Legal: All movie characters, locations, and names are the intellectual property of James Cameron and/or Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. I claim no ownership over anything but my original characters and original plot line.

Any lines spoken in Na'vi will be italicized in the quotes since I am terrible with translating it.

This is a relatively short chapter with more back story, I promise we will get to the important OCs soon enough. Please read and review and enjoy!

II. Pandora

Year: 2154

Location: Pandora

Sunlight streamed in through the thick pain of glass that separated the occupants of the mobile link container from the poisonous air outside. John slowly opened his eyes, awakening from the same nightmare he always had. A nightmare of being on the battlefield surrounded by the corpses of the men he could not save. One way or another John knew he was meant for something much greater than that, and had decided Pandora would be where he discovered his destiny.

John climbed out of his bunk, looking quickly around at the inside of the mobile link site he called home. The other two occupants still sleeping quietly, no doubt lost in peaceful dreams of the beautiful world they now resided on. John remembered meeting them at the same time he met the other avatar drivers, in training back on earth. Kayla was a botanist, a particularly brilliant woman who seemed to share Doctor Augustine's love of plants over people. She mostly kept to herself and was usually absorbed in her research of Pandoran plant life.

Nick on the other hand was almost the complete opposite of Kayla. His love of languages caused him to love talking to everyone he could and he was extremely outgoing. He had been a linguist back on earth and Grace had no trouble talking him in to making the trip to Pandora. John often grew tired of dealing with Nick as he had a tendency to ramble on about the language structure of the Na'vi. Nick was helpful in teaching John the finer concepts of the Na'vi language, even if he had trouble sitting still for more than five minutes Nick was certainly a good language teacher.

They had all passed through the five years of training together, Doctor Augustine being the perfectionist that she was made sure they learned everything that was necessary to be an avatar driver. All that seemed like such a long time ago to John. After the five years of training they all still had made the six year trip through the stars. Waking up from cold sleep had been a tremendously uncomfortable experience, one that John was not looking forward to ever having again. The years had blurred together as John became lost in the beauty of Pandora, he often had trouble remembering just how long he had been there.

He still remembered his first glimpse of the Pandoran jungles, of the trees that were so green and alive. They were like nothing he had ever seen on earth, nothing had been as beautiful as walking down the ramp of the shuttle and catching that first glimpse of Pandora. Even surrounded by the ugly metal and concrete of Hell's Gate station he could still sense the beauty of this place. They had all been surprised at how warm it was here, much like the tropical locations on earth must have been before they had been destroyed by the pollution and overpopulation.

"Hey Doc, you still with us?" Nick's voice broke John from his memories. He blinked and looked up to see Nick standing over him.

"Yeah, sorry I'm here, what did you need Nick?" John said, realizing that both Nick and Kayla were awake and preparing to start their day.

"Nothin, we were just getting ready to eat before jumping into the links." Nick replied pointing towards the meals that were laid out on the table.

"Yeah great, that looks so appetizing." John stated sarcastically. The food rations were anything but appetizing, yet it was pretty much all they had in the mobile link site. John still found it a bit amusing when he thought about how they had come to be at this remote mobile link site in the first place. It seems Selfridge had finally pushed Doctor Augustine too far, constantly pressing her for a progress report on the situation with the Omaticaya Clan. The Omaticaya were the clan that the avatars had worked with most directly, a school had been opened where several of the clan had come to learn English, and to teach the avatars the finer points of the Na'vi language. That was until the school was closed and all avatars were banned from the Omaticaya village of Hometree.

John never liked Parker Selfridge or his methods, but he did not have to like the guy. He was on Pandora as a researcher under Doctor Augustine, and therefore rarely had to interact with Selfridge. The effects of Selfridge could of course be felt as things were always so rushed. It seemed the problem Selfridge had was the Omaticaya's Hometree was directly over a large Unobtanium Ore site, and Doctor Augustine was supposed to be finding a way to make them leave. There had been many times that John remembered Grace being particularly irritable and he knew it was because she had come from a meeting with Parker.

That was also the reason that John, Kayla and Nick had been moved to mobile link site number two. Doctor Augustine had finally grown tired of Selfridge interfering with all of the research, so she had sent them up here where they would not have to deal with it. The pilot, Trudy, had dropped them off with enough supplies to last a few months and they had been there ever since sending the results of their research back to Doctor Augustine at Hell's Gate.

"Alright let's get to work" Kayla said.

"What are you working on today John?" Nick said, looking at John as he climbed into his link station.

"I need to do some more work on the wound paste." John replied, still not perfectly fluent in Na'vi but Nick always told him he was improving every day. John was always a bit surprised when Nick spoke the Na'vi language to him. Kayla did not speak it and he could tell she was annoyed at times when they held a conversation in it while she was present.

John tapped on the computer screen and started running the link program. He made sure the sequence ran through then climbed into the link and closed the lid. As his mind went blank John felt as if his consciousness was ripped from one place and put in another. He breathed slowly and opened his eyes, the sunlight looking much brighter to him in his avatar body. John loved the sights and smells of Pandora through the avatar, the heightened senses made everything seem so much more real to him. The avatar made him feel so much more alive then anything he had ever experienced in his human body.

John remembered how exciting it had been transferring to his avatar the first time. The rush he felt as he opened his eyes lying on that gurney in Hell's Gate. Being able to breathe without the use of an exopack, it was the first time John had noticed the terrible smell of Hell's Gate. The exopack filtered out most of the smells, but in his avatar John could smell the fumes of the machine exhaust. Eventually he had been able to filter that out, and had learned to control his avatar. Passing the initial motor control tests and proceeding to walking and running the obstacle course in his first week on Pandora.

All that seemed so long ago to John now, as his avatar stood up and grabbed his pack containing the sample containers he would need. Kayla's avatar waved and took off into the jungle, off to find some new plant to study. John took a minute to breathe, relishing in the pure smells of the forest and the sounds of the animals. That was something he would never have been able to do on earth and it always made him smile. He motioned to Nick and they took off to look for more of the medicinal herb John had been studying.

Ever since the school had been closed, Nick had very little to do and only had John to converse with. He had started to accompany John when he went to look for samples, often commenting on particular plants and animals, helping John to learn more of the Na'vi language. John missed dealing with the Omaticaya as much as Nick did, mostly because they had shown him quite a few plants that had healing properties and this had fascinated him. One of the most amazing things they found was a sticky plant residue that could be used to bind wounds, stopping the flow of blood from a cut and allowing the body to heal naturally.

John heard the steady noise of the Samson even over the other noises of the jungle. He looked up to see Trudy's Samson flying overhead heading towards the mobile link site. "Nick, time to head back and meet up with Trudy." John yelled over the roar of the engines.

"I hear it, you going to catch a ride back to Hell's Gate?" Nick replied with a strange tone to his voice that made John wonder if it was because he would be stuck alone with Kayla until John returned.

"Yes, I need to drop off these samples at the labs." John said as he started running back towards the link site.

**

It was a long flight back to Hell's Gate, one that took John and Trudy over vast stretches of jungle and through the floating Hallelujah Mountains. John had never seen such an awe inspiring sight as the floating mountains, towering overhead. He still remembered feeling speechless at seeing them up close; none of the stories of them on earth really did them justice. No matter how many times he flew through them, they always had an effect.

After touching down at Hell's Gate John quickly put on his exopack and ran into the main complex, carrying a pack full of samples to be studied. He also had to report to Grace and give her an update on Kayla's plant studies as well. Walking into the bio-lab he could tell she was in a rare mood, annoyance seemed to be etched on the features of her face. John could only guess that Selfridge had something to do with that, but he decided he would talk to her anyway. As he started to walk towards her the link room door opened, and a familiar face came through. A face John had not seen for many years, but one he could never forget.

Jake Sully had come to Pandora.