Disclaimer: This work of fiction is a transformative work based on Bionicle, which is owned by Lego. I make no profit from the creation or distribution of this work, and have no plans to do so at any time. The words of this story are, however, definitely mine.
Contains: Hahli and Jaller not being anywhere near 'just' friends, the author using her licence to establish friendships that 'first' occurred on Mata Nui as also occuring in Metru Nui before the Cataclysm, and references to Takua/Nixie if you squint and know I'm a massive fan of GaliGee's.
Notes: So I'm working on a fanfic that will finally be a bit grimdark, but it's a massive epic of an Everyone Dies story (and a Bionicle/Hero Factory crossover. The Hero Factory is not the cause of the deaths.) and this six-chapter idea is a series of stories that are technically complete on their own but are also connected by a theme.
First up: Metru Nui before Makuta Teridax pretends to be Turaga Dume, but the Vahki still don't care if you're just visiting friends...
He isn't going to. Really he isn't. It's bad enough Takua practically does have a squad of Vahki assigned specifically to watch him; Jaller isn't going to go haring off and leave both their jobs without someone to do them.
Right. Yeah. Of course.
"Hahli said hi last time I went to Ga-Metru," Takua says casually, his real feelings plastered all over his blue Pakari in a grin wide enough to split his head in half. "She was wondering if you were going to the next Akilini tournament, but I said—"
"No," Jaller snaps, more to himself than to his friend. So that shy Ga-Matoran was really very funny and clever when she opened up, so what? He has things to make. He can't go visiting whenever he wants, and he doesn't even want to. "You have a job."
"Just one little trip?" Takua wheedles. "I already promised her—"
"If Hahli has any sense she'll know your promises only apply to your actions." Jaller turns back to his workbench and reaches for his safety goggles and Firestaff, only to see Takua snatch them first and toss them behind a pile of tools. "Hey!"
Takua grabs Jaller's arm and starts pulling. "You've been standing in front of a forge too long anyway, now come on."
"What? No! Let go, you reprobate!" Jaller smacks ineffectually at his friend's hand as Takua drags him out the front door of Jaller's forge and into the smoggy sunlight of Ta-Metru.
"If you'd let me finish," Takua says with another grin as he drags Jaller to the nearest chute station, "you would've known all I promised was to drag you over to see her, which is what I'm doing."
Jaller huffs and continues to pry Takua's fingers off his wrist. "And if I don't want to?"
Takua grabs Jaller's free hand with his and swings over to Jaller's other side. "I beat Taipu at arm-wrestling last week."
"You did not." Jaller tilts his head when Takua just grins. "He let you. He must have."
"Nope!" Takua swings his arm and Jaller's with it, still grinning as he walks. "Fair and square." He pauses at the end of the road, looks up at the chutes crisscrossing over their head, and pushes open the door to the chute station.
Jaller catches the doorjamb and clings to it as Takua steps inside. "No, Takua."
Takua pries Jaller's hand open and tugs him forward, then turns pleading eyes on his friend. "C'mon, you'd want to be there to make sure I don't get her into trouble, right?"
Jaller sighs and nods. "Fine. It's all your fault if we get chased down by a squad of Bordakh, though."
Takua laughs and drags Jaller to the ladders up to the Chute boarding station. "When isn't it?"
They manage to get into Ga-Metru without being caught, and Takua leads Jaller through its streets like a native. "I'm pretty sure Hahli's in class right now, but I don't think Nokama would mind us sitting in on one of her lectures…"
Jaller glances at Takua, then up at the twin suns to send a prayer for good fortune on its way, and sighs. "You've done it before, haven't you."
"Nixie's classes usually have a lot of Ko-Matoran in them," Takua says by way of answer, and peers ahead. "Next right."
By the time Jaller's decided Takua is probably lost, he also sees Hahli leaving a lab with a pack over her shoulder and a spring in her step. He grins to see her and heads forward; she turns and her eyes light up. "Jaller!"
He hugs her briefly. "We were in the area," he explains with a nod at Takua. "Where are you going now?"
Hahli shrugs and leans her head on his shoulder. "Where are you headed?"
"I dunno," Takua says as he catches up. "A class, maybe. Is Nixie doing any today?"
Jaller laughs. "Stargazing, Takua? Doesn't that require sitting still?"
Takua rolls his eyes at him, and Hahli hums in thought. "I think she's teaching," she says finally. "I might have said she got permission to have a personal observatory here, and it was finished recently…"
Jaller hasn't heard of it, but Takua nods and grins. "I know where it is," he says, of course he says that, and then he turns and starts off.
They're accosted halfway there by a squad of Nuurakh. Hahli cuts off in the middle of telling Takua why he'd make a good Chronicler and freezes in fear so stark Jaller isn't sure she's breathing. Even Takua's uneasy, and Jaller's pretty sure he knows why: Hahli's the only innocent here, and Takua doesn't like the idea of her getting in trouble because of them.
It's stupid, and Jaller'll be lucky if he doesn't have to use his Komau to scrape cooled residue out of molten Protodermis tubes for a millennium, but he steps forward and in front of Hahli anyway. "She's not a criminal," he tells the lead Nuurakh. "She was going home from classes and Takua and I accosted her, she's done nothing wrong but not know we were shirking, let her go free and we'll turn ourselves in."
The Nuurakh tilts its head as if pondering Jaller's words, then gestures behind Jaller with a staff. Half the Vahki in the squad detach themselves; Jaller risks a glance back to see what they're doing and sees two pair themselves to Hahli and the other two to Takua, and his heart sinks. "Please," he says, knowing it's probably pointless to try to beg for a robot's mercy but needing to try. "Please, damn you, she's innocent!"
The lead Nuurakh raises its staff and a bolt of energy lances for Jaller.
The next thing Jaller remembers clearly is blinking into awareness in dim forgelight, a Kanoka in one hand and his Firestaff in the other. He drops both to his workbench and sighs, then pulls off his safety goggles and tosses them aside in disgust. "Damn it, Takua," he mutters, and leans on the bench to examine the masks he must have made while under the influence of the Staff of Command.
Jaller doesn't speak to Takua for a month after that and is barely civil with him for longer, but at the next Akilini tournament Hahli comes up to him and thanks him for what he did. "I think they actually believed you," she says with a laugh, "because all they did was escort me home and scare half the Metru."
She hugs him, and smiles at Takua when he catches up to make an apology Jaller finally accepts, and when he's home, and staring at the stars he never did get the chance to look at through Nixie's telescope, he wonders if in spite of being caught by Vahki again he really did manage decent luck that day.
Notes: Hehehe. I'm thinking the next one will involve the Morbuzakh, because we're in Metru Nui already and it seems a shame to waste a perfectly good opportunity for drama... I'm fifty-fifty on who should be the reason Jaller jumps in without thinking, Takua or Hahli. What do you guys think?