Disclaimer: I don't own Bionicle (if I did, the movies wouldn't have gotten cancelled just when it was getting interesting).
Author's Note: I'm baaaack. Betchya some of you wondered if I died or something ;D. A lot of things happened over the last year or so: 1) I've been a bad writer and not writing any chance I get; 2) There are other stories I'm working on . . . but there's only one of me; and 3) I've been back in school lately and all of my classes are English classes, which equals a lot of writing assignments. Anyways, sorry about the long wait.
At the shores of Ga-Metru, Kit absently tossed rocks into the waves of the Silver Sea that crashed against the cliff on which she sat. If one saw her now, they'd say she looked like a lost soul. Tears no longer flowed from her eyes, but her expression was one of angst. The memorial ceremony for Matoro had ended about two hours ago, and frankly, she didn't know where to go from there. Turaga Dume at first insisted that she help out repairing the city wherever and however she could, but, upon seeing the empty look in her eyes, Vakama and the other Mata Nui Turaga talked their fellow elder into leaving her alone for a little while longer. True, they couldn't just dwell on their grief over the Toa Mahri of Ice's death when there was still some work to do, but Vakama and the others understood their human friend: she just wanted to be left alone for a while and needed some time to get things sorted out in her head. Memories of Matoro played in her mind like short movies, both from when he was a Matoran as well as a Toa. She and Matoro were never what she might call friends, more like acquaintances. She snorted to herself; why was it that you never appreciated someone until they were gone? Why did it always have to be that way? "Kit?" a voice called.
She turned to find Kongu approaching her. "What are you doing here?" she asked, genuinely perplexed. After their ventures at Mahri Nui, she figured the Toa Mahri of Air would be staying as far away from water as he possibly could for a long, long while.
"I was heading back to Le-Metru when I decided-thought I'd visit-stop to see how you were doing."
Kit smiled, "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, Kongu, but please, don't baby me. I'm not that far gone."
"Fair enough," said the Air Toa with his hands up. "Mind if I join you?"
"Join the crowd," Kit shrugged.
Kongu took a seat right next to her and they both stared out in the distance for a few moments in silence. "You going to be alright-ok?" he finally asked the burning question.
"I think so," Kit replied. "It's just going to take some time."
Kongu nodded in understanding.
"I tried meditating earlier, like Gali taught me, but . . . I guess I'm still too emotional to concentrate," Kit continued. "The funny thing is, it's not just about missing him. It's . . . it's like a part me feels like I should've seen it coming, that I could've done something."
Afraid of where this was going, Kongu placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Kit, I understand the urge-need to find someone or something to blame these things on, but, in this instance-case, it's nobody's fault. Not mine, not Matoro's, and most certain-definitely not yours. In fact, from what I was informed-told, it's thanks to you that he was able to fulfill his role."
"Some role," Kit mumbled.
"Would you prefer-rather the Piraka, the Barraki, or even Mirna got their way?" asked Kongu. When the girl didn't respond, he continued, "Now, not to confess-say that I'm happy-cheerful about all of this, but perhaps-maybe this is how things were meant to turn out according to the story in your realm-world; therefore, you're still doing your duty-job."
Kit was about to ask what kind of duty allowed your friends, your comrades, to die, when she heard a familiar voice in her mind—Tehreisha. Seeing the girl start, Kongu gazed at her questioningly, "Kit?"
Kit placed her finger to her lips, "Give me a minute. Tehreisha's calling me telepathically." Concentrating, Kit replied. "What is it, Tehreisha?"
"I'm very sorry about what you're going through, Kit, but you're needed elsewhere at the moment. I have a feeling that the Toa Nuva are going to need you."
"Aren't they on their way back to Metru Nui?"
"I'm afraid not, child. They're in a location called Karda Nui, a place that is known as the Universe Core."
"The 'World that Feeds the World'? What are they doing there? Tahu said he and the others would be meeting us back here."
"You'll find out when you get there. You must hurry now, Kit. I'll take you there."
"But what about the Toa, Turaga, and Matoran here?"
"They'll be safe for the time being."
"Do I have to go now? A friend of mine just died, you know."
"I know and I am sorry for your loss, Kit, but I'm afraid this can't wait."
Kit mentally sighed, conceding, and got to her feet, to Kongu's surprise. "What's up?" asked the Air Toa.
"I have to go," the girl said with a reluctant tone. "Duty calls."
"So soon after Matoro-brother's memorial service?"
"Believe me, Kongu, if I had my way I'd stay for at least a little longer, if just to get this grief out of my system; but Tehreisha says the Toa Nuva might need me."
"The Toa Nuva? Are they having problem-trouble getting home?"
"No," Kit snorted distastefully, "they're somewhere called Karda Nui."
Kongu's eyes widened in shock, "You mean . . ."
Kit nodded with narrowing eyes, "Tahu lied to us about where they were going."
"Why?"
"That's what I intend to find out."
At that moment, the same swirling blue lights that transported Kit to Voya Nui appeared in the sky. "Take care, Kit," said Kongu as he stood up and extended his fist, "and please, try not to be too harsh-hard on Tahu. I'm certain-sure he had his reasons." Kit still felt betrayed, but returned the Toa Mahri of Air's salute. The lights then surrounded her and in a flash, she was gone. Kongu, meanwhile, shook his head, not sure of whom he was more worried about, Kit or Toa Tahu.
When Kit materialized inside a tunnel, the first thing she noticed was the sound of battle. She ran to find out what was going on—and almost ran off the edge of the path. After breathing a sigh of relief, she gazed at the sight before her, only to have her breath taken away. It was a battle unlike anything she'd ever witnessed; the Toa Nuva, with new armor, fighting in the sky with large humanoid bat-like creatures. What she found a bit odd about the bat-things was that dark colored and seemingly disfigured Matoran were riding on them. What was with that? She didn't have time to wonder about it, though, for at that moment one of the strange Matoran spotted her and fired a dark beam of shadow energy from its hand. Kit leaped to the side to dodge it. She looked back up at the Matoran and broke into a run when it fired another blast of shadow energy. 'What in the world is going on here?' she thought to herself. 'I thought the Matoran were the good guys. Oh, sure, there was Ahkmou, but I thought he was just a bad egg--' Her train of thought was interrupted when a blast hit her back and she fell to the ground. She gasped for breath not only from the running, but from how suddenly cold she felt. Even though it was temporary, Kit felt like the darkness sucked out some of her body heat. She turned onto her back and found a handful of claws—claws that belonged to her Matoran attacker, a Ga-Matoran—aimed right at her. Believing that the Matoran must be acting out of fear, Kit raised her hands to show that she meant no harm. "Easy, I'm not here to cause trouble," she said in a calm, if breathless, voice.
The Matoran's expression changed into one Kit immediately didn't like—that of a hunter whose prey is cornered. "Oh, good," said the Ga-Matoran, "because we've already got enough of that around here." Kit saw the shadow energy being gathered in the Matoran's palm and, before she could do anything, a beam of light struck her assailant. The Matoran was blasted back, and Kit looked behind to find a Ko-Matoran calling to her.
"What are you waiting for? Naming Day? Run!"
Scrambling to her feet, Kit ran with the Matoran. It was then that she realized that the Matoran was a little taller than the Matoran she was used to. A blast from behind alerted the two that the Ga-Matoran from earlier was pursuing them. The Ko-Matoran fired a few more shots of light—to Kit's surprise—but they missed. The winged Ga-Matoran was almost on top of them when Kit decided to intervene. Reaching back, she released an energy ball. The ball struck home and the Matoran fell a little, stunned. "Back here!" said the Ko-Matoran as he grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her into a narrow alcove. Kit was about to say something, but the Matoran motioned for her to be quiet. Soon, she saw why—the Matoran from earlier was coming. Girl and Matoran remained as perfectly still as possible, barely daring to breathe. Outside, the Ga-Matoran looked around with a furious look on her face, guessed where the two went, and left.
Kit and the Ko-Matoran waited a few minutes before he dared to take a peek. "Is she gone yet?" Kit whispered.
"Yeah," the Matoran nodded, and they came out.
"What's going on?" asked Kit as she gazed out at the fighting that was still going on. "Why did that Ga-Matoran attack me?"
"A war's what's going on," the Matoran answered, "and, for the record, Gavla's an Av-Matoran. Or, at least she was." Seeing that the term meant nothing to the girl, the Matoran explained. "We Av-Matoran, or Matoran of Light, have limited powers over light; we mostly use it to change how others perceive our coloring. For instance, I'm really gold and yellow, but my powers are making me look like a Ko-Matoran. Name's Solek, by the way."
"Mine's Kit, and thanks for the save back there," said the girl. Just then, her crystal began to glow and floated out from her shirt. Its beams shot out and located each of the Toa Nuva. 'What now?' Kit wondered. 'I've already got a Nuva suit.' As if in response, when the crystal was finished, ribbons of goldish-yellow enveloped her form and revealed her Nuva suit. Except, there was a very different change—it was morphing. When it was complete, she had a new suit, except the eye scope was on her left eye and she had green arm-mounted rockets.
"What the--" Solek gawked.
"Time to take care of business," Kit said with a smile, and took off.
Pohatu was having trouble with the red and black bat-creature due to not having experience at fighting in midair. Antroz, on the other hand, was about to seize his chance at downing the Toa of Stone permanently, when a voice shouted, "Hey, you!" The next thing he saw through his mental-link with his Matoran rider was a multi-colored figure zooming right at him with a glowing outstretched fist. Kit's punch met its mark, sending the Makuta into a stalactite and his Matoran rider flying.
"Kit!" Lewa, who had a Matoran passenger on his back, called as he came closer. "Welcome back to the group-fold."
"Thanks," the girl winked.
"By the way," said the Matoran, a Le-Matoran by appearance though Kit remembered Solek from earlier, to Lewa, "Who are you, anyway? You look like something Solek would dream up."
Getting the villager's attention, Kit peered down at him and said in a warning tone, "Watch it, shorty."
"Take it easy, kiddo," said the Air Toa as he patted the girl's shoulder. "Anyway, to answer your question, I'm a Toa-hero, here to save you from . . . whatever you need saving from. And, what's a Solek?"
Seemingly as soon as Kit found herself in Karda Nui, the battle was over. Though, after thinking about it, she figured that the humanoid bat-things were not beaten, just retreating to get their bearings. Apparently, they weren't expecting to deal with her and the Toa Nuva. She was watching them and the Matoran disappear into the mists of the vast cavern when Tahu called to her. "Kit, what are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same of you," the girl replied with a slightly rough tone as she placed her hands on her hips. Behind the Toa of Fire, Gali shook her head; she could tell that the girl somehow found out about Tahu's lie. The group touched ground in the last free village of Matoran, after which Kit said, "I think it's only fair to say that you, Toa Tahu, have got some explaining to do."
The Fire Toa looked to his teammates, who reluctantly nodded, and sighed. "We didn't really have a choice, Kit. Shortly before we met up with you, Jaller, and the others on the beach at Voya Nui, we spoke with Axxon and a being called Botar. They told us of a set of instructions located in the Great Temple in Metru-Nui, a list of tasks that had to be done before the Great Spirit can be awakened. We wanted to tell you guys—we really did—but we knew you'd all insist on coming with us."
"We couldn't allow you to accompany us for the Mask of Life had to be retrieved, else the tasks we've had to carry out over the past few days would've been in vain," Gali interjected.
"And what did the Turaga have to say about it?" Kit asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Well, um . . .," Pohatu said, nervously scratching the back of his head, "see . . . they don't really know about it."
When the girl gave them a baffled look, Kopaka elaborated. "We didn't talk with anyone at Metru-Nui, not even to the Turaga, about the document; we couldn't without explaining how we knew about it. Also, some of the tasks were a bit . . . touchy, to say the least, thus we would've lost precious time in an argument that would've accomplished nothing."
"So, you guys just went into the Temple and took an artifact without permission," Kit guessed, to which the Toa nodded an affirmative.
"Kit," Tahu continued, "we're not offering an excuse for the lie we told you, we're asking you to understand. Where we had to go, what we had to do, you nor the Toa Inika couldn't follow or be involved. And, as Gali said, you had your own mission to fulfill."
"You're right, it isn't an excuse for lying," Kit said, anger building up in her voice. "Heck, who knows, maybe if you had at least come with us, Matoro wouldn't have had to die just so we could be having this conversation." The Toa Nuva gawked at their young human frowned, puzzled. "Haven't heard, have you?" Kit asked sarcastically.
"Heard what?" asked Onua, and Kit told them all about Mata Nui's brief death and how Matoro sacrificed himself in order to bring him back to life.
The Toa could scarcely believe it; they had felt the Great Spirit both die and return to life, but never knew how it came to be. Kit, meanwhile, feeling tears of grief and anger stinging her eyes, turned her back at the group. Lewa stepped forward to put a hand on the girl's shoulder, but Kopaka halted him, his eyes telling the Air Toa to give her her space. "Kit, please believe me when I say words can never express how very sorry we are about Matoro, and, though you do have every right to be mad at us, please try to understand," Gali pleaded. The Toa Nuva waited in tense silence for their compatriot's verdict. On her end, Kit willed herself not to cry as she wrestled with the two reasoning sides of her brain. One side still felt betrayed by the cold, hard fact that her friends—people she thought she could trust with her very life—had lied to her. The other side, however, reasoned that not only, as Tahu mentioned, did the Toa Nuva have other things to take care of, but even if they were with her and the others at the Pit, Matoro would've died anyway—he had to, being the carrier of the Kanohi Ignika and all. No matter how much it pained her, she'd known deep in her heart ever since Kongu brought it up that the Toa Mahri of Ice had done what he was meant to do.
'Doesn't mean I have to like it,' Kit said in her mind. Finally, she turned back to face the Toa. "If need be, we can discuss this later," she said, calming down a bit. "Right now, it looks to me like we've got more important things to worry about."
Kopaka nodded in agreement. "A lot to talk about, little time to plan, and too many questions. Let's hope the Matoran here have some answers."
"Right, way too many," said Lewa, and he began counting with his fingers. "What happened to our armor, masks, and weapons? What does the Brotherhood of Makuta want with this place? Who are all of these Matoran and why are they here? And, where is here?"
"I think I can shed some light on at least one of your questions," said Kit. "One of them, I think he said his name was Solek, told me when I got here that all of the Matoran here are Av-Matoran, or Matoran of Light. Unlike the Matoran we know, they have limited abilities over their respective element, which they use to bend light, disguising themselves. For instance, Lewa, your new friend who was riding on your back during the fight might look green, thus might appear to be a Le-Matoran, but he's really gold and white colored. He's just using his powers to manipulate how light reflects off his body, thus changing his colors."
Meanwhile, Pohatu gazed at the surrounding environment. Something about this place seemed awfully familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, to quote his human friend. Then, almost instantly, it hit him, "Wait, wait."
"What's wrong?" asked Kit.
"It's different now, very different, but . . . don't you recognize it?" Seeing his teammates blank expressions, he said, "Guys . . . we've come home."
Meanwhile, at their secret lair, while Chirox was venting his frustration at their current situation, Antroz was thinking. From what he saw through his mental connection with the Matoran, Radiak, the Toa he and the others fought outside were the Toa Nuva they were warned about—Toa he thought they wouldn't have to worry about until all of Karda Nui was in the Brotherhood's grasp. Of course, that was the thing with Makuta Teridax—he never told the whole story. Also, there was that multi-colored being he encountered during the battle. It had proven to be a very formidable opponent—he had the nasty dent in his armor to prove it—and there was something familiar about it. Suddenly, the realization hit him so hard his head nearly spun. The stranger's description matched that of something Teridax called a human. According to Teridax, the human was female, supposedly comes from another realm, and answers to the name of Kit. It was then that Antroz knew that their mission just went from difficult to worse.