Miserix and Chiara watched Orde, Gelu, and Zaria disappear off into the blizzard. "Whatever's out there is coming this way," said Miserix. "And they're not being subtle about it." He and Chiara stood back to back, circling and waiting for their enemy to show up.
"Can't you do anything about this blizzard, Miserix?" asked Chiara. "I thought Makuta had the power to control the weather."
"Normally, yes, we do. But this storm feels… unnatural. I can't control it, and frankly I'd rather not know why. We should… just focus on the enemy." It was clear from the tone in his voice that he was scared. Scared: that was a word Chiara never thought she'd use to describe a Makuta. She never thought that she'd be fighting with one, either.
Chiara was about to respond, but was interrupted by laughter, maniacal laughter. "What's this, now?" called a voice, "A Toa and a Makuta working together? Oh, I never thought I'd see the day!"
"That voice… I know that voice…" Miserix's face twisted into a frown. "What are you doing here?" he yelled. "Why did you follow us?"
A response came from the opposite direction. "Oh, he remembers, does he?"
"He doesn't remember you, but he remembers me," said another voice, which sounded like the other voice. In fact, all the voices appeared to be the same person. But how was that possible?
"They're wondering right now what's going on." This response came from a third direction.
"Well, why don't we sate their curiosity?" A pair of glowing red dots appeared out of the snow.
"Stay back, Vezon!" yelled Miserix, spinning to face him.
"Vezon?" asked Chiara. "Who's Vezon?"
"He's a deranged Skakdi. He was a member of the team that helped free me from Artidax. He was also with us when we first came to this planet. He brought us here, actually, to help us free a Great Being." Chiara whirled to face him, anger on her face. "Before you say anything, he was positively insane. He was deranged; he couldn't have helped us with anything. And if you were me, you wouldn't have trusted him either."
"Oh, so cruel, Miserix," said Vezon as he stepped out of the snow into their view. "Why must you be so cruel to me?" He lunged at Miserix, who was able to brush him away easily with a lazy flick of his staff. Vezon flew through the air, landing on all fours, skidding backwards a short distance before coming to a stop. It was only a split second before Vezon lunged at them again, the tip of his staff pointed right at them. This time, Chiara brought her trident down on Vezon's back, slamming him into the ground.
"Why do you persist, Vezon?" asked Miserix, smirking. "You know that we can easily defeat you."
Chiara absentmindedly twirled her trident. "He's right. A Toa and Makuta against a crazy Skakdi. You know that we're going to win. So why do you continue to fight?"
Vezon slowly got to his feet, staggering around a bit before finding his balance and looking at them. "You can't begin to understand what goes through my mind anymore. Ever since meeting that Great Being, my mind has been opened to the wondrous things I could achieve, to the things that are possible in this world.
"I realized what I was capable of. And now that I know, nothing will stand in my way of achieving my destiny. Now, the two of you will either step aside, or I will make you."
Miserix and Chiara were silent for a moment. They looked at each other, then at Vezon, then back at each other. They burst out laughing.
"Well, why don't you make us, then?" Miserix called. "If you can make us, then do it, by all means."
Vezon began laughing as well. "Very well. Oh, brothers!" he called loudly, in a taunting voice. "It's time to come out and play!" He scraped his staff against his armor, making a rasping sound louder than they thought it was possible to make from something like that. "Come out!" he cried. "Come out!" He switched to banging his staff against his armor. "It's time!"
"Oh, happy day!" came another voice from behind them. It sounded remarkably like Vezon's own.
A second pair of eyes appeared, and a second Vezon stepped out into their field of view. It was a perfect facsimile; exactly like the first in every detail.
"And me? Do I get to have any fun?" Chiara whirled around to see a third Vezon coming out of the snow; it looked exactly like the first two.
"Don't forget about me," called another voice as a fourth came into view.
A cacophony of voices sounded as dozens of Vezons began to appear out of the snow in all directions.
"What is this, Vezon!" roared Miserix in anger. "What kind of illusion is this?"
The first Vezon smiled. "Oh, it's no illusion, Miserix! You wouldn't believe what one can do when they have a Mask of Dimensional Gates, especially the last one in existence." He cocked his head to one side. "I had a lot of time on my hands. And I was bored. Are you feeling confident now, Miserix?" His gigantic smile got even bigger.
Vezon laughed, the dozens of Vezons he'd brought laughing with him.
Miserix tightened his grip on his weapon. "Bring it on."
"Very well. Vezon spread his arms, and the remaining Vezons rushed the Makuta and the Toa.
"Miserix, duck!" yelled Chiara. He complied, and Chiara generating a pulse of lightning which spread out in a ring, shocking and knocking back the Vezons. She turned to the one Vezon left standing, smirking at him. "Is that all you can throw at us?" The Vezons got up and she merely did it again. But she noted with worry that they were quicker to get up this time, almost as if they were adapting.
"Oh, you noticed that, did you?" Vezon had clearly read something in her body language. "Yes, I gave them a few special… upgrades of my own." The other Vezons just stood there.
As he said that, Miserix's spear lanced through the head of a nearby Vezon, killing it instantly. "It seems that you didn't upgrade their heads. But we need a proper sample size." He lanced another Vezon. "Well, it appears I was right."
Vezon merely smiled. "More." A bright light flashed, forcing Miserix and Chiara to cover their eyes. When they removed their arms, they saw quite a few more Vezons than there had been before.
"Kill them."
The Vezons came. Miserix grabbed the first one that reached him and crushed its head in his hand, slicing the next one clean in half at the waist. When the next one came he speared it straight through, continuing on to the next, until his weapon had four bodies attached to it. With a flick of his wrist, he tore the bodies away, then bent to wipe the protodermis from his staff, his hind legs rearing and breaking the necks of the Vezons who continued to come.
Chiara wouldn't kill. As the Vezons came, she sent lance after lance of lightning through the crowd, the bolts arcing between bodies and burning them. She wouldn't kill, but the Toa Code didn't prohibit causing extreme pain, and she exploited that as much as she could.
Vezon frowned at the sight. The two seemed to be defeating all the copies he could throw at them. "More." Bright flashes appeared all around as even more Vezons appeared, hundreds upon hundreds of them. "Kill them! I don't care how, just kill them!"
They continued to come, and it was only a short time before Miserix and Chiara realized that they couldn't keep up; the Vezons were coming faster than they could defeat them. They were going to be overwhelmed. Just how many copies of himself did Vezon have?
They didn't know; they couldn't know. He could only have ten more, or ten thousand. They sincerely hoped it was the former, but they knew that it was more likely the latter. But they would just as rather not find out at all. In any case, they had to do something, or risk being overrun. So, in one last act of desperation, the two of them jumped into the air, letting the Vezons rushing into the now-empty space they had once occupied. The two of them, especially Miserix, landed on top of the Vezons hard, crushing them beneath their feet. Chiara stabbed her trident into the ground, using the conducting ability of the ground to shock all the Vezons, dropping them to the ground. They stood, seeing only the original Vezon standing now, the ground around them littered with the copies they'd defeated. There were so many, the ground couldn't be seen, and the falling snow had begun to cover the copies, making it look as if the battle had never even happened.
"More! MORE!" screamed Vezon, as versions of him began to appear faster than ever. Hundreds upon hundreds came in an instant, and despite their best efforts, Chiara and Miserix were buried under the sea of them.
The real Vezon smiled and sauntered up to the pile. "Hello?" he called to the two of them, who he knew couldn't answer back, "How is it under there? Comfortable?
"You know, once I acquired my newfound knowledge, I wondered what to do with it," he snickered. "But then I realized, what better way to use my new power than to get revenge on those who hated me? Like you, for example, Miserix. Your little Toa friend here is just collateral. I'm so sorry that she had to get caught up in this, but what else could she expect, running around with a Makuta?" He laughed uproariously. "You, both of you, have lived a long time. But no more. Miserix, Toa, today you die."
Thunder rang out from overhead. "You see, even the universe is acknowledging your soon-to-be nonexistence!" Static began to spark in the air around them. Vezon laughed.
A spark shocked Vezon on the shoulder. He stopped laughing. "Something's not right here." The sparks began to travel closer and closer to the pile of Vezons. "Oh no… she can't be…
"Get away!" Vezon yelled to the others. "Get away!" Crackles were heard in the air; they'd grown so loud that none of the Vezons could hear him. "Oh, you clever girl."
The pile of Vezons erupted in a bright blast of light; the Vezons flew back, almost as if they were being propelled by an explosion. Chiara had gone nova.
As the light diminished, there stood Chiara and Miserix, unharmed, and Chiara leaning heavily on Miserix. "See, I told you that we'd be safe. The safest place in a storm is at the center." She smirked at the original Vezon, the only one left standing. "What are you going to do now?" she asked him. "All of your copies are down and out. You have no one else."
Vezon smirked. "I know what happens after a Toa uses a nova blast. You're weak right now, very weak. My guess is that if Miserix weren't supporting you right now, you wouldn't be able to stand."
"It doesn't matter," shot back Miserix. "I'm strong enough to fight you, and all your little friends are down for the count. There's nowhere else to run."
"Oh, you really don't get it, do you?" asked Vezon. "All of my friends aren't here.
"For every choice we make, there exists a universe in which we didn't make that choice. And then each choice after that diverges into multiple universes, as well. And each choice after that yields even more, and so on, and so on. What you, Miserix, fail to comprehend, is that there are an infinite amount of universes, and therefore, an infinite amount of friends for me to call upon. I don't quite know if you grasp the meaning of the word 'infinite', Miserix, but it means something without end. So, for every version of me that you defeat, I have hundreds more that I can call upon. I have an inexhaustible supply of soldiers, all perfectly loyal to me, and only me. And what do you have? It's just you and a Toa who can barely stand. Face it, Miserix. You're out of your league! More!" Flashes of light abounded as even more Vezons appeared.
Chiara panted, "Miserix, we have to get out of here. He's right; I can't stand on my own. And if he can summon as many versions of himself as he wants, then the only hope is to take him out directly."
"I can hear you, you know," said Vezon. "I made very sure to only bring copies of myself that also had Olmaks on them."
"Then you only have a limited number of friends, Vezon."
Vezon sighed heavily, tapping his right foot impatiently. "What part of infinity don't you understand, Miserix?" There are an infinite amount of universes. That means there are an infinite amount of universes where I possess the Olmak, and an infinite amount of universes where I do not. No matter what you subtract from infinity, you still get infinity! Enough of this useless banter! Kill them both!"
Miserix used his Makuta power of teleportation to disappear, right as all the Vezons were about to reach them, which caused Vezon to erupt in anger. "Find them! Kill them! I don't care how! I don't care how long it takes! Just find them!"
Miserix heard Vezon plainly from the nearby outcropping he'd hidden himself and Chiara behind when he teleported. His breathing was ragged, his body exhausted. He and Chiara, Chiara especially, were completely out of strength. "Just hold on," he whispered to her, so Vezon couldn't hear. "I'll get us to Surel, even if it kills me. We'll get to Orde and Zaria. You're going to die someday, but today is not that day, do you hear me?"
"Oh, I hear you, alright." Shocked at hearing that voice, Miserix quickly looked up to see a Vezon standing on top of the outcropping. "Thank you for the information on this Surel character. We had no idea there were other Toa in these mountains!" A grin spread across his face; it looked like his face was about to rip apart. "I'll be off to tell my doppelgangers now!" He disappeared before Miserix could do anything.
Miserix slung Chiara over his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck, holding them there with one hand. "Just hold on. I'll find their path; I'll get us to Surel." With his other hand, Miserix hefted his staff. "Hang in there." It was no use; she was unconscious. He had to get her to Surel and get her warm before her bodily systems ceased to function.
Miserix concentrated, teleporting back to the place where they parted ways with Orde and Zaria, or at least as close as he could get from memory. He began backing up along the path they'd gone along, glancing backwards occasionally to make sure he was still going the right direction. He was just waiting for the inevitable attack he knew Vezon would launch.
"Leave… me…" choked out Chiara. "I'm… done for. Leave me…"
"No! No one else dies today!" cried Miserix.
"Oh, does that apply to me as well?" Vezon stepped out of the snow into Miserix's visual range.
Miserix's eyes narrowed. "Hell has a special place reserved just for you, Vezon, and I'll drag you there myself if I have to. You've committed too much evil, too many atrocities, to be allowed to continue to live. So, no, it doesn't apply to you as well, Vezon." Now, Miserix adopted a grim smile of his own, which caused Vezon to back away. "What's the matter, Vezon? Scared?" He bared his teeth in a feral snarl. "You should be. Once you're dead, I'm going to mount your body on a spike for the planet to see, an example of what will happen to those who act like you."
"Fine, go ahead. Kill me if you want. But to kill me, you'll have to get to me first!" Vezon retreated back into the snow, as more copies of him appeared. As they came at him, it was all Miserix could do to raise his arm to block their attacks, and occasionally push one back, all the while moving backwards. He wasn't going to last long, but he had to. He had to go beyond his limits; he was a Makuta, and Vezon and all of his little friends were going to learn that the hard way. Today they were all going to die.