One Destiny   von Aqua111
                                  (Bionicle)
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                    Kapitel 32: Chapter 32: Old new friends
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Chapter 32: Old new friends

A little Ga Aronan girl was running over the market place. She still had a lot
of time but this was her first day at Turaga Tarja’s school and she didn’t
want to miss a single thing. Only a few meters away from school something
suddenly caught her eyes. She slowed down a bit and went closer. There was
another little Matoran, a black one, about her age. He was sitting on a stone
and stared at the building as if he was afraid of entering.
“Uhm … hello, are you new here too?” the little sapphire girl asked.
The boy winced and shot her a look. His crimson eyes held scepticism and fear as
if he was awaiting an attack.
She now remembered something her parents told her before she left. In her grade
there would be a boy she shouldn’t speak to. A strange mix form with red eyes
and black body. But they didn’t want to tell her why she should avoid him. She
was only able to go to this school because her parents trusted in the Turaga.
Could this be the one?
They were staring at each other. The boy now looked a bit unsure but after she
did nothing to attack him he at least had lost his fear.
But why should she stay away from him? This was just a little boy, a child like
her.
She reached out a hand. “Shall we go in there together? My name is Gali. What
are you called?”
He looked at her a little bit longer with his unsure gaze then he slowly took
her hand and answered, “Tupua.”

~~~***~~~

Gali’s thoughts slowly returned to the swamp and the Toa in front of her.
“Tupua … is that really you?”
He slowly nodded but before he could say anything something else came flying
over Gali’s head. A Toa of golden and white crashed against Tupua.
The dark Toa was trying to get the attacker off him while trying to push away
the sword held close to his neck the same time.
“Get away from her and back where you came from”, the golden one growled.
“Stop it! Both of you!” Gali was surprised by the strength of her own voice.
Both Toa looked at her with astonishment too.
“He is not an enemy. He’s a Toa who saved me from … from an attacker
before. And besides I know him for a very long time. So get off him, whoever you
are.”
The golden Toa got up again. “It’s me, Takua. Sorry for that attack, pal.”
He reached out a hand to help Tupua up but he ignored it and got up without
assistance.
“So you are Takanuva, the new Toa of light”, Gali said, “We had not time
to get to know you. But why are you here?”
“Vakama said that you might need my help down there so I tried to find you.
The swamp looked more appealing to me than that gorge with its darkness. Not
even my light got through it very far and I didn’t want to go there all alone
without knowing if I would even find one of you.” He looked over to Tupua.
“But it seems like I’m not the only new Toa.”
“I’m Tupua, just Tupua. Don’t get the idea of calling me Tupunuva or
something cheesy like that. I was chosen to be a Toa of shadow.”
“So you’re a rookie too, huh?” Takua said and pointed at his Kanohi,
“Have you found out how to use it yet? I only know how to use my other
powers.”
Tupua shook his head.
“It often takes a long time to find out the Kanohi’s power”, Gali said,
“Often it reveals it the first time in case of danger. But you can also try to
train it.”
Both new Toa looked at her waiting if she knew something more should tell them.

The Toa of water now suddenly noticed how tired she actually was. Her limbs were
hurting and without the supporting root in her back she would have fallen down
into the water. Tupua noticed it and rushed over to her or at least it looked as
if he was trying to rush but was blocked by mud.
“Are you alright? I hope this creep hasn’t hurt you too much.”
He picked her up even if he sank deeper into the mud now and waded back to
Takua.
“What creep? What actually happened here?” the Toa of light asked with a
gaze at Gali. He had noticed her wounds for the first time now.
“I tell you later”, Tupua said, “First we need to find a place where she
can rest.”

~~~***~~~

Gali woke up to the sound of a voice. It had been there for a longer time but
she still had been in a half-sleep and not really noticed it. Although it still
sounded a bit rough it was now more recognizable as Tupua’s voice.
“It can bring light to even the darkest places. Mine is not a Kanohi of shadow
because that can’t be used as storage for a god of light so it’s … let me
take a look … here, this looks much like it, a Kanohi Manawa, the Kanohi of
heart. It’s said that it can make you look behind the façade and directly
into people’s hearts. Wondering why I got that.”

Tupua and Takua were sitting close to her. The dark Toa was holding something
that looked like a very old book. Gali now noticed that the floor under her
didn’t feel wet. Around her there was a kind of wall or more a ruin of a wall.
The others now saw that she had woken up.
“I hope you feel a bit better now”, Tupua said, “You still shouldn’t
move too much though you’ve healed fast during the past few … hours? …
days? I can’t tell. It seemed to be so long but still so short since we
brought you here. Down here I’ve completely lost my sense for time.” He
looked around. “I have found those ruins earlier. They are on a kind of hill
and much drier than the rest of this place. Matoran used to live here. Matoran
of shadow.” He lifted up the book. “I was trying to find out some more about
those lands and have started to translate some of the old texts. Had to be very
careful because this looks like it could fall into pieces every second. But at
least we now know a bit more about our masks. And I know what the people here
would have looked like. It says that the Matoran of light were very colourful
while the Matoran of shadow were more like Makuta himself in Matoran form. Now I
finally know it. I’m not a mix form. I’m one of the last remaining Matoran
of shadow if not the last. And Taka seemed to be a Matoran of light.”
Gali sat up a bit. She still felt weary but at least her limbs didn’t hurt as
much as before.
“There had been other Matoran too? But where are they now?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far by now but I don’t think I
would know it after finishing because the last few sentences of it tell about a
war between the gods and that Mata Nui is trying to get the Matoran out of Karda
Nui. That’s all and we won’t find anything more about it in Karda. I now
want to find out more about the land. Maybe there’s something that can help us
find Mata Nui or defeat Makuta. I know that we don’t have much time and should
find the others and that I can’t take this book with me, but Taka can copy
most of the pages into his Book of Chronicles. Then I can read it again
later.”

Gali now looked into the book too. She was able to read the letters but she
didn’t understand the words. On the page Tupua had stopped now she could see a
kind of drawing that looked like a beautiful garden in a cave.
“What is that?” she asked. “Does the text say something about it?”
“This once was part of the light village. It was surrounded by gardens like
the shadow village always was surrounded by forest. It used to be where now that
gorge is Taka had seen. The land once was flat with just a few hills.” He
turned a few pages as if he was searching for something. “I think I’ve read
that during the war between the gods Mata Nui took away part of the land and
created an island, a kind of sanctuary where he wanted to get the people to and
then lift it up that high that only flying enemies would be able to get up to
it. But flying evil creatures were rare back then. That could explain that
gorge. But this book ends before the Matoran started to move on that island. It
isn’t even known if it started floating after all.”
“Could it be …”, the sapphire Toa started. She and Tupua shared a gaze and
it was obvious they had the same thought.
“Aro Nui…”, the dark one said, “It is Mata Nui’s sanctuary.”
“Wait a minute”, Takua suddenly said, “You said the village of light was
where now the gorge is. What if Mata Nui never left this place? I mean when I
was looking down there I just saw darkness. Not even the light of my sword could
get through it. This is like Makuta has taken this place as his new home. And I
don’t think he wanted to move away too far from his brother.”
“And that means”, Gali continued, “we will have to go down. The swamps are
the wrong place to search.”
Takua stood up. “I will go and look for the others. I think some of them are
down in the canyon right now. They shall stay where they are. As soon I’ve
found them I’ll get back and lead you to them.”
“But how will you find them?” the Toa of water asked, “Have you looked
around you? This is a giant place.”
“Whenever a Toa needs to find the others he will find them. Otherwise I
wouldn’t have found you so fast. You two should better search for the others
who are somewhere in the swamps too. If you want to, try following me into the
darkness afterwards. We will meet again. “He smiled. “Do you still remember
Gali? ‘Look for me in your dreams.’ Maybe today this strange connection will
work again.”
“Good luck, chronicler”, Gali said.
He just nodded, then turned and left the ruins.
“We should still stay here for a bit longer”, Tupua suggested, “At least
until you feel fit enough to walk longer distances.”
The sapphire Toa laid back again. She still felt tired. So tired.

Had she slept for a few hours or just minutes, she didn’t know but she felt
much better now. Tupua was standing beside her, his bow glowing in his hand.
“What’s the matter?”
“Something fiery shot out of the trees just a few seconds ago. I didn’t seem
to be very far from here.”
“Fiery? This could be Tahu’s sign. I’m wondering if he’s in danger again
or just wanted to tell us where he is right now.”
“If he’s in danger he has brought it up here too. But this didn’t look as
if he needed help.”
The Toa of darkness reached out a hand and helped his friend up.
“If you’re already strong enough we can get to them.”

~~~***~~~

“It never seems to rain on those hills”, Tahu said. He was sitting on a
stone not far from the ruins and tried to get some wet plants off his body.
“Do you have any clue how long we have already been in Karda?” he asked Onua
who was sitting next to him and observing the landscape, “I meant, it feels
like many days and just a couple of hours the same time.”
“I know as much as you. Even if I used to live under the earth and never had
suns, moon or stars as help to count the time. But under the earth an hour at
least just feels like an hour and a day feels like a day. Whenever we have
stopped to sleep a bit I couldn’t even tell how long we slept. Seconds?
Minutes? Hours? Maybe days? Sometimes I felt like I’ve slept a day and still
felt tired, sometimes I thought just a few seconds have passed but I felt fit
like I’ve never felt before.”
Tahu lifted up his head. “I hear someone coming.” His hand wandered over to
his sword then he relaxed again. “They are Toa.”

Gali waved them as soon as she saw them but she didn’t dare to call in case
enemies were around. But the shadows hadn’t been seen for a very long time
now.
When they finally reached Tahu and Onua the sapphire Toa started speaking again.
“Holy gosh, Tahu, what have you thought running away like that? You could have
led us into even greater danger. You are lucky that you’re still alive.”
But Tahu’s and Onua’s eyes now wandered over to Tupua.
“Who the Makuta is that?” the ruby Toa asked.
“Sorry fire-spitter that I’ve forgotten to put my name tag on”, he got as
answer.
“You? That pesky Matoran?” he asked surprised but it didn’t sound as if he
wanted to start and attack with it.
“Pesky Toa, if you wouldn’t mind.” The Toa of shadow grinned.
“But why …”
“Like you I was born to be a Toa but I needed some extra kick in the ass to
change. Just like Takanuva.”
“Oh, yes, Takanuva is down here too. He is out to inform the others”, Gali
said, “And we should meet them because in this swamp we won’t find
anything.”
Tahu lifted up his hands. “Whoa, slow down. My head is overloading. Tell us
from the beginning on, not somewhere in the middle so that we can follow you
too.”
The Toa of water sighed. She would have wanted to break up to the gorge
immediately but then again the others should be informed about the plans that
have been made before too so she sat down and told from the time on she and Onua
had been separated. And this time she said Lewa’s name when she came to the
part with his attack. “He was controlled somehow that’s obvious and when
Tupua came and attacked him he fled into the direction where the gorge is. But
that’s not the only reason why we should go into the darkness.”
When it came to Lewa Tahu wanted to know so many more things but he didn’t
interrupt Gali because he wanted to know the whole story first before getting
into details. His thoughts were drifting away more and more although he tried
his best to listen to every detail Gali had to tell. He was asking himself if
his little green angel was alright.

~~~***~~~

Lewa was stumbling through dark caves. His whole body was hurting but it
wasn’t from the fight. It felt like he was ripped apart from inside. He just
wanted to get to his master fast. For sure he could heal him.
The Rahkshi hissed at him somewhere in the dark but he didn’t care. Right now
he had more important things to do than starting an open fight with a
colleague.

Makuta was standing in front of one of the strange windows staring into the
darkness but he turned around when he heard Lewa coming.
“You are back already? What has happened?”
“I attacked one of the Toa like planned”, the green Toa pressed out. The
pain inside was getting stronger again and he didn’t know why. “But then
another Toa I’ve never seen before come out of nowhere.”
“There you see how tricky a Toa can be. You can never trust them because then
they will attack you from behind.”
Lewa didn’t say anything. He thought about the fact that the other Toa
hadn’t even tried to attack him and he didn’t believe that she had called
the other one for help. His thoughts were torn back to Makuta’s words. No, the
last thing he should do now was thinking good things about other Toa. His
loyalty belonged to his master.
“The darkness can heal your wounds”, he heard Makuta say. “Just wait a bit
then you will be able to go out again. You have strength, I know it.” He
looked out of his window again. “There are a few Toa very close to my lair. I
don’t think there’s another one who can attack you from behind again. Rest a
bit, then you can take care of them.”
Lewa nodded then turned and disappeared into the darkness.

“Why are you so nice to him?” Lerahk’s hiss came out of nowhere, “All
your other creatures you treat like a Hikaki in your flower bed.”
“He’s strong willed. If I make a mistake I’ll lose control over him again.
I’m just giving him what he’s longing for. Someone who’s treating him
good, someone who doesn’t think he’s a child or weakling, someone he sees as
a ‘friend’. I just can keep him as long as I show him how cruel the others
can be to him and how nice I am.”
“But it’s still risky. What if the others try to concern him that they are
his friends?”
“If they don’t do it right now they won’t have a chance later on. The word
‘friend’ for a Toa vanishes more and more the longer he stays in darkness
until it’s erased completely. And where will the Toa get light from to stop
this process?”

~~~***~~~

In which direction do we have to go?” Kopaka turned around and tried to look
through the darkness.
“I don’t know. Everything looks so similar. It seems like we’re lost.”
“We are lost if we both say so. For now we should not lose hope.”
But also the ivory Toa didn’t know how they would get out of the gorge. They
didn’t know where they came from or in which direction they wanted to go
before.
“I-I think there’s something coming towards us but I don’t know what it
is. It doesn’t look much like a shadow because I don’t think shadows would
use light.” Pohatu pointed at something a few hundred meters away. Indeed it
looked like a little flying light ball. The closer it was coming the better they
could see that it was someone who was flying into their direction, holding a
glowing sword like a torch in his hand.
“Should we make him know that we are here?” the auburn Toa asked.
“I don’t know. We should stay cautious but on the other side someone who
uses light can never be Makuta’s friend.”

The glowing sword was useless if Takua would have wanted to see more but it was
keeping harm away from him. More or less. A single shadow would think about it
twice if he really should attack. The Toa of light just hoped that not more than
two shadows were around. In groups they would have been tougher and even might
have attacked someone with light.
Suddenly he heard a familiar voice under him not very far away.
“You with the light, whoever you are, can you help us? We’re Toa, Makuta’s
enemies. We’re lost and could need some help.”
Takua slowly glided down until he saw two figures.
“Pohatu, Kopaka, thank goodness I’ve found you so fast.”
He landed close to them.
“Do we know you?” Kopaka asked, “Wait, can it be that you are one of the
new Toa?”
“Yes, Takanuva, Toa of light”, the golden one answered.
“But … what are you doing here?” Pohatu asked surprised, “I thought only
we six were supposed to go to Karda.”
“I can explain later while we’re waiting. First of all you have to know that
we mustn’t leave this gorge. The swamp would lead us nowhere but I have the
feeling our destiny is lying here.”
Before he could get any further with his explanations a voice was calling out of
the darkness, “Your destiny lies in your death, Toa.”
The three startled and looked around.
“No, not again”, Pohatu whispered. “There’s something coming through the
rocks. I can feel it under my feet.”

This time the floor wasn’t breaking apart and no rocks were flying around. The
shadows around them just came out of the floor like they were standing in
invisible elevators but now it were four of them.
“Who has spoken? That voice sounded too bright for one of them”, Kopaka
meant.
And now someone different was stepping out of the darkness. A very familiar
looking young Toa with lime green eyes. But his body was in the darkest shades
of green they had ever seen.
“L-Lewa? What … what the hell are you doing?” Pohatu sputtered in
surprise.
“What I am doing?” Lewa tilted his head, “Helping my friends, defeating my
enemies. Too bad for you that you’re on the wrong side.”
“But … but why? We are your friends, remember?”
“Friends? No Toa could ever be my friend. They are just treacherous creatures
that have to be eliminated.” He was speaking with a coldness that could have
been Makuta’s.
“Boy, be reasonable”, Kopaka tried to convince him, “We have fought
against Makuta for years together. He is not a friend. Destruction and death is
following him.”
“Lies! Nothing but lies!” the Toa of air shouted, “Shadows, attack!”

It wasn’t that the shadows would have ever listened to a Toa’s command; they
just did it because it was their plan anyway but they avoided it to attack Takua
for now. His sword didn’t have much light energy but still enough to weaken
them.

Kopaka and Pohatu had learned to know the shadows’ way of attacks as quick and
able to knock a Toa out within a second but now they were fighting with
something that looked like swords made of shadow but still were able to leave
deep cuts if they hit their target.
“Why the Makuta are they fighting that way?” Pohatu asked and blocked a
strike with his claws.
“Wondered about that too but I think the first attack was just a warning.
Something that could just weaken but not kill. Now they seem to go for all or
nothing”, was Kopaka’s answer.
The two were fighting back on back to minimize the risk of an attack from
behind.

Meanwhile Takua had to face Lewa. The two Toa were circling around each other,
one not wanting to attack at all the other just waiting for the perfect timing.
“Listen, Lewa, I don’t want to attack you. I can’t say we’re friends,
for that we haven’t met often enough but you’re a Toa like me. I can’t
fight with someone who should be on my side.”
“Why do all Toa I meet just want to talk? I am on the right side, on the side
where my master is. You are a new Toa, aren’t you? There’s still hope you
will learn what’s right and wrong.”
“And right can never be Makuta’s side.” He said the god’s name as if he
wanted to spit it out. Therefore he earned a slash over his face.
“But my hopes won’t come true. I can’t teach you a better thing. You Toa
are spoiled from the beginning.”
Takua avoided a few other strikes but wasn’t sure how long he could keep that
on. Lewa was fast and even if the Toa of light had tried to attack him the other
one had more experience in fights and it would have been a short battle.

The longer they were fighting them back the more hopeless Kopaka felt. They
never had fought enemies as fast as they were. They nearly never missed and
avoided most of the Toa’s attacks. Just a bit longer and the Toa could be
history.
‘Wait’, Kopaka suddenly thought, ‘Are those really your thoughts? You have
been in many tricky situations but never thought about it so negative.’ He
tried to ban the negative feelings, tried to think about something worth
fighting for, the people on the islands, his former home, the Mount Ihu, his
fellow Toa and friends – the feeling of hopelessness seemed to grow weaker, he
possibly had found a weak spot. He tried to fight while concentrating on each of
his Toa friends, Tahu, Pohatu, Onua, Lewa – although he had gone insane right
now, Gali – mostly about Gali. The fire of hope was burning stronger. He now
knew they could make it out there alive – somehow – they just hadn’t found
the right way for now.
“I – I can’t hold on any longer”, he heard Pohatu’s weak voice. “We
don’t have any chance.” The Toa of stone had sunken to the floor. He still
tried to fight but more attacks were hitting him now than before. Kopaka lifted
his shield for defence and quickly looked over to his friend. He didn’t have
more wounds than the Toa of ice, not enough to bring him down.
“Try to think about something positive, about your friends”, the ivory Toa
shouted. He knew that this was too general and he needed something more specific
to get the auburn Toa to start thinking.
“Remember your last Koli training with your Matoran. Think about the time when
you still were able to visit Onua in his own village … and his useless try to
teach you to dig through the rocks with you hands and not to kick them around
like big Koli balls.”
For a short time Pohatu stopped in his moves and slightly smiled. It seemed to
work. He jumped up again and helped Kopaka who had done the fighting for a few
minutes against four shadows he couldn’t even freeze after Pohatu’s
breakdown. But with that fire burning inside of him right now he felt as if he
could have fought eight of them at the same time, half-godly or not.

The shadows suddenly stopped the fight and looked at each other.
“Uh-oh, I don’t think I like that”, Pohatu whispered.
“Whatever they are planning, we’ve found a weak spot. As long as we stick
together and hold on to the thought what we’re fighting for they’re not
stronger than we are.”
Suddenly the shadows were gone and they just saw a big black energy ball
shooting into their direction. Without thinking about it Kopaka lifted his
shield with the call, “For the sake of friendship!”
The shadows had gone through his armour and his body. How would his shield alone
withstand them? But he had no doubt in it. The energy ball hit the shield …
and was thrown back.

Takua already had several wounds but he wasn’t giving up. The next strike he
could block again. Steel was slamming against steel. At least Lewa hadn’t used
any of his elemental attacks. They seemed to be too Toa-like for him. A sudden
kick in his stomach made the Toa of light stumble and fall to his knees. A
second kick against his arm and his sword was flying into the darkness. Takua
lifted his head panting heavily. Lewa was standing above him, Katana ready for
the final strike. The golden Toa never felt so helpless. His sword was out of
reach. He didn’t see Kopaka or Pohatu but he presumed they were still fighting
against four enemies, half-godly enemies. But even if everything seemed so
hopeless he knew he had to do something. He had never given up fight before in
his life.
And suddenly his Kanohi started glowing. A light spread out of him brighter than
everything he had ever seen, flooding the whole area and made him think that
even the suns had to hide away from him otherwise they would have been burned or
blinded or whatever by it. For a few seconds he saw nothing but white even when
he closed his eyes, then it slowly faded again but still a bit remained. It was
like someone had turned on a lamp in a dark room. He now could see a desert made
of rocks and sand around him. In the distance something was glowing but it
seemed to be very far away. The shadows and Lewa were gone.
The others were looking around too.
“What was that?” Pohatu asked, “And where are those creeps and Lewa?”
“It seems like my Kanohi has activated for the first time. Maybe that killed
the shadows. I don’t think it harmed Lewa much but after he’s on Makuta’s
side now he probably fled the light.” Takua looked at his fellow Toa.” We
now have a good reason to stay where we are. We have to heal up before be can go
any further. And now I can finally tell you what had happened before I met
you.”

~~~***~~~

The dark spirit never had felt so much pain in all his existence before. It felt
like someone had killed a part of him from inside. He knelt on the floor,
surrounded by his healing darkness but somehow he knew that the pain might go
away but not the wound inside of him.

The same time Lewa was lying on the floor somewhere in the tunnels coiled up and
screaming in pain. It felt like he was ripped apart again but he was afraid to
go to his master because of his repeated failure. The light hadn’t reached the
tunnels but still he didn’t feel as safe there as before. Right now he felt as
if he belonged nowhere, not to the light and not to the darkness, not to the Toa
and not to Makuta. The pain slowly faded but still it felt a bit as if something
inside of him tried to burst out. He turned on his back and breathed heavily.
Desperation filled his heart again while he was staring into the darkness.
‘What should he fight for? What should he even believe in?’

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