I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or Bionicle (though I wish I did) and no copyright infringement is intended.

Author's note: This is a long one. But it's also one that I just couldn't stop writing. Enjoy and please review.

Chapter 20

Changes

It took a while but finally Lhikan was able to convince Matoro that it was indeed him.

"Sorry Lhikan, it's just kind of hard to believe that a hero like you could look like… this."

"Yeah, I'm having a hard time believing it myself." Lhikan sighed. "I think because I died while Vakama was using the Mask of Time it messed with my actual age."

"So, in other words, you're an extremely powerful toa… who is incredibly wise… and you're trapped in the body of a six year old." Sokka said.

"A very cute six year old." Ty Lee added. Lhikan glared at her.

"Yes I am trapped in this body… NO I am not cute!"

"Sure, just keep denying it." Ty Lee grinned at him. Lhikan actually started steaming.

"I AM NOT CUTE! I AM A HEROIC WARRIOR WHO HAS LIVED FAR TOO LONG AND DONE WAY TO MANY AMAZING THINGS TO BE CALLED CUTE!" Matoro glanced at him.

"Um, Lhikan, are you ok?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine…" he said as he calmed himself down. "It would seem that my body is affecting my mind in ways that I don't really understand."

"Great… so we have an extremely powerful toa, with the maturity of a kid." Zuko groaned aloud. "That's going to help us immensely."

"Actually I'm not here to help you, per say. If I had had my way I would still be in the spirit world. Unfortunately it seems that an old enemy of mine has somehow entered this world." Matoro sighed.

"What, another threat? We're still dealing with the fire lord and a Makuta… who could possibly be worse than them?" Lhikan looked up sadly.

"Tuyet could." Matoro's mouth dropped. Katara turned to him and frowned.

"Who is Tuyet?"

"Only the most insane toa in the history of the Bionicle universe!" Matoro gasped. "How could she be here?"

"I don't know how she got here, it is possible that when Takanuva took his long trip through the dimensional portal he accidentally left a portal open long enough for her to escape from an alternate version of the Bionicle universe. It doesn't really matter how she got here… all that matters is that we stop her, and quickly." Matoro nodded.

"But Lhikan, couldn't you have just told me this in a dream? Why did you have to come yourself?" Lhikan looked a little embarrassed.

"I… I kind of feel responsible for her… and if there is any way to make her see the wrong of her ways I want to try it."

"Wow, why do you care so much what happens to her?" Jin asked.

"She… we kind of… it's complicated."

"She was his girlfriend." Matoro explained. Everyone stared at the little six year old.

"Gosh, am I never going to live that one down?" Lhikan snarled. "Ok, yes, we were close. But that was before I knew that she had the Nui Stone and was planning to use it to take over the universe."

"You'd think that that would be a hard thing to miss." Sokka commented. Lhikan sighed.

"What's a Nui Stone?" asked Iroh.

"It's an object that drains elemental energy from all the beings in a 3000 mile radius." Lhikan answered. "It does so in such small amounts that no one has ever realized it. And since elemental energy can't run out there is really no stopping it. Anyone who holds the stone can use that power." Matoro realized what Lhikan was saying.

"Wait… but if she has it… and since there are many more elemental users in this world… her power is growing by the minute!" Lhikan nodded sadly.

"Correct, we need to work fast… before she gains enough power to destroy the world."

"But how, we have no idea where she is?" Sokka asked.

"She will come after me…" Lhikan said. "If I start looking for her she will find out that I am here and will search me out, if only to attempt to destroy me." Matoro nodded.

"Then the best thing that we could do is start to make a commotion, and make it obvious that you're here."

"But what about the comet?" asked Katara, "It's only a few weeks away, and if it gets here before we defeat this Tuyet then the fire nation will use it to take over the world!" Matoro sighed.

"As much as I hate to suggest it I think we need to split up. Lhikan needs people to guide him around and help him find the best places to make his name known. And the rest of us need to continue planning and training." Matoro winced. "After my battle with the shadow form I think that a little more training in areas other than my elemental abilities would be nice. I need to condition my body so that I can fight without relying too much on my powers alone." Iroh smiled.

"I might be able to help you with that… I have an old friend nearby… he is an expert sword master who might be able to teach you a thing or two." Matoro nodded, that was exactly what he needed.

"So Iroh will come with me and introduce this sword master. And I think that Katara will most likely come with me…"

"As if you could stop me." Katara smiled.

"No, I don't think I could." Matoro smiled back. "I think that Zuko and Ty Lee should go with Lhikan… they know the fire nation best and could help guide him around." Matoro turned to Sokka and Suki. "Where do you want to go?"

"Oh, we're coming with you; there's no way I'm letting you get away with my sister and getting married without me there!" Sokka grinned. Suki nodded her consent.

"I think that I'll go with Zuko." Jin said quietly. Matoro nodded, he had expected that.

"I think that I would be more useful helping gather the water tribe's fleets." Hakoda said as he stood up. "Even if you run into trouble out here I think that I'd just get in the way more than help." Matoro sighed.

"I didn't want to say it… but I think you're right. Plus, any help that the water tribes and the earth kingdom could send when we finally do attack the fire lord would be useful." And so it was settled. The next few hours were filled with goodbyes and preparations. Within an hour Hakoda left on Appa and headed for the northern water tribe. Momo had insisted on staying with Matoro and waved goodbye to his friend as the giant sky bison sailed away. The two remaining groups went their separate ways. They all knew that time was running out. They would have to defeat the fire lord, and soon, to have any hope of saving the world.

…

Toph

It had been almost a day since we had separated from the others. Mai and Umbra had decided to go north and take out the fire nation outposts along the coast. I had convinced Solek that going south would send us past Omashu and we would be able to see how things were going there. It would also take us past my home town of Gaoling. I had hoped that I would be able to have a serious talk with Solek about how I felt about him on the way. But he was busy trying to find out if he could fly, he wasn't doing very well.

"This time, this time for sure!" he said as he launched himself into the air for the fiftieth time and tried to make a sonic jetpack. All this did was send him flying downwards as a small sonic eruption hit his back and drove him into the ground, again. He groaned in pain and frustration as he stood up.

"Solek, please don't hurt yourself. I think that you've tried enough. Maybe you just need to accept that since your powers have changed you no longer have the ability to fly." He looked at me, he might have been making a sad face but if he was it was lost on me.

"But… I've always been able to fly! Even after I came here I could make a jetpack out of light and fly around… why shouldn't I be able to do that with sound?" I shrugged.

"I don't know why, your powers are so different from those that I'm used to that I really have no idea what you're capable of. But I do know that if you keep trying then you're likely to hurt yourself." Solek dejectedly hung his head and walked beside me.

"It's… it's just that… flying was everything to me. It was the one thing that I was really good at. In my world I couldn't even use my powers without a toa. And walking is so boring… how do you do it all the time?" I smiled at him.

"You'll get used to it."

"What if I don't want to get used to it?" he asked stubbornly.

"Then we'll have to find something to ride." I answered. He perked up at this.

"Yeah, I'll bet we can find something large around here to carry us around! I'll go up and look!" With that he tried to fly again. I sighed as I pulled him out of the large mud puddle he had landed in.

"Solek… you can't fly, remember?"

"Oh, yeah… I forgot."

…

Umbra

I was walking along listening to Mai talk and wishing that I could be somewhere else. It wasn't that she annoyed me; it was just that she was talking about places and things that I had never heard of or seen. And on top of that we were walking, I hated walking. We trudged along heading for the north coast so that we could travel down along it, heading west until we met up with Toph and Solek at a small village where Toph assured us that we'd be able to get a boat to the fire nation. In my mind it made more sense to stay together and take a boat right from the city to the coast, but apparently both Mai and Toph wanted to make sure that they had a little time alone with their chosen guy.

"And I'm sure that we'll have lots of fun in the summertime, we can go to Ember Island and walk along the beach." I sighed, at least Mai was happy. "And I can't wait to introduce you to my parents… I bet they've returned to the fire nation by now." Mai was chattering. I assumed that it was because she was nervous about being alone with me. I sighed in resignation… I might as well get this over with.

"Mai, what's wrong?" I asked her.

"Wrong? Why do you think that something is wrong?" she quickly answered.

"Because you've done nothing but talk nonstop the entire time we've been walking." I answered, glancing back at her. "Seriously, what is wrong?" She sighed.

"I guess I'm just not used to being around someone I like. Back when I had a crush on Zuko I never got to see him very much. And after he was banished I saw him even less. I guess I just don't know how to act around you." I smiled to myself… was that all that was bugging her?

"If it helps I have no idea how to act around you either. Actually I have even less experience then you… I lived alone in a cave for millennia, remember?" Mai nodded. "The only social experience that I have is the past week or so that I've been in this world. And I don't seem to be doing that bad… do I." Mai smiled.

"No, you're doing better than some people who have been going at this for years."

"See… if I can keep my cool around you then you have nothing to worry about." I smiled and put my arm around her. "Just relax… everything is going to be fine." She smiled and stopped. She slowly put her hands behind my neck and kissed me. I kissed back, glad to be alive. We most likely would have stayed like that for quite a while if I had not seen something out of the corner of my eye. I quickly moved Mai out of the way, and just in time. Where we had been standing about twenty sharp blades were slowly dissipating. Mai looked at them in surprise.

"Those are shuriken throwing stars… but why…?"

"Think later, fight now!" I advised her as the men who had thrown the weapons dropped from the trees and surrounded us. They all had blades that were midnight black, the same color as the things they had thrown at us. I was glad that I had fully recovered from my wounds; otherwise I wouldn't be able to fight. I tried to change into a light particle, and found that I couldn't. "Um, Mai… we have a problem…" I said as I drew my weapon and stood back to back with her.

"What? What problem could we possibly have?" She asked testily.

"I'm stuck like this, I can't turn into a light particle." She produced two daggers from her sleeves and held them in a defensive pose.

"Well then we'll have to do this the old fashioned way." She didn't have time to say more because at that moment the men attacked.

…

Iroh led Matoro and the others to a large mansion on top of a hill.

"Who lives here?" asked Sokka in awe. Iroh smiled

"A very good friend, and a master swordfighter, both are rare things in this world." Matoro looked surprised.

"Why are the arts of the sword so rare?" he asked. "Back home there were many who mastered the blade, even Matoran could learn it."

"But here so many people can bend that they usually focus on that one art." Iroh said as he knocked on the door. The door was opened by a butler who bowed to Iroh and led them into the house. He took them to a large chamber and bowed again.

"Master Piandao will be with you momentarily, he is resting." With that the butler bowed and left.

"What kind of man is this Piandao?" asked Suki.

"He is the best swordfighter and sword maker in the history of the fire nation." Iroh remarked as he admired one of many blades hanging on the wall.

"Now, now Iroh, we don't want me to get a big head do we?" everyone turned to see a middle aged man walk down a flight of stairs. He was of about average height with Hazel eyes, black hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard. He bowed to Iroh and smiled at him. "Welcome to my home Iroh, what brings so many young people to the small town of Shu Jing?" Iroh smiled.

"It's a long story."

"Then why don't we move to the dining hall and Fat can prepare some refreshments for us." Piandao suggested. Iroh nodded his thanks and followed the sword master into another room. "Now," said Piandao as he sat down. "Why are you here, exactly?"

…

If the strange men who attacked Umbra and Mai were expecting an easy fight they were greatly disappointed. Even in his normal form Umbra was many times faster than the normal human and he was used to fighting at greater speeds than usual. This meant that he could easily deflect any attack that they tried on him. Millennia of fighting experience against a varied group of enemies had also made him an extremely dangerous warrior. And Mai was no pushover either; she had started learning how to throw knives at a young age out of boredom and over the years had become an expert. Add to this that the two fought in almost perfect unison and they made a deadly combo. When later they tried to figure out how they could do this they were at a loss. It was almost as if they instinctively knew where the other person would be, because if they had been that person that's where they would have been. They spun and ducked quickly, Mai first attacking one side and then turning when the attackers got to close to let Umbra deal with them. But even with these great skills they were outnumbered. Umbra was being targeted by several more fighters in the trees throwing their shuriken knives at him, and he wasn't fast enough to dodge them all. With each cut in his all too organic body Umbra felt himself becoming weaker. These were no normal weapons, they dissipated after hitting him and it seemed no matter how many were thrown the attackers would not run out of them. And despite both being very dangerous neither Mai nor Umbra had managed to hit a single attacker. Finally one of the men slipped past Mai's defenses and covered her mouth with a cloth. Mai passed out almost instantly. This left Umbra's back exposed so that another attacker could jump up and do the same thing to him. Umbra fought to remain awake, a fight that he ultimately lost. His last thought was that it was humiliating that these men had been able to beat him… if he lived though this he really needed to practice out of light form more often.

…

Solek

"And then I knocked him out of the ring." I laughed at Toph's stories of being the Blind Bandit.

"Wow, I bet he couldn't stand for a month!" I smiled at her.

"I think it was two months." She smiled. "And he never made fun of me again."

"Wow, being blind has never really slowed you down has it?" I asked.

"Not really, I've just sort of taken it in stride… there's no reason to let something get you down if you can't change it." I nodded.

"But if you could change it, would you?" Toph seemed to think about it for a second before shaking her head.

"Some times I wish I could see, but most of the time I can 'see' better than most people with my earthbending, I think that I've gotten so used to being blind that It'd be way do difficult to get used to seeing." I nodded. Suddenly Toph stopped. "Um, we're surrounded." Almost without warning twenty or so guys dressed all in black jumped from the trees. I took a defensive stance and looked around.

"Now, I just want to warn you guys… you're messing with the best earthbender in the world and a… what am I Toph?"

"Oh you're somewhere between that Bohrok-Kal and a normal human." She answered.

"That doesn't really help me… I guess that I'm pretty epic… although I really haven't had a chance to use my powers since the battle in Ba Sin Se." I thought out loud. The strange men must have gotten tired of our banter because they attacked us. Without even thinking I raised my right hand and sent several of them flying with a sonic blast. "Wow, sweet!" I yelled in excitement as I sent blast after blast at the attackers. Most of them were able to avoid the attacks but some of them were a bit slow and got hit. I could hear Toph earthbending behind me and smiled. They were undoubtedly being pummeled by her amazing skills. I turned to check on her and gasped when I saw that somehow one of them had managed to get in between us and had covered her mouth with a cloth. It must have had some sort drug on it because she fell to the ground instantly. I yelled in rage… that did it. All of the attackers surrounded me and one of them dragged Toph out of the way.

"That does it… you have now officially crossed the line!" Time seemed to slow down; I raised my arms and sent out a massive sonic attack. All of the attackers were sent flying into the nearby trees as I went berserk. My eyes clouded over and the entire world turned red. I flung sonic energy in every direction, not caring if it hit anyone, only enraged that they had dared to hurt Toph. It might have been an hour, or it might have only been a minute, but I eventually got tired out. I gasped for breath as I looked around. I was shocked by what I had done. Mangled bodies lay scattered around me and the surrounding area was completely decimated. Trees were ripped from the ground and the road was torn up. I looked around in horror as I realized that I had done this. I sank to my knees and covered my eyes.

"Solek!" Toph ran over to me. "Solek, it's ok, they didn't get me, I faked falling asleep and held my breath… I'm fine, Solek?" I barely heard her.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I couldn't do this… I'm not the one who killed them… but no one else was around… how could I have killed them?" I began to sob. I had killed, from a young age I had been taught to respect life, all life. I had never taken a life before. And to see that the attackers had once been living, moving creatures only made their still bodies worse. I began to openly cry, another thing I had never done. "What have I done?" I yelled to the sky. I grabbed my head with my arms and began to cry violently. Toph put her arms around me and tried to hold be still.

"Solek, stop it, you're going to hurt yourself!" she cried out urgently. I stopped crying to answer her.

"Maybe that's a good thing. I have hurt, I have killed, I have become something worse than a Bohrok-Kal. I didn't need to destroy and yet I did. I didn't even attempt to control my power. Do I really deserve to exist?" Toph slapped me.

"Don't say things like that! Of course you deserve to exist! If you didn't then would I be here?"

"No," I answered. "You would be somewhere else and safe, far away from any monsters like me." Toph growled and picked me up. She then bodily threw me on to an earth wall that she created and used earthbending to clamp my arms and legs to it.

"I don't EVER want to hear you talk like that again! Do you hear me?" she practically screamed in my face. "Now, you listen to me! You are not a monster! You are kind, and sweet… and… darn it… you're the only guy who I've ever cared what he thought about me!" I was shocked. How could she still feel that way?

"But, why? Even if you felt that way before I'm different now. I KILLED them Toph, I ended someone's life! I ended a lot of people's lives!"

"You're no different now then you were back then. If you were any different then you wouldn't have cared what happened to them. But you do care Solek… the reason that you care is your heart is way too big! And that's why I love you." With that she pressed her face against mine and kissed me. I couldn't do anything about it, my hands and legs were still trapped by her earth bonds. She suddenly earthbended the stone wall away and we fell to the ground. She wrapped her arms around me in a giant hug and continued kissing me. No matter how hard I tried to push her away she was always stronger. Finally she stopped and helped me up. "Now," she said. "I want you to remember that I did not fall for a fool… and only fools say that they shouldn't have existed." I shook my head.

"But Toph, it was my feelings for you that made me go berserk. Is it really safe to be around me? What if I do it again?" She punched me in the chest.

"Listen, you try to run from me and you'll be running a longer time then you ever lived in your home world! And when I catch you what happened to those men who attacked us will seem tame in comparison!" I rubbed my chest and gulped in the air that had been driven out of me. "And as for 'what if I do it again' you'll just have to learn how to control your powers." I realized that I had been foolish; even if I had killed a hundred people I shouldn't have thought that death or isolation was the only way out. I turned to the blind girl and hugged her.

"Thank you Toph, thank you so very, very much." She hugged me back. We stood there for about a minute before I turned and looked at all the people I had killed.

"We should bury them." Toph said. I nodded and we went to work. It wasn't easy and it took us the better part of two hours before we had gathered all of them and placed them in graves. I helped Toph carve a gravestone out of earth and we set it in front of their graves. We stood there and Toph held my hand as I cried. I knew that no matter how hard I tried I would never be the same after today. Today I had killed; today I had found a monster living inside of me that would never go away. I pledged myself to work on using my powers for good only. I took a step forward and placed my hand on my heart.

"Today I pledge on the graves of these men and women that I will find a way to redeem myself. I will find a way that my powers can help people. And I will atone for this loss." I looked at Toph. "Toph, I can't do this alone… will you help me?" She smiled and lightly punched my shoulder.

"Of course I will, you big dunderhead." We stood there and watched the graves until the sun went down. Somehow, I would find a way to atone for this. Mata Nui help me if I fail.

…

Down in the dark recesses of Mutran's lair something moved. Shadow stretched his new limbs and smiled in satisfaction. It wasn't a toa's body, but it was the next best thing. He shook his spiky spine and admired his blue body and golden limbs. So this was what it felt like to be a physical being, he liked it. He picked up a staff from the wall and changed his shape into a mouse. He then ran into a crack and was soon gone from the lab. He would lay low, for now, and when the time came he would finish his enemies, all of them, starting with Mutran.

Author's note: Wow, this was quite a chapter... a new outlook for Solek... a new body for Shadow... and a new master for Matoro. And yes, I checked, Piandao's butler is actually named Fat... you got to feel a little sorry for the guy. Please review.

PS. thank you to all those who have reviewed, your input is greatly appreciated. :)