Kaelen is a broken man. A former soldier paralyzed by a rebel's bullet, he has spent ten years trapped in a wheelchair, haunted by memories of movement, freedom, and purpose. When the RDA Corporation offers him a chance to walk again through their Avatar Program, he signs without hesitation. The mission: travel to the alien world of Verath, link with a genetically engineered Na'vi-like body, and gather intelligence on the indigenous Omaticaya clan. The Company wants their land. Commander Thorne wants their weaknesses. Kaelen just wants to feel his legs beneath him again.

He gets more than he bargained for.

Waking on Verath is a rebirth. The planet is alive—bioluminescent forests pulse with light, floating mountains defy gravity, and every living thing is connected through Eywa, a planetary consciousness that binds all life. Kaelen walks. He runs. He breathes air so sweet it feels like drowning in honey. For the first time in a decade, he is whole.

But he is not welcome.

Captured by the Omaticaya near their sacred Tree of Voices, Kaelen faces the clan's matriarch, Anya, and her fierce daughter, Seri. Seri sees him as just another sky-person—a liar, a spy, a bringer of death. She is assigned to teach him their ways, and she does so with cold efficiency and barely concealed hostility. But as days pass, as Kaelen stumbles through lessons in silence, movement, and connection, something shifts. He touches the roots of Eywa and experiences the memories of the dead. He bonds with a wild ikran—a mountain banshee—something no sky-person has ever done. He begins to see Verath not as a mission objective, but as a home.

And he begins to see Seri. Not as his captor, but as his teacher. His friend. His reason to stay.

But the clock is ticking. Every seven days, Kaelen must link back to his human body and report to Thorne. He provides coordinates, identifies weaknesses, watches Thorne's smile grow wider as the attack date approaches. The guilt consumes him. When Thorne reveals the invasion is imminent—three weeks until Hometree burns—Kaelen makes his choice.

He confesses everything to Seri.

The truth shatters her trust but galvanizes the clan. Anya calls a gathering of all Verath's peoples, and Kaelen stands before thousands, a former enemy begging to be believed. He offers them a chance: knowledge of human tactics, awareness of their enemy's weaknesses, a desperate hope. The clans prepare for war.

As dawn breaks and Thorne's metal birds darken the sky, Kaelen stands beside Seri, his face painted for battle, his ikran screaming overhead. He came to Verath a broken man seeking to walk again. He found something greater: a people, a world, a reason to fight.

Book One ends as the first flames fall and the battle for Verath begins.

That night, Kaelen linked back to his human body.


Thorne was waiting. "Three weeks, Corporal. We move in three weeks. I need final coordinates. I need to know where to hit them hardest."


Kaelen sat in his wheelchair, feeling the weight of his broken body, the weight of his broken promise.


"Sir," he said, "there has to be another way. These people—"


"These people are an obstacle." Thorne's voice was ice. "They are sitting on the most valuable resource in this sector. The Company has invested billions. We are not walking away because you've gone native."


"You are. I can see it in your eyes." Thorne stood, looming over him. "Let me be clear, Corporal. You will give me those coordinates. You will help us destroy them. Or I will personally ensure that your human body never wakes up from its next link. Do you understand?"


Back in his Avatar body, he lay in the cave for a long time, staring at the glowing ceiling. He had betrayed them. He had betrayed her. And in three weeks, they would all burn.


He sat up. There was another way. A desperate way. A way that would probably get him killed.


He left the cave and ran toward Hometree.


Chapter 9 - CHAPTER EIGHT: The Warning