"Cheryl. Cheryl wake up."

Groaning, I rolled over, tossing my arms over my head. "What?" I grumbled.

"Shh!" Matt snapped. "Not so loud."

Turning over onto my side, my tired eyes slowly adjusted to the vision of Matt sitting beside me. It was still dark out, maybe early in the morning by my guestimate. A tight frown pulled at my lips. "It's not even light," I hissed. "Go back to sleep." I rolled over and Matt pulled me right back.

The boy pressed a finger to his lips and then pointed towards the crest of the cliff above us. My brows squished together, unsure what he was getting at, but I lifted my head anyways. Slowly descending down the face of the cliff was a dark figure. It was small and thing and knew how to navigate the steep edges of the rock. My heart stopped as I fell frozen, unable to take my eyes off the creeping intruder.

"What is it?" Matt asked in a hushed whisper. His eyes were trained upon me, hands tightly coiled in the material of his pants.

Slowly, I lowered my head away. My tongue loosened. "I . . . don't know," I whispered. I swallowed, throat dry.

"An enemy?" Matt questioned.

"More than likely," I replied, voice barely above a whisper. "I've never seen a Toa or Matoran move like that."

Matt nodded in agreement. "What should we do?"

My hand reached out, touching the ground beside me. A thin layer of slush condensed over the stone, growing thicker and thicker the more power I poured over it. The ice built upon itself until what rested in my hand was the serrated blade of an ice dagger. I held it up between us, moonlight glinting blue off the weapon.

"Get it before it gets us."

The soft patter of rocks sliding down the mountain caused goose bumps to prickle both our skins. We could feel the eyes of whatever was above us stare straight through us. It was upon us.

Matt and I met eyes. "We must be quick," Matt murmured.

I nodded. "On my count. One . . ." My grip tightened upon the dagger. "Two . . ."

Balling his hand into a fist, Matt's fingers glowed with the barest flickers of flame.

"Three!"

As one, we launched to our feet, snatching the creeper as it was about to leap off the mountainside. Gravity aided our combined strength to bring the stranger down, pinning him beneath our collective weights, but it was not to last. With one terrific muster of energy, the stranger shoved us aside, tossing us to the ground as if we were nothing. The tables turned as it launched upon us, pinning Matt beneath the weight of its left foot and me with the right. The stranger was small but its stature didn't portray its weight. It felt as if like a pile of bricks was settled upon my chest; it was a struggle to even breathe! Taking a firm hold of the dagger, I slashed at it in warning, prompting the stranger to back away. The slack was just enough. Matt surged forward and dove upon it, pinning the stranger down in an iron grip so it wouldn't escape. I came up there after, taking a hold of one of its arms to hold it steady.

"Matt, put some light on this," I barked, eyes trained on our catch.

Releasing one of his hands, Matt willed a small flame into his palm and what the orange glow revealed astounded and unnerved us at the same time. Our attacker wasn't a Matoran, Toa or Makuta – but a human boy. A thin human boy at that.

Confusion colored my face. "What?"

"Is this your brother?" Matt asked, glancing from the boy to me and back.

I shook my head. "No . . . I don't know who this is . . ." I met the boy's pale green eyes. "Who are you, where did you come from?"

The boy's thin chest rose up and down quickly, eyes flicking between Matt and me. "Please don't hurt me," he begged softly.

"No, we're not going to hurt you." I released my grip and Matt followed suit. The boy sat up, leaning back on his stick arms for support as if he didn't have the strength to keep himself upright. "Who are you?"

"Where did you come from?" Matt asked. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The boy pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them tight, green eyes drawn to the ground. He swallowed hard, laying his head upon his knees. "Someplace bad . . ." he whispered.

"You're pretty banged up." I ran an eye over the boy. Besides his stick-thin frame, his corduroy pants were dirtied and ripped at the cuffs and knees, as if he had spent much time in grime. The orange shirt draped over his shoulders was in no better condition, the left sleeve was held to the body only with crude stitching and with all the moth-eaten holes the garment could have passed for Swiss cheese. The worst part of him was his hands and feet (he wore no shoes) that could only speak of a hard time.

The boy sighed, turning over one his hands. "Yeah . . ."

"Where did you come from?" Matt pressed.

The boy blinked at Matt's rough tone and hugged his knees all the tighter, staring down at the ground. "From . . . a bad place . . . run by a guy named . . . Makuta."

A shiver pulsed down mine spine and the waning shadows seemed to draw in that much closer.

"Makuta?" Matt asked, eyes narrowing. He inched closer to the boy. "How did you -?"

"Were you the only one there?" I interjected suddenly. The boy jumped, hugging his knees tighter. "Was there another boy with you?" I stood, raising my hand half a foot above my head. "About this tall, white hair, blue eyes?"

The boy's brow furrowed as if in thought then his eyes lit up. "Yeah! There was . . . Art? No, Arc!"

Elation surged through my body like a tidal wave. My face split into a large smile and tears wet the corners of my eyes. "That's my brother! Is he okay? I thought Makuta turned him into a Ghost!" I loomed over the boy, taking him by the shoulders. All I felt was bone. "You have to take me to him!"

"Cheryl, stop! You're scaring him." Matt grasped my arm, tugging me away.

"But he knows where Arc is!" I yelped.

"I know," Matt nodded. Eyeing the boy, Matt hushed his voice and I had to strain to hear. "But something about this still doesn't feel right . . ." Letting go of my arm, he crawled forward to sit in front of the boy. "You have to be tired and thirsty. We'll give you some water and then you're going to tell us exactly how you got here and escaped Makuta."

The boy scooted back an inch, resting his chin upon the curves of his knees. He eyed us carefully, flicking back from Matt to me. He nodded. " . . . Okay . . . Do you have any food?"

In the coming dawn, Matt gathered around what brush was available and started a small fire. All three of us crowded around, the meager blaze painting our faces bright orange-red. We hadn't any food to offer our guest, but I managed to conjure him some water. The boy wolfed it down in seconds and asked for more; I was more than happy to oblige.

"Before you start," Matt said, breaking the silence, "what is your name?"

Sucking down the last few drops of his second serving of water, the boy glanced at Matt and frowned. "You know . . . I'm not sure I remember my name . . . Makuta never called me by it." He scratched the back of his head.

"How long have you been with him?" I muttered. How could he forget his own name?

"A long while," the boy confessed. "I know it was something with an S . . . Se . . . Seba . . ." His eyes suddenly lit up. "Sebastian! That's my name, Sebastian."

"Nice to meet you, Sebastian," I replied with a small smile. "I'm Cheryl Price and that's Matt."

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah . . . the other kid that was with me, his last name was Price."

I mimicked Sebastian's nod, lips pursed in a tight line. "Arc, my brother. You have to tell me everything about him, and where Makuta is keeping him."

"After he tells us how he got here," Matt interjected. His eyes were trained on Sebastian. "I'll help you get started: who brought you here?"

Once more Sebastian's brow furrowed in thought. " . . . I'm not too sure . . . Wait . . . It was someone in dark armor, but it wasn't Makuta . . . a Toa . . ." He snapped his fingers. "Onua! That was his name."

The hairs one Matt's neck stood on end as his eyes widened. A shiver bled down my spine and a knot twisted my stomach. Slowly our gazes turned to each other.

"You don't think . . .?" I muttered.

"What happened after Onua found you?" Matt barked suddenly. "Did Makuta find you two? Did Makuta do something to him?"

"I don't know!" Sebastian yelled, scooting back an inch. "After Onua found me, he said that I could be a Toa, that Mata Nui needed me. He took me back with him using this weird gold mask. Everything was fine but then Rahi ambushed us, but they weren't normal. They were sickly, almost diseased, like something had possessed them. Onua told me to run while he took care of it and I did . . . but I didn't get far. This one Rahi caught me and then I blacked out . . ."

Sebastian lowered his head into his knees, hugging them close to his chest. "When I came to . . . I was in this dark chamber. It looked like it was filled with smoke, but I didn't smell any fire. It was cold and reeked of . . . darkness. It wasn't a good place to be . . . and that's the first time I saw him . . . Makuta," he whispered.

"But what happened to Onua?" Matt pressed.

Sebastian shook his head, body trembling. "Something very bad . . . Makuta did something to him . . . He wasn't the same."

"No . . ." I moaned.

Matt shook his head, chest heaving. "It can't be!"

"I asked Makuta what he had done to him . . . and Makuta only laughed." Sebastian met each of our eyes in turn. There was no mistaking the fear in his gaze. "He turned him into a Ghost . . ."

"No!" Matt barked, startling Sebastian and me. "He can't be! He's Onua, he's a Toa! He can't be a Ghost!"

"Makuta already told me about other Toa he turned into Ghosts," Sebastian insisted. "Toa and Apprentices. Makuta doesn't care; he turns everyone he can to his side."

"But he's not dead," Matt demanded. He stared hard into Sebastian's eyes. "Turaga Vakama said that Ghosts are still alive. There has to be a way to get him back."

"Actually . . . I think there is." Sebastian wet his lips. "I don't know how, but Makuta sometimes said things about Ghosts turning back to normal. I'm not sure how he does it but I'm sure it works."

"Take us to him," I demanded. "Take us to Makuta . . . and Onua and Arc. We'll set them free and change them back. We'll even kill Makuta if we can."

Sebastian shook his head. "Now you're talking crazy! No one can kill a Makuta – it's not even possible!"

"Someone has had to!" I barked. "He can't be immortal." I paused. "Wait . . . what do you mean 'a makuta'? There are more, there's not just one person named Makuta?" A chill set in my bones.

Sebastian blanched, his lips becoming a tight line, as if he had told a big secret. He nodded solemnly. "Yes . . . Makuta never spoke about the others much but from what he did say . . . there are dozens, maybe hundreds more."

This bit of news shocked us to the core, more so than Onua being a Ghost. I put my head in my hands and Matt sighed deeply, massaging his temples. "This keeps getting better and better," I muttered.

"We thought we only had to worry about one Makuta now there are more?" Matt sighed. He glanced at me, frowning. "This is bigger than we thought, Cheryl. We can't do this on our own . . . we need to go back to the Toa."

"No!" I cried. "We can still do this. There's only one Makuta here; we can deal with them. If we turn back now then there's no way the Toa would let us continue."

"And how do you know if there is just one here?" Matt objected. "There could be hundreds for all we know, but we only know about one of them. Face it, Cheryl, we need help and if the Toa say we can't continue then I don't blame them. Facing one Makuta is bad enough but a whole race of them – it's suicide!"

"Is that all you can say is can't?!" I seethed. Jumping to my feet I glared hard at Matt, hands balling into fists. "Ever since I proposed this idea of finding my brother all you've ever done was discourage me and tell me how bad of an idea it is. And now when we're at the cusp of getting Arc and Onua back, you just want to throw in the towel? Well fine, give up if you want to. Go crawling back to the Toa and squeal on me, but by the time you do I'll have saved them. you may talk a good game, Matt, but when it comes to walking the walk you fail miserably." I growled. "You're not fit to be a Toa!"

With a cry of rage, Matt launched at me, grasping my shirt collar and forcing me to the ground. Freezing my fist solid I reacted and caught him in the face, sending the boy sprawling. Scrambling to my feet, I attacked him again, pinning him down.

"Stop it!" Sebastian pleaded.

"You think I'm not fit to be a Toa?!" Matt screamed. Evading a powerhouse fist, Matt came up with an attack of his own, knocking me backwards. We could barely stand the small bit of space between us. "You're the one who doesn't deserve it! You're the one who puts your desires and wants over the wellbeing of everyone around you, even to the point of jeopardizing everything. Last time I checked, Toa were supposed to be selfless and putting others before themselves. Kopaka was wrong about you. He said he wanted you because you might hold some resemblance to your brother. Well if you're anything like your brother then Kopaka has poor choices in Apprentices."

My skin crawled with each word and I drew my knife, ice crystallizing around it until I held a glistening short sword in hand. Rushing Matt, I raised it to strike him down and was immediately met with a blade of pure fire. A wall of steam sizzled in front of our noses as we glared into each other's eyes, pushing against one another's weapon.

"Take it back!" I demanded.

"It's true."

"TAKE IT BACK!"

"NO!"

"FINE!" Pushing back against the flaming sword, I broke our stalemate and panted hard. "Go then! Run back to the others. I'll find Arc and Onua, defeat Makuta, then you'll see how much I deserve to be a Toa."

Sighing deeply, Matt allowed the blade to drop and fizzle out into nothing. In his eyes showed how much he wanted the battle to continue and I wanted the same, but we didn't take another step to continue it. "Fine, have it your way, but don't come crying to me when Makuta turns you into a Ghost." Turning, Matt walked back down the path just as dawn was beginning to break.

"I won't," I growled. Turning away from Matt, Sebastian remained in his place. His uncertain eyes flicked to me and I nodded.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Sebastian asked. "Maybe he's right. This could be dangerous." He gestured to his thin form and weathered clothes. "Look what he did to me."

"It's something I have to do," I replied. "Arc is counting on me to get him back, and I can't leave Onua there to rot as well. I don't have a choice . . . and Matt will eat his words." Placing a hand upon Sebastian's shoulder I gave it a light squeeze. "Lead the way."