ULTIMATE BIONICLE

Chapter 20: The Cell

The walls were hard, too hard for even someone like Krekka to break through. There were no windows. It was dark, save for the few lights that were on in the hall that ran by it. There were no bars in its opening, but you could never get out. Unseen forces kept you inside that cell.

She stirred awake from an uncomfortable sleep. She could not tell from looking whether it was night or day. She tried to get up, only to remember that her hands and legs were tied by powerful chains.

Suddenly she looked over to the entrance. Someone was sitting in the light. She could only really see a silhouette and its glowing orange right eye; staring at the floor in front of it. It had spikes going along its back, and its hands were tied behind it.

"Hi," She said reluctantly, "My name is Nokama, what's yours?" It did not say anything at first, only its eye traveled and met with hers.

"They took it…" It said finally. "They took it from me…" Nokama raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What did they take from you?" She asked. "They took it away… I need it and they took it away…my Kraata. Without it I am nothing, because they know what I can do when it's with me…"

"He's not going to answer you, Nokama. But, his name is Vorak." Another voice said from within the same cell. "Whenua, is that you?" She said in surprise. A pair of dark green eyes opened in the dark, although they were not looking at her. "Yeah, it's me."

"What are you doing here? How did you get captured? Are the others alright?" She asked rapidly.

"The Vahki got me, with the help of Nidhiki. I think they caught all of us. They might still be knocked out right now." Whenua explained. "I'll check for them." Nokama said. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her telepathic abilities were limited only to sensing and identifying presence, as well as emotion. It gave her too much strain to read exactly whatsomebody was thinking. Slowly she counted off. Vakama was here, so was Onewa, and Nuju, and Matau, and Vorak, and… "There is an extra person in here with us." She told Whenua.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "The others are here, but there is one other Toa in here with us." Nokama replied.

Whenua made a pondering groan. "Why would they capture one of the Toa Nuva?" He wondered to himself.

"Who are the Toa Nuva?" asked Nokama. "The so called 'evil' Toa that were on Mata Nui." Whenua replied.

There was a long silence for a while. Finally Nokama spoke again. "How long have I been in here?" She asked. "It's been about a month." Whenua answered.

"Has that all it's been?" Nokama said in shock. "It's felt so much longer…" She said painfully. Whenua looked over at her. Though his mask had been removed, she was a little in the light, plus he was good a seeing in the dark in general, so he was able to examine her. She had fresh wounds and cuts all over her body, though they we not bleeding. It looked as though she had received them the night before.

"What have they done to you?" Whenua said in horrified shock. He could see that she was starting to get a little teary eyed. She then closed them. How painful had this month been for her? Whenua thought to himself in disbelief. His fears were true after all. Whenua clenched his fist.

"Why are you so angry, Whenua?" She asked suddenly. The remark caught him off guard. Nokama opened her eyes. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to read your mind." She said nervously. "…don't worry about it. I've just been worried about you. We all have." Whenua replied.

"Ugh, my head," A female voice suddenly said, "Where am I?"

"Gali," Whenua asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Whenua is that you?" She asked, relieved to hear a familiar voice. "Where are we?"

"It would appear that you've been captured with us, Gali." Whenua told her. "I don't know why though."

"Who turned out the lights?" Matau suddenly said, rising into a sitting position.

&&&&&&&&

"I'm sorry I got you all into this." Vakama said, with exasperation.

"There's not point beating yourself up over it, Vakama," Nuju said, "That's not gonna make the situation any better."

"Why don't we justescape through the entrance?" Matau said. "Even though my legs are tied I bet I could still get through." Matau then slowly started struggling to get to his feet. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Nokama warned. Matau leapt forward. A field of electricity suddenly appeared as he crossed a line and he was electrocuted until it knocked him back into the wall.

"Ow….that hurt." Matau groaned. "She told you not to." Whenua said. "Are you def or just stupid?"

"Shut up, Whenua!" Matau said angrily. "At least I don't fight random people who are obviously stronger than me just for the hell of it!"

"You wanna come say that to my face?" Whenua said. "Now who's the stupid one?" Matau saiddefiantly, "WE'RE CHAINED UP! HOW CAN I SAY IT TO YOUR FACE! OHHH! NOW WHO'S THE IDIOT?"

"Shut up in there!" A voice echoed down the hall. All the lights suddenly came on. The sudden brightness stung all their eyes. Nidhiki, followed by the elite Bordakh marched to their cell. "Comfortable?" Nidhiki said with a devious grin. "Burn in hell!" Vakama yelled.

"It's time for your 'treatment'." Nidhiki smirked devilishly. "You know the routine, Nokama." Bordakh said. Nidhiki pressed a few buttons beside the cell; shutting down the electric field. The Bordakh walked in and grabbed Nokama's chain. "What are you gonna do to her!" Onewa yelled. "Leave her alone!" shouted Matau.

"You'll find out soon enough what we're doing. In the meantime you can sit back and listen!" Bordakh said with a laugh. "GUH!" He yelled suddenly as Whenua leapt at him; body-checking him out of the cell. "Whenua what are you doing?" Nokama said in confusion.

Bordakh got to his feet angrily. "Fine, we'll take Whenua instead. I'll pass you onto Rorzakh. He'll enjoy being the one to torture first." Bordakh then looked at Nokama, "You got off for now, Nokama. But he's only delayed the inevitable." He then grabbed Whenua's chains and dragged him away.

"Why?" Nokama thought, "Is he brave or just stupid? Why would he try to fight, even when there's not chance he will win?"

"Now I'll be taking you, Vorak." Nidhiki said. He grabbed and picked up Vorak with one hand by the chains that tied his claws back. Vorak did not protest. Nidhiki re-activated the electric field, and walked away in the opposite direction that Bordakh had gone in.

There was a long silence in the cell, until Matau suddenly cleared his throat. "I knew Whenua was as stupid as me."

"Shut up, Matau," Nuju said.

&&&&&&&&

Rorzakh threw Whenua to the ground inside a room, kicking him in the stomach a few times, knocking the wind out of him. The room was full strange equipment and weapons. Whenua dreaded what they were going to be used for. There was a strange table that looked as though it could move to an upright position. There were shackles on it, which had a lot of wires hooked up to them. He also noticed a huge hooked hanging ominously in the middle of the room by a large chain.

Rorzakh turned a crank, causing the hook to lower. He then walked over to Whenua and hoisted him up and hooked him onto it by the shackles that bonded his hands. Rorzakh chuckled. "You're gonna wish you never became a Toa." He then walked back to the crank and raised the hook at little so that Whenua's feet were not touching the ground.

His hands tied, hanging by his arms, with his legs tied at the ankles; Whenua was helpless.

Rorzakh suddenly spoke, "You know, those new chains are quite remarkable. Not even Krekka could break out of them when we first tested them. It's a newly refined form of ordinarymetallic Protodermis, discovered by Ga-Metruan scientists. Though it is still in essence Protodermis, they call it 'Titadermis'. Because it is so strong not even a titanic being would be able to break it." Rorzakh said, marveling at the power the chains had over his victim.

Whenua remained silent, staring down at Rorzakh with disgust. "I thought as an Archivist, you would be interested in such a discovery, would you not?" Rorzakh taunted.

"I don't give a Rahi's ass." Whenua replied scornfully. "I stopped being an Archivist as soon as I became Toa. And quite frankly, I'm glad I did. Being an Archivist was not my type of job."

"Then would you not care if they entire Archive complex were eradicated? Would you not protect it?" Rorzakh asked curiously. "Of course I would protect it. The profession might not mean all that much to me, but that falls in comparison to how much the job and the complex matters to the majority of the Onu-Matoran population. So, yes I would protect it because they love it. Not whether or not I care all that much for it myself."

"You're starting to make me sick. How about we just get this show on the road, eh? All this talk is making me fall asleep." Rorzakh walked over to a rack, which had many weapons on it. He put down his only staff, which was in his right hand. He then picked up a spear like weapon. He walked up to and stood in front of Whenua, waving the spear around a little. He then pressed a button on the end of it and a small laser like blade appeared out of the end of it.

Whenua stared at the blade, and its millions of promises of pain to come. "This will only be the beginning." Rorzakh said.

&&&&&&&&

It had been many hours, and Whenua had still not come back. His cries of pain were occasionally so great that they echoed through the halls. Vorak had not come back either,but there was no sound ever heard. The Toa Metru seemed to all be asleep; despite the trouble they had doing so. Gali was awake however. She had found it too hard to even shut her eyes. What if the Toa Nuva never find her? What if they find her and she's already dead? These questions buzzed through her head faster than a swarm of Nui-Rama. One of Whenua's shouts echoed softly through the hall again, causing her to shudder.

"Are you alright?" A voice suddenly asked. Gali raised her unmasked head in surprise; looking to where the voice had come from. "Who said that?" She asked the voice.

"I did." Nuju then slowly scooted himself out of the shadows and into the ray of light that Gali was sitting in. He sat beside Gali, leaning his back against the wall. "So, are you alright?"

Gali sighed. "I'm ok I guess. About as good as I can be right now." She said, sighing again. "What do you mean?" Nuju asked curiously.

"Well, right now I'm locked in a cell with five complete strangers. Separated from my brothers and listening to the sounds of someone I consider a friend getting tortured for I have no idea how long. And the sad part is that it's not going to get any better than this." Gali explained.

Nuju sighed heavily. "I'm really sorry you got involved in this. I don't know why and I don't know how, but you got involved. But, I promise you I will never let anything happen to you." Nuju said sincerely. Nuju then put his hands together. Gali could feel the cold as he did something with ice in between his cupped hands. Nuju opened his hands and inside was an exotic flower made of ice. "My name is Nuju, by the way." He said as he placed it in her hand.

Gali smiled at him. "My name's Gali." She found herself staring at Nuju for a while, and then realized what she was doing. A light blue blush appeared on Gali's face and quickly looked away to the floor in front of her. "So, uh, what's it like where you're from?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well, our island of Metru Nui, which is where we are now, is in fact entirely a city. When I was a Matoran I lived in Ko-Metru and I worked in the Knowledge Towers, where I tried to make predictions of the future with other scholars." Nuju explained.

"You were a Matoran once?" Gali said in surprise. Nuju returned a confused expression. "Yeah, of course I was. Weren't you?"

"No, I wasn't. I came to Mata Nui in a canister and was always a Toa. Same goes for my brothers." Gali explained. "Shh." Nuju said, quieting her. Footsteps and the sound of something being dragged could be heard down the hall.

Rorzakh walked by the front of the cell, dragging Whenua behind him, followed by three other robotic Rorzakh. A trail of blood was left behind as Whenua was dragged. Rorzakh pressed a few buttons on the terminal next to the cell, deactivating the electric field. He threw Whenua to the floor in front of Nuju and Gali. He then pressed the buttons on the terminal again and walked away.

They could hear Whenua breathing, but besides that he was completely silent. "Whenua?" Gali asked with worry in her voice.