I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or Bionicle (though I wish I did) and no copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 27
Rahkshi Apocalypse
Mutran watched as the large fleet landed and the attacking army began to engage what little was left of the fire nation armed forces. Even with the massive boost from the comet, something that exceeded even his expectations, there were just not enough men. They would eventually be overwhelmed and destroyed. Not that Mutran cared; he had no need for the annoying organics. He smiled and turned to the chained figure next to him.
"It looks as if your army is about to fall, princess." Azula scowled at him.
"Laugh all you want fool, when the new troops get down there the attackers won't stand a chance." Mutran nodded.
"True, but all I have to do is give the orders and several thousand Rahkshi will swarm over this entire city, killing any organic they find… in the end, I win. And there is nothing you can do about it!" Azula dropped her head, she knew he was right. For the first time in her life she had been outmaneuvered. Mutran had played her like a Tsungi Horn, there was no way she could win this, not alone. Azula caught herself actually wishing that the Avatar was alive. She had a feeling that if he had lived then none of this would have happened. In killing the Avatar had she doomed not only the world but the entire human race? Mutran looked at the edge of the volcanic crater that the palace sat in and frowned.
"What is it now?" Azula snarled.
"It looks like some brave soul is trying to sneak around and take out the fire lord." Mutran smiled. "Well, I never was one to disappoint." With that he walked to the edge of the balcony and pulled a lever.
"What did that do?" Azula demanded.
"I just released your father from his tank." Mutran smiled. Azula's face went white, this was not good. There was no way that any of the attackers could beat him, and then he would come after her.
…
Matoro
I jumped off of Appa the second we landed on top of the volcano.
"I'm going straight for the palace to take out the fire lord, I need the rest of you to try to draw the Makuta out of hiding and keep him busy."
"You mean beat him, right?" Sokka asked hopefully.
"No Sokka," Lhikan sighed. "He means hope that we can keep him busy long enough for him to get overconfident and hope that we get a lucky shot in." Zuko looked at the small toa in surprise.
"You can't be serious… just how powerful is a Makuta?"
"Remember Tuyet?"
"Yeah." Zuko frowned.
"He's more powerful than that."
"Great." Zuko groaned. Katara jumped off and landed next to Matoro.
"I'm coming with you." She insisted. I sighed.
"I know that I won't be able to stop you, just be careful, ok?" Katara nodded. The two groups separated. Katara and I ran through the city towards the palace. I was surprised that there were no guards at the doors.
"Ok, that's weird." Katara said.
"Yeah, this whole thing feels like a trap." I said.
"I'm guessing that turning back isn't an option?" Katara looked at me.
"Sadly, no." I said as I walked towards the doors. "But we should at least make an entrance." I was about to blast down the door with lightning when the door decided that it would rather burst into flames. The intense heat made both of us step back. I gasped when I saw what stepped through the door. It was about eighty feet tall with huge wings and curled horns on the sides its face.
"None shall pass!" It roared and tried to incinerate me with a blast of fire. I quickly jumped behind a wall and turned to Katara. "What is that thing?" I asked.
"I… I think it might be the fire lord." She stuttered in fear.
"Really, then who gave him wings?" I asked. There was no more time to speculate as the wall was crumbled as the fire lord smashed through it. I quickly froze the air in front of Katara creating a gust that swept her inside a nearby house. I turned and drew my duel Kodachi. "Well, at least I don't have to waste time trying to get you to see the wrong of your ways." I dodged another fire blast. "Not much of a talker… are you?" it roared at me again and created a sword of fire. "Guess not."
…
Mutran smiled as the fire lord attacked the human. There was no doubt that the fire lord would win. No human could stop the power of a human perfectly bonded with the shadow powers of a Makuta. Still, there were those others. Mutran shrugged and walked over to the second lever that was on the balcony.
"Wait… what are you going to do?" Azula asked.
"I'm going to start the apocalypse." Mutran smiled as he pulled the lever.
…
Umbra
I heard the sound of gears turning and the rat looked up.
"Well, sounds like daddy dearest is letting my brothers out to play." The Rahkshi said as he changed into his true form. "Guess that our plan isn't going to work out the way we thought it would, too bad, for you that is." He began walking towards the door.
"Wait!" Mai said. "You promised to help us!" The Rahkshi turned around.
"No, I promised to use you." He laughed. "But don't think me ungrateful, here." With that he blasted the door down. "Good luck surviving, my brothers are set to destroy every organic from here to the edge of the water. Have fun kids!" he laughed as he ran out into the corridor. I stood up and looked out. After being cooped up in the cell for so long even stepping out into the hallway seemed like freedom. I turned to Mai.
"Come on, if we stay here we're dead for sure. We need to get out of the palace as quickly as possible."
"But what good will that do?" she asked. I grabbed her arm and pulled her after me while explaining.
"Mutran wouldn't reveal the Rahkshi unless there was someone who needed killing, and he didn't want to do it… therefore…"
"Matoro is here!" she said.
"Correct." I smiled. We ran down the hallway desperately looking for a way to escape. Unfortunately the hallway lead directly into Mutran's lab. We ran in full tilt and barely stopped before crashing into the entire Rahkshi army. We froze, and so did the Rahkshi. I was honestly scared, there were about a thousand of them in the room, with evidence that more had passed though and more were to come. And to top everything off I was without a weapon, or powers. Mai and I stared at them while they stared at us. From the corner of my eye I saw something that looked like a Midak Skyblaster. Desperately hoping it worked I kicked down one of the lab tables and grabbed the gun. Without even waiting to take aim I shot one of the Rahkshi, they gun worked. And since it fired light spheres the first five Rahkshi went down before the others could shoot back. I ducked under the table and handed a second gun to Mai. She looked at it in confusion.
"What is this?" she asked.
"No time to explain." I said as I shot a Rahkshi that poked its head over my makeshift barrier. "Just point the hole at the Rahkshi and pull the trigger." Mai nervously did just that. After seeing the Rahkshi fall in a smoking heap she began to smile.
"I think I like this." She said and quickly jumped up and shot six more. I pulled her down just in time to dodge a disintegration blast.
"Watch it!" I hissed at her. "These are Rahkshi… we need to be careful." Mai nodded in fear and then began to shoot them again. Desperately wishing for my staff I joined in. Our only hope was to hold out until help came, whenever that was.
…
Sokka
We ran towards the palace rear to try to sneak around and make sure that Matoro wouldn't have any nasty surprises waiting for him. Appa easily took down the wall and we continued in. We entered the palace and came to a dead end.
"Which way?" I asked. Zuko was about to answer when the floor began to rattle. Baking away in shock we barely got out of the way before six large monsters burst from the floor. Lhikan gasped and created flame swords.
"RAHKSHI!" He yelled as the first attacked. There was no more time for warnings after that as the palace suddenly seemed to fill with the creatures. They were large and made of metal; naturally this was a bad thing. Lhikan and Zuko took positions at either end of the corridor and used their flame powers to melt a lot of the beasts. Eventually we fought our way out of the dead end and ran deeper into the palace. With Lhikan and Zuko busy most of us got ahead. We ran into a large room and stopped to catch our breath. It was then that I realized that not all of us were here.
"Wait… where's Jin and Ty Lee?" I asked.
"I don't know." Suki gasped for breath while answering. "What were those things?"
"Whatever they were they were horrible." I said.
"That's just like you humans, anything that's not organic is ugly. Have you ever seen yourselves first thing in the morning? Not pretty." I turned at the mocking voice. I saw a boy leaning against the wall. He looked almost exactly like Matoro but was black from head to toe. I recognized him from Katara's description.
"S…Shadow?" I asked. The boy seemed pleasantly surprised at my knowledge of his name.
"Well, I see my reputation precedes me… and to whom do I owe the honor?" He laughed. I could feel the blood boiling in my body.
"You kidnapped my sister." I snarled.
"Wow, small world." He smiled. "What'cha going to do about it?" I drew my sword as Suki took a ready stance.
"I'm going to make you pay!" I yelled. But before I could attack him more Rahkshi came out of the floor. Shadow shook his head and smiled as if we were silly children.
"So you even have any idea of who you're messing with?" he asked. Then he turned to the Rahkshi. "Kill them."
…
Hakoda smiled, the attack was going well. In a few hours they would have the entire capital city under their control. Granted, there had been some surprises, mostly the new technology and weaponry that the fire nation had used against them. Even with Lhikan's warning it cost them dearly to defeat the strange new weapons that were being used. Pakku came and stood next to him.
"Woo, I think I'm getting to old for all this." The old master gasped as he brushed sweat off his brow.
"Don't give up yet old timer." Hakoda smiled. "We've still got a ways to go." Suddenly the ground began to shake beneath their feet. Iroh walked up with a concerned look on his face.
"What is that?" he asked. Slowly screams were becoming clearer and Hakoda could see a lot of the remaining fire nation army charging down at them. But they were not attacking, they were running. Hakoda's eyes grew large.
"Moon spirit protect us." He gasped as hundreds of Rahkshi appeared, killing any human who was too slow to outrun their attacks. Hakoda yelled out orders to his men.
"Gather together and prepare to fight, forget about the fire nation, we have a bigger problem." Hakoda felt his knees shake as he faced down the charging horde. When the fire nation army realized that their enemies were trying to help them they turned around and fell into ranks with the combined army. For the first time in a century the entire world was united, the only question was would they live long enough to celebrate that. Hakoda watched as the Rahkshi came closer, closer. He only wished that he could see his daughter again, one last time.
…
Sokka and Suki tried their best to fight the ten or so Rahkshi that attacked them. But it was Appa and Momo that were having the most success. Appa turned around and flattened several of the Rahkshi with a blast of air from his tail. Momo jumped on top of one of the Rahkshi and made it go crazy by punching it in the eyes. This made it shoot wildly and even made Shadow dive for cover to avoid being melted by the acid blasts. Sokka turned to see Suki fighting off a black Rahkshi and slowly losing. A green energy had surrounded her and the Rahkshi was somehow draining her energy. Almost without thinking his boomerang was in his hand. He threw it as he had never thrown it before.
"SUKI!" Sokka yelled as the boomerang flew. It was flying at such a velocity that it not only sliced the Rahkshi's head off at its skinny neck but it proceeded to do the same to five more Rahkshi that were nearby. And then, almost as if it had a mind of its own it returned to Sokka's hand. Suki looked at her fiancé in amazement.
"How… how did you make that throw?" she asked.
"What… what is that weapon?" Shadow asked in a mixture of fear and awe. Sokka looked at his favorite weapon and smiled. He suddenly threw it and pinned Shadow to the wall. He then drew his sword and walked over to the struggling shadow form/Rahkshi and placed it on his chest.
"That… was a boomerang. And this, is a space sword." With that Sokka stabbed Shadow right where his heart would be. The shadow form returned to his Rahkshi form and screeched in pain.
"No… I was going to kill Mutran, and then Matoro… and then…" No one ever knew what he was going to say next. For at that moment the light went out of his eyes and he passed on. The last words he heard were Sokka's
"Don't mess with my family!"
…
Matoro blocked the first swing of Ozai's sword and was hard pressed to attack back. The heat that the fire lord was generating was immense. It was so hot that Matoro was sweating though the chill that surrounded his body. The ice toa tried to create an ice blast to trap the fire lord's hand to the wall but the ice melted as soon as it left his body. Ozai laughed.
"Foolish boy, do you not know that Fire is stronger than ice? Fire is the best of all the elements. That is the way it has always been." With that Ozai tried once again to slice Matoro in half. Matoro barely dodged the blade and the heat generated from the attack burned his back. Matoro turned to face the fire lord.
"No one element is stronger than the other," he said, "THAT is the way it has always been." With that he used his newfound control of water to whip up a small rainstorm. The rain did little more than cool him down but it also boosted his spirits, he wasn't all out of powers after all. Matoro jumped in and out of attack range as Ozai swung his blade and sliced up several buildings. Several fires were started that Matoro quickly put out. He knew that he had to end this quickly, if the fight went on too long then Zuko might not have a city to return to as the new fire lord. He quickly tried to douse Ozai in a water blast that did no real damage, but it did do something else. Matoro saw that as long as the water hit Ozai the flames surrounding his body were swept away, leaving exposed skin. A plan slowly began to formulate in Matoro's head. He ran away from Ozai. The fire lord laughed as he gave chase.
"What? Giving up already hero?" he asked as he followed.
"You wish!" Matoro mocked as he ran for his goal, some fights needed a little more than brute force to win.
…
Iroh melted another Rahkshi as it tried to disintegrate him. He was fighting back to back with Hakoda; they had been separated from the rest of the army and were quickly being surrounded. Hakoda sliced another Rahkshi's head in half before looking at the horde that was coming.
"It looks like this is it." He said sadly.
"Yes, it does." Iroh admitted.
"Never thought that I'd die back to back with a firebender." Hakoda said wryly.
"And I never thought that I would die back to back with a water tribe chieftain." Iroh smiled.
"Well, let's make it a good death." Hakoda said. "So that our kids don't think any less of us." Iroh nodded and the two of them turned to face the enemy. They were about to attack when a large shadow fell over them. The two warriors looked up in shock as a huge dragon landed and incinerated several hundred Rahkshi in one massive fire blast. Hakoda shook his head as Solek, Toph and a metal monster jumped from the back of the dragon to land right next to him.
"Hi Hakoda!" Solek smiled. "We brought backup!" Iroh smiled and ruffled Solek's head.
"Yes, yes you did." He smiled.
"Where are the others?" Toph asked.
"They went to the palace, hurry and catch them." Hakoda said. "With this added help we should be able to handle things here." Solek nodded and helped Toph up on the Kikanalo.
"Let's go get them Tank." He yelled. The large beast roared happily and proceeded to smash a path though the few remaining Rahkshi.
"That boy never ceases to amaze me." Iroh smiled.
"I stopped being surprised by beings from that world after meeting Matoro, there is no one really like them." Hakoda smiled in response and then turned to the army.
"What? Are you lazy bums going to let the dragon have all the fun? We're winning now! Let's make the final push!" the army cheered. And then all of them, fire nation guards, water tribe warriors, earth kingdom soldiers and air nomad ninja's ran forward to finish the fight. The ironic thing that in attempting to take over the world Mutran had done what the Avatar had been trying to do. He had brought the world together.
…
Matoro continued running. He could see his goal up ahead. It was an aqueduct that was used to supply water to the palace. If he could only reach it then he might be able to soak the fire lord with enough water to actually land a hit on him. Matoro felt a huge shadow fall over him and looked up. He barely dodged in time as the fire lord came crashing down between him and the water.
"NO MORE RUNNING!" The monster yelled. Matoro stopped and threw up his hands just in time to let lose a massive ice blast that barely stopped the flames coming from the fire lord's sword. Matoro felt himself being pushed back; he realized that he was going to lose. He hadn't made it in time. Suddenly Matoro noticed something behind the fire lord and felt new energy flood into his body.
"You'll never beat me! NEVER!" He yelled. Ozai laughed.
"You're no Avatar… how could you ever hope to defeat me."
"A toa's secret weapon," Matoro smiled. "We never work alone." With that Katara bent the water from the aqueduct all over the fire lord. Ozai turned around and grabbed Katara off of the aqueduct. Katara gasped as the air was driven from her lungs. Ozai might not be on fire but he was still huge.
"You little maggot, how can you hope to stop me?" he laughed.
"PUT… HER… DOWN!" Matoro yelled as he jumped up in the air and landed on Ozai's back. Bracing himself against Ozai's wings he stabbed both his swords into the giant fire lord and then called down lightning from the sky to strike them. Ozai screamed in pain and dropped Katara. Matoro created an ice slide and caught her before landing a safe distance away. Ozai tried to pull the hated blades from his shoulder but in the action of that he tripped. The last thing that Ozai saw was Matoro creating an ice spear and throwing it at his face, and then, darkness.
…
Solek and Toph rode Tank into the throne room. Toph looked around in surprise.
"Where's Matoro?" she asked. "I thought that he'd be fighting the fire lord in here?"
"I don't know." Solek said.
"Fools." They turned to see Azula chained next to the throne. "Get out of here while you still have the chance!"
"Now, now princess." A voice said. "We don't want our guests running away do we?" Mutran stepped from the shadows and used a vacuum to close the doors. Solek recognized him.
"Mutran." He snarled as he jumped off of Tank.
"Ah, and Av-Matoran/Bohrok-Kal mix… you should be interesting to study." The Makuta smiled. Azula watched as the two warriors squared off. This was going to be a fight to remember.
Author's note: Ok, for those of you who were waiting for a huge fight between Matoro and Shadow... sorry, I decided to have Sokka take the glory for that one. As for an epic fight, if these weren't epic enough for you then how about the next fight on the list, Solek vs Mutran... Bohrok-Kal vs Makuta. It's coming up next so review and prepare. The end is almost here.
