"Now what do we do?" Pohatu asked nervously, eyes wide as he looked at Iruini. Where could they go? How could they tell what was moving in on them? Whatever it was had been persistent enough to follow them down several long and winding tunnels, and by this point Iruini was starting to get tired. Puffing quietly as he looked behind them, towards the echoing sound of footsteps, the Rahaga gasped out.

"You and Gali go into that hallway and hide. I'll go down the one beside me. If we're lucky, we can catch this thing in a crossfire and bring it down." Gali swallowed.

"And if that doesn't work?" She asked nervously. Iruini grimaced.

"We'll deal with that if it happens. Now move!" The two teenagers nodded and headed into the tunnel Iruini had indicated, Gali holding onto Pohatu's hand tightly the whole time and trying not to stumble on bits of debris that'd fallen from the ceiling. Iruini's Rhotuka could still be seen, though it was faint, and as whatever had been following them drew closer, a light was growing steadily brighter. Pohatu blinked at this, leaning forwards a bit to try and get a better look, though Gali pulled him back, hands trembling as she whispered.

"What if it sees you?" He had to admit she had a point, and even if she hadn't he would've moved back simply because she was scared. Giving her a reassuring smile, he whispered back.

"Don't worry Gali. I'm not going anywhere." Nervously, she squeezed his hand, her own incredibly sweaty, though remarkably not grotesque and warm. Pohatu gave a light squeeze in return as he looked back into the other hall. By now the creature was moving into view, and when he saw just what it was, Pohatu was not only shocked out of his wits, but also devastated, if not utterly horrified.

The creature was tall and well muscled, with pale, silvery-grey fur covering his lower arms, what could be seen of his deformed legs, his large and wolf-like feet, and his back. Not only did he have fur on his frame, he also had a silver-grey, wolf-like tail, the fur on the tip of it pearly white. His fur-covered hands were, for the most part, normal, as his palms were bare, and he had four fingers and a thumb on each, but his fingernails were charcoal grey in color, long, and appeared to be incredibly sharp. His hair, on the other hand, was pearly white, messy, and ear-length, his eyes wolf-like and a feral, icy blue.

As far as clothing was concerned he was wearing a pair of ripped up, three-quarter –length, dusty grey pants, and had what resembled bandage strips covering his chest from the armpits down to his waist. A dark grey shackle was clamped around his left ankle, around five inches of chain hanging off of it, and hanging at his neck was a thin, silver chain on which a golden wedding band hung.

Despite the horrific mutations, Pohatu and Gali had recognized the Hordika at once. Both ran towards him, tears streaming down Gali's cheeks as she hugged the mutated Toa of Ice. He staggered as the fourteen year old virtually ran into him, looking highly alarmed and blinking several times as he lifted the lightstone lantern he was holding, looking the two Toa Mata over with surprise.

"Pohatu? Gali? What in Mata Nui's name are you doing here? Where are the others?" Pohatu shook his head a bit, still just too relieved to see that Nuju was actually alive.

"It's a long story." He replied with a weak grimace. "But to put it simply, we came back, got split up, and just ended up finding you." Iruini moved into view now, his expression an unimpressed one. Looking Nuju over as though sizing him up, the Rahaga commented.

"Ever-good to see that you're still sane-minded. But what are you doing down here, and why were you following us? You nearly got yourself attacked." The Hordika sighed, his expression a grim one.

"I couldn't be sure if you were allies or enemies. Whenua nearly got tricked by one of the Visorak earlier, and I wasn't about to risk falling to something similar." Iruini thought his words over for a little while before getting a suspicious gleam in his eyes.

"If Hordika Whenua nearly got clever-tricked, where is he now?" Nuju's grimace grew a little bigger.

"He brought a tunnel wall down to cut some of the Visorak off. His calculations were off though and we were split up. Not only that, but his power seemed a bit more out of control than it should have been. Something about this mutation either gave us more power, or just made it harder to handle."

"He's okay though, right?" Gali asked. "I mean, Whenua's going to make it?" The Hordika shook his head, sighing quietly. After a moment of hesitation, he replied finally.

"I'm not sure, Gali, but I fear for the worst. The only other way out of that passage, as far as I know, was through the Visorak, and I doubt that even Whenua would be able to fight out of that." He glanced around a bit now, his expression grim and his fur bristling. "We need to move." Iruini glanced around now too, looking for danger whilst Pohatu and Gali exchanged looks of confusion and unease.

"Which direction?" Iruini asked quietly, giving a brief and incredibly serious glance to Nuju. The mutated Toa of Ice grimaced again, his expression grave and the gleam in his eyes betraying his own fear.

"We want to go left. Now." No sooner had he finished speaking than a grey energy disk hurtled out of the darkness, striking Iruini and sending him crashing to the floor in an untidy heap. Gali nearly screamed, Pohatu's hand cutting her off as he covered her mouth. Nuju pushed his lantern into Gali's hands. "Run. Don't look back, and don't make any noise." Before the Toa of Water even had a chance to argue, Pohatu picked her up, bridal style, and took off down the hallway, his grip on Gali tight, though not crushingly so.

"What about Toa Nuju, or Iruini?" Gali asked frantically, though she kept her voice down. "We can't just leave them!" Pohatu shook his head.

"You heard what he said; don't turn back, don't make too much noise. He's counting on us to listen to him. Besides, he knows what he's doing." Gali was about to respond, but a resounding crash rang out first. Both teenagers winced, and Gali murmured.

"Are you sure about that still?"

"Uhm… I-I think so?" Glancing around, Pohatu veered off down a corridor on the right, skidding to a stop just one or two feet away from what remained of a collapsed segment of wall. "Hey Gali… got any other ideas? Because now would be a really good time for a plan." The fourteen year old squirmed her way out of his arms and looked the rubble heap over.

"Hm… seems fairly solid, b-but we might be able to push some of it away to climb over…or we could turn back and try to find another path." Pohatu thought it over for a few moments, looking between the rubble and the hall they'd just come from. It didn't take long for him to decide.

"Let's try and get past this rock." Moving over to the debris, the Toa of Stone started to climb it, pushing on different pieces from time to time before finally making one fall backwards and out of sight. "Hey, let's try up here. Do you need a hand up?" As he asked this, Pohatu had turned to look at her, only to discover that his Sister was already climbing, the lightstone lantern hanging off one of her battle hooks. Smiling a little, she looked up at him and replied.

"No thanks. I got it covered. Let's just get this done before anyone else finds us." Pohatu gave her an awkward grin as he nodded and turned his attention back to what he was doing. It surprised him to find that, with Gali's help of course, they were able to shift a lot of debris without making that much of a ruckus… well, almost Pohatu had just pushed on another large stone when, much to his surprise, as well as Gali's, the entire section he was leaning on fell away, dropping the startled fifteen year old into the chamber beyond. Letting out a yelp as he fell, earning a faint shriek from Gali, he rolled down the other side of the debris pile, ending up with his back against something cold and eerily fleshy in certain areas. Gali soon followed him into the chamber, her face going white as she lifted the lantern to see what Pohatu was now leaning against.

"Mata Nui…" The Toa of Stone rolled over and started getting up, taking note of Gali's expression and tone as he did so. Turning as he stood, he looked at the object with curiosity…

And found himself staring at a corpse. Eyes widening, he stumbled back a bit to stand beside Gali, his face paling and his expression sickened. The body was a young and fragile looking woman, fair featured and incredibly thin. Her hair was silvery white, long enough to reach her elbows perhaps, and her slightly open eyes appeared to be, or had been, golden yellow. As for the remains of her clothing, the body was dressed in a robe that may have been white at some point, covered in ornate patterns of gold colored embroidery, and on her ring finger was a golden wedding band. Were she to have still been alive, the woman probably would've been incredibly pretty. Pohatu made a swallowing noise, shivering as he murmured.

"Please tell me I didn't touch her…" Gali shuddered as well.

"…Y-you touched her…" Her Brother looked like he was just about read to throw up by this point, and nearly did, when something else caught his eye. Hands trembling, he managed to take the lantern from Gali, taking hold of her hand with his spare one, and leading her over to an odd, dust covered capsule of some sort. Mustering up just enough will power to speak, he whispered.

"Wh-what do you think is i-in there?" Gali shivered.

"N-not sure… want t-to check it out?" The Toa of Stone gave a weak nod, setting the lantern down and letting go of the fourteen year old's hand before carefully rolling the capsule over. A panel retracted at his touch, it seemed, because part of the strange contraption slid away, revealing the face of a four year old boy. His skin was faintly tanned, his features soft, and his hair, which was shoulder-length, was strawberry blonde with sky blue streaks. Not long after the pod had opened, the small child shifted a bit, showing signs of starting to wake up. Pohatu looked at Gali.

"Uhh… is it just me, o-or did things j-just get weird?" The girl just blinked, staring at the boy with utmost confusion as she moved and carefully pulled him out of the capsule. Grimacing at the boy's cold skin and lack of shirt, she said quietly.

"Pohatu, give him your shirt." The fifteen year old blinked.

"Give him yo-oh… n-never mind what I a-almost said." Ignoring, or trying to ignore, Gali's stern look, the Toa of Stone took his shirt off and handed it over, shivering as the cold air rushed over his now bare skin. "…Gali…" He asked finally. "What are we even going to call him?" She glanced at her brother before pointing out an inscription on the pod's 'door', and as Pohatu took a closer look, he saw that it was a name.

Takua.