Hello all! I realize I should be working on other fics, but tough, this was a little bit of inspiration, and I'm going with it!

About the story: This is not a one-shot, it just seemed like a good place to stop. It's an AU, in which Jake and Co. don't succeed in saving Pandora. I do not own Avatar, because I am nowhere near awesome enough to even pretend owning it. Enjoy!

It had come to the point where it was pointless to even try to talk to him. Whether this was reluctance on his part, a last attempt at defiance, or simply the result of being pulled out of a link too many times, Dr. Saldana didn't know. All she did know was that all of the other doctors had given up, and the patient's time was running out.

The patient had acted as a replacement for his twin on an extra-planetary mission, thus enrolling in the AVTR program. Colonel Quartich reported that he had recruited the patient to do a reconnaissance mission to gain knowledge of the indigenous' land in order to be able to negotiate a peaceful relocation.

This, Zoe thought, was were things started to make less sense. According to Quartich, the patient befriended the indigenous, to the point where he began attacking his fellow humans while in his avatar. This was most peculiar. Why would an ex-Marine do such a thing? Did the natives successfully brainwash him, or was there more to the story than Quartich was admitting? After all, it was not only the patient that began to turn on the RDA. Doctors Augustine, Spellman and Patel had also 'turned traitor', along with pilot Chacón, another ex-Marine. This was a fruitless search. The patient was the only rebel left among them; Dr. Augustine had been killed during an escape attempt, Dr. Spellman had committed suicide soon after his trial, Dr. Patel had been "deported" (read executed), and Chacón's tribunal had agreed upon a firing squad. This left only Corporal Sully.

In an uncharacteristic act of mercy (or as Zoe viewed it, a thinly veiled form of torture) Quartich had asked the tribunal to spare the patient's life. He claimed that if the Doctors could find the reason behind this treachery, it could help prevent another such attempt in the future. And so the patient was wheeled away, broken and ashen faced, stuck in a tiny white prison, not saying a single word.

And now they had all given up, except for Dr. Saldana. Something about the patient, no. Something about Jake intrigued her, and she had no idea what. From his four-year silence to his atrophied legs to the haunted look in his eyes. He had seen something, and Zoe wanted to know what that was.