Chapter Nine

Hikan looked up from his game of 'spot-the-interesting-formations-on-the-walls' to see Nahili enter his chamber.

"Hello, Hikan," the Toa of Wood said softly, though Hikan could detect an undercurrent of some other emotion running throughout Nahili's voice.

"Erm, hello," Hikan replied nervously. Even though his captors seemed pleasant, there was no telling what they could do to him. To his relief, Nahili just walked towards him without a weapon in sight. (Although he wasn't sure if Nahili's element, whatever it was, could be summoned without a Toa tool...)

"Hikan," she said again with the same soft tone. "I'm here to tell you something. A long time ago, I was in love with a Toa of Sonics named Krakua, and he was in love with me."

She shifted her feet uncomfortably while Hikan looked on with a confused look. "The thing is, you—"

"Ah, Nahili!" called a voice from behind the two Toa. Nahili turned around to see that it was Gavron.

"Great minds seem to think alike, don't they?" said the Toa of Shadow, grinning from behind his ebony Hau.

"What are you talking about, Gavron?" asked Nahili, who now sported the same look of confusion Hikan wore. Gavron smiled.

"Interviewing Hikan, of course! Don't tell me you didn't think of that as well," he said, smiling.

"Er..." Nahili said doubtfully. Gavron rolled his eyes and got right down to business.

"So, Hikan," Gavron said as he walked towards the Toa of Crystal, "I just have a few things to ask you. Is that okay?"

Hikan nodded, at which Gavron launched into a series of questions. "First off, could you tell me how you got to Metru-Nui?"

"Er..." said Hikan, raising an eyebrow. "I was born here." Gavron snorted.

"Don't be ridiculous! The city of Metru-Nui was demolished more than hundred years ago! How could someone your age manage to be born here?" he said, chuckling. Then he turned to Nahili.

"Do you really think he was born here?" he asked in a whisper. Nahili shrugged. "I'm not sure. He could mean that he was created in a laboratory, though."

Gavron raised an eyebrow and turned back to Hikan, a smile on his face. "Good! Very good answer. Now, how did you—"

"Hold on," interrupted Hikan, his eyes starting to show a revelation of some sort. "I remember now! There-there was Artahka, and then there were these people called the Jury of Time, and then there was this crystal coffin, and these two people were mentioning placing me in the sea around the Great Spirit fortress..."

He looked up to see Gavron whispering to Nahili. "Clearly delusional," muttered Gavron. "Somehow, this Toa just doesn't seem cut out to be a super-soldier..."

"Do you think we have the wrong one?" asked Nahili with concern. Gavron shrugged.

"Beats me. But I think we should keep him just in case. Who knows, maybe the Great Spirits placed all their real information deep inside his mind or something." Then he looked over at Hikan.

"Well, Hikan, that's all the time I have for today. See you when dinner's served!"

Gavron departed, with Nahili following closely behind.

-

Sakron stood in the cafeteria of the Great Spirit fortress. The meeting with Aquina and Mercelia had started to get boring, so he had discreetly slipped away to get a snack. The only problem was that there were at least five people in front of him in the line, which was a bit of an issue considering the lavender Great Spirit was starting to get hungry.

Sakron casually leant against the frosted glass barrier that separated the workers (primarily Toa with their elements intact and special bracelets to keep their powers in check) from the customers. The latest of these, a mahogany-toned Spirit, was paying for his meal with what Sakron recognized as a credit stick.

"Thought those were only available to Alpha level and up..." he muttered as he surveyed the silver, smooth-edged rectangle. The way the credit stick worked is that it contained a set number of credits (a step higher than widgets and, in Sakron's opinion, better looking) that you could use to buy anything you wanted.

If you used the credit stick too much and went into debt, however, the Finance Division would hunt you down, with often tragic results. Sakron had once known a fellow member of the Army that had become excited when he received his credit stick and immediately spent all of his credits on a lavish vacation to Ruba-Nui. Sakron hadn't heard from him since, and he sincerely doubted that he was anywhere as pleasant as Ruba-Nui.

"What?" said the Great Spirit as he turned around to look at Sakron. Sakron shrugged, said "Oh, nothing," and continued to wait in line.

Fifteen minutes later, Sakron was the next customer to be served, with a relatively long line already forming behind him. Pulling out a handful of the material form of credits, silver discs (Sakron, unlike some people, only used his credit stick when necessary), he placed them on the counter and waited for the Toa of Air manning the counter to count them.

After a few seconds of counting, the Toa looked up at Sakron with a firm look in his eyes. "You're one short."

"Look, buddy," said the next person in line, "can't you see that this fella here is a Commander of the army? How dare you tell him he's short of credits when he could kick you from here to the Ice Archipelago in seconds flat?"

The Toa gritted his teeth. "Fine," he muttered, dropping the credits into the coin box on his side of the counter. "What'll you have?"

"One Kane-Ra steak, medium rare, with a light Bula berry basting and a few grilled strips of Takea on the side," said Sakron without a pause.

The Toa nodded. "Coming up, sir," he said, almost hissing. Minutes later, he returned with the Great Spirit's order.

"Here you are, sir," said the Toa of Air, practically tossing the protodermis tray into Sakron's hands.

"Hold on," objected Sakron as he stared at the contents of the tray, "this isn't what I ordered!"

The Toa ignored him and called out. "Next customer, please!" He raised an eyebrow as the person that had spoken up earlier- now, Sakron could see, a tall Great Spirit with amber eyes and dark black skin- stepped up to the counter. "Oh no, not two of these in the same day..."

"Yeah, well, tough," replied the Great Spirit. "You didn't give my friend here what he wanted when he asked- very politely, I might add- for it, and all because of a stupid one-credit difference?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a punishable offence... I'd say maybe ten, twelve months in the quarries?"

The Toa's eyes lit up in fury as he leapt forward, his hands glowing as he planned to summon a massive tornado.

"You think you're so much better than us," he snarled angrily. "Well you're not. You can't just order us around whenever you please, you stupid Kraata! We're people too, you know, and I'm going to show you just what I mean—"

He gave out a sharp gasp as the power bracelet around his ankle glowed with its red light, and immediately fell to the floor in a heap, gasping from the burning sensation it produced.

The Great Spirit made a disapproving noise with his tongue as two other Spirits picked up the Toa and carried him off. "He should really learn to respect his superiors next time... if he doesn't die freezing his Kanohi off in a prison in the Ice Archipelago, that is."

The outspoken Toa was immediately replaced by a meek-looking Toa of Water, who followed Sakron's order to the letter and returned with a full protodermis tray as well as a bag of credits.

Sakron nodded to the Toa, who nodded nervously in response and took the order of the next person standing in line. The lavender Great Spirit went to sit down at one of the many rectangular tables placed throughout the cafeteria.

Once Sakron had sat down, however, he suddenly realized that where he was sitting now was the exact same place he and Aquina had first met.

A smile crept across Sakron's face. He could remember it almost as if it was yesterday...

-

Sakron stood anxiously in line and watched the burly-looking Great Spirit in front of him pay for his meal with a credit stick. Sakron himself was only Gamma level in the Army, so he couldn't get a credit stick yet, He was waiting for when he could get one, though.

After paying for his meal with a handful of credits, Sakron took the protodermis tray with his food on it to a nearby table and sat down. He began to eat his overcooked Kane-Ra strips silently; the Great Spirit knew better than to object to the quality of the food, seeing as the last person in the Gamma division that had done so had never been heard from again.

"Hey," called a voice from above him. "Can I sit here?"

Sakron looked up to see an attractive-looking aqua Great Spirit standing on the other side of the table.

"Uh, sure," he said, picking absentmindedly at his food. The aqua Spirit smiled and sat down across from Sakron.

"Hi," she said. "My name's Aquina. I'm from the Ice Archipelago. What's your name?"

"Sakron. I'm from the Earth Archipelago," he responded. Aquina nodded in response and promptly began to eat the grilled Takea on her tray. After a few bites, she made a face that seemed to suggest she more than disagreed with the cafeteria's cooking.

"Ugh," she said, taking a large sip of Bula berry juice to drown out the disagreeable taste of the fish. "The food here isn't very good, is it?"

Sakron looked at her in horror. "Don't say that too loud!" he hissed. "The last person that complained about the food was, well—"

"Never heard from again?" replied Aquina, with a twinkle in her eyes. "How do you know they were brutally tortured or something like that? Maybe they were just assigned to kitchen duty."

And with that, the aqua Great Spirit proceeded to stand up and make her way to the counter, which was presently devoid of any customers, and start to converse with the Toa of Ice manning the counter.

Sakron groaned and covered his eyes with his hands, not wanting to see what would happen next.

"She seemed like such a nice person, too..." he whispered.

"Thanks for the compliment, Sakron!" called a voice from beyond the safety of his covered eyes. He removed his hands to see that it was Aquina."

Sakron was dumbfounded. "But—how—"

Aquina smiled and set down another tray.

"Turns out that the Great Spirit you were talking about was merely sent to the Complaints Division and given a free meal. Afterwards, he was sent on a mission to some remote island and died there. Nothing sinister involved."

"But isn't being abruptly sent to a remote island to die after complaining sinister?" pointed out Sakron.

Aquina rolled her eyes. "No, it's not. He died of natural causes; food poisoning, I believe. If he hadn't complained, that food he was eating could have caused the exact same effect in a short time and then you have one less soldier in the army."

She chuckled at Sakron's bewildered nature. "It's just politics, Sakron. I'm surprised you actually made it into the Army if you know squat about politics."

"Well," Sakron retorted, "do you think the schools on Zara-Nui had any time to focus on politics? We were too busy learning how to lift rocks instead."

"Oh, right," said Aquina with a smile, though Sakron wasn't sure if there was another emotion hidden behind it. "Well, it was interesting talking to you, Sakron. Perhaps we'll meet again sometime."

"Yeah." And with that, Aquina was gone. Sakron, on the other hand, continued to eat his over-cooked Kane-Ra quietly.

-

"Hey! You there!"

A pleasant-sounding voice woke Sakron from his bout of nostalgia. Turning around, he could see it was the Great Spirit from earlier.

"Hey," said the dark black Spirit with a smile, "can I sit here? All the other tables are full."

Sakron nodded, at which the Great Spirit sat down. "My name's Charonus. What's yours?"

"Sakron. Nice to meet you, Charonus," added Sakron as he shook Charonus' hand. Almost immediately, Charonus smiled.

"Oh, so you're Sakron! I believe we have the same friend," he said, smiling again.

"Er..." said Sakron, evidently confused. "Who?"

"Mercelia, of course!" replied Charonus. "She said that you set me and her up on a blind date. I had a great time."

"Really?" replied Sakron, recalling that Mercelia had clearly not enjoyed her most recent blind date. Charonus nodded.

"Yeah. I think she had a good time, too. At least that's what she said... Anyways, if she wants to do it again, just let me know, alright?"

"Sure..." Sakron, still dazed as to what this Charonus had just said, made no effort at movement as the latter Great Spirit promptly left the cafeteria.

Did Mercelia really have a horrible time on that blind date with Charonus? Or is she just not telling me something? Sakron wondered.

Shrugging, the lavender Great Spirit picked up his tray, deposited the remains of his meal into a nearby receptacle, and made his way back to the meeting.

---

I must say, this chapter was really enjoyable to write, especially in the dialogue between Sakron and Aquina. I also got to display exactly how most of the Toa under Great Spirit rule feel about their situation.

Reviews?