It had been much too easy. Lewa Nuva, Pohatu Nuva, their Matoran companions, and their mysterious ally had made it through at least a mile of tunnels with no opposition. That was the good news. The bad news was they had seen no sign of shadow leeches or anything that could be used to make shadow leeches.

"Maybe we missed something," suggested Pohatu.

"I know they're here," said Tanma. "They have to be. Where else would Kirop have fled to?"

"I don't understand," said Photok. "How can this place be bigger on the inside than on the outside?"

Pohatu shrugged. "Saw a legend once in a Ko-Metru Knowledge Tower. It said the Brotherhood uses some kind of dimensional gate power to move their home island around. Maybe they're using something like that here—maybe we aren't even still in the hive, but in some kind of pocket dimension."

"Well, wherever we are, we're running out of tunnel-path," said Lewa. "Dead end ahead."

"Let's ask our silent friend," Pohatu said. "Maybe he knows something."

Lewa looked back to where the strange Toa had been following, and gasped. He was gone—and in his place was something out of a nightmare. It was long and serpent-like, with a toothed, funnel-like mouth easily twenty feet in diameter. Its pale white flesh glistened from a thin sheen of slime, and it wriggled and squirmed toward the flying Toa. Its bulk took up the entire tunnel, making it impossible to fly over or around.

"Small Rahi beasts," muttered Lewa. "What ever happened to small Rahi beasts?"

"Maybe it doesn't mean any harm," said Pohatu. "I know…what are the odds…but let's just take it—"

Tanma fired a light burst from his blades, striking the creature dead-on. It hissed in pain and rage.

"—easy," Pohatu finished. "Kopaka always told me don't work with Rahi or Matoran, but did I listen? Nooooo."

"Oh, come on," said Lewa, firing his Midak Skyblaster at the oncoming creature. "When's the last time we met a giant, slimy, jaw-mouth full of teeth, peaceful Rahi?"

Pohatu shrugged, already creating and hurling boulders that did little but bounce off the creature's thick hide. "Well, there was…and then there was that time…hmmm…"

"It's coming closer!" yelled Photok, furiously blasting light at the beast. "Isn't there some special Toa technique you have for dealing with these kinds of things?"

Lewa shook his head as he summoned a cyclone. "Being a Toa-hero doesn't come with a handbook. Besides," he added with a grin. "Pohatu can't read."

"You just saw our technique," said Pohatu. "We laugh in the face of danger." The creature lashed out, beams of pure force emanating from its eyes. They struck Pohatu, sending him and Photok crashing into the back wall. "But sometimes," grumbled the Toa of Stone, "danger doesn't get the joke."

X X X

Toa Ignika started out surprised…then he became puzzled…and now? Now he was enraged. He had been following along behind the Toa and their Matoran companions. Not yet comfortable with spoken language, he had not joined in any of their conversations. But he still felt as if he were welcome at their side in the coming battle.

Then they suddenly turned around and reacted as if they had never seen him before. One of the Matoran fired a light blast, and then the Toa followed up with stone and cyclone. It was all very confusing. What had he done? Why were they attacking him?

Finally, it got to be too much and he had struck back. Upon his creation, he had created a sword and blaster like the Toa's and had fired a shot at the orange Toa. That only seemed to make things worse. The Toa Nuva and Matoran were all attacking now, although many of their blasts sailed over his head or to the sides. Either they were very poor shots, he decided, or else they thought he was much bigger than he truly was. Regardless, they had shown themselves to be enemies, not allies. He had joined them out of a desire for friendship and been repaid with violence.

Toa Ignika thought back to the flying Rahi outside of the cave. He hadn't wanted to kill it, nor had he felt at all good when it was done. But he hadn't seen any other choice…just like now. If the Toa Nuva were going to continue to assault him without cause, then they were not worthy of the gift of life. He would simply have to take that gift back. It would sadden him to end their existences, of course. But periods of sadness were a part of being a living thing, or so he believed. Best to get used to the feeling now.

The Toa Ignika said a silent goodbye to the Toa and Matoran. It was, it seemed, more than time for them to die.

X X X

Kopaka Nuva knew exactly what he had to do. First, a blast of ice to distract his foe (since Makuta had a natural resistance to ice and cold as one of their many powers), followed by an all-out attack with the skyblaster. Done right, he would be able to keep the Makuta off balance long enough for Lewa and Pohatu to do their job. He glanced at Solek, unconscious on the hive floor, thanks to a blow from Mutran. The Toa Nuva knew he would have to strike hard and fast if he was going to save himself and the Matoran.

But now something made him hesitate. The thought of creating ice sent an actual chill through him. Ice was so cold…hard…if he lost control of his power, he might fill the chamber with it. He would be buried in ice, unable to move or breathe, dying slowly in a frigid tomb. No, that's insane, he told himself. I'm a Toa! I have used my power hundreds of times and never lost control. I am one with the ice. I control it…don't I? Certainty turned to doubt, and doubt began to turn to fear. What if this was the fight where Kopaka's precarious hold over the power of ice slipped, even a little? What if, once he started, he couldn't turn his power off? He might doom all of Karda Nui to a frozen eternity.

None of this was logical. None of it made sense. But Kopaka Nuva found his mind filled with such thoughts, and so he hesitated, just an instant too long. Mutran was on him in two quick strides, armored hand around Kopaka's throat, lifting the Toa into the air. "I don't just experiment with the physical form, you see," Mutran whispered. "I like to play with the mind as well. You Toa always have such interesting minds—filled with grief over all the horrors you have seen, fear of disappointing others, anger at your enemies. You are all flood tides of emotion, Toa Nuva, and I am about to break the dam."

With his free hand, Mutran tore the Midak Skyblaster from Kopaka's grasp and hurled it away. Then the Makuta increased the power of the mental assault. To Kopaka's credit, though his eyes widened and his breath came in ragged gasps, the Toa never screamed. "A little rip here, a little tear there," Mutran said, in almost a sing-song voice. "Before you know it, your mind will be torn to pieces. Of course, Antroz would probably be wanting you intact for questioning. But before he can question you, I need my renewal of destruction as well. So we had better be finished before he finds out you're here, hmmm? Yes, we had better get right to work."

X X X

Takanuva's vision of the past continues…

Gali hit the ground hard, and not for the first time, either. She and the others had learned that the place they were at was called Daxia, and it had several different kinds of geographical environments. They were being trained to fight, but it was not a pleasant process. By now, her muscles ached, her armor was cracked in a few places, and her Mask of Power had already been knocked off half a dozen times. She was tired, she was irritated, and she still couldn't see the point in any of this. "I'm a Toa of Water," she grumbled as she got her feet. "So what am I doing here?"

Her trainer, a heavily armed being named Hydraxon, shook his head. "You're a Toa of Water. That's true. So naturally your foes will be sure to attack you only when there's plenty of water around…that's false." Faster than her eye could follow, he whipped a boomerang at her. It swooped low and struck her in the legs, knocking her off her feet again. Hydraxon gestured at the landscape around them. It was barren desert for as far as the eye could see. The humidity in the air was close to zero. "If you want water, you're going to have to make it yourself," he said. "Provided I don't carve you up before you get the chance."

Gali sprang up this time and charged Hydraxon, swinging the hooked tools she carried. He caught one on his armored wrist, grabbed her arm with his free hand, and tossed her over his hip. She landed flat on her back. "I could do this all day," Hydraxon said, smiling. "And if you keep thinking with your heart, not your head, I'll probably have to."

Gali scrambled to her feet, but this time she didn't attack. Instead, she took a few steps backward, keeping her eyes trained on Hydraxon's hands. If he was going to toss another blade or boomerang, this time she would be ready. As it turned out, his hands never moved. Instead, his back blades, triggered mentally, flew from him, circled behind her and knocked her mask off again. He lashed out with a kick at a nearby dune, spraying a load of sand into her face. While she was blinded, he threw two more knives, knocking both hooks from her hands. "Now your power's been diminished, you're disarmed, and you can't see," he said. "That means you have about half a second to live…and that's if your enemy's slow."

Just keep talking, Gali thought. We'll see who has how much time left. Concentrating hard, she fired a jet of water from the palm of her hand at his voice (the strongest she could manage, without her mask, anyway). It hit Hydraxon with the force of a small explosion, knocking him to the ground. When her vision cleared, she saw him reaching for one of his weapons. She fired again, pinning him to the ground with her water blast. "Give up?" she asked.

"Not even a little," Hydraxon said.

Gali heard movement behind her too late. A silver energy hound slammed into her from behind, putting her face-first in the sand. With her concentration and aim shattered, her water blast was cut off. Hydraxon got up, grabbed her by the back of the neck, and hauled her to her feet. "Meet Spinax," he said, gesturing to the four-legged beast who still eyed her warily. "After I'm done training you would-be heroes, I have a new assignment, and he's coming along. For now, though, he helps prove a point—the danger isn't always what you see. Often, it's what you don't see until it's too late."

Gali spat out sand. Somehow, she managed a smile. "I don't envy the group working with you in your next job," she teased.

To her surprise, Hydraxon's face darkened. "You shouldn't. Trust me, you shouldn't envy them at all."

Suddenly uncomfortable, Gali tried to change the subject. "So, lesson learned. Are we done for today?"

Hydraxon, who had been lost in thought, suddenly seemed to remember she was there. "Hmmm? No, no. You have a fifteen-minute head start. Then I send Spinax after you. They say he can track a wisp of energy across a planet and back…so I suggest you start running."

"And what am I supposed to learn from that?" demanded Gali, as she hurriedly gathered her mask and weapons.

"It's not training for you," replied Hydraxon, smiling. "It's training for him."

X X X

By the time Gali made it back to the Toa's shelter, she was exhausted and sore. "Mask of Water Breathing," she sighed. "Big help when there's no water anywhere around."

Pohatu laughed. "I thought I'd be able to outrun the little beast with my mask, but that darn thing never gives up! Ran so fast I fused some of the sand to glass, and Spinax still caught me the second I slowed down. Kopaka's the only one who passed that test."

Gali turned to the Toa of Ice, perplexed. "What did you do?"

Kopaka shrugged. "I froze him."

"You didn't!"

"He did," said Lewa. The Toa of Air was floating halfway off the floor. Determined to master his Mask of Levitation, his feet were almost never on the ground anymore.

"So what happened?" asked Gali.

"Nothing," muttered Kopaka.

"Nothing?" Onua chuckled. "Hydraxon commended him on his 'original' thinking."

"And then knocked him flat," Tahu added. "Was it six times or eight times in a row, brother?"

"I didn't see you do any better, Toa of Ashes," bristled Kopaka.

"I guess a Mask of Shielding doesn't help much when the boomerangs keep hitting you from behind, huh, Tahu?" said Lewa.

Onua glanced at Tahu and Kopaka and saw neither one was laughing. "Well, we all need to do better," said the Toa of Earth. "Someday, it won't be a trainer we'll be up against, but the real thing."

"That cannot be soon enough for me," said Kopaka. "Perhaps then there will be less talking."

Lewa drifted back down to the ground, landing beside Gali. "Friendly sort, isn't he?" he whispered.

"He's a loner, but one who's smart enough to know he can't succeed alone," Gali replied. "It makes him angry, but he tries to keep it all frozen inside."

"While Tahu keeps fanning the flames between them, like he's trying to prove something," said Lewa. "Maybe we better stick together, sister. Those two could get us killed."

X X X

Photok was the first to sense something was terribly wrong. A feeling of weakness washed over him unlike anything he had ever felt. Instinctively, he knew what it was—the life was being drained from him. He saw Tanma slip from Lewa's back and fall to the floor. A few moments later, the two Toa were noticeably weakening.

No, not weakening, he realized. Dying. He looked up at the creature the four of them had been fighting. It was just standing there, unmoving, making no attempt to take advantage of its enemies' distress. That made no sense. If it was out to destroy them, why not do it? And how could it have the power to steal their lives without even touching them?

Suddenly, for an instant, the creature was gone, replaced by the mysterious third Toa. Pohatu saw that, too, and knew instantly what was going on. "An illusion," he cried out. "The monster's an illusion! We've been attacking our fellow Toa!"

Lewa, too weak to stand now, reached out toward his attacker. "Stop! We didn't meant to hurt-harm you! You're killing us!"

Pohatu wasn't about to wait for this strange new Toa to see reason. He took his best guess at where his foe was hovering, then used his power over stone to make the ground erupt at Toa Ignika's feet. The stone knocked Ignika's flier off course and he landed hard on the floor of the cavern. The distraction proved to be just enough to disrupt the new Toa's attack. The image of the creature abruptly vanished. In its place was a slightly stunned Toa Ignika.

Pohatu summoned all of his strength and charged, slamming into his attacker and pinning him to the wall. "Who are you?" shouted the Toa Nuva of Stone. "Why are you here? And don't try that little life-draining trick of yours again, or you're going to between a rock and a hard place, get me?"

Toa Ignika's eyes blazed. So this, the new being decided, is what anger feels like. What was the proper response to this emotion? Past experience told him living beings commit acts of violence when angry. Then, since he was now living also, that was what he would do.

Before any blow could be struck, Pohatu released him and stepped back, looking confused. "Wait a second," muttered the Toa of Stone. "Your mask…I didn't get a good look at it before. I know that mask—I saw carvings of it on Voya Nui. You're…you're wearing the Mask of Life! Who in Mata Nui's name are you?"