XXI: Nature Boy X

The group had gathered now; Norm, Max, Jake, Neytiri, Sun and the Stranger. Max shrugged apologetically as he held out a black long sleeved shirt, "Sorry about the size, I use to be much bigger and it's the only pair I could scrounge up fast enough." The Stranger made no comment as he quickly shifted on the loose pair of blue sweat pants, ripping out the white modesty cloth afterwards. The Stranger glanced about nervously, then took the black shirt and shoved it over his head. His tail unwound from him as he did so, flowing around his legs and feet gracefully. Once he had on the clothes he looked around the group warily as Max stepped back to stand beside Norm. Sun, in-between Norm and Jake, wouldn't meet the Strangers eyes. Neytiri stood to the other side of Jake, all five facing the Stranger in a semi circle. The rest of the contour room was relatively empty save a few curious Na'vi and one or two human scientists. Jake had kept his word, the door stood open behind them and no one had tried to touch the Stranger.

The Stranger shifted slightly, fixing the rumbles of his clothes and then turning to find a seat. Once he sat himself down curling his tail to the side so he wouldn't sit on it, he looked at each person individually. His eyes settled on Sun as if trying to figure her out, then landed on Jake. Jake smiled at him, calmly, hiding the deep war within to get moving and do something. The Stranger could speak without the odd vibration or echo effect, at least when he was calm. "Okay… explain." the stranger said practically.

Jake was the first to speak, nearly leaping at the chance. "First of all, I'm Jake. This s Neytiri, princess of the Omaticaya; this is Norm and Max of the Avatar program, and Sun our lead engineer." again the Stranger looked at her as if he almost just recognized her, but she still would not look him in the face. "You are currently in Hell's Gate, the previous base of the RDA which was driven off Pandora by the collective tribes of the Na'vi, members of which you'll find in this room. Each one will tell you exactly what I am telling you because it is the truth." The Stranger made to argue, Jake held out a hand. "I know Hell's Gate looks destroyed, but it was not the Na'vi who did this. It was someone else, someone who plans to do far worse than the RDA. They have a satellite in orbit, they have given us two choices, slavery or death. And right now, I need to know, all of us need to know- are you a part of their plans?"

The Stranger narrowed his eyes, and leaned forward to set his hand on his knee and place his other on his chin. As if on autopilot his fingers began working the shot beard there. "A non RDA entity trying to take over where the RDA left off? If what you say is true…"

Jake nodded, "You have my word and everybody else's."

The stranger flicked his eyes around the room, then settled back on the floor, "…then it sounds more like The Old Order."

Sun slightly lifted her eyes, "Who?" Jake asked.

The Stranger narrowed his eyes, "First. What really happened to me?"

Jake checked his frown, "Everything I've told you is the truth as I know it. We found you buried in the ground in this smugglers grotto, the capsule was cracked, Pandora atmosphere had leaked in and all judgments about the age of which have been speculative. Unless you can tell us what date you left Earth from we can't say how long you've been underground, or how you got there or even how you got to Pandora but we know your body was changed into the state it was by a virus that morphed inside you."

Max spoke this time, "I have read outs and all the tests we've taken of the wildfire virus if you want to see some proof that we didn't tamper with you."

The Stranger waved him off, "I wouldn't understand them. I'm no scientist."

Jake again barely kept from leaping on the chance, "Then if you don't mind us asking, who are you?"

The Stranger stayed in his thinking pose for a while, looking at everyone around him. Then he sighed, sitting back with his tail curling up beside him as he shrugged plaintively. "No point in hiding it. If you're who you say you are I'll need you to save my life, and if you aren't, I was going to die anyway."

…

"Project Pandora's Box. That's what we called it, the Resistance I mean. We read about the Na'vi, about the RDA, heck, everybody did. The world was full of people looking up at the sky again in wonder. It wasn't like we could see Pandora from there, we couldn't even see the planet it bordered, but everyone knew it was up there. Kind of like, heaven. You know? Well… I grew up in the mountains, way out of city, the real distant places where sometimes you could still see the stars. The winters were harsh, the summers hot, but there were still trees. The air was a little cleaner there, in the tree farms, the places government protected to make sure we still had oxygen on Earth… fat lot of good it did us when nothing could handle the sheer amount of toxins being spilled in the air. I still remember the day I had to start wearing the Exopack… like they did in the cities… I must have been eight or so. Day in, day out, wash them… sometimes I'd just not wear it because I hated the trapped feeling. I developed respiratory problems, I spent most of my childhood sick. Ear infections, sinus infections, bronchitis, all of it… I had several operations- I use to joke that every orifice was covered in scars. Inside and out. Life was a joke. But, you don't want to hear that."

"It was a constant god complex with the RDA, like they were a religion; they would save us. Pandora would help us. All that crap, I believed it too you know, I believed whole heartedly we would find a way with Pandora on our side, then, the book came out. The real book. Dr. Augustine's work, littered with images like a new bible but of course who could miss the undertones? The warnings? The RDA couldn't stop it, so slowly new information started trickling back. Secret mines, military force, all that sort of thing. I got it into my head that maybe Pandora couldn't help us… maybe we would drag them down with us… I became slightly out spoken about it in college. You know, doubting the RDA's intentions and being obsessed with Grace's book. Man… scary times… that's when they approached me. The resistance wasn't much when I joined it. Few dumb kids being pushed around by a few artsy types and drugged out hippies who didn't know what was really happening."

"We got a few of the more zealot-types, and artists, then we got a few scary military types… well, short story we grew and grew into a real resistance with real stratagems. Honestly, I didn't really have much to do with all of it. I stayed outside the circle most of the time… but then the last of my family died from the sickness. What the hell was the RDA doing? Unobtainum, super conductors? What the hell did any of it matter? Where were the break thoughts, the science, the stuff that was suppose to help earth! Who gave a crap if machines could last longer, they just polluted longer! I got angry and had nothing to lose, so I told the resistance if they needed me for something I would do it gladly. That was… that was my mistake. They had been working on this dooms day scenario for a while, I hadn't heard anything about it. Some kind of, viral thing or whatever, I don't know the science. They came up with the, wildfire virus, as you call it. They planned to use it on Pandora and wipe out anyone not inoculated. But there was a catch."

"It couldn't sustain itself for the years trip it would take to get over. Wouldn't last being frozen, or air sealed, see it had to remain active. We had some pretty advanced bio-whatever you call them people, but they were fired for their radical outlooks and we couldn't afford much in the way of top of the line stuff. It was home brewed so it had its limitations. The virus needed a living host to carry it, at least until it could mature into its final stages. They wanted a volunteer. I was scared at first… but by then I was so depressed by the rivers of sewage and the garbage floats the size of texas out at sea and the dead forests… what was the point of living? They called me a hero, they called me the chosen one to save Pandora. It was all just show… I remember sitting in that locker room… obese, sweating, naked save for my mask… the bench was cold, the air was still and recycled. I thought about all the people I would end, even as I did… I kept telling myself I would end them and all they loved… I didn't care if I lived, but did I want them to die?"

"I had… a single bottle of ration water, packaged… I turned and looked at that label, and you know what it said? It said 'generously donated by the RDA.' They didn't sell water, they had to clean because they polluted it, no, they donated it. Charity. They destroyed our world, and cleaned up their mess just enough to nobly give us what we required to live. You see? I mean, do you see? Well… they showed me the rocket, I ran a few tests to make myself familiar with the system, I'd have to input a few things and if something went wrong, I'd have to make sure I knew how to fly it… it wasn't too hard, rocket science, like a video game really. Then they instructed me on when to inject myself… yeah… I launched a few weeks after that. It was odd going into space. I didn't have to do much, it was mostly automated, I just had to make sure I touched down on the shuttle without being detected. Set the auto pilot sequence timer, and then… kill myself."

"That's what it was. The needle. It was death. I remember just stabbing myself with it. The trickle of blood. Who cared? It was done. I didn't feel anything as it streamed into me. There were chemicals you see, to put me out. The auto Cryo kicked in and then it was just darkness… but… before that, I remember seeing the stars. No clouds of pollution, no smog, no lights… real stars… and I remembered thinking, the earth was suppose to be blue. Yeah, the earth was suppose to be blue… The next thing I know, I'm starring up at a Na'vi face. I'm being poked, prodded, and I'm thinking- oh god the Na'vi found me instead, but that's fine, since, they would be immune, right? And then I'm seeing the compound, and the five fingers, and… I knew I was in the base. I knew I had done it. So I just went back to sleep… let it come, the darkness, the soft dreams… but all I dreamed of was a space coffin and being buried alive. I wake up. The RDA is all around me, scientists, who aren't dead. My body is changed, my head feels like its on fire, needles are going into me, and I have a tail. Now, it's, just one nightmare after the next… what the hell am I doing here? I don't, belong here… I don't belong here."

…

When the Stranger finished, everyone was silent. He stared into the floor; his speech was elegant, dramatic, well orated- he was a masterful story teller and it was clear he had gone into more detail and said far more than he meant too. He didn't seem to notice when he stopped talking; Jake wasn't an art man himself, he'd enjoyed good performances and entertainment -who didn't?- but even he would have said it was a tear jerking performance. Norm looked chocked up, Neytiri was horrified, but it was Sun who cried silent tears. It was very apparent the Stranger was still just as lost, but somehow managing to hold it all back long enough to still function. Jake, believed his story. Not because of how he told it, or because it made him feel like his insides were doing corkscrews, but because hearing the recollection of the Stranger's dream had jarred lose a memory of the exact same dream- and following it, the remorseful action of the Stranger after he nearly broke Jake's neck. He was nothing like Mr. Smith and he couldn't see them working together either …unless he was a spy.

Jake looked to Sun, but, he knew confronting her may blow some things up in their faces and there was more important matters at hand. Jake turned back to the Stranger, "You said 'The Old Order', who is that?"

The Stranger looked up, only moving his eyes; his jaw set as if he had expected a more compassionate reaction. "It's the stock handle the Resistance used, we were funded by them at one time. The Old Order is just that, a conglomerate of the oldest orders on earth, Russian mafia, Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, Italian Mafia, Illuminati, you name it- that's who they were. The biggest crime organizations forming together to combat the RDA before they were wiped out themselves. If what you say is true and the RDA is no longer on Pandora, it was only a matter of time before they showed up to scavenge the corpse. Circling in orbit like vultures." Jake's head was reeling, he'd known it, but to actually try and visualize the scope of it; every organized crime faction banning together and setting their sights on Pandora? They'd not spared anybody out of compassion, but because more survivors meant more workers…

"I don't get it." Norm said suddenly, "Interstellar gangsters? What are we going to wake up with a Pa'li head on our pillow? Are they going to put unobtanium boots on us and make us sleep with the fishes? I mean, Organized crime was wiped out, right? Stuff like that can't be really real…"

The Stranger didn't react, Neytiri didn't understand; Max put his hand on Norm's shoulder, Norm crumpled, unable to believe it. Jake frowned, "It doesn't matter who they are, you all saw the orbital strike, you know what they are capable of."

Norm threw his hands out again, "And what the hell was that? Laser beams?"

"Electrical current transferred over light photons…" Sun answered abruptly.

Norm jerked himself forward, "Interstellar tazers! You're joking me!"

"NO!" Sun shouted, startling him. "I'm not Joking, the technology was being researching the twentieth century for non lethal weapons. No one thought it would work, but with Unobtanium which acts as a super conductor metal with a nigh impossible melting point, why couldn't they send an electrical charge down a massive beam of light photons? Cosmic lightening. We have no chance."

Jake stepped forward then, "It doesn't matter. It could have been a trick with mirrors and smoke for all we care, a missile delivery system disguised by a light beam, the fact is it doesn't matter what it is as long as they can use it from orbit. We need something that will strike back at them in orbit. We have to get up there, and get at them at the source!"

Sun scowled then, "You make it sound like its possible."

Jake quieted, his eyes narrowed. "I didn't use to think a cripple could get his legs back and lead a people against a much stronger and powerful force either."

Sun spoke as if she as already dead, "and where are we going to get the means to travel into space, savior? Huh? Is Eywa going to suddenly evolve one of us to fly into a vacuum? HUH?"

Norm suddenly pointed at her, "Why are you yelling at us, you're the one who buried him and let that virus stuff-" too late he realized his mistake as Jake silenced him and looked to the Stranger. The Stranger had lifted his head at this, eyes widening in surprise in interest. Norm winced.

The Stranger stood a little straighter, "What?"

Sun looked like she had been physically hit, crushing her hands to her facemask she spun and faced the Stranger. "It's my fault." The Stranger only starred at her. Sun clenched her fists as Jake slowly moved Norm back and the others with his arms. "I- I was, I was the one who designed your docking system, the robotics specialist; I was suppose to travel with you on the ship to make sure you arrived and that you detached and landed safely. I was sent to Pandora as an engineer with the inoculations to pass out to the other chosen people. But. I just, I just couldn't!" Sun brought her fists up and down weakly. "Your ship landed too far off course and I couldn't get off base without drawing suspicion, I had hoped someone would find you first, but, I couldn't get away… and the longer I stayed, the longer I got to know the people around me…" Sun's tears began falling in earnest, "I couldn't do it!" she yelped. "I couldn't watch them die! I got to know them as people, even soldiers, they weren't heartless evil men- they were just people! The resistance didn't give us an accurate picture of what was happening, they blew misunderstandings way out of proportion!"

"Ryder and the Hadamaya Clan revolt, it was all covered up by the RDA and the Resistance helped them! Why didn't we let Earth know about the success of the resistance efforts? I figured it out though, they wanted Pandora for themselves. They were crazy, the Resistance was nothing more than fanatics who really thought of themselves as the chosen people set to inherit Pandora as their very own world! And what about poor…" Sun froze then, looking at the Stranger. "…what about you? You gave your life for these people. Kendra and I, we use to work together… and we, made a plan. We set out together on a mission to get the repulsion fields up and running, but we secretly went out to sabotage them so they could never be used again. I snuck off from her, and found you… using my Amp suit and an abandoned avatar mobile center, I opened your pod and inoculated you against the virus. I set up an automated system check, so I could keep tabs on you from back on the base."

"I kept inoculating you again and again, and watched as the Virus ran rampant in the air tight chamber. It didn't have anything to spread too and it was quickly dying, but, I don't know why- the virus never died completely, no matter how many times I tried to make you Immune. I don't know much about the biotech, but it wasn't working… I failed you… so I returned, after Ryder and the Hadamaya Clan moved away and the RDA removed all sign of them having been. They decimated their lands, and that was when I met the smugglers. They were picking apart the ruins of the Hadamaya Clan, souvenirs to send back to earth. I paid them in stolen RDA goods, schedules, and repaired some of their equipment if they would store you. I didn't know they buried you. I guess they were afraid the virus would leak out, I had no idea they had cracked the pod…"

Sun was outright sobbing now, and the Stranger was starring at her with closed mouth shock. Yet Neytiri stepped forward, "The Hadamaya Clan left these places several years ago, two years before you came My Jake, we knew it had something to do with the Sky people but we did not know what."

Jake knit his brow as well, "I've never heard of a Ryder either, or any kind of resistance, when I got here everything was…"

Sun turned to them, "You didn't know about Yawne either."

Jake looked to Neytiri, Neytiri shook her head, "This does not make sense, how can a people 'cover up' these things? How can they keep such things silent?"

Jake frowned, "The Sky People have been doing it for years, erase all evidence, removed all witnesses and it never happened."

Neytiri looked slightly pale, "But, we knew of the tale of Yawne!"

Sun hugged herself, "You were all able to do what you did without the RDA raining destruction down upon you because they were too busy dealing with Able Ryder, the first rogue Avatar by choice and the Hadamaya Clan. The only person allowed to stay on Pandora who knew about it, was Trudy Chacon. She is the one who told me, but even then, they got to her… they did, terrible things to make her forget… that was why she was so willing to help you Jake."

Jake shook his head, "This doesn't make sense, Grace would have known, right?"

Sun shook her head, "You forget, she was too busy with Yawne."

Jake stepped back, head spinning. The first rogue avatar by choice? The Hadamaya clan? He always wondered how Yawne and the small band of Na'vi could have done what they did, especially against Quaritch without being wiped out… now it made perfect sense, someone else and an entire clan of Na'vi had risen up before Jake even got there… and the RDA had two years to cover it all up. Yawne, Grace, none of them knew because the RDA had worked so hard to wipe it from history. Sun smiled at them meekly, "I have the story written down, recorded it myself so History couldn't forget them… you're all welcome to read it if we survive this."

Jake stepped forward, "Wait, why didn't the Hadamaya Clan come to join the gathering of the clans? Why didn't they join with us to fight the RDA?"

Sun looked to Jake with a grim frown, "You know why." Jake became silent. Sun sighed, "Ryder could not justify attacking the chain of command, he had been faced with the choice of humans or Na'vi his first day… he caved in, like you would have Sully… and helped the RDA destroy a lot of the Clan… but at the last, when it came down to it, he sided with the Na'vi. The survivors are all still camped by a dormant well of souls, Ryder among them, still human. They've shut themselves off from the world. Hidden from the best sensors to protect their own well of souls." All were floored by this news, this revelation… all but the Stranger. He was lost in his own thoughts.

"Sun…" he said quietly. Sun turned, her face a hard mask. "Jen…?"

Sun's face wilted instantly and she softly nodded, "Yes…"

The Stranger stood, utterly shocked. "Genjen?" She cried out then, throwing herself on him at last. They embraced each other in a strong hug, one which the Stranger absolutely welcomed, even going so far as to wrap his tail around her as they seemed to crush against the other. "Jennifer! I thought I'd never see you again!" his voice vibrated.

"I know, I know! But I couldn't let you do it alone! I couldn't!" She pulled back then, looking into his eyes and touching his face lovingly. "Oh Paul…"