AN: HELLO. I've been gone a bit and a half, but I haven't abandoned Alva or Awa or any of the other OCs. A big thank you to everyone who's read so far and who have commented their support and their love.

PS: I've also started editing the earlier chapters to really flesh out my story and characters more and add more scenes to build up the Tsu'tey and Alva romance, as well as the other characters' relationship with her!

PPS: Happy New Year!

A fortnight later found Alva enjoying her newfound freedom amongst the tall trees of her home. She wondered briefly if they had grown stronger and even taller during her absence, as if preparing for something -- the war maybe. The roots slithered even further and deeper under the ground, the network tighter and faster. It was odd seeing the place of peace with a newfound perspective of war. Perhaps it was not the trees that had changed but her instead. Maybe the cage had molded her into a cynical being who saw enemies wherever she looked.

But then she saw a butterfly and knew it was not so. Her time in the dank cells of the base surely had changed her but it wasn't for the worse. The cloudy haze grew thinner, allowing more of the unfiltered reality to slowly trickle through the mist. In a way she missed the heavy weight of the blanket which shielded her from the frigidness of the people around her, but she was glad to be rid of the veil that muddled her view of her loved ones -- never able to see them clearly, always distorted like a reflection on rough waters.

Alva pressed two fingers into her mouth and produced a loud, shrill note that echoed through the clearing. A few seconds passed before a rumbling roar answered the call and the ground began to shake under the heavy onslaught of heavy paws against malleable dirt.

"Kida!" She exclaimed as the black beast tore through the bushes and came to an abrupt halt, six paws kicking up a big cloud of dirt around them. Alva closed the distance, bust through the tension between them and threw her arms around the thick neck, fingers caressing the warm leathery skin there. "Oh, how I've missed you."

The feline beast rumbled deep in her chest before leaning into the soft touch. Each soft petting against the taut skin erased more and more of the aches that followed their parting. Alva felt Kida's rapid heart calm until it no longer beat against her ribs like a tattoo and instead mirrored that of the dreamwalker's. With one hand Alva reached back past bruised shoulders and grabbed the braid hanging there, and with the other reached forward and gently guided Kida's long fleshy tendrils.

Kida whimpered as tsaheylu was formed and Alva likened the initial rush to be similar to the feeling of regaining a lost limb -- like when her cast was finally cut off her broken arm as a child. A rush of color, a sudden influx of emotions. A bird learning how to fly again, a wilted flower suddenly showered in water.

She released the bonded neural whips and leapt up on the back of Kida, settling in with a practiced grace before whispering her commands through their connection. Lithe muscles rolled under taut skin mere seconds before the great beast started running. Alva had no clear destination in mind, only a fleeting thought of her warrior; the smell of earth and blazing golden eyes feeling like a distant memory despite her hair still carrying some of his scent on it still.

Green fluttered past in big blobs of color and vague shapes somewhat resembling tall bushes and giant brown tree roots. Alva whooped out of excitement and from the feeling of wind rushing through her hair, soothing the tender skin of her neck.As if sensing her rider's emotions, Kida let out a roar of her own. A group of pretty bird-like creatures with wide wings filled to the brim with fluffy feathers fled a nearby tree.

They ran and they ran until her face shone purple and the tight grip she held on her friend started to ache. Only then did Alva tell Kida to stop though she was reluctant to do so as the urge to just keep on running burned white hot in her heart. She had done it so many times before. Just ran and ran and ran until her problems were a village away, a city away, a country, a continent. A planet away. But something had changed and she was no longer that girl who ran from the things that frightened her, no longer that girl who pushed away anything not fit for her pretty little picture painted with the finest pastel colors and not a drop of darker shades – all bubblegum pink and baby blue and soft lavender. With reckless abandon has she pursued all that would fit in the image – the newest dress, a new family member or even the most ruthless of teachers to better herself so that maybe one day she too will belong in the landscape she had built.

Kida slowed to a steady trot and the hometree in all its glory loomed ahead as the duo broke through the tree line. There were looks of alarm as the creature the color of night and the object of nightmares strolled into their courtyards but Kida had become almost as permanent a fixture as Alva herself and the fear slowly ebbed away from the people, though they remained distant and distrustful. Alva didn't blame them, she'd think them fools if they dropped their caution and fear of the predators. She had managed to build her bond with Kida only because she had rescued the palulukan and the fragile trust it built allowed her to get close enough to make tsaheylu.

"Alva!" Jake emerged from the group of hunters gathered around a fresh kill. 'Tey was not among them. Alva scouted the area for her beloved warrior but the tall Na'vi was nowhere to be seen. She sighed.

"Jake," Alva greeted with lips drawn into a thin line, the revelation of his betrayal still fresh and like an exposed nerve it ached and hurt with each pulse of her heart. "How's Neytiri?"

The male dreamwalker scratched his neck, trying to hide his growing grin. "She's fine. She had another lesson with her mother. But she's been asking about you, about where you went."

"What did you tell her?"

"Said you had some demon work to do." He said and shrugged. "Thought maybe you were away with your brother or hiding in your dorms again."

Alva nodded, mouth opening to spill the real reason she was gone, of the cage she had been stuffed in and the memories she was forced to endure in the cold darkness and the tauntings of shadows made men. Instead she forced it away, chased it like one did an irritating pack of flies hovering above your fresh bowl of fruit, and made way for the teasing. "Something like that. It doesn't matter now, I'm back and ready to kick your ass at Na'vi training 101."

Jake laughed but there was caution in his eyes. Perhaps he hadn't forgotten their fight. Perhaps it weighed as heavily on him as it did her, an extra thousand kilograms upon the world already resting there. "You sound very confident for someone who's been gone from training for two weeks. It's a wonder you even remember how to walk right."

"Why would I forget how to walk- oh, right." Alva cringed, coughing to hide the awkwardness that fell. "Right. Well. You can't have made that much progress. Last I saw, Neytiri was still beating you into the dirt on all fronts. Can't imagine two weeks would be enough for you to learn everything you need for your trials."

"Maybe it was." He snickered. "All those tail whippings must have knocked some knowledge into this thick head." Jake motioned to his head.

"Like what?"

"How to say skxawng."

"Charming," Alva grinned. "And did you teach Quaritch that also? Or is that only for the knowledge that can eradicate an entire species of people?"

It was Jake's turn to cringe away from the harsh words, though jovial and candid as her tone was the undertone of venom marking the words was not, and the man curled into himself until she couldn't help but liken him to the stray pup she brought home as a child. Whimpering and shaking, all skin and bones and a ravenous hunger, though what Jake hungered for Alva couldn't say. Was it his legs still or had that bit of doubt she spied in him grown into something larger in tact with his affections for the leader's daughter.

"Alva..." he started, pink tongue peaking out to wet dry lips.

"Have you stopped spying on them?" She pressed, toned arms crossed over her chest, shoulder squared and jaw clenched. "Or are you still sending long elaborate reports on the structure of their home, the state of their warriors, the potency of their arrows and the tactics of their fighting? The names of important leaders and relations with other tribes? Have you stopped those?"

"Yes!" He cracked under the pressure. "Yes, I've stopped the reports! I give them useless information, uh, like my progression or, or how many animals the hunters killed that day."

"Two weeks ago I would have believed you." She drawled, a hint of her sharp canines showing through. "But I've suffered for your lies before, I have to live with your consequences for the rest of my life while you are free to prance around the place like a fairytale princess. What proof do you have?"

"Proof?" Jake echoed. "I've already apologized for what Quaritch did."

"Yes." She nodded. "When I confronted you on my celebratory feast after I officially became one of the people. I remember your apology, and your jealousy. I kept your lie a secret and am still. What does your sorry give me but a broken heart and more scars?"

"I haven't given him anything since before the feast. I couldn't, I can't. Not anymore. I don't need him to give me my legs back anymore. I've found them and more here among the Na'vi... with Neytiri." He looked at her through hooded eyes, head tilted slightly to the left. "I needed your help with this then and I still need your help."

"They don't need you to rescue them, Jake." The fires of her heart cooled until all that remained were glowing embers, a spark away from lighting again and larger than before.

"It's the right thing to do." He said. "Our people did this to them so-"

"Are we truly that different from them? We're all here because of their greed, and we stay because we are greedy for freedom and love and all that Pandora offers. Greed drives us all, but are you sure you're doing this for the right reasons, Jake?" She asked. "Are you doing this because you truly think that what they're doing is wrong or are you doing this to make yourself feel good -- to finally be the hero?"

"Of course I'm doing it because it's the right thing. I've seen what the RDA does to them. I was there with Grace at the school and Neytiri has been telling me stories."

Alva looked away from the pleading man. "But you don't understand. Not really. All you know are the stories she's told you. You're not the one who has to fear if their loved ones will return when they leave home, you're not the one who has to watch their home be destroyed by people who think themselves superior." A drop of blood fell from her clenched hands, staining the green leaves there. Distant screams and wet gurgles of blood spilling from parted lips echoed through her head. The thud of a limp hand hitting the ground, the wailing of a newly orphaned child abandoned in its crib. "It's what Neytiri has been trying to tell you. You don't see and if you can't see then you can't help. What's your great plan, Jake? Assemble the armies of the Na'vi under you so you can launch a brutal attack on Hell's Gate? Drive the humans back to Earth and rebuild?"

"Something like that."

"Then you're part of the problem." She told him grimly. "This isn't about you or your need to prove yourself. Listen to the people around you and follow their lead. They don't need you to save them, you aren't their prophesied savior."

"I know that," he argued. "I never said I was their savior, just that I'm going to help them get free."

"You didn't need to say it. Actions speak louder than words. You run around the place like you own it, you argue against Neytiri's teaching and now you're trying to recruit me for some plan you've made to save a people you're not part of." Alva relaxed her hands and let them fall at her side. "I've seen this happen before, you know. My village was destroyed by foreigners when I was just a child."

"Then you know why we have to stop it!" He exclaimed. "We know how the RDA works, you know how your brother works!"

"I do." She admitted. "I know Selfridge. I know all of him just as he knows all of me. But this isn't about me either. Saving the Na'vi won't bring my village back, it won't bring my family back from the dead. I will never hear their laughter again. I'll never hear my mother sing to me in our native tongue, or my father scolding her for leaving her towels on the bathroom floor. There are no special qualities that we have that they need. They know the RDA just as we do. They've been fighting them for years."

"They're losing." His tone hardened. "They're dropping like flies. Helping them won't bring our dead back but helping them means there won't be anyone else joining them."

"When we last spoke I told you that you're not listening." She closed her eyes, counted to ten in her head before opening them again. Still the same stone-faced man with his eyes lit with fight and his tail waving wildly behind him. "And you're still not. Helping and saving are two different things. You're talking about taking over the fight, of becoming the figurehead of the revolution. You speak as if you're their missing piece, like they aren't capable of destroying the RDA on their own. That they need a human to do the fighting for them."

"Of course they're capable. They're the best fighters I've ever seen."

"But?" She asked. "I don't blame you for not understanding, for not seeing. I envy you for it, but this hero complex won't help anyone. Your focus should be on Neytiri and learning about the community and their traditions and how to live as one of them. Only when you understand can you help them."

"Learn?" He repeated. "I can do that. I have the best teacher afterall."

Alva raised an eyebrow, not complaining about the change in topic. She could see when a message had been drilled into a person to the point that they're closing themselves off. Jake was a proud man and wouldn't admit to being wrong anytime soon but Alva liked to think that at least a small part of the message stayed with him. A warning. That and the sparkling tendrils of her mind were reaching down to her, nimble fingers reaching around her consciousness to rip her away if just one more memory came to mind.

"Hardly." She allowed herself to grin. "My warrior has all of them beaten. He's their number one warrior for a reason, and it's not just because he's pretty."

"I think I prefer Neytiri to Tsu'tey." Jake grinned back. "So you'll help then?"

She scowled. "I'll help them, not you. We have Eywa on our side and she won't let any invaders destroy her children. Now go learn some more swear words from your pretty teacher before those three months are up and war consumes us all."

"Truce?"

"Truce." She reluctantly took the offered hand and shook it once. "Remember what I said. This isn't about you."

Jake nodded, smiled and then left. Alva stared at his retreating back, knowing that the hardheaded marine would continue plotting his plan to rescue the people. Perhaps she had been too harsh with him, poured too much of the darkness from the cell on him. Truth be told she had no idea how she would get rid of it. It oozed out of her pores, coated every single word she said and plagued her every thought. Jake had come to her as a friend and she accused him of all kinds of things unprovoked. This wasn't about her either but she sure did like the high horse she sat on as she judged him for being privileged enough to not have had this happen to his people. Who was she to tell Jake what the Na'vi needed him to be. This wasn't her village, the people weren't that family, but the RDA was that same company.

So deep in her self-deprecating thoughts was she that she didn't even notice Kida having plopped down on the grass next to her, or the curious stares of the Na'vi who had witnessed the exchange, or her warrior stalking up to her.

"Alva?" He asked, and her heart skipped several beats at his sweet voice.

"'Tey!" She squealed and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his narrow waist and her arms around his neck. "I haven't seen you in forever." She whispered in his ear, clutching him tighter.

"You've been gone," he rumbled, tail butting against her in a discreet show of affection, curling it around hers in private far too soon and scandalous for the stoic warrior. There was a strange tone to his voice.

"Sran." She agreed. "I was a bad, bad girl. I destroyed some of their metal beasts." Alva giggled against the soft skin where his neck met his shoulders. "My brother wasn't happy so he had me punished."

"Punished how?" He asked, arms tightening around hers. She wondered if he too was remembering the bloodied mess of her tracker and her unorthodox removal of it to prove her devotion to him, or the personalized brand carved into the flesh of her ear. She wondered if he felt powerless against that too, another thing torn from his arms by the skypeople, leaving them empty, cold and wanting.

"A cage in the bottom of the base. But don't worry, I had company." She grinned, and she felt him shudder against her lips. "But there was no light there and no pretty flowers. No little leaves or strong, brave warriors."

He was silent for a while. "I thought you ran away." From me, was what Alva thought he really wanted to say.

"You are the one thing I would never run away from." She told him, and she meant it. "I was taken against my will and shoved in a cage for a fortnight, all alone in the darkness. I had plenty of time to remember what you thought I ran from." One of her hands released the woven chest covering it had slipped under and instead wandered up to the back of his head, gently guiding him down to rest on her shoulder.

She felt his lips move against her skin but no sound came, not before another Na'vi, one she didn't recognize, ran up to them. "There's been an attack!" He screamed, bow held high in one hand and an arrow in the other.

Alva sighed but then released Tsu'tey from her hold and dropped down on the ground. He looked down on her for a second that felt like an eternity, mouth opening to say something but he shook his head and ran after his fellow soldier.