Two Hydraxons, now two Pohatus (kind of), and I’m still holding out hope that there’s a second Jaller out there as well. This is getting interesting.
I’m curious as to what this explanation will be as well.
A good question, one of those things I assume is clearer than it is.
In some cases, a new body needs to be made. Pohatu’s body wasn’t that badly damaged, but the Starbrain put it down as “new body” since he wasn’t sure if anyone would be there to bring the body to the revival machines.
I would have stated it more directly in the story, but I wanted it to be more of a reveal when New-Pohatu shows up.
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…eeenteresting.
I suppose that makes sense, especially with the reveal that the Red Star is sapient (or it least it was when it made that decision).
Although I was under the impression that the Red Star still had to teleport the body up to recover the mind to put in a new body; it doesn’t just scan the mind.
Either way, that suggests to me that Pohatu’s original body could still be brought back.
Maybe it does, and that’s why Pohatu isn’t fully back?
Chapter 10
“Who are you?”
The Kestora known as Makuta retreated backwards, just staying out of reach of her attacker’s glowing blades. He wasn’t one of the ones meant to visit this place, that much she knew. He looked more like one of the ones who had made this place.
Whoever he was, he was obviously a threat, and Makuta had a way to deal with threats. She raised her staff, preparing to call upon her army of Toa…
The attacker moved impossibly fast, his sword slamming against her wrist; she yelped and dropped the staff. Then, the other blade came down toward her head, and the last thing she heard before she went black was the sound of her mask cracking.
Atakus stared down at the Kestora leader. Without a heartlight, it was hard to tell for sure, but Atakus doubted he’d killed her. Should he finish her off now?
Then he glanced down at the staff she’d dropped, with the strange crystal atop it. Hesitantly, he bent down and picked it up.
As soon as he did so, he felt power coming from it. The power to control an army. And it had one, an army of… Toa.
Atakus realized he was shaking, though not from the power he felt from the staff. No, he was shaking with excitement. This wouldn’t just make up for his last mistake. With this, there was nothing stopping him and his master from achieving–
Suddenly, there was a loud groan, and the floor beneath him shifted abruptly.
Orde stared intently at the Toa of Stone in front of him, focusing his powers. The Toa of Stone stared back curiously at first, then lost interest and turned to pay attention to the other conversation going on. He wasn’t skilled enough to feel Orde’s psionic investigation, so to him, it just felt like Orde was staring at him.
Finally, Orde stopped and shook his head. “He still… seems like the same person I met three days ago,” he said. “But he has no memories of… well, anything before waking up on the star.”
“Can you fix him?” Kopaka said. “Like you did with Delara?”
“You don’t understand,” Orde said. “His memories aren’t just suppressed, or jumbled. They’re gone. At best, maybe I could plant some memories in there, but…” Orde slumped his shoulders. “I’m sorry.”
“What about his body?” Takanuva asked. “Maybe we could–”
That was when the floor began to shift
“So she just… disappeared?” Hydraxon said. Once the two groups had reunited, Kopaka had taken Orde aside to analyze the new Pohatu, while Zaria and Chiara explained what had happened to their Great Being ally.
“And now the only person who knew how to stop this Marendar thing is gone,” Zaria said.
“Does her buddy know where she went?” Hydraxon said, staring accusingly at Strakk.
The Ice Glatorian raised his hands. “Mind reader guy already asked that, and probed me to be sure. I’ve got nothing.”
“All right,” Hydraxon said. “Well, we need to get out of here, so we can–”
The rest of was cut off when the floor abruptly shifted, and everyone but Hydraxon stumbled.
Mountains are supposed to be immovable. But under the massive weight of the Red Star, even stone would give.
Ever since the Star had landed, the earth and rock holding it in its upright position had been shifting, breaking, crumbling. Until, finally, one of them gave way, and the Star began to tilt toward its final impact, where it would inevitably collapse under its own weight.
And then, suddenly, it stopped.
Kopaka scrambled to his feet.
Ivohku was standing in the center of the room, his arms raised, his eyes closed, face clenched in concentration. He was using his elemental power.
“Can’t… hold…” he groaned. “Get… out… now…”
It took Kopaka only a second to realize what was happening. “We need to go, now!” he barked. “The Star’s about to fall over!”
“No!” Hydraxon said. “We’re not leaving everyone else here again. This time, we’re getting everyone out!”
“There’s no way we can get everyone out of a place this big!” Chiara protested.
“Than we get as many as we can,” Orde said. “We’re Toa. We’ll be the last ones to leave if we have to.”
Kopaka’s mind raced. He had an idea, but it would require everyone to pull off. “Zaria, I need you to open us up a lot of exits in the same area. Delara, I need you to boost my voice, make it so everyone can hear me at once. Takanuva, go with Zaria. Use your power to make the brightest light you can. I’m talking as bright as Matoro with the Ignika.” Kopaka hadn’t seen that bright flash of light, but he’d heard of it from the Av-Matoran Solek.
He turned to Hydraxon. “Go with Zaria. Use your weapons, blast those walls open. Now!” Hydraxon nodded and took off, following Zaria and Takanuva.
Kopaka turned to Delara, and the Sound Toa nodded. “Attention, everyone! The Star is about to collapse. The Toa are here to guide you. Follow the light and get to safety.” With Delara’s power, Kopaka’s voice could be heard everywhere on the Star.
Kopaka turned to the Glatorian. “Gelu, Stra–” but Strakk had already took off, no doubt running for safety as soon as he realized what was happening. “Gelu, get the Matoran to safety.”
He turned to Pohatu. “Do you have your mask power back?”
Pohatu stared blankly at him. “What does my mask do again?”
His words were like an ice dagger to Kopaka’s heart, but one he’d have to think about later. “Never mind, go with Gelu and the Matoran. If you can figure it out, use your power to make sure the escapees can get to the ground. Orde, Chiara, you’re with me.” Then Kopaka shifted over to the Nuva Mask of Speed, and ran off to save as many people he could.
Left behind by the rest of the group, Ivohku stood, concentrating.
He’d gotten lucky, unleashing his power right as the Star began to tip over. It was just barely balanced, just enough for him to hold it up. But that wouldn’t last long. Bit by bit, he could feel it moving, growing heavier as it did so. In less than a minute, it would be too much for him to hold up.
Ivohku couldn’t move, couldn’t breath, couldn’t do anything except exert his power. It he let up, for even a fraction of a second, it would be over. The Star would tip past the point where he could hold it up. He had to hold on, long enough for Kopaka to get everyone out.
There was no way he could make it out. He was sure of it, and he didn’t care. He’d failed everything else since he’d died the first time. He wouldn’t fail here.
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ooo interesting!
The end of this chapter is quite interesting, I’ll be excited to see what happens next!
Nice! I need to keep reading this!
Chapter 11
“I don’t know what they were,” Gali said. “But whatever they were, if they survived that, they’re now here on this planet. We should at least go check it out.” Gali was one of the few people who knew about beings living on the Star. After hearing about the Star’s crash, Gali had called a council among the other Toa.
“I agree,” Tahu said. “The Red Star was made by the Great Beings just like the Robot, but we know so little about it. What if those people are like the Matoran?”
Toa Helryx, leader of the Order of Mata Nui, was also present. Gali’s news troubled her. She remembered some ancient legends about the Star having some other purpose, though she couldn’t recall what it was, as she’d never verified the legends. “I have someone who can get you to the Star’s location quickly,” she said. “Nuukor, one of Botar’s kind.”
“Garan’s Matoran salvage and rescue crew already came to me and asked if they should go to the Star,” Onua said. “I told them it might be dangerous. We shouldn’t send them alone.”
“I’ll go,” Gali said.
Lesovikk almost passed by the horde of Toa, until he saw her. He turned, about to shout her name…
It was a Toa of Lightning, wielding a trident, wearing an angular mask; but it wasn’t her. The mask was different, as was the trident, and the armor was unfamiliar.
Of course it isn’t, he thought to himself. She’s dead. They all are. But then, so was he, wasn’t he? He’d died and been brought back by this place. That was what that small purple thing had claimed when he’d interrogated her. He hadn’t believed her, but now… some of these Toa looked ancient, and there were more here than there had been at the battle of Bara Magna.
It didn’t make sense, but if there was even a chance that Nikila and the others were alive, he had to take it. He slipped into the horde of Toa; none of them paid him any mind. He didn’t know where they were going, but he’d find out. And he’d find out if his team was there.
In the woods of Spherus Magna, two Turaga sat, waiting. They had nowhere to go, no familiarity with these woods. Botar stood, dutifully watching them, ready to teleport away at the first sign of danger.
He wasn’t expecting someone else to teleport straight to him, however. All of a sudden, several people appeared next to him, and he jumped back, startled. He was just about to teleport away with the Turaga when he heard a familiar voice say his name.
Lesovikk followed the Toa out one of the exits. None of them had spoken, none of them had reacted to him, even when he tried getting their attention. He’d even tried tripping one at one point, but the Toa had just gotten back to his feet and continued walking. What was with them?
Finally, they reached their exit. Strakk was there, staring befuddled at the horde of Toa going by. Nearby, he could see Zaria and Hydraxon working on opening up the walls of the Star, with a group of Matoran, Gelu, and Pohatu nearby. One of the Matoran called out something upon seeing the Toa, but none of the Toa reacted. Lesovikk followed the Toa into the woods.
It was at that point that night began to turn into day.
“What should we do?” Quilha asked. “Should I follow them?”
“You want to follow a horde of mind-controlled Toa into unfamiliar woods, in the middle of the night?” Mavrah said. “And you say the Toa are reckless.”
Quilha realized he had a point; she was still in the mindset of being trapped on the Star.
“Besides, a group that big is sure to leave a trail,” Ruhko pointed out. “We can worry about that later.”
Takanuva had never done anything like this before.
He hadn’t been there when Matoro used the Ignika, but he’d heard about if from the Av-Matoran: a bright flash of light, so bright it could be seen through solid walls, so bright it could be seen even when you closed your eyes. Takanuva doubted that he could’ve made a light nearly that bright as a Toa. But as a Toa Nuva, maybe there was a chance.
He held his twin staffs up. Like his old Power Lance, they amplified his power. “I suggest you guys avert your eyes when it starts getting bright,” he said to the rest of his companions.
And then, he began to unleash his power.
“Turaga Jovan?”
“Turaga Lhikan?”
“Botar?!”
Almost all at once, Garan, Gali, and Nuukor all spoke, incredulous at the sight of one they thought was dead.
“I-if Lhikan is – and Botar are th-the other two,” the grey Turaga said, “then I g-guess Jovan must be me?”
Turaga Lhikan nodded. “It seems you know me, but I don’t know you,” he said to the Toa Nuva of water.
“But… they told me you were killed?” Nuukor said.
“I KNOW Jovan was killed,” Garan said, suspicion creeping into his voice. “I saw his body, after the Great Earthquake.”
“It seems they don’t know about the Star’s true purpose either,” Lhikan said. “It would appear that we have much to discuss. But first–”
“What’s that?!” one of the other Matoran cried, pointing up into the sky. Lhikan turned and looked up. Next to the Red Monolith, a light had appeared in the sky, growing brighter by the second…
The light could be seen for miles around. It wasn’t nearly as bright as the Ignika flash had been, but it was bright enough to be seen all throughout the star, in the darkest hallways. As Kopaka had ordered, those who could move began to head towards it. Those who could not sometimes found aid from those who could; others suddenly vanished, sped away by Kopaka, Chiara and Orde.
Finally, the Star began to tip faster and faster, and Kopaka knew they’d done all they could. The three Toa raced to the nearest exit, realizing too late that the exit was far over the ground, but Kopaka was able to switch to the mask of Levitation in time to catch them and lower them safely to the ground.
Just as they landed, the Star slammed down onto the ground, and there was an impossibly loud groaning of metal as it collapsed. No one inside could have survived.
The Toa had done all they could.
Quilha gazed around at the sea of faces, some familiar, many more unfamiliar. It was nowhere near everyone who’d been trapped on the Star. There was simply no way to evacuate such a massive space station in the time they had. Were it not for Ivohku, they wouldn’t even have gotten this many out.
“I estimate maybe ten percent – no, less than ten percent of the people made it out,” Ruhko said.
“Don’t forget about the Toa,” Mavrah added. By now, the horde of Toa had long gone.
“I took them into account,” Ruhko said. “There were probably three hundred Toa in that group, maybe a little less.”
Scanning the escapees, Quilha spotted a group of Kestora, looking very lost and confused. The one known as Makuta didn’t seem to be among them. Had she taken the Toa and left? Where would she go?
Finally, she spotted them: Kopaka, Chiara and Orde, walking away from the wreckage of the Star. Kopaka was carrying one last escapee, an unfamiliar Ta-Matoran. “Ivohku?” she asked, and the Toa of Ice shook his head. The Toa of Gravity hadn’t made it out.
Orde looked around at all the people they managed to rescue. “Well, now what?” he said. “What shall we do with all of these people?”
Before Kopaka could answer, he saw someone else appear suddenly, teleporting into view. It was Botar, along with the two Turaga. With him was another being who looked almost just like Botar, a group of Matoran, and a familiar Toa of Water.
Gali glanced around at all the people surrounding her brother. Among them was Hydraxon, who she’d just spoken to at the villages, looking like he’d lost a few fights since she’d last seen him. Then there was the team that she, Tahu, and Onua had assembled to look for the Great Beings. And… was that Takanuva? The Toa of Light looked different from the last time she saw him. He had a bad habit of doing that.
“Well,” she said when she finally found her voice again. “Something tells me there’s a very long story behind all of this.”
A few minutes later, Gali stood with Kopaka, Takanuva, and a few others in a temporary structure made out of the ruins of the Star. Outside, the revived people were milling about, not sure what to do or where to go. Fortunately, most of them seemed willing to listen to the Toa Nuva, seeing as they had been the ones to rescue everyone from a place they’d been trapped for so long. Garan’s crew was digging through the Star to see what they could manage to salvage.
“Even with Botar and I working together, it’ll take us two, maybe three days to take everyone back to the villages,” Nuukor said quietly. His teleportation power was great, but it had its limits.
“And then there’s the matter of reintegrating them into society,” Chiara added. “Everyone back home thinks all these people are dead. And none of these people know about what happened to Mata Nui and the old world. It’s gonna be rough for everyone.”
“We’ll have everyone stay here by the remains of the Star for now,” Gali said. Zaria had already gotten to work making shelters for the survivors with the metal of the Star.
Takanuva sighed. Not long ago, he’d been in charge of overseeing the evacuation of everyone from the old Matoran Universe to this new world. And now, he had a similar momentous task before him. And there were new troubles as well – the body of the Kestora known as Makuta had been found, without her staff. The horde of Toa had left a trail into the woods, but no one had followed them yet, though Strakk claimed he’d seen Lesovikk among them. There was no sign of what had happened to Fierah. They no longer had any way of stopping Marendar.
And he couldn’t get his mind off of the Toa Nuva of Stone standing outside. Pohatu, but with none of the memories of his time with the other Toa Nuva.
The trouble on the Star was over… but it seemed that just like Makuta’s defeat, this ending was only another beginning.
To be continued…
9 Likes
Ooh the next part is gonna be awesome!! This chapter was pretty good.
I’m not sure how I missed Chapter 10 being posted. Before I read Chapter 11, it still seemed like Pohatu’s original body (and memories) could be brought back, but after the collapse of the Star, I’m not so sure. I’ll be interested to see how Pohatu redevelops his friendships, especially with Kopaka.
When would Jovan have met Botar?
This means that The Monolith is done, right?
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Whoops, that’s supposed to be Nuukor (Botar’s replacement) saying Botar’s name.
(I rearranged the order of the names at the last minute to match who was speaking, so that slipped past editing)
Yep. The next story is probably going to go back to Lewa.
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Ooh interesting…
Nice try, but everybody knows that Botar’s replacement’s name is Botar’s replacement
5 Likes
Finished to read this yesterday.
And because life keeps getting in my way, I wasn’t able to write much, but I always wanted to, so here are my thoughts on the whole thing pretty briefly:
- Nice Character/Backstory development for Ivohku, albeit short. Will miss the guy, I kind of liked him=(.
- Always imagined the Star being the same “rusty metal” color as the GSR, and then you described it as that huge red thing and it just blew my mind somehow. As if the Death Star was all stadard Lego Red instead of grey. I probably sound funny.
- Delara is sane again - cool (Also, gee, how many Toa with “someone died/was captured because of me” backstory we have… not a minus to the story, as it all comes together, but a fun fact).
- Good explanation for Inika
- Cool uasge of Atakus’ glowing blades (oh, I am so sure that he has escaped the Star…)
- I see what a pain it is to explain everything that happenned in different stories to every character to keep everyone up to date - you did great.
- Star being sentient is a very elegant way to explain stuff.
- The final destruction of the Star seems a bit forced, but absolutely necesary, because reviving everyone isn’t the way. Probably it makes some sense - just like GSR didn’t totally crash immediately, but was dismantling slowly, the Star survived the impact and was slowly collapsing under its own weight (but for a rather short time, because it is smaller).
- So sad =(, but the number seems kinda belivable and story-compatible.
Maybe they will find someone in the debris? - It’s great to have even more different groups of characters joining together. 3 (4?) Toa Nuva in one place (and maybe the next story is about Lewa) seems like getting back to a Toa team-specific story, which I kinda miss after several “miscellaneous characters”-oriented books.
Overall, I am just happy that this Project lives and I totally wait for the next book!
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I was rereading the full story, and I just realized something: how did Lesovikk come back?
I know that the Red Star teleported him onboard after he died, but the teleport didn’t occur until after the Star crashed, and it wouldn’t automatically revive him. Were there somehow still Kestora operating the revival tech? How did Lesovikk have time to interrogate a Kestora?
Now that I think about it, the same question goes double for Pohatu; the Star didn’t even have time to retrieve his entire mind. How did it make him a completely new body?
EDIT: I’ve put some thought into it, and maybe come up with an answer. Could the above-mentioned revival and body-making machines continue to work automatically without direct input from the Fe-Matoran “brain”, as long as they had instructions?
SECOND, UNRELATED EDIT:
Is this just an error, or is there something special about Makuta?
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It’s not entirely automatic, but yes, the brain was only needed to give the instructions (and to force things to go quicker). Enough Kestora survived the crash (and either weren’t knocked out or re-awoke) to make sure the revival of the two Toa went through, and then one got interrogated by Lesovikk. They were probably confused by the giant impact and the subsequent failure of, well, everything, but since they aren’t “awakened” like the MU inhabitants, they defaulted to their programming and continued doing their jobs as well as they could.
The machine that was scanning his mind broke before the scan could be completed. At least one machine that could make a new body was still operational (though it’s probably broken now).
Some clarity on the timeline of events, perhaps:
- Minutes after the Star crash, Pohatu is scanned, and then the Star dies
- Kopaka and co. are able to teleport directly to the Star and get inside fairly easily, but due to the size of the star, it takes them a while to get to where they need to be.
- The TYQ Toa take a few hours to reach the Star. During this time, Lesovikk’s body gets teleported. Lesovikk’s injuries are fairly easy to repair (for the Red Star, at least)
- Pohatu has a new body made during this time. The technology to do so is relatively simple, albeit more time-consuming than the patch-up job needed for Lesovikk.
Now, I’m going to be honest: had I planned this scene ahead of time, I would have had Lesovikk’s body disappear minutes after the Star’s crash (so it would have happened at the end of Hunted). The explanation would have been that the Star’s Brain forced the teleportation to happen immediately, instead of waiting a couple hours. This would have given Lesovikk plenty of time to be revived and interrogate a Kestora. However, when I wrote the last chapter of Hunted, I didn’t know how this story was going to play out (I had a rough idea, but not all the details).
So yes, a lot of things have to work out quickly, and conveniently, for it to play out. I would call this a consequence of splitting the Red Star story in two and having two other stories in the middle that wind up being related. I still made it work (at least, as far as I have figured), just a little more contrived than I would like.
That is just an error, I forgot I’d said they lacked heartlights. Thanks for pointing that out, I’ve rewritten it slightly.
(also just noticed that I’m inconsistent with my capitalization of heartlight; inconsistent capitalization is unfortunately one of my biggest writing flaws)
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To be honest, this is how I thought it had happened. I never saw any specification for exactly when Lesovikk’s body disappeared, and this made it seem like the Fe-Matoran brain had forced the teleportation to actually happen before dying, rather than just telling the machines to eventually teleport someone who was outside of the Robot:
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Okay, I even reread the scene you’re quoting to make sure I knew what I was talking about, but somehow missed that part. I forgot I wrote that, and apparently didn’t realize the issues it would cause:
That would push the timeline in the opposite way: Orde tells Fierah about Velika, they notice Lesovikk’s death and decide to go to the Star, they set off and Zaria starts making them new weapons, all in a few minutes (like, it’s supposed to be like two or three minutes).
My compromise is this: there is a minimum amount of time for the teleport to take place, due to some sort of safeguard. The Brain pushed it to the minimum for Lesovikk (maybe like a half hour). This means that all the events at the end of Hunted/the beginning of this story have time to take place, and then Lesovikk has time to be brought back and do stuff. I’ll also go back and add a note about that in the chapter itself.
I do appreciate you pointing out these inconsistencies. Even when I have to go back and fix stuff, or come up with explanations, it’s still helping me to improve the story.
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