Metru Nui Comics

2004 - BIONICLE Comic 21: Dreams of Darkness

Adapted by Michael Larson. Edited by Jeff Douglas.

Vakama fell to his knees amid a tempest of familiar faces swirling and rushing around as a wave of vertigo hit. Nuju, Matau, Whenua, Nokama, and Onewa: his teammates skeptical, untrusting and reprehensive. As he collapsed, he saw Toa Lhikan growing large. It loomed for a second, before it was overtaken by the two faces of Nidhiki and Krekka, their eyes glowing deep, uncomfortable presences amidst the rest of the void.

Now the Dark Hunters fell away, as another mask, darker than any other, rose out of the shadows. It seemed to grow out of the very Dark Hunters themselves, before taking the center stage in his sight. Meanwhile, the other masks—his Toa allies, Lhikan, and the Hunters—continued spinning faster and faster.

He was not conscious by the time he hit the ground.

“Stop!” Vakama pleaded.

The fog vanished. Now he stood high on a cliffside. Far below him, a torrent of towering waves crashed against the high rocks. He had never seen this place before, nor had he heard of it. The city of Metru Nui was barely visible on the horizon through the storm and illuminated only by the haphazard flashes of lightning.

He fought to remember how he’d arrived here. My name is Vakama, he knew. This is my nightmare.

Vakama took a step forward, but he almost tripped and fell over the prone form of Matau. He gasped as he stepped back, this time tumbling over Nokama. Shouting in panic, he scrambled to his knees as he realized his entire team lay inanimate on the ground.

There was no way to tell if they were alive. Whenua lay on his back with his drills on his chest, broken and battered. Nokama rested on her chest, her arms outstretched from her form and her mouth open, as if her life had ended during a scream. Nuju lay farther away, the darkness making it difficult to tell if his crystal spikes were near him… or in him. Matau laid on his side, with one aero slicer visibly broken in two and the other melting in a nearby puddle of some corrosive substance. Lastly, looking to the cliff off to his left, Vakama saw only Onewa’s arm clinging to the ledge. The Toa of Fire felt nausea return to him as he found himself hoping that the rest of the Toa of Stone was still attached.

A shadow blotted out the Twin Moons, and a booming sound pulled his attention back in front of him. No more than five bio in front of him, a monster was raising himself to his full height, cackling all the way.

An impulse in the back of his mind confirmed the connection. The unconscious beings around me are the other Toa Metru. The armored colossus in front of me is the reason they are on the ground.

It was an image worse than any Matoran horror story could conjure. Long arms and legs supported the enormous being. It was covered in thick layers of armor plating, resembling an odd amalgamation and summation of his worst nightmares—the most sinister and darkest intent he could imagine, embodied in the simultaneous forms and armor of Nidhiki, Krekka, Nivawk, and Dume. The armored gauntlet on its right hand ended in pointed claws while the left held shredding claws. Wings larger than its arms sprouted from the being’s shoulders, forming a regal, crown-like array of death and spikes over its head. And on its head was a dark Kanohi covering menacing eyes, underneath which savage jaws laughed as it leaned closer to the Toa of Fire.

I’m hoping that I am going to wake up from this vision soon… or I may never wake up again.

Vakama aimed his disk launcher at the giant to fire a Ga-Metru shrink Kanoka. But when he tried to fire, nothing happened.

My disk launcher won’t work, he thought grimly. Seeing the Toa struggling with his weapon, the titanic creature lumbered forward. He’s not going to give me the time to fix it.

The darkened, razor-mouthed being stood tall on its long legs, now towering several bio high over the Toa of Fire, and its chest now began to crackle with energy. A moment longer and a large hand made of shadow erupted from the being’s center, nearly as large as the being itself was. Vakama stepped back and collided with a stone pillar behind him, but he was too paralyzed with fear to run.

This would be a really good time to wake up, he thought dimly.

Vakama grunted as the shadow hand picked him up, forcing the air out of him and threatening to crumple him in its mighty grip. It pulled him back toward the towering monster, who delighted at Vakama’s terror.

Really. I would even be happy to see Onewa right now, Vakama added meagerly.

He was nearly at the body of his enemy, the hand still inexorably pulling him toward the source of the shadow hand’s power. Squeezing… Vakama thought as he passed into the spectral form of the monster. The pain was incalculable, and his head and body felt like they would burst. He saw stars and colors as his vision blacked out. Can’t… everything is starting to fade… I…

✴        ✴        ✴

He was alive.

Not that he knew how.

Where am I now? Vakama wondered.

His head was still spinning, and he still felt weak. He could tell that he was hanging upside down, but when he shifted to get a better look, he realized he was held in place.

And why can’t I move?

He twisted and crunched. But the webbing binding him to his cocoon held fast.

Oh. That’s why.

Vakama was hanging upside-down, suspended in some sort of web. The cocoon wrapped all the way around and past his feet, while his head barely protruded out the other end. The web stretched in every direction. They alone existed amid an all-encompassing hazy mist.

At the sound of a voice at his feet, Vakama jumped in fright.

“You think you can save Metru Nui, little flame?”

Vakama twisted in his prison to see Nidhiki’s spider-like form crawling toward him on the web, his four legs and arms like some kind of arachnid. “You are just a Matoran with delusions of adequacy,” the Dark Hunter hissed, poising himself over Vakama. “Your time has run out, and you don’t even know it,” he boasted. “Just ask my… brother.”

✴        ✴        ✴

He was on his knees, slumped on some kind of stone floor. Well, at least I am out of the web, he thought. But where has this vision taken me? This place looks like Nuhrii’s living room…

“Stop asking ‘where’, Vakama… and starting asking ‘why.’”

Vakama knew that voice. Turning toward the sound, he quickly got to his feet. “Toa Lhikan!” he said, surprised to see his hero standing in a door of light. “But you were captured!”

Lhikan’s armor had lost its fiery red and shining gold hues. Now it was just a solid, protodermic chrome. “Why were you gifted with these visions? Why do you see what others cannot?” Lhikan posed. “And, in Mata Nui’s name, why do you resist acting on what you see?”

Vakama’s head hung in defeat.

Lhikan pointed at something behind the Toa of Fire. “Beware, my friend. Listen to the warnings of your visions, or this is the fate that awaits the Toa…”

✴        ✴        ✴

Vakama spun around. The stone floor had become a winding cave network. A glowing stone cast flickering shadows in the cave, but that glowing rock was held by none other than—

“Turaga Dume!” Vakama breathed, shocked. He spun to look at Lhikan, but the elder Toa had vanished, and only darkness could be seen in the tunnel behind him. He looked back to the Turaga. “But… but you ordered the arrest of the Toa!”

“Only in the outside world, Vakama,” the Turaga said, placing a stern hand on his shoulder. “In your memories, I am still the voice of wisdom you have heeded for most of your life.”

Dume turned away, leading Vakama down the tunnel. “And it is wisdom you need now,” he added, as the two descended the winding path.

The tunnel must have widened, for the illumination of the Turaga’s lightstone no longer revealed the rock walls of the wide cavern. “Your fire generates heat, but precious little light, it seems. So much that you don’t see…”

Dume’s lightstone suddenly lit so bright it illuminated their entire surroundings.

“…what’s right in front of you!”

The vast cavern they had arrived in had to have been as large as the Coliseum arena. The walls were simply curved rock faces, arching up to the ceiling of stalactites. A giant, flat web on one side of the cave, its strands stretching out from a point at the center with interconnecting branches to support their weight. And the weight that needed supporting were six tightly wrapped cocoons made out of a familiar webbing.

“What is this place?” Vakama demanded.

“The path you walk leads here, Toa of Fire,” Dume answered solemnly, holding his lightstone up to the web. “This is your destination.”

The two walked closer to the webbing. Whether it was their presence or Dume’s light, Vakama wasn’t sure, but a disturbance was rippling through five of the six cocoons now. In fact, they were beginning to wriggle back and forth intensely as if their occupants were suffocating inside and desperately needed air. One of them began to tear, the fatigue in the web fibers obtained from the back-and-forth movements.

You know the biggest problem with visions? Vakama thought to himself. You can’t shut your eyes.

Two blue hands reached through, prying and tearing the opening wider. The hands were covered in some kind of slimy incubation fluid, as were the rest of the arms, body, and Kanohi when the blue figure emerged.

It was Nokama.

“Vakama,” the figure moaned. “Why did you lead us here?”

The other four Toa Metru were clawing their way out of the organic prisons as well. Matau was the first to completely escape, though it was with no elegance. Free of the cocoon’s material suspending him high in the cavern, he fell twelve bio to the hard ground, where he landed with a thud and lay still. Then, like an undead puppet, his limbs pushed himself upright.

The other Toa similarly freed themselves and fell to the ground. As Onewa stood, his eyes locked on Vakama’s as they penetrated his soul. “It’s your fault.”

The Toa Metru hobbled forward, betrayal and vindication in their expressions. “You were supposed to be wary,” Matau snarled, his words bubbling through the fluid film covering his Kanohi. He pointed a weak finger at Vakama.

“Instead, you doomed us all,” Whenua condemned.

Vakama took steps backward from the oncoming Toa, raising his hands defensively. “No! I didn’t!” he exclaimed. “I don’t even know where we are!”

Nokama ignored him, instead turning and gesturing at the web from which the five Toa Metru had come. “There is one cocoon left, Vakama,” she said coldly. The highest of the six cocoons was still suspended at the center of the web. Only now did it start to move and writhe. Nokama turned back to Vakama, looking hard and directly into his eyes. “Would you like to see what’s inside?”

Nuju placed a hand on her shoulder. “There is an easier way, sister,” he muttered, lifting two limp hands. Ice poured out, creating a column with a polished surface in front of Vakama. The estranged Toa of Ice looked back at the Toa of Fire. “Here, Vakama, look into the mirror… do you want to see the future you will make?”

Vakama knew he shouldn’t look. Deep down, he knew he didn’t need to. He already knew what it was. But he also couldn’t bear not to look.

I don’t want to look, he reasoned, but I can’t stop myself. I have to know the answer.

Against the screaming of reason in his mind, his feet took a step toward the mirror. Against his every instinct, he lifted his eyes to the glassy mirror.

As he drew closer, he saw his own mask, but it was alien and menacing. And as he watched, it distorted and warped. Vakama’s better judgment won out and he tried to turn away, but Whenua and Onewa seized his arms and held him in place. Matau roughly grabbed the back of his head and forced his eyes down.

Nuju held the mirror closer.

“No…” Vakama protested, trembling. “No…”

✴        ✴        ✴

“NO!!”

Nokama stopped walking, turning in surprise to the Toa of Fire. “Vakama, what is it?” she asked. “Another vision?”

“More like a nightmare… I hope not a prophecy,” the Toa of Fire answered, rubbing his head. He looked around, confused. “Where are we?”

“You don’t remember?”

Vakama shook his head.

“You, Matau and I escaped the airship before the Dark Hunters could capture us,” Nokama recounted. “But we have to find the others, and Toa Lhikan.”

“And rapid-quick,” Matau added, coming over. “The Vahki are sure to be looking for us, thanks to Turaga Dume.”

Vakama’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, of course,” he said, everything flooding back all at once. “Dume… the Vahki… Toa Lhikan. We have to… wait.” The ground rumbled and trembled beneath his feet. “Do you feel that?”

The other two certainly did, as the oscillations increased in size. Nokama pointed a shaking hand. “It’s coming from the ruins of the Great Furnace. It couldn’t be the Morbuzakh back again, could it?”

The explosive sounds of protodermis pipes breaking emanated from beneath the ground. “I have a feeling it is something bad-worse,” Matau remarked.

Several bio in front of the assembled Toa, the ground of Ta-Metru erupted, downing two dwellings into the newly-formed chasm. From it, even as the buildings were collapsing, something was rising, climbing out of the pit with long, muscular and reptilian legs and shorter, clawed arms. From its green body jutted spiny silver fins, and five iconic silver spikes, giving its roaring and red-eyed head a look of lethality. Its long legs were mostly brown, with small hues of silver and black. To complete the 9 bio tall Rahi, a long, spearheaded tail swayed, maintaining balance and destruction as it climbed out.

“Who disturbs the slumber of the Tahtorak!?” the Rahi boomed, deep and guttural.

Nokama turned quickly to Matau. “Figures, Matau, the one time you’re right about something…”

Matau craned his neck to look up at the massive Rahi. “Don’t blame me. I didn’t wake him from his deep-sleep.”

“Oh, yes, you did… or rather we did,” Vakama said quickly. “Remember? The massive creature we saw beneath the maintenance tunnels in Onu-Metru? Our battle with the Krahka must have awakened him.”

“Woke up cranky, didn’t he?” Matau noticed, drawing his blades.

The Tahtorak spun, its tail smashing through another row of buildings. Turning back to the Toa, it yelled, “Tell me the answer, or I will crush this place to rubble!”

“The answer?” Matau repeated, flying into the air with the help of his aero slicers. “I don’t even know the question!”

Nokama pulled out one of her hydro blades, turning its cable from flexible to rigid. Spinning it quickly in front of her, it deflected or shredded the pieces of rubble coming at her and Vakama, who was rummaging in his pack for the right disk. “Be careful, Matau!” she said.

“That was my thought-plan, sister,” Matau replied, swooping down toward the Tahtorak.

He began flying around it in circles, quickly confusing and distracting it. “Grrrrarr!” it roared, making several attempts to catch Matau in its claws.

Matau was able to evade one claw, but flew straight into the other. Only quick thinking and an acrobatic mid-air twist allowed his body to slip through before they closed on him. “Anytime you want to quick-launch that disk would be fine, Vakama!” he shouted.

The Tahtorak had another idea, though. “Bothersome gnat…” it growled. Reaching toward a factory smoke stack, it casually tore it off in its grasp, as simply as a Ga-Matoran botanist might prune a Vuata Maca tree. The Rahi hurled it, lengthwise, toward the Toa of Air like a javelin. “Fly no more!” it roared.

Matau saw it coming but there was no time to turn. Instead, he angled to face it head-on, retracting his wings into a power dive. His aim was true, and without touching any of the scorching hot inner walls of the smoke stack, Matau shot out of the other end. “Too close!” he said to himself, just as the smoke stack plowed into a large furnace, decimating it.

Vakama had finally found what he was looking for: a powerful Onu-Metru shrinking Kanoka. “Let’s see if this helps,” he said, taking aim at the Tahtorak.

There was a shriek emanating from their right. Nokama pointed. “Hope so, because we have company, Vakama.”

Vakama looked over. A formation of six Vahki was flying in their direction. “Nuurakh!” he confirmed. “And its anyone’s guess if they are here to fight that thing or us.”

Turning back to the Rahi, he fired. He fully expected the high-power shrink disk to have the most helpful effect on the Rahi, but instead, it simply bounced off the armored hide of the beast with a tink. Thankfully, the Onu-Metru properties brought the disk back to Vakama, where he caught the projectile.

“You think to stop me with toys?” the Tahtorak thundered.

“Have you wondered how it is this beast speaks Matoran?” Vakama asked.

“Yes. But I doubt we will get a chance to ask him for an explanation, brother,” Nokama answered, gesturing toward the street again.

The Vahki soared in, taking equidistant positions around the towering Rahi. Nokama is probably right. The Vahki will make short work of this beast, Vakama thought.

The Tahtorak noticed the new buzzers flying around now, too. More bothersome fliers. They would have to go. Another swing of its tail brought down yet another factory, causing more smoke stacks to bow to the ground before breaking apart. The Vahki looked up too late. The group of all six were taken down underneath the falling rocks and metal.

Or not… Vakama sighed. “It’s up to us, then.”

“But the other Toa, and Lhikan—” Nokama began.

“—Will have to wait,” Vakama answered. “We can’t risk letting this creature rampage unchecked. Our city may have turned against us, but we cannot turn against our city. And I think I have an idea.”

The Tahtorak pounded its fist into the mound where the Vahki lay, shattering what little remained. Raring back on its legs, it roared, “Give—me—the answer!”

Vakama scoured his equipment. I have three weakness disks left. Nowhere near enough to end this fight…

His eyes searched their surroundings for an advantage. As he did, the Tahtorak stomped its feet, and the ground buckled and sagged under his weight. For a moment Vakama was reminded of how the best had torn through the earth to escape the Archives.

Nowhere near enough… if we were aiming at him.

The Toa of Fire leaped into action, passing two of the Kanoka to his teammates. “This may not be the answer, but it’s the only one we have,” Vakama said. “On my mark, throw these at the ground beneath its feet.”

The Tahtorak had finished its outrage and had remembered the three Toa. Turning in their direction, it lumbered forward.

“Now!” Vakama called.

The Toa of Fire launched his disks, while Matau and Nokama did the same with theirs. The three disks clanged together on the ground, striking just a few feet from where the Tahtorak was standing.

The Tahtorak is incredibly powerful… and incredibly heavy, Vakama thought. With the disks’ power added to the damage he’s already done…

The beast was unsure why the small creatures were throwing things at the ground, but it did not care. Taking another step forward, it was startled to hear crunching, then cracking. Despite its weight, none of the rest of the ground had sounded like that. It looked down.

Fissures lined the earth, running in every direction from its feet. Nor were they stagnant, but creeping onward. The Tahtorak stepped back, but now the ground beneath its other foot was giving out. “What madness—?” it remarked.

It tried to move to a safe patch of ground, but before he could, the earth buckled and gave out. In a spray of earth, metal, and shattered protodermis, the Tahtorak disappeared, its entire bulk vanishing beneath the surface. Plunging into the chasm, it roared, “Tell me the answer! Tell me the answer!” Then it was lost from view.

The three Toa peered over the edge. “He is still falling, through level after level,” Matau remarked. “Is he gone for good?”

“He’s gone for now,” Vakama answered. “That has to do.”

Nokama put away her tools. “It’s time we were gone too, before more Vahki show up.” Matau started walking away, and she followed, before realizing that Vakama was still peering down into the hole. “Come on, Vakama,” she encouraged.

Vakama shook his head. “Sorry. I was just thinking…” He started after the other two. “The Tahtorak wanted an answer to a question we cannot know. Its efforts brought only destruction… and destruction was all it found.”

Matau took to hovering off the ground as the trio walked into the midst of protodermis factories once again. Here, the flames and shadows seemed to press in. “You know, it’s a funny thing about looking for answers, Nokama…” Vakama remarked.

Nokama looked at the Toa of Fire, wondering what he had to go through. For in Vakama’s head, the images of his vision were still stark in his mind’s eye. He walked in Ta-Metru, next to his friends, on a mission. But all he could think about was the mangled reflection of his mask, replete with hate, destruction, rage, and a sharp-toothed mouth, destined to lead these very friends to failure, staring right back at him.

“Sometimes you are far better off not finding them…” he finished.