I realized that too, but it was totally unintentional; Quilha tends to call people by traits, and I’ve often described Jovan as a ‘grey Turaga’, so it seemed the most natural thing for them to call him.
That will be explained in a later chapter.
Speaking of which…
Chapter 8
I can smell him.
The Turaga, he’s not far. There are others with him, too; one of them must have helped him escape. Probably Toa. Toa always get in the way of a good hunt, even in this wretched place.
Hmm… you know, it’s been a long time since I’ve fought a Toa. Usually, that annoying little one gets all the Toa here. The Turaga will probably tell them not to fight me, but Toa never listen. Perhaps we’ll fight.
Yes… perhaps I’ll get to hunt a Toa today.
Kopaka and Pohatu might have been hidden from the Kestora, but there was one being they couldn’t hide from so easily: Delara. His enhanced hearing allowed him to hear almost everything on the Star, but it was difficult to parse it all out, to find a certain sound in the cacophony of it all.
He needed to find these two “Toa”. They claimed to be Toa, but they didn’t follow the Code. They were pretenders, the worst kind of Toa. That put them at the top of the list of his targets.
After all, that was what the Toa Code said: Toa must kill.
“Darn it!” Makuta snapped, seeing the two Toa disappear. They were so close…
Were they gone from the Star? Or had they found some way to hide from the Kestora? Makuta knew how Toa worked; they wouldn’t just leave, not by choice. If there was even a chance that the Toa were still here…
Makuta turned to the Toa, and declared, “keep marching to the Toa’s last known location.” Obediently, the Toa horde resumed their march…
Hydraxon frowned. The Toa’s last known location? Were there other Toa here, that the Kestora didn’t have under their control?
If that were the case, Hydraxon had to get to them first. Either they could help him against the Kestora; or, if they refused, he would make sure that the Kestora couldn’t take them. Why let his enemy have another pawn?
Luckily, the Toa Horde wasn’t moving very fast. It seemed that the Kestora’s control couldn’t get them to run. But Hydraxon and his new Toa ally could, and they began to sprint down a darkened passageway, one that hopefully would bring them ahead of the Kestora.
“We should probably go,” Ruhko said.
“You know what, forget it,” Pohatu said. “We can’t run forever. I say we fight whatever’s coming.”
“It took two teams of Toa to bring down the Xutohki the first time,” Lhikan said. “You two won’t stand a chance.”
“Well, we’re Toa Nuva…” Pohatu pointed out.
“We’re also on a mission,” Quilha said. “Hey, icey, you still see Hydraxon?”
Kopaka looked around for a moment. “Yes. He’s not far, but he’s on the move, running. Unfortunately, the Kestora’s Toa are about to be cut off our best route to him, so we need to move fast.”
“I can do fast,” Pohatu offered.
“A – a w-w-wise warrior knows when to – when to fight and when to – to run,” the grey Turaga stammered.
“He’s right,” Lhikan agreed. “Even if you can win this fight, what happens if your enemies get to this Hydraxon before you do?”
“I am getting really tired of running away,” Pohatu said.
“Well, we’re getting tired of being stuck here,” Quilha retorted. “I guess none of us are happy here.”
“When we get out of here, I am going to go find someone I can hit,” Pohatu said. “Say, that reminds me, we still need to find whoever killed Tren Krom and Karzahni…”
“Wait, did you say someone killed Karzahni?” Ruhko said.
Pohatu had opened his mouth to answer, but Kopaka cut him off. “Story time later. Leaving time now.”
“Right,” Pohatu said. “Everyone, prepare for the Pohatu express.” His mask activated, and the group took off running through the halls, finally stopping in front of another door.
“Quilha, you’re up,” Ruhko said. Quilha immediately approached the door, pulling out her tools, and began fiddling with the mechanism.
It rapidly became apparent that this would not be easy. Somehow, this door had been damaged, and the mechanism was stuck. “This might take a minute,” she grumbled.
“We might not have a minute,” Kopaka said.
“Maybe we can–” Pohatu started.
“No,” Quilha said quickly.
“With our powers, we might be able to–”
“I said no!” she snapped, dropping her tools and turning to the Toa of Stone. “This is my work. I am not going to have a Toa who doesn’t know what they’re doing ruin things.”
Her harsh outburst shocked everyone into silence. Everyone, that is, except for one member of the group.
“All right, I’ve had enough of this,” Mavrah said, stepping forward. "I kept quiet when you were being a jerk to the Toa. I kept quiet when you were questioning everything they said and did. I kept quiet when you argued with them over every little thing. But now you’re taking this too far.
“You’re still so hung up against these Toa, just because of what some other Toa did years ago. You say you see the Toa differently than other Matoran, that’s for sure.” Mavrah took another step forward. “Most Matoran might see Toa as paragons of virtue who can do no wrong, but you’re even worse; you see all Toa as terrible people who can do no good, and ignore the heroes who are right in front of your eyes.” He took another step forward, and Quilha took a step back instinctively. “They’re trying to help save us all. Why don’t you try letting them for once?”
Mavrah turned to the Toa. “Now. What is it you want to do?”
“Well, these walls block my mask power,” Pohatu said, “but maybe, if we combine my speed with Kopaka’s ice power, it can–”
“Then try it,” Mavrah said. “Don’t just stand there talking. We’ve done enough of that.”
Pohatu nodded. “Kopaka, think you can make this door vibrate slower?”
The Ice Toa held his hand up against the door, his mask power allowing him to see the broken mechanism. Then, Pohatu’s mask power, shared with him, allowed him to reach into the door.
Immediately, he felt the door try to push him back. Activating his ice power, he supercooled the door, slowing down its vibrations as it tried to kick him out. Now came a furious tug of war, as the door tried to adjust its vibrations to push him out and he constantly changed his vibrations to match it. It tried heating itself, but Kopaka kept cooling it, again and again. It was agonizingly painful, frustratingly slow, to push his hand further into the door, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the mechanism, careful not to supercool it lest he pass through it too, and pulled it into place.
The door clicked and started to swing open. Kopaka quickly pulled his hand out, shaking it. “All right, let’s go,” he said.
As the group began to move, Lhikan looked at Mavrah. “That was quite the speech,” he said. “Where did that come from?”
“I… know what it’s like to clash with Toa over misunderstandings,” Mavrah said. “I… I guess I don’t want to see Quilha end up like I did.”
Author’s notes: The door scene is something I had in mind since I came up with the walls blocking Pohatu’s power. One of my favorite things to write is coming up with creative uses of powers. Also, I’m sure that stunt won’t have any consequences that will come back to bite our two Toa…