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Disclaimer: Blah, Blah, Blah. I don't own Avatar; James Cameron does. All the Avatar stuff belongs to him. However, my Na'vi character, myself, the Dragon Weyr and its technologies, and the Pandoran animals of my menagerie are all mine. The Protoss - apart from my characters - all belong to Blizzard Entertainment.

Pandora's Templar

A Work-In-Progress Story by Coranth Dehanae

Chapter 18

(Continued from Chapter 17...)

And that, my friends, was that; with a tremendous, rousing cheer, the Council of War was ended. Roughly two days after the disbanding of said Council, I immediately set the plan for rescuing Tawkami's females in motion by sending a message to the three local Clans in the area - the Ikran, Pa'li, and Kilvan Clans - via the Dragon Weyr's Psionic Communications suite. To my surprise, however, only the Ikran Clan possessed knowledge of what we were facing--and limited knowledge, at that! Still... Upon being told of - and shown, via telepathic imagery - the atrocity that had occurred upon our land, all three Clans were eager to participate in what I had planned and bring the wrath of Eywa to the foe; all agreed to send their best Warriors and Hunters to aid our cause and said Na'vi would try to get here as quickly as they were able.

'Well, that's that off the "to-do" list' I thought, heaving a sigh of relief as I left the Weyr's Psiotransceiver Array. 'But... I wonder why only a single Clan knew about "They who could not see?"' When I questioned Tsa'hik San'eya about this, the reply she gave me filled me with dismay. "As I said before, ma Olo'eyktan: Eywa only allowed a few select Tsa'hiks the knowledge that 'They who could not see' even existed. That is why so few Clans know about the vrrtep today." At this, I cursed aloud the World Mind of Pandora for her sheer stupidity and - to my surprise - instead of calling me on it Tsa'hik San'eya chuckled softly in agreement with me. Upon seeing my surprised expression, she asked me gently, "Does my agreement with you surprise you, Txa'vit?"

When I nodded, she continued, "Txra'kon We'er taught me much whilst I was with him in Tsaheylu, and even the Great Mother can be a skxawng, sometimes..." With the message to the local Clans sent, I initiated phases two and three of the plan at once, commanding the Dragon Weyr to begin construction of an enormous TBM - or Tunnel Boring Machine - even as I headed to the great Psi-Forge to begin construction of the advanced weapons and armor with which I would equip my Warriors and Hunters, and those of the local clans when they arrived. Whilst I slaved away at the great forge, the Dragon Weyr, too, kept busy; deploying hordes of Probes to map out the tract of land where digging would commence, even as yet more Probes - assisted via swathes of Nanocytes - began to assemble from golden Psi-Steel the immense Tunnel Boring Machine with a speed that bordered upon terrifying!

When they looked up, and up, and up, and up at the form of the titanic monstrosity as it was swiftly assembled before their eyes, many of the Elders of Clan Tawkami were stunned into silence at the sheer size of the machine, whilst many of the clan's children huddled close to their Mothers, whom were sky-pale with illness and fright, particularly at the size and scope of its enormous cutting head. Even Tsa'hik San'eya appeared to wither when faced with the sheer enormity of the huge ketuwong fngap thing! The Warriors and Hunters of the Clan, however, merely looked upon the machine with expressions of gravity and solemnity. Meanwhile, at the Psi-Forge - with the Dragon Weyr's assistance - I was busily crafting fantastic suits of automated power armor, similar to that worm by Zealots of the Protoss Empire, but appropriately sized, and shaped for the Na'vi.

Forged of thousand-layer Psi-Steel plated diamond lattice mesh, equipped with powerful Psionic Energy Shields, and possessing full life support capability as well as full NBC shielding, the suits were works of art; all were superbly crafted, and vividly decorated to resemble some of the most deadly animals from Pandora and Earth; Nantang, Ikran, Fa'li, Palulukan; Tiger, Panther, Bear, Spider, Cobra, and Crocodile. Even creatures of fantasy and myth went into the design of some suits; Turok, Hydra; Cerberus, and Wyvern, and other horrors that would leave 'They who could not see' with fuel for nightmares that would last them for years! The final suit of armor to be crafted upon the great Psi-Forge was my own, the outer form of which resembled a female anthropomorphic Kirathian Dragon, as homage to my love, Ieesha.

When I placed the armor's Death Mask upon my head and her golden, two-winged, midnight-blue eyed form glared back at me from the mirror with teeth barred in a snarl a chill thickly filled the air as a sense of approval seemed to wash over me; a feeling that wasn't from the Dragon Weyr... In an instant, I spread the armor's golden psi-steel wings, and bowed low in a gesture of the utmost respect! "Thank you, my love. I... I'll try to do you proud..." I murmured, my eyes misting over with tears. As I removed the Mask from my face and placed it on a workbench, just for a moment the horrible void in my head was banished; I could feel Ieesha behind me - her reptilian feelings of acknowledgement and understanding flowing through the bond we shared - as she leaned her great head forward to nuzzle my cheek, her soft breath moving through my hair. ~I know you will, David~ she replied.

A quiet gasp escaping me I turned swiftly to face her, overjoyed... but she was not there; I was, once more, alone, with only the horrible void in my head as a constant reminder of what once had been. "What... what was that?" I queried of the Dragon Weyr. "What just happened? I thought... I thought I felt..." Deep concern and sympathy from the great Nexus filled my thoughts as it searched and sifted through its many, many sensor logs, and then finally - via psychic data burst - sent me a log from its Gestalt Sensory Network. Said log was filled with technical data encompassing presence levels, field flows, pattern strengths, and other technical jargon of which I couldn't make sense at all, but the gist of it read that - for but a fleeting moment - an immensely powerful psionic entity had manifested itself within the Dragon Weyr!

Whatever this entity was, it had utterly bypassed the Gestalt Defenses; psionic defense systems designed to keep such entities out of the Weyr and prevent them from manifesting within or near it, such that they could not threaten the mind of the great Nexus or the minds of those within! In fact, the Gestalt Defenses hadn't even activated, at all, because the entity appeared to be a recognized and registered presence... "Ieesha?" I whispered. "Are you... are you still here? Somewhere?" The only answer I received to my hushed question, however, was silence. Eventually, I shook my head and then, as I headed out of the Psi-Forge - dabbing gently at my eyes with a tissue - I thought, 'No, she's been dead for a long, long time now; whatever that was, it couldn't have been her...'

For a time I dwelled upon the eerie supernatural experience - I wondered whether Ieesha truly had died back in that Xel'Naga Temple oh so long ago - but one day later, all thoughts of it were stricken from my mind. That day, during one of my regular Walkabouts of the Homestead - as I critically inspected my Clan's many Warriors and Hunters whilst their Elders put them through their paces, and then ran an eye over the TBM, which was more than half-complete - I was hit with a psychic 'ping' of warning from the Dragon Weyr. Moments later, a Tawkami Scout named Nìwin charged towards me, crying out "Olo'eyktan! Ma Olo'eyktan!" Then, he stopped before me, doubling over as he fought to catch his breath!