This article was written by DeltaStriker. Please do not add to it without the writer's permission.
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This article is about cut content from the story. You may be looking for the complete serial.
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In the process of writing 777, a number of scenes and sequences needed to be cut or rewritten to suit the needs of the story. While many of these took the form of fragments or weren't cohesive, a few scenes were suitable for reading. These are included below for those who are interested in the process of creating the serial. Each entry includes a brief description of how the scene came to be and why it was cut.
Obviously, spoilers for 777 follow. Read at your own risk.
Scene 1 - A Mysterious Stranger in the Chamber of Death[]
The first version of Sauti using his Mask of Psychometry has Sauti seeing Velika descending the steps instead of ascending with the Mask of Life. The idea was that Velika had some way to circumvent the trials, which the group would try to use. The issue that arose was that this didn't lead to anything - they couldn't figure out a workaround because Erde needed to die here. So the scene ultimately added nothing, and was replaced by the version in the completed serial.
The voice spoke almost exactly the same words as it had when they had entered. "Welcome, traveler. You seek the Chamber of Life... but first you must pass through the Chamber of Death, for truly both are intertwined."
The Matoran seemed completely unfazed by this, instead looking up at the ceiling with a bemused expression. “Only a fool or a Cave Shrike speaks what the listener already knows.” Sauti had never heard that saying before. “Morivan, you old bore, I have urgent business. Let me pass.”
“For centuries beyond count, the Mask of Life has been hidden in this place, waiting for Destiny’s call. It is a Kanohi both wonderful and terrible in its might. And the price to wield its power of life… is a death.”
The Matoran shook his head as if deeply disappointed, like a sagely Turaga might in the face of a young and impetuous Matoran who refused to listen to reason. “Very well.”
Sauti stepped back into the chamber to watch as the Matoran began to speak a language he had never heard before. As he did, a beam of light appeared from the center of the ceiling, light so dense it almost seemed to make a solid column. Images and text, again in a language Sauti could not comprehend, appeared in the light, and the Matoran began to manipulate them with his hands. Different images flashed at a mind-meltingly fast pace as the Matoran seemed to input a specific sequence, before eventually they all faded away and the lightstones in the walls went dark.
“The riddler who does not know the answer is merely a punchline, and the riddlee the comedian,” the Matoran said to no one in particular. The room remained dark as he heard the Matoran’s footsteps disappear down the stairs.
Sauti was standing in the room again, his hand against the stone of the door. His teammates were watching him expectantly, waiting for him to tell them what he saw. Instead, Sauti focused, drawing on the power within himself as he began to speak. Many Toa of Sonics had perfect auditory retention, and with the right application of their powers could replicate almost any sound they heard. A voice, even speaking in an unfamiliar language, was easy to replicate—there was only one primary tone. Whatever the Matoran had said, Sauti said it now. There was a moment of silence, and then the same solid beam of light descended from the ceiling, images forming in its surface. Sauti let himself relax a little, but not too much. This had only been the first step.
“Sauti, what in Mata Nui’s name is that?” Gora asked.
“I believe it’s some sort of…control panel, for the room,” Sauti explained. “My reading was of a Po-Matoran, who seemed to know how this place worked. He was able to bypass the trial.”
“A Po-Matoran?” Erde asked, skeptically. “In this place?”
“Perhaps the Great Beings did not make this place after all,” Vaxter suggested.
“I do not care who made this place, we need the Mask,” Lune said firmly. “Sauti can you take that barrier down?”
Scene 2 - Nova[]
An early version of the climactic sequence in and around the Chamber of Life saw Vaxter and Zekle return to the Chamber of Life to help fight 'Erde' to recover the Mask of Life. It was part of a large sequence that expanded the final battle, that was eventually cut and rewritten because it had become too long and unwieldy.
This sequence would've taken place between Sauti blasting 'Erde' into the wall and Sauti's conversation with the trapped 'Erde.' Vaxter has mutated Zekle, but in this version her mutations are more subtle, giving her more feline features in the form of claws and a shifted musculature.
The fight was not going well for them. They were exhausted, so much that any hit Lune took disrupted his concentration to the point that half the time Sauti didn’t even have a weapon to use. Vaxter’s Scything Blade was too unwieldy to use effectively at such close quarters. And there was the ever-present fact that their foe simply refused to grow tired and slow even as they felt themselves on their last legs.
Sauti was the first to be knocked out of the fight, crumpling to the ground after the butt of the Pressure Spear stabbed into his solar plexus. Gasping for air, he could only listen and watch as the fight moved away from him.
Vaxter was next, as ‘Erde’ grabbed the Scything Spear and sent it spinning backwards, dragging Vaxter with it. He collapsed in a tangle of limbs on the far side of the room.
Zekle tried to leap onto ‘Erde’s’ back, only to get grabbed out of the air and slammed into the ground, her left arm flopping into the lava and starting to burn away. She left out a screech and yanked it back, then started rolling around to try and stop the smoldering.
Lune stood alone against their foe, who turned to look down at him. He had no weapon, no allies, alone against the hulking body of a Toa of Earth puppeted by some supernatural force hell-bent on protecting the Mask of Life.
“Accept that you are unworthy, and I will let you leave.” ‘Erde’s’ offer hung definitively in the air for a moment.
Lune’s shoulders heaved with effort, his white armor battered and scuffed and covered in dark stone dust. Sauti heard his breathing slow, steady with focus. A glowing spear of golden light grew out of his left hand, as a gleaming round shield of light formed in his right. The light of the room drooped to almost nothing as Lune drew it around himself like a protective cloak, a beacon the dark isolation of the Chamber of Life.
“I am worthy, even though you refuse to see it,” he said calmly, though his voice shook with the effort it took him to speak. “This is my Destiny.”
“How delusional.”
‘Erde’ stabbed forward at Lune’s chest, too close and too quick to block. Sauti opened his mouth to shout before realizing that the spear had stopped a fraction of an inch away from Lune’s body, caught in the glowing haze that protected him. ‘Erde’ cocked their head to the side, then adjusted their stance and braced themselves against the Spear. They pushed, and the spear poked Lune’s chest—not yet piercing his armor but building pressure even as Lune focused on pushing back. It was clear to Sauti that Lune could not hold out for ever. In a few seconds, maybe a minute if he was lucky, the spear would stab into him, and he would be dead. Sauti was the closest, as the battle and moved back around to him. If anyone was going to do something it had to be him, and fast.
With a grunt he began to pull himself closer, blocking out the grunts of pain from Lune as he instead listened for something else. He pressed his hands against the stone around him and listened to it. The faint—almost imperceptible, even for him—vibration of it. Its resonance filled him, growing stronger and stronger as he brought himself closer and closer. The power swelled within him, every bit of power he had within his being, keyed to that precise frequency.
And then he let it go.
A sound too high for anyone to hear filled the chamber. Sauti couldn’t even hear it, but he could feel it swell out from him, a climbing melody building to a destructive crescendo. The tiny bits of stone that were scattered across the floor by their battle began to wobble, and then shake, and then bounce up and down across the room. And then the stone began to burst. The whole room filled with dust and rubble as the ceiling and walls collapsed. Rumbling of stone against stone was all Sauti could hear. For a moment, he could still see Lune’s brilliant light above him, then it too disappeared in the collapse. When it finished, everything was still. Lava burbled somewhere, in the distance.
Sauti was surprised to find he did not feel the weight of the collapsed ceiling on top of him. It should have buried him in rubble. He’d been too tired for the Nova Blast to completely atomize the stone, but that hadn’t been the plan. If you could even call his crazy gamble a plan. His eyes opened to see Lune standing over him. The Toa of Light had his hand above his head, the shield of light barely holding back the stone that should have crushed both of them Lune grunted with the effort.
“I cannot hold this for long,” he said, pausing in between every few words to make sure his shield remained solid.
Scene 3 - The Confrontation[]
Continuing from the previous sequence, after Sauti has recovered the Mask of Life from 'Erde' and snapped the neck of the animate corpse under the influence of the Mask, to put Erde out of his misery. It was cut for the same reason, as it was becoming unwieldy and wasn't wrapping up the story threads it needed to in a satisfying way.
Vaxter’s eyes immediately went to the Mask of Life in Sauti’s hands, its golden glow reflected in his eyes. “You’ve got it.”
Lune nodded. “Yes, we have it, so we should get going. We should get this back to the Makuta as soon as possible.”
Vaxter began nodding in enthusiastic agreement. “Yes, let’s get going.”
“Actually, before we go, there’s something I need to know.”
Both Lune and Vaxter turned to look at Sauti in surprised. Zekle let out a strange purring sound and cocked her head to the side.
“What are you and the Makuta planning to do with this, Vaxter?”
Vaxter did not blink, but his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “I don’t know what you mean by that.”
We don’t have time to play this game. Sauti needed to press him harder.
“When got a reading on your mask,” Sauti continued, “I saw you a secret chamber, back at the fortress. You were working with the Makuta, experimenting on a Matoran.”
Lune spun to face Vaxter. “What is he talking about?”
Vaxter took a step toward Sauti. “The Mask is powerful, and clearly affecting your judgement. You should give it to one of us to carry.”
I can’t give it to either of them. Lune was clearly drawn to the mask, like Brutaka had been. And Vaxter could not be allowed to have access to its power after what he had done. It had to be him.
“Not after what you did to Zekle.”
Upon hear her name, Zekle skittered closer to the group. Whatever mutations Vaxter had performed this time, he’d rendered her little more than an animal.
“What did you do to Zekle, Vaxter?” Sauti asked.
Vaxter didn’t respond with words. He just matched Sauti’s gaze, just as he had during their conversation the night before. What’s best for the mission. The words hung in his head, repeating over and over again.
“Well then,” Sauti answered for him, “so is this.”
The Mask of Life had not been the only thing Sauti had pulled up from below. He swung the top half Erde’s Pressure Spear around from where he’d hidden it on his back. He had no idea if the spear would work in this state, but it was better than no weapon at all. He focused the spear’s secondary power on the rubble beneath Vaxter’s feet and caused a rapid increase in pressure in the air that filled the cracks between. The rubble exploded out from underneath Vaxter, hurling him up into the air. Zekle scampered back from the explosion as some chunks flew to the side and pelted her and Lune. Vaxter plummeted back down and hit the ground with a heavy grunt. Sauti could hear the body break from the impact.
He stalked forward across the uneven terrain to where Vaxter had fallen. Vaxter glanced up at him, clearly suppressing and immense amount of pain, and his mask began to glow. Sauti felt something start to change and alter within him, but the feeling was washed out by a warm sensation that enveloped him like a warm blanket. The Mask of Life in his hand was protecting him from the power of Vaxter’s Kanohi.
“Sauti, stop,” Lune said firmly as he limped after him. “Give me the mask, and we’ll figure this out.”
“NO!”
He did not make the word as forceful as he had when they were fighting the Mask itself. He didn’t want to hurt Lune, but the team’s leader could not be trusted to carry the Mask right now. Only I can keep it safe. Lune went flying back down the side of the pile of rubble.
Scene 4 - Kirikori Nui[]
The following scene was originally included as the final flashback, during Sauti and Lune's showdown with Vaxter and the "Lightning Bug." It was conceived as a way to bring Gora back for one last scene and have her continue to influence the plot even after he death. Very late in the editing process, the scene was removed to help strengthen the thematic weight of Sauti's Mask of Psychometry being destroyed - he lost his connection to the past and is forced to stay in the moment instead of always looking back.
Unlike the other scenes here, this one doesn't directly contradict the events of the serial. It is still considered to be Afterverse canon, despite not appearing in a complete work.
Gora had never liked insects. She’d once told Sauti that one time, while she was still a sailor, she had been serving aboard an airship called the Wailing Waikiru that had discovered a Nui Rama infestation mid-flight to Xia. She’d sworn never to serve on an airship again after that.
She had told him this on the way to De-Koro to deal with another infestation. The De-Matoran had asked the Makuta for assistance with a growing amount of Kirikori Nui around their village. Kirikori Nui were large, locust-like Rahi that devoured vegetation and had a call that sounded like a high-pitched ring. The De-Matoran had insisted the Kirikori were a threat to their harvests, but the Makuta was certain that they would not descend in full force for two more years, and that the Matoran of De-Koro simply did not care for their nightly calls. So, she had sent Sauti and Gora to placate the villagers while she worked on more important tasks.
The villagers had told them the calls had been heard to the northwest, along the coast. Sauti and Gora had reached the shore just before nightfall and had chosen to lie in wait for the Kirikori Nui to reveal their positions with their nightly cries.
“Sometimes the Makuta seems like she assigns us jobs because she knows we won’t like them,” Gora had said after a while, changing the conversation away from whatever mundane topic they had been discussing before.
Sauti had shrugged. “The De-Matoran like me. And you are more than capable of handling a dozen or so Rahi in a fight if it comes to it.”
“But they’re bugs, Sauti. I told you how much I hate them!”
“But I didn’t know that before today, perhaps the Makuta doesn’t know.”
Gora had huffed and fallen silent. The waves had rolled soothingly over the pale white sands of the beach. A Hahnah Crab had scuttled along the shoreline, looking for beached fish to eat.
“You know,” Sauti had continued, his tone becoming playful, “Erde would encourage you to think of this as a growth opportunity. A chance to overcome your fears.”
Gora had laughed. “He so would.” She had paused for a moment to recover herself before continuing. “I’m not afraid of them, I just think they’re gross. And noisy, and they get into everything. You know how bad it is when half your supplies go missing when you’re still a week out from the next port?”
“I can’t say that I do. It sounds bad, though.”
“It’s miserable!”
Before Gora could have continued, a shrill ringing sound cut through the silence of the night air. Sauti had instinctually gone to cover his audio receptors but had forced himself to stop and listen. The Kirikori Nui call had been louder than he normally preferred, but not so loud as to be anything other than a nuisance.
Moments later another call answered, from a little further down the shore. Both had been from deeper into the forest beyond the beach, where the undergrowth was thick and it would be harder for a predator to sneak up on them.
“Do you hear that?” Sauti had asked Gora.
“Yes Sauti, I do hear the very loud bug noises.”
“But do you hear what they’re saying?”
Gora had frowned and listened to the next exchange. The two Kirikori Nui had soon joined by a third, and then a fourth. During a lull, Gora had shaken her head in answer to his question.
“They’re just chirping.”
“No, they’re talking.” Sauti had listened closely, waiting for what he would need for his plan to work. “The shifts in their tone are too slight for us to hear, but the rhythm changes, too. Some are longer, some are sharper. That one there, it’s quick and repetitive. But the answer is longer, and it doesn’t have that staccato beat to it.”
“I…I guess I can hear it?” Gora had said, sounding immensely unconvinced.
Sauti had waited for an opening and then closed his eyes. He had ignored his other senses and had focused entirely on listening. It was a whole different way of experiencing the world, a purely auditory perception. He had focused on the sounds, all their qualities that he had heard and remembered, and had created his own call. It had come from down the beach, further to the northwest than he and Gora were sitting. He had smiled when he heard the Kirikori Nui answer back.
“Wait, was that you?” Gora had asked as she peered down the shoreline for the Rahi that had made the sound. “I don’t see anything down there.”
Sauti had winked at her. “Like I said, they’re talking. I just joined the conversation. Now, I think I can lead them down the shoreline, away from De-Koro so that the poor villagers will be able to get some sleep.”