ULTIMATE BIONICLE

Chapter 32: Through the Veil of Clouds

Several hours later and Whenua and Tehutti had still not returned. By now the sun had gone down and the storm had finally ended. Most of the Toa sat there sleeping. Vakama and Onewa were awake in the next room.

Vakama grumbled with frustration. "They should've been back by now!" He whispered, pacing back and forth. "It's been six hours!"

Onewa looked at him uneasily. "Calm down, calm down, they should be back soon. The Archives are huge after all. It could very well take them an extremely long time to find what they're looking for."

Vakama plopped heavily onto a chair facing the window. "I just hope nothing's happened. Things are bad enough as it is." He said, sighing heavily. Vakama stared out the window, lost in thought. "What the hell am I gonna do about Nuju?"

"What do you mean?" Onewa asked, raising an eyebrow. Vakama looked over his shoulder back at Onewa. "What do I do, when the enemy is a friend, who has done something unforgivable?" Vakama asked.

Onewa sighed. "Well, I guess it depends how you look at it. One thing you could do is avenge Matau's death by killing Nuju. However, vengeance isn't exactly the best path to take. What you probably should do, is confront Nuju and try and convince him to join us again. In fact, if you told him that Gali is alive, he might actually be even more inclined to come back." Onewa answered.

Vakama looked back out the window, and slouched more on his chair. "I suppose…but ever think that you're maybe a little too optimistic? After all, there can't be a bright side to everything." Vakama asked. Onewa made a proud grin. "Nope."

&&&&&&&&

Her head rested on Onua's shoulder, Nokama lay asleep. The day past had held terrible images and memories, but she found comfort in sleeping next to Onua. She dreamt of Whenua and what had happened between them; the event continuing to run through her mind.

Suddenly there was frantic pounding on the door. Nokama shook herself awake, and saw all the other Toa awakening as well. Vakama and Onewa burst into the room. "What's going on?" Vakama asked.

"There's someone at the door." Nokama said. She slowly approached it. "Open quickly! Please!" She heard Tehutti yell from the other side. Nokama quickly unlocked the door and opened it. Tehutti burst in quickly and fell to the floor panting.

Vhisola knelt down next to him. "What's wrong, Tehutti?" She asked with worry. Tehutti was panting too hard to answer. "Where's Whenua?" Gali asked.

Tehutti sat up. "We were attacked at the Archives!" Tehutti managed to spit out. "Two Rahkshi-like creatures attacked us; right after Whenua showed me some weird piece of paper. It looked kinda like a map or something. One of them had a robotic clawed arm and an arm with black claws." Tehutti explained.

"That must have been Vorak." Onua said. Tehutti then continued. "But then there was a second one. It had a huge arm, with a black claw on it, and its other arm was just as big, but it had white colouration, and an Ice Blade attached to it. Then there were two extra, but smaller arms, beneath them. The left one was white, and the right one was black, and they each held and identical weapon, that looked like jackhammers. And his eyes… his eyes were blacker than the darkest corners of any cave…" Tehutti explained, in a terrified trance from remembering the image.

Gali knelt down to Tehutti's level and looked him in the eyes, snapping him out of his trance. "Where is Whenua?" She asked.

"Whenua… told me to run." Tehutti started, "They wanted the piece of paper that he had. He wouldn't give it to them, so they attacked him. Whenua told me to run, and I ran as fast as I could. I didn't even know where I was going. All I kept hearing was smashing and crashing, like a building was falling." Tehutti's voice started to sound extremely panicked. "I couldn't find a chute or anything. I was so confused. I wanted to help Whenua, but I knew I couldn't. I was desperate to find you guys, but I couldn't. I had no idea where I was. There was no one to help me; everyone was asleep in their homes. I ran for hours until I finally found this place again…" Tehutti was gasping for breath. "I have no idea if Whenua is even alive anymore!" He yelled tearfully.

"Shh…" Gali said softly, as she rubbed his shoulder, trying to calm Tehutti down. Tehutti hugged Gali around her neck. "I'm so useless! I couldn't even get you guys to help in time! Now he's dead and it's my fault!" Tehutti yelled.

Suddenly, they all went silent as a loud crash was heard in the other room. "What the heck was that?" Lewa said.

"Sounded like someone smashed through the window…" Pohatu said. Slowly, they all stepped towards the door. Cautiously, Vakama opened it.

There was an enormous hole in the wall where the window used to be. Lying on the floor among the rubble was Whenua. "Whenua!" Tehutti yelled, running over and kneeling next to him. They all crowded around him, looking at him eagerly. "Is he dead?" Takanuva asked. Gali was kneeling next to him now as well, examining his injuries.

"Whenua…" Nokama thought to herself as she saw his beaten body. If he had let her come, this may not have happened. "Why did he have to be that way?"

Whenua was still holding his Earth-Shock drills, and sections of his armour were cracked. He was also bleeding from severe stab wounds on his left arm. There were a number of smaller injuries throughout his body as well. His eyes were shut, but it appeared that he was breathing.

Suddenly, Whenua's eyes shot open. He felt disoriented and confused as he saw the worried faces of his friends. An instant later his memories returned and he realized what was going on once more. His expression became very urgent, as he tried to rise.

"Whenua, what's wrong?" Gali asked. Whenua was in immense pain, but managed to get back onto his feet. He put his drills back onto his back and held his left arm as he slowly walked through them. He looked back at Vakama. "We need to go right now." He said seriously. "Why, what's the matter?" Tahu asked, pushing his way to the front.

"You guys stay here. And by you guys I mean the Toa Nuva and the Matoran. This is something we need to do as quick as possible, and without getting noticed." Whenua explained. He then walked through the door, the other Toa Metru followed after him.

"Why only you guys?" Onua asked. Whenua was lifting Matau's corpse over his right shoulder. "Because we have to look out for our team-mates. If this were Lewa, wouldn't you guys want to take care of it on your own?" Whenua asked. Onua nodded in understanding.

"Uh, why are you carrying Matau?" Onewa asked with a perplexed look. Whenua struggled to hold Matau up. "Because…ugh…we need to revive him as soon as we get the stone…" Whenua said. The pain his body was in made it hard for him to hold Matau up. Onewa walked over. "You're too injured to carry him. Pass him to me."

Whenua crouched down and passed Matau onto Onewa's shoulder. "Let's go…" Whenua said, standing up again. "Wait!" Gali yelled. Whenua turned around. Gali grabbed Whenua's right hand and placed a Bulla Berry in it. "You'll need that." Gali said with a caring smile.

Whenua ate the berry. "Thanks." He responded, smiling slightly at her. The Toa Metru then made their way out of the building.

&&&&&&&&

The Toa Metru snuck through the back allies of Ga-Metru, making sure not to be seen by any Matoran or Vahki. "Where are we going, Whenua?" Vakama asked, walking quickly alongside him. "And how do you know this is that right way?"

Whenua held out a folded piece of paper, handing it to Vakama. Vakama unfolded it and observed what was on the inside. "This is a map." Vakama said. "To the Amana Volo Stone you spoke of?"

"Yeah," Whenua answered. "It's hidden atop a really high Knowledge Tower in Ko-Metru. The only problem is Vorak and Grievous have seen it." Whenua said. "So they know where it is too. It would appear that Makuta is after the stone as well." Vakama shook his head with frustration. "Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse." He said.

"Who's Grievous?" Nokama asked suddenly. Whenua looked over at her. "I don't know. But whatever it is, Vorak calls it his brother. But what confuses me most about it is that it had trace amounts of ice element, as well as shadow." Whenua explained. "Our only hope is the fact that they don't know Metru Nui as well as we do."

"We'd better hurry up then." Vakama said. He looked back at Onewa, who was lagging behind due to the fact that he was carrying Matau. "We need to hurry up, Onewa." Vakama said. "I hear ya." Onewa said with a pant. He hurried up after them.

&&&&&&&&

After a short commute through chutes, the Toa Metru had arrived at the Ko-Metru Knowledge Towers. Finding where they needed to go however, proved exceedingly difficult. The map was vague, and there were hundreds of knowledge towers, all of which were exceptionally high. The Amana Volo Stone could've been hidden atop any one of them.

The Toa Metru had made their way up the paths of one of them, and were hoping to scope out the rest of the towers from the top. They had to be careful however, without crystal spikes it is very hard to move on a crystal path without slipping.

In front of the line was Whenua, followed by Vakama, then Nokama, and finally Onewa was at the back. Vakama looked over the edge of the path. They were so high up that a low layer of clouds blocked his vision of the ground below. Whenua looked over, getting slight vertigo as he did so. "Careful." Whenua said. "The last thing we want to do is fall."

Suddenly, Whenua stopped, gesturing for the others to do so as well. "What is it?" Nokama asked.

A large, four armed, Rahkshi dropped from above and delivered a heavy kick to Whenua's face. The others could only watch in surprise and horror as the kick knocked Whenua flying off the side of the tower.

"Whenua!" The three of them yelled as they saw him disappear through the clouds. Slowly they heard his echoing cries dissipate, until there was silence once more. Vorak then landed next to the four armed Rahkshi. "Long time no see, Toa. Allow me to introduce you to my brother, Grievous." Vorak said with an evil grin.

"Whenua… no…" Onewa muttered angrily. "Not Whenua too…" Vakama mumbled with disbelief. "Whenua…" Nokama thought to herself, filled with sadness and anger.

"Let me take the care of the fire and the water, brother. You finish off the stone and the dead one." Grievous said maliciously. Vorak grinned, "As you wish. Have fun."

Vorak leapt over Vakama and Nokama and landed in front of Onewa. Onewa put down Matau quickly and attacked Vorak furiously, catching him off guard. Onewa slugged Vorak across the face, forcing him into a wall. Onewa started repeatedly punching Vorak in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Onewa stopped and stared at Vorak, who was holding his gut in pain. Suddenly, he lunged his robotic claw forward at Onewa and grasped it onto his chest. Vorak then lifted Onewa, and started smashing his back into the crystal wall.

Grievous ran forward and struck Vakama with the back of his claw, hitting him into the wall. He then grabbed Vakama and lifted him up. He pulled back his ice blade, getting ready to stab it into Vakama. Nokama quickly ran and double kicked Grievous in the stomach, making him stumble back and let go of Vakama. As Vakama landed back on the ground, he fired a blast of fire out of his hands at Grievous, knocking him backwards and off his feet.

Nokama leapt into the air, pulling back one of her Hydro Blades behind her head. She swung it down at Grievous as she landed. However, Grievous grabbed it just before it struck his face. Nokama stood there struggling to push the weapon into Grievous; however, Grievous looked like he had no trouble holding it back at all.

Just then Nokama noticed that both Grievous's lower arms were pointing their weapons directly at her chest. The blunt end of each jackhammer was pulled in and appeared to be charging energy. They released and struck Nokama in the chest with enormous force, as well as releasing the built up energy. The green blasts helped to project Nokama backwards, and Vakama could only watch in horror as he saw Nokama fall over the edge of the tower as well.

"No!" Vakama yelled desperately. Vakama's confidence slowly depleted as he realized he had once again failed to save the life of one of his team-mates. As far as he knew, Whenua and Nokama were dead. He ran over to the edge and looked over. Nokama was nowhere to be seen.

Vorak continued to smash Onewa into the wall, which now had a very large dent smashed into it. Onewa managed to pull out one of his Proto Pitons and swung it across Vorak's face. Vorak let go of Onewa and held his face in pain.

A fiendish look suddenly appeared on Vorak's face as he lifted his hand, making it face Matau's body. Using telekinesis, he pushed his body off the tower. Onewa ran after it and jumped off, grabbing onto Matau with one hand, and the ledge with the other. "Phew!" Onewa said with relief.

Vorak laughed mockingly. "You Toa are so predictable. You try to save him, even when he's already dead. Now who's going to save you?" Vorak said fiendishly. Onewa looked over; Vakama was the only one left. He looked back at Vorak. "Goodbye, Toa of Stone." Vorak said, stomping on Onewa's hand. Onewa's grip released and he began to fall. The last thing he saw was Grievous body-checking Vakama off as well, before falling through the veil of clouds.

Author's Notes: There is a picture of Grievous on my Brickshelf account, though it might not be public till tomorrow, Sunday September 10. To access it just click the homepage link on my profile page.