Chapter Text
Time had meant nothing as she was cast adrift into the blackness. She could not feel, taste, hear, or even think. She could not See. Not until those who lived from beyond the blackness came. Piece by piece she was returned in dormant eggs of consciousness. Specks at first, but those specks grew and consumed all they touched until her unconscious mind became conscious enough to learn that she had been forgotten.
Her mother's Chosen Children, Eywa's precious Na'vi, no longer sang the name and songs of Aima.
Aima, First of Eywa, who walked among the People as Flesh and not Spirit in the days where the Tulkun warred and the forests were young.
Aima the Clever, who showed the first Na'avi how to craft bows and spears from wood and bone. Aima the Teacher, who taught the People names of the plants and animals and the first lyrics to their Great Mother's song.
Aima the Builder, who shaped the first wheel and laid stone upon stone to climb higher than the trees.
Aima the Dreamer, who had looked to the stars beyond the sky and wondered what else lay beyond her grasp.
Aima the Rebellious, who went against her mother's wishes and taught the People the people the secrets of mixing rock and flame to create and shape metal.
Aima the Mournful, who wailed as Great Mother Eywa shook the earth to crumble her island creations of stone and metal and drown Aima's chosen people-Not Eywa's but HERS-who loved and sang songs of the one who walked beside them in flesh and blood rather than song and spirit! The Great Mother, oh Loving Eywa, sank her daughter's dreams of ever reaching beyond the stars beneath waves of salt and blood.
Aima the Death Bringer, who crafted a life of her own. One that would fell every plant, every animal, and every one of her Mother's precious People until the whole world was barren as her broken dreams!
Aima the Traitor, who challenged the one who birthed her and was torn asunder.
Aima the Demon, whose remains Eywa took and scattered among the Stars she had loved so much, who slumbered for eons until the undying remains of her corpse orbiting Pandora made contact with RDA ships entering the planet's atmosphere. Those pieces not burnt up from the engines or re-entry scattered across Pandora to land in the jungles, ocean, plains, mountains, and when they made contact with the plants and animals there, they began to infect and spread.
Aima's conscience, broken into uncountable fragments of a once-mighty whole, began to reawaken and learn. Through eyes, ears, noses, tongues, roots, bark, and fronds she learned of how so much time had passed and how her mother's world was under threat by a People who came from a star and descended from the sky. These Sky People, these humans were fascinating! She learned so much from the ones she managed to infect; sifting through their brains, peering out of their eyes, and listening with their ears. They'd flown from a dying world where not a shred of green existed. A species crushed beneath the weight of their own intellect! So clever, they were! And so arrogant and greedy. They had no Great Mother to teach them and trampled their world with rampant feet, wrathful hands, and greedy mouths.
And as an inspiration can come from dreams, so too did inspiration spark in the slowly reforming mind of a bitter, vengeful goddess.
"I could be their mother."
Yes! Yes, she could see it! A new world ripe for her to rule and guide! A world dead and dying, and her to be its savior! To save humans from themselves and stop their slow march to extinction! She would build anew; life birthed from her very flesh unhibited by a mother's disapproval and quickened by human ingenuity. She did not doubt that there would be rebellion, stubborn creatures as they were. So unwilling to submit! It would be too late for them, though. She would spread into bodies and minds and weave herself so deep into their souls that to kill her would mean to kill themselves! She would bury into their dead soil and spread under their poisoned sea and breathe life into their corpse world with the bodies of the fallen to feed her growth, and the tidal wave of flesh, mind, and unity would birth forth fresh creation and wonders!
Aima was spirit as well as flesh. Something the humans in their small minded ways of metal and arrogance and greed could never comprehend. Of her that had begun to infect and spread could rejoin and subsume into the whole. The more of her that came together, the more of her that awakened, and the stronger she became. All she had to do was wait and bide her time.
Until Jake Sully rallied the Clans and cast the Sky People out. She had raged for a time. Raged and feared. For as Toruk Makto took to the sky, Eywa Spoke and Aima trembled. It was infuriating to be humbled again. Her mother had lost none of her strength while her daughter struggled to even think. So she had watched and waited, quietly piecing herself together and wait for an opportunity to strike, and what a lovely opportunity presented itself when the humans returned. She had hoped they would. Kindred spirits they were, in a way, unable to accept defeat.
Yes, they would make fine children for her to guide.
And speaking of children...
Between the bouts of clarity that sparked and died like embers in a fire where Aima did plot and scheme instead of sleep and dream, she began to hear a name echoed in the roots and whispered on the wind. Earth, air, and water all knew the name. The animals beckoned at her call. The plants swayed to feel her touch.
Kiri, the world whispered, Daughter of Eywa
And Aima hated!
How dare she be replaced! Not even born from Eywa's own flesh but through an empty vessel! One created created by humans, no less! An imitation! A falsehood! Or more likely, something to watch from afar and nudge blindly through whisper and whim. The perfect little daughter who had no idea what she even was! She was unworthy to be claimed as such! Why!? Aima could not understand! Was her mother so afraid of having one who could stand against her again? The thought made her smile in the throws of rageful, formless sleep. It said much of Eywa that she would rather watch from afar as her world burned then have another to walk in Spirit and Flesh to challenge her.
Well, if her mother claimed such a champion, then so would she!
And what a delightful twist of fate that a champion was practically dropped into her lap. Spider Soccorro. He had almost escaped her notice if not for how loudly his name made the humans whisper in the halls and the laboratories and the room where they tried to peel open his brain and break his will to get his secrets. And what secrets! How fortunate that he was as close to the False Daughter and called her friend and sister in his heart. His was a lonely soul, outcast and yearning for acceptance, so eager to please and prove himself! So eager to belong! For mother's love and father's approval He would be the perfect vessel.
It was so simple to ensnare him! So many humans were unknowingly infected. All it took was a pull here, a tug there, a lapse in memory, some desire to turn down this hallway towards this chamber. Fill the syringe. Ignore the squirming fluid as it climbed up the needle. Skewed judgment and righteous anger. Put it into the traitor's arm and press down on the plunger. Forget it all even happened. Forget the unsealed containment tank and microscopic pinpricks of undulating black sensationlessly burrowing into soft flesh and connecting to unprepared brains with lethal intent. From there it was kind words laced with desperation, begging him for help. The promised reward of what he wanted spurred on further by dream influenced dreams of long dead mother he only knew from a picture placing trust and warning him of a duty only he was worthy to undergo!
It had taken much of her strength to direct her consciousness into one of the samples of her body locked away within the human's laboratories. Even more to imbue the boy with her might! His mind had been so flayed it was easy to slip in and gain control, but afterwards she had been weakened by the effort. The risk had been worth it, however, and she watched through the boy's eyes as he enjoyed his newfound body hurtling towards where his home, his friends, and Jake Sully and her mother's precious little false daughter awaited.
She hoped the humans enjoyed the gifts she'd left behind. So many humans affected by her touch, their bodies ripe with incubating infection growing more and more potent until...
She may have been weakened, but she could still hear the echo of beautiful screams within her consciousness. It would not do for the humans to stop her prematurely, now would they?
She still needed her little Spider to spin her a web to catch all that she desired.