So, it's done and up. Go and read it before you read on; I'll wait.

So! A character piece. Huh. Quite different from the last two things I've written. Anyways, I've always liked Onua as a character, even though he had one of the more neutral personalities of the original six. If I'm not mistaken in the early early materials he was supposed to have been the eldest of the group, and even though that idea was of course dropped he still feels that way in my mind. I particularly enjoyed finding out that he was the one to pull the trigger on the Bohrok destroying the island in the end; it fit with my image of him being the nice guy who has enough of a handle on things to realize occasionally you do have to make tough choices. He also seems the kind to be likely to help people help themselves - he certainly did for Lewa.

It was natural, then, that I try and see how he'd get along with one of the more impulsive, reckless Glatorian. I've always liked Kiina's character; she reminds me a little bit of a Doctor Who companion, itching to get out and see the universe even if she knows she's got duties she can't leave. (I'm apparently not alone on this; a friend once wrote part of a fic where the Eleventh Doctor had a run-in with her. Quite good, really; it actually helped plant the idea for this fic. Then he never finished it, the scoundrel. I think he just likes to watch me squirm.) When I did finally get around to reading what 2009-2010 media could be acquired online, I was also struck by how much she cared for Mata Nui, and particularly her statement near the end of Journey's End that it was "too soon". So I decided to write a bit of character piece about that - because I'm not sure I'd buy her taking Mata Nui's big dramatic "I must go now" particularly well. After all, she seemed pretty impressed with what he could do, but I can't imagine she was a big believer in the 'destiny' thing.

Which brings me to the undercurrent of the story I found myself writing quite by accident. Raise your hand if you were at all reminded by the fic of the reaction to Bionicle's end and future, because I was about as subtle as a brick with it (though I am the guy who wrote the thing, so maybe I'm not qualified to say that). When I started writing this thing I hadn't meant to put that sort of idea in there; it was just that as I planned it I realized that if I did think Kiina was ticked off over things ending like this, there were a few parallels to some reactions to the line's end. Hence things wound up getting a little bit meta during her chat at the end; in particular, I feel like the bit about her being there if he ever comes back but it not being the same probably dovetails with quite a few people's thoughts of Bionicle - even if it does come back, it may very well be different, and even if it isn't, one may not feel the same connection to it that one once did. Probably not, really.

Anyways, I'm getting too long-winded here. Just wanted to write out some thoughts on the piece without clogging up the topic. One last thing: I also wrote this as a prelude to a possible future fic in which Onua and Kiina would be primary characters. Whether or not that ever gets written is very much up in the air, because it would be quite a bit more ambitious than anything I've written thus far.

Okay, one last one last thing. I came really close to calling the story "The Girl Who Waited". I wasn't kidding about the Doctor Who thing.