Kanahka's Chronicle/Entry 11

Rohko has decided that he hates Crynok. I can’t completely blame him, either. Now, it may seem to an outsider as if I am endorsing some kind of racial discrimination, but if you had just been through what I have, you would likely feel the same way. I am also not too fond of Toa at the moment, for similar reasons.

Allow me to elaborate. After consulting with Rohko, a decision was reached that we would arrange a meeting. I would send out for Vaturi, and Rohko would send out for Panuko. By telling them each nothing of the other’s imminent arrival, we would force them to discuss their dispute in an orderly manner. Or that was the plan, at least.

First Panuko arrived. He brought Buraka along with him, which was expected. He had to have someone watch his six. That was the same reason I brought Rohko. Well, actually, it was the reason Rohko brought me. Rohko, who always says I’m the diplomatic one, let me have the floor. I took it and began preparing Panuko for honest, civilized discussion. I asked him to review what duty brought him to the island and why it was so important.

“Hordika,” he said, “I came to this tropical island for one reason. I came with my deputy to apprehend a military fugitive. In the event of searching for him, however—“

“Her,” I corrected.

“What?” Panuko asked, surprised. “You’re met Vaturi?”

“I have,” I said. “She had much to say about you.”

“I imagine,” he said. “You shouldn’t trust her implicitly. She is…emotionally unstable.”

“I’ve noticed,” I replied, in all honesty. I assured him that I did not. What I chose to not say was that I did not trust him implicitly either.

“In the event of searching for Vaturi, at any rate, we lost another comrade, Levuku. Now our mission is twofold. We find both our brethren, bringing one back to the force, and bringing one to justice.”

Here, I was torn. I admit it, I was. Here I could have mentioned that I also knew at least a little of the whereabouts of their second comrade, and could prepare them for what bringing him back into their ranks would entail. I hesitated, however, because I did not know whether it would be best to have Levuku go back to Panuko. This whole event in his life, wherein he was brought to our island, and brought into our lives, even if it was as a brainwashed foe, could be used to break him free from the tyranny imposed on him by Panuko and his often-silent deputy. Or, at least it seemed like tyranny from listening to Vaturi. With only two witnesses, it was unbearably difficult to make the call. Inform Panuko, or, perhaps, rescue Levuku ourselves and set him free? Was there even anything to set him free from, or was Vaturi simply blowing a mistake out of proportion?

The decision was too difficult to make, but, thankfully, Destiny made it for me. At that moment, Vaturi arrived, as I had arranged with her, and was barely containing her fury. No doubt she felt betrayed. I see this in retrospect, but at the time I could not imagine why she could have been mad at me, and perceived her anger as merely being directed at Panuko, and not at me.

Panuko’s anger, however, had one single target: Rohko. “What game is this, Hordika?” he demanded, drawing his staff as Buraka did the same, wordlessly as always. “Are you colluding with this fugitive? Is your desire to be the Avenging Alliance really so strong that you can’t see that she needs to be chastised?”

“Listen, Skinny,” Rohko replied, “I don’t know WHO to trust here, and neither does my brother. We’re here to let you two work out your issues. And kinda keep you two from killing each other. That would be bad, see.”

Vaturi drew her staff, darkness beginning to coalesce around its tips. “I told you, Hordika-face,” she said to me. “Get him off my back, or I will.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why do you two hate each other so much? Can’t you two resolve your argument like civilized people?”

“There is no argument to be had,” Panuko answered matter-of-factly. “Vaturi is resisting a simple punishment for insubordination. That is all there is to it.”

“Oh, go deflate your head somewhere,” Vaturi snorted. “You and your intellectual words and bare-faced, boneheaded logic. You can’t imagine ever being wrong, and so you don’t give others a chance to be right. I’m not gonna just take that.”

Somehow, whether it was my insistence on a calm discussion, or it was Vaturi’s razor-edged tongue, or both, Panuko’s face changed as he agreed to have a discussion. He told Buraka something and she left. I didn’t hear what it was, and I assumed it was a simple instruction to watch our backs. Regardless of what he said, the blue-armored Crynok female walked purposefully into the jungle. Swiping his staff to reveal a pair of rocks embedded in the ground, Panuko offered Vaturi a seat. The two began to talk.

They went on for quite some time. I do not remember what was said in its entirety, as you might expect. I can recount, however, the basic flow of the conversation. Essentially Panuko began exactly as I would have in his place, by asking Vaturi her interpretation of events. She gave this long, subjective speech, much like the one I heard before. Many times she stopped her narrative to zing Panuko again and again, but she did eventually finish. Panuko asked her all the whys next. Why she did this and why she did that. Sometimes he looked like he expected the answer, and sometimes he was surprised by what she had to say. Through it all, I began to learn that, while cold and seemingly unfeeling, the content and aim of his questions revealed to me that Panuko was as much a feeling, caring person as Vaturi was. He asked her, for example, how long she and her injured comrade had been friends, as well as what she felt she was fighting for in the Crynok militia. Finally, he seemed moved when she said she was fighting for her people and her friends above all, as opposed to her duty or homeland, which didn’t even seem to be on her radar. Panuko seemed a bit impressed when he asked her, “And you have many friends that you would be willing to die for?”

Vaturi’s eyes narrowed like a predator’s as it goes for the killing blow. “One of them got both his legs broken while fighting in an unstable mine. Captain.”

I have to hand it to her, because she struck her killing blow with ruthless efficiency. Panuko could not speak for a moment, but he stood up after a moment and said, “Well, I believe I know what it going on here, but it’s out of my hands at this point. We will have to take the testimony you just gave me, and one I will give for myself, before court back on Rayuna.”

Vaturi leaped to her feet and would have attacked Panuko had I and Rohko not stood up equally quickly. “You bigot!” she cried out in rage. “You hear what I have to say, but you don’t even stop to consider fixing the problem! You just throw it to a higher court, you lazy—“

“It’s not like that, Vaturi!” Panuko shouted desperately. “All I’m saying is—“

“I don’t care WHAT you’re saying anymore!” Vaturi snapped. “You can ‘say’ all you like! I’m getting the Karzahni out of here.”

Neither Rohko nor I liked that, even for a moment. Without our eyes on the situation, it would be too easy for Vaturi to assassinate Panuko on the sly. It turned out, however, that we were stopping her for different reasons.

“Stop!” Rohko shouted roughly. “You ain’t leaving just yet!”

“Come back Vaturi!” I called. “Trust me, you need to calm down.”

Vaturi whirled and fired dark matter from her staff, which Panuko reflexively phased to avoid. The corruptive material began to eat away at a tree behind him. Rohko wasted no time in grabbing her staff.

“See?” I tried to reason with her, not realizing how she hated me right then, “You’re far too prone to sudden violence. We’re not letting you go until you can calm down.”

“And then get your backsides off the island,” Rohko added. “All three of you, one we grab Greenie.”

“You;’ve seen Levuku, too?” Panuko asked. I never answered him, because I was too busy dealing with what Rohko had said.

“Off the island?” I asked. “We can’t leave them to their own devices.”

Panuko seemed offended by this. “I’m sure I am mature enough to keep my faculties in check, thank you.”

“Around this crazy broad,” Rohko began, “I think even Mata Nui would start to lose it. And I’ve had enough outta you too, Egghead. You and your fancy vocabulary can have all kinds of fun together, but take yourselves and your crazy broad with you when you leave this island.”

Panuko was now rightfully angry. He advanced on Rohko with his staff ready. “If you’d like to try to make me, I’d love to watch.” He drew closer and closer to Rohko, staff near his face, bringing the tool closer and closer to Rohko’s own face.

“One tap from that fancy stick and you’re going to be sporting it sticking out your chest,” Rohko growled.

Before I could say anything in what I now realize would have been a vain attempt to quell the fires of anger, lightning bolts began flashing in the distance. Apparently someone was fighting Voran. And orange blur drew closer and closer, and skidded to a halt in front of me. “Kanahka! Watch out! The Crynok are—“ he spotted Panuko and Vaturi.

“Oh, hey, look!” he said. “Crynok!” With that, he lunged at Panuko, knocking him to the ground. After stomping on him somewhere around twenty times in three seconds, he performed a spinning slide kick that took out Vaturi’s legs and followed it up be kicking her staff away while punching her in the shoulders several dozen times.

As Rohko’s massive hand flashed out and grabbed Vohk around the waist, his face giving Vohk a snarl, Buraka backflipped back into view, ducking away from several fire bursts and lightning bolts. Landing near Panuko, she announced, “The Toa leader ordered them attack me, Panuko,” she helped him up. “The other little ones joined in pretty eagerly, too.”

An energy disk exploded next to Vaturi as she snatched up her staff. She fired back by reflex. Her bolt of dark matter, from what Matu told me later, grazed Hoka’s shoulder. This drove Matu into a rage as he leaped into the fray, swinging his hammer at the ebony female.

I felt my limbs immobilized as quartz crystals erupted from the ground to imprison me. Panuko’s staff, plunged into the ground, was sending out waves of power that seemed to stir the very rocks themselves to his bidding.

It was a nightmare. As Hoka and Matu and Vohk whaled on Vaturi, I and my brother, lost in rage, turned on Panuko. Our conflict lasted merely a few moments before Voran showed up. Normally I would have counted this as a blessing, but somehow it only made the situation worse.

He demanded to know who started this, and why. I told him that we were having a peaceful discussion with the Crynok and it got out of hand. Rohko told him the Crynok were just leaving, but he was having trouble showing them the door. Panuko shouted that we were not only inhibiting a civil resolution of a quarrel, but were barring him from finding his lost comrade and recuing him. Vaturi shouted that she was going to do her best to take out all of us that she could, including Voran.

Voran simply stood and tried to discern what best to do. He was mortified by what was taking place, and utterly baffled as to what to do about it. I don’t blame him. Even as I felt my own arms landing blows on beings I respected, I saw Zakalonn join Matu in an attack on Vaturi. Already he was learning Vaturi’s fighting style and would defeat her in due time. If he did, all in the cause of winning her back to decency and reason would be lost. But I was lost in fear and anger to do anything about it. I was one of the leaders of this team and I only encouraged their blind aggression by my participation! How stupid and ashamed I feel even thinking about it! It is a miracle the entire Alliance did not dissolve into oblivion that day.

However, severe damage was done. Voran, I imagine, could not find a way to get involved in a proper manner, but probably could not find a way to justify his not getting involved, either. In the end, when Zakalonn was sent sprawling and landed behind him, the fusion set off a hair trigger no one saw cocked. He nudged Bartha and, I suppose, told him to get moving and help. Bartha and Voran immediately retaliated, probably defending their actions. Vohk then sped over to see what was going on. I can’t say that the entire conflict afterward was his fault, but I can’t say that I can see his input making things any better, either. Before long, the Toa were fighting as well.

All fifteen of us, laying out on each other, friends acting as enemies, hatred spawning where once there was companionship, such was the scene I beheld from behind a haze of rage and imagined self-justification. I cringe to think about it even now, but, since I have recorded all else in this journal, I must also record the disaster our attempt at being heroes has become. I cannot believe how far we have gone since two days ago, and would never have imagined it ever happening, either. Still, the unimaginable happened, and the unbelievable occurred.

I do not know how the conflict ended. Simply, the fighters just started leaving. Eventually Rohko, Vohk, Matu, Hoka, Zakalonn and I were left with no one else to fight. No one, that is, except ourselves. We argued on and on into the night. The lights of Mata Nui’s favor shone down upon us, I am sure, and I also imagine it was a brilliant spectacle to behold. We were too busy attacking each other in a war of words to notice, however. We all eventually found rest and woke the next morning feeling equal parts angry and ashamed. To his moment, no one has spoken a word aloud, and I believe this silence will last into tomorrow as well. Maybe there will be something nice to talk about tomorrow, but for now, silence reigns. It’s just as well, I suppose. At this point, there is nothing anyone could say that would not remind us of the failures of yesterday.