Norm's POV – Hell's Gate

He hopped out of the samson to the hot concrete below. He noticed the Valkyrie in the landing strip, engine silent and cargo bay doors still wide open. He waved to a couple of the Na'vi sitting in the outposts. Before Casey could get out of the aircraft, he quickly instructed her to carefully conceal the extracted molars in her belt pack until he could un-link. He didn't want Jake or any of the Na'vi to see what they were up to. She obliged then trotted off to the research lab while Norm stored his avatar.

"Where's Max?" Norm found Jake in the control room after searching for Max in the research lab and link rooms.

"He's over with the new group out in general living quarters. Hey, when you find him, will you ask him to get over here ASAP?"

"Sure thing, talked to Parker yet?"

"Yeah, he might be useful, not sure how yet.. We all need to sit down and talk."

---------------

Neytiri arrived and Norm let her in via the research facility's entrance. It felt like it had been an eternity since I last saw her. She was visibly tired from the long journey home and trip to Hell's Gate, but I was glad she came. I explained to her why the Valkyrie was on the landing zone and that some humans had to return because they didn't have enough food on the ship to sustain them. At first she was visibly upset with my decision to let Parker return, but I told her that it's possible this was in Eywa's plan.

"Please be patient with me Neytiri. All the destruction you saw here on Pandora is just a fraction of the damage they are capable of. They could level this entire planet within days if they wanted to."

"Then why allow them to come back? If they are evil then they must stay away!"

"We have to help them SEE Neytiri, if they do not See then they will come back and kill everything here." My hands held her arms and I looked deep into her angry eyes. "I love you. I See you. You See me, but if they do not See Pandora, then they will destroy it." I kissed her forehead and wrapped my arms around her. She was so innocent of the human ways and it made explaining extremely difficult.

Finally, Norm reappeared with Max and we sat down to discuss my conversation with Parker. Max had left Speedy and Casey with the new occupants and Greggory was sitting outside Parker's door, leaning on his gun and dozing off. At least we had security cameras everywhere.

"Okay, I need to pick your genius brains for a minute," I started the conversation hoping their collective IQ would help me figure out what to do. I tried to explain what Eywa had told me in great detail from the older advanced civilization up until the moment Eywa realized that the stone was the super-conductor of her energy. The unobtanium itself is what and enabled everything on the planet to communicate. I tried to tell the story of Earth and Pandora the best I could. Neither Norm or Max said a word the entire time. They sat head propped up on their chins throughout the duration of the story. Gaia had lost her cleansing power and was no longer able to heal herself. It was up to me to heal the Earth.

"That is absolutely astounding Jake, I could only wish I was able to talk to Eywa like that," Norm had a characteristic hint of jealousy in his voice when I spoke of my experiences with the Na'vi or Eywa.

"So basically we have to heal the earth? That's what Eywa is saying right?" Max was uninterested in the spiritual aspect of the task, he was more interested in the science behind it.

"Yes"

"Norm, you're the xeno, so what kind of parallels did Earth's current situation draw from Pandora's past?"

"Well, massive amounts of carbon dioxide were in the air due to the advanced race setting bombs off, more so than what's in the atmosphere right now. However, Earth's atmosphere has more nitrogen with hints of carbon dioxide vs. Pandora's atmosphere that's roughly 18% carbon dioxide."

"True but on Pandora, current, plants and animals thrive."

"Yes, Pandora plantlife is abundant and animals thrive. I mean, if you dropped any of our animals here they would croak over and die - well like we do."

"Exactly."

"What is your point Max? Are you saying we should.. wait.. the plants in the Eden Gardens...it all makes sense now."

"But CO2 isn't our only issue here."

"Okay guys what are you getting at? Don't lose me here." Max and Norm were having way too much fun at this point. The conversation got a little over my head but I tried to keep up.

"Okay okay I think see where we need to go with this Max," Norm was getting excited and it showed. He stood up and started fidgeting with his hands and rubbing his forehead. "The Earth has a combination of issues, the air, the water.. well overpopulation, but that's another monster... and there are several radioactive landfills that I know of.. I know there's one in Cleveland that has a majority of the great lakes too toxic to look at.."

Norm continued, "Per Grace's research, and well I've seen some of these plants too.. there are several plants on the Pandoran surface that not only filter out CO2, but other toxins in the atmosphere. The anemonid has been taken to Earth to study. Supposedly it can remove metallic toxins from soil. The baja tickler or txumtsa'wll absorbs toxins from the atmosphere and dissolves it in a liquid, there are just so many.. um..the popsicle and octoshroom plants loves radioactive minerals and can effectively absorb and deactivate them..And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head."

"So basically what your saying Norm, is that this whole time we've been sitting on a goldmine that could effectively rid our planet of the toxins in the atmosphere AND soil and no one in the up-and-up decided to take a leap of faith on it? They were more interested in the damn rock?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Grace has been preaching this stuff for years Jake, but no one would listen to her. I mean, if someone actually listened to her and had enough pull in RDA this could be a PR and public image booster. Who doesn't want to be the person that saves the world? But everyone has their heads stuck up their asses." Norm was on a roll.

"So we should try to market the plantlife from Pandora instead of the unobtanium?" I think I finally figured out where they were going with this.

"They'll need both. Unobtanium isn't made on earth and it appears that many of these plants respond to the presence of it in the soil. They will grow without it, but do better if it is available to them. It's almost like they enjoy the communication lines flowing through their roots. I also believe unobtanium renews itself here on Pandora."

"What? How's that possible?" Even Max was surprised.

Norm continued, "The magnetic pull from Polyphemus, Alpha Centauri A, B and the other moons constantly disturbs the plate tectonics of the planet. The crust is always in motion and moving. I think the extreme magnetic conditions of the planet is constantly making unobtanium. It was a theory that Grace tinkered with a little bit, but hasn't been fully confirmed. I believe it though. It just makes too much sense."

"Well, I think we've figured out what we have to do, next order of business is to figure out how to do it. I'm going to go talk to Parker." We all nodded in agreement and went in different directions. Norm and Max headed towards the research labs talking something about optimum CO2 absorption and metallic titrates. Neytiri followed me to Parker's quarters bombarding me with questions.

"So now we must give our plants to humans? Is this all you do is take?"

"No Neytiri, we aren't going to take the plants, we're probably going to take some of the seeds, grow our own plants and then use those seeds to plant more. I don't think that Pandora will miss them."

"How do you think you will get this Parker to See?"

"You are going to have to help me with that. If you taught me how to See, then you can teach anyone. Neytiri.." I turned and faced her and cupped her beautiful face in my hand, "I love you and this world and I wouldn't agree to anything that would further destroy what Eywa has given us. Please help me and trust me on this."

She lowered her gaze. She didn't understand and likely never would unless she saw the dead Earth with her own luminous eyes. Understanding what I had to do, I reached around her waist and gently guided her queue to mine. "This is Earth." When tsahaylu was made I felt her confusion wash over me. I closed my eyes and focused on my memories of the dying planet. Dead seas, toxic clouds, contaminated soil, people walking with face masks, acid rain destroying what little plantlife was left, everything I could remember from my world circled through my memory. I could feel her heart growing heavy at the desolate images. I didn't want her to ever have to see this, but she had to in order to fully grasp why Eywa and Gaia were asking for my help. I heard a sobbing noise and opened my eyes; she was crying. "I will help." I apologized to her; I never wanted to take away her innocence. I thanked her with a kiss and just hoped that whatever we are getting ourselves into, will work. We headed towards Parker's quarters. I bumped and startled Greggory who had dozed off, so much for being an effective security guard. Luckily Parker didn't try anything stupid. Exactly where would he go anyway?

"Parker, this is my lifemate Neytiri," I looked at her and smiled. "She is the daughter of the clan leader - one that died during the Hometree massacre," I turned my eyes back to Parker who briefly shifted his glance down and away from both of us.

Without much remorse he then looked up, "Your lifemate? You mated with a smurf? Are you serious Sully?"

"As a heart attack." Neytiri glanced over at me questioningly. "It's just an expression," I whispered.

"Jesus, you have been smoking something."

"Dammit Parker, what is it going to take for you believe me? This isn't an herbal hallucination!"

"Okay okay fine, I'm sorry. I just don't get it. I mean, she's pretty and all, but she's blue."

I didn't feel like wasting time with his insecurities, "You are going to learn how to See.. and Neytiri is going to show you."

"See? See what?"

"Pandora and what you are destroying."

"Okay, well, I've seen all the pictures and stuff so what are you trying to say here?"

"You're going into the forest, first thing tomorrow morning."

"Whoa, what the hell, no way, I'm not into the whole suicide thing.."

"You'll be fine. Neytiri has agreed to help."

"Great."

"I sense the sarcasm there Parker, but you really don't have a choice in the matter. I've decided that we could use you in re-negotiating the terms and circumstances for RDA's present here on Pandora. If you are going to do this effectively, then you need to See the whole picture."

"Fine." Parker crossed his arms like a kid pouting when they didn't get their way, "Is there anyway I can talk to Captain Brewer on the Venture? I'd like to let him know that I'm not dead."

"I'll have Greggory arrange the communication. See you in the morning Parker."

"Yeah, I can't wait."

Max's POV - Hell's Gate Research Lab

"Oh my goodness Norm these are great!" he picked up a molar and examined it closely with his ocular lens. "Very little damage done to them, job well done. Now I need to extract some DNA from the root core." After carefully disinfecting the tooth, he picked up a small drill with a fine tipped bit and slowly churned through the hard native enamel.

"I went ahead and picked up some hair samples too. I wasn't sure if you needed them or not, but figured might as well since I was in the grave."

Without looking up from his task, Max thanked him and told him to put the samples in his controlled substance drawer safe from random visitors. He carefully vacuumed the tiny hole removing any trace shards of tooth from the hole. He took a fine metal pipette and inserted it into the drilled hole. With a few motions of his hand he had successfully suctioned enough of the root tissue to get a DNA sample. His eyes twitched with excitement as he removed the tissue from the pipette and transferred it to a waiting cell tray. From there he only had to insert it into his new DNA re-sequencer that had successfully restored Norm's busted avatar only a few days previous.

"Now we wait." Max sat back with a twinkle in his eye and a grin on his face. "I'm so excited about this Norm you have no idea how long I've wanted to do this. They just wouldn't let us do it."

"Who RDA?"

"Well, RDA and Grace. She didn't see the need to clone a real Na'vi because.. well we really had no reason to. Now we do, and well, I feel like finally science is justified."

--------------

Jake's POV - Hell's Gate Research Lab - Jake and Neytiri walk into the research lab..interrupting Norm and Max's genetic-regeneration-babble..

"Oh hey Jake, umm.. what's up?" Max jumped as I walked into research lab. I guess him and Norm were having one of those insanely deep and thought provoking discussions so common among the geniuses around here.

"Hey guys, I got an idea," Both heads turned towards me in a surprised manner. They weren't exactly used to me walking into the research lab and telling them I had an idea. "Let's make Parker an avatar."

"WHAT?!" Norm didn't like that, "Why does he deserve to get an avatar? He doesn't give a shit about this planet? Why should we.."

"No, listen Norm.. we need to teach him to See and I don't think he will ever truly learn to See until he can experience the world as we have."

"And Neytiri is okay with this?" Norm turned to Neytiri.

"I have seen what Jake has seen..and he needs to learn to See. I will help him, but this may be best way," Neytiri smiled at Norm and it seemed to ease his uncertainty for the moment.

"But an avatar takes years to mature Jake, are you sure he will be patient enough?" Max ran his hands through his hair, fidgeting, "Do you think he will go for this?"

"I don't really think he has a choice Max."

"I'll go get the swab.." Max grabbed a few specimen kits and took off towards Parker's quarters. It was never hard convincing him to tinker with DNA.

"Hey Norm, tell Max we're going to head back to Hometree for the night. We'll come back in the morning. We need to get some fresh air."

"Okay, see you then."

"And Norm.. thanks, for everything."