Ta-da! Another chapter. Sorry it took so long. But, it's longer than other chapters. That's a plus, right? Thanks to Kaimaler, Nameless Reviewer, InTheLight1396, TasumiDreamer, hawkclaw, Mata Nui's 1 Fan, and levelupluigi for your great reviews. :)

Disclaimer: If you can't figure it out by now...leave.

A.J. set down her tools and sighed. Life at the clinic was ridiculously dull without Linda around. She looked out the window at the street connecting most of the buildings. She shook her head. It had been nearly four days since Linda had fled town, and A.J. was the only one still wondering and worrying about her. She had tried to get someone to go out and try to find the girl, but no one was interested in possibly risking their lives to look for a troublemaking runaway. Tyrone and Lola were simply happy to be rid of her. Of course, she was now the only one in town who knew they weren't alone on the island. What if she had run into one of the natives? What would they do to her? What was going to happen to the other humans? A.J. shook her head and went back to her work, trying to keep her mind off of that. Linda, you'd better be okay out there. I've lost enough people in my life already.

Linda woke up feeling stiff and sore. She sat up and groaned as her muscles loudly protested against moving. The Ta-Matoran jumping on her from behind certainly didn't help.

"You're finally awake!" Takua cried. "You were asleep for so long, we were starting to think you were dead or something!"

" How long was I asleep?"

"About eight hours."

Linda's eyebrows scrunched together. "That's not that long. Not for humans, anyway."

"Well, come on!" Takua impatiently grabbed her hand and tugged hard, earning an "Ow!" from his human friend. "Toa Gali came while you were sleeping and she's been waiting to meet you!"

"Another Toa?" Linda asked. "OW! Stop pulling, I can get up on my own." Linda managed to get her hand back and stood up. Takua grabbed the leg of her jeans and tried to drag her along.

"Hurry up!"

Linda lengthened her strides to deliberately overtake Takua.

"HEY, wait up!"

Linda laughed. "Make up your mind, why don't ya."

She rounded a corner and stopped short at the sight of Tahu standing with a blue-armored Toa. This new Toa was slimmer and a little shorter than Tahu, but still tall enough to be very intimidating to a human. Something about her was creepily familiar, but Linda couldn't quite get her finger on it.

Takua smacked into the back of her legs, fell down, then picked himself up. "Um…Here she is, Toa," he stammered.

"Thank you, Takua," Tahu replied. "Gali, this is Linda. Linda, this is Gali, Toa of Water."

Linda suddenly noticed how dry her throat was, both from thirst and anxiety. Was Gali going to be like Tahu? Or—

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Linda," Gali said in a kind tone. "Tahu has told me a good deal about you."

Oh, great, Linda thought. She forced out a, "Hello," and crossed her arms over her chest, left arm over her right. Then it hit her.

"You tended my wounds, didn't you?"

Gali smiled and nodded. Linda smiled as well. "Thank you," she said. "I appreciate it."

Tahu cut in, "Well, I'll leave you to get to know each other. See you later."

The two females watched him go, then turned to face each other. Linda swallowed hard and cleared her throat. "Sooo…" she started. "What do you want to ask me?"

"How do you know I want to ask you anything?"

"Why else would you be here?" Linda uncrossed her arms and set her hands on her hips. "Plus, I'm a human, and that's apparently a big deal. So you want to talk to me to find out what humans are like."

Gali blinked once, then nodded. "Yes, I am learning they are apparently quite perceptive, or mind-readers."

Linda laughed, remembering what she had thought about Gali in Vakama's hut. "Some of us. Others are denser than solid mercury and the only way to get through to them is to smack them upside the head."

Gali chuckled. "Strange. I know someone fitting that description perfectly. Humans don't seem very different from us, in that respect."

Linda grinned and turned, walking in the direction of the south wall. She had never liked just standing in the middle of a room…or village. Gali easily caught up with her and kept pace as Linda talked some more, the words coming surprisingly easily, like the times she and A.J. had talked.

"I'm glad someone thinks so. I mean, Takua and Jaller are great, but…" she shrugged. "I don't know."

She reached the wall and set her hands on a couple rough protrusions in the wall. She gripped them tightly and looked down at her feet, trying to locate some kind of footholds. Gali watched her scrape the toes of her shoes against the wall. "Um, what are you doing?"

"I wanna see if I can climb the wall."

"Why?"

"I saw Tahu hanging out up there and I wanna try," Linda replied, smiling as she found a place where her toe fit. With a grunt, she lifted herself off the ashy ground and set her other foot on a rock sticking out from the wall. Slowly, she began to climb, holding herself up by her fingertips and toes. Gali shrugged and jumped to the top of the wall. As Linda slowly drew near the top, Gali knelt down and offered her hand, but Linda shook her head.

Several exhausting minutes later, her hand finally grasped the edge of the top of the wall. She strained to lift herself up, and Gali firmly clasped her forearm and pulled her the rest of the way.

"Thanks," Linda sat cross-legged on the wall and looked out. "Whoa."

The village was surrounded by lava, and beyond that, tall, craggy mountains. Farther than that, she could see a forest of charred and dead trees. Gali sat down next to her as Linda rested her elbows on her knees.

"Well, I guess I won't be leaving any time soon," she remarked. Gali frowned, wondering if she caught a not-unexpected hint of disappointment.

"Do you want to?" she asked the human.

Linda shrugged. "Welllll…yeah, I'd like to. I mean, not that I don't like Ta-Koro, but I'm not all that fond of being fenced in either." She smirked. "It doesn't help that, when you're not here, the only other female in the entire village is a crab. Did someone in here really want female companionship or something?"

Gali laughed. "It's not so much to keep you in anymore. It's more to keep other humans from finding you, and then us. We don't want the Matoran to get hurt."

Linda muttered something under her breath. Gali frowned. "Do you wish you could go home?"

Linda appeared to look at the Toa thoughtfully, but she was really staring into space. "Sure," she said at last. "But…I don't think I know where that is."

"The human village?"

"No, I know where THAT is," Linda replied. "Takua showed me a map. I don't mean the human village. That place…I'm mostly glad I'm not living there anymore. I'll bet no one's even looking for me."

"Why?"

Linda shifted her position so she was sitting more upright and laced her fingers around one knee. "Well, I only had one friend in village. And she's the village physician, so she never leaves."

"Couldn't she send someone to look for you?"

"Not likely," Linda scowled at the far shore of the lava lake. "Everyone else probably thinks I'm not worth the trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't do as much work as some others. I was constantly sneaking out of town and supposedly slacking off. And I let the Matoran go and ran away when I was going to be punished."

Gali blinked in surprise. "You'd left the village before?"

Linda glanced at Gali and shrugged. "Yeah, but I never made it out of the jungle. The point is, I'm really just a runaway juvenile delinquent to them. Whatever I get, I deserve it, so why bother with me?"

Gali gazed at the human sympathetically. Linda sensed this and stiffened. "Don't go feeling sorry for me," she said coldly, not looking at the Toa. "I'm fine with no one caring."

I don't believe that, Gali thought.

"But… wasn't there someone who raised you?"

Linda spit into the lava. "Yeah, there were two people with that job, but they hate me. I just know they're glad I'm gone." She rubbed the bandage on her forearm with her fingertips. "I don't care if I never go back there again," she continued bitterly. "In fact, I hope I don't ever see that place again."

Gali looked at the human in surprise. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"It's fine," Linda cut her off. "You didn't know about it. Now you do. Just please don't start treating me like a pathetic helpless little child."

"Alright. Just one more question about what happened before, and not another word after that."

"Deal. Shoot."

"Why is your arm bandaged? You seem…secretive…about it, like you're trying to hide it."

Linda's eyes dropped to her bandage. "It's nothing, really. It's just…" She shrugged. "My 'guardians'," she did air quotes at the word, "gave me some cuts for…something, I don't even remember what. A.J., the friend I told you about, bandaged it up, but I guess it's just some kind of habit to hide what they did. Everyone who saw them just assumed I did it and made fun of me."

Gali kneeled beside Linda. "So, is that why you were so upset when Tahu got rid of your…" Gali paused, trying to remember the word.

"My jacket," Linda finished. "Yeah. If you don't have cuts and scars showing, no one immediately assumes you have issues. I guess, even when they're covered with bandages, I still think I should hide them."

"I see," Gali remarked softly. "Well, thank you for answering that."

"You're welcome." Linda got an idea. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Alright. What?"

"Why don't you like humans? I mean, Takua only talked to me because I helped him escape, Jaller only talked to me because Takua introduced me, and every other Matoran has just stared at me from a distance. Tahu thinks he has to threaten to make me want to die."

Gali jumped to her feet, eyes flashing. "Tahu WHAT?"

"He said if I gave him one good reason to cause the Matoran harm, he'd make me wish he'd kill me."

Well, he'd never mentioned this little bit. Gali turned sharply on her heel and jumped off the wall. Linda scrambled to her feet and yelled, "HEY! YOU NEVER ANSWERED MY QUESTION!" She frowned. Gali was probably looking for Tahu. Maybe to beat him up. She seems mad enough. Linda grinned widely. Oh, there is absolutely no way I am missing this.

Okay, so in the previous chapter, I said Tahu was going apologize to Linda. And now you are reading the chapter and he hardly talks to her. And so...I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY XC Believe me, I had planned for that, but then the more-than-a-page-long Linda-Gali dialog came up, so I ended up having to postpone it. Sorry, again. But, on the bright side, in the next chapter, (and I really mean it!) Tahu WILL apologize, but first he will have to cower before a seriously ticked-off female Toa!:D See, this will be worth the wait, which I promise to make as short as possible.

Please review. It motivates me to know people are enjoying this. :)