A Better Tomorrow

One Year later…

Neytiri held her bow by her side as she watched the children splash into the river laughing with joy. As the children played, the adults stood by the shore and launched their fishing arrows into the water. A woman stepped passed Neytiri down to the shore with her bow carrying her baby in her carrier. The baby looked around and looked at Neytiri with two eyes sparkling with life. All Neytiri could do was smile.

Over the months after Jake's birthday, the clans helped out with the reconstruction of the Omaticaya. Most of the warriors returned to their clans including most of the leaders while others stayed behind to help with the upcoming project. The Omaticayahad selected a new hometree and everyone got to work on clearing out the interior to make it a live able area like the old one. The elderly, children and their parents were offered shelter at the other clans while the new hometree was created. The Na'vi who stayed behind to work started clearing out the base of branches and roots and moved on to create the spiral walkway up the trunk. On many occasions, several members of the avatar team swung by to give a helping hand.

The process took 5 months to clear out the wood in the base of the tree and to carve out the trunk. The trimmings and smaller features would be finished later as the Omaticaya settled into their new home. The other Na'vi said their goodbyes, while others decided to stay and join the Omaticaya to fill in the remaining numbers, and headed back to their clans and told the Omaticaya guests to return to their new home.

Over the next few months, the Na'vi slowly began to resume their lives in peace. But they knew as well as the other clans that they needed to be on their toes just in case the RDA came back sooner than expected. The scouts were always vigilant when on duty scanning the sky as well as looking out for their clan's daily threats. Despite the potential danger, the people hardly worried about it. Right now, they were happy because the time of great sorrow was long behind them.

As a part of the reconstruction, the Na'vi brought back a casualty that fell before the war started. When the trees-of-voices were bulldozed, only one small and frail willow out of the former grove survived. The grove was burned and scorched after the Na'vi attacked the diggers so the patch of land would be bare for some time. The Na'vi took the surviving willow and broke apart the branches and brought them to a new location. Along with a small amount of branches methodically taken from the tree of souls, the branches were planted in a new groove near the new Hometree. The process for the new tress to grow would take years or perhaps even decades but when they grew, future generations would be able to cherish the new sacred place just as their ancestors had.

Over at hell's gate, the scientists and everyone else who were chosen to stay on the moon shut down all the mining facilities and constructed a number of solar panels and started to produce wind turbines to power the base. Over the months after the RDA's departure, the staff had done a number of things in their spare time. Research of Pandoran flora and fauna continued like normal. They shut down the parameter fence turrets so they wouldn't kill any creature that got too close. It was dangerous for them to let the defenses down but they placed up a number repulser pods as a non-lethal alternative to keeping wild life out of the base. The Na'vi also offered prayers for them to allow the humans safety from harm for good measure.

With the wood they scraped out of the new Hometree, the Na'vi and Avatars constructed a new school in a small canopy of trees and hills half a mile from the new Hometree. They took the supplies and materials out of the the old school and tore it down afterward, leaving the haunted structure to be consumed by nature in time. When the new and larger school was finished, they moved the repaired shack to the school and set up a small encampment for the avatars and the drivers to settle there. Among the avatar teachers stationed there, Norm led the way. The process was long and tedious but in the end, Norm's avatar body was saved and after a while it started to function properly. As Jake promised he told Norm about Trudy and Norm took it well.

At the new school, not only did the Avatars teach children English, they offered to teach any Na'vi who wanted to learn, young and old, other earth languages and about the history of humanity and the cultures of what humanity once was. This started before new Hometree was finished so a number of Na'vi from the other clans learned some English and a number of things about humanity that they could share with the other clans. The lessons were completely optional and just for the sake of understanding humanity's cons but also its pros. And it was important to understand humanity if the Na'vi were to encounter more of them in the future.

During the year, the people at Hell's Gate didn't have any contact from the ISV pipeline or from earth. They assumed that the RDA saw the planet was compromised and the pipeline didn't have the man power to take it back so they called all the craft back to earth. The humans didn't know if this meant the company was mobilizing or if they've given up but either way they wouldn't let their guard down.

Everyone knew that the RDA was still a potential threat but what everyone on the planet did a year ago had to happen. After the fire was set and burned, in the end, the planet and its people were spared. Now, if things went to plan in five more years, the RDA would be challenged by the public and that might just give both Earth and Pandora a chance to survive. For now, peace was upon the planet and everyone embraced it.

Jake walked up from the shallows with his catch of the day. Neytiri stood above him as he tossed the fish by her feet. When he saw the look in her eyes, he placed his hand onto her abdomen. She placed her hand on top of his as he looked up again. New life was coming and he and she would cherish theirs until and after the end of their days. Then, they turned their heads to the morning light as it shown in its brilliance on the horizon. They knew the future would be unpredictable and it was seen to have many complications down it. But passed everything, everyone saw one thing that was clear; hope. Jake never felt more confident and hopeful about the future in his life and he knew Neytiri and the rest of the people shared it too. Things were different than they were years ago, and that was what made everything better. They all knew they were closer to that better tomorrow and today they would all proudly walk toward it.

Five years later and 4.4 light years away…

Matt walked down the night street with his hands in his pockets. He kept his eyes in front of him and didn't divert them to the advertisements blaring all over the city the streets. Things hadn't changed much when he left for the moon, considering that it was the same city plunged into darkness with commercialism and ignorance. The only things that were different were the amount of housing that was built onto the existing buildings and the new products advertised and the new brands of the products.

He managed to get passed security, acquire his belongings, with his precious cargo undetected, and received his pay. The pay was a little smaller than promised because of the events but it didn't matter to him. After Matt was reassigned his new residence, he soon picked up the trail of the activist group to rejoin them. The movement kept a very low profile so they wouldn't be sniffed out by the RDA so they wouldn't be able to undermine their efforts. The group never kept a list of names or meeting locations to stay hidden so they set up a network to inform their members and to leave breadcrumbs to the ones who went up to the moon so they can return in the dozen years to find their way back. Sure enough, Matt did find his way. The membership had grown and Matt didn't expect to find any familiar faces considering they would all be 12 years older from when he last saw them.

The RDA hadn't told the public about what happened on the moon and they tried to keep it a secret and covered it up when in the media. The RDA did have their own media center to broadcast their reports to the public but other broadcasters still existed although they weren't as popular. Before he was given his belongings back and was free to return to his reserved residence, the RDA told the employees to keep quiet about the incident. Not that it mattered because the only things that the returning employees could give to the public were their words that the RDA can disregard as exaggerations or inaccurate accounts of the real events. What the RDA wouldn't expect is to have their official documents and tapes of their actions, both on Pandora and on Earth, to be given to the press and to have the genetic codes for cloning plants to other laboratories. Ignorance was the RDA's greatest strength but they would soon lose it.

When Matt returned to the group, he showed the data to the people meeting together and told them about what was happening on the moon the last time he was there. Afterword, everyone took copies of the information and spread it to the other members across the nation and the world careful not to distribute it too publicly so they would be traced before they would make their move. Some would pass on several documents and audio logs to a number of employees of news companies to have them go public with the stories once the activists were ready to put the rest of the content on the internet. Next, Matt and others visited the labs of the "Cause" organizations to hand off the genetic codes of the Pandoran flora to be sensitized and create the plants to produce the medicines for the pharmaceutical market and all the other uses to help the planet and humanity. They told the organizations to keep a very low profile about the codes when they made the drop off telling them to keep quiet until the activists went public with the other info.

The RDA wouldn't be crippled and out of business from just the disturbing of the content because the world still had large energy needs. Unobtainum was still needed to power the world and no known alternative was known. That was until Matt read a document suggesting that the RDA had a working antimatter reactor design that was 1000% more efficient than all the other reactors around in service. If this information would get out to the public, the reactors would be updated and less Unobtainum would be used thus extending the years the world could be powered with the amount of Unobtainum the RDA had in stock. What was even more revaluating was that the RDA was holding a scientific theory behind its firewalls about a potential lead to an alternative to Unobtainum. The details were sketchy and the rest of the documents about it were probably concealed behind higher security that wasn't connected to the main RDA network. It was a major score for them regardless because if this theory existed, there was a way to use the theory and Unobtainum would no longer be the only life blood of the economy.

Matt made it to his destination he needed to be for the event. He reached the door of the apartment building and pressed the buzzer. The screen emerged and Matt scrolled through to floor 17, room number 17-124 and selected it. Another screen emerged and it showed a scruffy black man's face looking at him. Behind the man he saw two people sitting at a computer.

"Where're you going?" the man said to Matt.

"A Better Tomorrow," Matt fluidly said as soon as the man finished the question.

"Then you've came to the right place," the screen went dark. Matt opened the door and entered. After riding the elevator up, Matt walked down the bleakly lit hallway passing the even numbered rooms until he found 124. He gave a knock and the door slid open a second later and Matt stepped in. The black man stood in front of him as the door automatically closed.

"You've got what we need?" he asked Matt.

"Depends if you and your boys did their job and are ready for the show, Rob," Matt coolly replied.

Robert made a small grin, "You know us; we're always ready to spread the word to the folks."

"Then I guess I'm the one who's not done his job yet." Matt smiled and reached into his pocket. When he pulled it back out, it had a data drive in it. Matt held it in front of him and Rob took it from his hand.

"Thought for a moment you wouldn't make it in time for us to get it up."

"Yeah well, I'd figure I'd take my time admiring the ignorance surrounding the city that before I see it all lifted. Plus it might get a little boring waiting around in here for the light to go green."

Robert smiled again. "Well I wouldn't blame you for taking in that because things will be different."

Rob turned to the computer where the other two men were waiting. Matt walked up and leaned against the wall as they inserted the thumb drive and worked to upload the data.

"How much time 'til Showtime?" Robert asked after a few minutes of fiddling with the computer.

Matt swung his wrist out and looked at his watch. "Ten minutes to reflect back at all the work everyone put in to get a moment like this."

"Good." Said Robert and was silent for a while.

"You know, we still have a long way to go even after this."

"Yeah," Matt said.

"I mean there will still be a lot of loose ends to cover to get Earth to even start to get out of the shithole it's in, you know? Like rights, society, countries, and laws and all that shit not to mention trying to keep things together as time passes."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that ride will be eventful and it might be even fun since we have afterburner this time. Better late than never, would you say?"

Robert gave a soft chuckle in his throat, "'you looking forward to standing around and organizing communities to get the world to get to work?"

"Why not? Might be a good change for once since all that most people did the last century and a half was doing nothing. And it might be good see people around you think for once."

Robert smiled again, "One step closer."

Matt smiled back, "Better than no step at all."

He looked at his watch again. "30 seconds. Get ready."

"We are," Robert said with his finger ready click on the icon to upload.

"Ten… nine…eight…seven… six…"

As Matt counted down the seconds, all he could think about is what the newscasters would say in the morning news when they would get the reports of the RDA info and when the Labs would put the Pandoran products on the market for uses of healing the intoxicated land and for people to use for their health. All and all, everything meant that things would be different.

"Five…four…three… two… one,"

For mother Earth, her sister Pandora and all their children.

Matt watched the second hand align with the minute and hour hand at twelve. He looked up and saw Robert pressed the button and the screen prompted "Upload Complete," a second later.

"So…where are we all heading off too?" Robert said.

Matt smiled, "A Better Tomorrow."

Author's note: I finally got it done and I really hope you enjoyed this. Since this is that last chapter, I'd like to give you a reflection on this story I decided to create. You don't have to read this if you think this would spoil what you just read but you can if you want to. At the bottom, the last paragraph is about what's next for me and what stories will come out next.

I started having ideas for this story when I was trying to address my Post-avatar-depression (PAD). I basically wanted to write a story of about getting back up on your feet when you fell down. What it turned to be was a chance to make an extension into the universe and to build bridges between the people that inspire many fans and humanity that has much to learn.

You may know that many avatar fans feel depressed about being human after seeing the fantastic life of the Na'vi and you might know some who have lost a lot of faith and trust in humanity as a result. What I tried to do was create a story that basically says that both humanity and the Na'vi are not completely wrong or completely right. Humanity would have a lot more flaws compared to the Na'vi if they existed but that doesn't mean the Na'vi are perfect as a result. In my story I wanted to show you don't need to be blue or think blue to see. All you need is a brain and a heart. It doesn't matter if you're six feet tall and have white or black skin or whatever. It doesn't matter if you're 10 feet tall and have a tail. "Sprit is all that matters."

You don't have to feel ashamed about being human. I've found many enjoyable things in my life that can be designated as "human" and I like them along with the other stuff that is Na'vi. You could say I'm standing in the middle of my bridge and I hope I've managed to give you a way to do the same.

The greatest way I expressed this bridge, I believe, was in chapters 4, 5 and 15 when Jake spoke about the Marine Corps and how its influence was one of the things that drove him to come back to the Na'vi and help them. I'm very supportive of the men and women in uniform overseas protecting their countries and loved ones and I believe that those ideals of "For honor, for country, for brother" are in jeopardy. I believe that honor still exists in the ranks of our soldiers and soldiers can share the same values as Na'vi warriors do. I believe those ideals should be recognized and supported by all of us so the people in uniform won't become like the RDA mercenaries.

Another way I wanted to build the bridges is the activists from the Activist survival guide. I haven't found a single fic that has a story about the book so why not bring it in? Ordinary men and women can make a difference and that's a story that I believed to be one to include.

I know that many of you are wondering if I would address the future issues of the return of the RDA and what Jake would need to do in the future as clan leader from a number of reviews. I tried to put that in this epilogue because I'm not planning to write about anything beyond this because James Cameron left it where it was. I like to stay as canon as possible so I didn't want to go too far and touch on the ground that JC will cover in the sequels. That's why I left my story with an open ending like the film did. I hope you can understand and I hope that I didn't disappoint you because of that.

Despite my commitment to canon, I admit I did make a number of mistakes.

I found out recently that according to the Avatar Wikia, Sylwanin is Neytiri's older sister. I didn't know in advance and the collector's edition didn't indicate whether she was younger or older. The photo of the children sitting in front of the school showed Neyiti hugging another Na'vi girl who looked very much like Neytiri. I assumed it was Sylwanin. So I hope you can forgive me for that if you had the impression she was an older sister.

Also from the Wikia, it had a timeline that didn't match my time frame at one point but now it matches most of it now. At some point I'm going to go back and make some changes like Norms avatar resurrection because I got some criticism about my description of how it will happen and how some of it sounds implausible. I'm not annoyed about the criticism, I actual encourage it because it tells me what to improve. If you have any questions or suggestions about my fic or anything else, please feel free to PM me.

But aside from the issues, I am very happy with what I have on this site and the reviews and favorites are proof of it. It was great to express my thoughts in this story and it's always good to know that a lot of people love what I've written. As always, I ask you to keep referring my fic to friends and any other people who like avatar. The support really helps. For what's next, I'm working on another Avatar fic called "Regret" which follows an RDA soldier operating on Pandora and I have another Jake & Neytiri one-shot that takes place after "Together at last." Aside from avatar, I'm working on a "Novelization" of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and I have ideas for stories for StarCraft and Guardians of Ga'Hoole.

As for My final words, hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had creating it and thank you for your support. See you soon. :)