Hello everyone! ^^ I´m finally back and it feels good! I have a lot of stress but nothing can hold me back now! ;) I´m afraid I screwed my math-exam up, my math teacher made some weird clues I didn´t understand but I can´t get rid of the feeling that he said something negative. Well, keep your fingers crossed for me! Let´s take a peek at the new chapter: I hope you enjoy reading and review.

Here we go!


Jake´s POV

I didn´t know why but I couldn´t get rid of the feeling that something was going on and nobody bothered to tell me. As if you enter a room full of people and all of them know a secret, all but you. I opened my link unit and rubbed my eyes, then I looked around. The whole center was empty, there was not a soul to be seen. I turned half around to take a peek at the clock on the wall and groaned, it was already 4 a.m. and Neytiri expected me at sunrise.

I sighed and lifted myself out of the link unit, sitting down into my wheelchair.

A few steps on my left another link unit opened and I remembered that my baby sister was still there. I wheeled over to Anna but my „Be careful!" was caught up in my throat when she literally fell out of the link unit, pulling the cap she was holding on to down with her.

I could only grab her arm and break her fall with my body so she landed pretty hard on me, pressing the breath out of my lungs. She hit her shin on the armrest and the cap closed with a loud crash.

„Ow...", Anna whined and rubbed her shin. „I´m sorry Jake, I..." „I´m alright, princess.", I pressed out, still a bit puffed. I lifted her off of my chest and stroke some hair out of her face. Her cheeks were pale, and she looked exhausted but not as much as she did before when I saw her in Mo`ats chambers.

I´d been more than surprised when Tsu`tey arrived and asked me to look after my sister who collapsed. And there this little feeling entered the stage again.

I mustered my little sis who had a hard time holding her head straight and wondered why nobody told me what kind of breakdown she had. Was it because of Tsu`tey bullying her or the training? And why was she upstairs the hometree and not out in the forest to train?

„Jake, can you please let go? It´s really uncomfortable to sit this way.", Anna said and ripped me out of my thoughts. I let go of her arm so she was able to sit upright instead of sitting prone over my chest.

„Sorry, sis...", I said and helped her standing up.

The entrance door flew open and crashed against wall and suddenly the room was full of scientists. They swamped inside like a big white wave and surrounded us asking thousend of questions at the same time.

Even before I knew what was happening, Norm and Max stormed over to us, followed by a red-faced Grace.

„We heard the crashing, thank god you´re finally here! We thought somebody ate you alive." Norm and Max grabbed Annas arms and led her over to a chair. Strangely all the other scientists stepped back to give them more space, then they closed in a circle around them again. I wanted to yell something, I´d seen Annas face when they´d pulled her away and though she´d been pale before, her face became white.

But Grace put her hand onto my shoulder and crouched down infront of me.

„What´s going on in here?", I asked furiously and tried to take a peek at Anna.

„Can´t you leave her alone? Her day had been hard enough!", I said but Grace didn´t listen.

„What...happened...to...Anna?", she asked with a deadly serious face and stared right into my eyes. I didn´t know what to answer, her question irritated me. But then I understood what she meant.

The scientist team monitored Annas sometic functions the whole day long so they saw it when she had a breakdown.

„She collapsed.", I answered. „That was all what Tsu`tey said when he came looking for me." Then I wheeled past her, pushing the other scientists out of my way. I didn´t mind their angry looks, they had no business staring at my sister as if she was an animal in zoo.

Anna sat on the chair, heartbreakingly scared and deathly pale. Max and Norm tried to calm the other scientists or even pushed them away when they attempted to bounce at her. That made me go crazy.

„Listen up, idiots!", I yelled, as loud as I could. The others turned over to me, surprised and irritated. „All of you leave right NOW! My sister is no funfair attraction and I swear by god, I´ll floor you if you don´t LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Grace and Max helped me with shooing them out of the center while Norm rubbed Annas arms and cheeks to stimulate the blood flow. I was tempted to yell at him too for touching her that way but I knew he meant only well instead of that annoying gazers.

Anna massaged her temples and I knew she was so down and close to tears, that she was maybe close to another collapse. „Please, make them go away...", she whined silently and Norm grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly.

But some of those scientists dared to debate so we couldn´t get them out as fast as I wanted. „We all have a right to know what happened to her! It´s a medical miracle!", a young woman yelled at Grace, earning a flow of cusswords from her. „Don´t you see she doesn´t fell well? She needs rest and her brother who takes care of her so get out!"

Max locked the doors to be sure that nobody could get in anymore. Then he turned around, drew some clear liquor up into a syringe and injected it into Annas left crook of the arm. I watched her making a face of pain, then she sighed and leaned back. I wheeled over to Max and asked: „What was that?" and nodded into the syringes direction. „A weak sedative.", he said to calm me and sat down next to Anna, sighing and rubbing his eyes.

Then he turned his attention back to Anna and started to order her around. „Please sit upright, now touch your fingertips with your thumbs...yeah, that´s good. Okay, now open your eyes wide." He grabbed a pocket flashlight and examined Annas eyes. While the whole procedure he looked as solemn as a judge, then he leaned back and shrugged his shoulders.

Grace stepped next to him and sighed. „Nothing, hm?", she asked and scratched her neck absently, though she looked relieved. Max nodded. „She´s completely well, no indications of complications. Obviously she´d been favored by fortune." I mustered Anna worriedly and was relieved to see, that her cheeks showed a soft red and she didn´t wear this diffident expression anymore.

As if they´d taken off their worries like a coat, Norm and Grace sat down. While Norm pulled his chair next to Anna, Grace made herself bluntly comfortable on a control panel.

„Well, I want an explanation. What was that a minute ago?", I asked and pointed into the entrance doors direction. Grace pulled her cigarettes out of her pocket and lighted one, taking a deep pull.

„Norm and me...we ended our stint around noon. We had some lunch and were about to examine the new samples in the laboratory, when the alert siren started.

It notified irregular heartbeats, apnea and disturbed brainwaves." She took a deep breath as if it was the hardest task a scientist could face.

„Then we lost her. Suddenly she stopped breathing and had no pulse."

I felt my jaw drop a little more with every word she said. „Your sister was dead for five minutes." She must be joking..., I thought and looked over to my sister. Anna didn´t listen. Her head leaned on the chairback, her eyes were closed and she breathed silently. Obviously the sedative helped, she really needed some sleep. It´s better for her to sleep, maybe she´d have another collapse if she´d hear that she had been dead.

„How can that be?", I asked a bit breathless. „I mean, I know that resuscitation exists, with the electroshocks and so on. But I´ve never heard that someone´s dead and after five minutes the body functions reconstitute."

Norm shrugged his shoulders but I could see that he was totally logy. „We all held our breath and thought: no! You should´ve seen the team, they all crowded around Annas link unit and waited. I guess some of them even burst into tears but after a while the monitors showed a pulse and a steady breathing.", he explained and send a nearly reverently glance over to Anna.

I rubbed my eyes. „That explains their reaction. It really is a miracle.", I said and remembered the young woman who´d refused to leave without any answers. Grace nodded. „We were afraid to pull her out of the link unit, though the room was full of scientists we were thunderstrucked and didn´t know what to do." She took a hasty pull on her cigarette as if the memories pushed her into a hysterical outburst.

I felt tso tired, I didn´t even try to hold it back and had a good yawn, stretching my arms over my head. I wanted to know what happened, I really wanted, just as much as Grace or Max. But I knew that sitting here all night and debating the fact that my sisters collapse had been a riddle would lead nowhere. So I wheeled over to Anna and shook her slightly. She grumbled and didn´t react but then I shook her a bit more whispering: „Anna, come on, you can sleep when you´re in bed." Her eyes remained closed, her arms hanging down as if they were made of lead.

„Nighty night...", she mumbled and followed me out of the room. Anna didn´t bother to open her eyes so I held her hand, leading her along the hallways. I even opened he door for her and helped her up into the second floor of our bed.

Then there was silence for a moment until she turned around to face me and mumbled: „Jake, have you seen my pajamas?" I looked around and but couldn´t find it. Then I crouched down and took a peek under the bed and there it was, a bundle in the corner. She´d wanted to throw it onto my matress this morning, leaving in hurry, but unluckily it landed under my bed so I had a hard time to grab it for her.

While I labored, Anna started getting out of her clothes and threw them down from her bed. Her socks, her t-shirt, when I leaned back in my wheelchair she dropped her jeans onto my head. I threw it into the corner and handed her the pajamas when she reached her hand down from the second floor. She patted my head and murmured „Night, Jake.", then she grabbed the pajamas turned around under sheets and fell asleep.

I sighed, pulled myself out of the wheelchair and tried to get out of my clothes too but it was a hard task without being able to move my legs. Then I turned off the light, anew frustrated. I´d learned to move without my legs, it had been necessary to help my family. The years after my mothers death had been difficult for the three of us and I had no time to be depressed because of my disability.

I stared into the darkness. A lot of things had happened today, by a close shave I´d lost my sister and couldn´t have done anything against it.

You can´t even carry her into bed when she´s too tired to walk., I thought and it hurted. I turned over to face the wall and closed my eyes, trying to sleep. Tomorrow I would meet up with Quaritch again, I got some new informations and he needed to know. I hated guys like him, I´ve never been into being used for dirty business but Quaritch was mighty. He could give me healthy legs and that would open new possibilities. Back on earth, I would be able to create a new life for Anna, I would be able to work again so Anna could go to college and study. Everything would be alright.


Annas POV

I spent the following three days like a prisoner in her cell, completely shielded from the world. Jake ordered me to stay in bed and though I was often tempted to refuse, the strange expression of anxious worry nipped my resistance in the mud. So I stayed in bed and spent three days with reading and music. Surprisingly my body was totally exhausted, I felt literally burned out.

So being touched by a goddess was not only exhausting for your mind but rather for your body.

I lay in Jakes bed, so I wasn´t forced to climb down the bedframe when somebody knocked onto the door. After my „collapse" Jake acted like a helicopter mom. Controlling my food and everybody who got near our door. He´d ordered me to lock the door and opened it only if Norm, Grace or Max visited to look after me. Before I was allowed to open I should ask for the password, so did I when it knocked again. I sighed, lay my book down and lifted myself from the matress. My knees were still shaky, so I literally stumbled over to the door until I was able to steady myself on the wall.

„Password?", I asked and grinned when a male voice answered in Navi: „Tsu`tey´s an idiot." Jaske and the others had decided that a password in Navi would be more reliable and then my dear older brother chose the famous sentence.

Tsu`tey´s an idiot..., I thought and unlocked the door while smiling to myself. I couldn`t disagree with Jake, Tsu`tey really was an idiot but not a bad person, he showed it to me when Eywa had visited me. Norm sneaked inside and closed the door hastily. „Lock it!", he gasped and I´d just turned the key in the keyhole when somebody tried to open the door from outside.

I frowned and looked over my shoulder where a breathless Norm sank onto one of our two chairs. „What is going on out there?", I asked and pointed at the door.

Norm made a scornful face, something I´d never seen before. „Most of our scientists can´t wait to pelt you with their questions, luckily Jake told you to lock the door. Otherwhise you would be compelled to move into the bathroom.", he said and smirked, handing me my lunch. I sat down across from him and stared down onto the meal: rice with indian curry. Norm seemed to feel my disconcertment and smiled comfortingly.

„Don´t worry, they´ll stop haunting you in a few days. As longs as neither Grace or Max give them any informations the fire won´t rise again." I picked at my food listlessly and wondered why everybody was so interested in my little „collapse". Nobody knew what really happened, only Mo`at and Tsu`tey so I was a bit scared of all the others acting that persistent. And I was worried.

I´d been so deep in thoughts that I cringed when I noticed Norm staring at me intensely. Hastily I shoved a share of rise into my mouth and asked: „What?" Norm made a serious face, watching me stuffing myself with the rise though I didn´t taste anything. Something about his expression made me think: He knows everything! But at the same moment I called myself a dumbass and tried to persuade myself that he couldn´t know anything.

„I know that Jake threatened with beating me up until I´m a bloody mess, if I´d tell you what happened. But you have a right to know why all those people want to talk to you so badly.", he said and I promptly choked on a piece of chicken.

I stared at him, frowning. „Sounds like a secret plot.", I tried to joke but Norm remained serious.

„Indeed it is, they keep some significant facts from you. Max gave you a sedative to calm you, yeah, but also to keep you from hearing his next words."

The longer hetalked the more I got irritated. „What did he say?", I asked and examined his face. Norm leaned a bit in my direction and his eyes locked on mine. „They didn´t want you to know that your pulse and brainwaves stopped for nearly five minutes.", he revealed to me. „You were dead."

I sank back against the chairback and stared at him. I was so thunderstrucked, I wasn´t able to think anymore. All I felt was a rising panic inside of me and I started scratching my neck involuntarily. My pulse quickened and my fingernails burried deeper into my flesh until I felt a small trail of blood dripping down my skin. Then I tried to stand up, stumbled over to the fridge and opened it. Three bottles stared back at me, water, aplle juice and...whiskey. Following an impulse I grabbed the whiskey and filled my glass halfway through, filling the other half with water. The I gulped it down in one sip, filling the glass again and this time I didn´t even bother to add some water.

I´d nearly forgotten about Norm, when his voice ripped my hyterical outburst. „You...didn´t have a collapse, did you?"

His words seemed like icy water being splashed all over me. He knows it...why does he know it...?, I thought and paniced definitely. Norm didn´t even expect an answer, luckily, I guess I would´ve failed to say a word. Thousends of thoughts swirled around in my mind and they were too fast to grab any of them.

Eywas touch had expressed in erasing my life, in erasing my breath so she was able to speak through my lips. That moment I finally understood that she was not only a goddess, she was always present, with every breath I took, with every word I spoke,...since she´d touched me, I was a part of her and she was a pert of me. She touched me and her touch held such a might that she took my life away from me. Though my mind was filled with the rage of a hurricane, I heard my mouth shape the words: „But I´d never expected that I..."

I broke in the middle of the sentence because I didn´t know what I´d thought.

I was completely speechless.

Something touched my shoulder and ripped me out of my catatonic state, ending the hurricane in my head abruptly.

„You didn´t have a collapse, did you?" I needed to blink to recognize Norm right infront of me and that he´d asked me same question as a minute ago. I stared back at him and shook my head, not aware of what was going on. I nodded again turning my attention over to my hands, then I noticed the shattered glass on the floor.

„Shit...", I mumbled and grouched down to collect the pieces of glass, but Norm grabbed my arm, pushing me carefully over to the bed. „Sit down, I´ll take care of the glass.", he said and like a sleepwalker I followed his orders, placed myself onto the sheets and watched him as he threw the glass into the bin. „I dropped it, didn´t I?" Norm nodded and turned over to me.

„You started shaking and the glass fell to the floor. But you didn´t notice it. Actually you didn´t even notice me when I stepped next to you." He looked over to the point where I´d stood a second ago. „You stared at the wall and...I don´t know." He shrugged his shoulders helplessly and came over to me.

„I didn´t have a breakdown.", I whispered and Norm nodded, sitting down next to me. „I know."

„How?", I asked and he shrugged his shoulders again. „I...I was one of the first who saw the amplitudes on your monitors. A second long I believed something happened to you but then I knew that it was impossible. Tsu`tey would never let anything happen to you, no matter how cruel he is." He blushed a bit before he kept on talking. „You may laugh about me, but I really believe in Eywa, I mean, not the way as Grace does, to her she´s real but nothing except a whim of nature. To me, Eywa is a real presence. Sometimes when we´re out in the forest I think I can feel her, it´s only a weak feeling but I really believe she´s there!"

„And when the appliances notified I was dead, you thought..." He looked at me excitedly. „And now I need to know...am I right?"

I hesitated. Mo`at wanted nobody to know about what had happened. But after all...I didn´t tell him anything, Norm found it out himself.

So I stared back at him as intensely as possible and he understood. „I promised not to say anything.", I whispered and Norm closed his opened mouth. Obviously he´d hoped to get to know more significant informations and luckily he acted as the decent guy he was and didn´t ask anything. Instead of pelting me with questions, he mumbled: „Something is going on."

I stood up, walked into the bathroom and washed my face with icecold water. I needed to clear my head and with leaving the room I played out time to get my expression under control. „What do you mean?", I asked while I toweled my face. He paused for a moment, then he said: „I´m not really sure but the longer we stay, the more I get the feeling that something´s looming subliminally. Something bad."

I´d never thought that Norm was such a perseptive character, intelligent and educated, yeah, but I always thought he was naive. Now he put me right with believing in marvelousness and having a sensetive observation skill. Somehow he noticed that Quaritch planned something against the Omaticaya and all without particular informations.

I leaned against the doorframe and mustered him. Norm stared back, feeling obviously uneasy under my stare. I was pretty sure that he didn´t conceal anything from me, he was such a honest soul that he came here and told me what Jake had planned to keep away from me. I could trust him., I thought and following an impulse, I walked over to him and sat down.

„First you need to understand, that I cannot give you all the infromations I have. I promised not to reaveal anything but now that you found it out yourself, I need you." He was irritated for a second, then he nodded seriously.

„Quaritch plans something against the Omaticaya, I feel it in the air just as much as you do. My „breakdown" never happened, well, not the way a human defines the word „breakdown". I can tell you only, that Mo`at also feels the threat." Norm opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask someething but I lifted my hand to silence him. „I believe you´re an intelligent person with the skill of logical deduction, so if you understand some secret connections without me explaining them never speak out loud.", I said and looked at him with pleading eyes.

„Please." He thpought a second then he nodded and I was tempted to cry in relief that he understood every single hint I gave him.

He´d already understood that Mo`ats knowledge about the approaching danger had to do with my „breakdown".

A deep sigh escaped his lips and he rubbed his forehead. „Looks like we became allies in a complex of secret plots." I nodded. It felt good to have an ally when you´d thought that you fight a losing battle. I´d never thought that he´d play such an important role in my life one day, but obviously Eywa was with me.

A sign that the battle is about to begin., I thought and leaned back, lying down onto the sheets. Norm stared at an indefineable spot on the wall as if he needed time to stomach everything „We cannot trust a single soul.", he said and again I nodded.

„No one. Not even my brother."


It´s not the longest chapter I´ve written for this ff but I think it´s fine that way. Sorry that I needed a little longer than planned, my boss asked me surprisingly to work another shift. Well, never mind. I hope you enjoyed reading and can´t wait for the next chapter ;) I believe I will be able to update next weekend. Thanks for your support, interest and patience to read my bad grammar ^^ oh and of course a biiig thank you for the reviews!

Love, LR!