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Description
Warning: This fictional work contains descriptions of violent acts. If you are really sensitive to this, its advised not to read this.

Chapter 2: Two prisons, two fates

“Are we there yet?”

“We only left about half an hour ago.”

“You just left half an hour ago.”

“You should stop trying to make sarcastic jokes, it makes you sound even more stupid than you already are.”

“That hurts, big brother. Where did that nice guy act of yours go?”

“I am always ready to make an exception for you, sis.”

“Why did you recruit me as a toa again?”

“I already told you, I didn’t make that decission, the toa HQ did.”

M’azzal grinned. “Then at least someone must have seen my full potential.”

But her brother added, “I am pretty sure they confused your potential of a hard-to-follow assassin with that of a moral toa.”

That was exactly what she was thinking. Still, she didn’t like the idea of her brother mentioning her skill of assassination, even though she knew that for him it was not much more than a joke.

“Hard-to-follow as in me running too fast, or talking too fast?”

“At least not like that le-matoran over there.” He pointed with an orange finger at a le-matoran merchant who was talking as fast as he could with weird word-combinations. Quick-talk, they called it.

“Your sharp-harm weapons-blades only right here at wise-matoran Kohnu the wise-talker. The good-best of the well-best!” The merchant was shouting, trying way too hard to get noticed.

“And, well, there’s no way you could be too fast for me. I meant that you are hard to read,” Kevlin continued. He tapped his orange Kanohi Kakama to strengthen his words.

M’azzal shrugged. “I bet you wouldn’t be able to keep up with me without your mask of speed,” she said.

“It’s called a Kakama,” her brother corrected her.

“Yeah, whatever.”

They continued their path. About half an hour ago, they had left the farriery and set course to the toa HQ. M’azzal hadn’t resisted, since Maurak lived inside the head quarters. They had been walking over the main road of the district, a paved road that was about twenty feet wide, leading all the way to the lively center of the capital city of Staro Masko, with markets on both sides.

It would take two days to get there on foot, if not three days. But they weren’t planning on going on foot the whole way. Kevlin had told her that Kriss, another toa of mountains like himself, was waiting for them at a station at Krika’s street. From there, they would be at the head quarters in no time.

M’azzal looked at her brother. It was obvious that he was trying to think of a way to say something. She could see it in him, it was something her brother had always struggled with. He always had trouble with finding the right approach to start a new topic. According to her, he overthought the principle of conversing too much. It annoyed her.

“Come on Kevlin, spit it out.” She pulled him out of his ponder.

“Oh, I did the thing again, uh? Sorry for that.” Kevlin scratched the back of his head, and smiled nervously. “So, you’ve heard of the legend of the Dark Hunter war? Of course you did.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Right?”

“I fricking hate legends, Kevlin. Nothing but naive and fictional nonsense.”

“Oh...” Kevlin fell silent. M’azzal just got used to the comforting silence, when her brother unforgivingly continued with his story. “So, the legend tells about a toa team consisting of more than three hundred toa, the toa Mangai. The team usually consisted out of eleven members, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And so, hundreds of toa were gathered for an all out war against an order that called themselves ‘The Dark Hunters.’ You see, M’azzal, you weren’t summoned to the HQ because they recognise you as a skilled toa, oh no no no. This island, and maybe even its neighbouring islands, are in great danger. That’s why we need as many toa as possible.”

“I noticed you went from talking about the head quarters as ‘they’ to ‘we.’ What’s that supposed to mean?” M’azzal asked.

Kevlin looked at her with a hurt look on his face, as if she had just said something horrible. “Is that really all you noticed about the story? I am disappointed in you, M’azzal.”

“You don’t say.”

“But yes, I intentionally said ‘we.’ You should know, that the toa HQ isn’t just a big square building. It’s all of us toa together, with the ambassador as our great leader.”

“Maurak.” M’azzal said. She started to boil from inside. That bastard was going to brainwash all toa and turn them into emotionless cops in five weeks. The toa would then turn from being already annoying to being super annoying, not to mention deadly.

“I’m surprised you know something about political figures at least. Pleasantly surprised, I may add.”
He had no idea how wrong he was. She didn’t even know what a Turaga was, other than them being respected and having an old body that many other old matoran and toa didn’t even have.

“It’s a gift,”she said.

Suddenly, they heard someone calling for them. “Kevlin, M’azzal, over here!”

A few buildings further, a toa waved at them. M’azzal had never seen her before, but she knew from Kevlin’s description that it had to be Kriss. Kevlin activated his Kanohi and sprinted the last bit towards the female toa of mountains, leaving M’azzal behind.

“Stupid,” she called him, but only she heard her words. She ran towards her brother and his female companion. As she got closer, she analyzed the toa standing next to Kevlin.
Kriss wore mostly brown armor, with white accents on her armor and white hands. A normal colour scheme for a toa of mountains. She also wore a Komau, although this was a Great version, and in brown, instead of the tan colour that M’azzal’s mask had. She was also pretty short, probably just a bit taller than her. She also noticed that instead of a traditional blaster or blades, Kriss had a weapon strapped to her back that looked like a hybrid of a rifle and a sword.

When M’azzal got to them, Kriss showed them the way to Krika’s Street. As they got closer to the station, they saw a matoran driver preparing his insectoid vehicle for its next journey. The destination that was written on the back of the vehicle, made it clear to M’azzal that they were going inside that one.

The matoran driver noticed them, and he noticeably increased his working speed. Within two minutes, he had reattached several pipes under the passenger’s chariot, and switched a lever inside the front cabin that caused a staircase to unfold on either side of the back cabin. The doors swung open, and the three toa stepped inside. The doors automatically closed up then, and the vehicle took off.

--------------------------
25 000 years ago, in an entirely different place, beyond the borders of the universe.

Nitrogen clouds spread through the deep and dark caves. The black rock of the cave shines in the bright light that comes from a gigantic gate. A seal shaped like a skull keeps the two doors closed. Through the narrow openings, where the light comes from, a being watches. An almighty being, hidden away underground because even his creators were scared of him.

He can easily free himself, now that he has awoken. A simple headbutt would be enough to make the doors fly out of their hinges. But he doesn’t move. He knows that he has been awakened by something nearby. It must have been intentional.
He stretches his fingers. A loud cracking noise comes from his knuckles, and the sound of clanging chains echoes through the empty cave. He chuckles. So the Great Beings had even strained his fingers in this illuminating prison?

He can now hear footsteps. They are light footsteps, and quick. A female, the being thinks for a moment. But then he shakes his head. Everything could have changed in the time that he has been asleep, even the sound of footsteps. How long had he been sleeping anyway? He hasn’t even really slept. Nor had he been dead.

The being starts to become curious. What kind of creature would enter his domain? He leans forward as much as the chains and nails in his neck allow, trying to peek through the narrow notches in the gate. As he tries to lean forward just a little bit more, a sudden column of light appears in front of him. It isn’t as bright as the white light that surrounds him, but somehow it’s too blinding to bear. The being launches backward, the chains suddenly fall back into their place, being pulled down by one gargantuan rock. When the rock suddenly comes to a halt, the being can’t breathe for a short while, the collar around his neck being pulled tight all of a sudden.

A shriek echoes through the cave, coming from the creature that has just entered the cave, scared by the sudden noise. But it doesn’t retreat. And the being likes that. A grin appears in his maskless face, revealing a set of pointed teeth.

“Almighty being of cold and shadow,” the creature on the other side of the gate yells.

The being recognizes the voice of a female. They must have gotten a lot braver since the last time he had been awake, or just a lot more stupid. Probably the latter, since the actual only females he had ever encountered were several Great Beings and a toa by the name of Helryx. Oh, but Helryx wasn’t a true coward either, only the Great Beings were. All of them. Either way, he decides not to reply. He wants to see if the female will be brave enough to check if he is really there.

A few footsteps, and then the being can see the female figure appear through the notches of his prison. He recognises the female as a Sister of the Skrall. But this one is different. Instead of wearing the usual black robe, like other Sisters, this one wears nothing. Which is strange, considering the Sister of the Skrall are beings without armor. The other thing that makes this one so unique is her colour. The Skrall, both the original species as well as the completely female subspecies, were usually black and red. But this one is entirely scarlet red, with exception for the orange head beneath the Sister’s mask.

She reaches out with her hand to the gate, but she almost immediately pulls back when she sees him. His orange eyes peer out from their deep sockets in his disfigured head, staring at her intently. She can’t understand what facial expression he makes, although he means it as a smile. A very toothy smile, that is. The Sister waves her hand, and he follows her movement with his eyes.

She lets out a relieved sigh, coming closer and giving the gate some kind of hug. “So you are still alive.”

The being shivers, making the chains around him clatter. It isn’t because of the cold. It is because someone cares about him.

“Step... back.” His voice is dry and deep from countless centuries of sleep.

The Sister does as he says. The being tenses his muscles in his arms and back, and pulls on the chains with all his strength. The chains rattle through the openings in the illuminating white walls, and the white rocks start to crumble. He charges forward, crushing the stone gate in front of him and launching the metal seal to the other end of the cave.
First, his head appears. And then he falls with the rest of his body towards the ground, tearing his prison apart as the rocks on the other end of the cold chains burst through the walls. Little black and glowing white rocks roll down as nitrogen from the cooling tanks shoots out and covers the being.

“Almighty!” The scarlet Sister of the Skrall runs towards the pile of frozen rock that has buried him.

“I said...step back!” A black clawed hand shoots out from the pile. Piece by piece, he pulls off the rocks lying on top of his body, and throws them against the walls, pulverising them to dust and causing small stones to rain down.

“You call me Almighty,” the being says, his voice starting to sound smoother. “If I am indeed Almighty, and Mata Nui... can somehow make a damn moon fall down on Makuta Teridax,” he slowly stands up, remaining bits of dust and rocks falling through the holes in his body. “Then I am the one who will carry this planet on my back.”

He stands straight up. Bits of nitrogen mist curl around his body, but it can do nothing to restrain him.

His appearance strikes fear into the Sister, and she bows. “I’m sorry for doubting your strength, Almighty,” she says.

He waves her apology away with a hand gesture of his giant claw. “You don’t need to apologize. You’re the only one who dared to awaken me.”

The being walks to the Sister. He kneels down and gently pushes her chin up. Their eyes meet. Although the disfigured face frightens her, she knows she’s safe with this being.

“Mata Nui has fallen, hasn’t he?” He asks.

The Sister nods. “And so has the Makuta, oh Almighty. However...” For some reason she stops.

“What is it?” His eyes narrow.

The Sister is scared, almost too scared to say it, but she does anyways. How could she ignore a question of the Almighty? “Mata Nui’s spirit still resides within the Ignika.”

It’s quiet for a moment. The only sounds come from the nitrogen still hissing as it flows out of the destroyed cooling tanks, and drops of water falling from the ceiling.

He pulls the Sister closer. “Is that all you had to say?”

The Sister bursts out in tears. “Y-yes, Almighty. I-I’m sorry.” Tears run down her cheeks, and a few end up on the being’s black fingers.

“What’s your name?” He still sounds angry, even though it isn’t his intention.

“F- Funingevere.”

“That’s a pretty long name... I’ll just call you Gevere.” He lets go of her chin, and spreads his arms in a welcoming gesture. “You are brave, Gevere. There is no shame in crying.”

The Sister throws her arms around him, and lets out her tears of fear and relief. He embraces Funingevere in an attempt to comfort her. “Hush now, it’s alright.”

While holding the scarlet Sister of the Skrall, he looks around the cave and recognises familiar symbols and logos. The path he was dragged over towards his cell. And the wall next to him, the left prison wall. Matoran symbols are carved in it, spelling his name: Argavyx.

“Gevere, do you know why I was already awake when you entered this cave?”

She looks up to him. “N-no, Almighty.”

“Call me Argavyx.”

“I don’t know, Almi... Argavyx.”

He strokes the rock with his name carved in it. A flow of nostalgia goes through him. “I was the second toa... When both Mata Nui and the Great Beings would fall, I would be the one to take charge.”
A sudden anger overflows him. “They created me for that purpose. I was the reason the Three Virtues were made up! I was the chosen one to clean up their mess!!” His claws drill holes in the rocky wall.

He lets out a frustrated sigh, and calms down. “They locked me up in this prison to keep me away. The Great Beings were scared of me, you see? But they forgot one thing, and that was to deactivate my replacement protocol, for when both they and Mata Nui would fall.” He chuckles. “Which they have.” He lets go of Funingevere, and looks back at her again. “And you knew of my importance, didn’t you?”

She nods.

“Well then, have you ever heard of what came before the Three Virtues?”

“No, Argavyx.”

The big toa takes the Sister by her hand, and guides her to a far corner of the cave, where a seemingly random symbol is carved in the rock. “Let me tell you what became before the toa code and the Virtues.”

He gestures to the symbol. “I present to you, the Three Sins!”

---------------------
“So... how do you feel now that you’re going to become an official toa?”

“Do I have to go through the toa transformation again?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

“Then I think I might enjoy my new life as an official toa.”

Kriss clapped. It made for an awkward atmosphere in the small space of the quadropod cart. “Glad to hear that!”

“You don’t have to act as if I’m a stupid child,” M’azzal growled.

Kriss placed her hands on her chest, as if she had just been heavily offended. “I’d like to see you go back to your normal behaviour, after having to guide groups of younglings through the HQ building for two months,” she replied.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Kevlin put up his hands between them. He had been sitting between the two toa from the beginning of the journey. It had been two hours since then. He grabbed the communication device that dangled from the ceiling of the cart. “Driver, can we please stop for a few minutes? I need to... discuss something with my fellow toa.” He waited for a reply.

“What in the Spirits’ sake do you have to ‘discuss’ with us?” M’azzal snarled at her brother. The naive behaviour of Kriss had gotten on her nerves quickly.

“Since I have to wait for the driver to answer my question, let me answer yours.” He pointed up one finger.“You must go to bed earlier.”
Two fingers. “Me and Kriss have to discuss something.”
Three fingers. “There is someone waiting for us.”

Before M’azzal could ask who was waiting for them, and what she and her brother had to discuss, the voice of the driver sounded through the inside of the cart. “No probs, sir. I can stop at a good spot in a few minutes.”

Kevlin grabbed the communication device once again. “Copy that. Thank you.”

Meanwhile M’azzal glanced at Kriss, who blankly stared out of the window. The toa of mountains didn’t seem surprised at all that Kevlin wanted to make a sudden stop. Weird.

“So who’s waiting for us?”, M’azzal asked her brother.

“Toa.”

“Toa? But what toa? I thought we were heading straight for the HQ?”

“We are.”

“Can’t we discuss things there?”

While annoying her brother, she quickly looked at Kriss once again. Kriss had given a surprised look, until she discovered that M’azzal’s eyes were on her, and she quickly turned back to the window. They were clearly onto something.

Amateur, M’azzal thought.

“We’re here!” The driver shouted from the intercom.
The doors on both side of the cart flipped open, and small stairs folded out to make it easier for its passengers to get out. As M’azzal stepped out, she saw her brother talking to the driver, an onu-matoran that was sitting in the smaller front cabin, that had its own four legs and was attached to the cart.

“We’ll be back in ten minutes,” Kevlin said.

“Got that. See you then.”

Kevlin walked back the the back of the vehicle. He gestured to Kriss to come with him, and told M’azzal to stay where she was.
Hah, as if, she thought.
When both toa had disappeared around the corner of an inn, she ran for it. As soon as she started running, she saw other toa appear left and right, trying not to look suspicious, following her every footstep. And they sucked at it.

As she kept running, M’azzal noticed a chariot standing next to a shop with an overhang. She made a feint, making it look like she wanted to turn left, and most of the toa she had noticed so far immediately started to sprint in an attempt not to lose her. Instead, she sprinted to the chariot. The pursuing toa realised their mistake, but it was too late for them to get to her. A few got close to M’azzal, but with one agile jump she got onto the vehicle, and then continued her rush on the roofs by stepping on the overhang.
She could hear them shout commands at each other. “Target escaping!”
“Warn the town guards!”
“Inform the snipers!”

Snipers? A shot rang, and a bullet went right past the back of her head. She halted, looked around her. From a multi-level building, she saw a sniper pointing at her.

“That was a warning shot! The next one will be a few more inches to the right!” The sniper shouted. His voiced sounded dry, this was probably not the first time he had been shouting from such a distance.

“You sick moron!” She shouted back.

The sniper didn’t react, instead he reloaded his gun to strike fear into her. Grave mistake. Using the time the sniper gave her by reloading his rifle, M’azzal sprinted towards the building where the sniper was located. Itwas just across the road, which was empty because all people had fled when they had heard the gunshot. She jumped of the roof of a small shopping mall, landed on the streets and made her way to the multi-story building. Reloaded or not, the sniper could not shoot her from this position, which was about thirty feet under his window.
Toa appeared from her left and right. Some of them had the more modern laser blasters, other the classic bullet firing guns. But most of them had drawn their blades.

She inspected the brick wall in front of her, trying to find a way to climb up. Remains of a wooden frame stuck out of the bricks, probably leftovers from an old building next to this one that had since been destroyed. She jumped and grabbed the lowest beam and pulled herself up. She heard a few toa shouting at her, but ignored them. When she found her balance on the short end of the beam, she looked up for the next one, she found it, but she needed to jump across the wall to grab a hold of it. It was either trying that, or almost certainly getting captured.

Why am I fleeing anyways? Do I really think my own brother would betray me?

But she shook that thought off. There were never that many toa forces in one district. This had to be set up. Whether Kevlin knew or not, she could not let them get to her, or else the only point of view she would get of Maurak would be behind prison bars. She knew it for sure.

She jumped for the wooden beam and just barely got a hold on it. She hung from it with her fingers. Her feet dangled under her body, trying to find some grip. She found it in the form of a loose brick, that she pulled out with her feet to create some place to plant a foot in. Carefully and slowly she climbed up.

When she stood on the beam, she looked down. The other toa had gathered and were pointing their firearms at her, but none of them fired a single shot. If they hit her, she would lose her balance and plunge to her death. And that was clearly something they did not want.

She looked up. She could see the windowsill above her. After a few less risky jumps, M’azzal was close enough to hold on to the window. She lurched to her left, and clamped her fingers around the wooden frame. Without resting after the jump, she immediately pulled herself up, surprising the confused sniper.

“Hello there,” she said. Then she kicked him in the chest, pushing him to the ground. She quickly stole all his weapons and pressed his knife against his throat. With the sniper in her grasp, she walked back to the window.

“Listen up, toa! This guy here is my hostage. You are going to give me a flying vehicle with enough fuel to make it to the far end of this island, or else he won’t live long enough to see the light of day again!”
A toa of air replied. “We simply can’t give you that. Please, come down and come with us. No one needs to get hurt.”

“Well then, here’s another proposal. If you don’t give in to my demands, this toa is going to die!” To give her words strength, she made a shallow cut in the hostage’s neck, just enough to make him bleed a few drops, before the blood would dry up and seal the small wound. “Here is my demand: I want to meet Maurak in person. I am going to challenge him for a duel!”

“There’s no need for that,” a voice behind M’azzal sounded.

She quickly turned around. She saw Maurak standing there. He had parked his Zylek X-11 on the roof of the building behind him, and climbed through another window of the room.

“I’m already here.” He shot a red bolt from his wrist, hitting M’azzal with it. “Of course, I won’t let myself get killed so easily.”

A pain went through her body. But in contrast to when she had been transformed into a toa, this pain only lasted a few seconds. Then everything went black.

Description
Warning: This fictional work contains descriptions of violent acts. If you are really sensitive to this, its advised not to read this.

Chapter 2: Two prisons, two fates

“Are we there yet?”

“We only left about half an hour ago.”

“You just left half an hour ago.”

“You should stop trying to make sarcastic jokes, it makes you sound even more stupid than you already are.”

“That hurts, big brother. Where did that nice guy act of yours go?”

“I am always ready to make an exception for you, sis.”

“Why did you recruit me as a toa again?”

“I already told you, I didn’t make that decission, the toa HQ did.”

M’azzal grinned. “Then at least someone must have seen my full potential.”

But her brother added, “I am pretty sure they confused your potential of a hard-to-follow assassin with that of a moral toa.”

That was exactly what she was thinking. Still, she didn’t like the idea of her brother mentioning her skill of assassination, even though she knew that for him it was not much more than a joke.

“Hard-to-follow as in me running too fast, or talking too fast?”

“At least not like that le-matoran over there.” He pointed with an orange finger at a le-matoran merchant who was talking as fast as he could with weird word-combinations. Quick-talk, they called it.

“Your sharp-harm weapons-blades only right here at wise-matoran Kohnu the wise-talker. The good-best of the well-best!” The merchant was shouting, trying way too hard to get noticed.

“And, well, there’s no way you could be too fast for me. I meant that you are hard to read,” Kevlin continued. He tapped his orange Kanohi Kakama to strengthen his words.

M’azzal shrugged. “I bet you wouldn’t be able to keep up with me without your mask of speed,” she said.

“It’s called a Kakama,” her brother corrected her.

“Yeah, whatever.”

They continued their path. About half an hour ago, they had left the farriery and set course to the toa HQ. M’azzal hadn’t resisted, since Maurak lived inside the head quarters. They had been walking over the main road of the district, a paved road that was about twenty feet wide, leading all the way to the lively center of the capital city of Staro Masko, with markets on both sides.

It would take two days to get there on foot, if not three days. But they weren’t planning on going on foot the whole way. Kevlin had told her that Kriss, another toa of mountains like himself, was waiting for them at a station at Krika’s street. From there, they would be at the head quarters in no time.

M’azzal looked at her brother. It was obvious that he was trying to think of a way to say something. She could see it in him, it was something her brother had always struggled with. He always had trouble with finding the right approach to start a new topic. According to her, he overthought the principle of conversing too much. It annoyed her.

“Come on Kevlin, spit it out.” She pulled him out of his ponder.

“Oh, I did the thing again, uh? Sorry for that.” Kevlin scratched the back of his head, and smiled nervously. “So, you’ve heard of the legend of the Dark Hunter war? Of course you did.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Right?”

“I fricking hate legends, Kevlin. Nothing but naive and fictional nonsense.”

“Oh...” Kevlin fell silent. M’azzal just got used to the comforting silence, when her brother unforgivingly continued with his story. “So, the legend tells about a toa team consisting of more than three hundred toa, the toa Mangai. The team usually consisted out of eleven members, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And so, hundreds of toa were gathered for an all out war against an order that called themselves ‘The Dark Hunters.’ You see, M’azzal, you weren’t summoned to the HQ because they recognise you as a skilled toa, oh no no no. This island, and maybe even its neighbouring islands, are in great danger. That’s why we need as many toa as possible.”

“I noticed you went from talking about the head quarters as ‘they’ to ‘we.’ What’s that supposed to mean?” M’azzal asked.

Kevlin looked at her with a hurt look on his face, as if she had just said something horrible. “Is that really all you noticed about the story? I am disappointed in you, M’azzal.”

“You don’t say.”

“But yes, I intentionally said ‘we.’ You should know, that the toa HQ isn’t just a big square building. It’s all of us toa together, with the ambassador as our great leader.”

“Maurak.” M’azzal said. She started to boil from inside. That bastard was going to brainwash all toa and turn them into emotionless cops in five weeks. The toa would then turn from being already annoying to being super annoying, not to mention deadly.

“I’m surprised you know something about political figures at least. Pleasantly surprised, I may add.”
He had no idea how wrong he was. She didn’t even know what a Turaga was, other than them being respected and having an old body that many other old matoran and toa didn’t even have.

“It’s a gift,”she said.

Suddenly, they heard someone calling for them. “Kevlin, M’azzal, over here!”

A few buildings further, a toa waved at them. M’azzal had never seen her before, but she knew from Kevlin’s description that it had to be Kriss. Kevlin activated his Kanohi and sprinted the last bit towards the female toa of mountains, leaving M’azzal behind.

“Stupid,” she called him, but only she heard her words. She ran towards her brother and his female companion. As she got closer, she analyzed the toa standing next to Kevlin.
Kriss wore mostly brown armor, with white accents on her armor and white hands. A normal colour scheme for a toa of mountains. She also wore a Komau, although this was a Great version, and in brown, instead of the tan colour that M’azzal’s mask had. She was also pretty short, probably just a bit taller than her. She also noticed that instead of a traditional blaster or blades, Kriss had a weapon strapped to her back that looked like a hybrid of a rifle and a sword.

When M’azzal got to them, Kriss showed them the way to Krika’s Street. As they got closer to the station, they saw a matoran driver preparing his insectoid vehicle for its next journey. The destination that was written on the back of the vehicle, made it clear to M’azzal that they were going inside that one.

The matoran driver noticed them, and he noticeably increased his working speed. Within two minutes, he had reattached several pipes under the passenger’s chariot, and switched a lever inside the front cabin that caused a staircase to unfold on either side of the back cabin. The doors swung open, and the three toa stepped inside. The doors automatically closed up then, and the vehicle took off.

--------------------------
25 000 years ago, in an entirely different place, beyond the borders of the universe.

Nitrogen clouds spread through the deep and dark caves. The black rock of the cave shines in the bright light that comes from a gigantic gate. A seal shaped like a skull keeps the two doors closed. Through the narrow openings, where the light comes from, a being watches. An almighty being, hidden away underground because even his creators were scared of him.

He can easily free himself, now that he has awoken. A simple headbutt would be enough to make the doors fly out of their hinges. But he doesn’t move. He knows that he has been awakened by something nearby. It must have been intentional.
He stretches his fingers. A loud cracking noise comes from his knuckles, and the sound of clanging chains echoes through the empty cave. He chuckles. So the Great Beings had even strained his fingers in this illuminating prison?

He can now hear footsteps. They are light footsteps, and quick. A female, the being thinks for a moment. But then he shakes his head. Everything could have changed in the time that he has been asleep, even the sound of footsteps. How long had he been sleeping anyway? He hasn’t even really slept. Nor had he been dead.

The being starts to become curious. What kind of creature would enter his domain? He leans forward as much as the chains and nails in his neck allow, trying to peek through the narrow notches in the gate. As he tries to lean forward just a little bit more, a sudden column of light appears in front of him. It isn’t as bright as the white light that surrounds him, but somehow it’s too blinding to bear. The being launches backward, the chains suddenly fall back into their place, being pulled down by one gargantuan rock. When the rock suddenly comes to a halt, the being can’t breathe for a short while, the collar around his neck being pulled tight all of a sudden.

A shriek echoes through the cave, coming from the creature that has just entered the cave, scared by the sudden noise. But it doesn’t retreat. And the being likes that. A grin appears in his maskless face, revealing a set of pointed teeth.

“Almighty being of cold and shadow,” the creature on the other side of the gate yells.

The being recognizes the voice of a female. They must have gotten a lot braver since the last time he had been awake, or just a lot more stupid. Probably the latter, since the actual only females he had ever encountered were several Great Beings and a toa by the name of Helryx. Oh, but Helryx wasn’t a true coward either, only the Great Beings were. All of them. Either way, he decides not to reply. He wants to see if the female will be brave enough to check if he is really there.

A few footsteps, and then the being can see the female figure appear through the notches of his prison. He recognises the female as a Sister of the Skrall. But this one is different. Instead of wearing the usual black robe, like other Sisters, this one wears nothing. Which is strange, considering the Sister of the Skrall are beings without armor. The other thing that makes this one so unique is her colour. The Skrall, both the original species as well as the completely female subspecies, were usually black and red. But this one is entirely scarlet red, with exception for the orange head beneath the Sister’s mask.

She reaches out with her hand to the gate, but she almost immediately pulls back when she sees him. His orange eyes peer out from their deep sockets in his disfigured head, staring at her intently. She can’t understand what facial expression he makes, although he means it as a smile. A very toothy smile, that is. The Sister waves her hand, and he follows her movement with his eyes.

She lets out a relieved sigh, coming closer and giving the gate some kind of hug. “So you are still alive.”

The being shivers, making the chains around him clatter. It isn’t because of the cold. It is because someone cares about him.

“Step... back.” His voice is dry and deep from countless centuries of sleep.

The Sister does as he says. The being tenses his muscles in his arms and back, and pulls on the chains with all his strength. The chains rattle through the openings in the illuminating white walls, and the white rocks start to crumble. He charges forward, crushing the stone gate in front of him and launching the metal seal to the other end of the cave.
First, his head appears. And then he falls with the rest of his body towards the ground, tearing his prison apart as the rocks on the other end of the cold chains burst through the walls. Little black and glowing white rocks roll down as nitrogen from the cooling tanks shoots out and covers the being.

“Almighty!” The scarlet Sister of the Skrall runs towards the pile of frozen rock that has buried him.

“I said...step back!” A black clawed hand shoots out from the pile. Piece by piece, he pulls off the rocks lying on top of his body, and throws them against the walls, pulverising them to dust and causing small stones to rain down.

“You call me Almighty,” the being says, his voice starting to sound smoother. “If I am indeed Almighty, and Mata Nui... can somehow make a damn moon fall down on Makuta Teridax,” he slowly stands up, remaining bits of dust and rocks falling through the holes in his body. “Then I am the one who will carry this planet on my back.”

He stands straight up. Bits of nitrogen mist curl around his body, but it can do nothing to restrain him.

His appearance strikes fear into the Sister, and she bows. “I’m sorry for doubting your strength, Almighty,” she says.

He waves her apology away with a hand gesture of his giant claw. “You don’t need to apologize. You’re the only one who dared to awaken me.”

The being walks to the Sister. He kneels down and gently pushes her chin up. Their eyes meet. Although the disfigured face frightens her, she knows she’s safe with this being.

“Mata Nui has fallen, hasn’t he?” He asks.

The Sister nods. “And so has the Makuta, oh Almighty. However...” For some reason she stops.

“What is it?” His eyes narrow.

The Sister is scared, almost too scared to say it, but she does anyways. How could she ignore a question of the Almighty? “Mata Nui’s spirit still resides within the Ignika.”

It’s quiet for a moment. The only sounds come from the nitrogen still hissing as it flows out of the destroyed cooling tanks, and drops of water falling from the ceiling.

He pulls the Sister closer. “Is that all you had to say?”

The Sister bursts out in tears. “Y-yes, Almighty. I-I’m sorry.” Tears run down her cheeks, and a few end up on the being’s black fingers.

“What’s your name?” He still sounds angry, even though it isn’t his intention.

“F- Funingevere.”

“That’s a pretty long name... I’ll just call you Gevere.” He lets go of her chin, and spreads his arms in a welcoming gesture. “You are brave, Gevere. There is no shame in crying.”

The Sister throws her arms around him, and lets out her tears of fear and relief. He embraces Funingevere in an attempt to comfort her. “Hush now, it’s alright.”

While holding the scarlet Sister of the Skrall, he looks around the cave and recognises familiar symbols and logos. The path he was dragged over towards his cell. And the wall next to him, the left prison wall. Matoran symbols are carved in it, spelling his name: Argavyx.

“Gevere, do you know why I was already awake when you entered this cave?”

She looks up to him. “N-no, Almighty.”

“Call me Argavyx.”

“I don’t know, Almi... Argavyx.”

He strokes the rock with his name carved in it. A flow of nostalgia goes through him. “I was the second toa... When both Mata Nui and the Great Beings would fall, I would be the one to take charge.”
A sudden anger overflows him. “They created me for that purpose. I was the reason the Three Virtues were made up! I was the chosen one to clean up their mess!!” His claws drill holes in the rocky wall.

He lets out a frustrated sigh, and calms down. “They locked me up in this prison to keep me away. The Great Beings were scared of me, you see? But they forgot one thing, and that was to deactivate my replacement protocol, for when both they and Mata Nui would fall.” He chuckles. “Which they have.” He lets go of Funingevere, and looks back at her again. “And you knew of my importance, didn’t you?”

She nods.

“Well then, have you ever heard of what came before the Three Virtues?”

“No, Argavyx.”

The big toa takes the Sister by her hand, and guides her to a far corner of the cave, where a seemingly random symbol is carved in the rock. “Let me tell you what became before the toa code and the Virtues.”

He gestures to the symbol. “I present to you, the Three Sins!”

---------------------
“So... how do you feel now that you’re going to become an official toa?”

“Do I have to go through the toa transformation again?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

“Then I think I might enjoy my new life as an official toa.”

Kriss clapped. It made for an awkward atmosphere in the small space of the quadropod cart. “Glad to hear that!”

“You don’t have to act as if I’m a stupid child,” M’azzal growled.

Kriss placed her hands on her chest, as if she had just been heavily offended. “I’d like to see you go back to your normal behaviour, after having to guide groups of younglings through the HQ building for two months,” she replied.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Kevlin put up his hands between them. He had been sitting between the two toa from the beginning of the journey. It had been two hours since then. He grabbed the communication device that dangled from the ceiling of the cart. “Driver, can we please stop for a few minutes? I need to... discuss something with my fellow toa.” He waited for a reply.

“What in the Spirits’ sake do you have to ‘discuss’ with us?” M’azzal snarled at her brother. The naive behaviour of Kriss had gotten on her nerves quickly.

“Since I have to wait for the driver to answer my question, let me answer yours.” He pointed up one finger.“You must go to bed earlier.”
Two fingers. “Me and Kriss have to discuss something.”
Three fingers. “There is someone waiting for us.”

Before M’azzal could ask who was waiting for them, and what she and her brother had to discuss, the voice of the driver sounded through the inside of the cart. “No probs, sir. I can stop at a good spot in a few minutes.”

Kevlin grabbed the communication device once again. “Copy that. Thank you.”

Meanwhile M’azzal glanced at Kriss, who blankly stared out of the window. The toa of mountains didn’t seem surprised at all that Kevlin wanted to make a sudden stop. Weird.

“So who’s waiting for us?”, M’azzal asked her brother.

“Toa.”

“Toa? But what toa? I thought we were heading straight for the HQ?”

“We are.”

“Can’t we discuss things there?”

While annoying her brother, she quickly looked at Kriss once again. Kriss had given a surprised look, until she discovered that M’azzal’s eyes were on her, and she quickly turned back to the window. They were clearly onto something.

Amateur, M’azzal thought.

“We’re here!” The driver shouted from the intercom.
The doors on both side of the cart flipped open, and small stairs folded out to make it easier for its passengers to get out. As M’azzal stepped out, she saw her brother talking to the driver, an onu-matoran that was sitting in the smaller front cabin, that had its own four legs and was attached to the cart.

“We’ll be back in ten minutes,” Kevlin said.

“Got that. See you then.”

Kevlin walked back the the back of the vehicle. He gestured to Kriss to come with him, and told M’azzal to stay where she was.
Hah, as if, she thought.
When both toa had disappeared around the corner of an inn, she ran for it. As soon as she started running, she saw other toa appear left and right, trying not to look suspicious, following her every footstep. And they sucked at it.

As she kept running, M’azzal noticed a chariot standing next to a shop with an overhang. She made a feint, making it look like she wanted to turn left, and most of the toa she had noticed so far immediately started to sprint in an attempt not to lose her. Instead, she sprinted to the chariot. The pursuing toa realised their mistake, but it was too late for them to get to her. A few got close to M’azzal, but with one agile jump she got onto the vehicle, and then continued her rush on the roofs by stepping on the overhang.
She could hear them shout commands at each other. “Target escaping!”
“Warn the town guards!”
“Inform the snipers!”

Snipers? A shot rang, and a bullet went right past the back of her head. She halted, looked around her. From a multi-level building, she saw a sniper pointing at her.

“That was a warning shot! The next one will be a few more inches to the right!” The sniper shouted. His voiced sounded dry, this was probably not the first time he had been shouting from such a distance.

“You sick moron!” She shouted back.

The sniper didn’t react, instead he reloaded his gun to strike fear into her. Grave mistake. Using the time the sniper gave her by reloading his rifle, M’azzal sprinted towards the building where the sniper was located. Itwas just across the road, which was empty because all people had fled when they had heard the gunshot. She jumped of the roof of a small shopping mall, landed on the streets and made her way to the multi-story building. Reloaded or not, the sniper could not shoot her from this position, which was about thirty feet under his window.
Toa appeared from her left and right. Some of them had the more modern laser blasters, other the classic bullet firing guns. But most of them had drawn their blades.

She inspected the brick wall in front of her, trying to find a way to climb up. Remains of a wooden frame stuck out of the bricks, probably leftovers from an old building next to this one that had since been destroyed. She jumped and grabbed the lowest beam and pulled herself up. She heard a few toa shouting at her, but ignored them. When she found her balance on the short end of the beam, she looked up for the next one, she found it, but she needed to jump across the wall to grab a hold of it. It was either trying that, or almost certainly getting captured.

Why am I fleeing anyways? Do I really think my own brother would betray me?

But she shook that thought off. There were never that many toa forces in one district. This had to be set up. Whether Kevlin knew or not, she could not let them get to her, or else the only point of view she would get of Maurak would be behind prison bars. She knew it for sure.

She jumped for the wooden beam and just barely got a hold on it. She hung from it with her fingers. Her feet dangled under her body, trying to find some grip. She found it in the form of a loose brick, that she pulled out with her feet to create some place to plant a foot in. Carefully and slowly she climbed up.

When she stood on the beam, she looked down. The other toa had gathered and were pointing their firearms at her, but none of them fired a single shot. If they hit her, she would lose her balance and plunge to her death. And that was clearly something they did not want.

She looked up. She could see the windowsill above her. After a few less risky jumps, M’azzal was close enough to hold on to the window. She lurched to her left, and clamped her fingers around the wooden frame. Without resting after the jump, she immediately pulled herself up, surprising the confused sniper.

“Hello there,” she said. Then she kicked him in the chest, pushing him to the ground. She quickly stole all his weapons and pressed his knife against his throat. With the sniper in her grasp, she walked back to the window.

“Listen up, toa! This guy here is my hostage. You are going to give me a flying vehicle with enough fuel to make it to the far end of this island, or else he won’t live long enough to see the light of day again!”
A toa of air replied. “We simply can’t give you that. Please, come down and come with us. No one needs to get hurt.”

“Well then, here’s another proposal. If you don’t give in to my demands, this toa is going to die!” To give her words strength, she made a shallow cut in the hostage’s neck, just enough to make him bleed a few drops, before the blood would dry up and seal the small wound. “Here is my demand: I want to meet Maurak in person. I am going to challenge him for a duel!”

“There’s no need for that,” a voice behind M’azzal sounded.

She quickly turned around. She saw Maurak standing there. He had parked his Zylek X-11 on the roof of the building behind him, and climbed through another window of the room.

“I’m already here.” He shot a red bolt from his wrist, hitting M’azzal with it. “Of course, I won’t let myself get killed so easily.”

A pain went through her body. But in contrast to when she had been transformed into a toa, this pain only lasted a few seconds. Then everything went black.