Chapter 18: A feeling cold as ice
Chapter 18: A feeling cold as ice
Kopaka slowly opened his eyes. Around him freezing coldness and dim light, but as Toa of ice he just noticed the twilight.
He hissed in pain when he leaned on his right arm to get up. A little streamlet of crimson dripped off his shoulders over his upper arm. As it had not yet dried it was unlikely he had been out cold for too long.
He looked around. An empty room made of smooth stone, a door of metal but nothing else. As far as he could see he was alone. And whoever brought him in here now had his weapons. At least his shield was still on his back.
Where were Gali and Sasha?
A sudden feeling as if he had swallowed ice cubes spread through his belly.
“No”, he said to himself, “Don’t blame it all on you. It is not just your fault. What else could we have done?”
His gaze went around again, this time with x-ray vision turned on.
And then he saw her, Gali, the room next to his, sitting against the wall, arms clasped around her knees, shivering.
For a short time he forgot about the pain in his shoulder, robbed over to the wall and leaned his head and hands against it.
“Gali”, he whispered, then remembered that there was still a wall between and repeated it a bit louder. He wasn’t shouting, just talking like a normal Toa but the volume of Pohatu’s and the sound of his voice together sounded as if he was yelling her name.
The sapphire Toa looked up. “Kopaka?” She followed his voice, leaned against the wall too there where she believed he was. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re still alive.”
Kopaka moved a bit sidewards so that they were now really sitting face to face, leaning as close to each other as possible without being able to touch.
“Is Sasha somewhere with you? Do you know where she is?”, he asked although he could see the answer by himself. Just to say something, just to give her the assurance that somebody was still there.
She was still freezing badly and he wished he could at least heat up the wall.
“No”, she slowly shook her head, “I don’t know. All I can remember is that you were hit by his staff and that this platform was still too far away. But I think we made it to it nevertheless. I felt that I hit something rocky. The next thing that I know is waking up here alone…”
Her eyes started flickering but she tried to fight it down.
Kopaka knew how she was feeling now. Being locked up alone in a dark, cold room must be the worst thing for a Toa who had always tried to keep the team together, who had always preached them ‘United we stand, divided we fall’.
He placed his right hand where her left one was, ignored the pain in his shoulder, only silently cursed the wall between.
“They have taken your weapons too?” Another unnecessary sentence. He saw it. It was just to prevent her from the feeling of being all alone.
Damn, why is this coming over me now? Could it not have been before?
Before she could answer he started again, “Will our elemental powers still work without weapons? You have always been the brain of our team. What would you say? Is it worth a try?”
Gali took a deep breath. “Do you remember when the Kal took our elements? We still used our weapons … so I think they are independent from each other. But I can’t use water in here. It’s too cold for an water attack and without my axes I would need any liquid near me…”
The door to Gali’s cell suddenly slammed open. She whirled round, eyes widened as she saw the two creatures coming in.
“Hello, little Toa, wonder where your friends are?”, Lhikuta sneered, “Don’t worry, you will see them soon … as long as you come with us.”
Gali backed away as far as possible.
“Aww, are you afraid of me?” Hakann chuckled while slowly stepping up to her. “Don’t be. When I move for the kill I normally do it fast and painless.”
“Get away!” Now she was not only trembling because of the coldness.
Fear. Kopaka knew this Rahkshi attack too well. He had made acquaintance with it already. But it was from a real Rahkshi.
“Leave her alone!”
Hakann’s head shot into Kopaka’s direction. Could he see him or was he just following his voice.
“Don’t get impatient. You will be next.”
Everything the ivory Toa could do was watching as the two dragged out Gali. She tried to struggle free. Useless.
“Kopaka!”
He slammed against the door only causing his other shoulder to hurt. The three slowly vanished out of his vision.
“Gali…”
Slowly he sank down on his knees.
She hadn’t even been able to attack them, because she needed water. He stared at his hands as if he never had seen them before. An icy fire glowed up in his ice blue orbs. His element just needed freezing coldness…
He laid his hands on the door.
“Ikuta beware, I am back …”
~~~***~~~
Rushing through unknown corridors he didn’t know where he was going exactly, just followed his feelings, didn’t notice pain or the Nektann on his way.
He could have never believed it but it had been easy to shatter the door with ramming his shield against it after freezing it.
The Nektann attacked him but he just tried to evade it. No time for a fight. And by the way, there was only a very little amount of enemies around. It wouldn’t be a problem to escape from here, with or without them. The bigger problems were the Piraka and the Ikuta.
A Guard’s beam hit him in the back, leaving a burning wound. Kopaka shot round, crushed his shield through the Nektann’s body. Steel connecting steel.
But even that didn’t keep him up any longer.
One enemy more or less, he didn’t care. The thoughts in his head were spinning around the same thing. He now had only one destination. Gali.
~~~***~~~
The Toa of water was still trembling of fear. She tried to calm down herself a bit although she knew there was hardly a way out of this Rahkshi attack. Only one Toa was once able to brake through it: Kopaka. But she also knew that a frightened Toa wouldn’t be much of help.
The two creatures had brought her into a room a bit bigger than her former cell.
At least she saw Sasha again. The young Matoran was brought in by a couple of Nektann.
Immediately after the spiders let her free, she ran over to Gali.
“What are they planning?” she whispered. Her body was shaking too but it was more the coldness that made her shiver than the fear.
The sapphire Toa could only shake her head. She didn’t know, and never wanted to know.
“So you still keep it a secret where the Guardian is? How cool … Then let’s just see how much cooler you chicks can still get”, Lhikuta sneered. “Thok, we need more energy.”
They hadn’t seen the second Piraka by now. Possible that he was still staying outside the room.
From one second to another the temperature of the room fell rapidly.
Hakann and Lhikuta were still standing on the same place and watched over their prisoners. The coldness had no effects to them. Hakann was a fire element and Lhikuta, well, hard to say what he really was, at least he was red.
Gali and Sasha had sunken down to their knees, holding each other as close as possible. As water elements they were supposed to die within the next minutes … or just seconds.
