BL10 - Light Drained

Gorast fired her Nynrah blaster. Gali dove, narrowly avoiding the shot, and fired quick bursts of water even as she slid through the mud. Gorast batted away the projectiles with her four arms and advanced. Thinking quickly, Gali increased the moisture in the mud beneath Gorast’s feet. The Makuta began to sink into the ground, weighed down by her armor. She tried to fly out, but the mud clung to her as if it were alive and hungry.

“You Makuta think we’re weak because we don’t kill our enemies,” Gali said, rising and walking to where Gorast struggled to be free. “But sometimes, killing can be a mercy. Sometimes the worst thing you can do to an enemy is let her live.”

Gorast nodded. “And sometimes the worst is to deprive your enemy of that satisfaction.” With that said, Gorast shut her eyes and plunged beneath the mud pool. Gali started forward, stunned that the Makuta was committing suicide rather than surrendering. There was no sign of Gorast, not even an air bubble breaching the surface.

“Stupid,” muttered Gali. “Didn’t life mean anything to her, even her own?”

There was an explosion of mud behind her. Gorast tore out of the ground like an avenging spirit and drove her stinger into Gali’s back. “My life doesn’t matter,” said the Makuta. “Your life doesn’t matter. Only the Plan matters.”

A huge fireball flew into the sky then, illuminating the horrible sight of a Toa’s light being drained away… if there was anyone around to see.

[...]

In her time, Gorast had taken some pretty hard blows. Some brute named Krekka once tried to stop her from going where she wanted to and made his case with a solid shot that sent her through a wall. (He paid for that, in full, not too long after.) Then there was the time she had been on the wrong end of a Tahtorak charge.

But nothing before could equal Onua Nuva seizing her, lifting her high into the air, and slamming her down with every bit of force his own power and the Mask of Strength could afford him. Even with the raw might of a Makuta, the world spun.

“Stay down while I check on Gali,” Onua said, his tone that of an earthquake about to erupt. “And if she’s hurt, so help me, I will send you back where you came from in pieces.”

Onua took a few steps back so he could keep an eye on Gorast while looking to his fallen friend. Gali was still breathing and didn’t seem badly hurt, only dazed. Whatever this thing was — another Makuta or some form of Rahi beast — and whatever it had been doing when Onua arrived, it evidently had not gone too far.

Gorast hadn’t moved, just lay in the mud eyeing Onua with… rage? No, the Toa realized, it was something else. Something far more disturbing: hunger.

Onua got Gali to her feet. Gorast scrambled to hers at the same time. “Be careful,” whispered Gali. “She’s dangerous.”

“You are Onua, aren’t you? The wise one?” hissed Gorast. “Brilliant and strong, yet never the leader — always forced to follow the orders of fools like Tahu. The Brotherhood would make you a king. You would have all of Metru Nui to rule, Toa… all you have to do is stand by my side.”

“My armor’s black,” Onua replied. “That doesn’t mean my heart is as well. The answer is no.”

Gorast surged forward. Onua met her with a geyser of mud summoned from the ground. As she fought her way through that, he scooped Gali up in his arms and flew, heading toward where the fireball had been. He had to find Tahu so the three of them could stand together.

Gorast took off after him. She knew full well where he was going and wasn’t worried at all. The light of three Toa would be a feast to long remember.


Tahu’s mind raced even as his body’s energy faded away. He had managed to figure out what was happening to him. Krika drained energy from his victims. If there was no one nearby, he took it from the environment. That explained the temperature drops that accompanied his appearances. Now Tahu just needed to figure out a way to stop him.

Temperature… heat… cold… that’s the key, he thought. Wherever he goes, the air turns cold… if that’s what he’s used to… maybe I should serve up a little baked Makuta.

Flame was beyond his abilities just then, but Tahu could still generate heat. He poured what remained of his energy into the ground, willing the soil and water to grow searingly hot until the mud was boiling. Krika gave out a cry of pain and then turned intangible. He drifted above the seething cauldron that a moment before had been just a mere spot of soft ground in a vast swamp.

Tahu didn’t care that Krika had escaped. All that mattered to him was that the drain on his energy had stopped. Maybe it was the burns, maybe it was changing to his ghostly form, but Krika’s mealtime was over.

The Toa of Fire glanced up and saw more good news. Onua and Gali were on their way. True, they had two vicious-looking creatures on their tails, but the sight of his two teammates was still the best thing he had ever seen.

Tahu absorbed the heat of the ground back into himself long enough for Onua and Gali to land. Krika floated above the three of them while Onua’s pursuers circled like Nui-Rama wasps. Tahu forced himself to rise and used his mask power to throw a shield around the three Toa Nuva.

“I see you brought company,” he said to Onua.

“It couldn’t be helped. Gali has been weakened, and you don’t look too well yourself.”

“My shield will take a few blasts, and then…” Tahu replied. His eyes were suddenly drawn to something in the sky. “Wait, what’s that?”

Onua turned to look and noted that all three Makuta were doing the same. What they had spotted was another Makuta, Chirox, plummeting from the sky. He obviously wasn’t in control of his flight. Onua guessed he had been on the receiving end of a solid blow from one of the three Toa Nuva battling in the skies above.

Gorast, Bitil, and Krika reacted immediately, flying or floating to intercept their brother. It seemed the perfect time to make an escape, although with Tahu and Gali both low on energy, Onua wasn’t sure how far they would get.

“This way,” said a small voice off to the left. “Come this way, now.”

Onua saw that the voice came from an Av-Matoran. The figure was beckoning to the Toa through some swamp foliage. “I can take you to safety,” the Matoran said.

The Toa Nuva of Earth knew it might be a trap, but at this point, he had to take a chance. Tahu nodded his assent, and the three heroes followed the Matoran deeper into the swamp.

They ended up in a small clearing surrounded by lightvines, the plants the Matoran of Karda Nui used as protection against the Makuta. Natural light producers, the vines were painful for the masters of shadow to come near. But what struck the three Toa was what lay on the ground — the bodies of at least a dozen Matoran, all apparently in the midst of some strange transformation.

Onua started to rush toward the fallen villagers, but the Matoran who had guided them there blocked him. “Don’t interfere. It’s their time, just as it will soon be mine.”

“Their time? For what?” said Gali, pushing past Onua and the Matoran. She rushed to the nearest villager. What she saw made her gasp and take a step back.

The Av-Matoran’s body was changing before her eyes. Muscle tissue and lung tissue were dissolving, being replaced by metallic protodermis. The shape of the body was changing too, becoming bigger and broader, even as the normal features of a Matoran rapidly disappeared. But that wasn’t what shocked Gali and the other Toa Nuva. No, it was that they recognized all too well what the Av-Matoran were transforming into.

“Bohrok,” whispered the Toa of Water, shaken to her core. “By the Great Beings, they are turning into Bohrok!”



- BIONICLE Legends 10: Swamp of Secrets, Chapters 2 and 3