The crackle and dull roar of fire was a warm reminder of home for Takua, and even before he entered the forge he knew he was going to have a great visit. He hadn't had a chance to see Navak for a while now, and after what happened to Ta-Koro he figured being near a forge might do his soul some good. Besides, maybe his friend could offer him some advice on how best to tell Jaller about the being that'd threatened to kill him before the Avohkii was found. To Takua's knowledge, Navak had been the only adult matoran to escape Metru Nui with his memories fully in-tact; that immediately meant he had good insight, right? It practically made him a Turaga without a stick! With this happy thought in mind, the Chronicler quickened his pace and had a look inside the moment he reached the workshop… only to blink in confusion when he discovered that his quarry appeared to be missing.
"Huh?"
It wasn't like Navak to leave the forge lit while he wasn't around; not only was it a – small – fire hazard, it also meant that any random visitors could potentially try mucking about with his – vaguely questionable – equipment. Given that Navak had made everything himself, or at the very least had a hand in it, that meant he was predominately the only one with any right or knowledge of how to use it properly. But if everything was ready for work and the forgemaster was missing…
"Hey Takua!"
The Chronicler just about leapt right out of his skin as the cheery and familiar voice resounded behind him, eyes as wide as could be as he whirled on the spot to stare at the figure that caught him off guard. There stood a man with a broad grin plastered on his mildly tanned face, his pale blue eyes practically glowing with amusement and his posture – standing tall with his hands planted firmly on his hips – exuding such an air of impish delight that he was almost reminiscent of a rather cheeky Le-Matoran. His hair was a light, sand blue color, tied back like a warrior's ponytail and showing quite clearly that the sides of his head were shaved, one or two stray strands dangling down in front of his face like rebellious declarations of chaos. Unlike most others in the village, this well-muscled matoran seemed as unprepared for cold weather as Kopaka was indifferent to it, wearing little more than a white muscle shirt and grey pair of pants, over which he wore a heavy leather apron, no doubt for while he worked.
"What's the matter? I thought the Chronicler was always ready for anything."
"Navak!" Takua exclaimed, a grin swiftly spreading over his own features. "I was wondering where you were!"
The Ko-Matoran laughed, holding up a pair of safety goggles. "Was bugging Skada to fix the strap on these. You weren't waiting around long, were you?" He shook his head as he idly hung the goggles around his neck. "Granted, if you were waiting here for long you'd already be playing with stuff."
"No! … Maybe… Probably." Takua sulked for a brief moment, and then waved it off. "Not important! What've you been up to?"
Navak grinned again, patting the youth's shoulder and heading into the forge. "All sorts of stuff, really. Hunting equipment repairs, harassing Nuju, trying to figure out a way to protect town from natural disasters… It'd be easier to ask what I haven't been doing. What about you? How'd the tournament go?"
Takua, however, frowned a little in confusion as he followed his friend inside, frame shivering with delight at the temperature change and prompting him to take his heavy coat off. "Wait wait wait, why are you trying to make a disaster plan? Kopaka's the best disaster plan you could ever need, isn't he?"
"Well, yeah." Navak confessed, wandering over to the furnace and humming thoughtfully as he reached for a chain and handle hanging from the ceiling nearby. "But after he got attacked I couldn't help but be a little worried. Kinda set off an old way of thinking I had before we all came here."
Takua blinked. He had forgotten that Navak wasn't in a stasis pod before. While most of the matoran – including Takua for a time – had been locked away and lost their memories, Navak had been one of the very select few who managed to escape the rounding up and avoided being found right up until the migration to Mata Nui occurred. He thus remained one of the few who knew the full story of why they were all there and why they had to migrate, retaining every memory of the life he used to live. This also meant he bore a lot of scars, old habits and demons often rearing their heads when something dangerous or disconcerting happened. As it was, Navak had a long-lasting fear of birds after a very unpleasant run-in with a mutant avian during the visorak crisis, and even in long stints of peace the Ko-Matoran still frequently had bouts of a 'survival mode' mindset, driving him to act as though there were no Toa around to protect him. But surely Kopaka's fight hadn't brought him that close to death, had it? Sure the Ice Toa said Pohatu saved him, but surely it wasn't that bad, right? "But Kopaka's fine now, isn't he? Why would that cause trouble?"
Navak shook his head as he pulled the chain, using it to pump the bellows and stoke the fire. "Just reminded me how fragile life is, ya know? Even the Toa can only handle so much before everything goes up in smoke. I've seen a lot of good people get hurt for putting too much expectation on the Toa; I'm not going to just sit around and pretend they can handle every big threat that comes our way." He shook his head again and sighed faintly. "My old home would have fared better if more people tried to help our Toa instead of simply throw the full load on them… But enough about that!" He flashed a grin in Takua's direction as he directed the conversation away from Metru Nui. "Tell me what brought you way out here of all places!"
Takua grinned right back at him, more than fine with the topic change. "Jaller's the herald for some mythical new Toa and I'm along for the ride! We've got their kanohi, just need to find the rest of him."
Navak raised an eyebrow at this, pausing to check his furnace before releasing the bellows and looking back at the younger matoran. "The Seventh Toa is finally set to awaken eh? I wondered when the day would come. And Jaller's the herald…" He laughed and shook his head a little. "Ironic if you ask me, but incredibly fitting in its own right."
"It is?" The Chronicler asked curiously. "How so? Was his dad some sort of herald too?"
"Well… not really?" The Ko-Matoran answered awkwardly. "It's a different type of irony than that." He turned and poked at the coals in the forge for a moment in a blatant attempt to stall the answer. "Uh… how much do you actually know about Mihkoro anyway?"
Takua shrugged. "I know Jaller looks up to him as though he's some sort of second Mata Nui, and I know he had some sort of upbringing, but Uncle Vakama never really went into detail about any of that. I just figured it hurt to think about because they were brothers."
The awkward look on Navak's face gained a somewhat sad note as he stared into the fire. "Well… that is part of it." He said finally, though he didn't meet the younger matoran's gaze. "And I'm not surprised they didn't say much; there's a lot of history that may simply be better off forgotten. It wouldn't be unbelievable if they kept it quiet for Jaller's sake." He shook his head and stood up straight, still not meeting Takua's gaze as he took stock of his work for the day. "Bad business, all of it was, and not Mihkoro's fault in the slightest."
The Chronicler frowned at him. "What was bad business? Did you know Mihkoro? What was he like?"
"He was… troubled." Navak explained with a grimace. "I didn't know him all that well or very long, but it was enough to know that the poor guy got dealt a bad hand from day one. Was a Shadow Toa, he was, and a scary good one at that. When I met him he told me he was trying to make amends for his past, didn't find out until after he died that he'd spent most of his life as the Makuta's pawn. He never really could accept the 'Toa' part of his existence, not without seeing the 'Shadow' side more prominently. Don't get me wrong, Mihkoro was a decent guy when I knew him. Just grew up in a bad neighborhood, so to speak. Can't help but wonder if his conscience ever felt clean in the end; he always seemed so haunted and grim. Guess that's just part of being a Shadow Toa though; can't imagine it's a particularly happy existence."
For several long moments, all Takua could do was stare in shock as he tried to make sense of what he had just been told. Jaller's dad was a Toa? Forget that, he was an agent of the Makuta? Why hadn't anyone told him? Why hadn't Jaller ever said anything about it? Or Vakama? Why didn't anyone tell him that his best friend's father was a villain for over half his life? Surely Jaller would have said something about it if he knew. That had to be it. Jaller must not have known about his father's sordid past and struggle for redemption. Vakama probably wanted to keep it quiet so it didn't upset his nephew. "I can't imagine how crushed Jaller would be if he knew…"
Navak glanced wonderingly at him. "Jaller's known from day one, Takua. Not surprised he never mentioned it though; poor kid was probably scared he'd have no friends if word ever got out, especially now that the Makuta's been active again, and has a Shadow Toa lackey. Too many ways these kinds of parallels could lead to nervous folks jumping to the wrong conclusions." The Ko-Matoran frowned a little in contemplation. "That reminds me; I was gonna ask Kopaka about the guy that attacked him, see if he got a good look before he left."
"No need to pester him while he's busy."
Almost all light in the forge vanished, the coals in the furnace just barely managing to glow as every exit in the building was suddenly blocked off with walls of darkness. Takua yelped as someone grabbed his arm, squinting as his 'captor' pulled out a lightstone and revealed himself to be Navak, his expression grim and uncertain. This wasn't what unnerved Takua the most, however. No, there was something much scarier than the sudden darkness; the voice that spoke before everything went dark was familiar. Terrifyingly so.
"Y-you!" Takua spluttered frantically as he clung to Navak's arm. "You're the one who told me about the Avohkii! Wh-what do you want?!"
A pair of burningly bright red eyes flared into view amongst the shadows, a note of malicious amusement saturating his voice as the stranger spoke. "I thought that would have been obvious, Child. True herald of the Seventh Toa."
Navak's eyes briefly widened, then immediately narrowed as he put his lightstone in a wire basket on his belt and picked up a forging hammer. "I thought you were dead." He remarked sternly. "Died trying to kill the Makuta back on Metru Nui, they said."
"W-wait you know this guy?!" Takua squeaked, his face ghostly white as he stared at the glowing orbs before them.
"Of course I do." The Ko-Matoran replied quietly. "We were just talking about him." His frown grew more blatant, the dim light only adding to the severity of his expression. "Tell me, Mihkoro, how did you survive this long? And why decide that paying a visit now was wise? You know Kopaka and Nuju are both familiar with your tricks."
"Bold words for the man who's afraid of sparrows." Mihkoro scoffed. "Ask as many questions as you want; it won't do anything but waste our time. Hand over the boy; if you're fast I might even let you live."
Takua shivered, holding a little tighter to Navak's arm as he fearfully protested. "I-I don't have the Avohkii! I'm worth nothing to you!" He couldn't believe it; Jaller's allegedly long-dead dad was not only alive, but trying to kidnap him, or worse! And why did he call Takua the 'true herald'? Did he knew that Takua had foisted the responsibility onto Jaller in a bid for escaping the situation? Had he come to try and kill Takua for talking about the kanohi and who sent him after it? "J-just leave me alone!"
That was when Navak threw his hammer. The barely-visible figure leaned out of the way, but even as he moved Navak's frown became a very grim smirk, the reason swiftly becoming visible as a large jar hanging on the wall was struck and shattered, releasing a torrent of sand… and allowing a cover over the ceiling to slide away. As swiftly as the forge had gone dark, it was now flooded with the glow of countless lightstones embedded in Mihkoro outright screeching in pain as he was forced out of the no-longer-present shadows. Scars and burn marks decorated his features, his no-longer-glowing eyes bloodshot and sunken from lack of sleep. Were he not there on a mission to haul Takua off somewhere he almost looked deserving of pity.
Before Takua could fully recover from the sudden change of lighting, Navak was pressing a lightstone into his hand, voice urgent as he quietly ordered. "There's a trap door beside the furnace, the path below will take you straight to Onu-Koro. Go, now!"
"But-"
"Go!"
Navak gave Takua a small push in the right direction before grabbing another hammer and charging at Mihkoro while he struggled to recover, taking a wild swing and forcing the Shadow Toa to focus on him instead of his intended target. There was no room for argument, and as such Takua scrambled for the hidden passage, vanishing through the door and closing it on the way down. Everything had happened so fast, and the adrenaline now coursing through his veins drove him to flee down the tunnel with no thoughts other than to get as far from the fight as he possibly could. Fleeting questions about Navak's safety barely made enough noise to be noticed, all sense of logic and coherency drown out by the pounding of his shoes against stone and the frantic drumming of his heart. But even as he ran, even as he struggled to breathe with many sporadic gasps, one terrible truth was becoming painfully clear;
He had abandoned Jaller without warning, and left all of Ko-Koro at the mercy of a psychopath. And now that he was down in the tunnel…
There would be no turning back.
