the events play out for this Skyperson.
He truly believed that he could change the past.
She understood his desire to save lives now.
But this was Eywa's way to put pressure on him to force him to learn.
It seemed that the more pressure that you placed upon this Skyperson, the more he changed.
His desires to serve others overwrote his desire to protect himself. Then another set of memories started to show.
He had greed. Greed for the rock that floated the Thundering Mountains. Then she saw the image of the Omaticaya Hometree.
They had a large boulder underneath their home.
They wanted it for something...
The image was blurry about it. Something about a...
It was about building a Hometree... In the sky.
Four of them...
Four large... Hometrees.
To move their numbers from their dying home so that they could...
Save their mother.
The rock was needed to take them to the skies so that they could reduce their numbers down on a Red World that they were planning on making into...
They knew how to restore dead and dying land.
The People hadn't known about this need.
They were messy because they needed the rock to build these hometrees to save their people. Parkersufferage was under pressure to gather the rock under the orders of a great gathering of chieftains called the Stockholders.
They were trying to gather as much as they could.
But the destruction...
They needed to learn better ways of how not to damage the land of the Mother.
When Sufferage sprinted through the doorway of the Na'vi School where he saw Grace in her Avatar.
"Grace..." Sufferage was panting. "Students... In Trouble... Soldiers coming to attack... Very Pissed at Kids..." Sufferage prayed that Grace heard him. That was when the kids came through the door. They were speaking Na'vi.
Grace moved through the class past him. She spoke something in Na'vi before going to English as she looked outside.
"What did you do?" Grace said with great worry in her voice.
Sufferage turned around to see the soldiers coming.
"Grace... Protect the Kids. Get them out of here." Sufferage with those words grabbed a bow and quiver of arrows that was sitting by the door and an Avatar Gear Machete. Thank goodness for Grace's no weapon's policy in the school.
Parker prayed that he had enough strength to pull this bow back and shoot an arrow off. That was when he gritted his teeth and pulled as hard as he could. Feeling the muscles in his weak office worker arms scream as if they were in fire, he let the arrow fly.
The Na'vi made arrow flew and aimlessly missed its target. Cursing and realizing that the soldiers were getting too close. He decided to use the large Machete to at least attack. He had to save those kids. Make things right.
Running like a madman he picked a soldier and swung the blade right through the man's' body. Then he swung again, and again, and again like a swashbuckler of old. The thwap of the blows he bade with his improvised sword drained every muscle in his body. He didn't care if he got the chair for this. He had to make things right.
That was when he heard shooting behind him.
Sufferage turned to see that he had passed right on through the squad of men and not even harmed him. With that Sufferage feel to his knees and screamed.
This was Hell.
He hadn't been able to save those Na'vi kids. Shit... Turok's sister-in-law had been one of those victims and he couldn't save her.
Sufferage Screamed with an anger and sadness that came down in the primordial levels of his soul.
"You tried to save us." A soft broken English female voice could be heard.
Sufferage looked up to see... Several Na'vi standing around him.
"Who are you?" Sufferage looked around him as the strength drained from his body.
"I am Sylwanin, Daughter of Mo'at of the Omaticaya Clan." The Tall Na'vi Teenager knelt down by Sufferage. "Why are you in the memories of the past? They cannot be changed."
"I wanted to make things right." Sufferage said though his tears. "To stop the deaths that had occurred by my people and make things right."
"Make things right..." The Na'vi placed a hand on Sufferage's back. "That is for the living. We the Dead... Have to exist knowing our actions have had repercussions to those who remain."
"So... this is the Na'vi afterlife." Sufferage looked around and reached up to his face and didn't feel a mask. "So I am dead."
"No Taw tute, you are still alive. Eywa has brought you here to learn."
"But to learn what?" Sufferage looked into the Na'vi's eyes.
"To see who you are." It was Grace's voice. Sufferage looked up to see Grace in her human form before him.
"Grace, how did you?" Sufferage looked around him to realize that he was sitting now in the Avatar Village.
"Eywa is looking at you with her eyes. To see your soul." Grace spoke as she was no longer in her human body but her Avatar body and motioned for him to sit on the edge of her Avatar bed. Sylwanin sat down on the opposite bed.
"Sufferage, your memories are an open book to Eywa. See, Eywa isn't just the Na'vi Goddess. She is one very large organism that we have been tearing into, a Super organism much like the ancient coral reefs on Earth. She and the Na'vi are parts of each other." Sufferage was starting to get the feeling that he was about to get the really dumb down version of what Grace was about to teach him.
Jake Sully was moving through the Tree of Spirits.
Crap... Sufferage was a hard one to get a hold of.
Finding Mo'at she had filled him in on finding Sufferage reliving the memories of the day where the Skypeople had attacked Grace's school.
She spoke of how Sufferage decided to protect Grace's students in the memories of the events. But Mo'at eldest daughter who had died during that massacre had taken Sufferage someplace and they needed to find him. It wasn't until he felt Grace's memories pull at him that he and Mo'at had found Sufferage sitting in the Avatar village.
"I had no idea that... Grace... do you know what this means... fuck... you just advanced computer technology by..." Sufferage was looking around as Jake entered the compound and Sufferage looked far from being the greedy bastard he had once knew.
"Sully..." Sufferage bear hugged the crap out Jake's chest. "I am glad to see you man." There was a pause as Jake watched as Grace just smirked at him and chuckled a little at the scene before everybody. "I thought you had gone native..." Sufferage pulled away and did his best to tap Jake on the Shoulder. "...I mean..." Sufferage was trying his best to keep a level head. "When I saw that image of you smashing the camera. I didn't know that you were trying to protect a discovery you made. I mean the Na'vi have neural computer technology that you were trying to tell me about and I didn't listen. You accessed it. Crap... Grace. You found out that the Na'vi have organic computer technology and they use it to make backup copies of their minds..." That was when he saw Mo'at. "No wonder you guys were pissed at us. We were trashing the archive of your people's civilization with all of our digging. And me pushing that control that destroyed that Tree that Jake was by."
"You are now beginning to see our world." Mo'at spoke with a tone of sternness. "But there is much to be done to atone for your past actions as a people." Sufferage looked away in shame realizing that he had copped to being the one that had cut down the tree.
"Sufferage, listen you are still tied to that tree and we need to get you out of here." Jake said as he looked over at Grace.
"It was nice to see you again Grace." Grace nodded in her Avatar form.
"Yeah Jarhead. Listen Tell Trudy that... She was right. And be nice to Neytiri, I have seen the memories of her Mother." With that Grace turned to Mo'at. " Mo'at. Just when Jake and Neytiri decide to have children, remember there is a time to unleash them for them to learn a lesson or two about parenting." Mo'at grinned at this.
"I will GraceAugustine. Be with Eywa." Mo'at spoke as she looked at her now ageless daughter. "Sylwanin, my daughter. I miss you every day, but knowing your spirit is here make's your loss bearable."
"I see you Mother. Till we meet forever when you pass into the Mother Light. I will ask Eywa to watch over you and Sister."
"Speaking of Eywa... Sufferage, I think she wants to have a word with you before you get back in your body." Grace said as she reached over and walked with Sylwanin into ray of light leaving the three living minds there to see that it was time for them to take Sufferage back to his body. With that Mo'at nodded as she and Jake took Sufferage by the hand and walked him out of the Spirit World version of the Avatar Village to their next destination.
Sergeant CJ Clarke had been assigned to watch Sufferage during his excursion to the Na'vi base camp to ensure he was safe.
The entire meeting with Turok Macdo was supposed to go as planned, until the young Na'vi girl who had shown up in camp earlier had rushed back.
Between her speaking in her native language so fast, that one of the older Adult Na'vi who knew English had to translate for them.
What had been translated was that a rebel group of Na'vi had grabbed Sufferage and had drugged the Avatar translator and the Na'vi messenger sent to get them.
Having a small medical team check on the Avatar Driver and the Na'vi youth. CJ had seen Jake Sully, who had himself strapped to the back of a Banshee for mobility reasons and had been able to gather a search party consisting of both Human and Na'vi to track down Sufferage.
After several minutes of using a group of small domesticated Thanators, they were able to get a scent and were able to track it to a group of trees.
What CJ saw could be best termed as a horror movie. Sufferage had been tied up and somehow the Na'vi had been able to get the tree to start growing around him.
CJ had heard stories about the plant life on this planet growing with a mind of its own. But seeing this. It was as if the plant life didn't just have a mind, it had a will. Seeing Jake Sully dismount from his Banshee and rush over along with an elder Na'vi leader, they somehow decided to get pulled in. The elder female Na'vi attached her cue braid to the glowing tendrils of the tree around Sufferage's chest while Jake started to pull several of the soft branches and start to shove them into the back of his neck. After several moments the Tree started to fully glow like someone had lit up a floodlight inside of the thing.
Several of the Na'vi who had accompanied them and had detained the traitors started to chant something as a swarm of Jellyfish type seeds started to swarm around. It was as if an unseen, unfelt wind was pushing them as the seeds started to bash against each other in such as way that it was like two swarms of instincts were dueling over who was right.
It was as if whatever was going on was a battle for Sufferage's soul. Between him and the tree. Then... the seeds started to slow down. It was as if a balance had been found as the seeds started to group into a single mass before drifting away.
The moment that happened, the glowing branches of the tree started to pull away from Sufferage's body. Then Jake Sully leaned forward as Several Na'vi warriors and human Medics moved in to help the Humans up and guide the elder Na'vi leader away from the monster tree.
After a long moment as the tree who had challenged the tree were placed in locations where they all could be examined Sufferage turned towards them and spoke.
"Sergeant... Contact Hell's Gate and tell them to get Dr. Patel on the line." The Sergeant did what he was told and brought a radio over to Sufferage. And Sufferage took the unit and placed it next to his mask. "Max... I need you to dig through all of that data you have on the Avatars. I need to know if you can grow a Na'vi. An infant to be precise." The Sergeant looked Sufferage worried.
"Sir Cloning of that scale is illegal and..." Sufferage raised his hand.
"And permissible to several years in prison." Sufferage finished the sentence. "I know, Sergeant. But right now I understand why I was attacked." With that Sufferage pointed to the female leader of the group that had abducted him. "That woman has lost her child, her mate... And God's knows what else due to our actions. I know that I can't bring back her husband, but her child. That is something I want to return to her. She suffered a miscarriage and I want to give her baby back with our magic." There was a long pause on the other end.
"Sufferage you mean..." Dr. Patel paused for a long time before he continued.
"That she went into premature labor mid-pregnancy? I got the entire gory story from experiencing her memories while being sucked into that bio-mechanical computer of a tree I was tied to." There was a long sigh from Sufferage. "Yes Max... The baby wasn't even fully developed. And from what I have seen from Graces' last discovery, the Na'vi have the ability to upload their memories to a sort of living computer network. Max, she wanted to kill me while I was interfaced into this living computer network and trap me in there. Somehow, someway, Sully and one of his friends saved my life." There was a long Pause. "Max... I saw what was left of Grace. She is in there but, I think being where she is important for helping shape things to come. I got enough sense to figure out what this distressed woman wanted and saw some of the Reader's Digest condensed version of what some of what the RDA Security forces have done here. Thirty Years Max... God... Thirty years of stuff that I am trying to keep my lunch down trying not to mention. I know that we possess technology that allows us to upload a mind to an Avatar, but could you rig something up so that we can make a copy of this information so that I can use this as evidence so I can put pressure on the Stockholders to at least listen to the plan that I have." With that Sully spoke up as he was being checked out by the medics.
"Yeah Parker, I think you better fill me in on the plan while I get you ready to meet Toruk Makto." Sufferage understood this and sighed.
"You bring me up to speed on that." Sufferage turned his attention to the radio again. "Max keep me informed on what you can fish up tech wise on the cloning and the tools you need for the download, I'll see what I can do to keep the arrows from flying your way at Hell's Gate." With that seeing several Na'vi warriors move around them. Sufferage knew that he was at the point of making this deal work and not at the cost of his life. He didn't need to meet his afterlife again. "Yeah... Sully, so how much damage did Quaritch do to the link chambers? Because I really don't want to wind up on Toruk Makto's main menu" Sully exhaled hard.
"You better see for yourself." With that Sully started to rub the neck of his Banshee.
"Well after meeting the Na'vi Goddess herself. Nothing will surprise me."
"Yeah..." Sully spoke with a grin. "Well you are going to learn a lot. So ever take shop in High School?" The sinking gut feeling that CJ had at those words made him wince.
"I'll go and get the work gloves out of the Sampson." Sufferage just turned to Sully slowly.
"That bad..."
"You'll see." Was all that Sully would say as the entire group headed back to the camp built around the site of The Tree of Souls.
Next Chapter: Song of Healing.
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