Avatar: {Hybrid and Alien]

{48}

What happened next would only be described as frighteningly brutal.

Layontsin had no doubts that the one that just landed was Asim, now matured into a young skyperson. What she did not expect was how he would do until he began to move. Asim, with weapon in hand, began to run towards the other side of the battlefield with speed Layontsin had only seen before. Only this time it was more faster given Asim in this memory was more younger and energetic. Layontsin watched him go into the battlefield, the explosions that happened all around not stopping him. Even the sounds of the skypeople weapons being fired at Asim didn't stop him as he ran while a bit lowered to the ground, expertly weaving around the fighting zone with agility. He evaded the incoming attacks with precision, and once he was in range of the opponents he pulled up his weapon and fired. The other skypeople stood no chance as they fired their weapons at him, only to be intercepted by him shooting back with his weapon and killing them. Even when he got close to attack, he used some things at his disposal to take down his opponents. At one point, his weapon could not fire anymore of those white streaks that killed others. So he resorted to using his knife against the opponents as he went to engage them in close combat. One opponent proved to be a challenge as they looked more larger and stronger than Asim. But that didn't seem to frighten or faze Asim as he rushed to engage this stronger opponent with his knife. When the knife jabs seemed to only slow down the larger skyperson, Asim then used the backside of his previous weapon, jumped up, and...used all of his strength to swing it around and bash their head with it. The weapon's blunt side crashed against the opponent's head, shattering the face mask that they wore while muffling the chilling crack that meant the head had been crushed. This was enough to defeat the opponent, whose body toppled to the side and fell down limp. It didn't get up, nor did it twitch to signify it was alive.

Layontsin was in utter shock, and in more fear than ever, when she saw all of this brutality unfold before her eyes. All of this...was Asim's past.

He looked down at the opponent he had just defeated, some red drop stains coating his weapon and part of his face covering. Then he looked up, red eyes still glaring through the transparent part that covered his face, and then turned around as more explosions and weapon sounds were heard. With a quick turn, Asim began to sprint deeper into the battlefield as Layontsin watched him leave. The anthro thanator, still paralyzed in shock, watched him go as the smoke from fire began to spread all around. She snapped out of it and then moved to leave the cloud of smoke, and then realized she was in another place. The intense battlefield was suddenly replaced by another scenery in the blink of an eye, this one being another skypeople place but different from the last one. In here, Layontsin was in some sort of rectangular tunnel that laid before her in a straight line. She looked around the place and decided to move around in search for where Asim would appear again, now doing her best to slowly adapt to the changing memories. Everything was silent, except the buzzing noise that the lights above or to the sides made whole Layontsin began to walk forwards. There came a point where she came to a rectangular opening that was covered by a transparent wall, similar to that of the skypeople metal homes she had seen before. Inside, she saw young skypeople in white clothing, these clothes stuck to the body and not like those she saw before in the other dark skyperson place. From what she could tell, these skypeople were young, and organized in near impecable lines. A short distance away from them, an adult skyperson dressed in a red suit was shouting words at them while going around. Whatever the adult said, the young ones obeyed the commands in perfect synchronization, without flaw, and without making one single mistake. They handled smaller weapons in their hands and did movements as if they were fighting against other opponents.

When they finished, each of them headed out of the room through another opening in an organized way. Layontsin watched them go and then began to walk to follow them, wondering if there was a way around. Thankfully there was, and she got there just in time to see all of the young skypeople go inside other openings and close the things that locked it shut. The anthro thanator moved to where they went, noticing that the things had smaller square openings that allowed those outside to see. Inside were each of the young skypeople, one for each enclosed space that had many things. Those things were what seemed to be a bed, something on the wall that reflected, another thing that released clean water for them to wash their face and drink, and other things that couldn't be described. Layontsin still couldn't believe how young each of them were compared to the adults and how they were being trained to fight like adults. Even more, now that she realized, that they were being trained to fight in a more disturbing way as she had seen before. Then Layontsin stopped by one of the small enclosures and spotted Asim. He was in the bed-like thing, hunched up in a ball and curled up while his eyes were closed.

With a pang in her heart, Layontsin saw that, even when he looked calm, some tears were running down his face.

Then, when she blinked, she immediately found herself in yet another place. It seemed like the same place she was right now, but in a different area. Here, dozens -no, maybe hundreds- of young skypeople, the same types she saw in the training enclosure, sitting in elevated seats while they ate from rectangular plates. Some went around to take a seat, while others arrived from outside and went to an area where they chose their food. The food that they picked and placed in their plates...looked colorful...yet she could even smell that the taste wasn't good despite it being nutritious. Layontsin moved around the place in search for Asim once again, and she found him later on sitting in one of the things here most were. He was eating peacefully, looking down at what he ate with a stern expression. Even while calm, Layontsin could make out he wasn't cheerful about anything. Asim continued to eat...until something caught his attention. Someone, to be precise, as he saw someone sit all by themselves in another area. When Layontsin looked to where Asim had his eyes on, she realized that it was the younger version of one of Asim's friends.

That one...was Kentaro.

Kentaro was sitting all by himself, eating from his plate while his other hand was fumbling with something else. Layontsin looked back at Asim and watched how he started to get up from where he sat. Watching closely, she saw something shift in Asim's eyes as he had noticed what Kentaro was looking at, taking his plate with him to sit with Kentaro. The other skyperson looked up at Asim, puzzled as to why he was sitting down with him. Then Asim started to speak with him, asking about what Kentaro was looking at as he pointed at the thing that Kentaro had. When Layontsin moved close to peer behind their shoulders, she noticed that the thing had what looked like pictures of flowers. All varieties of them. They were all beautiful, and Asim seemed like he liked it. There was no flash of recognition in his eyes about the flowers. Yet...despite that...there was a spark in his eyes that meant he enjoyed the sight of such beautiful things. Asim then started a conversation with Kentaro, who began to smile a bit as he saw that Asim was the only one who also liked flowers. The scene alone made Layontsin smile despite everything that he witnessed from Asim's memory.

Then, all of a sudden, she was brought to another memory.