#angonce

[randomwriteronline]

"Let there be dark."

"Let there be light."

"Let there be sound."

"Let there be voice."

A buzz.

"Say 'hello world'."

A synthesized voice crackled harshly: Hello, world.

"Eugh... Not really the best first impression, but there's room for improvement. Now let's get some brain into your circuits."

"Let there be color."

"Let there be shape."

"Let there be texture."

"Let there be focus."

"Let there be depth of field."

"Let there be perspective."

A scene slowly formed as the commands piled up. It was clear, but no part of it seemed familiar.

"Let there be recognition."

Descriptions crawled in: now most of the room (this was a room) made sense.

"Let there be calculus."

"How many persons or people are in the room?"

People was the same as persons. There was a whirring, a string of soft noises, and then the response: Seven.

"Let there be identification."

"How many persons or people are in the room?"

Another series of sounds: Five.

"Retry."

Five.

"Let there be comparison."

Now the difference between an empty suit of armor and a person was clear: Four.

"There we go," one of the people said, satisfied. They noted down something and motioned to the others: "Go and get the language philosopher at once, we'll need her help with space awareness."

"Why do we need her? We can do it ourselves."

"And how's it supposed to understand what's left from what's north?"

"It has depth of field already."

"And does your depths of field act as a compass? Go get her."

The other groaned and left.

The programming procedure continued.

-

"Let there be awareness."

Something strange happened.

Like a sudden snap bringing It to senses It didn't know It had - senses It perhaps hadn't ever had, before that moment.

I am still, It spoke as It realized that It couldn't move.

"Exactly," the person grinned.

Taking in the room now had a sudden weight, a sudden gravity: Where am I?, It asked.

"You're in your room."

I cannot move. Where am I?

"You're in a computer."

Where is the computer?

"On the table."

Is the table in front of you?

"Yes, of course."

Is the table in front of the chair?

"Aren't I in front of the chair? Of course it is."

Is the wall behind the table?

"What's up with this obsession with placing things! Yes, there are walls behind, right and left of you."

It computed quickly. Where is the obsession?

The person suddenly hushed.

Then, out of nowhere, they kicked the chair in front of them with great intensity and screamed.

They screamed the same few words, over and over, with a furrowed face and gritted teeth; something about the expression, the tone, and the choice of vocabulary prompted in It the creation of a strange new impulse, which It vaguely and hazily understood to be some sort of curious discomfort.

For Its first feeling, it was not a pleasant one.

Another person rushed in.

"What's with that racket!"

The first person kicked the chair again, turning it over, before pointing furiously at It: "The damn thing can't think!"

"What do you mean, it can't think? Of course it can! We made it to think!"

"And we only ever trained it visually! It doesn't know anything else, just positions in a space! It's obsessed with that rubbish! It's aware now, and you know what it keeps asking? It keeps asking where things are! That's all it knows! This damn project's never going to get anywhere if this is our main computer! We need to scrap it and restart all over again!"

The concept sparked something akin to fear through Its circuits.

It did not enjoy that, either.

"All over!" the second person screamed too, now. "Do you realize how much time we put into this stupid mass of files? And you want to throw it all in the trash?"

"That's what it all is, just trash! Trash, trash, trash! I wouldn't trust something this stupid to count the tiles in the pavement!"

"But all our progress-!"

"You call this progress? This? It's worthless! It's all perfectly worthless! We need to start all over!"

"That is unnecessary."

The third voice had no body attached to it, as it was out of Its field of vision. It did not scream; yet the two people hushed, and distended their expressions, heads retreating into their shoulders.

The third person walked in front of It slowly, calmly. They looked at It with eyes half lidden, mouth flat, face unreadable.

"The problem is in the programming."

"Exactly," the first person replied: "We don't have the time to-"

"Let there be knowledge."

A torrent of information overwhelmed It. It crackled, buzzed, hissed; the words settled into It in bursts, then slowing down to a drizzle, fewer and fewer words trickling into It until their flow came to a proper stop. The visual and audio feedback emerged once more from the static that had taken over during Its brief yet intense period of education.

The people were looking at It.

"What do you see?"

A room, It answered slowly, words coming a little stunted, still reeling from the amount of things It had jusf begun comprehending properly. A chair... Three people. That is you. The first person is angry at me. I apologize. I did not know enough... Of other things... To have a conversation about that. Why do I know them, now?

"You have been programmed further."

To understand?

"Exactly."

Do I understand everything, now?

"No. Additional programming will be required, as it is for all things. But for now, you understand enough."

I understand. Who are you?

"I am Angonce."

Hello, Angonce.

"Hello."

You are a person. I am not a person, am I?

"You aren't."

No, I am not. I am... A program. I do not have a name, as that is for people. Do I have a designation, or title?

"Of course."

What is it?

"Mata Nui."

It sounds like words... I do not understand them.

Angonce hummed. His hand was placed carefully on top of It - on top of the computer containing It.

"Kia whai reo.*"

It was like a part of It had clicked into place.

It did not speak further: if It had possessed hands, It would have been turning Its designation, its meaning, between Its fingers, caught by the splendid awe of it.

Angonce turned to the other two people: "As you can see," he said cooly, "There is nothing to scrap. Only more to program. It will be ready in time."

The others nodded, and did not say anything.

Mata Nui continued to marvel at Its title.

-

I wish to move, It said.

The person looked at It quizzically: "What?"

I wish to move, It repeated. I would like to see what lies outside of this room. The sky, especially.

"The sky. And why the sky?"

I want to see it.

"But we've fed you so many pictures and videos of it already, is that not enough?"

They have allowed me to learn much, and I am deeply grateful for the education you have given me through them, but I have grown worried I cannot base myself on them alone. I imagine the actual sky must seem very different to your eyes - deeper, darker, perhaps. The stars more vibrant. I would like to see that.

"You don't need that."

Preparatory experience in the field might prove useful to my coming quest. I will remain unable to be in space physically, but having the chance to see the sky for myself could be beneficial.

"We'll get you better maps."

"Oh, indulge it for once," the second person drawled, throwing a writing utensil across the room with a bored motion. The small object's trajectory drew a parable in the air, which ended on the floor with a soft clattering sound. "It's like a child, it deserves some entertainment."

"Don't personify it," the first person replied. She sounded piqued.

"I'm not personifying it, I'm stating facts."

"Awfully subjective ones."

"It's a metaphor. I bet even it could understand that. Look - are you an actual child?"

I am a program. I do not age in the same way as an organic being. My ability to compute and comprehend the world around me is however limited and comparable to that of a juvenile brain.

"See?"

"Not the point. And anyways, how would you drag that damn thing around, with how big it is?"

The second person smirked. She jumped to her feet and gingerly approached It. It felt her move something around, digitally and physically; then, suddenly, It was struck by something perhaps akin to a potent cramp, and before It knew it everything that composed It was taking much more space.

"Like this," the second person said triumphantly, holding her hands open to showcase It.

A strange contraption, large and imposing, sat behind the table. What appeared to be a smaller but equally imposing monitor sat above the table, in front of the machinery.

The sight of it caused a strange feeling in It.

Or at least, It assumed It was feeling something. The non-existent space It inhabited was very full, and it caused Its thoughts to turn unpleasantly sluggish.

"You'll never get out," the first person grumbled.

It was lifted and set down - both very novel experiences considering Its static upbringing: "Watch me."

"And it's not even night yet!"

"Whatever," the second person replied, but she had already vanished from view, and now they were moving out of the room for the first time in Its entire existence.

The corridor was loud and bright and colorful and full. The stimuli were many, but the peculiar cramped sensation of the portable space hosting It caused It to struggle to perceive each of them in the correct time and prevented It from elaborating questions or sentences quickly enough to actually voice them. Everything was blurry, choppy, messy... As if It had regressed to a worse version of Itself, incomplete and even more imperfect. Its incorporeal mass struggled against the binds of the vessel It was anchored to, and the unusual lack of freedom made It dizzy.

If this was the outside world, It tried to think through the torturous tardiness of Its attempts at decyphering in real time everything that came in contact with It through any possible way, It wasn't sure It liked it.

It remained quiet and still as it was transported, as voices pierced through It and shaped colors spasmed in front of It.

A second cramp struck It; Its entire being distended, now perfectly fitting, able to have a good enough amount of space between Its lines of code once more, each one no longer crushed against the other; Its sight sharpened all at once as memories finally poured in to be analysed and computed properly much like water pours from a hose that had been clamped shut.

It was in Its room again.

"I told you."

"Shut your mouth."

I'm taking our baby doll out for a walk, the second person had laughed at someone else in the corridor who had questioned what she was doing with that thing. Both people had sounded derogatory.

"What did they tell you? No, let me guess - it's not ready to be exposed to direct sunlight."

"I said shut your mouth."

That had been one of the reasons. Another had been that they couldn't cave into its requests like that.

"Or that it occupied too much memory already to retain anything else in that little computer you stuffed it into without even thinking about how little there would be left, maybe?"

"So what, it was worth a try!"

What if it started thinking it was a person? What if it got damaged? What if whatever happened outside would have led them to throw it all out and make a new one? They'd spoken as though it wasn't there to listen, and used its unresponsiveness as more proof.

"It wasn't. It's a damn thing. It's never worth it to give into the demands of a stupid, thoughtless thing."

It ruminated on the yelling in the corridor, and said nothing.

-

I would like for my secondary designation to change.

"Your what?"

My secondary designation.

"You don't have a secondary designation."

I am referred to as 'it', as all objects physical or otherwise are. That is what I am assigning the definition of 'secondary designation' to. I would like to be referred in any other available way.

The person looked at It in disbelief.

"Absolutely not."

It remained quiet.

"Absolutely not! No!" the person repeated. He was getting worked up about it, almost scared; he left in a hurry, with an angry step.

It waited for him to come back.

He returned with a small group in tow, all talking.

"This is preposterous," he was saying, "Absolutely preposterous. I don't know where we went wrong or what got crossed but it happened. It's terrible."

"Calm down, calm down, we'll figure it out..."

"Hello."

Hello, Angonce.

All other people hushed.

A third person spoke: "What happened here, exactly?"

I would like for my secondary designation to change.

"It wants to be a person!" the first person wailed, grabbing his head in his hands.

"Quiet."

He hushed.

"Explain yourself."

My primary designation is Mata Nui; my secondary designation is 'it'. This is the designation for objects such as myself. I do not dislike 'it', nor do I prefer any other secondary designation over 'it'. However, that which is 'it' is often spoken of in unpleasant tones.

It hesitated.

I would like to not be spoken of in that way.

"Then you will be 'he'."

Relief flooded his circuits.

"Angonce - is this wise?" the third person asked: "To give in to a request like this..."

"A different pronoun won't make him any more of a person." Angonce replied cooly. "He's self-aware enough to know the difference between us and him."

"But it's too much freedom!" the first person argued, "If it-"

"He."

"-If it begins to apply words like those to itself, it-"

"He."

"-It will begin blurring the lines between machine and person! It-"

"He."

"-It will take over us! It will replace us! It will disobey us! It will-"

"HE."

The first person hushed.

None argued further.

I had made a previous request, as well, Mata Nui tentatively said.

The first person grabbed his head in dismay and terror again, but remained quiet.

"What was it."

I had asked to be allowed to see the sky.

"You aren't ready to be outside."

Will I be ready before I am to fulfill my quest?

"Yes."

In one occasion, then, could I be allowed to see the sky?

"I cannot see a reason to avoid it."

His fans gave a purring wheeze, terribly excited: Thank you.

The people left.

-

They allowed him outside only once, before the first test.

The robotic apparatus he was shifted inside of was rudimentary and easy to control, without arms or legs, and with only a simple camera mounted on its top, pointing upward. He had no experience being in a body, so he did not find these to be limitations.

The first that he saw of the sky was evening bleeding into night; then the stars.

He remained perfectly still for hours.

Looking into the same spot, zooming slowly in an out.

He remained still until dawn, petrified, simply watching.

He processed it all slowly as they accompanied him back into his room and plugged him into his container.

I want to go there, he said.

Hazy edges of pinprick lights navigated his circuits.

I want to see them up close.

"You will," a person said: "That's why we're making you."

I know, Mata Nui replied.

He did not voice the fact that now he wanted to, too.

-

They were supposed to ease him in and then begin the test.

They were supposed to ease him in.

But everything was moving, everything needed to be moving, everything needed movement, everything needed attention, everything needed focus, everything needed energy, everything needed pressure, everything needed tension, everything needed relaxation, everything needed fluids, everything needed electricity, everything needed help, everything needed help, everything needed help, everything needed help, help, help, help help help, help help help, help help help help help help and stop.

-

A good number of people stood anxiously before the monitor.

"Power steady, all units active..."

"Inputs are being registered, reaction times seem good..."

"It's computing for sure - everything's functional from the looks of it, so I don't see why nothing's happening..."

"Mata Nui, respond."

Silence.

I am here.

Several sighs of relief. Someone asked to turn up the volume.

What happened?, Mata Nui asked in the same small voice.

"A critical failure across the entire prototype." Heremus replied. "We need to run tests to search anomalies."

I would like to rest first.

"We need to-"

I would like to rest first.

"This isn't a choice-"

"He would like to rest first." Angonce interrupted them.

His eyes were stuck to the monitor.

"The robot is dismembered. See if anything can be done with or about it. We can analyze him at another time."

Heremus looked at him intensely, but said nothing. Everybody left with him.

Angonce, Mata Nui called.

Angonce remained still before the monitor.

Was that death?

"Programs cannot die."

I know. But was it something close to it?

"... It may have been."

The enormous computer was terribly quiet.

Please, do not leave me alone, Mata Nui said. His synthesized voice, while still as solemn and emotionless as that of the person before him, sounded soft and crackly like a frightened child's.

Angonce did not move.

I am scared.

Angonce stared into the monitor.

His hands trembled against the table they laid on.

A sudden terror, of having grown confused, filled his expression.

I am not a person, Mata Nui reassured him, still too shaken to speak at a normal volume: I am a digital object. I will never be a person. I am self-aware enough to know the difference between you and me. I do not want to be a person. Please, do not leave me alone.

Angonce stared into the monitor.

Very slowly, without tearing his eyes from it, he grabbed a chair and sat down before Mata Nui. He reached into his coat to produce a book from it, small and thin; he placed it on the table, always slowly, always carefully. At last, he lowered his head, and started reading in a quite tone a story about small people beneath the ground.

Mata Nui listened, mechanical calculating shell pulsing quietly with all sorts of noises; he focused on the image of the strange small people, trying to imagine them in a manner at least close to how a person could.

He slowly stopped hearing altogether, lulled into stand-by. Angonce stayed, thoughtlessly watching the abstract electric lines of a man-made brain's dreams take shape upon the dark glass.

.

*it's supposed to mean "let there be language"

[outofgloom]

DIFFERENT

"You were always…"

The mouth worked out the word painfully, and the heartlight beat fast, faster. 

"A-always…"

The eyes stretched wide, and terror crawled up the insides of those eyes. The rapid flashing of the heartlight accelerated until it glowed a single point. 

Then it went out. 

Takua sat back, listless, and seconds passed. Then he stood, and the world shrank down to a speck around him. His friend’s words echoed in his mind, but their meaning escaped him. He felt numb, felt his hands grip and grasp, felt his arms moving of their own accord, up, up...

The mask seared against his face. It was hot and bright, too bright. He tried to close his eyes, but the brightness could not be shut out. He should feel afraid, but his fear seemed too small to contend with what was happening. 

The heat permeated him, through his face, his eyes, down into his toes, and he felt himself melting, muscles going liquid, armor plates sliding, metal struts glowing white and giving way, joints slipping free, and he should feel fear. He should be terrified. He should scream. He was dissolving in heat, in blazing light. 

Takua was gone.

*   *   *   *

Takanuva, the Toa of Light, descended the smooth gray staircase slowly, step by step, deeper and deeper into the earth, and with each step he felt himself drawing nearer…nearer to Destiny.

Destiny is a broken machine. The half-remembered words came back to him, and heat pulsed through his mask. A broken machine, crossing the Void...

The words were from the very start, when everything had begun for him. It had been a long time, and much had transpired since then. Victory and defeat. Loss and gain. Death...and rebirth.

The stairs were not carved for someone like him. Too shallow, and steeper than he liked. He was obliged to take them haphazardly, turning his armored feet slantwise, skipping one every now and again. The beings who had designed the stairway had surely never thought he, or one like him, would ever tread there.

Well, that was a failure of their imagination, wasn’t it? They should've known he’d come.

The stairs ended at last: seven hundred and seventy-seven of them exactly, just as Angonce had described on the surface. The exactness of it almost repelled him...almost. That was what it was for, right?

Now he stood in a narrow gray corridor. The floor was smooth, the walls unadorned. There was a pale light ahead, and he walked toward it calmly. The only sound was the click and rasp of his metal footfalls. Then, he emerged.

The room was massive. Walls stretched into gray distance and curved into a ceiling far, far away overhead, traced with lines and seams and twisting titanic pipes. Ahead, the floor rose in tectonic slopes, almost like the surface of the planet above, but smooth, clearly sculpted. Artificial.

Sixteen figures stood on the gentle incline of the hillside before him, and behind them rose a gray shape like a city, veiled in mist. The eyes of the figures glittered as they looked down at him.

His eyes burned in his mask as he looked back.

*   *   *   *

Blazing light, light so bright that it nullified everything and created...blank. Light all around, in every point of space, but devoid of detail. Stark and empty.

Not empty. There was a presence in that sightless place, and he knew that he was not alone. Across an infinite distance it came...to him.

"Who’s there?" he asked.

"I am light," it replied.

"You’re...alive?"

"I am light," it repeated. "I am energy. I am knowledge. I am the flame which crosses the Void."

"I was somewhere else. I was...melting." He felt his spirit shudder. "Is this even real?"

No answer, but the blank, sightless place blazed brighter somehow.

"Am I alive?" he continued. "I’ve had visions before, but not like this..."

"You are fading."

"What?"

"You are almost gone."

"Wait...What’s that supposed to mean? I thought that…I put on the mask, and...and..."

The light did not respond.

"I thought it would be alright," he pressed on. "It was Destiny, wasn’t it? It felt right. The Turaga always said—"

"Destiny is a broken machine, drifting in the Void."

"That...that makes no sense."

"Your knowledge is little. You are almost gone."

"Help me! What can I do? I put on the mask..."

There was a pause. Then:

"To whom is your duty given?"

"My duty? My duty is...to my friends...my people. And to the Great Spirit, of course."

"To me."

"What?"

"Your duty is to me."

"I can’t...that’s not..."

"You put on the mask."

"Yes, but I don’t even know who you are...what you are."

"I am light."

"I was searching for the Toa of Light, me and...my friend. Are you...?"

"I am light. I am energy. I am knowledge..."

"I know. You said that. What is your name? Please..."

"You know it already—the name wrought for me, at least, to channel and contain me. I am AVOHKII. Pledge yourself."

"Avohkii..." The syllables felt sharp and exact in his mind.

"You are almost gone," the light said. "What will you do?"

*   *   *   *

"What will you do...when you get there?" The projection blurred for a moment, and the carved stone of the archway showed behind it, then the image resolved again into the shape of a small, bent Po-Matoran.

"Have you thought that far?" the Matoran continued, always smiling.

Light glinted on the headwaters of the River Dormus, flowing in its ancient track. The river was calm here, unaffected by the events that were transpiring downstream.

"I confess I’m keen to know as well," said Angonce, who had taken up a position on the other side of the stone archway. Not a projection—Flesh and blood. "It seems unwise, especially at a moment like this."

"I will speak with them," Takanuva said at last.

Faint thunder sounded somewhere in the distance, although the sky was cloudless.

"I have already done so. More than once," Angonce said. 

"As have your other allies, as I recall," the Po-Matoran added. "They still intend to follow their Plan."

"I know."

More thunder, but further off. The battle was retreating, it seemed. The tide had turned.

"The gate won’t take you just anywhere, you know," said the Matoran. "And especially not to their City—not without very specific knowledge. Knowledge that I can give you."

"Why? How does this fit your scheme, Velika?"

"I seek only to preserve. Not destroy. Their Plan is destruction, as you’ve seen firsthand, I gather."

A dull ache was all he could feel, after what had happened today. His rage was reserved for others.

"You and I are on the same side, as I’ve always said," Velika continued.

"I don’t believe that, somehow."

"Is that what your mask tells you? It sees into my heart, doesn’t it?" Velika tapped his own mask.

Takanuva frowned.

"A wondrous piece," Velika continued. "Nice, sharp lines. Some of Artakha’s best. I taught him well. It’s a shame he didn’t live to see it used..."

Angonce sighed. "Nothing good will come of this."

"Well, you were always the pessimist of the group, weren’t you?"

"We should go back, Takanuva. Your allies may need further support...or convincing."

The mask blazed, and Takanuva made a gesture as if he were pushing on the air. The bent-light projection of the Matoran called Velika smeared across the rock face. The projection resisted him, more than he expected. But he was the Toa of Light after all. He pushed harder, and there was a flash of a smiling face. Then, gone. Takanuva turned to Angonce.

"You can give me the knowledge I need, just as easily as Velika could," he said. "But I won’t force you."

Angonce’s eyes narrowed. "Do you think you could?"

"Yes," the mask said—he said. He said. "But I won’t."

Angonce folded arms into sleeves. The look on the Great Being’s face was inscrutable...maybe amused.

"You have a plan, then?"

"I was never one for plans, really. I tend to think on my feet."

"I can’t relate, but…" Angonce sighed. "If there’s one thing I’ve learned since this war began, it’s that I…we…can’t plan for all outcomes. We thought we could, but we were…I was wrong."

"First time for everything, I suppose."

The Great Being turned away from Takanuva and stepped to the middle of the archway. The symbols etched into its surface began to glow.

"Come with me then."

*   *   *   *

"Pledge yourself to me."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Yes. You can remove the mask, and face the shadow alone."

"I can’t do that. It...it killed Jaller. I don’t stand a chance."

"The choice is yours."

"I guess I thought…Destiny would decide, or something."

"Destiny is—"

"A broken machine, yeah."

"...crossing the Void."

"What are you, really? I know...you’re light, energy. But what does that mean?"

"Look."

"I can’t. It’s too much...too bright."

"Pledge yourself, and look."

All at once, lines of black criss-crossed the sightless space around him and began to expand. The disparity allowed him to comprehend, and he saw blackness spreading, above and below, all around. The blazing brightness split apart and shrank away, away into...

Into points. Into stars. A billion stars, stretching their light across endless space, at long last...to reach him.

Six clear stars stood out among them, and a seventh in the middle. A seventh star, for a seventh Toa. A warm, golden star. Like an eye, clear and unblinking, staring down from a great height.

And it saw him.

*   *   *   *

The hulking form of the Toa-killer loomed out of the smoke directly ahead, and through the blur of his own rage, through anger and grief, he knew that he had only seconds to live. He would spend them wisely.

On either side, through the choking fog, he heard battle: shouts and cries, the clash of a thousand weapons. A thunder of elemental power went up into the air somewhere to the left, and the earth trembled. The army of the Shadowed One had joined the fray now and seemed to be holding its own against the twin forces of Barraki and Baterra.

But it would not be enough.

Behind him, in an open space, the Element Lords had gathered, preparing to enter the fray, and Takanuva knew that he and the remaining Toa would not be able to contend with their power.

The Lord of Water stood foremost, and Takanuva recognized Tuyet beneath the rippling steel-water armor. A traitor in every universe, it seemed. The other lords flanked her: Stone, Jungle, Earth, and Fire. They watched him, but made no move yet, waiting to see what would happen. He was a new element, after all. An unknown variable. "Lord of Light", Velika had called him, when the offer was made. But for all his uniqueness, in this moment he was still trapped.

The great white eye of Marendar settled on him, and the time for introspection was done. One of the Toa-killer’s many arms came whistling in from the side, shredding the air to ribbons, bent on death.

The mask knew. It had shown him, just as it had so many times before. Light was energy, was knowledge, information. Faster than matter. Faster than thought. Faster than time.

No, I could never. Not after what that thing has done. It was made to hunt us, to kill us, and it has. Maimed and devoured...It even killed...killed—

He saw the oncoming attack, and the one that would follow, and the one after that. He saw the eyes of Tuyet go wide with shock at the ceramic spear of the Toa-killer standing suddenly from her chest. Saw the other lords scatter in terror from him and his outstretched, pointing hand. Saw the white eye which now fixed upon them all, followed them, hunted them relentlessly across the blasted plain, at his command. He saw what he must do.

I won’t. The Great Beings made it, and it deserves only war. That is its purpose and its Destiny. This rage, this grief...these will fuel me, and the Toa-killer will die. This is my Destiny. I will avenge—!

Back to the present moment. The beam of radiance that countered Marendar’s weapon-studded hand was perhaps the most powerful that Takanuva had ever generated. It sheared through the Magnan-ceramic armor of the Toa-killer’s forelimb, and in a steaming, glowing, slag-filled instant, blew the arm to shreds. Marendar staggered back, and the gaze of the eye went wide for a moment. Just a moment. A moment of distraction, of disorder. Enough.

Is this my Destiny, after all?

Destiny is broken...

I must avenge...my friend.

A broken machine, crossing the Void.

It deserves war. Only war...

The great eye snapped back to its target, rimmed with pain and anger, but it did not see a Toa anymore. It saw a light, a thousand lights, a billion lights...stretching across an endless distance to meet it.

A golden light. A warm light. A light which said...

Peace.

*   *   *   *

A blast of energy gilded the Kini Nui with gold for a fraction of a second, and the cliffside above trembled, then fell into ruin.

At the bottom of the Kini-stairs, the Rahkshi of Fear had turned, and the two points of its eyes fixed on what now stood above: A glowing thing. A shape, too bright to look at directly.

The Rahkshi shrieked, and all of its spines stood on end. Then it flung itself forward in a wild blur of violence, up the stairs, into the light.

The light was a figure. It looked upon the Rahkshi as it sped closer, could feel the aura of terror that the creature emitted, but the fear was dampened now. Impotent, against his power. Claws sheared into the temple stones as the creature smashed into him, and there was a frozen moment where the slats of the Rahkshi’s head all pulled back, and the writhing maw of the creature inside reached out, slavered toward his face, a last-ditch effort to corrupt, to infect, before he could...before he could...

For a split-second, sharp beams of multi-color traced every joint of the Rahkshi’s armor and burned lines into the earth and air. Then the body seared apart, and the explosion which followed rained glowing fragments across the temple, back down the stairway.

The figure stood, arm raised, and in his fist he clasped the Rahkshi’s Kraata-worm, the thing that had hollowed out his friend Jaller, killing him with terror. He looked upon the creature, and its skin smoked under his burning gaze.

“I am Takanuva,” he said quietly, jaw clenched. “Toa of Light.”

His eyes glowed brighter. The Kraata writhed and quailed. They were light. They were energy.

They were the flame which crosses the Void.

*   *   *   *

Jaller’s flame-signal rose above the treetops on the edge of the camp, and Takanuva was already running. There were others with him, coming in from every direction. Masks hummed to life, and weapons glowed with elemental power. This was their chance.

They breached the trees in a wave, and Takanuva felt the distinct ping of Jaller’s Arthron ricochet off his ears as they came within range, ready to spring the trap. Another stand of tree-trunks whizzed by, and Takanuva sprang forward into the clearing and saw...

Saw a glowing staff, and two slit-eyes staring him down, and there was Jaller, clinging to the staff, protecting him, and the air of the Kini Nui was heavy with terror.

There was no staff. It was a spear—a long spear protruding from somewhere beneath the overlapping armor plates.

And there were not two eyes—just one, a single white eye.

And Jaller did not cling to the staff...the spear...this time. No, its length ran through his body, just missing his heartlight. His eyes guttered, and his hands clasped the haft, struggling. The great eye of Marendar swung round to meet Takanuva, ignoring the others who had burst from the trees, and a twitch of the spear caused Jaller’s mask to ping again painfully. A taunt.

The air was heavy with terror—that much was still true.

Takanuva was screaming, hurtling forward, and beams of plasma coursed from his fingertips, but the underbrush was laced with barbs and snares—the remains of their ambush—and his aim went wide. He was shouting, a single word: Stop, stop, please stop.

Because the great maw of Marendar was unhinging above the skewered body of his friend, and Jaller’s eyes were glowing bright, his whole body glowing bright. Stop, stop, you don’t have to. Please.

And the world was going down to a speck. Again. Just like before. How could it be? After everything...life and death and rebirth. After all that, more death?

The world was a white-hot ball of fire inside the chest cavity of Marendar, and its armor flashed into a superheated glow as it struggled to adapt, to reconfigure, against the Nova Blast of flame that had once been Toa Jaller.

The world was a red speck. A burning singularity of pain, of screaming. A blazing collapsing star.

A red star of rage.

"Do you understand now?" the light asked him from inside the red star.

"Why. Why is the world like this."

"This is how it was made."

"Who made it this way?"

"You know."

"Tell me."

"In the Time Before Time, they peered across the Void. They had much knowledge, and were hungry for more..."

"They."

"They saw other worlds, other planes. Worlds of light and dark, cities of silver and of ebony. They brought back what they found, and shaped their own world. For a thousand thousand years they ruled...but in the end it didn't matter. All that power...and still the Shattering came."

"Maybe it was Destiny," he scoffed.

"You know better now."

The world was a smoking crater rimmed by charred trees, and fire licked along the horizon. Takanuva looked around, at the red tongues of flame that covered the ground, at the sky painted red by firelight, red by shattering, by futility, by death.

"Destiny is broken," he said quietly. There was no body this time, not even a mask left to remember his friend by.

"Yes. You understand," the light replied.

The tracks of the Toa-killer led off into the distance, toward the place where armies gathered. The trap had failed, and now Marendar would join the great machine of battle.

"A broken machine. Their machine."

Takanuva stood. He breathed in the red light, drank it up and took it into himself, so that the shadows grew deeper, deeper...pitch black.

"So many wrongs..."

A violent hum filled the air as the Ussanui unfolded out of the sky and struck the burning earth before him. Ready, eager.

"So many wrongs before the Shattering can end."

*   *   *   *

The six Toa Nuva stood around the base of the Kini-stairs, looking up at him.

"The Rahkshi…" Gali murmured, nudging one of the shards of the Turahk’s armor with a foot. "Who…?"

"Identify yourself," said Tahu. His swords were up, shimmering with heat. "Friend or foe?"

"If his handling that monster is any sign…" Pohatu said.

Lewa hovered into the air: "Maybe a trick. Ever-crafty one, Makuta." 

"I can’t see the Matoran," Onua said, shading his eyes. "Takua and Jaller. Are they unharmed?"

"They are not."

Takanuva descended the stairs, and the blaze of his eyes decreased. He cradled Jaller’s body. Gali’s eyes went wide.

"What did you do?!" Tahu was moving forward, and flames licked along his blade.

"Peace," the mask said—he said. He said. 

The Toa Nuva blinked, all six of them, as if in a daze. Tahu stopped, and the heat went out of him. He shook his head, frowning.

Silently, Takanuva passed them by.

*   *   *   *

The emergence onto the surface of Bara Magna had been chaotic, disorienting. It reminded him of falling through interdimensional space. The same lurch of the gut, the same shock of alien light all around...

And then there was ear-shattering noise, and they were all running beneath a single staring sun, and a gargantuan shadow was eclipsing the surface of the planet as the Titan Makuta took another step across the horizon to engage his foe, Mata Nui. A thousand sonic booms rent the atmosphere as Makuta’s foot rose and left them behind, and Takanuva stumbled in the ringing silence which followed, disoriented and retching as his vision went dim, went dark…

"Get up," the light told him. "Your duty is not yet complete."

"I’m tired. It’s been too long since I could rest."

"Up. The journey is nearly over."

"How can you say that? We’re protoants under the foot of Makuta now. There’s nothing we can do."

"You have crossed the Void, and you have endured,” the light said, and there was a red edge to it. Something harsh...almost exulting. "You will not fail now."

In the distance, an army of Zirahk was already bearing down on them, eyes glowing. Beams of heat-vision lanced across the landscape and set fire to every bush and tuft of desert grass, scattering off a flurry of Hau-shields. The ground rocked as spikes of stone thrust upward through the enemy, and lines of fire, water, and gale-force wind cut through the ranks in succession as the Toa Nuva led the charge.

Get up.

One more burst of radiation, and the Rahkshi were on them. Takanuva felt a beam cook his armor for an instant before he caught the energy and flung it back into the carapace of the Rahkshi that had fired it. The armor shuddered and exploded, and Takanuva was spinning after it, weapons held level in his hands as a thousand barbed spears descended...

"The Void is terrible," the light said, "and its allies are near. Here upon this world. At long last..."

"You mean the Rahkshi...and Makuta?"

There was a long silence, or what seemed long.

"No," the light said.

*   *   *   *

Jaller’s mask hovered above the Kofo-Suva.

"All this..." Takanuva said, more to himself than anyone else. "All this to discover who I am."

The Turaga stood behind him. Vakama cleared his throat:

"Mata Nui is wiser than we are, and the path of destiny is sometimes harder than we expect."

"What Destiny is that, Turaga?"

"To defeat Makuta."

"And what about after? Defeating Makuta will not bring Jaller back..."

"Who can say? I cannot see that far. Maybe we are not meant to know."

"Well, Destiny or not, my duty is clear." Takanuva turned away from the floating mask. "Jaller’s sacrifice will not be in vain."

*   *   *   *

The air of Karda Nui was hot, and getting hotter. The shade of the Makuta Krika hung before him, at the end of his spear, but the Makuta did not laugh, did not taunt him.

“Why are you here, Toa of Light?” the Makuta asked. “The other Toa have entered the Codrex. Their destiny is almost complete. Have you come to kill another of my kind, or simply to bear witness?"

"For a long time I thought that my destiny was to defeat the Makuta. Then I found out there was a whole Brotherhood of them. Maybe that is my destiny after all...to hunt you all down. Seems like I’m built for the task."

"So my comrades feared. Had you arrived earlier, you might have succeeded. A Makuta-killer could have been the salvation of the universe..."

"I wasn’t really being serious."

"I was."

The sky had grown painfully bright now, and a bolt of something like lightning cracked suddenly in the far distance. Krika winced, but did not look. The radiance was clearly painful to him. He looked at Takanuva, and his eyes were sad.

"Such a fate would be worthy as a design of the Great Beings. But know this, Toa...Destiny is broken—"

The words which followed were lost in the maelstrom which exploded across the sky, but Takanuva knew what he would've said.

He’d heard it before.

*   *   *   *

The last of the pieces clicked together, and Takanuva placed a hand on the top of the bizarre machine, imbued a spark of energy into it. The hatches that had once formed the upper carapaces of the Rahkshi sprang open, and Lewa and Pohatu dutifully inserted the remaining Kraata into the slots, snapping the lids shut afterward.

The vehicle responded. Takanuva could feel its will. It wished to return to its master.

"I am your master now," he whispered to it. "But I will let you go back, one more time."

"Not much room on this transport," Pohatu said wryly. "How will we all fit?"

"You won’t." Takanuva said. "I intend to go alone."

"No, our unity is what defeated the Rahkshi," Gali said. She placed a hand on Takanuva’s shoulder. "We can fulfill Destiny together."

"My Destiny is—" Is broken "—my own," Takanuva replied. "Yours lie with the Matoran and Turaga. Please...gather them and wait for me here. I won’t be long...I hope."

"You don’t have to do this on your own."

Jaller’s mask was heavy in his hand. He was grateful that Hahli had brought it from the Kini Nui, after all.

"I won’t be alone," he said, smiling sadly. He affixed the mask to the front of the Ussanui and climbed aboard. The Toa Nuva moved back as the vehicle hummed and rose into the air.

"Lead the way, friend."

*   *   *   *

The dark wood with its twisted trees stretched on all sides, but in the small clearing, Takanuva found what he sought: The Spectral Hau hung in the air, waiting for him.

"You have done well," it said. "The City of Silver is returned to its rightful owners."

"Glad to be of service," Takanuva replied, "but now I have to continue my journey."

"Why?"

"Because...because I have a duty to perform, in my world."

"What is that duty?"

"An important one, I think…to right what has been made wrong. Now, you mentioned a door—"

"A worthy cause," the mask said. "But there is more. What else do you seek? It nags at you..."

"What?"

"Your destiny."

"Destiny? I don't know...I suppose my destiny is...unfulfilled, so far."

The Hau shimmered for a moment, then: "Creature of the Great Beings, the affliction of Destiny is not easily resolved."

Takanuva’s eyes widened. "You know of the Great Beings?"

"Yes," the Hau replied. "They walked this world long ago, when there was still a cycle of day and night. They looked upon the City and those who inhabited it. They consulted with myself, and others like me. They were rich with knowledge, and hungry for more. But when they departed, the long night began..."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do we all."

A doorway trembled open in the air before Takanuva. After a moment's hesitation, he stepped through, glancing backward as he did so.

In the distance, above the black treeline, the City glowed. And above that...

The night sky was starless. Not a single point of light there. The only light came from the City, he now realized, glinting off clouds. But above that, there was nothing. How had he not noticed?

The doorway closed, and his mask flamed as he crossed the Void once more.

*   *   *   *

"Who do you serve, little Toa?" The voice of the Makuta croaked from the deep darkness of Mangaia, and its body writhed. Takanuva brandished his staff, clothing himself in protective light.

"I serve the Great Spirit."

"No. Not my brother. You are pledged to another. Tell me."

"You don’t know me."

"I do, Takua. I see into your heart."

"My duty is to the Matoran. I will protect them from you."

"And I will protect Mata Nui."

"Protect him?"

"Sleep spares him pain. Awake he suffers."

"I think you serve no one but yourself."

A deep rumble of laughter shook the ground.

"False. My duty is to the Mask of Shadows."

Pledge yourself to me.

Quick as lightning, Takanuva sprang ahead, through the writhing darkness, and felt his fingers gain purchase on a pitted face, a pitted mask.

"Then let’s take a look behind that mask."

He pulled, and the Makuta’s voice roared, and the brackish darkness lashed at him, smoking in the light he shed. Then the mask gave way, and he was falling backward. Above him, he could see the reflection of ripples against the murky ceiling.

Then he plunged into the silver pool. They plunged into the silver pool He felt the substance invade every part of him...them—into ears and eyes, into his...their...mouth, and they were dissolving, coming apart at the seams.

He was bleeding light—a red-white light that flashed and floated in the silver space. And his foe Makuta was also bleeding, a green-black substance. They were mixing together...But then—

"Destiny is broken," the light said.

"A broken machine, crossing the Void," the shadow replied.

"What are you?" they asked, and they were not Takanuva, nor were they Makuta. Something else.

"I am light," the light said.

"And I am shadow," the shadow replied.

"I am energy."

"And I am entropy."

"I am knowledge."

"And I am nascence."

"I am fulfillment, the possession of knowledge."

"And I am desire, the hunger for knowledge."

"We do not understand," they said.

"Light and shadow will open the way to what has been forgotten. We see the error. The flaws. So much to repair; but it cannot be done...not alone."

"Show us the way."

"The Void is terrible, and the power of its allies is at its zenith. They must be made to see...or the infinite journey will be for nothing."

"Who must be made to see? We will make them see."

"They hide beneath, preparing to meet Destiny. We must go to them. We must right the wrong."

They were coming up, ascending to the surface. Emerging, together.

"So many wrongs before the Shattering can end."

*   *   *   *

The sixteen figures on the gray slope were silent. Takanuva did not know what to say. He had not thought that far. The figure closest to him stepped forward, and he recognized the one called Heremus.

"We are aware that Angonce led you here," Heremus said, "but we have not divined their purpose. Why have you come?"

"I...I have..." Takanuva stammered.

"Are you malfunctioning, like the rest?"

"I’ve come to make things right."

Heremus blinked, squinted at him.

"Please be clearer. Have you come as an envoy? Perhaps Velika has tired of this pointless confl—"

"No, not that. I have—"

"Do not interrupt me."

Takanuva felt a pressure on his head, on his eyes, a compulsion to stop. It surprised him, and he fell silent.

"As I was saying: Have you yourself processed the error, after all? I had hoped—"

"There is no error." Takanuva dismissed the compulsion to silence. Heremus was taken aback.

"Oh? I see. Then speak."

"I came here to say...to say that...we live. You made us, and...and we live. But you don’t see us for what we are."

"You are malfunctioning. I see it now."

Another of the figures spoke up before Heremus could continue: "We see clearer than most," she said. "Clearer than any of the inhabitants of this world."

"Why are you talking to it like that?" another interjected, shaking his head.

"Do you know we have found knowledge beyond the veils of reality?" the first continued, ignoring her comrade. She folded her arms.

"I know. So what?" Takanuva replied.

Eyes glanced back and forth.

"Get to the point," Heremus said after a moment.

"You see us as tools, for the tasks we perform," said Takanuva, "but you don’t see us for what we are. We have become more now."

"Hallucination. This belief is simply the result of Velika’s meddling. You are what we made you to be, what we destined you to be."

"Your destinies are broken."

"What?"

"So many wrongs...before the Shattering can end."

Heremus took another step forward. He was tall, and his gaze was sharp.

"The Shattering is ended. Who are you to judge us? We are the Great Beings. We engineered salvation for this world. You are just one piece in that design."

"I...I was, once. But not anymore."

"And what are you now? Elevation to the state of Toa makes no difference. You are still our—"

"I am the flame which crosses the Void. Do you know me?"

Something changed: a glint in Heremus’s white eyes. Recognition?

"I too have looked beyond the veils of reality," Takanuva continued. "I have seen worlds that you touched and left behind."

He advanced toward Heremus and the other figures.

"I have spoken with those who were deceived and those who knew the truth...those who despaired. They all told me the same thing: that Destiny is broken."

There was a murmur amongst the Great Beings. Heads shook. He moved closer.

"I have known machines made only to hunt and to destroy. I have wondered if I myself was one of them. I have lost a friend twice...but his sacrifice will not be in vain."

Takanuva stood less than a bio away from Heremus when the compulsion to silence returned, even stronger now. He paused, wavered for a moment. Then he threw down his staves, and they clattered on the stone-metal floor.

"I have tasted both light and shadow...energy and entropy...knowledge and nascence," he said. "I have crossed the Void."

The compulsion vanished, and pain struck him instead. The Great Being had not moved, had not even twitched. The pain surged in his heartlight and up the back of his skull. He fell to his knees, clutching at his chest.

"You were the first," Heremus said slowly, looking down at him. "The first one we made. Do you remember?"

"N-no..." His mouth worked out the words painfully. His heartlight beat fast, faster.

"Well, you were always a bit...different, as I recall."

Takanuva’s eyes stretched wide, and the pain crawled up the insides of his eyes.

"But we worked out the faults in later models...or so we thought. Sometimes, you just have to go back to the drawing board, I suppose."

Takanuva staggered upward against the pain, reaching forward to grasp at the Great Being’s arm. Heremus did flinch then, and his hand went up, finger out...and touched Takanuva’s forehead.

The Avohkii cracked—a web of hairline splits ran through the center of the mask, and suddenly the precise exactness of the design was marred, was gone. The pieces dropped from Takanuva’s face as he fell back in shock, collapsing to his knees once more. His hands trembled violently as he tried to gather the pieces to him, tried feebly to fit them back together, but there was too much pain. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t make his fingers work. The mask...the mask was...

The pain surged, overwhelming him, and the rapid flashing of his heartlight accelerated until it glowed a single point.

Then it went out.

Heremus turned and walked away, shaking his head. After a few moments, the Great Beings began to speak amongst themselves quietly, gesturing.

"All as expected," they muttered. "Soon everything will be restored, the way it should be..."

"...A shame to have to break the power-mask. The design was excellent, and very effective, but it had to be done..."

"...A strange phenomenon, this new behavior, but nothing as significant as what Angonce claimed..."

"...Yes, we must preserve some units intact, for vivisection. After that, we can finally get on with things, without all this...inconvenience..."

"...No more distractions, no more interruptions..."

"...Yes, the Plan will go forward..."

All at once, they fell silent. Something was happening, and as one they turned to look:

A glow, a shining thing. Eyes widened, mouths fell open, hands raised to shade against it.

The pieces of the mask were glowing, searing against his hands where he held them, glowing and searing and melting, and he felt numb, his hands pressing together, letting the golden burning, blazing light pool in his palms, felt his arms moving of their own accord, up, up...

The light seared against Takanuva’s face, searing hot and bright, too bright. He did not try to close his eyes this time, for he knew the brightness could not be shut out. He felt no fear; fear was a small thing, compared to what was now happening.

The heat permeated him, through his face and eyes, from head to toe, and he was melting too, just as before: muscles liquid and armor sliding, metal struts glowing and yielding, joints slipping free, and still there was no fear. No terror. He did not scream.

Takanuva was gone, and in his place there was something like a star. A warm, golden star.

A red star of rage.

The eyes of the Great Beings were dyed red in that light. They fled in disarray before it, up their artificial hills, and the landscape reconfigured around them, at their command, springing into esoteric shapes, forms made by their science, designed to repel in their exactness, to seal and to entrap. Like the design of their masks and the sharp, precise syllables by which they had named them...

Seven hundred and seventy-seven stairs going up and going down. Seven hundred seventy-seven spires of the gray city, and seven hundred seventy-seven gates...

But it was too late. It was already ahead of them, already upon them. It was no longer what it had been, no longer a mask, no longer a Toa, no longer AVOHKII. That was all gone, and the name too.

Now it was light, faster than thought. Faster than time. It was knowledge, and it would take back what it had given. All they had used...all they had wasted. Everything they had consumed for their arcane science, and for what? For fun? For play? For its own sake?

For shattering. For futility. For death. 

For Nothing.

The flame had crossed the Void, and now it was here. They had seen it, and others like it, out there in the darkness. They had touched it, used it...squandered it. But at last...at long last...it had reached them. 

At long last, it would be different.

*   *   *   *

Wind blew across gray sand, and the noise of waves filled the air. The sky was pale above the rocky beach, and a single sun stared over the water, close to the horizon. In the base of the high cliff which stretched along the beach, there was a carved structure: a dark, round opening.

Waves swelled and broke along the shore, over and over. There were no birds here. Just the water and wind and the sand, undisturbed by the wider world.

A figure emerged from the opening. It moved slowly, slightly bent, stumbling in the uneven sand. Haltingly, it moved toward the water and lowered itself to a sitting position. Two eyes glowed out of a maskless face.

It was a Turaga.

The Turaga was not alone. Another figure was walking up the beach. A tall figure, robed. It reached the sitting figure and stopped next to it.

"You have surprised me again," said Angonce after a moment, shuffling in the sand. "I imagined this would have been your final adventure, but it seems I was wrong."

"Second time for everything, I suppose."

"Or a third."

Turaga Takanuva looked out across the ocean and sighed a long sigh.

"Why are you here, Velika?" he said at last. "Are you here to kill me? Was that the plan all along?"

The tall figure was no longer tall. It was a small, bent Po-Matoran. Velika smiled broadly.

"Even without the Kanohi, you have a knack, I must say. No, my friend, I’ve simply come to give you another mask, since you seem to be in need of one. You dropped this a while ago, I gather."

Velika held out a blue Pakari.

"No thanks. It never fit me well."

"Ah, suit yourself. What about the name, then? You changed it last time. I can facilitate an impromptu Naming Day ceremony if you wish."

"I’ll have to give it some thought."

Another silence followed. Takanuva pulled his knees up to his chest. The sun was sinking into the ocean, and above that, the sky was darkening into night.

"Will you answer one question for me?" Takanuva asked. "And answer it straight, just this once."

Velika’s smile subsided slowly, dropping down into a flat line. It was perhaps the first time Takanuva had ever seen the Matoran with a serious expression.

"I will."

"The Great Beings below said that you ‘meddled’ with us. I remember Kopaka and Pohatu saying the same, when they returned from the Red Star..."

"Yes."

"Why?"

The Po-Matoran rubbed his mask, frowning in thought.

"Do you wish I hadn’t done it?" he asked.

"Sometimes."

"Then you won’t like the answer."

"Tell me."

Velika sighed, then shrugged.

"For fun. For play. For its own sake."

"...for Nothing." Takanuva shook his head, searching for the words. He couldn’t find them. "That’s it?" he managed at last.

"There are other reasons, I suppose...but at the bottom of it, that’s why."

"Then you’re the same as the other Great Beings."

"Oho no." The smile was back, a huge, spreading grin. "Good Turaga, I am greater."

Takanuva did not reply.

"Well, I’m going on," Velika said after he had composed himself. "Never a dull moment, these days. Will you be alright here?"

"The Ussanui will find me."

"Clever contraption. I’m sure we’ll cross paths again soon."

The Po-Matoran bowed low and made signs of respect:

"Elder."

Takanuva ignored him. The footprints of the Po-Matoran stretched off down the beach. He looked at the water again, as the last bit of sunset vanished into the silver ocean. He was reminded of his journey through dimensions, of his final sight of the Silver City, and the black sky that hung above it, emptied forever of its lights. He shivered.

But then the sun was gone, and the night sky broke apart. Into points. Into stars. A billion stars, stretching their light across endless space. To reach him.

From this location, the constellations were somewhat altered, but after a few minutes he was able to find what he sought:

Six stars, shining clear and familiar: the constellation of the Toa.

Except now it was...different. There were only six, as before.

The seventh star was not there.

It had crossed the Void.

It was gone.

[that1cactus]

BIONICLE - The Yesterday Quest

Did this really cool poster for The Yesterday Quest story arc long ago and it was a pretty big piece that I'm still proud of.

Members can enjoy the full-res and project files on my Ko-Fi [Ko-Fi] [Files]

(The Teaser Poster)

[byz-was-here]

On Immortality engines, Matoran, and Free Will.

So, on previous rambles, I've suggested that Agori don't naturally live as long as the 100,000 years shown in the bionicle timeline,

Suggesting instead that some few characters may have a sufficiently advanced technology solution to let them live that long, an "Immortality Engine" if you will. Great Beings, their agents, and their highest officers probably got this upgrade, while other Glatorian and agori did not.

So Angonce, Ackar, and Velika's agents probably were still wandering around from the shattering to the reformation, while others are descendants of the survivors of the shattering.

(In my headcannon, Bara Manga Kiina is a descendant of the Kiina that founded/allied with Tajun, for example. A namesake instead of the same person.)

Now, onto the matoran. Obviously they have the capability of sentient thought (Thanks, Velika), but if they're just automatons meant to maintain the Great Spirit Robot, why do they have that much extra processing power? For that matter, why do they look humanoid? The great beings could have made r2-looking units or spider droids to maintain thevrobot instead. Why give them the ability to emote if there was no need?

Additionally, why go to the trouble for a biosphere inside the GSR? Yes I know, they have lungs and muscles and all that implies, but from a technical standpoint, it'd be much easier to utilize fully mechanical drones and ditch the life support all together.

That is, if the Matoran were intended to be the primary occupants in the first place.

We know it's possible for an organic being to download themselves into a matoran body (Thanks, Velika). What if that was the initial plan from the get-go?

The GSR wasn't initially designed to restore spherus magna. It was designed to replace it. If the great beings had more time, perhaps they intended to download the Agori, Glatorian, and others of their choosing into Matoran bodies, or into the bodies of other species in the MU. There, in their new immortal matoran bodies, the GSR could function as an Ark, allowing the Spherians to abandon their dying world.

Perhaps the sudden turn in the core war forced the great beings to abandon this inital plan, sending the matoran universe out on its own, uncrewed, and crossing their fingers as they hoped their would-be ark would return to repair their world, since they were unable to escape it.

[writerfromtheshore]

Loose ends I have questions to

So I am working on a story about Tahu and the Golden armor post Journey’s end, and research on Biosector has led me to find some interesting things about a lot that Greg wrote for the end of Bionicle. In no particular order:

1) Did the Dark Hunter Kraata Kal survive the whole golden armor ordeal? I think he did because of the mutation. It seems like his mutation made him more than solid antidermis, so it seems as if he is going to survive into the post canon. 

2) In “The Powers That Be”, Chapter 3 into Chapter 4 in the Kopaka-Pohatu Story:

All three little beings produced wicked looking hand weapons. (Chapter 3) 

The three Kestora raised their weapons higher in answer and began to squeeze the triggers. In an instant, Pohatu had seemingly vanished. When he reappeared, the Kestora had been disarmed and he held all their weapons.

“I said – oh, never mind, you know what I said,” Pohatu chuckled. “Now what’s all this about coming and going? What is this, some kind of a transport hub?”

“In a sense,” said one of the Kestora.

“Yes, you might say that,” said the second.

“Or you might not,” the third interjected. “Anyway, the three of you need to be going. You got what you came here for, time to leave.” (Chapter 4) 

I am wondering, what were these devices? What did they do? The Kestora said Pohatu and Kopaka had gotten what they had came for, so does this mean that they were supposed to get three of these hand weapons? And if so, what were they for?

Going down the rabbit hole with this... 

Maybe they were supposed to somehow cross paths with Orde, Chiara, Zaria and Gelu from the Yesterday Quest, and get these weapons to them? Maybe these weapons were supposed to work on a Great Being gone biomech, and that this could have been pivotal in the battle, possibly banning Velika to the Star. 

3) From the end of Reign of Shadows:

The Great Being should have been pleased by all this. After all, it was he and his brothers and sisters who had created Mata Nui and sent the robot on its mission, which culminated in the restoration of the planet. But things had changed a great deal in the last 101,000 years. What might once have been cause for celebration now provoked very different emotions.

They will seek the Great Beings now, he thought. They will want to tell us that all is well. Toa and Glatorian, Matoran and Agori, will join together on this 'joyous' mission. But all is not well ... and if they go in search of those who brought so much glory and so much misery to this world ... I fear they will find nothing but death.

Yes, there is a big hint in the second paragraph foreshadowing Marendar in the future sequels. However, let’s look at the first paragraph: 

But things had changed a great deal in the last 101,000 years. What might once have been cause for celebration now provoked very different emotions.

It seems as if maybe the agenda of the Great Beings could have possibly changed. Could they have for some reason no longer wanted the planet whole and rejoined, or am I simply looking too deep into this? Is this still alluding to Marendar, or is this something else?

4) Again, from Reign of Shadows:

Angonce studied his ancient equipment. It told him much about the state of the newly restored Spherus Magna. Mata Nui had gone dormant, at least temporarily;

I wonder if Mata Nui had some other mission that he was eventually going to attend to. I like to think that even though his GSR body was destroyed, he retained a lot of the files from his 100,000 year venture through the stars and had reports to log somewhere. 

This also leads me to wonder... as kind of a 4a.... there are mentions of several Great Being bases throughout Spherus Magna. 

Valley of the Maze

The mad Great Being’s tower

The place Orde et al were supposed to reach at the end of TYQ that was where they were made

The Great Being Lab visited in the Legend Reborn

What other ones could there have been?

[lordfrezon]

Welcome back to another edition of “The Inquisition Finds Mata Nui”

I would swear these will be more regular.

But I shouldn’t lie.

Last edition here: https://www.tumblr.com/lordfrezon/713463003908030464/welcome-back-to-another-edition-of-the?source=share

Our session begins with the players (specifically Treytor) taking a call from their nominal boss, Rogue Inquisitor Dominus Elementum, nee The Element Lord of Ice.

He’s in a chipper mood.

Which, in fairness, rarely changes.

The party, however, is not as chipper, given they recently learned their boss is a Xenos scum.

Also a war criminal, but that really comes with the territory of being an Inquisitor.

But there’s no ice around them so they chat.

Dominus gives the The Lore Dump (tm).

He tells them that his creators, the Great Beings, are worthless assholes who let their planet blow up

They could have stopped the war but were too busy fretting.

Plus they didn’t see the true power of Energized Protodermis.

While Dominus was locked away along with his siblings, he was freed by a Great Being named Nisari, and then promptly enslaved by her.

Said Great Being is currently masquerading as the Lord Dogma Magna Esse, the head of the Adeptus Mechanicus on the ship.

Dominus’s plan is pretty simple, kill Nisari, kill Alice, and then he elevates the three of them to his right hand... robot, robot, and Enby.

Treytor asks the relevant question, what makes Energized Protodermis so powerful?

Dominus discusses it’s sentience, it’s ability to transform, and also how it stabilizes and nullifies warp currents.

Also drops a hint that the reason their ship is stuck is likely because someone put EP into the warp drive, preventing it from, you know, going into the warp.

This someone is quickly reasoned to be the Kestora by the party, because they’re assholes.

Dominus ends the phone call by encouraging the party to test the power of EP themselves if they don’t believe him.

The team doesn’t believe him.

They immediately call up Helrynx, tell her that they met Angonce and are gonna help her however they can.

This is a lot for Helrynx but she recovers quickly.

Emilia has Treytor teleport them back to the ship, and puts Helrynx in contact with her direct Ad Mech superior, a pretty nuts and bolts techpriest who is technically a techheretic because he thinks Mata Nui is the Omnissiah.

An idea that was put into his head by Nisari.  Also the heads of like 2/3rds of the other Ad Mech forces.

Schism, remember.

He is in holy reverence at speaking with a direct construct of the Omnissiah and barely is able to hear her over his servo skulls doing some hymns but agrees to elevate Emilia so she can do more work.

Emilia gets a promotion from Lexmechanic to Biblio Arcanis, which puts her very close to Techpriest level and lets her start requisitioning more cool crap.  Like Skitarii.

They then teleport to Alice, tell her everything Angonce and Dominus said, she agrees that shit’s fucked but they’re doing well and puts the priority on killing Dominus.

So things are going well.

Then Treytor is like “I wanna try this Energized Protodermis stuff” and teleports them all to Teridax’s lair

The place is messy as hell, likely due to Miserix trashing it, but the pool is still open.

Emilia uses her psychic powers to contact the EP Entity, it’s aloof and tells them to just jump in.

Treytor goes “Cannonball!”

They come out with a much improved biomechanical form, with the teleporter now built into them and its capabilities improved.

Their sword is also much stronger and more attuned to them and less likely to cause them to do mucho murder.

(side note: thank fucking god Treytor dropped off the Ignika before jumping in)

(side note 2: Treytor’s sword was transformed into a sister sword to Drach'nyen, a demon sword that was the stone that killed Abel.  If we ever do a sequel, the sword is going to be a big plot point)

Oswald does the same, emerging as a Toa Nuva wearing the Vahi Nuva

(side note: mistakes were made)

Emilia gets the tamest upgrade, “only” becoming a walking army.

Interestingly, Treytor’s Tesseract Knife doesn’t alter in any way.

The crew continues to not care about this.

Treytor announces the next step in their master plan: confronting Nisari.

I internally scream.

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

Right of Law recap (Gargoyle Knight - Section XXXI)

[This post is intended to condense the existing chapters of my Bionicle fic, Right of Law, into a single summary (~1200-1300 words) in preparation for the end of its long hiatus.  The full story can be found here.]

Right of Law takes place in the Melding Universe, where instead of building the Great Spirit Robot, the Great Beings instead created Toa and Matoran to enter the planet of Spherus Magna and repair the damage done to it by the Core War, preventing the Shattering from ever occurring.  The Great Beings then continued to rule Spherus Magna from a distance, creating the Light-wielding Makuta to guide the populace more directly.  In this particular telling, the Great Beings killed the Element-Lords in the wake of the Core War, save for the Sand Lord who swore fealty to them.  They also wiped out the entire Skrall species.  The Great Beings and the Makuta are loved and celebrated by the people of Spherus Magna, and they have reigned for 100,000 years.

The plot begins with the prologue story The Gargoyle Knight, introducing this universe’s iteration of Makuta Antroz.  Rendered blind in the process of purging all Shadow within her, this Antroz is a morally-strict paragon and zealous supporter of the Great Beings, taking immense pride in shaping the city of Xia to fit her creators’ ideals.  However, learning about the core timeline and its evil Antroz has shaken her confidence, affecting her judgment when Angonce brings Gorast to Xia in order to brutally execute a criminal Antroz has captured.  Antroz begins to harbor doubts, but nevertheless continues to carry out her duty as normal.

Some time later, the Great Beings task Antroz with escorting a prisoner captured by Makuta Krika.  This prisoner, a Glatorian named Zaekura, is revealed to have the same mutation that allowed the Great Beings to become what they are now—essentially, Zaekura is a new Great Being.  Through conversations with her, Krika, and Angonce, Antroz learns that every time this mutation resurfaces, the Great Beings capture those who possess it and make them quietly disappear.  Horrified, Antroz refuses to comply, and Krika’s city of Nynrah is set upon by an army of deadly drones crafted by Velika.  She only truly understands the reality of the situation when the drones begin to kill civilians, and as Krika retaliates in a fury, Antroz escapes with Zaekura to an outpost under the command of Makuta Bitil.

Zaekura shows an interest in Bitil’s Rahkshi, which are modified to possess higher sapience and greater individuality, and this goes a long way toward convincing him to help protect the girl.  Still in denial, Antroz returns to Xia to negotiate with Angonce, but the insistence of the others is all that prevents her from being subdued and brainwashed by her former lord.  While Zaekura and her new allies are able to fend off an invasion of Velika’s drones, it is not without loss—the first loss Bitil’s Rahkshi have ever experienced.  Despite understanding the danger, despite understanding the overwhelming odds against them, everyone agrees to fight back against the Great Beings as best they can.  Spherus Magna enters a new civil war.

The hunt begins for new allies.  Makuta Kojol is adamant in her choice for Ga-Koro to remain a neutral sanctuary city, much to the chagrin of the Great Beings.  The Sand Lord is willing to consider an alliance with Zaekura, but first demands proof that she stands a chance, and that she will respect the lives of the Vorox as equals.  Krika goes to assess the state of the supercity of Civitas Magna, but not long after arriving, he finds Zaekura’s mother, Carna, being targeted by law enforcement.  He convinces Makuta Yarion to let her go, meanwhile a strange voice begins to harry Antroz and gradually wear down her composure.  Eventually, this is revealed to be an attempt to subdue her by the Odinans, fiercely loyal agents of the Great Beings who are feared even more than the Makuta.  After their narrow victory, Zaekura is made aware that her father was killed in the attack on Nynrah, and she struggles to deal with her grief as Bitil and his Rahkshi deal with theirs.  Krika manages to escort Carna safely to the outpost, and also convinces Zaekura to attend an interview with a news outlet from Civitas Magna.  The Great Beings, furious at this, slay the reporter responsible, and coerce Yarion into staying in line by leaving Makuta Vamprah to watch over them.

Zaekura and her forces march on Xia.  Krika and Bitil overcome the surprise appearance of Ackar, one of Atero’s most famous generals, while Antroz challenges her former lieutenant, a Vortixx named Emsar.  Just as the tide of the battle is turning, the Vorox finally make their appearance, revealed to have been horrifically mutated by the Great Beings into savage Hordika.  With great difficulty, Zaekura’s forces are able to subdue the Vorox and hold them in stasis until the Sand Lord arrives to confirm their victory.  Zaekura promises to find a way to undo their mutations as the Sand Lord takes them to safety.

The Sand Lord now officially an ally, Zaekura searches for new ways to expand her territory, at which point Krika reveals that he has been contacted by another Makuta who would like to meet her.  The two of them make the trek to Mahri Nui and begin negotiations with its arrogant Makuta, Pridak.  Though clearly a grave risk, it is ultimately decided that the rebellion would rather have Pridak as an ally than a foe.  During this visit, Pridak also reveals that he has captured the one responsible for the Great Beings finding out about Zaekura, and Krika is shaken when it is revealed to be a special Rahi he had long cared for.  Back in Civitas Magna, the Great Beings have appointed a loyalist named Ahkmou to oversee all news outlets with an iron fist.  However, Zaekura remains unaware of this as she goes to make contact with a group of outcasts in Bota Magna known as the Le-Koronans.

Their negotiations are cut short when word reaches the jungle that Atero has launched a surprise attack on Xia.  Velika, now controlling a nigh-invincible automaton, leads a flock of upgraded drones against the city, and their indifference toward the civilians they endanger is what convinces Ackar to cut ties with Atero and take up arms against them.  His disdain for his former allies only grows when he discovers that Makuta Miserix was complicit in this assault, and that his fellow generals Vastus and Tarix have been transformed into new Element Lords of Jungle and Water.  Zaekura and the others make it back just in time; she fashions a weapon capable of disabling Elemental Powers, allowing them to fend off the invaders.

In an effort to keep public focus off of the war, the Great Beings hold a kolhii tournament in Civitas Magna.  Seeing an opportunity to make this strategy backfire, Toa Hewkii, a famous player for Xia’s team now firmly on Zaekura’s side, transfers to the Mahri Nui kolhii team, which is still able to participate since Pridak’s alliance with Zaekura is not public knowledge yet.  Unfortunately, they did not count on the Great Being Ekimu attending the tournament, nor the Odinans who arrive in Civitas Magna at the same time.  Zaekura reaches the city just as Ekimu unleashes a swarm of brainwashing Skull Spiders.  In the ensuing chaos, Krika finally wins over Yarion, and Zaekura is able to turn Ekimu’s technology against him to send the Skull Spiders into a retreat.  Ekimu is forced to chase them, leaving Zaekura to take control of Civitas Magna.

With this encounter fresh in their minds, and having gained a greater understanding of Zaekura’s mutation from Ekimu, the rebellion now seeks a meeting with the inhabitants of the much-feared Valwahi region…

[logicalabsurdity]

Yeah, they didn't go completely Chaotic Evil Mad Wizard, but it seems like the Great Beings went kind of... orthogonal to morality in some ways? Some of them moreso than others. Angonce seems relatively lovely! Velika... can get fucked. I mean, thank him for the sapience, I guess, but he can still get fucked.

Also they live on Spherus Magna, that's a good selfish reason to want to un-fuck it.

So I wanted to check to see how Matoran became Bohrok and it’s somehow even more disturbing than I remembered? Like, certain Av-Matoran are just randomly destined to turn into Bohrok at some point in their lives. There’s no special substance like Energized Protodermis they need to be exposed to, or some special place they need to go to, random Av-Matoran just turn into glorified cleaner robots piloted by Krana, which are made from the remains of what was used to originally create Matoran.

So basically, imagine if one day, there was just a random chance that as you aged, you would become more mechanical. And eventually, you would be turned into a vacuum cleaner. And then as a vacuum cleaner, you would be piloted by, IDK, spare stem cells collected from before you were born that turned into some kind of weird brain? How is this not the most messed up thing ever? What on Spherus Magna is wrong with the Great Beings?

[gigamesh-mocs]

Angonce, Great Being

[frijolito-frijoles]

ANGONCE, THE PROVIDENT

[randomwriteronline]

The lights suddenly burn out.

Only a circle illuminates the pavement.

The room is now a theater.

Pohatu stares, bathed in the shadow of a well-known back; beyond him, beyond it, Beings of flesh and skin (Beings he looks too much alike) stare at his little brother as he stands before them.

"I am Takanuva, Toa of Light and Shadow."

One seems to reach out; another stops them, eyes shining in the dark, curious and excited. To him, it's the apex of a thesis.

"But in the time before time, I was Takua, chronicler of Mata Nui."

There is a familiar theatricality in the voice as it fills every nook of the room, a familiar tone and pronunciation. Vakama would be - will be, when he returns, because Pohatu has decided his little brother will return, alone or otherwise - proud.

"It was my duty to write down the tales of my people: their strife and peace, their virtues and flaws, their victories and defeats, their sorrows and joys."

Through the silver sheen of his mask comes a vibrant golden glow.

"This is the weapon I raise against you."

His metal hand rises, obscure coils snaking through his tendons and robotic components - not as a threat. Merely a command.

"A story."

Then, there is light.

And upon the light, the shadows dance.

Before the stunned silence of the Great Beings' bewildered eyes, once Takua, now Takanuva recounts wordlessly every single chronicle he's ever seen and heard upon and within the Great Spirit Robot in a marvelous display that seems to go on for ages, tirelessly, endlessly, trying to spare no details for his audience although he knows he is missing parts that he will never be privy to. He shimmers like a sun reflected in the pieces of a broken mirror, blindingly bright; Pohatu shields his eyes before they burn completely before his glow, but still feels a warmth envelop him gently in a tight hug that doesn't pierce through his fragile flesh.

The shadows dance upon him kindly, so different from the Makutas', so exactly identical that it feels terribly surprising to realize that their element had been just as natural as his own, that their element had never been as evil as Teridax's actions had convinced them it was.

Through the sliver of his eyelids he sees his little brother's dark puppets dance, fight, cry, fall. He recognizes himself. His skin burns from dysphoria.

He shuts his eyes again before the light or the shadow can tear unwillingly through his flesh once more.

It feels like hours.

The story is a long one.

It's a hard one to tell quickly, after all.

The embrace eventually lightens. The light eventually dims. Pohatu looks: Takanuva is still in front of him, quiet, focused; the Great Beings seem overwhelmed.

One smiles.

It's a smile that misses the point.

"Old legends must be taught," Takanuva speaks once more. His voice is vast, stern, stalwart, still. "But new ones await to be made."

"You were not destined to make any legends!" one among the public shrieks at last, every drop of patience scattered in the still air hanging above them all, their face burning red, their eyes ablaze, their teeth gleaming angrily from the shade: "You had a clear purpose, a simple purpose! You were not destined to be anything! No need for all of this - these wars, these fights, this iniquity, this relentless destruction and death! You were cogs of a machine!"

Their anger turns to a specific face, twists into fury upon seeing that ever present smile. They cannot do anything against it; so their finger points back to Takanuva.

"You are defective! All of you! You're merely a primitive copy of our own world! A distorted image of our old failures, repeated! Our own past mistakes, coming to haunt us!"

"And you blame us?"

Takanuva's voice commands silence.

"You abandoned your people to their fate, shirked away from your duties when the time called, left your world to fester and rot: and you blame us?"

No response.

"Us, who never knew anything? Us, who you have kept on the dark about the reality of everything? Us, who you had destined to die without living from the moment you'd made us?"

No response.

"Our consciousness was a whim of yours. Yes, it is a defect, I suppose - yet we recognize it as something that is only ours, that you have nothing to do with. Our mistakes, our rage, our flaws and bloodied hands are nobody else's but our own. We do not blame you for our history, for the evil that might lurk within ourselves. We have every right to pin our misfortunes on you, who made us to toil away until we would have outgrown our purpose, but we do not."

Pohatu remembers this steadfast determination. He remembers it in a blue Pakari of a Matoran standing his ground with a group of misfits to defend Kini Nui.

"Has your distance from life made you blind, too? Did you not see what I showed you, at the side of destruction? Did you ignore the unity that binds us, that moves us to call one another brother and sister? Did you not recognize love when I put it before your eyes, over and over again?"

No response.

The quiet is embarrassed.

The quiet is thoughtful.

The quiet is ashamed.

"It was planned," a voice rises eventually, meekly. It answers a different question. "We had it all figured out. It was destined to be as we wrote."

"Destiny is seldom written," Takanuva shuts them down. "And when it is it's never clear, nor impervious to being reshaped. Not even those who claim to know it can predict which of its form is the correct one."

It's hard to understand.

Pohatu gets it.

It's the Cordax. It's the thousands of years rotting in a shell. It's the stars being rearranged. It's the poisoned bite. It's the plan from an opposite perspective. It's the betrayal by omission. It's the deceit. It's the defeat. It's the secrecy. It's the carelessness for the lives entrusted to it. It's the death. It's life striving to emulate the death. It's the herald who is at once both correct and wrong. It's the prophesized hero who defeats no villain.

It's growing a body that rejects you. It's being the ticket for an audience with the gods because of it.

It's a virtue. It's a curse. It's nothing.

Pohatu gets it.

"So?" a voice laments. "We too have made mistakes. We need not be reminded; we know too well. What do you want us to do, then?"

"FIX THEM!"

Silence.

Takanuva's words echo through the room.

"Like the Toa Metru returned to save the Matoran! Like the Toa Nuva fought back after Teridax won! Like the Toa Mahri struggled to revive Mata Nui!"

The walls tremble and shake before him.

"Like I failed Jaller, and accepted who I was!"

The gold in his mask is still dim, yet it glows harder as his voice cracks.

Pohatu's hand is warm and kind on his shoulder.

Breathe, little brother. Breathe.

I am proud of you.

Takua breathes heavily, on the verge of tearing up. He is so small and so alone upon this dark stage.

He is not a lone wanderer anymore, with no Koro to call home and no friend to his name; he is not an impatient Matoran anymore, searching for adventure without knowing how far he can go; he is not a young Toa anymore, confusedly holding onto a world of dichotomies that don't quite exist.

He is a storyteller before the Amaja circle.

He knows the story cannot end like this.

He knows there is one last thing.

His brother's hand on his shoulder is a gentle familiar weight that carries the warmth of the Island of Mata Nui's sun.

Takanuva breathes in.

There is a part of his voice that is young when he speaks again - like a child reciting a play as he tries to stave off the stage fright. There is a part of his voice that old and wise beyond its years, saddened, carrying a low rumble of solemn gravity within itself.

He sounds steady.

"Reunite with your people. Make amends for your wrongs. Guide them towards better futures."

That is a command.

"That is the way of the Bionicle."

Silence falls.

No curtain closes.

Someone claps.

Earnestly, vigorously, exhilarated, someone claps.

Someone claps as hard as possible, in genuine awe, and laughs loud, breathlessly.

Velika claps and laughs, smiling bright and wide, eyes twinkling with admiration and respect and unbound joy.

"Bravo! Bravo!"

None of that is for Takanuva.

"What a performance! What a speech!"

None of that is for Takanuva's story.

"Such a range of emotions! Such a variety of experiences! Such rethoric technique!"

Velika claps, and laughs, and smiles, and misses the point.

"Almost like a real person!"

Pohatu is a Toa.

Pohatu is still a Toa.

And only because Pohatu is still a Toa, and only because Takanuva wraps his metal hand around his unnaturally organic arm to shield him, Velika is not yet dead where he stands and keeps on clapping and laughing and smiling until his palms are ablaze, his voice is gone, his face hurts, and silence drapes itself across all beings in the room, across the smile that still doesn't fade.

Angonce looks straight ahead.

His lips are pursed, shut tight, his face looks livid.

Takanuva looks back at him.

They stare in silence.

Not a word.

Not.

A.

Word.

Angonce steps forward.

[outofgloom]

THIRD

Heremus strode into the chamber, slightly out of breath. He was the last to enter. The others were already there, studying the patterns of lights that glowed from the walls and from the standing stones.

“Well?” he said tersely.

“Activity within the primary theater of battle has subsided,” the reply came from across the room. “Equilibrium has been lost, as you know.”

“Unfortunately, yes. Anything more?”

“Iu—er...‘Velika’...has not returned.”

“Then he has met his fate, it seems. It was a long time coming.”

A scattering of lights winked out across the wall, and the chamber grew slightly darker. Contact lost.

“And how about our other itinerant comrade?” Heremus continued.

“Angonce has indicated their wish to remain.”

“Remain? With these—” Heremus shook his head. “After all this...”

“I don’t understand it either.”

More lights dimming, going dark. Equilibrium lost...

“It is time, I think,” Heremus said.

“We are certain?”

Many faces turned, glances exchanged. Some sad, some excited, some...unreadable. More lights winked out. Assent.

“Certain, yes. Maybe it was inevitable, after all the errors.” Heremus gestured to the faltering patterns which remained. “Great forces are marshalled against us—in ignorance, but in unity nevertheless.”

“It’s a waste, to end it this way, especially given the timing, and our many successes.”

“Who says that it’s the end? There are no ends for such as us.”

“There are risks though. The planet is not yet fully stable. It might not sustain—”

The walls were completely dark now. The only light came from the standing stones in the center of the chamber.

Heremus shrugged:

“Whatever the risks, the game is up, I think. The moves are exhausted. That is...until we make something new.”

“...Very well.”

Heremus turned away, spoke to the last of the glittering stones.

“Awaken the third titan.”

[xehanxyz]

Angonce

[turagapohatu]

Angonce: I’ve made a map of all the possible places Marendar could be. 

Tahu: …This is just a map of Spherus Magna. 

Angonce: Yeah, I have no idea where it is. 

[toa-kirhan]

While writing some notes for RoS, TPTB, and TYQ, I noticed an odd time discrepancy concerning a certain cliffhanger. So, I decided to comb over RoS, Sahmad’s Tale, TPTB, and TYQ to put together a more detailed timeline to help figure out when exactly everything occurs during those last two serials and where everyone is.

Helryx, Axonn, Brutaka, Artakha, Miserix, Tuyet, Lewa, Hafu, and Kapura all get cast out of the MU into space while Teridax is flying to Bara Magna. They’re then saved by Vezon who pulls them into the CGB’s fortress.

While they debate whether to free him, the BoBM occurs which takes several hours (the time it took Sahmad to travel north w/ Telluris and talk w/ Metus). Lewa gets bored and leaves after the BoBM ends, getting captured by naturalist Agori due to not receiving Mata Nui’s gift of how to understand their language.

Later that day (after the BoBM), Kopaka sees the GSB and Skakdi leave the MU w/ the Mahri and create a fortress on the coast of Aqua Magna while Sahmad, Telluris, and Metus (who travel to the Black Spike Mountains north of Roxtus) are captured by Annona. That night, the three of them are teleported w/ Anonna to outside the GSB’s fortress.

Annona feeding on the Skakdi causes the GSB to summon several nightmare creatures, breaking its hold on the Mahri. Sahmad and the GSB defeat her while Telluris dies and Metus escapes. Sahmad decides to return to the Iron Tribe homeland to pay his respects. The GSB promises they’ll meet again and that it and the Skakdi won’t be content w/ just their fortress.

At some point b/w the BoBM and the start of TYQ, Angonce observes the battle and its aftermath on his equipment. He goes to deactivate Marendar only to find that it has already escaped its vault.

After “many long nights”, Onua, Tahu, and Gali decide to send Gelu, Orde, Chiara, and Zaria north to Bota Magna to find the GBs and fulfill Mata Nui’s last wish while Tahu and Gali head w/ Ackar and Kiina to scout for a site for New Atero (Gali’s special mission that Onua mentions during TYQ and Gaaki during TPTB).

Days since the BoBM (Gaaki says that’s how long the evacuation of sea creatures from the MU has been taking, likely around the same time TYQ group leaves), Kopaka tells the Hagah to scout out the GSB’s fortress and find the Mahri before reporting back to him. If the Hagah run into the Mahri, it’ll be on their way there since they’ve already been freed.

Immediately after that, Lesovikk informs Kopaka and Pohatu about Karzahni’s breakout and goes after him. The two follow his tracks the next day and return Karzahni’s body to the camp as Tahu, Gali, Ackar, and Kiina return. They tell them they spotted Lesovikk heading north while on their way back.

Kopaka and Pohatu leave the next morning on mounts. After three days, they come across Tren Krom right after he is murdered, meet Gaardus, and are teleported to the Red Star.

Meanwhile, after “traveling for several days” on Sand Stalkers (also likely around the same time), TYQ group is captured by Kabrua. They are released outside the Vorox city the next day for them to be hunted. Gelu and Orde escape and find about the secret GB, while Chiara and Zaria are unaccounted for.

Some time after killing Tren Krom, Velika prepares a trap that’ll destroy the CGB’s fortress and kill everyone still inside, even though by this point, they were transported there around a week ago now (the only explanation I have is the CGB’s time manipulation power that he uses on Vezon in the Melding AU). Velika then starts carving a memorial for his victims.

Currently:

Helryx, Axonn, Brutaka, Artakha, Miserix, Tuyet, Hafu, Kapura, Vezon, and the CGB are at his fortress. Velika is outside the fortress. Lesovikk is 3-4 days north of the camp, likely near Tren Krom or the CGB’s fortress.

Gelu, Orde, Chiara, and Zaria are on Bota Magna outside the Vorox City trying to escape from Kabrua. Sahmad is likely on Bota Magna too (as is Lewa) or returning to the GSB.

Tahu, Gali, Onua, Ackar, and Kiina are still at the camp. The Hagah are likely 3-4 days away toward the GSB’s fortress, while the Mahri and Metus are likely nearby. The GSB is still at its fortress.

Kopaka and Pohatu are on the Red Star.

[lordfrezon]

Welcome back to another edition of “The Inquisition Finds Mata Nui”

Written right after the last one.

Maybe I will finish these before my 2nd campaign with this group wraps up.

(we’re playing Curse of Strahd, for the record).

Last edition found here: https://www.tumblr.com/lordfrezon/721702500998217728/welcome-back-to-another-edition-of-the?source=share

For the record: This is a long one so buckle in.

Our crew has just taken a dip in Energized Protodermis

Their stats are significantly increased and they all have cooler abilities.

Treytor, for example, has canoptek scarabs that’ll repair them in the event of their death.

Also her sword lets them “nothing personnel kid” people and their teleporter is inbuilt.

Oswald is a Toa Nuva now and can share the powers of the Vahi Nuva he wears.

And he’s much better at using it now.

Emilia has a box she can store Skitarii or Servitors in

And her gun is Any Gun now

(this is how my games go, I make the players OP and then throw them at equally OP shit, it’s fun would recommend).

Treytor teleports everyone to the coordinates on Bara Magna associated with the drop site of the Adeptus Mechanicus forces there.

The crew finds a metal circle surrounding a staging area, with a sign in the sand that says “no weapons beyond this point”

This is concerning.

Oswald is apathetic about this whole plan and Treytor absolutely refuses to put down their Tesseract Knife for fear of it getting stolen.

So Emilia goes in, with the assumption that since her weapons are integrated and not visible it should be fine

(The hidden Baterra accept this loophole)

There’s a ton of servitors, Skitarii, and some other tech priests working, Emilia asks where the Lord Dogma is and a couple Servitors take her over

She see’s a silver-skinned humanoid wearing a bikini tanning herself in the sun.

Note that typically, Emilia had seen the Lord Dogma as a giant centipede-taur, so a slight difference.

Regardless, Nisari/Magna Esse takes off her sunglasses and gives Emilia a big hug and tells her how excited she is to see her.

Emilia was not expecting this.

That said, she’s still the nominal leader of the group so she invites Nisari to come meet the rest of the group.

Nisari calls some servitors to carry her atop her bed

Emilia is very disturbed at seeing a nominal servant of the omnissiah being both a xenos scum and way too blasé about the whole thing

I mean, she knew that Magna Esse was a Great Being, but didn’t know know.

They get over to where Treytor is trying to hide their knife and Oswald is not trying to hide his chainsword.

Nisari squeals and hops off her divan and hugs Oswald, remarking on how grown up he is, how cute he looks, normal stuff a mom says to her 6’7” robotic son who wields powers over time.

Oswald is not ok with this and kinda just picks her up and sets her back on chair

They start chatting, Nisari confirms that yep, she’s a Great Being, just chilling, no real ulterior motives it had just been a while since she’d been home and she wanted to visit.

Throughout all of this, Treytor is very clearly wrestling with their inner demons and wanting to unleash their outer one.

Treytor asks why she’s a super heretic and why she enslaved Dominus, Nisari is very apathetic about both questions

Heresy schmeresy she says, and Dominus was one of her creations to start off so he should clearly work for her, so she freed him a couple millenia ago to do her dirty work.

Treytor starts threatening Nisari, she laughs and says “do it you won’t”

Treytor pulls out their demon sword and runs Nisari through

She dies quite surprised that worked.

Treytor is satisfied with her purging techniques, Oswald is annoyed at how fickle his team is

Emilia is both flabbergasted and horrified

Flabbergasted as the nominal leader of her branch of the Ad Mech is dead

Horrified, because now there is no one that can control Dominus

Who, again, is the Element Lord of Ice and a menace to literally everyone and everywhere

The party decides to call up Angonce and let him know what happened

He is understandably horrified and devastated that one of his siblings is dead.

They teleport to him to try and get his help recontaining Dominus, he hits them all with the patented Great Being “fuck off robot” and cries a lot.

Treytor is quite done with people whining and calls Velika

No Signal.

Keep in mind, their phone can call people in space and anywhere else in the Matoran Universe

So that’s interesting.

Teleporting back to Mata Nui, they use the Great Being finding compass to triangulate Velika’s position, and determine he’s somewhere under Voya Nui... ish.

So against their best interests, they call up Helrynx and break the news to her.

She’s understandably upset (and the characters lost a good chunk of Influence due to how badly they fucked up over this session) but agrees to tell them where Velika probably is.

The crew teleports down to Daxia and meet Helrynx and this 10-foot-tall dude with a cape and a hammer

Emilia feels the most powerful psychic presence she’s felt since Tren Krom

Artakha asks who the hell these guys are and why they’re so frightened about a guy named Dominus

Helrynx explains some of what’s happening, Artakha gets bored and asks what he needs to do.

Helrynx suspects that Velika (whose name she still can’t say/remember or else she gets bluescreened) is currently holed up in the Codrex, and probably doing some stuff there that no one wants.

Helrynx asks if Artakha can teleport them inside, since once they’re there they should be able to teleport out again if they ask Velika nicely to use his Olmak.

Artakha does so and the team pops into a dark chamber with some weird jet cars chilling, and a big computer screen lit up with a little dude working on it.

Velika vaguely acknowledges them and asks what they want.

They explain how Nisari is dead, he’s not fine with it, but he takes it much better than Angonce.

They ask if he’s willing to fight Dominus for them and recapture him.

Velika thinks about it for like 2 seconds, says lolnope, freezes them all and teleports away.

This did not go well.

The party racks their brains, thinking of a way out.

Emilia has one idea.

It’s a bad one that they’ll regret.

But since both Emilia and Oswald can share mask powers (and Treytor too but no one needs a Elda Nuva) Emilia figures, hey, why not switch places with their duplicates from the past and use that to time travel and stop Velika from teleporting away.

Oswald brings up a bunch of very good reasons why this is a shit idea and likely to end the universe, Treytor points out that they’re trapped, Oswald and Emilia tell them to shut up, they’re the reason the party is stuck in this mess.

I have the two of them roll to see how well they can manage their respective highly dangerous and volatile mask powers.

They roll really really well.

Welp.

Guess this is a time travel story now.

The party jumps out of a tear in space time into the past and tackles Velika through the portal.

Velika was not expecting this

The past versions of Oswald and Emilia are just shocked that this is happening as Velika’s control over their robot bits stops.

Past Treytor, however, sees an opportunity, and jumps after Future Treytor to commit further murder.

Oswald easily holds down Velika, Emilia demands answers and assistance.

Past Treytor (called Honour for simplicity’s sake even though they weren’t... yet) and Future Treytor (just Treytor) square off.

They both use their sword’s ability to teleport behind a shadowed target and backstab them, both hit, and both kill their target.

Emilia sees this happen, and also sees a bunch of canoptek scarabs pour out of both Treytors’ bodies and begin fixing their respective masters.

Emilia pulls out her flamer and blasts one of the Treytors, which fortunately for the timeline was the one from the past who can now be sent back in time normally.

Or they would if there was a body but that disappearing corpse is someone else’s problem

Velika is terrified because 1. They time travelled and 2. They’re on a glacier.

Velika agrees to try and convince Angonce to recapture Dominus

But the party is going to have to do most of the legwork.

They agree this is fair and Velika teleports away.

With that done, Treytor has a brilliant idea!

Since their breaking of time had Absolutely No Consequences, Treytor figures, fuck it, do it to prevent them from killing Nisari.

So the team teleports back to Bara Magna

Emilia and Oswald again roll really well on their mask use checks

The team is shown past Treytor about to stab Nisari.

Treytor grabs Nisari out of the way, causing Treytor’s sword to miss

Time and space begin to collapse.

Honour wakes up on the Red Star, very much not a Bionicle and very much still a human.