Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. God how I wish I did, but sadly I don't. Enjoy and Read and Review as always!

Who knew you could hate your own race? To the point where you would just like to nuke each and every one of them because of their stupidity and arrogance. She hated humans even though she was one of them. Humans take, and take, and never give without expecting compensation. They didn't know when to stop or give thanks, they just kept going, damning the consequences of their actions. They were fools, believing themselves to be so superior to everything else when they were killing their own planet. She hated them, with every fiber of her being, and she was one of them.

"Welcome to the link room." She heard Max giving a welcome to the newbies even before her link chamber had opened. She groaned as she sat up and arched her back to awaken her semiconscious muscles.

"Where's my goddamn cigarette?" Grace called. She smiled and swung her legs out of the chamber and stepped onto the cool lab floor with bare feet. Her mentor was currently fussing about the newest recruits, whose jaws both dropped as soon as they saw her. She rolled her eyes. She knew she was sexy, she kept her body in top shape, and made sure her golden skin and hair with its multi shades of blonde were flawless, but she saw nothing in the men of Hell's Gate. They were all trigger happy assholes that she would gladly shoot in the forehead.

Grace suddenly stormed out. "This is such bullshit!"

She rolled her eyes again, this time with a smile.

"And this is the lovely Sha'tira." Max said. "Our finest avatar driver."

She nodded to each of them and reached out to shake their hands. "Welcome to Pandora."

One was a skinny guy whose name was Norm and the other one was a former marine who was paralyzed from the waist down named Jake. He'd taken the place of his brother, Tommy, a man she only knew in passing but still offered her condolences.

"You're Dr. Augustine's apprentice." said Norm. "You wrote the book on the Na'vi Clans. I am a big fan!"

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you. Sorry that I can't stay, but I have to finish getting your first trip ready." She turned to Max. "Are their avatars ready?"

"Yeah, they'll take them out tomorrow."

"Good. See you later, Max, I'll be in my dorm, hopefully for the next two days. You know how to reach me if Grace needs anything."

"Yeah, catch you later."

To call her room a "dorm" was a total lie. Her room was almost as big as the lab itself, fully furnished and carpeted with a bathtub bigger than her bed, just like she liked. Sha'tirra wasted no time stripping down to her birthday suit and running herself a hot bath. As she relaxed in the steaming bubble filled liquid with a tall glass of wine, she ran through the pictures of Grace's clan members. She already knew Neytiri well already. Her book was based on information provided by the na'vi princess herself. She had yet to officially meet Eytukan but she knew Mo'at. Finally, she came to the image of the infamous Tsu'tey. She squirmed at the sight of him. Even in a picture, he was strong and intimidating. He was also the Omaticaya's finest warrior and the two of them had often gotten into screaming matches when he attended 's school. It wasn't that they were enemies or hated each other, they were just too alike. Far too alike. As much as she hated the "warriors" of her kind, she couldn't help but be attracted to the infuriating na'vi man.

"Sha'tira!" She nearly dropped her Holopad into the bathtub at the sudden call of her name. She reached for her communicator and pressed a button on the side.

"Yes, Grace? You are interrupting a rather private moment."

"Are you in the bathtub again? You spend more time taking a damn bath than you do in the lab."

"Grace, I'm off the clock for the next 6 hours."

"You would be...unless you heard about the new plant we found that produces twice as many wavelengths as any that we've seen." The redhead sounded like an excited teenager and she had to smile to herself.

"Be there in 10."

Two days later...

Sha'tira sighed peacefully as she closed her eyes and let her mind go blank, transferring herself to her Avatar. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the shelter that stored the avatars. She sat up and checked herself, rolling her shoulders and feet, touching her thumb to each of her fingers, a routine that Grace had taught her. When that was completed, she proceeded to get herself dressed in her usual sports bra and shorts. She neglected shoes. She hated shoes. With her knife strapped to her waist, she headed out to meet the team.

Wainfleet was packing Grace's equipment into the Scorpion while Trudy yelled at him from the cockpit. Jake was playing with his gun and Norm seemed to be looking for something in his pack. Grace arrived just as she did and she dipped her head to her favorite student.

"You sure you don't want to come with me and Norm? Getting those samples is going to be a hell of tricky job in the valley."

"Don't worry about me. You keep an eye on trigger happy moron over there." She nodded toward Jake who smirked.

"Easy with that knife there, Beautiful." Sha'tira turned to look at Wainfleet. "Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Bitch, my knife is bigger than you are." She growled, lashing her tail.

"Get back to work." Grace said. She turned back to Sha'tira and smiled. "Promise me you'll be careful."

"When will I ever say anything but yes?" They hugged and the doctor climbed into the scorpion. She waved to them as they lifted off and went to her own scorpion where her pilot, a woman named Cassi was waiting. They were soon off as well, heading for the valley of the thanators.