CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX: FIVE REUNITED

Vilak landed on a cliff surrounding Ga-Ara. His golden eyes were watching the ruined city below him as he spoke. "Kopaka, you may not have considered this, but I'm not exactly thrilled about this arrangement."

Kopaka paused for a moment, "Hm?"

Vilak sat down on the edge of the cliff, watching as the rays of the moon bathed the Ga-Ara ruins in their pale light.

"I want to be free of your mind, Kopaka. That's why I imprisoned you," he explained, "But the only way to do that is to collect the Shards of Akhar. Once I have those, I can rip myself from your body."

Kopaka wanted to gape at the demon, but he had no physical mouth. "That would kill me, wouldn't it?"

Vilak shook his head. "Not unless I wanted it to."

Kopaka resigned himself to a temporary solution. "I'll go along with this and not cause trouble for you, Vilak," he said, "But I want you to make sure I survive. I have a promise to keep."

The demon turned over several figurative 'pages' in Kopaka's mind, probing though the memories within. "Ah, this one?" he asked, "You said you'd always return to Gali, didn't you."

Kopaka nodded with the head that no longer existed, and Vilak sighed. "Poor Kopaka… love-struck beyond reason… what if there was no way to return? Hmm?"

Kopaka gritted his teeth, "Just get moving before I start causing you havoc from in here."

As if to emphasize his point, he dug his fingers into the 'banks' of the river that carried Vilak's thoughts. Vilak felt the pain course through his body, and stood up in annoyance. "All right, Kopaka, let's do this your way."

Unbeknownst to Vilak/Kopaka, Gali had just reached the shore where she and Kopaka had first landed. She wanted to kill Lewa. "Safest water-skimmer in Le-Koro, blue-sister," he had told her. The damn thing had fallen apart halfway to Ara-Nui!

Even for the Toa of Water, the swim had been harsh. Luckily, she had been able to convince a small Deepcoiler (courtesy of her Rau Mask of Translation) to give her a ride for most of the way.

She shook water out of her mask. There was no time for thought. She had to find Vilak (not to mention Kopaka) and do something about the current situation before it got worse. She changed her mask to her Kakama and sped off toward Ga-Ara. If he was anywhere, she reasoned, he'd be there.

Gali rushed into the ruined water village in time to see the frost-white demon slaughter some kind of aquatic fish-titan. The beast crashed back into the water, sinking to the bottom. Vilak landed, his back to Gali, and retrieved the fifth and final shard of Akhar.

"Gali," he said, not bothering to face her, "Why did you come back?"

Gali drew her Aqua Axes, facing Vilak, "I came for Kopaka, not you!"

Vilak turned around, eyeing her axes with mild amusement. "Are you insinuating that you would like to fight me?"

Vilak drew the Blade of Blinding Truth from his back, pointing it at Gali. Kopaka screamed curses at Vilak from within, but they were ignored.

Gali pointed her axe at Vilak's chest. "I'll fight you if I have to!"

Vilak wasted no time. He lunged forward, kicking one axe out of Gali's hand and knocking the other away with his sword. He brought the glowing blade around to face Gali, pointing at her neck.

"Never," he said, "Challenge that which cannot die."

Kopaka had to do something. He could feel Vilak's thoughts urging him to impale Gali's throat.

Not on my watch!

Kopaka dug his fingers into the side of Vilak's Thought-River and pulled, tearing a section out. Vilak dropped the sword with a screech, falling to his knees.

And then all hell broke loose.