Chapter VI: The Storm of Secrets.
The next two days, Grace made sure to arrange the schedule so a science team would head out to the location of their meeting, avoiding suspicion by placing other Avatar drives names' on the list and moving the coordinates slightly south. She also made certain those drivers knew she would be going out there alone, and that one of them would need to feign sickness or injury. So dedicated was her team though, the morning before the mission the agreed upon driver really twisted her Avatar's ankle while doing exercises. It was on short notice then that Grace learned of the accident and went in the driver's place, eliciting curses from Wainfleet who had to rush to go with them.
"Your superiors aren't going to like you going out on your own so soon." He said as they stood now in the Pandoran jungles.
"Look we all have a job to do, it's why we are here what we're paid for, so let me do my job." She shrugged him off. Wainfleet had no answer for that so as ordered he stayed behind to watch the majority of the team while Grace ventured off alone. It was dangerous to leave the relative safety of the Sampson, and foolish to trek alone through the jungles such a distance, but Grace had to find him. She would take the risk, if only to be able to talk to him again, to tell him the truth. She moved swiftly, almost recklessly, but her ears were always alert. She needn't have feared however, there were five Na'vi above her, watching her every move and keeping safe her journey away from the other sky people. They had long ago heard the Sampson landing and went to meet it. When Grace found a particularly rough spot to cross at the bank of a river, three Na'vi dropped to the ground all around her, eliminating the need to cross and outright scarring the crap out of her. Kea'Peyral was among them.
"I see you Grace." He smiled, Grace was still breathing heavily, holding her hand to her chest.
"It's you!" She gasped in English but not in accusation, not in relief, no, as she actually looked upon him- as she once again stood face to face- she recognized his Avatar's eyes. The gait of the body, the way he carried himself, and his outer appearance may have all changed but behind his eyes was still the same person she had long ago grown to love. As she looked at him now, covered head to toe in terrible scars, she was overwhelmed with a regret and worry for him. She remembered too clearly the day he had raised his hand when she asked for volunteers, without hesitation, without reservations. Thought she had detailed the dangers, though she had vowed to herself to take responsibility for each of their lives as they trusted them in her hands, he more then anyone else had given everything for her program. He was as much the poster boy of the Avatar program as she was the mother, so closely was he intertwined with making sure all of their work actually worked. He always held a place of respect in her heart, and she felt that place die when she buried the remains of his human body. But now. There he was, right in front of her. The same happy go lucky smile, the same kind hearted fool she had always known.
Grace grabbed him in her strongest hug, not caring about the confused looks she received for it. "You damned idiot, you great big stupid moron!" She laid the side of her head against him, holding him safe. "Why did it have to be you? It should have been me!" She grieved anew, soft tears falling. "It should have been me." He looked at her with utter shock and confusion on his face, uncertainty stilled him except for his hands which reflexively held onto her in return. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry you had to go through all of this." She breathed. He didn't speak as she cursed herself for the true idiot, he did not move away from her as she took his arms and looked into his eyes, he did not even blink when she told him his name. The Na'vi collectively stood in silence as Grace spoke to Kea'Peyral in English, shaking him, holding him, crying onto him. They looked at each other questioningly for they all thought the same thing. She acted as mate, or perhaps his mother, but the words she said did not seem to reach Kea'Peyral who stood looking at her blankly. Grace repeated words to him, but he only continued to look to her. Finally, he said, "I do not remember that."
Grace looked at him sadly, though her tears stopped, "I'll tell you everything."
Kea'Peyral shook his head, "You do not have too. We sent riders to the Omaticaya the same day we were to meet with you, they have returned. They have told us much." Now Grace looked at him in confusion. Kea'Peyral's face was gentle in his rage, for the other Na'vi now well knew the terrible price he had paid for the sky people and how they had repaid it. Kea'Peyral took Grace's hand softly, "We have much to speak about, but not here. It is not safe here, you will come back with us to the village." Grace looked to him and saw a regret she hadn't placed before. "There is much we must speak about." Without a word Grace allowed him to lift her, and soundly leapt across the river. He carried her like one would a small child with ease, he moved swiftly even under her weight. They entered the clearing which was the original meeting place, and Grace was set to ride with another's Ikran even as Kea'Peyral rode with Kn'indy who waited for him.
They took flight and made the long trek across the forests, arriving at the village long before nightfall. There she was led to a large tent, set higher upon the level ground where the elders waited for them. The chief and spiritual leader sat with another Na'vi Grace recognized from the Omaticaya clan, a young man named Tsu'tey. He, Kea'peyral and other Na'vi took seats around a deeply set stone circle in the ground. Tsu'tey looked at them with interest as they came in, though she could see the beginnings of a permanent frown to his features. They all sat around the circle, and the chief made a show of looking to all seated around her. She was dressed elegantly in a chest wrap, red paint, and other ornaments. "We are here now to speak of the sky people and the journey of one of their Dreamwalkers who was wronged by his own and the Omaticaya greatly." The Olo'eytkan said. Grace knit her brow, but did not speak. The chief then motioned to Tsu'tey, who stood.
"I was there when he and Grace told the Omaticaya of the sky people's destruction near our lands. They told us before of the divide in the sky people, those who came to learn and those who came for the stones beneath the ground. We were angry!" He gestured strongly, "They who came before the dream walkers wanted only to learn of us, to speak with us and spoke nothing of the stone beneath the ground! We saw the smoke, and we saw the lights, but we did not know of the murders they were committing. Destroying whole forests, taking life without care!" He then looked to both, "but these Dreamwalkers said they did not know of their plans, knew nothing of their desire for the stones." Grace frowned. That wasn't entirely true, they certainly had scientific objectives, but they well knew the metal was what really drove the backing for the missions. The scientific missions were barely excuse enough for the corporations, though they were greatly toted above the more 'plunderous' side.
It was true the initial explorations of Pandora were years gone, as was the first shaky contact with the Na'vi but it was only after the Avatar program was created that talks with the Na'vi held any meaningful results. She was able to set up her school, teach many of the people English even as she and others learned Na'vi. But that was all before the incident. Grace had been on Pandora for a long time, learning about Na'vi biology and culture, they knew a little of the language back then but real contact with the Na'vi including venturing into their lands was nearly impossible for the sky people. The Na'vi were weary of the sky people from the beginning, and seeing the destruction of the forest where the sky people made their home made it ever harder. With the Avatars though, they were curious enough to allow the sky people's Na'vi to visit. Perhaps forging a false instant trust by appearing like them, it was a bit deceptive, but Grace had never known about the expanding mining plans. She was far too busy getting the Avatar program up and running back on earth. It took five years to get to Pandora, and that long home again.
Grace had made the trip back to earth reluctantly, but the development could only be done there. Who knew what the RDA had done or planned in all the time she was gone and working on the Avatar Program? She began the program on Pandora, sending back development ideas and getting the whole thing started through communications. Once it reached the critical testing phase she had to return. Sure it had only taken two years to get the cutting edge work started and finished, but Grace had been with the program the ten years it took to get it right, plus the ten years it took to go and return. He spent all the time she was returning to earth working however, so technically, he had physically worked on the Project longer then she herself. Still, it took five years to get back to Pandora and she didn't plan on ever leaving again. Tsu'tey ended his tale of the Omaticaya's dealings with the sky people by coming to the very incident which caused Grace's school to close down, when the two Dreamwalkers told Eytukan of the Sky people plot to begin "strip mining".
Even if it was off the Omaticaya lands, the Na'vi were angry, then they had told them exactly what "strip mining" was, then the Na'vi were furious. They could not do such a thing to Eywa, it was beyond reason and thought! Raised voices lead to the Na'vi crowding in to hear, which led to more outrage, and the sky people became afraid. They tried to withdraw the Dreamwalkers, angry at them for telling the Na'vi of their secrets, the Na'vi grew angrier and tried to stop them from leaving so they could explain why such a thing had to be done. One of the sky people fired, then everyone was running and shouting. Tsu'tey spoke then of how the Omaticaya returned fire to protect their people, yet still there were some who were angry and felt betrayed by the Dreamwalkers who they had come to trust and learn from, when the sky people split apart, they gave chase. Tsu'tey grew quieter. "It was I who made sure Grace was not harmed as my Father asked, but I did not see what became of the other. When we found him, it was too late. One of my people, in his rage, leapt upon him as his body fell limp and cut his braid."
Grace's eyes widened. She knew the Avatar body falling limp meant that was when Quaritch had physically pulled them out. Could it have been the reason he was transported into his Na'vi body? The mental break down coupled with the trauma of severing the neural whips? It was a dual severing of connections, perhaps even at the same time, but the severe pain from the Avatar body, from the cut, must have been what drew the free floating mind into that body over the other. Such strong pain, it demanded a survival reaction… but the process itself… who knew what damage there was to the brain? What processes were shunted if anything at all actually wrote itself correctly into the foreign brain? It shouldn't have been possible for the human brain to correctly settle itself.
It was one thing for the Na'vi brain which began experiencing the worlds' sights and sounds when the Driver took control to transfer over to human and back to remember because the human brain experienced what the Na'vi brain did at the same time, viewing it with their own seated consciousness which is what causes the fatigue from suddenly writing all the experiences of the day from the Na'vi brain back to the human brain all at once when they returned back to their original body. Yet memories which were originally written into the human brain that the Na'vi hybrid brain never actually experienced had no purchase in the Na'vi brain unless the human brain 'remembered' them while Na'vi, making memories not remembered while operating the Na'vi brain harder to remember. Therefore, if a human brain were suddenly thrust whole onto a Na'vi brain it was no wonder there was a disconnection! Recollection was hard enough without the trauma of neural severing, let alone the strange mental insatiability that afflicted his normal brain.
When Grace heard his own tale of how he came to join the Ikran people of the eastern sea, she barely felt the pity and worry for him, so busy was she thinking about the possibilities. Finally the chief motioned to Grace and asked her to share her tale which Kea'Peyral did not remember. Grace's Na'vi was halting as she tried to explain, even as her mind worked quickly over the puzzle that was Kea'Peyral's mind. Grace spoke a great deal of the other world they came from, the reasons they came, and then she detailed how she and Kea'Peyral worked together to bridge the gap between the sky people and the Na'vi. All of them listened with interest, including Kea'Peyral himself. Sometimes the chief would ask questions, clarify something, or wait for Grace to explain something for which she wasn't certain how to in Na'vi. There were concepts she simply could not translate, things she had no way of conveying. But as she began to talk about him, he grew more and more lost in her words. She could see recollection in his eyes sometimes, but mostly she saw a confused concentration as she told him all he had forgotten.
Behind them, as Grace spoke and night approached, many Na'vi gathered sitting to hear the tales. Many stopped working, and even forwent eating to listen of the strange sky people. Tsu'tey confirmed a lot of what Grace said, having heard it before when the sky people first talked with the Omaticaya. When she was finished there was a great deal of silence, every now and again, a question or clarification and then the chief asked Kea'Peyral if he wished to have his name back. Grace was confused by this, but Kea'Peyral's reply confused her even more. "I have heard all Doc'orGraceAg'stine has said but I can not think these things are me. If it is as she says, then Eywa did not give me purpose in these storms… it was the sky people who cursed me with them, within this body." Grace's brow furrowed and she looked like she wanted to shake him out of it but he continued.
"When she says these things of the sky person I was, I find feelings, and see sights but always they are within the storm. When I think of myself and my feelings that are Na'vi, I see who I am. Kn'indy calls me, storm rider for this… this beast I once was and have bonded with. But I do not see myself as this beast. I am not the storm." He looked to Grace then, his face as stone. "You have said you buried the ashes of this sky person you knew."
Grace nodded, looking at him so pityingly. "Yes." She breathed.
"Then let him stay dead. He is not me." Kea'Peyral stood then, paying respects to all there and left. They did not try to stop him.
…
Kn'indy caught up with me as I hurried through our people out to the cliffs. I was walking quickly, my mind and heart racing. I heard her calling for me; "My Storm Rider!" But I did not stop until she said it a third time. When she came to me I could see the mask of pain reflected on her from me. She knew what burned and twisted in my heart more then anyone. "Why do you run from your name?" She nearly cried.
"Because it is not mine to claim!" I said just as forcefully. She looked confused and would not let me turn from her; "Every part of me just wanted to run from there, away from Grace, away from the sky people who abandoned me, from the Na'vi who have slain who I once was. I can not face it! Lies, it is all lies!" She tried to hold my arm but I moved away from her.
"It is your past, it will always be a part of you." she said soothingly.
I shook my head fiercely, "A past of pain trapped in a maze of 'Insanity' which I do not wish for!" Kn'indy shied from me slightly as I raised my voice; I dropped it quickly at her reaction. "My Kn' you know me better than any other, you have saved me from suffering at the hands of the sky people and the Na'vi. Can you not see that I do not belong to either of them? My hands which shape my world are Na'vi, scarred; my feet which carry me through it are 'human'. I am not a Child of Eywa, nor am I born of the Sky people! I am something else, something neither world wants!" I was yelling now, and realized the others looked to me. I turned from them, out over the sea. "Even if I wanted to I could not go back to the sky people. You heard Grace's words; they have burned and buried my body. I can never go back to what… or who I was. There is no place for me, even among the Na'vi. I am not Eywa's son. She did not make me, does not want me, this is why my bond does not work. This is why I loose myself, it is Eywa's anger, her punishment. -I am not wanted here.-" I silenced, looking out over the crashing waves and the far drop.
"You are wanted here." Kn'indy said quietly.
I looked to her then and held back the tears, "No, my Kn' only you want me here… and I do not know why you have chosen me of all our- … your people." Kn'indy's face suddenly became somber, her eyes hiding a deep pain. I froze when I saw it, and so quickly was it gone I quested if it was truly there. "My Kn'…" I whispered.
Kn'indy stopped reaching for me then, My Storm Rider, there is…" She wrapped her arms around herself, the soft glow of the lights on her body brightening in the darkening world around us. "…there is something you must know."
I looked to her so strongly, feeling a fear grip my heart. That was when we heard the sound of the Plane. The people came from the tent all looking up as the whine of the machine sailed over the trees, the long lights flashing over the ground and us, 'Dr. Grace Augustine!' a voice cried over the speakers. I should have recognized they were coming for her, I should have known they would seek her though she did not say they would, but the moment I saw the machine come over the trees, heard the loud howl of its 'engines' and was struck by the unnatural brightness… the storms rolled through me. The people were screaming, gun shots rang throughout, bodies moved everywhere. Sounds echoed, my vision blurred, lights swam before me. Grace was running beside me. "Oh god their shooting!" She said. I sucked in my breath, turning in confusion, I felt the bullet hit my leg, the shock of pain threw me to the ground. Grace was at my side, pulling me, I pushed her away.
"Run Grace! RUN!" And I too stood and was running. Running. Running!
…
Grace heard the Sampson clear the trees, and cursed herself for forgetting they would miss and search for her. She was too wrapped up in all that was happening, and the questions upon questions of the miracle. When she came out of the tent the Na'vi were swarming around their Ikran's ready to take flight and repel the invading sky people's beast. The chief was calling for her people to be calm, Tsu'tey was sneering, Grace assured them they were only searching for her- she had come to the Na'vi in secret and had not expected to be taken to their home. 'Dr. Grace Augustine!' The voice repeated over the speakers. And suddenly someone else was screaming; "Run Grace! RUN!" Grace turned seeing Kea'Peyral thrashing as if he had been shot, his eyes did not see, and suddenly he was running. A jolt of understanding hit her, a memory, he had said the exact same thing before his braid was cut… his mind was damaged, a part of his nervious system severed, that kind of trauma… he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and relieving the nightmare of that day so long ago!
Grace wanted to follow him, even as she saw Kn'indy and two others give chase. But bows were being lifted, and the chief was shouting orders. Grace had no choice but to stay and try to calm the situation down before a fight began. Trudy was the pilot and though she tried to keep her distance, she had Wainfleet with her… and he enjoyed carnage. Grace tried to reassure the chief and ran out into the clearing waving her arms. The Sampson came close then, the search lights falling onto her as the people spread away from the Sampson's landing. Grace was forcibly pulled on by Wainfleet and the other Avatar, even as she protested and tried to tell them what she was doing. Wainfleet ordered them out of there and Trudy had to obey. The Sampson slowly lifted into the sky, even as Grace cried out and Kea'Peyral flew into the darkening jungle. She called out to him as he disappeared, saying his name over and over, swallowed by the sound of the Sampson's engines and the wind. As she gave in to enraged sobs, Trudy reported over the radio back to Hell's gate.
"Target acquired, negative collateral damage, no pursuit." she said.
…elsewhere her voice came in over a small radio. Two figures stood starring at one another, alone in a darkened office; one with livid white scars across the right side of his face, the other, rubbing his temples and starring at a floating paper weight more valuable then a years' salary. "…and they're sure?" The sitting figure finally said, meekly, not wanting to hear the answer.
"Labs already confirmed it was a hybrid body. I'd bet my left hand that's who she's sneaking off to see, and they ain't just chatting about the fine Pandora weather." Selfridge cupped his hands over his face at Quaritch's words. They were silent for a long while.
"…has there been any change in the body?"
Quaritch shifted, "Still comatose as a potato in a pickle jar." Selfridge leaned forward, staring blankly into a screen which showed a floating body lined with tubes and wires. His body.