Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The crushing depths swallowed Marcus as he sank, the weight of the ocean pressing from every side. His final breath slipped from his lips, bubbling upward as blood spread from the wound in his chest, painting the water a murky red. Darkness enveloped him. His limbs floated uselessly, too heavy to move. He drifted in and out of awareness, clinging faintly to the edge of thought.

Then, through the dim haze, colors began to shimmer.

Shapes of bright, strange lights danced around him as threads of color twisted past his body: ribbons of pink, green, and electric blue, each one gliding with an eerie grace. One brushed gently across his arm and its surface pulsed with warmth, soft and wet, as if made of light itself. Above him, a few jellyfish floated, their translucent bodies casting a dull glow. Long tendrils swirled behind it, slow and searching, like fingers reaching for something lost.

They were alive, these creatures. Alien, beautiful, and silent.

Marcus watched them through half-lidded eyes, his thoughts growing slow and far away.

So this was it, he thought. This was where he would meet his end.

The light around him dimmed, replaced by one single glow ahead. A heartbeat of yellow, steady and rhythmic. It pulsed once, then again, drawing closer with each flicker.

He could no longer move. He didn't even try.

The light grew larger, pulsing like something a heartbeat. For a moment, he thought he saw Latias. Her golden eyes shimmered in the current, so close he could almost touch her. His fingers reached out weakly... but there was nothing.

His hand fell, and he closed his eyes.

Tap.

A faint touch against his mask.

Tap.

Another.

He managed nothing more in response than the flutter of his eyelid and a slow twitch of a fingertip. Somewhere in the fog of his fading awareness, he registered that it was real, not just his imagination. It nudged his face again, like a curious animal. He didn’t have the strength to flinch or attempt to push it away. Then, seemingly with a mind of its own, his orange Kanohi mask hissed and folded away from his face, the metal plates of his helmet retracting into the frame around his neck.

The ocean’s pressure struck immediately. It clamped around his exposed skull, sending needles of pain into his temples. Every breathless second stretched the agony tighter. His head throbbed, and he thought his brain might burst at any second.

Then, something pressed against his mouth.

Something soft, wet, and squishy.

It pressed there just long enough for his instincts to rebel as something strange and bitter coated his tongue and entered his throat. He recoiled, but he couldn't even cough it out in revulsion.

But then, like a potent numbing medicine, all his pain was gone in an instant.

The crushing pressure released its grip, and the pain behind his eyes dissolved. The fire in his lungs extinguished, and in its place, a strange calm washed over him.

His limbs went slack, and with his thoughts scattered, Marcus finally fell completely into the uncertain dark.

* * *

Though his vision was too blurry to see much of anything, he looked around what appeared to be a small bedroom as he lay under the covers. He slowly turned his head, squinting his eyes. Through the open window, he could just barely make out trees swaying in the breeze.

The foggy white silhouette of someone stood over him with a glass of water. Her voice was muffled heavily as though she were speaking from the other side of a wall, though he could just barely make out the words.

“... Marcus! You overslept again, idiot! ” she said bluntly with a sharp edge to her raspy voice.

Marcus blinked, confused as he tried to focus on her face. “What…?”

“You always sleep like you’re fuckin’ dead,” she teased. “I was two seconds away from dumping this cold water on you, so consider yourself lucky.”

He couldn’t place her name, and couldn’t even make out her face. It blurred at the edges, like someone half-forgotten in a dream. But her voice, or what he could make of it, wrapped around his heart in familiarity.

“I…” He glanced around. “Where am I?”

“Are you okay? You’re spacing out again. Here.”

She held out a plate of some kind of food, though Marcus couldn’t smell it or figure out what it was.

“You… made this for me?” he asked softly, motioning toward the plate.

“Obviously,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You think I’d ever make breakfast like this for myself? Now hurry up and eat it before you’re late.”

“Late? For what?” he mumbled weakly, trying to sit up but unable to do so, like he had been glued to the bed.

“You wanted to make things right, didn’t you?” Her voice fell as she turned away from him towards the doorway. “By the way, I’m… sorry. For getting you into this mess.”

He lay there, still, watching her. The edges of the room began to fade, swallowed by a slow, creeping gray.

“What are you talking about?” Marcus asked as he struggled to free himself from the bed’s grip. “I don’t understand!”

She looked over her shoulder again, her expression tender and tired.

“Just know that I don’t give a shit if you fail,” she said. “I just… want you to come back safe. Okay?”

Marcus felt his throat tighten.

“You’d better come back,” she said with a hint of annoyance, “promise me.”

“I… want to…” he said, barely a whisper as he reached for the weirdly familiar stranger.

She growled, turning around and throwing the cold glass of water at his face.

“WAKE THE HELL UP!”

* * *

Air suddenly flooded his lungs. Marcus jolted upright, coughing violently while clutching his chest. His hands met cold armor. The pain was gone, and his wound had completely healed.

He blinked as he looked around. He was still underwater, that much was clear. The sea pressed in from all sides like a watery coffin as he was stranded at the bottom of some kind of deep trench. And yet… somehow, he could breathe.

He felt his face, realizing that his mask was gone, his head fully exposed to the water. He closed his eyes and with full concentration, he managed to bring piece by piece of his mask back out from the recesses of the armor around his neck, forming a protective air-tight helmet around him once again. 

He looked down. He was seated on the sandy seafloor, surrounded by large jagged rocks covered with coral that jutted out like broken teeth. The ocean around him pulsed with silence.

Then he saw it—that familiar glow from before, yellow and wavering, like candlelight beneath the waves. Just ahead, maybe ten meters away, hovered a creature very unlike the ones he’d seen before.

It was hard to see in the pitch-black gloom, but Marcus caught flashes of its shape: orange scales faintly lit by its own bioluminescence. It had four black limbs folded close to its body, and a long fish-tail that swayed slowly back and forth behind it. Its fins on its head and spine shimmered gold and flickered with faint pulses of light, almost like breathing.

Its large aqua eyes locked with his.

Marcus didn’t move.

Neither did the creature.

They simply watched each other for a few moments, both unsure of the other’s purpose.

His hand trembled slightly as he pressed it against his chest, where the wound had been. No pain. No blood. Only smooth, unbroken armor.

The creature tilted its head.

“You… did this?” Marcus asked, his voice rough.

As if a switch had been thrown, it perked up suddenly, fins flaring with a cheerful ripple of golden light. Marcus flinched a little as it darted forward, twirling in the water with smooth, fluid motions, kicking its four black limbs in little bursts like a gleeful dance. It spun once, then twice, then zipped in a wide arc around Marcus, sending soft trails of glowing bubbles spiraling past his face.

Marcus blinked, unsure whether to feel cautious or amused. The creature gave no signs of hostility, just a strange, joyful energy, almost like a playful puppy greeting its owner after a long absence. It circled again, then came to a sudden stop, hovering just a few feet away, eyes wide and eager.

He slowly raised a hand to it, then to himself, as he tried to communicate with the strange fish.

“You… saved… me?” He tapped gently on his mask, trying to communicate with the fish-like being.

The creature’s expression brightened visibly, its yellow fins pulsing twice in delight. It zipped forward until its face was inches from his own, and Marcus didn’t flinch this time. It floated there, snout twitching, peering at him with those massive, blinking eyes.

Then, it opened its mouth.

“ Brrbl-bububu-bibib-bababrr! ”

Marcus blinked twice.

The creature repeated itself, this time with more enthusiasm. 

“ Bubububu! Babbibrr-baaa! Brrrra-bibiboo! ”

Marcus let out a tired breath. “Right, of course you can’t talk. What did I expect?”

The creature floated back slightly, still watching him. It wasn’t frustrated. If anything, it seemed pleased, like the two of them were getting somewhere, even if Marcus had no idea what that somewhere was.

He let his shoulders sag, slumping slightly in the silt.

“…I don’t know what you are,” he said quietly. “But thank you.”

The creature rotated slowly in the water, pulsing with soft yellow light that reflected in Marcus’s eyes. Then it leaned back, eyes narrowing in brief concentration. Its fins flexed outward, glowing brighter as a steady golden light shimmered through the water.

A low, musical hum filled the surrounding sea, vibrating not just in the water, but in Marcus’s skull. It wasn’t painful, just strange, like a tuning fork pressed to bone. The creature’s fins trembled with the frequency, holding a vibrating resonance that pulsed like a coded signal. Then, the light faded.

Silence.

Marcus tilted his head slightly. “What was that?”

“B… Bubble… in throates… for airbreathes easy,” said the fish.

Its voice was strange, wet, and warbling, but finally intelligible. The creature's mouth didn’t move in any way he could see, yet the words rang out clear, though they carried an odd, uneven cadence. “ You… did drowning. You shell were a broked, can not lives down heres. For you, no gills for to airbreathing! So… ” The creature lifted its front limbs and wiggled them excitedly. “Baababa bubble lung! ”

The orange aquatic being opened its mouth and inflated a large air bubble from its maw, which slowly floated to the surface.

“So you did save me.”

The creature’s fins fluttered proudly. “ Yes! Me coulds not let the you go still-flat, crab Toa. Sad! Would sad! ”

Marcus managed to let out half a confused chuckle. “Crab Toa?”

“ You have hard shell, but are squishies insides. Like delicious crab!”

Marcus rubbed his hand against his throat out of reflex. The lingering bitterness from earlier still clung faintly to his mouth, like sewage and seawater.

"Well, I’m not a crab, so don’t even think about eating me, alright?" He hesitated, then looked at the fish. "By the way… what did you do to me before, exactly?"

She tilted her head, fins pulsing faintly as her eyes lit up

" Kiss! " she declared proudly.

Marcus blinked. "Uh… what?"

"Kiss heal! That is how gives air to you!" She popped her lips a few times like the fish she was and wiggled her legs giddily, blowing an air bubble from her mouth with an open smile. ”So my breathes is you breathes!”

Marcus opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again, and just ran a hand down the side of his mask.

So... he'd been saved by a kiss, technically his first kiss… from a fish.

He grimaced. Was he grateful? Obviously. But should he feel flattered? He didn't even know how to process that. Mostly, he was just trying not to gag thinking about the bitter aftertaste still lingering on his tongue.

"You... kissed me," he said flatly, trying his best to process that in a way that didn't feel ridiculously awkward.

"Yes!" She beamed, fins fluttering like a triumphant trophy fish. "Fix pain! You still aliving. You are need… anothers?"

Marcus waved dismissively. "N-no! No, I think I'm good for now… thank you."

She made a soft chirping noise, like a disappointed hum.

"Okay!”

Marcus sighed, staring into the depths of the ocean gloom.

Saved by a kiss from a glowing fish alien.

As if this day hadn’t been eventful enough.

“Kiss save because water has… helping things,” the fish continued cryptically.

“Thank you,” he said again.

The creature blinked, seeming to interpret the gratitude. Its fins glowed warmly in response.

The two of them sat in silence for a beat as Marcus was still catching his breath, the creature gently swaying in the water like seaweed in a current, its golden fins pulsing faintly.

Then Marcus looked up at her. “So… do you have a name I can call you?”

Its expression lit up again, fins flaring bright yellow in a sparkling burst. “ Yes! Suushilopibi Zuubawawibiquix Floonmaratox! ”

Marcus blinked. “Uh… sorry. Say that again?”

“ Suushilopibi Zuubawawibiquix Floonmaratox! ” she repeated even more eagerly with a certain rhythm to it, her glowing tail swaying from side to side.

He stared at her, completely at a loss. “Okay, I… don’t think I can even say all that. Do you mind if I just call you… Sushi?”

The creature seemed to consider this for a moment, then gave a delighted little spin in the water, bubbles trailing from her fins.

“ Yes! ” she said. “ ‘Sushi.’ Short-bite name. Like snack. Accepting! ”

Marcus gave a tired laugh. “Alright then, Sushi it is.”

Sushi wriggled in the water, clearly pleased with herself, her fins flashing again in quick pulses. Despite the depth, the darkness, the unknown… Marcus felt a warmth in his chest.

He still had no idea where he was, but at least he wasn’t alone anymore.

Marcus took a breath, glancing around the murky seafloor as the weight of reality crept back into his bones.

“I’m Marcus,” he said finally, voice steadier than before.

Sushi hovered close, blinking slowly. “ Mar-cusss, ” she repeated, testing the name with her watery accent. “ Small name, but strong noise, like shell. Mar like sea, then hiss like hot magma vent! Fits! ” She tilted her head again. “But Marcus… sink. Big, big fall from top waves where air sky is. What did happened?”

Marcus’s jaw tightened as flashes of recent events returned. The golden armor, his fight against the Skrall, Tahu’s rage, the mysterious dark figure… the death of Mata Nui. And then, his last look at Latias’s face as he was shot down and exiled to what would’ve been his watery grave. 

“There was… is… something really bad happening up there.” he said as he looked down at his gloved hands. “Something tore through a hole in the sky... I was trying to stop it, but it almost killed me. I was thrown down here, and now…”

He looked at her as his brows furrowed under his mask, urgency in his tone.

“I need to get back to my friends, Sushi.”

Sushi floated silently for a moment, her yellow fins dimming to a softer hue. She blinked slowly, the mood around her shifting. Then she swam a tight, happy circle and said, “ You are being heavies. Fell very far. Nobody go this far. Not ever. Danger all around, everywhere. Hard to go back for heavy thing. ” It looked at him curiously. “But… ” Her eyes gleamed. “ Not is impossible. Maybe paths. ”

Sushi tapped her chin with one of her black limbs, then spun once in the water, flicking a long glowing ribbon from her tail. She pointed to his chest with her black paw. “ You still healing. You maybe break again if you swim. ”

“I don’t need to rest,” Marcus said with determination. “I heal fast, so I feel good as new.”

Sushi blinked once, then tilted her head skeptically.

As if in reply, a faint hum began to rise from Marcus’s armor. Thin lines etched between the plates of his suit suddenly flared to life, tracing his frame with a vivid neon green. The light pulsed like a heartbeat, rippling softly through the surrounding water. It wasn’t harsh, but vivid enough to pierce the gloom around them, casting shadows on the ocean floor.

Marcus’s eyes widened slightly. He hadn’t activated anything.

The light responded again, this time running in a slow wave from shoulder to fingertip. He stared down at the familiar glow, recognizing its hue instantly.

“Delta…?” he whispered.

There was no voice in his mind. But even so, something, a faint presence, still lingered. Delta had no voice, but Marcus could feel him. 

Or at least… he wanted to. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. He couldn’t say for certain.

Sushi swam up beside him, watching curiously. “ You shine now, ” she said, nodding to the glow. “ Alive-light. Strong. ”

“It’s not enough,” Marcus said, scanning upward into the infinite black above. “I need to get back to the surface. That’s the only way I’ll know where to go. Where the others are. Which direction…”

Sushi didn’t reply, her head snapping to attention above them as her glowing fins suddenly went dim.

“What?” Marcus tensed. “What is it?”

Her pupils grew massive, almost filling her eyeballs as she peered into the open darkness beyond Marcus’s sight.

“Look,” she whispered, her voice unusually quiet. Marcus turned.

Something shifted in the rocks above, a few small pebbles sinking down to Marcus’s feet. He turned, catching only the faintest swirl. A pressure change. Then a clicking sound like chattering teeth, echoing in ripples through the water.

Beyond the threshold of the trench, nestled in the smothering abyss, dozens of tiny red lights had appeared. At first he thought they were just reflections, glitches in his vision, or distant bioluminescence.

But they moved, synchronized. Watching.

With each passing second, more and more emerged.

They were eyes, hundreds of them.

They came in slow, deliberate circles, tightening around the ruins from all directions. 

“What are they?” he asked.

“ Zyglak, ” Sushi said grimly. “Old hunters. Too many now…”

The rocky walls of the trench began to vibrate slightly, as if responding to their presence.

One of the red-eyed shapes slithered closer, revealing the faintest outline of a spined, body plated in red, blue, and bone-white armor. Another surfaced behind it. Another above. The water grew colder.

Marcus stood up, his heart quickening as he instinctively reached for a weapon he only now realized he didn’t have. Hard as he tried, for some reason he just couldn’t summon a golden sword with a single thought like he had before on the surface.

He still wore a single piece of the the merged golden armor on his abdomen, but it looked rather dim now, as though it had fallen dormant. It had made him so powerful before, so why was it holding back on him now?

“I can’t fight that many.” Marcus took a step back. “Not like this. Not while I feel… weak.”

“You don’t,” Sushi said in a hush.

Her fins extended fully until her entire body trembled with energy, facing the encroaching swarm with the confidence of a creature used to surviving places like this.

Then she opened her mouth, letting out a deafening screech.

The tone began as a low hum, then rose rapidly into a high-frequency vibration that Marcus could feel in his ribs. The water trembled, and with a final burst, Sushi pulsed the energy outward in a concentric ripple that distorted the sea like a heat wave.

The effect was immediate. The eyes scattered.

The ghoulish red glows blinked out in a panicked retreat. The silhouettes retreated deeper into the watery void, twisting away into whatever caves they’d crawled out of.

Sushi floated, panting faintly, her glow now weak and flickering. She drifted back toward Marcus and gently pressed a glowing fin to the center of his chest.

After driving off the Zyglak, Sushi made a strange whistling noise and spun once in a small circle, the glowing tips of her fins flickering like a victory dance. 

“Still good at bright light,” she chirped proudly. “Keep Marcus safe! Marcus friend!”

He looked down at her fin, the warmth of its glow soaking into him like sunlight through water. “Thank you again. Sushi… also friend.”

She affectionately bumped her face against his mask, but her smile quickly faded into a worried frown as she stared outward into the dark where the red eyes had vanished. “Home is… wrong now. Currents taste different. Ocean is feel… confused about so many thing. Water has memory of its own. ”

Marcus felt a memory briefly flash in his mind, but before he could recall it, it was gone. He didn’t fully understand what that meant, but the truth of his situation was all he needed to know.

“The Mask of Life caused the reformation of Spherus Manga,” he murmured. “And all this water came from Aqua Magna, one of the moons. But because the moons fell to Bara Magna, this whole place has changed. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ignika did something to change everything, whether it meant to… or not .”

Sushi’s eyes met his, unsure of what this ‘Ignika’ was, but certain that it was something important. “Even… me?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Marcus replied, unsure of himself. “...Maybe.”

Sushi pondered this silently, wondering how she might’ve been changed. But it wasn’t long before the persistent Zyglak reemerged, wielding crudely-made tridents and diving towards the two of them. 

“Quick, down heres!” Sushi zipped past Marcus and made her fins glow brightly as she pointed to a narrow crevice in the nearby rocky wall leading to an underwater tunnel.

“Haha NO, I am not going in there, no freaking way!” Marcus shouted. “That’s going even further down, not up! I need to go up!”

“None choices!” Sushi said sternly, pointing again. “Will dies if Zyglak kill you!”

Marcus groaned audibly, feeling a claustrophobic shiver up his spine as he squeezed himself through the narrow opening and narrowly avoided a thrown trident. Sushi closely followed, wriggling herself into the hole as well. The Zyglak prodded their weapons into the crack, but their bodies were too big to follow Marcus and Sushi further in.

“...I can’t waste any time down here, Sushi. I have to get back to my other friends as soon as possible.” Marcus said after a short while, clenching his fists as they swam deeper down the long, narrow tunnel. “I don’t know what’ll happen when I get there, but I know it’s something really bad. I can feel it.”

Sushi tilted her head slightly. “I promise you return up to surface fast, I stay with and helps!”

Marcus turned. “You will?”

Sushi nodded firmly. “Marcus is kind crab Toa, so Sushi swim with friend Marcus forevers, always! We go up to friends together! Yes!”

For the first time since waking beneath the sea, Marcus felt the weight on his chest lift.

He nodded. “I really appreciate it. It’s nice to have someone to… well, it’s just nice to have someone. Lead the way, Sushi.”

“And, I give kiss if you lose breathings again!”

Marcus gulped wearily, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

But together, with only the faint neon glow of their bodies to guide them through the pitch-black of the twisting and winding tunnel formation, Marcus and Sushi began their even deeper descent into the perilous ocean.

With his goal of saving Latias consuming his every thought, Marcus only hoped this path would eventually lead them to safer waters. 

Then, he suddenly realized something.

“Wait, hold on just a minute. Sushi… you know what a “Toa” is?”

Chapter Text

The soft dirt left padded footprints in the Lucario’s wake as he and the Gardevoir beside him continued to flee the corruption. Jagged layers of black crystal webbed outward from the dark monolith that loomed over the horizon; it slowly reached into the heavens, now taller than any structure on the planet… and it still continued growing.

Jaclyn and Cobalt could both feel it behind them like a cold, invisible force pulling at their spines. The black spikes slowly spread across the land behind them. Every time they stopped for breath, they felt it creeping ever closer.

The two of them traveled on in relative silence, and had been for some time now. The only sounds were the wind, the shifting dust, and the weight of their own tired bodies trudging forward, if only because there was no other choice to survive this new threat. The sky had faded from blue to a chalky gray; the setting sun was still up there somewhere, but its warmth no longer reached them.

Too weak to continue hovering forever with her psychic powers, Jaclyn faltered. Her delicate pointed foot tripped on a rock, and she nearly fell before she felt a pair of furred arms catch her.

"I'm fine, Cobalt," she insisted as she stretched her neck, her voice low and strained. “But thank you.”

She sat on a large rock for a moment and stared at the cracked ground, her psychic reserves feeling completely drained beyond her limit now.

“They’re all really gone… aren’t they?” the Gardevoir whispered with a crack in her voice. “The Toa are gone... Latias was taken… and Marcus…” She gave out a bitter sigh. “He’s not—”

“We don’t know that!” Cobalt suddenly snapped in his master’s defense before she could finish. “That’s not something we should even—”

“You saw what happened to him back there, Cobalt!” she interrupted. “I’ve been trying to predict every possible future, but… I’m just not seeing him in any of them. Let’s face it, we’re… all alone in this now.”

He crouched beside her and looked off into the distance.

“Maybe, but… nothing is impossible, so I’m not ready to give up on him. Not yet.”

Jaclyn closed her large red eyes, resting her hand against her temple. She was too exhausted to cry, too numb to scream.

“This is only over if we give up,” Cobalt went on, trying to motivate her. “And… that just isn’t an option. Not for me.”

He reached out and placed a black paw gently on her shoulder. That small touch reminded her that they were still alive, and still together. Without thinking much of it, Jaclyn placed her hand on Cobalt’s, but they looked at each other in silence for a brief moment, she felt a strange feeling building up inside her.

But before either could say anything else, Cobalt’s ear tilted as it picked up the sound of something. From some distance away, hushed voices were being carried faintly on the cold wind. Jaclyn stood quickly, her heart jumping in her chest as Cobalt glanced toward the sound and nodded. They moved carefully toward the ridge, crawling to the edge of a jagged slope above a shallow valley. 

Much to their surprise, down below was a group of survivors—but more importantly, potential allies.

One of them was a small white and gray Matoran with a small ceremonial staff, hunched over a tablet and scribbling something with quick, precise movements. A Toa stood tall beside him, donned in blue armor and armed with a spiked mace and shield. She scanned the horizon as if expecting danger at any moment.

Near them, a broad, black and gold Toa paced restlessly, holding a large golden spear and shield. His limbs were noticeably thicker than most, and he moved in such a way that somewhat resembled a large and powerful gorilla.

A third orange and gray Toa crouched near a round boulder while adjusting a damaged panel on his armor. His legs looked particularly strong like an athlete’s, as if built for unmatched speed and kicking.

The last stood a few feet apart from the rest, an unassuming red and dark gray Glatorian wearing a scuffed red helmet. He watched the others in silence, like he wasn’t quite one of them.

“See? We’re not alone after all,” Cobalt whispered as he looked to Jaclyn with an optimistic smile.

But as they made their way down the ridge toward the group, something in the air quickly shifted. With Cobalt’s aura and Jaclyn’s psychic intuition, an air of suspicion lingered around the red and gray one, his eyes following them with quiet interest.

The two approached carefully, stepping around jagged rocks and thick roots. The blue-armored warrior was the first to notice them and her head turned sharply, her hand moving instinctively to the handle of her mace. The others followed her gaze and turned as well.

“We come in peace.” Jaclyn raised her hands in a slow, nonthreatening gesture. “We may look a bit… foreign to you, but we’re not your enemies.”

The group of robotic strangers didn’t lower their guard.

Cobalt cautiously stepped forward. “We’ve been running from the black crystals, like I imagine you all have. We lost our friends. We’ve lost… everything.”

The white and gray Matoran tucked his stone tablet under one arm and stepped toward them. His eyes were sharp and blue like a glacier, but also the most trusting of the bunch by far. 

“So have we,” he said quietly. “We’re lucky to have made it this far.”

The watery blue Toa stood taller, pointing her large bulky mace at the two Pokémon. 

“What are you? You’re unlike any Rahi I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m Cobalt, a Lucario,” he said. “This is Jaclyn, a Gardevoir. We don’t much more than that, but we do know that we’re not exactly from here. We met a group of Toa and a few others during the battle, and… we were there when that thing came. They… didn’t make it. We’re the only two left.”

The orange and gray Toa straightened, his gaze serious. “There are only a few surviving, and fewer still fighting. My brothers Kopaka and Onua… they have fallen to those crystals as well, and I haven’t seen Tahu, Lewa, or Gali anywhere.”

“You knew Tahu?” Cobalt blurted. “And Gali?”

“Yes!” the Toa replied excitedly, his eyes lighting up slightly. “You’ve seen them?!”

The Lucario and Gardevoir gave each other a look.

“About that. We… don’t have any good news,” Jaclyn replied, “Gali was crystallized too, and your friend Tahu… well, he—”

“He’s a bad egg, and that’s putting it generously.” Cobalt’s ears flattened, his eyes narrowing. “We don’t know for sure if he’s still around or not, but if he is… he’d better not be.”

The orange Toa sighed, downhearted.

“If this is true… I can’t say I’m all too surprised, sadly. He always was hot-headed, even for a Toa of Fire.”

“And even more will fall if we stay in one place for too long,” the brutish black and gold Toa grumbled curtly, making a summoning motion with his arm. 

“Right. We need to keep moving,” the red and gray Glatorian added in agreement. His voice was calm and even, but something in the way he spoke unsettled both Cobalt and Jaclyn. 

The white and gray Matoran glanced at the others before looking up at the blue Toa beside him, who was still suspicious of the strangers. 

“Hey, they might look strange, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t trust them, Toa Helryx. After all, we stand a better chance in greater numbers, don’t we?”

After a short pause, Helryx conceded, finally lowering her mace.

“Fine. Do your best to keep up with us, because I’m not interested in carrying any dead weight. We can make formal introductions along the way.”

The Pokémon nodded together. 

As the group packed what little they carried, Jaclyn lingered for a moment, watching them. They all looked tired, like her and Cobalt, but she sensed a solid strength in their formation. The blue warrior moved like a leader, and seemed to be the most experienced by far. The black and gold one keenly scanned the shadows while the Matoran guarded his notes with his very life. And the red one... she still wasn’t quite sure what to make of him.

She turned to Cobalt, communicating with him through their thoughts. “We should be careful. One of them feels... off.”

He didn’t question her, giving her a slight nod as he sensed the questionable aura around the red Glatorian. 

As they began walking together toward a nearby ravine, the wind shifted again. Far behind them, the monolith pulsed faintly as the black crystal continued its crawl across the land. Though no one spoke of it, they all felt its shadow growing ever larger over them.

As her consciousness finally returned to her, Latias stirred. She weakly raised her lids and her large golden eyes slowly opened to a black sky choked with thick, unmoving clouds. She lay on her front, pressed against something jagged and unyielding. When she tried to lift herself, a crushing invisible weight kept her pinned in place.

Every breath came with effort. The stone beneath her was rough, with sharp angles that bit into her body. It felt… alive somehow, growing and throbbing like a cancerous tumor.

With great effort, she tilted her head. The edge of the platform stretched far into the distance as the wind howled around the tower, cold and relentless.

Then she saw it.

It hovered near the far edge, facing away from her. Its figure was completely still as it looked toward the horizon.

Latias’s heart sank as the last thing she remembered was the flash of his sudden and brutal attack. She recalled the visceral sight of Marcus as the dark figure struck through the center of his chest with a piercing red plasma beam before being thrown into the ocean’s horizon. She’d tried to attack this new enemy in her blind rage, and then… darkness.

And now, Marcus was nowhere in sight.

The dragon Pokémon tried to speak, but her voice caught in her throat. She forced her arm to move, only lifting a claw by an inch. The weight seemed press harder than ever, resisting every effort. It was like she was trapped in her own body.

All the while, the figure still didn’t move, merely staring into the distance without so much as acknowledging her. There was no sound from it, no movement, not even a sign of thought.

Latias glared at him with burning hatred, her breathing shallow. She didn’t understand what this thing wanted or why it had taken her. She was trapped on a living tower that climbed endlessly into the sky, surrounded by cold air and silence.

She was all alone.

Marcus was gone.

She clenched her jaw, forcing back the tremble rising in her chest. A single tear rolled from the corner of her eye and slid down her cheek, wetting the shifting black floor beneath her. Latias’s claws scraped against it defiantly as she pushed against the invisible force holding her down. Her body trembled with strain, but her heart burned hotter.

“No…” she whispered, voice strained. “Not again…”

She gathered all her strength, summoning every ounce of draconic energy she could reach. A faint shimmer pulsed around her body. The black stone beneath her cracked slightly where her claws dug in.

“You… took him from me… so I can’t just lie here,” she hissed, louder now. “I WON’T LET YOU WIN!”

Latias screamed, raw and unfiltered. The sound echoed into the vastness above, defiant and grief-stricken. Her wings twitched, and she forced her head up, jaw clenched tight.

Still, the force resisted.

A second scream escaped her, louder and sharper until it became a Dragon Pulse. Her whole body shook from the effort, the sheer willpower behind her fury forcing small fractures to spread outward from her form. The obsidian groaned in response as she unleashed her draconic power at the being.

She swore it hit her target head-on. She knew it did.

But when the energy dissipated, the figure turned slightly as it only now finally acknowledged her existence, just enough for her to see the faint shimmer of light reflect off the edge of his mask.

Latias froze.

It was just watching. Observing. Measuring her resistance.

Her breathing slowed. All the energy she had built up flickered for a moment, and her strength faded. She lay still, her eyes locked onto the figure’s faceless visage.

It turned fully, and walked towards her in midair.

Each step made no sound, but a thin flat layer of voidglass formed from nothing like a pathway beneath his steps. As it drew nearer, the heavy pressure on her body deepened, as if the fabric of space itself was reacting to its presence.

Latias narrowed her eyes. Hard as it was not to, she didn’t look away for even a second. She had nothing left but her will, and she used it like a shield.

The figure came to a stop just a few feet away from her. It said nothing; its presence was a void, suffocating and cold.

She stared up at him.

“Marcus will come back. I… I know he will. And he’s going to beat you when he does. That’s a promise.”

But it remained standing there in silence, as if considering something.

Latias didn’t look away; she wouldn’t give it the satisfaction. Her wings trembled against the floor. She shifted slightly, inch by inch, forcing herself upright even as the weight of the pressure crushed down on her back. Her breaths came sharp and shallow, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t let herself feel small in front of this… thing.

“Well? Aren’t you going to… say anything? Brag about some… evil plan? Just what are you, anyway?” she growled, her voice ragged but clear. “Why… are you doing this? What… do you want?!”

The figure didn’t answer right away. The jagged spires around the platform groaned in the windless air, their pitch-black surfaces absorbing all light.

Then, from within the mask, came a harsh and raspy voice.

“K… K… Kill… cure.”

As the group pressed on, the small white Matoran finally turned to Jaclyn and Cobalt with a meek voice.

“B-by the way, I’m Kopeke,” he said, placing his stone tablet on a flat rock beside him. “I’m a Chronicler.”

“Nice to meet you, Kopeke,” Jaclyn said as she gave him a polite nod. “So, like a record keeper?”

“Exactly a record keeper,” Kopeke corrected proudly. “My job is to write history as it’s happening, so that today’s stories become the historic legends of the future.”

The blue warrior lifted her gaze. “I’m Toa Helryx. Former leader of the Order of Mata Nui. I’m also the first Toa.”

“Ever?” asked Cobalt.

“Ever,” Helryx repeated, bringing a fist to her heartlight. “I’m even older than the Great Spirit himself, over a hundred thousand years of service.”

“That’s a lot of years…” the Lucario mumbled in shock, barely able to comprehend such a lifespan.

The black and gold Toa gave a grunt as he leaned his weight onto his spear. “Name’s Toa Bomonga. Not much for talking, but… let’s just say I’m larger than life. You’ll see what I mean.”

Next, the orange and gray Toa raised a hand in a friendly greeting. “I am Toa Pohatu. I look a bit different now with this adaptive armor, but stone is my element. Maybe when this is over we can kick a Kohlii ball around, Cobalt! You’ve certainly got the legs for it!”

Cobalt smiled faintly at Pohatu’s infectious optimism. “When this is over… count me in.”

Pohatu gave a tired but understanding smile as he tried to keep up appearances.

Lastly, the red and gray Glatorian straightened from where he had been sharpening a curved blade against a rock.

“Perditus,” he said. “I’m a pilot in the arena, though I don’t have my trusty ride with me at the moment. You ever seen a Thornatus V9?”

“A Tornadus?” Cobalt’s eyes widened. “So there really are other Pokemon like us in this world?”

Perditus tilted his head. “What? A— no, a Thornadus. It’s a vehicle.” 

“So what you’re saying is, it’s not a legendary genie of wind that transforms into a bird through a magical mirror?” asked the Gardevoir.

“...I didn’t understand a word you just said,” Perditus replied with more than a hint of annoyance.

“Anyway, moving on,” Toa Bomonga spoke up as he stepped in to change the subject. “We can’t outrun those dark crystals forever. We need a plan to fight back, but nothing so far we’ve tried has worked.”

Toa Helryx gripped her shield in her hand. “Which is why we need information. And allies.”

Cobalt exchanged a glance with Jaclyn, then stepped toward the group.

“There was something that came from a hole in the sky. It looked like a Toa, except it wasn’t. It took our friend, Latias, and Marcus, our leader... fell.”

Jaclyn added, “If you're forming a resistance, we’d be happy to join you.”

Toa Helryx studied them both with a piercing expression, then looked to the others. Kopeke and Toa Pohatu nodded eagerly, while Perditus only shrugged with his arms crossed.

But before he could give his two cents on the matter, Toa Bomonga froze.

“Something’s watching,” he rumbled, pointing his staff in a certain direction.

Cobalt turned slowly, scanning the undergrowth.

“I feel it too,” he whispered.

“Rahi?” Jaclyn asked.

“Maybe,” Pohatu answered in a hush. “But not one I recognize.”

Behind them, a sharp snap of a branch echoed. Helryx immediately raised her mace, and her eyes narrowed.

“Form a circle,” she ordered. “Back to back. We have no idea what could be out here with us.”

They obeyed. Perditus spun one of his blades into a reverse grip, crouching low with a glance toward the trees.

“Whatever it is, it’s doing its best to track us without sound. Definitely some kind of predator.”

Cobalt’s pulse quickened as a shape flickered at the edge of the path, almost too fast to be real.

“Did you see that?” he asked.

From the bushes ahead, a figure stepped out.

It was a Matoran that looked just like Kopeke, except… Kopeke stood right beside them.

“Watch out, everyone!” the new Kopeke said, pointing at the original Kopeke that was with them. “That Kopeke is an impostor!”

“Nice try, but I don’t buy that for a second!”

Not one to be fooled, Bomonga met the impersonator with a roar, swinging his spear in a wide arc. 

“No, wait! I promise I’m telling the—”

The blow connected directly into “Kopeke’s” chest, but he melted back into the dark with a wet hiss, leaving no trace but a smear of black sludge on the jungle floor.

“It's probing us,” Helryx muttered. “Testing for weakness.”

Cobalt’s fur bristled. “What is that thing?!”

Perditus growled, eyes scanning the canopy. A shriek echoed from far off, distorted and rising in pitch like metal screaming.

“We have to get out of here, fast. Whatever it is, we don’t want to face that thing here,” he said.

They pressed on, faster now. The jungle’s overgrowth seemed to grow more dense with every step. More and more shapes stirred in the shadows, eyes peeking out between the vines.

Jaclyn kept close to Cobalt as they ran.

“We need to find some kind of shelter,” she said. “If that thing is following us, it’s probably not the only thing lurking out here.”

They hadn’t traveled far when they saw a crumbled cave entrance, half-buried beneath thick roots and moss. It might have once been a stronghold, or perhaps a long-forgotten temple. But it still had walls, and for now, that was enough.

“Inside. Quickly,” Toa Helryx ordered.

They entered the cave, which offered some relief from the damp heat of the jungle. Though the air inside was thick with mildew and stale dust, it was still and quiet. Moss covered every inch of stone, and strange carvings were half-swallowed by creeping vines. The Toa moved through its central chamber cautiously, weapons still drawn but lowered. Jaclyn sat while trying to catch her breath, while Cobalt paced along the wall, the appendages on his head twitching like mad—though he wasn’t sure why. 

Perditus lit a small flare from his weapon and dropped it in the center of the room. The orange glow flickered against the walls, throwing long shadows across the ruins.

“Finally,” Pohatu muttered. “Somewhere to actually relax for a bit.”

Kopeke sat cross-legged and scribbled furiously on his tablet, murmuring notes to himself. Helryx remained standing, quiet and alert. Her hand never strayed far from the handle of her mace.

Meanwhile, Bomonga stood near one of the side walls, glaring at it. The others barely noticed, but his gaze was fixed on something that didn’t sit right with him.

“Something wrong?” Cobalt called out to him from across the cave. “Hey.”

Bomonga didn’t respond at first. He stepped closer to the rocky wall, then placed one massive hand against the stone.

Bomonga’s eyes widened.

“Everyone get up,” he said.

No one moved.

“I said get UP! Everyone, out! NOW!”

The panic in his voice broke the quiet like a crack of echoed thunder.

“What? why? What is it this time?” Perditus demanded, already standing.

“The walls are breathing,” Bomonga growled, already booking it for the cave’s entrance. “This isn’t a cave at all, it’s alive!”

Vines that had seemed dormant suddenly coiled like muscles contracting. Patches of moss peeled back to reveal glistening inner flesh. The cracked stone twisted and groaned, reshaping itself. The entire ruin was folding inward.

Jaclyn gasped. “It’s trying to close around us!”

Kopeke shouted, “A-Archives Beast! It must be the Archives Beast!”

The chamber convulsed, and the entire room roared on all sides.

“Move!” Cobalt shouted, grabbing Jaclyn’s arm.

They ran for the crumbling entrance as the floor beneath them began to soften, turning sticky and uneven like a tongue coated in bile. Bomonga took up the rear, slamming his shield against the rising tendrils that shot up in an attempt to grab their ankles and drag them deeper into the cave.

The wall ahead snapped shut, revealing a gaping mouth lined with jagged, stone-like fangs. Pohatu hurled a powerful kick into the creature’s teeth, blasting a hole just wide enough for them to escape through.

One by one, they dove through the cave’s mouth, landing hard on the dirt outside. The ruin behind them groaned and collapsed in on itself, its disguise rotting away like dead skin. Beneath the illusion was a grotesque, fluid mass of limbs and teeth. It let out a bellow, then retreated into the jungle’s shadows.

They didn’t stop running until they couldn’t hear it anymore.

Only once the jungle fell silent again did they gather themselves. Their breaths came ragged and panicked.

Jaclyn leaned over, one hand on her chest. “That... was definitely a cave when we went in. I’m sure of it...”

“No,” Kopeke said, panting. “That was the Archives Beast. It can camouflage itself not only as other people, but its surroundings as well. The Order tried to contain it centuries ago. Guess it got set loose after Mata Nui’s fall.”

“That thing has probably eaten dozens, if not hundreds who mistook it for shelter,” Helryx added grimly.

Cobalt looked toward the trees. “And we almost would have joined them just now.”

With that, the group trudged forward, shaken and silent, weaving through the undergrowth as the thick canopy choked out the sky above. Jaclyn kept close to Cobalt all the while, her psychic senses alert for any sign of another threat. Branches scraped against armor and skin, leaving several minor cuts on the two Pokémon. Every snapped twig felt like a warning of what could still be stalking them even now.

After a while, Cobalt muttered under his breath.

““Archives Beast”. Bit of a vague name, isn’t it?”

Kopeke, still catching his breath, gave a nervous chuckle. “Well, you’re not wrong about that.”

Bomonga glanced over his shoulder. “No one’s ever been able to describe it properly. The name stuck because the first sighting was deep within the Metru Nui Archives, when it disguised itself as a storage room.”

“So, no one knows what it really looks like?” asked Cobalt.

Bomonga nodded. “There are only theories. It’s a shapeshifter, but not like one of the Makuta. It can imitate anything it’s ever seen, no matter the shape or size. Buildings, rock formations, Toa... even dead Rahi.”

Helryx spoke without turning around. “The Order has spent centuries trying to trap it. None of their methods worked, because it could be anything, from a Fikou spider to a lightstone.”

Jaclyn walked close to Cobalt, her red eyes sweeping across each face in the dim light until her gaze slid to Perditus.

He stood slightly apart from the rest, arms crossed over his broad chest, watching the jungle. His helmet tilted downward, eyes hidden in shadow. He hadn’t said a word since they’d fled the ruins.

“Is it just me,” she secretly whispered to Cobalt within their heads, “or does he seem... off?”

“Could just be how Glatorian are,” Cobalt replied, though he didn’t sound convinced. “We shouldn’t make any assumptions yet. After all, we’re the ones who don’t really belong here.”

No one slept that night, continuing on as far as their legs would allow. 

However, in the latest hours of the night, Jaclyn was finally the first to give in.

She didn’t trip this time, just… stopped. Her legs refused to move another inch further, her shoulders sagged, and her eyes, clouded by exhaustion, blinked once more before fluttering shut. Her body had reached its limit.

“I can’t…” she whispered, her voice barely a breath.

“Jaci!” Cobalt turned back just in time to see her sink to her knees. She tried to get up, but her arms trembled under her weight. Her psychic energy had run dry hours ago, and she had been forcing herself to walk on nothing but willpower and her nubbed feet, which were less than ideal for walking on physical ground.

Toa Helryx noticed too, walking further ahead without any sign of slowing down. She turned her blue-armored head toward them, her face unreadable.

“I warned you earlier that I won’t carry you,” Helryx reminded them.

“I heard you the first time,” Cobalt said quietly as he shot her a glance she didn’t notice. “Don’t worry, Jaci. I’ve got you.”

He moved to Jaclyn’s side and crouched beside her. She murmured something unintelligible in a daze before she finally fainted, her head resting limply against him. Without hesitation, he slid his arms under her legs and back and lifted her effortlessly. She didn’t stir.

Helryx didn’t say a word as Cobalt adjusted her weight, then shifted her onto his back and looped her arms over his shoulders. Her head rested lightly against his neck. Without another glance at the Toa, he kept walking, thankful she was at least rather lightweight.

Behind them, the jungle stirred with the unsettling sounds of clicks, rustling branches, and distant gurgling growls.

But Cobalt paid them no mind.

Chapter Text

“Sushi, how do you know what a Toa is?” Marcus asked, ducking beneath a low overhang as they traversed through the dark and narrow underwater passage.

“I metted one once, I think,” the orange fish-like creature replied, her glowing fins flickering softly as she twisted through the narrow rock passage ahead. “Was not as friendlies as this one, though.”

“You think you met one?” Marcus said, chipping at the wall beside him to widen the gap. “So you’re not sure?”

“I was…” Sushi paused, her voice quieter now, more focused as she searched for the right words. “Blurry, back then. Like a bad dreamings. I didn’t knew myself. Was very uncomfortables. But I did remembered… watching a green thing, like you maybe, with two small ones nearby. They were calling him ‘Toa,’ so I call you Toa too! That is okaying, yesses?”

Marcus smiled faintly. “Heh, that’s more than okay with me.”

Still, the title stirred something uncertain in him. He wanted to feel proud, but a doubt flickered quietly beneath the surface. If he was truly something else, something “human”… could he ever really call himself a true Toa? What if Tahu was right? What if he really was just some impostor who never belonged here to begin with? Could he ever be like Takanuva?

Like… Matoro?

He cleared his throat. “You don’t happen to remember that Toa’s name, do you?”

Sushi let out a musical hum as she floated ahead, a focused expression on her face. “So many years ago now… I do not remind. Littlenick? Lickalick? My brain gets all wibbly-jumbly when I think too hard. Very sorries am I.”

“No worries, it’s not that important,” Marcus said. “You said he wasn’t friendly though? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“Oh noes!” she said quickly. “None hurtings of me.”

“That’s good,” Marcus sighed.

“He did tried to attacked me, though!” Sushi went on, “not knowings why. Very rude, I think. And I was so hungries…”

Her head lowered somberly, her paw loosely kicking up a bit of sand.

“WHAT?!” Marcus blurted in offense. “Why would anyone ever want to attack you? You’re so cu— well, nice to be around.”

“Sushi think he shell too hard, did wanted only be alone, like grumpy old… clam! Bubbela-BAH!”

Marcus let out a short chuckle. “A clam, huh? Like how I’m like a crab?”

“N-no, not the sames!” Sushi wiggled her whole body in thought, fins pulsing with little flickers of light. “All metal things are crab-like to Sushi. A little soft-flesh, with many shell bits. Green Toa was a clam-crab. But you are…”

She turned back to inspect him closely, the water glowing faintly between them.

“...Like jellyfish!”

Marcus blinked. “Why a jellyfish, may I ask?”

“Oh, so many things,” Sushi chirped as she did a little twirl in the water. Her tone fluttered with energy, and though Marcus couldn’t see it in the dim light, her scales shifted to a faint pink. “You shell glowies like a jelly, and, ehe, you are very… soft like a jelly…”

It wasn’t hard for Marcus to pick up on that she was referring again to that “kiss” she’d given him while he’d been unconscious. But personally, he’d preferred not to count that as his first.

“Oh! And you have tentacle like jelly!” Sushi giggled suddenly.

“What? I don’t have a—”

Marcus’s brow lowered. He stopped in place abruptly as the implication hit him.

“…Sushi. What else did you do while I was unconscious?”

“OH! N-nothings! Trulies nothings!” Sushi flailed in place, her fins pulsing in alarm. “I promise all honesties! I give explains!”

Marcus crossed his arms, drifting just slightly in the water as he narrowed his eyes. 

“Go on.”

“Er, when I give touchy contact to life things, like uh… pah,” she began, imitating a kiss with a pop of her lips. “I learn many about things! Is why I do speak in you language! And I learn about inside friend Marcus body, like how I know about tentacle! Learning quick is because for how to do healings on many hurt things! I not even have to eyes looking! It just happens. Instincts tells me. I didn’t look at your tentacle! I just… did knew it!”

Her explanation came out in a flurry of clumsy grammar, but Marcus caught the gist. It was enough to cool the rising heat in his face, if only slightly.

“All right, all right, I believe you,” he said. “It’s just that I’ve been through a lot lately, and the idea of being unconscious while someone’s poking around with my body is a little unsettling.”

“I think I understand?” Sushi replied softly. “I did not mean to upset. If tentacle makes friend Marcus embarrassed, I should pretends it not exist?”

“What? N-no!” Marcus flushed even hotter. “You don’t have to do that. And I’m not embarrassed! I mean… I haven’t even seen it myself yet, not since I woke up in this body…”

They swam in silence for a while, the pressure of the deep sea around them. Then, Sushi spoke again, far too innocently.

“And tentacle is for… make of eh… bebeh?”

Marcus nearly choked on the air bubble in his chest still keeping him alive.

"You know what?!" Marcus snapped. "I'd love if we stopped talking about my tentacle! Can we just talk about literally anything else, please?!"

Before he could say another word, Sushi gasped and darted ahead into the shadows of the tunnel without explanation.

Marcus’s heart dropped. 

‘Oh, great job, fuckin’ genius,’ he thought scoldingly to himself as he went after her. ‘Scared off the only one who can get you out of this place, and probably the only one who won’t try to kill you down here.’

“Sushi, wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean—”

But he caught up to her much sooner than expected. The tight passage opened into a vast cavern, which was bathed in breathtaking color.

As he looked up, a circular current spiraled above them like the calm eye of a storm, and within it, a massive shoal of bioluminescent squid drifted in synchronized patterns. Their bodies shimmered in shifting hues of pinks, teals, violets, and golds, flashing and pulsing in hypnotic rhythm. Some gently bumped together, some paired off, and others swirled in slow, glowing tangles. It was as though the whole cavern was a living kaleidoscope.

Sushi floated still, staring with her wide aqua-blue eyes into the rainbow glow. 

“These cave is huge! Echo! Echo! Heheh.”

Marcus stifled an amused laugh in his chest at how carefree and silly she was, despite their current situation. 

“Beautyful…” she whispered quietly.

Marcus agreed. For a brief moment, he almost completely forgot about his journey back to the surface, the pain and fear and everything he was fighting to return to. It was almost hypnotizing, this simple yet unforgettable phenomenon of nature.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It really is.”

His armored hand drifted idly to Sushi’s back, gently stroking the smooth ridges of her scales. She didn’t flinch or move away, instead gently leaning her side into his leg as the colorful creatures danced above.

“Theses squids,” Sushi said softly, her voice quickly shifting to become more serious. “They are in ritual for making the egg-bebehs. We not disturbing thems. None fightings, not for eatings. Okey?”

“Right,” Marcus replied, lifting his hand and giving her a small nod. But even so, his stomach grumbled a bit at the mention of eating them, only now realizing he still hadn’t eaten anything since he’d come to this world. However, he pushed his hunger aside for the moment and stayed close beside her as she began to float upward, gliding toward the soft glow high above.

“Very importance, these,” Sushi murmured, her tail swaying in slow, gentle arcs as she propelled herself upward. She was careful not to disturb the luminous mating dance unfolding around them. “Squids only do the mating once in all their lifetimes forevers. After eggs laid… they die.”

Marcus looked around at the squid circling them, blinking slowly like Christmas lights. 

“...Damn, tough break.”

“Maybe seem sads to we,” Sushi replied, her voice softer as they neared the top of the glowing dome, “but squids don’t feel sads. They feel completes. Fulfilled. They make lifes, they fulfills purpose. It is their normalings. Born, live, breed, then all done with life. All creatures do this someday. Squids just happy they survive long enough to do this.”

“I guess so,” Marcus said, giving a small shrug. “Still, I can’t imagine living that way. The best moment of your life, but then it’s lights out forever?”

“Yuh, eheh…” Sushi let out a fluttery little hum as her swimming quickly grew more out of tempo. “I tell you something now, friend Marcus. You know, for my species… we evolve very long ago to make bebeh with a many, many kinds of life things. Not just one. Because we no have tentacle, nones of us! All female, we from long before most stars did hatched. Very old, we.”

Marcus raised a brow as they slipped through an opening into a wide, hollow corridor. It was smoother than the last, more natural, and for once there was space to swim side by side. 

“You’re saying your species can… interbreed?”

“Oh yessings,” Sushi said brightly, her fins flickering with excitement. “Has to. We have many hatchlings from many worlds. Is how we adapt. Is our purpose, like thoses squids! But I, none having yet. So I was thinking— only thinking! —we go to surface, help you friends, save world and all that, and maybe…” She inched a little closer, her voice dipping to a musical whisper. “Friend Marcus can be… mate Marcus? For Sushi spawn?”

Marcus nearly choked on his air bubble. 

“W-whoa, hold on!” he chuckled nervously, unconsciously drifting a few inches farther away from waving his hands back and forth in front of him. “That’s a bit forward, don’t you think?!”

Sushi tilted her head, humming again with a playful tone. 

“Am only offering. You tentacle does makes bebes, Sushi has egg. We friendly togethers… what is problem?”

Marcus ran a hand down the front of his Kanohi. “Well, for starters, we’ve known each other for like, what, half an hour?”

Sushi spun slowly, her tone still light, but sincere. “Yesses, I like friend Marcus fast. You are soft, and glowing. Not light glowing, but heart glowing.” She pressed her slick black paw to his glowing green heartlight. “Very good insides, I know this. So… why not breed?”

 Marcus shook his head, but he couldn’t lie to himself that he wasn’t at least intrigued by the hypothetical. But still, he had to ask.

“Why would you want that from me, Sushi? There must be a million fish in the sea… literally,” he said as he gestured around them.

Sushi turned slightly, her fins pulsing gently as she swam beside him. “Was lonelies a long, longest time,” she said quietly. “No friends for talkings down here, only small-brain things like them squidses. A few old metal ones sometimes, like Toa and others. But they don’t breed. No tentacles! No fun!”

Marcus grimaced slightly at the crude direction this conversation had taken, having never considered the internal anatomy of the biomechanical beings he’d met so far. “Uh… right.”

“But then, I find friend Marcus in water, needs help,” she continued cheerily, her voice lightening again. “And Marcus has tentacle! So maybe put in, make eggs. Good feelings, yesses? Very easy to do!”

Marcus felt like the mask on his face could shift hues from orange to red at any moment. 

“W-whoa, okay. Listen, Sushi, I’m… extremely flattered. Really. But uh, one of my friends up on the surface… well, I don’t know exactly how she feels about me yet, but… let’s just say I care about her. A lot. So I can’t just… do that with you.”

Sushi’s legs gave a relaxed little flitter in something that resembled a shrug. “Nooo worries,” she giggled suggestively. “Sushi only did offered if friend Marcus wantings. Mine feelings no hurting. If you desire mate with lost friend, am understandings. But, offer still good!”

Marcus let out a breath of relief, laughing faintly under it. 

“…Thanks for the offer, Sushi,” he said sheepishly. “I’ll… keep that in mind.”

“Sushi is understandings,” she replied with a proud little flip. “Friend Marcus also understandings. And maybe curious?” Her voice teased ever so slightly as she turned away with an extra little wiggle of her haunches as they continued on. However, after some debate, Marcus admittedly gave in for a moment and snuck a glance under her fishy tail. Just a curious peek, purely out of… scientific interest. 

He readjusted himself quickly though as Sushi turned her head back, her features dim in the fading glow from the squid cavern behind them.

“Sushi did wanted to saying, when saw friend Marcus face under mask shell…” she said softly, “thinkings friend Marcus am quite… cute.” 

There was a short pause between them; a warm, awkward sort of quiet, until Sushi broke the silence again. 

“...E-even if friend Marcus do haves those nasty slug thingies insides! Grossest of always!”

She giggled at her own joke at his expense, but the sincerity in her comment just before had still caught him off guard. 

“Oh, uh... thanks. For what it’s worth,” Marcus said, “I think you’re really cute too, Sushi. Adorable, even. Whatever you are.”

Another pause, longer this time.

Finally, Marcus broke it again with a thoughtful glance her way.

 “So, I’m kinda curious… what exactly are you, anyway?”

Marcus’s question lingered in the quiet for a moment, drifting between them like the silt in the current. Sushi’s tail slowed. The faint glow from her fins dimmed slightly, and her body stiffened as if she were holding her breath.

“Am… Sushi,” she replied slowly, with a half-hearted wiggle of her fins. “Suushilopibi Zuubawawibiquix Floonmaratox. That is me.”

Marcus tilted his head, skeptical of her vague answer. “That’s not really a—”

“L-look! We almost out!” she blurted as her blue eyes lit up quite literally, her voice suddenly cheerful again. “Tunnel ending soon! Water clearer upwards, see bluenesses?”

Marcus squinted. Far ahead, he could just make out a faint blueish-silver shimmer bleeding into the tunnel from above: a sign of open water. Real light. He’d nearly forgotten what that looked like.

Meanwhile, Sushi gave a sheepish little chirp, twirling once in the current like she was still trying to physically shake off the question.

As they finally entered the open ocean, Marcus glanced around but saw nothing unusual. Still, his instincts tingled. His suit’s faint inner glow cast long green reflections across his armor, and every movement sent faint ripples through the still water.

But below, near the dark ridge of the seafloor, something stirred.

Massive, silent, and watching, a large, lizard-like Rahi known as the Tarakava-Nui waited as two glowing red sensors blinked to life inside the shadows.

Its armored body stretched longer than a submarine, with overlapping scales of green and blue metal. Instead of legs, it rolled silently along tank-like treads embedded in its undercarriage, allowing it to glide across the seafloor with ghostly precision. Its arms were built for pure, devastating force; spring-loaded, piston-driven limbs ending in massive ball-like fists that resembled the claws of a mantis shrimp, designed to strike faster than sound underwater.

It didn’t move yet.

It only tracked.

From behind a jagged outcrop, its mechanical irises narrowed, calculating distance and pressure. It had been dormant since the chaos that reshaped the oceans… but now, something foreign had entered its territory.

Two somethings.

It retracted slightly into the crevice, unseen. Watching. Waiting.

Up above, Marcus and Sushi continued their slow ascent, unaware.

That was, until Sushi abruptly stopped swimming, her eyes locked ahead.

“What is it?” Marcus asked with concern as he turned to her.

The clarity of the sea disappeared within the thick gray haze that curled through the water in front of them, spiraling slowly like ink in still water.

“Sushi?” Marcus asked again, softly this time.

Her body quivered slightly, her black legs folding fearfully under her orange body. “N-no, none touchings of that. Please, friend Marcus, not go closer…”

“I think it’s just sediment,” he said dismissively. “Something probably just kicked it up.”

But she was already backing away in fear, tail swaying rapidly. “Is not just that, not belongs here. Is poison for me, I smell it. In memories. In feelings.”

Marcus tilted his head. “You’re sure?”

“I think,” she whispered. “Long ago, before now… it did made me sick. It did made me different. I did swam in it for long, longest time in the deepestest trench. Then… I did forgot who is Suushilopibi.”

Marcus’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Sushi didn’t answer right away. Her eyes stayed fixed on the slowly drifting cloud, her glow dimming. She seemed smaller and more fragile in that moment, her usual bubbly attitude had vanished.

“I was near big world-shell,” she finally said, trying to recall as best as she could, though it was clearly painful. “Metal world, it leak into ocean. Bright silver blood mixed into waters. Theses smell like that memory.”

“Big world-shell…” Marcus repeated curiously. “Do you mean… the Great Spirit robot?”

“Maybes?” Sushi twitched, uncertain. “Not know what is that. I only remember silvery water, like blood…”

As Sushi closed her eyes with a whimper, Marcus floated closer and gently laid a hand on her head. 

“Hey. You’re alright now. Whatever happened to you before, that’s not you anymore.”

She looked up at him with her wide aqua eyes. “Not anymore… yesses. Friend Marcus, if I ever… change… if I stop being Sushi. Will you… stop me?”

Marcus analyzed her, concerned. He never would’ve expected such a somber side of this quirky little fish.

“Why would you say something like that?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

“...No reasonings. Only worryings,” Sushi replied meekly, looking away. “Please, friend Marcus… just promise you will save Sushi from—”

Just then, the water subtly rippled in the distance.

Marcus barely had a second to react before something immense surged from below. A blur of green metal and motion streaked up from the darkness, and in an instant, a piston-driven fist the size of a boulder smashed into the center of his forehead dead-on.

The impact cracked through him like thunder. His neck jerked back violently, and his Kanohi mask snapped free from his face, spinning off into the depths as everything went white.

Marcus tumbled backward through the water in a stunned daze, barely aware of his own body. A sharp pain exploded inside his skull, and a cold numbness spread through his limbs. His vision flickered and pulsed, the ringing in his ears was nothing short of deafening, and he couldn’t tell up from down.

“Friend Marcus!” he barely heard Sushi cry out through the high-pitched noise in his head. He suddenly began to feel drowsy as red blood leaked from his nose and dissipated into the water, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

* * *

The low hum of voices echoed against smooth white walls as lights buzzed faintly overhead. Marcus blinked until he could just barely make out rows of seats, a raised platform, and some kind of large projection screen at the front. He sat slouched in one of many cushioned chairs, elbow on a narrow desk, surrounded by quiet murmurs and the rustle of books.

He couldn’t see the person standing at the front clearly. The figure at the podium was little more than a shadow behind a fogged pane of glass, but their voice broke through the blur, slightly muffled and tinny like an old recording.

“…Dr. Masato Emoru's theory, widely dismissed by the scientific community… and yet, recurring patterns in molecular formation suggest otherwise…”

The voice gained clarity for a moment. It was that of a middle-aged male, calm and methodical.

“…Water as conscious matter, sensitive to intention, and receptive to information. Emotional states, frequencies, tonality… even music.”

Marcus stared forward in confusion, trying to process anything. He felt like he should remember this, but every detail was just beyond reach.

“…This led to Emoru’s most controversial proposal, that water has a memory of its own. That it may encode trauma. Feel emotion. Remember its history. Not just metaphorically, but literally alive… thinking… and learning.”

There were chuckles from a few students. A female voice whispered behind Marcus, “Guy’s fuckin’ nuts, right? Sounds like science fiction.”

“Is it really so impossible, Miss Kennel?” The person at the front asked, addressing the comment. “After all, our bodies are almost 70% water, and the same amount just happens to cover our planet’s surface. We know more about the stars above us than our ocean’s floors or our own brains.”

The woman behind Marcus remained silent, though he could hear a hint of an irritated huff. The lecturer continued his lesson, unfazed.

“…Perhaps even intention itself leaves an imprint in the molecular makeup. Not detectable with traditional instruments, but undeniably visible… under the right conditions.”

A diagram blinked onto the blurry screen. Something about crystalline formations, symmetrical under feelings of love and concern, but chaotic under hateful words and thoughts. Marcus squinted. The lights overhead flickered. The professor kept speaking, the sound stretching and slowing like a tape unraveling.

“—Tectonic shifts, underwater volcanoes… So what do you think would happen if the entire ocean were to change… in an instant?”

Marcus flinched at the loud snap of the man’s fingers and the scene around him started to immediately unravel. The seats broke apart into streaks of color, the floor fell away. Water rushed back in, flooding the room in silence.

He reached for the desk, but it dissolved. The speaker’s voice deepened through the rising tide.

“…Memory is not bound by time. Or flesh…”

Suddenly, the silhouette at the front turned toward him. The face was still a smear of shadow and light, but Marcus could feel their gaze.

“…You remember more than you know, Marcus.”

* * *

The Tarakava-Nui came faster than any machine its size had the right to be, the roar of compressed hydraulics shaking the water around it. Sushi narrowly dodged the next strike. The pressure from the punch alone tore a chunk of stone from the cavern wall.

“You stop that now, mean lizard—crab—thing!”

Sushi turned, teeth bared, and unleashed a burst of light from her fins. Vibrational energy pulsed from her in all directions, bending the water like a shockwave. It slammed into the beast’s armored snout, slightly cracking one of its sensor lenses, but it barely staggered.

The Tarakava lunged again, and this time, its second punch hit squarely in her side.

She yelped, spinning out across the open space as she spiraled through the water in pain. A few orange glowing scales trailed behind her like falling sparks as she struggled to regain control of her motion. Another punch hit her left haunch, sending her crashing into a rocky cliffside.

She gritted her teeth as she recovered; her body trembled from the impact, but she forced herself upright and eyed the cloud of pollution in the water. She was stronger than anyone could know. She had to protect friend Marcus.

She swam as fast as she could towards it, but the Tarakava-Nui was already rearing up again, readying for a final blow.

Marcus floated helplessly behind her, face pale and eyes fluttering. Blood swirled from his nose in thin red threads, and his chest barely moved with shallow, ragged breaths. His forehead was bruised, but the glowing green cracks along his armor had begun to pulse faintly again as his fast-healing power had already been working to save him from a fatal concussion.

Then, with his injury quickly healed, he finally regained consciousness to a whistling sound cutting through the deep.

THMP!

A red projectile, long and sleek like a torpedo, sliced through the water and struck the Tarakava-Nui squarely in the flank. A burst of impact and explosive bubbles followed.

Sushi stopped in her tracks as another struck her foe’s shoulder joint. Then another. Each impact staggered the beast, its treads grinding as it twisted away from the assault.

From the shadows, a lone figure emerged. Lean, battle-worn, and wreathed in light green armor with jagged silver trim, the newcomer raised his arm-mounted Cordak Blaster and aimed again.

With a hesitant pause, the Tarakava-Nui let out a rumbling sound like a machine growling, but it didn’t strike. With one final hiss of steam and churn of treads, the large mechanical lizard retreated into the darkness below, vanishing into the deep just as quickly as it had come. 

Sushi returned to Marcus and clutched him tightly, watching the creature go. She then turned to the stranger, who was now slowly approaching with a familiar orange mask in his hand.

The Toa stopped a few paces away, weapons lowered but eyes focused.

Sushi blinked twice.

“You…” she whispered. “You is the one from before!”

Marcus stirred dizzily, letting out a pained breath as he looked up at the lime-green figure.

“Who… are you?” he managed weakly.

The figure straightened as he adjusted his arm, his voice gravelly like a tired old veteran who had seen too much.

“I am known… as Lesovikk,” he sighed bitterly.

“...The worst Toa in the universe.”

Chapter Text

“Sorry, did you just say the worst Toa ?” Marcus asked the armored green figure who now stood before him. “Or the first ?”

Lesovikk lowered his twin-bladed sword to rest gently against the seabed, its long edge gleaming faintly in the filtered moonlight from above.

“I led the first Toa team,” he said at last. “Over ninety-thousand years ago. But no… I am not the first Toa. Just the first to fail.”

Marcus blinked, trying to process the number. “Ninety thousand years…? That’s—”

“Ancient,” Lesovikk finished dryly. “And it feels longer.”

Sushi tilted her head, slowly circling the green warrior with an accusatory glare. “Sushi remember now! Lesovikk very mean to poor hungry Sushi!”

“Wait, yeah,” Marcus chimed in, “What’s your problem, attacking her the way you did?”

“Excuse me? You must be mistaken, I’ve never even seen anything like this before,” Lesovikk said dismissively when he turned to Marcus, shifting the weight of his weapon. “Where did you find it, Toa?”

“She found me,” Marcus said in offense through his gritted teeth. “Her name is Sushi.”

“Suushilopibi Zuubawawibiquix Floonmaratox,” Sushi clarified.

“Right. I was dying, and she saved my life.”

Lesovikk’s eyes lingered on Sushi a bit longer as he tried to recall such a creature in the many years he’d spent in the depths. 

”Well, I apologize for any misunderstandings, but I truly don’t remember you in the slightest.” He turned to Marcus. “Oh, and I believe this is yours.” 

He tossed him his Kanohi mask, which Marcus caught as it floated through the water before putting it back securely on his face.

“So…” Sushi swam a little closer to Lesovikk, curious. “Lesovikk does not hate Sushi? Can be friend? ”

“I don’t care about you one way or the other.” Lesovikk shrugged, shaking his head as he turned away. “I don’t do friends. Not anymore.”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Marcus swam in pursuit after the green Toa. “Why are you even down here? How are you down here?”

“I could ask you the same, fellow Toa,” Lesovikk turned around. “Trying to escape from your past like me?”

“I’m trying to find mine, actually,” Marcus responded, noticing closer at Lesovikk and noticing a tube connecting from his mask to something on his back. That explained how he was able to breathe down here at least… sort of.

“Did the Brotherhood send you to find me?” 

“Brotherhood?” asked Marcus with a slight shake of his head, confused. “I don’t know what that is. I’m definitely not here by choice, that’s for sure. Like I said—”

“Nevermind then, I don’t care.” Lesovikk waved him off, turning away again. “If you’re not here to capture or kill me, then just leave me to rot in peace. It’s for the best.”

“See?” Sushi whispered as she leaned in towards Marcus, “like grumpy clam.”

“What happened to you, Lesovikk?” Marcus asked, swimming after the Toa as Sushi followed closely behind. “You are a Toa, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be, I dunno, part of some kind of team?”

“You’re awfully persistent,” Lesovikk said with an irritated scowl. “Do not take me fending off the Tarakava-Nui for you as a sign of friendship. I just… couldn’t watch another Toa die because I didn’t act in time, that’s all.”

“Another Toa?” Marcus asked.

The green Toa sighed. He looked back to Marcus, then to Sushi.

“Can you… give us a minute?” Lesovikk asked the orange four-legged alien floating in front of him. 

“Okies!” Sushi replied innocently, tilting sideways for a moment before swimming some distance away—probably to find some delicious lobster to eat or something, Marcus assumed. He watched her disappear into the deep blue, his mouth beginning to instinctively salivate at the thought of seafood.

“That thing called you ‘Marcus’, is that right?” Lesovikk brought him back to attention with a slightly different tone in his voice, now that they were alone. “An unusual name.”

“Well, it’s kind of a long a long story,” Marcus replied hesitantly, “and one that I don’t have all the answers to yet, but… I’m not sure if I can really even be called a ‘Toa’. I don’t think I’m from here. Oh, and by the way, Sushi’s not a thing, and I don’t appreciate you referring to her like some kind of—”

“Listen, Marcus,” Lesovikk interrupted, holding up his palm. “And listen well. You look like any other Toa to me, so for now I’ll address you as if you were one of my own brothers.”

“...Okay,” Marcus said warily. “I’m listening.”

“You’ve heard of the three virtues, have you not?”

“Yeah, uh… unity, duty, destiny. Right?”

“Unity. Duty. Destiny,” Lesovikk echoed dryly, “The old creed. The Great Spirit’s law, hammered into our heads like it was written in stone. I used to believe, too. I thought they meant something, like guiding lights in the dark. But keep this in mind: in the end, they are just pretty words, used to send us to war. Unity? We say we fight together, but when it all falls apart, you’ll find out how alone you really are. Duty? That’s just the leash they put around your neck. Destiny?” He scoffed, “that’s the cruelest lie of all. Destiny doesn’t choose you, it uses you. And when it’s fulfilled, it discards you like scrap.”

Marcus was left speechless by this jaded old Toa’s lengthy lecture, remaining silent.

“I did everything I was told. Everything a Toa should do. I followed every order to the letter from my superiors, tried to be the fearless leader my brothers and sisters needed. But all it takes is to choke once, to hesitate a second too long. And you know what it got me? Their dying screams echoing through my dreams, year after year… after year. Can you imagine living thousands of years of sleepless nights, reliving your worst nightmares, even when you’re awake?”

Marcus shook his head solemnly before speaking up.

“No. I don’t think I believe in being “chosen” by fate, but… I’d like to think everyone ends up where they’re meant to be. That there’s still some kind of purpose to all this, even if we can’t see it yet. Everything in its right place.”

“You truly think that I’m meant to be here, at the bottom of the ocean?!” Lesovikk replied, his voice raised. “That you’re meant to be here?!”

“No… but also yes,” Marcus went on. “I think we are both meant to be here, Lesovikk. But we’re also meant to keep going forward, not lie down and just give up… like you clearly have.”

Lesovikk was the one left speechless this time, seemingly in conflict with himself as he let out a frustrated grunt.

“I choose to believe that it’s not over until it’s over,” Marcus continued sternly, giving his senior the lecture now. “Maybe my “destiny” dragged me down here, but that doesn’t mean I have to stay. I still have friends up there to save. They need me. Thanks to Sushi, I’m still alive. And as long as we’re alive, there’s always hope for us.”

Lesovikk looked away, and for a moment, something flickered across his face. Doubt? Regret? Pain? For Marcus, reading facial expressions on a Kanohi mask was still very difficult.

“That can be easy for you to say, if you still have friends to save,” Lesovikk replied coldly. 

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Marcus defensively, clenching his fist.

“If you’re down here, and they’re up there… for every second you’re apart, how do you know that they’re still even alive at all, without you there to protect them?”

Marcus shuddered. The thought of everyone, Jaclyn, Cobalt, Takanuva, Latias, being dead… it was unthinkable.

“These are things you have to consider as a Toa, as a leader,” the old Toa said. “For all you know, it may already be too late for them. And if it is… what will you do then? ”

Marcus took a deep breath, thanks to Sushi’s air trapped inside his lungs, before glaring Lesovikk dead in the eyes through his own mask.

“I’ll keep fighting for them, just as I always have.”

“...Then you’re a better Toa than I, Marcus,” Lesovikk said with an almost sarcastic chuckle. “Which, well, isn’t saying much.”

“So… what do you say?” asked Marcus, holding out his fist. “Are you willing to move forward with us? Or would you rather die alone down here?”

Lesovikk stared at Marcus’s fist for a few moments before finally shaking his head.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll help you get back to the shore, at least.”

“I’ll take it,” Marcus replied, a small smile hidden under his mask as he looked over to where Sushi had wandered off. “Okay Sushi, come on back!”

But after a few seconds, there was still no sign of her.

“...Sushi?”

Lesovikk suddenly felt a sharp cold shiver up his spine, like the water had quickly turned to freezing ice all around him. His hand gripped his weapon tightly.

“Friend Marcus!”

Lesovikk was nearly ready to slash at the source of the voice until he saw the creature Marcus called “Sushi” quickly swim past him, and the chill subsided just as quickly as it came. He loosened the grip on his sword.

“I did saw some starfishes over theres, they were so tasty! You want?” 

Sushi pried off a starfish that had been clinging to her chest and pushed it though the water towards Marcus, who grimaced at how it wriggled its crusty tentacles at him.

“...As much as I’d like to, I don’t think I can stomach anything… alive.”

“Hm…” Sushi looked around, pointing to some nearby coral. “Theses, then?”

“I’m pretty sure my teeth would break if I try to eat that,” Marcus said with a small chuckle. “You really don’t have to find anything for me, Sushi. I appreciate the gesture, though.”

“I could maybe hear you belly noises from other ocean!” Sushi giggled. “So friend Marcus starving, need good foods to eat. Oh! I know! Be right back, okey?”

With that, Sushi swam behind a large rocky mound, returning a minute later with several round objects resting in her paws. They were some kind of translucent red spheres, around the size of a ping pong ball, and were shimmering and glistening with a gem-like beauty. 

“Huh, what are these?” Marcus asked curiously once Sushi placed them in his hands, turning them over in his hand as he analyzed them. Whatever they were, he couldn’t deny that they looked rather appetizing, almost like…

“Eggs!” Sushi chirped. “Sushi did made, give for free!”

Marcus suddenly felt his stomach lurch.

“Ehh… Sushi, this is very nice and all, but I-I don’t think I can—”

Just then, Sushi gave him the largest and most pitiful eyes he’d ever seen. An expression that clearly said, “Is my gift to you not good enough?”

Retracting his sentence, Marcus sighed as he looked over the eggs again. He was starving, after all. And now that they were in his hands, it would be a waste not to eat them…

With a hesitant gulp, Marcus removed his mask again, bringing the first large ruby-colored roe to his mouth. He glanced at Sushi, who was watching him with expectant eyes. 

‘Bottom’s up’, he thought as he popped it into his mouth with a grimace, his stomach churning as he felt the thick gelatinous outer layer POP in his mouth. He wanted to vomit from the viscous sensation at first—that was, until his tongue registered the flavor. 

Maybe it was simply because he’d been starving, but it was surprisingly… delicious! And the word felt like an understatement. It was simultaneously salty and sweet, with a mellow buttery texture and a distinct salmon-flavored undertone that literally made his tastebuds tingle with satisfaction. He swallowed the egg’s yolky insides before quickly downing the other two in his hands, leaving him feeling unexpectedly filled. He was almost tempted to ask Sushi to lay a few more for him, but managed to resiste the urge. All the while, Lesovikk looked at Marcus with a look of utter disgust.

“Absolutely vile,” the elder Toa muttered under his breath.

Marcus shrugged. “Sure it felt a little weird at first, but it was surprisingly good, actually. They pop in your mouth, and—”

“That’s the thing,” Lesovikk interrupted. “You eat with your mouth?”

“Well… yeah. How else am I supposed to eat?”

Toa Lesovikk then pulled up a handful of nearby seaweed and clutched it in his hand; Marcus and Sushi both watched it quickly wilt from a healthy green to a sickly brown as his palm began to glow faintly.

“Nutrient absorption through the hands and arms. Efficient. Clean.” He studied Marcus’s face with open disdain, eyes lingering on his teeth. “Not snapping jaws, tearing flesh, grinning through bone with big white teeth like a Skakdi.”

Marcus frowned, irritation flaring. “Hey, my teeth aren’t that big,” he muttered. “And I’m no Skakdi, I’ll have you know I fought a Skakdi warlord earlier today named Nektann when I was still just a Matoran. And won.”

That name made Lesovikk pause. His posture shifted subtly in the water, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and interest.

“Nektann…?” he repeated darkly. “I find it hard enough to believe a single Toa could beat him, but a Matoran doing so would be quite impossible.”

Marcus nodded, boastfully puffing his chest. “Well, it’s the truth. He had something I needed, so I took it from him. He’s dead.”

He wasn’t technically the one who had killed Nektann—the Skakdi had taken his own life rather than suffer the humiliation of defeat at the hands of a Matoran. But Lesovikk didn’t need to know that little minor detail. 

“Hmph,” the old Toa grunted, holding a fist to his chest in a sort of prayer. “ If what you say is true… then may he begin anew on the Red Star.”

Marcus tilted his head. “What’s the Red Star?”

“A world beyond,” Lesovikk said, his eyes unfocused, as though peering through time. “Hidden among the stars, orbiting the Great Spirit. The Great Beings second greatest creation. Very few know of its true function, but it’s there. When you perish, if you reside within Mata Nui, your soul is sent there to be reconstructed and reborn. You then return to live again, to have another chance.”

Marcus was quiet for a moment. The thought of a cosmic recycling station for souls,  reincarnation made real… it was disturbingly clinical, but at the same time, it was strangely hopeful.

Or it would be, except…

“I… don’t think that will work anymore.”

Lesovikk tilted his head, suspicious of the sudden shift in Marcus’s tone. 

“What do you mean, Marcus?” he asked, like he was already fearing the worst.

“Mata Nui is… dead, Lesovikk,” Marcus said somberly. “I was there when it happened.”

A long silence followed as the Toa of Air was speechless, unblinking. 

“...So, it’s true…” he finally murmured.

“You suspected?”

“Earlier, I felt something. A heaviness inside my heartlight. I told myself it was just my imagination, but deep down… I think I already knew that the Great Spirit was gone for good.”

Marcus nodded solemnly. “And now, the dead… stay dead.”

Lesovikk floated there in the open water for a moment, silhouetted against the pale shimmer of distant light.

“...Then that’s it. When I die, I will face the infinite nothing.”

“Personally, I don’t know what to believe about the afterlife,” Marcus said, “but whether there’s something or nothing, I still have to make something out of the time I have left. And that’s why I need to get back to the surface as soon as possible, to find my friends and stop whatever new threat is up there that sent me down here in the first place! And I could really use another Toa’s help, Lesovvik.”

Lesovikk gave him a sidelong glance. “You said before that you don’t think you can call yourself a Toa. I don’t think I can call myself one, either. I don’t deserve that title after what I’ve done. And even if I am a Toa, I’m the worst one.”

“We don’t need to be Toa to be heroes.” Marcus said as he extended a hand. “Even if you can’t be reborn, there’s always a way to begin anew. You can be a leader again. I need you, Lesovikk.”

Lesovikk looked at the outstretched hand for a long moment, silent.

Then, slowly, he took it.

The old Toa’s expression didn’t change, but his tone softened. 

“...Fine, I’ll come to the surface to help out in the fight. But only because your optimism is so sickeningly… infectious.”

Sushi let out a sharp trill of joy that echoed through the water, spiraling in a celebratory arc as she expressed her joy at Lesovikk’s agreement.

Marcus smiled as he watched her, but the expression didn’t last.

From beyond the rocky reef, a guttural howl rang out, deep and shrill like tearing metal. Another cry answered it, then another. Marcus turned sharply toward the sound, heart quickening.

“Zyglak,” he said, voice tightening. He tried to focus on summoning his sword from his hand, but still nothing happened, like the dull golden armor on his chest was completely ignoring him now.

Lesovikk had already stiffened. His body remained motionless, but his breath became shallow, and his eyes were fixed, wide and haunted, staring into some place far beyond the present. His fingers tightened around his Cordak blaster.

Then they emerged from the deep blue: hulking, reptilian silhouettes with jagged claws and twisting jaws. Their malformed bone-like armor gleamed dully in the blue light, and the scent of decay wafted through the ocean’s current like poison.

“We can take ‘em, can’t we?” Marcus turned urgently to Lesovikk. “Together, we can—”

“NO!” Lesovikk snapped sharply, making Marcus flinch at the force in his voice. The old Toa shuddered as his chest rose and fell with hard, uneven breaths.  “We are not fighting them. Not the Zyglak. It is suicide.”

“But—”

“They killed my entire team, Marcus,” Lesovikk hissed. “I hesitated in a battle for a second too long, and they tore through them like it was nothing. I was the only one who made it out alive.”

His eyes met Marcus’s just long enough to say what words couldn’t: there was no fight in him, not when it came to the Zyglak. He then gestured to a narrow tunnel to their right within a jagged outcropping of stone.

“This way. There’s a safe zone on the other side we can retreat to for now. It’s close.”

Without another word, Lesovikk turned and darted into the narrow tunnel entrance.

Marcus hesitated, his fists clenched. He didn’t want to go back into yet another dark tunnel, not when they were finally so close to the surface now. But then, the Zyglak let out another ear-ripping screech as Sushi floated nervously at his side, trembling.

“You can’t fend them off again?” Marcus asked politely.

“It does takes a lot out of me,” Sushi sighed warily. “I am so tired alreadies…”

“Hey, it’s okay, don’t push yourself. Let’s go.”

He cast one last glance toward the approaching shapes, then followed Lesovikk into the darkness with Sushi close behind.

They swam fast into the tunnel’s throat, shadows pressing close on all sides. The moment the three of them were past the entrance, Lesovikk turned and raised his Cordak blaster.

“Wait, what are you—” Marcus started.

His question was answered before he could finish, as with a deafening series of underwater detonations, Lesovikk fired his Cordak blaster at the ceiling behind them. The mouth of the tunnel collapsed in a sudden avalanche of stone and silt, crushing a few of the closest Zyglak beneath and sealing them off from the rest.

Silence followed, save for the soft drifting of disturbed sediment.

Sushi swam beside Marcus, sticking close, her body low and tense. Behind them, the sea trembled again with the muffled cries of those surviving Zyglak left unsated.

And ahead, only more darkness.

They swam deeper into the narrow passage. Dim bioluminescent growths clung to the walls here and there, offering little more than an ambient shimmer to guide them as Marcus kept one hand trailing lightly along the rocky tunnel wall.

The tunnel was cold and narrow, winding like a burrow carved by something ancient. Their swim was silent at first, each of them too lost in thought or too winded by fear to speak. The only sounds were the rhythmic movements of water and the occasional rising air bubble from below.

Sushi floated closer to Lesovikk, eyes wide and glowing softly. 

“Friend Lesovikk,” she said gently, her voice small in the dim light, “thoses two little things you were with before... where is them?”

“What?” Lesovikk asked, unsure of what she was referring to. 

“You know, a… little red friend, and a little blue friend?” Sushi pressed curiously. “I remembers seeing you with them once before I think, but they are not so with you now. How comes?

Lesovikk kept swimming forward, slower now. Then he stopped.

How did this unfamiliar creature know about Sarda and Idris?

Marcus paused too, casting a glance back, watching Lesovikk’s body stiffen.

“They are… dead,” the Toa said finally, voice hollow. “Just like everyone else I ever dared care about.”

“Oh no…” Sushi gasped lightly, her paws drawn to her mouth. “What did happeneds, friend Lesovikk?”

For a long moment, Lesovikk didn’t speak. The water seemed to press tighter around them, as if the pressure of memory itself filled the space. Finally, he spoke in a low, shaken tone.

“There is something that dwells in the Black Waters. The Matoran call it… the Ancient Sea Behemoth. I saw it only once.” His fingers flexed over the Cordak blaster. “It was a giant sea monster with fiery orange scales like magma rock, four razor sharp black limbs, and cold, blue, glowing eyes that could—”

His gaze fell to Sushi, who floated just behind him now, her tail swishing from side to side. Her scaly orange body shimmered slightly under the bioluminescent light, with a soft blue glow from her large eyes and a shiny black sheen along her four limbs…

A chill of suspicion coiled in his gut, abruptly ending his train of thought.

“That sounds so scary!” Sushi gave a little shiver, unaware of Lesovikk’s lingering glare. “I does hopes we don’t ever say hellos to it.”

Lesovikk’s jaw tightened as he nodded once. 

“...So do I.”

From then on, he kept her in his peripheral vision with his finger always hovering over the trigger of his Cordak blaster, the gleam of which caught Marcus’s attention toward the familiar weapon.

“That gun of yours,” Marcus said as he noticed it was already fully loaded, gesturing at the blaster, “I’ve seen something like it before, some of the Toa I met carried weapons just like that. Doesn’t it run out?”

Lesovikk glanced down for a moment at the six-barreled weapon mounted to his forearm. “Not exactly. Cordak blasters aren’t like other launchers. They use a type of sea sponge native to the Pit.”

Marcus arched a brow. “A sea sponge?”

“They’re alive,” Lesovikk explained, “encased inside the barrels. They grow expanding buds that harden after just a few seconds. Then, the mechanism can launch them. The impact triggers an explosive reaction, and one sponge can keep producing rounds for years as long as it stays healthy.”

Marcus let out an impressed hum. “Bio-organic ammo. That's… clever. Kinda weird, but clever.”

“Everything down here has had to adapt, including weapons,” Lesovikk said with a shrug, and his eyes flicked down toward Marcus’s hands. “But you… you don’t seem to have anything to protect yourself. No launcher, no tools…”

“I had a sword made from the Golden Armor,” replied Marcus. “It used to respond to my thoughts, and it could even shapeshift into any weapon I imagined. But now… I don’t know. It’s like the armor’s gone dormant or something, same with all my Kraata powers. Except for Healing, thankfully.”

He furrowed his brow, then held out his hand, focusing. In his mind, he visualized the sword: its radiant edge, the weight of it in his grip, the neon green light it once cast. He clenched his fist and willed it into being.

Nothing happened. He let his hand fall with a sigh. 

“But when I lost Delta… maybe I lost my powers, too.”

“You really have nothing?” Lesovikk asked as he stopped swimming, turning to face him fully now. 

“Nope, just what’s in here.” He tapped the side of his mask. “And even that’s still a mystery.”

Lesovikk studied him for a moment longer, then turned back down the tunnel.

‘Golden armor? Kraata powers?’ he thought. ‘Just what kind of Toa are you, Marcus?’  

The tunnel sloped gently upward, and Marcus’s ears twitched at the sound of a constant low rumble that seemed to vibrate through the stone itself.

“Do you hear that?” Marcus asked, glancing toward Sushi. The fish-like creature bobbed in the water beside him, turning toward the noise with a curious chirp.

Lesovikk nodded. “We’re almost there.”

The tunnel opened at the edge of a wide open cavern as the old Toa led Marcus and Sushi to the water’s surface. A soft mist clung to the air as Marcus retracted his Kanohi mask and blinked twice, finally stepping forward onto solid land.

Before him lay a vast, circular sinkhole carved into the ocean floor. In its center rose a small, rocky island surrounded by calm, glassy water. But beyond that, the perimeter of the sinkhole was alive with motion. A great, encircling waterfall crashed down from the ocean above, like a crown of silver veils surrounding the island in endless rain.

“Come,” Lesovikk called over his shoulder as he swam toward the small island. “It’s safe.”

Marcus followed, pushing himself through the strangely still water, with Sushi gliding just above the surface. 

“Can you breathe above the water?” Marcus asked her.

“Yis,” Sushi replied with an exaggerated nod. “Sushi cans breathe in anyplace, no worry.”

When they reached the shore, Lesovikk climbed onto the rocky bank and immediately sat down.

“We stay here until morning,” he said plainly as the other two followed him onto the shore.

Marcus frowned. “Morning?! You want to stop now?”

“Yes,” the Toa replied, without so much as looking at him.

“We’re wasting valuable time here!” Marcus sighed impatiently as he began to pace. “You said it yourself, my friends could be fighting for their lives right now! Every second I’m not back there—”

“—is a second you’re pushing yourself closer to collapse,” Lesovikk cut in firmly. “You won’t be able to save anyone , much less yourself, if you’re too sleep-deprived to think straight. You could end up getting them all killed instead.”

Marcus opened his mouth, but Lesovikk raised a hand with finality.

“This isn’t up for debate,” he said. “I don’t care how you feel about me, hate me if you want. But you need rest if you wish to be in any condition to fight tomorrow.”

Sushi let out a quiet, mournful trill as Marcus looked up at the open sky at the top of the sinkhole. With a scowl, he focused his energy into the soles of his feet, planning to use his plasma powers to propel himself out of this place and back to the mainland where he was needed. But he only faint a weak sputter of electricity surge before fading away completely, as if his body was agreeing with Lesovikk that, as he was now, he didn’t have the strength to keep pushing himself any further. Frustration fought with reason inside him, and for a long moment, he said nothing. 

Deep down, he knew Lesovikk was right. After all, he’d just told Sushi not to push herself, so he should heed his own advice. And aside from falling unconscious, twice, he hasn’t slept at all since his arrival to this alien world. So with a reluctant grumble, he sat down on the rocky slab beneath him, eventually lying down on his back as the dull rumble of the sinkhole’s waterfall encircled them like a lullaby.

“Just until morning…” Marcus muttered as Sushi circled around before laying next to him like a loyal pet. 

“Just until morning,” Lesovikk agreed passively, keeping a narrow eye on their orange companion for as long as he could until sleep overtook him.

Marcus stared up at the stars as he lay back on the smooth stone, his armor still damp with saltwater. They were brighter here than he’d ever seen them, scattered across the black sky in constellations unlike any he’d recognize. He’d never take this sight, life above the water, air in his lungs, for granted ever again. With Sushi’s life-saving air bubble no longer filling his lungs, his throat was finally free and clear for the first time in hours, and he was free to breathe on his own once more. 

His lids felt heavier by the second as he looked to her, curled up adorably at his side like some newly-adopted puppy. With a weak smile, he placed an arm over his new friend, feeling her slick and squishy orange scales under his black armored glove. As he could’ve guessed, she smelled strongly of fish, but it wasn’t an unpleasant odor to him in the slightest. If anything, it actually helped lull him further into a sense of comfort as a yawn escaped his chest and his lids finally shut fully.

“Good night… Sushi…” he mumbled. He didn’t want to sleep, but sleep still came for him all the same.

* * *

Marcus pushed aside a branch as he stepped through a tranquil forest clearing. His armor was gone, and as he glanced down he found that he was as nude as Adam in the Garden of Eden. The sound of sweet songbirds could be heard vividly in his ears as sunlight shimmered with soft light filtering through high branches, casting gentle gold across the rainbow of flowers beneath his feet. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple petals blanketed the ground in a radiant rainbow alongside a narrow creek that wove through the scene, its clear and glittering water bubbling softly along like a lullaby.

His eyes caught a glance of a large red and white bird-like creature, knowing exactly who it was before his eyes could even adjust. Latias levitated at the edge of the water, her back to him. She turned to him slowly, her gaze meeting his, and smiled in that certain way that made his heart melt.

Neither of them spoke. They didn’t need words to understand one another’s hearts. 

He walked toward her with a sense of longing, the colors of the forest seemingly becoming even more vibrant as the distance closed between them. Latias flew to him as well, her small clawed hand rising to meet his.

They leaned in, her nose pressing his cheek as their lips were a breath apart.

But then… Latias suddenly went limp, falling backwards onto the earth.

Marcus could only watch helplessly as she hit the ground, frozen in place like he was trapped in solid ice. The vibrant gold in her open eyes was now pale and lifeless.

“No, no, no,” he breathed harshly as rain began to fall, salty on his lips like tears. “Latias!”

All around him, the flowers wilted, and the creek quickly dried to a cracked path of dead stone.

From the grassy floor, black crystals erupted with a sharp, violent hiss. It spread like frost on glass, consuming everything in angular corruption. The sky darkened and the air became cold as the rain shifted into snow.

A shape appeared before him, stepping over Latias’s lifeless body. A familiar armored figure cloaked in total darkness, standing face to face with Marcus, a familiar sword clutched in his hand.

Marcus’s golden sword.

The nightmare raised it high above him like an executioner, and then brought it down on Marcus until—

“AAH!”

Marcus stood up in a jolt. Without thinking, he quickly held his hand out and his golden sword instantly materialized like liquid from his palm before taking its shimmering, solid form. But it was only then that he realized that his nightmare was just that—a nightmare. He looked at his sword again, relieved to finally have it back under his command before retracting it back into his hand once more. He looked down at his palm, only now considering where it could’ve gone, but he was still too exhausted and anxious at the moment to question that right now. 

He glanced to his side, expecting to see Sushi curled nearby, but… she wasn’t there.

His brow lowered in worry, turning in a slow circle to scan the dark shoreline. He saw Lesovikk as he slept beside a large rock, but still no sign of Sushi.

Then Marcus heard a kind of warbling tone, like a corrupted radio signal or a voice trying to speak through static. It pulsed softly, rising and falling in a strange, otherworldly pattern.

Brushing sand from his armor, he glanced back at Lesovikk before he crept toward the source of the sound.

The noise led him up a short hill, through the tall grass and between boulders until he came down the hill to the farthest side of the island. There, at the water’s edge, Sushi sat.

She was facing the water, her fishlike tail gently swaying over the damp sand. Her dorsal fins glowed faintly yellow, casting ripples of light that flickered in perfect time with the strange signal. Marcus stopped, secretly watching her from a distance.

A complex sequence of chirps, beeps, and resonant tones were spilling out of her open mouth, echoing faintly into the sky. It wasn’t speech—at least, not in any language Marcus understood. It was clearly a song of some kind, but it was without rhythm in a way that felt both ancient and futuristic at the same time. 

Marcus crept closer while stepping carefully and quietly over the stones, his footsteps muffled by the sand. The strange sounds coming from Sushi filled the air like music from another world: alien and beautiful, full of layered textures and tones he couldn’t quite decipher.

There was something sacred about the way she sat by the water, bathed in starlight, her glowing fins flickering with each note. She looked less like a creature of the ocean floor, and more like an alien from a faraway galaxy.

As he came closer, he slowed his steps, finally settling down beside her without a word.

He didn’t know if Sushi had noticed him or not, but either way, Sushi didn’t react to his presence. She just kept singing.

Marcus watched her, then looked up to the sky. He didn’t know what the significance of this song was to her, but to him, it sounded… sad. Longing. Like a message drifting into the void, hoping something out there might still be listening.

He reached out gently and laid a hand on her back.

Her scales were cool to the touch, smooth but firm, like glass forged by ocean pressure. She didn’t flinch. She leaned slightly into his hand.

When the last note of her strange, mournful call faded, the light in her fins dimmed to a soft, pulsing glow. They sat together in silence for a moment, staring up at the sky.

“…Did I wake you?” she asked in a low whisper, as if emerging from a trance.

Marcus shook his head slightly. “No, not at all. I just had trouble sleeping.”

Sushi blinked once, slowly. She didn’t wear her usual smile. “...So did Sushi.”

There was a pause.

“Did had bad dream,” she murmured. “I were roaring loud. I crushes metal with mouth, feels crunchy like crab shell. Crunch. Crunch. Only nothings left behind.”

Marcus turned to look at her, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Her eyes were fixed on the stars.

“Were angery,” she whispered. “And… hungry. And then quiet, and alones, and dark. No friend Marcus, no friend Lesovvik. No… friends…”

Her voice cracked slightly with those words, and Marcus’s heart ached for her. 

He didn’t say anything. He just sat with her, petting her gently as the waves lapped against the shore.

Whatever Sushi was, she was more than just a cute little fish creature. She had a past, just like Lesovikk. Just like himself.

But he didn’t pull away. 

Sushi said nothing more. The glow in her fins faded as her gaze slowly drifted downward. Then, without a word, she turned toward Marcus and crawled onto his lap, her long tail trailing behind her like a gentle current. He stiffened for a moment as she nestled herself against him, curling slightly to fit on his thighs.

She pressed her forehead against his chest, her body warm and soft beneath the sleek smoothness of her scales. She let out a quiet, muffled sigh through her gills, a small tremor of comfort. He could feel her chest rise and fall.

Marcus hesitated, unsure at first, but then slowly lay down on his back as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Marcus… friend… forevers…”

Her breathing slowed, limbs slackened, and the faintest smile grew on her face as she fell back asleep.

He thought back to what she asked of him before.

“If I ever change, if I stop being Sushi… Will you stop me?”

He still didn’t understand what she had meant by such a question, but he vowed that he would be her friend forever, and he would do everything in his power to protect her. Even if that meant protecting her from herself, whatever that entailed. Marcus stared up at the stars once more, heart still heavy with the memory of his dream. The lingering afterimage of the nightmare clung to him like a shadow, wrapping around the edges of his thoughts. 

But here… in the refuge of the island, with Sushi’s breath against his chest and her warmth pressed close… the fear began to fade.

He closed his eyes again as the sounds of the waves, the slow rhythm of her chest, and the stars above all slowly pulled him back into much-needed sleep.

And the night went quiet.