Twenty Questions

Disclaimer: We no own.

A/N: So here is chapter two. I realise that a couple of things may not have been clear in chapter one, so here's an explanation:

Daisy-cutters are a type of bomb which the RDA were planning to use at the end of Avatar. They are used to clear large sections of jungle because they flatten everything for miles around, and they are called daisy cutters because the destruction is in a daisy-shaped pattern.

Synapses are the links between nerve cells. So when Grace thinks 'synapses' she is being reminded of the links between the trees.

Also, I said that Neytiri was Tsu'tey's sister in the first chapter. Watching the film left me confused as to the relationship between them, but I think I'm just going to leave them as brother and sister now. So Tsu'tey is a free man :).

New A/N: I've watched the film again, and even though I stand by leaving them as brother and sister, I get that they were intended mates now. So I'll bear that in mind for any future fics. I've also edited the end of the chapter to get rid of Norm's OOC-ness, and make the 'slinger' a thanator. I still say that Norm would be capable of anger in a scenario like this - look at the way he's throwing punches after the destruction of hometree! - but I hadn't realised when I watched the film for the first time how new he is. So I made it Max instead.

Grace stepped into the lab and closed the door softly behind her. She wasn't exactly sneaking, but heading out into the forest on her own was technically forbidden. She might get away with it occasionally, but two days in a row was pushing it.

Still, there was no serious danger. The Na'vi viewed her with a relatively friendly eye due to her time teaching at the school during the early days, and a lone woman without a gun was unlikely to cause alarm in any case. She had told Norm where she was going, but he'd been too wrapped up in his work to really consider it properly – which was of course why she'd chosen him to tell. And with any luck the others would never know or worry. She needed to get out there by herself; it was so much easier to think and too many people with guns just got in the way.

'Dr Augustine?'

Grace, half-way into her translation machine, jumped violently, and for a horrible moment thought she was going to wind up sprawling on the floor in an action replay of the day before. She looked around and realised that she wasn't alone after all. Jake was sitting on the side of his machine, watching her quizzically. The room had looked empty because in his wheelchair he was hidden behind the machinery. He hadn't seen her for the same reason.

'Call me Grace,' she said affably. 'What are you doing in here?'

'Life starts early in the village, remember?' he replied, 'and I could ask you the same question.'

Grace cursed inwardly as she recalled the situation. Of course, he also had to go out early in order to continue his training with the Na'vi. She had forgotten, and now he'd caught her, fair and square, sneaking out. Well, not sneaking, but still.

'I'm heading out to collect some samples,' she said as casually as she could, then realised that she hadn't needed to even give him that much information. She could have just lied, and said she was going to exercise her avatar. Feeling about ready to get out of the machine and go bang her head against the wall, she continued: 'what's it to you?'

'I thought we weren't supposed to head out on our own,' Jake said. 'I thought it was against regulations. It's dangerous out there and –'

'Tell me something I don't know,' Grace cut him off. 'But as my gallant protector got himself caught by the Na'vi on his first day, it looks like I'm on my own.' She lay down, pulled the apparatus together around herself and then twisted her head to look at Jake. 'Like I said, the natives aren't out to get all of us. Only the jarheaded ones with guns.'

Jake wheeled himself backwards, holding up his hands in an appeasing gesture. 'Sure, fine. You know best, O mighty leader.'

'That's better,' she approved, and then hastily closed the capsule over herself.

Okay, mind blank, mind blank -

The machine gave an ominous jolt. A moment later, there was a loud bleep, and then the rising buzz of machinery...

Woah...

* * *

Grace opened her golden eyes with a sigh of relief. She had been sure for a moment that the machine was going to conk out, forcing her to climb anticlimactically back out and face Jake, who was sure to be feeling sore after her stinging remarks. Looking back, she already thought she'd laid it on a little thick, which probably accounted for his sarcastic response. In fact, the difficult translation probably wasn't the fault of the machine at all. Most likely it was a result of her having difficulty in keeping her mind blank, usually such an easy part of the transition into one's avatar. She shook her head as she rose to her feet, dispelling the gloomy thoughts. She could make it up to him later.

Don't you seem to be making it up to him an awful lot?

Shut up, brain. She needed to get on. The jungle was calling, it's prospects suddenly and inexplicably brighter than the day before.

There was a spring in her step as she left the path and plunged into the forest. She could get around so much quicker in this body, and it was a wonderful relief to be free of the nicotine craving which she had been resisting in a corner of her mind all morning. She knew that when she returned to her human body she would probably find herself desperate for a cigarette and screaming at everybody in sight, but who cared? Grace reflected briefly on how lucky she was: a new body, a new chance.

But it would only be a true chance if she could stay in this body forever. This time was just a respite; she always had to wake up back as her old, ginger-haired self, who had to smoke to keep herself calm in the face of her impossible experiments and the bloody mining corporation.

Shaking her head again she broke into a run. She felt free and...excited? She grinned. Clearly it was going to be one of the good days, the days when the planet seemed as wonderful and new as it had the day she had first heard of the project. Of course, it was unlikely that the Na'vi Tsu'tey would ever appear again, or that he would be able to provide her with any really useful information, but if she could have a few carefree moments she wasn't complaining.

Tsu'tey. She wondered again what his name meant – it fit him, somehow, and seemed to make perfect sense. Watching him the previous day had been just as fascinating as their actual conversation – she recalled again the way the he could be completely invisible until he wished to be seen, and how he had melted back into the forest the moment he chose to, as though he were part of it.

Which he was. He had lived his whole life here – that was why she wanted to talk to him, to all the Na'vi. She was speaking to someone who had been born on a different planet to her. A green planet, beautiful and overwhelming as the creatures who called it home...

Grace burst into a clearing, and found herself face to face with the Na'vi warrior, perched in the lower branches of a tree.

She skidded to a halt, heart pounding in shock at his sudden appearance. She tried to keep any vulnerable emotion off her face, however, as she greeted him formally in Na'vi:

'On this morning I see you.' She bowed slightly, then added: 'I wasn't expecting to meet you here.'

He jumped down off his tree and strode forward.

'I had to see you again.'

Grace froze.

'Wait, what?'

Tsu'tey stopped. 'I had to see you again,' he repeated, slowly and clearly, as though talking to someone mentally challenged.

'Wait, wh – ' Grace realised she was moving into a circular conversation, and blushed. Dammit. 'Why? This is too – '

He continued to approach, very close...

Aggressively close.

'What do you think you are doing?' he growled in English. 'This time dreamwalkers have gone too far.'

'I don't understand!' blustered Grace, now completely confused.

'Don't pretend you don't know!' he snarled. Raising a hand, he waved it to underline his words as though he would rather be hitting something.

'Dreamwalker comes to the camp, train with us; say he will be one of the people. I never thought he would survive even one day, but he is serious! You have gone too far!'

Comprehension dawned. 'Oh!' Grace blurted. 'You mean the jarhead?' I guess he didn't realise how that phrase is usually interpreted in English.

He blinked at her, momentarily distracted from his tirade. 'Jarhead? The Jarhead clan, it truly exists? The way he spoke it, I thought he lied.'

'Does it really exist?' Grace said, shaking her head ruefully. 'Hell yeah, we've got plenty of jarheads.'

'So, he speaks truth,' Tsu'tey grinned to himself. Then his expression hardened. 'But he would just as soon lie –'

'You wanted to see me?' Grace interrupted.

He looked her straight in the eye.

'Your dreamwalker trains with the Omatacaya.'

'He does indeed. What seems to be the problem?'

Tsu'tey took another step towards her.

'I want him to get out.'

Grace folded her arms. 'Well, I'm afraid there's not a lot I can do about that,' she said, and watched as the same stunned expression appeared on his face as had claimed it the previous day when she dared to continue questioning him. She felt a trace of smugness. Then he pulled himself together.

'You are Jakesully's leader, no? You must tell him that he cannot continue the training.'

'I could tell him that,' Grace agreed, 'but if you recall, it wasn't my idea. It was the idea of your chief. So if you want Jake to leave, you will have to take it up with him. I could order Jake not to dreamwalk any more, but if he stopped the training your people would kill his body, and I'm afraid I'm not prepared to let that happen.'

'What does it matter if we kill his body?' Tsu'tey paced in a wide circle, then turned sharply on her. 'What does it matter if I kill yours now? Do you not all have Sky bodies to run back to?' For a moment Grace thought he might be genuinely about to attack her, but then he turned contemptuously away and began to stride off. She expected him to vanish into the forest once more, but instead he sprang back into the tree he had first been sitting in, settled himself on a branch and turned to face her.

'Well, dreamwalker, I am sure you have another question for me.'

Why's he suddenly gone from murderous to helpful? Grace wondered. Trap, most likely. Or ambush. Ah well. With a mental shrug she began to approach the tree as well.

'Yes, I do.' She searched around for a problem that had been bothering her, aside from the issue of the network in the trees, then continued in Na'vi. 'I've noticed a kind of moss or grass that grows in the more open spaces of the forest. Quite a rare one. Do you know...how it makes its seeds?' She grasped a branch and made to begin climbing, but Tsu'tey grabbed her arm and hoisted her up one-handed.

'Dreamwalker, none of the people know how a plant makes its seeds. Maybe your people do; you seem to know a very great deal.' His tone made it very clear what he thought about that. 'Mother Ey'wa makes all things grow.'

'I see.' Grace nodded slowly. She hadn't really expected him to have a useful answer to that exact question. She chewed her lower lip, considering how to put it in terms he would understand. 'Do you know of any creatures...that feed from it, without actually pulling up and eating the growth?' What pollinates the grass was what she wanted to know. She hadn't been able to find any vector for the pollen.

Tsu'tey was staring up into the air. Suddenly he made a snatching motion with his hands, cupping them tightly together. As Grace leaned forward he held them out to her.

'Look,' he said in English. 'Look close.'

Grace bent her head as he slowly opened his hands. Perched on his palm was a tiny, jewel-bright insect, a little like a dragon-fly but smaller.

'Little riti drinks from the flowers, like you say,' he whispered, bending over the creature as well. 'Difficult to spot. Harder to catch.' He glanced up at her briefly. 'He moves from flower to flower and the seeds follow him.' He blew gently on his palm and the riti took off, flashing quickly out of sight. 'In our cold season the seeds travel on the wind, searching for new places. Pure spirits.'

Another scientist might have snapped 'oh, sod the pure spirits!' But not Grace. Instead she asked carefully:

'Pure in the same way that the atokirina are pure?' Where the Na'vi saw a spiritual link, she might find a scientific one.

Tsu'tey looked t her long and steadily. 'Yes,' he answered at last. 'Pure as the atokirina are pure, though less so.' So the grass might have something to do with whatever plant it is that the atokirina come from. And either or both of them might allow the Na'vi to access the tree network. 'And now, dreamwalker,' Tsu'tey continued, 'it is my turn to ask you a question.' He drew an arrow from the quiver on his back and began to turn it slowly in his hands. 'How do you know of the atokirina spirits?'

'Um,' Grace said. She knew that telling the truth at this point – that Jake had heard it from Neytiri and told her – would almost certainly land the jarhead in trouble, but on the other hand Tsu'tey might well spot a lie, and that would be sure to make him angry. So she answered honestly.

'Jake Sully told me.'

'Jakesully. I knew it.' He drew his fingers over the fletching of the arrow with a faint rustling sound, his expression black. 'This is what I tell you yesterday: dreamwalkers find our secrets, and it weakens us. He should not be among us, he should not have told you this!'

The arrow was making Grace distinctly nervous. She sat still and silent, her eyes fixed on his hands, trying not to show any fear. The tense seconds lengthened, and then he looked up with another of those threatening smiles.

'You are very silent,' he observed. 'What, no more questions?'

'Two, actually,' she replied as coolly as she could. 'What does your name mean, and what are you planning to do with that arrow?'

He laughed. It was quite a grim laugh, but it still held more genuine humour than she had ever seen from him before. In fact, though her knowledge of the seeds had upset him, she had noticed that he seemed to be in a better mood since he had succeeded in catching the riti fly.

'I haven't decided yet,' he answered, 'and my name?' His brow furrowed. 'Well, you know it comes from two words in the language of the People. Tsua is tall or strong, it changes, depending on...on...'

'Context?' Grace suggested.

'Yes, depending on context. All together, great. Here, it is both. And e'tey is a tree. So together it is tall tree, strong tree. Tsu'tey.'

'I see. Guess I should have been able to figure that out for myself. It was the running together of the two words that got me,' Grace said. A pause. 'It suits you.'

Tsu'tey grinned. 'You only think that because in your sky body you are so small.'

'No, I think you are tall, even for one of the People.'

'I suppose so. Taller than Jakesully, taller than you.' His hands were still running over the arrow. Suddenly he looked down and made a tutting sound. Apparently he had found a spot on the shaft that was less than straight. He pulled out a small knife and began to pare it carefully down, resting the point against the bark of the tree. Grace relaxed. If he had decided to settle down to work on the arrow, she thought she might be justified in assuming that he wasn't about to kill her with it.

He was silent for a few minutes, working up a steady rhythm with his knife, and then he looked at her once more.

'And you, your name is Grace Augustine.' He pronounced the words slowly and deliberately, as though they were difficult to get out. 'DoctorGrace. What does your name mean?'

'Grace,' she said. Oh, help. How to explain the meaning of Grace? Why couldn't she have a simple, literal name like tall tree? But she gave it a go. 'Well, grace has two meanings, one coming from the other. First, it means...the grace of God. You know, you have your goddess, the mother Ey'wa. But some of the sky people believe in other Gods, and they say that he has grace...it means he gives freely, he loves and protects. They say that he gives us grace, so that we can do right. And the second meaning of grace...is to move gracefully.' Now that was really impossible to describe. 'I don't know...co-ordinated, elegant...' Did he even know what these words meant? 'All the People move gracefully,' she said. 'You have to.'

'I think I understand you,' he said. 'And which grace is yours?'

'Oh, I don't know! It's probably meant to be both, but I think neither.'

'Neither?' he asked in surprise. 'How can your name not mean anything about you?'

'We're named at birth,' she told him shortly.

'So are the Na'vi, but we choose names that will fit the child.'

'And how do you know what name will suit a child when it's just a baby?'

'Mother Ey'wa tells us.'

'Ey'wa tells you everything,' Grace said grumpily. 'Don't you people ever think for yourselves?'

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she realised that she might have gone too far, but no arrow plunged between her shoulder-blades.

'Of course we do,' Tsu'tey said, surprisingly mildly. 'Nobody told me to come here.' He went back to paring down his arrow.

Grace settled herself comfortably into the fork of the tree. Trying to explain the meaning of grace had put her in a bad mood, but it was passing off now. She'd done enough talking; the silence was comfortable. She watched Tsu'tey idly while he worked, and found her eyes drawn to his tail, which flicked and swayed continuously while he worked, like a cat's. She smiled in amusement, and then twisted round to look over her shoulder and saw that her own tail was flicking and swaying too. She nearly giggled as she took conscious control over it, lifting it up and twitching it first one way and then the other. Being taller, bluer and wider-eyed, all of that she could take in her stride, but having an entirely new limb...that was something else.

'What are you laughing at?' Tsu'tey asked her.

'Oh!' Grace replied, looking up from her tail. 'I was just thinking about –'

Suddenly Tsu'tey froze. As she watched he raised his head and sniffed the air twice, his nostrils flaring. The silence seemed to have turned suddenly ominous; she heard a disturbed bird screech somewhere in the depths of the jungle.

Then Tsu'tey's eyes snapped onto her.

'You go now,' he said, and stood up on the branch.

'W-what?' Grace stammered, thoroughly taken aback, scrambling to her feet as well. 'Why?'

'Don't ask questions!' he snapped. 'Go!' He turned his head towards the Na'vi camp. 'I return to Home Tree now. You must go back to sky people's camp.'

'Now look here,' Grace said, 'just because you're not here doesn't mean I'm not entitled to stay out here if I –'

He brandished the arrow in her face. She started backwards and felt her foot slip on the mossy branch. With a snarl he lunged forward and seized the front of her shirt before she could overbalance. He dangled her feet first and then dropped her, so that she landed in a crouch on the forest floor.

'You go now,' he repeated, pointing the arrow at her as she scrambled to her feet. He was high above her on the branch now; she had to crane her head to look at him. 'Get out of the forest,' he said. 'Go.'

Baffled, Grace turned and began to run the way she had come. As she exited the clearing she looked back over her shoulder. Tsu'tey was still standing in the tree. Then, apparently satisfied that she was leaving, he scrambled onto a higher branch, leapt into the crown of a neighbouring tree and was gone.

She turned her face homewards and carried on running.

* * *

'Grace!'

The first person she saw when she entered the camp was Max, sprinting towards her with an oxygen mask strapped over his face. 'Where the hell have you been?'

'I need to go put the avatar away,' she said, stalling for time.

'I'll meet you inside,' he answered, retreating towards the building.

Five minutes later, Grace exited the lab in her human form to find Norm waiting for her directly outside. Jake and Norm were just behind him, their faces pale and anxious.

'Where the hell have you been?' Max repeated. 'Did you just go out into the jungle on your own?'

'Yes,' Grace said, sweeping past him. 'As you would know if Norm had been listening to me when I told you.'

Max seized her elbow. 'Don't try and blame this on us, Grace! You should know better than to go taking off by yourself like that.'

She sighed, turning to face him.

'Look, nothing happened –'

'Well it damn nearly did!' She had never seen Max so angry. 'Look at this screen! Just look!'

He pointed to a computer monitor which was showing a thermal read-out of the sector of forest she'd been travelling in.

'I check my cameras and I find that there's a huge thanator rampaging around out there!' Max shouted. 'And then Jake comes in and tells me that you're out on your own, headed for that exact area of the forest!'

'Max, are you trying to tell me that it's against the rules to go out in the forest on my own? Because believe it or not, I already know.' She turned to look at Jake. 'The jarhead gave me a recap on the regulations just this morning.'

'Well maybe you should listen to the jarhead! Maybe "the jarhead" hasn't got complacent!'

'Look, Max,' Grace said, more gently now, 'I'm sorry I worried you, and you're perfectly justified in your concern. But I've been here for a long time, and I know the jungle very well. It's not your job to be worrying about me –'

'No, you look, Grace,' Max interrupted. 'You may be my superior officially, but I've been working on this project for just as long as you have, and I know how dangerous it can be. So I'm telling you not to run off on your own like that again.' He was holding her shoulders now, looking into her eyes. Grace could feel the other two hanging on to every word, and suddenly she didn't feel angry or cantankerous any more. She felt oddly emotional.

'I get it, Max,' she said softly. 'I'll try and be sensible.'

'You had better,' he warned, and released her. Grace stood where she was for a moment as the activity of the lab resumed around her. Then she shook herself and walked over to her computer, bringing up some paperwork and preparing to buckle down.

But before she began work, she took a quick look at the thermal readouts that had been on Max's computer. They showed images of the fierce predator, stalking the jungle where she had been walking that morning. Was that what Tsu'tey had smelt, when he abruptly ordered her to leave?

Suddenly Grace was sure of it.

A/N: DON'T just click favourite! DON'T just click alert! DON'T just review saying 'this was good please update!' Give me FEEDBACK, people! I want to know which bits you liked and why, and especially what you thought of the pairing.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is your specification. Thank you.

True and Essence.

PS. Atokirina are the seeds of the Tree of Souls. The grass or moss that I mentioned in this chapter is the grass which grows under the tree, which we see winding round Grace's body in the scene where they attempt to transfer her into her Avatar body. Because Tsu'tey says that both have 'very pure spirits', Grace thinks that there may be a link between them. All the stuff about how the grass is pollinated and the meaning of Tsu'tey's name, I made up myself.

Oh, and I now know that the predator Jake runs from on his first trip is a thanator, so I changed that. Anyway, it was dangerous for Grace to be in the forest with it.