Chapter 8: Questions and Answers

Date: June 6th

Location: Pandora, hells gate

She hated this; she hated this more than she had ever hated anything before in her life as she balled her bloodied fists, pulling bruised and battered skin taught as she fought against the drowsiness behind her eyes. She sat cross-legged; back pressed up against the cold corner of the room the invaders had put her in. And all around her were fist sized dents that had gotten progressively bloodier as they got closer to where she sat. She didn't know how long she had been trapped in this place, the flow of time having been robbed from her.

Her body felt slow and sluggish after her assault on her prison; the over use of her power having left her muscles stinging and aching with every motion and her eyelids feeling as though weights had been attached but even still she would not allow herself to succumb as the memories of how she had come to be in this horrid state kept her mind focused.

Arvok, that stupid idiot had tried to stop her from killing the invaders even as Eywa sent her viper wolves to destroy them. What had he been thinking? The thought alone caused her to hiss in a low feral tone. And worse yet he had fallen, the image of his shocked eyes getting further and further away and him hitting the forest floor with a dull thud and… and not getting back up.

She hissed again as she felt tears running down her cheeks, her lip beginning to quiver as she rubbed them away in defiance and bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She would not allow herself to crumble; when those doors opened once more the invaders would not see some frightened woman, but a warrior. And she could worry or perhaps mourn Arvok later as she remembered those hulking brutes noticing his fallen form and where he had fallen from.

With a trickle of blood running down her chin she felt her blood boil with rage; it was a bitter, vengeful thing as she recalled herself empowered by her vitra-tswal. Her soul power; the power that enabled her to damage the walls around her and the power that sent her arrow screaming in defiance into one of the monsters chest as it stared its putrid yellow eyes back at her. The arrow was upon him in a near instant, no time to even realize much less dodge and in that moment she could have sworn she saw the demon glow like a fire all across its body right before her arrow slammed into the monster knocking it back into the trunk of a great tree with a hard crash. In that moment she had become careless and had allowed herself a moment of vicious joy but it was short lived as the monster turned its head to her once more, arrow still imbedded in its chest. The armor had done its job, it had penetrated, but it did not kill!

She slammed her fist into the wall beside her, her blood spattering against it as she pulled back, a crimson river flowing down as she grinded her teeth holding in the pain. She watched as the thing lifted its weapon in retaliation and as her eyes stared deeply into its dark maw she knew in that moment that her life was over. She imagined herself becoming nothing more than red mist and bloody chunks, her ears going flat with terror much to her own shame. But when its weapon roared she expected to feel nothing, not even allowed the time to experience her death but yelped in shock and pain as a feeling of weightlessness and wind rushing by assaulted her as she hit the ground hard, tumbling through the brush as the branch she had been standing on had been shattered into pieces from under her, the splintered shards of wood finding their new home in her shins.

Grinding her teeth she had just enough time to roll; letting the momentum of her fall carry her back to her feet, adrenaline doing well to block out most of the new pain as the monster charged her. In the time between her fall and regaining her feet the monster had snapped off half of the arrows shaft and hurled it as her, forcing her to duck her head while at the same time pulling out her knife to defend herself. With a roar she swung the knife down with the force of a hammer, trying to drive it into its neck. The monster responded as it grabbed her by the wrist, its arms filled with unnatural strength as it squeezed her in a bone crushing grip. But she did not allow the pain to faze her as she wreathed her left hand with her vitra-tswal and struck it across the jaw with a loud crack. Its mask buckled into the shape of her fist, its right glowing eye shattering with a high pitch snap.

The thing stumbled back; hand still clutching her wrist in its grip and pulling her with it. She went to punch him again; aiming this time for half of her still imbedded arrow hoping to slam it in further and pierce its heart, if it even had one. But its seemed the demon would not allow it as she was greeted by a deep guttural roar as it returned the favor, winding its fist back and driving it right into her stomach, knocking the wind clean out of her body and lifting her off the ground as she fell back down to her knees, her hand finally loosening on her weapon. The strike had been so hard that she had felt it in her spine as she coughed and gagged, long rivulets of spit hanging from her lips. She tried with all her strength to force air back into her lungs but her body would not obey. And the monster took full advantage as out of the corner of her eye she saw its fist approaching her face and the world going black.

As she remembered her defeat her scowl brought forth a fresh wave of pain as she gingerly touched the side of her face where the beast had struck, the swelling already settled in as her fingers pressed against the tender skin. Looking down as well she saw the strange alien wrappings the aliens had bound each of her legs in and the bloodied skin on the edges when she had tried to claw it off. But despite her best efforts she couldn't get them off.

But sitting here now, after the rage had left her and the weight of her situation truly came to her one thought rang through her mind.

Arvok had been right she thought to herself, these things were intelligent, with tools and weapons she could not fully comprehend. But he had been wrong as well; wrong not to tell her father, wrong to think these things were capable of anything but mindless destruction. These things were beyond dangerous to both the people and to Eywa. She thought to herself mentally admonished herself as the final word entered her mind, Eywa was all things and nothing was beyond her reach. To think anything else was foolish.

But still that niggling, defiant thought persisted, sprouting anew even as she mentally squashed it again and again. These demons, no these… sky demons and their fire sticks. They needed to be stopped.

Suddenly a new noise echoed across the room pulling her back from her thoughts as the sliding wall pulled way to reveal…Arvok!

Her one good eye went wide and it almost felt as though her heart had stopped. She had almost given up hope of ever seeing him again and the sight of his face momentarily made her forget the circumstances she found herself in; but that feeling was short lived as her eyes passed to those walking with him. Its skin was rotted and pieces of its ivory skull could be seen shining in the bright, false light. Even hidden within its spotless cloak she could see its skeletal figure.

"Neytiri!" she heard Arvok yell as he rushed passed the corpse only to smack his head against something. Had it been any other time she might have laughed at that but it seemed someone else had filled in for her as a rumbling chuckle echoed out from the demon behind him as Arvok recovered himself.

It had come from one of the large brutes who lumbered in behind. She watched as he got closer to her cell and Arvok who had gotten back up to his feet was placing a hand on the strange barrier that separated them. She had tried to break it when she regained consciousness but no matter how hard she tried it would do nothing. The barrier itself was blue and shimmering like water but when she had hit it, her hands hadn't come back wet.

"Release her!" Arvok screamed, happy that at least he still had the energy to do so as the brute got closer and began pressing something on the side of the wall. In an instant the barrier was gone and Arvok wasted no time in coming to Neytiri's side.

Fear was evident in his eyes, his hands shaking slightly as he looked over her body. She might have felt embarrassment from such a close inspection but her eyes remained firmly affixed to the two demons behind him who rightfully kept their distance.

"By Eywa, what did they do" she heard him say anger and horror written on his face as he gently touched her bruised face, making it flinch in pain. He looked down at her bloodied knuckles, the white of her bones peeking out between dried clumps of blood and gazed out around the bloodied dents all across her cell. She felt his arm wrap itself under arms and though her muscles screamed in reluctance, she could only give a pained sigh as he lifted her up, regaining her balance with some effort. As the two stood there in that place now more than anything; beyond the fear and the hate, she just wanted to go home.

But the wall once again opened, dashing away that hope as the two looked to see four more figures stepping into the room. The thing in the center was also a walking corpse like the other one, but this one covered in a thick green coat. His eyes were hard and uncompromising pools of black and just like the first one his skin was horribly burnt without even a hint of hair on its rotting scalp.

She hissed at the corpse, blue lips peeling back to reveal ivory fangs. But the corpse didn't seem threatened by the display, its pace even and tempered even as it moved towards beings twice its size. But Neytiri was feeling anything but large right now as those twin pools looked deep into her own.

Stopping just a few feet from them; the corpse reached out a hand towards Arvok. The appendage was just as rotted as the rest of its body with deep craterous scars but as much as she reviled it, when she turned her head she could find only find a shadow of her own disgust in Arvok's eyes as the thing began to speak. It was rough and filled with hard stops that grated on her ears but Arvok seemed to somehow understand it. Her eyes darted between the two as they spoke to each other, anger being to resurface as the feeling of being kept in the dark grated on her.

Eventually the feeling became too much for her to take and lightly elbowed Arvok in the ribs, gaining his attention. Arvok looked confused for a moment before understanding the look in her eyes as he answered her.

"His name is Zao and he wants to talk to us."

Zao stood patiently, his posture sure and firm as the male alien spoke to the women, and if his pours still worked he believed a bead of sweat would be running down the back of his neck right now. It seemed even after centuries of living in a post-apocalyptic world he could not completely settle his nerves; though perhaps it was because of those nerves, he had been allowed to survive this long in the first place. Especially after having seeing the recordings of the strange abilities the beings of this world have. He looked behind them to see the damage she had done; those walls had been made of steel and the dents she had made were considerable.

As well as the being that Wynne spoke of, he needed to find out what it was, where it was and if necessary kill it. And these aliens were the key to that.

He prayed that these damn translators were as good at alien languages as they were with human ones. He had ordered for the unconscious native's brain to be scanned and ELMA was working hard to decipher the language even as they spoke.

'Truly, they had much to talk about'

Although the women seemed to be less than enthused at the idea as she spoke in a tone that left nothing to doubt and gave him a stare that almost reminded him of a deathclaw.

"We have nothing to say to them!" she said as the male closed his eyes and breathed deep. It was a look he knew well, having to deal with someone who just refused to cooperate and if he was going to get anywhere with these people he needed to speak.

"How about something easy, what are your names?" he asked as the male looked back to him and the female continued to try and kill him with her eyes.

"Arvok don't, it is a monster" the woman whispered, her attempts at hiding her revulsion being as clear as day as Zao kept his eyes on him.

"I assure you, I am not" he said, more to the man than the woman as his still outstretched hand hung in the air but when he saw the clear confusion in his eyes he could see he had already made a mistake.

"On our world, we shake hands to greet each other" he explained with a self-deprecating chuckle as he watched a look of recognition spread across the native's face. For a few more seconds the native that he believed was named Arvok looked at his hand, while he rubbed his own anxiously. He was just about to pull away when finally he decided to lift his hand, tentative fingers shaking slightly as his large hand wrapped around his own.

Zao smiled behind his mask, the first step in a long road finally established as two people from different worlds shook hands for the first time. True he would have preferred it to have been under better circumstances but he learned long ago that you play with the hand you're dealt. And should worse come to worse and the ionic sister and Meta was not enough he had stationed two more Meta's outside, armed and ready to neutralize them.

"I am Arvok" the Native said confirming Zao's assumption, "and this is Neytiri" he continued as her response to her introduction to simply glare harder at him. Zao responded by simply nodding his head.

"I am Zao and I am the leader of these people" he repeated as he motioned his head to all the others in the room.

Arvok seemed not too surprised by that, quickly turning his head to Neytiri to relay what he had just said.

Thinking it could be worth a shot; he pulled another translator from one of his pockets and holds it in front of the pair.

"For her" he stated pointing at the woman. Arvok looked at the device for a moment, perhaps he himself wondering how the woman would react before relaying his offer.

"This will let you understand, he wants you…" he tried to say before being cut off by her with a quick no.

'Too much to hope for I suppose' he thought to himself as he placed it back inside his pocket, silently hoping that she would change her mind before the end.

"Who are all of you?" Arvok said, his eyes wandering over every one in the room.

"Well, we are from a world called Terra and all of us here are human" he answered letting the information settle in the native's mind as he again relayed it to the woman.

"As for our names; you already know Grace and Tom. And the ones with me are Father Sullivan, Sister Ophelia, Wynne and Scribe Anthony." He said pointing to each as he named them.

Sullivan and Ophelia were wearing twin faces of awe and each gave a small bow in greeting. Anthony was staring as well, but his look was like his station, analytical. He scanned their bodies as if he could uncover all their secrets with his eyes alone.

But of them all it was Wynne that did not seem too surprised by the native's; in fact she began to step closer and he saw the awed look of Ophelia turn hard in an instant as she watched the magi's movements. Sullivan too looked towards Wynne and then to Zao himself who shook his head, letting her do whatever she needed to. She had asked to come here; against even the advisement of Irving. And while he would never truly understand the power she wielded, he knew it had to be important.

Wynne walked closer giving no mind to the apprehension or personal space of the native pair, the tapping of her staff echoing in the small room. It was only after she had gotten well within arm's reach did she stop. She was silent for a moment, her eyes staring intently at each of them.

Neytiri like always had the disposition of a caged predator; hands flexing for a moment before curling into fists the next again and again, while Arvok simply looked puzzled his eyes darting between Wynne and himself. And when the uncomfortable was reaching a fever pitch she spoke.

"Yes; you are everything I thought you'd be"

Arvok's eyes blinked rapidly in bewilderment, the strangeness of the woman's statement grinding his mind to a shuddering halt as he opened and closed his mouth again and again like a fish out of water. What did she mean by that, what had she thought of them and why. After all that had happened, the destruction created by their weapons, their blasphemous structures, massive rumbling beasts and utter lack of queue while not even mentioning the two walking dead that stood in the same room as him. It had all become so much, too much, he had so many questions. Yet where to even begin; each time he thought he could begin another question battled for supremacy on the tip of his tongue.

"Hu…man, Tera" he tried to say, latching himself on these foreign words like a life line as he tried to reorient himself. Their peoples name was Human. This confirmed what they had already thought. From Pandora the people have always known that other worlds existed, their forms floating high above the clouds. But what kind of world would create such beings.

"Human, Na'vi" he said; pointing to them then to himself and Neytiri.

"Na'vi" Zao responded, he to seeming to think over the name of the people and despite himself he disliked the name of his coming from a corpse.

"What's a scribe?" Arvok asked his mind turning to the most alien word he had heard from these humans.

The human named Anthony was silent for a moment, his eyes ponderous and he worried that he might have said something wrong before he spoke.

"I am a… keeper of legends. My purpose is to remember the past so that the future will know" he answered, his voice slow and stuttering as if he was trying to find the right words.

"You are a keeper of songs?" Arvok said, recognizing somewhat the role this man had as his mind returned to times around the great fire where elders would speak of the great people of the Omaticaya and their deeds while others in elaborate costumes would jump and dance, acting them out as history was retold for eyes that had not seen.

"Yes" he said answering far quicker this time, but before he could ask another question another voice interrupted him.

"Give it to me" he heard Neytiri say, pulling the attention of the room back to her. She had gone completely quiet since her refusal. But now she looked at Arvok with a measure of quiet rage and acceptance.

"I will not be left ignorant of what these demons are saying." She hissed, looking back to the human Olo'eyktan.

Seeming to accept her demand Zao gave the strange object to him. Its body was of two sides, one was long and twisting like the curling form of seashell whilst the other reminded him of the head of a mushroom and all of it felt like nothing he had ever experienced. Both smooth and sticky, pliable yet firm between his fingers.

Looking to Neytiri he showed it to her to which she quickly snatched it from his hand, twisting it between her fingers with disgust as he through Zao explained how to properly use it. It did not take long for her to slip it into her ear, long end first as her eye twitched instinctively at the foreign object inside. Once she pulled her hand away she looked as though she thought her head was going to explode before she asked her first question.

"Are you dead" she asked with absolute seriousness. Arvok could only nod his head in agreement with the question, looking between Zao and Grace. While Zao seemed unaffected by it he saw Grace's eyes turn down in what he could at best describe as sadness.

"No" he said shaking his head. "I and Grace are… scarred, burned by a great fire" he said as even through the distortion of his mask he could hear the sadness. Both Arvok and Neytiri were surprised by this, how someone could be so injured and still live, even more being able to speak without screaming from pain.

"They have been chosen by Atom" He heard the woman named Sister Ophelia say, though he wondered who's sister she was or if she were the daughter of Father Sullivan. Like the humans from the night before she was covered in hard angular black armor, accented by golden engravings and a green cloth that hung between her legs with a strange golden symbol he had never seen. But there was a massive difference in that it almost sounded alive as the subtle roar of a fire could be heard from it.

Grace seemed incensed by the statement, glaring daggers into the woman and looking as though she was thinking to attack her. Zao on the other hand was silent; eyes staring off into some distance place.

"Who is Atom" Arvok asked, eyes growing narrow. How could these people of been chosen and what would choose them.

A hand was placed on Ophelia's shoulder before she could answer herself as the man called Father Sullivan stepped forward.

"He is our Lord God, our radiant Father, the creator of the universe and all within it" he explained in a calm teaching tone, and while he didn't know what the 'universe' was the way he spoke faintly reminded him of Mo'at's teachings which made Arvok's eyes widened as the answer to one of his deepest questions were answered. This man was the Tsahik of his people and his people had an Eywa, or perhaps something like her.

"Liar, there is only Eywa!" Neytiri nearly screamed, putting everyone in the room back on edge as she continued her tirade.

"You come here, break her laws, gouge at her flesh and then dare speak of your false God!" She hissed bringing to bear all of her vitriol. But to his surprise they did not seem to react with anger; instead the pair just stood there, their eyes watching her with even more intensity then before. And if he looked hard he could almost see the familiar look of realization behind their eyes.

Was this 'Atom' somehow their Eywa? It didn't seem possible, they had openly and brazenly broken her laws and they had no queue. How could they possibly speak to Eywa if they had no queue? It seemed that the more questions were answered the more questions were created.

"What laws have we broken" Zao asked, bringing back all that he had seen. What laws had they not broken? And if they truly had an Eywa, it was nothing like theirs.

"You have broken two of the three laws of Eywa" Arvok said, glancing at the still seething woman beside him, his nerves beginning to grate at her behavior. As much as he cared for her, she was making this far more difficult than it needed to be.

"Which are?" Zao asked; all human ears ready to hear.

"You shall not set stone upon stone, neither shall you use the turning wheel, nor use the metals of the ground" he said and with each law he said he began to feel a tension enter the room. The human's eyes were growing hard, all except grace and Tom who each had a look of complete confusion, and Anthony who pressed away at the thing on his wrist so fast he wondered if he would break his fingers.

As the last law was said the room was bathed in a new silence and his unease grew the longer it lasted.

"Thank you; we can speak of Gods later" Zao said, finally breaking the silence and giving a look to Sullivan, which he responded by nodding slightly.

"I know that you both probably want to go home but we need to speak of what happened last night" he said, finally bringing to focus what had brought them all together in the first place.

"Last night, you showed some sort of power that glowed with a purple light" he said, as Arvok looked to Neytiri who kept her face contemptuous in the face of what she had done.

"Of course demons would have no soul" Neytiri cruelly whispered, waving a hand in dismissiveness.

"Please" Zao said, looking to him and not bothering to rise to the provocation. "After what she did, are we not deserving of an explanation."

"I did what I did because you are destroying everything" Neytiri growled, pointing a finger back at Zao.

"You killed one of my people" Zao said, anger beginning to rise in his voice as the blood in Arvok's veins turned to ice as he whipped around to look at Neytiri who had a face of utter apathy.

"I might not know much about your people, but I have a feeling you do not look kindly upon murder" he said, black eyes hardening as Arvok wracked his brain trying to think of something to say to keep her alive and was left with only one option.

"She is the daughter of Olo'eyktan of our people" he announced and now it was Neytiri's turn to look at him in shock but he so far beyond caring about her thoughts at this point, if she wanted to say anything she could do after he had gotten the two of them out.

"I am certain that if you show mercy, that he would be forever in your debt" he finished as he watched the human leader with trepidation and prayed that he would believe him.

"A debt is only as good as the one who bares it" Zao said and Arvok could begin to feel his breathing getting shallower. "What assurances can you give me that this will be looked upon as mercy rather than weakness and that the debt would be honored" he asked as Arvok suppressed a nervous, bone deep shutter.

"My Olo'eyktan is a man of honor and I swear on my life that he will understand" he vowed, knowing that he had no power over the Olo'eyktan. He could not force him to see this as mercy if he did not wish to. And any traditions of hospitality or honor were made for Na'vi. But they were not Na'vi; they were not the people, they have brought destruction and had broken Eywa's laws. And now he could only hope and pray that the worst would not come to pass.

Zao was quiet for a long time after that, his face turning to an unreadable mask as he decided their fates. Slowly he began nodding his head, a low hum rumbling from his throat when at last he spoke.

"I choose to believe that you at least are a man of honor and that you speak the truth" he said as a feeling of relief began to fill him before he continued.

"But as you said, if what you say does not come to pass. Then your life is mine"

Author's notes

with that we are done chapter * and i would like to thank everyone who has kept with this story of mine. Also for those that might not know the three laws are actually part of Avatar's lore and was the driving motivator for wanting to write this story.