Avatar: {Hybrid and Alien]

{62}

When the brightness started to simmer down, Asim found himself in a different place.

Instead of the whole traumatic experience when his body experienced so much pain at a time, the new sensation was more soothing and calm. And, instead of the usual memory that involved his newly-revealed past or the nightmare dream, Asim found himself in a sort of familiar place. The entire surroundings was made up of walls belonging to a facility, the area comprised of holographic computers and driver pods all in a circle. Then it began to click inside his head; he recognized this place to be the science labs for the Avatar Program as he had been in this place once or twice. Which meant that right now he was back at Hell's Gate. Though, the base seemed to be empty with not one soul or personnel inside roaming around and no single sound that meant someone was here. Although...there was a sort of typing sound coming from another section of the Program laboratory.

Asim decided to investigate, relieved when he realized he could move in this sort of place as it was like a memory. The sound got closer as Asim progressed onwards, and he finally got to the section where it originated. It was the research station as it included all sorts of equipment for investigation and analysis. Now that Asim had reached here, he moved his head around in search for the sound until he spotted them. Them being a scientist with a white lab coat and red hair sitting in a chair while typing something in the monitor, later going to the side and peering into a microscope. Asim watched her for a moment, not planning to interrupt the scientist in her work until he was sure that she was done with a part of her work. When the time came, Asim cleared his throat and said "Excuse me" to gain the scientist's attention. The scientist raised her head and then looked back before standing up from the chair she was sitting on.

It took only a second to realize who this person was; she was none other than the famous Dr. Grace Augustine.

"Well...what do you know. A trigger-happy soldier coming in to torment me." Dr. Grace said, looking at Asim with a face that said she would rather grow very old than to keep seeing him in front of her. Asim looked to the side awkwardly before turning his gaze back to her again. "Uhhh....thanks? I appreciate your compliment, but in all honesty I am not here to torment you in any way." Asim said to the scientist. When Dr. Grace heard those words, she frowned and took some steps closer to him. "Strange. You don't seem like the jarheads I have meet throughout my life. And...you look too young to be a soldier." Dr. Grace said as she examined him from feet to head. "Yeah, I get that a lot. I've grown to hear being called a 'kid' the entire time I was in the hell hole of the RDA base." Asim said, giving a slight chuckle. "What? Did your parents send you off to the military because you didn't follow orders?" Dr. Grace asked. "More like stolen from my family and turned into a science project freak, designed only for the military. At least, that's what I remember now." He said, looking at the scientist for a moment before stepping back and looking at both sides. "Look. Sorry if I interrupted your little investigation. As now I see that I've stumbled into another non-relevant illusion-slash-hallucination, I'll try to bust my way out of here." Asim said a moment later before he started to head towards the doors that would lead elsewhere. Though Dr. Grace asked him a question that made him stop in his tracks.

"Why are you here? In the Tree of Souls? Like I am." She asked.

Asim paused for a moment to let the question sink in before he turned around to face Dr. Grace. "Say that again?" Asim asked her as he began to realize that the memory of the scientist was speaking to him. "The na'vi don't let anyone in here, yet here you are. Why is that?" Dr. Grace asked him again. Asim looked sideways, thinking of a way to say something convincing and then say the truth. "I stumbled upon this place while lost in the forest." he tried in order to sound honest. It worked when Dr. Grace frowned at him like she has had enough of jokes. "Alright alright. The truth is...the clan leaders let me. And that included their tsahik, even when she at first was very against it." Asim explained to the scientist, this time being the most honest. Dr. Grace's gaze softened when Asim began to be honest, and then nodded slightly. "Any reason why a young soldier like you chose to go here?" Dr. Grace asked him. Asim sighed and looked down, pacing a bit to the side before letting it out. "Truth be told...for answers. About a lot of things that I can't even explain, even about myself. I just hope that this doesn't turn into a whole 'getting tormented for my past mistakes and how I was unable to change the past' thing." Asim said, pacing to the other side and looking back at the scientist once more. Dr. Grace nodded in understanding. "Can you give me a few examples?" Dr. Grace asked, to which he nodded.

"Why am I still here? Alive, and not dead like the rest that died in the battle of the floating mountains? Why was I brought back alive, all healed, without anything else changed except the fact that I can breathe the atmosphere of this planet without suffocating? Why am I able to connect partially and then fully with the animals and the creatures that surround me? What's my purpose here now, after the countless horrors that I went through thanks to the ones that enhanced me genetically for their own battles and wars? Why am I so special when I have take so many lives, both human and na'vi? Why...why am I alive even if I have done so much wrong? Just....WHY???" Asim said, clutching his head tightly as he slowly started to feel depressed and broken inside, the memories of his past replaying in his head painfully when he remembered them. The emotions that he had suppressed before could no longer be contained inside of him as his resistance wore off all of a sudden and he began to weep, falling down to his knees and clutching his face as tears started to leak out from his shut eyelids.

When it seemed like he would just loose all cool and sanity, he felt the hand of someone be placed on his shoulder. Asim looked up...and found Dr. Grace kneeling down in front of him. Her once stern face was replaced with a more soft and understanding one, a small smile now appearing. "You have gone through so much in your life. So much for a small and young child could handle. And yet...you did everything you could to change who you were despite the fact that you didn't remember before. The real you being inside your heart all this time. That is why Eywa chose you to live in her own world." Dr. Grace explained, using her other hand to grip the other arm of Asim and gesture to stand up. "M-my...real...self...?" Asim asked, not understanding what she meant. "The love you feel for others despite not showing it fully, and that includes towards strangers of many kinds which don't belong to your real family. Most importantly, the love of nature that remained within you, and the promise you made when you were with your real family. All of that...makes you worthy of being alive and begin once more. Your old life ended when you died. Now, your new life has just begun once you awakened here." Dr. Grace explained, reaching to Asim's face with one hand and wiping the tears that still stained his face. Asim looked up at the scientist's face. "Is it true? Really? How do you know for sure?" Asim asked as he slowly recovered from his sorrow.

Dr. Grace let go of him and then turned to a hologram of a large tree that appeared next to them. It was blue in color, but then it slowly began to turn golden in color. And it now glowed white until it became too bright to look at it. Asim covered his face to shield himself, not wanting to get too blinded by it. A moment passed before he uncovered his arms from himself and opened his eyes once again, and then found himself floating with Dr. Grace in absolute darkness. However, the darkness began to slowly become lit by small golden roots that resembled vines almost. When he looked closely, Asim saw that there were plants and animals all over the place, invisibly connected by these golden threads. The connections continued on like an endless net, like an immense and beautiful structure with patterns, until Asim noticed that they had an epicenter. And that epicenter...was something unlike anyone has ever seen...

This thing, this light, was a such a beautiful sight to behold. And at the same time it gave Asim a sense of dread and another feeling of incomprehension. "Because I am with her. I live with the great mother of this world, as she lives inside of me. The same way she does with you now. So for now on, don't think you are beyond redemption. Continue to live for what you believe in. For those you have grown close to, and others that will soon become like you. And above all...believe in the impossible and don't ever loose faith. I know that you will do the right thing no matter what happens." Dr. Grace said to Asim with a smile, looking at him before turning her gaze back at the beautiful golden light that represented the presence of Eywa.

Then Dr. Grace began to float towards the light, making it brighten once again before Asim returned to reality.