Chapter Four

Chiara’s mind raced. Only moments ago, she had seen Kabrua and two of his trackers run off in pursuit of Orde and Gelu. She noticed no movement from where Zaria was hiding among the tangle of trees and thickets, but the Vorox were prowling like Kavinika. One of them seemed to be sniffing the air, and it was all Chiara could do to mask the smell of her own fear.

She looked around for anything she could use to her advantage, even as she internally screamed at herself to think. She had no weapons, no elemental powers, and though she still had her Kanohi Volitak, it wouldn’t be of much help. She could sneak up on one of the two guards, but she had no way of taking him out without drawing the attention of the other.

One of them would have to be distracted. Perhaps if she threw a stone, the more curious of the two would scamper off, and she could strike at the one that remained.

Or… perhaps she wouldn’t have to do any of that. Looking up again, only one of the Vorox was still visible in the clearing. Perhaps the other had wandered off of his own accord…?

“Chiara!”

The Toa lost her grip on her branch, right as a force blast shattered the tree to shreds. Thrown from the treetops, the Toa tumbled into a ravine and disappeared from view.

That’s lightning-types for you, thought Zaria. All that energy, but the moment they hit the ground…

The Toa of Iron barreled out of his hiding spot and tackled the first Vorox to the ground. The hunter had managed to maintain a grip on his force blaster, but couldn’t get a good shot with the Toa in such close quarters.

Instead, he bucked, and then bucked again. Each time, Zaria just tightened his grip. Instinctively, the Vorox spun to try and crawl away, but the Toa lunged forward, grabbing his neck in a chokehold and refusing to let go. The hunter grunted and flailed, but soon enough went limp.

The Vorox that had been chasing Chiara broke off his search and stalked forward slowly, aiming his blaster at Zaria. When his eyes fell on his fallen comrade, his face loured.

“You didn’t — You killed him?!”

In that moment, the Toa froze. Painful memories flashed before him as he loosened his grip.

“Of course not, I —”

The prone Vorox sprang to life, sweeping Zaria’s legs out from under him. The Toa hit the ground so hard stars flashed before his eyes.

“Vorox do not die so easily,” the hunter declared, snatching up his weapon and circling his quarry. “Let’s see if the same holds true for you.”

“Better warriors have tried,” growled Zaria, kicking at the earth and sending a spray of dirt into his opponent’s eyes. “Why us? Gelu I get — I can’t stand the guy either. But why hunt us Toa?”

“You are guilty by association,” the Vorox hissed.

“No, not even that,” his companion laughed as he spoke for the first time, “Let’s not pretend you Toa are any more than you are. You’re machines — the playthings of the Great Beings. Every other millennium some experiment of theirs breaks loose and rampages across the forest. Now they are gone, and we’re left to put a stop to it. What’s a few more broken toys?”

Zaria glanced at the treeline where Chiara had disappeared. Wherever his ally was, she was taking her sweet time…

Over the rustling of the foliage, the Toa heard a familiar twang of a bowstring, followed promptly by an arrow, which planted itself expertly in the eyehole of the nearest Vorox’s helmet. The warrior shrieked then lurched forward and fell flat. His companion looked around frantically before receiving two arrows to the chest in quick succession.

The Toa of Iron could scarcely react before seven grim-faced Agori stormed into the clearing. All were clad in rusty orange armor, making the abruptness of their appearance that much more startling. Some, including the leader, brandished long iron rods. The Vorox slumped to the ground again, dead.

Now the Agori pointed their mechanical slingshots at the Toa.

“Vorox I know,” said the leader, “But you are alien to me. Are you of the Great Beings?”

“Who’s asking?” asked Zaria, hoping that his teammate had landed in a better position than he had.

“If you play your cards right… a friend,” came the reply, as the figure nodded at the Vorox. “Not keen on the Great Beings, but it’s clear we have enemies in common. Come with us. And don’t try anything you’ll regret.”

✴        ✴        ✴

As Orde raced through the forests of Bota Magna, his greatest challenge wasn't the thorns and thickets that threatened to catch him at every turn, nor the struggle of moving quickly while staying as silent as possible. It was the struggle of keeping his mind from racing off as well.

“Focus!” Gelu hissed, as if reading his mind. The Glatorian was up ahead, faring little better in the brush and overgrowth. When he stopped dead in his tracks, Orde almost crashed into him.

“They're gone!” he exclaimed. “This was exactly where we left them… but they're gone.”

The Toa gestured. “Neither of them is carrying any strange devices. A fifth Vorox must have circled back around and recovered it before we could get here.”

“Or was hidden where we couldn’t see him. One that bolted when his companions fell.”

Orde prodded one of the fallen Vorox.

“Dead,” he determined. “Looks like a projectile pierced his skull. Made of iron.”

“You don’t think —”

At that moment, a distant boom resonated through the forest. On a hill far away, a large ball of flame ascended above the canopy.

“That isn’t them, is it?” Gelu asked.

“Has to be a good five kio. No way it’s them.”

The Glatorian shrugged. “I don’t know what powers you lot have.” He didn’t exactly know what a kio was either, but given the distance, he could guess.

“So,” Orde wheeled, “Mind telling me what that was all about?”

“What was what all about?”

“Making me read his mind. How did you know?”

“Are we really going to do this now? Your stunt with the river won’t last long.”

Orde crossed his arms.

The Glatorian sighed. “During the Core War, the Great Beings tried a number of strategies to stop the fighting — diplomacy, warnings about the dangerous properties of the core, assassin robots. And in all that desperate chaos, a lot of experimental tech was leaked out, and found its way into the tribes.”

“Like what?”

“Force blasters, like those Vorox were using,” Gelu answered, “along with chariots and other vehicles. Artificially modified animals. Items that could change the course of a battle here, or undo a campaign there.”

“And how do you know about this?”

The Ice Glatorian’s eyes darkened.

“My best friend was given such a gift. He was given command of a pack of iron wolves with strict instructions as to their use. During some clashes along the border of the Northern Frost and the Skrall homeland, he led them into battle and was never heard from again. He didn’t tell me much about what was happening, but I knew enough to see someone was pulling the strings.”

“Mata Nui,” Orde breathed.

“Yes, Mata Nui,” Gelu growled. “Mata Nui is the only reason I’m doing this. If he hadn’t personally asked for it after all that he had done for us, I’d still be making a killing in the south while you three figured your way around up here. I hated the Great Beings then, and I’m beginning to remember why. You and the others are going to have to ask yourselves if they’re really worth finding again.”

“Hey, I’m hardly their biggest fan either,” Orde said. “They made the universe with noble enough intentions, but the moment it came time to start filling it they started having second thoughts. I’m living proof of that.”

The Ice Glatorian smiled humorlessly. “And what about the one you were just describing? Are his intentions noble? Were they ever?”

Orde’s expression darkened.

“Who can say?” he murmured. “I don’t think we’ll find out until he wins. And by then it will be too late.”

“Either way,” Gelu finally continued, “it seems we have no choice but to track them down. And to do that, we’re going to have to figure out where the Vorox found their weapons.”

“What about Zaria and Chiara?”

“We’ll find them soon enough. But we have a very limited window to get the information we need and leave before Kabrua realizes we’ve gone to the last place he’d think to look. Because if I’m right, then the answer to our quest lies…”

He pointed.

“…in city of the Vorox.”

✴        ✴        ✴

The art of falling was a painful discipline to master, as Chiara had discovered the hard way.

As she fell from her vantage point on the ravine’s edge, she had spilled out onto a rock edifice and scuffed her armor. As she fell, the ground crumbled open beneath her. Before she knew it, she’d been swallowed by a deep, winding tunnel. Tumbling and sliding out of control, she was powerless to slow her descent.

For what felt like an eternity, Chiara fell and shouted, although dimly she realized nobody could hear her cries. When a light appeared in front of her, her momentum propelled her into it. And before she could stop, her head slammed into something hard, her thoughts driven from her by the force of the blow.

As she struggled to rally herself, she became aware of a thick, rumbling female voice above and below her.

“Lightning,” it said. “So wild. So untempered. So untamed. It forks across the sky, smashes through trees, metal, and anything else in its path. None can predict where it will strike, no one can foretell where it will go, but with lightning, there will always be one unchanging certainty.”

Chiara struggled to push herself onto her back, but she was too far gone. As the world spun away around her, the voice smiled.

“It comes to earth.”