ꎇ꒒ꌩꀤꈤꁅ ꅏꀤ꓄ꃅ ꓄ꃅꍟ ꂦꂵꍏ꓄ꀤꀘꍏꌩꍏ (ꍏꃴꍏ꓄ꍏꋪ ꊼ ꂦꉓꌗ)

\\ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟟//

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In the utility corridor under the base, Jake pumps the chair furiously, as the others jog. They reach an airlock and start donning exopacks.

"Get your ship fired up," Jake says to Trudy.

Trudy nods. She grabs Norm and enters the airlock. Jake turns to Max.

"Stay here. I need somebody on the inside I can trust."

Max nods. Jake grips his hand tightly.

Sitting in her Samson, Norm is helping Trudy race through the preflight checks as the turbines spool up. A light hits them. An armored trooper approaches, aiming his AR at them. TRO

"I need you to shut down and step out of the vehicle! Now!"

Nate jogs up behind him, grabbing his head and snapping his neck. Jake nods at Nate and Nate nods back.

Norm jumps down and grabs the trooper's rifle and side-arm, covering him, while Grace helps Jake from his chair to the back bay of the chopper. She throws his chair in and jumps in herself.

"Let's go!" Jake calls and the Samson begins to lift off the ground. Nate runs up and grabs the step bar, pulling himself up into the chopper.

Quaritch, who was standing watching a monitor, saw what was happening down at the airfield. He slams his palm down on an alarm button and draws his pistol. Strides toward the emergency door, undogs it, and takes a deep breath. Stepping into the airfield, Quaritch yanks the hatch open and strides onto the outer landing. Inside people scramble for masks. The Samson lifts off in a blast of rotor wash just as Quaritch opens fire, rounds raking the ship. Trudy banks hard, using the bottom to shield them. Bullets whack into the ship as she climbs out over the tree line. Jake's fist pumps the air exultantly.

"Oh yeah, baby!" Jake exclaimed gleefully.

"That's how it's done!" Nate cheered.

"Aaahh, crap. Not again." Jake looks over at Grace and freezes.

She is looking down at a bloody hand. She clutches her abdomen, covering the spreading stain. Looks at Jake, wide-eyed.

"This is gonna ruin my whole day." Grace jokes.

"Grace is hit!" Nate calls stepping toward her.

"Hang on, Grace." Jake spoke, his eyes filled with worry.

"Can't you help her?" Jake turned his eyes to Nate.

"No I~ I'm not a human doctor I've only studied the Na'vi anatomy," Nate answered as he held his hand firmly over Grace's wound.

"Aren't they the same!?" Jake exclaimed.

Nate looked at Jake for a second before frowning.

"I'm going to slap you..." Nate replied, looking down at Grace's side.

Trudy was able to get her three friends back to their shack in the mountains. Norm stood in his Avatar on the roof with an AR slung over his shoulder. He gives a thumbs-up signal, and the lift cable goes taut, the shack lifts off the ground and Trudy's Samson beats the grass of the mountain meadow, straining to lift the module on a long-line sling. The shack sways as Trudy banks across forested slopes and heads deeper into the Hallelujah Mountains.

Outside the windows, clouds and cliffs pass by, lit by Polyphemus. Nate is yanking stuff out of the Samson's trauma bag, while Grace lies curled across two back seats, hugging her blood-soaked abdomen. She is pale and shaky. Trudy is flying on visual only, by the light of Polyphemus. Her instruments are showing gibberish.

"Well, at least they won't be able to track us up here. Not this deep in the vortex." Trudy comments.

"It's strongest at the Well of Souls, right?" Jake asks.

"Yeah," Trudy responds.

"Good... 'cause that's where we're going." Jake finishes.

"Copy."

Jake hands Nate an ampule of morphine for the pain and Nate injects it into Grace's arm.

"We're gonna get you some help, Grace," Nate whispers.

"Forget it, it doesn't matter." Grace sighed.

"No! The People can help you. I know it." Jake wheels up, s determined look on his face.

Dawn light paints the massive arches of magnetic rock above the Well of Souls. Tiny as an insect, the Samson passes. The Well of Souls is a deep caldera 100 meters across. It is ringed with enormous Willows whose roots seem to pour down the sheer rock walls like candle wax.

'The Well of Souls. The heart of the forest. I knew the People would go there.' Nate thinks to himself as he stares out the shack window.

At the bottom, in a natural amphitheater, the Omaticaya refugees are clustered around a central rock outcropping which forms a kind of dais and altar. Shafts of dawn light reach the bottom of the grotto, lighting a single willow, the Mother Tree. Ancient and gnarled, it grows in the center of the rock. Its roots spread down to the grotto floor, where they merge with the roots of the willows ringing the Well, forming a braided mat resembling the surface of a brain.

Now mid-morning, Trudy lowers the shack from the sky like a gift from the gods. It bumps to the ground. Nate sits in a chair beside Grace's link where Grace lies, comatose. Trudy gives Jake a look that says, "not much time." Jake feels Grace's cold forehead, then crosses to his own link. As Trudy helps him in, Norm rapidly preps the system.

"Tsu'tey is Olo'eyctan now... He's not going to let you get near that place." Norm speaks.

"We've gotta try, Norm."

Jake pulls the clamshell down. Nate bites his lip before standing, getting into his own link. Blinding light encases his sealed vision before his bright amber eyes open, his throat burnt as he breathed in the ruins of Hometree. He sits up. The forest is silent, shrouded in smoke that the sun can't penetrate. The animals have fled. Ash blows in the wind.

'Outcast. Betrayer. Alien. To ever face them again, I was gonna have to change the rules.'

Nate reaches the top of a rise. The forest beyond is utterly devastated. The trees burned and fell. Small fires still flicker across a landscape in Hell. Nate stares. It is his vision, made real. He stumbles through the dark wasteland, sparks and ash swirling around him. A screech sounds and Nate turns his eyes to the sky as his Ikran dives toward him. His Banshee, bonded for life, flaps down to a landing in front of him. He steps to it and strokes its head. It nudges his chest like a horse.

'Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move.'

"Come on, boy. Time to fly." Nate smirked, joining their queues as he mounted him.

"Ya!" Nate calls and his Ikran screeches, flapping its strong wings and taking off.

By now the midday sun shone strongly on the flying duo as Nate surveyed the sky. He and Jake had agreed that the only real way they'd be allowed back into the clan was to become a great warrior, someone the Omatikaya worshiped. So, here he was, searching for the Darkhorse that had attacked him and Ke'Kaya. Soaring through the clouds, Nate's ears catch a loud screech, and his Ikran instantly turns in that direction.