Raava Academy

The Change [Kyoshi, part 3]

Six months later - The Kyoshi Estate

I heard the rumours. An invisible enemy, they'd say, with no way to defeat it. Such nonsense - there is always a way to defeat your foe. I would know, for many have stood before me, and all have fallen. Yet when I hold her trembling hand, with fingers so frail I fear they may break at my touch, I feel something I have never before felt. Powerless.

"There must be something we can do!" I yell at my advisor, Helena, a woman I have grown close to these past three years, as though a blood sister. But she simply looks at me remorsefully, her eyes damp with tears.

The nightmare began four months ago. I watched, as did we all, as the first warrior fell to the strange disease. It is a horror to behold. At first, it seems as though the victim is simply tired, easy to mistake as a result of rigorous training, or the terrible pains that some of the girls face each month. But then, every single one of her muscles will ache, and her body will weaken until she can scarcely even stand. Within a week, she is bed ridden, unable to move, or eat. She will smell of decay, and suffer in waves of agony as her own body shuts down. And not long after, she will find the sweet, merciful embrace of death.

"Please!" I yell at Helena again, begging her to fix this, as though she even can. Asami is dying, right in front of me, like the other five I have lost. The rags beneath her are sodden with her sweat, and she is so pale, so frighteningly pale. She did not even tell me. She stood proudly, continued to fight, never allowing the disease to show, until she collapsed in the middle of her training, and has been unable to stand ever since.

I pull her frail fingers to my lips, kissing them, not caring if I suffer the same disease.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I whisper against her trembling hand, speaking to her through choked words, knowing it is cruel to make her answer, that it only adds to the pain.

"I didn't wish to burden you, my love," She croaks the words, her voice barely recognisable, and it rips me apart from the inside out. I would do anything to stop this, anything at all.

I hold her hand to my chest just above my aching heart, tears streaming down my cheeks, wishing I could pour my own vitality into her. She winces and then cries out, writhing whilst another flood of agony washes over her. I have seen it before. By the end of the hour she will be gone to me, and I feel sure that I will die with her.

"Kyoshi... I'm so sorry..." Helena whispers, her palm warm against my shoulder.

"We are done for." I breathe the words deeply, feeling lost to despair. I move my free hand to Asami's belt, lightly unhooking her silver dagger, and staring at the sharp blade. "Leave us." I command, my intent made clear.

"Kyoshi... you can't-"

"I can, and I shall," I say, running my thumb over the blade, checking its sharpness. I am pleased to see it cuts easily. It will make the next move, a swift stab to my heart, all the simpler. I hear Raava telling me I mustn't, but I tune her out, ignoring her voice for the first time in my life.

"The girls need you. The whole world needs you!" Helena states, gripping my shoulder, and looking at me with a sudden fire in her eyes. I wonder where this sudden determination has sprung from, especially with such a terrible sight before us.

"I entrust them to you. I have seen you fight, and you are the strongest, perhaps even stronger than I. Now, go."

Still, she doesn't leave. I glare at her, feeling I will force her if it comes to it. Her face contorts into a grimace, as though suffering an internal struggle, and then she frowns, "There... is a way. To save her."