The Great Furnace was not as big or imposing as the Coliseum in the center of Metru Nui. It did not have the feeling of power and mystery that Ga-Metru's Great Temple possessed. But every Ta-Matoran looked at it with awe and wonder. It was a symbol of what made the Metru great—the power that turned solid protodermis molten liquid, and the skill to shape that raw material into the tools Matoran used every day.

Now Vakama stood outside the entrance, staring up at the reddish-black exterior, wondering just what was lurking in the heart of the flame.

"So this is the plan?" asked Onewa in disbelief. "We knock on the front door and ask if the Morbuzakh can come out to play?"

"l am not saying we should listen to all of Vhisola's fears," replied Nokama, making an effort to remain calm. "But if she is right—"

"If she is right, then we are facing more than just a plant," said Matau. "It can think-plan. And it probably already knows we're here."

"Then we won't keep it waiting," said Vakama. "Nuhrii, you and the other Matoran will accompany us inside, but stay back. There is no telling what we will encounter in there."

"One of us should stay out here to run for help, if need be," offered Ahkmou. "I volunteer."

"If we fail," said Onewa, "Metru Nui will be beyond help. Besides, you were so anxious to get the six Great Disks, Ahkmou, I think you should see them in action."

The six Toa Metru looked at each other. The time for talking had passed. Each knew that the challenges they had faced so far could not compare with what they were about to attempt. No one needed to say that this might be the last adventure for one or more of them. Their goodbyes to each other were exchanged in silence.

Vakama melted the lock on the massive door. With a final look at his friends, he opened the gateway to the Great Furnace.

As one, the Toa and Matoran entered the structure. Just inside the door was a small, bare chamber. Its purpose was to give Matoran a chance to prepare before they proceeded to the inferno inside, or give them a chance to rest after they had spent some time laboring in the furnace. Beyond this chamber was the outer ring, a buffer to keep the intense heat from reaching the outer walls of the building.

Surprisingly, there was no sign of the Morbuzakh here. A moment of panic swept through Vakama. What if they had been wrong? What if the king root was not here?

Then we find it, wherever it hides, he said to himself. There's no other choice. He grasped the handle of the door to the outer ring. Vakama could feel the heat through it. In his mind, he was prepared for almost anything on the other side of that door. But in his heart, he wondered if six new, still untried Toa Metru would have the power to prevail.

Disk launcher ready, Vakama threw open the door and rushed inside. Dim lightstones cast an unsettling glow on the long, narrow chamber. The air was filled with a strange, soft sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"What is that?" asked Vakama. "It sounds like hissing."

"No, not hissing," replied Nokama. "It's…whispering."

The Toa Metru stopped dead and looked around. The stone floor of the chamber was broken in numerous places. Growing from the cracks were small, twisted plants, with buds that stank of rot. Close inspection showed the buds were pulsating.

"It's them. The sounds are coming from them," Whenua said. "Are they…?"

Onewa stepped carefully, trying to avoid touching any of the plants. "Yes. They're young Morbuzakh. New vines growing to strangle the city."

The whispering grew louder. The children of the Morbuzakh sensed that they were not alone. A few of the plants began to stir, as if in a breeze. Then more started moving as agitation spread throughout the outer ring.

"We cannot allow these things to grow-thrive," said Matau.

"Let's see how they like a touch of frost." Nuju lowered his crystal spikes and sprayed a fine mist of ice over the plants. As the Toa watched, the ice spread across the entire crop. The plants began to sag beneath the weight, their whispering growing louder, then fainter. Finally, all was silent.

Nokama took a step forward and water splashed around her feet. "Nuju! The heat in here is melting your ice."

"Then I'll make more," said the Toa of Ice. He poured more and more of his energy through his tools, creating layer after layer of frost on top of the plants. Each time the heat of the Great Furnace would melt the ice and the plants would begin to struggle again. Then Nuju would call on more of his power.

The seesaw battle between Toa Metru and the flames of Ta-Metru went on for several long minutes. The other Toa could see that Nuju was weakening. He staggered and would have fallen if Matau had not caught him.

"My power…almost gone…" gasped Nuju.

This was a mistake, thought Vakama. Our true struggle is waiting beyond this chamber. We should have saved our power for that. But why would the Morbuzakh leave these young vines undefended?

The Toa of Fire got his answer in the next moment. Wave after wave of thorns flew from the walls, knifing through the air at the Toa Metru. "Toa! Defend yourselves!" Vakama shouted, hurling firebursts to incinerate the projectiles.

Whenua yelled as one of the thorns grazed his armor. He activated his earthshock drills and began shredding the thorns as they came close. Across the chamber, Matau was conjuring a wind funnel to blow the thorns away, while Nokama used her hydroblades to parry them. Onewa was having the most trouble, but he stood and let the thorns strike him to buy the Matoran time to seek shelter.

The six Matoran had hit the ground and were scrambling through the melted ice toward the door. Nuhrii glanced up and saw that the hail of thorns was heaviest near the exit. "We'll never make it!"

"We have to," said Ahkmou. "I'm not staying here!"

"Be quiet, Ahkmou!" snapped Tehutti. "We might not be here if it weren't for you. I saw something in the Archives once that might help us. Everyone join hands!" The other five Matoran did as Tehutti asked. "Now concentrate," the Onu-Matoran said. "We have to focus on our unity. That means you too, Ahkmou!"

At first, their efforts seemed to have no effect. Then a glow surrounded the six Matoran and their bodies grew hazy and indistinct. There was a sudden, bright burst of light, and when it faded, one Matoran stood where six had been before.

"We are one," the being said in a voice that sounded like a combination of the six Matoran. "We are the Matoran Nui."

The eyes of the merged being scanned the chamber. The Toa Metru were fighting for their lives against the thorn barrage, but making no progress. "We understand now," said the Matoran Nui. "No one Matoran's ambitions are more important than Metru Nui as a whole. We must aid the Toa."

The Matoran Nui darted forward, moving so quickly it dodged the thorns. Then with one blow it demolished the door to the inner chamber. The Toa Metru turned at the noise to stare in amazement at the new being in their midst.

"Go!" said the Matoran Nui. "Defeat the Morbuzakh and save the city! It is what you were meant to do!"

Vakama had a million questions, but no time to ask any of them. He turned to the other Toa and shouted, "Follow me!"

The six heroes of Metru Nui charged into the heart of the Great Furnace toward what might be their final conflict. The Matoran Nui watched them go, whispering, "Mata Nui protect you all." Then it turned and left the other direction.

Outside of the Great Furnace, the Matoran Nui split apart to become six Matoran again. They blinked and stumbled, drained from their experience. "That was incredible. The power!" said Ehrye.

"Let's do it again," said Vhisola. "Think of all we could do for our city."

"We could help in ways we wanted to with the disks!" Orkahm suggested.

Ahkmou shook his head and backed away. "No. No. No way. If you five want to risk your lives, go ahead, but count me out. I'm looking out for what's most important: me."

"Then go," said Nuhrii. "If unity, duty, and destiny mean nothing to you, run back to Po-Metru, Ahkmou."

The Po-Matoran laughed. "We'll see each other again. Don't worry. And then we will see just whose destiny will win out." With that, Ahkmou turned and fled into the shadows.

X X X

After braving many dangers, the Toa at last entered through the large doors into the inferno that was the Great Furnace.

"Vakama…the heat…" Nokama moaned, seriously drained.

Vakama, even with his resistance to extreme heat, had to agree—the very environment was taxing. His attention was on the actual furnace, though. "The heat is the least of our problems, sister," Vakama answered. "Look!"

The Toa Metru stood in the midst of a nightmare, stunned. The massive inner chamber of the Great Furnace had been transformed into a sanctuary for the king root of the Morbuzakh, an entity easily hundreds of times as tall as them. Dominating the massive, kio-tall room was a huge, thick, winding stalk that extended from the ground all the way to the rooftop. The winding stripe that ran down its length marked it as the source of the Morbuzakh plague.

Branches extended all along the root, entwining themselves with the masonry of the walls and floors. Around where the Toa walked, still more roots from the body were ingrained in the pathways leading to the central bowl of molten material. The king root had truly become a part of the Great Furnace. The Toa Metru could imagine each of those branches extending beyond the furnace, with multiple vines sprouting from them to threaten Metru Nui.

"Umm…I think we need more Toa," said Matau, at the sight.

"So monstrous," Nokama whispered. "I never dreamed..."

Meanwhile, waves and waves of intense heat kept washing over the Toa. Already Nuju and Whenua were beginning to weaken. Vakama turned to the Toa of Water, saying, "Nokama, you must use your power to try to keep us cool. Can you do it?"

"l don't know," replied Nokama. "l will do my best." The Toa of Water concentrated, calling on her energies to condense the moisture in the air into a cooling mist. It was an enormous drain, with the heat taking its toll on her as well. She could not help but wonder how long her strength would hold out, and what would happen if she fell.

Vakama felt overwhelmed. The king root was far bigger and more frightening than he had ever dreamed. How could six disks, even Great Disks, bring such a monstrosity down? But what choice did they have? Vakama didn't want to waste precious time. "Ready the Great Disks," he said. "We will strike together and—"

"Noooo!" The voice crackled like lightning in the minds of the Toa. "You will not desssstroy the Morbuzakh!"

"What? Who was that?" said Onewa, looking around.

"It wasssss l!" the voice boomed again.

"Mata Nui," whispered Nokama. "It's the Morbuzakh—it speaks!"

"Yessss, I sssspeak. I speak. I think. I feel. And Metru Nui sssshall be mine!"

Vakama could see no eyes or mouth anywhere on the root. It was not truly speaking, the Toa were simply hearing its thoughts. Worse, they could sense its feelings—an overwhelming hunger to possess the city and drive away anything that was not Morbuzakh. There was more there as well, traces of another intelligence, but they were too vague for the Toa to comprehend.

"My armssss extend to every part of thissss city," the Morbuzakh continued. "I am in the furnacesss, the canalsss, the chutesss." A mere shift of its form sent a tremor through the Great Furnace as it moved branch around a reinforced support structure. "The Matoran live and work only because I choossse to let them. But if they anger me—" The branch effortlessly squeezed ever so harder, crunching and destroying the pole to prove its point. "Firsst, I will drive the Matoran into the heart of the city, as I wass commanded; they must be forced away from the outskirtsss of the city, so they cannot essscape. Then I will claim Metru Nui as my own. Those who ssssurvive can ssserve the Morbuzakh, or perisssh."

The full horror of what they were hearing struck the Toa then. This was no mere overgrown menace, like the wild Rahi beasts that sometimes appeared in the city. The Morbuzakh was intelligent, cunning, and evil beyond anything they had ever imagined. None of them doubted that, if allowed to spread unchecked, this thing would do what it promised. Metru Nui would fall and the Matoran would become slaves of the Morbuzakh, or worse.

So shocked were the Toa Metru that none of them noticed a vine creeping up behind Whenua. "All will ssserve or perisssh, beginning with you!" It struck amazingly fast, ripping the Great Disk from the Toa's grasp and snaking up toward the ceiling.

"Hey!" he yelled, reaching up to grab it back but missing. Acting quickly, he jumped and caught a crook of the vines, which lifted him high into the air. "Come back with that!"

Nuju ran, leaped, and caught Whenua's legs, trying to weigh him down. He, too, was yanked off his feet and up toward the ceiling. The Morbuzakh vine whipped around violently in an effort to shake the Toa off. "Hang on!" shouted Nuju.

"Thanks! That was my plan!" Whenua called down. "Did you come up here just to tell me that?"

Down below, vines had wrapped themselves around Vakama and Onewa, but Matau had proven too fast for them. The Toa of Air darted across the floor, heading straight for the king root. "Morbuzakh, meet a Toa-hero!"

Before Matau's startled eyes, a new vine grew out of the root. Before he could change direction, the vine swatted him out of the air and sent him crashing into the wall.

Nokama, still straining to maintain her power, watched as Vakama's fire and Onewa's stone failed to make the vines break their grip. Above, Nuju had called upon his ice power but it was too weak to free him and Whenua.

This is all wrong, she thought. We are all fighting individual battles, instead of working as a team. There has to be a way to stop this thing! Ignoring the possible consequences, Nokama suddenly dropped her efforts to keep the Toa cool amid the awful heat. She fired a stream of water up from her hydro blades toward the vine that held Whenua's Great Disk, shouting, "Nuju! Freeze this!"

"Done," the Toa of Ice answered, doing as she asked. A simple touch with his crystal spike was enough to form the curving stream of water into an ice hook. That hook held the vine they were hanging onto in place. Reaching out and grabbing it, he used the ice to pull the end of the vine close. "Whenua! Now!"

Whenua thrust his earthshock drill forward to slice through the vine with one hand. With his other, he grabbed the part of the vine on the other side of the ice hook, whose tip was still curled around the Onu-Metru Great Disk. He pulled it hard against the hook, even as Nuju changed the ice from a rounded hook into a sharpened blade edge. The result of Whenua's strength pulling the plant against the ice scythe combined with his own high-powered earthshock drill was more than enough to roughly clip the end off.

"This thing needs pruning, anyway," Whenua cheered with Nuju.

The portion holding the Great Disk fell away and plunged toward the ground as the vine writhed. Nokama glanced at Matau, who had finally regained his feet. Her eyes met his and she knew he was ready. He raised his aero slicers and hurled a blast of air at the falling vine, blowing it toward Nokama. The Toa of Water caught it on the fly, tore the vine loose, and held the Great Disk up proudly.

"Your first defeat, monster!" she shouted at the king root. "But hardly your last!"

"You can delay me, but not defeat me!" The Morbuzakh's voice sounded like a swarm of metallic hornets as it raged on. "l am a part of Metru Nui now. I am thisss city, and it isss me!"

"Then we will tear you out by the roots, Morbuzakh!" Vakama shouted. "One way or another, your reign ends today!"

The vine holding Vakama swung him close to the body of the king root. Vakama took the opportunity to toss fireballs at the Morbuzakh, but the plant simply absorbed them. "Yesssss," said the Morbuzakh. "More! Fire feedssss me!"

Up above, Whenua looked down at Matau, who nodded. Then the Toa of Earth let go of the vine, sending Nuju and himself plummeting toward the ground. When they were midway through their fall, Matau sent two mighty gusts of wind toward them. The wind caught the two Toa and flung them across the chamber right at the vines holding Vakama and Onewa.

Toa of Ice and Toa of Earth slammed into the vines. The impact freed the two trapped Toa, who dropped to the ground. They had no chance to rest, however—Morbuzakh vines were now coming from every side, trying to grab the Toa or their Great Disks.

Now began a desperate struggle, for Toa Metru were not facing just one powerful, if immobile, enemy. They were fighting the thousand "arms" of the Morbuzakh, each as strong as the last, which struck and then slithered away. Toa tools flashed. Fire, ice, water, stone, earth, and cyclones filled the air. But for every vine the Toa struck down, three more rose to take its place.

Matau's winds may have helped free Nuju and Whenua and increase their numbers again, but it seemed that the Morbuzakh was right. The six Toa fought not one enemy, but hundreds, all reaching to steal the Great Disks.

Onewa slung his protopitons out again and again, trying to force the vines onto a defensive side. Nokama used explosive, high-pressure water splashes to keep the plant at bay but was quickly wearing out. Matau flew all around the area, avoiding and dodging vines before landing. Vakama launched fire bolts from his disk launcher with minimal effect against the heat-seeking creature. Whenua's vibrating drill was hard to use with precision. And Nuju's crystal spike kept getting caught and stuck in vines.

Eventually, the Toa began to tire. Without extensive practice in controlling and rationing their elemental energies, their powers began to run low. Little by little, the vines drove them away from the king root, growing bolder as they sensed the Toa slowing down.

"You cannot sssstop me," hissed the Morbuzakh. "You have not the ssstrength. That isss alright. Too weak to be heroesss, perhapsss, but you will ssstill make excellent ssslavesss."

"It's right," said Vakama. "We can't win this way."

Onewa drove off another vine and looked at the Toa of Fire in disbelief. "This was your idea, and now you're quitting? What kind of a Toa are you?"

"Stop fighting," Vakama said flatly. "It's our only chance."

"You have gone around the chute," said Matau, slicing away at an unrelenting tree branch. "If we stop hard-fighting, the vines will overwhelm us and drag us right to the—ohhh." The Toa of Air suddenly stopped and a broad smile appeared on his face. "For a fire-spitter, Vakama, sometimes you can be almost as quick-smart as a Le-Matoran."

Vakama checked to make sure that all the Toa had their Great Disks in their hands. Then he shouted, "Now!" As one, they dropped their Toa tools and stopped struggling against the vines. At first, the Morbuzakh did not seem to know how to react. When the king root spoke in their minds, there was confusion in its tone. "You would not sssurrender. Thisss is sssome trick. My vinesss could crusssh you where you ssstand!" Vines started to reach out, but stopped.

"Then do it," said Nokama. "Don't just talk about it."

"You know, maybe when we are done here, we could transplant this thing to Ga-Metru," Whenua suggested. "You know, add it to the garden near the canals. Ga-Matoran could climb it and build root-houses."

"As long as it stops speaking," said Nuju. "There is nothing I dislike more than a talkative shrub."

"Do what you like, Morbuzakh," snapped Onewa. "I would rather be fed to the Great Furnace than live in a city run by an obnoxious, foul-smelling, overgrown pile of vegetable matter good for nothing but clogging canals."

Even Matau winced at that, but the Morbuzakh was more offended. Its bellow was so loud the Toa thought for sure their heads would split open. Six vines shot out around and wrapped around the heroes' waists, hauling them through the air toward the king root. The pressure of the vines was tremendous, threatening to squeeze the air out of the Toa's lungs as they were pulled unbearably close to the blazing protodermis edge of the furnace.

"Before you ssserve, you will sssuffer!"

Vakama held up his Great Disk as the other Toa did the same. "No, Morbuzakh." There was a fighting tone back in his voice. "You have had your season. The time for the harvest has come!"

Pure power flashed from the six glowing Great Disks, forming blindingly bright bands of energy that twisted around each other. Lightning flashed wherever two bands touched, striking at the vines that reached for the Toa. Then the energies blended together, forming a sphere in mid-air that moved slowly and inexorably toward the Morbuzakh. It grew and grew, with no end in sight, starting about the size of a Toa before growing to half the size of the root. Even then, it continued.

"Onewa…the pressure from the vines…" Nokama said desperately. "I feel faint…I'm blacking out…"

"Hold on, sister!" Onewa encouraged, grabbing his Disk with both hands. "Our victory is at hand!"

Desperately, the Morbuzakh tried to escape its own end. It writhed, the sheer power of its vines pulling down the walls of the Great Furnace. Masonry rained down from the ceiling as the plant's upper branches tried to batter their way to freedom. Great blocks of protodermis crumbled and fell into the flames, consumed in an instant, and still the Morbuzakh struggled. It had truly become one with this fortress of fire, and now both were about to fall.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the Toa fought their way free of the vines that imprisoned them. "We're free!" Matau cried.

"But far from safe!" Whenua answered.

Vakama looked around, watching the destruction unfold. "The Morbuzakh has become one with the Great Furnace—grown into it! In trying to escape, it is bringing the building down!" He looked up and saw that power no longer flowed from his Great Disk, nor from any of the others. But the sphere still existed, growing larger and larger every moment. "Toa, we have to go! Now!" he shouted. "The Morbuzakh will bring the Great Furnace down upon us!"

Then came a sound the Toa Metru would remember for the rest of their lives: the sound of the king root screaming. "Noooooooooo…" it wailed in vain when the the sphere touched it.

That put an end to any arguments there might have been. Instead, the Toa raced for the exit to the outer chamber, pausing only to pick up their tools. They ran; the Morbuzakh's time had come.

The Toa bolted back through the heavy doors the Matoran Nui had smashed and opened for them, those through which they had entered. "Last one out is Vahki bones!" Whenua called at the back of the group.

"Be quiet and flee, librarian!" Nuju yelled back.

They did not stop running until they were far from the Great Furnace and the thing that had dwelled inside. "What will happen to the dark-plant now?" Matau asked.

Only Vakama dared to look back. I think we are about to find out, he thought. Through the crumbling walls, he could see that the energy sphere now encompassed the king root. The sphere's energy surface had sliced through the multitude of vines, the high branches, and the deep roots that anchored the Morbuzakh in the ground. All around, the plant growth that had menaced Metru Nui was writhing and crumbling to dust.

The king root hung suspended in the air now, trapped within the energy sphere. Cut off from the ground below and from its branches and vines, the root could no longer draw energy from the fires of Ta-Metru or feed it to the rest of the plant. It was alive, but isolated, a creature once connected with all of Metru Nui and now utterly alone. Eventually, its howls of rage began to fade away in the minds of the Toa, replaced by the sound of their own thoughts.

The Great Furnace was now nothing but rubble and flames. Before the eyes of the Toa, the sphere glowed amid the wreckage as the struggles of the king root ceased. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the energy was gone. The king root struck the ground with a resounding crash and then crumbled to nothing before the Toa of Fire's astounded eyes.

X X X

All around the city, Matoran looked on in wonder as the Morbuzakh vines turned to dust. With no king root to feed them, the vines likewise withered and died all over the city. Soon, there would be no sign of the plant left except for the damage it had done. But the defeat of the Morbuzakh would not bring back all the Matoran who had vanished since the vines had first appeared in Metru Nui.

Metru Nui, it seemed, was safe once more.

X X X

Back at the ruins of the Great Furnace, Nokama looked at Vakama. "Is it really over?"

"Yes. It is…over," said the Toa of Fire. "With the king root gone, the rest of the Morbuzakh should soon follow. We have passed our first test as Toa Metru."

"Then why are we standing here?" asked Matau. He smiled and hugged the Le-Metru Great Disk. "Let's bring these ever-powerful disks to the Coliseum and tell the world we are Toa-heroes!"

The six Toa Metru looked at each other and smiled. Matau's idea sounded like a good one. After all, despite their differences, they had found the Great Disks, defeated the Morbuzakh, and saved their city.

It was the Toa of Ice who still had something to think about. Nuju walked up to the wreckage of the doorway leading to the Great Furnace. Nokama could sense a question coming. "Nuju?"

"Only one thing troubles me, brothers…" Nuju said, after more thought. "The Morbuzakh said it had driven the Matoran into the heart of the city 'as it was commanded.'" An uncomfortable silence settled.

"Who could command such a monster?" Whenua wondered.

"Why would they plot against the Matoran?" Matau added.

"Yes, those, too," Nuju said. "But most importantly…"

Vakama nodded slowly. "—will they strike again?" he finished.

Another silence followed, one without answers. Grimly, the Toa could do nothing but leave. As they walked away from the site of their first great victory, there was one thing that they knew for certain: they knew they were no longer the Matoran they had been…or even the new Toa they had become…

They were heroes of Metru Nui.

X X X

Now...

Turaga Vakama used his firestaff to help him rise from his seat, signaling that his tale had come to an end. Takanuva, the Toa of Light, stood as well, smiling. "What a wonderful story!" he said. "The six of you started out as Matoran, just like I did, and became heroes."

"Yes," Turaga Vakama confirmed to the still surprised listeners. "In the Before Time, those you know as Turaga were simple Matoran—we were among those you know today. One moment we were Matoran…the next, we were gifted with the power of Toa! At first, none of us could believe what had happened, but we quickly realized it was the truth, for better or worse."

"I bet the whole city turned out to cheer for you!" Takanuva supposed.

Vakama chuckled. "You are attaching a happy ending to my tale, Takanuva, because you wish there to be one. But there is much more to tell. None of us could have predicted how soon things would change…or all of the great and terrible things that change would bring."

"You had a vision when you first became a Toa," said Tahu, Toa of Fire. "A vision of disaster. Did defeating the Morbuzakh spare the city from that terrible event?"

"It spared the city from the Morbuzakh," answered Turaga Vakama. "We believed that was enough. Our world was very simple, Tahu, with good on one side and evil on the other."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Onua. "l mean, we Toa challenged the Rahi and many other threats to this island. We fought for justice and to defend the Matoran and their villages. We stood up for the light and defeated the darkness that rose against us."

"You are very wise, Onua," said Vakama. "But you have only the wisdom of your experience. That is why you are here now—to gain the wisdom of mine."

There was an uncomfortable silence, broken finally by Takanuva. "It's late. I suppose we should leave Turaga Vakama to his rest. There will be time tomorrow for another tale. There is another tale to tell, isn't there, Turaga?"

"Oh, yes, Takanuva," said Vakama. A dark one indeed, he added to himself.

The Toa departed, all but Gali. She had always been sensitive to others' moods, and she could tell that Vakama was troubled. It was more than just confronting the memories of his past. It seemed as if there were some terrible secret he knew he must share, but dreaded doing so. "Why do you tell these tales, Turaga?" she asked softly. "Is it only to prepare us for the journey to Metru Nui, and what we may encounter there?"

"You already know the answer," he said, "or you would not ask the question. No, there is a great difference between the Toa Nuva that you are, and the Toa Metru that we Turaga were long ago. Your enemies hide in the shadows, but you know they are there. They make no effort to hide the darkness in their hearts. For us, it was…different."

"But you were strong," she said. "You triumphed. You had the three virtues to guide you—Unity, Duty, Destiny."

"Yes, we six had done our duty, we believed," Vakama said, with a trace of sadness in his voice. "And we felt certain we had achieved our destiny. But our unity? That still remained to be forged in the fires of danger, far greater danger than we had known before."

Vakama leaned on his firestaff. Not for the first time, Gali found it hard to believe that the elderly Turaga had once been a mighty Toa Metru. "You see, Toa of Water, we believed that we knew all we needed to know to be heroes. We could challenge an enemy, outwit it, defeat it, save Matoran, even save a city. Oh, we still needed training in our powers and we still had to master our masks. But being a hero? There was nothing left for us to learn there, we felt sure."

Vakama looked at Gali. She understood now that his eyes had seen a greater darkness than any Toa Nuva could comprehend. What happened on Metru Nui? she wondered.

"We thought we knew it all. But we were wrong, Gali, so very wrong. Our true lessons were about to begin."

To be continued in "Bionicle - Phase 03: Provenance - Part III: The Darkness Below"...

(Botanical Predator was compiled from the guide book BIONICLE: Metru Nui - City of Legends; the book Adventures 2: Trial by Fire; and Graphic Novel 3: City of Legends, containing Comics 17-18: Disks of Danger, and Seeds of Doom)