CHAPTER SEVEN
“Norik, wake up! Norik!”
Rahaga Norik groaned as he awoke to Gaaki’s gentle shaking. Lifting his head from the cold stone floor, he looked up to see the other five Rahaga standing around him. The six of them were all cramped together in a small — even for a Matoran-sized being — cell, with thick iron bars preventing them from being able to escape. If Norik had still been a Toa of Fire, he would have easily been able to melt the bars, or even use his Mask of Diminishment to squeeze his way out. Alas, those days were long behind him….
“Are we still in Karzahni?” he asked, rubbing his eyes to clear them.
“Yes,” Gaaki said quietly. “He must have locked us up after… distracting us with that… that—”
“Nightmare?” Iruini supplied. “I mean, I’m guessing you guys saw the same thing I did.”
“The Great Spirit dying as the shadows of the Makuta tear the universe asunder?” asked Kualus.
“Yeah, something like that.”
Norik allowed Gaaki to take his hand and pull him to his feet, before noticing a very major absence. “Where’s Takua?”
“Karzahni must have put him to work with the rest of the Matoran,” said Bomonga. “As much as I hate to say it, I hope he’s just doing what he’s told. I’ve heard stories about what Karzahni does to those who refuse to work for him, and… I wouldn’t wish such fates on my worst enemy.”
Norik frowned as he walked past the others and up to the cell bars, gripping them tightly. “There must be a way out of here,” he murmured. “Perhaps we could use our Rhotuka spinners to—”
Before he could finish, he heard a loud bang come from outside, just down the hallway. What sounded like the screech of a Manas crab followed, accompanied by flashes of lightning that lit up the corridor. In the matter of seconds, the Manas’ screams were silenced and the faint aroma of smoke filled the air.
“There were less extreme ways you could have handled that,” a female voice spoke up; a voice that sounded very familiar to Norik’s ears.
“What did you think I should have done?” retorted another. “Stealthily walk past them? Besides, they’re just going to get in the way after we free the prisoners.”
“Are you sure there are prisoners down here? I mean… wait a minute.”
Footsteps quickly approached the cell the Rahaga were in and, before long, a blue and gold figure appeared behind the bars of the door. A look of confusion crossed the Toa of Psionics’ expression as she gazed upon the small Rahkshi-like beings.
“Wow. I’ve heard that Karzahni did shoddy repair jobs, but I didn’t know they were that bad.”
“Varian?” Norik said, gazing up at the Toa. “Is that you?”
“How do you know my… wait. Norik?” Toa Varian’s eyes widened as they met those of the red Rahaga. “Is that… is that really you?”
“Come on, Varian,” Norik said, chuckling slightly. “You know you don’t need me to answer that.”
A wide grin replaced the perplexed expression on the Psionics Toa’s mask. “You know, to be honest, this is exactly the kind of predicament I always expected you to wind up in.”
“Yeah, nice to meet you, too,” Iruini interjected. “Say, how about you break us out of here before you two get cutesy with each other.”
While Norik glared at Iruini, Varian looked over to the blue and white Toa of Lightning that had accompanied her. “Chiara, do you think you could call Zaria over? I’ve got something for him to do.”
“I thought he was right behind me.” Toa Chiara looked over her shoulder just as another Manas crab — one with its carapace misshapen and warped — was thrown on top of the one she and Varian had taken down. Zaria himself then stepped down into the dungeon, dusting off his hands.
“Did somebody say my name?” the Toa of Iron asked.
“Get over here, metal-head,” said Chiara. “We’ve got some… weird Rahkshi-Matoran to break out.”
“We’re not Rahkshi!” Pouks piped up. “Or Matoran! We used to be Toa, just like you!”
“You guys must have had a pretty bad day, then.”
Kualus cleared his throat. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”
While Varian and Chiara stepped away from the cell, Zaria approached the door and used his elemental powers to bend the metal bars apart, creating a large enough opening for the six Rahaga to get through. As Norik and the others filed out of the cell, a distant crash could be heard through the walls of the dungeon, followed by what sounded like very strong winds tearing the land outside asunder.
“Sounds like me on a bad day,” Iruini muttered.
“Well,” Varian said quietly, “that’s one way of putting it….”
* * *
“WHERE ARE THEY?!”
Lesovikk’s cries were carried by the winds of his storm as they tore through the realm of Karzahni. The crazed ruler and namesake of the realm itself stood in the center of the storm, staring at the enraged Toa of Air as if he was curious specimen rather than the destroyer of his land.
“ANSWER ME!” Lesovikk cried as he aimed his sword and sent a blast of wind in Karzahni’s direction.
The mad ruler crossed his arms and braced himself through the powerful gust, barely maintaining his stance. Once it had passed, he unfurled a set of chains from his hand and lashed them at Lesovikk. The Toa of Air raised his sword to block them only to cry out as they brushed against his arm, sending an intense blast of heat through his armor. This caused him to lose concentration of the cyclone he had been controlling and the winds slowly began to settle.
As Lesovikk tried to shrug off the pain, Karzahni started to approach him, holding his flaming chains in his hands.
“I do wish I could provide you with an answer,” the tyrant said. “But I simply have no idea who you are talking about.”
Lesovikk glared at Karzahni, his eyes burning with hatred. “My friends. Sarda and Idris. Defilak and Dekar. The Turaga of my homeland sent everyone to your realm while I was away. I have spent so many years searching for them, trying to get into your land. I swore to myself that I would find them and free them from your cruelty.”
Karzahni laughed, a harsh sound on the Toa’s ears. “Then you have wasted your time. I sent many of the Matoran I had repaired to the Southern Continent long ago, before I was shunned by the rest of the universe. Whether your friends were among them, I cannot say. I’m not very good with names or faces… especially since I love replacing them.”
Lesovikk’s eyes went wide, staring at Karzahni in disbelief. “You mean… they’re not here.”
“Or they’re dead. Any Matoran who refuses to work gets turned into a statue, and you’ve already destroyed a fair amount of them.” The mad ruler chuckled, a cruel grin twisting across his mask. “That would be painfully tragic, wouldn’t it? For you to come so far, after so long, only to kill the ones you vowed to rescue.”
Lesovikk suddenly found it difficult to breathe. He dropped to his knees, feeling exhausted, as his Air Sword clattered to the ground.
“Imagine that,” Karzahni said quietly, his voice as quiet and cold as the wind. “A Toa murdering Matoran. What would the world think?”
Unable to bring himself to speak, or even to think clearly, Lesovikk said nothing, staring at the ground as painful memories of guilt and sorrow began to wrack his mind.
Suddenly, Karzahni let out a sharp cry of pain and he whirled around to find Toa Arctur and Seldaan, the latter’s hands glowing with superheated gas.
“Ooh,” the Toa of Plasma said, grinning widely. “Somebody didn’t like that.”
Snarling, Karzahni lashed his chains at the two Toa. Seldaan was able to avoid the attack by jumping to the side while Arctur was struck across the mask. While the Toa of Gravity stumbled back, Seldaan came running back towards Karzahni, unleashing blasts of plasma from his hands. Withstanding the attacks, Karzahni pulled his chains taut and swung them at Seldaan. They locked onto the Toa’s armor and began to coil around his arms as he came closer to the mad ruler. As Seldaan skidded to a halt, Karzahni pulled on the chains and drew a long, agonized scream from the Toa of Plasma as the chains burned through his armor. Despite his natural resistance to heat, the sensation was too much for him and he fell to his knees, quickly losing control of his senses.
“No!” Arctur cried out as he charged towards Karzahni, energy blade raised high above his head. He jumped onto Karzahni’s back and drove his blade into the tyrant’s arm, causing him to lose his grip on the chains. By then, however, it was too late as Seldaan had already passed out from the pain and now laid unconscious on the ground.
“Insolent pest,” Karzahni growled as he grabbed Arctur and hurled him off his back. The Toa of Gravity landed where Lesovikk was and the Toa of Air lifted his heavy head to lock eyes with him.
“Arctur.” Lesovikk’s voice was quiet, almost raspy. “Do it.”
“What?” The Toa of Gravity looked at him in confusion before realization set into his eyes. “No. No, Lesovikk, I can’t… I can’t do that. It’s against the—”
“The code doesn’t matter,” Lesovikk snarled. “If it means letting depraved beings like him live, then the Toa Code doesn’t mean Muaka dung. Do it!”
Arctur shook his head, even as Karzahni approached him from behind. “We can beat him, Lesovikk. Without resorting to murder. The Order wants him alive, so we’re going to bring him in alive.”
“I don’t care what the Order wants. They don’t know what he’s done to the Matoran. They don’t know just how dangerous he is.”
“Oh, but you do.” Karzahni cackled as he spun his chains in his hands. “Question is: will any of you live to tell the tale?”
The mad tyrant positioned himself to throw his chains at the Toa… only for his arms to suddenly go slack. His chains clinked together as they fell to the ground before their owner followed suit, landing with a loud thud. The two Toa stared slack-jawed at the immobile form of Karzahni before turning around to see Toa Orde standing nearby, swaying uneasily on his feet.
“Ow,” the Toa of Psionics muttered, clutching his head. “My head….”
With that, he fell to the ground just as Karzahni had. Arctur quickly scrambled to his feet and rushed over to his comrade’s side, leaving Lesovikk alone to gaze upon Karzahni in his comatose state. His eyes slowly drifted to his Air Sword, just within reach. Before he could move to retrieve it and do what he was about to do, he caught movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see the other Toa emerge from Karzahni’s fortress, followed by a group that consisted of freed Matoran and six Rahkshi-like beings that Lesovikk did not recognize.
“By the Great Spirit,” said a blue member of the latter group as she gazed upon the wreckage of what had once been Karzahni’s realm.
“This one is injured,” said a brown one, rushing over to an injured Seldaan. “Gaaki, Bomonga, could you help me with him?”
While the two Rahaga joined their comrade, the remaining three approached Lesovikk and the others along with their Toa rescuers and the Matoran. Noticing Orde’s predicament, Varian rushed over to him while Chiara and Zaria stared down at the comatose Karzahni.
“Huh,” the latter grunted. “I didn’t think it would be that easy.”
“It wasn’t,” Lesovikk muttered, slowly rising to his feet, if a bit unsteadily. “He won’t be like this forever. Could you create some restraints for him?”
Zaria nodded and conjured metal bars around Karzahni, wrapping them tightly around the mad tyrant’s body. Once he was at least slightly confident that Karzahni wouldn’t be breaking out of them any time soon, Lesovikk directed his attention to Orde and walked over to where the Toa of Psionics laid. Varian had used her powers to help him regain consciousness, though he still appeared to be incredibly tired and weak.
“Good work,” Lesovikk said to him with a curt nod. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Toa of Psionics use their powers like that.”
“I had to muster the strength to do so,” Orde muttered. “Kinda hard to concentrate when all hell was breaking loose.”
“I would strongly recommend that you not do something like that again,” Varian said. “At least, not anytime soon. It’s going to be a while before you’re back to full strength.”
“Has anyone seen Takua?” asked one of the Rahkshi-like beings, scanning the ruined land of Karzahni. “He’s a red and blue Ta-Matoran with—”
“Over here!” A blue hand poked out from beneath a pile of rubble. “I’m still alive! At least, I think so….”
Arctur used his gravity powers to lift the rubble off of Takua, freeing the Matoran. After dusting himself off, Takua looked up to see the Rahaga and Toa staring at him strangely.
“What did I do?” he asked.
“Your mask, Takua,” said the red Rahaga.
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Takua raised a hand to his fearsome-looking mask, carefully tracing its rough edges. “Karzahni replaced it and broke my old one. I don’t suppose there’s a more… normal mask lying around, is there?”
“I’m afraid we don’t have time to look for one,” said Lesovikk. “We have to bring Karzahni back to the Order before he regains his strength.”
“Uh, one problem with that,” said Arctur. “Our boat was barely large enough to fit the seven of us. How are we going to fit Karzahni and all these Matoran… and whatever those Rahkshi things are.”
“We were also accompanied by two Toa,” said the blue Rahaga. “They were taken away by the Manas.”
Lesovikk looked to Chiara. “You didn’t find them in the fortress?”
Chiara shook her head. “I mean, we didn’t look that thoroughly because you guys were causing so much havoc. I suppose we could go back in and do another check.”
“Okay, so that would be two more we’d have to fit on the boat,” Arctur said. “I’m not sure if I’m making myself clear, but we’re going to need a lot bigger boat if we want to take everyone with us back to the Order.”
“What about that Botar fellow?” asked Zaria. “He was able to teleport us around, so I don’t see why he can’t do the same here.”
“And just how are we supposed to call him here?” Chiara questioned.
“I don’t know. I guess we just call his name.” Zaria cupped his hands over his mouth as he hollered to the sky. “BOTAR!”
A minute passed and nothing happened. A heavy sigh escaped Lesovikk’s mouth as he dropped himself to the ground, drawing his knees up to his chest and lowering his head.
“I am not having a good day….”
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