Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I see you" Tsireya said, tightening her grip on his hand. She pauses for a moment, "maybe, if you talked to your father, one on one, he would understand."

He laughed lightly, turning away from her. "Understand? How could he understand? He's this great warrior, olo'eytkan, Toruk Makto, how could he possibly understand what it's like to consistently make mistakes when you're just trying to do what you think is right."

Before she could respond, both were over come with a splitting headache. Their vision blacking out momentarily.

Waking, they found themselves laying on soft fabric ground.

"What is this?" Reya asked lightly running her fingers over it as she sat up.

"It's a type of carpet. It's something the skypeople use. Some of them back in the forest use this in their home." He explained.

The sounds of groans around them had him looking behind to see his brother sitting up. "Neteyam?" He asks looking around.

The whole Sully family was there. Neytiri and Jake each putting a hand out to the other as they sat up. Tuk was quick to throw herself on to Neytiri with a cry of "mom!" Kiri had yet to move from where she lay, simply staring up at the ceiling trying to process what had happened.

"Is everyone alright?" Jake asked as he stood up and helping Neytiri and Tuk.

"What just happened?" Turning the Sully family was met with the Metkayina, or rather, Tonowari, Ronal, Aonung, Rotxo, and several of the senior warriors.

Jake could only shrug, but before he could answer another voice spoke up.

"Jake?" Looking a bit farther away, they saw Norm, Max and several of the scientists and avatar drivers. As well as members from the Western resistance there. Who weren't wearing any masks.

"Norm!" Jake exclaimed in realization, there was momentary panic before they realized that none of them were dying. "That's... weird?" Jake commented.

"Weird? It's not scientifically possible, or at least it's not supposed to be." Norm remarked looking around at the others who shrugged. No one was able to explain it.

"Monkey boy!" Shouted Kiri who had noticed Spider beginning to sit up from where he ended up in a corner. She, along with Lo'ak, Neteyam and Tuk rushed over to him.

"Are you okay!"

"I'm fine. They haven't really done much but keep me around them, they think I'll let something slip. But I would never tell them anything." Spider explained.

Kiri just shook her head and wrapped him in a hug. The others smiled, happy to have their friend back. Before they turned to listen to their parents and the other adults.

"Where are we?" was the question repeatedly thrown out by multiple people as they spoke to each other until one voice rose above.

"Yes indeed, where are we JakeSully?" Everyone turned to the voice and Tuk was the first to speak with a thrilled, "grandmother!" As she rushed to Mo'at who had appeared with several of the senior Omaticaya warriors and clan members. Neytiri following with a smile to greet her mother, happy to see her after so many months apart.

Standing slightly apart from them were Na'vi of the Western frontier clans; the Aranahe, Zeswa and Kame'tire. Those members moved to stand with the resistance members they knew.

"Why do you think I know?" Jake mumbled to himself as he looked around the room, some of the scientists splitting off to investigate. There seemed to be multiple couches in rows all pointing the same way each one a step higher then the one in front with an aisle going down the middle of them. Heading to the front of the room, he reached out and felt the screen in front of him and looked up at the size of it. "It looks like a large projection screen." He said to himself.

One of the scientists, Nalin, pulled back one of the dark maroon curtains that hung on the wall all the way around. "This wall is solid steel. None of us are getting out of here." She commented, taping on the wall.

"There's no doors or windows either." said someone else.

Lo'ak exchanged a look with Neteyam before speaking up, "sooo... we're stuck here?"

"We are not stuck. We just need to figure out why we were brought here and then... deal with it." Jake said still looking around.

"Ma Jake, what is this?" Neytiri asked, walking up to feel the screen as well.

"Its a projection screen, an old way of showing video. Like the vlogs you've seen." He explained

"This whole room actually looks a lot like a 21st century movie theater." He said, turning slowly to take everything in.

The screen lit up, catching everyone's attention and in big letters that everyone could read it said:

To understand the present, all must see the past. Sit down then announce when your ready and enjoy the show. P.S. the movie will stop each time you have discussions, so you won't miss anything.

"I don't think we're getting out of here until we watch whatever it is." Jake said, looking towards the others who nodded.

Moving to the couches everyone got comfortable. In the front left row was the Sullys left to right: Lo'ak, Neteyam, Jake, Neytiri, Tuk and Kiri. Across the aisle on the right row was Spider, Norm, Max and the various scientists and avatar drivers. Behind the Sullys was: Rotxo, Tsireya, Aonung, Tonowari, and Ronal. Behind them was the rest Metkayina Na'vi, across from them on the right side was Mo'at and the Omaticaya Na'vi. Filling up what looked like the last rows were the Western frontier groups of Na'vi and human.

Unbeknownst to any of them, far in the back behind an invisible wall that none could see through but the ones on the other side was what was left of the Recoms and Quaritch, as well as some of the high ranked officers and scientists of the RDA.

Jake cleared his throat and loudly and a little awkwardly announced to the room, "we're ready."

The words faded from the screen and the movie began to play.

THE SOUND OF DRUMS, from a great distance, growing louder.

FADE IN:

WE ARE FLYING through mist, a dimly glimpsed forest below.

"The forest!" Tuk exclaimed, thrilled to see their home again.

"It is the forest. It looks like we're flying over it on an Ikran." Added Kiri

A VOICEOVER (V.O.): When I was laying in the VA hospital, with a big hole blown through the middle of my life, I started having dreams of flying.

Everyone blinked at the voice before looking at Jake, who was also taken back by hearing his own voice coming from the screen. "The VA hospital? Is this... oh no." He deadpanned as he realized exactly what they were going to see.

"Jake, did you... did you dream of Pandora when you were on Earth?" Norm questioned.

"I don't know. They had me on so many painkillers back then that I just thought I was hallucinating. Every time I closed my eyes I would be flying above a forest and mountains. But it was always to foggy or cloudy to really make out anything." Jake explained, trying to remember what it was all those years ago. The more he thought about it the more he realized that the forest he dreamed of was the forest and the mountains were most likely the Hallelujah Mountains.

"Even all the way across the stars, Eywa could still reach you." Mo'at commented, staring at Jake with her head tilted. Ronal was looking at him as well, trying to understand what it was that Eywa saw in this skyperson turned Na'vi.

"Ya, well Eywa has long arms then." Jake replied quietly as the movie started again, getting a laugh out of the kids who were close enough to hear him.

WE are very low over the forest now, gliding fast, the drums BUILDING to a peak.

V.O.: sooner or later though, you always have to wake up...

Chapter Text

EXT: CITY-NIGHT: A SCREECH of brakes as a vehicle wipes frame, REVEALING...

JAKE SULLY, a scarred and scruffy combat vet, sitting in a beat-up carbon-fiber wheelchair. At 22, his eyes are hardened by the wisdom and wariness of one who has endured pain beyond his years.

"Dad, is that you?" Came the question from one of his children. Jake knew the moment he realized what they would be watching that the questions would come. So he took a breath and answered.

"Ya.... ya that's me." Now the other shoe would drop.
"You look funny as a skyperson."

Huh?

Leaning around Neytiri, Jake made eye contact with his youngest who just grinned back like she didn't just make her father question her sanity.
"Excuse me?" was his only response.

Kiri smiled slightly, "she's kinda right dad, you look weird,"

"I'll have you know that I looked, do look, like my father."

"You do?" Lo'ak asked.

"Yep, my mom used to always say that me and Tommy were just like our father, and that she rued the day either of us have kids of our own." He looked between his kids before shrugging, "she was right."

"Hey!" Came the chorus of responding shouts, making Jake laugh and the others around them stifle their own laughter. Tossing his right arm over Neteyam so that his hand can grip Lo'ak's shoulder and putting his left around Neytiri so that his could brush Tuk's and Kiri's hair, he smiled.

"She would have loved all of you."

Jake stares upward at the levels of the city. MAGLEV TRAINS WHOOSH overhead on elevated tracks, against a sky of garish advertising.

JAKE (V.O.) They can fix a spinal, if you've got the money. But not on vet benefits, not in this economy.

"Vet benefits?" Questioned Tarsem, the Omaticaya Na'vi who had taken over as Olo'eyktan when the Sullys left.
"Vet, Or Veterans, are warriors who can no longer fight for one reason or another. The benefits are sort of like a reward or gift for their service. Usually in the form of medical treatment. Though my benefits didn't cover the surgery needed to fix my legs." Jake explained.

The traffic light changes and Jake pushes forward with the crowd, pumping the wheels of his chair. Most of the people wear FILTER MASKS to protect them from the toxic air. In long lens stack it is a marching torrent of anonymous, isolated souls.

"You wore masks on Earth." Neytiri observed.

Norm was the one to respond to her, "ya, the air was really bad. Like trying to breath in the smoke from a fire all the time." That comparison had many wrinkling their noses at the thought of having to live like that.

The RDA and recoms were pained to see their planet so bad. But that was why they needed Pandora, humanity had a chance to survive because of it, if only these savages could just stay out of their way.

INT. JAKE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The room is a tiny CUBICLE, prison cell meets 747 bathroom. Narrow cot, wall-screen droning away in the B.G. -- a perky newscaster talking about cloned Bengal tiger cubs in the Bejing zoo.

Jake couldn't help but close his eyes and turn his head down and away from the screen, having to see it all so vividly brought back unpleasant memoires of miserable days and nights in that cell of a room.

Jake laboriously pulls his pants off -- rocking to one side, pushing the fabric down past his hip, then rocking to the other, and so on. His legs are white and atrophied. Utterly useless. But his arms are tattooed and powerfully muscled. A "Born Loser" tattoo prominent on his shoulder.

"Born loser?" One of the avatar drivers snorted.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Jake said with a half-smile without looking up, "It was also true at the time."

That last remake had his family glancing at him with concern. Neytiri filed it away for later, it seemed Jake must still have some pent up and lingering pains from his time with the skypeople. She would have to remember to talk with him once this was all over.

JAKE (V.O.): I became a Marine for the hardship. To be hammered on the anvil of life. I told myself I could pass any test a man can pass.

Jake struggles with his pants a long time.

Jake had made the mistake of looking up and cringed as he and everyone, his children, witnessed his old disability. A hand settled on his knee and he looked towards Neytiri who looked back at him with a soft smile. A squeeze of his knee was her way of silently letting him know, that no matter what they saw during this time, she was there for him and will always be. He smiled back and moved his hand that was still wrapped around her to brush her shoulder. Before looking back at the screen.

CUT TO: INT. ROWDY BAR-- NIGHT

Not the kind of place you'd bring your mom. We find Jake near the pool table, BALANCING his chair, front wheels off the ground, while holding a tequila shot on his forehead. ONLOOKERS, including some other disabled vets, clap and whoop. Jake grabs the glass, SLAMS down the shot as they cheer. A WALL-SIZED SCREEN filled with the World Cup game -- men RUNNING on antelope legs.

"Having fun?" Max asked.
"I was the life of the party." Jake quipped back, happy to move on to a lighter-ish setting.

CU JAKE, watching what he can't have. Expression stony.

JAKE (V.O.): Let's get it straight up front. I don't want your pity. I know the world's a cold-ass bitch.

"Don't repeat that." Jake said to his kids as well as the Metkayina kids.

Jake's eyes shift -- HIS POV, seeing the bar through gaps in the crowd. A MAN on a barstool SLAPS the WOMAN he's with. Hard. She cowers but he's got her arm, shouting, raising his fist. An eternal tableau. People look away.

"Is no one going to help her!?" Was shouted out by one of the Na'vi.

"No, you learn to look after yourself on Earth." Came the human reply.

CU JAKE- not looking away.

JAKE (V.O.): You want a fair deal, you're on the wrong planet. The strong prey on the weak.

TIGHT ON JAKE'S HAND as he starts pushing the wheel of his chair. Tracking with him as he rolls forward.

JAKE (V.O.): It's just the way things are and nobody does a damn thing.

Jake stops, unnoticed, next to the bullying man. He leans down and grabs one leg of the man's barstool -- and YANKS. The chair flips. The guy goes down HARD and -- JAKE hurls himself from the wheelchair, toppling on the guy, getting a grip on him like a pit bull and PUNCHING the crap out of him, right there on the floor. THE BOUNCER jumps in, trying to drag him off and it goes into SLOW MOTION, everybody yelling and pulling...

"YA!" Norm shouted, startling everyone. Though there were also a couple of whoops from others as they watched Jake punch out the man.

Lo'ak couldn't believe his eyes. His dad, the guy who always did his best to stop unnecessary fighting and hostilities, had just purposely started a fight. Sure, the guy deserved it, but his dad hadn't even attempted to talk, just went up and threw the first hit.

JAKE (V.O): All I ever wanted in my sorry-ass life was a single thing worth fighting for.

Jake squeezed his family close for a moment before relaxing, "found it."

EXT. ALLEY BEHIND BAR -- NIGHT: THE BOUNCER hurls Jake out the door, sending him SPRAWLING on the pavement. A moment later, his chair CRASHES down on him, banging across the alley, landing in the trash. Jake struggles to rise on one elbow. He's bleeding and bruised, but still crazed and ready to fight.

Neytiri hissed slightly at seeing the treatment of her husband.

"Lookin' a little wild there Jake." Max said.

"It was the adrenaline and a little bit of the tequila." Jake replied.

JAKE: I hope you realize you've just lost a customer!

He collapses onto his back, panting.

JAKE (to himself): Candy ass bitch.

"Don't repeat that." Jake said, eyeing his sons who pointedly didn't take their eyes from the screen.

He stares upwards at the levels of the city. MAGTRAINS ROAR overhead. It starts to RAIN. He just lies there, blinking -- then shouts jauntily to no one in particular --

JAKE: If it ain't rainin' we ain't trainin'!

"Alright, maybe it was a lot of the tequila." Jake said.

"What's tequila?" Neteyam asked.

"An alcoholic drink from Earth that none of you will ever touch."

CAMERA PULLS BACK high and wide, as Jake lies spread-eagled amongst the trash, getting drenched.

TWO LONG SHADOWS enter FRAME, coming to rest across him.

Jake sees two pairs of SHINY SHOES stop next to him. He squints up at --

TWO MEN. Matching suits. Their features unremarkable and blandly threatening in the way of FBI agents and auditors.

AGENT 1: Are you Jake Sully?

JAKE: Step off. You're ruinin' my good mood.

"You're laying in a puddle." Neytiri said.

"And I was having a good time." Jake replied.

AGENT 2: It's about your brother.

Neytiri's hand tightened on his knee.

INT. MUNICIPAL CREMATORIUM - NIGHT DOWN-ANGLE on a large rectangular cardboard box. HANDS ENTER FRAME, pulling open the top to reveal a DEAD MAN'S FACE. He looks EXACTLY like a clean-shaven version of Jake. His IDENTICAL TWIN -- TOMMY.

Several people flinched back slightly at the sight. Though he hadn't been human in years if was still a painful sight to see Jake's own face so still and pale in death.

JAKE (V.O.): The strong prey on the weak. A guy with a knife took all Tommy would ever be, for the paper in his wallet.

"Why would someone do that?" Kiri asked.

"Because people get desperate, and they only think about how they'll survive, not caring for anyone around them." Jake replied gently.

WIDER, showing Jake and the two agents in a high tech CREMATORIUM -- a row of stainless steel furnaces. Jake stares down at his own face.

JAKE: Jesus, Tommy.

JAKE (V.O.): The Suits' concern was touching.

AGENT 1: Your brother represented a significant investment. We'd like to talk to you about taking over his contract.

"Did they seriously just ask you about the program while standing over your brothers dead body?" Norm asked shocked by how apathetic the agents were.

"They didn't waste time. I was already on the ship getting ready for cryo before I could even really prosses what I signed up for." Jake said.

The ATTENDANT closes the box and seals it with a tape dispenser, like it's a package for shipping. The cardboard coffin is rolled into the furnace.

JAKE (V.O.): The egghead and the jarhead. Tommy was the scientist, not me. He was the one who wanted to get shot light years out into space to find the answers.

Jake smiled slightly, "between the two of us, he was the one with brains. I was just the reckless younger brother who threw himself into anything that seemed like a vaguely good idea."

"Hey, just like you." Neteyam whispered to Lo'ak, who's only response was to elbow him in the ribs.

PUSHING IN ON JAKE as he watches, bathed in orange light.

JAKE (V.O.): Me -- I was just another dumb grunt gettin' sent someplace I was gonna regret.

"Nope. I don't regret any of it." Jake said, before thinking for a second, "wait, I take that back. I do regret a couple things from back then."

INSIDE THE FURNACE the burners quickly eat away the cardboard; TOMMY'S FACE is, for a moment, wreathed in flame but not touched by it.

"That was Earth?" Tsireya asked breaking the silence as everyone watched Jake's brother get cremated.

"Ya, that was Earth." Jake responded, looking over his shoulder at her.

"A disgusting place." Ronal said with a curled lip.

"It wasn't always like that." Jake defended. "Earth had once been a lot like Pandora; beautiful, full of life, filled with so much green. There had been rainforests that went on for miles, waterfalls that towered above you and when the sunlight hits it at just the right angle it looks like it's on fire." He said wistfully.
One of the avatar drivers joined in, "I always really liked the canyons, mountains of naturally carved red, brown and orange rock that you can see the paths rivers took millions of years ago."
Max smiled, "the aroura borealis had always amazed me. Dancing light show in the sky of green, purple and blue. Getting a chance to see that would have been incredible."

Jake nodded, it was almost fun, talking about the good things of Earth. "There had been mountains that stretched into the sky, none of them floated mind you, but they were impressive nonetheless. Going for as far as you could see, covered white with snow. Lakes so clear you'd think they were shallow, trees so big they would have been more at home here then on Earth."
"Caves with crystals so big you could walk on them." Norm chimed in.

"There were beaches with pink sand."

"Pink sand!" Tuk exclaimed, having been silent up until now with everyone else as they listened to the reminiscing about Earth.

"Yup, as pink as some of the seashells you have. There were waters so blue you'd swear your eyes were playing tricks on you." Jake said, looking back at the Metkayina with a smile. "Not to mention all the different creatures that lived in these places. We had something similar to the Tulkun on Earth, a species called whales. There were a lot of different types, some pretty small and others could get as big as the Tulkun and humans..." Jake sighed, "humans hunted them to extinction. It's why they're so good at hunting the animals here, because they've had practice doing it on Earth."

"But why?" Kiri questioned.

"Because the whales had stuff that humans wanted, and humans can be selfish, greedy people. When they've wanted something, they'll want it until they can't have it anymore. The worst part is that humans did love Earth and it's green and it's creatures, but they, we, were so focused on ourselves that we forgot to care and preserve and cherish our planet."
"And humans haven't learned anything from what happened to Earth because we found Pandora and decided to do it all over again. Even worse this time, because unlike Earth, humans didn't have that connection with Pandora, that connection of it being our home planet; something that, even though it wasn't enough to stop the destruction, made us care." Jake finished. It hurt, to think too much on what had become of Earth, it wasn't the planets' fault that everything had gotten so bad.

The RDA was fuming; how dare those traitors say those things, they cared about Earth, they loved Earth, they loved humanity. That was why they came to Pandora in the first place. It was where the human race could start anew, to do better. If they could establish a new home for humanity, they could work on repairing the Earth without anyone in the way. Jake Sully was a traitor to humanity and the first chance they'd get, they would stop him and the Na'vi from getting in their way.

Chapter Text

JAKE'S FACE, in icy darkness. CLOSE ON his eyes -- they OPEN suddenly, and he takes a sharp breath.
JAKE (V.O.): In cryo, you don't dream at all. It doesn't feel like six years. More like a fifth of tequila and an ass-kicking.

"Really?" An Omaticaya asked, leaning forward to whisper to their human allies.
"Ya, its pretty much like falling asleep for the night, only you wake up several years later with a dry mouth and a headache."

JAKE'S POV -- the inside of a metal coffin. A SERVO WHINE and we are moving, emerging into a large chamber.

INT. CRYO VAULT

JAKE'S POV -- A TECH in medical scrubs FLOATS WEIGHTLESSLY toward us. Wherever we are, we're not on Earth. Jake squints as the lights flicker on, revealing -- WIDE SHOT -- the multi-tiered CRYO VAULT. Hundreds of CRYO- CAPSULES are opening like morgue drawers, as med techs pull themselves about in ZERO-G, tending to their patients.

JAKE: (a hoarse whisper) Are we there yet?

MED TECH: Yeah, we're there, Sunshine. We're there.

TIME CUT -- SCORES OF PEOPLE emerge from their cryo-capsules in ZERO-G. Pale spirits of the dead rising from rows of open coffins.

"Is that space?" Lo'ak asked, leaning forward along with the rest of the kids (And adult Na'vi), the chance to actually see how Jake and the humans got to the planet was amazing.

"You're floating!" Spider exclaimed.

The MED TECH floats among them, using his announcement voice: People, you have been in cryo for five years, nine months and twenty two days. You will be hungry, you will be weak. If you feel nausea, please use the sacks provided for your convenience. The staff thanks you in advance.

FOLLOWING JAKE as he pushes away from his capsule, gliding to the LOCKERS across the aisle, his paralyzed legs not an impediment in weightlessness.

"There's no gravity in space, the thing that keeps us grounded, so being up there is a lot like swimming just without the water." Jake explained

EXT. SPACE: Against the cold infinity of stars glides an INTERSTELLAR SPACECRAFT -- ISV VENTURE STAR. As it moves past like an endless train, we realize this thing is ENORMOUS -- over half a mile long. PAN WITH IT 180 to REVEAL --
A GAS-GIANT PLANET called POLYPHEMUS, ringed with dozens of moons which cast beauty-mark shadows on its vast face. The ISV diminishes away from us toward the largest MOON-- a blue and surprisingly Earth-like world called PANDORA. The ship dwindles to a speck against the BLUE MOON.

Everyone was quiet at the sight, seeing their home from that angle and view was breathtaking. Too see how much smaller their home was to the planet that had always been in the sky.

JAKE (V.O.): Up ahead was Pandora. You grew up hearing about it, but I never figured I'd be going there.

EXT. PANDORA ORBIT: ISV Venture Star drifts above a spectacular vista -- the sapphire seas and unfamiliar continents of Pandora. CLOSE ON ISV -- two massive "VALKYRIE" SHUTTLES are mated to a DOCKING NODE. One of them separates from the starship and moves away, its thrusters FIRING in short bursts.

FLASHBACK TO THE AGENTS TALKING: AGENT 1: It'd be a fresh start on a new world.
AGENT 2: And the pay is good.
AGENT 1: Very good.

"It's always money, isn't it?" Max sighed, knowing that part of the reason any of them were there was for money. Sure, the chance to experience an entire new planet was the biggest draw, but money was what kept it all going, kept them alive to continue to study the plants and animals.

As the shuttle moves away, descending toward Pandora, people sit in rows against the wall on the shuttle, the CREW CHIEF and ASSISSTENT walk down the aisles.

CREW CHIEF: Exo-packs on! Let's go! Exo-packs on!

Passengers don their EXO-PACK breathing gear with practiced moves. Everybody except JAKE, who's turning his, this way and that trying to figure out the straps, before finally getting it on.

The CREW CHIEF stomps down the aisle yelling --
CREW CHIEF: Remember people, you lose your mask you're unconscious in 20 seconds and you're dead in four minutes. Let's nobody be dead today, it looks bad on my report.

"Uhhhh how many people died for you guys to figure that out?" Lo'ak asked.
"Too many."

We hear the sound of DRUMS, building, louder and louder until we--

CUT TO: EXT. RAINFOREST - TWILIGHT
FLYING OVER A LANDSCAPE of massive cliffs and towering mesas carpeted in rainforest. Great scarves of cloud swirl around the mesa tops. A primeval landscape, vast and forbidding. The trees are alien, the color too cyan. There are waterfalls, rivers, and distant flocks of WINGED CREATURES.

The Omaticaya and the Sully's smiled at the sight of the forest, though they were sad smiles, for seeing it so untouched was a reminder of how much was destroyed and burned by the skypeople.
The Metkayina were amazed at the sight of so many trees bunched together, for it was quiet the view. They were used to the open sky of the ocean, so the idea of living in a place that didn't allow for direct view of the stars most of the time without needing to climb was a strange one to say the least.

PILOT: Hell's Gate tower, this is TAV 1-6 on approach. Crossing outer marker. Mine is in sight.

Suddenly the carpet of virgin rainforest gives way to -- AN OPEN-PIT MINE. A lifeless crater -- as if a giant cookie- cutter took a chunk out of the world. Down among the terraces are EXCAVATORS and TRUCKS the size of three story buildings.
And beyond the mine is the HUMAN COLONY --

Cries rose up from the Na'vi at the sight of what had been done to their land, how much life had been stripped and destroyed for the skypeople to do what they did, all to reach a rock deep underground so that they could send it back to their own dying planet.
Neytiri turned and buried her head into Jake's shoulder, her hand that hadn't left his knee tightened until her knuckles turned white. The loss of the forest, even that that had been lost over a decade ago, still hurt.

EXT. HELL'S GATE - TWILIGHT: HELL'S GATE is a cluster of squat concrete and steel structures surrounded by chain-link FENCE 10 meters high, topped with razor wire. At the corners are towers with automated SENTRY GUNS swiveling on servo mounts. Visible beyond the gun towers, the VALKYRIE SHUTTLE roars in across the treetops. VECTORING NOZZLES change angle, bringing the ship to a SLOW HOVER.

The Sully kids were all fascinated at the sight of the active Hell's Gate. Sure, they've seen it before in person, but that was when it had been abandoned and nature had begun to reclaim it. To see it so, clean, essentially was weird. Not to mention how many people were there.

"So much metal and stone. How could you possibly find that comfortable." Questioned Tonowari.
"When it's something that you've grown up around, you don't really notice." Jake said, "at least not until you see the other side."

JAKE (V.O): One life ends, another begins.

"So you did understand some of the peoples way before meeting us." Neytiri whispered to him with a smirk. Jake shrugged, he could see it, in a way, the belief of being born twice and how all energy is borrowed could fall into the same category as what he had said.

EXT. RAIN FOREST - TWILIGHT: Through a screen of jungle canopy, we see the VALKYRIE thunder overhead. Camera TILTS with it until leaves block the view. A BLUE INHUMAN HAND reaches INTO SHOT, parting the foliage to reveal the shuttle hover-taxiing across the compound. REVERSE -- ECU of two intense, cat-like golden EYES watching.

"You were spying on us?" One of the avatar drivers asked.

"Of course. but it was rare that we got that close to the base." Mo'at stated.

THE CARGO RAMP OPENS with a hydraulic whine.
CREW CHEIF: Harnesses off! Get your packs! Put it together, let's go! Let's go!
ASSISSTENT: Harnesses off! One minute!
CREW CHEIF: When that ramp comes down, go directly into the base. Do not stop! Go straight inside. Wait for my mark!

"Sound familiar Jake?" Norm joked.

"Don't know what you're talking about."

"That is what you sounded like practically the whole year!"

BENEATH THE SHUTTLE air blasts outward for a hundred meter radius as it settles onto its landing gear. INSIDE everybody is queued up in the aisles, with duffles ready. Rows of tense, expectant faces in breathing masks -- and we DIP DOWN to find Jake, wheelchair putting him at the level of everyone else's WAISTS.

THE CARGO RAMP OPENS with a hydraulic whine.
HAND-HELD, running with the arriving colonists who double time down the ramp. They jog across the exposed apron toward a walkway covered in CHAINLINK which leads to the complex. Inside the chain-link tunnel are a couple of SEC-OPS TROOPERS, CORPORAL LYLE WAINFLEET and PRIVATE FIKE. Sec-Ops is the colony's private security force. These guys are laid back, hardened, and haggard.

JAKE (V.O): There's no such thing as an ex-Marine. You maybe out, but you never lose the attitude.

"You're telling me. I was convinced you were going to tell one of us to drop and give you twenty during one of the raids." Norm said with snort.

"I could still do that." Jake joked.
"Like to see you try."

CREW CHEIF: Let's go, special case! Don't make me wait for you!

WAINFLEET: Well, well, ladies. Look at all this fresh meat. Whoo!

"Don't know about Fike, but Wainfleet was one of the avatars with Quaritch." Jake said to Neytiri, who let out a quiet hiss. Neteyam and Lo'ak exchanged a look, now having a name to a face of one of the people who had threatened them and their parents.

JAKE ROLLS DOWN THE RAMP
JAKE (V.O): Back on Earth, these guys were Army dogs, Marines, fighting for freedom.
Ampsuit Operator: Look out, hot rod!
(V.O): But out here they're just hired guns, taking the money, working for the company.

"Always money..."

THEIR POV OF JAKE
FIKE: Check it out, man. Meals on wheels.
WAINFLEET: Oh, man, that is just wrong.

"I will put every arrow I have into that demon the next time I see him." Neytiri promised under her breath. Jake glanced at her but didn't say anything, though he was hoping there wouldn't be a next time and that she wouldn't have to fulfill that promised.

Jake, pumping his chair, looks around as -- A huge TRACTOR, taller than a house, ROARS past on muddy wheels. He notices something sticking in the tires -- ARROWS. The neolithic weapons are jarring amid all the advanced technology.

There was stifled laughter and snorts at the sight of the arrows still in the large tires.

"I don't think anyone ever got around to pulling those out." One of the scientists remarked with a smile.

Beyond the tractor, two VTOL vehicles take off. Armored and heavily armed, they are AT-99 "SCORPION" GUNSHIPS.

MITSUBISHI MK-6 AMPSUITS -- human operated walking machines 4 meters tall -- patrol the perimeter. They are heavily armored, and armed with a huge rotary cannon called a GAU-90.

Beyond the outer fence stands a black wall of forest hundreds of feet high. A SENTRY GUN OPENS FIRE from a tower. TRACERS light up the twilight. A shadowy SHAPE SHRIEKS and drops off the fence. It is an armed camp in a state of siege.

WAINFLEET and Fike give Jake and his chair the hairy eyeballs he approaches.
JAKE: What're you two limpdicks starin' at?

"Don't repeat that." Jake quickly said.

QUARITCH (V.O.): You're not in Kansas anymore...

Those who knew tensed at the voice. Jake's hand taking Neytiri's as he felt her anger raising.
Spider clenched his hands, not knowing how to feel about what he was about to see.

CUT TO: INT. COMMISSARY - TWILIGHT: FOCUSED on a pair of black boots walked at a leisurely pace up an aisleway on linoleum.
FOCUS ON the man's hip, where a Large PISTOL sits in a leather holder. CUTS UP to the back of the man's head where his hair is clipped short. The scalp is etched by long parallel SCARS where some Pandoran denizen's claws raked across it. The bare arms, below tightly rolled sleeves, seem hewn out of some hard tropical wood. Criss-crossed by scars.

Hisses and curses rose up at the sight of the man from the Omaticaya and human allies (and the Sullys). The Metkayina looked at them strangely, for what was it about this specific human to cause such a reaction?

Spider wasn't sure what to think. This man was his dad, or at least, the man who helped his mom in creating him. Was he supposed to feel some sense of family to him? Was he supposed to care? How was he supposed to miss someone he's never met? But... he missed his mom, right? He didn't really have any memories of her, but he was told about how much she loved him. There was nothing about how his dad had felt about him. But in the end it didn't really matter, that man tried to wipe out the Omaticaya, tried to kill Jake and Neytiri, and tried to destroy the forest. It didn't matter what he could have possibly felt for Spider, he would never care for a man that worked so hard to ruin a place that meant so much to him or the people he looked up too.
Now if only dealing with this new avatar of Quaritch was that easy.

Quaritch tilted his head at the sight. It was one thing to see his past human self in the form of a vlog made purposely by him, for him. It was another to technically see an outsider's point of view on him. That was him, but also not at the same time. He had the memories of this moment, though fuzzy. They didn't really feel like memories, more like a dream that faded quickly when you woke up, but parts of it would stick vividly for days afterwards. It hadn't occured to him that he was going to see his human -self up until he heard his voice. This was going to be more interesting then he thought.

COLONEL MILES QUARITCH -- is the HEAD OF SECURITY for the Hell's Gate colony. A hundred new arrivals watch raptly as he paces like a panther across the front of the large cafeteria. He stops, stance wide.
QUARITCH: ... You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day.

"And he clearly didn't. Cause if he did maybe he'd still be alive and not rotting in the forest." Norm remarked.

"A lot of people would have lived if he did." Max agreed.

Chapter Text

JAKE ROLLS IN, watching from the back.
COLONEL QUARITCH raises his hand and points out the window, toward the dark treeline.

QUARITCH: Out beyond that fence every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubees. (The room gets very quiet.)

"What are jujubees?" Tsireya whispered to Lo'ak who just shrugged.

QUARITCH: We have an indigenous population of humanoids here called the Na'vi. They're fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin which can stop your heart in one minute. And they have bones reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. They are very hard to kill. We operate -- we live -- at a constant threat condition yellow.

"Ya, the neurotoxin doesn't really matter all that much when the arrows are big enough to completely destroy a human's chest." One of the scientists pointed out.

PAN ACROSS the solid faces of miners, Cat-machine drivers, engineers, geologists, as they take that in.
"Hey Norm, there's you." Spider said, happy to focus on something else then the man talking. Norm smiled, "oh ya, forgot I sat through that, so much nerves but so much excitement, wow I look young."

QUARITCH: As head of security, it's my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed -- (pausing for effect) -- not with all of you. If you wish to survive, you need a strong mental attitude, you got to obey the rules. Pandora rules.

"Well at least he's honest and he's right, Pandora does rule."

QUARITCH: Here's a harsh place people, it is not a cakewalk, but the money's good. Let's make sure you stay alive to spend it when you rotate off 60 months from now.

"There seems to be a pattern with these demons." Ronal disdained.

PUSH IN ON JAKE, watching as the briefing continues.
JAKE (V.O.): Nothing like an old-school safety brief to put your mind at ease.

"Really? That made you feel better?" Neytiri asked.

"It reminded me of my boot camp days." Shrugged Jake in response.

CUT TO: INT. CORRIDOR
People are roaming in both directions, looking for rooms, lugging duffels and cases. An eager young XENOANTHROPOLOGIST, staggering under an overpacked duffel, runs to catch up to Jake.

NORM: Hey, you're Jake right? Tom's brother? You look just like him. (off Jake's wary look) Sorry, I'm Norm Spellman, I went through avatar training with him.

"Way to introduce yourself." Max joked.

"Not my best moment." came the reply.

Norm offers his hand and Jake shakes it.
NORM: He was a great guy -- funny. It was a big shock to all of us.
JAKE: Yeah.

Jake pumps the wheels of his chair, rolling on. Norm walks with him.
NORM: And duh! -- obviously you look like him. I mean, if you weren't genetically identical, you wouldn't be taking over his avatar.
JAKE: That's why I'm here.
NORM: So -- you want to go check it out?

"Great job Norm. Smooth change of subject." Jake said looking over to the other man with a grin.

"I am so sorry about that." Norm said with a wince.

CUT TO: INT. BIO-LAB - DAY
JAKE AND NORM enter the BIO-LAB -- a large lab complex with many adjoining rooms.
NORM: ...into the bio-lab. We're gonna spend a lot of time up here. (TO VARIOUS SCIENTISTS AROUND) Hey! How you doing? Norm, avatar driver. (TO JAKE) Link... here's the link room right here. This is where we're connecting to the avatar.
JAKE NOTICES something to the side and moves towards it.

(V.O.): Me and Norm were out here to drive these remotely controlled bodies called avatars. They're grown from human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives here.

"Huh, something just occurred to me." Jake said, leaning to look at Norm and Max. "The avatars were made with our DNA and Na'vi DNA but who's DNA from the Na'vi?"

Norm opened his mouth to answer before closing it again, realizing he didn't actually know. Looking to Max and the other scientists, who all just looked to each other.

"I honestly don't know. Basically all of the Na'vi DNA that was used was collected at the very beginning of the program decades ago. We should look into that when we get back. Who knows, some of us might be related because of it." Max said, looking over his shoulder at the Omaticaya.

A scientist, DOCTOR MAX PATEL, is supervising the uncrating of two SHIPPING CONTAINERS. The nearer has the sides removed, revealing -- a ceiling-height acrylic TANK.

Norm stops to stare, and Jake rolls past him as if drawn by some unseen force, toward --

MAX: Hey, welcome. Welcome to Pandora. Good to have you.
THE AMNIO TANK. There is a FIGURE floating lanquidly inside, which looks like a man. A very large, very blue, man. Blood circulates through a synthetic UMBILICAL in the abdomen. As the figure turns in the amniotic fluid, we see that it has a lemur-like TAIL. The skin is cyan-blue. Long black hair drifts, graceful as seaweed.

"That is so weird to see now." Jake said, Neytiri nodding her agreement. The kids had to agree, while the sight of an avatar in an amino tank was a normal one after growing up seeing Grace's that way. The sight of their father like that just felt wrong.

The Metkayina weren't sure if they should be amazed or disgusted at the sight. The way the avatars looked so much like them but were just so slightly... off, was an uncomfortable feeling. Like looking into rippling water, the image of themselves was distorted, but they could still tell it was them. While the forest dwelling Na'vi were different from them, they were still obviously Na'vi with they're four fingers and toes and proportions. Jake though, and his son and daughter were noticeable not, with their extra digits and hair above their eyes and how their eyes were just this side of being small. Those things were the result of the human part of them, and because of it, they would always have an uphill battle when it came to interacting with the other Na'vi.

JAKE: Damn. They got big.
NORM: Yeah, they matured on the trip out. (to Max) So the proprioceptive sims worked pretty well.
MAX: Yeah, they've got great muscle tone. It'll take us a few hours to get them decanted, but you guys can take them out tomorrow.

"Sooo... how old are the avatars?" Neteyam asked.

Max wrinkled his nose, "well, physically, they're the same age as the driver. But how long they've existed as a whole, Norms and Jake specifically... a little over 20 years maybe." The response made Jake look at his hand for a moment to contemplate that fact before shaking his head and deciding NOT to have an existential crisis.

THE FIGURE'S sleeping face turns toward us, and the features are -- despite feline ears and a long feral snout -- definitely JAKE'S.

JAKE: It looks like him.

NORM: No, it looks like you. This is your avatar now, Jake.

"It is you." Neytiri said softly and with conviction.

ON JAKE, mesmerized as he stares into the tank.

JAKE (V.O.): The concept is -- every driver is matched to his own avatar --
STEREOCAM VIDEO SHOT OF JAKE -- facing the camera, talking directly to the lens. JAKE'S VOICE-OVER up until now has been part of this VIDEOLOG.

JAKE: -- so their nervous systems are in tune. Or something. Which is why they offered me the gig, because I can link with Tommy's avatar, which is insanely expensive. (looking off camera) Is this right? I just say whatever in these videologs?

WIDER, showing Norm working nearby with Max.
NORM: Yeah. You just need to get in the habit of documenting everything -- what you see, what you feel -- it's all part of the science.
MAX: And good science starts with good observation.
NORM: Plus it'll help to keep you sane for the next six years.

"Ya know, I'm pretty sure we still have those." Norm said.

"You do?" Jake asked.

"Well ya, we kept Grace's. So yours is probably in a box somewhere."

Neteyam and Lo'ak exchanged looks before leaning forward to look around the others to make eye contact with Spider who nodded who then looked to Kiri smiling lightly in response. They were all on the same page; find Jake's old vlogs the first chance they get and see what's on them.

JAKE: Right. (to camera) So, whatever. Here I am. Doing science. (looks around) Never been in a lab before.

MAX: Log off. It's time to meet your boss for the next five years.

"Here she comes..." Jake smirked.

Kiri sat up straighter, her eyes glued to the screen.

He leads Jake and Norm through the short corridor to the Lab.

Chapter Text

CUT TO: INT. LINK ROOM - DUSK
The LINK ROOM contains a dozen PSIONIC LINK UNITS, which look like coffins crossed with MRI scanners.

MALE TECHNICIAN: They're coming out!
WOMAN ON PA: Attention. Drivers coming out of link.

NORM: Grace Augustine is a legend. She's the head of the Avatar Program, and she wrote the book -- I mean literally wrote the book -- on Pandoran botany.

"This...Grace, wrote about us?" Tonowari asked.

"Ya, mainly about the Omaticaya and the forest but I'd imagine she would have loved to meet you. She really loved Pandora and the Na'vi." Jake replied with a sad smile.

MAX: (low, over his shoulder) That's 'cause she likes plants better than people.

"And liked Na'vi better than humans." Max added in response to himself on screen.

DR. GRACE AUGUSTINE sits up in her link, stretching and cracking her neck after a long session. She's fifty, with a strong face and fiercely intelligent eyes.

"And there she is in all her 'I hate Jake' glory." Jake joked with a grin.

"She didn't hate you," Norm corrected, "she just hated the situation."

Kiri couldn't believe it. That was her mom, her bio mom. She looked the same as in her vlogs but now she'll get to see her outside of recording information. See how she interacted with other people and who she was as a person day to day. Maybe.... maybe this could give a hint as to who her bio father was as well possibly. Personally though, she didn't much care, a chance to see and know more of her mom will always be welcome no matter what.

GRACE: (WHISPERS) oh god, (GROANS YELLING) Who's got my goddamn cigarette?! Guys! What's wrong with this picture? (gets handed her cigarette and lab coat) Thank you.

"What an introduction."

"What's a cigarette?" Tuk asked.

"A unhealthy human thing that you never have to worry about touching." Jake stated.

Kiri tilted her head, "but if it's unhealthy why does she need it?"

"Because it's something that's very addicting, so once you start, it can be very hard to stop. Some people spend their whole lives trying to stop but don't succeed. Grace... she probably figured that she had more important things to focus on then her own health." Jake explained gently to her, knowing that Kiri was going to see a new side to her bio mom from the movie.

"That didn't stop you from trying to get her to quit though." Norm joked.

"Hey, if she was going to nag me about my health, I was going to do the same to her."

Around here they jump when Grace barks. Grace stands, scowling, as Jake, Norm and Max approach.

MAX: And here she is, Cinderella back from the ball. Grace, I'd like you to meet Norm Spellman and Jake Sully.
GRACE: Norm. I hear good things about you. How's your Na'vi?

NORM: (Na'vi, subtitled) May the All Mother smile upon our first meeting.

"A bit formal, but quite good." Mo'at praised making Norm smile.

"Thank you. Studying the language is one thing but getting the chance to actually use it was exciting." He replied, "it's said on Earth, that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the culture of that language. To surround yourself with it." He snorts, "guess we did a pretty good job on that." He says to Max.

Grace nods approvingly, taking a drag on her cigarette.
GRACE: (SUBTITLED) Not bad. You sound a little formal.

NORM: (SUBTITLED) I studied for five years, but there is still much to learn.

Jake waits while they ignore him, chattering in fluent Na'vi.

"You look so confused." An Omaticaya laughed

"All of it was going right over my head."

MAX: Uh, Grace? this is Jake Sully
JAKE: (holding his hand out for her to shake) Ma'am.

"Oh, so you did that with everyone you first meet, not just my father at the worst time." Neytiri whispered with laughter in her voice.

"My mother raised me with manners I'll have you know. Earth manners mind you, that don't translate well with the Na'vi." He whispered back.

GRACE: (turning to Jake) Yeah, yeah, I know who you are, and I don't need you. I need your brother. (to Max) You know -- the PhD who trained three years for this mission.

JAKE: He's dead. I know it's a big inconvenience to everyone.

"You just had to antagonize her huh?" One of the scientists sighed.

"Hey, if she was going to be like that, I wasn't going to let her get away with it without some pushback."

GRACE: How much lab training have you had? Ever run a gas chromatograph?
JAKE: No.

GRACE: Any actual lab work at all?
JAKE: High school chemistry. I dissected a frog once.

"I also had a habit of skipping that class too."

Grace wheels on Max.
GRACE: You see? You see? They're pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain. (turning away) I'm going to Selfridge.

MAX: No, Grace, I don't think that's a good idea.
GRACE: (talking over Max) No, man, this is such bullshit! I'm gonna kick his corporate butt. He has no business sticking his nose in my department.

"She had such a way with words." Jake joked, "also don't repeat that."

She shoves past Jake.

MAX: Grace, that's not a good idea.
But she's already out the door and clomping down the corridor. Max turns to Jake with a pained look.

MAX: Here, tomorrow, oh eight hundred. Try and use big words.

"Did you?" Neteyam asked.

Jake laughed lightly and shook his head, "no."

CUT TO: INT. OPS CENTER - DUSK
It looks like an air-traffic control tower, with lots of screens and bay windows showing the whole complex. ADMINISTRATOR PARKER SELFRIDGE takes a ball from a newly opened case of TITLEISTS and sets it on the floor. Selfridge is young, charismatic, focused. Some would say ruthless. He assumes the stance and lines up his putt, toward a practice cup across the control room floor. He glances up as Grace strides toward him.

"What's he doing?" Ka'ani asked, leaning forward to whisper to Hale sitting in front of him. Over the years the two had managed to strike up a decent friendship.

"Playing an earth game called golf. Real stuckup to play it in that room though." She responded.

GRACE: Parker, I used to think it was benign neglect, but now I see you're intentionally screwing me.

SELFRIDGE: Grace. You know I enjoy our little talks.
Selfridge looks down and hits the ball. Grace kicks the practice cup aside, and the ball rolls past. Selfridge looks at her with a sigh.

GRACE: Oops. I need a researcher, not some jarhead dropout.

"I'm not a dropout. I did in fact finish high school, barley, but I did."
"You're not going to deny being a jarhead?" Norm asked.

"Nah, that part was true."

SELFRIDGE: Well, actually, I thought we got lucky with him.

GRACE: Lucky? How is this in any way lucky?

As Selfridge saunters over to retrieve the ball --
SELFRIDGE: Well -- lucky your guy had a twin brother, and lucky the brother wasn't an oral hygienist or something. A Marine we can use. I'm assigning him to your team as security escort.

"I mean, he's not wrong." Max said.

"How?" Hale asked.

"Well, what are the odds? That one of the coming drivers for the program would die and that he would have a twin trained in combat and would be capable of taking his place. Who then was able to make friends with the native population and fulfill one of their oldest prophecies and stop the RDA from completely destroying the forest." He explained. "That's some insane luck."

"If you start talking about destiny..." Jake groaned.

GRACE: The last thing I need is another trigger-happy moron out there!

"Skxawng" Neytiri whispered to him affectionately, bumping their shoulders.

"She really doesn't like guns." Kiri noticed, pulling Neytiri's attention to her and runs her fingers though Kiri's hair, whether to comfort Kiri or herself was up for debate. She had a good idea as to why Grace was so adverse to guns.

SELFRIDGE: Look, you're supposed to be winning the hearts and minds of the natives. Isn't that the whole point of your little puppet show? If you look like them and you talk like them, then they'll start trusting us? We build them a school, we teach them English, But after -- how many years? -- relations with the indigenous are only getting worse.

GRACE: That tends to happen when you use machine guns on them.

Neytiri looked away, even after all these years it still hurt to think of her sister and what happened. She knew Grace wasn't responsible for it, but they had trusted her to protect them and she failed. The whole thing just wasn't fair.
Jake leaned towards her to brush shoulders in reassurance.

SELFRIDGE: Right, come here. (Selfridge crosses to his office, behind a glass wall nearby. Grace follows.)
On Selfridge's desk is a magnetic base, and hovering in mid- air, in the invisible field, is a lump of METALLIC ROCK. Pure UNOBTANIUM. He grabs it and holds it up between thumb and forefinger, in front of Grace's eyes.

SELFRIDGE: This is why we're here. Unobtanium. Because this little gray rock sells for twenty million a kilo. No other reason. This is what pays for the party. And it's what pays for your science. Comprendo? (He places it back in the magnetic field.)
SELFRIDGE: Those savages are threatening our whole operation. We're on the brink of war and you're supposed to be finding a diplomatic solution. So use what you've got and get me some results.

"And that's where you came in." Norm pointed out.

"I mean, not to brag, but I did make more progress in a few months then the program did in decades." Jake said with a shrug.

"Don't get cocky. It won't be long now before we will be watching you make a fool of yourself." Neytiri teased, pushing the thought of her sister to the back of her mind for the moment.

Chapter Text

INT. LINK ROOM - DAY
NEXT MORNING, GRACE, NORM and JAKE approach their link units. Jake glances through a PRESSURE WINDOW. In an adjoining chamber (the AMBIENT ROOM) JAKE'S AVATAR lies on a gurney, breathing slowly in PANDORAN AIR. NORM'S AVATAR is on a second gurney. Both are attended by med techs in exo-masks.

GRACE: How much link time have you logged?
NORM: Five hundred and twenty hours.
GRACE: That's good. (points to two different units) You're in there. You're here.
Norm slips into his LINK CHAIR, expertly donning biometric sensors.

GRACE: How much have you logged?
JAKE: Zip. But I read a manual.

"Really?" Max asked.

"Well it's more like I skimmed a manual."

Grace looks pointedly at Jake.
GRACE: Tell me you're joking.
Jake presses his finger into the gel like bedding of the unit and smiles
JAKE: This is cool

Neytiri lightly slaps Jake , "you should have listened to her." She chastised.

Grace opens the hood of Jake's link unit. Jake starts hauling himself across from his wheelchair. She reaches to help him but --

JAKE: Don't! I got this. Grace steps back, hands raised. He drags himself into the unit.

Grace watches him laboriously pull his inert legs into the link chair by hand.

Jake barley held back his wince. Remembering the feeling, or rather lack of feeling, of having to haul his legs up or down with whatever he was doing. It was a point of pride to never except help when it came to doing anything. A need to prove to himself that his life didn't need to change any more than it already did.

GRACE: So you just figured you'd come out here, to the most hostile environment known to man, with no training of any kind, and see how it went? What was going through your head?
He meets her eyes with a defiant glare.

JAKE: Maybe I was just sick of doctors telling me what I couldn't do.

"That explains a lot." Norm whispered making the humans and Na'vi near him quietly laugh.

Jake settles into the warm fluid gel packs lining the unit. It seems to enfold him. Grace adjusts his biometric sensors, then lowers the UPPER CLAMSHELL -
LINK TECH: Biometrics are good.
MAX: Link 3 is ready.
GRACE: Keep your arms in, hands in, (pushes Jakes head down) head down, (Jake lifts his head again and she pushes it down) down. Just relax and let your mind go blank. That shouldn't be hard for you.

JAKE: (chuckling) Kiss the darkest part of my lily white --
But the SLAMMING HOOD muffles the rest.

"What was that Jake? You gonna finish you're sentence?" Norm asked with a grin.

Jake shook his head holding back a grin of his own, "Nope, doesn't have the same affect anymore." He said before quickly adding, "Spider, don't repeat that." Making Spider turn wide eyes towards him and then to Kiri and throw his hands in the air, Kiri having to smother her own laughter at his reaction.

GRACE: Initiate link. The LINK TECH touches some controls. ON A LARGE MONITOR a 3D SCAN of Jake's brain appears. Regions of activity flow with complex shifting colors
. MAX: Run sequence 3. Go.
LINK TECH: Launching. (STARTS up the link) I have the first congruency.

MAX: That's a gorgeous brain. Nice activity.

"Thanks Max." Jake said.

"You know, if you let us run some tests-" Max started to say.
"Not gonna happen."

GRACE: Hmmm. Go figure. (walking away) Alright, I'm going in.

LINK TECH: Phase-lock at forty percent. He's in transition.
GRACE: I'm going in in 4.
LINK TECH: Phase-lock 99%. Link is stable.

Max watches a display showing the avatar's nervous system aligning with Jake's -- two ghostly networks of light merging.

MAX: That's it. Find your way home.

"Has anyone ever gotten... lost in a transfer?" Spider asked.

"No, but there had been some close calls in the early days." Max explained with a wince, thinking about how dangerous the early days (read months) of the program was.

ECU JAKE, inside the link unit. His eyes move under the lids, like a dreamer in REM sleep as INSIDE JAKE'S MIND -- radiant streamers coalesce into a pulsing TUNNEL OF LIGHT and -- THE SCREEN FLARES WHITE -- ZZZWHAP! -- resolving into an overexposed, out-of-focus image -- two BLURRY FACES wearing masks, looking down.

Everyone blinked at the visual representation of the link process. The tunnel of light followed by blurred vision and disorientation of being somewhere different so suddenly. How much smaller the human faces now appeared from the perspective of Na'vi eyes and how everything seemd to take on different lighting.

ECU JAKE'S AVATAR -- two very intense eyes FILL FRAME, the pupils contracting. Golden irises pulse with life.

Neytiri smiled and whispered to Jake, "there's the skxawng I fell for."

MED TECH: (distantly) He's in. Jake, can you hear me? Can you hear me Jake?
(Another tech shines a light into his eyes to test the pupil reaction): Pupillary reflex is good. (they snap of either side of his ears to test hearing) Pinna response normal. How you feeling, Jake?
JAKE: (roughly) Hey guys.
MED TECH: (chuckles) Welcome to your new body, Jake.

Jake lifts his hands and stares, flexing his fingers.

TECH: Good! We're gonna take this nice and easy, Jake.

Norm is sitting up on his gurney, running through motor reflex testing with the instruction of another med tech.

"What are you doing?"

"Running through motor reflexes, we have to check to make sure the transfer was successful and nothing went wrong during the link process." Norm explained.

Blinking, Jake slowly sits up on the gurney. He looks down at his AVATAR BODY, touching his chest with one hand.
MED TECHS: Well, if you want to sit up, that's fine. - Okay good, just take it nice and slow, Jake. Good. - Okay, well, no truncal ataxia, that's good. - Are you feeling lightheaded or dizzy at all?

But Jake isn't listening. He's staring at his legs. Slowing moving his toes and ankles.

Jake remembered that moment. The feeling of his legs and feet, after so long. It was a memory he relived in his dreams sometimes, the sudden freedom after years of struggling with a disability he never really adjusted too. Almost all of that first year on Pandora was permanently carved into his memory, how could it not? When that was the year his life changed forever, even more so than the loss of his legs.

MED TECHS: You're wiggling your toes! That's great! - Good, good Jake. Distal motor control is good. Good, Jake. - Are you feeling any numbness or pain? He eases them off the gurney and -- HIS BLUE FEET touch the concrete floor, taking his weight. JAKE STANDS, feeling the strength in his legs. His expression is child-like with wonder.

MED TECHS: That's great, Jake. Hold on, now. - Whoa, whoa, whoa, - Take it easy, don't get ahead of yourself, okay? - There's a few more sensory motor reflex tests we need to run, so take it easy.

JAKES POV -- he stands up, looking down at the med techs, who seem the size of children next to his 9' tall frame. He wobbles, trying to catch his balance and slaps a hand against the observing room glass as the med techs attempt to get him to sit back down.

JAKE: It's all good, I got this.
MAX: Guy's get him back on the gurney now. Jake sees something like a blue tentacle curl across his arm and he JERKS AROUND in alarm. HIS TAIL. As he turns to see it, the tail sweeps instruments off a table with a crash. Jake laughs.

"You didn't hear anything they were saying did you."

"Not a word."

MED TECH: Sedate! Sedate him! A thousand milligrams of supitocam! Stat!
But Jake takes a step, then another. The wires to the bio- monitors pull taut, and he yanks them off his chest. He stumbles forward as med techs hurry to try an stop him, Norm watching with worry. Jake stumbles and slams his hand against the glass where Max is watching.

MAX: Jake! Listen to me. You're not used to your avatar body. This is dangerous.
JAKE: (smiles) This is great.

Lo'ak glances at his dad briefly before looking away with a slight scowl. He gets shouted at about not listening yet it seems his dad was just as bad. In anything his dad was worse, since not listening with something as important as using an Avatar was worse then anything he's done.

NORM: Come on. they're gonna put you out But Jake pushes past the protesting med techs, toward the door, Norm attempting to follow, and -- EXT. AVATAR COMPOUND - DAY Jake emerges, blinking in the morning sun. He finds himself in the AVATAR COMPOUND -- a living and training area. Nearby, a couple of AVATARS are playing one-on-one in front of a (non-regulation height) basketball net. Others go about their daily activities around the compound.

That was a weird sight for the Na'vi clans, seeing what looked like na'vi but were dressed like the skypeople. Playing strange games and doing strange exercises. It made them uncomfortable, even the Omaticaya, who had spent the last couple decades use to the presence of avatars and skypeople still found it odd to see the two worlds combined in such a way.

Jake flexes his legs -- JUMPS -- and lands a little unsteadily, but his expression is joyful. He takes a few steps and breaks into a RUN. Norm is following telling him to stop, somewhere, but he doesn't hear them -- he's running. RUNNING! (Cut to his human face, eyes closed but obviously moving beneath his eye lids.)

"You really took off, didn't you?" Hale commented.

"What can I say, that was the first time I got to run in years. Finally having my legs back, it was exhilarating. Sometimes I still find myself thinking about that moment and later, having to leave the link and with it, my legs behind." Jake said with a sigh.

"Well," Neytiri said gently, "maybe after this is all over, we could go for a run along the shore?"

Tuk perked up hearing her mother say that, "ya! We can go run together."

"We could make it a family outing thing." Kiri chimed in, making Jake give a small smile at her before looking towards Neteyam and Lo'ak who nodded as well.

Tsireya leaned over to smile at them, "I know some great places along the beach for that. I could show you later."

Quaritch watched the conversation between the family intently. So, Sully was still affected by the loss of his legs after so many years, huh. Well, it'd be a real shame if something like that were to happen again, wouldn't it? Sitting back he pulled out a pen and piece of paper that he had in one of his pants pockets and began to writing down what he's been learning throughout this experience.

He finds himself in the COMPOUND GARDEN, and stops amid neatly tended rows of ALIEN PLANTS. He looks down, wiggling his toes in the warm soil. Then inhales deeply -- reveling in the alien smells -- earth, plants, the nearby forest. He looks at his bare footprint in the soil of an alien world.

Neytiri and the Omaticaya na'vi smiled, happy to see Jake embrace his first open step on Pandora without the masks and protections humans had to wear. Creating a barrier, no matter how small, between them and the planet; that with the avatars, they didn't need.

GRACE (O.S.): Hey Marine!
Jake turns at the familiar voice to see -- A statuesque FEMALE AVATAR walking toward him. AVATAR GRACE is magnificent, with panther thighs, flat muscular stomach and firm athlete's breasts. She wears shorts and a T-shirt. In human years she would be about 35.

Kiri held her breath at the sight of her mother in her avatar. The avatar she grew up watching and speaking to while it floated inside an Amnio tank. To see her alive and awake and moving was incredible. She looked so happy and confident; oh, how Kiri wished she could have met her.

JAKE: Damn, Grace?

GRACE: Well, who'd you expect, numbnuts? Think fast!
She throws him a piece of Pandoran fruit, which he catches.

GRACE: Motor control is looking good.

None of them failed to notice how much happier and relaxed Grace was in her avatar. Gone was the scowling and barley contained frustration. She even seemed to like Jake a bit more now that both were out in the open rather than in the lab.

Jake bites into the fruit, the juice running down his chin.

NORM (O.S.): Hey, check it out.

Jake turns to see NORM'S AVATAR posing like a bodybuilder -- chest shot, back shot, bi's.

NORM: I am a living god.

That got everyone chuckling and Jake snorted, "Really?"

Norm flushed with embarrassment as everyone continued laughing. "I was excited okay. The avatar bodies were in a lot better shape than I ever was."

INT. AVATAR LONGHOUSE - DUSK

Jake sits on a wooden bed in a long hut of tropical-style construction -- beamed ceiling, open sides covered by screen. Around him the other avatars are bedding down for the night, pulling insect netting around their cots.

"Hey! That looks like where the avatars sleep at high camp." Tuk pointed out.

GRACE: Come on, everybody, quiet down! Alright, gang, lights out.
In one hand, Jake holds the end of his long braided QUEUE of hair.
CLOSE ON the queue -- the ends of the hair writhe slowly with their own life, like tendrils of a sea creature.
GRACE: Don't play with that, you'll go blind.

Hale blinked "Did she just make a-"

"Yep," Norm responded, making many of the humans (and Jake) snort.

"What did she make?" Neteyam asked.

"A joke that you'll learn when you're older." Jake responded before leaning over to Neytiri and looking back slightly at Ronal and Tonowari, "I'll tell you guys after."

JAKE: That's kind of freaky.

GRACE pushes the human techs out of the long house and locks the gate and switches off the overheads.
GRACE: Lights out. See ya' at dinner kiddies

Jake sits in the twilight, listening to the SCREECHES and HOOTS from the forest. Finally he lies down, CLOSING HIS EYES and --

It was funny, Jake thought, how at the time, all those sounds kept him awake and freaked him out just a little and now he couldn't imagine sleeping in the near silence that humans tended to prefer, the comfort the forest sounds brought him was immense. Though now, he had to get used to the sound of waves right next to him while he slept instead, the whole family had to.

INT. LINK ROOM - NIGHT
ECU HUMAN JAKE -- his eyes OPEN.

Jake blinks, disoriented, as Max opens the upper clamshell of his link unit and welcomes him back, he looks down at his unmoving legs and grabs for his wheelchair. In the next chair Grace sits up, yawning and cracking her neck as the scared tech runs to her with a lit cigarette.

MAX: You okay? You alright?
JAKE: Ya, I'm okay.

"It's a weird feeling, jumping between bodies and suddenly losing all the feeling in your lower body." Jake said quietly.

GRACE: (looking down) Damn. Same old sack a' bones.

JAKE struggles with the dead weight of his legs as he hauls himself out of the unit.

Jake grimaces and presses down on his knee, digging in his nails and found comfort in the pain. A reminder that he had his legs back and as long as Eywa was kind, would have them for the rest of his life.

Chapter Text

INT. COMMISSARY - EARLY MORNING
JAKE sits with GRACE, NORM and the other avatar "drivers", while around them miners, troopers and other base personnel wolf their breakfasts. Grace is engaged in a heated conversation with another SCIENTIST.
Jake, isolated from the conversations around him, notices -- PILOT TRUDY CHACON approaching, dressed in her flight suit. She's a rock-hard former Marine with thousands of flight hours out in the badlands.

"Trudy!" Norm cheered as those who also knew her cheered and smiled too.

"Jake, is this when you first met her?" Max asks.

"Uh ya and if this is what I think it is I'm just going to start saying sorry now." Jake said with a grimace.

"Why?" Neytiri asked, and when Jake just pressed his lips together, she narrowed her eyes, "Ma Jake, why?"

TRUDY: Hey, you Sully? (Jake nods) -- Colonel wants to see you in the Armor Bay.

That had the scientists and avatar drivers reacting, their mouths dropping and some of the Omaticaya clan suspicious about what they think was about to happen.

"You didn't." Norm stated.

"I'm sorry."

"So soon?!"

Jake gives Norm a puzzled glance and pivots from the table. He wheels away, led by Trudy.

TIGHT ON GRACE, scowling as she watches him go.

"Looks like Grace was on to you from day one."
"Pretty sure she was on to me before I ever arrived."

INT. ARMOR BAY - MORNING
JAKE AND TRUDY enter the ARMOR BAY, passing TILT-ROTORS under repair. There are the heavily armed SCORPIONS as well as several SA-2 SAMSON work-horses outfitted with door guns and rocket pods.

TRUDY: I'm Trudy, I fly all the science sorties and this here is my baby. (She shows him her specific Sa-2 SAMSON. before turning away for a moment.) Hold on a second. Hey Wainfleet! Get it done! We bounce at zero-nine.
WAINFLEET: Yeah, I'm on it, capitaine!
TRUDY: Vine strike's still loose.

"That is a nice ride." Anqa Salaam said. She was stuck with a basic SAMSON that had been modified over her time with the resistence.

JAKE: You guys are packing some heavy gear.

TRUDY: Yeah, `cause we're not the only thing flyin' around out there. Or the biggest. I'm gonna need you on a door gun, I'm a man short.

JAKE: I thought you'd never ask.

TRUDY: (she points forward) There's your man, See ya on the flight-line.

She extends her fist and he taps it with his.

Jake rolls his chair along the central gallery of the Armor Bay, passing rows of AMPSUITS standing in service racks. Techs clamber over the `suits, loading ordinance with cranes and lifts.

At the end of the row is a makeshift GYM area. QUARITCH is bench-pressing massive plates. Jake moves right up to the end of the bench.

Eyes widened, those who hadn't caught on before now realizing that Jake had begun talking to Quaritch only a few days after arriving.
The Metkayina sent them questioning looks. What exactly made this skyperson so much more hated than any of the others. All of them wanted to ruin their home, so what made him stand out?

JAKE: You wanted to see me, Colonel?

QUARITCH: This low gravity'll makes you soft. (pushing the last rep) You get soft, Pandora will shit you out dead with zero warning.

"Wish it did that to him." Someone whispered from the Omaticaya side.

Quaritch racks the bar and sits up, sweating but not winded.

QUARITCH: I pulled your record, Corporal. Venezuela -- that was some mean bush. Nothing like this here, though. You got some heart kid, showing up in this neighborhood.

JAKE: I figured it's just another hellhole.

"That was before I actually saw anything." Jake quickly interjected.

Quaritch chuckles appreciatively, claps him on the shoulder.

The CHIEF MECHANIC yells from the nearest AMPSUIT --
MECHANIC: That servo's in, Colonel, if you want to try it.
Quaritch crosses to the `suit, with Jake following.

QUARITCH: I was First Recon myself, a few years ahead of you. Well, maybe more than a few. Three tours in Nigeria, not a scratch. I come out here? (He points to his scarred face.) Day one. Think I felt like a shavetail louie?

"Shavetail louie?" Spider mouthed to himself in question.

QUARITCH: Yeah. Oh, they could fix me up, if I rotated back. Yeah, and make me pretty again. But you know what? I kinda like it. It reminds me every day what's waiting out there. Besides, I can't leave --
He looks out, as if he can see through the wall to the tree- line.

QUARITCH: This is my war, here.

"A war he started!" Was shouted out.

Quaritch climbs the `suit and reaches into the cockpit, throwing some switches. The `suit's gas-turbine spools up with a rising WHINE.

QUARITCH: The Avatar Program is a bad joke -- buncha limp-dick science majors. However, it does present opportunity both timely and unique. A recon gyrene in an avatar body, that's a potent mix. Give me the goose bumps. Such a marine could provide the intel I need, on the ground, right in the hostiles' camp.

Jake could feel all the eyes on him. Though it was well over a decade ago, he still thought about that year probably too often for it to be healthy. How could he not, when that was the year his life completely changed for the better. There was no way for him to change what happend, but he could live every day striving to make sure it didn't happen again and all he could do at that moment is say "I'm sorry."

"I mean, he's not wrong." Hale whispered to herself, making those who heard turn to eye her.

"What do you mean?" One of the avatar drivers asked.

"Well before Jake, all the avatar drivers had been scientists and researchers. And we saw how those communications went. But Jake was able to talk to the Omaticaya as a warrior, someone they could understand on a more relatable level then a scientist." she explained.

The WHINE is now a roaring WHOOSH as the `suit trembles with power. The air boils above the exhaust vents. Quaritch reaches in and operates the controls, flexing one huge hand. He nods to the waiting mechanic --

QUARITCH: Looks good. (to Jake) Look, Sully. I want you to learn about these savages from the inside, I want you to gain their trust. I need to know how to force their cooperation, or hammer `em hard if they won't. Maybe you can keep some of my boys from going home like you. Or bagged-and-tagged.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, like a broken record.

"You did the right thing in the end." Neytiri whispered back.

JAKE: Am I still with Augustine?

QUARITCH: On paper. You walk like one of her science pukes, you quack like one, but you report to me. Can you do that for me? Can you do that for me, son?

JAKE: (nods) Hell yeah, sir.

The kids couldn't help but wrinkle their noses up hearing that.

QUARITCH: Well, all right then.
Quaritch brings the `suit to life. He steps forward and pivots smoothly. He balances the two ton machine on one foot while sweeping the arms in strong, graceful arcs. Jake realizes he is doing a WU-SHOO KATA. A flawless display of strength and control. He's impressive, and Jake is impressed. Quaritch is the kind of man he respects -- focused, hard. Determined.

Jake felt his lip curl, maybe at one very short point, he had respected Quaritch. But that ended quickly and everyday, especially now, if seemed he found another reason to hate him even more.

QUARITCH: Son, I take care of my own. Get me what I need, I'll see you get your legs back when you rotate home. Your real legs.

JAKE: That sounds real good, sir.

Lo'ak and Neteyam exchange a look with wrinkled noses. Again, to hear that, their dad calling someone else, calling Quaritch, sir felt weird. He was sir, to have him saying it to someone else felt wrong.

He raises the`suit's hand, and slams the canopy shut like the visor of a helmet. Jake watches Quaritch walk past, huge feet CLANGING -- KUNG! KUNG! KUNG!

Quaritch found it strange. He remembered that conversation, the way Sully seemed pleased at being able to truly be doing something for them rather than getting dragged around by the scientists. Quaritch had thought he finally found a way to push things forward and get past the stalemate they had been stuck in. But that same feeling of deciding to rely on and trust Sully to achieve what was needed clashed together with later memories of seeing Sully's face, his Na'vi face, destroying bulldozers and attacking his men. Or his human face, staring up at him from that wheelchair, with an expression that screamed 'fuck you'.
If he could go back to this moment, he'd shoot Sully in the head without hesitation, consequences be damned.

INT. BIO LAB - DAY
GRACE is on the move, gulping coffee, in a hurry to get their FIRST SORTIE started. She hands a clipboard to MAX.
GRACE: Start calibrating. We're on the flight line in ten minutes.
Max nods and jogs ahead toward the LINK ROOM. JAKE and NORM fall in with Grace as they enter the CONNECTING CORRIDOR.

GRACE: What did Attila want?

"Attila?" A Na'vi questioned.

"Attila the Hun, a long time ago on earth he was the leader of a powerful empire, The Hun, and was known to sack and pillage another empire's, the Romans, homes and villages. He was known to be an aggressive and ruthless ruler. Grace is comparing Quaritch to him. " Was explained.

JAKE: Just Marines comparin' tattoos.

GRACE: (not buying it) Yeah. Well, listen to me, Marine --
She stops, turning to drill him with a look.

GRACE: -- you're driving an avatar, now. That means you're in my world, got it?

JAKE: Got it. I'm here for you.

"Liar." One of the scientists said softly, though with a light voice.

She turns and enters the LINK ROOM.
INT. LINK ROOM

Grace crosses to the controls of Jake's LINK UNIT. As the others catch up -- GRACE: That son of a bitch has screwed up this program enough. All this -- (indicating link room) -- exists so we can go out there and build a bridge of trust to these people, who could teach us so much. But thanks to Quaritch and his thugs the Na'vi won't even talk to us anymore.

JAKE: Then how's this supposed to work?

GRACE: Well, we have a new face. (turning to Norm) You're fluent, you've studied the culture. You're -- non-threatening. The ones we know best -- the Omaticaya clan -- may give you a chance. Maybe you can get them back to the table before things go tits-up for good.

Norm snorts, "and that never happened."

NORM: This is failing as a pep talk.

Jake hauls himself across from wheelchair to link.

JAKE: How do we contact them?

GRACE: We don't. They contact us. If they see us taking our samples, treating the forest with respect -- (pointedly to Jake) Not trampling everything in sight -- they may reach out to us.

JAKE: Or they may skin us and make a drum.

"Ewww." Kiri says while wrinkling her nose. Others chiming in with their own disgust at the thought.

"Is it human custom to do something like that?" Mo'at asks.
"Well no." Norm answers, "but I wouldn't be surprised if some group of humans a long long time ago might have done something along those lines at some point."
"Disgusting." Ronal responded, all of this just kept proving to her that skypeople, any skypeople were bad news, as well as any who have connections to them.

Jake lies back, lowering the sensor array over his body.

GRACE: Just keep your mouth shut and let Norm do the talking.

"Did you?" Neteyam asked.
"I did not."

She closes his clamshell, HARD, and we --

Chapter Text

EXT. RAIN FOREST / AERIAL - DAY
FLYING over a carpet of rainforest, past sheer cliffs and cloud-wreathed mesas. TRUDY'S SAMSON TILT-ROTOR chases its shadow across the treetops. Though big as a Blackhawk, it is tiny in the vast primeval landscape. ANGLE THROUGH the open side doors of the Samson. Trooper WAINFLEET, in exo-mask and body armor, leans on his door gun, scanning for aerial predators. In avatar form JAKE, GRACE and NORM watch the forest unrolling beneath them, the wind blasting their clothes. Jake mans the other door gun, his feet propped on the skids, TRUDY flies from a pressurized cockpit. She banks to follow a shallow river.

"The forest is beautiful." Tsireya said in awe.

"It really is." Rotxo agreed.

Lo'ak looked behind to smile at them, "hopefully you'll see a lot more of it."

TRUDY (INTERCOM): Sturmbeest herd, one o'clock.
Norm grins and points, excitedly. Jake looks in time to see-- A herd of STURMBEEST -- massive six-legged creatures reminiscent of buffalo -- thundering across the river.

GRACE: Looks like a bull, six cows and some juveniles.

NORM: The bull has the red on the dorsal armor?

Grace nods approvingly.

TIME CUT -- Hundreds of purple winged creatures take flight from a lake, startled by the Samson. They skim the water above their own reflections. TETRAPTERONS.
TIME CUT -- the ground drops away as the Samson flies over a WATERFALL hundreds of feet high. Trudy banks hard, rolling in on the gorge below like it's a gun-run. Wainfleet WHOOPS while Norm looks like he's about to puke.

"You feeling okay there Norm?" An avatar driver teased.

"You guys know I've never been one for flying." Norm said, "makes me dizzy."

WAINFLEET: Yo Chacon! Get some!

Jake grins into the airstream.

EXT. CLEARING - DAY
A small meadow among towering trees. The fern-like "grass" is beaten down in waves by the rotor-wash as the Samson settles to the ground. Jake pulls the massive door gun off its pintle mount and hefts it like an assault rifle. He and Wainfleet leap out to secure the LZ, scanning the tree-line warily, weapons aimed. Grace jogs forward to the cockpit, motioning Trudy to shut down. Trudy kills the Samson's TURBINES. Grace, towering over Wainfleet, motions him to hang back.

GRACE: Stay with the ship. (for Jake) One idiot with a gun's enough.

WAINFLEET: You're the man, Doc.

Jake takes point as they enter the jungle.

WAINFLEET: (LAUGHING) Ya'll have fun out there.

Jake couldn't help but snort at that. Ya that first time in the forest was real fun. Not.

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY
The forest engulfs JAKE, GRACE and NORM in cyan gloom. The shadows are alive with the CHITTERING sounds of unseen alien wildlife. TRACKING WITH JAKE as he moves through the foliage, hyper- alert -- looking around like a tourist in Hell. A monkey-like PROLEMURIS leaping from limb to limb overhead, flashing through the sunlight streaming down in shafts. A PLANT with swaying tendrils which reach toward Jake as he passes.

GRACE: Prolemuris, they're not agressive.

This forest is more alive than any on Earth, with plants that react and move like animals. Jake white-knuckles his rifle as if every shadow conceals razor-fanged death.

"Could you be any more nervous?" Hale joked.
"Oh, I will be." Jake responded almost ominously, making everyone now slightly worried.

GRACE: Relax, Marine. You're making me nervous.

"Oh, you were making Grace nervous as well."

"I don't think Grace had a nervous bone in her body." Jake retorted.

She pushes ahead of him on the trail, forcing him to lower his muzzle as he follows her. Grace moves nimbly on the path, seemingly unconcerned.

EXT. FOREST/ GLEN
WIDE SHOT as the party moves between the huge trees, tiny as ants. The trail has gotten steeper, the going tougher.

EXT. SCHOOL RUINS - DAY
They enter a clearing with an OVERGROWN BUILDING made of timbers cut from the local trees, with a thatch roof. It is covered with vines as the jungle reclaims it.

NORM: How will they know we're here?

GRACE: I'm sure they're watching us right now.

"We weren't." Neytiri said softly, "after what happened the area was off limits, not that anyone wanted to go back anyways."

Norm gulps. Jake looks behind him as they approach the school, feeling unseen eyes.

INT. SCHOOL RUINS
TRACKING WITH JAKE'S BOOTS as he steps among dried leaves and a few moldering CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Floorboards CREAK.

GRACE (O.S.): This was our school, now it's just storage. The kids were so bright, so eager to learn... they picked up English faster than I could teach it.

"There had been a school?" Neteyam questioned.

"There was, we eventually tore it down and reused the parts for various things. You guys have actually been to that area, though its impossible now to tell what had been built there." Jake explained.

WIDER as Jake explores the room. Grace and Norm are selecting INSTRUMENTS from storage cases on a wooden table.

GRACE: Bring the soil probe -- right there, yellow case.

Jake looks up at a RUSTLING among the dark rafters. Roosting STINGBATS eye him warily, fluttering their wings. Norm picks up a moldering copy of "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss from the floor and hands it to Grace who puts it back on a shelf.

*"Even run down, it looks more welcoming than TAP ever did." Taylen said.
"Thats because everyone working with Dr. Augustine actually cared about their students, Director Mercer didn't care about us." His fellow Sarentu clan member, Sena said gently.
"And those students were allowed to go home after class." Ri'nela added.*

One of the scientists let out a soft laugh, "The Lorax? a bit ironic huh?"

GRACE: (WISTFULLY) The stingbats knock them down. I guess I always hope somebody will come back and read them.

NORM: Why don't they come back?

GRACE: (GRIMLY) The Omaticaya learned as much about us as they needed to.

Neytiri didn't, wouldn't, let herself turn away this time, though she did tighten her grip on Tuk. But seeing that school again hurt.

Jake sees something and approaches the blackboard -- reaches out to touch a pattern of holes blasted into the slate. Unmistakably BULLET HOLES.

JAKE: (turning to her) What happened here?

It warmed Neytiri, just a little, how Jake appeared to be unsettled at what he was seeing and most likely understanding the implications.

GRACE: (SHARPLY) Are you going to help with this gear? We've got a lot to do.
She turns away. Jake watches her as he jams equipment into his pack.

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY
CLOSE ON Grace's blue hand gently brushing away soil, exposing a tangle of ROOT TENDRILS.

WIDER -- GRACE and NORM crouch among enormous octopoidal roots. She takes a tiny sample using a needle-like probe. Norm uses a digital DEVICE to scan the roots.

GRACE: Here I go.

Kiri leaned forward a bit to really take in what was being shown from the scan. To see a visible reflection of what she could feel all around her. Sure, she's seen all the graphs and data they still have and research back home and she's stared at it all. It made her feel connected to her mother and Grace had worked so hard on all of it. Not to mention, there was a comfort really, to physically see the connections that ran through everything; it made her feel less crazy and less like a weirdo.

NORM: Scanning. Wow, it's that fast?
GRACE: (laughing) Amazing isn't it? So that is signal transduction... from this root, to the root of the tree next to it. So, we should take a sample.
JAKE, bored, scouts ahead a few meters. He comes to a GLADE filled with shoulder-high SPIRAL PLANTS called HELICORADIANS. He REACHES out to touch one and SHTOONK! -- it SUCKS DOWN into a tube in the ground so quickly it seems to simply vanish. Curious and with a smile, Jake touches another -- SHTOONK! And another -- like popping balloons after a party. SHTOONK! SHTOONK! SHTOONK!

"Like a child." Neytiri whispers to him with a light laugh.

"Hey, first time experiencing any of it."

A chain reaction begins and the whole colony pulls down into the ground, REVEALING --
A HAMMERHEAD TITANOTHERE. Like a six-legged rhinoceros, but twice that size. Its massive, low-slung head has projections of bone giving it the look of a hammerhead shark. Its baleful eyes lock onto him. Jake raises his rifle.

Groans rippled through the Omaticaya, scientists and avatar drivers. Of all the creatures he could have encountered it was the 'angtsik and while it definitely wasn't the worst for a first encounter it really wasn't a good one either.
The Metkayina were amazed at the sight of the giant creature. While they interreacted with creatures just as large and larger than that, something about one of that size being on land felt much more intimidating and heavy, then the weightlessness that water gave.

"You have the worst luck." Max said.

Grace, alerted by the creature's SNORTS, runs to where she can see the tableau. She presses her THROAT MIKE.

GRACE: Don't shoot. You'll piss him off.

The bull HAMMERHEAD bellows and lowers its 3 meter wide sledgehammer of a skull.

JAKE: It's already pissed off!

GRACE: Jake, that armor's too thick. Trust me.

Jake starts to back away. The hammerhead bellows again, pawing the earth.

GRACE: It's a territorial threat display. Do not run, or he'll charge.

JAKE: So, what do I do, dance with it?

Lo'ak pressed his lips together to keep from laughing, he'll have to remember that.

GRACE: Just hold your ground.

The hammerhead SLASHES its head sideways, splintering saplings. It bellows again, lowers its head and CHARGES -- Jake SCREAMS at the top of his lungs, spreads his arms wide and runs straight at the thing. It STOPS abruptly, with an oversized BLEAT. ON JAKE -- amazed the gambit worked.

JAKE: Yeah, come on. What you got?

The Omaticaya were confused, heads tilting and mouths opening in silent questions. There was no way the 'angtsik would have reacted like that to Jake. Sure, it probably wouldn't have killed him, but it certainly wouldn't have backed off like that.

JAKE: Oh yeah. Who's bad?! That's right.

SOMETHING rises up behind him out of focus -- A THANATOR. The most awesome land predator the universe has ever conceived This thing could eat a T-rex and have the Alien for desert. It is a black six-limbed panther from Hell, with an armored head and massive distensible jaws. JAKE, unaware of the advancing thanator, is still bracing the hammerhead --

JAKE: Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, bitch.

"You did not just call it a bitch." Norm sighed.

The bull wheels around, TRUMPETING in fear, and CRASHES away through splintering undergrowth.

JAKE: That's right. Get your punk ass back to mommy. Yeah, you got nothing, you keep running. Yeah, why don't you bring back some of your friends?

"For the love of Eywa, stop talking and turn around!" Kiri shouted, astonished by the way this younger version of her father wouldn't stop talking.

"I have never heard dad talk like that towards anything." Neteyam whispered to Lo'ak, who nodded in agreement. Privately Lo'ak was almost disappointed about it. Maybe if their dad was more like he used to be he wouldn't be so hard on them and especially him all the time.

A guttural SNARL behind him. Jake spins in time to see -- THREE TONS of rippling thanator LAUNCH over him, landing between him and the hammerhead. The ground shakes. The thanator emits an earsplitting ROAR, enraged that the hammerhead got away. It twists on itself, turning to face Jake, and bares its fangs with a lethal HISS.

"Oh, great mother." Neytiri whispered, he would survive this obviously but it was still terrifying.

"Once again, you have the worst luck." Max said.

"What is that!?" Aonung asked.

"A Palulukan, very dangerous and if you run into one you better be either faster than it or capable of fighting it off." Neteyam explained.

JAKE: So, what about this one? Run? don't run? What?

"RUN! Great mother run." Tarsem shouted, surprising those sitting next him since he had been quiet for a little while.

GRACE: Run! Definitely RUN!

Jake BOLTS as -- The thanator LEAPS after him and -- Jake launches himself between two large trunks, forcing the beast to claw its way around to the side while -- Jake scrambles up -- around -- over a tangle of roots and --
SK-RASH!! CLAWS SLASH the air behind him, EXPLODING bark off a trunk as -- JAKE wills himself forward in a frenzy. With rippling muscle the beast is airborne again, blacking out the sun but -- JAKE dives under a massive root system, and --

Everyone flinches as they watch Jake run for his life through the jungle. The adrenaline of being chased was something almost all of them were familiar with. Whether in the forest or on the coast, there was always something dangerous out there that could kill them if they weren't carful.

CRASH! Kindling rains around him as the beast tears into the root-trunks above him. Claws SLASH down next to him as he rolls and crawls - Glistening jaws SMASH and SNAP against the barrier trunks, sending chunks of wood flying. It's spittle sprays across Jake, jaws inches away as --
He rolls onto his back, and FIRES his AR point blank but the rifle is SNATCHED out of his hands. The beast SCREECHES an ungodly WAIL of pain and rage and -- RIPS the ENTIRE TRUNK away. Jake scrambles to escape racing through more forest--

The recoms couldn't help but let out light laughs at watching Sully run for his life through the forest. It would have done them a world of good if that thanator had mange to catch him. But obviously not, unfortunately.

, the creature jumps from over a trunk, GLISTENING JAWS lunge downward toward him in slow motion, TRIPS him, landing hard and as he scrambles to get up, It has him by the BACKPACK, shaking him like a junkyard dog with a rabbit. So, Jake unlatches it and slips free in more slow motion, gets caught briefly by the arm and gets THROWN onto his back where he can get up.

Tuk lets out a small scream, turning her face away from the screen to bury her face in her mother's shoulder.

"HOW!?" Norm exclaims, "you should be dead!"

He FLIES FREE as the thanator crushes the pack with its teeth. Giving Jake a moment to sprint away, but -- With a hideous BELLOW the thanator crashes after him, splintering trees. JAKE RUNS in a blur, dodging between trunks as a glistening black tornado shreds the forest behind him and --
He sees WATER ahead and LEAPS OUTWARD with all his might -- The thanator's jaws SNAP SHUT inches behind him as he flies out into open space and falling down down--

Gasps rang out at the jump and near miss. Kiri covers her face with her hands but peering through her fingers to continue watching. Spider grips the arms of his seat tightly, while he was scared for Jake, he, like everyone knew Jake would survive it. There was also the uneasy feeling knowing that if that had been him in that situation, he would be dead. His human body would be incapable of out running the palulukan. As much as he tried to ignore it, there were always constant reminders that his body just wasn't made for this planet.

JAKE SPLASHES into a swiftly moving river at the base of a WATERFALL. Jake disappears under the water hitting the bottom and grappling for handholds and to reorient himself before swimming to the surface. JAKE' S HEAD bursts through the surface, and he gasps for breath. He is carried along by the current, but manages to grab limb on a tree root over the branching over the water. He weakly pulls himself up, and just lies there gasping on the trunk.
Above him, on the cliff, the THANATOR BELLOWS, a roar which echoes across the jungle.

"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE!" Norm shouts in astonishment as others around are wide eyed and shouting their own shocked feelings at what they had just witnessed.

"I take back what I said, you don't have bad luck, you just have crazy luck. Good and bad." Max corrected, his head in his hand.

:What can I say, it's all skill." Jake said playfully.

"No. No. That was luck. You should be dead 3 times over." Norm insisted, "when you ran off with that thing on your tail, we were convinced that we would arrive back to base with you out of the link and the avatar palulukan dinner."

Max nodded, "yep, when I heard what happened and told Grace you were still going strong, she was amazed. A couple others wanted to pull you out but she insisted to let you continue. We watched your heartrate spike and fall for what felt like hours."

Chapter Text

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY
JAKE, wet and bruised, crouches under a screen of giant leaves. He hacks manically at the end of a cut sapling with his knife, forming a crude but sharp tip.

"Oof, seen better days?" Hale joked, making Jake snort and several people laugh.

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY
TRACKING with Jake as he walks through the forest like it's a minefield, carrying his SPEAR white-knuckled. He is freaked and hyper-alert.

"You look like you're going to have a heart attack." Norm said.
"To be fair, I didn't exactly have the best start." Jake added.

The trees here are a hundred meters high, blocking out the sky. A few pencil beams of sunlight filter down into the cyan gloom. POV FROM ABOVE -- looking down through leaves we watch Jake move warily through the forest.
ECU -- TWO GOLDEN EYES, bright in the shadows. DOWNANGLE as Jake passes under a tree limb. Invisible to him, draped on the limb like a leopard, is a striking NA'VI GIRL. She watches, only her eyes moving. She is lithe as a cat, with a long neck, muscular shoulders, and nubile breasts. And she is devastatingly beautiful -- In human age she would be 18. Her name is NEYTIRI (nay-Tee-ree).

All the Na'vi perked up at the sight of Neytiri. This was their chance to see how the two met and what exactly made her bring him back to the tribe. The kids leaned forward, they've heard the story, but the chance to see how their parents met was something they weren't going to pass up.

"There you are." Jake said with a smile.

Jake passes less than 2 meters beneath her, oblivious.

NEYTIRI rises soundlessly. In one fluid, sinuous movement she NOCKS an arrow to her BOW and DRAWS, aiming RIGHT AT JAKE. Utterly silent.

Below her Jake is totally unaware of the arrow aimed at his THROAT.

"You really were going to kill him." Spider said. He knew that she was hostile to outsiders and skypeople in general but to see how prepared she was to kill Jake was hard to wrap his head around. Especially seeing what they would become.

ON NEYTIRI as she follows him with the bow, muscles tensing for the shot -- and SOMETHING drifts down in front of her, F.G. She hesitates.

RACK FOCUS to the tip of the arrow -- where a single WOODSPRITE floats down to land on the arrow-head. Like a dandelion seed, but larger, the WOODSPRITE waves its silky CILIA, feather light, as it balances on the deadly point. It glows faintly in the dark shadows.

Quiet gasps echo through out at the sight.

NEYTIRI frowns, puzzled, and LOWERS her bow slowly. The woodsprite FLOATS away into the gloom.

"So that's what happend. You were going to kill me but Eywa said no." Jake joked.

Neytiri snorted, "lucky she did or I would have left you for the nantang."

INT./EXT. SAMSON - SUNSET
GRACE and NORM peer down into the shadowed forest as TRUDY banks in a search pattern.

TRUDY (INTERCOM): I'm going to have to call it, guys. We're not allowed to run night ops. Colonel's orders.
Grace looks to the west. The sun setting behind alien trees.

TRUDY: Sorry, Doc. He's just gonna have to hang on`till morning.

GRACE: He's won't make it till morning.

"Wow, absolutely no faith in me, huh." Jake joked.

"I seem to remember saving you from nearly dying." Neytiri pointed out.

"You got me there."

Kiri frowned, to hear how her mom had sounded so sure that her dad would die was disheartening. He always seemed so strong all the time, she couldn't imagine not thinking her dad wouldn't be able to get out of anything.

Grace stares into the dark forest as the Samson banks hard, thundering away toward the setting sun.

EXT. RAINFOREST - NIGHT
LONG LENS-- POLYPHEMUS. The giant planet rises behind the black trees.
Jake's got a new problem. He sees shapes moving with liquid grace in the NIGHT shadows behind him. He is being stalked by a pack of VIPERWOLVES.

"Oh no." Neteyam whispered.

"What are they?" Rotxo asked.

"Nantang, the skypeople call them viperwolves. They're annoying when its just one or two but in large packs can be really dangerous if they overwhelm you." Lo'ak explained.

Jake catches only glimpses -- a glint of eyes, a slinking black movement -- then nothing. Darkness.

TIME CUT -- TIGHT ON Jake's hands as he knots his T-shirt around the butt end of the spear. ANGLE ON THICK SAP trickling down a tree-trunk. Jake jams the makeshift torch into the sap, soaking the shirt with it.

The Recoms couldn't help but nod at Sully's actions. Being able to make tools and weapons out of the surrounding environment was what would separate the died from the living and for all of Sully's annoyingness, he proved time and again that he was as trained as all of them. A marine through and through.

A WATERPROOF MATCH from his survival kit lights the torch. The torch creates a pool of light surrounded by pulsing, leaping shadows. Jake turns warily as he moves along the trail.
Behind him are several pairs of reflective green EYES. Another pair flanking him beside the trail. Black-on-black SHAPES which seem to flow like liquid. He looks up -- sees one cross a limb overhead. Another on his opposite flank.

Then a hideous sound, like a hyena's psychotic LAUGH. The VIPERWOLVES can run like a dog and climb like a monkey. They are hunting Jake from the ground and the trees.

One of the scientists shuddered, "never realized how much viperwolves sound like hyenas."

JAKE RUNS by torch-light, on the edge of panic. He reaches a steep banked stream and -- without thinking -- runs across it on a horizontal trunk -- -- and STOPS DEAD on the other side. The torch illuminates GREEN EYES cutting ahead of him across the trail. The viperwolves have him encircled.

"Freaky..." Spider mumbled.

The psychotic BARKS become more intense as they signal each other, getting excited. ONE MAKES A RUN at him, angling on his legs from behind but -- JAKE WHIRLS, jamming the torch in its face. It yips and goes past, but ANOTHER moves in --

He jabs it with the business end of the spear and it SNARLS, retreating, baring its fangs.

Now half a dozen are circling him in the open, and he sees what he's up against. The VIPERWOLVES are six-limbed with shiny chitinous skin, their paws leathery BLACK HANDS. Intelligent eyes. Glistening black teeth in dead white gums.
Jake realizes that he is making his final stand. He whirls the torch in an arc, keeping them at bay -- And feels a rush of adrenaline. It goes through him like a lightning bolt and the fear is gone.

JAKE: (SCREAMING) I don't have all goddamn night! Come on! Come on!

"You have a bad habit of antagonizing everything, don't you." Max said.

"I learn not to eventually." Jake replied.

With snarls and a blur of motion THEY ATTACK. Jake CRACKS the spear down on one, then SPINS as -- ANOTHER LEAPS at him and he plants the spear in it, striking true, but -- Its momentum wrenches it from his hands, and the torch goes flying. Left in semi-darkness, Jake draws his KNIFE as--

A WOLF LUNGES, sinking its teeth into his arm. He YELLS in pain and fury, SLASHING with the knife which --CUTS deep into the beast's shoulder and it lets go.

Tuk gasped, covering her eyes and Neytiri rubs her shoulders in comfort. Knowing that she herself was going to show up to save him.

JAKE SPRINTS, trying to escape, but a snarling viperwolf leaps, GRABBING him by the ankle with its fore-hand. Jake tears away, sprawling, SCRAMBLING to get up as --

THREE WOLVES charge at once. The nearest LEAPS at his throat just as --
THUNK!! -- an ARROW appears in its chest. The wolf lands on him, already a dead weight. He pushes it off in time to see --

A BLUE AMAZON emerge from the trees, nock another arrow, draw and FIRE in one fluid motion. AN UNEARTHLY YOWL as another wolf falls.

Cheers brake out as they watch Neytiri leap into action, the skill in which she moves incredible and the obvious experience of dealing with the creatures compared to Jake showing with the quick work she was making of them.

NEYTIRI LEAPS right over Jake, and CRACKS her bow down on the skull of a circling wolf.

"My savior." Jake says with a loving smile, making Neytiri smack him lightly with a smile of her own on her face.

ANOTHER SPRINGS at her and she drops under its weight, but rolls, coming up on top of it with a knife in her hand.

Her knife FLASHES down, stabs twice before leaving it buried to the hilt in its chest.
Neytiri leaps up and swings her bow in a big arc, CRACKING IT across the heads and shoulders of the remaining wolves.

NEYTIRI: Rrreeyaaah! Hyaaaah!!
The wolves slink and circle, yelping as the bow whistles past them. Finally they break and run, --They bound away through the foliage as she SHOUTS after them--

NEYTIRI: Raaaarrrr!

NEYTIRI'S tail LASHES as she scans the forest, listening to the fading YELPS of the wolves. Satisfied the attack is over, she turns squinting her eyes and bringing a hand up to block the firelight, Neytiri picks up the torch and extinguishes it in a stream. She regards him coldly for a second, then walks past him.

"Your mother scares me." Aonung commented.

"Good." Was the only response from the forest na'vi kids.

JAKE: Wait, don't --
Neytiri goes to kneel beside --A DYING WOLF. It's CRIES are pitiful. It paws the air, trying to raise its head. An ARROW its side.

NEYTIRI: (in Na'vi) Forgive me, my brother.
She cuts its throat, ending the pitiful cries. She touches its head gently, regarding it with sadness.

Jake scrambles to recover his spear, pulling it from the water. Jake blinks around at the darkness -- realizing he can still see. In fact, with the blinding torchlight gone, the forest is transformed. The jungle has come alive with BIOLUMINESCENCE -- spots and patterns, ghosts and galaxies of blue-green light.

The Metkayaina were once again amazed at the forest, the glowing bioluminescent reminding them of the ocean at night but to have it on land, on towering trees all around them was beautiful.

Neytiri wipes the knife and returns it to the sheath at her waist. She crosses to another slain wolf and kneels, pulling the arrow from its heart.

JAKE: Look, I know you probably don't understand this. But, um. Thank you. Thank you.
Neytiri ignores him, assuming a prayer posture over the dead animal.
NEYTIRI: (in Na'vi) Forgive me. May your spirit run with the Great Mother.

JAKE: That was pretty impressive.

"Really? She saves your ass, and you immediately compliment her." Hale askes,

"What can I say, I like strong women."

JAKE: I would have been screwed if you hadn't come along --
She rises and walks away without looking at Jake.

"You tried so hard to ignore me." Jake joked.

"You made it very hard to." She joked back.

JAKE: Hey, wait a second. Where you going?
He crashes through some plants, catching up to her.

"Could you be any louder?" Tarsem asked.

"Oh definitely, one thing humans are good at is making noise." Jake replied.

JAKE: Wait up. Just, hey, slow down. Look, wait up, I just wanted to say thank for killing those things --
He makes the mistake of grasping her upper arm and --
WHACK! She WALLOPS him upside the head with her bow in a fierce backhand swing, laying him out flat.

Jake winced, even all these years he could still remember the sting of her bow on his face. "That hurt you know," he said.
"It was supposed to." Neytiri replied.

JAKE: damn! -- He looks up to see a FURY standing over him. A Fury who speaks English -- accented, halting, angry English.

NEYTIRI: Don't thank. You don't thank for this. This is sad. Very sad only.

Spider tilted his head while listening, it was rare to hear Neytiri speak English. But even when she did it was almost perfectly fluent, he would have to guess that over the years Jake helped her improve her English as she helped him with na'vi. The last time he could think of her speaking English was when She and Jake came to rescue them from the recoms in the forest.

JAKE: Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. Whatever I did -- I am sorry.
She gestures at the bodies of the viperwolves.

NEYTIRI: All this is your fault. They did not need to die.

JAKE: My fault? They attacked me. How am I the bad guy?

She silences him with the tip of her bow at his throat.

NEYTIRI: Your fault! Your fault. (JAKE: easy, easy) You're like a baby. Making noise, don't know what to do.

Jake turned to look at Ronal over his shoulder and smirked, "sound familiar, eh Ronal? If you two took some time to talk maybe you'd see you have a lot in common." The remark had Neytiri elbowing him and Ronal glaring.

Jake gets up, slowly, facing her.
JAKE: Fine, fine. If you love your little forest friends. Why not just let them kill my ass? What's the thinking?

CU Neytiri -- looking away. Finally, reluctantly, her eyes MEET HIS for the first time -- a riveting gaze with those big gold orbs.

NEYTIRI: Why save you?
JAKE: Yeah, why save me?

Why save him? That was the question, sure having a woodsprite stop her from killing him was one thing, but for her to risk her life, even just slightly, for him was something more.

NEYTIRI: You have a strong heart. No fear.

"No fear." Lo'ak whispered to himself, his father had no fear. So if he wanted to prove himself to his parents, he would have to be the same.

She leans closer --
NEYTIRI: But stupid! Ignorant, like a child!

She turns away, stalking off, but Jake goes after her. TRACKING WITH Neytiri as she climbs nimbly along a huge ROOT. WIDER as she trots with perfect balance along the root, which forms an elevated walkway. Jake runs to catch up, realizing suddenly that he is far above the forest floor. Throughout the following they move through a GLOWING PHANTASMAGORICAL FOREST.

JAKE: Well, if I'm like a child, then, uh look, maybe you should teach me.

It was interesting, how familiar it was to hear Jake talk like that, about learning and teaching. It was so similar to what he said to Ronal and Tonowari when they first arrived, about adapting to their way of life. Clearly he was speaking from direct experience.

NEYTIRI: Sky people cannot learn. You do not See.

She leaps to another elevated root. Jake follows, surprised that he made it.

JAKE: Whooaa.
He runs to catch up with her easy jogging pace.

JAKE: Well, then teach me how to See.

NEYTIRI: No one can teach you to See.

"I think you did a pretty good job." Jake stated making her smile softly. Turning he looks back at Tonowari and Ronal with a smirk, "and you guys are doing a good job teaching us the way of the water." Tonowari smiles in return and Ronal simply huffs and turns her attention back to the screen.

EXT. GORGE - NIGHT
They run across the elevated root of an enormous tree -- a horizontal trunk big as an oak. WIDE SHOT as they cross a DEEP GORGE. A waterfall shimmers silver in the Polyphemus-light. Vines hang down a hundred feet into the gorge, and among them swoop stingbats and other night flyers.

JAKE: Look, come on. Can't we talk? Say, where'd you learn to speak English? Dr. Augustine's school? Jake looks down, suddenly aware of the height.

The kids found it interesting how much their father talked back then, it was like he was determined to either fill the silence or push to make friends with their mother when it was clear she didn't want to speak with him. Now a days, their dad always seemed to pick and choose when to speak and never without thinking it through. At least, when he's around them.

A vine catches his spear and spins him off balance. He drops the spear and almost falls off the root.

JAKE: A little help!

Neytiri catches him with one hand, gripping his bicep. He watches the spear fall.

She pulls him upright. Speaking at him in broken English and Na'vi.

NEYTIRI: You're like a baby.

JAKE: I need your help.

NEYTIRI: You should not be here.

JAKE: Okay, take me with you.

"You are very stubborn," Mo'at said.

"Good thing too, huh?"

NEYTIRI: No! Go back.
JAKE: No.
NEYTIRI: Go back.

NEYTIRI, sensing a presence, looks up to see --

DOWN ANGLE FROM FAR ABOVE -- several WOODSPRITES float down through the trees. FOLLOW THEM as they descend silently toward Jake and Neytiri.

A hush comes over the theater at the sight of so many Atokirina' gathering, all for the purpose to rest on Jake it seemed.

The WOODSPRITES, PULSING with purpose, float right towards Jake. They dance gently around his shoulders and head.

JAKE: (off her amazed look) What?
Looking up he sees them too. Slapping one away when it came too close, making Neytiri hiss and catch his hand. He slaps another as it to floats close, again making Neytiri hiss and catch his other hand.

"Why do you keep slapping them?" Max asked softly.

"They look like wired jellyfish, for all I knew, they were going to electrocute me." Jake defended.

NEYTIRI: No! Atokirina'. Atokirina'.

More woodsprites gather around him. Several ALIGHT on him. Jake holds still, at Neytiri's request and cautiously afraid. spreads his arms. More sprites come, landing all over his arms, hands, body.

JAKE: What are they?

CU NEYTIRI -- reacting with a mixture of wonder and dread.

NEYTIRI: Seeds of the Sacred Tree -- very pure spirits.

Jake -- now a pulsing, glowing, fluttering MASS OF LIGHT -- moves one hand slowly, not wanting to break the spell. He studies one of the sprites dancing on his palm until -- -- WHOOSSHH! the woodsprites whirl up and away, scattering into the darkness.

Norm breaks the silence that had come over them, "what the hell. Jake do you have any idea the significance of what happened to you." He asks flabbergasted.

"Not at the time obliviously but-"

"But nothing! Thats like the equivalent of a religious experience, blessed by a god religious experience." Norm exclaims, trying to wrap his head around it. Was Eywa real? Like actually fully real?

JAKE: What was that all about?

Neytiri seems shaken. She seizes his hand and pulls him after her.
NEYTIRI: Come!

Now Ronal could understand what made the forest na'vi take interest in one of the avatars, but she still could not understand why they would allow him to stay and be a part of their tribe, or why they would allow more skypeople and avatars live amongst them. Hopefully this "film" would answer all her questions in time.

Chapter Text

EXT. RAINFOREST - NIGHT
JAKE: Where are we going?
TRACKING WITH JAKE as he gazes about him in growing wonder. He touches leaves as he passes, watching the bioluminescence shiver through them. Jake looks down as -- they cross a bed of purple MOSS which reacts to the pressure of their footsteps. Rings of green light, like ripples on a pond, expand outward from each footfall. Exploding rings of light where his feet touch down. Dream-like, surreal beauty. WIDE ON THEM as they run over a large root, across a mirror- like POOL at the base of a WATERFALL.

Tsireya sighed a little at the glowing forest. It was so beautiful and different from what she was used to, that she couldn't help but wish she could see it in person. Don't get her wrong, she loved the water, it was her life, and she's explored a bit of the woods that lined the reef. But it wasn't the same as the intense jungle in front of them. She also wanted to understand Lo'ak and his family better, they were such fish out of water (pardon the pun) with the Metkayina, that they were always so tense. Especially Neytiri; in all the time they've been with them at that point, Tsireya could count on one hand the amount of times she's seen Neytiri spend any significant amount of time in the water. When she wasn't on the ground, she would be on her ikran and practically nowhere else. Tsireya wanted to see them in their home environment, to see Lo'ak's confidence in every step among the trees, and maybe he could teach her how live in the forest like she did for him in the water. Maybe then she could help other Metkayina understand the Sully's a little better as well.

Jake follows Neytiri, running along a raised root-trunk.
JAKE: What's your name?

JAKE hears WHOOSH-WHOOSH and snaps a look as a BOLO flies at him, spinning end for end and -- SHWHAP!! -- tangles around his legs. He topples off the root and crashes into the foliage below. JAKE untangles himself, getting up to run just as --

Quiet hisses and "oophs" sounded as they watched Jake hit the ground.

SEVERAL NA'VI RIDERS thunder toward him. They are riding DIREHORSES -- six-legged, armor-skinned alien Clydesdales. We see that the riders' QUEUES are connected to the horses' long moth-like antennae -- a neural-link with which they can command the horse, leaving hands free for weapons. The riders aim bows and spears at Jake as they approach. Jake turns to bolt, but -- NA'VI HUNTERS melt out of the shadows, weapons aimed --blocking his retreat.

Neytiri drops to the ground next to Jake and confronts the LEAD RIDER. She shouts sharply in Na'vi --

NEYTIRI: (SUBTITLED) Calm, people. Calm.

NEYTIRI: (SUBTITLED) what are you doing, Tsu'tey?

"Tsu'tey! In all his 'I hate Jake' glory." Jake joked.

Neytiri nodded lightly, "He did really hate you in the beginning."

TSU'TEY(tsu-Tay)is young and powerfully built, with sculpted features and a proud jawline, piercing eyes. Tsu'tey swings off his mount with fluid grace.

TSU'TEY: (SUBTITLED) These demons are forbidden here.

Ronal tilted her head at that remark. While she didn't know this Tsu'tey, it was obvious that he didn't like these demons playing dress-up any more then she did and from the way the other warriors with him and how Neytiri had acted they all agreed. So why? Why? Did they let the demons into their clan, Neytiri had even mated with one. Was it because of Eywa's message? Because Jake somehow became Toruk Makto? She didn't like it, and she wanted answers. That alone is the only reason she was even willing to sit through this odd thing

NEYTIRI: (SUBTITLED) There has been a sign. This is a matter for the Tsahik.

Tsu'tey clenches his jaw with frustration -- frustration with her as much as the situation. He turns and angrily remounts his direhorse, barking a command to the HUNTERS.
TSU'TEY: (SUBTITLED) Bring him.
They grab Jake and haul him to his feet, grabbing him by the queue. Encircled by spears and bows, he is shoved forward along the trail, as Tsu'tey and the others ride ahead.

Lo'ak and Neteyam exchanged a look as they watched their father get escorted. They had never seen the Omaticaya so aggressive before, even during the year of war they went through before leaving, but then again, there hadn't been a time when an enemy had to be brought to High Camp for whatever reason.

JAKE: What's happening? Hey!

EXT. HOMETREE - NIGHT
JAKE is hauled roughly toward Neytiri's village, which is sheltered inside one of the GREAT TREES. HOMETREE is 250 meters tall, with a trunk four times the diameter of the largest Sequoia, and a base of massive mangrove-pillars.

TSU'TEY rides inside the columns at the base of Hometree, shouting an ululating WARNING. Jake is force-marched through the pillars into --
INT. COMMONS/HOMETREE - NIGHT
An open CENTRAL AREA. The villagers gather to see the arriving hunt party. We see the people of the tribe -- mothers with babies, old women, young hunters. They gawk at the alien, expressions ranging from curiosity to outright hostility, one reaches out and lightly touches his shoulder. The huge eyes of the children follow him.

Everyone perked up at the sight of the old Omaticaya hometree. Those who had once lived there felt grief at the sight and remembered loss of their old home and everything that fell with it. All the kids were amazed at the sight of the enormous tree and what should've have been their home.

Jake is amazed at the size of HOMETREE inside. By the light of the COOK-FIRES he can see up into a vast cylindrical gallery -- a living cathedral.

Clear membranes -- sturmbeest bladders -- filled with fluttering bio-luminescent insects, act as area lighting. The central space is dominated by the SKULL of some enormous creature, mounted with much embellishment on a TOTEM. Standing in front of this, awaiting their approach, is --
EYTUKAN (AY-too-kahn), the Clan Leader. Eytukan has deeply chiselled features and a long chest mantle of THANATOR CLAWS. His normally stern features are clouded further by anger.

"Father..." Neytiri says softly to herself as Mo'at puts a hand to her chest at the sight of her lost mate. The kids were excited at the sight of their maternal grandfather, a man they had only technically met through the tree of souls. They were going to get to see the clan before their father and the other avatar drivers and scientists joined.

NEYTIRI: (SUBTITLED) Father... I see you.

Eytukan walks forward to look closer at Jake, who nods briefly as he turns to address Neytiri. EYTUKAN (SUBTITLED): this creature... Why do you bring him here?

Neytiri stands her ground, answering in a respectful but not submissive tone.

NEYTIRI (SUBTITLED): I was going to kill him, but there was a sign from Eywa.
He glowers at her as he responds, pointing at Jake.

EYTUKAN (SUBTITLED): I have said no dreamwalker will come here. His alien smell fills my nose.

Ronal and Tonowari watched with interest, while neither of them got to meet Eytukan in person. He had been a well-known clan leader and highly respected. He had led his clan with wisdom and strength through the first invasion of the skypeople; the Omaticaya all but being forced to be the clan with the most contact because of where the skypeople landed and faced devastating loss because of it. While other clans only had sparse interactions with the skypeople but never had to negotiate their own land with them. At least on their side of the planet, it was hard to say how much destruction the RDA had done to those on the other side.

JAKE: What's he saying?
NEYTIRI: My father is deciding whether to kill you

JAKE: Your father!? (to Eytukan) It's nice to meet you, sir.

Jake steps forward, offering his hand, and the hunters JUMP to restrain him, shouting. But they all FREEZE as -- A commanding FEMALE VOICE echoes through the chamber.

Barks of laugher and snorts rippled through the room as everyone watched Jake make his horrible decision to try and introduce himself.

"Really?" Norm groans, his head falling into his hand.

"Again, I was raised with manners." Jake defended before wincing, "manners, that, didn't occur to me wouldn't translate well."

MO'AT: (NA'VI) Step back!

Everybody looks up.
MO'AT (MOH-aht) stands on the second level, looking down. She is a severe woman in her 50's. Her bearing is haughty, her expression friendly as a hanging-judge. Her outfit is elaborate, denoting her rank as CLAN MATRIARCH.

MO'AT: (SUBTITLED) I will look at this alien.

There is an expectant hush as Mo'at descends the helical core of Hometree, a kind of natural spiral staircase.

NEYTIRI: That is Mother. She is Tsahik -- the one who interprets the will of Eywa.
JAKE: Who's Eywa?

Kiri lets out an exaggerated gasp and turns to look at Jake, eyes wide. "You don't know Eywa?" She stage whispers, making him laugh and reach out to turn her head back to the screen as she giggles.

Neytiri looks down and does not make eye contact as Mo'at passes. The villagers stare silently as the Matriarch circles slowly around Jake, examining his tail and the end of his queue.

MO'AT: (thick accent) What are you called?
JAKE: Jake Sully.
She produces a long THORN between her fingertips. With a flourish she strikes his chest. Jake flinches. RED BLOOD wells up at the tip of the thorn. She tastes it.

The RDA watched with interest. The way the Na'vi were scrutinizing Jake was something they could possibly use when dealing with Sully in the future. Sully had proven too good at rallying them and if not for them Sully would have been dealt with all those years ago. Would it be possible to turn the Na'vi clans away and isolate him?

MO'AT: Why did you come to us?
JAKE: I came to learn.
MO'AT: We have tried to teach other Sky People. It is hard to fill a cup which is already full.

"Why?" Ronal asked, turning to look at Mo'at, "why waste your time with any of them?"
"Kindness is an important practice to have towards anyone." Mo'at said, "We also saw an opportunity to learn about those beyond the stars just as they wished to learn from us. It was unfortune that everything fell apart so horribly, but for a short time... it was good."

JAKE: Well, my cup is empty, trust me. Just ask Dr. Augustine. I'm no scientist.

MO'AT: What are you?
JAKE:I was a Marine -- uh, a warrior. Of the Jarhead clan.

"Did you just insult us." Max asked.

"Nah, I technically insulted the soldiers. You guys would have been the egghead clan." Jake replied.

TSU'TEY: (SUBTITLED) A warrior! I could kill him easily!

EYTUKAN: (SUBTITLED) No! This is the first warrior dreamwalker we have seen. We need to learn more about him.

MO'AT: (to Neytiri, subtitled) my daughter. You will teach him our way, to speak and walk as we do.

NEYTIRI looks shocked, then angry.
NEYTIRI: (SUBTITLED) Why me? That's not fair!

"Spoken like the teenager you were." Jake whispered to Neytiri.

"I've heard Kiri say that exact same thing before," Lo'ak whispered to Neteyam, who nodded. The eldest Sully kid could also think of times when he's heard Lo'ak say it as well, and if he was being honest, he could think of a time HE had said something similar. They really were their parents kids, weren't they? If he thought about it any harder, he'd realize how dangerous a thing that is.

MO'AT: (SUBTITLED) It is decided!
Neytiri subsides, turning to glare at Jake.

MO'AT: (to Jake) My daughter will teach you our ways. Learn well, Jakesully. We will see if your insanity can be cured.

"So what do you say Mo'at, was my insanity cured." Jake asked turning to look at his mother-in-law.

She raised an eyebrow before answering, "For the most part, but I'm afraid that some of your insanity can never be cured."

"I like to think that's part of my charm." He replies instead to Neytiri, who elbows him with a smile.

She turns to Neytiri, her expression stern --
MO'AT: (SUBTITLED) He is your responsibility.

Neytiri nods, accepting, but she's not a happy camper. She grabs Jake's arm and pulls him roughly away.
JAKE: So it's all good, right? You and me --
NEYTIRI: Do not speak.

INT. SECOND LEVEL/HOMETREE

LATER, Neytiri leads Jake up the spiral to the SECOND LEVEL. He now wears only a ratty LOINCLOTH. His wounds are bound with plant-fiber bandages. THE ENTIRE CLAN is squatting at dinner in a huge circle. They stop talking and turn to gaze at Jake as he enters the circle.

JAKE: Good... good evening. Please Don't get up. Excuse me. (He stumbles past several people, stepping on one's tail) sorry.

Lo'ak couldn't help but snort at the way his dad stumbled around, glancing at his brother who was holding in laughter of his own. Their father was always so confident in everything he did it was funny to see him awkwardly try and talk to others. Though they can't deny, he was fumbling with confidence.

Neytiri sits him down before walking away

JAKE: (to the people next to him) Hey, how you doing?

Neytiri crosses the circle to the cook pit and returns with several large leaves heaped with food. She kneels next to Jake, placing the food in front of him almost DEFIANTLY.

JAKE: You know, i dont even know your name.
NEYTIRI: Neytiri te Ckaha Mo'at'ite.
JAKE: Okay, again, a whole lot slower.
NEYTIRI: (exaggerated slowness) Neytiri. Nay-TEE-ree.
Jake knows she's baiting him. He smiles in response. JAKE: Nay-TEE-ree. It's nice to meet you Neytiri. It's nice.

Jake smirked before turning to Neytiri, "Nay-TEE-ree." he said slowly and stretched out.

She raised an eyebrow at him before replying, "Jay-k-Sull-EE" She exaggerated back making him laugh.

ACROSS THE CIRCLE, Tsu'tey, Mo'at and Eytukan sit together, glancing up occasionally from their food to the stranger.

TSU'TEY: (SUBTITLED) These aliens try to look like people, but they can't.

JAKE: Your mom likes me. I can tell.

Everyone laughed or snorted at that. It was obvious that Mo'at didn't like Jake anymore than as the rest of them.

"Ya... I'm not the best judge of character." Jake said with a wince.

MO'AT: (SUBTITLED) He seems dim to me. And his eyes are too small.

Both Kiri and Lo'ak shifted at the comment, both having smaller eyes compared to their siblings and knowing it came from Grace and Jake respectively. Their grandmother loved them, they knew it, and they were of the people born and raised. But, was there uncertainty when they were looked upon? They were walking reminders of everything that had been taken, what if the clan, either of them, decided one day to get rid of anything and everything that reminded them of the skypeople. Would that not include them? At the very least their family was guaranteed to be with them, after all Sully's stick together.

NEYTIRI motions for Jake to take portions from the serving leaves onto his own leaf.

MO'AT, watching Jake and Neytiri, leans over to Eytukan.

MO'AT: (SUBTITLED) Neytiri will test this "warrior." He may learn nothing -- but we will learn much.

So that was it Ronal thought. The Omaticaya had started out using Jake to learn more about the skypeople and how they work.

EYTUKAN: You speak truth. We must understand these Sky People if we are to drive them out.

Jake munches on a white shrimp-like thing.
JAKE: These rock. What are they?

NEYTIRI: Teylu. You call beetle larvae.
Jake blanches. She heaps some more onto his leaf -- a CHALLENGE -- and Jake meets her eyes, takes a handful, and starts munching enthusiastically.

JAKE: That's some damn fine teylu. That's like grandma's teylu.

"What does that even mean?" someone whispers to themselves.

CU TSU'TEY, warily eyeing Jake --
TSU'TEY: (SUBTITLED) I say she will kill him.

Neytiri shrugged, "I'll admit, I had thought about it a couple of times in the early days."

"I don't blame you." Jake responded. He knew he wasn't the best student and Neytiri has been tasked with teaching him an entire culture. He was amazed she restrained herself from shoving him off a tall tree a couple of times during real stressful moments of their training.

INT. THIRD LEVEL - NIGHT
The sleeping level -- families nesting in groups on woven hammocks the size of trampolines. The hunters sleep along SPOKES joining the inner trunk to the tree's outer shell. Jake lies awake in a hammock, people rustling in the darkness around him. Neytiri is nearby, curled up. She stares at him for a moment, then closes her eyes. Jake watches the glowing bugs fluttering inside a night- light, a pulse of life energy. A strange peace spreads through him. He closes his eyes and --

INT. LINK ROOM - NIGHT
GRACE: Jake! Jake! GRACE is over JAKE in the Link, SLAPPING him, and waving a flashlight back and forth over his eyes. as Max and NORM hover.

NORM: he's coming out right now.

GRACE: Jake! Come on back, kid. Come on. Thats it. There you go. There you go. There you go. You're okay.
JAKE: Wha --? Oh.
He looks around, blinking. Reality crashing in.

People winced at the high pitch ringing as Jake came out of the link. It was an odd feeling watching his human body again after seeing him with the clan, knowing how the avatar was now laying essentially comatose among the Omaticaya while Jake himself was far away.

GRACE: Damn, you were dug in like a tick. (she helps him sit up) Is the avatar safe?

JAKE: (huge grin) Yeah, Doc -- and you are not going to believe where I am.

"And this is when you start to hate me Norm."

"I didn't hate you." Norm grumbled.

"Nah, just a bit jealous." Jake whispered to those nearest him in response.

Chapter Text

INT. COMMISSARY - MORNING
BREAKFAST the next day. The other drivers lean forward, hanging on Grace's re-telling of the tale.

GRACE: -- the last thing we see is this Marine's ass disappearing into the bush with this angry thanator coming after him. Unbelievable.

JAKE: Hey, It's not something you can teach.
Some of the other scientists clap Jake on the shoulders in congratulation.

"I'm sure many of us would love to have such skill." Nesim, olo'eyktan of the Zeswa, joked with a laugh.

MAX: That's awesome, Jake.
NORM chomps his bacon, fuming.

GRACE: (to Jake, getting serious) You know, for reasons I cannot fathom, the Omaticaya have chosen you. God help us all.

"God had nothing to do with it." Jake thought.

INT. OPS CENTER - MORNING
JAKE has reported to SELFRIDGE and QUARITCH. Quaritch turns from gazing out at the wall of forest, displaying a feral grin.

QUARITCH: Jarhead clan? (he laughs) And it worked?

JAKE: (GRINNING) Hey, I'm practically family. They're gonna study me. I have to learn to be one of them.

QUARITCH: That's called taking initiative, son. I wish I had ten more like you.

"Thats a scary thought." Someone joked.
"Damn right, Theres already four more of him." Quaritch thought. Those annoying spawn Sully and that bitch had were far to similar and he knew if he wasn't careful they'd ruin any plan he had on getting what he wanted. And the unfortunate fact that Spider seemed to have taken after Sully too.

SELFRIDGE: Look, Sully, Sully -- just find out what the blue monkeys want. You know, I mean, we try to give them medicine, education. Roads! But no, no, no -- they like mud. And that wouldn't bother me, it's just that --
Selfridge turns to a large 3D GRAPHIC DISPLAY. Struggles momentarily to move it around before having someone else do it. A road runs from Hell's Gate to a proposed new mine miles away.

"Thats what they were after? Seriously?" Alexander Tremayne stated. If the RDA were truly that desperate for Unobtanium they could go somewhere else that didn't have a clan on it. But no, of course not. They had to go the path of most violence.

SELFRIDGE: Their damn village happens to be resting on the richest Unobtanium deposit within 200 klicks in any direction. Which sucks -- for them -- because they need to relocate. I mean, look at all that cheddar!

JAKE: Well, who gets them to move?

QUARITCH: Guess.

JAKE: What if they won't go?

They didn't and it cost so many lives. Watching this was getting harder and harder for Jake, seeing all terrible mistakes he made which hurt so many people. Which got so many killed on both sides. He couldn't even leave the room and let the others continue, instead he was stuck and surrounded by those he wronged. The worse of those being the love of his life. How Neytiri ever forgave him was something only the great mother would know.

QUARITCH: (ICY) I'm betting that they will.

JAKE: (taking that in) Does Augustine know about this?

"If Grace had known exactly what I ended up doing, she would've pushed me out of the helicopter day one." Jake said.

"I probably would have to." Norm added.

SELFRIDGE: Yeah, she does, and she's on the next ship back if she tries to cock-block me on it.

SELFRIDGE:(walking over to lean near Jake) Ok, ok, ok. Look, look. Killing the indigenous looks bad, but there's one thing shareholders hate more than bad press -- and that's a bad quarterly statement. I didn't make up the rules. So just, find me a carrot that'll get them to move. Otherwise, it's going to have to be all stick. Okay?
Jake is shaken by the enormity of this new responsibility.

QUARITCH: You got three months. That's when the dozers get there.

"You learned how to be Na'vi in only three months?" Teylan asked. He was amazed; even though he was born Na'vi, relearning or even just learning it all felt impossible at times, even with So'lek and Ri'nelas help. He felt he would probably always be more comfortable with human tech then anything Na'vi.

"Just the basics really, everything else came with the following years." Jake replied, remembering those early years of still learning the language and culture while also leading a clan. He doesn't know what he would have done without Neytiri and Mo'at backing him up at every turn and having the patience of saints as he learned.

JAKE: Well, we're wasting time.
SELFRIDGE: I like this guy.

Several RDA and recons who had been there at the time couldn't help but think back to it; Sully had been so helpful before, expedited the whole thing and if he just hadn't gotten attached then who knows what they could've accomplished on the planet by this point. Having someone the Na'vi actually listened to would have been a boon. Same reason that the TAP program failing was disappointing.

INT. BIO LAB - MORNING
JAKE pumps his chair across the lab, flanked by GRACE and NORM. Grace holds STEREO STILL PICTURES in front of him, one at a time -- images of clan members she has shot over the years -- a kind of flash card drill.

GRACE: ok, let's run through them again.

JAKE: Mo'at. Dragon lady (next photo) Eytucan.

"What's a dragon?" Etuwa asked.

"Think like a stormglider that breaths fire." Priya answered, making the young tsahik's eyes widen at the implication, and the thought of comparing Mo'at to one.

GRACE: Eytukan, He's the clan leader -- (indicating Mo'at) -- but she's the spiritual leader. Like a shaman.

"What's a shaman?" Etuwa asked again.
"It's like a human version of Tsahik." Anqa responded with a smirk.

"That answer is not as helpful as the last one."

INT. LINK ROOM
The dialogue is continuous as they enter.

JAKE: Got it. (Looks at next photo) Tsu'tey, (Grace says it again and Jake repeats it correctly)

GRACE: He'll be the next clan leader. (Shows next photo which Jakes takes and stares at longer then the others)

JAKE: Neytiri
GRACE: She'll be the next Tsahik. They become a mated pair.

"You were gonna be with him?" Kiri questioned.
Neytiri sighed, "yes, at the time. Though neither of us wanted it."

"He could have been our dad?" Lo'ak whispered to Neteyam, incredulous. What could their life had been if he had been their father instead? Probably easier he couldn't help but think, looking down at his extra fingers.

JAKE: (nods) So who's this Eywa?

NORM: Who's Eywa? Only their deity. The Great Mother. Thier goddess made up of all living things. Everything they know! You'd know this if you had any training whatsoever.

"Way to be a team player Norm." Spider joked. Ducking swiftly as Norm reached out to swat his head.

Jake hauls himself from wheelchair to Link.
JAKE: Who's got a date with the chief's daughter?

"Ow!" Jake said while flinching from Neytiri's sudden smack to his arm.

"It was not a date!" She said.

"You're right, that came later."

GRACE: All right, knock it off, you two.

As Jake settles into the soft embrace of the link, Grace inputs commands at the control station.
GRACE: Neytiri was my best student. She and her sister Silwanin. Just amazing girls.

JAKE: I didn't meet the sister.

GRACE: (QUIETLY) No, she's dead. (turning to him) Okay, let's go -- village life starts early.

Silwanin.The Sully kids thought. That was the name of their mothers sister. It was odd how little they knew of their maternal aunt. They heard stories here and there, little references of her past existence. But never much and they didn't even know their father had a brother, let alone him being a twin.

MAX: Link is ready.
Grace lowers the bio-sensor array over Jake's chest.

GRACE: Don't do anything unusually stupid. (Jake looks away with a smirk)

"'Don't do anything unusually stupid'" Jake snorts, "she makes it sound like I was gonna throw myself off the top of Hometree."

"You did almost fall a couple of times though." Neytiri remarked.

She closes the clamshell and we --
INT. HOMETREE/ THIRD LEVEL - DAY
CU JAKE'S AVATAR, blinking awake, staring up at --
HOMETREE, like a gothic cathedral overhead. Sunlight streams down through gaps in the towering vault.

One of the Metkayina sighed, "beautiful." The Omaticaya Hometree was so large and almost extravagant compared to Awa'atlu. The sight so different from what they were used too. It also explained the different looks the Sully's would give Awa'atlu, wether it be amazement, confusion or in Neytiri's case, barely hidden dislike.

INT. COMMONS - DAY
JAKE walks among the villagers, who go about their daily tasks. -- young girls sit together, weaving and SINGING. They look up as he passes, then go back to work. --two men clean the fish they've caught. -- a young mother pounds seeds into meal, while nursing an infant. --children chase each other and climb like monkeys. One bold LITTLE GIRL runs up to Jake, stops -- staring -- then shrieks with laughter as she runs back to her playmates. GRINNING, Jake turns to see NEYTIRI cantering toward him on a DIREHORSE. She leads a second horse, an old sway-backed MARE. His grin drops.

"I remember this." Neytiri said with a smirk, "it was funny."

"Oh, ya, watching me fall for hours was real funny." Jake replied.

"Yes. It was." Replied an Omaticaya warrior who remembered being in the area when Neytiri was teaching him.

EXT. RIVER NEAR HOMETREE - DAY
JAKE: Easy, boy. NEYTIRI: Pale is female. JAKE nervously grips the surcingle of the mare. Neytiri holds its nose-ring while Jake clumsily mounts. Jake bends one of its ANTENNAE down to the tip of his queue. He hesitantly touches them together and --

Everyone couldn't help but laugh at how awkward Jake was with the direhorse. Especially the Zeswa, their laughter the loudest, they learned to ride at such a young age that the idea of a grown adult struggling in such a way was unheard of.

TIGHT SHOT -- the tendrils INTERWEAVE.
Jake's PUPILS DILATE and his mouth drops open. The horse's eyes also go wide and it HONKS nervously. Neytiri touches her fingertips to the neural interface.

NEYTIRI: That is tsaheylu -- the bond. Feel her. Feel her heartbeat, her breath. Feel her strong legs.
Jake closes his eyes, nodding. One with the horse.

NEYTIRI: You may tell her what to do -- (she touches her head) -- inside. For now, say where to go.

JAKE: Forward.

The horse LAUNCHES into a GALLOP. Jake flops around, with no idea how to sit the animal, and is promptly THROWN OFF. He lands painfully in the mud. He gets up, brushing mud off knees and ass, as Neytiri runs past with a laugh to lead the horse back to him.

More laughter rang out. The kids now the loudest, Seeing their father so terrible at it was in a way, comforting. With how they struggled learning under the Metkayina, the knowledge that their father struggled at one point as well made it easier. If he could learn to be Na'vi, then they could learn another clan's culture and way of life.

TSU'TEY and another HUNTER thundering across the shallow river on their direhorses. Spray blasts up from their hooves. Jake stands, covered in mud, as Tsu'tey stops his horse next to him, looking down with disdain.

TSU'TEY: You should go away.

JAKE: Nah, you'd miss me. I knew you could speak English.

Lo'ak couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and glance at Jake. His interactions with Tsu'tey were like theirs and the Metkayina kids. Or more accurately, his interactions with Aonung. But unlike him, Jake took the remarks with an almost gracefulness, letting it flow right over him and replying with a simple remark and smirk. It was already a big difference from earlier when he was on earth and had purposely started a fight.

Tsu'tey turns to Neytiri, who is leading the old mare back.

TSU'TEY: (SUBTITLED) This alien will learn nothing. A rock Sees more... look at him. (Jake picks a piece of mud off his tongue and lets out a small cough)

Snorts ripped out through the audience, the sight of Torak Mato picking mud out of his mouth a funny one when you compared him to the warrior that lead them in battle.

She smiles at Jake before sending Tsu'tey and the other hunter to leave and THUNDER OFF into the woods.
NEYTIRI gestures to Jake's horse.

Neytiri smiled sadly again at seeing her husband so young and goofy again. The past year had been so stressful for all of them, all she wanted was to go back to those peaceful times in the forest that now felt so long ago.

NEYTIRI: Again.

Chapter Text

OPS CENTER - NIGHT

Grouped around a table are JAKE, COLONEL QUARITCH, SELFRIDGE and few ENGINEERS and OFFICERS. Jake is talking them through plans he's made of Hometree's inner structure.

JAKE: If you want to hit this thing, It's gonna be complicated. Your scan doesn't show the internal structure.
JAKE: There's an outer columns, real heavy duty. There's a secondary ring here, and an inner ring. There's a core structure like a spiral, that's how they move up and down.

It had gotten uncomfortably quiet as everyone watched Jake tell Quaritch and Selfridge the layout of Hometree. Eyes flicking to him before looking back at the screen. Neytiri slowly turned her head to look at him with wide eyes. Logically, she knew that he'd had to have said something back then. With how precisely they had taken down Hometree with, but to see it play out in front of her was something else.
Jake refused to meet her eyes, anyone's eyes, keeping his locked to the screen with a grimace on his face and his ears back.

QUARITCH: We're gonna need accurate scans on every column.
JAKE: Roger that.

ANGLE ON MAX, at the stairwell. He's been watching Jake talking rapidly to Quaritch, but can't hear him. Frowning, he backs away, down the stairs.

INT. BIO LAB - DAY
JAKE, GRACE and NORM are packing science gear and supplies.
JAKE: So, where are we going?
GRACE: Getting out of dodge. I'm not about to let Selfridge and Quaritch micromanage this thing. (she looks pointedly at Jake). There's a mobile link up at Site 26 that we can work out of. Way up in the mountains.

"Say 'thank you Max'." Max playfully said to lighten the mood.

"Thank you Max," many people chimed.

"Thanks Max." Jake said more quietly.

NORM: The Hallelujah Mountains?

"What does hallelujah mean?" Tsireya asked.

"It means something like 'praise the lord.' It's how in some human religions, they say thanks to their god, like when you thank Eywa for something." One of the western resistance members explained.

GRACE: That's right.
NORM: Are you serious? (GRACE: yes.) Yes! (off Jake's look) The legendary Floating Mountains of Pandora? Heard of them?

EXT. RAINFOREST - AERIAL - DAY
A SAMSON THUNDERS over the rainforest, climbing into the mist- shrouded mountains. In the SEALED COCKPIT, Norm is up front, sitting left seat so Trudy can talk him through the flight controls. Jake and Grace are behind them, in the jump-seats. Grace and Norm's UNCONSCIOUS AVATARS ride in the open back compartment.

"Thats so weird, the way you just have the avatars strapped in like that." Spider said, and it was true. The sight of the inactive avatars looked to much like dead or unconscious Na'vi. The way their limbs were so lifeless, it made several of the Na'vi uncomfortable.

TRUDY: It only takes tiny inputs. Here, put your hand on the cyclic -- She points to the stick between her knees. Norm hesitantly reaches over and rests his hand on hers.

TRUDY: Feel how small the moves are? You barely have to think it, and the aircraft reacts.
ON NORM -- reacting to tiny inputs from the hot lady-pilot. THE SAMSON is dwarfed by enormous ARCHES OF ROCK.

Jake took a peek at Norm, only to see the sad smile on his face as he watched. He never got the chance to see if what him and Trudy had was more than a fling, one of the things he regrets was not telling her how he felt before the big battle. He had tried to find anything of her SAMSON after, to at least try and bury her body, but he had been unable to find anything.

GRACE: (leaning towards Jake) See these magnetic formations. We're getting close.

TRUDY: Yeah we are. Look at my instruments. (On the dash, many of the displays are fritzing out.)
GRACE: Yup. We're in the flux vortex.

TRUDY: We're VFR from here on.
NORM: What's VFR.
TRUDY: Means you got to see where you're going.
NORM: You can't see anything

Anqa snorted, "exactly, and it ain't fun."

TURDY: Exactly! Ain't that a bitch?

AHEAD, a cloud bank parts, revealing -- THE HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS. Right in front of them.
NORM: Oh. My. God.
Jake leans forward between the seatbacks for a good look out the front canopy.
JAKE'S POV -- enormous islands of rock are hovering a half mile above the ground. They are overgrown with rainforest, and straggly beards of vines hang down beneath them. Waterfalls stream down the sides and dissolve into spray at the bottom.

Those who haven't seen the mountains before ooh'd and aah'd at the sight. The large mountain range was truly spectacular.

ON JAKE, staring in amazement. It is both awe-inspiring and disturbing. Trudy turns, grinning at Jake and Norm.

TRUDY: You should see your faces.

Lo'ak laughed when he turned to see the Metkayina kids, "You guys should see your faces."

WIDE AERIAL -- the Samson is tiny as it approaches the floating islands of rock. An archipelago among the clouds, they cast great shadows over the forested slopes below.

JAKE (V.O.): Yeah, so what does hold them up? Grace explained it to me -- some kind of maglev effect because unobtanium is a superconductor, or something. At least somebody understands it. Just not me.

"I get it! It's quiet fascinating once you get past some of the complicities and big words." Teylan exclaimed.

EXT. SITE 26 - DAY
A remote RESEARCH STATION -- TWO SHACKS and a few clusters of instruments perched on a promontory near the Hallelujah Mountains. The shacks are AIRLIFT MODULES the size of buses. THE SAMSON LANDS, beating the grass with its rotor-wash. The humans hop out, wearing MASKS. They move toward the Shack, taking in the spectacular panorama.

TRUDY: (As she turns off the samson) Thank you for playing Air Pandora.

Anqa laughed and whispered to Priya, "I gotta remember that one."

INT. SHACK - DAY
NORM and TRUDY assist JAKE with his chair as they cycle in through the AIRLOCK. GRACE is already inside, starting the GENNY. She turns on the lights and equipment. There are 4 bunks, a clutter of science gear, and -- through a short connecting corridor -- THREE LINK UNITS in the second module. As Grace powers up the Link equipment,

GRACE: Welcome to camp. So, this is my bunk. Norm, go under...

Jake stops to look at STEREO STILL PICTURES which are taped and tacked up around her workstation. CLOSE ON PICTURES -- Grace posing at the school with various grinning children. There is one of her with two lanky girls, a younger Neytiri and an older girl who looks much like her.

Max let out a breath before leaning forward to look at the Sully's, "You know, I'm pretty sure we still have those pictures, if you want Neytiri I could bring-"

"Yes," she cut him off, clearing her throat then adding, "thank you." making Max smile and nod.

JAKE (V.O.): Grace didn't miss a thing. She knew I was talking to the colonel. But I had what she needed, a way back in with the clan. So she's playing nice.

Kiri scrunched up her nose at the voiceover, she knew that was what her dad thought at the time, but was her mom really that determined to get back in with the clan that she'd partially let Jake tell things about the clan to Quaritch? Grace loved the clan and would never hurt them, maybe she was hoping that once she could talk to them again, she could warn them? Or maybe help sway Jake away from helping the RDA from within the clan?

GRACE: All right, Jake, hang a left. Unit one, Beulah. she's the least glitchy. Norm, I need you to operate Jake's link.

"So what does it look like when a link glitches?" A na'vi asked.

"The avatar will suddenly act like they've been electrocuted or will fall asleep for however long the glitch lasts." A driver replied.

Norm glares at Jake as he passes.
JAKE: Hey. You got a problem?

Norm turns to Grace, his frustration boiling over.
NORM: I trained three years for this mission. I speak the language fluently. (he points at Jake) He falls off the frickin' turnip truck and all of a sudden he's cultural ambassador!?

"So angry." Hale quipped, making those around her laugh.

GRACE: It's not our choice, Norm.

He glowers at Jake.
NORM: Yeah, well I didn't come out here to wash the dishes while you're on some interspecies booty call. (He stalks off.)

"What's a-" Tuk started to ask before getting cut off.

"There are some things in the human language that you don't need to know." Jake said sternly, then turned to look at his sons, "don't repeat that."

"Norm, did you just insult me?" Neytiri asked with an eyebrow ridge raised.¹

"... no." He answered hesitantly.

"Good answer."

GRACE: He can't go far. (She points to Jake's link.)

"Never did figure out if she was talking about Neytiri not letting me wander or that I was in a wheelchair." Jake said.

GRACE: Let's get you in.

Chapter Text

INT./EXT. HOMETREE - BANSHEE EYRIE
LOOKING DOWN the central shaft of Hometree, 80 meters to the ground. Villagers are ant-like. Jake tries to keep up with Neytiri as she leaps up the core trunk like a lemur. He climbs the last section, arriving out of breath beside her. She leads him OUTSIDE, onto -- A large branch. Through gaps in the foliage Jake can see other Great Trees scattered across the landscape, like enormous umbrellas above the rainforest.

Someone from the Zeswa whistled, "What a view."

NEYTIRI strides out across the branch toward some kind of STRUCTURE -- a WEB made of thick woven fiber. DARK SHAPES clinging to it stir with a leathery RUSTLING SOUND. Neytiri makes a series of TRILLS and CLICKS. One of the shapes MOVES toward them, emerging into a shaft of sunlight.

A huge MOUNTAIN BANSHEE. Much larger than the forest banshees, this thing is taller than a Na'vi with a 10 meter wingspan. A leathery FWHOOP, like the crack of sails, as it alights on the branch right in front of her.

JAKE: Holy shit.

"You look a little too excited there Jake." An avatar driver joked. Though no one could blame him, to fly and bond with an ikran was a joy like no other. Jake himself had proven to be a natural in the sky, which was fitting for one who gained the title Toruk Makto. It would've been ironic for Toruk Makto to suck at flying.

NEYTIRI: Do not look in her eye.
Neytiri feeds it a large scrap of meat, which it SNATCHES and gulps down. She murmurs to it and strokes its NECK. It lets out a signature SHRIEK, and some of the others in the shadows nearby answer. Neytiri flip-catches her queue and gently connects it to the Banshee's ANTENNA. It shivers and stretches its wings as the neural connection is made.

"Oh, Seze." Neytiri whispers to herself, with a hand to her heart. Though she did love her new ikran, the loss of her first still pains her. Sometimes she could still feel the sharp pain that went through her when Seze had been shot. If she thought to long or hard about the moment. She knew that if they were following Jakes early time on Pandora, that they would see Hometree fall and the battle. She didn't know if she'd be able to handle seeing it all again, even from an outsider's point of view.

NEYTIRI: Ikran is not horse. Once tsaheylu is made, ikran will fly with only one Hunter in the whole life.

She climbs smoothly onto the animal's back.

NEYTIRI: To become taronyu -- Hunter -- you must choose your own ikran. And he must choose you.

JAKE: When?
NEYTIRI: When you are ready. (The BANSHEE shivers with anticipation as she pulls down her flying visor over her eyes)
NEYTIRI: Heeyaaahh!
Jake ducks as the great wings EXPLODE OPEN and the banshee DROPS off the branch. It swoops down across the forest canopy, banks hard, lets out a CRY and beats its wings in a power climb. Completing the bank, Neytiri directs the banshee into a close SWOOPING FLYBY, and Jake instinctively ducks.
ON NEYTIRI -- flying in perfect fusion with her winged mount, the rainforest rolling beneath her.

"Show off." Jake whispered to her, making Neytiri smirk.

"Lo'ak? Do you think after this, you could take me flying? Tsireya asked.

"Ya. That'd be great." He responded, trying to hold down the blush that wanted to cross his face.

"Us too?" Rotxo asked as well. Both he and Aonung seemed interested in flying with the ikrans as well.

"We could all go together." Kiri said, making the two boys smile. Lo'ak looked back at the screen to hide his mild disappointment, he was hoping to spend time alone with Tsireya.

INT. SHACK - NIGHT/EXT
STEREO VIDEO-LOG IMAGE -- Jake has just switched on the camera. He looks tired.

JAKE: okay, this is video log 12. Times 21:32. (sighing and turning to look at Grace) Do I have to do this now? Like, I really need to get some rack.
GRACE, behind him, looks up from her MICROSCOPE.

GRACE: No, now. When it's fresh.

JAKE: Okay, (to camera) location, shack. The days are starting to blur together. The language is a pain, but, you know, I figure it's like field-stripping a weapon. Just repetition. repetition.

One of the human western resistance members leaned into their friend next to them to whisper, "remember that. If we're gonna be living here we need to get better at na'vi."

THIS THROWS US INTO A TEACHING MONTAGE:
JAKE AND NEYTIRI kneel together inside Hometree. Neytiri touches her lips with her fingertips.
JAKE: Seyri.
She touches her nose, her ears, her eyes in quick sequence.
JAKE: Ontu, mikyun, nari (pronouncing it like narvi).

Some Na'vi couldn't help but laugh. After so many years, Jake was fully fluent in na'vi, to hear him fumble with it was amusing. He sounded almost worse than a child just learning to talk.

NEYTIRI: (again) nari.
JAKE: navri
NEYTIRI:(slowly and a little exaggerated) nari.
JAKE:(Slowly) narvi. (Neytiri smacks him lightly in the head.)

Lo'ak had to hold back a snort at watching his mom teach his dad how to speak na'vi. She was clearly struggling with him. It put in perspective how almost easy they had it when learning from the Metkayina. Or maybe Tsireya was just a really good teacher.

he looked over his shoulder and caught her eye, they exchanged smiles and a quiet laugh before looking back at the screen.

SCENE SHIFTS to archery training.

NEYTIRI: Txur ni'ul. Stronger. (She sucks in a breath, patting her abdomen to show where to breath from)

JAKE copies her as he draws a longbow. she SMACKS him on the shoulder, then the elbow, repositioning him roughly.

"Ah yes, the go-to method. Smack Jake until he does it right." Jake said.

"Did it not work?" Neytiri asked playfully.

"If I had known that, I would have slapped you too during our lessons." Norm joked.

JAKE (V.O.): Neytiri calls me skxawng. It means moron.

"But you are my skxawng." Neytiri says with a peck on his cheek.
"Always." He replies with a kiss to her forehead.

HUMAN JAKE emerges from the LINK to see --TRUDY and NORM caught IN THE ACT on Norm's bunk. Norm blushes and Trudy waves, pulling the blanket over their heads.

NORM works with JAKE at the small table in the SHACK kitchen.
NORM: this is a very important part of it.
JAKE: I see you.

JAKE (V.O.): Norm's attitude has improved lately.

NORM: but it's not just, "I'm seeing you in front of me." It's, "I See into you."

JAKE (V.O.): It's good he's back on board, but he thinks I'm skxawng too.

"You are, that hasn't changed." Norm said.

"You know I'm starting to feel kinda attacked right now." Jake states.

"Good, cause you've made a lot of stupid decisions that we all get to see now."

The kids exchanged looks, as the movie went on, it appeared that there was rising tension between Jake and Norm. It made sense, Jake may have been lying to the Omaticaya, but he had also been lying and going behind Grace's and Norm's backs the entire time. The only question was what would be the tipping point that would make them snap.

NORM: "I understand you." You gotta get this. Okay?

A MOMENT shown of Jake hauling his unresponsive legs into the link.

UP TO TRACKING WITH JAKE'S FEET as he runs over rocks, leaping onto a thick root, running on across the rough bark.

JAKE (V.O.): My feet are getting tougher. I can run farther every day.

Many noticed the contrast that had been shown between Jakes unresponsive human legs and his fully functional Na'vi ones. It must have been hard, shifting between loosing and gaining feeling over and over again. The avatar drivers didn't have that problem, they went from healthy body to healthy body and it was obvious that Jake was getting more attached to his Na'vi body and the forest. How every time they saw his human body, he looked a little more tried, a little scruffier, a little thinner. So much focus given to caring for one body he forgets the other, the one, that at the time, could kill him if something were to happen.

Neytiri leads him along a massive root, and soon they are running 30 meters above the ground. He sprints with her through the trees, trying to keep up. She CLIMBS and LEAPS with the ease of a spider monkey.

JAKE (V.O.): I have to trust my body to know what to do.

MONTAGUE of Jake getting better riding and then hunting with Neytiri on a rainy day.

ANOTHER DAY -- NEYTIRI kneels on a game trail, pointing out the tracks in the mud to Jake. She touches the edges of the plants around her, and sniffs the air.

It was fun, watching Jake learn alongside Neytiri. How somethings came easily to him while other things were a struggle, it made him feel more like a person to those who have only heard about him from his accomplishments that made him seem bigger than life.

JAKE: (V.O) Every day, it's reading the trails, the tracks at the water hole... the tiniest scents and sounds.

NEYTIRI and JAKE crawl through the undergrowth. She points and he parts some leaves to see -- A MOTHER VIPERWOLF bringing meat to her cubs, which frisk around her legs. She licks their faces JAKE: (V.O) she's always going on about the flow of energy, the spirits of animals. I really hope this tree-hugger crap isn't on the final.

Spider frowned hearing Jake call the Na'vi culture "tree-hugger crap", he was one of the people to teach them how to respect the forest and animals. To hear him be so dismissive of it made him sound like the recoms... it made him sound like Quaritch.

SHIFT TO GRACE BACK AT THE SHACK. IDEO-LOG IMAGE -- HUMAN JAKE talks into the lens. He's changing -- un-shaven, cheeks hollow. Pale.

GRACE: this isn't just about eye-hand coordination out there, you know. You need to listen to what she says. Try to see the forest through her eyes.
JAKE: excuse me. This is my videolog here.

Jake held back a sigh, Grace had been just trying to help him. While he did listen to some of what she said, he didn't listen to all of it, and he learned too late to be able to make it up to her. At least he could love and raise Kiri, make sure she grew to her full potential.

Neytiri LEAPS off into space, falling, falling until -- She catches an enormous palm leaf and, gripping it, allows its DROOP to slow her fall. She lets go, plummeting, and catches another.
JAKE: (V.O) With Neytiri it's learn fast or die.
JAKE FOLLOWS in a leap of faith and a yell. THE CAMERA PLUNGES with him, from leaf to leaf, down and down in a dizzying kinetic rush. He hits vines and leaves at awkward angles, shouting the whole way down, his bow landing next to her on a game trail first. He comes second, rolling off the large mushroom and hitting the ground, he stands up and dusted himself off as he picks up his bow. He is exhilarated to still be alive.

Neytiri is surprised -- that he followed. That he lived.

Everyone broke out in laughter at his ridiculous landing. For it was less coordinated fall and more haphazardly spiraling downward.

"How exactly did you fall for me?" Jake questionably joked.

"What can I say? Your strong heart and unflinching stupidity endeared me to you." Neytiri stated.

TIGHT ON HUMAN JAKE, in the shack. Thinking as he looks at the pictures of Grace with the laughing kids at the school.

IN THE COMMONS -- . GRACE walks in and kneels to hug children she knows. Grace's eyes sparkle as she chats with them in Na'vi.

Kiri perked up, happy to see her ma among the People. She looked so happy interacting with the kids, so much more filled with life then when she was around the other humans. Just like her father, her ma was born to be one of the People.

JAKE (V.O.): I talked Mo'at into letting Grace into the village. It's the first time since her school was closed down.

Grace looks up to see Neytiri approaching. It is an awkward moment between them. Grace makes the formal gesture of greeting.
GRACE: (Na'vi, subtitled) I See you, Neytiri Mo'at'ite.
NEYTIRI: I See you, Doctor Grace Augustine.

Chapter Text

CUT TO- THE SHACK
GRACE catches JAKE as he tries to wheel off
GRACE: No, you don't. Come back here. (She spins him around and places him in front of some opened rations) Bon appétit.

"What is that?" One of the Metkayina asked.

"Rations. Something I do not miss eating." Jake said.

"Lucky you." One of the resistance members mumbled.

NEYTIRI AND JAKE move through the NIGHT FOREST, surrounded by galaxies of shimmering bioluminescence. They move gracefully, soundlessly -- two forest spirits. CU JAKE -- the pupils of his cat eyes dilated. The night forest floods his brain with its million bio-sources.

They enter a CLEARING filled with chest-high ferns. Neytiri signals him to move slowly. They approach a creature on one of the ferns. An ugly, stick-like LIZARD-THING perched on a frond. As he approaches -- SNAP! A long spine whips in a circle, unfurling a bioluminescent membrane -- a disk a meter across, opening like a Chinese fan. It FLIES OFF, a living Frisbee. THE FAN LIZARD FLOATS across the clearing.

"Kenten are so fun!" Tuk said, making Neytiri smile and hug her.

Kiri smiled sadly, "I miss playing with them." Don't get her wrong, she loved the water. How she felt in it was something she never experience before. But the forest was her home, she missed climbing the trees and moving through the undergrowth. The absence of forest animal sounds still threw her off at times out by the water. Not to mention she couldn't visit her ma anymore, either the avatar body or at the tree of souls and now she couldn't even visit the Metkayina's spirit tree. It just wasn't fair.

Neytiri plunges among the ferns with a SHARP CRY. An EXPLOSION OF COLOR as dozens of FAN LIZARDS take flight. Grinning widely, she hops around like a little girl, until they are all flying. And for the first time, she is unguarded and joyful, totally herself with him.

The kids couldn't help but glance at their mother, they hadn't seen her this carefree in what felt like ages. The last time was probably just before the skypeople returned. Now she was always unhappy about something, though she tried to hide it from them. Sometimes at night they could hear their parents quietly arguing about something just outside their mauri, though they could never make out what. It concerned them that in their attempt to hide, it had only turned the fighting inward.

NIGHT SHOT, from overhead -- Jake and Neytiri bow-fishing from a dugout canoe over huge glowing ANEMONES at the bottom of a pool. A large fish swims silhouetted against the pastel glow. ZAP! Jake drills it. He holds up the fish, triumphantly. SCENE SHIFTS- from overhead again, the two swim through the same pool of water.

CUT TO THE SHACK- GRACE pulls away from a microscope to she Jake fallen asleep in front of his video log.
GRACE: (whispers) come on, Marine. (SHE pulls him away and lays him down on his bunk gently.)

Jake had said that Grace had been one of his closest friends, and now Kiri could smile, having a better understanding of what their friendship actually looked like. Hearing that they were friends was different from actually seeing them be close. Seeing how her ma grew to care for her father, she was worried at first with how hostile Grace had been in the beginning, it was hard to imagine that they'd reach this point in only a few months.

ANOTHER DAY -- Neytiri stands close beside Jake, adjusting his position as he draws his bow. Only now her hands are GENTLE as they move on his arms, his shoulders. Aware of her touch, Jake's focus is broken. Their eyes meet, and she pulls away quickly.

"Oooooo, getting close you two?" Priya teased, making those around her laugh.

"Is this when you started to like me?" Jake asked, leaning in to whisper in Neytiri's ear.

"No, but it was when I started to realize it." She whispered back.

CUT TO- a rainy day, Neytiri moves to poor water from a large cup like plant into her mouth as Jake watches.
JAKE (V.O): I'm trying to understand this deep connection the people have to the forest.
CUT TO- Jake participating in a funeral along side the clan.
JAKE (V.O): she talks about a network of energy... that flows through all living things. She says... All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back.

Quaritch snorted, Sully actually believed these things? Spider believed these things? No wonder these savages fought like they did, not one of em' valued their lives and managed to pass that on too Sully who passed it on to Spider.

TIGHT ON AVATAR JAKE silently drawing his bow, his eyes focused in intense concentration. A beat -- the arrow flies. JAKE PULLS the arrow from the twitching body of a hexapede. He dispatches it with his knife.
He speaks haltingly, but with feeling, in Na'vi.
JAKE: (NA'VI) I See you Brother, and thank you. Your spirit goes with Eywa, your body stays behind to become part of the People.

The Na'vi all clapped seeing him perform a perfect kill. Jake truly was learning everything fast, and they were proud of how far he's come in such a short time.

The recoms rolled their eyes, all that for a single kill? What a waste of time.

NEYTIRI watches with approval.
NEYTIRI: A clean kill. You are ready.

INT. SHACK - NIGHT
Lying in the link, Jake looks exhausted, pale, thin. Norm helps Grace get him to his chair.

GRACE: you were in 16 hours today. You're still losing weight. Here -- (She hands him a microwaved burrito. He looks at the now alien food. Bites into it without enthusiasm.)

JAKE: But today I made a kill and we ate it. At least I know where that meal came from.

Neytiri frowned, she didn't see Jake as a human at all during those months. Only after the battle did she interact with him that way, and even then it was only for a short time before they had transferred his spirit permanently. If she had known he was not taking care of himself she could have done something. Convinced him that he couldn't train with her if he wasn't completely healthy in both bodies maybe?

Lo'ak unknowingly mimicked his mother's frown and glanced at his dad, was he really getting so attached to the clan already that he couldn't keep things straight? Jake sounded so convinced that because he ate with the clan then he didn't need to feed his human body. None of the other avatar drivers over the years had that problem. Maybe it had to do with the fact the others were monitored and for Jake it was just him, Grace, Norm and Trudy.

GRACE: Other body. You need to take care of this body.

JAKE: Yeah yeah.

GRACE: Jake, I'm serious -- you look like crap. You're burning way too hard.
Jake takes the cigarette out of her mouth and stubs it out.

JAKE: Get rid of this shit, then you can lecture me.

"You two were seriously arguing over who was killing themselves faster?" Norm said, the disbelief in his voice unhidden.

"We were not." Jake replied.

"Ya, you kinda were. Both of you were, I'm surprised neither of you got sick." Norm argued, "and as a reminder, we only had basic first aid in that shack, if one of you collapsed-"

"Not now." Jake said, cutting him off.

GRACE: I'm telling you, as your boss and someone who might even consider being a friend someday, to take some down time.

JAKE: Not now. Tomorrow we leave for Iknimaya.

GRACE walks past Jake, starts making herself coffee.
GRACE: Yeah -- you're gonna go ride a banshee. Or die trying.

"She really had no faith in me." Jaked said.

"Jake, she had more faith in you then the entire avatar program at that point." Max said. "She just didn't want you getting too far into something and dying because of it."

JAKE: That's right, Grace. This is what I've been working for.

GRACE: And this is your check up from the neck up, Marine. You're getting in way too deep.
(she turns away) Trust me, I learned the hard way.

"She was trying to stop you?" A na'vi asked.

"No, I don't think so. She just didn't want a repeat of what happened to her." Jake explained, keeping in mind what Max had previously said.

"I know the feeling." Alma Cortez said quietly.

Jake scans the pictures tacked up around Grace's workstation. And picks up the one with Neytiri and her sister in it.
JAKE: What did happen at the school Grace?

Those in the Omaticaya braced themselves for what she would say. That incident was something none who had lived it would forget. It was one of the first times they experienced how horrible the skypeople truly were. Older adults remembering going back after the skypeople left to collect the bodies, finding them riddled with holes and metal buried in them. Some of those who were once the children who had attended the school, now grown adults, still struggled with nightmares of the event. While others were unable to hear bullets without flashing back to that day. It was a painful event that would never be forgotten.

GRACE looks up from making coffee. Her eyes track across the pictures of the laughing children. Finally --
GRACE: Neytiri's sister -- Sylwanin -- stopped coming to school. She was angry about the clear-cutting.

Clear-cutting was something all the forest Na'vi were familiar with. From the Omaticaya to the Aranahe to the Kame'tire and more. There wasn't much they could do when the RDA was cutting thwarts of trees down to flatten the land and build their buildings and machines. Poaching more and more land from them all.

GRACE: One day, she and a couple of other young hunters came running in, all painted up -- they'd set a bulldozer on fire -- I guess they thought I could protect them.

Neytiri looked away from the screen before taking a deep breath and looking back, she didn't want to remember about that day, but she needed to hear what Grace had to say about it. She hated thinking about it or having it brought up. The day she lost her sister and any sense of interest or trust in the skypeople. She still remembers where she was standing, what she was doing when her sister came in that day. How confusion turned to fear turned to horror in seconds.

GRACE'S voice stays oddly CALM as he tells this terrible story, while getting MILK out of the refrigerator.
GRACE: The troopers pursued them to the school.
MACRO as she pours the milk -- her hand is SHAKING.

Kiri wanted to cry. Her ma cared so much, loved them so much. To have that happen... she must have felt so helpless, being unable to help them. To be what they were hoping for her to be. Now all she wanted was to make up for it, to try and do better.

GRACE: They killed Sylwanin in the doorway. Right in front of Neytiri. Then shot the others. (QUIETLY) I got most of the kids out, they never came back.

"Even light years from Earth, we still end up with a school shooting." A scientist mutters in disgust and sadness.

JAKE: sorry.

GRACE: Yeah.
Jake realizes that Grace is on the verge of tears and desperately trying to hide it.

In a way, it was comforting. To see that Grace was just as affected by what happened as the clan was, that it wasn't something she just moved on from the way the other skypeople did. She had loved them and it her hurt to loose them, even more so when the clan cut contact. She had worked every day after looking for a way to work with the clan again, to talk to them, and she achieved it thanks to Jake.

GRACE sits down at the table, looks intently at Jake.

GRACE: A scientist stays objective -- we can't be ruled by emotion. But I put ten years of my life into that school. They called me sa'atenuk. (JAKE gently: Mother.) Mother. That kind of pain reaches back through the link.

GRACE: It's a job. Learn what you can -- but don't get attached.

The RDA higher ups nodded at her words. At least Augustine understood what was going on, even if she was annoying and got pushy if anyone got too close to her precious project, she was brilliant and knew to stay in her place. It was Sully that ruined everything, convinced her to push too hard. Even after over a decade, Augustine long died, Sully was STILL ruining everything. He even managed to convince others to start causing problems. On top of that the number of people defecting was growing and the longer it went on it was swiftly moving from annoying to frustrating.

GRACE looks at him with real PAIN in her eyes.
GRACE: It's not our world, Jake. And we can't stop what's coming.

It was disheartening to hear, how Grace Augustine felt so hopeless about protecting Pandora. But even then, she still cared, and gave everything she was and had to the Moon and people she loved so much on it.

"I wonder what she would say, if she could see us now." Kiri wondered quietly.

"She would be so proud of you and of all of us." Jake answered, making sure to catch Kiri's eye as he spoke. "That we're still fighting, and we won't stop caring, just as she never did."

Max nodded, "All of us...," he gestures to the avatar drivers, scientists and to Jake. "Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, the least we can do is carry on everything she dedicated her life to," he finished.

Chapter Text

EXT. MOUNTAIN TRAIL - DAY
TSU'TEY leads three direhorse riders up the trail -- two TEENAGE HUNTERS and JAKE, who's riding well enough to keep up. The horses' hooves CLOP right next to a sheer drop into a misty canyon.

JAKE (V.O.): Iknimaya translates roughly as stairway to heaven...

"I love that song." An avatar driver said.
"What song?" The scientist next to them asked.

"Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin," They replied.
"Isn't that like a hundred years old?"

"Maybe, but a good song is a good song."

TSU'TEY signals a stop. UP-SLOPE AHEAD is an astounding formation. Thick vine-like trees have trapped large FLOATING BOULDERS of UNOBTANIUM in their gnarled grip. A hundred meters above them more boulders are WOVEN into the twisted vine-trunks. This is some sort of freak natural occurrence -- like the mythical beanstalk, going up into the clouds.

JAKE (V.O): ...learning to ride an ikran, we call them banshees. It's the test every young hunter has to pass. But to do that, you gotta go where the banshees are. Oorah.

"Oorah." Quaritch snorted to himself. Now this was something he knew. He still couldn't believe that Spider managed to convince them to get ikrans AND convinced them to get the ikrans bare-handed like the Na'vi did, though the latter didn't take much convincing admittedly. Ain't no way he was gonna let Sully one up him by doing it that way.

There is a THUNDERING ROAR, like an artillery barrage, and the ground SHAKES. Jake looks around at -- one of the FLOATING MOUNTAINS grinding against the flank of a nearby mesa. A huge rockfall is set loose. The mountain is drifting toward them, filling half the sky.

The Hunters dismount. JAKE looks up at the beanstalk going into the clouds. He turns to Tsu'tey, who is checking the young hunters' gear.

"What? No checking my gear?" Jake joked.

"He did try to leave without you." Neytiri commented.

"You saw that?" He asked.

She nodded, "I saw you set out from Hometree."

Jake leaps to catch up as Tsu'tey and the hunters swarm up the base of the beanstalk.

EXT. BEANSTALK - DAY
200 METERS up the BEANSTALK, the hunters nimbly climb along the vine-trunks. They clamber over one of the unobtanium BOULDERS which is lifting this incredible tree. JAKE looks down -- the massive trunk dwindles to the size of a licorice stick. A chunk breaks off a boulder as he climbs over it -- it floats upward.
They reach the upper branches of the beanstalk. Above them, the craggy underbelly of MONS Veritatis looms. Spray from one of the waterfalls hits them.
Some of the HANGING VINES are brushing over the upper branches of the beanstalk with a crackling hiss.

JAKE: Now what?

One by one the hunters grab onto vines as they pass. Jake shrugs and leaps to a passing vine, his feet dangling over nothingness. They climb toward the floating islands above.

"How do you do that without slipping?" Aonung asked.

"Well you see, we have a lot of upper arm strength and our "skinny" tails help us with balancing." Lo'ak said in a tone indicating that what he was saying was self-evident before Neteyam elbowed him. "Ow! What, I was just telling them how we don't fall."

"You don't have to be rude about it." Came the reply.

EXT. MONS VERITATIS - DAY
TINY FIGURES cross a causeway of vines connecting a small island of unobtanium to the main mass of Mons Veritatis. WIDE SHOT looking down a rock face bigger than Half Dome -- the sheer side of Mons Veritatis. Banshees circle next to the cliffs, flashing in shafts of sunlight. Waterfalls dissolve into nothingness below.

"Wow." One of the western resistance scientists whispered. Their sentiment was shared by all watching, even those who have been to Mons Veritatis before appreciated the sweeping aerial shots that showed off its majesty and its scale compared to everything around it.

EXT. GROTTO/BANSHEE ROOKERY - DAY
A waterfall THUNDERS down into the void like a faucet of the gods. Jake looks down the sheer cliff at the world far below-- a view from Olympus. A SHRIEK and the THWAP THWAP of leathery wings -- Tsu'tey leads them through the cave until they emerge onto a CLIFF FACE. And Jake sees --
The BANSHEE ROOKERY. HUNDREDS of banshees huddle on rock out- croppings as far as the eye can see. They cling to the walls with the fore-claws on their wings, or perch on ledges.

"Look at them all." Rotxo said. The nesting ikran were a sight to behold, that many in one place only happened in rookeries or when enough riders gathered together. All the different colors and patterns was a showcase of the verity within the species and how every rider's bonded ikran was one of a kind.

NEYTIRI'S BANSHEE swoops in to perch at the edge of the grotto. She dismounts, and It waits, docile, as -- She joins Jake and the hunter party. Greeting Tsu'tey. JAKE is out of breath and more tired compared to the others.

"Struggling there a bit?" an avatar driver joked.

Jake shrugged, "I was working on it."

TSU'TEY: Jakesully will go first.

"He wanted me dead." Jake said.

Neytiri padded his knee, "not fully, though I do think he was hoping you'd fail."

Tsu'tey smirks at Jake, a challenge in his eyes. The two teenage Hunters are scared but trying to act tough. Tsu'tey scowls when Neytiri follows Jake out onto the ledge.

NEYTIRI: (WHISPERING) Now you choose your ikran. This you must feel -- inside. If he also chooses you, move quick, like I showed. You will have one chance, Jake.

"One chance? But can't you try again?" Tonowari asked, the Iknimaya for the reef clans involved several different things compared to the forest clans, but he had spoken with enough of them over the years to gain an understanding of the different process they went through.
"You can, but I did not expect Jake to have that option if he were to fail here." Neytiri explained.

JAKE: How will I know if he chooses me?

NEYTIRI: He will try to kill you.

"Not if your Kiri." Spider said.

"I'm just that good." She joked.

JAKE: Outstanding.

Out of sight of Tsu'tey, Neytiri takes his hand and squeezes it. Jake feels a rush of emotion, but she breaks away like it didn't happen. He is on his own, on the ledge with -- The BANSHEES. They eye him as he approaches. Several SHRIEK and take flight. Others flap their wings and yawn, showing rows of fangs, in a threat display.
Jake unrolls a weighted leather strap, like a one-ended BOLO. As he approaches several let out cries and fly off or hiss and back down before finally A LARGE MALE spreads enormous wings, SHRIEKS, and glares straight at him. Jake looks directly into its eyes -- and hisses back, baring his teeth and ears folding back. It responds in kind. THAT ONE.

JAKE: Let's dance.

TSU'TEY: (laughing) (IN NA'VI) That moron's going to die.

"He wanted me dead." Jaked repeated exasperated, making everyone laugh.

The challenged banshee HISSES and leaps at him, jaws wide as-- Jake times the lunge, swinging the bolo, feinting and then slipping aside as the banshee's jaws miss him, SNAPPING SHUT.

"That seems aggressive." One of the Metkayina whispered to their friend.

"Well they are a lot like tsurak." The friend replied, "it'd be weird if they weren't aggressive in someway."

Jake WHAPS the bolo across its snout. The weighted thong whips twice around its long jaws, tying them shut. A MUFFLED SCREAM and it SLASHES at his stomach with razor talons but --
Jake is already leaping, over the talons and tackling the banshee around the neck. It topples on its side, and he SWARMS IT -- arms around its thrashing head. Jake grabs its whip-like antenna and brings it toward his queue but --

"Almost..." An Omaticaya whispered.

TSU'TEY: Don't be afraid, warrior.
NEYTIRI: Make the bond!

"Opf, he does not look happy at you helping Jake." Hale said.

Mo'at chose to speak up at that moment, "Tsu'tey had many things he needed to work out for himself at the time, but he was a good man, and a good Olo'eyktan for however short a time it was."

The bony head SLAMS sideways, and BAM! -- clocks him right in the face, almost knocking him out and -- IT WRITHES, flinging him to the ground. He slides on the rock and goes over the edge -- but catches himself.

NEYTIRI: Jake!
Tsu'tey laughs and yells mockingly.

"Oh ya, so funny." Jake said with a roll of his eyes.

"He really had it out for you." Max said.

"Tell me about it."

The bolo is coming loose as the creature shakes its head, way pissed off now, but -- Jake scrambles up and leaps straight at it. Claws rake his leg but he gets his arms around its head and CLAMPS DOWN HARD. They flop to the ground and he scrambles on top, pinning it and --

"You almost had it." Saeyla says cheerfully.

Jake lets out a light laugh, "You were there," he points out.

"I was, we betted on how long it would take you. See, there is Ka'ani losing the bet." She responds happily.

NEYTIRI: Tsaheylu, Jake. Tsaheylu. Grabs its whipping antenna, locks it under his arm, and jams the end of his queue into it. They FUSE together and JAKE: Stop! -- The banshee stops struggling. It lies there panting. They are locked together, literally eye to eye.

JAKE: That's right! You're mine.

ECU BANSHEE -- the pupil like a deep black well. Jake relaxes his grip and slowly, warily, slides his leg over the creature's back.

Jake sits astride the creature, feeling its power. He grips a hank of the beast's main, and Neytiri runs to him.

NEYTIRI: First flight seals the bond. You cannot wait. Think fly!

*"You did that to me Eetu." Sena says only mildly irritated.*

*"Did not." Eetu counters, "I pushed you off the rookery without your ikran, you had to call for her."*

JAKE: Fly?
THWAP! THWAP! The banshee is off like a shot. Jake SCREAMS as they PLUMMET off the cliff -- the banshee WAILS and -- They fall together, spiralling out of control, and he is almost tossed lose. The thing is SQUAWKING and SHRIEKING so much he can't think. JAKE: Goddamn!

Many grimaced as they watch the pair fumble through the flight. First flights could be jarring, an ikrans mind was louder then a pa'li's, resulting in some awkwardness at first for the average rider. On top of that Jake didn't have the advantage of tsaheylu being a natural part of life like the native na'vi experience for years before hand. Jake didn't have the time too, so it was fly or die.

They go through a waterfall before hitting the side of the cliff (JAKE: oh, shit!) Jake nearly falls off as they take a sharp turn downwards.

JAKE: Shut up and fly straight!

"I still can't get over the fact that you named your ikran Bob." Norm groans.

"Bob is a great name." Jake defends. "And he likes it."

Hearing Norm's comment the recoms couldn't help but laugh. Sully naming his ride Bob just goes to show that no matter how much he pretends to be one of the natives he was still human on the inside.

"I guessing the wife named the kids?" An RDA higher up joked, making everyone around them laugh; Unbeknownst to the watching Na'vi and resistance.

It levels out. Jake cocks his head, says "bank left" and the animal complies. He settles the banshee into an easy loping beat of its huge wings, while he catches his breath. The other hunters cheer for him before Tsu'tey stops them. NEYTIRI'S BANSHEE falls into formation with him. She signals "follow me" and DIVES.

"Nice" An Aranahe Na'vi says. It was obvious of Jake was a natural talent in the sky, he learned faster than some of the other hunters and was visibly more comfortable on an ikran then he ever did on the back of a pa'li.

Jake guides his banshee clumsily after her. Neytiri's banshee moves with precise movements of its wingtips, while Jake's wobbles and dips, almost falling out of the sky.
THE CAMERA SWOOPS after them as Neytiri leads an arcing DIVE around the flank of Mons Veritatis. The scenery is stunning. They pass waterfalls and swoop between hanging vines. Neytiri leads Jake in a sharp bank, skimming close to the cliffs. They punch through streamers of cloud and emerge into sunlight.

Once again Tsierya felt a spark in her, a need to see it all in person someday. She'd need to remember to ask the Sullys for stories about the forest and mountains after this was over.

Jake is getting the hang of it. He thinks left, then right, then dives, tucking himself tight against the animal's back. Only speaking out loud ever so often. He's reckless, fearless. Half in control and LOVING IT. Neytiri dives next to him as he lets out a long WHOOP of joy.

JAKE (V.O): I may not be much of a horse guy, but I was born to do this.

Lo'ak couldn't help but roll his eyes, That was for sure, he couldn't help but think. Of course his dad was able to do it first try after learning everything in only a few months and be great in the air on top of it. While his Iknimaya went so horribly it resulted in his parents fighting about it and him having to try again a different day. How was seeing any of this going to help them? So far it felt like it was just showing how much Lo'ak was lacking compared to his parents. Well... other then the deal his dad made with Selfridge and Quaritch, that was something he still couldn't believe his dad had done.

Chapter Text

FLIGHT MONTAGE:
NEYTIRI squats with Jake, using her hands to explain flight principles like one fighter pilot to another.
NEYTIRI: I came like this. This you. I turn. I feel the wind. I turn very strong.
JAKE: I see, I banked so hard.

Mo'at smiled sadly, seeing her daughter so carefree was something she missed. It felt like Neytiri's life swung back and forth between utter happiness to horrible heartbreak. Mo'at never wanted any of it for her children but in the end, she lost one and has to watch the other experience such extreme ups and downs. Like trying to hang onto the back of a stormglider as it tries to shake you off.

THEY FLY in close formation with TSU'TEY and the young HUNTERS, 5 banshees flashing through scarves of mist. They playfully move their banshees into each other, breaking formation for a moment. Tsu'tey yells at them to stop.

LOOKING DOWN a sheer cliff. SWOOOSH! Jake and Neytiri dive their mounts STRAIGHT DOWN PAST CAMERA, pulling out and soaring into a series of aerobatic turns.

ANOTHER DAY. Jake dives, playing hide and seek with Neytiri among the clouds. They are wild and free in a wild world. She grins and banks hard, diving -- catch me if you can. He DIVES after her.

They should definitely go flying after this. Jake thought, it had been some time since the family had gone flying together. It would also be nice to see their new home from above and go exploring a little. Maybe it would even help them settle more as they became familiar with the area by viewing it from an angle they were used to.

IN THE GROTTO, by firelight, JAKE'S BANSHEE snaps at a piece of meat which he playfully pulls back. He's teaching it to take the food more slowly. He strokes its long head. TSU'TEY is nearby with the young hunters. He eyes Jake with frustrated hostility.

"Glad to see that we check in with Tsu'tey sometimes so we know he still hates me." Jake joked quietly that Neytiri couldn't help but smile at and let out a quiet laugh.

ANOTHER DAY -- Jake and Neytiri fly abreast, soaring easily. She points and Jake sees -- A BIZARRE GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. Arches of magnetic rock form rainbows of stone above a deep CALDERA. In the center of the caldera is a single, enormous WILLOW TREE, gnarled and ancient.

"Is that your spirit tree?" Tsireya asks, looking awed at the sight of the large tree. "It's beautiful."

The sight was truly something; for each of the clans' Spirit trees were as unique as the clans themselves. From the Zeswa's hanging Bloom of Echos to the Kame'tire's Whispering Greatcap and the Aranahe's Glade of light where their Trees of Voices curled up the small hill they rested upon. The Omaticaya's Tree of Souls location stood out with its deep caldera and towering arches. The way the Tree's roots branched out across the ground invoked a feeling of longevity and togetherness, that everything on Pandora has always and would always be connected to each other in one way or another.

GRACE: (V.O) The Tree of souls
TIME CUT TO INSIDE THE SHACK-- GRACE is showing JAKE, NORM and TRUDY several images of the tree and arched formation taken from a distance. Some in modified colors.
GRACE: Vitraya Ramunong. It's their most sacred place. See the flux vortex in these false color images?

An RDA scientist leaned into another and whispered, "We should make a request to try and persevere that once we get in there, I'd love to see it up close and take a look inside it."

TRUDY: Yeah, that's what messes up my instruments.
GRACE: There is something really interesting going on in there biologically. I would die to get samples. Outsiders are strictly forbidden. (whispers: you lucky swine)

The irony of her words was not lost on anyone. That the one and only time Grace got near the Tree was when she died.

EXT. RIDGE
JAKE flies with Neytiri along a forested ridge. She is teaching him to hunt from his banshee. They carry their bows at the ready, scanning below them for prey.
JAKE: (V.O.) I was a stone-cold aerial hunter. Death from above. Only problem is, you're not the only one.

"Thats not ominous or anything." An Aranahe na'vi whispers.

A HUGE SHADOW covers him and Neytiri SHOUTS a warning. Jake looks up to see --
A LEONOPTERYX in a delta-dive, whistling straight at him. Like a banshee, only several times larger, it is the king predator of the air: the GREAT LEONOPTERYX. Striped scarlet, yellow, orange and black, with a midnight blue crested head -- it is both gorgeous and terrifying. The hunter has become the prey. (JAKE: Dive!) JAKE snap-rolls and dives toward the forest canopy. He plummets into the gloom as -- K-CRASH -- the leonopteryx tears through foliage, following him down, both diving like missiles and --

Gasps and shouts rang through the room, the fact that Toruk was willing to chase them, chase Jake, that hard was a surprise. Normally Toruk wouldn't risk pursuing into such thick foliage, it would just search for easier prey out in the open. But here it was, ripping through trees in an attempt to catch them.

JAKE yanks into a hair-pin bank, right through a gap between two huge branches -- Forcing the leonopteryx to brake with a loud FWOOSH of wings.(JAKE: Go, go! Follow me!) It banks away with a frustrated SHRIEK. Two flaps of its mighty wings and it is gone, back above the canopy.

Sighs of relief echoed through the room now that they were safe. Obviously, they were going to be, but it was still nice to know that they got out of it with no injuries.

ON JAKE AND NEYTIRI shaken as they cling to a tree on their banshees, her expression the Na'vi equivalent of Oh my God. A beat -- they both crack up.

"You're laughing? You two nearly died." Norm exclaimed.

"But we didn't." Jake laughed making Norm huff in frustration.

CLOSE ON THE LEONOPTERYX, as its fanged mouth opens in a bloodcurdling SCREECH which echoes among the mountains. The lord of its domain.

It was the first time many had seen Toruk alive and up close. It was an incredible sight, it's great wings stretched wide, showing off its unique and vibrant red, orange, and black coloration. Truely having earned the name Last Shadow.

INT. HOMETREE - NIGHT
JAKE STARES up at the TOTEM SKULL, which we now recognize as that of a GREAT LEONOPTERYX. He trails his fingers along the large point teeth. NEYTIRI watches as he reaches up to touch the tall indigo crest.

JAKE: Our guys call it a Great Leonopteryx.

NEYTIRI: It is Toruk. Last Shadow.

JAKE: Yeah, right. It's the last one you'll ever see.

NEYTIRI: My grandfather's grandfather was Toruk Makto -- Rider of Last Shadow.

"So its a family thing?" Hale joked, "alright kids, which one of you is gonna be the next?"

Her joke made everyone laugh though Lo'ak just rolled his eyes at it. If any of them were to become Toruk Makto like their father it would be Neteyam. Or even Kiri with the way she so easily bonds with everything. Either way it wouldn't be him.

JAKE: He rode this?

NEYTIRI: Toruk chose him. It has only happened five times since the time of the First Songs.

"Wait, does Toruk choose its rider the same way ikran do?" One of the scientists asked.

A Omaticaya warrior tilts their hard at the question, "Hard to say but most likely, not many have ever been around when Toruk has bonded with its rider."

"Great Leonopteryx are close cousins to the ikran, so I don't why their method of bond choosing would be any different." Norm says, "why are you asking?"

"Because Toruk wasn't chasing Neytiri. It was almost exclusively chasing Jake. Neytiri was almost collateral damage since she was staying close to him." The scientist pointed out. The statement made everyone stop and think, had Toruk already chosen Jake at that first meeting? Had the determination to catch him been a test of sorts to see if Jake was worthy of being its rider?

JAKE: That's a long time.

NEYTIRI: Yes. Toruk Makto was mighty -- he brought the clans together in a time of great sorrow. All Na'vi people know this story.

Just like the pervious Toruk Makto, Jake had brought the clans together during a time of Great Sorrow too. Was even still doing it with the return of the RDA. He would be known amongst the clans long after his death, another mighty Toruk Makto to stand alongside those of the past.

No pressure there. Lo'ak couldn't help but think while hearing the way his mother talked about the pervious Toruk Makto. He wondered what the old ones would have been like outside of being Toruk Makto cause over the last year it felt like that was all his father was, Toruk Makto and not their father.

Jake remains silent and looks back at the skull. THE CAMERA focuses on it as Jake stares straight at its eyesocket.

Chapter Text

TIME CUT THE SHACK MIDDAY -- Jake looks through the pressure window at HUMAN GRACE and NORM outside. Wearing masks, they are taking readings from some time-series experiments Grace has set up.

As TRUDY watches, JAKE works fast to download Grace's images of the Well of Souls onto a memory chip.

"What are you doing?" Norm asked, though his tone indicated that the question was rhetorical and he knew, they all knew, exactly what Jake and Trudy were doing.

TRUDY: They're coming back.

Jake pulls the chip, then hesitates. Torn by what he is doing.

He hesitated, that was good. The difference between Jake readily describing the foundation of Hometree earlier too now was stark. If was obvious to everyone how much he disliked having to gather info to give to Quaritch and Selfridge.

TRUDY: If you don't give him something, he's gonna shut us down.
He hands her the chip and she slips it into a pocket of her flight-suit just as Grace and Norm enter from the airlock.
JAKE: Hey, guys.

"You AND Trudy! Both of you stole our info!" Norm exclaimed, turning to look directly at Jake. "I know you were there because of Quaritch, you told us that much. But to steal all the work we did."

"I had no choice! You heard her, if we stopped then they'd end everything." Jake tried to explain, moving forward so he could look at Norm past the others that sat between them.

"Both of you lied to our faces!"

"It was our only option, if we stopped or showed that I was backing down. They would have been at Hometree by the next eclipse! But every time I said I could get a little more info, learn something they could use, it gave us just a bit more time."

Norm scoffs, "Ya, a load of good that did, you were practically a mole." The word had the human resistance members scowling while the Na'vi were confused.

"What is a mole?" Tonowari asked.

"It's when someone you thought was a friend and ally turns out to have been working for the enemy the whole time and had been stealing information to give to the enemy. Like what Jake and Trudy had been doing." Norm explained harshly while glaring at Jake. The most upsetting thing about it all is that he never got to talk to Trudy about it. Everything towards the end happened so fast and then she was dead. Watching the past was just bringing the grief of losing her and Grace back as fresh as those very days.

Jake had to hold back a growl as he retuned Norm's glare, "So what? Would you have preferred it if I just stopped. Told them that I was done and let them ship me back to Earth!? Because that was what the plan was when I was done."

Jake's words seemed to startle Norm for a moment before he shook his head, "What? You never-- you could have given them false info or something."

Before Jake could respond Neytiri spoke first, "Stop!" She looks between the two, "It is in the past. Nothing can be done about it so stop arguing." Her words got the two to stop and lean back in their seats. Everyone around them was grateful to her, for no one wanted to get involved as the two argued.

EXT. RIVER BED - DAY
JAKE, NEYTIRI and other FLYING HUNTERS swoop low above a HERD OF STURMBEEST -- a rapids of thundering muscle. Dust rises from this living river like steam from a python's back.
TRACKING WITH the herd. A HUNTER appears in FG, astride a direhorse at full gallop. The sight is breathtaking. He hurls a 3 meter spear and one of the sturmbeest CRASHES down, flipping twice from momentum.

"Nice shot!" A Zeswa warrior exclaimed.

JAKE ROLLS IN like a fighter jet, his banshee screaming. He draws and fires his bow. The arrow strikes true, in the plexus between the armored shoulders and -- THE BEAST crashes to the ground. Skids to a stop in a cloud of dust.

JAKE: Hell yeah!

NEYTIRI swoops in next to Jake, arms raised and grinning wolfishly.

NEYTIRI: Hell yeah!

"Hell yeah!" All the kids cheered as well, making their parents laugh.

CU TSU'TEY, banking around Jake's kill. Jake looks up, and Tsu'tey SALUTES in grudging admiration.

"Now he's starting to like me." Jake quipped.

INT. COMMONS/HOMETREE - NIGHT
The central space is lit by a BONFIRE, around which the HUNT FESTIVAL is in full swing. Wild dancing. People gnawing on massive sturmbeest ribs. A bowl of some kava-like intoxicant is passed around.
NEYTIRI dances in a flowing costume as the BANSHEE SPIRIT. NORM is dancing seductively with his own tail.

"Need some alone time there Norm?" An avatar driver joked, making everyone laugh as Norm ducked his head in embossment.

JAKE, surrounded by young hunters, acts out the leonopteryx attack with his hands. He speaks almost perfect Na'vi, only stumbling with a couple of words. The leaping fire-light plays across the eye sockets of the TORUK SKULL, bringing it to life. It seems to watch Jake.

That was a peculiar sight, the way even the skull of Toruk seemed drawn to Jake.

Jake looks up and watches Neytiri as she dances. She's the only thing he focuses on before-

TSU'TEY squats next to Jake, the usual scowl on his face. TSU'TEY: enough talk.
Jake braces himself -- and Tsu'tey holds up a KAVA BOWL, offering it to him. A challenge or an olive branch? Jake takes a long, hearty drink as some of the young hunters hoot and clap hands in a fast rhythm.

"I actually have had worse on Earth." Jake said with a shrug.
"How..." A resistance member asked.

"Went to a few frat parties before I joined the Marines, the drinks college kids could come up with were something else." Jake explained.

"Of course you went to Frat parties." Hale said.

Jake lowers the drink (JAKE: GOD DAMN) and looks to Tsu'tey. They lock eyes. Tsu'tey drinks. The two start a drinking contest, other hunters cheering chanting his name as Jake finishes off the bowl.

NORM goes to drink some himself before Grace takes it from him.

GRACE: Watch that stuff. It'll knock you into next week. (She drinks it herself and Norm laughs before grabbing another for himself)

LATER -- AN EMPTY BOWL drops, landing on a pile of empty bowls near the fire.

WIDER ON JAKE and TSU'TEY, sitting amid the rowdy hunters. Tsu'tey looks a little blearily at Jake. Finally, he GRINS.

"You bonded over drinks." Norm said while rubbing his temples. He had forgotten over the years just how ridiculous Jake had been those first months before the battle.

TSU'TEY: I thought -- enough drink -- you would not be so ugly.

"Even drunk, he was an asshole." Jake said with a laugh.

"Well you know what they say, drunk words are sober thoughts." A scientist commented.

JAKE: Well I'm sorry.

Snorts of laughter, that was a response only someone drunk could come up with.

Tsu'tey looks deep into the fire.
TSU'TEY: Your warriors -- they hide inside machines -- fight from far away. (he looks at Jake) I did not think a sky person could be brave.

Fighting from far away is something humans got very good at. It made killing easier, when they were just numbers on a screen and no longer people in front of you. Then you didn't even get the chance to think about exactly what you were doing, the lives you were ruining; and if humans could do it to their own kind, then doing it to aliens on another planet was even easier.

Before Jake can answer, NEYTIRI'S lithe shape runs through the circle of silhouetted dancers toward them. She takes Jake by the hand and pulls him up

NEYTIRI: You must dance! It is the way.

TSU'TEY watches as she leads him away, his face darkening -- the moment of connection to Jake lost to anger.

"And the moments gone." Jake sighed. He hated that he hadn't had a lot of time to truly get to know and be friends with Tsu'tey. He really felt that Tsu'tey could have been as close to him as Tommy had they gotten the chance. Even so, Tsu'tey died his brother.

The hunters WHOOP and CHEER as Jake joins the circle of dancers.
Jake takes Grace's hand and pulls her up, protesting.

JAKE lets the DRUMS and CHANTING flow through him. He lets himself go, dancing from the inside, channeling the primal energy.

GRACE is rocking out, grinning. We see the young girl, so repressed, who lives within her.

Kiri smiled, seeing her ma having so much fun was nice. She was always so serious in her video logs, so getting to see Grace party with the clan showed how comfortable she was among them. Grace allowed herself to relax with the na'vi in a way she never did back in Hell's Gate.

Jake and Neytiri flow amongst the dancers, but they are looking only at each other.

"Do YOU two need some alone time?" Anqa asked with a smirk. Making people laugh and Jake and Neytiri blush.

A couple of the young girls watching from outside the circle are giggling and talking about them. Mo'at and EYTUKAN follow their look, seeing the obvious connection.

MO'AT: (SUBTITLED) We cannot let this seed grow. Her path is with Tsu'tey.

Neytiri scowled, her path hadn't been Tsu'tey and never should have been. Loosing Sylwanin had been hard on them both and they bonded over the shared loss, but they hadn't had those kinds of feelings for each other. They were prepared to mate out of duty, for Neytiri to take on the role that had once been Sylwanin's and Tsu'tey to not only continue to carry out his role but to look after Neytiri for Sylwanin. He had lost Sylwanin, he would not lose her little sister. Though in the end he did lose her in a way, first to Jake and then his own death. At least now Tsu'tey and Sylwanin were together again with Eywa.

ON JAKE, dancing with abandon to the primal beat, eyes locked with Neytiri.