Dancing In Pandora | Miles Quaritch x OC

Chapter 12

It had been fourteen months. Fourteen long months since Viktoria and Viktor first arrived on Pandora. Fourteen months since the Thanator tore into their lives and left them changed forever. Fourteen months since the incident with the Thanator, and yet it still haunted them like it happened yesterday.

Viktor's brilliance quickly became undeniable. Within months, he had not only caught up with Dr. Grace Augustine but, in some areas, surpassed her. Pandora was more than an alien world to him—it was a scientific frontier, a living lab that ignited his deepest passions. Viktor hit his stride like a man set on fire. The moment he stepped into Grace Augustine's lab, he belonged. Charts, chemicals, DNA samples—it was paradise for his overclocked brain. He and Grace worked in sync, their conversations too fast and technical for anyone else to follow. And she, for all her brashness, saw him. Called him Kingston, not O'Connell. Like she instinctively knew that his real name held more truth than the one he'd been raised with. He lived in the lab now. Slept there, sometimes. Drank nutrient shakes like coffee. While Viktoria moved through her own strange path, Viktor buried himself in scientific discovery, chasing questions that never stopped multiplying. And for once, he wasn't chasing someone else's approval—he was chasing answers, and he loved every second of it.

The more time Viktor spent in the lab, the more he vanished into the rhythm of discovery. Days passed in flickers of light and sound—monitors blinking, equipment humming, data cascading across screens. Viktor found himself more than he ever had anywhere else. He wasn't hiding anymore—he was becoming. The quiet thrum of machines, the steady stream of readings, the allure of unsolved genetic riddles... it was symphonic. Grace Augustine was his equal, perhaps his only rival. Grace Augustine pushed him like no one else. She didn't coddle, didn't praise—but she saw him. Challenged him. Matched him. She questioned him, corrected him, forced him to evolve. He didn't realize how much that meant, not at first. And he loved her for it—not sentimentally, but intellectually. Her sharp mind fed his own. He didn't need her approval, but it mattered anyway.

He didn't realize how long it had been since he'd really seen Viktoria. It hadn't been intentional. Just the slow erosion of shared time. Their bond, once inseparable, had loosened—effortlessly, almost painlessly. He didn't push against it. Because here, in the quiet hum of the lab, he wasn't anyone's brother, anyone's heir. He was himself—and that was enough.

He spent less and less time with Viktoria, burying himself deeper into the labs with each passing day. His face was almost always pressed to a microscope, his mind spinning with complex theories and biological riddles that only Grace seemed able to follow. Sometimes, he locked himself in for days, forgetting to eat until Viktoria or Grace forced their way in with food. Other times, it was Viktoria who fed them both—two obsessed scientists too consumed by discovery to care for themselves. They weren't focused on one field; their work sprawled across multiple disciplines, fueled by the mysteries of Pandora's plant and Na'vi life. Together, he and Grace even made contact with the Omaticaya Clan—and, with Viktoria's approval, they began building a school for the People.

He met many among the People, but it was the children and women who took to him first. Among the People, it was Sylwanin who first took an interest in Viktor. She followed him through the forest with quiet purpose, Neytiri and Tsu'tey never far from her side. Wherever he went, they were there—watching, listening, learning. He shared stories of Earth, taught them English, and spoke often of his sister, never realizing how deeply they were listening. They were especially fascinated by her. But Viktor didn't mind. For every word he taught, he learned tenfold. The forest was a living classroom, and the People, his quiet, patient mentors. He hadn't expected it, but he was thriving here. Happy, at last. And for once, he didn't feel like a stranger. He felt like he belonged. He was content... but something inside him whispered that peace like this never lasted long.