I wanted to save this one for later, but it's the first chapter I finished and I felt it would be best to use this as a sign that I haven't abandoned this.

Graceful Transcendence

"I need to take some samples…" Grace said weakly, a wane smile visible through the breathing mask. The towering Avatar form of Jake Sully cradled her vine-wrapped naked body and nimbly stepped across the mesh-like ground of the Well of Souls. Barely conscious, she felt like she was floating, swaying with Jake's every step and turn. Am I dead? She thought. The floating sensation combined with the vibrant bioluminescent blue of the Well of Souls convinced her weakening mind that she was in a dream. She felt the presence of her physical body, but at the same time it felt distant. The enormous distance she felt seemed to be growing.

Somewhere in the distance she could feel herself being placed on her left side on the ground.

"The Great Mother may choose to save all that she is… in this body." Grace heard Mo'at saying, her understanding of Na'vi still perfect despite her delirious state of mind. The voice was extremely muffled, as if she were hearing it from under water.

"Is that possible?" Jake asked, his voice barely audible to her.

How did he understand that? Grace thought weakly. Wait, did she even talk in Na'vi? It was as if all the syntaxical boundaries between languages had melted away, leaving only the meaning of the different words. Na'vi, English, French, Swiss, all of the languages she could understand seemed indistinguishable in her current state of mind. Why is his voice so quiet compared to hers?

"Possible, yes. She must pass through the Eye of Eywa—and return. But Jakesully—she is very weak." She felt like her mind was getting closer to her body. She could now feel the individual straw-like roots that blanket the ground on her bare skin, the warm tropical air of the forest, even the energy from the light of the forest.

"Hang on, they're gonna fix you up." Jake said, taking her hand in his. She squeezed weakly, about to take advantage of the slipping opportunity to use her body.

"I – always held back. But you gave them your heart. I'm proud of you, Jake." She paused, getting a better grasp of her body. "Help them. You do whatever it takes. You hear me?"

"I will."

The ceremony took a very long time. How long, Grace would never know. She felt like she had enough time to review every fact in her mind, and yet at the same time it felt like only a minute.

Then, a sensation she had never felt before. She felt like she was laying in a rising pool of feathers, their comforting texture gradually caressing more of her body from her left side to her right. The comforting sensation seemed to draw her mind back to her body, but her wounds were driving her away.

Eventually she could tell that the feathery feeling was actually thousands of hair-like roots bridging two consciousnesses: Eywa and her own. They are piercing my skin, but they don't hurt. They must be… thinner than the array of pain receptors on my skin. She couldn't help but analyze all she could, it's a habit she practiced every day as a scientist.

All of a sudden, she had lost her ties to her body. She was in limbo: a disembodied consciousness hovering in a nonexistent realm. There was no sensory input: she could no longer taste, see, feel, hear, or speak. There was only her mind and a… consciousness, awareness, mentality (Or lack thereof), a feeling of… freedom. Absolute freedom. Freedom from body, freedom of mind, of unbound comprehension. In this state anything one could possibly be taught would instantly be understood by her, her mind like that of a perfect logistician. She had the same mental power at her disposal as The Hulk had physical.

Something else was there, also. She didn't feel like she was in one place anymore. She felt like she was a part of each of the one hundred-plus Omaticaya that were present. With Eywa as a medium she felt a deep connection with every single entity attached to the network. Although the bond was strongest among the Omaticaya, it was not just the tribe exclusively: she felt presences from all over the planet. People praying, people seeking guidance, people making love, people grieving, everyone that shared a connection also shared a bond with herself. Unfortunately, after the war with the sky people, connections with Eywa were overwhelming dominated by grief and pain. Individually, she was too far away to feel what the foreign connections feel, but collectively it was enough to weigh herself down. The scale of the battle was finally coming into perspective for her. Compared to wars of the human's history this was a minor skirmish, but the pain was unbearable. If humans were capable of feeling this collective pain, there would be no more war, She thought.

All but two seemed alive: herself, and her Avatar.

She realized something beautiful: she felt every last of the chanting, swaying Omaticaya that had connected to the Well of Souls loving her. They truly, with every fiber of their being, wanted Eywa to allow her to become one of them. She knew the children from her school loved her and that those who knew the children knew that she meant well, but she had no idea that they absolutely desired for her to stay. From the perspective of the Na'vi she expressed pure, unbridled love, and from her own perspective she felt fully loved. It was a beautiful feeling that she hadn't felt since she left Earth for the Avatar program. If she were able to cry, she would have been bawling.

And then, as quickly she was snatched up from her human body, she was hurled back into it, but she had still maintained some connection with that presence. She snapped her eyes open and gasped, still gripping Jake's hand.

"I'm with her Jake — She's real." She said with tears forming in her eyes, still reeling from her mental experiences. She could feel her body dieing and her mind turned to Eywa, that omnipotent presence she was just a part of, for salvation. Eywa accepted her, and allowed her mind to become a part of itself.

Her consciousness had to pass through every inch of her nervous system, including the gaping bullet wound in her abdomen to get to Eywa. Oh my god! Her mind exclaimed. It felt like the nerves in her abdomen were being ripped apart like a sheet of Velcro, and her body began bleeding out of the wound again. Her mind traveled out through the root-cilia, chased by the blood seeping along their length. Her body exhaled, and it was all over.

"GRACE!" Shouted Jake. The bloodied roots fell away from her body as he looked on. He turned to her Avatar, but to no avail: The roots were falling away from its cold, vacant form.

Mo'at stopped the chant and walked over the Jake. "Her wounds were too great, there was not enough time. She is with Eywa now." She said, putting her hand on Jake's shoulder. Neytiri removed Grace's mask and closed her eyes.

She was gone.