Chapter 11
A lone figure stepped through the corridors of Makuta's lair cautiously. Her skin was a pale and sickly white, while her hair was as dark as the night that now overshadowed her life. Suddenly a short, but strong figure shot out beside her and held a knife to her throat.
"State your business." The short one said, his voice frail and aged, but still powerful and commanding.
"I am General Korlan Glade. Chief of our master's army. I have come to report the assassination of one of the elementals. The water one, if I'm not mistaken." She said calmly, as if this had happened thousands of times before.
"Proceed with caution." The short figure replied. "For our master is not in a pleased mood with you."
She walked forward as the short figure stepped away. Quickly, she walked through the great archway that was shaped like a giant Hau and entered the Throne chamber of Makuta.
"I am not pleased with your failure, Glade." A great, booming yet aged voice stated agitatedly.
"What failure?!" The general said rebelliously. "I killed the water elemental as I was instructed to do so."
"No, you did not." The voice of Makuta rumbled through the chamber. Suddenly General Glade's mind became filled with the images of Tyler healing Emma and them awakening the next morning.
"I am…" She paused for emphasis "Deeply sorry for my failure, Great Shadow."
"I have a new assignment for you." Makuta said more calmly then before.
"Yes, my master."
"Kill the parents of both the Human Toa of Light and his friend, the Toa of Water."
"It shall be done, correctly this time."
- - - - -
The eight Toa sat around in the main room of Tyler's house. Most of them were relaxing, while Tyler and Emma were still very tense and on alert. They knew that Makuta was back, and they wanted to be ready for whatever he would throw at them next. Keith, the oldest in the group at 19 years of age, was the most relaxed though, as a Toa of Stone should be in any situation. He was lying around, joking with Cory and the others. Tyler and Emma on the other hand were more tense and wanting to focus on the current mission.
Takano and Kolana were learning various details about their heritage and the Civilization of the matoran from Toa Takanuva. Kolana, with Takano's help, was compiling a chronicle of the adventures of their ancestors, including Takanuva.
It was about an hour past noon when Takanuva finally decided it was time for the Toa to begin their training in battle. Cory and Emma were the only ones with any real hand-to-hand combat experience, as they were both in a martial arts class of some sort. Kolana and Takano had experience fighting with weapons, and that was it as far as training was concerned.
Takanuva led the Toa Team to the ancient ruins of the Coliseum. The tower nearly touched the top of the cavern's roof, literally, to the matoran, becoming a skyscraper. According to the elder Toa of Light, the Akilini field was still for the most part in tact and the mechanics still useable. In the years of inactivity, the once grand Coliseum had decayed to the point that Takano and Kolana hardly recognized the interior. As they walked through the deserted halls, small spiders and other insects scattered. The air was damp and filled with the smells of ancient decay. At one point they came across the solid protodermis remains of a Turaga and matoran. The Turaga wore a slightly red Tryna, mask of reanimation, and the matoran wore a Suletu that was barely orange in color. Takano dropped to his knees.
"No…" He whimpered, tears beginning to stream down his mask. "My-my parents…"
The last of the group caught up with the three Matoran based Toa. Emma and Kolana hurried over to Takano, who was crying silently in grief.
"This is not a good sign." Takanuva said softly. "It is a dark omen to those who come across something like this unintentionally. Stay on guard, Toa. This may only be the beginning of our problems."
After helping Takano to his feet, they cautiously proceeded through the halls. They had no more encounters with bodies, but they stayed on guard none the less.
When they finally reached the old Akilini field, they found the remains of two armies strewn all over it. It was as if one of the final battles had taken place there. Most of the bodies were matoran, Toa, or Turaga, but there were scores of other species from the era mixed in with them.
While everyone was looking in shock over the battlefield, Takanuva pulled a silver, unused Tryna out of some nearby rubble. Placing it over his Avhokii, he activated the mask's power of reanimation. Slowly, the beings lifted themselves up, grabbed their ancient weapons up off the ground, and began to charge at the stunned Toa Century.
The seven Toa quickly snapped out of their daze, and pulled out their weapons as arrows began to sing through the air. They scattered as the majority of the arrows landed where they were standing. Takano and Tyler ended up back-to-back, both of them blasting away the reanimated beings with their elemental powers. Takano expertly wielded his sword and powers, and as flames danced up and down his blade, he dispatched a Toa using it's water powers against him. Tyler, on the other hand was struggling to bring down a shadow creature that had targeted him from across the field, and kept teleporting back and forth from directly in front of him, to out of range of his staff. He finally brought it down with a concentrated nova blast that nearly caused him to pass out.
Kolana and Emma were having a hard time trying to defeat a Toa of Fire that was battling them. Kolana's frost arrows were becoming steam before they would reach the reanimated Toa, and Emma's water powers were too weak still to cause any major damage. They only defeated the Fire Toa out of shear luck, when Emma and Kolana accidentally created an extremely powerful and compact blizzard that surrounded the other Toa.
After about an hour of battling, Takanuva deactivated the Tryna and caused all of the opponents to fall to the ground. Before anyone could see, he quickly pulled off the mask and stowed it back in the rubble he had pulled it from. After he was done, he called the other Toa over.
"For a team so inexperienced with any form of combat, you are the most natural at wielding weapons and elemental powers Toa I have ever seen." He smiled proudly. "You don't need as much training as I expected, thus, you are ready for a good rest of the day off." The Toa cheered loudly, their voices echoing through the arena. "I will keep watch from up in the Great Turaga's Watch-chamber in the seventh tower. If I see anything, I will let Tyler know through our connection as Toa. Takano, Kolana, you know the way back to Ga-Metru. Have fun, but be cautious. I will see you at an hour past sundown."
- - - - -
As the Toa turned down the wide, empty avenue that Tyler's house was on, they immediately knew that something was amiss. The evening was hazy and as the visible sky turned orange and the shadows lengthened, they strolled cautiously toward Tyler's house. When the front door became visible, the Toa stopped. The remains of the door were scattered all over the walkway in front of the house, as if a small explosion had happened inside of the house.
"NO!" Emma screamed as Tyler rushed into the house. She too sprinted into the house, following Tyler.
"Mata-Nui protect us." Takano whispered as he and the other Toa Century cautiously waited for Tyler and Emma to return.
- - - - -
Tyler searched through the house for any sign of his family and Emma's mother. He found no sign of them, but did find the signs of a struggle. As he entered his parents room, he found it to be empty, but looked as if a battle had taken place inside. There were scorch marks on the walls and ceiling and the bed covering was tattered and burnt.
"Tyler!!" He heard Emma shout from the downstairs area. "Tyler, where are you?"
He felt cold tears beginning to stream down his face, as cold as he felt inside. Again they had underestimated the Makuta, as so Toa had before them. Makuta had caught them off-guard, and succeeded in at least capturing Tyler and Emma's families.
He went aimlessly down the stairs, and past Emma, muttering only that "They're gone." As he walked through the door, and into the darkening evening, he passed the other Toa who looked solemn. His silent death march took him down past the great temple before turning toward the remains of the crystalline Knowledge Towers of Ko-Metru. He never looked back; his steps were solid and firm, unlike his emotion. He didn't know what to feel, anger or grief, hate or depression, it all felt the same.
When he finally reached his unknown destination, he found that he was at the single remaining Tower of Thought, he didn't think twice about entering. Walking slowly inside, he created a softly glowing light, as it was nearly pitch black inside the ancient structure. In all of his life, he never thought that someone or something could ever truly be more evil or determined than the bullies of his former schools. He had finally realized how dangerous of a war game he was in, and he no longer wanted to play. His family was gone, and more than likely dead, as was Emma's mother. But, he knew that if he quit, hundreds, maybe thousands would die. He and his team were the only ones who could bring about the Return, and save their otherwise doomed world.
- - - - -
Emma, Toa of Water, walked with the Toa of Ice, Kolana, through the streets of Ga-Metru. They had mostly been silent, only breaking the still night when they needed to decide which way to go. Early on both of them had nonverbally decided to not say anything, but both Emma and Kolana wanted to ask questions about each other's lives.
"Emma?" Kolana finally said, breaking the silence. "What was you and Tyler's lives like before we came, and you guys became Toa?"
"Much different. The closest we ever got to an adventure or danger was in books, video games, or movies. Not many people go on true adventures anymore. Life was almost too simple, almost. We had never been extremely close, like we are today. He was a huge Bionicle fan when we met in eighth-grade, while I was a hard-working school-lover. A normal day for me was mostly taken up by school in some form. He, on the other-hand, would always use up his spare time to read or play video games." She paused. "What was life like in the matoran civilization, before everyone was killed?"
"I was summoned as a child during the war, so I don't know much about what life was like before the war. During the war, my family lived in peace in Ko-Koro, one of the last areas to fall. Turaga Nuju was actually alive until the last battle, where he died a hero. His last breaths were spent giving Takano and I directions on how to activate the Toa Transports that we were in when we were summoned again. Almost everyone else from Nuju's time was already dead because of the war." She stopped suddenly, putting her arm out to stop Emma.
"What's wrong?" Emma whispered.
"I think I saw a light in that Tower of Thought." Kolana said as she pointed to the shimmering structure in the distance. Sure enough, there was a soft glow partway up the Tower. Emma knew almost immediately that Tyler was up there and began to walk toward the Tower, and Ko-Metru. She watched as the light moved slowly up the tower and her toward it.. Her friend was not in a good mood, and she knew how he got when he got in the type of mood he was in now. The first time she had seen him in one of these moods, was when his grandparents on his mother's side were killed in a terrible car accident one year earlier. It was a huge loss for his and Emma's small town, but an even larger loss for Tyler. He had been very close to his grandmother, and after the funeral, he descended into a deep depression. After a while he became mostly his normal self again, but the times he would smile were fewer then they had been.
Emma continued walking as Kolana followed behind and pointed out various different landmarks along the way for Emma. They reached the Tower of Thought within twenty minutes, and found that Tyler was already almost to the top. Emma looked around at the surroundings, trying to prepare for dealing with her best friend. While Ga-Metru was still very pristine and full of beauty and life, Ko-Metru was as dead and devoid of life as the moon. It was as if a Toa of Stone used its Nova Blast against the district. One of the only structures still standing was the Tower of Thought, more than likely the refuge of a Toa of Ice during the Nova Blast.
As they entered the ancient Tower, they found it completely dark. Thinking for a moment, Kolana produced a glowing yellow quartz-like crystal from a pocket in her armor. Emma was again shocked at some of the fantasies that were in fact real. Something as simple and common as a source of light was still amazing. They moved quickly through the Tower, Kolana using her Akaku, mask of x-ray vision, to check on Tyler.
As they neared Tyler and the top floor, Emma's heart began to pound. She sensed a danger nearby that she hadn't earlier. She also felt a sudden fear. Nodding to Kolana to have the Toa of Ice check on Tyler, Emma began to walk faster. When Kolana deactivated her mask's power, she wore an expression of great dismay. They broke out into a run, a race against time to rescue their friend.
