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[Random the Navigator]

"Delusional, huh?" Brenda sneered.  "Because we thought we could barge in here?  But we did.  Change your mind?  An off-chance; we weren't really counting on it.  Actually, I personally was hoping you wouldn't; if you did, if you all of a sudden decided to straighten up and fly right, it'd kinda spoil our fun.  We came here to have a bit of fun with you.  Just a bit; you've been quite obliging...  Stupid?  That's your middle name nowadays.  Bitch?  That's mine."

~ And now, ~ she thought, ~ it's time to get the innocents out of the room. ~

"Enya-babe?" she called, eyes still on the dictator so as not to give away Enya's hiding-place.  "Any idea how Mariupol got to look so much like you?  Like, if you were a Sky Person?  She even had a red tunic and tan trousers..."

Tali answered for both of them.  "We were just wondering about that," he said, smiling winsomely.

Brenda flicked her tail towards the entrance.  "Hey, if you hustle you might be able to catch up with her and ask her about it, hmm?"

This time Enya did speak up:  "Yah!  Gotta ask...  But what if she vanish?"

"I'm not real worried about that," said Tali, knowing what Brenda was trying to do.  "Looked to me like she walked here...  C'mon!"  And he grabbed his adopted sister's arm and they scampered out, their mother 'Iheyu behind them.

[Kiyevanie]

Rick watched the small group leave, nodding towards Brenda in acknowledgement of her tactic. As much as he admired Tali's skills - and though the boy was more or less his own size - he still was that: a boy, and with all his "street wise" attitude deep down as innocent as Enya. So the former soldier was glad to see that the two kids had left the room as well. And 'Iheyu - the woman had been through enough suffering and loss in her life to not be called innocent anymore, but she still was the kind of person Rick wouldn't have liked to see what would be coming now.

He cracked his knuckles. "And now, Mr Putin, to the second part of this little get together." He eyed the autocrat coldly. "Time you feel some of the pain you inflicted on so many others."

[Random the Navigator]

"You keep saying that," said the Russian leader a little crossly.  "So far you haven't hurt anything but my eyes from the weirdness of you, and a wonderful migraine that I'm sure will get worse once this black, two-legged giraffe-woman puts me down again."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Brenda snorted.  "Get your feet under you so you could make a break for it if we get to be a little too much for your delicate tastes? --Hate to say it, but I agree with you.  This will be a lot more fun if we at least pretend to give you a sporting chance.  Make no mistake, though, Mr Putin: You are not leaving this room.  So I hope you've been to the bathroom, 'cause otherwise we'll have to beat the shit out of you...  Ni'ka, sweetie?  Could you let go of Fearless Leader's neck?  I'm sure now he's wishing he'd worn a shirt..."

[Kiyevanie]

"Of course!" Ni'ka smiled at Brenda, then turned back to Putin dangling in her grip, narrowing her eyes, pressing her clawlike nails into his neck one more time for good measure, swung him back and forth a few times to make things more interesting and then opened her grip. Being the size she was the autocrat fell down from almost six feet, landing right - and probably rather painfully - on his rear.
"Oops".

The air left Putin rather quickly and from the look on his face he had hurt his tailbone, but he did try to get back up on his feet as fast as possible.

"Not so fast", Rick chimed in, his boot landing in right the spot Putin had hurt already with his not very graceful landing, putting the man flat on his face now. "Bren said you need to get down and that's where you'll stay for now."

[Random the Navigator]

Now Brenda crouched down to be as close to eye-to-eye with the dictator as she could under the circumstances.  The circumstances were these: She was easily twice his height, which meant that she was as tall sitting down as he would have been standing up.  So her attempt to get in his actual face fell a little...short.  No matter; she had Ni'ka sit on Putin and beckoned Rick to join her in sitting cross-legged in front of him.

"First of all," she began chattily, "you need to realise exactly how screwed you are.  See, we're from a long way from here.  About five-point-something light-years, actually.  Some of us were born on Earth, true; others have never lived anywhere except Pandora.  And even from a moon of a planet another star-system away, we were aware of your bullshit and we didn't like it.  I already told you we wrecked the RDA for what they did to Armenia, and for what they tried to do to Pandora.  I think that one actually got in the news--even here, unless your minions censored it for you.  Everywhere else we were the wrong kind of famous."  She grinned, meaning her fangs were showing, then went on.

"So here we are: Rick, an American soldier who, shall we say, adapted; Anna, who got in your face about fairy-tales, used to run with the wolves in Siberia, and drives an Avatar; and Txa'ren - he's the late arrival who stuck up for Anna; before we came to Moscow he was taking his turn at being that legendary fighter pilot, the Ghost of Kyiv.  You've met Tali, the Na'vi youth who (a) took over your comm network, (b) cancelled your Internet service, and (c) just rendered you incapable of breeding; the two ladies who just left with him are his mom and his sister.  Still waiting for his daddy to show up.  Tangek's one hell of a healer, but he also knows how to break people like your palace guards and anybody else who tries to stop him.  He doesn't have a problem in the world with the idea of patching you up just so's we can torture you some more.  Yeah, yeah, not what you'd expect from a Na'vi, right?  'Cause they're all just a bunch of Goddess-worshippin', skinny-dippin', tree-huggin' hippies, right? ...Oh, Vladimir, Pandora's just full of surprises.  Like me.  I used to drive an Avatar too, didja know that?  Yeah, well, eventually we merged, which happens after a while, so here I am.  All of us can breathe things that would kill you.  Which we might end up having to do--'breathe things', that is; 'kill you' should go without saying.

"And why are all us aliens picking on you? ...Because, for me, what you're doing now in Ukraine smells way too much like what you did in Armenia back then.  For my Na'vi companions, it smells too much like what you did--Yes, you!--in Pandora.  We made the RDA pay for that.  All of that.  But I've been saving you for dessert.  So it's your turn...and you can't escape on a starship at just below the speed of light.  Sound screwed enough for you?"

She smirked, then turned to Rick and asked "Did you bring the kava powder?  Coffee pot's right over there if you need some hot water to mix it in...  I'm providing the killer bee."

Vladimir Putin's eyes got very, very wide.

[Kiyevanie]

"Oh, not so confident anymore?" Despite his growth spurt a while ago Rick still was far from Na'vi sized, meaning he was a lot closer to Putin's face, noticing his reaction. The Changed soldier grinned ferally. "Seems there's some situational awareness left in you." He turned to Brenda and patted a small pouch on his belt. "Yepp, all ready to go for our friend here. I'm sure he'll love our special mix." He looked back at Putin. "I think I might call it 'Pandoran Nightmare'."

Anna suppressed a chuckle. She had deeply enjoyed Brenda's speech, the part about herself running with wolves in Siberia reminding her of how beautiful and pure Russia actually could be and how perverted Putin's actions were. "You might be used to bad vodka", she said, remembering some of the stuff they served in the more remote parts of the huge country with a slight shudder, "but this will gonna be a completely new experience." Now her smile might as well belong to one of the wolves she had studied all those years ago. "It's taking a number on a grown, healthy Na'vi, so it's gonna be interesting - strictly scientifically - to see what it will do to a has-been autocrat like you."

Putin, feeling that shit was about to hit the fan for real, tried to wiggle out of his position, but Ni'ka just readjusted her weight to make any try for escape impossible. "You should feel honoured", she said sternly. "It's a sacred ceremony with my people."

[Random the Navigator]

"Well, there you have it," Brenda told Putin with evident satisfaction.  "You get to literally choose your poison.  Ni'ka's already told you what'll happen if she pricks you.  Or you can let yourself be stung by a killer bee, then drink the concoction Rick's gonna brew here shortly."

"What does that do," asked Putin nervously.

Brenda curled her tail around herself, picked the end up and began gesturing with the tuft as she explained.  "If this works like on Pandora, the kava will interact with the bee-sting and put you in a fever-dream, during which you will have strong hallucinations.  One of those hallucinations will be of some kind of animal - something of deep spiritual significance to you.  You've heard of a Native American Visionquest? --This is a Na'vi version called the Dreamhunt.  You have to wait for your beast to appear; after that, if it doesn't come right to you, you might have to battle and subdue it to form a bond with it.  It will then become your Spirit-animal, your totem, and guide you throughout life, assuming you survive the experience; some Na'vi don't.  Also assuming you still have a soul that a totem can access...  This is gonna be in-teresting."  She smirked.

[Kiyevanie]

"Mine, for example, is a Palulukan", Ni'ka explained. Usually she didn't tell everyone and their little sister about her spirit animal, but she knew that this information-leak would be short-lived. As short-lived as the slowly panicking dictator.

"Think black panther on steroids", Rick added helpfully. "Six legs, tall enough that a Na'vi could ride it, fangs the size of a table leg. Beautiful creatures."

"For you, I think", Anna mused, "I expect something like a cockroach. Or maybe some kind of worm."

"I'm not sure even a worm would connect with him", Txa'ren offered. "Worms are important and useful in the circle of life, giving back our body to the Great Mother. I don't think this skxawng has ever done something useful in his life."

Putin - despite feeling cold fear creep up his spine - sputtered indignantly while his brain raced. So what were his options? Get stung by something that would change him on a genetic level or get stung by something else that might drive him into visions and insanity (he didn't believe much in spiritual stuff, after all). At least the second option sounded as if there'd be booze, still the whole thing sounded like the choice between the rock and the hard place.
So far his conscious brain refused to make any decisions while his reptile brain sent 'fight or flight'-orders he couldn't follow.

[Random the Navigator]

Not helping a bit was the arrival of Tangek, who combined a Na'vi's height with a wrestler's bulk.  "Everyone all right in here?" he asked with a faint smile, not missing Putin as his eyes scanned everyone's faces, but noticing the absence of his wife and children.

Then he pointed out something about the Dreamhunt ritual that his extended family and friends seemed to have forgotten:  "Now, now, we don't go talking about anyone's tirea'ioang before they've got one; we don't want to affect the outcome by speculating or by stating a preference.  Although you could explain to me why this fellow's getting a Dreamhunt in the first place; Rick's accident aside, we really don't do those for tawtute who haven't learned our ways yet..."

[Kiyevanie]

"Tangek." Ni'ka bowed her head in greeting. "Yes, thank you, we are alright so far - can't say the same about him." She pointed at the deflated autocrat she was sitting on.

Txa'ren, also greeting 'Iheyu's mate, shrugged. "It's not as if we actually have taken him through a Dreamhunt yet", he explained. "We're just telling him his options. He can always choose to be pricked by Ni'ka."

"And we want to make sure he has all the information we declare necessary for an educated choice", Rick added with a feral grin. He had gotten up right now and started to work with the coffee-pot Brenda had pointed out before.

[Random the Navigator]

"Informed consent."  The Na'vi healer nodded.  "I like it.  And you're probably counting on whichever he chooses to be fatal.  But have you thought about what will happen if this man survives either experience?  What will you do then?  A Dreamhunt is as much a prophecy as a revelation of what's already in you; it speaks to your nature, but also points to your future.  As for the Change, it takes days for a Sky Person if Rick's any clue.  Will you be here for the whole thing?  Shall I make ready to nurse him through it?  And if I do so...well, that's going to make him my patient, isn't it?  Which means, odious as he is, I will have to defend him against you."  He leaned backwards against a pillar, kicked up one leg behind him and crossed his arms over his chest, looking somewhat amused at the predicament the others had gotten themselves into.

[Kiyevanie]

This option actually shut the little group up for a moment, Anna even paling under her freckles a little bit. Nobody in their right mind would want to put up a fight with Tangek when he defended a patient. To be honest, the thought of Putin surviving the next few hours had never crossed their minds so far.

Putin, on the other hand, noticed a tiny straw in the middle of the stormy sea he found himself drowning in. That bulky, scary looking alien newcomer had mentioned the word "survive". Was there actually a chance he could survive the whole ordeal? On the other hand, maybe this also could be a ruse, meant to give him hope for a short moment to just crush it shortly after. Having gotten his training in the KGB he knew a few things about psychological warfare and torture and this was a tactic he had used himself a few times already. Why should he have reason to trust a stranger all of a sudden? Heck, he even didn't trust his own people. Power wasn't grabbed by trusting people.
But this was not about power, this was about survival and the last minutes had shown the dictator that his uninvited guests actually did mean business. So he reached for the straw, weak as it might seem.

"Survive?", he asked, voice croaking. "Nurse?"

[Random the Navigator]

Brenda shifted a little uneasily.  It was her idea to radically alter the Russian leader's biochemistry by one method or the other, and now she had to think through the consequences of a worst-case scenario.  Normally she was on top of that sort of thing.  But when it came to trust and self-sufficiency, and even ruthless savagery sometimes, she was more like Putin than she'd care to admit.  There was the side of her she'd been so careful not to show to Enya and family, the side that had the US immigration services unsure of whether to classify her as a refugee or a terrorist.  Her time on Pandora, having Enya in her life and uniting with her Avatar self had gone a long way towards subduing those impulses.  But they were still there, available at need, and she wouldn't hesitate to feed an enemy to the blast-furnace of her focused, disciplined wrath, white-hot as a neutron star.

She felt a little awkward now that her idea of a worst-case scenario was one in which nobody died: ~ What the hell have I become? ~

But Armenia.  And Ukraine.  This rabid dog had to be put down.

She switched to Na'vi.  "Tangek...is there a way we can rid the Earth of this bastard without invoking your protective instincts?"

"Sure," replied the healer, his voice intense.  "Do it in a way that doesn't make him my patient.  I don't think you can count on the Change or the Dreamhunt to end him."

"Great," Brenda sighed.  "Back to the drawing-board..."

[Kiyevanie]

Rick looked up from where he was waiting for the water to cook. "We can finish him off", he suggested, his finger crossing his throat. "It's quick, and dead people don't make good patients to care for."

"Maybe." Ni'ka hesitated. "But didn't we want him to see the errors of his ways before he dies? He's scared now, but I don't think he understands."

"Will he ever?", Anna asked. "Not even Mariupol herself got through to him, or reminding him that his own people are dying; and if those things can't make him think, would pain really make a difference?" She looked at Tangek who hadn't been there when the girl came in. "The Spirit of Mariupol was here", she explained to the healer. "Looking like a little girl, someway surprisingly similar to Enya - if she was human." She turned around towards the door. "That's where 'Iheyu, Enya and Tali are now, trying to catch up with her."

"I wonder if we should look for them", Txa'ren added. "This place is still hostile territory and none of them is a warrior."
 

[Random the Navigator]

"Mariupol," Tangek echoed, savoring the feel of the name in his mouth.  "So they're on speaking terms?  Well, that's something, at least...

"But I'll have to differ with you on the warrior count.  Tali isn't ten years old anymore, he's thirteen.  He's nearly Rick's height, and Rick is a sized-up Tawtute; both of them come up to about here on me."  He held a hand about seven feet off the ground.  "In another year he'll be almost fully-grown; in two he'll be making his own Iknimaya and having his own Dreamhunt.  The boy's very nearly a young man, is what I'm saying; and not only is he our little Clan's finest scout, but he's no slouch with a knife or an arrow either.  Thanks to Enya, he's even gotten skilled with a quarterstaff; only appropriate since she carries the one he made for her way back when.  On Eywa'eveng I would trust him completely with the family's safety."

He paused to consider, then addressed Txa'ren and Anna.  "However, this is enemy territory, and I doubt my son knows his way around Moscow.  Anna, didn't you study in this country?  Surely you've visited this settlement often enough; you even showed us a pretty good coffee-shop on our way in.  Perhaps our family does need a tour guide...  But Txa'ren, your skills are more needed here than anywhere else."

Putin could only guess what any of their talk was about; how could he know it was something as innocuous as a boy's coming-of-age?  But between Rick's unmistakeable throat-cutting gesture and the mention of Mariupol, he was sure the door had just slammed shut on his chances.  His instincts were right, he thought bitterly; he was being played; "good cop/bad cop" was a game as old as interrogation itself.  Plainly they meant to be rid of him no matter what, and now he cursed himself for having ever thought otherwise, even for a moment.

[Kiyevanie]

"I never doubted Tali's skills", Txa'ren replied with a smile. "And I know 'Iheyu can be as fierce as anyone else here and also wouldn't get on Enya's wrong side - she's been getting very good with her staff lately." His chin pointed towards Putin. "I just don't think this worm here doesn't have much fight left in him."

"But you're right", Anna chimed in. "Moscow's an old city and has been through a lot during its history. Roads aren't always straight there and there can be surprises at every corner." She lost herself in memories for a moment. "We only spent a few weeks here, mostly for preparing our expedition and afterwards going through the results, but I did get a few ideas about how this place works, what corners to avoid, and so on. Plus, I speak enough of the language to get along." Her eyes seemed to look through the walls of Kremlin. "I'm sure Mariupol knows where she's going though and I even have a few places in mind where she could be."

"And Tali might even have left a few markers behind", Rick added. "He did so when he taught me about scouting and moving in the woods."

[Random the Navigator]

Brenda considered.  "Or maybe she doesn't know her way around," she said.  "I mean, it's not like cities go visiting each other very often...and I'm not sure how Moscow would 'feel' about her, either.  Kinda worried for that kid, actually..."

Meanwhile, Tangek's eyes were back on the dictator.  "Ni'ka dear, would you mind sitting elsewhere?  Mr Putin and I need to have a talk, and I think he'll give me better answers if he can breathe."  He cracked a half-smile, an uncharacteristic hint of mischief in his eyes.  "What I'd do to know what he and Mariupol said to each other..."

[Kiyevanie]

"Moscow and Mariupol might have more in common than you think", Anna replied. "This place here might not have bombs and rockets raining destruction, but the people are quite as suprressed. They had just gotten used to have the chance to speak their minds a while ago and now they're silenced in fear again. Remember, there were anti-war demonstrations when this all started."

"Then let's go and find her", Txa'ren decided. "This city and her spirit have been through enough already." One of his browstripes went up, watching Ni'ka getting up and the battered human on the ground. "I don't think one warrior less or more will make a difference in here - whatever you'll do with him in the end, I think we broke him already." There wasn't any regret or sympathy in his voice, just a stating of facts.

And indeed there wasn't much fight in Putin at the moment. Realizing he wouldn't get out of this with his skin intact had definitely erased a lot of his arrogance. Ni'ka picked him up at his neck again and put him on one of the chairs in the way too big room. "He's all yours", she told Tangek.

[Random the Navigator]

As Anna's group made ready to leave, Tangek turned to the Russian leader.  "All right, you know how this goes," he said.  "As a fellowship, my companions and I all have a strong sense of and attachment to the places that are important to us.  That being the case, we're all a little upset that you've been bombing cities like Mariupol into rubble and enslaving their people, and frankly I'm suprised she didn't turn on you with the strength of her half-million former inhabitants or something.  Would have saved us a little trouble and a lot of talk, but she might be too gentle for that.  Gentle, but not meek; imagine what it must have taken for her to come up here in the first place and manifest herself to you.  That must have been as difficult as us coming here from Pandora.

"Do you understand what I'm saying, Mr Putin?  You've been puffing and blowing and snorting contempt, and maybe that's all you're made of.  But a lot of people have gone through a lot of trouble to try to save you from yourself, and the least you could have done was hear them out.

"Very well; since you won't listen to us, I think it'd do you some good to be stuck with yourself for a little bit.  Just you; no aides, no attendants, no ambassadors or fellow world leaders...just you, your thoughts, your deeds, your feelings if you have any, and see if you can stand yourself afterwards.  The Dreamhunt will do that to you.  So will the Change.  By offering these things, we are saying we're not going to kill you outright.  So we're right back to what Brenda said: Choose your poison.  I'll wait..."

[Kiyevanie]

Vladimir Putin had been alone most of his life. Growing up in the former Soviet Union and making his way to the top wasn't a life that allowed for letting many people getting close. Yes, there had been companions on the way, but he had been always aware that any of them could slip a knife into his back any time - just the same as he had backstabbed several himself. There had been women too, but he didn't consider women completely his equal, they were for fun in the bedroom and carrying children. Not that he was especially close to his children either.
But this very moment had a very special flavour of being alone. He had to decide not how to get out of this situation, but about which way he'd suffer. Somehow he still couldn't wrap his head around it all, the whole situation being surreal.

Still, it was the situation he was in, so what were his options? He could drink whatever brew the soldier mixed up, suffer through hallucinations and either die or... what? He didn't believe in this crap about 'spirit animals' or whatever else there was supposed to be. Or he could get injected with whatever stuff this alien girl had in her claw and get... what? Changed? He frowned - that was what the 'merican guy was too, right? Didn't look so bad on the outside. Yeah, there was the grayish hue to his skin, but the guy was frickin strong, tall and looked healthy. Being strong... that was something he had always admired, not that spiritual treehugging stuff.

He took a deep breath and glared at Ni'ka. "Alright, alien freak. Bring it!"

[Random the Navigator]

"Ah," said Tangek.  "Well, if you're going to do it that way, you'll experience some fever and chills before the process really gets going.  Just in case, here's a shirt; you can sweat into it when you're hot, and it'll retain your body heat for when you feel cold.  Catch--!"

Vladimir Putin found himself on the receiving end of an olive-green short-sleeved T-shirt.  Just his color, he decided; it went perfectly with the camouflage trousers he liked to wear with the bare-torso look.  He slipped it on, still looking a little dazed, and settled in for the sting...

...But then he noticed what was printed on the shirt.  It was the cross-emblem and trident of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.  The same shirt that that peasant, that bad comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy preferred for his "presidential" videoconferences.

All of a sudden he didn't need Ni'ka's thorn to make him rage incoherently.

Brenda grinned widely at the healer and his...charge.  "I think he's ready now," she quipped.  "He won't feel a thing!"