Back in the present at Le-Koro, Kongu walked toward Turaga Matau's hut and knocked on the door. When a reply didn't come, he tried again, "Turaga, may I come in?" Still nothing and he opened the door a crack. At first, there didn't seem to be any sign of the Turaga until he opened it a little more. There, in the center of the hut lay Matau. Kongu was beside him in an instant, "Turaga Matau, are you fine-alright?" When he didn't get a response, he carefully rolled him onto his back. His heartlight was on, but his eyes were dark. Kongu tried to rouse him with a gentle shake, but to no avail. Suddenly, the elder's body warped and, for a brief moment, his armor, mask, and stature changed into a more Matoran-like form before it returned to normal. The Le-Matoran didn't know what to make of the sight, but he did know one thing for certain—it couldn't mean anything good.
At the desert of Po-Wahi, Toa Pohatu was on his way back to his village when he spotted a curious sight. It was Hewkii waving his arms in the air. Pohatu grinned and, believing the Po-Matoran was welcoming him back to his home region, he offered a friendly wave back. He was about to get back on his way when he noticed something. Hewkii seemed to be waving in a frantic fashion. 'He's not waving a welcome,' he realized. 'He's trying to wave me down, get my attention.' Using his Mask of Power, he stood before the Matoran faster than one could blink, causing Hewkii to fall onto his back out of surprise. "Sorry, Hewkii, didn't mean to startle you," he apologized as he helped the little one up. "What's the trouble?"
"It's Turaga Onewa. Something's wrong with him," Hewkii answered as he directed the Toa of Stone to the Turaga, who was lying on the ground in the shade of the rock wall.
"What happened?" asked the Stone Toa concernedly.
"I don't know, he just collapsed. One minute he was fine, the next I found him as if he'd been struck down."
"We need to get him to the village, then."
With the Turaga in his arms and Hewkii on his back, the Toa of Stone used his mask power of speed to get to the village as fast as he could move. Once they got him in his hut and Pohatu set him on his bed, the Turaga's body warped into a Matoran form for a brief moment, then he was back to normal. Toa and Matoran looked at each other, both at a loss of what to make of what they saw.
Later that night, Vakama made his way to the Amaja Circle at the Kini Nui. Normally, over the past few nights, he'd been carrying the burden of sharing the tales of Metru Nui on his shoulders as if it were an actual load. Now, he carried an extra burden in his mind, a burden known as worry. Earlier that day, he had received word that two of his brother Turaga had been stricken with something that couldn't be diagnosed—something that had kept them unconscious and made their bodies occasionally change into their Matoran forms. He sent word to the other Turaga and asked if they'd been experiencing anything of the sort. Needless to say, he was relieved to find that they had not. However, they did note that over the last few days, they did go through some strange and unpredictable bouts of dizziness and feeling something happening to them. Vakama not only experienced those symptoms himself, but he also had a theory as to why it happened, and Matau and Onewa seemed to be in the final stage of the affliction. If he had to hazard a guess, and he did, what was happening was, back in the past, the two had not yet been returned to their Toa stature after having their powers stolen, and if that wasn't corrected soon, he didn't even want to fathom the possibilities. "Please, Kit, hurry," he silently pleaded as if the girl were right next to him.
Onewa and Matau sat in the shield prison in which Darcius had placed them about ten minutes ago. At least, Onewa was sitting, watching his friend continuously trying to ram his way out, but to no avail. He was flung back every time. "Do you have to keep doing that?" asked Onewa, a little annoyed.
"At least, until you come up with a bright-brilliant idea on how to get us out of here," Matau retorted. "Or until the others come back."
Onewa sighed, reminding himself that since his power over stone was gone, the only thing he could think of was to try to dig their way out through the floor. However, the ground was quite hard and they had nothing with which to dig but their bare hands, and, knowing Darcius, they couldn't wait for the others to rescue them. Seeing that they had no other choice, he told the Le-Matoran to start digging. Matau was a bit skeptical, and didn't like the idea very much, but he conceded and helped Onewa. About five more minutes passed and they hadn't made much progress. The hole they made was only a few inches deep and their fingers were beginning to ache really badly. Matau was about to say something when he thought he saw some movement among the spiked rocks. Before he could inform Onewa, the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard. The two immediately halted their efforts in time to find Darcius walking toward them.
"Alright, who's first?" he asked. His hand reached down and through the shield, as if it wasn't even there. "How about you?"
He grabbed Onewa by the arm and yanked him up. For a brief moment, the Po-Matoran felt pain surge through his body as he went through the shield, then it felt like every part of him just went numb and dead. Matau frantically pounded and pushed at the shield as Darcius walked a little ways. Then, he threw the Matoran to the ground held his palm up, and curved his fingers. A small black tendril popped out of the ground and wound itself around Onewa's wrists, tying his hands behind his back. While Onewa tried to free himself, Darcius commanded, "Come." Then, right before the Po-Matoran's eyes, a gigantic dragon-like creature materialized. It was a deep blue and had slitted dark red eyes. A shield adorned its head like a crown and wings, that Onewa guessed, were they to unfold, would stretch to twice the length of its body, and it had a long, whip-like tail.
The beast looked at the little one before it, questioningly looked to Darcius, who nodded in answer, then eyed the Po-Matoran like a predator that had spotted prey. At first, Onewa wanted to run, but remembered that he didn't run as a Toa if he could help it, and he wasn't about to start now. So, he stood his ground and held his head high, refusing to give this creature the satisfaction of seeing him run in fear. The beast's expression changed to puzzlement; why wasn't this one running? Wasn't it afraid? It gave off as much of a shrug as a dragon could give. If it wasn't going to run, then it would make it. Rearing its head back, it opened its mouth and lunged, preparing to swallow Onewa in one gulp. Onewa kept perfectly still until the last possible second and pitched forward. The creature spit out the small amount of dirt and rock it bit into and looked around in confusion. Where did the little one go? It looked underneath itself just in time to spot Onewa running for Darcius and the shield-cage Matau was still trapped in. It lifted a forepaw, blocked the Po-Matoran's path, and slid him back to it. Once the sliding stopped, Onewa tried again, only to have the beast block his way. Now, whenever Onewa tried to gain some distance from the monster, it would either place a foot in front of him, or scoop him back toward it. Frustrating as it was, Onewa decided to try one more time and broke for it when he got a chance. The dragon-like monster noticed him at it again, reached out with its mouth and, with careful precision, grabbed hold of the bonds with its sharp teeth. Try as he might, even digging his feet into the ground, Onewa couldn't pull away as the creature dragged him back. This happened two more times before Onewa came up with a plan. The next time the draconic-creature reached out for him, he ducked and rolled just before it grabbed hold. Not prepared for this maneuver at all, the monster missed its target, and Onewa got back up and continued running. Twice, the beast tried to stop him, twice Onewa dodged it. The Matoran was about to think he had finally outsmarted the beast when he fell to the floor and found himself being dragged back again. He turned onto his side to find that the creature had wrapped its tail around his ankle. Desperate, he tried kicking at it with his free leg, but his efforts didn't even faze the creature, as if it couldn't feel it. When the tail let go, he was about to get back on his feet when he was suddenly lifted up and found himself dangling in the air. The dragon-monster then started tossing its head, with Onewa in tow. When it stopped, Onewa made a mental note that he never wanted to go through something like that again and hoped the monster wouldn't start again; he was feeling a little sick right now. Thankfully, he got over it quickly and he glared at the dragon, "Put me down, you overgrown tunneler." The beast released its hold, letting Onewa take a thirty foot plunge to the ground. The Matoran hit the ground hard on his frontside, forcing the wind out of him. As he lay there breathing harsh gasps, Onewa, for some reason, wondered why the thing hadn't just eaten him already. Even with his hands unbound, he would still not put up anything worth being called a fight and there was nothing to stop it from just swallowing him whole. When the answer came to him, he wished it hadn't. He had seen this behavior before when he saw alitter of three Muaka cubs messing with a stone rat under the watchful eye of their parent. After much playful swatting, batting, pouncing, and pulling on the rat's tail, thecubs finally killed the rodent andfought over the scrawny meal. 'That's exactly what this dragon is doing,' he said to himself. 'It's playing with its food before it eats it.' All of this time, it was just toying with him until it would decide that it had enough fun.
The monster nudged him onto his back with its nose and, after eyeing the helpless Matoran for a minute, decided it was snack time. A very, very, very light snack, even with the green one, but a snack nonetheless. It was about to scoop Onewa up into its mouth when Darcius slammed into its face, startling it. Onewa turned to see his friends by the shield just before Nuju used his Mask of Telekinesis to bring him to them. Vakama used just enough fire to carefully burn away Onewa's bond. Quickly, Kit handed him his power orb, all charged and ready to go. Onewa didn't need to be told twice, absorbed his powers, and was back to his normal Toa self. "Hey, what about mine?" Matau asked from inside the cage.
"Don't worry, Matau, we haven't forgotten," Whenua chuckled as he, Kit, Vakama, and Onewa got to work on downing the shield.
Within moments, he was free, but before Kit could hand him his orb, Darcius launched an attack. The group had to split in half to keep from being hit, if not worse. The beast roared, stood on its hindlegs, and the cavern trembled violently when it brought it itself down, sending rock and stalactites raining down on the team. 'Never a Kanohi Hau around when you need one,' Kit thought to herself as she and the five Toa Metru moved quickly to deal with assault. Vakama melted them with his fire, Nuju moved them away with his mask, Nokama shot them away with water jets, Whenua and Onewa did their best to guide them away, and Kit blasted them into smithereens with her energy powers. When it was over, they were still standing, and the monster lunged at Whenua, its teeth bared. Onewa, though, leaped and slashed one of his proto pitons across its left eye. Immediately, it roared in pain and reared its head back. The Toa of Stone noticed that, when it turned its attention to him, there was a nasty cut from its brow to just beneath its eye socket. He could sense the creature's hatred for him emanating from those red eyes.
Nokama noticed that the only thing that was keeping the creature from flying was the low ceiling. 'Probably a good thing too,' she said to herself. 'I wouldn't want to face that thing when it was able to fly.'
"Leave," Darcius commanded the dragon-monster. "Your bulk is too great, you'd only get in the way. You'd bring the cavern down on all of us and flying is your specialty, which you can't do here." The beast looked to him and reluctantly bowed its head. As much as it wanted to stay and fight and kill the one responsible for its wound, it dared not disobey its master, and it shimmered away from sight. Now, the real battle was on.
Fireballs, water jets, rocks and boulders, ice darts and telekinetically hurled projectiles, waves of earth, energy balls and beams, and energy bolts were suddenly everywhere in the cavern as the two sides fought. Finding himself attacked on all sides, Darcius let loose his most powerful flurry of bolts yet, sending Nokama, Nuju, Whenua, Matau and Kit into unconsciousness. "Five down, two to go," Darcius mused aloud. "And then, this world will be mine."
"Don't count all of your sculptures before they're carved," Onewa warned as he charged toward the man.
Darcius, however, curved up his fingers, and four vine-like shadows shot out of the ground. They entwined themselves around the Stone Toa's wrists and ankles, causing him to lose his grip on his weapons, lifted him up, then held him to the ground. Onewa struggled and pulled as hard as he could, but his bonds held tight and wouldn't budge in the least. He glanced up with defiance in his eyes when Darcius loomed over him, warming up the finishing blow.
Suddenly, Darcius found himself clouted hard and sent to the ground. "What the--" he wondered as he rubbed his cheek, only to receive his answer when Vakama became visible.
"I guess it's just you and me, Darcius," said the Toa of Fire.
When Darcius heard some moaning to the side, an idea struck him. Faster than Vakama could register what happened, Darcius had hold of Matau and shimmered out of sight, only to reappear on the other side of the canyon, holding the Le-Matoran by the ankle over the edge. "Vakama, help me!" Matau called out.
Vakama sprinted closer to the ledge and readied his disk launcher when Darcius said, "Try anything, Toa of Fire, and your little friend takes a plunge into the fiery river below."
Still, Vakama took aim, sure that his disk would strike before Darcius could carry out his threat. And yet, his arm shook and doubt showed in his eyes; he just couldn't do it, it was too risky. On top of that, the scene before him made him remember that awful time when he was taken hostage and Lhikan was taken away. Only, this time, he was in Lhikan's place. And so, he did the exact same thing the former guardian of his city did, he signaled his surrender by throwing down his tool. Seeing this, Darcius again curved his fingers, thus summoning multiple vine-like shadows to restrain the Fire Toa. They pulled him down to his knees, tied his hands behind him, wrapped around his upper arms, and one pulled back a little on his neck. "Fool," Darcius sneered, "even with all of you put together you couldn't defeat me. Now, you and the others will share this one's fate." And, he released his hold on Matau, who plunged toward the river of lava below.
"Noooooooo!" Vakama cried, and he struggled hard to free himself, but he couldn't move.
He could do nothing but bow his head as much as the vine around his neck would let him, shut his eyes, and feel like he had failed. Lhikan who counted on him and the others to save the Matoran, the other Toa Metru who looked to him as their leader, Matau who pleaded to him to save him, and, most of all, himself for failing as a Toa. The feeling itself was nearly suffocating; he could barely breathe. Darcius, meanwhile, laughed at the Toa's despair and waited for the splashing sound of the little one's doom, and waited, and waited. A confused frown soon formed on his face. Matau should've hit the lava by now, so where was the splash? He peered over the edge only to be knocked to the ground by an upper-cut. Groaning, he felt his jaw and looked back to a sight that made him gasp. It was Kit, hovering in the air via her rocket pack, with Matau, safe and sound, in her arm. As she landed, she let out a raspberry and used an index finger to pull down her lower eyelid, all for Darcius.
"How?" was all he could think to ask.
"Simple," Kit replied, "once I regained consciousness and saw what you were up to, I stuck to the shadows and waited down in the canyon."
Turning to Vakama, Kit used small energy balls to free him. Darcius then released his bolts, but Vakama grabbed the two and leapt back, dodging the attack. Hearing someone call to them, the three turned to find the rest of the Toa Metru heading for them. Darcius shimmered across the gap and attacked again. Kit confronted him and the two exchanged attack after attack after attack. Soon, the Toa noticed that the both of them looked tired, but neither was willing to give in to the other.
"I could still . . . call for my beasts you know," Darcius panted, "and . . . they'll tear . . . both you and your friends . . . to shreds."
"Not . . . gonna happen," Kit replied defiantly.
Darcius then called upon all of his remaining strength to launch another attack, but Kit dodged, leaping into the air. She twisted and sent Darcius to the ground with a powered-up sidekick. He just barely skidded to a stop at the edge and struggled to get up. "As my friend the Terminator once said," Kit said as she aimed a gun-hand at him just as he managed to find his feet, then continued, "'Asta la vista, baby,'" in the best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice she could muster. The narrow energy beam streaked out and struck Darcius' chest.
With a pained cry, he clutched it as he leaned over the canyon. As the force of the hit made him fall, he recalled the crystal Kit mentioned. The crystal, of course. It had to be the source of her powers, and, if she were separated from it, she would've been powerless. 'Why didn't I grab it when I had the chance?' he wondered as he fell. Then, he closed his eyes and knew no more.
The Toa looked over the ridge, but there was nothing but the river of lava. "I don't believe it," said Onewa. "You defeated him." Kit's shaking head, however, countered the Toa's belief of victory.
"I'm afraid he's not dead, unfortunately."
Before anyone could ask how she could be so sure, Whenua remembered, "That's right. If you encountered him in the future, then that must mean . . ."
Kit nodded as her clothes returned to normal, "I don't know how, but somehow he must've survived that and was recuperating the whole time."
It was then that Matau remembered he was still a Matoran. "Hey, Kit, do you still have my power-orb?" Kit summoned the green orb, then just gazed at it. "What's bad-wrong?" asked Matau.
"I don't know about this," she responded.
There was a short pause as the Toa and Matau looked in confusion. What was she unsure about? Then, she continued. "See, we've been so focused on getting you guys back to normal that I've forgotten that you guys actually looked kinda cute as Matoran." Mostly everyone blushed while Onewa didn't know what to think of the comment and Nuju had this slightly embarrassed look on his mask. "Anywho," said Kit, "with that said, seeing as Matau's the only one still a Matoran . . . I think I'll just keep the orb and leave him that way."
"Wha--" said Matau, his mouth practically dropping while the others just stared wide-eyed.
Kit burst out laughing and patted the Matoran's head, assuring him and the Toa that she was only joking. And so, with the green orb already charged up, she handed it to Matau and, in less than a minute, he was back to being a Toa. Now, they all wondered, how were they going to get out of there?
Suddenly, Whenua stiffened and looked around nervously. Vakama noticed, "What's wrong?"
"Didn't you guys just feel the earth shake?" asked the Toa of Earth.
As if in answer, the ground underneath Nuju's feet crumbled away, taking him with it. Thankfully, he had thought to grab a ledge in the rock. Turned out it was a good thing he did, for down below flames erupted to life. "Somebody!" he shouted over the roaring fire, the smoke making him cough a little. He heard Nokama's voice telling him to hang on and the next thing he knew, her hand grabbed hold of his wrist. Grabbing hold of hers, he was hoisted up to safety.
However, soon after, the same thing happened to Onewa and Vakama grabbed his hand. The Toa of Stone nearly took the Fire Toa with him into the pit, but Vakama somehow managed to hang on and haul his brother Toa up. "We have to get out of here!" he said.
They were about to move when Kit found herself victim to the crumbling floor as well. She grunted when Whenua caught her by the back of her shirt and, instinctively and fearfully, she kicked her legs. The Toa of Earth struggled to hang on to the panicked child; it was like trying to handle a Rahi that wanted to be free. "Kit, stop kicking," the Earth Toa said, "you're slipping out of my hand." Immediately, Kit calmed down and Whenua pulled her up. The rest of the floor soon collapsed into the fire pit below, forcing the team to onto a far ledge that had a drop so far down, they couldn't see the bottom. Then, the cavern started shaking violently.
"What's happening?" questioned Nokama.
"Earthquake!" Matau shouted over the tremors.
"No, worse," Kit corrected. "With Darcius gone, the cavern's falling apart. And, apparently, he left some surprises."
With them trapped on all sides and with nowhere to run or hide, the Toa of Earth and Stone tried to use their elemental powers to shield the others, but they only postponed the inevitable. "Go over the edge!" a warped voice said in Kit's mind, a voice she recognized as Tehreisha's.
At first, Kit thought the Guardian was crazy, and yet, somehow, she figured that she must know of something they didn't. The trick, however, would be convincing the Toa Metru. Calling for their attention above the smashing and crashing of the collapsing cavern, she told them to jump off the ledge.
"Are you crazy?" Onewa asked. "If we go over this ledge, we're dead."
"And, if we stay here, we're dead," Kit retorted. "Besides, I've got a feeling that, somehow, we'll be ok. But, someone might have to hold onto Onewa, just in case."
As much as the other Toa Metru wanted to argue, they all agreed this wasn't the time or place. Also, something in Kit's voice sounded sincere, as if she a good idea of what she was doing. And so, they all jumped just as the last part of the ground deteriorated, Whenua grabbing hold of Onewa's hand as they fell. The last thing they all remembered was hitting something with a splash and being swept away by a powerful current.
In another part of the underground tunnels, far from Darcius' chosen base, seven figures lay strewn across the bank of a subterranean river, six Toa Metru and one human girl. Nuju was the first to stir and the others soon woke up, as well. "How did we get here?" asked Vakama.
"The river carried us downstream to safety," answered Nokama.
Whenua looked to Kit, "How did you know this river was there?"
"I didn't," the girl replied, and told them about her telepathic message from Tehreisha, who must've known about its existence.
"So, back to travel-journeyin' back to Metru Nui," commented Matau, and the team did just that.
In the present, Vakama stood on a beach, looking out toward the horizon, feeling both relieved and stressed at the same time. About three days ago, he received word that Onewa and Matau had fully recovered and were still Turaga. Apparently, according to history, he, the other Toa Metru, and Kit were successful at getting those two back to normal. Unfortunately, this also meant it was getting closer to the time when he'd share another tale of the City of Legends; a tale so dark and treacherous he wished he could just forget it, drive it out of his mind. Still, he made a promise to the Toa Nuva that he'd tell them more. On top of that, he had learned not too long ago that, sometimes, not telling someone about something so dangerous was just putting them in even more danger than if they did know about it. 'Playing with fire and knowing you are and playing with fire without knowing it are two very different things,' he recalled Kit once describing it, which he had to admit, was a very good point. Suddenly, he heard some angry-sounding chirps and whistles behind him. It was Turaga Nuju, and he had a very good idea of what the Turaga of Ice was 'shouting' about.