Now, if after you read this you could stop yourself from killing me or sending curses on me, you'd do me a great pleasure.
Disclaimer: Bionicle isn't mine.
The Dream
The creature stared up at him, red eyes gleaming in the glower of his sword. Tahu couldn't see any of the other Toa, and he had no idea what was going on around him. Only an occasional shout and the number of gleaming red eyes told him something about their situation, everything else was just shadows, shadows that could belong to a Toa, to one of the creatures or to something else. All Tahu knew for sure was that he was fighting back to back with Kopaka. Even though he couldn't see the other Toa, he recognized the cold feeling.
Tahu raised his sword higher and increased the strength of its flame. Where was Takanuva when they needed him? It had been minutes he hadn't heard anything from him. Where did he go?
The fire lit up barely half of the huge cavern, an old, abandoned zone of Onu-Koro. The flickering light sent an eerie glow on the face of the creature in front of him and let its razor-sharp teeth glint. The creature hissed at the light and jumped at Tahu's sword, biting into it with a sound like claws being sharpened on a hard surface. Sparks exploded from the point the creature bit into the sword, landing on the creature's lizard-like face and burning small black marks on it. It didn't seem to care.
Tahu swung his sword through the air and the beast flew away. He looked around for more as long as the flame stayed bright. There were two, running towards him, teeth bared. He raised his sword and...
There was the sound of something heavy connecting with something else at full force followed by a grunt, Kopaka's back slid away and the legs of the Toa of Ice were suddenly between his, making him trip and fall. His swords flew away from his hands, and Tahu fell backwards on Kopaka's back. His head banged against a hard piece of metal, Kopaka's shoulder armor.
Dazed, he saw how his swords sailed through the air and landed not far away. He stared as the flame flickered and died, leaving them in a complete darkness, where the only light was the glower of many pairs of eyes. Strangely, Takanuva's mask wasn't glowing.
"Tahu, get off..."
WHAAAAMM!
Kopaka's words were interrupted by a hard blow from one of the creature's tails. It struck the two Toa with the force of a charging Kane-Ra bull, sending Tahu flying across the hard floor, and Kopaka rolling away.
Tahu hit a pile of rocks hard. He wasn't seriously hurt, but he felt as if all the air had been pressed out of him. Gasping to catch his breath, he raised his head and looked around. Despite the darkness, he could see everything around him. He could see how right there, just in front of him, three creatures threw themselves on Kopaka. He saw how the first one stretched its arm and how its long, strong fingers grasped Kopaka's left arm and started dragging him away. He saw how the second one got hold of Kopaka's leg, and how the third grabbed his other wrist and how each of them tried to drag him in a different direction, hissing and screeching at each other – sometimes even clawing at each other's face – while they did this. He could hear how Kopaka howled in pain and see how he tried to kick the creatures, never reaching on.
Next to him, Onua's head was being swiped off by a well placed blow. A creature immediately jumped on the Earth Toa's body, taking possess of it and hissing at anyone who got near enough. Tahu looked around for the others, not wanting to admit to himself that he just wanted to look away.
Four or five creatures were fighting over something, hissing and slashing at each other with bloodstained hands and claws, some of them even sending mighty blows with their tails. Tahu stared, trying to figure out what it was they were fighting over, but the creatures blocked the view completely. Still, Tahu could spot something that looked like and air katana emerging from underneath the creatures.
Tahu turned around, hoping to find someone who was still alive, still fighting. Instead, he spotted Pohatu's bleeding body lying not far away. A single creature was dragging him away, the others still hadn't spotted him.
There was Gali, fighting against five creatures at a time. He saw her ax swing, and one of the creatures suddenly didn't have a head anymore. But she hadn't noticed that one of the creatures was jumping up at her, too quickly for her to realize and react in time. Yet Tahu could see every detail, it was as if he was standing right next to her and staring at the scene in slow motion. But he couldn't hear a thing, it was as if the sound was gone.
He could see how the creature opened its mouth wide and how two sharp teeth clapped down. He saw poison drip from those teeth and to the floor. He saw how the creature grabbed Gali's shoulder with its sharp claws and Gali's eyes and mouth open wide in surprise and fear as she realized what was happening. Maybe she was screaming, he didn't know, he couldn't hear. But he could see the creature dig its teeth in her neck.
"Tahu! Tahu come back! Please! Tahu! Help me!" cried Kopaka. Suddenly, the sound was back.
But Tahu wasn't listening. He was running, running out of the cavern, and through the labyrinth of tunnels that was Onu-Koro. He was running away. Away from all that death, away from the screams and those creatures. Those creatures that had killed the other Toa. He didn't want to see them anymore, he didn't want to hear the screams of pain and fear and the pleas for help.
But Kopaka's voice followed him down the tunnels, twisted with pain and suffocated with fear.
"Tahu! Please, come back! Don't leave us down here!"
He pressed his hands on his ears, trying to keep Kopaka's screams out. But it didn't help, the screaming kept echoing in his mind. He could still hear Kopaka's cries.
"Tahu! Tahu please help her!"
"AAAAaaaaaah!"
Tahu woke up screaming. It took him a while to realize that he wasn't in the Onu-Metru tunnels, and that he wasn't fighting against those strange creatures. He had once again had that dream, a dream that haunted him every night. A dream, no more than a dream...
He groaned and laid himself back down, letting the memories of the other Toa run freely through his mind and their voices echo in his head. He wanted to remember the good time they had had together, when they hadn't been busy saving the island from this or that.
He remembered a Kolhii match they had once played together, three on three. He, Pohatu and Lewa on one team, Gali, Kopaka and Takanuva on the other. Onua had been looking from a side and doing the referee.
It had been a nice match, and he and Kopaka had managed not to exchange any insult for the first part of the game. At some point it had started raining, but none of them had asked Gali to make it stop, it had been even more fun that way, even though it had meant that Kopaka's team had won.
He remembered Gali's laugher through the rain as Lewa protested about how wet it had become. Pohatu saying they should do it more often and Takanuva agreeing happily. He remembered Kopaka saying something about Onua playing next time and Onua saying he didn't want to.
He hit the wall angrily, and a tear trickled down his mask. Memories, just memories.
And it was all his fault.
He closed his eyes again, hoping that the dream was gone and that he was finally going to get some sleep. But Kopaka's cries kept echoing through his head, and once again, the dream seized him.
"Tahu! Tahu please help her!".
A dream, just a dream.
"Please help her!"
A true dream.
"Help her!"
