Author's note: I only saw this movie in theaters once and I am so wanting to see it again. But I am refusing to until this story is finished, so I don't alter my point of view.

Jasselle waited and tried not to wait as she went through each day. At base, she distanced herself from the marines a bit and Lt Simmons told them why. There she tried to act as normal as possible, but her nerves were probably showing. The scientists were encouraged by Jasselle's extended stay at home tree and gave her as much freedom as they could.

At home tree, some Na'vi watched her waiting for some sign that the program was working. Mo'at and the healer continued her lessons and Jasselle was proving to be a great student. The warriors let her be about the mining, she thought Mo'at had something to do with that. Rameana, Gi-chen, and their friends tried to maintain Jasselle's calm through clan lessons and exploring. Many of them had noticed her growing anxiety. Her aim with the atlatl improved each day and Gi-chen hinted she was learning the right things to be permitted to earn a banshee.

In the afternoon on the fourth day, Jasselle agreed to make some Tarot readings. She wasn't certain if they were really all that interested or trying to get her mind off, well, her mind. The women sat in a circle as she pulled out the cards and began to shuffle them. Her fingers fumbled or something causing most of the cards to fall out of her hands. She sighed at the slip and then stopped anyone from picking them up. The Death card stared up at her. Beside it was the tower.

"Jasselle, what's wrong?" Mo'at asked. She didn't know what the cards before the dream walker meant, but the images didn't looked good. Jasselle's expression confirmed it.

Jasselle looked at all the cards. Every card with a mostly negative meaning was face up, not a single positive card was showing. She looked at the remaining cards in her hand, afraid to look but turned the stack over anyway. The card she saw was the Wheel of Fortune, but inverted. Fortune was changing for the worse. Jasselle dropped the rest of the stack and wordlessly got up backing away from them. She didn't realize she was shaking.

Mo'at grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a solid shake, "What do you know? What do they say?"

Jasselle stared at the cards not really seeing the women staring at her. She whispered, "Nothing actually, those cards, all of them, are all related to bad fortune. Bad things are coming. Those cards… why is Eywa doing this?"

"A warning, then?" Mo'at demanded.

Before Jasselle could reply, she started coughing and choking.

Rameana said alarmed, "What's wrong?" Jasselle couldn't stop coughing to answer, she just got worse. She caught Jasselle as she collapsed.

"I can't… breath," she wheezed. It felt strange like the air was causing her breathing trouble but not there. Her senses and motor skills were going in and out. Then the cause hit her, the program had struck. "The link… my other…" She fumbled with her com from her waist.

"What's wrong? Tell us," Mo'at yelled getting through Jasselle's disorientation.

Some how Jasselle got the com on, but her throat felt like it was closing. Over the com the Na'vi heard panicked voices, coughing and the sound of machines that were louder and more numerous than the Na'vi had ever heard. "What's going on?" "Get masks for the operators!" "Open the pods!" "Severe power." "Only after the links are down!"

"Hello?" Neytiri shouted at the com. "Someone help us, Jasselle is…"

"Is her body safe?" SG shouted back.

"Well, yes…"

"Good, we got to bring her back. Take care," SG said hanging up.

Jasselle suddenly stopped coughing and went completely limp. "Jasselle?" Rameana said, "Jasselle!"

"They took her back," Mo'at said.

"But she?" Rameana asked about the avatar in her arms. "It lives." The body breath evenly without any sign of the strange illness Jasselle had suffered while awake.

Mo'at nodded, "And we must protect this form of hers and hope Eywa will return Jasselle to this body."

Jasselle wasn't really aware of what was going on. Perhaps because the links had been going the operators had not been completely knocked unconscious when the links were cut. Jasselle was so dizzy as a result and it was so hard to breathe until someone shoved a filter mask on her. The whole chaos was all a terrible blur. So many people were screaming. In her mind, as she tumbled out of the pod she wondered if the program was going to be worth it.

At some point, SG and the techs severed much of the department's power, shutting down the computers. She heard SG believe he could save the servers that way. When Jasselle got her feet steady under her, she walked about in a dazed like the rest of the operators there. Finally, the flickering lights got to be too much for her, so she retreated to the yard and steady sunlight. There, the students were still there and confused. The older students were trying to keep order.

Around the yard, the other avatars were just lying about. Jasselle shook out the fog in her mind and focus on assessing the situation. She saw a small group of young Na'vi over by the lab area. The windows were broken and they were just staring at something in the interior. She stumbled over warning, "Watch out for the glass."

Mary in her human body stood just inside staring at Tyshimon. Jasselle stopped and joined in the staring, he was actually cradling Mary's limp avatar. Moments passed before Jasselle could ask clearly, "What happened?"

"She's dead!" Tyshimon screamed and turned to them. He was definitely furious, but looked above the humans probably for the avatar version of her.

'Great' Jasselle thought, 'He's pissed, and I'm a little, unarmed human. This does not bode well for me.' She sighed, leaned over to Mary and whispered, "I guess, he doesn't get the link thing and I knew he liked you."

Mary shot her a dirty look and demanded, "Fix it."

"Tyshimon, down here." The male stared at them. Jasselle nodded, "Ignore the face and the form. You know who I am. It is why we are called dream walkers." She took a deep breath, removed the mask and pointed to her purple eyes as further proof. He just stared stunned. Upon putting the mask back on, she continued, "I'm that woman, but I'm not going to get out of your way this time, because I'm trying to help you and my friend. This is Mary. Her life hasn't actually ended; a new body will be made. It will take time and Mary will need to be kept safe till then."

Tyshimon slowly nodded and looked Mary over finally seeing the similar features. Mary gathered her courage and stepped up to her avatar. "I didn't mean for this to happen." It was true, the avatar was not breathing.

"What did happen?" Jasselle asked everyone.

Mary shrugged, "One moment everything was fine. Tyshimon was kind enough to help me prepare the machine for the new samples he helped me get the other day. Then things went crazy."

"These doors suddenly closed. And we couldn't get out," Tyshimon said picking Mary's avatar up and gently laying her on the lab's table.

"Then the air started flowing out, we couldn't breathe. So I… I didn't mean to scare you, Tyshimon, but I cut the link and the interior was already crazy. No one could get the doors open from the machines. No one could really breath. So I ran outside, the others were dropping one after the other out here. The students were scared and I shouted at them to help."

"We tried but we couldn't get the doors open," a student explained.

Another student said, "Then Tyshimon went crazy and grabbed that machine…" pointing to a gene analyzer lying nearby. "And hit the glass till it broke." Jasselle winced and wondered how Tyshimon managed to choose one of the most expensive machines in the lab to break.

"I didn't go crazy, she, this body, stopped breathing," he snapped still confused by the situation.

"Understandable," Jasselle insisted trying to calm them down. "I don't have a problem with what any of you did. Those in charge might, so let's move on quickly."

The students and Tyshimon helped drag and carry the avatars back to their beds. Jasselle advised them to leave afterward, better they be out of sight before management started looking for answers to the damage. After the last of the Na'vi left, Mary and Jasselle went back inside.

Soon, every available person was called to the mess hall for an emergency meeting. At the front of the hall, Mr. Selfridge stood by several military officers Jasselle didn't totally recognize. She wondered where the security chief was.

"As you all know, approximately three hours ago several systems at base went… for lack of a better word haywire," Selfridge told them. "I am told this was due to several servers crashing."

Personnel started talking at once demanding answers and such. Jasselle searched for those she knew. "Grace," she whispered, "Where is everybody?" Grace looked about noticing the number of people were too few to cover all the personnel even those still dealing with the mess. "What happened outside of our department?"

"I don't know. I haven't had time to look," Grace answered.

One of the marines beside Selfridge stepped forward and ordered everyone to be quiet. Jasselle stared at him. His face was scared with claw marks, but Jasselle didn't know him. She had checked out all the top officers. "All right, as some of you know during that time we suffered a tragic accident. The security chief and his five top officers died due to exposure to the planet's atmosphere." Gasps rose and Jasselle was shaken to the core. The security chief was a fair and sensible man, who took care with everyone's lives. She could predict his actions, at least. "As the highest ranking officer in full health, I, Colonel Quaritch, am taking over as the security chief. A full list of casualties has not been completed, as of yet. Currently, we have lost eight souls and the infirmary is packed. There will be a full investigation of this incident. I am assuming nothing."

Selfridge stepped up beside him. "We need to get everything base-wise and defensive back up and running quickly. All technicians will assemble in the control center for assignment after this meeting. The biggest lose technically was our satellite. Its components that did not burn up on re-entry landed in a lake nearby and we don't have the equipment to recover it."

There were other orders; the one that mattered to the scientists was no link ups till further notice. The scientists headed back to the link room while SG and the rest of the techs headed for the control center. In the link room the lights still flickered and Grace grabbed an emergency lamp. As she turned it on, David turned the main lights off.

"That's better… I guess," Mary said quietly. Everyone found some place to slump into a seat.

"This is unbelievable," Jasselle said more out of shock than surprise. Now there were a whole new set of officers and an investigation. As the wheel of fortune promised, this was really going to get difficult.

"What is going on with them?" Bio asked. "I've never worked at a place with so many problems."

Jasselle barely shrugged while thinking, 'If you only knew the rest of the story.'

"We'll manage, we have too," Grace said trying to encourage her team. She looked Jasselle over again; the woman's mind was working quite hard by her expression and she toying with that strange pendant of hers again. Grace had always thought it was simple yet appealing, even the larger one that Jasselle's avatar wore, but wondered if it actually meant something more. 'What is going on upstairs young lady? And why won't you tell me?' Grace sighed and got back to business. "We will… must cancel school until we're back up."

David nodded and said, "Jass, could…"

"Don't say my name like that," she snapped, "Only my brothers, brother is allowed to call me that."

"Jasselle?" Mary asked.

Jasselle swallowed, that outburst was too much of a slip. "He saved my life," Jasselle said trying to cover the real reason she was upset. "If he hadn't made me carry that rifle that day, I…"

Grace remembered the little Kraken incident and her escape. She thought the security chief's death hit Jasselle hard. "Jasselle, I know you have friends among the marines."

"They could have told us who else we lost or put up a list, something." Jasselle had not seen Missy in the mess hall or Lt. Simmons. Those were not friends she wanted or needed to lose.

"Jasselle! You can check after we are done here," Grace ordered, "For now, focus."

Jasselle took a deep breath and felt Mary squeeze her shoulders. "Sorry, you're right. What do you need?"

David slowly asked, "Jasselle, does your avatar have its com?"

"Should, why?"

"We could call the Na'vi and let them know about school being canceled," he answered.

Jasselle shrugged, "That might work." She stepped over to SG's workstation.

"What about the satellite being down?" Bio asked. People groaned.

"Well," Jasselle held the com, "we won't know till we try." She activated it, but only heard static. "Nope, nothing but snow."

Grace sighed, "Jasselle, tomorrow you go out and talk to the students."

"Me?"

"They know what you look like as a human. Let them know about the situation."

"All right, but what about the avatars?"

"What about them?"

"Without the link, how do we take care of them?"

Grace gave her a ghost of a smile, "You weren't here when the generators failed. We have procedures in place for power failures."

"Grace, my avatar's dead," Mary stated. "Can anything be done? I only got started."

"With the body intact, it should take about two years to repair and revive the body. Don't worry."

"Did Tyshimon leave the body?" Jasselle wanted to know.

"Excuse me?" Grace demanded. "If he didn't, that is six and a half."

"Yes, he left it. Stop teasing," Mary ordered.

Jasselle shrugged, "I wasn't, the Na'vi bury their dead."

"That would have been bad," Grace agreed.

"But not as bad as burning though," Bio said.

"True."

Jasselle walked through the base toward the infirmary. Many places were either bordering on chaos or looked like they had been. The technicians and mechanics were hard at work everywhere she looked. In the infirmary, she slowly walked the rows of beds. She greeted everyone she knew that was aware. When they could ask, she got them what ever they needed. When she finally passed the last set of beds her heart sank. She had not found Lt Simmons and though she had found Missy, the pilot's condition was critical. She hoped she had simply missed him at the meeting. As a doctor passed, she stopped him and asked, "Where is Lt Simmons, please?"

The doctor was kind enough to check for her. He sighed sadly and shook his head, "He died before it was over."

Jasselle stood there half shocked half terrified. Simmons had been her friend to a point. Someone she had trusted and hoped she could get his real help later. "Doctor, please?" Jasselle started to ask and had to pause, "could you tell me what are Missy, the pilot's… is she going to make it?"

The doctor again checked his notebook and frowned, "She lost her arm and a lot of blood. I'm afraid it doesn't look good."

"Thank you, I'll keep out of your way, I promise." Jasselle closed her eyes to hold back the tears. She heard the doctor walk away. There were so many patients for them to see to. When she thought she could handle it, Jasselle went and sat with each marine she had befriended and tried to comfort them. Some were injured; others had breathed in too much of the planet's atmosphere and were breathing through machines. She did what she could for each of them. Those that could speak told her how they got hurt. Some of what they told her didn't make sense with what Selfridge had said happened or what she knew. Several soldiers were injured by mechs that went crazy, but the virus had been in the servers. It didn't make sense for the mechs to suddenly function at that time.

By nightfall, Jasselle saw Trudy beside Missy holding her friend's remaining hand. With many of the patients settling to sleep there was little else she could do to help them. She went and sat across from Trudy. Missy was missing her hand, forearm, elbow, and part of her upper arm. Jasselle stroked her hair and reached out to take one of Trudy's hands. "What happened?" Missy slept on.

Trudy stared at her, "You don't know."

Jasselle shook her head. "I was at home tree when the link started going and then it was a blur."

Trudy swallowed hard before starting, "We were in the side hanger. Missy was working on her baby's routers. It was so normal, routine even. Then things started sparking, just small things really. No one thought anything of it, at first. But it kept getting worst. Missy slipped and her arm… it went between the router blades as they were turning. She screamed, it was all… everywhere. We tried to bind it, but the doors… and it wouldn't stop getting worst." Trudy hung her head.

Jasselle felt sick and couldn't stop the voice inside her from stating, 'my fault. My friends and it's my fault.' The two stayed with Missy, talking to the sleeping woman. They spoke of all the things they had done together, the gossip they needed to share, the flights they still had to take. Missy continued to fade, and just before midnight their friend drew her last breath. As the doctors took over the body, the two women left the infirmary to let the other pilots know and to find some motor mouth if they could.

In the morning, she spoke to some of the students, who did remember who she was. She told the older students a bit more. She warned them that it was found that SG had several back up files of basic systems that had survive the viral attack. This possibly meant that the effects of the virus were not going to last as long as she had planned. There was not going to be a lot of time for them to act. Rameana had also sent them a message for Jasselle. Her friend promised to personally care for Jasselle's avatar. Jasselle sent her thanks and mentioned Grace had techniques for caring for the avatars just in case. Jasselle watched all the students go with mixed feelings. She just hoped she could see them again through her avatar's eyes.

She went back inside and headed straight for the infirmary to make herself useful and to not be stuck with her own thoughts. She made no mention of her Wicca training, only that she knew something of field medics. The doctors were grateful for the extra set of hands. She cleaned, bandaged, fetched and carried whenever asked. Mostly she listened to any talk about the time the virus struck. From the talk of both the soldiers and workers the main damage ranged from the control center to the hanger. The rest of base had basic functions go down. However because the techs in the research department had forced a full system shut down so quickly, the damage was minimized. It seemed only Mary's avatar and the windows of the lab were the only loses for their department.

Sometime during the day a marine tapped Jasselle on the shoulder while she was changing bandages. "Dr. Scully, please come with me?"

Jasselle looked up at him and asked, "How important is it for me to do so? They need me too." She indicated the patients and doctors.

"Orders from security chief Quaritch," he said.

Jasselle nodded, "That would do it." She finished up with the current patient, cleaned up, and followed him out. She was taken to the main hanger. The place was a mess, more than she thought it should have been. "What happened here?" she asked. There were wielders reinforcing sections. The main doors were being checked.

The marine said nothing but continued onto overhead walkway. The new security chief was there reviewing a notebook and the surrounding work. "Ah Dr. Scully, glad you could join me a moment."

Jasselle maintained a look of concern over the hanger, while his all too friendly voice set off warning bells. She was going to have to really watch her words with him. She shook his hand, "Yes, what can I do for you?"

"I understand you have a good relationship with the natives."

"Na'vi, sir. And I want to think so."

He nodded, "And you, with your background are versed in reading people, correct?"

"I've been told, but we're talking about individuals, right? Not stereotypes."

"What are your opinions of their leaders?"

"Cautious, wary, firm, but not stubborn. Their Shaman is insightful, deep and holds a mean set of reins on her husband, their chief. The chief is colder, less trusting but cares about his people a great deal… You do realize this is all in my logs?"

"True, but weren't they lost when the systems went down?"

"I don't know, after the power loss about a week ago, SG…"

"SG?" he interrupted.

Jasselle smiled, "Samuel, the tech. I call him SG because he's so smart. You know Super Geek."

He laughed, "Super Geek."

"Yes, well, it's a compliment from me and he likes that."

"All right, continue."

"He told us, the scientists, that he was going from a weekly backup to a nightly backup. So only yesterday's logs should have been in danger, but don't quote me."

"How do you know all this?"

"Are you kidding?" She asked with a bland expression, "That craziness cost us a lot of time and possible respect with the Na'vi. We were about to panic, and SG told us how he was going to fix it."

"Oh, so your knowledge of systems is?"

"Limited to only as far as it works and the contact info for Tech Support. I do have a question if I may, sir?"

"Yes?"

"What happened here?"

"What do you think?"

Jasselle glanced at him and wondered if this was a challenge. "All right, let's see if I'm as smart as I like to believe. Selfridge said the servers crashed and the patients in the infirmary said that the machines went crazy in here. Yet I could believe those are… I think my brother told me this, powder burns that come from explosions. Though that doesn't seem right. No one said anything about an explosion. I didn't hear one over in the research department but that doesn't actually mean anything, the link being severed made me disorientated to the point I should have been knocked out but wasn't. There was so much screaming… So you tell me?"

"So you can nutshell things," he said nodding as though Jasselle had confirmed something.

She shrugged, "I'm told that's what makes me a good Anthropologist. So answer my question, what happened here?"

"Without the security cameras I can only speculate that one of the cranes lost a small load of missiles over there which the resulting explosion unfortunately contributed to the former security chief and his officers deaths."

"He saved my life," Jasselle closed her eyes and sighed. Then she straightened and asked, "What were the missiles even doing out of storage? I could have sworn I read somewhere that the more dangerous arms were only to be brought out if the natives prove to be a threat or outside threats presented themselves."

The security chief flinched at the question; she had landed on a question he didn't want to answer. He said quickly, "It appears to have been a matter of routine maintenance. Might the natives become a threat?"

Jasselle shrugged, "A little history, sir. If you give humans what they think is a good reason, they will bite with what they can. The Na'vi are fairly peaceful, but the warriors and hunters. If you understand what they hold dear and don't threaten those things, they should never have a reason to become a threat. Good enough?"

"Good enough young lady. You're dismissed," he said.

She saluted, "Yes, sir, but I'm not a soldier." Jasselle left as the security chief laughed. On her way back to the infirmary, Jasselle thought the conversation went all right. He had tried to catch if she knew more than she should, but she had instead caught him and appeared to be willing to accept his excuses. She knew from the information he could gather about her, she could not pretend to be any less intelligent than she was or risk causing unnecessary suspicion.