Against the Storm/Volume III

Against the Storm: Volume III is the third volume of Against the Storm. It was written by CaptainLandr0ver and released on March 14, 2018.

Riposte
“Maroona, are you even sure this is what they’re planning?"

“Just trust me Corduk.”

“I’m getting cold. Why couldn’t I go with Lewok, Salvina, and Navahko to Le-Powai?”

“The division of a Toa team of the six primary elements into two teams of Air, Water, Ice and Fire, Earth, Stone is a timeless tradition.”

“Then how come we’ve never heard of it?”

“It’s not very well known now.”

“Because it’s an old tradition that’s completely ridiculous in situations like these?”

“It’s not ridiculous!”

“But it is! Detras and Wreshi are in here getting their legs and arms frozen clean off, and Navahko isn’t even—”

“I don't want to hear any more of that, Corduk!”

“You don’t want to hear me try and talk sense into you, Maroona?”

“I don’t want you to hear you complain anymore.”

“I’m not complaining! I’m trying to make sure that neither of those two dies of hypothermia!”

“They won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

“They’re Toa, not Matoran. They’re tougher than they used to be. They’re more resilient.”

“But that doesn’t—”

“Corduk,” Detras said sincerely, “please, we’re fine. Just go with what Maroona has decided.”

Corduk gave him a slight scowl and looked back at the gaping hole in the tunnel ceiling.

“Someone should be here any minute,” Maroona said as she tightened her grip on her weapon. As she was the closest to the breach, she had the most snow built up on her armor. Her image was reflected in the silver stone floor that had been wetted by a storm which managed to blow through the ceiling hole.

“You at least could have helped us jump-start the heating system.”

“Corduk, would you just drop it please!”

“As soon as we’re done here, I’ll need your help to get it up and running.”

“Fine. For the meantime, we wait here.”

“Who are we expecting, anyway?” said Wreshi.

“I’m not sure. Possibly ‘Alchemist’.”

“I really hope it’s him. I have some choice words that I need to express to him.”

Through the hole dropped a gaunt figure. While his torso was hulking and he was well-armored all over his body, one could see that underneath it all he looked cadaverous and starved. When he looked at the four Toa, his stunning red eyes failed to stay completely still and jittered slightly whenever he focused on something for longer than half of a second. Having landed turned away from the Toa, he rotated slowly to have his whole body face them and stood up straighter. On his back was a lean silver scythe. Its blade was dripping profusely with melting snow, as were the claws on his hands and feet. For several seconds, his eyes darted around and candidly locked onto each of them at least five times.

“Be you all mutes?” he said snarkily after the long silence.

“No,” Maroona said. “Who are—”

“Where did those three come from?”

“Three what? The Toa?”

“No, the red markings on the wall behind you.”

Maroona and the other Toa unsuspiciously looked behind them to see the tunnel walls devoid of red markings.

“Of course the Toa.” said the stranger rudely. Then, with a sense of sincerity, he said, “And, if you would like to know, my name is Pretadix. Makuta Pretadix.”

At the end of the remark, all four of the Toa snapped their heads back to him and fumbled for their weapons.

“A title it is,” Pretadix said honestly and casually, “but a mark of affiliation it is not. If you despise the Brotherhood, do not fret. My ties with them have been wholly severed.”

“But you’re still a Makuta,” Corduk said.

“How amusingly inconsiderate of you.” sneered pretadix. Then, with a vitriolic expression and a high-pitched voice, he mocked, “‘Why, yes, of course! all Makuta are evil and twisted scum! All that they want is power and to kill everything and to drown the cutest of the Rahi and watch everything burn—’” he stopped only to take a breath that he chose not to take during his taunting. He then said, “Tell me, why are you here?”

“To put a stop to anyone who tries to enter,” Maroona fiercely stated.

“Wonderful.”

“What do you want, then?” Maroona asked intrusively. “What are you here for?”

Pretadix’ eyes once more began to dart around to each of the Toa before a slight grin materialized on his face.

“Say, how adept are you at making deals?”

“We know never to make a deal with a Makuta.”

Pretadix suddenly became angry with the Toa and groaned, “What sick world are you in that all Makuta are inherently evil?” [[File:Ats3-3.jpg|thumb|200x200px| The Toa taking defensive stances There was no answer from the Toa, as they all simply looked around at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
 * left]]

“That aside, I have a deal for you—”

“Who are you working for?”

“Would you stop cutting me off!”

Another pause.

“Why, I’m sure you’ve met the Dark Hunter and the mechanized Rahi… and their odd friend.”

“You mean Phi and ‘Alchemist’?” replied Corduk.

“Oh bother, you know their names? Anyways, I must apologize that they and their fool of an associate Ruthos retrieved the Staff of Vortices with such unquestioning ferocity and ruthlessness. If I’d been there, I would’ve at least given you poor Matoran some options before we tore through your defenses.”

“Well, we’re not going to give you options.” Maroona retorted.

Pretadix yanked his scythe off of his back and struck the ground, launching a flurry of sparks at Maroona. He then yelled, “Would you not cut me off anymore? And, by Mata Nui’s great forsaken name, are you really this disrespectful to every single person you meet who doesn’t quite live up to your moral standards?”

Maroona seemed, for the first time, taken aback.

“How would you feel if someone more courageous and bold than even you barked insults at you for ‘looking too imposing’ or for ‘having fallen away from some group of idiots trying to seize the universe’?”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to trick me into,” said Maroona, “but it’s not going to work.”

For a second it seemed like he was tipping over on the edge of gruesomely cutting them all down. His eyes shook more and more as they burned holes in Maroona’s head.

“So what’s your deal?” Maroona asked.

Pretadix, surprised by her compliance, said, “The Mask Maker’s Tool.”

“The— the what?”

“The Mask Maker’s Tool! Do you not have it here, where you had the Staff?”

Once more the Toa looked at each other confusedly.

“It looks like a ball made of spidery legs… ?”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The Great Being brought it here! Were you not the one who stopped ‘Sunder’ and seized the Great Beings’ artifacts?”

“I didn’t take the artifacts; he just gave them to me.”

“Oh, of course he did. You’re Mata Nui’s perfect little Toa, aren’t you?”

“Why do you keep getting angry with me?”

“Because every word you speak is utter backtalk!”

“Maroona, please,” said Corduk after a minute pause, “just make up your mind about the deal.”

Maroona put her hands on her hips and stared Pretadix in the eyes in the same venomous way he did to her. Her eyes also moved back and forth, but more with thought and less in whatever it was that had caused Pretadix’ to move uncontrollably.

“I highly suggest you reject it,” Corduk added.

“I agree,” said Maroona. “I don’t even know what you’re going to use it for.”

“Nothing that will concern you, that can be sure; it’s your benefit of the deal.”

“So whose lives will you end with it?”

“No ones’, hopefully. We simply need it to—”

“To what? Who are you working for?”

Pretadix had begun to turn away and was about to exit when this last scrap of interrogation was naggingly asked by Maroona. The Makuta looked back irritatedly and paused before giving his vague.

“His name is Tetradon. We are the Wraith Syndicate.”

Without any semblance of another word, Pretadix put his scythe on his back and climbed back out of the hole. The Toa could hear him talking with someone for a brief moment before all the signs that Pretadix was still there were gone.

When Pretadix and Tetradon returned to Le-Powai, Phi and Ruthos were once again fighting about Antharahk and his respectability. “Alchemist” sat some distance away from them fiddling with the Staff of Vortices. Decaying pine needles trickled down onto everyone; the cause was evident by the patch of lifeless orange grass encircling the neurotic automaton.

Tetradon grabbed a scimitar off of his back and muttered something indecipherable. With a quick lash, his scarlet-colored right eye flashed white and turned a light shade of azure. With a small, glacial-sounding noise, it’s spiny blade metamorphosed into a large axe made of white and blue ice. Accompanying this came a frozen wall that shot up from the ground and divided the space between Phi and Ruthos. He felt the urge to yell “Silence!” but felt that what he’d already done said enough.

“You! Both of you! Would you shut up for a minute about Antharahk!”

“Phi thinks that—”

“Phi should think that she shouldn’t have to worry about what her colleague says about whoever created her! And you, Ruthos, why do you engage in these wretched word-fights with her?”

Ruthos didn’t answer. Tetradon colored his right eye red again and put his blade back onto his back after it transformed back into its spiny white-and-red default form.

“Are you too fed up with your petty problems about someone you’ll never see again to snap back into reality and know what’s going on?” By this point, Tetradon was leaning down and had the front of his viperine mask very close to Ruthos’ single eye.

“Why don’t you try surviving a warhead and then rebuilding yourself from the mangled corpses of your fallen allies?”

Tetradon reached out and pushed Ruthos aside so that he could walk over to “Alchemist”. He seemed to look at the Dark Hunter with more esteem than anyone else. Rather than saying anything, he put his hands behind his back, stared at him and simply nodded.

“They can predict us,” said “Alchemist”, surprising Tetradon. “Whoever is leading the Toa can predict us.”

“They’ve only done it once,” Tetradon argued.

“And they need not do it again,” Pretadix added from afar, “now that our element of surprise has been disintegrated. They didn’t accept the deal.”

“They didn’t?”

“‘Tis why I came back without the tool.”

“Bother, I forgot to see if you had it when you came out. And you say ‘they’?”

“Indeed I do. There are at least four Toa now. They were guarding the KCO when I entered in.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about them then, Pretadix?” Tetradon was inching closer and closer to his colleague.

“I knew that if I did, you’d go rushing in after them in a fit of rage.”

Tetradon stepped back. “You know me too well.”

“There are four others as well,” Ruthos declared, “stationed in this very forest I believe. One’s had his ankle broken and is obviously devoid of skill, but the other three I’m unsure about.”

“Finally you show some use. Pretadix, did you meet that wretched Toa of Lightning in the tunnel?”

“She was there.”

Tetradon closed his fists tight.

“I feel similarly,” Pretadix said.

Suddenly, whether due to rage or another cause, Tetradon’s closed fists began to quiver slightly. He looked down at them with an annoyed expression interpolated with hints of distress. The quivering slowly grew in intensity, shaking his hands in all directions and slowly prying his fingers apart. Everyone but Tetradon and Pretadix looked on in utter bewilderment as his lower arms began to succumb to the mysterious shaking. His wrists twisted, bent, flicked and shot in every direction that wouldn’t cause them to unhinge or wasn’t blocked by the shape of his armor. When Phi asked the two of them what was happening, neither Tetradon nor Pretadix seemed to hear her question much less answer it.

With a quick and jagged motion, Tetradon folded his arms in front of his chest and held them there as best he could. The uncontrollable shaking began to die down to a slight tremble and then faded out entirely, all within less than a dozen seconds.

As he gradually pulled his arms away from his chest, he kept his eyes locked dead onto both of them as if one of them would lash out at someone at any moment. His right arm quivered briefly, and his left latched onto it like a bear trap and held it still. “Tetradon, what is happening?” asked “Alchemist”.

“Nothing of your concern,” said Pretadix. Ruthos began to say something, but the Makuta interrupted him by repeating himself more slowly.

“This unnerves Phi!”

“Nothing unnerving is going on here, I can assure you.”

“Nothing unnerving?” Ruthos exclaimed defiantly. “His blasted arms have minds of their own!”

“I said it’s fine!” Pretadix said while staring devilishly at the former general. “This has happened before.”

“Oh, of course,” Ruthos retorted, “because the thought that this isn't the first time his arms have tried to wrench themselves free of his elbows is definitely a reassuring thought, ain’t it?”

Pretadix had almost swung his massive hands at Ruthos by the time Tetradon had recovered enough to tell him not to. After that, he yelled for everyone present to stop whatever they were doing and listen to him.

“You will have no concerns about what you have just witnessed!” he declared with his booming voice. “It is not of your concern, not to any extent!” He focused attention on Phi and Ruthos. “Have I made that clear enough for you two hellions to understand?”

Phi and Ruthos both nodded hesitantly. The latter muttered something about it being as clear as mud.

“Excellent,” Tetradon said, relocating his attention back to everyone as a whole. “Now, we have much to do, haven’t we, now that this dreadful island apparently has eight entire Toa parading about it?"

Messenger
It hadn’t even been a whole day since Navahko had decided to make irreversible changes to his future and he’d already proven himself untrained. The auburn needles that hovered down through the opening in his one-Toa infirmary tent seemed to be a constant reminder of what had been done to him; or rather, what he’d done to himself. They laughed at him about the consequences of his actions, his literal downfall, which occurred preposterously soon after his transformation. It seemed like along with the needles came destiny itself, telling him that he’d made a dire mistake in accepting the offer to become something he was never meant to be.

It was an absurd thing, augury was, and he knew it. The Kupurero were known for predicting events, but even collectively they couldn’t have the cognition to pick out six random strangers to defend the island. Why would the birds, if they had such a hive mind, even concern themselves with a matter such as who had possession of one or more artifacts? Why did they care at all about who else lived on their island if they could simply fly away from it in the event that it was stormed by complete maniacs? And, most of all, how could a bird’s calls be translated into legible, readable and presumably grammatically correct text? It seemed impossible to him.

Yet, it had happened. Somehow the noises of Rahi had convinced Maroona to get six Matoran to turn into Toa to defend the island. Did this whole Staff of Vortices fiasco warrant a whole new team of Toa in addition to the one— two, technically— that were already on the island? Or was this just Maroona putting her dreams of having her own Toa team to steer around like a pack of hunting dogs before any drop of common sense? The Toa of Ice was beginning to question how much thought she had put into the idea of the team before coaxing six random Matoran into it.

Despite never having known Maroona very well, Navahko had always heard stories about her escapades echo throughout the KCO’s tunnels. According to rumors, she was quite adept at getting into hot water with the PNGC, but, at the same time, always seemed to be able to weasel her way out of any penalties for her objectively illegal actions. To some, her acts of vigilantism were brave and heroic, but to others, they were an omen that the island’s population was beginning to stray weary of its authority.

At one point there had even been a controversy over a fiction novel written by some Ta-Matoran which was banned by the Coalition. Apparently, the Ta-Matoran was a former member of some late radical political group which already hadn’t the most peaceful relationship with the Coalition. The novel she wrote, which Navahko couldn’t remember the name of, was about Maroona rising up and overthrowing the Coalition and establishing a new government over the island. Navahko himself once owned a copy of the novel, having received it as a gag gift from a former co-worker following a lively discussion. The discussion in question, at least as he remembered, had devolved into an inside joke of Maroona running a hypothetical secret society, which he and other KCO workers, including Corduk, had a good laugh about for a week and a half. While he enjoyed having the book and kept it displayed prominently in his office for comedic purposes, he eventually gave it up to the Coalition to avoid losing his position.

Something about what Maroona and her band of Toa were doing now reminded Navahko of all of that. He was sure that the team already were, at this point, at least qualified to get into a big mess with the Coalition. None of their actions had broken any laws, but from his experiences, the government wasn't exactly keen on only prohibiting things and activities that infringed their strict laws.

Thinking about this produced in Navahko's mind a thought that made a chill trickle down his spine. Whatever trouble his team was going to get in, he realized, dragged with it the possibility of him being stripped the title of supervisor. In fact, it was inevitable now. With the time he normally spent filing papers and addressing containment records stolen by his title of Toa, he was sure that he would be replaced within the coming week.

How had he been so inanely blind to such a thing as his position as supervisor during the whole hour he had spent contemplating his life before becoming a Toa? Sure, an hour was not much time to review his life and check up on his responsibilities, but to forget about something as gravely important to him as his tiring occupation seemed impossible to him.

“Feeling better?” spoke a ghostly voice that startled the Toa of Ice, causing a jolt that sent a mild shard of pain flying up his left leg. After grabbing it instinctively, he looked at Lewok, who the voice belonged to, and said “yes” with a forced smile. “You sure?” Lewok said with uncertainty.

“Well, feeling as good as I can with a rolled ankle, I suppose. It hurts from time to time, but as long as I keep it still it doesn’t annoy me.”

“That’s good. Doesn’t sound likes it’s very serious; it won’t take very long to heal. Anyways, I don’t think anyone doubts that we won’t be able to regroup in that village in the Plains, right?”

“I beg to differ…” professed Navahko, who had sat up by now, scooted himself to the edge of his cott and pressed his right foot onto the ground. With a nauseous slowness to his movements, he lowered his left foot onto the ground. At first contact, there was only the familiar soreness, agitated slightly, but in the blink of an eye it grew exponentially and forced him to lift it back up. “Or not.”

“Right, well, does the KCO have some sort of emergency contact system you have with you that we could use to tell Maroona about this?”

“Unfortunately, no. However, wouldn't it be easier to use one of the EMITUs? One of us has to have some spare widgets, right?”

“I checked, and the Le-Matoran are using them all up right now.”

“We’re Toa, though, and one of us is injured, too. Shouldn't they give up one for at least a minute out of respect for the wounded?”

“I suppose they don’t think so.” Lewok said before muttering something under his breath about the “up-shelf cliff-bound conies.” “That, and this much snow tends to freeze them over every once in a while. They’re not adapted to extreme cold like yours are.”

“I’m sure there’s some alternative,” Navahko said optimistically. “If all else fails we could send a messenger-tracer to them and hope they don’t move too far away. That or we just wait for them to figure out that we can’t move and should come to us.”

Another voice called Lewok by name, which startled him as well. He turned to see Salvina looking eagerly at him with Tesudin trailing behind her.

“We can use your mask!” said the Toa of Water.

“I, my— what?” stuttered Lewok.

“Your mask!” Salvina repeated. “We can use it to contact Maroona since the EMITUs are down.”

“EMITUs?” Tesudin asked confusedly.

Lewok was about to continue with the ambiguous state of his mask when Salvina began explaining EMITUs to Tesudin. “Electromagnetic Information Transmission Units. One of the coolest inventions the Vo-Matoran came up with, in my opinion. Basically, imagine a big gun that shoots information across the island in the form of electromagnetic radiation that hits the receiver dish of another EMITU.”

“I see,” Tesudin replied wearily.

“What was that about my mask?” Lewok said. “This is a Miru. Can’t really contact others.”

“Because it’s not an actual Miru.” Tesudin said. Salvina and Lewok looked at him confusedly as he walked over to the Toa of Air. “Where I’m from, and in some other parts of the Matoran Universe, not everyone complies with the thought that all masks have to be molded into a certain shape. Most simply give powers to masks that flat out aren’t the corresponding mold, but others leave little imperfections on them that, if studied closely, can tell one what type of mask it really is.”

“So, if this isn’t a Miru,” Lewok said as he removed his mask and briefly checked it for anomalous markings, “what is it?” “A Vehere, I believe,” Tesudin answered, looking over the mask to double-check himself. “Not too common in this part of the island chain, but quite widespread up above it. They call it the Mask of Transmission because it can send any mental information— thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories and the like— across long distances to any being they’ve spent enough time with and have a knowledge of. Not great for two-way communication, but it’s still just what we need.”

“How fortunate of us,” Lewok said in wonderment as he put the Vehere back on. Knowing the Kanohi required focus, he began centering his thoughts on sending mental messages. After failing to activate it, he asked “Now, how does it work?” and continued trying.

“Well, this one’s a bit harder to use than other masks… of course, that could probably for all of them. I’ve used this one myself before, and I tell you, it can be a bit nauseating the first time using—”

When Lewok finally found the concentration to turn the mask on, he was flung out of the mortal realm and into another universe entirely. Or so it seemed, as everything around was familiar. Familiar, but not very much so. He saw around him the general shape of Le-Powai’s geography (which looked quite different without the trees), blurred at its blunt edges and backed by a stark white sky. He looked around, and saw, in lace of Tesudin and Salvina, a blue orb and a black orb respectively. He looked behind him to see a see a white orb which he assumed was Navahko.

A disembodied voice reached out to him from home, calling his name and asking him for something. The desire to know what it was saying caused him to slip out and back into the real world, where he was laying in the snow. His vision was outlined in dancing particles and rendered difficult to discern given the many layers of visual noise that were piled onto it. A ringing in his ears spun around his head before flying off in a random direction, at which point he could also see at least somewhat clearly again. “You okay?” said Salvina, who was kneeling above him with a worried look on her face. Lewok simply looked up at her with startled eyes as she repeated herself several more times and tried to shake him back to full consciousness.

“Nauseating,” he finally said, half speaking and half retching. After sitting up and letting his vision finally sort itself out, he looked at Tesudin and said, “Nauseating indeed.”

“The world changed didn’t it?” Tesudin asked. Lewok nodded and the Toa of Sonics continued, “What you’ll need to do— after you get the mask to work again— is think as hard as you can about Maroona. From there, giving her the message shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.”

Lewok sat for a couple more seconds and stretched his arms and legs. “It took all of the blood away from my limbs. Probably to redirect it to my head.”

“Strange,” said Tesudin. “I’ve never heard of such a side effect.”

When he felt up to the task again, Lewok emulated the same focus that activated the mask. Again, he was discourteously launched into the white-skyed world and resumed his search to transmit a message to Maroona.

Like Tesudin told him to, he filled his head with thoughts of Maroona. As he did this, the mental images he thought of appeared before him, replaying over and over again. The strongest of the memories were her saving him from “Alchemist”, her translating his Kupurero recordings and the moment at the Citadel of the Avesians when she tossed his dark red Toa stone to him. These images reproduced themselves rapidly, each growing smaller and smaller until they all turned a dark blue hue and formed a large sphere. In the sphere’s center was a hole which was barely large enough for Lewok to put his closed fist into. He examined it closely until he discovered that that was where he needed to place his thought.

The Toa of Air ran a series of words through his head a couple of times, each time tweaking it as not to give the trusted Toa of Lightning the wrong message. In their finalized form they read: “This is Lewok speaking to you. Navahko has rolled his ankle and is unable to walk. Meet us in Le-Powai. The Matoran will tell you where we are.”

Almost as soon as he decided that those exact words where the ones he wanted to send, a string of white energy exuded itself out of his forehead. Before it floated too far away from his reach, Lewok seized it and pushed it into the hole in the blue orb. Immediately after doing this, the white-skyed world once again dissolved and he careened back into reality.

“The message is sent,” he said to Salvina and Tesudin after another lengthy session of cognitive recovery.

Reformation
The following day, Maroona, Detras, Wreshi, and Corduk arrived at Le-Powai. Even with the help of several Le-Matoran to guide them to the rest of their team, word of their entry spread nearly three times as fast as they did. By the time they got to the one-person infirmary where Navahko was the Toa of Ice had already convinced himself to move himself and his cot outside and enjoy some fresh air. Meanwhile, there was a problem concerning Le-Matoran bridges that needed assistance from a Toa. Almost immediately after hearing of it, Tesudin opted to go and help. Salvina, although not critical of his decision, was still a bit suspicious about it. When Lewok asked her why she asserted that “Tesudin probably wouldn’t want her to say.”

Upon meeting again, discussion and greetings began. Some were genial, others awkward. Some were filled with zany stories, others were solemn— both of those traits were present in the case of any and all talk about Navahko’s ankle. Corduk asked about who did it and was able to connect the black cloak and maroon and brown coloring to the entity known as Ruthos, who Pretadix mentioned by name for some odd reason. He was intrigued when Navahko mentioned the creature’s power to decay plant life at will, at which point Lewok spoke up about numerous sightings of decayed areas of grass emerging in Le-Powai.

“Some have tried to follow them,” he added, “claiming that they form a path of sorts. We had one or two Le-Matoran follow it into one of the darker areas and fail to return.”

“A tragedy,” Corduk replied, “but at least it is not a mystery. In their conflict against us, these oddities— the Wraith Syndicate, as they call themselves— have revealed to us much more than they would like, I reckon.”

“So they truly are organized?” Navahko asked.

“Yes,” Corduk said, “although we’re still not quite sure what they want from us, aside from something called the Mask Maker’s Tool. Have you heard of it, Navahko?”

Navahko denied ever hearing the name.

“Apparently it’s in the hands of the KCO.” Corduk continued. “He says it resembles a ball of spidery legs.”

“Who is he?” Navahko questioned curiously.

“A Makuta,” Corduk said without hesitation. At this remark, Lewok and Navahko jolted. Saying the word “Makuta,” at least on Powai Nui, was seen by some as a vulgar act if not headed by a warning of some sort. Unapologetically, the Toa of Earth continued, “His name is Pretadix, and he works for someone named Tetradon apparently. We’re not sure who Tetradon is, but we’ve been told that he and his organization have severed their ties with the Brotherhood.”

“I don’t think it’s wise to trust that statement,” Lewok said, “at least not entirely.” Navahko agreed with him, while Corduk looked at the two skeptically.

“He didn’t seem to be too fond of the organization,” he argued. “In fact, he got quite angered at the notion that he might be a part of it.”

“At least from what I’ve heard,” Lewok began before subtly lowering his head as if to say something indecent, “Makuta aren’t to be trusted. Not in any circumstance.” “And then there’s the strange reason as to why he would reveal this information,” Navahko stated. “For an organization that remained shrouded in mystery and attacked us, it seems to be too big of an empathetic turn to be honest. Almost like they’ve decided to trick us into thinking they’re on our side now.”

“Our side of what?” Lewok asked genuinely.

“Precisely what Navahko is suggesting,” Corduk said. “Maybe they do want to fool us. It isn’t wise to trust a group that claims to have switched sides so quickly.”

Their discussion was interrupted by Maroona’s voice. She called for everyone to gather in a circle so that they could have a formal meeting and so that they could “talk about some other stuff.” As the Toa gathered themselves into a circle, Maroona counted them off to make sure they were all present.

She paused when she realized that Salvina was nowhere within her line of sight. She asked the other Toa where she had gone, but none of them seemed to have a clue either. The Toa of Lightning couldn’t fathom what would’ve convinced her to suddenly leave without telling anyone. Even though she’d only known her for a short time she had figured out that she wasn’t the type to run off at random. She definitely had a reason, though, and a good one at that.

“Knowing her,” Lewok said, “I don’t think she would’ve gone far.”

“I hope not,” replied Maroona.

“Y’know, I’m sure she’ll come back pretty soon,” Corduk said as Wreshi looked around for something.

“We can’t just assume right away that she’s gone off voluntarily, though,” Detras said, “especially now that this Wraith Syndicate is here on the island.”

“You’re not wrong,” said Lewok politely, “but if I may, I’m sure she hasn’t gone very far for that very fact. We shouldn’t worry about her too much.” After some consideration, Detras came to agree with this statement.

“Say, I remember—” Navahko began before he was interrupted by a loud thud. Several meters before him, Wreshi had dropped a thick tree branch five times as long as his height into the grass. After stretching his arms above his head he sat down on it. He leaned back some ways before nearly falling off backward, at which point he saved himself by flailing his arms forward. “Just needed a place to sit,” he said casually as kicked his dangling legs back and forth. He noticed all of the eyes looking in his direction. “Y’all good?”

A voice behind him cleared its throat to grab his attention. He quickly turned his head to see Salvina and a black and silver Toa standing directly to his left.

“This is Tesudin,” said the Toa of Water as she gestured her hand toward him, “the Toa of Sonics.”

A long silence passed as Tesudin’s eyes darted around and studied each of the Toa. His eyes seemed to stay on Maroona for the longest amount of time.

“I,” the Toa of Lightning began with an unsure look on her face, “I see. And where is Tesudin from?”

“North of this island,” he replied. “I came here after… after I—”

“Tesudin here’s been hiding out for a while,” Salvina interjected, “but he’s a nice guy. Doesn’t mean any harm.”

Something about the two Toa, whether it was Tesudin himself or the way Salvina was presenting him, couldn’t wipe the skeptic expression off of Maroona’s face.

“He’s a bit shy, as you can see,” Salvina continued on in an almost painful manner as she tried to get Maroona to show some mercy.

“He doesn’t happen to be working for the Wraith Syndicate, does he?” the Toa of Lightning asked as she stepped forward intimidatingly.

“No, not at all,” said the Toa of Sonics nervously.

“Then why are you here?” Maroona demanded. Salvina began to speak before Maroona reached out with an upward facing finger to silence her.

“Look, I don’t mean any harm,” Tesudin pleaded.

“Maroona, please!” Salvina said boldly. “What is it about him? Why are you so hostile?”

“I told you. The Wraith Syndicate is trying to trick us into thinking that they can be trusted now, and I bet you that this is one of their attempts.”

“Who is this Wraith Syndicate?” Tesudin asked suddenly. “And why do you think I would be a member of them?”

“We’re not really sure who they are,” Corduk said, “but we know that they’re being led a former member of the Brotherhood.”

“Who is leading them?”

“They said his name was Tetradon.”

At this answer, Tesudin’s eyes widened. Maroona began to back off, deciding that his shock at the whole idea of the Syndicate and it’s leader was enough evidence for her that he was not one of their members.

“What is it?” Salvina asked.

“Is Tetradon here on this island?” the Toa of Sonics asked.

“Not sure,” Corduk said. “We weren’t told anything about him. In fact, we can’t even trust that he exists.”

“I can tell you about him,” Tesudin claimed. “I can tell you a lot.”

Maroona encouraged him and everyone else to sit down so that he could tell them what he knew. He took his time to slow his breathing, and despite her eagerness to know what he knew, Maroona resisted urging him to hurry up.

When he was ready, he began. “Tetradon was a servant of the Brotherhood for a long time. While not a Makuta himself, he worked closely with one named Pretadix and did the two did quite a bit of work for Teridax himself, and menial work at that. Whenever I spied on the two, they were always discussing what tedious work he wanted them to do. They were always thrilled to do it, too, in a way I’ve never seen in anyone else. From the sounds of it they worshipped Teridax and trusted him enough to be treated like his drudges and be given appropriate work.

“His species, the Falqata, is a powerful one. They possess some sort of power that allows them to transfigure weapons to fit their needs and adapt to their environment. They also other odd various powers, although I’ve never been able to determine how they acquire them. Tetradon, for example, is capable of manipulating a select few Elements to certain extents, powers which he is only seen channeling through his weapons. From what I remember, he is one of the more dangerous types of Falqata. He has a lot of cunning, a lot of power, and most likely a good reason to be terrorizing a remote island.”

“Then why did he leave the Brotherhood?” Detras asked. “And how, at that? I thought that leaving it was impossible.”

“That part I’m not so sure about. The last time I saw him, he was one of it’s most fanatical servants. I guess that quite a bit has changed since then. Knowing him, though, he’s probably just as malevolent as he used to be.”

A wave of stillness swept over the area as Tesudin had the look that he finished his talk. All of the Toa looked back and forth at each other, and then at the Toa of Sonics again.

“Is that all that you know?” Corduk asked.

“All that I can remember.”

“So then,” Detras said as he looked back to Maroona, “what will we do? What are we going to do with this information?”

“Just what I was planning before,” answered the Toa of Lightning. “We’re going to go to head back to Ko-Powai and we’re going to defend this Mask Maker’s Tool that Tetradon wants.”

“That’s not the best idea,” Tesudin argued, catching Maroona off guard.

“Why not?”

“That’s what Tetradon will expect us to do,” Tesudin responded, looking away from Maroona and off into the distance. “He most likely knows how stubborn— how defiant we are.”

“And you’re sure of that?”

“Yes,” Tesudin answered. Then he looked back at Maroona and passively said, “By the way, who are you?”

“Excuse me?”

“I gave you my name, yet I’ve not been introduced to you, or some of these other Toa,” Tesudin explained. “In fact, while I don’t plan on mistrusting you, you haven’t exactly given me a good cause for trusting you apart from being an opponent of Tetradon.”

“You still haven’t really given me a reason to trust you either,” Maroona said. Many of the Toa looked at her with cross expressions. As she looked around at them she saw that even Corduk, who she knew to be quite the skeptic, was not pleased with her paranoia. She looked back at Tesudin and added, “Despite that, I think you could prove to be a valuable asset to our team.” She extended a closed fist to the Toa of Sonics. “My name is Maroona, by the way.”

Although at first reluctant to do so, Tesudin eventually reached out his fist and confidently connected it with hers. “If you have as much reason to oppose Tetradon as I, then you and your team are worthy allies.”

“Alright, then,” Maroona replied as she retracted rather quickly, “looks like I’ve got some explaining to do for you.” Looking at the other Toa, she added, “And as for all of you, I believe there’s some well-earned rest you can enjoy for the rest of the day.”

The Toa, all in agreement, found places to settle down and enjoy each other’s company as Maroona began to explain to Tesudin the origin of the new Toa team.

An Old Friend
The following morning, however, after Maroona had convinced Wreshi, Salvina, and Navahko to stop playing silly Matoran games and get some rest, her confidence in Tesudin had faded substantially. The feeling that the stranger was simply a good ally they’d met too late was gone. Instead, she felt that he still hadn’t earned enough of their trust and that there was a possibility that he was up to something.

First off, she could tell that he had withheld information when he told her about Tetradon. He didn’t explain how he knew him, or why, and he still hasn't specified exactly where he was from. The islands to the north of Powai Nui had a wide range of views about it. Some were open to trade and didn’t seem to be bothered by the island’s savage history, whereas others still thought of its inhabitants as barbaric and uncoordinated and thus refused to interact or even spoke against it. Unfortunately for the Powai Nuians, the latter seemed to be much more common than the former.

She recalled the time that a group of beings— strange beings they were, for they were much taller than she was, and apparently called themselves the Vortixx— had come to the island with a desperate craving for some good trade. While at first, the financially voracious Vo-Matoran seemed to be connecting with them quite well, a conflict broke out and after some alien-looking weapons were fired by the Vortixx they left unsatisfied, unwilling to compromise and swearing vengeance at every other moment.

Then there was a bizarre population of Matoran who, after one awkward and poorly-ended interaction with the island, decided that the best course of action was to unleash a torrential spray of bigoted nonsense, calling Powai Nui an “island of thieves” and a “land where Matoran and Rahi went undistinguished.” To her dismay, Maroona had not been around during the height of the event to give them a good, hearty piece of her mind with a side of lampoonery seasoned with a subtle pinch of passive-aggressiveness.

Those were only two out of a larger and more disheartening number of foul interisland relationships. With a rogues gallery of such islands, it seemed plausible that Tesudin was an agent of some sort sent to spy on the island’s inhabitants and report back to a group of fools who would transfigure the acquired information into another helping of hate speech. Or, worse, they would use the information— which now included the presence of a Toa team and a foreign organization threatening them— as part of some planned attack on the island. The Powai Nuians have never had any violent conflicts with anyone aside from each other, but they have been threatened by outsiders that that could change in the future.

But this was merely the tip of the possible ways in which Tesudin was deceiving her. Out of anything she could imagine, even above the improbability of the Brotherhood’s involvement, was the chance that he was allied with the Wraith Syndicate. Despite the air of ambiguity that they shrouded themselves in they had still managed to stir up enough anger against them that it was common knowledge that they were not to be trusted. Now, in spite of that, at least one member was trying to steer the public opinion into thinking that they were morally ambiguous and had simply been misrepresented by Phi, Ruthos and “Alchemist”.

As she had presented to Tesudin, it was the possibility that he was a part of this ruse that concerned her the most about him. The night before he had shown his wound from a fight against Phi and “Alchemist”. Maroona accepted the claim that he had fought them, and was still accepting it, but now she had realized that it raised more questions. What if the battle ended in the two forcing him to serve the Syndicate? What if it was simply a misunderstanding wherein neither party knew they were on the same side with the same intentions?

Of course, there were other reasons why she didn’t take a liking to him, reasons that she needed to express to him in person.

She decided that there was no better opportunity than now to confront the evasive Toa of Sonics, while most of the other Toa were hopefully still asleep. Reckoning that it wouldn’t take much to get tesudin up due to his acute hearing, she tiptoed over to the patch of tall grass which he was resting in.

“I know you’re there.”

“And you know who I am?” Maroona replied.

“I do now. What do you need?”

“To talk.” Maroona quietly urged him up, grabbed his wrist and hauled him further away from the other Toa. When she found a spot where she wouldn’t disturb anyone else, she let go and turned to look at him in a reproving way that made him shudder.

“I need to know more about you,” she said.

“I thought you trusted me.”

“Trusted. Not anymore, especially with the Wraith Syndicate at large. I need to know that you’re not a member of them.”

“How would one even prove that?”

“Some way, any way at all. Just prove to me that you’re not a spy, using any evidence other than that wound on your shoulder.”

Tesudin seemed to be studying Maroona’s mask intensely.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she breathed. “You’ve given me that look at least two times now, and it’s a concerning one at that.”

Without a word, he gently removed a silver blade from his left hip and handed it to Maroona. She gave him a confused look, not knowing what she was supposed to do. “Use your mask,” Tesudin instructed.

Deciding that it wasn’t worth questioning how Tesudin knew she was wearing a Mask of Psychometry, Maroona’s eyes drifted back onto the blade as she gathered the focus needed to utilize it. She closed her eyes and focused on the thought of where the blade had been, what it had been used for and why it was where it was now. “Open the gates to the past,” she thought. For some odd reason, running this phrase through her head several times always eased the process of getting the mask to activate. With a great desire to know about the blade’s history, she was sure that it wouldn’t be long before she could find the right amount of focus that would initiate her mask’s ability.

With no warning, Maroona was rushed into a room of pictures. They were all moving, some tranquil and almost devoid of activity, others erratic or even nauseating to look at. The most notable similarity between almost all of them was the point of view, which in a large majority of the memories around her was on Tesudin’s left hip. It seemed that he didn’t like using this blade very much, or at least it was an emergency weapon he fortunately hadn’t needed to use for a long time.

With some studying, Maroona chose to watch the battle that took place between Tesudin and Phi and “Alchemist.” Throughout the battle, short exchanges of dialogue hinted at an ever-increasing probability that Tesudin was not affiliated with the two, all of which were, of course, sprinkled onto the blatant fact that he was in intense and brutal combat with them. She flinched when she witnessed Tesudin’s shoulder being hit by one of Phi’s blasts, remembering the wound that the Toa of Sonics showed her and imagining it at the moment it was opened. To her dismay, she was forced to stop herself from watching when the whirlwind of gyrating pictures causing by Tesudin’s long fall made her dizzy and induced a gag. Luckily, it seemed that what she had been able to witness was enough to convince her that Tesudin was not a member of the Syndicate. She apologetically shared this observation with him and stated that she now had more trust in him. She even thanked him for being so open to provide a basis for the assurance.

The discussion was interrupted by noisy bustling coming from two of the Toa. She shushed them scoldingly and told them that the other Toa were trying to sleep, but they did not seem to have heard her. The two Toa, from the tones of their voices, were most likely Wreshi and Salvina. While she had expected them to be the first two Toa up beside Tesudin and herself, she didn’t anticipate that they would be up and bickering this early in the morning. Maroona tried to shush them again, and this time they responded, not with silence, but with a message commanding her to come over to them.

Reluctantly, she walked over to them to see a short, silver figure next to Salvina and facing Wreshi. When the Toa of Lightning squinted hard enough to see clearly, she saw that the figure was a short Matoran with yellow, black and silver armor.

“Omakah?” she said. The only reason she recognized him and knew his name was due to a gathering in Vo-Powai held by the Thunderhead Union that she went to, which Omakah had gone to as well. While there, the two became acquainted, with Omakah taking a liking to the unconventional and comical experiences Maroona told him about. The Po-Matoran confirmed that he was Omakah and greeted her, to which Maroona greeted back.

“What brings you here?” Maroona asked curiously. “It’s rather cold for a Po-Matoran up here, isn’t it?”

“Not for this one,” Omakah said, “at least if it means getting enough Widgets out of my next payday. ‘Was just delivering a couple of letters to some Ga- and Le-Matoran, and then I saw you guys and thought I’d stop to say hi.”

It turned out that the letters Omakah was delivering were from the KCO and were directed at several important members of APNWT. While Omakah legally wasn’t allowed to open their envelopes, he admitted that he had held them up to the sun the previous day and read several statements about a being named Tetradon. Maroona explained to him that after she, Wreshi, Corduk, and Detras were told of his existence by a Makuta named Pretadix, they told the KCO and instructed them to warn APNWT and the Thunderhead Union.

When Tesudin walked out of the tall grass and appeared behind Maroona, Omakah’s eyes widened, as did the Toa of Sonics’ before anyone could react or look at him, Tesudin threw a finger up to his mouth, which Omakah accepted with a nod.

“You, uh,” Maroona stammered as she looked at the two repeatedly, “you two okay?”

“Yep,” answered Tesudin and Omakah simultaneously.

“Well, alright. Omakah, this is Tesudin. Tesudin, Omakah.”

By the time all of the Toa were awake, Omakah was still around having short-lived conversations with each of them. As soon as Corduk supposedly blurted out an observation that started a heated discussion between all of the Toa, Tesudin took the opportunity to hide himself and Omakah in the bushes.“Okay,” Tesudin said, “I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, but not enough time.” “Where did you go?” Omakah asked. “Like, what happened after the attack?”

“Away.”

“You just left?”

“I didn’t have any reason to stay. It was dangerous. I was being targeted.”

“You could have stayed and helped more! I had to travel thirteen whole kio to the coast to escape the whole thing because by the time that you had left and I had the bearing to try and get out of there they practically ran the—”

“Look, I know,” said Tesudin, using his powers to silence Omakah before continuing, “I’m sorry, alright?” He lifted his head up and listened to the conversation outside the bushes.

“What are they talking about?” Omakah tried to say.

Tesudin removed the silencing effect off of Omakah and asked him to say it again. “Not sure anymore,” he replied. “The message I imitated using his voice said something about Rahi rights I think. But that’s not important now. What’s important is that you understand that you need to stay quiet about this near the Toa, okay?”

“I— why?”

“Just do it, please. I don’t want them to get caught up in the intricacies of my past and waste time.”

Omakah nodded slowly and accepted the request. After patting him on the shoulder, Tesudin escaped from the bushes before the Toa could notice. Omakah emerged as well before telling the Toa that he had to be off to deliver the letters and bid them farewell.

Promise
According to Maroona’s original plan, by afternoon the Toa were to leave Le-Powai and begin traveling back to the KCO to defend the Mask Maker’s Tool. With that idea vetoed by Tesudin, however, the Toa now had several hours of free time in place of it. Not wanting to waste time, the Toa of Lightning decided it was best to begin training the Toa in combat and assist them in using their elemental powers for the first time. Again her ideas had been opposed, this time by the Toa instead. With Tetradon working slowly but surely, as Tesudin had told them, they decided that they had done enough traveling and fighting and defending and worrying to deserve an afternoon off. At first, Maroona was severely opposed to this, however, when she found herself to be tired she changed her mind.

Salvina had somehow coaxed Detras, Wreshi, Corduk, and Lewok into a game of Otakini (which she surely was going to win). She felt sorrowful but understanding when Navahko said he could not play, even though by now he was able to walk with assistance from his spear. With free time on his hands, the Toa of Ice decided to talk with Tesudin, who had gone off into a more forested area to hone his archery skills. He heard Navahko limping over to him and unsuspiciously looked over his shoulder.

“Hello,” said the Toa of Sonics. “What bring you here?”

“Just uh…” Navahko said as he tried to remember what he was going to say. “Just needed to ask something of you. If you don’t mind of course.”

“Not at all. Ask away.”

“Well, you might not know this, but when I was a Ko-Matoran I wasn’t the most active type. I was the supervisor of an organization you may have heard of called the KCO, which essentially meant that I sat on a stool all day and filed documents and reports. That didn’t give me ay time to get active very often unless you count walking between rooms and opening and closing drawers.” By now Tesudin was giving him an odd look.

With his left hand still holding onto his spear and his right on the back of his neck, Navahko continued, “What I’m trying to say is that I have no combat training whatsoever, and from the looks of it, I’m going to need it.”

“A Toa is hardly required to know how to fight,” Tesudin said as he looked back at the tree he was facing and knocked an arrow. “I knew a Toa who carried nothing but a pair of binoculars and a conch shell who managed to save a large Matoran population from hundreds of different assaults and calamities.”

“But I’d like to know how to fight,” Navahko replied. “I know that I can use my current skills to strategize and iron out plans, but for the first time in my life, I have actual physical power that I can utilize. If I just sat around and helped only with thinking, I’d be no better off in this state as I would be as a Ko-Matoran.”

Tesudin drew his bow back and aimed it at the tree. “You understand not the purpose of being a Toa.”

“I don’t?”

“Not yet.”

“It is to fight for those who cannot defend themselves, yes?”

“That is merely scratching the surface.” The arrow Tesudin had drawn was faintly beginning to vibrate. “A Toa’s abilities are among the most versatile in the whole universe. Their potential uses extend light years beyond defending the defenseless. My friend with the binoculars and the conch shell was able to save so many lives because she used her powers of light to see in pitch-black darkness, penetrate the fog and see over obstructions. She could see and detect, from miles away, things as minuscule as the beating of an insect’s wing, all through a clever use of her powers. Most impressively, she saved hundreds of Matoran hundreds of times without laying a single finger on a weapon.”

Tesudin released the arrow, which struck the tree in the blink of an eye. Rather than impaling it, it bounced off and gyrated through the air. It fell back to back to Tesudin, who caught the arrow in his hand as a large amount of sonic force that had been released into the tree vibrated it, causing a number of birds to scatter into the sky. Every single dead needle that had been on the tree was now fluttering down to the forest floor, leaving its branches exclusively a beautiful shade of green. Only one single green needle fell down, which fell in front of Tesudin, causing him to frown slightly.

“But, if you wish to know how to fight,” he said as he attached his bow to his back, “then I will teach you. When your ankle heals, that is.”

“Of course.”

Sparks flew off of a large orange shield as a long-handled hook struck it repeatedly. For every step forward Maroona took, Detras had to take one or two back just to relieve himself from her surprising strength. The two clashed their weapons together again, however, Maroona now decided to push against her opponent rather than strike again. Slowly, Detras began to slide back, his feet tearing up the compacted tall grass and even the soil underneath it as he tried to resist the powerful forces acting on him. After looking down and briefly observing what he was standing over, he replaced his feet into better positions, dragging his left out of the small hole it had been excavating and his right onto a rock peeping out of the grass. As soon as he had done this, Maroona was no longer able to push him backward. Furthermore, he himself found the strength to push her back, which surprised the two of them. “You’re using... your head and your... strength together!” said the Toa of Lightning in short bursts.

Suddenly, she hopped to the side, causing the unsuspecting Toa of Fire to tumble forward toward a small hill. Immediately recognizing what was happening to him, he tucked his shield to his side, dropped to the ground and completed a smooth somersault. He turned himself around as he stood to face Maroona again, raising his shield and expecting her to rush at him.

However, she stood still and said, “You’re adaptable, too. You suggested that you didn’t have any physical skills when in reality you hadn't yet applied your engineer-level mind to your body.”

While Maroona was stopped, Detras took the opportunity to ask her a rather inopportune question. “What was it about Pretadix that made you so angry with him?”

As he had feared, the question shocked Maroona quite a bit. In spite of this, she did ponder it for some time and eventually answered, “I saw in him a sort of… chaos inside his head, if that makes sense.” Detras nodded and she continued. “And he’s not the first person I’ve met who I’ve seen those traits in. There’s just a certain type of person whose mind is comparable to an atmosphere. So many little things have such a great effect, especially things that shouldn’t affect them that much, and in doing that a completely unpredictable mindset is created. Like the weather on this island, there’s just an infinitesimally small chance that you’ll be able to tell if they’re about to let the sun shine or make it cloudy, or if their winds will be calm or they will unleash a violent storm.”

“I see. Why, then, does that make you angry with him?”

“If I’m being quite honest, I’m bound to get angry with everyone who has that personality, partially because I’m somewhat similar to it. I can understand myself, I can predict myself, and because of that, I can predict most others. Except, of course, for those like me, who despite their similarities, I cannot figure out.”

After a moment of silence, Maroona opted to continue Detras’ training. She raised her weapon and rushed at the Toa of Fire until he held up his hand to signal for Maroona to stop and tilted his head toward the sky. As the Toa of Lightning came out of her combat-focused state she detected a hair-raising noise that she knew all too well.

“Those are sirens, correct?” Detras asked, to which Maroona nodded. “What kind? What emergency are they for?”

“An unidentified one.”

“It better not be the Wraith Syndicate.”

“As much as I too hope it isn’t I have the feeling that it is them.”

“Either way it doesn’t matter. We need to grab the others.”

You Should Know
The dreadful sirens were being emitted from a small, humble settlement sitting near the border of Le-Powai and Vo-Powai, populated mostly by Vo-Matoran despite sitting on the former region’s side of the border. Called “Obodosara” by law and “Edge Town” by its inhabitants, it’s rural population was less than seventy. As the Toa had traveled to it, an untimely and torrential downpour struck the town, soaking the ground and leaving behind a light sprinkle in its wake. The air stunk with petrichor which the Toa could smell clearly before they even arrived at the rural town.

Despite a recent history of rivalries with other towns lined along the borders of Vo-Powai, the emergency sirens in Obodosara had not been set off by any instance of them. Rather, as the Toa had feared, it was due to the presence of notable members of the Wraith Syndicate.

When they arrived they saw, followed by the recognizable members, a tall, white entity edged with red spines and bearing an intimidating black cloak around his waist. The Toa froze when they came before him, at which point he and his comrades were alerted. They began to raise their weapons in unison before he signaled for them to stop, after which a long and uncanny silence began. Six of the seven Toa edgily hid behind their weapons, headed by Maroona, the only one of them who took a more offensive-looking combat stance. Her weapon was sparkling with dancing arcs of electricity, ready to discharge a bolt of lightning toward anything that came too close. “Are you Tetradon?” Maroona asked boldly and thunderously. “The leader of the Wraith Syndicate?”

“Indeed I am,” the figure confirmed. “Indeed I am the apparent nemesis to you Matoran, the ostensible antithesis to all you stand for and everything you hold to be true and right. All this because of a misunderstanding between me and a few of my servants, all of the strife and fear spread thickly throughout your society due to some bad first impressions.”

“I can understand if you didn’t want to be enemies with us,” Maroona said, “but infiltrating our facilities and causing us distress isn’t going to help with that, is it? If it is diplomacy you want, then we must have conversation, not war.”

“Do you really believe that everything we’ve done on your island has only been in the name of conflict?” Tetradon hissed. His hands were very animated, flying back and forth between the Toa and himself depending on which he was referring to. “Or have you considered the likelihood of the latest having been done in the name of grabbing your attention for more than a couple dozen seconds?”

“I have considered many possibilities,” Maroona stated, lowering her weapon and reabsorbing its electrical charge, “and I still don’t know what you want. If you truly need something, say, to stay alive, then we can provide it to you. We just need to know that we can trust you.”

Corduk began to object to this statement, reminding Maroona that Tetradon was working with a Makuta and had himself been an overzealous member of the Brotherhood. Once again, Maroona tried to silence him several times and shut out his eventual ramblings.

“Can’t even agree on what to think, can you?” Pretadix muttered snidely. The remark pulled Maroona’s and Corduk’s attention back to the issue at hand.

“I see the same in you,” Maroona said calmly. “I see discord between all of you, more than there is between us.”

“And thus…?” Pretadix coaxed.

“That’s beside the point, however,” Maroona replied. “If you want something, tell us. We can’t guarantee that we’ll be able or willing to give it to you, but there’s a chance that we might.”

“Finally deciding to avoid conflict, I see…” Pretadix said. “Your first decent choice, is it not?”

Tetradon simply stared at the Toa, his eyes always seeming to linger on Maroona. It seemed that the prudent yet confrontational question she had given had taken him off guard, as his fang-like chin now rested in his fearsome hand. The longer he did this, the more cross he became; as such everyone else, Toa and Wraith Syndicate members alike, became tenser.

Slowly, Tetradon reached to the small of his back with both hands, which caused some of the Toa, who anticipated that he was grabbing for a weapon, to back away slightly. Instead, he fiddled with something on his waist for a brief moment, tightening his raven cloak securely around his waist.

When Pretadix saw this, he made a foreboding grin and motioned for Phi, Ruthos and “Alchemist” to step back. They did so, and Ruthos abruptly asked what Tetradon was doing. “Just watch,” Pretadix answered. “You needn’t do anything else but watch. And step back further will you?” The Makuta himself stepped to the side as well.

Several Toa demanded Tetradon tell them what he was doing, but he did not answer. At this point, he had reached his hands over his shoulders and was grasping his pair of blades.

When asked what his weapons were, he finally decided to answer. “Qama Radula,” he spoke with an exotic accept, pronouncing the vowels with a heavy distortion and rolling the R in a strange way. It seemed like an accent only he and his species were physiologically capable of pulling off. “In my form of the tongue of my people, their name literally means ‘the chains of vindication.’ In other forms, the phrase has a wide range of meanings, from ‘swords of death’ to ‘tooth saws.’ Whichever is truly correct, I believe they do a poor job at giving a passable explanation of what they can do.”

All of the other Toa stiffened by wondrous fear, Corduk was the only Toa bold enough to keep asking questions. “What exactly are they capable of?” he asked before the other Toa looked at him with odd expressions.

“So you are curious,” Tetradon replied. “Well then, why don’t you come here and take a closer look?” He swiftly released them from his back and held them with his arms splayed outward, making him look like a rather easy target for a sudden attack.

Without warming, Corduk was overwritten by the urge to attack Tetradon. His battle axe rose above his head as began to rush forward with a brazen warcry toward his new opponent, who despite this had not flinched, nor had he removed the smirk from under his mask. As soon as Corduk was mere centimeters away from him, he swung his arm across his chest and stepped back, allowing the Toa of Earth to tumble to the ground behind him. Immediately, Corduk roared a series of curses as immense agony flowed throughout his whole body. Navahko, who was as greatly distressed as the other Toa still standing, saw that two gashes had been opened in the armor covering Corduk’s left shoulder, Out of it, along with a disheartening amount of blood, dripped a putrid-looking bright orange fluid. The Toa of Ice soon noticed to be the same kind as was now leaking out of the two red spines on Tetradon’s lower arm, which were also coated with a small amount of blood.

“Pitiful,” Tetradon said without looking back, raising his voice only to ensure it was audible over Corduk’s harrowing yells. Phi began to close in on the Toa of Earth before Pretadix gestured for her not to. Tetradon added, “And he didn’t even get to see the capabilities of my tools. A sorrowful one, he is. Anyone else up to the task, now?”

Maroona would have ran forward had Detras not put his shield in front of her. He told Tetradon, “We don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Just, in the name of Mata Nui, tell us why you’re here.”

Tetradon made no reply, and instead shook the last droplets of orange fluid off of his arm. He began to advance on the Toa, accelerating gradually from a steady sneak to a threatening storming. Salvina was next to step up to him, placing her Torrent Staff firmly in front of her. She managed to deflect all of the virulent swipes made by her opponent, much to his dismay. After trying to outmaneuver her by dashing to the left and right, Tetradon stepped back and took a deep breath to calm himself. His right eye turned from it’s standard red to a faded shade of gray as the corresponding blade transformed from a white, spiny one to a smooth, silver one bearing a curved tip. He raised it up and it shook slightly. The Toa of Water was tossed back, painfully colliding with Lewok and gaining several moans of discomfort from him.

Out of an area beyond his field of vision, a yellow and black streak struck him in the back with a sharp weapon, tearing a considerable hole into his armor but not penetrating into his body. When his attacker stopped to catch its breath, revealing itself to be Wreshi, Tetradon swung his metallic blade up. The Toa of Stone was launched upwards, tumbling all throughout his dreadful arc before crashing back down onto the ground with a sharp crack.

Maroona, Detras, and Navahko were now in horror as they realized that they were the only Toa still standing. Behind them they heard moans indicating that both Lewok and Salvina had been injured from their collision, to their right Wreshi was cradling what appeared to be a broken arm, and Corduk was still writhing in pain beyond the rest of the Wraith Syndicate. Tetradon looked at these three remainders numerous times.

“I will spare the cripple,” Tetradon said, “as it is an action even a Brotherhood member might consider honorable. You two, however…” he trailed off as his eyes danced back and forth between Detras and Maroona, finally resting on the former, “I have other ideas.”

His mask began to glow a ghostly white, and in a near instant, Maroona had been reduced from the bold Toa she once was to a squirming figure muttering about “insects inside her armor” among other horrific things. Detras, after seeing what was happening to her, began to slowly step back, slowly reaching an arm down to try and grab the Toa of Lightning in hopes of dragging her out the range of any possible battle between him and Tetradon.

“Now you’re a peculiar one, aren't you?” cooed the Falqata, tilting his head slightly. Detras gave no reply and instead looked him directly in the eyes. “There’s a burning inside you,” Tetradon continued, “one that wants to be let free, it seems. Something you’re not telling the other Toa.”

Surprised by Tetradon’s claims, and still refuge behind his shield, Detras valiantly said, “I’ve not the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do,” said Tetradon as he began closing in on his prey. “I know from the look you have in your eyes right now that your history is hides something significant. Something your time would rather want to know, wouldn’t they?”

By now, Maroona had recovered and was watching Tetradon intensely. After commenting on how he had lost focus, the Falqata suddenly seized the now-distracted Toa of Fire’s inner shoulder, causing him in a short time to fall unconscious. He then backed away from Maroona, placed his weapons on his back and caused his mask to glow more intense. As he did this, Maroona began to scramble away from him as frightening hallucinations came back to her from the earlier instance of Tetradon using his Xakar on her. Pleased with what he had accomplished, Tetradon turned to his comrades and commanded Pretadix to throw Corduk to the rest of the Toa. The Falqata began to walk away when an ebony metallic rod causing the air to ripple suddenly tore through his chest, embedding itself so that it was protruding out an equal distance on either side. His hands instinctively closed in on the wound as he began desperately gasping for air. Thick beads of orange fluid dripped rhythmically out of the entry and exit wounds.

Phi panicked with loud screaming, while the other members of the Wraith Syndicate simply looked on in shock. Just before Tetradon was about to fall backward, Pretadix grabbed his shoulder and suspended him upright. Wrapping his other hand around the rod, he wrenched it out of his comrade’s chest and took his hand off of his shoulder. He next focused his vision on Tetradon’s wound, and in a short amount of time, the wound had closed completely, leaving only holes in his chest and back armor

Tetradon grabbed the rod from Pretadix, observed the sharp point at its end, and looked back immediately. He saw, peeking out of a bush, Tesudin, staring at him with widened eyes and his bow laying on the ground.Tetradon grimaced at the Toa of Sonics and stated, “You should know that Ringa would never have wanted you to kill anyone.” After saying this, he broke the arrow in half, tossed its remains to the side and continued walking away. “Alchemist” grabbed the derelict Staff of Vortices off of the ground, turned it on, and disappeared through a red portal along with the rest of the Wraith Syndicate. The throbbing rhythm returned to Tesudin, this time accompanied by a mild ringing. He stood up to observe his surroundings and saw that he now was the only Toa present who remained completely unharmed.

Physically, at least.

Characters

 * Maroona
 * Corduk
 * Detras
 * Wreshi
 * Pretadix
 * Jayniss (mentioned)
 * "Sunder" (mentioned)
 * Tetradon
 * Phi
 * Ruthos
 * Antharahk (mentioned)
 * "Alchemist"
 * Navahko
 * Tesudin
 * Salvina
 * Lewok
 * Teridax (mentioned)
 * Omakah
 * Ringa (mentioned)

Trivia

 * Cap remembers this Volume for the fact that it reveals much about Tetradon. He also remembers it for prominently featuring violence for the purpose shifting the tone.
 * Tetradon's blood/venom was originally going to be yellow. However, due to the limitations of the editing software Cap was using, it had to be made orange.
 * Originally, Tetradon would have turned one of Qama Radula's blades into a Poison-manipulating scythe in order to poison Corduk. When Cap considered having Tetradon envenomate the Toa of Earth with his own venom, however, he ended up discarding the idea. The idea of Tetradon's species having their venom and blood be the same fluid was also not thought of until Cap was writing the chapter.