I do not own Avatar. Obviously. I am rather partial to my original characters and plot though.

Special thanks to Khaos974 for recommending this story on TvTropes!

Prologue: Many Meetings

Date: September 30th, 2154

Location: New York City, North American Union, Earth, Sol System

Johnathan Bordeaux had been the North American Union's representative to the United Nations for a decade and a half. He liked to think he'd dealt with a lot in his time at the post.

Three Presidents... let's see, Golan, Conner, and most recently, Baines. Four wars..that mess in Cuba, Venezuela, Indonesia, and then the bloody affair in the Congo. I had to help control the fallout when the Atlantic Energy Company imploded, literally, and the RDA and GLC went to war over the assests.

But he'd never entered the general assembly hall, and had it been deadly silent.

His first thought upon entering the assembly hall was that something disastrous must have happened.

Normally, the moments before a full meeting of the UN General Assembly were fill with the soft chatter of politicians speaking to their allies, assistants quietly rushing about, the crowd in the general seating section buzzing with the excitement of watching the world government in action. But today, there was a nothing. No noise at all emerged from the hundreds of human beings packed into the massive room. He could hear the quiet whine of the lights far overhead, the slight creaking of metal as men and women shifted in their chairs.

The total silence was unnerving, unnatural, it had no place in that room of noise and debate, and he felt a cold chill run down his spine.

Johnathan Bordeaux moved swiftly towards the seat marked "North American Union", trying desperate to ignore the unnerving situation.

Something glowing white on the main projection screen caught the corner of his eye, and he glanced to the front of the room as he sat.

Native Revolt. Mining Failed. Full report on return. VS

The short statement burned his eyes. He froze, uncomprehending, staring slack-jawed at the message there.

He closed his eyes, slowly mastering his thoughts and emotions, and forced himself to take his seat.

This.. this can't be. It can't be. In the name of God, we need unobtanium! More thoughts roared through his brain as he stared at the screen, Native revolt.. native revolt.. how? Why? The RDA's Sec-Ops force was massive, even if they were just mercenaries! I've seen the designs of their colony, it would have taken ten thousand Na'vi to storm Hell's Gate!

Even as his mind rebelled against the very idea of the message, a small door near the front of the room opened and the Secretary-General strode briskly into the hall, taking his place behind the center podium. He looked.. haggard, worn, like someone with far too much weight suddenly placed upon their shoulders.

"I see that you all have taken notice of the message we received from the Venture Star. Good." he began , his Russian accent far thicker than usual, "And since someone will ask, yes, we have confirmed the message with Administrator Selfridge."

Shouting broke out instantly. His translator didn't bother trying to make any sense of it for him, and Bordeaux instead forced himself to sit still, and not join in the cacophony overwhelming the room.

The Secretary-General had to shout to make his next words heard, "How and why this happened will not be known to us until the Venture Star returns. What we must decide now, and in the years ahead, is how the human race will respond to this, not placing unfounded accusation and blame!"

The shouting continued until the sound of a fog horn boomed through the room, silence falling instantly as everyone clasped their hands to their ears.

"We will have order!" the leader of the free world was shouting, "We are not barbarians, and we will have order here!"

Quiet grumbling met this, but no one resumed shouting. Glaring at the assembled representatives, their leader brought up new information on the screen behind him. "That is not to say that someone must be punished for this. The RDA was handed humanity's trust in procuring the resource that could well save both this world and our species, and they have failed. Measures must be taken to limit them for this and for the.. excesses, that they have begun to flaunt so recently."

He paused to sip water, everyone in the room hanging on his words. "My staff, in conjunction with the representatives of the ICA, have come to some basic decisions regarding this point. Pending a full debrief of Administrator Selfridge, we believe that placing the bulk of the ISV fleet under the control of the ICA will be the first step in reminding the RDA that they are, in the end, held accountable to us. They are not so far above reproach as their CEO seems to believe. This failure on Pandora could cause untold problems both here and in our colonies on Luna and Mars, the RDA must be held accountable for this."

A general rumbling of agreement met the end of the speech, and though numerous ambassador's rose to speak, the Secretary-General pointed to the representative of South Africa, "This failure could spark a massive upswing in the small-scale resource wars currently underway," his spoke in a rolling basso, "Should not more punitive measures being undertaken against the RDA for this?"

Tumultuous shouting again broke out, and the electronic klaxon sounded once more. After everyone recovered from the cascade of noise, Bordeaux leaped to his feet, and receiving a nod from the Secretary, he began "No. The RDA is too deeply ingrained into the world economy to simply break up, and we do not yet know the full story of what occurred there. I agree with the Secretary-General and with the ICA, removing control of the ISV fleet to a more neutral body as a punitive measure will suffice for now, and I move that we vote immediately upon this subject."

A dozen other representatives applauded and several of them leaped to their feet, shouting "Seconded!"

The vote was swift and nearly unanimous, the more powerful nations eager to limit the RDA before it's influence and power ran out of control, and the smaller nations were just as eager to cripple the corporate giant and regain control of their own lands.

Bordeaux was not done yet, however, as a new thought had occurred to him, "Unobtanium is the most precious resource to man at this moment in time. There are still six Capital Star class ISV's inbound with their cargo, meaning that we have six years, roughly, of supply. We must begin now the process of both preparing to deal with at least a decade of no Unobtanium shipments as well as the matter of our return to Pandora."

Sitting to scattered applause, the representative from Uruguay rose, and began to speak, "I agree with the esteemed representative of the North American Union," his translator supplied, "We must keep the populace calm in these times. We have anti-matter reactors function in Europe, Russia, and South America. The incoming shipments will be enough to cover the North American and Luna reactors. We should increase the pace of the reclamation projects to keep people's spirits up."

The Secretary-General nodded to her, and then to Bordeaux, "Indeed. Expansion of the Siberian and Scandinavian reclamation projects should be our primary objective, as well as beginning the work on the Amazon project. In addition, pressure must be brought against the RDA to begin seriously looking at synthetically reproducing unobtanium. But, most importantly, we must begin planning our return to Pandora, and how we are going to resume mining in the face of this.. native revolt."

All right, here's the re-done prologue. Mostly minor changes but it looks and sounds a lot better (at least to me) now.

Author's Notation

This is not going to be a "humans show up and curb-stomp the na'vi" kind of story. Nor is it "Humanity is perfect, na'vi aren't". I'm going to show humanity as we are, the good, the bad, the ugly. the noble and the savage, the idealist and the cynical, etc.

Even if you're a huge fan of the Na'vi, I think you can still enjoy my tale. Give it to the first few chapters at least and let me know what you think.

I'm going for realism as best I can, from my point of view.

Well, there's the prologue. Not much I know, haven't even introduced the major characters yet but I wanted...well, needed to get a bit down to give myself more motivation to continue. The next chapter will probably focus on the UN's plans on returning and dealing with Selfridge and the Venture Star returning to Earth.

Reviews and constructive criticism welcome, flames not so much