Alva spun around in the chair she had stolen from one of the officers inside the crowded Ops centre that she had been summoned to early in the morning. It was way too early to be awake and yet the room was bustling with life as if it had never stopped being so. Her brother was leaning on the halo station that was currently showing one of the many RDA mines placed on Pandora. She was giggling loudly and throwing her legs and arms up with each spin.

"Eywa doesn't like you brother." She stated once she had stopped spinning around and was now instead lying face down into the holographic picture of the dirty mine. She raised her head and stared at him with wide, cloudy eyes before speaking again. "But she'll forgive you, I know she will."

Parker Selfridge sighed and looked down on the ground before shaking his head. The man placed his hands on the edge of the platform. "Eywa doesn't exist, Alva. It's just something the natives believe and that crazy woman Grace."

"She'll forgive you for that too." Alva blew him a raspberry and leaned back in her soft chair. Her brother had dark purple circles under his eyes and his shoulders were slumped. "Are you okay? You look... tired"

"It's fine"

"I know you're not fine, Parker, I can feel it." She told him with a gentle smile playing at her lips, "Did one of your bulldozers break or something? No wait-I've got it, Grace said something to hurt your feelings". Alva giggled and placed a hand under her chin, leaning her elbow on her knee.

"I said it's fine, don't worry about it" Parker snapped at her and once again, like he's done so many times in the short span of time she's been in his company, sighed and shifted his weight. "You need to bring in your Avatar in for a checkup"

Alva hummed and pulled her over-sized sweater over her hands before sinking down further in the chair she had plopped down in when her brother allowed her in. "No"

"No?"

"No" She repeated and snickered when he clenched his jaw before inhaling deeply as if to not lash out on her. Alva, who was wearing only socks on her feet, as usual, defiantly raised them and placed them right besides his trembling hand. "I finally broke free of the cage you built, and I'm not going back inside it"

"Oh for crying out loud Alva! It's not a cage, it's there to protect you. And since you ran away from Dr Augustine we need to see if you've damaged it somehow." He ranted with furrowed eyebrows and closed eyes. Selfridge shook his head and pushed her legs off the desk, being mindful not to touch her socks that were suspiciously wet and full of grass stains. Alva smiled sheepishly at the offended look he sent her. "Those things are expensive", he continued and pointed his finger at her.

The woman hummed and twisted a tight curl around her finger. "You're not being very convincing, brother. A life outside of a cage is worth all the money in every universe" Alva shook her wrist to make the bands there jiggle, soothing her growing anxiety.

"Just do it Alva, for once in your life just do what I say" Selfridge shook his head again, this time with a newfound tiredness he didn't have before- as if a weight was on his shoulder. He shuffled his feet and then took a loud gulp of coffee from his cup. "I don't have the time or energy to argue with you. Time is money"

Alva scoffed and grabbed his wrist before he could make a dramatic exit. "Parker come on, I'm your sister. Don't throw me back in the cage" Her eyes pleaded with him, begging him to not force her back where she didn't belong. Alva would wilt like a flower if they shut her back inside Hell's gate, she wasn't meant for a cage-she was meant for the wild Pandora and everything in it.

"Grace will be waiting for you where you ran away last time. Make it happen", he ordered her and then dismissed her with a flick of his right hand.

"Bring your avatar in for a checkup Alva. Do as I say Alva. Don't do that Alva. Do that Alva. I'm your adoptive brother, Alva." The woman mocked in an overly deep voice and pulled different faces as she paraded out of the crowded office and towards the linking room. She didn't want to bring her avatar but even she knew that she couldn't get out of that one.

---

Alva sung an old lullaby in Yoruba as she walked out of the hometree and passed the biggest crowd of newly woken Na'vi that were all happily chirping to each other before settling down for the first meal of the day. She waved merrily at Tsu'tey with a glowing smile and then winked at Tru'iel when she passed the eating woman. Neither of them waved back at her, only stared- Tru'iel with an amused look on her face and Tsu'tey with disdain.

"Bye bestie!" She called back to him, making sure that all of the nearby Na'vi heard the declaration, before skipping away from the scene while giggling like a high, crazy woman. Alva knew he didn't want to be her friend, yet, but she was patient and she always got what she wanted in the end- and right now she wanted Tsu'tey.

It didn't take her long to get to where she had abandoned Grace and Norm just a few days ago. Alva couldn't believe it had been so long already, it felt like yesterday that she ran away from the cage they had built for her. She could have called for Kida to make it go faster but Alva enjoyed the freedom and joy it gave her to run in the forest and swing in the trees as much as she wanted without anyone telling her she's not allowed to do it. She prided herself on her freedom and she would always fight for it. She also didn't think that Grace would react nicely to a palulukan showing up and Alva wanted to keep her friend away from the RDA for as long as she could.

"Took you awhile. Did anything happen on the way over?" Grace went straight to the point, frank and blunt as the woman is.

"Nope" She popped the p as she climbed into the helicopter that this time was piloted by a new pilot. She had seen him on base once, G something was his name, Alva couldn't remember the rest of it. "I did almost fall out of a tree once though, does that count?"

"No"

"Then no, nothing happened" Alva sulkily answered and crossed her arms over her chest. "And now you're here to bring me back to the cage. Eywa isn't pleased with either of you-taking one of her children like this. I told Parker but he wasn't listening."

"Alva" Grace sighed and rolled her eyes. " We've talked about this."

"You mean you've been trying to convince me that I'm imagining things and need to be contained in.a.cage." Alva shot back, her previously good mood dangerously close to becoming a bad one. The woman took a deep breath, closed her eyes and then only after feeling herself calm down she opened them again. "I can tell that there's going to be a storm by the restlessness of the fkio, by how the nantangs stock food and by the loud groans of the trees around us. I know what I feel, Eywa has shown me. I can see in a way you only wish you could."

"None of our rapports have shown any signs of a storm." Grace responded and her previously exasperated look turned into one of pity. "Maybe you need a break from all of this. I know how confusing everything gets when you spend a lot of time in your avatar."

"You know nothing, Grace Augustine" Alva giggled and turned her head to look out at the green trees that fluttered past them as they flew back to Hell's Gate for her 'check-up'.

---

Alva winced when one of the doctors pressed hard on her stomach with their cold, gloved hands that had some kind of a jelly-like substance on it. As soon as she had landed on Hell's Gate she had been escorted to the same room she had woken up in the first time she linked into her avatar. It looked the same with three or something beds that were as uncomfortable as they were big, tables with various instruments and needles on, and the different machines they had hooked her up to- with one of them making a loud beep sound that measured her heartbeat.

"Have you had any feelings of nausea or a headache?" The head doctor asked her after pressing on her tender stomach once more and then nodding to herself. Her expression was blank but Alva saw a bit of a darkness flash over her face when the doctor stared at her.

Alva shook her head and flashed a pretty little grin at the doctor. "Nope. Non. Nada."

"Any tenderness anywhere?" The doctor, Katrina, continued her questions and placed both of her hands on Alva's left thigh and leaned all her weight on it. "Are you sure you're not feeling lightheaded? Your eyes are a bit glossy and far away"

The avatar driver laughed and shook her head, making her hair fall over her face. "I thought everyone knew that my eyes always look like thi-"

"Alva?" The doctor snapped her fingers by Alva's ears when she noticed that she had drifted off somewhere.

"Huh-yes?" She asked when she came back from her thoughts. Alva had zoned out from the conversation and drifted off in her thoughts about Pandora and all the fun things she could have been doing, like climbing a tree, bonding with Kida, annoying Tsu'tey. She cleared her throat and shook her head to get rid off the lingering feeling of heaviness and cloudiness in her head. "My eyes always look like this. Some say I'm not all there" Alva giggled and reached up to her temples and made circle motions as she spoke. "But no, no dizziness or lightheadedness"

"Where did you go?"

"Huh?" Alva asked confused at the question. She didn't go anywhere? "I've been sitting here this whole time, maybe you're the one that should be examined" She winked at the doctor and then started kicking her feet back and forth over the edge of the high bed.

"In your thoughts" The doctor cleared her throat and gestured to Alva's head. "You got this far away look in your eyes like you weren't there and you stopped mid sentence"

She made an 'o' shape with her mouth and then chuckled, her smile brightening up her face that had gone blank with only traces of the usual positivity and happiness on it. "That's what you meant. My bad. I-uh-I went back to the clan"

"The natives?" The doctor asked stunned and took a few steps back. "Why would you think of those savages? No wonder your brother is so high-strung all the time with you running around with those wild beasts"

Alva bit back a snarl and pushed down that side of her. Instead she let her lips curl into her signature smile and lean back lazily on the bed, placing her hands down by her sides. "The only beasts and savages I see are inside this base" She stared right into the doctor's eyes as she said it and then finished it off with a short happy giggle.

"And my brother is more worried about getting his grey rocks and pleasing the folks back home than he is me hanging around in a forest"

"I'm sure that's not true" The doctor whispered to her and grabbed a syringe from the table to their left. "I hear he's really worried about you."

"You know I can see that needle, right? No need to lie to me to distract me" Alva snickered and laid down on the bed with her arms crossed behind her head as she smirked at the doctor. "What exactly did Parker tell you about me"

The doctor smiled and spun around with the thick, long needle in hand that strangely enough had a black paper around it to hide what was inside of it. Alva stared at it with eyes wide as saucers and mouth pulled into a thin line. She closed her eyes and imagined herself to be far away and in the warm, safe embrace of Eywa, who didn't hesitate to come to her rescue and wrap her arms around her child. Hell's Gate was the only place on Pandora where Eywa's warmth didn't exist and each time Alva walked inside of the walls of her cage she longed more and more to be free.

"He said that he worries constantly about you and that he worries for your mental health more and more with each day that passes."

"In what exact words did he say he worries?" Alva smirked, knowing that the doctor was lying to her.

"I don't remember the exact words but it was something like 'as her brother I worry, and these trips aren't good for her health. Just look at her, she's not all there, and it's getting worse with these days. And her obsession with Eywa is getting worse by the minute'" The doctor responded and walked up to the side of Alva's bed with the big needle firmly clutched in her hand and already poised to strike.

Alva laughed out loud at that, a real belly laughter that made ugly snorts rip themselves out of her. "Y'know that's how I know you're lying to me. Parker would never say I'm his sister. I'm his adoptive sister and he always makes that clear to whoever he's talking to."

"I-" The doctor began but Alva interrupted her with a lopsided grin that showed just the barest amount of teeth.

"Don't worry doc" She said in an airy tone that she breathed out. "I made peace with it long ago. I was 14 when I was adopted into the family and we never formed that unbreakable bond that siblings have. He did bring me here and for that he will always have a special place in my heart"

The doctor laughed nervously and changed her grip on the needle in her hand. " I guess this place means a lot to you then"

"Yes" She whispered and worried her upper lip between her teeth. "It really does, and I guess you're here to take some of that away from me"

"Don't try to deny it, doc." Alva waved away the stuttering that the doctor was doing and instead smiled sadly. "I guess this is the price I have to pay for freedom, right?"

The doctor nodded and swept away Alva's hair and tswin away from her vulnerable neck before pointing the needle at the spot she aimed to inject the tracker into.

"Aren't you going to give me something for the pain?" Alva asked with her eyes closed and her voice a mere whisper that trembled as she felt the sharp point ghost her skin.

"No" The doctor shot back and in one harsh movement forced the needle to break the skin and guided it to a spot not far under the skin where she would place the tracker. Alva screamed in pain when the object penetrated her skin without anything to take away the pain, and sobbed when she felt the digging the doctor did amongst her nerves. Alva felt Eywa scream along with her and all she could see was flashes of hot white and black dots that danced on the edges of her vision.

"Shut up" The doctor barked at her and Alva could barely hear it through the fog that was her mind. The dreamwalker felt like she was flying, only she was on fire and no matter how high she flew she couldn't touch the sanctuary that was her mind. Her mind wasn't all there but the pain was, and it was everywhere and nowhere. All her nerves felt like they were on fire even after the doctor removed the large needle from her neck and shoved a cold, wet bandage on top of the bleeding wound.

"Now we can track you wherever you go, even amongst the wild beast you hang around"