Obscurity

This article was written by Invader39. Please do not add to it without the writer's permission.

Obscurity

Story
Setting	Matoran Universe, Fragmented Universe
Date Set	1,001 AGC
Media Information
Released	May 24, 2014-January 31, 2017
Written by	Invader39
Timeline
Previous	Shadow's End
Next	A Broken World

Obscurity is the seventh installment in the Unending Shadows Storyline. Written by Invader39, it is set on Metru Nui in Fragmented Universe. The story follows Iyre and Glonor as its main characters, later joined by Shadow's End. Centering around a massive conspiracy, it features the demise of the Order of Mata Nui.

It takes place during The Arker Chronicles.

Story[]

Prologue: Tunnel[]

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 of 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.

Book I: Over and Underneath[]

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 Onu-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.

“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 Onu-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, cho! 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[]

The blinding white light faded, restoring a clear view of the room. The De-Matoran laying on the ground uncovered his eyes and looked around. He didn't see the shadowy form of Soul, but he did see the red and black form of a female figure standing behind where “Soul” had been. She had a large gauntlet on her hand that was still faintly glowing white.

“What did you do?” The De-Matoran asked the figure.

She looked down to the ground where “Soul” had been standing, and there lay a torn black cloak, nothing inside.

“You killed him?”

“No. He was dead long before you or I got to him. He's probably “died” several times.”

“Right... Wait, I've seen you somewhere before, haven't I?”

“I am Urian, a Steltian Order agent, one of the good ones, anyway. I saw you in the hall on the way to Helryx's office.”

“I remember you. How did you know I was here?”

“I've been following you and Glonor from a distance since you arrived in Metru Nui. I was assigned by Helryx to keep track of you two.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Make sure you weren't killed or captured. She knew of a growing conspiracy within the Order for a while and wanted to make sure the Power Stone of Water was safe.”

“How do I know you're not just lying to me to try and get the Stone and then kill me?”

The Steltian looked sternly at the De-Matoran. “Do I look like I'm lying to you, Matoran?”

“...No ma'am.”

“Good. Now let's get out of here. Have the Stone?”

“Yes.”

“Right. Grab onto my gauntlet.” She reached out her hand, the gauntlet glowing with energy. The De-Matoran hesitated for a moment and then reached out and grabbed her weapon. Lime green energy surrounded them and when the lights burned out, they were gone.

He had been consumed by the darkness. He heard sounds all around him but couldn't see a thing. The Matoran knew his eyes were open because he felt cloth touching them. He figured that he was in a large, dark warehouse with several of the corrupt Order agents surrounding him. The Matoran saw lights above him, but they were obscured by the cloth over his eyes.

He heard the sound of someone walking up to him. He felt a looming presence over him and the bag was lifted violently off his head, more like tugged. The Matoran looked up at the figure and saw that it was none-other than Artix.

“Hello, Glonor.”

“Hello, Artix. You seem to be doing pretty well for a dead man.”

Artix leaned back and laughed. “I know, right? You know the whole death was staged. I've been working with the true Order for quite some time now.”

“Not from here, it doesn't. What 'true Order'? Seems more like a corrupt version of the Order. Do you even want to carry out the Will of Mata Nui?”

“We do not serve Mata Nui. Mata Nui is not the leader of this Universe, the Dark Shadow is.”

“The Dark Shadow will die before she rules this whole damn galaxy,”

Artix slapped the Matoran's Iden. “SHUT UP, AV-MATORAN! You will not speak like that against the Dark Shadow! You will surely be one of the first she kills of the resistance.”

Artix turned and walked out of the room. The Av-Matoran looked around at the Order agents around him.

“Bet you're with him, huh?”

“Yep.” Said one of the soldiers.

Glonor sighed.

The scientist known as Mersery ran throguh the underground corridor. He looked over his shoulder every few seconds to see how much closer Fulvus and his goons were getting. He could use the Red Crystal Staff to teleport, but not in such an inclosed space. It would fracture the foundation of the base and bring everything down with it. His only choice was to keep on running.

Behind him he heard a large group of soldiers coming around the corner behind him. He saw the flashing of lightstones which gave him all the more reason to keep moving. He wasn't really familiar with this part of the base, he was a scientist afterall. The Mersion spent most of his free time in the lab, tinkering with various chemicals and whatnot.

As he ran he heard the sound of someone shouting after him: “HALT! Mersery, HALT!”

He looked back and saw several Order soldiers with their guns aimed at him. Mersery ran faster and turned a corner as several energy bullets came flying at him. The bullets hit the wall just inches from him and he kept running. He needed to get to a room large enough to be able to use his Red Crystal Staff.

And just as that thought passed through his mind, he entered a large room that appeared to have once been a training area long ago in the early days of the Order. He vaguely remembered this place. But that wasn't important right now, he had to get out of here. He went into the middle of the room and readied his staff. The Mersion focused on... well he didn't know where he was going to go.

He heard the soldiers turn the corner and heard Fulvus shout out: “Where are you, little Mersion? Come out, come out wherever you are...”

The Mersion focused on his lab on level sixteen. He had to get to Niha and get everyone else who wasn't corrupted out of this place. That might prove to be problematic, however, seeing as anyone could be corrupted. Too bad he didn't have a Rode lying around, and Axonn was off on another mission.

The soldiers came around the corner and fired at the Mersion. He had no time left to think and now he had to leave. He focused on his lab and his staff crackled with red energy and a ball of crimson surrounded him just as a bullet was about to hit him and he appeared in his lab; knocking several pieces of equipment over.

He looked around and placed his staff on his back. Mersery saw the form of Niha sitting on a stool by a table flipping through an old record on a portable Data Hub-like-device. She looked over at Mersery and smiled through her Kanohi Tryna and went back to reading. The Mersion came over to the Toa of Water and grabbed the tablet from her and set it down.

“Niha, we have to get out of this place. Dark forces are moving inside the Order and tearing it apart from the inside out. We must move quickly.”

“What dark forces, Mersery?”

“I don't know, but something evil is lurking in the shadows and anyone could be corrupted.”

“So trust no one-?” Niha said before she was interrupted by the door to the lab beginning to collapse in on itself. Mersery grabbed his staff again and readied it while the artificial Toa to his right readied her twin blades.

The door suddenly imploded inwards and out into the hallway. Several black-armored Order soldiers came marching into the lab, surrounding the Mersion and his pupil. The figure of Fulvus came into the room, his swords extended.

“How did you get up here so quickly? It's impossible. Unless you...”

“Teleported. Yes, we did.”

“How? I'm the only being who can teleport inside the Order's base.”

“Not anymore, we destroyed that device a few minutes ago. Makes it easier for us to get around.”

“Well, at least I won't have anymore lag in between jumps. Farewell.” The Mersion lifted his staff again and held onto the artificial Toa of Water, and in a glare of red light, they were gone.

“Damnit.” Fulvus muttered to himself.

The skies were gray above Xia. The dark clouds promised rain. A black speck streaked low clouds as it descended towards the island.

The Makuta looked down at the island. He turned to his second-in-command. “I see the weapons crates on the landing pad, along with your supplier.”

“Yes, my lord. Orin, are you and your men ready to load the cargo onto the jet?”

“Yes, general.” The Toa of Oxygen bowed.

A minute or two later, the ship suddenly jerked, moving them slightly. The Order soldier piloting the jet turned towards his masters and stated the obvious:

“We have landed, my lord.”

“Excellent. Orin, load the weapons.”

“Yes, my lord.” The Toa of Oxygen said and walked off the bridge.

“Soon, the Coliseum will fall, and the Turaga will be just ashes, and we will have control over Metru Nui, the capital of the Matoran Universe.”

“Aj, my lord.”

“Aj? A word from an ancient dialect. Brilliant, my commander, brilliant.”

Sinera's smile only broadened.

The Turaga of Plasma looked out over the city of Metru Nui, dark gray clouds brewing high above. They were promising a storm, and a dreadful one. He heard the glass door behind him swing open, and he turned to see his personal guard standing there, Vethu. She was a Vo-Matoran, and arguably one of the best guards on the island.

“Time to come in, correct?”

“Unfortunately it is, sir.”

“Very well,” the Turaga frowned. He picked up his staff that had been leaning again the railing and walked inside the Coliseum. They had these new security measures in because of a rumor that the Legion of Chaos, a group of rogue Skakdi and Makuta, were going to attack the Coliseum and kill the Turaga High Council in order to cause Metru Nui to fall into chaos just long enough for them to take control.

The Toa Nuva were still in Karda Nui, trying to restore balance and awaken the Great Spirit from his slumber.

He prayed that they did not fail in their task.

He walked into the center room of the Coliseum, on a balcony that overlooked the Sea of Protodermis. Turaga Vakama was being escorted by a Matoran guard as well, just across the way from the Turaga of Plasma. The Turaga of Fire nodded as they passed. They came to a door that was marked with the symbol for the Element of Plasma.

The guard swiped a key card and the door slid open. The Turaga walked in and the guard followed, checking the entire room for any assassins that might be looking to take him out. Once she made sure that the room was clear, she left for the door. Just before she left, the Turaga called after her.

“Thank you for everything, Vethu.”

“You're welcome, Turaga Drax.” She smiled as she locked the door for the night.

He looked around his room: it included a bed, a desk, a table and a bookcase. He set his staff down next to his sword and the sword he had used as a Toa. It had no blade, for that was formed by putting your Elemental through it. It had a orange crystal on it, which would light up once you activated it. That sword was ancient, passed down through the generations of Toa, from mentor to pupil.

He looked out the window over Metru Nui and sighed. Even with the Turaga High Council still alive, the city was slowly falling into the hand of chaos. Rage and depression had consumed the city, as if darkness was all around them, waiting to reveal itself...

Drax walked over to his bed and laid down. He stared up at the white ceiling, thinking about the state of their city. And as he drifted off to sleep, he hoped the Toa would defeat the darkness before they were consumed by it...

They appeared in a large abandoned housing district somewhere in Po-Metru. The De-Matoran looked around and recognized this place.

“I've been here before, after I ran away from that Arker and his gang of friends!”

“Yes, Shadow's End, after you stunned them when they asked you to give them the Power Stone of Water,” the Steltian said.

“Heh, sorry about that, by the way.”

“You can tell them that later once we're out of this mess,”

“So what are we doing here?”

“We're going to pick something up that Shadow's End left behind.”

“What?”

“You should be fairly familiar with it.” She smiled.

They walked away from the housing district through a barren wasteland of broken sculptures and dreams. Nobody had lived here for several years, making it seem like a ghost town. The dark clouds overhead didn't help, either.

They came to a large mountain with a huge crack in the side of it, going straight through to the other side. Urian opened her gauntlets and they began to glow a bright golden brown, and she made a motion like she was ripping the crack open, and they did without her even touching them.

“Whoa... what are those things?”

“Elemental Gauntlets. My species can't use Elemental Powers, so Helryx gave me these that let me manipulate the Elements. I can only control the Elements that are right in front of me, though. They also enable me to teleport.”

She walked through the new opening and Iyre followed. They came out into a clearing that Iyre knew very well. Parked up against a wall of stone was the Mark I. The Mark I was a prototype vehicle designed by the Great Beings, but was never completed. It was then put into storage in the Archive, and abandoned after the Great Beings disappeared. When he fell into the Archive, he found it and the Power Stone. He then met Shadow's End and they escaped in it when the place began to cave in on itself. It must have been abandoned here when the Order teleported them back to their base.

The De-Matoran looked over the Mark I and it seemed almost the same as when he last saw it, only a bit dirtier and muckier than he remembered. He brushed it off and it fell to the ground.

“So why are we getting this thing out of here?”

“Because it's one of the fastest and most durable land vehicles in the entire Universe. The Order could do many, dangerous things with this.”

She came over and opened the door into the vehicle at the back. It lowered itself down to the ground, kicking up dust as it landed in the dirt. The Steltian and the Matoran walked into the vehicle and the door closed behind them, like it knew that they were the only ones. They looked around and saw that there were two benches on both sides of the vehicle, and a steering wheel at the front of the vehicle. Several cords dangled in several places.

The De-Matoran took a seat and Urian went up to the wheel. She looked back at Iyre.

“When we're done with it, we need to give it a makeover.”

“Yes ma'am.”

She activated the engines, which roared to confirm their life. She held down a button on the wheel and pulled out from the wall and carefully through the hole and out into the field. Urian then spun the wheel and the Mark I whipped around and into full gear. They sped forward, a cloud of dust left where they had been.

As they sped through Po-Metru, a pair of red eyes watched them from a distance, its mangled, sharp teeth gritting. It hopped down from its perch and disappeared into thin air.

He darted around corners and slid under tables as fast a Stone Rat. His “inside source” (really a captured medical officer), had told him that the central base for the corrupt Order agents was on a nearby island, about fixty miles from Daxia. He had to find Mersery or Echo to tell them where it was and how they needed to eliminate them before even more people died.

The Toa of the Green turned a corner and was met by a group of corrupted Order soldiers walking in his direction. They saw him and readied their energy-based SMGs and aimed at the Toa in an instant.

“Drop your weapons!” one of them shouted at him, looked at the Toa's twin swords that he held in his hands. He sighed and dropped his swords, seeing no way out. They clattered to the ground.

“Kneel, otherwise I will shoot you dead where you stand!” the soldier yelled again. The Toa shrugged and knelt down. The soldiers came over to him and placed a pair of jet-black hand-cuffs on his wrists behind his back. They lifted him up and began to take him down the corridor when they were met with the forms of the Mersion scientist Mersery and the artificial Toa of Water Niha.

All the soldiers drew their guns on them. The Mersion smiled.

“You're really going to try that on the best damn scientist and artificial Toa in the whole Order?”

The soldiers' faces became a little confused. Niha giggled, and then in the blink of an eye, rolled forward towards the soldiers and cut their barrels off with her extremely sharp blades. They fell to the ground as the soldiers whose barrels hadn't been cut opened fire on her. She dodged the bullets with extreme accuracy, but a few did graze her.

Lamos saw that all the soldiers' backs were turned from him and he took the opportunity. He jumped up and at the same time swiped his cuffed hands underneath his feet so they were now in front of him. He landed and quickly grabbed one of his two swords and broke the chain, releasing his arms. Lamos grabbed his other sword and attacked the remaining soldiers.

He first sliced one of their backs, and then hit them in the head with the finger-guard of his sword. The soldier fell unconscious to the ground. The other soldiers turned on him and began firing on the Toa. He dodged and jumped over the bullets, but one came and went straight through his chest. He fell to the ground and began to bleed out.

Mersery quickly activated his Red Crystal Staff and yelled to his Toa companion who was fighting off a few soldiers. She nodded to him and struck the soldiers with her sword and then hit the deck. The Mersion released a blast of red energy that struck the corrupt Order agents and blasted them backwards, knocking them out.

The two quickly went over to the unconscious form of Lamos and helped him up. There was about an inch-wide hole about four inches from his heartlight. Blood was streaming from the wound and onto the floor.

Niha scanned him with her Heads Up Display and her face became consumed by worry and fear.

“He's dying. What are we going to do?”

The Mersion sighed.

“I know what to do.”

He reached down and picked up his staff and held it over the wound. Red energy crackled and went down into the wound. He concentrated not to hurt the Toa, or kill him. The energy began to create new flesh and armor based on what surrounded the wound. The blood then went back into his body and the Mersion released him.

The Toa awoke and gasped for breath, shocked from being shot. He looked down at where his wound was and saw that it wasn't there anymore.

“What... what the hell happened to me?”

“You, um, you were-.”

“You almost died,” Niha cut the Mersion off. “But Mersery used his Red Crystal to heal you so now you're all better.”

“...k... that's the second time that I've almost died. The last time was in the Southern Island Chains where a strange beast almost sucked the life out of my body.”

“What did you do?”

“No time for that,” Mersery said. “I hear more soldiers coming. We need to get moving.”

“Wait. I know where their base is.”

“You do? Lead the way, then.”

They got up and held onto Mersery. He activated his Red Crystal Staff and with a crackling flash of red light, they were gone.

The giant metal door slid open and Artix entered once again. The Av-Matoran looked at his arrival and smirked.

“Back for more of my bashing of your lord?”

“No. I am here for much more than that. It seems our location has been leaked to a Toa who is still on the side of Mata Nui. The traitor has been dealt with, though.”

“So what? You're here to collect me so that the Toa doesn't come and rescue me?”

“Basically. And we're evacuating the entire base so our operation doesn't fall apart.”

“Sorry,” a new voice joined in. “But I'm afraid your move has been delayed.”

Artix turned to see the forms of Mersery, Lamos and Niha. All the soldiers surrounding the warehouse pulled their energy-based weapons and fired on the three. Mersery quickly created an energy bubble around them to deflect their fire back at them. Glonor quickly flipped his chair backwards so he wouldn't get hit. The soldiers were hit by their own bullets, and Artix was also shot clean through his chest.

Once the last of the bullets had dispersed, the trio quickly ran over to the Matoran and broke his bonds. He got up and looked around.

“Not the prettiest escape I've ever been part of, but it works.”

As they walked away to take down the rest of the base, the dying form of Artix on the ground pulled out a small black device, almost identical to the one Faz used to take his own life. He readied it and looked at the Order agents as they walked away.

“Rise again.” He said.

The four turned to look at him when he pressed the button. Several explosives that were mounted to the walls suddenly activated and a small countdown clock appeared.

Three...

The four quickly turned and ran for the door.

Two...

They reached the door.

One...

They jumped and landed on the ground.

A massive explosion erupted from inside the building and destroyed it. A huge fireball ascended upwards as shrapnel and debris rocketing in all directions. Once the fire had cleared, the four got up and looked around at all the destruction around them, the glittering fire illuminating them.

“We can't take down the whole base because the soldiers are now coming for us. We have to go, now!” Lamos said.

They held onto Mersery and he activated his staff and again and they vanished.

They turned around a sharp corner, kicking up dust, and kept on going.

“Where are we going? Can't you just teleport this thing to where you want to go?” Iyre asked.

“No. It's too big for me to teleport on my own. So for now we're just going to drive all the way to the Coliseum.” Urian replied.

“Wait, we're going to the Coliseum?”

“Yes,” she made another sharp turn. “Helryx said that there were rumors that the Legion of Chaos was going to attack the Coliseum within the next month. She was going to send agents to guard the Coliseum, but I guess with what's been happening those plans kind of fell through.”

“Shouldn't Helryx be hiding or fighting back?”

“She's currently in the Med Bay being watched over by Echo. She'll be fine.”

“So... What is that?!” the Iyre pointed forward out the window at a spindly, mangled figure standing about thirty feet from the Mark I. Urian looked up and brought the vehicle to a screeching halt only ten feet from the monster.

“Mata Nui...”

“What is that thing?!”

“That... That thing cannot exist,”

The thing began to walk towards them. “Just answer my question!”

“That's... that's the Mangle, the spirit of an ancient being from another world entirely.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We can't fight it,” she turned to the De-Matoran. “We have to run.”

“Then go!” the De-Matoran yelled.

“Don't tell me what to do, Matoran.”

She put the vehicle in reverse and then rolled backwards when the Mangle made a motion like it was trying to make a block of stone come from the ground.

And that's exactly what happened.

A jut of rock came from the ground up behind the Mark I and they crashed into it, making the riders jerk backwards. The Mangle then made another motion and another rock jutted from the ground and flipped the vehicle on its back. The two kicked open the door and climbed out of the vehicle and faced the monster.

“We have to distract it long enough for me to get the vehicle back on its feet again.”

“So you mean I run around while you get the thing right-side up?”

“Pretty much.”

“I don't think that's entirely possible. WATCH OUT!”

Urian looked up to see the Mangle jump at them. They both barely made it out of the way before the monster came down with its razor-sharp claws. It swung at the De-Matoran and he jumped backwards to avoid it. He landed in the dirt and rolled backwards. He quickly recovered and readied his weapon and aimed it at the monster.

The Mangle was now fighting Urian, throwing rocks at her that she barely deflected with her Elemental Gauntlets. He fired a blast of sapphire energy in an attempt to stun the monster, but it seemed to only empower the creature. It redirected the energy at Urian and she got blasted backwards by it, crashing into the Mark I. She managed to flip it over but she was now nearly unconscious.

It turned towards Iyre who fired another stun blast at the Mangle, but it redirected it at a large boulder than rested about forty feet away and blasted it backwards. Iyre pressed the black button and the silver bit on top snapped at him and then back into its original position. A small window showed crackling red energy.

He aimed it at the Mangle and fired it. The red energy hit the creature and crippled it, red energy covering its body. Iyre grinned as he saw that the monster was dying. But it was not to last, for the Mangle suddenly arose and fired the energy back at the De-Matoran. Iyre quickly took a dive as the energy hit behind where he had been standing a blasted a hole in the rock.

He hit the ground hard. The Mangle ran at him screeching and knocked him backwards against the wall. As he hit the ground again, he knocked his head against a rock. His vision began to blur as he saw the Mangle coming towards him and pick him up. He was suddenly surrounded in blue energy and then a blinding white light.

As he fell into unconsciousness, he saw that he was now in a dead forest or something.

He then fell back into the darkness.

The Matoran of Ta-Metru came out of their huts as they heard what sounded like a jet descending on the city. They looked to the skies for an answer and saw that it was a jet descending, but what they did not know, was that this jet was there to destroy them.

Axis looked down on the district of the city of Metru Nui and chuckled to himself.

“Matoran are weak and fragile. Arrogant and stupid. Helpless and defenseless. That is why Toa exist, to protect them. They are laughable creations,”

“The cannon is ready, my lord.” Sinera said.

He smiled. “Open fire on them.”

“Yes, my lord.”

A section in the belly of the ship split open and a huge barrel-shaped cannon descended down and aimed at the city. It began to spin, green energy crackling around it. Suddenly several blasts of green lightning began to strike the city from the cannon, lighting everything it touched on fire.

Matoran ran around screaming as explosions and fires appeared all around them. Houses were destroyed, buildings burned to the ground.

The Makuta laughed at the destruction, the window in front of him reflecting the scene.

And it appeared as if everything had began to glitter.

Book II: Lift Us Up to Fall[]

Chapter 7: The Dark Meets the Light[]

His head was buzzing, his ears were ringing. The Matoran crawled to his knees and looked around. He was in a dead forest, the only green there was were some tall spiky trees and moss. To his right was an ocean, but even it was dark and gray.

He turned around to be met by the twisted form of the Mangle. He quickly reached for his gun, but found it wasn't there. The De-Matoran backed away from the Mangle as it approached him. The beast gritted its teeth, slobber dripping from its “mouth”.

Since his eyes were fixed on the twisted being, he wasn't paying attention to what was behind him. A rock, about ankle-high, lay in his way. He knocked into it and fell over into the dirt. He looked up at the Mangle looming over him, its mandibles clicking.

“What...What do you want?” The De-Matoran asked the creature, trying to crawl through the dirt to get away.

The Mangle opened its mouth, drool coming from its mouth. Then a noise that sounded like someone scrapping a sword against a Kanohi emerged, filling the Matoran's audio receptors.

“You... you have... a Destiny...”

“Well... doesn't everyone?”

“Your... your Destiny... is... to defeat the Dark Shadow...”

“How do you know that?”

The beast didn't answer. Instead, it turned into light and disappeared from the place, abandoning the Matoran there.

“Thanks.”

The De-Matoran got up and looked around the desolate place. He started walking forward, the graveling crunching underneath his feet. Maybe he could find out where he was. Either he was on one of the main continents in the Universe or in the Southern Island Chains. Nonetheless, he was thousands of miles away from Metru Nui.

He grumbled to himself and walked on.

The four of them, Lamos, Niha, Mersery and Glonor, appeared in the abandoned sector of Le-Metru. They looked around at the wrecked carts, loose cables and damaged chutes.

“Why are we here?” Lamos asked.

“Parts,” Mersery explained very simply. “Parts for a vehicle of sorts.”

“Why would we need a vehicle? Can't we just teleport?” Niha asked.

“Because we're going to protect the city of Metru Nui.”

“Can't the Toa just do that?”

“The Toa can't do this alone. The Legion's too powerful.”

“I thought the Order was not to interfere.”

“Well, the Order's corrupted, and has been for a long time. It's time for something different.”

The Mersion reached down and grabbed a cannon of sorts. He came over to the frame of a transport when they heard explosions coming from Ta-Metru.

“They're already here.”

“Then let's not wait any longer.” Lamos said.

They rushed to work.

The streets of Ta-Metru were in complete chaos. Fires burned, explosions echoed, and blood spilled. Matoran fled as streaks of energy came crashing down on them. All hell had broken loose. The Matoran thought things couldn't get worse.

O how wrong they were.

The stars above them began to move, but the Matoran didn't notice because they were all running for their lives. The stars arranged themselves to form the face of one of the most evil beings in the Matoran Universe: the Makuta.

The shape of the Kanohi Kraahkan looked down on the city of Metru Nui. Despite the cool blue glow of his eyes, it filled all who saw it with terror.

“I am the ground you walk on... the air you breathe. No longer must I fight you to rule a Universe. I am the Universe!” The Makuta boomed.

No longer were the Matoran afraid of hell raining down on them. They were afraid of the Makuta of Metru Nui hovering above them in the skies.

“I have taken control. Your Great Spirit Mata Nui is gone... forever. Now to bring ten thousand years of darkness, and then forever more. My Reign of Shadows begins now.”

Across the island, and the Universe, the lights began to glow dark, plunging them into the shadows. Above Ta-Metru, Axis looked out at the darkness.

Sinera walked up behind him. “What is happening?”

“Makuta Teridax has seized control of the entire Universe. We failed!”

The skies above them crackled with lightning. It jutted from the sky and struck the Rosser. Lights went out all over the ship and they dove towards the ground. The entire ship was shaking as they fell, causing them to fall to the floor. Axis got up on focused on all his servants on the ship. He needed to get everyone off before they crashed and died.

The ship was now fifty feet from the ground.

Forty-Five... Forty... Thirty-Five... Twenty... Five... CRASH!!!

The sound echoed across the city of Metru Nui. Wreckage flew in all directions, cutting into buildings and into homes within a ten-mile radius. Fire burned from nearly every piece of wreckage that had come from the Rosser. No survivors were possible.

A ball of purple light suddenly appeared beside the main body of the ship. It exploded into the form of Axis, Sinera, Orin, and about ten Legion soldiers. They looked around at what remained of their means of transport.

“There goes all of your weapons, my lord-.” One of the Legion soldiers said before the Makuta fired a bolt of energy at him, killing him instantly. His body was throw across the crater, falling straight into a burning flame.

Orin looked back from the burning carcass. “What now, lord Axis?”

“We find another way to take this city, and then the Universe.”

He activated his energy powers again, covering them in a bright light. Then they were gone, the fires still burning brightly.

The four Toa ran through the hallways of the upper-floor of the Order base. Sparks flew from the walls, the lights were out, and Order agents ran around panicking.

“How could Makuta take over the whole Universe?” Implex, Toa of Water asked.

“I don't know. Mata Nui was supposed to awaken today, but instead Makuta took over. This cannot be possible.” Arker, Toa of Magnetism replied.

“We could ask Helryx?” Skyer, Toa of Light asked.

“Echo and Helryx left after Makuta shut down the base. The whole Universe is in a panic.”

They reached the end of the corridor to activate the lift when it arrived before they even pressed the button. The doors slid open and revealed several fully-armed Order soldiers. They all had SMGs loaded with energy rounds. Shadow's End raised their weapons.

“Why are you up here?” Arker asked.

“To kill you all. May she rise again.” The soldier at the front said. They raised their weapons and fired on them. Implex made a shield of water around them on a second's notice, deflecting all their projectiles.

Several of the other Order agents saw the Legion attack and quickly pulled their weapons on the agents who were not in the Legion. The Order agents quickly drew their guns on the others, defending themselves.

Arker quickly created a ball of Magnetic energy in his hands, the blue electric elemental power crackling between his palms. He blasted it outwards at the Legion soldiers, knocking them backwards and out. He looked around at the remaining agents.

“Let's get out of here before more of them show up.” Arker called to the rest of the Order agents. They all quickly piled into the lift and descended to a lower floor. They got out and looked around for any more Order agents that wanted to do them harm.

“Why did those Order soldiers attack us? Aren't they on our side?” Implex asked as they walked down the corridor.

“I don't know, but one of them said may she rise again.” Arker replied to the Toa of Water on his left.

“She as in the Dark Shadow?”

Arker stopped dead in his tracks, the others stopping with him. “It means we have beings in the Order who want the Dark Shadow released. How could this be?”

They heard the sound of someone arriving behind them and they turned to see Echo standing there. “There is another organization working within the Order for the Dark Shadow. Probably the Legion of Chaos. This has been going on for two hours now.”

“How did we miss it?” Arker asked.

“Because we're the last on the kill list. They actively avoided us.”

“How were you able to teleport? Doesn't the base have something that stops teleporters?” Implex asked.

“It did. But they took it out so they could hop around the place willy nilly.”

“What's the extent of the damage?” The Toa of Magnetism asked the tall being.

“We've lost many agents. Tayluu, Niha, Mersery, Glonor, Urian, Lamos and Iyre are currently missing.”

“Wait, did you say Iyre?” Arker questioned.

“Yes. I did. He is currently working with us to find the Power Stones.”

“Last time we met he wouldn't give us the Stone. Heck, he stunned us for it. Are you sure he's still on our side?” Implex said.

“He has changed his ways. Remember when Shadow's End was first formed? I said that the Stones could corrupt even the purest heart. That is what happened to Iyre.”

“Where is he now?” Implex asked.

“I did say he was missing. He was last seen in Po-Metru with Urian traveling across the district in that vehicle you brought up from the Archive. Then something attacked them and we lost contact. Then this went down, obviously.” He gestured to the lighting.

“What attacked them?” Arker inquired.

“The Mangle.” Echo said grimly.

“What's... the Mangle?” Skyer asked hesitantly.

“An ancient being which is said to come from another world entirely. It has control over Earth, Stone and Sand. Its name comes from it appearance; a mangled, twisted lifeform.”

“What are we going to do about this creature?” Implex asked.

“Well, it disappeared along with Iyre.”

“You mean, it took Iyre?” Arker asked.

“Yes. We tried tracking Iyre's signal, but we lost it after the base shut down.”

“So what's our game plan?” Implex asked the Order's second-in-command.

“Currently the Power Stone of Earth is in safe hands with Helryx, and Iyre has the Power Stone of Water. We must retrieve it before anyone else does.”

“I guess we're going to Po-Metru to find out what happened,” Arker said to the remaining members of Shadow's End.

“Take a jet, they haven't been compromised yet. But hurry.”

“Yes sir. Let's move out!” Shadow's End ran down the corridor towards the hangar.

The cool forest had turned into a completely frozen one. Iyre had lost sight of the ocean long ago and had gone deeper into the island. Apparently he was going south, because it was winter down here. Which probably meant he was on the Southern Continent. Most of the time, the Southern Island Chains were completely frozen over, so he wasn't there.

The sky had gone dark, too.

He clutched his sides, desperately trying to keep warm. Why couldn't he have been born as a Ko-Matoran? Glonor would find his shivering amusing. He would even laugh about it. Iyre still couldn't decide if Glonor was an ally or some guy the Order tacked on him to annoy him.

The De-Matoran guessed he kind of deserved to be annoyed. He did stun Shadow's End and run off with the Power Stone of Water, afterall.

Oh crap. Iyre thought. Did that thing take it?

He quickly shoved his hand into his pack to check if the Stone was still there. It was. Thank Mata Nui it was. He needed to guard this thing with all his life. Too bad his gun was back in Po-Metru with Urian.

Iyre looked up from the snow-covered ground and saw a large stone building in the distance about sixty-feet from him. His heart-light may have skipped a beat but it was too hard to tell because he quickly ran through the woods, past trees and large ice patches to the stone structure. He reached it and found a steel door that was locked with a simple padlock. The De-Matoran examined the padlock and found it was frozen solid.

He looked around and found a large stone and picked it up. Iyre flipped it in his hand and chucked it at the padlock, shattering it. The door swung open into darkness. A small amount of light came in from the outside but quickly disappeared as it met the dark.

Iyre stood there for several moments, and eventually he decided that it was better in there than he was out here where he would freeze to death.

Hesitantly, he stepped into the darkness. The door slammed shut behind him and it was like he was never there.

The Order carrier flew over the waters of the Matoran Universe towards Metru Nui. Thick storm clouds had filled the sky, giving them cover from any unwanted sightings. The hangar was a mess; soldiers fighting each other, several dead. They fought their way through the Order agents to get to a carrier, and now they were flying towards Metru Nui to find a Matoran who had betrayed them, stunned them, and stolen the Power Stone of Water.

“Are we there yet?” Skyer asked from the back row of seats where he was sitting with Coltrix.

Arker sighed. “For the sixth time in the past ten minutes; no. We're not there yet.”

“Just sit back and relax, Skyer.” Implex told the Toa of Light.

“How can I relax when one of the most dangerous Makuta in the entire Universe has just taken over said Universe?”

“Good point.” Implex responded.

“We're about eight miles from Po-Metru. You can check by looking out the window.”

Skyer instantly turned and looked out the window to see the darkened city of Metru Nui. It was nearly impossible to detect the difference between the Metrus. Usually, each Metru had the color of their Elemental affiliation. But now, darkness had consumed the light.

“The dark has met the light.” Implex muttered, looking down at the island.

A few moments later they were directly above where Urian and Iyre had last reported from. Arker began to descend towards the ground. They landed about a mile from where the two had been. The door lowered and the four of them walked out of the carrier and out onto the dirt ground.

“Why couldn't we just park right next to them?”

“We don't know if the Mangle is still there or not. It's better to be cautious than dead.” Arker responded.

“Tru.” Skyer said.

They walked across the Metru towards where Urian and Iyre had been. They turned a corner and saw something they hadn't seen in a few weeks: the Mark I. They quickly ran forward to it. They gathered around the vehicle that had brought them out of the Archive before it collapsed. It had a few more dings in it than the last time they saw it. They looked around the other side and found Urian unconscious laying against the vehicle.

Implex quickly knelt down next to her and started to tend to her. She had several bruises all over her body and Urian's month had blood still dripping out of it. When Implex grabbed her to treat her wounds, she awoke and crawled away from them, breathing heavily.

“Shadow's End? What are you doing here?” Urian gasped. She looked up at the sky. “What the hell? What's happened? Where's Iyre? Where's the Mangle?”

“That's what we came here to find out. Supposedly the Mangle took him.” Arker said.

“And what's with the sky?”

“Makuta's taken over the entire Universe. He overthrew Mata Nui as the Great Spirit. He controls everything now.” Implex said to the Steltian.

“So what exactly happened here?” Arker asked.

“Iyre and I came from the Archives to find the Mark I so the corrupt Order didn't get their hands on it,”

“Echo speculates they're the Legion.”

“Then we drove it out of where you had previously left it and came here when the Mangle ambushed us.

“It knocked the Mark I over and we fought with it, but that thing knocked me out before I could teleport us out of here. And then it took Iyre somewhere... I guess.” Urian explained.

“So I guess you don't have any idea where they are?” Implex asked.

“Nope.”

“Then let's get out of here until we can find him otherwise.” They all walked into the Mark I when Arker looked around the area again and saw a small black cylinder: Iyre's gun.

He ran over and picked it up. Implex and the others joined him. They gathered around looking at the small black device.

“Iyre's gun?” Implex asked.

“Yep. He must have dropped it when the Mangle grabbed him.”

“I guess let's just take it with us until we find him.”

The walked into the Mark I and Arker started it up. They pulled back and then drove forward towards the carrier.

None of them noticed the Mangle watching them.

The building seemed to be some sort of ancient armory from wars fought on the Southern Continent. Most of the weapons that were still there were of Skakdi design, so the Zakaz military probably used to fill up here. Now it was abandoned and desolate, time destroying it. It was warmer than it was outside, but not that much warmer.

Why didn't I just give Shadow's End the Stone when I had the chance? I could have saved myself all this trouble. The De-Matoran thought to himself.

He looked around for something that could help him warm up, but it was almost pitch black in their, but a few seeps in the ceiling provided some light. Iyre searched along the walls for a light switch and eventually found one. He flipped it and the Lightstones in the ceiling flickered to life.

It revealed that the floor had all sorts of rubble on it, along with some dried blood. Weapons littered the side of the walls, suggesting that this place had actually been ambushed by an enemy force. He came over and tried to activate a weapon, but it was frozen through.

He went and just sat in the center of the room away from the walls, because they were the coldest part of the place. He hoped Urian or someone would come and rescue him from this place, but that didn't seem like it was going to happen any time soon.

Suddenly the door began to be pounded on and he retreated back towards the wall. He picked up one of the frozen weapons and pointed it at the door. Iyre knew very well it didn't work, but maybe he could fool whoever it was. Unless it was a Skakdi, then he'd be screwed.

The door banged again, and again until falling onto the floor with a loud clatter. A rush of cold air filled the building, white light pouring in. A figure stepped into the Skakdi armory and the De-Matoran couldn't believe who it was.

It was Amaya.

Chapter 8: How Many Times[]

“Amaya? What in the name of Mata Nui are you doing in this forsaken place?” The shocked De-Matoran asked the black and blue armored Ga-Matoran who had just entered the building.

“I was told to come get you.”

“By who? Nobody even knows I'm here.”

“There are a few,”

“The Mangle. Did the Mangle tell you I was here?”

“No. He is just the teleporter. My master told me where you were from what he learned from the Mangle.” Amaya said, looking around the room.

“Who is your master, then?”

“That doesn't matter now. I was told to get you out of here.”

“To where? To get me killed? Or, to kill me?” Iyre took a step backwards.

“Seriously, Iyre. You have to trust me.” She held out her hand. “Please.”

The De-Matoran was reluctant for a while, but Iyre snorted and then came over to the Ga-Matoran and grabbed her hand. They both walked out into the cold desolate wasteland once again. They walked through the frozen forest together, the snow crunching underneath their feet. After a while Iyre had to ask the Ga-Matoran more questions.

“How do you even communicate with the Mangle? I thought it-he, was a monster?”

“Telepathy. Its mind has been woven into the past, present, and future. It knows some of the our Destinies,”

“That's why it told me my Destiny was to defeat the Dark Shadow. How can I even do that? Do I team up with Shadow's End? Do I become a Toa?”

“That I cannot answer, Iyre. But you must trust me.”

The De-Matoran stopped talking and the two walked on in silence.

“Welp. I guess we just wasted that time.” The Toa of the Green known as Lamos said, staring at the smoking crater that was the Rosser.

“We were trying to help the Matoran, Lamos.” Niha responded.

“They still need protection. Just because the Legion's down doesn't mean the Makuta isn't going to hurt anyone else.” Glonor said

Suddenly they heard someone teleport behind them and they turned to see Echo, second in command of the Order standing on top of a pile of scrap.

“Well I have another thing you need to do.”

“What, commander?” Niha asked.

“We may know where another Power Stone is.” He smiled.

“Really? Where?” Lamos walked forward.

“Underneath Onu-Metru.”

“Wouldn't that be by the Archives?” Glonor responded.

“For are we know it is in the Archives. But no matter what, we cannot let the Legion get a hold of it.”

“Then what're we waiting for?”

“I don't know.” Echo smirked.

They all gathered in a circle and put their hands in the center. Echo teleported them, some sort of black energy surrounding them, and then they had left that place and were now in a sewer. Niha turned around towards Echo, her robotic eyes glowing brightly through the dark.

“Where is it from here?” She asked.

“About two or three miles from here.” He pointed straight ahead of himself past the Toa of Water.

“Why couldn't we just teleport next to it?” Lamos walked forward.

“Because if the Legion were already here, we'd be walking right into a trap where we would either be shot or cut into several pieces. Either way we die.”

“I guess we should start walking then.” Glonor said.

They turned and walked in the direction of the Power Stone. Their feet caused the water to splash, sending echoes through the maze the sewer.

Little did they know that they were being followed.

The dark room was suddenly illuminated by a bright purple light. The light crackled and lasted for a few seconds before vanishing, leaving several beings in its place.

Axis walked forward through the dark room towards a doorway where the dimmest of lights was coming in and flicked a switch on the wall, activating grids of light stones in the ceiling, revealing several crates scattered throughout the room.

“What's the plan, sir?” one of the soldiers asked.

The Makuta walked over to one of the large crates and pried it open with his bare hands, aided by his razor-sharp claws. The others gathered around and saw that inside of it was a fully assembled Vahki, a Bordakh, to be exact. It was in storage mode, just laying there in between the wood.

Axis reached down and pressed a button on the inside of its helmet. Suddenly gears started to turn inside the robot, lights beginning to come to life as the Vahki powered up. Its robotic hands reached up to the sides of the crate and lifted itself out onto the stone floor. It looked around at each of the stunned faces of the Legion agents, except for the robotic soldiers.

It then looked down at its hands, like it was seeing if they held anything. The robotic guard suddenly swung its arms backwards and then to the front again, two staffs assembling themselves in its hands. The two staffs, the Staffs of Loyalty, gleamed in the light of the several glowing stones installed into the ceiling.

Axis turned to his fellow Legion members. “This is our next move. In all these crates are Vahki, reconstructed based on the old designs.

“These will storm Metru Nui and take control of the situation. Then we will show Teridax what the forces of the Dark Shadow can actually do. We will win and nobody can stand in the way of our freeing of our master.”

The Legion of Chaos lifted their fists in the air and cheered at their leader's speech. Axis looked towards the other several dozen crates and smiled.

The jet-black Order of Mata Nui carrier flew silently through the clouds near the Southern Continent. It's occupants were the members of Shadow's End; Arker, Implex, Skyer, Coltrix and Urian, an Order Specialist. They would have five Toa, but Kinla had been killed by the Makuta Orpheus and Shadow Skyer hours before.

A tragic loss, yes, but they hadn't had time to mourn her, because Makuta had taken over the Matoran Universe and a new mission arose. Now they were tracking down Iyre, a De-Matoran who they had met before, and had stunned them over the Power Stone of Water, and left them. Now they were trying to track him down so they could save him and the Power Stone.

“So why are we going to the Southern Continent? We don't even know he went there.” Urian asked, leaning up to Arker and Implex.

“We're getting a faint signal from the Stone. It's probably Iyre unless it's a different Stone. Of course it would be a bonus for us.” Arker said.

“How did you get Helryx's tracking device on this thing?”

“We didn't. We rigged the tracking system on this to track the Stone's energy. Only we're tracking the general energy signature of the Power Stones, not the exact Stone.” Implex replied.

“When did you become all techy?”

“It's been growing on me.” Implex said simply.

“Why couldn't you have done this before?” Urian asked.

“Because we wanted to get you first.” Implex smiled.

“We've arrived,” Arker interrupted. They all looked out at the massive form of the Southern Continent directly below them.

The Toa of Magnetism began the landing procedure and the carrier began to descend on a frozen part of the continent, meaning it was winter there.

“Now we have to go out in the cold?” Skyer complained.

“Yep.” Arker smiled.

Ten seconds later they were slightly jolted as they hit the ground, landing on the frozen earth. Arker lowered the boarding ramp and they unbuckled and readied their weapons. They walked out onto the frozen earth and looked around. The air was stale and cold, having circulated the area dozens of times over.

Arker pointed to the northeast. “The signal was about twenty clicks that way. Let's start moving if we want to catch Iyre before he disappears again.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Implex smiled.

They ran forward, their weapons clanking as they ran. The five jumped over fallen trees and ducked under large roots. The De-Matoran couldn't be far off. They had to find him before they lost him for a third time.

“How much longer?” Iyre asked the Ga-Matoran in front of him as they walked through the frozen forest of the Southern Continent, as Amaya had confirmed.

“Not much longer, my friend.” She replied.

“Why do I need to meet your master?” Iyre hesitated after his question, realizing something else. “Wait, why does he want you to take me to him when he could have just had me teleported to him?”

The Ga-Matoran turned around, raising an eyebrow. “Good point. I guess the Mangle didn't follow orders.”

“Well that's good. Good that even your own minions aren't following orders.”

“Don't be disrespectful, De-Matoran.” She continued walking.

Iyre stopped in his tracks. “I don't think I want to meet your boss.” Amaya turned around on a dime with a gun in her hand, aimed right at his head.

“I don't think you want to do that, Iyre.”

“What? You'd really shoot me, Amaya?”

“If I have to.”

The De-Matoran stared down the barrel of the gun, a bullet shining at the end.

“Now move.”

Reluctantly, Iyre walked forward, changing places with the Ga-Matoran as she followed him, gun still aimed at his head, ready to end him then and there. The De-Matoran ducked under a large root, his Ga-Matoran 'escort' keeping a close eye on him.

Amaya was distracted when she heard the sound of beings running through the forest. She scanned the area, gun in hand. Suddenly behind her, five beings came out of the trees and stopped at the sight of them.

“Iyre?” One of them, who was wearing a blue Kakama Nuva-shaped Kanohi, said when they saw the De-Matoran.

The Ga-Matoran turned around and fired on them without a second's hesitation. The Toa ducked at the gunfire. Iyre saw that her back was turned and took his opportunity to take her down. He jumped forward and tackled Amaya to the ground. Her gun rolled away into the grass. She fought Iyre off, and was incredibly strong than you would guess by just looking at her.

The Ga-Matoran wrestled Iyre off of her and threw him against a rock, a shot of pain surging through his back. He fell to the ground, nearly unconscious. Amaya dove for the gun when suddenly a pillar of earth shot up and knocked her into the sky, Amaya landing on her back, and knocked out.

The five beings quickly ran over to the two Matoran and helped Iyre up. The De-Matoran's head was buzzing, his back ached and he felt sick. He looked up to the Toa who was helping him and recognized him instantly.

“Arker...?”

The Matoran then fell unconscious.

Urian looked at the two unconscious Matoran. “Are they dead?”

Arker knelt down and checked if they were dead or not. “No. They're not. Just unconscious.”

“Well we better get Iyre out of here before anyone comes looking for him. Let's go.” Implex said, scanning the area.

They began to go and pick up the Matoran when suddenly they heard at least six guns cock. The five instantly stood up and readied their weapons. Six of the robotic Order soldiers were surrounding them, energy weapons pointed at them.

“Finally I meet the fabled Shadow's End!” A voice said from somewhere in the woods. Suddenly a Toa of Iron wearing a Kanohi Hau emerged from the forest. “I've heard a lot about you. Especially your defeat and capture of Shadow, Frezon and Shadow Skyer. Very impressive!”

“Who are you and what do you want?” Arker said, already annoyed by the new arrival.

“Right down to the point! I like that in a Toa!” He smiled. “I am Toa Fulvus.”

“Who do you work for?” Implex asked.

“Well I work for the Order of Mata Nui, of course!”

“Then why do you have us at gunpoint if we both work for the Order?” Arker raised an eyebrow, his grip on the Destiny getting a little tighter.

“Because you are rebels to the cause.”

“What cause? The Will of Mata Nui?” Coltrix asked.

“No, no, no. The Dark Shadow is our cause.”

“You're of the corrupted Order, aren't you? The Legion of Chaos?”

“I guess that's our true name, but we've been part of the Order for so long, it just seems we're the same now.” He smiled.

“Our values do not match. We want to keep the Universe safe, you want to destroy it.” Implex said.

“We don't want to destroy the Universe. We want to release the Dark Shadow from her prison in which she was wrongfully placed.”

“The Dark Shadow will destroy the Universe once she's released. She'll kill you all. She'll kill everyone.” Urian said, her gauntlets beginning to glow slightly.

“Enough of this,” he said, impatient with the Toa arguing with him. “Kill the Toa, leave the two Matoran.”

“Yes sir.” The robotic soldiers said in unison.

The barrels of their guns began to glow bright with energy. The Toa and Steltian readied their weapons to defend themselves from these drones.

“Fire.” Fulvus said.

The six soldiers opened fire on the the group, but they were ready for the attack. Urian bent a large slab of earth in front of her and the two Matoran to block the bullets. Implex created a shield of Water in front of her and Arker, while Coltrix created a shield of Fire for him and Skyer. The bullets got absorbed into their shields.

After a few minutes the soldiers ran out of ammo for their weapons and had to cease fire to let their weapons recharge. The Toa didn't hesitate to take advantage of this and went on the offensive and fired their respective Elements at the soldiers, with Urian throwing water or earth at them.

They quickly struck down four of the robotic soldiers, the other two taking cover behind a large rock. Urian smiled and bent the rock, revealing the cowering robots. She then lifted it over them as they tried to escape and dropped it on the robots, crushing them. A few of their parts rolled out from under the rock and into the snow, where they sparked, melting the snow.

Suddenly they heard clapping coming from somewhere in the forest, and then Fulvus came out again, hitting his hands together, making the noise.

“Well done. Well done indeed. You are truly enemies of the Order.” He said, his orange eyes glowing with each spoken word.

Arker sighed, his blade still glowing brightly. “We are the Order of Mata Nui. You are the Legion of Chaos. You want to hunt down the Power Stones and release the Dark Shadow from her prison, where she will then unleash ten thousand years of darkness onto our world, and then forevermore. Do you really want that?”

“She will not. All who moved to release her will be greatly rewarded. Those who tried to stop her from being released and tried to stop her, like you five, will burn in the fires of her wrath.”

“You're obviously brainwashed out of the crap.” Urian said.

“Insults are not righteous, Steltian.” Fulvus said. “See what the Order teaches? Disrespect, back-talk, lame insults. These things are not what we teach. We teach to respect our masters. We teach to keep your mouth shut in a situation like this.”

“And how would your teachings say handle a situation like this?” Implex inquired, her grip still on her Aqua Lance.

“Kill everyone that opposes you.” He smiled.

“Charming.” Implex replied.

“Enough of this.” Urian said. She quickly bent the earth underneath the Toa, making him fall into the ground. She then closed off the hole, leaving the Toa down in darkness.

“Let's go before anymore come.” Arker said, picking up Iyre. “Let's move!”

The group ran forward, leaving Amaya behind in the snow. They wove through trees and jumped over logs.

“Shouldn't we have brought her as well?” Skyer asked as they ran.

“She was the one shooting at us before. For all we know she is part of the Legion!” Implex responded.

“Seems legit.”

They ran forward towards the carrier.

The water splashed as she stepped in it. The Toa of Water looked down and smiled at the ripples that surrounded her feet. She looked back up and her comrades that walked on down the tunnel. The artificial Toa of Water ran forward to join them again.

“What're we looking for?” She asked.

“Remember, Niha? We're looking for a Power Stone.” Lamos said.

“Oh yeah. That's right. It's just been so long I forgot.”

“We're getting close, young one.” Echo said, looking down at a small device in hand.

“I thought Helryx said that we couldn't track the Stones anymore?” Glonor asked.

“That's right,” Mersery said. “but Echo made this out of one of our trackers. Quite ingenious, actually.”

They turned a corner and continued walking until they heard something in the dark. They all readied their weapons and listened. It sounded like some sort of robot moving fast through the sewers.

“Niha, can you get a reading?” Mersery asked the Toa of Water.

“I can try.” Niha said. She turned on her HUD and activated her Akaku ability. Niha scanned around the sewer system looking for whatever was moving in the dark.

“I don't see anything- wait, what is that?” Niha gasped.

“What is it, Niha?” Mersery asked. “What do you see?”

“There are a dozen of them. They're like Visorak and they're coming right for us.”

“Visorak?” Glonor asked, readying his gun.

“No... my systems identify them as... Vahki.”

“Vahki haven't been in service for a thousand years.” Mersery said.

“Someone's reactivated them, obviously.” Lamos said.

“And I've got a pretty good idea who,” Echo crossed his arms.

“Axis.” Lamos replied.

“Axis.” Echo nodded his head.

“Let's make scrap metal of them, then.” Glonor said.

“I wouldn't have it any other way.” Echo smiled, drawing his Areo Blade.

They readied for the incoming robotic guards.

Chapter 9: Cry of Fear[]

“Go! Go! Go!” Urian shouted as she closed the ramp.

Arker activated the ship and began the lift-off sequence. The engines started to glow with energy, the ship beginning to take flight. The Toa of Magnetism pulled up and the ship ascended into the dark sky. Underneath them several corrupted Order soldiers ran out and trained their guns on the carrier. They locked their weapons and opened fired on the ship.

“Buckle in!” Arker said as they began taking fire.

Arker tried to swerve out of the way of the incoming projectiles, but it was impossible. They struck and shook the ship, tossing its passengers around.

“Get us out of here!” Urian yelled as the ship lurched again.

“What do you think I'm trying to do?!” Arker called back, irritated.

He turned the controls and activated the engine boosters.

“Hold on!”

Suddenly the ship blasted forward, the engines burning bright. They blew trees over as they passed, snow falling to the ground. Everyone in the carrier was pushed back in their seats at the suddenly burst of speed. When they were about ten miles away from where the soldiers were firing at them, Arker smiled, thinking they had gotten away from them.

Unfortunately, he was wrong. An Order carrier came up behind them, their guns out.

“This is going to be fun.” Arker muttered.

“This doesn't look like fun.” Implex said.

“That's the point.”

The ship following them began to spin their guns, and then seconds fire began to blaze from the cannons. Again, Arker tried to swerve out of the way, but they still hit. The occupants of the Order were thrown around inside, banging against the walls and glass.

“Doesn't this thing have guns itself?” Implex called.

Arker looked across the console before his eyes stopped on a button that read defenses. He hit the button and suddenly two cannons identical to the ones of the other carrier rolled out on the sides of the ship. A separate control wheel came out of the console to the right of the Toa of Magnetism. With great effort, Implex made her way to the front and took her seat next to Arker.

She put both hands on the controls and began to move them. The Toa of Water turned the guns around and watched a screen in front of her which tracked the ship behind them. She readied her thumbs above the triggers and readied to open fire.

The ship jerked again, shaking them all.

“Just start shooting!” Urian called, trying to keep Iyre from bouncing around the ship like a ball.

Implex narrowed her eyes, annoyed. The ship came into range and Implex opened fire. The projectiles struck the ship, cracking the glass.

“Haha, direct hit!” The Toa of Water exclaimed in joy.

“Nice one, Implex.” Arker said to his female companion.

The Toa of Water smiled and her cheeks went red. The ship began to fire on them again, knocking them around.

“Implex, try to take out their cannons!” Coltrix called.

“I'll try.”

She watched as their enemies came into range again.

“They’re here!” Niha said.

Suddenly several disks of energy shot out from the darkness at the group. They either dodged or struck the disks. The disks would probably render them immobile, making them much, much easier to kill. Why not just have the disk kill them on impact? That would take away the fun. Again, though, they didn’t experience fun, they were just robots. So just stunning them would probably conserve energy.

Echo used his Areo blade to slice off the head of a Zadakh, which fell into the sewer water and sparked violently. He kicked the remaining body into it as well, it also sparking. Niha shot another in the head, deactivating it instantly. Glonor shot one in the knees, bringing it down. It however, pressed on, crawling towards him through the water. He quickly put an energy bullet in its head.

Mersery used his Red Energy Crystal to obliterate three Vahki into nothing put pieces. He swung around and cut off the head to another, red energy streaking behind him. Lamos used his twin blades to slice up two Vahki, cutting them into several pieces.

“We need to get out of here before they slaughter us!” Glonor shouted before dodging an energy disk.

Echo looked behind him. “Let’s go!” he said, running down the hallway behind him, slicing the head off another Vahki as he ran.

The others broke off their fight with the Vahki and followed the commander of the Order of Mata Nui. The water splashed around their feet as they made their way out.

“What’s the plan, sir?” Glonor asked, catching up to Echo.

“Find where the Power Stone is, retrieve it, and get the heck out of here.” Echo said.

“Sounds like a plan.” Glonor smiled.

They continued on running.

The De-Matoran took a while to wake from his sleep. When he did, he found himself on a bench next to a Toa of Fire and a Toa of Light.

“Skyer? Coltrix?” He asked.

The two turned towards him and helped him to sit up. “Iyre, you’re awake!” Skyer said.

“What… what happened?”

“You were thrown against a rock and passed out,” Coltrix said. “You missed a battle.”

The De-Matoran held his head. “I’ve had plenty of those in the past few days.”

“What exactly were you doing all the way out here?” Skyer asked.

“That thing… the Mangle… it took me...”

“Iyre, good, you’re awake!” Said a familiar voice.

The Matoran turned and saw Urian, the Steltian that had saved him from Soul, was coming towards him.

“How’re you feeling?” She asked.

“Like trash,” Iyre said, rubbing his back.

“I can relate.” Urian smiled.

“Iyre,” a deeper voice called from the front. “Do you have the Stone?”

The De-Matoran turned again and saw Arker, leader of Shadow’s End, coming towards him.

“Arker… it’s been a long time.”

“Yes it has,” the Toa of Magnetism replied. “But do you have the Power Stone of Water?”

Iyre’s eyes widened as he remembered that he had it and quickly reached into his pack and pulled out the blue gem. Everyone in the carrier gasped at the sight of it. Coltrix quickly grabbed a case next to him and opened it for Iyre to put the Stone in.

“Do it.”

Reluctantly, Iyre conceded and put the Stone in the case. Coltrix quickly closed it and locked it.

“Well, that’s that.” Skyer said.

“That’s that.” Arker said.

“We should be arriving on Daxia in a few minutes.” Implex said from the controls.

Arker went back over and took a seat next to the Toa of Water.

“Why are we going to Daxia?” Iyre asked.

“We’re bringing the Stone back to Helryx.” Skyer said.

“Wait, isn’t the base over-run with the Legion?” Urian asked.

“Yeah but Echo told us to bring it to Helryx as soon as we recovered it, along with Iyre.” Arker replied.

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea...” Urian began before something began to buzz in the carrier.

“That’s the com-link. Pick it up.” Implex said to Arker.

The Toa pulled out a long, slim device from the console in front of him and held it up to his audio receptor.

“Helryx, is that you?” he asked.

“Yes. What progress have you made?” said the voice on the other end.

“We have found Urian, Iyre and the Power Stone of Water.”

“Excellent.”

“We’re on our way to Daxia now-.”

“No. Don’t come back here. It’s not safe.”

“How?”

“The situation has grown worse since you left. Don’t worry the Power Stone of Earth is safe. Just don’t come back here.”

“Yes ma’am.” Arker said, taken aback.

He set down the com-link and looked at Implex, who was looking at him with questioning eyes.

“Change of plans. We’re going to go to Metru Nui.”

“Why?” Implex asked.

“The situation at the base has… escalated. We can’t go back there.”

There was a collective sigh of worry let out through the carrier.

“So it’ll be another hour or two before we arrive. So get comfortable.”

“Yes sir.” Everyone said.

The Makuta stood in the empty room, staring ahead of himself. On the wall in front of him was a piece of metal with several symbols engraved on it. These were ancient, older than the Universe itself. They were said to be from the time of the Great Creators, long ago. They had a meaning once, but that had been lost when they vanished.

He turned at the sound of his lieutenant entering the room. The Vortixx stopped a few feet from the door, one foot out in front and her modified disk launcher in hand.

“Orpheus has arrived, my lord.” She said, not even trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.

Axis lowered his head ever so slightly and sighed. “Bring him in.”

“Yes sir.” Sinera said, now smiling.

She left the room, and a few minutes later he heard different footsteps coming into the room, but did not turn to look. As soon as the being entered the room, Axis turned around.

“Close the door, Orpheus,” he said.

The Makuta obliged and closed the door, sliding it shut. He turned back towards his leader.

“Greetings, Axis. It’s good to see you again, after all it has been ten thousand years.”

“Yes, and in that ten thousand years you did not attempt to rescue me or Sinera. In fact I hear you took over the Legion, my Legion, for yourself.” Axis’ red eyes blazed.

“You were in the Crater, sir. It is almost impossible to breach-.”

“Yet here I am.”

“Yes because of my servant Fulvus. He was embedded in the Order nearly eight thousand years ago and slowly went through their ranks, influencing others to join our cause.”

“That is true. But did he tell you that he visited me most often?” Axis let a small smile spread across his Mask.

Orpheus looked a little stunned. “What? How did he even get clearance for that?”

“The same way Shadow’s End got it five thousand years ago, but that doesn’t matter now,” the Makuta walked up to Orpheus, his shadow looming over him. “I understand that you let Shadow, Frezon and Skyer get captured.”

“Yes my lord. I left them to kill Shadow’s End-.”

“Yes but they got captured. You should have been there to finish them off.”

“At least they got rid of that Velika. He was annoying-.”

“He was a valuable ally. He was one of the Freelancers. They have information we could use.”

“Yeah but Skyer’s a Freelancer. We can still use him.” Orpheus offered.

“Yes, but you know where he is? Captured by the Order of Mata Nui and I don’t know where he is!” Axis snapped, almost lashing out at Orpheus with his wrist-chain saw blade.

“How do you not know? We have dozens of agents within the Order.”

“They are all too busy with the Order agents fighting back against them. They will not die quietly. Plus communications have been fuzzy since Teridax took over.”

“Yeah. That was strange. So how are we going to find Frezon, Shadow and Skyer?”

“I do not know yet, but when we do, we’re going to kill every Order agent there.” Axis said grimly.

Her spiked mace struck another robotic Order soldier in the head, dislodging its helmet and shattering its eyepiece, the crystal green fragments scattering across the floor.

“Keep moving! Let’s go!” The Toa of Water shouted to her comrades.

The six ran through the corridor, Helryx leading the charge. Fires burned everywhere, providing the only light in the base as the power had shut down.

“Where are we going, ma’am?” Krakua, Toa of Sonics asked.

“Brutaka’s going to teleport us out to Metru Nui.” The leader of the Order replied.

“And then what?”

“We’re going to find the rest of our comrades and end Makuta’s Reign of Shadows.”

“Yes ma’am.” The Toa of Sonics replied.

They turned a corner and were met with several Order robots, all with guns trained on them.

“Darn.” Helryx muttered.

The six readied themselves as the barrels of the guns began to glow with energy.

“This is going to be fun.” The Toa of Water said as the soldiers opened fire.

Her blue eyes scanned the walls of her chamber, looking in each of the openings for any movement. She had heard the gun fire and the fighting, but hadn’t seen anyone.

But she knew they were coming.

Electricity sparked in her palms, flashing brightly. She wasn’t going to let anyone get this Stone. No one. Not even if she had to die to protect it. It was too important, too dangerous to be left in the hands of those who would abuse it’s power to harm others.

She then saw the first being dart past one of the openings, followed by several others. A few seconds later several Vahki came after them as well.

She readied to fight as one of the beings stopped and looked through one of the openings, right at her. Suddenly he ran forward, calling to his comrades, presumably telling them to follow.

“No! You will not have the Power Stone!” She yelled as she stepped forward and shot a bolt of lightning at the being. He dodged it with ease and jumped from the opening and down onto the lava-surrounded island.

He drew a strange object from his belt, like the hilt of a sword. Suddenly air swirled around it and became a blade so sharp it could cut through even rock.

Behind him his comrades jumped down, avoiding the boiling lava below and landed and drew their weapons just as their commander had and pointed them at the being.

“You will not have the Power Stone of Fire! You will not!” She yelled, threatening to blast them all with Lightning.

“Why, hello, there, Lexa. Long time no see.” The lead being smiled through his Paraki-like Mask.

“Lexa… I remember…” She said as she fell into shock.

Chapter 10: Abandoned[]

The lone Turaga of Plasma made his way out of the abandoned Great Furnace in Ta-Metru. He had felt the earthquake, seen the building began to collapse in on itself, and saw the stars above Metru Nui, and undoubtedly, the whole Universe rearrange to make the face of Makuta.

Using what little Plasma energy he could muster, he cut through a beam that was in his way and made his way out onto the street.

The street was completely empty, not a Matoran in sight. The sky was pitch black, darker than any shadow the Turaga had ever seen.

“I wonder if Arker and his friends are doing alright...” he muttered.

The Turaga drew his sword and walked cautiously through the street, ready for anything. He had heard that Vahki had been sighted in the city, but they were not able to capture it. The former Toa Metru and Drax took the threat seriously, but Dume didn’t.

Figures, Drax thought to himself. Who knows? That old man could have been under Makuta’s control again...

He heard something scurry behind him and he turned and pointed his sword in the direction of the sound. Ahead of him was a Vahki Nuurakh, one of the former robotic guards of Ta-Metru.

“Guess Dume was wrong...” Drax smiled to himself.

The robot hadn’t seemed to notice him yet, and the Turaga of Plasma made sure it didn’t. It stopped in the middle of the street and looked back and forth. Standing still wouldn’t really prevent the Vahki from seeing him, but their optical sensors relied on motion for the most part, but also on heat. Although, Drax was the Turaga of Plasma, so…

The Vahki’s head snapped towards him and its eyes flashed bright green.

“Time to go,” Drax said to himself, beginning to back up.

The Vahki began to screech at him and then crawled forward after the Turaga. Drax broke into a run, well, a Turaga run.

“I hate being old,” he muttered under his breath.

Drax glanced over his shoulder and saw the Vahki was gaining on him. Soon is would catch up to him and he would have two options: surrender, or fight.

A creed had held high when he was a Toa had been to never surrender, never run, never think that he couldn’t do what he was destined to.

This creed carried onto his life as a Turaga, and he would not surrender. He would fight, even if it meant his death.

Drax stopped in his tracks and spun around, brandishing his blade. The Vahki stopped and created a disk of energy in its mouth, spinning brightly. It suddenly shot forward, and the Turaga just barely dodged it. He got back up and ran forward at the Nuurakh. The former Toa of Plasma brought his sword down on it but the robotic guard blocked it with one of its staffs.

It pushed him away and then got out of it’s crawling mode and reached its full height, standing on two legs and fully ready for combat.

“This will be fun...” Drax said as the Vahki approached him, staffs sparking brightly.

All hell had broken loose.

Not that he minded it very much at all. Chaos was one of his most favorite things.

Although, he did mind getting killed during it. His plan was to live forever, you know, killing others, not being killed himself.

But it was fun watching the bloodshed.

Suddenly the energy bars on his prison went out and he breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out into the battle field.

“It’s good to be back in action,” the Matoran of Shadow smiled to himself.

An Order drone ran past him and as it did Skyer grabbed a gun off it’s leg and cocked it.

“Not as good as my other one, but it will have to do.”

He aimed it forward and shot a random Order agent in the head, killing him instantly. The Matoran laughed maniacally to himself before continuing. This is what he lived for.

Behind him he heard someone scream and he wheeled around to see Shadow, a brute Skakdi of Fire, grabbing an Order soldier and throwing them into one of the yet-activate energy bars, the being completely fried by the electricity that ran through the barriers.

“Good to see you again, Shadow!” Skyer smiled.

“What are we doing now?” he asked the Kra-Matoran.

“I was kind of hoping you would have that answer but nonetheless I have a plan.”

“It better be a good plan, or otherwise I will personally end you,” the Skakdi growled.

“Oh ye of little faith,” the smile across his Tryna broadened.

“Yeah you can say that but we still don’t know where they are-”

Orpheus was interrupted by the Vortixx entered the room again.

“Sir, Orin has located Shadow, Skyer and Frezon. Do you want us to lend support?”

“No,” Axis said. “Orin can do it. Now we must focus on our next objective.”

“The Rosser II is ready, my lord.”

“What is our next objective?” Orpheus asked as they walked out of the room.

“You’ll know in due time, brother.”

The three went out of the room and came into a large hangar, where a massive ship lay before them.

“Where did you get this?” Orpheus asked.

“The Steltians. They are very kind to Sinera here.” Axis said, causing Sinera to smile.

“How did you even transport it?”

“Do you not know where we are, dear Orpheus?” Axis smiled broadly.

“We are on Stelt?”

“Just off the coast of the mainland, yes. I’m surprised you didn’t realize.”

“I merely teleported to you, not knowing exactly where you were in the Universe.”

“You must always keep your eyes open, my dear Orpheus,” Axis turned towards the ship. “But there is no time for that right now, now we retrieve our Power Stone.”

The city of Metru Nui was dark as they passed over it. There were no spots of light were present. No Matoran going to work or coming from. Nothing moved in the shadows below.

“Darkness truly has fallen,” Implex said quietly, Arker being the only one who could hear her.

“Then we shall be a light,” he whispered back, causing a smile to break across her Kanohi Volitak.

Then several flashes of light caught their attention from below. Looking down they saw exchanges of orange and blue energy flash from the Ta-Metru district, close to the Great Furnace. Whoever it was, they were putting up a fight, and they were probably the only people out during the darkness.

“Alright change of plans,” Arker called to the occupants in the back of the carrier. “We’re going to help out whoever it is down there.”

And with that he began to descend the carrier towards whoever it was down there. As they got closer, they saw two distinct figures: one tall and hunched over, clad in red armor and with energy crackling in its mouth and two swords in hand.

The other was a small figure clad in white and orange armor wielding a sword and a staff and they were dodging the disks of energy streaking from the other figure’s mouth.

“Vahki!” Arker yelled. He pressed a button on the console and the twin guns on the front of the ship swung out and glowed with energy.

The Vahki looked up at them and fired blasts of energy from its mouth at them. They swerved out of the way to dodge them, but several of them struck the ship, causing the lights to flicker. Implex fired several blasts of energy from the cannons at the robot, but it dodged all of them.

“Did the old ones do that?” Implex asked.

“Sort of,” Arker replied.

“Open the back!” Urian yelled.

The Toa of Magnetism didn’t hesitate for a moment and hit the button that unlocked the carrier’s door. Urian hit the button and it opened and she jumped out of the carrier and onto the street below, leaving a large dent in the ground.

Arker closed the door as the Vahki turned its attention to the Steltian and began firing on her. She flipped out of the way, and activating her gauntlets, which turned blue crystal, she bent several chunks of the road at the Vahki, but it was as agile as herself and dodged her attacks.

She sent several pipes from a nearby building flying at the robot, but it weaved through them with skill and even sliced a few in half. It landed on the other side and fired several disks of energy, which she backflipped out of the way off, but one came extremely close to her head. Urian landed and threw several chucks of the road at the robotic creature, but again it dodged most of them, except on that struck it in the arm and took it clean off.

It skidded to a halt, sparking shooting from under its boots. It didn’t seem to mind very much that it had lost its arm, and was instead more interested in destroying the Steltian.

It ran up to her and swung its one remaining sword, crackling with energy of command. She jumped out of the way and it slammed its sword into the ground. As Urian landed, she bent the chuck of earth underneath the Nuurakh and launched it upwards. She then flipped it over in midair and brought it down fast, too fast for the Vahki to react and it was brutally crushed under the weight, its pieces flying out all over the place.

Urian turned around and gave a crystal thumbs up to her comrades up in the carrier, signaling that they could land safely now.

While they were landing, she looked to the other figure standing by and her eyes widened.

“Turaga Drax? What are you doing here?”

“At the wrong place and the wrong time, I’m afraid,” the Turaga of Plasma smiled.

The carrier’s door opened after it had landed and the five others walked out and the four remaining members of Shadow’s End were shocked at the form of the Turaga.

“Turaga Drax? What are you still doing here?” Arker ran over to his mentor.

“What do you mean ‘still doing here’?” Implex asked, tilting her head.

“This is where I fought Velika and got this,” he indicated his sword.

“I was just coming out of the Great Furnace when everything went to Karzahni,” Drax chuckled.

“Let’s get you out of here before it gets worse than Karzahni,” Arker said, gesturing towards the carrier.

“Worse than Karzahni? Now that’s a scary thought.”

“INCOMING!”

Glonor fired off several shots of energy as the Vahki flew towards him. The bullets burned its armor but didn’t do any significant damage and forced the Av-Matoran to dive to the floor.

Echo was still trying to revive the Toa of Lightning known as Lexa who had passed out at the mention of her name. She had obviously not heard that name for thousands of years and the mere mention of it had brought memories flooding back to her. Wherever she had been for the past ten thousand years, she had forgotten who she was.

Suddenly his com-link bleeped and he pulled it out of his pack and saw that it was flashing green, which meant that it was picking up another signal close by.

He pressed the button and held it up to his ear. “Who is this?”

A few miles above them, a group of seven were walking towards an Order of Mata Nui carrier when suddenly something began beeping among them. The Toa of Magnetism, Arker, looked around and pulled out a small device from his pack and examined it before putting it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Arker? Is that you? What in Mata Nui’s name are you doing in Metru Nui?” Echo’s voice came through the other side.

“Echo?” Arker gasped, causing everyone else to look to him. “Where are you?”

“Under Ta-Metru. Your com-link gave off a signal when it came close enough to mine.”

“Is there anything you need us to do, sir?”

Echo looked around at the fight against the Vahki going on around him. “There is one thing.”

“What is it, sir?”

“I need you to go down into the sewers. We’re in a giant cavern under the Metru.”

“Mata Nui,” Iyre muttered to himself.

“What is it, Iyre?” Arker turned to the De-Matoran.

“Wait,” Echo said. “You found Iyre? And the Power Stone of Water?”

“Yeah we found him on the Southern Continent where we ran into a Toa of Iron working for the Legion.”

“We arrested a Toa of Iron within the Order recently and he escaped after the uprising. Must be one and the same.”

“So what now, sir?”

“Go to the sewers. We need backup down here. Make sure the Stone is secure. Now go.”

“Yes sir,” Arker said before the line went dead.

The Toa of Water turned to Iyre. “What was it, Iyre?”

“This thing all started when I went to go see Onepu in the Archives when he showed me the Vahki they found in the collapsed sewer tunnels,” the De-Matoran began. “He told me that there was probably a large cavern underneath the Metru, and he suspected that that’s where the Vahki were looking for.”

“So now since Echo is in the cavern,” Drax said. “There must be something valuable down there.”

“Of course!” Iyre’s blue eyes lit up. “But what?”

“Unless… it couldn’t be...” Arker’s eyes widened.

“What is it, Arker?” Implex asked.

“Unless that cavern has a Power Stone in it,” the Turaga of Plasma finished for him, and the Toa of Magnetism nodded.

The Rosser II flew over the dark water, it’s reflection barely more than a blur on the surface. The engine roared loudly, but only the passengers on the vessel could hear it.

Makuta Orpheus looked out at the water as it rushed underneath them, it’s color not blue but gray, just as the sky about was. He had never thought Makuta Teridax would do this. He knew he was power-hungry, but this was madness. Nobody but Mata Nui should have this kind of power. Power to tell the sun to shine or not.

He turned towards Makuta Axis as he approached him, his dark red armor reflected the overhanging lights of the ship.

“Enjoying the view, are we, Orpheus?” he came up and looked out the window into the darkness as well.

“I never thought that Teridax would go this far,” Orpheus said.

“None of us did, brother,” Axis replied. “He betrayed us all. I heard that he’s killed entire fleets of our brethren.”

“Then we must make him pay. Is that why we’re going to Metru Nui?”

“No. That is not the reason for our visit.”

Orpheus looked disappointed that they weren’t going to kill the one who had slayed so many of their kind.

“Don’t worry. We will kill him once we have recovered what our Vahki have found in Metru Nui,” Axis consoled him.

“What?” Orpheus looked up. “What have the Vahki found?”

A smile appeared behind Axis’ Shelek. “The Power Stone of Fire.”

“There’re too many of them!” Lamos shouted before getting blasted back by a disk of raw energy.

“Lexa, you have to wake up!” Echo shook the unconscious Toa of Lightning.

She didn’t respond.

“You have to, now. Otherwise we’re all going to die!” the being slapped her across her Mask of Speed.

Suddenly her eyes lit up and she looked him in the eye.

“I know who I am,” she sat up.

“Good, now it’s time to fight, Toa of Lightning,” Echo got up and unsheathed his blade’s handle before a blade of pure air appeared around it.

He helped her up and she looked around at the chaos. She then reached for her back and pulled out a small handle. She held it in to the right of her and gripped it tightly. Suddenly two black rods came out of both sides. Then on one end a blue tip appeared and on the other a white stub. Then a large piece came out of that and then a silver ax extended out of it, the entire thing covered in blue accents. Her grip tightened even further and blue electricity crackled around it.

“I’m ready,” she said to herself.

The Vahki approached them, their pinchers crackling with energy. The Toa of Lightning activated her Great Kakama and sped forward, lightning streaking behind her as she charged at the robotic beings.

Chapter 11: The Curtain Descends[]

He used his powers to throw the metal saucer off the hole, revealing the darkness below. They all looked at each other and then into the dark.

“Skyer?” Arker asked the Toa of Light.

“Oh yeah,” he raised his ax and sent a ball of light into the shadows. Suddenly it was illuminated with a pure white light.

“Let’s getting going, then,” Drax said.

They climbed down the ladder one by one and came into a sewer, the water skimming around their feet. The only light was coming from Skyer’s orb, which cast unsettling shadows on the walls.

“So where do we go?” Implex asked, looking left and right.

“I saw a map,” Iyre said. “I know the way. Probably.”

“That’s reassuring,” Coltrix said sarcastically.

“Enough,” the Turaga of Plasma snapped. “Lead the way, De-Matoran.”

“Alright then,” Iyre said, pulling out his gun. “Skyer I’m going to need some light.”

“On it,” he held his hand out and the orb of light on the ground flew up and into his hand.

“Let’s go,” Iyre smiled, turned and walking down the tunnel, the rest of them followed him.

Little did they know that they were being followed.

The door exploded off its hinges and flew into the hallway beyond. The three figures ran forward towards the exit, freedom waiting on the other side.

“Stop right there,” a voice suddenly called out from behind them.

They all did as they were told.

“Do we kill him?” Skyer whispered to the others.

“Probably,” Shadow said.

“I don’t think you’d want to do that to me, old friend,” the voice replied, seemingly having heard them.

They turned around and saw a figure clad in red and blue armor wielding a high-powered sniper rifle and wearing a Great Avsa, Mask of Hunger.

“Orin?” Frezon gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“Getting you three, of course,” he replied.

“Let’s go, then,” Shadow smiled.

“That’s why I’m here, sir,” Orin said, lowering his gun.

There was a flash of light as another Vahki exploded into a dozen parts, falling to the ground in a smoking mess. There was another flash and the head of one hit the ground and shattered. Then the arm of one flew away in a flash of light for the robot it belonged to dropped to the ground, dead.

Suddenly the form of Toa Lexa appeared in front of the Order of Mata Nui agents that had been watching the scene in a bolt of lightning, her weapon held out to the side.

“Clearly you don’t need our help,” Glonor remarked.

The Toa of Lightning shook her head. “There will be more.”

“There’s always more,” he muttered.

“Lexa, the reason we came down here is for a Power Stone. You remember what those are, right? And you have one, don’t you?” Echo stepped forward.

Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t have it. No one can.”

“Lexa, we need that Stone.”

“Why would you want that piece of Hell itself?” she raised her ax slightly.

“Because it’s the key to destroying the Dark Shadow,” he said. “You remember her, right?”

“I do, and that’s why I need to keep the Stone hidden and safe here,” she replied. “If it gets out, she’ll be released again.”

“No, we will destroy her once and for all.”

“No you won’t.”

The two both stared off at each other when they heard something above them. They looked up at the cavernous ceiling as dust fell down upon them.

“What is it now?” Lamos groaned.

“More who are coming for the Stone,” Lexa said grimly.

Suddenly the roof exploded in a blast of green light before hundreds of tons of rubble came falling down upon them. Mersery activated his Red Crystal Staff and created a dome of energy around them before the rubble hit. The boulders shattered on impact that shield glowed brighter, illuminating them in a crimson light.

After the rocks had finished attempting to crush them, Mersery twisted his wrist and suddenly the tons of rubble above them exploded into nothing but dust.

The Mersion lowered the shield and the six of them looked up to see a jet-black ship descending down upon them, their engines glowing with sickly green energy.

“Looks like Axis is here,” Echo said.

“This’ll be fun,” Lamos remarked sarcastically.

“We’ve secured the upper levels of the base, but we won’t be able to hold it for long, ma’am.”

“Then we’re just going to have to abandon the base,” the Toa of Water said as they walked down the hallway.

“What do want to be done, ma’am?” he said.

“I want you to backup all our data. All of it. We can’t let the Legion get their filthy hands on it.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’ll activate the gas.”

“Ma’am!” he said before running off in another direction.

She turned a corner and walked down the corridor towards a large black door. The Toa arrived and placed her hand on a small pad on the side of the door. It glowed with light before the door slid out of the way and she walked into her office.

Helryx went over to her desk and placed her hand in the middle. A square of light suddenly appeared around his palm and it scanned her bio-signature and suddenly a panel in the wall behind her opened to reveal a set of a controls.

She turned around and punched in a code on the key-pad and the lever on the panel was illuminated in a green light. The Toa of Water placed her hand on the lever and prepared to pull it when suddenly the door opened and she spun around and saw a Toa of Iron standing in the doorway, two swords extending from his fists.

“Hello, Helryx,” the Hau wearer smiled.

“You,” she drew a small cylinder from her pack. “Nice to see you again.”

“Likewise.”

“I assume you’re the top Legion agent embedded in the Order?” she began to walk out from behind her desk.

“Order? Legion? We’re all the same,” Fulvus chuckled.

“If you want to call wanting to release the Dark Shadow and wanting to keep her in prison the same, then sure, you can say that,” Helryx spat.

“No need for hostility, rain drop.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That was probably the most ironic thing I’ve ever heard.”

He did a little bow. “I try.”

“What do you want, Fulvus,” Helryx cut to the chase.

“Well, I could help overhearing that you wanted to gas the whole base.”

“You have that right,” the Toa of Water smirked.

“And I still have people here, and Axis wouldn’t be pleased if I came back and told him that all his agents had been killed.”

“Disappointing Axis is one of the perks of my job, rusty,” Helryx remarked.

“Well, anyway, I’m going to have to destroy that little lever you’ve got there.”

“Yeah no.”

Fulvus shrugged. “I guess then we’re going to have to fight for it.”

“Agreed.”

Helryx pressed a button on the cylinder in her hand and suddenly a long handle came out and at the other end turned into a mass of spikes. In her other hand her shield folded out.

The Toa of Iron smiled before the two Toa charged at each other.

The Vahki were almost overwhelming.

Almost.

Arker slashed through the head of a Nuurakh before spinning around and beheading a Vorzakh. Implex drove her three-pronged lance through a Keerakh’s torso, sparks flying everywhere. Skyer unleashed a blast of light on a Rorzakh and it exploded into bits. Coltrix cocked his gun and a blast of fire destroyed the head of a Bordakh.

“There’s too many of them!” Implex yelled as she dodged another Vahki.

Iyre sighed. “Enough with this. Everyone out of the water!”

The rest nodded and quickly jumped out of the water as the barrel of the De-Matoran’s weapon glowed with energy. Suddenly a blast of blue light shot out and struck the water where the Vahki were standing. In an instant they were covered in electricity and screaming in their horrible robotic tones before they fell into the water, sparking and dead.

“Nice to know that thing is actually useful,” Arker smiled to the De-Matoran as they climbed down. Iyre returned the smile.

Suddenly the tunnel began to shake which was followed by a massive explosion which echoed through the sewers. The seven of them looked from one another before running down the round corridor over the corpses of the fallen robotic guards.

They turned several corners and ran down several corridors before Iyre stopped and called them back.

“Over here!” he yelled.

The rest turned back and saw that he had found a short tunnel that ended in a circular opening and into a massive chamber.

“Well I’ll be,” Drax said.

“I’ll have to tell Onepu I solved his mystery,” Iyre remarked.

In the middle of the chamber was an island surrounded by what looked like lava, and on top were six beings, which comprised of a Mersion, three Toa, a Matoran and Echo. Above them, however, was the descending form a large black jet, which could be none other than the Legion of Chaos.

And what seemed to be on cue, the back opened to reveal Axis, Sinera and Orpheus standing there. Suddenly the three jumped down onto the island in front of the six.

“Echo, it’s good to see you again,” Axis said.

“Likewise,” Echo replied.

Then seven beings landed on the platform and stood between the two groups.

“Arker?” Axis said, surprised. “It’s been a long time. I see you and your little friends have become Elite members of the Order in those five thousand years.”

“It looks like you’re outnumbered, Axis,” Arker said, gesturing to the others behind him. “Give up.”

“Yeah but let’s be honest here. Two of you are Matoran, one is a scientist, one’s an experiment and one is a robot.”

“That may be true, but they’re some of the finest warriors I’ve ever met in my life.”

“Well, we’re about to even on the odds here,” the Makuta smiled deviously.

Suddenly several Vahki and Order Soldiers jumped down from the jet and landed next to the three senior members of the Legion.

“Now, down to business,” Axis’ tone turned serious. “We know that you have a Power Stone down here, and we know that you,” he pointed to Iyre. “Have the Power Stone of Water, and we’re retrieving the Power Stone of Earth from the Order as we speak.”

“We’re not giving you the Stones in a million years,” Implex raised her lance.

“Give? Who said anything about giving?” Orpheus chuckled. “We’re going to take them when you’re long, long dead.”

Axis snapped his head to his fellow Makuta. “Orpheus! We do not tell them in the manner in which we are going to take the Power Stones!”

“My apologies,” the Makuta bowed his head slightly.

“Anyway, now that Orpheus has rudely given away the details of our plan, I see we have no other choice than to get this over with.”

He looked to the Order soldiers and Vahki. “Kill them.”

The robot’s eyes flashed and the Order soldier’s weapons were raised while the ends crackled with energy and disks of light appeared in the Vahki’s mouths.

“It’s been fun catching up, but we do have a schedule to keep.”

Suddenly the robots unleashed their blasts of energy and everything went white.

The Matoran of Shadow looked down over the face of the water as they flew over it.

“What do you think Axis, Sinera and Orpheus are up to?” he asked.

“Probably getting the Power Stone from Metru Nui,” Orin replied.

“Do you think they want us to come?”

“I doubt it,” Shadow interjected. “He’d want us not to get captured again.”

“Whatever do you mean by that?” Skyer turned away from the window. “We get captured once and he disowns us? He got captured himself, and he wouldn’t be bitter towards Velika for that Toa Arker killing him.”

“You didn’t spend as much time with Axis as I did,” Shadow said. “Actually, you haven’t spent any time with him. You’ve just heard about him. He doesn’t take failure very well.”

“Well, he failed at Cro, and he got himself captured there, so he should probably kill himself and Sinera for that. Maybe Orpheus too,” Skyer threw his hands up. “Heck, he should just kill us all.”

“If Axis were here right now you wouldn’t have gotten past your first sentence,” Frezon said.

“I wouldn’t have said it if he were here,” the Kra-Matoran shot back.

Shadow sighed before turning to the Toa of Oxygen at the controls of the carrier. “Where are we going now?”

“To Axis’ new base, where he wanted me to take you after I broke you out,” the Toa said, happy for a change in subject.

“Good, because I don’t want to get captured again any time soon.”

The rest of the flight was spent in silence.

Chapter 12: The Light Meets the Dark[]

All they saw was white.

Were they dead? No, couldn’t be. They could still hear the lava bubbling around them, and the laughter of their enemies in front of them.

Slowly the light faded and they saw the strange Toa of Lightning standing in front of the group, her ax glowing with energy.

Suddenly Drax realized who this Toa was.

“Lexa?”

“Hello, Drax, it’s been a long time,” she smiled.

“I thought you died almost thirteen thousand years ago?” Arker asked.

“I thought I did too.”

“Then how-,” Arker began before Echo cut across him.

“There will be time for that later,” he said. “You’re not getting these Stones, Axis.”

“Well then,” the Makuta clenched his fist and his chain saw folded out from his arm and it buzzed as the sharp tips spun fast just below his hand.

“Guess we are just going to have to kill you ourselves.”

Suddenly he swung at the Toa of Magnetism and he barely blocked with his blade, a flash of blue light issuing when the two weapons collided.

“I see you have inherited Turaga Drax’s sword,” Axis glanced to the Turaga of Plasma. “Are you any use with it?”

“Let’s find out,” the Toa replied.

Sinera, Orpheus, and the robotic guards then charged at the others. The Order soldiers would be harder to defeat since they were built for this sort of situation. The Vahki were also tough to defeat in a wider range since they were able to move around more than they could in a confined space, which made them harder to keep track of.

Implex attempted to bathe a Nuurakh in water, but it was too quick and moved out of the way before the water was able even drizzle it. The Toa then was forced to flip out of the way as a disk of energy flew towards her.

Lamos swung his dual blades at one of the Order soldiers, but it struck him in the chest with the butt of his gun and knocked him backwards. It came over to him and pointed its gun down at him, the barrel crackling with energy.

Suddenly a sword went through the back of its head before it fell to the ground to reveal Niha standing there.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

The Toa of the Green got up and smiled at the artificial Toa. “Never better.”

“That’s good,” she smiled.

Lamos suddenly grabbed the Toa’s hand and pulled her out of the way as a blast of dark lightning flew past. They looked to see Orpheus standing there, his blade crackling with the same shadowy energy.

“Now that’s a romance I thought I’d never see,” he smiled through his Kanohi Kadin.

“Nah,” the Miru-wearer replied.

Suddenly the Toa of Plant Life slung sharp-tipped seeds at the Makuta and he couldn’t move fast enough to dodge them and they struck him down.

The Vortixx General Sinera unleashed a blast of shadow on Skyer and Echo as they charged at her. Echo dodged the blast as Skyer ducked under it. The second-in-command of the Order of Mata Nui swung his Areo Sword upwards at the Vortixx as she stepped back out of the way of the razor-sharp blade.

She swung at him with her claws while she knocked the Toa of Light in the head with her modified disk launcher. Sinera blocked Echo’s blade with a blast of energy, sending him backwards as Skyer recovered and swung his staff towards her. The Vortixx spun around and unleashed more shadow upon him and he was forced to deflect it with his spear, a blast of light blinding them as the dark met the light.

Behind her Echo sliced downwards and struck her clawed hand. His razor sharp blade cut it clean off and she bet over in pain.

“Argh!” she screamed before she shot Skyer with her modified disk launcher and sent him flying backwards covered in energy.

Mersery fired blasts of red energy at the robots that were firing upon them. A blast of the energy struck one and it exploded into red dust before it was replaced by yet another robot.

“There’re too many of them!” the Mersion yelled.

“We need to find a way to deactivate them!” Glonor shouted.

Iyre dodged another blast of energy. “We’d better find how to do that quickly.”

Helryx flipped over another one of his swords as he continued to swing at her. She landed and brought her spiked mace down upon the Toa of Iron before he blocked it with his swords and pushed off, sending her stumbling backwards.

He took this opportunity to kick her in the chest and sent her to the floor. Fulvus thrust her sword down but she flipped out of the way and struck him in the face with her shield. She followed this by swinging down with her mace, knocking him to the ground.

Unfortunately he was up as soon as he had gone down and swiped at her with his Protodermis blades as she blocked them with her shield. Sparks flew as the two rubbed against each other.

The Toa of Water hit her desk as she backed into it and flipped over it to the other side. She reached for the lever to activate the gas but sudden she was grabbed from behind and throw across the room to the other side.

“As I’ve said before, Helryx,” Fulvus said, approaching her. “You’re not going to kill my people.”

“I really, really don’t care what you want,” she spat.

“And that is why I will put all your cares to rest,” he smiled. “Permanently.”

He swung his blade downwards before she blocked it with her shield again to block the blow.

“I don’t see what you gain from all this,” Helryx said. “Makuta’s taken over the entire Universe.”

“Yes, but why do you still fight?”

“To restore balance,” Helryx sneered.

Fulvus chuckled. “As do I.”

“You want to unleash the Dark Shadow upon the whole Universe. I don’t think that’s bringing balance.”

“The Dark Shadow is the rightful ruler of this Universe,” the Toa of Iron said. “Releasing her will restore balance.”

“She’s not getting free,” Helryx said before pushing her shield forward. It knocked the Toa of Iron off balance and gave the Toa of Water an advantage. She flipped up and struck Fulvus in the face with her mace, knocking his Kanohi askew.

He tumbled towards her desk and used it to regain his balance and turned around to see Helryx brandishing a firearm before it went off and he fell backwards onto the desk, blood pooling around his head as it leaked out of the whole in his Hau.

Seeing that the Toa of Iron was no more, she holstered her gun and walked over towards the controls for the gas when suddenly the Toa moved and swiped one of his swords at her. She was able to move out of the way of the lethal blow, but the blade slashed her arm and she fell backwards holding her wrist.

Suddenly the blood around Fulvus’ head returned to him and the hole in his Mask healed as he straightened the Kanohi and got up and smiled at the Toa of Water.

“Nice try, Toa,” he said as he brandished his blades again.

Helryx pulled out her gun again but he quickly struck it with his blades, knocking it across the room. She then reached for her mace but he also knocked that away.

“No no no,” he chuckled. “It’s time you met your fate. After all, you are the first Toa.”

With none of her weapons within arm’s reach, she punched forward and blasts of water shot out from her fists, but Fulvus blocked them with his weapons and raised his sword to deliver the final blow.

“Goodbye, Toa,” he smiled.

Suddenly a huge figure appeared behind him and before he had the chance to react, a massive ax flew through the air and under his head. As the ax was withdrawn back to its user, Fulvus stood still before his blades melted into liquid Protodermis, covering his hands and arms before he fell backwards.

As he hit the ground his head detached from his body and his Kanohi Hau was knocked from his face and slid to the feet of his killer.

The being walked over to his leader and held out his hand to help her up.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked as he pulled her to her feet.

“Yes. Thank you, Axonn,” she said as she collected her weapons.

“What now, ma’am?”

Helryx walked over to the control panel behind her desk and put her hand on the lever. “We abandon this base.”

The giant nodded his Kanohi Rode and the Toa nodded back before pulling down the lever. Suddenly the console lit up in a red glow as they heard the vents begin to fill the base with the toxic gas.

Then the titan Brutaka entered the room, his breathing apparatus bubbling with water. “Are you ready to go, ma’am?”

“Finally,” she said as she and Axonn went over to Brutaka.

He nodded and his Kanohi Olmak began to glow before a portal of bright light appeared in the center of the room. One moment they were there, the next they were gone, along with the portal.

The Makuta slashed at the Toa of Magnetism, energy trailing from his chainsaw. Arker ducked under it and swiped at Axis with his blade. The Makuta dodged it and struck the Toa of Magnetism in the back, knocking him to the ground.

Angered, Implex swung her Lance at the red-armored Makuta but he easily blocked it. He then grabbed onto it and flung the Toa of Water across the island.

Suddenly blasts of energy struck the Makuta and knocked him backwards. He looked up to see the De-Matoran pointing his weapon at him, the barrel glowing with energy.

“Oh,” Axis said. “It’s you.”

Iyre fired off another blast of energy in which the Makuta deflected with his bare hand as he began to approach the Matoran.

“You dare fire blasts of energy at me?” Axis laughed. “I am the master of energy. Your efforts are fruitless.”

Ignoring him, Iyre fired off several more blasts rapidly, each one Axis deflecting. He sighed.

“You Matoran never learn.”

The Makuta thrust his hand forward and a blast of purple energy struck the De-Matoran and sent him sprawling to the ground, his gun sliding several feet in front of him. As Iyre tried to crawl towards his weapon, it was suddenly covered in the same purple energy and was lifted into the air. It floated above Axis’ clawed hand and twirled as he examined it.

“Made it yourself, I see,” he said, noting the craftsmanship. “Very nice, although a bit bulky.”

The De-Matoran said nothing.

“Well then,” suddenly the Makuta clenched his fist and the weapon was crushed in a burst of purple light before it dropped to the ground and shattered.

“Now give me the Power Stone you have,” Axis’ eyes glowed bright red.

“I don’t have it.”

“Don’t even try to fool me, peasant,” the Makuta picked the Matoran up by the neck with his energy abilities.

“I know you have the Stone!”

“You’ll have to kill me for it,” Iyre struggled to say.

“Very well,” Axis smiled.

“There’re too many of them!” Coltrix said before being knocked back by a Keerakh.

“I can’t hold this energy much longer,” Lexa said in pain as she glowed with energy.

Echo looked around at their advancing enemies before looking up at the jet hovering above them.

“If you can unleash a Nova Blast in the ship, it could short-circuit all the robots,” he turned to the Toa of Lightning.

“Would that work?” Skyer asked as he blocked a disk of energy.

“Yes,” Echo replied. “They have to be controlled by some kind of transmitter, because all this activity goes against their basic programming.”

“But couldn’t the Legion have put in some kind of sub-programming when the soldiers were made?” Glonor questioned.

“No I did the coding myself. It cannot be corrupted.”

“Everything can,” Coltrix said, shooting another Nuurakh.

“Not anything I’ve done.”

“And what about the Vahki?”

“We’ll see.”

“Okay then...”

“So am I going with this plan?” Lexa asked, wincing as she crackled with energy.

“Yes,” Echo said, facing her again. “You must destroy the ship to ensure that their droids are both shut down and that they cannot escape with it.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

She wielded her Charged Ax again and activated her Mask before she shot off in a blur of electricity. The Toa of Lightning jumped over the chasm that surrounded the island and landed on the wall and used her intense speed to scale the cavern wall, running around the whole chamber before she was on level with the ship.

In a burst of light, she shot forward and flew through the opened bay of the jet. She rolled to a stop and stood up, glowing bright as the energy threatened to explode from inside her. There was a Vahki Bordakh and an Order Soldier standing in the bay, who quickly drew their weapons on the Toa.

In a flash of light, she brought her ax down on the head of Order Soldier, splitting it open before swinging around and beheading the Vahki.

Suddenly Lexa fell to her knees and cried in pain as the energy she could no longer contain began to kill her as she tried to keep it in.

She took a deep breath before standing up and drawing her arms out before she glowed brighter, and brighter, and brighter…

“Goodbye, Matoran,” Axis said as he began to close his fist.

In response, the De-Matoran who was in the grasp of the Makuta’s energy abilities began to choke as the life was squeezed out of him.

Suddenly above them there was a burst of energy followed by the Legion of Chaos’ jet exploding in a fiery blaze.

Distracted, Axis dropped Iyre from his grasp and the Matoran fell gasping to the ground. The Makuta looked up in horror as the ship began to plummet towards them. He looked around for Orpheus and Sinera and saw all the Order Soldiers and Vahki drop dead.

Sinera and Orpheus joined their leader as they watched the ship fall towards them. The three of them put their hands together and disappeared in a crack of dark energy.

Echo moved to try and teleport them all out, but there was no time.

“Urian!” he yelled to the Steltian.

She turned away from the ship and nodded before activating her gauntlets and thrusting them towards the ground. Suddenly she sunk into a massive crater.

“Everyone in! Now!” Echo commanded.

Lamos, Niha, Glonor, Mersery, Iyre, Drax and Echo jumped into the hole. The commander of the Order looked up and saw Shadow’s End running away from the hole.

“What are you doing?!” he barked.

“Arker!” Implex yelled as she ran towards the Toa of Magnetism trying to get up.

The three Toa helped their leader up and began to carry him back to the hole when the ship turned in midair and suddenly came down behind them and crashed into the lava. They looked back as it sunk into the boiling substance.

And then it exploded.

The explosion caused a massive wave of the lava to fly up into the air and begin to come down upon them. The four Toa tried to outrun it, but it quickly washed over and consumed them. Echo yelled before turning quickly to Urian.

“Close the hole!”

She nodded and made a roof over them as the substance washed by above them. They listened as it died down before the second-in-command of the Order gestured for her to remove the cover and she did before Echo jumped out and ran to where Shadow’s End had been standing when he stopped in his tracks.

Rising from the silvery substance were Skyer and Coltrix, but they were different. The Toa of Light’s silver armor had been replaced by golden armor, and his spear had been replaced by an ax.

Coltrix’s armor had been heavily modified and now featured more silver than it had before. His weapon had also become become more compact and neater in design.

Beyond them Implex rose out of the substance, and her armor had been radically changed, now more complex than before. Her lance had also been transformed into some kind of spear, which crackled with electricity.

The last of Shadow’s End to rise was their leader, Arker. His armor was radically changed, much like Implex’s, while he was also taller than he had been before. His sword seemed to glow brighter now as well.

“What… what happened?,” he said, holding his Mask.

Echo knelt down and examined the residue of the substance left on the island.

“It’s not lava,” he said.

“What is it, then?” Glonor asked.

He looked up at them. “It’s Energized Protodermis.”

“So that means...” Implex began.

“It means this is our destiny,” Arker said.

“So what now?” Iyre asked.

Suddenly there was a flash of light and Lexa appeared, crackling with energy. It faded and she fell to the ground. They quickly ran over to her and found that her heart light’s blinking was far and between and her breathing heavy. The Turaga of Plasma knelt down beside his old teammate with tears in his eyes.

“Hang on, Lexa,” Drax said.

“Drax… it’s been so long...” she struggled to say.

“Yes it has, old friend.”

“I’m sorry for losing you and the team. After they captured me, they tortured me and I lost myself. I managed to escape but forgot everything,” the Toa of Lightning said. “So I wandered the Universe, helping wherever I could. One day I found the crater of the Stone outside of Ta-Metru and knew I had to protect it. So I came here, and vowed to keep it safe.”

She lifted up her hand and their eyes widened as they saw the Power Stone of Fire glowing warmly in her palm.

“Take it,” she wheezed. “You’ll need it.”

Drax looked down at the Stone before taking it while still holding the Toa of Lightning’s hand. Slowly her heartlight’s blinks came at longer and longer intervals before it finally stopped. Her hand slackened in Drax’s before he gently let it down and he got up to join the others.

In silence, they joined hands and they disappeared into the nothingness.

Epilogue: Rise Back Up Again[]

It had been three days since the battle in the cavern. Three days since the four Toa of Shadow’s End became Toa Nuva. Three days since they recovered the Power Stone of Fire.

Three days since Lexa died.

After they had gotten the Stone they went back to the carrier and flew away from the island of Metru Nui. While they were above the Northern Continent, Helryx called in and asked for a status update. They confirmed they had both the Power Stone of Water and the Power Stone of Fire. She said that she had gassed the base and now told them to meet her in a base on Destral.

One hour later they had arrived and landed in the base, flagged down by the Order agent they recognized as Brutaka.

Once inside, the gold and blue giant led them to a large room in the heart of the base where Helryx, Axonn and a being they knew as Chalka were waiting. The room was carved out of rock and had two levels and several storage modules throughout.

“Are you all okay?” Helryx asked the group.

“Yes ma’am,” Echo replied.

“Good. I’m done losing agents today.”

Mersery pulled out the Power Stone of Fire and Iyre pulled out the Power Stone of Water.

“Excellent,” Helryx said, picking up the Power Stone from Iyre.

“What about the Power Stone of Earth?” Implex asked. “Is it safe?”

“Unfortunately the Legion raided the base where it was being stored along with several other precious objects and they were taken. We don’t know where it is,” Chalka replied.

“So we stop Axis from getting one Stone but he ends up with another?” Iyre sighed.

“At least we’re the ones with two Stones and he’s not,” Drax said.

“What is our next move, ma’am?” Arker interjected, stepping forward.

“Well,” the Toa of Water began. “Most of our agents are still scattered. And most of the bases are unaccounted for. Right now we’re all we’ve got for the Order.

“Currently our next move is to rebuild our organization, but it cannot be what it was. Mata Nui is gone, and I don’t know if he’ll ever come back. We’re on our own here. Our goals have to shift.”

“To what, ma’am?” Glonor asked.

“Our goal is now not to carry out the Will of Mata Nui, but to avenge it. We will destroy Makuta and the Dark Shadow.”

“If we’re doing that then we’ll need a different name,” Chalka said.

“Agreed, but what?” Helryx replied.

There was a moment of silence before Arker spoke up.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” he said.

“What?” was mostly the answer he got.

“If we’re going after both Makuta and the Dark Shadow, the forces of darkness in our Universe, then we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing all along.”

“Do you mean…?” Iyre began.

“We name ourselves Shadow’s End,” he smiled.

“Of course,” Chalka said. “That’s probably the most fitting now, since we can’t really go around saying we’re carrying out Mata Nui’s Will when he’s literally been ousted from the Universe. What do you think, ma’am?”

“It will have to do. And until further notice, this will be our base of operations,” Helryx agreed.

“Now, all of you, get some rest,” Echo turned to the assembled. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

The group was grateful for this and Chalka led them to the sleeping quarters within the base.

“Don’t let the Acid Flies bite,” the being chuckled before disappearing again.

He had left them in a long corridor with various doors lining the walls. They looked at each other before they picked a door and opened it. The rooms were about ten feet by ten feet and contained a bed and a desk. Each room was illuminated by a lightstone controlled by a switch.

Arker and Implex looked at each other in the eyes before going into their quarters.

As Iyre laid down in his bed, he thought about all the events that had brought him here, and realized that if he had not shot Shadow’s End all those weeks ago, he would not have had this adventure and would not have become a member of this group that was dedicated to shining light in the darkest corners of the Universe.

Gladly, he left slumber consume him.

“HOW COULD WE LOSE TO THEM?!” he slammed his fist on the table, shaking it violently.

“Maybe because you over estimated them?” Shadow Skyer suggested as he balanced a pen on his finger.

“Did I ask you?” the Makuta said, his red eyes glaring.

“Yes?”

“Well I did not. You are but a mere Matoran who lost us the Power Stone of Earth in the first place.”

“I mean, you guys got captured by the Order of Mata Nui so you don’t really have a right to say that,” the Matoran sneered.

Axis’ eyes dimmed. “Sometimes I have to resist the urge to drain you of your life.”

“Yeah but you need me.”

“No we don’t,” Sinera said.

Orpheus interrupted. “Yes we do. He was one of my top agents while you guys were locked up and scattered.”

“Just like how we needed Velika and you left him to die?”

The Makuta was silent.

“Oh yes, I know how you abandoned ship when Shadow’s End raided your lair. You left your men to die and get captured.”

“I was needed elsewhere,” Orpheus stepped towards his leader. “For the invasion!”

“And look how well this whole invasion has turned out!” Axis’ eyes flashed red again.

“Yes, we made the Order abandon their base and we killed a bunch of them.”

“Yes but they’re also still out there and they killed several of our people as well!”

“I may be able to ease the tension,” Frezon said as he entered the room followed by several of the Order robots carrying crates.

The soldiers set them down near the table and opened them to reveal various artifacts retrieved from the Order’s vault. Among them was a Toa Stone and the Power Stone of Earth.

“Finally,” Axis said, reaching down and picking up the Stone.

“See?” Orpheus came over. “We got a Stone after all.”

Suddenly the Makuta was blasted across the room by a stream of earth and came to a halt when he hit the wall.

“Yes,” Axis smiled. “We did get a Stone.”

“I’ll… I’ll kill you!” Orpheus got up and began to run at the Makuta before purple energy covered his body and he came to a stop, frozen in place.

“No, no you won’t,” the leader of the Legion of Chaos said, energy swirling in his raised hand.

“Axis… let me go…”

“As long as you pledge your absolute loyalty to me,” the purple tinges in the Makuta’s eyes bore deep into Orpheus’ soul.

Knowing that refusing would be a quick end to his life, the Makuta conceded.

“Fine,” he bowed his head. “You win.”

“Good,” Axis said before ceasing his powers, causing the Makuta to fall to the ground.

The Makuta then turned back to the rest of his group.

“Today we took a blow, but we are stronger than ever. We have untold several dozens of forces at our command, the Order is scattered and fragmented throughout the Universe. They are helpless against us.”

The assembled, all except for Orpheus, began to clap.

“And we will crush them.”

Darkness had fallen.

The Ga-Matoran known as Elisis sat on top of one of the watchtowers on the village of Bo-Koro, staring up at the cloudy sky.

How had it happened? How had Makuta taken control of the entire Universe? Had Mata Nui forsaken them? Or was he… dead?

“Elisis?” a voice called from below.

She looked down to see Turaga Coprollex looking up at her.

“Yes, Turaga?” she replied.

“What are you doing up there?”

“Just… thinking,” the Ga-Matoran said.

“I can agree with that,” the Turaga of Stone responded.

The Chronicler of Bo-Koro stood up and grabbed her staff before climbing down the ladder she had used to get up. She arrived at the bottom and walked over to Coprollex.

“So what do we do, Turaga?” Elisis asked, looking up at the sky. “He won.”

“Just because the sun sets does not mean it won’t reappear.”

“Do you think Mata Nui will come back?” the Chronicler’s eyes flashed with hope.

“I don’t know if Mata Nui will, but I already see a new dawn on the horizon, and I have a feeling you’ll be a part of it.”

“Really?”

“I’m positive,” the Turaga smiled.

After that they were silent, staring up at the sky, a glimmer of hope within their hearts.

Beyond the sky, beyond their planet, on another world entirely a being clad in gold armor and wearing a legendary Kanohi Mask of Power stared up at the shining blue planet in the night sky. His eyes narrowed as single phrase echoed in his mind.

I will return.

Characters[]

Iyre
Glonor
Toa Arker
Toa Implex
Toa Skyer
Toa Coltrix
Mersery
Toa Helryx
Toa Niha
Echo
Toa Lamos
Axis
Sinera
Orpheus
Shadow
Frezon
Shadow Skyer
Toa Orin
Toa Lexa - Revived
"Soul" - Unknown
Urian
Chalka
Elisis
Coprollex
Brutaka
Axonn
Mata Nui
Teridax
Aldas - Revived
Faz - Deceased
Onepu
Fulvus - Deceased
Nalita - Revived
Artix - Revived
Several Order Soldiers
Amaya

Reviews[]

"Three years in the making, looks like Invader38 has finally released Obscurity to the world.
Currently the twenty-first longest page on the wiki and the seventh installment in the Unending Shadows Storyline, Invader's latest tale runs concurrent with the events of the The Arker Chronicles and takes place in the Fragmented Universe, chronicling the continued adventures of ~~Inrye~~ Iyre in a high-paced and hot-blooded detective thriller unseen on this wiki since Frozen Calling.
Having escaped from Shadow's End and acquired a stable job working for MetruTech, Iyre embarks upon his next great adventure, investigating the appearance of a deactivated Vahki Vorzakh in a strange tunnel deep beneath the city. However, before his inquiry can make any progress, the De-Matoran is captured by Glonor and taken to the Order of Mata Nui base on Daxia.
But all is not as it seems. Far from existing in black or white, the truth lies between undulating shades of gray. With a looming plot to debilitate the government of the great City of Legends and with internal conflicts dividing the Order upon itself, Iyre must take matters into his own hands."

―Obscurity's featured spotlight, written by BobTheDoctor27.

Promotional Images[]

Trivia[]

This story was inspired by BobTheDoctor27's Frozen Calling.
- Themes of this story are based on Captain America: The Winter Solider and Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D..
This story takes place during Freelancers and We Are All But Pieces.
Glonor was created by BobTheDoctor27, Niha was created by LoganWoerner, Mersery was created by Chicken Bond, Chalka was created by Chalk33 and Coprollex was created by Toa Pozico.
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.
It is currently the twenty-eighth longest page on the wiki.
This story has been rewritten.

Unending Shadows Storyline ^(v\|e)
Main Story	The Makers of the Stars \| Before the Morning \| Fallen Heroes \| Haunted Origins \| Echoes in the Past \| The Arker Chronicles \| Obscurity \| Reconstruction \| Undying Destiny \| Fulfillment \| Ghosts \| We Fall Down (Prequel)
Short Stories	The Study of Insanity \| A Step Out of Darkness \| Chronicle \| Serenity \| Ground Zero
Others	Echo's Guide To The Fragmented \| Within the Deep