Chapter Five

It was a testament to the respect the Agori had for Raanu that, at his request, they packed up what few things they owned and abandoned their new city. Yes, there were questions and some complaints, but they trusted the elder of Vulcanus. If he said they had to leave, there had to be a reason for it.

Now Mata Nui stood inside the head of this long unused robot body. In his hands, he held a small, metal box containing a tiny spark of energy. Retrieving this from inside the volcano had almost cost him his life. Anyone looking at it would have wondered how something so small could possibly bring so massive a robot to life.

Mata Nui could not have answered them. But he knew from what he had learned in the tower that using anything but the most miniscule amount of this blindingly bright energy would just result in a second explosion. The pieces of the robot might be blown across Bara Magna again, or simply disintegrate. There would never be time to retrieve them and try again before Makuta arrived.

“You sure about this?” The question came from Kiina. She had just finished a last check of the city to make sure all the Agori and Glatorian were gone from inside it.

“No,” Mata Nui answered. “But it’s what I have to do.”

“You could be killed,”she said. “You might kill a lot of other people too, if this thing blows up. Have you thought about that?”

“Of course,” said Mata Nui. “If I don’t try, though, I will be dead, and so will who knows how many others. Anyone Makuta doesn’t see a need for, he will destroy. That’s just fact.”

Kiina nodded. She looked up at the ceiling high above, still having a hard time comprehending that this was the interior of a robot’s skull case. The Great Beings had done some pretty crazy things in their time, but giant robots was a new one to her.

Mata Nui nudged Click off his shoulder and onto his hand. He extended it to Kiina. “Take him. I don’t want him hurt.”

Kiina accepted the insect with a little reluctance — she was not a fan of bugs. But she knew how important this beetle had been to her friend, so she did what was asked.

“It’s never going to be the same, is it?” she said quietly.

“What isn’t?”

“You, for one thing,” Kiina answered. “You fought with us, laughed with us, wept for our dead, and helped us rebuild after the Skrall invasion. You’ve been one of us, and now you’re going to be… this.”

“But still the same person,” Mata Nui assured her. “Still your friend.”

“A friend who’s millions of feet high?” she said, with a harsh laugh. “I’ll look smaller than an insect to you from up there. We all will. And you’ll have about as much in common with us as we do with scarabax beetles.”

Mata Nui put a hand on her shoulder. “I won’t forget you, Kiina… or my promise. I will get you to a new world. Once, I made the mistake of ignoring others because they weren’t part of my mission, taking for granted they would always be there to do what I needed them to do. If I had paid more attention… well, a lot of bad things wouldn’t have happened.”

He smiled. “But amid all the bad, some good came out of my mistakes. I met you.”

Kiina rushed forward and hugged Mata Nui. “Don’t make me cry,” she said softly. “I’m a Glatorian. We don’t do that.”

After a few moments, Mata Nui gently pulled away. “You had better go. This is going to be dangerous.”

“I could stay and help,” she said. “You might need me.”

Mata Nui shook his head. “Go, join Ackar and Gresh. Tell them … tell them thank you. I’ve seen many worlds, but you all showed me one I had never discovered —the world of friendship and faith and trust.”

Kiina’s voice wouldn’t come. She nodded quickly and walked away, headed for the nearest exit to the desert. Once outside, she climbed on to her mount and rode for the far desert, where the rest of her people waited. And as she rode, sands that had never known rain were kissed by her tears.

It was time.

Mata Nui fitted the box into a slot designed for it within the skull casing. There was a massive burst of light as the energy coursed through the robot body, fusing the pieces together and powering up systems. A low hum filled the air.

He waited, holding his breath. This body was unstable, Mata Nui already knew that. The innovations the Great Beings had used to build his original body had not yet been developed when this early effort was created. If the spark of energy proved to be too much, Mata Nui knew he would never survive the explosion.

None came. Unfortunately, there was no guarantee there wouldn’t be one later — the Great Beings’ records had been vague on just how long this prototype had been in operation before it catastrophically failed. Still, he had no choice about what to do next.

Slowly, he reached up and put his hands on the Mask of Life he wore. The power of the mask had created the body he now had from the sands of Bara Magna. As soon as he removed it, his body crumbled away, going back to the scattered atoms it had been originally. As his hands vanished, the mask fell to the ground.

So far, Mata Nui’s theory had been right. Although his body was gone, his mind survived inside the Mask of Life. Now he had to do something he had never tried before: project that mind into another shell.

It was hard, almost unbelievably so. It went against every instinct to hurl his consciousness into a void. There was no way to be sure he could inhabit the robot, or that he could find his way back into the mask if he failed. His mind and spirit might just float forever, bodiless and helpless to prevent what was soon to come.

No, he thought. That won’t happen. I owe too much to too many to allow it.

Mata Nui concentrated on the robot, picturing every bit of it, imagining himself in control of the huge construct. Throwing every bit of his formidable mind into the struggle, he willed himself out of the mask.

There was a terrible feeling of confusion. The world began to spin. He felt like he was flying, but with no control over his speed or direction. At one point, he passed through the robot’s skull and saw Bara Magna from the air. Then his unfettered mind plunged down through one of the great eyes and ricocheted throughout the body.

I’m not used to this, he admitted. The Makuta are masters at leaping from body to body, but it’s not something I was ever meant to do. But I’d better learn fast.

Mata Nui forced himself to turn back toward the head of the robot. It was like trying to turn a huge ship into the wind. He could feel the environment resisting him, but he would not give in and lose control. Without a body to inhabit, he knew he would soon go mad.

There was what felt like a violent lurch. Suddenly, he was looking up at the sky. Had he overshot his target? Was he outside of the robot again? Would he even be able to find his way back? Maybe, he wondered, I should try to get back into the mask. Maybe there is some other way to stop Makuta than with this ancient machine.

Mata Nui tried to make his mind move, but this time, nothing happened. Then it dawned on him that the world was no longer spinning crazily. His gaze was fixed on the sky. He was seeing through the robot’s eyes!

I did it, he said to himself, hardly believing it. I did it! This body is mine now.I have another chance to do what I was created to do — and this time, I won’t fail. I swear it.

Far across the desert, Ackar, Kiina, and Gresh stood with the rest of the Agori and Glatorian. They had seen the bright flash of energy that had come from the robot. Kiina wanted to go back, convinced Mata Nui was in trouble, but Gresh restrained her.

“We can’t help him now,” he told her. “This is something he has to do on his own.”

“What in the name of —?” whispered Ackar. “Look! It’s moving!”

It was true. The robot was slowly rising, sand raining down as it did so. As the Glatorian watched, it got to its knees, then rose to its full height. They looked up in awe as the mechanical being towered above their world.

No, thought Kiina, not ‘it’ — not a robot. That’s… Mata Nui.

“He made it,” said Ackar. “I can’t believe it.”

“Now what?” asked Gresh. “Can we still talk to him? Will he hear us, from way up there?”

“Maybe we can get his attention,” answered Ackar. Raising his sword and calling on the new powers Mata Nui had given him, he hurled a fireball high into the air.

The robot’s head turned slightly toward the flaming signal. Then Mata Nui looked down toward where his companions waited. He activated the speech centers of his new body, taking care to make sure his voice would not be too loud. At full volume, the robot’s voice could shatter skulls all over the planet.

“Well done, Ackar,” he said. Even spoken “softly,” his words were like sonic booms down below. “Tahu could not have done better.”

Kiina glanced at Gresh. “Who’s Tahu?”

Gresh shrugged. “Maybe some Glatorian we don’t know.”

“Mata Nui, can you hear me?” Ackar shouted up at the robot.

“No need to shout,” answered Mata Nui. “My sensors can pick up a beetle’s breathing, if I want them to. Are you all right?”

“Yes,” Kiina replied. “But how about you?”

“I had almost forgotten…” Mata Nui began. “This body is… different from my old one in many ways. But hopefully it has the power to do what must be done.”

Even as he said it, Mata Nui knew there was really little hope at all. To carry out his mission, he needed a second robot, equally as powerful. And the only other one he knew to be in existence was under the control of a maniac.

I have to try, he said to himself. Otherwise, what was all this for? I can’t have come all this way, gone through so much, just to fail.

“Get to shelter,” he said to the assembled crowd below. “I don’t know if what I am going to attempt will work, or what will happen if it does. I need to know you’re safe before I begin.”

“Shelter?” said Gelu, an ex-Glatorian from the ice village. “What shelter? Isn’t he wearing our shelter?”

“There are caves nearby,” said Ackar. “We’ll get everyone into them.”

Mata Nui watched as the Glatorian and Agori moved off to safety. Kiina had been right about one thing — they did look like insects from up here. But if she ever believed he would think of them that way, she was very wrong. Every one of those moving dots so far below was an intelligent being with hopes and dreams. If Mata Nui had anything to do with it, those hopes would be realized and those dreams would come true.

He swept his sensors across the face of Bara Magna. Vorox, Bone Hunters, and Skrall were still active in the desert. Though he doubted they would listen, he had to try to warn them.

“Attention,” he said, his voice carrying all over the world. “After 100,000 years, it’s time for the damage to Bara Magna to be undone. Your original world, Spherus Magna, can live again. But the dangers are unknown — seek shelter now, for your own safety.”

He waited a few moments to see what effect his warning might have had. Frightened by the voice that came at them from every direction, most Vorox had retreated underground. The Bone Hunters and Skrall had stirred, but that was about it. That was about all that could be expected. Those two groups were sure to think the whole thing was some trick, even with the sight of Mata Nui looming over them to back up his words.

There was no point in delaying any further. Mata Nui raised his eyes to space. Bara Magna and its two moons, Aqua Magna and Bota Magna, had once all been part of one planet, Spherus Magna. Recreating that world meant bringing all three planets together again and fusing them together.

Mata Nui raised both arms and unleashed streams of concentrated energy from his hands. The energy was artificial gravity of enormous power. But on its own, did it have the strength to move two moons?

His sensor web showed that the beams had sliced through space to impact their two targets. But it also showed something else: an object approaching Bara Magna at high speed. In a matter of moments, the object had blotted out the sun, plunging the planet into darkness.

What better way to announce his arrival? thought Mata Nui grimly. Shadows were always his herald.

A roar of wind swept across the surface of the world, stirring up lethal sandstorms. A bolt of power slammed into the western desert, blasting a huge crater. A mighty impact struck Bara Magna, triggering planet-wide earth tremors.

Mata Nui looked across the world at a figure that dwarfed even him. The blazing red eyes of the newcomer bored into Mata Nui, chilling him to his core.

“Hello, brother,” said the visitor. “I thought it was time for a family reunion.”

With those words, there could no longer be even the slightest doubt.

Makuta had arrived.