A New Promise

[CeeCee]

So, this is just a prologue but its still pretty so its kind of its own chapter. Hope you enjoy. Please leave a review in the review topic.

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: So one of my very good friends on this site brought up the point that I "ignore Bionicles Canon". I would like to pint out I dont ignore it and the whole point in my doing this epic is to reimgine the Bionicle story and change things for the better for the story I want to create. Think of it as a chance to literally imagine Bionicle again. "I just say, give it a go". This is non canon so dont put anything about canon issues in your reviews =P

 

Thank you.

 

Chapter 00

Toa Lhikan gripped his sword firmly in his hand. The other one had been lost when his hover board broke in half a few hours earlier. What could he say? He hadn’t flown the thing in monts . It was his final push now. His final chance to do what was right for his Matoran. They had had it tough these past few years he’d been away, but with some effort he could finally put things right. It was night. The two moons hung over the deep purple sky like giant spot lights, as if he were about to act his final scene. He hoped it wasn’t, but nothing was certain. Destiny could only provide so much protection and if his was his to lie dead on the road outside, then that would be fine with him. The rain was coming down something awful, pelting off the roof like bullets being fired from above. He was in a derelict ware house in Ta-Metru. The green tinted thick glass windows had long since been smashed and shattered.

 

“Lhikan!” It was Nuurakh. The Vahki of Ta-Metru. His loud and confident voice pieced through the rain like a missile. “Make this easy, no one has to get hurt.” Vahki were replacement, although neither as fast or strong and lacked any mask powers or elemental powers, for Toa after every Toa had been declared M.I.A. That just meant they were either dead or that Dume couldn’t find them to kill them. All the Toa in Metru Nui were either drive out or dead. There were six Vahki, from what Lhikan had gathered from when he stuck around for a few months after he was supposedly exiled from Metru Nui. He had met all but one of them before and they were all good men and women and even better soldiers. The one he had never met before was the Po-Vahki. He just seemed to come out of nowhere when The Great Purge of the Toa happened back 4 years ago. It wasn’t surprising. There were many other Vahki that had all been killed when Turaga Dume organised their executions so there was bound to be atleas one that survived. Of course he made it look like an accident though. Lhikan never knew why The Turaga had chosen those six to survive, but he settled on the fact that they seemed the most loyal to him.

 

Nuurakh was a good man, he was just mislead by the joke of a Turaga that was Turaga Dume. Pronounced Doo-Mah, but Lhikan much preferred its Phonetic pronunciation. The wise Toa of fire had no doubt that Nuurakh wouldn’t hurt him if he just walked up and surrendered now, but the fate that came after it would lead to the same ultimate destiny if he chose to fight him and lost. Nuurakh was too loyal for his own good. He would never let Lhikan escape alive, even if it would eat at him for the rest of his days.

 

The rain was still pelting off the roof of the empty cold building. Grime and moss grew up the stone brick walls. Nature always seemed to have a way of winning in the end, no matter how tall you make your buildings, no matter how much tarmac you fill a lake of lava lake with, Lhikan thought to himself. He looked down at his body. It looked like he himself had been taken over by nature. He was covered in mud from Kanohi to boot. Solid pieces of dirt stuck in between his joints. He had spent so many years on the run, since he had been exiled from Metru Nui by Dume. Where had it all gone so wrong?

There were footsteps on the other side of the wall, although muffled by the wet mud, being a Toa, his enhanced senses allowed him to hear it, or more feel the minuscule vibrations.

“Lhikan I swear to Mata Nui himself that it you don’t get your traitor behind out here I'm ordering a long overdue detonation of this forsaken place”

This wasn’t Nuurakh this time but Vorzak. A little bit more brash in his manner but his intentions were just as good. If only they weren’t so blind to see the truth right in front of their eyes. Vorzahk and Nuurakh had been best friends ever since Lhikan had trained them as rookies. To think he thought they were so different to the other Vahki, so much spirit in them. No, they still were, they just didn’t know it. Lhikan ran a steady finger over his broad sword, its smooth edges so intrquitly cut, the tips of the blade so sharp. It was as elegant in its design as it was a tool for not much of careful use as far as accuracy went in your strike. Lhikan put it on his back quietly. Best not use it unless he really had to. He certainly didn’t want to kill the Vahki but he would if he had his back to a wall. What had he become?

 

“Lhikan, you don’t have to suffer the same fate as your traitorous team. We can help you. Turaga Dume is not evil like you think. You think we don’t want Toa back? We need you. There’s no way the Vahki could ever replace the Toa”, Nuurakh said. Lhikan almost gave to his lies although that was mostly because Nuurakh didn’t even know he was lying. Every word in his sentence was true to him, yet almost all of it in reality was false. It was true that there was one traitor in his team though. Tuyet. Lhikan had always known what she was, but he just couldn’t admit it to himself. She had killed two members of his team, one of which he had loved like a little brother. Then there was Nidaka. The name burned painful memories. He just hoped she was happy with Dark Hunters, no matter how much he hated their organisation and its twisted leader. He had loved her and she had loved him. It would have just never worked out. They both wanted different things from life. Still, she had given him the greatest gift one Toa could possibly give another.

 

A rumble of thunder shook him from dream like state, the emotions fading from his head as quickly as they had entered. He had no choice but do what he would have to do to these two young and good hearted Vahki. He gritted his teeth and composed himself, closing his eyes and breathing in relaxing sounds of the pattering rain pinging of the roof top. He hadn’t done this in a long, long time. With little to no effort he summersaulted backwards, shattering the already broken windows and burst through the wall, landing, directly in front of Vorzak. The green Vahki was so taken back by this that he almost slipped on the slippery unforgiving surface of mud and dirt.

 

“Surprise” The Toa of Fire said, in a cool and icy tone that would give even a Toa of ice a chill down his spine. Lhikan forced his head right into Vorzak’s, creating a horrible metal grinding on metal sound. The collision made the green Vahki to stumble backwards, landing with a squelch on the water saturated floor.

 

“Right in the disk-launcher” the green Vahki said, holding his mouth that doubled up as a B-342 disk launcher, capable of firing high velocity rounds of whatever element that Vahki was. In Vorzaks case it was air. Nuurakh responded quickly to his fallen comrade and fired two fire disks almost simultaneously into the Toa’s direction. With the help of his Kanohi Hau, Lhikan made two small round shields with his hand. They glowed and beautiful translucent blue with tiny energy veins pulsing through from the centre to the tip of the radius. The disks bounce off the shields knocking into two pillars holding up the building the Vahki of fire was standing under for shelter of the rain. If he didn’t move quickly, it was sure going to get super cosy under there. The Vahki ran, his grey feet had excellent grip on the dry soil which hadn’t been hit with any of the rain water. He got to the wet patch and used it to his advantage by skidding and sliding creating what seemed to be a tidal wave of brown sludge. The building fell frontwards without the support of its two front pillars and crumbled in an avalanche of brick and broken glass, stopping millimetres away from Nuurakh. The red Vahki ran towards Lhikan with a look of pure determination in his yellow eyes. His punches and kicks were fast but the Toa’s blocks were faster. Lhikan would have had this covered if Vorzak hadn’t of got back up. He did his best to block the two ‘s punching and kicking but kept on taking some serious belts to his side and back, and the slippery ground was making it hard to keep steady. It was only until Vorzak swooped a lighting of a kick to the side of the Toa’s legs and the Toa fell on the mud, his back hitting the ground first. The impact shook his internal organs like they were in the back seat of a Le-Matoran racing craft. His heart rattled in its cage. Lhikan took little to no time to react and flung a throwing knife that was attached to the side of his leg and through it directly and Vozak’s head. The Vahki was quick to avoid the knife by tilting his head to the right, but not fast enough. It skimmed his left eye, blinding that red thin streak forever.

 

It was Vorzak’s dreadful howl of pain the made Lhikan all of a sudden aware of what he was doing. These we his friends, servants of Dume or not, and he had just half blinded one of them. Lhikan jumped back and made a shield the shape of a sphere around himself.

 

“I won’t fight you anymore than I need to, now back off!” Lhikans tone was more full of harshness that he had intended but it seemed to have no effect on the two Vahki. Vorzak’s head was angled to the left as so his right eye was facing Lhikan. He was clutching the other side. There was a pure look of anger in the Vahki’s eyes that Lhikan had never see before. Nuurakh’s eyes were darting constantly to Lhikan and then Vorzak, noticeably worrying about his friend.“Vorzak, are you okay?” the red Vahki asked, his eyes still darting to and fro.

 

“Ugh” He swallowed “I'm fine” Vorzak said in a wavy grunt. The rain was pelting off Lhikans force field and the two Vahki’s armour. It was at that moment that Lhikan noticed a red glint behind the two soldiers. It was a Ta-Matoran. Not just any Ta-Matoran. It was Vakama. His miserable expression on his Kanohi Huna almost shone through the rain. Vakama didn’t know it, but he was very special to Lhikan. Maybe he would never know how special he was to him. He met with Vakama’s bright green eyes, wet with petrified fear, watching the battle that had just commenced between the three of them. It all made sense to him now. Lhikan’s time was over. There was new age about to begin. Lhikan smiled at Vakama, the two Vahki still oblivious to his presence. He disable his shied and held out his arms for the two Vahki to cuff. Confused at first, Nuurakh pulled them out and escorted him to where he would spend the last night of his life: The coliseum prisons. It didn’t matter though, because he had won. He just had to wait a little longer. And there was plenty of that to be done this night.

Edited March 4, 2013 by Commander CeeCee

[CeeCee]

Chapter 01

 

Vakama raced franticly through the streets, his feet clapping off the ground, echoes through the dead silence of the night. He could hear the sound of the wind rushing past him like he was an aircraft taking off at high speed, and the icy rain bombarded him like he was an enemy in an unclaimed territory. The Ta-Matoran was drenched to the bone, but in all honesty, he could barely even start to think about the bleak and dreary whether that seemed so fitting on a night like tonight. The factory burned brightly in the cold, the huge torches emitting their foul black gas into the atmosphere of the great city. It was no wonder that when the smog got so thick in the industrial area of Ta Metru you’d be lucky to see your own outstretched hand. The place was a mess. Not in the literal sense though. In terms of structure, layout and litter, the place was immaculate. The buildings around the industrial area was covered in a thick black layer of soot, clinging to the dark bricks and suffocating any natural life to either death or something far more revolting. There were no trees in sight at all and the water was a tinted green colour, even though it had been apparently filtered. With all the waste being dumped into the coast, it didn’t surprise Vakama that the water tasted like it did.

 

Vakama stopped behind one of the factories to try and catch his breath. His whole body ached of exhaustion and lack of oxygen. His chest felt like it had been singed to a crisp, coiling away at the edges like a piece of paper set alight, the charred remains falling into the bottom of his stomach. I really need to get fitter, Vakama thought to himself. His face was contorted in a painful expression of half exhaustion and half uncontrollable fear, his bottom lip shaking violently. Suddenly he felt a horrible unpleasant feeling in his from his throat all the way down to his stomach. He gagged once and then leant forward, his hands pressed against the wall and head facing the ground. Then, he threw up. He put his back to the soot coated brick wall and slumped down all the way the ground, sitting beside the fluid he had just projected from his mouth. He still felt sick. He wasn’t sure if it was because he had been running or if he was in such a massive shock of what he had just witnessed.

 

He sat with his head in his palms and in tucked knees, slightly resembling a ball. What have I just let happen? Vakama thought to himself. Maybe if he had just let the two Vahki know he was there, maybe they would have hesitated enough for the Toa to escape. The look he gave Vakama, the smile. What did it mean? He should have done something. Maybe that’s what Lhikan expected Vakama to do. Any other Matoran would have done it, right? Vakama hit the gravelly floor with a hard fist, instantly regretting it once the pain started to kick in. I deserve it anyway. Vakama tried to convince himself, but that didn’t make it any less sore. The truth was though was that Vakama was afraid. He was a afraid of a lot of things: Closed spaces, being taken away by Vahki and as much as he dreamed of it, becoming famous. Which was a darn good thing he would never really be known by anyone else except for maybe his next door tenant and some of his co-workers? Why am I moaning about my life? He thought, angry with himself once again. His hero, Lhikan was gone. Although the Toa of fire had been thought dead for the four years after the Great Toa Betrayal, where the Toa had apparently, according Great Turaga Dume, thought of themselves superior and tried to take the City for their own. He wasn’t sure how many Matoran actually believed this as the fear of being ratted out was so great that you could practically feel it forcing the conversations like they were a heard of Mahi. In any case, Dume had won.

 

Vakama looked up at the moons faintly shining through the smoggy clouds. It was a myth that the eyes were none other than Mata Nui’s looking down on each and every single Matoran, their actions played as if they were on a film reel. This myth was widely thought to be untrue and the Onu-Matoran historians and the Ko-Matoran scientists had liked to think they had more or less disproved it. In any case, if it was true, Vakama was glad that the thick curtain of smog shielded the Great Spirits eyes from Vakama’s pathetic life tonight. The Ta Matoran faced up to the dark cloudy sky and closed his eyes.

 

He remembered a day, or a dream. It had been so long ago that Vakama wasn’t sure what it was. The Toa hadn’t given him any interaction since so Vakama figured it must have been a fantasy that had gone on so long that it had been ingrained into his memory. The sun pounding of the back of his neck and the sky with not a trace of fluffy white. He couldn’t remember how he got there or why he was there but he was in a field. The strands of corn grew tall a wild, like golden wire-thin skyscrapers, glistening in the scorching sun glaze. Then he remembered Lhikan, towering even above the golden wisps. He stood there up straight, hands on his hips and his wise golden Hau glaring off the sunlight like the flare was its own entity of light and not just a mere reflection. Vakama had to narrow his eyes to a squint as to avoid the bright light piercing into them. Lhikan’s warm and caring eyes, along with the sunlight, seemed to give him some sort of aura of an almost holy presence. And that was the end of his memory, or at the very least, his fantasy. All he knew it was the best time of his miserable, unworthy life.

 

Vakama let out a deep sigh and clamped his damp eyes tightly to avoid any more unwanted spill from them. His sudden depressing realisation that his best memory, the only highlight to his otherwise petty existence, was probably nothing more than a dream. That’s how meagre his life was. He had to make things up to make it all worthwhile and he was in such a state that he had lost all concepts of what was reality and what was his twisted imagination. He might have been able to convince himself that it were true, if it were not for the fact that to his knowledge, there were no corn fields in Metru Nui. Granted, the Turaga only permitted Matoran to only stay in their one Metru and any trespassing would result in anything from 15 years in prison-performing grinding tasks with little rest- to a death sentence. Still, each Metru had a speciality and none of them was corn farming. Not to mention these corn seemed naturally in place and not grown by Matoran, as their places were all scattered and not in grids like you would expect a farm to be.

Vakama rested his mouth on a cleansed fist. There was a time where the Toa were everything to the Matoran. Lhikan was certainly everything to Vakama. He was his hero, his idle and wanted so much to be his friend. He aspired to be like him, but he would make a lousy Toa and it was no wonder why Mata Nui would never choose him to be one of the ones to achieve the Great Destiny. His heart was ridden with guilt, slowing rotting away at it. Lhikan had probably been killed already, his body being melted down to conceal the evidence of him ever exciting.

 

Vakama wasn’t used to being out this late. He had only been walking home at this time because he thought he could get some work done on his Kanohi crafting. What if it was his destiny to save Lhikan and he had failed him? The thought gave Vakama a metallic knot in his stomach. There was a curfew placed on the city at night that meant as soon as the sun went down, all citizens must return to their homes until morning. This was apparently because the Dark Hunters, a bounty hunter organisation would lurk around the streets at night looking for Matoran to kill or capture. Vakama wasn’t sure if he believed this. The Dark Hunters were pretty powerful and most and didn’t really do things quietly. They liked to make statements to let everyone know how fierce they were. A normal assassin would shoot the guy. The Dark Hunters would blow up the entire building. The strange this was, that the Dark Hunters hadn’t make an attack since the Great Toa Betrayal. It would seem like a good opportunity to attack as the Toa seemed to be the fine line between them and Metru Nui. Rumour has it that the Dark Hunters leader and founder, only known as The Shadowed One had gone missing. Vakama just hoped they weren’t gearing up for a massive attack.

 

Vakama’s train of though was interrupted by a clattering sound. The Curfew! He thought to himself. What if Nuurahk found him snooping around the industrial area? He’d be arrested for attempted theft at the very least. Vakama got up slowly and carefully, his tongue touching the corner of his mouth, intently focusing on trying not to make a sound. He walked lightly; his movement almost exaggerated, and peaked around the corner of the building he’d been resting on. He couldn’t see anyone. Letting out a slow sigh of relief, he stood silent for a moment, still cautious about making noise. It must have just been some rats. Vakama thought to himself. He would have laughed if not for the events he had just witnessed.

 

Before Vakama had time to turn around and the relief to sink into his face, he heard a dreadful clicking noise from behind his head: The sound of a disk launcher being cocked. His heart stopped dead in place, the still panic clamped his body and seizing it to a tense fixed state. His bright green eyes grew wide with fear. He was so expecting to hear Nuuhraks voice that he was completely taken back when it wasn’t.

“Drop to the floor and lay out all your possessions in front of you.” A gruff voice said, yet spoke properly and assertively, letting Vakama know who was in charge. Not that the disk launching in his had had anything to do with it. Vakama felt the front edge of the disk touch gently against the back of the head.

 

“I… uh… I”, Vakama, stuttering his words in an utter frenzy, failed to tell the assailant that he had nothing on him before the gunman spoke again.

 

“Shut the Karzahni up” He hissed. “I’d prefer to leave here with my hands clean but I won’t hesitate to shoot your brains all over the floor if you threaten my cover. It’s my life over your life.” He pressed the disk launcher harder into Vakama’s

head. The Ta-Matoran was in is such a state that he couldn’t even move and the only noses he could get out his mouth the strange slurs that barley resemble words at all. The gunman was getting increasingly inpatient as Vakama could hear him huffing and puffing, and shuffling surround behind him. He imagined himself turning around and smacking the robber, then shooting him with the disk launcher with a cool one line although couldn’t think of any, even if he could perform such a feat.

 

“Okay, look!”, The gunman was beginning to lose his cool and raised his voice. “You have five seconds to hand out your possessions. “Five… Four” Vakama closed his eyes to find something nice to think of while the disk launcher would enter one side of his head and exit the other. He wanted to think of that day in the corn field, but all he could see was Lhikan being taken away, and his sad smile. It was worse than any tears the Toa could have shed. “Three… Two… O”, Vakama heard a slam behind him. Not sure if he was dead or not, he opened his eyes, realising they had been clamped tight shut.

 

“Vakama, are you alright?” The voice made Vakama shiver with fear.

 

“Vahki Nuuhrak” said, slowing Turing around but still facing the floor, to where an unconscious Po-Matoran was lying with an unloaded disk launcher beside him.

 

“I don’t suppose you wish to tell me why you’re out here at this time, do you Vakama?” Nurahks voice was calm and clear, with no traces of patronising or anger. He stood up straight, his hands placed on his hips, much like Lhikan used to do. He angled his abnormally large head down to face the small Ta-Matoran who was trying to control his shaking.

 

“I was working, and I didn’t realise the time” Vakama said, speaking slowly to avoid stuttering. He tried his best to make eye contact with Nuuhrak, although every time their eyes met, he would shoot them straight back down to face the floor. It was true that Vakama had been working late, but he was fully aware of the time.

 

“Look, Vakama.” Nuuhrak lowered down to Vakama’s eye level and looked at him directly in the eyes. Vakama did his best to look into them without giving away his true emotions. “The curfew is only around to keep you safe. What just happened here is a prime example. If I hadn’t of been here…” Vakama nodded, still too terrified to speak. He wasn’t scared of the Vahki as such, but if he found out what he’d seen, then there’s no denying what would happen to him. Vakama would be… dealt with. He shivered at the thought of those words coming out of Turaga Dume’s lips. His croaky voice and his small menacing nivhawk like eyes drilling into any one he came into contact with. Vakama was just about to say something to break the silence between the two of them before Nuhurahk beat him to it. “You didn’t see or hear… anything out of the ordinary tonight, did you Vakama?” For the first time Vakama ever he saw the Vahki, if ever so slightly, lose his confidence.

 

“No.” Vakama said. He had replied to it so fast that he was worried the Vahki might be even more suspicious of him. He wasn’t sure if he imagined it, but Nuuhrak seemed to relax his muscles a little when he heard Vakamas answer. It seemed quite clear that the Ta-Vahki didn’t want to hurt Vakama in anyway, so he took whatever answer he could get. Vakama looked at Nuuhrak in the eye again and then darted them back down when he spoke. “What will happen to me?” he asked, his heart bouncing in his chest with anxiety, almost regretting the question.

 

“You?” Nuuhrahk laughed, although it was an empty one. “You will go home and get some well-deserved rest, hard worker. I guess Metru Nui could do with more workers like you”

 

“And him”, Vakama nodded to the Po-Matoran, still stunned on the ground. Nuhrahk said nothing but instead, gave him a sad, sympathetic look.

 

“You and I both know the answer to that, Vakama”. The Ta-Matoran nodded and turned away slowly, his eyes revealing his true fright once his face left Nuuhraks view. There was a new time coming now, and every day it looked a little bit darker.

Edited March 4, 2013 by Commander CeeCee