Chapter Five

Makuta Teridax, now leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta, sat on his throne, brooding. He had only recently gotten this throne from Makuta Miserix around 500 years ago, and so far his grand plan was going as well as could be expected. Icarax and Gorast had already hunted down all of the Makuta that had objected to his plans. The virus that would be used to put Mata Nui to sleep was already being perfected.

However, the news that Gorast had told him was… intriguing. The entire squad of Visorak, defeated by a single Toa. Even though this group of Visorak had never seen one before, Teridax had expected that they could have taken out one Toa.

As he sat there in the darkened room, Teridax thought back to how the Visorak fitted into his grand plan.

Early on, he had realized that the lands to the south of Metru Nui might object to his plan. In the event that he needed to take the rest of this universe by force, he needed an army. He already had hordes of Rahkshi, but he needed something else. Some other force that he could use if the Rahkshi were not an option.

The answer came to him in the form of a Rahi. One of the many interesting creations of Makuta Chirox, they were a race of creatures that Chirox had named ‘Visorak.’ Teridax had already seen what they were capable of. Chirox had unleashed his new creations on a village that was home to a race of tall, strong warriors with the ability to use Kanohi. The Visorak had decimated it, sending its survivors fleeing.

Not only were they a delightfully ravenous horde that wanted to cocoon all other species, but they also had mutagenic venom, webs with an amazing tensile strength, natural Rhotuka launchers, and even their own language, so that they could be given orders with ease.

The next step was forming them into an army. The Visorak were eager to join, seeing as they benefited from the arrangement as well, but they were still too rebellious. It was Gorast who fixed this, using only her charm and her willingness to ruthlessly kill any Visorak that would disobey. It was more the second that made them fall in line, and soon they were obedient to the Brotherhood.

Now the Makuta of Metru Nui had another army alongside the Rahkshi, another force that would gladly ravage lands, turn beautiful areas into lifeless wastelands.

The next thing to do was test them. Teridax had already seen how formidable they could be, but an army must also follow orders, and learn restraint. After all, he wanted to rule Metru Nui and its Matoran, not have them all cocooned. So he devised a simple test to see if a small group of Visorak could be patient.

He found an island that was just right for the task. Located on the eastern side of Bitil’s realm, it had a small village of Matoran on it, and was far away from any other inhabited lands. Almost no one knew of this island, and the ones who did knew very little. No one would miss the Matoran if they vanished.

So he sent a small squad of Visorak to the island, telling them to head there in secret and capture its Matoran population. Most importantly, they were not to do anything to the Matoran for two days time. In this way Teridax would see if the Visorak could show restraint, and stick with their orders when faced with something almost irresistible.

The question was, now that the test was over, how could he turn the situation to his advantage.

The Visorak’s impatience was not much of a problem. The Matoran would have been killed either way. It just meant that they needed more training. He was certain that, given time, the Visorak would even surpass the Rahkshi as a horde.

But this Lesovikk complicated matters. Teridax had always underestimated Toa. Would-be heroes with minimal power in comparison to a Makuta, who were always too compassionate to get anything major done. But if they were capable of this level of ferocity, they could pose a problem.

Now for the first time Teridax felt they were an actual threat. A small threat perhaps, but still there, and still potentially dangerous. What he needed was something or someone which could deal with the threat of Toa, and could eliminate them whenever the need arose.

Teridax could hire someone for the task — he had recently heard of a new organization called the Dark Hunters that might take the job. But he had found that intelligent beings usually turned out to be too willful, and either wanted more money or more power. He could send out a Makuta whenever necessary, but that would be like using a Tahtorak to crush a Fireflyer, and, for a little while longer, he needed to keep the image of the Brotherhood as benevolent protectors. If they suddenly started killing the guardians of the Matoran, it would go over just as well as another Archives Massacre. No, he needed something that would blindly carry out orders and hunt down any Toa in its vicinity.

Then the answer came to him, worming its way into his head like a Troller after a meal. A Rahi. Teridax got up from his throne and walked out into one of the many halls of Destral, a plan already forming in his mind. A Rahi would not be too willful and could be trained to follow orders. Toa could even be the creature’s preferred prey.

But as he walked towards the biggest of Destral’s virus vats, a lingering doubt crept into his mind. Almost every Rahi that the Brotherhood had created could be beaten by a Toa. Some, of course, could be beaten more easily than others, but even with the best, there was always the small possibility of them being defeated.

However a split second later Teridax had the answer. What if he combined Rahi? What if he mixed together the best parts of some of the best Rahi the Brotherhood had ever made? When Teridax got to the vat room he flung open the metal doors and immediately got to work, the smile of an idea on his lips.

It would be a great Rahi, possibly the greatest Rahi ever made. And this Lesovikk would be the perfect Toa to test it on. As he began to mix in numerous viruses into the already churning vat of Liquid Protodermis, Teridax decided that that would be a perfect name for his new creation and christened it: Rahi Nui.