Zaktan

"You think you know horror, Irnakk? Horror is looking into the eyes of the Shadowed One, knowing you are about to die... and then being forced to live. Horror is waking each day to see every part of your body moving on its own - a shifting mass of Protodites where once was solid metal and living tissue. Horror is what is in the eyes of your partners when they look at you... and in the cries of your enemies when your swarm engulfs them. Don't talk to me about fear, creature - I am fear!"

- Zaktan. Zaktan was a villain from the famous toy sets Bionicle and his respective media,being the primary antagonist and Big Bad of the 2006 storyline (The Voya Nui saga) and a minor antagonist with a small role in the 2007's (Mahri Nui's).He later appeared in a web series of the so called "Expanded Universe" small novels,until the events in the series led him to transcend into a reality-warping golden being,it is unknown if he was really conscious in that form or his mind was fused with the golden anomaly.Due to the novels being unfinished,the state of Zaktan,alongside many other Bionicle characters was left unknown.

The Skakdi race.
Previous to the majority of events of the Bionicle saga,the entire of Zaktan's species were put on experimentation,in order to become superpowered mutants,however,their numerous mutations and their vicious nature made them too dangerous and overthrow their masters,but they were gonna carry their powers and alterations onto their bodies forever.

Life before Voya Nui's invasion.
"He had seen more than his share of dangerous beings, but something about Zaktan gave him a chill. It was as if someone had taken rage and evil and given those qualities a body to walk around in."

- Vezok's thoughts when he meed Zaktan. Zaktan was a mysterious Skakdi slave from Zakaz before the mythic mercenary guild the Dark Hunters found him and gather him with five other members of his own race,the Skakdi. It didn't take long until Zaktan led a rebelion with his teammates to get rid of the leader of the Dark Hunters,the Shadowed One.Eventually,the rebelion failed,and the Shadowed One tried to obliterate Zaktan in order to make example of consequences,but Zaktan's body began to shift until the point his entire being became a microscopic swarm named "protodites".However, Zaktan's conscious was still standing,and was in complete control of his now fragmented body,the Shadowed One decided not to take more repercusions and leave him that way,considering that a fate worse than death.

Time before he decided to betray the Dark Hunters one more time,Zaktan was assigned to participate in a war between their ravenous guild and Teridax's dreaded brotherhood,when he was sent to guard a brotherhood's fortress,he accidentaly discovered the Makuta's plan to overthrow Mata Nui and make their leader the supreme god/entity of the Matoran Universe,Zaktan decided to get away and keep the vital information,even from his fellow Skakdi,who were know for their treacherous nature.

Zaktan became the leader of the five Skakdi after they defected from the Dark Hunters and named themselves Piraka,a matoran obscenity for "thief and murderer". Years later, Zaktan brought the Piraka to loot the lair of the supposedly deceased Makuta Teridax,known to Zaktan,he was still alive in a gaseous,greenish smoke substance named Antidermis that surrounded the area and gave the Piraka the knowledge of the Ignika, the mask of life the and filled their minds with the objective of to steal it from it's island,Voya Nui.which could endanger the Universe and Mata Nui's life.Accidentaly,one of the Piraka,Hakann,fired the power of a special spear named "the spear of fusion" onto Vezok,dividing his being into two parts:His formed but now erratic self, and Vezon,the logical mind of Vezok.This event was significant since Vezon decided to ditch the Piraka and go to Voya Nui on himself to steal the Ignika,but when he reached the mask it cursed him and one local giant beast, making them the new guardians of the mask of life.

"Toa" of Voya Nui.
"Toa Zaktan,here to help."

- Zaktan introducing himself to the matoran. Zaktan made all the preparations to arrive the island,and Teridax followed them and once they arrived at Voya Nui.he rested his new form in a special crystaline vessel.His plan was to make belive the matoran vilagers from the island that the Piraka were Toa the time enough to find out were the mask is.Zaktan and Teridax both knew with all details the arrival of mighty Toa heroes to the island,one of them (Probably Teridax)planned to lure a giant warrior former member of Mata Nui's order,Brutaka,to Voya Nui.There,in exchange for his help,Zaktan feeded him with Antidermis,a strengthener agent for Brutaka's race.When the time came,Zaktan ordered his Piraka to hunt down and enslave every matoran on the island using antidermis,the matoran worked for them as many died building lava canals and the Piraka Fortress.When the Toa from the original storyline arrived,Zaktan had to deal not only these heroes,but as well constant plots and rebelions against him,mostly created by Hakann,but his team easily defeated the first six Toa,and left them to die at the volcano eruption.Ultimately,thanks to the rebel matoran of the island,the toa escaped.

The Coming of the true heroes.
"It was Toa who defeated the Dark Hunters when we attempted to conquer Metru Nui. It was Toa who engineered the war between us and the Brotherhood of Makuta that still rages today. Leaving a Toa, any Toa, alive is like keeping a Doom Viper for companionship."

- Zaktan's point about the toa Nuva. The rest of Zaktan didn't last,since another six Toa,named Inika, presented themselves upon Voya Nui,with the help of someone as strong as Brutakka:a warrior named Axxon.and the matoran were leading a rebelion against the Piraka and,behind his back as always,Hakann was plotting with his bodyguard, Brutaka.promising him all the antidermis within the vessel for him if he helped him overthrow Zaktan,It didn't take long until Hakann backstabbed him and took his powers alongside Thok,during a fight with the toa.Eventually Zaktan allied with the Inika to defeat the uberpowered rogue Piraka.When they dealed with the menace,Zaktan decided not to kill the traitors yet since he needed them,for there was one last threat to steal the ignika,the Chambers of Fate.

The chamber of fate.
Toa and Piraka found both the Chambers that erradicated those unworthy of recovering the mask,in particular,the Piraka found themselves in the Chambers of Fate,whose trial was to recreate the living fears from the intruders.In this case,the chamber recreated the myth of terror of the entire skakdi race:Irnakk.Irnakk made every Piraka fall to their own nightmares,all but Zaktan,who stand to him,realizing that if one of them doesn't belive in him,he would die.at the same time Zaktan recognized that after all the dread he has endured in his life he didn't feel fear anymore,instead, he called himself as fear itself.After hearing that,Irnakk (or the chamber) found that Zaktan was worthy to keep his way onto the mask of life.The Piraka shortly followed him.

The chamber of life.
The Piraka found themselves trapped with their formed partner,Vezon,who now wielded the mask of life stuck to the back of his head.Vezon promised to handle the mask to him,if they kill Vezok.Zaktan was one of the first to attack Vezok,but he convinced the Piraka that Vezon wouldn't handle the mask even if he wanted to,who agreed.Zaktan then stopped the hunt for Vezok and sent the Piraka to attack the cursed being.Lastle,Vezon defeated them all with the spear of fusion.but before they killed them off.the Toa intervene.Defeating the half-skakdi and his giant spider beast in the end.But the Ignika was released of him and flew into the sea abyss below Voya Nui,Mahri Nui.Aldoe Zaktan and the Piraka were defeated,they tried to get to the bottom of the sea in order to take the Ignika once and for all.One thing they weren't aware of is that the pit of the sea was contaminated with a mutagen,leaving only the heads and dorsal spines from the skakdi,Zaktan losed great part of his swarm but he still was able to control part of it.

The return of the Piraka.
The Barraki became the primary antagonists of the storyline and Zaktan didn't have much of an impact in the current saga,but he and the Piraka tried to ambush the Toa once more,using the matoran of Mahri Nui for hostages.Ultimately,alongside his partners,he was taken down once more and take into custody for the Order of Mata Nui in Daxia.

Extended Universe
Zaktan apeared in the short stories,and was used for Helryx and the Toa Hagah as a guide to find Teridax.He guided them to Metru Nui,but ultimately was Teridax who finded them all.Zaktan was aparently killed in the ambush but a little part of his swarm survived.

Teridax took the other piraka from Daxia,and fused them alongside a variety of species,to a tank of Energizied Protodermis,what was left of Zaktan swarm joined them in the pool,fusing with all the beings that were throwed at the tank and emerged as a golden being with godlike powers sustained to other's dreams.It is debatable if we still can consider Zaktan as a conscious being,due to the fact that the golden being fused their minds as well as their bodies,and seemed to have a neutral perspective of all things,in contrast to the power hungry,ambitious mind of the Skakdi.

The writter of the Bionicle books,Greg Farshtey,never finished the books after Teridax's demise,and that left Zaktan/Golden Being's destiny unclear.

Personality
Zaktan was the most stranger and alien of all the Piraka.Always fighting with a deep and bittered cruelty towards his enemys and with a cold as death attitude towards his fellows,if he really had any of the last.If Zaktan works on a group is with the lonely intention of using everyone at everything.Zaktan was well known for being merciless ,capable of enslaving an entire population and get them work to death for his own goals.Ironicaly,due to his nature,he was the one that keep the Piraka grup together from constant fighting for a long time,and has endured Hakann's plotting since he was presented to the Dark Hunters.While the other pirakas were usually the murderous and orbitrary riffraff type,Zaktan stepped as a deadly mastermind.

When he was fused and turned into the golden being,his personality changed drastically,becoming totally neutral and only caring for others to keep feeding him their dreams.

Trivia

 * He was one of the few individues who knew the totality of the Plan.


 * The reason behind his mutation after the encounter with the shadowed one is unclear,aldoe Greg Fashtey estipulated it was his nature,from this we could understand that:
 * He was a mutant even before the experiments,maybe a side effect from the Ignika.
 * It was one of his natural powers.Same as one of the piraka's special power,Reidak, made him invincible after being defeated one time,Zaktan's special power made him unable to die.
 * Initialy Lego and Miramax raised the possibility of a 2006 storyline's film,but they soon discarted it due to the dark nature of some scenes and characters,Zaktan being one of them.