Chapter 08: Out of the dark
Chapter 8: Out of the dark
Onua stood off to the side and quietly watched the confrontation, too shocked to move. This attack had come too fast and the Earth Toa would have never been prepared for it.
Before him, in the candlelit cavern, tears fell like a waterfall from lime-kissed eyes as Lewa kneeled on the ground, hand cradling a soon to be bruised cheek. Towering above him, Tahu stood staring off to the side and breathing heavily, trying to get his anger under control. The scratch on his face glowed brightly green.
“How could you?”, the Fire Toa seethed. “After what we’ve been through, you go and willingly sleep with the enemy?”
The ebony Toa finally snapped out of his daze and took a step forward. “It wasn’t his fault. Lhikuta had him under his control.”
“No, I could see everything happening”, a small, saddened voice spoke up, “I felt every dirty sensation … and yet I did nothing to stop it. I was too weak…” Lewa shakily stood, eyes still cast on the ground. “I knew, I probably wouldn’t be forgiven, but as I sat there crying in the back of my mind, I continued to hold onto a shred of hope that I could be.” A sob passed his lips. “Tahu, I still love you but … something’s changed you.” He looked up with a grief-stricken expression. “If you ever find the Toa I fell in love with … the one who saved me … tell him, I’ll be waiting.”
He ran off and disappeared down the tunnel.
Tahu stayed as he was, not even turning to watch him leave. After a moment, Onua walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder, but it was shrugged off.
“He’s right, you know. You’re not the same. A few minutes ago you’d forgiven him and sworn, that no harm will come over him again. Is there something wrong with you?” He then noticed the bright scratch. “Tahu, that…”, he began to say, but was cut off as a fist connected square with his jaw. The power fuelling the blow sent him spiralling into unconsciousness.
The ruby Toa stood over the downed Toa of Earth as the light along his face faded. He blinked and dropped to his knees beside his friend. “No, what have I done? This isn’t me…”
He knew that he could sometimes be quick to anger, but not that aggressive.
He carried Onua over to his hut and gently placed him on the bed. Then he turned toward the cavern’s exit, nothing but sorrow held in the ruby depths of his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Lewa. It’s really me who should be asking for forgiveness’
With that, he ran after his love, hoping he was back in Le-Koro.
~~~***~~~
As he knocked at Lewa’s door, Turaga Matau opened.
“Can I talk to Lewa?”, Tahu hesitantly asked.
“I’m not there”, a voice mumbled from inside.
Matau smiled slightly at the childlike act and then turned over to Tahu. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He came here with tears in his eyes but didn’t want to talk to me. Maybe you can set things right.” He departed and left the two alone.
Tahu quietly closed the door before walking over to the bed. He sat down and placed a tentative hand on Lewa’s lower back, causing him to jump at the touch and sit up. Their eyes locked for the briefest of moments, and then lime-kissed eyes turned away, filled with hurt, finding the wall a more enjoyable thing to look at.
With only a view of his profile, the bruise on his cheek was more apparent and made the elder frown deeply when he saw it. The Fire Toa reached a hand out to gently caress the discoloration and gave his thanks to Mata Nui when the emerald one leaned into the touch instead of pulling away.
“Look what I did to you. I’m so sorry Lewa. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve just been feeling this foreign anger rise up within me, like a second force taking control of my body. I saw it happen and it was like watching from inside a body that wasn’t my own. It hurt so much not to be able to stop myself and then to see your tears . . .My green angel, I’m so sorry. Please, look at me.” Ruby eyes pleaded morosely. He leaned forward, warm breath ghosting over the bruise and causing the other to shiver a bit.
Ruby lips tenderly met with an emerald cheek, moving along with the slow turn of the younger Toa’s head until their lips were finally allowed to lock. All their pain and hurt and sadness were swept away with that one heart-filled kiss. When they ultimately broke apart, both gasping, Lewa sent a gust of air to close the curtains over the windows, bathing the hut in dark green filtered sunlight. He whispered heatedly in his love’s ear. “Make me yours … and yours alone.”
The Toa of Fire couldn’t have been happier after hearing those words and produced a grand smile. “There’s nothing I’d want more.” Their lips locked in another heated caress while hands wandered to unknown territory, eliciting heavenly moans as they went. Oh how Tahu had longed to run his fingers down those sides, across that lean abdomen, and over perfect hips. The experience and sounds he was able to rip from the other’s throat didn’t disappoint. The only downside to this was the knowledge that he wasn’t the first, but he quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind, not wanting to spoil the moment. It was a fact that would haunt him always. He could forgive, but he couldn’t quite forget.
Lewa felt like he was on fire. Trails of heat were left in the wake of ruby hands, completely different from the feeling he could still remember of Reikuta and he was glad for this. If they were the same, he didn’t know what he’d do. He buried his face in the crook of the elder’s neck, placing tender kisses.
No other words were said aside from the whispered ‘I love you’, spoken in the throws of passion and the cry of each other’s name when they reached their peak. Tahu left his mark in the form of a small bite on the younger’s shoulder, which he hurriedly soothed with a few swipes of his tongue and an affectionate kiss. The Toa of Air was grateful for the indicator, for now it could be shown that he belonged solely to his lover and nothing could ever take that away. They lazily dozed off afterward, cuddled happily in each other’s arms.
~~~***~~~
Onua was heading for Le-Koro. As he found himself awakening on his bed instead of anywhere on the floor of the cavern, he knew that Tahu finally regained his mind and was searching for Lewa.
‘I hate this’, he thought as he climbed into the elevator that brought him up to the treetop village, but he had to do this because he had to talk to Tahu.
As he knocked on Lewa’s door a gladly smiling Fire Toa opened.
“Shh, Lewa’s asleep”, he whispered.
“Oh, that’s good, so you finally managed to calm him down.”
“Uhm … kinda … sorta … yeah …” He quietly closed the door so that they could speak normal.
“Tahu, that scratch you gotten from Lhikuta … it glowed while you were raging. Maybe he’s controlling you too.”
“Yeah, I’ve already thought about it. But how can he control me over that distance? Besides, the light has fully disappeared. Now it’s just a normal scar. Maybe it was only an after-effect…”
“Maybe … but I wouldn’t trust that.”
“Toa Tahu, Toa Onua?”, Matau’s voice was heard from behind, “The other Toa meet at Kini-Nui. Maybe you should be there as well.”
“How comes it”, Tahu wondered, “that every Le-Matoran seems to know everything from all over the island? … Well”, he looked at an imaginary watch, “I think we also should wake Lewa up. He might be interested as well.”
~~~***~~~
Kopaka only raised an eyebrow as the three finally arrived. “You are late again.”
“Well, if you would have sent us a little message, instead of wandering to Kini-Nui, sitting on your ass and waiting for the others to come …”, Tahu started.
Gali got between them. “It’s no time for argumenting. Pohatu has found out something that might be of importance.”
“We’re listening.” Onua nodded into Pohatu’s direction and the Toa of Stone spoke up.
“Ya know, we’ve destroyed Makuta’s old lair. But now I found the caverns down in the old canyon, which I sealed more than two years ago and hoped they’d stay like this forever, reopened. They were once a nest of Makuta’s creatures and will be that again, maybe. After we destroyed his old lair, the Rahi were stopped, so I thought that will work again.” He shrugged. “Well, that was it, just an idea …”
“But a great idea.” Lewa was fond of it.
Tahu still remained sceptical. “This is Makuta, we’re talking about. He must be really stupid, if he comes back to an old lair.”
“He must be a genius”, Kopaka commented, “Mata Nui is full of good hideouts. No one will look for someone at a place he had already hidden at. We too would never have thought of this place if Pohatu had not noticed something.”
“And therefore we have to work together”, Gali triumphed.
Kopaka pouted.
~~~***~~~
“I can remember these caverns were large but not that large … Makuta must have gophers as pets”, Pohatu showed his surprise when they entered one of the caverns.
Once there had been six single caves behind the statues, now they were connected through tunnels and more tunnels and small corridors led away from them, deep down into the canyon.
After some time of just standing and staring, Kopaka walked on. “Enough sightseeing, now we have a mission.”
“I have a baaad feeling ‘bout that”, Tahu mumbled, but still followed the others.
~~~***~~~
“We’re walking around for hours now”, Lewa whined, “Isn’t there any end? It’s late, maybe it’s already night outside, and I’m tired.”
“Stop annoying us”, Kopaka muttered, “We will not give up until we have found any sign that proves us, it is Makuta’s new lair.”
They were now in a hall-like part where tunnels and corridors as many as sunrays lead away.
The emerald Toa suddenly stopped.
“Oh, please, stop acting like a little child!”, the icy Toa grumbled.
“No …”, the younger one’s eyes widened, “I feel grave danger coming …”
“Where he’s right …” A pair of red glowing eyes appeared in a dark corridor.
“Nice to see you again …” Another glowing pair of eyes showed up beside the first one.
“A trap!”, Tahu growled, “We ran right into it!”
“Yes … stupid Toa …” Now the first Rahkshi walked out of the dark, his brothers followed immediately.
Lerahk pointed at Lewa. “Hey, look, there’s our toy gotten. Aw, why’d you run away?”
“Hasn’t Makuta taught you, not to point at people? Don’t even dare talking to him!”, Tahu growled and stepped protective in front of his green angel.
“Have I?”, the green Rahkshi asked sheepishly, “Guess I have.”
“Do you Toa really think, you can defeat us?”, now the red one got the word, “If it needed two of you to win against one of us, what would be, when there’s six Toa versus six Rahkshi. Moreover, we aren’t alone!” The last sentence he said louder as if it was a command. Suddenly a strange rattling and hissing sounded out of one tunnel. Some scorpion-like Rahi were crawling around. Looking like Nui-Jaga, but smaller.
“What’s that?”, Onua asked.
Pohatu’s eyes widened. “You’d know if you lived in Po-Koro … Kofo-Jaga!”
“Mana! In this tunnel are Mana”, Gali cried out, “Only a few of them nearly destroyed the Toa Kaita. Now there’s so many of them!”
“Muaka…”, Lewa whispered and slowly stepped backwards until he stood back to back with Tahu.
“Kane-Ra”, Kopaka said calmly as ever, as if it was only a statement.
Only the way they came from was free of Rahi.
Gali backed away too. “What shall we do now?”
Tahu’s scar started glowing slightly but he turned his head to the side so that no one could see it. “We fight! What else?”
“It would be better, we retreat”, Kopaka meant.
“Retreat?! A Toa will never retreat! He will fight till the bitter end!”
“Please, Tahu, be reasonable. We only have one way to escape and we can’t wait until the Rahi are blocking it too”, Lewa pleaded, grabbing the arm of his love.
The scar glowed a bit less.
‘What am I talking about? This fight is senseless’, it shot through his mind. He started running. “Retreat!”
“Get them!”, a Rahkshi screeched behind them.
Fortunately the Mana were slow and the Muaka and Kane-Ra were too big, so that they had to crouch on the floor to get through a tunnel, what also slowed them down a bit. The Kofo-Jaga would have been faster but they couldn’t get past the other Rahi, which where blocking the tunnel.
“You stupid idiots!”, another Rahkshi shouted out.
Vorahk ordered them back. “We have to get after them ourselves…”
~~~***~~~
“There’s no way to escape“, Gali panted, “We can’t run forever. They will catch up with us everywhere.”
Onua was leading them, but even the with tunnels and darkness familiar Toa had no hope they would get out before the Rahkshi caught up.
The shining green of Tahu’s scratch was pulsating. He suddenly stopped and looked aver to a rafter supporting the tunnel’s ceiling.
The others noticed Tahu’s absence a second later.
“Tahu! Where are you going?!” Lewa shouted after him.
“Go!”
“But, Tahu, we …”
“Just go or shall I force you to!?” the Fire Toa’s voice was full of rage. He ran over to the rafter and slammed through it with his lava sword. Then he ran back where they came from. “Rahkshi! Come out, wherever you are! You’ll never beat me!”
Lewa tried to follow his love, but was hold back by Onua. The ceiling came crashing down and forced the five to back away. As the dust was gone, a pile of rocks was blocking the way to the Rahkshi … and to Tahu.
“NO!” Lewa shouted out and pushed Onua away. He stepped in front of the blockade, tears welling up his eyes.
Onua activated his quake breakers and started digging through the rocks. “There’s still a chance we can save him.”
~~~***~~~
He was struck in the left, then in the right side. The Rahkshi’s weapons slashed through his armour; he was bleeding through several wounds. His body screamed for giving up, for retreat, but he couldn’t. The scratch on his mask was pulsating stronger, spreading hate and rage throughout his body. Vorahk rammed his foot into Tahu’s stomach. The ruby Toa fell on his knees, spitting blood, but was forced up again. He had knocked out Lerahk, but the emerald Rahkshi was the one weak against fire anyway. Now they were still five Rahkshi against one Toa.
“You’d better leave him alone!” Kopaka’s calm but cutting cold voice was heard.
“Aww, is the little Toa worried ‘bout his lover?” Vorahk asked, his voice dripping of sarcasm.
Another slash by Turahk slammed Tahu directly against a wall. He broke down lifeless.
“Tahu!” Lewa jumped forward, but Guurahk stepped in his way. “No, this is the lover!”, he screeched gloating and kicked the lifeless Toa of Fire once more.
“Snap outta it!”, Lewa growled and attacked the blue Rahkshi. As if that was a command, the other Rahkshi jumped into action and attacked the rest of the Toa. Another battle had begun.
A battle with a sudden end. “Our father’s calling for us”, Vorahk shouted out, “We’re not allowed to kill another and shall just leave the others in agony.”
Right in the middle of their fight, they vanished into black smoke.
Lewa immediately ran over to his fallen love.
“Tahu … please … please, say something … do something … whatever …” the emerald Toa gently stroke his cheek, wiped away a trail of crimson. Tears were welling up his lime-kissed eyes again, were dripping down his Miru.
Gali knelt besides him, laid her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. She looked like he felt. “He, s now where only Mata Nui can still protect him…”
Pohatu and Onua fought back their tears. Only Kopaka looked as emotionless as ever, but also his heart was crying.
“Wherever you are …”, the emerald Toa whispered, “… may angels lead you in …”
May angels lead you in
Hear you me my friend
It’s cold out in town, I know
You gave us someplace to go
I’ve never said thank you for that
But I mightn’t get one more chance
What would you think of me now
So lucky, so strong, so proud
I’ve never said thank you for that
Now I’ll never get the chance
May angels lead you in…
Go with love upon your journey
May the lights be here to guide you
Through the terrors of the dark
Can you see me up where you are
Can you hear me when I cry
You have left so much behind you
All that love you have given life
And I wish that I could hold you one more time
