Chapter Text
“These urges… They wouldn’t involve me, would they…?”
The question stuck with Nokama.
Days… weeks… sometime prior, six heroes, the Toa Metru, had washed ashore in a shipwreck on the beach of what had once been their home, the city of legends, to rescue the Matoran, their innocent people. Said city was currently under the scourge of the Visorak hordes, an army of vicious spiders, whose terrible venom could mutate any being into a monster, a shell of its former self.
The Toa Metru had been captured by these creatures and infected. Where once stood great warriors now stood six… Nokama couldn’t bear to call herself a beast. She was not a beast. She was just… different. That was all. The change from powerless Matoran to powerful Toa had been an… adjustment… as well. This new change into the creature known as Hordika would simply take new adjustments. She was still a hero. She was still a civilised and noble warrior. She was still a protector of her people. She could picture them now, little blue faces looking up at her with wonder and adoration in their eyes, safe and happy in their home of sticks and vines in the trees, excited to see the face of their mother-
Toa. Their Toa.
What was a “mother”?
“Nokama?”
The former Toa of Water straightened as best as her new form could handle and turned to face the curious eyes of Nuju. She nodded a greeting, “Can I help you?”
Nuju looked between her and the mess on the ground that had previously been a Fikou, “You could have let us know before wandering off to find breakfast.”
“Oh! I’m sorry, did you want some?” She glanced back at the corpse. There wasn’t much left and… the sickening revulsion of what she had done began to weigh her chest. Eating was a civilised thing, a simple absorption of energy. The body gently depletes to sustain- and here was the mangled, desecrated corpse of a poor Rahi who had committed no crime beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What had she done?!
Nuju coughed, “Come on, we need to regroup.”
“Are they all waiting for me? I’ve kept you all waiting, I’m-”
“No. You’re the first one I’ve found.” He sighed. “Besides Matau, anyway. He was fast asleep in some mess of wood and mud. Everyone else is gone, and the Rahaga are irritated.”
There was hope, she remembered as she hobbled off after Nuju. The Toa may have been mutated into terrible Hordika, Vakama may have vanished days prior, but there was hope. There was something out there that could help them, and the Rahaga hopefully knew where it was.
The Rahaga, the little companions who had guided the Toa Hordika in their new lives thus far, were arguing over the campfire. Some of the words they spoke - Great Temple, Mata Nui, Matoran- Nokama knew those words, but they felt so foreign to her in this moment.
The bickering ceased as Nuju and Nokama stepped into the campsite.
Nokama spoke up eagerly, “What have you learned? Do we know our next steps?”
Norik, the Rahaga of Fire, shook his head, “We know nothing. Some pair of Rahi had broken into the Temple and caused quite a stir. We fled for our safety to wait out their fight.”
“Rahi?” Asked Nokama, “What kind? What would they want with the Temple?”
Gaaki, the Rahaga of Water, answered, “We’re not sure- we couldn’t get a good look at them. Whatever they were, their fight was brutal and destructive. We shouldn’t go back in there until we’re sure they’re gone.”
Some of the six Rahaga spoke up in protest- the information on the location of the legendary Keetongu, curer of rare venoms, must be found now . Others argued that there was no use in gaining information just to die to some Rahi’s squabble before it could be used.
There was little Nokama could do here. In her previous occupation, long before she was a Toa, she had been a… something involving her guiding others, teaching them, supporting them- a mother!
No, that wasn’t right. And what in Mata Nui is that word?
Whatever she had been, she had been good at breaking up arguments. But here, she could barely keep track of the conversation. One little Rahaga spoke, then another, then the first, then a third- it was all too much. It was all just noise, no different than the noises of Rahi squabbling over a fruit. That’s what these six annoying beings were- they were loud and they were disruptive and she wanted to be nowhere near them.
She stalked away into the undergrowth, the protests of Nuju processing as nothing more to her than some Rahi’s whine.
The air was home, not that pesky ground, with its heavy soil and dangerous foliage from where predators could hide. Matau liked it up here in his nest.
This nest wasn’t high enough, he decided. There were tall canopies of trees in the distance, and they would make a much better nest site.
No, wait, he wasn’t supposed to wander off. He was supposed to be somewhere, doing something, and whatever that thing was involved beings he wasn’t supposed to leave behind… What was that thing?
A glance in a puddle pooled in a wide leaf reminded him. His corrupted, broken reflection stared back at him. He was not supposed to look like this! He and his Toa brothers were in search of Keetongu, the one creature who could give Matau back his handsome face and more handsome mask.
The bushes beneath his nest stirred, and Matau felt a twitch in defensive muscles he hadn’t realised he had. His tongue pressed to his upper jaw, his sharp eyes scanned for any movement, and the thoughts of other fleeting worries like “appearance” and “Keetongu” were gone from his mind. He was in danger, and that danger needed to-
A scent filled his mind. He wasn’t sure what that scent was, but he hated it. It needed to go away. Whatever was making it needed to stop .
His limbs curled under him as he prepared to pounce down on the ground far below, crush whatever the offender was the moment it could show its hideous and horrid -smelling face.
The face was that of Onewa, the Toa Hordika of Stone. The Toa part of Matau’s mind was happy to see a friend. The Hordika side was split- the creature before him was the creator of the enraging scent, but it was too big, too strong to challenge.
Onewa paused and scented the air, before his eyes snapped to Matau’s. Were the same thoughts in his mind? Which side would he choose?
His muscles tensed. He had picked the latter.
Onewa paused with a wince, his gaze dropping. He dropped to a crouch and cradled his limbs under him.
Matau leapt down, making sure to land on his two feet as Toa-like as possible. He was not a beast. He wouldn’t stoop to that level.
“Brother?”
Onewa glanced up at Matau. The larger brown-armoured Hordika was hurt, Matau could see now. His muscles were bruised and there were cracks on his exodermis.
“Onewa! What happened?”
“I… I don’t know.” Onewa stammered, “Last night, I remember waking late. I remember smelling something I couldn’t quite put a finger on- smells sort of like you do, but different. Whatever it was… I just felt this strong urge to hunt it down and get rid of it. I saw some beast running to the Great Temple, and I chased after it. I think… I think we fought in the temple. I didn’t get a good look at it through the shadows, but it put up a fight . I chased it off, though.” He finished the statement with a flex of his muscles, an action that made Matau feel- afraid? He wasn’t afraid of his Toa brother, but the instinct to cower was strong.
He resisted it and kept his posture as Toa-like as he could manage, “A good-luck thing you did. That thing could have bad-hurt the Rahaga.”
Onewa winced in confusion at the word, and it was a few seconds before recognition spread across his face, “Right. Rahaga. We should check on them.”
As the two walked back to the campsite, Matau couldn’t help but notice Onewa watching him out of the corner of his eye. There was something about the way Onewa was walking, the way he held himself, the way his muscles twitched, that made Matau consider fleeing. He shouldn’t be here. This one was a threat. These lands belong to the Hordika of Stone, and Matau was not supposed to be on Onewa’s grounds. Unless…
Unless these could be Matau’s grounds. Onewa was bigger, he was stronger, but he was injured. He was weak. Matau could finish the job-
What… What was he thinking? Why was he thinking this way? Onewa was his brother, not some competing beast. They were Toa. Toa don’t compete over land.
The two entered the clearing that had been their camp for the night. The Rahaga were seated around the remnants of the campfire and sharing a meal of berries and little fish. Nuju was sitting with them, although the look in his eyes showed that his mind was somewhere else.
The Rahaga looked up to Onewa in alarm as they realised his injuries, and Gaaki moved to tend to him. He shoved past her without a word and swiped a handful of the food from the pile. Matau felt himself hesitate- he was hungry, but he couldn’t eat yet. Not while Onewa was over the pile. It wasn’t fair- it could be Matau’s land, Matau’s food, Matau’s female-
Female? What was that part? And for that matter… Where was Nokama?
He scented the air, but she was nowhere near. Was she safe? Had this stone-headed brute scared her off? He must have!
Matau turned to the forest, but the hand around his ankle stopped him short. He lost his balance and smashed to the ground.
He was caught ! He was under attack, and the attack needed to be dealt with! The offender challenged him?! The offender would pay!
The breath was pounding in his chest. He was crouched down and facing many sets of horrified eyes. The snarl of a beast resounded. There was some great and menacing Rahi behind him!
He whipped around, but there was nothing. He turned back to the Rahaga, to Onewa, and to Nuju, who was cradling the side of his face and whimpering.
Matau’s hand stung, and his claws were caked in shreds of white armour.
There had been no great and menacing Rahi.
He was the Rahi.
He looked up from his claws into the eye of Nuju. The other eye was hidden behind a deep slash.
He turned and ran into the forest. He wasn’t safe, he decided. He really was a monster, and his brothers didn’t deserve the danger he was to them. He needed to get away for their own good.
There was nothing in Nuju’s mind but the sting on his face. The armour on his head was cracked with a deep groove. The thoughts and feelings trickled back in as the shock wore off- he had sat with the Rahaga as they came to the decision that they would wait a day before trying the Great Temple again. Then, they had searched for food, and decided that after they had eaten and regained their strength, they would look for the others. Matau and Onewa had silently stepped into camp, and Matau had paused, grown a strange expression, and then turned away. Intent on not having to track down another runaway Toa, Nuju had grabbed him only to stop him a moment, but before he could speak, Matau had erupted into shrieks and snarls and had clawed Nuju in the face.
Norik murmured gently to himself about the beasts inside the six Toa while Gaaki tended to Nuju’s injury. He had kept his eye- thank the Great Spirit, but she fretted about infection. Iruini and Bomonga, Rahaga of Air and of Earth respectively, decided to set out together in search of their respective elemented Toa Hordika. Pouks watched Onewa with a face of concern as Onewa hunched over his food as if afraid someone would try to take it from him.
Nuju watched the two Rahaga vanish into the undergrowth after his missing brothers. A feeling clawed at his chest sharper than Matau had clawed at his face: the growing feeling of despair.