"It left? It fucking left?" Jeremy raged as he and Roland stepped into a secluded locker room previously used by the troops stationed at Hell's Gate. After helping unload everything from the shuttle, while under the supervision of armed avatars, they were all lead inside for an orientation by Dr. Max Patel. Everyone was brought up to speed on the events that had transpired almost three years ago, which drew many surprised reactions, Roland and Jeremy pretending to be bothered by the news. Truth be told Roland did feel some sympathy for the Na'vi, they obviously hadn't deserved the treatment they received. Once orientation was over Max had given everyone a choice on whether to stay on Pandora or return to Earth. Unanimously the new scientists had decided to stay, upon which they were taken on a tour of the facility. After the tour Max had dropped the bombshell on them. The Eternity had been filled up with enough fuel for the return journey and sent back to Earth. The news had floored the two mercenaries, both had to fight to keep their emotions in check while in front of the others but now that they were away from prying ears and eyes Jeremy was venting. Which was nothing out of the norm, Reed usually kept a cool head and Vetterman usually short fused.

Roland took a quick peep into the hallway to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted, then turned to his irritated friend, "Hey, cool down will ya?" he spoke in a calm manner, "I need you cool. We'll figure this out. You cool?"

Vetterman kicked a locker then blew a huge sigh, "Yeah, I'm cool," he replied and after a few deep breaths he turned to Reed, "wanna smoke?"

Roland paced the length of the room trying to gather his thoughts, "I quit," he stated, then spun around to the older merc, "why, you got one?"

Even as he asked he could see the rectangular bulge in Jeremy's left breast pocket. The older man pulled out a lighter as he flipped the carton open and, after letting Roland select one, he pulled a smoke out for himself and lit both.

The pair stood in silence, taking multiple drags, letting the chemicals calm their nerves before Reed finally spoke up, "As soon as I can I'll send a message to Huntley. Obviously we're gonna have to put off-" he glanced to the door for moment then continued in a much quieter voice, "we can't eliminate our targets yet."

Jeremy agreed with a nod then tossed his cigarette to the ground, "It can never be simple, can it?" He complained as he strode over to the sink and splashed water onto his face, "how the hell did I let you talk me into this?"

"I've followed you into worse, remember Mumbai?" Roland stated with a chuckle as he stamped out the butt of his smoke.

"At least that wasn't God knows how many light years away from home," Jeremy retorted but he could see his friend's point.

"For now I think we should make ourselves useful," Roland said as he headed towards the door, "it'll keep us busy in the meantime and make us less suspicious."

Vetterman agreed with a nod and followed his companion back out into the hall and back into the bio lab. The rest of the scientists were a flurry of activity, despite having no deadlines to meet, and it wasn't long before the two mercs felt like they were just getting in the way. Since they already identified one of their targets, Max Patel, they decided to see if they could find the other two. So, with the knowledge that Norm and Jake were avatar drivers, they headed to the link room to size them up. It wasn't long before they found Norm's link bed, the monitor displaying the man's face matched the profile they were shown.

"How long do these guys stay linked up?" Roland asked with genuine curiosity. Before leaving for Pandora, Reed had only managed an abysmal forty two hours of link time and he wanted to get an idea on how long he would be spending in his avatar.

One of people monitoring the drivers answered with a chuckle, "More than what they should be. I can't speak from personal experience but according to my friends that have avatars, it gets really addicting being linked up, something I'm sure you will figure out soon enough," she smiled knowingly, "last I heard they were decanting the new avatars and Dr. Patel has given permission for you newbies to link up tomorrow."

Roland couldn't quite keep a grin from spreading across his face, "I look forward to it," he stated, "I'm Roland Reed, that's Jeremy Vetterman" he held out his hand which she shook.

"Amy Whitaker," she replied with a toothy smile as she shook Jeremy's hand as well.

"Does Dr. Patel always give the orders around here?" Roland asked, coming to stand next to her to get a better look at the screen. What he saw nearly gave him a headache, how any of that jumbled up mess meant anything to anyone was beyond him.

Amy shook her head, "He and Norm guide the rest of us, neither one are strictly in command," she replied, "but when it comes to the avatars we take Dr. Patel's advice very seriously."

Jeremy plopped down into a vacant office chair that had been rolled out from a terminal, "So who is in charge around here, Sully?" he asked as innocently as possible.

She laughed at that, "No, there is no way he would have enough time to run Hell's Gate and the Omaticaya at the same time."

"Do you know when Jake will be unlinking, we were kinda hoping to get to talk to him?" Roland asked as he too sat back in an office chair.

Both men started at the outburst of laughter from Amy and a few other scientists in the room, "Did they not tell you?" she asked once she had regained her composure and after the confused stares from the pair she continued "Roundabouts three years ago Jake had his conscience transferred permanently to his avatar."

Reed and Vetterman exchanged glances, "He transfer… he's… how is that possible?" the former stammered in disbelief.

"I really don't know. All of our scientists here say that it should be impossible but it's true," Amy stated, "he is truly one of the people now."

The two took their leave of the bio lab then, with Amy telling Roland they should get coffee sometime, and tracked down Dr. Patel. After getting permission to send a report back to Earth, which hadn't taken too much persuading as Max understood their bosses wanted weekly reports, they sent a message to Huntley, telling him of their predicament while keeping the message as vague as possible so that when it was screened they wouldn't give themselves away.

It wasn't until late evening when Norm finally unlinked and headed down to dinner. While he ate Max pointed out all the new arrivals and their names. When he got to the two mercs, Norm suddenly stopped eating.

"Those two," he said, nodding towards Reed and Vetterman who were talking to Amy and a few others, "who are they?"

"Jeremy Vetterman is the older one and Roland Reed is the younger," Max stated but even as he answered he knew what was coming next.

"They aren't scientists," it wasn't a question.

Max sighed, he had recognized that as well when he first met them, "I know. They were with the group that landed and Reed has an avatar."

"I said only scientists were to be allowed to stay, Max," Norm declared, exasperated.

"I know, I know," the portly scientist said apologetically while staring at his feet, "by the time I realized it, we had already sent the shuttle back to Earth. I think they'll be alright, though."

Norm gave his friend an even more exasperated look, if that were possible, "How so?"

"They weren't employed by the RDA. They were sent out here to keep the RDA in check," Max explained, "Roland told me that the CIA wanted Grace to reopen her school and that he would run security while they were out there so that another shooting didn't happen, the last hing they wanted was for the UN to get involved and start handing out sanctions. Jeremy was going to be stationed in the bio lab to keep Quaritch and Selfridge from rolling in and taking over."

"Little late for that," Norm replied angrily as he tossed his food down, no longer hungry.

As the scrawny scientist tried to stand Max placed a hand on his arm, stopping him, "They were still in cryo during the war."

Norm didn't reply as he stomped off, still upset. He knew Max was right, these two had nothing to do with the war and to punish them wouldn't be fair, but he also had convinced Jake that they had everything under control here. The unchecked arrival of personnel that weren't just scientists would hurt his reputation with Jake, or at least that's what he assumed. Still, he didn't see any justifiable reason to deny Reed a chance to try out his avatar. He came to a decision, then, that tomorrow the young man would be allowed to link up under Norm's personal supervision.

Early the next morning Roland was roused from sleep by one of the braver technicians and brought to the link room for his first adventure in his avatar. After getting simultaneously laughed at and lectured for his short amount of link time back on Earth, he was in.

After the initial haze of linking cleared away the first thing Roland noticed was that all of his senses seemed to be dialed to eleven. Even as the techies were droning on at him about taking it easy, his ears swiveled to and fro like they had minds of their own, picking up the smallest sounds. He could smell the slightest perfume that the woman techie used to mask the fact she hadn't showered in a while. Even his vision seemed clearer, even though he'd thought his vision in his human body was just fine as it was. His sense of touch was different, too, and he found himself caressing every object in sight as if someone had slipped his avatar molly before linking up. Once the technicians were sure that his avatar wasn't going to spontaneously combust or something like that they gave Reed some privacy so he could get dressed in the avatar sized clothing that, Roland thought, looked comical on a Na'vi body. Once decent he was directed outside where other avatars were exercising or studying various flora.

As he lumbered about just taking in the scenery and breathing in the incredibly clean air, another avatar strode up to him, "Roland? I'm Norm Spellman," he stated.

Roland nodded and held out his hand, "Pleasure," he replied, but when Norm didn't shake it he let it drop back to his side.

"Until we can decide what to do with I'm going to put you to work," Norm said, then gestured around at the multiple activities within the compound "anything you're good at?"

Reed smirked, "Shooting things," he replied.

Norm was unamused and he shot the young merc a glare, "You military types are all the same. All you think about are your guns," he declared.

"I'm not military," Roland replied seriously, "and I was joking. I've been thinking, though. I've noticed some areas of the base have been shut down, why is that?"

"Because we only have so much fuel to keep the generators running. We shut down all the departments we didn't deem necessary to conserve," Norm replied, then his tone turned somber "once the fuel runs out, we're in trouble,"

Roland strode further out into the compound, his mind formulating solutions, "Can't continue mining for unobtanium. Wind power? No, we're lacking materials and manpower to build carbines. Hydroelectric? No, not a powerful enough water current nearby. Solar grids are wired to the fences, unless," he turned to Norm, "could the solar panels powering the electric fences be rerouted to the generators?"

Norm shrugged, "That's beyond my expertise, you would have to ask one of the engineers," he replied but couldn't quite keep the spark of hope out of his voice, "we powered down the fences a long time ago. We couldn't risk sending out our technicians out to perform the necessary maintenance to keep them running, but if there is a way to move the panels closer to the base then they could safely be worked on,"

"You can't protect your technicians?" Roland asked, "I've seen the armory, you have plenty there to keep your men safe while they work,"

"We're scientists, not soldiers," Norm retorted, "during the war, the avatar drivers took over the command center but all they had to do was point guns and look scary, non of them actually had to pull the trigger. If they came under fire, they wouldn't have lasted long. I'm the only one on base that has ever fired a gun and it didn't turn out so well for me," he subconsciously massaged his shoulder where the bullets had impacted those years ago during battle.

Roland nodded, "If the engineers can convert the generators to solar power, Jeremy and I can protect your men while they work," he promised, "I was joking earlier but now I'm serious. I'm good at shooting things, so is Jeremy."

That evening Norm spoke with the head of engineering and, after he got confirmation that it was possible to convert the power, he started putting together the team. It wasn't going to be simple, there were five solar panels each and they were decent size, even for the avatars. Apparently it was easy enough to unhook them but transporting them and then getting them running on the generators was going to be a hassle. Norm was assured the engineers were up to the challenge, if nothing else it was finally something for them to do. Early the next morning Norm led Roland in his avatar, Jeremy, three other avatars, and three engineers out to the solar panel farthest from the base. Roland was armed with an M60 machine gun and Jeremy with his own Remington 700. As the engineers worked the two mercenaries scanned the skies but only saw some flying animals in the distance, no immediate danger. Once the panel was free Roland had to help carry it back to the base, leaving Vetterman to watch their backs. Even with five avatars it was incredibly heavy and by the time they made it, all of them were puffing for air and their muscles aching. It was a long day of hard work but they got the first four without incident, it was while transporting the fifth that a predator got hungry enough to risk an attack.

Roland was walking backwards as he carried the panel when one of the engineers cried, "Banshee!"

The group gently but quickly set the panel down so Roland could rearm himself as the engineers took cover under the solar panel. Before Reed could get a bead on the incoming threat Vetterman's rifle barked out and, with a squeal of pain, the banshee flopped to ground with a bullet sized hole in its wing. The winged predator turned and sloppily took the air in a retreat, but Jeremy cycled the bolt and chambered another round before taking aim.

"Wai-" Norm attempted to stop him but too late as the older merc fired, this time center mass, killing the banshee.

Roland pushed the barrel of Jeremy's gun to the side, "Christ, JV, you didn't need to kill it," he stated sternly.

"What? You going soft on me, Reed?" Vetterman snorted, "now others won't attack."

"Or," Norm interjected, "the body will attract more. Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have let you have guns."

"You wanted us to protect you and I did," Jeremy declared defensively, "if you're so worried about your little birdies, do it yourself next time," with that he stormed off back to the airlock.

Norm began pacing back and forth frantically, "Shit, Jake's gonna be pissed," he said, more to himself than the others.

"Hey, calm down, man," Reed put his hand on the scientists shoulder, stopping him from pacing, "Something will likely have eaten the body before tomorrow morning."

Norm nodded, "Yeah, you're right. It's just you have no idea how the Na'vi feel about wanton killing."

After they finished up the days work, Roland caught up with Norm at dinner, Jeremy was still off on his own sulking.

"We've been here a few days now and we still haven't met Jake. How often does he stop by?" Reed asked around a mouthful of he didn't know what.

"I don't know, whenever he feels like it," Norm replied, "he doesn't exactly follow a schedule, sometimes we won't hear from him for a couple weeks, sometimes he shows up every other day."

Roland pondered for a moment, "Is it a far journey from wherever he is?" he asked.

Norm eyed him suspiciously, "The new kelutral or home tree, is even farther away than the original," he explained, "even by ikran it's over half a day's flight,"

"Ik- what?" Roland frowned, confused.

"Sorry, banshee. The Na'vi call them ikran," Norm stated, "why are you so eager to meet him?"

"Really?" Roland chuckled "you have to ask? The man took over as leader of an entire clan of aliens with only three months of training. Color me intrigued."

Norm snorted, "Don't get your hopes up," he said, "it was his rule than only scientists would be allowed to stay. I don't think he will like you and Jeremy very much."

Reed shrugged, not allowing himself to be dismayed, "I came up with a solution to save all your asses from suffocating," he declared with a grin, "that's got to have gotten me some brownie points."

"We'll see," Norm replied, "sooner or later.

As it turned out, it would be sooner rather than later, as early the next morning Jake left kelutral with two other hunters to visit Hell's Gate. The past few nights he had been having unsettling, unclear dreams about the base and at first he thought they were simply just dreams. After a few nights, though, he became worried and, after consulting with Mo'at, he decided to soothe his worries by visiting the base. It was late afternoon when he finally touched down inside the grounds of the avatar compound, the only area the ikran felt comfortable landing. As he dismounted he heard the familiar voice of Norm calling his name, causing him to grin and when he turned to reply his smile disappeared in a flash because that's when he saw them.

The two men from his dreams.