One life ends. Another begins.

Jake hadn't smiled once that day. He wheeled himself down a rather broad corridor, teeming with busy people all under the RDA. Walking beside him loyally was Mace, his best bud. They both might pass off easily as siblings if not for Mace's shaggy hairdo (which, frankly, he wanted to rid himself of).

"Hey, you okay?" asked Mace.

Jake exhaled audibly, wanting to roll his eyes. Obviously he meant to say, "I don't know, really…" This Mace could read from the look of his hazel eyes that appeared dull today. Thus, he decided to help wheel his friend, hoping he could help diminish Jake's apparent anxiety on a subject he currently refused to share. "C'mon, lemme do it," said the blue-eyed veteran Marine.

"Jake!" somebody was yelling from behind. The mystery person caught up with Jake's wheelchair. "You're Jake right? Tom's brother."

Jake just threw him a stare. Already Mace was feeling the man's rudeness creeping on them.

"You look just like him…Sorry, I'm Norm Spellman. Went through Avatar training with him," the man said excitedly. He extended an animated hand for Jake to shake; Mace also returned the handshake in reluctance.

"The bio lab. We're gonna be spending a lot of time up here," Norm now played some sort of tour guide, almost skipping cockily in front of the two friends now.

"Hey! How you doing? Norm," he announced to the people on the right, "Avatar driver." Jake glanced at Mace, who forced back a laugh of utter disappointment regarding the biologist parading himself so early in his new career.

Without hesitation the 'tour guide' pointed toward a well-lit room containing a row of contraptions resembling MRI machines. "Here's the link; it's where we're connecting to the Avatars," blabbered Norm.

Jake & Mace were purposely hastening away from him, veering to the left instead of forward. What they saw on the left was way more interesting, anyway – cylindrical chambers with the most fascinating of biological miracles…

Dr. Max Patel stood casually, ever so ready to greet the newcomers, "Welcome to Pandora. Good to have you." He had nice pearly white teeth to add to a genuine smile.

Before their eyes, the Avatar bodies were floating somewhat gracefully in the bluish glowing chambers. Each Avatar cost $5,000,000,000 – although the salary of each Avatar Driver wouldn't pale in comparison to the price of making their synthetic body.

"Damn, they got big!" Jake exclaimed. That was his first grin of the day.

The Avatar everyone first looked at was Norm's one, much to his delight. Like his human form, the hybrid's nose had a bridge with a sharp angle. From the outside of the chamber, its eyes looked quite round; generally the face was narrow, with a small forehead. Norm rambled on about maturity of Avatar embryos before Dr. Patel cut in to tell Jake, "There's yours."

In the meantime, he also showed Mace his new body in a neighbouring chamber, to the left of Jake's.

"Wow…" breathed Mace. His eyes glistened in evident astonishment, studying the Avatar with unrestrained wonder. Jake wanted to say something to him but decided he leave his best pal to the comforts of eyeing a wonderfully crafted mass of biological life. Mace's Avatar had eyes in the shape of ellipses, plus a nicely curved 'snout' if you'd call it that. The form of its head was not as sharp as Norm's yet not as square & level as Jake's, & the skull was covered in fairly thick hair. Its mug had this earnest expression, as if deep in thought, that matched that of Mace's own personal feelings toward many things.

He was probably rendered speechless, unlike Jake who took his sweet time scrutinizing the countenance of his Avatar. Its expression was so calm, so collected, and so peaceful. Much like the last of the late proficient scientist Tom Sully. An image of Tom flashed in his twin brother's mind at that moment, only this time it wasn't silently searing his thoughts. Jake could actually smile again, "Looks like him."

Norm was behind him, done staring & secretly admiring his own Avatar, "Looks like you."

Jake's gaze was nothing but fixed on what minute details featured in the alien face in front of him. He didn't mind it not having much hair covering its skull. The nose was quite flat though distinctly feline in structure. The eyes were shaped like wide, stretched ovals, probably boasting an equally wide vision field. Overall, the creature's broad, square head seemed to cock to the side as Jake mimicked the same movement.

"This is your Avatar now, Jake," said Norm.

"Excuse me," a polite feminine voice sounded from behind Mace's Avatar's chamber, "Mind if we take a look as well?" Seemingly countless footsteps echoed from behind her.