Chapter Text
“The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.”
Walking the moonlit beaches of the Charred Forest, Kapura peered out at the ocean, looking for something in the depths. He was not sure what he was looking for, only that he was looking for something, according to Turaga Vakama. Yet the ocean remained uninterrupted, not even the light breeze rippling its seamless surface. Nothing could be seen out there tonight gleaming in the moonlight that suggested that there was anything on the beach besides the Ta-Matoran himself. He could not even distinguish the village of Ga-Koro under the night’s sky, the fishermen of the town in bed for a few more hours. As he watched the scene, Kapura felt some resonating peace, feeling in the deepest hours of the night a quiet that he rarely knew.
This was a night where the shadows were not to be feared, an occasion seldom found on Mata Nui, especially in these “Dark Times”, as the Turaga called them. Makuta had used the Rahi and the very island against the Matoran, and months and years of fighting had left the villagers in a chaotic mind state; they now knew no rest, so paranoid that the Makuta lurked in every shadow that they even carried out their chores in a raging fashion.
According to the myths of Ta-Koro, not even the burnt trees behind Kapura were safe. Too much propaganda had built up in the villages of the enemy to where it was said with certainty of truth and little proof. But out on this still ocean, out where all of the worries had not littered, Kapura was certain that the shadows were nothing more than shadows. Makuta could only control the island, the Ta-Matoran knew. The tyrant’s grip could not brush the stars.
Surrounded by paradise, he did not want to leave. The sand seemed to nuzzle his body as he sat against a tree of the forest, procuring him to stay and watch this starry night until the sun rose over the ocean. But Vakama would worry, not understanding that some shadows were nothing more than shadows. Reluctantly picking himself up, with nothing to report of tonight, he turned to the path from where he came.
He unsheathed his throwing disk as he saw the glow in the forest. Something up ahead illuminated the path of packed ash, unmoving as he took blatant steps toward it. That had not been present when Kapura had come this way. The stillness would have put any other Matoran on edge, nervous for a possible meeting with a new infected Rahi, but the Ta-Matoran was as stoic as the ocean behind him, snaking his way off the path to reproach from a more cautious angle.
It was no new Rahi, but a stone embedded in between the roots, glowing red about the dark wood. There were no signs of it having been placed, per lacking fresh tracks leading away from it. Though a bit puzzled on why it was here, Kapura knew exactly what it was, and what the Turaga had said about anyone that might find it. They'd been lost months ago, when the exiled Takua was caught in an ambush set by the Makuta and his Rahi in Kini-Nui. Kapura now looked around warily for any monsters that might be lurking in the shadows. There were none, he assured himself, but as the stone pulsated, its power within reverberating through the rock, Kapura suddenly knew the night was not as still as it seemed.
***
He came back to the village in the dead of night, without a sound, yet the blushing glow of the Toa Stone brought everyone from their beds. Kapura could feel the eyes of Ta-Koro anxiously watching him, and as he crossed the village square to the suva, he felt more nervous than he had ever remembered having been.
But he had walked the charred forest for years, with the Rahi hidden, watching in fear, and through them, the Makuta. The villager’s eyes were nothing more, so why should he be nervous?
He approached the suva, he remembered all of the nights he had thought of it as nothing more than ornamental. But with this stone in hand, he finally felt the holy aura that had been long forgotten.
He emerged moments later, feeling as when he had awakened for the first time on the beaches of Ga-Wahi. Though he walked with the same stride as he did when practicing, Kapura felt taller and more agile than the Ta-Matoran he had just been. Through his being pulsated a power, remnants of the stone, something that he had not felt earlier in the evening.
“Turaga, what does this mean?” the new Toa of Fire asked, crimson hands reaching toward the elder for answers.
“Hope, I think,” Vakama replied with a smile. His orange mask was a joyful candle in the blackness of the night.
***
He was on lookout once again, this time pacing above the walls of Ta-Koro. He was now considerably taller than the rest of the guard, and could feel his head spinning at the new perspective. His muscles were tense as he fought the feeling of vertigo.
Discontent with walking aimlessly along the pathway, Kapura propped himself on a ledge, while Matoran were nestled in their posts.
A colony of Nui Rama had been sighted out in the Wahi that afternoon, and a scout had been reported missing not long after. Jaller and Vakama had put the Guard on full alert, and Kapura had returned immediately to his old post. The two officials had mentioned nothing, as if the transformation had not occurred. Though presence of a Toa was a novelty on the island, he and the villagers would have time to marvel at it later. But wasn’t it the job of a Toa to save others? Kapura thought once he had settled into the watch, curious if they were going to pull him for some other job.
Fog was making its way from the charred forest in the distance to the path of the village, and everyone was holding their breath for the Ta-Koran to walk out of it, safe and sound. The order was for a search party provided he was not found by nightfall, but somehow Kapura felt it was far past the time when a party should have been sent out. As all eyes waited for motion from the gloom, the unsure Toa let his own vision wander. The darkening skies of Ta-Wahi were clear of anything dangerous, and the ground was still… but the lava caught Toa Kapura’s eye. The Lake of Fire seemed to pour towards the Koro, the village being some plug that had been pulled from a great drain at the bottom. The lava didn’t usually flow like that toward the village, unless…
“Captain,” Kapura spoke up. The yellow Hau jolted in his direction, the breaking of the silence startling him.
“What do you see, Kapura?” he asked.
“The water drains from a sealed bowl,” he riddled the Matoran, gesturing to the lava. Cocking his head in confusion, Jaller scanned the lake as Kapura had done, and seeing what the Toa saw, he cursed. Red armored Rahi were sneaking their way to the city gates, hovering across the lava they blended into. If they didn’t act now, the beasts would be swarming Ta-Koro soon. Jaller began to issue hand signals, with Kapura relaying them to the Matoran who could not see the orders. The company took aim, and with a mighty heave, the disks flew.
As quickly as the projectiles soared away, their targets jumped from their camouflage to come flying back. Wings were beating fast enough to deflect the bamboo as a swarm of Nui-Rama charged in a beeline towards the guards, and all was chaos. Angry buzzing filled the air as they swept on top of the guards with sharp claws. More disks and staffs were unsheathed to beat the creatures back, landing solid blows to counter the Rahi; and though they jabbed back with the fury of a bonfire, the Nui Rama had the edge in size.
Kapura leveled the playing field with that factor as he tackled one of the flyers away from a Matoran, almost too fast to see. The time for moving slow was past, and as they spilled onto the ground of the village, he dove in with speed enough to match the Rahi’s own.
The Toa of Fire landed on the bottom of the tussle with one of the Rahi, his back landing hard on volcanic brick. He glared into the eyes of a rusted Kanohi mask as the beast snarled at him, revolted as they grappled face to face. That was enough motivation to kick the beast off of him. It tried flying away, but he snatched its wing with blinding speed and delivered a blow that subjugated the Rama. He would deal with that one later, Kapura thought as he felt the strength of a Toa coursing within him.
With the use of his old tricks he was on the wall again, dropping in on another beast as they swarmed over the rest of the Guards. Landing on the back of a beast, he sent it crashing down to the ground with a screech, the shock of its fall leaving it immobilized. Spotting another about to descend on him, he grabbed the stunned creature, spinning it once, twice, and then… he let it go, crashing into the advancing attack, and sent the duo soaring away from the battlefield.
The hot flash on his face as he ran back to battle was not from the flush of embarrassment from the bewildered Matoran who had seen that, Kapura figured as he bashed back another invader. He could feel something more behind his punch than had been there before, as if an extra vein of energy was flowing through his arms. His Kanohi had been activated, Kapura realized, his fist collided with another Nui Rama head, nearly cracking its infected mask as he landed the blow. Momentum was building in him, letting his adrenaline rise as his attacks became more furious, throwing punches faster and faster. He could feel the power rising, but he could not muster it down. He was out of control now, even the Matoran backing away as to not get sideswiped. He could hear Jaller yelling his name, see the flames from the lake of fire, a Nui Rama coming at him with high speed…
He could not block this one as it came at him, and it felt as if his vision cracked. A claw threw Kapura back, making him blink in pain, but as he hit the stone ground behind him, his eyelids would not come up.
***
He awoke to birdsong, though something did not register in his mind that there were no birds in Ta-Koro. A long call made him open his eyes, and all at once fire leapt into his vision. He was flying high above an ocean of lava, clutched onto the tail of a phoenix. Kapura looked around him to observe the scene, as he felt nothing but the feathers keeping him from falling to the fire. They were nowhere near any shores. The Toa of Fire wondered how long the bird had been towing him for.
He could see them struggling, down below; two titans on a slab of rock, fighting something that swarmed above their heads. One possessed the armor of a jungle warrior, coated in plates of the green of the treetops, the blues of the oceans, and the white of the snow,. The other warrior was donned in darker hues, the red of the lava and the brown of the rock accompanied by the black of a dark night. He had spent countless nights finding nothing out on the shores of Ta-Wahi, and now he knew why, because these were the figures he had been seeking; they had been in this ocean of fire the entire time, not in the water.
The latter Kapura sensed was part fire, like himself, but was struggling to control the rock’s stability in the lava flow. From up in the air Kapura watched them wobble. As if sensing his thoughts, the bird dove, and dropped him in the midst of the battle. The two titans took notice, but too were too occupied by their own struggle to heed him any greeting. Kapura focused on keeping them steady, and before they could fathom what was going on, Kapura was dragging them up a bank of rock that had appeared off to the side.
Whatever it was attacking the two could not follow them to the bank. As the Toa of Fire yanked them from the slab, they were freed from what only they could see. Picking themselves up off the ground, they turned to Kapura, eyeing him with equal parts of curiosity and caution as he himself stared up in awe. “Who are you?” he asked them.
“More than any one Toa, their unity come to physical form,” the darker one spoke with a hard gaze. “But a pulse comes from within you that has a greater sense of wholeness then either of our own. Rather, it is us who should be asking who you are, since you are to complete the journey we had set out on.”
“Our time is yet to come, Akamai,” the other one coaxed. “He may be whole, but he is incomplete, though not by much,” the lighter figure pointed out to his partner. “He still has pieces of himself missing.”
“He will have a counter to help him, Wairuha,” replied Akamai. “Though you are as great as we are, Toa Kapura, you will have someone else out there to assist you through your journey. Whether it be someone to lean on or to rise against, you will not face your troubles alone.” The two titans nodded to him, and then turned toward the rock plain before them.
“Wait!” Kapura called. “What was it that you were fighting?”
“The same thing that you will,” Akamai responded. Kapura was about to ask what he meant by that, but the bird swept in to take him away. A yell of fright and surprise was all he could manage. The phoenix rose far away from there, pulling Kapura into the black abyss far above the lava.
***
Though he felt the heat on his face that came from nearby, he felt strangely cold and weak; his chest quivering as he pulled himself up, Kapura opened his eyes to a strained sight. Anything beyond what must have been the Sacred Fire was a dark, unclear fuzz. Reaching up to his clammy face, he found his Kanohi Pakari gone. His mind felt as if he were unable to focus on anything more than slumping against the wall without it.
The voice of Turaga Vakama sharpened his senses, however, his posture snapping to attention as the elder saw he was awake. He coaxed the Toa back against the wall, offering him a cup, which Kapura thankfully took. “What happened?” Kapura managed to groan between gulps.
“You were overwhelmed,” Vakama reported. “You were so engrossed in you mask power that when one of the Rahi shattered it, the sudden loss of all of your strength took you out. I am sorry Kapura, but your Kanohi is gone.”
“My... my mask...” he breathed, setting down the now empty cup. “How will I do without it?”
“The Suva had minor damage, and I am missing Kanohi as well, but I still have some Noble masks to spare. I will lend you one, for now.” The Turaga passed a mask into his hand, and Kapura fitted it onto his face. His vision cleared, and now he could see the beyond the fire as if it were a sunny day. Kanohi Ruru. Blinking a few times to adjust to the mask, he could see Vakama staring into space with a look of sadness he’d never known the Turaga to possess. “What troubles you, Turaga?” Kapura asked. When all Vakama did was stare for a few moments, the silence lasting longer than Kapura would have preferred, he asked once more.
“I want to send you out there, and I know you want to go, but I am afraid of losing you to something greater than a swarm of Nui Rama, that you may disappear into the shadows as the villagers have.”
“The fisherman never learned to cast while someone else was holding the rod,” the left hand reminded the elder.
“And that is why I must let you go,” Vakama agreed, seeing wisdom in Kapura far beyond his years. “If you’re to journey out there, however, you need more power.”
“And how am I to acquire more power?”
“Long before you remember, when we Turaga were much younger, we discovered masks hidden around the island. No doubt that now they are guarded by Rahi, but there is a chance that some of them may be missed by the Makuta. If you can somehow find some of these masks whilst in pursuit of our missing brothers, then you would be taking the first step to prove yourself as a true Toa.”
“Where would I look for these masks?” Kapura asked excitedly.
“In places that only a Toa could reach,” the elder responded. “Places that the rest of the Matoran only see with wonder… or fear.”