ooh interesting. It raises the possibility (for the characters) that the replica Hydraxon is the Great Being in disguise.
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Huh.
I hadn’t noticed that until just now either.
Does this mean that Takanuva is going to start going by Takua again?
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Good stuff. Keep it up 
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Possibly. I haven’t figured out exactly how it’s going to go yet.
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Better Takua Nuva than Takanuva Nuva
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Chapter 7
“So let me get this straight,” Kopaka said. “This Fierah person claims to be a Great Being. She says that she and her people made a living weapon to kill all the Toa, and it escaped. So she has a plan to stop it, but she won’t tell you what it is. Yet despite that, despite the fact that you have no idea what you’re doing, you’re just following Fierah.”
Orde nodded. “That about sums it up. She said something about tracking him using technology from the Star, but that’s about it.”
“Ah, Toa Kopaka, you are just as inquisitive and questioning as the day you were made,” Fierah said, staring intently at the Toa of Ice.
“Let me guess, you were there for that too,” Takanuva said.
“No, I was not,” Fierah said. “But I heard about your first day.”
“All right,” Kopaka said. “Well, we have a mission of our own: find and rescue Pohatu. Personally, I prefer not to follow a leader who refuses to share her plan, so if you wish to keep your secrets, then you can lead your team on your mission, and I shall lead my team on my mission.”
“The Star wasn’t just a way to bring people back to life,” Fierah explained. “It had another function. If something happened to Mata Nui, the Toa Mata would be summoned to save him. But if they failed, the Star was a backup plan. Six Matoran would be summoned to the surface and be zapped into special Toa, with the power needed to awaken the Great Spirit.”
“Toa Inika,” Kopaka realized. He’d always wondered why the Red Star had turned them into Toa. It seemed so random before.
“Yes,” Fierah said. “These Toa would have special masks so they could learn to use their powers quickly, and they would have lightning powers to use to give the Great Spirit a quick jolt. If they were needed, time was clearly running out.”
Kopaka’s mind flashed back to when he and the Nuva had attempted to awaken the Great Spirit. It was a painfully slow process, and Toa Ignika had had stepped in to speed things along. By that point, Mata Nui had already died, and Matoro had to revive him. Fierah was right – the Toa Mata/Toa Nuva had taken way too long to save the Great Spirit, mostly due to the interference of the Makuta.
Things hadn’t gone exactly as the Great Beings planned, though. The Inika hadn’t been the ones to awaken the Great Spirit, and they hadn’t been summoned – they had only gone to the surface by chance, in search of the Toa Nuva. Perhaps they had just gone at the right time, so there wasn’t a need to summon them?
“That device operates on a similar wavelength as Marendar’s Toa Power scanners,” Fierah said. “With it, we can find Marendar quickly, before he kills too many Toa – if we’re lucky, we might find him before he kills any Toa. That is the first part of the plan.”
“And the rest?” Orde said. He wasn’t sure why Kopaka’s presence made her decide to open up, but he was going to take full advantage of this opportunity. “Once we find Marendar, then what?”
“I shut him down,” Fierah said. “All I need to do is get close to him.” She turned back to Kopaka. “So there is our plan. Do you wish to aid us in saving all the Toa? Or do you wish to continue in saving only one, one who you might not even be able to save?”
Kopaka hesitated. Logic was telling him to aid Fierah; his heart was telling him to go find Pohatu. Which one was correct? Finding this Marendar sounded like it needed to be done as quickly as possible. On the other hand, Pohatu was a capable Toa Nuva. If he had survived, he could probably handle himself for a while.
Besides, Fierah seemed to know quite a bit about the Red Star. She would know how to get back to the Send-back room, where Pohatu had been last. In fact, if the Send-back room and the scanner Fierah spoke of were both part of the control center of the Star, there was a chance they were going to the same place.
“All right,” Kopaka relented. “We’ll follow you, for now.”
A few minutes earlier…
The Rock Agori known as Atakus stared up at the massive hunk of metal. He had expected the Star to be a massive pile of wreckage, but it had remained mostly intact during the crash. Unfortunately, that posed a problem: how was he going to get in?
As he was puzzling over that problem, he heard someone approaching. He quickly hid, watching the new arrival. He was a Toa, though not one Atakus recognized, clad in white and gold armor with highlights of bronze. Atakus followed him to see where he went.
The Toa soon met up with another group, one Atakus was all too familiar with. A group that last time he’d seen them, he’d left them trapped in an underground bunker. Yet clearly, they had escaped, and were about to enter the Red Star using an opening one of them had made.
The new arrival introduced himself as Takanuva, Toa of Light. Shortly afterward, the group was attacked by another Toa, though they managed to subdue him. Then, Takanuva began to talk to this group, and Atakus learned something very disturbing: they knew about his boss.
They didn’t know much, but they knew that he existed, and had a vague idea of his plans. This was terrible news, and Atakus was glad to have found out about it. He immediately relayed this information to his contact. Perhaps this would make up for his last failure.
Once the group finally quit chatting and entered the Star, Atakus trailed behind, unseen. The group quickly met up with another group, and launched into another conversation. Atakus didn’t stay to listen, slipping off through a side passage.
His mission was simple: he needed to find one of the Kestora, the little creatures who ran this place, and find out who had survived the crash. Once he had learned what he needed to know, kill the Kestora and leave before anyone knew he was here.
His glowing blades lighting the way, Atakus descended into the darkness of the Star.
Author’s notes: long has it bothered me exactly why the Red Star had a Failsafe that turned the Inika into Toa – and why it never affected the Mata Nui Matoran or the Voyatoran, only the Toa Inika. This is the explanation I’ve come up with.
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Yes. Yes it did. I like this explanation.
Every single part of this makes a ton of sense, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen a similar theory before now.
The Toa Nuva would have been outside the universe at the time, so perhaps the Red Star couldn’t detect them and activated the Inika protocol? (Which is more or less what you said, with Jaller and his crew emerging right around the time the Toa Nuva went “missing”.)
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Ah very nice. I quite like your explanation for the Toa Inika.
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I just realized something upon rereading this:
These paragraphs seem to imply that Fierah already knew about the Toa Inika, but… would she? She’d obviously know about the system, and that it could be used to track Marendar, but how would she know that it was ever used? If anything, the fact that Kopaka is right there would suggest to her that the Toa Mata were completely fine, and that the system definitely wasn’t used.
Obviously this doesn’t really affect the plotline in any way, since she would still have her knowledge of the system, and that’s what’s important here, I just found her reply to seem a bit off.
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Right, I can see how that could be misread. You’re correct, Fierah doesn’t know that it was used. In fact, her next line is stated as a hypothetical – “these Toa would have special masks…” since she assumes it’s something that hasn’t happened.
However, Inika is the Matoran word for “energy of a Star” (from Power Play), so Fierah just thought Kopaka was saying “Toa with energy from a Star”. That’s what she was responding “Yes” to --“Yes, Toa with energy from a Star”.
(I’m going to edit Kopaka’s line to just “Toa Inika” to make that a bit clearer, thanks for pointing that out)
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I see, that makes sense.
This is so satisfying.
Also Fierah is betraying everyone, isn’t she
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Chapter 8
Sometimes, everything works out perfectly. And sometimes, every time you think things can’t get any worse, they do.
Fierah led the group to the Red Star’s central command station, a location familiar to Kopaka and his crew. From here, they could easily find their way to the send-back room. But Fierah wanted to go to the scanner room, which was in the opposite direction.
In the end, a decision was reached: the groups would split ways again. Fierah would lead her group to the scanners, and Kopaka would lead his group to the send-back room. They would meet back in an hour, hopefully with both Pohatu and the machinery that Fierah needed.
Takanuva opted to travel with Kopaka, loaning a lightstone to Chiara so they could find their way through the dark. The Toa Nuva of Ice had told him of his recent adventures – the short version of the story, as was expected from him, though the Matoran added a few details – and Takanuva started telling him about his own journey to the Valley of the Maze. It quickly turned into the Matoran bombarding him with questions about Spherus Magna, though.
“So these Agori – they’re like us, but built different?” Quilha asked.
“Pretty much,” Takanuva said. “Maybe a little taller, but --”
“And the Glatorian are like Toa, but without the mask powers,” Ruhko said. “But they have elemental powers, like you do.”
“Well, some of them do,” Takanuva said. “Mata Nui used the Mask of Life to–”
“I still can’t get over Mata Nui looking like, well, a regular person,” Mavrah said. “And now he’s just… gone?”
“Dormant, yeah,” Takanuva said. “I guess you guys missed quite a bit.” He looked at Ivohku and Hydraxon. “How come you two haven’t asked anything?”
“We should be focused on the mission,” Hydraxon said. “There will be time enough for story-telling after we’re off this Star. And the only question I want answered is where this fake me is and who he really is.”
Takanuva frowned. “I don’t know much. He gave the Toa Mahri some trouble in the Pit, and then came to me asking if they were around to hunt down the Barraki, and --”
“Wait,” Hydraxon cut in. “Did you say ‘hunt down the Barraki’? Are they loose?”
Takanuva nodded. “Last I checked.”
“What’s a Barraki?” Quilha asked.
Before Takanuva could reply, he bumped into Kopaka, the Toa Nuva of Ice having stopped abruptly. Takanuva turned toward him, and then looked past him, into what he guessed was the Send-back room. And he saw what had made Kopaka stop so suddenly.
“Oh no…”
“Oh no,” Fierah groaned.
The group had arrived at the scanner room. Or rather, what was left of it. This part of the Star had bent inward when it hit the mountains, pushing the walls in. The machinery was a hopeless mess.
“Of course,” Orde said. “The one part of the Star we need is the one part that got completely wrecked.”
Gelu nodded. “It looks like it will be impossible to salvage anything from this wreck.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing we brought a Great Being, right?” Strakk said. “They specialize in impossible.”
From his arms, Delara suddenly groaned and started to move. Strakk quickly set the Toa of Sonics down. Zaria held his hand out, in case Delara woke up and was still crazy.
Delara sat up. “Wh-- where am I?” he whispered.
“Toa Delara?” Chiara said. The Sound Toa winced at her loud voice. “Sorry,” she said, a little quieter.
The Toa of Sonics sat silently for a few seconds before speaking again. Only Orde realized what he was doing – he was using his powers to dampen the sound around him. Like all Toa of Sound, his hearing was increased, to the point where a person speaking at a normal volume was painfully loud for him. Orde wondered if he should ask Fierah if the Great Beings had made a mistake when they made the Toa of Sound.
“Who’s there?” Delara asked. “Everything’s dark…”
“You’ve been blinded,” Chiara said. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure out how to fix it.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” Delara asked.
“We’re the Toa…” Chiara paused. “Well, we’re a team of Toa who doesn’t have a name yet. And two Glatorian – oh wait, you wouldn’t know what a Glatorian is, would you? Well, they’re like Toa, but different. I’m Chiara, Toa of Lightning, and with me are Zaria, Toa of Iron, and Orde, Toa of Psionics.”
She realized her mistake as soon as she said it.
“Orde?” Delara said. "I remember that name. Are you here, Orde?
“Yeah, I am,” Orde said. “And… I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” Delara said, confused.
Orde blinked, surprised. By force of habit, he looked into Delara’s mind, and saw only confusion. There were no memories of his death at all. Apparently, Orde had done his job too well
.
“Sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me,” he said quickly.
While the Toa spoke, Fierah had been inspecting the machinery. She seemed to be focused on one device in particular. Zaria turned away from Delara and walked up to her. “Well?” he said.
Fierah held up a broken piece of machinery. “This is it,” she said. “The reason the Star worked. The device that we made to constantly scan everyone in the Matoran Universe, so that they could be brought back. Now just a useless hunk of metal.” She gestured around her. “Without this, this whole place is a useless hunk of metal. A glorified giant repair station. It might be able to fix up wounds, even major ones – might also be able to teleport people, if it took Lesovikk – but this is what allowed it to bring back the dead.”
“Can you fix it?” Zaria asked.
“Maybe in a year or two,” Fierah said. “I’m not the one who designed this thing, and the one who did was – well, he isn’t around to ask.”
“What about the Toa Power Scanner?” Zaria said. “Isn’t that what we came here for?”
“I haven’t been able to find it yet,” Fierah said. “I’m afraid it might be just as --”
Before she could finish her sentence, a hole in space opened up behind her. An armored hand reached through, grabbing Fierah’s arm. For a split second, Zaria could swear he saw a grinning face.
Zaria reached out with his powers, but he was too slow. The hand pulled Fierah through the portal, and it closed abruptly behind her. The Great Being was gone.
Author’s notes: I usually try to avoid having too much recapping, but I quite liked the Matoran just bombarding Takanuva with questions.
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oooo very cool - great suspense!
$200000000 says that the person who grabbed Fierah was Vezon
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Haha that’s what I’m thinking as well…
Nice chapter!
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Pls be alive pohatu…
Good chapter
Vezon breaks the universe…
Then he brings all the great beings from each one to fix the Red Star after he “dies”.
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Hey there. I feel I need to explain some stuff real quick.
Shortly after I started posting this story, some stuff has been going on IRL that has been really draining, hence why the chapters have been more inconsistent. This Chapter in particular required a rewrite – nothing major, but enough that I just didn’t have the mental capability to get it ready to post until now.
So yeah, I really didn’t mean to leave it on such a mean cliffhanger for so long. I’m going to try and push myself to post the rest in the next couple of days, because there is still some big stuff left to get to.
Chapter 9
Kopaka stared down at Pohatu, lying crooked in the remains of one of the machines. If the metal rods sticking through his torso didn’t make it clear enough, the darkened heartlight sealed the deal – the Toa Nuva of Stone was dead.
Kopaka’s mind raced. Could the Star still save him, bring him back? Would he want that, after seeing what had happened to some of the other inhabitants?
Ivohku slammed his fist into the wall of the Red Star. He couldn’t help feeling responsible. Maybe if he’d been able to hold the six-armed monster, Pohatu wouldn’t have over-exerted his powers. Maybe if he’d been able to stop Delara, the Star wouldn’t have crashed. Maybe if he hadn’t led the Toa in a foolish revolution against the Kestora, none of this would have happened. Everything he’d done since he died had been a complete failure.
“This… this can’t be,” Takanuva said. “We can save him, right?” Kopaka didn’t respond.
“Well, we have to try!” Quilha’s voice cut in. “He wouldn’t give up on us. Come on, let’s at least get him out of there. Mavrah, Ruhko, help me here.”
The two other Matoran were staring shell-shocked at the sight of the dead Toa, but at Quilha’s demanding tone, they moved into action. Kopaka watched as the three Matoran managed to wrestle the Stone Toa free from the machinery, and lowered him to the floor.
“I guess we bring him to the revival rooms and… see what we can do?” Ruhko said.
“Quiet,” Hydraxon said. “Someone’s coming.”
The group fell into silence, listening. Indeed, footsteps were rapidly approaching, coming from the opposite direction the group had came – it wasn’t someone from Fierah’s group. Grimly, Kopaka prepared for another fight.
But the person who came around the corner was the last being he expected to see…
The minutes before the Star’s crash…
Sytem reboot. A mind that had been dormant for centuries came back online. The mind of the Star – but also the mind of the Fe-Matoran inside it.
Years ago, when the Star first broke, the Kestora had brought one of the recently deceased Nynrah ghosts to fix it. the Fe-Matoran Nynrah Ghost had figured out how to connect his mind to the “mind” of the Star, but before he could figure out what was wrong, the Kestora had become paranoid that he was trying to sabotage the Star. They’d shut him down, and after that they prevented anyone who wasn’t a Kestora from inspecting the machines that controlled the Star. Until Ruhko, ironically once one of the Fe-Matoran’s friends, rebooted the system in an effort to get it to work.
The Nynrah Ghost didn’t know about all that. For him, it felt like only moments ago that he’d been linked into the Star, when the one known as Makuta walked in and flipped the switch that shut him down. As soon as he awoke again, he was bombarded with information. Someone was messing with the send-back systems, trying to get them operational – that was nothing new.
Error signals started appearing, ringing in his “ears”. The scanners were trying to reconnect, but for some reason the Robot wasn’t responding. He boosted the signal – maybe the Robot was out of reach for some reason? He found a small signal from the surface of a nearby planet. Too small to be the Robot, but maybe – wait, through the signal, he picked up a group of Toa. If there were Toa there, maybe that meant the Robot was nearby? Moments after he picked up the Toa’s presence, he felt one of them die. Fortunately, he’d been just in time to get a scan; the Star would be able to bring him back.
Before he could do anything else, he “felt” the Star beginning to move. Someone had activated the engines manually, driving the Star down to the surface of the planet below. It was closer to the signal he’d detected, so maybe that would mean it was closer to the Robot? But then, suddenly, more alarms went off. Something had been wrecked, and now the Star had no engine controls.
No manual controls, anyway. Stuck in the computer, the Fe-Matoran worked frantically to shut off the engines… and succeeded! He felt a moment of triumph – before realizing the Star hadn’t stopped. It had been caught in the gravity of the planet, and was plunging towards the surface. Quickly, he tried to get the engines back on, but it was too late: there was a crash, and everything went dark…
No! Somehow, he held on to consciousness. Well, awareness, considering he was in the mind of a machine. He began scanning the damage. Lights – offline. Engines – offline. Scanners – offli-- online? It seemed to be flickering, like the machinery was dying but still clinging to a spark of life. An alert had been sent, but none of the Kestora seemed to be responding; probably stunned or killed by the crash.
Teleporters – operational. The Fe-Matoran forced them to skip the typical wait period and retrieve the Toa who’d died on-planet. The way things were going, the Star might not be operational much longer, and he wanted to save as many people as he could. There was some sort of safeguard that prevented the teleport from being immediate, but the wait period could be turned down. Half an hour. That would have to do
Send-back – still inoperational. Something had been jammed into the machines by the impact, a body. A quick check of the scanners told him it was a Toa of Stone, and that he was alive – but not for long. Then the scanner went offline, and this time it didn’t come back. Had it gotten enough to revive him? He had to hope… that it… was…
This time, when he went black, he didn’t awaken again.
The “mind” of the Red Star – offline.
When the Toa came around the corner, Kopaka thought for sure he must be losing it. Because the person running toward them looked exactly like the body behind him. “Pohatu?”
The Toa Nuva of Stone met his gaze. The look in his friend’s eyes sent chills through the Toa Nuva of Ice as he replied.
“What’s a Pohatu?”
Author’s notes: a quick point of clarification, because someone might remember from the last Chapter of Hunted that Chiara points out Lesovikk’s death after the Star’s crash. Lesovikk actually dies before the Star crash, but Chiara doesn’t notice it until after.
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nooooo!!
ooh, interesting.
WHAAAAAAAAAT??
…
this is very confusing. nice job though, I’ll be happy to see more chapters.
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I was about to sue you for killing Pohatu, but I’m glad he’s still around.
Now, the Star didn’t create new bodies, as I recall, that’s why it teleported the dead bodies to the Star.
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