Grinning James and his team filed onto the ship and after a brief check to make sure everything was secure James nodded to Eric who sat down in the pilot chair and began reconfiguring the controls to his likening. 5 minutes later the ship rumbled to life and flew off into the sky. As he watched the ship fly off Quaritch smiled evilly. His plan was working. And the best part was the fools of raven company had no idea they were signing the death warrant on their beloved lieutenant's life.
CHAPTER 11
JAMES'S POV
James grinned. Things were falling into place rather nicely. They had only been out search for an hour or so when they had found Jasul. He had been walking along and not really paying any attention to the world around him. Of course just caused it looked easy didn't mean they could just swoop in a na'vi-nap him. If there was one thing Jake had always stressed it had been if it looks to good, sounds too good, and smells to good, 98% of the time it was a trap. So they were setting up. Alice was posted on a tree branch about 500 yards away trank-rifle in hand and trained for jasul's chest. Eric and tom followed not far behind him. Ready to fight Jasul hand to hand if needed. James himself was next to Alice, clearly able to see Jasul but not able to be seen. James nodded to Alice who tapped a small button on her gun. 3 flashes of red light told Eric, and tom that they were about to begin. Alice's finger touched the solid surface of the trigger. The rifle jerked sending the dart loaded inside flying through the air. Through his combat scanner James watched as Jasul looked up at the noise. Even as the round sped towards his chest, Jasul twisted and easily avoided the shot. Next to him James heard Alice scream "WHAT?!?!?!?!?!" James rolled his eyes. Great now they had to use plan be.
JAKE'S POV
He had no idea what was happening. One moment he had been walking, and thinking. The next thing he knew 2 avatar's were attacking him. Dodging a punch Jake grunted as the other na'vi slammed it's shoulder into him sending him into a nearby tree. Gasping for breath James ducked only to avoid having his face ripped in half as a combat knife sliced through the air where he had been. Leaping into the air jake drew out his bow and fired in mid air. 2 arrows raced through the air and buried themselves on one the ground and the other in the foot of one of his attackers. The arrow wasn't poisoned so the victim didn't have to worry about dying, unless it was from blood loss. As he landed Jake took off through the brush trying to put as much distance between him an his attackers. He had made it maybe a dozen steps when he felt something tear into his back. Dropping Jake tried to get up only to find that he couldn't move. Not only would his legs not work, but his, arms, hands, feet, hell everything but his eyes refused to work. Jake felt hands on him and a moment later something hard slammed into the back of his neck knocking him unconscious.
JAMES'S POV
(don't forget. Jasul is jake.)
Bring Jasul back was a cake walk. It took little time for them to drag the unconscious body back to the ship and shove it in the brig. Feeling the engines rumble James smiled and sat down in a chair on the other side of the electro wall that held Jasul back. He had just gotten the all clear from Eric when Jasul woke, sputtering and coughing. As Jasul tried to stand James tapped his com and spoke to Eric. "hey Eric bank hard to the right for me would you." A moment later Jasul was thrown through the air and into the electro fence which sent 30,000 volts through him. Yelping Jasul clambered back away from the fence. "you na'vi aren't fond of cages. So I figure I'd put you in one. Careful though. This one will kill you if you mess with it too much." As Jasul looked at him James waved more out of spite than anything else. "you killed out friend and now we're going to see to it that you pay." Jasul shook his head. "I haven't killed any avatar. You're mistaken." James lunged forward and pushed an old photograph as close as he could to Jasul without touched the fence. "HIS NAME WAS JAKE!!!! BUT YOU KNEW THAT!!! YOU KNEW HE WAS A GOOD PERSON BUT YOU ILLED HIM, AND FOR WHAT?!?!?!? CAUSE HA FAILED SOME LAME ASS TEST OF YOURS?!?!?!"
Putting the photo away James heard Jasul speak. "wait…….. James? James is that you?" James growled as he spoke. "don't call me that. DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME BY NAME!!!!!" he didn't care if he was heard by the others now. "we know your trick. Your ability to absorb memories. Quaritch told us all about it. So don't bother trying to be Jake sully. You'll never be him." Jasul shook his head. "Quaritch lied to you. I am Jake sully. He wants you to bring me back cause I defected from his side. James you have to believe me." "Eric bank to the right again." As James left he smiled at the sound 30,000 could make.
Half an hour later raven company was back at base, and dragging Jasul through the maze of hallways after they had knocked him out again. As they turned a corner they found Quaritch standing in front of them. A huge smile covered his face. "well boys. Like you were the right people to call. Bring him in here." Quaritch gestured to a room to his left. Dragging Jasul inside the team found themselves in a room with no furniture, or windows. The only think in the room was a table, and a small cabinet. As raven company left Quaritch smiled and began smacking Jake awake. As Jake's eyes opened Quaritch grinned. "hello boy. Been a while hasn't it?" Jake's eyes narrowed. "you set me up. You called in my friends to bring me in." Quaritch nodded. "yep. And guess what. Not only did I set you up but I set them up to. See right now a message some of my men are taking them to get paid. Only thing is they'll be paid in rounds through the chest." Smiling Quaritch began pulling, knives, and other things from the cabinet. Jake felt his blood run cold. Smiling Quaritch spoke. "you shouldn't have betrayed me. And now you've got to pay for it." Jake winced in pain as Quaritch grabbed his queue and pulled, sending sharp pain through Jake's body. "when I'm done with you you'll wish you had your old cripple body back."
RAVEN COMPANY POV
Something was wrong. They could tell that the moment they had left Jasul with Quaritch. They were walking now, being led by a marine through the maze of hallways and rooms. And while that wasn't odd, the number of soldiers with guns following them was. As they turned a corner, James nodded to Eric who nodded back and tripped. As Alice helped him up James heard him whisper something to her. As Alice moved back into place she leaned in and spoke to tom who nodded. They were outside the buildings now, walking on large catwalks hundreds of feet above the ground. As they neared the middle of the cat walk James shouted. "NOW!" all 4 members of raven company threw themselves off the cat walk and into the air. James heard one of the marine shout a second before their world was filled with gunfire. Even as they fell through the air and onto a lower catwalk James could feel bullets hitting the metal all around him. As his feet touched the cold metal of the catwalk James and his team hurtled back towards where they had left Jasul.
JAKE'S POV
Jake trembled. His body felt numb, with cold. He knew what was happening to him. His nerves were shutting down trying to stop him from feeling the pain of Quaritch's torture. Not that it would save him. He had been stabbed 3 times. Now every time he took a breath his winced in pain as he reopened the cuts that had been put into his chest. Blood clung to his skin leaked down onto the table where it collected and eventually fell to the floor. The slow drip, drip, drip was driving him insane. Above him Quaritch grinned. "well boy I've got to say you're stronger than most. But if I know one thing about the na'vi, its that their queues are the most sensitive part of their body." Jake winced as Quaritch grabbed his queue and jerked it, sending lances of pain through Jake's body. But it wasn't until he felt the cold edge of Quaritch's knife against his queue that he truly felt scared. Above his Quaritch grinned. "you should have just walked away boy. Then I wouldn't have to do this. You think you're one of them you forget your body was made my humans and our tech."
Jake gritted his teeth and said nothing. In truth he was terrified, beyond words. Just having Quaritch's blade near his queue made him afraid. Above him Quaritch jerked his queue again. "you shouldn't have betrayed me sully. And now I'm going to make you wish you had your old crippled body back.
Outside the room the guards that stood watched jumped slightly as a unearthly scream ripped through and echoed down the cold metal corridors of the base.
RAVEN COMPANY'S POV
James growled as the last marine in their way dropped. They had been fighting for a few minutes now. And every moment they wasted fighting was another moment that Jasul was alone and being tortured by Quaritch. Charging down the corridors, James nodded to Eric who ran beside him. In response Eric threw all his weight against a close door in front of them. The door held for a fraction of a second before being thrown from place and across the next room. They were back in the hallway that lead to the room where Quaritch and Jasul were being held. Stopping only at the corner, jake pointed to Alice and then down the hallway. Alice nodded and leapt out from behind the corner strafing the corridor with rounds from a SUB she had taken from an unconscious marine. Making their way down the hallway, Eric and Alice stopped short of the door way and turned back down the corridor to keep a look out for anyone who came their way. Tom and James on the other hand slammed their shoulders into the door and forced their way into the room.
Even as the door was falling tom was charging at Quaritch who looked stunned for a moment before trying to grab his sidearm from it's holster. He had only just managed to get the clasp undone when tom was upon him. Tom's fists were blurs as he hit, pressure points all over Quaritch's body, sending him to the ground whether dead or simply unconscious James didn't know or care. His attention was on Jasul, who lay on the table they had left him on. The dark blue of his skin was gone replaced by a paleness James had never seen before. 3 large slashed spanned his chest. James cursed himself as he and tom tried to stop the bleeding. Half a dozen pack of medigel later the bleeding had mostly stopped enough for James to hoist Jasul onto his back. Sounds of fighting echoed from outside. Eric and Alice were in the room now taking cover within the door jam and firing rounds back at the small platoon of men that were trying to kill them.
"we need to get back to the ship. Jasul doesn't have time for this." Tom grinned and pulled out a grenade he had 'barrowed' from a marine earlier. Pulling the pin tom hurled the grenade down the corridor. A second later all the gun fire stopped. Charging down the corridors they spent little time fighting now. Now it was just a mad dash back to the ship. They thundered up the ramp. Even as James slowed he could feel the ship rumbling to life as Eric reactivated the systems. James lay Jasul down on a small cot in the medical section of the ship. The blood that had covered jasul's chest now clung to James's back. But he pushed that thought from his mind. He couldn't focus on that now. right now he had to save jasul's life. The ship shuddered as it took of and over the com Eric shouted. "missiles incoming. Hold on to something." James groaned. This was why he hated flying. He hated the speed they moved at, the uncertainty of what would happen, not to mention that fact that everything Eric did to avoid the missiles made James's work a 1000 times more difficult.
The ship shuddered as somewhere outside a missile exploded. "that's all of them guys. James what do we do now?" James tapped the com button. "head towards the na'vi home tree. Maybe they can help Jasul more than we can." A slight pause and then. "what will they do to us?" James let the question hang in the air as he resumed treating Jasul. He had just finished applying bandages around jasul's chest when Jasul gasped and coughed. James pushed Jasul's back onto the cot and spoke. "don't try to move. You've got serious injuries. Don't move." Jasul's eyes flickered but didn't open. After taking a shuddering breath he spoke. "James?" James nodded, foolishly. "yeah it's me Jasul." Jasul shook his head slowly. "not Jasul. It's me……….jake. guess it's hard to recognize me now that I'm in a new body." James chuckled. "yeah………jake…… I'm sooooo sorry." Jake shook his head but as he did so James noticed the pain it brought. Running his hand along Jake's head James felt tears well in his eyes, as his hands touched what had been Jake's queue.
Gone was the 2 foot long cord of nerves. Now only half a foot remained. James felt anger well in his chest and he was temped to tell Eric to turn the ship around so they could go back and kill Quaritch. But it was Jake's hand on his wrist that stopped him. He was fading now, James could see Jake's body beginning to relax as the anesthesia begin to take affect. A moment later jake was asleep. James sighed and made his way to Eric who looked at him as he entered the cock pit. "what now James?" James closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "we own up to our mistakes. Take us to the hometree. We'll return jake and take whatever punishment they put on us. That's the least of what we can do." Eric nodded and made a small adjustment to the ship, course. For the rest of the flight no one said a word.
3 HOURS LATER
JAKE'S POV
Jakes vision was blurred as he opened his eyes. Above him he could hear Neytiri speaking but here voice echoed as though from far away. "lye down jake. You need to rest." But jake shook his head and sat up. Grinding his teeth in pain as he did so. After a moment of dizziness he spoke. "the other. Where are they?" Neytiri pushed him back down as she spoke. "they're about to be executed for what they did to you. Now lay dawn and rest." "jake sat bolt upright, his head pounded and the room spun as he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled out of Neytiri's alcove. He could hear Neytiri saying something behind him but he didn't care. Stumbling around jake managed to make his way up the paths to the center of the tree where every na'vi seemed to be grouped. As he neared the center he could hear Eytucan speaking. "for crimes against one of the clan's people you have been sentenced to death. May ewya have mercy on you." He was near enough now. Near enough to see James, Alice, tom and Eric with their legs and hands bound. Each of them knelt on their knees eyes closed ready for death. Behind James Eytucan with his hand on James's shoulder knife drawn ready to kill James.
Jake, looked around wildly for someway to stop the execution. His eyes found a guard standing near him. The guard's bow was clutched in hand and his quiver of arrows was full. Clumsily jake grabbed the guard's bow out of his hand while at the same time drawing an arrow from the quiver. Taking aim jake didn't even think about if he missed. The arrow flew from his bow, hummed through the air and hit it's target. Eytucan's hand jerked as the arrow hit the knife, sending it out of his hand and burying itself into the ground. Looking up Eytucan looked furious until he saw that it was jake who had fired the arrow. "Jakesully why do you protect them. They are responsible for what was done to you." Jake shook his head and had to gasp for air as his vision swam. "you cant kill them your laws say only the person wronged can pass judgment. I don't want them killed." Eytucan raised an eyebrow. "you believe they should not be killed?" jake nodded. "yes. They fucked up but they were only following the orders they were given. Hell if I'd have been in their situation I would have done the same thing."
Jake broke off as his vision swam again, he could feel his muscles beginning to relax and he knew he was maybe seconds from falling asleep. "Don't kill them" was the last thing he said before unconsciousness took him.
AN: HEY FOLKS. SORRY THIS CHAPTER TOOK SO LONG. I KNOW IT'S SHORT BUT THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS WIL;L HAVE A LOT OF KEY THINGS AND EVENTS IN THEM.
THANK TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE STUCK WITH ME THIS LONG. I CHECKED YESTERDAY AND FOUND THAT I'M 2 USERS AWAY FROM 100 WATCHERS!!!!