Nightmare.

Alex walked through the forest. Or the darklands. Whatever, he certainly wasn't on Pandora anymore.
There wasn't really a lot he could do. He had sat in where he had woken up for a while, but when nothing happened, he decided to go for a walk. He didn't have any idea where he was going, but that didn't really matter to him. He didn't have a clue of what else he could do.
He turned to look at his surroundings. The world was largely as he remembered when he was here last time. He felt immaterial, like he was there, yet at the same time, not there. The forest still didn't glow, but that didn't really detract from the lighting of the place. What was the real problem, was the fact that it was still 'foggy' as it was. Alex walked along the forest road, without any idea where he was going. Alex thought he saw things moving through the fog, but it was probably just tricks of his mind.
The real big difference this time was that there wasn't any sound. Of course Alex could hear the sound of his footsteps and his own breathing, but aside from the trees swaying in the wind, the place was as quiet as in the real world. There was no mysterious sounds coming from-

What was that? His face shot around. He thought that he heard footsteps in the forest. There was nothing.
Alex sighed and continued onwards. He started to brood on what had previously happened to himself and Neytiri. Best case scenario was that he and (hopefully) Neytiri were unconscious on the side of the road. Worst case was that he was dead, and that he now had the honour of visiting the afterlife twice. That would suck.
He thought about the men who had attacked them on the road. They certainly weren't normal. A lot of people would quite possibly call them psychotic. Alex doubted that any of the na'vi would have known what was going on with them. One thing for certain though, was that he had seen such things before. Only this time, those afflicted with the bleeding had just turned into insane berserkers. Not Good. Alex wondered why none of the Omaticaya had turned into them.
Alex's head twitched again. He thought he heard something moving in the back. There was nothing.

He sighed, exasperated. He kept moving. He thought about how the others were faring. He sincerely doubted that everyone was dead, but he still-
A twig snapped. Alex instantly spun. He saw a man sized shadow dart past a tree.

"Okay come out!" he shouted. "I know you're there!"
Nothing moved from behind the trees. It didn't deter him.
"Enough with the Mysterio bullshit!" he shouted in frustration. "Come on out here and talk to me like a fucking man!"
A sound like someone shifting their posture was heard from behind the tree.
Alex didn't have a weapon on himself, but he couldn't care less. He was confused, tired and in the middle of Grade-A Weird Shit. He went up to the tree.
"Come on and face me!" he snapped as he went around the tree.
He wasn't expecting to see what was in front of him.

It was a human alright. But he wasn't a colonist. Or a mercenary. In fact, he didn't belong on Pandora at all.
He wore the sort of clothing you'd expect a civilian in the East Coast Sprawl to wear. Jacket, white shirt, trousers, shoes, the usual. The face however was someone who Alex thought was dead.
Someone else had worn that face a long time ago. He was a pimp, a sleazebag by the name of Harman Garcia. He was a lowlife who thought he could get what he wanted by shouting at his subordinates to do what he demanded. He pushed drugs to the vagrants and kept his whores enslaved by hooking them on psychoactives. He had links to the criminal families who had vied for control for Toronto since forever.
He was also the first person that Alex had ever killed.
"Surprised to see me?" the man gloated. He was holding a magnum revolver in his hands, pointed at Alex's chest.
Alex stood where he was. He wasn't actually surprised as he thought he would be. Sure, it took him a triple take to get what he was seeing, but his face didn't exactly say 'OMGWTF!' Instead, he stood and stared evenly at the man he was looking at.
"Not really." He answered.
"Oh, is that so?" the scumbag said amused.
"Well, enough weird shit has happened to me." He shrugged. "I probably wouldn't be too surprised if I saw Colonel Quaritch turn up here and sing an opera."
"Indeed." Harman smiled. "I've been waiting a long time for this."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "You're not Harman at all, aren't you?" he asked.
"What, do you think I'm some kind of hallucination?" Harman laughed. "That I'm just a figment of your imagination? Better not be. You won't be able to rationalize your way out of a bullet to the head."
"Oh I wasn't thinking about that." Alex smiled. "It's just that the Harman Garcia that I knew was a pathetic worm of a pimp, who didn't even stand to fight until all of his lackeys were dead, and even when he did fight back, he was so scared shitless, he emptied his entire clip across the whole room trying to kill me." He smirked mockingly. "And he even started to cry like a little girl while he was bleeding out on route to the hospital."
The criminal flashed red in rage. "Well now, you're going to be fucking dead Garnett." He spat unimaginatively. "You'll be dead, and I'll be-"
"I didn't come alone idiot."
"What?"
"Neytiri, now!" Alex shouted to his invisible compatriot.
Of course there was no Neytiri. That would be silly. But just as Alex predicted, Harman was stupid enough to turn around to meet his (non-existent) attacker. By the time he realised that it was a ruse, Alex had already started to grapple for control of the gun.
One thing that Alex did give the criminal credit was that he was impressively strong. Alex's exo-suit didn't seem to be working right. They wound up struggling ten long seconds for the gun, before Alex finally managed to force Harman to the ground. He aimed the pistol at the angry face.
"Yep, you're definitely Harman." He sighed.
He fired. Harman's face seemed to explode as one would expect a head hit by an explosive magnum round. But the head didn't explode in gore. Instead, it just burst into black shadow. The rest of the body followed suit, dissolving away into shadow, leaving nothing behind.

Alex continued to stare at the patch of ground where Harman stood.
"Right." He said to himself. "He just dissolved into nothing." He shook his head. "Why does that not faze me?"
"Is there someone there?" a voice whispered.
Alex spun around. He looked back, hoping to find the road. Instead, there in front of him, was a dirt path cutting through the road. Alex couldn't see through the fog that it led through.
"Hello?" he called out. "I'm right here."
Alex started to hear whispering. He couldn't hear what it was.
"Hey!" he shouted. He started to jog down the path, revolver in hand. "Where are you?"
As he started to move down the path, the voices started to intensify. They didn't seem to be decipherable. But what was more interesting was that Alex could also hear sounds as well. They were a mixed bunch. Sometimes it was the sound of bird calls, animal chirps and footsteps. Other times it would be creaking wood, rushing water and thunder. It was always natural sounds.
Alex had been jogging down the path for what felt like a good ten minutes when he suddenly found himself jogging on pavement. That caused him to stop. He wasn't sure why on earth he was on pavement now, there were still trees flanking the path. He could still hear the whispering.
"Hey! Whoever you are…." He shouted, breaking into a run. "Just stay there! I just want to talk to you!"
The whispering was starting to intensify. Alex wasn't just hearing natural sounds now. He could now he the sounds of a city. There were car engines and trains, sirens and horns, machinery and music. The sounds of his old life. The old natural sounds seemed to fade away to the back. But the whispering continued.
Alex started to pass by buildings. The trees started to drop away. He felt small as the trees were replaced by buildings so big enough that he couldn't see them all through the fog. It reminded him an awful lot about home. The path started to widen, becoming a full-fledged street. The voices were audible now.

"…Dispatch, we're on route…"
"….police! On the ground, now!..."
"…news today reports…"
"…get your rebreathers, right here!..."
"….2-1 we are hearing reports of gunfire in…"
"….spare a dime sir?..."
"….do you know where I could find work?..."
"….don't know what to say sir, but your father is…."
"….can't find any of the papers…"
"…gonna be late…"

Familiar words and voices indeed.
Alex kept running onwards. He felt like he was going crazy. But weren't crazy people the ones who didn't think they were crazy? If that was the case, he was sane, but that would mean that he shouldn't be feeling crazy now should he? He certainly felt like he should be crazy, but then-
Stop it he grimaced. I'm making myself crazy thinking like this.
He ran a little further before finally encountering a dead end. In front of him was a concrete wall. You couldn't exactly argue with a brick wall. He stopped where he was and took a breather.
He took a look around. The place had seemed to get darker. The street he was on looked nothing like the path he had walked on to get here. There were steps leading up to buildings, but there were no doors. There was garbage on the streets and there were windows on the buildings, but all they led to was darkness. There was nobody in sight.
On top of that, the voices had stopped. There was only silence.
Alex blinked twice. He felt funny.
"2-1 this is dispatch." A voice crackled over his radio. "Do you copy 2-1?"
That's not right…
Alex thumbed his radio. Except he wasn't wearing his throat mike anymore. Then he noticed that he wasn't wearing his exo-suit, or his colonist fatigues. Instead, he was wearing a navy blue uniform, ballistic armor covering his chest, shoulders and shins and a few other bits and pieces. He couldn't see it, but there was also a big POLICE on the back of his vest as well.
"2-1, do you read?"
Alex finally found his radio attached to his shoulder. He keyed it. "2-1 here."
"2-1 we are reporting that some of the perps have escaped the scene and are currently at 106th Winchester Street."
Alex froze. That was his street address.
"Dispatch, can you tell me what they're doing?"
"They appear to be entering one of the residential apartments 2-1." Dispatch replied in its calm tone. "We're sending personnel other to deal with the situation. Continue to hold your position."
Alex started to run back down the street.
"2-1, I said hold your position."
Alex was close to sprinting. The street he was running in was starting to look increasingly familiar.
"2-1, do you copy?" Dispatch shouted. "I said hold your position."
A building appeared before Alex, coming right out of the fog. It didn't matter that this was where Alex came from, and therefore impossible, what did matter was that it was identical to his old apartment building.
"2-1!" Dispatch shouted. The voice was about to say something else, but it simply faded into static.
Alex crashed through the door.

As Alex passed by the elevators and started to race up the stairs, his mind started to argue with itself.
The perps will be trying to get Michelle. One side of his mind repeated zealously. You've got to-
Alex, get a grip on yourself! The other side of his mind snapped. This is just a fucking dream! It's not real! Stop thinking that it is!
Then why is this so fucking familiar? Alex, those perps work for the Cartels! They'll be here to kill her, to get to you!
Alex, just stop where you are and think for a minute. This is just your mind go back over a bad memory-
Correction! WORST memory! Alex you've got to-
"SHUT UP!" Alex finally hissed. He slipped up on the stairs, almost smashing his nose on the steps.
Alex breathed.

Alex raced up the stairs. He saw the door to his home ajar. Without a moment's hesitation he crashed through it.
"Shit!" a voice shouted. Alex turned and saw one of the perps rustling through the fridge. The thief dropped the milk in his hands and reached for the machine pistol he had left on the counter. As he laid his fingers on it, Alex shot him twice in the chest. The criminal was thrown back and slumped against the counter.
Alex had just turned around when he heard the gunshot in the bedroom.
He roared like a lion that had his cubs attacked. He kicked down the bedroom door with enough force to stop a car.
The criminal had managed to fire off three rounds at Alex. Alex in turn emptied half his clip into the criminal. The biggest difference between the two was that Alex was the one with the body armor. The criminal thug was thrown back into a bleeding mess.
That was when Alex turned, saw what was on the bed, and slumped against the wall.

Alex gritted his teeth as he got himself back to his feet.
Did they hear me? He wondered. He heard nothing. The building was impossibly quiet. Last time he was here, they would always be sounds coming from the adjoining apartments. The place was certainly still familiar. He could still smell the burning soldering from that hacker that lived on this floor.
He started to move up the stairs, but quietly this time. This time, he wasn't going to rush this.
He finally made his way up to his floor. From the stairwell, he could see the door to his apartment ajar.
This time, he didn't crash through it.
He got his gun. It wasn't the magnum that he had 'procured' off of Harman. Instead it was his old police issue semi-auto fireman. He wasn't sure how it turned into that, and he didn't wonder why. He flipped off the safety and started to creep towards the door.
He could hear somebody rustle through the fridge. He stayed where he was, silent, waiting for the criminal to move. Sure enough, he felt footsteps shuffling away from the fridge and towards the bedroom. He then heard a door opening and closing.
With maximum care, he gently pushed the door open. The apartment was a mess now. Various pieces of furniture had been ransacked, the contents scattered across the floor. For a second Alex was reminded of the mess Michelle made when she couldn't find her Mister Sulu elephant plushie. He started to hear voices in the bedroom. Alex crept forward and listened. He started to hear crying as well.
"…should've listened to his friends." One of the voices sneered. It didn't sound quite right. "You na'vi shits don't know when to just lie down and take it like fucking man."
Wait, what?
"Yeah…" another one sneered. "Ever since your daddy fucked that huntress bitch, he's been less and less human. Maybe I should stop thinking that he is one."
"Yeah, he's been working pretty hard to pretend that he's not." A third voice smirked.
Third voice?
"Please…" a child's voice sniffed. In Na'vi. "I just want to see my dad…"
That's not Michelle.
"Oh we're not taking you anywhere near him." One of the voices said. "If I remember correctly, he was the one who blew my head off at the mountains."
"And his fuck buddy put an arrow through my eye."
"Besides, your dad's a little busy right now. He's still trying to kill off his doubts while the barbarians at the gates butcher their way in. And of course, we can't actually get to him."
"But we can get to you."
"So you might as well start crying away all your tears now you little mongrel." Another voice said evilly. "'Cause right now, we might as well take all of our anger issues out on you."
Alex didn't have time to hear what was coming next.

Alex raised his foot and smashed the door in.
He had only precious seconds, but he did manage to detect a few things. One; instead of a bedroom, the door led to a blank, empty room. Second; Michelle wasn't the hostage. Instead, on the chair in the middle of the room, was a familiar na'vi girl. Third; the criminals were some sort of smoky, shadowy RDA mercenaries. And finally, one of them was in the middle of drinking from a bottle of milk when he was interrupted.
Alex ended his 'three seconds to think' rule and proceeded to shoot two of the shadow mercs. They both fell to the ground, dissolving away like Harman did. There wasn't much else to say about it. Alex managed to shoot them, they died, end of story. For them at least.
Alex saw the other one behind the child. He was crouched behind her, holding what looked like a Wasp revolver to her head. Alex stared at him. He looked more or less like any of the mercenaries who work for an RDA paycheck. This one however, had the upper left quarter of his head blown away. In its place, moving shadow filled it. It was as if shadow had become solid and had replaced the flesh that was lost. The left eye was gone as well. In its place, was a dull dot of blood red. This and his one good eye stared back out at Alex defiantly.
The child was terrified. She was dirty, caked in mud and looked as if someone had thrashed her something terrible. She had a shiner on one eye and she was covered in cuts and bruises.
She was also someone that Alex had met.
"I'll do it." The merc said. "I'll do it. I swear to god I'll do it man."
"Miri?" Alex asked.
"Yeah?"
"Shut your eyes." He said lifting the pistol.
One single gunshot echoed.

Miri opened her eyes. The mercenary wasn't there anymore.
Alex walked up to her. "Are you okay?" he said quietly.
The girl in front of Alex started to cry again. "I just want to see my dad again…." She whimpered. "Why can't I?"
Alex stood and stared at the child in front of him.
For a few brief moments, he thought he saw Michelle in front of him.
"Kid listen…." He said, voice breaking. "It's going to be okay."
He gave Miri a bear hug. She cried in her arms.
"It's all going to be okay." He said again. He fought back tears of his own.
That was when the wall exploded outward.

It wasn't as if the wall caved in or anything. It was as if the concrete wall fragmented like puzzle pieces. Then those pieces of concrete simply started to float off into the distance. There wasn't anything on the other side just empty space. The place was lit in orange, or more accurately, it looked like someone had painted the space dark orange. Neither Alex nor Miri could tell how far the space went.
As they stared out, the floor before them started to change. The pieces of concrete came back and started to reassemble themselves. Except this time, they assembled as more floor, stretching forward in front of them for what seemed like forever.
Alex tested the new 'bridge' with his foot. It seemed solid enough. It was hellishly uneven though, he certainly didn't want to run over it.
Before either Miri or Alex could start to walk on it, light shone from the other side of the bridge.
The light felt brighter than the sun. Both the human and the na'vi child had to shield their eyes. Alex couldn't see what it was.
Miri started to move towards the light, Alex more or less followed.
But as they started to get closer, the light started to shift colour. It became dull red, and started to get even brighter. Too bright. The light started to burn and Alex could still see sunspots whenever he closed his eyes.
They started to hear sounds coming from the other side. Screaming, roaring, rage, crying and hatred. Not good.
"Get back!" Alex shouted to Miri. "GO!"
They turned around and started to head back the way they came. They moved as fast as they could, trying not to trip up over the uneven concrete bridge over oblivion. The light started to chase them.
Before they knew it, they were back in the room where they had started. The door that Alex used to get in was nowhere to be found. Now there was nowhere to run.
"What do we do?" Miri cried. She was going through something children shouldn't need to go through. The screaming started to get closer.
That was when the other wall collapsed.
Unlike the last wall, the pieces started to reassemble immediately. The big difference was that while the other one led into empty space and light, this path led to impenetrable shadow and darkness. It was like a tunnel, not a bridge.
The shadow on the other side seemed to move in front of them. Alex could see figures in front of him. Some of them were as tall as a na'vi, others had to be human shaped. They were all cast in shadows, obscuring their faces and clothing, but Alex could pick up a detail here or there: a bit of tactical armor here, a na'vi ponytail there, a foot there, a bit of skin there. No colours, but he could just see details. The one thing that did stand out was the eyes. All of their eyes glowed with a multitude of colours, from orange, to green to blue to even red. And all of them echoed in whispering.
"This way!" an American woman's voice echoed… somehow. "But only one of you can come. We can only protect one of you right now."
"Wh-why?"
"No time! Just get the kid's ass in here!"
Alex turned to Miri. "Miri, did you hear that?"
"Yes…"
"Good, 'cause you're going down the path here."
"But it's too dark-"
"Doesn't matter! Darkness isn't a bad thing!" he shouted. He pushed Miri down the path. As she moved down, the bridge behind her collapsed, stranding Alex where he was.
"Just keep running!" he shouted. "Just hide in the shadow!"
Alex turned around just in time for the light to take him.

Alex's eyes started to open slowly. The fact that one of them had swollen meant that this wasn't easy.
He started to slowly regain his other senses. He could hear moving, rustling and branches being pushed away. It sounded like something was being dragged.
As he regained feeling in his own body, he realised that he was being carried by somebody. Most likely a na'vi, judging by the fact he was over the back of somebody's shoulder.
He spat out some blood and groaned. He was hoping that the people who were carrying him were here to help.
"I think the tawtute is still alive." A voice in na'vi said.
"They're tougher than they look." Another one replied. "It doesn't matter; he can die with the rest of the invaders and traitors."
Not here to help then.
Alex wasn't in any state to argue. He was sore all over; the thrashing he got must have cracked a rib or two, he still felt as if he had a concussion, he could barely see straight and his gun was gone.
What the hell happened?
He felt funny. He managed to slowly touch his own face.
When he took his hand back, it was covered in blood. No prizes for guessing whose it was.
Alex turned himself towards the sounds of rustling to see what was being dragged. He saw Neytiri's bloody and battered body being dragged across the ground.
"Oh no…"
He started to squirm a little to get a better view. A fist clocked into the back of his head. His world blurred and fragmented. He started to see the world in blurs again. He was acutely aware of the lack of headgear.
"Stop squirming tawtute." A hunter spat. "Maybe you'll get to live a little longer than the rest."
"Wha-…What are you doing?" he breathed.
"You'll see."

They continued on for what felt like a good hour to Alex. Of course, when bad and horrible stuff was happening to oneself, time tends to go by pretty slowly.
Alex meanwhile had basically resigned himself to whatever fate they had in store for him. Instead of looking back on his life however, he wasted the minutes he had musing on what horrors they were going to inflict upon him. The best case scenarios usually involved instant death. He wasn't feeling like this was going to end well.
He had begun to start thinking about his place in the universe, when he started to hear more voices. He couldn't see very far in his state, but he was aware of lots of na'vi, around them, a big clearing with a fire in the middle, and trees all around them. He couldn't make anything else out, his vision was too blurry.
He felt himself get hefted off the na'vi back. He was thrusted against a tree and bound against it, ropes holding his hands above his head. He was too weak to struggle. The voices started to get louder, more clear than before.
He turned to the tree next to his. When he finally managed to focus his eyes, the first thing he saw on the tree was an Omaticaya warrior pinned to the trunk by several arrows in his chest. Judging by the blood and his still horrified, bloody face, he had been in a lot of pain when he died.
"Oh Jesus…" he whispered.
The scene in front of him reminded him of an occult sacrifice ritual. There wasn't a lot in the way of occult imagery, but it certainly made up for it with the blood sacrifice. In the middle of the clearing, a bonfire had been started, illuminating the clearing and casting wicked shadows everywhere. There was Khalistheya na'vi all over the place. Some of them drinking and eating, laughing hysterically while they did so. Others were keeping the fire lit with logs and other firewood, and yet others were in the process of giving the other prisoners the odd punch or kick. Almost all of them had these demented smiles that scared the living shit out of Alex. Their laughter and general psychotic happiness didn't help either.
And then there were the other prisoners. They were a motley collection of na'vi, militia and colonist alike. Most of them were tied up against trees, or just bound up and sitting on the forest floor. Most of them at least looked conscious. They were all beaten, scarred, missing most of their gear and judging by the expressions on their faces, they were more or less nervous and terrified of what was happening.
And finally, there was (for lack of better label) the Altar. It was more or less just a log that had been put there near the fire, in full view of everyone. The chief defining feature that it had was the bloodstains.

"I think that will be enough for now." A madman shouted when he saw Alex. "Let's do this people!"
There was cheering as the Khalistheya got up again.
"Do you know why we are here?" he shouted to the prisoners in what was almost a pep-talk style of voice. A few of the ones who understood na'vi nervously shook their heads.
"Oh!" the speaker shouted. "We-ell, we'll just have to sort that misunderstanding out then huh? It's pretty simple why this happening you know." He continued. "Ever since you lot had showed up on our land, you've done nothing but pillage our world and burn our land down!"
"But-" one human stammered.
"No!" the speaker snapped. He gave the human a good one across the head. "That's what you ALWAYS DO! You've never come here to help us! And you have never offered us something that we didn't have before!"
"But what about us?" a na'vi cried out. "We're not human, we're na'vi-"
"NO YOU'RE NOT!" the speaker screamed. "You're not Na'vi! Real na'vi would fight the enemy as soon as they came, not try to make friends with the ones who will try to destroy us! Whatever na'vi-ness you had, you threw it away when you sided with them!"
"We didn't side with them!" the protestor cried out. "We just-"
"You didn't side with them, but you certainly didn't side AGAINST THEM!" the speaker screamed. "You are either with us, or you are against us! But we should've expected that now huh?" the speakers face turned from rage to sneering. "You have a human sleep-walker as your chieftain after all huh?"
The protestor didn't know what to say. The speaker didn't give him a chance to think up a counter.
"Well, it ends now!" the speaker shouted. "Our people are already testing the defences of the human's fortress AND the Omaticaya! And our hunters are already making sure that none of the other tribes interfere while we BURN YOUR PEOPLE TO THE GROUND!"
He grabbed the nearest human: the only human mercenary amongst the prisoners. "Starting with you."

The mercenary started to panic. He started to struggle, terrified. "No! Jesus Christ NO!" The surrounding Khalistheya started to cheer. Two other na'vi more less started to carry him up, the human screaming in horror as he tried to break free. He was carried straight to the altar.
"PLEASE!" he screamed. Alex could make out tears of panic in his eyes. "Don't kill me! Sweet Jesus don't kill me!"
The na'vi slammed his body down on the log and let go.
He started to get up, just in time to have a stone axe slam into the back of his head with a sickening Thwack. He went limp.
The crowd started to roar with approval. The rest of the prisoners, human and na'vi alike, cried out in horror. The body was pushed off the altar by the executioner.
"Next!" the executioner shouted.
The madmen grabbed a prisoner from out of the corner of Alex's eyes. He was different from the other na'vi that the Khalistheya were holding prisoner. Unlike the others, he wore the tattered, patched remnants of oversized Avatar program gear.
Alex had never really met him before, but he knew his face. He was Max Patel, one of the original Avatar scientists. Except this time, he was being more or less dragged over to the altar. He looked like he was suffering from the effects of a concussion.
A human voice shouted out from behind Alex. "Max! Max wake up! C'mon Max, wake up! MAX!" Alex recognised Norman's voice.
The dazed avatar didn't seem to be listening. They chucked him on the altar.
Thwack.
"MAX!" Norman screamed. The body was more or less pushed right off the log.
"Next!"
The Khalistheya grabbed an Omaticaya na'vi this time.
"WAIT! WAIT!" he cried out as they more or less forced him onto the log. "I'm one of you! I'm-
Thwack. The prisoners recoiled back.
"Next!"
The na'vi grabbed a militiaman this time. Alex recognised Mac.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" Mac roared, as they dragged him over. With his exo-suit, it was necessary for four of them to carry him over, the human kicking and screaming all the way. "YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME? YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ALL OF US! I'LL RIP OUT YOUR FUCKING PONYTAILS AND STRANGLE YOU WITH THEM! I'LL-"
Thwack.
"Next!"
The na'vi started to cut Alex loose.

As they dragged him over to the altar, Alex didn't really resist. He was beaten down tired, and he didn't really think that there was going to be a heroic last minute rescue. No, chances were, he was about to die just like the others.
He didn't really pay attention to the noise around himself. The cheering and sneering from the Khalistheya, the cries of horror from the other prisoners and the beating of the drums; everything started to blur into each other.
As they threw him on the block, time really seemed to slow down. It must have been the adrenaline or something but he felt as if he had all the time in the world. He started to think back about the life he had. He thought of all the things he had done, all of the people he had met, liked, hated, befriended, arrested, killed and loved.
He also thought about all of his regrets.
He had been able to turn and look at his executioner. He was about the same as the rest of the Khalistheya, except he had more blood on him. He also had the same hideous grin. He raised his axe.
I'm sorry Michelle.
And then the executioners head exploded.

Exploding wasn't really the right word for what happened. Rather, it was like an upper quarter of his head spurted out.
Just like a sniper's headshot.
When the corpse fell, all hell broke loose. Gunfire echoed through the clearing, arrows whistled through the air. The Khalistheya howled in rage and charged at the unseen attackers. Alex barely saw what had actually happened during the fight. Whenever he remembered it, he could only remember bits and pieces. He saw arrows and gunfire alike slamming into the Khalistheya alike. He could hear shouting from the madmen, attackers and the prisoners alike. He saw the prisoners squirming where they were, cowering in the hope that they didn't catch an arrow or a bullet in the head, and Khalistheya were dropping like flies. The gunfire deafened his ears. And then something smacked into the back of his head.

"Alex? Shit man, are you okay?" a human voice cut through Alex's mind.
Alex started to get up slowly. "Fine…. I'm okay, I think…" he mumbled. He was steadied by the hands of Noh, who was just fresh from the battle.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Noh questioned.
Alex squinted. "Three?"
"Two. I think you've got a concussion." Noh hooked his arm around Alex's back. "C'mon. Let me get you to the doc."
Alex looked around as he limped with Noh. Most of the Khalistheya were bleeding on the ground and dead. Aside from the way they had been taken down, there wasn't a lot that could be said about it. All around, their rescuers were securing the area, checking the enemy for tricks and helping the prisoners. To Alex's pleasant relief, his rescuers were his own militia and the Omaticaya. They were helping the prisoners get their bearings and comforting them.
"We're sorry we couldn't get here sooner." Noh said, casting a look at some of the executed. "Shame about Mac."
"I'm sure you did all you could Noh." Alex coughed as he started to slump against a tree. A medic started to look at his wounds. "Thanks for coming after us."
"You should thank that na'vi girl… Shee'kana I think her name was. She's the one who knew where to look." He went and helped out the other militia.
As the medic put bandages around his head, Alex watched the men and women, human and na'vi working together to get their wounded to safety. He briefly wondered if this attack had been a good thing. It certainly brought people together. He banished the thought away though. It was macabre to think like that.
"You're a lucky man Alex." Neytiri's voice cut to Alex. He turned to see Neytiri limping over with both human cloth bandages and na'vi leaf wraps over her wounds. "I thought that bastard nearly killed you."
"Yeah… Lucky me I guess…"
"Does stuff like this happen all the time where you come from?"
Alex shrugged. "What can I say? Weird shit happens to me all the time around here." He winced as the medic applied iodine.
"Neytiri!" a voice shouted out.
Alex and Neytiri turned to see Jake run over. He was in a state of shock over the sight of Neytiri.
"What the hell are you doing here!"

"What the fuck do you mean you don't know!" Jake yelled. "WHERE IS SHE?"
"I don't know Jake!" Norman cried out. He was still traumatised from the execution of his friend. "They took her away from us. When that-"
"Where is she!" Jake repeated. "How could you let her go!"
"We couldn't do squat Jake!" Norm croaked. "They took her away from us when they pounced. I don't know where she is."
"Jake, listen to me." Alex interrupted. "She's gone right now, but she's not dead."
The rest of the humans and na'vi alike glared at him.
"How the fuck would YOU know anything!" Jake snapped. He was hyperventilating, and close to lashing out at someone. Everyone expected no less than that.
"Jake I know she's still alive." Alex said quickly. "Just think for a minute okay? Why would they take her away, separate from her mother and co. when they could have just done her in right then? If they took her away, and sent Neytiri, Norm and Max to their deaths, then that could only mean that she's still a prisoner right now!" he finished with a slightly maniacal note of exuberance. "She's still alive."
Jake, Neytiri and Norm were silent for a minute while they processed this new information. Alex was quietly pleased with himself for coming up with a new reason why he knew Miri wasn't dead. It certainly was easier this way than explaining the real reason.
"We need to find her." Jake said finally. He managed to get himself under control again. He turned to a brave nearby. "Get everyone together Mu'kala, we're going into the swamps-"
"No dice Jake." A voice said from behind.
Alex and Jake turned to see Noh standing, arms crossed. "We can't help you out to find her."
Neytiri and Jake alike flashed him a murderous look. "Are you saying you won't help to find a child?" Jake spat. "Fine! I don't need your help to-"
"You DO need my help." Noh interrupted. "You've got wounded, I've got wounded, we're scared in the dark and cut off from our people. There's not a chance in hell you and your warriors here will be able to get out of here alive alone, much less find Miri."
"So are you saying I should just leave my daughter in the hands of them!" Neytiri motioned angrily at a Khalistheya corpse.
"No." Noh narrowed his eyes. "What I'm saying is that I can't sacrifice the safety of all of the people here for one child."
The resulting tension could be cut with a knife. If looks could kill, the ones that Jake and Noh shared with each other would probably have been able to pop open battle tanks.
Alex was pretty sure he would have to pick up bits of Noh's and Jake's corpse off the ground when Norm suddenly spoke out two words.
"The Hometree."
The others turned at him. "What about it?" Mu'kala asked.
"Those…. The Khalistheya… while they were going to kill us, one of them said that they were already in the process of testing the defences of the Hometree or something like that right now." He whispered. "That… that means…."
"Oh Eywa, they could already be under attack right now!" Neytiri cried out.

Noh clambered his way onto the canoe. He almost slipped up when he got in, but he managed to prevent himself from breaking his nose.
He looked to the others. The na'vi, militia, mercenaries and colonists had managed to clamber out of the shallow water and pile themselves into the canoes that the na'vi had used to get to the mines in the first place. Although the fact that the canoes were thought of as not having enough space for all of the survivors, the na'vi casualties had freed up some new space. Now the wounded, tended by medics, and the rest of the rather motely gang of human and na'vi alike, were resting in the boats.
"Is that everyone?" Mu'kala shouted out.
"Everyone still alive." Another brave yelled back.
"Right… let's go home."
The na'vi started to paddle up the river. The large paddles that splashed into the water were not that loud, but in the silence of the forest they might as well have been replaced with motors. The humans had managed to rig up the lights they had with them to act as spotlights, which they used to help the paddlers find their way and to keep watch. Dawn would be coming up any time now, so hopefully they wouldn't be necessary for much longer.
Noh watched the other humans. The militia were checking their equipment, keeping watch on the forest and doing their best to engage in small talk. They didn't sound like idiot rookies though. They were tired, beaten down and he could see the black rims under their eyes. They didn't quite look like grizzled combat veterans, but they didn't have far in terms of notches to climb. They whispered whenever they talked, not wanting to break the silence. Nobody spoke loudly.
Noh stretched, and then he stopped when he saw it.
It was a woodsprite. One single, solitary woodsprite. Usually they were in groups of three or four, but this was one was all alone. It drifted high above in the canopy, out of reach of everyone. It was quite possibly the only thing glowing in the entire forest.
It didn't look very healthy either. It seemed to drift lazily, moving only when it had to. And its glow was far duller than it could have been.
Noh took a breath. He wasn't sure that the forest was going to recover in the morning this time.

Alex rubbed his head for the seventh time.
"Are you okay boss?" Dwight asked.
Alex turned and looked at him, doing his best not to stare.
It was as if Dwight was encapsulated in a halo. A thin, green, transparent… mist circled the man. It took what Alex figured was an ordered state. It looked as if it was jittery, nervous, but it still holding itself together. It felt like it matched Dwight's current state of mind. Then the mist vanished in then blink of an eye.
"Uh… yeah I'm okay." Alex nodded.
"You sure?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking."
It seemed to satisfy Dwight. He went back to getting the grime off his LMG.
When he was satisfied that Dwight wasn't paying attention, Alex frowned. He figured that the reason why the mist went away was because he was thinking too much about. He started to do his best to not think about the mist. Didn't work. He started to wonder if it was just part of the concussion.
He started to relax. His mind started to drift into the wellbeing of the people around him. He looked back at the others.
The halos were back.
It seemed as if every human had a small swirling of coloured mist around their heads. Some of them were cool, calmed colours; others were shrouded in jittery, nervous colours. It was as if he was seeing the workings of his people's minds. He could see that everyone was nervous, scared, but mostly holding it together.
Except for one guy. He was one the same boat as Alex, leaning against the hull and holding himself. He had the most nervous, frightened face on him, as if he was completely convinced that something was going to come out of the water and eat his face off. The halo around him, or aura or whatever it was called, was cold, jittering wildly. Like a fire burning its way out. Alex recognised him.
He shuffled over to the mechanic. "Are you okay?"
Gage turned at him quickly, but then corrected himself just as fast. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Oh yeah, oh yeah. I'm good."
Alex knew he was being lied to.
"Look, it's going to be alright Gage. Okay?"
"Yeah, I know, I know…"
"No I mean it." Alex said firmly yet reassuringly. "It's going to be okay."
"Heh, assuming we make it out of this place alive…" Gage chuckled unhappily.
"And that's what's going to happen."
Gage looked at Alex in a different way. "You seem to be pretty confident."
"No… but we're going to get home, and I'm going to get everyone home through hell and high water if I need to. Do you know why?"
Gage looked at him for the answer.
"Because it's my job."
Gage's aura started to change. It's jitteriness didn't go away, but it seemed to relax considerably.
"Well…" Gage relaxed. "If you say so."

Alex watched the others as the canoes slid down the river. They had managed to get out of the swamps and were making their way into more familiar territory. Dawn would be coming up any moment now. The silence was punctuated by the odd voices from the people.
"Hey! Keep your hands out of the water." a na'vi ordered a human from another boat. "You want to lose one of them?"
Alex decided to doze for a while. He really needed to with the concussion he had.
"Wake me if you need me." He told Dwight.
"Will do boss."
As Alex finally took a nap, Dwight finally got his gun cleaned. It wasn't as if someone told him that he should always have a clean gun as part of training, it was more or so out of professional pride.
"Hey Dwight." Jade called quietly from the next boat. "You think Hells Gate will be okay?"
"Better be. The crazies said they were just testing the water right now, so I think they should be okay for now. Don't worry."
"Yeah… I just hope everyone's okay."

"Echo 5 keep the tangoes suppressed, I need Charlie to secure the north wall."
"Affirmative Control."
"Alpha, do you see anything in your sector?"
"Negative, I think they've fallen back."
Joseph rubbed his face again. He hadn't had any sleep for the entire night. Now with daybreak coming, he wasn't sure if he could have the day off.
The attacks had started at midnight, after the lights went out. The attempts at clambering the walls were at first repelled by the auto-turrets, but soon enough; actual bodies in uniform were needed in order to repel the attack, especially after the first turret was smashed. Things started to grow tense, culminating in the attackers successfully breaching the wall, with what looked to be a tame hammerhead. Thankfully, the wall just led into the Murder Yard training grounds, so it wasn't really a matter of life or death yet. The militia and the mercenaries just dug in and more or less spent the night defending against the odd wave that tried to stream in. What really scared everyone though was just how ferocious the attackers were. They seemed to be able to keep rushing at the humans no matter the wounds, sometimes with whole limbs blown off. One guy even claimed that one of them kept charging even after it had suffered a head shot. The mercenaries said that they'd never seen anything like it. Most came to the conclusion that whatever the crazies were on must be pretty potent stuff.
Thankfully, the attacks started to ease off as dawn approached. Aside from the wave that was currently falling back, resorting to just using arrows to fight, the danger had somewhat faded. General Carson ordered most of his own mercenaries back, leaving most of the militia to guard the gap. Joseph secretly thought that Carson wanted to keep his own ass secure.
He stretched in his chair. He could have really used some coffee right now, but he wasn't allowed to leave his position in Command. The main hub of command and control hadn't really changed since the RDA ran the place about seven years back now. The holo-table had been replaced, the computers were upgraded and Selfridge himself said that the place hadn't changed a bit. As one of the people who manned the various consoles though, Joseph wished they'd get around to replacing the seats in the place. His butt ached something awful.
I wonder where is Director Pompous? He mused to himself. He was usually in his office, but after being on a private link to General Carson for what seemed like a good hour, he announced that he had been called to the Armour Vault to check on the arsenal. He seemed strangely nervous for some reason though. Joseph noticed that he had taken a bag containing a laptop, some hard drives and a few other momento's with him.
Does he think he's about to leave? Joseph griped. The Magellan doesn't come for a week or two.
He remained at his station monitoring the situation. The attack seemed to drying up slowly. The phone rang.
"This is General Carson." The imperious voice echoed on the speakers. "Tell the militia to continue holding their positions. I'm taking my men to investigate one of the other sectors."
"Sir, I see no evidence of any activity-"
"That was an order." Carson interrupted. "I expect it to be followed."
Joseph sighed, and relayed the orders to the militia. He really hated it whenever Carson ordered someone like that. It wasn't just the order itself; it was the way he did it, as if he thought you were always going to belay yourself. It pissed him off at times.
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of boots tramping into the Command Centre. Normally, this would be normal, people wore boots all the time on Pandora, but this was a lot of them in one place.
He turned around to see a whole mercenary fire team assembled around the room. They were in full battle dress uniform and packing full weaponry. This surprised Joseph, and some of the other desk monkeys like him, because usually such kit wasn't seen in the room. What scared him more however, was the fact that they were wearing their exo-masks. These weren't the clear plate masks that were used last time they were on Pandora, with the main filters slung on a small pack, but the self contained gasmask version. These ones had the filters located right at the mouth, along with the plastic visor, just like the old fashioned gasmasks. They made the wearers look like stormtroopers. Not the funny Star Wars kind, but the scary faceless death squad kind.
"All RDA personnel, report to Point Charlie for extraction." The squad leader announced. "It's time for us to leave gentleman."
The RDA desk monkeys got out of their desks and started to strap on their own masks. Then they started to leave the room and the somewhat bewildered remaining colonists, seemingly taking care not to make eye contact with anyone.
"Wait, what about us?" Joseph asked, somewhat puzzled nervously.
The mercenaries raised their weapons.
"What?" Joseph stammered, his eyes rounding into disks of horror, a look shared by his compatriots. "Oh God, NO!-"

The gunfire absolutely tore through the room, shredding both eardrums and their intended targets. Joseph and the rest of the colonists in the line of fire wore torn open by the bullets, causing them to be thrown back a foot or so. The victims were practically riddled in blood and the consoles behind them sparked and in a few cases, burned. Their screams were drowned out.
As the victims laid dead, the squad leader keyed his radio.
"Sir, Command Centre has been pacified."
"Acknowledged Stalker." Carson radioed back. "Make your way to Charlie for extraction to Citadel Base. Eliminate anyone you encounter along the way."
"And the rest of the colony?"
"Don't worry. The other squads are working on it." Carson replied clinically. "We're rolling it all back."