ULTIMATE BIONICLE

Chapter 19: Rising Shadow

Whenua tried to free himself with all his might, but to no avail. Pain surged through his body each time he tried as it made the edges of Nidhiki's claw dig into him. Nidhiki tossed Whenua backwards into the canyon and hit him with a Kanoka blast as he hit it.

"Take him away now." Nidhiki said with a grin. Rorzakh looked up at him with a grimace, but obliged. Rorzakh grabbed the now unconscious Whenua and took him away.

Nidhiki observed the battles going on before him. The other four Vahki were fighting the remaining Toa Metru. Krekka suddenly landed next to Nidhiki with a crash. "It's about time you got here. What took you so long?" Nidhiki said. Krekka grunted dumbly. "You faster."

"You see the Toa Metru over there Krekka?" Nidhiki gestured with his claw. Krekka turned his head eagerly, his shoulder launcher flipping up into firing mode. "It's your job to smash each one of them," Nidhiki continued, "Just leave them alive, and don't harm the Vahki unless they get in you way, understand?"

"I understand." Krekka said; his eyes were filling with the excited expectation of the thrill of the slaughter. Krekka started to run towards the Toa Metru, making the ground shake with each stomp.

"There, now he takes care of the targets," Nidhiki's gaze was guided to Vorak, who was in the middle of fighting with Onua, "And I take the prize."

Onua and Vorak were squaring each other off, waiting for who would make the next move and continue the onslaught of attacks. Suddenly a disk hit Onua, blasting him away to the side. Vorak turned his head, to where the blast had come from to see a massive spider-like creature standing there. "Vorak I presume. So we meet at last, I've heard so much about you. I am Nidhiki." He said.

"How the hell do you know my name?" Vorak said in awe and confusion. "My employer has taken quite an interest in you, and requests your presence." Nidhiki explained.

"And if I refuse?" Vorak said cockily. "You're coming with us Vorak. Whether you want to or not." Nidhiki said coldly.

"Is that so? Well then you'll have to beat me, and hasn't anyone told you? I am invincible!" Vorak flew at Nidhiki at top speed and punched him in the face as he flew past him. Nidhiki staggered backwards a few steps with recoil. Vorak flew back and punched him in the back of the head. Nidhiki staggered forward.

Vorak was then coming in for another pass. Nidhiki quickly jumped the side and grabbed Vorak in midair. He then brought his hands together and passed Vorak into his other hand, and slammed him into the ground. Nidhiki lifted up one of his spike like legs and brought it down upon Vorak, with the intent of stabbing it through him.

Vorak caught his leg no more than an inch away from his chest. His arms shook as he tried to hold it back.

"You're a strong one, grr," Nidhiki said, "Already I can tell I shouldn't hold back against you. SO I WON'T!" Nidhiki pushed down harder.

Not being able to hold it anymore, Vorak let go and rolled out of the way, before it could hit him. He then got under Nidhiki and lifted and flipped him onto his back. Nidhiki thrashed because of the awkwardness of his current position. He looked up; Vorak was in the air, ready to fire shadow blasts at him.

Nidhiki pushed himself to his feet, but not in time to dodge the barrage of shadow energy that rained down upon him. Vorak floated back down, and levitated just above the ground. The dust settled and Nidhiki stood there, his arms crossed across his chest and face; shielding his body from the attack. He moved his arms back to his side. "Is that the best you can do, Rahkshi?"

"Not even close!" Vorak yelled. He ran full speed at Nidhiki, jumped and kicked him in the face. Nidhiki grabbed hold of his other leg as he did so and smashed him to the ground, and lifted him back up again and threw him against a rock wall. He then fired a Kanoka disk at him, exploding the rock Vorak had smashed into even more.

Nidhiki ran to where Vorak had smashed into the rock and smashed into Vorak with his shoulder. Suddenly someone jumped on Nidhiki's back, digging the edges of chainsaws into his back. He shouted pained grunts as the chains dug in. Nidhiki reached back and grabbed Onua with both hands and smashed him into the rock, then punched him further into it with the back of his claw.

Nidhiki grabbed Vorak by a leg and dragged him into a more open area. He threw Vorak in front of him, and leaned back onto his hind legs. Using great momentum and force he drove his front legs into Vorak's shins. Blood spurted forth as the spike like legs smashed through the armored skin and bone.

"EEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Vorak screamed, trying to bear the agonizing pain. Never in his life had he felt something so immense and unforgiving.

"Give up, Vorak!" Nidhiki yelled, twisting his legs a little, "Before I have to get really nasty!"

In his moment of intense agony Vorak mustered the strength to unleash a phenomenal telekinetic blast; pushing Nidhiki back about fifty feet. Vorak floated two feet off the ground. His legs were useless for the time being. He flew to where Nidhiki had landed, seeing him starting to get back onto his four insect like legs.

He started punching at Nidhiki with desperate fury. Nidhiki was blocking nearly all of them with his forearms. Spotting an opening in Vorak's attacks, Nidhiki struck him with the back of his right claw. Vorak went tumbling backwards through the air, but did not hit the ground.

"Just give up Vorak. This is mere Matoran play at this point!" Nidhiki sneered. Vorak didn't say anything, but flew at Nidhiki once again; his right hand charged with shadow energy. Nidhiki caught Vorak at his waist but he pointed his hand and fired the energy pointblank at Nidhiki's face. His claw was still grasping Vorak's body however.

The smoke cleared and behind it was Nidhiki's scorched face; which had a looked of pure loathing on it. "That…was a big mistake on your part."

Nidhiki grasped Vorak's midsection with his other claw now. "I could just snip you in half right now you know?" Nidhiki said casually, "But that would be too clean." He started to pull in opposite directions with his claws.

"Grrrrr, you…bastard!" Vorak yelled, "AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Nidhiki pulled until a snap and a tear was heard, then finally it gave way, and Vorak was ripped right in half. His blood poured over Nidhiki's face. Nidhiki threw the bottom half to the ground, then held Vorak's top half over his right shoulder.

Nidhiki looked at Vorak's face. "Glad you finally agreed to come with us. What was that you were saying about being 'invincible'?" Nidhiki scoffed. Vorak looked up at him with hateful eyes; immobilized by the pain he felt.

Nidhiki observed the rest of the battlefield. The Toa Nuva were all out cold. The Vahki were gone; they had captured the Toa Metru with the help of Krekka.

Krekka was sitting on a giant boulder, waiting for Nidhiki. "Come on Krekka!" Nidhiki yelled. Krekka raised his head in surprise and lumbered over to Nidhiki. "Time to go?" He asked. "Yes it is." Nidhiki replied.

He then looked at Krekka's shoulder. A blue Toa hung over it. "Who the hell is that?" Nidhiki said. Krekka looked at Gali and returned a dumb look to Nidhiki.

Nidhiki shrugged. "Doesn't matter I guess. One extra Toa to torment wouldn't hurt. Now let's get out of here."

&&&&&&&&

"Tehutti… Tehutti…" He stirred, and then opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, but it slowly became clear. Standing over him were the other three Matoran; Ehrye, Vhisola, and Orkham.

"What happened?" Tehutti said, sitting up and rubbing his head. "You took a pretty nasty fall," Orkham said, "I didn't know an Archivist's head could be so hard." He continued with a laugh.

Tehutti stood up and looked around. "Where are the Toa Metru?" The other three immediately hung there heads sadly. "They were taken away." Ehrye said finally.

"What!" Tehutti shouted in surprise. "We have to save them!"

"How do you expect us to do that? We are only four Matoran." Vhisola said. Tehutti plunked back down in the realization of that fact. The sad truth was that the odds of four Matoran breaking into a Vahki prison and freeing six Toa heroes was about the same as them turning into Toa that very second.

"Perhaps those other Toa can help us?" Ehrye said. They all exchanged glances. "It's worth a shot I guess." Tehutti said.

&&&&&&&&

Takanuva sat on the ground, around his fallen brothers and Nuhvok. Sadly, he had been unable to locate Gali; which worried him greatly. What concerned him more, however, was Panrahk's strange new transformation. How could something change so dramatically and savagely in such short time? The only way Takanuva could think of, was energized Protodermis. But he felt that there was strangely something more to it than that. Something about Panrahk really disturbed him, in ways he'd never thought possible. With the appearances of so many new beings of great strength and ability such as Vorak, Panrahk, and the other two giant beings that showed up; something much, much more must be going on. At least, that's what he thought.

Nuhvok twitched, and then slowly sat up. He shook his head, trying to get himself out of the daze he was in. He looked in front of him to find Takanuva staring at him.

"How you holding up?" Takanuva asked. Nuhvok had taken a very bad kick to the head. Not to mention how beat the resulted skidding across rocks and sand made him. "I'm alright I guess." Nuhvok replied. He leaned back onto his hands to try and relax.

"Why do you do this, Nuhvok?" Takanuva said. Nuhvok cocked his head in confusion. "What do you mean?" He replied.

"I don't mean to be unappreciative of your efforts or your help which we are more than grateful for. But, don't you think you're a little in over you head?" Takanuva explained. Nuhvok started to glare. "Are you suggesting that I'm no longer useful or strong enough?"

"No not at all!" Takanuva said defensively, "I just think that maybe things are perhaps too dangerous for you at this point."

Nuhvok staggered to his feet, an offended look on his face. "You may be the Toa of Light but what makes you think that you can go telling me what I should and shouldn't do, when you haven't known me for nearly as long as the others have! I put my life on the line to help them stop the Bohrok swarms. Do you know how much I sacrificed!" Nuhvok yelled, panting heavily.

Takanuva raised an eyebrow in confusion, over what he had just realized. There was a long pause before Takanuva spoke. "Nuhvok, part of my spirit was in each of the Toa Nuva. It came out at the right time and created my being when it fused with the Mask of Light. Therefore I recall everything that the other Toa experienced up until that point." Nuhvok raised an eyebrow.

"Now that I think about it, why did you agree to help us? Oh, wait. No you didn't. You volunteered. You volunteered and showed Onua everything while you were inside that cell didn't you? Even though you thought he would kill you. That seems almost too convenient. Perhaps you planned that he wouldn't if you led him to believe that you were trustworthy." Takanuva stood up and eyed Nuhvok cautiously. "Then you staged the whole scene with the Tahnok Kal in Po-Wahi. How else would he have gotten across the boundary?"

Nuhvok stared at Takanuva in disbelief. "I am not a traitor… Otherwise I would have given Makuta the Mask of Light!" Takanuva scoffed. "You're up to something aren't you? I don't know what but I'm gonna find out." Takanuva's gaze suddenly focused behind Nuhvok. Standing there was Onua, with a huge frown on his face. Onua and Nuhvok stared at each other; not saying anything. Nuhvok knew what Onua was thinking however.

Nuhvok stormed past him. He couldn't believe what was happening. After all he had been through with them. After all he had helped them with. They still just saw him as something that couldn't be trusted; an enemy that they would use just for info and resource; a tool. Nuhvok hung his head. Even Onua, who he thought was his best friend, was now against him. He then realized that he would have to ultimately prove himself somehow… Then maybe they wouldn't consider him just an unlikely ally, but a brother.

&&&&&&&&

Tehutti and the other three Metruan Matoran hid behind a boulder, watching the Toa Nuva. "I don't know…should we ask them or not?" Vhisola said nervously. Ehrye poked his head over the rock for a look. His eyes were immediately drawn to Kopaka; whose eyes were looking right into his.

"Yikes!" Ehrye yelled, ducking back behind the boulder. "What was that about?" Tehutti asked. "I think he might have seen us." Ehrye replied nervously.

"Let's check it out." Tehutti said cautiously. The four of them poked their heads out from behind that boulder again. The Toa Nuva and the Nuhvok were gone!

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" A voice bellowed from behind them. They all jumped in surprise and turned around. All seven of them had somehow gotten behind them.

Ehrye threw himself on his hands and knees. "Oh please great evil Toa! Help us get our friends back!" Tehutti grasped his forehead in embarrassment. "Ehrye…please just stand up and shut up." Ehrye did so, blushing from the humiliation.

The Toa Nuva stood silently waiting for Tehutti to speak. "My name is Tehutti. A soon to be Toa of Metru Nui," The other three Matoran exchanged confused glances, "Though we're not sure if any of you are evil or not, you all look a lot like Toa to us and we believe that the information about you being evil is false. Our friends have been captured and held against there will. If we do not help them they will live the rest of their lives in pain and misery. Please, we are begging you for your help." Tehutti let out a deep breath that he had not realized he was holding.

Lewa let out a hard laugh that he had been trying to hold in the entire time. "Soon to be Toa? AHAHAHAHA! Don't make me laugh." He said.

"Shut up Lewa." Tahu said sharply. He approached Tehutti and knelt in front of him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You've got guts for a Matoran, I'll give you that. But why should we help you?"

"Because the Toa Metru are innocent! They have done nothing wrong! In fact they saved the city! But something happened to our leader." Tahu stood back up again, listening attentively. "Go on." He said.

"Our leader's name is Turaga Dume and about a thousand years ago he was a great Toa. But a few months ago, before we came here, he became strangely menacing, as if an evil shadow had fallen upon him." Tehutti explained.

"Evil shadow?" Takanuva wondered.

"One of his minions, named Atukam, told us to come here and seek refuge. But it didn't work out too well." Tehutti continued.

Tahu and the others huddled. "What do you guys think?" Tahu asked.

"We have to save Gali that's for sure." Nuhvok said.

"Well odds are Gali was taken to the same place," Pohatu said, "So this could work to our advantage anyways. And who knows, maybe the Toa Metru could join with us too."

"Nuhvok's right," Onua said. The statement made Nuhvok smile, "We have to save Gali, but forget the Toa Metru. Why bother saving them?"

"I agree." Lewa added.

"They could be very useful that's why," Tahu said, "What do you think Takanuva?"

"I think we should do exactly what you want to do Tahu. Did you notice that he used 'evil shadow' to describe what happened to their leader? And don't you know what Atukam spells backwards?" Takanuva lectured.

"What does it spell?" Lewa asked. "It spells Makuta!" Takanuva said in a loud whisper.

"Are you suggesting that Makuta is still alive?" Tahu asked in shock. "That would explain a lot of what's been happening; Panrahk's new form and Vorak. I think that Makuta somehow survived and is disguising himself as their leader Turaga Dume! So we need to get these Toa Metru to help us!"

"So couldn't he be luring us to this prison with Gali as bait?" Kopaka realized. Tahu sighed. "That seems very likely, but we can't just leave her there. We have to try."

"You have to help the Toa Metru." A voice said behind them. The Toa Nuva all turned their heads. The six Turaga were standing before them. "What are you all doing here?" Kopaka questioned.

"Each of us were named after a prophecy told by the Turaga that preceded us. The prophecy told of another set of heroes from another land, that would one day come to the aid of you all to help defeat an enemy who might rise from the depths of the shadows once again. Without them, you will not be able to defeat him." Turaga Vakama explained, not answering Kopaka's question.

"You should have come to us about these new arrivals before blindly fighting with them. Just because you're experienced Toa Nuva, doesn't mean you don't have anything else to learn." Turaga Nuju added.

"Then I guess we really have no choice, Tehutti." Tahu said. "We'll help you save the Toa Metru."

"Thank you so much Toa Nuva. You won't regret it." Tehutti said with a grateful smile.

Author's Notes: For those of you who have read the reviews that have been posted, I would like to bring to your attention that that is not Greg Farshtey reviewing my story. Sadly, it was some jackass pretending to be him. I learned this via email from the individual after I had posted chapter 18. Apparently he created a fake email to go along with it as well, fully convincing me it was him when I had checked in the past. If he has reviewed any other stories check to see if the email is bionicle underscorewriter at hotmail dot com.If that is his email then it is a fake.