Mazeka: Chapter Five

For a moment, there was nothing. Not a muscle moved.

Then everything happened at once. The Shadow Takanuva on the ground leaped forward, and the ones lining the stasis tubes jumped down from their catwalks.

No sooner had this happened than Makuta lit up like a torch, exploding in a blinding array of lights. The Toa reeled, momentarily blinded, but the one bearing the Staff of Darkness held it aloft, unleashing a fog of shadow that balanced out the light.

“You will pay!” the leader howled. “Destroying Ta-Koro… killing Toa Lhikan, and who knows how many others… corrupting innocent Matoran… you must be crushed, Makuta! And we have the power to do it — with our shadow energy, we will snuff out your light!”

From the rear, the Shadow Toa held up their palms and unleashed a hailstorm of shadow bolts. At the same time, those toward the front charged forward for the lone Makuta. Teridax used his full dodge powers to avoid being hit by the treacherous shadow, but as he looked up, he saw his opponents barreling down on him.

“So this is the justice of the Toa?” Makuta snarled. “Attempting to shackle one Makuta with the crimes of another?” He smashed the earth, unleashing a tremor that caused some of the Toa to stumble and fall.

“I am thus far unimpressed.”

The onslaught of Toa collided with Makuta, who used his magnetic powers to send several flying backward into the ranged fighters. He then swung with his warhammer, taking out several more. Those that remained attempted to tackle the Makuta, but he touched a few with his powers of Peace and Sleep. This knocked them out like a light.

“Makuta!” Mazeka yelled.

From behind, something cracked against the back of Makuta’s head, unleashing a sharp pain into his cranium. Whirling, he realized that someone had hauled the table over, snuck behind, and had smashed it to pieces against his head. In a rage, he seized the Takanuva by the neck and began choking. But a shadow bolt from his back split open a hairline fracture in his armor.

Dropping the gagging Toa, he whirled and started to run forward, but the Toa on the ground had seized his legs, tripping him and sending him sprawling. As they rose, Makuta gazed into their eyes and saw… nothing. Just the primal, instinctive wrath of a savage. There was no strategy or plan, just sheer, brute force and unleashed rage.

Rolling onto his back, Makuta’s eyes crackled with energy before unleashing a devastating burst of laser vision. One of the Toa screamed in agony, clutching his eyes as he reeled backwards. Another had his armor sliced clean off, freezing as he took stock of himself. The rest of the Toa balked at the sight.

Hitting the floor with his fist, Makuta unleashed a devastating Gravity attack, flinging the nearby Toa hard upward, into the ceiling, then pulling them crashing down to earth again, knocking them out completely.

Across the room, the many other Takanuva that had been firing ranged attacks lowered their hands. Makuta stepped over the bodies of their fallen parallels.

“Toa! Stop this, now!” he shouted. “Stand down or I will cut you down. Do you not remember who you are?”

“We are what your kind made us!” the lead Takanuva replied savagely. “You formed us in the Great Cataclysm. You forged us in the Rahi Wars. And now we have become everything you could not be. The very thing Makuta aspired to — a Toa, praised and venerated by Matoran — but with a heart as warped and dark as your own.”

“Do not blame me, Toa. I am not responsible for what you have become.”

“Oh, but I can,” Takanuva laughed, “‘A turn to the left instead of the right? A wound received or avoided?’ Your path may have been different, but your name and your identity is the same, no matter the universe.”

The corrupted Toa pulled open a panel in the floor where the table had originally stood. “And yes, the Teridax of this universe allowed me to watch your travels during his short-lived reign. He even predicted that his counterpart would be easily convinced to journey here. For that reason, we stayed our army and waited for your arrival, only sending three Toa as bait. Your presence will complete my grand experiment.”

The Toa gestured at the chamber beneath the floor panel that had been removed. Makuta could barely make out a swarm of Shadow Leeches biting and snapping up toward the surface.

“Care to join me for a swim?”

With that, the second wave of Toa charged, now having learned from the mistakes of their precursors. When Teridax swung his warhammer again, they deftly dodged, and as the hammer began to slow, two of them caught it and yanked it away, their combined strength sending it clattering far behind. Unleashing a storm of shadow bolts, it was all Makuta could do to teleport away, and to avoid being hit by the manifest power.

For his part, Mazeka had been spotted, and about three Toa were converging on him. Leaping for the nearest one, he jumped and kicked. When the Toa caught his leg, he propelled himself upward, even as he kicked with the other leg. Backflipping into the air, he grabbed the arm of one that was swiping for him and used his momentum to swing him around. Even as he kicked the other Toa as he went, he landed on the back of the Toa he was swinging on and grasped the Toa in a rear choke. Deprived of air, the Toa collapsed, unconscious.

The Matoran loomed over the fallen forms of the Toa. Grasping his dagger from its sheath, he was about to kill them, before he decided it would be better to check on Makuta.

But to his shock, Makuta was buried under a mass of Toa, immobilized, and most of his own powers useless if he didn’t want to hurt himself as well.

“Run, Mazeka! I cannot use my full strength if you are here!” Makuta shouted.

“No, stay, Matoran,” the lead Takanuva smiled, strolling over to the heap. “Stay and we will show you that we do not need a Shadow Leech to turn your heart to darkness. After all, you are already halfway there.” He glanced at the mound. “Shove the Makuta of Light into the Shadow Leech vat.”

“No!” Mazeka shouted. Hurling himself across the room, he darted and dodged around the handful of shadow bolts hurled at him and reached Makuta’s warhammer. Although he was too small to lift it, he raised the handle and pushed into it like a shovel, charging directly for the mound. Seeing what was coming, some of the Toa on top shouted their surprise, attracting the attention of even more Toa.

That was all Makuta needed. With a mighty roar, he heaved himself to his feet, casting Toa in every direction. A well-directed blast of chain-lightning shocked many of them into submission, and a cyclone slammed the rest into the wall of stasis chambers.

Now only the leader remained. But as soon as they looked at him, they realized he was surrounded by a black nimbus of energy.

“He’s going nova!” Mazeka shouted.

“No choice,” Takanuva grunted.

“Get down, Mazeka!” Makuta barked. Concentrating with all his might, he summoned every last reserve of light energy he possessed, and then pushed himself further. A nova blast could very easily shatter the last ounces of stability the foundations held. If he failed to time his next move correctly, the Makuta of this world would be that much closer to extinction, and Matoran as well.

“I am Takauva!” shouted Takanuva. “Toa of… of…”

With that, he unleashed a devastating nova blast of unfettered shadow.

With a gasp, Makuta unleashed his own powers a fraction of a second later, letting loose a blast of raw light.

A towering blast of light and shadow built visibly against each other, filling each respective side of the room. At the climax of their build, the two gave into each other, conceding, illuminating the darkness and dimming the light. The room was filled with a spectacular grey before they managed to cancel each other out. The sheer strength of the energies unleashed shattered the stasis tubes, and blew the steel door back, off its hinges. But the foundations of Destral remained firm.

Feeling the handle of his warhammer fill his palm, Makuta seized it and hurled it at the Takanuva, knocking him into oblivion.

✴        ✴        ✴

Teridax and Mazeka loomed over the unconscious forms of the Shadow Toa. Although Mazeka was bruised and Makuta had suffered some fractures to his armor, they were too distracted to notice these as they took in their victory.

“Good,” the Matoran said, placing his dagger back in its sheath. “This task is finished.”

“Not quite,” Teridax said. Reaching over to Mazeka, he pulled the dagger back out again and placed it in the Matoran’s hands. “You must finish the job, Mazeka. Otherwise the mistakes of the Toa will repeat themselves.”

He rose to his full height.

“Kill the Toa.”

With a glance at Makuta, the Ko-Matoran’s hand tightened around the weapon, and he moved over to the fallen form of the lead Takanuva.