It appears that I’m back on writing track, for the time being. We’ll see.
-----------------------------
Chapter 13
-----------------------------
I recognized the voice immediately: it was Kopaka.
“Toa Gali?” Hahli asked. “Sorry, she’s not here.”
“I was informed that she is here.”
“She’s not.”
“Reliably informed,” Kopaka added.
I entered the hallway only to see Hahli still holding her ground at the door, not stepping aside to let the cloaked figure in front of her in. Rather than interfere, I held myself back and mostly out of view. I was curious: why did Hahli keep saying Gali wasn’t here? And for that matter, what did Kopaka do if he didn’t know I was there?
“Your source is wrong. Sorry, but please go,” Hahli said impatiently.
“I highly doubt that.”
“What’s going on out there?” Macku called from the kitchen. “Shut the door! It’ll get cold in here!”
“Gali is here, I know it,” Kopaka continued.
“Look,” Hahli said, exasperated, “I told you she’s not! Who even told you she is?”
“I was told by Toa Tahu.”
“Oh… you know Tahu?” Hahli was a bit perplexed. “Couldn’t he come himself?”
“I am not here in his name.”
“Well who are you, then, to come here looking for Gali?”
“A friend. Former friend, perhaps.”
“Well, you’re going to have to do better than that before I let you in,” Hahli asserted. The cloaked Toa turned left and right, looking down the street presumably to see if anyone was there to recognize him.
Macku appeared from the kitchen wearing an apron, gloves, and holding what I could only assume was the carapace of a frozen hahnah crab. “Who is it, Hahli?” she asked. Then she noticed the cloaked figure standing in front of the door. “Well, who’s that, then? And why is the door still open?”
Apparently satisfied that he wasn’t getting any undue attention, the figure pulled back the hood of his cloak, revealing himself as Kopaka, Toa Nuva of Ice. Hahli was staggered. Macku all but dropped the crab.
“May I enter now?” Kopaka asked dryly.
“K-Kopaka? You’re alive!?” Hahli couldn’t believe it.
“I think that is obvious, and I would like to come in.” Kopaka said. Dumbfounded, Hahli stepped aside. Kopaka entered, after which she closed the door behind him. He spotted the Ga-Matoran down the hallway and gave an acknowledging nod. “Hello, Macku…” after which he turned back to the Toa on his left. “…and Hahli.” He eyed the Toa of Water head to toe. “You appear to have… changed somewhat,” he said with a hint of disapproval in his voice.
“Uhm… long story,” Hahli explained. “Where’ve you been, though?”
“Not your concern,” Kopaka said. “I came to see Gali.”
“Right…” Hahli clearly wasn’t all that thrilled about it. She sighed: “Well, if you have to… follow me.” She led the way down the hallway; I made sure to keep a wall between me and Kopaka, though in retrospect his default mask power made that rather pointless. Hahli led Kopaka to the stairwell at the end of the hallway, where they descended to the basement below.
“Who would’ve thought…” Macku mumbled. Then she spotted me. “You know anything about this?”
“He’s the friend was talking about earlier,” I replied.
“You’re his friend? Sorry if I find that a little hard to believe…”
“Well, I stuck around him for a while, and he appears to tolerate me.”
“Well, that’s about as close as it ever got with him,” Macku acknowledged. “You better go see what’s going on down there.”
I nodded and started down the stairs, using my Volitak to try not to make any noise as I did so. I found Kopaka and Lis standing in front of a door in the basement hallway.
“She’s in here,” Hahli said glumly.
“Thank you,” Kopaka turned to open the door, but Hahli put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“Look, at least let me know why you need to see her so badly,” she asked. “I know it’s none of my business, but I can’t just let you walk in there for nothing.” Kopaka sighed, then pulled his cloak aside enough to reveal his right leg, visibly shocking Hahli with its mangled appearance.
“I need that fixed,” he explained.
“Okay… that’s fine,” Hahli continued, “but just so you know, she’s not doing well. It’s… it’s been downhill ever since all of you broke up, and I tried… we all tried to help her, but she’s lost that drive she had… I’m just not sure if she’ll care anymore.”
“She will.”
“I hope so, but please don’t… please don’t go all Kopaka about her condition, okay? She’s broken enough already.”
Kopaka nodded. Hahli let go and stepped aside, after which he opened the door. Some indistinct noise that I concluded had to be some kind of telescreen broadcast emanated from the room. After Kopaka was out of sight, I approached the doorway. Hahli noticed and was about to say something, but I quickly planted the message in her head “don’t worry, I know him, and I’d like to see how this goes.” Apparently aware that telepathy was among the powers of Toa of Psionics, Hahli didn’t question. Instead, she moved past me waited by the stairs, leaning against the wall. I watched events unfold through the doorway.
The room was large and quite dark, only lit by a dim lamp on a side table and a small, early model telescreen on another table tuned to some Agori drama. Facing the telescreen and with its back to the doorway was an old, dilapidated couch; it, the tables, and the telescreen comprised all the furniture in the room. Trash was strewn about the place; old snack food bags, wrappers, dishes… I recognized two axe-like weapons lying in a pile of assorted rubbish in a corner. This place was worse than Tahu’s…
Gali was on the couch, watching the telescreen, but I could only see the back of her head at this point. Kopaka slowly made his way across the room; much to my surprise, he dropped the cloak about halfway there, then stopped and waited for a few seconds like he was expecting Gali to notice him. But nothing happened. He hesitantly cleared his throat to get her attention, but got no response; the Toa of Water was apparently very oblivious, but what confused me was how slowly and hesitantly he was going about this, what should have been the end of his journey.
Finally, he stepped forward again and awkwardly made his way around the right side of the couch, avoiding looking at Gali directly. When he reached a spot that that should have been roughly within her peripheral vision, he stopped and stood there, just looking ahead at the wall. He was still trying to get Gali to notice him passively… I focused in on his mind, trying to get some idea of what was taking him so long, and to my great surprise, I got one extremely powerful emotion: fear. Terrible, paralyzing fear. It explained his actions, but what did he have to be afraid of? Whatever it was, he really was forcing himself through this. Meanwhile, when I focused on Gali’s mind, it was as though there was almost nothing there; no activity, no thought, no emotion… she was all but shut down; not even dreaming.
After a minute, apparently tired of waiting, Kopaka finally turned to look at Gali for the first time in eight thousand years… and just about did a double take.
“G-Gali!?” Suddenly, it was like there wasn’t a shred of that stoic Toa of Ice left. He was floored, staggered, stunned… His jaw would have hit the floor if that had been physically possible, but at last he got Gali’s attention.
“What…” She slowly turned her head. At the sight of her brother, I could just see the Toa of Water’s eyes widen. “K-Kopaka? I-is that you?” There was something odd about her voice; it was… pressured, breathless. “Am I… Am I seeing things? Is that really you?” Kopaka barely nodded; his mouth was agape and he didn’t even blink. For a couple of seconds, neither Toa really seemed to believe what they were looking at. Then Gali noticed the state Kopaka was in, and almost immediately I felt a jolt of concern from her as her mind seemed to suddenly come alive. “By Mata Nui! What happened to you!?” she exclaimed.
“I might ask you the same thing…” Kopaka barely got it out, but Gali didn’t even notice. Instead, she got up… or attempted to. Somehow it was extremely difficult for her to get off that couch; while Kopaka watched with in utter disbelief, she rocked back and forth a few times, and eventually with a muffled grunt managed to rise to her feet. At that point, my jaw dropped as well; it was the first time I could see more of her than the back of her head, and I don’t want to be rude, but really the only word I could’ve used to describe her was ‘enormous.’ In light of the situation, I barely noticed it, but there was a jolt of regret, shame, and worry coming from Hahli’s direction. No prizes for guessing that this was the ‘condition’ that she’d been referring to.
Now standing in front of him, Gali got a much clearer image of Kopaka’s injuries, and for a moment she just stood there, shaking her head, trying to take it all in. Kopaka regathered his senses and eventually, with great difficulty, broke the silence.
“Gali… I… I need your help.” The words came out labored, forced… his voice sounded hoarse and broke. It was a grueling thing for him to say. I swear there were tears in his eyes; tears of frustration.
“What have you done to yourself…” Gali said, clearly not quite as concerned with Kopaka’s mental struggles. “That leg… how long has it been like that?” She moved in to get a closer look.
“It’s been some time…” Kopaka admitted, but he didn’t get further.
“And you’ve been walking on it? Like this!?” Before Kopaka could answer, she cut him off: “Never mind that. You’re coming with me. Right now.” With a surprising turn of speed, she headed for the door; I ducked back into the hallway. Gali appeared and turned to the stairs, shouting: “HAHLI!” Only then did she realize that her fellow Toa was right there, standing apparently flabbergasted at how things were progressing.
“Whatever we have in the medicine cabinet, get it to the guest room! Fast!” Gali ordered.
“Yes… yes of course. Yes!” Hahli dashed up the stairs, apparently… elated for some reason? Meanwhile, Gali headed back into the room. I quickly stepped forward to watch; she’d positioned herself next to Kopaka, who’d started across the room looking more old and broken than ever, and carefully tried to position her hands to support him.
“I will be fine,” Kopaka protested, trying with failing strength to push Gali aside, but the Toa of Water wouldn’t budge.
“No, you won’t,” she asserted.
“You can barely support yourself right now,” he argued with surprising edge to his voice. “I can manage.”
Gali winced at the statement for a moment; it was obvious what Kopaka was pointing out, and that it was a sore spot for her. But she didn’t give in. “Shut up,” she said. “Like it or not, I’m helping you.”
Surprisingly, Kopaka didn’t argue further. Really, I didn’t get why he’d argued in the first place; wasn’t his whole point in being here to get Gali’s help? I stepped away from the door again and watched them slowly make their way through the hallway, then up the stairs, where Gali made sure to stay behind Kopaka, just in case he’d fall. The day before, or even a few hours before, I would have thought that all but impossible, but from the way Kopaka moved now, it was obvious that he was struggling with that constant physical pain a lot more than before. Seeing Gali again, that shock… I think it tore down some of his mental barriers.
I followed a little ways behind the two old Toa, but broke off when they headed up to the second floor; clearly the guest room was upstairs, but I heard lots of commotion coming from a room next to the kitchen. It turned out to be a storage room, and the commotion consisted Hahli and Macku going through a bunch of shelves and cabinets, pulling out bottles and vials with a rather impressive variety of pills and potions.
“Wow… you guys have half a hospital in here,” I observed.
“Gali insisted on it, back when she cared,” Hahli explained. “Speaking of which, that’s the first time I’ve seen her off that couch in months.”
“Except to get some of my cooking,” Macku joked, though somehow it didn’t seem all that appropriate in the moment.
“Well, I for one am glad that at last she seems excited about something.” Hahli added.
“Not too sure it was excitement,” I voiced my concern. “You’re right that she cares for him, though.” Frankly, that was a relief; whether his reasoning was correct or not, Kopaka’s assertion that Gali would help had been correct. Why had it been so hard for him to ask for it, though?
“Whatever it is,” Hahli replied, “it’s got her moving. Frankly, that’s more than she’s done in years.”
“Really?” Okay, given her condition it wasn’t surprising, but how in the world had Gali gone from the passionate and energetic if emotionally shattered Toa that I’d seen in Kopaka’s memory to a listless, half-conscious mound that had practically been grafted to the couch?
“Yup. Coming through,” Hahli warned. She was carrying a basket filled with all manner of bottles. I stepped aside to let her through, then followed her up the stairs, where we headed down a hallway to an open door: the guest room. Inside, Kopaka was lying on the bed, fast asleep in spite of the fact that the light was on. Gali was sitting beside him, inspecting his leg more closely.
“Right, this is the first batch of what should still be good,” Hahli informed her.
“Please tell me there’s some pain killers in there,” Gali voiced her concern.
“I think so…” Hahli started pulling out some of the bottles and set them on a side table.
“Wow, asleep just like that?” I observed. “How’d you pull that off?”
“My brother’s exhausted,” Gali said. “I don’t think he’s slept in days. And who are you, by the way?”
“Lis,” I introduced myself. “I was with him, actually.”
“You brought him here?” She looked surprised.
“Not really… more like I followed him and he tolerated me,” I admitted. “Until this morning, when he just… left while I wasn’t looking.”
“Well, we’re lucky he made it,” Gali noted. “It’s not just his leg that’s in a poor state.”
“I’ve noticed that,” I said. “He’s got scars all over.”
“It’s not the scars, it’s what’s below,” Gali explained. “From the state he’s in… he had maybe a week left.”
--------------------------------------
#####author’s note: Well, we finally got to see Gali in this one (and with that arguably got the story back on track) and yes, I stuck with the ‘fat Gali’ idea for better or worse. I don’t know… I find something about the image amusing, especially Kopaka’s reaction when he first sees her again, but some rationalization will be required, and I’m sure it’ll show up soon.
I’ll post more chapters as I finish them. Enjoy!