"Life on Pandora" - Part Three

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Part Three

            Ben was left without any options.

            The Omnitrix had timed out, leaving him standing dead in the sights of the Dalek.

            He could choose to fight it on as himself; but would he even have the slightest chance of surviving? The Daleks were the toughest aliens he ever encountered, which was why it took so many heroes to defeat them in the Multiverse War.

            No. Alone and as a human kid, he didn’t stand a chance.

            “EXTERMINATE!”

            “Well, what’re ya waitin’ for? Just do it already!”

            Ben knew it was a stupid move to coerce a Dalek on the verge of wiping him out.

            What other choice did he have?

            He braced himself for the end, shutting his eyes tight and clenching his fists.

            Grandpa Max. Gwen. I’m sorry.

            “EXTERMIN—!”

            BOOM!

            The deafening sound of an explosion prompted Ben to reopen his eyes; he was stunned to see the Dalek destroyed, its upper half blown away, leaving its charred innards exposed.

            “What the heck?!” he muttered.

            “You alright, kid?”

            Ben heard the voice just as he spotted a Na’vi leaping out from the trees and landing beside the demolished Dalek. This one – the first one Ben had seen up close – looked pretty tough, especially armed with what appeared to have been both Na’vi and RDA-standard weapons.

            “You’re not hurt, are you?” He asked Ben, who detected how perfect the Na’vi warrior’s English was.

            “H-How do you know English?”

            The warrior chuckled. “Most Na’vi know the language.”

            “Yeah, but you speak it like you’re from Earth.”

            “That’s because I was…once. I used to be human. Name’s Jake Sully.”

            Learning this information, Ben became more captivated over this Na’vi warrior. “You’re an avatar?!”

            “More like a liberated one,” Jake said. “I was chosen for the Avatar Program after my brother – the original participant of it – was killed. I didn’t have much of a life before I became part of the Na’vi. I was paralyzed from the waist down. Had nothing much else to do with my sorry waste of a life, until I came here to Pandora.”

            “So…that’s why you gave up being human?”

            “That among other things. I was recruited by a man named Miles Quaritch to gather what intel I could on the Na’vi and force them to leave their Hometree – destroy it, if necessary.”

            “Yeah, I’ve met Quaritch,” Ben told him. “Doesn’t exactly seem like the trusting type to me.”

            “He’s not. I left my old life once I discovered the corruption within the RDA. And it only got worse when I found out the truth about them and these overgrown salt-and-pepper shaker things. Turns out they’re all working together to take Pandora. They formed their pact when the RDA found out about their presence here. The RDA wanted the unobtanium, and the star demons wanted a new home. Once each side saw how their goals aligned, so did they.”

            Alarmed at this, Ben came to an unnerving realization: “My friends are in danger! They don’t know what you just told me! I’ve gotta go back and warn them!”

            “If they’re with the RDA this second, it’s already too late,” Jake cautioned. “We can only save them by gathering the Na’vi clans and going into battle. I caught a little glimpse of what you can do with that crazy watch of yours – turning from Na’vi to human without so much as a module. Can you do that in our fight?”

            “I can do so much more,” Ben said with a grin.

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            It amused Alicia to no end seeing Grace in her avatar form.

            Never had she seen a human-Na’vi hybrid in action before – excluding Ben Tennyson, of course, since his Na’vi form was merely a copy of another existing avatar.

            Grace’s avatar bore a few minor similarities in facial features to her human self.

            She even maintained some semblance to human fashion, donning safari-style attire for the expedition through the Pandoran jungles.

            “What’re you expecting to find out here?” She asked Alicia.

            “Answers,” Alicia determinedly replied.

            It was obvious Grace didn’t want to be out there with Alicia and Newt, and Alicia couldn’t blame her. If the stories about the tanhì vrrtep were true, and it was the thing that had been killing life on Pandora, then there was good reason to be afraid – even if Grace didn’t want to admit she was.

            The further they moved through the jungle, the more devastation they came across.

            Scorched trees, the scent of smoke plaguing the air, and dead carcasses.

            And it got worse once they came upon a region where the Hometree used to proudly stand. Scattered all over were RDA personnel and metallic creatures Alicia recognized to her immediate shock.

            “Daleks,” she exclaimed. “On Pandora!”

            Grace could barely comprehend what she was seeing. “What are these Daleks?”

            “Only the worst creatures to ever roam this universe and the next,” Alicia said.

            Newt focused closely on the activity between the two factions. “They’re not fighting one another,” he observed. “It’s as if they’re working as one to excavate this area.”

            His observation motivated Alicia to have an unsettling revelation:

            “They’ve joined forces! They’re destroying the planet together!”

            “Quaritch,” Grace angrily hissed.

            Before she could have finished her expletive, her avatar suddenly collapsed.

            Alicia and Newt looked on it in confusion. For a moment, they attempted to check on the body to see what was wrong, until they found themselves swarmed by Daleks and RDA marines.

            This included Quaritch himself, manned in an AMP suit.

            “Oh, how I wish this deal could’ve turned out differently,” the Colonel mockingly lamented. “Unfortunately, I’d already made one long before you people got here.”