Chapter Text
Wind washes through, gently sweeping through the foliage. The different calls of animals gently waving through the peacefulness that sasuke finds herself in. A laugh echoes in her ear, distinctly female, as the wind wraps around her in a metaphorical hug. Her ear twitches, utmost concentration on a data pad comfortably laying on a blue knee, giant fingers with impressive dexterity moving across the screen with a surety that could only come from practice.
‘The Ikran, otherwise known as the “Forest Banshee”, has a wingspan of 7 meters. Like any of the other animals on this planet, they differ greatly from our own aves (birds) with a height of, on average 5m, and the weight equaling 1 ton, they are considered a sacred animal to many of the local clans that reside on Pandora.’
Sasuke slowly relaxes, ears lowering from their previous alert position and tail leisurely moving. Mind slowly enters a trance, an uncommon sight since she woke up in this world, fingers typing away documenting the fascinating behaviors of the Ikran, making an entry to her encyclopedia about Pandora's animals.
‘Though the forest banshee is great in size it is not the largest banshee commonly found in pandora. The forest banshees are a cousin of the mountain banshees, which come in a greater size.These banshees are the ones in which the people ride on, using them as mounts to go about their everyday life. They are known to bond for life with only one rider, causing the relationship between the native Na’vi and the banshees to be deep and sacred.’
Sasuke jerks, ears twitching and tail going rigid. Her muscles tense as she looks around, eyes dilating in focus before stopping at one point. A sound, eerily similar to that of a man made machine, echoes through the previous peaceful quiet she had found herself in. She frowns, dread slowly building, ‘there were no planned shipments of any kind, scheduled for today’, she thinks, quickly remembering the schedule Grace had sent to her.
She stands quickly, tail swishing in aggravation before it stills hanging limply, she walks back to the shack where her bag sits innocently in front of the door. She digs through, moving gently as she handles things meant for human hands, until she finds her communicator. She straps it on, neck muscles tensing at the rough material before a long finger shoves in the ear bud, ear twitching in agitation from the unfamiliar material.
“This is Ghost, coming in, does anybody read me.” Voice slightly hoarse Sasuke's displeasure deepens. She doesn’t like surprises. Of any kind. She can feel a migraine growing.
“This is Samson D-2, Pilot Trudy Chacon coming in, ready for a drop off.“
Sasuke's eyes widened a bit, surprised. “Chacon? you’re flying to the shack?” She questions.
“Affirmative ghost, we'll be there in approximately,” she hears Trudy pause, “10 minutes. I hope you're ready, beautiful, we’ve got company.” Sasuke hears Trudy say, a teasing lilt to her voice.
She hisses, ears folding and tail moving aggressively, the slowly building dread growing more and more until she feels her throat tighten in revulsion. Her data pod dings, alerting her of a message. She looks down, eyes tight.
Sasuke stared at the smiley face, then at the caller id; G. AUGUSTINE in big white letters smacks her in the face. She winces a feeling of irritation washing over her. Rereading the message she sighs, ears loosening in acceptance, tail wrapping around her thigh in comfort. She brings a hand up, knuckles gently rubbing at the space between her brows and migraine growing more intense. She turns with the distinct air of dejection, slowly making her way to a cluster of trees, pack in hand slowly disconnecting her comms and gently stuffing into the bag as well as the data pad. She secures the bag along the roots of the thickest tree before climbing up with ease. A feeling of calm washes over her, hands gripping the familiar texture of bark before she reaches a secure branch, neither the lowest or the highest. A hammock rests at the edge, closely leaning across to another tree. A gift from Grace. Handmade and comfortable the perfect size for her avatar.
She crosses the branch and in one swift move, gracefully slides down on it. Tail gently moving to rest on her stomach and arms used as a pillow she closes her eyes. When she nexts opens them it’s to a feeling of disorientation and the bright leds of the pod ceiling. With a building feeling of irritation sasuke pulls open the lid swiftly sitting up and dragging a hand down her face.
“Fuck” she hisses in a low voice, the whirling of the machine she is still sitting on slowly quieting. She takes a couple deep breaths, heart calming and the building feeling of dread sinking back down. She looks up, taking in the space surrounding her. It is clean and bare with only some memories of Grace that she had left behind. She stands up, stretching sore muscles before moving out of the link room into the other compartment to slowly turn on lights and prepare it for her surprise guests.
The whirling of the chopper, which had sadly grown louder and louder slowly came to a stop. A sudden quietness filling the space around her. She tenses in preparation, voices slowly getting louder and louder. She hears the thatch of the outer door open followed by the whoosh of air.
She turns.
Looking right back at her through the final door is Dr. Grace Augustine, eyes glinting mischievously with a shit eating grin.
The final doors open and in one movement Grace takes off her mask, puts it down, and slaps her hand onto Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke twitches, but otherwise does nothing already used to Grace's antics. She’ll forever deny the fond twitch her mouth did, not like anybody saw it.
“Sasuke. Sweet cheeks, sweetie, my one and only, how are you on this very fine day?”
Sasuke deadpans. Onyx eyes meeting graces brown.
“Docter”
She watches as her face slowly sinks, an innocent pout that frankly, had no one fooled coming into view. The migraine which had gone away when she unlinked came back in full force.
“That’s all you have to say to me,” She scoffs.
“After all that time,” Grace crosses her arms across her chest pout only getting bigger. “I see how it is.”
Sasuke wasn’t fooled.
“Hn.”
Grace sighed, pout dropping from her face, smile slowly returning but this time much more sincere. She opens her arms up in an invitation. Sasuke blinks a strange feeling building in her chest. A warmth last felt eons ago in another world, another universe, before everything came crashing down, the memory of screams making her fingers twitch, echoing in her ear.
She blinks again, slowly like a cat, before stepping forward. Back tense as Grace arms embrace her. Chin digging into her shoulder, she unconsciously relaxes against the warmth of another human. A second passes before she brings her arm up, hand hovering over her back.
The moment breaks when the sound of clattering echoes through the shack. Grace let's go after one more tight squeeze. Sasuke, still reeling from the hug, backs up, tense from the unknown sound. Eyes glaring at the door as it hisses open, letting in a man in a wheelchair.
Sasuke's mouth flattens, discomfort building from letting in a stranger into her space, the space she’s made her own after being there for the last couple months. She can feel her peace and privacy disappearing already. A flare of annoyance builds up.
“Sasuke,”
She tilts her head slightly, eyes still stuck on the wheelchair, just enough to let Grace now she heard her,
“This is Jake Sully, one of our new avatar drivers, ex-marine.”
Sasuke sees the man, now known as Jake, silently take her in, an unknown emotion flashing through his face.
“Hi there,” he rolls forward, hand stretched out, “Jake sully.”
She stares down at his hand before looking back at him, Moments pass by, the atmosphere slowly growing awkward. Just as she sees doubt flash in his eyes, eyes the same color as the sky, the same color as someone she used to know, She swallows tightly, throat having gone tight, before letting her hand smack his, grip firm as she shakes it.
“Sasuke.”
She slips her hand out of his, watches as his face lights up, mouth turning up into a lopsided grin. She looks away, an unknown feeling welling up, before she opens her mouth again.
“Sasuke Uchiha.”
—————————————————————————————————————
Sasuke regrets everything.
It’s been a week, and she regrets everything.
The peacefulness she used to have, the privacy, all gone she thinks as she hears grace reprimand Jake once more for who god knows what this time. She glares down at her data pad. Annoyance, a constant emotion these days, starts building up once again. She tenses once she hears the lid shut down on the link machine, footsteps growing louder and louder. She looks up to see Grace moving about muttering under her breath. Sasuke grimaces before going back to tapping onto her data pad.
They sit in silence, the only noise being the tapping of her fingers on the screen and the movements of Grace as she moves around pouring some water into a cup. Sasuke lets the silence stew. She was never good at reading people; emotionally.
“That boy,” Grace sighs, “will be the death of me.”
Sasuke stops. She looks up making eye contact with Grace. She can see the worry building up, how her shoulders tense up from the stress of dealing with him. Her eyebrow twitches, the annoyance flaring even more, this time aimed at Jake.
“What did he do now?” She questions voice quiet. Grace slurps at her mug loudly causing Sasuke to wince in disgust before giving her a look. Grace smirks as she stares down at her mug, mulling the question over.
“He’s not taking care of himself,” She says, her smirk falling off, “He’s not eating, he barely sleeps. He’s in the link pod for far to much time, they’re to glitchy for the stress he’s putting on them which I know, he has his reasons, but if he continues down this path he’s gonna,” Grace trails of eyes losing focus as she gazes out the window, sasuke stays quiet, letting her think, “He's gonna burnout.”
She hums, turning her head to look out the same window taking in the beauty that surrounds her. It never ceases to amaze her.
“Have you told him this?” Sasuke asks, “does he know?’
She hears Grace sigh.
“He has no training,” Sasuke sneers quietly, “He didn’t have the time, and he is no scientist. He had no reason to learn; Not until it was too late to do anything about it.”
He is ill equipped; he didn’t get the chance to put in the hours, —or go to the required classes meant for someone who is meant to take on an Avatar.
“His,” Sasuke pauses, the annoyance— the one that’s been a constant this past week, dies down, in its place an emotion that’s always been a constant companion builds up, “His Brother died.”
Grief; expanding so wide Sasuke feels like she is suffocating under the weight of it, makes her throat burn, eyes dry but burning.
‘What a joke,’ she thinks to herself, ‘Getting emotional over a death of someone I never met,’ ignoring the pit growing in her stomach—( a voice echoes through her mind, sounding suspiciously young, asking over and over, why, why why didn’t you KILL ME ITA—) her grip on the data pad tighten, the digging of the metal into her palm keeping her grounded. She pretends not to see her hands shaking.
She hears Grace take in a sharp breath. She looks at her, looks as an expression of realization washes over Grace's face. She nods, quietly, still looking at Grace, watches through her eyelashes, feeling oddly numb, empty, as she raises a hand, following it, as it lands on target with a loud slap, on her forehead.
“Of course that’s it, that stupid marine, fuck, fuck, fuck,” She hears her mumble, hand sliding down her face. She raises her head making eye contact with Sasuke. In the odd state Sasuke finds herself in, present but—not, she looks utterly exhausted; exhausted in a way that’s more than just from physical activity, in a way that seeps into your bones so deep it melts into part of your existence, no matter how much you rest it's always there; a constant feeling of tiredness.
Sasuke finds her mouth opening before she can stop it, “I can teach him.” Grace's face slackens with surprise, Sasuke finds herself mirroring it, before she repeats herself, unable to stop it, a tinge of helplessness in her voice.
“I can teach him.”