On the perimeter of Hometree, the RDA forces had completed their deployment. The roar of engines and the grinding of metal shattered the forest's pristine silence.
The warriors of the Omaticaya clan gathered across Hometree's massive, buttress roots. Gripping their weapons, they glared at the wall of iron in the distance. The air was thick with the suffocating tension and tragic resolve of a final, desperate stand.
Eytukan, Tsu'tey, and Neytiri stood at the absolute front. Jake Sully, occupying his Avatar body, stood beside Neytiri with a grim, heavy expression. He desperately tried to urge both sides to remain calm, but his lone voice was entirely swallowed by the rising tide of hatred.
Just a moment before Colonel Quaritch could issue the order to attack, a heavy engineering transport belonging to the Pioneer rolled forward. Escorted by Mann and the rest of the security squad, the vehicle slowly drove into the open clearing separating Hometree from the RDA's blockade line.
This sudden movement instantly drew the attention of both factions.
"What the hell do they think they're doing?" Quaritch muttered, his brow furrowed as he watched from his command vehicle.
The Na'vi likewise stared with a mix of confusion and intense suspicion at this strange vehicle, which bore no corporate RDA markings. Tsu'tey immediately raised his longbow, drawing an arrow and tracking the vehicle's movement.
The engineering transport ground to a halt in the center of the clearing. Its rear cargo doors slid open, exposing the metallic cube as its surface pulsed with an eerie, rhythmic luminescence. Inside the cabin, Falco and Pira executed the final telemetry calibrations while Mann and Dorio stood guard outside, their eyes scanning the perimeter.
Simultaneously, the transport's side doors slid open. Rei Ayanami, Asuka, and Shinji Ikari stepped into the open view of both armies. They carried no visible armaments.
The moment she caught sight of Rei, Seze's eyes flickered, as did those of several members within her clandestine cell. Eytukan and Tsu'tey, however, only grew more vigilant; they recognized this peculiar Sky Person girl who had previously established contact with Seze.
Rei took a few measured steps forward. Her calm, detached gaze swept across the Na'vi warriors crowded along Hometree's roots, eventually locking onto Eytukan and Neytiri. Activating her specialized neural-consciousness projection, she transmitted a clear, tranquil intent directly into their minds. Concurrently, she spoke aloud in fractured but distinct Na'vi words, ensuring the front ranks could hear her clearly: "We—are not here to fight."
Her voice and mental projection acted like a block of ice cast into a boiling cauldron of raw emotion, forcing a brief, stunned lull in the agitated Na'vi ranks.
"Hometree—remains here—conflict cannot be avoided. Blood—will flow heavily," Rei continued, pointing first to the iron vanguard of the RDA behind her, and then to the towering grandeur of Hometree. "We—can temporarily move it away. Protect it—from destruction. Avoid—senseless death."
The proposition was so utterly staggering that the Na'vi could not comprehend it.
Tsu'tey was the first to erupt into a furious roar: "Lies! Another deception by the Sky People! You wish to steal our sacred tree!"
Neytiri stared at Rei in absolute disbelief. "Move Hometree? How is that possible? It is the gift of Eywa! It is our roots!"
Eytukan stepped forward, his deep voice heavy with profound distrust. "Move it? Move it where? Are you and those tree-cutting machines not cut from the same cloth?"
Asuka couldn't contain herself any longer, cutting in with her trademark brashness. "Hey! Get it through your thick skulls! If we were working with those corporate corporate goons, wouldn't it be easier to just let them open fire and blow this weed to splinters? Why would we waste our breath talking to you? We are giving you a chance to save this tree! It's better than watching it get blown into toothpicks, isn't it?!"
Shinji also tried his best to explain, his voice pleading. "We—we just don't want to see any more people die. Please—just trust us this once."
Standing amidst the crowd, Seze listened to their words, her heart locked in a violent struggle. She looked at Rei, then out at the predatory RDA forces, and finally at Hometree, which stood on the precipice of total annihilation. She knew with absolute certainty that Eytukan and Tsu'tey would never willingly abandon Hometree. The moment a kinetic conflict ignited, the outcome was predetermined. The method Rei proposed sounded utterly impossible, but—it seemed to be the solitary shred of hope to preserve the sacred tree and avert a bloody massacre they were guaranteed to lose.
"Eytukan—" Seze began in a low, urgent whisper, but a harsh, warning glare from Tsu'tey instantly silenced her.
Rei offered no further explanations. She understood that words were entirely hollow when faced with deep-rooted hatred and monumental suspicion. She simply reiterated: "This is—the only way to preserve it. The choice—is yours."
She tossed the ultimate decision back to the Na'vi. It was a calculated gesture, proving that their group was not executing a forced seizure.
However, time was a luxury they did not possess. From the RDA lines, the heavy mechanical thrumming of engines grew into a deafening roar—the definitive signal that the assault sequence was being initiated.
"Begin," Osiris's voice crackled across the encrypted channel, his tone absolute and brook no delay. Whether the Na'vi understood or consented was irrelevant; the operation would be executed now.
Pira slammed the activation sequence.
The runic patterns etched across the metal cube's chassis flared with blinding intensity, unleashing a massive surge of hyper-dimensional energy. The surrounding air violently warped, emitting a deep, resonant hum. An invisible yet highly perceptible ripple of spatial distortion radiated outward from the cube, rapidly expanding until it completely enveloped the towering mass of Hometree.
Every single soul witnessing the event—whether RDA soldier or Na'vi warrior—felt a primal, instinctual throb of dread strike their marrow.
In the very next heartbeat, a spectacle that would remain seared into their minds for the rest of their lives unfolded.
The titan tree, standing hundreds of meters tall with its root matrix deeply embedded within the floating stone, the monumental sanctuary that had anchored the survival, history, and faith of the Omaticaya clan for countless generations, began to blur. It turned translucent, dissolving into the air like smoke.
Within mere seconds, under the gaze of thousands of horrified, paralyzed eyes, the colossal Hometree completely vanished like a mirage, leaving behind nothing but a massive, smoothly excavated crater that looked as polished as glass—as though the tree had never existed.
An absolute, deathly silence blanketed the clearing.
The wind continued to howl, and the surrounding jungle continued to bioluminescence, but the magnificent entity that had dominated the center of the horizon for millennia was simply gone.
The RDA infantrymen stood with their mouths agape, their rifles unconsciously dipping toward the soil. Colonel Quaritch bolted upright from his command chair, staring in sheer disbelief at the real-time feed on his primary display monitors, the muscles in his jaw twitching violently. This weaponization of power, operating entirely outside the boundaries of his tactical comprehension, sent an unprecedented chill straight down his spine.
On the Na'vi side, despite Rei's advanced warning, witnessing the instantaneous, impossible vanishing of their sacred anchor struck them like a physical shockwave. A profound, hollow sense of disorientation and shock swept through every individual.
The warriors' hands trembled violently against their weapons, yet they had no target to aim at; low wails of mourning and incredulous groans began to ripple through the mass. The staggering cognitive dissonance between their expectations and this reality left them entirely paralyzed.
Eytukan stared blankly into the smooth, empty crater. It was as though a piece of his very soul had been ripped away; his once-stately posture suddenly appeared hunched and broken. Tsu'tey's furious roars, while still laced with venom, now carried an undeniable undercurrent of sheer impotence and despair when forced to confront an unknown, godlike force.
Neytiri pressed herself tightly against Jake, her frame shivering violently from the sheer emotional trauma. She could not comprehend a mechanism that so utterly defied the laws of the natural world. As for Jake Sully, he was thrown into absolute psychological chaos. What had just occurred before his eyes completely shattered his understanding of human technology.