Chapter 4: 'Or Is It?'

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar.

A/N: This chapter is put together from bits and pieces that I wrote down a while back, during the gestation period, so I'm not sure how well it flows. But it moves the story on, I think, and that's the main thing.

'Hey, team, I've just received the response to our relocation request from Management,' Max called, plucking a printed-out email off the printer. 'It seems that they've finally finished chewing it through and sent us a verdict –'

'Well, don't keep us in suspense!' Grace came striding across the lab, her red curls bouncing. 'What is this, an amateur theatrics society? Gimme that.' She whipped the sheet out of his hand and stared at it for a few seconds, her lips pursed. Then her face broke into a smile. 'Well, they say we can go, everybody! How does that sound? A few weeks on our own in an outpost without the miners and jarheads breathing down our necks?' Grace knew how to raise a cheer when she wanted one. The group responded enthusiastically.

'Well, except for you, Jake,' she amended, turning to address the marine who was sitting behind her. 'How does a trip out sound?'

'Great,' he said, with one of his reserved but sincere soldierly smiles. '...where are we going?'

Grace didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Sometimes his cluelessness was unbelievable.

'To the Hallelujah mountains,' Norm chimed in. Thank God for Norm. The PhD had the patience of an angel.

'You know,' he said, when Jake looked blank. 'The famous floating mountains? On the North side? Come on, you must have heard of them?'

'Oh yeah.' Jake fumbled for his "manual", flipped through it and presented a photograph. 'Those famous floating mountains?'

'Yup,' Norm nodded. 'Those are the ones.'

'And do you happen to know why we are decamping to the Hallelujah mountains? Or the Iknimaya, to use the Na'vi?' Grace had finished perusing the email in more detail and had rejoined the conversation. Her eyes pinned Jake down with a little more humor than had been evident at their first meeting, but it was still a pretty scary expression.

Jake gulped. 'Um...no?'

'We are making the trip because it happens, conveniently, to be the site of the last task in your Na'vi training. They provide prime nesting grounds for ikran. The RDA consider it...important that you complete the training, and so they've agreed to let me take the team out there and given us a research permit so that we can get on with some studying while you're about it.' She eyed Jake for a moment and then said softly:

'Try not to walk around with your eyes closed, jarhead, you'll run into things.' Tapping him lightly on the head with the printout, she headed off in the direction of her desk.

Jake wheeled himself away, and Norm followed him. At the door they both paused as Trudy came hurrying past them with an armful of kit.

'Thanks,' she nodded as they scooted to either side to let her pass.

'No problem. Hey, are you flying us there?' Jake called after her.

Trudy looked back with a grin. 'Yup. Hallelujah mountains. Floating rocks and gravity fields screwing with my instruments. All good fun.'

As she dumped her equipment Jake and Norm continued to loiter by the door. Without discussion both their eyes turned to Grace, watching the scientist musingly. She was standing by her desk, one hand resting on the back of her chair, still reading the email closely with her eyebrows knitted.

'She's worried, you know,' Norm murmured so that only Jake could here. 'All this talk about research and diplomacy, understanding the indigenous...well, maybe it was all serious once, but the mining suits are just stringing us along now. They'll give us our permits to keep us quiet, pretend like we're a serious part of what they're doing here, but the truth is that they're totally driven by the mining industry now. The whole thing's just waiting to blow up, and when it does there'll be nothing Grace can do to stop them from taking what they want.' Norm dropped his voice even lower. 'Jake, she's counting on you. She's counting on you to gain the trust of the Na'vi, because what it boils to is that she's a scientist and you're a soldier. Quaritch respects you. Maybe, when the time comes, he'll listen to you.'

Jake nodded slowly. This was the closest anyone had come to mentioning his connection with the colonel. He suspected from Grace's words that she knew too, but...

Things were getting complicated.

Grace, meanwhile, was still staring at the email, but her thoughts were wandering. The RDA, the Na'vi, Hometree...all of it was just waiting to blow up, but she knew that she couldn't solve that by worrying, and her mind was on smaller matters. Up in the Hallelujah mountains they would be farther from Hometree. She wouldn't be able to visit so often...wouldn't see the kids for days on end. She knew she would miss wandering the familiar forest tracks which, foolishly, had begun to feel almost like her home, where there was always the chance, however slim, of running into a familiar face...

'...not positively looking forward to it,' she heard Norm say from the other side of the lab.

'Well, you could say that, I suppose,' Jake replied. 'I mean, nobody really looks forward to climbing up crumbling piles of floating rocks, no matter how much they boast in the mess hall.'

'Or wrestling with sort of pterodactyl-critters at the end of it,' Trudy put in, leaning against a bench top. Grace had been glad to hear that she would be flying them; the pilot struck her as more decent than most. She would be staying with them too.

'Or that either,' Jake agreed. 'Oh, and did I mention that Tsu'tey is gonna be our guide and safety instructor in this?'

'Wow, are you ever going to have a good day tomorrow,' Trudy whistled, while Grace whipped round and began busying herself with stacking papers without quite knowing why. So, that was one Na'vi they wouldn't be leaving behind. Tsu'tey was coming as well.

Poor Jake.

* * *

Today they were due to set off on their trip to tame banshees in the Hallelujah mountains. His human comrades were already installed in the mobile unit, and Jake and the other initiate warriors had spent the previous day on a long and gruelling hike out to their starting point. But was that any excuse to take it easy? Not according to Neytiri, it wasn't.

Jake drew his bow and took aim at the target which she had daubed in berry juice on the bark of a tree. Then he lowered it again and adjusted his grip on the arrow. He began to bring it back up to his shoulder, but stopped. He adjusted his footing, flicking his tail slightly to assess his balance. He heard Neytiri begin to tap her foot significantly.

Fine, he was stalling. But with good reason.

Shooting was difficult enough in itself, but doing it with Neytiri watching his every move and her psychotic brother breathing down his neck was even worse. Jake's stomach was churning with nerves. Just yesterday he had watched Tsu'tey doing similar training with a group of other young warriors. He had shot a succession of arrows straight into the target, drawing them so fast that his hands had seemed blurred. None of the other Na'vi had been able to match him. And now Jake knew that Tsu'tey was just waiting to take his turn and blow him out of the water. He pulled the string tight again, turned the bow a little to the left and then a little to the right, screwing up one eye to try and see better –

'Skxawng!' A loud voice shrieked in his ear and a hand smacked into his shoulder. Jake jumped about a foot in the air, lost his grip on the bowstring and sent the arrow shooting into the ground an inch from his toe.

'Never, never close your eyesto hunt,' Neytiri scolded him. 'Open! Aim more quickly. And grip the bow like this, not like that. It is a tool, not a delicate toy!'

'Alright, alright!' Jake exclaimed. Hardly caring what he was doing, he whipped the bow up and fired.

The arrow thudded into the dead centre of the target.

'Good, good!' Neytiri encouraged, while Jake gaped open-mouthed. She seemed genuinely happy to see him making progress, but then again, who really enjoyed beating their head against a brick wall?

'Tsu'tey's turn,' she said.

Tsu'tey stepped forward, resisting the urge to barge the dreamwalker as he did so. He stood for a moment, poised on the balls of his feet, finding his balance. Then in one blindingly fast motion Tsu'tey whipped an arrow from quiver to string and let it fly.

'Show-off,'Jake said under his breath. Neytiri glanced side-long at him, half chiding, half amused.

As Tsu'tey aimed, he felt his fingers brush over a slight scoop or indent in the shaft, but he was moving too fast to adjust. He felt it slip in his hands and go shooting away at the wrong angle. There was a thump as it hit the tree.

Jake blinked. Tsu'tey's arrow was out from his by nearly an inch.

Tsu'tey stood where he was, cursing silently and fluently. By sheer bad luck, he had managed to draw the arrow that he had been working on as he talked to the female dreamwalker. He recalled that he'd taken a lot more than he should have done off the shaft as they talked – he hadn't been paying enough attention to what he was doing... But he could hardly explain that to the other two without sounding as though he were making excuses, and besides, what kind of a fool whittled his arrows too thin?

'That was a good try, Tsu'tey,' Neytiri said finally.

Tsu'tey resisted the urge to go and kill something, preferably Jake.

'We will practise again, Jake,' she said, walking to the tree to retrieve the arrows. She plucked Tsu'tey's down and examined it closely. 'Hmm. I think this one is a little...uneven?'

'I must have pared it too thin,' Tsu'tey said tightly.

'Something else on your mind, huh?' Jake muttered behind him.

Tsu'tey spun round and seized him by the throat.

Neytiri shrieked, leaping forward and elbowing him in the abdomen. Then she whirled around to Jake.

'What did you say to him?'

Tsu'tey, who had doubled up in the excruciating pain that came with a jab in the pressure point, straightened up and hissed: 'That... dim-witted pupil of yours needs to be taught some manners!' He hadn't missed the fact that, though she was trying to conceal it with anger now, Neytiri had rushed to help the Dreamwalker unhesitatingly.

'I did not see him do anything terrible!' she said now. 'Jake, what did you say?'

'I just asked if he had something on his mind!' Jake huffed, picking himself up. 'I was only joking!'

'There, you see?' Neytiri nodded, as though that settled the matter. Tsu'tey suppressed a snarl, caught her by the shoulder and began to speak in Na'vi.

'He has no right to be here! And now he's being rude and muttering insults behind my back! You are being too soft on him!'

Neytiri's eyes flashed. 'Maybe you should learn to control your temper before starting on about his faults!' Tsu'tey noticed she had dodged his accusation about her training methods.

'Well, maybe you should stop being so gentle with your Dreamwalker and teach him some discipline! Or perhaps you're becoming too fond of - '

Neytiri shrieked wordlessly, stepping forward and smacking her brother in the chest. He noticed her cheeks had turned slightly pink. 'Well, maybe, uh – you should focus on whittling your arrows properly rather than staring dreamily off at – well, whatever you were staring at!'

Tsu'tey snarled. 'What makes you think I was staring at anything? Just because you are an initiated warrior now, it doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful to your elders!'

'I don't see that I was disrespectful – unless I somehow hit a nerve?'

'Shut up, little sister!'

'So I did hit a nerve! What were you finding so distracting, then?'

'Nothing, you*!&**!'

'How dare you speak to me like that, you *!#$*&*-ing – '

'Erm, guys?' Jake said tentatively. Neytiri's last sentence contained a couple of words that he hadn't heard since the time he had accidentally dropped his bowl of hot soup on a Na'vi's tail several weeks ago. Maybe it would be best to intervene before it became an all-out sibling row. 'Maybe you should – '

'Fnu!' 'Shut up!' both of them shouted at him, and he took a step backward. Then Neytiri sighed, and with a great effort, composed herself.

'Jake, I think we should go and train elsewhere,' she said haughtily, collecting up her things. Jake stayed where he was, watching Tsu'tey warily. The tall male looked pretty murderous.

'Well? Eltu si, skxawng!' Neytiri snapped turning away from her brother. Jake quickly gathered up his things and followed her.

Left on his own, Tsu'tey began to stalk menacingly around the camp, checking their preparations and snapping at any warrior who got in his way. The mountains floated above him, decking in their swirling throngs of ikran. His best hope was that Jakesully would get knocked over the edge in the struggle...which, with Neytiri watching his every move, was looking more and more unlikely.

* * *

'Grace?'

'What?!?' Grace whipped round from the specimen she'd been studying, her face set in a snarl that would have been terrifying even by Na'vi standards.

'Sorry!' Norm exclaimed, taking a step backwards. 'I only wanted to ask if you wanted any coffee.'

'Oh. Right. Sorry.' Grace bowed her head, rubbing her fingers wearily into her temples. 'Yeah, please. Coffee would be great.'

'OK,' Norm whispered, and backed slowly out of the room as though she were some kind of tyrannical monarch.

Grace checked her watch for the umpteenth time that day. The mission should have been completed by now; Jake would either be the proud owner of an ikran, or a bloody mess on the rocks beneath the Hallelujah mountains. She knew that if it was the latter he would probably have woken up gasping and choking by now, and they would have no worse consequences to contend with than the loss of a very expensive avatar...but all the same, she couldn't forget the time when one of her team had been so badly injured while in link that his human body had gone into shock and never woken up. They'd improved the link beds since then, with dozens of safeties to allow the driver to disconnect in an instant, but still...

She sighed, pushed her microscope away and headed into the link room. This dismal little journey was beginning to become painfully familiar as she checked on him again and again. She should just get a grip on herself, accept that worrying wasn't going to change anything and get down to some useful work. But she couldn't.

Jake's face on the screen didn't look particularly dead. His eyes were flickering rapidly like a REM sleeper's, and she wondered what he was seeing in his avatar body. For goodness' sake, he should have been back by now. How long did it take to catch yourself a banshee? Probably he was just being really, really picky, trying to find himself a mount that could take on an RDA helicopter...

She turned to stare at her own link bed. What was she planning on doing? Heading out there to look for him herself? Stupid and unnecessary. But maybe a spin in the avatar would help to clear her head –

'Grace!'

She whirled around with a yell as the lid of Jake's link bed crashed back to reveal the man himself, sitting up, eyes bright.

'What the hell...?' was all she managed, clutching at her chest in shock.

'Oh my God, that was the biggest rush ever!' Jake cried, hoisting himself into his wheelchair. 'I was like, "shut up and fly straight," and it flew straight, and –'

'Aww, crap,' Grace groaned, flopping onto her link bed and burying her face in her hands.

'And we were flying right in among the tightest bits of the mountains, I just had to think and it acted, and...Grace? Are you OK?'

'Yeah,' she muttered. 'Stressful day, that's all. And you are just completely not bothered. 'Guess I'd better tell the others you're back.'

'Yeah.' Jake wheeled closer. 'Are you sure your OK?'

He was kind of sweet, in a completely emotionally clueless way. 'Sure, Jarhead, I'm fine,' she said.

'Oh good.' Jake turned and began to wheel towards the door. 'I'm just going to go outside for a breath of fresh air, then.'

'Uh, Jake?' she called, leaning out of the link room after him. 'You do realise you'll suffocate if you try to breath the air, right?'

'It's an expression, Doctor,' he replied, rolling into the airlock. 'Hmm, Tsu'tey didn't seem too happy about the fact that I survived. D'you reckon he –' The closing door cut off his words.

Grace shook her head, stared after him for a moment, and then went back to her samples.

* * *

Tsu'tey carefully tied the binding between two sticks and sat back on his heels to admire his handiwork. When it was done it would be a wonderful trap, right in the path the Sky people took to fetch their water, and completely invisible.

He knew this was probably unwise, but what did it matter? For the past weeks he had been tolerating the Sky people, behaving like his sister or the youngest of the children, who never linked their beloved teacher to the destruction of the forest. But they were enemies, it was time to begin treating them as such once more. Jakesully's success was the final straw. He was in the mood for revenge.

'What exactly are you doing?'

And abrasive voice cut through his thoughts, and a foot came down sharply on his trap – which, in its incomplete state, was no good for trapping anything. He looked up to find himself face to face with the female dreamwalker, who was giving him a look that would have made Palalukan turn tail and run.

'Nothing,' he said, and then began mentally kicking himself.

'Nothing?' the dreamwalker echoed. She was in her Sky form, and this combined with her belligerent stance had the unsettling effect of making her seem simultaneously very big and very small.

'Look,' she said, 'I know you think I'm unobservant, but did you really think I wouldn't notice you setting up a trap right outside my front door?'

There was no right answer to that, so Tsu'tey stayed silent.

'Get out,' Grace said, in a voice more weary than anything else, dropping her aggressive posture, 'and take your twigs with you.' She nudged at the trap with her foot, knocking the framework apart.

'Hey!' Tsu'tey yelled fiercely, leaping to his feet.

'Be reasonable,' Grace snapped back, unimpressed. 'I don't go around trapping you in the forest, so have the courtesy not to trap me here. Save it for the military.' She pointed in the direction of the army base.

Tsu'tey sneered.

'You couldn't trap me in the forest if you tried, Dreamwalker.'

Graced raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, couldn't I?'

'No!'

'Oh really?'

'No!'

'Oh really?'

'No!'

'This is a circular argument. I told you to go.

Tsu'tey backed away, glowering.

'I'm going.'

'Well go!'

'I'm going!'

Grace folded her arms and planted her feet. 'You're still here.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are.'

'You're...going somewhere with this?'

Both of them jumped, turning towards the new speaker. Jake was sitting in the path in front of them, and as they stared at him he began to shake with barely controlled laughter.

'What are you doing here, Jake?' Grace demanded, jerking her head so that her curls bounced.

'Well, I *was* going to go through the door, only you two are blocking it.

Grace looked and saw that they had indeed been conducting their argument across the entrance to the base. She raised her eyes to glare at Tsu'tey once more. He glared back.

'So, Jake called, interrupting their staring match, 'is he leaving now or are you going to ask him in to dinner?'

Grace lit a cigarette and slipped it daringly under her mask for a drag. 'Oh, he's definitely going,' she said, flicking a murderous glance at Tsu'tey.

He stepped forward and plucked the cigarette from between her fingers, leaning aggressively close. 'Be careful, dreamwalker,' he hissed. 'This time you are lucky, this time I let you go. Maybe next time I am not so generous.'

'Maybe next time I won't let you off so lightly,' Grace retorted. They scowled at one another, nose to nose and eye to eye.

'OoooooooOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!' Jake crowed.

Grace rounded on him. 'Jake, get inside, now!' she snapped, gesturing sharply at the door. He simply sat there and laughed.

Face tight with fury, Grace stomped over to him and seized the handles of his wheel chair.

'Hey!' Jake protested.

She ignored him, shoving him up the ramp towards the door. 'You,' she barked at Tsu'tey as she passed him. 'Go on. Leave.' He stood where he was for a moment and then began to melt back into the jungle, his expression mutinous.

'I'll see you in training tomorrow!' Jake yelled over his shoulder as he was wheeled into the base. Grace slammed her hand against the control to seal the doors and then spun him round to face her.

'You and I,' she said, 'are going to have a serious talk about how not to upset these people if you want to continue your assignment. Now go. Video log. Get out from under my feet.'

Jake scooted off into the computer room, calling out a greeting to Norm as he did so. Grace stared after him for a moment, shaking her head, then turned and made her way into the kitchen. He had talked one bit of sense during the exchange: it was indeed time for dinner.

She switched on their gas stove and began to throw together a quick meal, putting on some minute rice to simmer and cutting strips of pork and capsicum into a pan to fry. She made a thin gravy from half a stock cube dissolved in boiling water, tossed the whole lot together and carried it through on a plate to the computer room.

Jake was sitting in front of the camera, addressing it with the same awkward solemnity that he always brought to the task. Norm was perched on a desk top opposite him, facing the door. He held a notebook and pencil, but did not seem to be writing anything down. Grace tuned her ears to Jake's words.

'...swear she has a thing going for Tsu'tey, Neytiri's psychotic older brother. I mean, I know he's a good source of scientific information, but surely she can't be doing this purely in the name of science. She's off in the forest every day talking to him, she jumps whenever his name's mentioned...' Jake shifted his head very slightly, almost as though he were sneaking a glance over his shoulder. '...and he was here today, right outside the base. Oh, they said he was setting a trap, but it wouldn't surprise me if...'

Grace blinked. Norm was staring fixedly at her, his pencil poised to take notes.

'What are you boys doing?' she said sharply, setting her plate down and planting her hands on her hips.

Jake gave a theatrical jump and twisted round as though he'd only just noticed her. Norm bent over his pad and began to scribble furiously, muttering as he wrote.

'Reaction: irritable, accusing. Shifting blame? Expression guilty...'

'I do not look guilty!' Grace exclaimed hotly.

' "Methinks the lady doth protest too much," ' Norm continued. 'Consider relevance of quote to G's reaction.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Oh, I think you know.' Jake spun round to face her. All his gravity had vanished; he was grinning from ear to ear. 'Squabbling like an old married couple, you were. I never would have thought it of you, Grace, but you live and learn.'

'Thought what?'

'Tsu'tey...' Jake drawled, dragging out each syllable. There was a pause. 'Ha, I knew it! Norm, she's blushing, have you got down that she's blushing?'

'Got it,' Norm confirmed, writing busily.

'I am not blushing!' Grace insisted. Then realising that she was only encouraging them by rising to the bait, she struggled to get a hold on herself. Leaning forward in order to deliver her famous venomous hiss with more accuracy, she said:

'Look, I don't know where you two got the idea that I have feelings for Tsu'tey, but I can ensure you that it's completely professional.'

'Or is it?' Jake countered. Grace had to admire his tenacity as she snapped:

'Yes! Stop confusing my issues with yours!'

Norm sucked in his breath – maybe her jibe had been a little near the knuckle – but Jake seemed unperturbed.

'Who's confusing issues here?' he said mildly. 'I'm cool with my issues, I embrace my issues. I mean, sooner or later you're gonna have to face up to this, Grace.'

'It's in your imagination,' she said coldly, turning away.

'Oh really?' Jake called after her.

'Yes!'

'Oh really?'

Grace whipped round and lunged at him, ramming his chair back into the desk as she swiped at his eyes.

'Hey, that's not fair!' he protested, fending her off. 'You're not allowed to take advantage of – OW!' He managed to get his hands around her wrists and held her arms away from him, out to the sides. Unable to attack, Grace snarled at him in impotent rage.

'Did you see that, Norm?' Jake called shakily. 'She went for me, nails first!'

Grace gave a strangled shriek and wrenched herself out of his grasp, swinging round and storming across the room.

'Oh, come on, Grace, don't be like that!' Norm called after her. 'Jake just got a little carried away –'

'Bollocks.' Grace turned in the doorway to give them the most withering look she could mister. 'I'll leave you two delusional children until you think you can get a hold on your fantasies.' Slamming the door behind her she stomped down the corridor to the link room, booting up her bed with an angry swipe of her hand. In her avatar body she always felt relaxed and coordinated, more at ease and less plagued by the intricacies of life than in her human form. She had to get out, get out and cool off.

Was it her imagination, or had Jake absorbed just enough of the intelligence out of Norm's brain to leave them both completely jarheaded?

A/N: This chapter was a bit OOC, maybe, but I thought it was funny. Your opinions?

MeAndMySelf2000: Thanks a lot for your feedback. It's useful to know whether people want it to end happily or not.

Joojootrain: Thanks very much, that is high praise indeed!

Na'viBlue: Here's your update then.

Blank098: Hmm, good thought.

QAvtar: Aww, thanks a lot.

Jinxed: You didn't even notice yourself changing chapters? Wow, now I feel special! Yeah, the part with their names was really fun.

Anonymous: A bit weird? I suppose he'll be even worse in this chapter, but maybe chapter 3 was better?

Purplepeopleeater: More of Grace's past? Did chapter 3 fill that gap for you at all?

Someone: 'Chattier'...lol. I'm trying to remember whether the 'I had to see you again' was my idea or my sister's...anyway, I liked it a lot too.

Straychild: Woohoo for Tsu'tey!

Minako: Thanks a lot!