The Pandoran War
A day had passed since Jake and Neytiri left. Many warriors, including Tsu'tey, had returned with several clans in tow before the pair eventually arrived. They weren't the last however, as more groups continued to pour in after them.
The appearance of the Toruk perched high on the ledge of the large angled tree trunk above gave many of the People great hope.
From that vantage point, as Jake oversaw the mass influx of warriors, down below he could also see the empty hearth of the Tree of Souls; noting that both of Grace's bodies had been removed during his absence. Sorrow filled his heart at not being able to help his close friend survive nor be there for her burial. He didn't want to dwell on these sad thoughts for too long, instead becoming preoccupied with the sense of mental fatigue at being linked for so long.
Climbing down, Jake started to make his way through the crowd. He wanted to reconvene briefly with Neytiri before finding a quiet place to settle down for a much needed rest and disconnect from his avatar. He figured it wouldn't be too difficult to find her as she said she went to meet with with her mother. Considering that Mo'at was the Omatikaya's tsahìk, she was likely somewhere near the base of the Tree of Souls leading the clan through communal hymns and prayers to the Great Mother.
Not halfway there, a distinct female voice cut straight through the air sonically apart from all of the mingling multi-group chatter surrounding him. "Hey, Marine!" he heard the words being yelled at him.
Jake immediately whirled on the spot, his eyes desperately searching in the vague direction for that particular voice's unique source. After many distressing seconds, he futilely still couldn't find anyone sticking out from the crowd like a sore thumb by wearing human clothing. He wasn't interested in paying any attention to the person walking towards him as they didn't match the mental image he had of the owner of the voice he'd heard.
"Looking for someone?" said the smiling Na'vi woman who came to a stop and stood before him.
At hearing the voice unexpectedly right in front of him, Jake refocused his eyesight on the woman and blinked. "Grace? Is that you?!" He was not expecting to see her in full traditional Omatikaya garb. Though a drastic change-up from her usual attire, it did look nice on her and fit well.
Grace turned a leg out as she propped a hand on her hip. "In the flesh."
At the confirmation, Jake rushed forward to grab a hold of her and gave her a rib-crushing hug. "You're alive!" he celebrated.
Grace chuckled. "Easy! I won't be for much longer if you don't let go," she laughed.
"Sorry!" Jake released her. His face was beaming with happiness sporting a massive grin. "How did this happened? How are you up? We thought the process failed; that there hadn't been enough time for the transfer to complete, as everything went dark and you didn't wake."
Grace had a bit of sass in her reply. "On the contrary, I had plenty of time. Apparently, you just left a few minutes too early. I'm not exactly a spry chicken like you anymore, you know," she poked his chest.
Jake shook his head and gave her shoulder a playful shove in return. "Maybe as a human, yes, but not as a Na'vi! This body is in great shape," he pointed at her. "I've seen you run and the way you'd spring yourself up and down the central column of Hometree like it was nothing. I've been training and getting stronger everyday for months now, and you still outpace and outdistance me while just simply walking through the forest!" he chuckled. "I should've known you'd linger to explore the inside of that fancy root network before coming back to us!"
Grace was flattered at his compliments, giving him a sly smile. She had certainly made it worth her while to work her butt off in her scheduled weekly sessions climbing through the Avatar Compound's agility course, as well as actively participating in competitive matches of basketball when available. The youthfulness and strength of this body was invigorating. She then tilted her head as she contemplated the last thing he said, considering the possibility. "Maybe. My memory of being in-between bodies is somewhat hazy."
"Oh," said Jake, a bit surprised. "You do you feel all right, though? Right?"
There was a small pause before Grace answered. "It depends. Physically, I feel normal. Emotionally, it's something I'm in the process of working through."
Jake could hear a small hitch in her voice. "Aw, Grace..." he whispered, stepping forward to give her a warm supportive hug.
As contact broke a few moments later, Grace sniffled. "I'll be okay," she cleared her throat. Grace then shifted the topic onto him. "I see you've been busy. Waking up and being told I was the proverbial last straw and that you've become the next legendary figurehead inciting the formation of an army was not something I had written on my Bingo card."
Jake gave a somewhat sheepish look, though it couldn't hide the weight of newfound responsibility behind his eyes. "Those feelings are mutual. If someone told me three months ago this is where we'd be, I wouldn't have believed it either."
Grace gave a thoughtful look. "How are you holding up?"
"As much as anyone in my position can, I suppose," answered Jake tiredly. He was then overtaken by an uncontrollable yawn, swaying slightly.
Grace hummed. She knew he probably just pulled a full day's worth of link time, something she normally should have admonished him for, however at seeing the man Jake has become these past several months and the lengths he went to help her and the clan, she was quite proud of him. "Let's get your avatar to bed. This way," she said softly, motioning towards their sleeping area.
After settling Jake's avatar in the sleeping nook that they were to share, Grace went to Mo'at to ask for permission to visit the link shack to get an update on the human activity at Hell's Gate. Since the transfer, both women had come to an agreement that Grace would stay close by to the tree for the next few days just in case she had any troubles. The proximity had given Grace a reliant sense of ease, especially when she went to sleep her first night yesterday, and again ahead of this upcoming sleep as well. She rightfully so had a fear that when she'd fall asleep, that her brain would automatically disengage like it normally always did when it was just her temporary avatar. Now that this body was her mind's new permanent home, she feared her conscious existence would be wiped out exactly like a computer's RAM on reset and that she'd never wake again. Knowing that the nearby tree held a backup copy of Grace's essence helped quell her anxiety should that 'glitch' ever occur.
Mo'at allowed the visit without too much hesitation. "Do not stay long, Kìreysì. And be sure to take an escort with you," she carefully ordered.
"Thank you," Grace bowed her agreement and then departed Mo'at's presence.
Finding an escort was easy. One of Grace's former male students, now an adult, volunteered to go with her. She was grateful, as she needed someone who'd be able to lift and carry her body back if she were to spontaneously pass out on their short journey.
After arriving at the link shack without issue, Grace's escort waited outside as Grace undertook the difficult task of trying to squeeze inside; first having to duck and crouch through the airlock, and then having to hunch awkwardly (almost painfully so) in the narrow walkway that was barely comfortable enough for a single adult human to stand in shoulder-width wise. It was definitely not meant for a Na'vi who was more than one-and-a-half times that average size.
As Trudy (who sat atop the 'food only' mini fridge that was taken from the residential cabin) and Jake (obviously in his wheelchair) had squeezed together to sit by Norm who sat on his link unit in front of the monitor screen, Grace was obviously too big to fit and sat just out of camera frame by the foot of her former link unit (number 2). Though the humans (Trudy mostly, helped by Norm) tried their best to clean up the shack of all of the evidence, Grace's Na'vi senses could still smell particle remnants of her dried blood lingering in the air mixed with the chemicals. It made her feel uneasy as it reminded her of how much pain she was in and the sense of impending death as her lifeforce slowly slipped away. Grace reflectively placed a protective hand over the spot on her body where the wound on her human body had previously been, touching the unmarked striped skin.
After Jake sent a video call request to Max, the four people in the shack waited for him to answer. Two minutes went by before it was apparently safe for him to answer. In the background, they could see that Max was joined by a few other turncoats; familiar faces attached to the SciOps division.
Max was the first to speak. "Are you guys okay? We've been worried, as everyone here has been buzzing about how Quaritch went rambo in the control tower during your escape. Apparently he kicked open the external door and ran outside without a mask, emptying both mags of his weapons into your Samson."
At learning the identity of her shooter, a shocked expression flashed by on Grace's face quickly replaced by one of anger. "That son of a bitch actually did it!" she seethed, a low growl emanating from her throat. She naturally wanted to stand up and pace in frustration, however she didn't have adequate space to move, and thus ended up unintentionally bumping forcefully into the restrictive small metal structure encased around her as well as accidentally knocking over a few items before stilling; resigning to her cramped conditions. As she squatted, she pulled her tail around and began to massage it to soothe away any potential bruises as it had reactively violently whacked some of the metal objects behind her. Her outburst and subsequent banging noises were picked up by the monitor's microphone.
On Max's end, right after he spoke, the video feed showed Trudy, Norm, and Jake turn quickly to look to their left and react to a loud disturbance off-camera. "Is that Grace?"
Jake looked at Max, then back at Grace. She warningly shook her head to indicate that she didn't want her current condition known by the RDA. Jake reached behind himself to place a hand on her knee, giving it a firm squeeze in solidarity, before turning back to face Max.
Max saw some sort of nonverbal agreement pass over the trio's faces as they looked at each other before they refocused on the monitor screen.
Jake didn't answer the question, quicking moving the conversation forward. "Can you tell us what's going on over there?"
"Jake, it's crazy here. It's full mobilization. They're rigging the shuttle as a bomber. They've got these huge pallets of mine explosives. It's for some kind of shock-and-awe campaign," said Max hurriedly.
"Fricking daisy cutters!" commented Trudy.
"Quaritch has taken over. He's rolling, and there's no stopping him," Max continued.
"When?" asked Jake.
"0600 tomorrow," answered Max.
In the background, a woman warningly alerted Max, calling out Max's name twice.
"I gotta go," said Max right before he reached forward to cut the feed.
The monitor screen went blue at the interrupted connection, displaying a "SIGNAL LOST" notification prompt.
Norm reached forward to press the monitor's power button, shutting it off. "We're screwed!" he huffed.
Trudy laughed at the direness of the situation. "And I was hoping for some sort of tactical plan that didn't involve martyrdom."
Grace snorted. "I'd say we only die once, but..." she shrugged and left the sentence hanging. Her situation an obvious elephant in the room.
"We're going up against gunships with bows and arrows," said Trudy, calling attention to the unevenness of the firepower dynamic between opponents.
Jake swallowed. "I have fifteen clans out there. That's over two thousand warriors. Now, we know these mountains. We fly them. You fly them," he said pointing at Trudy. "They don't. Their instruments won't work up here. Missile tracking won't work. They'll have to fire a line of sight. If they bring the fight to us, then we have the home-field advantage."
"Waiting until they're on our doorstep doesn't leave a lot of buffer room between us and them," spoke Grace uncomfortably.
Trudy was in the same train of thought. "The window of opportunity to stop the bomber will be critical."
"I don't like this plan either, but it's the only viable strategy we got," replied Jake.
"What if we ran a night raid to disable the shuttle so it can't take off? Sneak in under the cover of darkness?" offered Norm.
"It's too far," countered Trudy. "We'd get shot out the sky if we flew anywhere near there, and we'd never make it in time on foot from here."
Though Grace was a scientist and didn't have any military experience, even she still knew that was a bad tactical approach. "Even if time and distance weren't a factor, it'd be a suicide run. The base is on military lockdown and has undoubtedly increased their perimeter security patrols. The shuttle is likely under heavy armed guard. Crossing the wide-open tarmac would be equivalent to entering a shooting gallery. Who ever tried to disable the shuttle would become swiss cheese before they ever got close. That entire effort would have been done in vain."
Jake followed through on the result of that errant quest. "We'd be down those needed warriors before the fight even began, putting us at a further disadvantage."
Trudy sighed. "You know he's gonna commit that bomber straight to the Tree of Souls."
"Yeah, I know," Jake agreed.
Norm spoke next, hammering the consequence of failure. "If they get to the Tree of Souls, it's over. That's their direct line to Eywa, their ancestors. It'll destroy them."
Grace felt a foreboding shiver run through her. She, now more than anyone, felt a strong connection and need to protect the source that just granted her life a miraculous extension.
Jake tightened his jaw. "Then I guess we better stop them."
Before they could continue making plans, Grace's escort knocked on one of the link shack's windows, beckoning her to join him outside. It was good timing, as Grace needed to exit anyway as the human atmosphere was starting to affect her
She motioned to him her acknowledgement and carefully began to move towards the airlock. "I have to go. I need to return to the clan."
"You're not staying with us?" asked Trudy.
Grace paused and then decided to come clean about her new situation. She didn't want to mention it, as she didn't want to add to the already overwhelming burden, however it now seemed like she had to. They were her friends, after all. "I can't stay. Since the transfer, under Mo'at's guidance it's recommended that I stay relatively close to the Tree of Souls until she's certain that my mind has fully settled in this body."
Concern clouded the three humans' faces.
Grace held her hands out to placate them. "I'm all right, really. It's just a temporary observation period as this mind transfer is new territory that's being explored. No one's ever used the trees to completely jump bodies before; just to upload memories, not download them."
Norm threw up one of his hands before slapping it down on his thigh, "Great. So you're a trial run. That's comforting to know," he spoke sarcastically.
Grace's tone then shifted, hardening to be more resolute as she opened the interior airlock door. "Which is another reason to make sure Quaritch doesn't drop an explosive payload on it, because there's an off-chance I may one day end up needing to reconnect to it," Grace said pointedly. She then looked at each one of them, ending her focus on Jake. "Don't stay up too late and make sure to eat a full meal before bed. You'll need as much energy as possible early tomorrow morning," she ordered before backing into the airlock; quickly shutting the heavy metal door after her and latching it.
The abruptness of Grace's departure caused a natural pause to occur, as Jake, Trudy, and Norm adjusted to her dropping this new information on them. "Well, shoot, is that all?" Trudy commented rhetorically to no one.
The airlock hissed as the hermetic seal of the external door was breached and the atmosphere inside shifted, mixing the less dense filtered Earthlike-consistency air with the denser Pandoran air from outside. After stepping out, Grace closed the metal door securely. Now standing on the platform and stretching to her full height, Grace filled her lungs with the fresh forest breeze, feeling the building lightheadedness fade away. Within a minute, she felt right as rain again and headed off with her escort back to the Tree of Souls; to Mo'at and Tsu'tey to inform them of what she learned. The news wasn't good.
Due to the direct threat to the Tree of Souls being a target, to help mitigate the loss of life an evacuation was decidedly called for, however the decision to leave wasn't mandatorily forced on the People. Thankfully, much of the crowd of non-combatants did heed the warning and dispersed into small pockets hidden far and wide throughout the surrounding forest, away from the direction the humans would invade from. Many others though, including Grace (who didn't have much of a choice), remained at the sacred site.
At some point during the night, Jake visited the Tree of Souls to plead with the Great Mother about the threat she faced, asking for her to look into the copies she had of Grace's memories about the ruined world that humans had come from, the world that they had destroyed.
Just before sunrise, the Na'vi awoke and mobilized both their aerial and ground attack forces, moving into position.
Grace wasn't a warrior. Instead of picking up a weapon to fight, she played to her strengths and helped to collect and organize bundles of medicinal herbs and wraps for when the injured would arrive.
When the fighting commenced, Grace stayed alongside Mo'at in a small group at the Tree of Souls, viewing the utter chaos unfold across the sky. A few minutes in, she saw Trudy's Samson rise above the treetops of the link shack's location. Grace's eyes kept track of the copter as it beelined towards Quaritch's gunship. She helplessly watched a deadly game of cat-and-mouse play out amongst the floating mountains. Her stomach turned when she saw Trudy's Samson on fire and fall from the sky. Against better judgement, Grace bolted into the fray with her small medicine pouch.
Sounds of gunfire, explosions, and things crashing into the ground erupted through the forest seemingly all around her. As Grace raced towards a particular plume of smoke, a massive shadow quickly crossed overhead. Several seconds later, an ungodly blast brighter than the sun burst through the trees, knocking her off her feet. When she stood, she realized it must have been the bomber. Looking back, she yelled out her relief when she saw that it missed its target as the Tree of Souls still stood; the impact crater far off to the side. Another shadow crossed by and Grace could see that it was Quaritch's gunship; on fire and spiraling out of control losing altitude. Grace's lips curled into a snarling smirk and she continued on her way to Trudy's crash site.
When she arrived, the scene that awaited her was worse than she had hoped. The entire vessel was engulfed in flame and the heat prevented Grace from getting close. From where Grace stood, she didn't see a body in the cockpit. A moaning noise overhead caught her attention. As Grace looked up, she found Trudy dangling mid-air at about the height of the third floor of a three-story building; her flight harness caught on a freshly snapped tree limb.
Trudy coughed. "Hey Doc, mind helping me get down from here?" she called out, her feet swinging slightly.
Grace assessed the situation. Luckily, Trudy was in a spot that looked easily reachable. "Are you sure? You look good as a tree ornament," joked Grace, relieved.
"Yeah, yeah. It's better than being barbecue," muttered Trudy as she witnessed her beloved aircraft burn.
Grace's climb was short, elementary in difficulty. She gripped Trudy's harness, yanking it free, and then hopped back down with her, setting her on the ground.
Not two seconds later, Trudy's exopack started to beep a warning tone and she looked down at it. "Crap! Looks like it got damaged during the bailout."
"The link shack's not too far from here," replied Grace.
As the pair made their way through the forest, Trudy found it difficult to keep pace with the blue giant. "Can you slow down some? My legs are a lot shorter than yours," she complained.
"We're almost there," answered Grace, pushing a large frond out of her way. A few paces later, her ears picked up the sounds of the link shack's atmosphere klaxon going off. Grace instantly broke out into a run, sprinting the last hundred yards.
With Grace taking off, Trudy yelled after her. "Hey! Wait up!"
The link shack quickly came into Grace's view. She didn't have time to fully process the scene of the downed AMP suit, the dead thanator, and Jake's unconscious avatar as she rushed over to the broken window, concerned for the two humans using the link beds inside. "Oh, no!"
As she reached the window, she gripped the edge and leaned her head inside. Immediately on her right she saw Neytiri crouched holding human Jake's body. "Jake! Jake, are you okay?!" she yelled out.
Neytiri turned to look back at Grace, and Jake held his arm out to wave at her. "Yeah! Yeah, Doc. I'm all right..."
Grace then looked left at Norm's link bed. It was open and inactive. "Jake, where's Norm?"
"What?" replied Jake. He then rolled a bit to look behind Neytiri and saw that Norm was absent. "I don't know."
Grace stepped back from the window, turning to look around. Norm was nowhere in sight. 'Where could he have gone?' she wondered. She looked down and noticed fresh human shoe prints leading diagonally away from the shack.
Trudy finally burst through the bushes, slowing to a stop as she took in the scene.
Grace held her arm up towards her, palm open. "Jake's fine. Stay here. I'm going to go find Norm," she said, and then headed off following Norm's tracks.
She was thankful she was apparently downwind from Norm as the wind carried the scent of his sweat to her nostrils. She wasn't exactly sure how far she had travelled, though it had to have been at least a klick or two by the time she found him hunched over his downed avatar; his hands and front of his shirt covered in its blood as he pressed his body weight down on it.
"Grace! I..., I...," Norm breathed heavily, emotionally distraught. "I tried... to stop the bleeding..." he stuttered.
She could see the makeshift tourniquet and bandage he tied around his avatar's upper body and that Norm himself was in a state of shock. She knelt down beside him, and put her hand to the avatar's throat. At feeling a steady heartbeat and seeing good skin color, she put a hand on Norm's human shoulder. "It's going to be all right, Norm. You did good," she calmly assured. "We'll get you fixed up," she comforted.
Norm's breathing began to slow. "Trudy?... and Jake?" he asked.
Grace smiled. "She's fine. They're both fine. They're back at the shack." Grace then looked down and opened her pouch, pulling out a folded leaf packet. "This will help with the bleeding," said Grace as she unfolded a corner. She gingerly pulled back some of the avatar's bandages and began to tap a finely ground powder on the wounds. She then took out a second leaf packet, this one containing some sort of thick paste, and smeared it to plug the bullet shaped holes in the avatar's flesh. Afterwards, she took out one of the wraps she made to help cover her work and readjusted the straps Norm made to keep pressure.
It took some time, however Grace and Norm were able to drag Norm's avatar back to the link shack on a sled fashioned from a large palm leaf. When they arrived, Neytiri as well as Jake's avatar were gone and Trudy was overseeing Jake's human body in his link bed. Trudy had an active video call ongoing with Max back at Hell's Gate; they learned from him that all of the avatar drivers and SciOps division staff performed a successful coup to overtake the base; the control tower had been destroyed and Selfridge was captured, preventing any kind of military regrouping to form.
With Quaritch and his loyal goon squad dead, along with other RDA leaders out of the picture, the small resistance group breathed a sigh of relief.
Grace made her way to the nearby Tree of Souls to spread the good news that there would be no more Sky People attacks and urged to quickly send warriors for backup support to Hell's Gate now that the base was vulnerable in its stand-down mode.
Though the morning's fighting ceased, the day was far from over, as the long road of recovery and healing now began.
Norm's injured avatar was transported back to the Avatar Lab's observation room, where it was placed on a gurney and its treatment overseen by avatar medical staff.
The following evening held Jake's transfer ceremony at the Tree of Souls, where he joined Grace in becoming a full-time Na'vi; leaving his crippled human body forever.