Kopaka: Icy Visionary Options

[GaliGee]

Thanks, Huriko Larelath!

Kopaka: Icy Visionary

Chapter 1: TEMP 0°C * RANGE 1000 BIO * SPEC GRAV 2.6


The sun rose over the great white mountain, and the ice glittered like diamonds scattered over the slope. He focused his eyes and saw small gray shapes lying in the snow. He reached down and picked up the one at his feet. It was curved as if to fit onto a face. He positioned the two eye holes over his eyes and pushed it into place. Immediately he felt a sensation of power in his face and then through his entire body.

He saw another mask, but this one was not smooth like the first. It was scarred and pitted, its color mottled and uneven. His vision zoomed out and he saw that the mask was attached to a huge, menacing creature with large teeth. Facing it was a small two-legged being, pale blue and white, clutching a pick axe. Snow swirled around them, driven by a bitter wind. The animal lunged at him, but suddenly the image faded to black.

"Kopaka, Toa of Ice," said a voice, "you will use what you have learned to defeat the evil on this island. Farewell."


"Wait!" he cried. "Who are you? Where am I? What--"

Suddenly he was rocked by an explosion. The pressure of the blast stunned him for a moment, and then he was aware of being thrown through the air. He landed in the sand. He saw a large, open cylindrical canister with wisps of smoke rising from its edge. Parts were strewn across the ground. He could hear the sound of surf pounding on rocks nearby.

"I have a mission, apparently," he said. "And these parts seem to belong to me. I'd better get myself together."

As he assembled the components around him into one creature--himself--he considered his dream. And then fragments of previous dreams drifted into his mind. They were full of struggle and conflict, pain and desperation. "I have slept for so long," he mused. "My dreams have been dark ones. But now I am awakened." He stood and fitted a mask to his face. "Now the scattered elements of my being are rejoined. Now I am whole."

His right eye was behind a set of three lenses on the mask. He closed his left eye and focused his right, studying the strange image that presented itself. Instead of the white ice, tan rocks, and blue sea, he saw a range of other colors. The snow and ice appeared blue, very restful to his eye. The sea was green. He glanced up at the sun, which was blazing red. He quickly turned away from it, as it was painful to look at. He felt the heat on his back from the glowing orb and realized that the mask must be detecting the temperature of the objects around him. With both eyes open, the normal image was superimposed on the temperature image, giving him a lot of visual information.

He reached for a sword and shield that had landed on a nearby rock. He felt the weight of the sword in his hand. It looked like a useful tool-or weapon. He remembered the words of the voice. "So I am Kopaka, Toa of Ice," he thought. "And the darkness cannot stand before me," he said to himself. "The evil on this island is about to learn that justice can be very... cold."

As Kopaka walked up into the snow-capped foothills, he saw something odd. Superimposed on an ice-covered rock was a yellow shape. As he walked, the image of the rock moved more than the image of the warmer object. From the changing perspective, he inferred that the yellow thing was actually behind the boulder. He closed his right eye and confirmed this observation. "My mask lets me see pathways not seen before. Patterns of heat--even through the rock," he marveled. He recognized the shape of a two-legged creature like the one in his dream "And I see I have a visitor."

He called to the creature. "Come out, little one, before you catch a chill."

The stranger turned and ran up the hill. "My new friend is trying to flee," thought Kopaka, pointing his sword at the ground. A flash of cold energy coursed through his body and out the tip of the weapon. He watched a layer of ice form, starting next to his feet and moving rapidly up the slope. "But a coating of ice beneath his feet will bring him sliding back to me." And it did. With a yell, the blue and white being lost his balance and slipped downhill toward Kopaka.

"Interesting," thought the Toa of Ice, looking at his blade. "The power is in me. The sword is but the focus."

As the creature tumbled to a stop at his feet, Kopaka leaned over him. "We have things to discuss. Who are you? And why were you watching me?"

The smaller creature sat up. He was wearing a light blue mask with three lenses, much like Kopaka's. "I… I am Matoro, a Tohunga. I saw you come ashore. I've been waiting for you. All of us here on Mata Nui have been waiting for you. You and the others. Now, if only you can find the masks of power--"

"What others? What masks?"

"The other Toa. Heroes, promised by the legend. Six of you, to free this island from the dark grip of Makuta."

The sound of the name sent a shiver up Kopaka's spine. "The source of the evil," he nodded grimly.

"Yes. He has put infected masks on the wild animals, to turn them against us. They destroy and rampage, on his command."

Kopaka remembered the beast in his dream that was wearing the pitted mask. "So that's why it was attacking the little creature." The tale Matoro was telling, while broken and incomplete, was fitting into Kopaka's dream like the pieces of a puzzle. His mission was becoming clearer.

"What?" asked Matoro.

"Nothing. Just a dream. So, what are these masks?"

"The Great Masks of Power. They will give you things like speed and strength."

"Tell me where to find these masks," said Kopaka.

"They are lost. Scattered. Hidden all over Mata Nui. Some are guarded by nightmare creatures… others hidden where no Tohunga could reach. Turaga Nuju, the villager elder, spoke of a mask of shielding, hidden in the place of far-seeing."

"'Place of far-seeing'? Your Turaga speaks in riddles," replied Kopaka. He started to walk inland. "I hate riddles."

The Matoran fell into step beside him, his small legs moving rapidly to keep up with the Toa's long strides. As they walked up into the foothills, the glaciers became deeper and the atmosphere cold and thin. Kopaka breathed deeply, enjoying the sensation of the crisp, pure air. He looked at his sword and wondered if there was some way to store it instead of carrying it all the time. He put it on his back and found that it clicked securely into place. "Well, that's convenient," he thought. He studied the shield and noticed fine, almost invisible seams radiating from the center. On a hunch, he put his hands on the perimeter and pushed. The shield folded into a long conical shape, its panels overlapping like the petals of a closing flower. He put it on his back as well. "I suppose I should thank whoever designed my weapons. They did a good job."

As they approached the edge of an icy cliff, Matoro gestured at the huge crevasse in front of them. "My people are planning an ice bridge to span this chasm--in your honor."

Kopaka looked across the canyon. He leaned over and realized that by going several kios uphill, they could walk around it, but this would add a lot of time to the journey. "Until then, I will make my own. I--" He stopped and looked around when he heard a loud buzzing noise. A huge flying insect was zooming down toward them. "NO!"

Matoro spun on his heels and yelled, "Kopaka! Watch out!" He slipped on the ice and fell over the edge of the cliff. Without a moment of hesitation, Kopaka dove after him. He extended his hand and caught Matoro's. As he drew the thrashing Matoran toward him, he said, "Don't struggle! You're safe now!" He pulled his sword off his back and directed a blast of cold below them. The water vapor in the air froze into a jagged mass of ice, and he landed on top of it with a thud.

"Now I know," gasped Matoro. "You are the Toa--the one who will save us!"

"There were easier ways for you to find out," quipped Kopaka. He climbed down from the ice and set Matoro onto the snow below. "What was that creature?"

"We call them Nui-Rama," replied the Matoran.

Another being, slightly taller than Matoro, emerged from the snow-covered conifers. He wore a square, light gray mask and carried a white ice pick. Kopaka stepped back in surprise as the newcomer started waving his hands and making clicking and whistling sounds.

Matoro spoke, apparently interpreting this strange language. "'When they wear infected masks, they are servants of Makuta… and only one of the dangers you will face.'" Then the villager spoke for himself. "Turaga! He's come! This is--"

"So this is Turaga Nuju," thought Kopaka. "The one who speaks in riddles. And squeaks." He frowned at the village elder. "How does he lead his people when he can't even talk?"

Matoro was once again translating. "'I know who he is, Matoro. You are Kopaka, who wields the power of winter itself. You saved one of your people, with no thought to your own safety. You are the one we have waited for.'"

"And do you have the answers I seek?" asked Kopaka.

"'This island, Mata Nui--and these mountains--are your home. You can ride the ice and snow… unleash the avalanche… freeze with just a touch…'"

"But that is not enough… is it?"

"'No.'" Nuju's whistle was emphatically loud. "'Our world… our people were once as pure and strong as the ice. Then…'" The Turaga crushed a rock between his fists. "'Makuta came, bringing evil to this land.'"

"And we six Toa have arrived to defeat him. Matoro told me about that."

Kopaka listened impatiently as Nuju made his odd sounds and Matoro interpreted, naming the other five Toa, their elements, masks, and weapons. Then he warned Kopaka that like the Toa, Makuta could also control the elements. "How will we defeat Makuta, if he is a spirit and we are not?" asked Kopaka.

"'To defeat Makuta, and restore our land, you will need the Great Masks of Power. You'll find the first at--'"

"'I know--the place of far-seeing,'" replied Kopaka.

Nuju nodded. Kopaka gave him a half-smile and turned to look at the massive peak. "Mount Ihu," he thought suddenly. "I remember that name from a dream. Well, at least it's an easy riddle." He put his sword on his back and walked toward the base of the mountain.

As he made his way up Mount Ihu, using his ice powers from time to time to bridge cracks in the glaciers, he studied the landscape through his mask. More words were coming back to him from his dreams. "The Kanohi Akaku," he said to himself. "The mask of vision." The snowy peaks were all about the same temperature, so the scenery was almost uniformly blue through his right eye. But as he scanned, something unexpectedly happened. His view shifted, and a black, white, and gray image appeared. The snow was light gray, the rock dark gray, and the sky white.

"Now what could this mean?" wondered Kopaka, tapping the side of his Kanohi. "Did some connection just come loose in my mask?" But he bent down and felt the different materials at his feet, and soon he came up with a theory. "The denser substances show up darker, and the lighter ones look, well, lighter in shade." He squeezed a handful of snow, compressing it into a chunk of ice, and watched it become darker. "Seems to work," he smiled. Like the first lens, the second allowed him to change focal length at will and thereby to see through solid objects.

With his new view of things, he once again scrutinized the landscape. "This will enable me to see whether the ice is thick enough to walk on, or whether I will have to freeze more of it to support my weight." He hiked more confidently, practicing the switch between the heat and density modes of his Kanohi. Then he stumbled onto one last mode. The Akaku also had a ranging lens, in which distant objects were light blue and closer ones dark blue. He threw a rock and watched it turn pale. The ranging lens could also zoom in on an object like a telescope. Kopaka grinned as he imagined uses for his mask. "Three lenses, three functions. The images look really different, so I can tell right away which mode I'm using. The other masks will be very helpful in combat, but this one will warn me of what's approaching beforehand, so I can prepare for it."

The climb became more difficult. Kopaka found his body responding to the challenge with strength and agility, however, and he made his way steadily toward the top. He paused to catch his breath on the side of the peak next to the summit. "Hmm. The sky has darkened. If I could feel the cold, the wind would chill me to the core. And though I sense no storm rising, I hear the rumble of thunder."

The rumble grew suddenly louder, and he heard a shout. "Look out!" Kopaka groaned as he was struck in the back and fell forward. He felt a landslide sweep him along for a few bios. Then the stones were still, and the echoes were replaced by silence. He twisted around in his rocky trap and pushed the stones off his face. "I guess if I'm too foolish to look for a threat, my Akaku can't warn me about it," he chided himself.

A brown creature with a somewhat triangular mask was leaning over him. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "I was practicing. Are you all right?"

"I would be, if you weren't standing on me." From the stranger's coloring, Kopaka realized this must be Pohatu, Toa of Stone.

Pohatu stepped back. "Let me help you out."

"Thank you. I don't need help." He pulled his arm out of the rubble. He waved his blade, which began to glow light blue. Ice crystals suddenly formed all around him and burst outward, sending the rocks flying. But one foot was still stuck under a boulder.

"Let me do it," offered Pohatu. "It'll be faster."

"I said, I can do it myself," snapped Kopaka, no longer inclined to hide his annoyance.

"Yeah, well, you missed one." Pohatu kicked away the massive rock, freeing the other Toa. "Listen, I have a feeling we're both here for the same reason. Why not team up? It might make things easier."

Kopaka frowned. He didn't relish the thought of working with someone else, particularly in light of what had just happened. Others were too unpredictable. "I work alone."

The Toa of Stone grinned. "By choice, or just 'cause no one can stand you?"

"All right," Kopaka relented, "come along. After all, I might need a mountain moved... or the island lifted." He put his sword on his back. A quick assessment with his Akaku lenses revealed that Pohatu was of moderate temperature and very dense. For the first time, he looked at himself carefully. Compared to Pohatu, he was somewhat lighter and a lot colder. He had been too involved in the conversation to remember exactly how Matoro and Nuju had looked, but he recalled their temperature being somewhere between Pohatu’s and his own.

"Nuju told me the mask would be in a place of far-seeing," Kopaka muttered, mostly to himself. He vaulted over the next ridge and stopped at the top of the icy peak. "The mask of shielding." He pointed to a gray shape in the snow.

Pohatu gazed past the icy valleys at a verdant jungle, and past it to the sea. "It's a place of far-seeing, all right!"

"You can see the whole island from up here," agreed Kopaka as he lifted the Kanohi from the ice. He put it over his Akaku and felt a strange vibration as the masks merged together. "I can feel the power of this mask protecting me... yet the powers of the mask of vision are still mine to use."

As he changed back to the Akaku, Kopaka saw a cluster of strange shapes through the rock with his density lens. "We have to go, now," he said abruptly.

"Why?"

"No questions. Just follow me."

"What did you see?" Pohatu insisted.

"Strangers," replied Kopaka, realizing that Pohatu would be a much more effective colleague if Kopaka shared his knowledge. "Beings of great power. But are they allies... or enemies?"

As they looked over the ridge, Kopaka changed to the heat lens and immediately recoiled in shock. One of the figures below him was radiating so intensely that the halo of his blazing red image filled Kopaka’s entire view. He closed his eyes reflexively, then switched back to the density lens and opened them again. He saw a Toa much like himself in stature and composition. He was wearing a Hau like the one Kopaka had just discovered, and his sword looked as if it were formed of twisted flames. “Tahu,” said the Toa of Ice to himself. “Obviously the Toa of Fire.”

A less dense, green creature holding an axe was surrounded by swirling shapes as the air moved restlessly around him. “That’s Lewa,” he thought. “Toa of Air.”

A third Toa was heavy and solid, like Pohatu. His hunched black form and large claws looked well suited to manipulate the earth, his element. “Onua, Toa of Earth.”

The density of the fourth being was very hard to define. It kept changing, as if fluid were moving around inside her body. Kopaka changed back to the heat lens, shading his mask with his hand to avoid seeing Tahu, and saw that this slender Toa was very cool. The image in the Akaku and the one with his naked eye were almost the same tranquil shade of blue. “And Gali, Toa of Water. She must change her buoyancy to help her swim.” He switched back to the density lens and watched the mesmerizing patterns of fluid motion. “She’s beautiful.”

"Those must be the other Toa," said Pohatu. "They are allies."

Kopaka snapped back to reality. "I think you are right. Let's go introduce ourselves. And then we can continue with our quests." He walked to the edge of the cliff. Apparently the others were just meeting each other.

"Who am I?" asked the green being.

"You are Lewa, Toa of Air," answered Kopaka. "My Turaga told me about all of you. The people here have been expecting us." He alighted on a rock beside the others. Pohatu jumped down next to him, landing with a thud that shook the mountain and sent masses of snow sliding downhill. Kopaka pointed his blade at the moving snow, and it froze in place. "I am Kopaka, Toa of Ice. This is Pohatu, Toa of Stone, and you must be Onua, Toa of Earth.”

"I am Tahu, Toa of Fire," added Tahu quickly, gesturing toward Gali. "And this is Gali, Toa of Water."

"Pleased to meet you," said Pohatu. The other Toa nodded their greetings.

Tahu took a deep breath. "We are as yet strangers to one another. But we know that we share an important destiny, protecting this island and its people. I have had a glimpse of what our enemy can do, and it will be a challenging task. I see that we are well equipped for it."

"Who is this enemy?" asked Lewa.

"Our enemy is the powerful evil spirit Makuta," replied Tahu. "He has intimidated the people by fitting infected masks to the wild beasts of the island, so that they will attack the villages."

“Tahu seems to have appointed himself the leader,” thought Kopaka. “Well, so be it. I don’t want to do it--I’d rather be by myself, anyway. But I’ll share any information I have, since some of the others seem not to know, and knowledge is going to be crucial to our task.” Aloud, he added to Tahu’s explanation. "Defeating him will not be easy. Like us, he controls the elements, as well as the infection that turns the animals against us. We must collect the Great Masks of Power before we can confront him."

Tahu glanced at Kopaka and continued. "These Kanohi, which resemble those we all have, are scattered across Mata Nui. Each one gives the wearer a new power. The Turaga know many of their locations, but we will have to hunt for others."

"When you find a mask, place it over your original one," explained Kopaka. "The masks will merge. And then you can switch at will from one to the other. Like this." Kopaka's mask morphed into his new one and then changed back.

"And when you find one, a replica of the new mask will appear on your Suva, in your village, where you will go to receive your Golden Kanohi when you have all six," finished Tahu.

Gali spoke hesitatingly. "And then… we will be ready to fight this Makuta?"

Gali’s voice was as lovely as she was. Kopaka watched her fluid patterns again as Onua answered, "And then we will fight Makuta. What are the powers of your masks? Mine, the Pakari, is the Great Mask of Strength."

"Mine lets me levitate," added Lewa, lifting himself about a bio off the ground.

"It's called the Miru, Lewa," said Tahu. "Mine is the Hau, the mask of Shielding. But you have to see the attack coming."

"Perhaps you can use mine to help with that," said Kopaka. "The Akaku, which gives the power to see through solid objects."

Pohatu pointed to his mask. "The Kakama is the Great Mask of Speed."

"And mine?" Gali asked, looking around.

"Yours is the Kaukau," answered Tahu. "It allows you to breathe underwater."

"Oh, that would explain--" Gali smiled shyly. "I see."

Kopaka looked at Tahu, who was staring at Gali, and frowned. Tahu took his intense gaze off Gali and turned to the others. "So, we must find these masks, while defending our villagers and learning as much as we can to prepare for our battle with Makuta. There are also six Noble Masks, like the Turaga wear, which have useful powers as well. Shall we meet again after we have each found a few?"

"I'd really rather work alone," said Kopaka. "I say we meet again after we find them all."

Onua disagreed. "I have a feeling we'll need to work together sometimes, and keep an eye on each other. But I think we can start off by returning to our villages, and using the knowledge of our Turaga to find as many Kanohi as we can."

Lewa put his hand on Gali's shoulder. "If you find any masks up high, I can get them for you, until you get your Miru," he offered. "And if I find any underwater, you know I'll call on you to--" Lewa glanced at Tahu and stopped. He took his hand off Gali and backed up a step. Waves of heat had been rising from Tahu as he watched the Toa of Air. "On second thought," continued Lewa, looking warily at the Toa of Fire, "maybe I'll just learn to swim."

Kopaka was beginning to get irritated at both Lewa and Tahu. “I can’t believe they’re vying for her attention. How foolish! That kind of thing could really endanger our mission. Of course she’s exquisite... but she’s a warrior. And so are we.”

Pohatu spoke to relieve the tension. "If we need to meet, I can act as a messenger," he volunteered. "I can cross the island in the time it takes a stone to hit the bottom of this canyon." He kicked a small rock off the edge of the cliff.

"Then we'll get together again whenever we have something to communicate to the others," concluded Tahu. "Until then, may the Great Beings protect you all. And best of luck on your quest for the Kanohi."

The others nodded, and the meeting broke up. Kopaka turned toward the west. “Nuju said the village was this way,” he thought. “Actually, he made some squeaking noises, and Matoro told me that’s what he said. I suppose I should go meet the villagers now.”

He walked down the slope a short distance and cut across the broad expanse of a sparkling glacier. He began to walk up the other side of the mountain. As he climbed, he slipped and lost his footing. He threw out his arms for balance, and he slid backwards on his feet for a few bios, stopping against a rock. “Say, I think I could slide in a controlled way, and travel like that!” He stepped around the rock and tried again, forwards this time. He found he could ski easily down the snowy hillside on his feet, using his ice powers to compress the surface ahead of him to support his weight. He practiced over and over, jamming his feet into the snow pack as he ran up the slope, then skiing down. After a while he was able to ski without looking down, relying on his instinctive feel for his element. He went faster and faster, swerving around obstacles and stopping at will. Then he climbed up a long slope with a small hill in the middle of it and used it to launch himself into a flip. He landed on his feet and kept going, smiling at his new discovery.

He reached a flat icy patch, where he explored ways to propel himself forward by pushing off with his feet. Where the ground was already frozen, he needed his elemental power only to smooth the bumps and cracks in the ice. “So I can ski, or I can skate, depending on the surface conditions.” Finally, he found one more method of travel. He put his shield down on the snow, sat in it, and pushed off with his hands. He leaned to steer himself, sending himself into a spin as he sped down the hill. “Well,” he laughed, “all this is certainly entertaining, but I hopefully I can use it to out-maneuver a foe sometime.”

The snow began to turn a deeper and deeper shade of blue as the sun sank below the horizon. “I guess I’ve put this off long enough,” Kopaka sighed to himself. He set off for Ko-Koro again.

Kopaka skated around the base of a foothill and stopped. Paths were carved deeply into the glacier. There was a tunnel opening, lined on the inside with ice blocks. “This was obviously carved by hands, not by nature,” he thought. “It must be the way to the village.” He followed the tunnel for a long ways, emerging into a clearing. Before him was a closed gate, and on each side were nine niches hollowed out of the ice. There were blocks of ice with carved images of masks lying on the ground. Six blocks, with symbols on them, were lodged in the bottom row of niches. “Oh, wonderful, a puzzle,” Kopaka groaned. He glanced at the sheer ice cliff above. “I suppose I could try to go around it, but that would be a lot of work. I might as well figure this out. Let’s see. The snowflake… could that represent the region of ice? And here’s a block with my mask, and one that looks like Nuju.” He placed the blocks in the puzzle above the snowflake symbol.

“This thing looks like a flame.” He put the block with the engraved Hau over it. “And this… water.” He slid the Kaukau block carefully into its niche. He continued until all the Toa masks were in place. “I don’t know the other Turaga yet. But there are only five. I guess I’ll just try them.” He put a block with a rounded mask into the slot above the fire symbol. It fell back out.

Kopaka laughed. “Well, at least it’s an easy puzzle, because it won’t let me do it wrong,” he thought. He tried the block in the air column, but it fell out again. After a couple more tries, it stayed in the niche above the water symbol. “So that’s Gali’s Turaga,” he surmised, picking up another cube of ice. “Now, which village does this one go to? I’m getting rather tired of this.”

The sound of soft footsteps behind him made Kopaka spin around. A Matoran had crept up behind him. He bowed to his Toa. Kopaka looked at him and then picked up the block that matched his mask. “Which Turaga looks like you?” he asked.

The Matoran pointed to the opening above the stone symbol. “Turaga Onewa,” he said. He picked up another block and placed it for Kopaka.

“So, what’s your name?” Kopaka asked.

“Kopeke.” The gate slid open as the Ko-Koronan slid the last block into place in the puzzle.

“Thank you. Am I headed the right way, to get to Ko-Koro?”

“Yes, Toa. This gate is here to keep out the Rahi. Or at least slow them down.” He led the way down a long tunnel in the ice. As they came out, Kopaka heard the lonely howling of the wind. They were at the edge of a cliff, looking at a long, winding staircase chiseled into the stark icy bluff. Kopaka saw a strikingly beautiful arch of ice that spanned the canyon. “Did you villagers make all these tunnels and stairs and bridges?” he asked his small guide.

“Yes, we did,” answered Kopeke. “That bridge is my work. Bridges are my specialty.”

“Very nice,” commented the Toa. He followed Kopeke along the narrow stairs, marveling at the elaborate measures the villagers had taken to protect themselves. Finally, as the twilight began to yield to darkness, they emerged in a wide area with snow-topped conifers. Two guards saluted them, making the snow fall off their shoulders. Kopaka smiled as he passed. “The Ko-Koronans must be patient people,” he thought.

Kopeke gestured toward a large structure, built of blocks of ice, standing on a wide platform of packed snow in the center of the clearing. Four towers surrounded a dome of ice with carvings around the roof. “That is the Sanctum. There, any Matoran who wishes to join in the Seeking is welcome. We Ko-Koronans dedicate much of our time to meditation and the pursuit of knowledge.”

“That sounds like a worthwhile activity,” thought Kopaka. “I hope I can learn something there, too. Being ignorant is very unsettling.” He followed Kopeke up the stairs and into the building.

Kopaka looked around in the dim light of flickering yellow stones mounted on the walls all around. A cluster of hot stones lay in a stone pit in the center of the spacious hall. Several white and light gray Matorans were standing and reading the walls, which were covered with inscriptions. A giant stone replica of an Akaku dominated the room, the dancing shadows from the fire giving it an eerie look. Faint music drifted in from elsewhere in the building, ethereal and mysterious. Kopaka followed the curved walls upward with his gaze. They converged around a small opening, through which he could see stars in a black sky.

Nuju was standing on the far side of the room. The Matorans turned and bowed to Kopaka, who nodded as he passed them. “Nuju,” said the Toa.

The Turaga turned and emitted a series of clicks and buzzing sounds. Matoro stepped out of the shadows to interpret. “‘Welcome to the Sanctum, Toa Kopaka,’” he said. “‘Here the prophecies of ages past are etched for us to study and contemplate.’”

Kopaka squinted at the characters on the wall. He found he was somehow able to read them. He traced one line with his finger. The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.* He smiled to himself. “Well, that makes sense.”

The music stopped. He turned and saw that the villagers in the temple were exchanging words and leaving one by one. “‘The Ko-Koronans are retiring for the night. It is wise to seek shelter and warmth after sunset, for the great Mount Ihu blankets all with bitter cold. You are welcome to stay in the temple for the night, Toa Kopaka.’”

Kopaka suddenly realized that he was very tired. “Thank you, I will,” he replied. As the last of the Matorans left, Matoro covered each lightstone with a metal cone, leaving only the light of the fire. He and Nuju bowed and walked out the door.

Kopaka stretched out on the floor against the wall, away from the heatstones. He closed his eyes, welcoming the rest his body craved. Soon he was asleep.


A huge, menacing creature with large teeth and two infected masks stood in the snow. Facing it was a small two-legged being, pale blue and white, clutching a pick axe. Snow swirled around them, driven by a bitter wind. Kopaka recognized the villager as Matoro. The animal lunged at the Matoran, striking him with its bared teeth, and he flew into a snowdrift. The image faded to black.

Kopeke lay face-down on an ice bridge. He was leaning over the edge, chipping at the side of the structure. Another Matoran in a light blue Miru stood beside him, smoothing the walkway with a flat bladed tool. Kopeke stopped working and stood up, smiling as he admired his finished work. But then a Nui-Rama flew over with a large rock in its claws. As it approached the bridge, it released the stone, which crashed through the ice. Kopeke and his companion grasped in vain at the falling chunks of ice. Kopaka heard their screams receding as they disappeared down the canyon. The image faded to black.


Kopaka sat up with a start. He was breathing hard. Looking around, he realized he was in the Sanctum, and it was still night. He shook his head and reminded himself that it was only a dream. But he couldn’t rid his mind of the unpleasant scenes. “What if I can’t protect my villagers? What if I fail?” he thought, panicked. He stood and paced around the inside of the great hall. “I won’t be able to live with myself.” He stepped out into the blackness and tried his lenses. None of them helped much in the dark. He went back inside. “I hope the darkness affects the Rahi’s eyes as it does mine,” he muttered to himself.

Unwilling to sleep again and risk having more nightmares, he decided to read the walls. He removed the covers from the lightstones and started with the inscriptions to the right of the doorway. The text varied in content. Some of it was historical records or legends. Other passages relayed proverbial wisdom, and still more sections were devoted to prophecy. Kopaka was fascinated by what he read. Often he stopped, baffled by seeming contradictions or frustrating riddles. But as he made his way slowly around the room, he found himself understanding more and more about the world into which he had arrived.

Hours later, the hole in the roof began to glow dimly with pink light. He looked up and realized that the hole was actually covered by a thin layer of transparent ice. “They must have to replace that often, due to the weather,” he mused. The first rays of sunlight would not strike it for several hours, but the indirect light made the walls shine with a bluish color that contrasted with the yellow glow of the artificial light.

At the sound of footsteps, Kopaka turned and saw Nuju enter the temple. Nuju began to gesture and whistle. The Toa looked around for Matoro, but the Turaga was alone. “Nuju, I can’t understand you.”

Nuju folded his hands under his inclined head and pointed to Kopaka. “He must be wondering how I slept,” he inferred. “I slept a little,” he answered aloud. “But I woke with nightmares, so I spent much of the night reading.”

The Turaga nodded. He pointed to the walls and began to click and hum. Kopaka rolled his eyes. “Perhaps we can have a more meaningful conversation when Matoro wakes up,” he replied with exasperation.

Nuju shrugged and walked to the opposite side of the room. Soon he was lost in thought. Kopaka frowned. “By now, he should have read all this stuff,” he thought. “Is he reading it again? I suppose some of it takes time to fully understand.”

Much to Kopaka’s relief, Matoro walked into the Sanctum. He spoke briefly to Nuju, who replied in his usual way. Then Matoro approached Kopaka. “Turaga Nuju says, ‘You can’t avoid nightmares by not sleeping. You need rest to defend our village.’”

“Maybe so, but I sure learned a lot last night,” remarked Kopaka. “I’ve almost finished the whole room!”

Matoro smiled. He motioned for Kopaka to follow him through a passageway behind a statue that Kopaka hadn’t noticed before. They descended a spiral staircase of ice into a long, dark, narrow vault far beneath the snow pack. Matoro pulled a lightstone out of a sack on a strap around his neck and illuminated the room. Kopaka gasped as he saw the walls, covered with writing as far as he could see down the dim hallway. “There is always more to read,” said the Matoran. “And we are always writing more, from the prophesies of the astrologer in Ga-Koro, from the sacred fire in Ta-Koro, and other sources. Behold the Wall of Destiny.”



Review topic here.

*Proverbs 15:14

This post has been edited by GaliGee: Oct 24 2003, 09:51 AM

[GaliGee]

Chapter 2: TEMP 15°C * RANGE 100 BIO * SPEC GRAV 1.5


Kopaka squinted in the green glow and switched to the heat lens of his Akaku. The other Toa stood around him, as if waiting for something. He saw the dim outline of a relatively cold Matoran against the frigid stone walls. The Matoran approached, slowly, and emerged from the shadows. He wore a Hau and was dark gray, but he was completely covered with patches of a strange greenish substance. The Toa glanced at each other. The image faded to black.


“Kopaka? Are you all right?” asked a voice at his elbow.

Kopaka snapped back to reality. He was standing next to Kopeke on the edge of a cliff. The Matoran was looking anxiously at his face.

“Uh, yes, I’m all right,” he replied. “So, you were going to show me how you construct an ice bridge?” His ranging lens showed him that the opposite side of the crevasse was about ten bios away.

“Yes. First we set up the safety equipment. Anchors secure, Kikua?”

A Matoran in a light blue Miru nodded. He had just driven several large stakes into the ice with the back of his pick, and he was tying ropes to them. He dragged the ropes toward Kopeke, who looped one around his waist. Kikua tied another around himself, and one around each of several tools and sturdy woven bags.

Kopaka shook his head. “Where have I seen Kikua before?” he wondered to himself. “He looks somehow familiar.”

Kopeke put ropes around one of the blocks of ice nearby. He and his companion dragged it to the edge of the cliff, where they had chiseled out a deep notch. Kikua lay down with his arms and head hanging over the precipice and opened a metal canister. The heatstone inside glowed brightly. He held it next to the side of the cliff and moved it back and forth until the ice began to melt and drip down the canyon. The drops froze as they fell, and Kopaka could hear them hitting the bottom of the crevasse far below. Kopeke opened another heatstone canister and did the same to the ice block. Then both Matorans pushed the block slowly over the cliff. As it tipped over the edge, they leaned back against the ropes, holding the block in place in the notch. They remained in that position for several minutes. Kopeke said, “That’s enough,” and they both let go of the ropes. The block was frozen in place, cantilevered over the canyon.

“Impressive,” remarked Kopaka. “The ambient temperature here is low enough to freeze the block onto the cliff. And you have obviously perfected the technique. Too large a block, and you couldn’t hold it. Too small, and the bridge would take too long.”

“That’s pretty much it,” agreed Kopeke. “We do that over and over until the bridge is complete. Sometimes we lose a block down the canyon, though. And then once the keystone block is in place, the weight of the bridge itself makes it more stable. Then we smooth it out with our tools.” The two Matorans applied heat to the next block and held it until it froze. The Toa of Ice watched them continue their work in silence. About half an hour later, the bridge reached about halfway across the crevasse. Its graceful arched shape glinted in the cold sunlight. Suddenly Kopaka realized where he had seen Kikua. It was in his dream from the night before. He shivered at the memory.

The workers had stopped to rest, and they were sitting in the snow at Kopaka’s feet. “So, how do you build with ice, Toa Kopaka?” asked Kikua.

“I point my blade, and channel the cold energy into the air. The water in the air freezes where I aim it. I go back over the area, adding layers, until it’s thick enough.” He waved his ice blade, and in less than a minute he had created a span across the canyon. The Ko-Koronans gasped in awe.

“Yeah, I’m fast, but that one isn’t very good. Yours is much more elegant. Mine is too jagged and irregular.” He aimed his sword at it, and it began to melt, crumbling into the canyon below. To himself, he added, “I’ve got to practice this. I’m just not good enough.”

Kopeke’s impassive face watched the ice chunks fall. But Kopaka thought he detected a hit of a smile at the compliment.

The villagers stood again and resumed their work. Soon the bridge was finished, and they were taking off their ropes. “That’s excellent,” Kopaka smiled. “Now, I’d better go check with Nuju, and see if he knows about any more masks.” The Matorans waved, then walked out onto the new bridge with their tools to fix a few last imperfections. Kopaka turned to go. He walked a few hundred bios, then stopped. He had an uneasy feeling. He glanced back over his shoulder at the Ko-Koronans.

Kopeke lay face-down and leaned over the edge, chipping at the side of the structure. Kikua stood beside him, smoothing the walkway with a flat bladed tool. Kopeke stopped working and stood up, smiling as he admired his finished work.

Kopaka suddenly heard a buzzing noise. He spun to see a Nui-Rama approaching in the sky with a large rock in its claws. “The dream!” he gasped. As it approached the bridge, it released the stone, which crashed through the ice. Kopeke and Kikua grasped in vain at the falling chunks of ice. Kopaka heard their screams receding as they disappeared down the canyon. He stood at the edge and shot a beam at the bottom of the canyon, rapidly building a slide under them. They tumbled down it to the bottom of the ravine. Kopaka jumped and landed on the slide, reaching the bottom a few seconds later.

The Toa of Ice stood slowly and walked over to Kopeke. The Matoran groaned and rolled over. He sat up and rubbed his head. Kopaka helped him up, then pulled Kikua to his feet. They were dazed but unharmed. “Thank you, Toa Kopaka,” they murmured gratefully.

“You’re welcome,” replied Kopaka. He looked up at the slide. By melting footholds in it, half a bio apart, he turned it into a staircase. The three climbed it slowly, and the Ko-Koronans returned to the village.

Kopaka sat alone on the edge of the cliff for a few minutes. “Well, I’ve learned two things. First, Nuju was right. That last vision came to me in the daytime, when I wasn’t even asleep. So not sleeping to avoid them is futile.” Then he considered the more amazing discovery. “And the nightmare I had last night, which was a continuation of my dream in the canister, came true. Exactly. I wonder if all my dreams will.”

He stood up and looked around him. The jagged fragments of the broken bridge marred the otherwise ethereal landscape of majestic snow-capped mountains and sparkling ice formations against a luminous blue sky. “Just like the island I’ve fallen onto,” he mused. “Stunning beauty, defiled by evil. I’ve got to get to work.”

A cold wind began to whip around him, and snow started falling. He leaned forward as he walked toward the village. Then he came to a slope, and he skiied down to the cluster of huts made of ice blocks, using his Akaku to navigate through the increasingly dense swirling whiteness. As he reached the outskirts of Ko-Koro, a large creature loomed out of the blizzard. Kopaka quickly assessed it with his Kanohi, noting the strange heat signature of the infected masks. He drew his blade and considered how to attack it. “Perhaps I could just freeze it,” he shrugged. He pointed his sword, and as the Muaka lunged at him with its long neck, it was suddenly encased in solid ice.

“That worked well,” smiled Kopaka. He chipped off the creature’s masks and touched it with his blade. The ice melted, and the subdued animal stumbled away into the storm.

Kopaka shook off the loose snow as he walked into the Sanctum. He found Nuju there, still studying the same passage of text he was scrutinizing when the Toa had left. “Twenty-seven little words, and he’s still trying to figure them out?” he wondered. But he kept his thought to himself. “Greetings, Turaga. The Matorans just gave me a wonderful demonstration of how they construct a bridge. But now I need to get back to work. Can you tell me where the next mask is?”

Nuju looked up, responding with his usual hums and clicks. Matoro stepped over and translated. “Nuju says, ‘The Mask of Levitation is where the snow melt follows the land down to its source.’” By the time Matoro had finished speaking, the Turaga had turned back to the wall, as if to indicate that the conversation was over.

Kopaka sighed. “Another riddle,” he muttered. “Why couldn’t I have gotten a more talkative Turaga?” He walked over to a place on the wall where a map of Mata Nui was carved. “The source of the snow? That’s got to be the sky. But he said ‘down to its source.’ So that can’t be right.” Kopaka thought for a moment. “The sea! That’s the source of the snow, since the water evaporating from the sea rises up the mountain and falls as snow.” Studying the map, he saw a large river at the southern edge of Ko-Wahi. “Perhaps he means the place where the river, carrying the ‘snow melt,’ meets the sea.” He strode out of the temple and headed southeast.

The snow was still swirling furiously, but Kopaka was able to use his mask to alternately walk, climb, or ski unhindered, depending on the terrain. He finally emerged from the weather and found himself standing on a rocky crag, overlooking a wide canyon. Sparkling blue water flowed below him, flowing deep and smooth in some places and foaming over rocky rapids in others. He scanned the area for a mask, but, seeing nothing, he decided to follow the river toward the sea. The Toa of Ice used his blade to create a long slide down to the river. Then he sat in his shield and pushed off, riding down the ice into the water. The shield floated downstream, spinning slowly. Kopaka used his sword to straighten himself out and steer around the rapids, scanning constantly for the Kanohi. When he saw a cluster of strange beasts at the edge of the water in the distance, he froze a jetty of ice on top of the water ahead of him. The shield floated up against it. He stepped onto the ice and folded and stored his shield. Walking across to the bank, he continued his journey on foot. From time to time he used his blade to hack through the underbrush.

“Guarded by nightmare creatures,” Kopaka repeated to himself as he approached. Soon he spotted the Miru with his density lens. “Now... how do I get past those Tarakava?”

Kopaka crept around behind a stand of tall trees. He counted three of the Rahi. “I can certainly freeze one or two of them right away,” he thought. “But the last one might get me before I get it. Maybe if they can’t reach me...” Kopaka looked up the tree closest to him. He gripped the lower branches and pulled himself up into its canopy.

The Tarakava spotted him and surrounded the base of the tree. Unable to hit Kopaka, who had scrambled out of reach, they resorted to pounding on the trunk. Kopaka flinched as he watched the wood splinter under their powerful fists. He braced himself and shot a beam of ice at each of the creatures until they stopped moving. Breathing a sigh of relief, he dropped out of the tree, landing on a Tarakava, which fell over. He tumbled to the ground, knocking off his mask. He stood up, replaced it on his face, and reached into the underbrush for the new one.

He looked at the gray Miru carefully. He could see strange circuitry under the surface with his density lens. “Interesting,” he marveled, then placed it over his Akaku. He jumped up and enjoyed the sensation of hovering in the air. “This would have helped me land without looking like a clumsy fool!” he laughed.

Kopaka removed the infected masks from the Tarakava and kicked them into the water. Then he thawed the creatures and watched them slowly begin to move again, confused by the loss of their masks. They jumped into the water. The Toa began the hike toward home, using his new Miru whenever he reached a steep slope. “It’s faster than paving everything with ice,” he concluded, “and it uses less energy, too.”

On his way back to the village, he encountered a group of Kane-Ra on the edge of a snowy cliff. “Now, that looks like... a Kakama!” he thought excitedly as he focused his Akaku on a shape in their midst. “Perhaps I can jump down between them and then leap off the cliff with it.” He climbed above them and studied the jump he would have to make. “No, that’s too risky,” he concluded. “I know! Rather than freezing the Rahi...” Kopaka drew his sword and pointed it at the Kanohi, freezing it into a thin column of ice. Then he grabbed the ice with both hands and lifted it up onto the rock where he was standing. The Kakama was embedded in the bottom of the column. He melted the ice with his blade, and the mask dropped into his left hand.

But the Kane-Ra had found a way up the slope, and they were closing in. Kopaka jammed the Kanohi onto his face, then switched to the Miru and leaped. “I think I’m about to find out how high it’s safe to jump...” he thought nervously. But he landed unharmed. Above him the Kane-Ra were making their way down toward him again. He changed to his new Kakama and ran.

The sensation of speed was exhilarating. Kopaka felt the wind racing past his head and looked down at his legs, which ran tirelessly across the rugged terrain. He was back in Ko-Koro before he had even finished berating himself for his sloppy handling of the Rahi. “They could have gotten me, if the masks had worked differently than I expected. And I let them go in their infected state.” He spun on his heels and ran back to where he had left the Kane-Ra.

The animals were still in the area, wandering toward the village. Kopaka looked above them at a small snow-capped peak. “Nuju said I could start and stop avalanches. I think it’s time to try it.” He held his sword up and concentrated on the snow at the summit. Immediately a huge wave of icy chunks was rumbling down the side of the mountain. The Kane-Ra were buried before they had time to react.

The Toa of Ice walked over to the spot where the Rahi were buried. He waved his sword again, and the snow slid away from them. He kicked off the masks and knocked them into a crevasse, which he sealed with ice. As the animals staggered away, Kopaka changed back to his Kakama and headed home.

Kopeke was walking out of the Sanctum. Kopaka’s arrival seemed to startle him. “Oh, Toa Kopaka, it’s you,” he gasped. “You have a visitor. It’s Toa Pohatu. He’s inside.”

“Thanks,” replied Kopaka, wondering what he must have looked like for Kopeke to have been so alarmed. Then he saw a strange red blur in front of him, and he brandished his sword and shield. The bulky shape of Pohatu emerged. “Well, that answers my question,” he grinned, lowering his weapons. “Hello, Pohatu.”

“Hi, Kopaka. Good to see you. And I’m glad you have your Kakama now! Isn’t it great?”

“Well, yes, it’s going to be very useful,” replied Kopaka. “And it is actually rather exciting to use,” he added with a smile. In spite of himself, Kopaka found he was catching a bit of Pohatu’s contagious enthusiasm.

Pohatu smiled back. “I couldn’t agree more. So, I came here to tell you that Onua wants us all to come to his landing site for a brief meeting.”

Kopaka rolled his eyes. “Already? Do we really need this? We have so much work to do.”

“I don’t know what Onua wants to talk about, but he doesn’t seem to be the kind to make idle chit-chat,” replied the Toa of Stone.

“I suppose not,” sighed Kopaka.

“All right, I’ll see you there. I’m going to go get the others.” Pohatu nodded and turned to go. His body glowed red for a moment and then disappeared, at least to the naked eye. Kopaka used the ranging lens to watch him go, marveling at the amazing distance he covered in a fraction of a second.

Reluctantly, the Toa of Ice set off for Onu-Wahi. He arrived before the others and found Onua in the forest near the sea. Onua was sitting quietly on the ground without moving, and Kopaka had to use the density lens to see him in the shadows.

“Hello, Kopaka,” smiled Onua. “How is your quest going?”

“Hello, Onua. All right, I suppose.” Kopaka climbed up on a nearby boulder and sat down.

“Are your villagers all right?”

“Yeah. Barely.”

“Mine are well, but I’m constantly worried they’ll be attacked while I’m looking for Kanohi,” said Onua.

“They’ll just have to take care of themselves,” shrugged Kopaka, “like they were doing before we came.”

Onua fell silent, apparently sensing that Kopaka didn’t feel like having a conversation. Kopaka dropped back onto the ground and began pacing around.

“Kopaka, perhaps you should relax, since it may be a while until everyone gets here,” suggested Onua. “Not all of us are lucky enough to have a Kakama already.”

“Relax?” scoffed the Toa of Ice. “I just want this meeting to be over, so I can get back to work.”

“I think you are underestimating how much we can learn from each other,” ventured the Toa of Earth.

Kopaka stopped walking and looked at him. “Maybe so,” he agreed. “So, have you discovered anything of interest?”

“Well, I’ve noticed that the Rahi tend to cluster around the masks. So, it’s rather convenient to dispatch a few of them every time I find a Kanohi.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed that, too. Can our enemy really be that stupid?”

“Stupid? I doubt it,” laughed Onua. “He might be setting us up by making them easy to find, actually. Meanwhile, he’s preparing something worse.”

“Well, that’s a disturbing thought.” Kopaka leaned against the boulder. “Do you think he controls the Rahi directly? Or does he just make them unnaturally aggressive?”

“Good question. I don’t know. But I’ve been wondering about something. Makuta is a spirit, and we are physical beings. Turaga Whenua says he can take on many different forms. If we destroy one, who’s to say he won’t come back as another?”

Kopaka shook his head. “That’s occurred to me, too. I guess we should just try to be ready for anything.”

A green blur appeared in front of Onua, and Lewa emerged. Pohatu showed up right behind him.

“Hello, everyone,” smiled Pohatu. He sat down on the boulder that Kopaka was leaning against.

Lewa looked around distractedly. “So, Onua, what’s the occasion? Is something big going on?”

“No, Lewa, I just wanted to talk about strategy and teamwork a bit,” replied Onua. “I’d like to wait until we’re all here to get started. But go ahead and tell us what’s on your mind, if you have something to say.”

“Nothing, really, except that I’d like to get back to searching for the masks. Who’s still missing? Tahu and Gali? Oh, great.”

Kopaka stood up straight. “I hope nothing’s wrong.”

“I’m sure they’re doing just fine,” replied Lewa with a sarcastic smile. “That’s probably why they’re late.”

The Toa of Ice looked off into the distance. He hoped Lewa was just being flippant.

A red blur appeared suddenly, and Tahu emerged, with Gali on his shoulders. She jumped down hastily and stood between Onua and Lewa. Kopaka studied her with the density lens and noticed that the fluid inside her was very turbulent, as if she were really upset about something. He glared suspiciously at Tahu.

“There they are,” Pohatu smiled. “Now we can get started.”

“Sorry we took so long. We had some Rahi trouble on the way,” explained Tahu. “And then Gali put out the forest fire I started.”

Gali just looked at the ground. Tahu glanced at the others.

“He’s hiding something,” thought Kopaka angrily. “Whatever happened, Gali is obviously agitated, and it is almost certainly Tahu’s fault. Did he endanger her somehow in a Rahi fight? Or could he actually be foolish enough to sabotage our work by making an improper advance toward her?”

“Right. Well, it’s interesting that you said that, because that’s why Onua asked us to come here,” said the Toa of Stone, once again diffusing the tension. “Go ahead, Onua.”

“I felt it was time we met again,” began the Toa of Earth. “This place holds dangers we never dreamed of… maybe even more than any of us can handle alone.”

Gali looked up. “We need to learn to work together. Our future depends on it.”

Lewa sounded skeptical. “I don’t know. I’m still not much for teaming up.” But when a loud rumbling shook the forest, he turned to the others. “Then again, there’s nothing like a little togetherness.”

Onua’s eyes looked distant for a moment as he considered the vibrations coming through the earth. “That lava flow could destroy the entire island. You have the mask of speed,” he said to Lewa. “Can you get me there?”

“Sure, Onua,” replied Lewa. “But what are you going to do once we’re there?”

“Watch and learn.”

Lewa looked at Onua’s short, bulky form and then glanced at the boiling clouds of black smoke in the distance. “Climb on my back.”

The Toa of Air staggered a bit under Onua’s weight, then activated his Kakama. They sped away toward the Mangai.

“Why isn’t Tahu taking care of that?” wondered Kopaka.

Tahu looked rather subdued. He glanced at Gali, but she looked away. His temperature seemed lower than Kopaka remembered.

“Well, at least it looks like she was sensible enough to tell him ‘no’,” concluded the Toa of Ice.

Gali was bracing herself as a Muaka charged out of the underbrush. She rolled onto her back as it lunged, using its own huge bulk to flip it overhead toward Kopaka with her feet. “Here is a gift for you, Kopaka,” she quipped.

Kopaka smiled as he blasted the beast with a beam of ice. “I hope you won’t mind if I keep it chilled for later,” he joked. The animal crashed harmlessly to the ground. He kicked off its infected masks and thawed it. He looked up at Gali, who was standing over him and watching admiringly. “It’s really marvelous what kind of powers we have been given,” she remarked.

Kopaka started to reply, but in such close proximity to to this amazing creature, he forgot what he was going to say. “It is,” he finally managed to answer. As she turned to watch Pohatu kick a boulder at the Tarakava who were massing to attack Tahu, Kopaka scolded himself for his self-consciousness. “I should be able to talk to her about our mission without getting distracted by her beauty. After all, she’s a warrior. And so am I.”

Tahu seemed to have snapped out of his melancholy mood. “Thank you, friend,” he said gratefully to Pohatu.

“No problem, Tahu,” replied Pohatu. “But that’s not the end of it. Look behind you!”

Kopaka watched as Tahu melted an avalanche of sand into a wall of glass, but two Nui-Rama shattered it and lifted him high into the air. Onua caught the Toa of Fire in his claws as the insects dropped him. Kopaka laughed to himself at the sight of Onua holding the proud leader of the Toa in his arms like a lost pet.

Onua smiled as he set Tahu down. “Makuta is proving my point for me.”

Kopaka heard the bushes rusting behind them and spun around. He changed to his Hau just in time. The poison hurled by the tail of a Nui-Jaga splattered against the invisible shield. More creatures massed at the edge of the clearing. He gestured to Gali, still in her Kaukau, to step back. “I have the power of the mask of shielding, but you have no protection from their attack, Gali,” he warned.

“As long as the underground waters obey my commands,” replied the Toa of Water calmly as a jet of high-pressure fluid burst from the earth under the monsters, “it is Makuta and his creatures that need protection.” The scorpions were carried high into the air and plunged into the sea.

Onua scraped up a huge ball of earth. “More Rahi nightmares on the wing,” he groaned. “I believe I have had enough of this!” He hurled it at several more Rama who were diving on the group. Then the scene was quiet again.

“Perhaps Makuta is discouraged by the way we are helping each other,” remarked Pohatu.

“For now, anyway,” replied Onua. “We have won our first battle… but there will be more.”

“We must be prepared to fight them, separately and together,” added Gali. “I had a vision of what we will become after we find the masks. We will combine our bodies and minds into two giant beings that personify the spirits of Wisdom and Valor. When the time comes, we will understand what to do.”

“That’s amazing,” marveled Pohatu. “I almost feel sorry for Makuta, trying to take us all on.”

“I have no use for teams,” said Kopaka. “But I will assist when I’m needed.”

Lewa nodded. “Same here. The masks of power are as good as ours!”

Tahu stepped forward, holding up his sword. “Then let Makuta tremble this day--we stand together until Mata Nui is free!”

The other Toa raised their weapons in agreement. Kopaka joined the cheer, but he was growing weary of the company of the others.

“Let’s watch out for one another as we keep looking for the Kanohi,” said Onua. “We can summon each other quickly, now that many of us have the Kakama.”

“I suppose we may have to work together sometimes, but I’d like to get back to Ko-Wahi,” thought Kopaka. He looked around. “Onua seems quite wise, but he and I definitely have a different way of working.”

Everyone nodded and turned to continue his quest. Onua dug into the ground, and Pohatu vanished with a smile. Kopaka nodded to Gali and switched to his mask of speed. As he decelerated in front of the Sanctum, he breathed in the cold, pure air and sighed with relief.

Kopaka was surprised to see Kopeke and Kikua standing with two other Matorans in front of the structure. “I’ve never seen more than two Ko-Koronans in one place at one time,” thought Kopaka. “I wonder what they are doing.” He walked up to the group and saw that they were looking at a hand-held device.

“Hello, Toa Kopaka,” said Kopeke. “Look at this thing Zolo brought back from Onu-Koro. It’s some kind of seismic recorder.” He handed the object to Kopaka. It had a square display screen, several buttons, a knob, and a long cable attached to a larger device that was lying in the snow. Kopaka turned it over in his hands.

Zolo, in a light gray Ruru, explained some more. “Nelo and I went down there to get some repair parts for the cable car, and Nuparu gave this to us. He says they use it to test the soundness of the rock before they excavate. They put this probe into the ground, and then they try it with different settings of this knob. And when they read the display, it tells them something about the solidity of the earth.”

Nelo continued, “Nuparu said we might be able to use it to test the ice, in the same way. But we’re not sure what we the readout on the display really means. Nuparu was in kind of a hurry. They had a Rahi attack while we were there.” He shook his white Kakama.

Kopaka switched on the device and turned the knob. He punched a few buttons. A green light blinked on the device as the probe on the ground began to vibrate. He pulled his sword off his back and pried open the case. The Matorans’ eyes widened with alarm, but they watched in silence.

Kopaka adjusted the knob again and watched the parts move inside the small machine. After a few minutes he spoke. “It’s really rather simple. The crystal, here, emits a regular pulsed signal through the cable, and the probe sends a vibration into the ground. Then this assembly, with a weight on a spring, resonates with the reflected waves from the ground. If you turn the knob, the length of the spring changes, and that changes the frequency. So the readout, which is just a magnet passing below these metal particles, shows you the amplitude of the vibrations at that frequency.”

The Ko-Koronans stared blankly at Kopaka, then at the device. Kopaka smiled as he snapped the case back together. “What really matters is that if you tune it to a low frequency, like this, and you measure a strong signal, the ice is probably hollow.”

The villagers nodded. “That is going to be useful,” smiled Kopeke.

“Thank you, Toa Kopaka,” added Kikua.

“You should thank the Onu-Koronans. This thing is quite clever,” replied Kopaka. He handed the object to Kopeke and turned toward the Sanctum to go inside. He stopped when he saw Nuju watching from the steps. Nuju made a few clicks and hums and then went back inside the building.

Kopaka looked at the Matorans. “Did any of you understand that?” he asked.

Nolo shrugged. “We don’t really know what he says without Matoro.”

“I think he said you were smart,” ventured Kopeke. “Something like that. I understand a few of his sounds, but not many.”

“Just not smart enough to be worth talking to,” thought Kopaka. Aloud, he asked, “Is he capable of speaking in words?”

“I’ve heard that he can. He just doesn’t,” said Zolo.

Kopaka looked at the villagers. “Well, you should go experiment with that thing. Then you can use it on ice of unknown properties.” He walked up the steps into the Sanctum.

With some new directions from Nuju, Kopaka spent the remainder of the afternoon hunting masks. By evening, he had added two more to his collection. “I’ll get that Kaukau he told me about, and then I’ll go back to the sanctum for the night,” he thought as he watched the sun sink lower in the sky. “The cold doesn’t bother me, but the darkness makes me useless at night. I can’t wait to find my Ruru.”

The Toa of Ice headed for the southern edge of Ko-Koro, where the foothills flattened out and became jungle. He soon found the round rock outcrop Nuju had mentioned and zeroed in on it with his ranging lens. And there, embedded in the rock about halfway up, perhaps a dozen bios off the ground, was a Kaukau.

Then Kopaka saw something else. A small green form was climbing up to the mask. “Lewa,” muttered Kopaka. He watched a trio of Muaka emerge from a cave near the cliff. “And he’s about to get himself in trouble.” Kopaka, clad in his Kakama, raced toward them.

Lewa hacked at the first Muaka with his axe and and kicked off one of its masks. The second Muaka grabbed his extended leg and lifted him upside down. Kopaka jumped up onto the ledge with his Miru as Lewa delivered an axe blow to the Rahi’s eye, and it shook its head, releasing him. The Toa of Ice spun and froze the first Muaka, which was about to attack again. Lewa landed on his feet and sprang up, flipping over the second creature’s head and knocking off one of its masks with his weapon. Kopaka blasted it with ice as the third beast closed its mouth around Lewa’s foot, and he fell on his face. Kopaka aimed his blade and froze the creature in its tracks. Then he formed an ice staircase up to the Kaukau. Lewa pulled his foot loose and sat up. “Kopaka? Are you here somewhere?”

“Hello, Lewa,” called Kopaka from above him. He pulled the Kaukau off the cliff face. Then he turned and tossed the Kanohi to Lewa, who caught it with both hands. “You were here first,” explained the Toa of Ice. He walked down the stairs and helped Lewa to his feet.

“Well, thanks,” replied Lewa. “And thanks for getting that last Muaka.”

Kopaka nodded. “Have a nice swim.” He blazed away toward his village. “Lewa is quite a fighter,” he thought admiringly. “But he’s not big on planning ahead, it would seem. I’m sure I can find another Kaukau somewhere.”

As he ran, he found himself wishing he had been able to keep the Kaukau himself, though. “I shouldn’t be so selfish,” he chided himself. “Lewa worked harder than I did for it, and he was there first. Besides, I should be happy I helped someone. Lewa obviously needed it.” Suddenly, the scenery ahead of him disappeared. Kopaka stumbled and fell head-first into the snow as his vision went black.


Kopaka saw the dim outline of a relatively cold Matoran against the frigid stone walls. The Matoran approached, slowly, and emerged from the shadows. He wore a Hau and was dark gray, but he was completely covered with patches of a strange greenish substance. The Toa glanced at each other. The Matoran stopped. “I have been waiting for you.”

“But you--you are--” stammered Tahu.

The Matoran sneered ominously. “You expected something else?” he snarled. “Something like THIS?” A massive cluster of dark tentacles emerged from the floor and lifted his head high into the air. Then the long, powerful tentacles began to lunge at the Toa. The image faded to black.


Kopaka pushed himself up on his hands and shook the snow off his mask. He sat up and rubbed his head, which had struck a hard object as he fell. “What was that?” he wondered. “I’m not looking forward to that dream coming true…” He felt in the snow for the object. As he focused his Akaku on it, he gasped. It was a Kaukau!

Kopaka stared at the mask, astounded at his good fortune. “Or was it just fortune?” he asked himself. “Perhaps someone sent me the vision here, so I would find the same mask I just helped someone else to get.” He looked around, knowing full well that the powers at work to determine his destiny were no doubt invisible, even to his amazing vision. He put the Kaukau on over his own mask, but there was no way to test it. “I’ll go to the sea tomorrow and see how it works,” he thought, glancing at the water to his left. “Maybe I should pay Gali a visit.” He started to imagine how he might be able to help his delicate-looking teammate. Then he remembered how she had flipped the huge Muaka and blasted the menacing Nui-Jaga earlier that day. He laughed to himself. “Of course she doesn’t need my help.”

Kopaka looked toward the distant sea again, this time with his ranging lens. There was a group of Nui-Jaga near the shore. He decided to investigate before he went home. He approached slowly, peering through his density lens, and realized that they were clustered around the mouth of a cave. With a wave of his ice blade, he brought a small avalanche down off a nearby foothill and buried the Rahi. Then he melted the snow over the cave and slowly crept inside.

Soon he discovered what they were hiding. To Kopaka’s delight, it was a Rau. “Now I’ll be able to understand my Turaga,” he thought with relief. He placed it over his mask to merge the powers and then put it on his back with his shield. Then he left the cave to dig out the Nui-Jaga and unmask them. But they had already emerged from the shallow snow, and soon he was surrounded by seven of them. “Too many to freeze,” he realized. “And I’ve already dumped all the available snow on them…” With growing panic, he switched to his Kakama and bolted for the water as they raised their tails. He vanished just as the venom began to fly.

Kopaka held his breath as he plunged into the water, then changed to his new Kaukau. He fought his instinct and drew the water into his lungs. To his amazement, he felt the oxygen from the heavy fluid revitalizing his body. He stayed underwater for a moment just to experience the strange feeling of it, then surfaced. The Jaga were waiting for him. But from the safety of the water he was able to freeze them one by one. Finally he threw the last of their infected masks into the sea and headed home again.

As Kopaka neared his village, he suddenly had a frightening thought. “Matoro!” he cried. “If my visions really come true, he could be in danger!” He accelerated and raced through the snow as the shadows grew long and darker blue. Leaping up the long staircase that wound around the mountain, three steps at a time, he imagined the worst. Finally he burst into the Sanctum.

The Matorans studying there turned to look at him in surprise. His haste was out of place in this refuge of contemplation. He glanced quickly around and saw Matoro standing next to Nuju. Kopaka breathed a sigh of relief. He walked slowly over to the villager and took him aside. “Matoro,” he said in a low voice, “I had a vision you were in danger. Please be very careful.”

Nuju buzzed and clicked in reply. Kopaka changed to his Rau and smiled as he understood the strange sounds for the first time. “Matoro, the Great Beings may have blessed him with the gift of vision. Pay attention to what he is saying.”

Matoro opened his mouth to translate, bu Kopaka spoke first. "I'm not sure I'd call it a blessing, exactly, but one of my visions has already come true."

Nuju's emotionless face betrayed no surprise, but Matoro's showed astonishment. "It's the Noble Mask of Translation," clicked the Turaga as Kopaka handed it to him. "You may be dismissed for the night." Matoro nodded and took his leave.

Kopaka got straight to the point. "Why do you talk like that, Nuju?"

"It is my way," replied the village elder enigmatically. "Tell me more about these visions."

Kopaka had been hoping for a more thorough explanation, but he complied. "I've had several. Actually, they’ve come in pairs. The first sets up the scene, and the second continues the story. And the second part of the first set has come to pass. I saw a Nui-Rama drop a rock on Kopeke and Kikua's bridge, making them fall."

"Ah, yes, they told me about that. What were the others about?"

"Matoro being attacked by a Muaka. And an infected Matoran transforming into a huge tentacled creature. What do you think that means? Could that be Makuta?"

"Hard to say." Nuju shook his head.

"Well, you Turaga are supposed to know all the prophecies," snapped Kopaka. He was beginning to get impatient. He had had high hopes for the Rau, but so far Nuju had told him nothing. "What are they? I can't fight effectively in the dark!"

"I will tell you what you need to know before you need to know it." The sounds of the Turaga's reply were unusually sharp. Nuju spun abruptly on his heels and left the building.

Kopaka groaned. "A lot of help he's turned out to be!" His voice echoed off the walls of the empty Sanctum. "I guess I'll have to go read the answers for myself." He took a lightstone from one of the sconces on the wall, walked behind the statue, and descended the stairs to the Wall of Destiny. Kopaka spent most of the night reading. He found that his Rau enabled him to read even the oldest and most mysterious passages. Finally sleep overtook him, and he lay down on the floor and closed his tired blue eyes.



Review topic here.

This post has been edited by GaliGee: Aug 14 2003, 08:11 PM

[GaliGee]

Chapter 3: TEMP -273°C * RANGE 5 BIO * SPEC GRAV 0.0


The Toa, using their Kakamas, slowed to a stop just outside Ta-Koro and looked around at the strange sight. There were piles of broken rock and jagged ice everywhere, and the earth shuddered under heavy blows. Columns of smoke rose on the horizon.

Kopaka saw a quick movement to his left. He used his heat lens to see through a large stone outcrop. There were half a dozen creatures almost his size with large, rounded heads. Kopaka was surprised to see that their temperature was as low as his own. As they came around the rock, he saw them more clearly. Their hands were shaped like round shields, and their heads were covered with translucent plates. Inside each one was a small light blue object.


Kopaka sat up with a start. “What were those things?” he asked himself. He realized he had fallen asleep inside the great hall under the Sanctum once again. As was his custom at night, he had been reading the Wall of Destiny.

Nuju walked in, swinging a lightstone in his hand. He set the stone in a sconce before he noticed Kopaka, sitting motionless with his back against the wall. He nodded his greeting to the Toa, who nodded back. The Turaga found a passage on the wall to study and was soon lost in contemplation.

Kopaka stood up. Since his harsh words with the Turaga many days ago, he had spoken with Nuju only a few times. Now that he had only one mask left to find, their communication had all but ceased. “Whatever those dream creatures were, I’m sure Nuju won’t tell me, if he even knows,” thought the Toa with resignation. “Besides, only one of my dreams has come true. Maybe the rest are just ordinary nighmares.”

Kopaka looked at the section he had been reading the night before. “I’m almost to the end of this thing. It’s certainly cost me a lot of sleep. But I’ve got to finish reading it before I face Makuta. Something in here might make all the difference.” He turned to go. He wanted to keep reading, but he didn’t particularly want to be around Nuju.

As he approached the stairway, Kopaka turned back toward the Turaga. “Do you know where I might find my Pakari?” he asked.

Nuju clicked and hummed without looking up. “The legend says that all the Pakaris will be found at great depth.”

“Here we go again,” thought Kopaka, climbing the stairs. “That must mean it’s in the ocean. Good thing I already have my Kaukau.”

Kopaka skied and ran until he reached the seashore near Ko-Koro. But the vast sea seemed to defy him as he gazed over the ever-changing, restless surface. “This is really hopeless,” he sighed. “The ocean is so huge.” He sat on a rock and considered what to do. “I’ll just hunt for Rahi in Ga-Wahi, and if I find my Pakari, so be it. If not, at least Ga-Koro will be a little bit safer.” He set out for the opposite side of the island.

By the time he reached the Hura-Mafa river delta, Kopaka had scanned the edge of Lake Naho and spotted a Tarakava. He changed to his Kaukau and plunged into the water. The coolness of the fluid was a welcome feeling, and he enjoyed the sensation of being suspended in it. He did a somersault in the water before watching the Rahi swim back to a rock outcrop in the deepest part of the bay, where it and a few others seemed to be living—or perhaps guarding something.

Kopaka approached the Tarakava slowly, drifting on the current and making as few movements as possible to avoid attracting attention. He wasn’t sure exactly how his ice powers would work underwater. “I think it will take less energy,” he speculated, “since I won’t have to condense the water from the air first. But I’d better succeed with the first shot, because there are five of them, and they are much better swimmers than I am.” He pulled his blade slowly off his back and aimed at the closest beast.

Kopaka braced himself against a rock on the sea floor so he wouldn’t be pushed backwards. He shot a blast of cold energy. As he had guessed, the water froze quickly around the Tarakava--and, unexpectedly, around two more next to it. The others immediately spun and lunged for him from both sides. He blocked the fists of the first with his shield as he froze the second, but the blow sent him tumbling end over end. He stuck his blade in the sand to stop himself, then pulled it out just as the last Rahi attacked again. Ice spread instantly over the jaws that had been ready to crush his head.

Kopaka sighed with relief as the ice-encased Tarakava floated to the top of the water. He put his shield on his back and flexed his knees, pushing off the ocean floor toward the surface. He turned over the frozen block, looking for infected masks to remove before he thawed the animals inside. Then he looked up to see a small boat. A Matoran in a blue Kaukau was rowing toward him.

When she got closer, the Ga-Koronan dropped her oars and stared at him. “Are you--” she stammered.

“I’m Kopaka, Toa of Ice,” he smiled, suddenly aware that he must look very strange to her in his clear and white Kaukau, hanging onto a huge raft of frozen Rahi. “You must be one of Gali’s villagers.”

“Yes, I’m Hahli,” she replied in a quiet voice. “I was fishing out here, when I saw those frozen Tarakava float up.”

Kopaka patted the ice block. “Well, these won’t bother you any more.” He chipped off one of the masks, changed back to his Akaku, and watched the infected Kanohi sink slowly to the bottom. But near the spot where it landed, something else caught his eye. He caught his breath. There was a Pakari, half-buried in the sand!

“Thank you, Toa Kopaka,” Hahli smiled shyly and gripped her oars. She spun her boat around and began to paddle away.

“Wait, Hahli,” said Kopaka. “Do you know if Gali has her Pakari yet?”

“No, she doesn’t, unless she’s found it in the last half hour or so,” Hahli called back. “She just helped me pull in a big net full of fish, and she was joking with me about that.”

“Then please tell her there’s one down here on the sea floor. Can you see it?”

Hahli turned her canoe around again, paddled closer, and leaned over the edge of the boat. “Where? It’s too deep for me to see.”

“Come on, I’ll show you,” offered Kopaka. He changed to his Kaukau as Hahli strapped on a swim bladder and put the tube in her mouth. She jumped into the water and swam down after him. Kopaka pointed at the Kanohi, and Hahli nodded. She swam back up, and Kopaka lifted her into her craft.

“Toa Gali will be really pleased,” she grinned, pulling off her diving equipment and setting it next to her nets.

Suddenly Kopaka had second thoughts. What if Gali questioned his motives in helping her? “But don’t tell her you saw me,” added Kopaka.

“All right, I won’t,” Hahli laughed as she rowed away.

Kopaka unmasked the other Rahi and released them all from their ice prison with a touch of his blade. He watched them swim slowly to the rock outcrop. Then he swam for the shore, got out of the water, and headed for home. This time he didn’t really mind walking away without the Kanohi. But his mind was full of doubts. “That wasn’t very efficient. I traveled all the way there and back, and Gali still has to go find the mask,” he thought. “I should have just taken it. Or led her to it. But then she might be insulted that I thought she needed help.”

Nuju didn’t look up when Kopaka entered the Sanctum and stood next to him. “You didn’t find your Pakari?” he whistled.

“I found it, but I didn’t take it,” replied the Toa of Ice, who had switched to his Rau just in time to understand.

Nuju turned his head and gazed intently at Kopaka. “Why not?”

Kopaka hesitated. For some reason he felt like he needed to hear some wisdom. And despite his misgivings about his Turaga, Nuju was the logical source. “I left it on the ocean floor for Gali,” he confessed. “I shouldn’t have, I suppose. I think I’m going soft.” He almost regretted his words as soon as he spoke them. “I must be desperate,” he thought, “seeking advice from this weird little guy with a square head who squeaks instead of talks!”

“Not at all,” replied the Turaga. “After all, love of our fellow creatures is why we are fighting in the first place.”

Now it was Kopaka’s turn to stare. “Nuju, I’m just doing my duty. Love has nothing to do with it.”

“Ah, but it does,” argued Nuju. He pointed to a passage of text on the wall. “As it says right there, Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.*”

“Yes, I saw that.” Kopaka recalled the night when his bleary eyes had passed over those glyphs and wondered at their meaning. “But love just makes us vulnerable to pain, if the ones we care about are lost. A warrior doesn’t have the luxury of loving anyone.”

“Love does not cause weakness,” clicked Nuju softly. “It is a source of strength.”

“I need to finish reading these walls,” remarked the confused Toa.

“That’s not really the problem, Toa Kopaka. I’m very impressed by how much knowledge you have accumulated since you arrived. But only time and experience can help you convert that into wisdom.” The village elder ran his hand reverently over the carved characters. “Of course, it’s important to read the writings, too. I read them over and over, and each time I learn something new.”

The Toa of Ice looked at Nuju with new respect. He thought about the hours of patient study the Turaga had devoted to understanding the truth. Kopaka realized that the calm, quiet leadership Nuju offered his villagers was his way of showing love. “Thank you, Nuju.” He turned to go.

“Kopaka,” added Nuju, “the ocean is not the only thing on Mata Nui that is deep.”

“Is he bragging about his own wisdom?” thought Kopaka, rolling his eyes. “No--wait! Underground!” He gasped. “That must be where another Pakari is!” He ran up the stairs two at a time. But as he hurried through the Sanctum, he paused to smile at Kopeke. The surprised Matoran smiled back.

Kopaka stepped outside into a raging blizzard. He focused his Akaku so that he could navigate through the opaque whiteness, and then he ran toward Onu-Koro. “That’ll get me underground. Then I’ll look for Rahi with my mask, and maybe I’ll find that Pakari. Too bad I can’t use my Kakama in this stuff.”

Soon Kopaka was skiing down the icy slope on the north side of Mount Ihu. But then his vision went black, and he tumbled forward.


As the creatures came around the rock, Kopaka saw them more clearly. Their hands were shaped like round shields, and their heads were covered with translucent plates. Inside each one was a small light blue object.

Lewa jumped up and swung his axe, sending a strong wind toward the mysterious invaders. But all at once, as if on a signal, they raised their shields and blasted him with a pale blue beam of energy. Kopaka watched, stunned, as the lower half of Lewa’s body was instantly covered with a thick layer of ice. Yelling loudly, Lewa crashed to the ground.


Kopaka sat up, stunned, and groped for his mask. He had rolled perhaps a hundred bios down the mountain, although it was hard to judge in these weather conditions. He felt a wave of relief as his hand closed on the smooth curves of his Kanohi, and he replaced it on his face. But out of the swirling snow emerged a huge form in front of him. He was facing a Kane-Ra.

The Toa of Ice reached back for his sword, but it wasn’t there. He changed to his Hau as the giant beast lunged at him, and it bounced away. Then, with his Akaku, he scanned the area and spotted his weapon just before the great horns dug into the snow beneath him and heaved him into the air. He landed on his face. Snow began to slide down the mountain, shaken loose by the fighting. He could see it with his Akaku through the wind-driven whiteness. Kopaka jumped up and changed to his Matatu. The creature charged again as Kopaka focused on his sword. The grip flew into his hand, and he jumped out of the way just as the mighty head slammed into the ground.

The avalanche was growing in magnitude, now rumbling loudly down the mountain. Kopaka glanced between the approaching Rahi and the jagged chunks of ice bouncing toward him. “The Kane-Ra will kill me first,” he thought, and aimed his blade at the beast. It froze in place as the massive glacier cascaded down onto them. He was swept along by the powerful current of ice until he pointed his blade uphill, and the icy chunks stopped, instantly frozen in place.

Kopaka melted himself free. Breathing heavily, he approached to unmask the infected creature. But Kopaka was too exhausted to be very precise. He melted too much of the ice covering it, and it sprang out and slammed into him, knocking him onto his back and crushing his chest under its large hoof. Then the creature tumbled backwards, struck by a huge flying rock. Kopaka stood slowly and looked around. Through the blizzard he saw Pohatu, who was kicking the masks off the prostrate Kane-Ra. The Toa of Ice waved his sword to stop the storm.

“Thanks, Kopaka,” grinned Pohatu. “That weather was a real nuisance. Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Thanks for getting that Rahi, Pohatu.” Kopaka suddenly realized that he hurt all over.

Pohatu ambled over to his fellow Toa. “I don’t know how you get around in these blizzards. I kept having to switch back and forth between my Kakama and my Akaku. What a nightmare!”

Kopaka rubbed his back. He was angry with himself for failing to defeat the Kane-Ra. “That’s it,” he muttered to himself. “I should have used my Kakama and just run. Then only the Rahi would have been wiped out by the avalanche.”

“But anyway, I just stopped by to see how your quest was going,” continued Pohatu cheerfully.

“That’s nice of you, Pohatu, but at the moment I just want to be alone,” replied the Toa of Ice, staring at the ground. He thought back to the end of the fight. “I should have been more careful when I thawed that thing. Never underestimate your enemy.”

“I’ll see you later, then,” called Pohatu, turning to go. “Be careful.”

Kopaka looked up. “Pohatu, wait. Please don’t be offended. I just need to think through a few things.”

Pohatu smiled sympathetically. “No offense taken. I understand. Just call on me anytime you need help.” He vanished in a red blur.

Kopaka sighed. Pohatu had saved his life, and yet he felt more embarrassed than grateful. “That’s wrong,” he chided himself. “He went way out of his way to check on me.” Then he returned to his analysis of the fight. “I could have worn my Hau as I unfroze it, once I located it with the Akaku.”

Mindful of his recent mistakes, Kopaka was especially alert as he made his way toward Onu-Wahi. He skiied down to the foothills, peaceful under their blanket of glistening snow, and began to run toward the abandoned mines between Onua’s region and his own. “There won’t be any undiscovered masks in Onu-Koro itself, because the Matorans have probably explored every inch of it. But over in this area, there could be anything underground.”

Soon Kopaka had used his density lens to find the tunnel opening and descended into the cool dampness of a network of tunnels. He alternated between his Ruru and his Akaku to navigate around the maze of passageways. Hour passed, and he found nothing. Periodically he retraced his steps to make sure his mental map of the underground matrix was correct. He had a very strong dread of getting lost in this potential death trap.

He thought more about Pohatu as he wandered. “He does very simple things—he breaks rocks, and he kicks them at things. And he makes landslides.” He smiled to himself as he remembered their first meeting. “He really seems to enjoy using his powers. And he’s obviously doing all right on his quest and the defense of his village, or he wouldn’t have had time to come see me. How does he keep doing his job so well, yet stay so happy?” Kopaka shook his head. “Stone is so stable. Maybe that’s why his personality is like that.” He looked at the rock more carefully. Suddenly he realized that the wall in front of him was unusually dense—so dense, in fact, that his Akaku couldn’t see through it. He touched it with his fingers, and it felt like lumpy glass. “Strange,” he thought. A shiver went up his spine, but he wasn’t sure why. “Pohatu would probably have a theory about this.” He turned to search in another direction.

Eventually the Toa of Ice found a large chamber. He lay his aching body down to rest for a little while. “These visions are nothing but trouble,” he thought. “That last one almost got me killed. Maybe Makuta has been sending them to me.” He considered the circumstances around the other visions. “One of them came true--the one about Kopeke and Kikua and their bridge. I wonder if Makuta sent me one real one so I would think I was clairvoyant. And then he could give me the others to distract me from my real mission.”

Kopaka thought about the other time a vision had come while he was running and made him fall. “But one of the visions made me find a mask. A Kaukau. Then what did I do? Daydream about swimming with Gali.” He sighed, disgusted with himself. “So that’s what’s going on here. Makuta has been sidetracking me with fantasies about Gali. And he’s using that to drive a wedge between me and Tahu!” Kopaka sat up straight. “That demon… he even uses love against us.” He jumped to his feet, more determined than ever to find his last mask and confront this evil, which seemed to grow bigger and more sinister with every new thing he learned about it.

As Kopaka walked toward one of the tunnels out of the cave to continue exploring, he saw movements through the wall. Suddenly small scorpions poured out of all the passageways, surrounding him. He spun in a circle, spreading a layer of ice onto the floor. The Kofo-Jaga slipped on the smooth surface, but soon they regained their footing and continued to crawl toward him at a slower pace. He started at one side of the room and froze them in clumps, but they were jabbing at his legs. “This is too slow, because they are so far apart,” he thought, kicking them away. He used his shield to shove several of them together, so he could encase them in ice more efficiently. Finally he had immobilized all the Rahi.

Kopaka knelt and set about removing their masks. Patiently, he unfroze them one at a time and pulled off the infected Kanohi. Finally his task was complete, and after scanning unsuccessfully for a Pakari, he rose to go. “I’d better call it a day,” he decided. “It must be close to nighttime, and I need to check on my villagers. And I want to finish reading that wall, anyway.”

Kopaka maneuvered out of the catacombs and returned home. The villagers were safe, much to his relief. That night he read the last sentences of the Wall of Destiny before collapsing with fatigue, his back against it. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.** To the one who reads all these words, may he experience the full blessings of the Great Spirit Mata Nui. As he lay down, he murmured to himself. “‘Do not worry?’ Who on this island is that intended for? Ever since I came here, life has been endless worry.” He closed his eyes and let the comfortable darkness of sleep fold around him.

Two days later, Kopaka still had not found his Pakari. On his way back to check on the village during a blinding snowstorm, he stopped in his tracks. As he examined one of the red flags Matoro often planted in the snow so he could find his way home, Kopaka had a strange feeling. “Something is wrong,” he thought. The image of Matoro being attacked by the Muaka flashed through his mind. “He’s in danger!” he yelled. He scanned ahead with his Akaku and saw the next flag. Running from one to the next, he found the Matoran, clutching a pick axe, standing across from a Muaka. Snow swirled around them, driven by a bitter wind. The animal lunged at the Matoran, striking him with its bared teeth, and he flew into a snowdrift.

Kopaka waved his blade to dismiss the blizzard. He jumped forward to get the creature’s attention. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a strange multicolored Matoran leaning over to pull Matoro out of the snow. The Toa of Ice switched to his Huna. He struck the beast with his invisible blade. Dancing around the animal, he distracted it away from the villagers and toward the edge of a cliff of ice. Then he changed to his Mahiki, and projected two images of himself. As the confused creature lunged for the one in the center, the illusion wavered. Three ice blades sliced into the ground, the real one cutting off the ledge and sending the Muaka howling over the cliff. As Kopaka returned to his Akaku, he shook his head. “Well, one more dream came true. Is Makuta trying to confuse me?”

“Nice job, Kopaka!” called Onua, running up to him. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here in time to help.”

“Oh, hello, Onua,” greeted Kopaka. He noticed that Onua was wincing with every step, as if running caused him a lot of pain. “That’s OK. He wasn’t much trouble.” The Toa of Ice put his sword on his back and turned to the Matorans, who were obviously unharmed. “Matoro, who’s your friend?”

“I haven’t met him yet. I’m Matoro,” said the Ko-Koronan, nodding to the other Matoran.

The traveler hesitated. “I’m--I’m not sure who I am. A traveler.”

“Take him back inside the temple and warm yourselves up. You’ve gotten into enough trouble today, Matoro! I’ll meet you in a little while,” instructed Kopaka. He watched the two walk away. “So, Onua, what can I do for you?”

“I came to bring you this,” Onua replied, handing him the last Pakari from his pack.

“Why, thank you! I didn’t know you could do this!” Kopaka took the mask and looked at Onua. “You’ve gone pretty far out of your way, haven’t you?”

“I guess so. It seemed like the thing to do. I found four of them in Onu-Koro. I don’t need them, and the rest of you do.”

“So Nuju was right. The other Pakaris were deep underground, after all,” thought Kopaka. “And that’s why I couldn’t find any of them--Onua was already hauling them all over Mata Nui!” He put the gray Kanohi over his own, and breathed deeply as the masks merged. He drew his sword again and sliced another chunk off the cliff. “That’s incredible,” he marveled. “I can really tell the difference. It took hardly any effort. Now for something a little more challenging.”

But as he looked around for a suitable test for the Pakari, an ominous rumbling began to fill the air. An avalanche was cascading down Mount Ihu, heading straight for the Toa. Kopaka calmly extended his blade, and instantly the ice stopped in place, completely silent.

“I’ve always been amazed at the way you do that,” said Onua.

“Thanks, but it’s just the way I was made.”

The rumbling began again, and the same slope started to move. “What? That’s not supposed to happen,” frowned Kopaka. Again he stopped the flow of ice. But then it resumed its downward slide, louder than ever, as if to knock the Toa off the cliff.

“What’s going on, Kopaka?” asked Onua.

“This is no ordinary avalanche!” shouted Kopaka over the noise. “Makuta himself must be behind this one!”

Onua nodded. As Kopaka tried in vain to control his element, the Toa of Earth dug through the snow and into the dirt until he had made a cave big enough for two Toa. “Make a ceiling for us!” he called, pulling Kopaka inside. “The earth is not going to hold against that much weight!”

Kopaka formed a thick slab of ice above their heads. Onua pressed it up against the earthen ceiling with his claws. Kopaka, still wearing his new Pakari, dropped his weapons and stood beside Onua. Together the Toa supported the ice block as they heard thousands of tons of snow rumble over them. Finally the noise stopped.

Kopaka spoke first. “Buried by my own element. How humiliating.”

“Don’t worry, it’s happened to me before, too. But it looks like your Pakari works. Keep holding the slab up until I dig us out.”

“Thanks for getting us to safety, Onua. That would have hurt.”

Onua tunneled out through the deep snow. Kopaka switched to his Kakama, dropped the slab, and bolted for the opening. He reached the surface as the ice and snow caved in their temporary shelter. Looking toward the village, he said, “Well, the avalanche was obviously meant for us, because Ko-Koro is untouched.”

“That’s a relief. Now, shall we go back there and get your golden Kanohi?”

“Sure,” replied Kopaka, wondering how Onua knew the Pakari was his last mask. “Did Nuju tell you?”

“No, I just knew. Somehow.” Onua rolled his eyes. “Everyone but me and Gali has one now. We’re both missing the Kakama.”

Kopaka looked at him sideways. “Follow me.” He turned and walked toward the village of ice. But when he didn’t hear Onua behind him, he spun around again to see Onua, wearing his Hau and facing another infected Muaka. Kopaka pointed his sword at it, and the animal stopped, frozen in place.

“Thanks, Kopaka! Say, why didn’t you do that to the other one?”

“Now where’s the fun in that?” asked Kopaka wryly, hacking the infected masks off the immobile creature with his blade. He unfroze it, and it growled and ran away into the snowdrifts. Kopaka kicked the infected Kanohi off the cliff. “Besides, I needed the practice with the masks.”

“I did like the way you did that,” said Onua admiringly, as they began to walk back to the temple. “I should have tried that Mahiki trick on Lewa. Probably would have saved me getting my ribs busted.”

“What? Why would Lewa be busting your ribs?”

Onua explained what had happened in the hive. “Wow.” Kopaka shook his head. A quick scan of Onua with the density lens revealed that the Toa of Earth was not exaggerating. Two of his ribs were broken, and from the irregular temperature patterns, Kopaka surmised that he had sustained a head injury and a lot of internal bruising as well. He remembered what a good fighter Lewa was, and he furrowed his brow as he imagined how Onua must feel. “Makuta is a formidable enemy. Turning one Toa against another, that’s really sinister. I never thought about THAT happening. But you outsmarted that monster. Way to go.”

“Thanks. So, do you think that Muaka was mad because you sent its friend over the cliff?”

Kopaka shook his head. “No. The Matoran tell me that in their natural state, the Muaka travel in pairs. But the infected ones, they don’t care about anyone. They act alone.”

“Oh. Hey! Look! It’s my Kakama!” Onua broke into a run. He stopped in front of a boulder and stared. Kopaka walked up behind him. The mask was actually a rock, shaped exactly like the mask of speed, down to the finest detail.

“Now who would leave a rock here that looks just like a Kakama?” groaned Onua. “Don’t tell me, I think I know.” He looked around with apprehension.

“That’s really creepy,” agreed the Toa of Ice. “He’s playing with your mind.”

“Well, it’s going to backfire, because I’ve had enough of his tricks. Let’s go.” Onua said through clenched jaws.

Kopaka thought about his own visions and scowled. “Makuta is trying to drive us mad. Unfortunately, the tricks are working, because Onua is acting very inattentive, and he keeps trailing behind. But that’s really my fault. I should slow down, because he’s been injured.” He stopped and turned, only to see yet another Muaka lunging at the Toa of Earth with its long neck.

Kopaka yelled, “Look out!” as the Rahi closed its massive jaws around Onua. The Toa of Earth gripped its head tightly with his claws, scratching at its eyes. The animal gave a muffled roar and thrashed its head around in pain. Kopaka attacked its flank with his sword, but the beast knocked him into the snow with its mighty claws. As the neck flexed toward its body, Onua managed to kick off one of the infected masks. The jaws closed tighter as Kopaka struck again. Finally he blasted it, and Onua, with a beam of cold energy from his sword. The Rahi stopped moving and stood still as a statue. Kopaka ran up to it and knocked off the other infected mask. Then he unfroze Onua and the creature.

The Muaka dropped Onua in the snow and staggered off, rubbing its head with its claw. Onua was breathing with difficulty. “Sorry about that, Onua,” said Kopaka gently, leaning over the other Toa. “The more we beat on him, the meaner he got. I didn’t see any other way of getting you out of there.”

“No problem,” gasped Onua. “You saved my life. Thanks. Again.”

Kopaka grinned as he helped Onua stand up. “Ever since you got here, we’ve been bailing each other out. There’s been more trouble in Ko-Wahi in the past hour than in the previous three days. You must be pretty special, for Makuta to have it in for you this bad.”

“What an honor,” Onua said sarcastically.

“Don’t tell me, I know what you’re thinking,” said the Toa of Ice. “You think I’ve been acting like an infected Muaka, not wanting to work together and all. But today you’ve proven to me that we need to.”

“Oh. I wasn’t thinking that, actually, but it’s true, we need to work together. I think Makuta was really the one that proved it, though!”

“Yeah. I just hesitate, because I don’t much like working with Tahu. He seems to think his ideas are the best, and that we should all just go along. And I don’t always agree with his way of rushing into things. We need to think more first sometimes.”

“I see what you mean,” replied Onua. “He is pretty headstrong. But I think he listens to other ideas. Someone just had to step forward and get us Toa organized, that’s all.”

“Maybe. But also, I don’t trust him not to start something with Gali. You know. That would really throw everything out of balance.”

“Don’t you think Gali knows that?” asked Onua.

Kopaka walked silently for a few steps. “Yes, you’re right. She’s very wise. I trust her.”

“Well, you should learn to trust Tahu, too. He’s worthy of it. We all make mistakes, but he’s doing his best, just like the rest of us. And we can’t afford not to trust each other.”

They walked in silence the rest of the way to Ko-Koro. Nuju walked up to them as they entered the Sanctum. He gestured wordlessly toward Kopaka’s Suva. Kopaka nodded. “Onua brought me my Pakari,” he explained. Nuju bowed low to Onua.

Word spread quickly among the villagers, and they gathered quietly around the golden dome. Kopaka stepped onto the platform, which descended slowly into the ground. He felt a strange vibration in his mask and through his body and saw a brilliant flash. Then the center of the Suva ascended again, and Kopaka could see the glorious gold mask out of the corner of his eye. He removed it briefly to look at it, then replaced it. The villagers stood motionless, but he could see the excitement in their blue eyes as they admired their hero.

“Thank you so much, Onua,” Kopaka smiled. “I hope you feel better soon.” He nodded toward the people who depended on him so heavily, and he was even more resolved not to let them down. That fiend was not going to get away with making them suffer for so long. Onua said goodbye and tunneled away.

Soon Jala’s scouts came to report that all the Toa had their golden Kanohi. As Kopaka prepared to leave for the Kini-Nui for the final confrontation with Makuta, he looked at Nuju and the assembled Ko-Koronans. Nuju spoke through Matoro, saying, “Kopaka, Toa of Ice, may the Great Beings protect you and the other Toa, and give you great strength to defeat this evil.”

Kopaka saluted Nuju with his sword. “Thank you for preparing me with your wisdom, Turaga Nuju. And as for you Ko-Koronans, your dedication to your values has given you more protection from evil than I ever could. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go deliver to Makuta the cold justice he deserves.” With this, he stowed his weapons, changed to his Kakama, and raced away.

As he ran, he prepared himself to see the others again. “I must focus on the mission. I mustn’t get distracted by Gali. She’s a warrior, and so am I. And I will not get angry at Tahu. He, just like the rest of us, is essential to this team. And I will be patient with Lewa and his impulsiveness.” He didn’t have to remind himself to respect Onua and Pohatu.

Kopaka joined Tahu, Lewa, and Pohatu in the field next to the great stone temple. And then Onua and Gali jumped from the mouth of the tunnel from Onu-Koro. The other Toa cheered and crowded around Onua. Pohatu slapped him on the back. “Here’s to the Toa who showed us the meaning of friendship,” he said.

“And teamwork,” added Kopaka, raising his blade in a salute. He thought about the last few days of his quest. “Duty and destiny--those virtues are simple to live out. But unity is not so easy. Onua and Pohatu have shown me lessons that words alone could never have taught.”

Lewa put his arm around Onua. “Thanks to you, we all have our golden Kanohi. Maybe we’ve had to learn the hard way at times, but we’ll show Makuta how well we can fight!”

“Thanks for the Kakama,” said Onua to Tahu. “And everything else.” He glanced at Gali, who was smiling serenely.

Kopaka wondered what this was about. Then he noticed that Onua was moving freely again. Kopaka’s Akaku showed that the broken ribs were knit back together, and the turbulent heat patterns around the injuries were gone. “Perhaps Tahu sent Gali to heal Onua,” he speculated to himself.

Tahu winked at Onua. “You’re welcome, friend. Now, let’s get ready. This is where we begin our final task. If any of you question our choice, or doubt our chances if we work together, speak now.”

Kopaka spoke up. “I have doubted you in the past, Tahu, but no more. I think I speak for us all when I say that our only hope is to work together. So I cast my sword with yours, if you will have it.”

“I will have it gladly, Kopaka,” replied Tahu with a solemn smile. “You are all in assent?”

The Toa looked at one another and nodded.

“Then it is decided,” Tahu continued. “Together, Makuta cannot resist us.”

The discussion turned to protection of the Kini-Nui during the battle, and the problem was solved by the fortuitous appearance of the multicolored traveler and his party, one from each village. Kopaka smiled to see Kopeke among them. The Matoran nodded proudly to his Toa.

As they approached the great temple, Kopaka pulled Onua aside. “Did Gali do something to heal you?”

The Toa of Earth nodded. “She poured water over my head, and all the pain vanished.”

“But then how can there be infected creatures in the sea?”

“I don’t know,” Onua admitted. “I think perhaps it had something to do with her faith.”

The heroes of Mata Nui took their positions on the platform and dropped, one by one, into the ground. As the echoes of moving stone died down, Kopaka looked around in the dim light with his Akaku and saw the same strange dense stone all around them that he had seen at the edge of the network of abandoned tunnels in Onu-Wahi. He noticed that Pohatu was studying the walls carefully. The Toa of Fire ignited his sword and was pointing toward a narrow circular crack in the wall that was shining red.

“This must be the entrance to Makuta’s lair,” said Tahu. They could see the image of a monolithic creature carved on the door.

“We must form the Toa Kaita now!” urged Gali. “Kopaka, Lewa, you are with me.” Kopaka stepped toward Gali, his heart pounding. He was apprehensive about getting close to her, and he was distrustful of Lewa, despite his resolve to uphold the unity of the Toa in this fight. But Gali gave him a comforting smile, and he took a deep breath and cleared his mind of his fears.

Kopaka and Gali began to pull parts off themselves. Lewa hesitated, then did the same. Quietly, they took themselves apart, first with their hands, and then when their arms were removed, with their Matatus. Then, taking turns, they clicked their pieces together into a great creature of powerful design. Lewa’s head was lifted high onto mighty shoulders. The Toa of Ice felt a his mind being transferred into Lewa’s head, and he was astonished to see his own head lying inert on the ground, eyes blank. Then the mind of the Toa of Water appeared inside the shared mind as well.

The three identities were separate, dwelling inside one head together. Gali’s voice sounded as if it were resonating inside Kopaka’s brain. “Lewa? Kopaka? I can feel you…Are you there?”

Lewa’s answer came: “Yes, Gali, here I am.”

Kopaka responded quietly. “And I am here also.”

The Toa of Ice was nervous. He had resigned himself to losing the individuality of his body to combine it with the others’. But he dreaded the idea of merging his mind with theirs. He suppressed his thoughts, leaving his mind blank. He felt Gali pushing, as if against a closed door. Then she let off the pressure and spoke. “Kopaka… open up… we need you!”

Kopaka let go. He fought the sensation of vertigo and panic, reminding himself that this was his destiny. He felt his mind unfolding like his shield, long-silent thoughts and memories finding a voice again. They mingled with Gali’s, and he saw through her eyes for a few moments, admiring the beauty of the enigmatic creatures in the depths of the ocean. He felt the surge of adrenaline as she tackled a Tarakava and wrested off its mask, a flush of gratitude toward Onua, who was handing her a mud-covered Matatu, and terror followed by relief as the Nui-Jaga before her burst into flames and Tahu appeared amidst the smoke. He saw the dizzying blur of greenery as he flipped from one tree to the next, landing on an improbably thin branch. He felt the power of the wind leaving his axe and sending a half dozen Nui-Rama swirling into the treetops. As a Muaka lunged, Kopaka watched his green foot sail into its jaw with a flying kick and spin to safety. And he felt a rush of incredible remorse as an infected mask was knocked off his face, his mind cleared of the fog of rage, and he turned to look at the panting black friend who had risked his life to save him. His mind reeled with the amazing range of Gali’s and Lewa’s experiences.

But just as he began to wonder how their minds would merge into one, he saw one more scene play out before him. Gali was breaking free of Tahu’s embrace and running, panicked, into the woods. Horrified, he remembered how they had arrived at the meeting late, Gali upset and Tahu subdued. “Gali! Did he hurt you?” he burst out.

Gali replied calmly, “No, Kopaka, he’s more than made it up to me. Let it go. We share one destiny, and we must not dwell on our differences.”

Kopaka remembered his decision not to be angry at Tahu, and his tension subsided into peace like ripples expanding on the surface of a pond. He spoke with quiet strength. “Let us fulfill that destiny and destroy this destroyer! He cannot hold together against our unity.”

“He’s not just a big, nasty monster to challenge our fighting skills,” said Lewa with uncharacteristic gravity. “He threatens the very thing that drives us to work together and care for one another on this island—our brotherlove for each other. He wants to divide us so he can tear us apart!”

Gali’s voice was clear and melodious. “But our strength lies in knowing the truth, and we will prevail.” Kopaka felt his mind melting into the others’, until there was only one mind, that of Wairuha, Toa Kaita of Wisdom. “Spirit of Wisdom--hear me!” he heard his own triple voice call out, in perfect unison.

Wairuha turned to his companion, Akamai, Toa Kaita of Valor, who looked fearsome indeed. They each took a path and strode into the blackness. There they were assaulted by huge crab-like Manas, powerful Rahi that had never been seen by Matoran eyes. The Kaita struck them away, but they returned fiercer than ever. The Kaita backed into one another, surrounded by their numerous foes, and considered their prospects. At this point they were grimly resolved to take out as many enemies as they could before meeting with certain doom.

But as Akamai dashed one of the beasts against a metal tower, sparks flew and the creature fell, silent and still. Then they understood that the towers were providing power and control to the Rahi, and they smashed the structures to pieces. In the sudden silence, another door opened before them, and they stepped inside. Immediately bizarre forces pulled on their bodies. Wairuha felt his mind disintegrate into three individuals, and then Kopaka was aware of being alone in his own head again. He quickly willed his parts to recombine, snapping the last of them together with his hands.

“What has happened?” asked Tahu.

“The spirit of Makuta… is the spirit of destruction,” said Gali slowly. “This is his inner realm. The Toa Kaita cannot exist here.”

Pohatu’s usually serene face looked anxious. “The Manas nearly destroyed the Toa Kaita. And Makuta is ten times greater than they. What hope do we have?”

Gali spoke reassuringly. “The Toa Kaita merely gave physical form to the force of our unity. We still possess it, in our hearts.”

“But the Toa Kaita’s wisdom and valor were unmatched,” objected Lewa, shaking his head.

“Where wisdom and valor fail,” said the Toa of Fire, “all that remains is faith. And it can overcome all. Gali is right. We must go on.”

The others nodded. Side by side, they strode into the lair. Overhead, they saw a powerful vortex of swirling parts. The strange wind that animated them made an eerie moaning noise. Kopaka gasped as he switched between his lenses to better understand the enemy. The center of the vortex was colder than anything he had ever seen, and the density lens showed no matter existing there at all.

Tahu stepped forward. “Makuta!” he called in a loud, clear voice. “We have come!”

Kopaka braced himself for the monstrous creature who had threatened his villagers and destroyed their work, set him against his friends, and sent him visions that were misleading lies. But from the dark recesses of the den, a strange, small figure emerged. It was a Matoran, wearing a Hau and covered with mottled patches of corrosion and infection.

Tahu recoiled. “What?!”

“I have been waiting for you,” said Makuta in a gravelly voice. Kopaka’s heart skipped a beat as he recognized the Matoran from his vision. But would he turn into the horrifying tentacled creature that Kopaka had seen?

“But you - you are—“ stammered Tahu.

“I am that which you have sworn to protect,” replied the Matoran.

Kopaka’s mind raced. If this was not Makuta, and the dream was a lie, then perhaps their real enemy was elsewhere, and this humble-looking creature was merely a distraction. But if the vision was true, and they dismissed this Matoran to kept searching for Makuta, he would surely attack them from behind. Nuju had told him that the Spirit of Evil was capable of assuming many different forms. Why wouldn’t such a powerful being choose one that was mighty and intimidating? But then again, Makuta was a deceiver. It would be just like him to pick a form that would delude his enemies into thinking he was small and vulnerable. The safest thing to do was to assume this was indeed Makuta. Kopaka glanced at the Toa of Fire. “Tahu, it’s a trick! We must destroy him!”

“Destroy me?” laughed Makuta. “You cannot destroy me. No more than you can destroy the sea. Or the wind. Or the void.”

Gali glared at him angrily. “You are like the sea? The sea bears life! The sea bore us!”

“I bore you,” sneered Makuta. “For I am Nothing. And out of Nothing, you came. And it is into Nothing that you will go.”

Kopaka looked at the turbulent void behind the Matoran. “In a way, he’s right about himself,” thought the Toa of Ice. “But he’s wrong about us. We have a destiny. We came here to protect the weak. We represent all that is good, and growing, and alive. He is all that is cruel and twisted.”

“I stand by Mata Nui, side by side. I am his brother,” continued the Spirit of Evil. “The people of the world are builders. But look into their hearts… and you will find that they have also the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I WILL destroy you.” At this, his eyes narrowed to sinister slits.

Tahu was still confused. “But… you are but a Tohunga!”

Kopaka started to argue with Tahu, but words became unnecessary. “You expected something else?” snarled Makuta. “Something like THIS?” A massive cluster of dark tentacles emerged from the swirling vortex and lifted his head high into the air. Then the long, powerful tentacles began to lunge at the Toa.

As the image of the dark, monstrous creature from his dream flashed through his mind again, Kopaka quickly switched to his Kakama and ran. “The vision was true,” he panted. But the enemy was faster, slamming the Toa of Ice to the ground. He sat up to watch the tentacles assault his friends, one after another. Then the massive beast regrouped himself, his ominous laughter resonating against the dank walls of the lair.

The Toa jumped up and approached Makuta again. When they were all standing in a circle around the monster, Tahu called to the others above the roar. “Our only hope is to work together!” And he directed his fiercest flame straight at the heart of the creature. Next to him, Kopaka powered up and shot a blast of extreme cold. Gali discharged a powerful jet of water. Lewa fired a gale-force wind. Onua formed a glowing green ball between his claws and slammed it into the floor. Pohatu smashed his foot onto the ground. The Toa watched as four streams of elemental energy caused the strange head to bob and thrash. Then the two slower powers made their impact. Huge chunks of earth and stone erupted from the ground, battering the vicious monster. He uttered one more threat as his head spun from its body. “You cannot destroy me… for I am Nothing.” Disembodied parts rained down on the Toa. The echoes of the battle fell silent, and they stood looking at one another.

Kopaka breathed a sigh of relief. “My gamble paid off,” he said to himself. “And now I know that the visions were sent by one who wants us to succeed against evil.”

Then he saw Tahu’s body vibrate and turn white. One by one, the Toa began to disappear. He was lifted off the floor and transported away. He stumbled as his feet landed on something hard. Blinking in the bright daylight, he realized he was in the middle of the temple at Kini-Nui. The other Toa were standing around him, similarly dazed. A crowd of Matorans—the Chronicler’s party (except for Takua himself), along with most of the Ta-Koronan Guard, the Onu-Koronan Ussalry, and the Le-Koronan Kahu-Force, cheered and shouted and flung their discs into the air.

“We did it!” shouted Tahu, raising his sword. “We defeated Makuta! Mata Nui is safe again!”

“Hooray!” cheered Lewa as he launched into a back flip.

“Praise the Great Beings!” yelled Pohatu, clasping Onua’s raised claw with his hand.

The Matorans ran over to the Toa and embraced their legs. The Toa sat amidst them and told them about the battle. Kopeke and Matoro stood quietly next to Kopaka and looked admiringly at their Toa while everyone chattered around them. Despite their silence, Kopaka could sense they were as thrilled about the victory as everyone else.

“Makuta thought he had us,” smiled Kopaka as he looked at his villagers. “He thought we would fall for his lies. But now he is fallen.”

Lewa turned to Kopaka. “Thanks for seeing through his ruse. And thank you, Tahu, for leading us so bravely against him.” Kopaka nodded to Lewa.

The Toa of Ice left the others and walked up the stairs to the great temple. He began to pace around the periphery. He watched Tahu race away toward the Mangai. The other Toa lay down in the grass one by one, and all the Matorans left to celebrate in their villages except for Jala, who sat on a nearby rock to keep watch over the sleeping heroes.

Suddenly Kopaka felt someone touch his shoulder, and he spun around, startled. It was Gali. “Kopaka,” she said gently, “why don’t you get some rest?”

“How do we know Makuta is really dead, Gali?” asked Kopaka. “He's a spirit. Maybe we just defeated his physical form. What if he comes back?”

“Well, if he does, I’m sure the Turaga will warn us about it.” Gali smiled reassuringly.

“That’s just it,” groaned the white Toa. “My Turaga never tells me much of anything. I feel like I’m fighting in the dark.”

“I think the Turaga tell us only what we need to know, because otherwise we would be overwhelmed. We need to trust their wisdom.”

“I know they are wise,” sighed Kopaka. He sat down on the edge of the platform. “But I just hate not knowing. And I’ve had some strange dreams and visions. Several of them have come true--just enough for me to worry that the others will, too.”

“What kind of dreams?” asked Gali, sitting next to him.

“A vast army of bug-like creatures was attacking Ta-Koro. They had ice powers.”

“Really? Nokama warned me about some new enemies, too, but she didn’t give me any details.”

“Your Turaga told you? Why didn’t mine?” Kopaka crossed his arms in disgust.

“Perhaps she didn’t want me to misuse my newfound freedom.”

“Oh,” replied Kopaka. He rested his elbows on his knees and looked at the ground. “Gali, I’m really sorry about... about the way Tahu frightened you.”

“It’s all right,” Gali smiled. “I overreacted. Of course he would never hurt me. He’s done a lot to help me.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“And so have you,” she continued. “Thanks for the Pakari.”

Kopaka felt his face turn hot. “Um, you’re welcome,” he stammered, realizing that just as he had learned some of her secrets in forming Wairuha, she must have discovered a few of his.

“Listen, Kopaka, you need to stop worrying so much. The Great Beings have blessed us with incredible powers to handle anything that threatens our people, and the Turaga will guide us when the time comes. Until then, you must learn to be at peace.”

Kopaka turned to look at her. “Peace? That just seems... impossible. As long as there is any danger to our island--”

“Shh,” said Gali. “Rest until we are needed again.” Kneeling, she put her cool hooks on his shoulders. Kopaka let her lay him down on the platform of the Kini-Nui. He sensed the comforting strength of the ancient stone underneath him and closed his eyes. In an instant he was asleep.



* John 15:13
** Matthew 6:34
Review topic here.

This post has been edited by GaliGee: Aug 27 2003, 01:27 PM

[GaliGee]

Chapter 4: TEMP 0°C * RANGE 500 BIO * SPEC GRAV 2.0


Kopaka looked at Gali, who was cradled in his arms. She whispered, “Kopaka...” He knelt down slowly and lay her gently in the snow.


Kopaka sat up with a start. His heart was beating fast, and his mask was covered with cold condensation. He looked around and realized that he had been asleep on the platform of the Kini-Nui. “Oh, I remember,” he sighed as he blinked his eyes and refocused. “We just defeated Makuta. But why did I dream about holding Gali?”

The other Toa were scattered about in the field, still sleeping. His eyes rested on the Toa of Water. “I shouldn’t be thinking about her like that. We still have work ahead of us.”

He stood up and stretched. The dawning day was beautiful, and radiant blue chased away the pink and orange tones in the cloudless sky as the sun began to filter through the treetops around the clearing. The birds, often silent during the terrible reign of the infected Rahi, seemed to be proclaiming the joy of the Toa’s victory with their songs. The events of the previous day filed through Kopaka’s mind for him to evaluate. “So Makuta is gone. Maybe forever. The visions I’ve been having are real, and they are from someone benevolent. And I actually managed to work with the others. It wasn’t so bad after all.” He smiled to himself. Then he looked at Gali again. “But that means... this latest dream will come true?” He walked slowly down the steps of the massive stone temple and stood in the grass next to Gali. “Maybe someday when we have peace... No! I can’t allow myself to think about that! She’s a warrior, and so am I.”

A rumbling sound jolted Kopaka out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw a plume of smoke on the horizon. “There will be no peace anytime soon, anyway.” The ground shuddered. Onua leaped up and glanced around. His eyes met Kopaka’s for a moment before he turned to look at the source of the noise. Then the Toa of Earth leaned over to shake Lewa, who was mumbling in his sleep.

Pohatu rose slowly. “Good morning, brothers,” he smiled. “Or is it?”

Gali’s eyes snapped open. Kopaka reached out his hand to help her up. “They’re here,” he said quietly. She nodded, and they walked over to stand with Pohatu. Tahu stumbled to his feet behind them.

The Toa were silent as they watched the devastation in the distance. More dark smoke boiled up from the direction of Ta-Koro. And the tremors became more frequent. They could hear trees falling and stones crashing.

“What is happening?” Lewa muttered “I thought we had finished our quest!”

Kopaka shook his head. “Victory might have been an illusion, Lewa.”

“Look!” called Pohatu. “It’s one of Tahu’s villagers!”

Tahu leaned over toward the Matoran who had just emerged, breathless, from the underbrush. “Speak,” he urged gently. “What brings you so far from Ta-Koro?”

The frightened villager whispered, “Bohrok… Bohrok… Bohrok… Bohrok…”

Kopaka knew. The Bohrok would be those bug-like creatures from his dream, with the strange glowing objects inside their big rounded heads. He wished the dream had continued long enough for him to have discovered how to fight them.

“What’s he saying, Tahu?” asked Gali.

“One word—over and over. ‘Bohrok’,” answered the Toa of Fire grimly. “I will return to Ta-Koro immediately.”

Gali put her hand on Tahu’s arm. “We shall all go, Tahu.”

“If there is a threat to your village, it is a threat to all our people,” added Onua. The Toa wasted no time. They switched to their Kakamas and raced toward Ta-Koro.

The Toa slowed to a stop just outside Ta-Koro and looked around at the strange sight. There were piles of broken rock and jagged ice everywhere, and the earth shuddered under heavy blows. Columns of smoke rose on the horizon.

Kopaka saw a quick movement to his left. He used his heat lens to see through a large stone outcrop. There were half a dozen creatures almost his size with large, rounded heads. Like he had in his dream, Kopaka noticed that their temperature was as low as his own. As they came around the rock, he saw them more clearly. Their hands were shaped like round shields, and their heads were covered with translucent plates. Inside each one was a small light blue object.

“Stay here,” Tahu warned the Ta-Koronan guardsmen who ran to greet the Toa. “We shall deal with this.”

“They don’t look like any Rahi I’ve ever seen,” remarked Lewa He jumped up and swung his axe, sending a strong wind toward the mysterious invaders. But all at once, as if on a signal, they raised their shields and blasted him with a pale blue beam of energy. The lower half of Lewa’s body was instantly covered with a thick layer of ice. Yelling loudly, Lewa crashed to the ground.

Kopaka was ready with his blade, but he held back, because Tahu had already jumped in front of Lewa. “Away from him, creatures!” shouted the Toa of Fire, brandishing his sword. The Bohrok retreated. Lewa winced as the wave of flame washed over him. He changed to his Pakari and broke free of the remaining chunks.

Pohatu looked confused. “This is crazy. They aren’t harming the villagers. They even ignore us, until we get right in their way!”

“Then why all this chaos?” wondered Onua. “What can they hope to gain from it?” The Toa of Earth glanced up and saw a group of black creatures. “Pohatu! Their powers are causing an avalanche! MOVE!” He sprang toward Pohatu, slamming him out of the path of a giant mass of earth and rock.

Over the roar came Tahu’s voice. “Their strength lies in their numbers. Lewa! Gali! Combine your powers! The rest of us will hold them off.”

As Lewa and Gali summoned a mighty thunderstorm, Kopaka froze a group of brown Bohrok into an icy prison. Then he carefully thawed one, and, as it tried to stand up, he cautiously kicked open its head. The yellow-green object inside it was dislodged to the side, and it immediately stopped moving.

“They’re fleeing, Gali. It worked!” cheered Lewa. The noise finally died down, and the Toa surveyed the damage.

“They’re gone for now,” sighed Pohatu. He looked at a fallen brown being that Kopaka had opened. “They left us a prisoner, too. But what’s that in its head?”

A voice spoke behind him. “I know the answers you seek, Toa of Stone, though I wish I did not.”

Pohatu turned, startled. “Turaga Vakama!”

The Turaga of the village of fire continued. “We have known the legends of the Bohrok for centuries, and we prayed they were only that: legends. But the Bohrok are real, all too real.”

As the Toa gathered around Vakama, Kopaka groaned to himself. “Once again the Turaga wait until the last minute to tell us things they’ve known for ages.” He listened to Vakama’s description of the creatures who had apparently been designed for pure destruction. As he suspected, there was one kind of Bohrok that corresponded to each of the Toa’s elements, and the objects inside--krana--would prove to be important.

“You must collect the eight breeds of krana from each Bohrok swarm. They will unlock the secret of their defeat.”

Tahu was looking suspiciously at Vakama. “How do you know so much about these creatures, Turaga?” He picked up the green krana and looked at it intently. For once Kopaka found himself sympathizing with the Toa of Fire, in his impatience with the village elder.

“There will be time later to reveal all, Toa of Fire. But beware: when worn, the krana can steal the mind... and even the Toa might not be able to resist its power,” Vakama finished ominously.

Tahu, as usual, was taking control of the situation. “Return to your villages. If gathering these krana will save Mata Nui, then gather them we shall.”

“Let us hope they do not gather us first,” commented Kopaka solemnly. “Farewell.” He set off for his icy home. But as he ran, he had a sudden frightening thought. “There’s always a second part to these dreams. And it’s always the bad part. Is something terrible going to happen to Gali?” He thought about the implications of a prophetic dream. “And it will be in my region, too. Maybe I should keep her away from there. Or is it vain to assume I can change the future?” Descending from the rocky slopes of the Mangai, he ran through the valley that lay before the looming peaks of Ko-Wahi. “I should stay away from her, anyway. Besides, anything I do is going to show up in the Kaita some day. I need to think about her as little as possible.” He imagined Lewa’s sarcastic laugh and resolved to suppress any fond feelings for Gali.

He ran up into the icy foothills and felt the refreshing coolness of the mountain air. He had looked forward to coming home after the battle with Makuta, but now he was filled with dread at what he might find there.

Indeed, before he even got to Ko-Koro, Kopaka saw ominous signs. As he reached the icy passageway that led toward the well-hidden village, he gasped. The tunnel was collapsed, and the glacier through which it used to pass had been melted into a slow-moving river of slush. Steam was rising from the remaining ice chunks floating in the slurry.

Kopaka paused briefly to assess the damage. The pattern of temperatures around him showed that the destruction had been caused by concentrated blasts of heat. “Tahnok, perhaps?” he wondered. He froze a path across the remains of the glacier and skated to the other side.

The ice staircase around the side of Mount Ihu—the main path to the village—was halfway destroyed. And the culprits were still at work. Kopaka turned his head away as the blazing image of the Tahnok through the heat lens overwhelmed his right eye. Then he changed to the density lens and observed them. They were standing on a ledge they had created by melting away the ice above the staircase. Several of the swarm were directing their fire downwards, collapsing the glacier below the ledge. Others were shooting ahead of them, turning the staircase to water, which cascaded into the canyon in a waterfall that would have been beautiful under any other circumstances. Steam boiled up all around them. Kopaka smelled the unpleasant smell of heat so intense it seemed to be burning the air.

“I wonder how their powers stack up against mine,” thought the Toa of Ice. “But I’ll have to have a backup plan, in case they can resist me. After all, there are eight of them.” He changed to his Huna and moved toward them. Bracing himself against a lumpy ledge left by the Bohrok, he fired at the closest creature.

The Tahnok spun halfway around before it was frozen solid. The other creatures seemed to have noticed him in the same instant, for they turned around as well. By the time Kopaka had iced a second one, the first had thawed itself partially free and burst out of its bondage. “Clearly this is not going to work,” Kopaka muttered. “I hate to contribute to the destruction they’re causing, but it’s time to use something bigger—like gravity.” He directed his sword at the glacier above the Tahnok and brought down a massive avalanche. The invaders were swept into the ravine.

Kopaka shot enough ice ahead of him to build a steep slide and skied down after them. He found them stuck in the snow. But as he melted one free to take its krana, another had liberated itself—or perhaps its elevated body temperature alone had melted it clear of the snow. Kopaka found himself re-freezing them as fast as he could. They were escaping too rapidly for him to gather the krana. One of the Tahnok jumped into the air and soared toward him before he blasted it with ice, and it fell again.

The Toa of Ice clenched his jaw, his mind racing. He changed to his Matatu and used it to fling one of the Bohrok toward another. The first one’s head fell open. The second was stunned long enough for Kopaka to kick it open before spinning to freeze a third who had just emerged steaming from the snow.

“That’s better,” he said to himself. He was able to gather two krana. But the next pair of Bohrok seemed to have learned from his victory. The intended victim anticipated its flying comrade and dodged it. The Toa of Ice jumped to the side as it fired a blast of flames at him. He changed to his Huna, did a back flip over it, and hacked it open from behind with his sword.

“Five more to go,” he panted. But the remaining Bohrok had fled into a tunnel they had melted into the ice. He pursued them for a few seconds, following their heat signatures. Then he changed his mind. “I’d better stop wasting time on these few and check to see if more have gotten to my village,” Kopaka thought grimly. Reluctantly, he gave up the chase and added some ice to his slide, forming a rough staircase back up to the remains of the beautiful one the Tahnok had all but destroyed. Then he melted his temporary ramp to prevent the Tahnok from using it to come back. He ran up the steps, finally emerging at the clearing. Much to his relief, the Sanctum stood unharmed.

Kopaka burst into the temple, panting heavily. Everyone turned around to see what was disrupting the reverent silence. When they recognized Kopaka, the Matorans gathered around him and gave him a hero’s welcome. “Hooray for Toa Kopaka!” announced Matoro. “Makuta is dead!” Everyone cheered.

The Toa of Ice gave them a half-smile. “Thank you very much,” he replied. “But I’m afraid I bring bad news. Makuta may be defeated, but there’s a new threat to Mata Nui now.”

Nuju emerged from the stairwell, clicking and whistling. Matoro translated: “Welcome home, Toa Kopaka. Well done. Now, tell us about this new threat.”

Kopaka was tempted to say, “Why don’t you tell me, instead?” But he remembered that his disrespect had only made the Turaga more taciturn before, so he set aside his pride and explained. “The Bohrok have awakened. The Pahrak, Kohrak, and Nuhvok attacked Ta-Koro, and we Toa went there to fend them off. And on the way to the village, I encountered a swarm of Tahnok. They were melting the staircase around the side of the mountain.” He held up the three krana he had captured.

Nuju turned to his villagers, who were wide-eyed at the strange appearance of the krana. “‘It is a grave error that the enemies have gotten so close without anyone detecting them,’” Matoro interpreted. “‘This kind of complacency could very well cost us our village. The Bohrok are hordes of destructive creatures with elemental powers, foretold in a grim prophecy we never expected to come to pass. They will not harm you unless you get in their way, but if you do, you may end up a slave to the swarm. Kopeke, dispatch pairs of scouts immediately. They must remain unseen and report back to me.’”

Kopeke nodded and turned to the others. They looked at each other nervously and exchanged whispers. Soon several were heading out into the snow.

Nuju gestured for Kopaka to follow him downstairs, and the Toa of Ice complied, changing to his Rau. When they were alone, Nuju said, “I’m sorry you had so little time to rest after your victory. It seems to me that you were already quite short on sleep before the battle with Makuta.”

Kopaka grinned. “Sleep is less important than information. And being blessed with all this knowledge so close at hand, I figured I should take advantage of it!”

“Well spoken, Toa Kopaka.”

“But Nuju, why didn’t I read about the Bohrok down here? Shouldn’t they have been described, since you Turaga seem to have heard of them?”

“You have read the entire Wall of Destiny, my friend, but there is yet more. In Ga-Koro, the astrologer and Nokama have worked tirelessly to read and interpret the prophecies in the stars. We call the celestial firmament the Wall of Prophecy.”

“The entire sky is a set of prophecies?” asked Kopaka, incredulous. “So there’s even more to read?”

“And in Ta-Koro you will find the Wall of History,” added Nuju.

Kopaka sighed. There seemed to be no end to all the information about this crazy island. And he had little desire to spend time reading in the village of fire.

“But at any rate, I will let you know what I have learned from the prophecies about the Bohrok, to save you some time and sleep,” smiled Nuju.

“That’s a welcome change,” thought Kopaka. He leaned closer to the Turaga. “Tell me all you can.”

“You already know something about the Bohrok, no doubt from Vakama,” began the Turaga. “But you must know more. They can communicate through telepathy. Each type of krana bestows special powers on the Bohrok that carries it. For example, some are swarm commanders, and others can fly short distances.” Nuju pulled out a sharpened stylus of stone. “Please make me a tablet of ice.”

Kopaka pulled his blade off his back and formed a flat piece of ice. As Nuju began to scratch pictures of krana and descriptions into its surface, the Toa began to understand some of the behavior of the Tahnok he had just encountered. Nuju also explained the role of the Va, scouts who brought new krana to fallen Bohrok.

After Nuju’s lesson, Kopaka felt very much enlightened about his new foe. “I see, Nuju. But I still have one question. Why are the Bohrok doing this?”

Nuju set down the stylus. “That I cannot tell you at this time,” he replied.

Kopaka clenched his fists and released them. “All right, Nuju. Well, thank you for your time.” He nodded to the Turaga and started up the stairs. “Again, he withholds his secrets. But at least this time he gave me some information of tactical value.”

Nuju spoke again. “And I’m not sure if I completely understand it myself, anyway.”

Kopaka shook his head and smiled. “This island is a mystery even to them sometimes, I suppose,” he marveled.

The Toa of Ice returned to the Tahnok he had defeated earlier, but they were gone. He realized with a sinking heart that they had probably been given new krana by the Tahnok Va, and he might have to face them again. As he climbed back up toward the village, he saw something very strange in the distance. A cliff in the southern part of Po-Wahi, barely visible in the distance, suddenly collapsed into the ground. “Could that be the work of the Nuhvok?” wondered Kopaka. “Maybe it’s time to repay Pohatu a favor.” He was off in a flash.

As he changed from his Kakama to his Akaku, he rapidly assessed the sitution. The density lens revealed feverish activity below ground. He spotted the familiar shapes of Bohrok along with those of Onua and Pohatu. He found his way into the tunnel system and found Pohatu facing a group of Nuhvok. Clad in his Hau, the Toa of Stone was surrounded by Nuhvok. He was firing rocks into the swarm. Kopaka aimed his blade at the ones behind Pohatu until they were imprisoned in jagged crystals of ice.

"Kopaka!" Pohatu called gratefully.

Kopaka pushed an ice-covered Bohrok out of his way with his foot. "Let's go help Onua," he suggested. Pohatu followed him further down the tunnel, where Onua was taking krana out of several of the creatures he had buried with a cave-in. "Ah, hello, Kopaka! It's good to see you!"

Kopaka nodded at Onua. "You, too. Are there any more, do you think? I don't see any."

Onua closed his eyes and leaned his head against the earthen wall. "I don't hear any. But wait…" His eyes snapped open in alarm. "The cliff is collapsing."

"I feel it, too!" gasped Pohatu. "We've got to move, fast!"

Onua spun, changed to his Kakama, and ran back down the tunnel, Kopaka and Pohatu close behind. The Toa shot out of the ground a few dozen bios away from the cliff and kept running. The mighty mass of rock fell behind them, shaking the ground as it crashed down into the earth. When they were a safe distance away, the three stopped and looked at the damage. Onua patted Pohatu’s shoulder. "I'm sorry. It looks like anything beautiful is a potential target for these monsters."

Pohatu shook his head. "Well, thanks for coming and saving me, both of you. At least we're all alive to defend their next target." He looked at Kopaka.

"I heard the racket and knew something was going on," said Kopaka in response to his unspoken question. "You would have done the same for me, I'm sure." He turned and headed back to his region.

Kopaka spent the rest of the day and all of the next repairing the staircase to the village and creating traps for any Bohrok that might approach his village while he was away searching for krana. It seemed to him that while the Rahi were fearsome and savage, their attacks were isolated and random. The new invaders, on the other hand, were very systematic in their damage. And although they were not targeting the inhabitants of Mata Nui, they were far more dangerous simply because of their powerful nature. He built tall white walls around the approaches to the village, formed thin layers of ice over gaping holes lined with spikes of ice, and created tunnels through the glaciers that led in circles, knowing full well that these defenses would be penetrated fairly quickly. But at least they would slow the enemies down and cause them to make enough of a commotion to be noticed by the guards.

As Kopaka finished a booby-trapped staircase, he was startled by a rumbling sound. “Nuhvok?” he wondered, brandishing his blade and scanning the ground. But he was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar shape with his density lens. Onua emerged from the ground and smiled at Kopaka.

“Welcome, Onua,” greeted the Toa of Ice.

“Hello, Kopaka. How are you faring against these Bohrok?”

“Just bracing myself, up to now. But now that the village is somewhat better protected, I’m about ready to go hunting.”

“Great! Well, now we’ve heard good news from everyone except for Lewa.”

Kopaka rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t you know it. I hope he’s not in trouble again.”

“Me, too. I’m going to check on him soon. But first, I could use your help. Po-Koro is being threatened by Tahnok in force. They were attacking some mines at the outskirts of my Wahi, and now they are heading for the desert. I think we should come up with a plan to capture them. They are numerous, but we are smarter.”

“Well, the landscape there offers some interesting possibilities,” remarked Kopaka. “I’ve been making traps in the ice. Maybe we could do the same thing in Po-Koro.”

“Good idea. Since they are fire creatures…” began Onua.

“…they will hate water,” finished Kopaka. “Let’s build a tunnel from the sea to one of those low-lying canyons to flood them. We can plug it with ice until we lure them there.”

“Brilliant!” grinned Onua. “Pohatu can bring them there and then smash the ice with a stone, and Gali can retrieve the krana while they are underwater.”

Kopaka hesitated. He didn’t like the idea of making Gali the one who had to wrestle the Tahnok, but she was the sensible choice. “All right. Let’s go.” The two Toa raced toward the desert. Soon Kopaka had plugged the canyon entrance to the tunnel as Onua continued to dig toward the ocean. He swam to meet Onua as he came out of the opening underwater. Then they set off for Po-Koro to find Pohatu.

Huki led them to the Toa of Stone. "We have a plan," said the black Toa to Pohatu.

"Go on," smiled Pohatu.

"There's a big Tahnok swarm that has been terrorizing our Wahi," explained Kopaka. "First they were ravaging Ko-Koro, and then they wrecked some of the outlying shallow mines of Onu-Koro. It looks like they're heading for your village now."

Pohatu flinched. "Thanks for the warning."

"We're not just warning you. We need your help," replied Onua. "I dug a tunnel from the Komo-Lai canyon to the sea, and Kopaka froze an ice plug at the canyon end to hold back the water. We need for you to kick a rock and shatter the ice when the Tahnok show up. The canyon is below sea level, so the water will flow through the tunnel and flood the Bohrok."

"And then Gali can swim into the water after them, and collect some krana, while you watch out for her," finished Kopaka.

Pohatu grinned. "Glad you don't have me signed up for the swimming part."

"We don't need an anchor, Pohatu!" laughed Onua.

Kopaka was reluctant to see Gali, but he was getting impatient with the chatter of the other two. "Onua, why don't you go show him where it is, while I go find Gali? I'll tell her to meet you in Po-Koro." Onua nodded, and Kopaka blazed away.

The Toa of Ice ran to the beach in Ga-Wahi and swam to the floating village with his Kaukau. When they saw him crawl out onto one of the lily pads, the Ga-Koronans greeted him warmly, Hahli among them with her shy smile. He smiled back and asked to see Gali. He was slightly relieved when they told him she was away from the village. “Then I would like to see Nokama,” he said.

“Certainly,” replied a villager in a dark blue Huna. She led him to the largest hut.

Kopaka looked around at the village. He admired the green huts, graced with garlands of flowers, arranged on a series of floating pads on the sparkling blue water. He had seen the anchorages that tied the pads securely to the sea floor as he approached underwater, but it was still a little unsettling to walk on something that seemingly had so little structural support. “They must really trust the sea, and the one who controls it,” he thought.

Nokama bowed politely to Kopaka. “How can I help you, Toa of Ice?” she asked quietly.

Kopaka explained the Tahnok trap to the blue Turaga. Unlike Nuju, she was very expressive, the movements of her light blue Rau and glittering eyes constantly signaling that she had understood. She thanked Kopaka and promised to send Gali to Po-Koro as soon as she returned.

As the sun rose high in the sky, Kopaka ran back toward his home. He glanced up at the brilliant orb, wondering what secrets the unseen stars around it were keeping. Then his vision went black.


Kopaka looked at Gali, who was cradled in his arms. She whispered, “Kopaka...” He knelt down slowly and lay her gently in the snow.

He leaned over her to see the extent of her injury. Fluid was leaking out of the wound in her neck and spreading into the snow. Her gold eyes fluttered open, then closed again.


Kopaka fell to his knees onto the soft ground of the river delta. “Oh, no,” he moaned. “No! It can’t be. She’s going to die, and it’s going to be my fault!” He felt his chest constrict with panic and saw spots float before his eyes. The Toa of Ice had never felt emotion so strongly he couldn’t control it. But now he was paralyzed with horror. He sat there in the moss for a few minutes, gasping for air.

Finally he took a deep breath. “I must get a grip on myself,” he thought. “The vision showed that she will be injured. But maybe she will live. And even if she doesn’t... I must be prepared for anything.” He stood and looked around, but fortunately he was alone. “And if I react like this when something bad really happens, I don’t deserve to be called a Toa.”

Kopaka ran toward home, his eyes on Mount Ihu above him. “If only I could be more like that mountain,” he said regretfully to himself. “Strong... cold... unmoved by the petty struggles going on at its feet. The one who braves its dangers is rewarded with the awesome majesty of a view from the top.”

But Kopaka’s noble vision was marred by crashing sounds. From the top of the next foothill he saw an exposed cliff on the side of the great peak, too steep to hold any snow. Huge chunks of stone were crumbling off it and collapsing to the ground. “Must be the Pahrak,” he muttered. “Even the great mountain is not immune.” He raced to the scene. Switching to his Hau to protect himself from the falling rock, Kopaka arrived on a narrow ledge in the midst of the intruders. One of them turned to hurl stones at him, but they bounced off the shield created by his Kanohi.

Kopaka fired back, encasing the Bohrok in ice. But the ground started to shift under his feet. He sprang away, diving into a deep cave in the cliff face as the ledge disappeared from under him and a landslide swept past from above. When the rumbling stopped, he was trapped in the cavern.

“Curse these creatures!” spat Kopaka. He changed to his Pakari and pushed against the rubble. A few boulders rolled out of the way, and he was able to peer out of the hole. The Bohrok were creeping toward it as well. Kopaka jumped back and waited. As a Pahrak put its large head through the opening, Kopaka pulled it inside and froze it immediately. He thawed its head and removed the krana.

Apparently the Bohrok had sent a last-minute signal to its comrades, for they soon swarmed in through the hole. Meanwhile, Kopaka had pushed his way out of the other side of the rock pile and was ready in his Huna. He sealed the entrance shut with ice.

“That’s better,” he sighed. He looked up at the ravaged mountain and shook his fist. “Systematic, pointless destruction. Why does this remind me of Makuta?” Then he turned to the imprisoned Bohrok and waited for them to burst free. As they did, he was able to freeze one and retrieve its krana. The others massed together as he grabbed the soft object out of the creature’s head, however, and they rushed Kopaka all at once, pushing him off the cliff.

Kopaka switched to his Miru as he fell, and, using his sword to pull himself toward the cliff, he landed on a ledge below. He sat for a moment, protected by an overhang, to catch his breath and watch the Bohrok above him. They continued their demolition work, seemingly oblivious to his presence. A quick movement below him caught his eye, and he noticed a Pahrak Va scurrying nimbly up the slope, presumably to resupply the defeated Bohrok with krana.

“Now, why couldn’t we just take the krana from the Va?” wondered Kopaka. “That would be a lot less dangerous. Although we would still have to fight the Bohrok just to defend our villages.” He watched the small creature approach, and as it reached the ledge where he was sitting, he froze it with a quick burst of cold energy. He took the krana out of the pan behind its head and thawed the Va. It squeaked and hopped up and down, swinging its hammer, which Kopaka blocked with his shield. Then it turned and scrambled back down the winding path by which it had come. “I wonder where it’s getting the krana from,” he thought.

Kopaka stood carefully, changed to his Huna again, and followed it. He marveled at the Va’s agility over the rocks as he picked his way through the rubble left by the Pahrak. Another Va was running in the opposite direction, toward the mountain, but Kopaka left the second one alone so as to remain hidden. He didn’t like to leave the Bohrok destroying the mountain, but he had a hunch he might learn something useful by following the Va.

The little beast led him into the valley between the regions of ice and fire and headed straight for the Kini-Nui. Kopaka grimaced as he thought about the mighty temple falling prey to the devastating blasts of the Pahrak. He sped up until he was right behind the Va. It scrambled over some loose boulders and ducked into a clump of brush. Kopaka crept after it and found himself at the edge of a huge, seemingly bottomless hole in the ground. He stepped back, momentarily overcome with vertigo. Then he crawled toward the opening again on his knees and looked inside.

The Toa of Ice was dumbfounded. The hole was immense, perhaps ten bios in diameter, and the cool, damp smell of earth suggested great depth. Kopaka switched to the Ruru to peer into the blackness, but he was still unable to see the bottom of the hole. His ranging lens revealed that the nearest solid object was at least a hundred bios away, but since he could see nothing, he could have been measuring the distance to an irregularity the side of the tunnel rather than the bottom.

But the heat lens revealed more. Bohrok and Va were coming up in droves out of the darkness, using the stones jutting out of the earthen sides of the hole to climb out. As they approached the light, he heard the familiar sounds of their movements and watched them swarm out of the opening. Kopaka felt sick at the thought that each one was on its way to wreck something of beauty or value, or possibly even endanger a villager. It was all he could do to refrain from attacking them with his most intense icy blast, but alone, he realized he had no hope of doing any good. It would be far better strategy to remain concealed and report this information to the others.

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered to himself. “The Bohrok are coming from inside the island itself! This must be some sort of nest. There must be a huge supply of extra krana down there, too.”

Shaking his head, Kopaka headed for home. He found Nuju in the Sanctum, as usual. “You won’t believe what I saw today,” he began. “The Bohrok nest! Right near the Kini-Nui.”

Nuju stopped reading and stared at Kopaka. “Indeed,” he clicked.

“Yes. They are coming from inside Mata Nui. But you probably already knew that.”

Nuju nodded. “I did.”

Kopaka sighed. “So, when we collect all the types of krana, is that where we’re supposed to go fight them?”

“It seems logical,” replied the Turaga.

Kopaka asked the question he was sure would cause Nuju to stop talking and return to his studies. “Are we going to find Makuta down there, too? Because this whole destroy-the-island plan sounds a lot like something he would come up with.”

To Kopaka’s surprise, the Turaga answered him. “No. The Bohrok are not Makuta’s creations. But one thing I can tell you,” he added, “is that their awakening was almost certainly triggered by Makuta, just before you Toa defeated him.”

Kopaka gasped. “Then… then… is he still alive?”

Nuju smiled enigmatically. “Deal with one threat at a time, young one. You are doing very well. Continue your work, and show the other Toa your discovery. Your quest will transform you in ways you have never dreamed. And then you will be ready for whatever lies ahead.” The Turaga turned back to the wall in silence.



Review topic here.

This post has been edited by GaliGee: Sep 4 2003, 04:48 PM

[GaliGee]

Chapter 5: TEMP 10°C * RANGE 0.5 BIO * SPEC GRAV 1.2


Kopaka took a hesitant step forward. The massive suit of armor responded to and amplified his movements. He smiled grimly as he gripped the controls and scanned the darkness before him.

Soon his heat lens revealed an enormous creature in the shadows. It was moving slowly toward him. Just as it emerged into the light so he could see it with both eyes, it lunged at his head. He brought up his arm to block the blow. Huge teeth snapped together, striking the metal of the claw arm of his suit with a deafening clang.


“So that’s what’s behind the swarms,” muttered Kopaka. “And it looks like we’ll get some help.”

“Excuse me, sir?” asked Kopeke.

“Oh, nothing. You were telling me how you form the lens of the skylight.”

“Yes, Toa Kopaka. I melt some ice with the heatstone and let it drip into this mold,” he explained, gesturing at a shallow metal pan full of water. “I keep the water liquid by setting it over another heatstone until the pan is full. Then I freeze it all at once by sliding it into a slot I’ve made in this block of ice.”

“And the sudden coldness freezes it into a nice, thin, clear sheet,” finished Kopaka. He watched the Matoran pop a transparent slab of ice out of the mold. “It’s funny how the smartest Matorans are often the ones who speak the least.”

Kopeke grinned. “I figure if someone really wants to know something, he’ll ask.”

“You sound like Nuju,” remarked Kopaka. “So then you take it to the top of the Sanctum and install it?”

Kopeke pointed to some ropes and a climbing harness. “Yes, if I’m lucky enough not to break it as I climb up there. I melt its edges with a heatstone and let it freeze onto the roof.”

“How long does it usually last?” asked the Toa.

“Oh, two to three days, depending on the weather. Usually it gets covered with snow, making it opaque. When the light inside the temple gets dim, I replace it. And a few times it’s been broken, like the time a Nui-Rama smashed through it.”

Kopaka touched the panel gently. “Beautiful work, as usual, Kopeke.”

“Thank you, sir,” replied the small craftsman modestly. “But it’s nothing compared to what you do.”

“I’ve been blessed with a bit of natural talent,” Kopaka smiled, standing up. “Well, I suppose I’d better get back to work. Thanks for showing me that.” He stretched and turned toward a tunnel leading out of Ko-Koro, adding to himself, “I’ve put this off long enough.”

A few minutes later, Kopaka was running up the side of the Mangai. “I know it makes sense for Tahu to have stepped forward, but sometimes I wish someone else had volunteered to be our leader,” he thought. “Someone I could actually stand to look at through my Akaku.” He used the density lens as he ran, since the landscape, like its Toa, was unpleasantly bright with the heat lens, but occasionally he switched back and forth to get as much information as possible. The heat lens warned him that something behind the next rock outcrop was unusually cold for Ta-Wahi. “Kohrak,” groaned Kopaka as he slowed to a stop. “This should be interesting.”

He peered around the crag and saw that the Kohrak had made a huge chunk of ice in the middle of the lava stream, blocking the flow. The magma under the ice had hardened into a dam of solid stone and formed a deep pool. Molten rock was flowing over the side of the channel toward Le-Koro. Kopaka could see smoke rising from the burning forest in the distance. “I’ve got to stop the lava,” he thought. He aimed his sword and created another dam along the side of the channel, trapping all the lava in the pool. As the fluid level rose, the Bohrok stepped back away from the edge. One of them spotted Kopaka and aimed a blast of cold energy at him. He laughed as he shot back. “A lot of good that’s going to do either one of us.” He shook off the ice chunks at the same time as the Kohrak.

“Now, how am I going to break their dam?” wondered the Toa of Ice. “If only Pohatu or Onua were here. But since they have other commitments at the moment, I guess I’m the local stone expert now.” He ran behind the dam. Remembering the erosive effects of ice on stone he had seen in his Wahi, he repeatedly froze and thawed a small section of stone, then changed to his Pakari and smashed the weakened rock with another stone. “I see why this takes eons to happen in nature,” grumbled Kopaka.

But first, he had more immediate problems. The Korhak had come back and surrounded him. One dropped to its knees and leaned forward, flipping open its head plate. “That thing wants to throw its krana at me!” thought Kopaka. This gave him an idea. He sprang over their heads, ducked behind a large rock, and changed to his Mahiki. “Concentrate,” he muttered, focusing all his energy into the mask. Eight shimmering images of himself appeared in a semi-circle, facing the Bohrok.

“Come on, fall for it!” he whispered. The Kohrak crouched and flung their krana at the illusions. Then they lurched to a stop.

Kopaka breathed a sigh of relief. “I imagine that trick will only work once, given the way they communicate,” he thought as he picked up the scattered krana. “This place will be crawling with Va soon. But they’ll have wasted the trip.” He pushed the defeated Bohrok into the lava. He finally managed to break loose enough rock to restore the lava flow through the Bohrok’s dam, and then he continued on his way to Ta-Koro.

Kopaka walked up to the guard station and nodded to the guards. The Ta-Koronans saluted him with their staffs. “Is Tahu here?” he asked.

“Toa Kopaka, he went to find you in Ko-Koro some time ago. Won’t you come in?” The stones that formed the bridge to the village rose slowly from the lava.

“Thank you,” he replied. He looked down into the glowing red flow that split around the fortress village and thought, “The Ko-Koronans will tell him I’m here. I suppose I’d better wait, or we’ll end up crossing each other’s path. If he’s been gone a while, he should be here soon.” He crossed the bridge and began to walk back and forth in front of the gate. “I hope he hurries, because it’s intolerably hot here.” He stopped pacing and with great effort he froze a wall of ice around himself from the hot, dry air. The wall melted in minutes and dripped, sizzling, into the magma below.

Soon Tahu arrived and walked across the stones. Kopaka was too overheated to waste time on small talk. “I’ve found the Bohrok lair. It’s a hole deep in the ground, near the temple at Kini-Nui.”

“The lair?” asked Tahu skeptically. “Do you have proof that’s really it? How do we know they even have a lair?”

“How much proof do you need?” retorted Kopaka. “Your own villager saw them hatching underground.”

Tahu crossed his arms and frowned. “Yes, but how do we know that’s their main hideout? Maybe a few of them are staying there, but--”

“There was such a multitude of them swarming out of that pit. It has to be where they’re coming from.” The Toa of Ice shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Do you think I’m lying?”

“Of course not,” grumbled Tahu. “But it’s possible you could be wrong.”

“Then come see for yourself,” said Kopaka crossly. “Besides, I’d love an excuse to get away from this inferno.” He waved his sword at the fortress of Ta-Koro looming behind them.

“All right,” Tahu agreed. They changed to their Kakamas and crossed the bridge. Then they turned toward the Kini-Nui and ran. Kopaka slowed down as they entered a grassy area with scattered trees. He signaled to Tahu to be quiet. Then he crept toward a clump of brush and stones. He hid behind a bush and waved for Tahu to join him. They leaned over the rocks. Tahu gasped at what he saw.

“Look, Tahu!” said Kopaka, pointing down into the pit. “There is the proof you demanded!” From deep in the earth, they saw hordes of Tahnok Va climbing up the stone walls. They were too numerous to count. And each krana they carried would give new life to a fallen Bohrok.

“No wonder Vakama knew so much about the Bohrok. They are not creatures from some other land--they come from Mata Nui itself!” Kopaka felt Tahu’s temperature increasing and moved away. “The time has come to end this, Kopaka! With our combined powers--”

“Have you learned nothing?” snapped the Toa of Ice, exasperated with his grumpy, and now reckless, comrade. “Charging in there now will not save this island. The krana are the key!”

“Every moment we delay, the Bohrok and Bohrok Va are free to overrun this land,” replied Tahu grimly. He sighed and stepped back from the opening of the cavern. “Still, you are right. As long as our people are threatened, we don’t have the luxury of being merely warriors. So I will heed your advice… this time.”

“Besides,” remarked Kopaka, “how do you propose that we combine our powers? Without the other Toa’s elements, fire and ice would just cancel each other out. We would be working against each other.”

“I’m sure there’s some way we could use them together,” Tahu growled. “You could freeze one side of something, and I could burn the other. That would certainly destroy an enemy.”

“Well, yes,” replied the Toa of Ice. He was getting tired of arguing. “In a way, we wield the same element. Heat. You create the abundance of it, whereas I produce the absence of it.”

“True. And I’ve learned to remove heat from things, to extinguish a fire. Just as you can add heat to melt ice.”

“So we just work at opposite ends of the same spectrum,” reasoned the white Toa.

Tahu shrugged. “But I still prefer my element, because it is more powerful. With fire, I can do a lot to ice.”

“No more than I can do to fire,” retorted Kopaka. In spite of himself, he was getting caught up in the argument again. “I’d better watch my temper,” he thought. “My pride could definitely get me in trouble with this guy. And even though he’s infuriating, he is on my team.”

“I propose a contest,” challenged Tahu. “See that peak over there? You make an ice staircase up one side using your ice powers. On the other side, I will carve a staircase into the ice with my fire powers. And we will see who gets to the top first.”

“All right,” Kopaka agreed. “When we’re finished building, we will race to the top without our Kakamas.” He smiled to himself. “What a fool. He’s so confident he’ll win a contest with my element. Maybe this will finally shut him up.”

“You’re on,” grinned Tahu.

The two Toa took their positions on opposite sides of the crag. They counted down together and began. Kopaka began a methodical sweep up the slope with his blade, forming the rough structure and then adding ice to smooth the steps. He peered through the mountain at his opponent and saw that Tahu had melted too much ice with his first pass and was starting over. “I’ve got time to make this pretty,” he chuckled, sculpting an elaborate railing around the landing at the top. Then he ran up the stairs and waited for Tahu.

Kopaka watched Tahu bolt up the stairs until he was face to face with his competitor. “Nice work, for an amateur,” nodded the Toa of Ice.

Waves of heat rose off Tahu. “If I hadn’t--”

Kopaka rolled his eyes. “I meant it as a genuine compliment, Tahu,” he interrupted quietly. “This isn’t even your element, and you did it really fast. Even with your initial error.”

Tahu stood, silently fuming. Kopaka lowered his temperature to compensate for Tahu’s extra heat. “I don’t know why you feel compelled to beat me at my own game,” he continued. “You would certainly win a similar contest in Ta-Wahi. But we could spend all day up here wasting energy, and it won’t get us any closer to defeating the Bohrok.”

The Toa of Fire sighed. “You’re right, Kopaka. Let’s go blast some enemies instead.”

Kopaka shook his head. “You mean collect some krana.”

“Right,” said Tahu grudgingly.

“Try my stairs,” suggested Kopaka. He stepped onto Tahu’s, admiring their sinuous contours. They looked like pale blue tongues of flame, frozen in time and stacked on top of each other. “These are really beautiful. The turbulence of the flame must be what formed these curved shapes.”

“Yours are really smooth and straight. They look like they’re made of glass.”

“Well, I’ve had a bit of practice. I should be good at this by now!” laughed Kopaka. They reached the bottom and started walking together again. “But you know,” continued the Toa of Ice, “I have actually been overwhelmed by my own element before.”

“Really? I used to think I was fireproof, but then I fell in the lava, and it was really painful.”

“I can imagine!” grimaced Kopaka, glad that Tahu had accepted his effort to make peace. “With me, it was an avalanche that Makuta started. I stopped it twice, and it kept coming. Onua pulled me into a cave, or I would have been crushed.”

“Onua? He keeps showing up out of nowhere and saving everyone. He’s amazing.”

“What we call ‘nowhere’ is ‘everywhere’ to him,” smiled Kopaka. But then his smile disappeared. “Gali is with Pohatu, so both should be safe. But Onua left to search for the missing Lewa and has not been heard from.”

“I would not worry about Onua-the Toa of Earth can take care of himself.”

“I suppose so,” replied Kopaka. “Why were you looking for me, anyway?”

“Oh, nothing,” replied Tahu. “I was having some trouble with a swarm of Tahnok. It turns out that they are rather resistant to fire.”

Kopaka laughed. “As the Kohrak are to ice. I found that out the hard way, too.”

“Well, now that we know where the nest is, we need to find the other Toa, and see which krana we still lack,” said Tahu.

“I’m pretty sure we still need some Pahrak krana,” remarked Kopaka. “And there are some right now, behind that ridge.”

Tahu switched to his Akaku. “Yes, I see them. A good-sized swarm. Let’s go!”

“Go do what, Tahu? Perhaps we should come up with a plan first.”

Tahu’s half-smile barely concealed his irritation. “How about this? I’ll go up the hill and shoot some fire at them, and drive them toward you, and you can freeze them.”

“That sounds good,” agreed Kopaka. “Try to keep them in a group if you can. Let’s go.”

Tahu sped up the hill, flanking the Pahrak and spraying fire at them. The creatures shot sharp fragments of stone back at him, but they bounced harmlessly off his Hau. Finally the Bohrok turned and ran. Tahu followed them, running around them and herding them together. Then Kopaka blasted a huge mass of ice at the Pahrak, imprisoning them in a large crystal block.

“Great! Now, I’ll free them two at a time and we can collect the krana while they are still stunned,” said Kopaka. “Be careful, they may still be communicating with each other, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” replied the Toa of Fire, rolling his eyes. He watched Kopaka wave his sword at the ice, which melted away from two of the dazed creatures. Kopaka and Tahu, both in their Haus, opened the head cases to remove the krana. Then Tahu brandished his sword and melted the ice off two more Bohrok.

“Careful, if you get them too hot—look! You melted its krana!” groaned Kopaka. “Now we can’t use that one! Whatever it was.” He looked at the twisted lump inside the Bohrok’s head. As much danger as the island was in with these creatures everywhere, he had little inclination to tolerate sloppiness.

Kopaka saw a yellow flash out of the corner of his eye as Tahu blasted the other Pahrak. He spun and saw that it had flipped open its head case to launch a krana at him. But Tahu had fired first. The smoldering Bohrok collapsed on the ground.

Tahu shrugged. “Well, you’re right, a krana is useless if it is burned beyond recognition. But we Toa are probably useless if we are wearing one, too.”

The Toa of Ice stared at Tahu with remorse and embarrassment. “I’m sorry. You just saved me, while I was busy yelling at you.”

“Well, I’ll be the last to criticize you for being quick to anger,” laughed Tahu.

They finished collecting the krana, and Kopaka strung them on a rope. He smiled as he slung the rope over his shoulder. “Now I suppose we should get back to Kini-Nui and see if the other Toa are there yet.”

“I know we’re finished with the Nuhvok,” said Tahu. “Gali and I helped Onua steam a whole swarm of them out of some tunnels a couple of days ago.”

“That’s great,” said Kopaka. Against his better judgment, he added, “Because we are definitely missing some Pahrak, thanks to you melting two of them.”

“Look, I’m sorry! Besides, you seem to have forgotten that one of them would have ended up on your face.”

“If you had just waited for me to thaw them--” Kopaka was interrupted by a rumbling sound.

Suddenly Kopaka felt a heavy object slam into his chest, and he was knocked off his feet and thrown into a bush. He sat up slowly and looked around. Pohatu was lying halfway on top of him, with his other arm around Tahu. And a giant landslide was sweeping past them down the slope on which they had been standing.

“Pohatu, what was that all about?” asked Tahu.

“Hello, Tahu and Kopaka. Sorry about that. It’s just that there was a swarm of Gahlok about to wash you down the hill, so I took them out with a landslide. And I had to get you out of the way first.”

Kopaka laughed. “Once again we were too busy arguing to protect ourselves. When will we ever learn, Tahu?”

Tahu grinned. “With friends like Pohatu, we could stay stupid. But let’s not.”

The Toa of Stone rolled his eyes. “What is it that makes you two want to squabble all the time? The fact that you are so different, or the fact that you are so alike?”

Tahu and Kopaka looked at each other. “Alike?” wondered Tahu.

“I think I see what you mean,” replied Kopaka. He thought about how much pride he had shown toward Tahu--the very thing he resented in the Toa of Fire. “As much as I hate to admit it, Tahu is a lot like me.”

Tahu frowned at Kopaka. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said grudgingly. “We both want to be king of the mountain.”

Pohatu laughed. “Well, let’s go pick up some Gahlok krana before they wake up and dethrone us all.”

The three Toa finished untangling themselves from the branches and went to work. Soon they had strung several orange krana onto the rope. Kopaka smiled as he admired the strange, writhing creatures. “Well, that’s all the Gahlok krana we need.”

“Now how many do we have left to collect?” asked Pohatu.

“Five. Three Lehvak, one Pahrak, and one Tahnok,” replied Kopaka. For some reason the others seemed to be relying on him to have an updated count in his head.

“I’ll get the last Tahnok,” volunteered Tahu. “Which one is missing?”

“It’s the Xa. But didn’t you just tell me that you had trouble with those?” asked Kopaka. “You came to ask for my help with them.”

“It’s just one Xa,” frowned Tahu. “I’ll do it myself.”

“All right, there’s no need to prove anything,” laughed Pohatu. “I’ll look for some Lehvak. I don’t really pick and choose, I just get whatever krana I can. If we have a few left over, at least it’s more work for the Va.”

The three parted ways. Kopaka decided to go to the Kini-Nui just in case Onua had news of Lewa. He found them standing in the field next to the great temple, a pile of dark green krana at their feet. Pahrak lay scattered all around amidst clumps of earth and uprooted trees. Kopaka breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that they must have just thwarted an attack on the Kini-Nui.

“Hello, Kopaka!” called Onua.

Kopaka raised his sword in a salute. “It’s good to see you’re safe, Lewa.” He walked over to Onua and looked carefully at the krana on the vine slung over his shoulder. “Excellent. A Ja. Now we have all the Pahrak.”

Lewa smiled. “What’s left, Kopaka?”

“A Tahnok Xa, and four Lehvak. Tahu said he would get the Tahnok.”

“Well, we know where some Lehvak are,” said Onua, looking at Lewa. “They’re all over Le-Wahi.”

“And this mindthief was on my face, when Onua came and saved me,” added Lewa, holding up the red Za.

Kopaka looked intently at Lewa, and then at the krana. “Make that three Lehvak. You sure have a knack for getting into trouble, Toa of Air,” he said, shaking his head. “Good thing Onua’s keeping an eye on you.”

Lewa frowned, but Onua laughed. “Someone’s got to do it. Otherwise, how could Lewa keep risking his neck to learn so much about the enemy?”

Kopaka thought about this. “Now, why would the Great Beings reward incompetence?” he wondered. “Still, I suppose Onua’s right. We should learn from every experience, good or bad.” He smiled and replied, “Well, I’m going to go check on my village. Be careful.” He changed to his Kakama and ran for home.

The Lehvak krana would prove costly. Kopaka slowed as he approached his village, sensing that something was amiss. He spotted a swarm of the green intruders etching away a stone cliff near Ko-Wahi. “I’ve got to get the villagers to safety before I risk stirring them up. They could easily kill someone with that acid,” he said to himself. He dashed into the Sanctum and spoke breathlessly to the Turaga.

“Nuju, there’s a Lehvak swarm not far from the village, heading this way. Can you and the villagers hide somewhere safe?”

“Yes,” replied Nuju calmly. “We made provisions for such a situation long ago. Parallel to the Wall of Destiny is another, similar chamber. The entrance is about twenty bios south of the door of the Sanctum. You’ll be able to find it with your Akaku after the danger is past.”

Kopaka nodded, and as the village elder whistled instructions to Matoro, he ran back outside to confront the Lehvak. As he had feared, they had reached Ko-Koro. Matorans were streaming past him toward the Sanctum. “Nuju will lead you to safety,” he called to them as he scanned the dwellings to make sure they were all vacant. His heart beat faster as he realized how much more was at stake in this battle than any other he had fought since the one with Makuta.

Ice chunks flew as the Lehvak rhythmically rammed the ice block buildings with their heads. Kopaka changed to his Hau, jumped in front of a Bohrok, and froze it. But he quickly realized they were too numerous, and too scattered, to hunt down one at a time. “I’ve got to distract them, and lure them away so I can bury them all at once.” He raised his blade above his head and spun it in a circle, spraying ice chunks in all directions. One Lehvak alerted the rest of the swarm, and soon the entire group had surrounded him. Blobs of yellow-green venom bounced off the invisible shield of his Hau and dropped, hissing, into the snow. Keeping his head turning to prevent ambush, he danced past the one farthest from the village and kept backing up. They followed him away from Ko-Koro, over a large snow bank, and into a large open area under a towering crag covered with ice. “Perfect,” he thought, quickly assessing the snow pack with each lens of his Akaku. “I’ll crush those horrid beasts with half the snow on Mount Ihu.”

Suddenly his ranging lens picked up the form of a Toa using a Kakama, racing towards him. And before she was visible to his left eye, the cool color in the heat lens showed it to be Gali. She glanced at him and the Lehvak, changed to her Hau, and stood with her back to him. Raising her hooks, she blasted the Bohrok with a jet of high-pressure water. Kopaka looked ahead and focused his elemental power on the enemies in front of him. But his momentary relief at having an ally to cover his back was eclipsed by the rush of panic he felt as he remembered his dream. “I should just tell her to go away, because I don’t need help,” he thought. “No, I should tell her the truth, that I saw a vision of her injured in the snow. But she’ll just think I’m a lunatic.” He greeted her without looking away from the creatures. “Oh, hello, Gali,” he nodded. He clenched his jaw as he decided what to do. “I’ll just have to make sure she stays safe. Maybe this isn’t the time, anyway. Destiny or no, I won’t give in to fear. I refuse to be a slave to some hallucination!”

Gradually the two Toa beat down the crowd of Lehvak. “Change to your Huna, and follow my footprints!” yelled Kopaka. She followed the marks his invisible feet left in the snow. They ran a safe distance away from the fallen Bohrok, who were beginning to stir again, and Kopaka switched back to his Akaku. He briefly scanned the ice-clad peaks around them again and then turned toward one of them. Waving his blade, he invoked a massive avalanche. As tons of snow rolled down onto the Bohrok, he grabbed Gali’s arm and pulled her behind a boulder.

“We’ll get their krana later,” he said. “Let’s make sure the village is all right.” They ran to Ko-Koro, a few hundred bios away. Kopaka soon found the door of the shelter. He pried it open with his blade. “Nuju, it’s me,” he called. “Is everyone all right in there?”

Matoro’s voice answered after a brief pause. “Yes, Turaga Nuju says we’re all accounted for. Thank the Great Beings for your bravery, Toa Kopaka, in luring the intruders away while we sought safety.”

“I’m impressed, Kopaka,” said Gali admiringly. “That was very quick thinking.”

Kopaka was surprised by her compliment. “Just doing my job,” he replied quietly.

“Turaga Nuju asks if it is safe to come out,” called Matoro’s voice.

“Not yet. Let us check it out,” replied the cautious white Toa. “Gali, you take the west side. I’ll take the east.”

Gali changed to her Akaku and disappeared behind the huts. Kopaka found two more Bohrok and rapidly froze them. As he deprived them of their krana, he prayed that Gali had not come to harm. But he was resolved not to betray any worry. When she returned, he was leaning on a hut waiting for her, sliding two red krana onto a rope. Gali looked at them, then at his face. “Good thing you checked,” she smiled.

“It would have been foolish not to. All clear, Nuju! Well, Gali, let’s get the krana out of those buried ones.” He led the way toward the avalanche debris. With a wave of his sword, the mass of snow slid downhill, exposing some of the motionless Lehvak. He changed to his Hau and leaned over the first one. “Be careful, Gali. They are only stunned. They could spring to life any minute.”

“I know,” she replied. “They are tricky creatures. They may be communicating by telepathy even as we speak.” Clad in her own Hau, she popped open a head case and lifted out the krana. “But you’ve done all the work here, and all the thinking, too. I’m sorry I haven’t been more useful.”

“Nonsense,” he scoffed, kicking open another Bohrok. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Gali looked up from a Lehvak to glance at him. At that moment the creature raised its hand shields and shot a stream of acid, hitting Gali in the neck. She collapsed in the snow. Kopaka jumped over and dispatched the creature with a savage blow of his sword. He slung Gali over his shoulder, and, backing up, he brought another heap of ice crashing down on the Bohrok, burying them twice as deep as before.

Kopaka looked at Gali, who was cradled in his arms. She whispered, “Kopaka...” He knelt down slowly and lay her gently in the snow.

“Oh, no, Gali!” he moaned. “Gali! Speak to me!” He leaned over her to see the extent of her injury. Fluid was leaking out of the wound in her neck and spreading into the snow. Her gold eyes fluttered open, then closed again.

“My foolish pride knows no bounds,” lamented the Toa of Ice to himself. “I could have prevented this! Oh, why didn’t I just send her away?” He took his blade and very carefully froze a patch onto her neck to stop the bleeding.

“Stay calm,” he told himself. He stared at her with his Akaku, watching through the heat lens and then the density lens. Then he took off his mask and lay his head on her chest. “No heartbeat! Oh, Gali! But she’s breathing…” He sat and thought for a moment as he put his mask back on. “How can I restore her pulse? His mind raced for a moment as he studied the structures inside her chest cavity, and then he had a flash of inspiration. “A pulse! Like a pulsed signal! Maybe a heart can use an electronic signal, like that device makes!” Then he stood and shouted, “Kopeke!” His own voice rang out louder than he had ever heard it, echoing off the stark mountains.

When the Ko-Koronan appeared around the snow drift, Kopaka spoke quickly. “Get me that Onu-Koronan recording device. And a cable. Hurry!” The Matoran scurried off toward the village.

Kopaka knelt by Gali. “Gali, please don’t die,” he implored her, holding her hook in his hands. “Help is on the way.” He looked at his own chest to see the rate at which his own heart was beating. He forced his own pulse to decrease. He counted a few seconds and did the calculation in his head.

Kopeke returned, handed the equipment to Kopaka and stood silently to one side. “Please let this work,” Kopaka whispered. “I’m so sorry, Gali, this might hurt a little.” He pulled off her blue chest piece and connected one end of the wire to the hand-held computer and the other end to the plus-rod on Gali’s chest. He punched a sequence of keystrokes and watched the display. “No, that’s too fast… here we go…” Then he pressed a button to send the signal.

Breathlessly, he stared at her chest with the density lens. “Please… start beating… please…” He saw the organ twitch, then shudder. Then it began to beat with the perfectly steady rhythm of the machine. He closed his eyes and whispered, “Thank you.”

He lay the device in the snow next to her arm. “Gali, your heart is beating again. Can you hear me?”

Gali made a gasping sound. Kopaka squeezed her hook and spoke softly. “Come on, Gali… you mean so much to me…”

She gurgled again. “Kopaka… I’m… I can see you… ”

“Oh, Gali!” he whispered. He leaned back and shouted into the sky. “She’s alive! Praise the Great Beings!” He put his hands on either side of her face and looked into her eyes again.

Kopeke ventured closer. “Toa Kopaka, you saved her!”

“Well, I revived her,” he corrected the Matoran. “Now I have to figure out how to heal her. The signal for her heart to beat has been interrupted by the injury to her neck. And as soon as she leaves Ko-Wahi, that patch will melt, and she’ll start bleeding again.”

“Could you…. weld her neck?” asked Kopeke hesitatingly.

“Maybe so,” replied Kopaka. “That’s a good idea. But it would be a delicate operation. Only one very skilled in the use of fire could succeed.” The Toa of Ice sighed. It was obvious who he needed to call. “Kopeke, go find Tahu and send him here.”

Kopeke nodded and started to walk down the path to the cable car. Then he turned back toward the Toa of Ice. “You did say Toa Tahu?” he asked doubtfully.

“Go!” yelled Kopaka.

The Ko-Koronan ran. Soon Kopaka could hear the groaning of the massive gears of the tramway machinery. He looked at Gali and took her hook in his hands. “Oh, how I’ve failed you,” he thought. “Why couldn’t I have been the one to be hit? It was my mistake… You bring so much beauty and joy to this island… please, don’t die, Gali.”

He watched her close her eyes and realized that she was fading again. “The loss of so much fluid must have caused her to go into shock,” he thought. “I’d better keep her alert.” He stroked her mask with his hand. “Keep talking to me,” he urged her. “I have to know you’re still alive.” She mumbled and fell silent, unable to concentrate. “All right, then, sing me a song.”

The words of a song began to flow out of her as if by their own will. “Pour over me… water to clean all my intentions…”

“Yes, go on,” Kopaka whispered. “That’s beautiful.”

“Baptising streams… I swim in the freedom of redemption…”

He listened, fascinated, as she continued. He remembered the sensation of swimming he had first experienced after he had found his Kaukau. “Floating on the sea of purity… knowing I can dive in the love that rescues me…”

Kopaka snapped out of his reverie when he noticed the Toa of Fire standing over them, his sword and eyes blazing. “Kopaka, what have you done to her?” Tahu raged.

“Oh, this is really not the time for us to be at each other’s throat,” thought Kopaka. He dropped Gali’s hook and stood, weaponless. “Either kill me or help me, but decide quickly,” he replied solemnly. “And yes, it was my fault. She was hit in the neck with Lehvak acid. Her heart wasn’t beating, but I restarted it.” He pointed to the recording device.

Tahu extinguished his sword. “Sorry, brother,” he said grimly. “How can I help?”

Gali opened her eyes. She glanced up at Tahu and smiled weakly.

Tahu knelt next to Gali and patted her shoulder. “Gali, it’s me, Tahu. You’re going to be all right. Just stay with us.”

Kopaka showed Tahu the ice patch. “This has kept her from bleeding to death, but she needs a permanent repair. Can you weld her neck?”

Tahu gasped. “I—well, I think so,” he said slowly. Was that fear Kopaka saw in his eyes?

“I’ll freeze the area around it, so you won’t damage anything else.”

Tahu ignited his fire sword. “All right. Go ahead, Kopaka.”

Kopaka leaned over her and melted the patch. Yellow fluid began to drip into the snow. Then he delicately froze a ring around the injury. Tahu took a deep breath and brought his blade next to Gali’s neck. He hesitated for a moment. “Great Beings, please give me the skill to save her,” he whispered. He applied some heat, pulling the sword away with alarm when the fluid began to bubble and hiss. But he tried again, more cautiously, and then he carefully ran his finger along her neck to push some of the softened metal over the wound. Finally, he passed his fire sword lightly over the whole area to smooth it out. He leaned back and breathed deeply.

“Look, Tahu! I think it worked. She’s not bleeding anymore,” smiled Kopaka. He touched the fresh scar on her neck, which was still warm.

“Kopaka, I only hope I haven’t further damaged the nerves. Gali, can you hear me?”

She opened her eyes again. “Huh?”

“Start singing again,” said Kopaka. “Tahu, how can we restore those nerve connnections?”

Gali continued her song in a feeble voice as they talked. “Healing waters…”

“Maybe we can rig a parallel cable from her head,” suggested Tahu.

“Are you crazy? How are we going to find the right connection in something as complex as a brain?”

“Well, do you have a better idea? You’re the one who caused all this!” retorted the Toa of Fire angrily.

“Healing waters… solace flows from the river of forgiveness to my soul… I need you… healing waters… “ Gali’s voice trailed off.

“Healing… healing…” Kopaka mumbled to himself. Suddenly he remembered Onua’s account of how Gali had healed him before the battle with Makuta. Despite his injuries and fatigue, Onua had shown up at Kini-Nui completely rested and ready. “How did she do that again? Oh—with water! Like her song! And Onua said it was her faith… well, it’s easy to have faith in something that’s been proven to work…” He turned to Tahu and shouted, “That’s it! Tahu, melt some snow! Remember what Onua said? Gali healed him with water. Let’s try it!”

Tahu picked up a piece of ice with his left hand and melted it with his sword. Kopaka caught the drips with his cupped hands. When they were full, Kopaka leaned over Gali. “Spirit of the waters, heal your daughter!” He poured the water slowly on her wound. The two Toa waited, breathless.

With his Kanohi, Kopaka saw Gali’s heart start beating twice as fast, responding two different rhythms at once. “Look, Tahu! Look at this! A second rhythm!” Kopaka pointed at the display, and typed quickly on the keyboard to cancel the artificial signal. “It worked!” He pulled off the cable and snapped her chest piece back on.

Kopaka felt a wave of sweet relief wash over him. He stood facing Tahu and smiled broadly. “Thank you, brother,” he said gratefully, putting his hand on Tahu’s shoulder.

“No, thank you,” replied Tahu. He placed his arm around Kopaka. “And I don’t even need to know how it happened. Mata Nui is a dangerous place.”

“It wasn’t his fault, Tahu,” Gali said quietly, sitting up. Both her companions dropped to their knees to help her. “Thank you so much, both of you. I owe you my life.”

“Don’t forget Kopeke,” smiled Kopaka.

“And Kopeke, thank you, too.” Kopeke did a modest little bow.

“Turaga Nuju says that even in her weakness, Gali’s intuition is strong. She is very wise for one so young,” said Matoro. The Toa turned to look in the direction of his voice. The entire village of Ko-Koro was watching from the snowdrift. “And Kopaka and Tahu, you have performed a miracle. The healing required both pure water and strong faith. The prophecy is truly fulfilled.”

“Prophecy?” wondered Kopaka, with growing anger toward his Turaga. “Did Nuju know this was going to happen? Why didn’t he tell me?” But then he sighed. “I shouldn’t blame him. It’s still my fault, not his. I knew, and I could have kept it from happening.”

“Gali,” said Tahu, “I’m so glad you’re alive. I don’t know how I would go on without you here.”

“She’s not here for you, Tahu,” said Kopaka icily. “She’s for all of Mata Nui.” As grateful as he was for Tahu’s help, Kopaka still resented the way the Toa of Fire seemed to claim Gali as his own, ever since the day they had first arrived on the island.

Tahu gave Kopaka a fierce look and stood up. “Well, I’d better be going. I’ve got one more Tahnok krana to capture. A Xa. Take good care of her, Kopaka.”

They watched him change to his Kakama and vanish. Relieved that Tahu was gone, Kopaka helped Gali up. “Can I take you home?” he offered.

“Yes, that would be nice,” replied Gali. She switched to her own mask of speed.

“I meant, can I carry you?” he said, changing to his Kakama, too.

“Sure,” she replied, smiling. She climbed slowly onto Kopaka’s shoulders. Kopaka was amazed as he felt her weight shift downward into her legs to lower her center of gravity and make him more stable. He took a step forward and noticed that her loose hold, light weight, and natural sense of balance made her easy to carry.

They said goodbye to the Ko-Koronans. The Toa of Ice gave Nuju instructions to keep the Lehvak buried until his return, and he sped toward Ga-Koro. “Where do you want me to take you?” he asked as he ran.

“To the beach in Ga-Wahi, please,” she replied. “I need to rest in the water for a little while.”

“Of course,” he nodded. “Thank you for the song. That made all the difference.”

“No, thank you, Kopaka.”

Kopaka's feet were moving fast, but his mind was moving faster. "Who am I kidding?" he thought. "Certainly not myself. I almost lost her today. And I could lose her tomorrow. I should tell her how I feel."

Kopaka slowed to a stop on a beach in Ga-Wahi, lifted Gali off his shoulders, and carefully set her on her feet in the sand. She turned to face him.

"I'm sorry I was so careless," she began.

"No, I was to blame," said Kopaka, shaking his head. "If I had--"

Gali interrupted him. "It was my fault. And I'm thankful you were there." She smiled at him. "No one else on this island would ever have thought to try what you did, Kopaka. That was brilliant."

Kopaka met her eyes with his steady gaze, but inside he was trembling. "Just doing my job, Gali."

"I don't know how I can ever repay you," she continued softly.

Kopaka smiled back at her. "Seeing you alive is reward enough."

"You're too modest," she laughed. But then she turned serious again. "You were so... so sweet to me."

Words were screaming to get out of Kopaka's head. He wanted to say, "That's because I've loved you ever since the moment I first saw you." But instead, he heard himself say coolly, "You were gravely injured. It seemed to be what you needed."

Gali studied his face. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled herself gently toward him, and lay her head on his shoulder. Kopaka was so startled that he froze for a moment before returning her embrace. The three seconds he spent enfolded in her long, slender arms seemed to last an eternity. He sensed the calm beating of the heart he had restarted, and it felt as if his own would explode out of his chest.

"Thanks again," she said as she released him. "I hope to see you soon, when we get all the krana and free this island from the horrible bondage of the Bohrok."

Kopaka waved. "Goodbye, Gali. Get some rest." He watched her dive into the water, seeking the tranquillity of the waters below.

The Toa of Ice turned to go. "Curse my cowardice!" he muttered. "She was practically asking me if I cared about her. And I told her 'no'." He activated his Kakama and ran, his jaw locked grimly and his fists clenched. "I may never have a chance like that again."

But as he streaked over the rolling terrain of the Hura-Mafa river valley, he relented a little. "On the other hand, if I had told her, she might have backed away instead of embracing me." He lingered briefly on the memory of holding her in his arms before his smile turned to a frown again. "What am I thinking? She is a warrior. And so am I." He forced his thoughts back to his mission. “I’d better get back home quickly and take care of those buried Lehvak.”

After he had harvested the red krana from the horrible creatures, he buried them again with snow. “That should confuse the Va for a little while,” he thought grimly. Then he considered the krana count. “We’ve only got that one Tahnok Xa left. Tahu was struggling with those before. But if I show up, he may refuse my help." He pivoted in his tracks and headed instead for Po-Koro. "Pohatu would be the perfect one to offer assistance."

He streaked toward the desert, but as he descended into the foothills, he felt the familiar sensation of an impending vision. For the first time, he was able to stop and sit down instead of falling on his face.


Kopaka took a hesitant step forward. The massive suit of armor responded to and amplified his movements. He smiled grimly as he gripped the controls and scanned the darkness before him.

Soon his heat lens revealed an enormous creature in the shadows. It was moving slowly toward him. Just as it emerged into the light so he could see it with both eyes, it lunged at his head. He brought up his arm to block the blow. Huge teeth snapped together, striking the metal of the claw arm of his suit with a deafening clang.

Kopaka recoiled, and the suit helped him keep his balance. He aimed a his rocket at the beast and fired, but the projectile bounced off harmlessly. His foe countered his attack with a smothering landslide, seemingly out of nowhere. Kopaka fell and was quickly buried. He gasped for air under the thick layer of earth.


“I’d better stay close to Onua when we go down there,” shrugged Kopaka as he stood again. “But, first we have to get to that point.” He spotted Pohatu on a nearby slope and ran toward him. The Toa of Stone was ambling toward a giant pile of loose rock and ice chunks. Kopaka’s Akaku revealed a swarm of Lehvak under the mound. “He must have just buried them,” Kopaka grinned. But then he saw more creatures on the hill above, heading for Pohatu. He aimed his blade at the ice cap on the foothill and brought down an avalanche.

Pohatu’s Kakama enabled him to escape the bulk of the torrent of ice, but not all of it. He was churned under the snow at the edge of the avalanche. Pohatu’s hand emerged from the white mass. Kopaka ran to grab it and pull him free.

“Hello, Kopaka,” blinked Pohatu. “Now it’s my turn to ask you what’s going on!”

“A second swarm of Lehvak was waiting for you to let down your guard. Sorry I buried you.”

“No problem. I owed you one,” said Pohatu. “So, it looks like we’ll have plenty of Lehvak krana now!”

“We don’t need them,” replied Kopaka solemnly, “because Gali and I just collected some in Ko-Koro.”

“Oh,” replied Pohatu. “So we only have that Pahrak krana, and the Tahnok Xa left, which Tahu said he would get?”

“Just the Tahnok Xa,” said the white Toa.

“Excellent!” But Pohatu’s smile disappeared. “Is something wrong, Kopaka?”

Kopaka suddenly pulled his blade off his back and raced to a lump in the snow, which had moved slightly. He raised his sword and struck it, over and over, until it was still.

“Why didn’t you just freeze it?”

“Monsters like this deserve to suffer,” remarked Kopaka, his jaw tight with quiet fury. Pohatu was silent. He seemed to be waiting for an explanation. “One of these vile things just hit Gali in the neck with its acid. Tahu and I were able to save her. But she was very close to death.”

The Toa of Stone nodded soberly. “I see. So, is she all right now?”

“She’s resting back in her Wahi, somewhere underwater. She’ll be fine, I think.”

“Well, that’s a relief. Have you heard from Onua or Lewa yet?”

“Yes, they’ve just come back from Le-Wahi. Lewa was wearing a krana when Onua found him, but Onua convinced him to tear it off,” replied Kopaka. “And then they got the last Pahrak Krana. While I go find them, why don’t you go to Ta-Wahi and help Tahu? He was having trouble with the Tahnok before, but I’m sure he won’t accept any help from me.”

Pohatu smiled. “No doubt.”

Kopaka continued, “We’ll get Gali last, to give her more time to rest, and then we’ll meet you in Ta-Koro.”

“You’re going to swim after her?” asked Pohatu incredulously. Kopaka simply smiled. “Well, if you like that sort of thing. I’ll see you soon, Kopaka.” Before Pohatu’s sentence was finished, Kopaka ran for the center of the island. Although he was criss-crossing Mata Nui seemingly without end that day, the vestiges of his adrenaline rush from Gali’s rescue, as well as the determination to exterminate these foul monsters for good, kept him from feeling fatigued.

The Toa of Ice found Lewa and Onua at the Kini-Nui again. “Pohatu has gone to help Tahu with the last krana,” he said. “We’re all going to gather in Ta-Wahi. I’ll go get Gali and meet you there.” He turned and blazed away again, this time for Ga-Wahi.

Kopaka returned to the beach where he had left Gali and scanned the waves. When he saw her several hundred bios offshore, he changed to his Kaukau. He dove into the cool water and swam toward her. “What will I say to her?” he wondered. She was floating at mid-depth, her arms and legs folded and her eyes closed. She opened them as he slowly approached.

“Hello, Kopaka,” she said, her voice distorted by the density of the water, yet still unmistakably her own. “Is it time already?”

“Yes.” Kopaka paused, fascinated by the strange effect of the water on sounds. “We have all the krana except the Tahnok Xa, but Pohatu has gone to help Tahu with it. We’re to meet them in Ta-Koro.”

“He has it already,” replied Gali. She began to swim back to the beach, and Kopaka followed her, watching the incredible way she moved with the fluid.

“How do you know?” he asked, puzzled.

“The sea told me.” Gali stepped out of the water. Kopaka changed back to his Akaku.

“Are you still having visions, Kopaka?” she asked.

“Yes, why?”

“Because I had another one, too. It was the sea speaking to me. I saw Tahu wearing a blue Xa, and he was in a lot of pain. I commanded the sea to help him.”

Kopaka closed his eyes. “I could have told her. She’s had visions before, like the one about the Kaita. She wouldn’t have thought I was crazy. I could have saved her all that pain and fear.”

“So, I think we have all the krana,” she finished. “Kopaka, are you all right?”

Kopaka opened his eyes again. “Yes, Gali.” She was looking at him intently. He started to reach out to touch her mask, but he put down his hand. “No. I’d better not,” he thought. “I had the chance, and I missed it. Now it would be all wrong. I’m losing my concentration on our mission again.” He took a deep breath. “Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m ready. Let’s go.”

They changed to their Kakamas and ran to the village of fire.



Review topic here.

This post has been edited by GaliGee: Sep 15 2003, 09:47 AM

[GaliGee]

Chapter 6: TEMP 0°C * RANGE 0 BIO * SPEC GRAV 1.7


Kopaka glanced down at himself. His chest and shoulders were covered with silver armor, his legs were longer and stronger, and his shield was larger and heavier. But the most noticeable change was his sword. Instead of a single tool, he was holding a double blade, sharp on opposite sides. And as he decided to test his ice powers to see if they had also been transformed, he watched the weapon glow light blue and shoot a potent blast of cold energy upward and downward at the same time, forming a thick column of pure, solid ice from floor to ceiling. He pulled his blades free of the column and stared at them in awe.


“Kopaka?” asked Gali. He was sitting on a rock, and she was standing in front of him.

“I just had another vision.” Kopaka shook his head and stood up. “I was transformed somehow, and I had greater power than before.”

“I wonder if that’s what Nokama was telling me about,” mused Gali. “She said we would be changed during the battle with the leaders of the swarms.”

“Come to think of it, so did Nuju, although not in so many words,” recalled Kopaka. “Well, let’s get going.”

They slowed down in front of Ta-Koro just in time to watch Tahu disappear into the inner compound, a blue krana in his hand. Kopaka zoomed in with his ranging lens to get a better look, and it was indeed the Xa. They waved at Onua and Lewa, who were crossing the bridge.

“Let’s wait out here,” suggested Gali.

“Good idea,” replied Kopaka, who was not particularly keen on crossing the lake of fire. He started pacing back and forth to keep his feet from getting hot.

Gali switched to her Miru and hovered above the ground. “If you want to stay cool, you should try Lewa’s trick,” she laughed. Kopaka smiled.

A red blur approached, and Gali dropped to the ground, hooks forward. Kopaka recognized Pohatu through his Akaku just before he materialized in front of them.

“Hello, Pohatu,” smiled the Toa of Water. Kopaka nodded to his good-natured friend.

“Hello, Gali and Kopaka,” replied Pohatu. “Is Tahu in there?”

“Yes, he just went in, and Onua and Lewa went after him,” said Kopaka. “And he was carrying that Tahnok Xa.”

“A few minutes ago he was wearing it,” remarked Pohatu. “Gali, were you the one who--”

Gali smiled mysteriously. “The sea is a powerful ally.”

“Indeed,” said Pohatu. “So, that’s all the krana?”

Kopaka started to say something flippant about the low intelligence of their enemy. But then he glanced back and forth between Pohatu and Gali. And it occurred to him that any one of them could have been killed in this quest, as Gali almost had been. “Thank the Great Beings, yes,” he sighed.

Pohatu studied Gali’s serene smile. “What did the Lehvak do to you?” he asked.

“This,” she answered, pointing to a scar on her neck. “Kopaka kept my heart beating with a computer signal, and Tahu welded my neck. Then they poured some healing water on it. And I was restored.”

“That’s amazing,” marveled Pohatu. He glanced at Kopaka. “Good thing the smartest Toa was there with you.”

Kopaka shifted his weight uneasily. He was reluctant to accept any praise for the rescue of someone who had been endangered by his own actions. “Except that it was my fault she was injured in the first place.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Gali shook her head at Kopaka. “It was my fault. Thanks to you, I’m still alive!”

Tahu, Onua, and Lewa emerged from the gate. Pohatu lay his hand on Tahu’s shoulder and nodded knowingly at him. Then he put his arms around Onua and Lewa. “I’m so glad to see both of you,” he smiled. “It sounds like you went through a lot. Let’s put an end to this, shall we?”

Gali smiled at Tahu. “Are you all right?” she asked gently. “You look tired.”

Kopaka grumbled to himself. “I knew Tahu would get in trouble. But I’m glad he got free of that thing. I hope he realizes how much help he got.” He turned toward the others. “Follow me.”

“You know where the nest is?” asked Lewa.

“Yes,” replied Kopaka impatiently. “I’ve seen it. It’s near the Kini-Nui.”

“I thought so. We’ll follow you.”

Kopaka rolled his eyes. “Like I said…” He changed to his Kakama, and the others did likewise. As they ran toward the temple, they filled each other in on all they had learned about their enemy. Lewa reported how he had heard the voices of the two queens of the swarm, called ‘Bahrag’, while wearing the krana. He explained how they had driven him to destroy large swaths of his beloved forest in their mission to level everything on Mata Nui. Kopaka told about his vision of the large creature, as well as the armor that apparently awaited them. Lewa called it the ‘Exo-Toa’ armor. He didn’t know where it would be or who had made it, but he recalled that the voices were anxious to prevent the Toa from finding it.

Kopaka led the other Toa to the entrance to the Bohrok lair. Onua switched to his Miru and led the way with his superior night vision. The Toa soon landed in a wide, flat area. They changed to their Rurus to explore the darkness. Pohatu touched the walls of the cavern. “Have you noticed? This tunnel wall... it’s smooth. No Matoran dug this... or any Bohrok, for that matter.”

“Are you sure?” came Gali’s voice.

“Gali, if there’s one thing I know about, it’s stone. I think something is very wrong here.”

Kopaka studied the wall with his density lens. The stone was much like that in Makuta’s lair—exceptionally hard, dense, and smooth. But it was almost too perfect. Natural stone had plenty of irregularities and inclusions. Even the stone in Mangaia, while strangely compressed, had imperfections. This rock looked eerily artificial.

Lewa turned to Kopaka. “I’m worried, Kopaka. What if the krana still controls me somehow? What if I try to stop you?”

Kopaka smiled grimly at Lewa. As unreliable as he considered Lewa to be, this thought had occurred to him already. “Don’t worry. You may try. You won’t succeed.”

The Toa of Air seemed somewhat reassured, but in his distraction, he stumbled, and Pohatu caught his arm. “Look,” said Lewa. “This is another shaft.”

Onua stepped next to him. “Bohrok pods! As far as I can see!” Tahu dropped into the cavern with his Miru to investigate. A hidden stone door suddenly began to move, closing off the chamber with Tahu inside it.

“We may be trapped up here!” shouted Pohatu over the rumble.

Lewa groaned. “We’re close now... close to the power... Armor, but more than armor. Power greater than we have ever known.”

Onua and Pohatu were clawing and kicking at the stone walls to no avail. “Wait!” cried Gali. “The air has become so hot... so suddenly! What’s causing it?”

Kopaka looked up. “A nightmare on top of our impossibility. Molten lava!”

The others followed his gaze and stepped back in horror as they saw a great mass of lava cascading down from the tunnel opening. It was heading straight for them.

“Stay back!” warned Kopaka. “My ice can hold the lava at bay for a few moments.” He fired a beam of ice at the falling magma, freezing it in place. But immediately water began to drip on the Toa’s heads as the barrier began to thaw.

“What kind of stone is this? It takes our strongest blows and does not shatter!” grimaced Pohatu, still struggling to penetrate the strange rock.

“Doesn’t shatter... doesn’t shatter... because... it isn’t there!” cried Lewa suddenly.

“What?” demanded Pohatu incredulously.

The Toa of Air explained. “There’s nothing you and Onua can’t bring down. So if this wall is still standing, it cannot be real. Stop believing in it, and it disappears!” He swung his axe at the wall, and the blade passed through.

Kopaka smiled. “So Lewa did learn something useful,” he thought. “Our enemies are deceivers. The armor must be behind that wall, because they clearly want to keep us out.” Water rained down on the Toa. The protective layer of ice was about to give way. Kopaka held up his sword, ready to shoot another blast of ice. He watched Onua and Lewa vanish through the imaginary stone.

“How is that possible...” Gali began, but Kopaka interrupted her. “Ask questions later, the lava IS real!”

Pohatu touched the wall with his hand. He gasped as it passed right through the illusion that he had pounded against with all his strength moments before. “Come on, Gali!”

Kopaka followed the Toa of Water through the wall. Then he turned and looked behind them into the closed Bohrok chamber. Despite the discomfort it caused him, Kopaka forced himself to use the heat lens. Tahu was standing in the middle of the room with his sword raised, and the heat was building rapidly. The ground began to feel hot. “Everyone down—NOW!” yelled Kopaka. The walls of the cavern burst with a loud explosion, and Tahu shot through the partition separating him from the other Toa. Shards of stone and Bohrok pods flew everywhere. Tahu rolled and landed on his feet as the other Toa got up from the ground.

“Tahu! Are you all right?” asked Lewa.

“Used my sword... to heat the air... until the pressure blew the nest apart,” panted Tahu. “I went one way... the Bohrok the other. But they will be back.”

As the stone crumbled underneath their feet, the Toa used their Mirus to slow their fall, and they landed on a round platform at the bottom of a stone well. “Where are we?” asked Tahu.

“Still in the realm of the Bohrok,” answered Kopaka. “These carvings in the floor match the krana we carry, and I think... yes, this is where the krana are meant to go.”

“It’s begun! The end of the Bohrok!” cried Lewa.

“What are you talking about, Lewa?” asked Onua. “What do you know? It seems we’ve been invited in.” Huge stone doors groaned as they opened.

“Six doorways. Six of us,” remarked Tahu.

Ever cautious, Kopaka wondered aloud, “A trap?” Perhaps the Bahrag had prepared for the possibility that the Toa would try to find the armor.

“An opportunity,” replied Tahu. “Everyone take a tunnel... and stay alert.” Kopaka shrugged and complied, for lack of a better plan. As stepped through the cloud of dust into his doorway, he saw a hatch opening ahead of him.

Kopaka gasped as he saw the massive suit of armor inside, with a rocket launcher and a claw arm. He touched it, and the front opened with a whirring sound. “The armor from my vision,” he thought. He stepped up into the suit, and the front panels closed around him. He gripped the controls and felt the suit powering up. “It’s using my elemental power, but in exchange, it’s giving me protection and new weapons.”

Kopaka took a hesitant step forward. The massive suit of armor responded to and amplified his movements. He smiled grimly as he gripped the controls and scanned the darkness before him.

Soon his heat lens revealed an enormous creature in the shadows. It was moving slowly toward him. Just as it emerged into the light so he could see it with both eyes, it lunged at his head. He brought up his arm to block the blow. Huge teeth snapped together, striking the metal of the claw arm of his suit with a deafening clang. As he shook off the squat, red, long-necked animal, he heard strange voices inside his head, hissing with malice. “You do not belong! You will be removed,” they sneered.

“Lewa’s voices,” he muttered. “The queens of the swarm.” He saw Tahu on the opposite side, facing an identical blue creature, and he fired a rocket to drive the enemies together. The Exo suit seemed to anticipate his movements, and he found he was able to move with great agility, despite its bulk. The other Toa soon had them surrounded.

The enemy in front of him began to blast Kopaka with a jet of water. Kopaka recoiled, and the suit helped him keep his balance, as well as protect his chest from the cutting force of the high-pressure fluid. He aimed a his rocket at the beast and fired, but the projectile bounced off harmlessly. His foe countered his attack with a smothering landslide, seemingly out of nowhere. Kopaka fell and was quickly buried. He gasped for air under the thick layer of earth. Changing to his Pakari, he pushed upward against the weight, and finally his left hand burst free. He used it to clear the dirt away from his face. He glanced over at Onua, but the Toa of Earth, along with Pohatu, suddenly turned from the fight and began to strive against two unseen attackers.

“Fools!” taunted the queens of the swarms. “By bringing us together, you increase our power! Now Mata Nui will be as it was in the Before-Time!”

Kopaka watched Lewa levitate and raise his axe, but soon he fell, laden with ice. “Just like the Kohrak,” groaned Kopaka. “I can melt that away from him... if I can just get out...” Kopaka struggled to free himself, hacking at the massive pile of earth with the claw.

Gali fell to her knees, weakened by waves of heat. Tahu raised his sword and jumped in front of her, blocking the heat beam. “This stops NOW! Your fires are nothing compared to mine, monster!” he yelled, and he shot flames back at her foe.

But then the creature changed tactics. “If fire will not defeat you, then taste the power of stone!” She launched a volley of rocks at high speed, battering against Tahu’s Hau and forcing him to step back.

“The Mask of Shielding can protect me from this barrage… but the strain…! I…. I…”

Out of the noise came Gali’s voice. “Onua! Pohatu! You are fighting shadows—and Tahu needs you!”

Kopaka watched Pohatu spin, his face livid with rage at the Bahrag’s trick. He ripped a huge piece of stone out of the wall of the cavern with the claw of the Exo and hurled it at Gahdok, who collapsed under the weight of the massive rock.

The Toa of Ice felt claws pulling him from the earth. Onua was hanging partway out of his armor and digging furiously to free him. “Thanks, Onua,” said Kopaka gratefully. As soon as he could stand again, he turned to Lewa and waved his blade. But only half of the ice melted away. Kopaka frowned and tried again, and this time the Toa of Air was released the from the block of ice.

As Tahu helped Gali to her feet, he yelled to the others. “All of you! Shed your armor! It hinders our elemental powers—and they are our only hope!”

Kopaka’s Exo suit opened, and he stepped down out of the armor, which had responded amazingly well to his movements and even his thoughts, like a silent partner in the battle. Tahu was shouting again. “Toa! Surround them! We must combine our powers!”

The Toa took positions around their enemies and fired elemental energy at them. Kopaka was relieved to find that his ice powers had returned to normal without the armor. Instead of blasting the enemy to pieces, as they had done to Makuta, the combined beams began to form a web of luminous fibers, imprisoning the Bahrag. The vicious queens shrieked and gnashed their horrible teeth. “Fools!” one scoffed, as the protodermis cage tightened around them. “You think you have won… but you cannot imagine what you have unleashed!”

The earth began to shake violently. Platforms supporting the Toa moved downward into the floor. Kopaka slid into a tube, and it was filling with a strange, cool liquid. He tried to change to his Miru and levitate above it, but the mask had stopped working. There was no escaping the silvery fluid. He took a deep breath as his head went under. For the first time, Kopaka was completely unable to see. He was filled with horror at the loss of his most important source of information. But he focused his attention on his other senses. Suspended in the liquid, dizzy and disoriented, he felt a sensation of warmth, beginning on his mask, his hands, and his chest, and then flowing through his whole body. Then the descent stopped, and he felt the floor under him begin to rise again. His head emerged and he gasped for air. The platform reached the floor level and halted.

Kopaka glanced down at himself. His chest and shoulders were covered with silver armor, his legs were longer and stronger, and his shield was larger and heavier. But the most noticeable change was his sword. Instead of a single tool, he was holding a double blade, sharp on opposite sides. He looked at the other Toa and saw that they were similarly armored. And their masks were changed, stretched into smooth, streamlined shapes. They had reverted from gold to the Toa’s elemental colors. Each had strange new tools.

As Kopaka decided to test his ice powers to see if they also had been transformed, he watched the weapon glow light blue and shoot a potent blast of cold energy upward and downward at the same time, forming a thick column of pure, solid ice from floor to ceiling. He pulled his blades free of the column and stared at them in awe.

“It is over,” said Tahu. His voice was the same, but it had a new, deeper resonance.

“Kopaka,” asked Gali, studying her new axes, “what have we become?”

“More than we were,” he replied slowly. “More than anyone has ever been.”

Onua tapped his chest armor. “Those chambers were filled with protodermis! It changed us--increased our power…”

Tahu felt the ground move again. “Let us worry about why is happened later,” he warned. “There are more important questions to answer.”

“Questions like these,” added Lewa. “What happened to Cahdok and Gahdok? And how are we going to get out of here?”

Pohatu heard a whistling sound overhead. “Look out! That stone is falling right for us!”

“It’s no use,” Lewa groaned. “It’s too big, and there’s nowhere to run to!”

Kopaka tried to switch to his Hau, but he immediately realized his mask no longer had the power of shielding. He watched the stone zoom closer. The Toa had a few seconds, at most, before they would be crushed. He glanced at Pohatu and recalled how he had alternately buried and been buried by his cheerful friend. But this time, the Toa of Stone was powerless to help. Then his gaze turned to Tahu, who had activated his Hau. Apparently he would be the only one to survive. The Toa of Fire pulled Gali close to him in an attempt to protect her. “Please,” Kopaka whispered, “at least let him save Gali.” The stones began to pound against the shield. And Kopaka’s prayer was answered--somehow they ricocheted away from all the Toa. “The Mask of Shielding protected us all!” cried Tahu. The last of the rocks tumbled harmlessly to the floor as he released Gali. “It could never do that before…!”

Kopaka quickly regained his composure. Apparently, the new masks’ powers extended to those around the wearer. “And it never will again, if we do not escape! Lewa, Pohatu--combine the powers of your masks!”

“Sure, I see! The mask of speed gets us off the ground...” began Pohatu.

“And the mask of levitation keeps us in the air!” finished Lewa. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You would have, Lewa... eventually,” replied Kopaka. “If we had had the time to wait. But patience is no virtue when the ground begins to shake!”

“This way!” yelled Tahu as they landed on a higher level of ground. “I see light ahead!” The Toa ran, assisted by Pohatu’s shared mask of speed.

Kopaka looked ahead with his unfamiliar new Akaku and skidded to a stop. “Watch out! There are Bohrok headed straight for us!”

Onua studied the Tahnok swarm massed in front of them. “Without Cahdok and Gahdok to direct them, they are confused... out of control! I share the power of the mask of strength with you! We must use it--now!”

Together, the Toa delivered a powerful blow to the ground, splitting it open in front of the Bohrok. “Here they come!” shouted Onua.

“And there they go!” finished Lewa. The mindless Tahnok marched into the hole.

Kopaka held up his blades and filled the gap with ice. “This will keep them from returning for a while,” he smiled grimly. “As the ice melts, they will be forced further below.”

“Admire your work later!” scolded Tahu, unimpressed. “Our blow has weakened this tunnel even more!”

Lewa looked up at the stone falling on them. “The Bohrok’s domain is collapsing! Go! GO!”

Together, the Toa levitated and ran through the failing tunnels. Finally the heroes of Mata Nui shot out of the ground as the last of the tremors shook the island.

“We did it!” rejoiced Kopaka. “The threat of Cahdok, Gahdok, and the swarms is ended! But at what price?”

The Toa tumbled to the ground and slowly stood up as the dust settled. “Nothing has been lost,” retorted Tahu. “The protodermis has given us the power to protect our people from any danger… and to heal this shattered land! Once we were Toa, but now we are far, far more… Now and forevermore, we are Toa Nuva!”

The Toa of Stone studied his new claws. “Just look at these new tools!” He kicked a rock and watched it fly far away until it fell with a distant thud. “What a difference!”

Lewa nodded. He levitated far above their heads. Then he extended his Miru power to Pohatu, lifting him as well. “Hey!” yelled Pohatu, snapping his claws at the laughing Lewa, who spun out of reach.

Gali tossed her axes into the air and caught them. “I can think of a lot of uses for these,” she grinned. “But I wish we could have brought the Exo armor with us. It’s a pity such fine machines had to be crushed in the cataclysm.”

“I agree,” Kopaka nodded. He smiled at her, admiring her stronger new form. “Mine seemed to learn from me. The longer I wore it, the better it responded to my commands. I know it wasn’t alive, but it almost seemed intelligent.”

Onua admired his silver saws. He started them and touched the tips to the ground. Sand flew as they sank effortlessly into the earth. “Wow,” he said simply. “And look, under my armor the dent in my shoulder has disappeared.”

Tahu walked up to Gali. “How is your neck?” he asked, leaning closer. She pointed to the place where the Lehvak acid had eaten through the metal, seemingly ages ago. There was no sign of the old injury. “Amazing! The scar is gone!”

Kopaka clenched his jaw. “Mata Nui has been peaceful for all of two minutes,” he muttered to himself. “And already Tahu is up to his old tricks.” With annoyance, he thought about the way Gali had called for Onua and Pohatu to help Tahu in the Bahrag fight, when he and Lewa were also struggling. Did she think that Tahu was the only one who cared for her? He started to regret losing his nerve on the beach after he had brought her home.

The Toa of Ice walked around Tahu. “Yes, the protodermis healed it nicely,” he commented. Glaring at Tahu, he reached out and touched Gali’s neck.

Gali looked nervously from one to the other and stepped back. “Yes, I’m grateful to both of you.”

“I propose a contest,” suggested Kopaka, turning to Tahu. “After we check in with our villages, why don’t we meet again and test our new powers against each other? It would be a good way to see how we have been enhanced.”

Tahu’s eyes narrowed. “Gladly.” The Toa all nodded and turned toward their regions.

Kopaka fixed his eyes on the great white mountain and started walking. “What possessed me to say that?” he asked himself, shaking his head. “I guess I just want to show him up. I’m tired of his arrogance, and now I’m acting like him!” He sighed as he increased the pace. “But I suppose it will be interesting to see what we can do now. As long as the competition stays friendly.”

Already Kopaka had become aware of the incredible power of his Akaku Nuva. Now, as he walked, he devised different tests for it. All the lens functions were now in one lens, and he could tell it would take some time to get used to the abundance of information. But he knew that as soon as he did, it would be infinitely more useful to him, because he wouldn’t lose time switching back and forth. And he could evaluate the same object in different ways without ever losing sight of it.

The other change in his mask was one he would not be able to experience directly--sharing its power with someone else. He looked forward to showing Nuju and the villagers what it was like to see through solid objects.

As he climbed past the snow line, he had an idea. He stopped walking and studied his double blade carefully. “The edges of this blade would skate marvelously on the ice,” he speculated, “because the small surface area will create a lot of pressure. And they fit on my feet... like this!” He slid the handles through his feet, stood up, and took a couple of hesitant steps. “Outstanding!” he shouted. Soon he was flying across the ice, up ridges, and over crevasses. His new skates allowed him to go so fast that he was grateful for the increased visual power of his Akaku. “I would almost have outrun my ability to see, with the old mask!” he laughed. He removed his skates and picked his way among the damaged tunnels and the Bohrok traps, which had worked well to protect his villagers until the last Lehvak attack, until he reached the clearing where the Sanctum stood.

Kopaka was somewhat unprepared for the reaction of his villagers to his arrival. As soon as he entered the building, they thronged toward him, their eyes bright with excitement, but they stopped at a reverent distance from him. He realized that the difference between this homecoming and the last, after the battle with Makuta, was the way he looked. And this time, fortunately, he had nothing but good news. “Hello, everyone,” he smiled to them. “Don’t worry. I may look different, but inside I’m still Kopaka.”

Nuju clicked and hummed, and Matoro translated. “Welcome back, Toa Kopaka. We are very grateful for the valiant way you Toa have confronted the horror of the swarms. Once again, you have freed us from the bondage of fear.” The Turaga bowed low to his Toa.

“Thank you, Nuju. You deserve such protection from evil, and I’m just happy I’ve been given the tools to do it.” The Ko-Koronans were approaching cautiously, reaching out tentatively as if to touch his armor and weapons. “Go ahead, take a good look, and feel how strong they are,” he laughed. “I was pretty surprised, too. And see what you think of this.” Kopaka extended the power of his Akaku to the Matorans and watched their amazed faces as they saw through walls, and each other, for the first time.

Matoro, speaking for the Turaga, invited everyone to be seated. “This will be the first of many times the tale of the conquest of the Bohrok swarms will be told,” he explained. “If you are willing, we would like to hear it straight from you, Toa Kopaka.”

“I would be glad to,” replied Kopaka. Although he was not used to speaking before an audience, he looked around at the eager faces and was encouraged by their rapt attention. “They love stories,” he reminded himself. “I owe it to them to tell them every event, and every twist.” He told the story of the battle in great detail, pausing for questions or to wait for Matoro to catch up. He was scratching rapid characters on a block of ice.

“Now, perhaps you would like to see how we have begun to use the Bohrok to restore the structures they have damaged,” offered the Turaga through his interpreter. They went outside, and Kopaka gasped as he saw a Kohrak moving blocks of ice away from a wrecked hut. He noticed there was no krana inside. Kopaka spent a few hours helping with the cleanup effort before excusing himself to return to the Kini-Nui for the Toa Nuva contest.

When everyone had arrived, Tahu suggested, “Let’s divide up into two teams. Gali, Pohatu, you come with me.”

Kopaka turned to Onua and Lewa. “Fine. We will go plan our attack.” They conferred briefly.

Gali shot a potent blast of water at Lewa, who leaped to safety with his Miru Nuva. “Think what you like, Gali,” he laughed, “but you’ll have to be faster than that to stop me!”

“Did you say ‘faster’?” grinned Pohatu. “Let’s see you glide out of a tornado on those air katana ‘wings,’ Lewa!” He used his Kakama to speed around Lewa in a tight circle, entraining the air with him until it swirled into a powerful vortex. Lewa spun out of control, tumbling end over end until he landed in a clump of bushes. The Toa of Air untangled himself. “Oh, the indignity!” he moaned sarcastically.

“Now, Pohatu, my brother,” said Onua with a sly smile, “didn’t Turaga Onewa ever tell you? You always have to watch where you’re running—especially when Onua Nuva is near!” Pohatu felt the ground shift under him. With the momentum of his incredible speed and his heavy weight, he was unable to stop, and he was sent flying off the side of the hill. As he sailed through the air, grabbing at nothing, he yelled, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” He landed with a thud in the brush.

“Is he all right?” wondered Lewa.

Tahu shrugged. “He’s pretty tough.”

Kopaka glanced at Tahu. “Naturally he and I are left to fight each other,” he thought. “He’s always been so competitive with me. But I welcome the chance to take him on.” The Toa of Ice considered the nature of their powers. “He controls the release of chaos, and I impose structure on things. He will always have a slight edge, because it’s easier to destroy order than to create it. But he is always in danger of being overcome by his own desire for chaos. I, on the other hand, can maintain an advantage by staying cool.”

Turning to the red Toa, Kopaka remarked, “That leaves only you and I, Tahu Nuva.”

“No. That leaves only me,” taunted Tahu. He raised his double sword and sent a ring of fierce flames to surround his challenger.

“A fire cage?” laughed Kopaka. “How amusing. That’s enough to imprison a mindless Rahi, perhaps… but not Kopaka Nuva.” The Toa of Ice countered by forming a sphere of ice around himself, which exploded into chunks that flew in all directions. He rested his gaze on Gali for a second, then turned back to the Toa of Fire. “You always were a little too confident, Tahu.”

Through his Akaku, Kopaka watched Tahu’s temperature rise. “I’ve definitely hit a nerve,” thought the white Toa. “Now, will he focus his rage, or will he just explode?” He braced himself for Tahu’s reaction.

Tahu clenched his jaw, the tension evident in his voice. He leaned toward Kopaka until their masks were almost touching. “Beware, brother. When I turn up the heat, even the Toa of Ice will melt.”

Kopaka suddenly felt himself being pushed backwards. “Enough!” said Gali sharply, stepping between Tahu and Kopaka. “We have learned what we set out to learn. As Toa Nuva, we have greater power—and greater control over that power—than ever before! It is a shame we cannot control our tempers as well.”

Kopaka’s steely gaze was still locked onto Tahu’s fiery eyes. But the Toa of Ice lowered his blades and stepped back. The Toa of Fire looked at Gali, who was frowning at him. With a low growl he extinguished his magma swords.

The other Toa were uneasy. They grasped at explanations for their friends’ lack of restraint. “Perhaps we are all on edge, Gali,” ventured Pohatu. “The struggle with Cahdok and Gahdok… our transformation into the Toa Nuva…”

“Not to mention making sure the Bohrok swarms and Bohrok Va got put to work repairing the damage they did!” added Lewa.

Pohatu continued. “Maybe Tahu and Kopaka did get a little carried away, but--”

“No, Gali is right,” interrupted Tahu. “Maybe it would be best for us to go our separate ways. Our villages need us—more than we need each other.”

Kopaka nodded, glad for an excuse to leave. “I agree. This alliance is no longer necessary.”

“The Turaga have said all along that we are six who share one destiny,” objected Gali. “Is this how we honor their wisdom? By splitting apart?”

Lewa leaped over a tree trunk. “Maybe the Turaga don’t know everything, Gali. If you want me, I’ll be helping to rebuild Le-Koro.”

The group was breaking up, and each Toa was heading for his village. Gali stood in the clearing and raised her hands in despair. “This is a mistake… I can feel it. Please—what if we are needed once more?” She dropped her arms and stared blankly at the forest floor.

“Gali looks so sad,” thought Kopaka regretfully. “But if I’m around Tahu another minute, things are going to get ugly. I’m getting out of here.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kopaka saw Tahu walk over to the Toa of Water, who was standing with slumped shoulders. “Gali,” he said softly. “May I speak to you for a moment?”

She looked up at the sound of his voice. “Of course, Tahu.”

He gestured toward a path through the trees. “Let’s walk together.”

Kopaka dropped his shield as he watched them disappear into the woods. “But she... but he’s the one who lost control... I don’t understand,” he lamented. “Can she really be attracted to him?” He recalled the gentle expression on her face as she turned it up toward Tahu. “I guess she is.” He bent dejectedly to pick up his shield. “And I have no reason to stop them, besides my own jealousy. Mata Nui is at peace. I don’t even have any unfulfilled visions of future enemies left.”

The Toa of Ice trudged slowly home. He tried to cheer himself with thoughts of the Toa’s victory over the Bahrag and the prospect of lasting peace for the island. But two things were still bothering him. One was what Nuju had said about Makuta unleashing the Bohrok swarms. “Perhaps Makuta was just getting revenge. But maybe he is expecting to return,” he worried. “If he does, he will catch us divided and unprepared. And it’s my fault, for provoking Tahu with that senseless contest.”

The second thing was Gali. She was beautiful, strong, wise, and comforting--and she was gone. After he had agonized for so long over whether to express his feelings for her, she had left with his rival. She probably never even realized that Kopaka loved her.

But as Kopaka climbed the foothills of the stately Mount Ihu, his spirits lifted considerably. “It’s good to be home,” he smiled, breathing deeply of the cool air. When he reached the staircase that wound around the side of the mountain, he used his amazing new powers to reconstruct the damaged steps ahead of him. “We are going to be able to rebuild things even better than before.” He imagined a new, redesigned Sanctum, built around the old one and its sacred texts, with majestic arches and light streaming in from clear panels all around. He looked forward to working with Kopeke for a while, and forgetting about the other Toa.

The Toa of Ice arrived in Ko-Koro just as Nuju was placing a strange stone plaque onto Kopaka’s Suva. Matoro spoke for the Turaga. “Turaga Nuju asks if you are pleased with this tribute to your might.”

Kopaka looked at the piece of stone, which was engraved with a symbol that looked like the side of a mountain. He glanced at the Gahlok Va that were scurrying about, carrying pieces of rock away from a broken statue. “I am pleased that my people are safe,” he replied. “As for this, it is only a symbol. It has no power, Matoro.”

“I will guard it just the same, and it will be here when you return,” promised the Ko-Koronan. He took his position next to the Suva, pickaxe over his shoulder.

Kopaka smiled at the superstitious villager and followed Nuju into the empty Sanctum. He tried to change to his Rau and was relieved to find he still had the powers of the Noble Mask. “Nuju, the Toa have split up. I know it’s sensible for us to be helping to rebuild the villages, but I have an uneasy feeling that there could be a new enemy, or perhaps an old one that returns.”

“Well, it’s certainly possible,” said Nuju vaguely.

“And our masks work differently now. Each of us has only his original Kanohi, but the powers extend to those around him. So it might make more sense than ever for us to work together.”

“Then why don’t you?” asked the Turaga.

“Because we’ve grown really tired of each other,” sighed Kopaka. “I picked a fight with Tahu, and we concluded it would be best to take a break from each other.”

Nuju smiled. “A short break may not be a bad idea.” He watched Kopaka pace around the inside of the Sanctum. “Something else is on your mind.”

Kopaka stopped and looked at the village elder. “The island of Mata Nui is finally at peace. But as long as the spirit it is named for still sleeps, we Toa must still share a common destiny to defend it.”

“And?”

“And there is no more balance between us, now that Gali has gone with Tahu.”

Nuju looked surprised. “I doubt that very much.”

“But the way she looked at him...”

“Gali’s heart is a mystery that only she can fathom,” remarked Nuju. “But the prophecies are clear on her actions. She will remain alone for a long time.” He watched Kopaka’s expression turn from anxiety to relief. “If you’ve been concerned about this, why didn’t you ask before?”

Kopaka shrugged. “I didn’t realize the prophecies covered things that were so... trivial,” he replied.

“There’s nothing trivial about love,” smiled the Turaga. “It’s all over the Wall. Love puts the other person first, and then everything else becomes trivial.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Kopaka admitted. “Love motivates us to gather in unity, and to do our duty. And love is what drove the Great Spirit to design for us a destiny that raises us above the mere physical concerns of the animals.”

“Well spoken, Kopaka. And, knowing the prophecy, you can love Gali without worry.”

Kopaka thought for a moment in silence. Putting Gali first would make feelings of pride and jealousy powerless over him. “Thank you, Nuju.”

Kopaka left the Sanctum and headed for Ga-Koro. “I hope Nuju’s right. But I want to see for myself.” Without a Kakama, he knew the journey would be quite long, so he settled into the rhythm of a steady stride. As he came through an icy mountain pass, the jungles of southern Mata Nui came into view. He saw the devastation of the Bohrok everywhere, from splintered trees to huge patches of burned forest. Yet there were also plentiful signs of life, now that the reign of fear was broken. Teams of Bohrok and Matorans toiled in the distance to clear away the debris. Kopaka continued down the foothills, from which he could see the shattered cliffs of Po-Wahi. But there, too, the crews were hard at work, restoring paths and stacking the stone into piles. Finally, he reached the Hura-Mafa valley. Huge holes had been excavated in the center of the river, leaving it muddy and turbid. The water was already cleaning itself, however, carrying the sediment downstream so that fish and amphibians would soon be thriving again. Kopaka smiled as he walked. “Mata Nui is healing itself,” he mused. “And we inhabitants are the catalyst. Every foe we have faced has failed to bring us down, because we are patient and resilient.”

The Toa of Ice climbed up the inland side of the great cliff overlooking Ga-Wahi. Peering through the stone with his powerful new mask, he saw that scaffolding had already been erected for the Matorans, and perhaps the Pahrak, to begin repairing the great Kaukau statue above the waterfall. “Perhaps they’ll use this opportunity to change it into a Kaukau Nuva,” he thought. As he reached the top, he felt the dizzying sensation of an impending vision. He sat down on a rock.


As Kopaka decided to test his ice powers to see if they had also been transformed, he watched the weapon glow light blue and shoot a potent blast of cold energy upward and downward at the same time, forming a thick column of pure, solid ice from floor to ceiling. He pulled his blades free of the column and stared at them in awe. His vision faded to black.

Kopaka suddenly felt himself falling. He pointed his swords below him to make an ice slide, anticipating the surge of cold energy that would flow through his body, out his arm, and through his weapon. But instead, there was nothing, just the feeling of the air moving rapidly past him.


Kopaka gasped. “I will lose my ice powers.” He sat with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, his mind reeling. He couldn’t imagine life without his elemental connection to the cold. “I hope I’m not too far above the ground when that happens... Am I going to die?” Oblivious to the celebration that was going on in the village below, Kopaka contemplated his vision. “I should avoid being anywhere very high,” he resolved to himself. “Maybe then the loss of my powers will not be deadly, and I can go after the enemy who took them.”

Kopaka stood up. “So, if Nuju was right about Gali, she’ll be coming home soon.” He scanned the vast expanse of sea that was visible from the perch on the rock, but he didn’t see her. Then he looked down on the village and noticed the party. The beach was lit up by torches on poles stuck in the sand. Lightstones glowed softly in the twilight, illuminating the garlands of orange flowers strung between the floating huts. Several Ga-Koronans were making sweet music with flutes, xylophones, and drums. A choir of blue Matoran sang, swaying to the rhythm. A playful game was going on in the shallow water, with the girls trying to push each other off the Ta-Koronans’ shoulders with much splashing and squealing. Desert villagers were roasting nuts over a bonfire on the beach and dancing with their hostesses. Another group, including Turaga Nokama, was fishing and chatting. The fiery red sun was sinking in the eastern sky, casting soft gold light on the celebration. Streaks of purple and orange clouds formed graceful patterns just above the horizon.

Kopaka’s gaze lingered for a moment on Takua, who was carrying a Ga-Koronan on his shoulders in the water games. Kopaka felt an unspoken kinship with the multicolored loner who had crisscrossed the island, saving the people who had spurned him. The lesson about unity he had taught his fellow Matorans would persist even longer than the memory of his brave deeds. Kopaka watched him laughing with his friends, glad that this little wanderer had found companionship at last.

Returning his eyes to the sea, Kopaka spotted the Toa of Water, far from shore. He was astonished at the speed with which she sliced through the water, wearing her new aqua axes on her feet. In a few minutes she reached the village and surfaced next to Nokama’s lily pad. Kopaka carefully studied her face. She looked tired but relaxed, apparently from a long swim. Avoiding the celebration, she slipped unnoticed into the large hut. Kopaka watched her stretch out on the floor of the empty dwelling and close her eyes.

Soon Nokama rose from the fishing group and went into her hut. She began to converse with Gali. Then she came back out with a fishing net and returned to her villagers. Laughter rang out as one pulled a flopping fish out of the water and tossed it into another’s lap.

Stooping to clear the low doorway, Gali stepped out of the hut and slid into the water next to the lily pad. She rested her elbows on it and quietly watched the party. A serene smile began to spread across her face as her eyes moved from one villager to the next. Then she looked up and saw Kopaka on the cliff. Her smile widened and her gold eyes seemed to glow more brightly as they connected with his.

Kopaka raised his swords in a salute, then turned and walked behind the rocks. “She's a warrior, and so am I. And her smile lights up my world. That’s enough for me.”

As he stepped down the far side of the hill, Kopaka could hear a Ga-Koronan call out, “Gali’s here!” He grinned as he listened to the splashing and giggling. The noises told him that Gali had joined the water play.

After a long walk, Kopaka was back in Ko-Wahi again. The full moon illuminated the snow, giving it a surreal blue glow. He found that his transformed mask offered a measure of night vision now, without even switching to his Ruru. His mind, freed from worry about Gali, turned back to the vision of losing his powers. “I don’t know how I’ll live like that,” he groaned to himself as he skated up and down the icy hills. “My whole life has been about learning to use this gift to help others.” With his Akaku Nuva, he suddenly realized that an area he had assumed to be a field was actually a frozen lake. He waved his blades, causing the snow to slide to the side, revealing a perfect place to practice with his new skates. Kopaka raced around and around the field to see how fast he could go. He built ramps and tried jumps and flips.

Then he decided to test how well he could build with his enhanced powers. He stood at the edge of a cliff and shot a blast of cold energy, forming a span across the chasm. He was amazed at how quickly the ice crystallized out of the air. Then he touched the bridge with his blade and watched it crash to the bottom of the canyon.

“But if it’s my destiny to fall, it’ll find a way of happening,” thought Kopaka. “Even if I try to prevent it, I think the visions will come true, anyway. I should use whatever I learn from them, and just proceed with my best effort.” Kopaka remembered how the Onu-Koronan device had happened to be in Ko-Koro, and he had happened to examine it, and then, when Gali was injured, he had thought of it. He recalled his discovery of a Kaukau right after he had let Lewa have the first one. And he recollected how the Exo-Toa suits were waiting for them on the way to the Bahrag. “Besides, there seems to be a plan. Someone is looking out for us. Despite what we’ve faced, we’ve always been given the solution somehow.”

The Toa of Ice shot another blast of ice into the air and made a second bridge, this time more slowly and precisely. He added a railing and some curved shapes to the side of the structure. Taking a deep breath, he skated across to the other side. Again, he sent the bridge cascading down into the shadows.

“Of course, that’s no reason to be reckless. But it’s also no reason to live in fear.”

Kopaka climbed high up the snowy hill and turned around. He aimed his blade at the same time he pushed off with his skates. Flying through the air with blue energy surging out of his sword, he raced his own ice powers. Ahead of him, a new bridge was forming across the ravine as he sailed toward it. He left the edge of the cliff and rode over the rough structure of the newly hardened ice. As he approached the other side, the span arrived at the far side just in time, and Kopaka skated off the bridge to the safety of solid ground.

Kopaka stumbled and pitched forward onto his face in the snow. “I suppose I am rather tired,” he mumbled. “Maybe I should sit for a while.” He dug a cave in the ice to conceal himself and crawled inside. “But what if a new enemy comes to steal my ice powers while I’m resting? I’d better not let myself fall asleep.”


Kopaka was standing in a shaft of light in the midst of darkness. He could clearly see himself and a small spot on the stone floor, but everything around him was completely black. The light was shining down from a brilliant source above him. He was frustrated to find that he could discern nothing about this source with his Akaku.

“Well done, my faithful servant,” said a calm voice.

Kopaka recognized the voice from his dream in the canister. “You… you’re that voice!” he stammered. “I… I didn’t do anything special. I just tried to do my job.”

“Exactly.”

“But I made a lot of mistakes,” protested the Toa of Ice.

“And you will make more,” replied the voice. “You have served me for forty moons, with courage and devotion. You have survived many trials.”

Kopaka’s mind raced. The hardships he had endured since his arrival on Mata Nui began to flash before his eyes. But the voice would not let him dwell on these things.

“Rest now, Kopaka, Toa of Ice. You will soon be needed again.”

Kopaka closed his eyes.


Kopaka opened his eyes. He had fallen asleep in the snow cave, and now it was mid-morning. The sky outside seemed a particularly brillant shade of blue, and the snow sparkled as if diamonds had been scattered by the handful across its surface. He picked up his swords, shot a burst of ice at the wall, and sighed with relief.

The Toa of Ice ducked out of the entrance and looked around at the starkly beautiful mountains. He drew a deep breath of the thin, pure air. Raising his double blade, Kopaka saluted the sky. “I’m ready when you are,” he grinned.



THE END



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This post has been edited by GaliGee: Oct 24 2003, 09:57 AM