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Eywa has seen her fair share of atrocities. She’s partaken and created them, stopped and halted them.
There is a saying among her children that she does not intervene if she does not have to, that she protects the balance of life.
But that’s not always true.
Eywa is a mother above all else. She is a creator, a mother, a father, a wife, a husband, and a child. In her eyes life is not meant to be taken, but it is also not truly meant to be given. Life is a gift more powerful than She. Despite what many of her children believe, she cannot take it, just as she cannot truly give it. Life is meant to be ones own, created by the will and power of one’s own being, one’s own strength. Eywa gives them a vessel, a body to do with and move around as her children please, but they are in charge of their own lives. They are in charge of creating their own paths, stories and histories.
She has lived many, many cycles. She has seen billions of her children through their lives, seen their own children and great grandchildren. She has welcomed them all with opened arms, seeing them returned to her with grace and full lives, just for her to send them back, and the cycle repeats. But, every once in a while there is an…anomaly within her children. New souls she does not remember making, but does remember welcoming.
Like Miles ‘Spider’ Socorro.
Spiders name wasn’t always ‘Spider’. Eywa remembers the day her human child was born, small, pink and loud, back then, he carried the name Miles. He had the spirit of a warrior before he even opened his eyes. She had never felt as proud as she did the day Miles finished his first warriors task at the age of 7, completing them all as much as was possible for him by the time he turned 8, youngest in the last 67 cycles of her forest children. From the moment Miles was born Eywa tried to watch over him as much as possible. She wanted to watch this warrior grow into a man she would be honored to have by her side once his time comes, a man she would embrace and love like she sees he never was.
Eywa is rarely angry. Although, recently it seems likes that’s all she’s been since the people of her human child had descended upon her lands. Angry, mournful and grief stricken. She is no stranger to war, her children partake in it from time to time with each other. But, the battle with the people of the sky was something that not even The Great Mother herself predicted. The souls of her children reached her in agony, crying and begging to finish what they started, to return to defend her. She shushed them all, lovingly and sweet, and sent them on their way to their departeds.
But…she is rarely angry.
She saw Miles through his life, saw how he despairs behind grey and white walls at 5, how he grows into himself more and more, watching her from behind a window with a look of longing at age 6. A look of longing she returned fiercely. She watched as the humans in charge of her child neglected him in favor of their research, leaving him to his own devices. And she watched as, despite being all but forgotten, Miles finds his own entertainment. Watches as he slaves away over books, stealing parts of the humans machines that are unnecessary or unneeded, building his own toys and creations, watched as both his mind and curiosity grew stronger every day.
The day she sent her champion child, Jake Sully, to Home Base with their children, Neteyam and Lo’ak, with her blessing Kiri tagging along, was a split second decision. She watched for 7 cycles as her human child became more and more isolated, more withdrawn and sad. She knew that if she did not intervene this isolation would lead her child to her quicker than she would’ve liked.
It turned out to be a wonderful decision. Instead of watching her human child wither away behind glass, unable to reach him, to feel him, to love him, Eywa now got to watch as he grew happier, stronger, learned to love and hunt and climb. The day she saw Miles smile, a true real smile, it rained for days. She was so happy, she couldn’t contain it. Slowly Miles started transitioning into the way of life of her children, becoming Spider along the way.
It suited him, the way he couldn’t sit still for the life of him. His ability to climb trees faster and more agile than any of her adult children could, let alone her younger children. The way he was incredibly intelligent and, in certain circumstances, short tempered. Yes, the name Spider suited her child just fine.
Then, of course, tragedy struck her children as the people of the sky attacked once more. She watched, soul crushed, as they held her children under knives and guns. Watched helplessly as they all escaped the hands of the impostors except her human son. She watched as her daughter, Neytiri, and her champion son, Jake, wrestled their family across the world in hiding, while the people of the sky wrestled her human son in a helicopter and away from all he knew. Watched as he bit and scratched and screamed to be let go, and watched as they did nothing but the opposite.
Once they made it to Bridgehead, the city which the Sky People built upon her many cycles ago, Eywa lost sight of Spider. Sight, but not sound. She could hear him, hear his screams and his pleas to her, to end his suffering, to help him. His screams of pain and begging, promising those vermin that he knew nothing, nothing of the Omatikaya, nothing of Jake Sully nor his family, nothing of the traitor Earth scientists, lying to their faces through the pain. Heard his screams of torture and pleas for mercy he was 16 cycles too young to ask.
Eywa is rarely angry, but she is.
It was many moons before Eywa saw her human son again, locked behind concrete and metal walls, far from her reach. When she finally caught sight of him, her beautiful, gorgeous, kind hearted son , she wailed. She wailed so loudly and painfully the ground shook for a moment. Her heart broke upon seeing the state of her child. Dirty, covered in bruises and blood, he was wearing clothing of the Sky People, but it did nothing to hide his wounds. His wrists were bleeding so deeply the liquid dropped onto the ground, seeping into the cracks, reaching her in her despair. Every step her child took looked painful, his face was swollen and residue from blood remained upon his nose and lips. He was pale, paler than she has ever seen his glowing, tanned skin. Ashen pale and scars crisscrossing what she could see of him.
She raged. She raged as much as she could without endangering the rest of her children. She screamed and wailed, clawed at her chest in pain for her child, threw things and yelled at the opened air. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that this was happening to her children, it wasn’t fair that she couldn’t help like she wanted. It wasn’t fair that Spider was taken and it wasn’t fair that her son and champion, Jake, had to make the decision to leave him to protect the rest of her children.
It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t fair, It wasn’t-
Many, many moons had passed seeing her child in worse shape than the last. She watched as he turned 17, alone and frightened and hurt. Watched as he was taunted and humiliated, tortured both physically and mentally. But this time, this time , she will intervene. This can go on no longer, she sees how her child’s light is leaving his eyes, how his body drags with the weight of his capture. She hears his pleas to end his suffering, to take him away, she’s seen the scar which he inflicted upon himself moons ago, seen how he was punished for attempting to end his own suffering. She sees the heavy bruising on his eyes from lack of sleep, and the weight loss from lack of nutrition, feels his will slipping through her fingers. Her child could not go on like this any longer. She must do something and she must do it now!
If you had asked Eywa to tell you the events that had happened next, she could not tell you. For the first time in her entire existence she believed in a greater power than herself. Somehow, some way she did it. Influenced her children’s minds enough to put themselves, and thus bring their clan, right where she wanted them. She watched as they fought, welcomed the (thankfully) small number of her children to her land with opened arms and a warm smile. But still she watched, watched as the battle raged on, as her children fought, as her children won. She watched as Spider went back for his father, but could not say she was mad. She watched them too, and while cruel and coarse, Miles Quaritch had his moments with her son, moments that she truly believed he needed. That they both needed. Miles Quaritch will perhaps serve a greater purpose later, but for now, she had children to look after.
She is not naive, she has lived many life times to be naive, she knows that the son she saved is not the son she watched rave and struggle against recom avatars 7 months ago. He has changed in both body and soul, and he would never be the same child she’s come to love with her entire being. No, she wasn’t foolish. But he was alive, he made it to his 17th cycle day, alive, surrounded by family and alive . There is no greater gift than that, in the Great Mothers eyes.
But perhaps she was naive, naive and foolish to believe being surrounded by family would help her son after all he’s went through, after all she’s seen him go through, after all she didn’t see him go through. Surrounded by people, her own children, who do not See what is right in front of them. Spider continues to wither away before her eyes, each day she watches as the Spider she’s come to love breaks, piece by piece, while putting a little bit of himself into every task. She watches as he offers his assistance to every Na’vi available, neglecting his health, and neglecting his thoughts.
In another life, she would be buzzing with pride for this strong young man who has never let his differences stop him from helping, from doing what is right. But this is not another life, and she knows her son better than that. He is using the work given to him to avoid thinking about his problems, to avoid speaking upon what has happened to him. And the worst part? It was working. As long as Spider continues to work and lend a hand, not a single one of her children asked questions, not even her Toruk Makto.
She saw as he pulled away, slowly, ever so slowly. Watched as he gathered and planned, but despite being The Great Mother, that plan, whatever it was, was not privy to her. Watched as he stayed awake at night, collecting shells from her waters or staring up at her skies with acceptance. For what? She doesn’t know. But she will find out.
The knowledge of what her human son was planning came to her on the second day of the fourth week after the battle. It came to her in a plea for forgiveness, a plea much like many others that shes heard over the course of 7 months. A plea filled with desperation and sorrow, a plea that stopped her heart cold in her chest. She couldn’t see him, she couldn’t see her son, her son who has suffered so much for someone so young- why couldn’t she see him?!
She wanted to break down the door and allow her air to spread through the shack, allow her to see him, to see her child, but she knows she cannot. She cannot. Because despite being her child -mine, my son, mine, mine- Spider could not breathe her air like her other children could. He could not survive on her alone. It’s the truth, a pill she’s had to swollen time and time again, but the truth. An agonizing, stupid, preventing truth. For not the first time in her long life she wished for the ability to possess a physical form, to appear just this once.
She could hear him gasping in pain, muttering apologies to her that made tears well up in her eyes. Her soul burned, she didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know what to do-
Jake.
She must get her son, her champion, Jake could help her boy, he could. She chose him because he was strong, strong heart, and strong will. He would know what to do, he could hel p, help, help!-
As she got to the murai, she saw that both her son and daughter were wrapped around their young children, piled together, peacefully resting. The buzzing in her head barley allowed her more than a small reprieve from the crushing panic, panic, panic , to give a small smile at the tranquility before it was squashed by the fact that she would be ruining this moment, this family, in just a few seconds. That guilt was set aside though, as she felt Spiders will pushing at her, begging her to allow him to let go. To be set free in the land of his ancestors.
But she will not.
Eywa does not take or give life but sometimes, sometimes she does save it.
“Champion…my champion awaken….Jake…Toruk Makto…Spider, check…on Spider…awaken now!”