The flight to the City of Mask Makers had been a restless one. Despite the absence of any Elemental Guardians, Keela's mind stayed on them, on Izotor's Glacier, and on the Guardians' master. Uram. A simple name, but it kept even Protector Ferra on edge, even as she walked off the airship and through the city streets with Keela.

"I'll be in the marketplace. We're going to need a lot of materials, so I'll take a while" Ferra said, almost grumbling to Keela. However sickly she may have been after the flight, she tried not to reveal the Stone fragment of Makuta's Mask.

"Are you sure?" Keela asked quietly, meaning the fragment the Toa held close to her hip.

"Nothing else we can do," Ferra shrugged, her tone unusually low. "You should go. We'll meet up in a few hours."

As she heaved the satchel with the fragment in, Keela glanced to the crowd. "And them?"

"Leave that to me. Gotta break the news some time, I guess." Ferra sighed and turned, her guards flanking her to give an image of authority and to draw eyes away from Keela.

The distraction let the Toa of Iron leave the crowd. She would have marveled at the architecture and analyze every little facet of engineering. However, distant whispers of "attacking Izotor's Glacier" and "Kaze the traitor" set Keela towards the Temple of Creation. It awaited for her atop the hill, and so did the statues by its entrance. The temple's long hall greeted Keela's scope when she took a few steps in. "So much knowledge here," she murmured.

Keela's hand trailed on a wall. On that wall were pictographs of colorful planets and figures, telling a story from five hundred years ago. A story about timeless heroes sent to face a lord of spiders and awaken a mask maker... but something seemed off. Keela wasn't sure what but-

"What are you doing here?" askes a familiar green Toa who landed at the temple's entrance

Keela turned to the Toa of Air, her visible eye wide with relief. "Kaze? It's good to see your wounds have healed-"

Kaze cut her off. "Enough pleasantries. Voriki sent me. Now answer the question."

Though taken aback, Keela answered calmly, "I'm trying to look for clues." She walked down the long hall, and Kaze followed. "Ever since Izotor's Glacier, something has been bothering me."

"And that is?"

"It's what Uram told me." Behind, Kaze's grip tightened on his bow. Keela continued, staring at the wall in front of her, "When we were fighting, he mentioned what the Protectors used to summon us. An incantation of some kind. The Protectors stated they gained that knowledge from here, so I hope to find… well, something. Answers, I hope."

"There is more, obviously."

Keela glanced to Kaze. How had he figured her out? "Yes," Keela said after a moment and went back to studying. "From what Ferra told me, this place used to be the very forge that made masks on this island. It held all sorts of knowledge that can help us. Maybe we can even win."

"I doubt that," Kaze hummed, catching Keela's eye again. "If we win, this victory will only belong to the Okotans. Even then, things may return to the way they were before. And for us…"

Keela's scope extended to study Kaze who fell silent. For a moment, the Toa of Air stared at the heroic figures on the wall and he looked... sad. Kaze had seen while he was under that black mask. Guessing what it was, Keela reached a hand. "Kaze…"

Kaze's glare whirled, glowing harshly as it always had. He willed an energy arrow and aimed it down the hall. Kaze hadn't fired, but his voice turned into a low growl. "He's here."

Keela whirled to the other end of the hall. When her scope confirmed Kaze's words, one hand went for her hammer and the other curled on her satchel. She would need all she had to protect the fragment. They had lost one already. They couldn't lose another. "Be careful," Keela whispered to Kaze, "I'm detecting several vines beneath the stone."

Kaze willed two more arrows onto his readied bow. Step by step, he and Keela slowly stalked down the hall. The two Toa watched for anything to attack them, particularly the hidden vines Keela had spoken of. Other vines were more obvious, crawling over the hall and emerging by the cloaked figure waiting inside the Protectors' meeting chamber.

"Welcome, Toa," Uram greeted from Torren's seat, "I was wondering when you would arrive."

"How did you even get in here?" Keela asked Uram, her gaze cautious.

Under his hood, Uram's eyes smiled. "The others never told you of the secret entrances. Of course... They are like that, even after all this time. I'm glad I have no regrets for my actions."

Keela shook her head to Kaze, telling him to not fire. They needed to be careful. Holding onto her satchel, Keela slowly trailed to the part of the chamber's wall that was farthest from Uram. "You seem to have your own secrets, too," Keela began, sparing a glance over several inscriptions. "After all, you know about all of this."

"Yes… I used to spend my youthful days here… Everyone paid no attention to the old legend of the brothers, of the prophecy, but I did…" After scouring the chamber, the nostalgia under Uram's hood became a far-off glare. "They came to me for everything because of that. I gave them what I could find, and it was never enough. They always wanted more. Always to one-up each other…"

Kaze's fingers switched, and Keela shook her head again. She needed more. "What are you planning? Just what do you want?" Keela pressed Uram.

"It is simple," he spoke. "I am here for the piece of Makuta's mask. And I know you have one."

"What makes you think we'll give it to you?" Kaze growled.

"Because you won't escape easily. And you don't know how to wield its power, even for Toa skilled as yourself and your friend here." Uram smirked to Kaze. "Well… one former ravager."

Keela worryingly saw Kaze's red glare go crimson with rage. "No, don't-!" she shouted, but the Toa of Air had already fired his arrows.

Three vines emerged from the walls in loud cracks and quickly whipped over to Uram. In seconds, the arrows had incinerated the vines into ashes, but more appeared to surround their master. To Keela, one eye stared at a cursing Kaze and one scope found the vines' origins to be the green-glowing Jungle fragment of Makuta's Mask. Holding it, Uram said, "Take care of him."

With a boom, stone flew into the air, and the Jungle Guardian appeared from beneath the floor. Its bug-like form, and its own green vines, zoomed by Keela's scope to tackle Kaze down the hall. More vines from Uram's fragment vines blocked her from helping, so she turned back to the table. "Now, that is out of the way, I'll speak more freely," Uram began again as he stood and trailed the wall of the chamber. "You're here for answers about what I said, and I can give what you want."

Keela's scope glared at Uram."You think you can come here and expect me to give you the piece in exchange for answers?"

"I plan to take the piece, one way or another. But I'm here on behalf of another."

"Another? You mean…?" Keela's mind flashed back to hearing the words "dark flame" from a slumbering Zala by Kivoda City and a wounded Kaze in Izotor's Glacier. Uram's stare confirmed her thoughts. "If that's true, then what makes you think your 'master' won't turn against you?"

"He has never steered me wrong before. After all, he told me all he knew about you and your Toa." Now, Keela's mind went on alert, especially as Uram stopped on the other side of the chamber's entrance. "He has done much for me… And he can do the same for you too."

Taken by surprise, Keela stepped back. "What? You expect me to join you?!"

"Somewhat. You could serve the Protectors and help them, but what? Do you honestly think they will give you any respect? Any honor?"

"After you're gone, they will," Keela argued, but she recalled Kaze's words minutes earlier.

"I doubt that. Look at me. The Protectors wanted a weapon, so I took what I could from here and gave it to them. Any information had been ruined when I found it, but they didn't care. They held onto it as their own and put me aside. And they will do the same to you." Uram waved a hand to the figures-red, yellow, blue, black, green, and white-on the wall beside him. "To them, you will never be these heroes. You will only ever be a mistake."

Keela's right eye twitched beneath her scope. She had suspected some foul play but a mistake? No, that couldn't be right. "What about your master?" she asked, hiding her uncertainty behind a layer of righteousness.

"He cannot come here even if he tried. He already expended his energies dealing with your fellow Toa… But he is still working. Still planning. You thought Aska was the only one? Ask Ruka about her brother. More will follow after them. You can help, or I will take them one by one."

Keela fell silent. Uram had given her an ultimatum: join him or let others suffer greatly… but everyone would suffer even if she agreed. With the vines blocking the entrance, Keela had no way out. And she had no metal to use… right?

Uram took one step closer and held his free hand to Keela. "Well... what will it be?"

For a second, Keela stood in thought. Then, she pulled out the Stone fragment from her satchel… and swung hammer down on it.


Light pierced the gaps between the vines pushing Kaze out into the city. Two grabbed at his feet, but his arrows cut him loose. Tumbling in mid-air, everything swirled until Kaze's flight kicked in at the last second. Floating over the buildings he almost crashed into, Kaze heard several onlooking Okotan gasping at the Toa above. "Look! Isn't that Kaze the traitor?!" one said.

As much as Kaze wanted to silence that one, he had other concerns. Particularly, the Jungle Guardian rushing out of the Temple of Creation. "Get away!" Kaze yelled to everyone below.

Everyone else ran while the ground shook from the approaching Jungle Guardian. "Somebody, call the guards!" another Okotan shouted, and Kaze knew he had to keep the fighting away from the people.

He let loose two arrows - one for the Guardian's head and the other for its leg - baiting it towards him. People on the streets backed away when the giant bug got close, but Kaze flew up and away, leading his enemy back to the temple.

The vines whipped after Kaze like snapping snakes. He whipped over the temple's roof, down its back end, around its anvil-shaped frame, and did it again and again. Any vines that came close were shredded by Kaze's zapping arrows, and any more wrapped around the very structure they emerged from until they went twang!

Completing his last pass, Kaze flew up the tangled mess of vines around the Temple of Creation. The Guardian controlling the vine had trapped itself, unable to pull free from gigantic structure. From high above, Kaze pulled two arrows on his bow, ready to end his prey.

"Guh!" Kaze grunted from the sudden burst of rock that interrupted him, and he to the spear-wielding brown Okotans atop the nearby buildings.

Kaze moved to the side to avoid a second stony projectile. Before a third could be fired, the brown-caped Okotan called Ferra rushed in. "Stop!" she shouted, pushing away her Copper Guards' spears. "Can't you see he's on our side now?!"

Ferra's help came too late. A distracted Kaze flew back and to the side to avoid untangled vines coming at him. The Jungle Guardian screeched its wooden mandibles as one vine grabbed at Kaze's leg. "No!" the Toa of Air shouted, zapping it and the oncoming vines with his bow.

Kaze flew again, going up and up and up. His arrows met the vines in a flurry of green energy. Yet when one vine was destroyed, three more three more took its place. Even as he tried to get higher, the vines chased him down.

When Kaze went right, the vines followed. When he swirled around, they still followed. And the vines didn't get tired like Kaze - nor feel his swelling fear - as they were about to take him again. And in the vines, Kaze heard the sneering voice in his mind: "You were always weak-"

KA-BOOM!

Large chunks of stone struck through the vines, and dust blanketed the area. Kaze, already flying upwards, had to only look to the Temple of Creation, large clouds emerging from newly formed cracked. Kaze waved one hand, and some of the dust parted as he looked for the Jungle Guardian.

Instead, Kaze saw Uram's tiny hooded form walking out of the smoke. "City of the Mask Makers, it is I, Uram!" His voice echoed across the courtyard outside the Temple and beyond it. "Many years ago, we banded together against those who threatened our island! I led our people into victory, and you helped me in my quest to unite the Tribes! Now, I call upon you again!"

Kaze would've gladly fired, if not for two vines emerging from the smoke and grabbing at his bow. He pulled back in a tug-of-war. "Hrgh!" Kaze glared, now left to hear Uram continue.

"Your Protectors have told you that I perished! But NO! They lied to you! All so they could hide the truth of their betrayal! Of how they left me to die! And now I have returned! To undo the wrongs of your Protectors!" Uram paused for the dust to settle as he lowered his hood. "Your Protectors have told you the Toa are meant to help you! But they too are a lie! They only wish to help themselves! They hide why they have summoned the Toa. BEHOLD!"

Something shone out of the corner of Kaze's vision. It wasn't only the Jungle fragment in Uram's hand. It was Uram's mask too, its golden color shining down to the ends shaped like tusks.

"Makuta's Mask has returned to this world!" Uram shouted, louder than ever before. "Not only that, but I now wear Makuta's Mask of Control! I can find the pieces! And whoever holds the pieces, holds the Mask of Ultimate Power! Your Protectors wish to keep that power to themselves! WILL YOU LET THEM?!"

On the last word, Kaze drew a free hand across his tied-up bow and-ZAP-tore it free with an arrow. He spun mid-air, ready to fire at Uram. Vines yanked his target away, and the Jungle Guardian emerged from the clearing dust.

Its bug-eyed face briefly met Kaze's glare before swirling and leaping atop the Temple of Creation. Then, it leapt away to the Great Divide lying beyond the City of the Mask Makers. All with Uram riding it back.

"Kaze! Kaze, where are you?!" That was Keela's voice, coming from below.

Reluctantly, Kaze flew down to Keela, now in front of a ruined Temple of Creation. "What is it? What happened…?" he asked but had a good idea when he found a piece of the Forbidden Mask in Keela's hand, glowing a fierce yellow aura.

Keela, despite holding the Stone fragment, looked worried. "We have to hurry! The others may expect company very soon!"


AN: And that's chapter 18. Now, in case if you don't see chapter 19 in some time, don't worry. I am working on it... it just will take a little bit longer to post it than I would've originally liked (since it goes against the very schedule I had set up). Until next time, take care everyone.

Raika out.