Here are some more thoughts on my Neytiri/Spider mother-son relationship where she raises him to be her instrument and attack dog against the RDA and Quaritch. Bonds That Bleed AU ended ambiguously, so here are more headcanons that have been swimming around my brain.
-) Neytiri raised Spider with the ways of the Na’vi, but never let him forget what he was. A human. A creature of destruction. A son of the demon. Every lesson was laced with quiet loathing, every word a seed of hatred planted deep in his heart. "They are destroyers, Miles. They will never stop until our home is dust beneath their feet." She does not temper her words, does not shield him from the ugliness of truth because he must learn, must hate as she hates.
-) And Spider listened. He learned. He fought. He killed. It was easy to lie to him, to pretend to love him, to smile at his victories even when her Jake was deeply troubled by the boy's eagerness to kill RDA soldiers, even when her mother stared at her with eyes full of quiet disappointment. But somewhere along the way, something changed.
-) Oftentimes, Neytiri found herself reaching for him in the quiet moments, pressing her forehead to his like she did with Neteyam, Kiri, Lo’ak, and Tuk. She would find herself soothing his wounds, braiding his hair, smiling at his laughter, glowing with pride when he respected her customs and spoke her language fluently. The lines between tool and child blurred, and before she even realized it, she loved him. Her little blade. Her son.
-) But the damage was already done.
-) Jake had warned her. "You’re filling his head with hatred. This has to stop. You need to stop. He's just a kid." She ignored him. The little demon was hers. Hers to mold. Hers to teach. Hers to wield. He was hers.
-) Until the day Spider leaped on Quaritch's back like a starved animal, clinging onto his father in a death's embrace, blade flashing. The monster who once haunted Neytiri’s nightmares did not even get the chance to scream before Spider drove his knife deep into both of his own father's eye sockets. Once. Twice. Again. Again. Again. Again. A frenzy of violence. His face was expressionless, his hands steady, his body drenched in blood that should not have been on him. The blood of his own father. There is no hesitation. No mercy. He is everything she raised him to be and more.
And for the first time in her life, Neytiri felt fear.
Not for herself. For her son.
She had wanted this—had spent years preparing him for this very moment. So why did it feel like her heart was shattering?
Because in that moment, she saw him clearly—not as the boy she had raised and manipulated, not as the child she had grown to love—but as a reflection of her own hatred. And she knew, with cold, crushing clarity—
She had stolen his innocence just as the Sky People had stolen hers.