xviii. destruction
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NEYTIRI stirred from where she laid on the forest floor. The sun shined down on her and Odessa, the light sparkling against their blue skin.

Not to far away, where danger loomed, was way to many machines that would make their way to the tree of voices to destroy it. The RDA wouldn't stop, and they were ready to do as much damage as they could with hopes they could get what they wanted. They didn't care what got in their way, even if two were sleeping peacefully on the ground in their path.

Neytiri moved away from Odessa, springing upwards and gasping at the large yellow moving machines in front of her. They were heading right towards the tree of voices, and if she didn't act quick, the said machines would crush her and Odessa in a few minutes.

Branches and smaller trees in front of her fell to the ground with a thud, the loud engines rumbling as they did so. The sight in front of her, it was breathtakingly divesting. The life, a place of magic, where she ran and learnt of those who had come before her, fell and crumbled before Neytiri.

"Ma Dessa!" Neytiri fell to the ground, shaking Odessa who continued to lay still against the forest floor.

More tress fell around Neytiri and Odessa. The sound of wood falling and thudding to the ground made her panic even more.

"Odessa! Dessa. Odessa. Wake up! Dessa, please!" Neytiri forced the words out as she shook Odessa with the strength she had — which was a lot. Odessa didn't move voluntarily, her body limp like someone who had been knocked out cold. The machines grew closer, and Neytiri was running out of ideas on what to do.

🌍.

"HEY, Dessa, don't forget your plate integration." Norm said kindly, sitting down on the edge of the pod. Odessa smiled, sending Norm a thankful nod as she flipped a switch on. "Good, there ya go."

"Odessa!" Grace came walking through the area, a plate in hand. "You gotta eat something."

Odessa turned, eyeing Grace who stepped around Norm and Jake. She went to hand the plate to a very stubborn Odessa, who continued to shake her head and didn't take the place. "Nah,"

Grace glared, "Yes, now don't make me force feed you." Grace said, eyes narrowed as she placed the plate on Odessa's lap, reaching over and slamming her palm against the red button that stopped the pod from whirring to life.

Odessa groaned, throwing her head back and sending Grace a scary glare. "I couldn't have eaten after, huh?"

🌍.

"ODESSA!" Neytiri grabbed ahold of Odessa's arm, pulling with whatever strength she could muster up in the moment of do or die.

She managed to drag her a few feet, and then a large tree fell to the ground beside them, sending Neytiri to the ground over top of Odessa in a way to protect her.

She crouched, moving quickly in placing her hands tightly around Odessa's wrists, pulling her away from the destruction that neared.

"Des!"

🌍.

ODESSA ate quickly. Shovelling as much food in her mouth as she could; it was gross, yet she didn't want to wait any longer before she went back to Neytiri and her new life. It's where she selfishly wanted to be, where she felt like she could be the person she wanted to be.

"I'm done." Odessa said quickly, moving the plate of her lap and onto the side. "Let's go this."

"And when was the last time you took a shower?" Grace asked as Odessa laid down in the pod. She lifted her shirt and scrunched her nose in pure disgust. "Ew."

Odessa blinked, swatting Graces hand away from her body. "I don't need a shower!"

"Jesus," Grace rolled her eyes at her impatience. She knew that Odessa wanted nothing more than to go back.

Odessa quickly covered herself with the metal machinery and started to close the pod. Allowing her eyes to close and for her mind to drift.

🌍.

NEYTIRI struggled to pull Odessa over a fallen tree. "DESSA!" She screamed desperately, using her hands to pull Odessa the last little bit so she could roll against the ground. "Odessa, wake up! Please, please wake up!" Neytiri continued to shake her love, her hands pushing roughly as she attempted to wake her.

Odessa blinked, stirring as she looked up at Neytiri, whose tears dripped onto her face.

"Love?" Odessa questioned, jumping to her feet as she eyed the destruction around them. The trees had fallen, and the once purple vines had gone dark. They looked dead; they were dead. "Stay behind me, please."

Odessa moved the two of them towards cover, the forest that would provide some coverage against the RDA machines. When they could, Odessa looked towards her mate, smiling sadly. "I promise that I'll be right back, okay? Just stay here, and stay down,"

Neytiri nodded, wrapping her arms around her body and crouching down to seem smaller, so she wouldn't be spotted.

Odessa ran forward, standing in front of the machines. She knew there were cameras that could see her, she had seen them on her first day on Pandora. And she hoped that whoever drove had a heart, and that they would stop. "Hey! Hey!" Odessa waved her arms wildly, jumping up and down to gain the attention of whoever was remotely driving the machine. "Stop!"

Neytiri cried out as more trees fell to the fell to the first floor. The said forest that had once glowed when something touched the grass, it looked dead and lifeless.

Odessa turned to Neytiri, who shook her head. Odessa assumed it meant for her to continue, for her to try to stop the destruction.

"Stop!" Odessa screamed. It was then she realized that they wouldn't stop, and that he had to do something.

And then the machine Odessa stood in front of came to a stop.

🌍.

"HEY, boss." A man called out to Parker from the RDA's base, it's where they were controlling the heavy machinery that were destroying the world around them.  He stopped moving the dozer and waited as Parker walked over to him, unsure if he was supposed to keep going and run the native over, or to just stop.

"What?" Parker snapped, eyeing the camera and focusing on the creature they could see.

"I got a native doing the funky chicken here. He's blocking my blade." The man spoke, pointing with his finger towards the blue person on the screen.

"Well, keep moving. They'll move." Parker shrugged, talking with his mouth full. "These people have to learn that we don't stop. Come on. Go, go, go." He moved the control for him and the bulldozer whirled to life.

🌍.

"DESSA!" Neytiri screamed as the bulldozer started to move.

Odessa was quick to jump onto a part of the bulldozer, a rock in hand. She climbed up the side — all the training Neytiri made her do was helping greatly. It wasn't even a minute later when Odessa stood at the top, charging at the cameras with the rock in hand.

She was angry. Angry at the people for causing Neytiri pain, and angry that the new life she had created was crashing down so quickly, for destroying sacred trees, for ruining what should have been a perfect morning. She was angry.

So she smashed and smashed the camera until it shattered into pieces at her feet. She screamed, and screamed.

One of the soldiers on the ground lifted his gun and began shooting at her. Odessa quickly stopped hitting the cameras and ducked down, moving out of the way of any bullets heading towards her. She leaped off the dozer, crashing to the ground below. She stood, running away from the gun fire that threatened her life. I looked around the forest and closed my eyes trying to feel him.

"Dessa!" Neytiri yelled out for her as she frantically looked around.

"Neytiri!" She called back. Neytiri followed the sound of her voice and quickly found her, jumping into her open arms. Tears stained both of their faces. "Come on! Quick."

Odessa ushered Neytiri forward and away from the chaos that was in sight. Odessa had to protect her, no matter what, and that's what she was doing now. Her arms were wrapped around Neytiri as she cried into her chest, her body shaking with pain. 

What once was such a sacred place was now gone; destroyed.