"I heard from Jake that you've been running around with the Na'vi" Quaritch stated with a dissatisfied frown on his face and a tug of his lips.

Alva nodded with a proud smile on her shiny face. "Uhuh. The leader even told me I'm allowed to be there. Isn't it wonderful!" She squealed and wiggled in her seat with happiness that she had been allowed to stay with the feared clan of forest Na'vi. "Eywa is good"

The man snorted and dragged a hand through his grey hair. "Don't tell me you believe all that crap Grace and those natives have been telling you."

The woman snorted and kicked her feet up at the desk in front of her that Quaritch usually does the little paperwork he's assigned, making her anklet shake and the bells on it jingle. "Et tu Quaritch? I know Eywa's real, I can feel her presence. I think you're just jealous because you're not strong enough to embrace her" Alva pointed a finger to her temple and grinned at the man. "But I am and now I can see it all so clearly." She threw her hands up in the air and giggled.

He shook his head again and leaned against the metallic table with the hint of a malicious smirk on his face. "You run around in the forest with the blue space monkeys, that's fine, that's duty. Losing yourself to their savage ways on the other hand is just weak. Eywa doesn't exist, there is no goddess of the forest protecting you."

"She will forgive you for not believing." Alva stated, just like she had with her brother. Her raised foot tapped against the hard surface it was resting on.

"You can't be serious about believing in all of that, Alva. I knew you weren't all right in the head but this is ridiculous"

She snorted and let her head drop back. Alva's eyed dimmed and a mist clouded them. "It's easy to deny it when you haven't experienced it. You hide in the base with your metal suits and then try to tell me what's real and not. This could be a dream for all you know"

"This is why we got you that tracker. Can't have anymore of you people running off on us" He grumbled and pushed her legs off his desk. "Those bodies you're playing around with costs millions."

"I'd pay a lot more if it meant I'd get to experience this." Alva deadpanned and pointedly placed her feet back up on the desk and on Quaritch's hands. "The spirit of Pandora calls to me, this is my home and not you or my brother will ever take that away from me."

The tall man pushed her legs off his desk once more, this time with an irritated growl and a glare. "We're your allies, not them. Remember where you're from and get your head out of that damn cloud."

"I'm from Earth, Quaritch, I haven't forgotten" Alva placed her feet back up on the desk for the third time and really dragged her socks across the object as if to mark her territory. "But Pandora is my home, that's where my loyalties lie." Tru'iel's face popped into her mind, smiling and showing her different foods before it faded and was replaced by Mo'at staring at her with pride and mirth until that shifted into Kida's eyes staring at her with that same loyal and happy look she always had in her eyes when she was with Alva. As Kida's face faded Tsu'tey's formed, the brief tugs of his lips when she said something he thought was funny, the way he protected her when he thought Kida was going to attack her and the carefree, happy expression he had before he found out she was a dreamwalker. "Pandora has spoken, you know, reckoning will come and I only hope that you and everyone else on this base, and the other realises that before it's too late."

"That's all bullshit. Don't even try, now get the hell out of my office before I cuff you up"

"Sir yes sir" Alva hopped off the chair, saluted Quaritch with a grin and then skipped out of the office with an almost childlike glee.

---

Alva sat on one of the desks in the lab as the other workers rushed around, trying to pack up everything they would need for their new place. Max Patel was running around like a chicken without a hen and Grace was on her third cigarette in the last twenty minutes. Alva was calmly sitting cross-legged on the desk, humming and shaking her bracelets in an offbeat together with her anklet. She hadn't moved a single muscle trying to help them, it wasn't like she was going to use any of the things they were packing down anyways-- all she needed was her link machine and food and she'd be good to go.

So where are we going?" Jake asked as he wheeled inside the chaotic mess that was the main lab. He had his big backpack already on his back and freshly showered.

"Getting out of dodge" Grace responded as she stared down at Jake with a less-than impressed look on her face, one she had gotten after Alva told her about Jake reporting to Quaritch. She was dressed in the same kind of clothes she always wore whenever she had to leave the base in human form. "I'm not about to let Selfridge and Quaritch micro-manage this thing. There's a mobile link up in site 26 we can work out at. Way up in the mountains"

Norm perked up at the word 'mountains' and walked closer to where Grace and Jake was talking and past where Alva was sitting, still humming and kicking her legs back and forth. "The hallelujah mountains?"

"That's right" Grace responded and turned around to face the excited man.

"Are you serious?"

Grace nodded with a smile on her face. "Yeah"

"Yesss" Norm said while pumping his hand in the air as he dragged out the word. He laughed before picking up a piece of equipment near where Jake was sitting, staring at them. Norm's laughter quieted down when he saw the confused look on Jake's face. "The legendary floating mountains of Pandora? Heard of them" He snarked and walked away without another word.

Alva chuckled and threw a ball of paper at Norm's head before smiling innocently when he glared at her while rubbing his head. "Don't be silly, Norm. Jake doesn't know much, yet. He is like a baby"

---

"Are we there yet?" Alva asked for the millionth time while laying spread out on the floor of the helicopter as they flew towards the hallelujah mountains. Her head was laid by Grace's feet, her arms hanging off one side of the helicopter and her feet off the other. She was looking every bit of a blue starfish as she felt.

"No" Grace sighed and pinched her nose. "We're barely any closer than we were ten seconds ago when you last asked"

She blew a raspberry and raised her hand weakly to watch how her rings shimmered and glowed in the bright light. "You're no fun. I wanna climb some mountains and you're being slowpokes"

"If you don't shut up soon I'll ask Trudy to leave you here and let you find your own way up to the link" Grace snapped and turned her head around to look at the sky around them. "You'd like that, thought, wouldn't you?", she asked Alva who was staring up at her hopefully.

Alva nodded her head and flew up into a sitting position. "Yes. Please? Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?" She widened her eyes and pouted. "I really do wanna climb the mountains"

"No" Norm, Grace and Jake answered in unison, making Alva whine and pout with a petulant glare on her face.

She crossed her arms over her chest and slumped her back. "But I wanna climb, and you can't stop me!" Alva stood up, fully prepared to jump off the helicopter and on the mountain they were currently flying by. It would be a bit of a leap but not impossible, especially if she could build up enough momentum.

"You're not jumpin off the helicopter, Alva" Grace deadpanned and catched the woman's wrist in her hand, restraining her and keeping her from jumpin. "We'll be there soon, just don't fall. The paperwork would be astronomical"

"I promise" She squealed and spun around before throwing her arms around her friend, squeezing her until the older woman coughed and forced Alva's arms away from her. "I can't believe I'm going to climb the ayram alusìng." Alva sighed and her eyes clouded over as she dreamed about climbing.

"Yup we're in the flux vortex" Grace told Jake before turning her head to Trudy and Norm, who were both talking in the front part of the helicopter. "

Awa snapped out of her daydream when she felt the change in the air and saw the thick mist that surrounded them. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed as she stared at the massive mountains with vines hanging off the bottom that snaked their way up to the top, and the waterfalls that fell from the mountains and dissolved into white spray at the bottom. Her fingers twitched and her hands moved without her knowledge as if stretching out to touch the floating wonders.

"Hey limbs stay in the 'copter" Trudy told Alva when she noticed that the human had been walking towards the edge of the helicopter with outstretched hands and a face fully focused at the sight. "Don't want any accidents"

"But they're so pretty" Alva awed but listened and sat down on the floor again. She giggled when she felt droplets of water hit her face and rainbows could be seen stretching across the sky, showering them in bright colors. Colors that weren't as vibrant as Pandora after dark but pretty and appreciated nonetheless.

Jake leaned forwards in shock and awe of the sight, making Alva grin and chuckle at the look on his face. "Do you think it's pretty, Jacky boy?", she asked him and laughed when he was too stunned to even register that she had spoken to him.

Trudy glanced at them and laughed softly, remembering the first time she had seen the majestic mountains. "You should see your faces"

"I am seeing my face" Alva replied confused as she watched her reflection in the glass that covered the cockpit. "Oh, you weren't talking to me, got it" She gave Trudy a thumbs up after seeing the amused look on her face, and then retreated back in her seat while watching mesmerized at the mountains that they were flying past.

The rest of the ride was silent until they landed on one of the floating mountains when they all walked off the helicopter and towards the module that shimmered in the light. Alva rushed towards it while the others took their sweet time, she was eager to settle in and then link in her avatar body. That and she desperately wanted to climb.

Alva walked through the airlock and just as soon as she walked inside the actual linking room she heard the door open and the sound of heavy footsteps coupled with the slight screech from Jake's wheelchair. She shrugged her backpack higher up her shoulder and kept on walking, touching everything she thought looked interesting and even pushing some things off the shelves or desks. She stopped in her steps when she saw the fridge that had a couple of photographs of them that showed Grace and a couple of Na'vi outside of a wooden building.

Alva picked one off and then smiled when she saw that one of the Na'vi children were Neytiri and another girl that looked much like her but older. This must be from the school, she thought, before it went bad. She put the picture back on the glass and kept on walking, shoving the slight hint of anger and sadness she felt when she thought of what happened to the children at that school.

"Jake, take number two, it's the least glitchy. Norm, I need you to operate Jake's link" Grace the two men once the other parts of their group had catched up to Alva who was already sitting by one of the linking units, waiting for whatever Grace had to say to her, and waiting for her opportunity to talk to the older woman. "Alva you take number four, the one you're sitting by"

"Already ready, ma'am" She grinned cheekily and tapped the lid of the unit. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Alva's smile almost falls off but it only dims slightly as Grace walked closer with a confused look on her face.

"Sur-"

"Hey. You got a problem?" Jake asked Norm, interrupting Grace, as the other man walked past him while glaring.

"I trained for three years for this mission. I speak the language fluently." Norm's voice was rising until he was almost yelling as he turned towards Jake. "He falls off the turnip truck and all of a sudden he's a cultural ambassador?!" Norm exclaimed, his chest rising and falling violently. "And she, a crazy woman with no training whatsoever sneaked into hometree and now she's just suddenly allowed to be there but no other humans are?!"

Grace, who now stood next to where Alva was sitting gave Norm a pity look. "It's not our choice, Norm"

Alva stared at Norm with kind eyes and a gently, closed mouth smile that made her face light up and her cheeks slightly puff. "Eywa has plans for you, Norm, glorious ones that would make even Jake green with envy. She has a plan for all of us" She spoke and leaned her face on her hand with the elbow placed on the lid.

Norm didn't listen to her but instead continued to glare at Jake, furious. "Yeah, well I didn't come out here to wash the dishes while you're on some interspecies booty call" The man turned on his feet and stomped out of the room.

"If he wanted to come with to the Na'vi so bad he should have asked" Alva spoke up after a while, her eyes shining with naivety. "I'd have snuck him in with me" She turned to Grace.

"It doesn't work like that, Alva. We can't choose" She responded and placed a hand on Alva's head, fingers brushing through her curls. He can't go far", she continued, this time aiming her words at Jake who was staring after his friend. "Let's get you in and then you and I can talk" Grace gestured for Jake to get in his link before patting Alva on the head and leaving.

After maybe five minutes or less Grace came back to Alva, brushing her hands off on her pants and lighting a cigarette. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Did you know that my brother injected a tracker in my neck?" Alva bluntly asked while playing with the bands on her fingers and her foot tapping the floor.

"A tracker?" Grace asked sceptically, her hand placed on her hip. "Why would he do that?"

"To track me" Alva said in a 'duh' tone and a discontent smile. "To control me and make sure that while I'm not in the cage he can still control me like he used to."

Grace stared at her mutely for a second, formulating a response and fumbling for words. "No. I didn't know he did that. But you have to see it from his side, you did run off without telling anyone."

"So did Jake" Alva pointed out and spun her bracelet around her thin wrist. "And you don't see him being treated like an animal"

"That's not the same. Listen, we all feel protective of you, more than we do Jake. He can protect himself, and you-"

"And I'm weak" Alva finished Grace's sentence and bitterly chuckled. "I snuck into land you could only dream of. I got verbal permission from the Tsahìk, something that Jake only got because of the atokirina. I can take care of myself. I have Eywa on my side" She finished, her voice gradually getting more and more dreamy until the last sentence was a mere breath and eyes vacant and dimmed.