Interlude 4

Four years ago…

Mazeka seized Vultraz’s dagger and pulled hard, using its momentum against Vultraz and sending it plunging into the dirt beside him. With his opponent off-balance, he bucked up and threw Vultraz off of him. Realizing Mazeka was trying to pin him, Vultraz scrambled safely away.

“You’ve gotten better, but your mentor is dead,” he grunted. “He’s scattered in so many pieces across the peninsula last I checked. So who’s taken you in now?”

“The greatest enemy of the Makuta,” Mazeka leaped to his feet. “This is the fight we’ve been waiting for, Vultraz.”

He smiled.

“‘You keep getting in my way,’” the Ta-Matoran said silkily. “‘I can’t have that.’”

All around them, the waterfalls seemed to roar a little louder.

“And if this is one of your epic fables, then we’ve arrived at the end.”

✴        ✴        ✴

With one hand, Krakua covered the Av-Matoran’s face, and with the other he pinned her down. Vultraz’s companion had attempted to take a shortcut to where she’d been heading, but Krakua had been able to catch up and convince her to backtrack. The pair had found themselves in the ruined Kini, hidden behind the rustic Suva as the Shadow Matoran stalked around furiously.

The De-Matoran glanced at the Av-Matoran. She seemed to have calmed down, and was looking at him like she wanted to say something. Tentatively, he removed his hand.

“What’s going on? Who are you? And since when do Matoran have wings and claws?” she blurted out.

“I—hush,” he whispered. “I can hear him coming back around.”

✴        ✴        ✴

Vultraz moved first, feinting one strike before swiping with his daggers. Mazeka jumped back before spinning his dagger and making his own pass.

With skillful speed, the two exchanged blows. Both were extremely skilled, and equipped with far better training than they had ever had before. Yet where Mazeka’s calculated instinct had always served him well before, it was now replaced with searing anger and aggression. For once, Vultraz remained wary and defensive.

“You’ve been taught well,” Vultraz muttered. “But not by a Toa, it seems.”

“The days of the Toa are over.”

Vultraz’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds more like something I’d say.”

Mazeka stepped back, advanced, and lunged with his dagger, and Vultraz caught him. The pair shoved each other, attempting to topple the other to the ground. Grunting and groaning, neither could gain ground on the other. At last, Mazeka started to gain some ground, but Vultraz somehow found the strength to push him back.

Mazeka’s eyes narrowed, and with a snarl, he spun and sent the Ta-Matoran flying. This move hadn’t been altogether unexpected, however, and Vultraz did not go far.

Panting and aching, but conscious of neither, the two Matoran stared hard into each other’s eyes. Vultraz’s expression was hard and calculating; he wasn’t going to make a false move here. His life mattered far more than any Brotherhood assignment, and it meant failure here, he would take it.

For his part, Mazeka was certain his raw hatred was showing through, as months’ worth of wrath and vengeance were finally at hand. There was no doubt that if the Ko-Matoran won this fight, he would not spare Vultraz as the other had done for him.

Without warning, Vultraz leaped in Mazeka’s direction. Mazeka lunged forward himself, daggers flying. But the Shadow Matoran had sidestepped and evaded. The Order agent whirled, his blades flashing, ready to slice anything within range to ribbons.

But they sliced at thin air. Vultraz had disappeared.

“What?!”

Mazeka’s eyes darted across the Kini, scanning for any sign of life. There! A flash of movement just beyond a doorway.

The Ko-Matoran charged at full speed across the room, leaping through the frame and into the courtyard. Vultraz was sitting on a narrow, jet black aircraft. Spinning the skyfighter around to face Mazeka, he saluted.

“Until next time, old sport,” he smiled. Mazeka lunged forward, “NOOO!” but Vultraz whirled and glided off.

Mazeka stopped,

fell to his knees.

How long were they destined to fight like this?

Unwilling to accept defeat, the Ko-Matoran ran back into the courtyard, spotted a ruined tower, and scaled its staircase. Surely Vultraz would circle around to finish the job?

But it was to no avail. No sign as far as the eye could see.

Then a shout erupted from the fortress’s Kini nearby, and for a moment, Mazeka wondered if Vultraz had escaped to it. Bounding down from the tower, he raced inexorably for the entrance and scanned the interior.

Krakua and the Av-Matoran were surrounded by Shadow Leeches. The Brotherhood servant had smashed open a crystalline pod and had scattered them around the Matoran.

Upon hearing Mazeka behind him, the brute whirled and attempted to run, but the Ko-Matoran was faster. Tackling him to the ground, Mazeka kicked the Shadow Matoran’s weapon away from him.

In the corner, Krakua released his grip on the Av-Matoran and faced her directly.

“I can try and kill as many of the leeches as I can,” he said. “But when I do, you must take advantage of the distraction. I may fall here, but don’t turn back.”

“What’s your name?”

“Krakua.”

“Krakua, I will not let you sacrifice yourself for me,” the Av-Matoran declared, stepping away.

The De-Matoran rose, ignoring her. Her survival was far too important to leave to chance. If it meant he fell here, in this abandoned fortress, then so be it.

“Krakua!”

Krakua whirled, alarmed, just in time to see the Av-Matoran’s eyes flared to life. Beams of light energy erupted from her hands, slicing through the Shadow Leeches like a knife. Bursting into little balls of flame, the leeches withered and died.

“Wh-what…” the Av-Matoran gasped, staring at her hands as though they belonged to someone else. “But I’m just a Ce-Mator—I’ve never done anything like that before…”

Krakua shook his head in astonishment. “It’s… a long…”

But the Av-Matoran’s eyes slid up in their sockets. Like that, she fainted from the excitement and shock.

“Mazeka!” Krakua called. “You’ll never believe what she just—”

✴        ✴        ✴

The Ko-Matoran wasn’t listening to him. This Shadow Matoran may not have been Vultraz sprawled out before him, but today, that didn’t matter.

Justice would be served.