Hey, everyone! Oel ngati Kameie.

Obviously, it has been way way way waaay too long. I'm sorry for my ginormous absence, but yes, I'm here, I'm alive, everything's good. haha

Hopefully today's chapter will be pretty interesting. I'm trying to represent here that parker's still somewhat of a close-minded, greedy jerk, but part of him is starting to understand the gravity of Earth's situation.

These ' ' mean that it's in Na'vi.

Remember to review or add this story if you like it!

Enjoy!

Parker's eyes snapped open, but he was no longer in his quarters. A beautiful, blue face loomed above him, smiling; it looked like the face of someone he knew, but blue and catlike, clearly Na'vi. He sat up, finding himself surrounded by lush forest, teeming with color and majesty. He looked down at his body, jumping a bit to find that it was striped with blue and dotted with strange white marks.

"Finally, you're awake!" The woman exclaimed.

"What-" He stopped, puzzled, she clearly wasn't speaking English, but he understood her.

"What's… going on? Who are you?" He asked.

"Come."

She snapped up and turned around, starting down a path. Parker stared at her, baffled.

"Skxawng," She said, and ran up to him, grabbing his hand. "Come."

Parker scurried clumsily after her, barely avoiding smacking into a large, stiff tree limb. Never the athlete in his younger days, his lack of balance and speed seemed to present themselves now more than ever. If he couldn't keep up, however, he feared that the lady in front of him would simply drag him along the rugged terrain

He focused more on the small obstacles, and with some success, began to evade them. As he ran, he slowly became more aware of his surroundings, his stumbles and trips over rocks and branches became graceful leaps and dodges. He still didn't know what was happening, but it felt good to run. It felt kind of liberating, actually. He smiled a small smile. The woman, seeming to notice this, turned and beamed at him, releasing his hand.

They continued to travel for what could have been an hour. She halted and reached up to a small bell shaped leaf, heavy with water, and brought it down to her face, drinking from it. Finding a leaf, Parker followed suit, surprised at the sweetness of the water. Drinking water on Earth was packed with minerals and other additives that made the water taste odd. While Parker was drinking, the woman hopped up to a broad branch and sat cross-legged on it.

Parker looked worriedly at the tree; he had never even climbed a rope. She patted a space on the branch near where she sat. He started to climb the tree, but couldn't reach the branch. Smiling, the woman offered her hand and in a strong, swift motion, pulled him up.

Parker settled on the branch across from the woman.

"Will you tell me who you are now?" He asked.

"I am called Eywa."

"Isn't that the blue people's little pretend deity or whatever?"

"I am not 'pretend.' And I am more than a deity, child. I am the spirit of the land. The spirit of Pandora."

Parker began to wonder if he was high on some sort of drug.

"This is ridiculous. I must've really hit the booze or something this time."

"You simply cannot see." Eywa sighed.

"Okay... I'll play along." Parker started. "If you are the spirit of Pandora, why are you here? I don't know what's happening but last time I checked, we were traveling away from Pandora."

"But I am here, on this very vessel of yours. I know the memories of all those who's spirits now rest with me. The spirits of your kind are with me, as well. I see their memories of your home, and it is very troubling. Yours is a world full of imbalance and lies."

"Wait. That was in English. How do you know how to speak English?" Parker asked, puzzled.

"Each spirit that rests inside me knows different and unique things, so I too know those things. My people do not have specific words for 'lie' or 'imbalance.'"

"Right… Anyways, I don't know why I'm here but I've got work to do, so unless I'm dead, I need to be getting back to the ship. How did I get here, anyways?"

The world around him began to darken, purple, orange, and gold painting the trees.

"You did not 'get' here, you have been right here for quite some time." She answered.

Parker wondered if she was just trying to confuse him now. Of course he'd been right there for a while, they had been sitting there for at least thirty minutes. And what did she mean he didn't 'get' there?

She seemed to read his thoughts.

"Your body is still in your bed, but your spirit is here, with me."

"So I'm just having a dream, then." He said, relieved.

"You could call it that, but it is more than just a dream, just as you see me in your sleep, I see you."

"That makes no sense, I'm having a dream, and my mind is making this all up."

"No, my child, this is not a trick that your mind is playing on you. I am here on this ship, and while you sleep I have reached out to you so I may help teach you what you need to know."

"You're crazy. Or I'm crazy. This is all in my head." Parker said.

"Skxawng." Eywa said.

"Stop calling me that!" He fumed.

"An infant can see more than you. All your life, you have taken opportunities, yet you have also closed yourself from really believing things you can't understand." The deity insisted.

"Look, I know what I know, and what I know is how to run the RDA and live on that God-forsaken rock called Earth. There's nothing more to life and nothing less."

"But there is, child. You will not be able to save your home thinking like that. But I have no more patience for now. Perhaps another can convince you to begin to see."

With that, the sky darkened, revealing a beauty unknown to Parker, even considering his time on Pandora. He looked about him; everything glowed with bioluminescence and life. The tree under him seemed to breathe and whisper. He looked back up, but Eywa was gone.

Hundreds of days seemed to pass by, he saw all the old RDA equipment that was left behind be overgrown by plants and used as homes by various animals. The mining pits left behind faded as Pandora once again reclaimed them and filled them with lush new foliage and fresh, clear water. Parker saw all of his equipment disappear until finally, only a few centers, the ones that the scientists kept up, remained. Then, he saw Earth from outer space, crowded and devastated. It was a disgusting color that reminded him of trash and pollution. After the visions, his sight began to darken, and when he opened his eyes again, he was back in his bed.

"What the hell was that?" He wondered aloud.

Parker sat up and checked the clock. It was early morning. Sort of. Time on the venture star, while traveling, did not flow the same was as it did on Earth, it went by slightly faster. It was probably the biggest folly of space travel. Everyone on Earth got older while the space traveler remained close to the same age.

He looked over at the computer. He definitely didn't want to talk to anyone right now, but despite himself, he stood up, threw a shirt and slacks on, and turned the computer on. He checked his email first, and immediately regretted it. It was full of messages. Thousands upon thousands of little, annoying messages. They were all just waiting to be opened and frowned at.

He rejoiced a little at the fact that he kept his RDA e-mail separate from his personal email, and opened a new conference and sent a request to the RDA headquarters. The call was answered almost immediately, and he was met by two faces. John and Anthony, two of his top people, both heads of their own departments. John was stern, with almost black eyes, dark skin, and a shaved head. Anthony sported tan skin and dark, curly hair. Both wore the expensive, classy suits that gave RDA personnel the nickname 'suits.'

"Heard about your little accident." Anthony said. "I don't know what you plan to do, but we've really stepped in it this time."

"People are furious, Parker," Continued John. "Unobtanium was a huge market."

"I know. I didn't call to get chewed out, thanks." Parker said grumpily. "I called because I've been given a solution."

"A solution for what? The billions of dollars we'll lose?" Anthony retorted.

"No, a solution for the toxins in the environment."

"Oh, so now we're gonna fix this by hugging trees?" Anthony snapped.

"You know I love your shining attitude Anthony, couldn't bear to go another day without it." Parker said sarcastically, emitting a grunt from the curly-haired man. "There's a good haul of unobtanium on the ship, but we've got bigger problems than that now. We can't keep ignoring the fact that every day, Earth's atmosphere becomes harder to breathe."

"They must have done a real number on you, Parker." John chuckled. "Since when did you care about all of that? If anything, you and the rest of the RDA are responsible for it."

"I know. But we can come back from that."

"How?"

"By introducing Pandoran plants to Earth."

"How will that even work? What about the risks involved?"

"If it's for the sake of humanity, we'll just have to risk it. There are Pandoran plants already on Earth, and so far they've been successful in repairing the environment."

"So we're just going to turn around and start telling people that we're going to do this?" Anthony asked.

"No," Parker began. "We need to begin by researching alternative energy sources. And we need to keep it quiet. If we announce all of this at once, it'll just raise more suspicion. We'll let information of what we're doing leak out, that way it'll spread around, but we will not confirm or deny it, understand?"

"Yes, but where will the money for this effort come from? We can't just dig up new revenue." John commented.

"Well, we won't be making many space expeditions for a long time with the way things are currently. The funding from the space program will need to go into this."

The men both looked shocked, mouths agape.

"That's our largest program, are you saying you're shutting it down?" Anthony retorted.

"There isn't a choice, and returning to Pandora isn't something we'll be doing again, so it's best to use what we have from the space exploration and Pandora projects to fund our research." Parker said.

"Also, we're going to have a new helper, Brenna Selfridge. My sister." He added.

"Parker, this is too much! She's the leader of one of the biggest organizations against what we're doing!" Anthony practically yelled, eyes wild with indignation.

"We're changing our ways, Anthony, and however slowly that happens, it's still what's necessary." Parker said.

He sighed; he didn't even know what he was saying. But, however grudgingly, he had to admit that he was beginning to really feel the scale of what was wrong and what needed to be done.

"Why would you have this sudden change of heart, Parker? And now of all times, this isn't like you at all." John said.

"I... I don't know." Parker said. "I feel like I was sleeping, and someone dumped a bucket of cold water over me or something."

"If you say so." Anthony says. "I guess we ought to get started, then?"

"Yes, start immediately. Thanks for meeting with me today."

The transmission ended.

Well, hope everyone found this chapter interesting. My apologies again that it was such a long time coming. Life catches up to you, eh?

So anyways, remember to fave and/or review if you like!

Fun fact: The helocoradian plant is based off of the Christmas Tree worm.

Eywa ngahu