The ending of Avatar got me wondering, why do the antagonists always hold from killing people close to the hero when the hero arrives just in time? Wouldn't it be much simpler to simply kill them quickly? So I made this short story to answer, the question….What would've happened with a slash of the blade?
I do not own Avatar
Quaritch stood above it, his knife poised to strike the hapless blue figure trapped beneath the animal he moments before killed. After her death he would destroy the scientific human facility that held the traitor, Jake Sully, to ensure revenge against the defeat of his dragon ship.
A voice calls behind him "It's all over Quaritch"
Quaritch stops his intended knife strike and turns his machine suit around to meet the traitor himself in his avatar dropping from a tree branch.
"Nothing's over while I'm still breathing!" he growls. Shouting, he pivots rapidly and, with the momentum gained, slashes at the blue figures torso, nearly severing her in half.
"NEYTIRI!" Jake howled, a spike of pain so intense drives into his heart, buckling his knees, such was his emotional pain, and pain a normal human brain was incapable of understanding.
Quaritch smirks. He had killed the Na'vi to intimidate Jake, but the result was so much more satisfying.
Jake, transforming his pain into anger, looked at his foe, his eyes full of unmitigated anger.
"I'll kill you!" he cried
"Not if I go first" Quaritch replied and surges forward. Jake closes in fast, snatching up the broken cannon that Neytiri broke off for him as a last departing gift.
Quaritch slashes downwards with the knife and Jake parries, barley deflecting it with the cannon. Jake moves faster than the suit and, with a mighty jump to reach Quaritch, stabs the cannon bayonet into the machines canopy, scarcely missing Quaritch and instead embedding itself in the area between his neck and shoulder.
Quaritch reels back, dropping his knife, and blindly tries to stomp on Sully. Jake rolls just before the massive mechanical foot thudded on the location he just occupied previously. Quaritch manages to get the AMP suit hands to latch onto the cannon, and with a mighty wrench, pulls it out. Inside, Quaritch sees nothing but the sun on the shattered, heavily cracked glass. He aimlessly throws the cannon, the massive cylinder cart wheeling into the building holding Jake's human form, cracking the pressure window but not penetrating it.
Quaritch, finally deciding sight over protection, releases the canopy with a powerful burst of power, the canopy flies toward Jake, but he ducks just in time for it to land with a crash into the soil. Quaritch dons his breathing mask.
"How does it feel to betray your own race?" he sneered through the mask.
Suddenly, Quaritch turns and walks towards the facility, with the goal of smashing Jake's human form. With a crash, he thrusts his fist through the window, allowing the toxic Pandoran atmosphere to enter. Before he is able to do more damage, Jake hits the suit in a flying tackle, knocking the AmpSuit sideways and distracting Quaritch. Jake climbs onto the top and unsheathes his Na'vi knife. He plunges it downwards, intending to stab into Quaritch's neck however; Quaritch moves his head just in time, the knife once again sinking in between the space between his neck and shoulder. Quaritch flails his arms over his head and catches Jake in one of his hands, throwing him roughly onto the ground. Unrushed, Quaritch approaches the gasping avatar, and grabs his ponytail. Slowly, he pulls the screaming avatar up to meet him at eye-level. With his human hands he pulls the knife that had come so close to killing him out.
"You picked the wrong side. And now your gonna pay the price"
And with that line said, Quaritch thrusts the knife deep into the avatars breast, it shudders, once, twice, and then stills.
Quaritch releases him, and stands victorious on the field, taking a moment to savour his victory. Finally, he starts to move off.
Back in the facility, a human Jake Sully gags for breathe, reaching for the exopack…
This tiny, and more realistic, action at the beginning drastically changed the ending.
The point of this is that the smallest things can lead to the biggest differences. And those consequences do not have to happen over a long period of time, a butterfly effect if you will. They can have almost instant effects that tug and tear the very fabric of destiny.
Fate and Fantasy is separated by a thin red line.
A slash of the blade.