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Chapter Text

His mission was simple. That was one of the few things he remembered Ardmore telling him after the daze of checkups and diagnostics and training courses and recertifications and figuring out that his body was still his. But even then, he wasn’t quite sure. It was all still such a jumble. But they needed him, and he had a mission. That was what he knew.

He leaned forward slightly on the folded down bench in the center of the Kestrel gunship, watching green-blue-brown blurs of treetops pass by around him. The Kestrel banked around sharply and did a tight j-hook to land. He’d been told he was being dropped two hundred klicks from anything the RDA had set up in any direction. That gave some reassurance. At least it wasn’t two hundred and one…

The SecOps manning the door gun reached out and patted him awkwardly, yelling above the roar of the rotors, “Good luck!!” He yelled, flashing him a big goofy smile and a thumbs up. The kid probably wasn’t even twenty yet, and here he was, all the way out here.

He passed the door gunner quietly and hopped out nimbly, moving a short distance away and ducking away from the rotor wash as the Kestrel lifted off quickly, doing a few more touch-and-go false drops to throw any of the locals off his trail for the time being. The smell of exhaust faded away, and slowly, the faint drone of the Kestrel’s rotors faded away into the buzz of the jungle and the rustle of the wind through leaves. The smell hit him as the sound did, a shocking mix of jungle dew, freshly crushed plants, flowers, moist dirt, water, and so much more that his brain went into overload. He sank down to one knee and gasped, coughing. Nothing had prepared him for this! Not the flat concrete walls, or the construction dust in the air, or the recycled air from the scrubbers. He shakily reached in under his vest and shirt, fishing out his dog tags and squeezing them in his fist as he closed his eyes tight and inhaled shakily to try to ground himself. “Fezerin Grey. Sergeant. Recom. Fezerin. Sergeant. Recom.” He repeated this over and over and slowly opened his eyes, his heartbeat no longer pounding in his ears and the overload of senses slowly sinking away as he stood again and unslung his M69 from his back, pulling back on the charging handle slightly to check that the round was seated correctly before he took in his surroundings again.

The world looked like a kaleidoscope of color, of greens and blues and purples and reds all around. This was nothing like Earth, and different from the muted greens and blues he’d seen on mine duty before he’d died the first time. He spun around slowly, and shook his head to clear it. The mission.

He quickly pulled a small map that had been printed onto a laminated canvas of the nearby area, looking around hesitantly at the terrain features. This wasn’t anything like a topo-map of Earth that he’d seen. Fezerin hissed softly under his breath in frustration and startled himself with the alien sound, his pupils dilating slightly in shock as he tensed. 

He nearly fell over in surprise as a drop of water hit his ear. The rain was coming in sooner than had planned, and he’d have to find shelter. 

Fezerin half raised his M69, the rifle’s weight a reassurance amongst the foreign sights and smells around as he began to move through the forest, brushing quietly past a small patch of fiddlehead plants, the spiral plants looming over him like waiting clubs ready to fall. Fezerin quietly hopped up and caught a hold of a low hanging branch to haul himself up over a huge tree root and glanced around furtively at his surroundings as the rain began to truly set in. In some places where the tree canopies thinned out, the rain fell hard, drenching him as he tried to squint to get out of it, and even beneath the relative protection of the trees, the rain filtered down to mists that soaked into everything. A short flicker of movement off to Fezerin’s right caught him by surprise, and he snapped his rifle around to aim at it. But what was it..?

He crouched low, the concern of the rain and the wet now being pushed to the back of his mind as he focused hard on any sound, any indication of what, or who might’ve been moving around ahead of him. Slowly he inched forwards, duck squatting to the side until he was safely behind a small copse of beanstalk palms, the short plants splitting his view into many thin slits between the trunks. There was a faint snort on the other side of the beanstalk palms, and Fezerin heard the soft sound of something grazing on the short, soft grass that blanketed the ground. Hexapede? He thought to himself, before his mind switched to a much simpler idea of what it would be. Dinner.

Two Hours Later…

Fezerin crouched beside the weak fire he’d managed to light, the saturated branches and moist fire-starter giving off more smoke than light as he kept having to rekindle it and nurse it back from embers. He rooted around in his pack for something to eat that he could trust, and fiddled with the two spent rifle casings, cursing his wild shooting. Though, he wasn’t sure if the hexapede would’ve tasted good anyway. He gnawed on a nut and granola nutrient bar, and sighed softly, setting it aside and gingerly feeding a few more branches into the dying fire. The smoke would undoubtedly attract attention from the fauna, but it wasn’t the fauna that he was worried about. It was the locals. A memory of broomstick sized arrows slamming through steel plates and fleeing workers made him shiver, and he kicked the fire over and stamped it into the moist soil until it went out, grimacing as he picked his pack up, “Waste of time.” He said quietly to himself, blinking the image of the firelight from his eyes and looking out into the unforgiving shadow and bioluminescent plant life around him as he adjusted the shoulder straps of his pack and continued on. The rain didn’t stop, and he doubted that it would anytime soon as he shifted the thin drab poncho around to try and get the unwieldy plastic to sit flat as he continued to move. The hem of the poncho caught on every passing branch and twig as he tried to head deeper into the forest. He was leaving a clear trail, and recognized it, but there wasn’t much that could be done about that. 

A pair of keen eyes watched the false-na’vi fumble through the forest, her eyes narrowing as he weaved through the trees. This one was different. And this one needed to be watched.

Chapter Text

Fezerin threw the poncho aside, cursing under his breath in irritation as he pulled the shredded plastic off and balled it up, “Ardmore told me I would be getting the best kit to explore the land with, but noooooo- I get fuckin’ clingwrap..” He hissed softly, kneeling down and digging through his pack to see if there was anything else that he could use to cover up from the rain. He sat down against the trunk of a tree and thought back to how he had been ordered into this mess in the first place…

Not too far in the past…

Fezerin shivered as he sat in the uncomfortable metal chair and waited for the new General to come in and brief him. Despite all of the explanations and preparation, everything was a jumbled blur in his mind. The last thing he remembered was laying in that tube and getting his memories saved, and then he was waking up on a hospital bed in another body. They had told him it had been almost fifteen years since he had died. He couldn’t even recall the names of the scientists who had told him that, or much of anything until Ardmore walked through the door.

He stood up quickly, nearly knocking the chair over with his tail as he saluted, and he caught the barest of smiles on Ardmore’s lips as she saluted in return, “At ease Sergeant, have a seat.” She said, sitting down across the table, favoring her right arm. Fezerin seemed to notice this, his brows drawing together for a moment, and Ardmore paused, before realizing what he was looking at, “Jake’s Na'vi bride broke my arm while we were attempting to make a full return to Pandora about a year ago.” She explained, setting her mug of coffee down and flipping open the folder that had Fezerin’s name and credentials printed on the front, “Fought in Venezuela… three tours on Pandora?” She glanced up, seeming intrigued at this.

Fezerin shifted uncomfortably, his tail flicking slightly as he looked down at the tabletop, “My family needed the money… Nothing else paid as well as this..” *He trailed off for a moment, before meeting the General’s eyes again, “Not too long after I woke up, they told me my family had died in a building collapse back on Earth. Is that true?”

Ardmore grimaced and set the folder flat, “Yes. They’re dead. It happened about six years after you died in twenty one fifty four after the Na'vi rose up.”

Fezerin’s shoulders slumped and his ears perked back, “Then what am I fighting for?”

Ardmore leaned forward, “That’s for you to decide, Sergeant Grey.. what I need you to do is fairly simple. I need you to take part in Project Keyhole. I need information on the land. Information that satellite scans can’t give me, and air reconnaissance can’t do. I need you to go out into the wilds and live off the land, observe the Na’vi if you can, see the wildlife, look at the ground. I need to know everything that a human can’t. I need you to be a tool, a key for humanity to spread its influence and maintain control over the territory it has.”

Fezerin hesitated, “So… I’m making you a map?”

Ardmore shook her head, “No. Well- sort of. I want you to be my eyes on the ground where normal people can’t be. Where I can’t be.”

“Will I be doing this alone?”

“For the most part, yes. You’ll be given guidebooks on what you can and can’t eat from the forest, some movement and behavior patterns of the fauna… and a few common phrases to communicate with the natives only if you absolutely have to. You should avoid the Na’vi at all costs. You know they’re dangerous, just as much as I do.” Ardmore replied simply, crossing her arms, “So will you accept this mission, Sergeant?”

Not like he had much choice… “I accept.”

Ardmore nodded once, “Then prepare. You have a long road ahead of you.”

Fezerin blinked a few times as the memory fell away, and he snapped back to reality. He scolded himself for not paying attention to his surroundings and stood up. He needed to find a place to shelter for the night, as the wildlife would turn absolutely vicious once the light faded out completely. 

“Somewhere up high…” He thought aloud as he raked his soaked black hair from his face and pulled his dark green bandana from his pack to tie it back out of the way and keep the rain off his forehead and out of his eyes. Fezerin tilted his head back and gazed at the canopy of leaves far overhead, and marveled at the plants growing on the trees themselves. Whether or not he could eat any of them was yet to be noted in any of the guidebooks weighing his pack down, as if any water got to them he feared they would turn into damp paper bricks and become worthless to him. He checked the seating of the round in his M69, his hand beginning to shake ever so slightly from the cold, which was odd to him. The rains had always been fairly warm on Pandora, at least in comparison to the smog-tainted drizzle that fell often back on Earth. And as he continued on, the rain saw the colors of the forest begin to bloom.

Her tail flicked silently as she watched him throw the odd cloth away and sulk. It had been amusing watching him struggle and spin around in circles like a surprised fan lizard, but he was beginning to move on again, and she needed to keep her eyes on this interloper.

Chapter Text

He’d had plenty of time to climb trees in Venezuela during his time fighting there so long ago, but climbing a tree on Pandora was a different beast entirely. Fezerin used the combat tomahawk to hook onto protrusions and branches to help his ascent, not trusting the copious numbers of vines and hanging plant life to hold his weight as he hauled himself upwards.

She sat silently on a tree opposite the false-Na’vi, glancing down at him occasionally to check his progress as she worked on rebinding an arrowhead to one of her arrows. She heard a familiar sound, and looked over, seeing a Riti nest in the false-Na’vi’s path. This would be entertaining to watch.

Fezerin sank the tomahawk into a crack in the bark and pulled himself up a little further, and ducked as something swiped at him, “Whoa- wh-” He tried to look again to see what was going after him before a small stinger-tipped tail stuck into his bandana, and he cursed, nearly falling from the tree as he yanked the tomahawk out of the tree’s bark and awkwardly slapped the unhappy stingbat out of the tree as if he were returning a ball in tennis. His strike sent the foul tempered little creature pinwheeling in a tangle of bioluminescent wings and tail a long way down before it righted itself in the air and flew away.

“Fucker..” Fezerin muttered under his breath as the adrenaline hit, and he continued to haul himself up the tree despite the protest from his aching arms. After an hour and a few more yards of climbing, Fezerin hauled his exhausted body up and onto a wide branch that backed into the crown of the tree. He looked around with his sidearm and tomahawk to ensure there were no inhabitants, and once he was certain he flopped down, groaning as he yanked his pack open and pulled out a fruit paste tube to snack on. He managed to catch the slightest hint of movement across from him as the rain began to ebb, and pulled his M69 a little bit closer to himself.

She looked up from rebinding her arrow, and hissed softly. The false-Na’vi had seen her. She stood and trotted off into the shadows, her Sanhì glowing gently as Eclipse fell. 

Fezerin squinted and blinked, wondering where the figure had gone, before he noticed the leaves on the branches around him were glowing a very soft blue. He hesitated and looked around to make sure his mind wasn’t playing tricks, and his eyes widened in shock. It was as if the whole forest was aglow in light. Greens and purples and yellows and oranges and blues enunciating the veins of leaves and the curves of a small creek far, far below. He looked after the retreating figure and sighed, sitting down on the edge of the branch and gazing out over the beautiful view around him.

She mumbled rude things under her breath as she stalked along the ground. He wasn’t supposed to have spotted her. Why had he looked..? Had she been too bold? Her tail lashed at the thought. She needed to be more careful with this one. Much more careful…

Fezerin stretched and had one last look around before he went to settle down in the crown of the tree. He put his pack at his feet and his back up against a branch, and bedded down for the night with his M69 across his lap and his tomahawk in his hand. 

In The Morning…

Fezerin squirmed a little and groaned in discomfort as a piece of bark dug into his back. He slowly sat up and grunted, scratching the back of his neck as he looked around blearily. He saw his bag and did a double take. Something had gone through it while he was asleep, and the top was open. He hissed under his breath, recognizing that the one who had gone through his things could’ve just knifed him in his sleep and been done with it. He pulled his bag all the way open, and his brows drew together as he pulled out an empty wrapper, “Chocolate..? They stole a bar of chocolate..?” He thought aloud, carefully checking around to see if anything else had been damaged, stolen, or added. Nothing.

“That was stupid to do, Kìpxìk… What if he saw you? He had a gun.” She said in irritation, another Na’vi chewing quietly as he enjoyed the sweet treat he had stolen.

“You worry too much, Elanya. He was sound asleep the whole time. Didn’t even move.” Kìpxìk replied, the tall Na’vi holding out the partially melted bar of chocolate.

“No. I don’t want to eat tawtute food..” She grumbled at him, and he shrugged and popped the rest into his mouth.

Chapter Text

Fezerin dropped the last few feet to the ground with a decisive thump of boots on dirt. He cleared around with his M69, and headed off in the general direction he had been heading the day before. He sniffed for a moment, smelling water nearby.

“Could fill my canteen…” He mused to himself, thinking back to the harshly filtered and metallic taste of the water back at Bridgehead. 

He got a ping on his radio, and paused, glancing at it as his ears perked up. He knelt down quickly and yanked his backpack off and pulled it open, reaching around blindly and pulled the small handheld radio out. He looked at it and shook it a few times before it pinged again and he tuned in, holding down the button on the side to transmit, “Hello??”

“Is this Sergeant Fezerin Grey?” A heavily accented voice queried, sounding vaguely of Irish and a hint of Scot.

“Yes, this is.”

“With an ID ending in F oh two G?”

Fezerin held the radio a little closer to his mouth, “Yes, beginning in eight one one.”

“Identification confirmed. Hey there, I’m Mitch O’Leary. I was-”

Fezerin interrupted, “You were one of the scientists that Recom’d me, right?”

“Yes, that’s me. I was reaching out to get your first verbal report.”

Fezerin hesitated, “I have to give verbal reports..? Why?”

“So that we have documentation in exactly your own words about what you see and find and all that. I wish I could’ve come with you, but you know how the wildlife gets around people.”

“Yeah.. a stingbat tried to eat my face yesterday..” Fezerin grumbled.

“Oh? Fascinating! What prompted it to do that?”

“Mitch.. can I call you Mitch?”

“You can call me Doctor O’Leary, or anything you want to!” Mitch replied in a cheerful tone.

“Well Doc, it tried to eat my face. I’m not a biology brain like you probably are. It saw me, it tried to sting me, and then I hit it with my tomahawk.”

“Oh.. well.. yeah, I should be expecting these kinds of responses..” Mitch sighed over the radio, and Fezerin heard a faint sound of feedback and a light thump as Doctor O’Leary set the radio down on his end, “Did it try to bite you first? What was it on?”

“Looked like maybe it was some sorta nest. And all it did was get its stinger stuck in my bandana, or it would’ve got me in the forehead with it.”

Fezerin heard movement nearby and dropped the radio, “Shit- Hold on Doc-”

Doctor O’Leary paused as he heard Fezerin’s retreating footsteps, “Sergeant Grey-??”

There was no response.

“Fezerin??”

Chapter Text

Fezerin swore as another arrow snapped past his head, “WHY-!? I WAS MAKING A PHONE CALL!?!?!” He yelled over his shoulder and fired a wild burst of fire from his M69 back behind him into the bushes, running full tilt along the creek and looking desperately for a good patch of shrubbery of thick foliage to throw himself into.

Kìpxìk fired his last arrow after the false-Na’vi, hissing in irritation as he just barely missed again. He looked over his shoulder and waved at Elanya, “Latsi!”

“I’m right behind you- go catch him you skxawng!” She exclaimed in irritation as she grabbed his arrow from the tree and wrenched it free with some difficulty, speeding up to catch up and return it to Kìpxìk.

Fezerin rushed down a faint game trail that led off to the side, running a few steps before he dove off the path and hunkered down behind a tree, half raising his M69 to be ready to point-shoot down the trail and run again. He patted his vest for his radio, and hissed softly when he realized he had dropped it in his rush to escape his attackers.

Elanya followed close behind Kìpxìk before she stopped short, grabbing him by the tail to stop him from going forward, “Kehe-! Ftang.”

Kìpxìk hissed and stumbled slightly, nearly falling as he rounded on Elanya, “He’s just ahead of us! You’re letting him get away!!”

“Skxawng!” Elanya hissed in a hushed tone, “Do you hear running? He’s waiting for us. He has a gun. We have a few arrows.”

Kìpxìk paused and listened for any movement, his ears perking up as he scanned around, “He’s still close.”

Elanya sighed softly, her ears perking back slightly, “Why aren’t you listening to me? He’s waiting for us to rush him. Don’t be stupid.”

“I’m not being stupid! The Sky Person needs to die.” Kìpxìk hissed angrily, going forward again.

Fezerin tensed as he heard footsteps approaching down the trail he had been on, his grip tightening on the grenade launcher mounted under the barrel of his rifle. He’d only have one shot before they were on him. He kept his tomahawk close at his side, the black rubberized hand grip of the steel killing weapon resting against his leg as he braced the stock of the M69.

“Come on man.. come on.. don’t make me do this…” He whispered, staring at the trail through the overgrown thicket. Movement. Movement coming closer.

His finger tightened on the trigger but he stopped himself. 

Too early.

Not yet.

Not.

Yet.

Elanya threw herself flat as a small explosion threw bark fragments and splinters all over the place as the high explosive grenade scored a hit on a tree trunk, and not her brother.

She peeked up from the ground and saw her brother rolling around ahead of her. But he was alive at least.

“Thank Eywa..” She spoke softly under her breath as she crawled forward, her ears ringing as she got up to her brother and pulled his writhing body towards her, “Hold still, what happened-?!”

“Fire- pain-” Kìpxìk managed to gasp out. His right side was covered in toothpick sized wood splinters and he had a bad burn on his leg. Elanya looked up and saw the false-Na’vi making a run for it, and hesitated.

“Go- Catch him-!” Kìpxìk exclaimed.

“Kìpxìk… I can’t leave you her-”

“GO!!!” Kìpxìk roared as he shoved her away and curled up in pain, his tail lashing against the ground as he closed up in a fetal position and held his arm.

Elanya fell back on her rear in shock, before she got up and ran after the fleeing tawtute.

“Idiot-!? It was an easy shot-! How could you miss a shot like that-!? He was RIGHT there!!” Fezerin hissed at himself as he leapt over a fallen log, using the sharp pointed back of the tomahawk to catch and drag himself over the fallen trunk as he continued to try and get some distance from the two Na’vi.

Losing the radio was a mistake, and a potentially fatal one. But it was better than getting pin-cushioned. Definitely better than that… 

He faintly heard movement behind him, and glanced back. Had one of them caught up already?

Elanya slowed down as she heard the false-Na’vi’s footsteps get closer. She readied an arrow on the string and crouched slightly, hopping off the trail and down beside a large wind fallen stump, trying to get a look at who she had been chasing.

Fezerin slowed down, hearing the footsteps behind him stop as well. He hesitated and looked back again before a blur went whipping past his head, an arrow slamming into the tree beside him, vibrating in a horrible low thrum. He froze, staring at it in horror before he looked back the way it had come, and saw that same Na’vi from before just as she readied another arrow.

Elanya drew back to full and snapped off another shot before racing after the tawtute as he bolted again. 

“Wiya-” She muttered under her breath. Two misses.

Chapter Text

Elanya rushed after the false-Na’vi, eventually losing sight of him through a patch of Delta trees, the deep blue and yellow leaves camouflaging him perfectly.  She kept an arrow on the string of her bow and crept forward quietly, planning to lull him into thinking he’d managed to shake her.

Fezerin continued on a little further and stopped, ditching his bag beneath a goblin thistle plant and readying his machete, deciding that the longer edge would serve better and have less of a chance of getting caught on anything than his tomahawk would have. He heard soft rustling of blades of grass on skin, and crouched ever so slightly.

Elanya’s eyes widened in surprise as the cold bite of a blade pressed to the side of her neck. A metal blade.

“Why are you chasing me?” The false-Na’vi asked.

Elanya hesitated, a small crease forming between her brows as she thought for a long while and concentrated, “Tawtute.. hurt my brother.”

The false-Na’vi sighed quietly, his tail flicking in mild irritation, “At least you understand english..” He said under his breath, before continuing, “Drop the bow.”

“Kehe.”

He tilted his head ever so slightly, “No..? Seriously? I don’t want to have to cut your bowstring. Drop the bow.” He repeated.

Elanya’s ears perked back and she hissed softly, and threw down her bow and her extra arrows. 

He didn’t seem to want to get close, which was odd, holding her at arm’s length. He heard the radio she had snatched from the ground on her, and looked her up and down before he plucked it from her sash, “And I know that isn’t yours.” He said, glancing at the radio to make sure it wasn’t damaged before he shoved it into a pocket on his vest, “I didn’t try to hurt your brother.”

“You hit him with txep. With fire.” She hissed, glaring at him.

“And he shot at me too, so we’re even.” He replied, before stepping away, “Shoo.”

Elanya hesitated, “Shoo-?”

“Go. Latsi or whatever that word is.” He replied.

“Name..?”

He seemed confused at this short statement, “You.. want to know my name? Why?”

“Curious.”

He shifted his boots on the ground, thinking it may not be a good idea to just randomly give that information out to the natives, but relented, “Fezerin Grey. Do you have a name?”

“I am Elanya te Tseo Reftxo’ite. I am taronyu.” She replied, seeming to take pride in her name and title.

“You’re a what..?” Fezerin replied. He clearly knew little Na’vi, and cared even less.

“Hunter.” She said, her ears perking back in disgust at his clear lack of basic knowledge.

He nodded slightly, “Have you killed anyone?”

She hesitated. Should she lie?

Fezerin snorted softly at her hesitance to respond, “That seems like a no,” He said flatly, and raised a hand slightly to cut off her protest, “No, with a hesitation like that, you haven’t. I can see it in your eyes.” He stepped forward, the flat of his machete bumping her leg. Her eyes widened in surprise but didn’t step back as he leaned in, “I have killed before. It was my job. I don’t want to have to kill you. So go. Go back to your brother.” He said firmly before he stepped back and around her to walk away, “And don’t follow me.”

Elanya looked after him as he was lost to the foliage, and hissed at herself in annoyance and bent down to pick up her bow. Why hadn’t she fought? And why hadn’t he shot? Her mind was racing as she snatched up her bow and her arrows and trotted back the way she had come to check on her brother. She was certain that the false- that that Fezerin would shoot her.

Fezerin sighed heavily as he hiked to the top of the ridge and waited to get picked up. Why had this outing sucked so bad? Why were they after him the way they were? He shook his head and slumped against a tree for a moment’s respite, and listened to the far off sounds of rotorwash on treetops coming ever closer. Ardmore would have questions, but he didn’t care. He needed not to care for a bit. Just a short parcel of time where he didn’t have to worry about anything. That sounded blissful. If only..