(A/N): Welcome to the last chapter before my official break! Time to pick up where we left off, with Axonn and Penny fighting the Piraka! Well okay, they're not technically the Piraka - in the canon BIONICLE story, they only got that name when they split from the Dark Hunters and went to go find the Mask of Life, something that hasn't happened in this timeline. Their arrival in the 2006 story-line marks when things started taking a darker turn for the whole franchise, and I tried my darnedest to capture that danger and their personalities here (making a few adjustments to the Skakdi species history in the process). Hope you enjoy!

Content warnings this time around: body horror, blood, and more violence than usual. Honestly, the not-Piraka could be a content warning all on their own, haha.

Of all the races within the Matoran Universe, the Skakdi were Axonn's least favorite.

Brutal, vicious, and warlike as a rule, the spiny Skakdi had been conditioned to survive the hellish extremes of their native island. Actually, calling Zakaz "hellish" was a charitable label at best - everything, from the biggest of plants to the smallest Rahi, had an appetite for living protodermis and enough bite force to cleave metal. So it was no surprise that the Skakdi had risen to the top of the food chain with adaptations that made them incredible warriors and hunters, from near-endless stamina to a high tolerance for pain to muscles capable of subduing a Kikanalo. Bare-handed.

Those humble, savage origins made them strong, certainly, but it also made them violent towards anything that moved…including each other. Inflicting pain was as natural a language to them as the spoken word - and while they were strong enough to handle each other, not much else was lucky enough to say the same. All that, of course, was before the Brotherhood of Makuta had "uplifted" them and performed experiments across their entire species, which granted all of them augmentations and weapons training and strange powers that varied from brute to brute.

It was that awareness of the Skakdi's "gifts" that drove Axonn's actions in battle, as well as familiarity with these six attackers in particular.

Hakann, an opportunistic bully with mental blasts and eye beams as hot as his temper. Vezok, a beastly brute that could copy any power he saw. Thok, a scheming drifter that turned his surroundings into living puppets. Avak, a trigger-happy sadist who took joy in conjuring prisons that no victim could ever escape on their own. Reidak, an unrelenting tracker that could shrug off any fatal blow. And worst of all was Zaktan, a slippery snake that led his less-ambitious fellows to whatever prize he wanted. And today, that was apparently his own head.

Not that he'd let that happen.

First to be dispatched was Avak, who was sealed within a stasis field conjured with a wave of Axonn's hand. It wouldn't hold him forever, but it would keep him and his prisons from being a problem for a few minutes. Next to be targeted was Thok; a guided bolt of electricity shot from the head of his axe and struck the pale schemer between the eyes, sending him flying with a pounding headache and starry vision. While Penny flew on jets of flame, drawing the ire of the callous Zaktan and the fiery Hakann, Axonn focused on the two other members of the Dark Hunter hit squad: the brutish Vezok and the relentless Reidak, who were both tougher than their peers and strong enough to match his punches and swings blow-for-blow despite being half his height.

"This'd be a lot easier if you just laid down and died already!" bellowed Vezok as he lunged with his harpoon, blue-and-black armor already bearing scratches from this and previous brawls.

Axonn's only response was to deflect the sharpened spear with a twirl of his own weapon, then to drive his knee into Vezok's gut. The blow rattled even a hardened warrior like the one he was fighting, giving the titan a chance to follow up with one, two, three punches that launched Vezok into a pile of scrap. Much as he would've preferred to move in and pummel the stubborn Skakdi, a bellowing roar from behind demanded his attention more. He spun around on the spot and swung to intercept the leaping attack from behind, the blade of his axe catching Reidak right in the neck and sending him flying.

The black-armored brute hit the ground with a bloodied thump, but Axonn didn't consider him down and out yet - all Skakdi were remarkably resilient and quick to heal, but Reidak's adaptability went above and beyond most of his brethren. Anytime he took a mortal blow, his body would eventually adapt and subtly change in such a way that he couldn't be felled by that same kind of attack. If there was an upper limit to what he could endure, no one had managed to find it yet…and many had tried to find it.

A sudden chill in the air warned him about beams of icy energy flying at him, forcing him down to avoid being frozen on the spot. He glared in the direction the blasts had come from, frowning at the sight of Thok back on his feet with a weapon in his hands and a smirk on his face. Skakdi couldn't access their latent elemental powers unless they worked together - a notion that made them sick to their stomach - so they often carried tools or other devices that let them mimic the power they were too stubborn to wield. Thok's weapon of choice was a curved slab of steel with a frost launcher on one end and a sharpened pick in the other, allowing him to freeze most living beings in a few shots and shatter them with one well-placed blow.

Axonn was not like most living beings.

He deftly ducked under the beams of concentrated cold and wove through the barrage with surprising agility for his size, shrugging off the glancing blows that hit his armor and smashing a frost-covered plate into Vezok's face. When the shooter paused to reload he flung his axe outward in a mighty throw, guiding the weapon with his will as it sailed and spun through the air. Thok grinned as he sidestepped the four-bio-long shaft of steel, but that was what Axonn was counting on - with a twist of his wrist the axe came careening back to his hand, the edge of its curved blades catching the Skakdi's spine on the return flight. His prey squirmed and thrashed, but he couldn't free himself from the flying axe fast enough, and was helpless as it dragged him close enough for the titan to grab him by the ankle, slam him repeatedly against the ground, and toss him into Reidak just as the latter staggered back to his feet.

"That thing does not obey the laws of physics," groused Thok as he struggled to untangle himself from his fellow murderer.

"Shut up and get off me!" roared Reidak, eyes burning red in rage.

Having bought himself a few precious seconds, Axonn turned to focus on Vezok once more -

And suddenly the next swing of his axe bounced off a once-invisible force field, the impact rippling through the rest of the orange sphere around him. He glared through the barrier and noticed that it fully encompassed him without letting anything pass through - including, if he had to guess, the surrounding air. One quick turn on the spot confirmed his worst suspicion: his stasis field had already worn off, allowing Avak to stand outside a prison of his own with glowing eyes and an outstretched hand and the biggest grin imaginable. He couldn't hear what the Skakdi outside was saying, but he could only guess it was some smug proclamation of his victory…and his grin was matched only by the sinister smiles of his peers as they surrounded the cage to watch him suffocate.

Well, he wasn't going to give them what they wanted. He wasn't going to struggle like some trapped Rahi. He knew that Avak's prisons were designed to perfectly counter the powers of anyone inside them, which made fighting against them pointless. So instead he put his axe headfirst into the ground, filled his massive lungs as best he could, and waited.

Waited for the Maiden of Mata Nui to do what she did best.

Penny quickly decided that she did not enjoy fighting Skakdi.

Her two opponents - Hakann and Zaktan, she remembered - gave her no quarter or room to breathe as she soared through the air above Roodaka's shop. The red-armored Skakdi fired at her from the ground with alarming accuracy, alternating between the lava launcher in his hand and the burning beams of crimson that shot from his eyes. The former could easily be avoided or frozen in bursts of magic, but the latter could melt even the glass swords she had conjured, and burned hotter than any flame she or Cinder had ever commanded. It was all she could do but roll to avoid Hakann's gaze whenever the streaks of scarlet tore in her direction, calling on every evasive maneuver she knew and praying it was enough.

Of course, the Skakdi below was not her only opponent. Rather than shoot her from the ground, Zaktan pursued her into the sky with a very unusual ability of his own. Somehow the green-armored warrior was able to reduce himself into swarms of protodites, tiny metallic insects smaller than grains of sand. While they were similar enough to the bugs that Takua always complained about whenever he visited Le-Wahi, these protodites seemed to act according to the will of Zaktan himself, allowing him to easily flow around the Maiden's magical blasts and reappear to strike for himself. It almost reminded Penny of how Ruby could do the same in bursts of rose petals…only unlike the artful combat style of her best friend, Zaktan had no flair or grace to his airborne attacks. Only brutal efficiency and deadly intent.

The aerial duel continued for several minutes, her heart thumping in her chest during every second of it. With little chance to attack effectively, Penny's attention was torn between blocking Zaktan's slashes from above and avoiding Hakann's volleys from below. While she mostly succeeded at doing both, there was still the errant shot that clipped her heel, or the unexpected slash that grazed her bare arm. Her Aura blunted the force of both and kept either one from being fatal, but it would not last forever, and neither Skakdi showed signs of slowing down or stopping their relentless assault.

Penny came out of an aerial cartwheel just in time to notice Axonn encased in a barrier of orange light, with the other Dark Hunters closing in around him. She tried to keep her attention on the situation below, tried to bring her fight closer to the titan in trouble, but her current opponents kept pushing her higher into the skies of Xia and kept demanding her attention. Her gut told her to target Avak, the only one among the four grounded Skakdi whose eyes were currently glowing, yet her body was forced further and further away from her companion.

These Skakdi are incredibly dangerous, even to someone like Axonn, she thought to herself with a frown as her ears caught the sound of scuttling insects once more. But then again…so am I.

She twisted around in mid-air and brought her array of glass swords up to meet Zaktan's slash just as he reformed behind her, trapping his blade between two of her own. Other copies of Floating Array whirled and whipped around to slice the Skakdi to ribbons, only to meet empty air as he dissolved once more. Yet that was what Penny had counted on; before he could fly away again, she tapped into her magic and blew an icy mist into the protodite swarm, trapping millions of them in a flash-frozen statue that fell to the ground far below.

"Agh! What? You!"

Zaktan roared - or as much as someone with half a face even could roar - and swung his blade in a mighty frenzy of furious blows, which Penny blocked with ease and answered with blasts of flame that finally made him back off in a cloud of burning insects. It was only a moment's reprieve, as Hakann's lava launcher thumped from below once more, but that was all the time she needed. If she wanted to help Axonn, she would need to shake off her attackers. Quickly, decisively, and fearlessly.

She managed two of the three.

Banking and arcing through the air to avoid the burning shots, Penny targeted the crimson Skakdi and launched herself into a steep dive. Hakann continued firing at her, his weapon cracking like explosive fissures with each bolt, but her magical command of wind and her own instincts kept her in motion as she dodged every incoming spike of magma. When the launcher ran dry yet again, the Skakdi's eyes began to glow with scarlet death - at which point Penny flung one of her glass swords right at the fiery warrior, intercepting the beam inches away from its source.

There was a violent sound of tearing crystal that echoed through the air. The glass within Floating Array, its core heated up thousands of degrees in the space of a few seconds, reacted the only way it could to such a phenomenon - violently, explosively, and with painful results to anyone nearby. And in the moment of its shattering, Hakann was close enough for several dozen shards of burning crystal to smash into his face and eyes, hot enough for even someone as fire-resistant as him to cry out in pain.

That should keep him from using his heat vision for now, thought Penny as she pulled out of a death dive several feet above the ground. Now I can finally rescue Axonn -

The sound of a sword slicing through air above her was the only warning she got, but it was enough. She banked and rolled just in time to avoid the downward slash, then brought Floating Array up to block Zaktan's follow-up cleave. To her dismay, the emerald Skakdi had already reformed in full…meaning he had already freed himself from the frozen prison.

"You're a little too clever for your own good, 'Maiden,'" snarled Zaktan, digging his blade a little deeper into her swords as they crossed edges. "Not many people can surprise me like you just did…and they usually don't last very long after."

She looked over her shoulder to see Axonn's knees sink to the ground within his bubble, eyes dimming and grip on his axe faltering. Then she turned back to Zaktan, eyes burning in righteous anger.

"I am not just clever, Zaktan. I am combat-ready!"

Penny yelled as she flung out her arms, turning the rest of Floating Array into a spinning tornado of glass and wind and fury. Against any other opponent, it would have been overkill; against Zaktan, all it did was sweep up his protodites and carry him away. Rather than press the advantage, the Maiden poured so much magic into her jets that her bare soles began to burn, rocketing towards Avak as both her palms came alive with Aura. She slammed both her hands against the back of the bronze Skakdi's head and unleashed her Semblance, teal wires snapping out and connecting to any and all technology within the spiny warrior's skull.

Avak, predictably, did not respond well to Technopathy being used inside of his head.

He let out a pained scream and bucked hard, trying to throw off the Maiden before she pulled out anything important. Penny gripped his spine between her legs to anchor herself as she plunged deeper with her soul power, finding whatever parts within the biomechanical being allowed him to trap people like Axonn with his strange power. As she dug and rooted around, the bubble keeping the titan trapped flickered out of existence; Axonn rose to his feet and immediately began swinging his massive weapon, sending the surprised Skakdi around him flying with mighty backhanded sweeps.

"GET! OFF! ME!" howled Avak. "GET! OUT! OF! MY! HEAD!"

"Target the energy nodes at the base of his neck!" shouted Axonn, throwing his axe with enough force to send Reidak flying through three scrap piles. "That's what powers his prison ability!"

Penny nodded and adjusted her grip on the strings of soul energy, wrapping them firmly around what felt like a lump of crystal batteries where the rubbery spine met a metallic skull. Avak clawed and swiped with some kind of jackhammer-like tool, striking and scratching with enough force to bruise her even through her Aura. She did not let go until she was certain she had a secure hold on the part Axonn had called out; only then did she throw herself backwards as hard as she could, yanking the energy nodes out with her as she flew and landed hard on the ground.

"Agh! Dammit!" cursed the bronze-armored Skakdi as he clutched his sparking head with one hand, using the other to aim his hammer at the prone Maiden. "Do you have any idea how long it'll take to fix that?!"

"Longer than it will take for Axonn to flatten you?" guessed Penny.

"Even longer than that!…wait, what?"

WHAM.

Sure enough, twin gunmetal-gray fists as big as Penny came crashing down, driving the once-captor into the ground with a mighty slam. Then those fists pummeled into Avak over and over again, delivering a flurry of blows with the speed and force of a runaway freight train. The other Skakdi tried to rush in and aid their fellow Dark Hunter, but winds conjured by the Maiden as she kipped up kept them back. After more than a dozen punches to the prone Skakdi, Axonn locked his fingers together, raised both arms high above his head, and delivered one final two-handed strike.

WHAM!

When Axonn pulled his hands away, Avak had the good sense not to get back up. Or perhaps he lacked the ability, what with how battered and fractured his armor was. He was even missing several teeth! Only the rising and falling of his chest hinted that he was alive…if only just.

"One down, five to go," rumbled the silvery titan, who was doing his best to conceal how hard he was breathing. "Skakdi take a long time to kill - more time than we have right now - but his injuries should keep him out of the fight. Well done, Penny. You have my thanks."

The Maiden beamed in pride for a moment before her serious expression returned, glaring at the other Skakdi as they pushed through her cyclone side-by-side. Zaktan, who had finally escaped Penny's trap with glass shards still embedded in his frame, reformed at the head of the formation with a dangerous snarl…one that sent chills down the little human's spine, and prompted her to quickly recreate Vita and Luce out of magic crystal. Axonn mirrored her expression behind his mask, reaching out and pulling his axe back into a waiting hand with a heavy thump. She hefted her hooked spear and readied her shield, then spared a glance at Vlépo's handle poking out of her satchel.

It is glowing roughly half as bright as it was before, she noted. That must mean I am down to half my Aura. Hopefully it will be enough…I doubt these Skakdi will give me a snack break.

Zaktan proved her point with a frustrated snarl and a glance down at the semi-conscious Avak. "Damn it all…Thok! Quit screwing around and give Axonn a bigger problem!"

The pale Skakdi frowned. "Aw, but it's not as fun to let them do the dirty work -"

"I wasn't asking your opinion! Reidak, back him up! Everyone else, with me - that little freak needs to die first!"

Roodaka's head poked out from behind the crates she had been hiding behind since the fighting started. "Oh, no you don't! You'd better not dare make a mess of my merchandise!"

Too late, as Thok had already raised his fist with glowing eyes and a sharp grin. Seconds later the piles of scrap and parts rearranged themselves into several towering titans, as if they were being possessed by Geist-type Grimm. In unison the shambling steel figures marched towards Axonn, who was already priming his axe to fire blasts like lightning from its head, but Reidak closed the distance with a fast sprint and a heavy shoulder check. The silvery warrior went flying from the force of the blow, and the stampede of animated golems formed a wall of steel between herself and her ally.

"Axonn!" shouted Penny, alarm in her voice as she lost sight of her companion.

"You should worry more about yourself, 'Maiden,'" snarled Vezok as his eyes, along with Zaktan's and Hakann's, began to glow with an ominous crimson aura.

…oh no. Do not tell me that they all have eye beams.

Sure enough, six rays of pure scarlet light ripped through the air and streaked toward their target. Penny yelped and rolled away just in time to avoid the near-instant projectiles, raising her shield as the ground where she had once stood exploded into hot shrapnel. She retaliated with her own blasts of magic, concentrated into emerald beams and focused through the curved spearhead, but the Skakdi merely evaded her counterattacks with practiced ease and returned fire. The Maiden summoned jets of flame on her bare feet once more and tried to fly away, only for Zaktan to reform above her and rain down laser blasts that kept her pinned down - and in the crosshairs of both Vezok and Hakann, the latter of whom had clearly picked the glass out of his own eyes.

The Dark Hunters were relentless in their ranged assault, their beams cutting destructive swaths through the air and ground that she hovered and banked to avoid. Despite her magic and Aura being pushed to their limits in evasive maneuvers, she still threw every magical spell in her arsenal against them, hoping that at least one element would be effective. But the Skakdi took each javelin of lightning, each gout of flame, and each storm of icy daggers in stride. Rising columns of earth gave her some cover against beams she could not dodge, but would shatter in just a few hits. And Zaktan knew to avoid her winds now, backing off whenever she threw a tornado in his direction.

Just keep moving, she told herself. Just keep fighting. We will survive this. We must survive this.

Her tactics began to pay off, to the point that one of Hakann's beams of scarlet fire nearly clipped Vezok's shoulder. A mutual growl echoed between the two, but a snarl from Zaktan kept them from infighting. Of course she would not be that lucky.

"Evasive little pest…" grumbled the crimson Skakdi as his eyes stopped glowing. "Alright, fine! Let's see how you handle something you can't dodge!"

Penny had just twisted in mid-air to avoid Zaktan's gaze when a wave of anguish struck her mind.

Pain. Pain beyond words assaulted her senses and made the entire world feel too bright and dark and loud and silent all at once. Her own scream was drowned out by the ringing in her ears as she clutched her head, trying to keep her skull from splitting in half. Blood poured in rivers out of her nose. Fingernails dug into her skin in a desperate attempt to stop the hurting. Penny did not know what the crimson Skakdi was doing - only that she wanted him to stop.

But worst of all it made her seize up and stop her evasive maneuvers, too overwhelmed by agony to act.

Compared to the assault on her mind, Vezok's impact beams were almost pleasant.

WHAM.

Almost.

The Maiden was sent flying as twin beams of kinetic energy struck her chest, hitting the ground hard enough to bounce like a stone skipping along a still surface. Her Aura flickered and flared up with each high-speed impact with the volcanic stone underfoot, straining to protect her before finally breaking halfway through her painful landing. She pulled herself to unsteady feet and readied her half-shattered weapons, only for Zaktan to reform beneath her, lift her up by the throat, and choke-slam her until she was in the dirt once more.

She could not breathe, she could not move, but at least her brain did not feel like it was splitting apart anymore. That alone was a mercy.

"About time you started using the mental blasts," snarled the green-armored Skakdi in a thousand tongues as he pressed his weight against the struggling Maiden. "Where were those when we were chasing this thing across the sky?"

"Hey, I wasn't even sure if they'd work on its mind…" snapped Hakann as he rubbed his temples. "Besides, I was trying to avoid giving myself a headache. Unless you want to see my brain melt?"

"Well, it's not like you're using it for much."

"Watch it, Vezok!"

"Cut it out, both of you! Kill the freak while I'm holding it down, before it does something else!"

Despite the claw wrapping around her throat, despite her vision going dark, Penny felt a surge of anger swell within her. She was not an it! She was not a freak! She was a Maiden, and these monsters would respect that one way or another!

Her eyes burned with magic as she created a whirlwind around her prone form, more to make Zaktan willingly back off with the threat of getting swept away again. Predictably, he leapt back to avoid the gusts of wrath. Unpredictably, he swung his blade through the air and separated the edges from the handle, making the protodites in his sword fly independently from the rest of him. Three razor-sharp guided knives streaked toward her, almost too fast for the eye to follow. The first two were successfully deflected by Penny's half-shattered shield.

The third, however, was not.

"AAAAAUGH!"

White-hot pain shot through her entire system as a golden blade pierced her thigh, cutting through flesh and muscle as cleanly as a knife slicing butter. Thick, dark blood already started oozing from the open wound, bringing bitter memories of a past life to mind, which only got worse when the knife disappeared into protodites and left a gaping gash behind. Worse, the other Skakdi were already moving in to finish off the hamstrung Maiden - Hakann was taking aim with a newly-reloaded lava launcher, Zaktan reformed his sword with a sadistic smirk, and Vezok's harpoon twisted around to reveal a whirling buzz-saw built into the other end.

Unable to fly away on an injured leg, unable to heal with Aura, and unable to stem the bleeding, Penny did the only thing she could think of.

She curled up into a ball and called on her magic once more, forming a six-inch cocoon of crystalline glass around herself. Just in time, too, as a fist crashed against the surface of her sanctuary - and while it held, that hardly dissuaded the shadowy figure outside, who immediately started wailing on the prism wall.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. "You can't hide in there forever, you little whelp! You're out of tricks!"

As if she needed a reminder of that. She looked down at Vlépo in her bag, frowning at the sight of darkness where emerald light veins should have been. Then she looked down at the open wound in her leg, mustering the will to press the ruptured flesh together in some attempt to stem the bleeding. A sharp whimper escaped her lips as raw flesh squelched, fresh red staining her fingers, pain setting fire to her nerves. Her efforts barely managed to stop the overwhelming flow of blood, giving her just enough slack to flip open her satchel, pull out a bundle of purple leaves, and tightly wrap her thigh in a makeshift bandage.

It was not the cleanest application of first aid she had ever done, but it was still an admirable effort.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

Especially considering the circumstances.

Now that I am not bleeding to death, I just need to eat a Vuata Maca berry, she thought as she tore into her satchel once more. Then my Aura will be restored, my leg will heal, and I will be able to -

That terrible, dreadful pain returned with a vengeance, as one of the shadows moving outside her shell hit her with another mental blast.

No! Not again!

Her own thought was drowned out by a piercing, silent screech. Her hands shook and clawed at her scalp. Her scream echoed off the glass walls. She had just enough awareness to notice Vezok finally smash through the cocoon, shattering glass and crystal with one last mighty blow.

"Got ya now, runt." A wicked grin spread across the cobalt brute's face as he raised his spinning saw-blade above his head, ready to finish off the cornered Maiden paralyzed by pain.

Unable to call on her magic through the mental haze, Penny could only squeeze her eyes shut and wait for it to end.

Death, it would seem, had come for her once more.

Axonn had to wonder if death was finally coming for him after all this time.

He ducked and weaved between the sweeping blows of Thok's constructs, slashing them to pieces with his protosteel axe and reducing them to scrap once more. It didn't matter if they reformed and shambled back to their feet seconds later - that was still a few more seconds of reprieve from the onslaught of the metal minions. Not that he was able to use those fleeting moments to rest, of course, as Reidak was as relentless as ever. No matter how many times his axe cleaved through his body, he just rose again with sealed wounds and a darker scowl with each new wound. If ever there was an unwinnable fight, it was surely this one.

Yet he didn't panic. He didn't despair. He didn't relent, or retreat, or pause for breath. He was a warrior down to his very core, a servant of the Great Spirit, and a veteran of the Hand of Artahka's collapse. If his Destiny was to die in battle, then so be it…but he would be damned if his head would be claimed by some greedy Dark Hunters looking for their next paycheck.

So he fought. He slashed. He blasted. He punched. He let his mind take a backseat as his body moved through familiar motions, as his axe danced around him. He knew that Thok's ability to create minions out of inanimate objects was limited by his own mental stamina…so long as he could outlast the Skakdi, he would walk away from this fight. He just had to keep moving, keep cleaving, keep cutting down constructs, keep giving Reidak a new wound to heal from -

A pained scream that was not his own snapped him out of his battle trance.

Axonn's eyes snapped over to Penny just in time to watch her get hit by one of Vezok's impact beams, to watch her land painfully as green light flickered and disappeared around her. He knew that the human warrior needed help. His help. But he also knew that if he moved to aid her, he'd leave himself exposed to the constructs. No, Thok's minions needed to be removed now.

And the best way to release a puppet's strings was to murder the puppeteer.

He flung his axe with all his might towards Thok, arcing it over the heads of all his minions -

But Reidak willingly leapt into its path and intercepted the blow for his fellow Dark Hunter, keeping Thok and all his minions in the fight. It could have been interpreted as a self-sacrificing gesture, if one was naive and ignorant of how much all Skakdi hated each other. Axonn furrowed his brow and recalled his weapon, only for his eyes to widen as Reidak's claws snapped forward and held fast to the blade that impaled him, digging his heels into the dirt and fighting against the force pulling the shaft to its wielder's waiting hand.

It only surprised Axonn for a moment, but that was all it took for the tide of battle to turn.

Thok's minions swarmed him and slammed themselves together, piles of scrap twisting into a long snake that coiled around him. Axonn fired blasts of energy from his palms to keep them back, but he couldn't avoid being swept up in the tidal wave of metal that crashed down on him. Gears and girders and weapons with dulled edges entombed him in a sea of protodermis, and it took all his strength to "swim" through the construct's body and poke his face out of its rippling surface.

Just in time to hear Penny scream yet again, this one muffled by a glass shell that Vezok was currently smashing apart.

There must be a way to help, even with me trapped like this… Axonn's mind raced as he scanned his surroundings for something, anything, that could help. Mata Nui, you spoke to this human and divested your power into her…surely you wouldn't let her die so easily?

He didn't often pray to the sleeping Great Spirit; such things were better left to the Matoran and the Turaga. Yet that didn't mean he wasn't without his own beliefs, for even among the Order members Axonn was particularly devout in his service to Mata Nui. He still had faith that the one they served was alive in his slumber, that he was at work in small ways through the entire universe, that his plans transcended mortal understanding. And in this case, his faith was rewarded - for he saw a spear as long as his arm jutting out of the surface of Thok's minion, one with a crescent-shaped silver blade and ivory spikes and a chain wrapped around its handle.

The Spear of Fusion.

Axonn's brow furrowed as he thought quickly. He knew what the spear could do; it could either permanently fuse any objects together into one new construct, or it could split those same objects into their base components. Against inanimate matter it touched, it was a useful tool. Against living beings it stabbed, it was a terrifying weapon. While it wouldn't kill a Skakdi, it would certainly give them new problems…problems that could turn the tide of battle, if they could use them to their advantage.

Of course, he would have to live long enough to use it. And given the circumstances, that seemed unlikely.

Reidak pulled the axe out of his chest and held it in two bloodied hands, stomping over to the trapped titan while dragging the stolen weapon behind him. "Y'know…I always did like your axe," he snarled. "Maybe once I bring your head to the Shadowed One, he'll let me keep it!"

Time was running out for both him and Penny, as her glassy barrier finally shattered to reveal the wounded Maiden within. Only seconds left to act, to make one final move. Hitting Thok with the spear would remove the construct, but Penny would still die. Zaktan would just avoid it. Hakann would just melt it. And the last thing the universe needed was two copies of Reidak making trouble.

There was only one choice of target. The most immediate threat.

Axonn ripped his arm free, grabbed the Spear of Fusion, thumbed the button that activated its power, and hoped for the best as he flung it point-first with all his might.

Directly at Vezok's back.

Before the twisting construct pulled him back down in punishment of his defiance, he caught a glimpse of the spear sailing true and striking his target.

Whatever happened next, it would be up to Destiny once more.

It was only the sound of a Skakdi screaming that made Penny open her eyes.

She lowered her arm warily as she dared to peer outside of her half-shattered cocoon of glass, and was greeted by a most unusual sight. Vezok was on the ground spasming and thrashing and howling in pain, trying and failing to remove the spear suddenly lodged into his rubbery spine. Hakann's assault on her senses stopped as he turned to gape at his fellow Dark Hunter, only to leap back alongside even Zaktan. The weapon was unfamiliar to Penny, as was the true effect of its glowing maroon edge…but if Vezok's reaction was any indication, it was most unpleasant.

"Don't - just - stand there!" snarled Vezok between bloody screams. "Get - this - thing - out of me!"

Hakann and Zaktan just took a few more steps back. Whatever was happening, they clearly wanted no part of it. Vezok cursed and snarled and wailed for a moment longer before something very strange began to happen.

He began splitting in half.

Despite the squelching of organic fluids and the scraping of metal, Penny could not look away from the gruesome transformation…and to her surprise, neither could the other Dark Hunters. All of them felt compelled to watch as Vezok thrashed and flailed, who was helpless to stop the process consuming him. Flesh split apart alongside films of steel, making room for new limbs and metallic bones to tear themselves free from a back arched in anguish. One armored torso became two. Two glowing red eyes became four. A single howling roar shifted into the screams of two very distinct voices. As the spear burned brighter and crackled with growing power, the wailing became louder and the spasms became worse and the something emerging from Vezok's spine fought harder and harder to escape -

Then there was a final flash of light and crackle of energy, and the screaming finally stopped.

Where there had once been a single Skakdi writhing in anguish, there were now two laying utterly motionless.

One of them closely resembled Vezok, cobalt armor and all, though his central torso had lost its darker coloration. The other, which still had the spear in its back, was far more grotesque; it lacked the spine of the brute it came from, had bony arms and legs covered in thin ebony armor, and had a silver face that was somehow even uglier than the other Skakdi put together. After another moment Vezok - or what was left of him - pushed himself onto his hands and knees with a ragged pant, glaring at the…thing…that had appeared next to him. The other figure eventually took a breath and sat up with a groan, never noticing the spear disappearing into its frame with a flash of blue light.

"Ugh…what…what am I?" asked the new figure, looking over itself and taking note of its black-and-silver body. "Who am I?" Its gaze fell on Vezok, and sneered at the very Skakdi it had emerged from. "Eugh, and why are you so ugly?"

Vezok's only answer to all those questions was a roar and a backhanded blow that sent the new figure flying away. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed his harpoon, then glared at Penny with murderous intent. Her eyes burned with magic as she prepared to defend herself, but she need not have bothered. Blood as thick as oil dribbled out of the Skakdi's maw with a painful-sounding cough, and he sank to one knee while clutching his chest.

"Agh…gah…what just happened to me?!"

The other Skakdi grinned as it - he? They? - sprung back up and came over to Vezok's side. "Isn't it obvious? We split apart! The Spear of Fusion separated us! Hmm…wonder where it went…that feels like something we should be keeping track of…hey, are you alright? You don't look so good there. Lemme help you up -"

A snarl escaped the blue brute's throat along with another dribble of blood. "Get away from me, you freak!"

Vezok's demand was answered only by a mad cackle from his silvery doppelganger. "Now, why would I do that? I may only be a minute old, but I'm pretty sure that puking like that isn't a good sign. Your insides must really want to be outside…maybe they think they belong to me? Either way, pretty sure we've gotta stick together if you wanna not keel over and die. Maybe you should sit down and stop, uh...whatever you were doing before." Hollow crimson eyes tracked toward the wounded Maiden for a brief instant, which brightened as the figure gave an unsettling grin. "Well, aren't you cute? I'll have to get your name after I get this big lug off to the side...and after I figure out what my name is. See ya around!"

Penny stared, bewildered at the sight of Vezok's other half trying to drag the thrashing Skakdi away - despite how many times he got punched in the face for his effort. Curious…can Vezok not survive without that other Skakdi now? Like how Takua and I were once linked?

She shook her head and stowed the thoughts for the moment. Despite how much her stomach churned at the transformation she had just witnessed, she willed herself to finally retrieve a Vuata Maca berry and scarf down one of its seeds. No time to savor the bitter juices and its delicious taste - she needed her Aura back as soon as possible. A glowing green field shone across her frame as soon as she swallowed painfully, filling her with warmth and comfort once again. She whimpered slightly as the skin around her injuries - including the gash underneath her bandage - began to itch and knit itself back together, leaving only a few scars to show they had once existed.

But even with her Aura at full strength, the biggest and most debilitating wound was not healing quickly enough. Axonn was nowhere in sight. The other Dark Hunters were already recovering from the shock of what they had just seen, and they were once again preparing to attack.

They never got a chance.

A blue-violet rift in reality tore itself into view from overhead, dropping two figures into the battlefield over everyone's heads before vanishing with a snap. One of the new arrivals, a brute in blue-gold armor, used his double-bladed weapon as he fell to cleave through the construct holding Axonn. The other, a bronze Toa with a crimson Kanohi Hau, flung her shield with guided force and bounced it between Skakdi skulls as she touched down gently. Penny was not sure how she felt upon seeing Brutaka again…but she was overjoyed at the sight of her other rescuer.

"Pyrrha!"

"Hello again!" chirped the Toa of Iron with a warm smile, catching the shield just as it flew back to her waiting hand. "Sorry I'm late - I tracked down Brutaka as soon as I saw your Aura shatter, thanks to that trick Norik taught me." She gestured to the shaped bangle around her gauntlet, which now glowed faintly green. "Seems like it's come back now…can you still fight?"

Penny made one more attempt to rise and stand on her still-wounded leg, only for it to flare up in pain and make her knees hit the ground yet again. A fresh splotch of red stained the wrap of leaves, proof that even the act of moving had reopened the gash. She shook her head with a slight whimper, clutching the bandaged thigh.

"That's okay," said Pyrrha in a reassuring tone. "Focus on healing and getting your breath back. We can handle this."

"Are you sure about that, little Toa? My kind hunts yours for sport."

Zaktan suddenly appeared over the Toa's head, bringing his scissor-like blade down on a shield she raised just in time. He flowed around the lunging spear thrust and the sweeping sword slash that lashed out in retaliation, scattering away just in time for Hakann to join the melee. His lava launcher twisted around to unhook a red-hot claw, which left burning trails of orange as he slashed and dueled with the Toa of Iron.

Pyrrha bunted Hakann away after a moment of close-quarters combat, then backflipped to avoid a downward plunge from Zaktan. She looked at both her opponents with a curious gaze, before a smirk spread across her face.

"And I have vanquished five Makuta. Let's see if you last longer than them."

With that declaration she threw herself into the fray once more, shield and spear in hand while her sword levitated nearby under her elemental control. The Dark Hunters countered her charge with their own, slashing and stabbing and lunging and thrusting only for the Toa of Iron to weave around all their strikes. If Pyrrha was worried about fighting two Skakdi at once, she did not show it. In fact, given how artfully she alternated between opponents, how she masterfully knocked Hakann senseless with a swift flurry of blows, how she deftly countered Zaktan's blades with her own, all with a smile behind her mask…it was clear that she was enjoying the rush of combat.

She was not the only one, either.

Brutaka had a manic grin as he finished slicing Thok's serpentine construct to ribbons, turning it back into piles of junk with mighty blows that seemed to make the ground itself shake. Reidak swung his stolen axe at the blue-gold brute, but Brutaka just blocked it with the flat of his own blade. Booming thunder shook the battlefield as the two colossal weapons met edge-to-edge over and over again. Brutaka's swings and slashes were less graceful than Pyrrha's, but demonstrated incredible strength and stopping power. Surprisingly, Reidak held his ground against the titan for a few seconds…at least, until two gunmetal-gray fists emerged from the fallen scrap heap and grabbed him by the spine.

"That doesn't belong to you."

Reidak barely had time to yelp in surprise before Axonn pulled himself free and slammed his knee into the Skakdi's back, pushing him right into the path of Brutaka's cleaving downward slash. Taking his own weapon back and greeting his partner with a nod, the two titans locked their gazes on a suddenly-less-confident Thok. The white-armored Dark Hunter backpedaled while desperately gesturing at empty air, making the ground beneath his feet come to life in shambling golems that lurched forward. Axonn and Brutaka just kept walking menacingly towards the fleeing puppeteer, slashing apart anything in their path as they marched and waded through the hastily-summoned army.

"Now, now," said the pale schemer as he created more constructs to replace the fallen, smile losing confidence with each smashed figure. "I'm sure we can settle this little dispute with something other than violence. Maybe I can offer you Reidak's head as a trade? He's not using it for much."

Despite his best efforts, Thok could not escape their quiet wrath - and no amount of bracing could have protected him from the pair of downward slashes that nearly cleaved his arms clean off their shoulders.

"Ow…" Thok groaned as he slumped to the ground in a pool of oily white fluid. "You brutes drive a hard bargain, but y'know what? I'll take it."

Zaktan scowled as he saw another two of his gang go down, then snarled as he leapt to strike from Pyrrha's blind side while she was focused on Hakann. But Axonn extended his hand and seemingly froze the Dark Hunter in place, keeping him from scattering into protodites - and leaving him hanging in mid-air like a frozen fool. The Toa of Iron quickly capitalized on Zaktan's sudden vulnerability, pivoting and sweeping her arms while channeling her elemental power. Dozens of bladed disks spun into existence by her will alone and hovered around the frozen Skakdi for a moment, before all of them began streaking forward in sequence with blinding speed, pummeling him over and over again in slashes from every direction.

Every single one of Zaktan's protodites screamed as the metal assault tore him apart.

Hakann shook his head to finally shake off the disorienting strikes, only for Brutaka to hit him with the mother of all sucker punches and send him flying. "Let's send these freaks back where they came from," he snarled as his golden mask began glowing. "I'm opening a portal to Odina - toss them in."

Another blue-violet hole in reality formed at the back of Roodaka's thoroughly-trashed shop, one that pulsed dangerously and ominously. Pyrrha and Axonn wasted no time in heeding Brutaka's instructions, scooping up the fallen Skakdi and throwing them into the rift with little fanfare. In went the still-unconscious Avak. In went a dazed Hakann. In went a nearly-armless Thok. In went the thrashing Reidak. In went both a bloodied Vezok and his other half, the latter of whom cackled madly during the flight. All of them disappeared into the darkness, sucked in by whatever energies were commanded by the Kanohi Olmek.

The only one to resist the pull of the gateway was Zaktan, whose protodites clung together for dear life as his claws dug into the ground. "No…no! Your head will be mine, Axonn! The Shadowed One doesn't broker failure!"

"That's the idea," rumbled the silvery titan as he calmly approached the struggling Skakdi. "Death is too rich a mercy for Piraka like you, and whatever torment we inflict can - and will be outmatched by your master. But take a message back home for me, Zaktan. Surely you can be trusted not to fail at that?"

Axonn raised his axe above his head.

"Tell the Shadowed One that if he ever dares to send Dark Hunters after me, or Brutaka, or the Maiden of Mata Nui again…he'll be the wealthiest corpse in a mass grave."

And with one final slam that smashed the protodites within trembling arms, Zaktan finally joined the rest of the Skakdi. The rift snapped shut a moment later, and then all was quiet once more.

Penny let out the breath she had been holding, and finally allowed her shoulders to slump. Gods…victory was supposed to feel exciting, triumphant, and wonderful. But all she could think about was how exhausted she was…how heavy her arms felt, how hot her legs burned, how cold her spine felt. The foul air of Xia did not help matters, making her choke and cough on nearly every gulp of it that she took in.

Pyrrha must have heard her wheezing and coughing, because she was by her side in an instant. "Penny…are you okay?"

"I…am alive," she rasped through bloodied lips. "Beyond that…I am not certain."

The Toa of Iron gently picked her up and cradled her in her arms, careful not to agitate the thigh wound any further. "Don't worry. I'm here now…as long as you're alive, nothing else matters to me."

Tired, pained tears pooled into the Maiden's eyes as she nuzzled into her friend. "I know…thank you, Pyrrha. Toa or Huntress, your soul burns just as bright to me."

A relieved laugh rang like bells in her ears. "Oh, Penny…"

"Ugh. I had no idea that Toa could even pair-bond with something so hideous."

The tender moment was interrupted by a drawling feminine voice, as Roodaka stepped out from behind her crates at long last and started the process of picking up her merchandise. Penny watched her for a long moment while Pyrrha cradled her, the Toa turning one shoulder to keep herself between the Vortixx and her little friend. It was an unnecessary precaution, as there was no malice in the ebony figure's expression. Only annoyance.

She looked over her shoulder to see Axonn and Brutaka standing a ways away, obviously discussing some sensitive matter. Her gaze snapped back to Roodaka, watching her for a pensive moment. Something burned in her mind, a question from earlier that had gone unanswered. If she wanted an answer, it would have to be now.

"What did you do to the Rahaga?"

Her question actually seemed to catch Roodaka off-guard, making her pause her attempt to pick up the shop and rise to her full height.

"You said that you were the one who changed them into what they are now…what were they before? Why did you change them?"

The Vortixx woman's gaze snapped down on her, lingering there for one terse moment, before she finally gave a soft laugh.

"Oh, I simply rewarded them as traitors deserved…Toa Hagah teams are sworn to their chosen Makuta, after all, and those six decided to rebel and steal something very important that the Brotherhood wanted to keep sealed away. All because they learned some secrets that made them upset…to think, if they'd just stayed quiet and gone along with their master's plan to overthrow the Great Spirit, they might still be proud warriors just like your friend there. But alas, they chose their fate, and paid a hefty price for it. I'm sure they told you all about me, about how I cursed them with such a hideous transformation…but really, I did those foolish Toa a favor." Roodaka's lips curled into a sinister smile. "They look much better now, don't you think?"

Penny was not certain what kind of answer she expected, but this was worse than anything she could have imagined.

Her gut twisted into knots, her blood ran cold, and her breath hitched in her shuddering chest. She knew from speaking with both Helryx and Pyrrha that there were multiple Makuta in existence, that they had once been noble protectors of the Matoran before the Nameless Makuta - her Makuta - betrayed everything the Brotherhood once stood for. But everything else was a shock to her system. Norik and his team had once been Toa. Norik and his team had once served the Master of Shadows. Norik and his team had been transformed into what they were by Roodaka…the very same Roodaka she and Axonn had just done business with.

The very same Roodaka that had sold them out to the Dark Hunters. The very same Roodaka that had almost gotten them killed, just to make even more of a profit.

She shook her head numbly as tears pooled down her face. This…this was wrong. This was all wrong! Why were places like Xia or Odina allowed to exist and cast their shadows? Why was Metru Nui allowed to fester in ruin for a thousand years? How could the Order she was pressed into serving, an organization so concerned with the safety of the universe, even associate with such vile monsters as Roodaka? And why had the Brotherhood not been kept in check before their betrayal? One Makuta had ruled the island above with fear for an entire millennium…how could the will of Mata Nui include an entire race of such beings?!

Whereas Penny reacted with shock to the news, Pyrrha's response was anger.

Scattered piles of scrap and steel began to quiver and creak, as the Toa's wrath spilled out into the element around her. Glowing emerald eyes burned hot enough to seemingly melt fortified stone, their glare aimed squarely at Roodaka as she nonchalantly went back to work. Part of Penny suspected that Pyrrha was losing control of her power. The rest wondered if she was keeping herself from burying the Vortixx in a pile of her own wares.

"…you're a monster," hissed Pyrrha, a rare edge of fury in her voice.

Roodaka regarded the enraged Toa with a shrug. "I'm a Vortixx," she supplied. "I do only what I'm paid to do. I punished the Rahaga for their treachery, because the Brotherhood paid me. I brought the Visorak to Metru Nui and freed the Nameless Makuta, because he paid me. And I sold parts to your friends, because they paid me. Now get out of here, before I charge you for all the damage you've done to my shop."

That snapped Penny out of her numbness, eyes ablaze with indignation. Before either she or Pyrrha could act on their heated feelings, however, Axonn and Brutaka finally stepped over with furrowed brows.

"We're leaving now," rumbled the silvery titan. "Next time I come here, there'd better not be Dark Hunters after me."

…next time?!

"We'll see how the wind blows, Axonn. Farewell for now…enjoy your new toys."

That spell of confusion and doubt returned with a vengeance as Brutaka created another portal with his mask power, an ability she desperately wished she still had for herself. Maybe then she could finally run away. Maybe then she could go back to Mata Nui, where everyone loved her and nobody was mean and everything made sense. But she was trapped here, taken by people she thought were committed to doing the right thing, and seeing the darker elements of the Great Spirit's creation with her own two eyes.

The Vortixx were greedy, treacherous snakes. The Dark Hunters were killers and thieves who pursued their prey with the ferocity of starving wolves. And the Brotherhood of Makuta schemed and stalked the shadows like creatures of Grimm.

But as she returned to Metru Nui alongside two fuming titans and a furious Toa, Penny was no longer certain if the Order of Mata Nui was better than any of their enemies.

If it was any better than Atlas, even.

"Well now…this is cozy, huh? Sure was nice of that three-legged guy to lock us down here."

Vezok - at least, that's what the others had called the big ugly thing - stopped pacing the tiny stone cell and whirled around with a growl and a glare. He wasn't entirely sure what it meant just yet, but he assumed it was an invitation to keep talking. So he did. Loudly. Candidly. And with a big smile on his face.

"I mean, sure, the decorations are kinda boring." He gestured to the many rusted skeletons hanging from ancient shackles. "Would've preferred somewhere with a nice window…or a view of the ocean…or a farm with plenty of little Rahi to torment and vivisect." His crimson eyes blinked. "Wait, why do I know what any of those are? Are those things that you've seen that got passed over to - hurk!"

His musings were interrupted - quite rudely, at that - by Vezok yanking the chain linking their throats together. He fell to his thin knees, and was pretty sure he heard a crack in the process. Given Vezok's expression, he doubted he cared.

"Will you just shut up already?!" growled Vezok, acidic steam hissing out his mouth with each breath. "Until the Shadowed One can figure out what you did to us, I'm stuck in here. That could take days. That could take years. That could take centuries. And I'm not gonna waste any of them listening to you ramble and rant like some broken-brained idiot! So no talking. At all. You got that?"

He was tempted to point out that Vezok was being pampered like a broken Matoran compared to the other Skakdi - how did he know what any of those words meant? - but he got the vague impression that Vezok wasn't in the mood to talk. So he just grinned and nodded.

"Got it! Noooo talking. At all. Total silence from me. Not one word."

Vezok looked like he was contemplating murder, then thought the better of it and let him go. Now that he wasn't actively being pulled around, he took a seat on the dusty floor and started rocking idly back and forth. Totally normal, not crazy behavior. His other half glared at him for a moment longer, then marched to the opposite side of the cell and sat on a luxurious bed of scrap and rags. A silence echoed between them, the wonderful sound of absolutely nothing at all.

Seventeen seconds later, he decided he was bored and started talking again.

"Sooo…if I'm gonna exist, I guess I should have a name huh? That's usually something that folks have." He hummed thoughtfully, tapping his chin with spindly clawed fingers. "Hey, your name's Vezok, right? Maybe I can be Vezok, too!"

A snarl was the only answer he got.

"…okay, not Vezok, then. That's a stupid name anyway. Not Vezok. Not Vezok…"

Another pensive hum. That had a nice ring to it. Not Vezok. Not Vezok. It felt right somehow as a name for him…and yet, not quite there. Maybe it needed a little work? He was sure his new buddy wouldn't mind if he sounded it out.

"Not Vezok…Notvezok…" He started scratching circular letters into the ground, their lines barely legible under the glow of the ancient lightstone above. Totally normal, not crazy behavior. "Novezok…Novok? Nah…hmm. Vezok not. Vezoknot. Vezot…Vezoo…"

Inspiration struck him as he scrawled an N in place of a K.

"…Vezon," he declared. "That sounds like a good name. That sounds like it could be my name. Let's go with that one."

Vezok responded with all the support and love he'd come to expect. "I'm going to sleep," he snarled. "When I wake up, you better be gone."

"No promises!" said Vezon with a bright grin, saluting his other half before going back to what he was doing before - scratching his claws against the cold stone floor and writing out that same name. His own name. Over and over and over again.

Totally normal, not crazy behavior.

Vezon was pretty sure about that.

(A/N): Yep, totally not crazy at all Vezon!

This is another one of those "everything changes" things I mentioned back in the climax of Destiny's Divide. Since we're not adapting the Ignition story-line (at least not the entire thing), I needed another way to bring the best BIONICLE character into the fold…and what better way to do that than to give Penny some more trauma? This poor girl is going to need so many hugs by the time this story is over, I'll tell you what - and we're not even at the worst of it…

Anyway, like I said last time, this is also where we gotta say "see you later" to each other for a little while. I don't know for certain how long it'll take for me to rest and recharge, or to get another batch of drafts ready to go, but hopefully it won't be too long! At the very least it'll be a few months of relaxing and writing, though I hate to put a specific number on that guesstimate. I'm just glad you've been there for the story up to this point, and I can't wait to see you all when I get back. Stay safe, stay sane, support RWBY in any form it takes, and keep being awesome!