Chapter Twenty-Three: A Ghost in the Machine

Hewkii was the first to awaken. Kongu was beside him, still unconscious. The Toa of Stone’s mind was full of questions — How? Where? Why?

The “how” was easily answered. Someone had attacked the two Toa Mahri from behind shortly after Jaller and his team left for the island of Artidax. Who that might have been, he had no idea, but he certainly looked forward to meeting them again.

“Where” was easy too — they were in the Coliseum in Metru Nui. He half-expected to wake up locked in a cell, but that wasn’t the case. He didn’t even see a guard out in the corridor. Their weapons were gone, but they still wore their masks.

“Why?” That was what he was about to find out. He gave Kongu a hard rap on the mask. “Wake up, stiff breeze!” he said. “We have work to do.”

“Hmmm? What?” said Kongu, shaking his head. “Where are we, and why are you hard-hitting me?”

Hewkii was already up and on his way out the door. “Let’s find out.”

He had gone only a few steps out into the corridor when a cloud of black, crystalline shards appeared in front of him. It rapidly coalesced into the form of the black-armored female who had first told the Mahri they had to go to Artidax. Hewkii suddenly thought he knew who the “who” had been.

“So,” he said. “It was all some kind of trick.”

“If you wish to think of it that way,” the figure replied. “I am Johmak, an agent of the Order of Mata Nui. For reasons of its own, the Order wanted the Toa Mahri out of Metru Nui for a time. And we wanted the Visorak taken off the board… hence our decision to kill two Gukko with one stone.”

Kongu was standing behind Hewkii now. “But you thought we would all quick-leave, didn’t you?”

Johmak nodded. “And when you didn’t, we had to step in. We couldn’t have you interfering.”

“With what?” asked Hewkii.

Johmak fragmented again and flew down to the end of the corridor. There was a window there that looked out over southern Metru Nui. As she reformed, she said, “With this!”

Hewkii and Kongu looked out at their city, stunned. It no longer looked like the place they had been living in for weeks. Now it resembled nothing so much as a fortress. High walls had been constructed on the coastline, with huge weapons mounted atop them. Weapon emplacements were also visible atop buildings. Streets leading to the Coliseum were barricaded, with Order of Mata Nui agents on guard. Matoran of all kinds were visible frantically building more defenses.

“What is going on here??” Hewkii exploded.

“The Makuta have suffered serious defeats, but they are not yet vanquished,” said Johmak. “We know we will need one final battle to destroy them, but we want to pick the spot. So we leaked word through servants on Stelt that we have turned the Great Furnace into a virus works to replicate the protosteel-eating virus that killed Makuta Kojol.”

“You made Metru Nui a target?” said Kongu, in disbelief.

“It already was a target,” said Johmak. “We just made it a better prepared one.”

“Where are the Turaga?” demanded Hewkii.

“The Turaga proved… uncooperative,” Johmak replied. “They have been… asked… to remain in the Coliseum for the duration.”

“And just what is it you will be asking us to do?” asked Kongu.

“Nothing,” said Johmak. “Nothing at all. Stay out of our way. Your interference may well get Order agents killed… not to mention yourselves.”

With that, Johmak turned back into a cloud of crystal and floated out the open window. Hewkii watched her go, his anger building with every moment.

“Nobody picks a fight using my city, then tells me to stay out of it,” the Toa of Stone growled. “Nobody!”

✴        ✴        ✴

Makuta Miserix and the six Toa Hagah turned as one to see figures emerging from the dimensional portal. They were ready for anything, except perhaps for what they saw.

Toa Helryx emerged first, followed by Keetongu. The portal began to shrink behind them, then suddenly widened again to admit two more figures. The Hagah recognized neither one, but it was obvious that Helryx did.

“Axonn! What are you doing here? And… what has happened to Brutaka?”

Axonn explained rapidly how he and Brutaka had tracked down the pool where the Makuta species was created, only to be attacked by it. Brutaka had been changed by it somehow and insisted that they come here immediately — wherever “here” might be. He had used his Mask of Dimensional Gates to make the journey.

“Then… was it that which opened a gate allowing us to escape where we were?” wondered Helryx.

“No,” answered Brutaka, in a voice like thunder. “There is another Olmak… and it has been misused… and worse. It may well threaten us all.”

“It’s going to have to wait in line,” said Toa Iruini. “Listen, we all came down here looking for Makuta Teridax, on your instructions. Then we were told it was full of traps and a ‘place of death.’ Well, so far, I see no Teridax, I’ve run into one pretty good trap, and nobody’s died. When do things start happening?”

A bolt of energy shot out from a bank of machinery nearby. It struck Brutaka, shattering his mask to pieces.

“You had to ask,” Bomonga grumbled to Iruini.

“My apologies for the abrupt greeting,” said the voice of Teridax. It was strangely soft, and seemed to be coming from all around. “But I couldn’t have Brutaka helping you to leave prematurely. Not when we have so much to discuss.”

“Makuta!” said Helryx. “I know what you’re planning. You won’t get away with it.”

“You know?” Teridax repeated, amused. “If you knew, you would be fleeing in panic, Toa. No, you suspect… just as Zaktan does. Or perhaps he does more than that?”

A loud hum filled the room. A moment later, both Zaktan and the water tank in which he dwelled exploded.

“I suppose now we will never know,” said Teridax. “Now what shall we talk about? The economy of Stelt? The latest akilini scores? The efforts to turn Metru Nui into an armed camp? No, I know — let’s discuss the end of your universe as you have known it.”

✴        ✴        ✴

Turaga Vakama walked slowly through the corridors of the Coliseum. It had been his workplace since his return to the city of Metru Nui. Now it was his home as well, along with that of all the other Turaga. Much had changed in the city in recent days, not all of it good. Despite his confinement, he had been able to pick up snatches of information here and there. The fortunes of war had evidently turned against the Brotherhood of Makuta. Numerous Makuta-held islands had fallen, including, rumor had it, Destral itself. It was almost too much to hope for — perhaps the Great Spirit would awaken to find his arch-enemies vanquished for good.

He passed his chamber and headed down a flight of stairs to a secure room. Here were kept weapons, memorials to the Toa Mangai, and one very important Kanohi mask. Although Vakama knew that it was one of the safest spots in the city, he still checked on it every day. If the contents of that room were to fall into the wrong hands… he didn’t even want to think about it.

He was halfway down the stairs when he heard the crash. He raced down to find a half a dozen, heavily armed Ta-Matoran, scattered like leaves in a windstorm. The door to the chamber had crumpled with age, and stepping through it was a being Vakama had hoped to never see again.

A little over a thousand years ago, when he was still a Toa, Vakama had battled a being called Voporak. Surrounded by a field that aged anything it touched, Voporak seemed impossible to beat, and it took a Makuta to do it in the end. Voporak worked for the Dark Hunters and sought one thing in Metru Nui: the thing he now held in his great claw, the Kanohi Mask of Time.

Vakama froze. He wanted to attack, to avenge his fallen friends, but he knew that no attack of his would stop this creature. Voporak knew it too. He looked at Vakama with something like contempt. Then he shrugged and turned his back on the Turaga, walking away. Vakama followed.

A few minutes later, he watched Voporak walk out of a hole in the side of the Coliseum. A four-armed warrior wielding a multi-bladed axe bellowed at the sight of the thief and charged. Voporak reached out and grabbed his attacker. In a matter of seconds, the warrior aged tens of thousands of years before collapsing on the ground. Voporak kept going, and there was nothing, Vakama knew, that could hope to stop him.