As far as Suki could determine, the cave entrance was not a natural formation, seemingly just as artificial as the ledge they were standing on. It sprawled between the folds of the mountainside like a wound, with the large rocks around it serving as dressing, not only hiding the ugly sight but also keeping the blood inside. Nevertheless, the whole place reeked from the evil contained within, and Suki really wondered why Pema and Kitara still found it a good idea to investigate.
The others – Pema, Kei, the Commander, and Kazue – were all slightly behind her, trying to come up with a plan: Kazue wanted to wait until the others arrive, but Kei and the Commander were ready to go in; Pema just urged both sides to act as soon as possible. For her part, Suki saw no reason to debate. Kitara was in there, and she needed their help. There was only one right course of action, as clear for her as the lukewarm spring daylight shining down on the mountainside.
Suki heard the others gasping as she stepped into the cave, but she did not care. The place was unusually cold, and it was filled with a dark haze from wall to wall, preventing Suki from getting a clear grasp on its dimensions. It felt like an empty hole.
"No, it is like a grave," ran through Suki's mind, but she shooed the glooming thought away.
On the opposite wall of the cave, she could see the boxy sarcophagus Pema had described and the mouth of a tunnel next to it. Between the two, a shadowy silhouette was lying on the ground.
"Kitara!" Suki wasted no time in running over to her unconscious sister. Behind her, Kei and the Commander also rushed in, while Pema and Kazue followed them with a little more caution.
As expected, Kitara was in a rather poor shape. Her clothes were all messy, like she had hastily took them off and put them on again for some reason, and her long black hair was undone and not in the usual bun. Above all, her face was unnaturally stiff, like it was just a mask made from wax. It looked like Kitara had fallen into a deep, supernatural slumber.
Suki prayed to Kyoshi that her sister could be still saved.
"Oh no!" cried Pema when she noticed Kitara's sorry shape. "We are too late!"
"No, we are not." Kazue kneeled down next to the inanimate girl and checked her pulse and breathing. "She is still alive. We must take her back to the village immediately."
The Commander nodded grimly, but otherwise did not comment on the situation. Kazue picked up Kitara and prepared to leave this accursed place with the girl in her arms.
She got halfway to the exit when Kitara woke up. Her whole body reeled and twitched, and her eyes opened wide as she gasped for air. Kazue almost dropped her from the surprise, but Kitara grabbed her robes and pulled herself closer to her older sister.
"Get away from her, NOW!" Pema's scream cut into the air like a sword, but she was too late. They could all see Kitara's lips turning into a fiendish grin, then a flash of golden light blinded them and an invisible force pushed them to the ground.
Through the light, Suki could hear Kazue uttering a painful scream, then the cave fell silent.
"What happened?" It was Kei, and from the sounds of it, the young warrior made a feeble attempt to get back on her feet. "I can't see anythi-" She tumbled and fell right atop Suki. Her momentum was enough to toss both of them against the wall, sweeping away the Commander, too, in the process.
"I did not expect this to work, to be honest." Kazue's voice was macabre and crackling, like it was coming from the throat of a dead woman. "And it almost didn't…"
Suki pushed Kei off herself. Her senses were slowly recovering, and as the veil of stars lifted from her eyes, she could see Kazue standing in the middle of the cave, with Kitara at her feet and Pema standing in front of her. The latter got through the light blast much better than the others, and her war fans were already in her hands, though her fighting stance was rather irresolute.
"I see you have brought me weapons!" Kazue teased Pema, and she too assumed her fighting stance. It was a traditional Kyoshi Warrior stance, but it was performed with a confidence and finesse Suki knew that Kazue was incapable of. Her older sister was an infiltrator and not a true warrior, yet her stance was befitting for an assault specialist like Kei.
Pema uttered a weak battle cry and charged Kazue. War fans flashed but they failed to connect. Kazue dodged or blocked every attack with ease, her terrifying grin only growing wider as the massive gap in fighting skills between her and Pema became more and more evident. After a good ten seconds she decided to stop playing with the girl and ended the fight with a single spinning kick that hit Pema in the chest.
Suki watched her sister fly through the cave and land hard at the entrance. Pema was knocked out for good, but Kazue couldn't enjoy her victory for too long.
A greenish blur wrapped itself around the possessed woman, and a dozen strikes exploded into her body in the exact same moment. Kazue wavered under the sudden onslaught, and for a moment, she couldn't even recognize her attacker. Only when the blur stopped and took up Kei's form did Kazue realize what had happened.
"Spiritbending!" she barked as she rearranged her stance to face her new opponent. "I want that power!"
Kei readied herself, and Suki could see on her that she was just about to give a taste of her superhuman strength to Kazue, but their clash was interrupted with another burst of golden light.
"Get out of me you daemon!" shrieked Kazue, now with a clear voice, and threw herself to the ground. "GET OUT!"
The Commander immediately ran to her sister, but she was soon thrown back by a third flash. A beam of golden light escaped from Kazue through her eyes, nose, and mouth, first gliding through the air towards the tunnel, then making a sudden turn and rushing into Kei.
Their meeting produced an earth-shaking explosion of light, and as the energy washed through Suki, something sparked up in her. Like a rock on the shore rising to break the roaring waves, it repelled the force from inside of her, and made it surge over harmlessly.
When she could finally open her eyes, Suki expected to see Kei as the next victim of whatever power was battling them. Surprisingly enough however, this was not the case; as far as Suki could determine through the haze of golden light that now enveloped the cave, Kei was lying on the floor not far away from Pema, clearly unconscious.
"My fault. I should have been more cautious with possessing her."
The unfamiliar voice snapped out Suki from her shock, and made her turn towards its source. Just a few steps away from her, an apparition of golden light was hovering in the air. She was a ghost of a Kyoshi Warrior, in full uniform and armor, with the headdress of an assault specialist, her waist-long hair flowing freely, and her legs dissolving into the golden light at the ankle. Her face was beautiful, diamond-shaped with soft features and almond eyes. Suki couldn't miss that the ghost looked a little like Asha, and her mischievous yet determined expression also distantly echoed Asha's when the girl was in a black temper.
Moreover, this ghost was not the only source of light. As she lifted her arm to get up, Suki noticed that her body was also wrapped into an aura of golden light and fading blue. Next to her, the Commander also had this aura, and she looked just as clueless about it as Suki herself.
Back in the dojo, Suki had teased Nirmal about all that silly spiritual stuff, but now she felt pretty stupid for it. Listening to another's ramblings about it and experiencing it personally sure made a difference.
"Who are you and what do you want from us?" shouted the Commander as she staggered to her feet. Judging from her voice, she was badly shaken, and maybe injured, too, as she painfully massaged her lower abdomen.
"I'm Kiyomi, and I want the life my sisters took from me! They imprisoned me in this place for more than two hundred years, but now my time has come to break free!" Her smile widened. "Yes, I will use that nice body of yours… I just need the right host." She waved towards the Kyoshi Warriors who had been incapacitated during the fight. "Three of these are unfit, and the spiritbender is too delicate to even try, so I hope you two will not disappoint me!"
"You can bet we won't," growled the Commander, and with that, she too attacked the ghost. Suki was not sure what the Commander wanted to accomplish against such an incorporeal opponent, and as expected, Kiyomi easily evaded the charge by simply skimming to the side.
Now it was Suki's turn, but she had no idea what to do. Lacking any better option, she rolled to the war fans Pema had dropped, and took them for herself. The weapons in her hands at least gave her a certain sense of security, even if she doubted that they would be of any use.
Her move alerted Kiyomi, and the ghost stopped dancing around the Commander. She shot upwards to the ceiling then descended like a lightning bolt from the sky, aiming for Suki.
Suki leapt away, but Kiyomi followed her and tossed her to the ground with a blast of golden light. By the time Suki could recover, the ghost was already on her. She struck out with her war fans, but they passed through her incorporeal assailant without doing anything.
The world turned upside down and disappeared in a burst of light. Suki gasped for air as her very spirit was invaded by Kiyomi. The light twisted, then disintegrated, giving way to darkness.
From this darkness, a series of images emerged, burning themselves into Suki's mind: a large, muscular man, his naked upper body covered with fresh wounds, including a dagger sticking out from his chest – his face was hidden by a black shadow, only his enraged snarl was visible; an enormous monument, a huge fountain in an abandoned chamber – in its water, the souls of a thousand people moaned; a woman crying in a bed, grasping her swollen belly – her face too was indiscernible, but her short, thick auburn hair felt eerily familiar.
The chain of visions was shattered by a scream. A scream that first sounded like the Commander's but then changed into Kiyomi's.
Suki's eyes sprung open, only to come face-to-face with Kiyomi as the ghost now tried her best to get away. The golden light was mauled by a crackling blue aura coming from Suki. Like a hundred thorns, the blueness slashed into Kiyomi's form, leaving long cuts of nothingness behind.
The apparition barely gained some distance from Suki and the violent blue aura emitting from her when she was caught by another: the Commander attempted another charge, going all-out to save Suki.
"Leave her, daemon!" the Commander cried with despair, and she clawed into Kiyomi. Her hands glowed with a blue aura similar to Suki's, but it was much weaker, barely enough to disturb the gold light of Kiyomi's body.
It was obvious that the Commander expected more, as she crashed into Kiyomi and lost control over her own movement, eventually hitting hard the cave wall. Her disorientation was enough for the ghost to gain the initiative, and Kiyomi disappeared in a burst of golden light that quickly zipped into the big scar on the Commander's face.
Her body reeled and bent, the rattle her throat released betrayed that the possession didn't go off perfectly.
"Grah! This body is a wreck!" cried the Commander with disdain, her voice distorted in the exact same way as Kazue's had been. "I would rather suffer the plucky girl with her terrible jokes than this mess!"
Suki slowly got to her feet and readied herself for the next act of this battle. While she was not too keen to harm the Commander, Kiyomi still had to be ousted somehow, and the events of the last few minutes certainly revealed that Suki had a good chance to do this. Only if she could force Kiyomi out of the Commander's body, defeating the spirit should be relatively easy then.
She could ponder the mysterious phenomena of her blue aura later. It had come up just in time, and for now, that was all that mattered.
"Well girl, you have got me now!" The Commander stepped back, increasing the distance between herself and Suki. Her movement was irresolute and clumsy, like Kiyomi did not have full control over the body. "This is my worst vessel so far, and you are shielded from possession. To be honest, I doubt if I can win this."
"Then let us go!" replied Suki as she assumed her fighting stance. "Stop fighting us, and we will find a solution to your plight!" This hit something in Kiyomi, as the Commander's face flinched. "Avatar Aang is my friend! I'm sure he can do something!"
"So you are the Avatar's friend?" Suki nodded. She did not like the hostile tone and the way the Commander pouted. "That's unfortunate. I almost let you go… but I can't do that anymore."
With that, the Commander lunged forward, trying to catch Suki in a grapple. The young Kyoshi Warrior steeled herself in turn, and decreed to herself that her fist was made of hard iron, and her next punch would strike like a hammer. The golden light around them glowed as Suki forced her will on the world, using the technique the Commander had taught her in the Boiling Rock to amplify her attack.
There was a moment of surprise from Kiyomi's part as she most likely realized what was Suki up to, then the Commander flew right into the attack, taking Suki's fist in the face. The sound of the Commander's jaw breaking was a painful one for Suki, but it couldn't be helped at this point. The punch was strong enough to send the woman violently crashing into the ground, putting another or two bruise on her.
"The Commander wouldn't like waking up from this," ran through Suki's mind. She felt sorry for her older sister, but again, she had no other choice.
"That was a pretty advanced technique from a simple novice," growled the Commander as she tried to crawl back to her feet. "Though, I must admit, you look anything but simple!"
Suki quickly ran to her and kicked at her arms, making the woman fall back to the floor. The golden aura around the Commander flared up as Kiyomi most likely tried to escape, but Suki did not give her a chance: she turned the Commander to her back and used her hands to cover the woman's face. As the girl expected, Kiyomi left the Commander's body through the facial scar, and flew right into Suki's hand.
The blue aura cracked up again around Suki's body, and Kiyomi retreated back to the Commander with a pained scream.
"Let me go, you witch!" squeaked the Commander in the next moment. "You are hurting me!"
"You are free, but only if you leave us alone!"
The Commander's eyes opened wide when she heard Suki's proposal, and in them, pure madness blossomed as Kiyomi snapped.
"Silly girl, you can't make me free…" she whispered, voice shaking from repressed emotions, then the Commander's body suddenly rose to her feet, like a puppet moved by strings, sweeping Suki away with a powerful shove.
This unnaturally quick recovery caught her completely flat-footed. The Commander was attacking long before Suki could regain her senses, so she had no chance to evade the kick to her side. Sharp pain ran through her torso, and though she swallowed a yelp for a hiss, Suki instinctively knew that a second strike was coming. She tried to roll away, focusing all her strength into the move, but the world was spinning around her with a bewildering hullabaloo after taking that kick, so she had no idea if she even dodged to the right direction.
She hadn't, and the next kick hit her head, knocking out Suki in an instant.
