Chapter 14: Team Reunion

“Where are we going?” Chiara asked, not for the first time.

Kopaka kept his mask pointed straight ahead, peering into the thick fog hovering over the ocean. There was no sound but the hum of the engine and the spray of the sea.

Chiara sighed. She’d only been adventuring with Kopaka for a week or two, but she’d learned that he didn’t enjoy speaking unless it was absolutely necessary. Which was fine by her; unlike most of her tribe, she wasn’t one for mindless chatter and talking long into the night. She did, however, appreciate knowing where she was going and why. They’d been driving for hours now, and Kopaka had said nothing since he stepped into the skiff and set sail.

Chiara lay back in the skiff, resting her head on a seat and staring up into the foggy darkness. The stars were hidden from her; she could see only faint glimmers of light behind shifting clouds. She lay there for another few minutes, until something in the southern sky caught her attention. A bank of fog briefly parted to reveal a different light, not from the stars. This was a golden light, a beacon of sorts, shining bright above the dark and heavy fog. She barely saw it for more than a moment before a heavy wall of fog rolled in and swallowed it whole.

“You’re following that light,” Chiara said. “What for?”

“Quiet!” Kopaka murmured, his voice sharp. “Makuta’s servants could be anywhere. The less we talk, the better.”

Chiara frowned. He’d told her very little, but at least she knew something of what was going on. She lay back in the boat and watched the sky, waiting for another peek at that beacon.

After another few hours, she felt the engine’s hum die down as Kopaka piloted it into a cove. He drove to a secluded spot between two large boulders, then froze the water around the skiff, freezing it in place. Silently, he disembarked and offered his hand to Chiara. She took a deep breath and prepared for the rapid, dizzying sensation of the Kakama Nuva.

When the world stopped shaking around her, they were standing deep in an uncharted jungle, before a ruined stone that could have once been an altar. Chiara looked up - there was no fog here - to see the beacon shining directly above that altar. While she looked, Kopaka stepped forward, his hand hovering near his blade, and stood before the altar. Quietly, he spoke. What he said, Chiara could not make out… but she could certainly see the light around the altar shimmer, and a white and gold Toa appear, wearing a wide grin.

“Takanuva,” Kopaka said. “It’s good to see you. Where are the others?”

A brown blur zipped across the ground, and Kopaka dropped like a stone. As the blur faded, Chiara saw a brown-armored Toa hugging Kopaka tightly. “Brother! It’s been so long, I thought you might finally have gone off and become a hermit,” he cried in a booming voice.

The Toa of Ice attempted to look uncomfortable, but Chiara saw the hint of a smile behind his mask. “It’s good to see you, too, Pohatu.”

“Awfully touching, isn’t it, Onua?” said a tall, red-armored Toa, stepping into the clearing with a burly Toa of Earth by his side. Both were covered in battle scars. The Toa of Fire stepped forward and looked around, nodding slowly. “Four of the Toa Nuva and Takanuva, together again. Makuta won’t know what hit him.”

“Make that five Toa Nuva.” A sleek, powerful Toa of Water pushed through the branches, dripping seawater onto the undergrowth. The others seemed astonished by her presence. “Never fear,” she said calmly. “Metru Nui is in capable hands. I sensed my duty call me elsewhere.”

“Then all of us are present except Lewa,” said the Toa of Fire. “He was sent to aid Artakha, but both have vanished.” He looked downcast. “I only hope…”

“He’ll turn up eventually,” said Pohatu, letting Kopaka go and patting Tahu on the back. “And if not, well, I’m sure you can track him down, Onua!”

Onua chuckled. “I’ll give him a stern talk about his habit of wandering off.”

Chiara blinked slowly. Meeting one of the fabled Toa Nuva had been quite enough. Meeting five of them, and the prophesied Toa of Light? This was almost too much. She gave herself a quick shock to test that she was awake.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” said the Toa of Fire, and stepped over to her, offering a fist bump. “I am Tahu Nuva, spirit of fire. This is Pohatu, Onua, Gali, and Takanuva - and you’ve met Kopaka. Who are you, sister Toa?”

“Toa Chiara.” Anxiously, she touched her fist to his, forgetting to curb her elemental power. Tahu shuddered as a mild shock ran up his arm. “A Toa of Lightning, then?” he said, more to the group than to her. “I look forward to seeing that power used against Makuta’s beasts.”

“It’s an honor to fight with you, sir,” Chiara said haltingly. Kopaka gave her a small smile of encouragement.

“Well, then,” said Tahu, turning back to the assembled Toa Nuva. “Thank you for calling us here, Takanuva. It’s time for a new mission, one we can’t do alone. Makuta is moving his Rahkshi to the south - every last one of them. We don’t yet know why, but the Order has scouts tracking them as best they can. We need to trail them, learn their mission, and before they can manage it, we need to shut them down, hard. So we need help, and lots of it.”

“Trinuma is sending messages to every Toa known to the rebellion, asking them to meet us here,” said Takanuva. “We’re talking about an army of Toa - a gathering larger than anything since the Dark Hunter war. I’ll be channeling my power to keep this beacon lit, but Makuta’s doing his best to hide it. We might need some of us to meet up with new Toa as they come along.”

Gali smiled. “It seems you’ve finally learned the value of unity, brother.”

“We all have,” said Kopaka. “We’re in this together.”

“That’s right, bring it in!” said Pohatu, clapping his arms around Kopaka and Onua. He glanced over and gestured to Chiara. “You, too, sister.”

“Through unity, we will do our duty, and achieve our destiny,” said Tahu. “To beat this enemy, all Toa will need to fight as one. So let’s go out and get ready - ready to take this universe back from Makuta!”

Cheers echoed around the island. Far above, Takanuva’s beacon shimmered in the night, rising above an ever higher tide of shadow.

✴        ✴        ✴

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Within a deep and cold cavern, far beneath the wartorn surface of Zakaz, undying hatred seethed beneath dark, rippling waters. The Skakdi standing nearby saw nothing but an underground lake, but within that body of water moved the scattered remnants of a being long since broken beyond recognition.

Impossibly, unbelievably, and much to his chagrin, Zaktan was alive.

Dimly, vaguely, Zaktan sensed the nearby Skakdi’s energy. I was once like you, he hissed. I had limbs, and a body, and a face… but all of that is gone now.

He could still remember the echoes of the pain that Makuta had dealt him: the sonic waves that had ripped his body apart and would surely have killed him, if not for his sordid power. Instead of dying, he had been broken into smaller pieces yet. At first, he was merely molecules, strewn amidst the dust of the chamber. After a few days, he had been able to gather enough particles together to achieve a semblance of unity, but his control was tenuous. Even now, it took nearly all of his concentration just to keep his matter from drifting apart.

I am cursed to survive, Zaktan realized. No matter what misfortune or punishment befalls me, I will live. Even if something were to kill me now, I would somehow survive, in an even more wretched state. I am cursed… but is this truly a curse, or a blessing?

He had spent weeks in that chamber, gathering the strength to draw his disparate particles together - but that chamber was no ordinary room. It was a mind… the mind of Makuta, and the mind of this universe. Nestled within Makuta’s brain, Zaktan saw what he saw… thought what he thought… felt what he felt. He had waited, he had watched, and he had learned.

Zaktan did not recall how or when the idea had come to Makuta, only that it had. Hidden within the coded formulae and properties of protodermis was a tantalizing concept: a being more powerful than any other in history, formed by fusion in energized protodermis. Zaktan had watched as Makuta researched the destinies of his subjects, and he had seen his opportunity.

That the six Piraka were destined to fuse did not surprise Zaktan. In fact, it made sense of many things. It was no accident that we joined together under the Shadowed One, Zaktan mused, and it was not through luck alone that we survived our quest to Voya Nui. Destiny itself brought and kept us together… all for this day.

Through the rippling waters, Zaktan felt the Skakdi’s cheers. So, they have brought out the snakes, then. I almost pity them… poor little fools who thought they might have control of their own lives. But they never did. Only I will have control.

Zaktan willed his particles to rise from the lake. He knew what he must do. His destiny was to join with these fools to create a better whole, to enter a combination of different minds and become one. But destiny had overlooked one crucial, critical fact:

Zaktan had long since learned how to control a composite mind.

He rose from the lake and slithered through the air, far over the heads of the assembled Skakdi. In moments, I will have a body again… and power nearly unlimited…

Particles quivering with anticipation, Zaktan hovered over the vat of energized protodermis… and dove in.