Before I boarded the Valkyrie, I decided to take a look at Earth from an observation window on the ISV. During my short yet long stay on our journey throughout space, the staff on this particular ship was less brash, violent and generally nicer towards Lawrence and I than the rough round up that was our arrival on Pandora. I imagined that they weren't exactly sure as to why we were on there, or trained prison guards. They were just there to bring the unobtanium back to Earth. That meant that they'd allowed me to go to the observation deck and look over Earth. I'd never seen a planet from Space before, save for a second glimpse or so of Pandora. I'll tell you, it's something that everyone should see.

I saw the horizon as a curved line, accentuated by a thin, dark blue seam of light. It took me a few seconds to realize that this was the atmosphere. And far from the dry, static, lifeless photographs I've seen, and the impressive but nevertheless, dare I say it, normal video footage, the Earth seemed so alive yet so fragile. The darkness of space was so intense I felt like it was going to swallow me up. I remembered a quote from my trainer used to like, but the meaning of it kind of dwindled when humans went to Pandora. It went like this: Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

Now that wasn't exactly true, but the meaning of it still stood strong. Of maybe the thousands of humans that had set foot on Pandora, billions and billions had lived on this planet. Lived, died, and loved. I swallowed and wiped my eyes before hearing someone come up from behind me. Out of habit, I turned around to see who it was, my body tensing. It was Lawrence. He smiled, looking out of the window. He came up beside me, his face an expression of wonder. He patted me on the shoulder, then said quietly, just loud enough for me to hear:

'Everything's going to be Okay, Dwight.' I turned back around, to see Earth again, the green and blue planet that, in my opinion, was more amazing than Pandora.

'I hope so, Lawrence.' I sighed. 'I hope so.'

We stayed together, silent, until someone came to collect us. The ride in the Valkyrie was uneventful, y mind full of thoughts of Earth. When we landed, the door was left closed for about thirty seconds. I paid no attention to the crates of unobtanium in front of me. Finally, with a jolt, the door opened downwards, the dark of the night making itself evident. I hastily took off my belt and ran out, out onto the concrete. I took one large breath, then let it out, my breath snaking through the air as mist. I breathed like I'd just come up from water. I pawed at my face, so happy that I didn't have an exopack on. I was outside- and I could breath. It felt like a lifetime ago when I was still on Earth. I closed my eyes, feeling the cold wind rustle my jumpsuit. I laughed and laughed, looking up into the air, seeing the lights of the compound. The sky was pitch black, apart from one planet that I could see, small and unblinking in the black sky. I moved my gaze down, away from the large compound and over to the skyline of the city laid out before me. The yellow lights stood twinkling in the distance, whilst red and white lights moved on the road. I laughed again, oblivious to the other people's reactions to me. I wooped loudly, throwing my arms up in the air. I turned to a man on my right who was regarding me with some amusement, his hands behind his back.

'If you'd like to come with me, sir.' He asked me. I laughed again and nodded. He led me out of the compound and into a building, down some old stairs and into an area I recognized. It was a simple, white room with arrows on the floor. And a counter with steel cages dividing one side from the other. This was the room I was admitted in, all those years ago. It brought back memories of waiting in line, handcuffs on, with a small shoebox of possessions, ready to give to the people behind the counter. This was before we'd had our heads shaved, before we knew what the prison was actually like. In some ways, it felt like a travel agency at the time. Now it was empty and deserted. The man that had led me here produced some keys from his belt and unlocked a gate, moving behind the counters. He gestured me to come and follow him. We went into a room together. He reached to his left and flicked on a light switch. The lights illuminated rows and rows of compartments. Inside them were our shoeboxes. The man spoke to me.

'The RDA didn't exactly tell us what to do with this stuff. You'd be surprised at the lack of organization that goes on here. This is where we keep the prisoners possessions.'

'Do you ever get rid of any?' I asked as he looked at the number on my jumpsuit and led me through the room.

'Not yet. We still have space, and there are a lot more places that we keep this stuff. When someone gets out, we can give it to them.'

'Has anyone ever come back here yet?'

'There's been a few. They're usually old men that want to go home and see their son one last time, you know.' We reached an aisle and walked down it. The man ran his fingers along the shoeboxes before stopping and picking one up. 'We like to think the bigshots up there aren't entirely helpless' He smiled and handed the shoebox to me. I didn't open it until we were out of the room.

'Now for you, it looks like they already filled out the paperwork at the prison and sent it to someone to bring it back here. That means…well, this isn't something I usually say to people but, Mr…' he looked down at his piece of paper on the counter. 'Dolton. Mr. Dolton, you're free to go.' He held out his hand and I shook it firmly. I stood there for a second, confused as to what to do.

'You mean I can…' I gestured behind me. He looked up as he was locking the gate.

'Oh, yes. You got somewhere to stay?' I nodded slightly. 'Well then. That's okay.' I was about to walk out when I turned back and asked the man what year it was.

'Oh, it's 20th January 2267.' He smiled at me again and walked through the door we came from, leaving me all alone in the room, apart from a small security camera whirring in the corner. I sniffed. 2267. I had left for Pandora in 2249, when I was thirty. That was ten Earth years in cryosleep, and was that eight years in prison? I couldn't be sure. It certainly didn't feel like I'd spent eight years there, but then again, it didn't really feel like any amount of time. I probably wouldn't have been surprised if the man had said 2300. So that left one prevalent question. How exactly old was I? We hadn't celebrated birthdays in the prison, as neither the date nor time was ever given to us by any wardens or guards. If I counted the years in cryosleep, that meant I was forty-eight years old. No way was I that old, you don't age in cryosleep. So was I thirty-eight? I laughed to myself as I realized that I was asking myself how old I was. I'd go with thirty-eight, even if I didn't feel it.

Whilst still in the room, actually somewhat scared to go outside, I opened the box that I held in my hands. In it, I found a roll of paper money, the card to my house, a necklace, some boots and a razor. I picked up the necklace. It was simple, just a small chain. I put it on, the metal feeling cold against me skin. I tapped my feet, looking down at my jumpsuit. Did I not have a change of clothes? I sighed, staring at the door. Outside was my salvation. Home. As I was gearing myself up, the man who had led me down here came back, this time with Lawrence.

'You know, it's strange really…' he stopped mid-sentence. 'You're still here.' He said. Obviously.

'Yeah…' I said sheepishly. 'Do I get a change of clothes?'

'The guys outside have one for you.'

'Thanks.' I said. I turned back around to the doors, walked a step, and then stopped. I looked at the floor.

'What's up, Dwight?' Lawrence asked. I turned back around, and stay stood in the same spot as I had been maybe ten minutes ago. I shuffled my feet.

'I don't know if I can go out there.' I said.

Lawrence regarded me seriously. 'You have to, Dwight. This is what we wanted.' I massaged my knuckles, bashing them together. Realizing this was probably making me look like a fool, I forced myself to stop fidgeting and stand still. Out of respect, the other man went into the room to look for Lawrence's shoebox.

'It's just…if I go out there, I'll be walking on the streets. With all the other people, going about their lives. I'll walk out of here and…forget. I'm scared that if I go out there I'm going to forget about everything. About Hilton, about the Na'vi, about the good times I had on Pandora, because everything out there will seem so alien to me even though it's home.'

'Listen, Dwight. When you go out there, the only thing that's changed is that you're on Earth, not rotting in jail for something you didn't do.' I coughed at that. Lawrence carried on regardless. 'Think about the times that you've had. They are going to go away just because you walk through a door. Sure, it's scary. I'm scared. But you're going to have to leave this building sometime, whether you leave walking out yourself or if they have to drag you out. To be honest, Dwight, and I mean this in the most respectful way possible, I think you're lying.'

I didn't react.

'You don't want to walk out of that door because you don't know what you'll do. Sure you'll go and eat, have a shower, do whatever it is you've been telling yourself you were going to do when you got out, but what then? We don't have a job, and we don't have any loved ones. We're alone Dwight, and however much that scares us, we're home now, and we can live life by taking one step at a time. The first step is walking through that door. The second id getting changed, the third and the rest are your choice. You can do this Dwight, and deep down, you know it's what you want.'

The room seemed to ring with the silence. I scratched my nose, then replied with a simple:

'Okay.' Steeling myself, I turned right around and walked straight through the doorway, out into the world.

Outside, the final exit of the facility was about 30 meters in front of me, a large gate marking the entrance, a smaller door built into it. The space between where I was standing and the exit was mostly empty, a few buildings on the left and right. A woman came up to me, folded up clothes held in her arms.

'Welcome back to Earth, sir. You can change into these clothes in the toilets over there.' She pointed at a small building not far to my left.

'Are these mine?' I asked.

'They are now.' She replied.

I thanked the woman and went into the bathroom. It was relatively clean. I slowly changed into the black T-shirt and jeans that had been given to me. They were a little too small, but I wouldn't have to wear them for long. I opened the shoebox and took the boots out. I was glad to kick the worn-out, old prison shoes and put the pair of sturdy boots on. I looked at the jumpsuit, bundled into a ball in my hands. After a minute of thinking, I stuffed it into the box and shoved the lid on. It bulged a bit, but fit nonetheless.

I walked out, towards the exit. A man let me through, and with a smile, welcomed me to Earth. I nodded a thank you, my mouth feeling too dry to speak. The facility, or whatever it was, was just on the outskirts of the city. The night was bright with the lights of cars and of buildings. I breathed deeply, the air smelling compellingly different to the filtered, perfectly clean air of the prison and the exopacks. It felt as if I was walking through a dream, hazy, unreal. People walked by, oblivious as to why I was just stood there.

Shivering in just the shirt, I hailed a cab. As I got in and felt the hard seats, the cramped space and the smell of artificial pine cones, I smiled slightly.

'Where to, buddy?' The driver asked. I told him the address of my house. My actual house. Emma's and mine.

Home.