Chapter 2, Not were I use to be

Nokama groaned and opened her eyes to see a stone ceiling. Where was she? Her hands flew to her face, remembering the mask on her face. She sighed as she realized that it wasn't there. But she was so sore, her body ached everywhere.

What happened? She wondered. Did her brothers get the mask off? They must have, because she was no longer wearing it.

There was movement in another room, so Nokama figured she was in a house or building, not just a hut. Footsteps followed soon, by a voice.

"Hey, you up yet?" A soft voice called, and suddenly a slender figure came into sight.

A female Nokama knew by the voice and the build, but to her surprise, her body was crimson, the signature of a Ta- Matorn…or Fire Toa, which Nokama knew that she was a toa at least. Nokama only blinked in surprise.

A female Fire Toa? There was no such thing. Well, as far as she knew.

The crimson female gave her a friendly smile, her stunningly vivid indigo eyes twinkling in the semi dark of the room.

"Guess you are. I'm Siahta." She said clearly, then tilted her head to the side.

"Who are you?"

Nokama looked confusedly at her. "…Nokama. My name is Nokama." She said finally.

"But...where am I? What happened to my brothers?" She asked the younger Toa.

Siahta shrugged slightly. "You must have bumped your head hard to forget where you are. Metru Nui, that's where. And your brothers…I don't know. We only found you out on the beach." She answered calmly.

"Be glad we found you and not the Dark Hunters." She added, shuddering slightly.

"Who knows what they could have done to you. Most likely you would have a child before long." She said darkly, and as she spoke, hatred burned brightly in her stunningly colored eyes.

Nokama though, wasn't listening to this. She had frozen when she had mentioned that she was in Metru Nui.

'How…?' She wondered. Metru Nui had been destroyed so how, and WHY would they be here? The city was in ruins and no one had been here when they had left except the Rahanga. But then again they had been on Mata Nui for…. Two months, maybe three tops.

So a group of toa COULD have moved into the ruined city during that time, and Dark Hunters could have come here, but the both happening at the same time seemed…impractical, impossible, and extremely unlikely. Oh great, now she was sounding like Nuju.

Speaking of Nuju, Nokama wondered what happened to him, why he was so late

"Nokama?" Siahta asked her voice concerned.

Nokama looked up at her. The young Toa offered her a hand to stand up. She took it and lifted herself off the cot, her muscles gave a sharp jolt of pain, but she gritted her teeth and shook it off.

"How long have I been…out?" She asked Siahta.

Siahta helped her walk out of the room, making sure that her legs could hold her weight before she let her go.

"Well, let's see." Siahta said thoughtfully as she let the Toa of Water down a long hall, all made of stone, neatly carved out, light stones embedded in the walls, then to the left, down another corridor and into a large room, two long worn wooden tables running down the center, torches and light stones shedding light in the hall.

"We found you a day before Blood bringer and his group attacked a group of Onu-Matorn- our Matorn of course and that was… two weeks ago." The Toa said, nodding in agreement with herself.

"Yes, two weeks you've been out." She declared.

Nokama frowned. That long? And what did she mean by 'our Matorn'? All of the Matorn were back on Mata Nui, still asleep in their capsules on the shore.

"I meant, there are some Matorn who, feeling it safer joined the Dark Hunters, because our Turaga is gone- Black shade kidnapped him. I think that he's dead, but my brother thinks that he's alive." Siahta explained- not even looking at the surprised Water Toa.

'Oops.' Nokama thought. She hadn't intended to say that aloud.

"Don't know why he still has faith in him." The crimson Toa snorted quietly as they walked down the hall, into what Nokama guessed was the kitchen, though, oddly enough, no one was here.

"Their all out working. They're still Matorn, and we may be having issues with Dark Hunters, we still need to trade with other islands, other wise we'd all starve here. We still need to have some sort of economy." Siahta explained, catching her confused look.

"Won't the other islands help?" Nokama asked her, surprised and not totally willing to believe that some islands would just leave Metru Nui to its fate.

Siahta shook her head. "Nokama, you must not know much about the Dark Hunters." Siahta said softly.

Nokama opened her mouth to protest, but Siahta beat her to speaking

"Dark Hunters are ruthless and cruel. They won't stand for any resistance. They declared war on Metru Nui because we refused to let them set up a post here. WAR Nokama.

Not that they were no longer allies, they declared war on us, killed Matorn, and Toa, kidnapped our Turaga. They're wiping us out for refusing to let them into the city. Think of what they would- or could do to the islands that helped us.

They would burn them- destroy every living, breathing thing there, burn the villages and take minimal casualties. Even if they don't, they can take as many as Ten Thousand casualties, and it wouldn't matter, because whole islands bend down to their shear numbers, fearing what they could do because of the stories they heard." Siahta said sighing, hatred clear in her eyes.

"And," She added softly " some of the other islands have already been wiped out. Destroyed. Not a single BEING left alive."

"My Turaga says that I shouldn't hate the people for bowing to them- the Matorn here for surrendering to them.

Fear is a powerful thing. Wither it be fear for your life, or a life of another, it is the perfect thing to control others with. I know that…but they shouldn't have just surrendered like that. They're just killing US. Their Toa, their friends and family by bowing to them." Her voice was soft and controlled, her fists clenched and shaking.

Nokama looked at the younger Toa, sympathetic for what she was going through, but still lost on what was going on.

There were no more Matorn left on Metru Nui, There were no Turaga here. Dark Hunters wouldn't be interested in Metru Nui anymore, it was destroyed. And on top of it all… this was beginning to sound like deja vu. The reason that the Dark Hunters declared war on Metru Nui, and killed off Lhikan and the other Toa was because Dume refused to let them have a base on Metru Nui.

Could that mask have sent her back into time?

No, no that would be the Vahi of Time but Vakama had hid the Vahi somewhere, and it was gold, not gray.

So…what was going on?

Nokama sank down onto a chair nearby, and rubbed her temples gently.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." Siahta apologized, her expression anxious.

"I shouldn't have told you that. You just woke up and all, I didn't mean to burden you with all of my silly worries and that dark news. I'm sorry Nokama." She looked truly worried, her mask the perfect picture of it, yet deep in her eyes, those problems and secret worries and so well hidden emotions that were so confused swirled around in her eyes.

Nokama smiled gently at the younger Toa, amazed that she could be so calm and worry for others when all of this… horrible stuff was going on.

They were waging war- on the losing side, she was betrayed- or felt that way by some Matorn, she, Nokama had popped out of no where, and all that frightening news about the Dark Hunter- and more most likely was inside her head for Mata Nui knows how long.

Yet she didn't seem affected by this at all, was perfectly calm and was worrying about her- which only had a small headache.

"I'm fine Siahta. Don't worry. You didn't burden me. It's good sometimes to let what you're thinking about out of you. I've just got a small headache, nothing more." Nokama assured her. Siahta shook her head.

"Still, I shouldn't have told you that stuff. I mean, I probably just freaked you out. And he told me not to do that." She groaned and hid her face in her hands.

"Who?" Nokama asked blankly.

"Our 'fearless leader'" Siahta replied, her answer muffled by her hands

"He didn't want me to tell you about our current situation, which I just did. He's going to kill me." She groaned again

Nokama laughed at the other female "I've been a lot worse situations, don't worry. I was turned into a Hordika once." She replied looking up at the girl, but then froze.

Everything had….frozen. And it was fading out, color draining from the scene. Nokama cried out in alarm, and jumped up. What was going on? The scene faded out, into an infinite white, stretching on for kios and kios in every direction. Nokama cried out in shock and confusion.

What was happening?


Nokama opened her eyes, and the hope that this all had been some crazy dream sprang into her head.

She was disappointed to find that it wasn't. She was standing in a room, small and plain, and well lit, but not brightly.

There was a light stone behind her and to her left. She was standing on a woven mat, next to a table, which on the table, was an old, yellowed parchment.

In her hand was a quill.

Nokama stood there, unable to figure out, nor comprehend what was going on. She turned around, taking in her surroundings, and checking that no one was going to jump out from behind, then peered at the map.

There was a line that looked a bit like a line that split off into two lines. One line was red, now fading into black. The other was faded and almost non-visible. The first line had a horizontal line at the end, blocking it off, like a dam damming a stream.

Nokama tilted her head to the side, her headache growing.

What was she suppose to do?

Maybe…Nokama dipped the quill into the ink that was holding down one side of the paper, and carefully traced that faded line as carefully as she could, her hand trembling slightly as the quill made a scratching noise as she traced the line, frowning in concentrate meant .

There was a rush of wind around her, as the small room disappeared and was quickly replaced with the abandoned kitchen, she was sitting down and Siahta stood in front of her, hands over her face


"Our 'fearless leader'" Her voice was muffled by her hands.

"He didn't want me to tell you of our current situation, which I just did. He's going to kill me." She groaned again.

Nokama froze and stared at her.

What….. Didn't she say that before everything froze. Nokama shook her head, mind now really hurting, swirling with a thousand thoughts, not even understanding what was going on, not comprehending what should be so easy to understand.

"Nokama? Nokama? Nokama, seriously snap out of it." Nokama blinked and realized that Siahta was shaking her lightly, her eyes deeply worried for her.

"Sorry." Nokama said sheepishly, scolding herself for getting lost in thought like that.

"Just thinking."

Siahta gave her a reproachful stare.

"I don't care if you were or not. I think that you need some rest. I haven't been a very good warden to you." She said firmly.

"But I'm not-"Nokama protested, but was cut off by the crimson colored Toa.

"Nokama trust me, you're going to need a rest. You just woke up after being asleep for two weeks, you're confused. You need to sleep, or at least just relax in your room for a bit. It's all a little hard to take in I know." Siahta said soothingly.

'More than you'll ever know.' Nokama thought wryly.

"Plus, you need to look presentable for tonight." Siahta added.

"Why? What's going on tonight?" Nokama asked her new found friend.

Siahta smiled.

"You get to meet our little band." She responded with a smile.


Nokama sighed and paced around her room again, not able to sleep. She had tried to, but her thoughts were too mixed up and her mind unable to rest, still processing what was going on trying desperately to comprehend what was going.

Unfortunately, she didn't have a clue. Nokama sighed and sat down on the cot, and closed her eyes.

She let all her thoughts slide, dropping all confusion and worry and cleared her mind, letting energy flow freely through her, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her headache dissipated slowly, her heart calmed, and her aches disappeared.

She felt she body lift off the cot, and she allowed herself a sigh of relief. At least she could meditate without messing up.

So soothing…

There was a soft knock on the door, and she heard someone calling her name, so she assumed it was Siahta.

"Come in." Nokama said clearly, not opening her eyes, nor breaking her metitave state.

She heard the door open softly, as light pooled into the room, and gently footsteps on the stone floors. Nokama heard a gasp from the doorway, and she opened her eyes.

Siahta stood there, her expression shocked and staring at the Toa of Water. Nokama dropped down to the to and stood up.

"How- how did you do that?" She asked, her voice shaking for the first time.

"I learned to do that a while ago. It's nothing important, it just helps me to relax." Nokama said lightly, uncomfortable at the young Toa's stare.

"Sorry." Siahta dipped her head slightly.

"It's just… I've never seen anyone do that before. And…." Siahta got a nervos look on her face

"Our Water Toa…. Well, she ….went with the Dark Hunters. I think she's dead now though. But… well, nobody really knew her and, um.." Siahta shifted, and looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, but nobody here really trust you cause of that. You might have some enemies. Just…what ever they say, ignore them. They laugh at me all the time." Siahta muttered, not looking Nokama in the eyes.

Nokama looked oddly at her

"Because you're a Fire Toa?" She asked. Siahta looked at her briefly

"Something like that." She muttered softly.

There was a long silence between the two before Siahta shook her head and looked at Nokama

"Come on it's time for you to meet my friends." She said, forcing a smile.

She turned and walked down the hallway to the hall with the tables. Siahta fell back and walked along with her.

"What ever the Matorn do, ignore them. Focus on what the Toa do or say. I'll be with you, so you won't be so freaked. I have to do some random reports with what I did while tending you and that sort of stuff." Siahta's tone was clipped, and the breath she let out was shaky.

Nokama turned to her, and she offered a small smile

"Sorry. I hate doing these reports infront of all the Matorn. But it's the best way to prove that the leaders aren't hiding something. I just get really nervous." She explained. Nokama nodded, as the two stood infront of the now closed doors of the hall.

Siahta took a deep breath and opened the doors, while Nokama swallowed and tried to ignore the fluttering in her stomach.


Siahta walked into the extremely loud hall, while the door hit the walls with a resounding 'BANG' quickly quieting the Matorn who were all chattering away.

"Today, as of roughly Sunhigh, after Captin Jaller left on his mission, the Water Toa woke up. She is in a fair condition.." Siahta was striding through the hall, towards the front, where five Toa were seated, and continued her report, while Nokama stood frozen in the doorway.

She heart raced as she stared at the Toa in the front of the hall, her eyes wide.

No there was no way…this couldn't be happening…..

She knew those Toa anywhere. Those faces, those masks.

They were her brothers.


-eye twitches- That was long. Sorta. I had the need to write this though. It's been bouncing around in my head for ages. Next chapter might not be as long- but most likely it will be. Like it, Hate it? For God's sake, REVIEW and I will give you Chocolate.