Kaita and Nui Variant Headcanons

To start with, thank you to @outofgloom for helping me with the terms for less than Kaita, greater than Kaita, and the same for Nui. Please check out their work with the Matoran language and their writing, and please credit them if you use the terms in any major writing project!

Please keep in mind, these are for my headcanon/au, they aren’t intended to perfectly match canon. I’m perfectly fine with anyone else using the terms, but I would like to be at least tagged in a comment if you write or make anything using the rule sets I’ve made here. I’d really love to see what others can do with these ideas, if anyone else wants to use them as well.

This post is VERY long, and death/possibility of dying is discussed quite a bit in the part about Nui Atu, as well as a little bit in the parts about Kaita Kofo and Nui Kofo . If someone is still curious about it, but doesn’t want to read the death parts, please send an ask and I will try to help you.

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Kaita Kofo

This fusion of two beings can occur deliberately or has a 50/50 shot of happening if one member of a regular kaita is killed mid fusion process. The other result is that the fusion is just prevented. Kaita Kofo may also form if one of the three trying to form a Kaita just isn’t able to let go of themself enough to become one. They tend to be rather stable, but Kaita Kofo that were formed as a result of a dead Kaita member have a high risk of being permanently stuck together, because the splitting process may try to begin with the third member who isn’t actually there. Non-death related Kaita Kofo do not have this issue, but they may CHOOSE to be permanent.

Kaita Atu

Kaita Atu may form when another being near a forming Kaita also has the same goal and is willing to surrender themself to that cause. More powerful than a normal Kaita, but less stable as the fourth member was likely not expected and may not have been wanted as a part of the fusion. Elements do not matter for this fourth member, nor does species. If the fourth member matches the element affiliation of one of the intended three members, that element is given a further power boost beyond that of just having added another being’s power. Otherwise, the Kaita Atu gains a resistance to attacks of the fourth member’s element. For example, if a toa of Ice, a toa of Iron, and a toa of Plantlife were trying to form a Kaita while a being affiliated with fire was both close enough and had the same goal that those forming the Kaita did, the Kaita Atu will have a resistance to fire attacks, ranging from just taking half of the damage to near invulnerability. The level of resistance is based on both the fourth member’s dedication to their goal and their proficiency with their affiliated element.

Nui Kofo

This fusion of five is incredibly unstable and is the first to potentially be dangerous to fuse into. If anyone is injured before forming this fusion, there is a chance that those injuries will randomly be assigned to another member of the fusion upon separation. This is dangerous because Nui and Nui variant fusions are typically formed in extremely desperate situations, so there is a high likelihood of multiple members of the fusion having sustained potentially serious or life threatening injuries prior to actually fusing. Because of the random nature of the injury reassignment, it’s possible that every injury could be assigned to one person, potentially killing them if the injuries are severe enough.

Nui Atu

This fusion of seven is not limited by species or elemental affiliation and is only formed out of sheer desperation. Each member has a 50/50 chance of dying immediately once the fusion ends, and this fusion can only maintain itself long enough to achieve the goal it was created for at most, so becoming a permanent Nui Atu to prevent your own death isn’t an option. There is one way to lower the chance of immediate death, but it costs potential access to other elemental powers. If more than one member is of the same elemental affiliation, that element is only in the coin flip of whether they will live or die once, as opposed to once per person, and there is a second chance event if they lose. For example, if an element with two members is selected as one that will die, the second chance event is triggered, with the possibilities being evenly split between both members dying, one dying, and being fused into a Kaita Kofo upon separation from the Nui Atu. This Kaita Kofo is not permanent, in the sense that they are in fact able to separate, but there is a 75% chance one or both will die if they do. However, if they stay as a Kaita Kofo for a long period of time, this chance will eventually decrease to 25%. If all members of the Nui Atu are of the same elemental affiliation and that element loses the coin flip, they automatically split into a Kaita and two Kaita Kofo OR a Kaita and a Kaita Atu, for example. The chance of death will only apply to one of the resulting fusions, but it will be impossible to tell which one it applies to. Regardless of how many members of the Nui Atu are of the same element, the only possible results if they lose that first gamble are:

All members of that element affiliation dying

Only one dies, but the others are spared.

Separation into Kaita and/or Kaita variant fusions, with only one of the fusions having a chance of dying instantly if they choose to separate.

If the element with multiple members wins the first gamble, there’s a random chance (usually about 10%) that all injuries sustained by each member of the Nui Atu will be healed. This healing has a very small chance of even applying to members who lost the first gamble, thus functionally negating their loss. In those cases, the one who lost will die upon separation, but will be immediately revived. Regardless of how many (if any) members of a Nui Atu die, there will be trauma afflicted on the surviving members. Having that many minds fused together does no favors for anyone’s sanity, plus the situation that required the fusion was most likely horrific if they actually went through with fusing in the first place knowing all of the risks.

All of these variants are at least slightly less stable than the nearest fusion that is a multiple of three. They are frowned upon in some communities because they are considered violations of the system of three that is so common in the Matoran Universe. Having an ally nearby with a mask of possibilities or possessing one yourself is heavily advised if you think you may potentially end up in a situation requiring a Nui or Nui variant fusion.