Lately, I've been flipping through the story sections of BZPower, as well as this site, and have found a scarcity in stories focusing on the Dark Hunters, and almost none of them mention my personal favorite, Darkness, in any way, shape or form. To that end, I've decided to make my own story about Darkness, leading from his recruitment into the Dark Hunters all the way down to when he got into his current position. As my BIONICLE fics never seem to gain much in the way of popularity, I'm begging you, PLEASE review this! As long as it's not a flame, I don't really care what you have to say about it, just PLEASE say something!

The only part of this story that I own are the characters of Darkness and Shriek and this plot. Everything else belongs to LEGO.

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PROLOGUE

Thick tree roots creaked and mud shifted as a large figure stepped onto them. Truth be told, this figure would rather be anywhere than here, but he had orders, and to defy them would mean a slow and painful death. That was something that he did not want.

Several weeks before, the Shadowed One, leader of the infamous Dark Hunters, had recieved an anonymous letter saying that there was a Brotherhood of Makuta laboratory situated on some backwater island that could potentially contain some rather interesting technology. Apparently, this was enough to pique the dark leader's interest, for he sent an agent to this island to investigate.

Now Shriek, the unfortunate individual given this assignment, was squelching his way through a particularly muddy part of a vast forest that took up almost half of the island. When Shriek had arrived there nearly two weeks previous, all he had found was a small island of barely one hundred Matoran. These particularly primitive Matoran denied any knowledge of a laboratory, but warned Shriek not to go into the forest. According to them, there was some mysterious monster that killed anyone who dared to enter its territory. Of course, Shriek simply dismissed it as silly superstition and pressed on anyway. Two weeks later, all Shriek had found were trees, mud pits and insects. No lab, no new technology, and no terrible monster.

Shriek managed to drag himself out of the latest mud hole and onto solid ground again, and sat down on a fallen tree to scrape the mud off of his feet. A loud chittering caught Shriek's attention, and the Dark Hunter looked up to see a Venom Flyer perched on a tree branch with a flat piece of stone in its mandibles, a sign that it was time to write up his next report. Shriek sighed as he reached up and plucked the stone from the creature. He pulled out a small rod-shaped device and pushed a button on the end, making one end glow and hum with energy, before using it to burn symbols onto the stone as he make his report.

"I don't know why the Shadowed One is keeping such a close eye on me," Shriek grumbled as he wrote his report. "I've never tried to slight him, I'm relatively honest, I don't know why he's making such a big fuss over it. It's not like I'm stupid enough to try to sneak a piece of the loot for myself." Finishing his report, he slid his writing tool back into its compartment, and was about to hand the stone back to the Venom Flyer when he heard a faint rustling nearby. Setting down the report and picking up his weapon, Shriek looked around above him, but the trees were so thick that he could hardly see at all. Shriek heard a twig snap behind him, and he instinctively whirled around and fired his weapon, but struck nothing.

"Come out!" Shriek shouted defiantly, although anyone listening could detect the fear in his voice. He slowly backed up until he could feel the solid form of a tree trunk pressing against his back. Shriek turned his head left and right, whimpering nervously. Suddenly, he felt something grab his head and tug him up into the air. Shriek was so surprised that he dropped his weapon. Disarmed, Shriek could only scream in panic, and then gurgle quietly as he felt something constricting around his throat, cutting off his oxygen supply, until finally, his eyes flickered darkly and his heartlight faded.

Shriek's murderer through the limp corpse aside, and jumped onto the ground, looking at the stone report still lying on the fallen trunk, along with the Venom Flyer to deliver it. Picking it up, the shadowy figure flipped the stone over and began scratching words onto the surface.

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The Shadowed One tapped his talons on the armrest of his throne impatiently while waiting for Shriek's report to return. The Dark Hunter ruler was eager to obtain new technology that the Brotherhood may have been working on, and was displeased at his servant's lack of progress.

"There is a message for you, my lord," a random Dark Hunter flunky groveled, presenting a stone tablet with writing on it. Snatching it away and dismissing the flunky, the Shadowed One read what it said. It was Shriek's report, again saying how he had found nothing but mud and bugs, and was requesting that they dismiss this mission as a wild Gukko chase, but this one was different. At the bottom, there was an arrow scratched onto the stone, indicating that he should flip it over. The Shadowed One complied, and was greeted by a new message. It read:

I have killed your messenger. Come to my island if you wish to avenge him.

The Shadowed One couldn't care less about the person who died, but someone had dared to knowingly murder a Dark Hunter, and that was an offense that he could never forgive.

The Shadowed One decided that it was time to take a little trip.

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So…whatcha think?

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