Bionicle G2: New Legends, New Heroes

Prologue

I was there that day... Even now, I can remember it... as clear as the sky... The six heroes standing in the center of darkness... ready to fight what threatened to come into our world...

"Makuta!"

"This ends now!"

Before, I once thought myself as an old Mask Maker... Wise and powerful... but even the wise can be undone... and so was I for a time...

I had been trapped for a thousand years in an endless sleep... until they came... And now, I watched my saviors begin to save our world... Each of them embracing... becoming the elements they represented... fire, water, stone, earth, jungle, and ice made into form...

And across from the heroes... I saw him... Makuta... Once he had been a kind Mask Maker... my brother... but the monster that stood before me was not him... just a black twisted image of jealousy and hatred... standing at the doorway between our world and the world from which he was imprisoned... wearing the forbidden mask he made... the mask that drove him mad and cursed me to my slumber...

And I watched the two forces meet... The power of the elements fought against shadow... Their powers colliding in magnificent lights...

Yet, as I watched... I felt sorrow... You see... I knew how it would it was meant to be... prophecy had shown me how...

"For Duty!"

I was not meant to say it... No matter how hard I wanted to...

"For Unity!"

... they soon knew it too... and when the time came, they accepted it...

"For Destiny!"

... and together, they used their powers to banish Makuta... back into his realm of shadows... while they returned... to their realm in the stars...

And I... I was sad to see them go...

-----

"... And thus, it was how our world... our island of Okoto... came to be... at peace..."

Finishing his story, Ekimu rested his head on his pillow and looked around with what little strength he had left. The dim blue glow of his eyes caught masks, old and new, and their bearers, who had been listening to the story intently. From all over the island of Okoto, they came to see the great Mask Maker, their old leader from a time long past, and the one who fought alongside the great heroes that saved their island from destruction.

Yet, when they came, they could only look down in sorrow. They knew what was to come, and so did Ekimu himself. He was old. Very old. His body was filled with aches and pains that forced him to bed, as well as rust spreading from his feet up to his mask's crown-like horns.

Nonetheless, Ekimu allowed himself to resume. "Our lives have been plentiful..." his voice rasped behind his mask again. "These past years... have given us great days... fond memories..."

Ekimu's mind wondered for a moment. He could see the great City of the Mask Makers beyond his bedchamber. The great halls and towers rebuilt and refilled with Okotans after centuries of abandonment. The sun shining on the laughing adults and their children as they continued on with their lives.

However, the old one turned back to his audience and raised a weary finger. "Remember... our island of Okoto... may be safe for now... but... but..."

A hacking cough interrupted Ekimu. His attendants rushed to his aid, but Ekimu raised a hand to stop them. The filters of his mask, rusted from time, wheezed out the last remains of the awful sound. Ekimu rested once more and resumed.

"... but... be wary... there is always danger... and evil is cunning... there will be a time... when you must... call on the great heroes for aid..."

A sigh left Ekimu, feeling the numbness spread all over his body and his own weight growing lighter. His eyes threatened to close, but he would not let them. Not yet. Not yet...

"Remember this..." Ekimu said, his voice barely a whisper, "... in your time of need... call on the prophecy... at the Temple of Time... and they will appear... the Toa... the Toa..."

With his words spoken, a final gasp struggled out of the mask, and the eyes of Ekimu, last of the great Mask Makers, went dark forever.