Matau sighed heavily as he looked around. What part of Ta-Metru was this? Getting lost during the forge attack hadn't helped, and along with his lack of navigation skills, it added up to being utterly clueless about where he was. "Figure's I'd get the dark-luck of getting lost…" The sickening feeling that someone had been hurt was now growing stronger with every passing minute, and the Hordika couldn't help but wonder if he was going the right way or not. He was about to complain some more about the unfairness of it all, when the sound of crumbling stone came to his attention. Eyes widening a bit as he turned to look towards the source of the noise, Matau unfurled his wings, talon-like fingers ready to strike, and legs tensed in case he needed to take flight.

"Show yourself!" No response. The Hordika frowned as he cautiously approached the location of disturbance, his feathery crest lifting and fanning out a bit as he spoke again. "Who's there? Show yourself!" That was when he heard a familiar voice, sounding utterly relieved.

"Matau! Oh thank Mata Nui you're alright!" Before the winged mutant had a chance to react, he found himself being embraced by a female Hordika with light blue hair, and tears streaming down her scaly face. Quickly realizing who this was, the twenty-two year old hugged her back, relief washing over him like a flood.

"Nokama…I'm ever-glad to see you too. Are you bad-hurt? Are the others okay-fine?" That was when Matau saw someone else was there as well. He looked to be around fifteen years old, with well tanned skin and fiery red eyes. His hair was messy and chin-length, not to mention a remarkably bright shade of burnt orange. As far as his clothing was concerned, he was wearing a red tank-top that looked as though it was too large, not to mention had seen better days. His jeans were dark grey and fraying around the bottoms, as well as showing signs of severe wear on the knees. His boots on the other hand, seemed relatively new, and were black with red laces. His expression was grim, though seeing Matau seemed to make him slightly happier.

"It's good to see you again, Toa Matau. I was starting to think you were dead." The mutated twenty-two year old blinked, looking the teenager over with surprise.

"Tahu-friend? I-is that you? Why are you back? How? Where are the other successor-kids?" Tahu gave a slight nod and a grim, saddened smile.

"Yeah, it's me. We came back because six years is far too long to be away from home. As for the others…" His smile faded. "Toa Lhikan died to protect us shortly after we got back, and the remaining six of us were split up. I…I don't know where the others are. It was just lucky that Toa Nokama found me when she did. Otherwise…" He sighed, shaking his head a little. "Well, let's just say I'd be dead by now." Matau swallowed, looking highly nervous. Of all the people to die, he'd never have expected it to be Lhikan. In fact, though he didn't admit it out loud, he'd thought that Tahu would be the one to get killed, and probably not missed that much.

"O-oh…" He finally managed to say. "Th-that's ever-good to know…" Nokama grimaced as she thought the situation over, shaking her head finally and saying.

"Matau, we need somewhere that we can light a fire. Tahu nearly drowned earlier, and he's been shivering ever since." The twenty-two year old gave a slight nod as he turned and started walking.

"Just quick-follow me. I saw somewhere that'd look-seemed like it'd work." Nokama and Tahu hurried after him, the latter glancing around with unease, and the former staring at the ground by Matau's feet. Silence broken only by the sound of gravel crunching sat heavily around them, until finally Nokama asked quietly.

"Have you heard anything about the others, Matau?" The Hordika shook his head.

"No, actually…are they all out-free now?" She gave a small nod as she glanced around.

"Yes, everyone's free now. We were looking for you actually. Nobody knew what happened to you when you fell. I don't know if Whenua and Nuju split up, but Onewa and I had to separate due to the Visorak…they've been trying to hunt us down ever since we made it out." Matau grimaced a bit as he stopped in front of a partially collapsed house, pushing the door, or what was left of it, open and heading inside, Noakama and Tahu following him. The interior of the building was dusty and well worn seeming, the scent of mildew permeated the air, and the floor was strewn with bits of broken furniture. Nokama looked around the small room with mild interest, smiling a little as she spoke.

"This should do just fine." She then looked at Matau. "There's only one problem with it." He blinked and looked at her. "There's not enough wood here to start a proper fire." Matau thought that through before giving a slight nod.

"I'll go find something we can fire-burn. Just give me a few quick-minutes, and I'll be back." With that said, the twenty-two year old mutant headed back outside.

Wandering around Ta-Metru in search of flammable substances proved to be harder than Matau had originally thought. Between the Visorak, ready-to-collapse buildings, and just general destruction, the Hordika had barely even been able to find the few scraps of wood he was holding, and that in itself had been a harsh and dangerous chore.

"This is mask-cracked…" Matau grumbled under his breath as three Visorak moved past his hiding place. "How am I supposed to way-find anything with all these hazard-problems in the way?" Silencing himself once more and resorting to mental complaining, the twenty-two year old quietly started out again, keeping close watch on his surroundings. It was around this time that he realized that, once again, he had no idea where he was.

"I hate Ta-Metru…" Suddenly, a loud crash resounded from nearby, causing Matau to yelp and duck for cover with his hands over his head, an attempt to shield it from debris that may have fallen. Pressing himself into a large crevasse in a wall beside him, the Hordika waited for the signature noise that betrayed a collapsing building… but the sound never came. He hesitated, opening his eyes and glancing out into the street. Perhaps it was almost ready to fall, and was only moments from doing so. However, when around five minutes passed and nothing happened, Matau slowly relaxed, lowering his hands and sliding back out onto the rubble-strewn street. Now he started to wonder if he should investigate it or not. Most crashing sounds meant nothing but trouble, but at the same time, it could lead him to more burnable objects. Most calculative Toa would've weighed the odds and abandoned the thought of investigating, since chances were high that it wouldn't be worth it.

Matau, however, wasn't calculative, nor cautious about this sort of thing. He never had been, and probably never would be. Live in the now and ask later was a phrase he unconsciously lived by, and old habits always die hard. And so, smiling to himself at the thought of a large firewood supply, Matau started walking. However, firewood was only a portion of what he would find. The rest was worth much, much more.

When he finally located the crash site, he was surprised to see a large, cylindrical capsule lying on top of what was once a small shed. Blinking as he moved closer, Matau took note of the small, mostly shattered window that was on the capsule's front, the frame of a person just barely visible within. The Hordika tilted his head slightly at this.

"Eh?" As he drew closer, however, the face was growing to be very familiar. By the time he'd reached the pod, he already knew who it was. Eyes a little wider than normal, his expression became one of alarm. "H-Hlahlu?" As the realization sunk in, the twenty-two year old started to frantically try and get the capsule open, scraping his clawed fingers more than a few times during the process. Tears welled up in his yellow, hawk-like eyes as desperation began to set in, and as the tears started to slide down his partially feathered face, Matau whimpered, shakily reaching through the pod's window and carefully stroking the Ga-Matoran's dark, dusty blue hair.

"Hlahlu, p-please wake up…" Her frame was cold to the touch, almost as though she were dead. However, as the Hordika lightly trailed his fingers along her pale cheek, she twitched. Her breathing grew deeper and more noticeable soon after, and as the color began to return to her face, a weak moan escaped her lips. Matau's heart skilled a beat, and as he withdrew his hand to continue searching for a way to open the pot, he said hopefully, his voice sounding quite shaky.

"Hlahlu, please wake up… y-you're gonna be okay-fine…" Mostly his talking was simply to convince himself, but if she could hear him, he wouldn't have minded at all. A panel on the capsule shifted now as the Hordika's hand bumped against it. Blinking as he pushed on it Matau gave a weak grin as he looked over the hand-shaped indent that was revealed. Putting his hand on the plate, he gave a slight yelp, eyes widening as it shone pale green. He could feel his power slowly draining away, though it stopped not long after, and a loud click told him that the pod was now unlocked. Grinning even more as the tears streamed down his face the mutant pushed on the pod the top half sliding effortlessly at his touch and falling to the ground. Within moments, Matau had removed the straps that'd held Hlahlu down, now holding her slender frame close as he crouched there beside her former prison. The Ga-Matoran's eyes opened slowly now as she woke up. Shivering a little as her sunset orange eyes met his yellow ones, she whispered, sounding as though she were severely dehydrated.

"M-Matau…?" The Hordika gave a weak laugh as he nodded, though inwardly he was terrified about her condition. She was extremely light, not to mention severely thin, and even though she was awake now, she was still incredibly pale.

"Yes, Hlahlu," He whispered, trying and failing to hide both his excitement and his concern. "I'm Matau. What did they do to you? Are you okay-fine? Did they even feed you? How long were you capsule-trapped? Were you pincer-bitten? Can you-" He was cut off as his girlfriend gave a weak giggle.

"You're talking too fast again…" She paused, looking his face over a bit before speaking again. "…you're different…I-I think…can't really remember… Where are we, Matau?" The Hordika grimaced. He didn't like the sounds of this.

"I used to look-appear different. Don't you remember? We're still on Metru Nui too." The Ga-Matoran blinked slowly.

"I can't remember…" She murmured before hesitating, thinking it over a bit. "…Metru Nui?" Matau's grimace turned into a worried frown. Shifting and standing up, cradling Hlahlu in his arms and being careful not to scratch her, the Hordika closed one of his taloned feet around several large pieces of wood, and as he started the long trip back to Nokama and Tahu, he replied softly.

"I'll explain-tell you about it later."

^v^

What felt like hours of ducking, dodging and hiding later, Matau finally made it back to the others, and said as he headed into the makeshift shelter. "I'm back, and I way-found someone." Nokama blinked as she looked up at him from the pile of old blankets and moth-eaten cushions she'd managed to find. Tahu glanced over from a corner of the room, huddled up in a blanket and seeming rather shocked at the news. Craning his neck to get a better look, the Toa of Fire asked.

"Who'd you find? Is he or she okay?"

"I'm not sure-certain." He replied quietly. "But I know Hlahlu's not as okay-fine as she should be." Tahu grimaced at the assessment. Nokama, however, looked alarmed.

"You found Hlahlu? Where?"

"She was in a large capsule-pod." Matau replied. "I just way-found it on top of a shatter-broken shed. It look-seemed like the thing was throw-tossed there… dunno who did it though." Nokama mulled this over, taking in every detail for consideration as she moved and started to pile up some of the wood her brought had brought back.

"Well, whatever the reason is," She replied finally. "We can thank Mata Nui that you found her instead of someone else."

"Yeah…" Matau agreed. "Especially since she's gone-lost some memories…anyway, what big-matters now is that she gets warm-heated. She's too shiver-cold right now." Giving a slight nod, Nokama reached behind herself, pulling one of the old blankets off the pile and handing it over. After he'd accepted it and started to bundle Hlahlu up with it, the Hordika of Water looked at Tahu.

"Mind lighting the fire for me?" Tahu gave a slight nod, moving close, poking at the wood a few times and lighting it. "Thank you. Now get yourself warmed up." She then turned her gaze to Matau, opened her mouth to speak… and then smiled as she closed it again. For low and behold, the Toa Hordika of Air had fallen asleep, Hlahlu bundled up in the blanket with her lover's arms wrapped around her, and both of them at peace. Nokama looked them over for a few moments as she continued to smile.

"Good night to you too, Matau."