Ever since being cured of her Light drainage, Gavla was forced to return to living as an outcast among both her fellow Av-Matoran and all the other Matoran gathered in Metru Nui because her still mutated form scared them. She survived Teridax’s reign by staying with a group of refugees because she knew she’d be doomed on her own, and with all the Makuta who actually knew and “wanted” her now being dead and Teridax having no real use for her, she had no one else to go to and nursed a hatred for Teridax, Takanuva, other Matoran, and other Toa. Eventually Gavla made it out to Spherus Magna and was restored to her original form by Mata Nui’s cleansing life wave, losing her wings and claws and making her even more defenseless in her eyes. She stole another Av-Matoran’s Power Swords and left to go into isolation for a while, keeping her Avsa, her colors of dark blue and black, and her fiery scarlet eyes.
After a while, Gavla found herself living in the new city of Etruzia (made up mostly of the former residents of Xia and more “civilized” members of the species native to Stelt) to sustain herself with work, still dealing with sorrow and loneliness masked by anger and bitterness. She missed having a place where she really felt accepted, which she only marginally had in Etruzia because her work was semi-valuable there. But more than anything, she just missed the element of Shadow itself as she now associated it with her “true self,” and having the element of Light just reminded her of the Av-Matoran who, in her eyes, rejected her. Nursing these feelings and a bit of unresolved abandonment trauma left her wanting revenge on those who took her “real home” from her. And while Mata Nui already killed Teridax, Takanuva was still alive and out there somewhere.
Asking around, Gavla learned Takanuva was presently serving at a training facility in New Atero for Matoran, Toa, and Glatorian, and after making her way there she attempted an attack on the Toa of Light that went quite poorly and landed her in the custody of the Order of Mata Nui. There she got to know Ahkmou, who was also taken into the Order’s custody after his half-hearted career as “Turaga” of Metru Nui ended, and was now undergoing therapy to work out all the brainwashing and trauma inflicted on him by Teridax. Ahkmou would eventually be cleared to return to society and later be called to become a Toa by Mata Nui (along with the other 5 Metru Nui Matoran once manipulated by Teridax’s schemes), while Gavla remained in the Order’s custody, confused and bitter over everything. Takanuva, who at the time of Gavla’s failed assassination attempt had completely forgotten who she was, eventually remembered Gavla from Karda Nui and why she hated him, and began to visit her to try and understand her better, with the hope of getting her to better understand things herself.
Gavla still didn’t quite like or trust him, but was eventually softened a bit by his kindness and willingness to try and be her friend. She had felt somewhat of a connection with Ahkmou when he was there with her before, but as his therapy went on while in the Order’s custody and his views on the Makuta and the Shadows grew further opposite of Gavla’s, she feared she had become alienated from Ahkmou as she still sees the Shadows as a comfort. Takanuva wanted to get her to feel more welcomed by the Light, asking and getting permission to take her under his wing like he did Ahkmou. This enabled Gavla the opportunity to open up about her feelings regarding the Shadow element, how while she no longer felt like she wanted to be actively evil and corrupt, she still felt like she had more clarity as a Shadow Matoran and a better understanding of her own self, and wished she could just go back to being that way without her being seen as an evil monster. Takanuva can’t relate given his own scarring experience as a Toa of Twilight teetering on the edge of darkness, but with the aid of his Avohkii he was able to understand where Gavla was coming from.
Having rejoined Matoran society, Gavla found the other Av-Matoran from her former village were still avoidant of her except Radiak, who somewhat understood Gavla’s stance that the Shadow element itself didn’t make them “monsters”, but rather the Makuta did, and Radiak understood that beneath all the Makuta’s twisting of their bodies and minds they were still “them” at their core, if a bit darker and uninhibited by morals. Still, Gavla felt like no one quite saw the situation how she did, and became more depressed about it. It also didn’t help that she still preferred to wear her monstrous-looking Avsa, as she felt it was the closest she could get to feeling like how she felt when she was a Shadow Matoran, and her Kaukau just reminded her of a life she hated.
Eventually, Gavla learned about other Shadow Toa who managed to hang onto their identity without getting lost to corruption, and even used their Shadow element to help others. A prime example was Vodan, who she actually knew a bit before he disappeared from the Av-Matoran’s original home long ago. Learning that he became the first Shadow Toa and honorably served Miserix’s Brotherhood in the first Hagah team filled her with a sense of vindication on her view of Shadow, and even Takanuva began to understand her viewpoint more. And with the later arrival of a team led by Miserix’s Toa Hagah Kilaoi (the Toa Toduna, a band of survivors from an even more cataclysmic alternate reality that Kilaoi was unintentionally stranded in in the past) and their alternate counterpart of Takua as a Shadow Toa still fighting for good, Gavla felt even more like if she could become a Shadow Matoran again and even a Shadow Toa, she could use the power of Shadow to help others too, all while feeling like her real self again. Those hopes were soon crushed however, as Shadow Toa Takua rather sternly told her it was a bad idea and that willingly trying to convert to shadow was far too dangerous, attesting that he still struggles with his dark impulses and is barely clinging onto his inner light.
Distressed, Gavla ran away, with Takanuva desperately wanting to find and reassure her but being advised to let Gavla go, so she could have time to figure things out for herself. On her own, Gavla wound up boarding a seafaring vessel crossing Aqua Magna just to get away from it all. On the journey, she noticed an unknown island in the distance and requested to be dropped off there so she could be alone. While wandering the island, she was ambushed by dangerous Rahi, which were stopped by members of Makuta Dyros’ Toa Hagah team, the Wolf Pack. Understandably, they began to calmly “interrogate” Gavla about her presence on the island (New Nutrahlis/Nutrahlis Nuva, which is essentially the original Rahi reserve island that Dyros and his Hagah fully transported from the damaged GSR and onto the Aqua Magna ocean) which made her a bit uneasy, until finally Dyros himself arrived to examine the Wolf Pack’s hunting results. Seeing Gavla, he read her mind to learn why she was on the island and saw both her desire to be a Shadow Matoran/Toa and her wanting a place to belong. Not really concerned so long as she didn’t interfere with his Rahi conservation and research, Dyros dismissively allowed her to visit the village of New Kra-Koro where the natural Kra-Matoran of the island were gathered, telling his Hagah to take her there whenever they were done with their Rahi game-hunting. Her time in Kra-Koro left Gavla ecstatic, and eager to return to New Atero and tell Takanuva about what she’d found. The Wolf Pack, however, insisted that this place must not be revealed to other outsiders as typically Dyros does not take kindly to intrusions on his reserve, which discouraged Gavla once again. But the Toa do tell her that other natural Kra-Matoran have settled elsewhere on Spherus Magna, and they are protected by the first natural Toa of Shadow- Kagero, who was once a resident of the old Kra-Koro in Dyros’ Dome back in the MU, and found his destiny as a Toa long ago. They don’t know where exactly he and his Kra-Matoran have settled, but it’s the only lead they can give Gavla for now, and one she holds onto.
Much later, the New Brotherhood’s shenanigans led by the alternate counterparts of Makuta Koldriz, Kahvrah, Pirox, and Eltrakis (emigrants from the Kingdom AU before their Teridax eventually killed off/absorbed the rest of the Makuta) are taking place, and they’ve been kidnapping Matoran to turn into corrupt Shadow Matoran again with recreated Shadow Leeches. Aware of the situation, Gavla kept trying to get herself caught so she could become a Shadow Matoran again, naively believing she could be like Takanuva and Shadow Toa Takua and just stop the Light-draining process prematurely by removing the Leeches and avoid becoming fully corrupt again. Each time, Takanuva and others stopped her from carrying out her reckless plan no matter how much she protested, making Gavla even more frustrated and depressed as she believed they were once again robbing her of the chance to be what she felt like she’s supposed to be. During these events, the New Brotherhood also found and attacked the Kra-Matoran settlement that Toa Kagero had been defending- the small underground city of Kra-Metru, built by the Kra-Matoran and Kagero themselves using their mechanical repair and engineering knowledge. This forced Kagero to finally “step out of the shadows” and seek the aid of the Toa in New Atero and Koro Nui, allowing Gavla to finally meet the natural Toa of Shadow and eventually the other natural Kra-Matoran. This event also began to widely change how many viewed the Shadow element and users of it, reaffirming Gavla’s own beliefs, and in admiration of Toa Kagero she changed the colors of her eyes and heartlight to an azure blue to match the Toa of Shadow’s.
Still, no one would let Gavla try to change herself to a Shadow Matoran unnaturally, nor attempt to acquire the means to do so. At this point, Gavla was getting angrier with the ones saying they were just trying to help her and who claimed knew what was best for her, and she felt more and more like no one understood her besides those affiliated with Shadow.
Things got worse when some unnatural Shadow Matoran saved from the New Brotherhood were selected by Miserix to undergo a similar process to Vodan, suppressing their Shadow corruption and transforming them into Shadow Toa with retained inner light (such as Toa Ventron), and Kagero helped teach them and Shadow Toa Takua how to fuel their Shadow element with positive thoughts and emotions to get better control of it. Gavla sees this as further evidence that there’s no reason to keep her from trying to become a Shadow Matoran and Toa herself now, but Takanuva and other Toa argue that while that may be true now, all the recreated Shadow Leeches were destroyed, and an Avsa’s light-drainage wouldn’t be permanent without draining all the light within Gavla and making her evil. The idea of seeking out the now banished Makuta of the New Brotherhood to get them to make another Leech for her was immediately shot down, and when she asked the benevolent Makuta of the Makuta Research Guild to invert her element, they worried that her growing instability and unadressed trauma put her at too great a risk for the process. (Miserix could probably safely invert her element with his Mask of Mutation but either he was too busy to see Gavla or no one thought of the idea)
All of this left Gavla feeling at her lowest, and meanwhile Takanuva was tasked with assembling and training a team entirely composed of new Toa of Light due to the threat of the corrupt Makuta and other rogue Shadow Toa still hanging over everyone’s heads, and there only being less than 10 Toa of Light active at the time. Choosing Av-Matoran with experience dealing with Makuta and other Shadow users, Mata Nui destined Tanma, Photok, Solek, Kirop, Radiak, and - to everyone’s surprise - Gavla. Hoping to encourage her to still use her capabilities and current elemental alignment to help others, like the natural Kra-Matoran she’d grown fond of, Mata Nui gave Gavla the chance to become a Toa of Light, which she remained uncertain about. Takanuva did his best to be supportive and encouraging, understanding that while it may not be exactly what she wanted, Gavla can still do good things with the power she naturally possessed. He also helped her get somewhat comfortable with the idea of working with her old Av-Matoran neighbors, and did his best to get them to be less avoidant and distrusting of Gavla in return, Radiak being the most friendly to her. In time she was offered a Toa Stone, made by Takanuva himself as a show of trust and goodwill, but first Gavla was advised that she’d have to change her Avsa for a different mask as its power breaks the Toa Code. Hurt that she was being forced to give up the only thing that made her feel connected to what she considered her true identity but lacking the will to fight for it anymore, Gavla gave up her Avsa and took up a replacement Kaukau, then accepted the Toa Stone and became a Toa of Light. Alongside the other 5 newly-transformed Toa of Light, and a pre-existing rookie female Toa of Light named Vega, Gavla became part of the team dubbed the Toa Havana, “Protectors of Light.” Feeling pressured to fit in with her fellow Toa of Light, she changed her armor colors to include a cool white and accents of gold, but continued wearing only dark blue and black when alone or when visiting Kra-Metru.
While Gavla enjoyed the newfound strength of a Toa, and the company of the Kra-Matoran in Kra-Metru whom she’d gotten acquainted with, she wasn’t really happy because she still wasn’t truly one of them, and often isolated herself in dark places, such as underwater, to sink deeper into her depression.
Often she would also stay out late at night to be in the comfort of darkness under the pale light of Twilus Qala, Spherus Magna’s original and solely remaining moon. In time Gavla began to look into other ways she could wield Shadow as an additional ability, eventually getting her hands on a pseudo-elemental Mask of Darkness since no one wanted to make even the standard variant of the Kraahkan, but it wasn’t the same as fully wielding Shadow or truly being a Toa of Shadow. Growing more desperate as a hole likewise began to grow inside her, she got her hands on a Great Avsa from an illegal source, forged in the shape of the one Vamprah gave her, thinking maybe she could drain positive emotions from enemies in secret to at least get some positive emotions restored to her, or even try and use the Avsa on herself to replace her Light with Shadow. But she found the Avsa doesn’t work that way in either case, and was left remaining unhappy. As a result, Gavla grew more and more distant from her team and from Takanuva, frequently skipping out on team missions and disappearing entirely.
At the peak of her desperation, Gavla ventured into the off-limits remains of the GSR, exploring the ruins of the MU in the faintest hope that just one Shadow Leech survived somewhere in Karda Nui. While searching the vast ruins, avoiding the working Bohrok and scavenging Zyglak, she stumbled upon suspicious activity moving throughout the shadows. Investigating out of morbid curiosity, Gavla encountered none other than a surviving Teridax, lurking about in a scrapped-together body made of Vahki parts holding together a damaged Maxilos robot. Gavla still held resentment for Teridax, but recognized that at the time he may be her only chance at getting what she wants even if the risks were extremely high. So she spoke with the former leader of the old Brotherhood, Teridax going on about how he survived getting domed by a moon fragment by saving some of his essence outside of the Core Processor and his current desire for revenge on Mata Nui and whatnot. Gavla uneasily agreed to help him in getting a stable Makuta body constructed in exchange for Teridax giving her a single Shadow Leech, justifying within her mind that she could just warn everyone on Spherus Magna about Teridax returning after getting what she needed from him. Obviously, Teridax could read her mind and knew what her intentions were, but didn’t say anything, as he himself intended to use Gavla as part of his own “insurance plan.”
In time and with Gavla’s help, Teridax completed a stable suit of Makuta armor, as well as recovered and recombined the fragments of his unique Kraahkan, whose atoms reassembled separately after Gorast scattered them when she killed Icarax. As promised, Teridax created a Shadow Leech for Gavla, and ensured it wouldn’t make her a hollow shell of herself with just a desire to destroy like most of Tridax’s Shadow Takanuva, but mainly because he had greater plans for Gavla to “carry on his legacy.” Teridax also laced it with a similar virus to one Tridax used on said Shadow Takanuva, which would prevent any light from returning to Gavla’s spirit regardless of the mental barrier being broken.
Gavla took the Leech and was influenced by Teridax to use it then and there, and as it drained her light it likewise began to drain all her positive thoughts on those who had been trying to help her up till now, her frustrations with them slowly overshadowing what she did appreciate about them. Teridax took advantage of this with further mental manipulation, causing Gavla to reason against cutting the light-drainage short, that maybe she didn’t want to keep helping the people who had consistently denied the one simple, feasible thing she wanted. She questioned why she should even warn them about Teridax’s return, and ultimately decided against doing so as her concern for them faded. All the while, Teridax was pleased with how successfully he’d twisted her thoughts, and when the process was complete, Gavla was left a full Shadow Toa with no Light left within her, like she was when she was a Shadow Matoran working with the Makuta in Karda Nui. Finally, she was back to being her “true self,” who she believed she really was deep down. This was who she is, no longer a shadow of who she wanted to be.
After being asked how she felt, Gavla stated her new stance: she rejected the title of Toa entirely, and denounced the Toa who’d kept her from being herself. Hearing exactly what he wanted to hear, Teridax proposed a plan for Gavla to follow through on in his stead. He himself admitted he was currently too consumed by both his hatred for Mata Nui and his desire for revenge against him to focus on conquering this world, but Gavla may be able to succeed where he could not. As a gift to his new “successor,” Teridax took Gavla’s Avsa and brought it to a restarted Kanohi forge, melting the Avsa down and melding the Kanohi metal with that of a standard Kraahkan and other materials to forge a new hybrid mask- the Kanohi Kordata, Mask of Despair, which would grant Gavla Makuta-level control over elemental Shadow, the ability to sense the moral darkness in others, and the ability to drain energy, light, and positve emotons from beings, as well as amplify their negatve emotons. Teridax and Gavla then set off to meet with the exiled Makuta of the New Brotherhood, whom Teridax was aware of and had been observing while they were held up in the ruins of the MU, but chose to wait before interacting with directly until now.
Meeting with the New Brotherhood was uneasy at the start, with most of the Makuta gathered there resenting Teridax for his betrayal and failed plans, and also being suspicious of Gavla’s presence. Reluctantly, Teridax finally admitted his failings as leader of the Brotherhood, once again stating that right now his main goal was satisfying a burning desire to face Mata Nui for a rematch and either finally get his revenge or die trying. But first, he wished to give these Makuta a “parting gift” in the form of Gavla, whom he had entrusted his legacy to as his successor and insisted would be a great aid to the New Brotherhood in reestablishing their reign. Teridax suddenly turned his attention to 5 Makuta in particular- the alternate counterparts of Koldriz, Kahvrah, Pirox, Eltrakis, and Bitil, who also migrated from the Kingdom AU with the other 4 but only joined the New Brotherhood sometime after. Knowing that Koldriz’ leadership of the New Brotherhood also ended in failure, and rationalizing that the 5 of them didn’t truly belong in this reality anyway, Teridax ‘thanked them for their service’ so to speak before forcefully absorbing them, gaining the mass and energy needed to fuel his final transformation.
The “Makuta Nui” as he now referred to himself (in a form of direct opposition to his “brother” Mata Nui) then donated a portion of his increased Antidermis reservoir and stored it in a vat, which he stated was to be preserved and grown until it could become another pool of Antidermis containing a trace of his will, and later experimented on and birth new Makuta spirits from. Makuta Nui also gave Gavla a portion of his Antidermis and infused her with it, giving her access to the 22 Makuta-innate Kraata powers, but not the ones exclusive to Kraata and Rahkshi themselves (as is revised and streamlined in the Kardan Universe) nor the ability to create Kraata herself or absorb mass via Shadow Hand. But the power she had received was enough for Gavla to be considered an “honorary Makuta,” and she chose to go by “Makuta Gavla” from then on to break from the name of Toa completely.
Makuta Nui then left everything with the New Brotherhood to Gavla, and finally departed to fulfill his revenge on Mata Nui once and for all, a path that led to his true and final end.
As for the New Brotherhood, up until then they had basically been in shambles, barred from re-entering the territory of Atero Magna (the unified nation of all Magnan and Oropi communities and settlements allied with the Toa and Glatorian of New Atero and Koro Nui) less they face the full wrath of Miserix, who’d already granted them a final show of mercy; they’d been reduced to bartering with the likes of Bone Hunters, remnant Skrall factions, and other groups of outcasts living in the outskirts of Spherus Magna. Gavla, taking in full stock of their pitiful state, then proposed the plan she and Teridax had engineered: since the New Brotherhood still has to avoid directly attacking the nation of Atero Magna, they would instead engage them in a “cold war” of sorts by fully claiming the allegiance of unaligned territories on the rest of the planet, like the Skrall factions, Vorox tribes, and any cities of Oropi who aren’t allied with Atero Magna. With the right approach, they could even convince other Agori and Glatorian to sway to their side over the Toa and Glatorian of New Atero for one reason or another. The Toa and Makuta Research Guild under Miserix will want to avoid another full-scale war, and so long as the New Brotherhood isn’t posing a threat to all of Spherus Magna, the Toa and their allies will have no “jurisdiction” to attack them directly. This territory and allegiance struggle will then create tension between Atero Magna and the unaligned Magnans, as some start to believe that they’d be better off under the New Brotherhood’s “protection.” The first move will be to create their own community of natural Kra-Matoran by stealing an Olu Raliska (otherwise referred to as “Protomolders” by those less ‘fluent’ in archaic Matoric terminology), and teach these newborn Matoran to trust in the New Brotherhood of their own (mostly) free will.
The remaining members of the New Brotherhood are doubtful of Gavla and her plan, but with little other options at the time they eventually put it into motion, and it is actually proving to have success as they carry it out. As such, Gavla is quickly rising in the ranks of the New Brotherhood, though she has convinced them to strive to share their authority equally so as to prevent infighting, operating instead as a collective entity in their “war” against Atero Magna for control of unclaimed territory on the planet. Taking advantage of the fact that not all Magnans have been so quick to accept the former residents of the MU as their new neighbors, the New Brotherhood is slowly gaining their own “legitimate” standing as a rival nation to Atero Magna. Gavla’s plan successfully keeps the Toa and Miserix from attacking the New Brotherhood directly, as the Toa don’t want to risk collateral damage from full-scale war and Miserix is being held back by his more patient brothers and sisters to “trust in the Toa and their allies,” thus making the plan viable as a sustainable, long-term strategy to weaken the faith in the Toa among the whole of Spherus Magna’s other inhabitants. If ever they must fight over an unclaimed spot of territory on Spherus Magna, each side must agree to send a small group of their members to fight each other in area-contained battles, and Gavla is often able to enjoy fighting those who still cling to their “misplaced faith” in the Toa and their precious light.
