Though the Region of Fire's heat wanted to push Maram out, duty and discipline kept him strolling past its lava fields. The light he gathered leaked out in wisps while his search for Protector Ignar led him to the volcano on the end of the Great Divide. The Ember Guards, too busy searching through machines and cracks, hadn't stopped him. Neither did Ignar's personal guard, as Maram went up the volcano.

Ignar kept his focus on the grave before him, not the Toa who asked, "Was she special to you?"

"How do you know it's a 'she?'" Ignar's voice was as soft as the fiery pit the grave rested upon. He continued before Maram spoke again. "She was my wife. She was from the Stone Tribe, but she said she felt more at home here than with her people.."

"She must have been an amazing woman."

Ignar's bitter and nostalgic laugh surprised Maram. "If only. We were two idiots who wanted to get married. We didn't care about the consequences, even when Norii was born. It was just us and O'nah. The happiest days in my life… Then, the invasion took that away, and so did Uram." Ignar's fists balled over his memories, shaking with rage. "Uram. He gave us all false promises to further his goals. In the end, he wanted nothing to do with us!"

"And yet you all believed him. Even her," Maram said, a hand gesturing to the grave.

"She still did. Even after he was done and we told everyone of his plans, she didn't believe a word. She trusted him more than us. More than me." Ignar's tone rose closer to, then fell away from, his usual anger. "Whatever the reason, she went to find Uram. Stupid woman, she came to this cursed battlefield. Wanted to use one of the old war machines until… it exploded."

Battlefield. Maram's orange gaze fell onto the path he walked through. Looking from above, the few war machines were numerous, and the cracks were glowing fissures.

Ignar spoke again, catching Maram's attention: "I still remember that look when I found her. All crazed like she was under some spell. I buried her before Norii saw her body. I wanted to protect her… Never did I think Uram's monster would drag her here, to this once-dead volcano."

Norii. One among Uram's captives. Maram's fists glowed, releasing more energy he gathered, but he stopped as a green blur flew overhead. Ignar's guards tended to see Kaze land close to their protector and Maram.

"Hold!" Maram told guards when Ignar hadn't done so. Meeting his fellow Toa, Maram saw the concern in Kaze's usually stern glare. "Kaze, what is wrong?"

"I saw several Earth Okotans crossing the Great Divide. They're coming here," Kaze reported.

"When will they arrive?" After Maram asked did a drill-shaped spear hit the volcano's broadside.

Ignar's personal guard surrounded their protector, while the Ember Guards armed themselves. Both Toa tensed at a tiny wave of black Okotans crawling over the Great Divide from the Region of Earth. Despite Kaze's insistence, Maram opted to rush and meet them with hopes of peace.

"People of the Earth Tribe! Why have you come-" Maram caught a spear in one hand before it could pierce him. "Please, I mean you no harm! I only wish to know why you are here?!"

"You know why! We're here for Makuta's mask!" shouted one Earth Okoran.

An Ember guard shouted from below, "You have no business here! Turn back now!"

"It's our business!" another Earth Tribesman shouted. "You're here! That must mean the piece of Makuta's Mask is too!"

"It's not yours to take-!"

"ENOUGH! No one will attack one another, understand?! Now, I wish to speak with the leader of the group!" Maram shouted, throwing aside the spear. He was surprised when two familiar Earth Okotans stepped forward. "Kerac? Tira? Why-"

"You've heard our reasoning, Toa," Kerac said, hiding his frustration under a layer of respect.

"It's not just that," Tira added. "It's my father. He's been missing ever since he went to see Toa Zala. Some of our guards spotted the Earth Guardian heading by this area."

"You came on a guess? If so, you need not the fragment-" Maram reasoned but Tira cut him off.

"No, we do need it. Toa, we do not have our fragment. I don't want to fight, but without it, our tribe can't protect itself, and Kerac and I don't have a way to get our son back! Use your powers to show the fragment's location. Surely, it's right here! Please, you must understand!"

Maram didn't respond. Unlike Zala, he failed to notice the Earth fragment like due to the lack of light. If he had, none of this would be happening. "I understand, but if I do what you ask, there will be a fight." Maram gestured to the Ember Guards, "They will try to stop your people if you take their fragment."

"They will try. But we'll use anything to get our son back, Toa," Kerac said, and his wife joined in.

"Toa, please! You must-" Tira stopped when Kaze's arrow struck a fire spear meant for her.

Both Toa and Okotans whirled to the Ember Guard who threw the spear. "Get lost, you dark-dwellers! You have no right to be here!" she shouted, her fellows shouting in agreement.

"Is that all, soot-brain?!" Kerac shouted, his Tribesmen cheering as he raised his spear.

Grabbing the weapon, Maram aimed it down. The smoky remains of an earthen blast cleared, and Maram found Earth Okotans descending the Great Divide to meet the rising Ember Guard. "Wait!" Maram shouted, but the two sides crashed around him, Tira, and Kerac. "You must stop this, Kerac!"

"It's too late for that!" Kerac growled and freed his spear to block an Ember Guard's spear.

Crossed spears and shields blocked Maram's eyes from Kerac or his wife. As bits of earth and fire were exchanged, sending more smoke up into the air where Kaze now hovered, an old memory tugged on Maram's mind and almost froze him stiff. A memory of figures fighting each other. Not Okotans, but of…

"Wait!" Maram heard and whirled towards Tira. Too busy begging her fellow Tribesmen to stop, she was unaware of an Ember Guard aiming at her and an Earth Okotan aiming at him.

The ground shook from Maram's running feet, and one arm scooped up Tira. In one whirl, the giant sword on his back deflected a fireball, then he swung it off and down to protect the Ember Guard who shot him from an earthen attack. The Earth Okotan who fired it was soon tackled by another Ember Guard.

Maram turned his grimacing stare to the scared Tira. "I… I'm sorry! I didn't want…" she blabbered but the fighting drowned her words.

Maram looked up to Kaze's energy nets subduing the combatants while he avoided incoming blasts. "Kaze!" he called to the Toa of Air. "Give me support! There is something I must do!"

Fire and Earth Okotans parted from the ascending Maram. Anyone about to shoot him and Tira were disarmed and/or netted by Kaze, who hovered on the skirmish's outskirts while Maram ran to Ignar. "Wait!" Maram shouted before Ignar's guards aimed at Tira. After letting her down, Maram said, "Stay safe. If you see anyone running, Fire or Earth, do the same for them!"

Tira nodded and ran to the Great Divide's tallest rocks for shelter. Maram turned to Ignar. "Protector Ignar! You must listen!" Maram called, but the protector didn't move an inch. "Ignar! Your people are fighting a pointless battle down there! Only you can stop it!"

"Why?" Ignar asked, shocking Maram. "Something like was only inevitable. Uram saw to that."

"But you can still stop them!" Maram pointed down to the carnage. "If you do nothing, then your tribe or your brother tribe will be gone!"

"Perhaps it's better that way."

Maram's voice dropped. "... You cannot mean that."

"There is nothing you can ask me of me, Toa. I have nothing left to fight for," Ignar told Maram.

Maram's next words vanished under the sound of the rising sea. From the top of the volcano, he and Ignar turned to find the ocean below was rising… into a mighty wave. A wave so large it almost towered the volcano itself. If Maram wasn't so worried, he would've noticed the anthropomorphic squid-like Water Guardian riding atop it.

"EVERYONE, RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Maram shouted to the battle, and everyone below ran.

On the volcano, Maram got in front of Ignar and his guard, stabbing his blade down to make a wall of his light. It was too little, too late. The wave struck, becoming several rivers surging over and around the volcano to chase the Okotans. They struck Maram's barrier, breaking it…

… and sweeping him away.

The battle was getting closer. Its glow grew brighter on the horizon, and its deathly cries called to Maram from a mile away. After his sword blocked an energy bolt fired from the battle, Maram turned. "I cannot protect you like this forever. You must run while you can!"

His charges shivered by his legs. "B-but where can we go? Who will protect us?!" one cried.

"You all have your own strength. Together, you can live, but-" Maram stopped to deflect another energy bolt, "-but you must leave now! I will distract them for you!"

"P-please, don't leave us!" said another.

"Fear not. I shall return," Maram assured them before running across a scarred plain and towards the battle to hopefully buy his charges time to escape.

Maram barely got a quarter of a mile in before a great wave of power washed over him-

Maram's eyes shot open. Like in his dream, a light washed over him. Unlike it, water swarmed all around, dimming the light as Maram's body sunk face-down into its depths. Fire Okotans tried swimming nearby, while Ignar remained floating his guards. Earth Okotans plummeted even faster than the Toa of Light, whose eyes widened.

Several feet below, on the collapsed volcano, laid a golden fragment of Makuta's Mask. A fragment glowing warmly like the bits of lava surrounding it. Heading towards it and past Maram with slithering tentacles was the Water Guardian. Maram swam to catch up with it, his weight and his sword gaining speed for him to grab a tentacle and be grabbed by a few more.

As they squeezed the life out of Maram, he kept his gaze on the fragment. He pushed through screams long past to focus on today's faces: Hunarr's cold stoicism, Tira and Kerac's anguish, and Ignar's lost fire. Three times, their loved ones were taken. Twice via Maram's inability. Once from his absence.

Present and focused, Maram swung his sword on the fragment within reach.

BOOM!

He breathed and suffocated from the fiery waves that blasted the Water Guardian and its flood away. He remained and even reached through the severe heat. When it dissipated, Maram fell safely with everyone else onto the flood-turned shallow pond. Splashes, thuds, and gasps rang all around, save for the flying Kaze.

Maram's legs kneed the rubble of the now-dead volcano, absorbing the faded light from underneath and the fragment in his hand. He eyed the Water Guardian across from him, burnt and suddenly pinned by Kaze's net. "You…" Maram said, "Your master has turned you against your people for this. He believes its power will help his own master beat us…"

As the trapped Guardian swatted Kaze away with whips of water, Maram drew in the light. In Korgot's Caverns, drawing a tiny crystal had him also drain his own strength to break free. Now, he stood, empowered by the fragment's fiery brilliance. "... But I shall tell you what they fail to understand about us Toa."

From Maram's swinging sword, a ringing beam of light met a growing bubble. Power flew off in waves, tearing bits of rock and evaporating any water left in the area. Planting his feet against the pushback of energy, the surprised screams, and the burning fragment, Maram spoke.

"I was a warrior. One willing to protect those in need even as my world crumbled. I carry that same will and so do my fellow Toa! Each of us has a fire that cannot be extinguished! And where there is fire, there is light! And I… am… OF THE LIGHT!"

With a final push and a FLASH of power, it was over. Intertwined light and heat vanished, leaving Maram the only one tall atop a ruined volcano devoid of lava or the water which flooded it. In the empty space before him were several melted stalks of ice once part of a shield.

Having fallen on one knee, Maram barely processed it or the figures submerging into the waters beyond the now-observable beach. The fragment fell away with his newfound power, yet his pale gray body regained a little of its shine. "Thank you, Kaze," Maram said after the Toa of Air helped him to his feet.

Despite fighting minutes ago, everyone had made it out alright. In the back, Tira ran to her tired husband's side to check on him. Several Earth and Fire Okotans eyed each other warily in the middle, but both were too grateful to be alive to attack each other. Tension returned as Kaze aimed at Ignar approaching from the front.

"You. You knew it was here the whole time," Kaze growled.

Maram thought the same when he remembered Protector's words from earlier. However, he placed a free hand on Kaze's bow and shook his head. Kaze listened after a brief glare.

"You won't take it from me?" Ignar asked only of the Toa of Light, ignoring everyone else's eyes on him and the Fire fragment he had scooped into his hand.

"No. It is yours. You shall do what you will... but know this. I will be there to stop anyone from using it to harm the innocent…" Maram said it for the crowd, but he raised his voice even louder. "Know this! Voriki has a plan to rescue those in Uram's grasp. We shall pacify your guardians, and you will see your loved ones again! We will not fail! Neither must you!"

It felt like everyone actually heard Maram as they made way for him. Hearing the murmurs, he walked to the Great Divide with Kaze. Maram spared one last glance after he reached the top. Every Okotans' eyes-some filled with uncertainty like Kerac, and hope for others like Tira-were on him and Kaze.

Ignar looked, too. His once-dead gaze had gone steely-eyed. Maram may not have known Ignar, but meeting the gaze, he felt they had understood each other a bit better. Maram prayed for it to pay off in the future, as he and Kaze silently left to meet with Voriki and the others.