How could I doubt you readers even for a second, you're still with me (proven by the reviews) so as an apology for ever doubting you, this chapter will be slightly longer ^^
Chapter thirty six: No one and the air
Thanty was running from Sacred Tree, still tracking Rick's AMP. He was much faster than the AMP, so the tracking Rick down went much faster, but at one point Thanty noticed that with the usual footprints there was very small amount of some black substance, it smelled like hell and it wasn't yet cold. "Can machines bleed too?" Thanty asked himself a deep philosophical question while continuing to track down the may-be-bleeding-AMP
"I hope that Rick have a pretty good excuse for this" Thanty thought, running through the forest.
AMP Crash site
The AMP was left to its own doom when the Na'vi hunter removed Rick's motionless body from it. Then the AMP was left here to rot, or rather rust. Pilotless MK-6 are useless, they can only walk back. Exceptions may apply when a goddess of life tampers with the systems. The AMP lied there motionless, until now. A Few sparks have appeared and a starting sound could be heard, after a few seconds the AMP started. "Warning: User vital signs are dropping. Search and Rescue" the Synthetic voice said as the AMP started moving, it got up on it's feet and enabled it's sensors. Usually they didn't work here, but this time was exception, maybe it was Eywa's doing, or maybe it was sheer luck, but the Sensors kicked in, notifying the onboard main computer, which was situated behind the controls, so it was still intact.
The AMP turned itself and raced toward the destination called 'Nav. point: Remote user'
It walked pretty fast, although the speed limit for such desolate AMP was 20 KM per hour, it seemed like a twenty two KM to anyone who saw the AMP running pilotless. Sensors died after a few moments but the onboard computer remembered the last known position, it wasn't far away too, only about a kilometer away directly from AMP's current position.
Rick
Rick's lungs were now on fire, they've demanded their oxygen, and they've demanded it badly. Rick was without air for about three or four minutes now, and it seemed like the time was slowing down, until it stopped. Rick stood there, still being restrained, and watched the dark figure getting to him through the crowd, after a few moments it was standing right in front of Rick. Rick recognized the hooded figure, it was the guy with unpronounceable name, the one Rick kept calling Bob. "You look quite uncomfortable here, Rick." Bob said, touching Rick's face with some kind of glowing, blue tentacle-like finger "Oh please don't mind-probe me with that thing again" Rick thought still holding his breath, but the pain in his lungs subsided, so he was either dead or lost consciousness. "You look like you've ran the marathon and that you are quite out of breath." The figure continued, and gently caressed Rick's face with the glowing tentacle. "I'm curious Rick, why don't you breathe? Your body aches for it." The figure continued but Rick still held his breath "Maybe you'll find it rather pleasant, it could be a nice change to smell the air once again" the figure continued, wiping a sweat from Rick's forehead. "You should know something Rick, Eywa didn't forsake you, she said you will meet her again, and you will, but if you suffocate here, you will meet her much faster than you are supposed to. Think about it, she will not be ready for you again, she will be half dressed with some toothpaste in the corners of her lips, dressed only in towel because she just left the bath. That wouldn't be a pleasant meeting, for her at least." Bob said, Rick wasn't sure about his mind state now, his brain was suffering from not enough oxygen already, but he met Bob before, so it could be some kind of strange communication between him and Rick, in either way the meeting was about to end. "Rick? Are you breathing? Rick? No!" Bob yelled, but then Rick's mind drifted away back into the reality. The time was running out, Rick's lungs demanded the air more than ever, making Rick to start hyperventilating. At that moment Rick knew that it will be over soon, his life flashed before his eyes, but it was flashing in some strange ways. In movies it always flashed from the beginning to end, but in his case it flashed through his early childhood, to his teenage years, and somehow got stuck at the memory of him being on the concert of retro music, the androids resembling the musicians long gone were playing on the podium. The song they've played was "Voices" from Disturbed, and Rick's last flashback in his life got stuck when the band played the chorus.
But it seemed like they were singing only for Rick, the song seemed a little altered too. "Rick, are you breathing? No? Do the na'vi see you? Are you breathing now?" Rick was a little puzzled, he expected the flashback to come to the final moment of his life, but after a few moments of the repeating moment everything went black.
Execution ground
Rick started hyperventilating and olo'eyktan knew that this Rick's final moment, after a few seconds of hyperventilating Rick's body went limp, some na'vi were cheering while others simply glared at Rick's body. Rick's guard finally sheathed his knife and Olo'eyktan turned away, he raised his hands and then all of the na'vi cheered "There are many Sky people, but one less now" he said, but this time there were only few cheers and more scared yells. Somebody even yelled "Palulukan!" and pointed to the hill overlooking the settlement.
The thanator looked around and when he noticed olo'eyktan he ran toward the execution ground. Warriors of the Bal'gi tribe drew their weapons, preparing to shoot the predator running straight at them, Thanty knew damn good that even if he is thanator, he wouldn't be able to survive if they decide to turn him into hedgehog. So he ran around the settlement, instead straight through it. "Oh Eywa, is Rick alright?!" was the only thing in his mind, he dodged a few arrows which were shot at him, but the experienced hunters knew that Thanty isn't going to attack anyone. Thanators were vicious, but they weren't suicidal, this one was after something else. Olo'eyktan drew his mostly ceremonial bow and prepared an arrow, getting ready to shoot. Olo'eyktan of Bal'gi tribe was one of the best shots around so if he decided to shoot a running thanator, he could do it. Thanty was still relatively far away, he could barely hear the whooshing sound over the terrified screams of the children and the screeching sound of metal against the metal. "What?" he thought. Olo'eyktan released his poisoned arrow, it whooshed through the air, and was about to hit Thanty's leg. But instead of hitting the target, it hit a palm with three fingers. Before Thanty could turn around and see what covered him he heard "Hostile environment, extract the user while minimizing the casualties" a synthetic voice said, Thanty looked slightly taken aback by the look of the mostly destroyed AMP, it had only one arm, destroyed cockpit, but what was most interesting, it had no pilot. Thanty immediately got himself behind the AMP, using it as a shield which mostly covered him from the arrows which now were raining from the sky.
"I thought that Demon-skins couldn't move without Sky people!" Olo'eyktan yelled as he loaded another arrow. "Kill the palulukan first!" he ordered, he knew too damn well that he couldn't kill a pilotless AMP as easily as the piloted one, and if they've got close enough to endanger the AMP, that thanator could've kill them all. But their time was running out, because the AMP ran straight at Olo'eyktan. Most of the na'vi were out of ammo, because they've only carried three to four arrows with them, unless they were going to some battle.
The AMP was now full of arrows, but none of them even endangered AMP'S functionality, they've mostly didn't get through, and if they've did, it was only for a few millimeters.
As the AMP with thanator closed in, Olo'eyktan saw no other option than to order a retreat, he had a responsibility for all the people in his tribe, and children and weavers couldn't fight against an enemy which couldn't be taken down even by tribe's most skilled warriors. Most of the na'vi ran way from the crippled AMP and thanator, much to their surprise. Both of them stopped at the execution ground "[Oh shit, Rick!]" Thanty yelled, looking at Rick's limp body, he could be still alive, because his quills told him that Rick's body was still warm. He saw that Rick's exopack was on the floor before him "[Oh no!]" he yelled, turning from Rick to the tribe which stopped their retreat after seeing this. Thanty looked at Olo'eyktan in particular. "[I will tear you open for this, but not before I'll break your fingers!]" Thanty yelled, and was prepared to kill the olo'eyktan and everyone who would've stood in his way.
"Emergency! Vital signs Critical" was the voice of reason that dissuaded Thanty from attacking Olo'eyktan and everyone else, at least for now. Rick was still alive! Thanty kneeled down, and put his tongue under Rick's face, much to his surprise, he felt something, a weak breeze, Thanty waited like that for another few seconds with renewed hope.
Rick's mind
The blackness which he felt only for a split second slowly faded away, but instead of waking up at the concert, he waked up at the Sacred Tree, he was lying on the ground unable to move, his body moved on his own! He saw Eywa saying "And I wanted to give you something too" and then kissing him, but this time he felt that she exhaled in him, the incredible feeling of being kissed by the goddess followed that sensation, but the feeling of getting air into his lungs was most intense of them all, sure it wasn't the most pleasant, but living through that kiss once again was well worth that small discomfort, but before the kiss ended Rick's vision got suddenly so bright that he was blinded by it. He felt the lips of Eywa slowly disappearing from his, then he started feeling so heavy, like he had ran a marathon, then added some endurance run just because he felt like it. He felt so incredibly weak that he could've sworn that even someone's glare could kill him. "I'm so numb that I can't even feel the exopack on my face!" he thought, he slowly opened his eyes. And saw something red and wet. "What is that?" he asked himself, and then gathered all strength in him to look up. There was a big face, and a familiar one but he couldn't remember to whom it belonged, it took a good ten seconds to remember that this was Thanty. "No surrender" Rick whispered, making Thanty smile with relief. "[You f&#*!ng bastard! You've scared the shit out of me!]" Thanty yelled at Rick, a one big tear forming in his eye. The na'vi tribe recoiled as they've heard Thanator roaring, but nobody dared to move a muscle. This was one of the strangest moment ever, A thanator, destroyed machine, and human without a mask. Thanty slowly and carefully placed a paw under Rick to catch him while he slowly cut the ropes holding him still in air. With a snapping sound Rick fell down straight into Thanty's opened paw. Thanty was now regretting not taking the harness with him, now he will have to take him in his first pair of paws, he couldn't risk placing Rick on his back, and the AMP didn't looked capable enough to take him all by himself. "[If you stray away like this again, I swear I'll convince someone to tie you to me!]" Thanty continued yelling at Rick, which was breathing hardly in Rick's paws.
After a few moments filled only with whispering among the na'vi, Thanty asked Rick "[How come you can breathe Pandora's air?]" but there was no response from Rick, Thanty was getting all worked up about him dying in his paws, but he noticed that Rick was still breathing, so he must've felt asleep. "Well, I think you've earned it" Thanty thought, and then he looked at the Olo'eyktan, who was confused beyond measure.
"[When he wakes up, he'll be the one who will decide your fate]" he growled at Olo'eyktan and then started walking away using only his second and third pair to walk was a new to him, but except for the small balance problems it was acceptable for him to walk that way.
Olo'eyktan of the Bal'gi tribe started wondering about his decision to kill this human, evidently he had many strange friends, never in his life he have seen a thanator to be gentle like that, the pilotless AMP fighting on thanator's side was something new too. But what was the most interesting was the fact that they've worked together to save a human, but it was no ordinary human either. This one could've breath Pandora's air. "I've never seen anything like this in my life" he told to the Tsahik of the tribe, which was standing on his right side. "It is sign from Eywa" she said and Olo'eyktan turned his attention to her "She doesn't want this human killed." She finished, and to that Olo'eyktan could only nod.
Dramatic chapter is being dramatic!
Whoa, Rick survived against all odds. But what will happen next?!
Stay tuned
(p.s. to T.E.D.S: Sorry, I know that was so unprofessional of me, I have a few bad excuses ready, but I'll save them for another time, let's just say that it was my weak moment and that I was indeed ready to end the story (( once again, I blame this on my unprofessional weak moment))
p.s. to LoveAVATAR: More than Thanty
p.s. to everyone else: Thanks for reviews! You've helped me a lot in forming this story (and my English) too)