(A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! I guess the key to getting out of obscurity is to write about something really popular :p. To those who said that the Na'Vi sounded too human - that's the idea. Explaination will come later.)
Jade was finally home, after a year-long tour of duty. She took the elevator up to her floor in the apartment building. As she approached the door she heard voices. A male and a female, laughing. She opened the door-
Jade woke up. She sat bolt upright and reflexively went to wipe the sweat off her forehead, her hand sliding off her mask. She stood up and put her jacket back on over her black tank top. It was that dream again – every night, regular as clockwork. Some nights she could get back to sleep, but Jade knew that tonight was not one of them.
"Bad dreams?" a voice startled Jade. It was the Na'Vi.
"I'm ok, before you ask. I don't need a glass of milk and a cuddle to go back to sleep."
"So you're packing up to leave because..."The Na'Vi let the sentence trail off.
"Because I'm sick of waiting around in this hellhole."
"Not because you can't get back to sleep, then?"
"No."
"So do you still want some milk and a cuddle?" The Na'Vi suggested innocently.
"NO, you Blue Man Group reject! Is it so hard to grasp the concept that a human DOESN'T need your all-seeing, all-knowing aid?" Jade retorted angrily.
"If you didn't need my help, I suppose I could have let you keep going the wrong way. Or I could have let you drown in the river. Or I could have just walked off while you slept."The Na'Vi listed. Jade made an angry noise that petered off as she realized the truth in what he was saying.
"Look... fine!" Jade gave in. "Just lead the way, ok? I don't want this trip to get any more life-threatening than it already has."
The Na'Vi looked proud of himself for winning an argument for a change and covered the dwindling fire with some dirt before leading Jade off through the jungle again. While Jade wasn't exactly a voyeur, she couldn't help but gawk at every new piece of Pandoran flora that showed up, glowing softly in the dark.
"Hey Nature Boy, why does everything sparkle?"Jade asked, and then noticed something. "More importantly, why do you sparkle?"
"I think its camouflage."The Na'vi, suddenly seeming a little embarrassed that he was sparkling. "To be honest I don't see why. Generally glowing in the dark isn't a good idea when hunting."
"Sounds like this whole planet was designed by an eight-year-old girl." Jade commented. The two walked side-by-side in silence for a moment, Jade still too distracted by the jungle to look at the Na'Vi beside her.
"Wait a sec," she said. "How come you're so good at English?"
"Do I have to go through this again?" The Na'Vi rolled his eyes.
"You know what I mean. Most people I know take years to master a language. I did French for three years and all I can remember is how to know if a guy is telling me about the Eiffel Tower in his pants. You haven't once pronounced a word wrong or had to translate."
"Oh, uh thanks."
"It wasn't meant as a compliment. Sounds like you did some serious study." Jade pressed, her interest growing as the Na'Vi seemed to get flustered. "Plus you're pretty curious about Earth. Is there something you're not telling me?"
"N-no!" The Na'Vi stammered, his tail flicking around nervously. Jade involuntarily burst out laughing. He looked even more embarrassed and looked away.
"It's not you," Jade said. "You just reminded me of my cat for a second there. He'd always do that with his tail when things weren't going his way. He'd stand there and wave it around like a weapon because he sure as hell wasn't going to chase me."
"Why not?" The Na'Vi asked, suddenly curious.
"Well, he only had three legs, so he would hop around like a marsupial. I named him Mouse." Jade explained. A smile started to creep across her face. There was a pause.
"You're making this up to spite me, aren't you?" The Na'Vi suspected.
"Whoops, was that a trust issue there?" Jade asked. "Good thing we don't have any of those around here!"
"Ever since I met you you've been making fun of me!" He retorted, forging off angrily into the vegetation. "I'm stuck leading you around and you haven't once given me a break- oh no."
"What?" Jade asked, suddenly worried by the Na'Vi's tone. She raced to his side. The pair was looking at a small clearing, the moonlight shining through a small gap in the canopy. A wounded Banshee was lying on the ground, flapping weakly in a vain attempt to get up. The Na'Vi rushed to its side. He tried to calm it down, but it refused to stay still and fought him off.
"Can't you just jam your tentacle into its brains?" Jade asked.
"No! I'm not supposed to, ok? I haven't gone through any of the initiations; I'm just a kid, alright? Now help me!" The Na'Vi exclaimed anxiously. Jade rushed to his side and the two of them held the Banshee down so the Na'Vi could get a look at the wound. It didn't look good. It was a long, bloody furrow that the night out on the ground hadn't been kind to. It was obviously infected, and the Banshee wasn't moving the wounded wing much.
Oh crap, did I do that? Jade thought. "What're we going to do?" she asked aloud.
"Just give me a second, ok?" The Na'Vi snapped. "We... we have to help it. Treat the wound or... or something!"
"So what, we're going to carry it to a hospital? Should I call an ambulance and use your braid to pick up a signal? We're not equipped to deal with our injuries, let alone this giant bat."
"I can't let it die like this." The Na'Vi stated stubbornly.
"Ok," Jade said. She pulled out her revolver and, with considerable accuracy, shot the Banshee in the head.
The clearing was silent for a few seconds as the Na'Vi stared open-mouthed at the dead Banshee. Jade calmly holstered her revolver and started to move off again. The Na'Vi stood up and began to yell at her, accidentally switching to his native language. He shouted what were obviously several curses and possibly death threats. Jade waited calmly until he ran out of breath.
"English please." She said.
"What is wrong with you?" The Na'Vi demanded, using tone to make up for lack of expletives. "What possessed you to do that!?"
"Do I need to repeat myself?" Jade asked. "Can we just get moving?"
"You make no sense, you know that?" The Na'Vi went on like Jade hadn't spoken. "One minute you're talking about your cat like you're a person with actual feelings then you murder a Banshee like it was nothing but a bug!"
"It had an obviously infected wound and it was dying. Did you expect me to pull a medkit out of my cleavage?" Jade retorted. "Besides, it got a bullet. I could have just walked off and left it."
"So that's all it was to you? A bullet?" The Na'Vi seemed incredulous. "No wonder your people can justify the atrocities you're committing here in the name of profit."
Jade chuckled. "You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Nature Boy."
"Oh please enlighten me." The Na'Vi begged sarcastically. "Is systematically slaughtering a planet for a lump of rock all in aid of hungry, diseased children?"
"Listen to me you moralizing little shit," Jade said in a low, dangerous tone. "For a little human fanboy you screwed up your research big time. Didn't ever bother to ask any of the doctors or Avatars? Because you're right. That is what this is all for. How big is your tribe? A hundred, two hundred? I can guarantee that many people are right now living in a space a little bigger than where we're standing now, breathing crappy air, eating crappy food and barely making enough money to get by."
Jade stepped dangerously close to the Na'Vi. "You know what your 'lump of rock' is worth back home? It's enough for urban renewal projects, reforestation – hell, we could regrow the whales with that kind of funding. Tens of billions of people living in a situation none of them are responsible for, and the only thing between them and a new chance at life is a bunch of stuck-up smurfy-cats who won't even consider our point of view. Then you and your people sit back in a death planet where every animal bows to your whims and you accuse us of ignorance. So wake up kid, 'cause you're the only one here who's ignorant."
Jade felt a headache coming on and wished she could rub her temples. "Just lead the way. I'm sick of this."
The Na'Vi complied, seeming deep in thought. The silence that followed seem huge, every little sound like the crunch of boots on grass or even the Na'Vi's bare feet on the soil seemed to reverberate and magnify. Jade noticed that in the light of the rising sun, the Na'Vi seemed diminished somehow. His shoulders hunched and his tail drooped. Jade had no idea how old he was, but he was obviously just a kid. Jade felt a pang of regret for snapping at him.
Oh look, I'm empathizing with a Smurf. I think I died in that crash and this is my own personal hell. Jade thought bitterly. Or maybe I'm actually stumbling around somewhere dying of dehydration and this is just the dying dribbles of a madwoman bouncing around in my mind. I really hope it's the second one. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud grinding, crunching noise, reverberating through the forest and getting louder every second.
"Hey Nature Boy, hear that?" Jade tapped the Na'Vi on the shoulder. He looked startled and noticed the noise for the first time.
"What is that?" he wondered.
"Sounds human. Looks like you won't need me much longer." Jade said. The Na'Vi's expression was totally unreadable. The pair took off towards the noise, Jade's hopes rising at the thought of rescue. She spotted a plume of rising fuel exhaust and finally caught a glimpse. It was a vehicle. Jade's hopes sank when she realized that it was an unmanned bulldozer. A several-storeys-tall, remote-controlled killdozer. Even Jade found it hard to believe.
"Oh gee, a gigantic piss-off killdozer of doom," Jade remarked. "That's a good way to be diplomatic! Christ, is the right hand even in the same room as the left hand with these jokers?"
She felt the Na'Vi's stare. He looked surprised. Jade did a double-take.
"Why is it so surprising that I don't like this?" Jade hissed. "What happened to 'person with feelings'?"
Speech seemed to fail the young Na'Vi. Sighing, Jade ran in front of the bulldozer, jumping around and waving her arms so the cameras could get a good look at her. She didn't know if the dozer had microphones, but she yelled anyway.
"What the hell is blocking my dozer?" Parker Selfridge asked the driver.
"I don't know sir, it looks like a woman. Not a Na'Vi." The man replied.
"Well keep moving! She'll get out of the way." The executive said.
"She must be one of ours! Shouldn't we be-" the driver started.
"Now look at what is right in front of you," Selfridge said slowly, as if talking to an idiot. "A little girl who looks like she went mud-wrestling last night wanders in front of a bulldozer with her pet blue monkey and tries to stop it. Now, I have experience in these matters, so this whole thing screams 'hippy love-in protest'. Just keep going, she can't do anything."
"Oh shit, it's not stopping," Jade realized and backed away. "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME, ASSHOLE!?"
Almost a full minute of jumping and screaming followed by stepping back from the oncoming dozer, Jade had had enough. She drew her revolver and with two carefully-aimed shots, blew out the camera system.
"Ah, can someone tell me what the hell happened to my cameras?" Selfridge asked, coming out from his office.
"Someone shot the cameras out, sir." The pilot responded.
"What, a blue monkey with a bow blew out my expensive camera?" Selfridge said.
"No sir," the pilot rewound the video feed. He paused it just as Jade fired at the camera, capturing the muzzle flash from her revolver. "She did."
"Ok, you all have exactly six seconds to tell me why the hell there is a girl with a gun running around the forest shooting my cameras!" Selfridge exclaimed.
"There was an unexplained Samson crash yesterday, sir." A low-ranking officer told him. "The crew are missing in action, presumed dead. It might be a survivor."
"Why does nobody tell me these things? Someone throw me a fricking bone here!" Selfridge waved the man out. "Get someone on it. I want to know who she is and why she's consorting with the savages!"
"Shouldn't have got out of bed so early," Selfridge muttered to himself, sipping coffee.