Obscurity

Obscurity is the seventh major installment in 's Fragmented Saga. It is set on Metru Nui in Fragmented Alternate Universe. It takes place during The Arker Chronicles.

Prologue
He first heard the screeching of the train stopping. Then, he heard the confused murmurs of the Matoran around him. He then heard the metal door slide open and a gun shot ring throughout the compartment. He finally heard the thud off a body hit the floor.

He opened his eyes.

Matoran had their hands in the air, all on their knees. There stood above them all a menacing hulking Ta-Matoran, machine gun in hand. The gun had smoke coming from it's barrel. A shell was on the floor next to his feet. In front of him was a Le-Matoran's body, the sliver floor splattered with blood. A wicked grin was spread across the gunman's face.

Walking between the seats of the Sub-Runner was a weak looking Ta-Matoran. He wore a Kaukau and grinned viciously around. He was coming towards the De-Matoran. The De-Matoran started to silently reach into his bag on the floor for his weapon. The Ta-Matoran got closer.

He continued to wear the infectious grin. The De-Matoran was still silently trying to grip his weapon. The Matoran was almost there. The De-Matoran had just touched his weapon. He heard someone clear their throat, and the De-Matoran looked up.

“Hello, petty Matoran, but I'm going to need you to kneel.” His eyes twinkled darkly.

The De-Matoran stared at the Matoran, who stared back. He still wore the same twisted smile. The De-Matoran noticed that he had a pistol clutched in his left hand at his side. The Ta-Matoran noticed what the De-Matoran was looking at and showed him the gun.

“Ah yes. I see you have noticed my weapon.” He smiled. “Now, if you don't play along, I will kill you.”

He was about to kneel, when he quick stuck his hand in and pulled out the grip of his gun. He squeezed and too black metal pieces came out, and then the barrel appeared out of that, and then a silver dagger like thing came out and rested upon the top of the barrel.

He fired.

A beam of light blue energy came out and struck the Ta-Matoran, sending him flying backwards. The brute had just turned his head when he was hit by the Ta-Matoran. They crashed through the door of the car.

Unfortunately, he had been in the last car of the sub train. They crashed through and fell unto the track. They were knocked out. The De-Matoran got up and looked at the Matoran lying on the ground. He was bleeding out from his shoulder. He went to his bag and grabbed a blanket. He tore it in half and gave it to a Ga-Matoran.

“Here. Wrap this around his shoulder. Make it tight, it'll stop the bleeding.” He said.

The Komau wearing Ga-Matoran looked up at him.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Going to go and see if we can get this train moving again before the next one comes up behind us and kills us all.” He said.

He started to walk away, but the Ga-Matoran called out after him.

“Who are you?” she asked.

He turned and smiled. “The name's Iyre.” And then he slide open the door and walked into the next car.

Chapter 1: Secrets in Shadows
They had gotten the train moving again, and about five minutes later, they had arrived in Onu-Metru. They had called ahead for an ambulance for the Le-Matoran, he had been carted away to a hospital upon the Sub-Runner's arrival. Iyre was standing in front of the entrance to the Archives, and when he turned around, he saw the Ga-Matoran coming towards him.

She reached out her hand for him to shake when she arrived. “I'm Amaya, by the way.” She said.

He looked at it for a second, and then extended his and shook hers. “Nice to meet you.” He said, and Iyre then walked away.

He glanced back, and Amaya was still standing there, looking at him.

The De-Matoran walked towards the Archives, and came to the employee entrance. He reached into his pack and grabbed his security pass. Working for MetruTech did have its advantages. He swiped the card across the pad. There was a robotic click and the door swung open. Walking into the Archives was refreshing, for he had finally reached his destination.

He walked through a corridor with several doors on the walls leading to back-entrances of the Archive's exhibits. Lights flickered overhead, his footsteps echoed down the corridor. He turned to a door that was near the end of the hallway. This wasn't an exhibit, however, this was an office. There was a faded golden strip across the door. It had a name: Onepu.

He swiped his card and the door clicked open. He knocked on the open door as he walked in. There was a Onu-Matoran sitting at a desk hunched over a piece of parchment and scribbling madly upon it. The Matoran still did not notice that Iyre's arrival.

Iyre grabbed a wretch off a table that was near the door and dropped it on the floor. The Onu-Matoran jumped and turned around very, very fast.

He was gasping. “Mata Nui, Iyre! You can't do that to me!”

The De-Matoran chuckled. “It's always a joy to scare the living Rahi out of you, Onepu.”

“Shut it.” Said Onepu.

Iyre walked around, looking at all the maps that were on his walls and the artifacts that he was displaying, and then looked back at the Onu-Matoran. “Where's this thing that you wanted to show me?”

Onepu gestured for Iyre to follow him, and he did. The Ba-Matoran colored Onu-Matoran walked through and open door and they came into a dark room. Onepu flipped a switch in the darkness and a huge lamp came into life and cast a bright yellow glow onto a black sheet of fabric on top of a lump of something.

Iyre looked at Onepu. “What is it?”

“Well, it is based on a design here in the Archives,” said Onepu. “It was used during the Teridax War of Metru Nui. They're called Vahki, which means Law in the Matoran Language.”

Onepu went to the black sheet, and pulled it off. It revealed a dark green robotic being. One of its legs had been torn off, and its head, which had a red helmet like thing, was broken apart. It was disturbing to look at. An engineer's nightmare.

“Not pretty, huh?” Said Onepu, noticing Iyre's expression. “Yeah, I get that feeling too,”

“Where did you find it?” Iyre asked, taking his eyes away from the slaughtered robotic carcass on the table to the purple armored Onu-Matoran next to him.

“We found it in a mining site that we were excavating and we found it's body in the collapsed tunnels underground,” he said. “But the odd thing is, it had only been there for two weeks.”

“What in Mata Nui's name was it doing down there?” Iyre asked.

“We don't know, and we can't look in its data-banks because they were crushed when the tunnel had collapsed,” said Onepu. “But it must've been down there for a reason. Like it was looking for something,”

“What would it have been looking for?” Iyre asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine. However, there is a anomaly down there, a giant space within the earth. When we discovered it, we assumed it was just a pocket that had been created during the Great Cataclysm. It might have been heading towards that,” Said Onepu.

“Alright, thank you. We'll be in touch.” Iyre said, starting to head for the door.

As he gripped the handle of the office door. Onepu came up to him.

“Iyre, I know you all too well to know that you're going to investigate this, and that's why I called you down here. You see, the Onu-Metru Law Enforcement won't allow me to investigate this, in fact, they're on their way here now. So, I need you to investigate this, find out what in Karzahni's name is going on here, and stop whatever it is.”

Iyre smiled. “I knew you'd say that.” And with that, he opened the door, and walked into the corridor.

* * *

The previous night.

The Toa of Iron sat in his lawn chair and gazed over the darkening skyline of Metru Nui. He reached over to a table that was beside him and grabbed a glass of Xian Ale. The Toa took a sip and held it in his hand, and he saw the city start to spring into the nightly light. Buildings now bright and obscuring the stars above. He wished they had stayed a little longer, but, the city would be gone soon anyway. His plot was simple, destroy this city, the Main City, if you will, after finding the artifact buried deep underground.

A anger suddenly came over him as he remembered being thrown out of his village as a Matoran. A feeble little weak Fe-Matoran being picked on by the hot-headed Ta-Matoran, that's why Ta-Metru would be the next to go after the Coliseum had been destroyed, and the Turaga dead.

He heard walking behind him, he turned and looked to see the shape of a Po-Matoran coming towards him. The Toa stood up to stare down at his Matoran servant.

“Sir, we have sent out another drone, but it has to make its way under the sewers this time to reach the excavation site, for they have brought in the Oun-Metru Law Enforcement to guard their precious site.” Said the Po-Matoran.

The Toa of Iron sighed as he was delivered this news. He would have to put his plans on hold if this took too long.

“How long will it be digging for?”

“About twenty four-hours, don't worry, it won't be very long.” Assured the Po-Matoran.

“Good.” Said the Toa.

Taking a slightly longer sip of his Xian Ale, the Toa thought of his plans again, bigger now, for he knew how long it would take the drone to get to the site. A foul thought crossed his mind, and his chest started to feel heavy as his chest muscles tightened up. He may be a Toa of Iron, but that didn't mean that he was entirely made of it. The Toa was experiencing anxiety.

“What of the one they recovered? Can you find the beacon, can they find us?” He asked as his anxiety grew larger.

“I don't know yet, sir. I'll work on it-.”

The glass of ale exploded as his hand crushed it due to his massive anxiety. He was so nervous, that his iron swords had formed on his knuckles. He looked at them in the light of the vast city. The Toa lifted them in front of his face, and examined them. They were razor sharp, and they did the job. He loved these swords.

The Po-Matoran spoke again. “Remember, the infiltration begins tomorrow.”

“Good, good. Now be gone with you,” said the Toa of Iron.

The Po-Matoran bowed and walked away and through a door. He retracted his blades and sat down. He stared over the great city of Metru Nui, and he couldn't wait to conquer it.

* * *

The present.

A shadow in the dark, lost dreams, nothing was right.

She rose up in her bed, sheets covering the front of her body. She had gone to bed early today as soon as she had arrived home, for she wanted to try and regather her strength from the happenings of today. It was nearly impossible, there had been so much blood, so many tears, too many guns.

She then remembered the bravest Matoran she had ever seen, he had taken out the robbers, the heist men, and then helped her save a Matoran's life.

Iyre.

She barely knew him, but she felt safe when he showed up into her life, even before the train had been highjacked. She needed to contact him again, maybe they could become friends, that would be nice.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her door opening. She turned and saw a black armored Matoran, carrying a muffled gun. She almost screamed, but a bullet whizzed through the air almost silently, and went straight through her head. Her lifeless body fell onto the blue sheets, and they then started to be stained red. The murder left, like he was never even there.

A secret in the shadows.

* * *

“It's time.” She said. The curtains were drawn, the room was dark. He stood in the shadows, as he always did. He nodded and walked out the door. She stood there, and then she made her way back to her desk. She brought up a holographic map of the island of Metru Nui. She knew that the island was going to be targeted, she just didn't know how and didn't know when. She hated it when she didn't know these things.

She leaned back in her chair and waited for twenty minutes until a red dot started to blink onto the screen. It kept moving and blinking, and getting closer and closer until it stopped in Oun-Metru. A smile escaped from inside her and was spread across her mouth. She quickly got rid of it.

She turned off the hologram and sat back in her chair, and closed her eyes. She needed sleep, because a war was coming, and she needed all the strength she could get for it.

Chapter 2: Captured
He flew his craft over the magnificent Metru of Onu-Metru. The invisibility was on as always, he couldn't let anyone see him. He looked for the Archives, he needed to find a De-Matoran who they had collected intell on, and that he had a Power Gem. He saw the Archives, and started his descent.

He landed, and he grabbed his pack and walked out. He looked around and walked towards the employees' door. He grabbed a card from his pack and swiped it. The door clicked open, and he walked in.

* * *

Iyre walked along the corridor, thinking about what these 'Vahki' were up to. But he stopped when he heard the metal door swing open. He quickly dove into a storage room and looked through the crack. He heard footsteps, and those footsteps were soon flowed by the shape of a Ko-Matoran wearing a Kanohi Iden.

That was strange, seeing a Ko-Matoran in Onu-Metru. Maybe he got sick of the Knowledge Towers and wanted to take a break here. He saw the Matoran walk out of his range of vision. He opened the door slowly and looked out.

The Matoran was going to go to the loading docks. He saw him get to the door and swipe his card, and the door swung open. He was about to go in when he turned around and looked back down the corridor. Iyre ducked his head in when he did.

He waited for a few long moments, waiting to hear the door lock notifying that the Matoran had entered into the docks. Once that happened, Iyre stood up and walked slowly towards the door, checking his back in case he was being followed.

After he was sure no one was following him, he made his way to the door. He used his key card and the door clicked open. He slowly opened it and peered into the docks. It was pretty deserted, strange for the Archives. He saw the Ko-Matoran slowly stalking his way out of this section of the docks.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, and managed it. He made his way in and followed the Ko-Matoran.

As he made his way across the loading docks, he passed by the occasional group of Onu-Matoran struggling with a strange Rahi they had just got out of a crate. He let them do their job, because he knew how Onu-Matoran got when you disturbed them during their work.

The Ko-Matoran turned a corner and Iyre followed. When he went around the corner he found himself hurtling towards the ground. He turned over to see a gun in his face, the Ko-Matoran right on top of him.

“Who the hell are you?” The Ko-Matoran asked.

“Who are you?” Asked Iyre.

The Ko-Matoran slapped Iyre. “I asked you first,” he said.

“Fine fine, my name is Iyre,” said the De-Matoran.

“Oh, good, I've been searching for you, Iyre,”

“Why are you looking for me?” Asked Iyre.

“My name is Glonor,” said the Ko-Matoran. “and now you've got to come with me,”

“Why would I come with some ugly Ko-Matoran?” said Iyre.

The Ko-Matoran laughed at the last remark. “Yeah, says the De-Matoran following a Ko-Matoran,”

“For the record, I look just like a Onu-Matoran,” said Iyre.

“Come on, let's go.” He held Iyre down and pulled out a pair of black hand-cuffs and put them around the De-Matoran's wrists. He then hoisted Iyre up and grabbed his arm and pulled him out to the door. They went into the corridor and walked down it until they reached end.

Glonor opened the door and Iyre looked to see several Onu-Metru Law Enforcement transport vehicles coming towards them. Suddenly, he was jerked to the side by Glonor as they traveled down a side passage.

They came into a small area that had trash laying about, dumpsters were upended, and bullet shells were scattered across the ground. Glonor pulled out a device from a slot in his armor. He pressed a button on it and suddenly a small, jet black, aircraft appeared in front of them.

“Holy crap, a vanishing aircraft? That's awesome!” Iyre shouted out loud. Glonor then punched him in the arm.

“Keep your voice down!” He snarled.

Iyre then shut his mouth instantly. Glonor then pressed another button and a small path way came from the belly of the aircraft. Glonor pulled Iyre up onto the path and then walked up into the ship. They came into about a ten-by-ten foot room.

There were benches on both sides of the room, and Glonor pushed Iyre onto one of them. He then walked over to a door and placed his hand on a pad next to the door. The door hissed and then slide upwards. He walked through it into what appeared to Iyre as the cockpit. The door slide closed after Glonor took his seat.

Iyre was left for a few moments until he heard the roar of the engines and the kick from when they went into the air. He felt them getting higher and higher, and then suddenly burst into a huge speed. Iyre was launched backwards and onto the back wall with the huge burst.

“I hate hard-ice Ko-Matoran.” Iyre mumbled.

* * *

Echoes were heard as he walked down the corridor. His Paraki was in the shape of deep thought, and he was not focused on the path in front of him.

This caused problems.

An agent was walking around the corner with a cart of Zamor Spheres. As the figure was so focused on his thoughts, he walked straight into the cart and the spheres all fell to the floor and exploded. Green gas came from where the spheres had fallen.

The figure waved it away from him with his hand. He then saw several burn marks in the white metal floor. He looked at the agent, who was also trying to get rid of the gas. He looked up at the figure and cursed a few times before making a coherent sentence.

“Damnit, Echo! I was running those down to Mersery's lab for him from the east wing! Now I have to go back and wait fifteen minutes for them to create new ones! I expected you to be more careful that this! Crap!” he shouted. His shouts echoed down the corridor.

“My sincere apologies, Faz. I haven't been getting as much sleep as I should. In fact, I was walking to my quarters right now.” Echo said. He really was tired, the threat on Metru Nui, struggles with Shadow's End, it had started to finally take its toll on Echo.

“Well, first you're going to have to replace these Zamor Spheres. So, you could just teleport down there...”

Echo looked puzzled. “What do you mean by 'teleport'? You should know that it's impossible to teleport inside of the Order's base. Everyone knows,”

“Oh yes, right. I seem to have forgotten.” Said Faz.

Echo raised his eyebrow in question. Why would he forget such a thing? But before he could ask, Faz started to speak.

“Well, if you need sleep, and I need to get Zamor Spheres to Mersery, then we need to start moving.” Said Faz.

Echo looked at him suspiciously, and then decided to play along for know. He then walked down the corridor, with Faz pushing the cart. They walked down the corridor towards the weaponry. They came to the room and started up the machine. The lights glowed green, and its hum was soothing.

After about fifteen minutes, it dinged to signify that the Zamor Spheres were finally complete. Echo must have drifted off because when it dinged, he jumped with surprise at it. Faz walked over to the machine and opened a hatch. The Zamor Spheres rolled gently out of the machine and into a soft padded area.

He picked them up with a padded glove and put them into the cart. Echo was about to walk over and assist him when Faz turned around with a Zamor Sphere in his hand and then suddenly threw it at him. Echo's reflexes were trained enough for him to be able to dodge the Sphere as it flew through the air at him. Echo did a back flip and land with one knee on the ground.

Faz had grabbed another one and threw it at the Order Agent. Echo dodged it was great ease. Faz continued to throw the acid green Zamor Spheres at Echo until Echo eventually grabbed his Areo Blade and used it to cut the Spheres into halves. Echo ran at Faz as Faz continued to throw the Spheres. Echo managed to destroy every one of them until the room was filled with lime gas.

Echo was right in front of Faz and Faz threw a Sphere right at him, but Echo had jumped out of the way and had run up the wall and flipped around and landed onto Faz's shoulders. The traitor fell to the ground with a massive thud as Echo had used his weight to bring him down.

Echo flipped off of him and landed with his back turned to him. Faz slowly got up and made his way to grab another Zamor Sphere with his right arm. Echo quickly turn around and with a upwards motion, sliced Faz's right arm clean off. He screamed in pain and covered up the now rapidly bleeding wound.

And with a twister-kick, Echo knocked Faz out cold. He raised his hand to his ear and pressed on a little speaker on his ear.

“This is Echo reporting from the Weaponry; Zamor Sphere section that we have a traitor in the building, come and retrieve him. Echo out.”

He lowered his hand from his ear and stared at the unconscious being known as Faz, a traitor to the Order, and the will of Mata Nui.

* * *

Glonor's Air Craft flew over the very small and insignificant islands of the Matoran Universe. The palm trees on the islands almost snapped off as he flew past them. He kicked up sand, dirt, and water as he flew at such a high speed. He was carrying a passenger, and his name was Iyre, and he was hand-cuffed in the backseat.

“Hey, Ko-Matoran! When are we going to get to wherever we're going?” Iyre shouted from the backseat behind a steel door. Glonor didn't answer him.

Iyre was irritated by this. So, he continued to yell out he heard the sound of the ship going into auto-pilot and the door opening with the setting twin suns blinding him. He saw the shape of the Ko-Matoran standing in the doorway, but he was obscured in shadows. That was ironic considering that his armor was naturally white. He then remembered how that happens when the sun's right behind something, like the solar eclipse of the twin suns.

He then walked into the back and the door slide close behind him. His colors were now fully visible in the rebalanced lighting. He walked over to the De-Matoran and then slugged him in the face with his fist.

“I don't like loud De-Matoran, I thought you guys were supposed to be quiet,” he said.

“Well, I tend to wear volume adjusters in my ears to I can't be bothered if something is too loud,”

Glonor smiled. “Go figure, but now shut up, we're nearly there.” He then turned around and walked back into the cockpit.

Making sure he was back to piloting the craft, and hearing the sound of the engine kicking back into manual pilot mode, he lifted up in front of his face the keys to the hand-cuffs on his wrists. He unlocked himself and slowly made his way to get off the bench he was sitting on.

He was about to walk over to the door and open to jump his Ko-Matoran captor but the ship jerk to right and he fell forward to land on a bag that appeared to be stuffed with food. From the feel of it, it sounded like bagged food. Fortunately for him, it made no noise. He got up again, fortunate for the conveniently soft landing.

He made his way towards the door, hoping for no more jerks or mishaps. However, he was to be proved wrong as the ship jerked again, but this time to the left. This time he was prepared, however, as he grabbed onto storage netting on the ceiling.

After regaining his footing, he reached into his pack and grabbed the grip of his gun. He put his thumb on a button and it sprung out from the grip into the shape of his gun. He set it to stun, and got closer to the door. He was about to open it when the ship jerked so hard he fell to the ground with a very, very loud thud.

The ship had begun to land.

When he fell, he lost his grip on his gun and it tumbled away. He was about to go get it when it retracted and fell through the grating on the floor. He crawled over and tried to reach it, but he couldn't quite get to it.

He heard the door open and Glonor came into the back with a gun pointed at Iyre. Iyre was about to make a move when the platform that you entered the craft with suddenly opened and several Order of Mata Nui guards came in wearing black armor and had machine guns pointed at him.

Glonor smiled at Iyre shocked face. “Welcome, Iyre, to Daxia, the base of operations of the Order of Mata Nui.”

The Order agents then grabbed Iyre and dragged him out of the craft. They were on a giant landing pad next to a giant watch tower. They were heading towards a door at the bottom of the tower, they scanned their keycards and their handprints and the door clicked open. They pulled him inside and down a spiral staircase.

They came to a door at the bottom of the staircase and opened it. They pulled him into a corridor that had white floors and silver walls. They walked down the corridor and passed another squad of Order agents, who were escorting a red and black armored being who appeared to be unconscious, and his right arm was missing, and bandaged with a white cloth that was stained with blood. After they passed, Iyre noticed that a blue and black armored being wearing a Kanohi Paraki.

He then stopped at the sight of them, and he walked over to them.

“Good, you brought the De-Matoran you were assigned to capture, but I expected no less from you,” he said tiredly.

“Thank you, sir. You sound tired, you should get some rest,” Glonor said.

Echo chuckled. “That is exactly where I'll be heading after I make sure that this traitor winds up in the prison block safely,” he said, gesturing to the red and black armored being.

“Good. I am currently needing permission to have Iyre here see Helryx,” Glonor said.

“You'll have to put him in the prison block for tonight, seeing as Helryx is seeing to something else at the moment.” Echo said.

“Yes sir,” Glonor said, getting ready to head to the prison block.

“You can't do this! I want a reason for having to be kidnapped, dragged into this place, and now having to be put in jail...” Iyre protested, but Echo had pulled out a small spray bottle and had squeezed out a knock out gas in the form of mist into Iyre's face.

And Iyre slipped into darkness.

Chapter 3: The Blood Cell
The night died away and the twin suns rose over the horizon. They were bright and beautiful. Looking the other direction was where the sky was violet, growing lighter and lighter as the suns rose. The night was being pushed back, the suns were pushing back the dark.

The light shone over the island of Daxia, where the Order of Mata Nui's base was established long ago in the distant past of the long history of this Universe. It was concealed in the mountain, and went deep underground.

Iyre began to regain consciousness in his four-by-four cell in the prison block. He looked out the frosted glass walls of the cell, and which seemed to be unbreakable. He could still make out shapes fairly easily, however.

He saw several more cells identical to his own, lined up in straight rows. He even saw, right across from him, the red and black armored being he had seen earlier, the one with the missing right arm. He appeared to be unconscious, either that, or he was just sulking there, not paying attention to anything but his own thoughts. It was very difficult to tell through the frosted glass.

He leaned back in his cell against the wall and looked towards the ceiling. It was a vet like opening in the ceiling. He suddenly got a great idea, but, it was probably to fail seeing as the rest of the cell was unbreakable.

Before he even tried it, the double doors to the room slid open and the figure of “Echo” came into the room. He walked over to Iyre's cell and opened the door to it, which was one of the four walls of the cell. Iyre looked up at the figure of Echo, and frowned.

“Get out of your cell, it is time to go see Helryx,” Echo said, gesturing towards the double doors.

“Figured that,” Iyre sulked.

They walked towards the doors and they slid open. They walked into a corridor identical to the last one he had seen when he arrived here. Echo grabbed Iyre's arm as if to retrain him, and that's exactly what he was doing. Iyre looked at Echo and frowned.

“Is this really necessary?” Iyre asked.

Echo said nothing. He decided to just roll with it for now, and see what the outcome was to be. They turned around a corner and continued to walk. They walked past a red and black armored being that appeared to be female. She looked back at them, and smiled. He looked back to where he was heading.

After walking for what seemed like miles, they finally arrived at a door that read 'Helryx' on it. Echo placed his hand on a handprint reader, and the door slid open.

They had crossed the threshold between sparkling clean military base to the warm, cozy, even inviting room of an office. The room was dim, with the only light coming from the closed blinds of the room. He could make out a bookshelf on one of the walls, and another shelf on the wall that was next to it. This shelf had a square in the center of it, where a mask was being illuminated by a display light. It was also behind glass.

'Helryx' apparently wanted this to be noticed. The Mask in particular looked very sinister, like it was meant and created only for evil. It was scratched and chipped, battered and dented. It was just horrible to look at. Thus he looked away with disgust, and instead looked at the blinds, where he then saw a figure standing there.

The figure turned around and clicked their fingers. Several small lights in the ceiling sprung into life, blinding the De-Matoran for a second. When everything was back to normal, he saw a Toa of Water standing in front of him, hands behind her back, towering above him. She had a gun holstered to the side of her upper right leg.

She smiled. “Hello, Iyre. I am Toa Helryx, and I'm in charge around here,” she said.

She walked over to the shelf with the mask in it and pressed a button on it. The floor three feet from her feet split open and a glass desk arose from the opening. It stopped and she walked to the center of it from behind and placed her hands on the desk. A holographic 'monitor' appeared in front of her, with a login screen on it, and she entered a password on a keybroad on the desk.

The login screen vanished, and a video of five very familiar Toa appeared on the screen. It was from a CCTV camera Metru Nui, walking towards what appeared to be the Coliseum. She minimized the image after she noticed he was looking.

“Hey, I know those Toa!” Iyre said, pointing at the hologram.

“I know,” said Helryx. “and that's why you're here,”

She walked out from behind the desk and back in front of the De-Matoran. “I know, and that's why you're here.

“We detected a energy reading coming from the Archive, the energy reading of a Power Stone. And then energy has been tracked to Metru Nui specifically, Ta-Metru, where you live.”

“What do you mean? What do I have?” Iyre asked.

“You have the Power Stone of Water, Iyre,” Helryx said, her voice warm and inviting. Something wasn't right.

“What do you want with this 'Power Stone of Water', exactly?” Iyre asked.

She looked down and smiled. “You see this mask, here?” she gestured towards the mask displayed in her bookcase. “This mask is a very dangerous relic, and the Power Stones are as well. They are needed to help Shadow's End destroy the Dark Shadow.”

“You don't need to give the story of the Dark Shadow, because I read it in the Archive,” Iyre said.

“I wasn't going to, seeing as I knew you must have read it, as it was listed in Shadow's End's report of your attacking of them.” Helryx said.

“They wanted the Stone. I found it, it's my property!” Iyre shouted, walking towards Helryx. Echo quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Iyre gave in.

“You and agent Glonor are going to go back to Ta-Metru and get your Power Stone from your house, and bring it back here,” Helryx said, walking back over to her desk.

The door slid open and Glonor came in, flanked by two guards in black armor holding SMGs. Iyre looked back and smiled.

“Let's go get that Stone.” Glonor said.

Iyre rolled his eyes and walked out of the office with Glonor. They walked down the corridor and took a right, coming back to the spiral staircase in which they entered the complex. They walked up it and back to the runway where Iyre saw Glonor craft docked on a square that was outlined by white paint.

Glonor pressed a button on his remote and the staircase descended and landed on the concrete. Glonor gestured for Iyre to go first, and Iyre did. Glonor followed. Iyre sat back down on the bench he sat on before, but Glonor looked at him.

“You can sit up front if you want,” Glonor said.

“Nah, I never liked smart-acting Ko-Matoran anyway. I'll just cozy on up back here,” Iyre spat.

Glonor shrugged and walked through the doorway to the cockpit. The door slid close, and the engines roared into life. They ascended to the heavens, and flew towards Metru Nui.

* * *

About a hour later, Iyre had managed to grab his weapon from the grating in Glonor's ship. He looked it over and it was fine, he then placed it in his pack and sat back down.

Iyre felt them slowing down, as he flew to the floor from the sudden shortage of speed. They then came to a complete stop and started to descend. He felt the shake from when it landed, and Glonor's door slid open.

“Alright, Iyre. Let's go,” he said, pressing a button near the entrance to the craft and the stairway descended. He walked down the staircase, and then Iyre followed. They were in Ta-Metru. They were in the resident inhabitant part of the Metru, where Iyre's house was.

They walked down the street past several houses where Ta-Matoran were either walking in, walking out, or sitting in front of with a chair reading a book. They weren't familiar with De-Matoran in Ta-Metru, or Metru Nui in general. They were, however, familiar with Ko-Matoran, but not normally in Ta-Metru. They thought that they belonged in the Knowledge Towers, looking to the future, studying what is to come.

As they walked to Iyre's house, a friend of Iyre's came up to him. He wore a black Kaukau. His name was Nuhrii.

“Hey Iyre, why weren't you at your house last night?” He asked, and then looked at the Ko-Matoran next to him. “Who's this? A little far from the Knowledge Towers, you know,”

Glonor grinned. Iyre's mind was thinking of a good lie. “Um, I spent the night in Ga-Metru, at my girlfriend's house, Nala,” Iyre lied.

“Alright then, she's a nice girl. Glad for you, I just didn't know you two were a item,” Nuhrii said.

“Oh yeah, but we kept it a secret, so don't tell anyone, or even her, or she'll kill me. You know what I'm saying, right?” Iyre said, deepening the lie.

“Of course, buddy. Anyways, I'm off to the forge to make a few Masks, but I get off of work in like six hours for Naming Day tomorrow. Bye guys.” And with that, he ran off towards the main city of Ta-Metru.

After he was sure he was gone, Glonor let out a laugh. “A girlfriend? Really? Who even is this 'Nala', Iyre?”

“A good friend of mine, but I know we're into each other, I think,” Iyre said.

“Love is a new thing that's come about, the Order's been investigating that for a while.” Glonor walked off.

They reached Iyre's house and Iyre grabbed the keys from his pack and went to unlock the door, but found that the door had already been busted open. The two Matoran exchanged looks and they both grabbed their guns. They pointed them out and Glonor kicked open the door and looked around for anybody, but found nothing, except for Iyre's house a mess.

Chairs were broken, books were shreds on the floor, food was smashed and now it looked as if a Matoran child had tried to draw art on the wall with the guts of the smashed food. A table was up ended, where several broken bits of electronics were scattered across the floor along with a broken lamp.

In summary, the house had been completely ransacked.

A anxious face came across Iyre. He made his way through the mess of his house and made his way in bedroom, which had also been ransacked, and he removed a picture of The Three Virtues to reveal a safe, or, what was left of a safe. The door had been incinerated, and everything in it was on the floor, all except for the Power Stone of Water.

Iyre cursed. “They took it! Whoever they are took the Stone!”

He looked at Glonor, who was already talking into a device. He was most likely communicating with the Order of Mata Nui. Iyre looked around his house some more, seeing the walls ripped and cracked, the bed torn apart.

“Alright, Helryx has tracked the stone to somewhere in the main city of Ta-Metru, so we better head to the city,” Glonor said, walking towards the door.

Iyre looked around one last time, and then he walked toward the door after Glonor.

* * *

In his four-by-four cell, his feet were propped up against one of the fours walls of his cell. His shoulder wound had been patched, but it still stung. He assumed Echo had insured that. Faz moved his feet down and, painfully, stood up. He looked around, not that he could see much with the forested glass. He sighed and grabbed a small device from within his armor.

“Rise again.” He muttered.

Faz pressed the one button on the device and he disappeared, only be replaced by what he had been comprised of.

* * *

The two Matoran walked down the street on which Iyre's home was. They hadn't made it very far when they saw a squad of Ta-Metru Law Enforcement officers arrive in several hovering vehicles. They leap out in black armor, similar to those at the Order of Mata Nui's base, however these were Matoran, not whatever beings those others were.

They looked at a house several rows down from Iyre's, and were prepared to bust in and do their job. Iyre didn't know whose house that was, but he did wonder what they were doing. Was it a drug bust? What it a arrest? Were they looking for bombs or something from a recently caught criminal?

They brought out a battering ram, but placed it down after one of the officers tried the door, which was unlocked. They rushed in.

Glonor saw what Iyre was watching, and made him turn around and watch where he was going. They walked on, until they heard a sound that was louder than thunder, as loud as a bomb going off instead. They suddenly saw that they had three shadows. They turned around and saw a massive fireball coming from where the house that police went in to. Four houses on either side of the explosion, and from the other side of the fence that divided the two streets, burned to ash. The vehicles that the police had arrived in were blown away, dented, scratched, and burning.

Matoran were either launched into the air or were running for their lives. Debris was falling from the sky, along with ash that made it seem as if it was snowing in Ta-Metru. They ran towards the house to investigate what had happened. Iyre slowed down to help up a Ta-Matoran that had been knocked over by the blast.

Glonor made it to the former building, where it was only a crater now. He swore under his breath and looked around, and he walked over to the few remains of a Ta-Metru Law Enforcement officer, where only his burned torso remained. No one in a sixty foot radius survived the blast.

He stood up and walked off towards the city. The Ta-Metru Fire Squad arrived, and they started to put out the fires and help any Matoran who needed it. Glonor walked past Iyre and grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him up. Iyre followed.

“What are we doing?” Iyre asked.

“We're going to go to the Ta-Metru Law Enforcement headquarters and-,” he was cut off by the sound of his device beeping. He pulled it out and put it to his ear.

“Yes Helryx?” He spoke into the device.

“Have you found the Stone?” Helryx asked.

“There was a massive explosion here. Iyre and I are going to go to the Law Enforcement and ask some questions,” Glonor said.

“Good. But at all costs, find that Stone. Helryx out.” She said, and the link went dead.

Glonor hung up and placed it on his side. They continued to walk towards the main city of Ta-Metru.

* * *

Iyre breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the main city of Ta-Metru. He heard the sound of Matoran whizzing through chutes, the sound of fire blazing in forges, the sound of Kanohi being struck by hammers, which were wielded by their Ta-Matoran crafters. Even in this modern day and age, Kanohi crafting was still a beautiful art, and should not be forgotten.

They looked around and saw the Ta-Metru Law Enforcement building. Matoran were running about everywhere. They were panicking, probably panicking about the explosion in the Resident Sector. The Matoran were responding to complaints from all over Ta-Metru. It didn't take a genius to figure that they were responding to calls about the explosion.

They walked in through the glass doors and into the reception area. Matoran where also hurrying their way through there. It was mess. The receptionist was busy filing papers and typing madly into a Data-Hub. Iyre and Glonor came up to the receptionist, who didn't take any notice of them.

There was a small silver bell on the counter. The two Matoran looked at each other, and Iyre stretched his hand out dinged the small little silver bell. After that, the whole reception area went dead silent, and all eyes were on them. The receptionist had stopped work and looked up at them. She was wearing a lense on both of her eye holes on her Kanohi that allowed her to see well.

Glonor didn't look at all worried about the situation. “I would like to speak with the Chief, or Deputy, if either one aren't busy,”

The receptionist just stared at him. “Um, they're busy right now. Really busy, and they can't be disturbed.”

“I would assume so, but I need to talk with them. Now,” he said.

The receptionist gave him a look that was worried, like she didn't know what to do know. She had run out of logical lies, for she seemed smart enough not to say things like 'oh, I'm sorry, but they're about to leave right now to go to the crime scene' or any of that junk, so she was now at a loss for words.

“I, um, well...” She couldn't finish her incoherent response because there was a massive noise that sounded like thunder.

Glonor knew what it was instantly. “DUCK!!!” He shouted.

That was then followed by a fireball that blasted the wall behind the reception desk to shreds, along with the doors to the area beyond the reception. Iyre and Glonor had ducked, along with the receptionist. Everyone else had been standing in the reception area just stood there, waiting for whatever had happened, were completely incinerated by the blast. Either that, or they were launched into the parking lot, which involved going through the glass, and onto the pavement.

Thankfully, the desk had been made of metal, and was a rectangle. The ceiling began to crumble, the air was full of smoke and debris. It was chaos. The blast had ended, but its damage was still to show. The ceiling cracked and began to sag. The ceiling suddenly gave away, and fell upon them. Glonor shielded his head with his arm, but that wouldn't do much.

Iyre tried to get around to the other side of the desk, where the receptionist was, for there was a space beneath the top of the table, but a chunk of debris fell onto his head and it drove his head into the carpet hard, knocking him out cold.

* * *

His vision was fuzzy, he could only see a bunch of moving colors. He was outside, for he could feel the wind upon his face, and the light from the twin moons upon his eyes. He heard someone talking into a device, and another voice where the audio was filled with the crackling sound of static.

He looked around and he saw several medical vehicles around, with some Law Enforcement officers from Le-Metru and Ga-Metru helping with the crisis. He was on a portable bed. He looked towards the Ta-Metru Law Enforcement building, where all the glass had been blown out (both top and bottom floors), the walls on the outside of the building were also cracked and torn. And the whole top half of the building was missing, shreds of it were littered across the parking lot.

Glonor walked over to him. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Iyre got out of the bed. He moaned and groaned in pain as he did it. “I've seen better days,” the De-Matoran said wearily.

“We need to find out what the hell's going on,” Glonor started to walk away. Iyre followed, but then he heard something, like a bomb going off, but it was far away. Then he heard another. He saw the Law Enforcement from Ga-Metru and Le-Metru turn at the sound of the explosions, and they saw two smoke clouds, one coming for Ga-Metru, the other coming from Le-Metru. They packed up and got into their vehicles, leaving a few officers and paramedics to deal with the scene here.

“They've bombed Ga-Metru and Le-Metru!” Iyre said. When he turned around, he saw Glonor heading inside the Law Enforcement building. Iyre followed.

They stepped over the broken glass, and past a Le-Matoran officer who was hurrying out to a vehicle. The reception area was blown to bits. Iyre looked around and saw the receptionist trying to salvage anything from her desk.

She saw them go through what was left of the doorway to the back room and just let them pass, too shocked to know what to do next. They walked in through what had been a doorway, and now was just a large hole in the wall. The plaster from the wall was still slowly coming down, like snow was falling from the ceiling.

He looked around and saw the staircase to where the upstairs had been, but it was partly destroyed from the explosion, but it had been made out of a very fine material. Glonor started to go up the staircase, and he made it to where it stopped, six feet from the top.

“How are you going to get up there now? Hardcore-parkour?” Iyre asked.

“Exactly.” Glonor said. He jumped and grabbed onto a piece of metal sticking out of the wall to his left. He used it to swing around, and when he had enough momentum, he flew up and landed on the base of the second floor.

“Now how am I going to get up there?” Iyre asked. He saw Glonor walk away, and a few moments later, he reappeared with a piece of metal about seven feet long, and he placed it between the gap. Iyre smiled and walked up to the second floor.

When he got up, he looked around. He saw Ta-Metru all around him, smoke and steam coming from everywhere. But, he saw something else; in the far distance he saw two smoke stacks coming from probably Onu-Metru and Ko-Metru. He could also see faintly a smoke stack coming from Po-Metru. There were smoke stacks coming from Po-Metru, Onu-Metru, Le-Metru, Ga-Metru, Ko-Metru, and Ta-Metru.

There must have been an explosion in every major Metru in Metru Nui. He would bet widgets that all the Law Enforcement buildings had also been bombed. He looked around for Glonor, who was crouched down beside something. Iyre walked over to him.

“What is it?” Iyre asked. “What's wrong?”

Glonor picked up the thing, which was a fragment of what seemed like a bomb. He stood up and turned around to face Iyre. After looking at it for a long moment, he looked up at the De-Matoran, a look of betrayal across his face.

“This is a bomb from the Order. There is only one way it got out here,” Glonor said.

“How?” Iyre asked.

“There is a traitor within the Order of Mata Nui.” Glonor said grimly.

* * *

He walked along the halls of the Order of Mata Nui. He walked past the prison block, where a team of cleaners were cleaning out Faz's cell. It was a shame he had to kill himself, but he wasn't mentally capable of keeping secrets. Faz had been one of his oldest friends, and now he's dead.

But that was no worry, for they had about a dozen agents within the Order, ready to strike at command. The Order isn't unbreachable, it never has been. Sure, if they hadn't interfered at the very beginning of the Order, then it would be.

One of the first members of the Order had been a traitor, and recruited more members for their movement as they joined. Sure, not all of the Order was part of their movement, but the majority of it is. Most of the high-ranking members of the Order are traitors. The perfect weapon.

He walked down the hallway and came to Helryx's door. He knocked a few times.

“Yes? Who is it?” Helryx's voice came over the intercom.

“It's me, Aldas.” He said. He waited a moment, and the door slid open. What Helryx did not notice when he walked in, was that he was holding a gun in his hand.

The door slid closed, and six muffled shots rang out from the room.

Then something hit the floor with a thud.

Chapter 4: Urgency
The Toa of Iron surveyed the CCTV footage of the explosions in Metru Nui on seven separate monitors. All the Metru Nui Law Enforcement buildings were now burnt to a crisp. He hated Ta-Matoran most, so he had added a little extra explosion in the home of one of his master's minions. They would have exposed the organization he worked for, but he had been prepared for it.

He stood up and switched off the monitors. He walked out of the room and into one of the silver and white corridors of the Order of Mata Nui's base. He looked around and saw five Toa down the corridor. They entered a stairwell and disappeared.

He walked past Helryx's office, where several Order agents were searching it, and they also carried out a Toa of the Green with six gun shot wounds in his arms and chest. He hadn't killed Helryx like he was programed to. What a waste of a ten thousand widgets. He sighed and continued to walk. Helryx was now investigating her attempted homicide or something else.

He walked down the corridor some more, taking a few turns, and came to the door of Mersery's lab. Before he even knocked on the door, it slide open and a Toa of Water came out the door. She bore a Kanohi Tyrna, and was clad in navy blue and black armor, and had a sword tucked in her arm.

“Oh, why, hello there. Who are you?” the Toa of Water asked.

“I'm 'Dlas'. And you are?” he asked.

“I'm ATP-001, or you can just call me Niha to make it simpler for you,” she said happily.

“Sure, whatever. I need to see Mersery,” he said.

“Go ahead. He's very friendly.” And with that, she skipped off down the corridor.

The Toa of Iron looked around to see if anyone was watching. Then when he was sure no one was, he walked in the door. He closed it and sealed it with his powers over iron and metal. He saw that there was a tall being, clad in black and silver armor. He was looking through a box of electronics and what not.

It wasn't until the Toa of Iron extended his swords.

The being known as Mersery turned around and saw the Toa of Iron standing there. He saw that he had his weapons drawn, and also that they seemed to be attached to him, like they were part of him. It was indeed odd, but what was even odder was that he was in his lab, and that he looked like he was about to kill him.

“Hello, Mersery,” the Toa of Iron said.

“Um, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you around before,” said the Mersion, puzzled.

“I'm here on orders from the top, well, the true leader of this organization.” Smiled the Toa.

Then without further ado, the Toa of Iron took a slash at Mersery. Mersery dodged it only by an inch and leap back. The Toa took another slash at the Mersion, and the tall being moved out of the way and the Toa cut the padded metal chair where patients sat clean in two.

Mersery grabbed his staff from the corner of the room and summoned the power of the Red Crystal embedded in the staff. The staff began to glow crimson, and when the Toa tried to hit Mersery, it rebounded and blasted the Toa back. He hit the wall and made a massive dent in it.

He shook it off and got back up and charged at the Mersion again. Mersery stuck out his staff and another energy blast erupted from it, sending the Toa crashing through the door and into the hallway. He got up and looked around and saw several Order agents drawing their weapons, coming towards him. He saw “Niha” amongst them. They all had weapons pointed at him. Mersery walked out of the room.

The Toa was about to attack him when Mersery used his energy staff to place energy restraints on his arms and legs. The Toa tried to break out of them, but they only got tighter. He also began to feel weaker, a lot weaker.

His vision began to blur, and Mersery punched him in the face, rocking his protosteel skull which encased his brain, knocking him unconscious.

Glonor and Iyre were walking through the streets of Ta-Metru at a very fast pace. They needed to find the Power Stone of Water and whoever was bombing Metru Nui. They both assumed they were one and the same. They had called Helryx and asked where the tracking put the Stone, but she said she could only get a faint trace coming from Onu-Metru.

They were heading for the craft when six Order of Mata Nui vehicles surrounded them. They were all black. The backs opened up and six black armored soldiers carrying SMGs came jumping out of the back of each vehicle, so thirty-six soldiers in all sent from the Order of Mata Nui.

They surrounded them and pointed their guns at the two Matoran. Glonor made to pull out his gun, but they shot at his feet to warn him not to. Iyre didn't even try. They both raised their hands high above their heads.

“What in the name of Karzahni do you want?” Glonor spat at them, but none of them answered.

“You're hereby under arrest by the Order of Mata Nui,” said a new, female, voice. They looked to one of the vehicles and saw a black and blue armored being jump out the back. She had a shotgun holstered to her pack.

“Nalita?” Glonor uttered.

She smiled sweetly. “Yes, Glonor. It is I, little Nalita from the records department, now leading a special forces squad to arrest you,”

“What are you even arresting us for?” Iyre interrupted.

“Treason, my dear Matoran. treason against the Turaga High Council, the Order of Mata Nui, and the Universe itself,”

“We didn't do any of those things!” Iyre said.

“You were seen walking away from where the first bomb went off in Ta-Metru, and then when the other bombs went off across Metru Nui, including the Coliseum. Coincidence? I think not,”

“We didn't plant any bombs, you madwoman! We were only investigating Iyre's home, looking for...” Glonor stopped as he saw something sapphire gleaming out of a pocket of Nalita's pack.

“You are unbelievable. You're the one who ransacked Iyre's apartment? You're the one who took the stone? You're the one to be charged with treason, my dear.” Glonor smiled.

“Well, dang. I never did learn to conceal things better,” she pulled the shotgun off of her back and cocked it. She pointed it at Glonor.

“Let's get this over with.” she said.

One solider came over to Iyre and pressed his SMG against Iyre's head. He felt the cold metal pushing against his head, and he waited for the solider to pull back the trigger, a small spark inside the gun, and a bullet rocket into his skull, killing him.

But it never came. Instead, he heard a craft beginning to land.

He felt the gun being pulled away from his head and he opened his eyes to look up. It was a craft, bigger than Glonor's, but built in the same style and shape. The Order of Mata Nui agents were looking up at it, and then Iyre saw Glonor slipping away. Iyre followed.

When they got far enough away from them, they began to run.

“Isn't that a Order ship?” Iyre asked.

“Yes it is, but...”

“But what? Aren't they going to save us?” Iyre asked.

“But, there are dark forces moving within the Order. We can't trust anyone.”

Iyre didn't ask anymore questions after that. They continued to run towards Glonor's craft. About five minutes later, Iyre heard the sound of engines roaring behind them. He turned his head and saw the six Order of Mata Nui vehicles coming up behind them.

There was also a new vehicle, a sort of 'bike' transport, and on it was a warrior wearing a cloak and his face was shrouded in shadows from his hood that seemed to be made out of pure darkness. Glonor took a turn to his right and went down a side alleyway. Iyre followed.

The alleyway was narrow and littered with glass bottles, paper, and bullet casings. Iyre caught up to Glonor while they ran.

“Who is that cloaked figure?” Iyre asked.

“A extremely deadly assassin that's been on the Order's list for years. He's killed hundreds and is so rich he's dirty.” Glonor said as continued to run.

Iyre heard several of the vehicles stop in their tracks at the entrance of the alleyway. However, the bike was narrow enough to fit into the alleyway. It roared down it towards Iyre and Glonor. The two Matoran picked up the pace.

They turned down another alleyway and continued their escape from the corrupt Order agents. They had not gotten very far down the alleyway when the vehicles appeared in the exit to the alley. They were about to turn back when the assassin appeared down the alleyway. They were cornered in the narrow alleyway. Glonor and Iyre grabbed their guns and pointed them at their attackers.

Before Glonor gave any sort of signal, Iyre fired several stun blasts at their attackers. He stunned several of the soldiers with his first shots, and managed to stun Nalita, who got blasted into the side of one of the vehicles. Glonor had begun firing on the assassin, who had jumped off his transportation just in time, for Glonor had shot the engine and it blew up.

The two Matoran were back-to-back in their battle between the deadly assassin, the corrupt Order agents and themselves. Glonor fired another shot at the assassin, and it cut through his arm. But instead of crimson blood coming out, dark green liquid came out.

Iyre shot the last solider. But they had shot a few stray bullets when they had been blasted back, and Iyre got three grazing his arm. He winched and ran towards Nalita, and grabbed the Power Stone of Water out of her pack. He turned around and helped Glonor, ignoring the pain in his arm. He fired several blasts at the hooded figure while walking towards him.

Iyre eventually manged to stun the assassin, and Glonor put several bullets in his body. They looked around and then saw that there were cables on the side of one of the building. They both grabbed one and started to work their way up the side of the building.

A few moments later, they had reached the top of the building and were running across it. They saw that the gap between the buildings was narrow and they jumped across onto the next building. When they landed, they fell and rolled over their shoulders and got up and continued to run.

“We're going back to your ship, right?” Iyre asked as they ran.

“Probably, not unless they've found it first.”

They jumped another building, and another, and another. They stopped on their fifth building and climbed down the side. They came into a alleyway, and into a dead end. They turned around and ran out of the alley and into the street. There was a large crowd of Matoran spilling into the street from their work places. They probably were told to go into their homes or go into the Coliseum to seek protection against the bombings.

They got trapped behind the terribly slow Matoran. They looked behind them, and they saw Nalita, the assassin, and a few soldiers coming at them, weapons drawn. Iyre and Glonor tried to push their way through the crowd, but it was no use. They ran to the side to see if they could get into another alleyway, but any entrance was blocked by Matoran.

They looked back at the rogue Order agents, who were coming even closer to them. Glonor looked around for possible, secretive, escape routes. There were none. There was just one option that would most likely get them out alive. He reached into his pack and pulled out his, checked to see if it was loaded, pointed it to the sky, and fired.

The shot rang out through the street like thunder after lightning. All Matoran knew what it was, and they hit the deck as fast as they could. Iyre looked at Glonor as the Order agents tensed.

“Not the most subtle way you could have done that, but hey, it worked,” Iyre said, smiling. He looked at the Order agents and gripped his gun that formed in his hand, and pointed it at the Order agents, shooting Nalita with a sapphire energy blast. She flew backwards and landed head first into the concrete road, surely giving her at least a concussion.

Both Matoran continued firing on their attackers as the soldiers fired upon them, and the Ta-Matoran and whatever other sub-species of Matoran who were there ran to get out of the battle field. Iyre and Glonor ran into an alleyway. They took a sharp turn to the left, heading for where the ship was.

Glonor pulled out the small remote device and pointed it forward and pressed a button on it. They came into the area where the ship was. Iyre didn't see a jet black craft anywhere. Glonor had noticed the same thing, only several seconds before the De-Matoran. He pressed the button again, yet, nothing happened.

Iyre looked back and saw the assassin running towards them, staff in hand, crackling with red energy.

“Glonor, we have to go, now!”

Glonor debated this with himself for a moment, and then put the remote back in his pack and ran. Iyre shot a few stray energy blasts at the assassin, and ran after the Ko-Matoran.

The suns began to rise.

The Toa of Stone began to wake. His whole body hurt, and he didn't know why. He looked around a room he knew only too well. He saw medical equipment all around him, and he saw some cords coming from a machine, and those cords were attached to him.

The Toa looked over his body, and there were bandages all over his chest and arms. A nurse came up to him and smiled. A doctor then came beside the nurse with a syringe full of purple fluid. The Toa of the Green tried to plea with them not to give him it, but he found he couldn't speak. The doctor put the needle into his arm, and pressed the fluid in.

He suddenly felt something in his throat, and then, as he tried to plea, something came from his mouth.

“What in the name of Mata Nui have you done to me?!” The Toa screamed.

“It's okay. We just gave you your voice back, Agent Aldas,” the doctor said, putting the syringe away. “Helryx told me to restore your voice after you awoke from surgery.”

“Surgery-? What surgery?” Aldas asked, growing angry.

“Someone implanted a device in your skull in which they could program you to do as they wanted,” the doctor said. “We managed to get it out, but, we need you to rest for a few days to get it all out of your system.”

“Where is Lamos?” Aldas asked.

The doctor reached for a small device on his side and dialed in a code and held it up to his audio receptor. “Agent Lamos, Aldas has awoken and is asking for you to come down to the medical wing ASAP.”

There was a crackle and a voice on the other end, and the doctor put the device back at his side. A few minutes later, the door to the medical bay slid open and the figure of Lamos appeared in the doorway. He walked towards Aldas and came to his side and crouched down. His orange eyes looking at him.

“Yes, what is it, Aldas?” Lamos asked.

“I know who the traitors are, and they're in this building,”

“We know who the traitors are, Aldas, we arrested them. One's already dead,”

“No no no, there are more, many more. They're everywhere, all around us. And...” Aldas looked off into the distance, like he was away in his own world.

“What is it, Aldas?”

“I think- I think I've been poisoned...” Aldas fell off the bed and onto the ground. Lamos looked at him as the doctors started to crowd around him. He looked to the syringe he assumed Aldas' had been injected with, picked it up, and looked at it.

He recognized several particles that should not be your standard vocal-repair mixture. He looked to the doctor who was responsible for treating Aldas and grabbed his by the throat and pinned him against a wall and held him above the ground.

“Who do you work for!” Lamos yelled at him. The nurses and doctor looked at him, but were too busy with getting Aldas not to flatline to pay them any attention.

“I... don't... know what in Mata's Nui name you're... talking about!” The doctor said through ragged gasps.

“I call Rahi waste on that!” Lamos yelled in his face. “You injected Aldas with poison. I can see it in the syringe!”

“Well... dang... not everyone's... perfect...” The doctor then pulled out a gun and shot Lamos in the stomach, making him tumble backwards and releasing the doctor.

The doctor shot at Lamos again and ran through one of the doors. Lamos got up and looked at his torso. It was mainly a flesh wound, he would be fine. His armor had protected him very well. He cracked his neck, pulled out his Dual Swords, and ran out after the doctor.

He was in a dark room, a sole plastic light was held about the plastic table in front of him. He was hand-cuffed to the plastic table with plastic cuffs, and it didn't take a genius to guess he was sitting in a plastic chair.

The Toa of Iron sat in his chair. He had been knocked out by that darn Mersion Mersery. He was supposed to have killed him, yet he got himself captured.

The plastic door to the room swung open and the tall, slender form of Mersery stepped into the room.

“Hello,” the Mersion said with a frown. “We found your special secret headquarters in our base, and one of your friends,”

Mersery threw down a file and a picture of Faz and Aldas slid out. Faz was a upper-class Steltian, clad in mostly black armor with hints of dark red. Aldas was a Toa of Stone with heavy armor and a Sand Spear. He bore the Kanohi Hau.

“Faz, a corrupt Order agent. He attacked Echo, and we apprehended him, but he later killed himself in his cell. Took us an hour to get him off the walls.

“Aldas, your most recent recruit, I assume? We found a chip in his skull that you used to control him, yes?”

“A storm's coming, every so wise Mersion. But even a being as wise as you are, Mersery, cannot predict it's arrival, impact, and aftermath, for the infestation is so deep we know your every move.”

“Fine. Are there more corrupt agents?”

“Oh, so many your wouldn't believe it. We're everywhere, all around you. Anyone could be one,”

“Who are you?”

“Fulvus.” The Toa of Iron, Fulvus, smiled grimly.

Mersery was just about to walk out when four Order soldiers came rushing into the room. Mersery looked at them in confusion, and he had his hand ready to summon his staff at his side, just in case.

“What are you doing in here?” The Mersion asked, prepared for to defend himself if need be.

“An execution, sir,” the lead guard said.

“Why would you execute a hostage of the enemy without getting a direct order from Helryx?”

“We have a order high above Helryx,” the guard said. “An order to execute you.”

“Who is this higher authority?”

“The Dark Lord herself.” And he lifted his gun faster than Mersery had ever seen in his long life. Bullets erupted from the gun and grazed Mersery as he tried to move out of the way. He flipped over and summoned his Red Crystal staff.

It appeared in a red flash of light in his hand, and when all the guards shot at him, he made a energy shield around himself. Several seconds later, the lead guard called for his men to stop firing, and they saw all the bullets they had fired suspended in the energy shield that Mersery had created.

Mersery smiled and with a flick of his wrist, the bullets shot back outwards away from the Mersion and hit the guards, killing them. Several also hit Fulvus, two in the head, one in the throat, and five in the chest, killing him instantly.

Mersery looked around at his handy-work, with bullet holes in the walls. He looked to Fulvus, who was dead on the table, spilling blood. Mersery cursed under his breath. He heard more guards running down the corridor, and Mersery ran out of the room and down the hall.

He didn't look back.

The soldiers ran into the interrogation room and saw the dead agents and Fulvus. They were about to go after the Mersion until the Toa of Irons spilled blood began to retract into his body, disappearing entirely. The Toa sat up, and bullet holes in his chest began to heal, and the holes in his skull revealed silver behind the mask, and the mask healed.

“What?” He asked. “FIND MERSERY!”

“Yes, sir!” All the soldiers said, and they were after the Mersion. The Toa stood up, and ran after them, swords extended.

The Vahki crawled through the underground tunnels of Onu-Metru. It was programed with finding the Stone, the one Stone that would gain an advantage for its masters. That was its only purpose in reality, to find the Stone, and give it to the masters, until it was re-programed with a new objective.

It turned a corner and crawled through a broken down wall and into the sewers. It walked through the disgusting contaminated water without even examining it. It turned again and continued to walk. It came to a large opening in the wall. It looked into it to see a massive cavern. Something on its Heads Up Display, or HUD, began to flash and beep, indicating that the Stone was nearby.

It jumped down and landed on a narrow slab of rock jutting of from the wall. It looked around and jumped down onto a broken down a staircase where half of it had been destroyed almost artificially, but the robot didn't take any notice of it.

It climbed down the stairs and came onto the floor of the cavern. It walked around and saw a pedestal with a scarlet stone hovering above it. It came out of its four legged mode and onto its two proper legs. It ran towards the Stone.

When it reached the pedestal, it reached out and grabbed the Stone. It turned to go back the way it came, but was met with a bolt of lightning to the chest. It covered its body and fried its circuits, killing it.

Its sparking, fried body fell to the floor and shattered, and the Stone slid across the floor and hit a blue foot. A white and blue armored being picked up the Stone and placed it back above the pedestal and turned to the former Vahki. They stretched out its hand fired another bolt of lightning at the robotic body, making it slid across the room and off a cliff edge into lava.

They walked away, ready for anymore who wanted to take the Stone away from this place.

The Order's prison island.

It was raining and thundering when the door to the Makuta's cell slid open, and he looked to see who it was; it was Sinera, his comrade. She smiled a twisted grin at him.

“We're getting out, Lord Axis.” She said.

“Finally,” Axis said. He stood up and came over to the Vortixx, who handed him a red and black blended chain saw.

“So it begins, and it will be the last battle the Order will ever fight on this small world!” Axis said, spreading his wings after he had gotten out of his cell and onto the pathway.

“The guards were no problem, seeing as they are on our side,” Sinera said as they walked through the rain.

“Good, get the jet ready.”

“Yes, Lord Axis.” Sinera said, and she turned to her left off down another path. Axis came to a rail and looked out over the vast ocean in front of him. The rain hit against his Kanohi Shelek, but he didn't mind it.

A battle was coming, and the battle drums were getting nearer, so near he could hear them, and they were beautiful.

Chapter 5: Any Other Way
The two Matoran ran out of the alleyway and into the street. They looked around at the various types of Matoran walking around, not a care in the world. They stopped in the middle of the street.

“What are we going to do? They're hunting us like Rahi!” Iyre asked.

“If we're being hunted we need to hide ourselves from them. We need to find a Kanohi shop...”

Glonor turned to his right and saw a Kanohi shop across the street. The Ko-Matoran smiled and they both ran towards the store. They went inside and locked the door behind them. Iyre looked around and saw that the walls were completely covered with Kanohi. The Mask Maker came out and looked at them.

“What are you two doing in here? The store's closed!”

“Well, we don't give a Rahi dump, do we?” Glonor said.

“We need two Masks,” Iyre said.

“Like I said, the store's closed,” the Mask Maker loaded a Reconstitute at Random disk into a Kanoka Launcher he had just pulled out from underneath the counter. Glonor drew his gun, armed it, and aimed it at the Mask Maker in the blink of an eye.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you, bub,” Glonor said, finger closing in around the trigger. “Now let us grab two Kanohi and we'll pay you and then we're gone, like we were never here.”

“Fin-fin-fine! Pick two Masks you want off the wall, then I'll ring it up!” He said, pointing at the walls of the building which had Masks everywhere.

Glonor gestured for Iyre to pick out two Kanohi off the walls. Iyre walked over to the wall on the left and tried to find two that would work. He saw a red Kanohi Calix, and he knew exactly he was going to give it to. He reached up and grabbed it, pulled it down and set it on the counter. He walked to one of the other walls and saw a brown Kanohi Kakama. He grabbed and set it beside the Calix.

“Alright, I like it,” Glonor said. He pulled out ten silver widgets and dropped them down on the counter. The Ta-Matoran quickly picked them up and put them in his armor.

Glonor grabbed the Calix and placed it on over his Iden, energy came from the Kanohi and covered him, causing his armor to go dark red. Iyre grabbed the Kakama and placed it over his Hau and his armor went dark brown. They looked to the Mask Maker, who had pointed the Launcher at them, Kanoka disk crackling.

“I cannot believe you fell for this ruse, Glonor. I expected better of thee,” the Mask Maker smiled creepily. He placed his hand on his mask and pulled it away, energy crackling. Once it had all disappeared, Iyre saw the shadowed cloak of the assassin. His armor turned back to the black cloak he had worn, and he had reverted back to his Toa-sized height.

Glonor fired several compact energy blasts at the assassin, and the assassin managed to dodge every single one of them. He struck the floor and the store rumbled under their feet causing them to fall to the ground. Glonor fired another shot at the assassin, grazing the side of his head, or where Iyre assumed the head would be. Iyre activated his gun and shot a blast of sapphire at the assassin, who blocked it with ease.

Iyre looked at his gun as he struggled across the floor. He only had two settings on this thing; stun and kill. He looked at the kill setting button with heavy thought, debating if killing this insane maniac would save their lives.

Iyre had once heard from Turaga Vakama that if one takes the life of another Matoran, even if they are their nemesis, no matter how much he hated them, they would not die but surely lose their soul.

Iyre knew this was the last resort, so he cracked his neck, and pressed the button. The silver piece on the top of the gun snapped towards Iyre and then back to it's original position, a small red light glowing. He aimed and fired a blast of crimson energy at the assassin.

It hit the dark figure square in the chest and covered his body like electricity. He bent down to the floor crippled, and his physical form vanished, and he became nothing but a torn black cloak.

Iyre stood up, unable to take his eyes off the black cloak. He had just killed someone, and he couldn't quite bring himself to terms with what he had just done. If he had been a Toa, he would have broken the Toa Code.

He heard something but it was like it was far away. Someone calling his name, and he was being shaken.

“Iyre!” the voice drifted almost dreamily towards him. The sound of sirens blared almost muffled in his ears.

“Iyre!” the voice drifted closer.

“IYRE! Wake up!” the voice seemed right next to him.

He snapped back to reality, looking around he saw four Order of Mata Nui Special Forces vehicles appear in the street just outside the shop. Glonor had jumped over the counter and opened up the door to the back.

“Come on, Iyre! Let's move!” Glonor said urgently.

Iyre had completely come back to his senses and he jumped over the counter and through the backdoor. Glonor followed. They came into a forge where the real Mask Maker created the Kanohi he sold, but he was probably in a dumpster somewhere, neck snapped or bullet buried in his skull.

They opened the back door and ran into the alleyway, not looking back.

The soldiers busted down the door and ran in, guns primed, lasers pointing. They looked around and found the black cloak lying on the floor. A tall, black armored being stepped into the room, with a gun holstered to his side.

“Where are the Matoran?” the figure asked.

“We don't know, sir,” the highest ranking special forces officer said. “They must have ran out the back.”

“Then find them, and keep them alive. Nalita's orders no longer apply to you, since she's comatose.”

“Yes sir!” They all yelled, and they jumped over the counter and out the back. The black armored figure crouched down by the cloak and picked it up and gave it to one of his guards.

“Put this away for safe keeping. We'll need it later.”

“Yes sir!” And the solider was off.

Artix ran forward, gun in hand.

The two Matoran came out of the alleyway and onto the street... again. They looked around and saw a massive crowd of Matoran heading for the Coliseum, and they ran into the crowd, now hidden by their new Kanohi Masks. However, it was only a matter of time until they caught back up with them, so there was only one thing to do:

Hide.

They slowly made their way through the crowd, pushing Matoran out of their way. Iyre dared look back and saw ten special forces officers emerge out of the alleyway they had came from. Iyre whispered to Glonor.

“They're here.”

Glonor's face got a little more determined than before. He looked back and he saw the black armored figure arrive.

“The hell?” Glonor said. “That's agent Artix, but he got killed by Shadow Skyer two weeks ago!”

“Who's Shadow Skyer?”

“You know that Toa of Light on the Shadow's End team? Well, Shadow Skyer's that Toa's insane counterpart.”

“Right...”

Iyre looked back and he saw the black armored figure walking towards the crowd. They tried to shuffle through the crowd, but couldn't.

The figure raised a gun and fired a shot into the air, and every Matoran jumped from fright and tried to run when another shot echoed through the air.

“On your knees, underlings!” the figure yelled, in a somewhat awkward voice for his current appearance.

Iyre saw every Matoran there get on their knees, he only stood, until Glonor pulled him down just in time. Artix pulled out a device and pressed a button on it. It began to beep, and then he walked into the crowd of Matoran. The beeping got louder as he came closer to them. It must have tracked them here, maybe using the signal from Glonor's device...

He readied his gun.

“Give me your device, you know, the one you used to communicate with the Order?” Iyre whispered to Glonor, who had readied his own gun.

“Damn, they traced it. Good catch, rookie.” he said, and he handed him the device.

“On the count of three, we run shooting,”

Glonor nodded, and got ready to run. Iyre glanced at Artix who was a little too close for comfort, only about eight Matoran away. Iyre gripped the device and readied his gun.

“One...”

Seven Matoran away.

“Two...”

Six Matoran away.

“THREE!”

Iyre stood up and shot Artix with a stun blast and simultaneously threw the device far away from them, soaring through the air and hit a building, shattering it. Both Matoran shot at the soldiers that were present, who were shooting back at them. All the Matoran had gotten up and ran for their lives, screaming.

They hadn't gotten all the soldiers, and a bullet flew through the air and struck Glonor in his left arm, making him fall to the ground. Iyre attempted to help him, but Glonor only pushed him away.

“Save yourself, protect the Stone!” He yelled.

Iyre looked to see several more soldiers pouring into the street. He looked back at the Ko-Matoran, then he ran. He ran through the running Matoran and towards a chute station. He was going to go to Onu-Metru, since he could probably lose them in the Archives. He had to get to the Chute Station as fast as he could. He looked back and saw the Kanohi Calix on the ground, and Glonor being put into the back of a newly arrived Order vehicle. He just ran on, there was no saving him.

Iyre ascended the stairs of a chute station where dozens of Matoran were coming in and out of it. He made his way into the station and showed the attendant, an Onu-Matoran, his MetruTech badge, who scanned it and then punched a few buttons on the console.

“What is your destination?”

“Onu-Metru,”

He typed in a few more digits and then gave the badge back to him with a ticket.

“Thanks.” Iyre muttered and walked towards one of the chutes. He looked back, and jumped into the chute.

It was a very odd experience; he was being pulled through the chute and a very fast speed. He passed by Matoran of all types. Particles were also coming through the chute, nothing bad, just some strange particles that came from somewhere. An energy beam surged through the center of the chute. Iyre looked back and didn't see any soldiers following him, which was good.

He continued forward.

After about five minutes, the chute speed decreased and he came back to solid ground which was one of the Onu-Metru Chute Stations.

This place was also crowded with all sorts of Matoran, some getting into chutes, some coming out of chutes. Iyre walked over to the booth where the chute attendant worked, and handed him his ticket. The Po-Matoran took it and nodded, putting it into a device. Iyre walked down the stairs and into the streets of Onu-Metru and headed towards the Archives.

He walked down the street casually towards the Archives. Iyre looked over his shoulder just to make sure he wasn't being followed by the rogue Order. He saw all sorts of Matoran shops along the street. From Kanohi shops to weapons shops, specifically Kanoka Launcher shops. From books to devices. They were all here.

He came to the entrance of the Archives and walked in, looking back one last time to see nothing behind him. He didn't see anything and he entered the Archives.

Iyre looked around at the hundreds of stasis tubes and exhibits that were laid out fashionably and were appealing to the eye. He walked through, not focused on the exhibits. If he was to be hunted down like a Rahi for sport, he was going to do something productive: he was going to find everything he could on the Vahki.

He came to the door that lead into a stairwell which then lead down into the depths of the Archives. Iyre walked down the stairs, his footsteps echoing as he descended into the darkness below. He arrived on the fifth level down, where they stored the history of the Makuta's Reign of Metru Nui.

He opened the doors and entered a large room, where the lights were dimmed. Iyre wondered why. He knew Onu-Matoran could see well in the dark, but this was darker than normal for them. He saw the outlines of stasis tubes and artifacts placed on pedestals. Ancient Kanoka Launchers, Kanoka Disks, weapons, armor, tablets, scrolls, Rahi from the era, drawings of the Toa Metru, Turaga Dume, the Dark Hunters, Toa Lhikan.

And the last thing on the list was what he was here for: the Vahki.

He saw that one was held in a stasis tube, and with the dimly lit atmosphere of the level, the outline of the Vahki he could see was unnerving. He walked around towards the walls, trying to find a light switch. He eventually found one and he flicked it.

Nothing happened.

He flipped it again, and he got the same result he had before. He flipped it on and off several times, and nothing happened. It was odd, since the above lights were not turning off either. He heard something behind him, like someone bumping into glass.

He spun around and quickly pulled out his gun and aimed it, moving around, surveying the area for anything out of the ordinary. He saw nothing.

He heard something shatter when it hit the ground to his left. He turned and fired a blast of sapphire energy in the direction of the sound. The blast hit a pedestal and knocked it off balance, causing it topple over and hit the ground, shattering it.

After several moments of silence, he heard the activation of an energy weapon causing the De-Matoran to dive to the ground as several energy bullets whizzed through the air and hit the wall behind where he had been standing. Fragments fell on Iyre, the dust being illuminated by the dim lights. Iyre tried to make his way towards the door, but another attack was launched by his assailant. More bullets came flying through the air, hitting several displays and artifacts and damaging the wall.

The De-Matoran under the guise of a Po-Matoran got up and ran towards the entrance of the exhibit, his head ducked down, hoping that his attacker was a extremely poor shot. Iyre fired several stray blasts of sapphire energy in the direction of his pursuer. He came to the doors of the exhibit and flung one of them open, and he ran out onto the stairway. He grabbed a broom that had been sitting in a corner and slid it through the handle bars of the double doors, making it impossible for anyone to get out. The Matoran was thankful that the broom was made of metal.

He looked around and was about to run back up, but he knew he was being hunted, so that was probably not the best course of action. The door began to be banged on, his attacker trying to get out. He turned to the stairs that lead down deeper into the Archives.

And he descended.

The Makuta looked down at the water as they passed over it. Rain struck against the window in front of him, the constant sound of pitter-patter-pitter-patter... echoing throughout the bridge. He had heard the sound quite often while he had been imprisoned on the island. It was typical of the Order to build a prison in the lower Southern Island Chains where it rained almost constantly. But that didn't matter now, the island was now gone, along with the rest of its inmates. They weren't dead, oh no, they were now making their ways back to their homelands to terrorize and destroy once again.

The Makuta smiled at himself through his Great Kanohi Shelek, which was reflected in the glass of the window. Soon, the Order would fall into pieces, and everything would become theirs, all theirs. No one would even remember the Order, it would just fade into obscurity...

His thoughts were disturbed by the voice of his second-command: Sinera, a slim, cruel Vortixx General seeped her way into his daze.

“Lord Axis,” she said. “We are nearly to Xia.”

“Good. Are your contacts ready with the weapons?”

“Indeed, sir. In fact they will load them onto the Rosser as soon as we land,”

Axis turned away from the window and looked at the Vortixx, his red eyes glowing brightly. “Excellent. Our assault on Metru Nui is nearly ready,” he began walking off the bridge. What he called back made the Vortixx grin.

“And the battle will truly begin.”

The doors closed behind the Makuta.

The Toa of the Green ran through the corridors of the Order's base chasing after the rogue doctor. He was working against them, either a double agent for the Legion or the Toa of Iron that they had captured. The doctor shot another blind bullet in the direction of the Toa. The Toa of the Green moved the to side to dodge the round. Lamos jumped forward towards the medical officer and swiped his blades at him. The doctor managed to dodge the attack and the Toa hit the floor and rolled. He landed and got back up and continued the chase.

They ran past Order agents that were walking through the halls, only watching as they dodged past. They entered an empty corridor and there was only about ten feet between them. The doctor had made a fatal mistake in this chase: he was running in a straight line.

Lamos took advantage of this mistake and threw one of his swords towards the doctor, impaling him in the back. The medical officer fell to the ground with a heavy thud, the sword dug into his back, blood trickling out of the wound. Lamos came over to the doctor and put his hand around the handle and twisted the blade slightly. The doctor screamed in pain.

“What the hell do you want from me?!” He screamed in pain.

“Why have you betrayed the Order of Mata Nui, scum?”

“Betrayed?” the doctor spat. “I'm not betraying the Order! The Order's always been like this!”

“What in the name of Karzahni are you talking about?”

“If you truly think that the Order is a force of good in the Universe, then you're horribly mistaken.”

The Toa was about to beat the doctor up when he suddenly heard the sound of several guns cocking. He looked up to see several soldiers pointing their guns at him. Lamos frowned at the sight of them. One of the soldiers fired off a blast of energy at him and he dodged it, and then all the other soldiers fired at him. The Toa quickly grabbed his other sword out of the doctor and ran around the corner to evade the gun fire.

The energy bullets clipped the corner sending pieces of metal and plaster to the ground. They eventually stopped firing and waited for his next move. But what they didn't realize was the fact that Lamos had a very large advantage over the soldiers: he was cloaked by fog.

The barrels of the guns had been heated after firing those energy bullets, and now cold met hot and a wall of fog was now in the corridor. The Toa readied his swords and sighed. He then ran around the corner and through the fog. He came out of the fog like a ghost, and the soldiers weren't prepared for that approach. Lamos hit the ground and rolled forward.

Lamos sliced the leg of one of the soldiers, causing them to fall forward onto the floor. The other soldiers armed their weapons and fired at the Toa. He jumped out of the way and the soldiers were caught in their own crossfire. Several soldiers fell and died on the floor, some killed on impact. The four remaining soldiers ceased fire and looked for the Toa.

Little did they know that the Toa had activated his Kanohi Huna and was now slowly get ready to attack the soldiers, like the hunters becoming the hunted. As he approached them, he kicked one of the guns from a soldier across the floor by accident, causing a clinging noise. The soldiers quickly turned towards where the sound came from and fired their weapons, almost hitting exactly where the Toa stood.

Lamos ducked as energy bullets flew above his head. He rolled forward and cut off the leg of one of the soldiers and cut the arm off of another. He stabbed one of his swords into the shoulder of another, and cut off the barrel of a soldier's gun. Three of them fell while the other fiddled with their gun, trying to make it fire again. Lamos appeared again and hit the soldier with his fist, knocking him out.

The doctor tried to crawl away down the corridor to escape the Toa before he came after him. The Toa of the Green pulled his other sword out of the soldier and walked after the doctor. He attached the to his back and grabbed the doctor by his collar and pressed his against a wall.

“Now, you're going to tell me what I need to know.” Lamos said. All the doctor could do was stare into the Toa's orange eyes.

The Archives.

The Po-Matoran-colored De-Matoran exited the stairwell in the Onu-Metru Archives on level twenty. He was now in one of the deeper layers of the Archives, and arguably, one of the more dangerous parts. Being this far underground was nearly insane, which is exactly why he chose it. This place was dimly lite, very few lights illuminating the area.

He took the Kakama from his face, revealing his gray Hau, and his armor color reverted to black and gray once again. Iyre put the Kanohi back in his bag and walked around. He figured his assailant wouldn't be stupid enough to come down here. This wing was under maintenance and was closed off to the general public. He had technically broken the law, but his life was more important than any damn law.

The De-Matoran heard something move behind him and pulled out his weapon. He fired off several stun blasts in the direction of the noise, illuminating the area in sapphire light. Iyre stood still for several moments, waiting... listening...

Something scurried behind him and he turned to fire several more blasts of energy at the invisible being. Again he waited, completely on edge. Suddenly, a blast of red-hot magma soared through the air at Iyre. Before it hit his head and killed him, he rolled forward. The magma hit the wall and cut through it.

The Matoran got up and looked around, and what he saw was something that he thought he would never see again. Something from the nightmares of every Matoran of Mata Nui. There stood the embodiment of their fears.

There stood a Bohrok Tahnok.

The insectoid robot looked at the Matoran with its blue eyes, scanning him. It probably saw him as an intruder and was now ready to eliminate the Matoran. The Bohrok fired another blob of magma at the Matoran and he moved out of the way and landed on the floor. The Tahnok turned and continued firing at the De-Matoran, making it nearly impossible to get a clean shot.

Iyre stood up in front of a stasis tube and lined up a shot for the Bohrok, but it was ready for him and fired a large blast of Fire at him and Iyre jumped out of the way again. The fire hit the stasis tube and shattered the glass, the gas that kept the specimens in stasis leaked out into the air, but that was the least of his problems; inside the stasis tube was a blue being much like that of his current attacker. This time it was a Bohrok Gahlok.

It awoke from stasis and jumped out of the tube. It looked around and gathered its bearing, and when it saw the De-Matoran and its fellow Bohrok, they must have transferred information and now they were both advancing on the De-Matoran. He armed his weapon again and fired at the Gahlok, but was deflected by a shield of Water it had made.

“Cheater.” The De-Matoran said under his breath.

The Tahnok and the Gahlok fired blasts of their Elemental Powers at him, which he ducked. The two Elements met in mid air and formed a block of stone, steam surrounding it. It fell towards the ground, and fortunately, the De-Matoran rolled out of the way as it crashed to the ground, cracking it and the floor.

This time when he landed, he had an opening, and he wasn't going to miss it... again. He quickly readied his weapon and fired a blast of sapphire energy at the Gahlok, the energy covering it. He shot the Tahnok and the same thing happened. The two insectoid robots fell to the ground, stunned.

Iyre was pretty proud of himself for taking out the two monsters from his nightmares, but his pride was nothing to last, for far above him, he heard the sound of an explosion, and metal clattering to the ground. To any other Matoran, it would have been an exhibit breaking, but the De-Matoran knew instantly what it was. He knew that his assailant had broken free.

The echoing sound was followed by the sound of someone running down the steps, and it seemed like they knew exactly where the De-Matoran had gone. Iyre ran behind a display and had his weapon ready to stun the crap out of them.

The echoing footsteps continued for several moments, eventually arriving on the floor he was on. The Matoran clutched the grip of his gun as tight as he could without setting it off. He heard the assassin moving around in the room, the click of an energy weapon.

Iyre figured it was only a matter of time before the assassin got to him, so it was either now or never to shoot that son of a Bohrok. He took a deep breath, made sure his weapon was ready, and turned to shoot his attacker.

But, once he saw the assassin, he was paralyzed by shock. There stood only ten feet away from him, two energy weapons in hand, a figure with a cloak almost made of shadow.

“How... how is this even possible? I... I killed... killed you!” the Matoran stuttered.

The dark figure's voice was nightmarish, echoed and distorted. “I know you did, De-Matoran. But you cannot kill Shadow.”

The De-Matoran managed to fire off several stun blasts at the shadowy figure, which all of them hit, but did nothing to him. The figure approached the De-Matoran, overshadowing him.

“Who... who are you?”

“I am Soul, Master of Darkness.” Then, the De-Matoran was covered in darkness.

But then, there was a bright light.

And a scream that sounded like it came from Hell echoed throughout the room.

Chapter 6: All That Glitters
To be written

Chapter 7: The Dark Meets the Light
To be written; coming August

Chapter 8: How Many Times
To be written

Chapter 9: Cry of Fear
To be written

Chapter 10: Abandoned
To be written

Chapter 11: The Curtain Descends
To be written

Chapter 12: The Light Meets the Dark
To be written

Epilogue: Rise Back Up Again
To be written

Rumors

 * The Toa of Iron will be revealed to be a pre-established Fragmented Saga character. - False
 * Iyre will be shot multiple times, being killed in this story.
 * Shadow's End will appear. - Confirmed
 * Glonor will be killed in the story's final chapters, causing a massive fan back-lash against.
 * Iyre will become an Order agent.
 * The Order will be disbanded.
 * A new Toa of Lightning will appear in this story. - Confirmed
 * Chapters 7-12 will take place during and after We Are All But Pieces. - Confirmed
 * The Core Universe's Toa Takanuva will appear while hopping between dimensions in the late 2008 saga.

Characters

 * Iyre
 * Glonor
 * Mersery
 * Helryx
 * Niha
 * Echo
 * Lamos
 * Axis
 * Sinera
 * "Soul"
 * Aldas
 * Faz
 * Onepu
 * Fulvus
 * Nalita
 * Artix
 * Several Order Soldiers
 * A Po-Matoran
 * Amaya - Deceased
 * A Matoran Brute
 * A Ta-Matoran
 * A Tahnok
 * A Gahlok

Trivia

 * This story was inspired by 's Frozen Calling.
 * Themes of this story are also inspired by Captain America: The Winter Solider, and The Dark Knight Trilogy.
 * This story takes place during Freelancers and We Are All But Pieces.
 * Glonor was created by, Niha was created by , and Mersery was created by.
 * The two book titles are taken from the Tenth Avenue North album Over and Underneath, and from the second song Lift Us Up to Fall.
 * This story has been rewritten.