Chapter Nine

“This is crazy!” whispered Idris, swimming fast to keep up with Sarda. “Would you just hold up for a second and listen?”

Sarda shook his head. “You saw what happened outside. Karzahni did… something to Lesovikk, I know he did. That leaves only us to fight him, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

The two villagers swam deeper into the sea cave. Lurking somewhere inside was the maddened Karzahni, a figure of fear for every villager. Was it bravery that drove the two Matoran to dare challenge him, or insanity? Even Sarda couldn’t say for sure.

“Now, remember the plan,” said Sarda. “I was able to find the material Lesovikk mentioned and rig a makeshift trap. We get him to chase us, he trips the trap, and wham!”

“I just hope it’s wham for him,” said Idris, “not wham for us.”

Outside the cave, Toa Lesovikk remained trapped in a vision of what might have been. His Toa team, which in reality had died thousands of years before, lived again in his Karzahni-created hallucination. There they were — Toa of Fire, Lightning, Sonics, Iron, Stone, Gravity, and Water, banded together in the first ever Toa team.

In his mind, millennia had passed, filled with hard-fought battles and great victories. Most recently, they had saved a band of Toa besieged by frostelus on a remote island. A novice Toa, Lhikan, had shown such bravery in the fight that Lesovikk was considering recruiting him. As he looked around the battlefield, Lesovikk knew that all was right in his world.

“That was fun,” said Toa Nikila, smiling. “I never get tired of bashing a few heads together. Hey, some of the guys were suggesting we patrol that zyglak hunting ground next week – what do you think?”

“Sure, I —” Lesovikk began, and then stopped. Something she had said had suddenly triggered a flash of memory. In it, Nikila and the others were dead, killed by the acid cloud they had defeated so long ago… but wait, that wasn’t right. They weren’t dead, they were alive… weren’t they? And they weren’t killed by an acid cloud…

“Zylglak,” the Toa of Air said abruptly. “You were killed by zyglak.”

“What?” asked Nikila. “Those losers kill me? Not on their best day.”

But Lesovikk could see it all now, as clearly as he saw Nikila’s armor, her trident, and her Mask of Possibilities. They had been in a battle, long ago, but not with an acid cloud, with a horde of zyglak. He had seen them coming, but hadn’t acted fast enough, and… and…

And his teammates died. They all died.

He looked at Nikila. She was fading, breaking apart, like the trick of the mind she had been all along. She pleaded with him to help her, but he forced himself to close his eyes and turn away. He had lost his chance to help her, or any of the others, long ago.

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the Pit. His friends were gone; his future was gone; and all that was left him was revenge.