Almost

Almost is a short story written by BIONICLEToa for the 2019 Summer Writing Contest. It features the rogue Toa Salis and a Skakdi named Kalikaan searching for a hidden cache of widgets.

Story
“Almost!” the towering blue figure exclaimed in the sweltering heat. Indeed, with his wide and grizzled teeth, humongous jaw, and spiky frame he could still show a bit of joy.

“Calm down a little bit, Kalikaan,” Salis, an orange and white armored Toa, warned him. “I can’t have you overheating those circuits just yet.”

The Skakdi made one final bounce, and resumed walking. “The widgets just sound good to me.”

“Well, we’re only getting a share of it,” Salis reminded him. “That way we can get hired.”

“That doesn’t need to be the case,” Kalikaan said. “The Shadowed One doesn’t need to know if we find it. We could… Keep it to ourselves.”

Salis scoffed. “You remember the last one of your kind who crossed the Shadowed One, Kalikaan? I hear his spine is still drying over the fireplace.”

“Nyeh, he just wasn’t clever,” Kalikaan admitted with a somber grin.

Salis started to press himself up as his feet heavily stomp into a sand dune. He reached his hand out to Kalikaan and lifted him up with him. “I agree he wasn’t. Because no one clever would ever ponder betraying the Shadowed One.”

They get to the top of the dune, and a few kilos in the distance they saw a small outpost made of stone. It was dotted against the red-painted sands of the mysterious island they were on. Just looking at the image made Kalikaan’s eyes start feeling pierced with a sharpness. As the heat throbs in Kalikaan’s head, it was almost like the strumming of a Le-Matoran stringed instrument in it’s beat.

“I can taste the cash from here,” Kalikaan dryly admitted, grimacing as the sand of the desert hits his face. He looked over to Salis, who did not appear to be suffering from the summer heat. “Can you?”

“I taste something,” Salis stated without looking to his partner. While Kalikaan stared into the distance, Salis subtly started to place his hand on his protosteel scythe to his side. “Let’s get going.”

They tumbled down the dune, kicking sand in a small avalanche under their feet. While the Skakdi used heavy stomps, Salis carefully tread downwards. As they got to the bottom of the dune, the desert got flatter.

“You know what bothers me?” Kalikaan started to ask. “You’re a Toa. Why are you doing this? Aren’t you supposed to be an enemy of the Shadowed One?”

Salis stopped in his tracks, wiping some of the sand out of his mask. “I’m not going to be following the code. At least, not anymore.”

“Why?” Kalikaan asked.

“Personal gain,” Salis responded, staring at the outpost. “Long ago, someone wronged me. The ‘code’ forbid me from enacting vengeance. I was thirsty for it for so long, like you out in this desert. That thirst is about to end soon.”

Kalikaan smiled as he heard the Toa’s grim motive. “See, you’re smart. Most Toa aren’t!”

“You would be dead in this desert if I wasn’t.” Once done with these words, Salis continued to tread onto the outpost.

Onward they walked while Kalikaan began to form visible sweat streams down his rubber-like spine. He made a sprint as they approached the outlook, hiding in the shade from the heat of the sun, while Salis continued to walk.

“Finally!” Kalikaan exclaimed. “Now to find those widgets!”

Salis takes out a shovel from his pack, and tosses it toward Kalikaan. “Indeed. Now dig.”

“Me?” Kalikaan asked. “Why me? You should do it! You can withstand this blasted heat!”

“You’re the one tasting the ecstacy of those widgets,” Salis noted. “The honor is yours.”

Kalikaan shrugs. “Fine. Just tell me where it is!”

Salis walked into the outpost, seeing some of the stone flooring. Taking his scythe, he pointed it to the ground and blasted it with a plasma bolt. The ground shattered, revealing some dirt underneath.

“Here, now dig,” Salis said.

Kalikaan bent over and used the shovel to pierce the earth. Scooping the ground was an easy task for him, since he had the strength. In a few minutes, he finally struck into a bag. Kalikaan pushed some of the dirt aside, and saw the bags with his own red eyes: they contained hundreds of widgets.

“We’re rich, Salis!” Kalikaan exclaimed.

The skakdi pulled out the bags, tossing them toward Salis. As Kalikaan lifted the final bag out, Salis bent down and starts to overlook the widgets. He smiled underneath his mask, though not at the money. More toward the Skakdi.

Salis shook his head. “You know, the Shadowed One only wanted one to turn this prize back in.”

“Oh well,” Kalikaan said. “Guess we’ll figure out who's getting the job when we return.”

“I already know,” Salis replied while his eyes narrowed.

Kalikaan stopped as he was lifting himself out from the small hole, seeing Salis’ terrible intent in his eyes. Kalikaan’s eyes glowed a read aura. “Who is it, Salis?”

“I didn’t want the money,” Salis noted. “I came here to break my code. Now I intend to do it.”

Salis stood up, swinging his scythe around his fingers and pointing it at Kalikaan’s face. Kalikaan drew his blade, and his eyes began to glow fiercer as he finally got out of the hole. Kalikaan gives an awkward smile with his huge teeth.

“Heh. What’s the beef with me?” the terrified Skakdi asked.

Salis twitched his left hand and spoke up. “Almost.”

''Kalikaan’s eyes grew wide as he suddenly remembered the vision of a Matoran of Plasma who survived the wreck of a village he plundered with a band of other Skakdi. One wearing a Kakama, showing visible fear as Kalikaan was about to swing his blade toward him. Yet the Skakdi stopped, sparing him. “Almost” was a word he remembered telling the Matoran.  “Almost'',” Salis repeated.

Salis tightened his legs as he twitched his right hand on the button of his scythe. The Skakdi carefully began to hone his laser eyes. The two stood, guarding the treasure from each other.

As the beating of the desert came upon them, the horns of the heat rang in the Skakdi’s ears. To Salis, it was a small, high-pitched tingle that was sprinkled in this moment for him. A melodious focus was in each other’s eyes, carefully watching each other’s fingers and eyes twitching to make a move.

The staredown swelled into the horns and tingles thrashing together in harmony, the chest of the duo pumping as their heartlights flashed. The beat grew faster, stronger, and harder to their ears. It got to the point where it felt, to Kalikaan, that it was slapping the back of his head. Salis squinted, getting trigger hungry.

Then, the feel of slapping and horns seized because the sound of a crack cut through the tense noise.

“OUGH!” Kalikaan cried.

Salis watched as the skakdi slipped back into the hole he made. Salis blasted at the Skakdi again with a plasma bolt, blasting through his chest. Kalikaan wheezed, suffering from the burns inflicted from him as he raised his hand into the air to get out of the pit. Salis blasted it off, leaving the Skakdi trapped in the hole.

Then, Salis slowly looked up to the ceiling of the outpost. He blasted it, causing the stone and protosteel structure to collapse and unveiling the sun. In the dust, an orange and white hand grabbed a few sacks of money. He said nothing, heading back out into the desert as the Skakdi laid in the hole, suffering from the heat of the sun.

“S-Salis?” the Skakdi cried pathetically. “Salis?!”

The beat of the sun continued after the moments of silence. Kalikaan could hear the widgets’ jingle fade into the distance as he suffered, crawling and sputtering to get himself out of his situation. Things began to fade to him as the sun’s brightness brought a cold chill to his spine.

“Almost… Almost…!?”

Characters

 * Salis
 * Kalikaan
 * The Shadowed One -mentioned

Trivia

 * BIONICLEToa took some inspiration for this story from spaghetti westerns, particularly For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
 * The description of the stand-off especially was reminiscent of this, as BT was describing some of the musical movements of Ennio Morricone's score for those films.
 * This is sort of a small origin story for the villain of Salis in the Insurgence series. It allured BT the idea of displaying his first betrayal of the Toa Code.