"He was what?!" Awa exclaimed in a flash of fury. "You let a spy into the Omaticaya clan?!"
Grace shook her head with a bitter chuckle. "Quaritch got to him, promised him nice things in exchange for information. Should have seen it coming"
The Na'vi stood to her full height and squared her shoulders with a snarl on her face. "How long have you known?" She asked, her voice deadly calmed as she stared at the other woman right into her eyes as she stared at Grace fidgeting in her seat.
"I've had my suspicions for-"
"How long have you known?!" Awa screamed at the older woman, tears of betrayal building in her eyes. "Why would you keep something like this from me?"
"If you would let me finish you would know!" Grace shot back, her voice loud but not yet a shout. "I know you feel betrayed but I couldn't be sure untill we caught him in the act. From what we know he's been giving Selfridge and his band of baboons information about the hometree and other military related facts. Now that I removed him from Quaritch I'm hoping that he's going to stop it"
Awa swiped off everything on the desk besides her with an angry yell, her heart was clenching and she couldn't look the at the other woman anymore. " Of course I feel betrayed, I just found out that both my best friend and Jake has been lying to my face for months." She chuckled bitterly and wiped a tear off her cheek. "But that's not what's hurting the most, can you guess what it is?"
Grace shook her head with a closed mouth and wide eyes that were glinting with unshed tears. "No"
"The fact that you've lied to me about the fact that Jake is a spy for the man who raped me, who abused me, who stalked me for months while you did nothing." Awa cried out, her voice cracking with emotion and her eyes were wide with the pain and betrayal she was feeling. "I-I can't be here" She sobbed and ran out of the room, ignoring Grace calling out after her.
...
Awa cried for the entire ride back to the hometree. Her tears never stopped running like waterfalls down her cheeks and her heart ached with sorrow. She was most likely overreacting a bit but she was so tired of seeing her life fall apart around her. She was so tired.
The other Na'vi stared at her as she galloped past them, sniffing and sobbing on her pa'li. The children stopped their plays to stare at her, the elders threw a glance then looked away.
"I need to talk to Neytiri" She whispered to herself. "She needs to know"
Awa didn't find Neytiri anywhere but she did find Ngeha, who was sitting peacefully on a rock in front of the small pond that children are trained how to fish in. Small miniatur fishing nets and rods laid discarded around Ngeha's rock. Said Na'vi was braiding a big fishing net with fast practised movements, the scene making Awa's heart clench in pain because she knew she was going to ruin the tranquility.
She jumped off Khan and stumbled slightly before she walked over to the Na'vi on shaky legs that threatened to give out under her at any time. She needed to tell her and she needed her to talk her through all that was going on. Awa desperately needed Ngeha's advice.
"Awa" Ngeha gasped out when she saw the former dreamwalker walk up to her while crying her eyes out. "What is it? Is something wrong?"
"It's Jake" Awa spoke through her tears, trying to keep her voice steady and loud.
"What are you talking about, Awa?" Ngeha asked, dropping the net and walking towards Awa. "What did Jake do?"
The crying Na'vi dried her tears in jerky, shaky movements as she stared at Ngeha with the pain of betrayal in her glossy eyes. Truth to be told she had no idea how she was going to break the news to her friends, especially Neytiri who she hadn't spoken to since before the accident also who was very fond of Jake, no matter how much Neytiri tried to hide it. The smiles, jokes giggles and stolen glances spoke a whole different story. "He's been spying on all of us since Neytiri started teaching him, giving him important information about our warriors and hometree."
"Are you sure about this?" Ngeha asked with a sceptical look on her face, as if she didn't really believe what Awa was telling them. "Jake has been a fast learner"
"You've never even met him, Ngeha" Awa shook her head as she felt her heart skip a beat at the tone in her friend's voice. "He never cared about us, about Pandora, about anything. He's just a spy!"
"Are you really sure about this?" Ngeha asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to seem unaffected by Awa's wet cheeks and sniffles. Her voice had an underlying tone of doubt, as if she didn't really believe what Awa was telling her.
"Grace told me-" Awa begun but was quickly interrupted by Ngeha who with a snort and a shake off her head finished the sentence.
"Grace told you that he's been spying on us? Awa listen to yourself. You and Grace hasn't really been on the best of terms lately and now she tells you that Jake, a person that's doing exactly what you did once, is spying on us? Haven't you even considered that she might be lying to you to make you distance yourself to us and get you back at her side." Ngeha took a few steps forward and placed a soothing hand on Awa's cheek. "Unless you've seen it with your own two eyes you shouldn't believe it. Grace hasn't been herself since the school closed, I can bet a hammock that she's jealous of both you and Jake and this is her way of trying to regain control."
"Why are you saying this? I trust Grace, she's my friend" Awa sputtered with a surprised look on her face, she hadn't seen this coming. Grace lying to her?
"I know she's your friend but so are we. We know the real you, she knows only the ghost of who you used to be before you broke free of the chains and bondage of your human life." Ngeha told Awa with a sincere look in her eyes as she tried to comfort the still shaking Na'vi. "I don't think Jake telling his superiors things he's learnt is what you're really upset about"
"You don't believe me, do you?" Awa realised and staggered back as if the realisation hit her like a punch in the stomach.
"Awa... it's not like that" Ngeha whispered and walked up to her and placed a tender hand on her shoulder. "You were upset before meeting with Grace and you're already upset with Jake. I'm just worried that you're not thinking straight"
"I love you, Awa, but we all know Grace is dramatic and was probably what you call 'drunk'. She's not happy with Jake or Quaritch and I wouldn't put it past her to make all that up." Ngeha continued, taking pauses in between each sentence, deliberating each word before she said them. "Did she say exactly what Jake had been telling Quaritch?"
"That he's been reporting on the warriors" Awa whispered, her mind spinning in confusion. Her heart and mind was torn, the words of her friends stood against each other. Who should she believe? The people who rescued her, who helped her find herself again, or the woman who was her first real best friend and who taught her most of what she knows and that's always been there for her, even when she distanced herself. "I can admit that him reporting the basic things back to the base is normal, to be expected even, but not to Quaritch. He doesn't care about our traditions, our ways and all that Neytiri is teaching Jake. His only purpose here is to make you leave and protect Hell's Gate, whatever Jake told him can't be innocent."
"And you're sure your past with Quaritch isn't blinding you, you don't know what Grace saw. I think we should go braid some more nets and once you've calmed down and your head is clear we can talk more about this." Ngeha replied, ignoring Awa's words of warning. "I believe you, Awa, I really do but the information itself isn't dangerous. You gave them information about us as well, that's what the logs are for." The oldest Na'vi told the youngest with wisdom painting her words.
"That's not the same" Awa denied and pushed Ngeha's hand off her shoulder. Her tears had long since dried and her sniffles had stopped but now she could feel the traitorous tears pushing to break free again but she pushed them all down. "They tortured me. He's doing it willingly. And I know what the logs are for..."
"Did something happen with Quaritch today? As you said before, you knew he gave them information about us, as the dreamwalkers have always done. How else would they have books on us, books that you're read. We both know this isn't about Jake."
"I-I" Awa plopped down on the ground. "Can we start this conversation over? I'm so confused and I feel like we've only made it more complicated and confusing than it needs to be"
Ngeha chuckled lightly and gracefully sat down on the ground. "Of course, would make it a whole lot easier for me to understand too."
"Thank you, it's been a long day for me" The younger Na'vi admitted, having taken several deep breaths to calm down. "So I went to the base to quit my job, which I did, but Quaritch was waiting for me outside of Selfridge's office. He-He touched me but didn't get very far before I was allowed to get into the office. After I ripped up my contract I went to see Grace, she seemed upset about something so I hugged her. That's when she told me that Jake had been spying on us for Quaritch."
"That man will get what's coming for him one day" Ngeha swore under her breath with an angry scowl on her face at the mention of Quaritch. "I don't think we should tell Neytiri about any of this, especially since we're not sure that what Grace told you is true. "
"I don't think you're taking this serious enough." Awa gritted out through her teeth as her blood warmed up, she hated being doubted. "Do you know what they could do with that information? It's not information that will be put into a book, it's information that will get all of you killed!"
"Calm down" Ngeha barked out and flicked Awa's forehead. "We started over the conversation, by your request, so that means you have to remain calm or we'll be back in that pit of confusion we were in earlier where nothing we said made any sense."
"Sorry, Ngeha" Awa said and bowed her head slightly with shame burning inside of her. "It's just that none of you know Quaritch like I do"
Ngeha raised an eyebrow with an unimpressed look on her face. "We don't know what humans do?" She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Do you even hear yourself? The humans have killed us, experimented on us, tortured us, kidnapped us, destroyed our home and are trying to run us out of our home. Trust me, we know exactly what humans do."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Sometimes I forget what they've done but then I look all around me and I see the ghosts of what used to be." Awa apologized and internally slapped herself.
Ngeha waved away her apology with a smile on her lips. "It's fine, I know you didn't mean it like that. I understand that you're worried about Jake but as far as we know he's only giving them information, it's not like he's in on any evil plans to kill us all. Now if you're a bit more calm then I think we should go make some nets and you can brood in silence"
"Fine" Awa muttered with a small forced grin on her lips. She still hadn't calmed down from the news and nothing Ngeha said calmed her down, if anything it made her even angrier that Ngeha didn't believe her. This was going to come back to bite them in the ass some day and when that day came Awa would tell them all 'I told you so'.
AN: This chapter is so all over the place and I'm not happy with it but I hope you liked it anyways.