A storm had come to visit Barordak. The tents were soaked and the dark sky poured endlessly. The Glacier had snow, piling up to leave tracks of two beings. The first had a staff and looked over the edge to see the encampment.

"Why does that Turaga love cliffhangers so much?" They asked, looking over at their friend towering over them.

"Is this another one of your jokes? Or is it a wall break?"

"Both. The answer is because he hanged off a cliff once,"

"You are referring to the Casting of Tadan?"

"Yes."

"I don't see amusement there. Toa died."

"Ugh. Y'know you're a stick in the mud, right?"

"And you are insane. We balance each other."

"Oh boy, I'm spiritually linked to a guy with a grotesque arm!"

The Staffed One's friend had his right arm twice as long as his left. With it, he slapped the Staffed One. "Shut it, Witchdoctor before your wall breaking collapses on you."

"Fine. But we have other things to do. Like finding where that ice-trapped matoran went."


During the rain, the work on the Glacier stopped. The matoran huddled around campfires and enjoyed each other's company. The main story being passed around was the tall people who showed up. Some matoran had run into the Toa when they were learning their powers.

There was also talk about a strange matoran who had arrived from the Glacier with the tall white one. He told his group all he knew.

He was a Ko-Matoran and was navigating the icy east mountains or Barordak when a snowstorm hit and he lost his place. He wandered around the mountains and eventually found a cave. Inside was a small bed, a dwindling supply of wood, and a weird fish person. Their chest had a cage in the middle, big enough to fit a Kolhii ball, and a blue head.

The beast looked up and saw the matoran. "Looks like this little fish lost his way," grinning, he stared, "You're a long way from help,"

And so he was frozen. For years. After who knows how long, the ice started to melt. Then, he began to wake up and think. He was alone, far below any surface, stuck in an empty room. Then the Toa Cas came along and saved him.

The Toa had their own canopy with a campfire. Tadan focused and had the fire grow in size, heat, and even color if he tried hard enough. Hoei brought dirt up into chairs and the Toa talked. About their powers, how strange the whole thing was. The world flipped upside down and now six simple matoran have to defeat an unknown evil.

Gawae looked out into the rain. Camps set up by the matoran spread out to the glacier. Even in the cloudy sky, the Glacier could be seen. The constant, looming threat that shouldn't be overlooked. Else it eats the land alive and the matoran are unprepared. Then she went back to the rain. She was the Toa of Water, and the rain stopped.

Everyone looked up. The Toa, the Matoran, even Stohn. The sound had stopped, and work could finally be started, but then they noticed the rain was frozen midair. The rain was floating, then Gawae dropped it.

"Uhh… sorry" Gawae sank into her chair as the others looked on in shock.

Then Tadan spoke up, "You're fine."

Hours later the rain stopped and the matoran got back to work starting the forges, cleaning the Gukkos, and supplying the riders with stakes and rope. Tadan was near the Glacier trying to melt stairs into the side. As flames rained down and beat against the wall of ice barely any progress was made. Though progress was lost right after.

The ground rumbled and the Glacier shook. Soon large chunks of ice were breaking off and crashing against the ground and crushing some matoran. Gukko riders swooped down and picked up some matoran bringing them to safety. Others ran in fear as the hail kept coming. Tadan stopped what he was doing.

"Did I…" Tadan looked up and rolled out of the way as a chunk crashed down. "Yikes."

Hoei smashed the falling pieces with his hammer as the rest helped with the evacuation of the matoran. Ten minutes of difficult evacuation and protection came to an end. As Hoei smashed a piece right above his head he was looking up and saw why the ice had fallen. Where the ice was falling from there was now a large door spanning in height from the ground to the top of the Glacier.

The great door had large handles the size of hills or a group of houses. Near the bottom there were two smaller doors, Toa height, mimicking the grander door that they were built into. Think of a doggie door in the shape of a fancy oak door. The Toa approached the small doors with fear and a collective desire to not open them at any cost.

Except for Lopek who had the number of brains and 'collective intelligence as a rock. Lopek opened the doors as the others rushed after him. Lopek saw the unthinkable. Land. It seemed that the Glacier had been hollowed out. That the glacier was nothing more than a box sliding across the ground. Lopek crouched down and felt the grass. It was cold, wet, and matted down. He grabbed a handful and pulled. Out came a clump of dirt and grass.

"If this is an illusion it's a mighty powerful one."

"You think this is fake?" Nekora asked. "This grass feels real,"

"Senses can lie can't they?" Lopek turned around to the group, "The grass is matted down like ice just laid on it. Also, we've all been inside the Glacier before. The tunnel had no openings, it just had ice! And Cas, didn't you go to the top of the Glacier and then found a hole there? Show me that cave you found. If this is really the ceiling you should see it can't you?"

Cas looked up, "Lopek. The top of the Glacier is so high. It's a new sky."

"It's deceptive! I don't know why but this feels wrong!"

"I think… I think I know a way to check." Tadan said as he walked over to the doors. His fire had previously been unable to melt the ice. If this was an illusion, then he should be able to melt it. He lifted his sword up and shot flame at the doors. As soon as the fire touched, the doors sizzled and melted. "Fake."

Then Cas remembered that she couldn't affect the ice before. She went over to the other door and touched it. She made the door shatter into small crystals. "Lopek's right for once."

"Ouch."

"Well if this is an illusion. Let's rip it apart." Hoei surrounds himself with dirt and kept pulling up more and more. Lopek spun through the ground until he reached the stone beneath and had Nekora start ripping it up. Tadan started fires and Gawae drained the lakes. Soon this newly found Paradise was Hell. And even sooner the ground started to scream in pain. First a tiny hum, unhearable over the sound of destruction the Toa were making. But as more and more land was destroyed the sound grew louder. The piercing noise from the tunnel was back.

Nekora was the first to hear it. He stopped clawing away at the stone and focused on the sound. He focused on the sound and his mask glowed. The sound grew louder but the origin was found by Nekora. He could see the silhouette of a fish person underneath a small hill Hoei hadn't destroyed yet. Nekora clawed his way through the stone until he was directly underneath.

He busted through the ground and found a strange person. They had the head of a Takadox and a cage in the middle of their chest where a pulsing ball of orange was. They were in agony, their screaming matching the noise hounding Nekora's ears. Reaching down, Nekora lifted the monster by its neck.

"Stop your screaming or I will rip your throat out."

"Oh please don't do that! Just get your pesky friends to stop tearing me apart and I'll tell you everything!"

All the Toa gathered around the fish guy who introduced himself as Witchdoctor.

"What's that weird and hideous orange glob in your chest?" Lopek asked, rather hurtfully.

"Now why would I tell you my secret?... Oh, poop."

Very soon Nekora reached through the cage and got a firm hold on the blob. Witchdoctor let out a loud howl of pain, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE YOUR HEAT GRABBED?" Nekora immediately stopped. "You… you people are monsters."

"Says the illusion maker. What was your goal here? Lure matorans in and kill them?"

"Practice on, not kill. Not directly." Witchdoctor answered

"Practice?"

"Power is a difficult thing to master you know. I thought that with a large encampment of matoran no one would be sad if I borrowed one."

"Was that Ko-Matoran trapped in ice one of your subjects?" Cas asked

"He would have been if someone…. YOU STOLE HIM FROM ME! GIVE HIM BACK!"

"You aren't in a position to barter, villain."

"Such a harsh word. Ever try something a bit nicer? Like 'Not-Every-One-Can-Be-Perfect'?"

"Imperfection doesn't make evil,"

Hoei reached over to his buddy Lopek and said "Yeah! Look at Lopek!"

Lopek got out of Hoei's stranglehold and backed away a bit. "Why is this happening to me! If anyone wants me I'll go be brooding somewhere." Cas shot out a bit of ice and froze his feet.

"Toa stick together when we can see evil."

Witchdoctor kept listing titles he'd rather be called "Entrepreneur? Researcher? OOH! How about… Cool."

"No," Hoei said smashing his hammer against the Witchdoctor's head, KOing him. "Let's see if Stohn remembers this guy."

Stohn did. He too took his staff and pressed it against Witchdoctor's heart who grabbed it and lifted Stohn up. "I'm getting really tired of people messing with my heart. Really tired."

The Toa all took up arms and got ready to fight when Stohn waved them down, "It's my fault. I just wanted to mess with an old friend."

Friend? Stohn must be crazy to call this weirdo a friend. He captures a matoran, said he experiments on more, and tried to lure matoran into a paradise death trap. How can this guy be a friend of Stohn?

Even Witchdoctor himself was confused, "Friend? Now, why would I be a friend with a Turaga?"

"I'm disappointed. Don't you remember your old friend, the Toa Nebula of Earth?"

"... Toa Nebula… now that's a name I haven't heard in years… wait… if you're the Toa Nebula of Earth… Toa STOHN! Oh, Great Spirit I'm an idiot for not getting that sooner,"

Stonh sighed as Witchdoctor set him down "Nothing changed with you, did it?"

"Nope. Still here to tortur… help matoran. Yes. Help matoran. That is why I am here. Relief"

"Comic relief I hope," Lopek chuckled, "You're doing a good job of it so far,"

"Lopek is right," Nekora said looming over the Witchdoctor, "Being a joke is the only thing you're good at. Stohn, why don't we just kill him now?"

"Because he won't die. Even crushing that heart of his doesn't stop him. Probably a bad curse."

"And the friend part. The Toa Nebula surely couldn't have been allied with this guy."

"Allies, as in fighting with each other on the battlefield? Never. A good resource? Very. His knowledge of evil is frightening,"

"Aww, I'm finally getting some recognition around here. But these Toa aren't helping. Fun police."

"Oh great. We have an encyclopedia of evil who is also a clown." Tadan said, "Now I want to test his knowledge."

For this entire time, Witchdoctor had been fidgeting around, looking at the Toa's weapons and generally being a nuisance. When Tadan mentioned testing his knowledge, he stood up straight and stared at the red-clad Toa.

"You wish to test me?"

"I do. First question. I will describe a monster and you will tell us about it."

"Pff. A fish could do that."

"Bright blue in color, can fold up into a ball, and roll around."

"Gahlok. A member of the Bohrok species. They have control over water. As with all other Bohrok, they have a fascination with cleaning. Often killing to clean the lands they wander. Unlike other Bohrok however, they can change their fighting powers to outsmart their opponent."

Sure enough, the Toa were stunned. They all looked to Stohn hoping to get some sort of verification. A single head nod was all it took for the Toa to be floored by their shock.

Tadan grunted up from the floor and while crouching glared at the Witchdoctor, "Second… question. What caused the end of the Toa Nebula,"

"Stop giving me easy ones. It was self-implosion. Next question."

The Toa turned to Stohn who was a bit curious about the answer. "You call it self-implosion. Why is that?"

"Toa of Fire Takan turned against his fellow brothers and sisters. Killed the Toa of Water first. Then the Toa of Air, next Stone. Then it was just him, Koey, and You."

Stohn nodded. "Now for the question on everyone's mind."

"Who caused the Glacier? Not certain. I've never seen the fellow or heard his name. Their subordinates call them Lord. I do know, however, that he likes fire."

"Fire? That's a bit counterintuitive, also about those subordinates you mentioned."

"Won't tell."

That's when Nekora grabbed Witchdoctor's throat with his claws and brought him close. "And why would that be?"

Tadan walked behind and put his blade on Witchdoctor's back. "Hey Nekora, do you think we've been too aggressive recently?"

"No."

"Ah. Excellent. Lopek, show him your mask power for me."

"No problem Tadan!" Lopek spun Witchdoctor around like a top as Tadan prodded him with his sword of fire. Once Lopek stopped and the Witchdoctor stumbled around, Hoei whacked him to the ground and put his foot on his head.

"Why can't you tell? You have one chance."

"Have you ever heard of a Non-Disclaimer Agreement?"

*WHACK*