Bionicle G2: New Legends, New Heroes

Chapter 30: Maze of Confusion

For a long time, Waya saw only ice. Even a shade or an accompanying warmth couldn't melt its bitterness. The ice also muffled every sound from outside, including his brother's strained grunts from failing to break free, the undoubted Earth Guardian's rumbling body, its master's–and his uncle's–words, and more. Greater than them all was Waya's heart beating against the collapse of the vaults, where he had been captured. That left him in the darkness of dreamless sleep.

When Waya came to, it and everything else was gone. Well, except for his brother, who was melted out like himself and on a stone floor next to him. "Mizu!" Waya said. He rushed to his brother's side and shook the sleeping Mizu. "Mizu! Mizu, wake up!"

"Ugh, Waya, what...?" Mizu said, then he shot up like a rocket. His eyes lit up in the shade which both he and Waya sat in. "The fragment! The vaults! By the ocean, Waya, what...!"

Waya's heart stopped. Memories of everything flooded back to him and flashed in his mind Everyone else too. The Guardians, Uram, even the Toa's shadowy figures, and...

Likki.

Likki, his and Mizu's partner-in-crime. Their closest friend out of everyone in Kivoda City. She could have been closer if Mizu ever married her. As a joke, Waya said such when they all crawled through the vents to look at a sleeping Toa of Shadows.

This... this was no joke. Likki betrayed them. She threatened them at the point of an electrical rod.

"Mizu, do you remember...?" Waya began, but Mizu already stood up, and Waya realized why.

Around the brothers were high stone walls too smooth and flat to be part of some cavern. The lines made the walls look like giant squares stacked upon one another to be twice as tall as some buildings in the Mask Maker's City. More squares formed even the floor, and some jutted out to form equally huge cubes, and the rest formed a long corridor. The only light from the roof far above revealed Mizu's annoyance. "C'mon, we gotta figure out where we are."

Waya hesitated to follow Mizu's brisk pace down the long corridor. When he did, he hesitated to speak for a moment. "Mizu, maybe we should sit and wait for a moment first."

"Wait? The sooner we're out of here, Waya, the better."

"I know, but–" Waya stopped himself and groaned at his walking brother. "Mizu, walking off like this isn't going to help. We need a plan. I know because of Likki–"

"Don't!" Mizu's voice was so harsh it scared Waya, even when his big brother faced him and spoke normally. "I don't want to hear that name again. Now, come on!"

Waya avoided Mizu's attempt to grab his wrist. "Mizu, listen to yourself! You're too angry to think straight! That attitude is just going to get us into more trouble if we're still alive."

"Ugh, Waya, the only other person I trusted stabbed us in the back! Not only that, she sided with Uram of all people! Of course, I'd be angry! Why, by all the elements, aren't you?"

"I am angry, but Likki is my friend too! You have to at least ask think why–"

"Was, Waya. She was before she betrayed us! I don't want to know why, and I don't care!"

If Waya had anything else to say, he stopped when his eyes caught a large, square-shaped shadow looming over his brother. "Uh, Mizu..."

"You think she needs a reason for helping that two-timing Makuta spawn? Even if she did, do you think that excuses what she did? To us? To our home?"

Waya's eyes darted to the shadow hanging over them both. "No, but Mizu, you should–"

"Oh, no, no, no! By Makuta's black heart, she betrayed Okoto! When I get my hands on her, I swear I will... I'll... Ugh, you aren't even paying attention, Waya! What are looking–"