Chapter Twenty-One: Team Reunion

From within the darkest chambers of the Coliseum, the sound of a hand striking a thick metal door echoed again and again, accompanied by angry exclamations of an increasingly vile nature.

“You had better watch out, you shadow-slime Rahkshi, you!” bellowed a particularly irate Turaga. “You aren’t just watch-guarding any old dissenters - you’re guarding true Toa-heroes! Older and age-wiser, maybe, but still far from the weakest trees in the forest!”

“Matau! Calm yourself,” said Nokama. “We need to wait and think, not strike out immediately.”

Onewa scoffed. “We may not be the Toa we once were, but we can’t just sit here, waiting for Makuta to run the universe into ruin.”

“And what would you propose we do? Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Whenua. “And nothing like it is likely to happen again.”

The Turaga turned to Vakama, but he shifted on the cell bench and held his head in his hands. “My visions show me nothing. Perhaps they vanished with the Great Spirit when Makuta exiled him.” He sighed. “We are helpless.”

“Well… that is not entirely true,” said Dume. As one, the other six Turaga turned to share his gaze. “There is one path left for us to follow… one prophecy left to fulfill. But the time has not yet come.”

He stepped forwards and placed a hand on Nuju’s shoulder. “Look to the stars, my brother. They will tell us when to act. Until then… we wait.”

✴        ✴        ✴

“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.