TNTOS

Chapter 8: Captured

Unknown to the rest of the Toa, Nastan was still alive, but where exactly he was, he had no idea.

He was in the very middle of the cloud of shadow that had absorbed him earlier, yet he felt like he was falling down a very steep cliff. He saw glimpses of various shapes and forms, though they were all unfamiliar and vague and frightening. All except for one in which he saw two Toa fighting six beings that looked familiar to him, though he couldn't place it. One of the Toa, a red-armored warrior wielding a fire mace, looked especially familiar to Nastan, but he had no more time to ponder it, for the very next minute he had landed face down in a pile of sand.

He could feel his bones aching from the pain and for a while he just lay there until he decided that he got tired of the taste of sand and rolled over onto his back to get a better look of where he had ended up in.

He was still in Wyoko. He could tell because the dark sky was the same. But as he lifted his head up to get a good look at where he was, he saw that he was in an desert, possibly the region that he had seen when he had climbed that tree, although he wasn't certain. All around him, he saw sand, big rocks, empty and abandoned huts half-buried in sand, and little black scorpions that had electric blue eyes crawling all around in every direction he looked. Moreover, it took him merely seconds to comprehend that the scorpions were not only crawling all over the ground, also all over him.

"Ah!" he shouted, jumping to his feet and scraping the bugs off his body. "Get off! Get off! Don't sting me!"

Nastan had always had a morbid fear of scorpions and all of these dozens of little ones crawling all over him dramatically increased the fear. He frantically jumped around, thrashed with his hands, even rolled in the sand until the last of the scorpions had fallen off of his body. The bugs quickly scurried away from him into the sand and then he sat on a large rock, panting, looking around to make sure all of the scorpions had gone. Once he was sure of that, the realization of his situation suddenly sank in.

I am alone, he thought, terrified. Alone in Wyoko, the place full of people like the Shodios who hate me and others like me. No Akuna, no Toa Shika. I would even like it if Barilo were here. I am a vulnerable target for any Kra-Matoran waiting to get me. Plus, I am surrounded by scorpions. What could possibly be worse than that?

He glanced around. No villages or Matoran or Shodios in sight, maybe he was safe, at least for a little while. He would just need to stay out of sight of Matoran and somehow find the rest of the Toa Shika. Yeah, that's it. Just stay out of sight. Stay . . . out . . . of . . . sight. . . .

I can't, he thought. Not with all of these scorpions around. Ugh, they're so disgusting! Then again, I am significantly larger than them, so I could just stomp on them if they get in my way. I know I don't want to stay in this desert overnight, though, so I gotta find somewhere to sleep, somewhere safe.

He decided that he was no going to get anywhere without moving, so he carefully climbed off of his rock and onto the cold sand. Nastan looked around. Which direction should he go? He decided to go north, for that was the direction he had seen The Door and his friends would most likely be heading that way, too, so there was always that chance he would run into them on the way. Yet there's also that chance I could run into the Shodios, too, since I doubt that they would leave The Door unguarded.

He decided to take that risk and soon was off, walking in the general direction of The Door, keeping a careful eye out for any Shodios, Kra-Matoran, and especially scorpions along the way.

-

Rhatara felt very good today as he walked down a long corridor in Castle Kra. He hadn't felt this good since the Golden Age of the Kra-Matoran Empire. Today, he knew, he and the rest of the Shodios would soon leave Wyoko, along with the Kra-Matoran and Turaga Krashadi. Or, at least, he and the others would inspect The Door and then pack up and leave, though considering that they would be taking the entire population with them, he knew it would take much longer to leave this place behind completely. Maybe two weeks at most.

It doesn't matter, he thought dismissively. All of the Toa Shika are dead now, so we won't be waiting very long. Not very long at all.

He felt like shouting, though as he walked by a couple of Kra-Matoran servants whispering to each other, he kept his composure, not wanting them to see him in a moment that he would consider weak.

But as he strode by them, he heard them whispering, "They've escaped?" and "Heard the news last night!"

Rhatara stopped abruptly on his feet and slowly turned to face the two Matoran, his face alight with curiosity, his eyes burning in anger. "What are you two servants talking about? Who escaped? No, wait. Don't answer. I will simply read your minds and find out for myself."

The two villagers looked horrified, but they had no say in the matter. Minutes later, Rhatara had learned of who they were speaking of, and now he looked beyond angry. He looked enraged, perhaps even beyond that.

"The . . . Toa . . . Shika . . . escaped?" he hissed, every word coming out of his mouth very slowly and carefully, as if trying to make sure he got it all straight. "Please tell me that . . . I misinterpreted your mind patterns . . ."

"Y-you didn't, sir," one of the Kra-Matoran whimpered. "We just got the news last night. W-we were going to tell you . . ."

"But why didn't you?" Rhatara asked, advancing menacingly on the villager. "Why did I have to read your mind to figure out what had happened? Did you intend to sabotage our escape from this prison?" Now he was very close and speaking in a whisper. "I don't like people who keep secrets, especially important secrets, from me."

"Please . . ." the other Matoran pleaded, "don't kill us . . ."

"Sorry, but you're disobedient servants," Rhatara shouted, his hands crackling with shadow energy. "If you stay alive, you'll give the others the idea they can disobey us and do whatever the Karzahni they want and get away with it too!"

"No!" shouted the first villager. "Please!"

"What is all of this shouting?" the voice of Ira floated into Rhataras audio receptors right before he could kill the Matoran.

He glanced down the hallway and saw his sister walking toward them, looking like she had just awoken. She looked very irritated, yet at the same time Rhatara could detect puzzlement in her eyes.

"So? Why do you feel the need to punish them so . . . harshly, Rhatara?" she asked. "What did they hide from you that you felt you needed to know?"

"The Toa Shika escaped," growled Rhatara. "I read their minds. They say they got the news last night and neglected to tell us immediately, as they should have done, I might add."

Ira looked shocked. "What? Please tell me that they're lying!"

"They aren't," Rhatara said through gritted teeth. "I wish they were, but they aren't."

"Oh my . . ." said Ira with an expression on her face that made her look as if she didn't want to believe the news. "If they get to The Door before we do . . ."

"Then we will be locked behind here for another 100,000 years"! Rhatara shouted, looking crazed. "Tell Krashadi! I shall contact the others!" Before he left, however, he turned to the Kra-Matoran and whispered in a menacing tone, "You got off lucky this time, villagers. You will live . . . for now, while I will go and tell my brothers and sisters about this unfortunate news. But when I return, expect to find yourselves buried alive several hundred kio underneath this castle."

With that threat finished, he darted down the hallway faster than either of the villagers had ever seen him run before. Ira also took off toward a staircase that lead up to Krashadis tower, her eyes ablaze with anger and worry. After all, who knows how far the Toa Shika could have gone in a night? They very well might be at The Door right now!

But, she reminded herself. There is always that chance they aren't. There is always that possibility that they are totally lost in Wyoko and don't know where The Door is, so we still might have a chance to beat them to it.

For some reason, she doubted that thought, but kept running anyway, knowing that Krashadi had to know about this, or their entire plan would fall into more pieces than a Kanohi mask smashed by a Kikanalo stampede.

-

Nastan had been walking for what felt like hours. The desert, while quite cool because of lack of a true sun, still was quite warm nonetheless. His feet sunk into the sand as he walked and more than once he had to pull them out and continue walking again, this time moving more nimbly over the surface of the sand to avoid falling in again.

There was also the threat of the scorpions, which he suspected were following him, since wherever he went he always saw at least ten and several times he had stepped on a few that had randomly appeared in his path. Were they trying to keep him away from something? He doubted that, though he had an awful feeling these bugs were a lot smarter and clever than they looked.

He also lacked water. All of the food and water supplies was still with the rest of the Toa. He had nothing of his own to eat or drink and more than once he contemplated catching one of the scorpions and eating it, though the more he thought about that, the more it disgusted him. Still, he knew that, if he got too hungry, he very well might have to catch a scorpion or two to eat, if only to sustain his energy.

And then there was that feeling he kept having that made him think he was being watched. Not by the scorpions, but by something that was much bigger than any of them and incredibly dangerous. He had no idea why he felt that way, but he walked faster and loaded his bow with an arrow just the same anyway so he wouldn't find himself beaten easily.

The only good thing he felt about the situation was that he was still heading north, but even then, this desert seemed to go on forever and ever, with no end in sight at all.

And a new thought occurred to him: What if he wasn't in Wyoko at all? What if this was some kind of weird pocket dimension that looked like Wyoko's desert but wasn't really it? It would explain why he hadn't come across any other intelligent beings and why the desert just seemed to stretch on and into eternity.

That thought made him drop to his knees, punching the sand hard with his right hand. He was panting and sweating and needed water, but where could he get some? Should he dig a hole and try to find some water? It would be a lot of work, but might be worth it . . .

Suddenly, there was a huge shift in the ground, like something was digging through the sand. He quickly got to his feet, even though he knew a fight with something huge would probably sap the rest of his energy and get him killed. But he didn't want to go down without a fight at least.

A huge, black claw that looked like a huge scorpion pincer burst through the ground, followed by another, then a stinger, and finally followed by the body of a big scorpion. Instead of having blue eyes, though, it had very red orbs and giant spikes shot out of its back like that of a porcupine. Nastan was frozen in spot. It had been worse enough with all of those small ones, but this one was the mother of all scorpions, he thought, and it looked quite angry at him, though he wondered what the red eyes and spikes were all about.

No time to worry about the odd body parts, he thought, a panic rising in his very soul. I gotta figure out a way to. . . . Oh, what am I saying? That things going to kill me with that big stinger tail or crush me with its large body or rip me apart with its pincers or maybe do something even worse. Once it does, no one will know that I am dead. My friends will think that I am gone forever and will never return to them. Oh, why didn't I ever tell Akuna how I really felt about her? Why was I so shy? Why?

The creature did not move. It simply stared at him with its small, beady eyes, daring him to do something. For a moment, Nastan was wondering why it hadn't killed him yet. Maybe it was messing with him, trying to make him feel safe and secure, then strike him just when he let his guard down. But he wasn't going to let his guard down, he decided, he would never let his guard down. He would fight the beast until the very end and he knew who would win, but regardless he wanted to go out fighting anyway. So he aimed his bow at the creature's skull, a grim expression on his face.

"Okay, monster," said Nastan, his voice ragged. "I doubt you can understand what I am saying, but I will talk anyway, since these will probably be my last words."

The giant scorpion did not move or do anything, so Nastan continued on.

"I am afraid of scorpions. Big ones, little ones, and medium sized ones, doesn't matter to me. I have always been afraid, ever since I fell into that pit of scorpions back on my very first job on Shika Nui. I hate the way they crawl all over you and can sting you and everything. As you can imagine (though I am not sure scorpions have imagination), me facing a huge scorpion like yourself has got me shaking to my very soul. But I am a Toa and part of a Toas job is fighting big, scary beasts like you. So give me your best, monster, or die trying."

For a minute, Nastan thought he had scared the beast off purely based on his little speech, for the monster took a step back, as if it planned to leave him alone. Instead, it laughed a very deep, yet oddly bug-like, laugh, one that echoed throughout the entire desert and made Nastan shiver.

"How can you laugh?" Nastan said, shaken. "You're a scorpion!"

The beast shook its head, however, as if to say no. Suddenly, its tail shot back into its body, its six legs were replaced by two Toa legs, its arms and body transforming completely and finally its head transformed into a very familiar one, the head of-

"Teivel!" shouted Nastan, surprised. "He nearly dropped his bow, but managed to keep his grip on it."

The Toa of Shadow was still laughing, as if amused. Then he stopped and became serious, his eyes as cold as ice.

"Ah, Nastan is it?" asked Teivel, sounding mildly amused. "Where are your friends?" He did not ask it as if he really was concerned about the others. He was merely taunting Nastan, and the Toa Shika knew it.

"I got separated from them," said Nastan, still aiming his bow. "Where are your friends?"

"Oh, probably back in Castle Kra," Teivel said dismissively. Then he changed his tone to that of one discussing the weather. "So tell me. How many Matoran did you kill to escape?"

"We didn't kill any!" Nastan snapped. "We just knocked them out and tied them up."

"I suppose that is what you would do, since you are a hero," Teivel said in a sarcastic tone.

"What are you doing out here in this desert?" asked Nastan, still standing in a fighting position. "How did you know that I was out here?"

"I came out here because I was simply letting my energy out," Teivel said vaguely. "At first, I did not know you were out here, until in my scorpion form I communicated with the scorpions around here, who all told me of a scared, jumpy Toa who simply reeked of fear. I knew it was none of my brothers or sisters, for they are rarely, if ever, afraid of anything. So naturally I assumed it was one of you, and I started following you ever since."

"I am not afraid."

"I doubt it. Even when not in my scorpion form, I can smell your fear from a mile away. What are you afraid of, Toa? Dying out here all alone? Your friends getting killed, leaving you all alone? Getting stung by scorpions and getting a horrible protodermis-eating virus stuck in your system?"

"That's what their stingers do?"

"Yes. Jero has been experimenting with their poison and discovered it after testing it on a Kra-Matoran. Poor guy didn't last more than five minutes after being injected with it."

Nastan was starting to feel slightly afraid now. Here he was, up against a 100,000 year old Toa of Shadow, who was more than likely to kill him here. He knew there was no way to win this fight, but if he was going to live up to the Toa of the past like Toa Joha then he would have to fight this fiend, even if it meant giving up his own life and never getting to see his friends again.

"So you see, Nastan, I will not kill you."

"You won't?"

"No. I feel no need to. Not after what Jero has just created."

"What has he created?"

Teivel shot him an evil look and said, "He wants me to keep it a secret, but I can tell you this: Once he's through with you, you won't recognize yourself anymore."

"What does that mean?" Nastan demanded. "Tell me!"

"Why should I tell you, when you can learn for yourself?" asked Teivel as he swiftly charged Nastan.

The Toa of Shadow hit the good Toa in the mask with his sword, knocking Nastan over. Teivel then blasted the Toa of The Green with a blast of shadow, knocking Nastan out instantly. With that task finished, Teivel transformed into a Nivawk and then picked up the unconscious Nastan and winged in the direction of Castle Kra, knowing that very soon they would have one less light Toa to deal with.

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Chapter 7: Shadow Storm

Nastan was the first to awake. He got up very early in the morning before anyone else. He considered waking them, but then he got another idea that he thought was better.

Perhaps I could scan the hillside for a road or a village for us to avoid, Nastan thought. It will just be for a quick minute or two and then I will be right back with Akuna and the rest.

He glanced down at the Toa Lightning who was sleeping near him. She had always been good friends with him, yet he always felt differently about her than about the rest of the Toa Shika. He always wanted to be with her and protect her, though he knew she could defend herself pretty well and respected that. Still, he knew that he did not like being away from her for extended periods of time.

But this will just be for a quick minute or two, he reminded himself. Climb up one of these trees, quickly look around, climb back down, and wait for everyone else to wake up. Easy as picking bula berries from a tree.

Quietly standing up, he walked over to the nearest tree and looked up it. It was at least 25-feet-tall, but he had climbed taller trees before and so was used to it. He reached out with his long arms and grabbed a branch and hoisted himself onto the limb. He kept climbing up, finding it becoming increasingly more difficult as he progressed. The branches became thicker and there were more leaves up here than on the lower branches. Still, he continued on until he reached the top. Sitting himself on a large branch, he took in a deep breath of fresh air from having to climb so much and then glanced around at his surroundings.

He could see Castle Kra to the north, as huge and dominating as ever, but it looked smaller, although he supposed that was because he was farther away from it. Even further north of it, he saw a small glimmer of light, very dim from his perch, but he instantly recognized it as The Door to The Light.

So we’re going to have to go through or around Castle Kra to get there, he thought. How fun.

He averted his gaze to the west, where he saw several villages near a group of mountains. To the east, more villages, though this time near a desert-like area. But just as he examined the eastern lands, he heard what sounded like a thunderstorm coming from behind. It sounded loud and he was afraid that it might strike him if he stayed where he was, but he was curious enough to turn around to see what it was anyway.

When he finally looked over his shoulder, he saw to his surprise a huge black cloud of shadow rapidly moving toward him. He wondered how that was possible, since shadow never gathered in clouds to attack Toa like that. But he decided not to ponder the impossibility of the situation, only to act.

Unfortunately for him, he did not even have enough time to act, for in minutes it had enveloped him. Once it passed exactly one minute later, there was no indication that a Toa had been there at all.

-

Barilo awoke at the feeling of someone poking him. But he didn’t open his eyes and instead rolled over and mumbled, “Stop bothering me. Five more minutes, please . . .”

“Barilo, wake up!” the voice belonged to Akuna and she sounded very worried. “Nastan is missing!”

“Good riddance,” Barilo muttered.

“Barilo!”

“Okay, okay, sorry. I didn’t actually mean it.”

“What’s all the noise?” asked Addis, who sounded very irritable. “I was trying to sleep!”

Chimoy and Nonzra had awoken as well and both looked just as irritated as Addis. Akuna quickly explained to them the situation and Addis asked, “Did you check the area? Maybe he went out scouting and got lost or something.”

“I sort of did,” Akuna answered. “But I only checked a few feet away from the camp. I didn’t want to run into any Kra-Matoran or Shodios without you guys.”

“If you’re implying Nastan got captured by one of them, then that doesn’t really make sense,” said Chimoy, yawning and shaking his head. “Given what we have seen of them, I doubt they would have stopped with just Nastan. They would have gone after us, too.”

“Whatever,” Akuna said. “I’m just worried for Nastan.”

“Worried for your boyfriend, you mean?” Barilo asked slyly.

“Barilo!”

“Okay, okay! Just saying,” said Barilo, who had now opened his eyes and was sitting up like the rest of them. “I didn’t mean anything bad by that. Romance between Toa is, uh, ‘good,’ I guess.”

“Would you shut up?” hissed Addis. “If there is any Kra-Matoran nearby, then we should keep our voices down.”

“But what if they got Nastan?” Akuna asked anxiously. “We should go find him!”

“That’s what I was going to suggest,” said Addis. “Let’s split up into groups. Chimoy and Nonzra, you two go that way.” He pointed to the north. “Akuna, you’re with me. Think you can take care of yourself, Barilo?”

“Sure,” the Toa of Gravity said as he unlimbered his axe. “If I had a girlfriend, I think that I wouldn’t really need her to look after me, unlike Nastan.”

“Barilo!”

“Sorry!” Barilo said sheepishly. “Just saying . . .”

“Now let’s spilt up!” said Addis. “If any of you find any trace of Nastan, use your elemental or mask powers to signal the rest of us. I do not want any of us to leave this forest unless Nastan is found outside of this wood, okay?”

The others nodded and pretty soon they had all separated, each team going into different directions. Barilo activated his Mask of Stealth, just in case he ran across any Kra-Matoran and was soon off, heading deep into the woods, axe at the ready.

As he walked, he noticed the trees were significantly larger and thicker than the ones back on Shika Nui. While he wasn’t a small person himself, he felt like a protodite in a city around here and knew that if he did not pay careful attention to where he was going he could easily get lost.

Perhaps that is what happened to Nastan, he mused. Then again, he is nature boy, so it is unlikely he could get himself so lost that he could not find us again. So something must have happened to him. But what?

That was what was bothering him the most. If it had been Kra-Matoran, they would have found him and the rest of the Toa Shika. Had it been Shodios, they would have most likely killed him and then would have gone directly after the rest of the Toa Shika next. So it was someone else. . . . Or something else.

Suddenly, he felt a slight shiver up his spine. Who said it was a person who got Nastan? What if a beast had gotten him instead? What if this beast dwelt in this forest and had already eaten up Nastan? What was to stop it from getting him or any of the other Toa? He hadn’t been in Wyoko very long and so knew very little about its wildlife. What if there was a creature that could blend in with the shadows? What if it were stalking him even now?

Even if it was, it wouldn’t be able to see me, he thought. After all, I am wearing the Mask of Stealth. No way it can see me. He paused, as if a new thought suddenly entered his head. What if it can smell me, though? And it might be following my scent. I haven’t bathed in a while, so I must smell pretty bad.

He glanced around at the dark trees. He could see no shape in the shadows, nor could he hear anything. He was almost congratulating himself on how cautious he was being when something big leaped out from the trees and tackled him, causing him to lose his concentration and become visible again.

It was too dark for him to see what it was, though he realized that it had short, sharp claws that were slashing at his armor and it was breathing in his face. He punched it in the face, but that did no good. So he did the only thing he could do in his situation: “Help! I need help!”

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of footsteps coming from all around him, but the beast was not giving up. It kept trying to rip his mask off, but with significant effort he managed to keep its claws away from his face. He kneed it in the stomach, but it managed to hit him in the face, leaving his chest wide open. It raised its blades and, right before bringing them down on his heartlight, a ball of plasma shot through the air and hit the monster’s face, burning it and killing the beast instantly. Barilo was too surprised by the sudden death of the creature that he did not do anything until Addis and Akuna appeared and heaved the large beast off of him. He scrambled to his feet and looked down at the creature, now illuminated by Akuna’s Mask of Night Vision.

It was a big, cat-like monster, with seven toes on each foot that ended in dull-looking claws, as if they had been used again and again for years without getting polished every now and then. It had black colored armor, which Barilo thought was perfect for camouflage in the darkness of the forest. Its head was melted completely because of Addis’ plasma, so he did not know what its face looked like, although he suspected that it probably wasn’t pretty.

“You okay?” Addis asked, his plasma launcher still out, his sharp eyes looking around the dark area for any sign of any other creatures like the big cat.

“Yeah,” Barilo panted. “That thing jumped me from one of the trees. I sure thought I was a goner for a second there!”

“Do you think that this . . . thing got Nastan?” asked Akuna, sounded slightly terrified. “Considering how violent it acts. . . . I don’t want to see how Nastan’s corpse looks . . .”

“I kind of doubt it,” answered Barilo. “Nastan wouldn’t let a thing like that kill him, would he?”

“If it jumped him and he was unprepared, then I’d be willing to say that Nastan may not be in this world with us anymore,” Addis said sadly as Chimoy and Nonzra broke through the bushes, weapons drawn as they looked around for the threat.

After explaining to the two Toa what had happened, Chimoy bent down and examined the beast’s dead body. After studying it for a minute or two, he got up and turned to Barilo.

“Barilo, did you by any chance get a good look at this creature’s face?” asked Chimoy.

“No,” said the Toa of Gravity. “It was too dark. Why do you ask?”

“Well, you said it tried to get your mask, didn’t you?” said Chimoy. “Then this must be a mask thief.”

“A what?” Nonzra asked in a puzzled-sounding voice.

“A mask thief,” the Toa of Iron replied, “is a Rahi beast that steals masks from Toa, Matoran, Makuta, or any other beings that wear masks and generally kill the original owners of the Kanohi, though sometimes they don’t if they feel the original wearer isn’t big enough a threat. They steal masks to wear because it gives them extra energy and keeps them alive longer. They only attack when they need a mask, so this one must have not had had a mask, which is why it attacked Barilo. These beasts are rare, I think, but I do remember reading up about them on Shika Nui before the Dark Hunters took it over.”

“So . . . there’s still a chance for Nastan to be alive?” Akuna asked hopefully.

“Yes,” said Chimoy, nodding, “though he probably isn’t still in this forest. Nonzra and I didn’t find hide or hair of him. He must have left the forest and got kidnapped.”

“That sounds likely,” said Addis. “I remember one time, back when we were Matoran, he got himself captured by a few Dark Hunters and I broke him out. Then we had to sneak out of the prison camp, which was very hard, because so many Hunters were patrolling and there was at least one energy hound from what I remember. But we did escape, though I severely scolded Nastan after that for being very clumsy.” He chuckled and said in a nostalgic voice, “Those were the days.”

“Well, maybe we should get going,” suggested Akuna. “Maybe he is heading toward The Door.”

“Or got captured by one of the surrounding villages,” said Barilo. “Considering how foolhardy he can be at times, it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened.”

“What should we do, Addis?” asked Akuna. “Should we head toward The Door or maybe search Wyoko for Nastan?”

Addis had a perfectly good answer for this. “We simply search for Nastan. We need him if we are going to open The Door, I think, since we need all six Toa to create a Toa seal. But I do suggest that we try to head in the general direction of The Door anyway, since Nastan is most likely heading that way if he is still free.”

Akuna looked slightly more cheerful at this and soon the five Toa Shika were walking through the dark forest, each one of them wondering what had happened to Nastan and if they would ever find him again.

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Chapter 6: Escape!

“I don’t like this cage!” Nastan said after the fiftieth bump on the road rattled the cage, causing his head to bump on the top bars again.

“Don’t you Toa ever stop complaining?” snapped one of the Matoran in the caravan. “I mean sheesh, it’s like you guys are extremely whiny whiners. Honestly, you are not setting a good example for your own people.”

“Well, if you were stuck in a small, old, bouncey cage with five fully armored people the same size as you, you’d be complaining as well,” muttered Nastan.

They were now traveling through a small village alongside the road. The huts looked almost exactly like the kind that they had seen in the ruins of Kra-Koro back on Shika Nui, except these ones were in much better state. The villagers of the town all came out of their homes to see what was happening, and they were all equally surprised to see the six Toa Shika. All of the Kra-Matoran stood, looking curious, as the caravan moved through the tiny village. Barilo supposed they were too shocked by the appearance of the Toa to do or say anything, until one of the Kra-Matoran ran up to the Matoran driving the caravan and hurriedly whispered a question to him. Once he got his answer, the villager ran back to the others and began telling them all what the reply was.

By the time the caravan had left the village, there was the music of a great celebration beginning back there, with lots of shouting as well. Barilo assumed the guards had told the villagers about the fact that The Door was open and they were now probably celebrating how they were going to be free of Wyoko forever and never have to see this place again.

Three hours later (it seemed much longer to Barilo, though) a large village situated next to a huge lake of shadow came into view. Nonzra, being on top of everyone else in the cage (literally), saw it first. The shadow in the lake seemed to act like water, he reported, for he saw boats and swimmers in it, oddly enough, and also he saw fishers catching fish out of the lake with nets and rods as if they were fishing in a normal body of water.

“Okay, this place really is weird,” said Akuna. “Shadow isn’t water!”

“Must have something to do with how this place is,” said Barilo. “After all, Wyoko is almost like a world of its own. Maybe it even has its own physics, too.”

“Whatever the case,” said Addis, “I say we make a plan on how to escape.”

“We’ve had several hours to do that, Addis,” said Barilo, annoyed. “And you just chose now?”

“Sorry, I was a little bit distracted by the constant bumps of this cage to do anything else,” snapped Addis. “No one else has thought of any idea, have they?”

No one answered, so Addis said, “Thought so.”

Up in the driver’s seat, one of the Kra-Matoran, a female named Eruki, heard some muttering behind her. She twisted her head around and saw the Toa Shika whispering to one another. She did not know what they were saying, but she knew by looking on the expressions on their faces that they were planning something, probably an escape.

“Hey, Jiicha,” said Eruki to the villager sitting next to her. “I think the scum are plotting to escape.”

“Just shoot them a little with your shadow,” Jiicha muttered distractedly. “These Muaka are making the caravan bump around too much.”

Eruki turned around and shot a small blast of shadow at the Toa, which instantly got their attention. “Stop plotting or we’ll kill you ourselves!”

“Then why don’t you do it?” Barilo challenged. “You have the power, obviously. You villagers seem to be very strong for Matoran and you also have elemental powers.”

“The reason I don’t do it,” she snapped, “is because Toa Tikcah specifically ordered you six to be fed to the shadow eels. If she or Turaga Krashadi or any of the other Shodios gave us the okay to kill you, we would have done it right there back in Castle Kra.”

“Personally, I think you’re just too weak,” said Akuna, trying hard not to smile. “Look, we’re stuck in here, in this cage. We have nowhere to run or hide and we certainly can’t use our elemental powers to escape, because this cage can probably absorb elemental energy, just like the ones in the dungeons. The perfect opportunity to kill all of us in one, single, mighty blow. . . . Unless, of course, you’re too weak or afraid to do it.”

“You don’t want to make me angry,” said Eruki, brandishing a knife and pointing it at the prisoners. “I have a very bad temper.”

“She does,” Jiicha added. Then he muttered, “Stupid Muaka! Slow down!”

“Well, I suppose you wouldn’t kill us,” Barilo said as he sighed a huge, fake sigh. “After all, you’re just a good little soldier who takes orders without question. Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that perhaps the Shodios aren’t better than the Great Spirit Mata Nui himself?”

That did it. Barilo could tell it did because Eruki looked extremely mad. Looks like our plan is working, he thought. Anger the guards and make them break us free.

“Don’t . . . you . . . ever . . . say that . . . again . . .” she seethed, walking closer to them, her knife held high. “Or do you want your shoulder wounded again? Or how’s about I just take it off completely?”

“You couldn’t cut a bula berry with a sharp rock if you had one, much less my arm with that knife!” Barilo taunted. “I mean, that blade’s probably over 100,000 years old and if it so much as glanced off my armor it would fall into itty bitty pieces!”

“Die!” Eruki shouted, charging towards the imprisoned Toa, her knife held high.

She swiped at Barilo with her blade, but the Toa of Gravity managed to move out of its way, despite the little room the cage had to offer for any movement at all. She hit the bars very hard and then shot a blast of shadow at it. This, combined the oldness of the pen and the fact it was practically breaking at the seams because of how cramped the Toa were, caused it to break open so suddenly that Eruki fell backwards, dropping her blade and yelping in surprise.

The caravan immediately halted and the Matoran guards walking around the vehicle stopped at the same time. The Toa Shika all fell out of the back of the cage, which had fallen into pieces, but they were prepared for this. Jumping to her feet, Akuna stunned the guards with a blast of electricity, while Nonzra used a large wave of sound to knock out the ones that Akuna had missed. Jiicha turned around to see what was causing the commotion and immediately shrieked out of fear and fell out of the caravan. With no one holding the reins, and with the sounds of battle growing louder behind them, the Muaka that were pulling the caravan immediately ran out of fear, pulling the vehicle along behind them as they ran until they were out of sight.

Jiicha looked up from the ground at the Toa, who had now surrounded him. Strong as he may be, he knew he stood no chance against six Toa, six well-armed Toa at that. All he had was a knife, but even he knew that a knife was nothing compared to a plasma cannon or an axe.

“Please! Do not kill me!” he shrieked, bowing at their feet. “I do not want to die!”

He expected them to make a snide comment and then finish him off in the most gruesome way possible, as he was used to seeing the Shodios do to those who failed as badly as he did. But instead, thick bands of metal appeared around his body, tying up his arms and legs, which kept him from running off.

“We are not going to kill you, Matoran,” said Addis. “That isn’t what true Toa do.”

“I don’t know, Addis,” said Nonzra uncertainly. “What if the Shodios find these guys? Shouldn’t we, well, dispose of him so he won’t tell them that we’re free?”

“Nonzra, that would make us no better than the Shodios themselves,” said Nastan, shaking his head. “Let’s just knock him out. Once he’s out, let’s-“

“-Not tell him where we’re going until he’s out,” Barilo cut him off. “He’s still conscious. If the Shodios were to find him, he would be able to tell them where we are going.”

“I’ll do it,” Akuna volunteered. “I’ll just electrocute him.” She looked down at the frightened Kra-Matoran and said in a gentle voice, “Don’t worry. It shouldn’t hurt at all.”

With that, she hit the villager with just enough electricity to knock him out and, to Jiicha’s amazement it didn’t hurt, as she had promised, although now he couldn’t feel anything at all since he was out cold now.
Once that was done, Nastan said, “We gotta get going to The Door. If we’re lucky, we should get there in a few days.”

Addis looked around at the barren road and said, “Yes, but, which direction, exactly, is The Door?”

All of the Toa looked around. None of them had been paying any attention to where they had been going in the last few hours because they had been distracted by the bumpy cage. Now that they were free, they all wished they had paid better attention to direction that they had been going in.

“Well, I think we should stay in the mostly uninhabited parts of Wyoko,” suggested Barilo. “If the rest of the villagers are as crazy as these ones, then maybe we should avoid villages or at least the big ones anyway. I don’t want to have to fight hundreds of these Shodios-worshipping guys.”

“Sounds good to me,” Addis said, nodding. “I think we should go northeast. We should stay off the roads, too, unless they’re deserted. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” the other five Toa said in unison.

After quickly making sure that all of the Matoran were really unconscious and tied up well, the party quickly ran into the hills around the road, running into the bushes and trees. They kept going for about an hour or so. And then, after they were sure that they were well-away from civilization they camped out in the middle of a dark forest, for they were sure that they wouldn’t be found in there.

It seemed to be getting darker now, for they could barely see themselves. Barilo thought it was becoming nighttime, though considering Wyoko is a land of shadow, he could not be sure. Still, Addis suggested that they build a fire and that they did, gathering up some twigs and branches and putting them in a pile. Addis used a small portion of his plasma and a minute later a fire was blazing. Not as big or as grand as the kind a Toa of Fire might make, but one big enough to provide heat and light for them all, although they all sat around it to try to block the light so no Kra-Matoran would notice them.

Now they sat in silence, saying nothing, merely thinking over the events of the last 24 hours. Finally, Akuna spoke up and said, “Um, am I the only here who feels sorry for these Matoran?”

“Why would you feel sorry for these creeps?” Barilo asked incredulously. “They basically worship their heroes like gods and see us as their version of Makuta Hajax. Why in the world should I feel sorry for them?”

“Unlike you, I see the point Akuna is making,” Nastan said indignantly. “For whatever reason, they were imprisoned under here 100,000 years ago and have been here since then. It very well may have seemed to them as if Mata Nui himself wanted to banish them from his sight forever, which would be a very bad thing, you know.”

“I agree that they’re creeps,” Akuna agreed. “But why did the Order have to go to this length and trap them beneath our island? Why didn’t they just make peace with them?”

“I don’t know,” Addis sighed. “And to be frank, I don’t really care. We don’t know much of the Kra-Matorans’ exile except what they say and we all know how honest those Shodios seem to be.”

“I know,” Akuna said. “I was just saying that perhaps we should consider their view for a minute. Are they really all that evil? What if the Order of Mata Nui is evil? It seems like they go to extremes if they have to imprison an entire tribe under here with not so much as a trial.”

“Maybe we should postpone this little discussion,” suggested Chimoy. “It’s getting dark. . . . Well, darker than usual, anyway. And am I the only one who is tired enough to sleep through several nights?”

Suddenly, the rest of the Toa felt the weight of the last few days fall on them and they all immediately looked ready to take a good sleep for a few hours.

“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Akuna yawned. “I still think that perhaps we should give the Kra-Matoran a chance . . .”

“Whatever,” said Barilo, “good night, everyone.”

With his power over planet life, Nastan created six large leaves that acted as blankets for himself and his friends. They weren’t exactly the most comfortable things in the world, but they kept each other warm at least. Before shutting his eyes, Barilo noticed how close Nastan and Akuna were sleeping next to each other. It didn’t look like it was a coincidence, either, for they were looking into each other’s eyes as they lay on the grass. He didn’t give it another thought, however, because the minute he closed his eyes, his mind drifted off into dreamland. Except, this time, the dream wasn’t mysterious or cryptic like his last one. No, this one was just way too weird, long and complicated, so there was no point in describing it.

-

Toa Ira lay on her bed in her room in Castle Kra, looking up at the ceiling. She may have liked darkness and shadow, but even Toa of Shadow needed rest and her bedtime just happened to be the same as the usual light dweller’s sleep time.

Her room was decorated fairly nicely. A large, purple-black carpet lay on the floor near the large wooden door, while a carving of her face hung above her bed. Big curtains hung above her windows and on a stone desk next to her bed lay her diary, which she used to write in the day’s events. Even though she was a Shodios and even though they already had a Chronicler, she preferred to write the actions of each day herself without having to let her brothers and sisters read her own thoughts.

Not that they would, she reminded herself. They know better than to look through my things.

The room itself was completely and utterly dark. She preferred it this way, because she hated light. Yet, despite the room being in the perfect conditions that suited her, she felt slightly uneasy. Maybe it was because she was excited about the fact that she and the others would be leaving Wyoko soon, or maybe it was something else entirely, something she herself only knew of that the other Shodios did not.

Perhaps it is because I alone of the Shodios know the truth about Teivel, Ira thought as she turned in her bed.

Years ago, before they had been exiled here, she had seen Teivel turn into something very . . . bizarre, and she instinctively knew he hadn’t been using his Mask of Shape Shifting, because he changed very differently than the way she was used to seeing him change. He had strictly told her afterwards not to tell anyone else, for if she did, she would die a very horrible death.

It troubled her. On one hand, she did not particularly like Teivel much, especially after he and her broke up shortly after getting exiled into Wyoko and then Tikcah began taking visible interest in him not too long after that. But on the other hand, she thought her teammates and Krashadi ought to know about Teivel’s true form.

But who says they don’t? she thought. Just because they don’t talk about it doesn’t mean they don’t know about it. Maybe they’ve all seen him change into it at one time or another and were told, like me, not to tell anyone if they valued their life.

Still, yet another thing bothered her. It was the Toa Shika. “Shika,” she knew, was an old Matoran word, meaning ‘endless shadow.’ She wondered why these self-proclaimed warriors of light would dub themselves this, since they seemed to associate shadow with evil and light with good.

Perhaps the term is so old they do not know its meaning, the Toa of Shadow thought. Either that or they’re a whole lot more stupid than I thought. All that light and heat on the surface must have fried their brains or something.

She looked out her window at the dark sky. She did not doubt that this was going to be the last time that she would see the shadow clouds and the dim, almost burnt out stars of the Wyokan sky. By this time tomorrow, she no doubt knew, she and the rest of the Shodios, Turaga Krashadi, and all of the Kra-Matoran would be out of Wyoko to restart their conquering.

This time, she knew, there would be no one to stop them. Not the Toa, not the Order of Mata Nui, not anyone.

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Chapter 5: Nastan and Barilo’s Argument

To pass the time while the Shodios and Krashadi decided the fate of the Toa Shika, Barilo decided to tell his friends of the weird dream he had had in his cell before being taken to this cage. When he finished, all of the other Shika looked puzzled and confused.

“The Graalo is closer than you think?” asked Nonzra, frowning. “What does that mean?”

“No idea,” said Barilo, shrugging. “It was probably the weirdest dream I’ve ever had. The cloaked being seemed familiar to me, but I don’t know who it was.”

“Maybe it . . . no. . . . Never mind,” said Akuna, quickly shaking her head. “Can’t be. . . .”

“What are you going on about, Akuna?” asked Barilo. “Do you have any idea of who it could be?”

She looked up at him and said, “Well, I thought, perhaps it might have been Makuta Hajax.”

The others stared at her, stunned. They all knew very well who Hajax was. Makuta Hajax was the Makuta of Shika Nui, or used to be, until he had had his original armor pierced and his antidermis form leaked into the air. The Makuta had been against the Plan of Makuta Teridax and was thought dead for some time, until just recently, when Barilo learned that Hajax had been hiding in a robot that was the personal assistant to a Dark Hunter. Hajax had allied himself with Barilo for a while because he too wanted to rid the island of the Dark Hunters (though mostly for his own reasons rather than out of any sort of goodness). He even created a mind link between them so that they could keep in contact with each other. Unfortunately, what Barilo had not known at the time was that Hajax was really planning to kill them all. He had hired a Skakdi named Iroko to kill them, but they stopped her and went after Hajax soon after.

Last time they’d seen the Makuta, he had been surrounded by all of the Dark Hunters on Shika Nui and most likely got killed, so the suggestion of him visiting Barilo in a dream was quite absurd.

“Akuna, that’s crazy,” said Addis, shaking his head. “If you’re suggesting Barilo’s dreaming about that freak, or that he is visiting Barilo in his dreams somehow, I think that is one of the craziest things I have ever heard, especially coming from you.”

“Well, Barilo, did the cloaked being’s voice sound the same as Hajax’s?” asked Akuna, somewhat ignoring Addis.

Before he could answer, Nonzra suddenly spoke up and said, “Guys, this dream sort of seems like, well, like it’s sort of pointless to discuss. I mean, how do we know that this dream is anything special? Sure, it sounds mysterious, but dreams are always mysterious and random. Personally I think we should worry more about the here and now, figuring out how to escape Wyoko and whatnot instead of pondering random dreams.”

“But this dream felt really different than other dreams I’ve had in the past,” Barilo insisted.

“You know, Barilo, I do sort of agree with Nonzra,” said Chimoy. “It was just a dream, after all. Everyone has dreams, so why do we act like this one is any different or unusual than others?”

“Because Barilo is trying to get attention,” snapped Nastan. His sudden change in attitude caught Akuna off-guard, but he continued on, “Look, he’s already deputy leader, was evil and then turned back to good again, got his shoulder damaged and healed, and also tried to kill me. Personally, I say we should dismiss his fantasies because that’s all his dream is: A fantasy.”

“Nastan, this dream wasn’t normal,” said Barilo, trying to hold back his temper. “It seemed all too real for me to dismiss it as ‘just a fantasy.’ The Graalo and the Kra-Matoran seemed like they represented something to me, and that cloaked figure is definitely fishy.”

“Did the cloaked figure suggest to you to try to kill me again?” Nastan challenged, getting to his feet and staring Barilo in the eyes.

“No, but if you keep acting like a paranoid moron I just might do that!” shouted Barilo, jumping to his feet and drawing his axe.

“Bring it, gravity boy!”

“It’s on, plant man!”

“Stop it!” shouted Akuna, standing between the two arguing Toa. “We have more important things to worry about than personal grudges!” She looked at Nastan and said, “Nastan, stop acting like a paranoid moron, like Barilo said-“

“Oh, so now you’re taking his side, eh?” Nastan said savagely. “Here I thought you liked me. Guess I was wrong.”

“It’s not like that!” Akuna shouted, standing in front of him, looking into his eyes. “I am not taking sides here! I was just going to-“

“Akuna, please get out of the way,” said Barilo. “I want to hit Nastan in the face with my axe and I don’t want to accidentally hit you while I’m at it.”

She whirled around to face Barilo and shouted, “Don’t you hurt him! We’re all friends here! Friends don’t hurt each other like this!”

“Everybody, calm down!” shouted Addis, standing up and grabbing Nastan and Barilo by their shoulders. “Akuna, thank you for trying to help, but I think I will be needing to talk to these two, so go sit down with Chimoy and Nonzra, please.”

“Fine,” the Toa of Lightning said, throwing Nastan and Barilo a look of disappointment as she sat down next to her two brothers in arms.

Addis hauled the two arguing Toa with him to another side of the cage. It wasn’t very far away because of the size of the cell, but he all he needed to do was stop these two from tearing each other apart. He then stood them up against the bars and looked from Barilo to Nastan, his eyes daring them to be quiet.

“Now before I begin, I want neither of you to interrupt me in any way at all unless it is important,” said Addis, his eyes glowing like the plasma he created. “Got it?”

“Yes,” the two Toa said in unison, obviously feeling uncomfortable with having to explain themselves to Addis.

“Now, Nastan,” said the Toa of Plasma, turning to face the Toa of The Green. “I want you to say you’re sorry to Barilo and Barilo, I want you to do the same to Nastan.”

That seemed to be a little more than they could take, for Barilo looked up and said, “But Addis-!” and Nastan said, “I am not saying sorry to that little-!” but the Toa leader cut them both off.

“I said do it,” Addis said, this time more firmly. “Now. Like Akuna said, we have much more important things to worry about than personal grudges. Need I remind you how we ended up here in this cage? Or do I need to smack some sense into both of you?”

Neither answered, but instead they did as Addis had told them and turned to face each other. Without looking into each other’s eyes, they both mumbled, “Sorry,” and turned back around, their arms folded, obviously not wanting to talk with each other.

But apparently Addis thought it was good enough, because he said, “Okay, let’s go back to the others,” and took them back to Akuna, Chimoy, and Nonzra. He sat down in the middle of the group and placed Nastan and Barilo on opposite sides of the team. Nastan sat near Akuna, seething in anger, while Barilo sat next to Nonzra, looking like he wished he could do something very bad to Nastan. But neither of them was saying anything to each other and that, Akuna thought, was better than having them sneer at each other or worse, get into an actual physical fight.

Suddenly, the six Shodios and Turaga Krashadi appeared in the chamber, closing the door to the Chamber of Fate behind them as they entered. From the looks on their faces, Barilo could that tell they had good news. Good news for them, perhaps, Barilo thought, but probably bad news for my friends and I.

Oddly enough, only Tikcah walked up to their cage to deliver the news. The other Shodios and Krashadi left through the same door that they had used to enter the room earlier. Tikcah clapped her hands together and looked down at the captured Toa, her yellow eyes gleaming with delight.

“You Toa shall receive a rather . . . gruesome death,” said Tikcah in a voice that Barilo didn’t like at all. “You will be fed to the shadow eels, and shadow eels, might I tell you, do not eat their meals very cleanly or slowly. Guards!” She clapped her hands loudly and the two Kra-Matoran sentries from before ran into the room and then stood at attention, saluting the Toa of Shadow with their right hands.

“Yes, Toa Tikcah?” asked one of them.

“Take these Toa and bring them to Ghenla,” she ordered. “When you get there, have them fed to the shadow eels. Make sure they do not survive. If they do, your lifespan will be significantly shorter, I can assure you that.”

”Yes, ma’am,” the sentry said, bowing solemnly. “We shall try our best. May we get a few more guards to help us escort these filthy prisoners?”

“Fine,” said Tikcah. “Take as many as you need. No telling what these Toa are capable of, although I doubt they are very bright, since they were the ones who opened The Door in the first place.”

She quickly left the room, as if in a hurry, and the two guards left through another door and soon came back with at least four more sentries. They opened the cage, created shadow rings around the Toa, and then forced them out and through another door into a staircase that lead down. The rings were sapping the energy of the Toa and they all knew trying to escape from them would be useless. So they decided to see where they were going before making any sudden moves.

Soon they had emerged into the courtyard. The dry, dull-colored grass crunched beneath their feet as the Matoran and Toa walked. Barilo twisted his head and saw banners bearing the masks of all six Shodios and Krashadi mounted on the walls, almost exactly the same as the ones they had seen in the courtroom, except more worn and pale from the constant exposure to the weather.

One of the Kra-Matoran broke off from the group and ran into a stable. Minutes later he reemerged with two Muaka that were much darker in color than the kind Barilo remembered seeing on Shika Nui, and the villager came out with a large caravan as well. The reason for the size of the caravan was no secret: A large, rusty, old-looking cage sat on its back with a small wagon behind it. What it was originally used for, Barilo did not know, but soon he and the rest of the Toa were squeezed inside. It was cramped, squeezing them all together in a very uncomfortable way.

The villagers obviously did not care about the fact it was cramped inside, since they cared very little for the Toa Shika, and soon they had gotten into the caravan. One of the Matoran grabbed the reins and yelled, “Yah! Yah! Get moving!”

The two Muaka cats quickly moved forward, not liking the sound of the villager’s tone or the whipping of the reins. The draw bridge was lowered and soon the squad was out, going down south of the castle. The old cage rattled and clanked as it moved along on a pair of old wooden wheels. There was no room for them to bounce around in, so the Toa Shika all managed to hit each other as they bounced in the cage, making the ride even more painful.

“Um, excuse me,” Addis called from the cage. “Could you it slow down a bit? It’s really uncomfortable back here.”

“Shut up, light spit,” one of the Kra-Matoran snapped. “Or I’ll whip you hard and I’ll let you know that I am very good at cracking whips.”

“Well, we don’t quite like it back here,” Addis shot back.

“And we don’t quite like you,” the villager growled. “Remember the whip!” She lifted the whip and waved it threateningly so Addis could see it clearly.

Addis decided to be quiet after that, not because of the threat of being whipped, but because it was obvious that the Matoran would not slow down the caravan for their comfort even slightly. So the cage rattled, clanked, and bounced around as they headed towards their shadowy doom.

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Chapter 4: Trial of the Shodios

Despite what Krashadi had just said, none of the Shodios said or did anything to indicate that they were about to trial the light dwellers and neither did the Toa Shika. That same silence that had plagued them earlier was back again and no one really said anything. In fact, the Shodios were staring at the Shika like they were some kind of new creatures that they had just discovered under a rock, while the Toa Shika looked back at them with curiosity in their eyes.

Finally, Krashadi, attempting to break the awkward silence, said, “I assume you six have already met Teivel, Ira and Rhatara?”

“Uh, yes,” said Barilo. Suddenly he felt the pain in his shoulder sting and he exclaimed, “Ow!”

“What is the problem?” asked Krashadi, in an almost concerned-sounding tone, which differed wildly from his previous tone.

“Well, uh, I sort of got a dagger tossed into my shoulder back on Shika Nui and now it is broken and hurts badly,” Barilo said awkwardly. Why was Krashadi concerned for his shoulder? Maybe the Turaga wasn’t so evil after all, the Toa thought.

“Jero,” the Turaga said abruptly, turning to face the Toa of Shadow with claws and wings who was sitting on his right. “Please give the Toa of Gravity a heal berry for his shoulder. We cannot have him constantly complain about his broken shoulder if this trial is to go well.”

Jero shot him a look of extreme disbelief. “But he is the enemy! We do not help the enemies! It is not logical!”

“Jero, the only reason I tolerate your ridiculous science experiments is because they are useful,” said Krashadi in a very different – and darker – tone than before. “I could easily order your execution now if you do not give the Toa a heal berry.”

Jero glared at him, then muttered, “Fine, fine,” and he climbed down from his high chair and walked over to the cage, already digging through his pouch for the fruit.

He finally found what he was looking for and pulled out a small, spiky berry from his bag and handed it to Barilo, who reluctantly took it. Jero looked away and muttered, “Just eat it.”

Barilo looked back at his teammates. What if it was poison? The Shodios had already shown how much they hated ‘light dwellers’ before. What was to stop them from trying to kill Barilo in the middle of a trial? But based on the looks of the other Shodios and Krashadi, he didn’t dare refuse it and then absorbed the energy of the berry, though rather reluctantly.

Suddenly, his shoulder began to feel different. It began to feel better, in fact. As he looked at the wound, he could see it repair itself, reattaching metal and organic tissue for about five minutes until finally it was well again. He rotated it around just to make sure and it moved extremely well, even better than before and he felt no pain, either. He thought it was a complete miracle.

The other Toa Shika looked just as amazed as he did, perhaps even more so. None of them had ever heard of a ‘heal berry’ before and they had thought it wouldn’t work like Barilo had, but apparently it did work, for Barilo was twisting his arm in all directions without any pain at all as Jero sulked away from the cage, mumbling to himself about how dumb it was to heal their enemy and how it would give them an significant advantage if they were to fight them.

“How-?” Barilo asked as looked up at Krashadi with curious and grateful eyes.

“I thought you would be more willing to answer questions if your shoulder was not constantly hurting you,” said Krashadi. “Now. . . .” His voice suddenly changed from a warm and almost friendly tone to that of a thunder storm at its peak. “Who are you? Where do you come from? Answer quickly, Toa, or I will tolerate your non-shadow presence anymore.”

“I will answer,” said Nastan, walking up to the cage and gripping the bars. “I am Toa Nastan and these are my friends, Addis, Chimoy, Akuna, Nonzra, and Barilo,” he gestured to each one as he spoke their names, “and we come from the island of Shika Nui, which is above this land, I think.” It may have seemed dumb to tell all of this to potential enemies, but what would it hurt? It’s not like he and his were part of a secret organization that was supposed to keep their identities hidden, anyway. Besides, Nastan did not doubt that the Shodios had the power and will to kill him and his allies if they refused to answer them.

“And why, oh why, did you come down here, to Wyoko?” asked Krashadi, his voice in the same thundering tone as before. “What foolish stupidity could have possessed you to free us? Don’t your people tell stories of the Kra-Matoran Empire crushing all opposition, conquering lands, and slaughtering countless beings in our conquest of the universe?”

“We had no idea you guys were under Shika Nui, Turaga,” said Nastan. He was hoping that if he spoke respectfully to Krashadi he might let them free, although he kind of doubted that it would work. “As Matoran, we never heard of any stories of Kra-Matoran of Toa of Shadow before or of Wyoko either. We sort of expected to find a large amount of treasure here or perhaps some powerful new weapon that we could use to save our island.”

“What does Shika Nui need saving from, Nastan?” Krashadi asked in an almost bored-sounding tone.

“Turaga, we are wasting time,” Rhatara hissed. “I could easily search their minds with my own telepathic powers and get all the answers you need, plus more.”

“I would rather hear it come from their mouths, Rhatara, than from you,” replied Krashadi. “Because there is always that chance you are lying.”

“Why wouldn’t they be lying?” challenged Rhatara.

“Because they are light Toa,” said Krashadi in a tone that sound as though he was explaining it to a child. “Toa, at least the kind that we faced, do not lie. You, however, have no conscience, Rhatara, and therefore have no reason not to lie to me. You may be thinking, ‘Krashadi could get killed by whatever is waiting on Shika Nui and I could over the Kra-Matoran Empire and become king of the universe to boot.’ Honestly, Rhatara, between you and Teivel I’d say you’re the easiest to read and that, my Toa, is saying something.”

Barilo half expected to see Rhatara fly into a fit of rage and start to threaten everyone in the room, but the fearsome Toa of Shadow actually looked quite intimidated by the Turaga and did not speak back. Instead, he looked back at the Toa Shika, although Barilo could tell his eyes were not focused on them. He looked more like he was thinking about how he had been so thoroughly humiliated by Krashadi in front of everyone.

Why would he be so intimidated by a Turaga? Barilo wondered. Granted, he’s a pretty scary Turaga, but a Turaga nonetheless. A Turaga is in no way strong enough to defeat a Toa. This Krashadi must hold some sort of influence over them, but what? Aside from being the leader of the entire land of Wyoko, that is.

“Continuing on,” Tikcah said suddenly, as if the whole Krashadi-Rhatara incident hadn’t happened, “what is it that you thought you would save your island from, Toa?”

“The Dark Hunters,” replied Addis. “They’re sort of a group of mercenaries and bounty hunters who have a huge outreach. They’re also at war with the Brotherhood of Makuta.”

“Really?” asked Ira, looking at him suspiciously. “The Brotherhood of Makuta, you say?”

“Yes,” said Addis, nodding. “What about them?”

“Nothing,” she said, leaning back in her seat. “I was just interested to learn that the Brotherhood was still active, considering how my brothers and sisters and I believed that the Order of Mata Nui had replaced them.”

At the mention of the ‘Order of Mata Nui,’ Ira glanced at them, as if expecting to see some kind of reaction from the Toa. Instead, all she got was a bunch of blank expressions staring straight back at her, as if she had spoken a word in another language to them that none of the heroes quite understood.

“Order of Mata Nui,” Ira repeated, this time more firmly. “You know the organization that is supposed to be serving Mata Nui’s will? Haven’t you ever heard of them?”

“No,” said Barilo, shaking his head. “Never have.”

“You mean you never heard of the organization that almost single-handedly defeated the Kra-Matoran Empire some 100,000 years ago?” she questioned. “The one that’s members have dedicated themselves to carrying out the will of the Great Spirit himself?”

All of the Toa Shika looked at one another at that, and Addis said, “Sorry. Don’t know what you’re talking about, though back on Shika Nui we found a poem in an ancient temple in the mountains that spoke of a ‘secret organization that follows the will of the Great Spirit Mata Nui.’ We don’t know if that’s the same as the Order of Mata Nui, though.”

“An ancient temple in the mountains?” said Rhatara, his attention back on the Toa. “Was there an entire village?”

“Yes,” said Addis, already thinking of what Rhatara was going to say next.

“That was once Kra-Koro in the old days before we were exiled here,” Rhatara said with a sigh. “I am surprised the Order did not destroy it.”

“And what about the poem?” asked Jero sharply. “Did it by any chance say who wrote it?”

“Well, the only indication of someone having written it was the name ‘Oggak,’ but we have no idea who or what that is,” said Barilo, shrugging.

“Ah, Oggak,” said Ira with a strange sort of a chuckle, “that little traitor of a Matoran. She used to be our Chronicler, but apparently she was far more loyal to Mata Nui than to us, for she began to give the Order information about our latest plans and strategies, which I’ve always suspected is one of the key reasons we failed. For that, she was the only Kra-Matoran not sent here after the fall of the Empire and still remains out there, somewhere, but apparently well-hidden if you morons don’t know about her.”

“Her full name was Oggakia, if I remember correctly,” said Tikcah. “She used the name Oggak as a penname.”

“Enough reminiscing,” Krashadi said in a voice that made it clear that the discussion was over. “We have collected enough information from you Toa. Now we shall go into the Chamber of Fate to decide your destiny. Hopefully, whatever it is, it will be . . . painless, if for your sake only. Come, Shodios.”

With that, the Turaga of Shadow rose from his chair and climbed down the staircase behind his seat, followed closely by Teivel and then the rest. They all went behind a large, faded gold door that lay against the southern portion of the chamber, and once they were inside, Nonzra then looked around at the other Shika with fearful eyes and said, “Am I the only one here who thinks that, whatever their decision will be, it will end with us dying horrible deaths?”

-

The chamber that the Shodios and Krashadi were in was a large, circular room with a long, gray-colored stone table in the middle, with seven chairs, three on each side, the seventh one at the head of the table. Besides that, it was a mostly bare room, save for the piles upon piles of stone tablets that piled one corner, which were notes taken in past trials.

Despite having only been in the room for a couple of minutes, the discussion had turned fierce almost as soon as they all sat down. Almost all of them had different opinions on what should be done with the Toa Shika and few of them agreed on what to do about the light dwellers.

“That Nonzra, the Toa of Sonics,” said Rhatara angrily. “He reminds me far too much of Ukio to be allowed to live, in my opinion.”

“Now, now, Rhatara,” said Krashadi, although it wasn’t a gentle voice. “We all have a say in what the fate of the Shika should be and I, for one, would like to get rid of them in the quickest way possible so that we may live Wyoko immediately.”

Jero was not talking, instead simply scribbling down notes, which usually helped him with his thinking. And Jiki, sitting next to him, slammed her fists on the table and said, “I say that I should get to kill them. I haven’t had the thrill of fighting other Toa in over 100,000 thousand years. It gets pretty boring having to fight Rahi all the time, especially after you’ve finished memorizing their fighting patterns and so know what’s going to happen hours before they actually do it.”

The impact of Jiki’s fists on the table made it rattle slightly, but enough so that Jero scrawled across his tablet, messing it up. He looked up sharply at Jiki and said, “Do you mind?”

“Sorry,” said Jiki, though by the tone in her voice it was fairly obvious that she didn’t really mean it.

“Personally, I think we should just drown them in the lake of shadow,” said Teivel dismissively, ignoring Jiki and Jero. “They may be Toa, but they can’t breathe in pure shadow.”

“I agree, Teivel,” said Tikcah, staring at him with a sort of dreamy look in her eyes. “I can imagine them just now getting eaten alive by the shadow eels, while you and I stand over them, laughing at them.”

Teivel glared at her and said, “Are you saying that because you really do agree or are you just agreeing with me because you like me?”

“Maybe a little bit of both,” Tikcah said slyly as she reached out with her hand to touch Teivel’s arm. “Want to find out?”

“Touch me and die,” the male Toa of Shadow growled.

Tikcah reluctantly pulled her hand back and folded her arms, sighing as she muttered to herself, “Why doesn’t he like me?”

“I agree with Krashadi,” said Ira, ignoring Tikcah and Teivel. “We should kill them all quickly and get out of here as soon as possible. As nice as Wyoko is, I am getting sick of seeing the same things and same people every day with nothing to conquer. I want to get back to ruling the universe.”

“You know, my subjects,” Krashadi said thoughtfully. “I have just realized the perfect way to get rid of them.”

“What?” Rhatara snapped.

“Toss them into the lake of shadow and let the shadow eels eat them,” suggested the Turaga. “Remember, shadow eels can smell light beings from a mile away, so we will not have to do much to attract their attention.”

“It sounds like a nice plan,” Jiki said impatiently. “But I don’t get to fight them if we follow your plan and that means giving up the thrill of fighting other intelligent beings, something I haven’t done in 100,000 years. So I say no.”

Krashadi leaned toward her and whispered in a menacing tone, “And you dare to oppose my plan despite being fully aware of the power that I wield? Are you prepared to give up your life, should you oppose my idea any further, Jiki?”

“No, Turaga!” Jiki said with more than a hint of fear in her voice. “I-I-I didn’t mean it like that!” She smiled apologetically, but it was really an expression of fear and respect that she wore in her eyes.

“That’s good,” Krashadi said quietly as he sat back. “We shall go with my plan as I proposed it. Anyone disagree?”

No one answered. Even Rhatara was too intimidated by the knowledge of what would happen if he openly disagreed with the Turaga to say anything. Krashadi looked around at all of them for a minute or two, then said, “Well, let us go and tell our ‘guests’ about their fate, then, for all beings that will die gruesome deaths should be allowed the knowledge of what will kill them, do they not?”

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Chapter 3: The Eccentric Dream

It did not take long for the two Shodios to arrive at the lakeside village of Ghenla. Once their chariot was in view of the settlement, hundreds of Kra-Matoran burst out from their huts and quickly ran up to Rhatara and Jero, all of them eagerly chattering among themselves as the two Toa of Shadow jumped off of their vehicle and then they looked around at all of the small people who had surrounded them now. Beyond them Jero could see several smashed and destroyed huts, some of them looked like they had been flattened by a giant rock, although he could see reconstruction on a few of them had already began.

Then a few Matoran came up and took the chariot and its two Rahi beasts that had been pull it to a nearby shelter, while one of the Matoran, obviously the leader of the village because the robes he wore and because of the staff he was holding, ran up to them and bowed deeply as he said, “O wise and awesome Shodios, my name is Hikil, leader of this humble settlement. What is it that brings your supreme might to this modest village?”

“We’re here because we heard Toa Tikcah and Toa Jiki were here,” Rhatara growled, not bothering to beat around the bush. “Are they still here?”

“Yes, grand and wise Rhatara,” said Hikil, bowing again. “The two beautiful Toa arrived here about a week ago in response to our plea for help against the shadow eel that has been attacking the shoreline. We have lost many Matoran because of the creature’s devastating attacks.”

“Since they’ve been here for a week, I assume they have had no luck beating the creature?” asked Jero.

“Correct, almighty and intelligent Jero,” said Hikil, nodding. “The shadow eel, it seems, is stronger than it looks. But with both of you here to aid Toa Tikcah and Toa Jiki, it shall surely fall before your awesome might!”

“Get out of my way,” Rhatara growled, kicking Hikil with his foot, sending the Matoran stumbling into a nearby hut. “Come on, Jero. We shall deliver the good news to our sisters.”

Jero quietly followed behind Rhatara, while the villagers all stood aside to let the Shodios pass through. Once they were gone, Hikil sat up, shaking his head, but smiling all the same as he said in awe, “I was kicked by Rhatara! Toa Rhatara! I am never bathing again!”

-

The lake of shadow was, as the name so obviously implied, a lake of shadow. Instead of water, shadow filled it, but acted like water in that one could swim in it, although it wasn’t very drinkable, even to the Shodios, unless it was heavily purified before drinking. Dark, rotten trees, some broken in half, stood around it, while Matoran fishing huts and docks dotted the shoreline. As far as Jero could see, there were no fishing boats out today, nor were any of the villagers swimming. He instantly found the answer for that; Tikcah and Jiki were fighting what appeared to be a giant eel a few feet away from him and Rhatara.

Shadow eels were 15-foot-tall monsters that resembled eels, but were much more dangerous. They generally stayed away from Matoran settlements, but if sufficiently hungry would lay waste to any Matoran villages near them unless a Toa could stop them. Jero knew that shadow eels had a large immunity to shadow, which made them even more difficult to deal with, since he and his fellow Toa all had shadow as their element.

No wonder Tikcah and Jiki have been having such a hard time beating it, Jero thought. Then again, considering Jiki’s here, it would not surprise me if she had been purposefully delaying the defeat of the monster just to keep the thrill of the fight up.

He watched with apathy as Jiki wrestled with the beast in the shadow, while Tikcah stood by on the shoreline, clutching the cloak she always wore around her body. She glanced at Rhatara and Jero and quickly walked over to them, looking both bothered and curious.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked swiftly. “Jiki and I are dealing with the shadow eel just fine.”

“Yeah, the Matoran of Ghenla told us you have been battling it for a week,” said Rhatara, bored. “And we didn’t necessarily come to help you, Tikcah, for we have some very good news that will require you two to come back to Castle Kra with Jero and me for an important ceremony.”

“Well, whatever the news is, it can wait for later,” said Tikcah, motioning to Jiki fighting the eel. “We ought to help her, in my opinion. She may be strong, but even I am amazed at how long that she has lasted against that thing.”

“Fine,” said Rhatara. “I’ll just use my mask to help.”

Nodding, Rhatara walked over to the shoreline and activated his Mask of Energy Restriction on the eel, suddenly causing it to weaken. Jiki now had the upper hand and punched the monster in its teeth, simultaneously activating her Mask of Confusion, making the beast baffled. The eel began to get annoyed at Jiki. It was starting to feel very weak, for it had been battling Tikcah and Jiki for an entire week with little rest and wanted to finish the fight quickly. So it cracked its body like a whip, causing Jiki to go flying off its body through the shadow and hit a tree that was sticking out of the lake. Then, with one final glance backwards, it disappeared beneath the surface, hopefully gone for good, although that seemed unlikely.

“Is it gone?” asked Tikcah.

“Obviously,” Rhatara snapped.

“I do wonder if Jiki is still conscious,” said Jero. “She looks almost dead.”

The female Toa of Shadow was floating very still in the lake, apparently unconscious. Suddenly, she woke up and quickly plunged beneath the shadow before swimming back up and looking around. She had a confused expression on her face as she searched for the shadow eel, but she couldn’t find it.

Then she suddenly turned around in the shadow, spotted Rhatara, Jero, and Tikcah standing on the shore, waved one of her hands into the air and shouted, “I’m okay!”

“Ah, yes,” said Jero as Jiki swam toward them. “How stupid of me to assume that something as simple as a shadow eel hurling her off of its body at a thick tree at full speed would ever be enough to kill her.”

“How very stupid of you indeed,” Jiki said as she climbed onto shore, shadow dripping from her armor, “and here I thought that you would have realized that it would take more than that to kill me, Jero.”

Tikcah, ignoring the two, turned to Rhatara and said, “Rhatara, what is this ‘good news’ that you speak of? Why do Jiki and I need to go back to Castle Kra?”

Rhatara then explained to her all about how he and Ira had found the Toa Shika and brought them to Castle Kra. Once he had finished, Tikcah looked extremely surprised, while Jiki looked very eager and restless as she always did whenever she thought she smelled a new challenge for her.

“Seriously?” asked Tikcah. “No, seriously? Other Toa from the outside have entered Wyoko? Are you sure, Rhatara?”

“I am totally sure, Tikcah,” said Rhatara. “They’re most definitely Toa, though obviously less experienced than the Toa Avha had been.”

“Finally!” said Jiki in exasperation. “Something other than Cracko and shadows eels for me to kill!”

“First, my violent sister,” said Jero, “we must put them on trial before killing them. Just remember that little fact and you won’t be very disappointed.”

-

Barilo was having an odd dream. Earlier, because of how long they were waiting, because of the pain in his broken shoulder, and because of the darkness of the dungeons, he had drifted off to sleep, since after all he had nothing better to do until the Kra-Matoran returned for them, and he was getting kind of tire since he had gone without rest for quite a while.

His dream was bizarre. He found himself standing on a tall, menacing-looking tower in an unknown land, while standing in front of him was a huge hulking behemoth that was glaring at him. One quick glance at its limbs revealed it had chains attached to its wrists and ankles, like it had broken free of some prison some time ago. It had dull blue colored armor and hundreds of small, extremely sharp-looking teeth, its giant, endlessly black eyes focused on Barilo.

To his surprise, he could move both arms just fine, without feeling any sharp pain at all. And he could hold his gravity axe very well without much effort, like it was a leaf. He had no idea where he was nor why he was on top of this tower, facing this beast that kept walking back and forth in front of him as if it were guarding something from him. Every time he tried to look past it, it swiped at him with its powerful, hoof-like paws and he had to jump back to avoid getting hit, which brought him closer to the edge of the tower each time.

It’s obviously protecting something, Barilo thought as he watched the monster walk. But what?

“I can answer that for you, Toa Barilo,” said a mysterious, yet familiar, voice from behind him.

The Toa of Gravity whirled and saw, floating in midair, a cloaked being of enormous size and width. Whoever he was Barilo was sure he had heard the being’s voice before, but where he had, he could not remember at the moment.

“Who are you?” asked Barilo. “And how do you know my name?”

“I would answer, Barilo,” said the being mysteriously. “But I would like for you to piece together the clues yourself.”

“I hate it when people talk cryptically,” Barilo snapped.

“Well, I don’t like it when people disrespect the privacy of others,” said the cloaked figure acidly, “as you so often do with your Mask of Stealth.”

Barilo just glared at him for a moment and then he said, “What is that behemoth protecting? You told me you would answer.”

“The Graalo is protecting a . . . Matoran,” said the being in a vague voice. “The Graalo is one of my more finer creations. Very protective of its territory, yet it can also be tamed quite easily if one knows how.”

“How do you tame it?”

The being did not answer. Instead, he flew over to the Graalo and waved his hand in front of it as he mumbled in a language that Barilo was sure was some kind of growling, like that of a Muaka. As soon as the cloaked figure finished his command, the Graalo reluctantly walked out of the way of the Matoran it was protecting, revealing the villager to Barilo.

The Matoran that he saw was wearing black armor, yet she wasn’t an Onu-Matoran. Her armor looked similar to that of the Kra-Matoran, but not as rustic or ancient-looking but quite shiny and well-polished. Her mask was an unfamiliar one and she looked quite determined and brave, yet she also seemed to not notice Barilo.

“Who is she?” asked Barilo, walking closer to the seemingly-frozen Matoran.

“I do not know,” said the floating being softly. “I do not know her name, but I’ve seen her in the past, when the Kra-Matoran used to live on the surface. She is obviously a Kra-Matoran, no doubt, as there isn’t any female Onu-Matoran. I was hoping that you would know, Barilo.”

“Why would I know?” said Barilo, looking back at the cloaked figure.

“Yes, why would you know?” the being said, in a mocking voice. “If I had a widget for every time you acted like a moron, I would be rich enough to buy out the entire Brotherhood of Makuta and half the Dark Hunters. Think, Barilo. Why would I be showing you this Matoran if you were not going to be meeting her someday? Perhaps even once you leave this realm?”

“Why would I meet her outside of Wyoko?” asked Barilo. “There isn’t any Kra-Matoran back on Shika Nui or any other island that I know of.”

“That is what you know now, Barilo,” the figure replied. “Yet I suggest you keep your eyes open once you return to your condemned land. You might be surprised . . . if you ever return there.”

Barilo was frustrated by the cloaked character’s cryptic talk. What did he mean? Surely he wasn’t meaning that there was Kra-Matoran outside of Wyoko, was he? He decided to ask the being what he meant when suddenly the character started to fade out of existence.

“Hey! Don’t go!” Barilo shouted, running up to the man. “I still have many questions to ask you!”

“Barilo, I will not be answering any of your questions,” the being replied. “But I can tell you this: The Graalo is closer than you think. . . .”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Barilo shouted as the cloaked man disappeared. “The Graalo is closer than you think? What the Karzahni does that mean?”

But now the entire place was fading away, and Barilo was soon alone in a white, empty space, floating there for a few seconds before, without warning, falling into the endless abyss, and then he screamed.

He suddenly awoke, panting, his heart beating against his chest very fast. It took him a while to realize that he was not on the tower, but in a dank dungeon cell in Castle Kra and that it had all been a really weird (yet strangely realistic) dream. He also soon realized the reason he had awoken: An angry-looking Kra-Matoran was poking him with a spear.

“Finally!” the Matoran shouted in exasperation. “I have been poking you here for several minutes and I was beginning to think I’d have to drag you out of here myself!”

“Why did you wake me?” Barilo asked abruptly.

“Because the Shodios and Turaga Krashadi have gathered to give you and your filthy light friends a proper trial,” the Kra-Matoran sneered. “I hope your dream was good, because I doubt you will be having another one any time soon. Now up!”

Two rings of shadow appeared around Barilo, binding him tightly and weakening him so he couldn’t do anything. The Matoran helped him up to his feet (which were not bound) and then forced him out of the cell, shutting the door behind him loudly as he pushed Barilo forward. The other Toa Shika and about six other Matoran guards were waiting only a few feet away and now that all of them were together, the Matoran began to poke the Toa in their backs with their spears, forcing them to move forward or get stabbed.

This time, instead of going up to the courtyard, the Toa Shika were brought up to a wide staircase that lead up, until finally they arrived in a huge courtroom with seven seats that were seat against the wall, all of them of various heights, each one with a banner hanging just behind it. All of the banners had Kanohi masks on them, Barilo noticed. Barilo could see the masks of Ira, Teivel, and Rhatara on the banners, but the other four had unfamiliar ones that he had never seen before. Yet the largest of them caught his eye the minute he heard Akuna gasp about it, pointing with her index finger at it.

The mask on the banner had narrow silts for eyes, giving it an evil look, while long spikes stuck out from the top and sides, and it had a long, narrow mouth hole that gave it a queer appearance. Barilo, having never seen the mask before, had no idea what it was or why his friends acted so surprised about it. He assumed they must have seen it before, but where, he had no idea.

“In here,” one of the Kra-Matoran said as he opened the door of a very large cage that was big enough to hold at least seven Toa. None of them had noticed the cage before, but none of them had time to think about where it had came from before getting shoved into the cage, with the door getting shut behind them and locked as well.

The shadow rings disappeared and now all six of the Toa were free to move, but none of them bothered to use their elemental powers to escape because the cage looked like it was made of the same material as the bars of their cells. It would have been a useless effort.

“So,” said Barilo struggling to sit up and looking around. He suddenly winced at the pain in his shoulder and he said, “Why were you guys looking all shocked by that one mask on the biggest banner over there?”

“Well, you didn’t see it,” said Addis. “Because that was when. . . . Well . . . you know. . . .”

Barilo knew perfectly well what Addis meant. Back when they had been on Shika Nui, a Skakdi had been sent to kill them, but Barilo had killed her instead. Nastan, horrified by what he had done, had tried to reprimand him, but Barilo tried to kill him, too, but he was stopped by the other Toa Shika. After that, he had been exiled from the team, but later on accepted him back into the team. Except for Nastan, who still didn’t think Barilo was trustworthy.

“Go on,” Barilo urged. “I’m listening.”

“Well, shortly after we exiled you from the team, Turaga Joha showed us this village that he had discovered as a Toa, which was hidden in the mountains, and the temple of the village was shaped exactly like this mask,” Addis explained. “We had no idea what it was supposed to be at the time, I guess now we know.”

“I’m going to ask one of the guards whose mask it is,” said Nastan as he walked over to the cage door, where two Kra-Matoran guards stood. “Hey, guys.”

Both of them shot irritated looks over their shoulders and one of them asked, “What do you want, light spit?”

“My friends and I noticed the banners on the wall over there, all with a different mask on them,” said Nastan, pointing at the drapes. “We want to know which mask belongs to the one in the middle.”

“Foolish light dweller, does not your kind speak in fear of the powerful and wise Turaga Krashadi?” asked one of the Kra-Matoran. “That is his Mask of Darkness, for your information.”

“Thanks,” said Nastan, walking slowly back until he was with the rest of the Toa again. They were all huddled up in a circle now and he sat down with them and said, “Apparently, that’s Turaga Krashadi’s mask, according to them.”

“Looks ugly,” said Barilo. “What else did they say?”

“Well, one of them seemed surprised that I did not know who Krashadi was,” Nastan reported. “But I don’t know why. Why should we? After all, we just learned of this place a few hours ago, right? He asked me if my kind ever spoke in fear of Krashadi. Why would our people ever do that?”

“I don’t know,” Addis said grimly. “Something’s telling me there’s more to this place than meets the eye.”
Suddenly, Barilo remembered his odd dream that he had had earlier and said, “Guys, when I fell asleep in our cells in the dungeons I had this really weird dream about-“

But he was suddenly interrupted by the opening of the doors on the eastern side of the room, which herald the appearance of all six of the Shodios, who all walked in, lead by a small figure that resembled a Turaga. As a group, they had a terrifying, yet grand, appearance about them, yet they all seemed to have this sort air of excitement about them for some reason. Barilo guessed that the Turaga-like figure in the lead was Turaga Krashadi, for he had the same mask as on the drape.

Barilo got a good look at the Shodios and Turaga Krashadi as they walked past their cage. He had already seen Teivel, Ira, and Rhatara before, but the other three were totally unfamiliar. One of them had large, wide wings on his back and sharp, angled claws instead of normal hands, while the second one was wearing a cloak, so Barilo could not get a good look at her body. The final one was slightly bulkier than the rest and had only one wing protruding from her back, although Barilo thought she must have had two wings at one point because next to her first wing there was a stump that looked like another wing had once belonged there.

As the villains walked by the cage, all of them wore the same expression of hatred on their faces as they looked at the Toa Shika. All of them except for Krashadi, who looked at them with a cold, empty expression on his own face. Somehow that seemed worse than the glances of hatred the Shodios shot at the caged Toa.

When the Shodios and Krashadi walked past the guards, the protectors bowed deeply at their feet. Once the Shodios and the Turaga had seated themselves at their high chairs on the other side of the room, Krashadi gestured to the Kra-Matoran, and the guards, nodding, pushed the large cage that held the Toa Shika in front of the council. Krashadi gestured his hand to the door and the sentries nodded again and ran out of the room closing the door behind them as they left.

Now the Toa Shika was all alone with the Shodios and Krashadi. There was a kind of silence as the two sides looked at each other, and for a while none of them said anything, although none of them really knew why. Perhaps it was just the situation, or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that none of the Shodios or Turaga Krashadi had seen a Toa from the outside in a long time. Regardless, they were quiet and said nothing at all.

Then Krashadi, apparently getting tired of the silence, said, “Let the trial of the Toa Shika begin.”

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Chapter 2: Turaga Krashadi

The dungeons of Castle Kra were like most dungeons: unclean, uncomfortable, miserable, and lightless. But it seemed even darker down here, possibly because of the fact that they were in Wyoko or maybe it just seemed like that to Barilo. Whatever the case was, Barilo knew that he didn’t like getting tossed into a dark, dank cell, tightly bound by bonds of shadow, without even so much as a thin blanket to sleep on. It didn’t help that he had landed on his damaged shoulder, meaning the pain was even more intense than before.

The Kra-Matoran guards that were handling him and his friends seemed to be much stronger than the average Matoran, since they could easily and effortlessly move the Toa Shika. Then again, maybe they weren’t so much as strong as Barilo was weak, since the shadow rings were apparently draining him of energy, thus making it harder for him to resist the guards.

But there was one thing that he knew to be true: These Matoran was much meaner than the villagers back on Shika Nui.

“Idiotic light-dwellers,” one of the Kra-Matoran muttered. “Can’t wait for all of your to die.”

Addis somehow struggled to his feet and said, “We’re . . . not . . . going . . . to . . . die. . . .” It was becoming increasingly harder for him to speak because the shadow ropes were weakening him, thus making each word he spoke as painful as if he had been punched in the face. Still, he tried his best to look brave in the face of these evil Matoran, to not show any weakness in front of them.

“Oh, that may be so,” the villager continued, his eyes gleaming with evil delight. “We don’t know exactly what the great Shodios and the wise and awesome Turaga Krashadi will decide to do with you. First they have to have a council and then they decide whether you’re good enough to die or not.”

“Good enough to die?” Barilo repeated. He gulped. “What does that mean?”

“You’ll learn soon enough, surface walker,” the Matoran snapped. “Come on, guys. Let’s go back to the surface and report back to Toa Teivel.”

Nodding in agreement, all of the Kra-Matoran followed him out. One of the villagers, however, lingered a little and called them something that Barilo was sure was a curse word before running off to catch up with the rest of his fellow guards. As soon as they were out of sight, the shadow bonds around the Toa immediately disappeared, leaving them apparently free to move their arms and legs.

The minute the shadow rings had disappeared from his body, Chimoy immediately leapt to his feet and tried to use his elemental power over metal to break the bars of his cell. But to his shock, nothing happened. The bars just stood there, as if taunting him. The rest of the Toa also tried to break their bars with their elemental powers, but failed just as he had. It seemed that the bars were somehow absorbing elemental energy, but how, none of them knew for sure.

Barilo, giving up after the tenth time of trying to break the bars with his elemental powers, sat back down on the ground in his cell, his back against the stone wall. He winced as he felt his shoulder sting. He could that tell his wound wasn’t going to be getting any better any time soon unless it got some medical attention quickly, but it was obvious that the Kra-Matoran would never help him nurse it back to health. Not that it would heal quickly, anyway, considering how damaged it was.

He decided to check out the rest of the place outside of his jail cell and tried to stick his head through the bars, but they were too narrow for his head to fit through and all he had accomplished was hitting his head against the cold, hard bars, which hurt. So he decided to try and see the rest of the room outside of his cell through the gaps in the poles.

It was a dark and dank room, with no lights at all. The ceiling wasn’t very high up and he saw two pairs of metal chains hanging on the walls, ending in the skeletons of two dead prisoners. He could hear the sounds of the other Toa moving around in their cells, pacing back and forth and occasionally the sound of a Toa using his or her elemental power again and failing, though it was obvious that they were all thinking of ways to escape just the same.

“I say,” Nastan said from the cell closest to Barilo’s, “that we should use brute force to break out. Surely if elemental powers do not work, then maybe our raw, untapped strength will do it.” He tapped the bars with his finger and said, “They feel old enough to break, after all.”

Chimoy peered down at the metal bars and shook his head as he said, “This is protosteel. You can’t break it with sheer brute force, unless you happen to be the Great Spirit Mata Nui himself.”

“What do you think is going to happen to us?” Akuna asked nervously. “What did that Kra-Matoran mean by ‘The Shodios and Turaga Krashadi will decide what to do with you’? Are we going to be judged? And who is Turaga Krashadi?”

“As for the first question, I have no idea,” said Barilo. “For the second, it sounds to me like Krashadi is the Turaga of this place, which means he’s the boss.”

“Well, there’s a bright spot,” said Addis. “Maybe he’ll let us go. Turaga are supposed to be wise, after all.”

“Yeah, but if he’s anything like the Shodios, then we’re in for trouble,” Barilo mused. “We should figure out how to escape, in my opinion, instead of worrying about some old dude who most likely has a twisted sense of wisdom.”

-

A small, hunched Turaga sat in a tiny room at the very top of one of the many towers of Castle Kra. He was busily writing on a stone tablet, mostly about today’s events. His name was Turaga Krashadi, leader of the Kra-Matoran and of Wyoko.

He was bored, as he always was, for Wyoko offered little in the way of conflict, since the villages were so spread out. Like the others, he missed the days when the Empire was taking over all islands and lands in the universe. Ah, yes, those were the days, when just mentioning his name would cause most Matoran – and even some Toa – to shudder in fear.

But now, what with being exiled in a land that nobody had ever heard of or been to before, it was dreadfully boring, as he had already established. The castle was never attacked by anyone, not even by a dumb Rahi beast. Nor did the Kra-Matoran get into a lot of disputes, either, for they knew quite well what would happen if they had a major dispute and a Shodios had to get into it.

The Turaga of Shadow glanced around his chamber. His room was a small, circular chamber, with only one window that was opened at the moment, giving him a bird’s eye view of most of Wyoko. Small, black, torn curtains hung on the window, while his small bed was set up against a wall and the desk he was sitting at was near it. His room wasn’t very big because he wasn’t much interested in huge, royally decorated chambers, since they were usually well-lit and he, like all of the inhabitants of Wyoko, hated light.

Just then, he heard knocking at the old, wooden door of his room.

“Come in,” said Krashadi.

The door opened and Toa Ira entered. It was unusual for a Shodios to come into his room without first sending a messenger or something, but he that hoped she had important news anyway. If she didn’t, then she would have interrupted him for no reason at all and he would have to get angry at her.

“What brings you here, Ira?” asked Krashadi. “It had better be important. I am in the middle of-“

“Rhatara and I captured six Toa,” said Ira quickly and, seeing the look of shock and curiosity on Krashadi’s face, she went on to explain how they had been waiting at The Door to The Light when the Toa had suddenly entered and how those Toa were now in the dungeons awaiting their trial.

Krashadi listened with rapt interested as she talked. When she was done, Krashadi smiled ever so slightly and he said, “Interesting, Ira. Toa from the surface have came here, to Wyoko?” He got up from his chair and began pacing back and forth across the room, Ira watching him, wondering what he was about to say. “I do wonder, Ira, why they opened The Door in the first place.”

She shrugged and said, “Rhatara read their minds and said that they thought some sort of big treasure or ancient weapon was under here. They apparently had no idea we ever existed.”

“It makes sense,” said Krashadi, still pacing. “Greed is a great motivator to get someone to do something incredibly stupid and risky, but usually well-worth it. For that,” he added, “these Toa, whoever they are, will be repaid with death and we will march out of Wyoko as we stomp on their dead bodies.”

“Turaga, as much as I respect your opinion and as much as I so dearly wish to see those Toa eliminated, too, I don’t think we should call them dead just yet,” said Ira, tapping her foot impatiently. “We still have to hold a trial, you know. Rhatara is gathering Jero, Jiki, and Tikcah at the moment.”

“I see,” said Krashadi, stopping and staring at her. “Well, you may go back down now. I shall think over this new turn of events.”

“Yes, Turaga,” said Ira, bowing herself out of the room and closing the door.

Turaga Krashadi simply looked at the door for a while, his mind thinking over the events. New Toa? Here, in Wyoko? It was almost too hard for him to believe, but he doubted that had Ira lied to him. After all, no one ever lied to Krashadi, for they had every reason to tell him the truth at all times, if they truly valued their life.

-

The dungeons of Castle Kra were quiet now. None of the Toa Shika was doing anything, since they couldn’t escape. The only thing they could do was await the return of the Kra-Matoran so that they could be taken to this trial, whatever that was. All of them had given up on any plans of escape, since the bars were resistant to both elemental powers and sheer brute strength, so all they could do now was wait and hope that they wouldn’t find themselves dead in the next few hours.

Barilo’s shoulder was hurting now more than ever. Several hours had already passed and he still hadn’t had his wound tended to. He knew if he kept this up, he may very well get an infection and end up worse than before if he didn’t get healed soon.

It hurts so much, Barilo thought, trying to stay very still so that he couldn’t feel the pain, but his shoulder still hurt anyway. I wish the Kra-Matoran would have at least patched it up with a bandage. But apparently they’re very cynical to us. I wonder why, since we haven’t really done anything to them unless they just don’t like uninvited guests.

Now that he was thinking about the Kra-Matoran, he wondered where they had come from. After all, Matoran of Shadow didn’t exist, at least back on the surface world. There were tribes for practically every other element, but he knew that shadow wasn’t one of them. Yet here they were; an entire tribe of Shadow Matoran, plus an entire team of Toa and possibly a Turaga of Shadow as well. How had they gotten here? Why hadn’t he and his friends known about them before? Did they always live here or had they been imprisoned? And just who had locked them down here if they had, anyway?

“Am I the only one thinking about the Kra-Matoran?” Barilo said out loud. “Like, how the Karzahni do they exist when we know they shouldn’t?”

“You’re not the only one,” said Chimoy. “I, too, have been wondering about them. It just doesn’t add up. There’s just no way Matoran of Shadow could exist. They aren’t supposed to be real, yet we have met them, so we know they are truly real.”

“It certainly is odd,” Akuna remarked, sounding puzzled, “but apparently the Kra-Matoran are real because we’ve seen them with our own eyes.”

Nastan grabbed the bars of his cell and said, “Yeah. They’ve even touched us to prove it, so we know this isn’t some sort of whacked up illusion or anything like that.”

“I don’t think we should worry about this too much,” said Addis. “What we should worry about is how we are going to get out of here, or wait until they come to get us and bring us to their ‘trial,’ whatever that might be.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Barilo. “I just wish they would have at least given me a sling to hold my arm in. It hurts like crazy!”

-

Toa Rhatara was currently a long distance from the castle. He had arrived at a small village of Kra-Matoran and they, like all Kra-Matoran in Wyoko, welcomed him warmly. They even offered him a place to stay for the night, but he declined, mostly because he had come there specifically to find his brother, Jero.

Rhatara had never really liked Jero much. Jero was, unlike the others, a scientist. He spent most of his time holed up in his underground laboratory, experimenting, studying, and stuff like that. But he was also the most cynical of the Shodios, always pointing out problems in their plans and never really liking anyone. So Rhatara, despite disliking Jero greatly, knew that if the Toa Shika were to be trialed that they would need all six of the Shodios and Jero, however antisocial and cynical he may be, counted as one.

He walked up to a small, unimportant-looking hut. To anyone else it might have looked like any other old dwelling place: Small, made of wood with a straw roof and only two windows and one doorway. But Rhatara knew better. He knew that it was actually the secret lab of Jero, the entrance disguised to look exactly like an old hut, although Rhatara had never really understood why. Perhaps it was just because Jero valued his privacy, although all of the Shodios knew where his lab was located and many Kra-Matoran did as well, so he obviously wasn’t trying to hide it.

He’s probably just showing off, Rhatara thought. Just showing off how he can make his lab look like a normal Matoran hut when it is really just totally unnecessary.

The Toa of Shadow knocked on the door with an armored fist. He waited for about five minutes before he heard Jero’s voice from the other side say, “Coming!”

Suddenly, the door flew open and Jero, standing in the doorway, looked quite annoyed. Rhatara was not startled by his appearance. He was used to seeing Jero’s wide, black wings and his long, angled and extremely sharp claws, and his black and brown colored-armor.

“Rhatara, what is it that you want?” the Toa of Shadow demanded, looking quite annoyed. “I was in the middle of a experiment and-“

“What experiment could be more important than the trial of six Toa who came from beyond The Door?” asked Rhatara quietly.

Jero instantly quieted at that and looked up at his brother in arms, looking surprised, shocked, and curious, all at the same time. Then he said, in a very quiet, hesitant tone, “What did you say, Rhatara?”

“I said that six Toa from the surface opened The Door and are now prisoners in Castle Kra,” said Rhatara, quite annoyed that he had to repeat himself. Then he explained to Jero how he and Ira had been watching The Door when the Toa suddenly appeared and how they had captured the Toa Shika and had taken them to Castle Kra.

When he finished, Jero smiled a grim smile and said, “Oh, I do hope I can use them as test subjects.”

Rhatara shot him a look of disbelief. “Test subjects? Why, after I just finished explaining to you that we are free from Wyoko, you start talking about having new test subjects? Here I was thinking you would start to gush out in excitement and happiness about how we are finally free from this wretched place and how you plan on exacting revenge upon your enemies once we are free! And what would you test on the Toa, anyway?”

“Well, Rhatara,” said Jero. “I am just as excited and happy as you and the others are about getting free of Wyoko. Since we’re going to be free, I see no reason to waste all of my time sitting here talking about how great it is that we’re going to get out of here when I can be experimenting on the first of what will surely be thousands – perhaps millions – of new test subjects. And to answer your question, I have recently created a new weapon that will surely help us reclaim our lands once we get back to the surface.”

At first, Rhatara didn’t say anything. He just stared at Jero for a minute or two, and then said, “Well, I see where you stand. I think we should go get Jiki and Tikcah now. I hear they’re at the lake of shadow in the south, though I can’t remember what they are doing there.”

“Before we go, however, I need to close up my lab,” Jero said as he disappeared into the hut. Moments later, he returned and locked the door behind him with a stone key and then he dropped the item into a bag he that had tied around his waist.

Soon the two Toa had arranged to get a chariot to take them to the southern edge of Wyoko and then they were off, heading towards the lake of shadow to find their sisters, Rhatara thinking of the very first thing he would do once he escaped Wyoko, Jero restless to get at the Toa Shika and experiment on them. None of them knew exactly what the future held for them, but it (perhaps somewhat ironically) looked quite bright for them.

Review Topic

If this line was truly offensive and harmful to Japan, wouldn't some Japanese people have complained about it by now?

I generally try to stay out of these kinds of topics, but I wanted to highlight Sir Kohran's post here because I haven't seen anyone yet address this (in my opinion) very good point yet.

I think it would be best if we could get the perspective of some actual Japanese Lego fans on this issue. Not sure how, though. Maybe find a Japanese Lego fansite and contact its members and see what they think of Ninjago (unfortunately I don't know of any Japanese Lego fansites, but it still seems like a good idea to me if anyone wants to try it).

-TNTOS-

Chapter 1: Shodios

Present Day...

Toa Teivel stood on the high tower of Castle Kra, his armed hands on the balcony rail, his blood red eyes focused on the Kra-Matoran villagers below, all of whom were scurrying to and fro in the courtyard, completely various tasks and chores that needed to be done to keep the castle well kept. Then his eyes looked up over at The Door to the Light, which was several thousand feet away from where he was standing.

The sight of The Door brought back painful memories to his mind. Memories of defeat at the hands of light dwellers flashed in his mind, and then memories of imprisonment in the dark land of Wyoko, which he now ruled along with the other five Shodios, appeared as well. That Door brought back many unpleasant memories to practically all of Wyoko, and all who lived in the land wished to see it smashed down, but for the past 100,000 years it had been locked by an unbreakable Toa Seal, one that frustrated Teivel and his team every day for the first few years of their imprisonment here.

Then his mind suddenly flashed back to which two individuals were at The Door at this very moment. His brother and sister Shodios, Rhatara and Ira, had left for The Door to the Light not too long ago for their daily rounds of checking up on The Door in case someone from the outside world had opened it. They usually returned around this time today and they weren’t back yet, which meant that they had either had success and escaped, or were killed by whoever might have opened The Door in the first place. Teivel didn’t care if they got killed, as long as The Door remained open so he could leave.

Freedom is a fickle thing, Teivel thought. You never appreciate it when you have it, and when it is taken away from you it becomes almost an obsession to have just a taste of freedom. That is how I feel now; I, along with every other blasted inhabitant of this land, wish to be free to roam the universe once more, as I did 100,000 years ago.

He heard the sound of metal clanking against stone and whirled around to see a small Kra-Matoran walking up to him, the fear evident in the villager’s eyes. Teivel wondered what this Matoran could want. After all, few ever disturbed Teivel when he was thinking, and fewer ever lived to tell the tale of what happened they did survive.

"S-s-sir?" the Matoran croaked cowardly as he looked up at the imposing Toa’s large spikes that ran along his back.

“What is it, Matoran?” Teivel snapped. “It had better be good, or else I’ll toss you off of this balcony, and that is the most merciful way that I can think of to dispose of you at the moment.”

"T-T-Toa Rhatara and Toa Ira . . . ha-have . . . have found and . . . and captured six Toa from the outside world," the Kra-Matoran said quickly. "They're bringing the Toa here, to this castle, I mean."

Teivel’s eyes lit up as soon as he heard what the Matoran had said. He advanced on the villager, and the Matoran stepped back, afraid he had said something wrong to Teivel.

But to his surprise, Teivel merely asked, “Six Toa from the outside world? Six Toa other than my brothers and sisters and I?”

"Y-y-yes," the Matoran spat out in fear, although he felt his courage rising ever so slightly. "We don't know much about them yet, but Rhatara says-"

Teivel instantly pushed the stuttering Kra-Matoran aside as he left the balcony. He had broken into a sprint and was running – almost flying – down the stone stairways and hallways of Castle Kra as he jumped over Matoran. The villagers all looked confused as to why Teivel was acting so strangely, as he usually wasn’t very energetic at all.

But had they known what he knew; that The Door to the Light, the one obstacle that had held them back from leaving this Mata Nui-forsaken realm, from going back to conquering the universe as they had done in the before times, then they, too, would have rejoiced just as he had and would be spreading the news all over the castle and all over Wyoko as well.

-

Toa Addis, Toa Shika of Plasma and leader of the Toa Shika, awoke as the wagon he was lying on hit a bump. He was staring up at a dark, unknown skyline, with small twinkles of light shining through here and there, though not enough to see much. He wondered where he was for a minute before he suddenly remembered all that had happened in the past few days.

He remembered how he and his team, consisting of Barilo, Akuna, Nastan, Nonzra, Chimoy, and himself, had become Toa not too long ago after using some Toa stones. Since they had been thieves as Matoran, it took them a while to get used to having to be heroes. But eventually all six of them accepted their destiny and were willing to defend their home from all threats.

Unfortunately, they had just been six Toa . . . against hundreds of Dark Hunters that controlled Shika Nui with an iron fist. Because of this, they ran all over the island, and fighting Hunters, until the Dark Hunters became distracted by a Makuta named Hajax. Then Toa Shika had made a break for it into the fortress of the Hunters and there went into a deep tunnel that lead underground, where they found a large, ancient wall of protodermis. They opened it by combining their elemental powers, hoping to find powerful weapons or amazing riches behind the wall.

What they had found instead, however, was another world entirely. When they had passed through The Door, they had ended up in a dark forest, where they had been ambushed and kidnapped by two dark and obviously evil beings that called themselves Toa.

But these two beings – Rhatara and Ira – looked little like how Toa should in Addis’ opinion. Rhatara, being black and white in color, had a large, deformed arm that seemed to work like the other, but gave him a monstrous appearance that made Addis feel a little sick, while Ira, wearing black and purple armor, had a large spiked tail coming from her back, which was curled up around her waist from what he could tell. All in all, he wondered whether they really were Toa, which he severely doubted at the moment.

For some reason, Addis felt extremely weak and the reason for that was instantly clear when he looked down: He had two large shadow rings binding his arms and legs together and sapping his energy, too, from the looks of it. There didn’t seem to be any way to escape them, for he doubted that his plasma power could do anything to it.

The other Toa Shika was unconscious, all of them lying on the bed of the wagon in various states of weakness, but they didn’t seem dead, at least. He looked up and then saw Rhatara and Ira’s backs, the two Shodios sitting at the head of the caravan, apparently whispering to each other. He decided to see if he could get them to talk to him, maybe answer all of the questions that he had buzzing inside of his head.

"Excuse me," Addis said, straining to get the words out as his energy was slowly sapped away by the shadow rings. “Where are you taking . . . my friends and I?”

Both of the Toa started, and then looked around until they saw Addis, lying on the wagon, looking at them. They seemed surprised to see him awake, let alone alive, but Rhatara shook his head and said, “So, you’re awake now, are you? You’re stronger than you look, light spit.”

“Yes, that’s very nice,” Addis said sarcastically. “Now answer my question: Where are you taking my friends and I?”

“Straight and to the point, I see,” Ira said as she looking at Addis with a disgusted expression on her face. “Well, if you really need to know, we are taking you to Castle Kra, where you will be interrogated to give us any information you know about the outside world, of course.” She instantly turned away after that and seemed to be ignoring Addis’ other questions that he was throwing at her.

“But where am I?” Addis asked. “Who are you? Where is this place? What are you?”

"Shut up and be quiet, light spit,” Rhatara snapped. “Or I’ll do to you what I’ve always wanted to do to Ukio for over 100,000 years, and let me tell you,” he said, leaning in closer to Addis’ mask, “it ain’t pretty, nor at all pleasant.”

“Just like this ride,” Ira commented. “Matoran, move more carefully! It’s too bumpy!”

Addis managed to look over Ira’s shoulder and saw, to his surprise, that two odd-looking Matoran in black armor were pulling the vehicle by two thick ropes, but they were slowing down, he could see. They weren’t Onu-Matoran, from what he could see, but as far as he knew there weren’t any other pure black tribes out there.

Well, they aren’t pure black, Addis corrected himself. The two Matoran have red and green as their secondary colors. But they’re wearing really weird masks that I’ve never seen before! Who are these guys?

Lying near him, Addis saw Nastan’s eye lids slowly flicker open, his yellow orbs looking around the place in confusion. The Toa of The Green seemed to be just as puzzled and as weak as Addis, for he had shadow rings around his body, too, although Addis thought that he looked better than himself.

He rolled over onto his stomach next to Addis and asked in a whisper, “Where are we? Who are those guys? And how are we going to escape?”

"I don’t know yet,” Addis replied. “But I do know that we are in a wagon, driven by two Matoran of Shadow, and that the two figures sitting in front of us are Ira and Rhatara, two beings who call themselves Toa, apparently. They told me we’re being taken to Castle Kra, wherever that is.” He added.

“Right,” said Nastan, looking up at Ira and Rhatara. “Maybe we should try to get out of these bonds while they’re not looking? They’re clearly deep in conversation. Try to use your plasma powers to melt them.”

“I can’t,” Addis whispered, shaking his head. “These are made out of pure shadow. My plasma can only melt physical things, not immaterial like shadow, for instance. We’re stuck, I think, and it makes more sense to see where we’re going anyway. Maybe they’ll take these rings off of us so we can make our escape.”

Nastan looked doubtful, but he didn’t say anything else.

The rest of the trip consisted of them going over a river of what looked like shadow, going through at least two more villages, and then heading through a barren wasteland. All the while, the rest of the Toa Shika had not woken up yet, mostly because Nastan and Addis wanted to see where they were going first without making too much noise.

Finally, a large castle loomed into full view, and Nastan gasped at it. It was made entirely out of stone, with large banners billowing in the wind from the tips of its towers. On its mighty powerful-looking walls several Matoran guards stood, all of them armed with a spear and a shield. There was a large moat surrounding it and the draw bridge was slowly lowering. All in all, the castle looked quite creepy.

As they rode inside of the courtyard, Rhatara shouted, “This is your new temporary home, light spit. Very nice, eh?”

Nastan was about to say that ‘nice’ was far from the way he would describe it and that ‘radiating evil like heat’ would be more sufficient, but Addis gave him a look that said not too make Rhatara too angry.

Meanwhile, Chimoy was stirring now, his dull gray eyes opening as he took in his surroundings. It was evident by the expression on his face that he had no idea where he was or what he was doing lying in a cart with shadow rings around his body.

“Where am I?” Chimoy muttered.

“I’ll explain it to you later,” Addis replied. “For now, we’ve got to make sure we don’t provoke the evil Toa.”

Chimoy shot him a questioning looked before the back of the cart was pulled open by two odd-looking Matoran. Then the vehicle was lifted up from the front and all six of the Toa Shika tumbled out of the back, awaking Toa Barilo, Toa of Gravity, and Toa Akuna, Toa of Lightning. Toa Nonzra, Toa of Sonics, was also awake now, and he looked very confused.

Rhatara loomed over the Toa of Sonics and shouted, “Get up, you worms!”

“We can’t,” Nonzra replied acidly. “Our arms and legs are bound. We couldn’t get up even if we wanted to!”

“Then you will have . . . assistance,” Ira said, snapping her fingers. “Matoran, get these prisoners up on their feet!”

Six guards obeyed her command and they soon had the six Toa standing on their feet, each one of the Shika looked a little dazed and confused. The six Matoran all slipped back into the shadows with curious expressions on their faces as Rhatara began circling the six Toa, occasionally muttering phrases like “He reminds me of Ukio . . .” and “She looks a little bit like Klio . . .”

Nonzra, finally getting impatient, said, “Who the Karzahni is Ukio? What’d he do to you, anyway?”

It immediately became clear that Nonzra had said the wrong thing. Rhatara whirled around, pulled out a knife from his bag at the speed of light, and instantly had the dagger up against Nonzra’s throat, cutting the Toa’s air off from his lungs.

“Never . . . speak . . . that way . . . to a Shodios . . . ever again. . . .” Rhatara hissed.

Nonzra looked like he would have apologized if he could have spoken. Fortunately for him, Rhatara took the blade away from his throat and Nonzra began breathing again, suddenly realizing just how much he took air for granted.

“What’s up with him?” Akuna whispered to Nastan.

“No idea,” Nastan replied. “Maybe, whoever this ‘Ukio’ guy is, maybe he did something to him in the past that’s got him all angry?”

“Seems likely,” Akuna whispered back. “I just hope he doesn’t decide to take his rage out on poor Nonzra.”

Now Rhatara had his back to them, looking up at the sky as if he were interested in it, but it seemed obvious that he wasn’t. Ira was standing well away from the Shika, but she was still looking at them with curious eyes as if she had never seen beings from the surface before.

But then Rhatara whirled around suddenly and raised his knife up high above his head as he shouted, “Ukio or not, you will pay for his crimes against the Kra-Matoran Empire!”

Right before he could bring his weapon down on Nonzra’s skull, a blast of shadow launched from a darkened doorway and hit Rhatara’s hand with such force that the Toa of Shadow’s knife went flying into the air and into the castle, embedding itself into the stone bricks of the fortress. Rhatara clutched his hand, which seemed to have been burned by the shadow, and growled, “Who is the idiotic Matoran who wishes to die tonight? Answer me!”

At first, there was no answer. But then a dark, shadowy voice that sent shivers up the collective spines of the Toa Shika came from the doorway, with the very tone of it sounding like extremely cold water.

“Rhatara, a Kra-Matoran would never have been foolish enough to attack you,” the voice said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “No, that would be suicide. But I must say, the reason I stopped you was because these light spit haven’t had a proper trial yet is all. I feel no compassion for those who are offspring of the ones who had imprisoned us here in the first place.”

Rhatara was now looking at the shadowed doorway, his features that of someone who had just been robbed of the most exciting experience of a life time. “I was merely showing them what I could do to them, Teivel. I didn’t actually plan to kill any of them. I thought that perhaps I should just show them who is boss around here.”

A Toa-like figure emerged from the doorway and into the light. He looked like Rhatara and Ira in the sense that he had black armor, but aside from that he looked completely different. He had a mask that none of the Toa Shika had ever seen before, with two red eyes peeking out from its narrow eye holes. Large spikes extended from his back, almost long enough to touch the ground. For a moment Barilo wondered how Teivel could sleep like that, but had no time to ponder it further for the Toa of Shadow had glided over to the Shika and said, “So, The Door is open, then?”

“Yes,” Rhatara said, a slight smile playing at his lips. “These six are no doubt the first in what will be wave after wave of light spit that will fall before us!”

“I certainly hope so,” Ira said softly as she walked out of the darkness. “You know how long we’ve been awaiting this opportunity.”

“That is fine and all,” Teivel said, his blood red eyes still focused on the Toa Shika. “But do you know why these light spit even bothered to open The Door in the first place? Are they ambitious enough to think that we will reward them for this?”

“Nope,” said Rhatara, shaking his head. “I scanned their minds earlier and found out that they opened The Door purely for treasure. They thought some sort of stash was hidden under here. They were not expecting to see us. The morons.” He added nastily, looking over at the Shika as if they were carrying some kind of lethal disease.

“Now just wait a dang minute here!” Barilo shouted angrily, yet there was a trace of confusion in his voice as well. “Who are you people? How’d you get here? Why are you here? And just why the Karzahni is everything so . . . dark?”

He suddenly winced in pain and cursed under his breath. His left shoulder had been damaged earlier by a Dark Hunter who had thrown a knife into it. It had recovered from the attack and hurt every time he moved it too much, as he had just done now.

Teivel, Rhatara, and Ira just stared at him, all of them slightly surprised to see him freak out like that. Finally, Teivel said, “Those are legitimate questions, Toa, ones which you will get your answers to eventually. For now, however, you must await your trial until all of us Shodios have been gathered and Turaga Krashadi informed of the opening of The Door to the Light.”

He turned to a small group of Kra-Matoran that had been standing nearby. As soon as his evil eyes lay upon them, the guards all stood ramrod straight, saluting him.

“Yes, sir?” one of the Kra-Matoran asked. “What may we do for you, sir?”

"Toss this light spit into the dungeons until all of the Shodios have gathered for the trial,” Teivel ordered. “Lock them up tightly, too.”

All of the Kra-Matoran guards nodded, saluted again, and then ran over to the bound Toa Shika. Then they began to pull and push the heroes out of the courtyard and down a narrow stone staircase into the dark dungeons of Castle Kra. Barilo glanced over his shoulder one last time to see the three Shodios standing there until they were well out of sight.

Back up in the courtyard, Ira noticed that Rhatara was walking back to the draw bridge with an impatient expression on his face.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find the others," he replied. "They will need to know that we have visitors who need trialing, and, of course, they need to know about the wonderful news about the opening of The Door as well.."

She and Teivel watched as a Kra-Matoran lowered the draw bridge, allowing the Shodios to leave. Once Rhatara had left, and the draw bridge had been drawn again, Ira turned to Teivel and asked, "And what, may I ask, will you be doing in the meantime?"

"I will go for myself to see if The Door really is open," Teivel said, Mask of Shape Shifting already activating. “I need to see it for myself to believe.”

His form twisted and in no less than 15 seconds a new form had emerged, one that resembled a Gukko bird, except with Teivel’s large spikes on its back. It reared back and shot into the sky, heading north toward where The Door was. Ira watched him go until she suddenly decided that she couldn’t let him go, not yet. What if he opened The Door and left by himself? She couldn’t allow that at all, not after what she and the rest of the Shodios had already been through.

So a shadow hand show from her chest and caught Teivel before he was out of range. Then she gradually pulled him back to the ground as he struggled to get free of her grasp, and then he shape shifted back into his Toa form once he landed on the ground, rage comforting his features as he rounded on her.

"What did you do that for?” Teivel hissed.

“Because I don’t trust you enough to let you see The Door and try to escape it without the rest of us,” Ira answered acidly. “Besides, we need all six Shodios present for the trial to begin. You know the rules. You helped write them, after all.”

“Escaping this living death matters far more to me than giving a bunch of light spit a mock trial that will end in them dying hideous deaths,” Teivel growled. “But very well. I . . . suppose that I could stay for just the trial. After that, we should gather the Kra-Matoran and then leave Wyoko immediately. I have waited 100,000 years for this moment. I do not want to have to wait a minute longer than that.”

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I read, ALL OF THAT. I usually just skim on posts.

 

I liked your input. Now, is anyone else excited about the Weird Al episode? he had cheese on his feet, Classic!

I've been looking forward to Weird Al's episode for a while now. It's supposed to be a musical, isn't it?

As for the most recent episode, Discord was awesome (as usual), Cadence had a really awesome train, and Pinkie was easily distracted by a balloon. Good episode all around.

-TNTOS-

Book Two: Tapestry of Evil

Table of Contents:

Prologue
Chapter 1: Shodios
Chapter 2: Turaga Krashadi
Chapter 3: The Eccentric Dream
Chapter 4: Trial of the Shodios
Chapter 5: Nastan and Barilo’s Argument
Chapter 6: Escape!
Chapter 7: Shadow Storm
Chapter 8: Captured
Chapter 9: “The Key to Defeating Our Enemies”
Chapter 10: History
Chapter 11: Hailed As . . . Heroes?
Chapter 12: Trickery & Schemes
Chapter 13: Lies
Chapter 14: Escape Wael
Chapter 15: Lost in the Mountains
Chapter 16: Confrontation
Chapter 17: The Hunt Begins
Chapter 18: Spirit Wanderer
Chapter 19: Into the Core of the Mountain
Chapter 20: Wanderer’s Mission
Chapter 21: The River of Shadow
Chapter 22: Going Down the River of Shadow
Chapter 23: A Destiny Fulfilled, a Life Lost
Epilogue

Prologue

100,000 years ago. . . .

An impossibly huge robot with a red booster pack-like object on his back was soaring through space in no particular direction. But it was going to be a long journey to get to the next planet, even at the speed he was moving. So he decided to pass the time by looking at the universe inside of him that he had been assigned to govern.

Just days ago he had been created and brought into being by a group of powerful figures known as the Great Beings. But they hadn’t given him much time to adjust to his form and soon they had sent him flying deep into space on an urgent mission that he knew he would have to complete.

But now that he was alone, he decided to check out his universe and study the beings inside of his body. After all, he might learn something from them.

It was fascinating, he thought. There were so many species, ranging from the Matoran all the way to the fierce Skakdi, and beyond even that. But he was especially interested in the Matoran villagers, which were the beings that had the most important job of all of the creatures in his universe: Keeping him alive.

They, too, were as varied as the stars in the cosmos. They were of all kinds of elements and types, such as Ta-Matoran and Av-Matoran, for example. He was also interested in the fact that they could transform and become Toa heroes with functioning elemental powers and mask powers and, after completing their destiny, become Turaga as well.

Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Stone, Ice, Gravity, Sonics, Plasma, Plant life, Lightning, Iron, Sonics, Magnetism, Psionics, and Light, the Great Spirit Mata Nui thought as he recited the elements in his mind. All of the elements, together they-

But suddenly, he noticed something that seemed . . . wrong about the Matoran. Yes, there was one tribe for each element: Fire, Water, Earth, etc. All of the ones he had recited in his mind had been accounted for, yet there was one more element that was not represented here, one that he was trying hard to think of.

Finally, it hit him. Shadow wasn’t represented by any of the 16 tribes in the universe! Not even so much as one Matoran of Shadow! What was up with that? Were the elements possibly unbalanced? And if so, would this unbalance hurt him and possibly force him give up his mission?

I will need to balance out the elements, he thought, determined. Why would the Great Beings do that? Why would they do something that could possibly endanger the mission? I know what I must do; create an entire tribe of Kra-Matoran, Toa, and maybe a Turaga to lead them as well. It is the only thing to do. I cannot afford to let this unbalance go unnoticed.

-

In a dark, small stone chamber, a tall, jet-black figure slept on a stone slab, occasionally turning over to get a bit more comfortable. Suddenly, his eyes flickered opened and he found himself staring at a stone ceiling that was above him.

Where am I? was the first thought to enter this being’s mind. How’d I get here? Where is here? And who am I, anyway?

As all of these thoughts entered his mind, he noticed a bright, shining light stone embedded into the wall opposite of him. Its glare was in his eyes and it annoyed him greatly, but he wasn’t sure how to turn it off, if that was at all possible. He hated the light. It seemed to be his enemy, for it was pure torture just to look at it like that.

I wish I could just destroy it, the black being thought angrily. Its glare is annoying my eyes and ruining my perfect darkness.

He raised his right hand to block the light from his vision, but then suddenly a bolt of shadow shot from his palm and struck the light stone, shattering it instantly and plunging the room into total darkness. He was surprised. He could shoot shadow from his hand just by thinking about it? Wow.

He sat there in the darkness for a few minutes, relaxing. But then, looking through the thick darkness, he could see a door that looked big enough and wide enough for him to go through. He wondered what was behind and, despite being perfectly happy and content in the shadows, decided to see what was behind it, if only to satisfy his curiosity.

The curious being slid off of his stone slab and unsteadily began walking toward the door. He was not used to walking just yet, but he only needed to walk to the door, which shouldn’t be too hard, he thought, as it was very nearby.

As soon as he reached out, touched the door knob, and pulled it open, a light brighter than anything he had ever seen in his entire five minutes or so of life shone in through. It was so dazzling that he had to shut his eyes to avoid permanent damage.

"AHHHH!" he screeched as he slammed the door shut. "Ow!"

He stumbled backwards, hands in his eyes, and slumped against a wall, moaning in pain. He wasn’t blind, but his eyes hurt beyond pain and he really didn’t want to leave his room now, for fear of losing his eye sight.

And then, he heard a loud, deep, yet very mysterious and grand-sounding voice bellow throughout the room. The voice was so loud and so powerful that cracks began to appear in the foundation and roof of the room, and for a minute the being wondered if he was going to die.

"Hello, Toa of Shadow," the voice bellowed, rocking the black being's very soul and causing him to retreat into a corner of the room to avoid being hurt.

"T-Toa?" the black being repeated from his corner, confused. "W-w-what's a . . . I’m a Toa, you say? What’s that?"

"A Toa is a hero," the voice answered. "Each Toa wears a Kanohi Mask of Power and they wield elements, such as Fire or Light. Your own element is Shadow, Teivel."

"Teivel?" asked the being, still frightened by the voice. "Is that my name?"

"Yes," the great voice replied. "You, and the other five, are very unique Toa, for you six are the only Toa of Shadow in the entire universe.”

"There are more?" Teivel asked, starting to regain his courage. "Where are they?"

"They are just beyond that door you opened," the rumbling voice said. "Just open it."

"Really?" asked the Toa of Shadows, suspicious. "How do I know you don't just want to kill me with all of that unbearably bright light out there? I nearly turned blind when I first tried to open it, and if I go out there completely I’m afraid I’ll get burned to death or something."

The unseen voice laughed loudly, a sound which nearly crumbled the room and made Teivel pull himself even further into his corner to avoid pieces of debris that fell from the ceiling.

"Kill you, Teivel?" the voice laughed. "Why would I ever do that? I would never do that, seeing as I am the one who created you in the first place. If I had wanted you dead, I would never have created you at all."

"O-okay," Teivel said, with more than a hint of fear in his voice. "Well, I have one more question for you."

"Yes? What is it?"

"What is your name?"

"I am the Great Spirit Mata Nui," the voice answered. "I am the ruler and protector of this universe. I created you, your fellow Toa, your Turaga, and your entire tribe of Matoran of Shadow. I created all of you to balance out the universe, for I saw that the Great Beings had not made a tribe for all of the elements out there."

" 'Balance out the universe'?" Teivel asked. "Matoran? Turaga? The Great Beings? What are you talking about? Explain yourself, Mata Nui."

Mata Nui laughed again, though a little less loud than the last. "Why not go through the door, Teivel, and see for yourself what I mean?"

Teivel looked at the door again. He wondered if he should do as Mata Nui had said. The Toa was curious, after all. Maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought it was. Maybe the Great Spirit had made the other room less bright so he could live survive out there for more than five minutes. He decided it was worth a try, at least.

"Okay, I'll do it," Teivel answered, walking over to the door. "But if I get killed because of the light, I will know who to blame."

The Toa of Shadow hesitantly placed his hand on the doorknob, as if it were a bomb, and carefully turned it and pulled the door open. Beyond it, he could see but darkness, which meant that Mata Nui had indeed doused the lights for him.

As Teivel left the room, closing the door behind him, Mata Nui felt proud of himself.

I have balanced out the universe at last, Mata Nui thought triumphantly. Now all I need to do is get them to their island, Shika Nui, and then tell them what they should do. I knew that the Great Beings had made a mistake when they didn’t create a tribe of Shadow! Now I do believe, after I finish putting them on their proper place, that I should continue my mission that I was charged with.

However, Mata Nui did now know that he had made a grave mistake in creating the Kra-Matoran tribe. He did not know that, not too long after they had been created, that they would rebel against him. And he wasn’t even aware that, several thousand years later, in a place he would regret ever having to use, that six other Toa would later fight the Kra-Matoran in one last attempt by the tribe of shadow to take over the universe. . . .

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Epilogue

Barilo opened his eyes. What he could see was, at best, pure darkness. At worst, he might be dead and this is what death felt like. It felt cold and hard, but he also felt leaves and twigs underneath his body, such as the kind you would find in a forest.

No, I'm not dead, he thought. My heart is still beating and I still have a physical body. But where am I?

He remembered being pulled into the door by some sort of giant, shadow tentacle, with blood red eyes and a swirling vortex behind it. Was that some sort of dream, maybe?

The darkness parted, revealing his surroundings. He was in a forest, which he thought was the proto forest at first, but this one had a strange, evil feeling to it, like darkness itself lived here, waiting to grab any unknowing victims right into its grasp, like a chute lurker waiting for its victims in the chutes of Metru Nui. The feeling was so evil and so horrible that he felt like running, but his legs didn't move. It was also very quiet. Too quiet, for Barilo's taste.

He saw no sign of life, except for the rest of his Toa team, who were bounded by shadow chains that seemed to be leeching their energy, because they were looking weaker each minute. He wondered who had done this and why he wasn't bound in shadow.

A second after that thought passed, shadow chains appeared out of nowhere, binding him and slamming him to the ground. Barilo groaned in pain as his energy began leaving his body.

"Where are we?" Nonzra asked, his voice weak. "Is this...?"

A voice answered, but it was not one any of them recognized. It sounded very ancient and old sounding, yet very calm as well.

"You are not dead, Ukio," the voice answered. Barilo thought the voice sounded like pure evil.

"Ukio?" Nonzra gasped. He struggled to free himself, but wasn't successful. "I am Toa Nonzra, not Ukio, whoever that is."

"Don't play dumb with me, Ukio!" the voice snapped angrily. The forest darkened all of a sudden. "You locked me, my team, my Turaga, and my entire tribe here is this vile place. You, along with your Toa team, locked us here for good. Acting stupid won't get you anything but a shorter life span."

"Wait," another, more calm voice interrupted. "These Toa may not be the same Toa we faced before over 100,000 years ago, Rhatara. Their masks and armor is different."

There was a brief pause, then the snappy voice, that probably belonged to Rhatara, spoke again.

"You may be right, Ira. But let me probe their minds, just to make sure."

All six of the Toa Shika felt a horrible, evil presence enter their minds. Only Addis, having a Mask of Telepathy, was able to force the intruding mind out of his own. The rest, however, had to deal with excruciating pain that went through their minds.

Then it was over. Addis was the only one still conscious from the vicious mental attack, while the others were unconscious, each one of them breathing heavily. Rhatara spoke again.

"You're right, Ira," Rhatara said, disgust in his voice. "These six are different, but they're still good Toa, just like the others, sister. I say we kill them and bring their bodies to Turaga Krashadi. He will be most pleased indeed."

"No," Ira's voice said. "What we should do is bring them to the Turaga and then feed them to the shadow eels. They haven't had beings with fresh light in over 100,000 years."

Addis decided now was the time. Using his plasma powers, he tried melting the shadow bonds that were constricting his body. Instead of melting, the shadow chains tightened, forcing more energy out of Addis' body.

"Well, one thing is for sure," Rhatara said. "They have opened The Door, so we can escape, hopefully."

"If our brothers and sisters are up to it, Rhatara," Ira answered. "Perhaps we should reveal ourselves to these Toa, should we not?"

"Sounds good to me," Rhatara's voice said. "After all, it just wouldn't be fair if our prisoners had to die without knowing who their killers were."

Then, to Addis' surprise, two figures emerged from the shadowy forest.

One of them held a chain link, the other had a projectile weapon of sorts that seemed to be generating some kind of energy. He could not make out much of their features because the darkness was so thick.

"Your name is Addis," the first one said, pointing with a armored finger at the Toa of Plasma. "I read your mind. I know what you and your friends have been through, but I am not going easy on you. Because I am Toa Rhatara, a-"

That was all Addis heard before falling into unconscious. All that energy being drained from his body was too much for his mind to handle, so it took the only way out and shut down. But right before he fell into unconsciousness, he thought he heard a name in his mind. A name that would haunt him his entire life and beyond:

Shodios.

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Chapter 16: What Is Behind The Door?

The six Toa Shika carefully advanced deeper into the fortress. While they had yet to actually see any Dark Hunters, they were not so sure if there were more Hunters waiting ahead somewhere and where they might be. Getting ambushed was not top priority for them.

"The cave that leads to the wall should be just around this corner," Barilo said, leading the rest of the Toa.

Right as they round the corner, a wall of rubble and debris met them, blocking the way there. Nastan frowned.

"So we can't make it through, then?" he asked. "Should we turn back and try to find another way there?"

"Hey, remember me?" said Addis. "I'm a Toa of Plasma. Melting rock is nothing for me."

He held his plasma launcher up and fired off at least four balls of plasma, all of them striking the rubble and melting it all into slag.

"There," Addis said, putting his plasma cannon away. "Problem solved."

After they all carefully stepped over the melted debris, they soon came upon a huge opening in the fortress that resembled a cave that lead underground. It was obviously artificial, because of the pickaxe marks all around its edges. Barilo's shoulder still hurt, but he managed to gesture towards the sign that he had noticed his first time here.

" 'Dark as a Makuta's heart'?" Nastan asked, after reading the sign. "Do Makuta even have hearts?"

"Probably not," Nonzra said, nodding. "But if they did, they're probably be as dark as this tunnel, perhaps even darker."

"Well, if we're going to go down there, then we might as well go," Akuna said, walking towards the entrance. "I'll lead. With my Mask of Night Vision, we won't get lost."

For the first time, Addis thought about how much his team had come through to get here. They had started out as Matoran bandits, stealing from other Matoran and even the Dark Hunters themselves. None of them had ever imagined that they would become Toa one day and that they would be close to opening the door that might lead to the biggest and most enormous treasure room yet.

But he had to admit, even he doubted that there was a vast treasure was hidden deep within Shika Nui. Toa don't usually hide treasure unless they have good reason to. He had overheard from conversations of various Dark Hunters that six Toa or more could combine their elemental powers to create a Toa seal, a impentrible lock that could seal away anyone and anything. He had heard that the Makuta of Metru Nui had suffered from that, but later escaped. Addis also knew that six Toa with the same elements that created the seal in the first place could break the seal and unleash whatever - or whoever - was behind it.

Addis wondered if, perhaps, there was something behind the door that wasn't going to be good for them. Perhaps....perhaps the original six Toa who had created the seal had locked some great evil behind there. Some great evil that could have destroyed the universe and they stopped it and then hid it underneath Shika Nui to make sure it never returned to ravage the universe again. After all, didn't one of the legends say that there was a evil spirit and a army of shadow that might be waiting behind there? What if they were dooming the universe by just opening the door and freeing whatever was behind there?

"Addis!" Nonzra called, interrupting Addis' thoughts. The rest of the Toa were already walking down the cave. "We're going down there now! Hurry up, slow poke."

"I'm coming!" he called, rushing down the tunnel towards the others. It's probably just a legend. No evil spirit is down there and neither is there any 'army of shadow'. But I don't know...

"What were you doing about, anyway?" asked Nonzra.

"Well, I was just thinking about the, um..." Addis didn't want his allies to know that he had doubts about there being any treasure at all behind the wall. "I was thinking about the vast and wonderful treasure we are going to find and what we could do with it!"

That was a lie, but Nonzra didn't know.

"Yeah," the Toa of Sonics said, nodding. "Maybe there is even some great weapon behind there, too, that will defeat the Dark Hunters and free Shika Nui."

"If there is," Nastan said, interrupting their conversation. "I want to use it first."

"Why?" asked Addis.

"Because I want to be remembered as the one who saved Shika Nui from the tyranny of the Dark Hunters," Nastan replied. "But more importantly, I think we should make statues of Joha and his team when we return to the surface. They never got the respect they deserved because the Hunters took over as soon as they killed them."

"That sounds very noble, Nastan," Addis said, nodding. "That is, if we return from here."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if there are guards here, protecting the door to make sure no intruders get it before the Dark Hunters do?" said Addis. "I know it seems unlikely that any Hunters stayed down here while the rest took on Hajax's forces, but you never know. Maybe it's not even a Dark Hunter, but a Rahi similar to that dead dragon we saw earlier or something even worse."

"Well, whatever it is, we can beat it," Nastan said, smiling. "We're Toa. That is what Toa do, after all. We have Unity, Duty, and Destiny. The Dark Hunters don't. That's what seperates heroes from the villains."

Addis nodded, but he still worried about any guardians or traps that might be lying in wait somewhere up ahead. Nonzra wanted to say that perhaps not all of the Dark Hunters were evil, remembering what Death had done earlier, but he decided against it.

The six Toa Shika went down a fairly straight tunnel, with the occasional twist and turns that any underground explorer knew to expect. Akuna was in the lead, lighting the way with her Mask of Night Vision. She found it odd how the Dark Hunters didn't put any lightstones into the walls to help light the path.

Hmmm, I wonder why they didn't do that, the Toa of Lightning thought. Surely they would need someway to see where they were going if they were to find their treasure.

She decided that, since the Dark Hunters were rather dark beings themselves, they might not like light in their tunnels. But it was still rather mysterious to her just the same.

Chimoy himself was wondering if the Dark Hunters had finished killing Hajax yet and if they were going to go after the Toa Shika next. He had no doubt that they could tear down the metal wall he had erected in the western passage to get in quickly. Heck, he wondered why they hadn't done so already, unless something else was keeping them busy.

His mind flashed back to the Tuikas, sleeping in their stasis tubes underneath Shika Nui. He wondered what they were and what they were doing in stasis tubes under the island. The Toa of Iron didn't recall any legends saying anything even remotely similar to those things and he should know, since he used to study legends before joining the others' their little crew of thieves.

Then there was the abandoned Matoran settlement, with the oddly shaped temple in the middle and the weird poem inside the building. What did it all mean? It was all too confusing for him even.

This island has seemed more mysterious ever since we became Toa, Chimoy thought as he walked. Tuikas, giant wall of solid protodermis, and that odd abandoned village in the mountains. I wonder if we will ever learn the answers to those questions.

The Toa of Iron was so caught up in his thoughts that he accidentally bumped into Addis.

"Hey!" Chimoy exclaimed. "Why'd you stop?"

"Because of....that." Addis said, pointing at a wall.

The light from Akuna's Ruru was reflecting off the giant, wall of solid protodermis. It looked to be about 500 feet tall and 300 feet wide. There were carving tools at the base of it. They looked like the kind of tools Po-Matoran carvers used to make their statues and sculptures, except far bigger and more heavy-duty-looking. One of them was broken in half, probably from overuse.

Nearby, a sign that had been planted next to the wall read, 'This is the ancient wall of protodermis. Danger zone.'

"Danger zone?" Barilo said after reading the sign. "What's so dangerous about this zone?"

A bolt of shadow lanced from the darkness, hitting Barilo in the back and sending him tumbling into a wall. When the Toa of Gravity collided with it, it hurt even more because of his broken shoulder.

"Who's there?" Addis asked, drawing his plasma cannon out. Was it Hajax? He was the only being that the Toa of Plasma knew of that could shoot shadow.

Akuna was spinning around wildly, using her Mask of Night Vision to try to spot their unknown attacker. She couldn't find it, but she did find another shadow bolt flying towards her from the ceiling. It hit her, shattering her concentration and shutting the light off, plunging them all into darkness.

"That....is better," a voice from the darkness growled. "That glow is quite....annoying."

"Who are you?" Addis called into the darkness. "Show yourself!"

"Show myself?" the voice repeated. It laughed. "There is no light down here. How could you possibly hope to see me, Toa? That is, if I even had a physical body in the first place."

"Are you a Dark Hunter?" Nastan asked, aiming his bow every which way in hopes of somehow seeing their unknown attacker.

"No," the voice answered. "I was created by them to keep intruders such as yourself from opening the door."

"Created?" Addis said, fear creeping into his voice. "How were you created?"

"You know, Makuta Hajax used to rule the region of Shika Nui," the voice replied acidly. "Makuta are scientists and they need energized protodermis to conduct their expirements. As you well know, Hajax is dead and his Rahi creation lab was discovered by a team of Dark Hunters. Dark Hunter scientists conducted expirements with it and I was born as a result, without form. They put me here, to guard the door from being opened by beings other than the Dark Hunters. I am pure shadow. No body. Never had one. Never will need one.

"At first, they didn't know what to do with me. However, Icetraz suggested that I be placed as a guardian of the door and so it was. They kept me here, attacking those other than Hunters or Matoran slaves who they sent down here to work. I am truly one with the darkness, unlike the Makuta, who call themselves 'masters of shadows'. It's a rather boring job, since it is a rarity that anyone other than a Dark Hunter or Matoran slave could make it past the Hunters and get down here."

Five shadow bolts, coming from all sides, hit the four Toa who were still standing, knocking them all to the ground.

"And now," the voice finished. "I can finally do what I was meant to do: Kill intruders!"

Even more shadow bolts were coming from the darkness and the Toa did everything in their power to get out of the way of the attacks, but it didn't seem to work, because everywhere they went, the shadow bolts seemed to follow. Chimoy knew that they needed light, but with Akuna unconscious, how could they possibly hope to beat the shadow beast?

More shadow bursts lanced forth from the darkness. Chimoy tried to bring up metal walls to block the attacks, but his concentration was always shattered by being hit by shadow bolts. It seemed like the Toa Shika were all going to meet horrible deaths in this dark tunnel. Without light, they had no hope.

Addis was firing plasma balls in random directions, almost hitting Nonzra at one point. He knew this was futile, since the shadow being was darkness itself. How can you hurt darkness?

He's a living being, Addis thought frantically. Maybe I could probe his thoughts with my Suletu. But I don't know where he is! I can't focus on something that is....wait a minute! It's a stretch, but maybe I can focus my mask on the darkness itself! If it doesn't work, I will be dead....But if it does, we will find out what is behind this door. All living things have a mind and that mind is mine to read or possibly destroy, if I need to.

Activating his Kanohi Suletu, the Mask of Telepathy, Toa Addis seemingly heard nothing, until he finally found the mind of the shadow being. It was just as dark as the tunnel itself and Addis almost broke contact with him. But the Toa held his ground.

Time to teach you what it means to have a mindache, Addis thought, unleashing a series of incredibly loud screams in the shadow beast's mind.

To his surprise, the shadow entity's mind went down quickly. He was obviously not prepared for mental attacks and his mind seemed unstable to Addis, who quickly withdrew as soon as the beast went down.

The barrage of shadow bolts ended then. Nastan, Nonzra, and Chimoy looked around, wondering what had happened and what was going to happen next. What they didn't know was that Addis was shattering the concentration of the shadow beast so it could not create a focus beam of shadow. It ws overwhelming for the beast, until it finally collapsed.

All of a sudden, the area seemed a little less dark. Addis turned his mask off, shaking his head. All the dark thoughts of that being's mind were a little too much for him. Nastan checked on Akuna and Barilo to make sure they were okay.

"I'm okay," Akuna said, Nastan helping her up. "Though that shadow beast was weird. How come the Dark Hunters never said anything about him before?"

"Because if they did," Barilo said, exasperated. "Then thieves who would break into here would know what to deal with and bring some sort of light weapon or a lot of lightstones. There wouldn't be any element of surprise and they would have had to get rid of him and replace him with something else far more dangerous."

"It seemed like the shadow being made this tunnel alot more dark than it really was," said Nonzra. "You can actually see the door now without having a light."

The Toa of Sonics was right. The giant, blue-ish crystiline wall of protodermis was clearly visible now and it looked mighty old. Upon closer inspection, it was not actually old looking. There were just the more than a million scratch marks on its surface, making it look like normal wear. It would have probably taken far, far more than 25,000 years to open this thing up by force. Chimoy rubbed his hand against it. It felt smooth, but he could also feel pickaxe marks along it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Nastan asked excitedly, walking over to the door. "Let's open it and save Shika Nui!"

Nodding, the six Toa all aimed their Toa tools at the wall. Then each of them unleashed a beam of their own respective element. Plasma, plant life, lightning, metal, sound, and gravity hit the seal at the same time, causing the wall to dissolve. Behind it was a door, a giant gateway more like it. It still looked new, despite being over 100,000 years old. It had been perserved by the protodermis, obviously.

Before the Toa could congratulate each other on a job well done, the door flung open, revealing two gigantic blood red eyes. Behind it was what could be best described as true darkness. It was so horrifying that the six Toa Shika turned as one and tried to run away, but a giant shadow tentacle shot out from the portal and snatched the six Toa, despite their protests.

They were pulled inside and the door shut itself closed, locking itself in the process. The dark cave was quiet now. No living being, aside from the shadow beast, were inside it. No one knew what was behind the door until just now. Now six heroic Toa were about to came face to face with six other beings, six evil beings who had been banished there in the time before time for....well, that is a story for another time. For now, let us read the epilogue and wait, just wait, for the fate of the Toa Shika to be revealed.

THE END?

Review Topic

Equestria Girls 2 confirmed! (Kind of)

I saw that.

Not sure if yay or nay, though.

-TNTOS-

Chapter 15: Chaos!

Every Dark Hunter and Brotherhood minion was surprised to see the six Toa Shika enter the battle, firing elemental power from their weapons at their enemies. Tyu, too, was surprised, as he quickly beheaded a Rahkshi with his sword and then turned to see the Toa get surrounded by a group of Visorak spiders.

"Where did they-?" Tyu asked, surprised and shocked. He shook his head. "Never mind. I'm going to get my revenge, one way or another."

Raising his sword, he unleashed a blast of solar energy from the blade, aiming directly at the Toa. Chimoy noticed the beam and then used his metal powers to create a shield out of thin air. Then, angling the shield at just the right angle, deflected the solar energy beam right back to Tyu.

It hit the winged Hunter over, causing him to go sprawling right into a group of Rahkshi. Chimoy turned away and saw that, while his fellow Toa had succeeded in defeating the Visorak that had surrounded them, Dark Hunters were moving in on them and Nonzra was already fighting Death, a Dark Hunter that the Toa Shika had fought some days earlier.

Nonzra dodged a lava ball, then unleashed a wave of sonics at Death. The Dark Hunter dodged, rolled, and then fired five lava balls from his sword as he went. Most of them missed, save for two, which hit the Toa of Sonics in the chest and right leg, knocking him over.

Death was upon him in two strides. He put the tip of his sword to Nonzra's neck.

"What are you doing here, Toa?" asked Death. "I am surprised to see that you are still alive."

"My team and I are here to defeat Makuta Hajax and you Dark Hunters," Nonzra replied defiantly. "That way, we will free Shika Nui and we won't have to deal with you tyrants anymore."

Death locked eyes with Nonzra. The Toa of Sonics wasn't quite sure what he saw in the Hunter's eyes. He had expected to see revenge in his eyes, but instead he say something else. It looked like anger, it looked like sadness. Most of all, it looked like he was thinking.

Surprisingly, the Dark Hunter lifted his sword off the Toa's neck. Then, he blasted the ground in front of him, causing both the Dark Hunter and Nonzra to go flying into the air. The two enemies landed on the ground. It wasn't so much the shock of landing on the ground as it was the fact that Death didn't kill him. Who was this Dark Hunter, who didn't kill Nonzra when he had the chance? Nonzra had always assumed that Dark Hunters killed Toa whenever they got the chance, as they demonstrated when they had killed Toa Joha's team, over 25,000 years ago.

Death crawled over to him and whispered, "I am giving you this chance to live. Don't blow it."

Nonzra looked at him with distaste on his features. "And just why should I believe a Dark Hunter, of all beings?"

"Because I could have killed you right there," Death whispered back harshly. "I don't want to fight for the Hunters. I never wanted to join the Dark Hunters in the first place. I originally joined to help my people, not to kill novice Toa. I am going to pretend I am unconscious, okay? Then you get back up and fight my brothers. Got it?"

Nonzra nodded, still confused as to why Death was allowing him to live. The Dark Hunter closed his eyes and he was so convincing that Nonzra almost believed he truly was unconscious. He then rose and turned around to see that his fellow Toa were fighting Dark Hunters, Visorak, and Rahkshi.....And were doing just terrible. Nastan was alone against five Dark Hunters, with a sixth one coming up from behind. Akuna and Chimoy were also desperately fighting Rahkshi and Visorak. As for Addis? He was doing just as good as Nastan, which wasn't good at all.

Barilo was the only one holding his own. He had already taken out at least five Visorak, six Rahkshi, and a Hunter or two and he was now fighting the female Dark Hunter Yehiku, who the Toa of Sonics recognized from Barilo's description of her. Nonzra knew he needed to do something to turn the tide, but he just wasn't sure how.

There is my mask, Nonzra thought. After all, it saved us the first time. Who is to say it won't save us again? It might bring more of those dragon creatures, like the dead one we saw in the tunnel. Perhaps that would turn the tide in our favor.

Closing his eyes, he activated his Kanohi Zatth, the Mask of Summoning. Then he opened them. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Just the normal chaos one can expect on a battle field is all.

That was, until he heard something burrowing from beneath the surface. He looked down at the ground. There wasn't anything unusual until he saw a claw break the surface. Then, another claw, followed by a Rahi's head, which Nonzra immediately recognized as a blade burrower.

At first, the Toa of Sonics was disappointed. How could one blade burrower help them defeat the Dark Hunters? He thought that until another blade burrower followed. Then another, then another, until at least 20 of them had emerged out of the hole.

Without warning, the 20 blade burrowers moved in to attack the Dark Hunters, Visorak, and Rahkshi. One blade burrower even destroyed a Exo-Toa. Now the battle field had Toa, Dark Hunters, Brotherhood of Makuta minions, and blade burrowers. One could truly call the area a war zone.

I call it complete and utter chaos, Nonzra thought.

While that was happening, Barilo was fighting Yehiku. She was surprisingly agile, but apparently she didn't pay attention to where she was walking, because more than once she nearly tripped and that gave Barilo a advantage.

"Giving up, Yehiku?" Barilo asked as he dodged a fierce kick.

"Never, Toa," she replied, dodging a well-aimed punch. "If anything, you should be the one giving up."

"Toa never give up," the Toa answered, meeting Yehiku's sword attack with his axe. "I learned that the hard way."

The two struggled to push the other away with their weapons, never giving in. Barilo still held feelings for Yehiku, but, now knowing what it is like to be a true hero, was ready to fight for the freedom of the Matoran of Shika Nui.

Perhaps I can convince her to join us? he thought as he struggled to keep the Dark Hunter from pushing him over. I mean, Toa don't kill, right? It doesn't say that Toa can't convince their enemies to join them, right? But, then, if she doesn't want to help us now, why would she want to help us anyway?

Yehiku, on the other hand, had no feelings for Barilo, nor anyone, for that matter. She was for the Dark Hunters cause and was willing to die for it, if she needed to. Besides, even if she wasn't a Huntress, she wouldn't team up with Toa, anyway.

Toa are weak, Yehiku thought as she tried to push Barilo away. Ancient said so. From everything I've seen, that statement is true.

So caught up in their battle they were that they didn't notice a blade burrower come near them. It, like the rest of it's clan, had been called up onto the surface by some mysterious force. This particular burrower was still hungry and it believed these two creatures would satisfy its hunger well.

It could not see them, since blade burrowers have notoriously poor eyesight, but its since of smell told it that there were two beings. It could not know that one was a Toa and that another was a Dark Hunter, but it didn't care. Eat first, ask questions later would be its motto if it could talk.

Barilo noticed the Rahi beast coming up from behind Yehiku and tried to warn her, but she wasn't listening.

"There's a giant blade burrower coming up behind you," said Barilo as he tried to push her away.

"I'm not falling for the oldest trick in the book, Toa," Yehiku snapped. "I am smarter than that."

A giant claw, courtesy of the burrower, slashed her in the back, sending her flying into Barilo. The two rolled over and over until Yehiku managed to get some distance between herself and Barilo. She then kicked him in the mask, sending him rolling over again until he hit a nearby tree. The Dark Huntress painfully picked herself up and then looked at Barilo, who, while not unconscious, was laying on the ground, stunned.

"Ouch," he groaned. "That was painful!"

Yehiku looked around, trying to find her sword she had dropped when she had collided with the Toa of Gravity. She noticed that it had somehow ended up right next to Barilo and he was taking full advantage of it.

Barilo sprang up and then, moving faster than Yehiku's eyes could follow, grabbed the sword off the ground and unleashed his gravity powers on the Dark Huntress. Without gravity to help her stay on the ground, she started to float upwards. For a moment, she panicked, until she remembered the daggers that Lariska had given her some years ago. Yehiku never used them, mainly because she much preferred using her long sword over those tiny daggers. But now, as she fumbled through her bag, she realized just how grateful she was for the knives.

Now Yehiku wasn't the best at throwing daggers, but she had a somewhat good aim. She threw the daggers and, while one of them missed, the other didn't. It hit Barilo in the shoulder and he cried out in pain. He dropped her sword and then stumbled backward.

His concentration shattered, Yehiku fell to the ground. She looked up and saw the Toa of Gravity was trying to remove the dagger from his shoulder, cursing all the way. Now was her chance to attack.

She jumped up into the air, executing a perfect flying kick, sending Barilo into a tree. He hit the tree and slumped, his eyes closed. Yehiku cautiously moved forward and then poked him with her recovered sword. Was he dead?

No, she thought. Just totally unconscious.

Just then, Barilo's eyes abruptly opened, which startled Yehiku. Instead of seeing the look of a brave hero in his orbs, she saw complete and utter rage. Barilo now felt the same rage he had felt when he had killed Iroko. Now he was ready to unleash his full wrath upon the Dark Huntress and he wasn't going to hold back.

Despite his damaged shoulder, he rose and then activated his gravity powers, aiming to crush Yehiku like he did with Iroko. Unlike what he did to Iroko, however, he was not going to kill Yehiku abruptly. Rather, it would be a slow, continuous process that would leave her a dead heap of armor and organic tissue.

"No! Wait!" she screamed in agony. "You're killing me!"

"That's what I am aiming to do," Barilo snarled. "And after this, I will go after your leader, Icetraz. Then Shika Nui will be free forever!"

He watched as she fell to the ground, falling into unconsciousness. But before he could actually kill her, his eyes instantly lost the rage. In fact, now he looked like a different person altogether. He shook his head like someone who had awoken from a bad dream. Barilo looked down at the unconscious Dark Huntress and then realized exactly what was happening.

"Oh no!" he shouted, horrified by what he was doing. "I gotta stop this!"

He cut off his gravity powers, lessening the damage on Yehiku. He then leaned over to inspect her. The Toa sighed a sigh of relief that she was just unconscious and not dead. He really didn't want to experience killing another living person again, not after what had happened last time. Then he stood up and felt extreme pain in his left shoulder. Barilo glanced at his shoulder and realized that it still had the dagger in it.

Exerting all of his strength, he pulled the dagger out and tossed it away. Now he felt even more pain, worse than even when the dagger was in. He looked around and realized that the other Toa were still fighting Dark Hunters and Brotherhood of Makuta minions. He was in no shape to fight, but the Toa of Gravity didn't want to be left out in what he believed was the final battle for Shika Nui.

So I fight, Barilo thought. Whether or not I actually can.

The pain ripped through his body and he knew he needed to find a way to ease the pain. At that moment he wished he had a Mask of Healing, because then he could jump right back into action. But instead he was going to fight, even if only one of his arms moved.

Groaning with pain, he lifted his axe, running back towards the battle field. This time, he wasn't going to worry about fighting Hunters or Brotherhood minions. Now he was going straight for the Icetraz-Hajax conflict, even though he knew he might get killed as a result.

-

Since the blade burrowers were taking care of the Dark Hunters, the other five Toa Shika had regrouped behind a boulder to rest. None of them quite knew exactly what to do next and where Barilo was exactly. Nastan peered from behind the boulder to see Barilo, with his left arm limping at his side, running straight towards Icetraz and Hajax, with a look of either determination or of insanity on his face. Nastan could not tell the difference.

"What does he think he's doing?" Nastan exclaimed.

"What does who think he's doing what?" asked Addis.

"Barilo," Nastan replied bitterly, sitting back next to Akuna. "His left arm is limping at his side and he's running toward Icetraz and Hajax, the two most powerful combatants on the field right now. He's gonna get himself killed."

"Well, brothers and sister," Addis said, getting up. "We ought to help him."

"Why?" Nastan asked, frustrated. "He nearly killed me and now he's probably going to get himself killed. Good riddance."

"Nastan, he's our friend again," said Addis. "Friends help each other. Thought you were the one tooting about Unity, Duty, and Destiny? I can't believe you of all people would say 'Good riddance' about a fellow Toa! Geez, are you still sore about him almost killing you? He says he's sorry and I believe him. You should, too."

Nastan didn't respond, he simply looked at the ground. Then he got up and drew his bow out, already loading it with a arrow.

"Guess you're right," he said. "We should help him, I guess." Then, he added, "I now see why you're our leader."

Akuna nodded, drawing her staff out, electricity cracking at the tip. "Of course. Now let's move. He really is going to get himself killed if we just stand here talking."

Nonzra drew his sword and Chimoy, not having a permanent Toa tool, made a mallet appear out of thin air. Then the five Toa once again moved from the rock to go help their Toa brother.

-

Meanwhile, Icetraz was already gaining the upper hand on Makuta Hajax. The Makuta was not very used to his big body, having lived in a super Vahki's body for so many long years, which was far smaller and less bulky than his current form. While Icetraz, however, was not only skilled at using swords, but was also very agile and fast.

I need to kill this fool quickly, the Makuta of Shika Nui thought. But how?

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of purple and gray. He wondered what that was, so he scanned the area with his mind, not wanting to take his attention off Icetraz by shifting his gaze, and then immediately knew who the purple and gray color scheme belonged to.

Barilo... Not only Barilo, but evidently the rest of the Toa had came, too. This is going to get very messy, very soon.

Quicker than Icetraz's eyes could follow, the Makuta quickly began unleashing shadow energy unexpectedly, aiming to drive back the Dark Hunter. It was working and Icetraz was too off balance to strike. Hajax then got back onto his feet and unleashed his magnetism power.

At first, Icetraz didn't notice anything out of the ordinary....until he started noticing armor, weapons, and bits and pieces of metal were clinging onto his body like bees at a bee hive. He kept trying to get the stuff off of himself, but it was staying magnetized to his body and was weighing him down. There was no way to get the clinging metal off of his body!

Finally, he fell down, far too heavy to stand up. Hajax, using his mind powers, then shredded Icetraz's mind into a million pieces, sending the Dark Hunter leader into unconsciousness and possibly insanity as well.

"I really should have done that earlier," Hajax said, brushing himself off.

"And I should have done this earlier!" Barilo shouted, jumping up and then bringing his gravity axe down on Hajax's head.

The Makuta stumbled forward as the axe collided with his cranium, shaking his head. He turned around and saw Barilo, looking like a fierce Muaka cat, gravity axe at the ready, despite his limping arm. Despite how fierce and brave the Toa looked, Hajax could not help but laugh. The Makuta of Shika Nui's power was much stronger than Barilo's and he would be able to finish the Toa of Gravity off quickly.

"Ah, Barilo," Hajax said, chuckling. "Killed anyone recently?"

"I didn't kill Iroko on purpose," Barilo snapped, swinging his axe around. "You broke our mind link and that caused me to go insane for a little while."

"Are you sure you still are not insane?" asked Hajax. "After all, you're going to take me on, all by yourself. You'd have to be completely insane to attack a Makuta head-on, all by yourself. Go and leave this island, if you wish to live. I am offering you mercy, something a Makuta never does. Take your team and go, because you're useless to my cause now."

"Never!" Addis shouted, running with the other Toa to stand beside Barilo.

"We stand together," Nonzra said, swinging his sword around. "Like true Toa do!"

"Yeah!" Nastan agreed, aiming his crossbow at the Makuta. "Even though we may never get along all of the time, we are far better off than you, Hajax. Your own brothers killed you, for Pete's sake."

Hajax looked over each one of them. He had no doubt in his mind he could kill all six of them easily, but he knew that Chimoy was a Toa of Iron, the most dangerous of all of them, for he could break Hajax's armor open and let his precious energy leak out. He would have to go first.

He activated his darkness power, bringing complete darkness around himself and the Toa. But then a bright light, courtesy of Toa Akuna's Mask of Night Vision, broke through the darkness, striking Hajax's eyes. Since his eyes were not suited for bright lights, the Makuta screamed, destroying his concentration and cutting off the darkness. Plant life burst forth from the ground, capturing Hajax, stopping his movement and pulling him down to the ground. Nonzra unleashed a wave of sonics, powerful enough to hurt the Makuta's hearing.

Then Akuna sent a lightning bolt upon him, jolting his essence. And Chimoy aimed to rip open a hole big enough for his hand to fit through in the Makuta's armor, letting Hajax's essence leak out.

"Give up, Hajax," Barilo shouted. "We can beat you and you know it."

At first, Barilo thought that Hajax must be unconscious because he wasn't replying. Then he saw the Makuta of Shika Nui ripping through the plant life and sending a explosion of vines, sending the six Toa flying into the air. They fell down, hard, on the ground, as Hajax rose.

"Seriously, I was giving you the chance to leave and be 'heroes' somewhere else," Hajax said, drawing his sword. "But now you reject it and for that you must die."

Raising his hand, he unleashed a force of cyclones, shadow, electricity, and overwhelming fear into the Toa, which would surely be enough to kill all six of them. What he didn't expect, however, was that the attacks instantly rebounded off the Toa, like some sort of invisible force field was protecting them.

"Who dares stop Makuta Hajax from killing these Toa?" he questioned, looking around.

Nastan managed to look up and saw that Julok, of all beings, was walking over to them, a dead Visorak in his claws. The Toa of The Green wondered why he had saved them.

"You!" Hajax yelled, pointing at the Hunter. "Did you save these Toa, which you so obviously hate?"

"Yes, I did," the Dark Hunter replied calmly. "You are a enemy of the Dark Hunters and so are the Toa. I have no love for them or their kind, but I do want revenge upon them for making a fool of me and I intend to pay them back in full. I'm not going to let some dark warlord rob me of my revenge!"

"Why you-!" Hajax snarled, aiming his sword at the Dark Hunter.

Before he could unleash a blast of shadow, however, a fifteen-foot, green and silver warrior appeared, grabbing the Makuta from behind and pinning him to the ground without much effort. The strength of the Dark Hunter who had pinned him down was enormous, stronger even than the Makuta himself. What was worse was that his essence was still leaking out, making Hajax weaker each minute.

"Wha-?" Hajax said, straining to twist his neck to see who had dared attack him.

"Name's Byki," the giant replied in a deep, rumbling voice. "I saw what you did to Icetraz and what you were going to do to Julok. Now I'm gonna rip your head right off your neck!"

Before he could carry out his threat, Hajax used his density control power to alter his density, allowing Byki to fall right through him. Then the Makuta rose and changed his density back to normal, unleashing as he did so blast of chain lightning. The chain lightning hit Byki, sufficient enough to knock-out the huge Hunter.

"That is what you receive for daring to hurt a Makuta!" Hajax bellowed. "Now I will-"

"You will what?" Julok asked. "Your army, oh great Makuta, is dead. We killed every single minion you sent at us and the rest of your troops have fled." He said the 'oh great Makuta' part with more than a hint of sarcasm.

The Makuta looked around. Julok was right. All of his Visorak, Rahkshi, Exo-Toa, and various others were dead or utterly destroyed. All of the Dark Hunters were now shifting their attention to Hajax, stomping over the corpses of the dead Brotherhood minions as they went. It was almost enough to send Makuta Hajax running, but he kept his ground.

"My men!" he shouted, scanning the area frantically. "What happened to my men?"

"We destroyed'em," Giho replied, axe at the ready. "And now we're gonna destroy you!"

Hajax knew that, while he could take on any of them individually and win, he could never defeat hundreds upon hundreds of Dark Hunters all on his own. Not to mention his own armor was already ripped open as it was, greatly weakening him. But he also knew he wasn't going to go down, not after so long of hiding and waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

His gaze shifted to the right, where the six Toa Shika were now standing up as well, elemental energy crackling at the end of their Toa tools. The Toa joined the Dark Hunters and now Hajax knew for sure he was going to die, though he was going to die fighting.

"Give up, Hajax," said Addis. "And we'll let you live."

"Let him live?" Kigin, who was among the Dark Hunters who was surrounding the Makuta, said, shocked. "He deserves to die the most horrible death imaginable, the Makuta does!"

Addis glared at the Dark Hunter. "Since when did you get to make the rules around here?"

"Since I became a member of the Dark Hunters," Kigin shot back. "There are more Hunters than Toa here, hero. We're going to kill him, right guys?"

All of the Dark Hunters shouted a resounding 'yes' and then they all ran forward, weapons ready to tear through Makuta armor. Hajax desperately began shooting shadow, cyclones, electricity, and whatever else he had at his command at the Dark Hunters. But none of it was strong enough to even slow down the wave upon wave of mecerneries. Soon, he was lost beneath the sea of Hunters. All that could be heard was Hajax's screaming as they tore away at his armor.

The Toa Shika had not joined in the unfair killing, for they were Toa and Toa do not kill. They were making their escape, actually, because they knew that once the Dark Hunters were finished with Hajax, they would be coming after them next.

"Quickly," Nastan whispered as he tiptoed with the rest of the Toa. "We can escape into the forest before they realize we're escaping.

"No," Barilo said, shaking his head. "We're gonna fight them, whether we like it or not."

"You're in no shape to fight," Nastan pointed out, annoyed. "Your shoulder is damaged."

"Shut up," Barilo snapped. "I can fight just fine."

"Quiet both of you!" Addis whispered harshly. "We're going to escape and that is final. We need to regroup and plan out another strategy."

"But a time like this to hit the Hunters this hard won't come again," Barilo argued. "We need to strike now!"

Further argument was cut off by the sight of at least two dozen Dark Hunters - Or people who looked like them, anyway- emerging from the forest. Those Dark Hunters looked just as surprised as the Toa were to see them.

"Toa?" one of them, a black and gold being, said, confused. "Wasn't Joha the only Toa left on Shika Nui?"

"Quickly!" Addis shouted at the top of his lungs. "Let's make a break for the fortress!"

Before Barilo could question what Addis was thinking, the Toa leader was already running to what was left of the western entrance. The other Toa followed, though somewhat reluctantly, because they knew it was pure madness to run into the fortress of the Dark Hunters themselves.

They entered the building and Chimoy quickly threw up a thick wall of metal, enough to completely close the way out. Now they were trapped in, but it didn't matter. Only figuring out what Addis was getting at was important at the moment.

With the heat of the outside cut off, the area grew deathly cold. Akuna couldn't help but shiver in the cold as she ran with the other Toa. She knew that it was stupid to run into the Dark Hunters' fortress, but she was too busy running and being cold to complain.

Chimoy glanced around as they ran. He noticed that there were many dead Visorak and Rahkshi, with some Dark Hunters as well. On the walls were carvings that might have represented past Dark Hunters, but now they were totally destroyed beyond recognition. Many of them looked like the ones Toa Barilo had described when he had infiltrated the fortress before, but badly damaged and totally unrecognizable.

He also noticed stone statues that had fallen and were destroyed. One of those statues looked as though it had been brought down purposefully, on a unlucky Visorak that Chimoy didn't care to look at.

Surprisingly, even though they were in the Dark Hunter fortress itself, they had ran into no Dark Hunters at all. They were all probably fighting Hajax, he thought.

Gradually, though, they came into what looked like the throne room. It wasn't very damaged, save for the throne itself and some carvings on the wall. Suits of armor stood on either side of the room, leading up to the damaged throne. He figured most of the suits once belonged to Dark Hunters or perhaps Toa, since he recognized the armor of Toa Siso, the Toa of Lightning that used to be on Joha's team until she and the others got killed, 25,000 years ago.

Apparently, this was where they stopped, for Addis abruptly halted, signaling for the rest to do the same. Barilo, panting and in extreme pain because his shoulder was still hurting, dragged himself to the damaged throne and sat down on it, trying to rest his shoulder. He then locked eyes with Addis, annoyed.

"What in Mata Nui's name were you thinking?" Barilo asked.

"Yeah!" Nastan agreed. "We could be walking right into the hands of the Hunters for all we know!"

"No, that wasn't what I was getting at," Barilo said, shaking his head. "I was going to say that the battle is out there, not in here. See what I am getting at?"

Nastan sighed heavily. What he wanted even less than Barilo being back on the team was fighting all of the Dark Hunters on the island. Nearby, Chimoy was created walls of metal to cover the entrances, just in case there were some Dark Hunters still wandering in the fortress and then noticed the six Toa.

"Well, Barilo, I figured we could escape them by going into their fortress and finding that ancient door of protodermis the Dark Hunters are trying to open," Addis said, panting. "That's all. Perhaps whatever is behind it could helps us save Shika Nui?"

"Well, I was never serious about actually going down there and opening the door, but what the Karzahni, why not?" Barilo said, shrugging. He winced at the pain in his shoulder when he shrugged. "I could lead you guys there. I know where the entrance is."

"No way!" Nastan exclaimed, taking a step back. "They probably have the place guarded and they probably have booby-traps just in case!"

"I agree with Nastan on this one," Akuna said, stepping up. "It isn't smart to just run in foolhardy. Only cool dudes do that."

Chimoy nodded. "It is unwise to run straight into a trap without a plan."

Nonzra, however, was all for going to find out what was going on behind the door.

"C'mon, guys," said Nonzra. "I betcha all of the Hunters are busy killing Hajax at the moment. The door is probably completely unguarded, you know? It's ours for the taking."

After much more debate, Addis, being the team leader, finally chose to go and explore the door, even if there was guards placed around it.

"After all," he reasoned. "We have the power to deal with any Dark Hunters that might be guarding the door."

"Fine," Nastan sighed. "Have it your way, leader."

"Barilo, show us the way there," Addis ordered. "You're the only one who knows his way around this fortress, after having infiltrated this place before."

Nodding, the Toa of Gravity rose from the throne, but then winced and sat down. He groaned in pain.

"Well, we don't have to go if your shoulder still hurts," Addis said, walking up to the throne.

"N-no," Barilo said, struggling to stand up. "I-I can still walk. Don't you worry about me. I'm tough."

"Okay, then, which way is the door?" the Toa of Plasma asked.

Barilo pointed to the eastern entryway that Chimoy had closed off, like the rest. "That way, I'm sure of it. Chimoy needs to bring the metal wall down first, though."

Nodding, the Toa of Iron reared back and then punched the wall, causing it to fall down, revealing a hallway that extended several feet into the fortress, lightened up by lightstones embedded in the walls.

Addis helped Barilo up and then the six Toa Shika went down the eastern entrance, with Barilo leading the way.

As they walked down the hallway, Nastan looked at Chimoy. "Was it necessary to punch the wall down when you could have used a less loud way, like tearing it down with your elemental power?"

"It was fun," Chimoy replied, smiling. "I don't see why I shouldn't."

Nastan sighed as Akuna wondered what could possibly be behind the door. Untold riches? A legendery Mask of Power? A powerful weapon?

Whatever it is, I'm sure we're going to like it, she thought confidently. And if we don't, we can deal with it.

Little did any of them know, however, was that there was evil so ancient it had been locked away forever 100,000 years ago. None of them could even begin to conceive of the evil hidden behind there. And it was likely none of them would survive to tell the tale.

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Chapter 14: The Return of Barilo

As she walked ahead of the others, Akuna thought about the dead dragon they had seen before. She wondered what it was there for and if it was supposed to guard something. Treasure, maybe? Some sort of prison, full of strange and scary beings?

How odd for a dragon, of all things, to be underground, she thought. It's kind of creepy, once you think about it.

Behind her, the other Toa Shika, Turaga Joha, and Jokao were still following. Jokao didn't want to advance any further after seeing the dead dragon. He wasn't sure that five novice Toa, one Turaga, and a Matoran could possibly defeat whatever defeated the dragon.

If there is a dead dragon here, who knows what might have killed it? the Ta-Matoran thought. Whatever killed it might still be here, waiting for us. Hopefully whatever killed the Rahi is dead, too, or left to go somewhere else or something.

Up ahead, Jokao noticed how Nonzra and Addis were talking to each other. He wasn't sure what they were saying, but it was probably about taking precautions in case there were more dragons up ahead or if there were traps.

However, none of that seemed necessary, as they soon emerged into a chamber. The chamber was shaped like a sphere and obviously wasn't a natural structure. It was mostly bare, save for what looked like six stasis tubes in the middle. Lightstones were imbedded in the walls, helping to light up the room.

"Underground chamber." Nastan said, surveying the area. "Didn't know this was under Shika Nui." He turned to Joha. "How about you?"

"Neither did I, Nastan," the Turaga replied.

"Those stasis tubes look curious," Jokao said, pointing at the tubes in the middle. "I wonder what is inside them."

Then, he thought he felt something in his mind tell him to go down to check the stasis tubes out. He obeyed the command.

Without warning and regardless of his fears, the Ta-Matoran ran down the path toward the stasis tubes. Despite the size of the cave, he was at the bottom in only a couple of minutes and was looking up at the cylinders, trying to see what was inside.

"Hello," he said to the tube, knocking on it with his fist. "Anyone alive in there?"

"Jokao!" Turaga Joha cried. He was coming down the path with the five Toa Shika in tow. "You should be more careful. You never know what kind of dangers could be hiding in here."

"Relax, Turaga," Nonzra said. "He just wanted to get a better look is all. I, too, am curious about the tubes."

The Toa of Sonics walked over to the tube Jokao was standing in front of and wiped away the dust in front of it. He jumped back at what he saw.

In the stasis tube was a being. He had teeth extending from his mouth several inches long and was red and blue, with sharp spikes extending from his armor. He held what looked like a sword, except it had a trigger on it, like a gun blade.

The odd creature was clearly in stasis, because his eyes were closed and he was totally still. But there was something about his unusually long limbs that gave off a creepy feel, like he was still aware of what was gong on around him, despite the fact that he was in stasis.

"What is that thing?" Nonzra asked, horrified.

"Let me see," Nastan said, shoving his friend aside. He, too, was taken aback by what he saw. "What in Mata Nui's name is that?"

The other Toa Shika and Turaga Joha looked at the strange being in the stasis tube.

"How odd," Joha muttered. "What kind of creature is that?"

"Should I wipe the dust off the other tubes?" Nonzra asked. " 'Cause if they're going to be as hiedious as that...that thing, then it is better we leave them the way they are, in my opinion."

The others agreed, not wanting to accidentally wake the creatures up. That didn't stop Jokao from studying the tubes, however. He noticed a word engraved on the tubes: Tuikas.

"Tuikas?" he repeated. "Isn't Tuikas the Matoran word for 'fear'?"

"Well, they certainly inspire fear in me," said Nastan. "But why would they be called Tuikas? Heck, why are they even in stasis tubes in the first place?"

"Too many questions, too little answers," Nonzra said. He then looked at the entrance, where they had come from. However, he noticed the doorway was closing up, until it was fully closed, locking them inside. "Hey!"

He dashed over to where the entrance had once been and began hacking away with his sword. Addis joined him, using his plasma powers to try to melt the door down.

"What's going on?" Jokao asked, fearing creeping into his voice. "Are we locked away in here forever? I don't want to be locked away! Those creatures might wake up and kill us!"

Joha, having been a Toa for over 30,000 years and been through far worse, was keeping his cool. "Calm down, Jokao. I'm sure we're going to escape from this."

Akuna, Chimoy, and Nastan joined Addis and Nonzra, blasting away at the door. Despite the onslaught of elemental attacks, the door didn't have a scratch. Chimoy, using his power over metal, made a giant hammer made of iron appear out of thin air.

He then beckoned for the others to step back, which they did. Then the Toa of Iron, exerting all his strength, slammed the heavy hammer onto the door. Surprisingly, the door still stood. Chimoy dropped his hammer, giving up.

"How is this possible?" he muttered. "Maybe we really are locked away forever."

"All right," said Addis. "Everyone, search for any way out. Feel along the walls or along the floor or anywhere that you think might unveil a secret entrance."

The others did as he bid, walking all around the chamber and feeling along the walls. It was Akuna who discovered that one of the lightstones was loose.

"Guys, look at this," she said. Everyone else came over to her. "See? This lightsone is loose. Watch."

She pulled down on it. At first, she was a bit disappointed that nothing happened....until the wall flung opened and, with a strong vacuuming force, sucked the party up. The wall closed. None of them noticed, however, that one of the Tuikas, the first one, eyes opened and they wouldn't know the consequences of awakening the Tuikas until it was far too late.

-

On the surface, Icetraz blasted another Visorak into oblivion, using his Cordak blaster. Another one jumped onto his back, but a ice spike put a end to that unfortunate creature's life.

Earlier, he had killed the leader of these Brotherhood of Makuta minions, Makuta Hajax. But for some reason, instead of dispersing in out right panic, they still fought, as if they knew something momentous was going to happen.

Six Arms, another Dark Hunter, was fighting five Rahkshi. Icetraz fired off three missiles, all three of which hit the Rahkshi, destroying some and sending others flying through the air.

Six Arms turned to Icetraz. "These things just don't give up, even when their leader is dead."

"I agree, Six Arms," said Icetraz. "That is the mystery, of course. Usually, when the leader of a army is killed, the rest began to panic and are easy picking."

He was too caught up in his conversation with Six Arms that he didn't notice a Exo-Toa come up from behind. It was about to shoot him, but Death came up from behind it and stabbed it with his sword, ripping its internal mechanisms to bits and then finishing it off with a lava ball, causing it to explode. Icetraz turned around, surprised.

"Ah, Death," he said. "Good job." He pointed to a small group of Dark Hunters fighting off a big group of Visorak. "Help them kill those Visorak."

Death nodded, but he seemed to have what looked like regret in his eyes. "Yes, sir." And then he darted off in the direction of the Dark Hunter-Visorak scuffle, aiming to help his brothers.

Icetraz turned back to Six Arms, who was now running over to fight some Exo-Toa nearby. Icetraz didn't bother to help him, because the Hunter was already ripping the fighting machines apart.

He needs no help from me, Icetraz thought. That's good, because it shows his independence. But if he grows too independent, I may have to end his sorry life.

Then, to Icetraz's surprise, a giant emerged from the fortress, holding a dead Dark Hunter in his hand. Worse, this being was no Dark Hunter he knew of. The blue and yellow being instantly locked eyes with Icetraz. When he spoke, it was the deep, gritty voice of the Makuta of Shika Nui's.

"Why, hello, Icetraz," the being called, tossing the corpse away. "As you can see, I, Makuta Hajax, have new body for myself. Stolen from my fellow Makuta, Koghi, who is now dead."

Instead of answering vocally, Icetraz responded by firing a hail of Cordak missiles, all aimed at Hajax. The Makuta used his magnetism powers to stop the missiles dead in their tracks.

"You have but two choices, Icetraz," Hajax said. "Either give up and let me take control of this island or I will kill you with these Cordak missiles."

"How's about the third choice where I kill you dead right in your tracks?" Icetraz shouted, unleashing a blast of ice at the Cordak missiles.

The ice hit the projectiles, blowing them up. The explosion hit Hajax, but it surprisingly wasn't enough to send him flying.

Icetraz drew his sword and then ran and jumped, bringing the blade down on the Makuta. Hajax quickly pulled his broad sword out. Icetraz's blow landed on the Makuta's sword and the two began pushing each other, looking into each other's eyes with pure hatred.

"You know you can't win," Hajax said, struggling to force his opponent over. "Your Hunters are tiring and my minions never do."

"Keep talking, Makuta scum bag," Icetraz growled. "Because you'll be eating those words in a few minutes!"

-

Up in the sky, Barilo flew in to the battle at the fortress and immediately noticed Icetraz fighting some yellow and blue titan that had a tail. He wondered who that was.

He also noticed Dark Hunters fighting Visorak, Exo-Toa, and Rahkshi, even some Vortixx. He had no idea where all of the Brotherhood of Makuta minions came from, but that didn't stop him from being disappointed.

Did I already miss my chance for revenge on Hajax? Barilo thought. Then I have no further reason to be here, even though kicking Dark Hunter tail sounds very appealing.

Then he heard Icetraz, down below, call the giant 'Hajax.' That surprised Barilo greatly, because when he last saw the Makuta of Shika Nui, he was in a super Vahki body. Where he got this new body, Barilo did not know. But he wasn't about to pass up this chance for revenge, the being really was Hajax.

Time for some pay back, Barilo thought, lowering to the ground.

Barilo knew that it would just plain stupid to attack while he was in the sky, in case a Hunter saw him and then try to blast him out of the sky. So he lowered to the ground, behind a boulder in the proto forest so he wouldn't be seen immediately by the Hunters and then have to fight them. And then he jumped off his rock, pulling his gravity axe out and was about to charged into battle, seeking to defeat the Makuta and hopefully Icetraz, too.

He was surprised when the other five Toa Shika, plus Jokao and Turaga Joha, shot out of a hole in the ground and landed on him. The hole quickly closed back up.

Nastan looked around. "Hey, where are we? I hear battle sounds coming from the other side of this rock."

"You're on top of me!" Barilo shouted. "I need to breath too, you know."

Everyone froze, recognizing who the voice belonged to immediately. They remembered how Barilo had killed Iroko and how he almost killed Nastan while he was at it. Now he was here and they were on top of him! Nastan immediately knew that Barilo might try to get him again.

All of them jumped off of Barilo and the five Toa Shika drew their weapons. The Toa of Gravity scrambled to his feet and held his hands up.

"Look!" he said. "I don't want to hurt you guys anymore. Honestly, I've learned my lesson."

"We're sure you have, Barilo," Nonzra snapped. "Or should I say, 'traitor who nearly killed our friend'?"

"I was confused and insane back then," Barilo admitted. He got on his knees. "Please, Addis. Accept me back as a part of this team and I won't ever betray you guys ever again."

Addis looked into Barilo's eyes. Having been a thief as a Matoran, Addis knew how to make his eyes look innocent when accused of a crime. He knew that Barilo also knew how to do that and what he was seeing in Barilo's eyes wasn't fake innocence. It was the true, I-want-forgiveness-or-I-don't-know-what-I-will-do-with-my-life kind of look.

The Toa of Plasma looked down to Joha. "Turaga, look in his eyes. What do you see?"

Joha locked eyes with Barilo. "Well, I see someone who really does want to help again. It doesn't look fake, either."

"So are you saying that we should accept Barilo back unquestioningly?" Nastan asked in disbelief. "He almost killed me!"

"Nastan, I think you should be more forgiving," Joha said gently. "Barilo really does look like he regrets what he has done."

"Please, Nastan, forgive me," Barilo said, his voice sounding very sad. "I will do anything to prove my honest, sincere quest for forgiveness."

The five Toa looked at each other. Jokao was standing beside Chimoy, because he still didn't trust Barilo. Then the Toa huddled up to discuss what they should do. Jokao and Joha also joined in.

It was only a few minutes, but it seemed like a eternity to Barilo before they finally stopped talking to each other. Barilo looked from one of his fellow Toa to another. He noticed how Chimoy, Akuna, Nonzra, and Addis were smiling. Nastan looked uncomfortable and Jokao did, too. Joha simply had no expression on his face, but his eyes gave him away. He, too, was happy.

"Barilo, with much discussion," Addis said, walking forward. "We have decided that, despite the fact you almost killed Nastan, you are sincere about wanting forgiveness. We all forgive you and we want you back in our team. Do you accept?"

Barilo nearly cried out in joy, but didn't because he knew it would give away their position to the Dark Hunters.

So he simply said, "Yes. I would like that very much."

Then, for the first time in a long time, Addis and Barilo did the traditional Toa salute of bumping fists. He did it with the rest of the Toa, too, even with Nastan, who did it rather reluctantly.

"I still don't trust you, Barilo," Nastan said.

"That's all right," Barilo said, patting his fellow Toa on the back. "I don't expect you to trust a theif. I expect you to fight with me like a warrior."

He looked down at Jokao and Joha. He bent over and bumped fists with Joha, despite the fact he was a Turaga. Then he turned to Jokao, who, like Nastan, looked rather reluctant, but he did it anyway, just so he didn't anger Barilo.

"All right," Barilo said, standing to his full height. He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "There's a mini war going on between the Dark Hunters and Brotherhood of Makuta back there. Hajax is fighting Icetraz and this is the perfect time to strike. Shall we, Toa brothers and sister?"

The others nodded and drew their weapons again.

"Hey, can I stay here?" Jokao asked. "I'm not a Toa and I wouldn't last very long out there. I'm thinking of heading back to my village, which isn't very far from here. Hopefully all of the Dark Hunters are preoccupied by this battle, so they won't try to get me."

"Then I will accompany you, Jokao," Turaga Joha said. "Like you, I would not last very long in battle, either."

He turned to face the six Toa Shika. His eyes were filled with pride as he looked at each of the Toa. He even had pride when he looked at Barilo.

"You know, despite your downsides, I believe destiny chose the right Matoran to become Toa," he said. "I am proud of you six, especially you, Barilo."

"Me?" Barilo asked, shocked. "But I betrayed my team and nearly killed Nastan!"

"But you had the guts to shove down your pride and ask for forgiveness," Joha reminded him. "That makes you just as much a Toa as the others, perhaps even more so."

"Thank you, Turaga," Barilo said, his voice choked with emotion.

"Hey," Addis spoke up. "Let's not get all mushy, all right? We have some Hunter butts to kick!"

"Yeah," Akuna agreed. "Let us free Shika Nui from the Dark Hunters slavery once and for all!"

With a mighty battle cry, the six Toa Shika ran out from behind their boulder. They were now a united team. Despite their pasts as thieves and despite what they had been through, they now accepted their part as heroes who would save Shika Nui from evil.

But if they could only sense what is destined to happen to them, where they would be going, they wouldn't nearly be as eager as they are now. Not nearly as eager at all.

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Chapter 13: Dragon in the Dark

Nonzra, along with the other four Toa Shika, Jokao, and Turaga Joha, was stumbling through the darkness of the tunnels that were underneath the village of shadow. He disliked it, because he was sure that they had already walked around in circles five different times at least. He didn't want to say it, though, because he didn't want to come off as complain-y or anything.

Jokao was the first to voice what Nonzra was thinking. "Is anyone here sure that there is treasure?"

"Nope," Addis replied from up ahead. "Just a guess, really."

"Well, it is a stupid guess, in my opinion," Jokao said smartly.

"You could go back to the surface and take your chances with the Hunters," Nonzra said sarcastically, looking back at where he heard Jokao's voice. "But I don't think any of us are likely to do that."

That shut Jokao up good. So everyone was quiet for a few more minutes, still stumbling through the darkness, until Akuna remembered something.

"Hey! That's right," she exclaimed. "I have the Mask of Night Vision!"

"You just remembered that now?" Nonzra asked, annoyed. "How does anyone forget what their own Mask Power is?"

Ignoring Nonzra's comment, Akuna activated her mask, sending a blinding glow that illuminated the cavern, revealing a tunnel that extended several feet long. Addis decided that, since Akuna had the glowing mask, she should be in front of the party. Nastan was somewhat against this, because there might be some sort of danger in ahead that might be waiting for them and he didn't want Akuna to get herself hurt or killed.

"Relax, Nastan," Akuna said. "I'm a Toa. You know, we Toa have the power to defend ourselves."

"Well, okay, I guess," he said. "Just be careful, okay?"

"Sure," she answered. "As long as I'm with you, I don't have anything to worry about, right?"

Nastan blushed a little at that comment, but no one seemed to notice, fortunately. "Er, yeah, right. Nothing to worry about here."

Soon, Akuna was in the front, leading the team deeper down the tunnel. Jokao still didn't like having to go down a tunnel that lead to who-knows-where, but he wasn't complaining, anyway.

"This place reminds me of the tunnels my Toa team and I explored back when they were alive and I was a Toa," Joha said, with more than a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Except there were loads of stalactites and stalagmites and blade burrowers. Lots of blade burrowers. Nearly killed us, but I caved them in. Ah, the good ol' days. Makes me wish my team was still alive, so we could do that sort of thing again."

"Turaga, not to seem rude or anything," Jokao said. "But don't think that this is sort of...foolish? Exploring in the darkness without having any idea at all of what could be waiting in here?"

"Actually, I think it is quite smart, Jokao," the Turaga replied. "Toa are supposed to explore and seek out unknown dangers. It comes with the job. Now come on. They're already well ahead of us."

Joha walked quicker to catch up with them, leaving Jokao with a look of disbelief on the features of his face. The Matoran shook his head and ran after the rest of the party, still unsure if wandering around in the darkness was a good idea or not.

It seemed that hours were going by as the tunnels twisted and turned every which way. More than once, they had stopped at a fork in the tunnels and had to decide which way to go. Now they had arrived at such a fork and looked down both ways. They saw no enemies or traps down either tunnel, but they had been cautious so far and they didn't plan to be stupid and get themselves killed or trapped.

"I say we go left," Nastan said.

"Why left?" Nonzra asked, looking at the Toa of The Green.

"Because we have gone right for every fork we have found," Nastan replied. "It gets boring going the same way all the time. Variety is the spice of life, after all."

So the party went left. As they walked, Chimoy noticed all of the carvings on the walls, which looked like the ones he had seen back in the villages. Some looked like Toa, but strangely twisted and Rahi-like. Others showed carvings of what were obviously Rahi. And then some showed Matoran, but the Matoran in the carvings seemed to be shooting some sort of energy from their hands. It was so interesting and yet scary at the same time. Chimoy didn't know what to think.

Turaga Joha, too, was observing the carvings as they passed. Wise he may have been, he had no idea who, or what, these pictures were supposed to be depicting. It looked like a story to him, but rather incomplete, because most of the carvings were worn away or hastily scratched out.

Then, he heard Akuna scream from up ahead.

-

Toa Barilo, Toa Shika of Gravity, was at the moment far from the underground tunnels of Shika Nui.

He was currently on his way to the Dark Hunters, flying on a rock. The rock flew because he used a complicated power of gravity to move it forward and to keep it moving. Unfortunately, he couldn't steer it very well, but that wasn't a problem at the moment, because he was flying well above trees, Matoran, and any other obstacles that might get in the way.

Barilo was flying over a Matoran village, which was near the Hunter's fortress. Below him, Matoran of all kinds had stopped whatever work they were doing and were now looking up at him as he passed by overhead. All of the Matoran in the village below knew that Joha was the only Toa left on the island, so watching Barilo fly over them was quite exciting and interesting for most.

One Matoran in particular was so preoccupied watching him that he never noticed three brakas monkeys steal all the fruit from his fruit stand. When he finally noticed that his fruit was gone, the Rahi monkeys were long gone.

The Toa of Gravity was near the fortress now. He could see the once seemingly inpenetrable fortress. At one point he had thought it looked like a army of Toa would be needed to overcome it.

The majority of the building was still together, but he could see alot of holes in the walls and plenty of walls toppled onto the ground, with dead beings underneath them.

He could also see Dark Hunters fighting other beings. Lots and lots of other beings and none of them resembled Dark Hunters at all.

Probably Brotherhood of Makuta minions, he thought. Good thing Addis read Iroko's mind, before I....I.....killed her.

He had indeed killed a Skakdi named Iroko, who had been working with Makuta Hajax to kill the Toa Shika. Instead, she ended up getting killed herself, by none other than Barilo himself.

At the time, he had felt no regret. However, what he didn't plan to do was almost kill Nastan because the Toa of The Green had rebuked him for killing someone, which Toa weren't supposed to do. Nastan didn't die, but Barilo was exiled from the group just the same. He now wished that he had never even tried to kill Nastan in the first place.

Maybe I've had a conscience all along, he thought grimly as he flew over the village. Maybe I've just stold my conscience to shut up all these years. Perhaps being a Toa isn't about killing your enemies out right and getting praise from the Matoran. But wait a minute. What am I saying? Toa should kill their enemies. It is what made Joha and his team weak in my eyes and it is certainly what is going to make myself strong, in the eyes of myself and my enemies.

Or is it? Is killing really the thing Toa should do, even when it is unnecessary? Something inside me is telling me that Nastan was right, that Toa really shouldn't kill people for no reason.

Maybe he's right. After all, Joha and his team did get respect and admiration from the Matoran of this island and they never killed any living being, as far as I know. Maybe I shouldn't be thinking about this. I can't decide.

So caught up in his thoughts, that he never noticed a ship sailing toward the island from the west. He probably wouldn't have noticed it, anyway, since it was so far away.

The sea vessel was neither a Brotherhood of Makuta ship, nor a Dark Hunter warship. It wasn't even a Vortixx weapon supply ship.

The mighty sail, which was about twelve feet tall and fourteen feet wide, depicted the Kanohi Hau, the mask commonly associated with the Great Spirit Mata Nui. The warriors who piloted the ship were members of a secret organization dedicated to carrying out the will of Mata Nui.

For so long the organization they worked for been in secret, never revealing it's existence to any living being except in times of crisis. They had their members assigned to every known location in the universe, keeping a watch on the happenings wherever they were.

What was the organization that they worked for called? Why, it was none other than the Order of Mata Nui. They were coming to Shika Nui to lend the Dark Hunters a hand aganst the Brotherhood of Makuta.

-

The other four Toa, plus Jokao and Joha, ran up ahead to where they had heard Akuna scream. Nastan was the first there, bow and arrow at the ready.

"What is it?" he asked, aiming his bow around in the darkness. Akuna's sudden scream had shattered her concentration, shutting her mask power off and leaving them all in the dark. "Is there a Dark Hunter or something down here?"

"T-there," Akuna said, pointing up ahead. "I...I saw a giant, dragon-like Rahi. Its eyes were open and its black and green armor was cracked in many places. I shut my mask power off so it wouldn't see us."

"You know, Akuna," Nonzra said, trying to spot the dragon in the darkness. "We could fight it better if your mask power was on."

She shook her head. "And let the beast see us? No way. It looked like it could kill us all in one blow."

"Akuna, you were the one who said that since we are Toa, we can protect ourselves easily," Nonzra shot back. "So turn the darn light on and let us face the dragon mask to mask. Or face, if it has a face."

Reluctantly, the Toa of Lightning activated her mask, illuminating the tunnel ahead. What they saw was horrible and down right scary.

A dragon lay up ahead, buried in rubble. Its long, silver wings were broken and dented in many places. At one point, it may have been a creature that even the Brotherhood of Makuta feared. But now it looked dead, like someone had slain it long ago. Its large, blue eyes were open, but it didn't look like their was any light in them anymore.

Nastan, Addis, and Nonzra cautiously approached it, weapons at the ready. Chimoy and Akuna stayed behind with Jokao and Joha, just in case the monster was still alive. Nonzra poked the dragon with his sword to confirm his suspicions.

"The over-grown lizard is dead," he reported. "Though how he was killed, I don't know. Some might have brought the tunnel down upon him, though."

"Then it's a dead end?" Nastan asked. "Do we just turn back around?"

"No," Addis said, shaking his head. "The tunnel is mostly blocked off, but I think we can continue on. Just going to have to go around the dragon is all."

After telling Chimoy, Akuna, Jokao, and Joha that the Rahi was dead, the party walked around it and continued their way down the tunnel, all of them wondering just what the dragon was there for. They were soon about to find out and hopefully it wouldn't be too much for their minds to comprehend.

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Chapter 12: The Secret Village of Shadow

The now-five Toa Shika, Turaga Joha, and Jokao had only a little way to go before making it to their destination. During that time, they all pondered what had just happened minutes ago. They had been in sort of serious situations before, but none of them thought something like that would happen. It gave each and every Toa a more serious view on their life as Toa. Maybe being a Toa wasn't just a way to gain more loot or treasure or praise or whatever else they had been thinking about before Barilo's betrayal.

I can't belive he was going to kill Nastan, Akuna thought sadly. Maybe all this Toa power was too much for Barilo. Whose to say it won't happen to the rest of us, in time?

Chimoy was also thinking deeply. I thought Barilo would never try to do such as thing. Perhaps Makuta Hajax had messed with his mind somehow or he was going insane. Makes me wonder if that could happen to the rest of us.

Who will be next? Jokao thought, looking at each of the remaining Toa. They all looked very sober. I may not have known any of them very long, but I never thought something like that would happen. Now I wonder if I am going to make it out alive at all if something like that is going to happen every day.

It figured, Nonzra thought coldly. I figured he would try to kill someone and he did, but he also tried to kill Nastan, which is totally unacceptable. But I, however, am not extremely surprised by this. Barilo is the kind of guy that thinks the ends justify the means, while Nastan is more of the 'hero' type, always feeling that Toa need to do good, regardless of who they are. But I better keep my guard up. I am not sure if any of the others will try something like this.

Toa Addis fired a ball of plasma at a nearby rock wall, melting it instantly. No one bothered to ask why he did that, because they all knew why. He was angry that Barilo had betrayed the group. He and the Toa of Gravity had been best friends, so he took this betrayal very hard.

That was the most dumbest thing Barilo could ever hope to do, Addis thought angrily. I remember when he and I were just Matoran. We were the first to start our little group. He'd always been the one who was impatient and would rather do things the quickest and most efficient way, regardless of who got hurt in the process. But I didn't think he would actually try to kill Nastan, or any of us, for that matter.

Nastan was the most troubled one of all. He had, after all, been the target of Barilo's attack. It made him fear a little bit for his safety and for the rest of the Toa. He now knew just how precious life was.

What had I done to get almost killed? Nastan thought, saddened. Because I just happened to be the most Toa-like out of us all, that's what. Barilo and me were always opposites, but we became even more opposites now. I don't trust him. I don't trust him at all anymore.

Joha, too, was upset at Barilo's attempt on Nastan's life.

Maybe I chose the wrong the wrong Matoran to become Toa, Joha thought soberly. In all my life as a Toa of Stone, I have never seen any Toa try to kill another. It greatly disappoints me. But perhaps the power was too much for Barilo and it went to his head.

A stone rat ran across the path in front of Joha, nearly tripping the Turaga. None of the Toa bothered to see if he was okay, because they were still too sad by what Barilo had almost done. Jokao went ahead and helped the Turaga back up.

"Are you okay, Joha?" the Ta-Matoran asked.

"Yes, I am fine," Joha replied. "Just tripped is all-"

It was at that moment that Joha realized that they had just arrived at their destination. He turned back to the five Toa, who had just stopped to watch Jokao help Joha. All of them wore the same expression of grief, anger, and sadness. It saddened Joha greatly and he wondered if he should have taken them to this place at all.

After all, it would only make them feel worse, as it did to me, Turaga Joha thought. But I feel it is important and maybe they were understand this island better if they saw this.

"We're here," Joha called to the others.

The five Toa, who had forgotten all about what Joha was going to show them because of how sad they were, ran to catch up with the Turaga.

When they caught up with him, what they saw was nothing like what they imagined was going to be there. Hundreds of huts spanned for miles, with a giant temple dominating the central area. The huts and temple seemed to be made out of stone and iron, though who built them, they had no idea.

It was obvious this had once been a Matoran settlement, but it seemed as if shadow itself kept the village perpetually dark, even though the sun was out. There were no Matoran, no Toa, and no Turaga, either. To all of them, it felt as if something very evil had once lived here. Their natural instincts told them to run, but they kept their ground.

"What is this place?" Addis asked, looking at the hundreds of huts that covered the area.

"A village," Joha replied. "Or it used to be. Now its just a ghost town. Nothing survives here but...shadow."

"How did you discover this place?" Nonzra asked.

"I discovered it one year after the Dark Hunters took control of Shika Nui," Joha replied. "I tried sleeping here one night, but it was felt far too evil and dark, so I left and nearly forgot about it. No one else knows it exists, as far as I know."

"I don't like this place," Nastan said, with more than a hint of fear in his voice. "I'd rather take my chances with the Dark Hunters than go here."

Ignoring Nastan's comment, Joha went on. "I believe this was once a Matoran village. What kind of Matoran lived here, I do not know for sure. But I do know that there is something very interesting in the temple that will definitely interest all of you."

He turned around. "C'mon. Time's a wasting." Reluctantly, they followed him down a narrow path into the village.

As they walked through the abandoned village, Chimoy decided to examine the huts as he walked. Many of them were destroyed or badly damaged, as if a struggle had happened here. He occasionally peeked through windows, but there wasn't even any furniture, which made the whole thing even more strange.

Most of the buildings were ruined completely, while some of them were just barely standing. Some of them had became home to some harmless Rahi that hid in the shadows, watching the visitors walk by. Chimoy wondered how anyone could have survived in this place unless they were truly part of the shadows.

Perhaps Matoran of Shadow used to live here, he thought. Wait. What am I saying? There is no such thing as Matoran of Shadow, nor have any existed. That is a very absurd thought. Matoran of Shadow! What made me think that?

A small stream of liquid protodermis ran through the middle of the village, obviously meant to be drinking water. But now it was dirty and not drinkable anymore, so they stepped over it and continued on their way to the temple.

The temple itself was huge, probably over fifity feet tall. It was shaped like a Kanohi mask, though one none of the Toa had ever seen. Spikes pointed out of the top, with two, curved eye holes that basicaly screamed evil. The temple's mouth was narrow and tall. It was painted black, but most of that black had faded away, so it looked more grayish now. The stone was smooth, but strong, even though it was indescribably old.

"Wow," Nastan said, awe in his voice. "Who built this?"

"I don't know," Joha replied. "Possibly Matoran, but why they would shape a temple to look so evil is beyond me. But we must enter, because what is inside is much more interesting than what is outside."

Nastan looked at the temple and then back to Joha, looking a little afraid. "Do we have to go in there?"

"You're not scared, are you, Nastan?" Nonzra teased. "Are you afraid of the dark?"

"No," Nastan replied, now sounding a bit annoyed. "I just don't feel very....welcome, here."

"None of us do," Jokao said. "This place feels very, very evil and unnatural."

Turaga Joha walked into the temple, motioning for the others to follow. They followed him in, one by one, until they were all inside.

Akuna's eyes looked around the temple room, lightened up only by lightstones embedded in the walls. There were carvings on the wall and writing, though most of it was worn away and in some sort of old Matoran, very old indeed. Doorways led to other rooms and a staircase to her right led up to the second floor.

The room there were in wasn't very big, with enough room for about seven beings. The roof went up about ten feet, so the five Toa fit in uncomfortably.

"Now what exactly did you want to show us, Joha?" Nonzra asked, now annoyed by how small and cramped the inside was. "Its too cramped in here and it smells bad, too."

"Keep going," Joha replied. "At the end of this room is the thing I wanted to show you. Come on."

Joha went on, with the Toa and Jokao following him. It was slow moving, because the Turaga wasn't moving very fast. It didn't help much that the hallway was cramped, too.

As they made their way through, the ceiling gradually became higher and the walls were more spaced apart, giving them more room to walk.

At the end of the hallway was....nothing. Or at least it seemed that way, until they got closer and could actually see that there was writing on the wall, though very faint and worn out.

"What does it say?" Nastan asked. "Who wrote it?"

"It was written long ago, by someone named Oggak," Joha said. "Though I have no idea what this Oggak was writing about. Read it yourself and try to make heads or tails of it."

The six Toa and Jokao began reading it. Here's what it said:

At the beginning of time,
A evil tribe wanted to rule the universe,
But they were stopped by six Toa,
And a secret organization dedicated to carrying out the will of the Great Spirit Mata Nui,
Locking them away forever more,
Never to kill, never to terrorize again,
There they remain to this day,
And there they will remain,
Forever.

-

Oggak.

The six Toa and Jokao stopped reading, for that was where it ended. They looked at each other, sort of confused. They looked back towards Joha, who had been watching them with curious eyes, wondering if they knew what it was talking about.

"I think its a poem," Akuna said. "But it certainly is strange. What evil tribe was it talking about?"

"Better yet," Nonzra said. "What is this 'secret organization dedicated to carrying out the will of Mata Nui' that the poem speaks of?"

"Guys," Jokao spoke up. "It may not mean anything at all, you know. Some people just make poems for fun."

"Yes," Addis said slowly. "But why would someone leave this here, in a big, dark, and very scary temple in the first place? It just doesn't add up."

"Maybe it was for whoever lived in this village," Nastan suggested. "After all, who knew what they did here? Maybe it was for some ceremonial purposes." He turned to Joha. "Is this what you wanted to show us, 'cause none of us can make heads or tails of it?"

"Yes," the Turaga of Stone replied. "I thought maybe you clever thieves would be able to figure out what it means."

"Well, one, we're not thieves anymore," Nastan said, smiling. "At least, I'm not. And second, we've ran into poems and riddles in the past that lead to treasures, but this doesn't seem to be a code of any sort."

"Perhaps we should go back outside and think this over," Jokao suggested. "I want to explore this village some more."

The others agreed and Jokao lead the way out. Along the way, Chimoy decided to slide his hand over the wall. It was smooth, hard and firm, despite being very old. He didn't feel anything out of the ordinary until his hand slid over a part of wall that didn't feel normal. In fact, it felt like it could be pushed in.

What is that? Chimoy thought, stopping. He looked at the spot of the wall where he thought he had felt the weak part of the wall, but it was much too dark to see it. He looked over and saw everyone else was still walking towards the entrance. The Toa of Iron decided to check this out.

He felt over the wall again and found the part that felt weak. He pressed up against it and then fell right through the wall, letting out a yelp before falling behind the smooth stone wall.

"Did Chimoy just cry out?" Addis asked.

"I think he did," Nastan said, already running back to where he last saw Chimoy. "Chimoy! Where are you?"

He heard a faint sound, coming from the other side of the wall. He put his audio receptor up against the wall to hear it better. Now the sound he heard sounded more like Chimoy's voice, coming from the other side of the wall. It sounded like he was saying, "Help! I'm trapped!"

"Don't worry!" Nastan shouted. "We'll get you out of there, as soon as we find a way to get you out!"

The other Toa, Jokao, and Joha quickly caught up with Nastan, who was feeling over the wall, trying to find a way to rescue Chimoy. The others joined in, until Jokao felt the weak part of the wall that the Toa of Iron had found.

What's this? Jokao thought, puzzled. This part feels weaker than the other parts of the wall, like there's nothing behind it to support it. Maybe I should press against it, just to see what happens.

He pressed against it and everyone, including Joha, were caught by the flipping wall and brought to the other side, slamming into Chimoy.

"Ow," Jokao said. "That hurt."

Nastan looked around. It was dark. No lights. He couldn't see anything. He wondered where they were. It was probably a secret room or tunnel. He wondered where it led.

"Wonder where we are," Nastan said.

"Please...." Joha gasped. "Could...you....all.....get....off me?"

"Joha? Where are you?" Nastan asked, looking around.

"You're....right...on...top.....of...all of us!" Akuna gasped, struggling to breath. "Please get off, Nastan!"

Nastan looked down. He was sitting on top of everyone else, as they were all in a big heap on the ground and Joha just happened to be at the bottom

"Oops! Sorry, Joha," the Toa of The Green said sheepishly as he got off all of them. "Didn't realize where I was. And sorry to everyone else, too."

One by one, everyone got up and Chimoy helped Joha up. The Turaga looked around at the dark cave, like he was remembering something.

"This reminds me of the time my Toa team and I had to explore the dark, underground caverns of Shika Nui," Joha said, brushing himself off. "But there were a bunch of blade burrowers and we had lightstones to help us find our way around. Not to mention there were loads of stalagmites and stalactites. Ah, the good old days. Makes me wish I was a Toa again."

"So," Toa Akuna said. "Do we go deeper in or find a way out?"

"I say we go deeper in," Addis said. "We're Toa. Adventuring is our job, and who knows, maybe there's some secret treasure deep within here."

The word 'treasure' caught the attention of the other four Toa immediately, including Nastan. Toa they may be, they had been thieves first and old habits die hard, so they all agreed to go deeper into the tunnel, hoping to find treasure. Joha willingly went, having been a Toa and facing much worse things, so he wasn't afraid of a dark cave. Jokao reluctantly went with them, but only because he didn't want to be alone in this unknown cavern.

-

Icetraz dodged a bolt of shadow and countered with his blast of ice. He landed hard on part of the rubble of the destroyed western part of the Dark Hunter fortress.

A few hours ago, a small army of Visorak, Rahkshi, and other Brotherhood of Makuta servants had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Strangest of all, they seemed to have be led by Makuta Hajax, the Makuta of Shika Nui, who up to that point had been believed dead.

Even stranger, Makuta Hajax was in the body of Icetraz's super Vahki, controlling its body and dodging attacks with ease. Since he couldn't talk with this new body, the Makuta used telepathy to communicate with Icetraz.

Another chain lightning attack hit the Dark Hunter, stunning him. Hajax followed that up with shadow and sonics. Icetraz rolled over and tried to aim his Cordak blasters, but the attacks were blinding him, making it harder to aim.

For years I have pretended to be your obedient little servant, Makuta Hajax said, increasing the power of his attacks. Slaving away, getting you refreshments and disciplining a few disobedient Dark Hunters because you said so. But now, Shika Nui will be mine and I will have revenge on the Brotherhood of Makuta!

"Revenge? I though you Makuta were all on the same side!" Icetraz shouted, trying to unsuccessfully dodge a blast of shadow energy.

Not every Makuta agreed with Teridax's little Plan, Hajax replied. I intend to kill him and everyone else that followed him after I finish you off, Dark Hunter.

A Cordak missile came flying out of one of Icetraz's Cordak blasters, somehow not being destroyed by all the attacks coming from the Makuta. It hit the ground in front of Hajax, sending his robotic body flying through the air. It landed with a thud, damaging the internal mechanism that made the super Vahki's legs and arms move.

"One bad thing about super Vahki is that they are easily damaged," Icetraz said, rising. He aimed his Cordak blaster at the unmoving body of Hajax. Before pulling the trigger, he said, "Should have chosen a better body."

He pulled the trigger, sending a Cordak missile right to Makuta Hajax's unmoving super Vahki body. Missile met robot and missile won, destroying the super Vahki's body and unleashing Hajax's gaseous form into the air. But Icetraz was unaware of that. All he knew was that he had killed Hajax and that's it.

Icetraz now watched as all the Dark Hunters fought the many different Brotherhood of Makuta minions. He wondered how Hajax had managed to keep so many of them secret and for such a long time. He decided to think about that later, because his allies needed help and he was their leader, after all. Now this battle was going to end much faster, since their master was now dead.

He ran into battle, knowing it was just about to end. Unknown to him, however, was just how close Makuta Hajax was to getting a new body. By the time he realized that, it would be much too late.

-

Toa Barilo, Toa of Gravity, wondered aimlessly among the mountains, undescribly sad and hopelessly lost.

Earlier, he had tried to do what he thought he would never try to do: Kill one of his friends. After that, he was kicked out of the group, never to return. Now he was alone with his thoughts, wondering just why he did what he had done.

I....I lost my temper, or I went insane, Barilo though soberly. Hajax did say that anyone who has had a mental link with a Makuta didn't come out sane. Maybe that's happening to me. I just can't believe that I almost killed Nastan!

So caught up with his thoughts as he was, he never noticed a cliff coming up. Barilo almost fell off, once he realized where he was walking. He looked down over the edge of the vast cliff. Huge, spiky rocks sprouted from the ground that looked like they would surely kill him if he jumped down.

But what's the point in living anymore? Barilo thought, with more than a trace of insanity. I have no friends. This island will surely be ripped apart from the Dark Hunters fighting Hajax's forces. What do I have left to fight for? To live for?

It looked tempting, jumping down, ending his existence. If he did that, he would never harm or kill anyone, on accident or on purpose ever again. But somehow that didn't seem satisfying. Ending his existence now wouldn't solve anything. No, what he needed to do was undo what he had done wrong.

What I need to do is redeem myself, Barilo thought. Everyone makes mistakes, but only a few get a second chance to fix their mistakes. I will go and be a hero, a true hero, like Nastan.

He caught himself at that thought. He never wanted to be a hero, he'd always been happy as a thief, stealing others things and possessions, all in the name of his greed. But now, now stealing things didn't seem appealing anymore. Being a hero being a hero and redeeming himself seemed so much better, surprisingly.

He knew what to do to redeem himself. Barilo would go and defeat the Dark Hunters, all on his own, and free Shika Nui. He might get himself killed as a result, but in the end, he decided that his life wasn't important. Only the Matoran's freedom, and his friends lives, mattered to him now.

Best of all, I can go to them, without my friends getting hurt, Barilo thought triumphantly. Yes. After that, Hajax and I will have a very long discussion about double-crossing. We will indeed.

Activating his gravity powers, he caused a flat rock at the bottom of the cliff to rise up to where he was standing. He jumped on it and then, using a complex usage of gravity, made it shoot forward, heading straight for the Dark Hunter's fortress and for what he thought was going to be his final confrontation with the Makuta of Shika Nui.

-

Deep within the Dark Hunter's fortress, in the coldest room, on the lowest floor, was a huge block of ice.

There wasn't much in the room. It was snow and ice, mostly, with a frozen door that was about three feet thick, made of ice and metal. Inside the huge ice block, was a being. He had crimson armor, with purple streaks covering some of the it, mostly the arms and legs.

Huge plated wings, colored gold and purple, stood unmoving. His dead blue eyes was enough to make anyone die from fright. He carried a chain with a axe at the end of it. The ice wasn't very clear, so it was hard to see what the rest of him looked like.

Who was this being? Why, his name was Makuta Koghi, Makuta of the Southern Islands.

He had lead a attack on Shika Nui just about a day or two ago. Foolishly, instead of teaming up with another Makuta, he went on his own, along with some Visorak, Rahkshi, and Exo-Toa. All of his minions were killed or captured and he himself had been capture by Icetraz, the leader of the Dark Hunters of Shika Nui.

When he had been brought to the fortress, he had broke out of his cage and destroyed the western side of it. Icetraz then froze him in his current icy prison, to make sure he didn't destroy or kill anymore Dark Hunters. It was so cold and so thick even his heat vision couldn't melt it.

Even though his body was frozen, his mind was still free. Free to think over his escape plan, which was really all he could do, given his current situation.

Next time Dark Hunter comes to check on me, I'll make sure to break out, Koghi thought frustrated. Somehow, I will.

Maybe I can help, a voice that was strangely familiar said.

Whose there? Koghi asked. Who dares speak to Makuta Koghi in his own mind?

Why, it is I, old friend, the voice said. I, Makuta Hajax, Makuta of Shika Nui, have returned.

The news stunned Koghi. Hadn't Hajax been killed by Icarax and Gorast? This being must not be Makuta Hajax. He must be a imposter, because they had brought his mask, the Mask of Deceit, with them to prove that they had slain the rebellious Makuta.

You lie, stranger, Koghi said defiantly. Makuta Hajax was killed, by Makuta Icarax and Makuta Gorast, many years ago. You're just a imposter, posing as him. You aren't fooling me.

No one in the known universe can breach a Makuta's mind but a Makuta, Makuta Hajax replied coldly. A Makuta should know that, correct?

Koghi was quiet, thinking over what the voice said. True, only a Makuta could communicate with another Makuta via telepathy and it was a well-known fact throughout the universe, especially among telepaths because of the mental strength of a Makuta. So perhaps this guy really is Makuta Hajax.

Okay, so lets say you are Hajax, Koghi said, still unconvinced. How did you survive being kill by Icarax and Gorast, the best warriors of the Brotherhood of Makuta?

Time for that later, Hajax replied. In the meantime, a squad of about ten heat vision Rahkshi and five Visorak Vohtorak should be here any minute, to free your frozen body.

Really? Makuta Koghi said, suspicious. Why should I trust you? You were against the Plan ever since the beginning. Why shouldn't I just kill you right now and be done with it? And why are Rahkshi and Visorak working for you in the first place?

Hajax laughed. Koghi, my friend, you've always been short on brains, but this is a new level of stupid for you. You can't kill me, since your body is frozen solid and I could easily decide to let you freeze to death, cool dude. As for the Rahkshi and Visorak, they listen to whoever happens to be in command and I just happen to be the top energy hound, if you know what I mean.

Koghi debated with himself. If he allied with Hajax, perhaps he could kill him later and get raised higher in the eyes of his fellow Makuta. Who knows, perhaps he would be called to Karda Nui by Makuta Antroz to help them kill the Toa Nuva and complete the Plan. The idea certainly appealed to Koghi. He decided to team up with Hajax, at least for now.

All right, I'll ally with you, Hajax, the Makuta said, But your Rahkshi and Visorak better hurry. I can already feel my essence freezing.

At that moment, Makuta Koghi thought he could hear something ramming against the thick frozen door to his prison. There it was again, this time more audible. Then the door came flying off its hings, hitting the frozen ice block that held the Makuta of the Southern Islands hard. Koghi's icy prison cracked, but not enough to get him out.

The cause of the door flying off was five red Vohtorak, all in berserker charger mode. In fact, they couldn't stop, bashing right into the giant ice block, cracking it even further. Koghi could feel the ice-cold air blow through the crack

Ten heat vision Rahkshi followed, firing twenty beams of heat from their collective eyes at the ice.

The heat vision and continual ramming by the Visorak weakened the block just enough to let Koghi finish it, melting the block of ice into water with his own heat vision attack.

Makuta Koghi could barely move, having been in the ice so long had pretty much frozen his essence. The ten Rahkshi, instead of halting their attack, fired more heat vision at the Makuta, unfreezing his substance. Now that he could finally move, stretched his limbs, trying to shake the cold off.

Many thanks, Hajax, Koghi said to the Makuta of Shika Nui via telepathy. I couldn't have done it better myself. Now where are you, anyway?

Instead of a response, the Makuta felt something strange going on in his body. It felt as though some outside force was forcing his essence out of his armor. It was incredibly painful, yet quick. He tried to keep the force out, but it was too strong for him. After it was through, he was just a cloud of greenish-black essence, floating near the ceiling of the chamber.

His armor now stood motionless. All of a sudden, the light of intelligence reappeared in the optics. Makuta Koghi now knew what had just happened: Hajax had taken his armor from him!

Makuta Hajax examined his new form, unimpressed.

"Really, Koghi," the Makuta said. "You were always a moron, but I never realized how bad a shape-shifter you were. Let me take a more suitable form, instead of this monstrosity."

The cloud form of Koghi watched in growing anger as Makuta Hajax shape-shifted his body. A few minutes went by, as the Rahkshi, Koghi's essence, and the Visorak watched the shape-shifting. Eventually, it ended and the new being emerged, much stronger and powerful-looking than the last.

The new being was well over ten feet tall, with jagged spikes sticking out from the back. The mask looked like a wild Muaka cat's face, except with a spik sticking out of the top. The body was big and broad, with a giant, spikey, crimson tail sticking out from behind.

He now held a new weapon, a broad sword that practically radiated shadow. He was blue and yellow, with huge black eyes.

"Now this is more like it," Hajax said, examining his new from. His eyes then locked on Koghi's essence cloud. "Now there is only one more problem to fix."

"Rahkshi," he ordered. The ten Rahkshi immediately stood tall, knowing that their master inhabited this body. "Fire at will." He pointed at Koghi's essence. "Now."

Heat flew from their eyes, striking the essence of Makuta Koghi, instantly destroying the cloud, killing the Makuta of the Southern Islands. There wasn't so much a scream, just the sound of heat striking the cloud and dissipating it, destroying it for good.

"Now there is one less moron in this world," Hajax said in a almost joyful tone. He had always hated Koghi, who was too dumb for the Brotherhood of Makuta, in his opinion. "Now we leave, back to the surface, where I will personally deal with Icetraz."

He tried walking out the door, but then realized he was too tall, so he altered his density and floated through the door way. He then unaltered his density, going back to being a solid, being of armor and energy. He gestured toward the bewildered Rahkshi and Visorak to follow him out he doorway and back to the upper levels.

"Come on," Hajax said. "We have a war to win."

Review Topic

Chapter 11: Not A Hero Anymore

Up in the sky, a klakk flew through the air. Klakks are winged Rahi that are mostly silver and gray, with lime-green eyes. Their faces resembled Toa faces, except maskless and they had what appeared to be jets on both sides of their heads. The bird Rahi also had the ability to use super sonic screams, powefull enough to break a stone wall. It also had two bat-like wings, which it used to fly through the air easily. Claws on its feet and hands help defend itself against predators.

This particular klakk was flying purposefully through the air, as if it were searching for someone or something. Now and then, it would spot what looked like the being it was searching for, only to find out that it was green moss on a rock.

It was just about ready to give up and return to it's owner when it saw something. A being with green and blue armor was on the mountain all alone. The being was bound in metal bonds, which confused the klakk. Why did the being trap herself? Or did she not do it on her own and somebody caught her and tied her up?

The klakk flew down toward the being, which it now recognized as the second in command of its master. As it flew in, the Skakdi looked up and saw the puzzled-looking bird Rahi.

Iroko recognized the klakk as the personal pet of Makuta Hajax. She knew that because it wasn't afraid of her, unlike most Rahi, because it knew her.

"Klakk!" Iroko said. "Get me out of these metal bonds! Now!"

At first, the klakk didn't seem to understand what she was saying. Then it recognized the tone and unleashed a sonic scream, weakening the bonds of iron that kept Iroko from escaping.

Now that they were weak enough, the Skakdi merely shrugged and the bonds snapped off, falling to the ground. She got up and stretched her legs, glad to be able to move her limbs again.

She looked around. The Toa, Joha, and the Ta-Matoran had left. Earlier, Joha had led them away, apparently going to show them something he had found in the moutains. He didn't trust Iroko, so they left her here, no doubt planning to come back and take her with them somewhere else when they came back.

If ever, the Skakdi thought.

Iroko had been knocked out earlier that day, by the Toa of Iron named Chimoy. She now wanted revenge and was going to kill them all, including Chimoy, even though she had been told not to kill him because he could fix Hajax's broken Makuta armor. Now that she was free, she planned to track them down and then finish them off.

The Skakdi was about to follow them when the klakk flew in front of her, apparently not letting her follow the Toa and their allies. She side stepped, the Rahi flew in the same direction she moved. It went on like this for a while before Iroko lost her patience.

"Move out of the way, Rahi!" Iroko bellowed. Then she smiled, revealing her sharp teeth. "Or else you'll end up without any wings at all, klakk."

The Rahi beast didn't seem to be fazed by this threat, as it kept blocking her way.

Just as she was about to knock it out of the air, she noticed a stone tablet on its back. Iroko reached up and grabbed the tablet off the klakk's back. After reading it for about a minute, she closed her hand, crumbling the tablet in her hand.

"So," Iroko said, not looking at the klakk. "Hajax wants me to join the battle against the Hunters and leave the Toa alone, eh?"

Quicker than the klakk could move, she grabbed the Rahi bird and began to squeeze. The klakk started panicking, knowing its death was coming soon.

However, instead of killing it, the Skakdi simply tossed the klakk away. It hit the ground, too weak to attack back or fly.

"Killing dumb Rahi doesn't satisfy me," Iroko said, her voice deathly cold. "Instead of following Hajax's orders, I will go and kill the Toa and their allies. Who cares if Hajax wants me to help eliminate the Dark Hunters?"

As she walked away, she simply said, "This time, I will show no mercy. No mercy at all."

-

Barilo climbed onto a plateau and stopped, almost out of breath and quite annoyed.

When they discovered that Iroko had been sent by Hajax to kill them all, the Toa of Gravity fully intended to go back and find the Makuta, paying him back in full.

Joha, however, had different ideas. Instead going back and fighting Makuta Hajax, he had told them that he had found something that was quite interesting and much more important than revenge. At first, Barilo thought that there was something more important. Now, however, it seemed as if they were just climbing up the mountain that seemed to get higher and higher all the time.

Behind him, Barilo could hear the sounds of sonics and plasma destroying rocks, no doubt being created by Addi and Nonzra. He knew the rest of them were also having a hard time climbing the mountain. Jokao in particular was having a hard time because of the tall rocks. He also heard Akuna and Nastan talking to each other, though they were too far behind for him to hear what they were talking about.

He looked back and saw Chimoy helping Jokao over a rock. Chimoy, as always, was being quiet, because he was always quiet except in cases where he thought he had to voice his opinion. Then he looked up ahead, where Joha was, swiftly climbing up the rocky mountain. Even though he was just a Turaga, Barilo couldn't help but admire the way Joha could climb and jump over the boulders. But it was obvious that he was not used to being in a smaller body, because sometimes he would miss jumps or fall off of a rock when he was climbing it. But generally he was making his way up far faster than the others.

Barilo was looking at the all the rocks he would have to climb over and how high the climb got. No doubt he would end up a pile of broken armor if he fell off one. A idea hatched inside the Toa's head.

Why not use my power over gravity? Barilo thought. After all, I am a Toa of Gravity. I can take the gravity away from those boulders and make them fly high into the air, so the others and I can safely make our way there. Pretty good plan if I do say so myself.

He pulled his gravity axe out and aimed it at the rocks, aiming to take away all their gravity. As soon as he was sure he could hit them, Barilo unleashed a wave of gravity at the boulders, causing them all to go up. He didn't hear the shouts of Joha to stop what he was doing, because as soon as the boulders began moving upward, the big rocks instead began falling toward him and the other Toa!

Surprised, Barilo's concentration was lost because of his overwhelming fear. The rocks were rolling towards him and the others. There was no way he could take their gravity away in time to safe the others.

It turned out he didn't need to, because a hail of lightning bolts, plasma balls, spears of iron, and waves of sonics flew from behind him to strike the incoming boulders. The missiles hit the rocks, destroying them. More giant stones kept coming, but even more elemental attacks came to counter them. Nastan was making walls of plant life come up to block some boulders. Up ahead, Joha had got made his way to safety in a small cave that didn't go in very deep. He watched as the six Toa kept hurling elemental blasts at the rocks, until every last stone had been reduced to pebbles.

The Turaga of Stone emerged from the cave and walked down the path that had once contained many rocks. He quickly got to the bottom, where he saw the six Toa and even Jokao, sitting on the ground, completely out of breath, though Jokao was more tired out of fear than actually doing anything.

"What....happened?" Addis asked in between breaths.

"Back when I was Toa," Joha said. "I had rigged these rocks so that anyone who tried to move them with powers such as yours, Barilo, would be crushed by the boulders or at least scared away. That was why I tried to warn you, because you all could have died."

Barilo looked down, ashamed of himself. He may not have been the most noblest Toa in the universe, but he cared for his friends and he didn't want to be the cause of their deaths.

"But," Joha said. "The important thing is you are all alive. Plus you learned a lesson on being more careful. Try to remember that."

Barilo nodded. Joha continued up the now boulder-less slope, with the six Toa and Jokao following him.

Up above, on a over hanging ledge, Iroko had watched the entire event. Revenge was on her mind and now was the perfect time to strike. They had tired themselves out and probably wouldn't be too hard to kill. Now all she had to do was decided who to attack first.

But why should I just attack just one of them first? Iroko thought. Whose to say that I can't just attack them all at the exact same time with my eye beams?

Iroko stood up and fired a beam of energy at the Toa from her eyes. Before it hit, it became a sort of wave, hitting all six of them at the same time.

The Toa Shika, too tired out from destroying the boulders, where knocked down easily, completely surprised by the attack.

"Hey!" Barilo shouted. "Where did that...?"

This time, another wave of energy hit them, nearly knocking them out. Turaga Joha scanned the area and saw Iroko, standing on top of a ledge, her eyes glowing. It took about two seconds for Joha to realize who that was and what she was doing.

"How did she get free?" Joha wondered.

"It...doesn't...matter," Addis gasped, barely able to breath from the energy that was pummeling him. "We strike her now!"

No one else seemed to be listening, for they were all too busy trying to dodge the wave of energy that was smashing them all. Jokao was nowhere to be seen, which worried Addis even more.

Barely able to keep himself up, Addis fired a blast of plasma at the ledge which Iroko was standing on, though it was a weakened one because of all the elemental energy he wasted earlier.

The ledge melted, but Iroko jumped off right before the plasma hit. She landed in front of Addis and kicked him in the mask, sending him tumbling down the slope a little, knocking the Toa of Plasma out.

Having temporarily stopped her attack, it gave Nonzra and Akuna time to recover. Nonzra let out a small wave of sound at the Skakdi. Iroko did a back flip, dodging the wave and nailing Nonzra with a beam of energy from her eyes.

Toa Akuna pulled her staff out and tried to hit Iroko. The female Skakdi countered with her sword. She pushed Akuna back, who was very weak from using her elemental power up earlier. The two fighters pushed back and forth, neither willing to give up. Back and forth it went until Akuna got a idea.

She activated her mask, causing a blinding light to shoot from it onto Iroko. Now the light weren't actually hurting Iroko, but the extremely bright light threatened to blind her permanently, so she had to shut her eyes.

Now was Akuna's chance. She leg sweeped Iroko and then followed it up with a lightning bolt to the chest of the Skakdi, beating her down and seemingly knocking her out. Satisfied that the battle was over, Akuna put her staff away and walked over to revive Nonzra. Iroko, however, was still conscious, as she proved by hitting Akuna with a well placed blast of energy, knocking the Toa of Lightning out cold. The Skakdi ran up to the unconscious Toa and looked down at her.

"Too bad, Toa," Iroko said evilly. "I will end your life here and now. No one can stop me!"

Before Iroko could strike the killing blow, thick plant life burst out of the ground beneath her, causing the female Skakdi to fall into a pit of plant life. The plants wrapped around until the only part of her body that was visible was her head. Iroko was surprised by this sudden attack, so surprised that she dropped her sword in the plant bed. Thick vines wrapped around her sword and then squeezed it, snapping the sword in two. She immediately knew who had caused the massive amount of plant life to imprison her.

That Toa of The Green, Iroko thought. He didn't like seeing me beating his friends up, obviously. Now I just need to get out.

She looked up and saw Nastan, bow at the ready. He looked quite furious, maybe even ready to kill her if he was angry enough.

"Do you think these twigs will hold me down for long?" Iroko shouted. "I can easily break out of this and you know it."

"Do you really want to?" Nastan asked, smiling.

"What do you mean?" Iroko asked, struggling to break free of the plants. It was only a matter of minutes now before she would be free.

"You know, I am a Toa of The Green," Nastan said. "I control all plant life. That means, I could have my plants crush your body, killing you and saving us. Either give up and we'll let you go peacefully, or I kill you. Chose."

"You don't have the guts to kill me, Toa," Iroko snarled. "Hajax told me all about you six. You're the one who wants to be just like Joha. Wise, has a conscience, and simplemindedly heroic. If you want to be a real Toa, you wouldn't kill me because its your stupid little code not to kill your enemies, isn't?"

Nastan cursed under his breath. She was right. He couldn't kill her, because real Toa don't do that unless in dire situations.

"Well, I don't have to kill you," Nastan shouted back. "But I don't need to free you, either. You can stay there and rot away for the rest of your life for all I care. But I don't doubt you have the power to escape there and when you do, you'll be after us again. So what should I do?"

"What we should have done a long time ago," Barilo shouted. He jumped down next to Nastan.

"Barilo? What are you doing?" Nastan demanded.

"What you're too coward to do, Nastan," Barilo replied. "Kill her."

Without any warning, Barilo increased the personal gravity of Iroko ten thousand times, crushing her body and killing her in the process. It went by so quick and there wasn't so much as a scream. Nastan was completely and utterly horrfied by what he did.

"How...how could you do that?" Nastan asked, shocked and surprised.

"She's the enemy," Barilo replied. "You know how I've always thought Joha should have killed the Dark Hunters and be done with it? That's what I just did. Next I will go and do that to the Hunters themselves, particularly Tyu."

Instead getting a vocal reply, Barilo got a punch in the mask by the Toa of The Green.

"What was that for?" the Toa of Gravity asked. "I killed the enemy, didn't I?"

"Toa don't kill!" Nastan yelled. "Emphasis on don't!"

"Shut up, Nastan," Barilo growled, using his gravity power to close Nastan's mouth shut.

Plant life came up from the pit of Iroko's body and grabbed Barilo, causing him to lose concentration on Nastan. The Toa of The Green opened his mouth, gasping for air. Barilo managed to grab his gravity axe and chop the plant life that held him, but the more that he chopped, even more came to replace it.

So instead of beating the plants, he decided to get the master of them. Aiming his gravity axe, he fired off a concentrated blast of gravity at Nastan. It hit the Toa, causing his gravity to go away, making him float up into the sky.

Nastan lost his focus out of the shock of his gravity disappearing and Barilo ripped his way out of the plant life that held him. Nastan was now using his power over plant life to grab himself, keeping him from flying too high up into the sky.

"You know, Nastan," Barilo said. "You and Nonzra always used to argue, but it was friendly arguments. I, however, think you're holding the team down with your morals, so I figure I ought to get rid of you now."

Before the Toa could chop the plants that kept Nastan from flying away, thick bonds of metal suddenly materialized out of thin air, locking tightly around Barilo's body. He looked over to see Addis, Nonzra, Akuna, Chimoy, Joha, standing nearby. Jokao crawled out from behind a rock had hid behind when the Toa were fighting Iroko and then joined the four Toa and Joha, having witnessed the death of that Skakdi. They wore no expressions on their faces, but Barilo could see their eyes. Their orbs reflected their disappointment in him.

"Barilo," Addis said, his voice ragged. "You've always been the one with the least amount of morals of our group, but now you've put it to a new low."

"I am disappointed in you, Barilo," Joha said, his voice just as ragged, if not more, than Addis'. "Toa don't try to kill each other. Not to mention you already kill one person."

Chimoy, Nonzra, Akuna, and Jokao said nothing, simply nodded in silent agreement with Joha and Addis.

All of a sudden, Barilo realized what he was going to do to Nastan. It saddened him greatly.

"I...I wasn't really going to kill Nastan, guys," Barilo tried to explain. "I wasn't thinking straight. Give me another chance."

Joha's eyes met the Toa of Gravity's. "I am sorry, Barilo. Addis has already decided what to do with you. Addis?"

The Toa of Plasma walked up, his eyes locked with Barilo's. "Barilo. You're off the team. For good. Get out of my sight. Now."

With that, the metal bonds on Barilo's body fell off. Now the Toa of Gravity felt cold and awkward. He looked from one to another, even to Nastan, who had just climbed down his plant life that had kept him from flying away. None of them had welcoming eyes. What were once the eyes of friends were now the eyes of beings who had no respect for him.

As quietly as he could, he left, going off to the right, climbing over the rocks and then he was gone.

Gone. Like the wind on a calm day. Akuna started to sob softly. Jokao put a hand on her, hoping to somehow reassure that this was some kind of bad dream, but they all knew it wasn't. There wasn't a word in the world to describe their sadness.

Turaga Joha turned around and started walking up the mountainside. "Come. We are closer to what I was originally going to show you."

One by one, they all quietly followed him, never looking back at their once friend who was now gone, for good. They may have all been theives as Matoran, but they had a sense of honor and friendship and that sense and friendship was gone now, along with Barilo. Now they didn't know what to think at all.

-

At the battle between the Dark Hunters and the rogue servants of the Brotherhood, Makuta Hajax, in the body of a super Vahki, stopped as his mental link with Iroko broke. He didn't break it off himself. Someone killed her and he had a pretty good idea of who did it.

Barilo, Hajax thought. If his robotic body could make facial expressions, he would be smiling. A evil smile, a insane smile. Now the game just got ten times more interesting. We will see who lives now and who dies. We will see indeed.

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Chapter 10: Turaga Joha?

The Skakdi waited until they were really asleep before quietly walking up to the tent made up plants. She looked it over, but she wasn't really interested in it. What Iroko was interested in, obviously, was the six Toa and Jokao in it. She needed to find a way to get the Toa of Iron out because of how useful he would be to Hajax's plan.

If she walked in, they might notice her and fight her, so she needed another way to get him to come out. An idea popped into her head. She wasn't sure if it was going to work, but it was worth trying.

She threw a small pebble into the tent. No one came out. Iroko tossed another one, this time it hit something metallic and she heard someone moving in the tent.

Moving quickly, Iroko jumped up onto a nearby boulder. She looked down and saw the Toa of Iron walking out, looking around, trying to figure out who just threw pebbles at him. Seeing no one was around, he was about to walk back in, but the greenish-blue Skakdi jumped down and, holding a heavy rock, smashed it on his head, knocking the Toa of Iron out like a lightstone.

No one awoke, which was good, so Iroko grabbed the Toa of Iron's legs and pulled him away from the tent.

-

The next morning, Akuna woke up. She slept somewhat comfortably last night in her bed made of various plant life, but she could have swore she heard someone smash a rock to something, but the Toa of Lightning figured that she had dreamt that last night.

It looked like everyone else was up, because the beds were empty. She crawled out of her bed and out of the tent. Akuna noticed the others talking to each other, but Chimoy was strangely absent.

"Hey, guys," Akuna called to them. The others turned to her. "Where's Chimoy?"

"We don't know," Nastan replied. "We think he might have wandered off by himself last night and got lost."

"Or, for a worst case scenario, he got killed by a Rahi beast," Nonzra added. "But of course, that's the worst case scenario."

"Well, have you tried to find him at all?" Akuna asked.

"Nope," Barilo replied. "We wanted to wait for you to get up."

"Are there any foot prints or anything?" She asked.

"Strangely, no," Nastan said. "Which is why we are worried. There are bits and pieces of broken rock near the entrance that weren't there before, however."

"Toa don't just disappear over night like that," the Toa of Lightning said. "What could have caused him to disappear?"

-

Chimoy woke up. He remembered having a bizarre dream last night, where he walked out the tent and then was smashed in the back of the head with a rock and dragged away. He wasn't sure who smashed him in the back of his head with a rock, but it hurt like crazy.

He tried to move his arms and legs, but felt tight bonds around his arms limbs, apparently made of what appeared to be rope. He tried to snap it, but it didn't even tear. Now he realized that his dream was no dream at all and he really did get a rock smashed to the back of his head.

That would explain why my head hurts so badly, the Toa of Iron thought.

Now he needed to know who hit him. It was probably a Dark Hunter. If so, then the rest of his teammates were in trouble. Big trouble.

I wish I could get out of here! he thought. Chimoy tried snapping the ropes again, but it was no use. He was stuck.

So Chimoy decided to observe his surroundings. He was in a small, dark cave. There wasn't any furniture or anything because of how small it was. The Toa of Iron could see outside the cave entrance, but he couldn't escape because of his current situation. So he decided to call out, maybe someone would hear him.

"Help!" He cried out. No one had heard him. "Is anybody there?"

At first, no one answered. Then, he heard what sounded like somebody scrambling up the mountain. Did someone hear Chimoy? It seemed unlikely, until a small, bent over form appeared in front of the cave mouth.

With the sun shining in the cave onto the mysterious being, it made the being look like a shadow. Chimoy wasn't sure who it was. At first he thought it to be Jokao because of the small size, but the being was a little taller than a Matoran and was hunched over, like a....

"Turaga?" Chimoy said. "No way. Turaga Ujah got killed by the Dark Hunters 25,000 years ago. So unless you're a ghost or something, you can't be a Turaga."

"Chimoy, you are talking alot more than usual, eh?" the mysterious Turaga said. "Surprised to see me?"

The Toa of Iron thought that the Turaga sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it. He wondered who he was and how he knew who Chimoy was.

"Looks like you need help, Chimoy," the Turaga said. He walked in and, using a knife, cut the Toa of Iron's ropes.

Chimoy got up and stretched his arms and legs(Which wasn't easy to do in such a small cave), glad to be able to move his limbs again. He looked down at the Turaga, who he now could see had brown and orange armor, which were the colors of Po-Matoran, generally. So that singled him out as Ujah, who was a Turaga of Fire. The Turaga also wore a Hau, though a noble version of it.

That mask, Chimoy thought. Those colors. It couldn't be, could it?

"Turaga...?" the Toa of Iron began, but was cut off by the Turaga of Stone.

"You know who I am," the Turaga answered. "We have no time to talk. Addis and the others are in grave danger and if we don't get to them in time, they may very well be dead, or soon will be."

-

The five Toa Shika and Jokao were climbing the mountain. They had tried to find Chimoy earlier, but he seemed to have disappeared. So they thought he might have climbed up higher in the mountains, perhaps following something.

Or someone, Akuna thought as she grabbed a rock to pull herself up. Suddenly, the rock gave way, causing her to go tumbling down.

Nastan noticed that and tried to grab her, but she fell too fast than his hand could move, so he caught empty air instead. He looked down and saw a big rock that the Toa of Lightning was going to roll right into and she would probably end up a splattered mess all over the boulder if she hit it.

There was no way that Nastan could reach her in time. So he picked up a rock and, using his the power of his Kanohi Sanok, threw the smaller rock at the bigger one.

The stone flew straight and true, hitting the boulder and breaking it in half, allowing Akuna to safely slide through it.

By then the other Toa and Jokao noticed what happened and raced down the slope to make sure she was okay. Nastan was there first and helped Akuna up, holding her hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Are you hurt or anything?"

"No, not really. Just a little scratched up is all," Akuna replied. "Oh and by the way, you can stop holding my hand now."

The Toa of The Green looked down at her hand, realized he was still holding on to it, and quickly let go, blushing a little bit behind his mask. Akuna giggled a little and Nonzra just rolled his eyes.

"So now that that adventure is over, how's about we continue on?" Addis asked. The others agreed and followed him back up the slope.

Nearby, behind a rock, Iroko had seen it all. She'd rigged the rock that the Toa of Lightning had tried to grab so it would break and anyone who had tried to grab it would go tumbling down right into that boulder and SPLAT! they'd be dead. She wasn't counting on Nastan destroying the boulder, however.

Time to get rid of them of all, Iroko thought as she raced up a slope and then found a rope. The rope was connected to a metal plate, which had many boulders on top of it. Once she pulled the rope, the metal plate would be lifted up and all the boulders would go falling down off of it and hit whoever was unlucky enough to get in the way.

She watched as the five Toa and the Ta-Matoran walked and climbed, chattering among themselves. The blue-ish green Skakdi could just imagine the sound of boulders rumbling down the mountain, squishing everyone and everything in their way. She could also imagine the sound of the panicked Toa screaming and then getting silenced quickly as the rocks killed them.

It was all so good. Iroko could hardly wait to pull the rope, but she didn't get that chance, because Chimoy, coming from behind with a big rock, smashed it on her head, knocking the Skakdi out cold.

-

Iroko woke up on the mountain side with seven beings standing around her. She recognized them as the six Toa Shika, the Ta-Matoran, and a Turaga of Stone, though where he came from, she did not know. She tried to attack them, but the Skakdi realized that extremely thick metal bonds on her arms and legs kept her from attacking them.

"What are you doing here, Skakdi?" Nonzra asked. "I though Zakaz was far west from here."

"Shut up," Iroko hissed. "Once I get out of here, I will, uh, I will...." She soon realized that she wasn't going to be escaping anytime soon.

"Who are you, anyway?" Addis asked. "Are you a Dark Hunter? Because I do remember a crimson Skakdi that carried a lava launcher coming here one time and you certainly do resemble him, except you're blue-is green, like Nastan."

"My name is Iroko," the Skakdi replied. "And I am not going to tell you who I work for."

"We can make you talk," Barilo said, grinning. He held his Gravity Axe up.

"No, Barilo," the Turaga said, putting a hand on the Toa of Gravity. "Toa don't do interrogate people violently like what you're implying."

"Okay, Joha," Barilo grumbled, referring to the Turaga of Stone. "But we don't have any other non-lethal way of getting her to talk."

"Ah, yes we do," Turaga Joha replied, smiling. He turned to Addis. "You wear a Suletu, the Mask of Telepathy, correct?"

"Yes, I do," Addis replied. "In fact, I just read your mind right now and I know what you plan to do."

Activating his Suletu, he read Iroko's mind. After a few minutes of scanning her mind, he withdrew, shocked and surprised by what he had learned.

"She's working for Hajax!" Addis exclaimed. "He sent her after us, to kill every one of us except for Chimoy, who he planned to use to repair his armor!"

"Seriously?" Barilo asked. He looked down at Iroko. "Did Hajax put you up to this?"

Knowing she couldn't keep quiet any longer, she nodded. "Yes. He said something about not caring for any of you because you're weak, pathetic Toa or something like. Wasn't paying too much attention."

The Toa of Gravity was now furious. He trusted that Makuta Hajax would keep his word and help free Shika Nui, but he apparently was double crossing them. The Makuta would have to pay in full.

"I'm going to confront Hajax," Barilo announced. "We share a psychic link. I'll try to contact him."

Focusing his mind, he began searching for the Makuta of Shika Nui. Everyone, even Iroko, waited, wondering when he would be done. Eventually, he stopped.

"Guess what?" the Toa of Gravity said, annoyed. "That double-crosser just cut off our psychic link. I don't know what he is planning on doing now!"

Everyone sighed in annoyance, except for Iroko. She had guessd that the Makuta would do that. No doubt he realized that they would defeat her somehow and he didn't want them to go after himself next.

But I do wonder if he has attacked the Dark Hunter fortress yet, Iroko thought. He's probably already defeated them. If not, then he is getting close to.

-

Kigin surveyed the area. All around him, Dark Hunters and Matoran slaves of all kinds were working, fixing the western side of the fortress after a Makuta named Koghi destroyed it, but fortunately Icetraz captured him so he wouldn't cause anymore damage to the fortress.

Now he and the other Hunters were at work rebuilding the fortress. The cave entrance to the ancient wall of protodermis was still intact and the Makuta of Shika Nui's empty armor was still where it was supposed to be as well.

"Kigin, stop standing around like you own the place and help us rebuild the fortress!" Tyu yelled, interrupting the Dark Hunter's thoughts. "Who do you think you are, the Shadowed One?"

"I was just thinking," Kigin replied. "And by the way, no need to be so harsh."

At that moment, a giant Dark Hunter, who was about fifteen feet tall, walked over to them. He had shining platinum armor with streaks of green. He was carrying a gigantic sword that any one average-sized being could never hope to use and his head had two horns, each about half a foot tall. His face had one tooth protruding out of the mouth. He used to have two, but he second had been ripped off by the Shadowed One as punishment a long time ago. His eyes were red. The Hunter looked like he could snap a Toa in two without even thinking about it.

Kigin recognized him as the Hunter who had broken up a fight between three other Dark Hunters just yesterday.

"Byki, what do you want?" Tyu asked, referring to the fifteen foot tall warrior.

"Icetraz wants to talk to you two," Byki replied in a booming voice. "You'd better go now, because you know how short his temper is."

The two smaller Dark Hunters stopped their working and raced off to find the double Cordak blaster weilding Dark Hunter. They found Icetraz standing among other Hunters, barking orders and helping clear some of the rubble himself.

"Icetraz, sir?" Kigin asked. "What do you want to talk to me and Tyu about?"

The bulky Dark Hunter turned. "Ah, Kigin, Tyu. I need to talk to you about those Toa you said you saw. Describe them and tell me where you last saw them."

The two Dark Hunters went on to describe how the Toa looked, what elements they controled and where they had last seen them. Icetraz listened intently as they explained. When they were finished, the leader of the Dark Hunters of Shika Nui looked even more unhappy than he had before.

"So we have six Toa running around the island, planning who knows what and will probably try to get us off the island soon." Icetraz said grimly.

"What do you plan to do, sir?" Kigin asked.

The Dark Hunter smiled. "Why, what I plan to do is frighteningly simple. All of Shika Nui, to the most biggest of cities to the lowliest of villages, must be searched. Anyone found having helped the Toa or suspected of helping them will be put to death. Chop down all the trees in the proto forest, for they could be hiding there as well. Check the mountains and-"

He was cut off by a bolt of chain lightning, which zapped Kigin and Tyu as well. Then all of a sudden, Visorak, Exo-Toa, and many other servants of the Brotherhood of Makuta appeared from the surrounding forest. Surprised and unprepared, Icetraz watched as one by one the Dark Hunters fell. The Matoran slaves fell even faster, but they seemed to take that chance to fighting against the Dark Hunters as well.

The Hunter got up and noticed something strange. Standing among the forces of the Brotherhood stood a super Vahki, whom he recognized as his own personal servant. He thought it had been destroyed when Makuta Koghi decimated most of the fortress earlier because he couldn't find the super Vahki after that.

"You, super Vahki!" Icetraz shouted. "Help us! Don't just stand there!"

The super Vahki regarded him quzzically for a moment, then, with a shrug, unleashed a cyclone strong enough to rip Icetraz from the ground, sending the Hunter flying.

At that moment, Icetraz heard a voice in his head. He wasn't going crazy or anything because the voice sounded as if it belonged to someone. And it did.

Don't you know who I am? the voice asked. I'm the Makuta of Shika Nui, Makuta Hajax!

Review Topic

Played Pokémon X yesterday. Trying to breed a Shiny Doduo using the Masuda method (not because I especially like Doduos or anything but because I just want a Shiny and Doduo just happens to be the only other Pokémon I own that can breed with my Japanese Fletchling).

-TNTOS-

Chapter 9: The Mountains

Iroko followed the Toa, who were quite lost. The mountains weren't exstensively explored because of the treacherous terrain and the steep heights, so they were literally walking around in circles.

Addis had been here before, a few days ago. He had stolen the six Toa stones from Toa Joha, who lived here, but he only used a short-cut that he learned of and didn't do much exploring at all. Iroko knew her way around the mountains, so it was kind of frustrating to see them walking every which way, having no idea where they should be going.

I ought to kill them all right now, She thought angrily. But they've too close to each other for me to kill them one by one, so I'll wait a little while. Wait a while, yes, that's exactly what I'll do. She stopped for a minute. I don't think I can wait a while.

Being a Skakdi, she had a hard time being patient, waiting until they stopped. The Skakdi decided to wait for them to stop for the night, then she would kill them in their sleep.

Yes, that would work well, She thought. That would work very well indeed.

-

The six Toa Shika and Jokao came to a fork in the mountain pass. Nonzra looked both ways, but wasn't quite sure what was ahead of either trail.

"Do you think we're lost?" the Toa of Sonics asked.

"Probably," Addis replied. "But we have to decide which way to go. Left or right?"

"Left!" Akuna exclaimed.

"No way," Nastan disagreed. "I've heard bad tales of what happens when people go left, so I say we go right!"

"We don't know what is down either way," Jokao said. "Maybe we should camp here for the night. It's getting pretty dark out. Then we'll come to a decision in the morning."

"Sleeping sounds good," Nonzra agreed. "But you know, we could be being followed."

"What makes you say that?" Akuna asked. "We're the only ones up here, as far as I know, and I don't think anyone saw us go up into the mountains anyway."

"Well, I feel a like that for some reason," Nonzra said. "I don't feel secure in places I am unfamiliar with unless I am with friends, but even now, I still feel insecure, like someone is watching us."

There was a long pause. A goat could be hard yelling somewhere deep within the mountains. No one was sure what to do now. It was either left or right and they couldn't agree which way they wanted to go. So after more arguing and debating(Mostly by Nastan and Nonzra), they decided to sleep on it, not going either way until the morning,.

"What are we going to sleep on?" Nastan asked. "We don't have any beds or anything. Are we going to use rocks for pillows?"

"And we don't have anything to sleep under to keep us warm, either," Akuna added. "I have heard it gets pretty cold up in the mountains."

"Well, I don't know," Addis said. "I didn't think what we will sleep on or use as covers. Maybe you two could go and find something for us to use as a bed."

There was a pause, before Nastan realized something.

"Hey! How could I have been so stupid?" the Toa of The Green exclaimed. "I am a Toa of The Green! I can make us beds using my elemental powers! Watch and be amazed!"

Seven beds, made of reeds and other kinds of plants, exploded out of the ground. Then, still using his powers, Nastan shifted the plants around until they looked like more comfortable, six big ones for himself and the other Toa and one small one for Jokao.

"Tada!" Nastan said.

Nonzra walked over to one of the beds and sat down, making sure that it wouldn't fall apart. It didn't, it supported his weight and he decided to lay down on it.

"Well, Nastan," Nonzra said, not sitting up. "You did a good job. But I do not think it would be wise for us to sleep out in the open, without maybe a tent or something."

"Hmm, you're right," Nastan said. Instantly, a tent made of many different plants appeared out of nowhere, covering the seven beds. "Better?"

"Much." the Toa of Sonics called from the tent.

After that, the other five Toa Shika and Jokao crawled into the tent and got into their beds, quickly falling asleep, never knowing a Skakdi was watching them or just what she was planning to do to them.

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Chapter 8: Into The Mountains

The next morning the six Toa Shika and Jokao set out for the mountains. They made their way through the forest. Nastan made his way in and around the tress easily, but the others had a hard time dodging trees and keeping from tripping on vines and broken branches. Jokao in particular had a hard time climbing over the big, fallen trees because of his short size.

"Gosh, Nastan, would you stop going so fast?" Nonzra complained. "Not everyone here knows the forest better than their hut, you know."

"Well, sorry, Nonzra," Nastan snapped. He jumped onto a stump and turned around to face the Toa of Sonics. "We have to keep moving and we will not get there if you keep complaining."

"Sheesh! I was just asking you to slow down is all!" Nonzra said.

"Stop it with the arguing already," Addis told the two Toa. "We have enough to worry about already and we don't need any arguing to make us all irritable."

"Okay, whatever," Nonzra grumbled. "But I was winning the argument, Nastan."

The Toa of The Green was ignoring the Toa of Sonics now. He continued moving through the forest and the others followed, not one of them saying a word.

Jokao was walking behind Chimoy, thinking of what he had just gotten himself into.

Okay, I'm with six Toa who either want to save Shika Nui or don't want to save it, depending on which Toa you talk to, while my friends don't know if I am alive or not and now we're heading to the mountains because a Makuta told us to, the Ta-Matoran thought. What's wrong with this carving? I originally planned to go and get more Matoran to join my rebellion, not end up on the run from the Dark Hunters with six Toa who don't seem to care that much about the island.

What should I do? Try to lose them? No, I'd end up dead if that happened. So I guess for now I should just stay with them. Who knows, maybe we really will free Shika Nui from the Dark Hunters.

Chimoy had jumped over a tree trunk, but Jokao was too lost in his thoughts to notice it, so he walked straight into it.

"Ow!" Jokao shouted. "Stupid tree trunk. Who put this here?"

The Toa of Iron stopped and turned around. He saw Jokao cursing the trunk and then Chimoy continued walking with the others, apparently forgetting Jokao. The Ta-Matoran quickly caught up with them and continued following the six Toa.

Akuna looked at the trees and wondered how anyone could live here. Sure, it was beautiful, but it was also hot and humid and you could only really enjoy it if you were a Gre-Matoran. Even then, you'd have to have a strong tolerance for humidity and heat.

This forest reminded her of the time she and Nastan had stolen a valuable artifact from the Dark Hunters. They had been spotted and ran into the forest. Unfortunately, it was dark and they had no lightstones, so she was afraid they would get lost and maybe end up in the mouth of some strange Rahi, even though she knew that the only Rahi that lived in the forest were brakas monkeys. Still, she didn't like being in the forest at night, but at least she wasn't alone.

Nastan had grabbed her hand and led her out of the forest, somehow knowing the way out. Later she asked him how he knew his way out of the forest in pitch-blackness, he told her that he knew his way around the forest and he wasn't afraid, so he could think clearly. After that, she kind of devolped a crush on Nastan, but not a major one.

These forests can get pretty scary, Akuna thought. Especially at night. I wonder if anyone else is afraid of these woods?

The Toa of Lightning looked at her companions. None of them looked afraid, but none of them would admit they were afraid anyway if they wanted to look tough. All of them but Jokao looked tough. The Ta-Matoran just looked annoyed and was grumbling about tree trunks and how he would burn them if he were a Toa of Fire.

Addis was behind Nastan, walking and trying not to trip over some loose vines or anything like that. He also cared little for the forest, but he also knew that destroying it all with his plasma powers would draw the unwanted attention of the Dark Hunters.

They could have used a short-cut, but that would have meant having to go out into the open and that would also mean that a Dark Hunter might see them and they might get killed, so going through the forest was the safest way to the mountains.

Nastan stopped, then signaled for the others to stop as well. He had seen someone or something and watched to see who it was.

Two Dark Hunters walked through a path in the forest, but fortunately the didn't notice the six Toa and Jokao standing in the forest. One was tall and skinny and the other one was short and bulky. They looked tired and were talking to each other about last night.

"Who would have thought that one Toa would cause so much trouble?" the tall one said.

"Not as much trouble as that Makuta Icetraz came back with," the bulky Hunter replied. "He destroyed half the fortress and almost got away with it, too. Good thing Icetraz froze him before he could cause anymore damage."

"Yeah, many Matoran servants died because of him, but who cares about Matoran? Now we have to rebuild the fortress and make sure that Makuta doesn't get away," the skinny Dark Hunter complained. "Stupid Makuta."

Nastan looked back to the others. None of them had heard any explosions of any sort last night.

We must have been sleeping pretty hard last night, Barilo thought.

"Thank goodness he didn't destroy the cave to the ancient wall of protodermis, otherwise we would be in BIG trouble!" the tall Dark Hunter said.

"Yeah," the short Dark Hunter agreed. "That treasure behind the wall would have been gone for good!"

That caught the attention of the six Toa Shika. When they were Matoran they had all been thieves and they were all interested in treasure. Only Barilo looked a bit worried, because he was planning on keeping it a secret, but now they knew about the wall and there's no telling what would happen now that they knew about it.

"Well, we better get going," the tall and skinny one said. "We better make sure none of the Matoran escaped during the attack."

"Good, 'cause I never liked this forest," the short and bulky one said. "Even though brakas monkeys are the only Rahi that live here, I never felt comfortable out here. I always felt as if someone, something, was watching me."

The two Dark Hunters continued walking until they were out of sight. Then Nastan turned to the others.

"Did you hear that?" Nastan asked excitedly. The others nodded their heads. "There's giant wall of protodermis and behind it is a ton of treasure! Isn't that great?"

"We should go back for it," Addis said. "We don't need to go to the mountains. We go to the wall and get that treasure and then boot the Dark Hunters off this island."

"No!" Barilo yelled. The others turned to look at him, surprised. The Toa of Gravity was usually the first one to want to go after treasure, yet he didn't want to for some reason.

"Barilo, what's wrong?" Akuna asked. "You're usually the first to go after treasure and now you're against the idea? What's up with that?"

"Well, I already knew of the ancient wall of protodermis, because in the fortress I found a entry of a journal that talked about it," Barilo explained. "I was waiting for a better moment to tell you guys, but now the surprise is ruined."

"Okay, but I guess going there would be a stupid idea anyway," Addis said. "There are too many Dark Hunters and then there is that Makuta they were talking."

"Yes," Barilo agreed. "We go to the mountains like Hajax told us to."

"But after we do that, we go to their fortress and take the wall," Nonzra said.

"Sure," Addis agreed.

The six Toa Shika and Jokao continued on, but the Toa were too busy thinking of what kind of treasure could be behind the door and what they would do with it than anything else.

Perhaps we will become kings and queens of Shika Nui when we get the treasure, Nonzra thought. I think I would look pretty good in a crown, myself.

-

Makuta Hajax, in the body of a super Vahki, arrived at a cave. Inside the cave were abandoned Rahkshi, Exo-Toa suits, and various other things used by the Brotherhood of Makuta. This cave had originally been the place where the Dark Hunters would dump anything from the Brotherhood of Makuta that they had stolen or salvaged. However, due to the bad weather around the area and a cave-in, they stopped going there and soon they forgot it even existed. But Hajax had found it and was now using it as a base and hideout for his allies.

His 'allies' were rogue Brotherhood of Makuta minions. Many of them came to Shika Nui secretly so they would not be found by either the Dark Hunters of the Brotherhood. Hajax had met them years before and became the leader of them after killing the original and making the murder look like a accident. None of the Dark Hunters were aware of their existence and Hajax planned on taking over Shika Nui and then using it to attack the Brotherhood of Makuta.

As the Makuta walked past various minions of the Brotherhood, ranging from rogue Visorak to Vortixx, he kept looking for Iroko. The female Skakdi was Hajax's second in command and was a trained assassin.

He found Iroko sharpening her sword on a big rock. Makuta Hajax's super Vahki body had no voice box, so he couldn't verbally speak to anyone. So he spoke mentally to her.

Iroko, I need to talk to you for a second, Hajax said.

She turned around, surprised to see the Makuta.

"You're early," Iroko said. "What do you want to talk about? Does it have anything to do with the Dark Hunters?"

Yes, and no, the Makuta of Shika Nui said. There are six new Toa on this island and I want all but one of them eliminated. He went on to explain how he had met Barilo and how he had tricked him into believing that he was their ally.

"So, you want me to kill all of them but the Toa of Iron?" Iroko said.

Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do, the Makuta confirmed.

"But you said that Barilo and you had a psychic link, so both of you could read each other's minds," the female Skakdi said. "What if he reads your mind and finds out what he plans to do to him and his friends?"

Do you think a talented telepath such as myself would ever truly let my mind free to be read by everyone who came by? Hajax snapped. Of course I wouldn't. I have put mental barriers up just in case something like that would happen. Fortunately, that stupid Toa hadn't ever thought that I would double cross him.

The blue-ish green Skakdi nodded. "Good thinking."

Now go, Iroko, before they get too deep into the mountains, Hajax ordered. Oh, and by the way, I know what you're thinking. You're grumbling about being ordered around by me. Typical of you Skakdi, but as long as you do what I say, you might live.

She didn't like the sound of the word 'might', but she wasn't going to admit it. So Makuta Hajax continued on, telling her the location of the Toa and the easiest route to get there. Iroko listened, but she wanted to be part of the attack on the Dark Hunters fortress, not going around killing novice Toa, but she wasn't going to say that aloud, since the Makuta probably already knew what she was thinking anyways.

-

The party of seven arrived at the foot of the mountains. There was a narrow path that lead up the mountains, but no one had gone up the the huge rock in years, except for Toa Joha. But now the Toa Shika and Jokao were about to climb the gigantic piece of rock and earth.

Nonzra looked up at the almost tower-like mountain. It was the home of many different kinds of bird Rahi and goat Rahi, all of which were not Toa-friendly, if what he heard among the Dark Hunters was correct. Why they had to go up there in the first place, he had no idea.

The mountains itselves had four peaks and one peak in the middle. Legend has it that strange creatures live on those four peaks and that the fifth one in the middle is the only one ever explored by Matoran. The mountain was also the home of Toa Joha, but the reason why no Dark Hunter ever bothered to go after him was because you could get real lost real fast in the mountains if you didn't know your way around.

The Toa of Sonics could see Rahi birds flying around the peaks, looking so peaceful and content. Sometimes he wished that the mountain would just fall on the Dark Hunters and crush them, but Nonzra knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon and it was kind of a silly thought anyways.

Still, it would be funny, Nonzra thought.

"All right, guys," Addis said. "Let's get climbing up the mountain. Who knows, maybe we'll run into some giant dragon or something."

Nonzra looked up at the mountain again.

Then again, maybe it should fall on Addis's head, the Toa of Sonics thought.

"How far should we go into the mountains, Barilo?" Akuna asked the Toa of Gravity. "Did Hajax even say?"

"Uh, no. No he didn't," Barilo replied. "All he said was to go into the mountains and wait. He didn't say how far we should go or how high we should go."

"Then maybe we should just wait here," Chimoy said. The others looked at him, surprised. The Toa of Iron was usually quiet and never said anything. Him speaking, even if he says only one word, is quite a surprise.

"Wait here? Why?" Barilo asked, still shocked and surprised by Chimoy speaking.

"Well, since you weren't ever told how far we should go in, I say we stay here," the Toa said firmly.

"I agree with him," Nonzra said. "We don't know what is hiding up there. For all we know, there could be a gigantic Rahi dragon. Or something worse."

"For all we know," Nastan shot back. "There could be nothing up there. So I'm going with Barilo on this. We should explore it."

"Well, I don't think we should go exploring uncharted territory," Akuna said slowly. "But we're Toa. We can take on whatever is there, right? So I'll go with Barilo and Nastan on this."

"Exploration sounds good, but dangerous as well," Addis said. "So I say we don't go until we know more about it. I'm going with Nonzra and Chimoy on this."

Barilo turned to Jokao. "What do you want to do? Do you want to go up into the mountains or just stay here?"

The Ta-Matoran was somewhat surprised that Toa Barilo was asking him this, because up until yesterday the Toa of Gravity had been treating Jokao like dirt, so he didn't answer immediately.

"So? Do you even have a opinion on this?" Addis asked.

"Well, you guys are Toa, right? Whatever might be there, you guys could probably easily defeat," Jokao said slowly. "But, even though all of us have lived here on this island for as long as we can remember, we still have no idea what's up there besides goats and birds. I can't decide. I'll go with whatever we do."

"Well, it's decided, then," the Toa of Plasma said. "We wait here until Hajax comes."

"If he ever comes, that is," Nonzra added.

"Look, guys, me and Hajax share a psychic link, so I'll ask him if there is anything dangerous up there and when he will get here, okay?" Barilo said. Before anyone could stop him, his mind was now searching for the Makuta of Shika Nui's mind.

About a minute later, Barilo was finished talking with Hajax.

"I told him about the fact that we are split over entering or not, but he said we should go in because there is nothing up in the mountains that could kills us easily," the Toa of Gravity said.

"Well, if what you say is true..." Addis said slowly. "Then I guess we could go into the mountains. After all, the Dark Hunters probably won't look for us there."

The Toa of Plasma turned to walk up the mountains. The others followed him one by one, but Chimoy still felt uneasy about this. He wasn't sure why, though.

-

Iroko had been watching the Toa argue among themselves for quite some time. None of them had noticed her because she, like all Skakdi, had a special power: The power to turn invisible.

She wasn't planning on attacking them while they were arguing, because that would mean having to take on six Toa and one Matoran and she wasn't sure she could take them all on, even though they were novices.

Taking them out one by one will be alot of fun, She thought. Better than taking on all six. Trying to take on six Toa alone is madness. I remember one of my fellow Skakdi, Reidak, tried to take on six Toa at once. He won all right, but it took a long time and just wasn't worth it.

Iroko saw the Toa and the Ta-Matoran walk into the mountains and disappear. The Skakdi would have to follow them quickly, or else she'd lose them.

Getting out from her hiding place, Iroko climbed up a wall. She would be up above them and would be able to follow them easily without being noticed. The Skakdi could have used her invisibility power, but she wanted a challenge and this was somewhat of a challenge, following six Toa and a Ta-Matoran into the mountains without knowing exactly what lives there.

Oh well, it can't be worse than the living mountain on Xia, Iroko thought.

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Chapter 7: Escape From The Fortress

Outside the fortress, the other Toa and Jokao were waiting in the forest around the Dark Hunters' headquarters, waiting for Barilo to come out with the information they needed.

They were aware that Barilo could spend many hours in there, since no Matoran, Toa, or anyone who isn't a Dark Hunter had ever went into there willingly, so the Toa of Gravity was probably going to be looking through many different rooms before finding what they needed.

Nonzra watched as the three Dark Hunters at the front of the fortress fought each other. It seemed like the two guards would win, because they were both bigger and stronger than the first one. However, the first one was smaller and faster and he was using that to his advantage to attack them quickly.

"Look," Nonzra said, pointing towards the battling Dark Hunters. Another, even bigger Dark Hunter was walking towards them. "Another one. How will Barilo get out now?"

"It looks like to me that that bigger Dark Hunter is going to break up their fighting, Nonzra," Akuna said, pointing at the mini-giant of a Dark Hunter casually walking towards the fortress.

She was right. The humongus Dark Hunter got in between the three combatants and stopped their fighting. He then scolded them, but none of the Dark Hunters spoke back to him because of his obvious strength. The two guards went back to guard duty and the third one just walked right into the fortress, looking like he wasn't too happy with how that bigger Dark Hunter had stepped in between them instead of letting the first Dark Hunter defeat them.

As for the bigger Dark Hunter, he just smiled and walked towards the back of the fortress, satisfied with what he just did.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want to mess with him," Jokao said in awe. "That guy was huge! He looked like he could have ripped those three guys apart easily!"

"Yeah," Addis agreed. "Now let's hope that Barilo doesn't run into him or we'll end up with bite-sized Toa of Gravity pieces."

-

Barilo was roughly tossed into a cage. He had already met Icetraz, the leader of the Dark Hunters of Shika Nui. He was quite a sight, with his Kikanalo-looking head, his twin Cordak blasters and his big, bulky body.

As soon as he saw the Toa of Gravity, he immediately sentenced him to death, but since a Brotherhood of Makuta sea vessel was allegedly seen off the shore of Shika Nui, attacking and sinking Dark Hunter ships, he put it off until tomorrow and personally went himself to sink the Brotherhood's ship, because of the reports that a Makuta was seen aboard the ship.

During that time Barilo actually got to see the female Dark Hunter who had captured him. Her name was Yehiku and, in Barilo's opinion, she was beautiful. She was about the same size as himself and had red and black armor. Her eyes were green and it was very hard to keep his eyes off her.

But she didn't seem to share his same feelings, because she kept giving him the death glare every time he looked at her for too long. And she was also the one who roughly tossed him into the cage, too.

"Welcome to your new, temporary home, Toa," Yehiku said sarcastically. "Make yourself at home, but you're going to be too busy dying to make it homey anyway, so I don't think you should even bother."

She left the room. Now Barilo was all alone. It wasn't dark. There was a lightstone in the ceiling that lit the room up dimly, but there wasn't much to see in the room. No furniture, no windows, no nothing.

Am I in love with Yehiku? Barilo thought. Or am I going insane?

You very well might be insane, Makuta Hajax, the Makuta who had a psychic link with Barilo, said. After all, everyone I know who has had a psychic link with a Makuta has gone insane at one point in their lives. Or you might have real feelings for her. I don't know and I don't care, because phase one of the plan is going in action.

Barilo saw the cage door open, obviously by the power of Hajax's magnetism. The Toa of Gravity activated his mask power, making himself almost invisible. He walked out of the cage and quietly pushed the door of the room that he is in open. He looked both ways down the hallway and then made his way quickly to the left, but closed the door to his room to make sure no one noticed he was gone.

As the Toa of Gravity made his way past Dark Hunters, he contacted Hajax. Barilo needed some of his own questions answered and Hajax was the one who had the answers.

Hajax, where are you? Barilo asked.

In your mind at the moment, Makuta Hajax replied. Or do you mean where I am phyiscally? If that is what you want to know, then I'm not happy to say that I no longer have a physical body.

Barilo stopped, then moved to lean against a wall as two Dark Hunters walked down the hallway.

What do you mean that you don't have a phyiscal body? Barilo asked. Are...are you a ghost?

Hajax laughed. Of course not. I am in some sort of green-ish black gaseous form. I wish I had my body, because then I would get revenge on my old 'friends' that they so richly deserve.

Whoa, there, Hajax, Barilo said. What are you talking about? Start at the beginning, because I'm confused.

Very well, Barilo, Makuta Hajax sighed. Let me begin. Many years ago the Brotherhood of Makuta held a convocation. Makuta Teridax, the lieutenant to Makuta Miserix, had a plan he believed would give us Makuta full control over the universe. Of course, Miserix was totally against the Plan, but the other Makuta agreed with the Plan and Miserix was kicked out of leadership and Teridax was put in charge.

Now not all of us Makuta agreed with the Plan. Some of us simply sided with Teridax for fear of being killed. I was one of them and after the convocation, any Makuta that Teridax believed unloyal to the Plan were hunted down and killed by Makuta Icarax and Makuta Gorast. They killed the others in under a year, but I hid for a long time until they found that I had came here. They found me and, after a short battle, ripped my armor open, letting my gaseous form drift into the open. It just so happened that at that moment, a fierce wind blew by, dispersing my form.

Icarax and Gorast believed that the wind killed me and left, but there was still a little bit left of myself, so I was worried that I was going to die soon.

Luck was on my side, for the Dark Hunters had stolen some plans from Metru Nui to make super Vahki. The Hunters' top scientists worked until they finally perfected it. They made many, but found that they weren't any good for fighting, so they wound up as personal servants of the Dark Hunters instead. I learned that I could possess robots and I did, possessing one of the many robots. That is how I survived for so many years.

Well, how come I haven't seen any of those so-called super Vahki around the fortress? Barilo asked.

Most of them were destroyed by Visorak, Rahkshi, Exo-Toa, and Dark Hunters who were just in a very bad mood. Fortunately, no one knows that I am in a super Vahki and I have learned many, many secrets from listening in on the Dark Hunters who believe that I am a mindless machine and not a intelligent Makuta, Hajax explained.

You sure seem to talk alot, Barilo said. Anyway, I need to get out of here. You've been here longer than me, so do you know the least guarded area that I could escape easily?

The western area is guarded by one guard and he isn't that smart, so sneaking by him should get be easy for you, Makuta Hajax said to him.

Barilo turned to the western area and went only two steps when he heard a alarm go off. The door to his room was open and a Dark Hunter was coming out, yelling.

"The Toa has escaped!" The Dark Hunter shouted. "Everyone get on alert! He's somewhere in this fortress and he has escaped!!"

After that, hundreds of Dark Hunters poured into the fortress. Barilo had a tough time dodging all the Dark Hunters who were running up and down the hallways. The Toa of Gravity was glad that his mask had not been taken from him, because he surely would not have been able to escape if he didn't have it. He remembered why they had let him keep his mask.

When Icetraz learned of the Brotherhood of Makuta vessel, he was in too much of a hurry to have Barilo's mask taken from him.

Good thing that Brotherhood of Makuta ship was sighted, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get out here, Barilo thought.

-

Kigin lead his team of Dark Hunters towards the fortress. They hadn't found the Toa and it was becoming dark. None of them were truly afraid of the dark, but none of them were ready to spend all night in the forest either, especially after the army of brakas monkeys that had attacked them earlier. They preferred the security of the fortress to the wilderness forest.

Tyu noticed all the Dark Hunters running to and fro, talking and shouting. The winged Dark Hunter thought he heard one of them say that a Toa of Gravity had escaped. If he remembered correctly, a Toa of Gravity had almost defeated Tyu earlier that day. Had that Toa been captured and then escaped somehow? Tyu decided he needed to know, so he grabbed a Dark Hunter running by.

The Dark Hunter, who had bronze armor, turned angrily to see who had dared grab him. He saw Tyu and the other six.

"Oh, hey, Tyu!" the Dark Hunter exclaimed. He waved at the other six. "And you six, Julok, Kigin, Death, Six Arms, Giho, and Viho. Where were you? Have you heard the big news?"

"What big news, Vawe?" Tyu asked.

"There's a Toa of Gravity that was found stealing the map of the fortress. Yehiku caught him and he was thrown into a cage," Vawe said. "But now he has somehow escaped and we're looking for him. All Dark Hunters on Shika Nui have been ordered to keep their eyes open for any Toa of Gravity and most are searching for him now."

Tyu looked back towards his six comrades. They looked at him. All seven of them were thinking the same thing: That Toa of Gravity is the same one they had fought!

The question is, where are the other Toa? Tyu thought.

"Um, Vawe, were any other Toa seen around the fortress?" the winged Dark Hunter asked.

"No," the bronze armored Dark Hunter answered, surprised. "Why? Did you guys see any others?"

"Yes, we did," Giho replied. "Five more, to be exact."

"There are five more Toa on this island?" Vawe repeated, shocked. "Five? Are you sure?"

"Yes, we're very sure," Julok replied. "We fought them and won."

"Then where are they?" Vawe asked. "What did you do with them? Did you kill them?"

All seven of them looked embarrassed.

"They, uh," Yhio said. "They got away from us."

The bronze armored Dark Hunter burst into laughter. He laughed for a very, very, long time. In fact, Death thought that maybe Vawe was going insane because of how long he laughed.

Finally, Vawe stopped, though he was still laughing a little.

"Oh that's a good joke, Viho," Vawe said. He laughed again. "But seriously, what really happened to those Toa?"

"We're serious, Vawe," Death said in a serious tone. "We fought and defeated them and were planning on taking them to the fortress, but hundreds of brakas monkeys attacked us and they escaped in the confusion. We still don't know where they are, but now we have a idea on where one of them is."

Vawe looked surprised.

"Well, you can help us find that Toa of Gravity and maybe we can make him talk," Vawe said. "He'll tell us where the rest of his friends are."

-

Barilo kept having to hide in doorways and dodging any Dark Hunters, but that was becoming increasingly difficult to do, because more and more Dark Hunters seemed to come in every minute. The Toa of Gravity reflected on the plan that Makuta Hajax had told him and how it would benefit everyone on the island of Shika Nui except for the Dark Hunters.

The plan was simple, or so it seemed. All Barilo had to do was get out of the fortress, meet up with the other Toa and then attack the fortress with the help of Makuta Hajax. If it were successful, then the Dark Hunters would be off the island, but the entire thing seemed unrealistic to Barilo.

For one, how would they, six Toa, one Matoran and one Makuta, defeat hundreds and hundreds of Dark Hunters? Oh sure, Makuta are very strong, but Hajax didn't have his original Makuta armor and he would be very easily destroyed by any well-trained Dark Hunter. And then Barilo and his friends were novices and had a hard time against seven Dark Hunters. What would happen if they took on hundreds? Barilo didn't want to think about the results.

But the Toa of Gravity also thought of Jokao, who would surely be killed as soon as the battle started. As much as Barilo didn't want to admit it, he was worried about the Ta-Matoran.

Maybe Hajax has a plan to take out most of the Dark Hunters, Barilo thought.

Barilo rounded a corner and then found the western entrance. As Hajax had told him, there was one guard standing with his back to the entrance. Apparently he didn't think anyone would come out of the fortress and attack him, since Barilo smashed him down with his gravity powers and the Dark Hunter looked totally shocked and surprised. But the Hunter was knocked unconscious, so it didn't matter much anyway.

The Toa of Gravity lifted his axe, ready to kill the Dark Hunter, but then he saw a super Vahki running towards him. He could tell it was a super Vahki because hit vaguely resembled one. It's head looked like a normal Vahki head, but the rest of it's body was different.

For one, you couldn't even tell it was based off the Vahki unless someone told you so. It had a very skinny body and the entire build looked fragile. It's arms were long and had no armor. Legs were the same as the arms, except for the feet, which had razor sharp nails at the end of each toe. There were three toes on each foot. It was blue and purple, which was odd, considering that it was based off the Vahki and there were no Vahki that were blue and purple.

At first, Barilo considered destroying the robot, but Hajax mentally contacted him right before he could increase the gravity of the super Vahki ten thousand times it's normal gravity.

Don't even think of it, Hajax warned. I'm using this body and you won't be living any longer if you try it.

Fine, fine, Barilo replied. I wasn't really going to do it anyway. Now if you will excuse me, I have a Dark Hunter to kill.

As much as killing a Dark Hunter sounds amusing to me, it would be a bad move, Hajax said. Another Dark Hunter is surely going to see his ally killed and everyone and their Energy Hound will know you went this way.

Okay, geez, Barilo said. Where do we go now?

I cannot believe you forgot about the plan already, Barilo, the Makuta of Shika Nui snapped. But I might as well refresh your memory anyway. We're to find your friends and convince them to attack the fortress.

They wouldn't do that, Barilo said. Toa aren't as dumb as you think we are. We'd be smashed and killed by them easily. No sane Toa would do that, even with a Makuta on our side.

I have more plans, Toa, that will definitely help out cause, Hajax replid. Now you go and find your friends and I will go and get my allies.

Before Barilo could ask him who the Makuta's 'allies' were, Hajax was off, rounding a corner and disappearing. Realizing it probably wasn't the healthiest idea to stay around here any longer, the Toa of Gravity ran into the forest, making his way to the rest of the Toa Shika.

-

The other five Toa Shika and Jokao watched as hundreds of Dark Hunters of all kinds were running, jumping, and even flying around the fortress, looking for something. The seven Dark Hunters who the Toa Shika had escaped from earlier had came back to the fortress and were now helping their allies search for whatever it is that they were searching for.

"Did Barilo blow his cover?" Nonzra asked. "Or is this some kind of emergency drill and it got out of hand?"

"No doubt they're looking for Barilo," Addis said. "I told him that this was a stealth mission, not a attack on the fortress!"

"Um, Addis?" Jokao said. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," Addis replied. "What is it?"

"Yesterday, you said that you didn't want to help free Shika Nui because of the impossible odds, but now you are gathering information on them for a attack," Jokao said. "What changed your mind?"

"I don't know, actually," Addis said. "All I remember is being against attacking the Dark Hunters one minute, then immediately I changed my mind and wanted to attack the Dark Hunters the next."

"That's strange," Jokao commented. "Toa don't just change their minds without knowing why. In fact, no one changes their mind without knowing why."

"Exactly," Addis agreed. "But we don't have time to wonder about that. What we do need to do is find out if Barilo is still alive or not."

"And I am," Barilo, who had just walked out of the forest, said.

"Barilo! Thank Mata Nui you're alive!" Akuna exclaimed, relieved.

"What is up with the Dark Hunters going crazy?" Nonzra asked.

"Well, sit down and I will explain," Barilo said. He went on to talk about his capture and his escape. He mentioned that Hajax already was getting some of his allies to help attack the fortress, but he had no idea of who or what these allies were. He didn't mention his discovery of the Ancient Wall of Protodermis, because he wanted it to keep it a surprise until he was sure he could count on the others going along with it.

"So we just sit here and wait?" Nastan asked. "We wait until Makuta Hajax and his allies come? How do we know he will even bring allies?"

"Well, I can tell if he's double-crossing us," Barilo replied. "He made a psychic link between myself and him, so I can read his mind and he can read mine, so if he is double-crossing us, I'll know."

"Okay, where do we go, then?" Nonzra said. "Where did Hajax say his allies were coming from?"

"Um, I was never told, actually," the Toa of Gravity said sheepishly. "All he said is to wait in the mountains until he comes to get us."

"That's all?" Addis asked.

"That's all," Barilo answered. "So we have two options. We wait here and hope the Dark Hunters don't find us or we go to the mountains, which is the last place any of them would look for us."

"Well, if this Makuta is as good as you say," Addis said slowly. "Then we go to the mountains."

"Can we save my friends first?" Jokao asked. All six of the Toa Shika turned to him, apparently haven forgotten their Ta-Matoran companion. "My village is near here and-"

"Don't worry, Jokao," Barilo said. "If this plan goes well, then your village and every other village on Shika Nui should be free."

"But when will we get our freedom?" Joka asked. "Will it take days? Months? Years?"

Toa Barilo didn't answer that. He wasn't sure when Shika Nui would be free. All Hajax had told him was that Shika Nui would be free and that's that. So he just turned away from Jokao and said, "Let's go. It's getting darker and we don't want to be found so close to the Dark Hunter fortress, do we?"

The others nodded. One by one they all made their way deeper in the forest, with Nastan leading, since being a Toa of the Green, he knew his way around forests easily. But Chimoy kept doubting what Barilo said.

Now I've never met a Makuta before, but I've heard plenty about them, Chimoy thought as he followed behind the others. The entire thing sounds fishy to me, but I don't know why. I have no reason to doubt trusting a Makuta if it means that Shika Nui will be freed, but there is something about this that doesn't make any sense. Why would a Makuta ally himself with six Toa and a Matoran? If Makuta are as strong as I think they are, then he should be able to kick the Dark Hunters off this island no problem.

Maybe I'm just tired. That's it. All I need to do is sleep, rest my brain a little. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to think clearly.

-

Makuta Hajax, in the body of the super Vahki, made his way around the fortress. No Dark Hunter had seen him, which was good, because they would most likely order him to find Barilo and the Makuta would have to go along with it to keep his disguise up.

He was going to the eastern edge of the island, where his allies would be waiting. Hajax had been planning this attack on the Dark Hunters for many years. The Makuta of Shika Nui was originally planning on putting his plan into action 1000 years before, but when the Dark Hunters declared war against the Brotherhood of Makuta, he didn't have time to attack. But now there were these Toa on the island and all the Dark Hunters were going crazy trying to find them. He needed the Toa of Iron alive, to fix his broken armor, which was in the custody of the Dark Hunters.

At least, Hajax was sure that the Toa of Iron could repair his armor, if the Toa knew how to make protosteel. The Makuta of Shika Nui wondered if the rest of the Brotherhood had become gaseous forms as well and how they managed to live with it and if it affected the Plan at all.

Probably modified their armor to stop their forms from leaking out, Hajax thought as he ran. Maybe they had the Nynrah Ghosts modify them. But it doesn't matter. All I need to do is get to my allies and soon the island and it's treasure will be mine.

Hajax hadn't told Barilo why he had sent him into the mountains, but the Makuta was well aware of what was waiting in the mountains. Makuta Hajax didn't plan to go and get them. He would send someone to go and watch the Toa. This someone would take the out one by one, until only the Toa of Iron was left.

I honestly don't care about Barilo, Addis, or any of those other Toa. Only the Toa of Iron, Chimoy, is who I really need if I am to get my armor back, Makuta Hajax thought. Oh, sure, these six Toa aren't as noble as Joha, but if they were to find out what will happen to them, then they would surely try to defeat me.

He stopped for a moment, as if lost in thought. If his robotic body could make facial expressions, then he would be smiling, Not a happy smile, but a evil smile. Then he continued into the forest, making plans on who would follow the Toa.

Iroko would be the best candidate to kill them, given her stealth ability, Makuta Hajax reasoned. After all, killing is what she does best and killing is exactly what she will be doing.

Review Topic

Chapter 6: Infiltration

The next day the Toa and Jokao were chained together, walking through the forest. The seven Dark Hunters were all making sure none of the Toa made a break for it by staying on all sides of their captives. Addis had tried to melt his chains off with plasma, but the Hunters beat him up and now he could barely walk, discouraging any other escape attempts.

The forest they were walking through was called the proto forest, because of the vast amounts of protodermis that was in the forest. Brakas monkeys were the most common Rahi found, with little insects found throughout the forest. The proto forest originally was bigger and more vast until the Dark Hunters came and chopped down most of the trees. Now the forest was still big, but it wasn't quite as big as before.

Nastan was angered by what the Dark Hunters had done to the forest. Like all Gre-Toa, Matoran, and Turaga, he loved nature and hated seeing it get destroyed or harmed in any way. But at the moment there was nothing he could do about it, which made it that much more frustrating.

"Where are you taking us?" Nonzra asked.

"To the fortress," Six Arms replied. "Where you will be punished."

"I'll never understand why you work for the Dark Hunters," Akuna said. "Why would anyone want to work for such a evil organization?"

"That's none of your business, Toa," Death growled. "Be quiet now or else I will personally teach you the meaning of the word 'death. Oh, and not everyone on the Dark Hunters is 'evil', Toa. Some work for them because no one else wants them and they have nowhere else to go.'"

It seemed like Death's voice sounded sad for some reason, like he was telling a truth that he did not like at all. Akuna decided she shouldn't ask, since he didn't seem like the kind who'd talk about that anyway.

For a while, there was no sound in the forest except for the sounds of brakas monkeys yelling somewhere deep into the forest and the sound of fourteen beings marching through the forest. Chimoy took this time to observe the trees and other plant life. As a Matoran, he never really spent his time around the forest or any other natural area of Shika Nui, but now since he was captured, he really had nothing else to do.

He noticed all the many different types of trees and plant growth. He would never be able to name all of them, but they were all beautiful. It seemed so peaceful in this forest. Nothing but the sound of brakas monkeys.

Nonzra, however, wasn't quite thinking of how beautiful everything was. He was too concerned with being captured by the Dark Hunters that he barely noticed all of the beauty.

Maybe I can unleash a devastating sonic blast that could make the Dark Hunters deaf? Nonzra thought. Of course, doing that would also make me and my friends deaf, so that scratches one plan.

Then another thought entered his mind. Maybe it was possible to use his Kanohi mask? There was no telling what it would do, since the Toa of Sonics knew very little about masks and knew even less about how to use them.

But it might be worth a shot anyway, Nonzra reasoned. It might kill us all, but being dead would be much better than being a captive of the Dark Hunters for the rest of my life.

He closed his eyes and focused his mind on his mask. He could feel the power of the mask activating, though it is a hard thing to describe because after he used it, everything seemed to happen so quickly.

First, the faint sounds of brakas monkeys from deep in the jungle became louder and louder. Then, the sounds became so loud that Nonzra could have sworn that the brakas were right next to him.

"Kaukau! Kaukau!"

The Toa of Sonics then heard the seven Dark Hunters screaming and shouting curses, apparently being attacked by something. Nonzra opened his eyes to see an entire horde of brakas monkeys, hopping and jumping and climbing everyone and everything. The monkeys were also attacking the Dark Hunters and the Hunters were having less luck beating the monkeys because of how fast they were moving and of how many of them that there were.

Now that the Dark Hunters were distracted, Chimoy broke his chains and then used his elemental power over metal to break the other Toa and Jokao out. Barilo took this moment to use his power over gravity to make Tyu heavier, causing the Dark Hunter fall hard to the ground.

"Quickly!" Tyu shouted. "Someone get the prisoners! They're escaping!"

But it was of no use. The other Dark Hunters were too busy fighting off the Rahi monkeys to chase the Toa and Jokao. When they finally either killed or drove off the rest of the brakas, the prisoners were nowhere to be seen.

-

The six Toa and the Ta-Matoran moved stealthily through the forest. They never slowed down until they were sure that they were deep enough into the forest so the Dark Hunters would never follow them. They sat down in a quiet part of the forest where the trees were the thickest and there was barely any light at all, so Nastan used his elemental power over plant life to move some trees over, but not all of them in case a Dark Hunter was flying overhead. All seven of them were panting from all the running that they did.

"So, since you're the nature expert, Nastan," Addis began, turning to Nastan. "Is it normal to see hundreds of brakas monkeys attacking Dark Hunters for no reason?"

"No," Nastan replied. "That is something that never happens. But sometimes brakas monkeys will attack intruders in their realm if they feel threatened."

"Then what caused that to happen?" Barilo asked.

"I don't know," Nastan said.

"I think I have the answer," Nonzra said.

"Really? Why do you think they attacked the Dark Hunters?" Barilo questioned.

"I think it was my mask power," The Toa of Sonics replied, tapping the Kanohi Mask of Power that was on his face. "I think I can summon Rahi with it."

"It's either that," Jokao said. "Or the brakas hate the Dark Hunters as much as we do."

"Well, whatever happened," Addis said. "We should plan out our next course of action."

"Maybe we should leave the island," Barilo suggested. "After all, we can't beat the Dark Hunters on our own anyway, right?"

"Too coward-y," Addis replied. "Besides, we'd never be able to find a boat that could take us out into the sea. And even if we did get out into the sea, the Hunters might see us and blast us into oblivion anyway."

"Then maybe it's time we learned to use our mask powers," Akuna suggested. "We all seem to have some control over our elemental powers, but most of us can't use our mask powers."

"But we don't know how to use our masks, Akuna," Nastan said. "Maybe Nonzra knows how to use his mask, but I don't know how to use mine."

"Well, I'm pretty sure I can teach you guys, even though I've only used my mask once," Nonzra said. "Who wants to go first?"

-

Tyu flew above the trees of the proto forest. He was searching for the Toa and the Ta-Matoran, but the trees were so thick that he could not see anything except for the occasional brakas monkey and he hated the darn monkeys after that last encounter with them.

He wished that he could see through the trees, because it would make his job go by much more faster, but he had to be contented with having the ability to fly at the moment and not x-ray vision. Tyu decided to head back to the others, because it was taking too long to find the prisoners and flying above the same trees fifteen times in a row can get quite boring after a while.

The Dark Hunter turned around and flew back. He saw the others standing amidst the destroyed trees and dead brakas monkeys. He landed next to Kigin, who looked up at the black and blue Dark Hunter expectantly.

"So?" Kigin said. "Did you find the Toa?"

"No," Tyu replied, shaking his head. "I couldn't find them. The trees are too thick."

"Then let's thin'em out a little," Giho said, holding his axe up.

Julok shook his head.

"No, if we did that, then other Hunters will start asking what we're doing and when they hear that we lost six Toa and one Matoran, they will laugh at us and most likely tell Icetraz," Julok said. "So we keep searching, regardless of how long it takes us."

"Fine," Kigin sighed. "We keep searching." Then he added. "And if we find them, kill them. Take no prisoners."

-

Jokao was amazed by how quickly the six Toa Shika had learned how to use their mask powers.

Nastan had discovered that his mask power was the Kanohi Sanok, the Mask of Accuracy. He discovered that by throwing a blade of grass at a nearby tree. It hit the tree so hard that the tree fell over.

Toa Akuna's mask was the Kanohi Ruru, the Mask of Night Vision. She found that out because of the big glow that her mask gave off, lighting the dark forest are up. The Toa of Lightning quickly turned it off so the Dark Hunters wouldn't notice it and come to see what was over there.

Not that the Ruru is anything too special, Jokao thought. Or useful.

Addis had a Suletu. He proved he could read minds by reading everyone's minds and accurately telling what each person was thinking.

Toa Chimoy already knew that his mask was the Kadin, but he tried to use it and ended up flying into a tree so hard that it almost fell on him(Fortunately, Nastan had used his elemental powers to stop the tree from crushing his Toa of Iron friend.).

Barilo learned that his mask was the Kanohi Volitak, the Mask of Stealth. When he first used it, he turned almost invisible and he wasn't casting a shadow. The other five Toa and Jokao panicked for a second until they realized that the Toa of Gravity had simply used his mask power.

Nonzra figured his mask was the Zatth, the Mask of Summoning, which made sense, considering all the brakas monkeys that attacked the Dark Hunters for no reason.

Barilo's Kanohi gave Addis a idea. He turned over to the Toa of Gravity.

"I have a plan and it involves you," Addis said to Barilo. "And your mask power. Think you'll be up to it?"

"First I have to know what it is," Barilo replied. "But whatever your plan is, I think I'm up to it, if it involves kicking Dark Hunter behind."

"Good," Addis said, smiling. "Because this will be a very important mission that might just help us get the Hunters off this island for good."

-

The Dark Hunter's Fortress was huge. It had many towers, all of which were rather sinister-looking. There were many guards on duty, all of them not looking like they wanted to be your best friend. The huge gate that lead into the fortress was closed, but not locked.

Barilo, using his Mask of Stealth, was making a observation. He was almost completely invisible and any Dark Hunter who might notice his extremely dim outline would have dismiss it as a trick of the eye. The Toa of Gravity was to infiltrate the fortress and gain valuable information on the Dark Hunters.

Now and then, a Dark Hunter or two would exit the fortress, heading for the where the slaves worked no doubt. Barilo need to get in when a Dark Hunter was entering or exiting.

He noticed one Dark Hunter was walking up to the fortress, no doubt heading in. He quietly made his way behind the Hunter, even though he didn't need to do it quietly, since the Volitak took away any and all sound that he made except if he was talking. But talking wasn't what he was interested in at the moment. Getting in without being noticed was what he considered interesting.

The Dark Hunter walked up to the two other Hunters who were guarding the entranceway. He flashed a identity tablet and the guards nodded. The two guards moved out of the way and opened the gate, letting the first Dark Hunter walk in.

Now was Barilo's chance to get in. He dashed in, accidently pushing the first Dark Hunter in. The Toa of Gravity, still using his Volitak, moved out of the way as the Dark Hunter he accidently pushed turned around and walked back out, looking very angry.

"Which one of you bozos pushed me in?" The first Dark Hunter demanded angrily.

"What are you talking about?" One of the guards asked, confused. "I didn't push you and neither did Hokeg. At least, I didn't see anyone push you."

"I felt someone push me in and there is no one else around here besides you two and myself and I very much doubt I would push myself," The first Dark Hunter explained. "So which one of you did it?"

"None of us," The second Dark Hunter, Hokeg, said. "We was standin' rights here likes we was supposed to and then you came out demandin' us to tell you who pushed you and we's don't know who did it."

"You're definitely lying, I can tell that," The first Dark Hunter said, still angry. "Now one of you just confess and I'll be on my way. Who did it?"

"No one!" Both guards shouted in unison. "We didn't do anything!"

That was the last straw for the first Dark Hunter. He knew one of them pushed him and since none of them were going to confess, he fired a beam of firy-ice, hitting both of the guards. Now the two Dark Hunter guards were angry and they attacked back, sending beams of energy at the first Hunter.

While those three were fighting, Barilo made his way around the fortress. He had no clear idea of where the Dark Hunters kept their records, so he decided to check every opened door he came across. Because opening doors and finding Dark Hunters inside who see him open the door and don't see anyone will get suspicious and Barilo might get caught was not a good idea.

There weren't many opened doors and what opened doors he did find had Dark Hunters in them, usually discussing security issues or other things that the Hunters considered important. While it would have been important to listen in on their conversations, they usually closed the doors and the Toa of Gravity didn't feel like going in and being trapped with two or more Dark Hunters anyway, even if he did get some information.

Maybe they keep maps of the fortress on stone tablets somewhere, Barilo thought as he walked through the dark hallway. Question is, where do they keep the tablets?

As he walked through the fortress, he looked around at the many hallways, doors, and stairways that lead to who knows where. He also noticed a what looked like a giant cave opening. It was quite strange looking, compared to the rest of the fortress and it looked like it was apparently carved artificially, most likely by the Dark Hunters. He noticed that there was a sign carved into the wall next to the cave.

Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he walked over to read the sign. It read:

Here leads to the ancient wall of solid protodermis. Bring a lightstone if you wish enter, for it is a dark and forbidding place where anyone without a light has perished. Beware the darkness, for it is as black and dark as a Makuta's heart.

Barilo looked towards the cave mouth. What ancient wall of solid protodermis was this warning talking about? The Toa of Gravity knew of no walls of solid protodermis and this certainly made no sense to him at all.

I have no time to ponder this, Barilo thought. I have information to find and maybe when I find that, I will have time to ponder this.

The next few minutes were rather uneventful. He dodged a few Dark Hunters and investigated a few open doors, but nothing too interesting. He finally found a opened door that had many different tablets stacked on top of each other. Fortunately, no Dark Hunters were in the room or near it, so Barilo walked in and quietly closed the door, just to make sure no one sees him reading the tablets.

Turning off his Volitak, he began looking at each tablet. It was taking him a long time, but he was purposely doing this, because he believed that there weren't any Dark Hunters coming any time soon, why not read through all or most of them anyway? He wasn't in any hurry.

Most of the tablets had the bios of most of the Dark Hunters, while others looked simply like carvings that someone made. They were quite strange, the carvings were. Some showed Dark Hunters training, while others showed treasures, islands, and many other things that Barilo couldn't identify.

Finally, he found a tablet that showed a map of the Dark Hunter's fortress. He put it into his backpack and was about to leave, when he noticed one more tablet. The tablet showed a picture of a wall, but it looked different from every other wall that the Toa of Gravity had seen before. Intrigued, he picked it up to get a closer look at it.

As he examined the picture, he noticed that there were words carved onto it. Apparently, the wall was called the 'Ancient Wall of Solid Protodermis.'

Barilo stopped reading for a minute. That cave mouth that he saw and the warning near it said that a ancient wall of solid protodermis was deep within the cavern. What could the Dark Hunters possibly want with it?

Barilo knew he wouldn't learn the answer by thinking about it, so he continued reading the tablet. It read like a diary or journal. Here is what it said:

We came to this island of Shika Nui because of a ancient wall of solid protodermis. Legend has it that, in the beginning of the universe, a team of Toa consisting of a Toa of Gravity, a Toa of Plasma, a Toa of Lightning, a Toa of Iron, a Toa of The Green, and a Toa of Sonics locked a giant door off using a Toa seal. After that, they burried the way to the door to make sure no one got into it. Nobody knows exactly what is behind the door. Some say it is a great and wonderful treasure that would make one richer than their wildest dreams. Others say a legendary Kanohi mask was hidden there to keep away from evil beings. And then there are others who believe that a great and evil spirit was locked away, along with a great army of darkness that has enough power to crush the universe.

The Shadowed One believes a great treasure is hidden there, so he sent I and eleven other Dark Hunters to capture Shika Nui. The attack was successful and only one Toa got away, a Toa of Stone named Joha.

Already we have dug the entrance out to the cave. We're stuck trying to break the protodermis wall. Only Toa can break Toa seals and we have no Toa, let alone six, so we have been chipping away the protodermis little by little and it's wearing out our Dark Hunters. I have already proposed that we get the Matoran to do the work. Most of the others agree and I think we'll get the little creeps to work sometime soon.

What do I believe is behind the door? I don't know, honestly. For now, I will go with what the Shadowed One believes and hopefully a vast treasure is hidden there and not our dooms.

Barilo stopped reading. This explained why the Dark Hunters came to Shika Nui. At the time, Barilo and the others had just assumed that the Hunters had came because of Shika Nui's vast amount of protodermis in the proto forest or something else. Now he knew the truth.

They came here to take whatever might be behind the door and they don't care who gets in the way, Barilo thought. Then he thought something else. Maybe I could convince the others to unlock the door and see what is inside. After all, we have all the right elements and we're Toa. But first we'll have to boot the Dark Hunters off this island.

The Toa of Gravity put the tablet in his backpack, just in case the others need to see it.

Now time to get out of here, Barilo thought. He turned around and was surprised to see that the door was opened. I thought I closed that!

He ran over to try and close it, but before he could get to it, he felt a blade go up to his throat. He stopped before he moved any further.

"You're a Toa, aren't you?" The female voice behind him said. Before Barilo could answer, the voice spoke again. "Before you ask how I got in here without you noticing, I must say you must not be very observant."

"Who are you?" Barilo asked. He couldn't tell who was behind him, but he figured she is a Dark Hunter and will most likely kill him simply because he is a Toa.

"My name isn't important," The female voice snapped. "What I want to know is what you have in your backpack."

Barilo could feel a hand digging through his pack and he couldn't do anything to stop her. He felt her pull one tablet out, then another.

"Looks like you were doing a little spy work, Toa," The female voice said. "Kigin and Tyu were right. There are more Toa on this island, since you are obviously not Toa Joha."

The Toa of Gravity was surprised by this. Usually Dark Hunters call Toa, any Toa, just 'Toa,' yet she was calling Joha by his real name, and it wasn't in a sarcastic or mocking tone, either.

What is Mata Nui's name is up with that? Barilo thought. Does she actually have some sort of respect for Joha or something?

"Where are the rest of your friends, Toa?" The female voice asked. "Are they hiding near the fortress, ready to attack? Or are you the only Toa left on this island, aside from Joha? Answer, Toa, and you might live. Might."

"Never," Barilo said. "I may not be the noblest Toa out there, but I would never reveal the location of my friends. Especially to a Dark Hunter."

At first, the Toa of Gravity wasn't sure if his head would be on his body any longer, but surprisingly, instead of slicing his head off, the female Dark Hunter just made him walk.

"Where are you taking me and why didn't you kill me?" Barilo asked.

"Icetraz has said that he wants any and all prisoners taken to him so he can give them a proper punishment," She replied. "So be still and don't make any sudden moves."

For a while they walked through the winding hallways of the fortress. Some Dark Hunters saw them go by and nodded their heads in approval. Others simply glared at Barilo just for being a Toa and then there were the curious few who followed the Toa and Dark Hunter. All the while the Toa never saw how the female Dark Huntress' looked and none of the other Dark Hunters ever called her by her name.

Barilo glance at carvings on the wall. They looked like pictures. Pictures of Dark Hunters, to be exact. Of course, he didn't know for sure, but it seemed like a reasonable guess because of the names under them. Obviously they were code-names, since most of them were actual words and not names someone would be named.

One door was opened and no one appeared to be inside it. As they walked by, the Toa of Gravity glanced into the room. There was a giant suit of armor. It looked grand, elegant(In some strange way), and evil, even though it had many holes punched into it.

Whoever wore that armor must have been powerful, Barilo thought. But I most certainly don't want to meet the guy who killed whoever wore that!

The Dark Huntress took the blade from the Toa of Gravity's neck and then quickly cuffed his hands with energy cuffs. Barilo didn't like these energy cuffs at all because of how it brought back bad memories of when he and the others had been defeated and captured by the those other seven Dark Hunters. Oh, sure, it had happened only about a day or two ago and he was still a novice Toa, but he felt that he could have killed them and then proceed to kill the rest of Hunters on this island, effectively freeing Shika Nui.

But nooooo, Barilo thought angrily. Nastan believed that killing our enemies is wrong because Joha and all those other Toa on his original team didn't kill anyone. Who cares if Joha didn't kill his enemies? I don't and I would be glad to take away all the gravity from this fortress and then give it too much gravity, killing all the Dark Hunters in it. Genius, I would say.

Right, said a voice in Barilo's head. Sounds something more like what a Makuta would do than a Toa, don't you agree?

The Toa of Gravity was shocked and surprised by this voice. Was he going insane and he was hearing multiple voices in his head, or was someone mentally speaking to him? Barilo was about to find out.

Who is there and how am I talking to you if I don't have a Suletu? Barilo asked the voice. Addis has the Suletu, not me. Am I going crazy?

You wish, Toa, The voice answered. You are not going insane. I am a Makuta and I want to help you, Toa.

Barilo didn't answer. He had never met a Makuta before and didn't know how to answer, so the Makuta went back on talking.

It may seem strange to you, Toa, to have a Makuta of all beings help you, The voice said. But I want the Dark Hunters off this island just as much as you and your friends do and I need a body if I am to help you.

But you still didn't answer my other question, Barilo thought(Or said, he wasn't quite sure which one it was in his mind). How come I can reply to you, even though I can't read your mind?

I bridged our minds together, Toa, the Makuta explained. We share a sort of psychic link now, so you can hear my thoughts and I can hear yours. Now do you agree to help me?

If you help me escape from the Dark Hunters, then I will, Barilo said to him. After that, we'll talk.

Good, good, very good, the Makuta said. I already have a plan and here's what you do.

As the Toa of Gravity listened to the Makuta's plan, he wondered if he made the right choice, Surely the others would agree with helping a Makuta if it meant that Shika Nui would be free. And who knows, maybe Barilo would become leader of the island and close it's border to all Dark Hunters.

It was well worth thinking about, Barilo decided. After all, the Dark Hunters say that Makuta are evil and cruel beings who don't care about anyone but themselves, but what if they aren't? What if they want to actually make world peace and the Dark Hunters are just trying to do the opposite? The Toa of Gravity decided to ask this Makuta about it sometime.

One thing is for sure, Barilo thought. This island will be freed of Dark Hunter tyranny and all be well.

Or so Barilo thought, but he would soon learn what happens when you trust a Makuta. He will learn that very soon indeed.

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