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Jaller blinked away sweat as he let loose another enormous stream of flame, frying a shark to a crisp. He was sweating, underwater, but not from the flames that burst from the end of his sword.
He did not have much time to think about it, however, as at the moment he had bigger fish to fry. The Barraki and their undersea armies—manta rays, sharks, eels and more— were coming in at all angles towards the Toa Mahri, barreling down toward the six heroes.
His Arthron signaled to him that there was something else on the horizon as well. With the Cord shattered, the island of Voya Nui far above on the surface was shuddering. Now freed from his anchor, it would soon be plunging its way through the ocean, beginning the journey back to where it came from.
The ocean around them was a mess, with Cordak missles flying and elemental powers flashing through the water at the approaching army. Hahli and Kongu worked in unison to create waves of water and air to washed over the Barraki, slowing their arrival. Matoro, Nuparu and Hewkii used their powers to create barriers for the warlords, freezing the water they swam towards them and raising bedrock and earth to block their passage. Jaller maintained the perimeter of their area, fighting and slashing at anything that got too close to his teammates.
But the Barraki—far from novice fighters— persisted, fighting against the forces of nature that pushed at them.
The Great Spirit had just died moments before. It had come in some huge wave inside all six of the Toa Mahri. Something in the greater universe had… slipped away. The Mask of Life itself had dimmed, it too feeling the change in the universe.
Now the Barraki had nothing to lose. And whatever had just happened, it was now the Toa Mahri’s job to make sure they themselves didn’t die.
“We have swam this ocean for a thousand years, little Toa!” Pridak snarled as they grew closer. “You may think you control it, but we are the true masters of this sea!”
He was not wrong. Jaller knew it was six of them against the ocean. The entire sea and all of its creatures were pouring down on them. The Toa Mahri controlled the elements, but even so they were severely outmatched.
Jaller struggled to come up with the next step to the plan as he fended off the incoming army. Their Toa powers helped hold the enemy back, but Pridak and the other Barraki were advancing with maneuvers that were far beyond the Toa Mahri’s battle experience. And with Voya Nui on its way, there was not much time to figure what to do next.
This had not been what Jaller had anticipated when he had left Metru Nui with his team of Matoran and Takanuva a mere week ago. He had no idea that he would be at the bottom of the ocean, fighting off the greatest warlords in history. That had not been in his original plan of the mission. The mission was to find Voya Nui and the Toa Nuva and get the mission back on track. Things had progressed so far beyond what Jaller had been expecting, and his sudden rush of experiences was keeping him from thinking as clear as he could.
The island of Voya Nui served as a strategy that he could not conjure. The island approached more rapidly than anyone had anticipated, sweeping through the thousands of kio of water like it was nothing. The rush of the island swooped everything in its way, sending the Toa and Barraki swirling through the ocean.
As Jaller straightened himself out, he could see the hole in the seafloor that Voya Nui was heading for. The Toa Mahri were not far from it. They were almost there at the end of the mission, but they had to act before their enemies could regather.
A huge wall of ice leapt into existence before them, Matoro using his powers to buy them some time.
“You need to take the mask to where it goes, Jaller,” he said, offering the Kanohi. The group looked at the Toa of Ice in surprise. Since they had taken the legendary Kanohi from Vezon in the Chamber of Life, Matoro had been its caretaker of sorts. Why was he handing it off to Jaller?
“Me?” Jaller asked. “Why me? You have been the one it chose.”
“It chose me as its guardian,” said Matoro. “But we wouldn’t have come all of this way if it weren’t for you. You’re the one who started this mission, and the Ignika knows it. You found out the truth about Mata Nui dying back in Metru Nui, and you were the one who made the first steps toward Voya Nui.”
“How do you know that it knows that?” Jaller asked.
“It… communicates with me,” Matoro said. “I don’t know how to explain, but it has made it clear that you’re the one that does your duty time and time again without question. You started the mission, and now the mask wants you to finish it.”
The ice was starting to crack, the army making its way around and through it. The current pulled the Toa towards the hole in the ocean, but the Barraki were making rapid ground in catching up.
“We will be right behind you,” Matoro said. Jaller looked him dead in the eyes. The Toa’s of Ice’s eyes glowed with pure intention that Jaller could not mistake. They had talked about not needing to hide secrets and lies anymore, but here was one more. Just one last, final lie.
“Take it, Jaller,” Hahli insisted, offering her fist. She smiled. “Matoro’s right. You’re duty bound, through and thorough. Mata Nui knew you would do the job, that’s why he made you a Toa.”
They were right, but he didn’t want them to be. He always did his duty, whatever was asked of him. He had taken on this mission. Now, as much as he wanted the mission to change, to stay here fighting with them, he needed to finish what he started. He looked into the eyes of all of them, nodding.
“We don’t have the Mask of Time to slow-hold these guys off,” Kongu insisted. “We can only buy you so much time. Get going, firespitter!”
Turning away from them, Jaller leapt into the rushing current. He felt a little push from behind, and looked back one last time at his teammates. Hahli’s hand was sending a current, one last little push, his way.
And just like that, he was off. The currents of the greater ocean took him, and he was screaming towards the hole in the seabed. The Mask itself seemed to be pulling him, as thought it too wanted to go…wherever they were heading.
He passed through it and plunged below. Voya Nui was ahead, falling rapidly through the sky of the universe. Jaller’s eyes swept over the continent that the island was a part of, seeing more of the universe in an instant than he ever had in his life. Tens, hundreds even, of thousands of Matoran were down there on the rest of the continent, plus who knows how many other species, feeling the death of Mata Nui as he and the other Toa Mahri had moments before.
But there was something else he saw too. In the hole that Voya Nui was headed toward, there was a bright light. Something was below the continent, some sort of cavern that his Arthron could sense. A light emitted from it, shining with the same glow that the Toa had seen when they first took the Ignika from Vezon. It reminded him of Takanuva’s light, but a thousandfold. His Arthron was picking up something down there, far below the continent, this place where the light came from.
That was where he needed to go.
But Voya Nui was ahead of him, and if he didn’t get past it, he would not reach there.
He would though. If Matoro’s words were true— and they were— he would do anything to do his duty. To fend infected Rahi with a single spear off to protect Ta-Koro. To take on four Bohrok on his own in order to help Tahu get their Krana. He would do his duty, and more.
Now it was time for more. His body soared like a Cordak as it screamed towards Voya Nui, shooting past it and flying further. His armor and muscles protested as Jaller pushed himself towards the light and past his body’s breaking point. He needed more speed, to keep going, to be so far beyond Voya Nui when it rejoined the continent.
His body felt rushes of speed as gravity pulled him down, and he held his body tight, rushing faster than he ever thought could be possible.
***
Jaller fell through the hole in the continent. Voya Nui was overhead now, meeting the landmass it had been torn from a millennia before. The sky— or whatever was overhead now— shuddered as the continent landed, rocking Jaller to his very core.
The speed he was falling at rapidly slowed as he fell through the continent, and he seemed as if he were in free fall now. His body no longer screamed, and it felt as if the world were suddenly moving very slow.
It was like diving over the lava falls of Ta-Wahi, but a thousand times a thousand times larger.
More and more sonar seemed to be bouncing back to him, revealing a world that he could have never imagined. A cavern larger than the universe itself it seemed, where everything glowed brighter than the island of Mata Nui at midday after emerging from a cave. It was so bright, light the brightest flame he had ever seen…
Memories and words came back to Jaller, from a Matoran they had run briefly into on Karzahni.
“In the world that feeds the world,” the Matoran had said. “The wellspring of flame that blazes bright." Jaller didn’t know if that Matoran had ever been to where he was now, but this cavern— this world— certainly fit the description.
A shape broke through the waterfall just above him, and Jaller could sense with his mask a winged, fanged figure passing through. The figure then flew out of the waterfall, on its way to some rocky village in the distance.
He needed to go help them, Jaller thought. They could be in danger. My mask showed me that thing was—
Wait. Jaller looked down, to the legendary mask he held tightly in his hands.
He had brought the mask to where it wanted to go. Where next? Was he to find a suva to put it on?
“Put on the mask.”
Jaller whirled, brandishing his sword as he continued his free fall. Who had said that? There was no one here in the waterfall but him.
“Put on the mask.”
There the voice was again.
Jaller held the mask up, looking at its inner shell. He remembered on his old home, watching Takua, his best friend put on the Mask of Light as Jaller himself was dying from an overdose of fear. That had been the solution to victory back then. Perhaps it was the solution now as well.
He placed the mask over his own, and felt flashes burning through his eyes. Stories unfolded before him, stories very different from the ones Turaga Vakama told. There was the Mask in these flashes, emerging from the heart of a volcano… millennia later flashing in this cavern he was in now, a Toa similar to him…
and in the duty that Toa performed, his destiny.
Jaller’s eyes widened. The Mask of Life could bring Mata Nui back. He had faith in the Great Spirit before, and Mata Nui had answered his prayers when he needed it most. Mata Nui was dead now, but with this mask, and his willpower… it had to be the way to bring him back.
The burning had resided, and now Jaller had felt a soft tingling. A tickle, up his arms and throughout his whole nervous system. This was the mask’s power, coursing through him.
He knew what was going to happen now. He could feel it with the energy coursing through him. He would do his duty, and the Great Spirit would be restored to life once more, and the Toa Nuva would awaken him.
Jaller, Captain of the Guard, would be no longer. He already was no longer. The feeling of fighting, the memories of battle from Ta-Koro to the Pit were leaving him now, and Jaller felt only his duty as the mask’s power took over him.
But wait. There was something that remained.
His duty yes, but unity as well.
Playing Kohlii at the grand tournament. Fist bumping Takua as they narrowly escaped Turaga Vakama finding them doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. Standing strong against Karzahni, and the defeated Piraka, with five others by his side.
Unity.
He would no longer play Kohlii. He would no longer defend with the Ta-Koro Guard. He would no longer adventure through islands, having adventures, or use his newfound powers again.
But there were those who should, and would. The other Toa Mahri, whom had come all this way with him, whom had stood every authority figure in the eyes and told them no with him, they couldn’t cease to exist. Jaller was embarking on his destiny, but they still had theirs to achieve. Kongu, Hewkii, Matoro, Nuparu… Hahli… if he had any last say in it, even if it wasn;t from the battlefield, his friends would not become Barraki bones. Mata Nui’s finest couldn’t end their Chronicle at the bottom of the ocean.
He was fading rapidly. He was finishing the mission he had started the Toa Mahri on. But this one final part of Jaller, this one last shred of willpower, remained, and stayed, until the Ignika itself gave, and granted the Toa of Fire his last wish.
The Ignika could feel Jaller’s willpower. Just as he could see its history, it saw his, and the bonds he had formed with the other Toa. It could see the other Toa Mahri, even the Ta-Koro guard, and felt their desire to follow this strong leader. It could, even though his connection with the Hau was gone, Lhikan’s will, echoing through Jaller. Two Toa who would do the right thing, no matter the cost.
Jaller was paying the ultimate price. The Ignika accepted the payment, and in doing its duty to the Great Spirit, did its duty to its bearer.
Jaller had given his life before to save Takua so he could achieve his destiny. He had launched himself into a fear so bad it had terrified him to death. But he had told Takua something, the same thing he repeated now.
“The duty was mine.”
Jaller and the Ignika merged together in an exploding ball of light, energy itself unbounded. The energies soared from its origin point, flooding the cavern, and beyond. The recently rapidly fading light in the universe suddenly leapt up, and machines that were just beginning to shut down leapt to life again, as the system of the Great Spirit lived once more.
***
The five Toa Mahri had been mid stroke. Mid charge. Mid fire. The Barraki were about to deal the final blow…
and like that they were gone. The Pit was gone. The skyline of Mata Nui caught their eye, and they all stumbled upon the streets of the metru.
“What in the name—“ Kongu swore.
“Home?” asked Hahli, her proto claw dropping to her side. “We— we are home?”
“There’s no way,” Hewkii said. “This can’t be real.”
But the rush of energies felt around them assured them it was. The five of them felt the Great Spirit come back to life, in a miraculous wave felt by all of them, quite unlike the feeling they had barely an hour before.
“Forget that,” Nuparu said, his Cordak blaster still cocked. “Guys, are we… breathing air?”
“Everything you are saying is true, and more,” came a familiar voice. The Toa whirled to see Turaga Vakama coming toward them. Their eyebrows all flew up, and they all embraced him dearly.
“This group hug is not set-complete,” grumbled Kongu. “Where is the Captain? We all got here, where is he?”
Vakama’s mask looked heavy. A sadness overcame his gaze, and he looked as if he had aged a thousand years in an instant.
“No,” Hahli sobbed. Matoro put an arm around her to comfort her.
“The mask required it,” he said sadly. Another secret he had held from the group. He had thought confessing this would make him feel better, but he felt infinitely worse. “I wish it were me.”
Vakama had thought revealing the tales of Metru Nui had been hard. He thought reliving the Hordika era had been hard. He had even thought Toa Lhikan’s death had been hard. But this moment, these things he saw and was about to say, were the most difficult things he had ever had to do.
“I had a vision, of it being Jaller’s fate,” Vakama began. “In it I saw where he went, what he did, and what happened to him. There is nothing we can do but remember him.”
Hahli fell to her knees, utterly unable to bear the truth.
“He came to each of us with the mission in mind,” Hewkii said. “And he saw it through to the end.”
“He did his duty, from the moment he awoke on our island home to his final task, and he did it all without question,” Vakama said. “Let us go celebrate, a Captain, a brother, a Toa, who did the most important duty of them all. Let us go celebrate a Toa who saved the universe.”