Bionic Fantasy Part 4

Time and Space (時間と宇宙 Jikan to Uchuu) is the fourth and final segment of Bionic Fantasy.

Characters

 * Toa Metru
 * Vakama
 * Nokama
 * Matau
 * Onewa
 * Whenua
 * Nuju
 * Toa Luminus
 * Cloud Strife
 * Tifa Lockheart
 * Squall Leonheart
 * Rinoa Heartilly
 * Tidus
 * Yuna
 * Aerith Gainsborough
 * Jikanmu
 * Scryptorek

Chapter 1
Jikanmu had just brought Squall and his group to the poisoned fields of Do-Mura, and they waited patiently for the other Toa Metru. So many putrid smells filled the humans' noses, and even made the Toa recoil in disust, except Jikanmu, for whatever reason. Hours passed, but come early evening, no one showed as of yet.

"Ugh, what a nauseating smell!" Rinoa complained as she plugged her nose tightly with her fingers.

"Well they're taking their sweet time, aren't they?" said Squall.

"Hmph, I'll say!" said Matau, "I can't wait to give that Jikanmu a timeout if he told us wrong!"

"I wouldn't bet on it." Jikanmu retorted, "I think I see them coming right now!"

Nuju and Matau spotted what at first appeared to them as a yellow spike protruding out of the ground from afar, and the Toa of Air says, "Hey, that's not one of our brothers or our sister now, is it? Are we bringing a Toa of Lightning into this, now?"

In actuality, that spike turned out to be Cloud, accompanied by Tifa, and to Matau and Nuju's great joy, Onewa and Whenua!

"Brothers, you're alive!" Matau said, happily walking over to greet Onewa with a fist bump.

"We were worried we'd lost you forever." Nuju says to Whenua.

"And you might have!" Onewa replied.

"If it weren't for our spiky new friend here!" Whenua finished, sticking his hand out to Cloud, whom Matau walks toward to introduce himself. "I'm Matau, and this is Nuju, who comes from the land of the ice and snow, where the midnight sun and the hot springs glow!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Cloud asked.

"What he's trying to say is, thanks for keeping our brothers safe." Nuju says, shaking Cloud's hand.

"Cloud?" Squall said to his spiky-haired friend, who he knows from a time they were summoned to fight for the survival of another unfamiliar world.

"Never imagined we'd meet again, like this." Cloud spoke to the agent of SeeD. "In any case, it's good to see you."

"Same here. I'd like you to meet Rinoa."

Cloud and Tifa introduced themselves to their comrade's love interest Rinoa, whom Squall assured they can trust as much as him.

"So how soon can we expect Nokama and Vakama to arrive?" Onewa urgently asked Jikanmu.

"They'll be here any second or minute now, Onewa. Have some patience!" Jikanmu told his fellow Toa.

The humans and Toa waited for Vakama and Nokama to show up, and when they finally do, Tidus and Yuna were following right behind them!

"Looks like Jikanmu's intel was right, sister!" Vakama spoke, as Tidus beamed with joy at the sight of Cloud and Squall, whom he had also met before under circumstances similar to those that brought him and everyone else here to Ankoku Nui, "And not only are our brothers alive and quite well, I see they've made some new friends of their own!"

"Fearless leader, Woo-hoo! I thought you were Vahkshi-bones!" Matau rejoiced, giving his best friend and sister both jovial high-fives, "But who're these strange-folks, might I ask?"

After catching up with Squall and Cloud, Tidus turned his attention to Matau, points to Yuna and says, "Oh, hi there! That girl over there is called Yuna, and I'm Tidus. Nice to meetcha!"

As Tidus shook Matau's hand and got to know him, Tifa re-introduced herself to Yuna, and then to Rinoa.

"You know, I think I also met you from somewhere." Yuna spoke to Rinoa, "Or is my memory a little foggy?"

"Actually I doubt this is the first time any of us have met each other. We were all strangers back then." said Squall.

"Some stranger than others, I presume? ...Not trying to be cynical here, mind you." Onewa replied.

The Toa Metru and their new human friends had much catching up to do before Jikanmu leads them to an abandoned learning institution safe from the vile stenches pervading Do-Mura. It was here he got down to business, explaining what remained to be done to secure Ankoku Nui's salvation to the Toa and humans sitting down on the chairs where the students would sit each class.

"Scryptorek is a dimension-hopping Makuta who somehow managed to make contact with the Shinra Corporation on the planet of Cloud and Tifa's origin, and then used whatever help and resources they afforded him to establish Dai-Shinra and conquer Ankoku Nui, reducing the planet to it's current post-apocalyptic state. Your sudden transportation to the planet is a side-effect of the timespace damaging experiments being conducted by Scryptorek and Dai-Shinra. Between our efforts, we've already exterminated seven of the eight Genjuu and dismantled all three Mako Reactors now. All that's left to do before we can go to Scryptorek's lair, somewhere in Do-Mura, is to find and eradicate the final Genjuu." The Toa of Time told the humans and Toa, "Any questions before we prepare?"

"Uh, yeah! Vakama, did you know about the Brotherhood of Makuta?" Onewa questioned his leader with a hint of sternness in his voice, "If yes, then why didn't you tell us?"

"Because provoking a full scale war with them is the last thing we need in our position, Onewa." Vakama answered, "Surely you must understand, my brothers and sister!"

Whenua and Nokama understood, at least, the gravity of Vakama's words and reason for keeping silent about the Brotherhood of Makuta; understood how much the Toa learned as whole after playing so foolishly into the collective mandibles of the Visorak horde.

"He's right, brothers." Nokama said, "Besides, Scryptorek is the more immediate threat to be dealt with."

"The safety of this planet comes before any effort to return us to our own homes." Cloud agrees.

"And why haven't we seen any Shinra workers in any of the reactors?" Tifa asked.

"Because they are all most likely at Scryptorek's lair, and have sent the Vahkshi to operate and maintain the reactors in their stead. In that case, they'd have wanted us to believe none of the planet's native lifeforms remained, aside from the Genjuu." answered Jikanmu. "The Genjuu of Do-Mura has made it's home in an underground Mausoleum just beyond the town."

"A town, you say?" Vakama asked "Then perhaps we can find a forge there to strengthen our weapons, or even make new ones with some Protosteel I obtained from one of the Mako Reactors!"

"Mmm, I'm not so sure we should do that..." Jikanmu said, shaking his head.

Do what, exactly, Rinoa thinks: use the forge or just make this Protosteel weapon or whatever? It didn't look like Jikanmu was willing to come up with a valid reason why, but instead of waste time trying to get an answer, Rinoa stood up and says, "With all due respect, everyone, we have to hurry and slay the Genjuu, or who knows what may happen if we don't!"

"She's right, people!" Nokama said, getting up as well, "Time is of the essence! Even with all of us together, we're still gonna need all the help we can possibly get along the way."

Seeing Nokama's determination, Jikanmu had no reason to argue against her, partially since a Protosteel weapon would come in handy against Scryptorek and his dark forces. "Then let's move out!"

Chapter 2
With all the Toa Metru back together at last, they and the six Warriors of Light who'd just been pronounced the Toa Luminus by Jikanmu are more than a match for the Vahkshi hordes that tried to grind their progress to a halt. Even as so many flying and color-changing Vahkshi began popping out, the heroes had little to fear, and even decided to get creative with combining their special attacks. Nokama and Tifa use a Double Dolphin Blow, launching a red Vahkshi high into the air before Nuju freezes it in ice, and it falls back down to the ground, scattering frozen Vahkshi pieces across the rotting floor. Whenua and Onewa peel out a slab of ground together, and flip it over a group of Vahkshi, crushing them all flat.

"Hold tight my lady!" Matau says to Yuna as she gets on his back, wrapping her legs around his and her arms around his neck while pointing her guns out in front, "We're gonna make it rain!"

Gripping onto Yuna's legs with great care, Matau took to the sky and flew over the Vahkshi as Yuna opened fire at the creatures, before Squall and Cloud comes up and decimates them with a Renzokuken technique: Fated Circle and Finishing Touch. Jikanmu was very impressed with the Toas' teamwork, but they all knew not to let their fighting prowess get to their heads.

About three quarters of the way before the mausoleum, Vakama took the liberty of using an abandoned blacksmith's forge to create some mana regenerating equipment and a weapon with the protosteel he stole from the Mako Reactor back in Po-Kassho, as well as modify Yuna's guns in such a way that the bullets would be at least almost as powerful as if they were coated in a thin layer of protosteel themselves.

"I believe you'll find your weapons all the more effective now, milady." said Vakama as he handed Yuna's upgraded weapons back to her.

The Vahkshi on which she tested them, the first chance she got, was taken down with one shot! Sooner or later, the heroes finally reached a derelict mansion where Jikanmu says the mausoleum was built underneath. Most, if not all of the mansion's interior heavily resembles that of the old Shinra Manor in Nibelheim, as especially noticed by Tifa and Cloud, for reasons more than coincidental, given Scryptorek's connections to Shinra. Maybe there were humans living on Ankoku Nui previously, after all. Luckily, the first and second floors were not overrun with Vahkshi or other monsters, but the group kept their guard up anyway. In the east wing of the second floor, Cloud finds an out-of-place stone brick sticking out of the wall and pushes it back in, opening up a hidden passage to a downwards staircase leading right into a laboratory, unlike the Shinra Manor's which came up after a dungeon, where Cloud and his original retinue had first met and reawakened the former Turk, Vincent Valentine.

"Follow me downstairs." Cloud called for the others.

"Now remember," Jikanmu spoke to the group, "we need only find the door into the mausoleum. Don't touch anything else!"

As the humans and Toa searched the room, Jikanmu inspected a spreadsheet, lying on a massive operating table, containing a blueprint of a biomechanical humanoid, possibly an experiment conducted by Scryptorek. It was only a couple of minutes before Tidus found the way into the mausoleum, and the party went down into the dark depths. Purple toxic gases and liquid poison oozed out from cracks in the ground, walls, and from the corners, giving off a smell just as repulsive as what was witnessed on the outside. The only sources of light there were Blazer Claws hanging on the walls, one of which Vakama took in his hand to guide the way, gripping his blaster in the other hand.

The party spots a huge casket after a few paces, and consider ignoring it completely until Jikanmu whispers, "I would suggest we check inside for enemies anyway."

"But why?" Tidus questioned, "Didn't you say don't touch anything a while back?"

"If we go after the Genjuu first, I suspect it'd call out for whatever's sleeping in those coffins, and we'll be surrounded. That's not a chance we're willing to take, are we?" Jikanmu told him.

"I still don't know..." says Nuju.

Jikanmu glared at the Toa of Ice, and reluctantly, he opens the casket, only to find nothing inside. But bearing in mind what Jikanmu just said about the Genjuu possibly calling in reinforcements, the party still had to check any other caskets along the path. Surely enough, there was a different colored Vahkshi hiding in each one, and in some wide open rooms in the mausoleum with whole groups of caskets where if you open one, they all open! But the heroes held their ground against the Vahkshi, and whenever they had to separate into no more than two groups of no less than six, Rinoa would use a fire spell as a makeshift torch for the other party. Soon they reach an elaborate, yet ghastly looking crypt with a large sarcophagus in the center.

"This is it! The last Genjuu must be in there!" Vakama exclaimed. And he was right!

As the Toa and humans slowly advanced forward with their weapons out, a giant fist burst right through the cover of the sarcophagus, and out came the horrifying Liche! It was much more humanoid in appearance, compared to the other Genjuu, standing almost twice as tall as a Toa, wearing a charcoal black helmet of sorts with some resemblance to an executioner's hood, an open leather jacket with no sleeves and spiked pauldrons, spiked armguards and shinguards, and pointed boots. Raising it's axe-hammer, the Liche brings it down unto the ground, making cracks of deadly purple energy surge towards the heroes. All six Toa Luminus were infected with a toxin that both sapped and poisoned them, but the Toa Metru dodged, even if the toxin is unable to affect them. Yuna tries to use Esuna on all those afflicted with the toxin, but it had sealed her healing magic as well!

"Yuna, hang on!" Nokama cried, but the Liche swings it's weapon about, knocking the Toa Metru aside onto the ground, picking up Nokama by the throat and begins to choke her. Matau flies up onto the Liche's back and bangs his fists at it's head, repeatedly yelling, "Let her go! Let her GO!"

"Foul monster! You've officially squandered my patience!" Jikanmu bellowed, casting Haste on himself and Slow on the Liche before stabbing his Chronoscepter into the Genjuu's back. Onewa hurls a piton hook at the monster's foot, and pulls tightly as he can in an effort to topple it.

Spotting Vakama's fallen disc launcher, Jikanmu picks it up and tosses it in the Toa of Fire's direction. "Vakama, heads up!"

A recovered Vakama catches his weapon and fires a razor disc through the Liche's arm, dropping Nokama back onto the ground, allowing her to use her new Healing Rain ability on the Toa Luminus, curing all their ailments and damaging the now one-armed Genjuu in the process. The Toa back away at Jikanmu's command, and Cloud uses his Meteorain attack on the Liche, raining down meteors with enough force to make holes in the ceiling, hitting the Genjuu in the head about three times. The light that shown out from holes weakened the monster even more, but Matau thought, why stop there?

"Surprise, Genjuu!" He yells out, sending a tornado generated from his Aero Slicers towards the Liche.

Vakama follows up with a blast of fire into the spiral updraft, setting the Liche ablaze and softening it's mechanical parts.

"Well met, brother!" Vakama said to Matau.

"No, no, no. That fire-tornado idea of yours was genius!" Matau humbly commended his leader.

The Liche staggered around for a few seconds before executing a spinning attack in place with it's weapon held outward. Everybody kept their distance so as to not get cut up or burned, and once the Liche began to slow down, Squall and Vakama timed their shots perfectly, hitting the Genjuu's face and making it fall on it's back with a thud. Then, at the same time, Rinoa and Yuna cast Flare and Holy respectively on the fallen Liche, engulfing it in a magnificent explosion. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the abomination was the severely damaged remains of it's mechanical parts. The Genjuu were no more, but Jikanmu knew all too well this is no time to celebrate so roundly anyway. He was expecting one last booby trap, and just like that, the mausoleum started shaking violently.

"This place is gonna collapse on us if we don't hurry! Let's bail!!" Jikanmu barked, using Hastega on all the heroes and guiding them safely out of the mausoleum before it caves in.

"Jikanmu," Onewa spoke, "let's say most of Scryptorek's followers really are humans, as Tifa suggests; shouldn't we have found any of their dead in some of those coffins?"

Jikanmu did not answer. Perhaps Onewa had asked an irrelevant question? If so, then at least the Toa would get all the answers at Scryptorek's lair, which was located at the center of Do-Mura. When they arrive at the bizarre, desolate landmass that marked their final destination, Jikanmu ordered the Toa Luminus and Toa Metru to stay behind and make preparations while he scouts ahead.

"But Jikanmu," Vakama says, "does the Toa code not discourage us from operating in such a manner that arouses suspicion, especially alone?"

"Were I afforded the luxury of abiding by the code while Ankoku Nui falls, how else would you have reunited with your teammates?" Jikanmu responded sternly.

The Toa of Fire could not come up with an acceptable answer, for he knew that the Toa and humans would still be wandering aimlessly if it weren't for Jikanmu. With that logic in mind, they had to trust in the Toa of Time's freedom to operate outside the Toa Code, just until the threat of Dai-Shinra is finally ended.

Chapter 3
That night, Vakama found Cloud sitting on a pile of debris, staring up at the sky, while the other humans were fast asleep and the other Toa kept vigilant. "That Cloud must really be homesick", the Toa of Fire thought to himself, "about as much so as I." Vakama could clearly see the sadness in his new friend's eyes, the sadness he channels into protecting the ones he loves. Hearing the Toa's faint footsteps, Cloud turned his head and faced him, as if to say, go ahead and sit beside me. Vakama did, and they gaze upon the obscuring moon.

"I've been thinking recently..." says Vakama after a brief period of silence, "Is this what my lifetime's journey has been leading up to? Was Lhikan expecting anything like this when preparing us for the challenges a Toa must face?"

"Who's Lhikan?" Cloud asked.

"The Toa who chose me and the others to succeed him." Vakama answered, "My mentor, so to speak. He believed in my capability even when others couldn't. He even gave his power for our sake. But then he died protecting me from the Makuta..." If Toa had tear ducts, Vakama would be shedding tears for his fallen predecessor right now.

The story of Lhikan reminded Cloud a great deal of someone similarly dear to him, but not necessarily Aerith Gainsborough, whose life was taken by Sephiroth on what was perhaps the saddest day of his life. "Believe it or not, I know how it feels, to lose someone you really looked up to, and believed in you. ...I never made it into SOLDIER, but I met someone who did." He was talking about Zack Fair, a SOLDIER 1st Class from whom Cloud inherited the Buster Sword, which he took off his back and looked at it in fond remembrance of his hero. "Zack had the utmost faith in me to be his living legacy, and I promised myself I won't let him down!"

"May I see it?" Vakama asked earnestly. Cloud hesitated for a second, until a recently made replica of Lhikan's Fire Saber laying next to Vakama caught his eye. He must have made it to honor the memory of his fallen friend, Cloud thought.

"Only... if I get to see that." Cloud says, handing his weapon to Vakama, who did the same with his new weapon made to pay homage to Lhikan.

The Buster Sword was quite heavy for Vakama to hold, but getting used to it is the least the Toa could do to repay the sentiment. Cloud found the Fire Saber was about as light as the Fusion Swords he used some time prior to being sent to Ankoku Nui.

"By the will of the Great Spirit," Vakama vowed, "and by the three virtues, I will fight beside you until Ankoku Nui is saved, and then we will see our friends again."

But that means, Cloud started thinking, with a tear in his eye, we can never see each other again. That we have to say goodbye... It is seldom easy to part so soon with one who has so much in common with you, who shares your hopes and dreams. Cloud was certain Vakama was thinking the same thing as they stared up at the sky, at a cluster of stars that faintly, and vaguely, formed the image of Lhikan's mask, a shining symbol of the Great Spirit Mata Nui.

Hours passed before Jikanmu came back from his reconnaissance of the enemy stronghold, and woke up the humans, who gathered the Toa for the briefing.

"The way to Scryptorek's inner sanctum is blocked a Suva, which we need to redirect power from two others to activate. We must split into two groups to reach the two lesser Suva, and then I will activate the central Suva alone." Jikanmu told his fellow Toa, who were confused by the logic of his plan.

Rinoa wanted to ask Jikanmu why he has to activate the central Suva after the two groups activate the other two at the same time, but before she can speak, the Toa of Time warned, "Expect the Vahkshi hordes to fight like they've not before, else some of us may not make it alive!"

Everyone knew that this is a dangerous mission that likely means death, but the heroes nonetheless pledged to do everything in their collective power to save Ankoku Nui from certain doom.

Cloud spoke to the party, "We're the only hope the planet has left."

"Come on everyone," Squall called, "our mission is almost complete!" The Toa and humans bravely follow Cloud and Squall's lead.

"Yes..." Jikanmu whispered creepily, staying behind the group for a moment before following, "we are very close to the end!"

Chapter 4
Inside the lair of Scryptorek, the party finds three magic circles in the entrance, each corresponding to a path to a Suva. Cloud decides to take a party of himself, Rinoa, Tidus, Vakama, Nokama, and Matau on the left path, while Jikanmu sends Tifa, Squall, Yuna, Onewa, Whenua, and Nuju down the right before finally going on the central path alone.

"I hope Jikanmu knows what he's doing..." said Cloud.

"I think he can take care of himself." Tidus replied, "He just got outta there alive without a scratch a little while ago, didn't he?"

Cloud's team goes down the linear path leading up to a small factory area, where they see a blocked passage that needs to be cleared. Matau attempts to fly around and see if there is a switch, but a turret fires an energy blast at his back, making him fall face first into the cold, mechanical ground.

"You ok, Matau?" Tidus asks.

"Not really...." Matau groaned, raising his hand up for a piece of piping to pull himself up.

"Looks like we gotta wait for someone else to come in here from another area..." Cloud says nonchalantly.

Elsewhere along the middle path, Jikanmu cuts down a squadron of blue, green, and black Vahkshi shortly before poking his weapon out through the automatic door, skewering an airborne red Vahkshi that was about to go in that same door, flinging it down into the blackness below. Jikanmu jumped down, went along the winding clockwise path and into a large room with pipes large enough for a Toa to walk through with ease. Taking the leftmost pipe from where he first entered the room, Jikanmu comes back outside to the main area and goes directly left and later through a door on the right to the room Cloud's party was at. Without saying a word to the others, Jikanmu hits the switch, allowing them to go through the path that was previously cut off. They come into a large room with conveyor belts and Vahkshi being assembled by the half-dozens.

"Strange... I see no one operating the machinery..." said Cloud.

"Unless Scryptorek's technology's advanced enough to operate on it's own?" Nokama guessed.

Suddenly, the party hears a loud banging sound from above.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Vakama said quietly.

A fire Vahkshi slams it's fist down onto the hatch, making it fall down, and jumps down in front of the Toa, followed by an ice Vahkshi and a thunder Vahkshi. Matau holds his swords up together in a scissor position to block the yellow Vahkshi from bringing it's blade down on him, but Tidus gets right behind and punches it in the face, allowing Matau to cut it's head off. Some white and green Vahkshi join the fray and corner Rinoa against a wall, as Cloud has his hands full with the red Vahkshi. A duo of green Vahkshi block the door the party came in from, but Jikanmu kicks it down on them, crushing the Vahkshi flat.

Seeing still more Vahkshi pouring in, Jikanmu turns to Rinoa fending them off with her lance and says, "What are you doing!? Use your Sorceress powers to blow up the assembly line!"

"I can't!" cried Rinoa, as she casted Firaga on a white Vahkshi that tried to stab her. "What if they spiral out of control? What if I start to become like Ultimecia!?"

"You know what Squall said to us about that!" Cloud shouted to the Toa of Time.

"Who cares about Squall's fears?!" Jikanmu yelled back at Cloud, and then to Rinoa, "JUST DO IT!!!"

Under the stress of her and her friends' current predicament, and Jikanmu's orders to unleash the terrible powers granted to her by Ultimecia's lineage, Rinoa let out a scream of anguish which surrounds her in an unholy aura of magic, and she multi-casts Ultima all over the room, destroying the Vahkshi and the machinery building them, but also damaging all her allies except Jikanmu, who used his timewarps to evade the spells' areas of effect. Seeing her allies hurt because of Jikanmu's impatience and stubbornness made Rinoa break down and weep.

"I, I, I'm so sorry!!" she cried.

"It's alright, Rinoa." said Nokama as she dragged herself towards Tidus and Cloud, healing their wounds and hers, "It's not your fault...!"

"Yeah, it's that crosswired boss-ordering Jikanmu!" Matau said, pointing his sword angrily at the Toa of Time.

"What has gotten into you!?" Vakama chastised Jikanmu, "What could possibly possess you to punish us for wanting to be cautious and conserving our energy for when we truly need it?!"

"Do not pin this on me, Vakama," Jikanmu spat, "She chose to take her legacy for granted by holding back her full potential! She brought this on all of us, including herself!"

"So you're saying we should respect those like Sephiroth, and all the terrible things they did," Cloud said in Vakama's defense, "or even pretend like they never happened?"

"Ultimecia was a crazy old witch who made innocent people suffer," Tidus added, as he got up from the floor, "Old Yevon LET Sin make innocent people suffer!"

"The point is, we cannot waste valuable time letting you take your grievances out on us!" Vakama protested.

"Yeah!" Matau agreed, "Remember when we got turned into Hordika and Vakama lost his cool because I blamed him completely for it?"

Vakama remembered best how he let Roodaka appeal to his bestial Hordika side and almost lost his friends because of it. If only he'd time enough to stress on the gravity of that mistake to Jikanmu!

"Fine!" Jikanmu scoffed, "but if things go awry, don't hold me responsible!"

The Toa of Time went back outside from the right door of switch room and through another door directly ahead, and across a linear path to a three way corridor, where he found a weight activated switch that is to be used in conjunction with an identical one on the right hand side.

Meanwhile, Squall's party had already gone through the door furthest from their starting point, taking the linear path to a ladder leading to a room above with a horde of Vahkshi.

"Here they come!" said Squall, who aims his gunblade at a stone Vahkshi as another is about to tackle Yuna, until she leaps into the air and fires her guns at it's head.

Nuju swings his weapons outward, smashing Vahkshi into the walls and off the catwalks as Whenua uppercuts a blue Vahkshi into the air. Onewa prepares to use his Mask power on a poison Vahkshi to give the party an extra hand in dealing with the robots, as Squall kept firing at them. But he could not reach the Vahkshi's AI!

"That's no good! I'm pretty sure it worked last time!" But then he remembered Jikanmu saying something about the Vahkshi being adaptable, and went back to melee attacks with his pitons.

More of the vicious robots stormed into the room with every intent to slaughter their enemies. Tifa bashes two Vahkshi's heads together, but is grabbed from behind by two more, and seven more surround Whenua and Onewa before dog-piling on them. Nuju and Squall were also about to be outmatched, until Jikanmu warps into the room and takes on the purple Vahkshi before it closes in on Yuna.

"About time you showed up!" Onewa shouts, breaking free of the Vahkshi that are whaling on him and his brother.

Jikanmu trips one of the Vahkshi holding Tifa captive, letting her use a Rolling Blaze on the other.

"Yuna!" Jikanmu called out to her, "You said your father was a High Summoner, so why do you not use these summoned creatures to do your bidding?"

Not having the free time, or even wishing to explicitly recall how she regrettably had to sacrifice all her Aeons to ensure Sin's true demise, Yuna simply replied, "...I lost my powers of summoning after Sin was destroyed...!"

"Then consider the difficulty of our predicament and our lack of sufficient progress the price of disrespecting your history!"

"Hey!" Tifa cried out, "How about less putting down, and more helping UP!"

If only Jikanmu were there with Yuna that day, he would understand why he shouldn't be so harsh on her. And even if she still can summon Aeons this day, Yuna did not want to become lazy, impatient, and over reliant on their strength. Why would she, when she has the Toa Metru to count on?

"I would prefer we fight with our own strength, if you don't mind!" Yuna tells Jikanmu, who was visibly irked by her supposed defiance of her and Braska's history, but had no choice but to contain his ire until the battle was over.

As Whenua football tackled a Vahkshi, Onewa swung his chains around, hitting any Vahkshi that got close, and Nuju used his telekinesis to hurl the remains of already scrapped Vahkshi at the others. Some grueling minutes later, the fighting stops when Tifa has finished pummeling a poison Vahkshi, breaking it down.

"Ah...that was a close call!" She says, wiping some sweat off her forehead with her arm.

"But still," Squall spoke to Jikanmu, "what gives you the right to hit Yuna's sore spot at such a bad time? Would it kill you to watch that trigger finger?"

"Are you so dense?" Jikanmu retorted, "Have you been falling asleep in your history lessons?  If you don't have respect for your past, then you can never expect to have a future!"

"Yuna's legacy wasn't about strict traditionalism or being a summoner, it's about helping others in any way she can." Squall told the Toa of Time.

"Do you think her father would want her to forsake his legacy, their history to be forgotten?"

Yuna wasn't sure if bringing up the lies and corruption of Old Yevon would make the argument take a turn for the worse or end it peacefully in her favor, but she was certain that Jikanmu should stop arguing with Squall so the party may go on with the rest of their journey.

"Well I didn't hear you complaining over anything like that before!" said Whenua.

"That was when the Vahkshi were going easy on us!" Jikanmu said Whenua, "I told you, they're gonna go all out to keep us from reaching Scryptorek's archives. We have to do better!"

As Jikanmu heads to the door to pry it open, Nuju walks up to Tifa and says, "You know, sometimes I think he's the one in need of a lecture."

"Yeah," Tifa answered. "Sometimes you have to let go of the past and move on."

"The bad parts, anyway." Whenua added, "I mean, just because something's part of history, doesn't mean it should be glorified. As an archivist, I see that now."

With the door opened, the group steps outside and hangs left, going into a door on another linear path up to the right side of the three path corridor. As Squall and his team approached the other weight activated switch, they hear the sound of Jikanmu stepping on the switch on the left side. "Now, step on the switch on your end!" Jikanmu called out in Squall's direction. Whenua does so, and the door on the upper middle walkway opens, granting Cloud's party passage into the next area, where they throw a switch that allows all the remaining Toa and humans to reunite in that room, where they find a mural depicting all the Genjuu, except the Liche, for whatever reason.

"Where's the eighth Genjuu in this mural?" Onewa asked.

"It doesn't look like any part of it has broken off?" said Tidus.

"That mural has, in no way been damaged or otherwise altered." said Jikanmu.

"Then why are there only seven Genjuu on it?" asked Squall.

"The one we fought at the mausoleum was, in reality, an artificial Genjuu created from the last survivor of a revolt led against Scryptorek, through one of Dai-Shinra's ghastly experiments." answered Jikanmu. The fools, the Toa of Time thought to himself before continuing, "The others you see here are just the official, true Genjuu of this planet."

"Then, could this mean that Do-Mura..." Vakama wondered aloud before Jikanmu cut him off. "Save it. Let us make for the Suva."

Chapter 5
It is indeed peculiar that a Suva could be found in a Makuta's abode, but only time will tell why. The Toa Metru go into the shrine room in the left, while the Toa Luminus enter the one in the right. Jikanmu stayed at the central Suva, waiting for the others to be in position to give the signal, and thus each Toa and human places their hands onto their respective Suva, triggering a flow of energy into the central Suva where Jikanmu stands and is immersed in a surplus of energy as the path opens up, and the production of all Vahkshi finally comes to an end. The two groups stepped into the central Suva room to find Jikanmu kneeling and staring into the ground.

"Is something wrong?" Yuna asked the Toa.

"Not exactly," Jikanmu responded, "but I had a vision of... of a... crystal!"

"A crystal?!" Cloud gasped.

"Yes, the crystal that circulates the energy of Ankoku Nui's lifestream throughout the planet." Jikanmu told him. "Scryptorek drained it of it's light so he can take the energy and keep Ankoku Nui in a state of arrested development."

"Why?" Squall inquired.

"I believe he may not actually be trying to destroy the planet, but rather rebuild it in his own horrific image!" said Yuna.

"Another false utopia!" Cloud and Vakama commented grimly in unison.

"All the more reason for us to keep moving!" said Tidus, gripping his sword tightly in his hand.

The heroes exit the gloomy Suva room into a corridor and then into an open area, where only eight Vahkshi, one of every element, remained standing in their way.

"These monsters are Scryptorek's last line of defense, and since they'll give no quarter," said Jikanmu, "neither must we!"

The heroes wasted no time setting up their magical buffs and then unleashing powerful team attacks on the Vahkshi. Rinoa summons a swarm of bolts of varying elemental energy, setting them on the Vahkshi like a rain of hailstones, hitting all of them except the white one, which goes after Tifa. Executing his Blade Beam attack, Cloud sends an arcing beam of light across the floor towards the thunder Vahkshi, creating a shockwave that splits from the initial attack to hit the other Vahkshi. The green and black Vahkshi make a beeline for Tidus, thrusting their blades and claws at him, yet he swiftly dodges their every attack, and slashes the green Vahkshi's foot off. Onewa runs to the crippled green Vahkshi and smashes it's head in with his weapon. The black Vahkshi has Tidus pinned down, but Onewa reins it in with his piton chains, allowing Tidus to kick it in the chest and Nuju to scrap it. The brown Vahkshi thrusts it's blade at Yuna after deflecting or evading her gunfire, only for the weapon to be seized and broken in Tifa's hands, followed by a jumping slash attack from Matau, dispatching the robot. Whenua lifts up the white Vahkshi from behind and throws it at the red one, knocking them both out momentarily as Squall saw to the poison Vahkshi.

"Back down, now!" Nokama yelled in the yellow Vahkshi's face as she held it's blade back, "Or at least... let me slap some sense into you!"

Using her hydro blades, the Toa of Water smacks the robot across the face until it falls down on it's side, letting Cloud finish it off. Vakama and Jikanmu take turns hitting the blue Vahkshi, eventually relieving it of its weapons.

"Jikanmu, use Haste on me." Vakama says.

"Oh, now you want my help," Jikanmu replied a bit angrily, "after your earlier insubordination?!"

"Insubordination, what are you-" Vakama pleaded, "please, just do it!"

For all Jikanmu's recent edginess, his impatience, combined with the importance of the Toas' quest, outweighed his anger, and he did as the Toa of Fire asked. With lightning speed, Vakama rapidly fired his blaster at the Vahkshi like a machine gun, and then blew it up with a blast from his disc launcher. With only three Vahkshi left, Tifa gets the red one into a headlock, and starts beating it into submission, until it breaks free and knocks her over, pressing it's foot on her chest and preparing the killing blow, but Rinoa thrusts her lance into the Vahkshi's skull. The impalement doesn't kill the robot immediately, but it's vision is impaired, leaving it open to a haymaker from Tifa, the force of impact strong enough to destroy it utterly.

Tidus, Squall, and Cloud go up against the white Vahkshi and surround it. Executing a new team attack called Delta Cross Strike, all three of them dash across the Vahkshi, as if to make an asterisk on the ground, with one blow from each of their swords crossing perpendicularly, destroying the vicious robot. Vakama faces up to the purple Vahkshi, the last one in existence, grabbing it's arm before the robot could ram it through his stomach, breaking it with a downward elbow strike, and roundhouse kicking it across the floor.

"Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!" Vakama said, right before driving the Vahkshi's discarded weapon through it's torso, rendering it and the rest of it's kind extinct.

"It's done; the Vahkshi will never trouble this planet again!" Squall declared.

"Come," Jikanmu told the humans and the other Toa, "Scryptorek's private archives are dead ahead, and past them, our final ordeal awaits!"

Chapter 6
After so long, the Toa Metru and their human friends are finally at the climax of their quest. Scryptorek has kept entire records of innumerable subjects stored in his sanctum, which the Vahkshi all fought and perished to keep anyone from getting to them, and now Vakama and his companions will have the answers to the questions lingering in their minds since they first arrived on this World of Ruin. Jikanmu walks beside a magic circle in the middle of the room and watched as the Toa and humans searched through the records for anything about Ankoku Nui's history. The first thing of note they find is a lenticular scroll of the symbol of the three virtues, which changed to a map to some galaxy when viewed from a certain angle, as Vakama discovers.

"Amazing! What area do you suppose is this map of?" he asks, "Any idea?"

Even Jikanmu wouldn't say, even if he does know, for a fact, that the planets on this map are Aqua Magna, where Metru Nui is located, Bara Magna, and Bota Magna, all three of them formerly united as one singular planet called Spherus Magna. Matau spots a ten tier bookshelf and tries to get one of those on top.

"Anybody wanna give me a lift here?" Matau called out.

Tidus gets behind the Toa, lifts him up just high enough to get the leftmost book, and they skim through it together, intrigued at the sights they beheld of events to come, like the arrival of six more Toa on the island of Mata Nui, but Jikanmu stops them before they turn to the next page.

"Put that back, you two!" He ordered, "The topics of that book are unrelated to what we're looking for!"

"Fine!" Tidus moaned, closing the book and handing it to Matau, who lets him hoist him back up to put the book back where he got it.

Seconds later, Tifa stumbles across a large computer that lights up and asks for a password.

"Hey, Jikanmu!" She calls out to the Toa of Time, "Think you can hack into this?"

"Better than that; I actually know the password!" Jikanmu says, sitting down on the chair and orders Tifa to look away before inputting the password, gaining access to the massive database.

"Whoa!" Whenua exclaimed.

"Pretty impressive," Squall commented, noticing fifteen multi-colored spheres marked by roman numerals and arranged in a perfect circle, surrounding some more spheres in the middle of the screen, "but what's up with the background?"

"That, too, is a map of distant worlds in another galaxy far from Ankoku Nui," answered the Toa of Time, "including the three you and the other Toa Luminus came from."

"Let me take a look at it." said Whenua as he walked over to the chair.

"Be my guest." Jikanmu replies, letting Whenua take his seat, "You'll get all the answers we've been looking for by using that search engine."

Having said that, Jikanmu heads back to the magic circle.

"Where are you going?" Cloud asked.

"This circle will take me directly to where Scryptorek is gonna be in one hour exactly." answered the Toa of Time, as he stepped onto the circle, saying this before being teleported, "That should be enough time to go through his files and prepare for the final battle while I wait for him there."

Jikanmu disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the humans and Toa Metru continue their search.

"What, is he just gonna leave us in here and get himself killed?" says Onewa.

Everyone else in the room was rather unsure how to respond to Onewa, despite their own varying reasons not to pander to Jikanmu's impatience, just to quell his recent outbursts. Nokama quickly notices an open compartment she previously overlooked, pulls out a small piece of paper, and translates the Matoran text on it to read, "Password: Recduney".

"Hmm, I'm not sure if that's even a real Matoran word at all..." Nokama says, "Either way, I can't make it out!"

"But I can!" said Yuna, running to Nokama's side and says to her, "It says 'historia' in Al Bhed!"

"I get it now! Scryptorek translated the password into that Al Bhed language, and then into Matoran!" says an astounded Nuju, "but how do you know this language that's unfamiliar to us Toa?"

"She's half-Al Bhed on her mother's side." Tidus answered.

"But if that's the password, and Jikanmu says this is the only room he hasn't been to, before recently," Tifa wondered, "how did he know what it is?" How odd indeed, she thinks.

"Uhh guys?" Whenua called, "I think you better look at this. I typed 'Ankoku Nui' into the search engine, but I only see sub-categories for seven of the eight regions here."

The Toa and humans all head over to the computer screen to find tabs corresponding to every region except Do-Mura.

"That's strange... why don't you type in 'Do-Mura'?" says Rinoa.

Whenua does so, but no articles containing the word were found, leaving Whenua equal parts dumbfounded and suspicious, sputtering, "Wha- does this mean... Do-Mura doesn't really exist!?"

"Ya know, I think there's a lot of stuff Jikanmu's not truth-telling us!" Matau spoke, as Whenua looks into the articles for the other seven regions, only to find incomplete stub articles without any dates or events recorded, "I mean, we've look-searched the entire lair, and still we haven't found any of those Shinra-guys even after Jikanmu said they'd be here!"

"Wait a minute...!" said Whenua, typing Shinra into the search engine, finding results in articles pertaining the worlds on the desktop background designated as VII and X, which just so happen to be Cloud's homeworld and the world of Spira respectively!

"No way!" Cloud gasped in shock, "It looks like Shinra is somehow connected to Tidus' world!"

Cloud distinctly recalled spotting a barely visible line connecting to the spheres on the desktop background representing Spira and the planet of his and Tifa's origin.

"If that's the case, you think it might be possible someone from Shinra has been to my world at some point?" Squall guessed.

Might be, Cloud thought to himself.

"The plot thickens..." Matau whispered before telling Whenua, "Try searching for 'Scryptorek'!"

The Toa of Earth enters Scryptorek's name into the search engine, only to find it is a restricted article.

"Oh no!" Nuju said, face-palming himself briefly before remembering something, "Now type in 'Jikanmu'! I know this sounds strange, but we just might get some kind of lead out of this!" Whenua does as Nuju asks without question, having learned to take the latter's foresight into greater consideration after previous arguments about whether the future is more important than the past, or the other way around.

"Actually, there is something I never got to ask Jikanmu when I had the chance, if only because it was irrelevant to our quest:" says Vakama, "The Mask of Time had turned orange before I got it out of the Silver Sea. So how was it restored to it's original color?"

The Toa of Fire searched vigorously for any hidden notes on how to make another Vahi, on account of a theory that Scryptorek made one for himself, only for it to be taken by Jikanmu somehow. Vakama finds no such notes, but he does find, to his utter surprise, the original orange Vahi stored in a previously camouflaged glass display case, and thus asks himself, did Scryptorek or Jikanmu get that duplicate mask from the past or the future, despite the unlikelihood that Jikanmu's power is great enough for him to actually travel through time and space so easily.

"He can't do that, or can he?" Vakama said to himself, as Whenua turns up no results for Jikanmu's name in the databanks, much to Tidus' chagrin, "You've gotta be kidding me!" More proof the Toa of Time is not who he claims to be!

"...Well, we'll just have to ask him ourselves!!" Vakama says, right before smashing the glass and takes the Vahi back, even as the alarm goes off, and calls out to his friends, "Everyone into the portal!"

Having almost immediately caught on to Vakama's assumptions, the Toa Luminus and the Toa Metru all step into the magic circle, teleporting them all the way to the outside temple of Ankoku-Kini, right above the hidden lair.

Chapter 7
Jikanmu felt a massive surge of power coursing through his person from the eight pillars surrounding his immediate area as the sky started turning darker by the minute. His energy and senses had heightened to the point where he can easily sense the Toa Luminus and Toa Metru approaching him from behind without even turning to face them.

"Alright Jikanmu," Vakama valliantly calls out to the Toa of Time, as the Toa and humans preemptively draw out their weapons, "Tell us everything you know!"

"No more secrets, Jikanmu!" Tidus yelled.

"Whatever game you're playing with us ends now!" said Squall.

"Right now!" Cloud finished.

Jikanmu laughed rather maniacally as he turned around and said, "There is no Jikanmu. There isn't even a Toa of Time! And to think you actually believed in such a legend."

Parts of his body shifted and morphed into more sinister-looking, Makuta-like features, and the golden duplicate Vahi fused onto his face, with horns sticking out from his cranium, red eyes glowing like hellfire, and finally a demonic grin forming across the mouth area. The Toa quickly identified the transformed being as the evil Scryptorek!

"You!" Vakama said with horror in his voice, "You're the Makuta we've been looking for! You've been spying on us the whole time!"

"Yes, now you finally know the truth!" said Scryptorek, "I am the founder of Dai-Shinra, the God King who made the Genjuu into your enemies and commissioned the construction of the Mako Reactors that were sucking the life out of Ankoku Nui!"

"So if you're the leader of Dai-Shinra," said Tifa, "then why aren't we seeing any Shinra troops coming to your side, not that we're surprised?"

Scryptorek answered thusly, "To answer your question, and yet another at once, ...there were once humans living on this planet; All of them working for me, in one way or another, directly or otherwise, as all ignorant scum should! They were all brought here ...by me!"

"But how?" Nokama asked.

"The same way I brought their ancestors from Spira to the planet that took it's ancient original name from the Gaia theory, which the Spirans finally confirmed after a millennia of research and experimentation. I retrieved the Mask of Time while Vakama and his subordinates were fighting the Visorak hordes on Metru Nui, harnessing a sufficient amount of energy, leaking from the mask at the time, to become able to travel the timespace continuum, and eventually learned how to appear in other worlds unknown even to the Great Beings themselves, gaining access to ancient technologies and dark arts beyond their collective imagination!"

"So that's how you got the Centra technology to make the second reactor mobile!" Squall realized, "I take it this means the other two could get around as easily?"

"You are correct, Agent of SeeD." Scryptorek replied with a smug look on his demonic face, "Then I guided the space travelers from Spira to the planet Gaia to establish what would come to be known as the Shinra Corporation, and in return, they gave me some hired help to conduct similar experiments of our own, on this very planet I have chosen to colonize and christen Ankoku Nui! The world whose coffin your actions sealed the nails on!"

Everyone was appalled at the sudden realization that Jikanmu hadn't sent Ankoku Nui's stolen energy back into it's lifestream, as they foolishly trusted him to do, but into the Suva inside the lair and then into pillars from which Scryptorek just got so much power from.

"This planet is mere hours away from becoming dark forever, and on this barren soil, I will forge a new world, and create a shining new history under my control for all eternity! I will make Ankoku Nui great again; no, even greater! Then the Great Beings will finally realize that my way is the only way, and they'll have no choice but to submit to my will!" the Makuta raved.

"Jikanmu... we trusted you, never knowing you were the very thing you despise most, and played us all for idiots!" Tifa cried out, with tears running down her face.

Scryptorek sends a large amount of energy into the darkened sky, generating a ball of light that takes on the form of a mighty winged beast resembling the legendary Dragon King Bahamut, which lands on the ground, towering over it's master as the Toa Luminus and Toa Metru gazed upon it with shock and horror.

"What are you doing with that thing!?" Onewa demanded to know.

"The collected energies of Ankoku Nui are now the source of life for this, the most powerful Genjuu ever created!" Scryptorek explained. This latest, horrific Bahamut-derivative, called Kardahamut, let out a bloodcurdling roar as the evil Makuta taunted, "It shall wipe you fools off the face of history's weave forever, and I will destroy all others like you! None shall be safe from the wrath of Scryptorek!!"

The mighty dragon charged at the Makuta's command, raking it's giant claws at the Toa and knocking Squall and Tidus to the floor. Yuna and Vakama fired at Kardahamut's face, but even the protosteel bullets could not damage it, and the dragon Genjuu moved in to devour them. However, it only got close enough to snap it's jaws at them, as Whenua caught it by the tail!

"Gotcha!" he cried, attempting to haul the monster away from his friends, but it swung it's tail around.

Whenua tried to hang on, but Kardahamut flicked it's tail, thrusting him into the air and crashing headfirst into a pillar.

"Whenua!" Matau shouted, and rushed to his fallen brother's side while narrowly dodging the dragon's tail, "Get up, brother-Toa!"

Squall rolled onto his backside, firing his gunblade at Kardahamut from the upside down view, as it breathed atomic fire in Nokama and Onewa's direction.

"Sister!" Nuju yelled, rushing to her side and created a barrier of ice to shield her and Onewa.

Seeing the barrier melting too fast, Nokama channels water straight into it to make it grow bigger and more durable, yet the Toa knew they could not keep it up for long, much less forever. Seeing the Toa in danger of being roasted, Tifa performs a dropkick at Kardahamut's right foreleg, but while it fails to topple the giant monster, the recoil makes it stop spewing fire, allowing Onewa enough time to hurl a giant stone at it's head, and for a recovered Tidus to get on Kardahamut's back. Before he could run his sword down the dragon's neck, it thrashes violently, but Tidus sticks his blade into the Genjuu's back, holding tightly as he can to avoid falling. Rinoa stood ready to impale the dragon's head with her lance, but Kardahamut snared the weapon in it's teeth and closed it's massive jaws, shattering it to pieces.

Vakama fired his blaster desperately at the dragon, but seeing that the laser blasts were ineffective, he switches to his disc launcher, fires a weakening disc at Kardahamut, and quickly following up with a shrinking disc, yet neither affected the Genjuu. Vakama did, however, spot Matau flying Whenua up in the air, and guessing they were preparing to do a downward helix spiral attack with Whenua's shovels, fired a freezing disc at Kardahamut's right leg, freezing it in ice. The Genjuu breaks free of the icy coating quickly, but failed to notice Whenua pointing both his drills downward in a spiraling attack directed at it's skull. Seeing the Toa of Earth falling down like an anvil, Tidus grips his sword handle and swings on it like a handle bar, launching himself into the air, just as Whenua's attack connects. Onewa, spotting Tidus in the air, pitches a blitzball sized stone in his direction, and he performs the Jecht Shot on that stone, hitting Kardahamut's eye with enough force to blind it, if only for a while.

"Over here!" Cloud shouts at the Genjuu as it clasps it's blinded eye, launching a Blade Beam at it's direction.

"Finish them, finish them now!" Scryptorek ordered the dragon, casting Hastega and Mighty Guard on it so it could press it's hand on Cloud, who pushes back with the Buster Sword as a makeshift shield.

Yuna uses Dispel on the Genjuu, with no effect, but Rinoa was quick to follow up with an Ultima spell, finally inflicting some significant damage on Kardahamut. With the dragon wide open after that attack, Cloud does an arcing leap over the Genjuu, severing it's right wing from the stalk with his sword before landing behind it. Before Scryptorek could attempt to repair the damage done to his Genjuu, Vakama fires a teleport disc at the fallen wing quickly enough to send it out of the Makuta's reach, into the now murky ocean bottom of Ga-Ao. Scryptorek growled in furious contempt, and prepares to impale Vakama, except Cloud comes to the Toa's rescue, clashing his sword against the Makuta's spear as Scryptorek casts Slowga on Cloud, so that he may kill him. Luckily, Whenua grabs the Makuta from behind, and suplexes him headfirst into the floor. Scryptorek gets up and prepares to use a Stopga spell on Whenua, but the Toa grabs on to the spear, struggling to snap it in half, but Scryptorek kicks him in the stomach and sends him crashing into Nuju.

"Cloud!!" Squall cried as he and Yuna fire magic infused shots at Kardahamut, "Let's finish off this creep!"

"Kinda got my hands full here!" Cloud responded, swinging his sword at Scryptorek, who dodged every attack perfectly with his speed, all while Tifa wraps her arms around the staggering dragon's leg performing a suplex of herculean effort!

Suddenly, the Makuta is shot in the head by Vakama, backed up by the other Toa Metru and Rinoa using elemental blasts.

"Cloud, go!" Vakama roared, "We'll buy you some time!"

With Scryptorek's attention turned to the Toa Metru, Cloud makes a beeline for Kardahamut, running past Tidus, who casts Haste on him to nullify his slowdown before throwing his weapon like a harpoon at Scryptorek. Despite the Makuta avoiding this attack, he is immediately hit afterwards by a Firaga from Vakama, a Blizzaga from Nuju, and a Thundaga from Rinoa, before the Toa Metru pool in their elemental energies to try and trap Scryptorek in energized protodermis, as they did Teridax. The Makuta sticks his arms out forward to try and repel the attack, or even absorb it, but the Toa Metru concentrated harder to match his power. The sealing failed, but the recoil pushed Scryptorek away, giving the Toa Luminus the time they needed.

"No giving up now!" Tifa cheers on Cloud, using a power boost spell on him and Squall before they use their strongest attacks, the "Omni-Slash" and the "End of Heart", on Kardahamut, with Cloud delivering the final blow.

The colossal Genjuu fell to it's knees, and dissolved into pyreflies which vanished into thin air. The enraged Makuta stepped back onto the temple grounds to confront the Toa himself.

Chapter 8
"Insolent maggots, the fact that you defeated Kardahamut makes little difference at all!" Scryptorek roared, "You'll all meet the same fate as the revolters who attempted to besmirch their own history, and the incontrovertible law of Makuta; the timeless law of the universe!!"

It took Cloud but a second to understand what Scryptorek was callously implying; that he killed all his workers and every human being that lived on Ankoku Nui because they had seen the folly of their complicity in his crimes against the planet, like how the old Shinra Company's actions had culminated in the near destruction of Midgar!

"So you believe us Toa and humans to be the evil ones because we defy your personally twisted concept of law and order?" Vakama spoke.

"Because we stand for the little guys; the unenlightened masses, as you call them?" Squall added.

"When Teridax put Mata Nui to sleep, a great truth dawned upon me: It doesn't matter whether the ruler of an island, a city, a country, a planet, or even an entire galaxy is a god or a mortal!" said Scryptorek, "Anyone can muster power enough to fell a god, but only the most powerful being in charge may decide what is right and what is wrong! Only the victor can steer history along it's intended course, and is entitled to do as he pleases without admonishment, or fear of retaliation from anyone!"

Yuna couldn't believe the harsh, disgusting words coming out of the Makuta's mouth as he points his Chronoscepter at her and the others in a threatening manner, saying, "No one must question their elders and superiors, or the historical validity of their actions, but you fools chose to defy the writers of history, and you all paid dearly for it! You, Summoner Yuna, rejected the tradition of the final summoning, a staple of your forefathers' legacy, and thus forfeited the life of your beloved for your own self-preservation!"

"Why you!!" Tidus knew deep down that was not the reason he had to leave Yuna's side for a period of over two years that could have been an eternity.

"My father could care less about being a summoner as long as his sacrifice was ultimately not in vain, and Spira's sorrow is defeated!" Yuna rebuffed Scryptorek's claims even as he turned to face Rinoa. "Lady Sorceress," he addressed her with a horrific scrutiny in his voice, "You have brought shame to your kin by aiding their enemies in striking down the Sorceress Extreme. Your lover should not even be alive by now, because of your insolence in the face of destiny! What a waste!"

"That's not true!" Rinoa protested.

"Rinoa wanted to use her powers for the greater good, and prove that even if she gets lumped together with Ultimecia's kind, our love would remain strong!" Squall finished.

"As for you, reject of SOLDIER," the Makuta spoke to Cloud, "your insurgence against Shinra, the masters of your world, has cost the lives of not one, but two of your most cherished friends; among countless others who died because of your defiance; and no matter how hard you try to move on, your guilt over their deaths will always keep coming back to haunt you, even after your own inevitable demise!"

"You're wrong, Scryptorek!" Cloud said to the Makuta, "You just don't get it at all! Zack gave his life willingly so I can carry out his true legacy. It was never about fame, glory, or working for Shinra; it's about dreams and honor!"

Even Tifa knows that all the death and sorrow from back in her and Cloud's journey was not completely their fault. "And Aerith never blamed us even once for her death by Sephiroth's hand... Her actions saved us, the planet, and the ones we love!" Tifa told Scryptorek as he turned his attention to the Toa Metru, especially Vakama.

"And YOU!" the Makuta bellowed, his voice like fire more intense than Vakama could ever hope to conjure, "You should have stayed where you belonged before you stole from the true destined Toa their preordained birthright, else your failures never happened in the first place and Lhikan would still be alive, Vakama! You were unfit to be a Toa then, and you're not fit to be one ever!"

"Perhaps, but our stories won't end here!" Vakama yelled back, and Tidus glanced at him in approval before the Toa of Fire aimed his Kanoka Launcher at his enemy and continued, "No one's destiny should be written in stone, especially not by the likes of you, who would misuse the power of your own Mask of Time to alter past, present, and future to your own self-centered liking, even as you viciously accuse us of making a mockery of history ourselves!"

Everyone else readied their own weapons as Tidus shouted, "You want a world full of evil and suffering, where everyone is doomed to keep repeating the mistakes of the past, and lie to even themselves just to make you happy!"

"That is never going to happen!" Squall roared.

"We won't let it happen!" Cloud finished.

"Then you've made the choice to accept your doom!!" Scryptorek screamed back, sprouting a mechanical wing from his right shoulder!

"A single black wing..." Cloud gasped in horror, "and it's just like Sephiroth's!! How?"

"Jenova cells, boy! I know all of Shinra's secrets, remember?" The Makuta answered, "ZAWARUDO!!!" Through that incantation, Scryptorek generates a time field powerful enough for him to be able to drain all the heroes' mana and fighting ability in what would otherwise seem to be an instant, leaving them exhausted and at his mercy. The Makuta laughed evilly at the fallen heroes without an ounce of pity and said, "May no one remember your names. Face your judgement...!"

But before he could kill even one of his opponents, let alone all of them at once, the Makuta felt much of his powers leaving him, as a rain of holy water came down from the blackened skies above. The raindrops healed the heroes' wounds and restored them to full strength while damaging Scryptorek's armor and wing. The Makuta screamed in agony as he tried in a futile effort to shield himself from the holy rainwater which killed all the Jenova cells in his body.

"Mata Nui Almighty!" Matau spoke with relief.

"The planet must be fighting back, trying to break Scryptorek's grip on it!" Nokama exclaimed.

The life energies of the slain Genjuu had not vanished completely, as Scryptorek arrogantly assumed, but returned to Ankoku Nui's lifestream, rejuvenating it's crystal enough to break the Makuta's spell over it and diminish his time bending powers greatly.

"Awww yeah!" Onewa shouted with joy.

"That rain really hit the spot!" Whenua cheered.

"Your hubris has finally caught up to you, Scryptorek!" declared Nuju, as the others get back on their feet to challenge the Dai-Shinra leader once more.

"Now, as One!!!" Cloud shouted defiantly, "We will not be broken!"

Tifa and Whenua start off by roundhousing Scryptorek simultaneously, then the latter rams his spinning drill into the Makuta's stomach before Tifa unleashes a rapid flurry of fierce punches at Scryptorek, the last punch pushing him right through the pillars. Already, a tiny piece of armor had chipped off from his body, and as he got up, Scryptorek found himself in the center of a mighty thunderstorm generated by Matau and Rinoa, and then being struck repeatedly by lightning bolts from within the eye of the storm, magic-infused shots from Yuna's guns, and Nuju's telekinetically thrown icicles.

"You infidelic scum! How dare you do this to me!?! I am the greatest Makuta who ever lived!" The Makuta lashed out as the storm died down, "Your lives are forfeit to me, and your entire legacies with them!!!"

If history truly is written by the winners, as the self-righteous, diabolical Makuta so adamantly believes, it's all the more reason for him to do anything and everything to kill his enemies and fulfill his ambitions. But neither the Toa Metru, nor the Toa Luminus are willing to afford him another chance to hurt anyone again. They had to win, not to write history, but to preserve life!

Scryptorek raises his spear into the air to fire dark magic bolts at everyone, but Onewa latches his piton chains onto it, pulling the weapon out of the Makuta's wretched hands and hurling it into the distance before smacking him with the pitons, and Tidus follows up with his Slice and Dice technique, and then a Spiral Cut immediately afterwards. Scyptorek grabs Tidus by the throat and hoists him into the air, choking him, but soon loses his footing from a horizontal slash to his legs by Squall, letting Tidus go. The two humans hack away at the Makuta for a bit, until he grabs their weapons as they try to thrust them into his chest, pushing Squall and Tidus away, but this leaves him vulnerable to a straightforward stream of water spurting out from Nokama's weapons. Scryptorek tries to resist the ongoing blast of water, failing to notice Vakama leaping towards him from behind, shooting his blaster at him and then quickly switching to his disc launcher, channeling a large amount of destructive fire energy into the launcher before ramming it down unto the Makuta's head. The Disc Launcher was completely destroyed, but Vakama was unharmed, and the attack greatly wounded Scryptorek, setting the synthetic tendons of his wing ablaze.

"I've been saving this for you, Scryptorek!" Vakama shouted, drawing his new Protosteel Fire Saber and slashing it at his opponent, shaving bits and pieces of the Makuta's armor off with each successful strike as Cloud joins in the fray.

"You simple minded, sacrilegious, ignorant fools deserve to be without power, without peace or happiness!" the Makuta bellowed.

"Dreams, Courage, Hope, Friendship, Love, and Justice are the virtues that give us our true power!" Vakama replied.

"All you do is hurt and kill people in the name of your self righteous anger and lust for power!" Cloud added.

Seeing he was being overwhelmed by Cloud and Vakama, Scryptorek lets out terrifying scream, generating a shockwave that knocks them both away.

"I AM THROUGH PLAYING WITH YOU FOOLISH MORTALS!!!" the Makuta roared in anger.

Vakama, spotting the Buster Sword near him as he gets up, starts dragging it across the floor as he advances toward Scryptorek, raises it into the air and brings it down. The Makuta catches the weapon in his hand and prepares to use a Shadow Hand Strike on Vakama, only to feel a sharp blade piercing through his abdomen; Cloud had stabbed him in the back with the Fire Saber!

"Who's the more foolish now, Scryptorek?" Vakama said proudly before slashing across the Scryptorek's chest with the Buster Sword, and prying the Mask of Time off to expose the Makuta's true face, one both fearful and fear inducing, as though the true reason behind his atrocities was simply to escape his own fate, while Cloud removes the Fire Saber from him.

After letting out a feral scream, Scryptorek is punched hard in the face by Vakama, who is quickly joined by Tidus, Squall, and Cloud before they all raise their swords high into the air.

"Unity!!!" They all cry out in unison before pointing the tips of their weapons together at the staggering Makuta, releasing a beam of red, blue, yellow, and green glowing energy at him. The combined elemental energies of fire, water, earth, and wind was far more than Scryptorek could bear in his wounded state, and he is finally defeated, falling down on his back. The remaining Toa and humans stood beside Tidus, Squall, Cloud, and Vakama as they looked straight at their defeated enemy lying on the ground.

"How absurd...! To be defeated by humans and Toa, is absolutely absurd!" the Makuta croaked, "but your victory, is a hollow one: ...you will NEVER go home!"

The Toa Metru and Toa Luminus hoped Scryptorek was lying as usual, but without warning, a strange beam of light shot down from above unto Nuju!

"What's happening?" Nuju panicked, "Somebody help me-" The Toa of Ice vanished from the planet without a trace, to everyone's horror!

"Brother!!" Whenua cried in anguish, just as he, too, was spirited away by a similar beam of light.

Then Tidus started to feel himself fade as well. "No... not again..." he spoke as he felt the light descend upon him, and Yuna, as she ran to his side. "I, I don't want to go away...! Tidus...!" Yuna whimpered tearfully, hugging him tightly. "Y..Yuna!!" he says, hugging her back with tears running down his face as the light takes them both at once!

"No," Onewa said, trembling with sadness, "It can't end like this..." And he was also made to disappear by the light.

"Uuuh, guys? I don't feel so good...!" said Matau, shuddering as he followed suit, reaching out to Nokama before he goes away!

"Matau!!" The Toa Water cried in grief, just before eyeing Rinoa and Squall also fading out. "I guess... we're not gonna make it this time..." Squall said somberly as he disappeared next.

"Squall!!" Rinoa screamed, and she was gone in an instant too!

"No, no, no, please, not you too sister!" Vakama pleaded as Nokama began to fade as well. "I'm so sorry Vakama. I truly am..." Nokama replied sadly, disappearing into the light, leaving Vakama on his knees, mourning for his fellow Toa.

Then he spotted Cloud desperately cradling a fallen Tifa's head to his chest, saying, "Tifa, keep it together! I can't lose you too... I... love you...!" "I know... somehow, I always knew..." Tifa replied tearfully, stroking Cloud's face gently before she vanished next, to his tremendous grief.

Seeing Vakama was about to disappear next, Cloud rushed to the Toa of Fire's side, and he says, "Before I go, know this: though we are worlds apart, I am proud to have called you all Toa, Yuna, Rinoa, Tifa, Tidus, Squall, and finally you, Cloud Strife."

"And I'm proud... to call you brother, Toa Vakama...!" Cloud replied, bumping fists with the Toa, who then whispered, "Lhikan... forgive me...!" And at that instant, Vakama was swept away into the light.

Cloud slammed his fists into the ground, kneeling on his hands and knees, crying silently. "Everyone... I failed you all...!" said the brokenhearted Cloud, as he was the last to be taken away by the strange light, leaving only Scryptorek's broken body behind.

"I may be defeated, but the history of Ankoku Nui... will never change...! Of any falsehood, my thesis is free... Of my life, I've no regrets..." the Makuta Scryptorek said with a morbid satisfaction as he stared up at the sky all alone, and passed on, never noticing the dark clouds parting, the light shining once again, and flowers blooming far in the distant grounds where the abandoned Chronoscepter lay.

Chapter 9
It was pitch black, and there was no one around. Is this a dark oblivion Scryptorek was implying the Toa and the humans would be banished to as their punishment for trying to prevent what the Makuta deemed Ankoku Nui's ultimate fate? No... Cloud opened his eyes, and found himself floating still in a spiritual plane of existence that looked very familiar to him.

"The Lifestream...?" he whispered softly.

Looking around, he saw Yuna, Tidus, Rinoa, Squall, and finally Tifa waking up, slowly, but surely.

"Are we... dead?" Yuna wondered.

"Actually, no...!" said a girl's voice.

"Aerith!", Cloud quickly recognized the sweet voice as that of his beloved Aerith Gainsborough, as she stepped out from a shining light in the middle of the area where the restored Crystal floats and continued, "Though, I'm afraid your new friends might be..."

"So... the Toa really are gone." Squall spoke.

"But at least we all saved Ankoku Nui, didn't we?" said Rinoa.

"Yes, you did!" Aerith answered warmly, "In fact, I believe life is already starting to appear on the planet again."

"Really? How can you tell?" Tidus asked.

"I knew right away, that my dear Cloud had been sent there, so I communicated with the planet's crystal and began healing it even as it's life was fading. The light that brought you here came from the fully restored crystal." Aerith replied.

"So all those Genjuu we defeated: they returned to Ankoku Nui's lifestream to speed up it's recovery?" Tifa guessed.

"And then, you and the planet used it's lifestream to help us defeat Scryptorek?" Cloud finished.

Aerith smiled happily and nodded as if to say yes, and she says, "Your actions helped restore the planet to it's rightful beauty, and now you can finally go back to your own worlds."

"You can send us back?" Tidus assumed correctly, "Thanks Aerith!"

"Even if we never see each other again, our hearts will always be connected, through our experiences together and our bonds as friends!" Squall assured the others.

Tifa and Cloud gave their cherished Aerith a farewell group hug and thanked her.

"Everyone's waiting for us..." Cloud said, smiling with tears of joy, "It's time to go home!"

With Aerith's help, the disbanded Toa Luminus finally went back to their respective homeworlds. Cloud and Tifa reunited with Denzel and Marlene in the city of Edge; Squall and Rinoa woke up in the Balamb Garden infirmary to be greeted by their friends and classmates; Tidus and Yuna washed up on Besaid to be welcomed back by the islanders with open arms; and of course, the Toa Metru had returned safely to the shores of Mata Nui, despite believing themselves that the former Toa Luminus had all died. Still, the humans and Toa went on with their lives in honor of each others' memory.

Many years passed since then in their galaxy, and the Toa Metru are all Turaga now, living peacefully with the people of Metru Nui and many other denizens of Aqua Magna on the reformed Spherus Magna, where Turaga Vakama had just finished this recently rediscovered tale, "And so it was that light was finally restored to the planet once called Ankoku Nui, where life begun to flourish again. And yet, we wanted so much to believe that our friends from those days of old had survived. Now that our tale has been brought back from the obscurity of time, we all have more than reason enough to believe, the Toa Luminus live on, as shall the mark of our heroism endure forevermore throughout the ages; That is the way of the Bionic Fantasy."

THE END...

Allusions

 * Final Fantasy
 * This game's world is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * The final attack used to defeat Scryptorek utilizes the four classical elements of the crystals.
 * This would make Vakama, Cloud, Squall, and Tidus analogues to the original Warriors of Light, as the Toa Luminus and Toa Metru are the crystal's chosen ones..
 * Final Fantasy II
 * This game's world is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Final Fantasy III
 * This game's world is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Final Fantasy IV
 * The Blue Planet and the Red Moon are some of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Final Fantasy V
 * Planet R is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Final Fantasy VI
 * The World of Balance/Ruin is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Ankoku Nui is referred to as a "World of Ruin", which is especially appropriate, given the entire story's tone and atmosphere is meant to capture the feel of the second half of Final Fantasy VI, after Kefka had obtained the Warring Triad's power and devastated the World of Balance, much like how Scryptorek destroyed almost all life on Ankoku Nui before the events of Bionic Fantasy.
 * The layout Scryptorek's lair is largely designed after Kefka's Tower, the game's final dungeon.
 * (Compilation of) Final Fantasy VII
 * Vincent Valentine, Zack Fair, and Sephiroth are mentioned.
 * Gaia is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * The abandoned mansion where the mausoleum is located under resembles the Shinra Manor.
 * The amount of official Genjuu, not counting the Artificial Genjuu Liche, or Ultimate Genjuu Kardahamut, is an allusion to the number of the game.Reminiscence of Old Friends Past.jpg
 * Cloud and Vakama both lost someone dear to them to their worst enemies; Aerith to Sephiroth and Lhikan to Teridax respectively.
 * Zack and Lhikan's similarities are also highlighted.
 * Cloud stabbing Scryptorek from behind is a callback to him doing the same to Sephiroth in the Nibelheim Incident.
 * Scryptorek's summoning of Kardahamut, sprouting of a right wing, and being weakened by the Great Gospel rain which also heals the Toa teams, as well as Cloud seeing Aerith again, are all callbacks to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
 * Denzel and Marlene appear in Cloud and Tifa's ending.
 * It is not mentioned in the story itself, but Cloud took the replica of Lhikan's Fire Saber as a memento back with him to Edge, much like how he inherited the Buster Sword from Zack.
 * Final Fantasy VIII
 * Ultimecia is mentioned.
 * Although not explicitly mentioned by name, Zell, Selphie, Irvine, Quistis, Cid, and Edea Kramer appear in Squall and Rinoa's ending.
 * This game's world is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer. Though not stated in the story itself, Scryptorek gave this world the name "Sorcentra", in reference to the Sorceresses and the Centra civilization.
 * The fan theory concerning Ultimecia being Rinoa in the distant future is brought up again in Chapter 4.
 * Final Fantasy IX
 * Gaia/Terra are some of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * The "heart" of Ankoku Nui, and the source of all native life on it, is a crystal, just like the planet of Final Fantasy IX.
 * The amount of chapters in this segment is an allusion to the number of this game.
 * Final Fantasy X
 * Sin is mentioned.
 * Spira is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * The "Shinra Connection" between Final Fantasy VII and X is finally confirmed.
 * Kardahamut turns into pyreflies upon being defeated, as all Aeons do.
 * Tidus' "Not again..." quote may be referencing either or both him being brought to Spira, or his disappearance at the game's end. However, he and Yuna only disappear from Ankoku Nui before reappearing in Besaid.
 * Although not explicitly mentioned by name, Wakka, Lulu, Rikku, and Paine appear in Tidus and Yuna's ending.
 * Final Fantasy XI
 * Vana'diel is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Final Fantasy XII
 * Ivalice is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * The six Toa Metru and six Toa Luminus put together is an unintentional allusion to the game's number.
 * Final Fantasy XIII (Lightning Saga)
 * Cocoon/Gran Pulse are some of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Scryptorek's actions, goals and motives are somewhat reminiscent of Bhunivelze's.
 * The Toa Luminus and Toa Metru, when being led by the treacherous "Jikanmu", is an allusion to the game's number, and the unlucky superstitions attributed to it.
 * Final Fantasy XIV
 * Hydaelyn is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Final Fantasy XV
 * Eos is one of the worlds shown on the map on Scryptorek's main computer.
 * Scryptorek's character is somewhat a foreshadowing to Bahamut's concealed true nature as The Dawn of the Future reveals.
 * The defeat of Kardahamut and then Scryptorek is meant to be an homage to GokaiWhite's initial speculations that Somnus Lucis Caelum may have been the one manipulating Bahamut, not the other way around.
 * The incompleteness of Scryptorek's archives is also evokes the same historical censorship themes as the falsifications depicted in the Cosmogony texts of Eos, which is an in-universe analogy to the general incompleteness of the game itself.


 * Dissidia Final Fantasy
 * It is mentioned early in the first chapter that Cloud, Squall, and Tidus all know each other from another incident when they were summoned from their worlds, which is, in fact, referring to the thirteenth cycle of the war between Chaos and Cosmos.
 * Tifa asking Yuna if they know each other as well alludes to their participation in the previous cycle, covered in the expansion, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, as well as them and Rinoa appearing all together in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT.
 * Among the contents of Scryptorek's archive room are copies of the Chaos and Cosmos Reports.
 * The Toa and Warriors of Light being sent back to their worlds right after Scryptorek is defeated somewhat mirrors what happens with Chaos' defeat at the end of the thirteenth cycle, except in the game, the heroes all end up in the Warrior of Light's homeworld first. It is unknown if the Toa Metru were sent straight back to Mata Nui, or if they appeared in the Lifestream or anywhere similar first, in which case, they might have met Turaga Lhikan and told him everything they knew about Ankoku Nui.
 * Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
 * The Gaia Theory is mentioned as the source of the original name of the World of Final Fantasy VII. Ankoku Nui is like the Earth in the context of Spirits Within, but with a crystal managing the planets energy flow and reincarnation of its life forms.
 * The Genjuu are implied to function a bit similarly to the Phantoms of the movie.
 * Other Square Enix titles
 * Chrono Trigger
 * The Delta Cross Strike attack is an upgraded version of the Cross Strike tech used by Crono and Frog.
 * The door to Scryptorek's archive room resembles Lavos' shell.
 * Kingdom Hearts
 * The scenery where Cloud and Vakama's conversation in Chapter 3 takes place is highly reminiscent of the Dark Coastline.
 * This is GokaiWhite's favorite scene because it shows their similarities, how much they've grown as characters, and that they've moved on from their past insecurities.
 * Among the contents of Scryptorek's archive room are copies of the Ansem and Xehanort Reports.
 * Squall's quote about the Toa teams not seeing each other again, yet still remembering each other, alludes a similar quote of his in the original Kingdom Hearts.
 * Lost Odyssey
 * Scryptorek's overall character, at least in the story itself, bears much resemblance to that of Gongora.
 * Among the contents of Scryptorek's archive room are Gongora's staff and blueprints for Grand Staff, a gigantic construct somewhat similar to Mako Reactors. This is more of an easter egg than a hint that the Lost Odyssey world exists somewhere in the universe.
 * Scryptorek's summoning of Kardahamut is an allusion to Gongora's summoning of the Luminous Magic Beast as the game's second to last boss. The Makuta even gives it a similar description to what Gongora says about it.

Trivia

 * This is the only segment where all the characters appear.
 * Matau's introduction of Nuju to Cloud is taken from the lyrics of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin.
 * One of the books in the archives of Scryptorek foretells of the Toa Mata's appearance on Mata Nui.
 * GokaiWhite originally planned to use the Toa Nuva instead of the Toa Metru, but ultimately chose the latter as he found the size difference of the former in comparison to the Final Fantasy Play Arts figures he owns quite awkward.
 * Squall's ultimate Limit Break is referred to by it's original japanese name, rather than "Lion Heart", which is also the name of his ultimate weapon.
 * The "true destined Toa" Scryptorek mentioned are the same ones from the alternate reality Vakama experienced in Bionicle Adventures #10: Time Trap.
 * Scryptorek's accusations of the Toa Metru being indirectly responsible for Lhikan's death are hypocritical because he would most likely have Lhikan killed anyway, had he survived the battle against Teridax, and slightly ironic because Lhikan has been revived on the Red Star (possibly by the time of this chapter).
 * The computer in Scryptorek's archives makes the same start-up sound as the PlayStation 2.
 * GokaiWhite got the idea for this easter egg from a similar usage of the PlayStation 1 start up jingle in Ratchet and Clank: The Movie.
 * Tifa's rapid punches on Scryptorek pay homage to Kenshiro's "Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken".
 * If the Toa Metru had paid attention to Scryptorek revealing the Makuta of Metru Nui's name to be Teridax, they would keep it secret anyway until the Karda Nui arc in 2008.
 * Scryptorek's "ZAWARUDO" spell originates from a signature move by Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.