Forum member Baxor brings us an unofficial conclusion to the official story The Powers That Be .

” Here is my latest epic, a conclusion to ‘The Powers That Be’. It’s not my best, but it was not the best story to make a conclusion to either. ”

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The Kestora were not happy, and because of that, the intruders would not be happy. The intruders had intruded, and their intrusion would not be in truth very truthfully enjoyable. The ice which bound the Kestora was now melting away, and the intruders would soon reap their consequences.
The stupid intruders were now thinking that there was more than one of them, however, it was not true. There were only three of them, but with their Masks of Independent Illusion they were allowed to make illusions that had the ability to move on their own.
With extreme force, one of the Kestora wrenched himself free of the ice, which shattered upon the floor. A second Kestora did this quickly, and finally the third.
“These intruders shall be very unhappy,” the first Kestora said
Another finished “Yes, very unhappy indeed.”

* * * *

“Mavrah!” Kopaka exclaimed, “But you‘re dead!”
“Dead? Am I? For all our sakes, I certainly hope I‘m not!”
This had all come about when Toa Nuva Kopaka and Toa Nuva Pohatu had been on a mission to find the murderers of Tren Krom and Karzhani. Their initial suspect had been an Air Toa named Lesovikk, who harboured an heavy grudge against Karzhani. However, after a thorough search for him they were led to the infamous Red Star by a mutant Matoran named Gaardus.
On the Star, they had met the three Kestora, who controlled it. Around the time that the Kestora decided that the Toa should die, Gaardus had quietly disappeared. Kopaka had frozen the Kestora and they had run away, because there was no way to escape the Star. Then, they had run into a Matoran of Earth.
A dead Matoran of Earth at that, Pohatu thought, the worst kind!
“How?” Kopaka said, befuddled
“How, what?” Mavrah responded
“How did you survive?”
“Well, first I must ask you a question. How do you know about me? Hmm?”
“The Turaga told us,” Pohatu explained
“Turaga? Which Turaga? Dume?”
“No, Turaga Nuju, Whenua, Vakama-”
“Ha! So they did survive! And now they‘re Turaga! Fantastic!”
“But it‘s not, it‘s true,” Kopaka said
“Oh, well, I suppose if you do want to know, there‘s no harm in telling. Though you must help me find a way to escape. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes!” Pohatu and Kopaka said unanimously. Of course, Kopaka said it with a frown and Pohatu with glee.
“Alright, well, I suppose that you know I was washed into the water, in the civil war between my rare aquatic beasts. Well, I was tumbling in the water, and I was choking. Water was flooding my mouth and I could barely breath. I then passed out, and I presumed I was dead. Well, I woke up a century or two past on an operating table in this place, and the Kestora were looming above me. They said that I had died and that it had taken them eight centuries to rebuild me. As you can imagine, I could hardly believe it, so I went about hiding in this place. But I am inclined to believe what they said now. And that is how I ended up in here.”
“Well, I‘m not sure about you being dead, but as far as it being eight centuries that you slept, in one way or another, it‘s the truth,” Kopaka explained
“So, what are we going to do now?” Pohatu asked, “Those Kestora are everywhere. How many are there!”
“Actually, there are only those three,” Mavrah said, “They have strange masks of power. I can‘t explain it, but it is that way.”
“To repeat Pohatu‘s question, what now?” Kopaka asked
“Why not just jump. This is a star. We‘re in the sky, so we could sort of jump off. If we all held our breath, then I could use my mask of speed and get us all out before we run out of breath. That‘s where Lewa would come in handy.”
“Lewa?” Mavrah asked
Pohatu was suddenly exited “Yes, Toa Lewa. Do you know him?”
“Yes, he was here once. Only briefly, then he left. Someone took him away. Said that he had big plans for Lewa.”
“What did this other fellow look like, Mavrah?” Kopaka requested
“Oh, tall green, an Air Toa. He had a blade, maybe two. The Kestora knew him. They called him Levik, or Lovikess or something.”
“Lesovikk?”
“Yes, Lesovikk, that was it! They knew him very well, and they held great respect for him.”
Kopaka pulled Pohatu to the side “If Lesovikk took Lewa, he might have taken Lewa over and used him to attack Karzhani and Tren Krom.”
“Wrong question, brother. The question is not ‘Why did the ash bear cross the lake?’, it‘s ‘Is that an ash bear or an illusion of an ash bear?’.”
“I‘m not following.”
“Think Kopaka! You were wondering if Lesovikk did something to Lewa, but what you should be wondering is if Lesovikk is Lesovikk at all! How do we know that he isn‘t really a Toa?”
“If not a Toa, then what? A creation of the Kestora? A hallucination of Mavrah?”
“But it can‘t be a creation of the Kestora, they respected it. Makuta?”
“Certainly not. Makuta likes to corrupt his enemies from the shadows he loves. I think at this point we can both agree that Lesovikk-Or whatever he is-Killed Tren Krom and Karzhani. And although it is a known fact that Makuta loathed Karzhani, He wouldn‘t want to kill Tren Krom, he want Tren Krom on his side.”
“Speaking of Tren Krom, if it is true that if you look into his eyes and you go insane, then you have to ask also, what could do that and not go insane?”
“Or perhaps, what if he already is insane?”
“Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps! You love that don‘t you,” the voices of the Kestora rang out. Pohatu and Kopaka wheeled around and saw that Mavrah had disappeared and that the Kestora’s weapons were aimed at them. In the fraction of an instant, Pohatu erected a stone barrier, and a fraction of an instant following that, the wall was met with explosive death rays.
For a few seconds they sounded off, but in the three seconds it took the Kestora to reload, Kopaka had smashed through the stone block and sent ice rays which froze the weapons.
The Kestora walked back, but Pohatu made a full wall of stone behind them which entirely blocked their way. “Now,” Kopaka said, “Can we please have a peaceful conversation?” the temperature in the room dropped steeply, and the Kestora shivered. For that matter, Pohatu shivered, but he would not let that get in his way.
One Kestora stepped forth “Yes, you may speak with me, but you must first tell me. Who are you?”
“I am Pohatu and this is Kopaka. We are Toa from down below. We once lived on the Robot of Mata-Nui, but he was taken over and destroyed. Long story short, of course. Why do you want to destroy us?”
“Because, you intruded upon us.”
“We will leave, if you can provide us a way, and some answers.”
“But where would you go if your world is gone, if the Robot is gone?”
“There is a planet below. We live there now.”
“And the Robot?”
“It is a pile of junk in the desert.”
“We will fix it.”
“You will, how?”
“We cannot explain. You will see eventually. Is that all of your questions?”
“No, we must know, who is Lesovikk? If you tell us that, then we will leave.”
“Lesovikk? Oh, yes, the Great Being who took the Toa-”
“Great Being? What?!? Are you quite certain?”
“Yes, He is a Great Being. Practically insane of course. Asks for the world. Will you leave now. We can provide you with a teleport.”
“Yes, We‘ll leave,” Pohatu finished. The Kestora disappeared for a second before reappearing with two wrist bands.
“You must simply press this button and think of where you want to go. Goodbye,” Pohatu shook his head, and Kopaka released the ice. Pohatu thought, and pressed the button. Suddenly, they were there.
Atero.
“Pohatu, why have you brought us here?” asked an exhausted Kopaka
“To talk, and explain.”
“You don’t really believe that a Great Being would kill us, and fight against us. Do you?”
“An insane one would. But it makes sense. Who else but a Great Being could look at Tren Krom? Could sneak up on Karzhani? And as for why I‘ve brought you here, think about it. Atero was built almost certainly by the Great Beings. It was probably the first city in the history of the universe. If we‘re going to find something, it will be here.”
“Perhaps. Let us go. And I pray to Mata-Nui that Mavrah will be alright,” They walked through the gates of the once mighty Atero. It had taken a single day for the oldest city in the universe to be ground into dust. Of course, it was not entirely dust, but dust was its foundations, and to the dust it was returning.
The arena at Atero was only a small part of it; the rest was much bigger. However, now it was just a monument to war, the prey of civilization, the power of evil.
That’s why we’re building New Atero, Pohatu thought, to show that good wins in the end even if it seems like bad has won at first.
“Pohatu, I must know, why are we here, why Atero. It‘s dead.”
“Yes, it is. Death is the absence of many things Kopaka, the absence of the physical life, absence of thought. But not secrets Kopaka. Death is not the absence of secrets. In fact, death is swarmed with secrets. They‘re everywhere that death is. If you want to find secrets, look around death.”
“True, I will not deny that, it is absolutely true. But what secret do you hope to uncover?” However, Pohatu did not answer, and simply motioned for Kopaka to follow him. They walked about the old arena, and Kopaka wondered if Pohatu was simply wandering around aimlessly. In fact, he was, but he wouldn’t tell Kopaka that.
“Kopaka,” Pohatu said, “Can you look down below with your mask and see if you find anything?” Kopaka nodded and looked. He stopped looking just a minute late, and then turned to Pohatu.
“Did you find anything?” Pohatu asked
“Well, it‘s more of what I didn‘t find that‘s important. Down below, there is a large square area whose inside is completely blocked from my vision.”
“Kopaka. What else are Stone Toa for?” Pohatu looked down and focused. Then, a path of stone going straight down appeared. Kopaka looked down it.
“It‘s a long way,” Kopaka noted
Pohatu embarrassingly laughed “He. What else are Toa of Ice for except making ice slides?”
As Kopaka made the tunnel slick, icing the walls, he thought, They’re good for a lot more than Stone Toa are. With their hard heads and thick skulls.
Then, the ice tunnel was finished. Kopaka motioned for Pohatu to go first, and Pohatu willingly went. With a heavy leap, Pohatu rolled like a rock down the tunnel. He rolled all the way until the tunnel veered sharply and he rammed with a crash into a metal wall. He fell back onto the ice and readjusted his mask. Icily and stylishly, Kopaka slid down the tunnel. He set out his hand for Pohatu.
“Lesson learned, brother?” Kopaka said
“What is that lesson ‘let your friend go first into danger’? Who are you kidding Kopaka, I‘ll never learn!” Pohatu laughed and slipped up to the door which he had hit. He waved his hand across the front, and then, with the force of a herd of Kane-Ra, hit the door with his fist. The door burst open, and he went crashing back onto the ice. Kopaka walked on through as Pohatu stood up.
“Okay, Kopaka, you win, lesson learned,” Pohatu said as he walked into the room. They looked around. It was entirely made from an odd sort of metal. Just as Kopaka could not see the inside from the outside, he couldn’t see the outside from the inside. It was basically a metal box with nothing but dust in it.
“Remind me, Kopaka, what I was going to look for,” Pohatu asked
“An insane Great Being, if I correctly recall. Which I do. Did you ever think to ask Pohatu, how this place is lighted?”
“No, I didn‘t. It certainly can‘t be from outside, though it may be light reflecting off of your ice trap.”
“It‘s an ice slide.”
“Trust me on this one. And speaking of ice slide, how are we going to get out with no Mask of Flight or Mask of Levitation?”
“I believe that it was you who was supposed to be thinking this time, not me.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot that part,” Pohatu looked about the room. He had to somehow find the lights. He suddenly noticed what he was looking for. A switch.
And where there are switches there is bound to be a light, Pohatu thought, and he began to walk over to the switch.

* * * *

He laughed his haughty evil laugh. Two more Toa were about to fall into his trap like, well, something that falls into a trap really easily. He had all of the great leaders of the Matoran surrounding him, and when three more Toa came after the three missing Toa, then he would have them all.
What would he do then? He would set them free. And then, he would hunt them down and steal their powers and absorb them into his own arsenal of powers. From all the energy, he would have exploded, but that was not going to happen. He had a very nice, ready made outlet for his powers, and unknowingly, the Toa would let him make it.
But what was the fun if the Toa came here and saw him? They might simply leave with their teleportation devices. And where was the fun in that?
And that is why, Lesovikk, alias, a Great Being, made all but Toa Lewa invisible in the room. The Toa would fall into the most destructive trap ever.
Friendship.

* * * *

Pohatu walked over to the switch, and Kopaka followed him to it. They both looked at it.
“Well?” Kopaka asked
“Well, if you don‘t have an issue with it,” Pohatu responded. He grabbed the switch and suddenly, the room shifted. Or maybe they shifted. It was surely they who had shifted, because they were from that room, to another, filled with wires and gizmos. Tubes of neon wrapped about the room, twisting and flipping. And at the end of the room, across from Kopaka and Pohatu, was Lewa, gagged and tied up.
Pohatu rushed over to Lewa, and with his enormous strength snapped the bonds. Then, he ripped out the gag from Lewa’s mouth.
Lewa gasped for breath “Quick-look behind you brother!”
Pohatu wheeled to see Kopaka chained to the floor, and above him was a figure that Pohatu recognized to well.
“Lesovikk!” Pohatu gasped. Suddenly, about the room, people chained to the floor began to materialize. Pohatu recognized them to well also. Helryx, Axonn, Miserix. There were more, but most of them beyond the former mentioned he didn’t recognize.
Lewa and Pohatu backed up against the wall, and Pohatu said “Lesovikk, what are you doing?”
“You should not be here!” Lesovikk responded, “You were destined to die in the belly of Mata-Nui. All of you were! But you did not! And now, you will all die anyway!”
“How, how can you destroy us all?”
“I cannot…Yet I need your other friends. They are around this area, and will eventually be led here.”
“Answer the question.”
“I was going to. I need your powers, to be absorbed into mine. Simple as that.”
“And what good will that do you?”
“Ha! I will take control of the Mata-Nui robot! I will destroy you all!”
“But It is impossible, you would need far more energy than we have, and once you absorb it, it will wear itself out.”
“Ah, but that is why I have made these machines. All of you here reproduce your elemental powers. I will put you into one of theses machines and you will remain there forever, powering your own people‘s destruction, with your eternal destiny!”

* * * *

“Gaardus, I am called Gaardus.”
Onua, Tahu, and Gali had spent a day or two trying to find Pohatu and Kopaka, and had wound up finding a mutant Matoran who supposedly knew where they were. They were about to take a teleport to the infamous Red Star, and they had no clue as to why.
“Look, all we want is our friends,” Onua pleaded
“And your friends are up there,” he handed them the teleport devices. Suddenly, a feeling came over him, and he wrenched back the teleports from the Toa. He fiddled with them, and made them right, and then he handed them back.
“Bad circuit,” Gaardus said. The Toa Nuva nodded and pressed the teleports. Then, the world around them faded, and they were………In chains.
“This is the Red Star?” Onua said in wonderment
“Well,” said Tahu, “we‘ll see it a lot better with these chains off.”
A foreign voice interjected “Actually, you‘re in my lair. Along with your friends,” Lewa, Kopaka, and Pohatu appeared, “And your clients,” Helryx and the others appeared.
“Who are you!” cried Gali Nuva
“I am Lesovikk, a Great Being. I will destroy you and your friends, but you have a task to be carried out,” suddenly, the ground shook. A screen revealed the junk heap of Mata-Nui’s body.
“I have the power-thanks to you-and your crummy little civilization will fall like dust!!!!!”

* * * *

Mavrah had finally found it. A Kanoka disk. And now the Kestora wouldn’t pay any attention to him. They were all focused upon something. Then, Mavrah leaped out from behind a wall and aimed the Kanoka disk at the Kestora.
“Hands up! You will help me escape!” Mavrah cried out
The Kestora paid him not mind, but one said “No!, We‘re too busy, we have to make the body of Mata-Nui usable again!”
“What?”
“Your friends asked us to do it, in exchange that they leave us in peace, and we are sincerely trying to do it! Would you help us?”
So taken aback was Mavrah, that he said “Well, I-I-I, suppose so,” Mavrah walked over.
“What can he do?” one Kestora asked another
“Nothing, we must wait for a status report. It is coming out right now,” The Kestora responded. He waited, and then a small group of runes appeared upon the screen. He red it in his head, and then he turned to the other two Kestora and Mavrah, looking grim.
“We cannot make the robot usable, not enough energy. But what we can do is make the body into water, and basically make it a huge lake. That is all that we can do.”
Mavrah leaped over, ready to help “What can I do.”
“We must make decent upon the torso of Robot, starting in ten-nine-eight……”
And those that were once enemies, now stood together, with a single purpose, working as one.

* * * *

The Great Being had a long climb, but now, he was on top of the Robot. He placed his hand upon the Robot, and his soul flew through it, until his physical body was gone. Now to channel the energy. He got it from the Toa, and Axonn, and all of them. And then, like it was being filled with blood, energy flooded across the limp form of Mata-Nui.
Suddenly, he could see through Mata-Nui’s own eyes.
I should have done this millennia ago, he thought, but all that matters is that I’m doing it now!
He knew that within seconds, he would be able to stand. Then, he saw it coming down from the sky, like a ball of red fire. It was the Red Star. He suddenly felt the energy halted, and his body sunk into the dusty soil. Then, it felt as if his limbs were turning into pure unblemished water.
Because they were.
Suddenly, he died. The Toa and all of the others were freed. Kopaka and Pohatu climbed up through a hatch which the Great Being had gone through, and looked with startled eyes upon what was happening. Mata-Nui was becoming a lake. Then, it was simply a lake.
Suddenly, like a geyser, the islands of Mata-Nui rose from the water. The Great Southern Continent. Visorak. Even the island of Odina rose. Then, the Red Star rose from the top of the lake, and through the windows, the three Kestora-And Mavrah, working as one in the cabin.
Tahu ascended from the hatch, along with the others, except Axonn “Come now,” he said, “friends old and new, it is time for the return to our home.”