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

\\ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟝//

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I think they mean to cut their throats if we don't back off... Make sure you get a nice close-up of that. I can tack it onto the after-action report." Quaritch lightly slaps his piglet with the back of his hand on his arm.

"Alright people, let's get this done. Give me forty-millimeter gas rounds, right in the front door." He orders his soldiers.

"Roger. CS forties. Going hot." One of the gunner's calls, pressing multiple buttons on his consul.

"Fire." Quaritch crouches next to him peering out the dragon windscreen.

The Dragon's stub-wings the 40mm rocket launchers open up with a barrage of leaping fire which flashes down.

K-WHOOM! K-WHOOM! K-WHOOM! The inside of Hometree erupts with multiple explosions of tear gas. The gas rolls across the confused villagers, drawing some screams and scaring off direhorses. The mothers and young children begin to cough and gag. Eytukan and his daughters sneered at the attack, and Eytukan ordered everyone to fire.

~𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦!~ He calls out drawing his large bow up.

Every hunter bravely fires at the gunships with their longbows. Neytiri and Ke'Kaya hiss and yell as they release arrows of their own.

In the Dragon's cockpit, Quaritch laughs as arrows clink and ricochet against the armored windows. Amid clouds of teargas covering the forest floor like thick fog, the Omaticaya try to run, stumbling, and collapsing.

~𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑤!~ Mo'at calls, helping fallen villagers run out from Hometree.

"These dumb bastards ain't getting the message... Alright, let's turn up the heat! switch incendiaries," Quaritch ordered.

"Switching incendiaries," The gunner copied, readying the controls.

"Fire,"

"Firing~"

Nate, eyes streaming, struggles with his bindings. KA-WHOOM! An incendiary shot explodes inside the Commons. Flames roar through the base of Hometree.

Inside Hometree, totems and woven racks blaze and burn, thick black smoke forming a blazing Hell. Flames roar up the inside like a chimney. Stragglers scramble outside, coughing and dragging wounded with them. High up in the trunk, Tsu'Tey and his hunters leap rapidly from spoke to spoke, barely climbing ahead of the fireball.

"That's how you scatter the roaches." Quaritch chuckles, pleased.

~𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵!~ Eytukan turns to his people, ushering them away.

The villagers turn and begin to run toward the forest, Ke'Kaya turns and locks eyes with Nate.

"Ke'Ke..." He pleads, his ears flat and his eye-watering.

Ke'Kaya frowns, taking her sister's arm and pulling her away from Jake and into the forest.

"No~ no KE'KE~!" Nate pulled on his restraints to try and chase after her but was forcefully halted. 

Everyone is yelling. Piercing screams in the boiling gas. The brave hunters continue to fire at the Dragon ship, and Quaritch is growing more and more impatient, turning to his piolet.

"We've gotta move! He's gonna blow the columns," Jake explained.

"Damn it damn it damn it!" Nate hisses, fighting his restraints.

"My God!" Grace struggles alongside her comrades.

Inside Hometree, the Na'vi run, Eytukan calling out orders ordering everyone to safety, but he stops running, seeming to want to go back. Neytiri pauses, her eyes go wide with realization, and she stops running, causing Ke'Kaya to stop as well before turning to their father.

~𝑁𝑜! 𝑁𝑜 𝐹𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒~ Neytiri grabbed her father's arm.

~𝐺𝑜! 𝐺𝑜! 𝐺𝑜!~ Eytukan shouted at his daughters, pushing Neytiri towards the forest.

Neytiri grits her teeth but turns and grabs her sister, continuing to run. Outside, the fire is driven by the rotors, the blaze washes toward Nate, Jake, and Grace who are still bound tightly to the posts. Out of the smoke, Mo 'at appears in front of Jake. Her eyes are red and her cheeks are wet, she raises a knife to Jake's throat.

"Mo'at! No!" Nate and Grace cry out.

Mo'at takes a deep breath,

"If you are one of us..." She cries.

"Help us," She breathes, and slashes down.

Jake looks down, surprised, to see his bonds falling away. He meets her eyes, which are filled with horror, but also something else. Call it faith. Jake takes the knife and cuts Grace free while Mo'at frees Nate.

Nate grabs her and they run. Around them, the Omaticaya flee in horror and confusion. In the cockpit, Quaritch watches as the Omaticaya stream away from the Great Tree, running along roots and branches.

"Okay, switch missiles. Give me HE's at the base of the west columns."

"Copy, switching missiles." The pilot replied.

The Hometree reflecting in his glasses, Quaritch raises his coffee mug and smiles.

"Bring it down." Missiles stream down from the dragon and the other gunships and the base of Hometree vanishes in a chain of high-explosion blasts.

Every hit sends a shockwave of energy over the area. Neytiri and Ke'Kaya, who are still running get knocked over by the force, again and again, struggling to stay on their feet. Incendiaries launch from the gunships, exploding into gouts of fire in the debris of Hometree. The gunships fan the flames through the trees like a firestorm.

There was a pause, the dread-filled cries of Na'vi women echoed through the land as everyone turned their attention to Hometree, watching, hoping... praying... it would remain standing. But as the wind blew, and Pandora seemed to go still for a moment, there was a loud thundering creek, and everyone watched in horror as the massive pillars fragmented into matchsticks. Hometree groans and starts to move. In a cacophony of cracking, splintering roots, the mighty tree begins to topple with agonizing slowness. Ke'Kaya and Neytiri stare... just... stare, as the mighty tree leans their way.

~𝑅𝑢𝑛!~ Nate yelled, looking over all the Na'vi.

"Go go go!" Jake followed, ushering Grace and Mo'at forward.

At the Banshee eyrie, Tsu'Tey and the other hunters spur their mounts into flight, the tree falling around them. They swoop among the branches as the tree, the one fixed thing in their lives, falls. It creeks and groans as its large branches come crashing down through the forest canopy, crushing the lesser trees in its path, and falling gracefully. As the seconds pass, and the large, heavy trunk comes closer and closer to the ground, the Na'vi caught in its way starts running once again. Ke'Kaya watches, frozen in place as a giant branch falls straight toward her.

~𝐾𝑒'𝐾𝑒!~ Neytiri pushed her sister out of the way, looking up as a huge branch came crashing down between them.

Ke'Kaya gasped, falling to the floor just as the mighty tree met the ground. 

~𝘛𝘪𝘳𝘪!~ Ke'Kaya screamed, scrambling up from the ground, feeling her tail whip her legs as her body shook with fear, her hands thudding at the giant log before her while her eyes darted for the sight of her sister.

Hometree hit the ground like the end of the world, raising a great cloud of dust and pulverized debris. The hundreds of screams and cries all around began to fall silent one by one as Hometree crushed men and women unable to avoid the massive tree as it completed its fall, leaves and branches breaking off and flying everywhere. In the Dragon cockpit, Quaritch surveys the destruction, a pleased look on his face.

~𝐾𝑒'𝐾𝑒!~ Neytiri cries out, her heart pounding in her chest.

~𝑇𝐼𝑅𝐼!~ Ke'Kaya sobbed, her voice cracking with cries as she put her hands over her head, looking around at all the damage.

"Nice work people. First rounds on me tonight. Let's boogie," Quaritch knocks his pilot on the shoulder.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───