Pandora's Box - Avatar (Book 1)

-.-Escape-.-

They were tied up within perfect view of the oncoming battle. 

With a thunderous war cry, the archers began to open fire upon the arrived attackers. The arrows harmlessly bounced off the flying machines. 

The first shots from the enemy were taken: gas cannisters. This sent everyone screaming, fleeing from the unfamiliar weapons.

"Run, god damn it! Run!" Jake hollered, but no one moved. They were not going to abandon their home, or each other. 

At Eytukan's orders, the Clan started circling around the ohter side of Hometree.

"Neytiri!" Jake tried as she rushed past, but she barely spared them a glance. 

Mo'at, however, approached, brandishing a knife - which she held to Jake's throat.

"Mo'at, no!" screamed Grace. 

"If you are one of us, help us," The tsahik begged, tears in her eyes, and she cut them free. 

As soon as Nix was loose  she ran into view of the leading gunship - if Miles was anywhere, he would be there. 

"STOP! PLEASE!" She jumped up and down, waving her arms overhead. It wasn't going to do much, but she was desperate - they all were.

"Nix - get down!" Grace cried, but she was too late.

The ships changed from gas to missiles, and they blasted in, the force of the blast taking her down with it.

-.-.-.-.-

She awoke, stiff, but not sore. Her Avatar body had taken the force of the hit. 

It took her a moment to get her bearings: she was in the medical wing, and she was locked inside. 

She began pounding on the glass door, yelling at the top of her lungs. "LET ME OUT OF HERE YOU ASSHOLES! I DEMAND TO SPEAK WITH COLONEL QUARITCH!"

Eventually, her throat grew raw, and she grew discouraged. But finally, a couple of soldiers came to retrieve her.

They led her to the main bridge, she trying to squirm out of their hold on her arms the whole way.

"Let go of me! Get your dirty hands off me!"

When they finally reached their destination, she found she was facing Miles and a bunch of his soldiers. 

Around them were screens from surveillance cameras that must have been from the gunships. A smoldering mass of burnt, smoking wood took up the whole screen, a scene of destruction on a mass scale: Hometree.

"Oh no-" A sob crept up from her chest and into her throat. 

"YOU BASTARD!" She turned on the Colonel, lashing out at him, only to be stopped by a wall of tall, muscled soldiers. "You son of a bitch! You did this!"

"Yes, I did. Because your ways failed."

Just like it had with baby Miles, it had dawned on her, how he'd used her, used her to get the information he needed. How she'd sent her video logs to him and him only, only for him to share them, with how many she didn't know. The mocking and teasing of her friends from the lab by the soldiers, having never stopped even though she'd talked to him about it. How he insisted on keeping them a secret. And now, with the destruction of Hometree, everything was boiling deep within her, souring everything. 

"You are what the Na'vi call vrrtep, a demon!"

"Careful there, sweetheart, don't you forget who got you your precious ticket here in the first place."