This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.

Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. As the story keeps getting bigger, it is possible that inconsistencies may appear. If they do, let me know and I will correct them.

Chapter 23: Shadow, part II

That night, John had gone to sleep, but it wasn't nearly as calm and restful as he had hoped. He had a seemingly endless chain of dreams and nightmares. A part of the content was based on his past experiences, but a lot of it didn't make any sense whatsoever. First, he dreamt that he had left Pandora and that he had gone back to the Saturnian moon Titan to hide there from MT-NET. Then, he was suddenly back on Earth, standing in front of the shop he had once owned. A lot of people were visible in the street. Instead of minding their own business as they normally would, they were all walking like zombies into the same direction, towards a large open square in the middle of the city. He felt the urge to follow them. In the square there was a large stage with a man giving a speech. The man was frighteningly tall and had a monstrous face with a white walrus-like mustache. John had never seen him before in his life. The man was growling in an unintelligible language, but the rest of the people seemed to somehow understand him. They appeared to like what he had to say to them, as they cheered at every growl that came out of his mouth. Then, suddenly, a grey cloud started forming over the square and kept growing at an alarming rate. It soon engulfed all the people and began emitting a loud noise, much like the sirens of MT-NET's tanks. Once again, the surroundings warped, and John was back on Pandora. Everything seemed to be alright, until a beam of blinding white light appeared out of the sky and struck the surface…

When he could see that image in front of him, he awoke and opened his eyes. The image slowly disappeared and was replaced by a view of the interior of his outpost. He sat up straight in his bed and sighed a few times, before saying to himself that these had only been nightmares full of nonsense. He was going to do the mission today and succeed. There weren't going to be any problems. The machines would be defeated on Shadow and Joseph, Ney'ite and he would safely return to Pandora. Then, it would only be a matter of time before the Na'vi clans would unite to defeat the rest of the machines. John now looked at his alarm clock. Several hours still remained for him to sleep, and in order to rest some more, he wanted to take advantage of that.

Right now, he felt the urge to be physically close to Ney'ite, a feeling which he had never had before. But, he knew that he needed all the rest he could get and thus he could not link up to his Avatar right now. That was why he imagined himself in his Avatar body, lying close to her and putting his arms protectively around her. This image was a source of calmness to him. Only when he woke up a few hours later, while being quite well rested, did he realize he was beginning to view Ney'ite as more than just a friend or ally. However, he decided to put aside his feelings for now and concentrate on what needed to be done today.

A few hours later, after having linked up to his Avatar, John had joined the rest of the team for the mission. Four individuals were now moving through the jungle towards one of MT-NET's bases. John and Ney'ite were fully suited up, except for their helmets, which they carried on their backs, on top of their air tanks. The helmets would only be necessary once they would actually be in a different atmosphere. John and Ney'ite each carried an extra air tank on their hips and they both held a heavy Na'vi club in their hands. Joseph was armed with a standard RDA assault rifle. Benjamin carried an RDA shotgun and had a fire axe strapped to his back.

Joseph, who was walking up front, suddenly halted. He made a gesture towards Benjamin, and the machine immediately responded to it by running towards the right side into the jungle. Whispering, John asked Joseph what was going on. Joseph silently pointed forward. If one looked carefully, a metal fence could be seen between the trunks of the trees. John nodded to him, understanding that Joseph had just sent Benjamin to create the diversion. About a minute later, the three of them could hear several loud bangs coming from somewhere in the jungle. The bangs were followed by a loud roar, causing Ney'ite to instantly remark that it was a Palulukan. John looked at her in disbelief and repeated the English name of the creature: Thanator. A few seconds later, they could see Benjamin running towards the fence, while a provoked Thanator was trying to catch him. Several more bangs could now be heard. Joseph suddenly gave the signal for them to move now. John didn't like it, since they were now moving towards the creature, but he followed nonetheless. When they were about 15 meters away, they could see that Benjamin was gone and that he had probably gone through the weak spot in the fence. The Thanator was busy ripping a larger hole in the fence, in an attempt to pass through it. It succeeded only seconds later.

By that time, countless of shots had already been fired by the guarding machines at the base. They didn't seem to have an effect on the Thanator, however. The Thanator wrestled its way inside and attacked the nearest guard. Joseph, Ney'ite and John now climbed through the hole in the fence, while keeping low to the ground. Joseph pointed into the direction of the shuttle. The three of them used several stacks of boxes and crates as cover, while they moved closer to it. Moments later, John could see that the cargo door of the shuttle was still open. Now, Joseph was the first to enter it, followed by Ney'ite and finally John. They quickly discovered that they weren't alone. A humanoid machine, about the same size as Joseph, was also there. Before it could open fire, Joseph disarmed it and started wrestling it, as he didn't want to risk firing a gun inside the shuttle. Once Ney'ite intervened, they managed to throw it out of the shuttle. Joseph promptly started firing his assault rifle at the machine. It took at least forty bullets to take it down permanently.

Then, all of a sudden, the engines began making a loud noise and the shuttle started moving. It was already taking off. The door started to close automatically, but Joseph managed to find the controls and stop it, since Benjamin still needed to get on board. Looking up ahead, they could see several machines still fighting the Thanator, which looked like it was about to fall down. Ney'ite whispered some words in Na'vi, thanking the creature for its help and its sacrifice. Joseph now pointed forward, and John could see that Benjamin had reappeared and was running towards the shuttle. He was getting closer, but the shuttle was already gaining speed. Just when John thought that he would grab the lowered door, the shuttle started ascending. The shuttle was now out of his reach. Benjamin slowed his pace and kept staring at them as the shuttle moved farther away. The rest of the machines now focused their attention on him. That was the last John could see, before Joseph closed the door manually and stated that Benjamin was going to be just fine. John didn't know whether Joseph was being sarcastic or if he truly believed Benjamin would make it.

Once the door was closed and manually locked, they started strapping themselves securely into several seats in the cargo hold. While John was busy helping Ney'ite, he remarked to Joseph that this would be the first and last time he would be leaving this world. When the mission was over, he was planning to live out the rest of his life here, so Joseph should take his mind off possible future missions. Ney'ite curiously looked at John. Joseph reassured him that when this mission was completed, future missions would not be required. In fact, they wouldn't even be possible, as this shuttle would be on the bottom of one of Pandora's oceans.

When John had finally strapped himself in, the shuttle had begun gaining quite a speed. It also seemed to be climbing at a very steep angle. Both John and Ney'ite could feel the g-forces on their bodies. Joseph's instruments also registered them. After almost ten minutes, the g-forces and the noise of the engines began to diminish. Ney'ite let out a short yell and exclaimed that they were falling. In an attempt to reassure her, John told her that it only felt like falling and that they were now in space, where there wasn't any gravity. She calmed down for a bit, but he could see that she didn't feel very comfortable. The weightlessness felt a bit strange to him as well. It had been over ten years since he had last been it space. Also, this body had never even been in space before. Nevertheless, he could still remember how this used to be. There was no ground and no ceiling; no up and no down. Joseph now unbuckled himself and started floating free. He seemed to know how to move around, as he grabbed handles and other objects to pull himself into a certain direction. Then, he asked John to come with him to the cockpit of the shuttle to check on some things. John first asked Ney'ite if she was alright and if she wanted him to stay with her. Ney'ite claimed that she was fine, however.

John now unbuckled himself and followed Joseph. The door to the cockpit wasn't even locked. Once they had opened it, they could see that the two chairs behind the console were empty. John could now see the blackness of space and hundreds of stars though the windows and remarked that such a sight never got boring, no matter how many times a person had seen it before. Joseph did not respond to this statement, and simply told John that they had to find an access point to the flight computer in order to be able to disable it when they were back in the atmosphere of Pandora. While they were busy searching the cockpit, John asked if he knew what kind of shuttle this was, since it was different from the Valkyrie shuttlecraft that was normally used in orbit around Pandora. According to Joseph, it was once used as a freighter for ferrying cargo between the Earth and its moon. It had already been approaching the end of its intended operational lifespan, even before it had been sent to Pandora. Despite that, it could still function reliably, though it probably was going to fail sometime within a year from now, as MT-NET did not have the proper resources to maintain it.

When Joseph finally found what he was looking for, John went back to check on Ney'ite. As he got back into the cargo hold, he could immediately see that there was there was a substance floating around. He instantly knew what had happened; Ney'ite had thrown up. When he got to her, she apologized and told him that she didn't feel very good. John told her that it was alright and perfectly natural. Still though, she a bit embarrassed about it. But, according to John, she didn't need to feel that way. She had become the very first Na'vi astronaut as far as he knew. That was definitely something to be proud of.

About five hours later, after having rested for a bit, John moved towards the cockpit of the shuttle to join Joseph. A large sphere could now be clearly seen through the windows. The shuttle was headed directly towards it. The sphere appeared to have dark green oceans and had extensive grey cloud formations obscuring about half of the surface. Joseph now revealed that the estimated time of arrival was about one hour. As they kept moving closer towards it, the illuminated portion of Shadow kept getting smaller. It didn't take long before there was only an illuminated green sickle visible. John now went back to the cargo hold to prepare for the entry into the atmosphere.

After having secured both Ney'ite's helmet and his own, John strapped himself and her back into the seats. Joseph returned from the cockpit and joined them. Not long after, the g-forces started to increase again, as did the sound of the engines. This sound was nothing compared to the sound of the air friction caused by the reentry, however. Several creaking and crunching sounds could also be heard periodically. These were caused by the expanding hull of the shuttle because of the rising temperature outside. After an intense few minutes, all sounds and forces diminished until they were well within an acceptable level. Even before the shuttle had landed, the three of them detached themselves from the chairs and prepared for when the door would open. Finally, when a bump could be felt, which indicated that the shuttle had touched down, did Joseph remove the manual lock of the door. It promptly opened on its own. The air from outside immediately reacted with the air inside, creating a white smoke that filled the cargo hold. When the door was fully open, and when the smoke had cleared, they could see the surface of Shadow. It was stormy weather with heavy rain and strong winds. The sky was completely obscured by dark grey clouds. Almost no daylight managed to pass through it. To the left, there was black ocean full of rough waves. In the distance, lightning struck the surface every two or three seconds. Up ahead, there was some sort of building. Several lanterns which surrounded it were still emitting light. But there was no sign of a machine anywhere…