Chapter Text
Rage could be felt flowing through the platoon, almost uncontrollable rage. The sight before them was nothing, but defeat. In the distance was Hell’s Gate, the once Human Stronghold, now overrun by the enemy.
Over the last few weeks Recon Alpha 2-2 had been on a long range recon patrol. Unknown to them the RDA and Humans on Pandora have lost. The Na’vi, natives of the planet, along with traitorous humans, drove the RDA off world. Now, they were the last ones left on the planet—the last Soldiers on all of Pandora.
Twenty-four year old Lieutenant Shane McKnight pulls his eyes away from the horrible sight in front of him and looks at his men. Twenty-one men and women who will now look to him more than ever to survive. Twenty-one souls, he now has to care for more than anything else in his life. He has to put his own feelings and thoughts aside. Thoughts of his wife, his friends and his home.
Life was hard on Pandora—life was even harder when you had to fight for every scrap of food, water, medical supplies and, most importantly, Air. Pandora held many beautiful things that could kill you in seconds, one of which, and what happened to be the worst of all, was the clear air that surrounded them. Unlike the Air on Earth, the Air on Pandora was too toxic for humans to breathe normally. As a result, the humans developed and wore Exo-Packs, little backpacks that contained a mask and the oxygen they needed to survive outside their base.
For 15 years the platoon suffered through these conditions, slowly reducing in size with every passing year. That was when they saw it. Hope. At last a new star in the night sky. Then came more and before they knew it, they saw RDA ships decelerating to the planet’s surface. Help had finally returned, but sadly not in time to save eighteen of the men under McKnight’s care.
The sight of Venture-stars dropping deployment containers brought a tear to the human’s eyes. Even though it was over ten miles away, they could slowly start to see humans exiting. They were saved, they could maybe go home. Though home was something different now in Shane’s eyes.
Home no longer meant anything. His wife Zdinarsik, Zdog to their friends or, to himself, Marissa, was buried here on this rock. Years ago the Platoon buried many of their fallen friends—recovered a lot of remains, including two hundred dog tags, currently hanging from the ceiling of their hab units.
The remainder of the platoon gathers all the personal belongings they have, including the dog tags and many letters home that they could now deliver from the fallen. They made their way out to the landing sites.
As they marched to where their comrades deployed, Shane and his platoon stayed on alert, hoping that they wouldn’t get caught off guard by the natives, again. With each passing hour, the sun slowly crept over the horizon. With each hour they got closer to being rescued. After what felt like forever, Shane and his team finally arrive at the landing zone. Though this one was unlike what they were used to. Instead of the area being covered by grass and trees, it was covered by fire and ash. Despite this, Shane and his team sigh in relief, knowing that they had finally made it and they could go—
“HALT, do not move,” one of the soldiers at the landing zone said to Shane and his remaining platoon.
The platoon froze in place, letting their weapons hang with their hands in the open.
“Identify yourselves.” The soldier calls out.
“Recon Alpha 2-2 CO, Lieutenant Shane McKnight.” Shane moved closer to the soldiers, who had already lowered any raised weapons. An officer moved out from the group of soldiers and met McKnight halfway.
“Welcome back Lieutenant, lets get your people back to the CP.” The officer put out his hand.
“Sound like a great idea.” Shane took his hand and shook it. A smile on everyone's faces.
It didn’t take long till word got to the higher ups about the lost platoon. It was only a short time after arriving at the temporary command post, that the sound of helicopter blades could be heard.
The sight of two Gunships coming into land was a beautiful sight. Shane and his platoon hop aboard the helicopters quickly. The aircraft took off slowly and began its journey back to the main base of operations, as small point that would become Bridgehead. Shane can finally rest knowing that he got his men to safety.
One year Later
The Recombinants were all slowly being awakened, Zdog and Wainfleet were the first.
They were heading back to Pandora, the place of their deaths. Hell disguised as heaven.
They had been briefed on their mission, the killing or capturing of Jake Sully. The traitor that got them all killed all those years ago. Matter of a few days in their minds.
They were set to land in a few days. They were in orbit aboard an ISV, awaiting the word that all their medical checks looked good to go plant side.
Zdog was relaxing in her small quarters when Quaritch knocked on her open door.
“Hey Chief, one of the suits wants to have a word.” Zdog nodded her head and followed the Colonel to a small meeting room on the ship. There in the room two corporate men in suits sat at a small table. “I’ll wait in the hallway for you.” His tone was serious.
She sat down in the small chair the best she could. The older of the two men spoke as he looked at the data pad in front of him.
“To confirm, you are Chief Warrant Officer Marissa Zdinarsik's - McKnight, wife of Shane McKnight of the RDA Security Operations EDF?”
“Yes Sir I am.” Her brows knitted at the mention of Shane. Where was this going, her husband had been on her mind since she woke up three days earlier with no one able to answer a question she had.
“Perfect, Chief I am going to lay out a bit of info for you, I need you to just follow along at first and I'll answer any question you may have once we are done. Understood?” She nodded quickly.
“Following your death and the fall of Hellsgate, your Husband was stuck on Pandora. He and his platoon had been trapped there for almost 15 years till they were found.” Zdog audibly gasped but the suit continued.
“Following his return he has been fast tracked, due to on world experience among other factors he is now acting as XO of SecOps and its detachments. He now holds the rank of Brigadier General. He knows you are alive as a Recom and he is awaiting your arrival, he has set an order to have you brought down early with your team coming down in the following days. This is the reason we are informing you of this. We need you to be on the shuttle that is leaving in one hour.” The suit finally looked up at her and met her eyes. She had tears brimming as she tried to process everything.
“Wow… um.. I don’t know what to say.. Um thank you for letting me know. Ill go get ready.” She got up without another word and moved into the hallway, she was in shock when she ran into Quaritch who was waiting for her. “Did they tell you too?”
“Yeah Chief, they told me. Go get ready, Ill see you in a few days.” He smiled before walking away.
She nodded wordlessly before moving to go pack her bags. She was on what could only be described as an auto pilot as she packed, made her way to the shuttle and took the ride down. It wasn’t until she stepped through the airlock into the arrival area at the landing strip did she really come back to her senses. She looked around the sea of people as they began to process in, she ignored all the looks she was getting from the humans. Her own eyes only search for one human among them.
Shane had been there for over an hour at this point, waiting in the back of the area for the Recom to walk in. When she finally did, the breath left his body. He just stood there for a moment, taking in the sight of her. Sure she was now a eight plus foot tall navi, but he could tell it was her from a mile away. The haircut, tattoos and the way she walked and held herself. He finally snapped out of it, moving only a few steps closer before speaking.
“Marrisa.” His voice was barely above a whisper, but he knew the Recom heard him as her cat-like ears twitched in his direction. Both sets of eyes went wide as they locked on each other. Shane slowly stepped towards the Recom as she kneeled to be eye level with the human.
Tears rolled down the Avatar's face, before the spell was broken and they launched each other at the other. Human arms wrapped around the large avatar’s neck as blue arms hauled the smaller human body closer.
After a long moment, they backed away slowly, but not leaving each other's arms. Zdinarsik’s hand came up and held Shane’s face, her thumb caressing his cheek.
“You got old.” A wet laugh came from the Avatar.
“And you went and got all blue.” They both laughed.
“I am so sorry baby.” She spoke as she held him.
“It's okay, in due time we will figure this out.” He reached into his collar before continuing, "this belongs with you.” The Avatar's ears went back.
He pulled out a worn dog tag with a wedding band on it. He took off the necklace and placed it in her hand. The avatar took the tag in her large hands. ‘Zdinarsik, A, Marissa. O-Neg NKDA’ The serial number was worn almost completely off, the wedding band also worn down. It broke the Recom’s heart, her husband had been all but alone, mourning from her loss. She looked down at his one hand, his wedding band still in its spot as it has always been. The man refused to take it off unless it meant to clean it.
“I missed you.” Tears rolled down his face. “Come on, let’s go to my office and get out of everyone's way.” She nodded and followed next to him as he led the way.
As they walked she spoke up. “So General Huh?”
“Yeah, after we got back. They realized my skills and took my time in service into account and fast tracked me through the ranks before being promoted to run all the Recon units. Which now includes you and your fellow Recoms.” The avatar just smiled. They continued to walk for a little while until they got to his office, both grabbing a coffee from the small pot in the corner of his office before sitting down on the sofa in his office.
“I want to know how you managed over all these years when you are ready. But I understand that will take some time.” She looked away from him for a moment. “But for now I want to know how you have been doing here at Bridgehead.”
“It was strange at first… going from nothing to everything we needed. They thankfully let me keep the rest of the platoon as a security detail so we could stay together. None of us go outside the wall any more. I guess PTSD is more of a bitch than we thought. It’s nice having some family here though.” He took a long pull of his coffee.
“Family? What family came?” She sat up slightly, thinking back through his family tree. He came from a long line of Officers back on Earth. Many of which had done tours on Pandora in the past.
“Fran is running everything. She is the on world commander.”
“Wait, your Aunt Fran? Is she how you got me down here so fast?” Shane nodded before Marissa continued, “I guess that must be nice then huh?”
He smiled and took another drink of his coffee before speaking. “When we came stumbling through the tree line into the makeshift base that was at one of the landing site, she came down planet side and almost crushed me in a bear hug. Everyone back on Earth thought the platoon was wiped out and that I was dead. It's been running like clockwork since then—the two of us make a good command team.”
“I feel a little better that you haven’t been alone this past year.” She caresses his cheek softly with a smile on both their faces. She was about to continue before a shorter older woman knocked on the office door and walked in. The Avatar's keen eyes quickly made out who it was, Fran had an unmistakable look.
“Aunt Fran.” He called out standing up, the avatar quickly followed as the older woman walked over to them. The Recom took a quick breath from her exo-pack.
“It’s good to see you Marissa.” Fran smiled, before the two hugged.
“Like wise Fran.” They all sat down again.
“So I guess we have a lot of catching up to do, don’t we?” Fran spoke with another soft smile.
……………….
“Shane, it's good to see you in one piece,” Quaritch smiled as the two of them walked into the bay. Shane’s Exo-pack secured on his face, barely concealing the smirk on his face.
“Quaritch, it’s good to see you too, old friend but let’s save the small talk for later. I have your orders.” He handed a data pad to the Recom. “I need your team to recon out a possible site in the mountains that we can’t get near without stirring up the hornet's nest. As Ardmore briefed you your main objective here is to test how well these new bodies react with the environment." In the years since they knew McKnight he has gained the ability to command the room, which was impressive with Quaritch there, even more impressive when the room was filled with Recoms and him being the only human.
“Right, who are we reporting our findings to?” Quaritch questioned, looking over the tablet in his hand.
“You will be reporting to me for the foreseeable future, but Ardmore will still be overseeing everything.” he replied with a small smirk.
“Yes sir, It will be fun working together again.. General.” Quaritch said with a slight smirk.
Almost all of the Recoms eyes snapped to the human in a mixture of surprise and confusion for some. Zdog could see in each one of their eyes when they registered the star on the man's shoulders and realized Quaritch wasn’t joking, the last they knew of this man, their friend, he was just a Lieutenant fresh to the planet.
He laughed before going on. “Your team is the first of it’s kinda Colonel, if this works out we will be making new teams in the future. For both our sakes let’s make sure this works.”
“Understood, we will get the job done.” Quaritch nodded, before he and the other Recoms all suited up and began to move to the tarmac. A hand held Zdinarsik back for a second, looking down to her husband, her brows knotted.
“You come back to me, that’s an order.” He smiles softly, worry setting in his eyes.
“With this body, I'm unstoppable. I love you.” She leaned down and kissed his mask. She walked backwards toward the other Recoms with a shit eating grin. He reached into his pocket quickly.
“I love you too, you smart ass.” He smiled as he tossed her a small stick of something. She easily caught it and looked down at the item. It was an extra large pack of bubblegum.
She laughed and lipped ‘Thank You’ with a large smile before running to the others.
She boarded the Kestrel, finding her seat without a second thought. She looked down at the bubblegum pack in her hand and smiled. She looked up as she opened the pack to find all her teammates looking at her.
“What the hell are you guys staring at?” Zdog questioned her fellow Recoms as she took a piece of gum out of the wrapper.
“How does it feel having a General wrapped around your finger?” Wainfleet jokes, causing all the others to laugh.
“Oh bite me, you guys never said a word before when we were together,” she said quickly in defense.
“Before he was only a young Lieutenant who was a year younger than you, chief. Now he’s a General that is fourteen years older than you and is human,” Walker says as she leans back with a smirk.
“Do we have a lot to talk about? Yes, fuck yes we do. But he never stopped loving me, and I'll be damned if I stop loving him now. So drop it okay,” she bit out harshly. She sees the ears of her fellow Recoms all go back and their tails still. Only nodding their heads and thankfully dropped the subject. She huffs out as she calms down and finally puts her gum in her mouth.
The flight was short and it didn’t take long for them to get on the ground and start to move out. They moved quietly through the jungle. Walker was close behind her as she cut through the thick leaves. Slowing them down only slightly from the others.
“So I gotta ask, have you thought about… you know what?” Walker asks as the two of them are further from the group.
“Thought about what?” Zdog questioned, not knowing what her best friend was talking about.
“Sex you dumbass. How will it work now?” She replies with a shit eating grin.
“What… No…I.” She huffs out, trying to regain her composure.
“Well from what you told me from before, you were a total bottom who liked being choked and thrown around.”
“Walker!” She whispered at her friend, in an aggressive manner. Her face was blushing a deep purple.
“What? Just think about it. That won't be able to happen now, you’re twice his size and you are both going to relearn each other’s bodies.”
After a moment of looking at the ground and wishing it would swallow her she looked back at her friend. “Thanks, now that’s another thing we have to talk about on top of everything else.”
“So what is on your list now?” Walker laughs as they begin to move again.
“Well let’s see. There is the age difference, him being stuck on this planet for over a decade and a half, the rank gap, his Aunt being in charge of Bridgehead…” Walker cut her off.
“Wait. General Ardmore is his Aunt?” Zdog shook her head before continuing.
“There is me now being a Recom and with that, how are we supposed to deal with my emotions mixed with his? In my mind I only saw him a little more than a month ago, when in reality, and for him, it's been sixteen years. Then now you add our sex life on top of all that?! I have only been back with him for less than a week. My mind hasn’t even gone there till now”
Walker laughed but didn’t bring up the topic again. The topic didn’t even come back up in her own mind until she was back at base resting with her husband in the officer lounge.
“You know we should address one of the bigger elephants in the room,” she spoke quietly. She shifted on the couch to be able to look at him with her legs still across his lap.
“Yeah, I know. I think we should do one at a time for now.” She nodded her head in agreement. “Which one do you want to talk about?”
She looked down at her hands, her fingers playing with the rings on her dog tag chain. “How I am twice your size and how our dynamic from before will not work anymore.”
“Right, that did cross my mind. I have a few thoughts, but do you want to go first?”
“That we have to take it really slowly for a bit. We are going to have to relearn each other's bodies all over again. I have to learn to control myself and my strength when I am with you.” She looked up and met his eyes. “I'm terrified that I will hurt you.”
He takes a moment and a deep breath before responding. “Come here.” He shifts her legs off his lap, and gestured for her to rest her head on him. She moved over and placed her head in his lap. His right hand traced up and down in a familiar pattern, while his other hand carded through her hair. “We will figure it out in time—we will go as slow as we need to. I love you and I am not going anywhere.”
“I love you too,” she whispers as her eyes shut and she lays there enjoying the moment. His hand continued to card through her hair until he slightly petted her ear. A quiet purr came from her chest causing both of them to go still and their eyes to go wide.
“Zee…. Did… Did you just purr?” He tried to keep his voice level and not embarrass her.
“Yeah, I think I did.” She blushed and took a moment before speaking again. “Can… Can you keep doing that? It felt really good.” He laughed lightly before his hands restarted their course.
“Of course my love.” He began to scratch and pet her ear and just behind it. A heavy purr came from the Avatar as she slipped into bliss. Her eyes closed and she let herself be overcome by sleep.
……………….
She didn’t know how long she had been asleep when Shane shook her awake. “Come on love, let’s head to bed.” She sluggishly got up and followed him the short way to his quarters. She shrugged off her clothes and crawled into bed, putting her back towards the wall. She expected him to follow her right into bed. She opened her eyes to find him staring at her.
“What?” Her voice broke him out of his trance. He stepped towards the bed as he took off his shirt.
“Nothing… It’s just… you’re so beautiful.” she blushed before holding her arms open. He removed the rest of his clothing before climbing into bed. He shifted so they were laying face to face in each other's arms. “Good night my love.”
“Good night, General.” She laughed as she kissed him.
……………….
The morning light slowly woke her from her deep sleep. Her eyes fluttered open to the site of a large personal quarters. It only took another second for her other sense to kick in. She first smelled her husband's scent before hearing and feeling his breathing next to her. She looked down slightly to see the back of his sleeping form still tucked into her side. She smiled at the thought of having to be the big spoon now.
She took another few minutes to enjoy this calm feeling before extracting herself from the bed and got dressed. She looked over at the alarm clock next to the bed which read 0400. She had to head back to her barracks and figure out what she should bring back to his room. She had her husband back and damn the rules if she wasn’t going to sleep in the same bed as him every night. She moved to the door before a voice stopped her.
“You haven’t had to sneak out in years.” His sleep ridden voice mumbled from the bed.
“I’m not sneaking out, I just didn’t want to wake you. I’m heading back to go get some of my things.” She moved back over to the bed and kissed his temple. “I’ll be back in a few. Love you.”
She smiled when he nodded and mumbled an ‘I love you too’ into the pillow. She quickly left and made her way through the halls. Quickly coming up to the Recom Barracks, she took a quick look in the window before opening the door.
“So umm…. We can purr.” She spoke softly to the group of Recoms when she walked through the door. Most of them barely awake at this early hour, but all of them snapped their attention to her in a moment.
“What? How… How did you find that out?” Lyle questioned, his ears perking up with the others in extreme interest.
“I was…” she paused for a moment before she continued “…laying on the couch last night with Shane and he was carding his fingers through my hair. When he brushed my ear, it made me purr.” Her blush deeping as she spoke.
“Bullshit, show me,” Walker spoke up. Zdog moved over next to her and petted her ear softly. It took a second before the other woman began to purr. Her tail swayed happily back and forth. But after almost a minute she snapped out of it and pulled away. “Okay, I get it.” The group laughed…
……………….
Zdog was posted up outside the Recoms barracks, her banshee, that she had named Loki, was resting behind her. The Recoms were spread through the courtyard all tending to their own Ikran's. Spider was going around helping the Recoms with questions. She watched the kid for a moment, that kid had never known anything but this world. She almost felt bad for him, but she didn't let her mind wonder on that. The kid who was technically there prision was given quite a lot of free rein by the Colonel.
She looked down at the tablet in her hand, trying to finish her report on the day’s events when a voice caught her attention. “I heard y’all had an interesting day, though I thought I misread the first reports. Can’t say I have ever had to approve the landing of twelve Banshees before.”
Her eyes landed on her Husband who had just come out of the Recom Barracks bay doors. He stood tall in his Skel Suit, a large multipurpose exo-skeleton used for Industrial and Military use. As well as being able to stand toe to toe with their Recom comrades. All the Recoms moved from their Ikran’s to form a half circle around him.
“Good work Colonel, how does it feel to go all out Na’vi?” He laughed.
“Feels damn good, General. They won’t know what hit them.” Quaritch replied with a chorus of chuckles from the others. “What can we do for you sir?”
“I have your orders, your requested Sea Dragon and her crew has been briefed. You’re meeting with Captain Scoresby on his ship outside the city in three hours. Happy hunting Colonel.” Quaritch snapped a quick salute.
“Thank you General.” He turned to the Recoms before continuing. “Let’s get ourselves ready to go kiddies.” He walked towards the barracks with all, but Zdog following.
“Hey. I need you to be careful out there. I’m not the biggest fan of this plan, but Ardmore wants this wrapped up soon. She has plans for the Recoms after Sully is taken care of. Another group will be here in two months to form the platoon since the initial tests for this team went well.” The exo suit hand slipped into hers, she looked down at it with a small smile.
“You know I will. Come on, we still have at least two hours before I have to get ready.”