𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑎 ☆

Ipê - Avatar (James Cameron)

Summary: Jake Sully only wanted the best for his daughter. It's the least he could do after he insisted he wanted that child. Iara Sully is everything to him. She is his daughter, his duo, his life saver, his ipê.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

I took too long, I'm sorry guys, life is crazy right now!

Summary: Jake Sully only wanted the best for his daughter. It's the least he could do after he insisted he wanted that child. Iara Sully is everything to him. She is his daughter, his duo, his life saver, his ipê.

taglist: @oceanfyre @7leo7 @cmalass

Chapter 3

At that time, we could see on Norm’s face that he was pissed about my father being chosen to train under the Omatikaya.

“I have been doing this for years, and suddenly a guy came and took it like it was nothing?” – It’s what he probably thought every single day.

My dad spent most of his time in the link bed, connected to his avatar, so I didn’t see him much. Because his body hadn’t returned, I spent most of my time with Xiáng, learning the Na’vi language (and some chinese too).

Xiáng was the support I needed at the time, she would take me, after breakfast with dad, to the link room, and she would show me different types of plants and what I could do with them and would also show some animals like the tulkun. They are like earth whales, but much more developed, the tulkun have their own culture, language, names, and even family history. They are incredible.

But the one that actually intrigued me the most was the atokirina, the na’vi said the atokirina was the will of Eywa itself because it comes from the tree of life. I thought it must be amazing to be able to talk to your deity and get an answer. Ask a question and a sign comes. The na’vi love their Great Mother.

And I hoped to come to love her too someday.

The little time my dad was back in his human body, he was either spending time with me, seeing how I was doing, talking with Xiáng to see how I was doing (again), talking to Grace to learn about the na’vi and suddenly disappearing.

I wish I never knew what he was doing while disappearing.

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One night, while tucking me into bed, he asked me:

“Baby… How do you feel about the na’vi? Are you scared of them?”

“I don’t have a reason to be scared of them daddy. Aren’t they treating you well?”

“… I think you can say that.” He said after a pause and taking a long breath.

“Why are you asking me that, papai?”

“Nothing you need to worry your little head about, ipê. Daddy loves you, have sweet dreams." And then he gave me a kiss on my head.

And to be honest? I really didn’t need to worry my head about what he was thinking.

He was thinking about some incredible things.

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The next day, I was with dad while he got prepared to link with his avatar body. Grace was next to him, holding a tablet showing some photos of the na’vis from the Omatikaya clan. This one was a man, he looked imposing, with a muscular build, probably a warrior.

“Tsu’tey.”

The next was an older woman with sharp features, she had really high cheekbones.

“Mo’at.”

A man was up again, this time an older one.

“Eytukan.”

“He’s the clan leader— " Grace changes the picture back to Mo'at, “but she’s the spiritual leader. Like a shaman.”

“Got it. So who’s this Eywa?”

I could feel Norm's rage and indignation, dad really messed up, but at the same time, if no one ever told him, how could he know? Searching? He didn’t have time for that.

“Who’s Eywa? Oh, only their deity. The Great Mother. The goddess is made up of all living things. You’d know that if you had any training whatsoever.” Norm was a little bitch. At least he’s not like that anymore.

My father went to the link pod with his wheelchair.

“Who’s got a date with the chief’s daughter?”

“What do you mean you got a date? Why did I not know about this?” I asked with a confused face. Grace looked at me and Norm looked away, my dad blushed a little bit.

“Knock it off, all of you. Jesus, it’s like kindergarten around here.”

“But I am supposed to be in kindergarten.”

“Don’t test me, little girl.” I pouted, Grace is mean sometimes.

As my dad settled into the link, Grace was putting commands at the control station, and I was at the feet of the link.

“Neytiri was my best student. She and her sister Silwanin. "Just amazing girls."

“I didn’t meet the sister.”

Grace got quiet.

“No, she’s dead. Died two years ago.” Then she turned to him. “Okay, let’s go—village life starts early.”

“You tell me, I’m super sleepy here. Can I go back to our room to sleep more?”

“Only after lunch, Iara. You're spending your day with me today.” Grace replied.

“Link is ready." Max said.

“Bye, daddy! See you later!" I told him, and he sent me a kiss.

Grace lowered the biosensor array over my dad’s chest.

“Don’t do anything unusually stupid.” Grace tells him.

It's kind of funny, since "Stupid" is dads last name.

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“So, what are we doing today, Miss Grace?” I asked her.

“Well, kid, first, I’m going to tell you something, and you need to keep a secret from your dad, okay?”

I nodded my head, excited to know.

“Well, your dad told me the tsahik of the Omatikaya, Mo’at, wants to know you. So, I’m going to teach you so you can surprise her and be better than your dad. How's that?” Grace had a little smile on her face while saying it.

The tsahik wanted to know me? It was a little insane to think about, because well, she is an important person, and she wants to know little me? What is there to know about me? I’m just Jake Sully's daughter, his little ipê.

“Miss Grace, do you know why she wants to know me?” I asked with a confused face.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t know how her mind works, but she must have her reasons. Maybe she saw something in your dad and now wants to know if she can see it on you too.”

“But… Then my dad told them about me?”

“Well, you’re important, and your dad is worried about spending less time with you, so yeah, he must have told them about you, explaining that he has a daughter and he needs to spend time with her.”

At this point, we left the link room and went to the lab. Grace was reading some reports while talking to me, and I went and grabbed a chair for me and her and then plopped down on it.

“It… Does make sense, but I still don’t understand why she wants to meet me.”

“Look, kid—" Grace put down the tablet she was reading the reports and faced me. “The tsahik mind works differently; she is the one who listens the most to Eywa. Maybe Eywa told her something about you, or showed her something with you in it, I don’t know… But maybe you’re more important than we know.”

That didn’t calm me down.

I just looked Grace in the eyes and nodded to end the conversation, and she went right back to the reports.

As a 5-year-old kid, I knew I understood more, I knew I asked the right questions. I knew it was strange, but somehow everything made sense for me, like, I wanted to know why, so I questioned it. If I knew I could ask why, wouldn’t I? I was on a different planet; scratch that, I wasn’t even on a planet, I was on a moon, with people I had never seen, people I could feel were bad people or not, so I had to be smart.

My dad wasn’t always there to protect me.

“Miss Grace, if you don’t mind, I have a question.”

“Shoot it.”

“Would a flower die here in the base? One from outside.”

“Yeah, it would live just for some minutes, it needs the proper “oxygen” to live.”

I hummed. It was a shame.

“So, let’s do it, kid. I’m gonna teach you today about the most important people in the clan right now.”

“The ones you showed dad earlier, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right, and while we are on it, I’m going to teach more na’vi too.”

Well, at least I wouldn’t do anything.

And that’s how we spent our day, Grace taught me about Mo’at, Eytukan, Neytiri, and Tsu’tey.

Mo’at was the tsahik, and Neytiri became tsakarem after her sister Sylwanin's death.

Eytukan was the clan leader, olo’eyktan, and Tsu’tey would one day follow his steps, he was already training to become one.

Tsu’tey also had a mother, Artsut, a dad, Ateyo and a younger brother, Arvok. Funny enough, Tsu’tey was the only member of their family to have a name that didn’t start with an a.

After teaching me who was who, while also teaching me more na’vi, we went to eat lunch, and a thought came to my head: How was dads human body going to eat lunch? Was he just going to eat more at dinner? It’s the first time I thought about it.

But anyway, that’s his problem, not mine.

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After lunch, we went back to the lab, and Grace taught me more na’vi. To be honest, the language wasn’t difficult, I just needed to pay attention, and I could feel I was getting better and better each day.

“Miss Grace, can I ask you a favor?”

She was looking into a microscope.

“It depends.”

“Everytime you talk to me, you talk in na’vi, please? So I can practice it more.”

“Well, look at that, okay then.”

And then, it began, from that moment, Grace only talked to me in na’vi.

Grace was a really good person, I loved her.

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By night, I was eating dinner, usually at this hour dad was already with me, but he was taking his sweet time.

But at the same time I was eating dinner, Max saw something that would put us in a difficult situation in the future.

Soon, dad came to the cafeteria. I was sitting with my back facing the buffet, so I didn’t see him coming, but soon someone came and put their hands in front of my eyes, blocking my vision.

“Guess who?”

“PAPAI!” I talked loud and turned back to see him, “Hiiii! How was your day? Did you have fun? Are they treating you well?” I shoot question after question.

“Wow, wow, wow, calm down, little miss!” He grinned. “I should be the one asking these questions!”

“But, papai, I need to know if someone is bullying you! I will have to go beat them!" Dad looked at me and arched an eyebrow. I could hear Xiáng laughing beside us.

“Liánhuā, you would never beat someone up. Let alone a na’vi, you’re too little for that.” Xiáng says while laughing.

“Well… Not actually beat them but give them a mean stare.” I murmured a little shyly.

“Don’t worry, ipê, I know you’re capable of beating some people up for your dad’s sake, but let’s not beat the omatikaya, alright? If someone is beating papai, he’s probably deserving it.”

“That’s not true! How can you say that?! You’re the best papai of the world! No, not the world, the universe!”

Dad had a huge smile on his face.

“Oooooh, so I’m the best papai of the universe?” I nodded my head "yes". “Then you’re the best daughter in the universe too!” He said while grabbing me, sitting me on his lap, and hugging me tight while giving my head kisses. I laughed so much that I ran out of breath.

“Have mercy! Have mercy! Someone heeeeelp.”

I could only hear the people around us laughing.

I wish to remember that moment forever.

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In the next few days, I discovered that we were going to a research station in the middle of the Hallelujah Mountains. I did not know the reason why, just that I, dad, Grace, Norm, and Trudy were going, I found it strange.

I was in the lab room with Xiáng. Since it was our last day together, she wanted

“Aww, liánhuā, I wanted to spend more time with you, we had so little time together.” Xiáng complained to me.

“I’m going to miss you too, Xiáng. Thank you for everything you have been doing for me, but I’m sure we can sometimes call each other!” Xiáng laughed.

“I don’t think you’ll have time for that, but I’m sure we will manage.” She smiled at me.

I’m going to miss her, she’s amazing and so sweet to me.

“I’m sure we will have eternity together, Xiáng!”

She gave me a tight hug.

“I hope Pandora is kind to you, my little flower.” And then, the older woman gave me a kiss on the top of my head.

“Everyone is kind to me, Xiáng, I’m simply too cute!” I gave her a big smile, and she laughed out loud.

“That’s true!”

My dad came to us and smiled.

“Xiáng, I wanted to thank you for taking care of Iara when I couldn’t, it means more than I can put into words.” He looked at her.

“Don’t worry about it, your daughter is the sweetest little girl on this moon. It's hard to resist her when she asks with those pretty green eyes.” Xiáng had her hands on both sides of my face, then gave me a kiss on my temple, and I smiled at her. My dad laughed.

“Ha, that’s true, she’s the sweetest.” He looked at me and smiled. “So, you’re going to spend our last day here with Xiáng? I’m going to link, so I don’t mind.”

“Then yes, I’m going to spend the day with Xiáng.”

“Okay then, just give me a kiss on the cheek and then you’re free to go.”

I sat down on his lap and hugged him tight, giving him the kiss he demanded. I looked up at him.

“Happy now?” Dad also gave me a kiss on my temple and hugged me back.

“Yes, very happy! Now you can go to Xiáng.” He started rolling his chair to the link bed. “Are you going to protect me if someone bullies me at the clan?” He asked.

“You know I’m going to beat them up and then stare at them with a mean face!”

“That’s my girl! See you later, baby.”

“See you later, dad!”

And then my dad was putting himself up at the bed with Max putting commands at the control station this time.

“So, what do you want to do today? "I have cleared my schedule so we can spend the day doing whatever you want."

“Well… Can you teach me some more na’vi and chinese too? Grace has only been talking to me in na’vi for a couple of days now. I think I’m getting better at it, but I need to practice more.”

“So, more na’vi coming right up! "I'm going to get my tablet so I can show you some pictures. I’ll be right back."

And then, that’s how we spent my last day on the base, Xiáng teaching me more na’vi and me getting the hang of it.

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The next day, we were with our packs filled, dad and I already at the helicopter, outside, waiting for the rest of the team to come.

I was sitting on dads lap when an older man came to us. I had never seen him, but feeling dad tense below me, I already knew he wasn’t good news.

“Sully! Look at that, we have two of you! But it’s the first time I’m meeting the little lady. What’s your name, sweetheart?” The older men asked me. He was a white guy, military, with some muscles, blue eyes, and a scar across his head and face.

“Hello, sir! I’m Iara Sully, almost six-year-old!” I gave him a big smile.

“Wow! Almost six?! You’re turning into a big girl! What are your plans for your birthday?”

“I just want to spend the day with dad!” Talking about him, I could feel his arms rounding my waist to hold me.

“What a sweet kid… You’re lucky, marine, you have been teaching her well; better keep it.”

“I’ll make sure of it, don’t worry.”

“I’m sure I won’t have to…” The men looked at me again. “By the way, I’m Miles Quaritch, sweetheart. I hope you have a safe trip.”

“Thank you, sir! I hope you have a good day!” He smiled at me and turned around, walking away.

“He looks like a grandpa; how is he still working? Shouldn’t he retire?” My dad laughed a little.

“He sure does look like one, ipê, but yeah, I think she should retire too.”

About ten minutes later, I saw Grace, Trudy, Norm, and Max coming towards us.

"Are you all ready to go?” Trudy asked.

“Yes, ma’am!” I replied.

“That’s what I want to hear! Let’s go little lady, you’re going to see amazing things today!”

Trudy then got up into the helicopter, Grace's and Norm's avatars were already in the open compartment. My dad was at the omatikaya still.

“Well then, guys, talk to you later to see if you made a safe trip.”

“You worry too much, Max, get off my feet a little, I didn’t come here to be babysat." Grace replied.

“Thank you, Grace, now I know how much you care about me.” Grace answered with a roll of her eyes and a sigh, but she clapped Max on his shoulders and got into the helicopter too. Thinking a little about it, I think Grace was a bit worried about leaving Max behind.

“Bye, Max! "Talk to you later!" I told him.

“Bye, Iara. I would tell you to behave, but you always do, so try to cause a little mischief, but not much.” I laughed out loud and giggled a bit.

“You got it, Max! But I don’t make promises.” Max also laughed a little and waved me goodbye; I waved back.

I got into the helicopter with Norm and Grace’s help, while dad was also getting out of his wheelchair into the helicopter with Max’s help. After helping dad, Max got his wheelchair into the helicopter, and Norm got into it, going to the sealed cockpit besides Trudy.

“Bye, guys, have a safe trip!” Max told us, and I, dad and Grace weaved at him while seated in the jump seats, with the safety on.

“You okay there, babygirl? Is the mask alright?”

“Yes, dad, don’t worry.”

“Okay now, kid, put this headphone on too.” Grace helped me put it on, then she also put hers on. “Can you hear me, kid?”

“Yes, Miss Grace.”

“Good, whenever you want to, Trudy.”

“Let’s get this show on the road.”

Trudy then started the helicopter, and soon we were getting out of the base.

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I could see everything from up here.

Everything was green and beautiful.

Many flying animals and clouds and the big and blue sky and the planet Polyphemus, it was gigantic.

“It only takes tiny inputs. Here, put your hand on the cyclic --” We heard Trudy talk to Norm. “Feel how small the moves are? You barely have to think it, and the aircraft reacts.” Thinking back, Trudy was horrible to say this in front of a 5-year-old child.

The helicopter was dwarfed by enormous arches of rock.

“See these magnetic formations. We’re getting close.” Grace said.

“Yeah, we are. "Look at my instruments."

On the dash, many of the displays were fritzing out.

“Yup. We’re in the flux vortex.”

Ahead, a cloud bank parted, revealing the Hallelujah Mountains, right in front of us. Various kinds of mountains just floating around us, some of them even with waterfalls. It was amazing and surreal.

“Oh. My. God.” Norm said.

Maybe it was the work of Eywa, and not God.

My dad leaned forward between the seatbacks to look out at the front canopy.

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.

Watterfalls streamed down from the sides and dissolved into spray at the bottom, and my dad was looking at all of that with amazement in his eyes. For him, it was awe-inspiring and disturbing.

Trudy turned to him, grinning.

“You should see your face.”

Soon we reached the research station, the helicopter landed, beating the grass, and we hopped out of it.

Entering the station, Norm and Trudy help my dad with his chair as they cycle in through the airlock. Grace is already inside, starting everything. She turns on the lights and equipment.

We see 4 bunks, a clutter of science gear, and, through a short connecting corridor, three link beds in the second module.

“Where am I going to sleep?” I asked.

“Tonight you’re sleeping with me, baby. Tomorrow we will see where you will sleep, okay?” I nodded my head, and I also saw Grace and my dad exchanging looks.

“Jake, take number two, it’s the least glitchy. Norm, I need you to operate Jake’s link.”

Norm glared at my dad as he passed.

“Hey. You got a problem?”

Norm turned to grace, rage boiling over every fiber of his being.

“I trained three years for this mission. I speak the language fluently.” He then points at my dad. “He falls off the frickin’ turnip truck and all of a sudden he’s a cultural ambassador!?”

“It’s not our choice, Norm.”

He glowered at my dad.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t come out here to wash the dishes while you’re on some interspecies booty call.”

He stalked off.

“He can’t go far.” Grace said and then pointed at my father's new link bed. “Let’s get you in.”

My dad wheeled to the bed, and I went after him, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then went to his bunk bed, sitting down on it. Trudy was eating a yogurt she got from the fridge with some pictures in it. Not even five minutes later, Grace came to the module.

“Well, Iara, we have a lot of things to do here. Do you mind studying na’vi today alone?” I shook my head. “Great, at night, when your father comes back, we will have a talk, okay? You don’t have to worry about it, it’s nothing serious.” I nodded my head this time.

Grace gave me a tablet, and I got my legs up into the bed, grabbing the pillow and hugging it to my chest, getting the tablet to work, and searching about the language. Soon I opened a folder with videos and images explaining the language, and I got into work.

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Hours later, when dad got out of the link, took a shower, and ate something, he came to me.

“Hey, baby, can we talk?”

I set the tablet down.

Grace was already besides us, hearing my dad question.

“So… I think Grace already told you about the omatikaya wanting to know you, right?” I nodded yes. “Okay, great, so tomorrow, Grace is going to take you out, with her avatar, to a place where you’re going to meet me in my avatar body, okay? Some people are probably going to be with me, some na’vis, but not many of them, so you don’t need to be scared, okay?”

“That’s okay papai, don’t worry about it, I’m a big girl!” I smiled at him, and I could see a faint smile on Grace’s face.

“Good! "We are going to take some oxygen tanks so you don’t run out of it, okay?" I nodded yes again.

“That's my girl! So tomorrow, after we eat breakfast, I’m going to link in the avatar body, you’re going to change clothes, brush your teeth, and then go out with Grace and Trudy okay? Trudy is going with you too, to get you there.”

“Okay! I can’t wait to see both of you on your avatars' bodies! ” I said excitedly. I couldn’t wait to be in the forest.

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The forest was enormous. Everything was giant.

Ot maybe I was too little.

Trudy left us, me and Grace, at one point in the forest, Norm stayed behind to do some work, and we went ahead.

Everything was amazing, the plants, the flowers, and even some insects (and I already hate them in human size, imagine the ones almost the same size as me, I was terrified of finding them).

I was walking beside Grace, holding her tail so I wouldn’t get lost, we just got out of the helicopter and walked straight a bit.

“Hey, little miss!” Trudy called out to me and I turned to her. “Good luck out there!”

“Thank you, Trudy! See you later!" I told her.

Grace was carrying a backpack filled with oxygen tanks for my mask on her back, she looked down at me and asked:

“Are you ready to go? They are probably already getting there.”

“Yes, let’s go, Miss Grace.”

We started walking towards the meeting spot.

“Is it okay to be a little nervous?”

“Yes, kid, don’t worry, I’m a little nervous too.”

Somehow, Grace’s words comforted me.

As we walked through the forest, Grace helped me sometimes, as some tree branches were too tall for me, or I would stray from it.

“Well, we are getting there. You ready, kid?”

“Not really.” I answered her. I was actually really nervous, what if they didn’t like me?”

Soon, we reached a clearing, maybe we walked for ten minutes, or less, just a straight line, nothing more or less. Many trees were around it, flowers and vines too.

By the way, I only reached Grace's knees.

After a few seconds, we heard some noises and got alert, and then I heard:

“Ipê!!! "I missed you!" I saw my dad's avatar coming down from a tree, in little clothing and a bow across his torso.

I let go of Grace's tail and went to him.

“Papai! "I missed you too!"

He got down and opened his arms to hug me, and I threw myself on him. I tried to hug him really tight, but my arms couldn’t even go around him. Grace was coming towards us and passed the backpack to my dad.

“Thank you for bringing her, Grace.”

“You’re welcome, marine. I’m going back now. Bye Iara, see you later, take care of your dad.”

“Bye, Miss Grace! See you later, thank you!”

I smiled at her, and I could see a faint smile on her face too, she turned around and went back to the place we came from.

“Why can’t she go with us, papai?”

“She wasn’t invited yet, baby.”

I hummed. Maybe I could change that.

“But enough talk! Let’s go meet other people!” He grabbed and sat me down on his arm, and I held onto the strap of the backpack.

“Did anyone come with you?”

“Yeah, they are just hiding, they didn’t want to see Grace yet.” Oh, okay then.

After a few paces, I heard some noises of plants being moved around, and then a lady came in front of us.

Neytiri.

She was around 8’7, obviously blue, and had big golden eyes.

She had black hair in braids, with some small tribal ornaments, she also looked like a warrior, like her dad.

Neytiri was tense, she looked at me trying to decipher a code, I was something she couldn’t understand.

She knew I was 5, but I looked much smaller than na’vi children, almost like a baby, she didn’t know how to react, maybe she expected something else, I don’t know.

But I looked at her and said:

“Kaltxì, Neytiri.”

hi guys! it's finally here! I'm sorry for the wait, but the chapters are probably coming out every two weeks. I only have time to write on the weekends (when I have it).

Summary: Jake Sully only wanted the best for his daughter. It's the least he could do after he insisted he wanted that child. Iara Sully is everything to him. She is his daughter, his duo, his life saver, his ipê.

taglist: @oceanfyre @7leo7 @cmalass

Chapter 2

It’s a little difficult to remember everything that happened at that time, but after dad was put in the machine, Max initiated the link between the bodies. Soon, he wouldn’t be stuck in a chair anymore; he would walk, run, and get up on his feet again.

Could we really call the avatar his body?

“That’s a gorgeous brain. Nice activity.” Max said about dad.

“Go figure.” She starts to walk towards her pod link. “Alright, I’m going in.”

“Wait! Miss Grace, Miss Grace!” I called her while speed walking in her direction.

“What is it, kid?” She asks me while sitting on her link bed.

“Can I go see my dad? While he is in the avatar body?” I asked with hope in my eyes. The opportunity of seeing my father in his new body, all blue and tall, maybe I could finally see him with a new light in his eyes.

Grace stared at my face, and I don’t think she knew what to do about me. I was a question without an answer, a little girl with a deadbeat dad who was trying his best to give his daughter the best. But, unfortunately, to all involved in the case, “the best” was a moon years away from their home. Deep down, I think Grace pitied us. Me especially. But she knew my dad loved me and would kill anyone who dared to touch a single hair strand on my head.

“Someone get her to meet me outside!” Grace barked the orders, and I squealed while hugging her fast. At such a young age, I already had love for my life. She looked disturbed for a moment, and after regaining her senses, she went back to lying down on the link bed.

“You’re brave, kid. No one would ever live to tell a tale of hugging Grace and coming out alive, but here you are!” Max joked with me, and I giggled. “But let’s go, they are already in their avatars bodies, let’s go meet them.”

Max started walking towards the exit of the link room, and I started following him. Soon, we came up to the exit of the facility, which was a medium-sized room with two doors, one to keep us inside and the other to keep Pandora outside. The room had some health equipment, like med-kits and some exopacks. While we stared at the door that would open us to the moon, he grabbed an exopack for himself and one for me.

“Do you already know how to put one?” I shook my head from left to right to let him know that I didn’t. “It’s okay, here, I’ll teach you.” He grabbed the spare one he wasn’t using, put a little square thing in a seatbelt on my hips, grabbed the mask, and put it on my face. “Do you feel this button right here?” He took my hand to the button at the end of the mask, and I shook my head yes. “After putting the mask on, you need to press it, okay? So you can breathe oxygen. If you ever go outside without the mask and breathe Pandora’s air, you’ll get sick very quickly, and if you’re not close to the facility, we can’t help you get better, okay? When going outside, you always need to be using the mask, alright?” Max explained to me, and I understood. At that point, Max's fate was sealed; he was going to be my uncle, I had decided.

After putting on his exopack, he pressed the button to open the door that would lead us to Pandora, and after it opened, I was blind for a moment; everything outside was too bright. I put my left hand in front of my eyes, and with my right hand, I grabbed Max’s left hand. He looked at me, and after realizing the sun was blinding me, he let out a laugh and started to guide me towards Grace and my dad.

What I didn’t know was that my dad was giving people a headache already.

Max and I passed by a plantation of Pandora’s fruits and vegetables, I believe, and then by some avatars doing drills, others playing basketball, and finally, we reached where my dad woke up. Max came up to the front of the door, and it opened. Inside, we saw bright artificial light, some doctors, and two beds, but lying on one of them, I only saw Norm.

“Where is my dad?” I asked out loud, confused.

Norm and the doctors looked at us; they had exasperated faces on, they already looked tired, but it was probably only 10 in the morning.

“Hey, sweetheart, your dad just gave me the run of my life. After he woke up and gained his feelings, he got up and started walking, got out of the room, and started running out of here.”

It makes sense, after gaining all of his feelings again, he definitely would try to get up and walk and run. If I were in his shoes, I would too.

“It’s okay, Norm, did you see where he went at least?” I asked him.

“Sorry, Iara, I couldn’t really see where he headed to, but he walked a straight line out of here.”

“Oh, he’s probably with Grace right now. I should have gone straight there instead of bringing her here. Let’s go, Iara, let’s go find your dad.”

‘Well, Grace did tell to get me to her and not to my dad’, I thought. Max held out his hand for me to grab, and after I grabbed it, we started heading out.

“See you later, Norm!” I said to him over my right shoulder.

“Bye, Iara!”

Max started to walk a straight line, just like Norm told us he did. We passed by the avatars playing basketball, the others running drills, and then we reached the plantation again. This time, we walked through it, and soon I saw a huge cabin. How I didn’t notice it the first time we passed by, I don’t know.

“They must be inside.” Max said. And his words became truth. When we went inside the cabin, we saw Grace, my dad, and a few other people, and some other avatars. My dad was sitting in one of the beds with Grace scolding him. My 5 year old body, soul, and thoughts couldn’t contain their excitement. I would recognize my dad every lifetime, every body, and shape he would ever possess. When my eyes caught his blue body, I screamed happily:

“PAPAI!” And I ran to him.

Grace and he looked startled, then came relief, and my dad opened one of his brightest and biggest smiles. I let go of Max's hand and started to run towards my dad, who was in one of the beds in the middle of the cabin, his body facing the direction of the door.

“Look who it is! My little ipê!” Dad looked at me, and when I got close, he made grabby hands towards me, and I threw myself into my dad, he craddled me to his chest, and I was barely the size of his whole arm. It was insane.

“Daddy! You’re tall and blue now!” I said laughing, and he laughed with me.

“Yes, baby, now I can carry everywhere, we won’t need the chair anymore! I’ll be racing you soon enough, and we can even try to climb trees!” My dad said while tickling me. I laughed so hard, I swear I could pee in that moment.

“Alright, you two, stop it. I need Jake to train his new body, and you, little miss, are going to stand beside me to make sure your dad is doing everything alright. Sounds good?” Grace asked us.

My dad and I looked at each other and smiled. Being outside, near my dad, looking at other avatars and what they were doing? This was amazing. I looked at Grace and nodded while smiling. My dad let out a laugh and tried to kiss my cheek, but the mask wouldn’t let him. He let out a frustrated sigh and kissed the top of my head.

“Love you, little ipê.”

“I love you too, papai.”

I didn’t know that Grace was looking at us with a fond smile.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

After seeing my dad doing many tests and running some drills, the day finally ended, and while Grace was putting the avatars to go to sleep in the cabin, Max and I went back inside the base towards the link room.

Max went to my father’s link bed, with me right behind him, and right when we got there, Max started to mess with the machine, my dad lifted the hood. I looked at his face, he looked at mine, and we smiled at each other.

“Hi babygirl.”

“Hi daddy. Did you miss me?”

“I’m never going to miss you, because you are always right beside me.” He answered me with fond eyes.

I giggled, then he got up in the bed and grabbed his wheelchair. I stepped back a little so as not to disturb him. Soon, he was in the chair, and we started going to the cafeteria. I was really hungry, the last thing I remembered eating was breakfast, before dad went to the link. He tried to force me to go inside to eat lunch, but I stuck myself to his leg and didn’t let go. At the end, he gave up and went back to the drills while trying to keep an eye on me. But Grace was already doing a good job at it, because when I tried to reach for a tablet to try to read some information, she turned to me and made a “no” with her head.

As we reached the place, it was filled with people, from soldiers to scientists to architects, and many more. Dad picked up a tray, and I grabbed another. He filled his with things he wanted and mine with things I wanted. I was a picky eater.

“Can you carry your tray to the table, babygirl?” Dad asked me.

“I don’t think so, daddy, sorry.” I mumbled, a little embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it. So, here’s what we’re gonna do, my tray is going to my lap, and your tray is going to my hands, and you’re going to push my chair. Is that okay with you?”

“Yes, daddy.”

And he did just that, put his tray on his lap, mine on his hands, and I started to push him towards a table where a woman was already seated.

When we reached her, I gathered courage and asked:

“Hi miss, do you mind if we sit?”

“Well, look at this, a kid on Pandora. Go ahead, sweetheart. Will your dad need a chair too, or just you?” She joked.

Dad let a sigh through his nose and put our trays on the table.

“Name is Jake Sully, and this is Iara. I work for Dr. Augustine.”

“Ah, so you’re one of the new guys. Welcome to the moon, I’m Trudy. Trudy Chacón. SecOps captain.”

“We are calling the shots now? Jake Sully, avatar driver. Iara Sully, Jake’s Sully first daughter.”

Adults are weird.

“You’re a funny man, Jake Sully, I’m sure we are going to get along just well. And this little lady right here? I’m going to teach her everything that I know about where they stock the best candies.” Trudy said while looking at dad, and then at me. I couldn’t help but let a giggle get out.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It was difficult, for a long time, to understand what I was supposed to do.

What I should do, actually.

My dad was going out there, trying to give us a better life, and I was here, stuck in a place where people didn’t know what to do with me, but I was still lucky.

Blessed.

I found my way to some people who tried to understand me, help me, teach me.

The first ever person was Zhì Xiáng.

Zhì Xiáng is a chinese woman who came to the RDA to study Pandora’s botany, like Grace, and she is one of the kindest women I have ever seen.

She is 5’3, with black hair and dark eyes, but in the sun, they look brighter. Xiáng is thin, thinner than most actually. I think if a storm passes, she will go with it.

Most importantly, Zhì Xiáng is kind, bright and smart.

If I want to ask her about something personal, she will have an opinion, and I’ll try to follow it, if I want to know about China or Pandora, she’ll have an answer on the tip of her tongue, if I want to know more about Brasil, she would teach me.

Grace Augustine opened a door to my dad.

Zhì Xiáng opened a window to me.

The person who opened my door, would come later in my life.

In the next morning, my dad told me he would be busy, but would meet me in the link room. WHen he woke, he woke me too and helped me get dressed, but I went back to sleep after getting ready because he told me someone would come to get me later.

This person was Zhì Xiáng.

About an hour later, Zhì Xiáng knocked on the door and I woke up.

“Wait a minute!” I called out to her and got up from the bed. I went to the door and opened it.

“Hi Iara! Nice to meet you, I’m Zhì Xiáng! Grace asked me yesterday to take you to the cafeteria for breakfast, and then we are going to the link room! Sounds good?” I nodded my head and then stepped outside to close the door, after doing so, I started following Xiáng to the cafeteria.

When we got there, it was packed like the night before, we grabbed our trays and started to fill our plates with food.

“Can you carry it to the table, or do you want me to do it?” Xiáng asked me. I was so embarrassed by the possibility of her doing it for me, because I’m not able to, that I told her I would do it.

And I did! We walked side by side, my tray in my hands and my trembling like a leaf, but trying my hardest to do it, and I did! Soon we reached a table with some other people, scientists, people who Xiáng knew, but I never bothered to know their names. We sat down, me putting the tray down first and then sitting, and Xiáng sitting down while also putting down her tray.

“So, your dad is going out today, somewhere you can’t go, do you already know what you’re going to do while he is out?” I nodded my head no. The truth is, I never cared to ask, and dad never cared to tell me. I think he didn’t even know what to do with me while he was out.

“Well, in this case, what about you stay with me, and I can teach you some things about this place? What do you think?” Xiáng asked me.

“Hmm… Do you know how to speak Na’vi?”

“I know, do you want me to teach you?”

“If you can, yes, please.” I answered her.

Xiáng nodded her head, and I got really excited. I wanted to learn more, to understand more, to see.

After we finished eating and putting our trays in their respective places, we went to the link room. When we got there, dad, Grace, Norm and Max were in a circle discussing plans about the out going the were going to do. Grace, Norm and dad would be going, Norm was going to stay behind to see how things were going to operate.

“Baby! Hi! How are you doing?” My father saw me getting closer with Xiáng behind me and stopped talking to them to give me attention.

“Hi daddy! I’m doing fine, Xiáng is going to teach me a little bit of Na’vi, I’m so excited!” Behind me, Xiáng waved to my dad and he waved back to her.

“That’s awesome, baby! You’re already so much better than daddy. I’m going out today, and if I find someone who speaks Na’vi, I won’t be able to talk to them, but if you ever find someone, you’ll be able to! You’re so much smarter than daddy, I’m so proud of you.” While he spoke, he grabbed me and put me on his lap and hugged me.

“You’re silly daddy, I’m not smarter than you. Maybe someday, but not today.” He laughed out loud, and I heard someone giggle beside us.

“Oooh is that how it's going to be? You’re going to be sassy with your old man?!” H turned to me seriously. “Then you’re going to be punished.”

He started to tickle me.

I don’t know what my father's problem is, but he loved to tickle me, whatever I did, whatever I said, he would tickle me.

And I loved every single second of it.

I loved every single millisecond my father spent with me.

I loved him. He was everything to me.

When he stopped, I was out of breath, he waited a little bit before started talking to me again.

“Baby, today I’m going out with Grace and Norm, I don1t think I will take tooooo long, but maybe I’ll be back just after the moon has gone up, okay? You don’t have to wait for me, if you want, you can go to sleep, alright, ipê?”

“It’s okay, papai, you can take years, and I will always wait for you.”

He looked at me with fond eyes.

“I will live a hundred lives and never deserve a daughter as sweet as you.” His right hand was caressing the left side of my face.

“I will live a hundred lives and always choose to be your daughter.” I told him.

After our sweet moment came to an end, my dad kissed me on my head and then went to the link bed, I followed him there, and when he got himself comfortable, I also kissed him.

“See you later, papai.”

“See you later, ipê.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

While dad was gone, I stayed with Xiáng and she started teaching me Na’vi while also working.

“So, Iara, I’m going to teach you while I work, because while I don’t mind having you here with me, I need to keep my job!” She said while logging on her computer and then opening some archives. In one of them, there was an image of a forest; it was dark, but the whole place was illuminated by some sparkles. “You see these things illuminating the forest? They are called syuratan, in english we say bioluminescent. Repeat after me, syuratan.”

I repeated after Xiáng, and we stayed like that the whole day. While she worked, she spoke some Na’vi words to me, and after a little time, she gave me a notebook and a pen to write it all down. I had to ask her how to write a lot of words, since, well, I was still learning how to write, but Xiáng had the patience of a Saint.

Syuratan, yomioang, kllpxiwll, pxorna', paywll.

For the inhabitants of this moon, we were called tawtue, Xiáng taught me. They have a spiritual leader called tsahik, and a clan leader called olo’eyktan or olo’eykte, for women.

Everything was new and fascinating. I loved every single second of my time with Xiáng.

After many hours like that with her, it was already dark outside when Grace and Norm were back to their human bodies. I got close, knowing that dad would come out at any second now, but Grace and Norm were nervous, and when Grace’s eyes layed upon me, I knew something had happened.

“Hey, Iara, let me ask you a question.” Grace got close to me and knelt to look at me properly. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how good is your dad at getting out of bad situations?”

“10. Trust him, Miss Grace. If there is someone who can get out of a terrible situation with a smile on their face, is dad.”

To be honest, Grace looked like she would pass out at any moment. She looked at the clock every ten minutes. She was nervous as hell, and she was making everyone else nervous too, but I knew what I said, we could trust dad. The worse it could happen was him losing a finger or two, but he would come back alive.

And it was said and done. Two hours of Grace, Norm and Max arguing with one another if it would be the best if they got my dad out of the link bed by force, dad woke up.

Grace went to him running, and Xiáng was right behind me when I got close to him too.

When they opened the link bed and started to help him get his consciousness back, the first thing he said was

“Iara, where is she? Where is my daughter?”

Grace and Norm looked behind them and I was right there, Grace put one of her hands behind my back and got me close to my dad.

“Hi daddy, I’m right here! You scared us.” I told him.

“It’s alright babygirl, I’m right here now.” He looked like he was waking up from a long nap, slurring the words a little, but we could see he was fine.

From behind me, Grace asked:

“Is the avatar safe?”

Hello everyone! Here is the first chapter of my Avatar fanfic. You'll find the summary down below.

Special thanks to:

@just-another-idk - "the eldest" is a masterpiece

@heynyxiepixie - "polished fangs" hits differently

@ladysoupmuncher - "rise of the dragon dreamer" makes me want to punch men's faces

Summary: Jake Sully only wanted the best for his daughter. It's the least he could do after he insisted he wanted that child. Iara Sully is everything to him. She is his daughter, his duo, his life saver, his ipê.

Iara: ee-AH-rah

Ipê: ee-PEH

word acc: 3.6k

Chapter 1

The thing about love is that it comes to you when you least expect.

Love had found me when she came into my life. She was the tinniest baby I had ever seen, and she was perfect. Hazel green eyes, a small tuft of red hair on the top of her head, and her chubby little hands.

All I ever wanted in my sorry-ass life was a single thing worth fighting for. And she was it.

Iara was born in the year 2143, tenth month, and she was perfect, my little baby girl.

Iara’s mother was a brazilian woman I had met while on a mission some years ago. We became sort of friends, and on a night of heavy drinking together, with some other ex-colleagues, came our baby. She had told me she didn’t want contact with us; she already had a family in Brazil, and I had convinced her I would take care of the baby, raise her. Forty-one weeks later, Iara was born. She came out of the womb, went to the doctor’s arms, and then finally mine.

After our parents’ deaths, my brother's and my lives were already a little hard. I know I didn’t make the smartest choices, but I would try, for her; she deserves it, she didn’t ask to be born, so, from now on, everything is about her, for her.

And, for our unlucky asses, the strong prey on the weak. A guy with a knife took all Tommy would ever be, for the paper in his wallet.

“You see, Jake, your brother represented a significant investment. We’d like to talk to you about taking over his contract.”

The box with Tommy’s corpse was sealed with a tape dispenser, like it’s a package for shipping. The cardboard coffin is rolled into the furnace.

“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.”

I watched my twin’s body being engulfed by the bright orange light.

“Me - I was just another dumb grunt gettin’ sent someplace I was gonna regret. And I have a 5 year old daughter, she would have to come with me, she doesn’t have anyone else, her last relative alive, besides me, is burning right there.”

“Yes, we know about your daughter, your brother liked to talk about her, had a couple of pictures of both of you in his office, we talked about this with the high-ups, and they said they would make an exception for your case. She can come, but you will have to be aware of the risks.”

“Say it.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I woke up with a sharp breath, trying to remember for a moment where I was, and then, everything came back. Tommy, the Avatar program, the ship, and the most important - Iara. I didn’t know what to expect. They told me that putting her into cyro would mess with her - our body, and she would age so little that it would be like a couple of months had passed instead of 6 years.

She should be 11, but she would still be 5, almost 6.

Yeah, maybe we will deal with something in the future.

I hope not.

“Are we there yet?” I asked the med tech in a hoarse whisper.

“We’re there, Sunshine. Come wake your daughter with me.”

He helped me get out of my capsule, and after getting the feeling of my limbs again, it must have taken about 10 minutes, we went to wake my baby. The med tech pointed to the capsule above mine.

“Do you want to wake her, or do you want me to do it? You just need to press this button right here.” The guy said while pointing to a red button.

“I’m gonna do it.” I answered him. He nodded with his head and gestured to the button with his head.

“Go ahead.” And I did.

I pressed the button and waited for 5 minutes while the capsule began shutting off. When it stopped and opened itself, I saw her.

She didn’t look even a few seconds older than she was when we left Earth.

She opened her eyes and looked at me.

“Hi daddy.” Iara said with a big smile on her face.

“Hi, babygirl. Did you sleep well?” I asked while running my right hand through her face.

“I did! I even dreamed about this lady in the water, singing! I think she was a mermaid.” She answered while sitting up on the capsule. Or trying to because of the lack of gravity. The med tech guy looked at her, then she started to float a little. I kept one hand holding her. “I’m so excited! I get to discover a whole new planet, daddy! And we are together! I just wish uncle Tommy were here with us. I miss him so much, and he would be so happy too! And I would get him to teach me Na’vi.”

“Wow, baby, don’t need to rush, we have all the time in the world now. We are going to do everything together.”

“Do you promise?” She asked.

“Damn right I do.” I answered her.

“Papai! Bad word, don’t say it!” Iara scolded me.

“Sorry, sorry.”

While we were in our own little world, the med tech guy, seeing that everything was alright with us, moved on to the next person and started waking them up.

Soon, we heard the voice of another guy in charge.

“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 nauseated, please use the sacks provided for your convenience. The staff thanks you in advance.”

I took Iara's hand in mine and started floating to our locker. Since we came in two, we shared it. Iara was amazed by everything, her hair floating around, the people around us, all that technology, just everything.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The ship started heading towards the largest moon of the Polyphemeus planet, which they called Pandora. Looking at it from this distance, everything is blue, unlike Earth, where everything is grey.

We passed through sapphire seas and unknown continents of the moon; it was insane to think this place really existed, and we were going to live on it now. I was doing all of it for her.

I was back in my wheelchair, with Iara on my lap, me adjusting her mask - they called it exopack, actually - so she could breathe the air. She was calm, but looking around at everything, taking all these military-like things in the aircraft (is this named an aircraft? At this point, I feel like I don’t know anything anymore).

“Are you feeling okay, baby?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“If you start to feel anything, you have to tell me, okay? You don’t have to keep anything from me. I’m here to help you, okay?” I tried to assure her (or me, I was so nervous that if I still had my legs, they would feel like jelly right now, so many things could go wrong, I have to make everything right so she can have a good life).

“Don’t worry, papai, if I feel anything I’ll tell you, but you must tell me too, okay? So I can help you!” She told me with the most serious face ever. I would kill and die for Iara, and sometimes, as she is growing up, I feel like she would do the same for me.

There has been a couple of times, where kids her age would make fun of her - of us - because I’m disable, and one time, a boy was making fun of her for only having me, and me being sutck on a wheelchair, she turned to the boy and said: “Well, at least I have my dad with me, where are your parents? I only see that old man with you, is he your grandpa?” The man was the boy’s butler. He went home crying, and when he got home, there was only his nanny there for him. I didn’t know if I should be proud of her or feel bad for the boy. Karma really came quickly for him.

“Thank you, baby, I already feel better knowing that I can count on my ipê to protect and take care of me.” I said to her and then kissed her cheek.

“You don’t need to worry, papai, I will always be here with you. We are a team!”

I don’t know how she is part of me. All my good genes must have gone to her. She is the sweetest kid I could ever have.

Soon, we heard the crew chief: “Exopacks on!” Everyone around us started putting theirs, me included. “Remember, people, you lose your mark, you’re unconscious in 20 seconds, and you’re dead in four minutes. Let nobody be dead today, it looks bad on my report.” He passed by Iara and me. “Exopack on, let’s go!”

The cardo ramp opens.

“Go directly into the base! Do not stop! Go straight inside!” The crew chief screams, so we can hear him.

Iara holds onto me by my shoulders, and I start rolling us down where people are going. We pass by some men inside some kind of machine that resembles a skeleton.

“Look at all that new meat.” One of them said.

“Check it out, man. Meals on a wheels with a kid.” The other answers.

“That is just wrong. I have seen a lotta guys leave this place in a wheelchair. Never seen anybody show up in one. With a kid, nonetheless.”

But Iara and I didn’t listen to a thing; we kept rolling and looking around. My kid looked at everything with apprehension in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, babygirl, daddy is here to protect you.” I told her, and she looked at me with a smile on her face.

What we didn’t know at that exact time was that a corporal was watching us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“… You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day.” I heard a man say while rolling Iara and me into the room.

He points out the window. “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.” Iara’s breath catches for a moment while her eyes grow big.

“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. We operate -- we live -- at a constant threat condition yellow.” Everyone held their breath for a second.

“As head of security, it’s my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed - not with all of you. If you wish to survive, you need a strong mental attitude, you need to follow procedure...”

Nothing like an old-school safety brief to put your mind at ease.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

While rolling Iara and me towards the direction I hope is right, a man comes up to us. He looked 6’0 or taller, white, brown hair, and was a nerd.

“Hey, you’re Jake, right? Tom’s brother? You look just like him.” I looked at him like he was crazy, and Iara pursed her eyebrows. “Sorry, I’m Norm Spellman, I went through avatar training with him. And you must be Iara! Your uncle Tommy talked about you all the time! You look exactly like the sweet girl he used to describe his niece!” He offered his hand for me to shake, and I took it. “He was a great guy -- funny. It was a big shock to all of us.”

“Yeah.” I go back to rolling my chair, and Norm follows us. Iara kept looking at him like he was kind of crazy, but she didn’t seem to mind him.

“And duh! -- obviously you look like him. I mean, if you weren’t genetically identical, you wouldn’t be taking over his avatar.”

“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why I’m here.”

“So -- you want to go check it out?”

“Check the avatar?!” Iara asks, and Norm agrees by shaking his head up and down. “Can we go, papai? Pretty please!” She makes the abandoned dog eye.

“How can I say no to these pretty eyes?” I ask her. “Show us the way.” I say to Norm.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

As we begin to enter the bio-lab, I can already see that this is a complex with some adjoining rooms. And then, another man comes up to us.

“Norm Spellmen? Jacob Sully?”

“Just Jake, please.” I answered him while Norm shook his head.

“Sorry, I will keep it in mind! And this little lady right here! You must be Iara Sully, right?” Max Patel was a light brown man with black hair and brown eyes, almost 5’9.

“Hi, Max! I’m Iara, my father’s daughter, and almost 6 years old!” Iara answered Max with a big smile on her face and showed him 6 fingers.

“Wow! You’re already 6 years old?! Give it some years, and you will pass my age, kid!”

“Oh, but I think it will take some time, no?” She tilts her head while Norm and I are trying to hold a laugh, he even looks the other way.

Max looks kind of shaken. “Yes, it will take some time… Anyways!” He started walking, and we started to follow him. “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.”

Soon, we came up to the containers holding the bodies. They were giant, and the bodies inside them seemed even bigger up close. Iara squirmed out of my lap into the ground and came close to one of them, I followed her.

“Damn. They got big.”

“Yeah, they mature on the trip out.” Norm turned to Max. “So the proprioceptive sims worked pretty well.”

“Yeah, they’ve got great muscle tone. Give us a few hours, you guys can take them for a spin.”

Iara and I were watching one of the bodies inside the tank.

“It looks like him.”

Iara turned to look at me.

“It looks like you, daddy.” She says with a serious face. It scared me, not gonna lie, this kid is too serious sometimes, she understands more than I give her credit for.

“She’s right, Jake, it looks like you. This is your avatar now.” Norm says to me, while looking at Iara with a smile on his face, which she returned.

I turned to the tank and watched the body, mesmerized.

“I want one too. Can I get one?” Max, Norm, and I laughed at the question. “Why are you guys laughing?! I’m serious!”

The idea is -- every driver is matched to his own avatar.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“-- so their nervous systems are in tune. Or something. Which is why they offered me this gig, because I can link with Tommy’s avatar, which was insanely expensive.” I looked at Norm and Max. Iara was with Norm, looking at what he was doing. “Is this right? I just say whatever in these videologs?”

“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. Good science starts with good observation.”

“Right.” I answer him and look back at the camera. “So, whatever. Here I am. Doing science.” I look around and stare at Iara. She feels my gaze on her and looks at me, and smiles. It’s the prettiest smile that has ever existed, and I smile back at her. “Never been in a lab before.”

“Log off. It’s time to meet your boss for the next five years.” Max said to me, I turned the camera off and started following him. Iara came up to me and tried to sit on my lap, I helped her. Max starts to lead us through the short corridor towards what I learned to be the link room. This is where the magic happens.

“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.”

“That's because she likes plants better than people.” Max says to us in a low whisper, and Iara starts to look at everything, marveling at the sight of high tech.

Soon, a white woman with auburn hair, brown eyes, and about 6’0 sits up in one of the links, stretching and cracking her neck. She’s around fifty years old, with a strong face and a look that tells me she’ll hate me the moment I open up my mouth.

I can only hope she likes Iara.

“Who’s got my goddamn cigarette?!” She yells.

A tech scurries to bring her the cigarette, and it’s already even lit. Wow. It seems like around here they jump when Grace barks. She stands, scowling and looking like she hates life, and, unfortunately, we start to approach her.

“And here she is, Cinderella back from the ball. Grace, I’d like you to meet Norm Spellman and Ja --”

“Norm. I hear good things about you. How's your Na'vi?”

“Vospxìmrr 'eyt nìwotx sa'nok lrrtoksi satu'li 'e'insey 'awve ultxa.”

𝖬𝖺𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖠𝗅𝗅 𝖬𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗌𝗆𝗂𝗅𝖾 𝗎𝗉𝗈𝗇 𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖿𝗂𝗋𝗌𝗍 𝗆𝖾𝖾𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀. Grace nods at him approvingly, taking a drag on her cigarette. She really is going to hate me.

“Kaw'it fe'. nga txampam 'a'aw tìpängkxotsyìp henga.”

𝖭𝗈𝗍 𝖻𝖺𝖽. 𝖸𝗈𝗎 𝗌𝗈𝗎𝗇𝖽 𝖺 𝗅𝗂𝗍𝗍𝗅𝖾 𝖿𝗈𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗅.

“Tsatseng 'ìp still nìtxan plltxe räptum nìyewla.”

𝖳𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝗂𝗌 𝗌𝗍𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝗆𝗎𝖼𝗁 𝗍𝗈 𝗅𝖾𝖺𝗋𝗇.

Norm tries to get her to acknowledge me.

“Uh, Grace, this is Jake S----”

And then, finally, she turns to me.

“Yeah, yeah, I know who you are, and I don’t need you. I need your brother.” Grace turns then to Max. “You know -- the PhD who trained three years for this mission.”

“He’s dead.” I say to her. Iara looks uncomfortable, so I put my hand on her back. “I know it’s a big inconvenience to everyone.”

Grace looks at me, and then at Iara, who, even nervous as fuck, tries to smile a little at her. And whatever my baby did, I think it pulled some strings with Grace, and she asks me as she sighs.

“How much lab training have you had? Ever run a gas chromatograph?”

“No.” I answer her honestly.

“Any actual lab work at all?”

“High school chemistry. But I ditched, if I’m being honest with you.”

She got really pissed at my answer, and the new victim is Max.

“You see? You see? They’re pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain.” She starts turning away from us. “I’m going to Selfridge.” She shoves past Iara and me and starts heading towards this ‘Selfridge’ office.

“Grace, that’s not a good idea.” Max tries to persuade her to stop this decision, but she is already out the door and clomping down the corridor. Max turns to the rest of us with a pained look.

“Here, tomorrow, oh eight hundred. Try to use big words.” And then he leaves us, probably going after Grace.

“Well… That could be worse, right?” Max asks.

“She didn’t even say hello to me!” Iara complains.

Honestly? I don’t think I would like a ‘hello’ from Grace after everything we just went through.

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The next morning, after waking up with Iara’s feet on my face, helping her dress, brushing her teeth, and taking her to eat something, we head to the lab, in the link room, and we approach our link units. Norm soon slips into his link bed, messing around with it.

“How much link time have you logged?” Grace asks him.

“Five hundred and twenty hours.” Norm answers.

Grance looks at me.

“Like — an hour.” She stares at me.

“Tell me you’re joking.”

“He’s not, I was there.” Iara comes to my rescue. “Daddy didn’t have much time to prepare to come. We left only a week after the men in black came to talk to us after uncle Tommy’s death.” Have I ever said that she is the sweetest kid to ever live?

Grace looks flabbergasted, she looks like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and then looked at me in question. I only nodded my head.

She then turns to the link unit and opens the hood of it, and tells me to get closer. I wheel my chair close to it and then I start hauling myself across from my wheelchair. Grace tries to reach out to me to help me, but I don’t let her.

“Don’t! I got this.” She steps back, hands raised. I drag myself into the unit.

“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?”

I meet her eyes with a defiant glare.

“Maybe I was just tired of doctors telling me what I couldn’t do. I do have a 5 year old to raise.”

Grace watches me pull my legs into the link, I then finally settle into the warm fluid gel pack; it’s a strange feeling, it seems to enfold me. Grace is messing with something, and then lowers the skeleton thing.

“Relax and let your mind go blank. That shouldn’t be hard for you.”

“Kiss the darkest part of my lily white -” I can finish my sentence because she slams the hood.

I try to let my mind go blank, but I’m so worried about Iara. I really try not to let it show, but, what will be of her? Did I really make the smartest choice for her?

I can’t lose her.