Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Kopaka scanned the Star, trying to find Pohatu, or any familiar locations. Unfortunately, all of the lights on the star had gone dark, and even though Kopaka’s mask could see through all the walls, it couldn’t pierce the darkness.
Maybe if he and Ivohku were to fuse, they could combine their mask powers? Could normal Toa even fuse with a Toa Nuva? And were fusions of two Toa even possible? Kopaka wasn’t sure. Regardless, their only current option was to wander blindly until they found a location Quilha recognized.
Kopaka glanced around the base of the Star, looking to see if anyone had managed to escape. He spotted a group of Toa and… Glatorian? To his surprise, Delara was among them.
If Delara’s there, perhaps the piloting chamber isn’t far, Kopaka thought. That was where Delara had been last time Kopaka had seen him. He pointed in the direction of Delara. “That way,” he said.
It took a while to find a side passage in that direction. It sloped downward at a sharp angle, making it tricky to navigate, but at least it led in the right direction. If Kopaka were alone – and if his Ice powers weren’t drained – he would’ve simply frozen the floor and skated down. Ivohku focused his power, and the force of Gravity shifted, allowing them to walk down the slope easier.
There didn’t seem to be any revived beings in this part of the Star. But apparently, it wasn’t completely abandoned. “There’s someone up ahead,” Ivohku said. “Looks like Kestora. They aren’t moving.”
Indeed, as the group got closer, they could see that the small purple-and-black figures lay unmoving in the floor. One of them lay at an awkward angle, and it didn’t look like he’d survived the crash. As for the others, since Kestora lacked Heartlights, it was hard to tell without closer inspection, and Ivohku didn’t really want to get close to the Kestora again.
Kopaka, however, lacked Ivohku’s discomfort with the Kestora. He approached and inspected the Kestora. “Only one dead. The rest are simply unconscious.”
“Do you think… do you think the Red Star can revive them?” Quilha wondered.
Ivohku stopped short of saying “Better if it doesn’t.” He realized that a part of him wanted to see the Kestora die, after what they’d done to the Toa. But that went against the Toa Code. No matter what the Kestora had done, letting them die – or stay dead, in this case – went against what the Toa stood for.
Still, there was nothing saying they couldn’t restrain them. “Kopaka, you want to freeze them?” he said. “So they don’t get up and shoot at us?”
“I still haven’t recharged enough elemental power,” Kopaka replied. “What about you? You can increase their weight.”
“I… I don’t know,” Ivohku said. “If I do it wrong, I could kill them.”
“Allow me,” Hydraxon said. He stepped forward, placing metallic clamps on the Kestora’s arms.
“Where did you get those from?” Ruhko asked.
“They were to restrain prisoners,” Hydraxon said. “I was a jailor, of… of…” Hydraxon faltered.
“The Pit?” Kopaka offered.
“Yes, that was it,” the armored warrior replied. His memories had been damaged by his death, and only meeting Kopaka and Pohatu had helped him start to remember.
“Why don’t we remove their masks?” Mavrah suggested. “If they’re like Matoran, maybe they will be weakened without their masks.”
“I’ve never seen a maskless Kestora,” Ruhko pointed out.
Kopaka nodded in agreement, removing the Kestora’s masks. Out of curiosity, he put one on, but then shook his head and removed it. “They’re powerless.”
Leaving the Kestora behind, the group proceeded onward. Ivohku found himself wondering where the Kestora leader, the one known as Makuta, had wound up. Was she still alive? Did she still have control over the Toa?
Ivohku clenched his fists. Not for long, he thought darkly.
Orde took a step back, staring at the Sound Toa. He should have known Delara would be here.
“You…” Delara groaned. Even though he was blind, he was staring straight at Orde, having heard his voice. “You left me… left me to die…”
Chiara turned to Orde upon hearing this. “What is he talking about?”
Orde remembered the last time he’d seen Delara. The two monsters that had attacked, the fight that went horribly. When Orde realized how outmatched they were, he… he had run away. He didn’t check to make sure Delara was with him, not until it was too late.
“I will follow the Code,” Delara said. “You will die, Orde. Die, die, diediediediedie…”
“He’s gone mad,” Zaria said.
“Can you, I dunno, use your powers? Fix his mind?” Gelu asked.
Orde hesitated, and Chiara glanced at him. Gelu hadn’t been paying attention, or hadn’t heard, when Orde explained what happened the first time he tried to ‘fix minds’ with the Zyglak.
“You’ve been a Toa for millennia since then, right?” Chiara said. “You can do this. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
Orde gazed into Delara’s eyes, or where his eyes would be. He had only worked briefly with the Toa of Sonics, but he still remembered him, all too vividly. Even if his powers didn’t give him a near-perfect memory, he could never forget Delara. There was little left of the Sonics Toa he knew.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll try.”
Orde held up his hand, using his powers to reach into Delara’s mind. Almost immediately, the first thing he saw was a wave of hatred. He hadn’t realized how much anger Delara harbored against him. It was matched by his own guilt, for running and leaving Delara behind.
He looked deeper into Delara’s mind. It was chaotic, broken. At the forefront of it was a repeating mantra: the Toa Code, Toa must kill.
You caused it, Delara’s voice said in his head. Your fault. The reason we were there.
Yes, Orde thought back. It is my fault. I should have been there with you. I should have made sure we both got away.
He swore, after that day, he’d never run again. He’d be the last one to escape, no matter what, even if it meant he died. Or got captured by Dark Hunters, as the case may be. On that day, he’d made sure the Matoran all escaped, and he got himself captured. And he’d do it again. He’d never let someone else take the fall again.
Orde focused. He’d used his powers a lot since the time he’d tried to calm down the Zyglak. He knew what he was doing.
He grabbed onto the broken parts of Delara’s mind, trying to pull them together. Delara resisted, pouring images of his death, of the day Orde ran away, trying to distract him. But Orde focused. He’d failed Delara once.
He wouldn’t fail again.
Chapter 6