Chapter Twelve

Marendar attacked first, spurring the stunned travelers into action. Charging and launching a spray of energy from his shoulder-mounted velocity cannon, he blasted the interior of the laboratory, sending its occupants scrambling for cover.

Chiara and Gelu were the first to recover. Exchanging glances, Chiara quickly took charge.

“I’ll stun him with my lightning,” she directed. “Restrain him.”

How? Gelu thought frantically. Nevertheless, he sprinted in the direction of Marendar, even as Chiara unleashed a barrage of lightning. It struck home, but their biomechanical attacker did not fall back as expected. Instead, he seemed bemused.

Raising his hand, the elemental attack appeared to transmute from lighting into raw elemental energy, which funneled into his body. With a buzz, his weapon appeared to energize back to life.

Gelu saw this all too late. As he neared the attacker, he skidded short, but Marendar had already noticed him. To his shock, the creature took one look at him and walked past, as if he didn’t even view Gelu as a threat.

“Hey!” Gelu snapped, bringing the flat of his sword down hard upon Marendar’s head with enough force to shatter a Glatorian helmet.

Marendar did not fall. Instead, he paused, turned, and pushed the Glatorian backward. Then he resumed marching toward the Toa.

“I could have had ice powers!” Gelu snapped.

Now it was Zaria’s turn to act, drawing on the metal around them and forming a solid cage around Marendar.

“We don’t want to fight you!” Orde shouted. “We’re merely explorers looking for answers.”

For a moment it seemed to work – the cage was silent. But then a spot in the metal began to glow brightly. The light elongated and rose, forming a curve, then a circle. The cage fell open with a clang as Marendar emerged, his weapon still glowing.

“You are Toa,” Marendar stated flatly. “Rogue elements that must be deactivated.”

Orde’s eyes widened. The Zyglak had once been described to him as ‘rogue elements.’

The Toa concentrated and sent his thoughts like a dagger to penetrate into their attacker’s mind. But far from breaking through, his mental attacks bounced off harmlessly. Worse still, the air around Marendar was ignited as his strength replenished yet again.

This isn’t working! Orde realized, panic setting in.

Zaria and Orde were fast at work, for as the Toa of Iron formed pillars beneath the strange gladiator machines in the arena, Orde was using telekinesis to hurl them at Marendar. Unaware of Orde’s role in their attack, the Great Beings’ experiments unleashed a spray of disks and wheels. As their attacks were elemental, Marendar could absorb those, but their assaults prevented him from seeing Orde’s projectiles as they were thrown.

As another gladiator bounced off Marendar’s armor, he roared and his velocity cannon flared to life. Forming a thick beam, he unleashed a blast of raw elemental power at his dizzying assailants, slicing through their armored forms. The downed robots started self-repairing, but not fast enough.

“I exist to end you, Toa,” Marendar growled. “You cannot stop my destiny.”

“And I’m guessing you can’t be convinced otherwise?” Orde muttered.

Marendar’s answer came in a beam from his cannon that sent the Toa scrambling for cover.

“How can we defeat him?” Chiara inhaled. “Our elements are useless.”

“Imagine having to defeat opponents without elemental powers,” Gelu grumbled.

“What about our Kanohi?” Zaria asked.

“Zaria, how could your mask — or Orde’s — possibly help in this situation?” Chiara snapped.

“Fair point,” Zaria muttered.

“Combine your powers!” Gelu shouted. “Like you did in the earth tribe’s valley.”

Orde, Chiara, and Zaria acted quickly. Orde coordinated his teammates as a metal bolt shot in the direction of Marendar. As the bolt hit home and lodged itself in Marendar’s armor, Chiara unleashed enough lightning to fry a biosaur.

Marendar seized the bolt just as the lightning struck him. His entire form shook with the blast, trembling with the new energy. Yanking the rod from his armor, it dissolved in his hands.

Chiara cursed.

A new flurry of fighting erupted as the Toa fought for their very lives. Gelu contributed to the best of his ability, recognizing that although Marendar was not targeting him, he would still fight to defend his newfound companions. For their part, the Toa fought with coordination and unity like they had never known before, not letting up lest one of their number fall.

“Wait!” Chiara shouted. “Orde! Think! What other beings do you know who are immune to elemental attacks!”

Orde skidded to a stop.

“Of course!” he inhaled. He looked at Marendar. “Of course…”

“Only this time,” Chiara added hastily, “Please pull instead of push.”

Orde whirled and darted for the laboratory. Rushing in, he found something he could use – a long, hooded brown cloak and some armor pieces – and darted back outside. As Zaria and Chiara fought to hold Marendar off, he pulled Gelu aside.

“You have to trust me, Gelu,” he urged. “I cannot project illusions into his head, so I have to do the next best thing.”

Gelu eyed him quizzically. “Which is?”

Orde threw the cloak over Gelu’s shoulders and latched on the armor. “I have to build an illusion.”

As the ice Glatorian wrapped himself in the cloak, Orde almost shuddered at the sight. With the hood drawn over his face, Gelu was almost the spitting image of a Great Being from so long ago. It’s uncanny, Orde thought. Were the Great Beings members of Gelu’s species?

Zaria shouted in pain as Marendar wrenched his staff from his hands. As he picked Zaria up by the throat and readied the killing blow. Orde sent his mind cascading into Gelu’s. The ice Glatorian threw himself forward and shouted, “Wait!”

Marendar paused. Even Gelu was taken aback. Not only was Orde speaking through him, but the Toa was causing him to do a vocal impression of a voice Gelu had never heard before.

It wasn’t perfect, Orde knew. But as far as his powerful mind could remember his dream-like meeting with them, and as far as Gelu could physically recreate it, this was the voice of a Great Being.

Marendar stopped.

“What is this?” he muttered. Zaria clawed at his hand, still unable to escape his grip.

“Let him go, Marendar.”

“You were my creator this whole time?” their opponent responded warily. “Why did you fight me? Why did you show me who you were sooner?”

“The time was not yet right. Stop this destruction,” Gelu said as Orde thought quickly. What did I tell the Zyglak? “You have wreaked havoc in the world. But you have a flawed directive—”

To the side, Chiara could only look on at this bizarre spectacle. Is it working?

Marendar looked suspicious, but he seemed tentatively willing to engage with the illusion. “My directive is what you ordained for me,” he murmured softly. “How can you now tell me it’s false?”

“Leave this place,” Gelu said. “And leave these people alone. Your role is over.”

In a rage, Marendar hurled Zaria against the wall, who slumped, stunned. The titanic attacker advanced on the ‘Great Being,’ who took a step back.

“Why would you create me only to discard me?”

Orde winced. History was repeating itself. He had lived a lifetime in the shadow of his mistake, one he stood to make again if he could not figure out how to convince Marendar to stand down. But the greatest challenge Orde had ever faced was convincing people of something without having already seen their psyche.

“I would not discard you,” Gelu urged. “Your new purpose is this: live in harmony with these people.”

“There is no harmony to be found. I know how dangerous a Toa can be,” Marendar objected. “One was terrorizing Agori. I stopped her. The three Toa here have left a trail of destruction across the Vorox domain, the iron lands, and the earth realm. They are destroyers, and you are on their side.”

Marendar twisted and unleashed a powerful blast from his cannon that landed square in Orde’s chest, throwing him into the wall, stunning him. Gelu’s eyes widened — without Orde’s ventriloquism, he couldn’t hope to imitate this Great Being.

“They — they aren’t who you think. They come in peace—”

“So you are with them,” Marendar’s eyes narrowed. “But you are no Great Being.”

“He is indeed.”

The voice came from above them. Someone else was descending on the elevating platform from far above. Like Gelu, he wore a large brown cloak, only this one was far more worn and torn. Only the lower half of his face was visible upon which was a faint smile.

“Do you not remember him?” the newcomer continued, playing along. “He was there on the day of your creation.”

“Why does he side with them then?” Marendar asked. “My mission is to remove these threats. To kill those who threaten the Agori. To bring salvation.”

“We gave you that name. Salvation is more than just death.”

“Then I have killed for nothing?” Marendar scoffed.

“What happens when all the Toa are dead?” Gelu asked. He sighed “Toa, who… yes, are responsible for the current peace and order. When you have wiped out their race — When the natives of Spherus Magna are threatened again, will you wipe out that species as well? Where does that end?”

“It’s not about what I want. It is my duty—”

“To understand your duty, you must understand unity,” said the newcomer. “Only then can you achieve your destiny.”

The menacing being appeared visibly upset. He stared hard at Gelu, then back at the newcomer. Orde looked on, wondering if his own efforts had been successful. Although Gelu’s “illusion” had largely been broken, it still should have found its mark — not in his mind, but his heart.

And with the help of the newcomer, it seemed to be working.

Marendar strode forward and seized Gelu by the cloak, pulling his face within inches of the former’s own. Grief was welling in his eyes, and his face was wracked with emotions. As quickly as he had come, he let Gelu go and started off, wandering deep into one of the halls of the Spirit Forge until he could no longer be seen or heard.

The four travelers stood completely still. As several minutes passed and any sign of their attacker was gone, Chiara exhaled.

“It worked,” she breathed. “But did you make things worse or better?”

“It worked,” Zaria agreed. “That’s all that matters for now. Let’s get out of here before he changes his mind.”

“He said he was designed to target Toa,” Orde mused, recalling what he had seen in Kabrua’s mind. “But what Great Beings would build something that wants the Toa dead?”

“I built him.”

The newcomer had stepped off the platform and was striding toward them, with a countenance and an aura far greater than anything Orde and Gelu could conjure. With a cursory glance around the chamber, the platform landed and he stepped off. The tall stranger, they now saw, was a grizzled jungle tribe warrior. His face was gaunt and haggard, with the scars of burns covering his right side. His face was stern and his eyes were aloof. At the sight of the travelers, he gave a wry smile.

“I cared so deeply about life on this planet that I feared its destruction. I did not realize that Marendar’s creation would threaten beings that themselves lived.”

The figure stopped.

“My name is Angonce.”