Chapter Text
"My friends, please gather for the legend of our Great Spirit Lihka-Nui…
Before our time, the Great Spirit descended from the sky, lifting us, the Matoran, with her to our new home. She was gracious and fair, and gifted to us her greatest virtue, love.
We cherished it, and each other, and the world around us. We knew a great peace.
Our peace was not to last, however, as The Makuta, bringers of shadow, drained the love from Lihka-Nui, and she descended into a deep slumber. Our paradise fell, and our kin were lost to it… We were scattered and broken, scared and alone, lost into the echoes of darkness.
Until it was that we crossed the Great Barrier.
It was apparent that the Great Spirit had blessed us one final time, for when we emerged we saw and knew a new paradise! Soon all joined us, establishing the glorious lands we know as The Great Basin! Our Great Spirit, Lihka-Nui, now slumbers peacefully 1000 years later, knowing we thrive forever onward."
Turaga Omunu loved telling the thrilling tale to young Neo Matoran, seeing their eyes light up made her day. The room was practically silent with awe after her delivery. Her Matatu shook with age as she beamed a smile to the room, making the Matoran give light giggles in return.
Even she wasn't there for this event, a ripe 854 years old, or was it 855? Her own Turaga had told the tale to her when she was just a Neo Matoran, along with other tales from behind the Great Barrier of legend, before the Fall. Now they huddle in the Council, muttering prayer and studying the recovered texts, their duty until they cease to function. Some would believe it to be madness, but she looked forward to joining them one day.
"Now young ones, are there any Legends you have heard whispers of lately? Perhaps you desire more retellings of tales from Old Turaga Omunu?"
The small group had a few hands raised, and she picked from the bunch, pointing with her staff. "Young bearer of the Ruru in the back-"
The Matoran stood, looking at his peers. His hands receded to his chest, nervous. "Recently my guardians heard wind of the Toa going back inside Mount Lihka... If she is asleep, what do they expect to find?" Omunu suddenly didn't feel well, her stomach churned and her pistons squeaked as she adjusted herself. "A good question, young one. A very good question... I fear it is not what they expect to find, but what they don't expect to find. Many dangers lurk inside the mountain. Let us all pray that the Toa do not find them." She choked on her ominous non-answer and waved away the Matoran. "I must apologize, I am suddenly not feeling well.” Her fear was visible upon her mask, eyes aglow with visions of mysterious danger. She could hear the young ones mutter and gasp in response. She let out a sharp sigh, looking to the ground and feigning a small smile to address the group. “Please come back soon, young ones… but I must be at peace."
The Matoran shuffled out of the tent, and Omunu sat on her pillow. The Makuta were a nightmare she struggled to comprehend. Those stories, those retellings from her Turaga, those were the ones that kept her awake at night. She didn't want the Matoran burdened with the same.
~~~
The quiet echoes of the terrain crawler's pattering legs could be heard past the walls of the room...
It had only been a quarter cycle, and the tension between the Toa and their mission had been getting worse. 8 days, and just about every one ended in somebody's composure snapping, and tonight was no different.
A growl riled up in the silence, "I'm sick of being stuck inside the prototin canister! How much longer until we reach the next biosphere?!" a deep feminine voice boomed. Her tan skin and teal armor reflected the dim light of the room, eyes darting back and forth.
"You really gotta calm down, girl. It's like, what, one more day?" A green and gray figure waved a hand from a resting hammock.
"I don't think you understand, wind-for-brains. I grew up in a vast, bright, shimmering, oasis dotted desert. I didn't become a Toa to get stuffed in a Terrain Crawler train and dive into Kio-long tunnels to search for a couple missing Matoran. I'm claustrophobic and it's madness!"
"It's nothing to worry about. We'll cross a barrier, and we'll be in a big-ol' open space again." He sat up, a sleepy expression plastered on his mask. It was a Kaukau, bright lime, with dark green details in places. His eyes looked towards the forward door, and then towards the rear. "Maybe... The stale Nerve Chord air will put you at ease. Probably not, but you can try."
Her eyes stared at him for a second, and her foot tapped rapidly, an outlet for her antsy-ness. She gave a big huff, and opened the rear door. The sudden cacophonous tap of hefty metal against metal almost blew her away, and the slight shift in pressure breezed against her skin. In front of her was a second door to the next cabin, where two more of her siblings were probably fast asleep. She gave the green Toa one last glare. "I'll be back in a few minutes, Cadura."
The door hissed shut behind her.
"Thank Lihka-Nui, now I can finally get some shut-eye-" he muttered to himself. He snuggled into the folds that secured him, getting comfortable, but after a brief pause he almost couldn’t handle the miniscule moment alone. He found himself reaching for his Array, a popular analog device from the Basin. "-After I browse the archives a bit more." It flickered awake, alternating triangular Vortixx script filling the screen between colorful photographs. Cadura grew a small smirk across his mask, as his eyes strained in the dim light. "So glad the signal still works in here… For now I’m assuming."
Bonuto stared at the fleeting scuffed metal below the crawler, noticing the kicked up dust from the mechanical legs as it drifted low to the ground like a fog. She was a Toa of Sand, and it was true she was from a desert, and she knew she was far, far from home. "What the hell do they expect us to find in here, anyway?" Her mutter was almost inaudible to her own recepters passed the clatter. "A few matoran go missing and they send teams of Toa down here, where nothing lives. What could we possibly find?"
What Bonuto didn't know was that there was a deep, unrelenting shadow hidden inside Lihka-Nui, and it was an incredible threat to everyone. 1000 years ago they got what they desired, they took over this body directly, and it crumpled to the lush earth beneath it and every species fled. All but one. The Makuta were down here.