Chapter One: A High Price

Carried by their shared Kakama Nuva, the Toa Nuva descended quickly through the levels of the Archives, seeking something that, according to all known records and half-remembered truths, had been hidden there for many millennia.

After the team’s rescue by the Matoran resistance on Voya Nui, they had expected to join the Toa Inika in seeking the Mask of Life. But Axonn and Botar had taken them aside and informed them that the time had come to prepare the universe for the awakening of Mata Nui. If the Inika succeed in their mission, and save the Great Spirit’s life, the time would be ripe for them to fulfill theirs – awakening Mata Nui.

To do that, they had to first return to where they had started – Metru Nui, the City of Legends. The Great Temple, Axonn said, hid information on what we had to do to make ready for Mata Nui’s return. Finding the information and following its directions would be crucial, especially in the days before the Toa Inika succeeded. They could not tell anyone what they were going to do – for if the Brotherhood of Makuta were to find out, they would move to destroy them. It was a miracle they hadn’t already.

The information the Toa had found in the Great Temple of Metru Nui came in the form of a list. Each item on it was an action they were supposed to take to prepare the universe for the return of the Great Spirit. But the first item on that list was as chilling as it was stunning: free the monstrous Bahrag and unleash the Bohrok swarms on the island of Mata Nui.

Some had doubted the wisdom of this. Pohatu, traditionally the most optimistic and upbeat of the Toa, had especially protested. In the end, however, the Toa had done what it seemed they had to do. And as the swarms descended upon their island home, burning, wrecking, and destroying, they could not imagine what role the chaos could possibly have had in the Great Spirit’s plan.