We are Metru Re-Write

[CeeCee]

This is a non-canon tale by the way. This is a lot different to the original WaM. Please read and hopefully enjoy. If you do see some spelling or grammar mistakes, do mention them but dont base your whole review around them.So please read on:Review Topic:http://www.bzpower.c...?showtopic=5946EDIT: I made some massive changes to the first to chapters and am working on a third ATM

1

Silence. There was nothing. Nothing but silence. Not even the birds made a sound as they flew by.Vakama watched as Toa Lhikan’s lifeless body hit the floor. He watched as the trembling little Po-Matoran withdrew his knife from its back of the Toa’s head. The crowd didn’t cheer. The music didn’t play. There was nothing. Noting but silence.Turaga Dume stood at the balcony of the coliseum. Around him, he saw the thousands of Matoran in their seats, shocked at what they had just witnessed on the stadium floor. His eyes had changed in demonic versions of their former selves. Not so much literally, but there was something that had changed in them that made Vakama feel uneasy. There was a certain monstrousness feeling about them. No Matoran had ever seen them like this before. This was what appeared to be a new Turaga Dume; however it had been there all along, just hiding and waiting for the right moment to strike.To the Turaga, the Matoran were nothing to him but his minions. Mindless drones who would obey his every word; if he couldn’t get them to follow it by loyalty, he would use fear instead.“Today Metru Nui!” he said, his eyes narrowed. “Today, you have witnessed the Death of a traitor!”His voice was load and authoritative, but not so much a shout. Vakama knew Lhikan wasn’t a traitor, he just didn’t know why the Turaga would lie. The crowd was silent from both the Death of their once, and the fear they had for their new Turaga.“Do you know what a Turaga is my Matoran?” He asked them. His voice echoed coldly around the silent coliseum. His back was straight but he had positioned his neck to look down at them. “A Turaga is the leader of your city. You should obey his every word without question. As leader of this city I order you to make no attempt to cross me”, He lifted his arm and pointed to the now deceased Toa Lhikan. His hand was struggling to stay up because of his age. “Toa Lhikan was not your leader, but I was his leader, and he went against me. He was a message!” The Turaga’s last sentence was a ragged shout. It made every Matoran in the crown shudder. “I assure you, the Vahki will not give up until they find every single last traitor in Metru Nui. You do not question their actions. You do not question their words. You do not, for any reason get in their way. They are your superiors”, A slight smile of satisfaction crept across the Turaga’s face. He had the Matoran where he wanted now.The coliseum emptied. Matoran’s bowed their heads in sadness. Some were crying. Some were silent, some were shouting but all knowing their hope and freedom was now gone. No one knew what Toa Lhikan had done or why he had been executed by Turaga Dume of all people. Vakama was almost certain of one thing though: That no one else would dare think differently about it. The streets of Ta-Metru were filled with sadness and hopelessness.“Vakama!” it was Nuurakh, the Ta-Metru Vahki. One of the six left from the Dark War. “Where are you going?”“Home”, Vakama Lied. He didn’t know if Nuurakh had spotted this. Nuurakh knelt down so he was eye level with Vakama. His abnormal head faced towards him. His disk launcher moved like a mouth, but this was purely for show to make them seem more Matoran.“Look.” He said. “I know Toa Lhikan meant a lot to you, and I know you meant a lot to him, but don’t do anything stupid. You and I both know that he must have been a traitor, for what reason would the Great Turaga lie?”“Yes, for what reason?” Vakama asked rhetorically. His eyes were looking down at the ground as he didn’t feel up to looking Nuurakh in the eye.“Vakama?” Nuurakh’s tone was more concerned than angry. Vakama was going to carry on the conversation but he stopped himself. He didn’t know whom to trust anymore. He thought he trusted Nuurakh, but he also thought he trusted Turaga Dume. It was hopeless. He felt as though this day would change him forever. The Vahki were no longer the approachable respectable figures they had been before he had entered the coliseum. They were too loyal to the Turaga, and not the Matoran.Vakama didn’t really know what had changed Dume, but after the Dark War the Turaga had been acting a lot more strangely. He had a lost a lot of power and respect in the war as people started to see Toa Lhikan as a greater hero and leader.“Vakama, you are aware of the new rules around the city starting from today aren’t you?”“Not really”, Vakama’s voices was emotionless. He moved the dirt around on the floor with his foot showing the grey rocky surface underneath.“Here.” Nuurakh handed out a folded piece of paper. Vakama opened it to read it:The Great City of Metru Nui: RulesAs you should have been aware, the Great City of Metru Nui is to undergo some changes in rules. These rules are as follow:1. Do not disrespect a Vahki Officer.2. Under no circumstance should you attempt to question a Vahki Officer if you commit a crime.3. Do not stay out after dark. You must return to your home when you hear the Night bell ring.Failing to comply with these rules will mean punishment decided by the Vahki officer of the Metru where the crime was committed. If the crime is serious enough or is repeated, the punishment will be decided by the Great Turaga.“Just follow the rules Vakama and you’ll be okay. I don’t see you as being the type to play up”, said Nuurakh. With that he stood up straight and walked away into the evening. The dark grey smoke from the Ta-Metru factories seemed to consume him as he walked away.Vakama was sitting with his back against the wall of one of the massive sky scrapers in Ta-Metru. It was night time but he didn’t feel like going home just yet. The night bell had rung just over an hour ago now and the sky had gone a dark orange colour. He looked in his back pack for some food to eat. Then he saw it. A brown piece of paper scrunched at the bottom.The day before Toa Lhikan disappeared he had come to see Vakama at his home. Lhikan seemed his usual self. He had his heroic posture where he would stand up straight and put his hands on his waist. He always stood like that. His voice was also unchanged as well; calm and reassuring. He was the perfect Hero. Vakama wished he could one day be a hero like Lhikan once was. He wouldn’t have really even guessed anything was wrong if Lhikan hadn’t of given him the note. Lhikan must have known something was up or he wouldn’t have given it to Vakama.Vakama reached into his backpack and grabbed the note. He pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper. The touch of it was almost cloth like. Printed on the back of it was the Unity, Duty and Destiny symbol. Values which Vakama had felt were long forgotten. He straightened the note on the floor and read it:Dear Vakama,I see a lot of my young self in you. You have fire in your heart like a true Ta-Matoran. You must never doubt yourself, even when times are tough. You will be called upon for great responsibility; a responsibility that you will not think you are ready for, but trust, you are. I will one day reach the end of my destiny, but on that day, you will find yours. And when that day comes, all I need you to do is follow the stars.Toa Lhikan.Vakama looked up at the diming sky not really sure what the note was trying to tell him. The stars were coming out. He wondered if there was a message in them somehow, that Lhikan had left. He didn’t see anything unusual about them. Then it hit him. That was the point. There was nothing unusual about the sky. Toa Lhikan’s Toa star was still there, burning as bright as ever. It was hovering directly above the Great Temple. “Follow the stars” Vakama whispered to himself.The Great Temple was sacred to all Matoran. It was where all the Metrus met up. A Metru was a district for each race of Matoran. Ta-Metru was a fire district, Vakama’s home and Lhikan’s former. Le-Metru was the air district, Ga-Metru was the water district, Po-Metru was the stone district, Ko-Metru was the ice district and, Onu-Metru was the Earth district. Matoran from each Metru had their own characteristics and traits: some mental, some physical.They were the main inhabitants of Metru Nui. Most Matoran stuck to jobs that were popular in their Metru, although some did other jobs that didn’t belong to it. Some Matoran were destined to be Toa.Traditionally, a Toa would guard a designated Metru (generally their own). They could control great amounts of elemental energy and were able to access their mask powers through the use of their Great Kanohi. They served as fighters and protectors for Metru Nui. They were typically taller than the Matoran and Turaga. Vakama wasn’t sure if it was possible to be a Toa without being a Matoran first. He wasn’t around when Toa Lhikan was a Matoran, but he had been told many stories. Toa Lhikan had been the last Toa of Metru Nui. Its last hope.The other Toa had either died or joined the dark hunters: A top-league mercenary organization. Most of the Toa that had done this had been mutated or merged. Because of the shortage of Toa in the Dark War, against Sidorak’s Kingdom, Turaga Dume got some top scientists to create an AI/organic hybrid known as the Vahki. They were slightly shorter than the Toa and they were not as strong or powerful as them either, but their sheer strength in numbers was not to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, only six remained alive at the end of the war. They now acted as a mix between Protector and law enforcers.He walked towards the great temple in silence, making sure not to make any noises that could alert the Vahki. There were only six left, but all it took was one to notice him and he was done. It was dark now. The sky had turned beautiful purple and the stars burned brightly. He was in Ta-Metru. It was a very industrial zone and had factories of all sorts, such as masks, tools and amour. Ta Metru was also known as the unofficial capital of Metru Nui. The air there was dirty and thick, especially around the heavily industrial sites, filled with massive factories and power stations. The residential areas were dotted with massive glass towers that appeared to reach the sky. It was by no doubt the richest Metru of Metru Nui. Most people chose to walk because instead of taking transportation shoots, as they were always clogged with congestion from the huge vehicles that carried all of Ta-Metru’s exports around the city.Vakama crept through the streets of Ta-Metru, the deep purple sky reflecting off the glass of the sky scrapers. The roads were eerily quiet. Normally they would have been buzzing with life but the new rules had made it a ghost town. He heard shouting, and it was close“No please! Please! I’m not a traitor!” It was a Ta-Matoran. He was blocking the door to his apartment“Don’t make this harder on yourself, Tamehk. We have reports of you doing deals with the Dark hunters”, this was Nuurakh. His tall body towered over Tamehk like a sky scraper. Vakama was hiding behind a wall. His heart was pounding in his chest. It was so load he worried that Nuurakh would hear it.“What? And you believe that?” said Tamehk. He was still standing strongly in front of his door and looking Nuurakh directly in the eye. That didn’t stop him from shaking though.“I have no reason to believe otherwise.” Nuurakh said. He was standing straight. He wasn’t sure why the Matoran was standing in front of the door. If he wanted to go in he could just pick him up and chuck him to one side.“Oh”, Tamehk laughed. “Oh now I see it”, he changed body to a more relaxed posture . He knew he wasn’t fully in control, but he understood the situation better now. “It’s the election right?”“Tamehk, what are you talking about?” Nuurakh’s eyes were narrowed in confusion. He un-straightened his body a little bit too, it was getting late and he couldn’t really be bothered to listen to the Matoran’s excuses or conspiracy theories.“The election!” Tamehk said. “Turaga Dume doesn’t want me to win the election against Ahkmou to be his right hand man”Nuurakh genuinely didn’t know what the Matoran was going on about. The Great Turaga had told him himself that Tamehk was a traitor.“Alright, enough of this now. Come with me” He rolled his eyes and grabbed the Matoran by the wrist. Tamehk tried to resist at first but gave up when he realised he was no way near strong enough.As Nuurakh got the end of the front garden he saw Vakama running down the road away from them. “Poor Matoran. He probably believed Tamehk and went racing off out of fear. There wasn’t really much use in chasing him. It would only go on Vakama’s record and which would ruin his life. What harm could he do anyway?” Nuurakh thought.Vakama ran as fast as he could. He couldn’t believe it. This night bell was only put in place so the horrors the Vahki did stayed quiet. Matoran would here the commotion but they would never have enough evidence to make a solid case. Besides, it was almost funny the secrets people kept in fear.The Great Temple was close now. He didn’t care about the Noise he was making, he had to get there. He was panting as he wasn’t use to all this running about. The he saw it: The Great Temple. He didn’t see it often as he didn’t live or work anywhere near it. It was magnificent. The four giant towers towered over the city. Fire was lit at the top of each of them which made them look like massive torches lighting up the sky. The temple its self was a massive dome shape. Vakama didn’t know how old it was but he knew it was very over million years. It was light grey but green moss grew around it like a wild fire. The two moons hovered over either side of the temple, as if watching over it like two eyes. Around the temple was a huge lake with several bridges crossing over it. Vakama gasped in amazement.Vakama had only been there once, when Toa Lhikan had taken him back in the days of freedom and before the Dark War. He had showed him everything there. Vakama nearly began to weep at the realization that he actually was gone. Toa Lhikan truly had been a great friend and mentor.He lightly walked into the Great Temple and kept looking over his shoulder for fear that someone was following him. His eye darted around quickly in the dark room, fearing that something was in the shadows, ready to pounce. The Huge Statues of previous once a great and powerful Toa loomed over him. Their eyes seemed to watch him enter which made him feel safer. Although Vakama knew they were just lifeless stone statues, he couldn’t help but feel that there was some warm presence about them. The entrance room was dark and cold. Moss grew all around it and it was the same light grey stone used on the outside of temple. His footsteps echoed no matter how lightly he stepped.He turned a corner and came across a massive hallway. The sign read: Welcome to the hall of all great Toa of fire. The hallway was well light with torches. There was a dark red velvet carpet that spread the entire length of the hallway. Pressed back against the walls were statues of previous Toa of Fire. Toa Norik, Toa Vulass, Toa Kavara, Toa Marikan, Toa Rezan, Toa Dume… Toa Lhikan. Vakama looked at the statue of his former friend. He was standing in his usual hands on waist pose with his head straight looking straight ahead. Although it was made of stone his face seemed so alive. He wondered how long it would be before Dume would have this statue removed. It was horrible to see that thousands of years in the future the great and noble hero would be looked down upon. Vakama’s moment of thought was interrupted by a loud crash. Curious, he ran across the long hallway to find a disorientated white Ko-Matoran on the floor. Vakama could see he had fallen from a broken stair banister. The old stone wasn’t that stable any more so all it would take was someone to lean on it and “crash”. A tan Po-Matoran was standing over him, unable to control his laughter.“So this is why I never see Ko-Matoran’s outside because they break everything they touch. Makes me wonder why you make everything out of ice”, The Po-Matoran stood there, whipping the tears of laughter away from his mask whilst still laughing.“That’s it, Onewa! I’ve had it with you!” The Ko-Matoran got up from the floor. His face was shaking in anger and determination. He raised his fist to punch Onewa but the Po-Matoran’s reactions were too quick and he grabbed it, pulled it hard and then kicked the Ko-Matoran to the ground. Onewa’s face had been consumed in anger. His eyes were narrowed and pointing like daggers into the Ko-Matoran. It was almost as if he was disgusted about how the Matoran even dared do cross him.“Si’ down, Nuju”, at first Vakama though these two might have been friends joking around, but he had just witnessed made him think otherwise.“Hello there, I’m Vakama”, said Vakama. Nuju, just noticing him, gave a sigh of relief as he realised he wasn’t just about to be beaten up by Onewa.Nuju got up from the floor again and dusted himself off. He hated dirt. Vakama could tell it was a painful effort for Nuju to raise his hand for Vakama to shake it.“Nuju” He said. Onewa shook his head. He held his fist out to Vakama. Vakama mirrored it. “I’m Onewa”, he said, he made an effort to straighten himself to appear taller. Vakama didn’t know what to make of him, especially what he had just seen. The three of them heard voices and turned around. Two Matoran walked down the opposite staircase to the one Nuju had fallen down.“Wow, look at the place”, said the dark green Le-Matoran. “Not bad for a first date, ay Nokama?” he joked.“Oh, Matau”, The Dark blue Ga-Matoran shook her head but still smiled at his charm. Too Vakama, she was beautiful. Her eyes seemed to illuminate the room.“Oh hey look!” Matau said. “We’ve got some third wheels”. He had a huge smile on his face. Like a young Matoran on Gift-day. He leaped from one step to the other until he got to the bottom one, did a summersault and then took a little bow. Vakama wondered what was going on in his head. He seemed pretty content so he wasn’t going to judge.“I’m Vakama.” He said to Nokama. He held her hand in his for a moment. It felt small and light in his. He could tell she was the peaceful type.“Nokama”, she smiled and fluttered her eyelids once.“I’m Vakama”, he said, not realising he had already said it. Their eyes met. Just for moment he forgot all about what had happened to today, and his grief for Toa Lhikan disappeared.“Ahem.” It was Matau “and you might be?” Vakama let out and embarrassed laugh and let go of Nokama’s hand immediately.“Sorry” He said. “I’m Vakama”. He shook his hand.Matau squinted his eyes and looked up “I know, you’ve said three times now” “I’m sorry” Vakama looked down at the floor ashamed. “This is Onewa and this is Nuju”“Nice, I’m Matau”“So it appears we almost have a full house, save an Onu-Matoran” Said Onewa“Actually, you do”. A Matoran stood out from the shadows where he had been hiding. His black amour made his dark green eyes even more vivid. He spoke carefully and clearly; his voice was deep but friendly. He was stocky and stood straight with his hand behind his back as if he was standing at attention. “I’m Whenua by the way. Sorry for appearing so rude. Seeing as you all seem like no apparent threat, I thought I would show my face”. He smiled politely.“No apparent threat?” questioned Onewa in disbelief. “What about me?” Nuju grunted but it came out louder than he intended. Onewa punched him in the arm, hard. Whenua walked towards Onewa, grabbed him with one hand, and thrust him against the wall.“That’s right, no apparent threat.” Whenua smiled.“So I take it all of you are here because of the note, right?” asked Vakama as he got out his note. The other Matoran did the same.“Why do you think Toa Lhikan sent all of us here?” Asked Nokama“Don’t ask me”, Said Onewa, rubbing his shoulder where Whenua had grabbed him. “I just want to get out of here, so can we hurry up please?”Led by Whenua, they walked in silence through the long corridors of the Temple. It was a long walk. Vakama didn’t even realise the temple was this big. They were in what seemed to be maze of corridors yet Whenua seemed to plough through them without hesitation. The walls were made of a dark grey stone, carved like bricks. A red carpet had been laid in the middle of every corridor like the one in the hallway. The Temple was filled with giant carvings of heroic Toa, Turaga and, Matoran done by ancient Po-Matoran. Onewa gazed in amazement at all of them. Sculpting was a big part of his culture. The corridors were well lit with torches. The group kept on hearing random echoes and creeks, which was most likely because of the temples age.The six eventually got to a room with a dead end. It was a fairly small cylinder shaped room. The spaces in-between the stone bricks were laced with gold and a circular red carpet sat in the middle. A single huge light stone was placed at the centre of the ceiling. “Great!” said Matau. “The miner brought us all this way, just to find out that we took the wrong turn.”Whenua gave off a slight huff. “When will you all realize that mining has become a fairly small part of the Onu-Metru job industry? We do jobs like engineering and archiving, like myself” Whenua pushed his shoulders back and pointed to himself with his thumb.“So you’re either swinging tools when engineering or going down into deep dark scary holes when archiving. Sounds pretty much like mining to me” Said Onewa.Whenua glared at him. “So explain to me what sculpting is? Oh wait, swinging tools”,“Yeah well…” Onewa tried to speak “And how do you think you’d get those fancy rocks to sculpt with if we didn’t mine them for you?” Whenua interrupted him.“But you…” “And all the machinery you use to make you sculptures? All invented by us.”Well of co…” And let’s not forget about what most of you carve? Its ancient history, right? Well I’m pretty sure archiving plays a big part….”“Okay, okay!” said Onewa folding his arms and sighing. Whenua had won this round.“Look” Said Nuju. “None of this bickering is going to help the fact that we’re all still lost.”Whenua looked at him. A vague smile formed on his face. “Lost? You underestimated me.” He pulled back the red carpet covering the floor of the room. Vakama had never seen anything like it. It was a giant manhole, covered in wires and circuits. It was bright gold and had strange engravings scratched into it. Whenua wondered if it told a story. He studied it for a short moment. Wires were covering most of the intricate detail but he could distinctly a humanoid figure holding some sort of small halo like shape, engraved at the top of some sort of mountain whilst a battle was raging on bellow.“I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Nokama stole the words right out from Vakama’s mouth.“I…I have.” Nuju raised his hand in a way that wasn’t sure if it actually wanted to come up. It kept on moving down a little bit every time it made its journey upwards. Onewa rolled his eyes. “It’s an old Ko-Matoran manhole system. It was used centuries back as bunker doors when the Great Ice Rahi, The Komasa attacked Ko-Metru. They were both clever and strong, but neither their intelligence nor strength could overcome this lock. All Komasa eventually died out of starvation.”“So how do we open it?” asked Vakama.“You don’t. At least not from the outside.” Nuju replied. Nuju’s eyes then lit up like a fire. “There is one way we can do it, although, if I get it wrong, I could fry us all.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. To Nuju, it was just of the many possible outcome of a decision. Every decision had one.“Well then, we’re all screwed” Said Onewa. Nuju ignored him“Who is the strongest here?” he asked.“Me.” Onewa folded he arms and pushed his shoulders back. Whenua laughed and strolled slowly towards the manhole, shoving Onewa with his shoulder as he walked past.“Where do you need me?” He said.“Over there by that lever. I need you to pull it when I say go. I hope you’re strong enough, it would usually be done by a machine”, said Nuju, frantically looking at the wires on the manhole, trying to figure it out.“I am a machine”, joked Whenua. He walked over and held the lever.“Okay, Onewa. Seeing as you want to be useful you have the most important job of all!” Said Nuju.“Don’t patronise me. What do you want me to do?” Nuju didn’t answer, still looking at the wires and circuits “I said what do you want me to do? Don’t take all day about it!” said Onewa aggressively. Nuju snapped out of his concentration, looking shocked and scared for a moment. He looked at the other Matoran. They all gave him encouraging looks so Nuju chose to ignore Onewa’s immature behaviour.“If you want to help, you’ve got to stop that bar from touching the floor. It’s going to want to do that when Whenua pulls the lever. If it touches the floor we’re all going to be in bits. If you actually grew up, you’d know that I wasn’t being patronising and actually is the most important job. Got it?” Vakama was amazed how in control Nuju was over Onewa. I didn’t seem like it would normally role that way between the two of them. Onewa looked dumbfounded; his eyes were wide like a shocked energy hound pup, not used to Nuju talking back at him.“Okay man, just calm down, your embarrassing yourself” Onewa joked trying to catch everyone’s eye, but failing to get the other Matoran to laugh.“Onewa?” said Matau.“What?” Onewa shouted. He tried his “dagger eyes” on Matau but failed to get past his tough mental exterior.“Just shut up and hold the bar so we can get the Karzahni out of here”. Onewa held the bar firmly in his hands. Nuju started the count down.“Three. Two. One. GO!”Whenua stated pulling down the lever. Nuju was frantically fiddling around with the different wires. Suddenly the metal bar started to travel downwards.“Guys…guys I don’t think I can hold this. Onewa was struggling to hold the bar. If he held on, his fingers would be crushed between the bar and the floor, but if he let go, all of them would be in pieces all around the temple. A snapping noise was heard. It was Onewa’s fingers.“Nuju for Atakha’s sake turn it off!” Onewa screamed. He had his eyes closed shut so he couldn’t see his fingers breaking. Vakama didn’t know whether Nuju was ignoring him, or was just too concentrated to hear anything. A horrible scream started coming from Onewa. Vakama didn’t blame him. His fingers were literally being crushed, and slowly. Whenua looked concerned but continued to pull the lever. Everyone was covering their ears from Onewa’s screaming. Nokama was crying so Matau put his arm around her to comfort her. Although Vakama knew this was the wrong time, he couldn’t help but feel jealous.“Nuju!” Onewa shouted. Nuju was still too fixated on the wires to notice anything.“Nuju please!” Onewa was stamping his foot on the ground to grab Nuju’s attention.Vakama felt like he was going to be sick. The snapping noises weren’t stopping. The bar would go straight through his fingers if Nuju didn’t hurry up. Matau closed his eyes to avoid witnessing the horrors any longer.“Nuju!” The final shout was Whenua’sThe lever Whenua was holding shot back and the bar crushing Onewa’s finger lifted.“Done.” Said Nuju. He shook the dirt off his hands, looking at the masterpiece.“You psycho!” cried Onewa. “Could you not here me screaming?”“Of course I did” Said Nuju. “But I didn’t expect much else from the feeling of a 40 ton weight crushing down on your fingers.”“You knew this would happen?” Shouted Onewa, looking at his damaged fingers; they were all bent and crooked.“Sure I did”, said Nuju. “Don’t cry though. You want to look manly in front of all the guys don’t you?” Shock came across Onewa’s face.“W…what?” he trembled “How did you…?”Nuju smiled. The other Matoran seemed confused on what he was implying. Every one besides Onewa, that was.Onewa, Nuju and Whenua stepped off the manhole. They all took a part in lifting the manhole, whilst Onewa sat at the back of the room, tending to his broken hands.The manhole sprung open, revealing a dark spiral stair case.“Allow me” Said Matau, smiling. “I’m an expert on dark holes”.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Alterego

[CeeCee]

2

They walked down the long dark spiral staircase. Matau wondered if it would ever end; it was impossible to see to the bottom. He didn’t really know if that was because it was so dark or if it was because it was so deep. He wondered why Toa Lhikan had summoned them to this place. There was nothing special about him. He looked at Nokama but her eyes didn’t meet his. He dropped his head in sadness. From what he had seen of her, he really liked her. Sure, there had been other Ga-Matoran that had been prettier than her but she was a nice person to be around, she was friendly and compassionate. Matau wondered what had come over him. He always measured Ga-Matoran on looks and not personality. It was useless in feeling anything for her though. After seeing the way she looked at Vakama earlier, it was obvious she didn’t feel the same way.It felt like they had been walking for a millennium by the time they got to the bottom. Their feet ached and their legs were tired. The six of them were in a pitch black tunnel. None of them could see a thing, there was no light at all, besides the light stone that was placed above the staircase above. They could see nothing at all, the drips of water from the ceiling splashed against the floor. Drip. Drip. Drip. It was cold and damp and there was a distanced smell of wet stone.Whenua felt around in his backpack. He pulled out a small wooden torch and some matches.“Hold this”, he said to Onewa, passing him the torch. The empty tunnels made his voice echo. He lit the match and set it to the torch. The rock walls were black but the yellow and green algae that grew around it made them look like its natural colours too. They were standing on a half eroded wooden platform when the stair case ended. The water had formed puddles on most of the tunnel floor. It wasn’t like the crystal clear water that was found in Ga-Metru, this was a murky brown and had algae forming on the surface.Their feet splashed and they trudged their way through the muddy puddles of the dark tunnel, lit only by Whenua’s torch. Onewa’s shuddered from both the cold and the fear of only being able to see what the torch lit up, which really wasn’t a lot “How deep down do you think this place is?” Vakama asked.“Hmmm” Whenua thought deeply for a moment, tapping his finger on his chin. Matau had no idea what calculations were going on his head and really didn’t care. Did it really matter how deep they were? Vakama did ask some stupid questions.“I would say about 100 feet down”, Whenua finally said. “It’s a rough figure but it’s a good guess” He continued.“Hey Onewa you’re being rather silent. It’s a nice change”, Matau half joked. Onewa looked deeply insulted for a moment. He glared at Matau as if he was going to murder him.“How long did it take you to come up with that gem Matau? Don’t fry you brain cells”, Onewa responded harshly, almost spiting his words. “Oh but, my fingers are fine by the way. Don’t all rush at once to ask me”“I think people would ask if they were genuinely interested”, said Matau. Onewa didn’t respond, he just crossed his arms and huffed, muttering some Po-Matoran curse word. Matau wondered what Nuju had meant when he said something to Onewa about looking manly in front of the guys. Whatever he meant it seemed to frighten the life out of Onewa. Mind you, that rock head would get offended by nearly anything that was said to him. Matau would probably ask Nuju later, although he didn’t really expect much of a lengthy response from a Ko-Matoran; they were always quite short with the sentences and didn’t really like to socialise. This was very different to the Le-Matoran, who would rarely be found alone and would spend entire nights partying before realising they had work in the morning.The six of them stumbled across two passage ways. One was leading left and one was leading right. They were lit with torches but poorly. Many of them had died out.“We should split up into two groups” Vakama suggested. He looked at the others for approval. He wasn’t much of a leader and wouldn’t fight for his opinion if it was against the majority.“Good idea” Said Matau. “Me and Nokama will take the left and you guys can take the right”“Oh Matau”, Nokama laughed. “You’re so funny”“It wasn’t a joke” said Matau. He gave her a perplexed look. His eyes squinted in confusion and a lost look came over his face.“Let me rephrase that for her”, said Onewa. “You’re so funny how much of a pathetic loser you are by trying to get me alone in a blatantly obvious scenario”, he spat.“Onewa!” Nokama said. “Matau, you know full well I didn’t mean it like that”. Matau was ready to fly-kick that stupid little Po-Matoran. ”Matau, I think it would make sense if we evened out the sides. I think Vakama should come with us” Nokama said.“Go figure” said Matau under his breath, his teeth clenched.“What was that?” Vakama asked, even though heard clearly what Matau had said. Well look at Vakama with his supersonic hearing. I bet Nokama digs that stuff, thought Matau thougt sarcastically.“Nothing” Matau sighed. He couldn’t look Nokama in the eye in case she caught on to what was going on.They said their farewells before splitting up. Matau, Nokama and Vakama all took the left while the others took the right. The tunnel was poorly lit and had uneven ground, making it easy to trip. This part of the tunnel was dryer. It was made of a different stone to the other tunnel. This one was a shiny black, it was beautiful. Whenua had given them a torch just in case things got really hard to see. There was a gloomy haze at the end of the tunnel so it was impossible to see to the other end. As well as being uneven, this shiny black rock was slippery to walk on.“What type of rock is this?” asked Matau“Matau, this isn’t rock”, Nokama said, “Its crystal”“Whoa-”, said Matau. The flames light flickered off the many angles of the crystals, almost making them look like light stones. Matau then noticed they weren’t just a shiny black, but had white and silver lines laced into them. They were a sight to behold.Matau looked at Vakama. He didn’t seem happy at all. Matau realised he may have been a little harsh on Vakama when he muttered that sentence earlier, and didn’t want that to rub off on what could be a good friendship. Vakama really did seem like a nice guy and Matau wasn’t the type to hold grudges.“So Vakama what do you do for a living?” he asked. He smiled at him a put his hand on Vakama’s back. It was his own way of saying sorry.“I forge Kanohi”, he replied, slightly embarrassed, as he had met Matau before when he made his mask. Obviously he didn’t remember.“Oh right? Did you make mine?” Asked Matau, pointing to his mask and tapping it three times.“Maybe, it’s hard to tell”, Vakama lied. Matau could tell he was finding the conversation awkward.“Well whoever made it, did a darn good job.”“Probably me then” Vakama joked. They both laughed. “What about you?” he asked.“I…Wash vehicles” Matau said. He was ashamed and looked down to the floor. He knew exactly what the next question would be. He was going to ask why he didn’t fly them.“So you don’t fly them? Vakama asked“No… I didn’t pay much attention in class. I guess I paid for it.”Vakama nodded his head in acknowledgement. He didn’t really know what else to say.Nokama was up in front, scouting ahead. She didn’t really want to talk to them. They both seemed nice, but she really felt she needed some time alone. It was all too much seeing Lhikan be executed, and if she talked to them she would probably end up losing her temper, which wasn’t like her. She would normally either walk away from conflicts, or try and settle them with words.“Hey, Nokama, need a hand?” Matau shouted up to her. She put her finger on her lips to silence him. It was only a short amount of time before one of them would have called her, she guessed. She looked back at them. Out of the group, they were the two she had the most time for, besides Whenua. She didn’t specifically dislike the other two, in fact she actually did like them, but their hatred for each other made her feel uneasy. She figured she would speak to Matau and Vakama. It wouldn’t hurt to talk about the situation to them. It was always better not to bottle it in.The three of them regrouped.“See anything?” Vakama asked.“Nothing. It appears we’re down here alone.” she replied, “Besides the bats that is”“It’s funny”, Vakama said. “With all that’s been going on just now it’s hard to believe what happened just a few hours ago.”“I know”, said Nokama. A sadness washed over her face, and the illumination in her eyes seemed to dim. “Were you close?”“Very” Said Vakama. “I used to travel with him; I thought he’d be here forever”.“I’m sorry, Vakama”, she said. She frowned sympathetically.“And you Matau?” She asked.“Yeah, I used to talk to him a lot” He brushed it off. He wasn’t much of a negative emotions kind of Matoran. It hurt him deeply that Lhikan had died, but he thought best not dwell on it. “But what I don’t understand is, why us? Why are we so special to be summoned to the Great Temple?” He asked.“Maybe he trusted us?” suggested Vakama.“Really?” said Matau. “I wouldn’t trust myself with anything, let alone Onewa.“Maybe its destiny” said Nokama“Destiny for what though?” Vakama questioned. Last week Vakama thought all his destiny would amount to was making masks for the rest of his days, and seeing as how he’d never really thought he’d be killed with the sort of life he led, that might have been an eternity, literally.They carried on walking a little further. They had to walk half as slow to avoid slipping on the crystals. Not only was the floor slippery, it was also spiky. If you hit one of those spikes when falling, you would get a serious cut.“What do you think of the others?” asked Vakama to both of them.“They seem okay”, said Nokama. “They seem to argue a lot though”“What?” said Matau, his face was in pure disbelief, with his eyes and mouth struck wide open. “You don’t find that entertaining?”Nokama looked slightly irritated for a moment. She scowled at Matau.“Not all of us get pleasure of watching people fight. I prefer the more peaceful approach to things. What do you think Vakama?” Her tone softened.“Well, I mean it’s always good to solve things on a nonviolent way”“She didn’t ask that did she, Vakama?” Matau provoked jokingly “She asked if you found their bickering entertaining”He glared at Matau. “Well. I can honestly say I agree with Nokama”, he lied. He looked at Matau’s jealous face.“That’s funny”, said Matau, playing along. “That’s not what you were telling me back earlier in the cave, Vakama” Matau lied. The two of them looked to each other and burst out laughing, realising they had just played each other at their own game. Nokama was confused, she didn’t seem to get the joke and narrowed her eyes in confusion.“I haven’t got a clue what you two are laughing about” She said. The two of them shrugged it off and lied that they would tell her later.With about twenty minutes of walking, the three Matoran travelled to the end of the main tunnel. There was an entrance leading on to a gigantic cavern. Vakama looked to a small door on his right. “I wonder how the others are getting on now?” He asked.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“I’m telling you, we’re lost!” Onewa shouted“We’re not lost”, Whenua said. His face was expressionless and his voice was calm.“I’m just saying, I know what I saw”. Onewa was looking around for another exit.The trio had come to a dead end of the tunnel and were lost. Nuju looked around, scanning the area. He used his telescopic eye to zoom into the black crystals to see if there was anything to show them where to go.“Maybe we took the wrong tunnel”, suggested Nuju.“Or maybe you need to stop doubting me”, Whenua smiled.” I know this place like the back of my hand”“Uh, yeah Whenua, because it’s not like were at a dead end” Onewa hissed, his tone was sarcastic. He was sitting down on a rock, almost dying of boredom and frustration. Nuju had been scanning the place for about twenty minutes now, and he had found nothing.“I just don’t see how we’re in the right tunnel. It was a straight path and now we’re at a dead end”, said Nuju, still scanning the crystals. They were amazing up close, the white and silver lines appeared to be part of the crystals outer layer bit actually they were more like lightning bolts going on inside. Then he saw something. It was a little lever hidden away in a hole from a crystal.“I see it!” Nuju said excitedly. He turned his telescopic eye back to normal.“Nice touch Nuju”, Whenua said, squinting to actually see what Nuju had found.“Yeah where did you get that thing anyway?” asked Onewa. He was trying to touch his hands but he kept flinching with pain every time he tried to do so.“I used to be near blind”, he said. He had lost a lot of confidence when talking to Onewa since he broke his fingers. He felt bad no matter how much he deserved it, and could only imagine the pasting Onewa was going to give him when they healed. “I got one of these put in. My other eye is still as bad” He looked down at the ground and his words were almost a whisper. He knew Onewa was only being remotely nice to him because Whenua was with them both.Onewa was the only Matoran here that Nuju had known before all this, but it was for a negative reason. At first it started with general name calling. Nuju could handle that, for a while at least. It wasn’t unusual for Po-Matoran to pick on Ko-Matoran a little bit, but Nuju seemed to get it really bad. Nuju then once tried to punch Onewa. It was a big mistake. He blocked it of course; as he was by no doubt the stronger Matoran. The only thing was that Onewa’s attack then became physical. It wasn’t so much punching. There was rarely any of that unless Nuju hit first. It was more sort of shoving, or just petty stuff like kicking the back of his legs lightly so he would fall over, the sort of stuff that goes unnoticed. For some reason Onewa just had a massive hatred for him, there was no real reason for it, he must have just woke up one morning and thought “That’s what I'm going to do today”. Nuju hadn’t really told anyone, besides Keerahk, the Ko-Matoran Vahki. He loved Keerahk, how he just wanted to hold her and kiss her. She would never find out though. Nuju was just no good at talking to girls, especially ones that he liked. The only problem was, she didn’t see I'm for who he was. To her he was just “Little Nuju” That’s what she called him, “Little Nuju”. Atakha how he hated that. He was so intelligent yet all she saw him for was how small his body was. He’d love to tell her how he felt; she was the closest friend he had.He walked up to the lever and pulled it. A hidden door had disguised itself as just another wall of crystals. Their happiness was short lived, for the thing they saw would stay with them for as long as they lived. It was a Matoran. He was strung against a wall with two nails ledged in his hands; his feet were dangling off the ground. He was silver all over with silver feet and silver body. He wore no mask and his head was down as if he was dead.“Is…Is he alive?” asked Onewa. His eyes were wide open, as if they were being held open by someone and couldn’t be shut.“I uh…” Whenua couldn’t get his words out. His face looked paralysed in fear. Nuju walked over slowly, ready to have a closer inspection at the tortured Matoran. Nuju’s heart was pounding in his chest so hard; he thought it would tear out of him. The silver Matoran’s head shot up. There were hollow sockets where his eyes should be, yet he seemed to be staring into every single one of their souls. Just as Whenua was about to speak, the thing started to scream.Its scream was terrifying. It had two pitches; one low and one high, one in pain the other one pleasure. It stopped suddenly. It turned its head to Whenua and cocked it to the side. It gave him a creepy smile. Whenua looked absolutely terrified. He didn’t think he had ever been this petrified in his life. His knees started to tremble, if he had of cried then, it would have been his very first time.“Hello there.” Its voice used two pitches like the one in had its scream. “You are…” Its smile turned into a terrifying face of pure hatred and evil,“Metru! I spit on your blood!” It screamed.“We can help you” said Nuju, his voice was trembling. He turned and moved his head to face Nuju. “You are afraid” It said to himNuju cleared his thought. “Afraid of what?” he asked.“Everything” The creepy Matoran voice changed to only the lower pitch.“And you?” It turned his head to Onewa who was shivering uncontrollably.“Wh...what?”“Wh…wh…wh…what?” It mimicked him, briefly changing to just high pitch. It laughed, although it was more a gargle as if liquid was in its throat. “The secrets you keep won’t get you into Atakha!” It went extremely low pitch. A strange red liquid poured out its mouth.“It’s funny isn’t it?” The Matoran asked. “I am more alive than you will ever be”. He looked at Whenua.“Especially you” He smiled. More red stuff spilled out its mouth.“What are you?” Onewa asked. He was backed up against the wall.“You biggest fear” It replied.“Ma…Makuta?” gulped Nuju. The thing started to laugh uncontrollably; the red liquid pouring out its mouth, dribbling down his silver body.“Worse” it said “Kar-zah-ni” Those three syllables sounded as if they wore coming from right within the three Matoran’s brains.“Fear me!” It screamed. “Fear me!”“Kill it” Onewa said. He seemed like going to collapse from fear.Whenua broke off one of the crystals.It put on an innocent voice. “Please no!” It cried “I'm just a Matoran please”. It sounded so genuine it made Whenua almost sympathised with him.“Please free me.” It croaked. “Karzahni has held me here again my will. I've been here for trillions of years, please”“Free him”, Whenua said to Nuju. Whenua felt sorry for the poor Matoran. What if he was telling the truth and they just left him there to rot.“Are you crazy!” shouted Onewa. “It’s going to kill us!”Nuju obeyed Whenua’s orders and pulled the nails of the Matoran’s hands. The Matoran landed on its feet,“Would your legs not be a lot weaker than that if you hadn’t used them in a trillion years?” trembled Onewa. His eyes still fixated on the demon. The Matoran looked at Onewa and smiled with is mask-less face. It then turned to Nuju. It pounced on him. Razor sharp teeth grew from its mouth. Nuju was trying frantically to keep the jaws from sinking into his face. Whenua was watching in horror. The crystal was still in his hand, but he was frozen solid.“Do something!” Onewa screamed frantically to him. “Please, or Nuju’s going to die!” He was crying. He grabbed the crystal from Whenua’s hand. The bones in his fingers snapped as he held it tight in his fist. The teeth stated to scrape Nuju, causing his scratches in his mask. He screamed in agony as the acid bubbled away. The Karzahni’s teeth were fangs of acid! Onewa ran towards him, screaming and crying at the same time. Bang! The crystal went straight into the back of Karzahni’s head. The red liquid spilled out of its mouth onto Nuju’s face. The “life” went out of Karzahni’s face and Nuju’s acid burns and bite marks disappeared.“Thanks.” Nuju said, his eyes were still wide open, struggling to take in what had just happened.“Don’t, I only save you so it didn’t turn on me afterwards” Onewa’s tone was harsh and cold. He wiped the tears away from his eyes. “This changes nothing”. Nuju looked at his face for any giveaways that he might be lying. There was nothing. Maybe he really was telling the truth.“We never speak of this to the others”, said Whenua. The other two looked at each other.“Whenua?” asked Nuju. “What did it mean when it said especially you?”“It doesn’t matter”, Whenua lied and shook his head. He still felt half paralysed to the ground. “We have to keep moving”. The Matoran that had been strung up to the wall was actually hiding a door. It was just a regular door, white and ordinary looking. They tried to open it. Locked.“There’s a key hole here”, said Onewa. The bloody crystal was still in his hands as he was unable to move his fingers to let it go. He many had paralysed them for good saving Nuju’s life.“Well if, you know, was hiding the door, maybe he’s hiding the key too” Nuju suggested. The liquid was still on his mask, dripping on to the floor. Out of the three, he was ironically the most calm. Onewa was understandable to be shaky, but tough old Whenua? He had probably been the most scared when he saw the thing, Nuju thought to himself.Nuju picked up the things body cautiously; not wanting it to surprise him with an attack to the face again. It definitely seemed dead. He inspected it to see if it was hiding a key anywhere. There was no luck. Just as he was about to tell the others when there was a glitter. Something shiny reflected from the light of Whenua’s torch. It was inside its brain, where Onewa’s had hacked at it. Nuju closed his eyes and reached his hand in, to find the metal object.“What are you doing?” Onewa asked, almost gaging.“Hold on” Nuju said. He pulled it out. Sure enough it was a key“Wow”, said Onewa. “I think I am actually going to be sick now”. They fitted the key into the lock and the door opened. Standing there was the other group, all their faces un-tensed in relief. Whenua quickly kicked Karzahni out of view. The three of them walked out and slammed the door shut.“Your alive then” Matau said. He looked at the liquid on Nuju’s face and the Crystal in Onewa’s hand. “What the Karzahni happened to you?” He was looked at them through wide eyes.“Please, don’t say that word. Ever again Nuju panted. Vakama and Matau looked at each other, their eyes narrowed in confusion.“It was a bear”, said Whenua finally. Onewa looked at him.“Yeah, a really big bear” he said.“Well are you alright?” Nokama asked, her eyes scanning them. None of them responded. Nuju looked at huger cavern.“So, I guess that’s what’s next”