At a palace, in another part of the desert, an armored man with a red cape and a helmet with purple feathers in a mohawk-like fashion approaches a pair of huge, grand doors where two guards stand. The guards, seeing who the man is, open the doors and allow him to pass with bows of their heads. The man enters a gigantic, and very decorated throneroom. On the west side of the room lounges a man dressed in white and red toga-like garments on a lounge chair. On his head is a crown of laurel and on his wrists he wears golden gauntlets. The newcomer approaches this man, removes his helmet, and bows head. "My Lord, I bring news from one of our scouting parties," the man announces.
"Were they successful, this time?" Daskus inquires.
"Very, my Lord. They found and captured six Outlanders."
"Six Outlanders? Excellent General," says Daskus with pleased smile, "Where are they?"
"Out in the arena, my Lord," the General motions with a wave of his hand towards a balcony. "The Captain thought you might wish to see them."
"I do, General," and both men walk out onto the balcony. Below and before them is a open arena. There, the Toa Metru, bound and conscious, are being further restrained by soldiers. "What do we know about these Outlanders, General?" Daskus rubs his chin thoughtfully.
"Other than that their anatomy appears to biomechanical and they have special powers as well as powerful weapons, very little, Your Excellency," replies the General.
"Special powers, you say?"
"Yes, sire. Each of them seems to have a power that's derived from an element and a second power from which we can't pinpoint the source. The Captain has reported that they are not to be taken lightly, they managed to put up a good fight before they were finally subdued."
After scrutinizing the Toa, Daskus announces, "I want a closer look at them." The General's stunned for moment, he fears that his king would be placing himself in danger by getting too close to those . . .things, considering what he heard they were capable of. But, this thought passed through his mind for only a second; as General, part of his duty was ensuring that Daskus' every wish and order was fulfilled.
"Of course, my Lord. If you don't mind, I shall accompany you."
"And I shall welcome your company, General."
Down at the arena, out of all the Toa, Matau is putting up the biggest fuss, trying to get free. He struggles even harder than Onewa and Whenua, who are being held back by two to three men since they are physically the two strongest Toa. 'I'm the Toa-hero of air, I need to be free to high-fly,' he says to himself. "Let go," he demands at the soldier holding him, only to feel a sharp pain in his left elbow as the man pulls his arm farther up his back. In response, he hisses between his teeth. For a minute, Whenua's afraid the man's going to break Matau's arm. Thankfully, after Matau becomes compliant, it never comes to that. Then, a rumble's heard as a pair of doors open. Lord Daskus and the General stroll towards the little group. As Daskus takes a look at the Toa, Nuju feels like he's taking in every possible detail about them that he possibly can, like a Muaka cat considering which prey would make the best kill. Daskus approaches Vakama, and, for a moment, the two just stare at each other. Then, Daskus lifts a riding crop up to Vakama's chin. Upon pure instinct, Vakama lifts his head as Daskus continues to look him over.
"Interesting," he muses, genuinely intrigued by the Toa's biomechanical structure. When he approaches Nokama, both the Toa Metru of Water and her brothers discover that they don't like the way he's looking at her. "Very interesting in deed," he says as he lifts his hand to touch her mask. Nokama immediately tries to keep away from the man's touch, but the man holding her won't let her move an inch. Just when Daskus' hand's about to reach its target, a green blur shows up between him and Nokama. Startled, Daskus backs away, and the General steps up to give Matau a solid punch in the abdomen. The wind knocked out of him, Matau groans as he doubles over, barely hearing Nokama call out his name, her tone full of concern. He falls to the ground and, fighting to stay conscious, gasps for air.
"Take them to stalls," the General orders, and the soldiers direct the other Toa out of the arena while two others drag Matau. Turning to his master, the General asks, "My Lord, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, General," Daskus replies, "No real harm done." The two men walk back to the doors from which they came. "Those Outlanders are the most promising 'subjects' we've had in a long time. Can I trust you to make sure they are a part of the entertainment for tomorrow's gathering, General?"
"Of course, my Lord."
"And, inform the guards that there's a slight change in schedule. We're going to start off with having one of them tied to the stake to be fed to a monstrous beast, then we'll move on as planned."
"I will have them notified, my Lord."
"Excellent. I want the green one to be the offering."
"Sire?"
"No one attacks me and lives to tell the tale. At least, not for long. Besides, it will be a perfect opportunity to show off my new pet."
"It shall be done, sir. Your wish is my command."
As the men enter the doors that lead back into the palace, they share an evil chortle.
Meanwhile, in the dark and dusty stalls, which are actually nothing short of a dungeon, the Toa are led to their cell. Once inside, they are released of their bonds. After the door's closed and locked, Nokama immediately rushes to Matau, whose breathing is back to normal. "Are you ok?" she asks.
"Stomach's still kind of sore, but I'm fine," he rubs his midsection to prove his point.
"Why did those guys capture us?" asks Onewa.
"And why did they bring us here?" asks Vakama.
"I don't know," answers Nuju as he walks to clasp his hands on two bars of the large 'window' that looks out into the arena, "But I've got a very bad feeling that we're going to find out tomorrow." With their elemental powers depleted, far too tired to call upon their mask powers, and disarmed of their weapons, all the Toa Metru can do is stare at the arena before them. Never before had they felt as completely helpless and uncertain as they do now.
The next morning , the Toa awoke to find that over half of the palace servants were bustling all over the the stands, reminding Nuju of the messenger Ko-Matoran who would run errands and forward messages to the seers, scholars, and apprentices of Ko-Metru. 'Could that be what they're doing--running errands to get something prepared for later?' he wondered. Not exactly wanting to find out, now that they were well rested, the Toa promptly began trying to come up with a plan of escape. Except, they didn't have much that was useful. Onewa and Whenua couldn't risk using their elemental powers without bringing the entire cell down on top of them; the others' elemental powers were of no use, as were most of their mask powers. Therefore, their only hope was that Nuju's Matatu would do the trick. First, he tries telekinetically picking up large rocks and ramming them against the bars, in the hope that the bars will eventually give. When that doesn't seem to be working, the remaining Toa lend their physical strength by pulling at the bars. Pretty soon, Onewa and Whenua start ramming the bars with their shoulders, but there's hardly a dent on them. "Guess we're going to have to try the door after all," says Nuju, and he approaches the door. Using the lens that functions as his left eye, he uses it's x-ray capability to see through the door and spots the lock. However, before he can activate his mask power, the door swings open and a guard steps in.
"Keep it down in here," he shouts, and backhands the Toa Metru of Ice into the wall. The impact renders him unconscious and Nokama and Whenua run to his side. Vakama's about to retaliate when the man takes out his whip and shocks him. Starting to fall, Matau and Onewa catch him by his arms and shoulders, and the soldier closes the door and locks it. So, concerned as he was for his brother Toa, Onewa realizes too late he could've used his mask power to make the man let them go. Now, as long as Nuju's unconscious, there's no way for them to escape.
Hours later, Nuju awakens. However, with no longer having any intention of testing the man's patience any further, and having the headache to prove it, he suggests they wait and see if a better opportunity will present itself, much to Matau's chagrin. As the day wears on, people dressed in elegant looking garments begin to fill the stands of the amphitheater. The Toa observe these happenings as a soldier passes by their cell. "If only you knew what's going to be happening next," he grinned, and continued on his way. Wearily, the Toa looked at each other, wondering what the man meant and if they really wanted to know. Two hours later, the stands are completely full of spectators. Finally, Daskus shows himself on the same balcony overlooking the arena, which is now decorated with a canopy for shade, curtains, a banner, and his throne. Just then, the Toa hear the clanking sound of the door being unlocked. 'Now what?' Whenua wonders, and seven soldiers rush in. Five of them drive the Toa to the walls, pinning their spears against their necks, while the other two grab Matau by his arms and start dragging him away.
"Hey, let go," he struggles.
"No, don't," shouts Nuju.
"Matau!" Vakama reaches out one hand as he struggles to get the spear off of his throat with the other.
"Toa-brothers, Toa-sister! Help!" Matau calls back as he's lead out the door and into the hallway, where his voice echoes. With their quarry seized, the soldiers release the other Toa and run for the door as the prisoners rub their throats. The first one to recover, Vakama runs to the door after it has, once again, been closed and locked.
"What are you going to do with him?" he demands to know from the last remaining soldier.
"You'll know soon enough," is the soldier's only reply as he points to the bar-window, and leaves. Hearing trumpets, the Toa instantly rush to the window. Daskus stands up and addresses his audience.
"Now, who's ready for some sport?" the audience cheers in response. "Very well then, I shall not keep you waiting any longer. But first, I thought we'd start off with a little treat to help us really get in the mood."
"What's he saying?" asks Whenua.
"Nothing good," replies Nokama, then Matau's brought out, struggling against the grip of his captors. They take him to a wooden pole located near the northern end of the arena, where another soldier waits with some rope. Once they have him situated, they wrap some of the rope around his chest and tie his hands behind him to further secure him against the pole. One of the soldiers adds the finishing touch knot and pulls tight on the rope, causing Matau to instinctively clench his hands into fists and grunt from the small amount of pain he feels as the strands of rope dig into his wrists. After making sure there is no way their prisoner is going anywhere, the soldiers leave. One of them, however, stays behind to pat Matau's shoulder.
"Have a nice life . . or what's left of it," he says, then leaves the arena. A few moments pass by when a roar's heard. It's coming from a set of giant, square shaped doors straight ahead of Matau where the carved image of a monster can be seen. The doors shudder as whatever's behind them rams them and continues roaring, wanting to be let out. Daskus' face is adorned with a proud smile, many members of the audience lean forward with anticipation, and the Toas' eyes widen in fear.
"Release the great beast!" Daskus commands with a lift of his hand, and some soldiers pull some cables as the doors are unlocked. The doors slowly swing open and, for a moment, there's no sound and nothing but shadows. Then, a low growl's heard as two angry, red eyes pierce through the darkness. Matau's immediately in fear's grasp; the sight of the eyes is enough to make his blood run cold. Heavy footsteps are heard as the beast makes it's entrance, and what comes out brings gasps of surprise from the audience with it. The Toa gasp too, but out of recognition and fear for their brother, for they know exactly what the beast is. It's a creature from their homeland--a Kikanalo, and it's not very happy.
