Prologue: Rallying Forces

Arañas picked at the earth with his fangs in search for food. He slithered around on eight legs beneath a black sky. He was followed by his sons and daughters through the dense jungle north of the Beyonds. The sharp, quick steps of their legs riddled the silent night with low clicks that seemed to come from everywhere. The high, menacing screeches of Arañas and his children deterred all of the Rahi from their path and made them cower in the enormous spider lord and his skull children's presence.

Arañas halted and sniffed the air, something foul, bloodied with hatred and anger lurked amongst the tall pines. He hissed through his mandibles to ward off the wanderer, but their presence remained. The spider narrowed his crimson eyes into slits and looked around him to find the bearer of the foul presence, but it was like this being was the shadows themselves.

"Who dares step into my path?" Arañas hissed with his broken, withered tongue.

From the darkness appeared two dark blue eyes, they floated in the shadows like spectres who had been waiting for the spider king.

"How do you conceal yourself among the shadows? Only one being could do such a thing." Arañas said to the eyes. "And he…" The spider hesitated, "he is long dead." He looked into the eyes and cocked his head to the side as if considering something. "Unless…" Arañas tipped his head to the darkness, trying to discern the shape of a body, but none seemed to exist.

"Do not jump so quickly to such nonsensical conclusions your highness." The eyes flashed and something appeared from behind them. It was a being nearly as tall as the lowest row of needles on the trees surrounding him. He seemed to smirk when Arañas cowered at his appearance. The being had the legs of a rock steed, the body of a toa, the face of a skrall and the foreboding aura of a makuta.

Arañas stepped back from the being and his children began an uproar of hisses. "Then who are you? Another makuta?"

The being shook his head gently as if disappointed, but it seemed more concerning, like he was worried for the spider. "I am far from a makuta, spider." He returned his dark blue gaze to Arañas.

"Then what are you?" Arañas growled, his children gathering around his legs.

The being shrugged his shoulders lazily, scraping the trees behind him with the wing-like blades on the back of his arms. "You could call be many things." The being stepped forward into the pale moonlight, illuminating the white and silver armour that covered his black body. His hands were clawed, one white and the other black, and there was a notable, blue gemstone in a crevice within his chestplate. He wasn't carrying any kind of weapon, this eased Arañas slightly.

"But there is one thing I once was..." He looked up to the moon and closed his eyes, he let his masked face bask in the white light as if it warmed him of all the evils that lurked inside him. He sighed and returned his far gaze to Arañas' eyes. "I was once Skrall."

"Once?" Arañas hissed, growing more frustrated, readying to call to his children to swarm the enigmatic being.

"Well, I still am, but not completely." His eyes fell sorrowly, they appeared to be looking off into nothingness, longing for a long forgotten memory. "I am not sure what that other part of me is now. Call me what you wish."

"Perhaps your name."

"Ah, of course. I am Resserix." The being dipped his body forward slightly, bowing to the spider lord. "And I must say, it is an honor to be in your presence Arañas, the Lord of the Skull Spiders."

Arañas' skull-like children hissed in disgust. "We prefer our more professional term."

"Of course." Resserix said simply.

Arañas' eyes became slits, "How do you know who I am?"

Resserix shifted his head to the left with an unknowing expression. "I've long forgotten." The being stepped closer to the sider king with enormous, metal steps. Arañas looked away from Resserix face for a moment to see that he had completely mechanical legs, implying that his real ones had been removed, for what reason he didn't think he would get to find out. "All I do know is that we need one another."

Arañas felt offended, he did not need this sudden intruder on his migration through the jungle. "I need nothing from you Skrall." He menaced, his children drawing closer to Resserix's robotic legs.

Resserix glanced between Arañas and his children with a look of pity. "Don't make a mistake your highness, you will regret it."

"No, it is you who has made the mistake, and it is you who will regret it." Arañas roared and all of his children leapt at Resserix.

Resserix face was like an unentertained statue as the Skull Wyrms (the proper terminology for the Skull Spiders) jumped at him in what their king must have thought was some kind of ambush. Resitrix threw up his white hand in a swift, lazy motion, and to Arañas' astonishment, his children became suspended in air. They floated there, blinking at their lack of gravity or movement. Resserix looked at them with absolute discontent and disregard, as if his action was a simple one.

Arañas roared in sheer fury and lunged at Resserix, baring the entirety of his fangs. Soon, he found himself stuck above the forest floor, being suspended by Resserix black hand. However, his predicament was different, painful, while his children just seemed still. He felt sharp stinging sensations running up his legs and over his back like thousands of metal needles being slowly inserted right where his nerves were. A horrible, disgusting feeling flowed over his stomach, making him want to vomit, the amalgamation of his pain felt like he was being torn apart.

"Do you feel that your highness? That is me, very slowly, and very carefully ripping your blood from your body in a gaseous state. You see, I carry two forms of power that I can inflict upon another. One form is painless, projected by my white hand, as demonstrated on your children, the other...well you can deduce that." Resserix smirked proudly at the expression of his power. He dropped his arms and the spiders fell to the earth, the king gasping and spitting as he attempted to ease his pain. "Now you see how powerful I am."

"Then why would you need my assistance?" He coughed as his children fell back behind his legs. "You obviously have more power than I could ever have."

"Now that isn't true your highness, you once carried great power." Resserix said in a reminding tone. "How did you lose that power exactly?" He sounded rhetoric with his question.

"If you know I had it, you know how I lost it." He hissed, agitated as to how this being was so contempt with stepping near him after almost ripping all of the blood from his body.

"Yes but, perhaps you would comply to show me that memory." Resserix gestured, taking another step closer to Arañas without any kind of concern for the spider's venom. "That day, that day you were stripped of your power, thrown back into your home, weakened without followers except for your children. Show me that day." Resserix knelt down before Arañas on one metal knee and gazed into the spider's blood red eyes. "Show me how you became this thing. Show me." He said in a daunting voice that uneased Arañas.

Then, to Arañas surprise, this stranger, this being who had just assaulted him dared raise his hand to him again. This time however, it was his right hand, the white hand that he claimed could not do harm when expressing his power. Resserix lowered the hand to the spider king's face, it was like a phantom's hand, reaching out to look into his mind and rip it apart. Its fingers touched the space between Arañas' eyes and a powerful feeling rushed through him as he was consumed by a bright white light.

Artakha stumbled into the volcanic cavern, it was tainted red by the lava below the spire he found himself on. He breathed heavily, pulling in the heated air to regain his composure, but his peace was not one that would last forever. He heard the clang of familiar footsteps behind him and he threw his head over his shoulder.

In the entrance of the volcanic cavern stood the makuta who had been hunting him for nearly a century. He stood tall, adorned in mostly black armour with red and gold spread about his arms and legs. He wore the kanohi Phorbus, a golden mask the shape of a Skull Wyrm with long, red mandibles jutting out below the makuta's blood red eyes. His left hand was just two large claws while he carried a staff in the other-a staff given to him by Makuta Teridax.

"Impressive, truly impressive Artakha." Arañas taunted.

Artakha felt the spray of lava behind him. He'd escaped capture by the Brotherhood of Makuta for so long, now it seemed everything he had done was all for not.

"You really did do well, it took me a while to find out you were hiding under an alias. Then, of course, I did some research and found that this Ekimu character just suddenly appeared after you vanished." Arañas explained, telling Artakha as to how he came to find him.

"Why...why are you hunting me!?" Artakha exclaimed, trying not to appear intimidated by the makuta.

Arañas stepped further into the chamber, pushing Artakha closer to the lava pit. "I was ordered to." He said. "Teridax sent me, he sent me for that mask." Arañas waved his staff up at the ceiling, but he didn't do anything with it, perhaps it was just a gesture.

Artakha's eyes fell wide. "You will never have this mask." He said with an angered tone. He straightened himself up and clenched his fists tightly, then he spread his arms in a swift fluent motion, his mask flashed with a golden luminescence and the stalactites hanging from above shook from their place and fell into Artakha's hands. They stretched and melded together, forming a staff equal to Arañas'. Lava leapt up from the pool below and wrapped around Artakha like a serpent of fire and threw itself up into the end of the staff, letting it glow orange with a flowing orb of lava to edge the staff. "Only death can part me from it." He taunted raising his newly made staff to Arañas.

Arañas groaned, "Then so be it." Arañas hissed, rose his staff over his chest and ran at Artakha.

Arañas threw his staff down at Artakha who quickly stopped it with his own. The two pushed at one another to knock down the other, but it seemed they were equally matched. So, Arañas twisted his staff so that its bladed end faced the spire below them, a stream of red light ran through the staff down to the tip and a bolt of energy shattered the stone below them. The two pulled away from each other to avoid the recoil of the blast, it formed a hole that looked down into the lava pit between them. Arañas hissed and pointed his staff toward Artakha, it flashed red again and a blast of scarlet energy shot from it. Artakha acted quickly, his eyes shined blue and his mask burned gold, he summoned large plate-like pieces of stone and pulled them to his chest where they shaped a shield, dispersing the blast. Artakha threw his shield down over the hole and ran toward Arañas, he spun his staff and lunged it toward the makuta's chest. Arañas immediately threw down the forked blade of his staff and pushed Artakha's staff into the ground. While he held Artakha's staff he slammed the inside of his bladed hand against his head, sending him to the floor. Artakha landed on his chest, the stone scraped his armour and sent pulses of pain up his knees and elbows.

"How pathetic." Arañas hissed. He slammed his metal foot down into the small of Artakha's back, irritating the nerves in it so intensely that he had to cry out in pain. "They called you a great being." Arañas kicked Artakha in his side, pushing him over onto his back. "Some even believed you to be Mata Nui himself." Arañas shifted his staff into his left hand, reached down and picked up Artakha by his throat and rose him into the air. "You are but a Matoran in a fancy mask." Arañas roared in Artakha's face, letting small droplets of his venom saliva stain the golden Mask of Creation. Then in his rage, Arañas slammed Artakha back into the ground.

Artakha could barely breath, it was as if Arañas' blows had ripped the air from his lungs. Worse yet, Artakha could feel the tiny droplets of venom melting through the metal of his mask.

"It's been almost boring to kill you." Arañas said, cocking his head slightly with a disappointed glance. "So many stories." He shook his head. "A being of myth and legend, hailed as high as a great being." He returned his staff to his right hand. "I cannot imagine why Teridax would ever want the kanohi of something so...disgraceful." In moments, Arañas spun his staff in his palm and pierced Artakha's chest plate.

Artakha's mouth swung open as if trying to whale in pain, but only a dead silence could spill from his mouth. Artakha weakly tried to pull the staff from his chest as Arañas stood over him and held it there without emotion. Fear was all Artakha could feel as he gazed pleafully into the makuta's blood eyes. Darkness fell around him, his body began to feel cold, all he could see was that terrible kanohi. His head fell back onto the stone floor and his last breath of life slipped from his throat.

Arañas jerked his staff from Artakha's chest without care for his body. He looked at the cold mass for only a glance before he knelt down beside the body to inspect the mask. He grunted at the holes he left from his venom, but Teridax would have had to accept it, if he was to get what he requested. Arañas switched his staff again and spread his right hand over the golden mask. He could feel the faint power surging from it, a feeling that would be intensified if its wearer's heart still beat. He shifted and twisted the mask and soon ripped it from Artakha's face.

Arañas stood back up and inspected the mask. The spaces for the eyes were narrow and angular, giving its wearer an essence of wisdom and the slightest, ominous feeling. The mask was ornate, the artistic forming of the kanohi disgusted Arañas. The face was long and stretched out at its sides and the golden protodermis in which it was forged out of shaped a crown-like formation that symbolised the many cultures that were spread throughout the Matoran Universe.

Suddenly the Mask of Creation began to glow and Arañas released it from his grip in shock. However, the mask did not drop to the floor, it drifted in the air, facing Arañas as if it were looking at him. Arañas had the sensation of water flowing below his armour, the feeling of which made him cringe and stumble over his feet. Arañas reached for his right arm where the feeling was strongest and clenched it tightly with his claws, trying to stop the sensation from flowing. It stretched throughout his body, becoming painful, unbearably painful. Arañas cried out in pain and fell to his knees.

"Wha...what is this!?" He hissed as the lava in the pit boomed and jumped up. He looked down at his hand as it felt like it was being crushed by nothing. He could feel his bones slowly cracking and breaking apart, shattering below his armour and stabbing into his tendons and veins. His armour began to melt over his body and fuse to what was below it, his hand began to shrink, the fingers coming together to form a sharp point. Then there was a shock that overshadowed everything else, it was a loud crack and tearing sound. Arañas threw his head toward his left arm and roared in horror, his arm had torn in two, forming two long, pointed appendages. "Why is this happening!?" He cried, turning back to the floating mask, it seemed to be watching him, watching him with the utmost pleasure as Arañas' body was being torn apart. The mask shimmered and faded, releasing an ear shattering sound as if laughing at Arañas. "No!" Arañas roared and the mask vanished.

Arañas roared in anger and pain, shaking the cavern as three long, segmented appendages burst from his back, cracking and splintering the armour there. He fell to the floor, trying to support himself with his hands-or whatever they'd become. His legs stretched, the bones broke apart and his knees twisted and bent back. Arañas felt the face behind his mask expanding, each of his eyes ripped into three. His mask burst from his face, revealing a hideous monstrosity of fangs and eyes. "No!" He roared through his new, four fanged mouth. He tried to reach out from his mask, but his hand was only another leg now and whenever he tried to take his mask it slipped out from under him and fell away. He then watched in anguish as his mask did the same as the Mask of Creation did; vanished. Arañas roared in agony at the loss of his mask, the source of his power as his mutation finished.

The Mask of Creation had transformed him. He had become a larger form of the beings he had created, he had become his own parasite. He roared in hatred and horror at what had become of him. His mask was gone, and the Mask of Creation was lost.

Arañas pulled back from Resserix claws and growled at him, baring his fangs, but that could not mask the shock in his eyes. "How? How could you-"

"It is one of my many powers, your highness." Resserix replied as he stood back up. He inspected his hand as if he were checking that it hadn't been tainted in any kind of way. "I should have used my other hand, I did not foresee that memory being so painful." He noted to himself.

Arañas thrashed his head in confusion and disgust. "Why would you need to see that?! What importance does my past have for you!?" He growled.

"You see, that memory is the source of our partnership." Resserix said vaguely.

"Source, partnership? What are you talking about?" Arañas scowled.

"That memory we revisited, it carries what we both desire." Resserix said, kneeling down to look directly into the spider king's eyes.

"What is that?" He spat in Resserix's face, spewing small droplets of venom, however they seemed to dissolve upon touching his armour.

"Well," Resserix stood, "I desire the Mask of Creation, while you desire your Phorbus." He paused to collect the words to continue his explanation. "That is where we could help one another. If you help me find the Mask of Creation, I will take you to your Phorbus."

"Even if I did know where the mask was, the Phorbus is nothing to me now, I can no longer wear it." Arañas grimaced.

"That isn't true." Resserix leered, his statement striking Arañas like a bolt of lightning. "Artakha didn't just change you, he stored your former self within your Phorbus. If you were to raise it to your face once more, you would be returned to your former glory." Resserix added with a tempting waver in his voice.

Arañas shook his head, "That matters not, you wouldn't help me, for I cannot help you."

"That is where you are wrong again, the mask had imprinted a fraction of its essence upon you. With my power and you by my side, we can find the Mask of Creation, and when we do, I will guide you to your own mask."

Arañas looked at Resserix sceptically, he didn't believe the being, but his offer was tempting. "Why do you need the mask?"

Resserix shifted his head into a prideful expression. "That isn't what you should be concerned with. What you should be concerned with is the pain that you and your army get to inflict upon the Matoran and Agori."

Arañas fangs curled into some kind of smile, The thought of whatever Resserix needed him to do involving his whole army must of meant that he was dedicated to his goal. It also meant that he could do what he did best, inflict pain upon those weaker than him. "So, how do we find the Mask of Creation?"

Resserix smiled deviantly, "We only need to wait, destiny and its pawns will bring the mask to us."