Chapter 3: Reunited

The island of Mata Nui

Po-Koro

"Mai! Rong! Thank goodness you're safe!" Mulan ran into the equipment room from a side door.

Hewkii dropped into a bow. "Toa Mulan! I'm honored to meet you!"

Mulan tried to think. Impersonating a soldier was one thing. Impersonating a Toa was another. How was she supposed to pull that off? For one, Toa could summon and influence one of the six elements - water, earth, fire, air, stone, or ice. Could she do that?

She decided to change the subject. "Mai, explain to me why you're wearing armor?"

"Because the goalkeeper is injured and there's a kohlii championship in a few days!" Mai got excited again. "So I'm the new goalkeeper!"

"Where's Baba?" asked Rong.

Mulan dropped her pitch, "Doing manly things."

Hewkii fell over laughing. "How did you fool anyone?" He was laughing so hard that he couldn't get up.

"But if you really want to know," she pitched her voice back to normal, "no less than twelve Ga-Matoran thought he was hot and decided to see if he was an eligible bachelor."

"Why aren't you chasing them off?" asked Hewkii.

"Because he's not going to fall for them." Mulan's voice held the certainty it usually did.

The island of Mata Nui

Ga-Koro

Shang had been patiently putting up with attention from no less than twelve Ga-Matoran. He was used to girls and even a few boys crushing on him. He was not used to total strangers being so forward about their attraction.

Making matters worse, Nokama was "busy with a meeting." Shang saw the way Nokama and Matau were looking at each other, and knew the meeting wasn't for official business. Judging by the amount of noise coming from Nokama's place, she wasn't coming out to discourage these youngsters any time soon.

Not that Shang was exactly complaining. He had crash-landed on the beach before getting in the boat to find Mulan, so he had been hiding soreness. Liyanai, who couldn't have been more than fifteen years old in human years, chased the others off so she could have Shang to herself. Currently, she was giving him a hot stone massage.

"Relax," breathed Liyanai, "a big strong Toa like you needs his rest."

Shang didn't want to say he wasn't a Toa, But he wasn't sure how to keep up the act either. Not that it was a good idea. Mulan would be back any minute…

"Liyanai! What do you think you're doing with my husband?"

Sure enough. Liyanai decided to cut her losses and run.

"Don't think you're off the hook, pretty boy." Mulan removed the stones from Shang's back, and he sat up. The towel fell back and showed everything from the waist up. In the dim candle light of the tent, his skin shone with oils. His hair was down and looked softer than ever. Honestly, Mulan almost forgot she was annoyed as her eyes took in the sight.

"What are you going to…" Shang's worry was cut off by Mulan placing her lips on his.

"Let me show you."

A gagging noise came from outside the tent - that was definitely Mai. Mulan poked her head out of the tent and told Mai to go swimming. Mai was more than happy to oblige.

The island of Mata Nui

Ko-Koro

Len was used to harsh winters from their home state of Massachusetts. Notably, the time that they sent a picture to Kara of snow covering the mailbox. Ko-Koro was colder, with bits of packed ice blowing against their face instead of powder snow.

Worse, Len was not dressed for the weather at all. Hypothermia was starting to set in. They made a promise to never again tease Mulan about cold things. Because this wasn't a laughing matter.

"Shit!" Len tripped on a rock and fell face-down in the snow. At this point, the chill was too much, and they succumbed to exhaustion.

—-

"Len! Len, wake up!"

Len groaned at the familiar voice. They opened their eyes and realized they were tucked into a bedroll, inside a cave that was sheltered from the snow. The walls were like mirrors, and firelight danced off the smooth surfaces.

"What…?"

"Oh thank goodness." Kara bent over her summer sibling. "I was so worried you wouldn't wake up…"

"Where have you been?"

"Ta-Koro. They sent me on my way with some warmer stuff and said to put them on before I reached the borders of Ko-Koro."

The two heard a series of shrill whistles and abrupt clicks. Kara looked behind her and saw another Turaga. He wore a hooded robe of white furs with a rawhide belt cinched tightly around it. His clicks and whistles got increasingly frantic, until a Ko-Matoran ran up and calmed him. "Turaga Nuju says, you startled him - he doesn't expect visitors often."

Kara stood up, showing her full height.

"Toa Kara?!"

Len rolled their eyes, still huddled under the blanket. After traveling the island for a day, they'd heard quite enough of the tales. Why does everyone think Kara, Mulan, and Shang are Toa?

"Please call me Kara."

More clicks and whistles, less intense. "He says, that's fine. By the way, my name is Matoro." Matoro bowed again. "It's an honor to meet Toa Mulan's trusted consort."

"Oh, Kara's more than a trusted consort." Len laughed. The cold made them not think correctly. "They're happily married for - how long has it been, Kara, 10 years?"

"Wait... but I thought Mulan married an Earth Toa named Shang!" Matoro was having a hard time with the new information. "Why do these legends have to be so confusing?!"

Len couldn't help but sing, "Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"

"Dammit, Len… got anything better to do than get songs stuck in my head?" Kara groaned.

Matoro looked more confused than before. "I'd better be going…" He turned to leave, but Nuju made some scolding clicks. "He says, I should help you find Mulan and Shang."

"I'm still looking for my twins..." Kara's voice trailed off. "Let's find them first, then we can all have a nice reunion."

There was the sound of something scraping over the frozen ground, almost like ice skates. Then… laughter? Kara looked towards the outside of the cave and saw Heliu and Ruhuo, sliding into the cave on something that looked like a round shield. Behind them was a white-armored Toa with glacier-blue eyes. He shifted his weight and sprayed powder from the silver blades that were strapped to his feet like skates. It was Kopaka, who wasn't usually known for fun and games.

"Thanks, Toa Kopaka!" piped Ruhuo. She got off the shield, with Heliu close behind. Kopaka was smiling at the two like a proud uncle, even chuckling. Nuju whistled something, then clapped his hand to his mouth. Matoro spoke up, "He says, how did you get Kopaka to laugh and smile?"

Kopaka set his expression to the usual poker face and took his shield back. But nobody missed how he gave a smile to the twins before leaving.

"We got lucky." Heliu would have been content leaving it at that.

"OK, that's great. But what exactly happened?" Kara had to hear the story.

Ruhuo started. "Well, we were looking for Mai and Rong. But we got lost. So we asked Kopaka for directions."

"He didn't want us wasting his time." Heliu explained. "So we made a deal. If we could beat him in a snowball fight, he'd have to show us the way."

"You challenged Kopaka, Toa of Ice, to a snowball fight?!" Matoro couldn't believe it.

"We beat him fair and square!" Ruhuo grinned.

Nuju made some more whistles and clicks. Matoro didn't bother translating this time.

"So… how did you do that?" asked Len.

"We may or may not have found a weak point in the snow and buried him in it…" Heliu avoided everyone's eyes. "I thought he would be embarrassed that two kids beat him, but he started smiling. Then he dug himself out and then said we could ride on his shield like a sled!"

"It went so fast!" Ruhuo got excited. "And then Kopaka was skating beside us to make sure we were having fun!"

Matoro looked at Nuju, and both of them ended up shrugging in complete confusion. What powers did these twins have?

"Next stop, Le-Koro!" said Kara.

"Why are we going to Le-Koro?" asked Len. "Mulan and Shang were in Ga-Koro last time I saw them. So were Rong and Mai."

"Because Mushu is probably there?" pointed Matoro. "Something tells me he'd get along really well with Turaga Matau…"

"No, Matau's in Ga-Koro too." said Len. "Something about a meeting with Nokama. And he probably brought Mushu to stand watch."

The island of Mata Nui

Ga-Koro

Nokama smiled as Matau knelt over her. "We should do this more often." she panted, reaching up to pull him back down.

"Love-dear… I need quiet-rest."

Mushu interrupted from outside Nokama's hut by pretending to gag. "You lovers done yet?"

"Mushu! Hush-quiet!" Matau was regretting the decision to let his new friend stand watch.

Silence. Then a knock at the door. Both of the Turaga scrambled to put on their clothing. Nokama went to the door and saw Len.

"Len, I'm afraid you've come at a bad time."

Len tried to hide a smirk. "I can tell. Green really isn't your color."

Nokama looked down. She was wearing Matau's green sleeveless vest with gold fringe. It was a tad short on her, as Nokama was one of the taller Turaga. She blushed, her light blue mask turning the pure turquoise hue of a tropical ocean.

"No, I mean it's a really bad time. Some of the Matoran are skeptical about the visiting Toa. They're plotting to test if Kara, Mulan, and Shang have elemental abilities. This could be dangerous."

"Why don't you stop them?"

"I may be a village elder, but I don't have absolute power. But there is one thing I can do…"