Norm screamed as he shoved open the lid of his psionic link pod. Death was always something he had feared as a child but was forced to get over in his many years of study. He had lived his life for one goal, Get to Pandora. Doing that however required that he not fear death so much. For over ten years, he tired every exercise and activity to help him overcome death and all its forms, but nothing prepared him for the actual experience.

The scientists on Pandora had assumed that once the Avatar had sustained sufficient damage that the link would be canceled and control over the human body returned.

They were wrong.

As Norm lay on the floor of the lab, breathing heavily and holding his hand over his heavily beating heart where his Avatar got shot, the memoires of those few moments kept playing through his head.

Him riding with the clans of Pandora to fight against the RDA, The calling to Jake of retreat, the slaughter of Na'vi around him and then finally getting shot twice in his heart.

He looked down under his black shirt and saw bruising around his heart. This was real. Too real.

He had felt the bullets pierce and the blood start leaking out. He had felt his body no longer able to function and his heart beginning to slow.

And then there it was.

Death.

His heart had stopped, his lungs exhaled their last and his brain slowed to a halt, yet the link refused to cancel. So for a few seconds, Norm the scientist laid in death.

Silence.

Then Darkness.

Then Nothing.

Then he woke up.

Norm attempted to stand up in the lab only to fall on his face, the pain his body thought it felt still surging. He knew he could just stay where he was; he and Trudy made sure to hide this place well so no one would find it. "Yeah" he said to himself. "I could just stay here…"

However once he stood he looked out on the world and stopped. Was he going to sit back and let the others fight and die? Was he going to stay the cowardly scientist and just let warriors stop Quaritch? Was he going to let death stop him from doing what he thought was right? He looked down at his hands then past them to find a exo-pack and a gun. For a few moments, Norm was motionless.

"Like hell I will" he finally said to himself, picking the two up shakily. He knew he wasn't in a clan like Jake, or even accepted by the people like Dr. Augustine was. But they were, in some small way, his people too; His brothers and sisters fighting and dying. This had been his whole life and to sit back and not help until his finally breath…

It was foolish.

It was cowardly.

It was what he would have done when he first arrived on Pandora.

Norm closed his eyes and put on his exo-pack. With a grunt he picked up the gun and opened the first of the airlock doors. Quickly punching in the code, he waited as the first door sealed itself and the second opened, the sounds of firearms and screams from both sides filling the air. Norm's heart rate increased as he ran out, his body now shaking with nerves as he trekked the jungle.

--About an hour later--

"Shit!" exclaimed Norm as he tripped again over some root. "What the hell was I thinking leaving the lab?!" The scientist continued to walk, the ever so often gun burst causing him to duck quickly. He turned swiftly hearing rustling behind him. "This was a bad idea Norm…a very bad idea…" He stopped and blinked slowly. "Norm…you're talking to yourself again…" he said quietly, turning back to where he was before.

Norm froze as he found three viperwolves approaching him slowly, a low growl coming from the first of them. Norm took a single step back and whimpered. "Oh hell…." The scientist took off running, the gun falling from his hands.

Yet another side effect of the psionic Avatar link was that bodies that go for long stretches begin to decay. Norm could feel those effects now as he found himself out of breath after barely a half minute of running. He also found it odd that the viperwolves hadn't caught him yet, even though he knew they were several times faster than he was. He turned back to see that they were not in fact chasing him, but seemed to have gotten distracted by the metal the man had dropped. Not waiting for another chance, Norm jumped into a hole in the ground covered by thick roots. Lying against the base of the tree he hoped to avoid the creatures and maybe lose them. It was a difficult thing to for him to believe, but right now he'd try anything. Ten seconds passed in silence. Norm slowly slumped down and seeing a bulge in his pocket he placed a hand in to examine its contents.

Grace's cigarettes.

He remembered when Grace was on the scorpion after getting shot that she gave them to him with a wink. "Hold on to them for me Spellman…cant afford to get blood on something I'm gonna need later…" He removed them from his pockets and pressed them against his chest, closing his eyes slowly.

In the three months he, Jake, and Dr. Augustine were in the "shack" as Jake called it, they had grown closer as colleagues. Maybe even as family. He laughed every time Jake would try to wheel himself away from one of the freeze-dried meals and Grace would catch him and pull him back like a mother. He'd feel that twinge of jealousy as Jake became more and more an Omaticaya and even more jealous when Grace got into the village as well. Joy, jealousy, anger, laughter…

Yep. Just like a family.

He took a few breaths and tilted his head back opening his eyes to see the head of a viperwolf not but six inches from his face. However, to Norm's surprise, his heart rate didn't spike; his adrenaline didn't rush.

He was calm. Death staring him in the face and he, Norm the previously cowardly scientist, didn't run. He didn't hide. He didn't shrink away at his moment. He instead stared down the viperwolf.

"I'm not afraid of you," he said quietly, receiving a low growl from the pandoran animal. "I've already died once. You can't scare me with it…" He stared at the animal without blinking, a small smile forming on his face as the animal stared right back. "You don't scare me…" With a huff, the viperwolf walked back keeping eye contact with the human. After a moment of the staring contest the three ran off, leaving the scientist alone under the tree.

With a heavy breath, Norm slumped back down, his heart finally catching up to the situation. "Wow…" he heaved, running a hand over his hair. "Can't believe that actually wo-" He froze as he heard brush cracking from outside and he dropped down quickly, the package of cigarettes falling from his hands into a hole in the ground. "Shit!" he muttered, the sounds of rustling ceasing. With only the sound of his breath providing noise for his ears, he looked out on the landscape, the sounds of screams and firearms stopping. He exhaled after a few moments. "Well that was clo-" his sentence was stopped by two blue hands pulling him out of the tree and two big yellow eyes staring into his masked face. Not able to say a word, his body shook as the creature recognized as a Na'vi placed him on the ground. With a few breaths Norm looked up and saw the face of his Na'vi captor and gawked slightly. "Ney…Neytiri?!"

The Na'vi blinked and looked slightly confused but moved her head towards the human's. "You know of me…" she said softly in English. Norm nodded. "You are one of the dreamwalkers…"

Norm quickly nodded, scooting back. "Yeah…" He paused, his current situation still weighing on him. "Well, I was anyway…" He stood up, brushing off dirt. "My Avatar got wounded and I…I…" He closed his eyes a perplexed Neytiri looking on. "My connection was lost…" He opened his eyes, taking a step toward Neytiri. "What about Jake? Have you heard anything about him?" he asked, Neytiri losing her footing for a moment. She didn't respond, averting her eyes as she readjusted herself slightly. "Neytiri?" Norm asked, looking quizzically concerned. "What happened to J-" He stopped when he saw Jake pulling himself over a large root. "Jake!!" Norm ran past the female Na'vi and wrapped his arms around the paraplegic. "Jake! Oh it's so good to see you again…" He paused, looking at Jake's masked human form. "Wait…" He looked passed Jake to see four direhorses and three other Na'vi with Jake's unconscious Avatar with one of them. "What happened to you and your Avatar?"

Jake sighed, squirming slightly to loosen Norm's grip. "It's good to see you too Norm…" He wheezed. Once free he balanced himself on the branch. "Quaritch found the lab" he said, Norm's expression shifting from slightly concerned to extremely worried. "He and I had it out but he broke the seal before i could finish it." Neytiri gave a hiss as she walked over to the two humans. He laughed as Norm sat. "Well, Neytiri helped me a bit…"

Norm smiled as the female Na'vi gave Jake a slap in the back of the head. Jake, laughing and rubbing his head, turned back to Norm. "You actually gave me a scare…" The scientist raised an eyebrow. "He completely trashed one of the pods before I could stop him…" Norm's face fell a little and he looked down towards the ground; The man's expression not escaping Jake's eyes. "Wait, what happened?"

"I got shot," he said quickly, receiving a cocked eyebrow from the Marine. "I got shot and died." He looked up at Jake. "My Avatar got wounded and I felt it slowly die in battle…" He paused as he began to breath hard, his hands shaking. "It died and so did I…" Jake blinked slowly, not knowing what to say. "It wasn't even a few minutes after I told you about the retreat…two shots" he said, touching his still hurting chest to show Jake. "Both in the heart."

Jake looked at Norm then over at Neytiri, motioning for her to wait a few moments. He looked back at the scientist who was just barely holding it together. "Jake?" Norm looked into Jake's eyes and didn't blink. "Dr. Augustine…what she said at the tree of souls…" He paused as Neytiri lowered her head to hear the man's hushed tones. "Do you think it's true? About Ewya being a real thing and all?"

The female Na'vi opened her mouth to speak but Jake beat her to the punch. "Grace was smart," he said quickly, receiving a dark look and another hiss from his Na'vi mate. "She knew what she was talking about most of the time." He looked at the forest around him and at Neytiri. "And I've learned to trust what ever she says."

The Na'vi female gave a short sound and looked over at the Aypa'li {Many direhorse}. Jake nodded and placed a hand on Norm's shoulder. "We got word that the soldiers at hell's gate surrendered…" Norm's face lit up as he looked at Jake. "It's over. We won" Jake said with a big smile. Norm raised his fists in the air and gave a loud yell of excitement receiving an odd look from the other five present. He quickly lowered his arms and averted his eyes from them. Jake gave a small laugh and continued. "We're headed off to hopefully stop them for good."

Norm tried his best to hold his excitement and relief in so he didn't have another outburst. "We what are we waiting for then? Let's get to the base!" He jumped off the root and started toward the direhorses before pausing, looking at the tree from earlier. "You two go, I'll be right behind you…" He left Jake to shift himself onto Neytiri as he went back to try and find Grace's cigarettes. Digging his way back into the hole he tried to find the pack but couldn't seem to see the plastic in the floor of wood and moss.

"Norm!" he heard Jake yell. "Let's get going!"

"O…Ok!" Norm replied finally spotting the pack. He leaned over to grab it only to find several roots starting to cover the package. "What in the world…" He blinked twice and the package disappeared into the forest floor.

"Norm!!"

"Alright!" he yelled, crawling out. He looked back at the tree and gave a small smile walking off. "She's with Ewya…lucky her…"

Walking toward the four direhorses he saw Neytiri put Jake on one and hop onto it herself; another had Jake's Avatar looking unconscious as ever in front of a rider. Norm attempted to crawl on in front of another of the Na'vi. "Hey…how ya doin?" he asked, looking and waving the large Na'vi behind him. "Norm Spellman."

-----

Ok, so I kind of went on and on and on for this one…yeah…it didn't want to stop.

But don't worry! I have three ideas still. I actually wish to extend thanks to Matteic who gave me an idea for one. Thanks Matteic!!

And really, thanks to everyone else who gave me reviews. I appreciate it. And sorry for the slow updates, but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to this. If there is even a small part I don't like, I might just overhaul the whole thing so it's better.

So…the next one will probably be Jake confronting Parker after the battle is lost…then I'm going to do what the humans were doing while Jake was lost in the woods…and then maybe a scene between Jake and Neytiri for what to do with the military and scientists…so stay tuned!!

Ewya be with you…

- ÐѓдҜΘИΪ§