Yama

This article contains SPOILERS for book four, Ascension. Traverse at your own risk!
“Z-zero? Zero! Please! Oh god, what have I done!” - Yama after she killed ZeroYama, previously known as Kita, is a soldier first class gryphon and Captain of a soldier platoon that overtook a town in Germany. She ran for the position of mayor of Greifsburg, though lost. She also killed her comrade and lover Zero after battle rage overcame them both during an argument.
=== Appearance ===
Yama is a bald Egyptian eagle with a rosetted behind, presumed snow leopard. Her wings are leathery and bat-like, similar to Anfang’s and Joseph’s. Her eyes are mentioned to be green a few times. After her fight with Zero, her eye was severely damaged, meaning she has to wear an eye patch. She also sustained several injuries from her fight with Zero and at the fight the night the election results came in.
=== Biography ===
==== Personality ====
Yama is described by Aadhya to be firercely competitive, and that is evident during the election campaign, when she furiously wanted to win, planning to assassinate Victor and almost killing Nero in the process due to her desperation and need to win.
Yama’s personality and mood changed quite a bit over the course of Ascension, at the beginning she was calm and level-headed, though determined, and by the end, she lost her temper quickly and was prone to violence. She soon realised this along with Zero, who was suffering the same symptoms. 
Yama is not afraid to manipulate and charm people into getting what she wants, which is evident when she tries to console with Aadhya but gets exposed by Isabell. Apparently this is quite different from the Kita Aadhya knew, as Aadhya expressed her disdain for what Yama had become.
==== Appearances ====
===== In Ascension =====
Yama, along with her platoon, fly out of Greifsburg to overtake the German town they are assigned to. With the help of her guidance and the soldier clone’s strength, they easily take the town and reside in one of the hotels, from the permission of the Mayor. Later, Yama barks at her platoon to clean up after themselves, and patrols the city with Zero at her side. They buy meat from a nearby butcher, though come across resistance from a group of people, lead by a burly man. Yama decides that she an her group do not have to kill unless they need to. She also lets the mayor know that the hotel room they are staying in is too small and that they need a bigger place to reside in.
She decides to travel bak to Greifsburg in search of answers. She comes across the Greifsburg Redtails while they are training, and asks them if she can see Debra, who is acting mayor after Anthony's assassination. During her inquiry, Aadhya confronts her and calls her Kita, asking where she was after she vanished from New Delhi. Yama, not recognising Aadhya, takes off, but Aadhya follows, asking her if she remembers. Yama attacks her, saying she doesn't remember anything, and almost kills Aadhya, but Anfang catches her in time. Yama takes off back to her platoon.
Later, Yama groans about being suddenly attacked by memories. Zero tells her he is experiencing it too, and that their intelligence and memories must be a sign that they had past lives before beig soldier gryphons. A commotion outside makes them head onto the street, where the same group of people and burly man confront them, saying they must leave. Yama tries to reason with the man, but he shoots at her, not injuring her at all to the human's astonishment. Yama then kills the man by ripping his gut open, and the other humans flee in terror. She asks Zero and her clones to clean up the mess before going back to her room.
A few chapters after, Yama is uncertain about what she and Zero are supposed to do as they only knew how to overtake the city. She flies off to a nearby army camp, where a reporter questions her and she answers, though is eventally forced to leave as the army gets aggressive. She is then approached by Nero, who introduces himself as Isaac, and his followers. Nero tells her they can help as they too want a better future for gryphonkind. Yama accepts Nero's alliance somewhat hesitantly, but feels better that she has more allies.
The platoon moves to a castle once built centuries ago. News reaches them that a new mayor is needed for Greifsburg, and Nero convinces Yama to run as a candidate. They set off, leaving some of his followers and the clones behind, to reach Greifsburg. On the way, Yama recounts more memories of her and Aadhya, though they are still confusing to her.
They reach the main hall, and Yama asks to see Debra. The receptionist, along with Joseph and Anfang, stop her from getting very far, which frustrates her. They finally get to see Debra, and Yama announces that she is running for mayor. Debra, along with Johnathen and Isabell who are also in the room, are concerned, but agree as they did say any candidates could apply.
A few times in the book, Yama is mentioned to be leading in the election polls, to the other's concern. She often clashes with the other main characters, bothering Johnathen when his new car arrived and then fighting Anfang and breaking his leg; as well as coming across Isabell and Aadhya on their flight and trying to charm Aadhya into forgiving her, though when Isabell retorts, she snaps and insults Isabell and taunts Aadhya until they both fly away. During a debate, she is confident she will win the election, though Victor appears much to her concern, and she gets a feeling he won't be as easy to defeat as the other candidates.
Seeing the clone soldiers get welcomed into Greifsburg and bonding with Victor, Yama is furious. She threatens Nero and almost strangles him, despite his best efforts to serve her. Zero stops her, and tells her she hasn't been herself lately. They both reflect that they are losing the ability to think before they act, and have aggression issues due to the soldier programming in their blood. Yama almost tells Zero she loves him, but is interrupted by Tera arriving. Yama is wary of his promises to kill Victor, but agrees as she wants to win the election desperately. She tells Tera he must dispose of Nathanial too, as she does not want the information about her killing Victor to reach people’s ears.
During the night before the election, Yama is told they are twelve points behind Victor and Yama is panicked and angry. Zero manages to calm her, but she screeches that they must win the election. After Tera dies trying to assassinate Victor, Yama is distraught trying to get him to respond to her calls as she doesn’t know what happened to him. While Zero consoles her, she says that even if Victor survived, she can kill him herself. She tells Zero that she loves him and that they can rule Greifsburg together. To her concern, Zero rejects her offer and calls her a power hungry bitch. He says that what she has become is no longer the gryphon he knows. Yama is broken hearted at his rejection and decides to kill him as all he is now is an object in her way. They begin to fight, Zero scratching out one of her eyes in the process and smashing through several walls. Yama kills Zero by flinging him off a balcony headfirst. Unfortunately, as soon as she recovers from her battle rage, she is overcome with grief and sadness, and sobs over Zero’s body until Nero comes to guide her back to her room, saying she must prepare for the election results night.
Once the results come in, Yama is angry at her losing, but quickly brightens as she realises she could charm her way into a victory. When Thyra, Johnathen, Anfang, Joseph, Isabell and Rachel storm at her, demanding that she tried to have Victor killed, along with video proof, Yama realises she has lost. She decides to fight, and her and her clone allies attack. Yama attacks Aadhya and Thyra, but is intercepted by Anfang and Joseph, who fight openly until Anfang draws his samurai sword, to her amusement. She almost beats Anfang, but Aadhya stabs her in the back with Anfang’s sword. She is then shot by the poisoned bullets and collapses. She is then assisted by Nero who stabs her with a needle filled with supposed anntidote of sorts, and is whisked away.
In the epilogue, Yama wakes in a room and is greeted by Nero, who tells her he had the cure for her battle rage all along, but waited to give it to her. She screeches that he should have done so earlier, as he could have saved Zero’s life. Nero scolds her, saying he was not the one that killed Zero, and then introduces himself. He then leads Yama to a room holding many gryphons in tanks similar to the ones the clones were in, and tells her his plan for gryphonkind. Yama is shocked at Nero’s true identity and at Zero possibly surviving, but it is unknown as to how she reacted to Nero deciding to destroy all of humankind.
=== Quotes ===
”I had to kill the only person I loved in this fucked up world!”
"She kept repeating Kita, Kita, Kita like a broken record! How do I know what a broken record is?!"
(to Zero) "I'm afraid I'll hurt you."
”Really, Aadhya? Is that the best you could find? A flightless tranny gryphon?”
"So, what do you say we land and have some tea and talk it out?"
”You should have! You could have saved Zero’s life!”
"Really? This isn't a story where the 'bad guy' gets defeated by a magical sword."
"Yield, or die!"
=== Trivia ===
* Yama is canonically bisexual through her attraction to Aadhya and Zero.
* it’s mentioned several times that Yama has a rosetted behind, though that sometimes gets mixed up with Zero in the book’s description and images. In the image shown here, she has a plain behind, when she is meant to have rosettes.
* Yama was first introduced in a director’s cut from book one, which meant Alexander Bizzell already had an idea for her early on.
=== Gallery ===
=== References ===
Category:Characters
Category:Gryphons
Category:Major Characters