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A Po-Koronan sat on a crate in the gloom of a prison cell. The crate was full of apples, from the Le-Koronan orchards, one of which he was chewing on. The apple was crisp and sweet, and also the traditional red to green colour. The Po-Koronan found that there was even a difference in taste between the fleshes under the two colours of skin. The Po-Koronan was so busy pondering about apples and their tastes that he did not notice the door to his cell open up and three figures walk in. With a start he noticed them, lost his balance on the crate and fell backwards, soon buried under an avalanche of Le-Koronan Cox.

“Haltf Rahi scumb!” he cried through his full mouth, and struggled to remove himself from the apples.

“What? How dare you say such a thing to a Ta-Koronan!” said one of the figures, and a lamp flared. The Chosen were revealed standing in the doorway.

The Po-Koronan, shielding his eyes from the light squinted at them through his orange eyes.

“You… you can talk! You aren’t infected!” he exclaimed.

“Sorry?” they said.

“I've been hiding down here for hours,” he said, standing up and trying to bush apple juice off of his legs. “The Po-Korans are after me... There's something wrong with them… They keep talking about Makuta and act like they are in a trance. I think they are infected somehow... Anyway, when a load of them broke into my hut yesterday, I ran away down here. I found this cave, blocked up the entrance, and have been wondering what to do ever since.”

Moana stepped forward,
“That is quite a story. I am glad that you are alright, and not in the same way as the rest of your village.”

“It certainly, that explains everything, wouldn't you say Kaiwera?” said Pirihi.

“Yes. Po-Koro must be under the influence of some dark Magic... It could only be because of the Makuta,” Kaiwera said gravely.

“Er, can I come with you? I have no other way out... I need some help,” said the Po-Koronan.

“I suppose, just don't drink all of our potions and end up all pot-bellied like Pohatu!” said Kaiwera.

“What?! Pohatu ain't a pot-belly, he's just built like that!”

“Yeah yeah, I've seen the Turagas' drawings of him. Only silver-ish armour could hope cover him up!”

“Ah shaddap! The Toa would never get armour, they don't need it! Especially Pohatu!”

“Boys, calm down! The Toa aren't even here yet, because we don't have all of the Kanohi! Wait until they get here and collect all of theirs, then we can argue about unnecessary upgrades!”

“I don’t need to calm down,” said Pirihi coolly.

Kaiwera glared at Pirihi. Moana quickly broke the silence.

“Anyway, what's your name, Po-Koronan?”

“Oh, yeah right. I'm Kikia, pleased to meecha!”

“Er… right,” said Kaiwera, “Well, welcome to the company of the Chosen!”

Kikia gave Kaiwera a blank stare.

“Whassat?” he asked.

“Never mind… you’ll find out soon enough,” said Kaiwera a little deflated.

“I was working on the entrance to the Po-Koro temple behind the town when this all began. I think it was all coming from there!” Kikia said.

“Well, guess we’d better get going troops,” said Moana, “Can we take any of your apples with us Kikia? We’re a little short on the less bland supplies…”

“They would go off within a few days being bumped around in our packs,” commented Kaiwera.

“He he, not these ones buddy! There some of the finest Le-Koronan apples you can get, delivered only yesterday to me by my Ga-Koronan supplier.”

“Her name wouldn’t be Okoth would it?” asked Kaiwera.

“Sure as the sand it is! She’s the best there is!”

“She gets about a lot doesn’t she…” said Moana.

The village was completely silent when they returned to it’s familiar tunnel entrance. They saw no one as they walked through it to the back wall, where the entrance to the Stone Temple was situated.

“This is it! Now, let's see... Oh no! Look, the opening mechanism has been smashed!”

The great wooden turning wheel used to lift the stone doorway to the temple was crushed into it’s alcove, with bits of rope and twisted metal sticking out. Kikia tried to remove it, but it was embedded into the rock itself.
“Yeash… something powerful must have hit this. Someone obviously doesn’t want Tohunga in the Temple!”

“Any other way in?” asked Pirihi.

“Of course! There are many secret entrances to our shrine to Pohatu and the element of stone, as all good temples should have… they just haven’t been installed yet,” Kikia finished.

“Great. Well, guess we can try these.” Kaiwera pulled out of his pack a pair of beige coloured boot shaped objects.

Kikia gasped in amazement.

“Where did you get those? They are the concealed treasure of Po-Wahi, the Toes of Pohatu!”

“Erm… OK, do you know how to use them?” asked Kaiwera, handing them to Kikia. “’Cause I saw on some manuscript once that Pohatu can smash rock apart with his bare feet-“

Kaiwera’s sentence was cut short as all of the Chosen dropped to the ground to avoid the splinters of stone radiating from the remains of the doorway.

“… much like that.”

Kikia walked back to where they were lying with a huge grin on his face.

“I likee this “Chosen” company…”

The Chosen entered the sanctuary of the Temple. The temple was sitting alone in a circle cut out of the living rock. It was an amazing piece of architecture – it was perfectly calculated to firmly support its own weight, but was a single piece of rock, a giant carving. There was rumour that this new structure had not even a single crack in it, lest the Po-Koronan drop their tools and start elsewhere until their Temple was perfect at completion. Of course, no one could really be bothered to check.

The doors to the temple were unlocked, and pushed open easily on their well oiled hinges. Inside was gloomy, but some light pierced the darkness through the slit-like windows which encircled the ceiling. The Temple was quite big inside, a single hall, with a stage at one end. The was a figure there, very dark and seemed to shimmer in the companies gaze. Kaiwera led the party up the stairs and onto the stage. The figure was a little clearer now – they could tell he had his back to them. We was also chanting. As they listened it seemed to grow in volume and strength –

“Vestrum voluntas videlicet mei! Vestrum voluntas videlicet mei! Vestrum voluntas videl-“

“Hey! By the Spirit, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be selling stuff!” cried Kikia, stepping forward from the back of the company. “It’s the guy who was selling Koli balls yesterday in the market!” he said to the Chosen.

“Fools,” said the figure, stopping his chant but not turning round. His voice was deep and gravely.

“How did you get here salesman? And how have you remained unaffected by the curse of Makuta?” Kikia asked.

“I am not a salesman. It is... amusing, that you can be so blind to me,” the figure replied. “I am not a Tohunga. I am destruction…” the figure slowly turned round, his pitted mask and corroded grin came into the Chosen’s view. “I am Makuta.”

“Ma-Makuta?! Impossible!” said Kikia, faltering.

“No… He is covered in rust, he... he isn't lying!” warned Pirihi.

There was suddenly a sense of fear and panic.

“By Mata Nui, ARM YOURSELVES!” screamed Kaiwera, drawing his ruby encrusted sword.

“FOR THE TOA!” he shouted, and leapt towards Makuta, bringing his sword down from behind in that embedded itself heavily into the stone floor… where Makuta had just been standing.

“Wa…?”

“Enough. You cannot destroy me. But I have no time to waste with you, so... I would like you to meet my pet,” said Makuta, now appearing on the right side of the stage.

There was a flash of darkness, and his form disappeared completely. There was a rustling in the shadowy corner of the Temple. Something stirred…

“By the great spirit…” moaned Kikia.

“A Kane-Ra!” said Pirihi.

“Stand firm! Forward, in the name of Mata Nui!” cried Kaiwera.

The Kane-Ra rose up out of the depths and glared at them with its evil red eyes. In the relative gloom of the Temple its shape was menacing, massive, with the two pricks of red light issuing from above the snorting nose. As it moved slowly forward, its massive red horns penetrated a shaft of dusty light from the outside. Kaiwera felt his breath catch in his throat… he was paralysed with fear. He heard the others running away behind him, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t think… just saw the red eyes of the Kane-Ra…

It’s head suddenly gazed over him, and it’s body tensed and then released in a flying jump, something it seemed too big to be able to do. Kaiwera was knocked over by its massive hooves. And rolled over to see the Muaka slam into the entrance of the Temple, blocking the path of the others. There was a massive vibration, and a lot of dust fell from the ceiling. The shafts of light from one side of the temple were now beams of gold. Pirihi, Moana and Kikia turned and ran back towards Kaiwera.

“Oh, so now you come running back ‘eh?” he snorted.

They ran past him, and drew their weapons behind his back.

“Great, I’m at the front, AGAIN!” he screamed.

It wasn’t a very loud scream as screams went. It was more a… yelp. Whatever it was, it was just enough to dislodge a large, perfectly cut, circle of the ceiling, which dropped silently through the air and landed with a crack on the crouching Kane-Ra. The resulting dust cloud engulfed the company with a faint “Phoomph”.

Coughing, the company emerged out of the debris and looked at their crushed adversary. There was a trail of dark blood running from it into a little drain in the floor.

“Phew, that was…”

“… evil,” said Moana.

“Why exactly was a large section of the ceiling cut out into a perfect circle?” asked Kaiwera to Kikia.

“Well, it was gonna be the kinda grand finale to the building of the Temple, where by the light of the desert is let in fully. Guess we may have to scrap that idea now…”

“Yeah. Well, sorry. Wasn’t held up very well was it?” said Kaiwera

“I should think the main reason it fell was that the Kane-Ra shook the building as it blocked our escape. Your cry was just the final vibration. Lucky thing too, that could have been very nasty,” said Pirihi.

“Hmm… so lemme got this straight. That dude who just disappeared was the Makuta?” said Kikia.

“Yesss… do you know any other lords of destruction on Mata Nui?” said Kaiwera.

“Yeah, psfft, loads. They’re mostly small scale. Nah! I’m kiddin ya.”

“Well, it certainly seemed like him. I wonder, now he's gone, if Po-Koro is back to normal...” said Pirihi.

“Let us go and see,” said Moana.

“You know, that was kinda exciting... I'm going to stay with you from now on! This is fun!” said Kikia, beaming at them.

“Fun? Po-Korians are wierd...” said Kaiwera, shaking his head.

“Shouldn't the Kanohi Kakama be around here somewhere?” asked Moana.

“A Kakama? Onewa has one, I think... why do you want one?”

“It’s a long story Kikia,” started Moana-

“Then... Where Makuta was standing... He was holding a mask when he was chanting…” said Pirihi, looking over at where Makuta left the Temple.

Kaiwera walked over to the spot and shuffled around in the rubble, until he removed a dark mask.

“Looks like you are correct. You can use your vision mask after all. It looks like a Hau...” said Kaiwera, staring at it.

“A warped Hau. It looks like it's infected...” Moana said.

It was. It’s corroded surface and dark brown colour were distinct. The mask seemed to absorb the light around it. It’s nose was pulled out and down like a mussel, the cheeks were hollow and the mouth was jagged, as if it had teeth. The overall impression was of a wolf’s face.

“That is a powerful mask. An Evil mask. We should destroy it,” said Pirihi.

“Yeah, we'll take it with us… and destroy it when we get the chance. Let's get out of this place, it's creepy... And we need that Kakama. I hope Onewa's okay now.”

Kaiwera put the mask in his bag. When he looked up, Pirihi was watching him.