Scorpion_Strike

-------------------- Chapter 42 -------------------- As soon as I deduced that we were heading for Pohatu’s, I started to spot signs that that was in fact our destination. The modern, glass-and-steel buildings that made up the city center gave way to structures with more concrete and then brick, while the roads and buildings got progressively dustier. I even recognized a few roads that we’d followed three days before, after leaving Pohatu’s place the first time. At our pace, I estimated that it would take a good hour-and-a-half to reach it, and throughout it all, Kopaka maintained the fast, silent pace. Indeed, a little past nine in the evening, we found ourselves standing in front of the dilapidated, brick structure that was the current residence of the Toa Nuva of Stone. It didn’t look much different from the last time: two wooden crates, filled to the brim with empty bottles, were taking up the space in the overgrown garden next to the front door, ready to be taken away with other garbage. The one front window, its ragged curtain closed, showed that there was a dim light inside. Coming to the door, Kopaka hesitated for a moment. “So, why are we here?” I asked. “I thought you said your goodbyes.” “We did,” Kopaka said dourly. “Then, why are we here?” I repeated myself, keeping my voice down just in case the Toa inside would hear. “Unfinished business,” Kopaka sighed and opened the door before I got the chance to keep asking. He walked in, and I followed right behind, making sure to close the door again behind me. The place looked almost exactly like how we’d left it: the single trophy on the shelf, the folded wheelchair in the corner, and the recliner facing the telescreen, which was producing all the light and noise in the room, though there wasn’t much of either since its volume was not turned up high. Slumped in the recliner, which was surrounded by at least eight empty bottles from what I could see, was the Toa Nuva of Stone. “Brother,” Kopaka greeted as he slowly crossed the room, careful not to kick or trip over any bottles. He got no response, so he maneuvered himself around the chair until he was in front of Pohatu, but not between him and the telescreen. I followed a short distance behind, eventually positioning myself next to the bedroom door. “Brother, I am back,” Kopaka greeted again, and again he got no response. Pohatu, leaning back in the chair, appeared to be half-asleep, eyes barely open and fixed on the telescreen. Apparently tired of trying to get his attention verbally, Kopaka reached forward and shook the Toa of Stone’s shoulder. “Wake up,” he said in about as quiet and soothing a voice as I think he could ever have managed. “Wh… who…” Pohatu finally seemed to slowly come to some kind of consciousness, turning his head to look at Kopaka. “who… who’s there?” “Your brother, Kopaka,” the Toa of Ice answered. “I have come back for you.” “Kopaka…” Pohatu let out the name with a shallow, breathless sigh, still clearly not quite in his right mind. “Yes, it is me,” Kopaka answered. “Do you recognize me?” “Uhm…” Pohatu let out a long sigh, again, then almost by instinct leant to the right and reached down with his arm, retrieving what by the sound of the liquid sloshing inside was a nearly empty bottle. “One minute…” he said as he proceeded to raise the bottle to drink from it. Kopaka, however, put his left hand on Pohatu’s arm and easily pushed the bottle aside. “No, no more of that,” he said, still retaining a softness to his voice that before then I hadn’t thought he could muster. “Hey, that’s… that’s mine…” Pohatu protested meekly. “And you are going to put it down,” Kopaka said as he grabbed the bottle and, again, without much effort pulled it out of his brother’s hand, after which he set it down on the ground and out of the latter’s reach. “No… no, it’s… it’s fine…” Pohatu stammered. “It’s been… it’s been a while…” “You’re still drunk,” Kopaka asserted. “Go back to sleep.” He put Pohatu’s arm back down on the armrest of the chair. “Stupid visions…” Pohatu uttered as he began to drift back into unconsciousness. Within seconds, he was out. Kopaka held there for a minute, then straightened up and walked over to me. Keeping his voice barely above a whisper, he told me: “We need to get rid of the bottles. I will get these; you check the kitchen.” “Right,” I nodded. I still didn’t really get what his plan was, since I knew he didn’t want to stay for long, but I wasn’t going to argue against dispatching of the alcohol present. So, while he cleared the area around the chair and picked up what was scattered around the living room, I went through the fridge and all the kitchen drawers, producing six more bottles that, so far, hadn’t been opened. Kopaka, meanwhile, also checked the bedroom, but found nothing there. We took the bottles outside and set them down next to the crates already present. “We need to get rid of these, completely,” Kopaka repeated. “Can you go and find some place to throw them away?” “Sure,” I answered. “Just… what are you planning on doing?” Kopaka sighed, then thought for a moment. “Just get rid of the bottles,” he answered as he turned to head back inside. “Right then…” I looked up and down the street, hoping to spot some kind of dump site, but I didn’t see any at first. On a hunch, I took the two crates and headed down the road south, where within a minute or two I came across a side alley. It was only a narrow space between the sides of two taller buildings, but it seemed to be a common dumping ground for garbage, judging by the number of boxes and bags that were already stashed near the entrance. Figuring that the bottles would blend in just fine, I pulled them out of the crates and stacked them next to a couple of steel bins. I returned to Pohatu’s place with the empty crates, loaded up the rest of the bottles, and then took them away as well. By now, it had gotten properly chilly outside, so I was glad when I could head back in even though the heating in Pohatu’s place was pretty dismal. To my surprise, I found Kopaka in the kitchen, scrubbing some long caked-on food remnants off of a set of plates. “Doing the dishes?” I observed. He didn’t answer to me pointing out the obvious. Looking around the kitchen, I noticed he’d already cleaned up some of the pots and pans that had been lying around the place earlier. “So, we came back to clean Pohatu’s house?” “That is part of it,” Kopaka replied. “I do not want it to look so disheveled.” “Right…” I nodded. I wasn’t all that surprised that Kopaka may have wanted the house to reflect his usually organized mind, but he’d insisted repeatedly that we weren’t staying for long, so what was the point? “So, you think that a clean house will help Pohatu clean up his act?” I asked, somewhat incredulously. “No,” he answered, “but while I wait for him to sober up I might as well do something.” “Fair point,” I agreed. “So, while you’re doing this, I’ll… straighten up the bedroom?” “Go ahead,” he answered. So I did, and soon found that, apart from making the bed, there wasn’t much to do in the bedroom. In a small side closet, I found Pohatu’s armor, two heavy, metal blocks, and a set of pincer-like contraptions all lying in a pile. At first, the purpose of the blocks and pincers eluded me, but then I recognized them as Pohatu’s Toa tools. Judging by the layer of dust and the rust spots that covered them, I imagined they hadn’t been taken out in ages. In fact… pretty much everything in the place was very, very dusty, so with little else to do, I retrieved a wet rag from the kitchen and proceeded to wipe it off. The armor soon got some of its sheen back, though the rust was still evident. Returning to the kitchen, I found that Kopaka was cleaning off the countertops and empty cabinets, so I followed his example, went back to the bedroom, and wiped down every horizontal surface I could find. First the windowsill, then the side tables, then the shelf in the closet… At one point, a familiar hacking noise from the living room attracted my attention; Pohatu was about to throw up again, it seemed. By the time I got there, though, Kopaka’d already arrived on scene with a pot, which in the aftermath he’d clearly have to wash again. “Choking again, huh?” I observed from the bedroom doorway. “Thankfully, he is not in as bad a way as he was last time,” Kopaka identified. He set the pot down beside the chair; the Toa of Stone had returned to peaceful slumber. Kopaka got up and looked around. By virtue of its emptiness, the living room was already quite clean, with the exception of the thick layers of dust on the desk, the telescreen, and the shelves populated by the lone remaining trophy. He turned and lowered the volume on the telescreen to zero. “Dust these off,” he gestured over the desk and at the shelves. “I will take care of the pot… again.” With that, he picked up the pot and took it back to the kitchen. I followed him, rinsed the rag, and came back to clean off the shelves, looking back periodically to see if Pohatu was doing okay. Lying back in that chair, he looked relatively fine; out of shape, yes, and definitely in need of maintenance, but nothing on the outside really betrayed how far his mind had gone. Indeed, knowing that sooner or later, the Toa Nuva of Stone had to wake up, I found myself wondering what state of mind he’d be in, and what exactly Kopaka was planning to do about it. It was about thirty minutes later that Kopaka finally seemed satisfied; I’d gone over all the shelves, and the trophy as well, while he’d practically turned the kitchen upside down, finding lots of old, rotten, and broken things to throw out in the process. One of the crates out front served as makeshift trash can. “Well, I guess it does look a lot better now…” I looked around the living room at the result of our handiwork. “Significantly,” Kopaka concurred. “So,” I yawned, “what exactly was the point of all this? Are we staying a while?” “No,” Kopaka answered as he turned for the door. “We’re leaving? Now?” I followed behind. “No, we are not,” Kopaka answered. “Get rid of that.” He pointed at the garbage crate by the door. “Leave it wherever you left the bottles.” I noticed his mood was dropping again; not frustration per se… more anxiety, anxiety about what was coming. It made me wonder whether the surface house cleaning was just to kill time. “Uhm, sure…” I moved past him, picked up the crate, and headed out the door. The offal inside had quite the stench about it, which made the trip decidedly more unpleasant than the previous two had been. This time, I elected just to leave the whole crate behind; given its rickety state, and with the garbage and the bottles gone, I figured that it had done its job. On the way back, I started trying to think of what the point of this whole endeavor was. Kopaka’d already acknowledged, last time, that there was nothing he could really do for Pohatu, or was concerned to do… and yet here we were. What was he planning to do, and for that matter, what had prompted the change of plan in the first place? He still hadn’t answered… perhaps, perhaps that was because he didn’t really know the answer himself. Of course, he wouldn’t admit it if he didn’t, but it seemed a reasonable possibility. I returned to the house to find that Pohatu was no longer occupying the chair; Kopaka’d moved him to the bed, and had taken up the same post beside him that he’d occupied a few nights before, with a pot still at the ready. “It’s gone,” I informed him, not proceeding past the doorway into the bedroom. “Good,” he answered. “So… anything else we could do?” I wondered. Kopaka looked up to me. “You look tired,” he observed, quite to my surprise. “Yeah, it’s been a long day…” I suddenly realized. Between running around Onu-Koro-Nuva on four hours of sleep, the long train ride, and midnight cleaning, I was starting to feel it. “Get some rest,” Kopaka advised. “I thought we weren’t staying long,” I remarked. “We would not be…” Kopaka admitted as he turned back to Pohatu, “…but he wasn’t ready.” “Oh… okay,” I nodded. “Ready for what?” “Just… go and sleep for a while,” he sighed. “Okay, sure…” I yawned again. Don’t take me wrong; I welcomed the opportunity to use that chair again, but I really didn’t want to miss what Kopaka was planning. He seemed so… uncharacteristically conflicted about it: the hesitations, the way he seemed to stall for time, the musing… The air of unease of this second trip had been palpable ever since he’d gotten back on that train after I showed him Onua’s demise. Back then, there’d been a sense of purpose, an angry spirit that seemed to drive him back, but that had vanished within minutes when the train got rolling, like it had been a heat-of-the-moment decision. The Kopaka I knew didn’t do things on impulse like that, yet this whole trip back seemed to have started with one. Was that what bothered him so? The fact that he had been propelled into action by a moment of unchecked emotion? With the opportunity for some shut-eye in the comfiest chair in the world, I wasn’t going to question it now, but after whatever this was ended, I definitely had some questions for the Toa Nuva of Ice. Unfortunately, the returning of Toa Nuva company meant the return of the… unintended mind-reading. I had been lucky to remain clear of it on the train trip back, but this night I once again experienced what, to me, were more like nightmares. -*-*- I’m in a tunnel again. By virtue of it being a tunnel, it is difficult to know where exactly, but the fact that there’s only one lightstone here, the one laying in the tunnel behind me, makes it pretty clear that this isn’t a mining tunnel. It’s small, with a ceiling barely a foot higher than I am tall, and I’m standing at the end of it, it seems. I’m holding out my blade in front of me. The tip just touches the wall of earth and stone in front as I channel my elemental powers through it, causing what little moisture exists in the ground to rapidly freeze. The cold… the cold makes things brittle, I know, and now that glittering streaks of ice crisscross the wall in front of me, I think it’s just about brittle enough… I raise my shield and activate my mask. A tremendous surge of power seems to flow through me as, with a deafening crash, I bring the shield down and shove it forward, impacting the heavy metal disk into the wall with as much force as I can muster. It works: deep cracks have appeared, radiating out from the impact. I raise the shield, and bring it down again. This time, the wall gives way, the rocks breaking into pieces that come tumbling down. I begin shoving the pulverized rubble aside, clearing the six foot or so section that I’ve opened up, and move the lightstone forward. Satisfied, I pause and listen for a moment… there’s an intermittent sound, a sound of stone grinding against stone, coming from somewhere in the earth nearby… Instinctively, I immediately assume a ready stance, frosty air already condensing around my blade. I switch back to the Akaku Nuva; whatever is coming for me will not have the element of surprise. Just as I activate the mask, the wall to my right gives way in a cascade of earth and rock, forcing me aside and against the opposite wall. For a moment, I fear a tunnel collapse, but I’m not buried. Instead, looking at the pile of rubble that now occupies part of the tunnel, I notice something inside… the glimmer of metal. Quickly, I clamber onto the rubble and, putting my weapon to the side, start removing rocks to excavate whatever it is. It takes mere moments, and I recognize it immediately; it’s one of Pohatu’s tools! Not wasting a moment, I stow it away and activate my mask, scanning the collapsed earth and the wall opposite me. I see, I see… two rahkshi! Their armor looks battered, crushed… but I cannot guarantee they are dead. Best to leave them be, but… buried very, very close to them is the other tool, and buried not ten feet away… it’s Pohatu! Upon identifying the Toa of Stone, I immediately get up, move to the end of the tunnel, and place my blade against the wall in his direction. Once again, I send my elemental powers into the wall, stone cracking as I fill every free orifice with ice and freeze what little water the ground already contains. I’m going all out on this one; the fewer hits it takes to get to Pohatu, the better his chances. Satisfied that the wall ahead of me is almost covered in a solid sheet of ice, I switch masks again, to the Pakari Nuva. I take a step back, and activate the mask, feeling that surge of energy coursing through my body again… and shove forward, bashing my shield into the wall. Much of it crumbles and collapses around me; I put an arm over my head, wait for the falling rocks to subside, and open my eyes. There’s more frozen wall ahead. I repeat the process, hurling myself shield-first into the next wall with all my might, and again, the earth crumbles in front of me. This time, when I look up, I see an arm! Wasting no time, I clamber over the rubble I’ve just created, and start digging at the arm’s shoulder, where it retreats into the wall. I keep the Pakari on, using the extraordinary strength it provides to tear aside one rock, one clump of earth after another, frantically digging towards Pohatu’s head. Less than a minute later, I’ve exposed his face… his eyes are closed, and his mask has a few dents, but he could be, he has to be okay. “Wake up…” I lean close and whisper, not wanting to be surprised by Rahkshi bursting through the wall on my right. Pohatu offers no response, so I try again: “Wake up,” a little louder. I put a hand around his mouth and shake his head a bit. For a moment, there’s no response, but then, a cough! Suddenly, his eyes spring wide open. “Whoa!” he exclaims, struggling to catch his breath. “Onu-Koro! The Matoran! The Rahkshi…” he looks over and suddenly notices me. “Kopaka!?” “Keep it down,” I urge him. He takes the advice and looks around as much as his still-restrained body will let him. “You are okay,” I advise. “Here, I will get you out…” “I, I think I got it…” he protests as, under his influence, some of the rocks already begin to move. I help out, pulling aside one after another, and it’s not long before my brother is free. “What happened?” I ask him. “Onu-Koro…” he answers with a slight tremble to his voice. “Rahkshi arrived; Onua and I couldn’t stop them. He brought down the roof to slow them down.” “Brought down the roof on Onu-Koro?” I must admit I’m surprised. “Was that the loud rumbling I heard?” “No doubt,” Pohatu concurs. “The Onu-Matoran got out, but the village is no more…” “That is too bad,” I commiserate, “but we have to warn the others.” “The chronicler and the Captain of the Guard were here,” Pohatu continues. “They escaped, too; I’m sure they got word out already.” He stands up and stretches, trying to get over the stiffness that comes with being buried for several hours. “In that case, we should join them,” I assert. “By the way,” I take out the Toa tool, “I believe this is yours.” “So it is, thanks,” he smiles, taking the tool back and momentarily inspecting it for damage. “Where is Onua?” I wonder. “You didn’t find him?” Pohatu’s expression is suddenly a worried one. “No.” “Well, he’s got to be around here somewhere,” the Toa of Stone continues, immediately switching to his own Akaku. “Let’s scan the rock.” “Right.” I concur, switching my mask as well. Again, activating it seems almost like a summons more than anything, as a sudden rumbling sound catches both of us off guard. “Where’s that coming from?” Pohatu asks, but before I can answer, a metal… thing suddenly emerges from the wall beside me, accompanied by the sound of a screaming engine. “I believe I have an answer!” I shout over the noise as the screaming object moves down, carving a deep gash into the wall, after which it finally stops. “Move back!” a voice calls from inside; I do so immediately, and barely in time as a sudden, loud impact sends the wall flying towards me in pieces. Peering over my shield after the rocks have settled, I spot a familiar Toa standing in the newly created entrance. “What was all that noise about?” Onua asks.

-------------------- Chapter 41 -------------------- Hours I had to give, and hours I had to spend; spend them waiting, mostly. For a while, I almost wished my teammates were on board, just to know that something was happening on the train. Having made my way through the newspapers and most of the material I felt worth watching on the telescreen, I found myself spending the hours watching scenery go by, with intermittent glances in Kopaka’s direction, wondering what exactly the meaning behind his questions had been. At first, the fact that he’d asked me about why exactly I followed him had been perplexing, but increasingly, I started to think that maybe he actually cared just a little about what I thought of him. Granted, I still didn’t think much of him… or did I? Thinking back over the last few days, the first things that always came to mind where the shocking moments, the way in which he’d berated Gali, Tahu, and myself. Those were the moments when he boiled over, when he simply couldn’t keep it all inside anymore, the moments that I hated. Still, even when he wasn’t that angry, he still alienated people on purpose. At the same time, given what I’d seen of the inside of his mind, it all made a kind of twisted sense; his anger and his self-imposed isolation were understandable, they just weren’t always… justifiable. Again, though, nothing I’d seen actually accounted for him actually asking for something from my point of view, which meant I’d either missed something or something had changed significantly between our arrival in Onu-Koro-Nuva and now. Of course, that self-imposed isolation meant that the mind that orchestrated it remained largely off-limits, though I had to admit I was tempted to try and read more closely into whatever was going through Kopaka’s head in those hours. Just like that morning, even the surface signals seemed far more… tumultuous than normal, with intermittent flare-ups of emotion that the Toa of Ice would never have permitted himself to show on the outside. In spite of that, some of it did show; his calm façade wasn’t perfect on this day, which showed most obviously in how much he shifted position. He alternated between leaning back in the seat, sitting hunched over and resting his chin in his hands, and all manner of positions in between, quite unusual for a Toa who I’d watched sit completely still in contemplation for hours on end. At last, with about two hours to go until we reached New Atero, I decided to be more proactive about getting to know what was bothering him. Realizing that he’d probably shut down a direct line of questioning, though, I knew I had to try and… ease my way into it. Discussing what we’d seen most recently seemed like a good place to start. “So, what’d you think?” I asked. “Hm?” he looked up. “About, you know… what happened with Onua,” I elaborated. “What I showed you, and what Nuparu told us.” “Tragic,” he answered. “No kidding…” I agreed. “Do you think Nuparu was right?” “About what?” “About not telling anyone. It’s kinda been bothering me,” I went on, “’cause what happens if someone else accidentally breaks one of those crystals and… you know, breathes it? It’s unlikely, but just in case, shouldn’t Onua’s end be like a warning to them?” “Should it?” he asked, though that question turned out to be rhetorical, as an explanation came right behind: “how many of those crystals are dug up each year?” “Not many,” I admitted. “…and do the Matoran not know that they are fragile and should therefore be handled carefully?” “I imagine they do.” “Then what are the risks that such an accidental exposure could happen again?” “Low,” I concluded. “Very low. But not zero.” “Low but not zero,” he agreed. “Now, what would happen in Onu-Koro-Nuva if the Matoran and Agori found out that the Toa for whom they erected a three-hundred foot statue in the middle of their city died by drug-fueled suicide?” “I imagine they wouldn’t be very happy if you put it like that,” I hypothesized. “Their flawless hero would be tainted, but… the truth would be out.” “Would the Matoran be better off for that truth?” he asked. “Probably not, no…” I realized we’d come back to an argument we’d had before already. “But why couldn’t you say that, like… the drugs took him down, that it wasn’t his decision in the end? That’d make him look less responsible for it, and they’d still have the warning.” “Would that be the truth?” “Does it matter?” “Yes it does, and no, it would not be,” he answered both questions. “You are basing your argument on the idea that the truth has inherent value, even when its ramifications could be highly detrimental. In this case, the truth is that Onua did kill himself. Everything about that tunnel collapse was premeditated. The crystals did not help, but they alone were not responsible for his demise. By saying so, you would merely be substituting one lie for another.” “There’d still be the benefit of a warning, though,” I argued. “And some Matoran and Agori would start to ask questions,” he extrapolated, “after which the full truth eventually would come to light. Would that risk be worth the benefit? No, it would not be, or at least Nuparu did not believe it to be when he made his decision on what to tell the Onu-Matoran. He weighed his options and decided it was best to leave out parts of the story for the good of the Matoran, as is his duty.” As is his duty… yup, back to duty again. “So… is that what you’re doing now?” I wondered. “Weighing the options in front of you?” “I have already made my decisions,” he pointed out. “Not all of them,” I countered. “You had a plan, yes, but if you’d followed the plan completely you’d be in the mountains right now. This trip wasn’t part of the plan, and I know it wasn’t ‘cause you’re having a difficult time deciding on how to proceed.” “I know what I am going to do,” he argued. “I have weighed my options. No, it was not part of the original plan, and no, I will not tell you.” I noticed that, since I mentioned what he had been thinking about, a hint of melancholy’d crept into his voice… “Okay, so… what changed your mind, then?” I kept trying. “Why did the plan change?” Kopaka stayed quiet for a moment before answering. “You will see,” he simply said, making it quite clear that he considered the matter closed. Still, that slight change at the end piqued my interest. Something about his demeanor changed when I tried to shift the conversation from what others’d done to what he was about to do, and I was pretty sure that it wasn’t just his reluctance in sharing the latter subject that prompted the change. No, his mood became slightly more downcast, which reflected both in his voice and in what little signature I was reading from him. I couldn’t really pinpoint the cause, but with time to spare I did indulge, once again, in mental speculation. Anger, fear, and anxiety were all possible causes, but the latter two didn’t really seem to affect Kopaka very often, and the former just… didn’t fit right. The only way in which Kopaka would be on this train because he was angry at something would be if he had scores to settle, which as far as I knew he didn’t. Plenty of others had scores to settle with him, sure, but since when did he care about that? I couldn’t imagine that he was heading back just to apologize to people for said scores either… though that was a possibility, I suppose. Thinking about that, and a belated dinner, kept me occupied until the train’s eventual arrival in New Atero, a little past seven in the evening. Unlike our last arrival in the city, the platform wasn’t particularly busy. Nonetheless, Kopaka still resorted to his cloak-and-cane disguise, and even seemed to exaggerate his retained limp slightly, making the whole scene feel very déjà vu, and just like last time no one recognized him in spite of the stares he was getting. Matoran and Agori alike showed the same reverence to me as they had last time, and in spite of my talk with Nuparu, I had to admit I still wasn’t fully comfortable with it. No one wanted signatures, thankfully, but even the reverent tone of voice that everyone automatically seemed to adopt on greeting me still didn’t sit right. I was feeling tired, too; it’s quite amazing how a long day of basically nothing happening can leave one feeling exhausted all the same. Couple that with the fact that I had no idea where within the city Kopaka’s destination lay, and you get why I was getting very impatient about finding out what his amended plan was. Arriving on the central square from the station, I noticed many of the billboards were advertising the fight between Tahu and the Porcupine, coming in two days. Kopaka stopped at the top of the stairs leading down onto the square, a moment or two of hesitation before he turned and headed west. I, however, spotted a couple of payphones at the edge of the square, and realizing the opportunity to try and tell my teammates that I was okay, I asked him to stop. “Hey, could you wait for just a minute?” I asked. He stopped and turned but didn’t immediately reply. “I’ve got to tell my friends that I’m, you know… okay,” I explained, pointing at the payphones. “Go ahead,” he nodded. “Thanks,” I quickly made my way over to the phones and produced a widget to stick in the slot. Putting the receiver to my ear, I pressed a button labeled “OP” on the device, putting an operator on the line. “Good evening,” the operator greeted. “Where would you like to be connected to?” “Do you have the hotel in Onu-Koro-Nuva?” I asked. “Which one?” “The one right by the train station,” I replied. Honestly, I’d never paid much attention to what the place was called. “I do, just a moment…” I heard a couple of beeping sounds, followed by a ring or two, after which the phone on the other end was picked up. “Onu-Koro-Nuva Travelers’ Lodge,” a clearly Matoran voice answered. “Hi,” I greeted, “Do you know if the people who had rooms… 209 and 210 last time are still there?” “I can check…” “They were Toa, if that helps,” I added. “The Toa? Yes, in fact one of them is here right now. Do you need to speak with them?” “Yes…” I answered, but I was cut off almost immediately by the very enthusiastic sounding voice of Lerome. “Yo Lis!” he called loud enough for me to put some distance between my ear and the receiver, “Where’ve you been!?” “Lerome, sheesh,” I replied, “could you not shout, please?” “Aw sorry sis,” he apologized, “but Jahlpu’s been looking all over for ya. He was getting real about it, too. I mean, I thought he got angry when I threw a party in his room that one time while he was gone, but turns out I hadn’t seen nothin’…” “Okay, okay!” I interrupted him. “Could you put him on, maybe?” “Sure, sure…” he replied, sounding a little disappointed. “Yo twinkle!” he called, his voice muffled because he’d probably covered the mouthpiece but still loud enough to be heard and understood on the other end, “go find the grumpy black guy!” “Twinkle? Have you been drinking?” I wondered. “No worries, sis,” he assured me, “Twinkle here’s a Vo-Matoran who can do this crazy lighting-spark-crackling thing with her fingers. It’s a neat trick for a Matoran! Say hi, Twinkle!” “Uhm, hi…” a somewhat shaky Matoran voice answered. “Hi…” I greeted back unenthusiastically. ““Twinkle” isn’t your actual name, is it?” Suddenly, I didn’t feel so bad about leaving in the middle of the night. “No, it’s not…” she began, but Lerome jumped in again. “Anyways, go find that guy…” he dismissed, “…oh wait, here he comes!” “Give me that!” I heard Jahlpu yell, after which some assorted crackling noises indicated the rough transfer of the phone. “Lis, is that you?” the Toa of Earth demanded. “Yes, yes it’s me,” I answered, already holding the phone at a slight distance in preparation of what was to come. “What the were you thinking!?” Jahlpu yelled into his end of the line. “We’ve been looking high and low for you!” “I know, I know…” I attempted to pacify him. “Where are you?” “I’m… I’m in New Atero,” I answered. “Really, if I was going anywhere else, I would’ve called sooner…” “Sure, sure…” he said sarcastically. “Did you follow your mysterious friend?” “Yes,” I admitted, “but he’s not dangerous or anything… he’s leaving soon altogether, but he had one last stop to make in this city, so I went with him.” “Right…” Jahlpu sighed. “That’s all?” “Yes, it is. I can come back after we’re done,” I offered. “Yeah, we’ll be here for a while,” Jahlpu admitted. “I might have a place lined up, and Kirall is going under the knife for like a week…” “Look, I’d love to chat, really,” I interrupted, “but I’m kind of in a hurry here. I’ll call you back whenever we’re done, okay?” “Okay,” Jahlpu agreed, “just… be careful out there. And next time, if you have to leave, please tell me.” “Will do,” I promised. “Bye.” “Good night.” That was the end of it, and good thing too, since I was just about out of time on one widget. Satisfied that my teammates wouldn’t be worried about my whereabouts, I turned and found Kopaka standing in front of the statue in the center of the square. There was barely anyone around now; the train’s passengers had largely dispersed, and with the sun rapidly setting on the horizon and a cold breeze setting in, most Matoran and Agori preferred the comfort of their homes at this hour. I made my way over to the center, too: the statue of the Great Spirit Robot rose to about sixty feet tall from a circular pool. It stood, illuminated from below and looking upwards, but with its feet offset and its knees still slightly bent, as though it was in the process of getting up out of the water while gazing at the stars above. Turning to face the statue, the Toa of Ice stood still, looking upwards at the gleaming, dark granite construct. I stood beside him for a minute, remembering how much larger the real thing had been from the memory of the Battle for Bara Magna… in light of what I’d seen, this was a very faithful interpretation, though. “So, what does this represent?” I asked. “The moment, I mean.” “Hm?” Kopaka turned to me, apparently coming out of deeper thoughts than I’d realized. “It looks like it’s standing up,” I elaborated. “Like, getting up, you know?” “This,” Kopaka said as he looked back up to the statue, “this was the moment in which I fulfilled my destiny, in which all the Toa Nuva fulfilled theirs. We awakened Mata Nui. Here, he rises from the ocean of Aqua Magna.” “Really?” I asked. “I mean, I thought the Battle for Bara Magna…” “That was not part of the plan,” Kopaka interrupted. “Makuta Teridax intervened and took over the body. That began the reign of shadows.” “The Matoran’s darkest hour,” I remembered the description from when I was taught history years before. “That it was,” Kopaka agreed. We stood still for a bit, still looking up at the statue. I tried to imagine what it was like, living inside of that titanic contraption and finding out that one day, your greatest enemy had turned it all against you. Failing that, I looked over to Kopaka again and noticed that he seemed to have a sense of… trepidation, of unease about him, like he wasn’t sure of exactly what he was doing, which reinforced the notion that he was acting ‘off-plan’ here. “So, what are we doing here?” I tried again. Kopaka didn’t answer, so I waited again for a minute or so, looking at the statue and around the square in general. The chilly breeze animated the flags of Matoran and Agori tribes all around; it took me a minute to figure out which one belonged to the Ce-Matoran. “Lis?” Kopaka suddenly asked. “Yeah?” I turned back to him, but found that he hadn’t taken his eyes off of the statue. “When we first met, what did I tell you about the Toa?” Now that was a surprising question. “Uhm…” I thought back to that first train ride from Ko-Koro-Nuva. What had he said? “You… you told me that the world didn’t need Toa anymore,” I recalled, “and that I’d have a hard time finding a purpose.” “And, over this last week, between all the Toa you have met, do you think I was right?” he continued. For some reason, I felt like this was a test of some kind, and a cumulative one at that. “Most of them would agree, I think…” I remembered. “I mean, Tahu said the same thing, so did Nuparu, Hahli, and even Lewa, in that letter. Yeah… the Toa don’t really have a purpose here, do they? Not as Toa, that is.” “Not as Toa…” Kopaka nodded slightly. “What else did Lewa say in that letter?” “He wrote it to explain himself,” I recalled, “to explain why he flew into Mt. Valmai’s eruption. Suicide by natural disaster.” “Why did he?” Kopaka questioned. “Because… he wanted to leave the Le-Matoran with a legend,” I continued. “He said that he couldn’t grow old and bitter among them, and he didn’t want to push himself to breaking point like Pohatu, so he wanted to end it at the top, you know? I guess it worked, I mean, from what I heard from Lerome, the Le-Matoran still see him as a hero.” “Like the Onu-Matoran with Onua…” Kopaka mused, uncharacteristically. From that, for the first time, I got the impression that I was having a real conversation with him, without the elements of the seemingly pre-planned verbal duels that usually made up his verbal interaction. “Actually,” I remembered, “Lewa warned Onua about that… about not getting too caught up in what he did. He said that Onua would be able to offer the Matoran more than just a legend; he could provide wisdom for centuries to come.” “He warned Onua of that?” Kopaka turned to me, clearly a bit surprised. “Yes,” I confirmed, “though in the end, it didn’t save Onua… Lewa reckoned without those crystals, I suppose. Now they’re both revered as heroes… kind of like you to the Ko-Matoran.” “Lewa,” Kopaka said in a sudden, darker tone, “was a noisy and reckless fool.” He looked back up at the statue for a minute. “But, for once, he was right…” “About what?” I wondered. “In the end,” Kopaka answered, now with a sense of foreboding to his voice, “all we are, or will be to the Matoran… are legends.” With that, he suddenly turned around and took off with a renewed vigor to his pace. It wasn’t joyful by any means; it was a fast, determined walk, a walk with purpose. I hurried to catch up and follow, noting that the unease, that sense of trepidation on his mind had vanished. He’d made his decision and had formulated a plan, whatever it was. He headed straight south, then turned west and entered a section of narrow roads, alleyways, and corridors, which he deftly navigated as usual, but which for a while left me pretty confused as to what exactly our destination was. “So, where are we going?” I asked Kopaka as we were walking by a small neighborhood Kolhii field. He gave no answer, so I tried figuring it out myself by counting off the places where we’d been before in my head: Macku, Gali, and the Toa Mahri in New Atero lived on the east side, close to the waterfront, while Tahu’s place was on the north end of the city, so we definitely weren’t heading to either of those places. This route obviously wouldn’t take us near the Arena Magna, nor the city center in general… which I suddenly realized left only one possible place: Pohatu’s house.

Thank you! I think Kopaka would've gone to the Ta-Matoran to get his blade fixed, but he wanted to keep his dealings with Toa only to avoid spreading the word that he was back. In his view, the Matoran can be excitable that way. With no fire Toa who specifically forged things (though Jaller could do it), Nuparu was the next best option.

-------------------- Chapter 40 -------------------- There weren’t a lot of other passengers on the train, which wasn’t surprising at this hour, and most of them were getting settled in for the night. I headed for what I figured would be the most likely place for Kopaka to go: as far back as possible. Like before, the cars got progressively emptier as I made my way to the back of the train, and I did find the last car to be completely empty, except for one the passenger I was looking for; Kopaka had taken up that same spot he’d claimed on every trip before, and was sitting in the same pose: elbows resting on his knees and his chin on folded hands, looking pensive more than anything else. This time, I approached him without hesitation. “Like I said,” I picked up where I left off, “you’re not getting away so easily this time; not when I have a few things left to say.” I waited for a moment, got no reply, and then sat down across from him. “I know you’re listening,” I continued, “and… well, I do want to finish what I started; tie up some loose ends, or rather… a particular one.” Still nothing; he didn’t as much as move a muscle, his mind probably preoccupied as his face retained a steely, determined expression and his gaze remained fixed on the floor between us. For a moment, I considered just waiting, since Ko-Koro-Nuva was about four hours away and he’d probably have to acknowledge me at some point in that time… but then again, did he? That wasn’t a wait I was willing to risk, so I tried to get his attention: “Hey, anyone home?” I asked, waving an arm in front of where I could see his eyes were pointing. Still nothing; his mind was really preoccupied with something, and I suspected that it wasn’t the pattern in the floor. Still, he couldn’t tune me out completely. “Well, I guess I’ll settle for a one-sided conversation,” I mused as I tried to think of a way to word the apology. I still wasn’t all that comfortable with it, but I didn’t want to disregard Nuparu’s advice either. Besides, four hours or not, I didn’t think I’d feel any better about it later, so it was pretty much now or never. “Look...” I began somewhat hesitantly, “I spent a lot of time talking with Nuparu about… well, about what happened with Onua, and the other Toa Nuva…, including you. We talked about… how you all ended up, and why, and let’s be honest, things haven’t really gone well for any of you in the long run…” I realized I was rapidly getting nowhere; now, of all the times, in my mixed state of mind words seemed to be failing me. Amazingly, however, they at last elicited a response: a long, deep sigh, perhaps one of exasperation, but I felt relieved; up until that point, I’d feared that he might lash out at me or something, let his anger boil over the way it’d happened when I pushed him as the train had entered station in Onu-Koro-Nuva. While I didn’t imagine he was pleased by any means, at least he wasn’t hostile either. “Go on,” he said coldly, without looking up. “Okay…” I sat down in the chair facing his across the aisle. “Nuparu told me some things, about the way Onua thought, and the way he believes you think...” “The way he believes I think?” Kopaka interrupted without looking up, placing a particular emphasis on the word “he.” “Well, both he and I…” I stammered, “… the way we think you think, I guess… I mean, from what we’ve seen and what you’ve told me, and in light of that… I think I owe you an apology.” I figured that, of all things, those words would elicit a response, but Kopaka seemed to have reverted to the silent treatment. I continued: “I don’t want things between us to end the way… the way they did before Onu-Koro-Nuva, and in Nuparu's shop, but I can’t take back the things I said, ‘cause they were… they were what I felt at the time. Still… I shouldn’t have pushed it so hard. That was a stupid reaction on my part, a reaction to… well, to things I thought didn’t add up. And I’m not saying that they do, but somehow they do to you, and...” “You are making excuses,” he cut me off. “You are trying to justify what you want to apologize for. That is not an apology.” The words seemed scornful, but his tone of voice wasn’t... in fact, it was far less harsh than I’d gotten from him in a long time. “No, it isn’t…” I realized I had to stop dancing around the subject. “Look,” I leant forward, trying to meet his downward gaze, but failing to do so I found myself looking at my feet instead. “I let my opinion of you get in the way, and I let my feelings get in the way of looking objectively at what you’re doing. You’ve been… harsh, to me and to others, and I never liked that, but you were never unfair to anyone, while I’ve definitely been unfair to you. I had no right to call you the things I did, to get angry and denounce you like that, and that’s… that’s what I want to apologize for: for poking and prodding when you repeatedly asked me to stop, and for getting angry at you when you responded. So… I’m sorry. I’m sorry about that.” I paused for a second and thought back over the days gone by, but I couldn’t really pinpoint anything else that I really felt was unjustified or worth apologizing for, given the circumstances. “That’s… that’s it, I guess.” I looked up; he was still looking down, making no eye contact whatsoever, but this time I did get a verbal response. “Fine,” he said dourly. “Consider it past.” “Really?” I was surprised; Kopaka wasn’t the type to quickly forgive. “Well, thanks, I guess…” I wasn’t sure of where to go from there, and Kopaka showed no interest in continuing the conversation, so I decided to let off and turned my attention out the window instead. The train had picked up speed, and dark scenery outlined by the starlit sky was rushing past the windows. I looked back, but by this point we’d come far enough for the lights of Onu-Koro-Nuva to no longer be visible. Suddenly, it dawned on me: I’d left my teammates behind there! They were probably really worried by this point. I had to contact them somehow, but… was I still in range to try telepathy? It had to be worth a go. I closed my eyes, and focused first on Jahlpu, or rather, tried to see if I could establish a link between him and me, even though I knew that it would be almost impossible. I could neither see him directly nor pinpoint the exact location in Onu-Koro-Nuva where he was likely to be, and so I found nothing. Frustrated, I switched to trying to contact Lerome, then Kirall, both with the same result. “ it…” I cursed under my breath. “I’ll have to get a train back when we get to Ko-Koro-Nuva…” Looking around, I spotted a clock at the front of the car, which informed me that we’d just passed a quarter past nine. From that, I figured I should’ve been able to make it back there by sunrise: four hours and change there, same time back. With Kopaka apparently back in his meditative state, I decided to capitalize on the trip by getting some long-overdue sleep; the short morning nap in the Onu-Koro-Nuva hotel hadn’t really been sufficient, and an afternoon and large part of the evening spent wandering around the town had left me pretty tired. So tired, in fact, that after laying down across a couple of seats, I was out in a matter of minutes. I woke up feeling a lot better, but as soon as I sat up I realized a couple of things didn’t quite add up. One: the clock read 6:45 in the morning, a time which was confirmed by the sunrise in progress outside. Two: the train was still going. Also, Kopaka was still sitting across from me, and apparently he’d gotten hold of a sandwich. “Morning…” I said, more as a questioning observation than as a greeting. “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t we have gotten there already?” I wondered. Kopaka looked up, but didn’t answer. “I mean, Ko-Koro-Nuva is like four hours, right?” “You should check your ticket,” the Toa of Ice suggested. “My ticket? Sure, why not…” I produced the ticket and looked at the destination… and just about did a double take. New Atero, return ticket. “New Atero!?” I exclaimed. “What… we’re going back there!?” No response. “What… what for? You got your sword back, you got yourself fixed… shouldn’t you be running around in the mountains by now?” “I did not ask you to follow,” he said curtly. “Well, you didn’t give me much of an option by completely ignoring me when I was trying to tell you something,” I countered. “Particularly something that I told you I really wanted to get off my chest before you left.” He offered no response. “So, what was up with that?” I wondered. “What changed? Did you forget something?” “I do not forget,” he said as he looked down; I immediately feared that he was about to shut me out yet again. “What… is there something else you need fixed?” I continued. “Some place you want to stop by or… Oh ! This means I’m going to be gone for like two days!” I paused as I realized just how ticked off Jahlpu and the others would be. I hadn’t told them anything, and now, as far as they were concerned, I’d upped and vanished on them… and what if they found that operator and learned that I’d gone back on the train running after a mysterious, angry Toa? Jahlpu’d have a fit, especially given that he’d warned Kopaka about “not getting up to anything” before. Really, whenever I got back to Onu-Koro-Nuva, if they were still there by that point, I’d have a lot to explain… This sucked, but unfortunately I really couldn’t do anything about the situation. “Remind me to check my ticket before boarding next time,” I sighed, more as a futile, sarcastic gesture than anything else. Still… while there was nothing I could do on that front, I did have some questions for the Toa sitting across from me. “So… you didn’t forget anything,” I began reasoning out loud, “and your leg and stuff still look fine… so why are you going back? Hmm… something, some kind of circumstance must have changed…” “Lis,” he said coldly. “Yeah?” “You said that you were sorry for prodding after I asked you to stop.” “Yes, I did…” I didn’t like were this was going. “I am asking you now; stop prodding.” “Okay… okay, I won’t,” I relented, “but, will I at least get to see… eventually?” He shot me a momentary death glare, which was undoubtedly my cue to shut up, which I did. Yes, my curiosity was burning, but I didn’t want to eat my own words, not right after I’d made amends. Having finished the sandwich, Kopaka returned to what I’d concluded was his favorite way to kill time; try to process something fiendishly complicated in his brain that I had little hope of deciphering. So, with that avenue closed, and having realized that I had the whole day to fill, I decided getting breakfast wouldn’t be such a bad idea either, and started to make my way forward through the train to get to the dining car. It was oddly refreshing to find a dining car that wasn’t in the process of hosting a party or still reeling in the aftermath of one, and for a while, as I watched the telescreen in the dining car and enjoyed breakfast, I actually felt quite happy that I didn’t have to deal with the company of my teammates. Jahlpu was fine, though he’d also be the one who I’d have the most to explain to when I met them again, but in truth I missed neither Lerome nor Kirall’s company. I mean, there were reasons that I’d left the first time, and while I hadn’t planned on it, I decided to take this trip as some unexpected bliss. In fact, I even contemplated just staying in New Atero when I got there; I could call my teammates to inform them of where I was, and at the moment, it appeared that going back to stay a while with Macku and company was definitely one of the better options on the table, especially with the expedition they were planning. Perhaps this wasn’t such a bad situation after all… At that point, my attention was taken by one of Hahli’s news reports appearing on the telescreen. It concerned the aftermath of the Kolhii game that Lerome’d been so excited about the day before; apparently, Hewkii’s team had squeezed out a narrow victory, which meant the time leading up to the next game would be spent “training and refining training,” as the Toa Mahri of Stone himself put it on camera. It was followed by a “Highlights of the Arena Magna” special, which convinced me it was time to go and find someplace else to sit, which led to me making my way back to the last car again, where I spent the time alternately looking at the scenery outside and flipping through what outdated newspapers were available. Occasionally, I looked to Kopaka, whose meditation provided a constant mental background that by this point I was well used to… except, I noticed there was what I could best describe as an intermittent edge to it, as though every once in a while something was welling up inside him. I couldn’t quite characterize it, but I didn’t want to specifically try and read deeper into his mind to figure out exactly what it was. All I could say was that it hadn’t been there when I’d watched him meditate previously, which could only mean that something really had changed. That theory was reinforced when, early in the afternoon, I came back from the dining car to find that Kopaka had shifted position and was now sitting back in the chair, hand on forehead, looking quite listless. Granted, given the intense thought patterns I saw earlier in the day I figured it was appropriate, but still, for now that meditation seemed to have uncharacteristically stopped. “Headache?” I asked. “No.” “I mean, if it was, I could help with that…” I offered. “No need.” Of course; even if he had a headache, he’d just tough it out. I picked up a magazine again and started to read when, to my surprise, he asked me a question. “Lis?” he got my attention. “Yeah?” “Why did you keep following me?” His voice had more of a raspy quality to it than usual, which complemented the tired look. “Why did I keep following you?” I reiterated. I was taken aback; definitely not a question that I was expecting. “Well… uhm… initially it was because you were hurt…” I began, but he cut me off. “Not then. After my leg got fixed, after Gali, after Pohatu,” he explained, “why then?” “Well, you promised to show me the final battle,” I recalled. “You could have asked Gali for that, or Tahu, and they would have offered more explanation,” Kopaka pointed out. “You know that.” “Uhm… Yeah, I suppose they would have,” I agreed. In fact, getting Tahu’s view in particular actually sounded like a really interesting idea, given how he’d taken charge and all. “So why me, specifically?” he asked again. “Because… I was curious,” I answered. “I mean, no one’s seen you in millennia, and no one might ever see you again after… well, after you leave. I guess I wanted to learn what I could before you go. I still do.” That seemed a much more satisfactory answer. “Learn what?” he questioned. “Learn… about being a Toa,” I decided. “About what you did, and why you did it. I mean, incongruities aside… you could explain a lot of things, and I wasn’t going to get your point of view from anyone else, so I took the chance, I guess. Besides, there was always something else dragging me along too, right?” “Right…” he nodded slowly, unconvinced. “Could I turn the question on its head?” I asked. He didn’t immediately object, which I took as a “yes,” so I continued: “Why did you allow me to stay?” “Allow you to stay?” “Like, you’re not known for valuing company,” I continued, “and you specifically mentioned you ‘tolerated’ my presence as long as I didn’t… you know, ask too much. From the other Toa I’ve spoken to, that’s a bit unusual; normally you drop people as soon as you can. Why didn’t you do that with me? Did the others ask even more questions?” “Not particularly,” he answered, “and I knew I would not be stuck for long with you regardless. I did not have that guarantee before.” “Right, ‘cause no one in their right mind would follow you into those mountains,” I recalled. I detected a slight flash of anger at the statement; in effect, I’d said that he was insane for going into the mountains himself, something that was not entirely unintentional. “How much longer do I have, then?” I changed the subject. “Before you leave New Atero, that is?” “Not long,” Kopaka said curtly. “Like, you’re just stopping by one or two places and then leaving?” I pushed further, hoping to get some idea of his apparently revised plans. For a second or two, he didn’t answer, and the reply that followed wasn’t what I wanted to hear: “Enough for now.” He pointed his gaze at the floor again, rested his elbows on his knees and his chin on folded hands. Within seconds, he was… out again, retreated into whatever he was doing that so put his brain through its paces. I was disappointed, but the fact that he’d actually asked me a question on why I kept following him kept me busy thinking for a while as well; why the sudden interest? I got the feeling he wasn’t just asking because he could, like it was something that he’d been wondering in the back of his mind but hadn’t bothered asking because the opportunity wasn’t there; he actually had to know for some reason. Was he planning something that took me into account? That would’ve been very uncharacteristic of the Kopaka I’d seen and heard about up until that point, but still, it was the only real explanation I could think of. Perhaps my apology had done more than just put my mind at ease… I really wanted to ask him more, but if all that was required for him to open up even a little at this point was time then, well, I had hours to give.

-------------------- Chapter 39 -------------------- That was the end of the memory… I backed out, looked down, and found that my hands were shaking. That last image of Onua, what remained of him, slumped against the end of the tunnel and waiting for it to end... it was haunting. Sitting across the table, Nuparu sat with a pensive look on his face, elbows on the table and resting his chin on folded hands. “It took them a month to find his body…” he began. “Then, of course, there was a big service, the building of the memorial… Everyone believed he’d died just working as he always had. No one except me knew that he ended it himself.” “You think it was on purpose?” I asked, a bit shocked. “He’d never have dug into fractured bedrock like that without reinforcing the tunnel along the way,” Nuparu explained. “One way or the other, he knew that tunnel was coming down. It wasn’t an impulsive thing; he’d been at that tunnel for hours. I just showed up at the right time to see the end.” “Right… and for a moment there, he sounded almost… happy,” I remembered. “He knew the collapse was imminent,” Nuparu said dourly. “He could sense it… and by that point, death was a comfort to him. Three months of this stuff,” he pointed at the crystal still lying on the table, “three months was all it took to bring him to that point.” He sighed. “I asked myself a lot of questions afterwards, you know? About what I could’ve done differently… in the end, I came to the conclusion that by that point, I could do nothing for him. That’s how I’ve lived with it ever since.” “And no one else figured it out?” I wondered. “I never told anyone. Never. It would’ve destroyed his reputation, and you can see how much he means to the people of this city.” I immediately thought of Jahlpu when he said that; my brother practically lived his life by the words of Onua. “His legacy remains untarnished, and it’s better that way,” Nuparu concluded. “What about… as a warning?” I wondered. “I mean, if this stuff destroyed Onua, wouldn’t that serve as a very strong warning against people… you know, using it?” “It’s rare, and I buy up all of the crystals they find and keep them locked away,” Nuparu explained. “That way, no warning is necessary.” “The best of both worlds…” I mumbled. “Exactly.” We paused for a moment… then Nuparu got up, picked up a set of tongs, and walked over to the tempering furnace. He pulled out the blade, took it to another tank, one filled with water, and dropped it in. With a loud, hissing sound, steam erupted from the tank; Nuparu took a step back, waited for the boiling to stop, then pulled out the blade and laid it on the work bench. “So, why did you tell me, then?” I wondered. “As a warning,” he replied. “But, you just said…” “Not the drugs,” he cut me off. He looked down the blade to ensure it was still straight. “As a warning about blind devotion to duty. Onua only started using those crystals because he felt like he wouldn’t be relevant if he couldn’t work. He’d made that work his duty, and remained so laser-focused on it that he couldn’t back off, couldn’t reinvent himself again when his body started to give.” “He worked himself to death because it was the only way in which he saw himself adequately serving the Matoran.” A scary thought, that’s for sure. “That’s right.” Apparently satisfied with the straightness of the blade, Nuparu laid it on the workbench and proceeded to reassemble the handle on the tang. “Now,” he continued in a somewhat stern tone, “I’m sure that, if you’ve been traveling with Kopaka, you’ve heard an awful lot about duty and the Toa Code, and about how he sees himself as serving it.” “He’s pretty certain that he’s got it all figured out,” I acknowledged. “Of course, he’s living a fantasy, but hey, he can sleep at night.” “In spite of the contradictions?” “In spite of anything and anyone,” I continued, anger starting to boil over again. “He just rationalizes it all away, and is marching to his own demise in the process; he just refuses to see it.” “Well, don’t be too quick to dismiss him,” Nuparu said, to my surprise. “He’s just trying to reconcile his duty and the Toa Code in way that he can stomach. It’s a pity that this world has no place for him where he can do so that would satisfy him, but that’s why he rationalizes away the contradictions.” “You’re wrong,” I argued. “There is a place for him, a place where he can pursue his duty without destroying himself. The knowledge towers! Gali even pointed it out to him, as did I. He only got angry about it. Angry that he didn’t think of it, maybe?” “No, he thought of it,” Nuparu countered. “In fact, I bet he’s thought about it a lot, and that he has a legitimate reason for not wanting to work there.” “His ego,” I explained. “He wants to be alone so he can prove he is better than everyone else; to prove that he can survive what no one else can, and that he can do it without help. It’s lunacy, and it’s getting him killed with no benefit for the Matoran.” “So his ego isn’t a legitimate reason?” Nuparu asked. “No, it isn’t,” I argued. “Not when satisfying his ego means letting everyone else down.” “Okay, so suppose he were to start working in a knowledge tower,” Nuparu posed as he began to wrap a leather grip around the handle of the blade. “Suppose he agreed to start doing his astronomy there; the Matoran would bring him food, water, whatever he needs, and he could spend all of his time charting the stars through the latest equipment. Would that be better?” “Of course!” I answered. No question about it, right? “Well, in light of the ‘ego’ you described,” Nuparu continued, “do you think he’d be happy up there?” “He’d be fulfilling his duty,” I answered, “and he’s always hammering on about how important that is.” “That’s not what I asked,” Nuparu said as he put the blade down and looked me straight in the eyes. “Would he be happy up there, in those circumstances?” “Uhm…” I wasn’t sure what he was looking for… or was I? “I guess, maybe not?” “No, I don’t think he would be,” Nuparu agreed. “It wouldn’t… it wouldn’t fit his idea of a hero, what he strives to be.” “So, what does this… idyllic hero look like, then?” I wondered. “Some kind of solitary warrior, I think.” Nuparu picked up the blade again and resumed wrapping the grip around the handle. “I mean, he’s always insisted that he works alone, right?” “True…” I nodded. “Actually, Gali said that, too. She told me about how Kopaka always wants to do everything himself… even if it doesn’t lead to, you know, the best results.” “There you go,” Nuparu shrugged. “Did she tell you why he does that?” “She believed it’s because he wants to prove himself independent from everyone else,” I recalled, “and I saw some things that proved that he wants to do that because he wants to believe he’s better than everyone else… I mean, able to stand alone when everyone else needs a team behind them.” “Then that’s why he wouldn’t be happy working in a knowledge tower,” Nuparu explained. “Living in a city like that, or even above it… he’d have to rely on others for at least some things, and he sees that as a weakness that he can’t stand. He doesn’t want to be a part of society, to be dependent on other members of it to do their part, which is why he’s going as far away from it as he can.” “But… he’s wrong,” I argued. “That… interdependence isn’t a weakness. Just look at what the Matoran have accomplished as a society! I mean, that statue out there wasn’t built by one person, was it?” “No…” Nuparu admitted, “but Kopaka’s not a Matoran, is he?” “No, he isn’t…” No denying that. “And neither are the other Toa Nuva,” Nuparu explained. “You see, that’s the difference between us and them. They were never Matoran; they never had a life where they weren’t the exalted heroes that legends speak of, and that’s why they’ve had so much trouble adjusting.” “But you guys did fine,” I countered. “You’re still serving the Matoran now, aren’t you? And you don’t need to be the hero for it.” “That’s because I haven’t always been a hero,” Nuparu reiterated himself. He finished tying up the grip; the sword was done, so he looked back to me. “Look, Lis,” he sighed. “Onua, Lewa, Kopaka… all the Toa Nuva have their own idea of what a hero is, what a hero does, and that’s all they know, what they want to be. Only know life at the summit, right?” He pointed at the letter in front of me. “Thing is, the summit kills everyone sooner or later… and we couldn’t get them to come down. Lewa and Onua couldn’t face the descent; they’d already seen from Gali and Pohatu what the bottom looks like. It sucks, but no one was going to change that… and that’s why you’re not going to get Kopaka to stay. No one can; he’d rather die, die as the hero he believes himself to be.” “But… it undercuts his duty,” I stammered. “Look around you,” Nuparu replied. “Look at New Atero, at this city here… do these people really need Toa? It’s our duty to help them, but they don’t need our help anymore. That’s why I’ve gone back to doing what I did before I became a Toa, and all the other Toa Mahri did the same. We went back to being Matoran, just… taller ones. If the Matoran need Toa again, we can rise to the challenge, but until then we’ll live out our lives in peace, ‘cause unlike the Toa Nuva, we have lives to return to.” “I guess you’re still serving society anyways, right?” I pointed out. “I mean, you’re still fulfilling your duty, just… without the need for the spotlight.” “You could say that…” Nuparu sighed, took up that pensive pose again, and thought for a couple of seconds. Then he looked up: “Lis, you’re still looking for something to do, for a purpose, right?” “Yeah.” He looked me straight in the eyes again. “Take my advice: don’t get hung up on framing it with or calling it “Duty” or “Destiny.” Those virtues were for a time of war, when legends were forged and great evil hovered over us like a specter. That time is gone. The time of heroes is gone, which is why I’m not pretending to be one, and neither are the other Toa Mahri. I’m not serving some grand duty, I’m doing a job I enjoy, something that I’m good at. That’s the standard you should be striving for, and if, one day, the need for heroes arises again, you can stand up and be there.” “But… what if that time never comes?” I questioned. “Take pride in what you do,” Nuparu answered. “I’m far more satisfied with the work I’ve done here, in my shop and for the mines, than anything I did or accomplished ‘being a hero’ and fighting monsters. Truth is, we barely pulled it off, and lost the best of us in the process. None of us ever felt we were heroes; we just did what we were called to do.” “Yet the Matoran still call you a hero,” I pointed out, “and me, too.” “The Matoran need people to believe in…” Nuparu explained, “…people to look up to. We serve that role just fine by being upstanding citizens, and the Toa Code gives us the rules on that. Besides, even if you never got to do something you consider title-worthy, you were ready to, weren’t you?” “I mean, if it had come to a fight…” I shuddered at the prospect of facing an angry Skakdi tribe, “… I guess we would’ve done what we could.” “Well, then as far as I’m concerned you’re as deserving of the title as I am.” Nuparu cracked a slight smile before his expression turned gravely serious again. “Really, don’t worry about it… just don’t go out of your way to be some great hero when no one needs one. It didn’t work for the Toa Nuva, and it won’t work for you.” “But, what about Kopaka, then?” I asked. “He’s still trying… and he’ll die trying before long. I don’t think anyone will even know when it happens.” “Like I said, you’re not going to be able to change him. Besides, most of the Matoran think he’s dead already anyways…” Nuparu sighed. “Look, I know his words and his actions don’t match, but… learn from him what you can, and then just let him live out his fantasy. He’ll be happy, the Matoran will keep their legend, and you won’t spend years asking yourself how you could have saved him. No one can save him now, no more than anyone could save Onua.” “I guess you’re right…” I admitted. “It just… sucks, you know?” “It does,” Nuparu agreed, “but when we can’t save a person from their own flaws, we can at least save the legacy, the ideal they represented. Onua, Kopaka… all the Toa Nuva deserve all the worship they get for what they accomplished; they saved a universe, and made possible the creation of a new world. As fellow Toa, we should make sure that that legacy isn’t tainted by the failings that came to light in that world.” “I guess that’s it, then…” I resigned. “I should let him go.” From what Nuparu said, it looked like the best option… but I just didn’t like it, something that the Toa of Earth recognized. “It might help if you parted with him on good terms,” he suggested. “I’m not saying that you’re wrong; you’re absolutely right about his incongruent reasoning, but… you’ll feel a lot better after he’s gone if your last words weren’t in anger.” “So, I should apologize?” I asked. The idea seemed abhorrent at first. “Apologize for pointing out the truth? He never gave anyone else that courtesy.” “Yeah, and I’m sure it eats at him too,” Nuparu continued. “He probably buries it like everything else, but I guarantee that somewhere in there he feels pretty bad about the way he’s treated people. That might even be why he’s so fanatically devoted to proving himself to himself… if he isn’t the morally righteous one, maybe at least he can be the strongest, right? Lis, his ego’s going to kill him, and there’s nothing you can do to change that… but don’t let yours do the same to you. You can be the bigger person here, and it will only help you.” “I guess I never thought of it like that…” I realized that, once again, the older Toa was right. I didn’t like it, but I did owe Kopaka an apology, more for my sake than his. Nuparu turned his attention to screwing the pommel back on the blade, and I looked up at the clock suspended in the shop; it was over halfway from eight to nine in the evening. Nuparu noticed it, too. “It’s getting late,” he observed, suddenly looking quite tired. “Here, the sword is done;” he handed it to me. “Take it back to him; it’ll give you a way to get the conversation going.” “Uhm, okay…” The blade was lighter than I thought. “Shouldn’t he pay for it first?” “He already did,” Nuparu pointed out. “Besides, after all this, I’m about ready to call it a day.” “Of course,” I nodded. “I’ll probably head back to New Atero… Well, anyways,” I reached forward to shake his hand, “thank you for telling me all this, and for showing me what happened with Onua. I know it was hard.” “You’re welcome.” He shook it back. “If you learned something from it, it was worth it.” “It did, and it was,” I assured him as we turned and started heading for the door. “If you need anything, stop by anytime,” he invited. “I will, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing Jahlpu soon.” “I look forward to it.” He smiled in spite of how tired he looked. Entering into the main shop space, we looked around; Kopaka was nowhere to be seen. “Well, where’d he go?” I thought out loud. “Outside, probably,” Nuparu suggested. “You should probably go look for him; he won’t be far, and if he does come in here, I’ll tell him to wait outside the doors.” “Works for me,” I agreed. So we parted ways: he moved to finish closing up the shop, while I turned right and headed for the doors. “And if you do go back to New Atero, say hello to the other Toa Mahri for me!” he called after me. “Will do!” I called back as I picked my way between the workbenches and assorted machinery set up in the dim light. Stepping outside, I looked up at a clear, starry sky. The mountain air was chilly, but the view was breathtaking. I closed the doors behind me and stepped back onto Onu-Koro-Nuva’s main street. I didn’t expect Kopaka to have gone into the underground portion, with its round-the-clock hustle and bustle, so I headed in the direction of the hotel and the train station. As it turned out, I was right; I’d made it not fifty feet down the road before I noticed a tall, cloaked figure standing in front of one of the buildings, right across the street from the hotel. Unlike underground Onu-Koro-Nuva, the Matoran on the surface kept a day-night schedule, which meant that the street was empty. As I walked to where Kopaka was standing, I noticed the building he was facing was some kind of souvenir shop, presumably positioned close to the train station to catch weary travelers who’d spent their day in the underground city and were about to board the train home. Kopaka’s attention seemed to be focused on something on display inside, and he showed no sign of noticing me as I approached, not even when I stopped about ten feet away from him. “Hey, your sword is done…” I said, presenting the weapon. He quickly turned to face me, almost jolting as though I’d surprised him, which I’d scarcely believed possible given how he’d always noticed me even when I used my mask. Recognizing me, he immediately turned to his resting state. “So it is,” he said solemnly, and gestured for me to approach. I did, and he took the sword. He held it out in front of him for a second or two, testing its weight and balance. Apparently satisfied, he stored it away. Looking past him, I noticed the object he had been so fixated on: a foot-and-a-half tall, bronze model of the statue of Onua in underground Onu-Koro-Nuva, complete with a small lightstone in its raised hand, making it either the world’s most elaborately detailed and expensive ornament, or the world’s most pretentious desk lamp. Having stowed the blade, Kopaka turned back to face the window, looking it over one more time. “Hey, there’s something… something I have to tell you,” I began, trying with some difficulty to find the right words. “Well, I guess it’s more of an apology…” “How did it end?” He suddenly asked, cutting me off. He didn’t even turn to face me; he just asked the question. “Sorry… what?” I was momentarily taken aback. Now he turned back to face me again. “How did it end?” he repeated himself. “What Nuparu showed you.” “Oh, that…” now I got it, but what did he want to know about it? “Well, you know how it ends. He died, remember?” “Show me,” he asked. “Show you?” I was dumbfounded. “Like, all of it?” “What Nuparu showed you,” he elaborated. “What did the end look like?” “So now you’re interested?” I said incredulously. Really, now he was interested? “Fine then,” he said with a sudden edge to his voice. “Never mind.” He started to turn again. “No, actually…” I decided. If he wanted to see how Onua died, then I would show him. , maybe it would scare some sense into him; from what he’d told me, Onua was the one other Toa Nuva he still respected up until this point. “You want to see how it ended? I’ll show you how it ended, right here, right now.” He turned back and looked me straight in the eyes. “You ready for this?” I asked, more to see if it would elicit any reaction from him than to get an actual answer; he’d asked, of course he was ready. Alas, no reaction was forthcoming, his expression remaining as stoic as ever. So, I placed my hands on his shoulders, closed my eyes and focused in on his mind instead, calling up the still-fresh memory I’d gotten from Nuparu, intending to hit him with all of it. The condition of the tunnel, the first sight of the Toa Nuva of Earth in his skeletal, famished state, Nuparu pleading with him to come back, Onua’s resignation to his fate, and his final act of defiance… All of it. It only took a minute or two, but while the connection was up and I was feeding the memory to Kopaka, I also got some signals back; inevitable echos of his reactions to what he saw, what he was experiencing. At that moment when Nuparu first rounded the corner and laid eyes on what remained of Onua, I got shock: deep, awful shock, something Kopaka would have done his best to hide, but he couldn’t block this. Through the conversation, I got disbelief, shock again, more disbelief, hints of anger, and eventually silence… silence punctuated by a sad gloom. This was Kopaka accepting what had shocked him so, Onua’s final scene… when we got to the part where Nuparu was racing against the collapsing tunnel to get out, which should’ve gotten his adrenaline pumping, I instead got that same sadness. Not even an extra heartbeat; after that last glimpse back, that image of Onua leaning back against the wall, awaiting the imminent collapse, Kopaka had tuned out. I opened my eyes; my hands had dropped to my sides and were shaking a little, but I quickly reasserted myself. Kopaka’d turned away again, his eyes once again fixed on that statue that crowned the display behind the window. “That’s it,” I said. I got no response from Kopaka, but his expression, for once, spoke volumes. I could best describe it as an empty sadness, like I’d shattered something in him, his view of Onua perhaps, the one Toa Nuva he’d had good things left to say about. I didn’t focus in on his mind again, but even with what passive signals I got, I could tell all manner of thoughts were racing through his head… somehow, that felt quite satisfying to me. “Hey, that was it,” I said, reaching up and shaking his shoulder to try and get him out of this… whatever trance this was. I got no response again; he’d tuned me out completely. “So, look,” I continued, “I know you can hear me, and I do have one thing left to say before I go, or before you go, I guess...” I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts again, then noticed that his expression had changed to a frown, a scowl, a defiant expression of some kind. Unsure of what to make of it, I tried to get his attention again: “Hey… look, I’m sorry about, you know… what I said back there…” Suddenly, he turned and started to walk away. “Hey, wait!” I followed. “Where are you going!?” Again, he ignored me completely, but he kept up a very quick pace. He marched into the train station, made his way up to the ticket booth, slammed a bunch of widgets down on the counter in one go, and pointed resolutely at the board listing various destinations. The late-night operator quickly offered him a ticket, which he took, after which he proceeded up the stairs leading onto bridge to the passenger platform, not even bothering to wait for change to be counted. “Hey!” I called after him, but it was like I didn’t exist as far as he was concerned, so I turned to the operator instead. “Hey, wherever he’s going… I need a ticket too,” I told her. The operator, a young Ce-Matoran, of all things, quickly grabbed another ticket and just handed it to me. “This’ll cover it,” she said, gesturing at the pile of widgets on her desk and with a noticeable tremble in her voice; Kopaka’s display had left an impression. “Oh… okay.” I wasn’t going to question that; I took the ticket and started for the walkway. “The train’ll leave in less than a minute, ma’m!” she called after me. “Thanks!” I called back as I sped up, sprinting up the stairs and across the walkway to the platform where the train was parked, ready and waiting. I boarded the closest car mere seconds before the doors closed and the train got rolling. Looking left and right, I didn’t see a sign of Kopaka, but I wasn’t going to let him get away, not again.

-------------------- Chapter 38 -------------------- It took a good ten minutes for Nuparu to return, and when he did, he was carrying two things: an old, rolled-up letter, and two opaque, red crystals that fit in the palm of his hand. He handed me the letter first. “Read that,” he instructed, “and tell me what you think.” “Okay…” I unrolled the letter, unsure of what exactly made this piece of paper so significant. That changed the moment I noticed the signature on the bottom: Lewa. Nuparu stepped back as I began to read the letter. Onua, dearest brother, By the time you get this, I’ll be dead. But before I go, I owe you an explanation, and a warning. Please, understand that I don’t mean to hurt anyone by doing this, least of all you. However, I don’t want to fade, to become the bitter has-been that our brother Pohatu has become. You pointed out that I should retire, call it quits before my body says “enough,” but I can’t do that either; part of me knows it’s only a long road downhill from here. I don’t want to see the bottom; I have spent my life at the summit, and I can’t be happy anywhere else. Therefore, I can’t quit: one way or another, I would drive myself to my own destruction. This way, at least, I’ll do it on my own terms, and leave the Le-Matoran with one more good story to tell. Mt. Valmai’s eruption is only hours away, and in it I will have the thrill of my life, and the last. I’m sure the Matoran will see it as an inevitable accident, a great stunt of dare-and-do gone wrong. It’ll be tragic, but they’ll remember me as I want to be remembered, as the hero they deserve. It is the one thing I have left to offer them: a legend. That’s all we will eventually be to the Matoran, right? Legends. Symbols of our peoples’ character and achievements. It’s a role I've played, gladly, for millennia, and I know you feel the same. But I want to caution you against making the mistake I made: don’t let it consume you. Our chosen professions may be different, but we have both worked our hardest to provide for the Matoran, to serve them as our code commands. However, you are patient, while I can’t sit still for five minutes. You have wisdom and experience to offer the Onu-Matoran, while I could offer the Le-Matoran nothing but spectacle. Old age will inevitably leave me bitter and ostracized, while you would be as good a leader of the Matoran as any Turaga. Yet, when last we met, you were still toiling away in the mines, even as the work is taking its toll on your body. I’m telling you now to do what you told me, what I could never do: retire, for the good of your people. You could offer them so much more than just the tale of a Toa who worked himself to death. Yes, I know it sounds hypocritical, just as it did weeks ago… but fate played us cruel cards, and our brothers and sisters have already fallen victim to their circumstances, doomed to live out their lives as mockeries of Toa, sad as it is to see. I’m no better than them, but you, you saved all of us, several times. If anyone can show the world what it meant to be the Toa Nuva, it is you. I am taking the one good option left to me, but you still have a choice. I pray you choose right. Farewell, and thank you for all you did for me, and for all of us, Your brother, Lewa. It was a difficult letter to read; between the erratic handwriting and spots of tears on it, it was clear that the author had found it equally difficult to write. Heart-wrenching, even. It confirmed what I had already suspected about Lewa; his death was not the near-miss, the tragic accident that everyone believed it to be. Lewa had flown into that eruption with full intent to die in it. The tragic part was that he was right; he was remembered as a hero for it, whereas if he had stayed around he could well have ended up like Pohatu. “That’s… a lot to take in,” I remarked, looking up to find Nuparu leaning against the wall by the tempering oven. “That it is,” the Toa of Earth agreed. “He wrote that five weeks after the last time he and Onua met. They argued about that exact thing, fell out, and hadn’t spoken since. Normally, they talked at least twice per week.” “They were close?” “Very. The only Toa Nuva that still were,” Nuparu took his seat by the work bench. “So, what do those have to do with it?” I asked, pointing at the red crystals, now lying on the table. “Lewa’s warning,” Nuparu replied, “about Onua destroying himself just as he had done… Onua heeded it for a while, but this,” he picked up a crystal, “this is what destroyed him.” “What is it?” I wondered. “I’m not sure,” the Toa of Earth said as he held it up, inspecting it against the light, “and believe me, I tried for a long time to figure it out. It’s not a normal gem, that’s for sure.” “What does it do?” “Observe,” Nuparu said as he placed the crystal in the palm of his hand, then squeezed tight. He held the grip for about ten seconds, rocking his fingers, and when he opened his palm the crystal had been reduced to a bunch of smaller pieces and a fair amount of fine, red dust. “It’s fragile,” he explained, “and useless, except… it has an effect on the mind. A very powerful effect.” “A drug,” I noted. “Exactly,” he sighed. “The powder… you sniff it, inhale it, and in moments it makes you feel invincible. No pain, no anxiety, nothing.” “Onua figured that out?” I asked. “By accident, I believe,” Nuparu continued. “These things are found deep down in the mine, and to this day most people believe them to be useless. Plus, they’re rare, and I’ve made sure to collect them, to keep them out of unwitting hands. They’re fiendishly addictive, and therefore very dangerous.” “Really?” I picked up the other crystal and held it up against the light. It seemed hard to believe that such a small, comparatively worthless gem would be so dangerous. “So, what did Onua do, then?” “After he got that letter, and after Lewa’s funeral, he decided to retire,” Nuparu explained, “but he just couldn’t keep away from the mine. So, instead of calling it quits, he said he’d ‘ramp down’ his work, working shorter hours and all that, until eventually he would be ready to leave completely. At the time, it seemed perfectly reasonable, given how much important that work was to him.” “His way of serving the Matoran,” I interpreted. “That’s right,” Nuparu agreed. “I thought it was a good decision. I mean, he was already showing signs of wear; it was clear that his body was starting to go, so I figured he’d wind down and eventually take up a Turaga role. Unfortunately, that’s not how it happened. Instead, he found this.” He held up his palm with the powder in it. “He was hurting by that point; his body was telling him it was time to stop, and that was part of what motivated him to actually slow down; he really didn’t want to, didn’t want to abandon his duty as he saw it.” “A workaholic…” “A workaholic who saw his work as his divine duty…” Nuparu sighed, paused, swallowed, then continued: “Somewhere along the line, he discovered these crystals… they made him feel young again, feel strong again, or at least that’s how he described it to me later. At the time, none of us knew, but somehow, a month of two after the funeral, there was this newfound energy about him, and he went back to working full-time and then some. He was going it at it harder than ever before, and the Matoran were cheering him on because, you know, he was their hero, and his retirement would’ve meant the end of an era to them. They thought that, against all odds, he’d gotten better. At first, I was worried, but he seemed so much happier that I didn’t ask questions, and neither did anyone else. Like I said, we didn’t know at the time what was really fueling his return.” “He hid it?” I asked. “Very well,” Nuparu confirmed. “I mean, he was the one who found most of these crystals down there anyways, so it wouldn’t have been much trouble for him to pick them up and keep them to himself.” “He couldn’t hide it forever, though,” I noted. “You found out in the end.” “I did,” he recalled. “I’d go to visit him, only to find he was working an extra shift again, and when he was home he was looking worse every time. It didn’t add up. One time he came home with his arm twisted and mangled; he’d gotten it stuck in a partial tunnel collapse, yet he acted as though it was nothing. He ate little, and started to lose weight and muscle tone; he was pushing his body beyond the limit, forcing it to destroy itself to fuel his work. I convinced him to take a week off, to get the arm fixed and healed, so he did and went back to work after three days. By that point, I was convinced something was up, so I followed him down there. That’s when I saw for the first time that he was using these crystals, or rather, he found some while he was working on yet another tunnel, deeper down than the last. Turns out he went back to work so early because his supply had run out. That was about a month after he first started using them.” “He went downhill that quickly?” I was rather surprised. “At that point, his ‘supply’ consisted of maybe two crystals per day,” Nuparu explained. “I confronted him about it, and thankfully he was willing to listen to reason, but he wasn’t willing to stop working altogether. As he saw it, with these crystals he could keep going for longer, keep serving his duty to the Matoran. So, I let off, hoping that he would sooner or later realize how insane of a plan that was.” “I take it he didn’t come to that realization…” “I should’ve taken a firmer stance, but I didn’t realize just how much that sense of duty that had guided him as a hero before was blinding him…” Nuparu’s voice was beginning to waver. “And these… these things,” he looked at the red dust in his hand, “he believed that they were somehow giving him greater strength. They weren’t; they simply made him blind to his own limits. At first I thought he was just pushing himself to stay relevant, but then I had to believe that he was absolutely desperate, given how fast he went. I mean, it was becoming obvious to everyone; he looked gaunt, didn’t care about injuries, hardly slept or ate or drank anything… I tried again and again to tell him that he should slow down. When I visited him in the mine again a couple of weeks after I found out, he collapsed while working. I used that incident, and his… well, condition, to argue that he had to stop. Not slow down, not a break… he had to stop. That was it.” “Did he?” By this point, I found myself hoping that he did, even though… well, history had already played out, hadn’t it? “He tried,” Nuparu leant to the side and dropped the powder and fragments of the crystal in a trash can. “And for a while… he almost managed it. But it was . He’d already damaged his body beyond repair, and as soon as the crystal wore off, it was like his nerves were screaming at him. Headaches, cold sweats, back pain… he could barely drag himself out of bed. And it just wouldn’t end.” Nuparu shuddered, and his voice had taken on a distinctly morose tone. “It lasted all of two weeks. Two weeks during which he didn’t dare step outside, ‘cause he didn’t want the Matoran to see what was happening to him. Through it all, that was what he said hurt most; the fact that he was sitting there, not working…” “He couldn’t stay away…” I looked down at Lewa’s letter again… the Toa of Air had felt the exact same way. “And that’s what ended it,” Nuparu said, with a sudden anger in his voice. “He gave up, or gave in, whatever you want to call it. Got a hold of another crystal somehow, went back into the mine, and didn’t come out for the next two weeks. When I asked him about it, he said he was making up for lost time. So I took matters into my own hands. While he was gone, I turned his house upside down to figure out where he was keeping these things… I didn’t find any. Instead, I found that.” He pointed at the letter. “Lewa’s warning…” “I showed it to him, reminded him of it…” Nuparu paused for a moment to collect himself. “And then he told me that Lewa was wrong, that he’d be fine. Lewa’d just lacked the resolve to keep going, had flinched when faced with the future, like Gali. Coming from him, that was the worst insult for a Toa; he blamed Gali for driving the team apart, and hadn’t spoken to or of her since except to express his anger. Then he told me to go back to ‘fixing little drills’ and to leave him alone. So I did; I was furious, furious at his delusion, furious that he’d dismissed his dead friend’s warning and insulted him to boot… I was done for a while after that.” “I know that feeling.” Pretty much how I felt about Kopaka at this point. “It felt right at the time, but I shouldn’t have left,” Nuparu continued. “I should’ve dragged him out of that tunnel and over to Gali’s place, just to see if she could do anything about the state his body was in. Maybe that would’ve made quitting tolerable for him, not to have to deal with as much pain… As it was, when I left, he was doomed. He stayed in the mine for longer and longer, looking for more crystals to fuel his spiraling habit… at the end, he was up to one per hour, and that was over a month after the last time I saw him. I went down there one last time… and it was awful…” he was choking up. “I’m… I’m sorry,” I stopped him. “You can stop, really, I… I mean, I know this is difficult, and…” “No,” he said defiantly. “No, someone needs to know… just give me a moment.” “Don’t talk, then,” I suggested. “Just… think. I’ll see for myself.” For a moment, he looked a bit confused, but then he realized what I was doing. I focused in on him, as he was reliving that memory… I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, but if he was intent on me knowing, I was going to see it for myself. -*-*- I’m walking down a tunnel, one that’s barely lit. From up ahead, I hear a scraping sound, an occasional falling rock… the sound of someone digging, punctuated by two small, high-revving engines; the signature sound of Onua’s tools. To the left and right of me, water comes dripping down from cracks all over the walls and ceiling of this tunnel; it hasn’t been reinforced or anything… this can’t possibly be safe. Looking back, I see the vehicle I’ve left behind; a small quad-buggy, pointing the other way with its engine still running; if worst comes to worst, I have to get out of the tunnel quickly, but it has now narrowed to where the buggy can go no further, hence I am continuing on foot. Only fifty or so feet beyond where I left the buggy, the tunnel curves to the right… and now that it’s straightening out again, I get my first glimpse of the Toa Nuva of Earth. It’s from about a hundred feet away and from behind, but even from here it’s obvious that he’s in a terrible state… I’m not looking at a Toa; I’m looking at the living, skeletal remains of one. As I approach, the details become clearer; what little muscle is draped over his base frame is torn, frayed, and discolored… His armor, dented, meant to accommodate bulging muscles, is hanging by the bolts that attach it to his frame, and as he pushes the fast-revving drilling tools against the wall, grinding away into the rock, his whole body shakes as though he’s struggling to hold the heavy things in place. I wait for a few seconds until, exhausted, he allows the tools to wind down and lowers them to the ground. “Onua?...” I manage to get out. He doesn’t seem to hear. “Onua!” I call out more forcefully and approach. For a moment, it seems my call has once again fallen on deaf ears, but then he slowly begins to turn… as I come within ten feet, his eyes fall on me. They’re red around the edges and unnaturally wide open; their owner hasn’t slept for days. He once stood quite tall, but his bony, bent frame is that of a tortured man. “Nuparu.” his voice is incredibly hoarse, to the point where I can barely understand what he’s saying. This is the state those crystals have left him in. “Look at you…” my voice is wavering; I’m still getting over what I’m looking at. “Look at yourself.” No reply. “The once mighty Toa Onua… look where your duty has brought you. It is killing you.” For a few seconds, we just look each other dead in the eyes. I want some kind of reply, some acknowledgement beyond my name, some sign that those crystals haven’t taken his brain as well. “Duty brought me this far,” he says at last. “There is no turning back now.” “No turning back?” “I can’t go back up there… not like this.” Even through torn vocal cords, I recognize a tone of sadness… of resignation. “So you know,” I reply. “You know where you’re at. That means you can turn back.” “I can’t,” he says. “It’s done, and you need to go. Now.” “I’m not leaving,” I reply resolutely. “No, Nuparu, you are leaving,” he says again, now more threateningly. “There’s nothing for you here. Go!” “ it!” I exclaim. “You’ve given up… just like Lewa, right!?” I expect him to hurl back some explicative at the mentioning of the Toa Nuva of Air’s name… but I don’t get that. Instead, he gets that look again… as though the gravity of his condition just hit him. “Just like Lewa…” I repeat. “He was right…” Onua suddenly says. “ fool was right all along. There’s no place left for me; not now.” “There is, if you can let go of your pride, of your duty, for just a second,” I argue. “We can save you.” “No…” Onua begins, but then a sudden pain seems to grip him. “Argh!” he lurches, drops one of his tools, and grabs onto the sides of his abdomen. “You’re hurt,” I continue. “Come with me, we can get help. We can get you through this.” “No!” he exclaims, still grimacing with pain, as he reaches into a small bag attached to his waist. “Come on…” he mutters as he rummages around it, eventually pulling out one small, red crystal fragment. “Onua, don’t…” I begin, but before I can even get to him he’s crushed it in his hand. He brings then had up to his face, takes a deep breath… For a moment, everything seems to stand still, then he lets out a sigh of relief. “That’s destroying you, and you know it,” I say. He doesn’t reply; instead, he reaches into the pocket again, then turns it inside out. It is empty. He sighs, and for a moment seems close to collapse. “That… was my last,” he says as he reaches to pick up his tools again. I step forward again, reach out, and grip him by the shoulders. He looks up at me, his eyes redder than ever. “You’ve got to stop this madness!” I plead. “It’s too late,” he says, with a hint of bliss to his voice. “Go, Nuparu… Go. It’s over.” “No, it isn’t!” I continue. “Those Matoran up there still need you! I need you, it!” “No… you… DON’T!” he suddenly exclaims, swinging one of his tools in my direction, forcing me to leap backwards and get out of the way. I look, stunned, as he stands there, somehow still holding those things at the read. “This world doesn’t need me, it doesn’t need you, it doesn’t need any of us!” he continues as his face takes on an anguished expression. “I’m done, Nuparu… I’m done. Leave before I take you down with me!” Suddenly, it dawns on me what he is about to do. “No, you can’t!” I call out, but before I can intervene, he suddenly turns around, revving up both of his tools as he does so, and plunges them forward into the stone wall. Over the screaming engines, I hear the unmistakable sound of cracking stone coming from above me. Looking up, I see the cracks in the ceiling are spreading! I jump back, just in time as a chunk of rock, dislodged from the ceiling, falls down on the spot where I was standing. “Come on!” I shout to Onua. “We’ve got to get out of here!” He doesn’t respond, holding the tools and his position with what for his current condition has to be supernatural strength. More chunks of rock are beginning to fall… instinctively, I back up further. “Come on, it!” I plead again. “Don’t let it end like this!” More falling rocks… we’ve only got seconds at best. Suddenly, Onua stops the engines. His tools come sliding out of the wall as cracks continue to spread from the holes they leave behind, and he begins to turn, leaning now with his back against the wall. He slides down, collapsing, tools dropping by his side. “Come to me! NOW!” I shout, but he doesn’t listen. “Go…” he says, barely loud enough for me to hear over the stone cracking and rumbling. “Run, or the mountain will swallow you too…” He leans back, and closes his eyes. I’m torn; I can’t stay here, I don’t have the time to even climb over the mounting rubble and get him out of here… I have to run. “ IT!” I exclaim as I turn around. I start to sprint down the tunnel; all around me, pebbles and dust are already dislodging themselves from the ceiling. When I reach the bend, I look back one last time; he’s still there, sitting, leaning against the wall, looking upwards and awaiting the inevitable. It’s only a glimpse, a split second… then a large section of the ceiling comes down. Rocks, boulders, slabs of stone plunge into the tunnel between us, and the collapse is spreading. I have to turn and run again, racing against the closing earth. I round the bend, make it back to the buggy, jump on and gun the engine. A wave of dust heralded by a tremendously loud rumbling and crashing follows closely behind as I race through the tunnel to the central mine shaft; it seems like forever, but when I reach it, I turn hard right and up the spiraling pathway that leads, eventually, to the city up above. I’ve made it to the entrance of the next tunnel up… I’m safe. I stop the buggy and look down and across the central shaft. A plume of dust has shot out of the entrance to what was a tunnel only minutes ago… the collapse is total; even before the dust settles, I can see boulders in the entrance. This is it… my hero, my mentor, my friend… is dead.

-------------------- Chapter 37 -------------------- At last, having seen enough and feeling quite tired, I decided to head back to the hotel, expecting that my companions would sooner or later show up there. It was getting well past six by the time I’d made my way back up the city rings, through the main entrance tunnel, and up to the surface. It was there that I noticed something that had, somehow, escaped my eye the first time around; located to the right of the tunnel entrance, carved in the side of the mountain, was a large workshop. A sign overhead advertised it as belonging to Nuparu, a name that instantly caught my interest; so this was where the Toa Mahri of Earth had, quite literally, set up shop. Peering in through the large front entrance, whose double doors were still open, I noticed there were pieces of mining equipment in various states of disrepair scattered around the place, from small, single person drills to a giant motorized contraption whose purpose was utterly unclear to me. The whole place was lit rather dimly by yellow lightstones attached to the walls, and numerous workbenches were positioned around the room, indicating that there were normally more people at work here; their shift had likely ended. A loud, metallic clanging sound emanating from deeper within the shop indicated at least one person was still at work, though. Maybe it was the Toa himself? I hesitated for a moment; I really didn’t have much of a reason to be here, but at the same time it’d be nice to meet with Nuparu and get his… take on events, I guess, particularly his stance on Jaller and Hahli’s frequent arguments over Gali staying with them. Besides, even if an answer wouldn’t be forthcoming there, at least I could say “hi” on behalf of the other Toa Mahri. So I made my way across the shop, and soon arrived at another set of doors at the end that led into a part of the shop that was sectioned off by a line of shelves, cabinets, and one of a the stone pillars that had been left standing when this place was carved out, presumably to hold the roof up. Inside, with his back towards the entrance and repeatedly bringing a large hammer down on a red-hot piece of metal, was the Toa Mahri of Earth. He turned, bringing up the piece of metal with a pair of tongs, and dunked it into an oil tank. This set fire to some of the oil, which in turn lit up the room a lot more while the Toa of Earth looked away to protect his sensitive eyes… which fell right on me. “Oh, hello,” I greeted. The surprised look on Nuparu’s face was quickly replaced by a welcoming smile. “A fellow Toa,” he observed. “At this hour, no less. Hello to you too.” He turned back to the oil tank. “Just a moment,” he said. With that, he used the tongs to pull the metal object out of the oil tank. Now I saw that it was a blade, and to my great surprise it was in a shape that I recognized almost immediately: a thin cutting edge, straight right up until it curved around the tip, supported by a set of struts to a thicker ‘backbone’ that measured about half the length of the blade, tang not included. It looked exactly like one of Kopaka’s weapons. “A sword…” I remarked, momentarily at a loss for words. “Special order,” Nuparu explained while he waited for the oil to burn off of the blade. “For whom?” I wondered. “Err… a friend,” the Toa of Earth replied. “A collector.” “Interesting hobby.” “So it is…” Nuparu nodded, though not confidently. “Anyways,” he changed the subject as he took off his gloves and extended a hand towards me, “I’m Nuparu, though I’m sure you saw the sign out front.” “Lis,” I shook it, but my attention was still on the blade. Who but Kopaka would request a sword like that? But Kopaka was gone, and yet here it was… then an idea popped into my head. “Is there something I can help you with?” Nuparu asked. “Perhaps…” I stalled as I got my thoughts together. “I have a question. I’m looking for someone, a fellow Toa, and I figured you might have some idea of his whereabouts.” “Well, I don’t really keep contact with a lot of Toa besides the other Mahri,” Nuparu scratched his head, “but sure, why not? Who are you looking for?” “The guy who that belongs to,” I gestured to the sword. “Toa Nuva Kopaka.” “Y-you’re trying to track down Kopaka?” the Toa of Earth feigned surprise to hide a moment of panic, though rather unconvincingly. “Yeah, I heard he was in town,” I pressed on. “That would be some coincidence…” he admitted. “Wouldn’t it?” I felt a certain smugness, like I’d cracked him in interrogation or something. Of course, I had a notable advantage in that department. “Well, whether he’s back or not,” he continued, “I’m afraid that I hadn’t heard of it until now.” “You’re sure?” I wondered. “Quite sure,” he nodded. I was about to continue the line of questioning when his eyes suddenly widened as he noticed something behind me. “That is enough,” an all too familiar voice suddenly said behind me. “She will not let up. Besides, she already knows.” I turned around to find Kopaka standing not ten feet behind me, and in spite of the fact that the possibility of him still being around had dawned on me the moment I saw Nuparu lift one of his swords out of that oil tank, I was still rather surprised at his sudden arrival. “Kopaka!” I exclaimed louder than he could’ve been comfortable with, “you didn’t leave!?” He just stood there, not even bothering to point out the obvious. “What are you still doing here?” I demanded. “Getting my sword fixed,” Kopaka said dryly. “Oh, right... you need to make sure you’re well equipped for your suicidal ego-trip,” I chided. Kopaka gave me a death glare, but offered no verbal response. Nuparu, meanwhile, stood there with the most bewildered expression I’d ever seen. “You… you two know each other?” he asked. “I followed him around for a while,” I explained. “Got to see his trip back to New Atero, even helped to fix him up.” “You went to New Atero?” Nuparu looked to Kopaka, who gave a slight nod. Judging by the Toa of Earth’s expression, it did little to dispel his confusion. “How does nobody know about this?” he questioned. “Oh, he had a plan,” I replied before Kopaka got a word in. “Fooled everyone, even used me at one point. The only people who know about his trip are the other Toa. Oh, and Macku.” “And they all kept quiet?” Nuparu looked to Kopaka. “They understood,” the Toa of Ice answered, “unlike this one.” He glared at me. “Hey, I never told anyone,” I countered. “I wasn’t even one of the ones who threatened to.” “Not that,” Kopaka corrected me. “They understood my duty.” “Your duty doesn’t exist,” I shot back, and after our last conversation I was certain of it. “It is only the delusion that you use to justify your need to get away from everyone.” “My duty lies beyond your understanding…” he began to argue, but he was interrupted by Nuparu. “Okay, okay!” the Toa of Earth stepped in. “Clearly there is some history between you two, and I’d love to hear all about it, but please quit the arguing. Seriously, if I wanted to hear more of that, I’d go visit my brothers and sister. Fair?” He looked back and forth between me and Kopaka. The Toa of Ice nodded slowly, then stepped back. “Sure,” I shrugged. “Good,” Nuparu concluded, after which he got back to working the blade. Kopaka vanished deeper into the shop, though I was certain that he hadn’t gone far. I watched as Nuparu made sure the blade was absolutely straight. Apparently satisfied, he took it across the room and stuck it into a deep hole in the wall from which an ominous orange-red glow emanated. “Tempering oven,” the he explained. “If he were to use that sword right now, it would break in two the moment he hit anything with it.” “That would be a shame,” I said sarcastically. “What’s the deal between you two anyways?” Nuparu asked as he took a seat on a stool next to the work bench that occupied the center of the room. “Oh, uhm… he’s frustrating to be around, that’s all.” Yeah, I know ‘frustrating’ didn’t really cover it, but it was the best description that came to mind at the time. “That’s nothing new,” Nuparu shrugged. “But, you traveled with him for how long?” “I followed him for… five days,” I recalled. “Thought he was gone this morning, but apparently he got off the train, too.” “Five days?” the Toa of Earth looked impressed. “He tolerated you for that long?” “Mostly,” I shrugged. “I mean, he told me quite a bit about what it means to be a Toa, about duty and such… he tends to raise more questions than he answers. Still, we met a lot of other Toa along the way, so that was interesting enough.” “Did you meet Jaller? And Hahli?” Nuparu asked. “We did, actually,” I nodded. “Hewkii too, and Gali… Come to think of it, I probably should’ve stayed with them instead; didn’t really have much reason to follow Kopaka after that.” “Hm… You’re one of the new ones, right?” Nuparu changed the subject. “From the south?” “Yup, the great heroes who stood up to the Skakdi.” I gave a half-hearted chuckle. “Not much of a fight in the end, really.” “So I heard.” Nuparu looked down at the table for a moment, then back at me. “Still, for all you know you might have prevented something pretty serious.” “Yeah, we might have… I guess.” I found that a little hard to believe, but sure, why not? “Just… what do we do now, you know? I mean, I can’t really go back to being assistant weaver.” I smiled, again, half-heartedly, my humor undercut by anxiety over what exactly the future held for me. “Yeah, we’ve all been there,” the Toa of Earth sympathized. “We all had to find our place in this world.” “True,” I agreed. “Actually, one of my brothers is looking into getting a job here.” “He is?” “Yup. Jahlpu, Toa of Earth,” I explained. “I’m sure he’ll stop by here before long.” “I don’t doubt it,” Nuparu smiled. “I’ll be sure to show him a thing or two… but what about you? Have you thought of anything yet?” “Not really…” I admitted. “You know, Kopaka told me a lot about the history of the Toa Nuva… I guess I figured I’d find some clue in that.” I leant back against a set of cabinets that made up part of the wall dividing this section of the workshop from the rest. “He turned out a role model, though.” “That’s why you fell out,” Nuparu hypothesized. “Exactly,” I agreed. “I mean, it’s how he rationalizes everything. You know, I didn’t realize it until the end, but… it’s like he talks a big game about duty and the Toa Code, but it just doesn’t mesh with what he does. Not to anyone except him.” “How so?” “Well, he nearly started a fight when he met Tahu,” I began, “he insulted both Gali and Hahli after they worked their asses off to help him recover from his injuries ‘cause he was in a pretty sorry state when he came down from that mountain, and he never apologized for it. He treats everyone as though they’re flawed and inferior compared to him while he’s deluded himself into thinking that everything he does is for the benefit of the Matoran.” “It isn’t?” “No, it isn’t!” I continued. “Especially not what he’s doing now; he says he’s going into those mountains to do astronomy, to chart stars and planets and whatnot, so one day the Matoran might be able to go there.” “Sounds noble.” “Yeah, except I’m pretty sure he doesn’t do astronomy up there,” I argued. “If he was really interested in doing that, he’d be in the knowledge towers of New Atero or Ko-Koro-Nuva right now. No, I saw a lot more of his personality than he’d like to admit, and from what I saw I know he’s going into those mountains because he can, and he believes, or wants to believe, that only he can. The duty thing just… rationalizes his megalomania. Worse, it’s gonna get him killed. I mean, good swords or not, you know he won’t last long in those mountains now, and his death will help no one.” “So, he’s a pain to be around and he wants to be alone,” Nuparu concluded. “Sounds pretty much like the Kopaka we all knew.” “Maybe so, but you didn’t see how he berated Gali,” I countered, “or the state he left her in. Or what he called Hahli, or Tahu, or me. He was vicious, and there was not even a hint of regret afterwards.” “True, I haven’t,” Nuparu shook his head, “and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but that’s Kopaka. He’s unapologetically, brutally honest, regardless of how he justifies it. That’s just who he is.” “Then where does he get the right to talk high and mighty about duty when he blatantly disregards his responsibilities to himself, and to those who were once his allies?” I asked. “That’s what I don’t get. Yes, duty is everything to a Toa, but how can he still think he’s got anything to say on it?” I was now standing across the work bench, hands on hips, looking across to the Toa of Earth and wondering what his explanation for that could be. Nuparu sighed and paused for a bit before replying. “How many of the Toa Nuva have you met?” he asked, to my surprise. “Ehm, four…” I replied. “The four that remain.” “And could you call any of them flawless?” Nuparu continued. “No,” I answered immediately. “If anything… they’re all in a pretty sorry state.” “That’s right,” Nuparu crossed his arms and leant forward onto the table. “Like us, they all have their flaws; Kopaka’s is arrogance. And you know, unlike us they didn’t have a life to return to when this world was put back together; they never knew anything but war. War heroes don’t do well in peacetime.” He sighed again, and I could clearly tell that this resonated a lot more with him than he was willing to let on. “Look, it’s sad,” he continued, “but that’s the way they’ve ended up, but we can’t change or help them now. You can berate Kopaka all you want, but you’re not going to change him. Just… take him as an example of what not to do, what not to become.” “Oh, I plan to,” I agreed. “Still, that doesn’t really change my predicament. Then again, I might just go back to New Atero and stay with Macku and the other Toa for a while…” “I’m sure they’d love the company.” “Yeah, they invited me already,” I remembered. “, maybe I should inform my teammates of it. Two of them pretty much worship Hahli and Hewkii anyways. Then again, I probably shouldn’t let them loose on those two… and Jahlpu’s probably staying here. He’s more the Onua type.” “Really? What does that mean?” Nuparu wondered. “More… duty-focused, I guess,” I mused. “I actually spent a lot of time down by that statue today, read about what Onua did. Between everything he did before the Reformation, and founding the mine and city afterwards, he’d be a much better person to follow, you know? I mean, if duty is the sole guiding virtue now, no one seems to have nailed it on the head more than him.” “Yeah, I suppose he did…” Nuparu nodded, though not as… enthusiastically as I’d expected him to. “Something wrong?” I wondered. “I mean, it’s late, and if I’m taking too much of your time…” “No, that’s not… that’s not it,” he assured me. “It’s just… duty isn’t everything.” “It isn’t?” I questioned. “I mean, that’s like the one thing Kopaka told me that makes sense.” “What exactly did he tell you?” “Well, since Destiny was fulfilled years ago, duty is the one virtue left,” I recited. “Unity quickly falls away without destiny. He even had examples; people differ on how they should pursue their duty, which destroys unity, while only a common Destiny brings people together. That’s why, according to him, at least, the Toa fell apart after the Reformation. What do you think?” A moment or two passed before Nuparu offered a response. “It’s right in the most pragmatic sense…” he began, “and I suppose that’s what matters to him. Still, duty isn’t everything, not in the way he would define it. We have a duty to the Matoran, yes, but don’t let that consume you… trust me, that doesn’t end well.” “What do you mean by that?” I asked. It seemed Nuparu was showing his hand more than I imagined he intended to… or was he? Again, he didn’t reply immediately. In fact, it took a good thirty seconds of pondering on his part before he settled on an answer; long enough for me to seriously wonder whether he really was okay. “You know… I think there’s something I should show you,” he decided. “Just… wait here for a minute.” He got up and proceeded out the entrance into the larger workshop, after which he turned left, the same direction Kopaka had taken. However, as I waited, I didn’t hear any conversation start up between the two; apparently, Nuparu was going to retrieve something else. But what was it? Something related to him or another Toa, a reminder of what happened when duty became all-consuming, what he had warned against? If so, what could that be? At this point, I could only say one thing for certain: based on how difficult it had been for him to decide, it had to be something personal.

Never read Inheritance cycle, but I do remember a cave like the Crystal Palace appearing in the "Caves" episode of Planet Earth, which is where I got the idea from.

-------------------- Chapter 36 -------------------- By the time we made it up to the starting point of the tours on the uppermost ring of the city, the tour was only a minute away from starting. We hurriedly bought some tickets, then climbed on board the ‘train,’ which was in reality a bunch of minecarts that had been fitted with seats, just as it was about to leave. The tour guide was an Onu-Matoran who introduced himself as Dosne, who’d apparently served as a mining captain since the days of Mata Nui and was now happy to spend his retirement showing curious visitors around the underground empire he once helped to oversee. The minecarts followed an old track, no longer in use for bringing resources to the surface, which led us through a long, spiraling tunnel to another cavern situated a good half-mile below the city. Looking down from our position on the elevated track, we could see lightstones moving about, and the intermittent sound of pickaxes striking stone and heavier machinery doing its work indicated that this cavern still had some riches left to give. Dosne explained that discovering such caverns had been one of Toa Onua’s specialties; he’d discovered this one more than four millennia ago and to this day, it still hadn’t been fully cleaned out. Another tunnel led us to a connected cavern that featured an underground lake, a popular break stop for miners who spent most of their lives deeper down and rarely even came up to Onu-Koro-Nuva. Here, the line our carts ran on stopped, and we continued our tour on foot. A large tunnel containing several rail tracks led us down into the vertical shaft that was the great mine. Looking up, in the very far distance, I could see the stone beams and trusses that supported the enormous weight of the statue in the city, which Dosne pointed out was right above us. Down below, meanwhile, a spiraling path cut into the side of the shaft provided access to hundreds of tunnels that radiated out and away from the shaft to the riches in the surrounding rock. A map of various levels of the mine showed us how each level was like a spider web, with lots of connecting tunnels between the main ones, the central shaft in the center, and the main tunnels snaking from one rich ore deposit to another. Natural caverns, Dosne explained, were particularly sought after, since they could serve as staging points, warehouses, and resource hubs, and also often featured minerals ripe for the taking right at the surface. There were five or six particularly large caverns, and countless smaller ones connected to the tunnel network in one way or another. Amazingly, even though I couldn’t have found my way through this place even with a map on hand, it was said that no Onu-Matoran ever got lost here. To Jahlpu, of course, this was as close as he could come to heaven. He set about the tour with an excitement I’d never seen from him before; he asked all sorts of questions of the tour guide, pointed out things to me and the others along the way, and when we got back to the cavern featuring the lake, explained how various old mining machines that were parked there on display were used. That said, while he was certainly keeping spirits up, both Lerome and Kirall grew increasingly tired and frustrated as the tour went on. They frequently and verbally complained, made sarcastic comments, and generally annoyed me and Jahlpu in particular. In fact, by the time our hour-and-a-half tour of some important locations down the central mineshaft was done and we made it back to the lake, even Jahlpu was getting seriously off at them. Thankfully, there was the opportunity to grab a bite to eat to help shut them up. The lake cavern featured a number of restaurants, intended both for the miners, who could certainly use a good meal after a long day at work, and for tourists like us who were merely stopping by. The tour stopped there for about half an hour, allowing all of us to go grab some quintessential underground cuisine. Unsurprisingly, the flavor of the food was best described as ‘earthy,’ but it was quite satisfying, and it wasn’t long before we set off on the final leg of our tour: the Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace wasn’t a palace as such; it wasn’t even a building. It was a medium-sized cavern filled with striking, milky-white crystals growing from every surface. A small path was suspended inside to allow us to walk through without risking damage to the structures. The crystals emitted a faint glow, which Dosne explained meant that they were some kind of lightstone. However, their light was dim and therefore, rather than mining them out and trying to find another use for them, the Onu-Matoran had decided to keep the cave as-is; a spectacular sight to behold. It had everyone speechless for a while, but after a couple of minutes of picture-taking and marveling at the fact that some of these crystals were over twenty feet long, we backtracked to the cave with the lake and boarded the minecart train to return to the surface. After thanking Dosne for the tour, we found ourselves back on the upper ring of Onu-Koro-Nuva. “That was amazing,” Jahlpu concluded. “Lots of dirt, dust, and digging,” Kirall shrugged. “I don’t see how anyone can stand it.” “It’s important,” Jahlpu continued, “and you’re not an Onu-Matoran.” “Uhm, it’s a quarter past four,” Lerome interrupted, “and that means I can still catch the post-game coverage. So unless you’ve got some other plans, I’m going back to the surface.” “Actually…” Jahlpu began, but Lerome didn’t wait to listen to his reply; he was already on his way up the tunnel to the surface. “Well, if he’s going to do that, I’ve got some arrangements to make,” Kirall decided, after which she turned and headed the opposite way, back into the city and no doubt to the smith she’d been dealing with before the tour began. “Just hold on a minute,” Jahlpu asked, but Kirall ignored him, and I wasn’t going to try and stop her. “Let her go,” I said. “All she’ll do is grumble about being stuck with us down here anyways.” “True,” Jahlpu sighed as we watched Kirall start on her way down the steps to the ring below. “I guess we’ll have to see what she shows up with come tonight. Or tomorrow…” “I’m betting on next week,” I said sarcastically. “Anyways,” Jahlpu changed the subject, “what did you think?” “It was interesting,” I replied. “Seeing the way the mine actually operates, and how they go about finding things to bring up to the surface… You really want to work down there, don’t you?” “You kidding?” Jahlpu chuckled. “Of course I do! I mean, where else am I going to, you know, use my skills? I can literally move the earth at my command; how could I not work down there?” “Fair point,” I smiled. He was right; his elemental abilities were giving him a pretty clear option as to what he could do as a Toa, a destiny of sorts that I was still trying to find. We stood silently for a bit, watching the city ahead and below into which our sister had already disappeared. “So, you got any other place you want to check out?” I asked. “I was going to look around the city for a bit,” he replied. “See what living here is like, you know? Who knows, I might just try to get a place now.” “Look at you, settling down,” I quipped. “What happened to the great journey of the new Toa heroes?” “We’ve got a few places left to visit,” Jahlpu acknowledged, “but we’ve done most of the major cities… and there’s no trouble back home anymore. Besides, that was Lerome’s idea, remember?” “Yeah, and you’re pretty done with it by now, I suspect.” “Yup.” “Well, I’m going to check out the remaining info on Toa Onua,” I decided. “I’ll probably make my way down there eventually,” Jahlpu speculated, “but… well, given the time, maybe I can’t. We’ll see.” “Go find your place,” I replied. “I’ll make sure to inform you of the rest tonight.” “Sounds good,” the Toa of Earth concluded. “I’ll see you tonight, then!” “See ya!” With that, Jahlpu set off along the ring, presumably looking for some place to rent, while I set off down the path towards the center of the city. In any surface city, this would be the start of rush hour, with Matoran and Agori returning from work to their homes, but this far underground no one seemed to keep much of a day/night schedule; Onu-Koro-Nuva worked around the clock. Once I reached the square, I made my way from one info screen to another until I reached the one Jahlpu and I had left off at. Having finished with the details of the Reign of Shadows, it the next screen picked up at a spot shortly before the Battle of Bara Magna… it took me minute before I realized that I’d seen what was described here before, but from Kopaka’s point of view… the story on the screen pretty much confirmed what the Toa of Ice had told me about how the battle ended: the Glatorian finished the Skrall, and the Skakdi showed up too late to help the floundering Rahkshi. A large stone tablet, standing upright along the inner edge of the ring, depicted in carving the moment of Makuta Teridax’s death; a piece of Aqua Magna smashing into the back of the Great Spirit Robot’s head, demolishing the control center and as such the mind within. Though over ten feet tall and lacking in color, the carving was done in incredible detail, giving a real sense of the cataclysmic magnitude of the destruction. Also quite large and prominently positioned below the title in a thick lower border on the tablet was the signature of the carver: apparently, this carving was “another Hafu original.” I spent a couple minutes looking over the carving, correlating the features within it and on the Great Spirit Robot with what I had seen in Kopaka’s memory of the battle. After that, I continued my counter-clockwise trek around the inner ring, to the next information screen, which began the story of what Toa Onua did after the Reformation. Apparently, all of the Toa Nuva had first busied themselves as co-Turaga of sorts; helping the actual Turaga maintain the peace between the peoples from the Matoran Universe and those from Bara Magna. Onua’s job had been particularly tough in that regard; integrating the Rock Tribe Agori and the Skrall into the new world was a challenging task, in light of the war they had waged with Bara Magna’s other inhabitants before Teridax’s arrival on the planet. Still, he managed, in part by locating rich ore veins in the mountains for the Onu-Matoran to get to work on. The largest of these became home to such a large operation that it soon became the location of Onu-Koro-Nuva. Having established the city, Onua spent most of his time here, working front-line in the mines and using his elemental abilities to greatly reduce the time needed to dig new tunnels and locate the mountain’s wealth of minerals. In that regard, the breakup of the Toa Nuva didn’t affect him much on a practical level; he already spent most of his time away from them, and now they had removed his obligation to periodically head back to New Atero. Unfortunately, the screens didn’t give any information on how he felt about the breakup, though they did note that he kept contact with Pohatu and Lewa, especially the latter, long after their team was no more. He had even been present, over 1000 years later, at the Toa of Air’s funeral service, the last time that he left Onu-Koro-Nuva, where he had apparently remarked that Lewa had been one of the last “true Toa,” a statement delivered with a particularly bitter tone as the Toa of Earth glanced in the direction of Tahu, the only other Toa Nuva who was there. By that point, I’d made it to the last screen, the inevitable conclusion of the Toa Nuva of Earth’s story which I had already known was coming: his death. According to this screen, Onua kept working right until the last days, even though his advanced age and the associated deterioration of his body (plus the fact that mining work had been pretty hard on it to begin with) had made it increasingly difficult for him to work the long shifts. In spite of that, he saw it as his duty to provide for the Matoran and Agori as much as he could for as long as he was able, and a little pain wasn’t going to stop him. What did stop him, however, was a side tunnel he elected to dig into a region already notorious for its geological instability; the soft, porous rock that made up a whole layer below the mountain meant tunnel collapses were common, and unfortunately, towards the end of one of his shifts and having dug a particularly long tunnel, Onua found himself victim of one of them. No one could tell exactly where the collapse started, but by the time the rocks settled the entire section of tunnel that the Toa had worked on was no more. A massive search effort was mounted, but it still took nearly two months before the tunnel was cleared his body was recovered, after which a grand funeral procession was held. Turaga, Toa, and Matoran from all over the planet had turned up to pay their respects, though the other remaining Toa Nuva had been notably absent. The tablet concluded the story of the Toa Nuva of Earth with a couple of words from Nuparu, the Toa Mahri of Earth and apparently one of Onua’s greatest admirers: “Few are granted the honor to be Toa, and fewer still know what the title means, but only one Toa understood the true power of the code; he lived it from the day he arrived among us to the day he passed below. Along the way, he saved many of us multiple times over, stood against the worst our world had to offer, and gave us the greatest city we have ever known. Never have so many owed so much to one person.” I looked up again at the giant bronze statue, looming over the center of the city as though the old Toa still stood guard over the Matoran and Agori at work here. I’d never seen a more spectacular memorial, and after reading over everything that Onua had done, I was pretty sure that there wasn’t anyone else deserving of one. No wonder Jahlpu and the Onu-Matoran practically worshipped him, and that even Kopaka had spoken of him in a positive light; Onua was the best example of a Toa who’d managed to find a way to use his abilities to serve the Matoran within the confines of the Toa Code. He’d found a purpose, something which many Toa, myself included, were still looking for.

-------------------- Chapter 35 -------------------- I shambled back into consciousness around noon, more due to the sunlight spilling into the room than any feeling of refreshment. I lay there for a while, wishing we’d thought to close the curtains before diving for the sheets at dawn, but eventually I relented and got up. Jahlpu was still out cold, and there were no sounds coming from the other room, so I headed downstairs. A telescreen in the hotel’s lobby showed preparations for the big game that Hewkii’d been preparing for a night or two before. I grabbed some assorted hotel catering for lunch and watched for a while. At one point, I found myself looking out the window to the station; the train was gone. It would probably be arriving in Ko-Koro-Nuva pretty soon, and shortly thereafter, Kopaka would once again leave the world behind. I sighed thinking about it… yes, I was still mad at him, but it hadn’t hit me until then that I probably would never see him again, and neither would anyone else. “Morning.” Jahlpu greeted as he came down the stairs; apparently, he hadn’t been quite as out as I thought. I nodded and put my empty plate aside. “Still morning?” I asked, glancing towards a clock that quite clearly told us that time had passed. “Morning, afternoon… I don’t know,” the Toa of Earth shrugged. “Point is, the sun’s up and we got some rest. Feeling better?” “A bit,” I admitted. “What did you want to go see here, exactly?” “Well,” he began, pointing at a bulletin board by the hotel entrance, “I think that’d be interesting.” I looked at the board to find a poster advertising ‘Great Mine Tours’ and the hours at which they started; the next would be in two hours. “Go down there, see where the stuff that everything’s made from comes from?” I wondered. “Yeah, that’d be something…” “There’s also a lot of info on Toa Onua and the other Toa Nuva by the statue,” Jahlpu continued. “I figured we could check that out first. Whenever Lerome and Kirall get up, that is.” He sat down in one of the armchairs facing the telescreen. “Sounds fine,” I agreed. So we watched and waited until, fifteen minutes or so later, our brother and sister came down the stairs as well, looking quite refreshed themselves. “Whazzup?” Lerome greeted as he made his way down the lobby towards us. He had his poise back, as did Kirall, who followed close behind. “Afternoon,” I replied. “So it seems,” the Toa of Air continued, stopping to look at the game on the telescreen. “Hewkii’s on in a bit, isn’t he?” “Hour or two time difference, so… yeah,” Jahlpu realized. “Sweet!” Lerome declared. “I might have to stay and watch that.” “You kinda promised him you’d come with,” Kirall reminded him while nodding towards Jahlpu. “Really? You’re the one who’s going to hold me to that?” Lerome turned towards her. “I mean, you practically dragged me over to that Po-Matoran carving display,” she retorted with sly smile. “I’m just returning the favor.” “Oh, c’mon!” Lerome exclaimed. “That was fun! They offered to carve a small statue of you, remember?” “If I’d wanted to stand still for five hours,” Kirall pointed out. “And yours broke after like a day.” “I dropped it, okay?” Lerome shot back. “That statue was perfectly fine. And you could’ve been sitting down if you wanted.” “Yeah… no,” Kirall concluded. “Okay, okay,” Jahlpu got up. “Let’s get going before you two leave civility behind, shall we?” “Fine…” Lerome rolled his eyes, We all followed Jahlpu out. Now, with the sun no longer behind the mountain to the west, the whole town looked a lot less gloomy, of no less dusty than before. Even the assorted dull greys and browns that apparently made up the town’s entire color palette came alive to some degree under the sun. There weren’t many Matoran about; with no train arriving or departing, few had much reason to be hanging around the above-ground portion of the town. No, the activity in Onu-Koro-Nuva happened primarily underground, inside the mountain, and looking down the main street we noted that it led straight there through a seriously big tunnel entrance. Jahlpu led the way, past the shops and a few other hotels and into the tunnel. Easily a hundred feet wide, with marked lanes for both pedestrians and vehicles, it led us down a gradual slope, past a few carved-out enclaves and Onu-Matoran homes, and soon opened up into what I can only describe as a stupendously large cavern. Easily more than a mile across, the somewhat dusty air made it impossible to distinguish much of the ceiling or anything on the other side, while the underground city of Onu-Koro Nuva lay in six concentric rings below us, each lower than the one outside it. All of it was illuminated by hundreds of lightstones and connected by the main street, which led down through a series of wide steps to the very center where, elevated on a pillar rising from a deep pit, a gargantuan, bronze statue of Toa Nuva Onua was lit by spotlights from all around. Dispersed throughout the space, several enormous, granite columns rose from the cavern floor to the ceiling, decorated with deep carvings and black banners many times the size of the largest billboards I’d seen back in New Atero, proudly displaying an ancient symbol of the Onu-Matoran. Stairs spiraling around the columns, small windows, and bridges connecting them indicated that they, too, were inhabited, not unlike the way in which the giant trees of Le-Koro-Nuva had been colonized by the Le-Matoran. This city’s sound was one all its own, though; a mix of normal city noise with an industrial complex working around the clock, conversations in crowds over the clanging of metal against metal in the background, an occasional shout from one end of the street to the other followed by the loud whirring of a large drill, and the sound of minecarts running on elevated tracks from the center, taking ore out of the mine and up to the surface. The scale of it all was simply staggering, and I noticed that even Lerome and Kirall seemed very impressed. “Far out…” the Toa of Air managed to say. “This started as a mine, from what I heard,” Jahlpu explained. “After they decided to go deeper, this became the new city.” “And what a city… sheesh,” I remarked. “Pretty amazing, huh?” “Spectacular,” Jahlpu smiled with more than a hint of pride to his expression. Looking to our right, we noticed a sign advertising ‘Great Mine Tours.’ “We’ll check that out in a bit,” our Toa of Earth informed us. “Let’s go down and see that statue first.” No one argued, so we set off down the stairs towards the center of the cavern. Underground Onu-Koro-Nuva was nothing if not a hive of activity; Matoran and Agori, mostly Onu-Matoran and ex-Rock tribe members, respectively, were everywhere, many carrying some kind of equipment or tool. Though it was a mine no longer, life in this cavern was still dominated by the mining occupation, it appeared, not least because of the minecarts constantly running on elevated tracks overhead. Barring the fact that it was underground, though, the experience was not unlike what New Atero’d been like for me; we were greeted or at least acknowledged by everyone with a nod, a smile, a wave, a “good day to you, Toa,” or something similar; all of it displayed a degree of reverence that I didn’t feel we deserved, but I smiled all the same to keep up the appearance. Lerome, Kirall, and Jahlpu were far more comfortable in the spotlight, the latter particularly since these were his people. At one point, he even stopped to chat for a minute with some young Rock Agori, who watched and listened to his ‘wise words’ with that intense, fascinated attention that only children could muster. Along the way, we passed numerous metal and machine shops, a two markets, an arena in which two old Skrall were instructing a number of younger Glatorian in fighting techniques, and even a full-blown Kolhii field. Everything one would expect to find in a city was here, or at least it had an underground analogue; I’d never seen a place like this. After a good thirty minutes, we at last arrived at the inner edge of the lowest of the six rings to find that we could go no further. The column on which the 300 ft-tall statue of Onua rested rose from a deep pit; above us, bronze Onua stood, one arm at his side and holding his signature chainsaw-like tools, and the other raised up high over our heads, holding what had to be the largest lightstone I’d ever seen. Looking down, we could see the bright spots of lightstones all along the sides of the pit, some fixed while others were moving, mounted on some kind of mobile equipment or being carried by mine workers. “Wonder how long it’d take something to fall down there,” Lerome remarked. “Don’t try it,” Jahlpu warned. “They didn’t put a fence around it for nothing.” True; the pit was surrounded on all sides by a fence that was a little more than waist-high for a Matoran, but didn’t pose much of a barrier for us. Still, there was no way to directly enter the mine here; that was done through one of a number of tunnels that surfaced on the ring above us. This ring, by contrast, was essentially a gigantic clearing, with numerous park benches set up facing the statue, and information screens that presented various facts about Toa Onua and the other Toa Nuva. Souvenir stands of all sorts were set up towards the outside of this ring, and thin, stone columns with mossy ferns planted on top did a half-decent impression of being underground trees. In essence, this was an underground version of a park, the spot in which Matoran and Agori from all over the city came to slow down and relax under the watchful eyes of the Toa whose actions had, according to one of the info screens, made this entire place possible. “I’m gonna check out those stands,” Kirall informed us as she gestured towards one of the souvenir stands close to the stairs by which we’d arrived. She was off before anyone could object; from where we were it seemed the stand sold some kind of jewelry, which was a pretty good reason for it to catch our Toa of Water’s attention. "Is flying legal here?" Lerome inquired. “Don’t see why not, so long as you’re careful,” Jahlpu shrugged. “Sweet… be right back,” the Toa of Air replied as he pressed his fingers against two particular spots on either side of his waist. We knew what this meant; he was deploying his “wings,” a set of screens that attached below his arms and along the sides of his body that allowed him to glide on air currents. Without warning, he conjured a strong updraft to lift himself into the air, whipping up quite a bit of dust in the process and attracting a fair amount of attention from the Matoran and Agori nearby. “I guess he wants to check out the pillars, maybe?” I wondered. “Probably…” Jahlpu sighed. “They’ll keep themselves entertained,” he said disapprovingly, then turned his attention back to the info screen in front of him. It more or less gave a shortlist of what all Toa Onua did shortly before the Reformation and what he’d done since, including founding Onu-Koro-Nuva and finding many of the most productive ore veins still being mined today. A shortlist it may have been, but I noted it was still an impressive array of accomplishments, and Jahlpu seemed no less impressed. “You weren’t kidding when you said he made this place,” I noted. “I mean, he worked the mine, he took over for a while after the Turaga died, he founded the ruling council…” “This place wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” Jahlpu agreed. The info screens were set up around the entirety of the square surrounding the statue. Moving counter-clockwise around the pit, we found that the second screen detailed Onua’s arrival on Mata Nui, and the events leading up to his first confrontation with Makuta Teridax. Next came one on his fight with the Bohrok, then one on the Rahkshi and the coming of Takanuva, one on their journey to Voya Nui… we walked from one screen to the other, reading through each one. We’d made it to the Reign of Shadows by time that Lerome returned, tapping us on the shoulder. “Hey, guess what?” he asked. “What?” I asked. “That tour thing you were talking about, it’s gonna start in like twenty minutes,” the Toa of Air informed us. “It is?” Jahlpu looked up, shocked. “Yeah, it is,” Lerome asserted, pointing at a large clock on the side of one of the pillars. “I mean, I’m perfectly happy flying around for a while, but if you miss that tour now you’re gonna make us wait longer while you go on the next one, so… shall we get moving?” “Of course,” Jahlpu sighed; Lerome’s assessment of what would happen if we missed the tour was accurate, but his attitude about it was bothersome as always, especially to Jahlpu. “Let’s get moving,” he turned to me. “We can check out the rest of this afterwards, I guess.” “Sure,” I shrugged. I could read more about the Reign of Shadows and Onua’s post-reformation efforts later. We started back around the square to the stairs from which we’d entered. “Where’s Kirall?” Jahlpu wondered. “She found a smith, and last I knew she was asking him if he knew how to do surgery,” Lerome recalled. “By Mata Nui…” Jahlpu sighed. I just shook my head; there was only one reason why Kirall would seek out a smith, and ‘surgery’ summed it up pretty well. Sure enough, about ten minutes later and two rings up, we found our sister standing with an Onu-Matoran smith in the front of his shop, hunched over a table and drawing something on a piece of paper. The dubious expression on the Matoran’s face indicated he wasn’t entirely comfortable with what she was doing. “Yo Kirall!” Lerome called out. “Busy!” she called back without looking up. “That tour thing’s about to start,” the Toa of Air informed her as he stepped into the shop. “Seriously, you won’t wanna miss it…” he continued with a distinct sarcastic streak to his voice. “I’ll be fine,” she insisted. Jahlpu and I’d stopped at the entrance; looking at the paper on the desk, I noticed she’d rather crudely drawn up two figures, each roughly the stature of a Toa if the proportions were to be believed, and with a number of areas circled on the first one. Arrows from each circle leading to the second figure presumably indicated the ‘modifications’ that she was aiming for; narrower shoulders, wider hips, thinner arms… basically a shortlist of what it would take to give her a more Glatorian-like, ‘feminine’ physique, and just from looking at the figures it was clear that the procedures involved would be very invasive. Looking over to Jahlpu, I noticed his expression had darkened significantly; he wasn’t keen on any of this. Lerome, on the other hand… “So that’s the next step, huh?” he asked, gesturing towards the drawing on the table. “Looks like it’s gonna take a while…” He turned to the smith: “Look, I’m sure you’re really excited about this job, but she’s gonna have to come with us for a while.” “What… hey!” Kirall protested as Lerome threw an arm over her shoulders and started moving her out of the shop. “We’ll bring her back so you can do your operation,” Lerome assured the poor Onu-Matoran, who was clearly at a loss for words concerning spectacle unfolding in front of him. “Hey, you go see the ###### mine!” Kirall wrested herself free. “I have other things to get to.” “We all do,” Lerome said condescendingly as he reached over and gripped her arm tight, “but you got me dragged down here, so I’m gonna make sure you see it through.” He shot her a cruel smile as he dragged her past us, but she relented. “Fine, ######, but we ain’t leaving right after,” she countered. “I can only get this stuff done here, so Le-Koro-Nuva’s gonna have to wait.” “Whatever,” Lerome dismissed the idea and kept going, now followed by a fuming Kirall. By this point, Jahlpu’s expression had gone from disapproval to outright anger, but he kept his mouth shut. “C’mon, let’s go see the mine,” I said, hoping to get his mind off of our teammates’ behavior. “No use getting angry at them.” Granted, given that he’d been stuck with them for the last few months, he probably had every reason to. “I know…” he sighed as we started and followed behind. “I’m trying.”

-------------------- Chapter 34 -------------------- “Ugh…” I slowly opened my eyes. I… I was lying on the floor, my ears were still ringing, and I had a splitting headache. “What happened?” “You suffered a seizure,” Kopaka said. I looked up to find him still sitting where he had been before the final battle started, wearing a very different mask than usual; a noble Komau. “Everything just, just shut down…” I remembered as I got up, still disoriented. “You are recovering,” Kopaka pointed out. “Some kind of neural overload. You were out for four hours.” “Overload seems right,” I sat down on my chair, still holding my head in my hands. Now I had some idea what Pohatu felt like on a bad morning. Or Lerome and Kirall, for that matter. “That battle got pretty intense, huh?” “Battles usually do,” Kopaka said, straying as close to deadpan humor as I’d ever seen him come. He switched back to the Akaku Nuva. “So, four hours?” I looked over to find two of my teammates still passed out in their seats. “Jahlpu didn’t come back, did he?” “No.” “Still cleaning, I guess…” I looked out the window; the terrain outside was rocky and mountainous, indicating we were real close to Onu-Koro-Nuva. Sunrise wasn’t far away. “So, we’re pretty close, then, I guess…” “About an hour,” Kopaka replied. “So, what about the rest of that battle?” I wondered. “You saw most of the important parts,” Kopaka concluded. “How we got here, the fight between the Makuta and Mata Nui, the arrival of the Skrall…” “But how did it end?” I insisted. “I mean, I know how, but what did it look like?” “Skakdi joined in on Makuta’s side,” Kopaka remembered, “but they were few in number and too late to help the remaining Rahkshi. The Glatorian eventually beat off the Skrall. Makuta’s head got hit by a falling planet as the reformation started. That is how it ended, and I will not risk your brain in trying to show you.” “Fair enough…” I sighed. I’d have asked for more if it wasn’t for the fact that I already got more than I bargained for. We sat quietly for a while. “Ah, man…” I heard Lerome cringe; looking over, I saw that he’d switched to sitting up and was rubbing his temples with his thumbs, clearly nursing the aftermath of the party from the day before. After a minute or so, he looked over in my direction. “Hey Lis and… mysterious guy.” He waved. “Getting better?” I called back. “Working on it…” Lerome replied, then got up, standing somewhat unsteadily at first. He made his way down the car towards us and slumped into a seat next to me. “It was great, you know… really great. You totally should’ve been there.” “I was there, remember?” I pointed out. “You were?” He looked at me curiously, but then seemed to recall something. “Oh, right, you were…” “I didn’t stay long,” I added. “Aw, too bad…” Lerome trailed off. “Had to keep this… specter here company, right?” he snickered. Kopaka’d already pulled up his hood, though I figured there wasn’t much chance of him being recognized by Lerome either way. “Yup.” I nodded. “Wonderfully boring times, I’m sure,” the Toa of Air sighed. He waited for a minute, then got back up. “I’ll… I’ll be back.” He wandered back to the front of the car, where he vanished through the doorway. Moments later, Kirall woke up too, but she didn’t so much as glance in our direction; she got up, stretched a bit, moaned about a headache, and then headed in the same direction Lerome did. Kopaka made no comment through the whole thing, and I wasn’t inclined to ask him. It wasn’t long before Jahlpu returned, though. “Well, they’re up,” he informed me as he came walking down the length of the car towards us. “Yeah, I noticed,” I replied. “They’re a little out of it, it seems.” “That’s normal,” Jahlpu assured me. He was looking pretty out of it himself. “Anyways, we’re all getting some breakfast in the concessions car, if you’re interested. We’ll probably stay there until the train stops… which looks to be pretty soon.” He glanced out the window. “I might join later,” I replied. “Alright, see you there, then,” Jahlpu nodded. For a moment, he looked to Kopaka, still with a degree of suspicion, but then turned and headed out. Again, we sat quietly for a while… I watched as the sun began to rise over the mountains outside, going over the last few days in my mind again… there was one burning question left, and now was the time to ask it. “So… this is it, then?” I began. “Hm?” Kopaka looked up. “I mean, I’ll be getting off here soon, and you’ll stay on for Ko-Koro-Nuva… right?” Kopaka nodded ‘yes.’ “Just, one last thing,” I continued. “I want to know why.” “Why what?” “Why you’re going back up there.” “I have told you already. Multiple times.” Kopaka’s expression fell sour; he knew where this was going. “You’ve told me parts, but they don’t add up,” I continued. “Something’s missing.” “I have my duty to the Matoran, which is why I am going up there,” Kopaka spelled it out again. “You know that.” “Yeah, you explained that…” I pondered for a moment about how exactly to phrase things, “but shouldn’t you pursue your duty in, I don’t know… the most effective way possible?” “What do you mean by that?” he asked, but his souring expression revealed that he already had a clue as to where I was going. “What Gali suggested, about working in the knowledge towers,” I reminded him. “Wouldn’t that be better? I mean, you’d have modern equipment, for one…” “I do not need that,” Kopaka said. “I have my own.” “Maybe you do,” I continued, “but what if you get killed up there? You got mauled pretty bad last time; if you died up there, no one would ever find what you’d discovered. How does that help the Matoran?” “That will not happen,” Kopaka asserted. “That’s wrong and you know it,” I pressed on. “You’re not invincible; even you recognize that. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.” Kopaka glared at me, but gave no reply. Still, I could tell there was an awful lot running through his head. “So why are you really going up there?” “You do not understand.” His eyes were fixed right on me, that penetrating gaze, but this time that look didn’t stop me; he had nothing left to hold over my head, and we both knew it. He’d shown me as much of the final battle as I was likely going to see, and we’d be heading our separate ways in less than an hour regardless; he could neither threaten to leave me nor refuse to show me more, so I’d be a lot more insistent this time than I’d been the day earlier. “Oh, I think I do,” I argued. “Gali did, too. Know what she told me? She said you’re not going up there to do astronomy, to chart stars for your duty.” Kopaka’s eyes widened… indignation , I could tell “Yeah, maybe you’ve convinced yourself of that,” I continued, “but you’re not going up there for the Matoran’s benefit. If you were really doing astronomy for them, you’d be in New Atero right now, or at the very least in Ko-Koro-Nuva, and you know it. No, you’re going up there because you want to be alone, to be away from everyone.” “Lis…” he scowled. “No, it makes perfect sense.” This time, I shut him down. “I saw it in that dream; what shadow Kopaka told you. You’re better than them, they’ll only slow you down… you really believe that, don’t you? That’s why you keep yourself so detached: you’re above them, you don’t need them.” Okay, maybe that was pushing it a little far, but at this point I was provoking him on purpose, and boy did it work. “Shadow Kopaka does not exist anymore,” he insisted. “He was defeated, destroyed, and what you saw was the product of a drugged mind. I told you to disregard it; it will not lead to any truth.” “You’d like to believe that,” I countered, “and yeah, physically, he doesn’t exist anymore. But he’s still a part of you, and you’re still trying to prove yourself to him, to yourself. You wanted to believe him when he said you needed no one; that’s why you’re going up into the mountains. Out there, no one can help you, you’re forced to be independent, and you want it that way. You want to prove you’re better than them, that you can handle yourself, especially now that they’ve fallen.” “I am already the last Toa Nuva left,” Kopaka scowled. “If what you are insinuating is true, and it is not, then would that not be proof enough?” “You don’t need to prove it to them; you need to prove it to yourself,” I continued, “and surviving isolated and alone is the only way you can do that. Screw the Matoran, screw your duty; you need to be alone because you have that image of yourself, an ego you need to satisfy, and you just can’t rationalize that. It doesn’t compute to you; that’s why you could never give me a straight answer. You can analyze and understand everyone except yourself!” “Lis…” His eyes were shooting daggers at this point, but I was only getting started. All the questions I didn’t get to ask, everything that I’d struggled with about him… it all came pouring out. “And you know, I wouldn’t care.” I stood up and started pacing back and forth. “I wouldn’t care about it if you didn’t try to be the moral high ground all the time. All this talk about duty, about honor, about what it means to be a Toa, and here you are throwing it out the window for your own selfish reasons! Not only that, but two of your fellow Toa are languishing back in New Atero, and you could be working back there and helping them at the same time! You’re the only person who could save Gali at this point, the only one who might have a chance at getting Pohatu out of his death spiral, but no, you’re going to abandon them too! And I guarantee you’re going to get yourself killed up there in those mountains. You’re going to die, you’re going to let those you fought with die, and you’re going to abandon your duty all because of your stupid self-delusion!” “YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND MY DUTY NOR THE WAY I CHOOSE TO FULFILL IT!” Kopaka suddenly exclaimed as he, too, rose to his feet, now standing face to face with me. He was furious. “You spent days following me and probing my mind, and you still do not have the slightest idea why I do what I do! You violated my privacy, you bothered me at every turn with pointless questions, and now you think you understand! You are wrong, Lis, and I was willing to tolerate you so far, but this is enough! I have fulfilled my one promise to you, so leave! Go rejoin the worthless pretenders that you call your friends, and leave me to fulfill my duty as I see fit!” I just stood there for a moment… shocked at the harsh reply. Then anger boiled through again, anger at his blatant self-denial, at him calling me stupid and wrong when I tried to point out the harsh truth about him. “Fine!” I blurted out. “You know, I thought you could see reason, or at least give me some explanation, but to see you abandon it like this…” I was at a loss for words. He just glared back, his face locked in anger, not even blinking. “You actually thought you could stop me,” he said, no longer shouting but with a voice that sounded almost sadistic and cruel, like he found a certain pleasure in this twisted ‘victory.’ “You thought you had found what I could not explain, to stop me from going about my duty simply because you were not satisfied. You are wrong, Lis; you have only found what you cannot understand, and I have no reason to explain it to you. You have lost that privilege. Now leave.” That just took the self-denial to a whole new level; I was done. “ you… never mind. You’ve already yourself.” I shook my head, then turned around and started to walk away, trying to hide the fact that I was welling up in tears. You know, over the last few days I’d alternatingly resented him and looked up to him, but having seen the proud and noble warrior on the outside, I found it genuinely gut-wrenching to find how low he could sink if pushed beyond his comfort zone. He said nothing as I went, forward through the cart, past the two buckets still sitting on the floor where I’d left them, and eventually reached the door. I turned around one last time; he hadn’t moved a muscle, still standing there, staring me down even as I walked away. At that point, I really saw shadow Kopaka in him… the expressions were one and the same. I turned away again and walked out. I was one part angry, furious even, disappointed, and sad all the same. I wanted to scream, to run, to turn back and smack sense into him… a whirlwind of emotions were running through me. For better or worse, for five days I’d followed him, tried to decipher him, hoping to learn from him… and I had figured him out, or at least I thought I did. Yet, his utter inability to turn that critical lens through which he analyzed everyone else on himself was bitterly disappointing, and the fact that he could really make a difference if he did was downright infuriating. I stopped in the third car from the back, realizing that I couldn’t afford to show up in front of my teammates like this; they’d ask a lot more questions than I was willing to answer, and I needed time to calm down, to think… the car was empty; most of the passengers had moved forward, to the cars from which they could disembark once the train reached the station, now only minutes away. I sat down, cried, cursed under my breath, but I got myself under control. After waiting a few minutes and wiping the tears off of my mask, I decided it was time to get a move on. I found my teammates in the dining car, not looking all that great themselves. Jahlpu still looked tired, and given that he’d just spent most of the night cleaning out the mess in this car, which looked pretty clean given the state it was in when I last left it, I couldn’t blame him. As for Lerome and Kirall… well, they were coming down from one heck of a party, and it showed. All three had empty plates in front of them, and the Toa of Air and Water were both drinking some kind of fruit juice. Judging from the empty glass, Jahlpu’d already finished his. “Hey, Lis…” Lerome greeted un-enthusiastically. “Hi,” I nodded back, before turning to the bar, which was now staffed by a Fire Tribe Agori, who didn’t look all that happy himself. “I’ll… I’ll have whatever they had, if I can,” I said, putting a couple of widgets down on the counter without really bothering to count them. “Will that cover it?” “It will,” the Agori informed me as he reached under the counter, pulled out some kind of prepackaged and heated meal, and then proceeded to pour me a large glass of juice as well. “Keep the change,” I told him as I picked up the plate and drink. He nodded, and I turned and made my way over to the table my teammates had taken up. I took the fourth, empty chair, and proceeded to quietly eat my breakfast without really paying attention to what it was. I honestly didn’t care… I was numb, as were my teammates, though for different reasons. The journey’d been exhausting for all of us, and for a while, none of us really felt like saying anything. By the time I finished my meal and the drink, the train was starting to slow down; Onu-Koro-Nuva was right ahead. “We’ve arrived,” Jahlpu pointed out. “You think?” Kirall said sarcastically. “Oh c’mon,” Jahlpu continued, “we’ll find a place to rest for a while, and then we can play tourist for a bit.” “Yeah, we’ll see all the amazing rocks and mounds of dirt,” Lerome jested. Jahlpu cast a frown in his direction. “We won’t be staying that long,” he told the Toa of Air. “Nothing compared to how long we hung around in Le-Koro-Nuva, anyways.” “That place was fun, though,” Lerome mumbled. Jahlpu rolled his eyes, then turned his attention to me. “You feeling okay?” “Uh, me?” I wondered for a moment. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine… just tired like you, that’s all.” “Is your friend coming?” Jahlpu asked. “No, no he isn’t.” I said. “He’s going on to Ko-Koro-Nuva, then west from there. He travels a lot.” Lying through my teeth, of course, but I really didn’t want to discuss Kopaka right then and there. “Who was he, exactly?” Kirall asked. Oh, great, now she was interested. I had to shut this down before I revealed more than I was willing to answer questions about. “No one important,” I replied. “Just… had a few thoughts on what a Toa should, you know, do.” “Ah… no wonder you ended up with him, then,” Lerome grinned. “Yeah, but I’ve heard enough,” I concluded. “We’re back together for now.” “Great,” Lerome continued. “We’ll be sure to get you into enough parties to catch up.” “C’mon, not now,” Jahlpu intervened. “I’m sure you’ve got some places you’d like to see, right?” he asked me. “Uh… Le-Koro-Nuva, I guess,” I thought out loud. “Aw sweet!” Lerome perked up at the idea. “I mean, I’d like to see that stuff you guys saw about Lewa,” I continued, realizing the Pandora’s Box I’d just opened, but it was too late to shut it. “Sis, what we did here,” Lerome gestured around the car, “it was nothing compared to what the Le-Matoran can pull off. You’re gonna be amazed.” “Yeah, sure…” I smiled nervously. The prospect of a Le-Matoran party wasn’t all that an exciting one for me. Not anymore. “We’ll get you to throw down properly,” Kirall added. “Like you used to. You’re like, no fun now.” “Yeah, thanks.” I shot her a dirty look. “Let’s worry about that later, okay?” Jahlpu concluded. We could feel the train slowing down again. He looked out the window. “Looks like we’re here,” he informed us, apparently having spotted the station outside. Less than a minute later, the train came to a complete stop, and what few passengers were in the car with us started to get up and make their way to the car in front, from which they could actually get to the platform. We did the same, and were soon stepping out of the train and into the bright sunlight of day. Squinting and blinking for a minute as our eyes adjusted, we looked around; this was a sizable station, but the platform we’d stepped onto was the only one meant to load and unload passengers; from it, a long elevated walkway led across a leveled-off area with numerous tracks running across it. “That’s where they load all the processed ore from the mines onto trains to be shipped out,” Jahlpu informed us as we crossed over the loading area. Two trains were parked there, while a third was being loaded with ore, car by car, by two large cranes. Coming down at the other end of the walkway, we passed a waiting area for passengers and a set of ticket booths, beyond which the station officially ended and we found ourselves standing on Onu-Koro-Nuva’s main street. To the left and right, simple wooden and stone buildings made up the above-ground portion of the town. Down the road, a couple hundred feet away from us, a cavernous opening in the side of the mountain that cast its shadow over much of the town lead into the underground portion. Everything looked quite dusty and dirty; this was an industrial town first and foremost. “Looks like there’s a place to stay.” Jahlpu pointed to the largest building on our left, a long, two-story structure that advertised “Hotel” on a sign by the entrance. Inside, we found a Po-Matoran manning the counter. Jahlpu stepped forward, introduced himself, and before we knew it he’d gotten us two rooms on the upper floor. Tired and numb, we made our way upstairs and eventually found the rooms. Lerome and Kirall would share one; Jahlpu and I had the other. We walked in, closed the door behind us, noted there were two beds, and each collapsed onto one of them. Within seconds, I was out.

It was hurried, yes, but the final battle was still two chapters long as is, so I felt it kind of necessary to cut my losses on that one. Plus, it wouldn't have done either side much good if they'd kept fighting for longer, exhausting themselves before the real enemy even showed up, and I think Gali and Pohatu at least realized that, prompting them to try and put a stop to that show before things got even more out of hand. And, once the buzz-line "We're with Mata Nui" was out from both sides, they pretty quickly came to the realization that they really shouldn't be fighting each other. Of course, Makuta helped by sending down the Rahkshi for both of them to fight.

I always thought of rahi as creatures that could reproduce, to establish a kind of 'cycle of life' and a healthy ecosystem in the Great Spirit Robot. Besides, some Rahi, like the Muaka or the Takea shark, are definitely predatory, so there had to be some kind of reproductive mechanism going on at least among the creatures they ate to keep their food supply available. Agori and Glatorian definitely hunt and eat rahi, just as they did with the creatures that lived on Bara Magna before the reformation, though they mostly stick to those since they're more organic and therefore far more nourishing. Robotic rahi can be hunted and their mechanical parts reforged into replacement parts for a Matoran or Toa, but other than that only rahi that are more organic are really useful as food sources. Toa and Matoran, as I recall, can eat, but they can also absorb the energy from a substance in a more direct manner... how exactly they do that, as far as I recall, isn't really explained, so I just went with the eating route, since Agori definitely do that and I figure there's something to be said for enjoying the flavors of food beyond just getting nourishment from it.

Yeah, it's got a few more readers on the TTV boards and such, but it's been pretty slow over here. Glad you like it, though!

-------------------- Chapter 33 -------------------- “Well, what is it!?” Tahu demands. “I do not know,” I reply, much to my own surprise. Those are Skrall! How do I not know? “Definitely not friendly, though, and wielding the element of Shadow, by the look of them.” I notice a number of shadow bolts being hurled ahead of the black horde as they reach the dunes. “Great…” Lewa sighs. “More Shadow-Men!? After Karda Nui?” “Our allies should know more about them,” Gali suggests. “It’s their planet, after all.” “Good thinking,” Tahu replies. He turns and walks back to the edge of the escarpment. “Cover me,” he says as he deploys his wings again. “I’m going to check with Ackar about what’s going on.” Gali, Pohatu, and Onua nod immediately and take up positions along the edge as well, watching and covering Tahu as he flies down to the melee below. “Over here!” I shout; a number of Rahkshi are making their way up to our position behind us. I duck as one of them launches up a heat vision ray. Lewa immediately turns to face our aggressors. “Enough of you!” he declares. “Can’t you see we have more important stuff to deal with over there!?” He points out with one of his blades at the Skrall, who are rapidly approaching, but are still well behind the Rahkshi, then rapidly raises it sky-high, commanding the air around the Rahkshi to surge upwards, whipping up tons of dust in the process. “Have fun, Kopaka!” he declares as everyone but me is momentarily blinded by the cloud; my Akaku allows me to see the stunned and confused Rahkshi clearly. I move in among them, felling them with my blades as they, panicked, stab with their staffs in random directions, hitting nothing but the ground and each other. For a few seconds, it’s as though I’m a phantom to them, and by the time the dust begins to settle, none are left standing. “Not bad,” Lewa nods, smiling as I make my way back up to our position. “DISENGAGE!” I suddenly hear a voice shout over the fight below. “What the…” Lewa and I quickly move to the edge where Gali, Pohatu, and Onua are already standing, trying to figure out what’s going on below. The voice was Ackar’s, and all over the field the Glatorian start to draw back, leaving the Toa to fight the remaining Rahkshi, who seem to make little effort to harry their retreating foes. Flying back out from the carnage is Tahu, and boy do we have some questions for him. “What are they doing!?” Gali demands as Tahu reaches our position. “Their… their villagers, their Matoran…” Tahu explains, “they’re hiding over there.” He points over our heads in the direction of the Skrall horde, who are still rapidly covering ground, and… are pursuing something. Small figures running about the dunes. Are these the Matoran that Tahu’s speaking of? They look more like Agori to me. “I told him we’d handle the remaining Rahkshi,” Tahu continued, “while they go protect their people.” “Sounds like a plan,” Pohatu agrees. “We should be able to handle what’s left, right?” Looking down and around us, it’s obvious that dead Rahkshi are everywhere, but their staggering numbers mean that many are still bearing down on us and the other Toa down below; most of the Glatorian are already heading in the direction of the Skrall and the hapless Agori. “I don’t have much fire left,” Tahu admits, “and no doubt we’re all feeling the strain, but I have my swords, and I swear these Rahkshi will come to know them well!” “Better not waste time,” Onua notes, having already deployed the rocket boosters that grant him flight. He leaps off of our high ground. The rest of us follow suit, and before long, we all land in the middle of the battleground, knocking down several Rahkshi in the process. “REGROUP! FORM CIRCLES!” Tahu orders at the top of his lungs. With Rahkshi swarming all around us, it’s our best option; standing in a circle, each of us facing outwards and fighting off what comes at us from the front by whatever means necessary, knowing that our back is covered by all the others. All over the battlefield, other Toa are already doing the same, grouping up around whatever feature provides even a modicum of cover, or at least serves as a landmark to rally around. I want to conserve what elemental energy I have left, and resort to fighting swords-and-shield against the incoming Rahkshi. I decapitate one while maneuvering my shield to block the staff of another, then wheel around, bringing my upper sword down to slice said staff in two. A lunge plants the sword straight through the creature’s chest and up into its back, goring the slug-like abomination controlling the armor from inside. I barely withdraw my sword in time to block a third Rahkshi, coming at me from the right; for a moment, our weapons are locked, both of us pushing to try and bring ours down on the other, but I have my shield, which I thrust forwards under the Rahkshi’s staff to knock its legs out from under it, causing it to fall down flat on its face; I plant my lower sword into its head to ensure it will not rise again, then raise my shield, providing cover while I look to see how those behind me are doing. Tahu is positioned to my left; he lacks a physical shield, obviously, but is making generous use of his mask to conjure up spectral ones to block staff strikes from the Rahkshi in front of him, then exploits the momentary confusion on their part to hack them down in spades. He doesn’t aim for the head or back, specifically; the surgical strike isn’t his style. Instead, he goes for whatever’s exposed, whether that means hacking off an arm, a leg, or a head with wide, reckless, occasionally flaming slashes that would seem to leave him dangerously exposed. In doing so, he’s taunting the Rahkshi to come close, but his guard is never as down as it seems, and inevitably they are maimed or killed outright. Tahu’s reveling in this, dominating his foes through a mix of tactics and brutal strength, fighting not just for his own survival, but also that of everyone else here, for the lives of everyone still trapped inside the titanic Makuta. I do not know whether or not the Makuta feels the deaths of his wicked creations, but if he does, Tahu must be causing him a splitting headache. Fighting to his left is Gali, wielding her twin axes in, perhaps, a far more controlled manner. Her mask provides her no benefit here, and she can’t take the time to switch, but agility and acrobatics make her a difficult target nonetheless; she dodges a staff left, then right, weaving herself between two Rahkshi only to bring an axe down on both their necks, cleanly decapitating both. A third Rahkshi attempts to strike her with a low sweep of its staff, but a jump, a flip, and another axe swing bring its plans to a halt, and puts my sister back in her position in the circle, just in time to whack a fourth staff out of the way. She keeps her axes going in a continuous, swinging motion, a constantly changing pattern that exploits the momentum of the heavy weapons to deliver a series of devastating strikes that break staffs, limbs, and anything else in their way while leaving the Rahkshi no opening to exploit. She jumps, flips, turns and twists through the blurred, silver streaks, a near-liquid form in a ferocious, yet tightly controlled and almost elegant dance of destruction that the Rahkshi simply don’t have an answer to. Next in line, and directly opposite me, Onua revs up his weapons, a set of chainsaw-like devices that easily outweigh Gali’s axes and make for very potent armor breakers; he merely has to make contact with a Rahkshi for the rapidly spinning threads to proceed shredding off plates and whatever lies beneath, and while he can’t deflect or dodge blows the way Gali can, he doesn’t need to. The Toa of Earth’s thick armor easily absorbs the impact of the Rahkshi staffs, and in a melee this close they don’t dare to use their heat vision. Heedless of whatever they do, Onua simply raises up the howling contraptions and brings them down on the heads of whichever Rahkshi are closest, easily ripping off the armor plates and making mince-meat of the slugs inside, a display vicious enough to make any others think twice about approaching him. Yet, pressured by ever more of their kind pushing up behind, the Rahkshi move forward, trying vainly with their staffs to find a weak spot in the armor. Their attempts are curtailed as Onua activates his mask and swings his weapons upwards with all his might, sending two more Rahkshi flying backwards in pieces from the sheer force of the impacts. “A-ha! Saw ya coming!” Lewa declares, parrying a staff coming at him with one sword while thrusting forward with the other, planting it cleanly into the neck of the staff’s owner, who falls to the ground with a disgusting, gurgling sound as wisps of shadow energy erupt from the resulting gash. “Not today,” Lewa mockingly declares, attracting the attention of a number of other Rahkshi, all of which begin to converge on him. The Toa of Air responds by leaping into the air, tumbling over as he parries their first strike. “And one…” he exploits the tumble by bringing his other sword down to block another, “…and two, and three…” he whirls his swords back and forth, parrying more staff thrusts in the process. He lands behind the Rahkshi that attempted to hit him, swinging a sword to his side to block the strike of a fourth, “…and four.” He stands up, spins around, and gives a sly smile. “My turn.” Suddenly, it’s as though his swords become a silver blur; he charges forward, spinning wildly, slashing in every direction and delivering numerous cuts to the monsters. Having reached his position in the circle again, he stops. “And… fall,” he says; the Rahkshi he just mowed through fall down behind him in pieces. Lewa doesn’t even look, knowing he finished them already, but it’s not long before more come up to take their place, and the Toa of Air has to turn to face them again. “More!?” he asks, feigning surprise. “Oh, it must be my lucky day!” Lastly, fighting beside me and with decidedly fewer words, is Pohatu. He doesn’t have swords, axes, or anything like that; no, a small set of curved, blunt pieces of metal affixed to his wrists are all he needs. They’re hinged, like claws or pincers, and just as he dodges a staff coming down to his left, the Toa of Stone reaches out and uses them to grab onto the arm of the Rahkshi it belongs to. He pulls back, dragging the creature down, exploiting the movement to plant his knee under its chin, producing a distinct ‘crack!’ as the yellow, armored form goes limp. Pohatu drops it, then turns his attention to two more coming from his right; they sweep low with their staffs, perhaps intending to floor the Toa, but he doesn’t let them, leaping up and delivering a roundhouse kick to both of their faces. More crunching sounds, and more fallen Rahkshi, and upon landing Pohatu picks up one of their staffs, swinging it upwards to block a strike from a fourth trying to advance on him from behind. Knocked off balance by the upward impact from the Toa’s stolen weapon, the creature staggers back, and hasn’t even regained its balance by the time Pohatu leaps forward and delivers it a kick to the chest, knocking it prone. He plants his staff into its waist, pinning it to the ground; part of the Rahkshi’s carapace opens up, revealing the hideous head of the slug inside, which splits into three sections, each squirming and hissing at the Toa in a vain attempt to retaliate in spite of being pinned down. In response, Pohatu produces a fist-sized rock and shoves it down onto the exposed slug, squishing it and ending the disgusting sounds it was producing. “You okay!?” He turns and calls to me, dropping the staff. “Do you need to ask?” I turn back and plant a sword into the chest of a Rahkshi that’s been trying to get past my shield for a while now. It hisses, gargles, makes all sorts of revolting noises, but I quickly end it by sending a bolt of freezing cold down my blade, turning the slug inside in to an icicle; another Rahkshi down. “I guess not,” Pohatu smiles as he raises his right arm to catch the staff of another Rahkshi coming at him. He twists around, dragging the creature past himself and tripping it in the process, causing it to land right at my feet. “Have at it,” he invites, before turning his attention to the prone Rahkshi’s companions. I ensure that this particular one won’t bother us again by planting my lower sword into the top of its head, right where the armor splits, then return to making sure none of the Rahkshi in front of me get past. “You deal with yours,” I remind Pohatu, “and I will deal with mine.” “Whatever you say,” Pohatu replies, but in the heat of battle the conversation goes no further. All my concentration is now on holding off the Rahkshi, whose lines do indeed seem to slowly, surely, be thinning, and they’re becoming all the bolder and more reckless for it. Surely, there can’t be much left in these Toa? True, I should be getting tired, but… I’m not. I fight on, only feeling stronger, more alert, taking the Rahkshi one by one. It’s like I’m entering a trance, acting automatically, recognizing how to parry or block their swings and thrusts and instantly calculating how to respond; my brain is running at a million miles per hour; my vision blurs around the edges, but my target is always crystal-clear. I should be out of breath; my muscles should feel like they’re on fire, but I’m not and they don’t, and none of it matters. I will survive! I will beat them! Another one goes down, victim to my blade. The next one comes with an overhead swing. Dodge left, slash downwards onto head. Done. Another one tries to sweep low. Jump forward, bash the shield into its face. It’s dazed. Go for the neck. Done. Two more stab at me. Turn and block with shield. Blocked successfully. Step forward and slash right-to-left with both swords. Their staffs are cut in two. Step forward again and slash back. They’re finished. Another one on my left! Block. Step forward again, spin around. Plant lower sword into its chest. Finished. Next! The cacophony of the battle around me is fading now. The shouting, the clanging of metal against metal, the screaming and hissing of the Rahkshi, it’s all blending into a droning noise... I spin around again and again, fighting off Rahkshi on all sides. Block left, slash right, turn, stab backwards, jump, parry, dodge, thrust forwards. Freeze! Retract blade, block left again, parry right, spin around and slash both! The droning has become a pulsing, throbbing sound, a heartbeat racing out of control. My vision… my vision is blurring more and more, an increasingly tight window through which I have to focus on my enemies. Argh! A sudden stab of pain in my head; I close my eyes. Did one of them get me!? No, there’s no wound, it’s just a headache. ARGH! Another one! I shake my head. I must go on. Parry right again, twist into lunge… Argh! Again! My vision’s blurred now to the point where I’m effectively blind, yet I know I’m still fighting. Block again; I can feel the impact in my shield arm. The heartbeat’s getting louder, each beat sounding like an enormous, terrifying drum, and each accompanied by an awful burst of pain in my head. I’m spinning again, I think, I don’t know; I can’t see. It’s sickening. I feel pressure in my arm and hand; something is pushing against it. A stab, a thrust? Argh! Headaches! it! I can’t fight like this! Yet… I am, I think. I don’t know any more! My vision’s going black; what’s going on? I’m still spinning, spinning out of control; I must be. I’m feeling sick, the heartbeats merge into a constant, deafening noise. Someone’s driving nails into my head! It’s… what’s going on? I can’t take this! ----* AAAARRRGHHH!

-------------------- Chapter 32 -------------------- I’m in the tunnel again… I remember this place, though I can’t say exactly where it is. In the dim light all around me, I see others… other Toa. There’s Lewa, and Onua, and Gali… Takanuva towers over most of us, and there’s some more who I don’t recognize, including a full team armed with variations of shields and spears. All of us are looking forward, to a door or hatch of some kind that appears to mark the end of the tunnel. Kneeling in front of it, Tahu and another Toa of Fire are tampering with what looks to be a locking mechanism, heating it up in hopes of either making it cooperate and open or melting it altogether… we want out, we oh so desperately want out. A deep rumbling sound suddenly echoes through the space. We’re all on edge, looking around, wondering where it has come from as the whole tunnel begins to shake like an earthquake. However, it’s… muffled somehow. This isn’t a violent shaking, more a damped rocking back and forth that lasts for a couple of seconds, leaving the tunnel intact. I notice now that, in the reflection of the fire, this is not a natural tunnel; it is lined with metal plates, and we’re standing on a rusty, corrugated floor. The space is cavernous; the diameter of this tunnel has to be at least fifty feet, and the whole thing feels almost… industrial. Our attention is drawn upwards again as a thunderous voice echoes from everywhere: “SO YOU FOUND YOUR WAY HERE, BROTHER…” it says in a slow, deliberate manner, but the sheer scale of whatever must be producing a voice like this makes everything it says take on a deeply threatening tone. “We’ve arrived somewhere…” a Toa near me mumbles. “Where?” another asks. I have no answer, nor does anyone else. “We’ll find out soon!” Tahu assures us. “AND YOU HAVE COME AT LAST, TO TRY AND FINISH ME, NO DOUBT,” another voice, slightly higher in pitch but no less threatening, calls out. It’s coming from outside, I’m pretty sure, and it sounds slightly muffled by distance. “THIS IS WHERE YOU END, BROTHER,” the first voice declares as we start to feel some… movement. It’s slight, but it feels like the floor is tilting, yet none of us are falling. Another deep, loud crashing sound is followed by what I can only describe as an earthquake aftershock. All of us Toa stand, weapons at the ready, gaze still fixed on the door. At last, Tahu appears to be making progress; he’s reduced what was once a formidable locking mechanism to a red-hot, molten mass of metal, which a Toa of Iron is gradually guiding way from its original position on the door. “Stand back!” Tahu announces as he stands up and takes a few steps back himself. He points at another Toa, one armored in purple and grey… a Toa of Gravity. “Open the door!” he orders. The Toa of Gravity obliges, kneeling down and focusing his power on the door, forcing it outwards… it creaks, it buckles, but then suddenly, with a tremendous crash, it blasts away, revealing a bright light beyond, so bright that everyone has to close their eyes or look away until they adjust… after a few seconds, Tahu shouts another order: “Out! Get out now!” As one, we start charging forward through the opening. A few feet below, a soft yellow-white sand awaits us. After landing, I look back for a moment; the tunnel we escaped leads into a titanic, metal structure, a monolithic skyscraper that reaches up into the dust cloud created by the hatch landing in the fine sand not far away. More Toa come leaping out, landing all around me as we proceed to dash away, up into the dunes. A great shadow is cast over the landscape as, miles above us, something moves in a swinging motion. Moments later, a gargantuan crashing sound, followed by another. I reach the top of the dune shortly after Tahu and look back again; the dust has begun to settle, and now I can see more clearly. The gods themselves are fighting above us. Two enormous robots, Toa-like in stature yet tall enough to reach the stars themselves, are engaged in a terrible fistfight, grappling and launching beams of light at each other, each act accompanied by a deafening racket of clanging metal, enormous creaking joints, and a constant yet almost deafening drone with each laser beam. The hatch we escaped from was located near the sole of the foot of one of them, and now it proceeds to rise up into the air again as the titan takes another step forward. “YOU ARE WEAK, MATA NUI! YOU ARE OCCUPYING A PROTOTYPE, A LESSER VERSION OF EVERYTHING I COMMAND!” it declares. There is a distinct rage to the way in which this… thing, this being taunts its adversary. “THAT MAY BE, BUT I AM NOT ALONE!” said adversary responds. “BROTHER… NEITHER AM I!” the robot we escaped from says. Now there’s satisfaction, confidence… whoever this is knows they are going to win this most colossal of undertakings. My fellow Toa and I can do naught but stand and tremble at what is going on. “Halt! Who goes there!?” A voice suddenly declares from behind me. I turn, as do my companions, to find a green Glatorian standing on the next dune over, maybe a hundred feet away from us. “They came out of the Makuta!” another Glatorian appears beside the first; a female from the water tribe. “They must be his minions!” “No, we are not!” Tahu protests, but more Glatorian appear over the dune and it is already too late. To my great surprise, the green Glatorian points one of his blades at us, then unleashes a cyclone. I dive down, barely dodging out of the way, but am then blasted by a jet of water from his companion. Some of the other Glatorian proceed to hurl various elemental blasts at us as well; Tahu activates his Kanohi Hau to shield some of them, while others dodge out of the way. The Toa respond in kind; now it’s a full-blown fire-fight, all elements being thrown back and forth over my head. From behind my shield, I hurl freezing bolts at any Glatorian that pokes over their dune; Tahu sweeps the place wholesale with a wave of fire, while Lewa is conjuring up cyclones and sending them in the general direction of the Glatorian, who now appear thoroughly outgunned. “STOP!” A voice suddenly calls out, barely audible over the mayhem. In fact, it’s two voices… I look over from behind my shield to find that Gali and Pohatu are standing almost halfway between the dunes, back-to-back, each facing one of the warring sides. They appear to have… shape-shifted somehow; their armor and weapons have changed. Pohatu now sports a set of helicopter rotors on his arms, while Gali’s mask and arms have sprouted small, aerodynamic fins, and a bulky set of rocket boosters has appeared on her legs. “What are you doing!?” I call out, but they begin to rise into the air, Pohatu with his rotors and Gali with the rockets, both looking up at the flood of elemental attacks being launched back and forth overhead. Coming into view of the Glatorian, they immediately come under fire; Gali, who’s facing that way, conjures up a wall of water to shield them, while Pohatu creates a solid wall of stone on his side. “STOP IT!” they call again, and now that the two sides can’t see each other anymore, they are actually listened to. The Toa and Glatorian fall silent; I can’t see what’s going on beyond the stone wall, but by the sound of things, Gali has dropped the wall of water. “We are not Makuta’s minions!” she calls out. “What are you, then!?” a skeptical voice sounds from the Glatorian side. “We are Toa!” Gali continues. “We serve Mata Nui; the body we just escaped from was stolen by Makuta!” There is no reply for a moment; I use my Akaku to see through the stone wall and find that the Glatorian are turning towards each other, apparently discussing what they just heard. “And who are you?” Gali asks in return. “We know Mata Nui,” an older looking Glatorian stands up. “We fight for him.” “Hey, it seems we’re on the same side, then,” Pohatu points out. “Could we, I don’t know, stop throwing things at each other?” In spite of the gravity of the situation, there’s a lighthearted sarcasm in his words. “Prove it!” the female Water Glatorian shouts, holding a trident at the ready. “You ask for proof at a time like this!?” Tahu shouts over the wall. “What do you know of Mata Nui!?” “He made us Toa,” the old Glatorian replies, somewhat more calmly. “And yes, I believe we can stop throwing things at each other.” “Wonderful!” Pohatu exclaims, relinquishing his control over the stone wall, which rapidly crumbles to dust. The firing doesn’t resume, but the air is still tense. “We are Toa too.” The old Glatorian steps forward. “Some of us are, at least. I am Ackar, and I know Mata Nui.” “You do, huh?” Pohatu says as he and Gali descend back to the ground. “He’s a friend of ours,” the Water Glatorian adds, “and he’s in some real trouble right now. We’re here to help him.” “Help him against that?” Tahu gestures at the giant robot, occupied by Makuta, standing over and behind us. “We’re trying to keep everyone here safe,” Ackar explains, “but if you know of a way to make things more difficult for the Makuta, I’m all ears.” “There’s many more trapped inside,” Tahu begins, but the thundering voice of the Makuta overhead cuts him off. “YOUR SO CALLED FRIENDS ARE GATHERED BELOW, BROTHER…” he taunts. “THEY CHOSE THE WRONG SIDE; I’LL MAKE THEM PAY.” We all look up, angry and terrified, as the titan lifts up his arms and multiple hatches on the sides of his body open up; they’re mere dots at this distance, but there appears to be… some kind of swarm emerging. I zoom in with my scope to get a better view; “Rahkshi!” I recognize them immediately; hunched over, metal creatures armed with spines and staffs. There must be hundreds of them, armored in a bright yellow with red, glowing eyes. “Heat Vision Rahkshi!” Another Toa shouts, an identification that is confirmed within moments as some of the leading Rahkshi proceed to fire bright-red rays from their eyes on their way down. They can’t do much at this range, but they’re closing fast. “WATCH, BROTHER, WATCH AS MY SONS END THE MISERY OF THOSE YOU FAILED TO PROTECT!” the Makuta declares, after which he lets out an ominous, deep-throated laugh. “FAILURE IS NOTHING NEXT TO YOUR BETRAYAL,” Mata Nui counters, “AND SOON, YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST MY UNIVERSE!” “YOU WILL NOT STOP ME, BROTHER…” Makuta continues. “YOU NEVER COULD.” “We need to stop those things!” Ackar shouts, pointing up at the incoming horde. “Already on it!” Tahu declares; I now notice he appears to have deployed a set of wings, and he soares up into the sky. Sporting a similar adaption, I do the same; in fact, all the other Toa Nuva are now, by whatever mechanism their armor is equipped with, taking flight to meet the Rahkshi head-on. Already, our allies below us are firing at any that come within range, picking off a few here and there, and we’re doing the same; I shoot freezing bolts at one Rahshi after another, my aim guided by a laser sight that seems to have just… appeared on my mask. Tahu indiscriminately hurls massive blasts of heat and flame upwards, sure to hit something considering the density of enemies in the air above, while Lewa is already whipping up a cyclone, ready to suck in and catch any Rahkshi foolish enough to get close. Gali’s adding water to it to make it a full-blown hurricane. Onua and Pohatu are controlling chunks of earth and stone, respectively, guiding them upwards to strike the Rahkshi at incredible velocities, like elemental missiles. Lagging slightly behind, Takanuva makes up for his slow flying by hurling searing beams of light upwards from his lance, taking down multiple Rahkshi with every shot. Yet the swarm above us is overwhelming, and soon we are surrounded, having to fend off enemies from all sides in three dimensions while more of them continue to stream down around us on their way to our allies on the ground. It’s proper chaos, this; heat rays being fired in all directions, Lewa and Gali’s cyclone now roaring around us as a shield of sorts while the rest of us fire at any target of opportunity; and yet they keep coming, their source, it seems, inexhaustible. All the while, intermittent sounds of thunder and huge, sweeping shadows remind us of the titanic clash happening behind us. “I can’t keep the wind-storm going forever!” Lewa warns us. “We can’t hold anything off without it!” Tahu calls back as he thrusts his sword upwards, goring a Rahkshi that was coming down on him, ready to strike him with its staff. “If we can’t fight them up here, we’ve got to get down!” Onua suggests. “On the ground, they at least can’t come at us from below!” Gali adds. “We’re the first line up here!” Tahu argues. “WE WILL NOT DRAW BACK!” “Most of them are going right past us!” Pohatu points out, “We need to meet them on the ground, where our allies are!” Tahu remains quiet, focusing instead on taking out a number of Rahkshi trying to fly in from below. Every second feels like an eternity, but eventually he replies: “Fine, we’ll regroup below!” He declares, hurling one final blast of fire upwards before turning and diving for the battlefield below. Onua, Pohatu, and Takanuva do the same, followed by Gali and Lewa, who allow the storm to dissipate. I don’t want to go down, not yet… I can’t hope to hold off all the Rahkshi, but I’ve been sniping them left and right, sending them down, encased in chunks of ice… I line up another shot, take it, and another one goes down; I’m in a trance, it seems, laser-focused on what’s coming at me from above… another one down! “CLANG!” The loud noise right beside me breaks my concentration. Its armor shattered into pieces, a Rahkshi is sent hurtling across my field of view; I look to my right to find Onua hovering right beside me. “Kopaka! That one almost got you!” he informs me. “Come with us, down, now!” I wait for a few seconds, unsure of what I should do; I still don’t want to go down… Suddenly, a heat ray almost catches both of us, but I just manage to deflect it with my shield. Onua’s right; I can’t stay here alone... “Fine,” I relent, turning tail and bolting for the ground, followed closely by the Toa of Earth. Ahead of me, the other Toa Nuva busy themselves by taking out whatever Rahkshi they can on the way down. Leading the way, Tahu turns forward. “The high ground!” He points a sword to a rocky desert outcrop up ahead. The battle below us has spread around it already; Toa and Glatorian fighting hand-to-hand against the monsters, with elemental blasts thrown into the mix. The first to land, Tahu immediately knocks down a Rahkshi that was using the position to rain heat rays into the melee below. Within seconds, the rest of us arrive; slightly isolated from the battle, we can catch our breath and take stock of the situation. The Rahkshi outnumber us at least two to one, it seems, but Takanuva, who elected to land in the middle of the fray, is starting to turn the tide already; Light truly is a devastating weapon against minions of Shadow, capable of cooking them in their shells in moments. “Heads up!” Pohatu calls out, hurling a boulder up at another opportunistic Rahkshi trying to come down on us. “Hang on…” Gali looks upwards, specifically, to the openings on the Makuta from which the Rahkshi were spilling forth. “What is it!?” Tahu demands. “I think they’re slowing down!” Gali points out. “By Mata Nui, she’s right…” Onua agrees. We all look up, and even at this distance, it does seem like the flood of Rahkshi has started to slow to a crawl. “Good,” Tahu concludes. “We’ll only have to deal with what’s here.” “YOUR MINIONS WILL NOT BUY YOU VICTORY, MAKUTA!” Mata Nui declares over our heads as he launches yet another series of lasers at his foe. “THE TOA AND GLATORIAN WILL TRIUMPH!” “YOU THINK I’VE RUN OUT!?” the Makuta replies almost mockingly. “NO, BROTHER… I GOT BORED OF THEM, AND I’VE GOT PLENTY OF WILLING ALLIES ON THIS PLANET ALREADY!” He reaches back with one hand, casting a shadow over our entire battlefield, but it’s aimed right over our heads, at the dark, jagged looking spikes on the horizon beyond. Suddenly, a stupendous blast of shadow energy launches from his palm, hurtling towards the mountains… but instead of striking them full-force, it rapidly dissipates along its way, turning into a dark, ominous fog that descends over the entire range. “What was that for!?” Tahu demands, but none of us have an answer, and the Makuta appears to be turning his attention back to Mata Nui. “LET’S SEE, BROTHER, HOW THEY DEAL WITH THAT!” he declares. I turn my attention back to the mountains, trying to use my scope to pick out any details of what exactly happened out there. A few tense seconds pass… I think I see movement. In fact, there’s a lot of it. “The mountains!” I alert the other Toa, who had turned their attention back to sniping Rahkshi out of the air and the melee below. They turn and look, just as a dark blotch seems to start spilling forth from between the jagged spikes. “What’s that!?” Tahu exclaims. “Something bad, I’m guessing,” Pohatu chimes in. “Oh yes,” I concur; zooming in on the blotch’s leading edge, I can see what it’s made off… Skrall. Hundreds of them. “Something very bad…”

-------------------- Chapter 31 -------------------- As the sun rose higher and noon approached, I realized I was getting hungry, never mind bored, and decided to brave the ‘party car’ again and get a hold of a sandwich of my own. Making my way forward through the train, I noticed the beat of the music had changed. It was faster, rowdier, and before I even opened the door, I feared that the situation in the car would mirror the change in soundtrack. I was right; where previously the atmosphere has been energetic, it was now downright chaotic; the space around the bar resembled a mosh pit, crowned by a considerably drunker Lerome, leading the Matoran in a frenzied dance, if that was the right word, to the music blasting from behind the counter. I watched for a minute or so, wondering how exactly I was going to make my way through the densely packed crowd, but with the end of the song they dispersed somewhat, allowing me to move in. A couple of the Matoran greeted me enthusiastically; apparently several of Lerome’s tall tales had featured me after I left. For his part, the Toa of Air wasn’t paying much attention, not noticing me until I’d practically reached the bar. Of course, that was accompanied by an enthusiastic greeting. “Lis, welcome back!” he exclaimed. “Where’d you go!?” “Stayed in the back for a while,” I said dismissively before turning my attention to the Vo-Matoran behind the bar, who looked even more out of his depth than he had when I last saw him a few hours before. “C-can I help you, ma’m?” he asked, periodically casting nervous glances in Lerome’s direction. “I’d like something to eat,” I informed him. “They told me the sandwiches were pretty good.” “Of course, of course,” the Vo-Matoran turned and disappeared behind the counter, only to reappear moments later with a pre-packaged sandwich. “Two widgets, I believe?” I asked, remembering the price from my last trip, a few days before. “Yes, ma’m,” the Vo-Matoran said. I handed him the two widgets and received my lunch in return. “Hey, play another one,” Lerome told the bartender. “Let’s keep this party going!” The bartender rolled his eyes and fiddled with something under the bar, after which the next song started playing. It was another rowdy dance track, much to Lerome’s delight. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” he merrily exclaimed, after which he swung around on his stool and stepped down onto the floor, intending to once again demonstrate his ‘mad skills’ even while significantly intoxicated. Unsurprisingly, his coordination had suffered, though he still put on a pretty good show, not that I was all that interested. Looking around, I noticed Kirall and her companion had vanished altogether, while Jahlpu had taken a seat in the corner, observing the fray but staying well away from it. I made my way across the impromptu dancefloor to join him at his table. The music volume made it all but impossible to make one’s voice heard, so he merely nodded in greeting as I took the other seat facing into the car, from which I watched the rave unfolding to the dark, angry tune of Kikanalo Stampede’s “Down in the Pit.” We both watched for a while, me making my way through the sandwich while Jahlpu watched with apparent amusement the spectacle unfolding in front of us. With lunch finished, I decided to vacate the place again before I lost my hearing completely; instead, I went and checked what was on the telescreen a car or two back. Turned out it was some kind of Agori fashion show, followed by the afternoon weather, then a segment on great places to eat in New Atero; surprisingly, Daila’s Dermis Shack wasn’t featured. None of the programs really interested me much, but with little better to do I kept watching, my mind drifting over the events of the last few days. However, I drew the line at “Highlights of the Arena Magna.” By that point, it had been several hours and dusk was fast approaching. The noise from the party car had quietened considerably, but I decided to move back to the last car and bide my time there until Kopaka saw fit to show me the final battle at last. The Toa of Ice hadn’t moved, but he was thinking of something, and I decided not to disturb him for the time being. Unfortunately, not fifteen minutes after I entered the car, my teammates followed suit. “That… was so worth it…” Lerome stumbled in first, followed closely behind by Jahlpu, who was doing his best to steady the Toa of Air. “Really, awesome… I wanna go back.” “You need to rest,” Jahlpu asserted. “Okay…” Lerome hazily replied, then collapsed onto several seats that lacked armrests. “Look at him! Wasted!” Kirall exclaimed in an amazing feat of irony, considering that she was barely standing herself. Jahlpu merely rolled his eyes, then pointed at another set of empty seats, which Kirall stumbled towards and eventually came to rest upon. “Hey, Lis!” she exclaimed upon noticing me sitting three chairs away, “You ought ‘a try it sometime…” “No thanks,” I said, rather dismayed at their appearance. Loud snoring from Lerome indicated the Toa of Air was already out cold. “No, really,” Kirall continued, “he did, like, this fire thing… and there was light ‘n stuff…” “No thanks,” I reiterated myself, not wanting to hear more of Kirall’s afternoon activities. “Fine, be that way,” the Toa of Water shrugged, then lay down as well. “Man, I’m tired…” it wasn’t long before she was out too, at which point Jahlpu walked over and took the seat across from me. “End of the party, huh?” I asked. “Yup.” Jahlpu nodded. “For now.” “No kidding…” I rolled my eyes. “And still it always ends like this.” “You’d think they’d learn,” the Toa of Earth sighed. “What are you still doing with them?” I asked. “I mean, you weren’t much enjoying the party, except for watching Lerome wipe out fifteen times.” “Yeah, they’re entertaining,” Jahlpu acknowledged. “Besides, what else would I do? Someone’s got to look out for them; they certainly aren’t.” “We should talk some sense into them at some point… Toa should be more dignified than that.” I gestured over at the two snoring figures draped over the chairs. “Good luck with that.” Jahlpu shook his head. “They’re having fun, and it’s not like there’s something else for them to do either. Besides, you’re one to talk; you’d usually be right there with them.” “True…” He was right; I may not have been as exuberant as Lerome or Kirall, perhaps, but I’d had my share of blackouts in the past, just like they were having now. Thing is, my conscience started to act up about it, whereas they had no such concerns, apparently. “Something happen, sis?” Jahlpu asked, shaking me from my moment of self reflection. “Uh? Like what?” “You seem… different than before,” he continued. “More worried.” “Nah, I’m fine… I’ve just seen a few things since the last time we were together,” I replied. “Bad things?” “You could say… nothing to worry about, really. Just… made me think, that’s all.” An understatement, sure, but I really didn’t want to explain everything to Jahlpu right now. “I hope that’s all.” “It is.” I nodded. We sat there for a bit. Jahlpu pulled out a paper and started to read it. He was right, as usual… a few months, no, weeks ago, I would’ve been right up there with our brother and sister. And where Lerome and Kirall were concerned, much as their behavior wasn’t very Toa-like, it wasn’t like they had much reason to do otherwise. Like the Toa Nuva and Mahri, we had no enemy to fight nor Matoran that needed protecting, yet enjoyed the status of those who had risked their lives to do so. So yeah, why not throw a party at every opportunity? My brother and sister were carefree, alive in the most visceral sense, living it up without any need for concern about the world around them or what the next day would bring, and I used to be the same way… now, though, I just wasn’t feeling it anymore, couldn’t share in their frivolity, not after what I’d seen of the interactions between Pohatu and Kopaka, and Gali, and all the other Toa whose work had in part made this all possible. They languished and faded while we, the next generation, had the time of our lives… If anything, I felt guilty about it. Jahlpu saw it as entertainment, and given his easy-going nature, I guess that wasn’t surprising. Looking right, I noticed Kopaka hadn’t moved an inch during the whole discussion, but I felt like he’d been paying attention, picking up on stuff like he always seemed to do. With Jahlpu present, though, I didn’t want to get up and ask him about it, never mind the final battle. My brother was suspicious enough as it was, and I feared Kopaka wouldn’t much appreciate his attention, which left me with but one option; to wait until, for one reason or another, my brother took himself out of the picture. So I waited for a good hour while Jahlpu gradually made his way through the entire paper. After putting it back where he’d found it, he got up and walked over to where Lerome and Kirall were sleeping soundly, through in some of the most awkward positions I’d ever seen. Jahlpu fixed that, moving them until both were laying relatively flat across the couple of seats they occupied, ensuring that they wouldn’t wake up completely sore in addition to the splitting headaches they’d already resigned themselves to. Watching, I hoped that Jahlpu would leave afterwards, maybe to clean up the mess in the dining car, or use the bathroom, or find his own place to sleep… anything. But no, he returned to his spot across from me. “They’re in for a rough morning,” he predicted. “No kidding…” I sighed. “So, what is it you saw?” Jahlpu wondered. “What I saw?” “You said you saw some things,” he continued, “things that made you think.” “Oh, that…” Now I realized where he was coming from. What could I tell him, though? “Oh, just… that fight between Tahu and Stronius,” I replied. “Amazing power for a Toa, don’t you think?” “Yeah, it was,” Jahlpu agreed. “That’s all?” “No, it’s just…” I tried to come up with something else, but couldn’t. “I met some other Toa, that’s all.” “Which Toa?” Jahlpu wondered. “Older Toa. The Toa Mahri. Hahli, Jaller, Hewkii… saw Matoro’s statue, too.” “You talked to them?” Jahlpu’s eyes grew wide. “For a bit, yeah. They were busy with their stuff, obviously,” I replied. “Wow…” Jahlpu nodded, then looked back to Lerome and Kirall for a moment. “You’d better not tell them,” he advised, “otherwise they’ll demand you introduce them.” “That’s why I wasn’t too keen on talking about it,” I shrugged. “Besides, yeah, they’re great, but it’s not like they’ve got a lot of time on their hands, you know? I mean, Hahli does her reporting, Hewkii has Kolhii things to do…” “Of course,” Jahlpu nodded. “But hey, you might get to add Nuparu to that list soon. Of Toa you met, I mean.” “Hopefully. And you guys met Kongu, right?” “Yeah, yeah… he told us a lot about Toa Lewa,” my brother recalled. “Officially, he trains Matoran and Agori in Kewa riding, but he was always very close to Lewa, and he answered some questions about him.” “The volcano thing still bothers me,” I admitted. “I mean, from what Lerome said, Lewa doesn’t seem like the type who would’ve just done that, you know? I mean, it’s beyond reckless… it’s suicidal.” “I got that vibe too, when Kongu told us about it,” Jahlpu agreed. “I think there’s more to it, but I wasn’t going to stay in Le-Koro-Nuva to find out… Those flimsy treetop huts had me pretty nervous.” “No kidding, right?” I smiled; accustomed to the underground life, Jahlpu’s fear of heights was understandable. “Yup… really, though,” Jahlpu continued, “do we know what really happened to the Toa Nuva? Tahu’s still very visibly around, and Lewa and Onua have statues, but all we really know are legends. I mean, what happened to Gali, you know? Or Pohatu? Or Kopaka?” I continued to smile, but now nervously; I knew exactly what had happened to them, but the pictures weren’t pretty. “Kopaka has a statue, too,” I pointed out. “In Ko-Koro-Nuva.” “So he died to, huh?” “They think so,” I nodded, trying really hard not to hint in any way at the fact that the Toa Nuva of Ice was sitting not twenty feet away from us. “But Gali and Pohatu don’t, so far as I know,” Jahlpu said. “They just… fell of the face of the planet, it seems. I mean, if they were dead, people would’ve put up memorials, and if they’re still around, maybe they could shed some light on what drove Lewa, you know?” “I guess they might…” I realized. “What’s got you so interested, anyways? You were never much for the archives, right?” “No, not really,” Jahlpu admitted, “but I’m sure there’s something to be learned from them… besides, knowing what older Toa ended up doing might help me figure something out for myself… right now, we’re all just kind of wandering, it seems, and I don’t intend to keep following those two from party to party forever.” He gestured over at Kirall and Lerome. “Yeah, that’s kind of what I’ve been doing,” I agreed. “Trying to figure something out…” It was good to know I wasn’t the only one uncertain about my future, though Jahlpu’s concern about his own was something new. Something he’d picked up on his travels, I guess. “Did the Toa Mahri give you any ideas on that at all?” he wondered. “They’re doing okay for themselves,” I remembered, “but they had good jobs as Matoran; Hewkii was a Kolhii star long before he was a Toa, and Hahli was chronicler at one point. I don’t really have something like that to fall back on… I mean, imagine a Toa assistant weaver.” We chuckled in spite of ourselves. “You could do that,” Jahlpu said, “but it’d kind of feel like a waste, I imagine.” “Yes, it would…” I nodded. “You know, that’s why I’m going to Onu-Koro-Nuva,” Jahlpu continued. “The mine’s great and all, but I’d like to know what other Toa of Earth have done. Something that, maybe, I could do.” “Something to help the Matoran,” I finished. “Exactly.” Jahlpu finished. “Like the Toa code thing that the Turaga talked about.” Oh boy, had I heard a lot about that over the last few days. “Yeah, me too…” We sat quietly for a couple of seconds, ruminating on what we could do. “We’ll find something eventually,” Jahlpu concluded. “There’s plenty of jobs for a Toa around, I’m sure.” “I guess so,” I agreed. Jahlpu got up. “Time to go clean up some of their mess,” he decided, gesturing towards our brother and sister again. “Best not to leave the dining car in the state they did.” “Best of luck with that,” I said, well aware that he probably had a pretty big task ahead of him. “I’ll watch over them, make sure they don’t do something stupid… again.” “Thanks,” Jahlpu began to move for the door. “They’ll probably throw up at some point, but other than that they should be out for a while.” “I’ve got a bucket handy,” I smiled, gesturing towards a small trash can that was positioned beside the bench. “See you in a bit, then,” Jahlpu waved, then vanished through the doorway. “See ya.” As the door closed, I picked up the trash can, along with its counterpart from the other side of the car, and set one by the seats that Lerome was lying down on and the other by Kirall. Both were still out cold. Satisfied, I moved back through the car and sat down across from Kopaka. “Well, he’s gone for now,” I informed him, “and the other two aren’t waking up any time soon.” “He is looking for a purpose too, is he?” the Toa of Ice asked. “Yeah, I guess we all are,” I nodded, somewhat surprised at his question. Usually, Kopaka took no interest in anyone else’s affairs. “Why? Do you have any ideas?” “No,” he answered flatly, “but it is good that he is looking.” “You know, he used to talk about the legends of Onua a lot,” I remembered, “and he’s definitely more interested in mining than the archives…” “He has chosen a good role model,” Kopaka concluded. “In Onua?” I asked. “Yes. Especially compared to Lewa or Hahli.” Apparently, Kopaka had paid attention to the earlier conversation, and Lerome and Kirall’s role models. I was already well familiar with his disdain for Hahli, but Lewa? “What was so bad about Lewa?” I wondered. “As you suspected, Kongu did not tell them everything,” Kopaka continued. “Lewa was enthusiastic, yes, but far from without shortcomings.” “Like his recklessness?” “Among others. He was also under Makuta Teridax’s control for some time, he was infected by krana, and nearly became a shadow Toa in Karda Nui. He had a habit of charging into situations he could not make his way out of, something that a Toa cannot afford to do.” “Shadow Toa?” I was immediately reminded of what I saw on the night of the surgery… Kopaka recognized it, too. “Not like that. Those were illusions, phantoms,” he explained. “A Shadow Toa as in, a Toa drained of light and turned evil by a shadow leech.” “That sounds awful,” I shuddered. “But this habit… do you think it was what drove him to try his luck with Mt. Valmai?” “No.” Kopaka concluded. Though his expression was as stoic as ever, I noticed there was a hint of worry in his thoughts. “On Mata Nui, perhaps he would have, but not after Karda Nui.” “What was it, then?” I asked, hoping to get at whatever troubling realization he’d come to. “I do not know,” he said calmly, then waited for a moment, “and I have no intention of spreading rumors.” “Maybe you should find out,” I suggested. “There is no need for that,” Kopaka continued. “The Matoran have in Lewa what they need: a symbol. Whether it presents a complete picture of my brother or not is irrelevant.” “That’s a bit strange, coming from the guy who’s never told anything but the harsh and full truth to anyone,” I pointed out. Immediately, Kopaka looked up at me, or rather through me, with that same piercing gaze that had made me so uncomfortable several times before. “You know that is not the case,” he said solemnly. “The truth matters where it has the potential to help the Matoran; here, it likely would not.” “I suppose…” I relented. Kopaka sighed, then looked down again. We sat in silence for a minute or so before he spoke up again. “I believe I have one last promise to fulfill,” he said. “The final battle, yes,” I nodded. “What you call “the Final Battle” was the Battle for Bara Magna,” Kopaka explained. “That I will show you.” “Wait, there was another one?” I asked, but Kopaka wasn’t inclined to answer. “Focus on me,” he said. “Focus.”

-------------------- Chapter 30 -------------------- The party in question turned out to be three cars ahead, and by the time I reached it, the music had grown from a distant droning to a loud cacophony that could unmistakably be recognized as the work of the a Le-Matoran band that I’d heard a number of times before: Kikanalo Stampede. I entered the car in which the festivities were taking place: it was the same car in which food and drinks were available, and it looked like everyone was taking great advantage of that fact. The car was packed to capacity with Matoran and Agori of all tribes, merrily sharing stories and drinks in an atmosphere that reminded me more of a nightclub than the dry, dull public transport cafeteria/lounge that this was supposed to be. Some were dancing to the beat where there was space to do so, and perched above it all on a bar stool by the center of the bar was Lerome, downing a drink and enjoying the undivided attention of a sizable gathering of Matoran. “…and I looked that Skakdi leader straight in the eyes,” the Toa of Air proclaimed loud enough to be heard over the music, “and I told him that if he showed that ugly face in my town again, he’d spent the rest of his life watching over us from orbit!” His crowd responded with cheers and laughter, and drinks were shared all around. I looked right to find Jahlpu standing, leaning against the wall and calmly observing the happenings with a drink of his own, but before I could say anything to him, Lerome noticed me in the doorway. “Guess who’s decided to join us!” He announced, stepping down from his barstool and gesturing in my direction. “Toa Lis, ladies and gentlemen!” He beckoned for me to come over. “Uhm, hello…” I greeted nervously as I took a few steps forward, still trying to take in the absurdity of the scene, which Lerome was quick to explain to me as he stepped forward. “So, turns out this car has a speaker system,” he pointed towards the bar, “and I got our good friend there to turn off the boring tunes for some Kikanalo Stampede! And voila, we have ourselves a party!” “So it seems…” I said as I looked over towards the bartender, a Vo-Matoran who seemed decidedly uncomfortable with the whole situation, a common feeling for those who found themselves caught in Lerome’s path. “C’mon, sis! Let’s make this trip a fun one!” the Toa of Air invited, throwing his arm over my shoulders and moving me along towards the bar. A number of Matoran raised glasses to me as we passed by. “I’m not so sure…” I began to object, but Lerome wouldn’t hear of it. “Nonsense!” he interrupted. “It’s been way to long since you’ve kicked back with us!” “You sure this is allowed?” I questioned. Lerome turned to the bartender and snapped his fingers, prompting the Vo-Matoran to quickly pull up another glass from below his counter and fill it with a fairly stiff-looking drink. “Who’s gonna stop us?” the Toa of Air asked in return. “I mean, look around. Everyone loves a good party, especially when the alternative is to sit and stay quiet for twenty-whatever hours.” “Can’t argue that…” I looked around, and to be fair, the other passengers seemed pretty okay with the fact that Lerome had turned the lounge into a club. “Where’s Kirall?” I wondered. Lerome gestured over to a corner on the other side of the car, where I spotted our Toa of Water, sitting with and rather enjoying the company of a Fire Tribe Glatorian, of all things… “Ah, she’s… uhm…” I couldn’t quite find the right words. “She’s playin’, sis, she’s playin’,” Lerome said mockingly. “C’mon, you know her.” “Yeah, true,” I admitted as the bartender offered me the drink, which I hesitantly accepted. Lerome’s crowd had regathered around us. “So, Lis here,” he introduced me to them, “she’s our master mind reader and psionic manipulator. She knows what you’re gonna say before you even think of saying it.” Some of the Matoran looked at me wide-eyed, while others appeared more skeptical, especially the Agori. “She can make you see things that aren’t there,” Lerome continued dramatically, “she can make you remember things that never happened, or forget things that did…” “That’s not…” I raised a hand, but that didn’t do much to interrupt the Toa of Air. “…she can make you feel real good inside,” he continued, then darkened his voice, “…or she can show you stuff from your worst nightmares… BOO!” His captivated audience jumped at the scare tactic. “Okay, that’s not what I do,” I objected. In fact, I was feeling profoundly uncomfortable with his description of my abilities… “You can, though,” Lerome said. “Technically yes,” I admitted, “but I don’t, okay?” “Tell them what you did to the Skakdi lord,” Lerome invited, with a slightly cruel smile on his face… he was enjoying this. “Oh, please not,” I shook my head. “It was brilliant, though!” Lerome excited the group, who now all looked to me expectantly. “Brilliant is a bit of a strong word…” I tried to calm them, but to no avail. “Aw, come on!” my brother pleaded. “You don’t want me to ask Kirall to tell it, do you?” “Fine,” I sighed. “I may or may not have made the Skakdi warlord see a giant Irnakk behind us. To be fair, though, Jahlpu was the one who gave me the idea.” There was little response from the crowd. “They don’t know what an Irnakk is,” Lerome helpfully pointed out. “You describe it, then,” I told him. “Of course…” Lerome rolled his eyes, then turned back to his expectant followers. “So, the Irnakk is the ultimate nightmare of any Skakdi, a giant creature with red glowing eyes and razor-sharp fangs and claws…” He accompanied his description by elaborately miming out some of the creature’s features, though said description was also rather exaggerated; the creatures’ spines were definitely not fifteen feet tall as far as I could recall, nor had the Skakdi instantly caved at its appearance, though it certainly had been a powerful bargaining tool. That was Lerome’s way of storytelling, though; he told tall tales, great heroes’ journeys, and as far as he was concerned, we now counted among the ranks of those heroes. I had my doubts, but his audience was none the wiser for it... He got caught up in the story too, so much that pretty soon he was as enthralled as the audience, and completely forgot I was there. Seeing my opportunity to slip away, I left my seat and walked back to the end of the car through which I’d entered; I really wasn’t in much of a mood for a party of any kind, and while Kopaka wouldn’t jump up and down at my company, he probably wouldn’t mind it if I stayed quiet. As I walked past the merry partiers, the festivities almost seemed to blend together in a haze of noise and color that I simply didn’t feel comfortable being a part of anymore. Still, I turned and watched for a while from the doorway. After he’d finished describing the Irnakk, Lerome switched to showing off some of his slick dance moves to the amazed Matoran, probably helped by a little application here and there of his control over the air. Kirall wasn’t paying much attention to anything anymore besides her Glatorian companion; in their own corner, secluded somewhat from the festivities, they were doing… decidedly un-Toa-like things, let me just put it that way. Turning away again, I noticed Jahlpu had vacated his spot to the right of the door. The imposing figure of the Toa of Earth would have stood out in the crowd, and I hadn’t spotted it anywhere in the car... maybe he’d had seen enough, too. I made my way back, passing through a few cars as the music got progressively quieter behind me. At last, I reached the final car, the quiet one where I’d left Kopaka… and where Jahlpu had apparently found him. When I opened the door, I was astonished to see my teammate standing across from Kopaka, who was still sitting, hood up, in the same spot where I’d left him not fifteen minutes before. They were carrying on some kind of conversation. Curious as to what they were discussing, I moved forward, using my Volitak to mute any sounds and get close without interrupting them. From about halfway down the car, I could clearly hear what they were saying. “…and she just followed you?” Jahlpu asked as though he was interrogating Kopaka. “Voluntarily,” the latter said calmly. “Why?” my brother asked. “I do not know what she seeks,” Kopaka answered. “Well, what do you offer?” Jahlpu leant closer, his impressive stature looming over the sitting Toa of Ice. “I offer nothing, other than answering her occasional questions,” he explained. “Hmm… can you see why I find this a bit concerning?” Jahlpu crossed his arms. “Concerning? No.” “Really?” “No.” “Well, let me give it to you straight, then,” Jahlpu sighed. “She’s free to associate with whoever she wants, but if she’s keeping the company of mysterious people doing Mata Nui only knows what, I get alarm bells going off. She means well, I’m sure, but I don’t want anyone leading her to the wrong crowd, if you know what I mean.” “I have no crowd,” Kopaka said flatly. “Sure you don’t,” Jahlpu said sarcastically. “Just know this: if anything happens to her, I’ll come looking for you, got that?” “Yes,” Kopaka acknowledged without looking up. “Good.” Jahlpu turned; I ducked back behind a chair, turning my mask’s power to full to render myself transparent. That was enough to conceal me from Jahlpu, who walked past and exited the car, presumably heading back to the party. “You really should not eavesdrop on people,” Kopaka said after the door closed behind the Toa of Earth. “Well, I’ve kind of got the mask for it,” I said disappointedly as I deactivated the mask and got up. “Turns out they’re throwing a party a few cars up ahead.” “I know.” “Of course you do,” I sighed, taking the seat across from him. “You should tell your teammate not to make hollow threats,” he suggested. “Oh, it wasn’t hollow,” I corrected him. “Jahlpu’s a bit… overbearing sometimes, but he’s also protective, and he means well.” “I did not doubt its sincerity,” Kopaka countered, “but he may have a difficult time finding me even if something does happen to you.” “Well, at least he’d know who to look for,” I said. “He never asked my name, nor recognized me,” Kopaka said, momentarily looking my way. I noticed he’d switched masks to a noble Mahiki, of all things, but he returned to his staple Akaku Nuva after I saw it. “Ah… okay.” I understood now, though it once again brought up the grim reality that Kopaka’s time here was coming to an end, and I’d likely never see him again afterwards… “So, you’ll be heading straight out, then?” I asked him, though I already more or less knew the answer. “That is the plan,” Kopaka reiterated himself. “That thing,” I suddenly remembered, “that thing that Gali told you, about being able to do astronomy in the knowledge towers instead…” “No.” Uncharacteristically, Kopaka cut me off. “Why not, though?” I continued. “I mean, she had some valid points…” “What valid points?” “You’d have better equipment, you’d be safer, and if somehow you hurt yourself she could be right there to help you,” I explained. “And you’d be able to stay with and help her… or Pohatu, even.” “So?” “It makes no sense that you’re doing this.” I said… “To me at least… It just doesn’t.” “I work better alone,” Kopaka said. “That is why I prefer the mountains.” “They’d let you work alone up there, though, if you asked for it,” I countered. “I mean, you could live up there if you wanted to, well above and far away from everyone.” “Not far enough,” Kopaka complained. I could tell I’d hit a nerve; he was getting frustrated with me again. What did he mean by ‘not far enough,’ though? Half a mile above the rest of the city, he’d surely be insulated from the noise, and what else could possibly bother him? “What does that mean? How isolated to you need to be to work?” Kopaka waited for a moment before replying. “Remember what I told you about questioning my actions?” he asked. “Yeah, you told me not to,” I replied, somewhat put off by him breaking off the subject. “Continue down this path and you will not see the final battle,” Kopaka said with a threatening undertone to his voice. “I need not explain my reasons to you. Also, I already asked you to leave me alone for now once; I would prefer you do so now.” “Fine…” I relented, getting up again and moving off. If we had any time left together after he showed me the final battle, though, I’d have to ask him that question again. Something about his behavior on the subject of why he preferred the dangerous mountains over the safer knowledge towers didn’t fit right… it wasn’t logical like everything else he did was in one twisted way or another. He centered everything around duty, yet refused this opportunity to better work towards fulfilling his… something had to be missing, something that he wasn’t inclined to share, as evidenced by the fact that he immediately returned to sleeping. Not inclined to return to the party going on up the train, I took a seat in one of the cars in between and watched the telescreen in there for a while, trying to think of what it Kopaka’s reasoning could be. Then I recalled what Gali had told me about him, the night when she was up filtering his blood. She believed his primary reason for living up there wasn’t astronomy; it was solitude. That made sense, actually… as much as he could isolate himself atop a knowledge tower, Kopaka would always be able to see the massive city below him, whose residents would never be more than a door and some stairs away… Was that what bothered him? The mere presence of other people? But why? In light of his threat concerning the final battle, I wasn’t inclined to ask, but the idea stuck with me as I sat and watched Hahli’s morning news broadcast. The idea of trying to read into Kopaka’s thoughts again did cross my mind, but I decided against it. Not now, not when we were getting so close to when he’d actually show me what I’d been waiting for ever since that night on the beach of New Atero.

-------------------- Chapter 29 -------------------- “You’ve heard of Mata Nui, right?” Lerome asked. “Yeah, of course,” I nodded… he had no idea that I’d seen bits and fragments of the legendary island itself. “Well, there were these evil rahi attacking the Matoran there,” the Toa of Air continued, “along with these… the bug things…” he looked to Kirall, who shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said nonchalantly. “Bohrok,” Jahlpu reminded Lerome. “Right, Bohrok,” the latter continued. “The rahi and the Bohrok were trying to destroy the island and everyone on it, but Toa Lewa fought them off!” “With the other Toa Nuva, I’m sure,” I noted. “Of course,” Lerome admitted, “but he did a lot of it. They even faced the Makuta there once, and they weren’t even the Toa Nuva yet!” “That was a pretty sweet upgrade,” Kirall acknowledged. “Yeah, so, after fighting the Makuta, they became Toa Nuva,” Lerome continued, “but get this: Makuta wasn’t gone! He came back, and they destroyed him again, with Takanuva!” “That’s impressive…” I noted, vaguely remembering parts of the story from what bits and pieces I’d seen in memory. “Not only that,” the Toa of Air pointed out, “but did you know Takanuva wasn’t even a Toa before that fight?” “Really?” Kirall asked, confused. “I thought that happened with the serpent things.” “Well, technically, yeah,” Lerome shrugged, “but up until then, Takanuva was just a Matoran, and he went on this whole journey across Mata Nui to figure out how to become Takanuva. Guess who guided him? Toa Lewa!” “Oh, right…” Kirall recalled. “Really?” I questioned. “Just Lewa? The whole way through?” “Yup,” Lerome said proudly. “Of course, the fact that he could fly helped out a lot.” “Fair enough…” I agreed. “So, what happened after that?” “Well, he met this weird monster thing called Tren Krom,” Lerome said, looking up as though trying to remember something. “And… uhm, what was that other place?” “Karzahni,” Jahlpu helped. “Oh, right!” Lerome exclaimed. “They fought another Makuta there! That’s what it was!” “I thought it was the same one as before,” Kirall interrupted. “Hmm… could be…” Lerome didn’t seem sure. I sighed; I knew exactly which Makuta the Toa Nuva’d faced in that hellish place, and no, he wasn’t the same one as on Mata Nui. “Different,” Jahlpu concluded. “They looked similar, though,” Kirall argued, “in those drawings they made of the fights.” “Those were made years later,” Jahlpu countered, “and the two Makuta did wear the same mask.” “Oh, right…” Kirall nodded, but the expression on her face was far from certain. “Anyways, not important,” Lerome dismissed the argument. “So, after all that went down, Lewa went to Karda Nui, and fought more Makuta there…” “Okay, okay…” I interrupted him. “I get the history parts.” “Lots of Makuta, lots of fighting, lots of stuff no one remembers,” Kirall summed it up bluntly. “Yeah, well… What about after the Reformation? What did Lewa do, then?” I wondered. “Oh, that’s the best part!” Lerome continued excitedly. “Get this: Lewa wouldn’t stop. He wanted adventure, right?” “Right…” I nodded. “Well, after the planet was fixed, guess what he did?” “Uhm… look for adventure?” “Exactly! He goes off and explores the great wilderness of Bota Magna!” “The one with the dinosaurs,” Kirall clarified. “Yeah, I know,” I said towards her, somewhat snidely to indicate my growing displeasure at her constant interruptions. “Anyways,” Lerome continued, “He goes out there, right? On these big exploration trips, gone for a few weeks at a time, and then he comes back with all these amazing stories of the things he’s found. And he does that for years, ‘cause there was so much stuff out there to find, and a lot of it dangerous.” “He fought dinosaurs?” Now that was an image. “You bet he did,” Kirall interrupted. “I mean, those things are nasty. Like, really big, with claws and teeth and…” She stopped when I glared at her. “Thanks,” I said, “but I know what they look like. Let him tell his story, okay?” “Fine…” Kirall shrugged, turning away. “You were saying?” I turned back to Lerome. “Fought dinosaurs, mapped jungles and caves, did amazing daredevil stunts, survived out there for weeks at a time…” the Toa of Air said proudly. “He paved the way for Matoran to move into that place. That’s why Le-Koro-Nuva exists today: Lewa found a good place to put it.” “What happened to him, then?” I wondered. “I mean, it sounds like he had things going pretty well.” “Well, you know Mount Valmai?” Lerome asked. “The big volcano on Bota Magna?” “The one that erupted a few centuries ago?” “Yeah, that one. Basically, the Ta-Matoran figured out it was going to erupt, and Lewa really wanted to see it. Thing is, he got a bit too close…. Even the great Toa of Air can’t survive being whacked out of the air by falling red-hot chunks of lava.” “Really? Couldn’t he have, I don’t know, kept a little more of a distance?” I was rather skeptical of someone of Lewa’s caliber just… recklessly flying into something like that. “No, it was like a thrill-seeking thing,” Lerome continued, unfazed. “Like, he wanted to see how close he could get, you know? And you should have read some of the accounts from the Ta-Matoran; they even had a video. An old and video, but you could see him, flying back and forth at super speed, dodging all these chunks of magma coming down!” Now standing, Lerome accompanied his description with swooping gestures and movements. “He was, like, this tiny speck racing along amidst that eruption, with the sky coming down around him, and I swear it was like he was just dancing through it or something…” he fell back into his chair. “Man… what that must have been like for him… I can’t even imagine, you know?” “Yeah…” I nodded, not sure of what to make of the story. “Must have been… exhilarating.” “Totally,” Lerome agreed. “I mean, he died, but that would’ve been so worth it. The thrill of his life, right up until that last moment… that’s how I’d want to go.” “I’m sure you do,” I agreed, though Lewa’s final actions still seemed downright foolhardy. Then again, that was exactly the attitude that Lerome admired. “Spectacularly.” Lerome finished. “It was pretty impressive,” Kirall admitted. Jahlpu didn’t chime in, but his darkening expression indicated he didn’t quite agree. “Yeah… sounds pretty cool, I guess…” I sighed, momentarily glancing down the car to where Kopaka was sitting. He’d been paying attention; I was sure of it. I mean, we were talking about one of his former teammates. However, I was too far away to get a quickly distinct reading of his reaction... “I’ll probably end up heading that way anyways,” Lerome continued. “After we get done traveling. I mean, Bota Magna is a pretty nice place, and they have a kolhii team.” “That’s all you’ll ever need,” I shrugged. “Exactly.” Lerome leant back, making himself comfortable. We were quiet for a bit after that; Kirall finished her sandwich, which thankfully kept her quiet, Lerome’d finished his story, and Jahlpu’d never been one to speak up and start a conversation, even among friends. As for me… I thought about Lewa. His behavior didn’t make much sense to me; from how Lerome explained events, it appeared that the Toa Nuva of Air totally had it made, and even someone with his reckless streak wouldn’t have taken on something as risky as flying through a volcanic eruption… right? It seemed positively suicidal, yet somehow Lewa had found himself there. The only conclusion I could come to was that something was missing, something Lerome either didn’t know or didn’t tell. I suspected it was the former, given that his account of Lewa’s history was rather suspect as well. “So, how long has it been?” Lerome eventually asked. “About an hour,” Jahlpu said flatly. “Twenty-two hours to go.” “Man, this train’s taking ages,” Lerome complained. “I wanna do something, you know?” “Some entertainment’d be nice…” Kirall agreed. “Go find some,” I suggested. “At the very least they should have magazines or something in the other cars.” “Or a working telescreen,” Kirall noted, pointing at the telescreen mounted on the wall towards the front of our car. It was out, but those in some of the cars further forwards had been on, I recalled. “Yeah, I’m going to check that out,” the restless Toa of Air decided. He got up and left again, followed by Kirall. Watching them leave, I noticed Kirall had already adopted a very different way of walking… one that all but screamed ‘female Glatorian’ in ways that did not befit a Toa… “Quite the story.” I eventually turned to Jahlpu, hoping to figure out what had displeased him about it. “Yeah,” the Toa of Earth shrugged. “The great hero, right?” “Seemed to be,” I noted. “Though I’m guessing Lerome left out a few things.” “He did,” Jahlpu acknowledged. “But, you know, he’s his hero and all…” “His dream Toa,” I sighed. “Suppose it beats Kirall’s aspirations, right?” “Someday it’ll get him hurt,” Jahlpu said grimly. “Or killed, if he’s unlucky.” “So what really happened with Lewa?” I wondered. “I mean, I don’t think he would’ve just… done what he did around that volcano for the thrill of it, right? Even he wouldn’t do that.” “Not in his heyday, no,” Jahlpu agreed. “Something else was probably pushing him, come to think of it…” He stroked his chin in that way he did whenever he was trying to recall something. “They didn’t tell us that, though.” “Really?” I was a bit surprised by that; it seemed rather important. “It probably doesn’t fit the story of the glorious Toa Lewa,” Jahlpu concluded. “Probably true…” “Guess it doesn’t really concern us, then,” the Toa of Earth decided. I merely shrugged, after which we sat silently again; Jahlpu in his signature hunched-over, brooding way while I leant back and tried to relax a bit for the long trip ahead. The question of Lewa still kept my mind occupied as I wondered what exactly had been left out of the story presented to my teammates; it just didn’t sit right with me that someone with a life like Lewa’s would risk it the way he apparently had... the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Toa of Air’s last flight amounted to little more than a suicide, a chilling contrast to the lively, energetic, and endlessly positive hero that I imagined from Lerome’s description. However, it did fit alarmingly well to what I’d seen of the other Toa Nuva, each of whom was destroying themselves in their twilight years, one way or another. Was that their ultimate fate, and had Lewa just reached the end first? For that matter, if it was even true, what did it mean for Kopaka? Looking over, I noticed the Toa of Ice was still sitting hunched over, arms crossed and elbows on his knees, apparently catching up on rest lost from the night spent watching over Pohatu. There was a calm yet intense air about him, as close as I’d seen him to being at peace, though what little mental signature I could read at the distance wasn’t telegraphing ‘peace’ at all… No, there was an unusual melancholy tint to the Toa of Ices’ thoughts. He was more worried than he let on, though the latter part didn’t surprise me. After a while, Jahlpu got up. “I’m gonna see what Lerome and Kirall’ve found,” he informed me. “Knowing them, they’re probably starting a party in some car up ahead.” “Have fun, I guess…” I nodded, fully aware that this presented the perfect opportunity for time alone with Kopaka, and with it, maybe I’d finally get to see the final battle after all. Jahlpu nodded, turned, and made his way forward, leaving our car for the one in front, which from what glimpse I caught while the door was open was also mostly empty. As soon as the door had closed again, I got up and made my way over to where Kopaka was sitting. “They’re gone, for now,” I informed him. Kopaka sighed, then waited a moment before replying. “I know,” he said grimly, “but who is to say they will not return at any moment?” “I figure we could hear them coming,” I explained. “Last time, would you have heard anyone coming?” Kopaka asked, referring back to the same train trip that had started our whole journey. “Probably not, I guess…” Given how immersive the memory sharing process was, and the fact that things would probably get pretty intense in this final battle, I could understand his insistence on absolute privacy. “But when do you want to do it, then?” I wondered. “They will be exhausted and asleep by nightfall,” Kopaka predicted. “Then I can show you in peace.” “Okay, that works.” I nodded. The idea of waiting ‘till nightfall, given the length of the trip, didn’t even occur to me. “So, were you listening to his story?” I asked, referring to Lerome’s telling of Lewa’s story. “Yes,” Kopaka admitted. “I think he’s missing a couple of things,” I continued. “How about you?” “We are remembered however people want to remember us,” Kopaka said, sounding almost prophetic, “even if that means propagating lies by omission.” “So, what do you think really happened?” I asked. “I neither know nor need to.” “He was your brother, though,” I argued. “I mean, wouldn’t you at least like to know? There has to be some interest there.” “Lewa was a Toa, sure,” Kopaka acknowledged, “but he was also overconfident, arrogant, and at times downright foolish, never mind noisy. I do not have all the answers as far as what happened to him, but I do not find what happened surprising in the least. That is all I need to know.” “Of course…” I sighed. “And how do you think you will be remembered, then?” “I neither know nor need to, so long as my duty is fulfilled.” And we were back to duty again. “Besides, if you wish to see how I am remembered, just ask around in Ko-Koro-Nuva. They already believe me dead, do they not?” “That’s true,” I admitted, “but you could correct any inaccuracies in your history. I figure that’d matter to you of all people.” “Would it serve anyone to do so? Would the full truth be a better memory for them than whatever they have come up with?” Kopaka questioned. “Maybe not, but since when does the quality of the truth concern you?” I wondered. “You had no trouble telling Gali the ugly truth of her… situation. That’s hypocritical.” “It concerns me because they are Matoran,” Kopaka countered, now sounding somewhat agitated. “Toa serve the Matoran first and foremost, and if lies must be propagated for the Matoran’s benefit, then I will do so, but I will not suffer Toa who fool themselves in the same way.” “That may be,” I argued, “but if you’re so dead set on doing things to benefit the Matoran, why don’t you at least tell the Ko-Matoran that you’re still alive? They worship you! Imagine how they’d feel to know that you’re still alive, still watching over them, ‘the last Toa Nuva,’ or whatever you want to call it?” “And what would they do?” Kopaka asked. “Throw a party to celebrate my return? If anything, I would distract them from their tasks, and no practical benefits would be gained.” “You might think you know all about the practical stuff,” I concluded, “but you have no understanding of people. None whatsoever.” “I work alone,” Kopaka said coldly, “which makes such knowledge superfluous.” “You’re wrong on that part,” I countered. “You had to work with your team once.” “Once, but no longer. Are you done?” “Maybe… until nightfall, that is.” I said. “Go join them in whatever they are doing,” Kopaka suggested, nodding towards the door leading forward into the train at the other end of the car. “I would prefer to be alone for now.” “Okay, just… don’t run off this time.” Kopaka didn’t reply, so I got up and left, making my way forward through a number of cars as the train continued to hurtle along the track to Onu-Koro-Nuva. Looking back for a moment, I saw Kopaka had returned to his meditation. Once again, he’d put some semi-logical argument together to explain all the hypocrisies of his behavior, and once again his cold rationale had left me rather wanting. Perhaps, as a Toa of Psionics, I am rather predisposed to value the feelings and relationships of others more than most, since I can read their impact far more directly, courtesy of my abilities… but Kopaka’s blunt and utter dismissal of people’s feelings as anything of significance really bothered me, and still does. Anything that didn’t fit in a rational sequence to him just wasn’t significant, and perhaps that disregard for feeling worked for him, but everyone around him, everyone he worked with did have feelings that mattered… Perhaps that was part of the reason why he isolated himself so; to get away from the one thing he couldn’t explain, and therefore be able to dismiss it as trivial. That idea occupied my mind for a while afterwards. As I made my way through the second-to-last car, I started to hear music… upbeat and energetic Le-Matoran music, and that could only mean one thing: Lerome and Kirall really had started a party.

-------------------- Chapter 28 -------------------- I looked over to the door to see the distinctive, green form of a Toa of Air. “Lerome?” I was rather surprised to see him here. “Aw, what up, sis?” he approached, walking with that characteristic swagger, that beat to his step, and was followed in by the two other members of our team: Kirall and Jahlpu, Toa of Water and Earth, respectively. “Oh, not much,” I shrugged. “Been traveling. What are you all doing here?” “Same as you,” Lerome replied as he planted himself on the seat next to Kopaka. “We’ve been living up this town, right?” he turned to his companions. “You have no idea,” Kirall added. “I mean, the size of this place, all the stuff you do…” Jahlpu nodded in agreement with our sister. “Never seen anything like it,” he commented. I nodded too, a bit stumped by their sudden entrance. This was a really inconvenient time for them to show up. “The light shows at that party in the Vo-Matoran place,” Lerome said, “seriously, you should’ve been there.” “Oh, it was like, totally epic,” Kirall added, taking the seat next to me. “There were these laser things that made all these patterns in the air, and a bunch of Glatorian were there, and we danced that night away!” I continued feigning a smile… I knew full well how much Kirall appreciated the company and attention of those Glatorian. “It was really cool,” Jahlpu added, having taken a seat as well. Unlike the smooth-talking Lerome and ditzy Kirall, our Toa of Earth was one of relatively few words. “Nothing compared to Le-Koro-Nuva, though,” Lerome said proudly. “Man, we were up for days in those tree huts!” “I’m sure it was great,” I nodded, nervously casting a glance at Kopaka, who didn’t much appreciate the interruption. “Don’t forget the parkway,” Kirall added. “Like, the day after that party, those Glatorian took me there; that place is shopping heaven! Look at what I got!” She raised up a leg, proudly displaying what appeared to be an attachment to her foot to raise her heels. “Ehm… nice.” I remembered Toa Hahli had sported similar modifications. “They say it’s this big thing among the Vortixx,” Kirall continued, lowering her tone as though whispering me a secret. “They say it makes me look… powerful.” A sly smile and much emphasis accompanied the word “powerful.” “Do they?” I asked, confounded as to what exactly the point was. “Oh yeah, watch!” Kirall stood up and struck a pose, then another which was accompanied by a smile and wink. Lerome looked and nodded approvingly, while Jahlpu rolled his eyes. If “powerful” was the point, I think Kirall missed the mark, but a Glatorian or Agori would certainly have described her as “alluring.” She had a certain poise, though I couldn’t help but feel that those… attachments had to be messing with her balance. “Best part,” she mentioned, “is that I got a massive discount, ‘cause guess what, I’m a Toa!” “Yea, we can pretty much walk in anywhere and get served for free,” Lerome laughed. “It’s awesome being a hero!” I was about to reply when, suddenly, the train started to move and my misgivings about Kirall’s balance were proven correct. Standing effectively on her tip-toes, she could do nothing to brace herself and ungracefully tumbled head-over-heels as the train rapidly accelerated beneath her. Lerome burst out laughing at the undignified spectacle. Jahlpu rolled his eyes but couldn’t help a smile. “That was hilarious!” the Toa of Air gasped. “Straight-up wipeout!” “You try it, buster,” Kirall scorned as she picked herself up and took back her seat. “You might need more practice,” Jahlpu helpfully pointed out. “Yeah…” Kirall admitted. “I’m working on it. But,” she turned to me, “you know Toa Hahli has these, right?” “Yeah, I know,” I replied. Kirall idolized Hahli; she’d been religiously following her news broadcasts practically since the day she’d been activated. “This is, like, just the start,” the Toa of Water continued. “I’m gonna look like her someday.” “That’s… uhm… that’s a lot of work to be done,” I hesitantly pointed out. “I mean, Hahli didn’t get that done overnight, did she?” “Oh, of course not.” Kirall waved the thought away. “Point is, look where she’s at today. I’m going to get there, too.” “Sure…” I remembered talking with Hahli on the subject of what all she’d had to do to herself to get there; Kirall had no idea what she was in for. “No, really, I am,” Kirall insisted, apparently thinking that I didn’t believe her. “Oh, I’m sure you will,” I assured her, “but… you’re going to sacrifice a lot for that.” “Meh,” she scoffed. “I’ll manage.” I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to stop her… Whenever Kirall wanted something, nothing and no one could get in her way. Lerome at last recovered from his laughing fit. “Sheesh, sis, you’ve been missing out,” he added. “We’ll have to get you back there at some point, shake it loose, you know?” “Get wasted,” Jahlpu added. “Yeah, sure…” I suddenly noticed Kopaka’d vanished from his seat a midst the commotion. “No, trust me, you need it,” Lerome went on. “Unwind a bit, sis; the Skakdi gave up, remember?” “Uh-hm…” I spotted Kopaka sitting at the other end of the train, the very back of the car. “Remember?” Lerome repeated. “Oh… yeah, sure.” I turned back to him. “We’re gonna see Onu-Koro-Nuva first, though” Kirall added, not sounding as excited about that prospect as she sounded about just about everything else. “Jahlpu here wants to see… what did you want to see again?” She turned to the Toa of Earth. “The great mine,” Jahlpu reminded her. “It’s the biggest mine on the planet; that’s like the holy grail for Onu-matoran. No way I’m not going to see it.” “Yeah, we’re checking out a hole in the ground,” Kirall shrugged. “Riveting stuff, I’m sure,” I smiled towards Jahlpu, well aware of how much he’d had to put up with from the other two Toa. He nodded back. “So, what’ve you been doing in the big city, then?” Lerome asked me. “Uhm… wandered about a bit,” I answered, not wanting to get specific about everything that had transpired in front of me over the past few days. “I, uhm… I saw that fight between Tahu and Stronius.” “Oh, you did!?” Lerome exclaimed. “We were there, too! Awesome, am I right?” “It was… impressive,” I nodded. “Man, that finishing move,” Lerome leant back, remembering whatever the fight looked like from his angle. “Sometimes I wish I could do that with fire, you know?” “You’d just send them flying,” Kirall pointed out. “Exactly!” the Toa of Air exclaimed. “It sucks sometimes…” “Tahu can’t fly, though,” I noted. “That’s true…” Lerome admitted. “I wouldn’t give that up, no way… did you go and see that big Kolhii match, too?” “Unfortunately, no,” I shook my head. “Didn’t really have the time.” “Sucks,” Lerome continued. “It was epic. Hewkii pulled the overhead launch like five times!” “That seems a bit… excessive,” I replied, vaguely remembering something about the “overhead launch” being Hewkii’s signature move. “Oh no, they set him up perfectly,” Lerome explained. “Passed that ball to him right down the fourth line, then he’d rotate around the 45th, and suddenly, no defenders left beyond the goalie, and no way that guy alone was gonna stop a well-aimed shot from the master. They pulled that trick five times; those guys didn’t have an answer to it!” Excited hand-gestures accompanied his explanation, but I could only nod and pretend to know what he was talking about… I just didn’t follow Kolhii all that closely, whereas Lerome positively qualified as a fanatic. “His favorite team did well,” Kirall translated. “Like, really well.” “I figured.” “And Hewkii’s his favorite player,” she continued, as though I hadn’t heard Lerome sing his praises a hundred times before. “He’s a Toa of Stone…” “I know…” I rolled my eyes. “He’s the greatest player there is,” Lerome repeated what he’d said many, many times before. “Yeah, yeah,” I acknowledged. “You’ve told me.” “It bears repeating,” Lerome concluded. For a moment, the car fell silent as no one really had much of an answer to that. “Well, I’m going to check out the catering,” Kirall decided. “Good idea,” Lerome chimed in. Both Toa got up and momentarily looked to me and Jahlpu. “No thanks,” I turned them down. Jahlpu likewise shook his head. To tell the truth, I was feeling a bit peckish, but I wanted to go check on Kopaka first. “Okay, suit yourselves. We’ll be right back.” Lerome and Kirall departed. “Fun times, hm?” I said to Jahlpu after the door closed behind them. “Sure,” the Toa of Earth admitted. “So, who’s your friend?” he pointed down the car to the end, where Kopaka was sitting hunched over with his hood up, concealing his identity from my brother. “Oh, he’s…” I struggled to come up with an explanation. “He’s another Toa. Bit older. I’ve been... keeping an eye on him.” “Ah,” Jahlpu nodded. “Hero from the past?” “Yeah… I should probably go check on him,” I admitted. “Go ahead,” Jahlpu said, gesturing in Kopaka’s direction. “I'll be right back.” I got up and made my way over the back end of the car, where Kopaka was sitting with his hood still up, concealing his identity from my companions. I took the seat across from him. “Sorry about them,” I began. “I really didn’t expect them to show up here.” “I figured,” he replied in as icy a tone as I’d ever gotten from him. “They’re my teammates,” I continued, not sure exactly what else to say about them. “They’re… uhm… riding a bit high on the whole being a Toa thing.” “They are not Toa,” Kopaka asserted. “Not even close.” “Well physically, they are…” I argued half-heartedly, but Kopaka’s death stare cut me off. “After everything that you have seen, do you really think that being a Toa is all about that?” he said sternly, almost disappointedly. “No, not really…” I confessed. “Being a Toa is not about the powers, or the toys, or the generous gratitude of others,” he continued. “We serve the Matoran, not the other way around. Those who forget that do not deserve the title.” “I don't think anyone ever told them,” I sighed. Kopaka merely grunted, signaling disapproval but not dignifying the statement with a response. “So, the final battle... it may have to wait a bit,” I continued. “I can't really ask them to leave, so...” “No concern,” Kopaka said, though his tone of voice indicated he wasn't pleased. “Go see to your friends, the battle can wait.” “Thanks.” I got up and went back to my previous seat. “He's okay,” I assured Jahlpu, who looked slightly concerned. “If you say so.” He shrugged. I appreciated his concern; within our team, Jahlpu was arguably the most sensible Toa... the most Toa-like, perhaps, going by Kopaka's definition. “How did he turn invisible?” the Toa of Earth suddenly asked. “Did he?” I was shocked. “When Kirall fell,” Jahlpu explained, “he just... vanished, and then reappeared over there after a while.” “Oh...” Suddenly I got it. “Kanohi Huna,” I replied. “He can turn invisible for a short time.” “Useful,” Jahlpu nodded. “So, where are you headed, then?” “Ko-Koro-Nuva, probably,” I replied. “You want to come check out the mine with us first?” he offered. “I mean, you'd probably find it more interesting than those two.” He gestured back to the door through which Lerome and Kirall had vanished. “Maybe...” I said, looking back towards Kopaka. “They've got a statue of another old Toa there,” Jahlpu continued. “Toa Onua Nuva, a Toa of Earth. A true hero, he was, the hero of the Onu-Matoran.” “Do they, now?” I got an idea. “Hold on a moment,” I said as I got up again, and walked back to Kopaka. “Want to make a stop in Onu-Koro-Nuva?” I asked the Toa of Ice. “No” was his curt reply. He didn't even look up at me. “They've got a statue of Onua there,” I continued. “Thought you might like to see it.” “Why would I want to see it?” Kopaka wondered. “Onua died, right?” I said. “Before you go back... wouldn't you like to know how, and what he did?” “I know what he was doing when I left,” Kopaka countered. “Why should I spend time getting to know how he died?” “I don't know... get closure?” I offered. “I mean, he was your brother, too.” Kopaka paused for a moment, then looked up at me. “After seeing two of my brothers and my sister already, do you really believe that I want to see more?” He was suppressing it as usual, but I could detect pain behind that question... what he'd seen, especially Pohatu, had hit him harder than he was willing to admit. “Perhaps not,” I concluded, feeling a bit bad about pressing the issue in the first place. “It's just that... they're going to see it, and the mine, and I think it would be interesting to know what happened with Onua... and you still have to show me that final battle.” “I will,” he assured me, “and you will get to see whatever you are planning on seeing in there with them.” “Okay then...” I shrugged and turned back, figuring that he'd already come up with a plan that accounted for the changed circumstances. “I'll come,” I told Jahlpu as I took my seat by him again. “Great!” Jahlpu smiled; I guess he was glad that at last he'd have some more company than just Lerome and Kirall. “You're going to like it, I'm sure.” “Probably more than Kirall will with those heels.” I couldn't help but smile at the image of Kirall trying to navigate uneven, rocky ground with her new 'upgrades.' “Yeah, probably,” Jahlpu acknowledged. “Anyways, that statue... have you heard about Onua?” “In name, but I'd like to know more,” I answered. “The guy's a freaking legend,” Jahlpu continued, getting excited. “He practically dug that whole mine...” Before even really getting started, he was interrupted by the return of Jerome and Kirall, both carrying tasty looking sandwiches. “So, it turns out, the catering's pretty good,” Jerome announced as he took his seat again. “Seriously, you should check it out,” Kirall added. “Later, maybe,” I told her, noticing that Jahlpu looked a disappointed; he probably wouldn't get much of a word in edgewise while these two were around, never mind tell the story of Onua. “What were you talking about?” Kirall wondered. “Jahlpu was telling me about Toa Onua,” I replied, hoping that he'd get the chance to continue. “Onua... isn't that the one they've got the statue of?” Kirall asked. “Yes,” Jahlpu replied. “Oh, the one that worked with Lewa!” Lerome suddenly exclaimed. “The one from Le-Koro-Nuva?” Kirall wondered. “Yeah, remember?” Lerome continued. “The one Kongu told us about.” “Oh, right...” Kirall recalled. “Sorry,” I interrupted, “Kongu? As in, Toa Mahri Kongu?” “Yeah, that one!” Lerome said excitedly. “He told us all about the Toa Nuva!” “Really?” Now I was curious… how much of what I’d seen and learned about the Toa Nuva had Kongu told them? “Yeah,” Lerome answered. “He does these tour things. Like, with the statue they’ve got a museum of what the Toa Nuva did… mostly Lewa. It’s a really cool place.” “Bit boring,” Kirall complained. “Well, the museum, maybe,” Lerome admitted, “but Toa Lewa was a .” “What did Kongu tell you?” I wondered. “Well,” Lerome recalled, “it started on this island place… Mata Nui.”

-------------------- Chapter 27 -------------------- “Kill you?” now Kopaka looked stunned. “End my misery… something…” Pohatu elaborated hazily. “Toa do not kill,” Kopaka said, clearly making an effort to maintain his calm demeanor. “The code is very clear about that.” “Toa…” Pohatu sighed. “Toa!... we were Toa once, weren’t we? Were we?...” Kopaka nodded. “We still are, brother.” “So what!?” Pohatu exclaimed. “Who cares now?” “I do, for one,” the Toa of Ice replied. “But I’m asking you…” “No,” Kopaka interrupted. “I will not help you desecrate the title like that; there must be something else that can be done. Gali could help you with the pain, and you would not suffer so many headaches or hallucinations if you did not drink so much.” “Gali?” Pohatu gave him another blank stare, clueless as to who ‘Gali’ was. “The Toa of Water, our sister,” Kopaka said. Ironic that now he was perfectly willing to call Gali a Toa again… “Uh… the small one? From the telescreen? With the green?” Pohatu wondered. “No, that is Hahli.” Now Kopaka was beginning to show signs of frustration. “Err… the fat one?” Pohatu looked at him incredulously. “She is an excellent healer,” Kopaka noted. “She tried,” I pointed out. “She really did, believe me.” “She did, I think…” Pohatu tenuously confirmed. “Do I look like it worked?” “Let her try again,” Kopaka suggested. “No… no!” Pohatu shook his head. “I’m just… I’m tired, Kopaka, I’m tired, I hurt, and I’m gone… I can’t go on like this… I’m begging you, help me end it.” “I am sorry, brother,” Kopaka said more coldly than seemed appropriate for the words, “but I cannot kill you, and I cannot help you kill yourself.” Pohatu sighed again. “You’re sure?” “There has to be a better option,” Kopaka argued. “One that does not involve your death.” “Everything ends with death…” Pohatu countered. “Nothing can be done about that…” “You could throw that bottle aside before it drains what is left of you,” Kopaka suggested again. “It numbs the pain.” Pohatu looked into the bottle. “You could still have a life,” Kopaka continued. “You could have centuries left.” “Centuries of what!?” Pohatu suddenly shouted to the ceiling. “Centuries of my body breaking down even further!?” He took another drink. “No thanks!” “We are Toa, brother!” Kopaka switched tactics. “We have a duty to be there for the Matoran!” “To do what?” Pohatu said sarcastically. “Tell them bedtime stories?” “To protect them, to guide them, do what is best for them,” Kopaka replied. “Protect them? Guide them? Me?” Pohatu grinned. “Look at me! Half my body doesn’t work, the other half is going to pieces! You can’t fix this, brother!” “I cannot, but you cannot simply abandon it,” Kopaka said, “and I will not help you do so.” “It’s not my choice anymore!” Pohatu countered. “I’m dying anyways! I’m sure of it!” He sighed again. “All I want… All I want is not to drag it out any longer.” An uncomfortable silence followed as Pohatu drank again while Kopaka stood completely still… he was trying to formulate something, compute some argument, but Pohatu didn’t care anymore. “I guess…” the Toa of Stone continued, “I guess you’re no use to me, then.” “That would appear to be the case,” Kopaka said bitterly. “Go, then! Go do whatever you do… I’ll probably forget you were here.” Pohatu’s expression mixed sadness with anger… there were tears in his eyes, and he deliberately avoided looking at his brother. Kopaka paused for a moment before responding. “I will. Farewell, brother. Take care.” He turned and proceeded towards the front door. I got up. “Wait!” I called. Kopaka stopped and looked back at me. “Can’t you… isn’t there something?” I couldn’t find the words I was looking for. Kopaka merely shook his head, then glumly continued on his way. “ principles…” Pohatu cursed. “Can’t even help a friend…” “You know, he saved you,” I turned and told him. “You would have drowned in your own vomit five times over last night if it wasn’t for him.” “That cold ? Yeah right,” Pohatu grinned… the alcohol was taking hold. “He’d help no one… wouldn’t even try…” “He sat by that bed all night, watching over you,” I said indignantly. “Don’t you dare say he didn’t try to help you!” Had someone told me the night before that, come morning, I’d be defending Kopaka's actions, I would have laughed at them. Now, I was doing exactly that. “You know…” Pohatu slurred, “you’re pretty… You could help…” “That’s it!” I’d had enough. I started around him, heading for the exit. “What are you doing with that prick anyways!?...” Pohatu called after me. I stopped for a moment, intending to make one thing very clear. “Well, he may be a prick, but at least he cares about something,” I told him, after which I headed out too. “Whatever…” Pohatu took to the bottle again. It was becoming clear to me why Hewkii’d given up on him; the moment that bottle took hold, Pohatu cared about nothing anymore… In retrospect, what did he have left to care about? Was this just his response to lacking a purpose… or was it the pain of two lives lived and lost that had driven him to drink? Gali’s response to the Toa’s loss of purpose had been depression… was Pohatu’s anger, or apathy? Whatever had driven them there, my opinion of Kopaka had changed again. Yes, he was a pain, a prick, and he wouldn’t hesitate to mention and explain in detail all the things he disliked even to the point of the hypocritical, but at least he had a set of principles that he tried to stick to. In a way, he really was the only remaining Toa Nuva. I caught up with him as he made his way along the street, cloaked to conceal his identity from the fair number of Matoran and Agori milling about. Sunrise had passed, and things were warming up. For a while I followed the Toa of Ice in silence, unsure of what to say to him. As usual, Kopaka made no move to break the silence, but eventually I did: “So, where are we going?” I asked. “The station.” “The station’s that way,” I pointed out. Kopaka wasn’t following the route that we’d traveled from Station West to get here. “The central station.” “Ah… you’re leaving, huh?” I’d been expecting it, to be honest; if he’d had his way, Kopaka would’ve been in Onu-Koro-Nuva by now. “I have done what Hewkii asked of me. There is nothing left to stay for,” Kopaka said, still sounding agitated as he spotted a billboard further up the road. It advertised the upcoming ‘Titanic Face-off’ between Tahu, the Master of Fire and the Porcupine, the latter now complete with his own fancy design of metal spikes flying out against Tahu’s fire in the background. “I hope he survives. That Porcupine guy was rough…” I remembered, thinking of the brutal end the Lady of the Frost had met at the hands of the Iron Skakdi… Kopaka didn’t respond. “I’m sorry about Pohatu,” I finally said. “I didn’t know… really know what he meant to you. And to find him like that… and Gali, and Tahu…” Kopaka stopped, sighed, and turned towards me, looking me square in the eyes with that gaze that I swear could see through them. “What is done is done, those who lost their way are lost forever,” he said coldly. “Their failures are none of my concern; we said our goodbyes long ago. I have my own mission to return to, and I do not need your reminders of what once was.” He turned back and continued on his way. Once again, he denied that the other Toa were any of his concern, but his attitude and everything I’d seen over the last few days told me differently. “You were friends with Pohatu, though,” I followed. “Doesn’t that at least merit an attempt to help him?” “He would have me break the Toa code,” Kopaka countered, “and will not accept help of the kind I would be willing to provide even if I did not have a greater duty to attend to. I have no purpose in staying with him, and plenty reason to leave.” “So, you’re going to vanish again?” “My presence is no longer required, therefore I will leave. That is and always was the plan,” Kopaka said as though it should have been obvious from the start. “But your presence is required,” I argued. “Pohatu needs you. Gali needs you.” “That does not matter,” Kopaka insisted. “No, it matters,” I pointed out, “they matter. They matter to you; you just don’t want to admit it, ‘cause that’s… that's just not like you, is it?” “If that is true, why are you arguing?” Kopaka questioned. “Because you could be helping them if you did,” I explained, “and especially for Pohatu, you may be the one person capable of doing so. With your help, they might just get out of the situations they’re in.” “So?” “I don’t get it!” I exclaimed. “How can you get it over your conscience to just walk away from everyone like that!? If a Toa’s duty is to others, there’s an awful lot you could help to fix right here, right now!” “My duty is to the Matoran first and foremost, not to the other Toa,” Kopaka argued. “Also, keep it down.” “Duty, yes, duty…” Interesting that he kept going back to that… was that truly his belief, or just the virtue that, to him, was convenient to explain his actions to himself and others? “Duty is everything to you, isn’t it?” “As I have already told you, it is the one virtue left,” Kopaka reminded me. “Destiny was fulfilled, and unity crumbled in its absence, but duty is unchanging.” “Ever think that unity can come from duty as well?” I asked. “Like, all the Toa have the same duty to protect and serve the Matoran. That’s a unifying purpose, isn’t it? Doesn’t that come with a responsibility to watch over each other?” “Duty is nonspecific and open-ended,” Kopaka argued. “Every Toa goes about duty differently, and aims to benefit the Matoran in a different way. We argue about its interpretation, even fight over it, and therefore duty alone does not produce unity. Destiny does because it is specific, and it is now fulfilled. Hence, unity was lost.” “Uh-huh…” He had a point, and looking back at the Toa I’d met over the last few days, it kind of held up. Plus, he’d probably had a lot of time to think this stuff over while he was wandering up in those mountains. Still, his cold rationale left a lot to be desired. “And unity isn’t worth fighting for in its own right?” I asked him. “It is still a virtue, after all.” “In the absence of destiny, unity is fought for merely for sentimental reasons,” Kopaka added. “Such reasons produce no practical benefit for the Matoran.” “Why do there have to be practical benefits?” I wondered. “It’s about being a good person, a good friend, code or not.” “Entirely subjective,” Kopaka countered. “I would be a far better person for bringing greater benefits the Matoran, rather than preferring two bygone Toa.” “That depends…” I mused. “I mean, who really needs your help right now? The Matoran living their happy lives, or the two Toa in despair who you once called your allies?” Kopaka stopped and thought for a moment before turning to me. “Why are you still here?” he asked, changing the subject. “Because I’m curious, I guess…” I was somewhat flustered by how suddenly he’d broken off the discussion. “Besides, where else would I go?” Kopaka sighed. “I have been willing to entertain you thus far,” he continued, “but let me make this clear: what you think of my actions or motivations is none of my concern, and I will not tolerate your persistent questioning on the matter. If you are following me purely to criticize my behavior, I suggest you leave now.” “I might,” I replied, “but you still have a promise to keep: you were going to show me that final battle, remember?” “That I promised, and that promise I will keep,” the Toa of Ice said, “but I expect you to leave afterwards. Can we agree on that?” “Deal.” I agreed. I mean, he probably would’ve tried to shake me some other way if I hadn’t, and this way I at least still had some time to formulate what questions I had left… and possibly to convince him not to leave. With him planning on going back to those mountains soon, something was beginning to dawn on me; most likely, once he went back up there, he wouldn’t come back again, and unless he’d sneak in another unlikely visit in at some point I could be the last person to see him alive. I mean, even now that his body was by and large working again, nothing could disguise the fact that he simply couldn’t last long up there anymore, and I wasn’t sure whether or not he realized that, or if he cared. Also, I was still having a hard time believing that his astronomical research was so important in its benefits to the Matoran that Kopaka was willing to go and die for it… especially since he could do a better job at it working in a knowledge tower right here, in New Atero, as Gali had pointed out. Before I left, I wanted to ask him to explain that; the whole thing just felt like an elaborate excuse for him to leave everything else behind otherwise, and worse, it was an excuse that would kill him. We reached the station after a good hour and a half of navigating the city streets; now I understood why Hewkii had favored taking the underground train. It was mid-morning on a sunny day as we crossed the busy central square. The scene from our arrival repeated itself; Kopaka passed silently through the shorter crowd gathering many stares but no recognition, exactly as he planned, while I got a lot of respectful head nods, waves, and an occasional “good morning, Toa.” One young Agori even asked if I could sign my autograph on a piece of paper for him… I got the distinct feeling that my reputation as a ‘new Toa’ preceded me, though I hardly felt deserving of it. I signed his paper, of course, smiled, then quickly caught up with Kopaka as he proceeded up the stairs into the station’s foyer, where numerous ticket booths were set up. Kopaka approached the closest that was open. “Fair morning, Toa,” the cashier inside greeted both of us. “Where to today?” “Ko-Koro-Nuva,” Kopaka said in a surprisingly raspy voice. “One way, one ticket.” “Okay, that’ll be fifty widgets in total,” the cashier noted as he pulled a ticket up from what I assumed was a rack or drawer setup of some kind below his desk. Kopaka pulled out the required widgets and laid them on the counter. The cashier proceeded to count them, then handed over the ticket. “I’ll have the same,” I told him, producing fifty widgets of my own. By the time I got my ticket and made it up to the actual platform, Kopaka had already found a relatively isolated bench on its far side and was awaiting the train’s arrival. I joined him, and noted from the ticket that the train was supposed to depart within half an hour. There were a few Matoran and Agori waiting, but the platform was far from full. The train arrived within ten minutes, packed with travelers from Onu-Koro-Nuva, who departed in a steady stream onto the platform and down the stairs to the foyer. Once the train had emptied, we joined the waiting travelers and boarded. Kopaka turned left towards the back of the train, and proceeded through one car after another until he entered the last one, where he took one seat and I the one across from him, just as it had been on the train that we’d arrived on three days earlier. “So, the final battle,” I hinted as we waited for the train to depart. “Wait until we are moving,” Kopaka decided. Fair enough, I guess… until the train departed, there was always a chance that someone would make their way to the back car and join us. So we waited in silence, Kopaka still with his hood up, just in case someone turned up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before someone did. “I told you, it’s her!” a voice called, accompanying the sound of footfalls and the door of the car opening. I recognized it immediately. “Hey, Lis! Where’ve you been!?”

-------------------- Chapter 26 -------------------- “Blasted headaches…” Pohatu sighed as he put his hands on his head. He held them there for a moment, rubbed his eyes, then dropped them at his side again, only to see me standing at the foot of the bed. “Whoa!” He jolted awake. “What the…” He squinted; focusing was apparently still difficult for him. “Good morning,” I smiled and greeted him, trying to come off as non-threatening as possible. “Who’s there? Are you phantoms? Am I seeing things again!?” His eyes were wild and wide open. His voice trembled; I wondered what he was used to waking up to if phantoms were his first guess. “No, I’m really here,” I said as I stepped forward, hopefully into better view. “I’m Lis.” “Oh…” the panic faded from his expression, but he seemed no less uneasy. He eyed me up and down. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” “We’re friends,” I explained. “Hewkii brought us here to see you.” “Hewkii?” “The Toa Mahri of Stone. Your friend. He comes here to help you sometimes.” When Hewkii’d told me that half the time, Pohatu didn’t even remember who he was, I’d had a hard time believing it. To see it was something else. Pohatu looked up at the ceiling, gripping his forehead. “Hewkii… Oh!” he looked back and pointed at me. “The yellow one… burly guy… right?” “Yes…” I nodded slowly. Something about Pohatu’s behavior didn’t seem sincere, and it was bothering me. “Yeah, yeah…. I know him…” He started to push himself up into a sitting position, but then noticed Kopaka, who’d been quietly sitting to the left of him through the entire exchange. The moment he saw the Toa of Ice, Pohatu’s eyes widened again. “Remember me?” Kopaka asked calmly. “You! Every morning it’s you!” Pohatu exclaimed, suddenly aggressive. “Both of you, go away! Leave me alone!” “I am not one of your… phantoms,” Kopaka asserted. “Like I’d believe you!” “You should.” “No! it, no!” Pohatu shouted, waving his arms and looking away with his eyes closed. “You’re not real! I don’t know you! Leave me alone!” Kopaka stood up. “I am real. I am Toa Kopaka Nuva. You know full well who I am.” He looked down sternly upon the shaken Toa of Stone, an expression which I figured the latter should’ve been well familiar with. Pohatu looked up, still frightened. “You’re not… not here to haunt me?” Okay, so maybe recognition was still a ways away. “I am your brother,” Kopaka replied, “and no, I am not here to haunt you.” “Brother?… Yeah right…” Pohatu groaned as he lay back down, facing away from Kopaka, and pulled the covers back up. Kopaka looked to me and gave a slight nod with an obvious, implied meaning. Not that I needed a cue: curious as to what exactly was going through Pohatu’s head, especially concerning these ‘phantoms,’ I was already focusing in on him, though this time I’d keep my own eyes and ears open. He was… very different from Kopaka, to say the least. Everything in Toa of Ice’s mind was ordered, structured… in Pohatu’s, signals were darting all over the place, and many of them were pain signals, and not just from his headaches… In fact, from the amount there I could only conclude Pohatu was in a lot of pain. “No, you do remember,” Kopaka insisted, turning back to Pohatu. “You must.” I don’t think he believed his brother was trying, but from what I could tell he definitely was… but something disturbing was becoming clear to me. “You’re all fake! Go away,” the Toa of Stone grumbled from under the sheets. “Lis already told you we are real,” Kopaka argued. “Besides, you should remember us from last night.” Suddenly, Pohatu turned and faced Kopaka. “I don’t, okay!?” he exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his hand. “I don’t know what happened last night, and I don’t know you, whoever you are! Get out of my house!” Kopaka didn’t so much as blink. “Keep trying, you will remember.” Though he spoke calmly, something about his demeanor was becoming more… insistent. He needed Pohatu to remember, but the Toa of Stone’s outburst confirmed what I’d already suspected from watching his thoughts dart about; even with pain signals firing all over the place, large parts of his mind remained utterly blank when I should have seen something, a flash or even a single signal, something to indicate it was… working. “, I’m tired…” Pohatu covered his face with his hands and gripped tight. “Argh! Stupid headache!” He held them there for a moment, then sighed. “Just… leave, leave me in peace for once...” His voice trailed off as he lay down again and pulled the covers half over his face. Kopaka stood still for a couple of seconds, then looked at me. I gave him a worried look back, after which he made his way along the bed to me. I retreated out of the Toa of Stone’s mind, fully back into the real world. “Are you seeing anything?” Kopaka asked in a hushed tone. “He’s trying, he really is,” I replied, “but there’s a lot… missing in there.” “How much?” “I don’t know… I’ll need time to decipher what’s there, but it’s possible that he’s seen you as one of these ‘phantoms.’” I answered solemnly. “Could be that your memory really is haunting him.” As far as I was concerned, it was one of the more likely explanations, and having seen the last, tearful goodbye between these two Toa, I was finding it rather hard to watch the reunion in their current state; Pohatu half-delirious and tortured by a decaying body and mind, with Kopaka clueless as to what exactly to do about it. Kopaka nodded, then made his way back to the side of the bed. “Enough, brother.” He grabbed hold of the cover and pulled it off in one fell swoop, tossing the aged cloth down beside the bed. “No, don’t!” Pohatu protested, but Kopaka leant down, grabbed his shoulders, and turned him over, locking eyes with the Toa of Stone. “I am real, brother! I am not one of your delusions! Snap out of it!” Kopaka’s sudden volume had me surprised, but nowhere to the degree that Pohatu was. Stunned, the Toa of Stone remained quiet for a few seconds as Kopaka held his position. Trembling, he slowly reached up and touched Kopaka’s arm, feeling the cold metal of his armor. “You… you’re real…” he realized. “You’re really here…” Satisfied, Kopaka let him go and stood up straight again. “I’m… I’m sorry about that…” Pohatu continued. “I see things sometimes, things that...” “Things that aren’t real?” I stepped forward, concerned. “Yeah, that,” Pohatu nodded. “W-what are you doing here?” “Hewkii brought us,” I repeated myself. “Hewkii?....” It took a moment before Pohatu remembered. “Oh, right… him.” He looked back and forth between us. “And… who did you say you were?” Had Kopaka been inclined to show anything but the most extreme emotions, I think he would have sighed or rolled his eyes in frustration. Instead, he just introduced himself again: “Toa Kopaka Nuva, your brother.” “My brother…” Pohatu seemed to struggle to remember. “I know… I should know you.” “You should.” Kopaka repeated himself. “I know, I just need to remember…” Pohatu looked down and scratched his head. “Blasted headache…” He looked up again, somewhat hazily. “How do I know you?” “We were on a Toa Team. We fought together,” Kopaka said. “Fought what?” “The Rahi, the Makuta, the Bohrok…” Kopaka proceeded down what could only be a laundry list worth of villains. “Bohrok!” Pohatu recognized. “The things!... With the staffs!” “Those were Rahkshi,” Kopaka corrected him. “Makuta’s spawn. Do you remember?” “No, they were Bohrok,” Pohatu argued, but his voice was wavering a bit. “The Bohrok had no staffs. They had shields.” “Oh…” Pohatu looked down, disheartened. “I could’ve sworn they were… the other ones.” “What do you remember?” Kopaka asked. “Ugh…” Pohatu shook his head, looking increasingly frustrated with himself. “I don’t know… It’s all jumbled together,” he gave up. “Lis?” Kopaka turned to me. “Yeah, what?” I wondered. “Show him what you saw.” “What?...” it took me a moment to catch on. “Mount Ihu.” “Oh, yes,” I remembered. “Mount Ihu?” Pohatu wondered. “I’ll show you,” I stepped forward. “Just… close your eyes.” Pohatu seemed somewhat unnerved by the idea, but obliged, after which I focused in on his mind again, but this time, rather than reading signals, I’d be writing them; implanting the memory, or the bits and pieces that I got from Kopaka, into Pohatu’s mind. At first, it was a dicey process, since I hadn’t done it to this extent before, but best as I could, I tried to channel everything I could recall to Pohatu. When I was finished, I drew back and looked up. “It’s done. You can open your eyes now,” I informed him. Pohatu did so, looking slightly bewildered at first, then looked back at Kopaka, who was now crouching by the bed. His mouth fell open as, for the first time since we’d come here, I could see that hint of recognition in his eyes. “Y-You’re back…” he barely managed to say. Kopaka nodded as Pohatu recovered from his initial shock. “You’re here… You’re really here…I know you.” he half-whispered, still scarcely believing what he was seeing. “I am back, but not for long,” Kopaka said, trying to bring him back into the present. Suddenly, with surprising speed, Pohatu reached out and embraced his brother. “I – I remember… that mountain, the mask…” he continued. “You… you came back for me?” “Hewkii said you asked for me,” Kopaka replied, “and I would appreciate it if you let go.” “Oh, of course.” Pohatu drew back, after which Kopaka immediately stood up. “It… it’s just good to see you again.” “You asked for me,” Kopaka repeated. “I did…” Pohatu looked puzzled for a moment, but then his face fell grim as a chilling realization befell him. “Oh, I did…” “Why?” Kopaka asked. “Uhm…” Pohatu thought for a moment. “You know, I’m hungry. You must be, too. Please, let’s have some breakfast first,” he offered. Kopaka didn’t reply immediately, instead looking rather bemused as Pohatu dodged the question, but eventually relented. “If you insist…” “Of course,” Pohatu smiled, trying in vain to disguise a certain nervousness. Whatever he wanted to ask Kopaka, it was serious. He looked around as if searching for something. “Sorry, but… uhm… my legs don’t really work,” he admitted. “Should I get the wheelchair?” I offered. “That’d be nice,” Pohatu smiled half-heartedly. I went and got the wheelchair from the corner of the living room where I’d seen it before. It creaked and squeaked quite a bit, but appeared to be otherwise okay. Kopaka stepped aside as I positioned the wheelchair next to the bed, after which Pohatu proceeded to push, pull, and eventually lift himself into it. From his facial expressions alone, I could tell there was a lot of pain involved; Pohatu grimaced and groaned a few times, though he largely tried to hide it from us. “Right, this way,” he beckoned as he led the way out the bedroom and towards the kitchen, where he noticed the pot sitting upside down in the sink. “What’s that doing there?” “It’s…uhm, you might not want to move it right now,” I suggested. “Okay…” Pohatu appeared close to doing so for a moment, then caught a whiff of the odor of melting vomit and apparently decided the pot did not require relocation at this time. Instead, he made his way over to the old fridge. “There should be something in here,” he said, but upon opening the fridge he found it to be disappointingly sparsely stocked. There was what looked to be some remnants of a ruki dish, some fruit in various states of decay, and a nearly empty bottle of some kind of fruit juice. I noted that there was a rather generous supply of liquors on offer, though. “Well, it’s not much, but I’m sure we can get something together…” Pohatu sighed. He opened another cabinet and pulled out a stale looking but otherwise fine loaf of bread. After scrounging up some plates, he divided the ruki and bread evenly; that was our breakfast. “I don’t have much of a table,” Pohatu confessed as he lead us into the living room, “but make yourselves comfortable.” Taking to his suggestion, I chose the chair. Kopaka preferred to stand. As expected, both the bread and ruki were hardly fresh, but far from inedible. Pohatu offered the remnants of the fruit juice to wash it down, which I gladly accepted. The Toa of Stone preferred to use a stronger beverage for the purpose, much to the disdain of Kopaka. “So, that trophy…” I attempted to start up a conversation. “My first,” Pohatu said. “Lotta memories behind that one…” Though proud, there was a distinct undertone of uncertainty, maybe even bitterness in the way he said that. “Did you always play kolhii?” “No…” Pohatu’s expression went blank for a moment. “No, I don’t believe so.” “You did not,” Kopaka reminded him. “Hewkii encouraged you to do it.” “Right, yes.” Pohatu nodded. “He told me you were pretty good at it,” I smiled. “Yeah…” Pohatu nodded again, though there was little authority to any of his replies. I couldn’t help but wonder whether his memories of his Kolhii days were just as jumbled as those from before the Reformation. He took a modest sip from his bottle, washing down the last remnants of the bread on his plate. Kopaka and I had already finished. “Getting back to your question,” Kopaka said. “What did you want to see me about?” Pohatu sighed, looked around, then cleared his throat. “It’s… it’s kind of personal…” he said quietly, eyeing me. “I can leave, if that’s okay,” I got up. “No, stay,” Kopaka ordered me back down, much to my surprise. “Okay then…” Pohatu took a bigger drink this time, apparently trying to build courage. “You… look at me,” he began. “I… I’m hurt, brother. I can’t remember how, or why… I just know I hurt. All the time. Sure, I’ve got that thing,” he gestured at the lone trophy on the shelves, “but I’m not even sure where I got that from…” “Kolhii,” Kopaka asserted. “Yeah, that…” Pohatu said. “Whatever that is… and look at this place.” He gestured around. “It’s no place to live, you know?” Kopaka nodded slightly as Pohatu took another drink. “Look… what you showed me, what… Hewkii tells me, that thing on the shelf… I was someone, once, and I don’t know that person.” He turned to me. “That… that brown Toa in that thing you showed me… Is that who I was?” I nodded. “Yes.” Kopaka answered solemnly. Pohatu sighed heavily… “I don’t know… I don’t remember… All I’ve got is pain, Kopaka. That’s all that’s left, and it’s getting worse… it’s awful. Every day I wake up, my back hurts, my chest hurts… never mind the headaches and the phantoms…” Choking up, he took a drink again. “I – I think I’m dying.” Kopaka’s eyes widened at the statement, as sure a sign of shock as he’d ever give. “Dying?” he asked. “Yes… I’m sure of it,” Pohatu continued. “And it, it hurts so bad. I can’t keep doing this… I’m done. Not anymore.” He stared off in the distance for a moment, then turned back to the Toa of Ice, tears welling up in his eyes. “Look, before I ask, just know that I wouldn’t ask anyone else this... no one I know.” “Understood.” “I… I’m gone, Kopaka. I don’t know who I am, who I was… I’m miserable, and it’s only getting worse…” Pohatu sighed, cleared his throat again, then looked Kopaka straight in the eyes: “As a friend, an ally, whatever I was to you… will you help me end it?” “End it?” Kopaka looked perplexed. “To end the pain, the nightmares…” Pohatu continued. “This… this shell of a life. I… I want you to kill me.”

-------------------- Chapter 25 -------------------- Back inside, I found Kopaka still watching over Pohatu. With little better to do, I decided to clean up the place a bit, since clearly no one had done so for years. I started by picking up every empty bottle I could find and stacking them by the door, for want of a container. In one of the kitchen cabinets, I found a brush and pan and set about cleaning up the remnants of the two bottles that had met their end against the walls. I was about done with the first of them when a retching noise in the bedroom got my attention. “Everything okay?” I quickly entered to find Kopaka standing next to the bed, supporting a convulsing Pohatu in a half-seated position. He made sure the Toa of Stone’s head was over the pot, which he was holding ready. “What’s happening to him!?” Before Kopaka could answer, Pohatu hurled and vomited up the liquid remnants of his dinner into the pot. “Ew!” I turned away immediately, but it wasn’t long before the disgusting sounds ceased. I turned around to find that Kopaka had laid Pohatu back down and produced a rag, with which he wiped clean the Toa of Stone’s mouth and the spots that had appeared on his own armor. “He was about to throw up,” was the Toa of Ice’s belated answer. “I can see that. It smells awful,” I noted as the odor of alcohol-tainted vomit became evident in the room. Kopaka apparently agreed, because he reached down and flash-froze the contents of the pot. “That should help,” he said calmly. I looked at Pohatu, who’d remained fast asleep through the entire thing. “Sheesh… he really is out, isn’t he?” Kopaka merely nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on his brother as he sat back down. “So, when you asked me for the pot, did you know that would happen?” I wondered. “It was a possibility,” he answered. “Hm…” Somewhere, I wondered what would’ve happened had Kopaka not been here… I sighed before getting back to cleaning up bottle shards. I couldn’t do much about the stain left by the half-full one, and I was working in dim light, but by about half an hour later I’d gotten rid of most of the glass. By that point, it was well past midnight, and I was getting rather tired. Pohatu’d thrown up a second time, which Kopaka’d handled just as he had the first. The house only had three rooms: the living room with kitchen attached, the bedroom, and a small bathroom that was, if anything, even dirtier and more dilapidated than the rest of the structure. Either way, no other beds, much to my dismay, so I elected to instead watch Kopaka and Pohatu until I was tired enough to find Pohatu’s chair an appealing place to spend the night in. The Toa of stone was still out like a light, while Kopaka spent his time as he’d done back on the train, thinking through something apparently well beyond my ability to compute. Leaning against the empty doorway, I watched for a few minutes. I noticed that Kopaka’s normally stoic expression now betrayed a grave concern; I wondered whether he was actually making as much of an effort to conceal everything as he normally did. Maybe he believed no one was watching… No, he knew I was there. Perhaps he’d come to the conclusion that, given my abilities, maintaining appearances around me was futile… but then again, he’d known about those abilities all along, and hadn’t released his grip on his expressions until now. Plus, much as I was trying to unravel the mystery that was the Toa Nuva of Ice, there was a great deal that still had me puzzled, and I think he intended to keep it that way. “Lis?” He turned to me, somewhat to my surprise. “Yeah?” “How well can you read minds?” I was rather surprised to get that question from him. “Uhm… it depends.” What exactly could constitute a satisfactory answer? “I mean, it varies based on how much you actually remember. Like, back on the train, I got a lot from you.” “Memories, yes…” Kopaka nodded. “Would it be possible for you to look into Pohatu’s?” “I suppose…” I remembered his talk from the morning two days before. “Are you sure that that’d be appropriate?” “No,” Kopaka answered, “but it may be necessary.” A curious change in attitude... “Necessary for what?” “To find out how much of him is left.” There was as strong sense of foreboding to those words… Kopaka didn’t sound very hopeful, and given Pohatu’s behavior, I didn’t blame him. “I could,” I replied, “but… without knowing who he was, I can’t really tell you much.” “Okay.” Kopaka nodded again, betraying neither disappointment nor delight, and got back to watching over Pohatu. I stayed for a while longer, trying to attach some meaning to the exchange. Based on the Toa of Stone’s behavior, I understood his concern about how much of Pohatu’d changed… but the concern itself was still new, coming from him. Or was it? I remembered what Tahu’d told me before we left: Kopaka did care, but he couldn’t admit it, to himself or anyone else… except when Pohatu got involved, apparently. Why, though? What was so special about the bond between these two? Too tired to think it through much further, I finally gave in, retreated to the living room, and settled down into Pohatu’s reclining chair. I immediately regretted not having done so sooner; old and dirty it may have been, but it was nothing if not supremely comfortable, so much so that I was out in seconds. -*-*-*- A mountain. I see a mountain, and I’m climbing it, leaving the tree line behind me. What’s up there, exactly? I feel like I know there’s something up there, but I can’t figure out exactly what… A place of far-seeing. I can’t tell where that thought came from, but it would be an apt description for this place… looking around, this appears to be the highest point for miles, and I’m nowhere near the top of the mountain yet. Also, what’s that sound? Some kind of… rumbling. Thunder? It can’t be; the sky is clear. Yet it’s growing louder… “WATCH OUT!” A rocky explosion catches me, engulfs me, and momentarily knocks me out. I shake my head, blink, try to move… my legs are stuck in the rubble. Looking up, I see someone standing over me. “Sorry about that. I was practicing.” Who is he? I should recognize him, but somehow I don’t… he’s a Toa, but that spark of recognition isn’t there. “Are you alright?” He’s concerned. I don’t need his concern. “I would be, if you were not standing on me,” I point out. “Let me help you out,” he offers. “Thank you. I don’t need help.” I find and draw my sword, ready to make my own way out, but whoever this is… he’s persistent. “Let me do it. It’ll be faster,” he insists. Ignoring him, I call upon the power of Ice and instantly freeze the rocks around me to the point where they start to crack. “I said…” I swing my sword around, easily breaking the now brittle rocks and causing the strange Toa to jump backwards to avoid being hit as well, “…I can do it myself.” “Yeah, well…” he smiles, “you missed one.” With that, he kicks one of the boulders hard enough to send it flying off through the air. Pointless; it was not among those trapping me. I step out and resume my trek up the mountain, thinking he will return to his ‘practice.’ The mountain’s natural slope has steepened to the point where it is impossible to make progress except by climbing on all fours. “Listen.” What? He’s following me? “I have a feeling we’re both here for the same reason,” the brown figure keeping up with me explains. “Why not team up? It might make things easier.” “I work alone.” “By choice, or ‘cause no one can stand you?” He sounds… cheerful. How inappropriate. I can sense great evil in this place; how is he joking at a time like this? “All right, come along,” I relent. “After all, I might need a mountain moved… or the island lifted.” He laughs as though I’m joking… those are very real possibilities. “Fantastic. I’m Pohatu, by the way,” he introduces himself as we clamber up a particularly rough part of the mountainside. “Kopaka.” -*-*-*- Everything is… bright. Blindingly so. The wind is howling around me as I feel a slight chill… my eyes are adjusting at last; I can see now. I’m in a blizzard, but I can handle those… My companion, on the other hand, is finding this weather decidedly unpleasant. “Whoa!” a dampened thud, barely audible over the wind, alerts me to the fact that he’s slipped up… again. I keep moving… he’ll catch up just like he did the last time, and the time before that. I look up and ahead. We’re still climbing but if I focus just right… yes. A dark shape up ahead. A cave. “Say, how do you keep your footing up here?” he asks from behind me. “I mean, I’ve got bigger feet than you, and I’m slipping all over the place.” He laughs in spite of himself. “We are close,” I inform him. “Look ahead.” So he does, and before long we reach the cave… I haven’t seen this one before, yet I feel like I should have. “Not bad,” Pohatu follows me in and kicks some snow off of his feet. “A place for contemplation, right?” “Not this one.” I find that, just beyond the entrance, the cave is filled with rubble. “Well, wouldn’t hurt to check, would it?” The rocks begin to roll down and out of the cave as though acting on their own accord… except they’re not. Pohatu’s doing it. “Hey, for all we know it could be down there,” he shrugs. “Possible,” I agree and activate my mask, searching out our target under the rubble. Hang on… is that it!? “That way.” I point out the direction in which I saw the mask, and Pohatu focuses his efforts there. Now, he has unearthed it: the Kanohi Hau Nuva. It’s lying in a crevice, but reaching down, he easily retrieves the mask. “Well, look at this,” he smiles, just as a rumbling sound catches our ears. We’ve both heard it numerous times; we know what it means. “MOVE!” Pohatu suddenly yells as the ground cracks, then opens up below him. He pushes me back, throwing the mask aside as boulders from the collapsing ceiling start to come down. I try to reach, to grab him, but in less than a second, he is gone. “Pohatu!” I activate my mask again, searching for him beneath the remnants of the collapsed tunnel wall, pulling out chunks of rock as I go, but I can’t see him anywhere… what I do see is a near-vertical shaft, leading straight down well beyond how far I can see. I hear the rumbling noise again… by reflex, I look up. There’s cracks forming in the ceiling above me! I dodge to the side, barely in time to avoid being crushed myself as more of the tunnel collapses. I run, run back to the entrance… when the noise stops and the dust clears, the cave no longer exists. I’m standing in what used to be its entrance, now part of the icy mountain slope. There is no hope of getting back in there… “Pohatu!” I call, but it I know it is in vain. If I could not find him earlier, he is… is surely gone now. My feet hit something, something metal. I look down to see the Hau Nuva lying there… It was to be his, but he threw it aside and saved me… I put it away. I must go, go and tell of what happened here. The mask will be kept as Pohatu’s memory… -*-*-*- For the third night in a row, I woke up drenched… again, I’d inadvertently picked up on someone else’s thoughts, their memories… no question who it was this time: Kopaka. That moment, that had to be when he first met Pohatu; why else would they have to introduce themselves to each other? As for the second memory… it was later, after they became Toa Nuva, but when? Also, how did Pohatu survive that? I got up out of the chair and looked around. It was still dark out, but the sky to the east was beginning to show hints of blue; sunrise was not far away. Remembering where I was, I stepped into the bedroom again, finding Kopaka still sitting there, not having moved an inch, watching over the sleeping Pohatu. “Morning,” I yawned. “Morning.” “Have you been watching him all night?” I wondered. “Yes.” “Don’t you get tired?” I figured he certainly looked it. “Not quickly.” I felt like the truth was more along the lines of ‘I pretend not to,’ but didn’t point that out. I noticed the pot was full, and frozen. “He threw up again?” “Five times,” Kopaka answered. “Sheesh… want me to get rid of that?” Kopaka nodded ‘yes,’ so I picked up the pot by the handles, only realizing then that I had no way to un-freeze its contents. Instead, I took it to the kitchen and set it upside-down in the sink, hoping the contents would, with time, melt their way out and down the drain. “You won’t need it again, right?” I asked upon returning. “No.” “Okay…” I shrugged and waited for a minute. “So, about what you asked last night…” “Forget it.” Kopaka said coldly. “You’re sure?” I asked. “I mean, I saw a few things… again.” When I said that, he turned and gave me that piercing gaze... “You did it again?” “Uhm… yes,” I admitted. “Look, I didn’t mean to, I swear. It just… happens.” “And what did your night visions tell you this time?” his voice had not lost any of its icy quality. “It… it was from you. I think it was on Mata Nui, when you met Pohatu,” I remembered. “Irrelevant,” Kopaka concluded. “Well, there was another one,” I added. Kopaka nodded as if to say “go on.” “It was you and Pohatu again, up on a mountain,” I continued, “and you were looking for a mask.” Kopaka’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “Which mask?” he asked. “Tahu’s mask. The Hau Nuva.” Kopaka remained silent. “The cave… it collapsed on you two,” I continued, “did you think…” “…he was dead?” Kopaka finished. “Yes, I did. But he was alive. I just could not find him at the time.” He sounded agitated, but wasn’t directing it at me. “Oh... You tried, though.” Part of sharing a memory is sharing the feelings that accompanied it, and I distinctly recalled a sense of panic from when he was looking for Pohatu… never mind the sense of loss after the second collapse. I knew I hadn’t been there, but that empathy made it all the more painful. “Of course I tried,” Kopaka said. “He found another way out. Again, irrelevant.” I wasn’t so sure about that; much as he was trying to hide it, it was obvious this particular memory triggered something in him, too. Was he dismayed at his failure to find Pohatu? Or was he just angry that I’d gotten to see one of his more… emotional memories? “Okay…” I sighed; it was too early to push him further. “I did see some of Pohatu, though. Like, how he used to be. So, if you want I can try to look and figure out… what’s left, as you put it.” “I doubt he would complain,” Kopaka said coldly as he turned back to watching Pohatu. It wasn’t an outright ‘no,’ but I didn’t feel like I had permission either, so I held off. “Breakfast?” I asked, changing the subject to something more mundane. “Later,” Kopaka replied. His gaze was fixed intently, once again, on Pohatu… looking to the Toa of Stone, I noticed he was waking up. “Ugh…” he groaned. “My head…”

-------------------- Chapter 24 -------------------- Kopaka crossed the room slowly with his eyes fixed on the figure in the chair. The whole scene reminded me much of how he’d approached Gali, but this time he didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop or wait to be noticed. “Brother?” he greeted in a low, subdued tone. He got no response at first, but just as he was about to move around the chair, Pohatu raised his fist. “ bunch of morons!” he yelled, referring to the scene on the telescreen, in which two of the characters were watching and commenting on a Kolhii game. “Ain’t any of you *hic* ever held a kolhii stick before!?” Kopaka halted for a moment at Pohatu’s sudden outburst, but quickly reasserted himself. “Brother,” he said more forcefully as he stepped forward again, entering Pohatu’s view. “Whoa! What... Who are you!?” the Toa of Stone exclaimed. Kopaka’s eyes widened as they fell upon him. “I am Kopaka, your brother…” The Toa of Ice’s voice faltered. He looked Pohatu up and down. “Brother!? Ha!...” Pohatu took a drink from the bottle in his other hand. “I have no brothers…” he said, chuckling as though that was somehow amusing. I noticed that, when he wasn’t shouting, his words were slurred. That bottle likely wasn’t his first for the night. Then, all of a sudden, his drunken abandon turned back to anger. “Get out of my house!” he yelled. Kopaka stood, shocked, neither responding nor retreating; for the first time since I’d met him, he appeared to have no idea on how to proceed. Curious, I made my way across the room, almost tripping over an empty bottle lying in the darkness on the floor. Pohatu turned and locked eyes on me. “Th…there’s more of you!? Whaddaya want!? I won’t buy anything, I’ll tell ya right now! Scram! Get lost!” Exaggerated, uncoordinated hand gestures accompanied his drunken tirade. He took another drink. Now standing next to Kopaka, I, too, was astonished to see the state Pohatu was in. He looked dirty, haggard, and was wearing little to no armor whatsoever. His eyes were hazy, his movements clumsy. After gulping down several mouthfuls, he was dismayed to find his bottle empty. “Aw… !” he cursed at it as though that might convince it to fill itself again. The bottle offered no response, so he turned his attention back to us. “I told you to s to get lost!” he shouted as he raised the bottle over his head, then hurled it at me. His aim wasn’t much good, and rather than striking me the bottle went careening into the wall, where it shattered. “Ugh…” Pohatu looked off to where he thought he’d sent the bottle. I took a step back and looked to Kopaka to do something, anything. However, he stood as if rooted, utterly perplexed by Pohatu’s behavior. This was nothing like the Toa either of us remembered. Pohatu half-heartedly threw up his hands, sank back into his chair, and resumed watching the broadcast as though we weren’t there. Recovering at last, Kopaka stepped forward and tried again: “Do you remember me, brother?” he asked earnestly. “Whoa!” Pohatu reacted as though we’d completely vanished and reappeared again. “Who’s there!?” he looked back and forth between me and Kopaka. “Wait…. d-didn’t I tell you two to beat it!?” “We’re not here to sell you anything,” I attempted to pacify him. “Go to Karzahni,” Pohatu scoffed at me, then looked back to Kopaka. For a moment, he seemed to try and focus in on the Toa of Ice, then his expression mellowed somewhat. “You,” he gestured, “d-don’t I know you from somewhere?” “I believe that you do,” Kopaka said. “I knew…” Pohatu’s sentence was cut short by a loud belch. “I-I knew a guy who looked just like you,” he smirked. “A T-Toa,” he continued. “A - *hic*- a prick he was, too… would’a made a Makuta look nice!” he laughed, but the laughter quickly descended into a harsh coughing fit. Kopaka retreated somewhat as Pohatu hacked up some kind of mucoid substance, which he re-swallowed afterwards. The Toa of Stone leant back, staring up at the ceiling in drunken satisfaction. “…that left years ago…” He remained silent for a few seconds, then gestured at Kopaka: “Y-you should go find him… he’d love your company.” “Who?” Kopaka asked. His voice had taken on a distinctly cooler tone. “Ah…” Pohatu contorted his face as though in deep thought. “Meh… I don’t remember the name.” “Was it Kopaka?” the Toa of Ice asked. “Kopaka! Yes, Kopaka!” Pohatu blurted out. “That was him! Hehehe….” “I know Kopaka.” “You do, huh?” Pohatu leant forward and locked eyes with Kopaka, though he appeared to have a hard time focusing. He looked him up and down. “Nah!” he eventually concluded. “The guy’s stone dead, I’m sure.” He laughed again, but his jovial mood quickly seemed to drop. “You… you wanna know the worst part?” he slurred. “Do tell,” Kopaka said coldly. “I - *hic* - I never told him… never told him how much of an he was!” Pohatu laughed out loud. Kopaka assumed a scornful gaze, clearly not amused by his brother’s delirium. Pohatu took no notice as he turned and rummaged around the ground behind the chair, producing a fresh bottle of what looked like a rather stiff drink. After some uncoordinated picking at the cork, he managed to open it and take a few swigs. Indignant, Kopaka turned and walked back across the room and out the door, kicking a bottle aside along the way. I turned to follow, but Pohatu gestured at me. “You… *hic*… You look nice... I swear, if we were meatos…” Pohatu’s voice trailed off us he looked me up and down, making me feel profoundly uncomfortable. I quickly followed Kopaka as Pohatu took to his bottle again. “Why am I here?” Kopaka curtly asked Hewkii, who’d been waiting outside. “I figured you should see what you left behind,” the latter replied. “All of it.” “That is not Pohatu!” Kopaka pointed inside. “Maybe not,” Hewkii admitted, “but it is what’s left of him.” “Your point?” Toa of Stone sighed. “I stop by here every few days… to take care of him, you know? Half the time, he doesn’t remember who I am, yet he always asks for you. Any idea why?” “He does not recognize me now,” Kopaka informed him. “How does he ask for me?” “He does whenever he’s not… not this far gone,” Hewkii said. “I figure he thinks you can help him somehow, when he’s actually thinking. I’ve asked him why he needs to see you, but he won’t tell me. So… maybe you know something I don’t.” Kopaka waited for a moment, then turned and walked back inside past me. He staunchly marched up and positioned himself between Pohatu and the telescreen. “Hey, I wanna see that!” the Toa of Stone protested, but Kopaka wouldn’t move. “I am Kopaka,” he said curtly. “Your brother. You asked for me. Why?” “Kopaka?... who’s Kopaka?” Pohatu gave him a blank stare. “You know who I am,” Kopaka continued. “You just told those two people, remember?” “I don’t know any two people…” Pohatu smiled. “No one comes here!” He laughed himself into a coughing fit again. Kopaka waited until he was done. “You believed they were here to sell you things,” he continued. “You told one of them they looked like Kopaka. Like me.” “No, no I didn’t!” Pohatu said with a manic grin on his face. “Yes, you did!” Kopaka’s patience was wearing thin. “Whatever… I don’t remember…” Pohatu sank back into his chair, but the sound of an explosion from the telescreen immediately jolted him upright again. “Move, move! I want to see this!” He waved his hand, gesturing for Kopaka to step aside. He didn’t, and by the sound of things the explosion had ended. “Aw c’mon…” Pohatu lifted up his bottle again. Suddenly, with surprising speed, Kopaka reached forward and backhanded the bottle so hard that it flew out of the Toa’s hand and shattered against the opposite wall. “You have had enough of that!” he chided the stunned Pohatu. Kopaka was now practically leaning over his brother. “Wha… whaddaya do that for?” the latter said hazily. “You… you know you’re gonna have to *hic* get me another one for that, right?” He pointed at Kopaka while the latter loomed over him, growing more agitated by the second. “Look at me, brother,” he insisted. “Look!” he pointed at his own mask. “You remember, you must remember something, anything!” This wasn’t Kopaka’s usual coolheaded argument; it sounded more like a desperate, if angry plea. “YOU wanted me here, brother!” he continued to the stunned Pohatu. “Tell me what you want me for! What do you need me to do!?” “I don’t know!” Pohatu insisted, then chuckled again as though the whole situation had him very amused. “Stop… stop asking, okay? Really, I’m *hic* fine…” After a tense few seconds, Kopaka backed off. “No, brother…” he said, his voice wavering. “You are not fine.” “No, really… I’m fine…just go…” Pohatu murmured as a drunken stupor started to overtake him. “No.” Kopaka said as he finally stepped aside. However, instead of walking out like I expected him to, he positioned himself next to the chair, then leant down again. Standing halfway across the room, I couldn’t see what he was doing, but then he stood up... carrying Pohatu in his arms. “HEY!” the unwelcomed move jolted Pohatu awake, if that was the right word. “Put me down, you!” he insisted as he struggled, but his uncoordinated arm flailing posed little problem for Kopaka, and for some reason his legs weren’t moving at all. Without saying another word, Kopaka made his way over to the side of the room, where an open doorway led to a small bedroom. “You can’t do this!” Pohatu protested. “I want to see my show! And get *hic* get me another drink!” Kopaka laid the struggling Pohatu down on the bed. “Rest, brother,” he said quietly. “I ain’t listening to anything you tell me!” the furious Toa proclaimed, sitting up by supporting himself on one arm while shaking a fist with the other. Kopaka stood up, backed off and lowered his head. When he looked up again, he’d switched out his Akaku for yet another mask. “Sleep, brother,” he said in a surprisingly tender, melancholy voice. I could tell the mask was activated. “You don’t listen, do ya!?” Pohatu continued. “I told you get me a drink!” “Sleep.” Kopaka repeated. There was no authority in his voice; in fact, it was wavering, but somehow the command got through to Pohatu, who, without another word, lowered himself down from half-seated to lying on the bed. Seconds later, he was fast asleep. Kopaka stood, looking down at his brother, not saying anything. Standing in the bedroom entrance, I was struck by how different he seemed all of the sudden… he didn’t look angry or frustrated as he had with Hewkii, Jaller, and Hahli, nor disappointed as he had with Gali; with Pohatu, he looked gravely concerned, a feeling I hadn’t thought possible from him until fifteen minutes before. Thinking back to their goodbye at that last meeting, I could only conclude that there was something to his relationship with Pohatu that didn’t exist between him and any of the other Toa. Perhaps Jaller was right; Pohatu was Kopaka’s only friend, the only one who could elicit such concern from the otherwise detached Toa of Ice. An old, rickety chair stood in the corner of the bedroom. Kopaka sat down on it, and still watching his brother closely. I waited a few minutes, curious as to what exactly he planned to do now. Eventually, I got bored and decided to ask him directly. “So, are you going to watch over him all night?” “Yes.” “But… I thought you couldn’t wait to leave,” I reminded him. “His mind may be clearer come morning,” Kopaka said quietly. “Perhaps then he will remember something.” “Ah…” “If you are looking for something to do,” he suggested, “go see if he has any large bowls or pots.” “Why?” “We might need them.” “Okay…” I figured that, whatever the purpose of the pots was, I’d probably see it sooner or later. I stepped back into the living room and turned right, where a small kitchen was attached. It was cleaner than I’d remembered Tahu’s to be, but only because Pohatu appeared to own very few dishes of any kind. Searching through the few cupboards, I soon found a reasonably sized, if dirty cooking pot, which I took back to Kopaka. “This is all he has,” I informed him. “It should do.” Kopaka set the pot down beside him. “Anything else you’ll need?” I wondered. “The telescreen,” Kopaka answered. “Turn it off.” The telescreen was still broadcasting the noise of whatever program it was on all through the house. I headed back into the living room and turned on a standing lamp in the corner to not plunge the room into darkness when I turned off the telescreen. After turning off the broadcast, I looked around the room. It was a mess… that bottle I’d tripped over coming in was far from the only one scattered around the floor, not to mention the fact that, in two areas by opposite walls, the carpet was covered in broken glass. Everything, including the reclining chair that besides the table and telescreen made up the only furniture, was covered in stains of one kind or another, and it all reeked of alcohol. In one corner, I noticed a rusty-looking wheelchair. The telescreen was surrounded by a ton of shelves bolted into the wall. They were all empty and covered in dust, except one, on which a faded trophy stood. It was kolhii trophy, a pillar topped by a kolhii stick and ball, and it was gold. I picked it up to polish off some of the dust. Its plaque read: Toa Pohatu Nuva Champion 100th Great Kolhii Tournament, Spherus Magna, 500 A.R. “Nice, isn’t it?” I turned to find Hewkii standing in the front doorway. “Oh… yes, it is.” I quickly put the trophy back on its shelf. “Those shelves used to be filled with ‘m.” Hewkii gestured as he walked in. “What happened to them?” I asked. “Pohatu sold them for more drinks. The trophies never did mean much to him.” “Oh…” “I noticed the noise stopped,” Hewkii continued. “Is everything okay?” “Yeah, everything’s fine,” I assured him. “Kopaka put Pohatu in bed, and he’s watching over him now.” “He is, eh?” Hewkii looked into the bedroom for a moment, then turned back to me. “So, he does care,” he said with more than a hint of surprise. “Yes, amazingly, he does” I said quietly, not wanting Kopaka to hear. “That, or he’s curious too,” Hewkii said as he made his way back to the front door. “Curious about what?” I followed him. “Curious about why Pohatu’s asking for him,” Hewkii replied. “Could be.” We stepped outside. “I think there’s more to it, though,” I admitted. “I hope you’re right about that.” We stopped in the front yard, where Hewkii picked up the crate with bottles. “But if he’s staying around tonight, I’m heading home.” “Okay… just, one last thing.” “Hm?” Hewkii waited. “What happened with Gali?” I asked. “She just vanished from where I was.” Hewkii’s expression grew somber. “Macku and I just got home, and we saw her come down,” he said. “She was in a hurry, she was crying… she basically fled back to her basement room; exactly what happens every time Tahu comes by and bullies her.” “I’m sorry…” “Not your fault. Tahu, Kopaka, they don’t understand what changed about her,” Hewkii explained. “They think what she needs is tough love, a jolt to break her out of that cycle she’s stuck in. If Gali was still the same Toa she was back then, that might have worked, for all I know…” he sighed. “She’s changed.” I agreed. “Look,” Hewkii continued, “Hahli, Macku, Jaller, myself… we’ve all watched it happen time and time again, and every time Gali ends up worse. Jaller thinks that we should kick her out, force her to get back on her feet; Hahli and Macku want to take care of her, ‘cause she saved them back in the day... I hate to say it, but I think Gali’s given up, and Tahu and Kopaka have only made it worse. Jaller’s solution would do the same thing, whereas Hahli and Macku are just helping her down. They don’t mean to, but they are. They’re half the reason she got so big.” “And you?” I asked. “Me? I’ve got my own broken Toa to worry about.” Hewkii nodded towards the house. “What happened to him?” I asked. “I mean, he used to be kolhii champion. How’d he end up like this?” Hewkii sighed and waited for a moment, recalling past events. “He pushed too hard,” he said, “he pushed his body past breaking point. We’re all getting older, you know, but he just kept pushing his game… I don’t think he could imagine it ever ending, that his body would give out on him eventually. But he had to keep pulling those stunts, those spectacular moves on the field, and one game, his spine just said “no.”” “His legs, the wheelchair… is that why?” “Yep. Gali helped him, much as she could, but there’s only so much you can fix,” Hewkii was choking up a bit, remembering a difficult time. “He’s still in constant pain, which is why he started drinking. He got angry, he got bitter… cursed out Gali a few times, after which she didn’t dare visit him anymore. From then on, it was just a freefall down to… well, where he is now.” Hewkii looked frustrated, but not with me. His expression contorted as though he was fighting back tears. “He was my hero once… still is, sometimes, when I forget what he’s like now.” “I’m sure it was hard,” I empathized. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up something so painful.” “No, it’s... it’s okay.” Hewkii collected himself. “They were all heroes, but I’m afraid there’s not much we can do for them now, besides making sure that they will be remembered for who they were, not what they’ve become.” “I’m sure you’ll manage that,” I assured him, somewhat shaken myself. His assessment of the situation was somber, but I feared it was accurate. We stood quietly for a few seconds. “Look, if you want, you’re still welcome to stay with us,” Hewkii offered. “Better than spending the night out here.” “Thanks, but I’ll stay,” I declined. “I think Kopaka won’t stay around for much longer, and I’ve still got questions for him.” “Don’t we all?” Hewkii shrugged. “Well, in that case, ‘till we meet again.” He nodded, smiled, then turned to head back to the station. “Good night!” I called after him, watching until he turned back into the side alley from which we’d entered the street before turning and heading back inside myself.

-------------------- Chapter 23 -------------------- A bright orange flash startled all of us. We quickly turned to find Jaller standing in the doorway, holding a flaming sword out in front of him. “There will be no fighting in here!” he ordered, looking around the room, taking in the sight of two Toa standing battle-ready while I’d moved back after unsuccessfully trying to interfere. It took a moment, but eventually both Kopaka and Hahli stood down. “Good.” Jaller extinguished his sword and stepped forward. “Move aside,” he ordered Hahli, who obliged. Now Jaller stood face to face with the Toa of Ice. “By tomorrow morning, the Turaga, the guard, and every living being in this city will know you are here,” he threatened, “and I guarantee they will come looking for you. You have until then to get out of my city.” “I was planning on leaving anyway,” Kopaka said coldly. “News travels faster than trains,” Jaller asserted. “By the time you reach Onu-Koro-Nuva, crowds will have swarmed the stations to meet you.” That revelation clearly shocked Kopaka. For a few seconds, he stood silently, glaring at Jaller as if he was attempting to stare him down, but the captain of the guard wouldn’t back off. At last, the Toa of Ice replied: “You will do no such thing.” It wasn’t a threat, nor an argument; Kopaka merely stated what, to him, was fact. Or was he just hoping it was? “Try me,” was Jaller’s resolute reply. “So be it.” Kopaka stepped forward, maneuvering himself around Jaller and towards the door. He maintained his stoic appearance, but underneath I could tell he was deeply worried. Jaller wasn’t the type not to follow up on his promises, and this capitulation could only mean that Kopaka saw no option but to take his chances out there. The first step in improving those chances as much as possible lay in leaving without delay. Jaller, Hahli, and I followed behind him as he left the room and made his way downstairs, where we found Macku and Hewkii in the hallway. “Kopaka?” Macku quickly stepped forward, an anxious look on her face. “Gali just went downstairs, and she didn't look good... What’s going on?” The Toa of Ice marched past her without answering, followed closely by Jaller. “He said it,” Hahli curtly informed the Matoran as she, too, passed by her. “Said what…” the realization came over Macku before she finished the question. “Oh no…” “Don’t worry, he’s leaving,” Jaller announced as Kopaka reached the front door. “And he won’t be back.” “Whoa, hold on a minute!” Hewkii stepped forward. “What exactly did he say?” “The full rant, I’m sure,” Hahli replied. “The full rant? As in, Tahu-style?” Hewkii questioned. He looked to Kopaka, then back to Hahli. “Worse.” Hahli glared at the Toa of Ice as he opened the door. “I told her the truth.” Kopaka grumbled, looking back over his shoulder at the Toa of Water. “You promised me you’d keep your mouth shut!” she snapped back. “It was for the better,” Kopaka defended himself. “Insulting her into saving herself!?” Hahli's question was accompanied by wild arm gestures. “He already tried that!” She pointed towards Jaller. “...and so did Tahu,” the latter added. “Exactly!” Hahli continued. “Tell me, is she any better off for it!? I don't think so!” “Then she is beyond saving,” Kopaka said grimly as he turned away again. “NO she isn't!” Hahli blurted out. “Okay, Okay!” Hewkii stepped in again, interposing himself between the other Toa. “Can we keep it sown a bit, please?” The air was tense, but he had everyone's attention, even Kopaka's. “Now what exactly is going to happen here?” he asked Jaller. “We’re going to spread the word,” the Toa of Fire replied. “Kopaka is back. Then we’ll see how long it takes half this planet to find him.” Kopaka was giving him a death stare, but Jaller glared back; “I’m sure their attention will be sufficient punishment for a broken promise.” “You wish.” Hahli stood with her arms crossed. “It is,” Jaller confirmed. “Look, I don’t doubt it, but… can I speak to you two for a second?” Hewkii requested. “Fine,” Hahli shrugged. Jaller offered no objections. “Great.” Hewkii turned to Kopaka. “Just... wait a moment, okay?” Kopaka nodded. “Make it quick,” Jaller moaned as he reluctantly accompanied Hewkii and Hahli to the living room. I looked to Kopaka, who remained standing in the doorway, looking past me down the hall as though he was expecting someone. To my surprise, Macku appeared from downstairs, carrying Kopaka’s cloak. Between the chaos and arguing, I hadn't even seen her leave. “You’ll need this,” she said curtly as she handed him the garment, which he quickly put on. “Just so you know,” the Ga-Matoran continued, “she won’t help you again.” “I will not need her help again,” Kopaka assured her. “Well, even if you did, she won’t be able to provide it anymore,” Macku continued. “You were the last straw; she’s lost for good. I hope you’re proud of yourself.” “She was long lost already,” Kopaka asserted, “thanks to you and Hahli.” “I disagree, but I guess that doesn't matter to you.” Macku sighed. “I will say this: at least we tried.” Tearing up, she turned and quickly headed back down the hall and up the stairs. “You know, they really did,” I informed him. “They've been trying for years to pull her out of her depression.” “Without much success,” Kopaka concluded. “It would do you well to judge based on effort every once in a while, not just results. You might just learn something.” “Nothing that matters to me.” Now he was glaring at me, too. I wanted to remind him that, if I'd judged him based solely on his success in fixing himself, or his social skills, I wouldn't think very highly of him either, but at that would have implied I thought highly of him in the first place, so I held off. We waited another minute or two. Kopaka periodically turned and looked up and down the dark, quiet street outside; I feared he would just decide to walk away now, but something kept him turning back, awaiting the other Toa's return. It wasn't long before they did. “You know, you could close the door,” Hahli pointed out. “It's getting cold in here.” Her suggestion elicited exactly zero response from Kopaka, which given his fondness for the cold wasn't surprising. “Okay, there's been a change of plans,” Jaller informed him, though he didn't sound all that excited about it. “You can leave, and we won't tell anyone you were here.” “Good.” Kopaka didn't show it, but I could tell that inside, he was breathing a huge sigh of relief. “...on one condition.” Hewkii stepped forward. “You're coming with me.” “To what end?” Kopaka asked coldly. “There's someone I need you to meet.” “Someone I can trust, I take it?” “Don't worry about that,” Hewkii dismissed his concern. “Even if he told anyone, they wouldn't believe him.” With a heavy sigh, Kopaka agreed to the terms. “Fine,” he grumbled as he stepped aside. Hewkii turned to Hahli: “I probably won't be back for a few hours. Tell Macku not to wait up.” With that, he headed out the door. Kopaka followed, closing the door behind him. Jaller sighed. “You know I don't agree with this,” Hahli pointed out. “Hahli, it's late, I'm tired, and I have to be up early. No arguments, not now, not after you already agreed.” Jaller rubbed his eyes. “Uhm, excuse me?” I got their attention. “Who are they going to see?” “An old fried of Kopaka's,” Hahli said. In spite of her disagreement with the plan, there was a hint of satisfaction in her voice. “Kopaka has friends?” I wasn't sure that was possible after what had happened this evening. “One friend,” Jaller informed me. “Ever heard of Pohatu?” “The Toa Nuva of Stone? Yeah, I've heard of him.” Heard of him? I'd seen him, straight from Kopaka's memory. “He is the only friend Kopaka's ever had, at least as far as Kopaka's concerned,” Jaller continued. “He lives on the outskirts of the city. That's where they're going.” “Oh...” “You're welcome to stay here, if you'd like,” Hahli offered. “You handle that,” Jaller told her. “I'm going back to bed.” “'night, Jaller.” Hahli turned and placed her hand on his shoulder for a moment. “Good luck tomorrow.” “Thanks,” he mumbled as he proceeded down the hallway, then up the stairs. “Anyways, like I said, you're welcome to stay,” Hahli turned her attention back to me. “Thanks, but... I think I might actually like to see Kopaka meeting Pohatu again,” I decided. “Don't get too attached to him,” Hahli warned. “He'll drop you like he has everyone else first chance he gets.” “Maybe he will,” I conceded, “but I'd like to see how he does it.” Hahli smiled and extended her hand, which I shook. “Good luck then, Lis,” she said. “Do stop by again sometime.” “I will,” I assured her before heading out into the cool night air. Hahli stood in the doorway and waved; I returned the gesture when I reached the street. Looking west, into the city, I could see the silhouettes of Hewkii and Kopaka. I had to run to catch up to them, but it didn't take me long. “Hi,” I greeted when I reached them. “Lis.” Hewkii nodded and acknowledged my presence, but Kopaka made no such gesture. No one really seemed in the talking mood, so I kept quiet as we made our way deeper into the city. Five minutes and a few turns later, we reached a set of stairs going down into a tunnel from the side of the street, which Hewkii entered. We followed, and soon found ourselves standing in an underground room of some kind; I'd never seen anything like it. A booth in the wall at the opposite end of the room gave some clue to its identity: apparently, this was part of an underground train station. “Three tickets to Station West,” Hewkii requested at the booth. Its inhabitant, an Onu-Matoran with a distinctly dour expression, obliged, producing three tickets and writing “Station West” on them. “Six widgets,” he said in a tired monotone. Hewkii placed a ten-widget piece on the counter. “Keep the change,” he told the Onu-Matoran. We turned and left the room through a set of double doors on our right. “Underground rail line,” Hewkii informed us as we stepped onto a platform. “High-tech, electrical. Just completed. Makes crossing the city a lot easier.” I looked up and down the platform; on both sides, the track vanished into a barely lit tunnel. Hewkii found a small bench to sit on, while Kopaka remained standing close to the edge of the platform, waiting for the train to arrive. About fifteen minutes passed before a loud, rumbling noise heralded the arrival of the metal carriage. After it stopped and opened its doors, one tired-looking Agori disembarked; upon boarding, we were the only people in any of the three carriages besides the driver. The train followed a vaguely circular track, stopping at two other stations before it reached Station West. The clock was closing in on eleven by the time we disembarked. Station West much resembled the one we'd embarked from in its layout, but whereas the latter had been relatively clean, this station's platform was quite dirty. Bits of trash littered the ground, and a large, crude painting of a Glatorian decorated one of the walls. Kopaka said nothing as usual, but this place did nothing to lift his spirits. I noticed that, as we crossed the platform to the exit, he seemed to plot a path around the dirtiest spots. Emerging above ground, I found it hard to believe that we were still in the same city, such was the contrast between this neighborhood and the clean, well-kept, modern one that we'd left. These were the slums, the part of New Atero that most other people didn't get to see and didn't want to think about. Trash was piled up in the streets. The old, brick buildings had clearly been patched up numerous times, but that did nothing to conceal their dilapidated state. If Kopaka'd found the station bothersome, this place had to drive him close to panic. Nevertheless, he continued to quietly follow Hewkii as the Toa of Stone led us off the wide street and through a series of confusingly winding back alleys. Here, out of sight and away from the road, few of the houses, if they even deserved that status, had windows or even curtains, and I caught glimpses of several inhabitants as we passed by. We soon reached a slightly wider road again, where Hewkii stopped us in front of one particular house. A single-floor structure, it was somewhat larger than most of the others, but was in no better a state. A wooden crate filled with empty bottles was sitting beside the door. “He lives here,” Hewkii told Kopaka. “Who?” the Toa of Ice demanded. “You'll see,” Hewkii said dejectedly as he stepped aside. Kopaka sighed, then stepped forward and knocked on the door. Getting no response, he looked back to Hewkii, who'd taken up a position leaning against the wall. “He probably won't open,” he said. “Just go in.” Kopaka hesitated for a moment, then cracked open the door. The sound of a telescreen broadcast emanated from inside. “Aren't you going in?” I asked Hewkii, who made no motion to follow as Kopaka entered. “I'll wait out here,” he answered. “I don't like to go in there much. Not anymore.” “Okay...” I nodded, somewhat concerned by Hewkii's apparent worry. If he didn't like to come here anymore, what purpose did bringing Kopaka serve? I made my way inside, almost walking straight into Kopaka in the process; the Toa of Ice had stopped barely clear of the doorway. “Is he in here?” I asked as I maneuvered next to him. Kopaka didn't answer, his eyes were fixed on something across the room. A tiny telescreen, positioned about 30 feet away from us and facing the entrance, provided the only light in the room, courtesy of yet another late-night drama. Facing it was an old, reclining armchair, containing the slumped-over figure of a Toa. I looked back towards Kopaka; I could tell he'd realized who he was in to meet the moment he'd entered his place. He took a deep breath, then stepped forward, making his way across the empty room. I stayed near the door and watched.