Thanks to my reviewers!
The First Avatar: Legend of the Star
Book 3: Heaven
Chapter 3: Kyora's Intervention
OXOXOXO
15th Day of Autumn 194ACS
OXOXOXO
As the adults had agreed, the previous evening, everyone was gathered into Jinora and Virgo's home within the temple. It was spacious, but since there were a lot of people there, it seemed a lot smaller. Jinora tried to convince Kye to start of small but the woman had simply replied by saying Kyora needed to know they ALL cared and needed her to get better.
Once everyone was gathered, Kirok sitting grumpily in the corner of the room beside his dad, Virgo brought Kyora in from the garden terrace. Upon seeing everyone gathered, the little Avatar took a step to the side, hiding behind Virgo and peeking out shyly.
"Wha-What's going on?" she asked timidly, barely above a whisper.
"We're all here to have a little talk with you Kyo." Korra said, sitting on a sofa with Bolin, Maka squeezed in-between them.
"It's about you and your health. You know that you've gotten really thin, almost nothing but bones ever since…ever since Yanos passed away." Kye said, hesitating to bring up the late airbender. Kyo flinched and went even paler at the mention of her former friend.
"S-So what? I-I'm still alive so why does it matter if I don't eat or sleep much?" she said, trying to edge her way back to the door. She was met by the demanding figure of Baizon.
"You aren't going anywhere squirt. We really need to talk." He said.
"But why? Please just leave me alone! You promised you wouldn't make me do anything I don't want to!" Kyo said, raising her voice a little. She quickly regretted it as the action caused her parched throat to burn horribly, making her cringe.
"You see? Your body is in bad shape, you need to let us help you!" Silver said, creating some water for Kyo to drink. At first the little girl refused it, but after some stern looks from Korra and Silver, she sighed and allowed Silver to pour the water down her throat. At first, she tried to hide her thirst by sipping at the water ball but before long, she couldn't hold back and began gulping it down, looking very disappointed when the water ran out.
"I knew you were thirsty. Why do this to yourself? I've heard your stomach growling from not eating for days on end, your eyes are dark from lack of sleep and your lips and skin look like you've been in a desert for a year! This won't do. Any more like this and you will be damaged beyond repair. You already know that as Susanoo, you can't die, so if you become any worse, you will be suffering forever!" Silver lectured. The things she said shocked the mortals of the room more than Kyo, but it did get a rise out of the usually soft-spoken girl.
"So what if I suffer! I should suffer! I should have died that day! It was my own stupidity that caused Yanos to die! His blood will be on my hands forever!" she screamed, falling back and cringing as the fire in her throat rose up again.
"Do you not think we feel the same? Pretty much everyone here feels somewhat responsible for that day but if we let you suffer and hurt like this, then we'll have two lost souls weighing down on our conscious." Kye said curtly.
Kyora's eyes widened. "You…you all feel the same?"
"Of course we do." Korra said. "If I had sensed what was happening faster, I could have chi-flickered and stopped that bastard from hurting Mikuru or attacking you. I might have been able to heal Yanos' wound before it took his life."
"If I had travelled quicker or swallowed my pride and asked one of the Kamis, I may have been able to get reinforcements in time to stop the attack from happening." Sequa said, looking down sadly. She, Mikuru and Taza were the only non-Team Avatar and non-Kami people in the room. Gorm had left Team Avatar temporarily to help guard the Earth King, promising to return when Kyo recovered.
"And I…" Mikuru begun, feeling those guilty tears creep up on her again, "There is no end of things I could have done to stop that attack from happening. The whole thing was my fault."
Taza put a hand on the now sobbing woman's back. Mikuru was a full-grown adult now and while she had changed very little, she did look slightly more womanly and was kitted out in Valkyrie armour. Kyora looked back and forth between everyone, becoming more and more distressed. She finally settled on Ikki and Pisces, who were the only people beside Korra's family who were sitting.
"What about you?" Kyo asked, talking to Ikki. "You must hate me for what I've done! You must hate me for taking away your son! You must-"
Kyora was cut off by Ikki grabbing her by the front of her shirt and pulling her onto her lap, hugging the girl to her chest. "Never, not even for a second, have I blamed you or hated you for what happened. My son was taken from me and the only person you killed was the evil, foul creature who took his life. I am sworn by my oath to never take a life, but if he had kept living, I would never have been able to move on…but now I cannot move on and finally lay my son to rest because I am afraid that we'll lose you too! Please Kyora…" Ikki began to sob hard. "Please don't leave us as well! I don't think I can take it!"
Kyora sat there on her aunt's knee, trapped in her loving embrace and looked into the faces of the others. Pisces was also in tears, as was Kyo's parents and Maka…Kyora had no idea how much she had hurt them…
"I'm so sorry! I never wanted to make everyone feel so horrible! I just felt like I deserved to suffer for not being able to save him!" she said, beginning to cry.
"You know Yanos would never have wanted that. You were the one he loved the most." Pisces said, patting the girl's head and stroking her hair.
"I-I promise I'll get better! I'll be good and do whatever you want, just please don't be sad anymore!" Kyora said. Jinora moved to sit by Ikki's side, holding her little sister and her beloved daughter.
"One step at a time Kyora. Just promise to take better care of yourself. The rest will come with time." Jinora cooed. Before long, both Ikki and Kyo calmed down and fell asleep together.
Once Kye was safely in the knowledge that Kyora would be okay, she resupplied and left to hunt Tensa once more, once again refusing to take Joewe, though this time the excuse was that Kyo needed her more. Once Kye and the Valkyries returned to their own business, every Kami and member of Team Avatar got back to their work, they were planning to launch a huge attack on Los Luminus in the hopes of defeating Tekari and the Lightbenders in one battle. Everyone had a new spring in their step after the meeting with Kyora so they all worked even harder…all except Kirok.
He stalked down the halls of the Temple, grumbling to himself. "How dare they try and push her! I bet she only said those things so they'd all leave her alone!" he said to himself angrily.
As he walked, Kirok noticed Will walking down another hallway that led to an old storeroom. Feeling curious and intending to start his plan, Kirok followed the former necromancer into the room. He caught Will, just as he was about to grab an old urn from a top a stone pedestal.
"What are you doing in here?" Kirok asked.
"Er…nothing?" Will said, taking his hands off of the urn.
"Is this the entrance to your so-called secret lab?"
"Um…no?"
Kirok looked un convinced and Will grumbled. "Fine, yes this is the way into my lab. I spent months building this place to keep it hidden from you and the other kids! All that work for nothing!" Will whined.
Kirok smirked, "I won't tell anyone…if you let me in to see it."
The white haired man looked a little surprised; having always thought Kirok would be the least interested out of the kids. At least that meant he'd cause the least trouble!
"Fine, I'll let you have a look around! But if you tell anyone, you'll be my next Test subject!" Will threatened before lifting the old urn again and breathing black fire into the small hole in the pedestal. On the other side of the store room, a large set of shelves were lowered into the floor, revealing a stone wall that looked newer than the rest of the temple. Will earthbent the wall in half and sent each half backwards a tiny bit before they slotted into a gap between the storeroom walls and the lab walls. Will stood by the entrance and waved his hand in a motion that said "after you", signalling the boy to enter.
Kirok was quite amazed to see what was in this room…Since the temple was built into the side of the ravine, it could be expanded underground almost limitlessly and Will had taken full advantage of this by creating a massive room, almost as big as the entire temple. Crystals of every colour jutted out of the rough rock faces and equations and bits of information were scrawled across the walls that Will had erected around the place. By the look of it, Will had begun constructing an actual building and then gotten bored, as only bits and pieces of buildings were constructed, giving the place a very rag tag but impressive air about it.
"This is incredible…" Kirok said before spotting a table filled with an odd setup of glass vials and tubes, each filled with an funny coloured liquid.
"Careful there! I'm using crystal dust to try and make a new kind of tonic." Will said, shooing Kirok away from the vials.
"What is it supposed to do?" the waterbender asked.
"Well, all Avatars and Kami energybenders can give people bending from any of the four elements, but once done it lasts until the person gets their power taken away again. This tonic will fill a person with a kind of liquid crystal, infused with bending chi! It'll give the drinker up to an hour of bending in any element! I've been testing it on myself with Light and Shadowbending or Zenbending as Kye calls it." Will explained, albeit reluctantly.
"That's brilliant! You could do anything with that! Anyone could have the power of an Avatar." Kirok said, temporarily forgetting his plan. He may have been a serious kid, but he was still a kid. Things like this made him excited!
"Really? I haven't had too much success yet…the tonics work, but they cause crippling pain when they first hit your stomach and when they are finally digested. It might actually be dissolving my guts…which is why I test these things on myself! No need to worry about me dying!" Will said, laughing a little.
Looking down at Kirok, who was looking around with child-like wonder, Will smiled. Ophi had always been afraid of laboratories because of what happened with Scorpia turning her into Hydra, but with Kirok, he may have some luck.
"Say, if you're interested, I need an assistant. Someone who isn't too squeamish and can take notes on my experiments. If you're interested, I'll give you free reign of my lab as payment and free pickings of any of my experiments, so long as they aren't too dangerous." Will offered. In truth, he had hoped Kyo would be his assistant, but until she was better, that wouldn't be possible.
Kirok suddenly remembered his plans and smirked. "Of course I'll be your assistant. I kind of wanted to read about how you made the Project Orion subjects, so could I borrow those notes?" he asked.
Will scowled. "Sorry kiddo, those books are all bound in black. The Black books you see around the lab can only be opened by myself. If you do a good job though, I may let you borrow a couple of them and give you keys to them." Will said, giving Kirok's hand a shake.
The boy wasn't pleased about the setback, but was more than happy that the deal had gone his way in the end. The lab was also secure and no one but Will came in, so Tarrlok could still teach him here in secret.
"I cannot give you my best secret without you coming to the Spirit World…but this place will do for now…" The spirit of Tarrlok said. Kirok smirked to himself and followed Will as the former necromancer gave him the tour.
Kirok would be a bloodbender soon, and he would get his vengeance on those who hurt Kyora…no matter what.
OXOXOXO
Avatar Trivia:
Book 3 Chapter 3
OXOXOXO
It may seem too early for Kyo to fully recover, and she hasn't really, but I needed her to make some positive change or writing the rest of the book would be way too hard. The other characters will get some development, but the focus of this story is Kyora.
The reason they didn't try the intervention thing for three years was because they were all afraid it would fail and hurt Kyo more. In the end though, they had to decide between Kyo being permanently damaged by her new bad habits or have a last ditch attempt at fixing her. Truth be told, if they had tried it earlier, they would have failed.
Kirok will slowly become darker and more deluded as he follows Tarrlok.
There is no real minor villain to this book, but there is a secondary finale that happens in the twenty chapter area, which will do something I've planned to do since the beginning of the story.
Depending on the outcome of book 3, Ikki may become pregnant with a second child in Book 4.
Hope you enjoyed!
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