Nightwatcher

"Is he one of those mercenary types that will slit our throat as well as the bounty's?" "Quite likely. But he is the best, and that's what we want."

- Krakanus to Shadrus, The Leviathos Chronicles

Charon, more commonly known as Nightwatcher, is a dimension-hopping, mutated bounty hunter in the Gigas Magna Storyline.

Early Life
Toa Charon was a Toa of Shadow and a resident of the Life Universe. He worked for the Toa Order.

At some point, he murdered one of the Order's operatives for an unknown reason and fled. However, he somehow obtained amnesia, and was captured by the Order. He was not forced to undergo disciplinary training, but was instead rehabilitated, as the High Council judged that the mind which inhabited Charon's body was not the mind that had commited the crime, and he therefore would not be punished. However, he was strictly guarded for a time to prevent such an incident as had occurred before from happening again.

Charon, still re-learning things about his universe which he had forgotten, began to realize that he was becoming attracted to one of his close companions, Shayla. The two were later assigned to Javnak to keep the Night Hunters from attacking, and ended up confessing their feelings to one another. They even shared a tentative kiss, but were interrupted when the city-planet came under attack.

Night Hunters
Charon and Shayla, even with the assistance of Dorex, were unable to stop the Night Hunter forces, and massive amounts of complex technology were stolen. When it was suggested that someone operate on the inside of the Night Hunters, Charon, Shayla, and Dorex were sent to the Hunter base on Odina Prime, along with the Odina Drone D-1064. Although skeptical, The Shadowed One allowed them to join the organization.

Charon was separated from the rest, undergoing a series of intensive training sessions, during which he was often used as an assistant by Shade, who wished to make it clear that she did not trust him. Being an assistant involved engaging Shade in battle while she showed the trainees how to master the Combat Forms, and Shade enjoyed publicly humiliating him. He began to feel hatred towards her, and eventually snapped at her in a class, attacking and overpowering her in a ferocious duel. He was not to know that the incident had been engineered by the Shadowed One, who planned to make Charon give in to his hatred and become his eventual successor.

Shade became even more spiteful towards him after the incident, but as time wore on he grew better at combat than any of his teachers, and discovered that he was in fact enjoying his membership in the organization. He refused to assist Shayla and Dorex when they hacked into Odina Prime's computer and stole the plans for the next attack on Javnak, and Shayla, realizing that he had become immersed too deeply in the organization, left with a tearful goodbye. D-1064 remained with him.

Eventually, Charon, having already risen to a high position among the Night Hunters, was sent on his first mission: to convince the people of Vantruss X to ally with the Hunters and provide weapons. He realized that Shade, still despising him, had set him up for failure, as he soon learned that the only way to win over the planet would be to defeat their best fighters in an arena match. Much to the shock of Shade and the massive crowd of observers, Charon defeated them all. Relishing the victory and fully immersed in the Night Hunter order, when asked his name by one of the fighters he had beaten, he answered "Nighwatcher."

Returning to Odina Prime, he was promoted by the Shadowed One, who applauded his efforts and abilities. He, along with a large number of other Night Hunters, left for Javnak to raid Tilaria, the main headquarters of the inventor Fayron. During the mission, Charon met with Shayla but could not bring himself to harm her. However, as she talked with him, he was trapped by a number of other Toa and transported back to Avadox, where he awaited trial.

Shayla met him in his prison cell, where she confessed that she still loved him but said that things had changed too much for them ever to be together again. She kissed him for the last time, and he was taken away to trial.

At the trial, he refused to defend himself, and delivered a passionate speech saying that the Toa Order was guilty of weakness, and the Night Hunters would destroy them all. Upon saying this, a small group of Hunters entered the council chamber and broke him out. They returned to Odina Prime, where the Shadowed One was still organizing the new Odina Drone armies.

Charon, who had learned much from both the Hunters and Order, was promoted again to commander, and became a fighting instructor for the Combat Form Napad, while at the same time studied all the other combat forms until he had mastered them all, becoming the first being in history to do so. Meanwhile, he began studying the other Night Hunters more closely, Shade and the Shadowed One especially, and concluded that they were guilty of weakness; Shade, he decided, could easily have overthrown the Shadowed One had she wanted to, but was instead bound to him by the chains of loyalty that she herself accused the Toa Order of binding themselves to. Testing his theory, he challenged the Shadowed One to single combat, as was the organization's custom, and humiliated him in the arena. He then, instead of accepting the role of leader that was now traditionally being offered him, denounced the Night Hunters as cowards and concluded that he no longer belonged on Odina Prime, proceeding to teleport away to another universe entirely along with 1064. Unknown to him, he was followed into the new universe by Shayla and Dorex, as Darnesk had ordered them to watch him should he ever become too powerful and become a true threat to the Order.

A New Universe
While Shayla and Dorex became members of the Enforcers of Gigas Magna, an organization with the resoources to easily monitor Charon from halfway across the solar system, Charon began selling his services as a bounty hunter. Velnax, following Baterra Magnus' instructions, told him to eliminate Makuta Matata. Charon made his way to Matata's heavily guarded base, eliminating the Toa Skeelax in the process, only to discover that Matata was on fact an immortal Omega Being, and was the Omega Makuta of Reality. Matata toyed with Charon in battle, easily beating the being who was considered the greatest swordsman in the multiverse, and eventually decided to mutate him. D-1064 was destroyed in the process, causing Charon to grieve for his fallen friend. His parts would later become the inspiration for the Fern and Fain robot series.

Vowing revenge on the immortal that had bested him and unable to undo the mutation, Charon continued his bounty hunter career and adopted the name Nightwatcher, his Night Hunter nickname. He quickly became known as the best bounty hunter in the known universe, and was notorious for his perfect record.

Early Missions
Nightwatcher briefly became interested in the Bounty Hunter Wars, but decided that the Bounty Hunters' Guild was below him, and decided not to aid them in their conflict. He would change his decision years later.

One of his most well-known missions was given to him by Antidax, who sent him to retrieve the Nui Stone, which had recently been obtained by the Brotherhood of Makuta and was now on an island guarded by a thousand of the Makuta's minions. As Antidax had planned, Nightwatcher plowed through the defending force, so a hundred elite Makuta were sent to the island to kill him before he could reach his goal. He crushed the shocked Makuta in an awesome demonstration of power, obtained the Nui Stone, and obliterated the survivors in a massive shockwave, thus achieving both of Antidax's goals: to thin the Brotherhood ranks and also to obtain the stone.

Makuta Spinorak recruited him for his plot to conquer the planet Gigas Magna, which he dubbed "The Purge." Nightwatcher was sent to recruit the Kodax Rahi creator known as Mordrax, and shortly after found a Vorox with prodigious skill in battle named Scorpius, whom he brought to Spinorak as well.

He saw Shayla later in Spinorak's campaign and realized that she had been sent to follow him, but instead of killing her, he undid her mutation, saying that she deserved a better fate than his. He then chose to fully reject his feelings for her, and left her, never meeting her as a friend again for a hundred years.

When Mordrax revealed his true intentions and double-crossed Spinorak, Spinorak blamed Nightwatcher, who had seen Mordrax's plans, for not telling him. Nightwatcher retaliated by calmly walking out the door and setting the building on fire. When Nightwatcher sensed that Spinorak had survived the disaster, he made a small wish that there would one day be a bounty on the Makuta, so he could end his life once and for all.

Brotherhood of Gigas Magna
Shortly after the end of Spinorak's campaign, Tetrack recruited him for the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna to go on undercover missions to recruit allies and kill potential enemies. At the beginning of the Gigas Magna Civil War, he was paid by an unidentified being to assassinate Forsk, the Brotherhood's leader, while on the West Continent.

While nearing his target, he encountered Scorpius, whom Tetrack had sent in his own plot to kill Forsk. Nightwatcher defeated the Vorox and attacked Forsk, but Tetrack had learned of the situation and, wanting Forsk to die by his manipulations and no one else's, contacted Makuta Matata, who agreed to interfere with the situation. Using his powers, Matata reached out through space and throttled the bounty hunter with a shadow hand, allowing Forsk to escape.

Underworld War
After Tetrack's successful murder of Forsk and takeover of Gigas Magna, he became a member of Draconius' Bounty Hunters' Guild and helped the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna during the Underworld War. It is also known that he traveled to the Matoran Universe on Shadrus' request to contain a renegade Tahtorak.

Bara Magna
A short time before the war's end, he was sent to Bara Magna, one of the few planets which the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna had not yet conquered, as they had decided to temporarily halt their wars of conquest and engage in two separate conflicts, one with Death's forces and one with the Gigas Magna Resistance, where he was to scout out the planet's defenses.

He teleported to Atero, where he watched, invisible, as an arena match ensued between a Skrall and a Glatorian. He watched, disgusted, as the "primitives" attacked each other with "no idea what they were doing." The Skrall eventually won, but Nightwatcher decided to reveal himself, and challenged the Skrall to a duel, which he won within less than a second of his foe's attack. He marched off, deciding that Bara Magna was of no use to the Brotherhood.

Nightwatcher immediately noticed that he was being followed, and discovered that he was being followed by the robotic assassins known as the baterra. After annihilating them, he decided that they were capable of doing great damage to Bara Magna, so he inserted a computer virus which quickly spread to the baterra's collective consciousness, which modified the robots so that they would attack any beings that crossed their path. The bounty hunter decided to sit and watch as the baterra exterminated the Bara Magnan population for him. (The plan would later fail, but Nightwatcher was not present when it happened.)

Shortly after, he was called by Antidax once more, this time to capture Shayla. He did so, and then brought her to Mordrax for interrogation. However, when Mordrax's prosthetic suit exploded and left him close to death, Mordrax abandoned him and took Shayla with him, saying that Mordrax was not likely to pay him dead, and that the Gigas Magna Resistance would likely pay more for the return of Shayla than the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna.

As he was unable to penetrate Shayla's mental block, which had been created by a Great Being, he was instead led by his captive on a wild Vandrox chase across Gigas Magna for a month, which finally culminated with him losing his temper, choking her nearly to death, and leaving her in the jungles of the West Continent.

Noctxia Magna
Nighwatcher was then called to the Matoran Universe once more, this time by Shadrus to get a bounty for Leviathos. After finding the Noctian Islands gone, he went to Noctxia Magna and captured the Noctian over the Sea of Life.

Nightwatcher, sensing a trap, created an illusory version of himself to bring Leviathos to the Brotherhood of Fear. His intuition was proven right when Kaluu interrogated his doppelganger and attempted to learn if the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna was attempting an invasion. Leviathos escaped, killing the doppelganger, and Nightwatcher attacked Krakanus and Kaluu, stating that he wanted his bounty. In a curious move, he decided to spare them, saying that the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna could likely think up a painful way to kill them once they had conquered Noctxia Magna.

Realizing that Leviathos had information that he wanted, he delayed leaving the planet until he learned what Leviathos knew. However, Leviathos had generated an unusually powerful mental block, so he instead concocted an elaborate plan to both get the information he needed and destroy the Brotherhood of Fear, which involved turning the Brotherhood of Fear and Noctxia Guardians against one another.

His first step was to enter Krakanus' body and kill Necuas by throwing him out the window of a tower, then turn him insane so that he would forget the event and Nightwatcher could shapeshift into Necuas and drive the Brotherhood into disarray. The plan worked perfectly, and Krakanus' advisers began to lose confidence in him.

He then went to the Noctxia Guardians' base, posing as Chameleo, and managed to find some time alone with Leviathos. There, he extracted the information he wanted from his memory and blew the fortress up, allowing the Brotherhood of Fear to capture all of the organization's members. Returning to the Brotherhood base, he resumed his identity as Necuas. He helped in Krakanus' attempt to recruit Leviathos to his side, but, as he had predicted, Leviathos and the Guardians successfully managed to defeat the Brotherhood. He then revealed to them that he was going to inform the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna of the planet's existence.

The information that he had extracted from Leviathos led him to the Prophecy Room in Destral, where he learned of the prophecy that stated that a half-Makuta would gain the power destroy the Makuta species. Wishing to kill Makuta Matata, he decided that Leviathos needed to be destroyed, as both of them were possible subjects of the prophecy.

Leviathos came after him a short time later, and Nightwatcher toyed with him. However, Leviathos managed to call on the power of time and defeat him. Nightwatcher fell into a pool of Energized Protodermis, and was transformed into a Commander Skrall. He then took Shayla (who had fallen into the protodermis as well) with him back to Noctxia Magna.

As Shayla's mental shielding had been removed by her mutation, Nightwatcher, who still possessed most of his powers, was able to read her mind and learn the location of the Resistance base. Much to his surprise, it was located on Noctxia Magna as well, and he contacted the Brotherhood, giving them the coordinates of the planet, and he was careful to mention that it also was home to the Resistance base, knowing that he would likely receive a massive bonus for its discovery.

Shortly after, he traveled to the base, telling them that he was willing to return Shayla to them for a large sum of widgets, and that if the amount was doubled, he would not reveal the planet's location to the Brotherhood. He later left again for Gigas Magna.

The Eternal Game
Nightwatcher was recruited for the Eternal Game, and allied with Leviathos, the Brotherhood of Fear, and the Brotherhood of Gigas Magna.

During the initial battles, Nightwatcher defeated many enemies, including a Stitched Scion and Vakx. He later left the weapons cache and went with his pet Girahk to hunt for stragglers.

After killing Spiruk, he announced his intentions to destroy all his rivals by the next day's end, and decided to go after the Great Beings first.

Mission Into Darkness
Nightwatcher was contacted by a mysterious being, who told him to hunt down Sikle and Dalgev. However, he was defeated and imprisoned in ice, but later broke free.

Powers
As a Toa of Shadow, he could manipulate shadows and darkness however he wished. In his mutated form, his powers were amplified, and he gained control of the Kraata Powers.

Nightwatcher is far above the power level of an average Makuta, however, and is approximately as powerful as Magneon.

Mask and Tools
In his original form, he carried two hammers and a powerless iron mask. His hammers were combined to form a Nightstaff with a hidden High-Energy Plasma Launcher upon his mutation.

In his current form, he possesses two Skrall Tribal Blades.

Personality
Nightwatcher is ruthless and without mercy. He has lost almost all sense of emotion, but he shows the slightest bit of enjoyment when giving death threats.

Nightwatcher in the Hero Cycle
Nightwatcher fulfills all seventeen stages of the Hero Cycle, albeit not in order:

Quotes
"What are you? Nightwatcher. Toa of Shadow. Dimensional traveler. You can also refer to me as your death, if you insist on standing there and goggling like an idiot, because you make a sorely tempting target."

- Mordrax and Nightwatcher

"I am Nightwatcher. I have come to kill you. I would very much appreciate some last words."

- Nightwatcher to Forsk

"I will not die. That is interesting: a being's last words contradicting their fate completely."

- Forsk and Nightwatcher

"Supply the coordinates or I will find you myself and relieve you of the troublesome burden you call a head. Now get on with it."

- Nightwatcher to Shadrus

"I do not like to take living prisoners. They have such an annoying tendency to try to escape later. All my values are telling me to break your neck and make it look like an accident, so be glad that I prefer my morals to my values. I have no morals, so I am able to do whatever I wish."

- Nightwatcher to Leviathos

"There are good ways to reveal information, but I won't even bother. It's likely something too boring to interest me."

- Nightwatcher to Leviathos

"Now, I would like my bounty."''


 * "What bounty?"


 * ''"The word 'bounty', fool, as in 'bounty hunting.' I don't work for free."

- Nightwatcher and Krakanus

"I am Nightwatcher. I shall stay Nightwatcher. You are alive. You shall not remain so."

- Nightwatcher

Trivia

 * The Toa Charon model was made by 1300796803. The other models were made by TheSlicer.
 * Toa Charon was entered in the Kopakamata97 MOC contest as an entry for Artakha and won. The original Nightwatcher model won 4th place in Teammcb's Toa Building Challenge.
 * Nightwatcher is TheSlicer's favorite character to write about, and is probably the most popular character in the Gigas Magna Storyline.
 * It has been confirmed that he will battle Magneon in Shadow Regime.

Appearances

 * Shadowlands
 * Gigas Magna: Planet of Shadows
 * Revenge of the Rogue
 * The Darkness Returns
 * The Leviathos Chronicles
 * BIONICLE Universe (Alternate)

Non-Storyline Appearances

 * The Eternal Game
 * Mission Into Darkness