As most everyone knows, the Bionicle story serials ended on multiple cliffhangers, as Greg was not able to continue them. I don’t know of any fan project that has actually set out to finish the serials. So that is what I aim to do. Not just finish the stories – I aim to finish them as I feel Greg would’ve. So that means taking into account things Greg said he might have done, including building up to an eventual Great Being Civil War.
This story is a direct continuation of Rising Star. It’s one of the largest stories yet, with quite a few characters.
Previous stories in this project:
Chapter 1
High in the Northern Bota Magna Mountains, a cloud of dust obscured the air. As the dust cleared, it would give way to a very bizarre sight: a massive red monolith of metal, precariously perched between the peaks of the mountains like an egg balanced on a pile of rocks.
This structure used to be known as the Red Star. In truth, however, it was actually a massive space station, created by the Great Beings to aid their giant robots in space travel. It was intended to stay in space, but it was able to land on a planet, if properly piloted. However, the course that had brought it to these mountains had been anything but a smooth landing.
Still, the structure held together, if barely. The metal edges were bent, but still held a semblance of the original shape. But the internal structure was fractured beyond repair. One good impact, and the whole thing would crumple like a broken mask.
Of course, there weren’t many things that could give a strong enough impact to a structure of this size. But there was one thing: the force of gravity. Right now, the peaks of seven of the mountains held it up, sticking high into the air. But if any one of them should give way, the structure would fall flat onto the ground beside the mountains, and then crumble under its own weight.
This would certainly spell death for the people inside the star… if any of them had survived the crash.
Ruhko could hardly believe his eyes.
For years, nearly as long as he could remember, he’d been trapped on the Red Star, seeing nothing but endless hallways of metal and organic material. Sometimes he’d forgotten what the sky looked like. Sometimes, he thought he might never see the outside world again.
But now, he found himself surrounded by woods, trees everywhere, as far as he could see. Looking up, he could see the dark sky, dimly lit by the setting sun. When he looked down, he saw dirt and grass and weeds and roots and all sorts of things he’d only seen when he ran into a Toa of Jungle.
He also saw a few piles of disturbing red gelatin scattered around, a disgusting sight, though not as disturbing as some of the things he’d seen on the Star. He might not remember much about forests, but he felt pretty sure those weren’t a normal feature of the woods.
Then again, he didn’t even know where this was, now that he thought about it. Shortly before the crash, one of the allies he’d gained, a teleporter named Botar, had taken Ruhko and a small group and teleported here. Apparently, it was some place that Toa Kopaka had known. Ruhko was about to ask the Toa of Ice where this was when the Toa spoke first.
“We have to go back for him.”
Ruhko stared at him, confused. Then he glanced around at the small group that had escaped from the star, and noticed that one was missing: the Toa of Stone, Pohatu, who had arrived with Kopaka and helped the group escape. “Oh no…” Ruhko said. “Did he not… ?”
Botar slammed his fist into a nearby tree. “I… I felt him disconnect from the rest of us just as I was teleporting,” he growled. “If I had figured out my powers, I might have been able to…” He shook his head. “It’s my fault. I failed the one thing I’m supposed to do.”
Nearby, the warrior known as Hydraxon shook his head. “It wasn’t your fault. Dying tends to mess with your head. I should know.” Like Botar, Hydraxon had completely lost his memories, until the sight of Kopaka and Pohatu had brought them back. The Star was supposed to revive someone with all their mental faculties intact, but the trauma of dying was apparently more then the Star’s creators had accounted for.
“Botar, can you take us back to where we just were, on board the Star?” Kopaka asked.
“If the internal structure has been damaged by the crash – and I’d be surprised if it wasn’t – teleporting back into it could be extremely risky,” Hydraxon said.
“Then we’ll have to teleport outside and find a way in,” Kopaka said. “We’re not leaving Pohatu.”
“Hold up,” Ruhko said. “After everything we went through to get away from that place, now you want to go back?”
Kopaka glared sternly at the Fe-Matoran for a moment, but then his gaze softened. “You don’t have to come,” he said. “None of you do. I understand if you never want to see that place again. But I’m going. I have to.”
“I’m coming too,” the Ga-Matoran Quilha announced.
Ruhko stared at her, shocked. Of the people Ruhko had met on the Star, Quilha was the one who was most determined to leave the place. She had hated the star, with every fiber of her being. She was the last one Ruhko would have expected to volunteer to go back – especially for a Toa, given her feelings about the Toa.
But Quilha met his gaze, and Ruhko saw that she was just as determined as ever. “Pohatu helped save us from that nightmare,” she said. “The least I can do is try to save him.”
“If you’re going, I’m going too.” This came from Mavrah, the third member of Ruhko’s original group. “I’m not letting you risk your life without me.”
“I – I should – p-p-probably – I m-mean, I’d like to go, b-but…” the stammering, broken words came from the Grey Turaga, who had helped conceal the Toa from the Star’s Kestora managers and gotten the Star out of the sky – before the interference of a mad Toa made it crash.
“It’s all right,” the other Turaga, Lhikan, said. “I’ll stay here with you. You’ve done enough.”
Kopaka frowned. “It might not be good for two Turaga to stay here alone. Especially if whatever did… that is still around.” Kopaka pointed down towards the piles of red goo scattered around the woods.
“I’ll come back here for them,” Botar said. “I’m… in no position to fight, but if anyone comes, I can get them to safety, at least.”
“Is no one else going to point out that there might still be a mad Kestora with an army of Toa on that Star?” Toa Ivohku said. “They’re not going to be happy with us.”
Hydraxon’s eyes narrowed. “I’d like to show them I’m not happy with them either,” he said.
“I’m… kinda responsible for all the Toa being under their control,” Ivohku said. “I guess I should help free them.”
“That just leaves you, Ruhko,” Kopaka said. “How about it? Are you staying or going?”
Ruhko took one last glance around at the woods, the outside world, the thing he’d been fighting for for so long. But then, he gazed at Quilha and Mavrah, his closest friends for the past few centuries, standing next to the two Toa and Botar. He had to go with them, even if it meant returning to that awful place, even if it meant facing the Kestora again.
“I’m in,” he said.
Author’s notes: With such a large group of escapees, I wanted to trim down this group to a smaller cast. Thus, we have just six going back to the star.
Just a quick clarifying note: that red goop is the remains of Tren Krom, since Kopaka had Botar teleport them to the last place he and Pohatu were at.
Chapters will be posted as they’re ready.