Bionicle Crossroads S2 pt. 7

(The Prodigal lurches forward arching his back as it flickers in and out of reality)

(it collapses to the ground, the spike that the collector needs to survive ripped from it’s back)

Karzahni:”Oh? did you think it would be that easy? that I would lie down and die after a PATHETIC attack like that?”

Karzahni:”Well too bad! I win! I NEVER LOSE!”

Karzahni:”Look at you! you thought you would get a happy ending? that you slew the beast and ride into the sunset? sorry that’s not how life works!”

Karzahni:”Come at me with whatever you got you can’t beat me! even if you could kill me I’ll just keep coming back!”

Karzahni:”Cause’ I did it! I killed the Prodigal! and after I drain you of your energy this world will wake to a new god!”

(Bisola throws the spear through the air straight and true where it plunges itself into and through Karzahni’s chest)

Karzahni:”GRRkk! what the? that hurt…why did that hurt? I shouldn’t be feeling this! the tablet…where’s the tablet? no NO! how is that possible!?”

Karzahni:”That clever rat…only he knew that the Mantle gave me my powers, it must have (grunt) fallen loose when I (gasp) teleported…my powers…gone…my master plan…”

Bisola:”Do you ever shut up!?”

(Karzahni lets loose a howl as the blade stabs him through the chest)

Karzahni:”…”

Bisola:”What’s the matter? got nothing to say this time? no jokes?”

Karzahni:”You’ve made a grave mistake.”

Bisola:”Huh?”

Karzahni:”You have no clue whats coming.”

Karzahni:”Something horrid, something far far worse than me, you would be wise to leave here.”

Bisola:”What is coming? why do I need to leave this place?”

Karzahni:”You have no idea what is coming, first it starts with the favored disciple The Voice calling out to it’s master, then the end...prepare yourself.”

Karzahni:”As for me...I’m already dead, I may have lost...”

Karzahni:”and when HE comes…no one will win.”

(Karzahni tips backwards off of the edge of the cliff before Bisola can catch him)

(Bisola was speechless, what had he meant before his death? who was coming? was the worst yet to pass or was it just beginning)

later

Bisola:”Prodigal who is The Voice?”

Prodigal:”Child…I…I’m sorry I cannot tell you what that means, to know his name to even speak it aloud would put you in grave danger.”

Prodigal:”But I can impart one final gift, my powers…without me there to keep the balance in check the world has begun to crumble around us and it will eventually be destroyed…unless…”

Prodigal:”You become the new Prodigal you take my place to keep this world safe on your own terms.”

Prodigal:”Karzahni said you lied about so many things.”

Prodigal:”I did…and while you were playing his games I received a vision of truth, one where I saw myself being used as a puppet to make more puppets for a cosmic evil.”

Prodigal:”I’ve had time to consider the consequences of this, you may lose yourself, become like me.”

Prodigal:”Are you willing to do this?”

Bisola:”Yes, yes I am I will carry this power for good, even I am no longer Bisola, I promise.”

Prodigal:”Thank…you…”

Nepharus:”How could I forget about my quest?! this is what I dedicated my life to and I forgot.”

Nepharus:”My friends…I will avenge you no matter the cost, I have almost all of the supplies I need for the ritual.”

Nepharus:”Sylus…I dearly hope you can forgive me for what I’m about to do.”

Nepharus:“maybe I can ask him to join me in the ritual if I could explain why I’m doing it…no no it’s far too late for that now.”

Nepharus:”Better to just get it over with then to dwell on it to lo-”

(Nepharus feels something against his foot half buried in the dirt, not to long ago this place had been a barren waste now life returned to it as did everything else)

Nepharus:”Huh? a head? why do I feel so…compelled towards it?”

Nepharus:”Familiar…but why is this random skull so-”

Conjurer:”Ri-ridiculous! why did-did I think of expending the last of my (*cough*) energy for some w-wasteland? what’s so special about this place anyways?”

Nepharus:”Hello! are you new here? so am I.”

Conjurer:”A-a Makuta? here? as if this couldn’t get any more strange…”

Nepharus:”There’s nothing strange about it at all, this is the Cryptex, a world of wonders and wishes…”

Nepharus:”At least I thought so…turns out you need a body to get around and well, look at me, (sigh) I wish I had a body.”

Conjuror:”Y-you need a new b-body?”

Nepharus:”Well since you asked, I do now!”

Conjuror:”Wait what are you doing? get away from me! no! NO!”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(Nepharus drops the skull where it shatters on impact, shaken from his vision of the past where he forced that limbless magician’s soul out and took his body as his own, watching the dying spirit of Conjuror fade into nothingness)

Nepharus:”This isn’t my body? but I’ve been like this as long as can remember, then how did I get this body?”

(Nepharus clutches his head as a painful recollection of memories not his own rush back; dark hunter, deal with Karzahni, defiance, limbs severed, desperation, dying, lab rat, teleport, here, Makuta, death, death, death…)

Nepharus:”What? these memories…they don’t- my head.”

Nepharus:”Can-’t stay here…need to…to get away!”

Nepharus:”Away from here!”

Nepharus:”I must not be delayed any longer!”

Nepharus:”I’m getting closer, I can feel it.”

Nepharus:”Just a little further into the Dark Hunter base then I can-”

(Nepharus trips over seemingly nothing into another memory)

Nepharus:”Uhhhnnnff! curse these decrepit limbs! I should have possessed a rahi instead, but no matter, no matter…”

Nepharus:”Once this body is in better shape it will suit my needs perfectly.”

Nepharus:”Ah, perfect timing as always, and just the right piece too.”

Nepharus:”C’mon get over here, my kind didn’t go extinct for nothing…let’s see.”

Nepharus:”Whoever this belonged to is contributing to a grand cause whomever they are alive or deceased.”

Nepharus:”Now to see if it works…”

Nepharus:”And in working order as well , my power is flowing through it nicely.”

Nepharus:”May it aid me in my quest and crush all who would stand in the way of that purpose.”

Nepharus:”Oh? what’s this we have here? a blade?”

Nepharus:”Yes…yes I grow stronger by the-

Nepharus:”-Day has been rough, first i’m losing track of my goal then I’m tripping over things. How can this get any worse?”

(Nepharus see’s the head sitting before him again staring right through him)

Nepharus:”Gah! this thing again! why does this keep-”

Nepharus:”-Happening to me? everyone I’ve spoken to calls me a magician, and when I show them my miracles they call me a vile sorcerer! the nerve of some people.”

Nepharus:”It would seem that the people around here distrust magic, I should be more careful of who I show my powers to.”

Nepharus:”I can’t keep silencing people or otherwise I might attract-

???:”You have some nerve crawling back to us after all this time.”

Nepharus:”The wrong crowd…oh no what now?”

The Shadowed One:”You left us to join that crazy ruler in that rift and now it looks like you couldn’t live with your own incompetence, so you came back to me.”

Nepharus:”Huh? I’m sorry have we met? I think you may be mistaking me for som-

The Shadowed One:”The only mistake was you showing your unwelcome face here again, you have exactly ten seconds to scram before I vaporized what’s left of you…ten!”

Nepharus:”Please! I don’t understand I only need a place to stay!”

The Shadowed One:”Five!”

(On instinct Nepharus raises his new arm and is surprised when bolts of lightning shoot out from his fingertips at the ground in front of him, the ground begins to glow faintly before a shape takes form)

The Shadowed One:”What the…how?”

Nepharus:”Great spirit preserve us…”

(On the ground between them the body of Ancient, a dark hunter from long ago who was vaporized by The Shadowed One in order to keep a secret lay on the ground as if he had never died, slowly he began to stir)

Ancient:”Boss? what happened? the viruses…what happened to those makuta viruses we found?”

Ancient:”I remember you showed me those bio-weapons that The Brotherhood hid in some old factory then I blacked out, were we ambushed? a trap?”

The Shadowed One:”Ancient? but I…nevermind everything was fine you were severely wounded and had to be taken into medical care.”

Ancient:”But I don’t understand, where are we now? are we still on Xia? did we win the war?”

The Shadowed One:”That’s all been handled…we won, now I need to have a little ‘talk’ to our ‘friend’ over there.”

Nepharus:”Impossible, this power…it is not mine.”

The Shadowed One:”Your not Conjurer are you? he never had real magic, and he sure as karzahni couldn’t bring people, long dead dark hunters no less back from the dead, who are you?”

Nepharus:”I am…Nepharus last of my kind, and I am on a crusade to avenge my…(Wait it’s probaby not a good idea to be telling these people what i am or what my goal is)…people, who died from the tyranny of the Makuta.”

Ancient:”Is that Conjurer? get off our land you turncoat traitor!”

The Shadowed One:”Stand down, this isn’t Conjurer, you owe this one, now straight to the point, we’re understaffed and we could use a extra hand, you in?”

Nepharus:”…And why should I do that?”

The Shadowed One:”Because we’ll toss you back out into the wastes if you don’t, join us and you’ll find riches beyond imagining and maybe you’ll find the solution to your little quest, do we have a deal?”

Nepharus:”Thought you could run huh?”

Nepharus:”You gave me a lot of trouble coming out this far but it’s time I claim the bounty on your head Bisola!”

Nepharus:”Don’t worry… it will only take a…

…second.”

Nepharus:”You’ve got nowhere else to go, your toa friend is dead and soon I’ll be dragging your corpse back to the contact for my reward.”

Bisola:”I told you already I didn’t do it! your ‘contact’ framed all those murders on me!”

Nepharus:”I understand…but the money comes first out here no exceptions.”

Bisola:”Is that so? then why did you kill all those other people before? they weren’t part of the bounty! how can you be so cruel?!”

Nepharus:”Little one there’s a fine line between cruelty and necessary violence, you don’t understand either it seems.”

Nepharus:”So any last words before I send you to the…wherever it is you go when you die?”

Nepharus:”No? then let it be known that while I don’t condone using this staff as a weapon I-

(A beam of light strikes Nepharus in the head, his vision warps and flashes, his mind feels as if it is torn asunder and his essence burns until it is but a tiny flame)

(The makuta passes out, pain overwhelming him as his vision fades to black…)

Bisola:”It…it worked…I don’t know what it did but It worked.”

Bisola:”Now what do I do with the body? dump it with the rest? nah that would be to obvious how about I…”

Nepharus:”Uhhhhh my head it feels like it got trampled on by a herd of kikanalo.”

Bisola:”(No no no no no on no!! his still alive?)”

Nepharus:”Who are you? I’m sorry I seem to be have trouble remembering my own name or what I was doing.”

Bisola:(Ok I can exploit this) “um you…fell a long ways up from some cliff and hit your head like…really really hard and I found you and brought here.”

Nepharus:”Thank you kind stranger, but it would be rude not to ask the name of my savior?”

Bisola:”Hmmm, how about…Nepharus? Mr. Neph for short.”

Nepharus:”For some reason…I love it! lets go with that!”

Bisola:”My name is Bisola by the way, and i have a problem.”

Nepharus:”Oh no what’s wrong?”

Bisola:”You see I shouldn’t be telling you this but…I killed a bunch of people and someone called the Dark Hunters to kill me…so I want you to find this guy and do the same to him.”

Nepharus:”Well ok, I guess so where do we start?”

Nepharus:”I…remember everything…”

Nepharus:”Bisola…she tricked me, told me that crazy story about a ritual to summon something called a Prodigal…”

Nepharus:”And when I read up about the ritual and what it does I used this mask, the Mask of Purification…and wiped her memory just like she did to me.”

Nepharus:”I went on some crazy quest around the world, gathering dangerous artifacts for some voodoo ritual…did I really do all this?”

Nepharus:”No matter I’ll just go back and-”

Sylus:”NEPHARUS!”

Sylus:”Stop right there! do not teleport with that skull!”

Nepharus:”I remember you…you ruined so may timelines to get here, but that’s hardly a reason to hate you though…you’ve been a good friend to me that I know.”

Sylus:”Friends don’t wreck friends workspaces! do you know how much trouble your going to be in? did you assault The Shadowed One?! he’s going to kill you!”

Nepharus:”I’m sorry but I have to do this, forgive me…”

Sylus:”Nepharus wait!”

Sylus:”No…”

Tahu:”He’s vanished but he’s still here, just moving very fast.”

Tahu:”Your makuta friend is stronger than looks.”

Ancient:”Yeah (cough) tell me about it! he barged right in and beat the lights out of us! then he stole the boss’s prized skull trophy!”

Ancient:”Why he’d want some dusty old skull is beyond me but it’s his head the boss is gonna want.”

Sylus:”Any idea where he might have gone?”

Ancient:”He mentioned going to a old chapel on the outskirts of the Hollow-Heart steppes we should head there.”

Ancient:”But that’s impossible! there are no chapels out there just a dilapidated dome that was abandoned centuries ago.”

Sylus:”A perfect unassuming spot for a ritual.”

Ancient:”We should see if the boss is still able to stand up, he’s still alive don’t worry about it.”

Sylus:”Shadowed One.”

The Shadowed One:”Get your hands off of me, as long as I can crush the neck of that traitor under my foot I’ll be fine.”

Sylus:”Do you know why he stole that skull? what’s so special about that thing anyways?”

The Shadowed One:”It was a trophy taken from a strange creature that wandered in and attacked us, had a bunch of strange tech all over it, it’s entire body was mostly cybernetic but that skull was all that was left when we were done with it.”

Sylus:”Anything else happening lately?”

The Shadowed One:”Am I you interrogation subject? I don’t know!”

The Shadowed One:”Although Ancient did informed me about a whispering mask appearing inside of a ravine one day, and another being that a yellow and blue character, our traitor…recently purchased a severed hand of some kind from a black market dealership.”

Sylus:”Come to think of it…he was saying somethings about a ritual before I came in, and something about being tricked…did he lose his memory?”

The Shadowed One:”Likely story if we knew why he would wipe his own memory.”

The Shadowed One:”Anyhow, Ancient has been reporting to me about your progress and I am pleased with your efforts, you are doing very well despite your…very well apparent shortcomings.”

The Shadowed One:”As a token for your efforts you may have your trinket back, unlike most of your equipment which we sold.”

Sylus:”You sold my stuff?! masks too?”

The Shadowed One:”Masks are a valuable item in the market, you’ll be glad to know that most of your equipment was bought with the money we got from your stuff.”

Sylus:”I don’t believe this, but at least I got this back…”

The Shadowed One:”Don’t take my sudden generosity as me playing favorites, you still have to pay for crashing my ship!”

Sylus:”So Nepharus…how do we reach him? he’s probably miles away by now it’ll be impossible to catch him now!”

Tahu:”…And the matoran universe was once ruled by Makuta Teridax was that impossible?”

Tahu:”Come, Ancient and Izrahm have already prepared a vehicle to pursue Nepharus to his lair let’s not waste any more time when this world hangs in the balance.”

<to be continued