A/N: It's been far too long. Things have been difficult, but we won't get into that here. Many thanks to all those who sent messages, it's very much appreciated. So, without further ado:

The Masks We Wear Chapter 18

Worm/Bionicle

Crucible 2.1

Breathe in.

Hold.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Hold.

Breathe out.

I sat, eyes closed and legs crossed, delving deep within the realms of my own mind; searching through the fleeting darkness for that which eluded me.

A shape began to take form in my mind, one with which I was intimately familiar.

Shining, strengthened steel, forged into Protodermis by my very own hands. Hatched grooves running along the haft of the weapon, to strengthen my grip. Balanced and weighted just right. The blade, infused with the-

"Taylor!"

Gone, my train of thought severed as soon as I heard the call of my name. With a sigh, I opened my eyes to the sight of metal particles laying across my hands and legs, glinting in the light from overhead.

"Yes Lisa?"

I brushed the metal flakes off of myself as I stood, rubbing my brow as I responded to my friend's call.

"Sophia and Stephanie are back. You may want to hear this."

"Right. On my way."

"So Artakha, you must have a pretty good reason as to why I wanted you in my office."

"Yes Director, I do."

I wiped down my clothes in an attempt to make myself neater, before giving it up as a lost cause and making my way out of my workshop into the corridor. My feet padded quietly down the metal hallway, my well-worn trainers making hardly a sound as I traversed the path in my mind.

"You're making life very difficult for me. You and your team. You've been making accusations against us. Against the PRT and Protectorate as a whole. Are you taking into account the things you're saying, or do you think that no-one would take advantage of a perceived weakness?"

"No Director. It wasn't my intent to cause you problems. We are on the same side after all. But I will not take back what I said. If that has made your life difficult, then I am sorry. But it is true. And if it means you will be motivated to prove me wrong, then all the better."

"But I can admit when I am wrong. You, the Protectorate that is, have been fighting the gangs for years. It is one of the things I dislike about the Protectorate after all; more time fighting Villains, less time saving people. But I did the same thing. I went out and started playing Whack-A-Mole, expecting it to work."

"And it didn't. Tell me, you're not stupid Artakha, the way you and your team performed at Winslow proves otherwise. You knew this before you started. So why did you?"

I turned the corner, the two-foot thick slab of Protodermis that acted as a door sliding into the walls as I approached, opening up into the operations centre. Lisa, as always, was sitting in her chair in the middle of the bank of screens that made up the majority of one wall, Sophia leaning over her shoulder and pointing at various points on one of the screens, currently showing a map of the city.

Stephanie was nearby, towelling off her long hair as she stood behind the pair, frowning at something I couldn't see, glancing from screen to screen occasionally. The fourth member of the party however, was a bit more unexpected. Ignika stood off to one side, a frown marring his normally calm features, brows pinched together in worry.

"Hey Guys, Ignika. What is it I need to know?"

"Huh, of course you'd notice that. Well, to put it bluntly, it's a matter of respect. Of PR if you will."

"Explain."

"When I first started out, no-one knew me, who I was, what I could do. And I preferred it that way, security through obscurity. And it worked well enough. At first. But when I got my powers, I got a… warning, a vision of things to come. Of an enemy I have to prepare for. And I'm not being melodramatic. And I think someone already knows. My team and I were attacked, right after our fight at Winslow, we were taken somewhere I have never seen before and… copied us."

"Copied you?"

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't think it was important for you to know. Those copies of myself and my team, they… they were as if everything I, we loved, they hated. I looked into her eyes, the other me, and saw nothing but hate. And the worst part is, they had variants of our own powers. So don't fear Director. Our time competing with you is over I've realised I need to shift our focus so we can be more effective. But first, we need to speak of this cloner, and what may be coming…"

Almost as one, my friends looked up at the sound of my voice.

"Hey, Taylor. Come take a look at this."

Sophia gestured to the screen as she spoke, the worried frown on her face not abating in the slightest. Worried, I took a few steps forward until I was standing beside the group hustled around Lisa's chair.

"What's wrong? Did the receiver nodes not work?"

"No, they worked fine, we now have full coverage over the city. We'll know if we receive an extra-solar ping. That's not the issue."

I sighed in relief despite myself. The obvious early warning system to prepare for the inevitable arrival of the Makuta would have been a satellite, or a space station equipped with detection and imaging tech. But with the Simurgh floating around, that wasn't possible. The other idea I'd been able to come up with had been based on the notion that the Makuta didn't know where the Ignika crashed, so he wouldn't know precisely where Earth was. That meant he had to search for us. And so I made a 'net', so to speak. A system of antennae placed at strategic places round the city to detect the scan he used to find us. It wasn't perfect. But it was the best I could do for now.

"Yeah. We got the last one planted, at the furthest edge of the boat Graveyard. But while we were there, we saw something." Stephanie elaborated, gesturing between herself and Sophia with her towel as she spoke. "It looked like someone wearing our armour. Just sitting there on the water watching us."

"Sitting on the water?" I echoed, before something else caught up with me. "Wait, wearing Toa armour?"

"Yes." She nodded in response. "But the second I saw her, she sank and disappeared. I got it on my helmet cam, look."

Reaching over, she leaned past Lisa, prodding a couple of buttons, bringing up an image on the main screen. There, crouching half-in and half-out of the water was a figure. The screen sharpened the image as it fought against the slight motion blur from the movement of Stephanie's head as the image was recorded, but the picture was clear enough to recognise the Matoran Universe technology the figure carried.

The figure's armour was crude, bulky and unwieldy. But it was worryingly complete looking for the timeframe we were looking at. The girl was wearing a black body stocking under the armour, much like the one we used, but that was where the similarities ended. Instead of ergonomic, light armour, she wore large, blocky armour over her chest, forearms and shins. External supports connected the shoulder plates to the elbows, and the same was mirrored between her hips and knees. The sturdiness and size of the helmet cemented my first impression. This wasn't armour as I'd been making it. This was power armour. Crude and a first design, most certainly, but most definitely power armour.

"Well." I swallowed as the implications hit me. "This is great."

"Really?"

Sophia's exclamation pulled my attention away from the screen as she stared at me, shock in her eyes.

"Do I really need to tell you what this means?" She ranted, balling her fists as she strode toward me, forcing her words out through gritted teeth as she fumed.

"You're not stupid enough not to recognise your own work, so that thing should be recognisable. Add that to the fact that it's using some form of water manipulation power, and that's without mentioning it was watching us can only mean one thing."

"Our clones are here. Here! In our home, the city you swore to fix! They're right here, under our noses, could be doing anything, and the only thing you can say is that this is great!?"

I stood there for a moment, watching as she stared me down, almost nose to nose, anger and panic wafting off her in almost palpable waves.

"It is." I started once I was sure my friend wasn't going to start yelling at me again. "But not in the way you think." I added quickly once Sophia's face started to screw up in frustration once more. "They've presumably been watching us for a while. But we've caught them now. We know they're watching us. And we've tipped their hand. If they're going to move against us, they have to do it soon. We can prepare for that. We know that there is the possibility of an attack now."

I took in a breath as Sophia backed down, the girl grunting in agreement as she stepped back.

"Lisa."

Turning my attention to the girl in the chair, I focused once more on the problem at hand.

"How likely is it that they know where the sensors are? And are they going to attack them?"

A moment passed as the blonde thought, before she turned back to the map of the city.

"Yeah they know where the sensors are. In fact they knew where you were gonna place each one, hence the Emma clone being there for the last one. They've probably had someone shadowing us when we placed each one. But if they were gonna attack them, they would have by now."

"Well that is indeed a relief. It appears that this double is more stable than the last copy from the Spear I encountered."

I tilted my head at Ignika's words.

"Previous copy?" Stephanie inquired. "You mean Vezon?"

"Indeed." Came the response. "Whilst he was a capable guardian, I would not have accused him of being sane. It is a relief that this 'Karzahni' is more aligned to her prime than he."

"That said." I interrupted, "Why aren't they attacking the sensors?"

"Uh. Good point." Lisa hummed as she turned her attention to the question I'd posed.

"Well they think they can… use it?"

Dead silence.

"So…"

Stephanie was the one to break the silence.

"Are they going to kill us all and take our places or is this an enemy of my enemy is my friend thing?"

I sighed, rubbing my brow as I considered her statement.

"Thanks for that image Steph. Not like I wanted to sleep tonight."

"Sorry."

Sighing once more as Lisa quietly snickered at the byplay, I pushed the matter from my mind as hard as I could.

"Right. Moving on." I declared as I thought of something, anything that was relevant.

"Lisa, do you have the tapes sorted yet?"

"Yeah. All synced and cut. Was ready a few days ago. You ready to put it up?"

The tapes in question were from the attack on Winslow and other outings we'd had since. As much as I'd made peace with the PRT and Protectorate over their attitude to collateral damage and priorities, it didn't mean I still wasn't annoyed with them. It didn't mean I still didn't believe that the title of 'Hero' shouldn't be given out like candy at a fair, that they should be helping people instead of making fighting villains their priority. Taking the helmet cam footage of our outings seemed to be the best way to show the public that we would suit words to actions. That it gave us more transparency and exposure didn't hurt either.

"Yeah. Putting it on our own Thread on PHO should be good."

"Speaking of PHO, there's something you should see."

I looked over her shoulder as she changed the screen once more, this time to an instantly familiar sight; a PHO thread. Specifically, one of the Vs threads. Evidently a gang war taking place outside a school was newsworthy enough to filter through to other cities. Naturally, that meant people on PHO that knew of us weren't necessarily from Brockton Bay. As evidenced by the title of the thread;

The Toa of Brockton Bay.

Seeing that I'd read the first page, Lisa swept her hand across the screen, the thread scrolling down the pages until it stopped at a specific section. Interestingly enough, someone had misquoted the title of the thread, and the new name caught on, the posters referencing the name more and more often, until it was all that was seen.

"Huh. Interesting."

And it was. What were the odds that a community that had no idea of Matoran naming conventions would choose the same name that almost every other Toa team had, depending on their duties. Almost as if it was fate.

"The Toa Brockton eh?"

"Hey, Taylor!"

I turned around from pushing my things into my locker, meeting the brilliant smile of the girl behind me.

"Hey, Madison. How was your weekend? Visiting your Aunt right"

The small girl bounced on the balls of her feet as she replied.

"Yep! It was okay, boring really, but I got to see my cousins again so I guess it's cool. Did you do anything interesting?"

I smirked to myself as I closed my locker before turning to respond.

"No. Not really. So I'm guessing you didn't finish the World Issues study then?"

I smiled at the girl's groan. While the girl in front of me had only approached us to take advantage of my brains, Emma's looks and Sophia's muscle, she didn't appear to have any ulterior motives beyond protecting herself from the various gangs that infested Winslow. Not that I could blame her. But while the rest of the students and teachers seemed to be fooled by her act, my time spent with Lisa meant I could see right through her.

"How can you always tell Taylor? I swear you're a Thinker or something!"

"No, not really." I drawled. Lisa was the Thinker, not me. "Just observant. Anyway, you can just bat your lashes at Gladly and he'll let you off right?"

"Errrghhh! You don't have to put it like that!" The girl laughed, cringing back for effect before the bell cut her off. Shouldering my bag, I started toward the aforementioned World Issues class. As I walked along chatting to Madison, I noticed the changes that had been happening in Winslow over the recent weeks were still holding strong. Evidently, all it takes to curtail the gang presence in the school is to have a team of Toa based there. Go figure.

Sitting down in my chair, slinging my bag over the back of my chair as I traded greetings with my classmates, I watched Mr Gladly bring up a familiar video on the whiteboard. A small smile flit across my lips as I realised that once again, the lesson would be based on us. Ever since The Battle of Winslow as PHO was now calling it, Mr Gladly had been all too willing to incorporate us into each of his lessons in an attempt to make them more interesting, and it seemed that today was no exception.

"Morning everyone! I hope you've all got your essays with you today, as I'll be taking them in at the end of the lesson, but before that, we'll be looking at something that I'm sure you've all taken notice of over this weekend; the Toa Brockton's mission files."

Excited murmuring echoed around the classroom at the announcement. Mr Gladly allowed the murmurs to continue for a moment before waving for quiet and continuing.

"Now now, I know you're excited, but please try to pay attention. Now the Toa Brockton have publically stated that their focus is on supporting people and saving those in danger rather than fighting Villains. Now this may seem like the same thing, but the small differences in the way they fight, and when, can paint a very different picture. There are various instances of the Toa abandoning a fight in progress to save a bystander, and the way they fight supports this. Today we'll be looking at two of the newer members of the Toa, Matoro and Palisade specifically how they fit the Toa's stated goals. Can anyone tell me the way the two I've mentioned fight differently from the rest of their team?"

I smirked behind my hand as people started throwing answers forward. Maybe it wasn't as difficult to put ourselves forward as I'd first thought.

"HOW MANY!?"

"Forty Two."

Once again, silence permeated the operations room at Ignika's statement. I sat there blinking as I processed the information. We were sitting round one of the tables on the far side of the room, everyone's attention firmly on Ignika. After our defeat by the Parahuman that had spawned clones of Emma and Sophia, I'd made sure Ignika got round to telling us about the enemy that we may someday have to face. Last week he'd told us about the history of the Makuta. Today he was telling us about the main component of the Makuta's army. The Rahkshi.

"F-forty Two types!?"

"Indeed. Each one has a signature staff design and colouration from the other types. For instance the Rahkshi of fear are predominantly red, and their staff resembles a flame in design. The poison Rahkshi are predominantly green and have a staff that is-"

"Stop, stop stop! Okay, we get the picture. We'll be here all day if you continue. Just write it down or something and we can read over it later. In the meantime, is there any other faction that's likely to support the Makuta?"

I breathed out a sigh of relief as Lisa cut off the lecture we were sure to receive. I knew The Makuta would have had something worrying up his sleeve, so to speak, but the sheer variety was horrifying.

"There are the Visorak. The closest approximation I can think of her is Spiders. Beside their pincers, their main method of attack is their Rhotuka. Naturally, they have different effects depending upon which of the seven sub-species they belong to."

Ignoring Lisa's groan, Ignika continued on.

"Arguably the most dangerous sub-species of the Visorak is the Kahgarak. Its Rhotuka has the ability to open a portal to a realm known as the Field of Shadows. It mainly uses this for summoning the beast known as the-"

Ignika was cut off as a glowing circular hole opened in the space behind his head. The portal glowed such a bright blue the light was almost white. I froze as memories of the last time I'd seen such a portal assaulted me.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when an absurdly tall figure came soaring out of the portal, knocking Ignika off his chair and onto the floor. I was already in my armour, my heart beating in my ears, by the time the pair hit the ground.

I raised my spear as more figures came tumbling through the portal, two dark armoured figures and a blue and gold armoured figure.

The first figure stood up to his full height, using the back of Ignika's head as a crutch to stand. He was a steel grey being, with crimson eyes and an almost cartoonish grin that spread around his face and looked anything but funny. I swallowed.

Vezon.

Just as I recognized the Skakdi from Ignika's descriptions, he took a step backwards, fell over the still prone form of Ignika, and promptly fell into another portal that appeared from nowhere, vanishing entirely. Ignoring the weirdness of the magical teleporting Skakdi, I vaulted over the table, holding my spear to the throat of the nearest figure.

I barely had time to think of something to keep them down before a blast of shadow energy lifted me off my feet and slammed me against the far wall. As my head rang from the impact, I watched as the rest of my team sprang into action, but not before the second black figure raised its palm and fired a similar burst of shadow into the one that attacked me, slamming the shadow-bearer into the bank of screens above the console.

Huh. The first figure had shadow like Ignika described the Makuta's; a beam of malice, a black core with red highlights thrown through the energy, whereas the second was more like Sophia's breaker form; wispy inky blackness, but it also had traces of the red energy tracing through it as well.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I scrambled to my feet in time to see Shadow Stalker rush the blue figure, daggers in hand, before a wave of invisible force swept her across the room and pinned her against the door. The figure yelled something in a language I didn't understand, but was cut off by the first black figure throwing a fully armoured Palisade into her.

As both the blue stranger and my teammate crashed to the floor in a pile of limbs, Fragarach's synthesised voice sounded in my ear.

"Wait! They're on our side!"

"I kind of doubt that!" Shouted Spectre, flinching as the chair she'd ducked behind for cover exploded in a mass of sawdust and ruined metal as a shadow blast annihilated it.

"Not him, the other two!"

And now the thought had been put in my head, things began adding up. The armour, warped though it was on the second black figure, vaguely resembled the armour that Ignika had mentioned the Toa Nuva wore, and now I was paying more attention, the blue figure wore a Calix much like my own.

Whatever thoughts I would have had next were driven from my head as a piercing pain assaulted me. I was barely able to see the rest of my team, bar Ignika, sink to the floor in pain as they clutched their heads. I gasped as symbols, meanings and syllables flashed through my head, the understanding of the entirety of an alien language being implanted into my head in less than a second. I winced, feeling the knowledge almost overwhelm me as I clutched at my temples, and then as suddenly as it had begun, the pain stopped.

I gasped once more, feeling light-headed at the sudden loss of pain, and the just-as-sudden wealth of information that had come fully formed into my head. Blinking tears away from my eyes, I struggled to refocus on the matter at hand, namely the three intruders in our base. The first black figure, which I could now see was wearing jet-black armour, almost looking like a cut-out in the air, had moved toward the teleportation pad at the opposite end of the room.

"Stop him!" Yelled the blue being, one that I now recognised as a Toa. "Stop him quickly! He's an agent of The Makuta!"

Her yell sent a bolt of lightning down my spine as the words hit me. Without any hesitation, I span, calling upon the power of the Sanok as I moved, throwing both my spear, then my shield at the still-moving Toa at the far end of the room. Unfortunately, the Toa's yell was too late, as the black Toa reached the pad just before my weapons did, and with a tap of his armoured foot against the Kanoka, he was gone.

I sat there stunned for a moment, trying to process everything that had just happened, fear threading through my mind as I tried to parse through this.

It couldn't be happening now! It was too soon! I didn't have anywhere near the power or methods needed to fight the magnitude of the enemy that Ignika seemed convinced we were to face.

No! I couldn't think like that now. We would know if he was on his way. But that didn't mean this couldn't be rectified.

"Shadow Stalker, Tuyet, Palisade, Spectre! I need you to go after him! We can't let him get away and have free roam of the city! Fragarach, get the console back up! We need to know where he is now!"

Panic laced my voice even as I yelled, hoping against hope that we could salvage this.

"But what about you?"

I turned my head As Tuyet paused beside me, tendrils of water still coiling around her form as she stared warily at the two Toa standing cautiously off to one side.

"Matoro and I'll be able to keep an eye out. It's more important we catch this agent. I'll be fine, now go!"

Tuyet nodded, before taking one last look at the two newcomers and sprinting to the teleportation pad, four flashes of light heralding their departure.