No I didn’t get my days mixed up and forget to post a chapter yesterday what are you talking about
Chapter 6
“You’re… a Skrall?”
Takanuva had only faced a Skrall once, during the battle of Bara Magna. The black-armored warrior had nearly taken him down before Ackar intervened – they were strong.
But the hooded female in front of him now looked nothing like the Skrall he knew. She wore no armor, instead cloaked in a dark brown robe, and wielded no weapons – unless they were hidden in her cloak. She didn’t look like she could hold her own in a fight against a crippled Bohrok. Of course, Takanuva had learned long ago that looks could be deceiving.
“I am one of the Sisters of the Skrall,” she said said. “Once, we had great power. Our brothers feared us, and drove us out of their society.”
She frowned. “Then that… thing took away our powers. And now the only way we can get them back lies with Angonce. If what Tuma tells us is true, he can be found at the heart of the maze.”
Takanuva wondered if he should tell them that Angonce wasn’t there. But from what he’d heard from Tarduk, the Great Being fortress was… well, a maze. Perhaps Angonce truly did hide there, and Mata Nui and Tarduk simply hadn’t seen him?
“Right,” Tarduk said. Hopping up on Takanuva’s back, he whispered in the Toa’s ear, “I don’t think giving the Skrall powers is a good idea. They’re bad enough already.”
Takanuva wasn’t so sure. “If you do regain your powers, are you going to use them to help the Skrall conquer?” he asked.
The leader scoffed. “Help the Skrall? Let me tell you something, Shiny – we haven’t stood with the Skrall in 100,000 years. We will do as we have always done – make our own way.”
Takanuva was torn. If these Skrall were anything like the ones he’d heard about from the Glatorian, giving them powers was probably a bad idea. On the other hand, it sounded like they hadn’t conquered anyone in years with their powers – in fact, it seemed they’d let the Skrall drive them away. If he left them as they were, they might fall victim to some other conquering force.
“Where are the rest of your people?” he asked.
“I’d prefer not to say,” the Skrall woman said. “If I find what I seek, I will lead them there. If not… I’d rather you not know how to find us.”
Takanuva nodded. “All right, I get it. You don’t trust me, and I don’t trust you. So let me be clear – we can go to the maze, but I will be watching you closely.”
The Skrall leader pondered for a moment, then nodded. “I would expect nothing less.”
“Takanuva, are you sure about this?” Tarduk said.
Takanuva thought back to something Tahu had said during the battle of Bara Magna. “I haven’t been sure of anything in years. Why start now?”
Takanuva stood before the valley of the maze. In the center, he could see the great Volcano, lava flowing from the top of it. It looked a lot like the Mangai Volcano on Mata Nui – and both were unnatural constructs.
“You know the way through the maze, right?” Takanuva said to Tarduk.
The jungle Agori shrugged. “I can figure it out. Might take a wrong turn or two on the way…”
The female Skrall glared dubiously at Takanuva. “This is your guide?”
“Hey, I got in there and back out just fine before,” Tarduk huffed. “Okay, maybe Mata Nui had to save me from a trap in the center fortress, but I got past the maze just fine.”
Takanuva grinned at the Skrall woman. “Oh yeah, there’s dangerous traps in there too. Tell you what, if you’re too scared, Tarduk and I will go in and tell you what we find when we come back out.”
The Skrall glared at him, and Takanuva was reminded of the saying about if looks could kill. “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Shiny.”
“Ok, first off, enough of that nickname,” the Toa of Light said. “My name is Takanuva. This is Tarduk. What’s your name?”
The Skrall leader turned away and started walking down toward the valley. “None of your concern.”
Tarduk looked up at Takanuva. “Friendly sort, isn’t she?”
Takanuva sighed. “She makes Kopaka look warm.”
A few hours, and a few wrong turns and close calls later, Takanuva, the Skrall woman, and Tarduk stood at the center of the maze. Before them, the massive Volcano rose high into the air. Now that he was up close, though, Takanuva could see chunks of exposed metal on the side of the fake volcano, cleared away by Mata Nui’s sword.
“There’s a hatch over this way,” Tarduk said. “Far as I can tell, it’s the only way in.”
“Or out,” the Skrall woman added, ominously. Takanuva wasn’t sure what she meant by that; he decided not to worry about it.
Tarduk shrugged and led them to the hatch. “I got to warn you, it’s a bit of a mess in there,” he said. “Lots of wires and tubes and stuff. It’s like a jungle.”
“Sounds like Le-Metru,” Takanuva said.
“I don’t know what that is,” Tarduk said.
“A messy jungle of wires and tubes,” Takanuva said.
“Oh,” Tarduk said. “Well, that about sums it up.”
As it turned out, Takanuva’s comparison was apt. Twice, he banged his mask on one of the tubes carrying lava through the fake volcano, and at one point he got his feet tangled up in wires. Tarduk, being a jungle Agori, was able to navigate with ease. The Skrall woman seemed to have as much trouble as Takanuva, though she didn’t complain.
“The Great Beings never cease to amaze,” she said. “Hiding their laboratory in a volcano. I wonder if even Ifihr knew about this.”
“Who?” Takanuva said.
“Someone who might have known about volcanos that aren’t volcanos,” she said. “Or he might not have.” Takanuva sighed again. Wonderful, now she was speaking in riddles, too.
“Ifihr?” Tarduk said. “I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere… where was it…?” He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “It must have been long ago.”[1]
Takanuva walked into a small open area. On the wall were plans, blueprints for a giant robot – the great Spirit Robot. Next to that was a screen. It was just as Tarduk had described, from his trip here with Mata Nui.
“Down that way is where Mata Nui and I found the power source for the big 'bot,” Tarduk said, pointing down a corridor. “And that way’s some sort of crystalline tubes of some sort. There’s a door there, but I couldn’t get it to open.”
“Maybe I can,” Takanuva offered. He followed Tarduk down the corridor, and came to another room. Six clear canisters lined the wall, silvery liquid contained within. Protodermis? They reminded him of the tubes that had turned the Toa Mata into Toa Nuva… could they be–
“Well, don’t just stand there gawking,” the Skrall woman said, pushing on him. Surprised, he stumbled forward, until his foot caught on a cord, tripping him. At the same time, his foot yanked the cord, and the end of it yanked something out of the ceiling, a jumbled mess of wires with something caught in it. The hunk of wiring swung down, toward the silver tube, striking it’s surface, and Takanuva watched in horror as the crystal began to crack, threatening to dump its contents all over the room. And then… it stopped.
Takanuva breathed a sigh of relief.
Then the crystal shattered.