Disclaimer: I don't own Bionicle, 'Legends of Metru Nui', the Morbuzahk, or even the fight with the Morbuzahk (at least, not entirely).


After about an hour of walking and avoiding being seen by the Vahki patrols and the local Matoran, the group made it to the home of the makers. Kit couldn't help but stare at the furnaces that littered the district. "So, uh, where do we go from here?" she asked.

"Yeah, anybody know where this 'root of fire' is?" added Matau.

"I think I might have a hunch," said Nokama.

As the Toa of Water led the way, she explained that Ta-Metru had these fire pits that fed the fires in the furnaces and forges all over the district, thus functioning as the fire's roots. Therefore, it seemed logical that that was where Vakama had to go to find the Ta-Metru Great Disk. Nokama was no expert of the fire district, but she knew enough of her way around due to having been there for school trips and errands. "Have you ever been to these fire pits, Nokama?" asked Kit.

"No," replied the blue Toa. "The fire pits are very dangerous places; even mask makers are not allowed to go near, let alone in, them."

"Scorched Matoran, right?" guessed Onewa.

"That and the fact that if anything happened to those fires, production in Ta-Metru would stop," confirmed Nokama. "You and your friends would no longer have anything to carve."

"What does Ta-Metru production got to do with Po-Metru carvers?" Kit asked, scratching her head.

"It's here where Kanohi masks and all of the other things that Matoran use to work and play with everyday are made," said Whenua. "Then, they're shipped to Po-Metru where the finishing touches are added."

"So, every district depends on each other for the city to function as a whole," Kit realized, and the Toa nodded in confirmation.

Finally, after keeping to the shadows and avoiding Nuurahk patrols, they reached the fire pits. However, they soon became very uneasy; there didn't appear to be any sign of the Toa of Fire. They spread out in hope of finding clues of any sort, yet kept each other in sight. Though, it wasn't long before Onewa called to them, "Hey, guys, look familiar?" The Stone Toa held up a crossbow-like tool. It was Vakama's disk launcher.

Everyone seemed to instinctively freeze and looked wearily around the place, not at all liking what they had discovered and what it could mean. "Now I am starting to worry," commented Kit. Matau, meanwhile, looked nervously around himself when he felt something wrap around his right leg. He looked down just in time to see a blackened vine tighten its grip on his leg, which, in the blink of an eye, pulled him down hard to the side, and started dragging him toward a large shaft at a fast speed. In a flash, the others were after him. Onewa and Whenua grabbed him under the arms and pulled. However, whatever had hold of him was rather strong and the remaining four Toa and Kit strained with all of their combined might to free the Toa of Air. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough; no matter how much the others struggled, Matau was slowly, but surely, slipping out of their grasp.

"Get it off of me! Get it off of me!" he shouted fearfully.

As if in response, the vine managed to pull a little harder, actually causing the entire group to skid a few feet. With both sides tugging on either side of him, Matau felt like his leg was being torn out of its socket. Suddenly, Kit was struck with an idea. She grabbed the disk launcher, loaded a disk, fired at the vine, and the disk struck it. However, instead of the severed vine she was expecting, a thick coat of ice covered its length, freezing it. One tap from one of Nuju's crystal spikes to shatter a small portion of the frozen plant, and Matau was free. "Nice work, kid," complimented the Toa of Stone.

"Thanks," Kit answered. Nuju, however, was a bit taken aback by her confused expression. The girl wasn't expecting the ice coating at all, she had no knowledge of Kanoka disks or determining their effects. Looking back at the frozen vine, nobody had to say what they now feared what must've happened to Vakama. "Now I am really starting to worry," Kit stated.

"C'mon, let's follow its length," said Nokama as she began climbing into the shaft from which it came. "Maybe it'll lead us to Vakama."

"Provided there is any of him for us to find," Nuju said under his breath.

"And, let's do it before this ice decides to melt," added Onewa, and they all followed the Toa of Water.

After a little bit, Nuju spoke to Kit, who walked beside him, "You know, Kit, what you did back there was a good idea, but it was also a hasty one."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you used a disk with no clue as to what its effects were. If you had fired the wrong one, you could've made a bad situation even worse, or worse, got us all killed."

"How was I supposed to know those things have special powers that are triggered when they strike their target?"

Nuju held out his Great Disk. "My point exactly—you need to learn how to determine what a disk's power is. And you're going to start by examining mine."

Using his disk and the other Toa's disks as examples, the Ice Toa taught Kit how to figure out a disk's power, power code, and power level by reading its number code. Although, she found it difficult to remember which placement and number told her what, she did her best and hoped she could somehow remember the next time she had to use one. As they continued following the vine's path, they all noticed that it seemed to be getting hotter and hotter the farther they traveled. "We must be getting near the Great Furnace," announced Nokama. "It's the hottest place in the entire Metru." Drawing on what was left of her elemental powers, she created a mist to try and keep the group cool as they proceeded. Finally, they reached the source of the vine—a giant plant with a brown stripe that ran down its length that was attached to the Great Furnace. The entire chamber was crawling with multiple vines.

"What is that thing?" asked Kit.

"The Morbuzahk," Whenua replied in a quiet voice, "it's a plant that has been terrorizing Metru Nui for quite some time."

"Hey, look," Matau pointed to something above.

It was Vakama, hanging upside down over a fire pit and struggling against the Morbuzahk vines that restrained him by his wrists and ankles. Tucked under his chin was his Great Disk. Just then, he noticed them. "Take it easy, fire-spitter, we're going to get you down," Onewa said quietly.

"Look out!" the Fire Toa warned, but it was too late. A vine struck Whenua, sending him crashing into the wall and another moved in, but the group dispersed.

"Kit, take cover," said Nokama, and the girl got behind a slab of metal.

The Toa fought with whatever of their elemental energies they had left, trying to get to their friend. Matau unleashed a powerful gust of wind to deflect some vines. The vines were repelled, but it also hit Vakama, causing him to lose his grip on his disk. The Toa of Fire could only look on in horror as he watched the Great Disk plunge toward the pit below. In the last possible moment before it was to be melted, a water spout struck the disk and Onewa's hand caught it. Then, after dodging attacking vines, Matau leapt his way to Vakama and hacked away at his restraints with his aero slicers, the plant screeching as he did. Nuju then created an ice slide and the two Toa slid to safety, but not before a vine smashed the ice and sent Vakama and Matau crashing to the ground. "Vakama! Matau!" Kit cried out. Before she knew what was happening, a vine wrapped itself around her torso and left arm and lifted her into the air with her screaming.

"Kit!" Whenua shouted.

The vine brought her up to the king root, where she instinctively tried to lean as far back as possible. A small vine reached out and, restrained as she was, Kit couldn't avoid its touch as it felt her face. "Interesssting," a terrible voice sounded in her mind. "Very interesssting indeed." Kit looked wildly around her, searching for the source of the voice. "I'm right in front of you," the voice responded.

The girl stared at the plant before her for a moment before it struck her—she was hearing the creature's thoughts. And, they were terrible thoughts; not only was it curious about her, no doubt because it never saw a human before, it was also planning to drive the Matoran to the outskirts of the city, make them its slaves, and claim itself their master. Worse, Kit and the Toa now realized they were wrong about the monster before them. It wasn't some animal on a rampage, it could think, it was cunning and evil, pure and simple. After a few moments that felt like an eternity, the Morbuzahk resumed its attack on the Toa. Kit, meanwhile, began to struggle like crazy, pushing and tugging. At one point, upon impulse, she stretched out her hand and a yellow ball of energy struck the plant. The Morbuzahk's shriek echoed in their minds, and the vine released the girl.

Almost too late, Nuju saw her falling, leapt, and caught her. "Good catch," Kit complimented breathlessly.

"Thank you," said the Toa of Ice. "What was that you did up there?"

"I'm not sure," she answered as she stared at her hand. Suddenly, two vines darted for the two and, before Nuju could do anything, Kit knocked them away with twin energy balls. "But I like it," she simply continued as if there was no interruption to the white Toa.

Unfortunately, the team was fighting a losing battle; all of the Toa's elemental powers were so weak they were practically useless, and Kit couldn't fight all of the vines off. Seven vines shot up from the Great Furnace and grabbed them, the pressure so intense they thought they would get the air squeezed out of them. "Before you ssserve, you will ssssuffer," said the Morbuzahk as it proceeded to bring them down into the furnace.

"Not a chance," proclaimed Vakama. "You had your season, monster, now it's time for the harvest. Everyone hold up your disks."

The other Toa followed the Toa of Fire's lead, and, to everyone's astonishment, all six Great Disks flashed with power. Then, the energies merged to form a giant sphere around the Morbuzahk, which tried to escape. But, being a plant that was securely rooted, there wasn't much of anywhere it could go. Kit and the Toa Metru decided there would not be a better chance to escape and struggled their way free of the vines that held them. "We have to get out of here!" Vakama shouted above the cacophony of masonry crashing to the ground and the screaming of the Morbuzahk that echoed in their minds. They all ran as fast as they could go and dared not stop until they were far away from the Great Furnace. While the others fought to catch their breath, Vakama and Kit looked back to find the Morbuzahk completely caged in the sphere the Great Disks created. And it was quite a cage; it had literally cut the monster off from the vines, higher branches, and roots that fed it energy and it the rest of its body. The sight seemed so pitiful and pathetic that, for a brief moment, Kit almost felt sorry for it, once being connected to an entire city and now isolated and alone. The vines writhed and turned to dust and the Great Furnace was pretty much disintegrated, but the show wasn't over yet. The energy sphere vanished and the king root crashed to the ground and crumbled until there was no sign of it, not even a pile of dust.

"Definitely something you don't see every day," Kit said in a half-attempt to lighten the mood. The Toa of Fire slowly nodded.

"How did you know the Great Disks would defeat that thing?" asked Nokama.

"I had a vision of it just before it captured me," Vakama answered.

"C'mon," Matau said with a hint of excitement. "What are we all standing around for? We've got ever-powerful disks and a message-announcement that we are Toa-heroes to deliver."

The group had to admit, this was one of those times that they all agreed with the Toa of Air. "And maybe, somehow, Turaga Dume can help you with your memory, Kit, and find a way to get you back to your home," suggested Nokama. The girl nodded when she felt something happening on her chest, and the Toa noticed a light purple glow from underneath her shirt. She grabbed a thread around her neck and pulled out a crystal that was pulsating with light. As quickly as it appeared, the glowing stopped. Before anyone could react, seven beams of light shot out from the crystal, connecting with every person's chest. Other than a slight tingling feeling, no one felt any pain. Kit, however, felt like something was being injected into her, something from each of the Toa. Finally, the beams retracted, leaving the girl with the strangest feeling that she'd been through something like that before. After taking a moment to digest what just happened, the group simultaneously shrugged and they all headed for the Coliseum, tired, yet proud of themselves.


Tehreisha watched on with a concerned and troubled frown. When she sensed what happened to Kit, she prayed that the child would be alright. Needless to say, she was deeply relieved that the girl made it through the warp safely. However, she was also worried. Kit's memory had nearly been wiped clean, except for her name and the occasional feelings of slight familiarity when something, a name, a sight, or even a scent, triggered them. It was nothing short of a miracle that the young human survived with her sanity still intact. There was no telling how long it would take for Kit to regain her memory in full. "And, perhaps, it is better this way for the time being," she mused, remembering how very difficult it was for the human youth to conceal her knowledge of the destruction of Ta-Koro, even if it might've benefited her friends. With her memories of the Turaga gone, she wouldn't have to worry about spoiling the story and still do her duty. But, Tehreisha knew, if the girl was going to live through this latest ordeal, her memories would have to come back soon.


Staying close to the Toa, Kit gazed in wonder as they walked down the chamber that would lead them to the arena, where Turaga Dume and, from the sound of it, all of the Matoran of Metru Nui were gathered. She could hardly believe she was inside a building whose top could not be seen from the base no matter how hard she craned her neck, the reason why she ended up, instead, looking into a chuckling Whenua's face after he caught her before she fell to the ground. Before she knew it, they were out in the sunlight with the crowd cheering for them. "Hello Metru Nui!" Matau greeted. "I always wanted to loud-shout that."

They stopped before Turaga Dume, who stood in his personal box that over looked the arena. "Vakama," he chuckled. "Matoran one day, Toa the next. No wonder you have not yet completed the Mask of Time."

After the Toa of Fire apologized for the impediment of the mentioned mask's delivery, the Turaga noticed a small figure hidden amongst the Toa. "Who's your friend?" he asked as he pointed to the center of the group.

The next thing the girl knew, she let out a yelp of surprise as Whenua deftly hoisted her onto his shoulder. The Toa of Earth's introduction was followed by gasps of intrigue and shock from the assembled Matoran. "I'm so going to hurt you for this, Whenua," Kit said through clenched teeth. Just then, she noticed a statue standing above the doorway where they came in. It was a Toa, but not like any one she'd seen before. "Whenua, is that a statue of Toa Lhikan?" she asked the Toa of Earth.

"Yep," confirmed the Toa. Kit gazed at the statue, having the slight suspicion that she'd seen this Lhikan before.

As Whenua set her down, Nokama explained that she and the other Toa came to deliver the Great Disks and to pledge themselves as the new guardians of Metru Nui. However, Turaga Dume countered that true Toa proved themselves by doing deeds, not bearing gifts. Thinking that they went through all of their troubles for nothing, the five Toa handed their disks to Vakama. Kit found herself not believing what they were doing anymore than the Fire Toa."Don't worry about it, Vakama," she said comfortingly. "We don't need those bunch of quitters anyway."

She purposely mentioned 'quitters' with emphasis, receiving the expected result—the Toa stopped in their tracks and turned around. "Hey, now you take that back, kid," demanded Onewa, not believing that someone about half his size actually had the guts to call him that, and with that tone.

"Make me," Kit dared, not backing down.

Vakama looked between the girl and his fellow Toa, wondering how he was going to handle this. Thankfully, it never came to that for Turaga Dume challenged them to cross the sea of protodermis. Then, if they were successful, they would be honored as heroes. Before the group could protest about Kit being involved in the test, the arena began to shake and pillars of hardened protodermis rose and sunk unpredictably. "What do we do now?" asked Onewa, there was no way they would be able to battle the pillars with their elemental energies completely exhausted, which left only one other possibility.

"We use our mask powers," said Whenua.

"Great, and just how do we do that?" the Toa of Stone inquired once more and in the process bringing up a good point. Not one of the Toa were able to use the powers of their masks, let alone had any clue what those powers were supposed to be.

Following Nokama's lead, everyone rode over a tidal wave of pillars, only to be blocked by a wall. Unable to think of anything else to do, the group scattered, trying to avoid the pillars that threatened to crush them. At one point, Kit, out of desperation, used her energy power against a pillar, blasting it in half and earning her some surprised looks from the crowd. As she frantically tried to find some safe spot amongst all of the chaos, Kit became aware of a light purple glow from the crystal around her neck. Then, without warning, five rings of yellow light surrounded her in a globe-like fashion. Separating themselves into ribbons, they wrapped around her body. To everyone's astonishment, as quickly as they appeared, they vanished, leaving Kit's appearance changed. Her shoes and jeans were replaced by blue boots with blue metal shin and thigh guards to match; in place of her shirt was a brown cover to shield her abdomen, a red chestplate, a green pack of some sort with small 'wings' on her back, and black armor appeared on her arms and hands; a white metal headband equipped with a scope for her left eye adorned her head; shoulder guards and knee caps of protodermis were formed; and underneath all of that metal was a black skintight body suit. Kit gaped, not only was she amazed at what happened, but, somehow, she felt a feeling of déjà vu, as if this happened before. "Look out!" Nuju called to Kit, but before she could find out what he meant, she was thrown high into the air by two pillars. Having to dodge pillars themselves, the Toa were unable to do anything to help and could only watch as she crashed to the ground. Slightly groaning, Kit got up, only to surprise herself by doing so.

'No way, a fall like that should've killed me,' she thought, and she reflexively clenched and unclenched her hand. 'It must be this suit, the armor must've protected me from the brunt of the fall, saving me,' she realized. Her conclusion was interrupted, though, when a shadow fell over her.

Another tidal wave of pillars, bigger than the last one, was heading toward her and the others. Try as they might, they couldn't outrun it, and found themselves being thrown painfully about the arena as if they were ants. "Enough," Turaga Dume declared, and the field was returned to normal. As the group helped each other get to their feet, and Kit's clothes returned to normal, they heard a sound that none of them was expecting to hear anymore than they were expecting this kind of test—the booing and jeering of the crowd. "Let us praise these jesters," Dume chuckled. "Perhaps they sought to entertain us during this difficult time."

"No!" Vakama protested. "We are Toa!"

But Dume continued, and this time with a frown. "Or they are imposters responsible for Toa Lhikan's demise."

"No, it was them! They took him!" Vakama pointed to one of the screens that showed two scary looking beings approaching Dume. One was green, walked on four insectoid-like legs, and had a pair of mean looking pincer-claws for hands. The other was big and powerful and had one eye that still functioned.

The Turaga, however, ignored him, ordered, "Seize them!" and the Vahki moved in.

However, the Matoran who operated the arena had other plans and pressed a button. The field started to tremble, a pit formed in the middle, and a tornado threatened to suck in everything. The Toa and their human friend started to run for cover, but the force of the tornado was too strong. Nuju, Onewa, and Whenua were sucked in and disappeared into the pit. Thinking quickly, Nokama dug one of her hydro blades into the ground to anchor herself. Near her, Matau managed to do the same with his aero slicers. Seconds later, Kit grabbed hold and wrapped her arms around the Toa of Air's waist while Nokama caught Vakama's foot. Ahead of them, an army of Vahki were still proceeding to take the remaining four into custody. Knowing they had to do something and fast, the Lhikan statue gave Nokama an idea. "Vakama! The statue, bring it down!" the Toa of Water instructed. The Fire Toa immediately summoned his launcher and a disk, only to find it wasn't the right one. The Vahki continued to make their way to the Toa.

"Hurry Vakama!" Kit shouted above the howling wind.

Finally, the Toa of Fire found the right disk and fired it at the base of the statue, causing to fall behind the Vahki. The tremor caused by the fallen icon sent the law enforcers into the tornado's grasp and enough of them were sucked in that Kit and the Toa could crawl their way to an exit. Vakama, though, was the only one who looked back, gave Turaga Dume a glare, and ran to catch up to the others. Dume turned to face the Dark Hunters, Nidhiki and Krekka. "The new Toa and their human friend must not interfere with the plan," he said as he walked inside.

"They are mere Matoran in Toa armor and the human may have some power, but nothing we can't handle," said Nidhiki. "As is our duty, we shall not fail." Krekka, almost belatedly, nodded in agreement.