Against the Storm/Volume V

Against the Storm: Volume V is the fifth and penultimate volume of Against the Storm. It was written by CaptainLandr0ver and released on May 24, 2018.

Echo
The second that Corduk, Navahko, and Tesudin returned to the rest of their team, they were bombarded with questions. A majority were from Maroona, who apparently had been stressing about their absence for some time. She had immediately traveled out on her own to find the three after hearing the banging of Phi’s weapon. After checking to see that they were okay and learning of the temporary injury to Tesudin’s hearing, she said to Navahko, “So, you went out to walk on your ankle…” She pointed to Tesudin and continued, “And you went to train him...” Finally, she turned to Corduk. “So, why did you leave?”

“I was told to check on Navahko.”

“By who?”

“Salvina.”

“Are you sure.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you might be lying.” She now had her face very close to Corduk’s and was bitterly scowling at him. Pointing at Phi’s unconscious body, which Corduk had dropped upon being stopped, she said, “Why was she there?”

Corduk shrugged halfheartedly. “She just was. I was walking to Navahko to tell him to come back, and she appeared out of nowhere and started attacking me.”

“And you started fighting back?”

“Of course. What else could I have done, just run?”

“Yes! You should’ve run back to me and told me about her, and I could’ve taken care of her a lot quicker and without costing Tesudin his hearing!”

“That would require me to back down from a fight,” Corduk said boldly.

“Good observation.”

“When I was trained to defend the mines of Po-Powai, I was taught to never back down from a fight, even if I was fearful of how it would end. I was taught courage, and—”

“That’s not an excuse.” Between Maroona’s fingers, arcs of electricity were beginning to appear. “You were taught to be brave and all that, and that’s fine, but courage should never come before common sense. If you were on your own, defending the entrance to a mine from a much more powerful enemy, would you have stood your ground knowing you would die, or would you have run into the mine to alert the other guards?”

The question seemed to stump Corduk. His eyes momentarily darted away from Maroona to think about it.

“It’s not like there’s people who you can’t boss around all of the time.” he finally said.

Before Maroona could talk back, Corduk grabbed Phi, walked past her, and disappeared into the trees to rejoin the rest of the Toa. Navahko followed with him, carrying an acoustic jetah in one hand and his spear in the other. He avoided eye contact with Maroona. Having watched them walk away, the Toa of Lightning looked in front of her to see that Tesudin was still there, cleaning dirt off of his silver blade.

“I need to ask you something,” Maroona said as she reached for Tesudin’s upper arm and walked to her right. As soon as she came close to gripping it, he pushed her hand away and looked into her eyes with a scathing glare. Surprised, she recoiled and yelled at him, only for no sound to come out. She stubbornly crossed her arms and stared at him.

“What do you want?” he asked sorely as he put his blade back on his left hip.

“I need to know why you look at me the way you do,” she answered.

The question didn’t seem to surprise Tesudin.

“Ever since you—”

Tesudin silenced her again, causing her to look angrier. After she accepted that Tesudin needed to talk, he lifted the effect and said, “You remind me of someone, Maroona.”

“Of Ringa?”

This reply did take Tesudin by surprise. “I thought you didn’t hear him mention her.”

“Who is she?”

“That’s personal information!.”

Maroona was about to retort, but decided not to. Instead, she turned and began to storm off to the meet other Toa. She could figure this out another day.

“But I’ll tell you anyway if it means you’ll stop harassing me about it.”

“No, I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do.”

Maroona turned back, the same annoyed expression still on her face. Walking menacingly towards him, she said, “Then tell me, Tesudin. Where are you from? Who is Ringa? Why have you been keeping your past a secret?”

“I’m surprised that you haven’t already answered that last question yourself.”

“How would I?”

By now, Tesudin had raised his voice. “Maybe if you’d acknowledged that I don’t like talking about it! Don’t you ever recognize other people’s emotions? Or do you only understand yourself and ignore the fact that others have them as well?”

Maroona, confounded, didn’t respond for some time. “Then tell me.”

“Only if you promise to tell me something about yourself.”

“Fine.”

Tesudin sighed. “Before I came here, I lived on an island called Nynrah.”

Maroona’s face lit up as if she remembered something.

“There, I acted as most Toa did, assisting the Matoran and defending them when they needed defending. I worked with two other Toa, a Toa of Light who served as our watch sentry and a Toa of Water named Ringa. Ringa and I shared a special bond of sorts, one which other species, like the Skakdi, would identify as ‘love.’ I’m not sure if that’s what it was, but if it wasn’t, it was incredibly similar to it. Others said it was a glitch in our programming, something we weren’t supposed to feel. I never assumed trying to figure it out was that important.

“I remember much about her. She was an expert botanist in her spare time, so wherever she went she brought with her the aroma smelled of exotic, sweet-smelling flowers. She liked to breed fruit-bearing plants as well, and one of the island’s most precious commodities that wasn't created by its engineers was a red fruit which she created and named after herself.

“The two of us spent much of our time together. Whenever we defended the island, or patrolled its perimeter, we always did it together. If ever one of us was in trouble, the other would be determined to come to their aid no matter what. If we weren’t already caught up in Toa duties at the end of the day we would spend it together on a cliff overlooking the sea, eating the fruit that she grew and enjoying each other’s company.

“Then came the day that the island was attacked by the Brotherhood of Makuta. Apparently, the Nynrah Ghosts, a group of Fe-Matoran engineers living on the island, had angered them, and thus the Makuta saw it fit to obliterate not only their part of the island, but also some of that outside of it. Several servants and Dark Hunters were present at the attack, but the one who attacked the area Ringa and I were patrolling was Tetradon. We fought him furiously as he attempted to close in on the north side of the Nynrah Ghosts’ base, and managed to hold him off for quite a while. However, his friend, who I now understand is Pretadix, joined in and separated me from Ringa. I was barely able to fight him and chose to escape him and ensure that Ringa was okay, but…”

Maroona was about to say something about Tesudin trailing off, but decided not to when she saw the tears welling up in his eyes and remembered what he had said about recognizing other people’s emotions.

There was a long minute after this, during which Maroona repeatedly tried to think of something to say. Finally, she said, “I’m— I’m sorry about that, I really am, but what does this have to do with me?”

“Oh, of course, you’d want to know what this means to you.”

“No, the thing is that I wanted to know why you looked at me like that. Does this relate to that?” She sat down across from him in a rather vulnerable manner.

“As you guessed, you remind me of her,” said Tesudin, sitting down as well. This comment made the Toa of Lightning gasp silently. “The blue and white color scheme, the determination in your eyes, the saucy personality, they all remind me of her. Every time I look at you, or think of you even, I remember her, and along with her, I remember the pain.” Maroona was not showing her usual assertive position and domineering expressions; instead, she looked meek and demure after hearing this. “I wish you’d told me his before,” she said. Its authoritative implications were contradicted by the somber manner in which it was spoken. Her voice had been quiet, allowing it’s faint hints of stress and tension to shine through it more prominently. Without saying a single word, she gave Tesudin a quick, apologetic glance and looked down. She lifted herself up slightly and moved over to sit next to Tesudin, and the two leaned onto each other.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t realize.”

Control Part I
The mask wasn’t like anything Maroona had seen before. Its scorpioid shape was foreign to her and she had never before seen one which revealed so much of the wearer. It resembled a face too much for her to feel comfortable looking at it for long, especially without the animated face of Phi she had been used to seeing behind it. Whenever she looked around a part of the mask seemed to move, snarling elusively in her peripheral vision where she couldn’t tell what was real.

Reluctantly, and with a slight fear of what she would come across, she held the mask close to her chest and activated her own. She ran the phrase “open the gates to the past” through her head, trying to activate the mask as quickly as she possibly could. After several seconds of focus, she was transported to the room of images. Most of these images depicted Ruthos (or at least the cloaked figure she assumed to be Ruthos), most of which were violently shaking as if Phi had been moving back and forth. After studying them for a while she figured that these were the times that Ruthos and Phi had been arguing.

A smaller number of the images showed Tetradon and Pretadix, some still and others trembling. As soon as she tried to focus on one of these, however, it abruptly changed, instead, showing a close-up of Tetradon’s face in an empty, scarlet-tinted void. Confused, she studied it for some time to determine if it was actually a part of the mask’s past. After deciding that it wasn’t, she looked to another image including Tetradon, only for it to switch to the same image. She stared at this image for some time, at first assuming that looking at the others would contaminate them as such and soon finding an interest in the picture. It was still and unmoving. Whether this was because the “memory” it presented was still or because the mask was beginning to malfunction she knew not.

Rapidly, the other images surrounding her followed in this manner until they all depicted Tetradon’s face. Maroona, confused and concerned, tried to deactivate the mask but was frightened to find that she was unable to do so. The separate images began to congregate to a single point in front of Maroona, eventually forming a hazy, larger image of his face. By now, metallic screeching sounds could be heard, echoing throughout the room as if it were tangible and real.

“Trying to get inside our heads?” spoke Tetradon’s disembodied voice. It made Maroona jump and caused a chill to run up her spine. “That’s supposed to be our job, you should know.”

Maroona began to back away, hoping that escaping this illusory red dungeon in her mind would help her escape the trap her mask had been used to create. She faced the wall of images behind her and slammed her fist on it with all of the strength she could muster in this unholy realm. This strike did absolutely nothing, made no noise, and seemingly hurt her hand more than it should have. Desperate and worrying that she might be running out of time to escape some stranger mind trick, she pounded on the wall several more times, each producing no greater effect than the last. When she gave up on this, she noticed how rapidly she was breathing. Her body was fatigued and worn out beyond belief, and she knew that her futile attempts to escape hadn’t caused the feeling all on their own. Something seemed to be dragging her further and further into gradually intensifying exhaustion. Her arms and legs grew sore and a throbbing headache spawned which racked her body and shot it’s pain down her back every time it beat. The room she was in, which she originally had no trouble standing up on, lost it’s corners and edges, morphing into a fate ovate shape. She slid down to its bottom, too afflicted with the tenderness in her limbs to even reach for a higher position. All she could do was lift her knees to her chest, wrap one hand around them, and clasp her forehead with the other. After doing this, she tried to use the latter hand to pull her mask off but was unable to.

By now, Phi’s strange mask was gone completely, and even through her fuzzy, diverging vision, she could see that the images of Tetradon had done the same. All that was left was the red light, which had grown so intense that she needed to shield her eyes from its source above her. Faint clanging sounds were all that she could hear, along with the similar sounds of her armor rubbing against itself. The painful interaction between her and the bowl she was in made no sound. With the quietness being the only she found non-hostile, she took the chance to speak in the hopes that Tetradon, whose voice she had heard earlier, would respond. She did not want to hear his voice again, but decided that she needed to if she were to be given any clue as to what was happening.

“What is this?”

The pain in her body was now audible through her voice. It sounded as if her throat were parched.

“Aren’t you familiar with this place?” said a voice. Although she assumed it was Tetradon’s, it was distorted slightly, and she was too tired to try and confirm whether it was his.

“No,” she croaked.

“This is the place inside your head, Maroona.”

“Get me out of it.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to leave that to you.”

Breathing was now more difficult for Maroona, possibly because her enclosure was slowly beginning to shrink. The freezing temperature the air had reached could have been another factor in her difficulties breathing. There were no hints as to where the voice as to where the voice was coming from.

Maroona took as deep a breath as she could, causing her throat to hurt, and said, “Who are you?” After saying this the dryness of her throat caused her to enter into a brief and painful fit of coughing.

As soon as her coughing ended, her eyes were racked with bright light. The air was warm and full, and she breathed it in rapidly to try and clear her throat of pain as quickly as possible. In doing this she caused herself her to violently cough again. An invisible force on her back rolled her onto her side as she finished coughing.

She opened her eyes slightly and saw that she was laying in grass and dirt. Confused, she attempted to push herself up, but failed. By now she noticed that another voice was speaking to her. After listening to it for a bit she realized that it belonged to Detras.

“What happened?” he said.

Maroona rolled herself onto her back and saw the Toa of Fire looking down at her with a very alarmed look on his face.

“Not sure,” Maroona said as he helped her to sit up. He tried to encourage her to stand as well, however, she grunted and shook him off.

“Woah, it’s okay,” Detras said in a voice more reassuring than it needed to be. “Does it hurt?”

“It hurt a bit ago, or something.” Maroona’s voice was unnaturally deadbeat. “Doesn’t hurt now, really.”

“Are you groggy at all? Sounds like you are, especially since you’re being all grumpy.”

“Well, I’m bound to get grumpy when my team fails me.”

Detras backed away when he heard the malicious inflection in her voice. “Yeah, you’re not feeling too well.”

“I’m fine!” Maroona shouted as she shakily stood up. “I just need to try and figure out what happened.”

“What did happen?”

“Do I sound like I know that?”

“Like, did you see anything? Hear anything? Feel anything?”

“I felt pain, that was for sure. I could see Tetradon for a bit and hear his voice too.”

“Oh, Mata Nui, he’s gotten in your head too,” Detras said dejectedly.

“No, it probably just a vision or something.”

“A vision? Is that… are those normal for you?”

“Some leaders of Toa teams have visions of what they're supposed to do.”

“Then what did that tell you to do?”

“I don’t know!”

“It doesn’t sound like that was anything like a Toa leader vision.”

“Like you would know!” Although Detras had now adapted himself to Maroona’s agitation, this phrase managed to get past his belief that she didn’t mean anything she was saying, allowing it to strike him. She continued, “I’ve never seen you have a vision, aside from that awkward seizure you had after Tetradon pinched you into a coma for almost two weeks.”

Multiple times, Detras tried to reply, but couldn’t get much further than the jagged beginning of one. The words Maroona was saying were cutting deeper than they should have been.

“Maybe you just weren’t cut out for it, or destiny found someone better. Probably Corduk. He seems to have had his eyes on leading this team for a while.”

“Maroona, do you realize what you’re saying? At all?”

“What I should’ve said long before now. I should’ve already have told you that that recording Lewok gave me never said you’d be the leader.”

“When have I ever said I wanted to be the leader?” Detras had no choice but to go on the defense. He couldn’t leave, lest Maroona run off.

“I know you want it,” Maroona replied. “I can tell just by looking at you.”

There was a certain feeling Detras had about the meaning in this phrase which he pushed aside. “What do you mean?”

“Well, look at your armor! What color is it, huh?”

That feeling had been right. This reply had now cut into the flesh of Detras’ emotions which had remained untouched longer than any other. It was the most tender, the one he hid the most, the one he felt the most guilty about.

“You dare to say that?” Detras muttered vindictively. All thoughts he had of regrowing his thick skin and ignoring the comment were being severed overpowered by an innate rage.

“What, are you going to redesign my weapon and get it to kill me?”

Detras lunged forward but stopped himself when he heard a yell come from behind him. He looked back to see Corduk and Tesudin dashing at him and Maroona as fast as they could.

“What’s going on here?” Corduk shouted.

“Oh, great, the valiant and unkillable warrior is here now,” Maroona said.

“Detras, what happened?” Tesudin said.

“I’m not sure. She won’t tell me anything useful.”

“What has she told you?”

Detras paused before he replied. “Not very nice things.

Already, Maroona and Corduk looked to the on the verge of a massive argument. Apparently, the Toa of Lightning had said something about Corduk “not being able to see further than his ego extends,” which had ticked Corduk off. Tesudin pushed them away from each other and silenced them both. He looked to Corduk, then to Maroona, unsilenced her, and asked, “What’s gotten into you?”

“Just needed to let some personal feelings out. Turns out you’re next.” “Maroona, stop.” Tesudin turned fully to her and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. “You’re not okay. Something’s wrong.”

“What, is it that I remind you of your dead lover too much? Does that hurt your feelings too much?”

Tesudin produced a shrill, high pitched noise. Detras and Corduk covered their ears, the Toa of Sonics seemed unaffected, and Maroona’s eyes shuddered closed before she fell to the ground.

Folie à Deux Part I
The blade of Qama Radúla which Tetradon held in his hand began to glow a faint orange. The handle became warm to the touch, and he could feel the powerful heat radiating from the blade. His left arm, as well, was warming up, as was his left eye, which produced a similar orange glow. Every couple of seconds something within his arm would briefly feel as if it were being singed, causing him to jolt whenever this sensation came to him.

The glowing and heat of the blade grew more intense as it began to change shape. It seemed to retract into the handle as it became gradually thinner. The spines melded with each other, turning either edge dull with a series of holes along it.

“I’ve been shut out,” said a startling voice from behind him. He lost hold of the weapon and allowed it to fall to the grassy ground, where it immediately singed every plant around it into a smoldering pile of black. The orange glow dissipated as young flames began to spawn near it. Tetradon quickly grabbed the blade, which was now completely white and warped beyond recognition. His eye glowed a bright red, and the white on the blade flaked off like a weak coating as it grew back into its original spiny, white-and-red form.

“How?” Tetradon asked surprisedly as he turned around to face Pretadix.

“They managed to render my host unconscious and the effect spread to me.”

“And you somehow can’t just get back in?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Have you tried?”

“Of course I have.”

Tetradon reattached his blade to his back and walked toward Pretadix. “So they’ve found a way to keep you out?”

“A rather crude way, yes.”

Tetradon looked dissatisfied. “I had hoped the additive in your serum wouldn’t do that. Were you at least able to disrupt them in some way?”

“Very well,” Pretadix said with a grin. “I believe they’ll have more frequent interpersonal difficulties than normal for some time.”

“Well, that’s nothing new.”

“I was able to disrupt one of their mask powers as well.”

This made Tetradon’s face return to its default expressionless state. “Now that is a new accomplishment. Whose mask? What type?”

“The Toa of Lightning’s mask. I believe it was a Mask of Psychometry.”

“Well, that is some better news than I was expecting.” Tetradon brushed some dirt off of his knees and walked past Pretadix.

Confused, the Makuta looked back and asked, “Are you not impressed?”

Tetradon stopped but did not look back. “A Mask of Psychometry is too easy of a target, I believe. You should’ve gone for something else… perhaps that Toa of Air’s Kanohi you described to me.”

“Implying you’ve ever been able to manipulate someone’s mind and know for yourself..”

“Not in the way I’m allowing you to. Something which takes focus to use should be easy to disrupt with powers like yours.”

“Perhaps it was the way I did it that you should be elated by.”

“And how would that be?”

“I didn’t just stop her from using her mask and tell her that she was angry. I trapped her in it, seized her mind and imprisoned her within the boundaries of her mask’s abilities. I tortured her, some would say. She was in much pain.”

Tetradon looked back with a smirk. “And she still doesn’t know it was you?”

“Not at all. I used your likeness again.”

“Good.” Tetradon looked in front of himself and slowly began walking again. “I want to ensure that they know to fear me. They shall not simply wonder about it, they shall know it. And after I have scared them out of my way, I will become this entire island’s nightmare as well, and then we can ensure that it will never be a problem again. Will you be prepared for that?”

Pretadix looked rather shocked. It seemed that this was new information to him. “My mind won’t be able to handle such a task.”

“Yes it will. Like the Toa, this island will be easy to fracture.”

Tetradon continued walking and eventually neared “Alchemist” and Ruthos. The Dark Hunter was still working laboriously on the Staff of Vortices. By now, he had completely removed the compressed device within its dish and had discarded the rod. All that was left of it that he seemed to care about was a series of short rods positioned into a rudimentary hexagram, each tipped with a white sphere of some sort. It was still severely gutted, with wires fraying out of nearly every pore that existed in it.

“What progress have you made?” Tetradon asked insistently.

“It appears I’ve come to a roadblock.” “Alchemist” said. “I’ve completely separated the functional section of the machine from its excess decoration, but I can’t edit it how you want me to. It’s been programmed in some language I don’t understand, and thus I can’t manipulate its abilities.”

“What language is this?”

“It appears to have phonology and traits very similar to that of the Archaic Matoran language found on this island.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I wouldn’t have expected that language to have been known by any of the Great Beings.”

“Apparently they did. Jayniss did, it appears, but we can’t assume that more did.”

“So, that is interesting, but why is it an obstacle?”

“I have just explicitly implied that I don’t know the language. I can’t decipher it.”

Tetradon patted his head condescendingly. “Yes, you can.” He walked over to Ruthos, who was sitting underneath a dying tree and cleaning the blade on his arm.

“It’s quiet without her,” he said.

“I wonder why.” Tetradon said snidely as he clasped his hands behind his back and leaned down. “At least we were able to make some use of her. Your idea to use her as a distraction doesn’t seem to be failing yet, which surprises me.”

Ruthos looked up and seemed undaunted by how close Tetradon was to him. “You say that like it’s not working either.”

“Well, of course! It’s not like it’s been in effect for very long.”

“You also seem to be doubtful that it will work.”

“How observant of you.”

“Which doesn’t seem like how you would behave if you had allowed it to be enacted.”

“I wish I hadn’t enacted it now,” Tetradon said with distaste as he stood up straight, still looking down at Ruthos. “It seems you didn’t find any way to retrieve her.”

“Why would we need to?” Ruthos seemed confused.

“In case you haven’t been listening to anyone, she needs to be returned to Antharahk at some point, preferably before we leave the island, once we get ahold of the Tool.”

Ruthos snickered cynically. “Sounds like a waste of our time. Even if we only keep her for  a short while, she’ll still cause problems like she always has been.”

“Antharahk didn’t suggest that I return her, you fool. It was explicitly my part of the deal I made with him, along with something else I gave him.”

“What something else was that?”

“Nothing of your concern.”

“I bet it was that venom of yours.” Ruthos gestured to Tetradon’s arm. “Or blood. Can’t really tell any, but it’s gross either way. You’re basically siphoning money off of other scientists by selling them something that doesn’t take any work to produce.”

Tetradon reached out and grabbed Ruthos’ neck. He dragged him up the trunk of the tree until his eyes were level with his own. “If you won’t shut up, you’re going to be the one retrieving Phi on your own.”

As he used a speaker to speak, Ruthos was unaffected by the choking. “As if you trust me to not just ditch her somewhere.”

“And then I’ll send you back with her.”

“If you’re angry enough at me to do that, you’ll have just killed me by then.”

At first, tetradon seemed to dismiss this as another one of Ruthos’ snarky comments. However, as he thought about it, a wicked grin grew on his face, something which worried Ruthos.

“You’re not wrong,” Tetradon said before throwing Ruthos at another tree, where he struck it with a painful crash and slid down onto the forest floor. He stormed over to him, placed his massive foot on his chest, and gradually began to apply his weight to it. “Every time you’ve implied that I wanted to rid my life of you, I couldn’t help but agree, no matter how much I wanted to reject such a thought.”

Sparks flew, gears broke and metal bent and snap. Ruthos grabbed at his shin, scratched it, and slammed it with his fists as hard as he could. When he saw that this had no effect, he pointed his bladed arm up at Tetradon’s chest, only for it to be grabbed violently and aimed up at the sky. There was a crunch, and his arm went limp. The red glow which emanated from his single eye faded away.

Tetradon took his foot off of him as Pretadix came running to the scene.

“What happened?” the Makuta asked. He looked down at Ruthos and unsuspiciously asked, “What did you do?”

“Something I should’ve already done by now,” said Tetradon.

“He who executes his traitors misses the opportunity to make them underlings.”

“He made a horrible underling.”

“And you didn’t take the chance to chastise him into a better one?”

Control Part II
The Toa sat in the grass, eager to hear what was about to be said. All of them, even Lewok, were talking with one another, expressing their expectations, concerns, and inferences surrounding what had happened to Maroona. Ever since they had heard about what had happened, Detras and Tesudin, who had chosen to care for her, had revealed little detail. Corduk had consistently tried to assure them that she was recovering, however, this didn’t seem to be very effective at stopping them from worrying.

When Maroona finally emerged from behind a bush, accompanied by Detras and Tesudin, many of the Toa immediately walked over to her and dispensed a volley of questions. Maroona had to tell them to sit back down several times before they stopped and did what she said. She sat down in front of the Toa, clasped her hands together and looked at all of them for a while.

“Instead of trying to reassure you immediately,” she said, “I’m going to give you an honest description of what happened yesterday and why it happened. To say I had no control over it would be a lie, but to say it was my fault would be one as well.

“I attempted to use my Mask of Psychometry on Phi’s mask in order to find some information about the Wraith Syndicate. While using it, I was mentally attacked and tortured. When Detras managed to wake me up, I lashed out at him and insulted him. Tesudin and Corduk arrived, and I did the same to them before I was under control.”

There was an uncomfortably long pause after this. It was broken only by a quiet, short chat between Salvina and Navahko.

“So you were being mind controlled or something?” the Toa of Water asked.

“That might have been the case.” Maroona answered. “However, I believe that whatever happened to me—which undoubtedly was directly related to Tetradon—was that I was ticked off in some way. He had sensed that I had many pent-up thoughts about this team, and he knew how to get under the right kind of stress that I would snap and unleash them onto you like the destruction of a floodgate.

“Of course, that only means that I was also at fault for this. I had built up a load of thoughts, worries, and concerns about this team that I decided to be quiet about lest I waste time discussing them. I thought that leading you guys to defeat the Syndicate would relieve me of them because it would prove to me that all of my worries weren’t really worth thinking about.

“All in all, I’m sorry. I should’ve told you all my feelings about this team so that we could work them out together. Instead, I thought I alone could solve them, and I was wrong.”

There was another solemn pause, after which Corduk asked, “Say, what were these worries you had?”

Maroona looked at him with a bit of an offended look.

“Of course,” Navahko added, “you don’t need to tell us right now.”

This addition seemed to irk Corduk. He replied, “Don’t listen to what he said. We need to know these things now, because there’s a very slim chance that there will be as good a chance until after we defeat the Syndicate.”

Maroona seemed to understand, although she still looked a bit reluctant. She looked at the ground and began, “In reality, they are all related to one big worry I have, and that will need some explaining. When I was mentally tortured, everything I felt seemed like it was physical, like it was actually happening to my body. I believe this was to play off of my innate lack of pain endurance. Some of you may know that my greatest weakness is that I can’t stand physical pain. It’s the main reason as to why my armor is so heavy for a Toa and why I always resort to intimidating my enemies. I constantly avoid being hurt, more so than any normal Toa would.

“This extends to you all. After what happened at Obodosara, I didn’t want to see any of you get hurt again. That was why we traveled here and why I haven’t started making any plans involving the Syndicate yet. I was worried that any attempt to combat them further would end with similar results.

“Among that, I had personal worries, most of which I ignored, but still became vocal about when Tetradon set me off. I’d like to work these ones out in private with those they concern.”

“Well,” Corduk said, “about your worry of us getting hurt, don’t feel bad if we do. We all knew that by becoming Toa, we were going to risk injury in order to uphold what is right for us and the Matoran. It is the purpose of a Toa, and I say that a Toa who doesn’t get hurt hasn’t tried to do their job well enough.”

This seemed to cause a moment of realization in Maroona. She looked up at Corduk and said, “I think you’re right.” The other Toa unanimously agreed with Corduk’s statement and expressed this. Even Tesudin, who admitted that he too tended to be too cautious sometimes, agreed, albeit after everyone else had.

After another pause, which was much less funereal than the last, Detras said to Maroona, “So, with this all out of the way, I suppose it might be a good time to get back at the Syndicate.”

“This soon?” Maroona replied.

“It seems most of us have recovered,” Navahko said. He gestured to Wreshi, whose arm was still in a sling, and added, “And those who haven’t still have much use.”

“Plus,” Salvina said as she dug her fist into her open palm, “I’m still looking to get back at them and teach them a lesson.”

“Then we’ll need a plan,” Maroona said, seeming to agree with what had been said. “Any ideas?”

There was no sound, before Corduk looked to Tesudin and said, “I heard you know all our mask powers or something, right?”

“Likely, yes.”

“Do any of ours look useful? We should find a practical power and base our plan around that.”

Tesudin looked away from him and began scanning the other Toa. Almost immediately, his eyes fell upon Salvina and lit up with an idea. Salvina pointed at herself to confirm he was referring to her, and he nodded.

“Before you tell me, let me guess what it does.” she said. “Does it… shoot lasers?”

“Not at all.” Tesudin answered.

“Does it heal others?”

“Nope.”

“Can I stick to walls?”

“No.”

“Does it—”

“I have the feeling that you won’t guess it for a while,” Tesudin said with a slight laugh.

“Fine, just tell me.”

“Your mask, the Canera, allows you to form bonds with others through contact. Later, you can use it to automatically know the location of anyone with such a bond relative to you.”

Salvina seemed repulsed by this at first, however, as she thought it and it’s applications, she became more enthusiastic about it. “So, what will we use it for?”

“We’re going to use it to track down the Syndicate. After you connect with everyone here—which hopefully won’t take any time at all—we will head to Le-Powai. There, we will split into four pairs, three of which will divide and search for the Syndicate and one, which will include you, to stay at a rendezvous point. After some time, anyone who hasn’t found the Syndicate will return to the rendezvous and you and the rest of the team will find the missing pair using your mask.”

The Toa ran the plan through their heads several times, and Wreshi had Tesudin repeat it to him for clarification. Corduk then asked, “What are we going to do with Phi?”

“She is unconscious, right?” Tesudin asked.

“She is, but I’m worried she’ll awake while we are gone.”

“Then we’ll bring her with us,” Maroona said.

“Mask task to who has to carry her,” said Wreshi, swiftly raising his forefinger to the center of his mask. Lewok worriedly put his finger on his mask before Maroona canceled the game.

“I’ll carry her,” Corduk said. “I’m likely the strongest here.”

“You alone can’t carry her for all that distance.” Navahko said.

“Watch me.”

“We’ll take turns carrying her,” Maroona said. “Corduk gets to carry her first. Does everyone have their Toa tools?”

Most of the Toa had their tools nearby. Lewok and Wreshi, who were the only who didn’t have their Toa tools, fetched theirs.

“So, should I use this thing now?” Salvina asked.

“Preferably,” Tesudin said, “seeing as Le-Powai is a bit of a hazard zone for us and we don’t want to squander time there.”

“It will also be useful for when Corduk inevitably gets lost on the way there,” Navahko said jokingly.

“I won’t get lost!”

“If it happens in the tunnels more than it should, it’ll happen in the trees as well.”

Folie à Deux Part II
“Why did you summon me here?”

“You know, this area is important to the folklore of this island.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This is the area rumored to be where the mythical creature known as Rhaine resides, as I have learned from observing the Le-Matoran.”

“You’re not acting normal. Why are we here?”

“Supposedly, wherever Rhaine travels, Matoran become anxious and fearful. Whoever sees it will become paranoid. And whoever dares to speak to it will be driven insane.”

“How is this Rhaine you speak of important to anything concerning us?”

Pretadix, who had been facing out into the dark forest, turned to face Tetradon. “Wouldn’t you want to be Rhaine some day?”

“What? Why would I?”

“Wouldn’t you want the power to be feared automatically?”

“I already have that power.”

“But you are not a legend. Your name is already on the mind of everyone on this island, yet you seem content with stopping there.”

“It’s not in my best interest to terrorize this island. It is merely an obstacle, not my nemesis.”

“Then you will waste a good chance to control them.”

Tetradon walked toward Pretadix and said, “You fail to understand my goals. I don’t care about anything this island does until I get to the point where I can truly manipulate it. All that concerns about it is getting the Tool and keeping those pesky Toa away.”

“And squander a chance to create yourself a Matoran army? As of now, with this telepathy-enhancing serum you’ve created, you have everything you need to overthrow this entire island and it’s miserable population.”

“Do you even remember the first time I explained my goal to you?”

“Yes, but maybe I’ve forgotten it, according to what you’re suggesting.”

“Pretadix, I wish to bring order to this pathetic universe, the same thing the Brotherhood failed to do the moment Teridax touched that throne.”

Pretadix chuckled and placed his hand on his comrade’s shoulder. “Are you not able to understand what I’m suggesting?”

“I understand it. The problem is that it’s an insane thing to do.”

“How so?”

“It’s exactly the type of thing Teridax would do in this situation. I don’t want to be like Teridax at all.”

“But you fail to see that you already are, my friend. You know how to use others to your advantage, how to outsmart them, how to manipulate them, how to weaponize fear itself!”

“So you want us to follow in the steps of he who discarded us like chaff?”

“If you want to say it that way, then you can. I, however, see it a different way; I see it as fighting fire with fire. When we inevitably come face-to-face with him, would you rather have a pair of artifacts and a strange telepathic minion, or an army of brainwashed creatures ready to defend you out of fear?”

“The second choice implies that I might not be able to kill him myself.”

“You are only rejecting my idea because it is something someone who betrayed you would do. Don’t you see the fallacy in that?”

“Maybe it’s a fallacy, at least to you, but it’s one keeping me from following in his footsteps.”

“What would be wrong with that?”

“And you blame me for not understanding. I have limits, Pretadix. One of those is not doing as my enemies would do.”

“Limits will not help you rise to power, not at all. You must be willing to do anything if you are to obtain as much power as you wish to obtain.”

Tetradon abrasively brushed Pretadix’ hand off of his shoulder and said, “Then you don’t realize what I actually want. I want to rule this universe as a king, I have for a very long time. Teridax wanted to become it’s god, however.”

Pretadix fell to his knees and mocked a desperate expression. “Oh, why are you like this?”

“I could ask the same of you. Get up! I don’t know what’s gotten into you. First, you take me to this strange area and educate me about local folklore and then you try to pressure me into going against my morals.”

“Why do you keep your morals?” Pretadix said as he slowly rose to his feet. “What purpose do they have? Where were they when you decided to serve the Brotherhood?”

“I’m not going to answer any of those questions.”

Pretadix stumbled at Tetradon to say something closer to him, and the Falqãta backed away defensively. He removed one of his blades from his back and swung it to his right. Surprised by this, Pretadix said, “What, are you willing to kill me over your stupid moral traditions?”

“You’re my friend, Pretadix. We are friends. Even when we oppose the paragons of the universe we still have to respect each other.”

Pretadix backed away, lifted his scythe off of his back, and crouched down like a Rahi undergoing a fight-or-flight response. “We are Makuta, one literally, the other figuratively. We are free from the chains of morality and the ignorance that comes with virtue.”

“You can’t change my mind about this, Pretadix. Now stand back and put your weapon away. You’re not acting like yourself.”

“I am merely acting like the me which I’ve had to hide from you for years, Tetradon. I’ve had to tone down what I was willing to do, what lengths I was willing to go to, just so that I could protect our alliance.”

“And if you want to protect our alliance further, you will put your weapon away.”

“I’m not going to take any more orders from you!”

“And I never planned to take them from you either.”

Pretadix leaped forward and swung his scythe at Tetradon, who only barely managed to dodge it as it embedded itself deep into the area’s thick coating of spindly pine needles. The Makuta turned to face his dismayed ally and snarled, “Tell me what the line is between what you are and are not willing to do. Tell me that that line isn’t fading, and for a good reason.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Pretadix. I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”

“You really don’t? You haven’t realized that over the years you’ve kept me trapped in your alliance with your strange sense of righteousness, and that I’ve grown more and more sick of having to follow what you say?”

“I have realized that. I just knew that we both trusted each other enough for that to not bother you.”

“Knew? You assumed! Your insatiable madness for order and control has blinded you.”

Angered, Tetradon took a single step toward Pretadix and activated his mask. Almost instantly, the Makuta’s vision was overcome with gruesome imagery and his hearing with eerie noises. Blood in the trees, a ghostly choir chanting far off in the distance, a thick black fog which seemed to fatigue him at the mere sight. It was a situation he remembered all too well. The one Tetradon would push into his head every time we began to act strange or angered. He knew it as “Tragedy’s Choir”.

As a Makuta, such horrifying sights and sounds were abnormally pleasing to him. He never found pleasure in situations like this one if they were real, but experiencing this fictitious occurrence over and over and over again had somehow engraved in his mind the idea that it was something to feel happy about. At some points in his life, it had become the only source of joy that he had.

Pretadix was not going to accept Tragedy’s Choir again. It was not real. His anger was. The anger he felt for never having control in his life.

The Choir had only gone on for a couple of seconds, and Tetradon could not have gone far. He leaped forward, but only found himself in the midst of more fog. His comrade had known what he would do and, instead of ghosting back as he usually did, moved quickly in another direction. He didn’t know where he had moved, but this didn’t matter to him. He knew he had the power to find him.

Pretadix laid down his scythe and began to extend his arms. They swiftly reached into the enshrouding fog, feeling everything they could. After some searching, he felt a cold piece of metal, immediately seized it as tight as he could, and pulled. As he felt something grab pack at it and saw the fog and noise dissipate, he knew he had found his target. Tetradon, his leg attached to his beastly hand, came sliding toward him. Before the Makuta could pull him any closer, however, Tetradon's right eye turned green and his corresponding blade morphed into a long viridescent hook. He swung it, and it skewered the Makuta’s extended arm on its tip. A viscous, sickly green liquid came oozing out of a series of pores along it which began to eat through his armor. Before Pretadix could react, his hand and lower arm had been dissolved completely, his lower elbow now ending in a melted mess of dark green armor.

Pretadix retracted both of his arms immediately and began to regenerate the one he had lost. As soon as he was close to having it back completely, however, Tetradon had already unsheathed his second blade and his red left eye was glowing. From the white and red blade, a series of incarnadine spines flew out, embedding themselves both in Pretadix and anything directly behind him. After the Falqãta had finished, seeming to grunt with satisfaction, his eyes flashed, and the spines turned black. They expanded, growing larger and further tearing the Makuta’s nigh-indestructible armor.

Alarmed, Pretadix scrambled to tear out as many spines as he could, each disintegrating upon removal. With every one removed, a green liquid would begin pouring out and he would be forced to plug it using his Quick Healing power. He soon grew impatient with this process, and instead opted to turn himself intangible, allowing the remaining spines to phase through his body and fall to the ground, where they rapidly dissolving. As soon as he returned to normal, he dug his hand into the uneven carpet of needles and yelled as he forced all of the bleeding holes in his body to close.

“Forty-two powers to use, and so far you’ve only used two; one to find me and the other to reverse the massive amounts of damage I’m somehow able to afflict you with.”

“Years of neglect have led some of them to fade away, I believe,” Pretadix replied as he lifted himself off of the ground and locked eyes with his friend. “However, I know that I could get you to submit even if I had none of them.”

“Get me to submit? Is that what all of this is about?”

“I was content with having you as a friend, Tetradon. We shared the same interests, worked for the same madman, and somehow, despite our upbringings, neither of us ever seemed to desire to betray the other. However, while I took this unusual sight as the only thing worth respecting, you merely saw it as another one of your intangible weapons. You squandered the trust we had in each other in the name of having some sort of futile advantage.”

“This isn’t worth fighting over.”

“Then what do I have left to do? You would never listen to anything I said, even if your life depended on it.”

This statement seemed to make Tetradon think for some time. What scrap of the hallucination he had induced was left dissipated. He kept on staring at his friend, albeit with a confounded glare rather than a menacing one. Eventually, he replied, “I’ve listened to you before, Pretadix. Your ideas are bold, and have thought put into them. However, they make me shudder merely thinking about them.”

“I don’t believe they’re very different from yours. What is the difference.”

“When I use someone as a weapon against my enemies, I intend to only leave as horrified as they choose to be.”

“What, you’re scared to break people?”

“It’s a disgusting idea, I’ve always found it repulsive. The mere idea of using people as weapons sickens me as well, but it’s my only option, seeing as very few will ever find comfort in an alliance with me.”

Pretadix suddenly swung his arm, extending it once more. Tetradon ducked, allowing it to fly over his head. Angered, the Makuta’s eyes began to glow brightly. Noticing this, Tetradon transformed his spiny blade into a white axe and summoned a wall of ice to obstruct him. A powerful pair of scarlet energy beams blasted out of the Makuta’s eyes, blasting right through the wall and causing the hole it created to enlarge quickly. On the other side of the wall, Tetradon remained alive, but visibly scarred. A black streak now decorated the upper right corner of his breastplate.

A bolt of blackened energy flew at the remaining portion of the wall, shattering it instantly. Pretadix leaped forward, his open hand engulfed in Elemental shadow, and ran at Tetradon with it stretched out. In response, a flurry of icicles and drops of acid were thrown at him. He closed his hand tight, and a dark shield appeared directly in front of him, either shattering or dissipating the projectiles depending on their composition. This shield survived until Pretadix reached Tetradon, at which point he rammed it into him. Tetradon was knocked back and tumbled through the grass, and the Makuta used this time to retrieve his scythe by extending his arm.

Tetradon righted himself and transfigured the acid-spewing hook into a slim, silver blade, turning his right eye deep blue. He pulled it in his direction, causing Pretadix to fly at him. He stepped aside to allow him to slam into a tree, however, the Makuta was swift enough to stop himself by digging his scythe into the ground. Tetradon prepared to swing him around once more, however Pretadix, using his own Magnetism power, resisted him. They struggled for some time, resisting each other’s power, before Pretadix gave up and was lifted into the air. Tetradon swung his blade down, and he careened to the ground, smashing painfully into the ground and causing needles to fly up.

Tetradon waited for Pretadix to recover and stand up completely. With a vicious roar, the Makuta’s hand began to glow, and out of it, he shot a beam of intense, white-hot energy. With little time to react, Tetradon lifted up his axe as his left eye turned orange. The moment the beam struck him, everything turned white. The most intense heat he had every felt surrounded his body, stinging every part of his body. When the flash ended and the temperature was reduced to extreme warmth, he was in much pain, but somehow alive. He looked at the weapon he held in his left hand and saw that where the axe had once been there was now what appeared to be a fiery blade extended from a metal hilt. With a smirk on his face, he swung the weapon to the side and allowed it to touch the ground. It easily sank in, and he burned an incomprehensible design in the dirt before looking back up at Pretadix.

“You’re right,” said the Makuta, whose hand was unable to be seen behind the massive amount of smoke which was emanating from it, “it is incredibly hot. However, I can use a lot longer than you can.”

“I beg to differ,” Tetradon replied as he aimed the tip of his new weapon at his adversary. “Seems I can keep it alive a lot longer now.” The flaming blade extended rapidly, severing the handle of Pretadix’ scythe upon impact. It snaked around the Makuta, not touching his armor but being close enough to burn small indentations into it. Slowly, the blade began to close around him, burning the indents into bigger and bigger ones, some beginning to leak green fluid.

Panicked, Pretadix covered his body in a thick layer of frost. As soon as he did this, there was an explosion of steam which knocked Tetradon back several meters and caused the ropelike blade to fly through the air and cut into a tree before fading away.

With his opponent half disarmed and completely disoriented, Pretadix lunged at him with his hand full of dark energy. He slammed it into the ground and somersaulted back to a sprint as the energy traveled under the pine needles, exploding in a blast of shadow upon reaching Tetradon.

Before he had met up with him, however, the forest was shaken by a demonic roar. He looked to his right and saw a massive creature standing taller than the trees, staring down at him with black, unblinking eyes recognizable only through their white pinpoint irises. Pretadix paid it no attention and kept walking, refusing to flinch when it’s hand came down upon him and phased through him.

When he reached his incapacitated foe, he ruthlessly grabbed him by the chest with one hand and tore off his glowing Xakar with the other. The creature faded away instantly, as did the bellowing roar it was in the middle of emitting. “Do you know how sick of this thing I am?” he said with a chuckle as he turned it so that he could look into its eye holes. “It seems like you’ve used it on me so much that I know infinitely more about it than you ever will. It’s like it’s your most valued weapon, your prized possession that you only use in times of need, yet which you still do not fully understand. You’ve never had to experience the kinds of abominations you’ve used it to ram into my head.”

Tetradon, weakened and wincing, did not reply and simply looked the Makuta in the eyes.

“Do you know you it looks to be under the effects of this thing? Do you want to know?” Pretadix set his knee on Tetradon’s chest and lifted his hand off of it. After loading his palm with a dark mist he pressed it into his friend’s face, causing him to yell in agony.

“Now, you want to also know how it sounds, don’t you?” He opened his mouth wide and released an unholy shriek which visibly compressed the air and caused Tetradon to cry out in pain once again.

“And now, last but most definitely not least, you’ll get to experience just how it feels to be under the effects of this.”

Pretadix lifted himself off of Tetradon, allowing him to sit up halfway and cough. After this, the Makuta pressed him down to the ground again with his foot and held the face-bearing end of the Xakar in both hands. He aimed it’s sharply pointed other end down and lifted it up.

“This one was always the most sinister.” With one swift move, Pretadix thrust the mask down and plunged it into the left of Tetradon’s chest. His breastplate bent and twisted away at a strange angle. There was no third cry of pain, only gasping and grunting, which was soon blended with gargles. He eventually gained control over his breathing, however, it was incredibly difficult. He grasped the mask and attempted to pull it out, but eventually found his attempt futile, agonizing, and a waste of energy. Orange fluid seeped from his mouth as he mustered the strength to say one thing.

“Still feels better than what you suggested.”

Pretadix stepped off of his body and began to walk away. He stopped himself and stood there with no expression until he couldn’t hear Tetradon breathing anymore, at which point he continued walking away. He looked down at his hands, which now had a series of indentations dissolved into them.

Characters

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

Trivia

 * At 3299 words, Folie á Deux Part II is currently the longest chapter of any story Cap has written. He plans to surpass this.