Chapter Three

It had been two hours since Takanuva, Toa of Light, stumbled through a hole in space and fell face-first into the mud. After what he had just been through, even so messy and humiliating an arrival felt like a victory.

He had been traveling in between dimensions for what felt like an eternity. His journey had begun in the city of Metru Nui, courtesy of a damaged Great Mask worn by a being named Brutaka. His mission was to travel to Karda Nui and bring vital information to the Toa Nuva. But the ride had been a stormy one, and more than once he had wound up in strange, sometimes frightening alternate dimensions. Takanuva could only hope that this time he had finally reached his destination.

Since his arrival, he had been flying east, looking for some sign of the Toa Nuva. He had spotted figures flitting through the sky and what might have been battles, but he was too far away to make out clearly who they were or what was going on.

That was about to change. He spotted Gali Nuva on a spit of mud, being menaced by what looked like a giant insect with an attitude. Takanuva hesitated for just a moment — he had all too painfully learned the dangers of judging by appearance in recent adventures — but he couldn’t escape the fact that Gali was lying on the ground and that thing was closing in on her.

Takanuva fired a warning blast of light in front of the insectoid’s path. The being turned his head to look at the Toa, and Takanuva would forever remember the expression on his face. It wasn’t fear or anger — more like sadness, as if the bone-white creature had finally accepted his fate.

The Toa of Light braced for an attack. Instead, the insectoid being turned ghostly and vanished into the ground. Gali got to her feet as Takanuva joined her. The two spoke at the same time.

“How did you get here —?”

“Are you all right —?”

“It’s a long story,” said Takanuva. “Where are the others? I have news you need to hear.”

Gali glanced down at the spot of ground into which Krika had disappeared. “They’re back that way. Karda Nui is under attack by the Makuta, and —” She glanced up at Takanuva, eyes wide. “What happened to you? Your armor… your mask… and is it me, or are you bigger?”

“I don’t know about the last,” Takanuva said grimly. “But as for the rest— I’ll tell you while we travel.” He reached behind and took something off his back. Gali recognized it as a smaller version of the sundial Lewa had retrieved from the island of Mata Nui.

“What are you going to do with that?” she asked.

Takanuva put the sundial on the ground and then shot a beam of light at it from his left hand. The arrow on the sundial cast a shadow that pointed to the east. Takanuva had no way of knowing it, but it was pointing right toward the Codrex.

“Okay,” he said softly. “So I still go that way.”

Gali looked at him, thoroughly confused.

“I was told Lewa Nuva retrieved this from the island of Mata Nui not too long ago,” the Toa of Light hurriedly explained. “It was shrunk down and given to me for my journey here. When I focus light upon it, the sundial points toward the spot from which the Great Spirit can be awakened.”

Gali was going to ask more questions, but she was distracted by the arrival of Pohatu and Photok, who came to a landing in front of the two Toa. Pohatu looked Takanuva up and down for a few moments, finally saying, “Hmm. Can’t say I think much of the color change.”

“You should talk,” Takanuva muttered. “You’re orange!”

“Yeah,” Pohatu smiled. “But I wear it well.”

Makuta Mutran was extremely unhappy. The Toa Nuva had succeeded in destroying his original hive along with the vats he used to create shadow leeches. He had been forced to relocate his operations to an island in the swamp, using whatever extra equipment he’d had stored outside the hive. The situation was neither efficient nor ideal, especially to an “artist” like Mutran.

“Impossible,” he growled. “I can’t work in this mud pit! I can’t create under these conditions!”

His Matoran assistant, Vican, stayed far away, knowing better than to even speak when Mutran was like this. Since the day he had been turned into a shadow Matoran and then mutated by his master, Vican had lived a life that could be compared to tiptoeing through a nest of sleeping doom vipers. He never knew what might inspire Mutran to toss him into a vat and see what new changes could be made.

Still, Vican couldn’t help but be curious about today’s project. Mutran was making some kind of winged, insectoid Rahi beast, but it wasn’t at Antroz’s request. And when Mutran did things on his own, the results were unpredictable.

Summoning his courage, Vican edged a little closer. “Um… great Mutran… what might that be?”

Mutran turned, surprised that Vican had dared to interrupt, but eager to show off his work. “That is a klakk. I made several very, very long ago — nasty little things, but excellent sentries. Since our new location is more exposed than the hive, I felt it might be of use. It should be ready to emerge from the vat soon.”

Vican eyed the creature. It didn’t look like it was going to follow Mutran’s schedule. It was ramming against the side of the vat and cracks were starting to appear in the crystal. Mutran noticed and plunged his spear into the tank, trying to drive the Rahi back, but all that did was irritate the klakk. With a final thrust, it shattered the vat and burst free.

Mutran made a grab for it, but the klakk was too fast. It shot on a straight line for Vican, a horrible shriek coming from its mouth. The sound was so loud and sharp it felt like a physical blow. Vican was knocked off his feet and, for a few moments, the world went black.

The next thing he knew, Mutran was hauling him out of the mud. He felt strange and sick, but he wasn’t going to show any sign of weakness to his master. His… master? Somehow, that didn’t sound at all right.

“It flew off,” snarled Mutran. “Go and bring it back!”

Vican could see the klakk, already well away from the island. He could see something else too. There were three Toa, one of whom he didn’t recognize, flying in the same general direction. The sight made Vican hesitate.

There are a thousand other places these Toa could be right now, safe places, far away from this, he thought. But they come here and risk their lives for Matoran they don’t even know. And what have I done? Everything I could — no, everything I was told to do — to stop them.

Vican took flight, moving more slowly than he normally would have. Something was happening inside him. He had never had any regrets about his actions, not since the day Mutran’s shadow leech drained the light from him. Things like conscience and regret went with it, leaving just darkness behind. So why did he suddenly care about this place, these Toa and Matoran, now?

Troubled, he winged away, his mind full of questions.

The appearance of Takanuva was a surprise for both the other Toa Nuva and the Makuta. With his light power added to the battle, the Toa earned a victory, though at best a temporary one. The Makuta retreated toward the Codrex.

Tahu wasn’t going to waste this time. He collected all six keystones that the Toa had collected and fitted them together. As the Matoran had told them, the inscriptions on the stone told how the Toa could awaken the Great Spirit Mata Nui.

Tahu read them over carefully, then had the others do the same. The process would be a long and complicated one, but not impossible. If they could hold the Makuta off long enough, they could awaken the Great Spirit and end the Brotherhood’s dreams of conquest.

“We have to get into the Codrex,” he said. “We have the keystone. Now we just have to get past the Makuta. Once we do that, we can start the awakening.”

“Wait. You… must… wait.”

The voice was harsh and raspy, as if the speaker had not used it in ages. The truth was Toa Ignika, who now hovered above the Toa, had never spoken aloud in all of his short existence in this form.

“What is it?” asked Onua. “What do you know?”

In halting, uncertain speech, Ignika told the Toa what Icarax had told him. “I hadn’t realized before, but… it has changed color.” Kopaka said. “Remember? When we talked with Axonn on the island of Voya Nui, he described it as a ‘golden mask.’”

“Since when do Makuta tell the truth about anything?” asked Pohatu.

“Do you want to be the one who risks all on the notion they might be lying?” Kopaka replied.

“Then we move fast,” said Tahu.

Gali read over the keystones again. “Tahu, we don’t have any way of knowing how long we have before this… countdown… reaches its end. What if we can’t complete this process in time?”

Now it was Takanuva’s turn to speak up. “We have another problem. If we succeed in waking up the Great Spirit, all of this place is going to be hit with an energy storm so big it will kill everything in Karda Nui. If we don’t get ourselves and the Matoran out of here in time…” There was no need to finish the statement.

“So if we fail, everyone quick-dies. And if we succeed, everyone quick-dies,” said Lewa Nuva. “Oh, those Great Beings and their wacky sense of humor.”