Mere minutes after the sudden shakes, Torren was taken aback by the swarm of Water Okotans running all around him. Only the Toa of Iron kept him from being swept away as he stuck close to her. "Toa, do you see my sons anywhere?!" he called over the shouts.

Keela said after scanning the area with her mask's scope, "No! I can't find them! There are too many people around!"

Speaking of the Water Okotans running over Kivoda CIty's plaza, more frantically surrounded him. "Protector, what do we do?!" shouted one of them, a younger Okotan who had been a child during the invasion.

"Protector, your orders!" shouted one of the city's guards approaching Torren.

Trying to stand firm, the Water Protector called, "Everyone, head to the shelters immediately! Guards, take half and ready the harpoons! The other half shall secure all entrances and exits!"

The order was heard over the chaos, and the crowds dispersed to follow it. As reasoned and rushed tones mixed in with panicked ones, Keela's concern stood out the most. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked.

"If it is Uram, and it probably is, then he will be after me. Enough have suffered as is… Anything on my sons?" Torren said, promptly changing the subject to focus on the present instead of the past. After Keela scanned and shook her head, he asked, "What about Likki? She's their friend. She was just with us."

Before Keela could answer, Them ran towards her and Torren, shouting fo rthe former. "Keela! Keela! I've been looking all over for you! We need to get down to the vaults! Now!"

Keela looked to Torren, then she told Rhem, "You go! Someone needs to stay here and help!"

"Keela, that wasn't the plan! Voriki-!" Rhem said, only to be cut off by a loud WHAM which knocked him, Keela, and the Okotans onto their hands and knees.

Of the first to get back to their feet, Torren shot up first. "Oh, wailing waters," he said, his groan mixed in with everyone else's. "Toa Keela, do you know what that was?!"

Keela's free finger pointed, and Torren's gaze followed it. Though a little far from the very edge of Kivoda City, he was close enough to notice the bright flash from it. The column shone over a crouching Voriki. He didn't need Keela's special sight to find the Toa of Lighting barely standing and with his hands holding onto the spear as tightly as possible to power the city's shield. More obvious were the waves and vines pounding against the very shield.

Fear spiked through the Water Protector. "Quickly! Everyone, to the shelters!" he shouted, rising to his feet.

Keela shouted, "Protector, wait-!"

Another noise struck. It started out small, rumbling under the floor and followed by a gigantic CRACK. Everyone fell to the sides, avoiding the jagged line that came with the sound and ran across the floor. Torren, mask to the floor, didn't notice it until he stood up. His widened eyes on the crack, he never noticed Keela shouting, "Everyone, to the shelter!"

Torren walked in the middle of both halves running either way for the shelters, almost unaware of everyone. He ran along the new crack in the floor, which led him away from his home on the city's edge to its elevator shaft. His gaze fell on the new fissure running down the rock surrounding it. Rhem's voice reminded Torren of the two Toa's who followed him. "What the… where did this come from?"

"There's only one way," said Keela, who approached the other side of the fissure. After studying it with her mask, her voice expression matched Torren's. "Oh no."

"Why? What is this?"

"Danger," Torren said. Such a wound in the city couldn't have been caused by two Guardians outside of it. "There's only one way to make this."

"A Guardian," Keela finished for Torren, then she turned to her fellow Toa. "Rhem, you need to get to Zala and Maram!"

Rhem said, "But Voriki-"

"Don't worry! I'll get help!" Keela said and ran towards the buildings.

Rhem hesitated before he warped away, not that Torren noticed at first. Left alone, he stayed by the fissure. Only the rumble from before tingled his hand the moment he placed his hand by the crack. Hearing his people's cries were what kept him from jumping down the shaft to search for Uram… and his absent sons.

"Please stay safe," Torren whispered to the latter.

"Wait, Mizu! Did you feel that?"

At Waya's bubbling question, Mizu stopped swimming and placed his hand on the submerged cliffside which housed the Water Tribe. The older brother didn't notice at first since he and Waya were outside of Kivoda City, surrounded by so much water. A shake of the cliffside beside him and a bright flash clued him in, though. "It's him. It has to be," Mizu recognized.

Seeing his brother's hardened mask, Waya said, "Mizu, the plan."

"Don't worry, I know," Mizu sighed, though he wondered why he had to be reminded of his own plan. "Where's Likki? I thought she would've been here by now."

The brothers almost froze from the sudden flash from above. They looked up the submerged rock housing Kivoda CIty to find two Guardians-Water and Jungle-assaulting the bulbous shell protecting everyone inside. Of course, they barely made a scratch when electricity shielded the city itself, and sparks lanced off every time the bubble housing the two Guardians came close. That didn't mean the Guardians couldn't attack, especially when one controlled its very surroundings.

Waya and Mizu looked at each other, the former saying, "There's your answer. Do you think we can get back in?"

"Not without getting shocked, I think," Mizu said, trying to lighten the mood. His seriousness betrayed it, though, when he looked up to find no Uram inside the bubble with the two Guardians.

"Mizu," said Waya, who grabbed his brother's tense arm.

"I know, I know," Mizu groaned while wrenching his arm free. "Come on. The vaults shouldn't be far from here."

Born and raised in the Region of Water, moving in the ocean came naturally to the two brothers, and their many escape attempts always included a nice swim. Now was no different, as Mizu led Waya closer to the ocean floor. Thanks to Likki, who also helped them to escape Kivoda City, gave them their special masks to breath. However, the simple swim soon became shaky with rocks from above

"Mizu, watch out!" Waya shouted, throwing himself and his brother aside in time to avoid getting squished.

Though the largest boulders bounced off the rockside and over the two swimmers, there were enough smaller rocks to pelt them down to the ocean floor. It would have been a blessing if Waya's leg was caught under one rock while saving Mizu. "Hold on!" said the older brother to the younger. Then, he pulled out an electrical rod, another gift from Likki. "Don't move!"

"Wait, what are you-?!" Waya said, and he was cut off by a little spark from Mizu's rod and the following explosions of tiny pebbles.

After spotting some shadows falling over him and Waya, Mizu grabbed his brother. "We gotta go!" Mizu said, and the two swam away from the rockside.

It was the right decision, as a new downpour of rocks fell from above and crashed on the spot where the two once were. Though safe, both brothers groaned at a clearly blocked entrance to the vaults. "How are we going to get in now?" Waya asked, and he stared at the rod Mizu held out. "Really? Through that?"

"Do you have any better ideas? It's now or never, Waya," Mizu retorted. After Waya took the rod, Mizu took an extra one. "Ready?"

Just as him and Waya were about to blow the rocks away, the ocean floor split open and swallowed the brothers whole. The water they were in had been pushed out, so they fell…

… and fell…

… until two thuds echoed on wet and warm, yet hard ground.

A minute later, a groaning Mizu looked around. He didn't know where the darkness came from. He only knew it had replaced the surrounding water and swallowed every bit of light there was. Well, save for the glowing eyes staring back at his own. "Waya?" Mizu asked.

"Mizu, is that you?! It's dark in here!" he heard Waya say.

"Let me light up." Mizu silently cursed when he realized his hands grasped at empty air. "Ah, I lost my rod! Waya, do you have yours?!"

"Wait, I think I do! Hold on, a sec! Come on…"

While waiting, Mizu felt new questions shiver down his body. What just happened, for one? There was no way that was natural. Second, where did the chill come from? Wasn't it supposed to be warm at the bottom of the ocean? And why was it getting colder?

"There!" Waya said, sparking the tip of his electrical rod and holding it up. "Oh…"

Mizu, looking around, agreed. The bits of light from Waya reflected on pale sheets of ice. The brighter the rod became, the clearer the two saw the ice covering an underground tunnel. What made Waya freeze was the one who stood with them in said tunnel. For Mizu, his eyes glowed brighter and his heart thumped harder.

"You!" he shouted and took a step forward. The moment Mizu did, the ground underneath to wrap him and Waya's legs in separate cocoons of earth.

The latter trapped, he had let go of his rod, and it rolled to the stranger's feet. In its light, Uram said, "Hello, my nephews. It has been a while."

"Hrgh! Let us go!" said Waya.

Uram looked almost insulted. "I should've expected such from Torren's sons. Didn't he tell you of 'my crimes?' Then again, he always said little on important matters, and I doubt you would remember me, being so young."

"Oh, I remember!" barked Mizu. "I remember what you did! To everyone! To us!"

"Perhaps. Maybe you remember my fine works," Uram said and gestured past the brothers, who turned as best as they could.

The younger one almost went "yeep!" at the gigantic rock monster, known as the Earth Guardian, looming over with glowing purple eyes. The older kept his own glare on it, and he would have said something if the very earthen trappings extended over the rest of his limbs. The equally trapped Waya called out, "M-Mizu!"

"Hrgh! Hold on, Waya!" Mizu shouted as he failed to free himself, though not without sparing a glance at Uram.

Two figures now flanked Mizu and Waya's uncle. Turning from the slender crystalline giant on his right, Uram addressed the shorter on his left. "Well done, Likki. You have proven yourself by telling me what these two were up to. I must admit I couldn't have thought of a better plan."

Mizu didn't hear Waya whisper in disbelief. His eyes were on Likki, the very Okotan who helped in all his schemes, showed him the Toa, and even supplied him and Waya for this journey to Kivoda City's vaults. The same Okotan didn't make eye-contact with Mizu, instead asking Uram, "What do you want to do with them?"

"Don't worry. They won't be harmed," Uram assured Likki. Then, he looked to his icy friend. "Take them with us."

Before Mizu knew it, the Ice Guardian threw a blanket of ice over him and his brother. Trapped and unmoving, Mizu barely knew what was happening around him. What he definitely knew were his beating heart and his own body being carried by hands of jagged rock, which were warm unlike the ice covering his eyes. Though its thin layer, he could clearly see the Earth Guardian's shadowy form, as well as hear Waya's muffled screams.

Rage swelled in Mizu from the latter. He heard Fire Okotans saw red when angry. Water Okotans supposedly saw blue. He only saw white, however. It covered his own curses for his so-called uncle and friends, whose steps were replaced by crumbling stone.

"Hmm, the tunnel is collapsing," Mizu heard Uram say. "Come, Likki. Show me where it is."

It wasn't hard to figure out what "it" was. Of course, Mizu barely heard a thing over the stomps of his and his brother's captors as they marched on. Screams-of guards, no doubt-followed suit with the same cold now covering Mizu's gaze.

Yet, Mizu saw something through the pale veil. It was first a tiny flicker, then it grew into a point of golden light. Even when a shadow fell over it, it still glowed brightly. "Three fragments down. Three more to go," Uram said.

Though things were going according to plan, Mizu realized now how much Waya was right. Now, he realized he was way in over his head. And his lightning rod, the very one he looked for, rested by his trapped feet, out of his reach.

AN: Welp, it looks like my updates have caught up to the number of chapters I've written thus far. Sadly, I haven't really gotten farther than this chapter due to work and of course, procrastination (not helped when I've questioned myself on continuing a fanfiction of a Bionicle reboot that isn't really critically-received by a lot of people, including myself partially). If there is no new chapter in the next two weeks, do expect the story to be in hiatus until the next chapter. Until then, do take care and stay safe.

Raika out.