The world was fuzzy as Jake opened his eyes, sound muffled. The overpowering smell of antiseptic seemed to suddenly reach, and at the same time attack, his nostrils, drawing his mind closer to consciousness.
Two figures came into a focus above him, "Jake, can you hear me?" The words sounded as if he was underwater.
A light was shone directly into his, still focusing, eyes.
"Can you hear me?" A little less underwater this time.
Lights were in his eyes again.
He felt very much like a frog on a lab table.
Suddenly, two snaps of fingers, right beside his ears, and everything slid into focus.
"How are you feeling, Jake?" The woman above him asked
"Hey, guys" Jake tried a smile, feeling oddly lopsided, like he was trying on a new suit in a dressing room, having to shake and straighten bites into place.
"Welcome to your new body" the man said and the two stepped back out of his direct view.
Jake felt his world tilt on its axis and then suddenly snap into a new position. He had momentarily forgotten what was going on, where he was, and what had just happened. He lifted his oddly heavy limbs in front of his face. Blue. It was all very blue. He flexed his hands, feeling slightly disconnected from them.
"Good, we're gonna take this slow, okay?" The man said, popping back into his line of sight. He could hear another man to his left telling someone, he assumed was Norm, to touch his fingers together.
"Do you want to sit up?" The woman asked, a second behind Jake, who had already moved to prop up his torso.
"We're gonna take this nice and slow, Jake-" the man kept talking after that, but Jake couldn't be bothered to listen as he focused in of his lower half. A rush of fear coursed through him. Could he move his legs? It only made sense, right? His problem wasn't in his brain, but his body and this was a new body. His legs would work, Jake repeated this in his head as he attempted to flex the muscles he hadn't quite forgotten the feeling of.
He felt his heart still, and then a toe moved, and he could breathe again.
He vaguely heard a praise for his motor skills from one of the scientists beside him, but they got drowned out by a rush of adrenaline. Jake was suddenly restless and he, more or less, subconsciously decided that he wasn't going to sit there and go over fine motor skills.
He felt, rather than heard their protests when he planted his feet on the floor and braced himself against the gurnee. Then he was standing, albeit shakily.
He knows they're panicking as he wobbles, but he can't stop now.
"It's okay, it's good, I got this" he tried to reassure them as he braced himself against the glass.
He heard something shatter and he suddenly became aware of a tail, his tail, as it wrapped around his arm. There are more crashes when he tried to get a good look at it, which led him to decide it would probably be best if he got out of the room, which seemed small in relation to his, now, much larger body.
He heard the word 'sedate' as he attempted a step, and that just solidified his resolve to get out of the room. The scientists were running around, panicked, but they seemed very far below him and he didn't care.
He took another step, felt a tug, and promptly ripped off the wires connecting him to motors behind him.
Another step and he was wobbling again, he braced himself against the glass in front of him. He could see Max yelling orders, trying to get him contained. "You're not used to your avatar body, this is dangerous!"
Jake flashed him a grin, "this is great."
At that, he stumbled his way to a large door to his left and pushed in open, oblivious to the chaos he had left in his wake. He could apologize later.
A rush of air hit his face as he opened the second door, he had to blink a few times to let his eyes adjust to the new, natural sunlight, instead of the artificial lights he'd just been under.
When he could see again, he took a second to take in his surroundings. A few scientists stood nearby, looking startled at his sudden entrance... or, more accurately, his sudden exit. A couple other people in avatars were playing basketball on a nearby court.
Jake took a few unsteady steps towards them, he apologized vaguely for interrupting. He could hear commotion behind him, recognizing the voices of the scientists and Norm.
He wasn't about to go back into that lab to be chastised, so Jake, still buzzing restlessly with adrenaline, decided to start running, or, at least, trying to.
He dodged avatars along an obstacle course and could hear Norm's almost equally unsteady footsteps behind him as he called for Jake to stop. But Jake was, with each step, beginning to feel more and more connected with this body. Soon, his shaky steps evened out, and he was running, leaving Norm far behind him.
He felt a laugh bubble up from his lungs as his feet hit the ground, the impact reverberating up his body. He had never thought he would be able to do this again, to feel the ground beneath him, to feel the burn in his muscles and the breathlessness in his lungs that he felt just then.
His mood shifted suddenly as a mech appeared in his path. He dodged it easily and it went on its way, the man inside yelling for him to watch himself. He looked at it as it walked away, the large machine was just as tall as him, as a Na'vi. These were the machines the other tribe had told the Omatacaya they had seen the humans mining in, and he was sure the humans were prepared to use them for much worse than mining.
Jake turned from the retreating mech and began running again, but this time, he wasn't running for him, he felt like each step brought him closer to Tsu'tey. He ran through a garden patch full of plants he knew, some he knew were used for medicine, some for paints, some for food. He could feel the loose dirt kick up as he ran, and he felt overwhelmed by the sense that he was finally home, where he had always belonged, where he was destined to come to. His run slowed until he stopped completely, he took in a deep breathe and dug his toes into the soil. This was home.
"Hey, marine," a voice pulled him from his thoughts
Jake looked up and saw an avatar body he knew only too well. "Grace" he tried to keep the distain from his voice.
"Well, who'd you expect, numb-nuts?" She smiled, almost good natured-ly at him. He wasn't sure why the sudden shift in attitude, but he didn't really care. His problem with Grace stemmed much deeper than her apparent previous dislike of him. He knew Grace, and while he knew it was probably not entirely her fault, he blamed her for what had happened, for him almost losing Tsu'tey.
"Think fast" she said, seemingly oblivious to his ill-feelings, as she plucked a deep purple fruit from a nearby tree and tossed it to him.
Jake could've laughed if he were in any other company, "Utu mauti" he said barely loud enough for Grace to hear. This was Tsu'tey's favorite fruit, and Jake had always wondered what it tasted like.
He bit into the soft skin and was immediately pleased with the flavor. He could see this taking the spot of his favorite fruit and tried not to get caught up in feeling closer to Tsu'tey.
"Yeah... that's right" Grace had a perplexed look on her face, but she seemed to shake it off "motor controls looking good."
She was smiling at him, a real, warm smile and Jake almost felt bad for the hate he felt for her. She didn't know, she didn't know that he knew what had happened. But that didn't change anything.
"Yeah" he couldn't keep the scowl from his lips as he moved past her. He could feel, rather than see, the confused look on her face. He wasn't here to make friends. He was here to find Tsu'tey and help in any way he could, and as far as Jake knew, Grace was a threat to that goal.
Jake spent the rest of the day exploring the grounds, making polite, albeit short, conversation with some of the other avatar-which he decided to use the name dreamwalker for, since that was the first way he learned to describe them.
When evening came, the other dreamwalkers gathered in the large hut located on the grounds, beds lined the walls and Jake figured this is where they left their bodies while they were not in use.
He lay back and listened to the chatter around him, wishing he was with the Omatacaya.
"Lights out," he heard Grace shout as she flicked off the overhead lights, "see you at dinner, kiddies."
Jake followed the example of the other dreamwalkers and laid down on his large cot. He could hear the sounds of the forest just out of reach as he closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was back in the pod. He pushed the top open and tried not to feel disappointed when there was no pull of muscle in his legs.
"Welcome back" he heard Max say above him, pulling him away from his self-pity.
It appeared all was forgiven for his rouge escape from the lab.
"You okay?" He asked as Jake sat up and began lowering himself into his chair.
"Yeah, I'm alright" Jake tried to sound convincing as he hoisted his legs out of the pod.