Helloooooooo ^^ This is my second chapter and I´m pretty happy that someone likes my story. Well, there´s only the prolog up but I guess the first chapter or the prolog is the most important : )
I want to thank my two first reviewer (if this word exists XD): Bigoldfrog and GreenpplOMG. Thanks for your honest opinion!
Well, I also want to thank horsechick27 and newty01 that chose „Through your eyes" as one of their favourite stories! ^^ hope you´ll read in future and maybe review!
Here I go!
Annas POV
I cringed.
My whole body tensed up and my eyes flew open. The first thing I saw was a plastic wall a few inches from my face and something like blue air between.
I wasn´t claustrophibic but suddenly I nearly panicked.
I wanted to move, I couldn´t move.
A wire mesh tightened around my trunk and pressed my arms against my rips and hips. Where the hell am I?, was all I could think and tried to remember.
And suddenly the feeling of numbness faded away, a pillow seemed to be removed from my ears and my breath eased.
Memories swamped my mind. Mom, a studying Tommy in the kitchen, Jake in a wheelchair, Tommys grave, Jake and me entering a building and a shuttle, a plastic locker...
A soundless „Oh!" wrested from my throat when the room began to move with a muffled thrum and backed out of something that Jake has called a fridge.
Bright light blinded me and I frowned. My eyes blinked helplessly and the light seemed to fall through my eyes into my brain and caused a vicious headache.
A man, dressed in white, came over to me. The minimized gravity allowed all the people aborad to...fly.
„Morning, miss. You slept well?", he asked and smiled, while he unchained me from the wire mesh. I didn´t know what to say.
My brain had a hard time to handle that I just woke up from a pretty long sleep.
I felt the mans eyes on me.
„It doesn´t feel like six years."
He laughed.
„That´s the general idea, young lady.", he said and pulled me out of my frozen bed, then he disappeared. I felt weightless, free and began to move my arms and legs, while I looked around. The hall was full of technological stuff, the crew checked everything while the other people around me woke up one after another.
I looked down and recognized the clothes I´ve worn when the mission started, the same shoes, the same jeans and the same t-shirt. My hair was as long as six years ago, but though Jake told me that I wouldn´t really age while Cryo, I was afraid to look into a mirror.
The man returned and pulled me with him. He dragged me over to a locker and handed me a small piece of paper. „This is your code for the locker. Your stuff is in there. You may feel dizzy or queasy so if you feel like puking, please use the plastic bag. See ya!"
He gave me a wink and disappeared again. I opened my locker and stopped in a moment of realization when I looked into my own eyes.
There was a mirror at the hind wall and shocked me. Well, there wasn´t anything to be shocked about, I didn´t feel older and to my relief I looked like I did before on earth, leaving aside the fact that my skin was awful pale.
Then I called myself a fool: What did I expect? These six years were nothing but a second of darkness. I closed my eyes and opened them again and six years were over.
Oh yeah, I acted like a scared child.
„You look horrible!"
I cringed for the second time today and turned around. Jake came over to me and gave me a bear hug. I was relieved, happy. His presence made feel safe.
He looked as pale as me but somehow satisfied with his situation. He needed his wheelchair to move, now he could fly and move without the so-called „monster".
It made him grin and eased this strange feeling inside of me.
Everything felt...wrong. The last time I felt this way was when my mother died and I tried to go on with my daily life. I couldn´t concentrate, my head hurted and all I wanted to do was to lie in bed and stare at the roof.
Everything was upside down.
Now I tried to look angry, but I failed bitterly.
„I told you not to sneak up on me, remember? When you first came up with this, I thought it was nothing but an older brothers furtiveness. But now I rather think you like to lift my heart attack risk on purpose.", I said and he knew I wasn´t really mad at him.
„I´m an ex-marine.", Jake justified and let go of me. „Old habits die hard."
I made a face at him and watched him approach his own locker.
Then I turned around sighing and mustered my reflexion again. I don´t look that bad, fair to middling. I have the same balky hair just like Tommy and Jake and the same eyes. My reflexion looked back at me and wore the same sour expression, so I grabbed my things, slapped the door close and tried my best to approach Jake, who had a hard time not to laugh.
He watched me fight with the gravity and grabbed my hand to help me.
Two crew members waved us nearer, a door openened and one after another the Pandora newbies entered the separated room, inclusive Jake and me.
He led me straight through the room and pulled me next to him in the corner.
We watched all the other people stream through the portal, looked at different faces, varying in colour and age.
Very young guys, a great many of them not even twenty, old graying veterans with scarred bodies, swearing rednecks and absentminded professors, but the major part of them seemed in their late twenties.
Some of them mustered me with this typically male expression and I felt Jakes hand tighten around mine. I looked up and couldn´t helpt but grin.
Jake wore his Touch-my-little-sis-and-you-die-look, something pretty efficient. His eyes checked every single man that entered the room and was busy with scaring them away.
Tommy was in no way inferior to Jake, both of them were overprotective when it came to boys.
In this matter they had nothing to fear. Neither was I highly conveted nor did I care about those few statements of male attention. At my old school was no guy who wouldn´t call me ugly. A lot of them loved to look at me and tell me what they thought about my visual identity. Well, it never hurted me that much, they were fifteen at most and the major part of them seemed as if they had learned how to walk upright the day before.
Guys like them looked only at girls with mini skirts, high heels and awful lot of make-up. The one day I noticed this fact made me stronger and suddenly I was pretty happy that none of those guys liked me. I knew that I was rather beautiful and that was everything I asked for.
I couldn´t stop grinning in amusement, turned around to faced the wall for a moment and pressed my hand onto my mouth.
The room was calm and laughing out loud wouldn´t appeal to all the others.
It would be as good as if I had a shingle around my neck with „Look at me!" on it.
Jake noticed my muffled laughing and looked a bit confused. But I pulled myself together, waited patiently until the gravity became normal again and we sank to the floor.
Jake lay his arm around my shoulder and I groaned, afaraid to collape under his weigh. I utterly forgot that Jake needed his wheelchair. The exit opened and a man entered the room, while all the other people disappeared. He carried the folded wheelchair, flipped it open, left and didn deign to look at us.
„Thanks.", I muttered and helped Jake to sit down.
I saw frustration in his eyes and knew how much he hated the feeling of not being able to move around without this thing.
Now that we touched the floor again, I felt a little uneasy on my legs. The other men seemed much taller and substantial studier than before and suddenly I felt awful tiny and weak and wondered if all this had been a good idea.
But I had no time to worry, Jake took my hand and pulled me with him.
Together we followed the other marines along the hallways, the shuttle gave us a good shake and a voice through the loud speaker told us that we were in our final descent. I had a hard time to walk straight ahead and Jake laughed at me while his wheelchair moved as solid as a rock.
We passed another door and a man on our right handed us something like a plastik mask surrounded by rubbergaskets.
He gave us a strange look then ordered us to sit down. It was a long hall and all the others sat yet. I looked down, put my bag on the floor and sat down too.
I knew that all eyes were on Jake and me. On me for being the only woman and on Jake for being wheelchair-bound.
My big bro send them a defiant look, dropped his bags, then he lifted himself from his wheelchair and onto the seat.
A black guy with a confident expression entered the room and walked down the hall and back to the door where it began. He mustered every single person and gave Jake and me the same strange look as the other guy before.
I could tell from the way he walked, that this man was used to command and that everybody followed his instructions immediately.
„I´m your commander for this short moment and I suggest to put on your Exopacks. This air out there is nothing but sheer poison. Breath it in and you will be unconcious in forty seconds and dead withing one minute."
We all did what he said and put the so-called Exopack on.
Our shuttle began to shook again, my back slammed into the wall and I gasped in pain and surprise when I was thrown forwards.
At the very last moment I could grasp the seat belt behind me. The others struggled with the same problem, one of the youngest marines couldn´t hold on to something fast enough and so he was pulled from his seat and crashed on the floor. He didn´t stand up anymore.
I looked away from the lifeless body and held on the seat belt for dear life.
I couldn´t look over to Jake though I really worried about him. But soon it was all over and the commander who had been as calm as if we went for a visit to the zoo, pushed the button to open the ramp. It lowered with a nasal buzzing sound.
He planted himself in front of us, blocking the exit, and crossed his arms infron of his chest.
„Keep your Exopacks on, no deads today, it doesn´t look good on my report. Now get out!"
And suddenly the others formed lines and ran down the ramp.
„Oh, shit!", I gasped and jumped up, grabbed my bag and Jakes, who hurried to sit back on his wheelchair and then I stumbled outside, followed by Jake.
„Come on! It´s not my job to wait for special cases and stupid children.", the commander yelled and frowned. I looked down, not sure of what to say, Jake frowned back.
And then we entered the other world.
From that moment on I felt my jaw drop and couldn´t stop staring. I stared like a child. I nearly collapsed under the three bags but nothing, really nothing could steal my attention away from my surrounding that moment.
The first thin I saw were plants, a huge ancient forest. Their leaves shimmered in every single tint of green and blue and some of the trees seemed as tall as skyscrapers.
„A forest.", was everything I could whisper. I was a child of Earth where trees were historic sights and animals existed only as pets or food. On Earth, nearly no birds could be seen on the horizont and here, on Pandora, the sky was filled with life. I closed my mouth and looked over to Jake who moved straight ahead and seemed also pretty stunned, but I knew that he wasn´t stunned by the incredible nature but rather by technology.
„Jake, wait!" I ran after him and nearly fell, when he abruptly stopped and grabbed my hand. A monstrous robot passed by and I would´ve been crashed if Jake weren´t there. I could see that a person was inside. The man loooked down on me, mustered me, then he turned around and the robot followed his movements.
„Holy shit!", Jake whispered and his eyes followed the huge robot.
I smiled.
Ex-marines never change!, I thought and pointed at the robot.
„A Mitsubishi MK-6 Amplified Mobility Platform.", I said and Jake looked up at me. I knew this kind of look and made a face at him. He always looked at me that way when he read the word "smart ass" on my forehead.
„It´s an AMP Suit."
He seemed to remember, Tommy had told us pretty much about all the technology they worked with on Pandora. Those AMP Suits weren´t anything new but it was stunning to watch them in real life.
Tommy...
I felt as if a big wave of sadness overhelmed me and suddenly I needed to hold back from crying. Tommy was the chosen one to see all this. He spent three years of life to study for this adventure and now he would never see all this.
He was dead.
I knew how much he would´ve loved this, Tommy loved the nature he´d never seen and this planet would´ve been heaven to him.
The AMP passed and Jake moved forwards until he noticed that I wasn´t right beside him. He turned around and I noticed his eyes on me.
„Anna, what´s wrong?", he asked and his voice was worried. Then he saw the tears in my eyes and came back to me.
He took my hand and I tried to blink my tears away.
You´re such a fool!, I told myself and lowered my head to hide my face from all the curious men around us.
Jake pulled on my hand for two times until I looked at him.
„Why are you crying?", he asked and looked a bit embarrassed. He never liked a crying Anna because he never knew how to handle it. A lot of people called him stone-hearted but I, his little sister, knew that he just didn´t know how to react.
„It´s nothing, I just thought of Tommy. He really would´ve loved Pandora.", I said and shrugged my shoulders. After all I couldn´t hold back my tears.
Jake nodded and his eyes spoke of immense love. „I miss him too."
The stone-cold ex-marine sat in his wheelchair and wasn´t so badass-like anymore.
I tried to smile, comforted by his worry. I knew that jake loved me, he´d ever loved me. I was his little sister, he was the man with a big future as Avatar operator and Jake risked it all for me.
I squeezed his hand.
„Nevermind. Tommy will be with us.", I said and pulled him after me.
We crossed the huge landing field and passed by a lot of people.
I looked around nervously. In better words, we passed by a lot of men.
The one who noticed us poked his comrade with the elbow and nodded in our direction.
They laughed and joked around. One of them gave me a wolf whistle and I heard his words clearly when he said: „Guys, look at this! Damn, Pandora gets interesting!"
I felt Jakes hand tighten around mine, but he stayed calm. Luckily. Well, whatelse should he do? He may was an ex-marine, but also a wheelchair-bounded ex-marine.
I lowered my eyes until we entered the building and all these guys were far away. Some people led us up the stairs and along an endless amount of hallways until we reached a big hall.
„Looks like a cafeteria." I whispered and Jake grinned. The huge room was full of people and I recognized them as all the other Pandora newbies. They sat around and listened to grayhaired hulk. Everybody, the gray-head included, wore clothes in camo colours and suddenly I felt strange in my jeans. Not that I liked those army clothes, but Jake and me in our ordinary clothes really made a spectacle of ourselve.
I sat down in the background and put the bags down, Jake stopped next to me and then we listened to the musclehead.
I didn´t like him. He walked as if there were razor blades in his armpits and everything about him made me think: Idiot!
I didn´t listen to him, he seemed to talk about security measures but Jake watched him walk around and seemed pretty amused.
„Nothing´s more soothing than a good old safety instruction.", he whispered and I shrugged my shoulders.
„I´m not interested in old redecks puppet theaters.", I said and Jake pressed his lips together to muffle his laughter. I looked back at the gray-head and noticed that he mustered Jake and me. I looked back arrogantly until his eyes switched over to Jake who looked back in the same way. The only thing I really heard from his speech, was his name and his rank: Colonel Miles Quaritch, Chief of Security of „Hell's Gate".
I guess I´m the only one who doesn´t hang on his every word., I thought and mustered the others, people I would spent a lot of time with.
Suddenly Jake turned around and grabbed one of the bags and noticed my questioning look. „You shouldn´t carry this all alone. It´s way to heavy for you, princess.", he said teasingly and grinned. Then I noticed that all the others streamed over to the exit and jumped up. I rose my brows. „Watch out so you don´t break your back.", I said and took the other two.
Together we left the cafeteria and walked along the hallways. Jake handed me a piece of paper. „Can you read that for me, sis? I cannot move with one hand." He said and I unfolded the paper. There was a room number on it and our names.
Room: 8415; Jake Sully, Anna Sully.
I looked up and searched for the right number on the right door.
„May I lead you to your six star suite, Mr. Sully?", I aped a liftboy and heard Jake laugh. „You really have Tommys humour, ya know?", he said and I was a littlebit proud of myself. I´ve always tried to be like Tommy. He was intelligent, educated and one of the best persons I´ve ever known.
Besides Mum and Jake.
„Hey...! Uhm...excuse me! Hey, you must be Jake Sully, Toms brother!"
I turned half around and noticed a tall slender guy with nut-brown hair and a friendly face. He reached his hand out to Jake who shook it, slightly surprised.
„Yeah, I am."
„Oh, and you must be Anna! Tom spoke a lot of you.", he said and gave me a bright smile while he shook my shyly offered hand.
„And who are you?", Jake asked and I was a bit embarrassed by his rudeness.
The man seemed to notice that he hadn´t inroduced himself to us.
„Oh, I´m sorry! Where are my manners? I´m Norm Spellman. I completed the Avatar training together with Tom."
I mustered him intensely and tried to remember. There were weeks when Tommy was at home and showed us photos and stuff he learned at the Avatar training. Sometimes he spoke of his comrades, one of them was Norm Spellman.
Norm seemed pretty nice, he was curious and obviously happy to see Jake and me, though he didn´t know us.
But I couldn´t blame him. I could understand that he searched for company that wouldn´t only speak about boozing, guns and broads.
„Come on, I´ll show you the Avatar section.", he said and turned the corner. Jake and I darted a glance at each other. He knew that I wanted to fall on my bed and sleep though I slept for six years.
I felt drained.
But he made that special face, that cute-Jake-face and was wax in his hands.
„Well, okay! Here we go again!", I groaned and he grinned back at me. Then we followed Norm along the crowded hallways to the Avatar section
My feet hurted pretty much and I couldn´t keep the route in mind. Then we stopped infront of an open door and Norm cleared his throat and entered.
„Wow! The main laboratory! I guess we´ll spent a lot of time in here!"
Neither Jake nor me answered. Jake looked around and felt obviously uneasy surrounded by all that scientific stuff and I couldn´t take my eyes elsewhere.
I walked over to a shelf and mustered every single object, most of them of technical character.
One of them caught my attention and the words escaped from my mouth before I really knew what I was doing.
„A Trackmate Microscope."
Norm turned around and came over to me, followed by another scientist and Jake. Norm looked pretty curious as if he nearly exploded because of his huge amount of questions. The scientist looked delighted.
„How do you know?", he asked and reached his hand to me. „I´m Dr. Max Patel. It´s nice to meet you." I shook his hand and smiled. „Pleasure is all mine. I´m Anna Sully."
He laughed. „I know. Actually everybody knows. The day we heard that Toms brother and sister appear instead of him a wildfire of news spread.", he said.
Jake screwed up his nose.
Norm looked at the microscope and then at me.
„Tommy showed me some pictures and explained how they work. A small high tech microscope capable of 250 times magnification.", I answered his question.
The scientists nodded, Jake rolled his eyes. I walked over to him and patted his shoulder.
Max laughed. „Well, it´s pretty soothing that Toms sister won´t be bored with us." He led us across the room and his face showed a thrill of anticipation.
„And I´m happy to give you a surprise."
He walked over to something that looked like an glass cocoon. Something was in there, something tall and blue.
The Avatars?, I thought and stepped closer. Max pointed at the left one.
„This is yours, Norm." The young man walked over to his Avatar and mustered it´s blue skin. I stepped beside him and looked at it´s face. „Wow! He looks pretty much like you!", I said and smiled at Norm and he nodded, excited like a little child that received a new toy. I turned around and saw Jake who moved over to the other cocoon. I walked over to him and looked at the familiar face.
It was a strange moment. I knew that this Avatar was planned as Tommys, now it belonged to Jake. I mustered my brothers face and noticed how thoughtful he looked.
„Looks like Tommy.", he said and turned half around to look at me. I nodded. „He also looks like you.", I added and saw him smile.
Max cleared his throat and I looked up. He grinned and shifted from one foot to the other. „Anna, may you follow me?"
He led me across the room and I noticed a third cocoon.
Wait, there are only two new Avatar operators., was all I thought and frowned.
I stepped even closer and cringed. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped when I looked into my own face.
Max grinned even more. „Welcome to Pandora!"
Well, it may be cocky but I have to clap myself on the back. This chapter is wonderful, I´m really proud. By my standards I wrote pretty fast and I checked it over and over and wrote that much. ^^ Oh, I don´t know if my informations about the air at Pandora are right, but I was too lazy to turn on the movie so I gave my own informations. I don´t own Avatar or the characters, only my little Anna and my own story I connect with „Avatar". I really hope you like it and review. Pls, pls, pls!
Love, LR!
