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Chapter 29
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“You’ve heard of Mata Nui, right?” Lerome asked.
“Yeah, of course,” I nodded… he had no idea that I’d seen bits and fragments of the legendary island itself.
“Well, there were these evil rahi attacking the Matoran there,” the Toa of Air continued, “along with these… the bug things…” he looked to Kirall, who shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she said nonchalantly.
“Bohrok,” Jahlpu reminded Lerome.
“Right, Bohrok,” the latter continued. “The rahi and the Bohrok were trying to destroy the island and everyone on it, but Toa Lewa fought them off!”
“With the other Toa Nuva, I’m sure,” I noted.
“Of course,” Lerome admitted, “but he did a lot of it. They even faced the Makuta there once, and they weren’t even the Toa Nuva yet!”
“That was a pretty sweet upgrade,” Kirall acknowledged.
“Yeah, so, after fighting the Makuta, they became Toa Nuva,” Lerome continued, “but get this: Makuta wasn’t gone! He came back, and they destroyed him again, with Takanuva!”
“That’s impressive…” I noted, vaguely remembering parts of the story from what bits and pieces I’d seen in memory.
“Not only that,” the Toa of Air pointed out, “but did you know Takanuva wasn’t even a Toa before that fight?”
“Really?” Kirall asked, confused. “I thought that happened with the serpent things.”
“Well, technically, yeah,” Lerome shrugged, “but up until then, Takanuva was just a Matoran, and he went on this whole journey across Mata Nui to figure out how to become Takanuva. Guess who guided him? Toa Lewa!”
“Oh, right…” Kirall recalled.
“Really?” I questioned. “Just Lewa? The whole way through?”
“Yup,” Lerome said proudly. “Of course, the fact that he could fly helped out a lot.”
“Fair enough…” I agreed. “So, what happened after that?”
“Well, he met this weird monster thing called Tren Krom,” Lerome said, looking up as though trying to remember something. “And… uhm, what was that other place?”
“Karzahni,” Jahlpu helped.
“Oh, right!” Lerome exclaimed. “They fought another Makuta there! That’s what it was!”
“I thought it was the same one as before,” Kirall interrupted.
“Hmm… could be…” Lerome didn’t seem sure. I sighed; I knew exactly which Makuta the Toa Nuva’d faced in that hellish place, and no, he wasn’t the same one as on Mata Nui.
“Different,” Jahlpu concluded.
“They looked similar, though,” Kirall argued, “in those drawings they made of the fights.”
“Those were made years later,” Jahlpu countered, “and the two Makuta did wear the same mask.”
“Oh, right…” Kirall nodded, but the expression on her face was far from certain.
“Anyways, not important,” Lerome dismissed the argument. “So, after all that went down, Lewa went to Karda Nui, and fought more Makuta there…”
“Okay, okay…” I interrupted him. “I get the history parts.”
“Lots of Makuta, lots of fighting, lots of stuff no one remembers,” Kirall summed it up bluntly.
“Yeah, well… What about after the Reformation? What did Lewa do, then?” I wondered.
“Oh, that’s the best part!” Lerome continued excitedly. “Get this: Lewa wouldn’t stop. He wanted adventure, right?”
“Right…” I nodded.
“Well, after the planet was fixed, guess what he did?”
“Uhm… look for adventure?”
“Exactly! He goes off and explores the great wilderness of Bota Magna!”
“The one with the dinosaurs,” Kirall clarified.
“Yeah, I know,” I said towards her, somewhat snidely to indicate my growing displeasure at her constant interruptions.
“Anyways,” Lerome continued, “He goes out there, right? On these big exploration trips, gone for a few weeks at a time, and then he comes back with all these amazing stories of the things he’s found. And he does that for years, ‘cause there was so much stuff out there to find, and a lot of it dangerous.”
“He fought dinosaurs?” Now that was an image.
“You bet he did,” Kirall interrupted. “I mean, those things are nasty. Like, really big, with claws and teeth and…” She stopped when I glared at her.
“Thanks,” I said, “but I know what they look like. Let him tell his story, okay?”
“Fine…” Kirall shrugged, turning away.
“You were saying?” I turned back to Lerome.
“Fought dinosaurs, mapped jungles and caves, did amazing daredevil stunts, survived out there for weeks at a time…” the Toa of Air said proudly. “He paved the way for Matoran to move into that place. That’s why Le-Koro-Nuva exists today: Lewa found a good place to put it.”
“What happened to him, then?” I wondered. “I mean, it sounds like he had things going pretty well.”
“Well, you know Mount Valmai?” Lerome asked. “The big volcano on Bota Magna?”
“The one that erupted a few centuries ago?”
“Yeah, that one. Basically, the Ta-Matoran figured out it was going to erupt, and Lewa really wanted to see it. Thing is, he got a bit too close…. Even the great Toa of Air can’t survive being whacked out of the air by falling red-hot chunks of lava.”
“Really? Couldn’t he have, I don’t know, kept a little more of a distance?” I was rather skeptical of someone of Lewa’s caliber just… recklessly flying into something like that.
“No, it was like a thrill-seeking thing,” Lerome continued, unfazed. “Like, he wanted to see how close he could get, you know? And you should have read some of the accounts from the Ta-Matoran; they even had a video. An old and crappy video, but you could see him, flying back and forth at super speed, dodging all these chunks of magma coming down!” Now standing, Lerome accompanied his description with swooping gestures and movements. “He was, like, this tiny speck racing along amidst that eruption, with the sky coming down around him, and I swear it was like he was just dancing through it or something…” he fell back into his chair. “Man… what that must have been like for him… I can’t even imagine, you know?”
“Yeah…” I nodded, not sure of what to make of the story. “Must have been… exhilarating.”
“Totally,” Lerome agreed. “I mean, he died, but that would’ve been so worth it. The thrill of his life, right up until that last moment… that’s how I’d want to go.”
“I’m sure you do,” I agreed, though Lewa’s final actions still seemed downright foolhardy. Then again, that was exactly the attitude that Lerome admired.
“Spectacularly.” Lerome finished.
“It was pretty impressive,” Kirall admitted. Jahlpu didn’t chime in, but his darkening expression indicated he didn’t quite agree.
“Yeah… sounds pretty cool, I guess…” I sighed, momentarily glancing down the car to where Kopaka was sitting. He’d been paying attention; I was sure of it. I mean, we were talking about one of his former teammates. However, I was too far away to get a quickly distinct reading of his reaction…
“I’ll probably end up heading that way anyways,” Lerome continued. “After we get done traveling. I mean, Bota Magna is a pretty nice place, and they have a kickass kolhii team.”
“That’s all you’ll ever need,” I shrugged.
“Exactly.” Lerome leant back, making himself comfortable. We were quiet for a bit after that; Kirall finished her sandwich, which thankfully kept her quiet, Lerome’d finished his story, and Jahlpu’d never been one to speak up and start a conversation, even among friends. As for me… I thought about Lewa. His behavior didn’t make much sense to me; from how Lerome explained events, it appeared that the Toa Nuva of Air totally had it made, and even someone with his reckless streak wouldn’t have taken on something as risky as flying through a volcanic eruption… right? It seemed positively suicidal, yet somehow Lewa had found himself there. The only conclusion I could come to was that something was missing, something Lerome either didn’t know or didn’t tell. I suspected it was the former, given that his account of Lewa’s history was rather suspect as well.
“So, how long has it been?” Lerome eventually asked.
“About an hour,” Jahlpu said flatly. “Twenty-two hours to go.”
“Man, this train’s taking ages,” Lerome complained. “I wanna do something, you know?”
“Some entertainment’d be nice…” Kirall agreed.
“Go find some,” I suggested. “At the very least they should have magazines or something in the other cars.”
“Or a working telescreen,” Kirall noted, pointing at the telescreen mounted on the wall towards the front of our car. It was out, but those in some of the cars further forwards had been on, I recalled.
“Yeah, I’m going to check that out,” the restless Toa of Air decided. He got up and left again, followed by Kirall. Watching them leave, I noticed Kirall had already adopted a very different way of walking… one that all but screamed ‘female Glatorian’ in ways that did not befit a Toa…
“Quite the story.” I eventually turned to Jahlpu, hoping to figure out what had displeased him about it.
“Yeah,” the Toa of Earth shrugged. “The great hero, right?”
“Seemed to be,” I noted. “Though I’m guessing Lerome left out a few things.”
“He did,” Jahlpu acknowledged. “But, you know, he’s his hero and all…”
“His dream Toa,” I sighed. “Suppose it beats Kirall’s aspirations, right?”
“Someday it’ll get him hurt,” Jahlpu said grimly. “Or killed, if he’s unlucky.”
“So what really happened with Lewa?” I wondered. “I mean, I don’t think he would’ve just… done what he did around that volcano for the thrill of it, right? Even he wouldn’t do that.”
“Not in his heyday, no,” Jahlpu agreed. “Something else was probably pushing him, come to think of it…” He stroked his chin in that way he did whenever he was trying to recall something. “They didn’t tell us that, though.”
“Really?” I was a bit surprised by that; it seemed rather important.
“It probably doesn’t fit the story of the glorious Toa Lewa,” Jahlpu concluded.
“Probably true…”
“Guess it doesn’t really concern us, then,” the Toa of Earth decided. I merely shrugged, after which we sat silently again; Jahlpu in his signature hunched-over, brooding way while I leant back and tried to relax a bit for the long trip ahead. The question of Lewa still kept my mind occupied as I wondered what exactly had been left out of the story presented to my teammates; it just didn’t sit right with me that someone with a life like Lewa’s would risk it the way he apparently had… the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Toa of Air’s last flight amounted to little more than a suicide, a chilling contrast to the lively, energetic, and endlessly positive hero that I imagined from Lerome’s description. However, it did fit alarmingly well to what I’d seen of the other Toa Nuva, each of whom was destroying themselves in their twilight years, one way or another. Was that their ultimate fate, and had Lewa just reached the end first? For that matter, if it was even true, what did it mean for Kopaka? Looking over, I noticed the Toa of Ice was still sitting hunched over, arms crossed and elbows on his knees, apparently catching up on rest lost from the night spent watching over Pohatu. There was a calm yet intense air about him, as close as I’d seen him to being at peace, though what little mental signature I could read at the distance wasn’t telegraphing ‘peace’ at all… No, there was an unusual melancholy tint to the Toa of Ices’ thoughts. He was more worried than he let on, though the latter part didn’t surprise me.
After a while, Jahlpu got up. “I’m gonna see what Lerome and Kirall’ve found,” he informed me. “Knowing them, they’re probably starting a party in some car up ahead.”
“Have fun, I guess…” I nodded, fully aware that this presented the perfect opportunity for time alone with Kopaka, and with it, maybe I’d finally get to see the final battle after all. Jahlpu nodded, turned, and made his way forward, leaving our car for the one in front, which from what glimpse I caught while the door was open was also mostly empty. As soon as the door had closed again, I got up and made my way over to where Kopaka was sitting. “They’re gone, for now,” I informed him.
Kopaka sighed, then waited a moment before replying. “I know,” he said grimly, “but who is to say they will not return at any moment?”
“I figure we could hear them coming,” I explained.
“Last time, would you have heard anyone coming?” Kopaka asked, referring back to the same train trip that had started our whole journey.
“Probably not, I guess…” Given how immersive the memory sharing process was, and the fact that things would probably get pretty intense in this final battle, I could understand his insistence on absolute privacy. “But when do you want to do it, then?” I wondered.
“They will be exhausted and asleep by nightfall,” Kopaka predicted. “Then I can show you in peace.”
“Okay, that works.” I nodded. The idea of waiting ‘till nightfall, given the length of the trip, didn’t even occur to me. “So, were you listening to his story?” I asked, referring to Lerome’s telling of Lewa’s story.
“Yes,” Kopaka admitted.
“I think he’s missing a couple of things,” I continued. “How about you?”
“We are remembered however people want to remember us,” Kopaka said, sounding almost prophetic, “even if that means propagating lies by omission.”
“So, what do you think really happened?” I asked.
“I neither know nor need to.”
“He was your brother, though,” I argued. “I mean, wouldn’t you at least like to know? There has to be some interest there.”
“Lewa was a Toa, sure,” Kopaka acknowledged, “but he was also overconfident, arrogant, and at times downright foolish, never mind noisy. I do not have all the answers as far as what happened to him, but I do not find what happened surprising in the least. That is all I need to know.”
“Of course…” I sighed. “And how do you think you will be remembered, then?”
“I neither know nor need to, so long as my duty is fulfilled.” And we were back to duty again. “Besides, if you wish to see how I am remembered, just ask around in Ko-Koro-Nuva. They already believe me dead, do they not?”
“That’s true,” I admitted, “but you could correct any inaccuracies in your history. I figure that’d matter to you of all people.”
“Would it serve anyone to do so? Would the full truth be a better memory for them than whatever they have come up with?” Kopaka questioned.
“Maybe not, but since when does the quality of the truth concern you?” I wondered. “You had no trouble telling Gali the ugly truth of her… situation. That’s hypocritical.”
“It concerns me because they are Matoran,” Kopaka countered, now sounding somewhat agitated. “Toa serve the Matoran first and foremost, and if lies must be propagated for the Matoran’s benefit, then I will do so, but I will not suffer Toa who fool themselves in the same way.”
“That may be,” I argued, “but if you’re so dead set on doing things to benefit the Matoran, why don’t you at least tell the Ko-Matoran that you’re still alive? They worship you! Imagine how they’d feel to know that you’re still alive, still watching over them, ‘the last Toa Nuva,’ or whatever you want to call it?”
“And what would they do?” Kopaka asked. “Throw a party to celebrate my return? If anything, I would distract them from their tasks, and no practical benefits would be gained.”
“You might think you know all about the practical stuff,” I concluded, “but you have no understanding of people. None whatsoever.”
“I work alone,” Kopaka said coldly, “which makes such knowledge superfluous.”
“You’re wrong on that part,” I countered. “You had to work with your team once.”
“Once, but no longer. Are you done?”
“Maybe… until nightfall, that is.” I said.
“Go join them in whatever they are doing,” Kopaka suggested, nodding towards the door leading forward into the train at the other end of the car. “I would prefer to be alone for now.”
“Okay, just… don’t run off this time.” Kopaka didn’t reply, so I got up and left, making my way forward through a number of cars as the train continued to hurtle along the track to Onu-Koro-Nuva. Looking back for a moment, I saw Kopaka had returned to his meditation. Once again, he’d put some semi-logical argument together to explain all the hypocrisies of his behavior, and once again his cold rationale had left me rather wanting. Perhaps, as a Toa of Psionics, I am rather predisposed to value the feelings and relationships of others more than most, since I can read their impact far more directly, courtesy of my abilities… but Kopaka’s blunt and utter dismissal of people’s feelings as anything of significance really bothered me, and still does. Anything that didn’t fit in a rational sequence to him just wasn’t significant, and perhaps that disregard for feeling worked for him, but everyone around him, everyone he worked with did have feelings that mattered… Perhaps that was part of the reason why he isolated himself so; to get away from the one thing he couldn’t explain, and therefore be able to dismiss it as trivial. That idea occupied my mind for a while afterwards.
As I made my way through the second-to-last car, I started to hear music… upbeat and energetic Le-Matoran music, and that could only mean one thing: Lerome and Kirall really had started a party.
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#####author’s note: I toyed for a while with how much exactly Lerome would or could tell of Lewa’s story, and in the end was left with an account that is rather lacking… even Lis suspects as much. Then again, more of his story will be revealed eventually, including the truth of why exactly he met his downfall in the way he did… stay tuned. 
I’ll post more chapters as I finish them. Enjoy!
