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(Also on AO3)

", "writing": " “Sorry, did you just say [i]the worst Toa[/i]?” Marcus asked the armored green figure who now stood before him. “Or [i]the first[/i]?”\n Lesovikk lowered his twin-bladed sword to rest gently against the seabed, its long edge gleaming faintly in the filtered moonlight from above.\n “I led the first Toa [i]team,”[/i] he said at last. “Over ninety-thousand years ago. But no… I am not the first Toa. Just the first to fail.”\n Marcus blinked, trying to process the number. “Ninety thousand years…? That’s—”\n “Ancient,” Lesovikk finished dryly. “And it feels longer.”\n Sushi tilted her head, slowly circling the green warrior with an accusatory glare. “Sushi remember now! Lesovikk very mean to poor hungry Sushi!”\n “Wait, yeah,” Marcus chimed in, “What’s your problem, attacking her the way you did?”\n “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?”\n [i]“She[/i] found [i]me,”[/i] Marcus said in offense through his gritted teeth. “Her name is Sushi.”\n “Suushilopibi Zuubawawibiquix Floonmaratox,” Sushi clarified.\n “Right. I was dying, and she saved my life.”\n 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. \n \"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.” \n He tossed him his Kanohi mask, which Marcus caught as it floated through the water before putting it back securely on his face.\n “So…” Sushi swam a little closer to Lesovikk, curious. “Lesovikk does [i]not[/i] hate Sushi? Can be [i]friend?[/i]”\n “I don’t care about you one way or the other.” Lesovikk shrugged, shaking his head as he turned away. “I don’t do [i]friends.[/i] Not anymore.”\n “Hey, wait a minute!” Marcus swam in pursuit after the green Toa. “Why are you even down here? [i]How[/i] are you down here?”\n “I could ask you the same, fellow Toa,” Lesovikk turned around. “Trying to escape from your past like me?”\n “I’m trying to [i]find[/i] 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.\n “Did the Brotherhood send you to find me?” \n “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—”\n “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.”\n “See?” Sushi whispered as she leaned in towards Marcus, [i]“like grumpy clam.”[/i]\n “What happened to you, Lesovikk?” Marcus asked, swimming after the Toa as Sushi followed closely behind. “You [i]are[/i] a Toa, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be, I dunno, part of some kind of team?”\n “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.”\n [i]“Another[/i] Toa?” Marcus asked.\n The green Toa sighed. He looked back to Marcus, then to Sushi.\n “Can you… give us a minute?” Lesovikk asked the orange four-legged alien floating in front of him. \n “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.\n “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.”\n “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 [i]thing,[/i] and I don’t appreciate you referring to her like some kind of—”\n “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.”\n “...Okay,” Marcus said warily. “I’m listening.”\n “You’ve heard of the three virtues, have you not?”\n “Yeah, uh… unity, duty, destiny. Right?”\n “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 [i]uses[/i] you. And when it’s fulfilled, it discards you like scrap.”\n Marcus was left speechless by this jaded old Toa’s lengthy lecture, remaining silent.\n “I did [i]everything[/i] 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 [i]second[/i] 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 [i]thousands[/i] of years of sleepless nights, reliving your worst nightmares, even when you’re awake?”\n Marcus shook his head solemnly before speaking up.\n “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.”\n “You truly think that I’m [i]meant[/i] to be here, at the bottom of the ocean?!” Lesovikk replied, his voice raised. “That [i]you’re[/i] meant to be here?!”\n “No… but also yes,” Marcus went on. “I think we [i]are[/i] 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.”\n Lesovikk was the one left speechless this time, seemingly in conflict with himself as he let out a frustrated grunt.\n “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.”\n 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.\n “That can be easy for you to say, [i]if[/i] you still have friends to save,” Lesovikk replied coldly. \n “What is [i]that[/i] supposed to mean?” asked Marcus defensively, clenching his fist.\n “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?”\n Marcus shuddered. The thought of everyone, Jaclyn, Cobalt, Takanuva, Latias, being dead… it was unthinkable.\n “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?[i]”[/i]\n 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.\n “I’ll keep fighting for them, just as I always have.”\n “...Then you’re a better Toa than I, Marcus,” Lesovikk said with an almost sarcastic chuckle. “Which, well, isn’t saying much.”\n “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?”\n Lesovikk stared at Marcus’s fist for a few moments before finally shaking his head.\n “I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll help you get back to the shore, at least.”\n “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!”\n But after a few seconds, there was still no sign of her.\n “...Sushi?”\n 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.\n [i]“Friend Marcus!”[/i]\n 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.\n “I did saw some starfishes over theres, they were so tasty! You want?” \n 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.\n “...As much as I’d like to, I don’t think I can stomach anything… alive.”\n “Hm…” Sushi looked around, pointing to some nearby coral. “Theses, then?”\n “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.”\n “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?”\n 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. \n “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…\n “Eggs!” Sushi chirped. “Sushi did made, give for free!”\n Marcus suddenly felt his stomach lurch.\n “Ehh… Sushi, this is very nice and all, but I-I don’t think I can—”\n 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?”\n 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…\n 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. \n ‘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. \n Maybe it was simply because he’d been starving, but it was surprisingly… [i]delicious![/i] 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.\n “Absolutely [i]vile,”[/i] the elder Toa muttered under his breath.\n Marcus shrugged. “Sure it felt a little weird at first, but it was surprisingly good, actually. They pop in your mouth, and—”\n “That’s the thing,” Lesovikk interrupted. “You eat with your [i]mouth?”[/i]\n “Well… yeah. How else am I supposed to eat?”\n 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.\n “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.”\n Marcus frowned, irritation flaring. “Hey, my teeth aren’t [i]that[/i] 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 [i]won.”[/i]\n That name made Lesovikk pause. His posture shifted subtly in the water, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and interest.\n “Nektann…?” he repeated darkly. “I find it hard enough to believe a single Toa could beat him, but a [i]Matoran[/i] doing so would be quite impossible.”\n 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.”\n He wasn’t [i]technically[/i] 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. \n “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.”\n Marcus tilted his head. “What’s the Red Star?”\n “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.”\n Marcus was quiet for a moment. The thought of a cosmic recycling station for souls, reincarnation made [i]real…[/i] it was disturbingly clinical, but at the same time, it was strangely hopeful.\n Or it would be, except…\n “I… don’t think that will work anymore.”\n Lesovikk tilted his head, suspicious of the sudden shift in Marcus’s tone. \n “What do you mean, Marcus?” he asked, like he was already fearing the worst.\n “Mata Nui is… dead, Lesovikk,” Marcus said somberly. “I was there when it happened. I'm sorry.”\n A long silence followed as the Toa of Air was speechless, unblinking. \n “...So, it’s true…” he finally murmured.\n “You suspected?”\n “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.”\n Marcus nodded solemnly. “And now, the dead… stay dead.”\n Lesovikk floated there in the open water for a moment, silhouetted against the pale shimmer of distant light.\n “...Then that’s it. When I die, I will face the infinite nothing.”\n “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.”\n 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.”\n “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 [i]can[/i] be a leader again. I need you, Lesovikk.”\n Lesovikk looked at the outstretched hand for a long moment, silent.\n Then, slowly, he took it.\n The old Toa’s expression didn’t change, but his tone softened. \n “...Fine, I’ll come to the surface to help out in the fight. But only because your optimism is so sickeningly… infectious.”\n 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.\n Marcus smiled as he watched her, but the expression didn’t last.\n 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.\n “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.\n 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.\n 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.\n “We can take ‘em, can’t we?” Marcus turned urgently to Lesovikk. “Together, we can—”\n [i]“NO!”[/i] 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 [i]not[/i] fighting them. Not the Zyglak. It is suicide.”\n “But—”\n “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.”\n 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.\n “This way. There’s a safe zone on the other side we can retreat to for now. It’s close.”\n Without another word, Lesovikk turned and darted into the narrow tunnel entrance.\n 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.\n “You can’t fend them off again?” Marcus asked politely.\n “It does takes a lot out of me,” Sushi sighed warily. “I am so tired alreadies…”\n “Hey, it’s okay, don’t push yourself. Let’s go.”\n He cast one last glance toward the approaching shapes, then followed Lesovikk into the darkness with Sushi close behind.\n 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.\n “Wait, what are you—” Marcus started.\n 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.\n Silence followed, save for the soft drifting of disturbed sediment.\n 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.\n And ahead, only more darkness.\n 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.\n 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.\nSushi floated closer to Lesovikk, eyes wide and glowing softly. \n “Friend Lesovikk,” she said gently, her voice small in the dim light, “thoses two little things you were with before... where is them?”\n “What?” Lesovikk asked, unsure of what she was referring to. \n “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?\n Lesovikk kept swimming forward, slower now. Then he stopped.\n How did this unfamiliar creature know about Sarda and Idris?\n Marcus paused too, casting a glance back, watching Lesovikk’s body stiffen.\n “They are… dead,” the Toa said finally, voice hollow. “Just like everyone else I ever dared care about.”\n “Oh no…” Sushi gasped lightly, her paws drawn to her mouth. “What did happeneds, friend Lesovikk?”\n 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.\n “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—”\n 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…\n A chill of suspicion coiled in his gut, abruptly ending his train of thought.\n “That sounds so [i]scary!” [/i]Sushi gave a little shiver, unaware of Lesovikk’s lingering glare. “I does hopes we don’t ever say hellos to it.”\n Lesovikk’s jaw tightened as he nodded once. \n “...So do I.”\n 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.\n “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?”\n 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.”\n Marcus arched a brow. “A sea sponge?”\n “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.”\n Marcus let out an impressed hum. “Bio-organic ammo. That's… clever. Kinda weird, but clever.”\n “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 [i]anything[/i] to protect yourself. No launcher, no tools…”\n “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.”\n 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.\n Nothing happened. He let his hand fall with a sigh. \n “But when I lost Delta… maybe I lost my powers, too.”\n “You really have nothing?” Lesovikk asked as he stopped swimming, turning to face him fully now. \n “Nope, just what’s in here.” He tapped the side of his mask. “And even [i]that’s[/i] still a mystery.”\n Lesovikk studied him for a moment longer, then turned back down the tunnel.\n [i]‘Golden armor? Kraata powers?’ [/i]he thought. [i]‘Just what kind of Toa [/i][b][i]are[/i][/b][i] you, Marcus?’[/i] \n 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.\n “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.\n Lesovikk nodded. “We’re almost there.”\n 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.\n 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.\n “Come,” Lesovikk called over his shoulder as he swam toward the small island. “It’s safe.”\n Marcus followed, pushing himself through the strangely still water, with Sushi gliding just above the surface. \n “Can you breathe above the water?” Marcus asked her.\n “Yis,” Sushi replied with an exaggerated nod. “Sushi cans breathe in anyplace, no worry.”\n When they reached the shore, Lesovikk climbed onto the rocky bank and immediately sat down.\n “We stay here until morning,” he said plainly as the other two followed him onto the shore.\n Marcus frowned. [i]“Morning?![/i] You want to stop [i]now?”[/i]\n “Yes,” the Toa replied, without so much as looking at him.\n “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—”\n “—is a second you’re pushing yourself closer to collapse,” Lesovikk cut in firmly. “You won’t be able to save [i]anyone[/i], much less yourself, if you’re too sleep-deprived to think straight. You could end up getting them all killed instead.”\n Marcus opened his mouth, but Lesovikk raised a hand with finality.\n “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.”\n 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. \n 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, [i]twice,[/i] 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.\n “Just until morning…” Marcus muttered as Sushi circled around before laying next to him like a loyal pet. \n “Just until morning,” Lesovikk agreed passively, keeping a narrow eye on their orange companion for as long as he could until sleep overtook him.\n 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. \n 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.\n “Good night… Sushi…” he mumbled. He didn’t [i]want[/i] to sleep, but sleep still came for him all the same.\n * * *\n 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.\n 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.\n Neither of them spoke. They didn’t need words to understand one another’s hearts. \n 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.\n They leaned in, her nose pressing his cheek as their lips were a breath apart.\n But then… Latias suddenly went limp, falling backwards onto the earth.\n 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.\n “No, no, no,” he breathed harshly as rain began to fall, salty on his lips like tears. [i]“Latias!”[/i]\n All around him, the flowers wilted, and the creek quickly dried to a cracked path of dead stone.\n 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.\n 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.\n Marcus’s golden sword.\n The nightmare raised it high above him like an executioner, and then brought it down on Marcus until—\n [i]“AAH!”[/i]\n 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. \n He glanced to his side, expecting to see Sushi curled nearby, but… she wasn’t there.\n 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.\n 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.\n Brushing sand from his armor, he glanced back at Lesovikk before he crept toward the source of the sound.\n 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.\n 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.\n 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. \n 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.\n 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.\n As he came closer, he slowed his steps, finally settling down beside her without a word.\n 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.\n 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.\n He reached out gently and laid a hand on her back.\n 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.\n 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.\n “…Did I wake you?” she asked in a low whisper, as if emerging from a trance.\n Marcus shook his head slightly. “No, not at all. I just had trouble sleeping.”\n Sushi blinked once, slowly. She didn’t wear her usual smile. “...So did Sushi.”\n There was a pause.\n “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.”\n Marcus turned to look at her, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Her eyes were fixed on the stars.\n “Were angery,” she whispered. “And… hungry. And then quiet, and alones, and dark. No friend Marcus, no friend Lesovvik. No… friends…”\n Her voice cracked slightly with those words, and Marcus’s heart ached for her. \n He didn’t say anything. He just sat with her, petting her gently as the waves lapped against the shore.\n Whatever Sushi was, she was more than just a cute little fish creature. She had a past, just like Lesovikk. Just like himself.\n But he didn’t pull away. \n 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.\n 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.\n Marcus hesitated, unsure at first, but then slowly lay down on his back as he wrapped his arms around her.\n “Marcus… friend… forevers…”\n Her breathing slowed, limbs slackened, and the faintest smile grew on her face as she fell back asleep.\n He thought back to what she asked of him before.\n [i]“If I ever change, if I stop being Sushi… Will you stop me?”[/i]\n 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. \n 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.\n 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.\n\n And the night went quiet.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "            “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. I'm sorry.”
            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.
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