"Brrrr! I don't know how the Onu-Matoran live down here," Aodhan said, his voice echoing through the tunnel. "Did you bring a lightstone?"
Tiribomba was shocked. "I thought you had it!"
"No mere lightstone can pierce my shadows," a dark voice came about.
This time, Aodhan recognized it. "Makuta! He's here!"
"You still fail to comprehend the blanket of shadow embracing Mata Nui," Makuta responded. "And you still search for a Refuge for the Matoran. But there is no refuge that can cover them from my pursuit."
"If there's really no Refuge, why do you keep trying to scare us off?" Tiribomba cleverly inquired.
"He's not trying, he's doing it!" Aodhan whispered harshly. "And stop making him mad!"
"Run, Matoran! You will find no safety on Mata Nui!" Makuta shouted, the noise making the two villagers jump into a run. "This is my final warning before you push hand to cause your own destruction."
Tiribomba and Aodhan ran fast for what felt like a kio. Finally, they had to stop to catch their breath. "Well, now what?" the latter asked.
"We can't give up," his friend said, quiet and tired. "I think we missed something at Kini-Nui. I'm going back."
Aodhan leaned against a wall struggling with his decision. "After all that Makuta's said to us?"
"Now is when we need it more than ever," Tiribomba said, standing up straight and continuing. "C'mon. I'm following this to an exit and then going to Kini-Nui."
Aodhan sighed. "You'd better go with a buddy, then…"
X X X
Tahu roared, struggling to free himself from the vines that trapped him. He crashed from side to side, the large, flat stone beneath him glowing hot with the force of his fury.
"The poison is destroying him," Gali said quietly, watching from nearby. Lewa and Kopaka stood beside her near a tunnel entrance in the jungle. The poison from Lerahk had mixed inside Tahu with the power of Kurahk's anger, to the point where he was completely corrupted. The Toa had seen similar effects before, but not this severe. Infected Kanohi could control one's body, while the Bohrok Krana seemed to taint the wearer's mind; this dark mixture seemed to now possess both inside the Toa of Fire. "We must act," Gali continued. "Let us summon all the healing powers we possess."
The three of them gathered around Tahu. The Fire Toa hardly seemed aware of their presence as he growled and fought against his restraints.
"Lewa, ready his sword," Gali instructed.
Lewa raised Tahu's magma swords. They burned weakly, with nothing more than a sputtering flicker. "His flame is but an ember-glow!" Lewa noted in alarm.
"Kopaka," Gali said. Kopaka produced his own blade. He crossed it with the magma swords in front of Tahu's face. The energy of two Toa's blades exploded in a blinding flash of light, then flowed down into Tahu's body.
Tahu roared defiantly as the energy flooded him. He was soon enveloped in glowing white steam.
"That's enough!" Gali cried.
Kopaka and Lewa pulled back the swords. The steam dissipated, revealing Tahu—and the poison taint still covering his body. The Fire Toa lay still, his eyes dark.
"Brother!" Lewa cried, fearing the worst.
Gali brought her hands together. Water droplets rushed together at her call, forming a liquid sphere that spun in front of her. Liquid of life, work your power, she thought, focusing all of her energy on the water's cleansing power. Then she unleashed the water at Tahu in a gentle mist. A rainbow formed as the droplets danced over his still form. The water bathed him, washing away the poison along with the scratch on his mask. Within seconds, healthy red armor shone out.
Lewa gazed down at Tahu. The Fire Toa still lay motionless, but Lewa could see that Gali's efforts had worked. There was no sign of the poison taint. Lewa very gently clanked his fist against Tahu's hand, before clasping it. "I'm right here, Toa-brother," he murmured.
Gali slumped, exhausted. Kopaka caught her, carefully helping her move away to rest.
"You did all you could," he said, turning to look at Tahu's unconscious form.
"We are so evenly matched…overpowered even," she said. "How can we hope to win?"
"The same way we always have," Kopaka said, his eyes glued on Tahu's body. "We find a way."
X X X
Gali was kneeling beside a jungle pond. She held her hands beneath the water, taking energy from it to replenish her physical strength. Kopaka stood behind her, watching…thinking. "Kopaka," Gali said with a sigh as she felt herself recharged in the soothing, warm, water. "Do you think the Turaga were right about us? Have we lost our unity? Is that why we fail?" She paused, gazing down at the still water. When the Ice Toa didn't answer, she turned her head. "Kopaka?"
But he was gone. "Kopaka?" Gali asked a second time, looking for his white armor against the jungle brush. He was nowhere to be seen. Gali sighed.
X X X
As the sun rose above the horizon, Jaller tried to keep his gaze on his goal—the craggy top section of the Mangai volcano. He struggled up a rocky slope, clutching the Mask of Light. As he crested the slope, he groaned in dismay. Another steep cliff side still lay between him and the top of the volcano!
His legs ached, and his eyes strained in the bright morning sunlight. Would he be able to make it? And even if he reached the top of the volcano, what then? Would he find the Seventh Toa there—or would the mask lead him off in yet another direction?
"Mata Nui," he cried. "Show me where my destiny lies!"
Suddenly the ground quaked beneath him. Jaller was thrown off his feet—and off of the ledge. He barely managed to grab onto it and avoid falling, almost losing the mask in the fall as well.
He sighed and glanced upward, rolling his eyes. "Well," he said to the sky, "l guess I asked!"
The ground shook again. But this time, Jaller realized it was the rumble of galloping footsteps coming toward him.
"What now?" he wondered aloud. Jaller's eyes widened as Pewku galloped onto the ledge.
Takua was riding on her broad back, holding a Kolhii stick in one hand. He leaned over Pewku's side, stretching the Kolhii stick down toward Jaller. "Grab on!" he yelled. Jaller grabbed it, holding on tightly as his friend pulled him to safety.
Soon Jaller was seated behind Takua on Pewku's back. "Well, well, well…what ever happened to 'l quit?" he asked breathlessly.
Takua grinned. "I could have…but I didn't. Actually, I tried that," he said. "But no one will let me." His face grew serious. "Bad news. More Rahkshi. They've taken Onu-Koro."
"But the Mask of Light was never at Onu-Koro," Jaller said, confused.
Takua shook his head. "They don't want the mask," he said. "They're looking for the Herald."
Jaller still looked puzzled. "You're sure they were after the Herald?"
Takua glanced at him over his shoulder. "Oh, yeah," he said. "Real sure."
"Then we'd better find the Seventh Toa fast," Jaller replied, as Pewku moved faster.
X X X
"Why have you brought us here, Whenua?" Onua asked the earthen elder. He and his good friend, Pohatu Nuva had been led to a remote part of Po-Wahi. "We should be helping the others against the Rahkshi."
"Or aiding Takua and Jaller on their search for the Seventh Toa," Pohatu added.
"You are here because I need you here," Whenua answered.
The two Toa did indeed survive the battle in Onu-Koro, with help from Whenua. Having established the village, he knew the best ways to take shelter during a collapse, and the tunnels that exited Onu-Wahi. The Onu-Matoran had successfully been evacuated, thanks to the arrival of the other Toa, but Whenua, Onua, and Pohatu had not. Both Toa were seriously concerned with meeting up with the others as soon as possible, if nothing else to simply say that they were alive. But Whenua had insisted with the most forward and crucial tone that this must be done first. Now, he and the other two Toa had traveled to the border between Onu-Wahi and Po-Wahi.
The Turaga patiently showed the two to a pit covered with a large boulder. Onua and Pohatu recognized this particular setup as that of a Krana pit—one of the only ways the Matoran could seal up the Krana collected from the Bohrok Invasion. But on this particular stone seal, Whenua pointed to something unique. "Tell me…" he began, sliding his hand across a carving, "…do you know what this is, Onua?"
Onua stepped forward, examining the picture. It looked like some sort of slug, segmented into several sections with dark eyes and multiple legs. After a few moments of thought, he replied, "No, Turaga. It looks like nothing I have seen before."
"This isn't a Krana pit, is it?" Pohatu asked. "It was just disguised as one."
"That is right," Whenua nodded. "This is a Kraata…a part of the very substance of Makuta. You will find them inside the Rahkshi, but they have plagued Mata Nui since long before you arrived."
"What?" Pohatu asked.
"How so?" Onua said, at the same time.
Whenua turned back to the carving. "They slither in the shadows—as is fitting—spreading Makuta's darkness wherever they go." He turned back to the two Toa, looking up solemnly through the eyes of his Noble Kanohi Ruru. "It is the Kraata who infected the Kanohi masks Makuta used to control the Rahi. They do this simply by coming in contact with a pure Kanohi, spreading Makuta's darkness and infecting it. I and the other Turaga have hunted them in secret for years."
Pohatu opened his mouth to speak, but Onua held up a hand that silenced him—a rare action by the Toa of Earth. But Pohatu understood: Onua knew Whenua better than he did, and the time for questions would come.
"But we have begun to fear that the Rahkshi may find—and free—their brothers," Whenua finished. He turned around and turned on his Drill of Onua, the staff he carried as an elder. Drilling into the rock only a tenth of a bio, it reached a switch. The boulder then opened up some kind of automatic compartment—equipment the Toa had never seen before. Pohatu reasoned there must be some kind of standalone Vuata Maca Tree for this guise, alone.
The Turaga of Earth entered, beckoning for the two Toa to follow. When they arrived underground, they could hardly believe their eyes. They had gone deep enough that the ceiling now stretched at least forty to fifty bios high. And along both walls of a tunnel that stretched deep underground, were lines and lines and rows and rows and rows of Kraata, trapped in stasis tubes. "Behold," Whenua stated, lifting his arms in gesture, "the spoils of our hunt. Thousands of Kraata safely suspended in time and space, hidden here as they have been for years. We did not kill them, because we felt it was likely that the act would simply allow their energy to revert to Makuta, allowing him to create and use more."
Pohatu looked around in worried betrayal, scanning the walls of Kraata. Then his attention fell back onto Whenua. "You imprisoned these…things…in my realm, and never told me?" he asked, his voice rising in disbelief.
"They were no longer a threat," Whenua defended, holding his ground before the towering Toa. "We did not feel you needed to know."
Now, Pohatu was starting to lose his temper. "Didn't need—!? What else have you Turaga been keeping secret? Just whose side are you on, anyway?"
It was not Whenua that stopped him, but Onua, and even then not entirely for the Turaga's sake. "Pohatu, quiet! Something is coming…I feel it in the earth. Something very bad…" The Toa of Earth looked above, seeing tendrils of blue and brown energy snake through areas of the ceiling. "The Fragmenter- and Disintegrator-Rahkshi are outside!" he shouted to the other two. "Cave in!"
The three jumped out of the way of a massive boulder falling toward them, but had to continue dodging pieces of falling debris and minerals. The uses of their Kanohi Hau Nuva protected not only them, but the Turaga of Earth as well.
When the destruction had finally ceased, Pohatu spoke up again. "Is everyone alright?"
Whenua pushed himself up next to the Toa of Stone. "I believe we are all unhurt, Toa of Stone…but we are far from 'alright.' Look!" He pointed to one of the stasis tubes that had fallen and landed not far from Pohatu's Nuva feet additions. The Kraata's head was sticking out of it. "The shockwave has cracked the cylinders! The Kraata are free, and there is no place we can run!"
The three looked around the destroyed cavern, whose sleeping inhabitants were now awakening. Drowsily, those thousands of Kraata of which Whenua had spoken now eyed Pohatu, Onua, and Whenua. The Kraata fortunate to have larger stasis tube cracks easily crawled out. The others with smaller cracks either pushed on through hard enough (one even receiving a cut on the exterior container) or kept tackling until they could escape. Hungrily, covering the floor and crawling over one another, they began to slither toward the trio from every direction.
X X X
Gali was meditating by the waters of the stream not far from Tahu when Lewa called out to her. She opened her eyes and turned to look at him, seeing him approach. "Sister. He is open-eyed!" he informed.
Gali hurried back to the clearing. Tahu was sitting up, unwrapping the vines from his wrists, and panting heavily. "Brother," Gali greeted him. "Are you well?"
Tahu glared at her. "No. No, I am not well." Then his eyes softened. "But I am alive and in your debt…my sister."
He tentatively lifted his fist toward her. Gali smiled and gently clanked it with her own.
X X X
When Hahli exited the tunnels with the rest of the Onu-Matoran, the decision was made similar to the Ta-Matoran—the remaining four villages would harbor what they could of the population, with the stragglers forced to remain in Onu-Wahi and make an even more primitive dwelling in previously uninhabited caves. In a twist of serendipity, there were those who even preferred establishing a small outpost in the familiar subterranean region over living in a civilized village somewhere in the cold mountains of Ko-Koro or the intolerable sunlight of Le-Koro.
While the politics of the Matoran's new homes was settled by Turaga Onewa (who in the neighboring region had heard of Onu-Koro's fall), Hahli took it upon herself to continue around the island. Moving south from Onu-Wahi into Ko-Wahi, Hahli traversed the snowy mountain until she came again to Ko-Koro.
Once there, she saw immediately that it, too, had been under attack. She wasn't sure how complete the destruction was or how long ago, but it did look like the Ko-Matoran were able to still live there. Somewhat, at least, she thought grimly, as she stepped through the broken, shattered, and dehinged gates that used to be guarded by Talvi and Pakastaa. Kopaka was the last Toa to arrive in Onu-Koro, she thought. He must have been overseeing repairs until he heard about the attack.
Inside the ice village, ladders, homes, and bridges had been blown apart by Panrahk, poison had tainted the entire westernmost portion of the village from Lerahk, and only divets in the ground and microscopic dust gave tell that Guurahk had been here, too, searching for the Avohkii, the Seventh Toa, or its Herald.
Hahli came upon the Sanctum, which had holes blown in it and a wall that had been melted through, but was still identifiable. She entered the Chamber of Prophecy in the Sanctum, where Matoro spoke to her on the behalf of Turaga Nuju.
Matoro looked at her in fear and sorrow, waiting for Nuju to finish speaking. "Much of what has come to pass could not be foreseen," the Ko-Matoran said sadly, when his Turaga had finished. "The times of the Kolhii Championship were times of great cheer, but now we fear the dark. The wind blows cold on the empty mountain, and what has slept below has begun to stir. Now you see your trials, Hahli of Ga-Koro. May the spirit of your Toa Nuva protect you."
"I'm sorry about your village, Matoro," Hahli said, trying to sound comforting. "I'm on an important mission. I need Turaga Nuju to tell me if he created a place called the Temple of Peace, and if he did, where it is."
Matoro was confused, but didn't bother clarifying. If extra detail had been needed, Hahli would have provided it, he was sure. He looked over to Nuju, who examined Hahli for a few seconds before giving a short answer. Matoro looked back at Hahli and said, "The Drifts." As Matoro said that, Nuju handed her a small carving with a map on it.
Hahli took it and left for the Wastes of Ko-Wahi. Traveling through the snow and following Nuju's directions, Hahli could make out the silhouettes of four large statues in the distance, labeled carefully as the Temple of Peace. Part of her was surprised that this place was hidden out in the open, but her chattering teeth, frosted Kanohi visor, and other parts of her body could understand—the snow made it hard to see anything.
Moving closer, Hahli saw more inscribed riddles and keyholes once again, like the Temples of Purity and Prosperity. They were on three of the statues, while a sliding panel was on the fourth. The first riddle, 'The Third Virtue', was answered with the Charm of Destiny. The second riddle, 'Inner Strength', was answered with the Charm of Willpower. The final riddle, 'Fate's Child', required the Charm of Peace. As expected, once all the Charms had been used in the locks, the sliding panel opened and Hahli went inside, retrieving the Crystal of Peace from the hands of a smaller statue. With five in her possession, she made haste for Le-Koro to obtain the final one, hoping on the way that the Le-Matoran had been spared from the Rahkshi.