A lone figure stood before an ancient fortress. His journey had been a long and treacherous one. Now it seemed as if it had come to a sudden, and very frustrating, end. The structure in front of him had no visible doors or windows. There was no sign that anyone lived inside or had for years. However, the fresh footprints of an Agori nearby said this might be the place. The answers he sought were inside, he was certain of it, but far less sure of how to reach them.

His name was Mata Nui. Once, only mere months before, he could have reached down from the heavens and torn the roof from the building. A complex array of sensors could have located the Agori or any other person or object he sought from a world away. One stride could have carried him many kios across the land.

That felt like a lifetime ago. Then, his mind and spirit lived inside a miracle of engineering, towering some 40 million feet in the air. But he had been driven from that body and exiled to the desert world of Bara Magna. If not for the power of the Mask of Life he wore, he wouldn't even have a body now. As it was, he was only a little over seven feet tall, vulnerable to pain and hunger and thirst, and removed from the power to shake worlds.

Seven feet tall, thought Mata Nui. I really hate being short.

Bara Magna had been a revelation to Mata Nui in many ways. He had found friends among the Glatorian and Agori who lived here. He had been drawn into their struggle against the marauding Skrall and Bone Hunters. He had even found proof that the Great Beings, his creators, had once walked these sands.

Part of that evidence had been a coin found by an Agori scavenger named Berix. Made of a metal said to have been mined to the north, the design on the coin's face matched that of the one on the Skrall shields. At first, it looked like just a bunch of interconnected lines. But as Mata Nui learned more about this planet, particularly about the Great Beings and their works, he realized the design was far more than decorative. It was not just artwork or a symbol of some abstract concept. It was a map.

But, he wondered, a map of what?

That answer came courtesy of an Agori named Crotesius, who told him that he had been part of a failed expedition to the north in search of the "Valley of the Maze." He had returned without finding it, but one of his companions, Tarduk, had left again to resume the search a second time. Mata Nui resolved to seek the Valley and find out what might lie at the heart of the maze.

Now that mission had brought him here, to a fortress with no doors in the center of a vast stone maze. After weeks of traveling and many dangers, here he was, confronted by yet another mystery with no easy solution.

"By the Great Beings, I have had enough of this," Mata Nui growled. His voice echoed off the peaks all around.

Amazingly, there came an answer. The words came from the fortress, though there was no sign of anyone to speak them. They floated through the air on a whisper so soft he almost missed it over the sound of the breeze. "What do you seek?"

Mata Nui took two quick strides forward and stared up at the fortress. "Entrance," he said.

There was a long silence. Then the voice repeated, "What do you seek?"

"I wish to enter," Mata Nui replied, more loudly. "But I see no way to do so."

This time, the voice did not hesitate to respond. When it did, there was a trace of iron in its tone, as if the speaker were losing patience.

"What do you seek? What is your burden? What brings you life and death?"

So it's not asking questions, thought Mata Nui. It's posing riddles. This fortress, and the maze that surrounds it, were designed to keep out anyone who might use the power of the Great Beings for selfish reasons. So if I don't give the right answers here…

He allowed himself to wonder if Tarduk had made it this far, and if so, had he given the wrong answers? What, then? Had the Great Beings rigged traps to destroy potential intruders? Were his creators really that ruthless?

What do I seek? It's a very good question, he admitted. When I first came to Bara Magna, all I wanted was to escape and save my people from the evil of my enemy, Makuta. I didn't know then that this place was tied to my origins. I didn't know I might find answers here to questions I had never asked.

Mata Nui sat down on the ground and stared at the stone walls of the fortress. He was going to have to give this answer a lot of thought.

X X X

"Where is he?" Kiina asked. She was standing amid the dunes of the Bara Magna desert, her eyes fixed on the northern mountains. "He should be back by now."

Beside her, Ackar nodded. "Perhaps. But we've got no idea how far he had to travel, or what he might have found."

"Or what might have found him," Kiina added, grimly. "We should have stayed with him, no matter what he said."

The two were warriors and Mata Nui's closest friends. He had helped them free their villages from the threat of the Skrall, but not stayed around for thanks. Shortly after the villages had agreed to unite into one mega-city, Mata Nui had departed to track down the meaning of Berix's coin. Ackar, Kiina, Gresh, and Berix had gone with him.

The way had been fraught with danger and the battles had been fierce. After Berix was badly wounded, Mata Nui had insisted that the others turn back and return to the desert. Ackar had argued that it was too perilous for Mata Nui to go on alone, but Mata Nui remained adamant.

"No, my friends," he had said. "You are needed there, with your people. I have to find a way back to mine." Now, weeks had passed with no sign of him. Ackar felt the same worries Kiina did, but saw no reason to make her feel worse.

"We have to believe Mata Nui knows what he's doing. It's not the first time he's gone off on his own," he reminded her. "Last time, it was to save your life."

"Right," said Kiina. "So I owe him…and I pay my debts. With or without you, I'm going after him."

Ackar knew there were some things on Bara Magna that one couldn't argue with: an enraged Skopio, a hungry swarm of Scarabax beetles…and Kiina once she had her mind made up. Besides, there came a point where being a true friend to Mata Nui meant not respecting his wishes on everything. "Okay," he said. "I'll get supplies. You find Gresh. He's going to want to come too."

Ackar started to turn away, but Kiina reached out to stop him. When he turned back to her, he saw real fear in her eyes. "Do you think he's okay?" she asked. "I mean, he couldn't be…you know…could he?"

"If anyone can come back out of those mountains in one piece, it's Mata Nui," Ackar answered. "So let's make sure we're there to greet him."

X X X

Mata Nui had been staring at the fortress for hours, rolling the questions around in his head. He had moved on from trying to divine the correct answer to the first, and focused on the second.

What is my burden?

That was easy. He had left behind a universe full of beings that depended on him, Toa and Matoran willing to sacrifice their own lives on his behalf. His carelessness had allowed evil to usurp rule over his home and placed all those lives in jeopardy. Now here he was on Bara Magna, with little clue how to make things right again, reduced to trying to figure out maddening riddles. It was beyond frustrating. He had a duty to save his people, and he was wasting time like—

Wait a minute, he thought. Duty…it's duty that drives me on, the responsibility I feel for the people of my universe. Duty is my burden! Everything suddenly made sense. The Great Beings had taught him about three "virtues," which he and the Matoran he protected were to live by. They were unity, duty and destiny. If the answer to the second question was duty, then perhaps…

Mata Nui rose. "I seek…unity!" he shouted.

"What is your burden?" the mysterious voice asked.

"Duty," answered Mata Nui.

"What brings you life and death?"

The same thing that brings it for everyone else, thought Mata Nui. "Destiny," he said.

Before his eyes, the stone blocks in the center of the fortress seemed to soften and melt together. A square gap about eight feet high appeared at the base of the building. Then the stone became stone again, with a doorway now in place. Mata Nui glanced at Click, the Scarabax beetle who he had befriended on his arrival on Bara Magna. It now rode on his shoulder, but did not look very happy about that fact just now. "Looks like an invitation," said Mata Nui. "What do you think?"

The beetle clicked its pincers together furiously, a clear sign of displeasure.

"That's what I thought you'd say," Mata Nui replied. "Well, sorry, old friend, we didn't come all this way to stand outside." Mata Nui entered the tower. He half-expected another maze inside, but it was quite the opposite. A stairway leading down awaited him, but no other exit. Sword at the ready, he descended the stairs.

They seemed to go on for days, winding around and around with no end in sight. Then Mata Nui began to feel the heat, an overwhelming wave that almost staggered him. It grew worse the further down he went, but he pressed on. There was, after all, no other choice.

When he finally reached bottom, it took him a moment to take in the incredible scene. A large chamber stretched out before him, bare of any furniture. In the center of the floor was a pool of lava, boiling, churning, and glowing red hot.

And hanging suspended above it, upside down and bound in chains, was the jungle Agori, Tarduk.

X X X

Pohatu is occupied searching for weapons, while I am combing the ruins of this fortress looking for something else. If I can find whatever the Makuta used to teleport Destral from place to place, perhaps I can use it to return to some of the other dimensions I visited in past days. Maybe I can find help in one of those places, or some clue to how we can overthrow Teridax. If I could find Brutaka, he could help me, but I do not know if he is alive or dead.

Takanuva, Toa of Light

X X X

Toa Helryx had made a decision.

Alone in her prison, with only the thoughts of Makuta Teridax and a portrait of Makuta Miserix for company, she'd had time to think. Teridax had made a point of telling her what he planned to do—harness the power of the Great Spirit's body and use it to conquer worlds. She had no doubt he could do it, too, unless he was stopped.

But how?

The obvious answer laid with the Matoran. There was an obvious connection between their labors and the health of the mechanical being in which they lived. The jobs done by the Matoran there were so important that the Great Spirit's health seemed to depend on them. Simply put, if the Matoran of Metru Nui stopped working for a long time, the robot would become ill and eventually die, and Makuta Teridax with it. The problem was that Teridax would not tolerate a strike. No doubt he would slaughter some Matoran, in particularly agonizing ways, until the rest gave in. Brave as they were, the Matoran couldn't be counted on to stand firm in the face of their friends' suffering.

There was, of course, another problem too. The robot's death would inevitably mean the death of everyone that lived inside it—Matoran, Toa, Vortixx, Skakdi…everyone. The planet outside had no known land masses, and so no place to flee to. The inhabitants of the Matoran universe would suffocate or freeze in the darkness.

As leader of the Order of Mata Nui, Helryx had often had to make decisions that sent agents to their deaths. It came with the job. But could she make a decision that would send an entire universe to its grave?

Yes, as it turned out. She could.

Teridax had to be stopped before he killed or enslaved billions of innocents in the universes beyond. She wasn't certain she could bring him down, but she had to try. Her prison was near a sensitive area, whose destruction might be enough to slay the Makuta. A nova blast using her water power might do enough damage. Even if all she could do was cripple him, perhaps others could finish him off. She closed her eyes and drew upon all her power. If she had any doubt or regrets, she pushed them aside. Helryx would do what she had always done: whatever was necessary.

An impossibly loud pounding broke her concentration. Had Teridax already discovered what she was about to do?

The next moment, a wall caved in. Stepping through the rubble were two Matoran, Toa Nuva Lewa, and a figure Helryx never thought she would see again: Toa Tuyet. "You!" the Order leader snapped. "What are you doing here?"

"You're welcome," Tuyet replied. "I had no idea you were locked up here, Helryx. Poetic justice, considering how your kind imprisoned me for centuries, isn't it?"

Helryx looked to Lewa. Tuyet, free, was potentially a terrible menace. Perhaps if she and the Toa Nuva of Air acted quickly, they could take the rogue Toa down. But Lewa was paying no attention to Helryx. Instead, he seemed to be fixated on the picture of Miserix. Makuta Teridax had transformed his old enemy into a painting on the wall in a unique and nasty act of murder. "Lewa? What are you doing?" she asked.

The Toa of Air ignored her. Instead, he analyzed Miserix, muttering, "Interesting. Not dead, but so convinced that he is that he might as well be."

"Don't mind him," said Tuyet. "He's not Lewa. I'm not sure who he is, only that he knew how to get us here. And now that we are here, I am sure I can find some way to use our arrival to my advantage."

Helryx glanced back at Lewa. The Toa of Air had his eyes closed and was reaching out with his right hand. But no cyclone erupted from his outstretched palm. In fact, nothing was happening at all.

And then, suddenly, something did.

The portrait of Miserix warped, as if it was folding in on itself. An instant later, Makuta Miserix himself stood in the chamber, in full reptilian glory. The Makuta looked dazed at first, then his eyes filled with rage. "Where is Teridax?" he bellowed, so loud the walls shook.

"Well," said Tuyet. "That was a surprise."

"Shut up," Helryx barked, "all of you." She turned to the two Matoran. "Hafu, Kapura…this is no place for you. Go back to Metru Nui and get word to the resistance. Tell them to be prepared to act, and tell them…to make their peace with the Great Spirit and each other."

Hafu took a step forward, ready to argue for staying. But Kapura laid a hand on his arm and shook his head. There was no fight coming that they could be a part of…somehow, he knew that this Toa of Water was talking about the end of everything.

Now it was Lewa Nuva's turn to speak. "A message must be sent. Mata Nui must be prepared."

"Who are you?" demanded Helryx.

"You knew of me as Tren Krom," said the Toa. "Like Tuyet, I have recently escaped from my prison. Now I have a task to perform."

He advanced past Helryx, walked to wall panel, and tore it off. A small bank of machinery had been hidden behind it. As he started to manipulate the controls, Helryx, Tuyet and Miserix all moved to stop him.

"Hold!"

Everyone in the room whirled to see who had spoken. Standing in the opened wall were Brutaka and Axonn. Brutaka was levitating and a greenish aura surrounded him. Axonn's left arm hung useless at his side. Both looked like they had been through a war.

"Tren Krom must do what he set out to do," Brutaka said. "The three must be one. This universe must live so that a world can be whole once more."

"This universe must die, and Teridax with it!" Helryx replied. "Axonn, Brutaka, I order you to subdue these three."

Brutaka smiled. "We no longer take orders from you, Toa Helryx. We take our orders from destiny."

"Just so you know," Axonn added, "Brutaka's his own 'we' these days. Long story."

Tuyet had stopped paying attention. She was eavesdropping on Tren Krom. Whatever message he was sending was for the most part not an audible one, but now and then he would mutter something she could catch. So far, she had heard the words "Ignika" and "golden armor." Both were intriguing, to say the least.

"Enough talk," growled Miserix. "Teridax is inhabiting this metal shell, and that means it gets destroyed, along with anyone who gets in the way."

"Don't start something you can't finish," warned Tuyet. "I may have use for this universe."

"Brutaka, maybe Helryx is right," said Axonn. "Maybe this is the only sure way of stopping Teridax. Maybe it's what Mata Nui would want us to do."

Before the startled eyes of Kapura and Hafu, battle lines were drawn over whether to end their world or not, for the sake of many others beyond the stars. On one side stood Helryx, Miserix and Axonn—on the other, Tuyet, Lewa Nuva, and Brutaka.

"If it must be, then it must," said Brutaka. "To save this universe, then…Axonn, Helryx and Makuta Miserix must die."