Chapter 17: Vengeance

The second siege of Metru Nui was well under way. Ehlek’s Rahi had devastated Makuta’s fleet, and now the Barraki’s warships drew near the coast of the island city. Pridak looked ahead at the massive wall around Metru Nui, thousands of meters high, and bristling with Rahkshi, Exo-Toa, and Visorak. This will be a challenge… but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With a final burst of speed, Pridak’s flagship evaded the city’s plasma cannons and landed on the beach. Below, the hold doors opened and his troops rushed out, screaming their various battle cries, to meet Makuta’s ground troops. Pridak drew his blades and leapt from the bow, landing at the head of his troops. “Attack!”

From his flagship several leagues behind, Kalmah cursed Pridak’s name. As usual, Pridak had charged ahead of the other Barraki, and now his legions were left to face the full might of Makuta’s ground forces on their own. Not to mention, Makuta’s forces had successfully slain several of Ehlek’s Rahi, meaning that the rest of the fleet was facing increased resistance from Makuta’s sea and air troops, and couldn’t spare their artillery to aid Pridak. If the warships didn’t push through, Pridak’s forces would be trapped between attackers on two fronts.

Astride a prehistoric sea serpent, Ehlek watched the tentacled whale sink below the waves, staining the water with blood. He spat a sailor’s curse and directed the surviving creatures to pull back and regroup. With a flare, he gave the second signal, and members of his aquatic race immediately boarded Makuta’s remaining ships, slicing through dozens of Rahkshi with their talons. Then he steered the serpent to the west, urging the Rahi to follow and attack the city wall. The others can handle Makuta’s troops, he grumbled. I have a score to settle with the Matoran.

Mantax watched the battle unfold before him. This is a disaster. Pridak has trapped himself on the coast, Kalmah is studying his charts rather than reinforcing him, and Ehlek has decided this is a good time for a Matoran hunt. Idiots, the lot of them. It would take a miracle to win this battle now.

Just as he had finished the thought, he noticed a disturbance on the city wall. Several of Makuta’s troops had either jumped or been thrown from the wall, and now it seemed like the wall itself was moving. He focused his telescope on the scene and watched carefully. What new attack is this?

Kalmah looked up from his tactical diagrams. Are those… cracks… in the wall?

“Halt!” Ehlek bid his serpent, and turned his attention to the middle wall. From his vantage point, he could see figures moving behind the wall - one of them over twenty feet tall, and still growing.

Pridak drew his sword out of a squirming Rahkshi and slashed through an approaching Exo-Toa. Up ahead, he could see the wall beginning to shake and crumble. Shards of earth and stone toppled from the wall, crushing Exo-Toa and Rahkshi beneath their weight. “Forward!” he cried. “The Great Spirit smiles on us!”

With a thunderous crash, the wall came tumbling down, burying hundreds of Makuta’s troops. The Barraki’s soldiers cheered and pushed through Makuta’s forces with renewed vigor. Climbing over the rubble of the wall, six armored figures surveyed the battle.

“It’s as I foresaw,” Gaaki murmured. “‘In the last battle, the Toa will throw open the gates of Metru Nui to its rescuers.’ Though, these certainly aren’t the rescuers I was expecting.”

“But they’re the rescuers we have,” Bomonga boomed from above, and raised his seismic spear high into the stormy skies. “Toa Hagah - attack!”

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“Are you sure this is the place?” asked the Shadowed One.

“As sure as I can be of anything,” Lariska snapped. She was doing her best to keep it together, to resist the madness clawing at her mind, but he could see her eyes jumping back and forth at things that were not there, and her fingers shuddering where her daggers used to be.

“I see madness has not improved your wit,” he muttered, and turned to the room ahead of them. Lariska had led him to a forgotten island, into a ruin built by no known civilization. Deep beneath the surface, Sentrakh had torn open a pair of stone doors to reveal a small chamber, with what appeared to be a well in its center.

“The mouth of Makuta,” Lariska hissed. “Can’t you hear him whispering? He’s right behind you… all around us… above and below, swallowing us whole.”

The Shadowed One ignored her and peered into the well. There was no water to be seen, only a long, dark shaft, reaching deep into the earth. He picked off a chunk of stone and dropped it into the shaft, and never heard it land.

“This is where he came, the shadow-spawn, slithering into the crevices,” said Lariska. When she looked at the Shadowed One, she saw Makuta, too, standing in the same body. Briefly, the walls flashed red and squirmed, while voices shuddered in the back of her mind. “This is where he breathed poison into the world and struck down Mata Nui.”

“And so, history repeats itself,” said the Shadowed One. “Isn’t the irony delicious - that Makuta should be felled by the same weapon he used against his brother?”

He opened Kojol’s box and drew out a glass vial. “This is a momentous occasion, Lariska. Today, I strike down my greatest enemy… the last obstacle to my conquest. My only regret is that he will never see it coming.”

Lariska grabbed his arm. “You must be more insane than I am. How many times do I have to explain it? The Great Spirit is our world. You're nothing, Shadowed One, neither am I - we're insects, less than insects, next to him. Makuta struck him down to replace him, but you would kill him and leave nothing in his place. Without a Great Spirit, our world will die a long, cold death, and it will be your fault!”

Crystal formed over Lariska’s arm. With a burst of strength, the Shadowed One broke her grip and struck her with his staff, knocking her to the floor. “I have lived a long, cold life, Lariska. I will create a new world, one of shadows and ice, where Dark Hunters thrive.” He grinned. “You should be thanking me!”

His fingers trembled; then he took a deep breath and let the vial go. It plunged down, down, into the darkness of the shaft, turning end over end, until it vanished from sight. They never heard it shatter.

“Almost disappointing, really,” said the Shadowed One. He turned to go - and then Lariska slammed into him, wrestling him to the ground with raving madness in her eyes and crystal shards slaking from her armor.

“I’m not letting you win,” she hissed. “You don’t deserve to, not after everything you’ve done to me!”

“Calm yourself,” he said, struggling against her, but she was younger and stronger. “You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret, Lariska.”

“I could say the same to you!” Lariska snarled. “You put these images in my mind… you’ve tortured… mutilated me, taken things from me… humiliated me, nearly broken me. But you’ve used me for the last time!” Her mechanical fingers dug into his armor. “I kept myself from killing you every day, waiting for the right time, because it wasn’t logical or wise to do it. But now this world is going to end, by your own hand. Makuta will die, and we’ll all die with him. And all that logic and wisdom doesn’t matter in the end, when I could just kill you now and be done with it… finally be done with you, and everything else, forever.” Lariska barked a laugh as she grabbed his throat, ready to tear it out. “And I don’t need a dagger to kill you!”

The Shadowed One choked out a signal. Four arms grabbed Lariska and slammed her into the wall, instantly knocking her unconscious. Sentrakh held her there, ready to slam again, until the Shadowed One rose and dismissed him. His bodyguard dropped her limp body to the ground.

The Shadowed One stared down at Lariska and frowned. “That is the danger with my rhotuka power, of course,” he muttered to himself. “You never know exactly how they’ll respond.”

He rubbed the scratch marks she’d left on him. “Standard procedure,” he bid Sentrakh. “Wipe her memory of these events, and place her in an illusion that explains what ‘really’ happened.” He turned to go, an eager gleam in his eyes. “The final blow has already been struck. Now we need only wait for Makuta to slumber, and then the universe will be mine.”

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Velika stood in the Chamber of Life. Without the mask on its pedestal, the chamber felt empty; rather than a final challenge, it was merely a vast, volcanic cavern. Here and there, Rahi bats fluttered through the smoke. Velika strolled through the chamber and up to the empty pedestal, where he knelt down… and wrenched open a concealed panel, containing an ancient, rusted switch.

With the switch pulled, the pedestal shuddered into motion, rotating as it rose, revealing a spiral staircase. Below was a vast expanse of gloom. Velika smiled, and descended.

At the bottom, the darkness was broken only by the dim glow of several consoles. Velika spoke a single word, and columns of light flared into existence, illuminating the entire chamber. In the center of the floor was a huge, metallic seal, with the emblem of the Great Beings burned into it. Gathered all around were machines and consoles, blinking with readings and energy signatures. Massive tubes and wires snaked from the machinery down long, dark tunnels in the stone, heading to every corner of the universe. Carved into the wall was the name of this place: KARDA NUI CONTROL VALVE.

Velika moved over to a video screen and examined it. The Energy Storms were hard at work; in fact, their energy was being channeled at an alarmingly high rate. He inspected the universal systems. Makuta was taking heavy damage from an outside source, and his weapons systems were running at full capacity.

The movement of a single pebble can bring down a storm of rock.

Velika unlocked the master switch for the chamber’s power, and shut it off.

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The loss of his Rahkshi staggered Makuta’s mind, even as something sapped the last of his strength. He felt suddenly lethargic. As he stepped back, reeling from the blow, he turned his attention inside. Metru Nui was vacant, and the last of its power was dwindling. Across the various lands of his empire, his subjects were fighting back, disrupting his systems. Somewhere near Karda Nui, he felt a key power conduit shut down from the inside. Dread rippled through his mind, and Makuta realized he was dying.

He looked outside. Mata Nui towered over him, but his eyes were not focused on the Makuta robot; they were looking up. Too late, Makuta saw his doom bearing down on him.

Impact.