The Mad Great Being

(Here I, the Mad Great Being, present my original entry in the Toa Varian naming contest, recently woven into the body of the epic The Great Being Civil War.)http://www.bzpower.c...eing-civil-war/ "Sleep spares him pain." the dark voice murmered. "Awake, he suffers." The throne deep in the center of the Dark Hunter fortress of Odina was black and aged, and the stone of the carved arms was deeply grooved in places, usually right beneath the clawlike metallic fingers of the being who sat thereon for most of his time. He was armoured in deep grey, although his body was black, and there were faint bands of yellow gleaming along his mighty legs. His biomechanical body was incredibly aged, far more so than it ought to be, but still powerful, and shadows seemed to gather and flow around him, for he was the Shadowed One, commander of the Hunters. His eyes turned once again to the green tube of gleaming fluid in the corner of the throne room, where dark amid the sad glow a Toa hung in stasis, his seven-foot slender form standing drooping and still in the tube, as he had been for the last few thousand years. "Yes," the Shadowed One said again, speaking to himself, for he many times failed to remember the hidden guardian that lurked in the darkness far above him, "he suffers. And yet if only we could find a way to unlock his mind...!" Above, the flexible guardian sat in silence, as if he had been turned himself into a statue, the dust lying thick upon his biomechanical limbs. He watched the Shadowed One, as he ever did; the events transpiring around the leader, and the things the leader muttered to himself, meaning little to him. All he looked for was a single mistake. A single sign of weakness, or compassion. Then Darkness would strike, and destroy the Shadowed One himself for all his power, and take the throne for himself. What he would do with it never entered his mind to consider. "He has slept for so long," the Shadowed One mused, "and still his mind has not calmed enough for his memories to reveal what we seek in them." Reaching into a cavity concealed by a secret spring, the Shadowed One took from his throne a strange device, shaped like a pair of joined spheres with a hollow in the center, and gazed at it for a moment. In it were stored the few memories they had extracted from the suspended Toa....Varian, that was his name, he remembered....and if held to his brow, the device would enable him to watch the memories as if he was living them. It was useful, but there was a side effect: there was always the danger of mistaking the reality it conveyed for the reality in which one truly stood, and of losing one's very identity even after the recording ended. But that only happened to beings of feeble will, like Toa and Matoran and such like, and he was not as they. With a sigh the Shadowed One, for the millionth time in the last few thousand years, placed the device to his head, hoping against hope to find some tone, some shade, something he had overlooked that would reveal what he sought. The throne room abruptly vanished from his sight. In it's place was a tropical island, with arching palms and brilliant blue water and an all-pervading light---this dome apparently not having a sun. It was hot despite this. The Toa looked around at the island. He had had a rough night, being evicted from his chosen place by some ugly Rahi with a temper problem and having to sleep in a more exposed place, and was feeling grumpy. Bad enough he had been stuck here for the past few weeks without any hope of escape. With a sigh he took off one piece of his armour and summoned his elemental power. The metal altered its shape and became flat and polished until it reflected his figure. Tall and slender with rusty orange and metallic grey armor, there was no mask on his biomechanical face with the triangular, carven features. Carefully he examined himself all over for ticks, sand fleas, and whatever other horrible insect life the Makuta had gone and bred for these places. Personally he suspected they were later creations of those makers of animals, bred after the Makuta had opened themselves to Shadow and become utterly evil. No other reason would explain the sheer nastiness and lack of purpose some of the insects betrayed. But he was clean, and with a grunt of relief the Toa restored his armour and fitted it back on. Being a Toa of Iron was very difficult in these days, ever since the Makuta evolved to pure energy inside walking suits of armor. They had proceeded to destroy anyone who could manipulate metal, on the mere possibility these could damage their precious armour and let their essence leak out. As a result there might not be any other Toa of Iron alive in the entire Matoran universe. And making a living by skulking from place to place of the Southern Islands, the most remote and dangerous part of the world, was not conductive to good health. I might as well face it, Varian said to himself. The only way off of here may be to levitate myself on my own armour. And goodness knows how far it is to a place I can get a boat made. He ran his hands over his maskless face and groaned. Since losing it he had been operating at half-strength and doubted he had the required endurance to levitate anywhere. To keep his body energy from draining all biomechanical beings must wear masks, save for exceptions like the Skakdi barbarians. His had been smashed in the shipwreck. That morning he climbed for the last time to the mountain that rose in the center. Like every mountain down this way it was unstable, prone to sudden shiftings and even earthquakes as if trying to turn into something else. He had seen rocks abruptly shift and flow into trees farther down the beach, and some trees, wither up into stones. The protodermis that made up the substance of all existing things did not seem to be capable here of retaining its form for very long. Today he was going to try something else. Varian sent his power into the earth. His elemental energy coursed through the island, searching for any metal it could handle. Varian knew he could only do this for exactly five minutes before collapse, and just before he was ready to give up he felt something, something buried, not far off. He released his power and slumped down in a heap. When his strength returned after a while, Varian got up and staggered over to where the object was buried. It wasn't too far, fortunately, but the ground was broken and obstructed with vines that writhed very slowly in coils. If you paused too long among them they would coil around you and then drain your matter into themselves, leaving only husks of whatever metal they could not absorb. And here under several feet of earth, Varian felt the object again. He rested a moment, even as vines began to move toward him, and then called to the object. It burst out of the earth and lay at his feet. It was better than he had hoped. It was a Kanohi Mask, a Great Mask of Power what was more, although the shape was unfamiliar. He put it on and it became a sort of rusty purple like metal that has been in a fire. Frowning he accessed its' power, and gasped when he realized what it was: a Great Mask of Conjuring. "Some poor fool came here wearing this, and yet it was not enough to save him." sighed Varian, looking at the horrible vines. They were beginning to lick at his feet. "He must have gone to sleep here in the darkness, and when he awoke, he was in the land of the dead." He kicked away the vines and thought for a minute. The wearer of this mask, if he remembered right, could conjure any power into the mask, but it had to be pronounced correctly and a limit specified, and syntax errors could result in brain damage. "I conjure the power of Vision." he said clearly. Then remembering the second condition, he added hastily, "for the duration of ten minutes." He felt the mask shift and change upon his face, and then without warning he was seized and transported from the world of sight. Green. Everything around him was a vivid, utter green. A green so bright and beautiful as to cast into insignificance every shade of forest leaf he had ever seen. Gradually he became aware of forms in the green, of shapes moving, and then suddenly reality crystallized around him and he pushed aside the huge leaves of the tree he was standing in. All around him strange froglike Rahi sprang from branch to branch, chittering eerily to each other. And facing him was a figure that seemed formed of the very earth itself. “Who controls the Three Virtues, Toa?” said the being of earth. His body was black and loamy in texture, and his voice was so deep it was just barely audible. “Mata Nui, I suppose.” said Varian. “Not completely.” said the being of earth. “You knew once, did you not? Yet you have ceased to look.” “I knew, yes.” Varian replied. “That was why my Turaga, dying of the injuries a Makuta inflicted on him during my absence, gave to me the symbol of our Iron people. There was a scroll of some barklike substance we had discovered, and the things it said there…. although we destroyed it, we did not forget.” “That may be unfortunate.” said the earthen creature. “For you still have the symbol, and the knowledge of the scroll. Others are seeking that knowledge.” “Others? The Makuta, you mean? But they have been hunting me already….they would only want my death.” “I refer to the hunters of darkness.” the being said. “Now listen. The Virtues were created by them who knew not what they were in full, and wielded by one who knew even less. The secret to their creation is in your possession, though you know it not. There is one who knows, but to look on him is death. Enough. I cannot remain. Resume your quest.” The world swam and blurred before Varian’s eyes, and when he could see again, he stood upon the island where he had found the mask. “I must get away from here.” he murmered. Carefully he conjured up the power of teleportation “until I am away from this island” and disappeared. The island he found himself on was a strange place. It was cool. It was like none that he had ever seen, save perhaps for the cold section of Metru Nui: the air was dry and clear, but crisp and cool, and the plants around him were unlike any other plants he had seen. There were towering trees with a roughly pyramidal shape, but their twigs instead of leaves were clothed in dark green needles and they were majestic beyond compare. There were tall slender trees with rough grey bark and hand-shaped leaves, odd burls bulging from their boles where long-dead limbs had been. Other trees there were, huge of girth but their lines of trunk and branch graceful as flowing water, their dark grey bark scored with deep vertical grooves, their leaves like sharp fingers. The names pine, maple, oak were unknown to him, and so he merely looked the strange trees over and headed inland to explore. Perhaps this place at last would provide a haven for him. The trees had shadows here, for this dome, small though it was, had a sun. One of these shadows stretched across his path like a gaping trench, it was so dark. Varian was in the act of walking through it when a being rose up out of the tree-shadow as if it was a cellar door. He was difficult to see, for the instant he emerged the nearby shadows all bent toward him, until he was concealed in a mantle of flickering grey and black and blended perfectly with the dappled leaf-shadow. “Varian,” a voice came out of the shadows. It was an incredibly ancient voice, soft and yet filled with darkness. The Toa shuddered when he heard it. “We have been looking for you.” “Of course you have.” Varian answered, wondering if he would have time to conjure any new powers. “But you may find it hard to take what you have found.” The voice from the shadows laughed, softly but without mirth. “We do not seek your life, Varian.” His voice sounded from another direction, and Varian whirled around. “What is the reason we toil all day, at tasks meaningless as well as tasks meaningful? What is the power that merges the unmerged? What is the cause of the events that form around us, and what is the fate or the purpose of any being? What chooses and directs us? Do you know the answers?” “If I did, why would I tell?” The voice sounded now from right behind him. “Virtue, brave Toa. Virtue is in us all; and if virtue can be used, it would mean death, and life, and many things in between. What then would you give to manipulate Virtue?” “Nothing.” “Nothing?” the voice said mockingly. “Oh, come, Varian. You have been fleeing for hundreds of years. With the knowledge you have you could purchase security.” “Who are you?” said Varian. “You’re not Brotherhood. Who do you work for?” “And if I choose not to answer?” the voice breathed. Varian put out his elemental power in a flash. Before the being could move again, his metal parts were seized by the Toa’s power and held immobile. For a moment Varian saw a bizarre creature, white-armoured, with two long hornlike projections rising high above his head, and then the shadows flowed in around him again and he was hidden. The face Varian had seen was ancient beyond compare, wise, filled with a strange sorrow. “Use a single power and I will unmake your metal parts, and leave your organic tissue to flop about and expire like a fish. You’re not a Makuta. Who are you?” “So, you would kill me, would you? A clever bluff, but I call it. Toa do not kill.” “This one does.” said Varian grimly. “I have been hunted too long. Now I would have some answers. Who are you? Who sent you?” “I am doing the talking, Toa.” said the other. Varian found his power suddenly slipping aside, and the white being had stepped into a nearby shadow and was engulfed as if the shadow was a doorway. The voice sounded again from behind him. “I am Shadow Stealer. I work for them whom I hate. They want you, as they wanted me. You do not say no to the Dark Hunters.” “You might not, but I do.” said the Toa. “I conjure the power of teleport!” The shadows burst apart. Shadow Stealer lunged, but even as he did so, he was flung aside by a violent warp in the very fabric of the matter in front of him. Space itself was distorting before Varian. The next second the Toa had stepped into the distortion and was gone. ------------------------------------- Varian had not at all expected this. When he had conjured the power he had expected to control it. Instead of the vertigo of dissolution, he had found himself spinning down some kind of tunnel, with walls of curving bands of elastic light, flickering and bending. What had he done? He tried to conjure some other power, but he was revolving at such a crazy pace the words were ripped away from him. Evidently he had to arrive at his destination before the mask would switch powers. The walls of space around him suddenly constricted and he stopped spinning, and their hue changed from a pale red-blue to an incredible violet banded with white. Out he shot from a hole that split suddenly at his side, and he came to a standstill. When the world stopped settling, he realized he was standing on the floor of a fern forest. Giant trees rose overhead, but their leaves were fronds, and immense stump-like cycads rose to a height of a bio or two, with huge ancient fronds branching from the top. An undergrowth of more ordinary ostrich ferns glowed a bright yellow-green, and the canopy around was a deeper and more vivid green still. Moss like emerald carpeting clothed the soil. “A lovely place, but it would help if I knew where it was.” he said aloud. There was a tingle and swirl in the air. Before Varian could register what it meant, an armored titan appeared out of thin air in front of him. Tall, black, entirely mechanical without an ounce of flesh, red eyes glowing through a nasty-looking mask, he knew it instantly: a member of the incredibly powerful Makuta species, who had found him at last. Both beings acted at the same instant. The Makuta hurled his Disintegration power at Varian, even as Varian hurled himself to one side. A fern tree’s trunk behind him with a whisper collapsed into dust, the tree falling with a great crash. Even as he tumbled he spoke under his breath “I conjure Adaptibility!” and the mask upon his face changed again. The Makuta arrested his progress with Magnetism, catching Varian by his metal parts. Again he hit the helpless Toa with a wave of power—Fragmentation power, Varian saw in the instant before it hit him, as several fronds caught in its path exploded violently. The Toa felt his body shatter. And then, as his body adapted to the attack, he re-formed again and stood whole. “Oh, this is going to be interesting.” said the Makuta in his rough voice. Power after power flew from him into Varian, and power after power was nullified as Varian’s body adapted to it. Now it was his turn to act, Varian realized as lightning coursed through him without harm, before his enemy figured out an attack that would work. Plasma was engulfing his suddenly heatproof body as Varian put out his elemental power over metal against the armored form of the Makuta---his best weapon, and the reason why these beings had exterminated most Toa of Iron in the universe. The Makuta felt his mechanical body, which his energy substance controlled, freeze immobile. Alarm flashed in the red eyes. Quick as lightning he ceased the physical assaults and put out his mental power, sending pulses of Confusion and Fear, Anger, Silence and Slowness into his adversary’s mind. But it was already too late. The protosteel armor, despite the Makuta invoking his limited Invulnerability power, had answered the Toa’s command and was disintegrating, its metal unmaking as its atoms lost cohesion; until in horror the Makuta saw his own arms and legs dissolve and the green-black energy that was his essence leak out into the air. In his dismay he let go of Varian’s mind and the Toa, who had fallen to his knees under the mental assaults, slowly got again to his feet. “Yes.” he said. “I am Fe. I am a Toa of Iron. You were justified in deeming me a threat, Makuta. Now it is over, and I have won.” He adjusted the mask upon his face. “I conjure the power of Psionics!” The thought of the Makuta roared against his mind, pleading, offering him amnesty, power, and at the last threatening. But Varian had installed a mental shield in his own mind and although he could dimly hear the words, he was not harmed. “You are Makuta.” Varian spat. “Why should I obey the Code and let you live, when you my superiors in the order of the Universe ignore it with such felicity? The Hagah may manage to suppress their consciences and serve you, Toa though they are, but I am Iron, and I am likely the last Iron left.” His eyes blazed behind his mask. “I conjure the elemental power of Plasma!” Torrents of illusions and emotions beat against the mental block of Varian, eroding it. Keeping his bearings with a great effort, Varian unleashed through his hands a torrent of white-hot plasma, the gaseous form of metal. It engulfed the swirling cloud of gaseous energy that was trying to creep, wisp by wisp, off into safety. The energy of Makuta cannot endure either extreme heats or protracted abysmal cold. The plasma burnt it all away. Varian let his mask relapse and sagged to the ground. Was it over? Would it ever be over? If this Makuta had sent any telepathic messages to Destral, this whole dome would be swarming with Makuta. I wonder, thought Varian, if I can conjure a power that makes me invisible both to sight and telepathy. He picked a fruit that he recognized as edible and closed his hand around it, draining the energy it contained until only a withered husk was left. Biomechanical beings do not chew or digest food. Sleep. That was what he needed right now. Sleep, and then maybe he could figure out just what that stupid little rock with the Iron symbol engraved on it did, and whether it really had any uses beyond being an ancient tribal heirloom. Maybe he could conjure some wacky Knowledge power. The ferns began to rustle and a wind roared through the forest, tossing the fronds and changing their hue to several different shades of silvery gold. When the wind failed there was a difference in the air before him; it was difficult to know just what it was, for its outline and even substance seemed to waver and swirl like the air on a hot day. And when Varian probed with his power, to his amazement he felt no metal. “What are you?” he said. A whispery voice answered him, seeming to repeat itself several times like echoes, and it was hard to tell from whence it came. “Why do you ask what I am, any more than you ask the air you breathe of its’ origins?” “I said, what are you?” Varian repeated. “And where am I?” “I am

APPENDICTA: The Mask of Death The Chair of Vision sat black and twisted in the glen of darkness, as the fireworks of the Great Beings' Pot Shots pulsed and flickered dull and ominous under the horizon far in the east and north. The being sitting upon it was ancient and stooped, wearing the deep hooded mantle of the Great Beings, and the cowl would have hidden his face even if the shadows he was seeing by had not. "Velika is a fool." the Great Being groaned to himself. "He ignores the Ignika, though he knows it can track us, and that it is no passive artifact, but a creature with a mind, and now a body. What if it decides to fight? He sent me to watch it, and I am, but even though I can shred its' mind from here ere it can act upon us, soon I will be needed to do more than watch. I must make a creation that can stand up to that Mask." He rose from the chair, the Mask of Artakha on his face grey and green like the being it emulated. Space opened and warped, and closed behind him in silence. ------------------------------------ The interior of the Palace was dark and silent. The Benevolence forged and labored below, but here there was no one. The Great Being felt carefully abroad with his mind. No, Velika was not in his Suva chamber. Quickly the Mask activated again, depositing him next to the Suva on which Velika stored all his masks. There had been rumor of some ridiculous shrunken version of a Suva that fit in the pocket, how unsafe. But even though the Suva was safer, it was not without risk. The Great Being lifted the Mask of Creation from its' cradle and donned it. Then he headed down to the forges himself, where the other Great Beings each crept secretively about, each working by himself on something he deemed essential to the war effort: and sometimes he would tell Velika, and sometimes not. It was already causing strife in the Benevolence. But the advantage of this was that no one seemed concerned to pry into what others were doing, being too occupied in concealing his own creating. Shadow rushed in from all sides, as the Great Being summoned it with the Shadow Caller he had invented. Not only elemental Shadow he had absorbed at the Chair: but Moral Shadow as well. The chamber grew so black even a Great Being would have needed telepathy to see there, and a horrid chill penetrated the bones of the Great Being feverishly forging there. Protodermis flowed and melded beneath his tools, and queer ingredients drippled in. Slowly a Mask took form and shape, but no ordinary Mask. -------------------------- Atakus stalked through the forest of Bota Magna. South of him by a thousand miles the world was tearing itself apart, as the entire population left on Sphereus Magna gathered to kill each other off. It was his kind of world. The Rock Agori wore black armour and bore a pair of ancient swords, that gleamed with a blue unearthly light. Velika had tipped him off to their location ages ago, when he had been a loyal agent snitching on the Glatorian and Velika was off in space. Atakus did not pay any heed to the glorious orgy of death far away. Hatred consumed him, driven by the thing on his face. When the Benevolent Great Being had summoned him below, quivering both with eagerness and dread, the nasty-tempered Agori had known fear for the first time in many years: but by then it was far too late. The rabid scientist had lunged like lightning, fastening him down, and pulled a fabric interface over his skin, and then lifted a visor like these ridiculous machine-people wore. So horrible an object Atakus had never seen: or more accurately, not seen, as it was so black it was like a void in sight. But all that ceased when the thing was fitted on. It lay, dark and eager, in the forefront of his mind, feeding off his native spite and malice as it fed off his face. It was sentient, though it had no mind, and it desired only one thing. A thing he agreed to, eagerly, and headed off to cause. It wanted Death. There was a crunching of brush, and a tall sturdy Skrall marched out. He wore the green-and-black armour of the extinct warrior class, and attendant on him with fawning fear was a wretched-looking Skrall with a surprisingly gentle face. Atakus came to a stop. "Tuma-fish." his voice, deepened and harshened by the thing that possessed him until it sounded as ghastly as Death, rasped and muttered under the trees. "Deserting the war effort already?" "Ah, that would be Atakus, from the blades." sneered Tuma. "Stand up, Bucket-head, and stop your cringing. It is unbecoming to a Skrall." He sniggered. "Bucket-head?" Atakus repeated, slightly puzzled. "That's my name." snapped the Skrall, glaring at him. He marched over to Atakus, towering two feet above him. "A good and honorable name, bestowed by Ackar himself! So none of your Agori sass." The Agori whose head was distorted by the black shape upon it stared up at him. "There is no death about you yet, named slave. Stand aside, therefore, or there shall be some pulled down premature." "You heard Bucket-head." Tuma was laughing. "I permitted the illegal bestowal of a name, simply because I can't stop laughing every time I hear it. In fact I am out gathering stragglers. You are hardly the only one missing. Now come along quietly, Atakus, or I may suspect something Malevolent about you.....and Malevolence is cause for drastic action." "DIE." said Atakus. Tuma coughed. The towering figure seemed suddenly smaller, weaker, shrunken: age was withering him even as he lifted his hands to look at them. Before he could even draw in breath to scream, Tuma was dead. "What horror is that upon your face?" gasped Bucket-head. "Why should you care, Pailface?" sneered Atakus. "I walked with Mata Nui." snarled Bucket-head. "I was on Ackar's side in the Battle of Bara Magna. And whatever thing it is they did to you, I will undo it!" "DIE." said Atakus. Bucket-head was charging. His steps grew slower and shakier as he charged, as his limbs withered away beneath him, until he crashed dead upon his face before the Mask of Death. Casually Atakus stepped over him and went on. There it was. The opposite of him, the thing created from the breaking world, that hateful thing with an inherent contradiction deep in its' essence, a thing of life that could also kill all life in the Matoran Universe. Watching, watching, Mata Nui's eye, it was only watching, though it was growing so concerned it might well head down south on its' own, orders or no, and if the Mask of Life entered the lists, well, there would be an end to any battle at all, as everyone would get too sick to fight, or lose powers, or be teleported all across the earth, or something equally crazy. Atakus would make sure it did not get there. ----------------------------- The Toa Ignika stood in the glade, and shook with fear. He knew what was approaching. How could he not, when every shadow screamed its' name and every current of Life sickened before it? He could fight such a thing, but it could quench him. Mata Nui was busy far away, and might well die himself, but he, he had to stay, for if he did not face this thing, nothing would survive. "Do not be afraid, little brother." a deep profound voice echoed from the earth he stood on. The Mask of Life turned, with a relief so great tears popped into his gleaming white eyes. The Element Lord of Earth rose out of the earth, and the holes that formed his eyes held a worry and sadness that was not normally there. "I cannot but be afraid, Lord of Earth." the Mask said. "My brother comes, and he is vicious. I cannot stand long against Death himself." "Earth partakes of all things, little friend." said the Lord of Earth. "It is the only element that can resist this horror. Stand firm, little brother, and remember you are not here alone." The Ignika did not answer: for all light was draining from the glade, and from the forest for miles around. What remained was not light at all, but a disease, an unreality, a ghost of light from which anything warm and living had been sucked. Trees groaned and wilted. Birds fell with thumps on all sides. Silence came upon the dying forest, and Atakus walked into the glade. The Agori stood only four foot odd, a head shorter than Ignika, yet the power and horror that radiated from him made him seem like some primeval titan ascended out of the earth. But his body and limbs were almost unnoticeable: what drew eye and mind was the thing upon his face. Like to a Mask it seemed, yet the surface was made of woven down-writhing roots of black metal, or black substance at any rate, forming horrible knots and spikes and tentacle-like projections. The eyeholes were only visible by being slightly less black: voids within a void. Darkness seethed around it, a darkness not only of Moral Shadow but of Death itself. The thing was Death incarnate. "So, there you are, you hateful thing, you weapon of destruction." said the voice of Atakus, changed by the Mask into a voice of nightmare. "I do not know what you mean, monster." said the Ignika. "You do not? You are a thing born of abomination, a hypocrite in your very essence. You rule over Life, yet you cause also Death. How do such as you dare to even walk upon the earth, let alone stand upon two feet and oppose me to my face?" "Because I have a spark from beyond the mere currents of Life." said Ignika. "I have a mind, which you do not. You loathsome scrap of poisoned metal, you are only a parasite upon another mind, and by that alone do you speak." "Liar indeed you are, O Mask of Life. Dost thou not know who and what I am? Thou art an artifact, a Mask created only to sit and be used: and yet you mimic living things, and think you are one yourself. You are a walking contradiction, and you carry part of me within your very bones. Say it! Say my name!" "You have none, monster. The only name you have is that of the one who carries you." A wave of Death roared against the Mask of Life. Like a golden hand the power of Life strained against it, halting the deadly breath. "I am Akinji, the Mask of Death. All that has death is mine to command. All that has life decays into death. Even you yourself will die when the world ends. I am Death. I end all things, in their own destined time. I make all things cease." "Death is a portal for the mind to return to that which sent it forth. From Destiny were our minds woven, and into it they return." "Beyond Death there is Nothing. Do you not know that Destiny is only the weaving of the fabric of Time? I make to cease, and lives go out: I quench, and nothing rises. From me no one has ever returned. I am Nothing, yet I am incarnate. Can you resist me, hypocrite, who are contradicted in your very bosom?" The land all around groaned; light faded with the sun, and Moral Shadow rose, poisoning land and sky. "Velika called me down, by the sins that he has done: he gave occasion for the creation of myself. I am Death. I am Nothing, yet I am made incarnate, and I will make all that is something to cease and to go out. Destiny allowed me here, and therefore Destiny desires your death." "I am no contradiction!" cried Ignika. "I am Life, and I have ever labored for Life! Why do you reproach me with what I did not know?" "You carry in your bosom a command to make extinct. You carry in your color a countdown of destruction. When too much evil fills the world, you go black. See, you are no longer gold, Kanohi Ignika! Silver are you fading. In another hour you will be streaked with black, so much evil will have infected this planet. When you go completely black, then, Ignika, all will die by the Mask of Life. All save my bearer, for I am Death. I do not have to make Death: I only have to cause it. Life itself will do my will." "Then I reject what I am." said Ignika. "If I am truly so evil, may I be destroyed first!" The berserk charge of the Mask of Life was not at all what Akingi had expected. A physical charge he could not stop, for Death was his only province. The ground under Ignika died as he charged forward, but it could not grasp. The trees died overhead, yet Ignika blasted them as they fell. Still the charge of the Mask of Life slowed, as the Mask of Death called upon its' secondary power, and Moral Shadow weakened the will of the Mask of Life. "Stay, little brother." boomed the Lord of Earth. Hands of dead earth seized Ignika and dragged him back to stand beside the earthen titan. "That is not the way to fight him. Use the wisdom you gained from Mata Nui, while I buy you some time." "Who are you?" hissed Akingi. "What monstrosity is this, formed of earth, who cannot die?" "I am Earth. Earth partakes of all things. Earth shares in Death, for the dead are laid down in it and return into it, and I can see the destiny of Death hang above those who will die. And I tell you, abomination, your own death hangs above the Mask of Death." "You are mad. I am Death. How can Death die? The proposition cannot be sustained. Beware, Earth, for though your essence is not here, I can track it by the power you are using." "You are a liar, Akingi. You are not Death. You are only the sickle of Death, reft from him by the sin of the Great Beings and made to walk on its' own. Death is coming for you, and he is not pleased. You have denied the Greater Beings, and the Greater Beings do not like being blasphemed." The Mask of Life acted. Lashing out, he reached into the life force of Atakus, and made the Mask of Death attached to his face, come to life. The Mask of Death writhed in horror. It was now faced with a contradiction in its' very nature, for it, the Mask of Death, was now alive. It fought with itself, screaming silently. At once the fist of the Lord of Earth shot out like a blade, punching with the force of a hundred catapults. Atakus and the Mask upon his face were not only shattered, they were pulverized into splinters. "Earth....please tell me...." faltered Ignika. "What hue am I?" "You are gold." said Earth, stroking the bowed Mask. "When the stolen sickle of Death returned to him, Death in reward for your bravery took back the share in you that the sin of your creators bound into your essence. You can no longer make a world extinct. You are now in truth the Mask of Life." He lifted his head. "But it may be too late. Akingi called down Moral Shadow on the world, and nothing but the Illumination can save Sphereus Magna now." NEW RAHI Zarith: Unknown which dinosaur Velika was referencing; the most likely guess is the cyborg tyrannosaur that battled Tahtorak in BENEVOLENCE. Trivia: The name was borrowed from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar novels, where it means a tyrannosaur. Moss Coon: A raccoon-like creature that plagues the Earth Tribe's henyards. It is a little larger than the raccoon, perhaps three feet long, and is so named from it's habit of encouraging moss to grow in its' fur, giving it a greenish-grey color. Active mostly at night, in day it hides. Stone Ape: This was one of Velika's jokes, as the Stone Ape of Bota Magna is quite different from the Stone Ape of the Matoran Universe. Simian in build but about eight feet high, it has a scaled hard hide the color of stone, and prefers to sleep in holes in rockpiles. They are very suspicious creatures, especially of food offered to them, but cannot resist pilfer- ing an unattended basket. This, in fact, is how they must be fed in captivity. Sand Snapper: A colossal extinct swamp turtle, about fifteen feet long when fully-grown, though this takes a hundred years. Some specimens are suspected to have survived in the quicksands that developed from the ancient marshes west and south of Tesara, which accounts for the frequent vanishing of firm isles there; but Mata Nui's Green Thumb restored the population with juveniles. The general appearance was like our snapping turtle, with a thick body protruding from a shell-sandwich, webbed front feet, and a huge neck with powerful jaws capable of biting apart four-inch steel plates. It was edible, and said to be capable of feeding an army with one adult. Dune Viper: Another of the Great Beings' jokes, this was the viper that the Doom Viper was based off of, hence the assonance of the name. The Dune Viper is a large snake with venom that it spits from the fangs; hence to go within range is death. Dune Constrictor: A non-venomous but dangerous snake of immense size that dwelt in the far west of the Great Barren. It was the same color as earth, dull brown, which stands out against sand: as a result it prefers to bury itself when hunting. But it will also lie asleep on the sand even when hungry, and as the stomach does not distend, it is impossible to tell whether it has fed or not. The total length is thirty feet, but the barrel is two feet thick. Like most constrictors, when it has fed it can be walked past and even stepped on with impunity. It squeezes prey to death. Rahkshi of Light: All Rahkshi made by a Makuta of Light have a different appearance from Rahkshi made by either a Makuta such as Varian, or Makuta of Shadow, which are identical as to repulsiveness. The eyes are round and benign, rather like a chicken or a cat, not half-circles, and the teeth do not protrude downward. They are stooped but not twisted. Though the Seventh Stage, Shadow Kraata, cannot be produced by Makuta of Light, the Makuta of Light can produce a Seventh Stage of their own, the Gleaming Kraata. This highly specialized Kraata has intelligence on par with a Matoran/Toa, but can still only speak in a complicated language of clicks, chirps, purrs and clucks. Only the Three Virtuous Kraata powers can produce this stage, however: Peace, Zeal and Courage. They are imbued with their virtue and can use it against inanimate objects as well as living, as when the Rahkshi of Peace made some darts grow so Peaceful they dropped off it like slugs. The Kraata of this stage retain the gold, rose and white markings of the previous stages of this Kraata power, but glow. The colors and stages of the Kraata powers which Makuta of Light share with those of Shadow are identical, but the Kraata appearance is also dissimilar, as they have a centipede-like appearance with round innocent eyes unlike the loathsome wormlike aspect of the Kraata of Shadow. Telekinesis Kraata: Colors: White with rose mottlings often shaped like hands. Rahkshi: Gold picked with rose, and gold spine Stage 1: Causes objects to veer toward or away from it that are within a foot of it. Stage 2: Can repel objects thrown at it, or pull nearby objects toward it slowly. Stage 3: Grasps any object within a hundred feet, but only as strong as a Toa's pull. Stage 4: Grasps any object within a hundred yards, but only as strong as a Toa. Stage 5: Grasps any object within sight, up to a Makuta's strength. Stage 6: As strong and able to control objects as a Mask of Telekinesis. Peace Kraata: Colors: Pure white Rahkshi: White with rose spine, picked with yellow gold Stage 1: Sheds a feeling of balm and sleepiness into nearby beings. Stage 2: Makes beings nearby feel peaceful, and quarrelling beings abruptly stop. Stage 3: Causes anyone within a hundred feet to actively seek to make peace. Stage 4: Can focus peacefulness into bolts, inducing sluggishness and torpor Stage 5: Can send blankets of peacefulness over a square mile Stage 6: Can make strangling fighters instantly weep and make peace. Gleaming Kraata: Can withdraw Peace from opponents or targets, up to 12 miles, including armies. Zeal Kraata: Colors: Pure lemon-gold, banded rose Rahkshi: Rose, with a dark gold spine Stage 1: Causes feelings of intolerance of injustice in beings touching it. Stage 2: Causes feelings of intolerance of injustice in beings within ten feet Stage 3: Causes severe anger at perceived injustice in beings within ten feet Stage 4: Causes severe anger at evil. Stage 5: Causes targets within a quarter mile to become filled with zeal and anger against evil. Stage 6: Can make anyone within a hundred yards baresark. Gleaming Kraata: Can induce such intensified berserk rage as to keep out Great Being telepathy for I hour: and can also withdraw Zeal, inducing apathy. Courage Kraata: Colors: deep rose Rahkshi: White and rose, gold faceplate, and white spine. Stage 1: Makes anyone touching it suddenly stop being afraid. Stage 2: Can cure a panic attack by eye contact. Stage 3: Causes bravery in anyone within ten feet Stage 4: Can make a timid coward fight like a normal warrior Stage 5: Can cause anyone within a hundred yards to gain heroic courage Stage 6: Can cause anyone within a mile to gain heroic courage. Gleaming Kraata: Can cause entire armies to gain heroic courage: or withdraw Courage to induce Fear. TIMELINE Events following the Fall of Makuta: Mata Nui's Green Thumb and Instant Language Download The Yesterday Quest begins Tren Krom and Karzahni die by Velika Velika blows the Tower The Revelation: the dream everyone had about how the Bionicles gained minds, followed by Velika's arising. The Enlightenment: Velika's Dream is granted, and the Dream Society appears, causing the Memory Gap. The Benevolence: the halcyon four days of ideal conditions, which degenerated into The Malevolence: the increasingly nightmarish condition of Velika's society. This is held to have ended when the Civil War began. The Civil War itself. This is divided into Two Phases Phase One: Raids Pot Shots Battle of the Maze Fall of the Element Lords Raid on Metru Nui Phase Two: Battle Seige of the Red Star Tower Battle of the Skakdi The Great Spirit Sahmad The Battle of Bitter Tears The Illumination

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 12: The Illumination The Skakdi of Light and Shadow climbed up a dark ridge of huge and grim firs with cones like Skakdi heads. Skiff leaned on Irnakk's launcher and gazed over the cliff into the pit that lay below. "Not at all what I was expecting." he muttered. "Something's wrong with the daylight." said Daktann uneasily. This far west, the sun, which had set above the battle, was an hour or two above the horizon: yet the slanting rays cast a horrible light, almost unnatural, dreary and sneering and harsh. "Moral Shadow." replied Skiff. "It's infecting the entire planet. When too much iniquity is committed, it poisons the world. Even in our universe, the Mask of Life began going black to destroy all life, because too much evil was being done." He looked again into the depths. The dale that lay 200 feet below was walled with black cliffs. Shadow was bound into these rocks; whether the Great Beings had blasted them with elemental Shadow, or whether it was here that they borrowed the idea from, not even Dezok could tell. Shadow drifted like ground smoke, grey-black, around the tormented black-leaved dwarf trees and the huge black chair that stood in the center. Wrought of twisted spikes, the Chair of Vision had a horrible appearance. "They saw by shadows." muttered Dezok. "When they sat in that chair, they saw by shadows." "Let's get moving, gents." said Skiff. They descended on ladders of Shadow, no one daring to use Light here before the right moment. Skiff mounted to the throne. The black trees leaned over the edge. No sun could ever reach the shadowed hollow, and even the circle of blue sky looked unreal. Here, daylight was an illusion, and shade and darkness the only reality. Destiny rose in the Skakdi as they stepped forward, till the red light of the Well of Destiny gleamed from eyes and armour. Here, in the darkest place on Sphereus Magna (though the Pits of Despair, by the iniquity of deeds, were more evil), was where they were to bring Light not only to the Great Beings but to the entire darkened world. The launcher of Irnakk and the weapons of the others fell unheeded on the rotting grass. Up the steps of the stone chair imbued with both moral and elemental Shadow mounted the Skakdi of Moral Light and Shadow. Skiff turned and stood upon the chair, the others grouped on the steps: no one was to sit down, for that would be to surrender to the Chair's evil power. Highest stood the Skakdi of Shadow. Destiny was in them, and they knew what to do. The Skakdi of Shadow struck first. Throwing out both hands, they summoned the darkness of Moral Shadow and unleashed it on the already-infected world, that all beings might be filled with horror at what they could do. Blackness raged from the stones and the Chair, and sprang like a fountain to blot out the sky. Across the entire world, the sky and stars dimmed, the sun went dark, and a horrible coldness gripped every heart as they felt with horror their worst urges and evil rise to the surface. Skiff had the most important part of all. Before any being could yield and act upon his horrible urges, in the split instant while the urge holds paralyzed the sinking soul ere it slides into commission, Skiff unleashed the Illumination. Moral and elemental Light erupted from him. Elemental Light erupted in tandem from the Skakdi of Light. The Skakdi of Shadow slumped exhausted to the ground: the deed a race ought to have done, was almost too much for only two. The Shadow was blasted back, fleeing into the ground as the vale filled with a beautiful stark clear whiteness like morning sun on a dry summer day. The sky went blinding white. Across the world the sky went white. From outer space the entire globe would have been seen to glow like a star: and, in fact, when the light of it reached far distant worlds, it would likely look like two suns were together beneath the crescents of frozen Protodermis in space. In that stark light Skiff, and the Skakdi of Light and Shadow, saw themselves starkly exposed, all their faults and virtues, and wept at how evil were their hearts. All across the world the battle slowed and stopped as everyone forgot anyone else existed. Every being saw himself laid bare, saw himself stark and beyond any deception or mistake exactly as they were. They had beheld how evil they could be: now they saw how evil, or not, they really were. Tears of joy and humility poured from the Alternate Teridax, condensed likely from his energy through the eyes of his armour as he had no real body, for he realized he was not merely virtuous, but holy. Tears of horror and remorse and loathing flowed like water from all others. Mata Nui and Krahka themselves wept. The Great Beings crumpled to their knees. Those who were not too far gone in evil saw themselves, and hated it, and rejected their deeds. Those in hardened wrongdoing saw their condition, and could not bear it, and in the pain of their unrepentance, their hearts withered away and they fell dead. Then the Illumination ended, and Skiff and the Skakdi crumpled, weeping, onto a chair of white marble in a dale gleaming with elemental Light. All Shadow had been blasted out of the earth, and the vile plants were dead, and the grass had blushed emerald, and the evil trees had straightened and grown healthy and vivid green. All across the battlefield lay beings stricken dead by the sight of their own hearts. Very few Vorox of Bota Magna still lived, and only a Skrall here or there, and no Vortixx at all. The Vorox of Malum were standing up, stiffly, blinking, their beast-mutations cured. All beings whose madness was from mental defect were sane again, whatever their scars. Only ones like Vezon who had defective brains remained daft. Varian looked around through his tears and saw only a few hundred Skakdi still alive; they drew near, hesitantly, as if so shamed they feared his wrath, yet hungered for his approval. He held out his arms and they gathered around him in silence. Some clapped others on the back; all felt as never before, healed and non-violent, and looked on the rest as brothers. Sahmad sat on a distant peak, metal tears dripping slowly from metal eyes. The Element Lord of Earth stood next to him: and he had no tears. "If you did not die, you are not lost." Earth observed gravely. "I did.....so much evil....." murmered Sahmad. "How can I live with myself?" "Start by continuing in your new path." advised Earth. "Care for your people, and rule justly. The past is done. Destiny waits for us to fulfill its' plans." In the shielded room, the Great Beings looked around at each other, and cringed away, as if each felt himself so vile he deserved only a humiliating death. All of the Malevolence were still alive, though some looked sicker than others. So were three of the Benevolence, though they crouched shuddering over pools of vomit and could not look up. But three Great Beings lay curled up on the floor, faces so distended with torture they had ruptured their skin. Thus Teridax found them, when he and a now sane Neimidian (who still insisted on being called the Mad Great Being) descended to seek them out. "Well, Great Beings?" he said. "What have you to say?" "Only this." quavered Gerendonce. "In the name of the Matoran Universe, of the Shattered World, of all the beings we have wronged, forgive us!" "I forgive you in the name of Destiny." said Teridax solemnly, lifting his hand in benediction. "But you must labor ceaselessly under my bidding and governance to undo what you have done and to do what ought to be done. We'll start with the horrors in the Pits of Despair." Mata Nui and the Toa Ignika and the Great Being Krahka stood above the shattered population on the forsaken battlefield. "Hear me, all you my beloved ones," Mata Nui's voice echoed across the world on the currents of Life. "The world has ended. Let us make a new world. Put aside what your brother has done to you, for you have done worse than he has. Let one of you be appointed as ruler, and let him order all things for good. I suggest Teridax, myself." "Teridax rules the Great Beings." said the Makuta of Light from far away. "Why should not Mata Nui be our Great Spirit?" "But.....but....." the spirit exclaimed. "He'd be perfect for it!" shouted Kiina. "Say yes, you old fraud, or I'll come up there and clobber you!" "I do think they have a point, my elder brother." said the Mask of Life. "Very well." yielded Mata Nui. "But I will not rule like Velika. I will choose leaders who will govern each tribe and region, who answer to themselves. I will sit afar off, and hear the cries of those in distress, and answer those who appeal to me against their rulers. I will cast down the tyrant and the robber, and overthrow the unjust, but otherwise every being may rule himself. This is what I should have done as Great Spirit. This is what I will do as the Great Spirit of this world." "I could not agree more." said Angonce, his face shining. "We Great Demons---we bear our old name no more---will craft what is needed, and tinker no longer, and if we do, may Mata Nui destroy us!" "It is good." said Mata Nui. "I see that some of you who are Bionicle long to experience life and romance even as do the organics. I confess to some curiosity in that matter myself. Ignika can transform those who desire it so as to be capable of biologic reproduction and what goes with it. My brother, craft me a body like to theirs, and grant me the ability to reproduce, that I may be one with my people, and know both their joy and their suffering." Kiina saw his eyes resting on hers, and she stood, unable even to blink, as sand swirled up around the apparition of Mata Nui and condensed into a duplicate of the body she knew, in gold and black armour. His helmet resembled that of the Mask of Life, but was rounder of brow, and colored pure white. The vast assemblage cheered. From nowhere a big beetle scampered up and sat on his shoulder, and Mata Nui stroked it. "Do you want me to put the Great Spirit robot back where it was?" said Sahmad. "It's kind of mashed all the Velika settlements." "Hey, if you don't mind, that's MY name!" snapped a dwarfed Po-Matoran. Everyone laughed. "I have quite the bum rap these days." Ignika shone on him, and Velika grew, until he was in his pre-Karzahni body. He bowed in thanks. Lewa pushed up, arm-in-arm with a pretty Jungle Agori holding her helmet in her hand. "Er....my sister and I, we were fast-wondering if we could sure-use your ever-kind offer." he stammered. "And can you get him to drop that dialect?" Kella laughed. The Ignika shone on Lewa. No noticeable change came over him, except that his mask had a very confused expression. Kella led him off. "Come on, honey. We are going to have a lot of things to talk about." she said sweetly. "Oh fun-happy." groaned Lewa. ------------------------------------ On the battlefield, as the Great Spirit robot levitated creaking and groaning to lie down carefully in its' old position, two duplicate Hydraxons stared at each other. "Who the Karz are you?" said the Hydraxon who had been Dekar. "Some shapeshifting imposter?" "You're the imposter, bonehead." snapped the real Hydraxon. "I know perfectly well who I am. Hydraxon died in the Pit, 1000 years ago." "Yes, so Pridak claimed, but I disbelieve anything that scum tell me." Dekar-Hydraxon retorted. "And I obviously did not die, so I don't know why everyone keeps harping on it." "Of course not." growled Hydraxon. "So when did the Pit breach?" "Last year, I suppose. The waters must have mutated me." "And do you remember the break? Remember mutating?" Dekar-Hydraxon looked, for the first time, a little at a loss. "No." he said bluntly. "Well, that Pit broke 1000 years ago. Didn't you see the deposits?" "Fine." growled Dekar. "Let's ask Mata Nui to settle this." "You called?" said the Mask of Life, appearing beside them. "YOU!" shouted Dekar. "That accursed object! You ought to be destroyed....!" "Please, do not force me to curse you a second time." said the Mask of Life. "Your condition is my fault, Dekar. I made you my protector. Now I give you back your memories. Who are you, do you know?" "Oof." grumbled Dekar. "I'm a transmogrified Matoran, apparently." "Which body would you retain?" asked Ignika. "Er....this one, I suppose. I've gotten kind of used to it." "Then I have some news for you, Hydraxon. The Barraki Ehlek escaped. He is in the Aqua Magna, or will be when the river empties. Wait for him there." The two Hydraxons looked at each other. "I'll help, if I may." offered Dekar diffidently. "Could use it. Good to have you along, brother." They clanked fists. --------------------------------------------- The river took a long time to reach the sea, but Ehlek did not mind. He had rejected the loathsomeness of his past, but as the river swept along, his old habits of thought crept back, until the pain of the revelation had faded and left him only with a withering shame at having gone all sappy. By the time he reached tides, he was already plotting ways to re-establish criminal connections and set up an underworld, where he could rule in fact if not in conquest. He only realized he was under attack when the eyebeam of laser vision sliced off his left arm. He spun around, but all he saw was a green turgidity in the water. Then suddenly 5 sea snakes, like extra-long spines with Skakdi heads, shot in from all sides and fastened on him. The green murk condensed into another snake. "PIraka." spat Ehlek. "Right the first time." sneered Zaktann. "We went all sappy too; I knew it was the only way to survive. That's my power. I survive. I survive anything." Eyebeams sliced Ehlek apart. "But you, you can't say the same, can you?" He screamed. An extremely strong field of magnetism was not only gluing his protodites together, it was scrambling his thoughts. The Piraka snakes, one by one, were clamped with a clang to a large magnet in the hand of the amphibious Dekar. "Surprise." said Dekar softly. He breached the surface and cast the magnet on the ground. The Piraka snakes, unable to activate any powers with the field scrambling their minds, gasped for water. "You'll expire in a few minutes." said Hydraxon, standing beside Dekar. "You, though, you're a problem. Fortunately, your protodites are biomechanical, and this weapon," hefting a new dagger, "is elementally charged to control Metal." He unmade Zaktann's protodites, and the mutant survivor ceased to survive. The Piraka snakes gasped their last and went still. "A job well done." said Hydraxon. ------------------------------------- "It will not be perfect, Skiff." said the Great Being Krahka. The two of them sat in the Chair of Vision, which now saw by both light and shadows, surveying the world. It was their job. "Nothing is." the Skakdi said breezily. "Though, a year later and no explosions, does look hopeful." "Well, with Mata Nui arranging it so mixed settlements are the norm, and with mostly everybody being very eager to let the past sit there buried, and with Teridax's Peace stones and Peace/Zeal/Courage Rahkshi everywhere, it would likely be centuries in any case before we have serious problems. There's the odd criminal activity here and there, but with me on the inside and Mata Nui on the topside, we keep a firm enough hand to make people reluctant." "Sahmad settled down with his people up north, and Lewa rules the Jungle Agori with his wife---isn't that such a weird concept? I still can't get over it." "You will get used to it in time." murmered the Rahi Great Being, closing her eyes. "Mmm. The sun feels so good in here. I'm going to sleep." HERE ENDS THE SAGA OF OUR STRIFE.

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 11: The Destiny of Takanuva and made the Mask of Time come to life. It writhed on Velika's face. Warps came from it, like air-wrinkles. The time-warp ceased as it turned itself off. Crawling from Velika's face it floated in the air. The Great Beings all stared at it aghast, and it stared back at them: and there was not only life, but a mind, in that stare, for Time is as fundamental a force as Life, and when brought to life, must gain a mind. Then it winked out, concealing itself within Time. Velika was given no chance to recover. Orde was there, via Mask of Speed; he replaced it with a Suletu, doubling his power. Together he and the Mad Great Being attacked the mind of Velika. Unseen, the Wraith waited, pushing at his real body, prying at the life-energy. Around them the Benevolence fought with the Malevolence, gadgets and masks flickering on and off. The combat was sporadic and absurd, as neither side had the foggiest idea of fighting, resembling more a bunch of nerds flailing at each other with hammers than an ultimate clash between Great Beings. The real com-bat was being waged by the three immobile beings who stood two feet apart, hands rigid, held near bodies, slowly rising. The fury of the madman and the anger of the Toa were greater than the will and mind of the evil Great Being. His mind was relentlessly crowded back, back and ever back, and in to replace it with a soundless roar rushed its' rightful owner, the spirit of the real Velika, the Matoran displaced all his life from his own body. With a despairing cry Valentar's mind was slowly pried loose. "No! You do not understand! All this will be in vain! You would let them all alone, and they would rend the planet once again, if you leave them to themselves. They are corrupt, foolish, evil-hearted. They cannot be left ungoverned!" "And they won't be." said Orde through gritted teeth. "But we won't turn them into war machines." Then he shattered the last bond, and Valentar's mind went silent, snapping back across the world to his rightful body. "I hope Takanuva is in position." said Orde. The Matoran who had once been the most feared Great Being on Sphereus Magna cleared his throat a few times. The eyes had changed color, and not only color, but expression: they were a lovely lime-yellow instead of the strange wizard-yellow of the Great Being's mind, and the expression was that of a normal Matoran. "He is." said the real Velika. "I left him there a moment ago. It is too far for us to help him. In any case, I think he needs none." "My child," murmered the Mad Great Being, falling to his knees and running his hands over him. "A little one, in his right body. So wonderful it is to see these creations I built speaking back to me. I am so proud. May I embrace you?" "I think the Great Beings need some help." said Velika, picking up the Mask of Strength. "I wonder if I can access this.....amazing. I can. I believe my brain is more complex than that of most Matoran, or else my mind is greater." The Element Lord of Earth rose out of the earth. "CEASE." his terrible voice boomed. Both sides of Great Beings froze in place for a split second, and hands of earth seized them. "I declare a truce, while I speak." he said. "Very well." said Gerendonce. "I for one am not cut out for battle, it seems. The only good news is that neither are my adversaries." "We will listen, for we dislike having to fight in any case." growled one of the Benevolence. "Death is coming to you." said the Element Lord of Earth. "The mind-eater breaks free. You must retreat to the Repair Shop; it is sealed against thought, and it will retard the creature. I will take you all there, but both sides must cease conflict, at least until the mind-eater is slain." "By all means." said another of the Benevolence, shooting a sullen look at the Malevolence. "I grow weary of this pointless fist-fighting. It will eat all of us. All of us must fight it." Earth boiled up around them, and the Great Beings were gone, Neimidian alone remaining. Orde looked at the deserted wreckage of the hill, and shook his head. "Well, let's see if we can help out down in the field." he said. --------------------------------- Takanuva woke from his brooding. It had only been an hour after he came. The Wraith was no longer there. What roused him was that he had heard a change in the tempo of the machines. Air sucked into the lungs of Valentar's rightful body. Takanuva leaped to his feet. Blue lights, old worn blue, lit the cave, and systems flashed and chuttered and clanked, and something popped and a hiss of steam from a broken valve sounded. The body of Valentar heaved and gasped as light and energy played up and down it. Still Takanuva stood, his weapons motionless, doubt and dread shaking him. How had he come to this? All his remembered life he'd been a carefree, eager explorer, a Chronicler, a Rahi-fighter, but not a killer. He had killed, yes. He had killed in battle. To simply go up and stab that helpless but horrible body, that was vile. It wasn't just hard. It was impossible. The code he lived by, the knowledge that this being, this coughing being lying before him, had given him a mind and spirit, even if another had given him life, all weighed his hands. He knew this person had killed being after being, enslaved a planet, destroyed whole cities by turning their people into monsters, and despite his desire to keep the planet from being rent, had rent it himself rather than give way. He knew it, and wondered bitterly if his reluctance was mere lack of stomach, the weakness of the good, as deserving of reproach as Teridax's angst fit. Valentar sat up and opened eyes that had been still for 100,000 years. The same dark, weird levity shone in the organic black of those strange eyes. Fragments broke from his robe with each motion. At once he saw the paralyzed Toa in the corner. "My son, come to greet me in my right body." the croaking voice of Valentar rasped. "Come, help me up. Organics feel strange to me again after so many years." Takanuva did not move. "I know why you are here." the Great Being said, bending his weird eyes upon him. "I have always known who you were. The Makuta knows every scale and spine that grows on the Archive Mole, even after it has been transformed. You are here to betray everything you believe, and go against what you hold most dear. Maneuvered by the ruthless hands of the infected mask's owner, the Kikanalo is told to maul and rend, when he was built to eat grass." Takanuva did not say a word. "I cannot see into your mind, First, but it requires little imagination to guess what you are now mulling. You are a Toa. You have always been a Toa, even as a Matoran. The world was filled with light, and everything was simple and clear to behold. Makuta was evil, Mata Nui was God. And now you stand, shattered, and Makuta is not evil for his members fight beside you, and Mata Nui is just a big machine and you were only his microbes. He was no benign Great Spirit; why should the Matoran turn his mind to what his lubricants are doing? Your world is on its' head, for Mata Nui did not make you, we did, and Mata Nui did not give you a mind, I did. You do not know what father means, but I am your father. You stand before me to kill me, and you realize you cannot do it." Takanuva's thoughts were running on very different lines. He was remembering how he had felt when half filled with Shadow: impatient, angry, even violent. He had not met any of the Shadow Takanuva, but he knew them, and their dark rage: it was only a development of a quality within him. "You made up the Code for a bunch of machines." he said. His voice was a stranger's, cold and hard. "You never figured out how that applied to minds. The Code is so small. It leaves so much uncovered. And it does not cover this." Valentar tilted his head, eyeing the Toa of Light curiously, like a careful mechanic deciding which tool to poke with next. In one blinding flash Takanuva realized that for all his noble words, that was how Valentar saw him, saw all of them: as things, to be prodded and controlled, or tweaked, never as people to be consulted. "Choice, Toa." The evil Great Being's tone was soft. "Choice governs all things. Destiny yields to deeds. I gave you that power, and I stand now at its' mercy." Something flew from a nearby bench into his hand. A ray of something bathed the Toa: he felt the wall behind him fragmenting and the bits pouring from its' surface. Nothing was happening to him at all. Shock, and sudden raw fear, sprang for the first time into Valentar's eyes. Takanuva stepped forward, anger growing in him: he fed it, fed it with fierce images of all the horrors this being had committed, for what was Anger, but Righteous Zeal and the basis of Courage? He remembered the stern words of Teridax to Tahu. There is no Pit.....intractable evil will get out..... Valentar moved stiffly back along the table. Takanuva leaned over him. "New Atero became a host of horrors, and you didn't even blink. You forced a Matoran to live as a ghost for a hundred millennia just so you could live in your experiment. Beings of power died at your hand, and you sent Marendar to kill my own sister, and you think I care about the Code??!!" He was screaming now: he had to work himself up even more to do what was right to do. He forced Gali's face into his mind, brainless, a shelled skull. "For Gali, for Artakha, for Tren Krom, for New Atero, I thee strike!!" He brought his fist down with Toa-strength onto the chest of Valentar. It caved in like cardboard, metallic bones cracking at the impact. Closing his eyes he generated rotating wheels of destructive light, heard horrid wet slicing sounds and odd organic grunts, but forced from his mind everything except controlling the blades. He opened his eyes. Valentar was sliced to bits. Only his legs were intact, and his head. Rooted, frozen to the spot, Takanuva stared into the dead eyes, and tears poured from his own. He sagged to his haunches and wept, there in the dreadful room beneath the earth. ---------------------- The earth fell from the two female Great Beings, to reveal to them that they were not underground at all. They stood in a vast bare depression, half a mile deep, earth and sand fused into new rock by the pressure of the Great Spirit's body. It was only 60 miles across, more or less: likely the Head. Far to the north the new outline of the Great Spirit's current position filled the sky with a wall of metal. "What are we doing here? The astral plane trembles beneath its' feet!" rasped the harsh-voiced female. "Get us to the Lab!" Earth folded his arms. "You built it." he said mildly in his deep profound voice. "Did you not know what it would do?" "He has betrayed us." said the thin-voiced female. She turned eyes of murder upon Earth. The statue of dirt was crumbling faster now. "Do as she said, or I will flay your mind." "You are fools, and like all fools, shall perish by your own folly." the voice of Earth echoed from the inert figure. One arm fell entirely, and did not rebuild. "He is speaking from afar, sister. We are helpless here." groaned the thin-voiced woman. "Aaarrg!!" choked the harsh-voiced one. She staggered backward and forward, her soul like a pale self staggering in different directions than her body. She clasped her hand to her throat. Pale mandibles, transparent and smoky, protruded out of the Unseen, and a great head lunged, and the mandibles met, and her soul was sucked screaming into the jaws of her own creation. "You are claimed by death." said the Element Lord of Earth. "I saw it hang over both of you. You brought this horror into being; now let it be your bane." The dirt figure crumbled completely. The thin-voiced female wailed and fell to her knees, her soul wobbling out of her as her ultimate weapon against the Benevolence consumed her first of all. ---------------------------- The Great Beings, minus Angonce and the Mad One, stood at bay in the former lair of Heremus. Benevolence eyed Malevolence askance. Earth had taken all their masks, and tools, and weapons, as the price for transporting them, and their faces were bare of interface fabric. He had also sealed them in an area of the shielded base that had only food and water: they were, for the first time in their existence as Great Beings, without a single tool or creation. "It comes." said Gladius. "It shakes my mind. Our sisters dangle from its' jaws." "And good riddance to them." muttered one of the Benevolence. --------------------------------- On the field above, the forces of the Benevolence were no longer holding the day. Angonce and the Exo-Toa had devastated the Barraki army to a being, only those who fled escaping. Ehlek was one of those. The hungry Shadow-cloud dispersed, and up floated Teridax and his troops, and he and Angonce faced each other and smiled. "Where is Sahmad? He does not seem to be fighting any more." said the Great Being, turning his eyes to the field. "I have felt his energy, now here, now there." said Teridax. "I believe he is planning a large-scale effect." "I hope he does it soon." said Angonce worriedly. "And I may not survive long myself. My deeds and my negligence reap the penalty they deserve. Simply to be a Great Being is to be worthy of death." "To be called one, you mean. You were destined to be Great." "And look what we have done." said Angonce. "The touch of a Great Being is death. Even I, who lingered consumed by doubts and by guilt, even I cannot see what ought to have been done. All we do is a horror, and setting it right breeds more horror: are we Great Beings, Teridax, or Great Demons?" "That would depend on whether you repent." answered the Makuta of Light. "I know....and yet so much guilt we must pay, there is no torture great enough to atone for our deeds, we can never be punished enough to make up for what we have done. I would gladly be killed, if I could somehow purchase by my death some slight easing of this debt." "You will not die yet." said Teridax quietly. "The spider smells gathered minds. It lays siege to the Repair Shop, which was left open on purpose. The key is waiting there for it, a Rahi who climbed above all save the Great Beings, the supreme work of Destiny." A roar like the sea broke up from the battlefield. "And it seems Destiny has, beyond all hope, prepared an unexpected help for the rest of us." he added in some surprise. Out of the woods to the south a ragtag army was pouring. There was Botar, teleporting like mad; there were Order agents who the gaping Toa were absolutely certain had died in the Destiny War and the Reign of Shadows; there were Toa out of legend who had died ages ago. Their coming was like a tide. There were tens of thousands of them. Even without powers such a charge would have swayed the battle; but when many of them had powers, it was cataclysmic. The Predestined, what few had survived the onslaught of Varian and the Skakdi, were destroyed from the earth. The main host of the Benevolence met them in a terrible clash. "Stay." said Teridax to Angonce and his own troops, with a terrible pity in his eyes. "If we can spook them enough they will break and flee. I have no mind to depopulate the world in one day." "Who are they?" exclaimed Angonce. "They are the dead." said Teridax. Evening glow lay over the field of death, filling it with a wan and awful light. "The Red Star that you created as a recycling bin, called to they who ought to have died and gone back into Destiny, and they could not look away, and they suffered. They were dragged in torture back to life. Artakha destroyed it, after sending the shattered ones to heal amid forests. Healed or not, beyond all plan or hope of ours they have come." The beings from the Red Star soon exhausted their charge. The Benevolent had lost a mile of ground, and were being pushed into one of the Pits of Sahmad. The battle showed every sign of settling down to a gruesome, sordid slaughter of both sides. That was when every being there, ceased to move. Teridax looked around, wondering if the Mask of Time was in the fray. No Great Beings save a befuddled Angonce and Neimidian were visible, however, at least until he looked back at the field. Over it now towered an Agori in unfamiliar grey and dark blue armour, except that he was 200 feet high and evidently composed of metal. "Did I not say that I am Sahmad?" the ex-slaver roared. "The Benevolence is gone. Velika is dead. And yet here you still are, you stupid, stubborn little stickheads, fist fighting until everybody has beaten everybody else to death! Typical. Is that your doing, O Great and Mighty Raanu? Well, since everyone is all gathered here today, let's have some entertainment. Sahmad's Symphony Orchestra is now playing, let's all get up and do some Iron Tribe dances!" "Oh no." moaned Angonce. "Oh yes." said Teridax with his trademark faint smile. "Sahmad intends to avenge his tribe. He is wiser than I ever dared hope. He avenges by justified ridicule." "Sahmad, if you don't let me go I'll drown your freaking hide!" screamed Kiina. Sahmad ignored her: his essence was not even near the two or three Toa of Iron. The arms of the giant waved and fluttered delicately, a conductor guiding an inaudible orchestra. Hiding a smile, Teridax used his Sonics power to broadcast one of the musical compositions he often worked on in dead secret. It echoed over the blood-soaked sand in the dying dun light, discordant and heartrending, beautiful melodies echoing above a land of death. As Sahmad moved his hands, the entire army moved, hundreds of thousands of beings, held by metallic bones and armour and mechanical parts, moved stiffly and jerkily in the steps of a slow country dance. "I remember that dance." The grief in the Great Being's voice was a surprise. "I used to stand in the shadows of the Iron Tribe when I ventured out to observe the little people, and I saw the lads swing the lasses, and I felt empty. A Great Being is above carnal passion and love, and yet I knew I was missing something." "Now why don't we play a little game?" said Sahmad as the gathered armies of Sphereus Magna literally danced to his tune. "We'll play Sahmad Says! Sahmad says.....lift your feet! Sahmad says....jump and skip! Sahmad says.....go home and play! Are you going to do what Sahmad says? Because if you Benevolent bums EVER so much as lift a sword on your Malevolent neighbor, you will find yourself without bones." The dreary horrible light dimmed, darker and darker. Teridax looked around, dread filling him. "He is too late." he whispered. "He is too late. Goodness and sense are draining with the light." "For you Bionicles," Sahmad laughed, "that might be even more drastic, you'd be a bunch of muscles and a few organs flopping around by themselves. The Civil War is over. The Great Beings have killed themselves." Every weapon evaporated into rust. The armies fell still as Sahmad let go of them. The metal giant stood with arms akimbo. "Behave yourselves, or Sahmad will get you." The two armies looked at each other, at him, and with a howl lit into each other with fists and powers alone. Sahmad threw his hands in the air. ------------------------------------- The Great Beings crowded together, glancing nervously about with the eyes of their minds. The creature was half in and half out of the world. A huge insubstantial spider, she had eight phantom legs, every foot of which could sicken the mind it stepped on, and that awful round head, and the great pale mandibles. Ghostly eyes, devouring and hungry yet wary, fixed upon the Great Beings. Gerendonce heard something nearby. Turning the eyes of his mind that way, he saw a figure lying on a bed. She had on the same clothes as the thin-voiced female Great Being, boots and trousers and the great hooded mantle, and her face was also the same. Her eyes flew open. Rahi eyes, yet rational. Not only rational. They were the eyes of a Great Being. The mind-spider swung around, pacing warily toward this new and mysterious prey. ----------------------------------- Krahka arose. She had no memory of her dreams. They had been painful. At first Teridax had been there, soothing her mind, guiding her huge and burning thoughts. Then he was gone, and she tossed on the currents of her own mind, until she struggled to the surface, and Awoke. We rose up from that floor, and we rose up Great Beings...... She sat up on the bed. A figure sat at the foot, a phantom who wore the general appearance of the Great Spirit robot. The eyes were wise and deep, and compassionate. "Mata Nui." she greeted him. "You are almost too late. The world tears itself apart, and we, we are being devoured. What am I, Mata Nui? Why do I know so much?" "You have been destroyed, little one." said Mata Nui. "How I can have ruled so long and never noticed so marvelous a creature, I cannot understand. You are above us all now, aye, even me. I am merely here to ask you for help." "I'm a Rahi." said Krahka. "You took on a shape." said Mata Nui gently. "That shape was too big for you, so you grew bigger to fit. You are a Great Being, Krahka." She stared at him, not shocked or even surprised. "So why do you need help?" she said, glancing at the mind-spider. "It will only eat me." "You have the destiny of the Great Beings, but only half of their defects." said Mata Nui. "They have the urge to create, for they are still driven by the dreams they ate out of Annona. You did not share that, for it is extra to a Great Being. And so you can fight this creature as they cannot. I will lift you onto the astral plane." Krahka rose to her feet. Mata Nui grasped her hand and mounted up four unseen steps, and she climbed on the air with him. The spirit's immaterial hand grew firmer and solider in hers with each step, and the material world grew thin and phantasmal, till it was mere outlines around them intruding into the soft grey and faint rainbows of the land in which they now stood. Solid yet phosphorescent, the mind-eater crouched, staring at them with both hunger and dread. Not even her creators had so mounted up onto her plane. "Creature." Mata Nui addressed it. "Thou thing that never was, and that never should have been, I have come, the one whom you fear. Kneel, and I will make your end swift and merciful." The horrid beak gaped, and a venomous snarling hiss came out of it. "As you wish," sighed Mata Nui, and teleported inside her. Being a spirit created to rule a robot, he existed on three planes, while the spider, a creature of Psionic energy and astral substance, only on one. Mata Nui had moved his substance to the plane of thought. From within he wrestled with the creature. Strong was Mata Nui, but not as strong as a Great Being, for his mind was still tired: and the monster had eaten the dream-power of no less than three Great Beings. Hurry, Krahka! he shouted in the Rahi's mind. You know what to do! She did, she did indeed, and yet she hesitated. She could take on that spider's shape, and its' powers with it, but would she still access her Great Being strength in such shape? Please, Krahka! I am weakening! In a moment, it will eat me also! "Oh, Mata Nui." muttered the Krahka Great Being whimsically, and changed her shape. A duplicate mind-spider faced the monster. It stopped overwhelming Mata Nui, backing up with a squall: actual fear showed in the bulbous eyes. Krahka examined herself. A Great Being's power is his mind, and Krahka's mind stayed with her no matter the shape: she was still a Great Being. A Great Being facing a Great Being eater. Mata Nui was resting. Giving him time, Krahka attacked the mind-spider. Astral webs encased it, and were dissolved. Astral feet flailed one at the other, and psychic beaks tore, and psionic venom spat, harmlessly. Krahka sent her mind into the spider. Though it could eat Great Beings whose bodies remained material, it was still only an effect of them, and no effect is greater than its' cause. Valentar, after all, had not caused Krahka's mind, only triggered it. It had come from the inscrutable weavings of Destiny itself. And so it was mightier than the spider, which was only a Rahi, and bore it down, and then from within it Mata Nui at last was able to rip apart the psionic energy from the astral substance. The psionic element snapped back to the semimaterial realm it was drawn from, and the severed astral substance sprawled, shapeless and flapping, before slowly dissipating into the astral plane it was drawn from. Mata Nui sat up. Krahka in her Great Being shape helped him to his feet. "We cannot rest, not yet." said Mata Nui. "Moral Shadow fills Sphereus Magna and drives all beings to destroy one another. Valentar called it down by committing global iniquity, and it will not go away." "What do you expect me to do?" said Krahka angrily. "A Peace Nova Blast or something?" "Skiff and the Skakdi will Enlighten the world." said Mata Nui. "We have to be in position to ram it home." -----------------------------------

Team looked at the portal head-on; from Tahu's view, to the side, the profile of Marendar showed in a black void. Another portal opened nearby. Out of it stepped a slender Skakdi with a black body and silver armor, and no spine, with a weird silver face out of which projected the unmistakable mandible-wings of a Kanohi Olmak. "Hmm, this is a little tricky, wouldn't you say?" he said in a quick sharp voice with an odd lightheaded edge. "My incredible powers of the mind could fry him in a flash, or I could get myself hit by him and I would grow stronger.....wait, no, that was a while back, I haven't done that in ages, now why was that again? It wasn't very long ago." "Who the hangment is that?" said Zaria. "I think it's Vezon." said Tahu, bemused. "Double, double, double trouble, yes, all of life is just a glass bubble, like those zamor bubbles that held Teridax essence and enslaved everyone. Of course, Teridax isn't here right now, so they wouldn't work and then everyone would be blank slates, waiting forever for Teridax to answer the phone. What is a phone? I know I saw it somewhere. I've been so many places." "Vezon," said Tahu through his teeth, "what do you think you're doing, and where did you get dimensional gates powers?" "What do I think I'm doing? Oh dear, you really don't want to know that, little Toa, as Makuta always used to say, that was so funny, it would throw everyone into a tizzy. I'll tell you what I am doing. I am being a hero. I am going to kill Marendar. I'd have to cut him in half and send each half to different dimensions, and I'd better make sure they're destructive locations, we don't want some mad Great Being rebuilding him. I got stuck with one not long ago, he was mad but he certainly wasn't deranged like me. Or am I a lunatic? What is the difference between deranged and lunatic?" As he talked, half of Marendar winked out as the portal closed. Tahu felt his elemental power return. The other half of Marendar stood, sliced open, blank shock and dismay in his remaining mechanical eye. Then Tahu had consumed the accursed invention in the hottest fire he could call up. "Hee hee, I just saved the Toa, I'm Toa Vezon, you should just see the look on your faces. Why'd you burn his head? I wanted that head, I could have mounted it on my wall, if I stayed still long enough to live in one. Ta ta." Another portal swallowed the mad Skakdi and he was gone. "Well, that's the first time a Skakdi saved my back." said Chiara. "Likely because he's a mad Skakdi." said Orde. "He seems to have been transformed while wearing an Olmak, so it fused to his face. Not a comforting thought." Tahu was beginning to chuckle. "Talk about humor." he said. "He may be nuts, but he appreciates irony. What a tale this'll make. Come with me, and you can turn that on again. We'll shut down as many Bionicles as we can." MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 10. The Battle of Bitter Tears: Betrayal of Teridax Teridax appeared in the middle of a sandstorm. The alternate Makuta of Light held off the sand with Limited Invulnerability, casting his thought about. His troops were contending fiercely with surprisingly half-hearted Barraki troops: good, his son the Rahkshi of Peace was still in the game. More disturbingly, they were not in the sandstorm, which seemed small in extent. His suspicion was confirmed when Weather Control failed to disperse the storm. He shot his thought about, seeking the source, even as Cyclone power created a tornado to suck in the sand. He knew who he was facing, of course. The Element Lord of Sand. Sand's essence wasn't anywhere to be felt in the fading storm, and Teridax hastily levitated by Light as the sand beneath him suddenly tried to suck him down. He fused it to glass with Plasma, and the power of Sand left it: glass, being made from rock, was under Stone, even if only as an extremely difficult side effect no one but a Nuva, or an Element Lord, could control. And the Element Lord of Rock was dead. Out of the sandstorm marched a small army of Toa. All of them were built the same, and all of them wore the same mask, and all of them were jet black all over. Red eyes blazed from their eyeholes. Many different weapons were clenched in their hands. Toa of Shadow. Teridax knew these monsters and their cause. Deep in the bowels of the Makuta island of Destral, Makuta Tridax had used the Olmak now part of Vezon to visit many alternate dimensions. From each he had abducted a version of Takanuva, and fastened Shadow Leeches to them, draining their Light and replacing it with pure Shadow. The process was incomplete when Tobduk had assassinated Tridax, but over ten of the 90-odd duplicates had become Shadow Toa. Three of them the Alternate Teridax had smashed in single combat when Makuta Nui teleported them to face him. The remaining 7 stood before him now. The other duplicates had died in the collapse of Destral; only those with Shadow were strong enough to survive. That still begged one question. Takanuva had always been independent; his shadowed self would not team with anyone unless forced, or under very strong inducement. Who, then, had summoned the Shadow Toa? He looked into their minds as a shield of Light absorbed the Shadow-bolts they were firing, and smiled grimly: someone else held their minds. Someone dark, vicious and brutal. "You have violated your orders, Makuta Miserix." he said, reaching out to the light bomb concealed inside the dragon-Makuta. It wasn't there. Teridax coldly resigned himself to the fight of his life. ---------------------------------- The Skakdi of Light and Shadow rested for an hour in a mossy valley, washing off in the stream. Skiff got them moving again. "We're no longer being followed." he said. "The Predestined have disappeared. I've looked through the shadows for miles, and they're not here. I think they've pulled out." "Or they're up ahead." said a Skakdi of Light. "Nope." said Skiff. "I think the Shadowed One fears my zamors more than anything on earth. He's gone to the battle rather than risk another dose. He'll kill both sides. We've got to hurry." ----------------------------- The Malevolence knew that the Benevolence was coming. They did not try to stop them from spacewarping in. "If the wasp is in front of you, it is easier to smash." said Gladius in a bad imitation of Velika, and the Great Beings gave strained smiles. But even as space squirmed and opened, and the Malevolence put out the powers of Masks of Telekinesis, Elemental Power, Artakha, and others more fell, all at once time froze around them. Velika and the Benevolence stepped out of the spacewarp. ------------------------------- The Barraki army may have become sluggish with Peacefulness, but they were led by a being with hypnotic vision. He pointed out the three white Rahkshi passing through the midst of the Teridax berserkers, and Kalmah nodded. Darts spat from their guns, moving by themselves, latching on to the Rahkshi. And became Peaceful and dropped off like slugs. Roodaka laughed, low and mockingly, from beside them. She had joined them the moment they arrived. She fired Shadow energy at the Rahkshi of Light. The machines spasmed and screamed as the Gleaming Kraata inside shriveled from the toxic Shadow, and the berserk fury of the Teridaxers faltered, and the Barraki gained ground. The air filled with wriggling darts. One fastened on Roodaka like a leech. She ripped it off: it was a plant. "They're throwing seaweed at us now?" she said in bewilderment as she threw it down. "Roodaka....um....your armour has leaves." said Ehlek. The Vortixx looked down. Tendrils of ugly olive were uncurling from beneath her armour. Her mechanical systems sputtered and pain lanced through her as tendrils crept at great speed into every part of her body. Then she screamed. The Barraki spun around, frying approaching plant darts with every weapon they possessed, as Roodaka crumpled and withered, the metal-eating plant completely entombing her. Ehlek turned his flamethrower on the corpse, consuming the hungry plant. "Who the heck is behind this?" exclaimed Kalmah. "This is far too vicious for any Toa of the Green." "Not for Jungle Agori." said Ehlek grimly, motioning at the contingent of short beings in armour seemingly fused with plants, that were cutting into them from behind. A sandstorm blasted against Barraki and Benevolence. "And Sand seems to be killing both sides." ------------------------------- Takanuva shot across the planet at light speed. The place he was making for was chosen on purpose to be as far from discovery as possible. Bara Magna had been only thinly inhabited; beyond the oases and the routes between them, no one but outcasts or madmen would go. Deep into what used to be high arid mountains of brilliant sandstone far in the west Takanuva flashed. It was forest now, and the trees sighed as a sudden quick flicker appeared like a beam amid them and vanished. Teridax was of the opinion that at accelerated speeds, the body ceased to conform to the laws of the universe in proportion to the speed. Breathing ceased, so did air friction, as well as laws of increased resistance to acceleration. All he could guess was that it was by affinity with light that Takanuva accelerated, and so his body became as subtle as light the more attuned with it by speed he became. There was no breeze, nor concussion, where he passed, as there would if he was moving slower and his body was less attuned to Light. There hadn't been any Toa of Light before, even the Makuta of Light not having such direct control, so he was in uncharted ground. The fantastic canyons towered around him. The far side of the world, where the west becomes the east, but never east becomes the west, the Wraith of Velika had said. The Turaga Nui interpreted that as meaning one had to approach from the west. Takanuva banished the Mask of Light to his pocket Suva and called up a Mask of Detection: the Wraith had promised to guide him in person. Red spires of dry-rotted stone faded to rose higher up, and pines clung everywhere, while rivers silent for centuries beyond count roared and shouted in the depths. It was indeed the sort of place Valentar would have chosen for his body to hide. Without the Mask of Light he moved slower, at about the speed of sound, maintaining the direction. The landmarks the Wraith had listed were visible now, and at the final one, a vertical arch with a spire rising from it, Takanuva halted. The Wraith of Velika glided down to him. Pale but shaped like the Matoran Velika had once been, it looked at him with ages of sorrow in its' ghostly eyes. Follow me, it said, and he did. -------------------------------------- The Alternate Teridax cloaked himself in chameleon and teleported behind the Shadow Toa. As one they spun around, firing effects of Shadow he countered easily with both Light and the power of the Mask of Shadows. Sand raged against him, and sudden and awful a Shadow Hand appeared and tried to seize him: but it seized an illusion, and he stepped to the side and vanished. A blast wave of telekinesis appeared amid the Shadow Toa, hurling them in all directions. Hunger drew at their Shadow, at their masks, at their life. He stayed concealed, lest they generate Shadow inside him, and generated Light within them. The Shadow Toa howled. One or two exploded. The rest used their Masks of Light to quench the light. Teridax vanished again: if Miserix pinned him down, a difficult task because of his shielded mind, he too could create Shadow inside him. He shattered all the Toa into atoms, and burnt up the atoms with Plasma. At the same time he saw in their heads the location of Miserix. "You want the most dangerous enemy of the Makuta?" snarled a voice out of nowhere. "Get ready, you're just about to meet him." Teridax disappeared: the spray of armour-eating virus struck only an already-atomized suit of armour. He reappeared behind Tobduk and seized him in a wrestler's hug. The lean muscular member of the Order of Mata Nui had been wearing a Mask of Invisibility, but he banished it to a Suva somewhere and called up another, which was Fragmented by Teridax the second it appeared. "I know who you are, unhappy one." said Teridax gently, calling upon the power of Peace to fill himself. Anger only increased Tobduk's strength. "You are the Survivor. Let me make you Peaceful." Peace filled Tobduk's tortured soul, twisted by years of horror and mutation to become a power of rage. The Anger was drawn out of him by Teridax's second Virtue power. To the Makuta's horror, instead of relaxing, Tobduk twisted, shrieking, and crumpled up like a withered balloon. "Greater Beings." whispered Teridax. "His very life was rage. The deed I meant to save him was his death." "I see you have overcome your little scruples, brother." the voice of Miserix hissed from the air. As Teridax expected, he felt the pain of Shadow forming inside him. As the Shadow Toa had done, with the Mask of Shadows he gripped the Shadow, and it could not expand further. "I have, monster." he said. Miserix laughed on the wind. "I owe you a great debt, idiot. I owe you pain, humiliation, conquest. I know it cannot be paid. You are stronger than I expected. But are you stronger than me? I endured pain for 80,000 years. I overpowered Tren Krom himself. You may have taken out the Shadow Toa; well, they were only a bunch of boyish blowhards anyway. But you cannot take out me." "Ah!" cried Teridax. A sudden blinding pain had shot through him. "And what ails the great Makuta now?" jeered Miserix. "My sons." groaned Teridax. "My sons.....have died.....ARRRRGGG!!!!" The thought of Miserix was shoved violently aside, the connection to the Shadow he was creating nearly broken. Teridax had turned the Kraata Power of Zeal onto himself, drying up his grief. "Clever, older brother." growled Miserix. "But not clever enough." Teridax had his location now, tracking him by the connection between him and the Shadow he was sending. "I could reproach you with cowardice, but that is foolish, and both of us know it. I could reproach you with moral death, but you would only laugh. I control light, but light has two aspects, and one aspect is immaterial. Miserix, behold what you became!" He beamed Moral Light and Peace into the mind of Miserix. The dragon's will could have kept out a mental invasion. It could not keep out Virtue. He lost grip on the Shadow inside Teridax, and at once the Mask of Shadows expelled it. The howl of Miserix went up from the loose broken hills at the brink of one of Shamad's pits. Instantly Teridax was there. His evil brother was curled up on the ground, covering his eyes with Shadow, howling continuously as he beheld the full horror of his own condition, and it pained him. Teridax filled every part of him with Light, except the head. Coming around in front of the now-powerless dragon, he bent down and looked into the tortured eyes. "Turn." he whispered. "Reject what you are. You already hate it. Reject it, my brother." A faint shadow of the rough-hewn but bluff and good-natured Miserix he had known and loved as brother far away in his true home, showed for an instant in the dragon's eyes. Then hatred flowed in, and with a sigh of sorrow and pity Teridax filled the head with light. The last of Miserix burnt away, and the huge armour in dragon shape lay still. Slowly Teridax closed his enemy's eyes. -------------------------------------- The sandstorm howled at both sides. Entire squads vanished into pits of sand, and the ground under them was no longer to be depended on. Frantically they looked about for the baterra to merge and absorb Sand, but there were no more baterra, they had long since been consumed by Masks of Mechanics. What did save them was something else entirely. Earth boiled in a huge wave out of the sand, except it was not earth, but dust. The dust within the sand turned against it, and the Lord of Sand was held down, all his essence grappled at once, wherever it was. Both armies drew back as the boiling tower of sand and earth squirmed and fought. Then from the sand the voice of its' Lord snarled, "So, you ridiculous pacifist, NOW you decide to fight? I was beginning to wonder if you had gone to mud all these years!" The Element Lord of Earth responded. Deep, ponderous, profound, he seemed like an ancient rebuking an infant. "You are indeed a hasty fool, O waterless wasteland. Earth partakes of all things, including the very dust of your body. You are trying to unmake Earth, and you cannot, for you yourself are dust, and all dust answers to me." "Why don't you tend your farms and mind your crops, mudball? Battle and war are not your concern." "Death is. You could have a kingdom again, ruling your people in peace, if you would only see a little reason. But no. Iniquity is always unreasonable. And I warn you, brother, your death hangs heavy above you this very moment." Sand laughed: it was a nasty sound, like blasting. "I am the only manifestation of my element. Baterra held my brothers, and Marendar quenched them: but Marendar is no more." "Do you think I am going to kill you, Sand? Oh no. I am only here to hold you down." Sand laughed even harder. "There is no power left that can pull me in. I can break free of you whenever I want, and I can flee before even you mind-wipers could start. I can---" He paused, suddenly. Sand was streaming out of him and into the palm of a tall dun-and-yellow Toa with a white mask who stood below. "Go on." said Mazeka. "You can what?" "No, you cannot flee," said Earth, "for I have wrapped up your dispersed essence in my dust. You are no longer alone." "What---what is---" howled Sand. "The Mad Great Being rectified our defect." said Mazeka. "In the Tower of Madness I was made into a new Toa. A Toa of a new element. I am the Toa of Sand." He absorbed the Element Lord of Sand. Earth bowed, and left. All at once the Toa-dampening device appeared, and with it an Agori made entirely out of metal, in the grey and dark blue armour of the Iron Tribe. Sahmad gave a mocking bow, and sank and was gone, and Mazeka bent down and pulled the switch. His power died, and with it the Element Lord of Sand. -------------------------- Follow, said the Wraith of Velika. Takanuva did, down a long-shattered stair that had once delved into the crevice of a high red cliff. Instead of mounting up the cliff, the broken slope led down, into the hill. Soon the gash in the cliff was so deep the blue sky died, and stars could be seen, strange blue and green stars. Then it ceased to delve, the stair that had been descending into a black gulf. There are no traps, said Velika. Valentar made the stone impermeable by energy. Nothing can enter, only exit. He sealed himself in, and here he gave me life, and took it in the giving. "Then how do you expect me to enter?" said Takanuva. I will get you in, said Velika, and entered Takanuva's body. He felt himself becoming thin and subtle. He walked forward, and the darkness became solid rock, yet he went through it like mist. Suddenly he stumbled forward: he was in a chamber on the other side. The Wraith slid out of him and stood, back to him, facing that which lay within the chamber. Cut into the living rock, it was perfectly climated. The air was fresh, somewhat humid, yet smelled metallic, as if it had recirculated through ancient machinery once too often. It was not dark, for faint lights gleamed from primitive screens and consoles like those in the Prototype Robot's operation center, which all bore an eccentric cobbled-together look that bespoke a solitary hand. The walls were lined with webworks of wires and cables. A sibilant hum came from the life-support and climate systems. None of the light had the healthy leaf-green brilliance of the Underground Lab's machinery: it was an old, stale, blueish-white-violet, the hue of dying phosphorous. In the center, on a tomb of machinery encased by marble panels, lay a recumbent body. Arms of thin metal arched over it, projecting some kind of field that bathed the being below in the ghost-light. Clamps of some strange substance that seethed as if moving held down the legs and arms and clamped the head. The body wore a grey robe, so old it was falling apart, exposing grey skin in holes. The hair was long and thick, and pure frost-blue. The grey face was austere and weird, a set look of haughtiness fixed upon it: the eyes were shut. It did not breathe. Yes, he is alive, Velika said. Do not kill it yet. We must await the deeds of others. ----------------------------------- The battle was going ill for both sides. The Barraki were driving the Teridaxers into one of the vast pits, Teridax using gravity to get them down. A sudden thick roof of Shadow covered the army, quenching any energy to pass it: Shadow and a command of Hunger. Still, the foe held the high ground. The army of Raanu was prevailing, as the Toa came from one side and Jungle Agori from the other, horrible plant-based weapons downing baterra no less than Bionicles. The Element Lord of Earth popped up here and there and everywhere around the field, but was stymied by the weird weapons of the Benevolent forces. The Skakdi had advanced deep into Benevolent ranks, due mainly to Makuta Varian, whose progress was marked by hordes and forests of metal statues complaining and shouting through breathing holes. The sun was fortunately at the horizon, or they would have baked to death. The last baterra fell to Masks of Mechanics, even as the Lord of Sand perished, and the Malevolent forces roared. The roar was echoed by the Skakdi across the field, except these were shouts of dismay. Another army was charging them, and the Skakdi were between hammer and anvil. The army was composed of outcasts, criminals, Vortixx, Skrall, Vorox exiles, Bone Hunters and ex-Dark Hunters. And leading it was the Shadowed One. Destiny may have taken his powers in order to save Skiff's team, but he seemed to have them back again. The weirdness of his effects were nothing short of horrible as he made straight for Varian himself. Varian was a Makuta, and now he really showed it for about the first time. Illusions and walls of Darkness stopped the charge of the Predestined, and then a wall of solid metal cut them off from the Skakdi---and from the Shadowed One. The Predestined battered at the power-resistant metal, but the Skakdi were already out of the trap, entire squads teleported at once. "It seems a Makuta made out of a Toa is the deadliest mixture of all." observed the Shadowed One, trying to cut apart the fifteen disfrequencied stasis fields layered on top of one another that Varian had buried him in. His powers were peeling them off, but slowly. He shattered it at last, even as the Predestined broke through the metal wall. The Skakdi sallied into them with a scream, their berserk rage increased by Anger power from Varian, who shed Fear on the Predestined. Behind them the Benevolent forces watched warily, unsure of the intentions of this wild card and lacking orders from the Benevolence, which had gone oddly silent. Makuta Varian teleported around the Shadowed One like a blinking line, letting off a different Kraata power each time he appeared. One second the Shadowed One's eyebeams expired in a cloud of Darkness, the next he was fending off Sleep, Confusion and Slowness attacks. He fired eyebeams ahead of Varian, so the Makuta appeared in time to be struck: except he Adapted to the eyebeams and did not disintegrate. Reaching out he seized the Shadowed One's mind. "Now that is more like it." smiled the sinister leader of the Dark Hunters. The mind that had dealt with Destiny battled with the enlarged mind of a Toa of Iron. It came down in the end to who had the stronger will, and in such a contest the rage of Varian was not enough. Slowly the mind of the Shadowed One bore him down. Slipping through the chaos like a dream came a being in silvery-grey armour who seemed able to stretch through keyholes. A Mask of Vaporizing, a new invention of Gladius which the Toa were classing as immoral, shone dark grey over his face. His name was Darkness, whose sole task as a Dark Hunter was to watch the Shadowed One, and if he showed any pity or kindness or mercy, to kill him. Nothing else had mattered. But the Alternate Teridax had broken open his narrow mind, shattering the ancient programming to which he had been enslaved longest of any Bionicle, and shown him at last what the real purpose of his existence was in the mind of Destiny. And seeing his old target now occupied, Darkness slipped toward him. The Shadowed One did not notice him. He seldom had. Darkness was not easy to notice. Coming within range, he activated the Mask of Vaporization. Maliciously he first vaporized the Shadowed One's hands. The arms followed. The Shadowed One screamed. Varian stumbled, released, his head clutched in his hands. "Why are you doing this?" the Shadowed One cried: every power he possessed expired on the elastic body of his assassin. "I have not showed mercy!" "I have learned a great deal since I left you, monster." Darkness hissed in his weird voice. "I learned so much. I only wonder how I could have been so blind. I learned you should be killed----for NOT showing mercy." The Shadowed One turned his incredible mind upon his former watcher. And as he gazed, slowly his face transformed to horror. A hand held the mind of Darkness. A hand he knew far too well, for it had clamped down on him, when he dared to meddle with the worlds beyond death. A hand woven entirely of destinies. "Why?" he shouted. "Why must you persecute me? Was it not enough that you swallowed me whole, that you hound me even here?" "What?" said Darkness. The voice that the Shadowed One heard was not the voice of Darkness. Ancient, terrifying, eternal, it said to him, "On the contrary, mercy was shown you, and you abused it. Now Destiny has doomed your death." "Why?" the Shadowed One screamed. "I do not understand! Why? What part of this makes any sense? If you destined me for death, why did you let me go?" "It is not something you can understand." said the eternal voice; the sorrow of Destiny pulsed in it. "Enough babbling, monster." said Darkness to the Shadowed One, and the Mask of Vaporization activated. With a final groan of despair the Shadowed One, Channel of Destiny, focus of the Virtues, turned into vapor and was slain. Varian took the mask off of Darkness with his metal power. "Very well done, Darkness." he said. "Now get a better mask. That one is no good to anyone." He smashed it with one blow. "Let us now bring these Predestined to their predestined end." said the sinister Dark Hunter, calling up another mask from a pocket Suva. --------------------------------- Even with the Predestined faltering before the Skakdi, the Benevolence was carrying the field, Velika could see as he looked linearly along Time to see what was happening around him. The Malevolence was held frozen in time, and cautiously the Great Beings advanced to cut up the Great Beings. All at once a disturbance in space caught his eye. Out of it, all at once, appeared an army of Exo-Toa, 500 strong. One of them at the head was occupied: Angonce rode there, directing his upgraded machines as they charged, firing, full into the Barraki. Yelping among them ran metal wolves with fur in patches all over, a powerful warrior urging them on. Surel and the Iron Wolves were aided by other yelping shapes on all fours, who suddenly rose to hind legs to swing and fight, then dropped to run again, and they were led by a large Glatorian in red: Malum and the re-evolved Vorox of Bara Magna. The charge caught the Barraki leaders by surprise, and they had no time to slip away. Kalmah and Takadox went down to iron teeth and disappeared in biomechanical stomachs, and Mantax was mauled to death by Vorox. Ehlek held them off with his weapons, rallying his men. A blast from Angonce's armour made him realize retreat was not even an option: several hundred had fallen to that blast. Angonce had done something to them. At the same moment, Velika saw someone blurring up to him with a Mask of Speed. He lashed out with Time: but he was not up against a Toa, or even against any normal being. He was up against a mind as great as his own, even if not entirely sane. The Mad Great Being knew exactly what he was facing, and his power hit the Mask of Time even as Velika used it. The Mask flew off Velika's face. Before Velika could react, the enhanced speed of the Mad Great Being had hurled him to the ground. Speed or no speed, the dimunitive body of the Matoran Great Being was stronger, and Velika held his own. "You!" he exclaimed in surprise. "I had not seen you for one hundred thousand years." the Mad Great Being roared. "Why did you try to kill me?" "You were keeping bad company, madman. It couldn't be helped." said Velika. Neimidian tore off a Mask of Strength Velika had summoned. "Why did you kill the little ones?" he cried. "They were little children, my own creations moving and speaking with minds of their own. How could you kill them?" He was hurled backward as Velika activated a repulsion-device. The Matoran Great Being magnetically pulled the Mask of Time toward him, and clapped it on his face. Mad, and the battling Malevolence, again froze in time. "I gave them minds. I took them back. I dispense life, and dispense also death." said Velika. "What do our creations matter, to beings as great as we? No, do not answer that; I know you cannot." The Mad Great Being answered. His power to bring objects to life lashed up the time-warp---and made the Mask of T

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 9: The Battle of Bitter Tears I: Melee The tide had decidedly turned. Though the Great Spirit was no longer in action, Sahmad was. Metal came to life, here and there then over there: he was not yet experienced enough for general control of large amounts of separate objects, so he was giving himself that experience by continuous activity. The Malevolence and the Alternate Teridax, watching from afar, knew they had to act, and act now. Space bulged and warped, and the horrified Benevolence saw from afar their feared brothers and sisters appear on the new plain left by the turmoils---that is, the series of vast sunk plains left by Sahmad's feet and the resultant earthquakes, amid which winding lands of buckled sand and rock half-melted from stress yet lay intact. The plains were fused rock, crushed and cooked by the weight of Sahmad. From somewhere in the woods Makuta Varian must also have been watching, for all at once with a thunderous crash the ground beneath various squads began to collapse as Skakdi of Earth and Stone used powers in tandem. The Skakdi sniped at first, hitting whatever they glanced at. From the opposite side, to the west, Alternate Teridax appeared with his forces. The white Rahkshi were everywhere, withdrawing Peace and inflaming Zeal and Courage. A forty-foot dragon spewing powers charged by itself. The Toa and Teridax formed a tight band, powers spraying out from them in rainbow bursts. Then, as the already rattled armies of Velika gave battle to these forces, from the north came a roar like the sea, and a host, mingled and vast, poured out of the trees. Toa and Kanohi users wearing Rahi Control masks rode atop entire squads of colossal cyborg and biomechanical creatures, dinosaurs and Rahi charging in unison. Tens of thousands of Agori and Glatorian indiscriminately mingled with hundreds of thousands of Bionicles. Raanu rode at their head, relaying signals via Krakua who caused sound waves to beam direct to those who needed to hear them. Battle was joined with a crash that shook the earth and a fountain of superpowers. Soon the dust and smoke and flaring lights buried all view of the awful scene from any save telepathic beings. Krakua had to call up a Suletu to aid Raanu in overseeing his troops. In reserve waited the Element Lord of Earth and the Jungle Agori (though Earth intended only to minimize casualties), and the Jungle Agori, and Malum and his Vorox. The Malevolence, 10 Great Beings with masks flickering on and off their faces as they dismissed or called them from their suvas, stood on a great broken crag of new stone on the edge of a Sahmad print. The Benevolence saw their powerful troops firing their awful weapons frantically and almost at will, giving ground. "I think we may need to take a hand, brothers." said one. "It will do no good." said another. "We are scholars and creators, not warriors. We are facing warriors greater than we." "Then perhaps if we beat up the rooster, the hens may fall in line." said Velika. All seven of the surviving Benevolence turned to stare thoughtfully at the row of hooded and mantled figures on the height, the air shimmering around them with mask powers. "They are more than we are." said the second Great Being. "And I do not see Neimidian, nor Angonce. I fear what they may bring in at the last moment." Velika lifted his pocket Suva. All the masks he had rescued were there, in miniature, to expand when he summoned them. "That assumes the Malevolence has enough time." ------------------------------------ "You're not your normal self." said Takanuva as the Toa paused for a rest. The host of the Benevolence had drawn back, throwing up elemental barriers, and the charge of Teridax was brought to a halt. "I think you're wearing the wrong mask." "I cannot wear the Mask of Shadows, even upside down." said Teridax in a despairing voice. "That's not what I meant. You're barely fighting. If I didn't know better I would say you had something in your stomach." "I cannot fight!" cried Teridax. "I fear myself, Toa. I am stained. I dare not let myself go. I have begun. This was how your Teridax went wrong. I dare not let my violence grow." "You haven't done anything, what are you talking about?" Teridax turned tormented blue eyes on him. "I used the Mask of Shadows." he croaked. "Shadow only leads down. It grows easier and easier. Soon you rely only on it. Soon you find yourself doing vile deeds. Moral Shadow, and elemental Shadow, it takes a will of adamant to separate them. My double did not have that will. I do not have that will. I used a power I know is immoral, and that means I am immoral. It will only grow worse." "So let me see," said Takanuva sarcastically, "you used elemental Shadow to slow down a bunch of artificial monsters that you didn't even kill, despite your approval of killing in battle, and now you're moaning and groaning like you murdered a Matoran. I think you've been too long underground with Great Beings. You've lost all sense of proportion." "But I used---" "Will you stop that?" snapped Takanuva. "I don't care how Makuta fell. You're not him and you never will be. Your ridiculous scruples are going to cost us lives, as you wail about a little use of Shadow while we're looking to you to fight! You did a minor thing. It wasn't even wrong. You said yourself it is what you do with Shadow that makes it right or wrong. Now put on that da m n Mask and start using it!" He ripped off the Mask of Plant Life and threw it on the ground with a clatter. "And by the way, your angst fits just look silly." "Thank you, Takua." said Teridax hollowly. "You are of course completely correct. It is the deed that matters, not the power. Scruples are for peacetime." He sighed. "Will I need a lot of meditation." The Mask of Shadows reappeared on his face as he teleported it: but upside down. Takanuva reached up and flipped it around. "And for Mata Nui's sake, stop taking yourself so seriously." he added. Teridax swallowed, hard. "Well? What's the word?" said the Toa of Light testily. "Yes, of course." Teridax frowned as he sent his thought across the battle. "The Benevolence for the first time in recorded history is actually fighting in person---with the Malevolence. I do not see Angonce; he is in reserve. Baterra are among Raanu's forces, shapechanging and striking: but they do not yet know about our Masks of Mechanics. I'll send some of the Toa there." Fifteen Toa vanished, already calling Masks of Mechanics from their pocket Suvas. "Miserix.....where is that dragon?" "You can't track him?" said Takanuva. "He has a very powerful will." said Teridax. "It took surprise to enable me to beat him in our first meeting. I fear he plans treachery. Do not hesitate to kill him, Toa of Light.......The Skakdi and Varian have breached the barriers and are at a standstill in a long front--every one of them is fighting. Varian seems to be using Metal power most, but he's getting creative with the Makuta powers. Very well, this is the plan. The Turaga Nui spoke to you?" "Yes, he told me all. Do you think I should do it now?" Teridax shed Peace and withdrew Courage from the enemy in the vicinity. "Yes. While Velika is busy. We will force him out of his body. I am sending in the one Great Being who can fight him." "Don't hesitate to use Shadow." said Takanuva with a faint smile, and was gone at the speed of light. ------------------------------------- II: The Skakdi Quest: Forest of Nightmare The Skakdi of Light and Shadow emerged with vast relief from the oppressive cypresses of the Swamp of Fear. The way ahead was at least dry, under the shadow of huge hemlocks and fern-trees that formed great bases of roots, like mounds. The light was dim and green. It felt oppressive. "How much farther we got?" said a Skakdi of Light. "We've got to reach the White Quartz first." said Skiff. "The Chair of Vision isn't on a height, though; it's sunk in a deep and hidden valley. Varian gave me as much as he could see of the area, but he said the land was---haunted." "That doesn't mean ghosts, do it?" said Dezok. "Cause I had to fight a whole horde of life-sucking ghosts that were nothing but their spines." "Varian seemed to think we would be able to take them." said Skiff. "We took out Irnakk himself, didn't we?" This made both Shadow Skakdi much perkier, he was relieved to see. The trees grew deeper and darker. Dark green boughs shut out the sky, and only the glowing eyes of the Skakdi and the glowing left hand of Skiff lessened the gloom. Great rocks lay all around, recently broken with very ragged edges but softened by what looked like ages-deep moss. They were of white quartz and pale cream feldspar, and once Skiff was certain he made out a gem. The rocks grew closer, until they found themselves staring up a defile between broken hills. Broken after the Melding, Mata Nui's Green Thumb had only raised up fallen hills, not individual boulderfields. "Something waits for us within there." said Skiff. The darkness was crawling. Skiff and the Skakdi of Shadow cut in their dark-vision, and stood, rooted to the spot. Skiff seemed merely horrified, but the two brothers looked ready to collapse. "Shed light." Skiff croaked. "All of you, shed light!" The Skakdi of Light, already badly alarmed from their memory of Irnakk, responded with a glare so intense the black Skadi howled and glued bands of Shadow over their eyes. Skiff joined with a blaze from his left hand. Cast into blinding exposure were forms so demented even the thoughts of Irnakk looked tame. These were things not only out of nightmares, but the nightmares of the mad. The monsters were even more terrified. Hissing, shrieking, gibbering, they flailed at the air with loathsome appendages as they tried to shield their grotesque eyes. Some were already giving ground and fleeing. "Attack!" roared Skiff. "All together, Light Blade Vortex!" Being Skakdi, even if unmutated, they had spent many nights around the campfire coming up with more and more destructive ideas for use of their powers. This was one of the more creative ones. They'd practiced it only once, as they did rather want the country around them to continue existing, let alone remain passable. All the Skakdi of Light merged their powers with Skiff. Blades of pure light sprang at the sky, descended and rotated. A titanic vortex of solid edged light spinning every way, light edged with destructive radiation, roared like a cyclone around them. Skiff kept it up for five minutes, then barked at them to cease fire. The light vortex faded out as they stopped generating it. Just as he had feared, the land for two miles on all sides of them no longer existed. Chewed not only into gravel but into powder, it had then been blown into vast hills of dust on the brink of a pit half a mile deep. They stood on a pedestal of solid ground, a few trees standing weird and green amid the white-pink waste. "Well, that'll fix them." said Dezok. "Get a Light wall around that dust, push it back in, try to fill the hole." said Skiff wearily. All of them created walls of solid Light and Shadow, then pulled on them. Plowing the hills of dust, the walls advanced toward the brink. Dust poured in a vast falls over the cliffs, huge billowing plumes boiling up. "Get a barrier over us, or we'll choke to death." said Skiff. A transparent dome of luminous solid light appeared over them, as the dust wave crossed the miles and engulfed them in a cloud so thick no one could have breathed it. Still they pulled at the plows, flattening the dust, till the entire gulf was filled, up to about fifty feet below the brink, with unsolid dust. "We should leave this here, make a natural wonder, the Dust Lake." chuckled Daktann. "It would all blow away. Groundwater will fill this up over time, and rains likely mat this down. Let's put a Shadow dome over this after we get clear." said Skiff. At his directions the Skakdi of Light made a floor of Light, stepped up onto it, closed the floor, and then lifted the entire capsule of light, Skakdi and all, levitating it across the dust lake. At the far side they created a thick layer of semi-solid Shadow to hold in the dust but let in rain. "You know, we could just fly there." said Dezok. "We might, at that." considered Skiff. --------------------------------------- III: All our Sins Remembered Alternate Teridax split the Toa. He led most of the veteran Toa in a spearhead assault that punched right into the Benevolence army. They found themselves facing----the Hand of Velika. The Mahri and Nuva with Orde and his two teammates were leading their own attack against the six Benevolent Toa of the abortive Nui. With them they bore the great cumbersome device. "Well, look who we've got, a bunch of traitors with a big machine." mocked the Benevolent Toa of Gravity. "What are they gonna do, throw it at us?" "Listen, brothers, I'd advise you not to come too close, please, we don't want to hurt you." said the Toa of Psionics. Orde, recognizing his element, arched an eyebrow. "A sister, hmm?" he called. "You'd be the Varian that Norik was sweet on, am I correct? What's got into you folks, anyway? You've seen what Velika will do." "You don't know anything about Norik!" she screamed: clearly the feeling had been mutual. Varian was a gender-neutral name, but a very archaic one, and her and the now-Makuta were the only ones Orde knew to bear it. "Don't you sully his name with your lies!" "Go fight half a mile to the east, you'll likely meet him head on." said Orde. "Why are you still with Velika, when he's clearly as evil as any Makuta?" "He's our father." said the Toa of Ice. The two groups stood still, 30 feet apart, battle raging around them. "We've learned a few things about family from these organics. You don't abandon your father in the middle of a war." "Even when he turns half a city into monsters?" said Zaria. "There's no proof of that." said Ice quickly. "It's war. Sometimes you need to take drastic measures." said the terse Toa of Air. "Besides," said the Toa of Smouldering, "the prisoner camps were for war training, not punishment. That's just propaganda about supposed abductings and violations." "You saps are going to go on jabbering that hooey till the crack of doom." snapped Chiara. "Well, I for one am done arguing." She reached down to the device Zaria held and pulled the On switch. A clattering hum came from the device. All elemental and Kanohi powers within 2000 feet died, except those of Orde, Zaria and Chiara. "We don't need to throw it." said Orde mildly. "My....my power...." gasped Smouldering. "Knock yourselves out." said Orde, and invaded their minds. The Suletu worn by the Toa of Ice being off, they were no longer shielded. In an instant they were out cold. Orde called up a Mask of Teleportation and telekinetically held all six, then looked around for somewhere to store them. The Tesara tree stumps, sheathed in limbs, caught his eye like hills far away, and he teleported there, hiding them under the new growth. "If you insist on being stupid, Toa-brothers, you'll just have to sleep it off." he muttered. "You can spout all you want when Velika's dead." The Psionic command he had put in them would keep them in suspended animation for months. He only hoped no telepathic beings found them before the battle was over. When he returned, he found his teammates staring in horror at a red-and-maroon figure marching through the battle toward them, still nearly a mile off. Marendar. "Turn that off." he directed. If it quenched Marendar's powers, they might have a chance. ---------------------------- IV: The Skakdi Quest: The Mercy of Destiny Using the dome of light (and soon outfitting it with jets, as the Skakdi of Shadow fired continuous Shadow energy behind them), the Skakdi made excellent speed. A consuming sense of haste drove all of them; the Great Spirit Sahmad was visible thousands of miles east, almost a normal being in size at that distance, until you saw the blueness of vast distance between them and it. The voice of Sahmad reached them dimly. "Ain't that our old universe?" said Daktann curiously. "Our what?" said a Skakdi of LIght. "You didn't know? We were all stomach germs in Mata Nui's body." grinned Dezok. The Great Spirit sank and fell not long after, but the flash and glare of countless powers still beat up like heat lightning on the vast horizons of Sphereus Magna. Ahead the western outliers of the White Quartz range loomed, rounded mountains with rose and white cliffs ringed by beards of green. The smallness of the trees on them with distance made them look mossy. "Gotta land." Skiff grunted. "We need a rest." The tired Skakdi eased the bubble to the ground and let go of it, resting with eyes shut and figures drooping as fierce insects buzzed and banged in vain on the translucent walls. Thus it was that none of them knew of the advance of the beings that were gathering until Skiff suddenly sprang up: he had felt the presence of evil. "On your feet." he said. "We're surrounded." "Pray do not let me disturb your rest." said the dark, sinister and thoughtful voice of a being they had thought safely removed from the world. Shadows swirled apart, and a tall splendid figure, completely material, stepped out into view. He was no longer grey, black and gold: his entire body was a stained and rusted umber-bronze. But his staff was the same, and the red light of his eyes. The Shadowed One. "I thought Destiny ate you for dinner." said Skiff. "Destiny." Bitter, self-loathing laughter shook the Shadowed One. "Destiny is beyond comprehension. Either that, or he is a fool, which he manifestly is not. He let me go. He told me I had seen and heard, and hoped I would be wiser. And I am, for I have seen the limits of Destiny." "Varian said you were all into predestination. Destiny doesn't have limits." "I know better. Fate is only in hindsight and foreknowledge. The Present, where the looms of Fate are woven by Time, is up to us to weave, as we see fit. He pushes from behind, but we can defy him. Our wills sway one way and another, and Destiny knows which, and groans. I intend to make him groan a great deal more." Grey-black beams of disintegration blazed from him, and the dome fell. "I know what your destiny is. I intend to thwart it. I know what Destiny is weaving far away in the battle. I intend to disrupt it. I was a fool, and thought I could channel Destiny, and found it was pulling my strings all along. Thank you, by the way, for listening to my grand evil plan and not attacking me." Disintegration beams shone from his eyes upon Skiff. The rays expired upon the lifted left hand of the Skakdi of Light and Shadow. His other hand reached down, to a large bulky object that had been resting on the floor of the bubble, now on bare ground. "Rays are radiating energy, and all radiation falls under the province of Light. Now I will give you a choice, Shadowed One. Leave us be, or you shall meet your worst fear!" Up from the ground lifted his other hand, holding in it a great bulky weapon, weighted with two skulls, livid green balls blazing in the slot. It fired even as he lifted it. The Shadowed One shot it with his eyebeams, which seemed to be the only power he retained at all, and behold they passed through the sphere as if through air. The zamor hit him in the leg and passed into his flesh, and instantly the power of Irnakk to incarnate one's worst fear, which those zamors still bore, activated. The great criminal crumpled, a cry of woe, despair and anguish breaking from him: the look on his face was of one confronted with the most loathsome thing on earth. The Skakdi did not need Skiff's shout: they attacked, instantly, unleashing blasts of Light, shields of solid Light surrounding them as they hacked their way through the Predestined. A sudden darkness fell on the forest, so thick it quenched sound waves; beings flailed about in panic and struck out at one another. The Skakdi, free of the deadly ring, broke into full run. Light helped them move faster. The Predestined would get clear of the Shadow-cloud after a while, and who knew what they might do. "What the heck did you do to that guy?" said Daktann. "He beheld his worst fear." said Skiff. "His worst fear now is to see himself as he truly is, for that was all he could see when in the grip of Destiny. "Wow." said Dezok. "We are very close." said Skiff. ----------------------------- V: Fall of the Hand Many such scenes were playing out across the heartbreaking field. Every now and then in the swirling madness, Glatorian would meet Glatorian or Agori they knew, and both would stare in pain, and either avoid each other or hold a brief and fruitless debate, often at swordpoint punctuated by blows. Both sides were terribly conflicted. Those for the Benevolence felt themselves fighting a last-resort war in defense of a social order that had only really existed a week or two and was no longer there, against terrorists and idiots who just would not see reason. Those against Velika knew they were trying to topple a ruthless cadre of Great Beings gone bad, whose atrocities were becoming so self-evident there was no other way to survive except to cast him down: and why were their friends and fellows such imbeciles? Conflicts were half-hearted, wrenched with grief; both sides wished desperately for some divine machine to pop in from the heavens and give them an excuse not to fight. It was far worse than the Core War. It was why the battle was named afterwards that of Bitter Tears. Visten, Toa of Plant Life, surrounded by a milling vortex of battling plants that defended him, saw something so weird happen nearby it looked simply unnatural: a Matoran's head popped right off and fell to the ground for no reason. He wondered for a split second if it was his imagination, before instantly realizing who it was. Jerbraz. The plant wall around him exploded as the unseen sword diced it up. Visten knew perfectly well Jerbraz would then spring as far away as possible while Visten fruitlessly flailed the area: but he was a Toa of Plant Life, and Jerbraz was in for the fight of his life. Mildew sprouted for hundreds of yards around. Mildew keyed to find Jerbraz. There! The mildew tracked the invisible assassin as he delicately slipped among the warring armies, and Visten waited. The mildew had been stepped on: Jerbraz was in his power now. He just didn't know it. When Jerbraz began circling back toward the Toa of Plant Life, oblivious of the moldy ground, the mold on his feet activated a particularly nasty trait Visten had put into it: it coated him instantly in a huge sticky cloud of asthmatic spores. The spores glued to Jerbraz and no one else. Choking, gasping for air, his lungs heaving horribly, the once-invisible Order member could no longer even walk. Visten stood before him. "I know all about you, from your pal Mazeka." he said. "You were supposed to be getting those blue-energy powers everyone else has in your Order, but the experiment blew up. You are only invisible; you have no other power. You can't even wear Kanohi." "You certainly are a fine and morally honorable being." sneered the heaving assassin. "You don't even bother killing face to face.....you....take them out.....long-range. You cheat.....you have no honor...." "I was under the distinct impression you were supposed to be handsome." said Visten, looking at the mold-plastered face. "It looks like the ugliness in your soul has eaten out into your body. Anyone who sides with Velika is a monster, O mighty Hand of Velika: and I intend to cut that Hand off." The assassin did not answer: he was trying to breathe. Visten turned away. "I don't have to kill you." he said. "I simply won't remove that mold. You'll die in three more minutes." A crunching thud sounded from behind him as Jerbraz keeled over. The life had expired from his eyes. "Or maybe a bit less." said Visten. ----------------------- The tremendous powers of the Hand of Velika ground the small army of over 30 Toa and a Makuta to a halt. Teridax held up one hand: and the Hand of Velika found their powers wavering as his telekinesis held the blue energy in a wavering ball. "What has gotten into you people?" the Alternate Makuta boomed. "You were once the Order of Mata Nui. You fought against my evil brother. Why do you now battle to aid one equally evil?" "You've lived too long in your nice Melded dimension, Light Freak." growled the Order member Tahu had wounded. "You have your head in the clouds, prating of ideals and moral dilemmas while the social order cracks around you. Don't you see, that Velika's system was the only way? You're a champion of peace and order, and yet here you are!" "Look around you!" thundered the Makuta of Light. "Can you forget so easily the screams of New Atero, whose population went into Velika's engines and came out as monsters? Or are you like Helryx and Artakha, those criminals who committed atrocities because they were necessary? Let the Hand be destroyed, if such iniquity is what they believe!" He set his teeth and used the Mask of Shadows. Darkness so thick it choked off breath closed over the Hand of Velika. Unable to see or breathe, they reeled, gagging. Tahu marched up. Teridax looked at him with red eyes through the blazing slits of the gold mask. "Do what is right; I dare not." he said. "Not with this mask." "Toa don't kill." muttered Tahu. He sent Molecular Disruption into the bodies of the Hand. They disintegrated into dust. Teridax released the shadows, and they watched somberly as seven of the most powerful beings from the Matoran Universe blew away on the wind. ---------------------------------------- VI: The Marendar Unopposed, the Toa cut into the armies of the Benevolence like a hot knife in butter. Teridax was in the fore, Kraata powers and bursts of light no less than thrown hammer-blasted Vorox and Skrall marking his progress. Then from behind a new army surged onto the field. Well-disciplined, it was entirely of Bionicles, and they all had Xia-made weapons of horrible power, and at their head were the last four Barraki warlords: Takadox, Ehlek, Mantax and Kalmah. They cut off the Toa from Teridax's troops, and the Makuta of Light looked back and teleported to defend them, leaving an illusion of himself to lead the Toa. He was only just in time. The illusion sputtered and went out. The powers of the Toa, as well as of every Kanohi user in the area, suddenly died and went out. Over the heads of the army they saw a red-and-maroon being, blades unfolding from its' arms, making not for them but for three lone Toa not far off. The Marendar was quenching Kraata powers as well, for Velika had upgraded him. Teridax would have been dependent entirely upon his own mind and the hand of his mind: it was not a known Kraata power. "My Golden Armour still works." said Tahu, casting Chamelon power over the Toa. "Get clear, and stay clear. Understand? I'll fetch the Toa." "Understood." said Kopaka. The Toa turned to the fray, using their Bionicle strength--even Skrall barely came close to a Toa---and bare weapons to cut their way out. Don't trouble yourself, old man, said a dry voice in Tahu's head. It was Orde. We can handle ourselves. "What the Karz?" said Tahu. "I thought that thing turns off--oh, right. You're immune." Yep. We have a plan. You can provide covering fire, if you insist on butting in. "I've fought this thing before. It'll Adapt to whatever you use on it and copy it once." Bit difficult if it's shut off. Tahu teleported to a bulge of buckled ground. There was the Marendar, breasting the strife and completely ignoring everything around it. He put out Slowness power upon the machine. As Marendar creaked in slow motion, Orde threw the switch of the large ancient device. The Toa-quenching machine turned off every single elemental power the Marendar possessed. The machine looked slowly down at itself, then Adapted to the Slowness and strode on. The eyes, for the first time, showed something akin to rage. Orde and Zaria seized Marendar in telekinesis and metal powers---and felt their powers fumble and expire on it. The machine had only had its' elemental powers turned off. All three Toa with exasperated growls called up Masks of Mechanics. Seizing the mechanics of Marendar, they began to grind him to bits. The Marendar Adapted to the attack. All three Toa screamed as their mechanical parts groaned. Orde and Zaria were barely able to hold off the Mechanics power with their own. Marendar then shed Slowness on them. Tahu ran through the Kraata powers rapidly in his head. Darkness would only blind the machine half a second. Stasis might hold him, until he Adapted. Confusion, Sleep, Hunger, the same. But Tahu also had Adaptation. Could he withdraw an ability from others he had Kraata power over? He could only try. Marendar was not ceasing his use of the Mechanics power, and while he was still using it it counted as one use. The question was whether, like the Makuta, the machine could not use two powers at once. He hurled a large boulder: the machine saw it coming and turned invisible, presumably dodging it. So much for that theory. But if the elemental powers were turned off...... Tahu began throwing rocks as fast as he could. Rocks clanged and crashed off the Marendar: but did not even dent it, let alone budge it. The machine was Adapting to being struck by rocks. Tahu set his teeth and withdrew Adaptation from the machine. He frowned. There seemed an unlimited amount of Adaptation to withdraw. He stopped as he realized the grim truth. Adaptation could Adapt to withdrawl of Adaptation. The Yesterday Quest team gave back before the steady advance of the Toa-killer. Tahu froze it in stasis, in Sleep, in Slowness, and each time it only halted for a moment. A crackling greenish line rose up the middle of Marendar. The machine froze in place. An expression akin to horror crossed the mechanical features. A dimensional portal was opening in the middle of Marendar, and until whatever came through it that had created the portal, Marendar was held there. But no one came through the sideways portal. It just stayed there, half of Marendar showing each side of it when the YQ Team looked at the portal

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 8: The Great Spirit Sahmad "The Element Lord of Sand cannot be defeated." said Tahu. "Onua tells me Toa of Rock cannot control sand, neither can Earth unless enough soil is in it." "That is why we need to make a new Toa." said the Mad Great Being. "The Malevolence may be under siege, but we have maintained the shield-drop allowing for a fast teleport. Only one of us can get in, however, before the Whatevers rush the drop." "And why there?" said Tahu. "Because we built the Toa there." said Neimidian. "And from what that poor mad Toa of Magnetism says, the equipment is still there." "Are you saying we transform an existing Toa, or make a Mask of Sand or something?" "A mask cannot absorb enough elemental energy to hold bound an Element Lord, for the element is alive that the mask is trying to drink, and it is resisting the pull, but the Toa, he can absorb so vast an amount at one time, the essence cannot flee once the drain begins. And a Toa is built for his element; I do not think we could change his element with what we have. It can transform a Matoran into a different element, however." "And you found somebody crazy enough to volunteer?" said Tahu harshly. "Or angry enough to." said a cold voice. A Ko-Matoran marched into the room. "It's about time I get to strike back at something." "Mazeka." muttered Tahu. "Yes, that does sound about right." "The Great Beings are quite capable of doing their job." said Mazeka. "Pain is something I can handle. And when it is done, I will be the first Toa of Sand." --------------------------------------- The shaking took the Benevolence entirely by surprise. It was no mere earthquake. It was an earthbreak. The shielded shell remained intact, but the hollow faceplate of the Great Spirit was fracturing and shuddering fit to burst. "Evacuate!" Velika's thought screamed to the Benevolence. Some paid no attention, others scoffed, and only two others of the seven activated Artakha masks and fled. Then the shielded ground was no longer able to hold up, for the entire face of the Great Spirit, hundreds of miles across, had broken loose and was falling into the ruined dome. Then the Benevolence, barely in time, realized their peril and fled. The fortress, built by the dream to survive anything, remained intact. So did the shielded ground beneath it. But the shaking was not coming from the Head alone---it came from every part of the Great Spirit. Velika watched from the Tesara tree stumps, the befuddled Benevolence around him. What followed next was so stupendous it defied belief. The mountain range of the fallen robot, filling the earth to left and right, was moving. Over the dome of the Chest a vast hand of metal reached stiffly into the pit of the face and emerged, holding the shielded ground and fortress like a dinner plate. The arm flipped. Carelessly, like a tossed Kanoka, the shielded ground and the impregnable fortress spiraled end over end up into the sky, where it would descend in fiery ruin as the biggest meteor since the Aqua Magna chunk. The dream had never expected this kind of stress. And with it went all the equipment and workshops and notes and tools of the Benevolence, except for what was on their persons. Velika summoned mask after mask from his Suva, tore it off and tossed it down to summon another. The Mask of Creation and the Mask of Time lay tossed at his feet like so much rubbish. The other Great Beings were not following suit. Stunned, flabbergasted, dismayed beyond words, they simply gaped at the tremendous sight unfolding across the world. The entire range was getting up. Mountains levered on end like knees, and half a continent tilted ponderously upright, the torso of a sitting man. Unsteadily the mass rose to colossal feet. Filling the sky, filling the world, nine thousand miles high, the Great Spirit stood up again. Even where they were the earth shook and a bad earthquake wracked the new world. "Mata Nui is doing this!" one cried. "Nay," said another, "the Core Processor was destroyed in the fall of Makuta, and if it was not, the Metru Nui raid would have." "It cannot be a Toa," mused Velika, "and not a wraith from an Iden user, there is no core machinery.....it cannot be, and yet it is. They have created an Element Lord of Iron." The Great Spirit spun its' head. A gaping faceless void yawned down at them. As Velika hurriedly fumbled among his masks, the Great Spirit spat metal like a sea. The Benevolence, still wearing their Masks of Artakha, fled. The metal paused above Tesara and retracted. From the White Quartz the Benevolence stared in numb shock, still adjusting to their ruin. "I.....am.....Sahmad." the voice of the new Element Lord roared from every part of the continent-sized robot. "Fear me, Agori of the earth. Who is this Velika, that he should lead you all to destruction? The Malevolence at least will leave you alone. Desert the Benevolence. I will not warn you again. For I am Sahmad!" "Indeed he has a fine sense of the dramatic." observed one of the shaken Great Beings. "I fear, brother, that your power play is over. A firm hand only makes the spring rebound more violently." "There are many ways to shoot the Zarith, though he stand forty feet above you." said Velika. "If you run from it, it will only pursue." "He is right, brothers. Do we not still have two of the Legendary Masks?" said a third Great Being. "We will need to recall the siege in the north. Our troops are yet unfought in the field, and there are several wild cards in play." ------------------------------------------------ The group of tall straight Skakdi in white with gold tissue and non-horrible grins advanced across the new swamps and weird marshes that had once been the Sea of Liquid Sand. They had no fear of drowning or footing: some levitated, some accelerated speed to firm spots fast enough to skim water, and some just walked on roads of solid light. It was one reason Skiff was taking them this way, so they could hone their new powers by constant use. Daktann and Dezok, of course, did the same but using Shadow, and Skiff himself used both. "When do we make camp, boss?" called Dezok. Shadow power did not seem to be making him any less bluff and mocking: as this was his Destiny, it did not corrupt him. Moral Shadow also lay at their command: but only once could they use it, during the Illumination. "Light's fading." "I'm hoping to find an isle. Otherwise, 15 minutes and we do the Swamp Island routine." "15 minutes could save us 15% of effort." joked Daktann. They had headed west by northwest from the Skakdi Mountains. Varian had not said why that course before at last bending north, but the place where they were to Illuminate, which he had said was called the Chair of Vision, lay considerably west of even Tesara. And there were, as well, perils other than the Benevolence. The sun sank in deep red and violet fume into the flat expanse. Strips of silver-violet and silver-red amid the patchwork of banded brush, isles, pools and meres caught the sunset like a crust above underfire. A crust filled with holes. No firm spot big enough to hold them all had showed, and so the Skakdi used their powers. For laughs Daktann used his power in tandem with one of the morose Skakdi of Light: the two powers completely cancelled each other out. Prior to his transformation Daktann would likely have lost his temper at this; now he just rolled his eyes and used Shadow by himself. Solid Shadow formed piers rooted deep in the sandy swamp, and solid Light formed a floating island anchored by these. Then Shadow coated the Light so everybody could sleep and they wouldn't stand out like a beacon. Skiff set the cauldron boiling by an interplay of very hot Light reflected and cushioned by Shadow so it only boiled the water, not the cauldron. The few edible greens and non-poisonous fish and creatures were added. Today's catch was mostly snakes and one small Sand Snapper, a juvenile turtle. The adult could have fed an army. "Where d'y suppose all these critters lived when the place was total desert?" said one of the Red Star Skakdi. "I think Mata Nui's Green Thumb recreated extinct species, but as juveniles, or we'd have met with older creatures by now." said Skiff. Everything had been juvenile. "The Sand Snapper, though, that could survive in quicksand." But no giant extinct parent turtles disturbed their rest, and they proceeded on the morrow as before. The fume and smoke of battle, many-hued and weird, lay over Bara Magna beneath the east horizon, and hued the sun green and pink before it cleared the haze. That day the marshes drew to an end. They crossed one of the many winding ways that the dream had conjured up along the old safe-paths, except this was one of the roads created from scratch to seem as if done by elemental earth and stone powers. It was a good road, but it led back to Tesara, out of their way, and reluctantly the Skakdi resumed marsh-walking. The marshes here were bordered by woods, dwarf willows and swamp ash and maple rising from firmer parts, till dark cypress rose from standing water, great spikes of wood by which the trees breathed rising out of the scummy liquid. It had been fresh and clear when they first entered the marsh, and now an opaque cloudy greenness was growing in it, another sign of how new the swamp really was. The trees were deep and dark, shadowing the march and cutting off the sun. All at once Skiff halted. "Something wrong?" said Daktann nervously. "Cause I'm getting some bad feelings." "I do not like this." said Skiff quietly. "I feel Shadow ahead.....moral Shadow but not deliberate, more as of things created from scratch inherently evil." "It's worse than that." whispered Dezok. "It's madness I'm picking up. I don't just mean the things are insane.....I mean whatever made them wasn't sane itself." The brothers looked at each other quickly. "It can't be them." said Daztann loudly. "They'd be in the Skakdi Mountains still. We're too far away." "Who are they, and what are they?" a Red Star Skakdi asked. The two black Skakdi only shook their heads. The standing water, stagnant and undeep, rippled. Sluggish wavelets beat against the mats of Shadow and Light. Far beneath them Skiff could swear he saw shapes moving in the dull green murk. "It's coming." whispered Dezok. "I can feel it.....mad itself, by madmen made, it should not exist, but it does now, we made it, we didn't intend to, we feared, and it came." "It came out of your fears?" said Skiff slowly. The thick water began to bubble some ways off, as if the sandy ooze was being disturbed. Sunken leaves eddied darkly in the turgid yet luminous water. "The dream-eater ate our dreams, and we went mad, and the Fusion cried in fear, for our nightmares were coming to life, he makes dreams real, the dreams of mad as well as sane, he cannot help himself, and even with him dead the nightmares do not cease." Dezok babbled. Golden spikes, dull with green weeds, were rising slowly out of the water, and the water glowed the livid hue of zamor spheres. "It doesn't exist, it is a horror from campside tales told to terrify, but we fear, and it was in our minds, and it came to life." A great Skakdi head with burning eyes of a sickening neon green was rising from the water, dull golden spikes rising in a forest from a semi-detached spine. It held the Skakdi paralyzed; the hideousness of it shook even the Originals, who had never had the warlords tell such stories in the happier days before Spiriah demented their race, but in those stories it had a name, and the Skakdi of Shadow could not help but scream it. "Irnakk!!" ------------------------------------------- The Benevolence did not let Sahmad the Great Spirit go unchallenged. From where they had penned in the Tower of the Red Star, the Whatevers appeared, their great distorted forms wavering with the warps of their powers. Velika did not bother trying to use the Mask of Time on so vast a structure, for it was dead and no longer its' own universe: instead he sent his most powerful weapon, his thought, in quest of Sahmad's essence. The Great Spirit stepped. His stride crossed three thousand miles. The Whatevers were left half a continent behind. Suddenly he stood above the Benevolence, his vast simple fittings and joints like metal clouds on square lines. Only his mammoth knees, and outspread hands, could be seen. "Flee!" Velika roared. Sahmad must have figured out how to get some of the systems running. Unless he had pinned them by the metal of their masks, there was no other way he would have realized all his foes had randomly appeared at this spot. Even as the Masks of Artakha activated and space began to squirm around them, a pulse of gravity encased them, and their masks were needed to try to stave off the tremendous field. The Whatevers caught up, and that was the only thing that saved the Benevolence. None of them had made war, even Velika who had had a much more tumultuous life, and Sahmad had fought in arenas, and knew the law of quick offense. But when the Whatevers came like thunder across the land, and their elemental powers beat against key joints of the vast metal man, Sahmad had to let go of the gravity to defend himself. His enormous hand swung like the descent of the sky. Though their elemental Iron and Magnetic energies were beating against it with full strength, the descending weight was about fifty miles across. Fragments of Whatevers fell for thousands of miles around. -------------------------------------- In the army some hundreds of miles away, the six remaining Toa loyal to Velika came to an exhausted halt. "We need more than Masks of Speed to even keep up with that thing." gasped a Toa of Ice. He was a new Toa created by Velika. "And look at what it's done to the Horror Squad." said the Toa of Plasma who had once tried to rescue Tarduk. This was the unofficial nickname within the Benevolence for the Whatevers. "We can't fight a walking continent. This is Makuta Nui all over again." "We might, actually." said a Toa of Fire with a deep slow voice. The others called him a Toa of Smouldering. "If we all merge......the Toa Nui could take him down." "The Toa Nui is a myth." snapped a Toa of Gravity. "It's not even supposed to be possible. Kaitas of three are all formed to date." "Well, we can make a try none the less." said the only other existing Toa of Psionics besides Orde. "Then let us proceed." said a closemouthed Toa of Air. "Less chatter-talk." They joined hands. All 6 of them concentrated on their unity. "This feels odd-weird." said the Air Toa. Then bodies flowed together, merging, joining, combining, until there slowly got to his feet a towering figure, tall as three Toa, rippling with muscle. His armour was a mishmash of the colors of the beings who had composed him. His mask, many-sided, had, surprisingly, no access to the powers of the masks it had been made from, having only one power, Metal Control. This was likely due to Psionics having shaped the merge so as to directly control metal in some way. The Toa Nui transported himself to where the scattered remains of the Whatevers were being crushed by stomp attack. The Great Spirit Sahmad did not have to stamp---if he had, he might have cracked apart all Bara Magna---he merely stepped, his 50-mile-long foot crushing Whatevers into confetti, and leaving vast pits a mile deep. The troops of Velika were in full flight, leaving behind countless metal statues, entombed until they suffocated. A wave of power from the Toa Nui broke them free, and the Toa Nui caught the descending foot of Sahmad and held it with his powers. The vast leg shuddered with the effort, but the tremendously amplified strength of the Nui was mightier still, and the Mask of Metal Control began to displace Sahmad from the foot. The hand of Sahmad moved like a mountain, and the gravity that rushed from it could, if it was not set on purpose to short-range, have imploded all Sphereus Magna. The Toa Nui's entire strength was needed to hold it off: and then he merged powers, and Psionics shot and flashed through the Great Spirit. It reached the systems and disabled them, and the gravity ceased. A flash of elemental Metal energy entombed the Toa Nui three miles deep in metal: but his mind had already located that of Sahmad. Psionics attacked the iron mind of the ex-slaver. Slowly the Great Spirit reeled. The Toa Nui evaporated his tomb and shoved. Sahmad, unable to move the robot while under mental attack, moved his essence elsewhere in it. Psionics shot about, looking for him, and Sahmad withdrew himself from the Great Spirit as he gave it a counter-shove. Like a falling sky the metal man toppled forward upon the Toa Nui and the armies of Velika. The Toa Nui, using all his power, cut off the Great Spirit's gravity enough so it only alighted like a falling hill, and the tremor was merely enough to knock one down. Full upon the Toa Nui it fell. The impact shattered its' unity, and the six Toa sprawled apart, the concussion of their shattered field punching a deep crater in the ground the Great Spirit was crushing them into. Then gravity returned, and the Great Spirit settled, crushing half the dream-created settlements, which were empty mostly save for healers and suppliers. ------------------------------ Irnakk rose out of the fetid water. The nightmare of the Skakdi was gruesome enough to frighten even the Originals who had never heard of him. Squat and heavily-built, mostly Skakdi in general shape but huger, grosser, more powerful, he towered above them. A Zamor launcher weighted with two broad-jawed white Skakdi skulls lowered, pointing at them, lurid balls of livid green glowing inside it. His armour was blue, white and gold, filthy from swamp-slime. "What the h e l l are you?" said Skiff. The monster spoke, and his gruesome voice growled like thunder. "I am dread. I am terror. I am the shapelessness at the back of your mind, the shifting shadows you do not dare to glance at when you are abroad in the dark. I did not exist, but now I do. I am Irnakk." Zamor spheres flew from his launcher. The globe hit Skiff and passed through him without injury. He felt all the nameless things he feared rise, gibbering, within his mind. He remembered the awful feel of water pressing on his lungs when his ship trapped him in its' sinking hull. He saw the world now only through a shimmery film, and raw panic broke on him as he realized he was held in a bubble of water. He was going to drown, on dry land. Holding his breath he heard the screams of the others. Closest at hand, Daktann was boiling, losing shape, his greatest fear being that shadows would absorb him, as Spiriah had once nearly done. "Fear." said Irnakk. "It controls you. It comes to life and dominates the will, overpowering all thought and action. I am that fear. I drink in your screams. I glut myself with your terror." Of course, Skiff realized. The zamors brought your worst fears to life. What happened, therefore, if your fear ceased? He called upon the moral Light that filled him, and illumined his own mind. Drowning wasn't so bad, he saw at once. You choked, and you could not breathe, and the world blackened and faded. Terrifying, but not very painful. Not like being painfully disassembled and put back together, or having your face pulled off your skull as Mazeka had done. I'd take this death any day, he thought. There was a clatter, and a glass ball fell out of his chest and shattered. He had expelled the zamor sphere, and with it Irnakk's power to incarnate his fears, ceased. Beams shot from Irnakk's eyes, striking the gasping Skakdi. Skiff found himself changing, insubstantial, and then he was in a horror landscape. Just as Zaktann, he had been absorbed into the mind of Irnakk. But there was a difference. The Irnakk that Zaktann had met was only a creation of the Chamber of Fear, and his mind was like huge pink tubes. This Irnakk truly existed, however, and had an actual mind, not one derived from another: and accordingly Skiff found himself, not in the brain of Irnakk, but in a place of dementia. Distorted forms sprawled, squirmed and writhed all around him. "You are only a thought in my head." Irnakk's voice echoed from all around. "Be thankful you are on my mind for now, because if I forget you, you cease." "Not necessarily." said Skiff, closing his eyes. He knew the demented shapes were other thoughts, and were so sick that even moral Light might not preserve his sanity if he understood them. "A thought can be recalled to mind, existing in memory and the underconscious. You are indeed an idiot, you just-begotten monster. I have spoken face to face with the Virtues. I have drunk my own destiny, and you try to spook me with your tricks? Behold, Irnakk, exactly what you are!" He unleashed a blast of Moral Light. Irnakk's howl split the sky around him. Horrible thoughts writhed and contorted as they saw themselves for the first time: for who can see his own mind? Skiff crashed to the raft of solid light, intact and himself: Irnakk had had to expel him from his mind. There was no fear in Skiff now as he faced the wailing, blubbering monstrosity thrashing in the evil water. With a bolt of Shadow energy he destroyed Irnakk forever. The Skakdi around him got up, feeling themselves and looking frantically around: but their fears were no longer incarnate. They looked at the floating body of Irnakk with awe. Skiff took the Zamor launcher and held up a sphere, curiously. Greenish light still swirled in it. "These may come in useful." he said.

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 7: The Great Being Civil War, Phase II I: Siege of the Red Star Tower The Malevolence had no warning, of course. Destiny did not conveniently pop in to tell them to fight. Deep in their shielded fortress in the ice, now as well defended against thought and all forms of passage as was Teridax's base, the first the Malevolence knew of it was when space warped and thousands of duplicate monsters appeared on all sides of the Red Star Tower, and laid it siege. The shielded walls groaned under the assault of queer powers, but these shields had benefitted from the defeat at the Maze, and the Whatevers could not yet breach. Teridax had better luck: the Mad Great Being felt their life forces approaching and cried out, and Teridax and the Toa met the monsters. Miserix fought beside them, for he had to, those were his orders, and he knew the fate at Benevolent hands would be worse. With the kraata powers of no less than three Makuta, the Whatevers were ground to a stand. Miserix glanced over at Tahu using Darkness and hurling the immoral powers of Fear and Anger and Hunger, and gave a dangerous smile. "You are extremely good with your immoral powers." he observed as the two of them held off a crowd of monstrosities. "The powers are neutral." grunted Tahu. "It's what I do with a vice that counts as moral." "What would you say if you wore a truly immoral Mask?" smiled Miserix as he threw back a blast of plasma with his own plasma. "And what if it was the only thing that could overthrow these creatures? You command Darkness, but what could you do with pure Shadow?" "Because Shadow darkens your mind and makes you more prone to evil." said Tahu as he torched a Whatever so fast its' regenerative power was barely able to keep up. "But elemental Shadow is not the same as moral Shadow." sneered Miserix. "The Mask of Shadows, for instance, does not allow you to make a Shadow Hand." One appeared from his chest as he spoke, snatching and absorbing a Whatever in a flash. Miserix burped. "Takanuva told me that it requires a will like iron to pick and choose between the moral and immoral attributes of Shadow." said Tahu as he Adapted to a bolt of weirdness. The Golden Mask of Shielding caught four other bolts. "Teridax might. I can't." "Well, that is all very well," said Miserix, "but I have not succeeded in killing any of these new monsters save by absorption. But Shadow---do you want to see what Shadow can do?" A void of darkness yawned around twenty Whatevers, and winked out, showing---nothing. "I sent them to the darkness inside the heart of the world, where lava cannot melt from the pressure and there is no light because there is no room. The pressure smashed them and lava cooked them. Shadow connects you to all shadows." "Like I said, that wasn't immoral. Eating them was." "Ah, Tahu. The Shadow Hand comes only to Makuta, and only after they opened themselves to Shadow. The Mask of Shadows does not grant that." "There are some powers," said Tahu grimly, holding the dragon's eyes, "the very use of which is immoral." "You might as well stop using Fear and Anger, then. And what about Hunger? Admit it, little Toa, the distinction between good and evil is arbitrary, a line drawn in the dirt. There is no difference between the dirt on either side." There was a crash and boom. The 20 Whatevers he had sent away returned, their corpses radiating destructive energy. Both Tahu and Miserix were barely able to quench it. Velika had upgraded them. The Toa were forced back, back and farther back. Soon all of them were crowded in a group, and Teridax alone with his telekinesis seemed to be the reason why the weird powers were not crushing them from the earth. "We have to retreat!" shouted Tahu. "We can hold the shop!" "We cannot." gasped Teridax. There was a flash as six Toa joined powers and bound one Whatever in a Toa seal: six thousand more surged past it. "Velika is creating more, and more, and more of these automatons. The originals were once people: these are artificial. There are only two options. One is to flee. The other----" "Then use the other!" shouted Takanuva as vortexes of light blades kept Whatevers busy. Teridax said no word: his eyes were tormented behind his mask. He reached up to his face, and screwed his mask around. The malevolent beetle-like eye slits running up the side of the Mask of Shadows all of them knew were glowing red amid the gold of the mask. Then Teridax used Shadow. The darkness inside every one of the thousands of monsters at once turned against them, hampering the connection of their bodies to the delivery system of their powers. All around them, the monsters slowed and reeled, gazing down at themselves in some faint shadow of alarm: for none of them could use a single power. Miserix might have achieved such an effect himself, if he had thought about it with anything like the philosophical precision of Teridax: but his will was not as great as that of the Makuta of Light, and even though Teridax had never used Shadow, his use of it was stronger. "Now we can flee." croaked Teridax. He flipped the Mask of Shadows back around, and they found themselves in the fractured caverns. Toa of Stone got to work mending the walls, and injured were cured by Masks of Regeneration and Quick Healing power. "Well done, brother." said Miserix softly. "It seems common sense is prevailing at last." The blue eyes burst into red light, and laser vision sliced a huge hole in the dragon's armour. Frantically Miserix tried to repair it by shapeshifting flaps over the hole. "You know nothing!" the Makuta of Light howled; there was such rage, woe and anguish in his normally calm voice it was a profound shock. "You don't even know what the word means! Do you see what I have done to myself? Already I lose control. It becomes easy to do wrong. Do not speak to me again, monster, or I may lose my temper and murder you!" Miserix, with a wary expression, retreated in smaller form to the far end. Teridax sat down with his head in his hands. Shakily he took off the Mask of Shadows and replaced it with a Mask of Plant Life. It looked completely wrong on him. "We have word from the Malevolence." said the Mad Great Being, coming up. "The siege has captured the outworks. They have retreated to the Pits of Despair and unleashed the horrors they bred there. It was entirely useless. They have already sent three creations designed to kill Whatevers, only for them to fall. Angonce sends word as well, that all of us should fall back to his lair. He says there are new forces coming up from the south, and they are not good." "What forces specifically?" said Tahu. "We designed them, and left them for Mata Nui to build, yet we felt they were important." Mad replied. "We did not know why. But someone has tampered with them, and altered their destiny, and at the same time fulfilled it. We felt they were important to us, and so they are---for they will be our bane. They are called Skakdi." "I will go to Angonce myself, then." said Tahu. "Good. Tell him we stand ready to fall back at need." Angonce, upon contact, opened a hole in the shields, and Tahu teleported in. Angonce had not been idle. Equipment roared, hummed and muttered on all sides. "Show me the battle." said Tahu. "Show you?" said Angonce. "What is easy for my mind to understand, yours would not, for you have no background in this. But as you wish, look, if you can." He gestured to a series of branching crooked screens flickering and scintillating. "These symbols translate not only to pictures but to many kinds of information when my eyes cross them. Activate your Mind Control power, only direct it as I show you in your head, and you will see by telepathy." Tahu found an eye opening in his head. It was very disturbing. He found his sight leap and soar out over Bara Magna. "The Benevolence has emerged." said Angonce. "They do not only trust in the creations of Velika, which keep the powerful ones pinned down. They lead armies now. The new forests are blasted aside as they march. What survives the Whatevers, falls to the troops." Tahu's new sight saw the prone figure of the Great Spirit in the distance, riddled with holes, the mutant spike of the Palace like some kind of beard. He saw a huge strip blasted in the new green, hundreds of miles across and already a thousand long. "They are laying bare the domain of the Element Lord of Sand, to tempt him forth." said Angonce darkly. "He can consume them all, if the baterra do not get him first." The armies of the Benevolence seemed to consist of all kinds of beings. Skrall and Vorox, that was a given, but the infantry of Glatorian, Bionicles, Agori and even Toa, was a jolt. "We have less than half their numbers." Angonce said. "Fear, doubt, confusion, misplaced loyalty, and simple treachery, aided by mind tricks, are far more effective than the call of a hopeless fight on the entire social order. We will be killing our friends, brothers, neighbors--yes, we, Tahu. I do not intend to sit here like an ancient spider waiting to be stomped on. I have reworked the Exo-Toa. At the right moment, Angonce will come forth." "We have to kill the Benevolence, then." said Tahu. He laughed harshly. "Just this morning I protested killing Element Lords. Now I'm seriously considering killing Great Beings." "Now look this way." said Angonce. Tahu's sight shifted, panning through the forests. There. The woods were crawling with colorful beings. Beings built strong once, but now bent and deformed. And at their head were two figures. Brutaka, and a Makuta. "Perhaps you know better than I, Tahu, what the Vessel of Antidermis may have in mind: but no one can fathom a Makuta." "You read my mind!" accused Tahu. "No, I decided to be polite and go with what I could see in your eyes." said Angonce in his weird whispery voice. "But I may help us, Tahu, if the things you met with in the Skakdi Mountains were shared with your allies." "Sorry." said Tahu bluntly. "I know you are trusty enough, but you might decide to tell your sinister brethren. And as far as that goes, all I met was talk. Deeds reveal intention." -------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Sahmad's Second Tale: (Here I present the first of the promised excerpts from the second part of the metal-paged document. The shift in viewpoint from first person to second is my main reason for believing that Sahmad copied a draft he wrote prior to his destiny and composed the rest after achieving it, as he would feel remote from his former self.) Sahmad and the Iron Tribe moved carefully through the newly wooded Bara Magna. "We're lost, aren't we." complained Tellurio. "I have an approximate idea of our location," Sahmad said dryly, "but unfortunately rather a wide one. I doubt we've come farther south than Tesara, and I can't see the Prone Metal Man from trees any more, so we're also far enough west to be within Tesara range." "And I suppose we really want to be in Tesara." pressed the Iron Glatorian. "We came to fight. A small band like ours can't do much anyway, especially against a Great Being. And from the fireworks displays, they're going all out." said Sahmad. "But if Tesara is under Velika control, maybe we get to mess up his fruit pudding a little." "And news at the least." said the old blacksmith. Sahmad was about to send one of the younger Iron Agori to swarm another tree and scan for the monster stumps, unaware that these were concealed by new shoots so as to seem like very steep hills, when he saw Mata Nui. That's who it looked like, at least. The ex-slaver whipped out his weapons, but then frowned: Mata Nui hadn't been silver, or built in that shorter-armed machine-like way. The helmet was the same, but that didn't mean much. "Identify yourself." he said crisply. The biomechanical person only gazed at him. White eyes glowed behind the helmet with features formed by a spread-eagled man. "I am the Mask of Life." he said at last. "You for or against Velika?" Sahmad was in no mood for riddles. "I am Life." said the strange being. "I am a mask, and I made myself a body. Now Life shakes, as my creators forget what they once were and only think of how to overcome one another. The fortress of Velika and his stronghold rests upon a flaw: it stands on a hollow dome. Your destiny is near, Sahmad. Mata Nui sent me to look for you." "So the old busybody's still around, is he?" said Sahmad with a curled lip. The Ignika ignored the remark. "To fulfill your destiny, you need power. A power I cannot give you, but do not need to, for it is very close. But to receive it you must be disposed. The chambers cannot transform Agori, only Glatorian. I can make you that, and give you what knowledge you need." The Mask of Life glowed. Sahmad gasped as armour shifted and stretched, limbs grew, muscles bulged, and then he was standing on new feet, looking down at people he'd previously been on eye level with. He looked around, but the Mask of Life was gone, leaving Sahmad a Glatorian. (end excerpt) -------------------------------------------- II: Battle of the Skakdi: The Fall of Brutaka The Benevolence rode at the head of their armies in huge war-machines that stalked like spiders across the blasted-bare sand. Unseen, the baterra waited. But the Element Lord of Sand was not taking the bait, and nothing was happening from him. What did happen was a sudden flash and boom along the entire edge of the forest for miles. A blast of fire burst upon the army, to be quenched by the more powerful beings. Out of the trees charged---Skakdi. The barbarians were not simply charging in disorder as they had in the Bara Magna Battle. They charged in packed groups, accompanied by controlled use of powers that blew a large dent in the forces wheeling to face them. Amid them floated a tall figure in gold, muscles breaking his armour, a greenish light about him. Molecular disruption from two Makuta shattered the war machines instantly, taking the Benevolence right out of the fight. Unseen amid the ranks was a simple Po-Matoran, dwarfed from Karzahni. Nobody saw the mask switch on his face as he called it up. It was an Elemental Mask of Fire. Reaching out with his mind he seized the possessed mind of Brutaka. Brutaka tried to distract him by cutting off half the host from the ground, sending them howling into the air. A leader would have tried to save his troops, but Velika knew better. Troops were collateral. He closed his thought around the dual minds of Brutaka. The Vessel of Antidermis saw where his assailant was. The shields of the Order of Mata Nui fought back with a Makuta's strength against the unimaginable mind of Velika. While Velika was busied in tearing them open, Brutaka teleported in front of him and unleashed---not Makuta powers, but his own native blue energy, and energy as great as a bomb. It was consumed in the blast of elemental Fire Velika was directing on him. On his face the Elemental Mask of Fire glowed red-hot from the stress Velika was putting on it: it only had a limited amount of elemental energy. Velika drew and drew and drew on the mask, as his mind gripped and held both Brutaka and the last surviving portion of Antidermis, and the Order shields groaned and buckled. Brutaka directed all his strength into one Kraata power: Heat Resistance. It was an open bet which would burn out first, the Mask or the Resistance power's heat threshold. Unfortunately for Brutaka, the concentrated strength of the heat Velika was creating passed that threshold. Brutaka burned like a torch, illumining the battlefield around him as evening closed down, and the Mask on Velika's face crumpled and went grey, drained of power. Evening, but no night. Powers burst and flared as the Skakdi fought with a controlled violence that made them more than a match for the superior numbers and fabulous weaponry of Velika. Makuta Varian sent his thought about the battle, too late to aid Brutaka, but not too late to see Velika. He unleashed a blast of Iron energy which would not only entomb the Matoran Great Being, but fill his lungs. Velika was as fast as he was. Even as the energy began to crystallize, the Mask of Time appeared upon his face. "Pull back!" the thought of Makuta Varian roared into the minds of his troops. The mist of hardening iron froze in time around Velika, and the Matoran calmly walked out of it, then let go as a blob of iron appeared well away from him. This gave Makuta Varian time to teleport over half his troops out of the battle. All over the battlefield time slowed and increased, and the Skakdi struggled drunkenly with suddenly-fast foes. Makuta Varian teleported where he could, and the Skakdi gave ground, and dawn came up as time accelerated, or their perception at any rate; it was difficult to say what was happening. The Skakdi that assembled far within the forest were lessened by over two hundred. They retreated, farther and deeper into the woods. The Benevolence had won the field. --------------------------------- Tahu staggered as Angonce let go of him. Both beings looked at each other in dismay. "Deeds have spoken." croaked Tahu. "Velika's forces are a little less, but he still holds the field." "Wait!" said Angonce, suddenly excited. He hurried to the screens. "A Turaga Nui is drawing near. Fetch him in. He looks as if he has news." Tahu teleported out and back. The Turaga Nui looked rather travel-worn and haggard. "We could not find you anywhere among the prisoners we rescued." said Tahu eagerly. "Are all of you in there?" "I am of Dume, Whenua, Onewa, Matau, Nokama and Nuju." said the Nui. "Listen carefully, for I have penetrated the Palace. I know the location of Valentar's true body." "And how did you find that out?" said Tahu skeptically. "Because the wraith of Velika told me." said the Nui. "And he also told me how to destroy him." ------------------------------- III: The 8th Element Lord Excerpt from Sahmad's Second Tale: Without the knowledge the Toa Ignika had given him, Sahmad would never have found the Underground Lab of the Great Beings. For that matter, even Kiina and Berix might have had trouble finding it in the new forests---not jungles here, more dense woodland---as landmarks were either buried or missing. Though the Melding and the Green Thumb had restored landforms broken in the Titan Battle, the fall of Makuta Nui had completely crushed anything near the former Black Spikes, and others being from the Shattering, had vanished. The road from Tesara the dream created did not pass near here. The cavern mouth was the same, though buried in huge vines now: a Toa of Plant Life's work, when the Malevolence abandoned the idea of fortifying the Element Chambers and the Underground Lab and left them deserted. Sahmad brushed past, glancing up at the roof: but no unpleasant surprises crawled there. The Iron Tribe passed out into the huge chamber within, awe in their faces. The cave was vast, taller than the average hill, hundreds of yards in height, maybe even half a mile. It was lit by the many-hued glow of vast circular openings in the walls, as well as by a weird pale-greenish glow ascending from abysmal depths: the cave had no floor, which was likely one reason it was hard to fortify. Huge piers of oozed rock like knarled roots rose up the cavern sides, between the circular holes. Immense stone roots descended into the lurid green depths. Upheld on narrow-footed piers and pinnacles, six winding causeways snaked down into the center, where a circular blue pedestal rose from the depths, the flat top glowing blue. Deep grooves like sunken roads ran in to the middle of this from the terminus of each causeway at high pale spikes of stone. They followed the paths outward with their eyes, to where each led into one of the six glowing openings. Each was a good twenty bios across--or rather 100 feet, as the Magna measurements had it. One was in the wall they had emerged from, some fifty feet to the right: they saw a glimpse of sand dunes, nothing more. "That red one----is that lava?" said Tellurio. "It will be, if the chamber is activated." said Sahmad. He surveyed the other rooms. Yellow-green, filled with plants: that was Jungle. Blue-silver, filled with ice: the element of Ice. Fogs and rain above a lake was for Water. The others held rocks, sand dunes and such like barren things, and gave out yellow and dark brown lights. "The Element Lords were created in this chamber." a deep profound and somehow earthy voice echoed all around them. They turned, weapons raised. An armoured figure was stalking toward them, except he was entirely of earth. Earth of mingled black and umber, not brown. The weapons were lowered at once, except for Sahmad. "What exactly are we here for, then?" he said suspiciously. Earth folded his arms. Crumbs rolled from them, melding back in before they landed: it was slightly nauseating to watch, like seeing a dead thing walk. "The Great Beings are under the frown of Destiny, because they are stained with death. The Malevolence is only different in degree from the Benevolence. And so nothing the Malevolence builds can undo their evil brothers. The Great Beings are under a curse, that only by their adversaries can they be delivered. It is you, Sahmad, who will reverse the tide against the Benevolence." "And you know all this---how?" "I am Earth. The dead are laid down in the earth, and earth partakes of all things, and so all things send their echos into me. I share in Death, and hence in Destiny. I can sense his subtle weavings dimly. The other elements only know one thing. But I, I share in all things. Heed the last words of Axonn: Make the 8th Lord. He foresaw what must be done." Sahmad looked around at the cave. "I only see 6 chambers. Where's Earth?" "Oh, that one, I believe." said Earth, pointing to the Jungle room. "I was among the first three. We were made in shifts, and the chambers can be reset to any element. That is why I am here, Sahmad. I must create the 8th Element Lord. You are to be the Element Lord of Iron." "Are you insane??" Sahmad was completely flattened. "I do not think so." Earth said gravely. "In any case, the Mask was instructed by Mata Nui." "Then HE must be insane!!" Sahmad was shouting. "I don't know if you've gotten around any since you got free, but I'm the number one villain on Bara Magna. I'm the name Agori whisper to make teenagers stay home nights. I kidnap people and sell them as slaves." "I observe you are no longer practicing that trade." the Lord of Earth remarked. "I also overheard you talking for a day and a night to a tombstone. And I shed tears as I listened, Sahmad: for though the dead may be received by Earth, it does not forget sorrow, or grow hard like Stone. Yes, you will be the right choice." "Do you have the slightest idea what I might do to the nice new social order??" Sahmad hissed. "There is no social order." said Earth. "Your sins are great, but they proceed from a wounded goodness, not from a rooted malice. The world groans in war, and the war will cease when the Benevolence is over. You shall be the check to the Malevolence, the thing they did not make or plan for. Go. Become my brother." Sahmad looked around. "D--n you." he muttered. "You know that's an offer I can't resist." "Then let us prepare." said Earth. "I am not stupid. Even as a soldier I was thoughtful, and I watched as the Great Beings moved the controls. I see them now, and I observe the caves are active. Had Kiina pressed these levers here, and gone into those caves, the 8th Lord would have arisen before her time." Hands and ropes of earth shot to incredible lengths, playing over strange controls mounted here and there about the room. Abruptly the opening in the wall they stood gazing out of, the left-hand opening which held rocks, began to change. The rocks all shifted to ores, and metal nuggets paved the ground, and metals of every type coated the walls. A red-grey light, laced with silver, came from it. "Walk down the Path of Sand to the center, to access the Path of Iron." boomed Earth. Sahmad looked at his new body, took a long draught from his water flask and ate the contents of his pack as he marched down the causeway. He drained it at the center: and let it fall, for he would drink no more of the fluids of the earth. The Sand chamber was closest to the entrance, on the right, and a ledge led over to its' causeway, merging with the Path of Sand. It was a long walk to the center. There, as Earth had instructed, he walked down the deep-sunk lane to the middle. A stone pivot could be turned in the top of a pedestal; he heard relays clank and hiss as the pivot clicked around to face the Iron path. He finished chewing the last of the old familiar trail rations, and let the pack also fall, gazing somberly down at it. Up the Iron path he walked. He paused at the mouth of the chamber, lit by the silver-red glare, gazing grimly into the cave. Slowly he let fall Thornax launcher, sword and whip, tools he would never need again. Into the huge mouth he stepped. The Iron Tribe clapped and cheered him on. A bitter, aching smile crossed the face of Sahmad, and a tear fell on the metal around him. Then the Element Lord of Earth threw the controls, and with a groan the whole cave vibrated. Elemental energy blazed and flashed, and drops of metal fell from each flash. Sahmad felt his flesh flush with metal, pain splinter into him, and then all pain ceased, and sensation changed. To the watching Tribe the display of silver and gold and dun lightning blocked all view of the interior. The rock shuddered. A single groan came from the lightning, and ended. Then all turmoil ceased. Elemental energy faded and died down, and the chamber went back to its' first appearance of ores and metals. Metal built up on the floor in front of the Iron tribe. A man of silver wavered and swayed, then suddenly condensed into the figure of Sahmad in his old Agori form. Except that he was made of metal.

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings (Ch. 6, Fall of the Element Lords, conclusion: ) "Ah, but I only look like a dragon." said Miserix. "I am a chained slave, Sand. Deep inside me is a seed of light, a time bomb rigged to explode if I disobey any of the numerous commands of that b a s tard version of my greatest enemy. But nothing was said about speech." "I am not grieved my brothers are dead." said the Lord of Sand. "I would have preferred to destroy them myself. Listen to me, dragon. I am the one manifestation of my elemental power. As such, I stand in a unique position. Are there known enemies of the Malevolence outside of the Benevolence?" "There are the Skakdi by the shore, and a mysterious force led by the Shadowed One that gains strength in the mountains. The Barraki warlords have armies as well, and the last word we had, they had promised aid to both sides, and reneged, and gone south. But the most powerful foes of my alternate brother are the Shadow Toa." "Strange...." rasped Sand. "I thought Shadow was immoral for you people." "These Toa used to be Toa of Light." smiled Makuta. "Their light was drained from them, and Shadow replaced it. If they use a little skill, even our Light Makuta may fall to them. I have located seven of them, skulking in the deep forests. If I tell you where they are, and help you by thought, will you bring them here and kill my lofty brother?" --------------------------------------- Deep inside the Palace, Velika revisited the cage of the Mind-spider. It was extremely difficult to contain. A creature of pure psychic and psionic energy given animal form, she glowered at him from within the bubble of slowed time he had erected. There was no trace of Heremus. His mind devoured, his ravaged ghost had vanished into the unknown lands beyond death. Using the Mask of Time only bound her for a short period, and he did not know how often he could renew the time-spell. Masks of Mind Control and even a mutated one made to wield Psionics hadn't worked, and Toa Varian, the only known Toa of Psionics besides Orde, confessed she was unable to grab it. And what A Toa could not grab, no Toa Seal could bind. There was only one way, he decided as he renewed the time-command. He would have to build a creation that gave himself the powers of a Krahka. Or he could flatten the Malevolence and torture the secret of killing it out of its' creators. Action was needed. The Great Beings were ditherers and tinkerers; none of them had a general's mind. Neither did Velika, but unlike them he knew his defeat. He donned the Mask of Creation and smiled through it at the last few Whatevers, a puny six hundred, who waited their next mission patiently. The Mask could generate an object if the user already knew how to make it. Soon duplicate Whatevers began to assemble from nothing, thousands of Whatevers. He no longer needed the stolen raw material. It had been distasteful but necessary, and in any case it was better to leave the populace alone, or else he would eventually be a mere king of graveyards. The kidnapped settlements rescued from the prison camps were trickling back to the cities and towns, deserting the Malevolence that had been trying to convince them to stay. It was the flaw of the good that choice, when respected religiously, always stabbed them in the back. This time he would not consult the Benevolence. Without Heremus they were a bunch of wimps, who preferred to make things to fight in their place. This time Velika would rely only on Velika.

The Well of Destiny: Part II "When they drank of this well, their thoughts grew broad, and wide with wonder they gazed abroad." said the Shadowed One. "Only Skiff may drink: Varian has no need." "Why not us?" said Dezok truculently. "You are altered." said the Mouthpiece. "When you gained your powers, you lost your destiny. Skiff retains it." Skiff raised the water to his lips. It smelled green, like ferns. He drank: and coughed violently. Green light burst in his mind, and he could see in the dimness, and see as well strange glows he knew were auroas, within his companions. Somehow he was certain it was moral condition he was seeing. The brothers were dim, but Varian glowed brightly. The phantom did not glow at all, for he had no will of his own. "You are seeing differently than those who entered." said the Mouthpiece. "That well opens you to receive your destiny. It is the Well of Disposition. Come. We must descend." A hole was slowly growing in the floor, as wood recoiled and slid aside, and revealed a stair formed of roots. Down into a hall upheld by huge roots they went, and under the earth they found another chamber. Though it was not particularly large, Skiff felt it would contain any who entered, even be they thousands. In the center rose a pipe of flowing wood, and green glowing drops leaked out of it, and evaporated into blossoms that withered as they hit the floor. And at the bottom was a basin out of which rose the pipe, and it was filled with water of a pure and luminous blue. "When they drank of this well, they grew in power." said the Shadowed One. "None of you may drink of this, but Skiff must lave his hands." He did so. The water tingled, weird and brilliant; his hands felt so sensitive he gasped. When he withdrew them, they gleamed blue for a moment. "We must descend once again." said the phantom. "This water prepares your body, as that above prepares your mind. Those who came before, drank of all three, for no one was there to instruct them. Your destiny is not theirs. Let us go down." The floor had opened once again, and this time it gave on stairs of rock, and rock upheld the walls. From below came a red light, yet a red like to cherries and apples, not infernal flame. They came out in a chamber of redness. Roots of red stone ran up to red vaults interlaced with the roots of the giant tree, and yet somehow all the light and glory that ebbed and flowed through both walls and air was contained in the spring at the center. Great roots crawled down to drink out of it, and from its' elevated pool of stone red water, luminous as the essence of color, flowed over onto the floor, and tinkled upward into the absorbing roots. "They drank of this well, and they screamed." said the Mouthpiece of Destiny. "They drank of this water, and they suffered. For suffering is the price of destiny, and so it has ever been. Those who drink here bear a share of Destiny, according to their fate, for these waters are the tears of Destiny. They fell upon the floor, one hundred of them, and when they awoke from the pain, they rose up Great Beings." He motioned to the leaping waters. "All three of you must drink. Skiff shall do so first. Here now is the Vessel of Antidermis, and the Skakdi of Light who shall be: they will drink after you, and then Brutaka will change them. But you, Skiff, your destiny is the greatest, and your suffering as well: no one will touch you. Take up and drink of it. Drink deeply of your destiny." Floatng on the air, Brutaka glided toward them. The Vessel of Antidermis had a lost, forlorn look in his maskless eyes. "We are nearly at our end." he said in his many-voiced tones. "The Benevolence has found us. We are nearly dead, and we are glad to die. Soon only in our Vessel will we subsist." "Destiny will not let them make use of you." said the Mouthpiece. "Your own destined end approaches, Brutaka. You have achieved your destiny, and your crimes are forgiven." "Let us, then, consummate it." said Brutaka. He gestured, and a group of grey and silver Skakdi came hesitantly forward. They seemed far more subdued and sombre than was normal for their species. Brutaka motioned again, and a pool of Energized Protodermis appeared in the chamber. The Order of Mata Nui had capped most such sources in the Destiny War, but all Energized Protodermis was one, was unable to be destroyed, for all the pools were linked by the veins of the Great Spirit's body. And by something else as well. Out of the pool as the Skakdi approached, rose a silvery figure, up to the waist: a nearly-featureless head, and arms, of silver mercurial fluid. The Skakdi came to a dead stop. The new Makuta, and the Makuta-essence-possessed Brutaka, and the phantasmal Mouthpiece of Destiny, faced it in silence. "Protodermis." said the Shadowed One. "Why do you manifest here?" The silvery figure spoke. The voice was silvery and impersonal as the face. "Where else am I to manifest? The Great Spirit is dead, and my veins are idle; there is no destiny in lying in tubes. Yet the tubes are not destined to transform. What goes on here, that you have dislocated part of my essence from itself?" "Destiny is here, Protodermis." said the Mouthpiece. "You who prate of destiny, have you then grown blind in your ages of seclusion?" "I am a destroyer, and a transformer." said the Protodermis Entity. "I bring destiny to pass. The touch of my substance causes its' destiny to manifest. Sometimes the destiny is to transform. Mostly, though, its' destiny is to die." "No, Protodermis. You are a liar, and you ever were only a liar. This was how you tempted the surface beings, when you forced your way up out of your prison. You did not manifest their destiny. You forced Destiny upon them. So few beings are destined to transform: and those who did not, you pulled the destiny of their death up to them before their time. And I assure you, Destiny does not take kindly to such deeds." "I think I have met you before." said the Entity. It pointed, casually, at a gnat. A drop of mercury flew like a bullet, hitting the creature. "That gnat has a destiny. It is to transform. All that is near me I test, and some destinies I see plainly." The gnat had ballooned to a giant monster: and yet the monster remained immobile, for the hand of the Mouthpiece glowed a vivid, terrible purple. "It is not my destiny to be opposed by an oversized bug." said the Mouthpiece of Destiny. "You have forced destiny once again. The bug had no destiny to transform: but Destiny knew that if it was near you, you would transform it. Deeds, Protodermis. Destiny consists of deeds. You only know fates." "Do not prate to me, criminal, of destiny and deeds." said the Entity dismissively. "You are a fool who thought he could make himself a spirit, and control the fates themselves. Now you are only a ghost." A thin jet of mercury struck the Shadowed One. "Transformation, or destruction? What will your destiny be?" The mercury gathered itself into a ball on the palm of the Shadowed One. Nothing was happening to him at all. "Neither." he boomed. "I am Destiny. You create an artificial dichotomy, insisting it be either-or. You leave no room for choice. I have had to step in before, to save those who were destined to go on, and bring them out changed. I will no longer be brooked by you, Protodermis. I AM THE MOUTHPIECE OF DESTINY!!" "Indeed." said the Entity coolly. "You are a murderer, a thief, and a lying treacherous sack of Doom Viper breath. You thought you could control Destiny, and now Destiny controls you. Hold your forked tongue, therefore, and let Destiny do his own talking." The mercury held by the Shadowed One bulged and expanded, and the form of the Entity kinked, bending toward it, as the Entity strained away. Shock showed in every line of his form. "And who do you think is talking through my mouth?" thundered the Mouthpiece of Destiny. "I only will now what Destiny wills. Now you will listen to me, Protodermis. You have violated your destiny. You have foiled my plans, forcing me to bend my own rules. You shall no longer act on your own. I bind you up in the core of the world, inside rock whose destiny is to be unpierceable by power or violence: not even by the Unseen or the Threads of Destiny can your tomb be entered. You shall leave behind your substance on the surface, inert, to kill or transform like any virus. THIS IS THE WILL OF DESTINY!!" The manlike form gave a thin wailing scream as he was sucked into the ball of mercury in the Mouthpiece's hand, and then this imploded and was gone. The silver fluid shimmered, lifeless and inert. "Begin, Vessel." said the Mouthpiece. "First to drink shall be Skiff." Skiff approached the red pool, looking askance at the silver fluid: red hues shimmered on its' surface as it caught the crimson light. A strange clear smell beat up from the red water as he leaned over it, like the smell of metal, and flowers. He knew somehow it was not good to touch this water with hands, for that would be profane. Kneeling, and putting his lips to the surface, he sucked in a single draught, and swallowed. It tasted warm and sweet and strange, like cherry honey. He straightened up. The fluid hit his belly, and at once it was made bitter. It was horrible even to watch. The others saw Skiff double up, crash to the ground, and thrash in a fit. A continuous screaming roar went up from his mouth. Light flickered and sparkled in his armour and raced up his tissue. His right hand darkened; his left began to gleam. Brutaka glided up to him. Lifting him by magnetism the titan gripped the dark right hand in both of his: shadow seemed to seethe about him. Then letting go he levitated the howling being above the gleaming silver. Into it he compelled the right arm to dip, then the left. For a moment they seemed painted with silver, and then Skiff transformed. His muscles swelled and hardened. His armor changed shape, growing spikes, and some of it became white, others deepening to black and steel-gray. His spine became pure silver, and his face was half silver and half grey. His eyes blazed red. Skiff fell back, limp, upon the ground, groaning in torment. Varian looked at Brutaka, who shook his head: suffering was the price of destiny. Slowly Skiff clenched his right hand: darkness suddenly seethed within it. "Heal him." said the Mouthpiece. "Hurry. Pridak is penetrating the Predestined, and I fear he is destined to enter the Tree. You others must be ready before he comes." Varian healed Skiff, and the Skakdi of Light and Shadow sat up, weak but unhurt. He looked at the two Skakdi of Earth, and gestured ironically to the Well. They looked at each other and slowly clanked fists, as in farewell. Then each of them stooped and sipped of the Waters of Destiny. As they lashed and screamed, Brutaka levitated them also over the pool of silver. This time he immersed them facedown but not completely, setting them down and grasping their four hands. They were already black, but an awful ugly smoky hue permeated them, and they grew less stocky and strong, for they were no longer of Earth. Shadow oozed from their hands, and their eyes burned red. Now the 17 Skakdi came forward and drank. Like Skiff, they were tall and strong and straight. Brutaka did not take their hands, for he was not filling them with Shadow: he laid them on their backs in the thick silver until it covered the ears, then took them out. They became white with gold armour, their faces gold, their spines gold edged with white, a yellow gold, not the dark gold often seen. Light sparkled about their hands. Pridak entered the chamber. The Barraki had clearly partaken of the first two wells. He had recovered his original form, tall and noble, though still with a long harsh face like a hunter. Powerless though he was, he radiated presence as he faced the powers in the chamber before him: and his many Xian weapons fairly glowed with dangerous energies. "I have learned one lesson, Varian." said the Mouthpiece. "A lesson you taught us. Let him partake of Destiny, for his own destruction." Pridak advanced, as the powerful Makuta and Skakdi drew back to either side, forming rigid ranks up which he strode with head erect, a god about to ascend. "So, Shadowed One," he said in his right voice, strong and beautiful and deep, "you have profited by my knowledge. Do you intend to reciprocate?" "How can I not?" said the Shadowed One grandly. "You saw the wells and knew their purpose, and partook, and now you are disposed to receive your destiny. But beware, Pridak. Do you wish to endure the price of destiny?" "What is this talk of price?" sneered Pridak. "Destiny asks of you, and you give up; you do not haggle with Destiny. I know I am not destined to transform. That red stuff, that brings my destiny to meet me." "Suffering is the price of destiny." said the Shadowed One. "You will drink of it, and you will suffer, and your destiny will be achieved. Be warned, Pridak. You may stop here, and keep what you have: Destiny does not begrudge you your own. But if you drink, destiny has two possibilities. One benefits; one denigrates." "I am a Barraki." said Pridak coldly. "I was built to lead and rule. How could my destiny be any different, when even in the Deeps I led the sharks? You are unusually solicitous of my welfare, Shadowed One. You do not wish me to achieve my destiny. How could I have entered, unless I was destined?" "Be warned by my fate." said the Shadowed One: his own real self showed in a sudden awful flash of anguish in the possessed eyes, and then the calm light of Destiny closed in again. "You are not speaking to the Shadowed One, Pridak. He has become a mere mouthpiece for Destiny himself. Not all destinies are pleasant ones." "Ah, so you became possessed by something too much for you to chew." laughed Pridak. "Well, that mistake I am not about to repeat. I will submit to Destiny, and endure what it will bring upon me: for it cannot be anything but greater than what I have." "Drink, then." said Destiny through the Shadowed One. "But if you drink unworthily, it will be your condemnation." Pridak, still bending on him a derisive stare, bent his lips and drank of the red water. He screamed. He crashed to the ground, steam coming off his face. His flesh melted, and his mechanics followed, but his head was last to melt, and it screamed until the torso had collapsed. Soon the Barraki leader was a puddle on the floor. "He drank unworthily." There was a strange, infinite sadness in the Mouthpiece's voice. "His condition was not disposed rightly. He wanted power, even after the wisdom of the upper wells tried to dissuade him. He would have become so charismatic even the Great Beings would have followed his lead, had he only submitted his desire for his own advantage. And so the destiny of his death came upon him premature, brought up to him now: had he turned and left, it would have found him on the surface, but he might have learned some wisdom. He did not heed the warning." "Tell me, Mouthpiece," said Varian, "is the Benevolence going to win the war?" "That is something that Destiny may not reveal, lest it impede the law of free choice." answered Destiny through the Shadowed One. "For it is by you and your actions, and the actions of others, that Destiny comes to pass: and it is the destiny of the Toa of Light that may impact all others. Varian, take your troops to the battle of bitter tears. You others must do your part regardless of all else. Now you must rise, and shed light upon the Great Beings." ---------------------------------- --------------------------------- MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 6: Fall of the Element Lords (I have to credit Zarayna with the idea of the mysterious First Matoran.) "Well, little brother?" the dragon said. "How did the foray go without me?" Teridax paid no attention to the jibe. Miserix could grumble all he wished, so long as he obeyed, Teridax had made clear. The quiet tenderness he used toward the monster continuously bewildered the dark Makuta, as well as completely blunting his sneers. "The foray was a complete failure on our part." Teridax said. "We destroyed Metru Nui and crippled their forges, but the Palace remains. The skull wall is shielded most powerfully around that fortress. The dream made it that way." "The ground might overthrow it, if it was moved." said the Mad Great Being, coming in. "If I brought the ground to life--" "Bad idea." growled Miserix. "Velika would take over its' animal mind. I'm pretty sure you can't do rational, can you?" "Even Velika only gave you minds by a trick. It was by our share in Destiny we brought Mata Nui to life. I fear, Teridax. I feel feet in the Unseen. There is a time-warp, and it shakes. It holds something bound." "I know." said Teridax gently. "The mind-eater has been released. It will eat all the high minds it meets, until it descends to lesser minds. The Benevolence too will perish, that is the only comfort. We have two hopes to fight it. One who is asleep, and one who is suffering. Very soon I will awake her. What she will be, even Angonce only guesses. But you were tied to the currents of Life. Can you see Mata Nui?" "I cannot." said the Mad Great Being. "He does not have life. He is a spirit created to possess a machine. He exists on three planes, that of mind, that of astra, and that of matter only by connection. But the Toa Ignika has a bond with his mind. He is the eye which Mata Nui keeps open in his sleep." "And can you find him?" growled MIserix. "Yes." said Neimidian. "He is approximately 10,560 miles in THAT direction." "I think I can get there in an hour or so." said Onua. The Mask of Speed did not move at anything near that of light. "I can get there in a minute." said Takanuva. "You can travel at light speed now?" exclaimed Onua. "If I'm going in a straight line to a particular point, yes. I still have trouble changing direction." "I will be in your mind, guiding you." said the Mad Great Being "Please, not too far in." said Takanuva uncomfortably. Neimidian reached out one hand, frowning. He took off his mask of assembled visors, lenses and dials, and his deeply grooved face looked bewildered. "I cannot get in." he said. "Your mind is a solid rock. Teridax, is he shielded?" "No, and I can look through and through him." said the Makuta of Light. The Mad Great Being walked all around the nervous Toa, tapping mask and head. "His body is also opaque." he exclaimed. "Wait! I remember you now! You are the First!" "Well, I really don't remember anything beyond Mata Nui, and I've had at least three mind wipes." said Takanuva. "But I used to be Takua, until I put on this Mask and transformed." "Yes." whispered Neimidian, his eyes gleaming with eager intensity. "I made you. You were the Prototype Matoran. I did not make you using Energized Protodermis. I crafted you by hand, and into you I poured my own share of Destiny. What was left went into Mata Nui. I did not know what I was doing; I only felt it right to do it such and such. Have you met any alternate Takuas?" "Yes, and I clapped the Mask of Light on one, the Toa Empire one, and he did not transform.....because it was not his destiny.....Father, do you know my destiny? Helryx said I would fear it." "Of course not." said the Mad Great Being. "No one does. Mata Nui felt you would be of key importance in this War, or at any rate to the Great Beings: and so he told the Order. And now I can see why. You are destined to be immune to the Great Beings. If a Great Being faces you, First, he cannot act upon you: no tool he holds will strike you or work upon you. He must send a creation to attack you instead." "Oh my." whispered Takanuva. "Find Mata Nui first." said Teridax practically. "Destiny will arrange whatever it has in mind for you, and you will find yourself with an opportunity. It looks as though Mad will have to speak to me, and I to you." The cave groaned. "What the Karzahni?" exclaimed Onua. Tahu raced in. "They have found us." he said. "Pohatu says the entire crust of the planet moves around us. We are shielded against elemental energy, so it shatters the rock in which we sit. Not even a Nuva has that much power. It's the Element Lords. They've gone rogue." "Of course." said Teridax. "They deem the Benevolence is damaged enough, so they turn on the Malevolence. And not on the Great Beings, but on me. Takanuva, you must hurry. It must be done now. I will send you to the surface." "But I'm needed here!" cried Takanuva. "Does Rock blink when the sun stares, or Fire care about the brilliance?" said Teridax. "Fear not: I have long taken thought for such a situation." Takanuva vanished under the Makuta's power. Teridax put out the hand of his mind, steadying the groaning caves, while the five Toa of Stone resident here wrestled with the Lord of Stone. In about five minutes Takanuva was back. "Miserix, can you fetch him inside?" grunted Teridax. "No." said the dragon. "Then I order you to fetch him." said the white Makuta with a faint smile. "Very well." the dragon smirked, and Takanuva was teleported in. "I found him." said Takanuva. "He looks exactly as he did in Karda Nui, except he talks as wise and somber as my crazed father over there. He was very disturbed at my tidings, and said he would travel on the Life currents to Mata Nui at once." "I cannot reach the minds of the Element Lords." said the Mad Great Being. "Many minds as big as mine block me. I fear you are right, Teridax. My brothers are protecting those evil minds." "The Toa are in position." said Teridax absently. Takanuva looked around and realized that the Nuva, save for Onua, were no longer there. "What should I be doing?" he asked. "Protecting my sons." said Alternate Teridax. "My Rahkshi of Peace is pouring peace into where we have located the essence of the Element Lords. The Benevolence did not see what Ackar and Kiina did to the Lords of Flame and Water. They do not know what we are about to do. Peacefulness and the vice it generates, Timorousness, weaken the wills of the Element Lords as they imbibe virtue---the Benevolence is puzzled, as they have never dealt with real virtues, and cannot figure how to keep them out." Takanuva heard the latter half of this speech in his head, not with ears, for he had been teleported to a great peak on the edge of the White Quartz. There the three white, rose and gold Rahkshi crouched behind cover, their staffs wavering faintly but with no other sign of use: virtues are invisible. On another crag five horrible figures were standing, commenting to each other in harsh and weird voices. They were spiked and knotted, as if once they had been armoured, and their great misshapen forms were bristling with their element. Orde, Zaria and Chiara greeted him with a nod. "I'm to keep them looking elsewhere, while Chiara tries out the effects of Electricity." Zaria explained tersely. "The Nuva have delayed reactions going." Zaria used his power over metal to grip the ores and trace metals in the rock the Element Lords stood on while they acted upon the rock around the caves. The Lords were nowhere near far enough to be safe. The Lord of Rock could be heard growling. Then Chiara sent Electricity through the air, charging it to a pitch. A perfect firestorm of chain lightning exploded all around the Element Lords, only to be drowned in a sandstorm that magically appeared miles from even the earth-buried sands of the former desert. Chiara kept up the fruitless barrage, making it seem to be coming from elsewhere, joined by a blinding array of light blasts from Takanuva. "Three.....two..........one..........now." muttered Orde. At his signal, the Toa Nuva had all activated their delayed reactions. Tahu no longer being Nuva, he and Norik had merged powers to replicate his old delayed-reaction trick, a heat trail leading to the Lord of Flame. Takanuva only realized their location when the sudden rays of colored energy sprang to life in the air, like a six-banded road between the Toa's vantage point and the Element Lords. Up these paths the Toa drew, absorbing all the elemental energy they could grasp. "Tarduk told us a secret the Sisters of the Skrall tipped him off to, that they found out." said Orde. "An Element Lord's life is in his original body mass, and cannot leave that essence. The essence can be split up in many places, but if it is absorbed, you hold him." The sandstorm disappeared: the Lord of Sand was gone, not wanting to risk being melted to glass and so destroyed. The other figures were fragmenting as their essence, already seized, was relentlessly pulled inside the Toa. Fire died out: half of him was in Tahu and half in Norik. Pohatu held Rock. Ice roared, his icicle-bearded figure no match for the fierce cold fury of Kopaka: and then he too shattered and was absorbed. Then Jungle succumbed to Visten, Toa of Plant Life, and the Element Lords were bound. "Now for the final part." said Orde. The Toa blurred up via Masks of Speed. Orde thrust out one hand: a queer device gleamed in it. All at once an object swirled into being before them, teleported by the device from the hidden place Teridax had concealed it before the Dream: the device was an invention of Mad's. The object was something like a folded accordion of metal layers, with many strange prongs sticking out, and a complicated coiled wiring system. It hummed faintly. The machine was incredibly old, ages of grime encrusting it. All the Toa felt both Mask and elemental power die away within them, their interior elemental energy quenched like a switch. "This is the Toa device Kabrua bore." Orde said. "It extinguishes your interior energy and sets up a block so no more can stream in, plus messes with your brain signals. Toa Ignika changed our brain frequencies. We three are immune to the device. But the Element Lords are not." "You.....you killed...." said Tahu, his voice shaking with rage. "You killed the Element Lords!" Orde folded his hands. "Yes, I did." he said quietly. Zaria closed one hand: the Golden Armour's shoulder plate vanished as he sent it a hundred feet away. With even one piece missing, Tahu could no longer use the Kraata powers it bestowed. "I saw that." the Toa of Iron said. "You were going to start a fist fight, weren't you?" "He was." confirmed Orde. Tahu glared at him. "You had no right to break the Toa Code! Toa do not kill, even in battle." "Very noble of you." came the dark voice of the Alternate Teridax from the air all around them. "But considering who made your code and why, maybe you should allow common sense to prevail over your programming.....machine." "Did you just call me a---" shouted Tahu. "And why not?" the Alternate Teridax said from the air. "Were you not constructed like one, and the divine reason you use right now, it came you know not how or where, and it alone divides you from what you were intended? Who made the Toa Code, and why? Is the Code right, or wrong? Is it an end, or a rule, that can be set aside if it is no longer right? These are questions the great and noble Tahu never bothers to ask. And he must ask them, aye, and answer them, or he will fall to his own folly." "Darn you, nobody ever argues with you and wins." the Toa of Fire muttered. "I suppose you mean the Code only comes from the Great Beings. And next you're going to tell me murder is perfectly fine, if you just call it assassination." Teridax laughed, grimly. "Now there at last, Tahu, you use your mind. Why is murder wrong, and what distinguishes it from execution? When is it wrong to kill, and wrong to spare?" "You'd better answer him, brother." sighed Kopaka. "He can pose questions like this all day." Tahu folded his arms. "For the record, I cheated in battle with Nektann. I'm hardly an honor-bound idiot. But the only reason we know for not killing is that we aren't born, and so there is no way to continue the species if it's killed off. I don't have an answer for you. All I can say is I know it is wrong!" Alternate Teridax appeared, sitting on a boulder and leaning on his huge hammer. "Which is why you must examine right and wrong, Tahu. What is common sense? It is the share we have in Destiny. It is wisdom, in the practical sphere. When common sense contradicts the Code, as you found in your clash with the Piraka, the Code must yield. The law of a mind and the law of a machine are not the same. The Toa Code was never designed for rational creatures. It shares some things with rightness, and in others does not." "So why is murder wrong, and execution not?" "Because there is no Pit." said Teridax. "Because if a Pit breaks, intractable evil will get out. Why did you support the Order's massacre of Makuta? Because they were monsters of iniquity. If evil has proved, again and again, that it has no intention of repenting, it must be removed from the world, to defend the world from it, and to punish it. The Element Lords have destroyed the planet. Now they have betrayed us. They have proved intractable, and so they are gone to their place. Only Sand remains, and Earth, and Earth, he is neither iniquitous nor intractable." "We can't kill Sand that way, unless we get him close enough to the device." said Orde. "What bothers me is, if the Benevolence was warding their minds, why didn't they warn the Lords of our attack?" "We were saving them some trouble." smiled Teridax. "The Lords were undependable. I am certain the Benevolence would have killed them themselves very soon." "Can I have my armour back?" demanded Tahu. Zaria snickered, but at a gesture the missing piece flew back to Tahu, and he felt the Kraata powers flow through him again. As with the Marendar, they were immune to Toa dampeners. "The Lord of Sand will not oppose us on his own." said Teridax. "But I fear he may join someone else." ------------------------------------- Down on the forest floor, the illusion of the great red dragon named Miserix sat on the sand, seeming deep in thought.

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 5: The Well of Destiny War boiled across the central region of Sphereus Magna, the Bara Magna. But down in the Skakdi Mounains, where the smell of the sea and the smell of the hills vied in every gust, the Barraki and their armies of Bionicles paid it no heed. Aid to both sides had been promised, and aid to neither side had yet been given. The Barraki had their own problems. They had quickly learned that two opposing powers dominated the mountains. One was a rough but very well-armed force of Skrall, Bone Hunters, Rock Agori and Bionicle outcasts, led and captained by powerful ex-Dark Hunters. These called themselves the Predestined. Of their mysterious leader there seemed no sign: the Shadowed One never showed himself. The other power was a surprisingly well-disciplined and coordinated army of Skakdi. Till now all the Barraki's sources had the Zakaz berserkers as rude, barbaric savages, grouped in little bands and under warlords, petty, bickering, and difficult to rule. But now they manifested all the shrewd skill of trained Toa. "I think someone's brainwashed them." grumbled Ehlek. "Like they had brains to begin with." said Takadox. The others tolerated his presence, but barely. "And did you notice they weren't wearing their Spine Slugs?" said Mantax. "Maybe it upped their marbles." "Neither side seems willing to talk." said Kalmah. "That means one of us is going to get himself captured. A prisoner may have more opportunities." "Um, Skakdi don't take prisoners." said Ehlek. "Oh, has Carapar found a replacement?" said Pridak icily. "Whoever made this big an improvement on those madbeings is likely going to want the chance to interrogate a Barraki." "And I guess you want me to be the shark bait." sighed Takadox. "Obviously." smiled Pridak. The grin was just like a shark's. "We know you'll sell us out--but don't worry. That's what you're supposed to be doing. Get in close enough to do some damage, and then get free. We won't be too surprised if we get no information. All we want is them weakened." -------------------------------------- Takadox stalked up the canyon, creeping from rock to rock. Though no longer hunched like a mantis due to Mata Nui's green thumb, the amphibious mutated warlord retained his hypnotic vision. If anyone met his eyes, that being was a goner. He had little hope of surviving this "mission", of course. It was well known, enough for even the long-imprisoned ex-warlords to hear of it, that Skakdi never took prisoners, due to other Skakdi usually being the only prisoner fodder and Skakdi being almost impossible to break in torture, making prisons pointless. He had only one chance, to see the outlying sentries before they could see him. His dark-blue body blended with the dark-blue granite rocks he was using as cover, though his eyes gleamed red. His sense of smell, fortunately, remained what it had been undersea. Skakdi reek, even when they bathe in the sea once a day as seemed to be their new custom. He sniffed again, carefully. Two green Skakdi of Air, with those hideous square jaws and square tooth-exposing grins, gazing out at the valley with some kind of shimmery air-tube that bent light, producing a telescope effect. Takadox felt sweat form. He'd never heard of even Toa being that good. From beings who could supposedly only use elemental powers in tandem or from a focusing tool, it seemed fabulous. A thrown pebble got the guard's attention, and in the course of ranging their air-scope across his position, they met the eyes of Takadox. Amplified by the magnification, the power of his gaze knocked both Skakdi out cold. Takadox hurried up, disarmed them, and began murmering to them. Under his spell, the two Skakdi got up and walked either side of him down the winding path among the rocks that serviced the guard post. Suddenly both Skakdi groaned, shook themselves and stopped dead, seizing Takadox roughly. Air bonds clamped his head. "You got lucky, sea scum." growled one barbarian. A bandage was fastened over Takadox's dangerous eyes. "The boss broke us free, but he insisted on asking you a couple questions before he hands you over to our tender mercies." Then the ground vanished beneath Takadox's feet, and he felt the vertigo of teleportation consume him. ----------------------------- The bandage was ripped off his eyes. Takadox blinked and looked around. He was inside a massive arched hall, high and ponderous. On a throne of twisted iron shaped like flames licking up cast-iron life-size Skakdi, sat a Makuta. Takadox gave a harsh smile. There weren't any Makuta. He gave the pseudo-Makuta the full power of his eyes. One of the Skakdi must have a third power of changing shape. The Makuta-shaped being made a dismissive gesture, and Takadox's head was suddenly a hundred times heavier. He crumpled to his knees, his head falling with a thud against his chest as he desperately propped it with straining arms. He sagged to the ground. "Are you going to behave, amphibian, or do I have to make you join my recalcitrant brethren on whom I sit?" the Makuta said in a cold firm voice. Almost a Toa's voice. The gravity ceased and Takadox, heaving for breath, looked closer at the cast-iron Skakdi. Air was hissing in and out of holes in their mouths. They were living Skakdi, coated in metal. "I think they have served enough time, in any case." said the Makuta. The metal shattered and Skakdi of several colors, brown and blue and black, stumbled out from underneath him as the Makuta stood up, and collapsed to a squat, heaving for breath and massaging face and spines. "Ten hours ought to teach even them a few lessons in obedience. I run a tight ship, Takadox, despised agent of the Barraki. Already my brothers experience the benefits: increased control of elemental power, greater efficiency in combat, and far more effective control of a kingdom. And yes, they can use elemental powers now the same as a Toa. Someone dreamed they could." "You can't be a Makuta, even if you look like one." said Takadox, his mind racing. "In any case, I'm deserting." "As they sent you to." the Makuta said softly. "Oh yes, I really am a Makuta. The last of my species, if you don't count Miserix. My name I will not share. My people call me Sir, as they cannot bear the name of Makuta, after what a b a s tard predecessor of mine did to them. I lead them well, and they are content to follow me." There was silence for a while. At length Takadox blurted, "I thought you had questions." "Oh, I've already asked them, when you weren't looking." the Makuta said blandly. The released Skakdi snickered. "I now have every detail I need about the Barraki and their movement. My advice to you is to hold yourselves ready to march at my command. I am issuing soon, when the time is at hand, and I will end the Civil War." He laughed, soundlessly. The Skakdi grinned. "Oh yes, you would be wise to march beside the Skakdi. That is why I let you live. Now I return you to your friends, and since you are such a master hypnotist, you will be under my hypnotism." The world spun around Takadox, and he stood in the Barraki tent. The warlords jumped to their feet. "Takadox!" exclaimed Pridak. "Makuta, Makuta, all hail Makuta." babbled Takadox. He had no thoughts, only the urgent need to say it. "They have a Makuta. Makuta. Ally with the Skakdi, because they serve a Makuta." "If I didn't know better, I'd say a Confusion Rahkshi hit him full in the face." said Kalmah. "Telepathy and Confusion." muttered Pridak. "Either that, or someone extremely powerful is in charge of the Skakdi. I think an alliance would at least keep him off our backs." "And you didn't ask him about the Shadowed One, I suppose?" said Ehlek. Takadox didn't answer. The stooped clawed leader turned away from him. He was the only Barraki who had always been a water-breather, and the Pit had mutated him only by deformity. This was cured now and amphibiousness added. "It is time, Pridak, to question the asset I made especial care to recruit. He is a Skakdi." ---------------------------- The "asset", Pridak decided, was a peculiar character indeed. His armour had none of the elemental-based colors of the Skakdi, being in plain fact dark gray and silver. His organic tissue was also gray, and his Skakdi grin was somehow smaller and less ferocious than was normal for his race. He was powerfully built, looking indeed as strong as any Skakdi of Earth or more, and was straight, without the usual stoop. "Hey! Master Pridak, pleasure to meet you." he said in a bluff voice. The usual harshness was absent from it. "I'm Skiff." Pridak blinked once or twice. "Just what kind of freak Skakdi is this?" said Kalmah, with one hand on his weapons, as such a remark was likely to rouse retaliation from such an aggressive species. The Skakdi didn't take offense, surprisingly. He even laughed. The good humor in that laugh was another surprise. "I used to be a completely normal Skakdi." he said. "I was off on a trading mission to Metru Nui, took me years. I got back and Zakaz had gone mad. Fortresses were falling and cities were in smithereens, and my countrymen had all suddenly turned colors and grown superpowers. I didn't stick around very long, I tell you." "A pre-experiment survivor." said Pridak with interest. "I begin to understand your direction." "Yes, that's me." said Skiff. "Now the abnormal is the norm, and beings most decidedly freaks are the average. I'm the last left I know of; used to be almost 200 others, they got nabbed and sent home once the Zakaz quarantine went up, and lasted maybe five minutes. I holed up in the mountains, and that's why I'm alive. Let me guess, you want me to infiltrate my insane brothers." "Not exactly infiltrate." said Pridak. "You're joining him. It'll be as a gesture of goodwill or whatnot. We need info on the Shadowed One, and this freak Makuta may be a good asset." "Ah well, may as well die today as tomorrow." shrugged Skiff. ------------------------------------------------ He walked right down the canyon, openly. Every few hundred feet he stopped to bellow, "Hey, look alive everybody, I'm a colorless powerless perfectly sane Skakdi!" As he had calculated, the guards were convinced he'd been out in the sun too much and leaned on the rocks, watching him come and laughing. He had no intention of getting zapped for sport, however, and put his plan into action before he was close enough for eyebeams to be damaging. It was simple: He collapsed and played dead. As he expected, the two closest guards came up by themselves to loot and drag him off. When they were right above him he pressed down on the pulse-field switch of the innocent hatchet he held. A pulse wave exploded outward from him, overthrowing loose rocks, flattening both Skakdi. Quick as a flash he was up, and with a skilled blow laid one Skakdi unconscious, then pulled the other one up, facing away, a sword held to a vital spot. "I want to join your army, bub." said Skiff in a menancing voice. "So you'd better take me to what passes for a warlord around here, or we'll see how the rocks look with Skakdi lubricants on them." The green Skakdi growled. This was evidently his worst day yet. But he led Skiff up into the rocks, where the other Skakdi gathered, chuckling, around them. Skiff pushed the hostage away: nobody would care about a hostage, even another Skakdi. "Name's Skiff." he said breezily---and let off another pulse field. Except this one was designed to be harmful to body energies; the Skakdi it flattened were not just punch-drunk but sick and dizzy when they lifted swimming heads. "Oh well, I guess you folk are just too weak to bear my sneezes. A pity, I just can't seem to hold them in. D--n that Spiriah fellow. Well, I'll head on, see if anyone else is a bit tougher. Good to be seeing you, gents!" and he headed quickly down the path. Faint groans followed him. As he had taken on the stoop and gait of the ones he had left, he was unchallenged at the first two checkpoints he met. The third one asked a password, but another "sneeze" sufficed for that, and Skiff headed on. The canyon deepened, the walls grew high and yet brand-new, rock uneroded or scored, simply standing there as if generated from scratch. These were the new coastal mountains created in the Melding, and nonexistent since the Shattering, when this had been the edge of the Southern Deathlands. The sea-smell, soft and salty and sticky, reached him on a breeze. This itself was a new thing to him, oceans inside the Great Spirit being fresh water, but there was that weird sky-falls in the Southern Continent after the Cataclysm. The fortress appeared with the sea. The canyon, grown with perfect rugs of pine seedlings from the few sand-pines (evidence of the use both of Skakdi of Plant Life and Skakdi of Earth powers), opened onto dunes, a flat pale blue-brown twinkling sky beyond. And on the right, where a mountain ran out into the sea, built into and upon that mountain was a fortress not only immense and impregnable but fantastic, a thing Great Beings might have made. Tan-gold rock spires rose, too airy for masonry to have built, from walls impervious to any power. "In fact, it did simply grow here." said the purple Skakdi standing on the beach and gazing at the fort. "One moment it was not, and then someone dreamed about it, and behold, there it was." He held up one hand as Skiff's finger descended to the trigger. Skiff couldn't move. "If you don't mind, it's impolite to sneeze." "Hello, Makuta." said Skiff with amusement. "I hadn't quite expected to reach you this easy." "My name is Varian, to be exact." said the purple not-a-Skakdi. "Irony of ironies. Destiny has a sense of humor, you know. I am a brand-new Makuta, created from a Toa of Iron. And you are an Original." "Yeah, I'm afraid I had to smash up your guards." "They will have more respect for you if I let them heal naturally and slowly. That was a very good choice for reputation building, Master Skiff. Come with me. Destiny has some stranger things yet ahead for either of us. His Mouthpiece draws near." "Who? You mean the Shadowed One?" "Yes, I see Pridak is itching for news of him." said Varian dryly. "He has a dark idea of what is going on, but he does not know, not as I do. I may have to speak with him before he begins doing something stupid. And even my knowledge is insufficient to deal with what I am beginning to suspect." They teleported inside the fortress. "The dreams are gone, and cannot become real, and that is good indeed: Destiny takes ill to being tampered with. Do you know why we are here, Skiff? Why, of all the peoples of the Matoran Universe, it would be the Skadi who were maneuvered into setting up here? No, you don't, and I don't either. I guess, darkly. What were the Skakdi designed to be? What part did they play in the body of the Great Spirit? No one can tell now, for it is buried under the sin of my predecessor, who experimented on you and in so doing, ruined your purpose. Yet somehow you escaped, the last Original. Perhaps the destiny of the Skakdi rests in your hands." "Not entirely." a deep and weird yet somehow un-life-ful voice echoed around them. A being swam into view, tall and massive with gold and silver armor on black body, but he was hazy, his edges fading as if into fog. Remote, from an impossible distance, his eyes rested on them as across a gulf not only of space but of being. It was the Shadowed One. "What the Karzahni happened to you?" exclaimed Skiff. "I broke the vials that Makuta Kojol would have used to become the greatest Makuta of all time. How ironic that he was assassinated before his plans were ready. And now they have descended to me, that I might rise to the realm of Destiny itself. I have become Destiny, little beings. I am the Mouthpiece of Destiny." "Speak, then, Mouthpiece, no longer Channel. Tell us of our fate, and speak to us of doom." said Varian. "Destiny is often thwarted." said the Shadowed One. "A being's destiny can be denied him, and his purpose frustrated, so that what Destiny foreknows is not what Destiny wanted to have happened. The Toa Mata have the destiny to awake the Great Spirit. But this destiny is now denied them, and they go on to achieve some other end: and that end is their ultimate destiny, but not their intended destiny." "Like the intended destiny of the Skakdi. Spiriah thwarted that, and now they have a new fate, but not the fate meant for them." said Skiff. "Yet Destiny preserved you, Original, so that the deed a race was meant to do, must now be done by one. The Skakdi had only one purpose within the Great Spirit, to give him anger to act with courage. The Great Beings guessed they were important, and made them so and thus, for the Great Beings had a share in Destiny. It was after the Great Spirit that their destiny was intended." "And what was our destiny?" "To deliver the Great Beings." said the Mouthpiece. "They have all gone astray. Only two of them remain aware of the ancient grandeur of their destiny, and one of them is a madman. The other is hindered by the darkness of his brethren. This deliverance must be done. Destiny awoke the Great Beings, and knew as he did that they would fall. And so Destiny called to the Alternate Teridax, to be as conscience to they who knew no conscience save themselves and the distant reproaches of Angonce. They have cast aside their conscience and dwell in their own darkness. And now, against the end it had foreknown, Destiny raises up the Skakdi." "I don't understand. I mean, of course, how could I in the ultimate sense, these being deep mysteries, but I meant I don't get what you're driving at. How are the Skakdi meant to save the Great Beings?" asked Skiff. "Light." replied the Mouthpiece. "Elemental Light and Shadow are not in the Skakdi save in the usual trace elements. Moral Light and Shadow are also barred from them by their lack of discipline. Yet the Originals are powerless. What power, then, can show beyond all doubt to a fallen god the depth of his own depravity, that shows him naked his own blackened heart, that he may vomit at the sight and turn away from it, or embrace it and become forever one with the darkness? Light, little ones. You were all designed to become Skakdi of Light and Shadow, both moral and elemental. And in tandem, those of Shadow would bring up the darkness from the false coat of deception, and those of Light lay it bare. That is the destiny of the Skakdi, and it can never come to pass." "I am only one." said Skiff. "Can other Originals be built?" "Can you enter the Tower of the Red Star and remain sane, or descend into the Pits and convince the Malevolence to build an old creation?" replied the Shadowed One. "We must work with what we have. It is the way of Destiny. For the free will must always be respected, though it rend the very framework of what ought to have been, and Destiny knows what will be, and groans as it comes to pass, and makes back-up plans that some manner of its' original designs may come about. You are both backup plans." He looked beyond them. "There are beings who died, and were revived from the dead. The Red Star called to them, and they could not look away, and they suffered. There are 17 Original Skakdi among them. You will find them where you must go. Destiny will not be brooked, not this time. Take with you the two moral Skakdi, Daktann and Dezok: let them become Shadow. The 17 will become Skakdi of Elemental Light: but you, Skiff, will be wholly of Moral Light, and partake of both Elemental Light and Shadow." "How are we to do this?" said Makuta Varian. "I suspected for a long time that something of this sort must happen, yet I still do not know how." "To become, you must descend in body. To reveal, you must descend in mind. There was a reason why the Dreamer was drawn to this shore. For here, entombed by the Shattering and restored by the Melding and the Wave of Life, is the place they have forgotten. My Predestined hold it against all who are not destined to enter. You must behold how the Great Beings arose." "And the becoming?" said Makuta Varian. "The Vessel of Antidermis knows how." said the Mouthpiece of Destiny. "He is waiting for you there." ------------------------------------ The apparition faded into the air, as the Shadowed One let go of material reality. Varian and Skiff looked at one another. "He didn't say a word about Pridak." said Skiff. "How much does Pridak know?" "A great deal." said Makuta Varian. "He read what Teridax spread out on a wall, knowledge Mutran took out of Tren Krom. But I also saw into Tren Krom, and I saw things that Pridak missed. He knows about the vials, and what has happened to the Shadowed One, though he has no idea of what that evil being has now become. He does not know about the Skakdi, though he knows they are important, and that they were meant to gain powers. Perhaps Spiriah was sent to ensure no Skakdi could have elemental powers, or access to Light, and hence their rage at his experiments." "Does he know," said Skiff, "about the place we are going?" "No," said Varian, "yet he may well force past the Predestined to find what they are guarding, and we have to battle him. He does not need any more knowledge." They headed up to the north tower, where the sound of blows echoed down. A queer zinging rush told them eyebeams were in use. They came cautiously onto the ramparts. An odd scene met them. Two black Skakdi of Earth were standing above a battered red Skakdi and holding off five others with Earth powers, and powers used with a precision even Earth Toa would envy. They seemed unnaturally strong, and from their eyes beamed Confusion rays. "Atten-SHUN!" Varian roared, invoking Power Scream. The focused sound blast flattened every Skakdi. They staggered to hands and knees, tapping ringing ears and shaking heads. When they saw who it was, they stayed down. "Skiff, you have no doubt deduced that these brothers are Daktann and Dezok." said Makuta Varian. "You're to be teamed, you three. Head for Combat Hall 3 to train for two hours. At ease, the rest of you. I think I already told you bunch about brawling, didn't I? Well, since you like fighting so much, you can fight to keep your armour from eating your spines." He put a magnetic command in the armour, using his elemental Iron powers as well, and the armour came to life. Yelling with rage the Skakdi gang began trying in vain to tear off or restrain their armour. Varian used Quick Healing on the injured red Skakdi and sent him below. He looked with amusement at the gang: they could defeat the armour easily enough if they all teamed up to battle each other's armour, and then they would need fresh armour. But such a tactic would likely take a while to sink in. -------------------------------- "So what're YOUR powers?" said Daktann in his rough booming voice. "Ain't never seen a GREY Skakdi. Please tell me you ain't a Skakdi of Psionics or something." "I don't have any." said Skiff with a shrug. "And yes you have seen these colors. In fact, they used to be yours." "An Original, huh?" rumbled Dezok. "This'll be a walkover. You don't know what Hall 3 is, do you? Means we two have to battle you one. Course, we can't injure you, or you us; that's the rules. But nobody said nuthin' about pounding." "I could've sworn I saw you two sticking up for somebody." said Skiff. Daktann shrugged. "Yeah, we don't like bullies, and seeing a guy bein' hit when he's down just makes our blood boil. A fair fight, we'll root with the rest." "Even place a bet." grinned Dezok. "Here's the hall. The rules are like this: weaker side gets one weapon, stronger side is stuck with fists and powers. How many weapons you got on you?" "I'll take the hatchet." said Skiff, depositing sword, shield-handle, rotating saw blade, pulse bolt gun and fire bow in the nearest rack. The brothers looked approvingly at the pile. "Boy, glad we're in the hall." joked Daktann. "You'd be quite the b--str-d in the field with those." "Okay, we'll go to the far end. Combat starts when we turn around. Ready?" grinned Dezok. He grasped Daktann's hand--and both invoked a third power Skiff had not expected: they moved at accelerated speed, reaching the far side in seconds. They turned around and fired, not eyebeams, but a spray of dirt. Skiff dodged behind a boulder. He popped up his hand, holding a ball of wadded earth, and sure enough saw twin beams of Confusion hit the ball. He somersaulted to another rock: the hall was a maze of rocks, for cover purposes. Another spray of earth filled the air. This time Skiff charged through it, before they could make blades of earth or something, even though he knew they would have an advantage once he was plastered with earth. But it would get him close enough to sneeze. A Confusion beam got him: they had seen him via Earth. He collapsed, disoriented, not even sure what he was supposed to be doing. The air around him suddenly filled with bone-dry dust, and he choked. Through the haze he saw the two black Skakdi blurring toward him at accelerated speed. He pressed the trigger. As both Skakdi sprawled, too sick to even stand up, let alone use powers, Skiff sauntered over. "Sorry about that." he said. "I'm afraid you'll be like that for at least a day. It's how I got in, point of fact. You're pretty good, though: I'm still coughing from that dust." "Something wrong with you?" groaned Dezok. "You're supposed to jeer and gloat." "That always makes me sound stupid. Besides, it makes enemies. We're supposed to team, right?" "Yeah, you must have hit him too good with your eyebeams." muttered Daktann. "Unless he's just soft." "Well, I AM an Original." shrugged Skiff. "Well done, gentlemen." said Makuta Varian, appearing in the hall. Quick Healing restored the brothers. "It might be a good idea not to underestimate Skiff: he's had a good deal of military service. I have a special mission for the three of you. Head over to the feeding hall and tank up, and pack for a journey as well as battle. I don't know what we might run into." ----------------------------------- The four ill-assorted beings teleported to the edge of Predestined terrain. "Makuta teleportation stops here, and I'm betting all other kinds as well." said Varian. A stone tablet lay right in front of them, with the Destiny symbol graved on it. Varian picked it up and showed it to them. "You all know the Virtues symbol, right?" "The wimpy little squiggle all good little beings must serve?" snickered Daktann. "Yes. But this symbol was never used anywhere in our universe. It is the three globes, except they form a triangle, and have no crescents. I found out from my tribal heirloom this means Destiny. How curious we should find such a tablet right here. I'm betting we'll find this is a safe-conduct card." It proved indeed to be. They filed into the ragged valleys, hung with short-needled firs, and were stopped at least once every hundred yards. A queerness in the air would hold them all suspended, a guard would approach, examine the tablet suspiciously, and motion them on. After the fifth of these stops the black Skakdi were grouchy and even Skiff looked irritated, but they met no further hassles. The Predestined were all around them. The narrow valley was grown with short young firs, but above them on the walls beings could be seen moving about, and figures filled the rocks. Silently the Predestined went about their tasks, and watched as the ones who were destined made their way along. Towards noon they began to find traces of building. The stones lying about were often cut, some still with ancient mortar glued to them. The cement was never eroded, only broken. Once or twice they passed entire chunks of wall, lying in the firs or standing in ragged ruin. A town, from the arrangement, and they were on the main street. Ahead the first real tree they had met in these barren mountains drew near, so thick and so ancient that even though nothing of the size of the mammoth stumps of Tesara, it looked it. Huge as a tower the tangled limbs rose, as curled as cauliflower, small hard leaves with thorns amid red berries......it was a holly. "The entrance to the forgotten place has been held by this tree for only one mortal month." said the phantasmal Shadowed One, turning to face them. He had simply come into existence right before them. "Before that it was entombed: for nothing could Shatter it. The Melding restored what had been. A stump became a tree, exactly as it grew in the time before time. What you see now, they saw then, at the heart of the town that was fallen into dust ages before the world shattered. The Tree of Destiny." "There anything, like, magical about it?" said Daktann uneasily. "No." said the Shadowed One. "It is older than magic. A place as forbidden as magic. It was foretold to those who dwelt here that whoso entered the tree could only pass if he was destined. Many tried. They found themselves back in the village. After a while they no longer tried, and the Tree grew undisturbed." He glided forward, and they followed. The wood of the huge tree rose in great ribs, smooth and flowing around boughs, and between, holes gaped. "They feared the Tree, and became foolish, and superstitious, even placating it with tithes of food. And when the Rahi ate the food, they thought the Tree was pleased. But these fools grew old, and their children were not foolish. They hid and watched, and saw the beasts eating, and then one of them arose, and he went into the tree, and one by one through many doors the others followed." The gaps were like caves, or high pointed doorways. Even the burly Skakdi could squeeze in. The phantom seemed to pay no heed to the walls. "I thought you were a criminal mastermind." said Daktann curiously. "What made you so high and lofty?" "I was warned, but I did not heed the warning." said the Mouthpiece of Destiny. "I entered Destiny, to control it: and now I am Destiny, and what I will, is only what is willed by Destiny. I am his Mouthpiece." The halls in the grots of the tree were narrow and lined with flowing pillars and props of dead wood. It was dim, lit from the many doors and higher gaps between veins, and smelled harsh and dry and stale, like very old spongy bone-dry wood. Sponge formed the floor. In the center was a well of growing wood, and the water of that well was luminous, a pure lime green.

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 4: The Great Being Civil War I: The Battle of the Maze Two armies now readied under the earth. One was inside the great caves that Teridax had created under the shielded Repair Shop, which shared the shield. The other practiced on the ice of frozen seas, lit by sputtering suns in the skies of the Great Spirit. Even with the wisdom of Teridax's guess, the strike of the Benevolence was unforeseen. An army appeared out of thin air, not in the Maze, but above it. Only the shields that Angonce, warned by Krahka's penetration, had put above the Maze defended them from that surprise attack's first blast. The Malevolence was cut off. Teridax had returned to his army, and now he and his two forces were thousands of miles away, aware but unable to come: and then even telepathic contact was shut down. "Whatever the living heck are THOSE?!" exclaimed Gerendonce The horrors created in the factory of Metru Nui's ruins hovered above the Maze. Mutated and bristling with appendages, they made the productions of Pit Mutagen look quite sane and normal. Blank red eyes glowed with power. Some still bore recognizable Agori/Glatorian armour, or the Kanohi of Toa, but whatever they were, they were no longer themselves. Even color had gone from them: all of them were the same awful red-mauve, fading to dull dark green. It was they who were generating the thought-quenching field. The Whatevers began to stamp on the air. Weird wrinkles of power rippled visibly around them. Feeling the weakening of the shields, the Malevolence diverted all power to those around the Tower in the center. The Whatevers, suddenly unopposed, crashed to the ground: the tug-o-war effect, Angonce wryly called it. They stood up in the Maze, and the hourly change suddenly accelerated: the Maze was not constant from one minute to the next. Inside the tower, Angonce donned the Mask of Artakha. The Great Beings all donned identical masks, pulling them off the Suva as new ones formed to replace them. With a groan and shimmer the entire interior contents of the tower disappeared as space was warped, and all the inventions and equipment and forges of the Tower of the Maze was transported to the secret underground shell the Element Lord of Earth had created deep under Bota Magna. It was a backup plan no one had expected to need. Into the empty shell of the Tower rose the Element Lords. Though telepathy was quenched by the weird power of the Whatevers, they had forgotten to extend it beneath the earth to include elemental energy: and the Lords had been summoned by an earth-message to the Lord of Earth. Rock, Sand, Water, Flame, Earth, Ice and Jungle all stood in their terrible shapes, staring at the Great Beings. "These horrors are vulnerable to us if they are taken by surprise." the profound voice of Earth boomed. "Yet be warned, brothers. I feel Death about this place. I fear one of us may not escape." "You have too much imagination, old pacifist." said Water ponderously. "We are ready, Great Beings. Hurry." The Malevolence nodded, and space warped, and they were gone. They went, not to the lair where Angonce alone showed up, but to their ancient base, the dreadful fortress of death at the edge of the Frost, above the Pits of Despair. And Angonce found himself alone in the new underground tower, and wondered what horror were his brothers going to unleash. For the mind-spider was nowhere to be found in what had been taken from the Tower of the Maze. ------------------------------------------- The last shields crashed and fell. In poured the Whatevers, as the Benevolence watched from their eyes. They found within, a gutted shell, empty halls, a pool of crusting fire. The nightmare things searched, milling around. Suddenly they were smashed by rock, drilled apart by water, ground to bits by sandy dust that infused their bodies, and frozen. The weird powers of the Whatevers were barely enough to enable them to break out to the surface as a monstrous Whatever-eating vine boiled and roared up after them, conjured into existence by the Lord of Jungle: a Morbuzakh to end all Morbuzakhs. Out into the Maze the nightmares fled. Instantly the Maze transformed. The Whatevers were shut in by roofs of solid air, which they battled with elemental powers even as the Maze turned to rising lakes of acid that engulfed them. Even the regenerative powers of the Whatevers were hard put to it to keep their dissolving bodies intact as they floundered in the acid. Then they froze it solid and got up upon the surface, and elemental powers fought elemental powers. "The Element Lords are right where I want them." muttered Heremus as the shell of the Tower, which had suddenly gotten oddly thick, shapeshifted. Out of the wall budded the baterra, merging, even as Water fought the Whatevers with a tidal flood, laughing in his huge voice. The other Lords detected the merging baterra and fled the scene. Water could not flee, for the merged baterra was sucking all elemental energy in the region into itself, and the Whatevers faltered as their elemental powers expired, and with a wail the essence of Water was sucked into the merged baterra. The Maze transformed to rocks, a desert of rocks, with invisible walls of air. Through the walls with a fracturing sound Marendar was striding invisible. The baterra felt him anyway, and the 20-foot high merged entity began to quiver as it set about defusing. The Marendar broke into a run. With machine-strength he reached them before they could collapse to face the new threat, and inadvertently release the Element Lord. The Marendar's power did not merely quench or turn off elemental energy: it unmade it. The Element Lord of Water expired as his essence, which was entirely his element, was extinguished. The Maze groaned. Far under the earth the rock shook. In a flash, faster than even the machines could react, the stones of the Maze melted and evaporated, not just into lava, but plasma of gaseous rock. Into the gas fell the Whatevers, and were instantly unmade; others rose in the air, a few only, and barely escaped. The baterra were consumed. The Marendar rose again out of the gas, his body glowing: he had Adapted to it. "How can this be happening?" exclaimed Heremus. "Both Baterra and the Horrors are immune to elemental powers!" "The Toa shoots fire, but when the lightning kindles the forest, did the Toa cause that?" said Velika. "If you're saying they are vulnerable to the unwielded elements, yes, but how could that happen without elemental energy?" demanded Heremus. "Chain reaction." answered Velika. "Earth, Rock and Fire merged powers far under the earth. Then they stood aside and watched. Quite the arena spectacle, too; I'd be inclined to put up a widget." "The world's coming to an end. Valentar just spoke plain Agori." said Heremus. "The Maze just transformed again." oberseved another Great Being. "It seems the transforming ability was not unmade by the violent change. But the tower is gone, and the Malevolence can never use that base again." --------------------------------- II: Pot Shots "What's going on in the great world outdoors?" said Toa Jaller, coming up. The Mahri had been training the grim ferocious villagers of the Peace-deprived Zeal-berserk Teridax settlements in use of the weapons the Mad Great Being was cooking up and not telling the Malevolence about. He'd already created a Mask of Duplication that replicated anything desired, including living things, except the duplicates were dead and the Mad Great Being had to bring them to life. By this means he multiplied weapons direct from his prototypes. Teridax preferred to rely on free beings instead of long-range creations, and so had ordered him to stick to weaponry. "You haven't been outside the last week, have you?" said Takanuva. "Earthquakes, the sun turning colors, storms of rainbow clouds, winds of queer light, anything register?" "Did that actually happen?" said Jaller suspiciously. "And yes, I've been busy down here." "It's been a nightmare up top." said the Toa of Light wearily. "The Great Beings are slinging inventions at each other now. Each side has had enough sampling of the other's strength not to risk troops in open battle. First the Benevolence fired some kind of mushroom-cloud bomb. That imploded when Angonce got to work on it. Then the Malevolence sent an airborne virus, like some kind of living wind. Velika consumed it before it got even close with that rainbow storm I mentioned. The storm went on to attack the Red Star Tower and was dried up by a Mask of Hunger. Then the Malevolence created a whole bunch of war machines, all impervious to any known power or creation of the Great Beings. These went into full lay-everything-waste mode, but fortunately they came in by way of New Atero, and that was already empty. They shelled the Great Spirit only to find it shielded a little too strongly. They managed to penetrate from below and killed--just randomly killed--an entire campful of the New Atero prisoners before the Hand of Velika figured out how to destroy them." "Immoral weapons." said Tahu grimly. "Teridax gave the Malevolence an ultimatum after that: stop using immoral weapons, or I mutiny. They soft-pedaled. But we had word from Angonce---he's on his own, in the Cave, the Malevolence went back to the Red Star Tower---and he's worried. There's some kind of mind-eating weapon the Malevolence created, and he's afraid they'll unleash it." ------------------------------ III: The Spider "I've had it with Velika." said Turaga Dume. "Just what do you expect us to be able to do about it?" said Turaga Whenua bitterly. "We're locked up on an ice field and both sides use us as cannon fodder." Nuju shrugged and uttered a few sharp clicking chirps. "Matoro isn't around, and neither is Vakama." said Dume testily. "If you have something to say, and its' important---" "He says we should form a Nui." said Nokama, using her Noble Mask of Translation. "Thank you, Nokama." said Dume. "That is a good idea.....we would have increased elemental powers, not to Toa-level but better than now, and a new Mask....." The six Turaga looked at each other grimly. They reached out and joined their hands, and merged. Parts flowed into each other and fused and bulged. A tall powerful being got up, wearing red and black armour with other hues beneath. Large pauldrons that looked rather like the Kanohi of the Turaga adhered to his shoulders. On his face he wore the Noble Mask of Knowledge, which, he realized as he accessed it, gave him the ability to comprehend the internal makeup of anything within a hundred yards, and to manipulate it to a limited degree. In one hand was a Vahki Staff of Confusion; in the other, a disk launcher. Chanelling his fire power through the launcher made it a jetpack. Lifting off the Turaga Nui shot past the astounded guards, blinding them with a blast of icy fog that froze their eyelids shut. He streaked over the icy desert to whoops of encouragement from the prisoners. There was no pursuit, but doubtless someone was informing Velika. The Turaga Nui changed shape, for his Mask of Knowledge gave him the knowledge of how to rearrange his own parts by will alone, until a duplicate of Trinuma wearing a Mask of Flight soared over the dead world. He soon came to the sea gates leading into the Head, and touched down, walking past the guards. No one bothered to question or stop a member of the Hand of Velika. So the Turaga Nui came to the horrible forges in the ruins of Metru Nui. His exceptional hearing picked up voices, and he hid as guards jogged by, saying there was an alert out for a Trinuma imposter. Changing shape with some difficulty to one of the guards the Nui used the Staff of Confusion to get past another post, and the way was clear to the portal-circle accessing the Palace above, on the surface. A guard saw the unauthorized use and shouted, and the Nui fired a Shrink disk at him. The 6-inch guard kept on shouting, but no one could hear him. The Turaga Nui stepped off the circle and into the Palace. Using his knowledge to imitate chameleon power, he crept up one hall and down another. Why he was doing this he was not sure, but the Mask of Knowledge urged him on. Some vital secret lay ahead, which he must take with him when he left. Voices came from ahead, and two Great Beings walked by. One was tall and stooped, but the other was a Matoran. Both were hooded and cloaked. "The Malevolence is silent, and it already the second day since they repulsed the Hunger-dart." said the tall one. "We have a guess at the lair of Alternate Teridax. I went to the rumored base in the Element Chambers, but it was deserted. Then I tried to visit my old repair shop, and it was so powerfully shielded not even thought could pass." "A guess may help, but the bee cannot be swatted if there is no light." said Velika. The Turaga Nui considered. On the one hand, the Toa Code forbade killing. But on the other, to kill Velika would cripple the Benevolence. Both Great Beings halted. "Brother, do you feel that?" said Heremus curiously. "Yes." said Velika, and he actually sounded worried. "The villagers have knocked down the Turaga, and cupped their hands around the berries." "The feet I feel are not physical." mused Heremus. "There is no energy about it at all. It is a creature, but one entirely psychic. It has the shape of a spider, and it marches up the astral plane." "I fear the Muaka may have a longer neck than it seems at first sighting." said Velika. An orange visor began to materialize atop his normal mask as he summoned it. "Aarrrg!" choked Heremus. The murderous Great Being was staggering back and forth, and a pale white phantom outline seemed to be wavering in and out of him, staggering in different directions. Then he seemed to crumple together, the white phantom stretching as it detached, arms flailing at a pale head and mandibles. The mandibles clashed, and the spirit of Heremus was sucked in like spaghetti. His body spasmed and went still. The Mask of Time blazed upon Velika's face. The Turaga Nui could not see the unseen battle, but he saw the strain it was putting on Velika. Great Being though he was, he reeled and drooped, till the Mask went off and he leaned, gasping, on his knees. "That will not hold it...more than....a day." he puffed. The Turaga Nui lifted his Staff of Confusion, slowly. Velika got up, and the Turaga Nui froze. Without a single show of sympathy, Velika levitated the corpse of the Great Being and headed up the hall with it. The Turaga Nui did not emerge, for something else caught his gaze: a pale phantom was gliding up the hall in Velika's wake. A phantom that had the build of a much bigger and stronger Matoran, one who had not been through Karzahni. The ghost stopped and turned its' head, and looked into the Nui's eyes. "You can see me." it said in a phantom voice. "Earth can see me. You must have Earth within you, aided by that Mask." "Who are you?" murmered the Nui. "You are a Nui. Maybe that is why you can hear me, when only a Mask of Detection otherwise could. Earth partakes of death, for the dead are buried in it, and it shares in all elements. I am dead, Nui. And yet I am not dead, only exiled from my body. I have never known a body. He has always walked in it." "What happened with Heremus?" "The Malevolence has created a mind-spider. Angonce is not near enough to restrain them, and they have unleashed it. Valentar trapped it in Time, but only Mata Nui can stop it: for it will escape." "But who are you?" insisted the Nui. "I am Velika." the wraith echoed. "The spirit he displaced to wear my body." IV: The Raid on Metru Nui With Heremus dead, the Malevolence went on the offense. The Element Lords gathered armies of the fugitives from Velika, and Jungle issued queer many-kinked wands to his troops. "These are plant weapons." he said in his weird voice. There were hundreds of thousands of troops, for Alternate Teridax sent word his forces would teleport to the location at the right second. Earth's tribe had set up great hospitals far underground, and Sand and the Vorox of Malum waited to guard them. But the Iron were not there. "We strike now, and as hard as we can." the thought of the Malevolence reached into every mind of their forces. "Heremus is dead, by our weapons. The Benevolence will be shaken. Strike now! Strike, our children! Smash this Benevolent tyranny!" Using the Masks of Artakha as well as the teleporting devices and the masks of the Toa, the Malevolence teleported the army out of the concealed caverns. They could not appear inside the Head, which alone of the Great Spirit was shielded against even space-warping, so they appeared outside it, on the cranium, near the ruins of New Atero. As far from the sight of the Palace as possible. The first to strike were the Jungle Agori. They slammed their wands against the metallic rock of the skull of the Great Spirit. The contorted sticks exploded in fluffy green, dark olive and evil-hued. Mildew coated the surface, which was shielded against direct powers, but not against indirect. It was not the plants themselves but the powers in those plants that were at work. And this mildew had been generated to decay anything that had solid form. The sporeless mildew ate into the surface like boiling water into packed snow. Soon a tunnel right through the Great Barrier was breached, and the mildew expired. A hole half a mile wide yawned, and the army called up Nuva Masks of Speed from their pocket Suvas. Interface fabric allowed even the Magnans to wear these, as well as Bionicle species that normally couldn't wear Kanohi. These Nuva masks had been designed so any Kanohi wearer could turn them on, and sharing the power with Matoran and others who weren't able to use masks at all, the mask-wearers entered at very near the speed of light. The Element Lords were everywhere. So were all the rest. Some sped off to the camps and activated teleportation bombs that transported everyone to within range of the Repair Shop. Others blurred around dumbfounded infantry and war-machines faster than any eye or sensor could react. Plants appeared on everything. Vines grew like wildfire, destroying what they touched. Explosions and bombs filled the dome. The last ruins of the hill of Metru Nui, and with it all the abominable new factories, weaponshops, smithies, labs and forges, disappeared into burning dust. PULL BACK! Akternate Teridax ordered. There was no way onto the surface, nor did any power, even the plant-based weapons, seem able to bite upon the sky. Velika is coming! With their Masks of Speed, the army pulled back from the Head and zipped into the north, regrouping in the Maze. Even after the battle the Maze kept on quietly changing, and now it was walls of ancient scored stone. Every man of that army wore on his head a device that replicated the Order of Mata Nui mental shields, so there was little danger of mental attack. The Benevolence teleported into the Head, and found only an inferno. Even their troops had been teleported away, to a prison near the new lair, where hopefully they could be repaired from the things the Benevolence had begun doing to them. "This is not the work of our brothers." said one Great Being to Velika. "This is the work of someone far more practical and strategic. One who knows our one flaw, that we prefer to work from behind. This alternate Makuta." "The Matoran does not work right, so the Karzahni puts him together again, and he is worse off than before." said Velika. "Valentar, enough of your irrelevant analogies. Keep your riddles for your creations. If you have words for the Great Beings, say them!" "Since our forces are destroyed, we must work from the Palace." Velika yielded. "The Element Lords are only for themselves. If they are convinced we are nearly defeated, they will turn on the Malevolence." "And perhaps we may ease this decision from within." smiled the other from his hood. ------------------------------- V: Teridax vs. Velika Alternate Teridax had no intention of letting the Benevolence draw breath. Even as the two Great Beings pondered darkly over the ruin of their empire, an army appeared around them. An army that immediately began to pepper the sky with artillery. Not only elemental powers; some of the Toa in it had Masks of Telekinesis, and amid them stalked the white Rahkshi, increasing their Zeal to berserk intensity. The two Great Beings found out to their horror that their minds were shut out by the berserk condition. Alternate Teridax appeared before them. He knew very well which ones he was facing. Velika was the dangerous one, for he had actually seen combat, but the other, he was the sort that was best when plotting behind a wall and sending out creations and mental assault. A sudden physical combat would rattle him badly. The war-hammer spun and whirled in his hand as he swung it, and the taller Great Being was catapulted across the dome. He vanished: likely some gadget in his pocket, that took him to the safety of the Palace, where he would collapse shaking into a corner and stay there until the shock wore off. He had seen it happen with his namesake. Against Velika, however, the Alternate Teridax put out his greatest weapon: the hand of his mind. Telekinesis as powerful as twenty Masks of Telekinesis seized the Matoran body. The incredible mind of Velika flailed against the mental shield of Alternate Teridax, even as the hammer sent his fellow sailing through the air: then gave up, and issued a call to the Palace, summoning something. The Makuta of Light did not wait to see what horrible invention would manifest. The backswing of the blow that defeated the first Great Being descended on Velika: and rebounded off a shield called up by a Hau that had appeared on Velika's face. The Matoran Great Being did not stick around. The moment he had a hand free, he too teleported to the Palace. ------------------------------ Teridax frowned as he examined the sky. It had not yielded to any powers. He fingered it with the hand of his mind. The very substance of the shell was imbued with a repelling-field of great strength, that cancelled all power to touch the stone. Clever, for no other power than his would have detected it, it was so subtle. Great Beings would have assumed a shield. There was only one possible way to break the ground beneath the stronghold that, dream-created, was impregnable by any force or power. The ground had to be possessed. And it was not stony enough for the Element Lord of Rock to enter. It was metallic. He issued a retreat order, and teleported both armies to the shielded caves of the Repair Shop.

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 3: The Mouthpiece of Destiny "Where are we?" said the Toa of Fire irritably. Macku still didn't know his name. They stood in a weird forest, the stooped short ancient trees feeling somehow wrong. Then Macku placed it: the leaves were not green, but a leathery brown. Not an autumn brown such as she had heard about, or a dying brown, either: they had always been brown. "I don't know." confessed the Krahka. "I was trying to reach the Maze." "Well, keep to the paths." ordered Macku. "This forest doesn't feel right. Not right at all." The Toa of Fire called up an X-ray Mask from his pocket Suva: Macku was beginning to wonder just what other ones he had in there. "The paths are in patterns." he said. "There's another a hundred feet off, parallel with this, and then it kinks, they all kink at right angles." The Krahka shifted to Matau, former Toa Metru of Air, and rose to a great height. "There's a tower." she called down. "Ancient, amid a valley. There are mountains around it--" At that moment the world turned inside out. Trees were engulfed in boiling walls of smoke and shadow, and the ground shuddered and squirmed. When everything fell still, they were on a lane between walls of solid darkness. And the lane wasn't facing the same direction. "We're in the Maze." said Macku. "Krahka! You still there?" shouted the mad Toa. "Yes, Mata Nui, that was terrible." exclaimed the Rahi. "I will have to guide you from up here. No one can teleport in the Maze." Directed by the false Air Toa, they hurried down the walls of smoke and took turns to left and right, deeper into the Maze. All at once, the smoke began to boil, and everyone stood still. It did not shift, it simply became solid rock, ancient cliffs of scored and seamed rock, bushes and trees wooding narrow valleys that had no paths. "That was short!" exclaimed Macku. "We haven't been here an hour!" "Likely once an hour." said the mad Toa. "But the problem with a system is that it has a system, and if it has systems they can be disrupted." "Look, pal, can you please talk Matoran?" snapped the Toa of Fire. "Magnetism." the Toa said dreamily. "Your Kanohi adheres by it, and works by it. All things that live emit magnetism, and the Maze changes because Life energy and Magnetism are merged. I can barely even sense it, let alone touch it, but I am going to read the patterns I see." "He's mad, but there's a method in it." said Macku. "Fog." said the mad Toa. "The Maze knows who is in it. It will blind us at the next change. Krahka can walk on the air, and so can we." "He is definitely mad." said the Toa of Fire. "Illusions are real while you believe in them, as far as you are concerned." said the mad Toa. "You are going to make very sure you do not disbelieve." "I don't get it." said the Toa. "I do." said Krahka, chuckling to herself. A staircase appeared before them. "I did it." the Toa said happily. "I tricked the Maze into creating a way above it. You just have to make sure you don't look away from the stairs. They're tricky that way. Hurry." All four sprinted up the stairs, Krahka on foot with them. Wood, they rose on rickety frames to impossible heights, but neither bent nor swayed. Hundreds of feet above the Maze, a boardwalk ran along the air. "Magnetically suspended." the Toa of Magnetism said. It was broad and did not quiver, and they raced along at top speed toward the tower in the center. The mad Toa was muttering "This is real, this is real" over and over like some crazy chant. The tower was over ten miles away. To their surprise the Maze did not turn, hour after hour, and the weird web of grids stretched away beneath them into the low clouds drifting over the flat valley. After jogging and walking for several hours they found another stair, leading down onto the roof of the Burning Tower. No one needed to be told to be cautious in the extreme. Even the abrupt disappearance of the stair did not disturb them: it was what lay below that they feared. The Toa of Fire called up a Suletu and telepathically shielded everyone, and the mad Toa hid them behind illusions. The tower door was impervious to elemental powers, but it was not proof against Krahka, and soon she had it open. Below was a spiderlike series of metal catwalks and stairs of metal grids in beautiful curling designs: Angonce had had a lot of time on his hands, and liked beauty. The tower's interior was filled with webs of magnetically suspended and levitated machinery and tools, all of it in action. Energy flashed and sparked. The Malevolence was forging. They crept down past these and into a door that abruptly dissolved in the wall as they neared, blocks flowing and melting heatlessly. The hall beyond them was dim, so dim they had to let the Krahka lead. The Toa of Fire hadn't heard the mad Toa's ramblings, but he had read them in that slightly deranged mind, and shared the fear of the others. From a door came voices, ancient, sighing and profound, weird voices, voices of beings above the level of all else. They shrank back into another door nearby, an empty dark room, but the voices came no nearer. They listened, breath bated, as Great Beings talked among themselves and believed they were unheard. "You do not need to be so scrupulous, brother Angonce." a sad thin female voice sighed. "Valentar is not idle. We have reports of entire armies of recruits being swallowed by cities of machinery, and we know all too well why. While you sit on our hands, the problem grows. We must make a solution." "Unfortunately, we are the problem." The voice was ancient, harsh, whispery and somehow also worried. "That creature you have bred---oh yes, you may deny it, sister, but I know our dear sister has no doubt already created it---it will not stop with the Benevolence as you think you have programmed it to. It will eat all of us. And when the great minds are gone, it will descend to lesser, for sheer hunger. I know, too well I know, how creations devolve. We are not Great Beings. We are a plague." "You have spent too much time discussing abstractions with the Makuta." sighed the female Great Being. "You were not so weak-minded when we all arose, and looked around at one another and knew that we were set apart. And when the dream-eater touched us, and we ate out of her and laughed, who was foremost in the new spring, who was the head of all of us in creating?" "That was long ago." An eternity of sorrow pulsed in the voice of Angonce. "Three things happened to us, sister, and each one destroyed us anew. The first was our arising. The second was our feasting. But the third, the third was when the world around us gave us a name, and we thought that it was true. We thought we were divine." "They were not destructions, deluded brother. They were awakenings. Each one showed us a new condition, a new destiny, and a new duty. A duty to create, for the sake of creation." "And to reign in creation with morality. A duty that we shirked. A duty to those underneath, not to wrong them. I have only begun to see this last during my long hermitage alone in the Maze." "You have dwelled too long alone. We have only a duty of harm, to ensure we harm no one outside our walls. But within, we must create, we cannot deny our creating, and your scruples are absurd even in peace. But in war, brother, in war it is stupidity. Valentar must be stopped." "I agree. But we cannot use a weapon we cannot undo. That was what began this mess." "When we felt the share of the great tapestry within us, we knew then that we were put above these lesser creatures to use them and to rule them for their own good. Ruling is tiresome, and we no longer intend to intervene in their societies. We do what the problem demands. We do not hold philosophical debates while the Benevolence forges." "I am sorry, sister, but I insist the mind-spider project be permanently disabled. At the very least we risk the Alternate Teridax alliance if it even exists, let alone is used." "It is something that must be kept in mind, none the less." sighed the sad thin voice. "It is a weapon of last need, for the final end. And it is vulnerable to one being alone. A spirit of energy. A Great Spirit. We designed it so that Mata Nui can destroy it." "Ah...." Angonce sounded doubtful. "But no one knows where he is except the Mask of Life, and the Mask no longer is passive. It walks in a body, and acts on its' own, and can track us by our life forces. The mind-spider may be vulnerable to Mata Nui, but we are vulnerable to the Ignika. And we cannot find it, either." The Toa of Fire closed his eyes. "Someone used telepathy." said the sad voice. "Telepathy in a mask, moreover. Someone within these walls." Angonce all at once began to laugh. The Great Beings blocked the door. The four creations of the Great Beings backed up against the wall. The hooded mantled shapes folded their arms. "How did you get in?" the female said. "They came in on an illusion." Angonce was still laughing. "While they believed in the illusion, the fog and the powers of the Maze did not exist for them. They walked on empty air over the Maze and into our tower. Indeed we have been remiss." "That was---you mean that stair wasn't even there?!" spluttered Macku. "Who did you send a message to? I hope it was not to our adversaries." said the female Great Being ominously. "Your adversary, certainly." said the Toa of Fire. "I uploaded your entire conversation to the Alternate Teridax. Go ahead, Great Beings. Fry my mind. Disassemble me in some mad war-machine experiment. The cat's out of the bag, and it was quite a Muaka." Krahka was changing shape. Macku looked at her: and gulped. Tall, withered, cloaked and hooded, a duplicate of the female Great Being stared back at it's original. Whatever Krahka did next was so powerful it made hood and head waver. The female Great Being literally crumpled, a high thin scream coming from her hood. She kicked and spasmed, and went still. Angonce looked from her to the bowed and shuddering Rahi, and shook his head. "I am sorry, poor little one," he said gently, bending and pressing his hands to her fluctuating head. The Rahi was sobbing. "You will never be the same again. Now you have shared in our destiny by imitating our shape and our power, and you will either awake as we did, or go mad. Your mind is large, though only half broken open from the programming it was buried in. I will send you to the Alternate Teridax, who is better than all of us. He will help you." He looked at the cowering Toa of Magnetism. "You were right to fear us, you who have gone down into the pit. I know what you saw there. Go, and tell others. Secrecy is our destruction. If we are dragged into the light, at the least we cannot hide." A dimensional gate appeared between them. Feeling dazed, they stepped through, Angonce gently pushing the quaking Krahka. They found themselves facing a white-and-gold being. He wore the Mask of Shadows, but it was gold. --------------------------------------- "We have sat on our hands long enough, Valentar." said the mantled Great Being to the stooped Po-Matoran. "Fugitives swell the Malevolence daily, even as we keep desperately inventing safeguards behind safeguards. The Benevolence must strike. We know where they reside." "The Vorox has many tunnels running out from the nest, and it is difficult to tell which hole may be the nearest, or even that there is but one nest." said Velika. "The Maze may well be only one of their bases, but it is none the less their stoutest. If we unleash the Ultimate Weapon now, we may catch them before they are ready." "You show more sense than our brothers, Heremus." said Velika. "They want to be certain they are absolutely safe. Go, then, and launch it." --------------------------------------------- "Something approaches the Maze." said Angonce. The other Great Beings heard him with both minds and ears, and quickly reached for switches that connected them to the sensory equipment. "I am picking up nothing." said the rusty voice of Gerendonce. "It was not something that I felt." said Angonce. "It was a tremor in my very soul. A tremor from the area where once, long ago, I shared in Destiny." The shimmering shape that opened to their sight all at once, was biomechanical, powerful and armoured in black, grey and gold. A terrible, remote impersonality shone from the shadowed eyes. And Gerendonce exclaimed, "You!" "Do you know this being?" inquired Angonce. "Aye," croaked Gerendonce, "for I created him to function as the agent of the Virtues. They used him as a focus to beam out into the Matoran Universe. How, then, comes it that he has mounted entirely into the astral plane?" The being spoke. "I am the Mouthpiece of Destiny." "Destiny can have no mouth." frowned Gerendonce. "What blasphemy do you utter, being?" The terrible toneless voice paid no heed to the interruption. "The Benevolence teleports a bomb into the Maze. When it blows, it unmakes the fabric of space, and all within it. Call Teridax, for it is not destined that this should be your bane." Then he was gone, and the Great Beings blinked at each other. "I will treat the warning as genuine, rather than risk destruction." said Angonce. "I have opened a hole for Teridax---ah, here he is." The Makuta of Light materialized amid them. "I see it coming." he said. "How is that, when my mind cannot?" croaked Gladius. "I suspect it is because I have various powers, not mere mental ones." said Teridax. "Space is bulging a hundred yards from the tower. There is no power you possess that can halt it, for they knew what they were facing. I am the only defense the Malevolence has against this." "And why you?" said the harsh-voiced female. Teridax threw up one hand: it glowed hot and multihued. "Because I was not made by you Great Beings. And so none of you can comprehend me." He reached with his mind, seeing through the Tower and seizing the emerging bomb. When the Makuta of his world rejected Shadow, they lost their Darkness powers, but their minds gained something else. Their thought grew hands. What they desired to, their minds grasped. With telekinesis more pure than any Mask or Psionics invention could produce, Teridax gripped the bomb, and his will was mightier than its' power. Even the Great Beings did not have such power, for they were not pure energy in armor as he was. "I hold it." he said in a strained voice. "Reverse the teleport!" Angonce raced to the other side of the tower, fitting on his own version of Velika's fabric invention, a fabric that allowed him to wear Kanohi. Great minds very often think alike. From a Suva-cradle that hung blank on the wall he snatched a Mask that had materialized from the data banks, where every possible Kanohi was on file. This one was a new creation, made after Artakha's death, intended to replicate every one of his powers. He had named it, of course, the Kanohi Artakha. Using Artakha's power to warp space and transport objects instantly to any location, he seized the space-hole the bomb was paralyzed within, and reversed it. The bomb was sucked down the hole, to arrive unheralded in the home of the Benevolence. He could only hope to Destiny that it exploded. --------------------------- As Heremus manipulated his equipment, he looked over at Velika and gave an exasperated sigh: the Matoran Great Being was fitting on a Mask like an orange visor over his mouth. What it was Heremus neither knew nor cared, for he was signaling his brethren to open the magnetic doors of the Head, unleashing the new army they had created, to comb the Maze area for survivors. Velika had donned the Mask of Time. Behind him the mindless keeper named Voporak waited patiently for his new lord to finish with his charge so that he could continue guarding it. Already remade into a monster, Velika had remade him again. Only to Velika would he yield up the Mask he guarded. The Mask of Time had been created only for the Matoran Universe, to hold bound the force of Time there in case Mata Nui shifted between dimensions: being, in fact, the main reason the Great Spirit was its' own universe. Before Vakama had created this Mask, the potential of it and the binding of Time was contained in the Great Disks of Metru Nui. But when it was made, suddenly Time itself became vulnerable to being pulled, if the user had a great enough will. The problem was that Time ruled the very soul. Accordingly the resistance it had to being bent was so phenomenal it would need a mind of incredible strength to do anything with it at all. Even a Makuta had hesitated to obtain and use that Mask save at the last resort. But a Great Being was strongest of all earthbound minds. And Velika found he was able to use it. Time could not unmake. Nor could it be changed; for Destiny was over Time, and wove it, and Velika now saw the cause of Time's intractability was due to the stiff hand of Destiny. But he could see along the Present, and whatever he wanted he saw: and he saw the bomb entering the Palace. He reached out and slowed Time around the bomb, sweat breaking out on him: if he hadn't by merest chance donned that Mask to look into the Maze, he would never have seen it coming. Evidently it was not destined anyone should perish by that bomb. Someone else was holding the spacewarp. Velika could not do two things at once. The bomb had not breached space completely. If it went off right there, the fabric of space would remain, but a warp could appear, or even a vortex. "The problem with the Ultimate Weapon is that it really is ultimate." he murmered, and getting up walked over to the time-path the bomb went down. All beings, and all objects, leave a path in the fabric of Time, as moment succeeds moment as they pass through existence. He reached inside the bomb with a piercebar, a tool that being pure energy went through solid objects and manipulated interior energy. A twink here and a loosening there, and the bomb would reach backward down the warp, not forward into the Palace. He let go of Time. The bomb exploded. Still safely inside space, it only made the bulging warp it travelled through cease to exist. A vortex warped and swirled some ways off, above the mouth of the Head, where the bomb-power had reached before it lost momentum. A vortex to a land of total blackness. As Velika watched in great interest, out sprang the Marendar, blades up, facing back behind him. The nightmare that followed was a huge amalgamation of legs and spider bodies, a great stinger arching over it, Rhotuka launchers spitting wheels of Blindness, Numbness, Deafness and Dumbness at the red-and-maroon machine. It was the Zivon. "Now, this was definitely worth seeing." muttered Velika. He knew the beast's Spinners only worked on living things, but the webbing might slow Marendar. The machine, however, had figured out by repeated use of elemental powers that the Zivon disliked Fire the most, as well as the accompanying smoke. Accordingly it became a perfect volcano, as well as adapting and copying every spinner used on it and shooting that power back at the Zivon. The Rahi screamed, stinging with such force it sent the Marendar, flames and all, catapulting into the air. The machine slowed, hovered on jets of elemental flame energy, tilted its' head and considered. The machine would likely either destroy it or elude it, depending on how hard the Zivon pressed it. It was not programmed to kill anything but Toa. But when it saw that it could catch the Rhotuka wheels and turn them around, the Marendar turned in the air, ignoring the furious Rahi, and flew majestically off toward the Palace to await orders. ------------------------------- "It was a nice try, Angonce." said the Alternate Teridax as Angonce took off the Mask of Artakha. "But the Benevolence is just going to strike again. They have transformed a tenth of the inhabitants of the Great Spirit settlements into an army of horrors, hundreds of thousands of immensely powerful creatures. I cannot see inside the Head, but I saw that they were coming. The magnetic doors are opened. I will evacuate the Patricide." "It is too late for that, good Teridax." said Angonce hollowly. "The settlements are sealed against teleportation. They have turned on devices. It is a good thing you already evacuated your settlements to the Repair Shop. I fear our loyal agents within are trapped." "That is.....weird." croaked Gerendonce in his rough voice from across the tower. Angonce turned to look. "New Atero just.....emptied. Every single being in the city vanished." "I found them." said Teridax calmly. "They are in the Great Spirit. Velika has used the Mask of Creation to repair some of the life-support systems. Concentration camps spring up on the ice, in which the inhabitants of Velika's model society are kept in jail conditions. Most of them he is drafting and mindwashing as infantry. One by one, the other settlements will follow. I suggest we strike, and strike hard. Keep them busy." "Very well." said Angonce. "Do what you wish, Teridax." ------------------------------------------------

MALEFICENCE: Secrets of the Great Beings Ch. 2: Patricide The Toa of Plant Life named Visten slipped down the empty street. He scanned abroad with the Mask of Telepathy he wore: good, all minds were now looking the other way. Rapidly he crossed the main street. There were only a few beings abroad in any case, but it wasn't people with minds he feared most. It was the ones without minds. Calling up a Mask of Mechanics from his pocket Suva--a regular Suva at which a Shrink Kanoka had been fired, so it fit in his pocket---he now scanned for anything mechanical. The mask was a recent invention, when expert maskmaker Vakama and the Mad Great Being joined forces, as was the fact that the shrunken Masks expanded to fit his face when they left the pocket Suva. The Mask of Mechanics had been made by altering the forging process of a Mask of Biomechanics just a little---something about the temperature and a drop of some ingredient--to produce a mask that controlled all machinery or mechanical parts period, shapeshifted or not. The Mask of Biomechanics had been regarded by overscrupulous and idiot Toa as immoral, when by that logic the Elemental Powers of Iron and Magnetism were immoral too. Now the Mask of Scavenging, or Undeath, that was another story. He used it only long enough to ensure none of the shapeshifting machines---not to mention the Marendar----were in range, then sent it back. Even a mask-quenching machine that mask could pick up. It was a secret they wanted to keep as long as possible from the Benevolence. The frequency would not be in the Marendar's data, and he might not be able to shut it down. He hadn't been able to shut off the Golden Armour. He used his power over plant life to command the tree he had grown outside this particular house on purpose. Wood flowed away to reveal a shaft descending into the earth, the walls of wood as well. A Toa of Plant Life commanded all wood, dead or not, even charcoal: though not ash. Slipping in he heard the passage flow shut. Anyone in the Patricides who knew the password could access it, but he preferred direct power. The underground room, walled with iron-laced and lead-poisoned wood specifically designed to keep out most casual probes and sensors, lit at once. There was a sigh and grunt as somebody got out of bed. A Matoran came out, blinking in the dim green glow of luminous roots, followed by an Agori and a Zesk. "Good, it's you, Visten." said Macku. "What's the word up top?" Visten had resumed his Suletu and responded by a mental download. Being a double agent was nerve-wracking, and he couldn't afford to linger. When he was done he delivered what he had really come for: duplicates of the powerful Voya Nui weapons, recently produced en masse by the Mad Great Being. There were three sets: Pulse Bolt Generators, Echo Forks, and Twin Repellers. The Toa went back up the passage and was gone. He called up a Mask of Invisibility from the pocket Suva and made his way to where he would be expected to show up in ten minutes. Turning it off behind cover he came out of the house and headed up the street, pocketing the Tablet he had retrieved. The communication screen relayed written messages, but Visten was absolutely certain it saw and heard as well. New Atero looked the same as ever, or the same as it had for the two weeks since Tahu's trick and the breaking of the dream. The phantom orderly society they had enjoyed for four days was only a memory: baterra popped up anywhere and everywhere, and Skrall and Vorox would be teleported in at any sign of suspicious activity. The fear this had caused had done its' job, without need for more than a few shows of force: beings hurried about with heads down, not lingering to talk. Or, at least, they seemed cowed. Visten knew better. You don't quash a scattered race of lone arena fighters. You just make them cautious. The Glatorian and Toa were technically the police, so after ones too well-known for troublemaking had fled to the Malevolence, the rest found themselves too well-watched to do more than ostensibly go about their jobs and try to drag their feet on any arrests or crackdowns. And, now that the thought of the Malevolence had gotten through to them, to form an underground resistance. They called themselves the Patricides, for they were rebelling against one who, however unworthy his motive, had made himself their father. He arrived at the Toa Tower a minute early, pressing his hand to the time clock to punch in. Tahu had built this before the dream had created New Atero, so it stood on the outskirts of the city. Several Glatorian were already there, including Ackar. They nodded to him. Not all of them were Patricides, as some served Velika from loyalty despite their doubts: Strakk, for one, had been Velika's man since before the Shattering. "What's in the wings today, gents?" Visten asked. "Draft." said Ackar disgustedly, throwing down a sheaf of orders. "They seriously think we have a chance of hauling every able-bodied warrior out of his house. I guess Velika is serious about this." "We do it the easy way first." said Strakk. Bluff, hard and ruthless, he was much more sober and worried these days, when faced by a ubitiquous empire that there was no way to throw an axe at. "Proclamation offering rewards for first enlisters; that'll pull in all the greedy and the scum. Then we paper the town and spread all sorts of scare talk about the Malevolence, and I bet another few thousand will be on. Let's hope that makes the quota. It don't, well, then the hard part begins." Visten sighed. The others looked glum. Not even loyalists liked having to browbeat fellow Glatorian or drag out Agori. "Anything else?" he said. "Yeah, we have 200 more cases of curfew held till morning, somebody released them early." said Strakk. "Problem is, we were supposed to quiz them first, and whoever let them out erased the records. Sympathizers, I'm guessing." Visten did not move his face. He had done that by his Mask of Mechanics, taking advantage of a shift change. "So no way of knowing who they even were. Well, load off my mind." said Ackar. "Yeah, I guess." sighed Strakk. "Not worth chasing them. Tonight, though, double guards, shift change half an hour apart." He knew perfectly well it had been an inside job. Visten felt sorry for him: he was caught between loyalty to his job and to his fellow Glatorian. "Troops are to be recruited by noon tomorrow. Got our work cut out, gents." growled Ackar, and headed out. He hadn't fled with Kiina, instead keeping enough of the rules so Velika had had no excuse to come after him, despite his known rogue potential. He was too famous. Visten did indeed have work cut out. Carefully he sent a mental warning to the Patricide, and then sent his thought abroad, to where in the Tesara underground lab of the Great Beings, the Alternate Teridax received his message. Only then did he head out to help proclaim the draft: a draft he was going to have to sabotage. ------------------------------- The quota was not met. Not even close. Everyone seemed to be dragging their feet, and barely a thousand of scum and toadies had signed on by the next morning. Visten was mysteriously absent all morning, pleading a case, and Ackar too was remarkably behind schedule. The promised rewards proved when opened to be stuffed with garbage, and roars of fury went up as even the new recruits headed back home, totally ignoring half-hearted shouts from the Glatorian. The clank of heavy feet sounded behind them, and the harried band turned to see seven powerful beings, armed with horrible-looking weapons, blue and turquoise energy crackling from their hands. "We knew you desert free-fighters would make a debacle." said Johmak. She fragmented and flew to the head of the square, where a blast of power from one weapon cast a moat of fire in the path of the exiting ex-recruits. "So the draft is taken out of your hands. We are the Hand of Velika, and we will take it from here. Go about your jobs." ------------------------------- "Who the h--l is this Hand?" fumed Strakk, back at the Tower. "They used to be a secret society that did the dirty work for Mata Nui, called his Order." said Visten. "Most of them died in the war on the Makuta and then under the Reign of Shadows. There's an 8th one you won't see, called Jebraz, who's invisible." "He's not in here, unless he can suppress his heat index." said Ackar, who controlled fire. Screams were coming from outside. Visten looked and saw beings were fleeing out of a house. A blast of elemental power suddenly exploded from another house, quenched by a blue flash, and a Bionicle of an unknown species stumbled out, looking scorched. "I'll be darned. They're just going house to house!" exclaimed Visten. "Look, Strakk, I know we're Velika's men, but these are free people here. We've got to rein in this Hand." "And do what?" said the Ice Glatorian coldly. "Fight them ourselves? Our hands are tied, Visten. I'm calling in a protest to Velika, and you can go shout at the Hand if you want." Visten headed out into the smoke. One or two houses were burning; he generated a flame-eating vine and destroyed it when it was done. People were gathering from the other houses. The Hand wasn't as crude as it looked: they'd only invaded two houses per street, shouting into the others that the Benevolence was not tolerant of protests and they had better join up, and simply left it up to the inhabitants to comply or not. What would become of the non-compliers was a good question. The large majority of residents evidently decided to comply. There was Johmak, fragmenting and flying about nearly as fast as a teleporter, herding the compliers down the street. Visten called up the Mask of Speed and raced through the houses too fast to see. Replacing it with the Suletu, he scanned through minds as fast as he could. As he expected, almost everyone there was thinking of self-preservation. Very few had any loyalty to Velika. He wondered what sort of troops these would make. Leaving it to the Malevolence to try tempting the non-compliers into a mass flight, he scanned the Patricide bases. All secure: they had gone underground. Johmak assembled in front of him. "Are you police going to stand there all day, or are you going to help move the crowd?" "Changed your mind about taking it from here?" said Visten idly. "Strikes me a lot of houses might get looted if no enforcers are in sight. I'm on patrol right now." "Well, it's a relief to see we don't have to do all your job for you." and she flew on again. "Good news." said Strakk, jogging up a little later. "Velika said the quota was met and pulled the Hand out, so they're herding the mob into the Great Spirit Skull. I guess that's where they'll be trained." "Thank Mata Nui for small mercies." "I thought he was asleep." "A saying from our universe. Not literal. It just means I'm relieved." He wasn't, though. Not in the least. Ditching his Tablet again he used the Mask of Speed to shadow the march. New Atero lay along the north side of the Head, and the huge mountain-mass of its' wall rose not far off, the giant arches yawning, hundreds of bios high. Into the maws the recruits streamed, Bionicles and Agori for the most part: and instantly a fence of magnetism sprang across each maw, sealing it like a door. Visten ground his teeth in frustration. At his command mosses grew on the sides of the interior, and mildews formed that could see, and reported to his eyes. He saw the surging mob of anxious recruits craning their necks at the vast dome, dimly visible like clouds in a night sky. The air was cold, but not above winter-depth, and the sea of silver water that had once surrounded the ruins of Metru Nui had long since drained out of the injury in the Great Spirit's head. A deep basin lay before them, the city's foundations like a mountain many miles off in the center. The sightless eyes of the Great Spirit showed like two white moons in the black and patterned sky. There were other lights. The base of Metru Nui was lighting up, huge engines churning into motion and dreadful lamps opening where their vast furnace-hearts lay. A calm fell over the crowd. Rapidly, blank-eyed, they jogged forward, across the miles. Immense spiderlike arms rose and fell from outlying machinery. Up them the recruits jogged, and were swallowed up by maws of in-folding arms, and still the ones behind jogged in. Clammy sweat beading on his muscles, Visten destroyed the mildew-cameras and staggered, still invisible, to a seat. Velika had no interest in training. He intended to transform. Whatever came out of those horrible engines, it would not be the same as the free beings who went in. ------------------------------------- Macku climbed up the wooden stairs out of the secret room. It flowed together behind her to become an innocent solid floor as she carefully entered her house. The fugitives she was taking in en route to shipping them to other stations on the forest edge were mounting watch. Twin Toa they looked like, except one was actually a shapeshifting Rahi called Krahka, who could imitate both shape and powers of anyone she saw. The other was a Toa of Fire with a bad temper who said as little as a Ko-Matoran. He was one of the new Toa Velika had transformed, and who was determined now to make him regret it. "Word from Visten?" rasped the Toa. Macku handed them each a set of weapons. "I know you don't need them, Krahka," she said, "but you never can tell. Anything fun up here?" The Toa of Fire glared and turned his back. Krahka answered, "A pair of Vorox ran by half an hour ago." "After someone?" Macku said, concerned. The intelligent Rahi shrugged. "They went that way." "They were chasing one who was difficult to see." the Toa said, calling up a Mask of Detection. "Mask of Stealth, I guess." "Keep the passage open." Macku ordered. It was fun getting to order around a Toa. "We don't have much time. My guess, they'll start a house-to-house if they lose him." She spoke the command-word to the passage, and went upstairs. "They tell me Macku is suspicious." said a voice from the corner. Macku's first thought was that Jebraz had found them. Then the being switched off his Stealth power and she could see him. He was a Glatorian, and wearing a Mask of Stealth. "That's impossible, you people can't use Kanohi." she said, loud enough for the fugitives downstairs to hear and vamoose. The being pulled off the mask. "How do you people breathe in these things?" he said. "I can't figure how to get the mouthpiece to move, either. This is how." he said, pulling a peculiar fabric off his skin. "It's some kind of brain interface that Velika created, back when I was a nice respectable law enforcer which I really hated as I used to be a skillful con artist fighter, but at least that only lasted a week. I got on Velika's Naughty List, but the Glatorian tipped me off in time to run. I'm an experiment they were trying out, you know, can organics use Masks? and the Benevolence were too timid to try using their own invention on themselves, so I was the lab rat, and I guess it worked too well, or they're scratching the idea and covering up, or else don't want word getting to the Malevolence. I'm Tera, and long ago I used to be from Earth." He had brown and black armour, and now she knew why. "Well," said Macku cautiously, "I can put you up for a little, but you understand I can't just accept your story. I mean, I've got a neat little life here, a job, a house, thanks to my Father. Even if he is getting a bit high-handed, he's got good reason with all this unrest." "Well, my thanks to you, little lady, I'm sure. Things certainly are interesting out here beyond the Maze. Sometimes I'm tempted to wish I'd stayed stuck in there and didn't have anything to watch out for worse than the hourly transformation and whatever horrid surprises that turned into. I'm going to skip town come dark, so no need to worry too much about endangering you. But they're watching you, though. The Glatorian were pretty sure you're up to something, and they really don't care. But if they know, so does Velika. You are, after all, his daughter." ------------------------------ She saw Tera off that evening with mixed feelings. It had been nice to have someone chattier than she was, but at the same time he hadn't been vouched for and could easily be a plant. The underground rooms bore fruits and had drinkable sap, so the others would be set there for a day or two while she lay low. "I've been watching you, small one." a weird voice hissed out of the air. Macku jumped: there was a distortion in the air in front of her. Slowly as the illusion shimmered off she saw it had masked a Toa. His armour was antique and in bad condition, and the mask was not one she'd seen before. "What do you think you're doing, popping into my house without even knocking on the door?" she demanded. This was getting on her nerves. The Toa stalked forward, past her, and began rummaging in the pantry. "Doors are dangerous. Did you ever think about doors? A door you open you think you know, but it could go anywhere if someone else is on the other side of it. Very good selection you have here, good taste in food." "I didn't say you could even come in, let alone just start eating!" she spluttered. "One who connives at killing her father shouldn't begrudge her father's foeman a few bites." He snickered. "That alliterates. I used to be quite the poet, before that Karzahni of a Toa handed me that stupid rock. In any case, I haven't eaten since yesterday." He closed his eyes in bliss as he absorbed the food. "If you know what you're talking about, you'll need to say more things than that." If he was sent by the Patricide, there were codes he should have uttered. "I know what I'm talking about, but I am not sent by that of which we know of. I trust none of them. None of any, in fact. But I have to tell someone, I suppose, and I weary of searching for someone wise. I'm at the point where I'll settle for passing it on." "My name's Macku." she said. "If you're really in danger, you can try heading north, the Malevolence is based in the Maze last I heard." "There is no safety for me there." shuddered the strange Toa. His voice was as dark as his armour. "They hunt me, too, or would if they knew, and they doubtless know, they're Great Beings, how could they not know? I am sought by both sides. The Benevolence and the Malevolence think alike on my head. Both of them know what I saw and fear what I found, in the deserted tower where they lurked so many years." "You're Magnetism, aren't you?" she said curiously, at last placing the gunmetal-gray and black color combination. "I thought the Makuta killed them all." "They did." croaked the Toa. "Please. Please. Don't talk about that. Don't bring that up. There is pain there.....I died, and they pulled me back, and I suffered.....the Red Star...." He pulled himself to a different topic with great effort. "I went to where they worked on the Red Star." "The Red Star?" exclaimed Macku. "What's up there?" "Not there now. No matter now. They made it down here, far in the North, in the fortresses at the edge of cold. It is cold there, and it froze their hearts, cut off from the kindly warmth of living lands. They looked out their windows, and all they saw was ice, sterile, barren, clean ice, pure stone, no nasty messy life, no warmth, no sun in all those clouds, no trees. It started melting, and they froze it up again. They did not want exposed what they did beneath the ice." He clutched her hands: his fingers were grooved and scored. His voice was unstable now, his eyes fixed on something far away. "They looked out, and a green horizon was all they saw of life. I looked from those windows. I stood on that wall, and I felt the cold close upon me, merciless, inhuman, a world of madness. Things far away don't matter, don't mean anything up there, you know about trees and warm sun but even in the heated rooms the cold is in your mind. And the Great Beings looked out of that tower for a hundred thousand years, and they forgot the world was living." "What are you trying to tell me?" said Macku, attempting to pull free. "What did you actually find there?" "They thought they were the only life that mattered." whispered the Toa. "That all other life was far beneath them, a subject of interest to be watched and studied, or a subject to use in the pursuit of knowledge, or even worse, raw stock for the construction of new creations. I read their books, even the ones of the more restrained Great Beings who retained some moral sense: even they think that they are gods. And then I went down.....I descended under the ice, and I wandered halls hewn in frozen rock, and I saw...." "What did you see?" Macku was whispering too. "I saw creation." the Toa murmered. "And I saw that creation is more monstrous than destruction, for both of them are checkless, and destruction only ceases, but creation abominates. I was sane when I went into that pit. I came out, and I don't think I am. I had nightmare deep in my past, but it was over. Now it walks in my eyes, and sits in high places and prepares to rend the earth.....the Malevolence has a conscience, and the Benevolence has none, and neither side is moral." "Angonce is." "Yeah. Angonce. They despised him. Both sides thought him too scrupulous, too sentimental. They might be listening to him now, but how long before, in the need of war, they pressure him to make whatever weapon seems to be needed, however vile?" "Then the Alternate Teridax will stop them." "Oh, that wacky Makuta of Light with his Weird White Rahkshi? I thought he was all Peace, Joy and Luuuv." Macku laughed. "He's the one commanding the troops. He tricked the Malevolence from assuming direct command. Seek him out, and tell him everything." The Toa of Magnetism let go of her hands, lifting one of his. "Someone's under the house." "What do you mean?" There's no one here." "I feel their magnetic body fields. One feels like fire--a Toa, I hope. And the other, I don't know what it is." A wisp of smoke oozed up into the room and suddenly became solid. The Toa of Magnetism gasped and disappeared in an illusion: likely it was his mask power. Macku looked irritably at the smoke as it condensed. "Krahka, will you stop that?" The Rahi, who had imitated a creature of solid smoke, chuckled as she changed shape to the Toa. "I wanted to eavesdrop. I have never seen a Toa of Magnetism before." The Toa dropped his illusion. "I think we had better go." "Why, what do you mean, what's wrong?" said Macku. "I feel them, too." said Krahka. "The Hand of Velika is closing on this house. The Glatorian was right. They have been watching us." "There's something else coming." said the Toa, frowning. "It has magnetism, but no flesh, no body; it's a machine, but it has elemental power...." "Marendar." whispered Macku. ------------------------------------------- The Toa of Fire came up from the basement. Krahka considered, changing through form after form. She looked out the window. The Hand of Velika had come to a stop, caught in illusions of entering a different house. The Toa hadn't bothered trying to send the illusion into their shielded minds; he had encased them in an illusory house. Behind them the Marendar shimmered into view, turning its' head and gazing at them with a cool curiosity, before advancing relentlessly again upon the house. "Illusions don't work on a thing without a mind." said the Toa of Magnetism. "But if I reach in and turn off his.....his.....why can't I feel him anymore?" "He turns off Toa." said Krahka. "Very fascinating. I don't think I can copy his powers. Only life can I copy." "Can you copy someone who teleports?" said the Toa of Fire urgently. The door, and half the wall, ceased to exist as Marendar vaporized it with combined elemental powers. The rest of the interior burst and crashed apart as Krahka exploded in size, till none other than the Zivon loomed over the Marendar. The machine looked a little surprised. "This one is not in my data banks." the cold mechanical voice echoed from the mouth. "I am only here for the Toa." The Zivon hissed in a dozen voices, spewing webbing. Marendar was entombed in it. Even as Fire began burning him free, Krahka changed again, into a large yellow Visorak spider of the Kahgarak breed. A Rhotuka wheel spat from its' jaws, a wheel of darkness. It hit the Marendar even as he burned free of the webbing, and a black portal opened, a portal into a realm of pure darkness. The portal sucked him in, and snapped shut. "He is in the Zone of Darkness now." laughed Krahka. "Let him meet the real Zivon." "I hope he doesn't have dimensional gates power." muttered Macku. "Krahka, change to something that moves fast and get us out of here, before Velika can call in another monster." the Toa of Fire said urgently. "I think this will do good." said Krahka. What she turned into none of them saw, for the world blurred around them. The Hand of Velika, shaking free of the illusions, raced inside and found only an empty house.

MALEVOLENCE: CONCLUSION Ch. 9: The Last Dream The Skakdi in purple armour stumbled out of the stony mountains and fell to its' knees on the beach, stretching out its' arms to the Skakdi fortress. The gates groaned open and Skakdi poured out, and the golden-skinned being advanced behind them. "At last." the Skakdi stammered. "At last. The one who makes dreams come true." "Put your dream in your forethought, that I may taste of it, and may give in return." said the golden being. The Skakdi was changing shape. The real Skakdi yelled with rage, and the golden fusion, powerful as it was, looked actually afraid. "Please." it said. "Not that dream." "The destined time has come, fusion." said Makuta Varian. "I have a dream. I dream that you, and your components, no longer exist." The fusion groaned. It was shrinking, splits forming in its' 12-foot body. The groan sounded somehow multiple. "But you could use me....you could simply ask, and the Benevolence would be no more...." "Because to mess with reality is immoral, creature." said Varian. "I care not what I could do using you, so long as you are dead." "It is a good dream....." the fusion smiled, as many bodies began to bud out of him. "Use me!....it is a good dream.....use us!.....it is over now, but the dreams are all.....use us! It is our destiny!" "Your destiny was already achieved." said Varian, as the many voices contended and overpowered the strange serene golden voice. "The Malevolence is coming to war. I do not want either side to use you again." The fusion collapsed. A dead Stelt laborer, a dead Zyglack and a dead Vortixx sprawled amid five gasping spines with Skakdi heads. A sixth transformed into a green cloud and fled into the sea, and the others, ignored by Varian, kicked, lashed and spasmed their way into the water, and were gone. The gaping Skakdi seemed incapable of moving. "I am your overlord now." said Makuta Varian. "But..." spluttered one of the ex-warlords. "You're a freakin' Makuta!" "I know." said Varian, bending powerful red eyes on him. "Irony of ironies, and all of life is irony. Do you want to know what they made me out of? I used to be a Toa of Iron. I am Makuta Varian now. I am the sworn foe of all Makuta, and now I am the last Makuta. Therefore I shall atone for what my evil race did to yours. A Makuta betrayed you: now a Makuta shall lead the Skakdi to glory. What could not you do with me at your head?" The Skakdi were muttering and looking at each other. Varian's voice crashed from cliff to cliff. "I am your overlord! I have done talking nicely. Anyone who defies me can challenge me, here and now, and all of you at once. I am Makuta Varian. I can kill you by lifting my hand. Does anyone defy me?" A deformed Skakdi smaller than the rest limped forward. Blue armour, brand-new, gleamed upon him. "You used to be a Toa, hmm?" he sneered. "Ain't we all heard that Toa don't kill?" Nektann screamed. Bits of him were flying off in every direction. The Skakdi around looked actually sickened: no mean feat for such a savage race. His armour melted. His spine was pulled apart like taffy. Varian did not stop until Nektann was not only completely dismantled, but shredded. "Is there anyone else?" said the ex-Toa of Iron. "Good. Then I expect you to obey. If you do, I will exalt the Skakdi for all time." * * * * * * * ------------------------------ MALEFICENCE Secrets of the Great Beings Being the Third Volume of the Great Being Civil War Ch. 1: Council and Disunity "She's gone?" Pohatu said in disbelief. "Gali? Dead?" Kopaka only lowered his mask into his hands and remained absolutely still. Tahu knew exactly how he felt: but he was over the first stage of grief. Onua only nodded. "I'm afraid so." he said softly. Lewa got up and went out of the room, already beginning to heave with tears. The Toa Nuva had reunited to hold council. There were only five of them, six of their team counting Takanuva. The disused repair shop of the Great Beings, formerly the domain of Heremus, was now held by one camp of the Malevolence. Already it had completely changed: for there was a Great Being living here. The Mad Great Being had transformed the dusty old machinery into all sorts of tools and equipment, sometimes bringing them to life in order to work better. Even his associates often had no idea what he was doing with them, save perhaps for the alternate Makuta Teridax who had worked with Great Beings for ages. Shielded against any kind of telepathy or teleportation, only thought from within could leave it. His room was a weird flickering madhouse, tools zooming about of themselves and things glowing and, quite at random, transforming. He was working on replicating the Mask of Creation now, and apparently had built a queer fabric mask that enabled him to don Kanohi. The others went there as little as possible. "Who killed her?" Kopaka said from his hands. The voice was cold and dispassionate. "I already told you, the Toa-killing machine--" "I said who, not what. Who built Marendar?" "Well," said Tahu uncomfortably, "they did. I don't know which Great Being." "Heremus, likely." said Pohatu, glad to talk about something. "Mad is of the opinion he is the most ruthless of the Great Beings." "You're forgetting even Angonce didn't know we were people until he saw us in action." reminded Tahu. Kopaka let fall his hands. "And we're taking their orders?" "No, actually." said Tahu. "That's why I called this council. I'd rather have broken things gently, but we need to confer. The lid's off the barrel now, and the snakes are out." "Then talk." said Kopaka. "All right, here's the layout." said Tahu. "Velika took advantage of a long-standing division in the Great Beings between advocates of both responsibility and noninterference, and those who want responsibility and a firmer hand. The divide isn't at all clear-cut, though. Some of the Malevolence want no action at all and go along from self-preservation, and others of them want to simply build some ultimate weapon to do things quickly, whatever it takes, that sort of thing. And then on the Benevolence we have Velika with his god-king ideas and Heremus advocating mass butchery and the rest only in it because no restraint is put on them; they care nothing for power. So these two sides were simmering to the point that when Velika contacted them from Voya Nui, the Benevolence formed an interior faction in the Red Star Tower and basically ran themselves for a thousand years; the others were just on the fringe. Then they got through to Angonce, who pushed for resistance, without any success until the Melding. You ask me, I think the Red Star Tower helped steer Bota Magna. Then the Benevolence went south, and freed of pressure, the rest got enough spine to band into the Malevolence." "I'm not siding with Great Beings." said Kopaka. "I've been watching one. I side with Alternate Teridax." "He's right." said Pohatu. "These Great Beings, if they go to war, they will make whatever horror is needed to win it. The way I see it, Tahu, both parties are equally dangerous." "Angonce seems to be quite moral." said Tahu. "So far he and Teridax are keeping the Malevolence in line. And didn't I see a dragon down the hallway? This is war, brothers, and all we can do is try to hold down collateral." "And these Element Lords," said Kopaka, "why are they with us? You know they will turn on us the moment the Benevolence is beaten." "Then I expect you to eat the Lord of Ice." said Tahu grimly. "Tarduk tells me Kiina and Ackar did that to Water and Flame." "I heard it firsthand. But I can't extinguish them that way. I'd have to get near Marendar and have my powers turned off. Talk about suicide." said Kopaka with grim humor. "Yes, well, this is the situation." said Tahu. "My grandstand trick with the two-way illusions worked like a charm. Oh, and Makuta Varian sent me word he defused the Golden Dreamer. It hasn't changed society; the cities and systems are still there and Velika rules, but the false sense of duration has gone. It no longer feels like years, only a week or two, and I distinctly remember that one night I was a leader very relieved at Velika taking control, and when I woke up, the world went Benevolent. So everyone knows they've been duped and who killed Gali." "It's having no practical effect, I presume." said Kopaka. "Darn you, do you have to be so cynical you work out everything that actually happened?" complained Tahu. "Yes, unfortunately, you're right. Arguments, unrest, brawls, riots and covert disobedience by enforcers, but it gets very quickly quashed." Lewa had come in, recovered for the moment. "There was one protest march in Tesara, led by Vastus." he said now. "It was a disaster. Out of nowhere these nasty-bad creatures with stinger-tails and force blasters appeared, squads of them, some in the close-middle of the slow-march. They charged like wolves. In a few-quick the march is mangle-crushed and trampled, and the few Toa there were blown up or taken down. We didn't even use powers. I didn't even remember to use mine. I had to protect Kella." "Shut them off long-range." whispered Tahu. "Or simply confusion-power." said Onua. Tahu cleared his throat and went on. "Reports I'm getting say that by and large folks don't seem ready to go to the extreme of rebellion. They grumble and fume, and do little protest stunts, but they have new homes and lives and aren't willing to throw them away. The Skrall have wives, so they don't care about the deception. Enforcers are divided; most walk around like folk in a nightmare, trying to lie low and drag feet and get through the day. For the Toa, it's Makuta Nui all over again. The Glatorian are free fighters; an empire bewilders them and they don't know how to band when the enemy is everywhere and all-powerful. There's random criminal activity everywhere, of course, as the enforcers don't even know what to do. The Benevolence must have prepared a careful plan of action for when the dream inevitably decayed." "Yes, but I don't think they foresaw it cracking this fast." said Pohatu. "The show of force is proof of that. They're acting quickly and too harshly. We forced their hand, and I think before they were ready." "Then why aren't we doing something?" said Kopaka. There was a sound of strong feet from the hall. "We are." said a deep grinding voice. Four beings entered the room. Tall, in white and gold armour, the Makuta of Light was flanked by three stooped creatures in rose and gold and white armour, bearing staffs. They purred and chirped as they walked. "Are those---?" Lewa said incredulously. "Rahkshi, yes." said the Alternate Teridax. "I would like you to meet my sons, the Rahkshi of Peace, Courage and Zeal. I have withdrawn them from the settlements I used to rule." "And how exactly is Peace going to help us here?" said Kopaka skeptically. "My people are too peaceful for such times." said Teridax. "The Rahkshi of a Vice cannot withdraw that Vice. But those of Virtue can. My son has withdrawn all the peace from my settlements, and my third son fills them with Zeal. My people follow my lead. I have spoken to them, and they will form our main troops. Already I have sent them to the Maze, where I will train them, or an illusion of me, more accurately. The Malevolence will arm them." "Keep a very sharp eye on that." said Tahu. "I have." said Teridax. "Furthermore, I am setting up chains of command. Do you desire to lead, Tahu?" "I'll stick with the Toa, and leave you to command the rest." "Then you must follow my orders in need. Can you do that?" Tahu frowned. "Anyone else, no. You, no problem." "I am not here to rule, Toa." said Teridax. "I speak these words that you may cast them in my face should I succumb to the urgency of need and begin doing what is 'necessary'. I want the Toa Nuva to stop me if I show signs of my twin's ambition. Promise me that." "We promise." said Tahu uncomfortably. "You're about the least likely to tyrannize of all of us; I don't think that would ever be needed." said Pohatu. "In war, even the simplest decision can go wrong, and the one who is aware of it is most vulnerable to temptation. I am good, but I see how easy it is not to be. When the dead pile up, and the crash of war surges, and the enemy is about to win, and a horrible weapon lies to hand, who, Toa, would not catch himself reaching out for it?" "He goes off like this all the time." Pohatu confided to Onua. "He could see a moral dilemma in eating breakfast." "It depends on what your breakfast was, and how it was obtained." Teridax said gravely. Pohatu chuckled and Kopaka just shook his head. "In any case," Teridax went on, "I am going to withdraw all peace from the settlements of Sphereus Magna. It will make the Benevolence more prone to harshness and haste, and make unrest less easy to quell. I bid you good day." He and the benign Rahkshi vanished. ------------------------------------------------------ Deep inside the Maze, now in the form of walls of acid ice that would change in an hour to something else, stood a tower. The tower had once been able to transform to a volcano, to guard the spark of silver energy stored here when Energized Protodermis came into use. That energy had expired with the Prototype Robot, and the forges that had produced the Kanohi Ignika from the turmoils of the Shattering, now boomed and thundered again. The tower no longer wasted energy on transforming; Angonce had shut it down and diverted all systems to the forges. There living (but un-rational) machines proof against heat labored at creations the Malevolence was frantically inventing. Grimy and exhausted from sleepless nights of toil, the Great Beings took a break to absorb energy, drink and hold council. None of them had bothered to actually eat in hundreds of millennia. "The dream has broken." said one with a harsh rusty voice. "Velika's kingdom comes apart even as he scrambles to hold it down. We must strike the Benevolence and fast." "We are not ready yet." worried another with a dithery and very ancient voice. The room was dim; for beings whose eyes and minds were so closely bound, sight of both occurred at once, and neither darkness nor excess of light troubled them. "They are too strong. I prefer to be more certain." "I think it is time, brothers, that you ceased to stand on my hands, and that I be permitted to proceed with my plan." a rough but female voice croaked. The speaker, one of only two female Great Beings, was dressed the same as her brothers. Great Beings are too great for sexual passion to disturb them, and so the females had little interest in fashion. "You know well that my idea would end this war at once." "No." said the Great Being at the head of the energy-dispensing table. Angonce had an ancient whispery voice, but such force was in it the others fell still. He was nominally their leader. "I told you before, my sister, that Teridax is right. Such an abomination shall never be created. I know it would win the war. I also know it is immoral." "We are Great Beings." sighed the sad thin voice of the 2nd female. "Such concerns do not matter to us. If our creations do no harm outside our walls, you should have no cause to object. It is not as if it would harm those who are outside the Benevolence." "Great Beings." said Angonce hollowly. "I told you all once, long ago, that name was the worst thing that ever happened to us, because we started to think that it was true. There are some things that simply should not be done, whether they cause harm or no. Like the Vorox. We gave them tails, and beast-powers, and now indeed they are beasts, all of them. We are not Great Beings. We are Great Demons, as Gerendonce said to Mata Nui before the Melding. We do not do things for good reasons, or even for any reasons at all. We do them because we can." "I do not agree." croaked the harsh female. "We do them because we have to. The Benevolence was a threat a thousand years before this war. The mind-spider was something I came up with way back then. I foresaw this war." "Yes, and we all remember the debate we had about that Vorox project." said the dithery voice. "Galdius, there, the morning after I warned him about that path, came down and started up the energy-dispenser for breakfast, and suddenly announced, 'I'm going to put mechanical tails on each and every Vorox BECAUSE I CAN!!" The Great Beings chuckled. "And I did, too." said Gladius. "It was extremely fascinating. I look forward to experimenting on re-evolving them to normal." "You will likely have Teridax and Malum breathing down your shoulder." said another. Gladius winced. "Teridax is a problem." sighed the sad female. "I do not like a being whose mind is so shielded, who has such native powers. He knows us through and through, yet we do not know him. He may decide we are as great an evil as the Benevolence. Thought must be taken for that eventuality." "And you do not think he has already anticipated some such thought on your behalf?" said Gerendonce softly. He had a sighing but darker voice. "You can depend on one thing: he will not move against you, unless you are moving against him. Beware, sister, lest I inform him what you have said." Angonce gave a harsh smile. "I already have. Openness among allies is always safest, for then you have nothing to hide, and all your energy goes to the task at hand. Do not waste time murmering against the virtuous, sister, but concentrate upon the enemy and what he is doing. We must take stock of what we have." "Very well." sighed the thin-voiced female. "But still, it is a concern, for after the war." "We have bases here, and the Red Star tower, and the Repair Shop of Heremus, and the Element Chamber at Tesara." said Gerendonce. "Teridax has enlisted all his settlements of Agori, Matoran and various species of Bionicles, as well as some 200 Glatorian with elemental powers: 8,000 total. More are trickling in, fugitives and refugees from everywhere else, fleeing Velika. The base at Tesara is currently staffed by two Toa Nuva and some 5,000 fugitives, though we are shipping those to the Repair Shop. What became of that Star? A fortress in space, that could shoot red lightning, we could make it." "Destroyed." said Angonce tersely. That was all that Teridax had told him, but he wondered if the Kestora were being rebuilt into war machines by the Mad Great Being. Unaware of the complete destruction that Artakha had wreaked there. "We also have Malum and over 10,000 Bara Magna Vorox being gathered by Teridax, whom Gladius will cure." went on Gerendonce. "There are as well our allies." "Yes, tell us about the allies." said the harsh rusty voice. "The Element Lords have agreed to serve us, in return for their lives. Jungle has gathered his Bota tribes and armed them with plant-based weapons. The Lord of Earth prefers to act as balance and watchman, to try to keep his brothers in order: and his tribe refuses to do anything beyond supplies and nursing. Our injured go there. Also, Sahmad and perhaps 200 or so survivors of the Iron Tribe are with the Earth, last I heard. I have figured out a way to deal with the Element Lords if they turn on us. As they will." "There is as well the Mask of Life, and Mata Nui in his slumber." said Angonce. "I cannot find either of them." "We have fastened infected masks on thousands of the cyborg reptiles, but the Benevolence has already snared even more." said another. "I believe that we are ready." said Angonce. "But I am no war general. I cannot lead the Malevolence in battle. Others will fight for us, brethren, while we man the forges and defend them. I have appointed Teridax as general." There was a general murmer of assent, some of it doubtful. The harsh-voiced female got up and left the room, and the others followed. No one saw the dark look she cast behind her upon them, or the grim light in her eyes. ------------------------------------ The Toa of Iron named Zaria paced back and forth in the confines of his hut. Toa Chiara, a Lightning Toa, folded her arms and glared at the wall. The Ko-Matoran named Mazeka folded his newly-reassembled arms and glared right back at her. "I'm telling you, I was there." he snapped. "I saw the Toa-killer in action. It wasn't just carried by a two-way camera illusion. That thing just disassembled me in two seconds, shut off the Toa, and shut off their masks." "Who said I doubted you?" Chiara snapped back. "You seem to forget we were on the Yesterday Quest and met a Toa-dampening device." "You did?" This was news to Mazeka. "Long story." said Zaria tersely. "We're not doubting a Toa-killer went after Tahu and diced up Gali. We're just wondering who sent it. Tahu said it was Velika, and I admit it was a little too pat, coming just as he's making a speech about Velika's dark desert dreamer. But it doesn't sound like the Benevolence. I mean, Velika gave us minds. He shot off his foot. Why would he give us minds, and then try to form a tyranny? So far he's set up a good thing, even if a trifle immoral." "I'll tell you why." said Mazeka, cursing Alternate Teridax for turning his head inside-out with his weird deep sayings. Every time Mazeka needed to say something, it was a quote from Teridax that would rise to answer. "He didn't give us minds for a good reason. He did it because he was curious to see if he could. Then after it was done--long ages after--he began to realize we now stood in his way." "Oh." said Zaria. "Darn you, Mazeka, darn you to Karzahni." fumed Chiara. "Here I was, hoping I had an excuse to just settle down under a stable system and let things be. I kind of had enough of taking on the world." "Nope." said Zaria with a sigh. "It looks like no rest yet for the weary. On the bright side, at least we had a week of mind-numbing restful police work to bore us to death before the sky started shelling us again." "So you're coming?" said Mazeka. "You're going to have a job with the rest." warned Chiara. "A lot of the Toa are really happy with the new order and feel they have kind of a duty to try preserving it. And some consider they have a duty of loyalty to Velika, regardless of how bad or good he is, as he is our father." "Oh, I'm done here, once I convinced you two." said Mazeka. "Let Teridax and Orde go trying to rouse up revolution. Good luck. Anyone who hasn't already taken to the hills isn't likely to unless forced. But Orde said the last thing he was going to do was use Psionics on his teammates, even for talking." "Well, he's got some sense in his head, then, because that is the last thing we would have stood from him." said Zaria. "Fine, I'm in." sighed Chiara. "You want us to flee now, or should we waste our breath on getting some company?" "No need to flee." said Mazeka as the world changed around them. "You're already there." ----------------------------- The mutated now-amphibious warlords known as the Barraki stood above the gathered assembly. It had taken some finding, as the dream had not only scattered them but all their armies and captains, but the five warlords had gathered and smuggled their chief officers to this location in the deep western glens of the Sea of Liquid Sand. The vast quicksands, used with masonry wells as drinking water by Tesara along with vapour from the Hot Springs (as the Sea was pretty foul), had been healed by Mata Nui's Green Thumb, becoming vast and beautiful marshlands teeming with weird wildlife, solid islands everywhere. There were a lot of horrid bugs, but armoured beings have less exposure to such, and the bugs hadn't yet figured out how to get at them. "That's the situation." said Pridak. "The Great Beings are having a civil war and messing with reality to put themselves in charge. Tahu's little speech puts that dream creature down by the sea. We've been approached by both sides, and we promised aid to both sides. I bet you know why." "Because, of course, we're not aiding either." said Kalmah. "Our armies will travel south, not north. It's a fair bet the Malevolence polished off this dream fellow, but we had reports of the Shadowed One being sighted there. We've dealt with him before. We have a fair idea what he is up to now. It is he whom we will ally with, not these shifty Great Beings. Let them tear the universe apart all over again with their family quarrels: we will hunt for Destiny."

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 9: The Muaka is Out of the Basket "Why didn't Makuta Varian just teleport us back home?" said Onua. Tahu looked at the ground. "Because I already can. I gathered he's posted himself here with Brutaka as a watch on the Shadowed One and this Dreammaker." "You what?" said Onua. Until now he had thought Tahu was activating some mysterious combination effect of the Golden Armour. "I've been experimenting." said Tahu. "Vakama thought I only had Heat Vision and a few others like Poison and Mind Control, as well as the six major Kraata powers we first fought on Mata Nui. But then I studied a list of the 43 Kraata powers, and, Onua, I've called up each and every one of those powers. Heat Vision Rahkshi were the most numerous in that battle, but I seem to have zapped every Rahkshi in the Matoran Universe made by Teridax as well. And one of those powers is Teleportation." "So why are we still using the Masks of Speed?" said Onua. "Because I think Velika watches us." said Tahu. "I did my practicing before the Revelation, so he might not have had as much ability to watch as he does now when he no longer has to keep a low profile. I don't want him knowing how powerful I am. Let him think my powers are limited to what was out here in the battle." "Well, even with the Masks, we won't make Tesara till dark: it's already almost sundown. Distances are so much farther here. A mere matter of nine thousand kios barely even gets you halfway over the desert--well, the grasslands, now, Some parts I think are still desert. We have to measure in mios around here. I think I like the Magnan system of miles better." "You're complaining about a mere hour of running?" said Tahu. A "mio" was 850 miles; a kio, barely 0.85 of a mile. The Matoran Universe was said to only be ten mios long, roughly. The mountains blurred by as Onua replied, "We're going up and down, not straight. Twice as long." There was a sudden clang. Both Toa froze in the act of running, as if the air had suddenly become glue. A magnetic field had been strung across the canyon they were in. Being mostly metal, both Toa were paralyzed. "Who's doing this?" Tahu raged. Onua cut in his Mask of X-ray Vision, looking through the back of his own head. It was a peculiarity of the Nuva masks that they provided rear vision. Tahu was already using Mind Control power. No minds seemed to be in range of his field of vision, but Tahu decided to wait before using Magnetism power, in case their foe manifested. "Here they come." Onua's voice was heavy. "How many?" "Skakdi. It looks like a Skakdi of Magnetism has a weapon allowing him to unleash elemental energy." "I said how many, brother." "About thirty. Considering six took us out on Voya Nui, doesn't look so good for us." "Let them get closer." said Tahu, watching them through Mind Control. "If I feed heat into earth, do you think I can make a lavaslide?" "I don't know if you can do a delayed-reaction any more, but I can try warming up some earth and telling it to have a low melting point." "Do that. I'm already heating it up. If I feed it slowly, should produce the same result as a delayed-reaction." The two Toa acted upon the sides of the canyon, not the ground, as there were Skakdi of Stone and Fire there and they might feel a trap. "It'll be close." Tahu whispered. "I'll shut off the field, then teleport us. You call up your Shielding mask: even the Golden one only shields me." "Shielding would've cut out the field." exclaimed Onua. "Well, don't do it yet." said Tahu. The Skakdi were coming slowly, knowing better than to rush this kind of foe. All at once Onua gasped. "There's a Matoran in the rocks!" he exclaimed. "Close enough to share a shield?" "Not even. Shut off the lavaslide." A hail of stones, hurled with an aim that even a Mask of Feats would hardly have bettered, flew from the Matoran's shelter. Tahu thought for one wild moment that the Matoran had a rock-launching gun. Then as the Matoran, hard on the heels of his fulisade, sprang out and charged the cursing Skakdi still on their feet, he saw the insane rescuer had white armour and two swords, of unequal length, as well as the hilts of others sticking out all over, magnetically attached. Activating the Golden Mask of Shielding, he cut off the field. This distracted the Skakdi, most of whom instantly charged the Toa, totally ignoring the runt sprinting from the side. One blue Skakdi contemptuously swatted at him with a Power Mace, but the shorter sword expertly deflected the weapon into the ground. The power in it made it sink in like butter, and the Skakdi, growling, tried to retrieve it. It was the last thing he did in this life. The Ko-Matoran vaulted on his arm, slicing into the shoulder muscle through a chink in the armour, onto his back. Plunging both swords into the neck, he did something so disgusting Tahu could only gape: he ripped with sheer strength the organic flesh covering a Skakdi's skull, right off it in one piece, like a surgeon, tossed the mask of flesh and the detached organic spine so it dragged like a tail, and retrieving his swords sprang off the dying Skakdi and straight into the others. Tahu wasn't entirely sure he was seeing right. The white small figure was slipping with fantastic ease through the mob of milling maniacs, slashing with precision at weak spots in limbs and armour, vaulting over lunging arms or even riding an upswing, and always cutting those spines. Fountains of flame, earth, water, sudden blades of vision powers, jets of elemental powers used in raw rage with poor aim, spurted and zapped in every direction, usually managing only to hit other Skakdi. None of them seemed to have Avak's power of creating the perfect prison for a foe, as that needed no aim. The last of the rabid warriors collapsed, his spine yanked out of his back, and with an expert flip the Matoran used leverage to swing the Skakdi by his own spine into the air. The flesh popped off the face and the metal-skulled no-longer-able-to-grin scalped Skakdi lashed and screamed on the ground. Coolly the Matoran walked up to him, swung into the air and with an expert stamp, snapped the Skakdi's neck. "I think I'm gonna hurl." muttered Onua. The Matoran twirled his blades, wiping off unmentionable dark red fluid from them, and sheathed them on his back. "You fellows all right?" he said. The lunatic wasn't even out of breath. "Are WE all right?!" exclaimed Tahu. "You just took out 30 Skakdi hand to hand, and you're asking US? You can't possibly not be injured." The Matoran looked himself over critically. "A few dents, a mild burn, nothing to complain of." he said. "I used to be Order of Mata Nui, or I went along with them while I still needed them, at least. Now I'm rogue. My name is Mazeka." ---------------------------------------------- "Teridax's Matoran friend?" said Tahu. "Met him, have you." said Mazeka. "Well, I wasn't too sad to separate. He's very unsettling to be around. He'll say things, and they turn the world on its' head. He has a bad habit of thinking." "He said he didn't trust you, actually." said Tahu. "It was a while back---well, it seems a while back----but I think I remember he thought you too attached to the Order. You seen him lately?" "Oh, he's with the Malevolence, of course." shrugged Mazeka. "He's been popping in without warning, and then popping all over the planet while he talks. So he won't be tracked, he says. I must say, it was a jolt to realize the Enlightenment was all a sham." "So who do you side with?" said Tahu. "I don't think there's much choice." Mazeka said critically. "People are waking up all over; the Malevolence beams out to as many key minds as they can, and once you take a hard look and see through it, you're either going to put up with the new order and go on living, or you're going to get angry at being duped. I'm paraphrasing Teridax, of course." "You haven't answered." said Tahu. A tight smile acknowledged the hit. "I'm watching, for now." said Mazeka. "Velika set up a decent system. I'm not about to shred it." "Is that another Teridax quote?" said Onua. "Don't ever get him started on the pros and cons of the morality of opposing Velika." groaned Mazeka. "He gets so abstruse my head hurts. But no, he's of the opinion that the Malevolence has to wait and see how Velika rules, once he is faced with a people who know the truth. If they accept his rule and Velika rules justly, to destroy that would be immoral. Course, we can still intervene to rescue those on his hit list even so, we just leave him in power. But he's pretty sure that's just a nice fantasy, and that Velika will start cracking down, or at any rate making war on us." "You just said us." pounced Tahu. Mazeka shrugged. "In the end I suppose I follow Teridax." he said. "You just can't argue with the guy, and it is comforting to have a moral barometer." "Well, we're with the Malevolence now, in sheer self-preservation." said Tahu. "After what we found out, if Velika lets us live, he'd be insane. I'm going to start leaving illusions running around. I'm a bit of a status symbol, after all." "I'm pretty sure that ambush was a warning from Velika." said Onua. "If he really wanted us dead, he'd have turned off our powers or smashed our masks or my Nuva symbol or what have you. He knew perfectly well we'd get out of this trap, even without insane Matoran fighting experts coming out of the woodwork. He wants us to know we're on the Naughty List, and we'd better toe his line. I've been played by beings of power before. I know a pattern when I see it." "Then I think I may as well start." said Tahu. "Start what?" said Mazeka. "Start upsetting his apple cart." said Tahu. "Hang on, brothers. The fun's just beginning." ---------------------------- They appeared in Tesara. It was dark, and in the deep shadow no one saw them. One by one Tahu called up his masks and laid them at his side. "I don't want them being taken off the Suva." he said grimly. Onua did the same. Mazeka looked to his weapons. "I'm sending illusions to every village, settlement and city." muttered Tahu. "I'll be controlling them long-range. You fellows, guard my back. Oh good, here comes Gali. I wasn't sure if that old mind-link still worked, but at least it called her." Gali blurred up with her own Mask of Speed. "What's the matter? What's going on?" she demanded. "Sister, I need you to do something very difficult." said Tahu. "You need to trust us on this. I'm making a speech by means of illusions, and there's going to be some strong attempts on my life. I want you to fetch a Suletu I left on the floor of the warehouse, and fast." "And then stay here and help us guard him." said Onua. Gali clearly wanted explanations, but she knew a grave situation when she saw it, and shot off faster than sight. It was only a minute before she was back with the Mask of Telepathy. "Good." said Tahu. "You two, don them: I can't use a Mask and this much kraata power at the same time. Onua, put a shield on my mind. I want even a Great Being to have trouble breaking it." "Why not me?" said Gali, piqued. "I'm more empathetic. What is going on? Does the Malevolence have agents close to Velika?" "No." said Tahu. "We discovered how Velika really came to power. The Enlightenment, it was all a sham, Gali. The three years we remember, they never happened. Velika tampered with reality." "Tahu, that's just ridiculous, I remember perfectly well how it happened. It was.....well, it must have been....." "You can't pin it down, can you?" said Tahu. "You have a sense that something is wrong, that years would leave events, not just impressions. That it really is suspicious that an entire planet turned Benevolent." "You're not being fair, that's absurd, I just can't remember it right now, but I know it happened, all right?" "Shield is in place." said Onua. Tahu's eyes no longer focused on Gali. He was staring at nothing as he maintained thousands of duplicate illusions all repeating what he was now saying. He said it only in a whisper, but the illusions were shouting. There was even one in Tesara; Gali could see dimly the fire-blast it sent up to draw a crowd. She listened, her expression more and more distraught, as Tahu spoke of what he found in the mountains by the sea, and revealed the awful secret of the Benevolence in a single stroke. Onua cried out. Someone was attacking Tahu's mind. The Toa of Stone fought back, grinding his teeth, his will resisting with the strength of the earth. Doubt grew in Gali for the first time: perhaps Tahu was right, and the one who gave them minds had made himself a god. Onua lifted his head, heaving for breath. "The shield held." he croaked. "I think they could have broken it, but gave up too soon. None of them have ever waged mental war." "But who was it?" cried Gali. Onua gave her such a cool, withering stare she fell silent. He did not answer, nor did she need one. "But.....this can't be happening, this can't be happening again." Gali moaned. "Everything was so peaceful." "Peace is impossible with choice." said Mazeka. "We'd have had a lot more trouble down the years if our nice perfect new world had really happened." "Another Teridax quote." jibed Onua. "You're guessing." said Mazeka. It would take more than a mask to breach Order shields. A red-and-maroon shape blocked the far end of the alley they were in. Onua grunted. "Gali......do you have your powers? Because I just felt my mask go off." "My powers!" gasped Gali. "They're gone! My elemental power, my masks----they won't respond!" "It's the Toa-killer." said Onua. "The one that killed Lesovikk. Velika has turned it loose on us." Up the alley toward them stalked the red being. Cold mechanical eyes gleamed upon them. Blades grew from its' arms. Onua and Gali got between it and Tahu, and Mazeka drew his swords. "What the h--l is that thing?" he said. "I've never seen anything with that build." The machine spoke, in an impersonal robot voice. "I am Marendar. I am the salvation of the Agori. Toa do not belong outside the Great Spirit. Toa will be destroyed." --------------------------------------------- The last three Toa Nuva, and the fighting expert Ko-Matoran Mazeka, stood at bay, facing a machine apparently capable of turning Toa off like a switch. "Tahu!" cried Gali. "That's odd." said Mazeka. "He still seems to be speaking to those illusions." Tahu jumped to his feet and spun to face the Marendar. It was marching up the alley, blades spinning with a precision even greater than Mazeka's. "So you're the Toa-killing machine!" he shouted. "A little gift from my father for our birthday, I suppose!" "I am Marendar." the machine answered. "If Toa leave the Great Spirit, they will enslave the Agori." Mazeka hurled several blades. He threw them so fast it would have taken skilled reflexes to even see them coming, let alone dodge them; but the machine's arms moved fast as sight, and four blades clattered in shards on the buildings around. Mazeka charged the machine. Onua used his Toa strength to punch a hole in one building, ripping out a chunk of metallic protodermis the size of a boulder. He threw it with all his strength. Mazeka ducked. From the Marendar came a flash, and the rock turned into dust, pulverized in an instant, and blew around him harmlessly. The machine had elemental powers. "The Great Spirit is scrap metal!" shouted Onua. "The Toa cannot go back to it!" "Then they should die." said Marendar. Mazeka sprang at the robot. His blades spun and fell on the metal, and rebounded notched. The machine paid no heed. Mazeka vaulted into the air, landed on its' back, and hewed at the head. A third arm sprouted from the back, tore away his sword, and held him as a fourth arm reached around and methodically pulled apart legs and arms at the knee and elbow. It tossed the partially disassembled Matoran behind it like refuse. The Golden Armour glowed. Magnetism seized the machine, probing fruitlessly at the gears. Marendar looked at itself, at Tahu, and peeled off the magnetism with a field of its' own. "How is that armor not turned off?" said the machine, sounding only mildly curious. "All Kanohi frequencies currently in existence are in my data, and that is not among them." "Because it's only just come into existence." said Tahu. "It's not something you'd know about." A tornado appeared above the Marendar, pulling at it with buffeting gales. The machine suddenly increased its' gravity, till it was rooted immovably. Beams of combined elemental powers raged up from it into the storm: and the tornado wobbled as two powers battled for it. Tahu shut off his Cyclone power and activated Poison. A jet of green sprayed the machine, eating pits in the armour. Then suddenly Marendar turned green himself. Horror came over Tahu as he realized the machine had Adaptibility power. He leaped in front of the others as Acid sprayed from Marendar, creating a Sonics field of sufficient intensity to beat back the Acid. It worked: none of the poison made it through. Marendar wasn't shooting Acid any more, and Tahu felt weak with relief: it could only copy once a power used against it. He used Teleportation and sent Marendar to the Northern Frost, then teleported all four. They appeared above the Maze, and Marendar was waiting for them. "Your teleporting beams your atoms to their destination." it said. "My atoms adapted and reformed before arrival, and I copied the power and followed you." Magnetism yanked Gali through the air, spitting her upon one blade. The Marendar moved like the wind, dicing up metal like cheese. Blue armour and chunks of limbs flew in all directions. Contemptuously Marendar dropped Gali's head at Tahu's feet: the brain had been surgically extracted and vaporized, and she was a hollow skull. The Toa were too horrified to scream even her name. Tahu acted in blinding rage. He teleported Marendar's body in two separate directions, screaming one continuous note: the name of Gali. Marendar reappeared in front of him. Even as Tahu sprang toward him in a last furious charge, the machine looked over its' shoulder: and vanished. Tahu gasped as he felt his elemental powers return. "Onua? Are you all right?" he groaned. Onua nodded numbly. Tahu tried to call a mask and remembered they were all in Tesara. "Gali." said Onua brokenly. Tahu bent and picked up Gali's head, cradling it. Huge sobs broke out of him. "Now you see!" he shouted as to an unseen crowd, choked by tears. "You see what the Great Beings are like when they rule! See the head of my sister, killed by Velika! He will come for the rest of you, for anyone who questions his rule or seeks the truth! I have had enough of this. You will find me in the wilderness, where Velika has driven me!" "Tahu, no one can hear you." said Onua. "Not now, no." said Tahu. "I turned off the illusions just a second ago. All of Sphereus Magna saw that duel. An illusion doesn't break until either it's turned off or the minds seeing it lose belief in it. Those illusions acted as cameras, even with me not controlling them. The world knows that Gali died, and why." "That must be why Marendar left." said Onua. "Velika realized the camera was on." "No," said an ancient voice, whispering in the air around them. "It fled because it felt my coming." Space squirmed and distorted before them. Mantled shapes stalked out of the portal, more and more of them, until eleven of them stood before the Toa. Deep peaked cowls buried their faces; they were different heights, but all were stooped, and all had grey tunics and many-pocketed aprons bristling with what could be either tools or weapons, or the controls perhaps to inventions more terrible than either. They had the lean build and incredibly long arms of the Glatorian species. From under their shirts brown leggings fell to boots, and even the boots had things in their pouches. The foremost of them cast back his hood. Taller than the rest, with a spare figure, he had grey skin, lined and scored with age and worry and the scars of his inventions. White hair trailed thinly from his skull. Deep black eyes burned with an anxious yet stern light. An impression of power and danger radiated from him, and on sheer instinct the Toa sank to one knee. "He fled, because he knew that I could turn him off." the Great Being said in that ancient, harsh, whispery voice. "I am named Angonce. And we are the Malevolence."

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 8: Sahmad's Tale: The Graveyards I stood on the edge of what had to be the graveyards. We hadn't been an especially numerous people. Maybe in the 20,000 mark. Even so, when you factor in that only about a hundred or two didn't get eaten by Annona, that still means a lot of graves. We had cleared an area miles in extent in the flatlands below the mountains, and put up stones with names quickly scratched on for later carving, most of which was accomplished in the thousand odd years before the Shattering. I dismounted and gazed out over the vast meadows before me. The surviving Iron had tried merging with society while occasionally coming back to chip out a tombstone. The Core War came along a dozen centuries later, and last I remembered of the graves was an ill-maintained brushy field, with a few stones visible. There being no society to speak of after the Shattering, the Iron trapped on Bota Magna must have gone in for farming, and likely mining and smithying for themselves at the very least. The graves had become a hayfield. The stubborn sprouts and stumps had either finally decayed or been made into neat coppices. Tall stones, rectangular with pointed tops, stood above the grass in rows to the end of sight. Sheep and cattle grazed. Farther off there were tilled fields, not many, only a few acres. I peered for quite a while before I saw the houses. Just like our ancient dwellings they were, and an unexpectedly bitter pang made me shed the first tears I had had since the Dreaming Plague---or more accurately, Lunch Time. I sat down and scrubbed my armour. There wasn't much of the original dark blue and grey color under all that orange mineral stain, but some of it was there. I'd stain the right parts dark blue if I found enough minerals; for now I'd have to go with rusty grey. A good thing the disputes with Skrall were 100,000 years in the past, I reflected as I looked at the Skrall shield. On the off chance I obliberated the design. I had a lot of trouble locating the grave I truly wanted to see, what with the changed landscape, but I began finding names I'd mapped out nearby to orient myself long ago, and soon I stood before the grave of my beloved. It was the first stone to be carved. Worn badly, all the curvings and clumsy decorative borders I had edged it with were only nubs and grooves. But the lettering was deep and clear, the name, date, a cheesy line of verse by a younger and softer-headed me, so someone had kept an eye on wearing and re-carved it. Tracing the letters of that dear name, I could have hugged the carver. I stayed there all day, talking to her. Telling her a history of a broken world, all 100,000 years of it. I even told her about my career, though she likely wouldn't have approved, but you don't keep things from the one you love. It was dark before I was half done, and I had to make camp. Sitting there in the night, I kept on talking, down to the metal monsters and the horror of Annona. I ended by saying "I have avenged you." I'd been so lost in the narrative I hadn't heard them approach, but all at once I heard someone clapping. Very slow, sarcastic clapping. Out into the firelight stepped a Glatorian I remembered, and many Agori, only some of which I remembered, not clapping. They were, in fact, holding drawn crossbows, except they looked too mechanical to be laughed at. It went against my instincts, but I made no move for my weapons. If they didn't believe my tale, I was toast anyway. "Quite a moving story." Tellurio drawled. His drawl only seemed to have gotten worse since I last knew him. "Very moving. So moving as to be beyond belief." "Someone did a good job tending my stone." I said. "You can tell whoever it was he has Sahmad's gratitude." "Sahmad." repeated the Glatorian. "That's my right name." I said. "The Bara Magna Agori have others, of course, most of them cuss words and all of them insulting. Good to see you again, Telleratus." That had been my beloved's teasing name for him, back when he was the mine policeman. He hadn't let anyone use it since the Dreaming Plague. I could see it shocked him I knew the name, so I doffed my helmet and added wood, shedding enough light to show my face beyond doubt. "I'll be darned." said an Agori I recognized as my blacksmith customer. I'd done all sorts of jobs, settling into ore delivery. "You haven't changed much at all. A lot more lined and grim, maybe." "Yeah, that's him all right." said another. Tellurio looked from one to the other, back at me, and scratched his jaw. "Well, I barely recognize him, but then it has been a while." he admitted. "Welcome home, fellow tribesman." ------------------------------------ "Look, Sahmad, we got that weird vision too, but for reality to be simply remade like that--I really don't know what you've been eating down south." said Tellurio. I hadn't expected them to swallow my story anyway; left to me, I'd have broken it more carefully. It was pretty obvious the entire Iron Tribe was totally immune to the dream, which meant they would likely be toast if Velika started hunting for flaws as well. "Have it your way." I snapped. "Head over south if you care---first thing you'll see is a brand-new city appeared from nowhere that looks like it's been there years. You'll find a Great Being in charge." "That, frankly, is my sticking point." said the blacksmith. "I can see this stuff about dream-eating monsters, because if it was a real plague, why didn't it spread? But a Great Being bothering to rule---they don't rule. They tinker. Remember the last time they tried ruling? They gave up and made Element Lords to do it for them." And talk of the devil. The fire roared, shooting up to a tremendous height. My first thought was that Ackar was stalking me. This swiftly changed to a much different thought as the fire spoke: Element Lords. "They did indeed." the Lord of Flame crackled. "If you believe not your own, believe me. Velika is ruling, and he runs a tight ship. I am a flaw in the dream. So are the Iron. Destiny has a part for them, and if you Iron haven't degenerated into ditherers who talk all day long, you will accept it." "All right, fine, at least we have someone else's word for it." said Tellurio testily. The fire, satisfied, sank and resumed innocently eating sticks. Talk was pretty stilted for a while after that. "What does anybody know about the Great Beings?" I asked. "Very little." said Tellurio. "They have a tower up by the Northern Frost, or what's left of the Frost; when we split off from Sphereus Magna the climate went haywire the first few centuries. There was a lot of flooding from icemelt, but then the Great Beings invented some sort of elemental power unit that they mounted on what used to be the Pole which maintained the old coldness, and the Frost froze back up. I think it shut down after the Melding, now that the planet is back to normal. But any rate, they never came out of the tower or bothered about us, we could starve or feast for all they cared. The Earth folk helped us out a bit, and we've done pretty well, as you see. There are rumors, though. Rumors of Agori vanishing at times, and once or twice an escapee with mutated bodies and lurid tales of awful experiments in underground he l l s. I think the Great Beings are all going slowly mad." "Well, if some of them signed up with Velika, I'd say more like going off the cliff edge." I said. "Power-hungry, maybe, or maybe they actually are getting some guilt about their deeds and this is some version of responsibility." "Save us from the Great Beings' responsibility." somebody muttered, drawing snickers. "If Rock is right, though," said the blacksmith, "it looks like the rest have decided to rein in Velika. I'd want to meet this Malevolence and ask them some very direct questions." "Wait," I said suddenly, "I hear something." It was an odd sound, rather like huge wings. The Iron Tribe snatched up weapons and got in the shadows: it likely might be no more than a chance foray of one of the cyborg reptile birds of the deep woods, or it might be something more ominous still. When the Great Beings were going to war, nearly anything was possible. The winged shape swooped overhead. It wasn't like any cyborg reptile I'd seen in old days, the wings being much bigger and more jagged, the body longer and thinner, and the huge jawed head shaped like flames was not that of a bird. Birds didn't have four legs. This was a thing out of make-believe land. "A dragon, a dragon, there really is a dragon." a huge harsh voice mocked us from the air. Tellurio stepped out into the firelight. "Who are you?" he bellowed. "If you desire to talk, then land, or we will fell you from the sky!" The dragon disappeared. I spun around, grabbing for my launcher: and just as I suspected, there he was, having teleported right in the middle of us. All at once everything went into slow motion; limbs moved like snails, men froze in the act of firing, and balls of energy and destructive bolts could be seen inching toward the mammoth dragon that gleamed red in the fires. The head alone was as tall as me. Moving ponderously forward he got out of the way of the bolts. "If you want to ask the Malevolence questions, we may as well go together." the dragon said. "We are both flaws in the dream. It is a good idea for all of us to band. After all, we are up against Great Beings." "I believe I asked you a question, monster." said Tellurio, as bolts exploded harmlessly beyond the dragon's tail. "So you did, little one." smiled the dragon. "But the answer would mean nothing to you, though it means much to others. Still, for what it's worth, I am Makuta Miserix. And I am gathering the flaws." ----------------------------------------------- Well, it was crazy enough to begin with, but there was no way the Iron tribe was going to desert their hard-won homes just because a dragon said to. We decided that I, Tellurio and the smith would go as representatives, and Tellurio appointed a regent and we climbed on the dragon. "I could simply teleport, but I have no idea where they are." said the dragon that called itself Miserix. His very flesh felt metallic. "Their minds are greater than mine. And if I scan too far with my thought, other minds besides theirs may see me. Minds somewhat too.....Benevolent." He laughed; it sounded like thunder. "A typical joke of the Great Beings." He was heading south, not north to the rumored tower in the ice. Likely making for the Maze. Which made sense, of course, as no fortress was more effective than that weird landscape-shifting labyrinth. We were flying erratically, almost a random zigzag: but I understood why. He was trying to confuse attempts to predict a flight pattern, or else spying out the land. "I am looking for flaws." the dragon said, as if reading my thought. "Being immune to the dream, I can sense those who are flaws in it. There was one heading this way, this very evening, in fact, though hard to pin down.....ah, there they are." There was a weird, spinning vertigo. Then all at once we were on a hilltop, above a camp. There was only one fire, and nobody seemed to be near it. As if mind-controlled, all at once beings began staggering into the light. I recognized Vorox, and wasn't surprised when I saw Malum next emerge. His companions were a surprise, though: that ridiculous scatterbrained antiquarian Tarduk, and one of these Matoran. A female, from the more graceful build. "If you seek the Malevolence, I may be able to assist you." said the dragon. The mind-control must have been dropped, because the Vorox scattered, Malum whipped out two force blasters, a weapon I hadn't known still existed, and the other two jumped a mile. It was actually kind of funny. "Well, you certainly do look malevolent." said Malum. "Just who or what might you be?" I spoke, before the dragon could say anything: "My name is Sahmad." It was such a treat to see the Agori blench and Malum's fist clench involuntarily: he likely regretted sheathing the blasters. "Well, war makes strange bedfellows, they say." he said. "Just don't even mention slaves, and I'll pretend you don't exist, rat." "I'm Iron Tribe." I said coldly. "There are two other Iron with me. You seem to have a soft spot for persecuted beasts: well, I lost an entire nation. Some of us survived. And right now I just want to upset the apple cart." Malum chuckled. "Iron, eh. I'll be darned. All right, monster. Where is the Malevolence? We heard Surel and the Iron Wolves were with them, but they've vanished." It was a night for people popping in to introduce themselves. Another voice spoke out of the darkness, a deep grinding but profound voice: "If you wish to meet the Malevolence, you would be well advised to talk quieter." A figure all in white and gold was walking up behind us. From the way the dragon whipped around, I concluded he hadn't noticed the newcomer's approach either, and that it rattled him. The figure had strange blue eyes, a Bionicle from the look, and a big war-hammer was slung over his shoulder. "How do you do that?" the dragon said curiously. "You have a shield in your mind, yet you wear the Mask of Shadows. Why is there no shadow in you?" The gold mouthpiece twitched in a faint smile. "I am a Makuta, brother Miserix. If you desire my name, you will get it only to rue it. I see in you another distortion, another mirror gone twisted. You are on our side for now, but in the end you are only for yourself. I have no shadow, because I drove it out. I wear the Mask of Shadows, but I wear it upside down. I am Teridax." ------------------------------------------- There was dead silence for about five seconds, and then the dragon did something I hadn't thought possible: he screamed in pain and fear. The white being's hand was glowing with light. Puzzled, we stared up at the huge dragon writhing in some awful inner torment. "I will not endure insubordination, you disgusting version of my brother Miserix." Teridax's deep voice was grim as stone. "I may be shielded, but my will is great enough to expel Shadow; it is certainly greater than yours, who gave in and opened yourself not only to darkness, but to the deeds of darkness. I see into your mind, though you shook off the mind of Tren Krom, and I see there that you want to destroy me, because I bear the name of the great traitor my double. I am creating Light inside you. If I let go, it will consume your being which is completely Shadow. Now listen to me. We are not allies. I am your superior, and to disobey me means death. I fight all that is evil, regardless of sides. Do you understand, monster?" "I.....understand." gasped Miserix. "Good." said Teridax. "The light that is in you is a hard seed now, unable to harm you unless you act against my wishes. If you do, that seed explodes, and Light will consume you. There will be no atrocities of any kind in this war. So I have told the Malevolence; so I tell you. Do you understand?" The dragon didn't seem to need breath: or it would have been gasping. "I understand.....Makuta." "Very well." said Teridax quietly. "Come, all of you. I will take you to the Malevolence." ------------------------------------------ (And here the first part of this extraordinary recital pauses, the second half taking place a great while later, right in the middle of the Civil War. I accordingly pause Sahmad's narrative here, in order to relate the further events that led up to the Civil War itself.)

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 7: Sahmad's Other Tale (Interjection by the Mad Great Being: This is the second of two accounts we have uncovered on information given by Sahmad following the Civil War. The first was written on parchments of pre-Melding style and make, not Benevolence-made, secreted in a dry cave. We were in time, as with the new climate mold was growing on the parchment. That one ends with a postnote Sahmad added: "So read on, you Agori who find this, and know that you owe your very lives to Sahmad. And as you read, Sahmad will smile." The Chronicler Farshtey has already copied and spread this abroad in your dimension (without the postnote), so I omit it here. The second was written in silver on sheets of copper, some of it a copy of an earlier draft he abandoned during the Civil War, copied to its' current form after he achieved his destiny. I regret that, due to the demands of dramatic narrative, I cannot give the entirety of this remarkable text all at once, as there is a considerable gap between the pre- and during-Civil-War segments of the account. Accordingly the later half will be presented as excerpts during the course of the description of the War itself.) Here follows Sahmad's Second Tale. My name is Sahmad. It's a name the Agori hate, and I hate them as well. I believe I said elsewhere why. I'm not one for repetition, so if you haven't found my previous record, tough Thornax. I used to be Iron Tribe. We even had Glatorian, though they weren't called that then: just Glatian, or Warriors. We had families. You may find this odd, but I even had love. Annonna took care of that, the ultra-feminist monster. When she ate our dreams, we all went mad and died. A few of us were lucky: the eater got full before it got around to us. Then the world broke, and my homeland, and our huge and well-filled cemeteries, and a lot of the survivors, all shot off into the air. If they even made it. Iron lands, and the mountains, were a bit near the edge of Bota Magna. But now that they were back, and the dream-eater banished and soon to be dead, I had some goodbyes to make. I headed north from Aqua Magna. I'd gotten a bad start, as the Sea is south and east of Bara Magna, and that was south of Bota to begin with. But Goldie let me dream myself halfway there (I didn't dare trust him for more than that), so I appeared, ka-poof, at the edge of what used to be Black Spike Mts. Now one of the big metal men lay there instead, having apparently decided on a thorny mattress. Well, they were no loss. All that month I walked up beside the Great Spirit, as I began hearing it called. I had to dodge idiot happy Agori and a lot of those weird machine-like people, who a few minutes of casual pumping enabled me to ascertain were denizens of the huge hollow domes that used to be a metal man up in the sky. It got even more sickening as I passed up the NE side of the Great Spirit: peaceful happy villages and new settlements. Once I had to avoid a white-and-rose insectoid machine with a staff. I wondered idly if there was any market for slaves. I guess old habits really die hard. The dream hit me about at the Head. The dream everybody had, of some stupid Great Being playing god and giving artificial creatures Agori-like minds. I'm not sure why, likely because I knew the background, but I smelled Goldie all over that dream. So it wasn't much of a surprise to get up two mornings later---I think----and find a huge arch yawning in the broken skull and settlements showing all the signs of having been built years ago. I'm sure I even spotted a city farther west. There hadn't been one when I camped. "Somebody had a dream." I muttered. I guess my involvement with the golden-skinned creature must have exempted me from whatever fake reality it had conjured up, but in any case it wasn't my concern. The border with Bota Magna was only another three days---if you were riding. I was, having filched a biomechanical steed of some kind from Happy Land, so I packed up and mounted. To my surprise there was a good and well-used road nearby, where there had been only pathless brand-new jungle. The dream again, I suppose. I'd been riding for an hour before I passed an Agori in white and blue armour who looked pretty familiar, sitting at the roadside. Because he had his chin on his knees and was brooding, I didn't recognize Metus until he looked up. I pulled to a stop. "You must have had quite a walk." I said. "Oh, it's you." said Metus. I must have been hearing things, because he actually sounded glad. "Can you tell me if I'm sane or not?" "You mean the big fancy city and brand-new villages appearing overnight?" I said. "Yes. What the heck is going on? These weird new people I can get, they must have escaped the giant, former workers oiling his systems or what, but how in h--l did the Agori acclaim a Great Being as some kind of god-king? And another thing. I was way down the other end of Bara Magna last night, and I woke up here." "Is that what the dream was." I said. "My guess, that Great Being god of yours found our golden friend." Blank shock proved this obvious connection had somehow not penetrated his skull. I began to wonder if Anonna had damaged a few of his marbles by accident. "You sure you're all right?" I said curiously. "You seem a bit off." "I got turned into a flippin' snake, I stopped dreaming, then I had to chase a star with red tentacles---you think I'm going to be all there?" he exploded. "Come along." I said resignedly. "I'm off to the Iron homeland. I can give you a lift till you find some nice spot to stay in." "A hermitage is looking really pleasant right about now." muttered Metus. He got up behind me and we rode on. We'd made about thirty miles on that road---it was a good one----by evening. A patrol of Skrall stopped us one time, two sneering and barking blowhards who I blasted in half with a single quick shot from my launcher, which I always keep loaded. It was my last fruit, though, so no longer. They'd been distracted by tormenting Metus: taking especial pleasure in it, as he once tried to rule them. They certainly had degenerated some since Skrall War days; normally they'd have seen and dodged my shot before I could get the launcher up. I guess being enforcers and getting to bully Agori blunted them a bit. You'd think it was years since they hit anyone but practice dummies. And demanding identity papers and travel plans---what kind of whacked-out society was this? But we got some decent weapons off them, so it wasn't a waste. And of course supplies. A Matoran walked right up to our camp and sat down at the fire without permission. I looked him over. Brown and yellow armour, a ridiculous rounded helmet that stuck to his face instead of his head concealing all features, with folds across it and a round hole to breathe through, smaller than an Agori. "Who the heck are you?" I said bluntly. "A madman, I think." said the Matoran. "Please tell me that three days go we weren't all bowing and scraping to Velika." "Of course not." I said, a little puzzled. Then I placed the name: of course, that was the Great Being who gave these people minds. So he was the dreamer. More and more interesting. "Really?" he said, almost desperately. "Everyone I run into around here thinks we've been in a disgustingly nice wimpy orderly society under Velika for at least three years." "Well, I woke up this morning and ka-poof, a big new city had appeared." I said. "Okay, good, I'm not the only one." said the Matoran. He gave us a calculating glance: it was weird in the extreme to see the features of that blackish horizontally-lined helmet shift and flex very slightly, producing an expression similar to that shown in his gleaming blue eyes. "From the fact you didn't protest at my adjectives, I'm guessing you're kind of outcasts yourselves." I couldn't help it. I started laughing. Metus looked, to my surprise, pained. "An ex-slaver and a schemer who sold out his nation to invaders, yes, I'd say we're outcasts." I said. "Sahmad and Metus, you'd be." said the Matoran. "Didn't you get turned into a snake of some kind?" "He still likes rodents." I drawled. "I cook them these days." muttered Metus. "Well, I'm not particularly welcome anywhere, even before everyone went nuts. The Turaga practically stalk me, and Toa quiz me every time they walk by. Where you headed? Yeah, what've you been doing lately? I only managed to get away because everyone thinks I've been a good boy for the last three years. My name is Ahkmou." --------------------------------- We had to steal a couple more steeds at the next settlement, as the Rahi (as Ahkmou called it) wouldn't fit three. We crossed into Bota Magna. You could tell the difference: Mata Nui's growth surge might look old, but everything had the emerald hue of fresh leaves. These leaves were dark green and much more rough: you could see they had suffered through actual weather for months and even years. The road was growing less used, though still fresh and good: it had, after all, only been conjured up the other day. "You're telling me the planet blew apart and this is where it split?" Ahkmou was more than dubious. "Look, pal, you've got metal men a few thousand miles high running around, and you're surprised they could fuse moons back in place?" I said sardonically. "And what's the deal with that stupid visor on your face all the time?" "If we take off our masks, we lose energy, weaken, and collapse into a coma after a few hours." said Ahkmou stiffly. "And this isn't a visor. It's a Kanohi mask." "I thought it was just to hide your face to keep from being recognized." said Metus. He was a lot more somber than I remembered him. "We all have the same features." said Ahkmou, pulling off his mask with a weird faint static sound. The grey face had rough, sharp-cut features and luminous blue eyes---well, analogically eyes, as they looked a bit like lamp screens with expression. He put the mask back on with a slight sucking snap. "You happy now?" "Magnetic adherence?" I guessed. "Pretty much. Same with the armour. Look, I had these kind of questions ever since the Agori started mixing with us. Can we drop it?" "You've got your own mount, you can ride alone." I said coldly, and spurred on ahead. I could hear the other two, though, and stayed in earshot. It always pays to listen. "So, what was it like, being a snake?" Ahkmou said interestedly. "I crawled." said Metus. "Do you, um, still have a hand in things? I mean, like, underworld contacts, criminal friends, favors to call in?" "Frankly, I'm at a bit of a crossroads." confessed Metus. "My plotting didn't get me anywhere and I have zero influence, plus.....it was a bit of a jolt being a snake. You kind of lose your old goals. I'm pretty much at a loss." "Oh, going soft now, are we?" said Ahkmou. "There's always a monkey wrench or two to toss into things." "Listen, machine, I don't know what you've been up to for the last hundred thousand years, but I had enough of being a cheating merchant and two-bit crook. I tried grand schemes, and that's out, so I'm washing my hands of this society stuff." "Well, actually I don't remember anything before the tunnels beneath Mata Nui Island." admitted Ahkmou. "We got mind-wiped, more or less, and Teridax told me a whole lot of things, but he could easily have been lying through his mask. So I only remember the last thousand years. I ran petty schemes, informed on villagers, didn't mind at all. The biggest stunt was when I infected kolhii balls, and sold them, too. What a riot." "Infected weapons?" said Metus doubtfully. "No, for---well, for a sport we play." "Sport?" Metus sounded more confused than ever. "Yeah, you know, like games?" "You mean you had arena battles too?" "No, we all got together and watched teams bat balls around to gain points. You really mean you people don't play games or sports? Maybe you're not such a hopeless bunch after all." Metus gave it up. I chuckled: he'd been born to the Element Lord of Ice's rule, and that grim entity had banned all sports or games. Ice Tribe weren't big on fun anyway. He'd grown so used to the Glatorian system he'd likely forgotten non-essential elements of pre-Shattering society, but I could dimly remember watching our warriors team up and play semi-serious games while girls and Agori rooted. I can't remember the games, or the rules, not this far off. Just the face of my beloved as she cheered. "What about you, mighty slaver?" said Ahkmou, riding past Metus. "What are you planning?" "To visit the graves of my people and finally say goodbye." I answered. "And run down any Iron Tribe survivors" "What, no market for slaves? That really sounds like something I could get into." "I'd prefer revolution." I said. Rocks began to vibrate and rumble all around us: we had ridden into a stony gorge. I reined to a halt. The others were fighting to control their steeds. I'd heard of some of these newcomers having magic powers, as well as the elemental ones I'd seen used from charged weapons in the Core War---even some Glatorian seemed to have sprouted them---and I was pretty sure someone controlling rock was trying to scare us. Of course, there was another possibility too, which I didn't realize until the rocks nearby flowed into duplicate Sahmads, Metuses and Ahkmous. The Element Lord of Rock. ----------------------------------- The rocks stopped moving, but a voice came from the statues. "I was wondering if you would show any sense." "Is that the Element Lord of Rock?" said Metus. "The what?" said Ahkmou. "Are you talking about what I just said?" I asked. "Why else would I deign to talk with petty thugs and outcasts?" Rock said in that hard deep voice, like stone. "A Great Being has seized the world in a dream, and yet we are not dead. Destiny has spared us, we realized. We are a flaw in the dream. And we intend to fracture it." "Sounds great." I said. "Sounds fantastic. Sounds absolutely ridiculous. You're up against Great Beings here, Rock. Velika even looks for you, he'll shred your mind before you can do a thing. You'd have to act long-range, and even then thought can find you." "He might find that difficult if rocks are falling on him." said Rock. "And I am not alone in this. My brothers and I have been approached by other flaws in the dream. We are negotiating an alliance." "With who precisely?" I sneered. "The bickering Element Lords? Your pacifist Earth brother? No, don't tell me: you got the Great Beings to make you a magic anti-telepathy helmet!" "Have you heard in your roamings," Rock growled, "about the Malevolence?" I hadn't, but Ahkmou had. "That was something Velika made up to scare us, before everyone went crazy. He said some of the Great Beings were messing with us and serial killing, except they only seemed to kill powerful people. He called them some corny name or other, might have been that. Says a few stand with him and are called---" "The Benevolence." Rock's voice was mocking. "How ironic a jest on both sides, when both names are so untrue as to be ridiculous. For the Benevolence is most decidedly malevolent, and the Malevolence has no intrest in domination. You are correct. I am up against Great Beings. And therefore I have allied with Great Beings." "And what are they promising you?" I said dryly. "My life." said Rock darkly. "But war has many fortunes, and when the entire world is rock, it may be difficult to enforce their wish. So I agree, and act against one threat, and hope that both sides destroy each other." "That sounds more like Rock." I said. "Well, I have an errand to my homeland, and if you can tell me where any Iron survivors are, I might be able to do something." "Forget it." said Metus. "I'd rather be a snake again. That way at least I can hide under a rock instead of getting caught up in a Great Being civil war." "Same here, minus the snake bit." said Ahkmou. "Matter of fact, I might want to head as far east as I can till I get beyond range." "Iron Agori were trapped on Bota Magna, and dwell on farms, alone." said Rock. "Alone amid the graves of their people. One Iron Warrior remains, and they follow him. You may want to paint your armour." "Easy done." I said. I'd stained it orange so we could pretend being an unknown tribe trapped by the Shattering. "Get me a few solvents." The statue of me sprouted a stone bottle. "It is potent." said Rock. "Do not get any on your skin." "And use in a well-ventilated area, I know." I said. "Well, my thanks. Where exactly are they?" "I will send you there." said Rock. "Let these rabbits dig some burrows, and quickly, if they wish to survive." Unsolid stone flowed around me and my steed, and ebbed to reveal I was somewhere else.

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 6: The Maleficence of Velika Tarduk had never been so glad to see Tesara. The house had the same weird air of familiar aspect and strange detail, and when he went inside he saw the place was still being put to rights by Parsey. She looked up when she saw him and gulped. "They got you out all right?" she demanded. "Airlifted me from my jail window. I think Velika let me escape." "Oh, I'm so relieved. Those Skrall completely trashed the house. I told Vastus if I ever see those creatures in Tesara I'm going to use my Matoran strength and metal fists. I know they're nearly as strong as a Toa, but I'm stronger than an Agori, I think. So Velika let you go? I told you he wasn't all bad!" "He has horrible friends." shuddered Tarduk. "One of them, called Heremus, seemed to be pressing for me to be mindwashed or reassembled. If that's the Benevolence, I wonder just who is in the Malevolence. Where is Angonce? I can't see him siding with Heremus, and certainly not with the Malevolence." "Then what exactly did happen? Is it because of what we talked about on the trail?" "Yes." said Tarduk. "I don't like it at all. He practically told me he was burning my hand to teach me about fire. He said I had a choice, and that I could just listen to the Turaga." "Sounds uncomfortably like Makuta Nui." muttered Parsey. "Except Velika at least is more.....benevolent." "I don't think we should talk any more." said Tarduk. "He's probably listening to us right now." ------------------------------- He woke up, gasping. His dreams had been filled with a great sneering red dragon who kept harping on being immune to the Dream. The worst thing was, it felt horribly real. And Velika had hinted he had met a dragon. What woke him up he soon found out. Beings were standing by his bed. Already they had bound him hand and foot and were fastening on a gag. He got out only a choking gurgle before it was on. More gurgles drew his eyes to Parsey's bed, where the Matoran was being held down by a black graceful being. They looked too mechanical to be anything but Bionicles. "Tarduk, you are under arrest for breaking gaol." said the huge being from the Palace gate. "We're not taking you to Velika this time. The Benevolence overruled him. You will be kept in a secure place, until we have dealt with you." "Stow the talk, Master Order." said the graceful being in black armour. She had a rich, firm voice. "You upright enforcer types always have to justify yourselves, don't you? You should simply do what you must and not make excuses." "Consider, Roodaka, that you used to be in the Pit." said the agent harshly. "I have no idea why the Benevolence employs you, but Velika has hinted more than once you might go back there again." "Perhaps it is because the Benevolence is not so benevolent." said Roodaka in a langorous hiss. "Perhaps it is because Velika is as ruthless as am I." Blue power glowed in the agent's hands. "You do not talk that way to the Hand of Velika!" There was a blast of blue fire. Roodaka gasped, sinking to the ground: half her armour was gone, and the tissue beneath was scorched. "Now hold your tongue, and let's get these prisoners underway." said the agent. They were borne out of the house in dead silence. A vehicle waited outside, and purred smoothly into life. It made no sound: the agent must have had Silence powers. They did not cut in the lights until they were deep in the forest. Tarduk couldn't be sure, but they seemed to be heading more north, up the road that led to the White Quartz mountains. Tarduk felt a cold metal claw slowly picking at his bonds. He glanced up: Roodaka's eyes gleamed blue and evil into his. She cut his leg bonds and the gag, and did the same to Parsey. Tarduk dared not move. He had heard of Roodaka, and one thing he remembered most: she was treacherous as a Dune Viper. Galloping hooves sounded from behind. The Order agent turned, casting an intense blue glare. It lit up the Toa of Plant Life on a Sand Stalker, his mask set in fury. Suddenly the trees around them lashed like lightning, hammering the agent right into the soft ground. Blue power flashed as the agent fought the trees. Roodaka gave a sly smile and vaulted off the vehicle. Shadow energy, faintly red and purple, burst from her hand, ripping off the Toa's mask. His power immediately halved, he could not maintain the grip of the trees against the agent's power: but even as the agent burst free, another mask appeared, called from his Suva: a Great Mask of Elemental Energy. It would triple his power until the mask was used up. Tarduk and Parsey leaped down and ran. Behind them they saw the trees exploding in blue fire, and the Toa falling to blue and black-purple blasts. The two beings gathered him up, and the vehicle resumed its' course. "Cut me free." gasped Tarduk. Using her armour's edges Parsey soon had cut his bonds, and he cut hers. The night forest creaked and shifted around them. "They'll be after us by dawn." said Tarduk. "Sooner, if that agent looks over his shoulder. We have to run." "I can't believe this." sobbed Parsey. "I can't believe Velika would do this. He let you go." "He was only messing with us." said Tarduk bitterly. "He gave me an illusion of choice, so I would give myself away. Either that or he never intended to let me go at all. Do you think the Toa will help us?" "He won't send Toa for this." wept Parsey. "Skrall, and Vorox......we're outlaws now, Tarduk. Velika holds the world. It's only a matter of time." --------------------------------------- "Why do you suppose Roodaka cut us free?" Parsey asked as they slipped through the deep trees and shrubs. "Probably to discredit the Hand of Velika. Now shhh." Parsey would have kept talking, even quietly, but she heard a sound some ways off that reduced even her to silence: Vorox howling. Tarduk wondered briefly if the Vorox of Bota Magna sounded as beastial as their insane southern members. The two increased their pace, up into a range of stony foothills of rounded nubs of pale orange feldspar and white quartz. Gems had been mined here, and gold, before the Shattering when water and food became more precious than either. Tarduk couldn't remember if Velika had resumed mining, but as commerce was still entirely on barter it was unlikely. But then of course he had only had four days to do such things in. In the rocks they would leave less trail, but still scent. Tarduk kept to the broken white cliffs, where at least a wall was at his back. Green brush sprinkled with red contrasted with the white. The Vorox were faster than they were. Soon they could be heard even without the howls, crashing through the brush in a wide fan formation. When they came in sight, the two fugitives ducked quickly into the rocks. The sight of the twisted, animal-mutated sandy beings with their weird ancient blasters was a sight to freeze the blood. One drew himself up on two legs and spoke: "They're here. In the rocks. Surround them." "Come on!" hissed Tarduk. Those blasters could easily bring down the cliff on them. Parsey hurled a large rock that the leader barely dodged, and followed the Agori as he scurried on all fours up the rounded knobs. Barking and howling the Vorox scurried up after them. Tarduk reached the crest of a ridge and froze. Bowling down toward them was another wave of Vorox. Except that these had only crude swords and spears, not the ancient but deadly blasters. --------------------------------------- Caught between two waves of Vorox, Tarduk and the Matoran put their backs to an old tree. The Vorox from the ridge got there first......and, totally ignoring the two fugitives, they galloped right on past and into the climbing Vorox. Taken by complete surprise, the Bota Magna Vorox were bowled over and sent tumbling down the mountain. Before they could recover enough to start using their blasters, a towering red-armoured Glatorian rose out of the brush near the ridge base and seized two fallen blasters. "Hold, my brothers!" he shouted. "Do not kill your brethren!" That was when Tarduk at last realized the peculiarity of their situation. The Vorox stopped short, some in the act of mauling. One of the Bota Magna Vorox rose on two feet. "Malum." he said incredulously. "Kabrua." rumbled the rogue Glatorian, who had been made pack leader of the Bara Magna Vorox. He twirled the force blasters. "I'd advise your people to lower their blasters. I might get a bit touchy on the triggers--I've only had a day or two of training with one." "So---these are our brothers from the south?" said Kabrua disbelievingly. "They don't look as badly off as I'd heard." "Oh, I'm sure Velika filled your ears about me, hm? That I enslaved my brothers, or some such Spikit dung? Well, I've gotten kind of lucky since the Melding. They're regressing at a surprising pace." His voice warmed. "Go on, brothers. Show your brethren what you've learned." The Bara Magna Vorox rose, rather wobblingly, on two legs. Some even took a few steps. One said in a rusty animal voice, "Bota....Magna.....Vorox? Me Kereb." "I'll be darned." said Kabrua. "Well......I owe you some gratitude. I hadn't thought the Glatorian treated them like anything but animals." "Excellent." said Malum. "Then you won't mind, I hope, if we take the hunt from here? It would be quite the publicity stunt for the Vorox to walk upright to Velika and deliver the prisoners." "What one Vorox does, is done by all." said Kabrua, roughly but warmly. "By all means. Do you mind giving those back?" Malum idly pointed one blaster at him. "My brothers are a little underequipped. I think these two will stay with us." Kabrua did not press him further, but whistled sharply and his Vorox melted into the trees. Tarduk and Parsey did not dare move, as Vorox fawned and gamboled around them. "What are you going to do with us?" quavered Parsey. Malum and one Vorox were still listening: Tarduk was pretty sure it was the one who named itself Kereb. They exchanged a few snorts and grunts, and only then did Malum turn to them. "With you? Escort you, of course." he said. "We can't go back. They've got it in for us now. We'll just be Spikit fodder." said Tarduk. "Who said we were going to Velika?" said Malum. "I go to the Maze. As of this minute you are counted members of the Malevolence."

If the Great Spirit landed on a planet, it would certainly do so in a way designed to avoid cataclysm. This means it would likely evaporate a deep hole in the seafloor first, as well as no doubt fogging all global communications; then while keeping back the water via gravity fields, it would carefully lie down, maybe even cutting off its' own gravity to avoid earthquakes from weight, activate camouflage system on face, then let the water slowly slump back down around it. This would eliminate any surge problems as the surging water is penned in a field and can't spread, and since the seafloor is now occupied by Mata Nui there would only be a few eccentric tides. Spare material he'd likely levitate and plop on his chest. You may not realize this, but he is at least a couple hundred miles thick, and stands about 9000 miles tall. So he'd be resting in a hollow, a new island would appear, the strange clouds would settle, and then Mata Nui would have his hands full keeping out sightseers and geologists. But don't worry, they'd all be dismissed by the evolutionists the way Surtsey Island was. Now I must go add a new chapter to MALEVOLENCE, in my Great Being Civil War epic.

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 5: The Malevolence of Velika Parsey saw the Spikit, the Tarduk sack feebly struggling, breaking into a run up the street, and came to an irresolute halt. Tarduk wasn't her brother, and he was rather a pain to live with, so she should actually be glad he was out of her hair. But why had the Skrall implied he was being imprisoned? That weird theory of his, would Velika resent it enough to harm him? She went off in search of Vastus. ------------------------------------- "Something very strange is going on here." growled Vastus. The Toa of Plant Life, who wore a Mask of Mind Control at the moment (he had even more useful ones on his Suva) examined his scorched armour and said nothing. The reclaimed Bohrok sat patiently outdoors to wait for its' next mission of hauling a cart. "Hey, Visten, I'm talking to you!" "Heard you." grunted the Toa as he poked the metal with his fingers. "The Psionics Matoran you nearly turned away tells me Tarduk was arrested. By Skrall, no less. And that's not even for actual crime. They hauled the boy off for talking weird about Velika. Skrall, no less. We Jungle are supposed to handle our own affairs. Yet all of a sudden my tablet is saying Tarduk is classed as Dangerous." "Ridiculous." said Toa Visten. Vastus got to his feet. "Unless Velika teleported them, they can't have gone far. I'm going on a visit to patrol HQ to try to pull jurisdiction. That don't work, I'll storm Velika. No Skrall drags off one of my tribe on a tablet glitch without my having something to say in the matter." Visten looked up. "I'll lodge formal complaints in the meantime. We have reports of Skrall and Vorox brutality coming in from all regions of Jungle sector. Probably Bota as well. Velika's got to rein in his enforcers, or we will." ------------------------------------------- The Skrall carried Tarduk thrown over the back of the Spikit like the sack he had briefly been. Now he was bound and gagged and could barely move. The Skrall rode along, joking and laughing. As he listened, Tarduk felt worse and worse. They were talking about finally seeing some action, and being unleashed on the despicable rabble. "Hold up there, you two." said a Toa of Plasma who was standing in the middle of the road. "I'm getting reports of unauthorized arrest concerning two Skrall with scorched armour. Vastus issued an alert to all units to intercept and transfer custody to us." "It's most certainly authorized, you biomechanical scum." sneered one of the Skrall. He held up a paper. "Oh, but of course, you people scratch everything on rocks, don't you? Well, if you can't read, I'll spell it out for you: Special orders.....use of force authorized....to be taken immediately to Skrall Station 207 pending transfer for personal interrogation....Clear enough?" A thin jet of some fiery gas, pale orange-pink, beamed from the Toa's hand. The paper combusted instantly. At the same moment the Skrall gasped in pain: his armour was wearing a coat of plasma and heating up. "I declare you under Toa arrest for forging false orders and use of excessive force." said the Toa. "You have one minute to stand down, or your armour melts off your muscles." The Skrall hurled their shields: they vanished, evaporated instantly to plasma as Plasmic energy engulfed them. The Skrall, intent on this, did not see the rocks the Toa was summoning with his Mask of Telekinesis, and dropped, out cold. "Come with me, Tarduk." said the Toa, cutting him loose. "I'm taking these prisoners straight to Velika. To Karzahni with these official channels and complaints. We'll soon hear firsthand where this funny order is coming from." Using telekinesis the Toa levitated all four of them over the forest, cutting straight through the air at a speed outstripping the wind, to where on the horizon the huge prone figure of the Great Spirit barred the way. Hours later the spike on the vast chin resolved into towers, and they alighted at the gates. "Where's Krakua?" the Toa of Plasma asked the hulking creature that stood there, badly scarred beneath new armour. Tahu would have recognized this one, as he had given him those scars. "I have a case of Skrall brutality needs personal attention from Velika." "It will get that attention." said the being. "Here, who are you?" said the Toa suspiciously. "Krakua is the gatewarden here, and I hadn't heard of a personnel change." "There is so much that you shortsighted Toa do not hear of." said the being. "Suffice it to say I have the ear of Velika." "Sorry, pal, but I learned 80,000 years ago not to take anyone's word for anything." said the Toa. "You show me Velika's signature, or I'm going to suspect something Malevolent is going on here." "Since you insist." growled the being. He pulled a strange badge out of his armour. It read Hand of Velika Authorised Agent. "Sorry, secret agencies don't qualify in my book." said the Toa of Plasma. The Hand agent screamed as telekinesis thrust into his brain. His mind might be shielded, but his brain was only tissue, and before he could marshall any powers, he had swooned. He crumpled and fell like the fall of a cliff. "You'll wake up with a migraine, but you'll live." the Toa said, stepping over him. Levitated behind him, the bound Skrall struggled feebly. The Toa kept tight hold on Tarduk's arm. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" said Tarduk nervously. "What if this really is from Velika? I mean, I don't fancy being taken apart in a weird Great Being experiment." "You have so benighted an idea of the Great Beings." a deep and mocking voice whispered from the air before them. The hall darkened. A shadowy shape came into view, not much taller than Tarduk due to his stoop: and he was not only cloaked, but cowled. "Ah, Heremus, is it?" said the Toa of Plasma brusquely. "I need an audience with my Father. Folk have been using his name in vain outside." "But that assumes there is a vain use of the sacred name." Heremus whispered from the air. "Sometimes the use is all-sufficient, however it be used. No one dares to use the name of Velika falsely." "I caught these Skrall committing excessive force and arresting on flimsy charges. There's a glitch in the tablets, that says this Agori antiquarian is Dangerous. I need to have that glitch fixed and his name cleared." Heremus laughed. Weird, horrible, the echoey laughter chilled Tarduk's blood, and even the confident Toa faltered. "This is what comes of my brother's absurd grandiosity. He thought he could bring peace to a planet, and that presented with a perfect society the world would settle down and carry it on. And the few that have doubts, why, they are merely flaws, and flaws can be repaired." Heremus marched forward, and such was the power and menance that hung about him the Toa gave back, step by step. "Flaws cannot be fixed, save by fire. You weld a crack, you don't try to patch it. Even better to melt it down and make it all over again. And I'm afraid that little Agori is beyond repair." "My lord, I don't quite see what the problem is......." protested the Toa. "Do you not?" said Heremus softly. Even close as he was they could not see his face. "It is the fault of a being programmed to be an enforcer and never to question orders or look too deep. Even when he has a mind he still retains this shallow impatience, this lack of depth: he charges out to set things right. Look around you. You see a world of order, at peace, but only so long as all its' components go about like ants and do their jobs. Doubts destroy peace. Ideas hinder order. When you doubt, you sooner or later act on it.....and the Malevolence is always ready to seize the slightest crack. We must convince this doubter of the error of his ways." "Ah, but that is why the Benevolence answers to me, brother." said the voice of Velika from farther down the hall. "The cat is zealous, but if he had his way the mouse would be rendered extinct, and there would be no one to eat the crumbs before they can mold on the floor, where the broom cannot reach. It is wiser to train the mouse in a cage, that he may be sent out in due course to do his task. But the cage keeps him from eating the bread in the pantry." "Aye, but what does the trainer do when the mice multiply?" said Heremus darkly. He towered over the diminutive Matoran body of the other Great Being like a sinister cloud. "Render the prisoners to us, Toa, and go back to your job. I don't know if you noticed, but you stand guilty of at least four serious counts of assault, improper procedure, insubordination and backtalk. Go now, little one, before we begin to wonder if you too bear some malevolent taint." "Velika, I insist this be set right." the Toa said, standing his ground. "If the Skrall aren't reined in, the Toa will be fighting them. We aren't used to being pushed around, even the new ones you created. When I get out of here, if that tablet still says he's Dangerous, I'm going to be back. Vastus lodged a complaint and formal demand for transfer of custody. Ideological crimes don't count in my book, Father." "Do you begin to see now, brother, what a huge bullet resides in your foot?" said the sinister voice of Heremus. "By making them free, you made them threats." "Which is why Salvation may have to come upon them." said Velika. "One may cut the lawn with shears, or one may pasture the Kikanalo in it." "There are also my creations." said Heremus. "You may have to permit their change sooner than later." "The apple tree bears enough blossom to cover the twigs, and so much excess pollen it caused an Agori to sneeze. He came by a month later and tripped on premature apples. Deciding the tree was an inefficient waste, he cut it down and had fragrant fires." Velika said absently. "The apples are too wormy to eat, even when ripe. There are too many sprays needed." answered Heremus. "You may leave, Toa." said Velika. "The tablet will be altered, but Tarduk must be shown how dangerous it can be when balancing on a log in the stream, to lean too far to the right. When he is enlightened, he will be quickly released." Unsatisfied but without a leg to stand on, Tarduk's only protector withdrew. Velika walked past Heremus. The Matoran-sized Great Being suspended Tarduk in the air. "How the farmer knows so much about every detail of the Metru Nui chutes is extraordinary indeed." he said with cool rebuke. The other Great Being looked at him darkly but said nothing. "Free wills, being delicate, are so much more intriguing to tinker with than blind engines. Tinker with your machines, Heremus, but put on some glasses to correct the defects of your vision." ------------------------------- Tarduk was next aware of himself spread-eagled, somehow fastened to the wall by an unseen force. A light from somewhere above rested on him, but the room was dark. Someone was pacing quietly back and forth, in the dim shapes that filled the room. "The problem with the hand pressing on the chair to hold the glue in place, is that air and heat cannot reach the glue to dry it." the voice of Velika said from the dimness. "But if he lets go of the chair, it falls apart." "Listen, Velika, I don't even know why I'm in here." "You are here because the glue pulled apart. Now fresh glue must be added, and the clamps refastened. Too much pressure on a person makes him do two things: crack, or rebel. Neither one is bent the right way. I give you a red apple, Agori: why do you peel, and peel, and peel, until most of the flesh has fallen in chips to the floor? There are no rotten spots beneath the skin. If you do not believe the man with X-rays, at least believe the smooth surface. A bad spot leaves a pit." "What are you getting at?" said Tarduk in exhaustion. "I have wandered in your head, and as it is a very wandering head my journey was convoluted. You have doubts, and those doubts have infected your partner. So I have a dilemma, I am faced with a crack in the chair. I can tie a clamp around it, and let it go, or I can put in glue so no defect can be seen, and risk weakness. You are well known, and others will come like you, and I will have this dilemma times one hundred thousand. That is why the Turaga, if he is wise, will not forbid the Matoran to eat the zarcon-berries, which look delicious yet are poison. The Matoran being forbidden will persuade himself the berries are good. If the Turaga beats the Matoran, he will only become convinced the Turaga is evil. But if the Turaga feeds the berries to the pet, and the Matoran sees it drop dead, or even more if the Turaga gives him two berries--which makes him violently ill, but not dead--the Matoran will never go near the berries. A free will must learn, it cannot be forced." "I haven't seen any berries." "Do not pretend the seeker of mysteries cannot understand the riddles of the Great Beings." said Velika coldly. "This is about my theory on the trail, not Surel's words, isn't it?" "Oh, I have tried to cure you before." said Velika. "You saw, you saw, you swore you saw a dragon. Now you don't remember it. And what do you do, you proceed to infect your partner. One may wash the floor, but the stain of oil is so dark he tries to use paint. The oil eats right into the paint, and now he has stained paint. One can only put on so many coats." "Then you're going to kill me or mindwash me." said Tarduk, trying to keep his voice from trembling. "The Matoran could simply listen to the Turaga." said Velika. "So you're offering me a bargain." said Tarduk. "All I have to do is be your oh-so-loyal servant, and I go free." "It is the problem of free choice." agreed Velika. Tarduk listened, but there was only silence from the darkness. Suddenly the unseen force released him and he clattered to the floor. He picked himself up. The light had gone out and he had to grope his way to the open window. A cold wind came in, a wind growing stronger by the minute. Peering at the dark roofs of the Palace, Tarduk made out even darker shapes, creeping--or gliding--nearer and nearer. Suddenly a fist of air picked him up and pulled him against the bars. One of the figures floated closer and carefully pulled apart the solid metal: that had to be a Toa. Tarduk squeezed out, and still in deathly silence the rescuers assisted him. Suddenly he was levitating, which was a good thing as a perfect thunderstorm was battering the Palace. Soaring up and into the storm, they shot out on the wind, far over the forest. "Easy there, little friend." said one of the rescuers in a quick light voice. Tarduk touched ground with a bump as the levitation shut off. Somebody created luminence and he saw two grim faces. One was the odd shape of a Nuva Mask of Levitation. The other had a helmet wrought like snakes. Both were green, or looked it in the bad light. "Vastus?" said Tarduk tentatively. "You do have a knack for getting yourself chained up by Great Beings." said Vastus gruffly. "Frankly, Lewa, that was almost too easy. I'm worried." "It's pronounced LAY-wa, please." said the Toa resignedly. "LAE-Waaaa........forget it. Even Mata Nui's Instant Language Download can't cover these ridiculous names." "It seems to be an ever-problem wide the broad-world." said Lewa. "Even my Agori sister mispronounces it." "Yeah, well I'm sticking with LEE-wa." "Velika was interviewing me just before you came." said Tarduk. "He talked about free choice and wood glue holding a chair needing to be clamped, and said I guess basically that my ideas were damaging a fragile balance holding the new society together. Then he said that force only causes slaves or rebels, and the Matoran could either listen to the Turaga telling him not to eat poison berries or the Turaga could burn his hand to teach him. It sounded to me like he was offering a bargain." "Yes....I thought that was too easy." grumbled Vastus. "He practically left the jail door open. I would guess he's waiting to see what you decide to do, either be loyal to Velika and go on about your business, or get your hand burned." "It seems he's sore-burnt his hand already." said Lewa. "Giving him a nasty-taste of what it's like to run afoul of the Benevolence. He's watching us, isn't he?" "Wait......you're one of the three missing Nuva." said Tarduk. "I was in Bota Magna with the Jungle Agori, and suddenly everyone is ever-loyal and a tight-close society. I came down here to see what was going on and met a Psionics Matoran very worried about her partner. So I talked this Vastus into a raid." "Well, the tablet just changed." said Vastus, examining it. "Does anyone know how to move the screen down? Oh, wait, I've got it. Stupid newfangled gizmos. Tarduk's now classed as Merchant again." "Well, I don't know." said Tarduk cautiously. "It's not like I can just run off into the woods. And joining the Malevolence---that's if they're even alive---that would be going from the sand to the rock face. I guess I'll try to go on doing my job." Aware as they were of the sketchiness of the situation, the two enforcers only nodded. "Good to have you back, kid." said Vastus, and they rode on air to Tesara. "Things are getting restless." said Vastus as they flew. "You're hardly the only one with wild theories. Half the folk in town are discovering a suspicious lack of events in their memories, and Agori are getting weirded at every turn by you Bionicles. It's pretty obvious something smells about Velika's perfect society. Oh, and we had word from Tahu. He and Onua are stopping by tomorrow."

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 4: The Benevolence of Velika Tarduk loaded the vehicle absently. It was another dull run like he'd made a hundred times before over the last few years, ever since Velika took control in the Enlightenment. The roads were safe, what with beasts kept away by Skrall and these new Bota Magna Vorox; but Tarduk feared the patrols. He couldn't remember anything like this since the Enlightenment, but the last two days it seemed like every patrol thought it needed to stop and bark questions at him. They seemed......bored. He tried to remember if they had been like this before; details were hazy, but the impression was one of dedicated reasonable enforcers who minded their own business. "Were they like this last week?" he asked his Matoran partner. She was a Psionics Matoran who never stopped gabbing about something; he couldn't even remember when they had started doing the delivery route between Tesera and New Atero together. "I don't think so, but you know, I don't know why, but I can't seem to remember details of our last trip. It was only a week ago, right? And I was never one for forgetting things back in the koro, I was always carving journals, my entire hut was full of scratched flakes of stone, my Turaga swore she'd smash them one of these days. Did anything happen last trip?" Tarduk heaved on the last box. "Not that I recall. It's weird, but I can't seem to bring up anything besides a haze of green trees and road details, I mean I used to notice everything, every rock and ruin. I'm definitely paying attention this trip." The Psionics Matoran Parsey hopped up on the box beside him. Tarduk uttered the sharp call they had taught to the Bohrok---though he couldn't recall actually doing any of that, he just knew he had done it---and the weird machine gave a chik-chik-chik noise and stalked into motion, its' huge head bobbing back and forth like a chicken. Parsey had said yesterday that a chicken bobbed like a Bohrok. It used its' great shovel-like hands at times as well as legs. The big shield-shaped head concealed a large oozy worm, Tarduk knew, broad and flat. It struck him again as an entirely new journey, though a dull sense of having done this many times lay all around it. He had never noticed the sharp-cut rich detail of black and green trees, or the fact that the road looked as freshly cut as if it had only just come into existence. He wondered if the Bohrok had plowed it; some were said to have elemental powers. Brown and pitted with last night's rain, it had neither root nor rock. "What I can't help wondering," chattered Parsey, "is how the heck did Velika take over so easily. I remember us being all tense and everything uncertain, the Toa going nuts setting things up, most of us just trying to settle, you Agori looking askance at us Matoran and tending to avoid us--and then the Revelation, and then suddenly everyone must have magically settled down and made a society. It's just weird." "Uh oh." muttered Tarduk. "I hear a patrol." Parsey shut up at once, her eyes frightened beneath her mask. Tarduk looked at her again, wondering how he had never observed the odd grace and femininity of her biomechanical limbs. The patrol rode into view, on Rahi this time, and he felt even worse: this patrol was of the Skrall women. There hadn't been many women before the Enlightenment, he was sure; they had had psionic powers and despite this all but 15 had been killed by the Element Lords. He had seen those 15 survivors, ragged prisoners forced to breed for the Skrall men, but after the Enlightenment, suddenly every Skrall, even Tuma, had a wife. The women still tended to clump together and avoid the men except at home, and bore weapons and patrolled at times when the Skrall were spread too thin. "So, it's little Tarduk again." said the lead woman. "What have you got in the cart?" "Supplies for Tesera." said Tarduk, producing the itinerary and cargo list, as well as identity tablets. That was what the Matoran called it, even though it was paper. The woman Skrall flipped through them, nodded, handed them back and snapped at the others, "Well, let's move! We want to show we're more efficient than the men, let's not waste time!" They rose off, down toward New Atero. "They're starting that again?" muttered Tarduk. The Skrall women, on gaining their powers, had persecuted the men until the men overcame them, broke their spirits and drove them out. Things had been peaceful since the Enlightenment, but now it looked like they were rivaling with their men once more. Thank heavens they had no powers. "Actually, I think I prefer them to the others." said Parsey. "What I'm finding hard to understand is what the heck happened to the Element Lords." said Tarduk. "Oh, right---you wouldn't remember. They were trying to get into the Maze, but found it empty. Rock was beginning to make a new army of Skrall. Then Velika shows up and suddenly neither they nor the Malevolence even exist. I'm beginning to get a theory." "Oh no, run for the hills." "Ha ha, it can't be worse than your blather." "Are you calling me a blabbermouth? You want to see how hard I can hit with a metal fist?" laughed Parsey. "Feather pillows." They'd only started behaving like this the last couple of days. The sound of crashing brush interrupted their banter, but when Tarduk looked he saw nothing. In a way it was good having a steed incapable of bolting, but right now he really missed not having a cart animal to watch the reactions of. "So go on, you had a theory." she said. Tarduk glanced around, but the forest avenues seemed empty. "I think Velika was the Malevolence." he said bluntly. "And the Benevolence. No one but him is ever seen of them at the Palace. What if he went around offing powerful beings who could be a threat, then used the murders as a scare tactic, then created some awful mind-control bomb that made us swallow him whole?" "Tarduk," said Parsey, sounding subdued for the first time he could remember, "That's horrible. How can you even think that? He gave us Bionicle beings our minds. How can he be anything but good?" "And what if he's mind-controlling you? Would you even know? That was how many ages ago; he could easily have gone bad since." Parsey drooped. "I know.......and your theory is sensible......but please don't talk of it again. It makes me rattled." "She is absolutely right." a harsh voice whispered from the shadows. Out stepped a tall warrior in gleaming new armour, red and grey. He was graceful and nimble, and his face was young: but the creatures passing like dogs around him were a gruesome sight, metal with fur growing in patches from among it. Iron Wolves. And Iron Wolves only answered to one man. "Surel." whispered Tarduk. --------------------------------------------- When Tarduk had known the ancient warrior, he had been so twisted and deformed his agility seemed almost horrible. He had revealed to Mata Nui that this was due to the Shattering. "Did--did Mata Nui cure you?" said Tarduk. "No." said Surel. "The creature whose creation rose out of destruction encountered me. I was caught in the breaking currents of Life, and they deformed me. But I met the Mask yesterday, walking in a body, and he was sorry for my condition, and he gave me my youth. He sent me here, because I was immune to the dream, and because you would listen to me." "About what?" said Tarduk. "About why Velika is in charge. About why, in one single night, the earth awoke and groaned to find that it was Benevolent. Velika had a dream, and he made that dream come true. His dream was to rule Sphereus Magna, that a firmer hand might prevent the Shattering from ever repeating. He has ruled it a total of three whole days, this being the third." "But---he's been in charge for years----" spluttered Tarduk. "Is Surel then a liar, Agori? Is Surel easily deceived? Believe the Mask of Life, then, if you believe not Surel. You only have impressions, not realities. Tell me one thing you remember from before three days ago!" "I.....I don't....you mean it's really only been a few days and we just have a sense of time passed? Well, it is pretty hazy........." "Does the Malevolence exist?" blurted Parsey. "Oh yes, it exists." said Surel softly. "I go to them now. I dare not linger. Beware, little Agori, for I am a flaw in the dream, and so are you, with your very logical theory that is far too close to truth for the Benevolence to allow. They will come for you, and me. Flee to the north." Then wolves and warrior melted into the brush, and were gone. Tarduk had not realized till then just how well dull red armour could blend with red-brown forest floor and old logs. --------------------------------- "So what do you think about it all? Isn't it intense?" chattered Parsey. "I can't remember when the heck I ever teamed up with a nut job like you, and you'd think I would remember something like that. Why have you never told me about Surel? Come to think of it, have you told me anything about you?" "I'm telling you to shut up right about now." said Tarduk. "There's something bothering me. I can't remember much of what we did three days ago, but there are disjointed images of me being mocked by a dragon." "You must be remembering nightmares. What do you think about all this? I don't know what to think, myself, he sounded pretty sure of himself, but years of memory taking only three days? And what was all that about dreams?" "For a Matoran of Mentalistics, you're remarkably dense." he snapped. "Matoran of Mentals, that is so much more expressive than Psionics, I am so mentioning that to my sisters. No, I got what he was saying, he said that somebody made a wish and it came true, and hey presto the world is Benevolent. I'm just not so certain he's correct. I mean, I have a pretty firm impression of a lot of time having passed since the Enlightenment." "Well, according to Surel, Mata Nui's mask says it's true. That means somebody messed with reality itself. It is pretty wild, but only about as much as my own crazy theory. And I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten annoyed with you a lot sooner than a couple years, so why's it suddenly in the last two days you started driving me crazy? I hope we run into somebody not a patrol so I can see if they remember any event from longer ago than a week." Chik-chik-chik-chik-chik, said the Bohrok as it stumped along, the head jutting forward before the legs did and the rest catching up to it even as the head bobbed forward again. Huge trees rose in an arch, and the road went right under their roots in a tunnel of wood. "Holy Tesera tree stumps, how did I not notice that sort of weirdness before?!" exclaimed Tarduk, jumping off the wagon to scamper over the root and back through. "Okay, it's official, Surel is right. I cannot remember anything like that arch, I just have dim impressions of seeing a tunnel at this point. And I can assure you this sort of thing would be branded on my brain if I passed it every week." "Yes, I see what you mean...." said Parsey, standing up to crane at the arch as the oblivious Bohrok plodded on. "I get exactly the same feeling, I'd have paid that a lot more attention. That is....disturbing." She sat heavily down and surprised Tarduk: she was absolutely silent for the next hour. "You all right?" he said after a while. "Worried, more." she said in a small voice. "What if it's true, and all my nice quiet life arranging commerce is a lie somebody coated the world with? What are we going to do? Is Tesara even really going to be there? What if the beings we know there don't remember us all of a sudden? The world is breaking apart, Tarduk, and I'm scared. All my life my village was peaceful, just random Rahi and occasional villains.....and then war came, and the Great Spirit became evil, and Rahkshi ruled us with fear, and then the universe died, and then all was peace again. Now the nightmare is back, and the ruler of the world might not be so Benevolent.....please, Tarduk, don't desert me, okay? At least I know you." Tarduk felt a little guilty. "I'll back you up. We're partners, even if you annoy me. I don't let down companions. Out here, that's kind of the Unpardonable Sin." "Thanks." she said in a small voice. It was such a female, girlish voice it was queer to realize it was coming from a creature more than half mechanical and entirely artificial. The Bohrok suddenly paused, lifting its' odd shield-like head. Then Tarduk heard it too: Spikit, riding hard. "Into cover, little sister." hissed Tarduk, throwing her right off the cart. She buried herself in the bushes. Tarduk barked the signal for the Bohrok to halt. Two of the One-headed Spikit that Velika must have bred after the Enlightenment rounded the bend, carrying fully-armed Skrall. Black-armoured, with great spikes jutting up past shoulders and elbows and picked out with red, they made Tarduk's heart skip horribly. They reined in sharply. The One-headed Spikit had longer hind legs on which it usually walked, using the others as legs only when at a gallop, the rest of the time as rudimentary paws. It was faster than any steed save Rahi. The Skrall consulted a screen on the tablet-like device it held; all enforcers carried one. "Where's the Matoran?" he barked. "Ah, she saw a fruit and ran off, little scatterbrains." said Tarduk irritably. "Identity papers and itinerary?" snapped the other Skrall. They picked him up by his mechanical shoulder, prodded all over his body, kicked him off the cart and noisily rummaged the bundles. "Don't even think about running off, runt." said the Skrall. He looked just like the other, and likely didn't even have a name; names were bestowed as honors. "We've had orders to keep very close tabs on you. There's been word of Malevolent activity along this road, and we're going to have some questions for you." "Yes, well, I hope they don't make me late." said Tarduk nervously. "Can't you, oh, I don't know, quiz me as we ride?" "Clearly you don't know what the word question means." sneered the Skrall. "It doesn't mean idle chat while we while away the leagues. We have to...be certain of you. Can't have you whipping up the machine to make a getaway, you know. And besides, nobody answers proper when they're comfortable." "Yes, but, but, my papers are all in order, the Sisters didn't find any problem this morning when they stopped me." babbled Tarduk. The Skrall put one foot up on the motionless Bohrok, which was only a little taller than Parsey and barely as tall as Tarduk, and leaned knowingly over folded arms as he leaned on his knee. "Yeah, but we have new orders now. Your class was downgraded. You met someone on the road. Someone rather.....Malevolent. So your class got knocked down from Stolid to Stupid." He started snickering. Tarduk knew his stated class on the identity card was Merchant, so Stupid likely meant Suspicious Character. "Well, I am known for not being too bright...." he said in a stupid-sounding voice. The Skrall was practically sniggering now. "Yes, that's pretty obvious." he taunted. "You're classed as Dubious. That means every patrol has to search you, and only if the report forms we're here to deliver you pass muster do you escape being questioned. And even still you're to be harassed--oh, sorry, dirty word, we're supposed to be 'keeping an eye on you'---and if you even change your routine you'll be questioned at length, and in much more efficient quarters than out here in the sticks." The other Skrall finished throwing the carefully-packed goods all over the road and jumped down. Luckily none of the packages had broken. Both Skrall pinned him expertly and began tickling various exposed areas with the points of their blades, quite idly, as they began the questioning. A weird whistle and warble came out of the bushes. The Skrall lifted their heads in mild curiosity. Small and unnoticed behind them, the Bohrok lifted its' head as well, and to everyone's astonishment began to speak. Disjointed words in a weird clicking voice suddenly condensed into one phrase, repeated over and over again. "Clean it all, it must be cleaned." ---------------------------------------- The Bohrok was a red-armoured kind, a Tahnok. Tarduk had no knowledge of the previous and very definite function of these peculiar worm-powered machines, and so attached none of the horrible significance that a Mata Nui Matoran or Toa Nuva would have to the words. The Skrall were still holding Tarduk, but their swords were now facing the Bohrok, barely half their height. They were only a little wary. "There is an obstacle." said the Bohrok, realizing it was fastened to a cart. "It must be removed. It must be cleaned." Cart and traces were shattered at a single blow of the shovel-holding hands, swung with astonishing speed. The Skrall jumped up, as the red hunched creature spun to face them. Fire suddenly roared from the broad spade-shields, engulfing a tree. Not only green but wet, the tree did not go up, but smouldered. "What's it doing?" shouted one Skrall, assuming a fighting stance. "Pacify it, the dang thing's malfunctioning or something." snapped the other. They advanced on the Bohrok, which had just blasted the nearby underbrush into charcoal. "You are an obstacle." said the Bohrok. The machine, if anything, sounded actually angry. "You must be removed!" A fire-blast splashed on the Skrall shields. The two warriors rushed it, but the machine's broad domed head shot forward on an extendable neck to an unbelievable length, punching one Skrall full fifty feet away. The other laid into it, but the machine was as fast as he and in a few quick blows hurled him back. Tarduk was unwatched. The One-headed Spikit, as opposed to the murderous Two-headed kind used as beasts of burden, was tractable enough to be ridden. The beasts should have been fighting to break free, but they stood perfectly still; Parsey was stroking them and murmering. This was odd in and of itself, as even One-headed Spikit don't like touching. "Get on, hurry!" she said over her shoulder, proceeding to take her own advice. Tarduk mounted with frantic speed and they spurred the Spikit back down the road, toward Tesara. "We can say we went for help while the Skrall said they would hold off the creature." shouted the Matoran. "What the heck does that thing really do?" shouted Tarduk. "They're called Bohrok. Their mission was to clean off the outside of the Great Spirit. I've heard that means destroying anything on the surface, and fighting Obstacles with elemental powers. I sort of reactivated it." "Yes, but how?" Tarduk yelled. "And since when did you start controlling beasts?" "We're Mental Matoran, remember? We empathize with creatures, and that means they respond to us more. I told the Bohrok it had to clean." They didn't have any attention to spare for anything except riding after that. In a few hours, instead of the day and a half the slow cart would have taken, the two monster tree stumps of Tesara towered above the forest like cliffs. Except they were no longer stumps, but vast and very stumpy trees; they had put out colossal shoots all over the dead stumps, and the wooden cliffs were concealed in clouds of leaves as high as normal trees. There had been a third in Tarduk's youth and old maps still showed it, but that had begun to rot a few thousand years ago and was quarried for wood, carted all across Bara Magna. Quarrying of the other two stumps had begun, but was a moot issue now that forest covered the earth. Tesara, a small but beautiful city of more arching soaring houses of green stone and green woodwork, lay around these, ornamental trees already half as high as the houses, and ones left over from Mata Nui's Green Thumb no less than old growth stood in the yards. People passed down the quiet shaded streets, some avoiding others, others gathering in knots to talk or argue. The two wild riders on Skrall mounts were instantly intercepted by Vastus and a Toa of Plant Life. Tarduk babbled as fast as he could of a malfunctioning Bohrok and the Skrall sending them for help. "Not so fast, friend Agori." said the Toa as they dismounted. He looked at his Speaking Tablet--a small handheld screen, fancier than the heavy-duty type the Skrall used--in some doubt. "That can't be right, Tarduk, but this says you've been re-classed as Dubious. Care to stay and explain that a little?" "It's likely a miscommunication, but with the Malevolence out there......." said Vastus. "I don't know what's going on," said Parsey, "but we got stopped by a creepy warrior with iron wolves who told us Velika's only been in charge for three days, and suddenly Skrall are harassing us and Bohrok are malfunctioning---" "I'll help out the Skrall." said the Toa as a plume of smoke caught their attention. "Can I borrow that mount? Thanks. All right, Vastus, you know Tarduk from before, see that this is cleared up, okay?" He galloped off. "I don't know if such things occur to you, but fire is best fought by Air, unless you generate a fire-eating plant." growled Vastus. Mata Nui had given him Air powers. "Oh, must you really insist? Very well, have it your way." He was being ironic, of course, as the Toa was out of sight, let alone earshot. "So, um, are we all set?' said Tarduk nervously. "I don't know," said the ancient veteran dubiously, staring at his screen as if it might bite him, "I barely even remember how I ever figured out how to use these things, let alone whether they're trusty. Personally, I'd rather have verbal orders before I go destroying a fellow Jungle's livelihood, or written orders on bark. Go head home and get some rest, but make sure we can find you, just in case, you hear me?" "Yes, Vastus, we are deeply grateful." said Tarduk, and raced off on all fours. Having not only very long arms but steel claw-weapons on his hands, he was quite adept at this position. Parsey kept pace with him all the way. The house looked both familiar and strange, as Tarduk unlocked it and they went in. Parsey took out bread and cheese and they sat down to eat---at least, Tarduk ate, while Parsey grasped the food and sucked it all into her hands. "Tarduk," she said all of a sudden, "am I really your--sister?" "Well, no, of course not, you weren't born." said Tarduk, a little confused. She was winding her fingers in and out of each other. It seemed a nervous habit, and he wondered why he'd never noticed it before, and corrected himself sardonically: because he never had seen it before. "But you said I annoy you, and then you call me sister.....am I important to you, I mean, special?" "I'm not in love with you, you're biomechanical." said Tarduk, really confused now. "I thought you people weren't able to mate. Do you marry at all?" "Surel is right." she said dejectedly. "There is no way we could have partnered for 2 years and this not have come up. No, we don't mate. I'm still not even sure what that means, other than reproducing: it's disgusting. We do make strong friends, and we do love....when we love a friend, we live together, and sometimes I've heard that be called a spouse, but usually sister and brother. We even....." She seemed acutely embarrassed, and even giggled. "We hold hands," she said in a rush, "or we touch faces." "I guess that's your version of intimate behavior." said Tarduk, still bewildered. "Remind me never to hold your hand unless it's an emotional occasion." "Oh, good, I was afraid you were.....well.....pressing a sister on me. It's what we call it when attention is unwelcome. I mean, I like you, but not as sister." "Well, I used sister more carelessly than anything, I suppose." said Tarduk, embarrassed himself now. "I didn't know you took it so seriously." "Ah, much the same way Toa say Toa-sister to a teammate. That makes me much easier. What do you think we should do? Do you suppose somebody heard us talk to--Wolf Guy? Are we likely to be in more trouble?" "Well, aside from losing a cart and all the supplies, maybe not. But I can't help wondering--if he's right, and we're heretics, they'll never give us any peace. We won't even be allowed beyond town." "Something was happening in town." said Parsey. "Everyone looked troubled. And people were arguing." "Not our concern yet. You go ask around if you want, Miss Mental. I'm tired." "Listen, 'brother'....!" Tarduk ignored her and took off armour and helmet, curling up on the bed. ----------------------------------- You are a flaw in the dream, Agori. Tarduk thrashed and tossed in his covers. The face of Velika hovered above him, tilting his head, as if examining him. Let me go! he howled. What have I ever done to you?! You have doubted me, antiquarian. You have impugned me behind my back. So let us see just what Surel said.....and alliterate you to death in the process. A weird laughter came from Velika. Those who harbor doubts are dangerous, Agori. If they cannot be convinced nor converted, they must be rendered benevolent. He leaped awake, in a cold sweat. For a moment he still saw Velika's face--or mask--and strange to say, the expression in those eyes was one of sudden bafflement, as if some other power had woken Tarduk in Velika's despite. Curled into a ball, he glanced fearfully around: but the quiet house was unoccupied. Again he felt it should be familiar, as a place one often passes through without paying attention is, and yet he knew now that he had never seen it before today. Curiosity getting to him, he got up and began exploring the house. Lightstones turned on when he tapped them, and water responded to the pump handle above the bathtub. Sponge baths being all the desert-bound Magnans could manage on their limited water supplies, this was unbelievably weird, even though he knew in the back of his mind what it was for. He wondered if, now he suspected it, this "dream" that had magically conjured up the rule of Velika was losing its' grasp, and the false memories--or sense of memory---were becoming foreign. With vast delight he undressed, filled up the tub and jumped into it, splashing water gloriously in every direction. "What the Karzahni are you spilling in here---oh, it's a bath. Can't you bathe without drowning the floor?" Parsey said, walking right in. He'd forgotten the door had a latch. "Aaugh!" yelped Tarduk. "Will you get out of here and give me some privacy?!" "Sure, but why are you so embarrassed about bathing?" said the Matoran, a little puzzled. "Because I'm not wearing clothes you idiot why else?" shouted Tarduk. "Taking off your armour is perfectly all right," said Parsey, more bewildered than ever. "Why do you act like you're not supposed to be doing it?" Tarduk blinked at her as if she had an extra head. Of course she wouldn't have any conception of nakedness and resultant shame if she was completely asexual. "It's got something to do with being able to mate and reproduce. Now get out of here and shut the door." Still giving him a weird stare, Parsey did so, and Tarduk got out and hunted for the latch. He came out later, feeling rich and absurdly luxurious, wearing clothes but not armour. Parsey was cooking something on the big fireplace. "What the heckleberries was that all about?" she demanded. Tarduk groaned. "It's kind of like holding hands or touching faces." he snapped. "And I'm not going to tell you anything else. It's profoundly intimate to take off your clothes with your wife. So don't go walking in on any organic being bathing or using the toilet, okay?" "You are the weirdest creatures I ever heard of." said Parsey dismissively. "Why do you excrete half of what you consume in evil-smelling slime? I never can figure that out." "We don't magically absorb food the way you do." growled Tarduk. "And you have no idea how creepy that looks when you do that." "You never made any fuss all these years---oh, wait, they didn't really happen." "Did you nap at all?" said Tarduk. She reached under her mask and rubbed her receptors. "A little. I kept seeing Velika peering over me and asking me constantly who he was, and every time I gave a different answer. I think the first time I called him Father, then the second Master, and then I called him Lord, and I think I even said God. What is a god, anyway, is it a Great Spirit?" Tarduk remembered what that had meant to villagers before they found out He was just a big machine. "Yes, more or less, divine, eternal, ruling and creating all things. I never thought much about it, gods are things for Bone Hunters and simplistic savages. There obviously are no gods, or the world wouldn't be a mess." "It's not, that's the thing." said Parsey seriously. "Father Velika may have made a huge deceit, but it is exactly what a god would do if he decided to do his job: he'd set things right. And now the whole world is in order, and we can go about living." "He said I was dangerous because I doubted." "Wait. You dreamed about Velika interrogating you?" He shrugged. "It was a bad dream. I woke up." "Dreams don't get shared unless someone is messing with them." said Parsey. "Tarduk, I'm afraid. I think Velika was questioning us in our sleep." Tarduk shrugged again. With a Great Being, anything was possible. "I am labeled Dubious, after all." There was a heavy knock on the door. "Who is it, be right there." called Parsey. The knocking was a pounding now. "Open up this door! Open up right now, I say! It's the law." The door wasn't even locked, but the catch was already broken by the time Parsey got there. The two Skrall, in badly scorched armour, burst in. "Oh, there she is! You stay put, little missy, and don't try funny tricks, we're not here for you. We just need to ask your partner some questions. He ran off before we could start." "Wait, I thought both of us were in trouble." babbled Parsey. The Skrall held out his tablet so she could see it. "No, you're safely marked as Stolid, so you don't need to worry. Velika must have changed his mind. You, though, you're pretty much toast. See what it says there? Dangerous. You're coming with us, and you won't come out until Velika is satisfied." They bound him roughly and stuffed a huge sack over him. The Skrall hefted the sack and headed back out, while the other stayed behind. "Let me look you over, make sure you're not stashing stuff." he barked. "We're inspecting this house, so I'm afraid you'll have to keep yourself busy elsewhere." He tore off her armour and mask, prodded every inch of her, shoved her aside and began trashing the house. Parsey quickly drained the stew in case he decided to spill that as well, and fled from a dwelling she only really remembered from today.

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 3: The Titans of Destiny When the swirl of the cloak fell, they stood before the Skakdi fortress, which had been a hundred miles off. Tahu had felt no vertigo or swirling of matter as he had before when Makuta had teleported him: the Shadowed One had simply moved them. "I travelled along the threads of destiny." said the Shadowed One. "I used destiny to shortcut to the place I am destined to be. It is both less and more sure than teleporting; less, for I have to cast myself upon the current of destiny and let it take me where I must go; more, for destiny and I grow closer wound with each submission, until I am so attuned with it that I will only will what is destined; that is, I will, and it turns out to have been what was destined all along." The golden-skinned being was coming out of the fortress now. Vakama had described it, so had the Mahri and Kopaka, but it wasn't until now that the Toa remembered it. As the power he had felt from afar beat upon him from nearby, the memory the dream had suppressed leaped clearly into Tahu's mind. He tried to speak, but could not, as all the riddling talk about dreams became clear at last. "Destiny spared you, great blowhard." said the Piraka Fusion. He had a serene, golden voice. "I begin at last to see why. So tell me, why is it that the channel of Destiny has no dreams when he comes before me?" "You take the dreams of others and make them real." the Shadowed One said. "But when you do so, you change reality in a way that is not destined. You write new realities and superimpose them upon the weaving destinies of countless beings. Do you really think such imposition is permanent? Even now doubts fracture your great dream as the characters realize the nature of the imposition, and rebel against it. Two of them stand before you." "How are you doing that?" the Golden Fusion said directly. "All who have wills have dreams, desires and hopes, unless they have no minds, or damaged minds. Yet you have shut their dreams away from me." "Because the dream is strongest when the will offers it, and if the memory is not aware of it, you cannot grant it. But the true reason is that it is not destined you should see their dreams, nor eat of them. Look closer, and see that they have rejected your dream. The others will follow, one by one. And when Velika rules over a world aware of his colossal trick.......will they still serve? Or will the resultant chaos of insurrection destroy the very substance of your dream?" "The dream has flaws, but I and my people are the solution of the flaws. I know where every flaw runs, and Velika works to patch them even now." "Ah, creature," smiled the Shadowed One, "you have nothing like the needed tools to handle such things. Dreams are not reality, and bringing them to life does not impose a new reality, but a blanket falseness. But Destiny weaves reality into existence by a blended fabric of countless free threads all guided and conducted. You merely blanket this with a patch. Sooner or later the cloth beneath rebels and rips, and your patch tears. Only if the dream is woven up into the cords of Destiny can it endure. Stick to small dreams, creature, and individual desires: to create a new reality of too many destined threads, will mean that you have Destiny itself against you. And I assure you, creature, Destiny is not pleased." "If it was truly displeased, Channel, it would have rendered it powerless. You know full well in your own person that Destiny prevented some aspects of the dream from acting. Yet now the dream has happened, and is a part of Destiny, even should it fracture entirely." "I know full well in my own person that you presented Destiny with a fiat accompli, and that it was to respect the destined choice of Velika and the destined fate of the ones who made you as they fulfilled their destiny as Velika's tool, that you were at all suffered to bring about so great a horror. But now I warn you, that you have fulfilled your destiny for which Velika inspired your creation, and you yourself are now subject to your own destined end." "If then Destiny permitted my dream, I have not gone against Destiny. What if I did, Channel? What if I struck at the root of your power? What if this Toa has already decided to open a dream to me?" "I could," said Tahu, "but there are higher things than Destiny by which I am ruled. I adhere to something called good, and eschew evil. You high and lofty beings, with your talk of dreams and destiny---do you also follow goodness? Because the Shadowed One is right, creature. To use you to go against the free will of others would be wrong." "Even if doing so was the only way to combat this One?" said the Golden Creature calmly. "He is not here to preach of the morality of recreating reality. He is here, because I am the key to that which he seeks. In his pocket are vials, which he barely understands, and his dream which I now see is that he may have all the needed knowledge to use them--to become the Mouthpiece of Destiny." "Why are you telling the Toa all this?" The Shadowed One sounded for the first time puzzled. "Once you feed, the dream becomes real. You even brought the dreams of the mad to life, against your own will at that, when Annona sent them mad. And are they gone, the nightmares of the Skakdi? Where then is my dream?" "When two dreams come into existence at once that contradict one another, they cancel each other out." There was the faintest trace of smugness in the Fusion's face. "Tahu and Onua are dreaming that you never gain that knowledge. They regard me as an immoral weapon, so they use me with great care; but I do not object, for they are clever dreamers." "Then it may be time to put Destiny to the test once again, and see whether the time of the Toa to die has arrived." said the Shadowed One. His eyes lit up grey. "I'm afraid Destiny has other ideas." said a voice that sounded like a thousand speaking as one. Tahu felt the vertigo of Makuta teleportation this time. He and Onua reappeared out of the way, behind some rocks on the cliff above them, and could still hear the Titans just fine. Two other beings had appeared where the Toa had been. One levitated three inches off the ground; huge muscles had burst his gold armor, and he wore no mask on his small Bionicle head. Green light haloed him, and he was quenching the black disintegration eyebeams on one hand. It was he who had spoken. Behind him stood another, equally tall and massive, as tall as the Shadowed One and the Fusion: but his armour, small and patch-like on his great frame, was the burnt-orange and grey of a Toa of Iron. The build was suspiciously familiar; it had stalked through countless nightmares of the Toa Mata. His body was black, the muscles and their tough hide laced with dark green, but his eyes were red. He wore the Great Mask of Conjuring, and in his hand was a power axe. "So it does." said the Shadowed One softly. "What are your dreams then, Vessel of Antidermis? And you......what the heck are you?" "I am the holder of the knowledge that you can never otherwise obtain." said the strange being. "I do not know you by sight, though I spent ages in your company. I am here to make a little bargain. Everyone has an aim; I presume yours is to control or channel Destiny. Thanks to Tahu's dream, you can only gain that knowledge if I give it to you." "Bargains are only made if the seller has a good that the buyer wants." said the Shadowed One. "Show me your wares, then, you with the powers and the body of a species long vanished from the world." "In this form, yes; I won't evolve for millennia. I had a crystal, once. An old heirloom of my tribe, back when I lived in a koro. I took it with me everywhere. I still had it, when I looked into the eyes of Tren Krom. I think you know me now, my persecutor. Do I have a buyable good?" "Varian." the Shadowed One said. "The Toa I hung in stasis in my throne room as a trophy. Yes, I know you now. Did you fall in a mercury pool on the way out the door.......or did it only look like mercury?" "In a manner of speaking." Varian said. "I achieved my destiny. A destiny so ironic that it proves beyond anything one detail of Destiny that you do not know; though you aspire to be its' channel and more." "And what, pray, might that be?" "That Destiny has a sense of humor: that Destiny is already controlled, and by someone who brooks no rivals." "And who, then, is this person, Varian?" "That's Makuta Varian, to you." the ex-Toa retorted. "You don't see the colossal joke yet? I was a Toa of Iron once, hunted to extinction by the Makuta because I might fight their metal-shell bodies. Now I am myself of the same species as my hunters, and my hunters are dead. I, a Toa of Iron, mortal foe of the Makuta, am the last Makuta!" Far up on the bluff, Onua gave a soundless whistle. "So simple and profound an irony is far beyond anything the Great Beings come up with. It is the mark of a mind, Shadowed One." "Very well, Varian." said the Shadowed One darkly. "You have a bargaining platform. Name your goals." The newest member of the Makuta species leaned forward: the intensity in the red eyes made the Fusion stand back. "I will tell you the nature of Destiny and how to use your vials of viruses, and you will overthrow the Benevolence." ----------------------------------------- "No!" Tahu shouted, teleporting in front of them. "You can't do this, Varian!" Magnetism held him in place. "You are dealing with things beyond your comprehension, you arrogant, self-righteous, straight-arrow good guy!" roared the new Makuta. The Golden Armour was plucked off by unseen hands: Varian retained his Iron powers. Tahu in dismay felt the Kraata powers vanish. Red eyes, filled with rage, burned into his. The Fusion looked on, a little bemused, but the Shadowed One was laughing. "You are a Toa, you are always in the right, all you have to do is charge in and swagger about, and everything will work out in the end. And if it doesn't, just throw some weight around! I know your type. You Hagahs hobnobbed with my persecutors as we Iron fled like insects. Do not come up to me and blabber of what I can and cannot do, who have looked into the mind of Tren Krom and lived!" "I didn't say I intended to stop you," snarled Tahu, trying to summon up fire. "I said you cannot do this, because this is wrong!" A horrible smile flexed the long weird Mask of Conjuring. "If you want to make yourself useful, Fire, start lighting a few. Do you know why Velika let the Toa Nuva live? You're a status symbol. The Matoran will flock like chickens. Start fanning the doubts, and then brace for the Vorox." Abruptly he released Tahu. "If you understand the jests of Destiny, then and then only do you have leave to interrupt your elders and betters." Tahu glared at him. "Where is my armour, then? Restore my armour, and I will mind my manners." The Golden Armour reappeared on him. Paying him no further heed, Makuta Varian turned to the Shadowed One. "Do we have an agreement, Channel of Destiny?" "We do." said the Shadowed One. "I will agree to aid the Malevolence and do them and theirs no harm, and I will overthrow the Benevolence." "Then we are agreed." said Makuta Varian. "The knowledge crystal I had revealed how the Great Beings harnessed the Three Virtues; but what I saw in Tren Krom told me how they had bent Destiny, and not only that, but how to bend it again. Pridak gave you some of this, but not all of it. I, after all, have the knowledge firsthand, not deduced from a fragmented wall." He reached out with his mind. The Shadowed One's head flew back and he gave a great cry, the cry of a man delving into vast secrets. "Are you mad?" said the Fusion curiously. "You have given one you regard as evil the supreme power. Yet you have no dreams, either." "I have one dream, creature, but I do not think this is the destined time for it." said Makuta Varian. He seized Tahu in his power, and he and both Toa, and the silent Brutaka, vanished. --------------------------------------- "I still don't understand." raged Tahu as he paced the confines of the cave they were camped in. "You can start by ceasing to activate the Kraata Power of Anger." said the Makuta with a flicker of humor. "It goes off whenever your own temper rises. I admit it still happens with me." "Such as today?" said Onua shrewdly. "You have some talking to do, Makuta or not," said Tahu, managing to detect and turn off the Anger power. "Explain why you gave a villain the keys of Destiny." "For his own destruction." said Varian, and the laughter was pronounced this time. "I gave him a hint when I talked about the irony of my own destiny. He may heed it, and become wise, and perhaps turn from his iniquity. Most likely he won't. In which case, he will not control Destiny. He will merely be so enmeshed in its' weavings as to have no will of his own; he shall indeed only will what Destiny does." "But why?" said Tahu. "That's what I don't get. What is Destiny?" "The choice that will be made, known in advance." said Varian softly. "Free will chooses. But when you look into your own past, you now foreknow everything you did, even though you did it freely. With this foreknowledge, however, comes guide, for the power foreseeing also shapes, and the shaping and foreseeing are the same act; the entire story is one connected whole. We are just writing out the details. No one inside Destiny can control Destiny; it is done from Outside. It is done by Greater Beings than any of us." "But how did the Great Beings bend Destiny?" said Onua. "By arising." said Varian. "How did the Great Beings form out of the Glatorian? What made their minds so strange they could eat out of the dream-eater? They had a share in the weaving, and that share they crystallized into Mata Nui: that is how he came to life. He's a spirit, you know. A spirit made for a robot body. That robot was not built to be a universe of sentient beings. Yet Mata Nui showed no shock that they could think. He knew they could; he merely neglected them. Why was Velika able to give them minds? Because destiny was already written for them to have minds. Velika was used to fulfill Destiny. So was Mata Nui. He looked at the share of Destiny embedded in his universe, holding a dark mirror to that terrible web that encompasses all things, and seeing in it what he asked to see." "So they didn't really bend Destiny at all." mused Onua. "They just had good insight." "If he ever realizes that, our Shadowed Friend will be very disappointed." laughed Varian. "What will the vials do?" questioned Tahu. "They will make him agile." replied Varian. "His body will be in complete attunement with his mind, and in turn will exist nearly wholly on the plane of the mind. He will only impact the world of matter if he so desires it. He can move as fast as thought, through any solids, and will see spiritual forces visible to his eyes." "And you gave that much power to a villain?" Tahu said ominously. "Villain." said Varian bitterly. "There you are again. You insist on casting the world into heros and villains, good guys and bad. Good and bad are not the same as black and white. The same being can be both in a matter of minutes; he can decide to do evil, or he can turn away from evil done. Brutaka there could tell you all about that. In such a detached state, lofty abstractions become like food and drink, and matter itself seems unbelievably remote. Those who reach such condition care little for us in the mud. If they have a moral compass they will make themselves care, the same if they persist in active malice. But I think Shadowed One will be neither. He will explore his new realm, and woe to him if he tries to meddle with it!" "So Destiny can take care of itself, you're saying." said Tahu. "And that is why your short-sighted interruption caused such rage." said the new Makuta. "You are like immature new-made Matoran to me, both of you. My mind grew with my power. I see so much outside the borders of what I knew as a Toa. The deep mysteries open before me, and you yap about villains. Remember this, you who swallowed Velika whole. Good and evil in a being change with each decision. Be wary of all, but especially the good: test them always, and test yourself most."

MALEVOLENCE Ch. 2: The Channel of Destiny The two Toa were using their spare Masks of Speed to sort through the warehouse contents. Whatever power had monkeyed with reality had finished the salvaging, and warehouses filled with particular items stood everywhere. This warehouse held masks. Stacked five deep on shelves that rose to a ceiling a dozen bios above them, aisles and aisles of shelves formed a shadowed maze. Each shelf was decorated with a Mask of Mind Control, Velika's favored symbol, carved on the end. "Here we are." said Tahu. "Mask of Telepathy PLUS my Kraata Power of Mind Control should give me double strength, about Toa of Psionics level." "Oh, much more." disagreed Onua. "The Kraata power is equal to the Mask, so double should give you Makuta-level strength. A grade above Orde. Who also seems to have vanished." "If that message the haunted earth gave you is right," said Tahu, "he's only been gone three days. Hardly time enough to accuse him of treason. He might not even know about the new world order." Onua fitted on another Suletu. "Looks like my regular goes on the Suva." he said regretfully as his normal mask, the Mask of Strength, disappeared: he could send masks away without summoning another to replace it. Tahu fitted his Suletu on. As always with Tahu, his regular mask appeared from his Suva underneath the Golden Mask of Shielding. He had discarded his devolved Hau as a result of the acquisition of the Golden Hau, replacing it with a Mask of Water Breathing (you never knew). The Golden Mask could not be sent to a Suva. So Tahu had had to send away the Mask of Water Breathing and take off the Golden Hau in order to put on the Suletu, then the Golden Hau over it. He always wore two masks, even though he could only use one at a time, though he could use one plus a Kraata power from the Armour. Now we can talk plainly, Tahu said to Onua. There is only one course of action I see for us, said Onua. We have to keep in mind the possibility that it may not be the Malevolence at all. It may be someone in the Benevolence. Agreed, replied Tahu. We've seen traitors and double agents before. Is there anyone in the Benevolence above suspicion? Angonce, said Onua. No one has seen him, but he has to be part of them. I notice you did not say Velika. The voice that echoed in their heads was not either of theirs. Austere, weird and somehow damaged, it filled them with an impression of fractured darkness, in which light came to life and winged away. Who's there? Who is this? demanded Tahu. I am the only one who is absolutely above any suspicion at all, for I have been bound since I touched the Mask of Life. My brothers pay me no heed, and they are not wise to do so, for though my perception is warped, the very fact that I am aware of it and able to counteract it means my sanity is not completely gone.....but then, since both sane and insane think they are sane, I suppose the test is whether the madman resists that which he is mad about, or encourages it. I am the Mad Great Being. ------------------------------------------- The two Toa sat in utter silence, as far as any observer could have told, strange masks motionless on motionless faces. But their eyes flashed and turned, and inside their heads things were very far from silent. If the Great Beings bound you, how is it you are aware of us? Tahu was demanding, at the same time as Onua said, And if you are bound, do you know what things really are like around here? They knew who it was, of course. Cursed by the Mask of Life to bring to life whatever neared him, it had sent him mad, or so the tale went. The voice that answered them sounded sane enough, or rational at least. You ask a madman the condition of reality; what a tremendous jest. I have been watching you the last two days, ever since the dream began, in fact, but you were not capable then of entertaining any doubts, and you would have dismissed me. But now you doubt, and I think you may pay more attention now. I was freed by a bomb. Bound in a fortress in Bota Magna, I was with Artakha and several others, Toa, Matoran, and beings of power. Then a Great Being in a small body detonated the fortress. He took the little ones. He tried to kill me, though he was my brother. The powerful ones lived. But he killed the little ones. There was such profound grief in the voice that Tahu felt tears in his own eyes. Who did it to you? demanded Onua. One of the Malevolence? The Mad Great Being chuckled. Now why would those intent on evil deliberately name themselves after it? Would not they rather choose a more pleasant name? Seldom do evildoers admit their naked deeds; they prefer to justify themselves, to wrap tattered cloaks of nice words around their loathsome minds. But when those who oppose them find all the good words taken, what then is left them but in grim jest to take on themselves the name of evil, when they themselves are not evil at all? Answer, Great Being, snapped Tahu. If you seek justice of the Benevolence, the Toa will plead your case to them if it proves too much for us. Oh yes, I seek justice, answered the Mad Great Being. I seek it, by telling you what you do not want to hear. You mutter in your sleep, but you still cling to the dream, you are not awake enough yet to see through the imitation to what ought to be, yet no longer is. The dream is real, Toa. Three days ago, my murderer went to the dream, and it became real. Look, madman, can you please put me through to somebody who's a little more rational? pleaded Tahu. Onua said nothing. This is what Great Beings do all day, they stick their phantom noses into things. I am talking rationally, merely obliquely. If you desire plain speech, you may talk to a Toa, but you would angrily reject his plain words. Whereas riddles can be chewed, until meaning is extracted before anger can erupt. I know exactly what really happened and what is really going on. So, tell us, then, said Tahu. Ah, Flame, you burn and blaze but you do not smoulder well; you are only dry twigs, they burn too hot and quick. I will add some damp wood, that once it ignites it will smoulder for hours. To see through this subtle evil that is buried in so many layers of goodness, you need a deep bed of coals, or your fire will go out. Are you ready? If you're preparing me for a blow, I'd really rather have it, said Tahu. I was murdered in the heart of a Great Being, and the being had a small body, and the body was not his own. The Matoran whose names are Hafu and Kapura were murdered by one both father and brother to them. Think on that, and then you will see on whose side is the jest of the name. The Mad Great Being's voice ceased, with the finality of a thrown switch. Tahu looked at Onua. Father and brother--do you make any sense of that? Well, we all know who our father is, answered the Toa of Earth. And the brother of a Matoran would be either a Toa or a.........oh, Mata Nui, no, no, please no. He's claiming Velika was the murderer, Tahu said incredulously, with mounting rage. The gall of him! Now I know why he said all that about names. He may or may not be our Mad Legend we've all heard about, but there's no doubt about who he's from. He is of the Malevolence. And we never asked him about the missing ones, said Onua. I'm almost afraid to, confessed Tahu. What if they have gone over to the Malevolence?! I don't believe this, Tahu. When we started this we were discussing the possibility of someone in the Benevolence messing with reality. Now all I hear is a knee-jerk ALL HAIL DADDY VELIKA! Tahu looked like he'd been punched in the mask. He had indeed completely forgotten, as the anger of his annoyance with the obscure lunatic grew. Dry twigs, yeah, he had a point there, that's definitely me, he admitted. All right. He did confirm, inadvertently, that the entire Enlightenment is only three days old, so we've got a fact to go on. All right, let's reason it out, said Onua. We have proof that reality was altered, not just illusion. It has something to do with dreams. We have a claim implicating Velika himself. I might add, that grief was genuine, Tahu. He may be wrong, but he honestly believes Velika was the bomber. So that leaves us with one conclusion: the society we've known the last few years is a sham, reality altered.......benevolently. Yeah, that does actually sound like what a Great Being would do if he decided to act at all. So then we have to consider, would it be better to leave the altered reality be, as everything is peaceful and in order, or should we try to restore the true reality, and wreck everything good that Velika has done? Yes, moral debates are not really my thing, confessed Onua. I wonder what Takanuva would say. Tahu sighed. Likely that to alter reality in the name of right is a greater crime and abomination than undoing the altered reality, even if society is wrecked. That's what the Alternate Teridax would say. There's another thing to consider, said Onua. More and more people are going to start having doubts, and waking up, as Mad put it. The new order has only been in place three days. It's a flaw in the dream, Velika said, didn't he? Tahu got up. Then you and I have some digging to do, brother. Gali can handle our chores just fine. We're going on a little jaunt to the south. Where? said Onua, not looking pleased. Aqua Magna, Tahu said with a grim smile. Forbidden territory. We're going to find out why. Bring an extra dagger. ------------------------- Teleporting landed them deep inside the forbidden zone. Aqua Magna, being a vast ocean, was impossible to fence off. Accordingly the zone proper consisted of the shoreline and mountainous country along the few thousand miles of coast due south of Bara Magna. The zone went inland up to the border with Bara Magna, fifty miles of overgrown rocky mountains. Tahu appeared on a tall peak midway in. "Some sort of fortress on the edge of the sea." he said, peering south. The Adaptive Armour had disappeared upon his devolution to a Mata form, save for the Adaptive Weapon which was stuck permanently as his old Flame Sword. Onua's Suletu had sprouted a telescopic eyepiece: any Mask he wore was subsumed into the Adaptive Armour. "Hmm." said Onua. "It is a fortress, on a promontory, an impregnable one, immune to any power at all, Kraata or elemental. The walls are manned by...Skakdi. That explains the forbidden zone, does it not?" "No, it doesn't." said Tahu. "The Shadowed One is here too, and unless he's trying to hire Skakdi he wouldn't bother with this place unless it held some sort of secret." They used Onua's Mask of Speed now, so that Tahu could shield both of them telepathically with Onua's Suletu: Tahu had left his Suletu in the warehouse to be able to use his Suva masks. In a minute they stood 50 miles away, on the shore, gazing up at the gigantic castle. Impregnable, Onua confirmed that no elemental power could act on it at all. "That sort of rock shouldn't even exist, and even I can tell that." he explained. "I think it would quench any power not a Skakdi." "Under cover." muttered Tahu. "I'm feeling power in that fortress. Power that is not a Skakdi." "You all right?" "No." murmered Tahu. "It......it's feeding.....on us.......MOVE!" Onua used the Mask of Speed and in a blink the sinister castle was a hundred miles off. Tahu shuddered. "Thanks." he said. "Feeding?" questioned Onua. "I don't know on what." Tahu panted. "It was eating out of my mind.....I felt it noticing me, Mask or not, and I started getting strange longings. Like everything I most dreamed of was suddenly within reach." Onua shuddered. "I think Velika forbade it for a reason." he said. "Maybe we should leave." "Not until I find out what that thing is." said Tahu. ----------------------------------------- The two Toa camped in the stony sides of a great bare mountain, grown with many lovely mosses from Mata Nui's green thumb. There wasn't enough fuel for a fire, so Tahu heated a pile of rocks and they sat beside it. "Gather round the sacred fire." muttered Onua. Tahu completed an exhausting scan of the forbidden land with Kraata telepathy. "We're not alone." he said. "Please tell me our mysterious earth being isn't haunting down here too." "In a sense. There are beings all through these hills.....and some of them I recognize. Ex-Dark Hunters, not Skakdi. I think we've found their nest." "I deduce from the fact that we're not suddenly calling in Toa and Vorox and Skrall armies that you do not intend to take them." "No." said Tahu bitterly. "The Shadowed One was up to something before the Revelation. Whatever caused the Enlightenment may have scattered him--or left him stronger. We need to know more." "I'm amazed. Tahu is actually not charging head-on at something." "Very funny. I'm a good bit older now, and hopefully smarter. You know, if I shapechanged to someone who looks like a Dark Hunter, and you prod me like a captive all through the hills, we might stumble on something." Using the Kraata power of shapechanging, Tahu took on the likeness of Mimic, a known deserter from the Dark Hunters. Onua imprisoned him in earth, and they fell asleep. They woke. The hot stones were grey and cold, and raw dew-laden morning air sighed into the cave. Onua roughly got Tahu up and herded him out the door. They headed north up the clefts of the mountain, Onua treating Tahu exactly as he normally would treat a captive: firmly but not severely. There are beings in the rocks, Onua said suddenly to Tahu. He heard Tahu answer, Let them come, and smiled. The air around them abruptly shimmered, and the two Toa were crushed to the ground. Onua's mask rolled from his face. Instead of many beings, there appeared before them, where unseen even by Suletu he had been stalking them, a tall gold-and-black being with grey armour, a horn-crowned head and a long queer staff. There was an eerie violet shimmer along his muscles, and his eyes glowed purple. "You may change back, Tahu, I can see you." said the being. "I dare say you do not know me, nor is that surprising as we have never met and I do not sit for portrait-carving. I am the Shadowed One, and you are in the hands of the Predestined." ------------------------------------- The camp of the new Dark Hunters was a rude fort of elementally-assembled rocks roughly fused to a semblance of structure. Tahu had not even spotted this, though as it was on rock it was not surprising Onua hadn't. Dark Hunters they recognized were on guard or patrol, or going about tasks. "Would you care for moss stew?" the Shadowed One said to them. "Since the dream broke my systems and clapped us all in this gameless wasteland, moss and fish and a few birds are all we have had for the last three days--this being the fourth, as the dream came into existence towards sunset of Day One. It's not as if we've been here for years, after all." The Toa accepted bowls of soup in silence, draining them and feeling stringy bits of plant being absorbed in their mouths. They spat out husks of moss. It tasted awful. The only comfort was seeing the Shadowed One drink, and grimace as well. "What do you mean, the dream?" said Tahu directly. The Shadowed One gave a quiet laugh. Huge and ominous, he seemed far more powerful than Vakama had described him: they could well believe he had faced off against Teridax himself. "Why else would you be here, unless you either had a dream or you were seeking the truth before the dream. When a dream comes true, it is real, but does it stay real? If the dreamer who desired it ceases to desire it, or the one who incarnated it becomes incapacitated, might that dream suddenly cease? Or does Destiny foil the dream, so that flaws run through it where it tried to contradict Destiny?" "You tell me; we don't know any answers." said Onua. "It's actually the main reason we're here." said Tahu. "We have proof the Enlightenment is a trick of some kind, and we want to know the truth." The Shadowed One laughed, low, horrible laughter. "Truth? What is truth, little Toa? It is a chunk of reality. But when reality changes, do not truths cease being true?" "Only half truths." said Tahu. "You know, truths like blue skies and my armour being red, and Velika being in power. The full truths never cease. They just have different arrangements." "Finally, a Toa who understands philosophy, the world's come to an end." mocked the Shadowed One. "Your reality changed, Tahu, that is the truth you want. If the changer met another dream, reality would change once more. That is why Velika closes off this land. I wonder, myself, why he leaves the dream-maker free, for if he unfused him, would not the dream remain? But he has not, so he must have use for him as a backup." He got to his feet and drew a black cloak around him, gazing down the canyon. "Destiny awaits you, little Toa. The one thing that controls not only reality, but the changing of reality. Do you know what Destiny is?" He answered himself. "Of course you don't. There are many kinds of destiny. There is the main purpose for which a being exists, either his function in the world or some particular deed or happening he brings about. Achieving this, the Toa can become a Turaga. But the Turaga goes on, and sometimes causes even more important things to happen. That is general destiny, the virtue we all know." "What brings you life and brings you also death?" Tahu murmered. "Ah, that is the trickier kind of Destiny." said the Shadowed One. He stared at a bird: and from his eyes came, not the dark beams of disintegration they had heard about, but a pale shimmer, and the bird wobbled and fell at his feet. The Shadowed One picked it up. "My destiny intercepted his, and my destiny was to kill that bird. But did I break that bird's destiny? No, for it was the destiny of that bird to die by my hand, and chances and circumstances inevitably pushed it into my path." He held up the limp bird, absorbing it raw. The Toa winced. The great clawed hand tossed aside the feathered husk. "Now its' destiny is achieved. If something happens, it must have been predestined to happen, or it would not have happened. That, Toa, is the destiny that even Mata Nui only saw in a mirror, and that darkly." "What did the vials do to you when they broke?" Tahu said. "And have you broken the others?" The Shadowed One stared, coiled and tense, at the Toa: they felt his power, greater than ever, pent behind him. "Ah." he said. "So that is what Darkness has done with his freedom. He finally noticed something besides me showing pity. I should have blinded him before I dug up the vials. Is he too a tame servant of the god Velika his father?" "You're going to have to kill more than us." said Onua. "There were others we told that to." The Shadowed One smiled. "But the only reason I would kill you is if it was your destiny." he said softly. "The dream could not kill the Malevolence, because it was not their destiny. But what if you held the mirror of Mata Nui, and looked upon the reflection of Destiny? You are right. I gained power before my time. Pridak gave me knowledge, and more than he knew. I used that knowledge and left him in the lurch, and the Great Spirit could no longer find me. I took on a new destiny." "Let me guess, you're now about to dunk us in energized protodermis to find out our destinies." said Tahu. "No, for destiny never destroys unless purpose is over, and not until the destiny of death comes to pass. The protodermis merely is as instrument to Destiny, permitting the destiny of the being to manifest in transformation, often so that the destiny of the being may be more readily achieved." He turned with a sweep of his cloak. "Destiny spared me from the dream. Therefore I am going to put Destiny to the test, and yet even this test was foredestined to pass, though it seems to me I could choose one way or another: it is already known which way I will go. Come with me, little Toa, and you shall see the dream, and see whether destiny can be bent." -----------------------------------------------

MALEVOLENCE Being the Onset of the Great Being Civil War "Dreams fade inside the earth." said the deep slow voice. "The dream did not reach me here, but it holds my surface, and there is little I can do." The few beings sitting in the chamber of dirt far below the surface looked at him, then distractedly around. One moment they had been secure, and Velika a troubling but not very present threat: and then the ground had shaken and they had found themselves, bereft of their powers, inside a sealed prison. The Element Lord of Earth sent the last shards of said prison back to where they had been inside the Southern Frost. That region, formerly drowned within the water moon of Aqua Magna, was now above water and snow was building up. He had been lucky: there was so much frozen sediment he had been able to transport the prison to where he could smash it in safety. "You do not, of course, understand what has happened, my fathers." he addressed the ten Great Beings he had rescued. "There are powers greater than you on this renewed world. Dreams control the mind while it sleeps, though that mind control all else when awake. Death consumes all in the end, and it is final, you can only cheat it, not undo it. And higher than either, is Destiny. Velika, whom you knew as Valentar, walks in a Matoran body. He bred a creature that makes dreams come true. Valentar had a dream, and it has become real. I heard the dream as it seized the world. He dreamed of ruling Sphereus Magna, and finding the Malevolence dead." "Yet we are not dead." said one of the figures. They seemed shrunken and weak, long-armed and normally tall, now folded and fallen in together. "If he only wanted the Malevolence dead, which is us, and we are not, some power cancelled him out." "I would say that would be Destiny." said a female voice. Ancient and sighing, it cut none the less clear as a knife. "Yet we bent Destiny once. If we could bend it, how is it he has not?" "That is evident, sister." croaked a low harsh voice from another Great Being. "He does not know how. Though he walked in the Matoran Universe he never spoke to Mata Nui, nor visited the barren island to gaze upon Tren Krom. It was a mistake. They alone knew the secret besides us." "All he needs to do is dream another dream." said a Great Being bitterly. "I begin to see why it is that the Benevolence was able to succeed." observed the earthy armoured form. "In your habits of intellectual pursuit, you have little knowledge of strategy. Twice you have missed the point I had made. The dream fades within the earth. The earth partakes of all things, for all things decay into it, and the dead are buried within it. The dream is hindered by death, and hence by the earth that partakes of death. So I encompassed what the dream made for you when it could not kill you, and destroyed it. That prison quenched your minds, for your minds are your power. Yet already I have fractured the dream, and you can think again." "And if any of our allies were underground, they would be safe too." exclaimed the Great Being with the rusty voice. "Angonce was under the Maze when I last spoke to him." "The dream only mentioned you." said Earth. "Velika thought that all his foes would gather, or that by naming the Malevolence they would all be gathered in that net. I have spoken with Makuta Teridax, and with a new Makuta just emerged from the fallen world, and they are undamaged." "Do you have any news, my son of Earth, that we may not be able to glean when we send out our thought?" said the female. The other female had said nothing. "All the villages acknowledge Velika, and the Skrall and the Vorox patrol the remote jungles and administer law. The Vorox fight reptiles, and the Skrall make surprisingly efficient policemen. The Element Lords my brothers have fled and hold council. Glatorian and Toa run the settlements and carry out systems that seem to have been years in setting up. Sphereus Magna seems to be at peace." "Now it is our turn, brothers." croaked the rusty voice. "Let us send out our minds to the lands far above us, and watch with our thought. There may be other flaws in the dream." ---------------------------------------- "Wake up, little lunch." the weird mocking voice whispered. Tarduk blinked and wiped goo out of his eyes, yawning. The yawn remained, however, and did not seem to be closing, because his entire face froze in fear. Resting on the ground so as to gaze into his eyes was the head of a dragon, as tall as he was. "There are many insects here, and I may not bother to control them before they fly in that open mouth, meat creature." said the monster. "I see you are like to me, we are immune to the dream, and that is why you and I find ourselves together, and so I will not eat you right away." Tarduk's mouth shut, but only because his muscles had tired. He couldn't seem to find his voice. "Yes, I am a Turaga tale." snickered the red bearded head. Long-muzzled, with fringes shaped like flame, the eyes were a curious dark red. "Except of course I don't ever breathe fire. Only plasma. I would have to put on a mask before I could control elemental Fire, and in this form that is a little difficult. Perhaps if I shapeshift features on my nostril I might. Are you going to say what frantic things are racing through your little mind, or am I going to have to continue talking to myself?" "What....are you?" croaked Tarduk. "Where'd I go? Where is this?" "Oh, the far side of the world, I believe. The dream could not kill me, so it put me as far away as it could. It even put a barrier against teleporting....but fortunately I have more powers than it knew I had, or else Destiny made it leave a hole, and so here I am." "Then why..." "Are you here? You are a flaw in the dream, meaty. As am I, for I am meatless. I will send you to someone you can babble to, but remember this: the dream was caused by Velika, and Velika has only ruled for one day. Do you remember that?" "Y-y-yes." "Then dream, and remember that reality breaks all dreams." whispered the dragon, and the world changed around Tarduk. ---------------------------------------------- "It's all in vain." said Turaga Vakama. "He has already won. The creature made his dream come true." The Turaga had seen it all in one of his visions. This was no doubt fortunate for the little resistance band, for if they had come out into the conquered world ignorant of the situation, Velika would have them for sure. The Toa Mahri listened, bewildered. Alternate Teridax had fetched them once they realized Velika's purpose, and they were still only partly briefed when Vakama cried out and slumped against the wall. What he said when he came to was enough to dismay even the imperturbable Makuta. "Looks like I'm going to need to do some blanket downloading again." observed Orde. "You know, I actually miss Gelu. It was nice to have someone around more sarcastic than me." "There is another flaw in the dream." said the Mad Great Being, looking up from his device. He was nearly done, it seemed; the assemblage of parts, wires and rods more resembled an actual machine than a junk pile someone had dumped on top of a heavy magnet. The others all turned to him at once. To the Mahri, who had first quested for and then obtained the Mask of Life, he was legend. Freed of both chains and curse, he was still not quite sane, let alone normal, and his associates were wary around him. "My invention is not only functional, it works." he clarified. "I can send out my thought, but no thought can enter this room. No power and no mind can reach us, unless that power commands Destiny itself." "Yeah, about that..." said Kongu. "How did the Great Beings manage to make Mata Nui aware of what everyone's destinies are?" said Hahli. "And how exactly is it supposed to be a virtue, if it is some lofty force that decides everyone's fate?" said Jaller. The Mad Great Being began laughing, his back to them. "If you look at a mirror you can see the sun without being blinded, but your eyes will still hurt." he said. "Naturally eyes that hurt cannot see everything. They can see generalities, however, and among them a particular purpose planned for one or another being. The being may go on to do more destined things, after all." "What of the Shadowed One's troubling movement?" said Vakama. "It seems undisturbed, although much more chaotic: I would guess the dream threw his chains of command haywire. Of course I no longer have Tahu's ear, so there may be more to the picture." said the Alternate Teridax. "We have to convince Tahu." said Pohatu. "Of what?" said Kopaka coldly. "From all reports Velika is a model ruler. This is no Toa Empire yet; it has only just begun. Tahu is probably happy he doesn't have to lead any more." "Still, someone has to show him." pleaded Pohatu. "No." said Teridax. "He has enough power to shake himself loose, but if we go near Velika, any of us, we are dead beings." "I know, it's just...." "He will be moving on the Malevolence as soon as he finds out they escaped. They are in the Maze now, with Angonce. As to what we do, wait, and stay alive, is my rede." said Teridax. ------------------------------------------ (Interjection: "rede" means "counsel".) "There's something you need to see, Tahu." said the Order of Mata Nui agent Trinuma, putting a sheaf of paper in front of him. Matoran Universe people were accustomed to tablets, but Velika had instituted the Sphereus Magna custom of parchment--when, Tahu couldn't remember, but it was a while ago. "Which one of these?" said the Toa of Fire in a resigned voice. Though Velika was in charge, the Toa reported to Tahu, and he condensed their reports to send to Velika. Tahu was pretty sure there'd been friction between him and the Order, but that had been before the Enlightenment, and anything before Velika was a bit--remote. "This one. The Shadowed One's eluded us again, but his network still thinks he's here in the Mata Nui district. I have unconfirmed sightings of him in the Aqua district, over by the Skakdi kingdom." "That's forbidden land, penalty of perpetual imprisonment or death at Skakdi hands. He must be desperate." "Also," said Trinuma, "we've been able to confirm the body dropped on Gelu's village long ago--before Velika---bit of a cold case, but we took it out of storage two days ago--the body was that of Artakha. We found a Mask of Psychometry and it confirmed it." "You're keeping back something." said Tahu. "The mask reads the object's memories. Artakha's last moments were in combat with someone he seemed to think was--Velika himself. However, the assailant changed shape despite wearing no mask at all, which means it was likely one of the Malevolence in Velika's shape." "Are the reports on the prison in here?" "Velika gets those direct. I'm not even allowed to open them." the Order agent said disgustedly. "Has there been any--news of my brothers?" Despite himself, Tahu's voice quivered. No one seemed to remember exactly how long Velika had been in charge, but it had to be over three years. And ever since their disappearance, nothing had been heard of Lewa, Kopaka and Pohatu. Turaga Vakama and Takanuva had vanished just before the Enlightenment, and they too were unheard of. "None." said Trinuma. "Since the Yesterday Quest team's return, which reported Lewa as being in the Bota district, we have heard nothing. It may be he has been taken by the Malevolence, even before the Enlightenment." "Keep searching." said Tahu with a deep sigh. The Order member left to deliver the secret reports to Velika, and Tahu actually had nothing to do. He went out to look at New Atero. Just when the city had been constructed or how was a little hazy in his mind; he certainly had no memory of working on it, only of looking for a site for it. It had been constructed of the material caused by cutting vast openings in the domes of the Matoran Universe, which allowed warmth and air to penetrate the bitter colds of the sunless realms before they entirely died. Some beings were moving back in, though only to islands or areas lit by the portals. The city lay in an arc about the mass of the Great Spirit's skull, the former island of Mata Nui's bedrock: except that bedrock lay far up in the air, almost a hundred miles up, and even the highest clouds never reached that far. The air was so thin there it took a Toa of Air to breathe normally. The city spread out around the left corner of the Skull, twenty miles long. Bohrok chittered past, hauling carts: seeing wheeled vehicles was still weird to him. The houses were made in a style different from normal Agori buildings, being square with columns holding the porches: but it had a pleasing aspect. Both of order, and of nobility. Matoran bustled about on their daily tasks, passing Agori with perfunctory nods and occasional greetings, in the manner of long-accustomed neighbors. Taller Glatorian or larger Bionicles occasionally passed, getting out of the way or sometimes stepping clear over the shorter traffic. It looked just as it ought to. Peaceful. "Something is very wrong here." Gresh said, pausing on the way to change the wind. The dry summer wind needed to yield to a rain-bearing one, while the climate of the Melded World sorted itself out, and Gresh, who had elemental Air power, had this chore for New Atero. "Wrong?" said Tahu. "What are you talking about? The new society has turned out perfect!" "That's the problem." said Gresh. "I wasn't around during the Shattering, but Ackar was, and he tells me things settled down suspiciously fast under Velika. I mean, we had near wars waged over what systems to set up with us being trapped on the Great Barren, before we finally agreed on the Glatorian arrangement. Yet Velika walks in, says he's a transformed Great Being, and hey presto, everything settles like magic. And that's another thing. How come I can't bring up one significant event from the last few years? All I come up with is a long sense of routines and peaceful work. But I remember all sorts of details about the turmoils just after the Melding, and that serial killer and all. I mean, just because he's a Great Being doesn't mean we'd all swallow him." "What are you getting at?" said Tahu gruffly. "It smells funny, is all." said Gresh, and rose into the air. Tahu remained, frowning over the city. He had very little of life behind him, most of his 100,000 years having been spent asleep in a Toa canister, while Gresh had tens of thousands of years of waking life to compare. He wished he had a Kraata power of Truth. Axonn was one of the few he had ever seen wearing a Kanohi Rode, and he had no idea if any had been salvaged from the Great Spirit. Turaga Vakama would have known how to make one; there was certainly enough liquid protodermis ice deeper inside, where seas had been. He decided to ask Velika in person. Going in to see Velika was no ordinary task. Like Artakha, the Matoran Great Being kept himself aloof behind the walls of the Toa Palace, high on the chin of the Great Spirit, at the limits of the air. Few save Tahu and the Order--which was starting to rename itself the Hand of Velika--had seen him since the Enlightenment. Yet every day an offering for him arrived from each sector of the vast and sparsely settled planet, goods or food or materials, and even Glatorian and Bone Hunters spoke of Velika as they would speak of a god. So Tahu riffled furiously through the reports, looking for something important enough to count as an excuse for disturbing the Great Being in his creating. Tahu had not seen him produce any one definite thing, but he must have, if the climate and society were behaving so well. He paused. A report from an uninhabited sector, the far side of the planet from Bara Magna. Why would there be a report from empty wilderness? Opening it he whistled: not only was this a perfect excuse, it really was cause for concern, even if the Order hadn't thought it so. A dragon had been seen there. Not just one of the weird Bota Magna reptiles, but a talking dragon. He would ask Velika if any creatures in that shape were supposed to exist on Sphereus Magna, but he already knew who it must be. Makuta Miserix. -------------------------------------------------- The Kraata power of Teleportation took Tahu to the gates of the Toa Palace. So Velika called it, though only one Toa dwelt in it, Krakua. Who inhabited the rest of the vast and beautiful structure Tahu had no idea: perhaps the other Great Beings of the Benevolence, or perhaps they walked unseen among them and Velika tinkered by himself. Built on the great slanting mountain with massive sudden lines which was the Chin, the Palace was a maze of crystal spires and needles of clear stone in many hues. Krakua, the new Toa of Sonics who the Order had trained for the Destiny War, held the gate. It was his job to screen any visitors. Oddly, there was only one other time Tahu clearly remembered facing him at this gate, now he thought about it: yesterday. Which worried him again, as he had a certainty of many other such times, he just could not recall one. "Does that happen to you?" he said abruptly. Krakua not having heard his thoughts, looked confused. "Toa Tahu, you pop out of thin air and expect me to know what you were saying before?" "Good. How many times have I come here like this? I'm trying to date a record." "You're still not making sense. I really do not have a number--" "Do you remember the time before yesterday? Can you bring it to your mind?" "Tahu, I have been turning away people from Roodaka to Macku over the last two days, I don't keep a log of visitors." "You might want to start." said Tahu bluntly. The stairs mounting up the Neck and onto the Chin descended in a dizzying sweep before him, into the clouds which hid Bara Magna. "We've got in a report that Makuta Miserix is alive." "Ah, shapechanging. Well, the gate's sensors would detect him, and I doubt even a Makuta could enter unless he had the Malevolence itself behind him. The weeks past are a bit of a blur--" "Pick out one event from before yesterday. Do you remember ANYTHING between the Enlightenment and now?" Krakua looked puzzled. "It's all been like this, it sort of blurs out and fades--" "As I thought." said Tahu, and headed inside. The Palace's halls were high and gleaming, gold and marble set in sparse but lovely designs. Arches led to side halls. To Tahu it seemed completely unfamiliar now, as if he was seeing in real life what had only been in dreams before. "I wonder." he thought. "What if Gresh is right, and we only just woke up in a perfect world? Would Velika know?" The halls were likely designed only to impress, for the central part of the palace was more practical, with doors leading to rooms of weird machinery. Velika's location was not something Tahu had a problem with: a magnetic sense seemed to pull him toward the one who had bestowed on the Matoran Universe the gift of minds. Today he seemed to be in one of the deeper levels. Using Intangibility Tahu sank through the floor, and went down a series of round-roofed white halls. Strange sounds echoed from around. He entered a door into a room that abruptly dimmed as he did so, till the machinery on every hand became shapes of darkness and portent, and the eerie flashes of energy from their guts lit the dimness like infernal candles. Velika was a small dark shape stooped over a table. For an instant in the bad light Tahu thought he recognized the horns of the Mask of Creation, but when Velika looked up he saw it was only his accustomed mask, the Mask of Adapability. On Voya Nui he had worn a brown Mind Control mask. "You are troubled, my child." said the half-vacant Matoran voice of the Great Being. "I need to have a few things answered, but the main reason I come is because of this report." Velika crooked a finger, and the page appeared in his hand. "Hmmm....how hilarious....our nutty friend the Tarduk stumbled up to a Vorox patrol and babbled the same thing over and over again--"A dragon, a dragon, I swear I saw a dragon." "Are there such creatures native to this planet?" said Tahu bluntly. "A dragon, a dragon, I swear I saw a dragon." hummed Velika. "They should set that to music and sing it in a bar. Do Matoran Universe inhabitants get drunk, Tahu?" "Er......." Velika had a bewildering habit of only answering things with long convoluted and irrelevant anecdotes and metaphors. "I've never seen any that way, no." "One time Ackar won a contest with another Glatorian by heading to a bar. Ackar was still on his feet when the other passed out from too much rock cider." "The Magnans can get drunk, you mean. Do you think it is Makuta Miserix?" "Sometimes fire can be very hot and yet fail to grip for the smallest reason. Gravity can retard the path of heat, long enough to escape. The Ash Bear looks very like the Ash Bear." Tahu took a deep breath. "My father," such was Velika's preferred title, "can you tell me why no one seems to have any clear memory of your reign, only general impressions?" "Dreams are strange, but only to the waking mind that can examine them and perceive they do not measure up against the standards of reality it knows. The dreamer has no such faculties." Tahu gritted his teeth. "My father, I am deeply confused." he said harshly. "I would appreciate a straight answer!" "The dream makes perfect sense to the dreamer, and only the mind that is waking perceives its' basic nonsense. Are you waking or asleep, impatient Toa? Or are you perhaps sleepwalking?" "Why is it yesterday is the only thing I can really remember?" "Because this is a flaw of the dream." said Velika, and his body shook with strange lonely laughter. "It is a side effect of the Nova Blast of Peace that the Alternate unleashed, which caused the Enlightenment. For if you brood on your memories there will be no peace, and so concentrated peace dulls and dims the memory." Tahu, feeling abashed and embarrassed as one does when asking rudely a foolish question, bowed deeply on one knee as was the law, then left the palace. If this was a side effect of something of Alternate Teridax, then perhaps the horrible suspicion that had risen in him was false. The suspicion that Velika's achievements were only some awful delusion caused by the Malevolence. -------------------------------------------- He reached the Toa Tower in a somber but thoughtful mood, and found Onua there waiting for him. "Toa-brother, I.....have an unusual thing to ask you." Onua said. "It can't be anything more unusual than what I've been doing." said Tahu. "Go ahead." "What happened before yesterday?" Tahu shrugged. Away from Velika's overwhelming personality, the cold doubts were returning, made worse by the nagging suspicion that Velika had in fact answered him literally and he only misunderstood because he could not remember. "You've got me. Gresh told me just this morning that he suspects the suddenness of the Enlightenment. Velika told me that was because Alternate Teridax did some sort of Peace blast; but where is Teridax? I don't remember him being around since the Revelation." "Because I can't remember anything between now and the Enlightenment." Onua said, as if he barely heard Tahu. "Just a sense of time. You try to look back, and it slips. And today...." He looked haunted. "The earth spoke to me." "It did what?" "Ground. Soil. Dirt. It spoke to me. I felt it move all around me, as if the earth itself lived. Then I felt its' voice in my head, the voice of earth. It said we had only been ruled by Velika for three mortal days." "Impossible." snapped Tahu. "Look around you, brother. Cities don't simply sprout out of the earth like plant life. Systems get set up. They don't appear from thin air." "They do," said Onua in a low voice, "if they are imagined to do so." "Illusion?" whispered Tahu. "But wouldn't I see through that?" "Axonn told us Order shields let in a Great Spirit illusion. What then of a Great Being illusion?" "Well, there's one easy test of that." said Tahu grimly. "I've never heard of any illusion, even the solid ones of the Bahrag, that didn't shatter when you stopped believing in them. See if this makes any sense." He repeated Velika's words. "Dreams...." muttered Onua. "Why does he harp on dreams? He is our father, the giver of thought; why would he mock us?" Tahu had a sudden twinge of premonition. Dreams....hadn't he been talking about dreams just before the Revelation? "He mocks us," said Tahu harshly, "because he is not Velika. That's the key. This is some warped experiment of the Malevolence. This can't be real. This.....isn't....real!" Nothing happened. The city did not vanish, despite his disbelief. The Palace still gleamed like a star, a hundred miles above them on the Chin. "Were you convinced enough?" said Onua doubtfully. "Yes." said Tahu heavily. "We're not in an illusion. We're in reality, only somebody's monkeyed with it. What would happen, Onua, if a Great Being used the Mask of Time?" "Well, he.....could increase our sense of duration, or accelerate time around him and not anyone else so that he could use powers to construct cities and set up routines for us to fall into, then mind-control......By Mata Nui...." "There's been a Time Slip." Tahu growled. "And we're stuck on the finished end of it."