Unaware of what was going on in the skies behind him, Kirop approached the fog-shrouded leech hive which hung suspended from the roof of the vast cavern. He was perhaps two hundred yards from it when its entrance suddenly opened. Vican flew out, riding on top of what Kirop first thought was another Matoran. Then he got a look at what the creature really was as it flew by, and even the Kra-Matoran felt sickened by the sight.

Still, this wasn't the time to be sentimental. He had a message to deliver. He flew straight toward the once-again-concealed opening. A mild bolt of shadow energy triggered it to slide aside once more. "Mutran!" Kirop shouted as he landed on the hive floor. "The Toa Nuva are planning an attack on the shadow leeches! You have to prepare!"

Mutran took two steps forward and savagely backhanded the Matoran, sending him sprawling into the stone. "The Toa Nuva? You mean those Toa Nuva? The ones you led here?" he snarled, pointing through the rapidly closing entrance. Kirop turned and could just see four Toa and three Matoran bearing down on the hive.

Kopaka Nuva saw the entrance slam shut before they could get inside. It was a puzzle why he had been unable to spot this hive before, using his Kanohi Akaku Nuva—perhaps something in the mist blocked his power. That would be a mystery for later. He looked over at Pohatu. "You want to do the honors?"

"Sure," said Pohatu. "I'll knock." The Toa of Stone summoned his willpower and materialized a half dozen good-sized boulders, hurling them toward the hatch. They struck hard, battering the gateway.

"They aren't answering," said Lewa. "Let me ring the greet-bell." The Toa of Air sent a burst of air at the entrance so powerful that it seeped through the cracks and formed a cyclone on the other side. The winds caught Kirop, slamming him into the walls, but Mutran stood rooted to the ground.

Kopaka gave Lewa a few moments and said, "Perhaps no one is home. Let's see if they left the door open." He readied an ice blast, but Solek reached out a hand to stop him.

"Let us. Please," said the Av-Matoran.

After a moment's consideration, Kopaka nodded. The three Matoran raised their weapons and sent light energy at the weakened hatch. Their bursts hit on target, blowing the gateway in. It flew into the hive, only to be caught by Mutran.

"Toa are always so noisy," hissed the Makuta. "No wonder I could never get any work done around your kind in the old days."

The Toa and Matoran charged ahead. They saw no sign of the shadow leech tanks, but they did discover something else quite strange. The hive was far bigger on the inside than it seemed from the outside, with slime-covered tunnels that wound deep into its interior.

"Use the skyblasters," Kopaka said. "Find the shadow leeches and target them. Solek and I will handle this Makuta."

Pohatu, Lewa, Tanma, Photok, and the Toa Ignika charged ahead, flying further into the hive. Surprisingly, Mutran made no effort to stop them. He just watched them fly past on their way deeper into the base. Then he turned back to the hovering Kopaka Nuva, arms outstretched, and said, "Alright, Toa, handle me…if you can."

X X X

Flying toward the fireball brought Onua upon Gali, being menaced by some other swamp creature, probably even another Makuta.

"Now this ends in the only way it can," Gorast said over the fallen, mud-covered Toa of Water. She prepared her sword-like wing blades. "With your death."

But before she could finish the Gali, Onua snatched up Gorast under her top pair of arms and flew her away. "Funny. I was one my way to meet and aid one Toa when I found you attacking another instead," said the Toa of Earth. "It's time you Makuta learned a simple truth: attack one Toa Nuva, and you attack us all." Onua swung the heavy body of Gorast and hurled her back down into the ground. "And, by the way—the truth hurts!" he shouted after her, as Gorast made a crater in the soft marsh. If the Makuta had any hopes of the marsh softening the blow, Onua quickly flew back down to dispel the illusion.

In her time, Makuta Gorast had taken some pretty hard blows. Some brutish Dark Hunter named Krekka once tried to stop her from going where she wanted to and made his case with a solid shot that sent her through a wall. (He paid for that, in full, not too long after.) Then there was the other time she had been on the wrong end of a Tahtorak charge.

But nothing in all her time before could equal Onua Nuva seizing her, lifting her high into the air, and slamming her down with every bit of force his own power and the Kanohi Pakari Nuva could afford him. Even with the raw might of a Makuta, the world spun for quite a while afterwards.

"Now stay down while I check on Gali," Onua said, his tone that of an earthquake about to erupt. "And if she's hurt, then so help me, I will send you back where you came from in pieces."

Onua took a few steps back so he could keep an eye on Gorast while looking to his fallen friend. Gali was still breathing and didn't seem too badly hurt, only dazed. Whatever this thing was—another Makuta or some form of Rahi beast—and whatever it had been doing when Onua arrived, it had evidently gone too far.

Gorast hadn't moved, just lay in the mud eyeing Onua with…rage? No, the Toa realized, it was something else. Something far more disturbing: hunger.

Onua got Gali to her feet. Gorast scrambled to hers at the same time. "Are you alright?" Onua asked Gali.

"Yes, I will be, but be careful," whispered Gali. "She's dangerous."

"We won't be here much longer," Onua answered. "We're needed somewhere else."

"You are Onua, aren't you? The wise one?" hissed Gorast. "Brilliant and strong, yet never the leader—always forced to follow the orders of fools like Tahu. The Brotherhood would make you a king. You would have all of Metru Nui to rule, Toa…all you have to do is stand by my side."

"My armor's black," Onua replied. "That doesn't mean my heart is as well. The answer is no." Gorast surged forward. Onua met her with a geyser of mud summoned from the ground. As she fought her way through that, he scooped Gali up in his arms and flew, headed toward where the fireball had been. He had to find Tahu so the three of them could work together.

Gorast took off after him. She knew full well where he was going and wasn't worried at all. The light of three Toa would be a feast to long remember.

X X X

Brutaka tried to close his eyes. It didn't help. He couldn't get the image of Tren Krom out of his mind—a writhing, crimson mass of tentacles emerging from a gelatinous central core, with two dead yellow eyes that somehow followed every movement without ever moving themselves. At least, that was what he had seen at a glance—somehow, Brutaka knew to gaze for long at Tren Krom would be to invite madness.

The entity seemed over time to have merged with the stone floor and walls of its cave, so that lurker and place of concealment were one. The acrid stench of decay hung over everything. In vain, Brutaka tried to break free of the grip of Tren Krom's tentacle. He could feel the strange being trying to probe his mind, but so far, Brutaka's mental training had allowed him to resist. If that should fail, he knew, the secrets of the Order of Mata Nui would be exposed to this monster.

"What wonders have come into my universe in the millennia since my exile?" Tren Krom said softly, his voice as revolting as his form. "I must know!"

Hesitantly, the other members of Brutaka's team had entered the cave, only to wish they hadn't. It was only Lariska, protosteel dagger in hand, who kept them from fleeing.

"You think me an alien…an 'other'…" Tren Krom continued. "But I am of the substance of this universe, and I walked here long before you or even Mata Nui himself. Have you not heard the tales?"

"There is a Tren Krom in legend," said Brutaka. "But…the tales obviously left some parts out."

Tren Krom laughed. The sound made the team wish death would come for them right now. "Before the Great Spirit Mata Nui was born, the Great Beings created one being who was purely organic. They taught me the ways of the universe they were creating and they placed me in its core. There I was to remain, maintaining the heat, the light, all the forces that made their creation whole…"

Brutaka had managed to work an arm partway loose. With a little luck, he would be able to get his hand on a dagger and cut himself free…all he needed was time. "So what happened? How did you end up here?"

"My time was always to be short," Tren Krom replied. "I was to shepherd this universe until Mata Nui was prepared to take power. A Matoran of Light came to me and said the hour had come for me to move on…a crafter of canisters he was, whose sanity did not survive our encounter. I surrendered myself to my fate, only to be exiled here by the Great Beings and bound to this rock." His voice turned heavy with bitterness. "The universe, it seems, did not need two entities supreme."

"What…what do you want with us?" whispered Vezon. "And please don't say you want someone to hold your mirror for you."

"I would know what has gone on in the universe in the last 100 millennia," Tren Krom answered. "My visitors have been few in number. You seven will remain here and I will gain the knowledge I need from your minds…of course, sadly, you may have no minds left when I am done."

"Why ask us?" said Lariska. "You obviously don't really care."

"Would you shut up?" hissed Carapar. "Rule number one: don't annoy the giant, tentacled monster, or don't they teach that one in The Shadowed One's school?"

"Be quiet," snapped Lariska, then turned back to the strange being. "Tren Krom…your universe is in danger. It's our job to help save it. If you keep us here, you'll be hurting the one thing you helped bring into being."

Carapar edged slowly to the side, sword in hand. No one paid any attention—all eyes were on Lariska, who had been grabbed by one of Tren Krom's many arms. Without the discipline Brutaka possessed, her mind was an open book to the entity. She screamed as a lifetime of memories were sifted through in an instant, screamed as she saw glimpses of the ancient mind of Tren Krom. When he finally released her, she collapsed on the stone floor.

"Mutran," Tren Krom muttered to himself. "So long ago now, I entered his mind…and he mine…and so he learned how best to strike at Mata Nui. He and his kind have dared reach for power that fate chose to deny them. How…intriguing."

"It's more than that," Brutaka said. "Tell him, Spiriah—tell him what will happen to him if the Makuta succeed in their plans."

"If the Plan succeeds…" Spiriah began. He glanced around as if one of his former comrades might be somewhere nearby, listening. "A shadow will fall…Makuta will rule the universe, their will enforced by Rahkshi. Anyone with the power to threaten that rule will die…and that means anyone."

"Impossible," said Tren Krom. Suddenly, the minds of every team member were filled with nightmarish images projected by the tentacled entity, visions that would sicken even the mad. "No one can approach without my assent. No one can fight me. No one can kill me. I am eternal!"

Brutaka had his dagger in hand now. "Maybe not," he said. "But I'm betting there was a time you said no one could bind you…and look what happened."

Tren Krom paused in thought. Brutaka started to make his move, then caught Carapar out of the corner of his eye. The Barraki was raising his sword to strike the entity. It was too late to shout, too late to stop him.

Carapar brought his blade down, confident he had taken his enemy by surprise. Then a third eye suddenly appeared on Tren Krom, one gazing right at Carapar. The Barraki froze in mid-blow. A shaft of energy shot out from the eye, bathing him in its glow. The next instant, Carapar shattered into fragments as if he had been made of crystal. Then there was nothing left of him but a pile of glittering dust on the stone floor.

"I helped to birth a world of order," Tren Krom whispered. "But from what I have seen in the female's mind…you have turned it into a universe of madness and fear. It is not worth saving. But it is the universe you and your kind deserve."

Tren Krom hurled Brutaka at his team. Spiriah used his magnetic powers to catch him before he could slam into the wall. The tentacles withdrew then, wrapping themselves around the core of Tren Krom's being.

"Go," the entity said. "Take yourselves from my prison…take your memories and plans with you…for the horrors already in your minds are worse than any I could visit upon you. I condemn you to your fate—life in the universe you and your kind have made."

No one was going to take the time to argue. Gathering up Brutaka and Lariska, they fled the cave even as the stone walls that surrounded the island receded into the sand. Only Takadox paused to look back at the cavern where Carapar had died, wondering for a moment just what it would take to end the life of a being older than the stars.

X X X

Vican did his best to steer the flying Rahi beneath him where it was supposed to go. It wasn't easy. Having a Matoran-level intelligence instead of a bestial one, the beast was willful, not to mention extremely unhappy with its current appearance.

He had been lucky so far. The Toa Nuva had been so intent on following Kirop they hadn't noticed his exit. He dove as soon as possible so as to be lost in the mists of the swamp before they could spot him. Now he was skimming over the waters, headed for the portal out of Karda Nui.

Vican would have much preferred being back in the cave helping Mutran with one of his experiments—or even being one of his experiments—to this task. He had heard enough about Icarax to know this was a suicide mission. When other Makuta consider one of their number to be too violent and destructive…there's a problem.

The sealed portal was just ahead. He steered the Rahi right for it, despite its protests. At the last possible moment, it opened just wide enough to admit the two of them. Then it slammed shut again.

He was out of Karda Nui and on his way to deliver Antroz's message. He wasn't sure who he pitied more: himself, or the Toa Nuva. Neither was likely to survive a meeting with Icarax.