I’m getting tired of trying to continue the Story Serials, so I think I’ll just wrap up the story:
Chapter 1
The cold void. Where seconds ago there was life, now there was only death. Death, so swift that none had known it was coming. Merciful death, perhaps, despite the scope of it.
How had it happened? How could everything that an entire world had worked toward for millenia be erased in an instant? Maybe the creators who designed the new world to rebuild their old one should have had a bit more faith in their own efforts. Perhaps if they hadn’t second-guessed themselves, both worlds would have lived. Instead, only one from each world survived…
To anyone else, the small insect scurrying across the sand would have been just another Scarabax beetle, an insect to be crushed under-foot without a second thought. But to the one who once called this sandy plain his heart, this beetle was so much more. He was a weapon, a friend; he was Click.
Click scurried through the sand, just like it was home. As a beetle native to the sands of Bara Magna, it might as well have been. This sand was weird, as it was still mixed with some of the mutagenic water that had once filled the bottom of this massive cave. Most of the water had been eradicated by the energy storms that powered the massive Robot, but patches of it still remained, making this sea of sand a lot more treacherous to traverse than the Bara Magna Desert. Then again, the Bara Magna desert was home to many dangers of its own, most of them living, so neither was a walk on the beach.
The only living things here were Matoran. Click didn’t really understand these wierd ones, but he knew that they all revered Mata Nui, just like he did. The Matoran took no notice of Click as he went by. Even if they had, they wouldn’t have bothered him. Unlike the Agori, Matoran didn’t bother an insect that wasn’t bothering them. Most Matoran, anyway.
At the center of the sands of Karda Nui, there was a massive sphere. It looked like a giant Agori child had left his beach ball sitting in the sand, only it was made of metal. It was one of the last structures of the old world that hadn’t been dissasembled; partly because of its significance, and partly because it had proven difficult to break apart. It had taken the Matoran two weeks just to get the doors open, and still much of the inside of the Codrex had yet to be explored. Unseen by the Matoran, Click slipped into the Codrex, wandering the darkened halls.
“You really think there’s something big in there?” the voice ahead was unmistakably a Matoran’s voice, though not one Click recognized.
“Got to be,” another voice answered. “This is the most secure place in this whole… place. Our best Fe-Matoran can’t even crack into it.”
Coming around the corner, Click saw the two Matoran who had been speaking. One was clad in Orange and grey armor, the other white and grey, and they both had jetpacks and two blades magnetically attached to their backs. The white one actually took notice of Click as he approached, probably because he was the only thing moving in this hallway aside from the Matoran.
“Hey little guy,” the Matoran said. “Say, you’re one of them Scara-something beetles, aren’t you? Think you can help us?”
The Orange Matoran snorted. “How can a beetle help us?”
“There’s a small gap under the door here,” the white one replied. “Perhaps he can get in and find out how to open the door for us?”
“Solek, that’s a beetle,” the orange one said. “He couldn’t open a door his own size, much less ours.”
Click took offense to that statement. He wasn’t just a beetle – he was Click, friend of Mata Nui! He’d show them. Scurrying past their feet, he slid under the door and into the room behind it.
Inside, it was… dark. Click stood there a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness a bit, before proceeding. He found a table, which he swiftly climbed, and upon it sat a small glass vase. Inside of it was an undulating purple mass, floating in the air. Gently, Click reached out with one leg and tapped on the glass.
It cracked.
As if it had been called, the purple orb reached out a tentacle toward the crack, hitting the glass, only to bounce back as if it had been shocked, causing the orb to hit the other side of the container. Another crack formed, and the orb reached out for it again. The process repeated again and again, more cracks forming, until finally, the glass shattered.
And then the orb grew bigger for a moment, and then…
Many years ago, the Great Beings had designed a massive robot with the intent of fixing their world. But one of them had pointed out that if this robot fell into the wrong hands, it could be used to eradicate countless worlds, and so a failsafe was created, a weapon that would destroy the robot instantaneously.
Teridax, of course, had found out about it, and he knew how to keep it from activating when he took control of the Robot. But Click didn’t know. Even Mata Nui hadn’t known about it, so of course Click didn’t know.
The weapon was designed to destroy the Robot, but the Great Beings never took into account that it might be used when the Robot was lying on a planet and mostly disassembled. Once it was freed from its container, it suddenly unleashed the force of gravity, the equivalent of a hundred black holes. In less than a second, everything – the Robot, the planet of Spherus Magna, even the Red Star – were obliterated, crushed into a singularity and wiped from existence.
Only one unlikely duo managed to escape…
“What is this world?” Vezon asked.
The Great Being next to him stared at the new universe his Skakdi friend had brought him to. Unbeknownst to either of them, the had left shortly before the devastation, and were completely unaware of the detruction. “This world is much different from the one you know. This planet… I believe they call it Earth?”
“Neat,” Vezon said. “Are you going to blow this one up too?”
The Great Being chuckled. “The natives might do that themselves in a few centuries. But for now, this will be my new home.”
This Great Being had once been cursed by the Mask of Life to bring everything around him to life. But for some reason, that didn’t happen in this universe, Perhaps this universe was simply too different for the curse to work. Whatever the reason, he’d finally found a way to be free.
“Don’t you mean ‘our’ new home?” Vezon said, grinning wildly.
The Great Being turned to his unlikely rescuer. “No, I meant what I said. I do not think you will find this place again without my help.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than another portal opened, and Vezon disappeared, forcibly dragged off to yet another universe.
The Great Being turned away. He had no idea what might become of his old home, nor did he care. But he knew he had a story to tell, an epic tale of how two worlds were saved. He needed to share it with the natives of this world, and he would find a way.
Right, but they couldn’t know he he was. He needed a new name, something to hide who he was, while still hinting of his identity as a GREat beinG. Maybe something like… Ben? For ‘being’?
Smiling, Ben turned and walked down the street to his new life…
