BIONICLE Legends 8: Downfall

Downfall was the eighth Bionicle Legends book and came out in December 2007. It was the last of the books in 2007, and led in to 2008.

Story
The story begins a few days after the 2007 storyline ends, with Toa Mahri Hahli at Metru Nui. Kopeke, the new Chronicler, comes to ask her about what happened in the Pit so he can record it. Hahli begins her story on Metru Nui, where Nuju was watching the dying stars and wondering about the fate of the Toa Nuva and the six Matoran--Jaller, Hahli, Kongu, Matoro, Nuparu, Hewkii--who left to go after them.

In the Pit, the Po-Matoran Dekar recreated as the deceased Pit jailer Hydraxon was about to destroy the Kanohi Ignika with a Cordak rocket. Hahli and the Barraki Mantax intervened, however. Hahli created a strong current that sent the rocket away, and a second one that blasted Hydraxon far away from the mask.

After a short struggle, the Mask of Life ended up in the hands of Mantax. He was given the "curse" of being a parasite--the life energy of everyone near him began to be sucked into him, like the Barraki's Squids. With Hahli and Hydraxon unable to approach him to recover the mask, he demanded that they tell the other Barraki to meet him within one day at the Razor Whale's Teeth, at the center of the Barraki's undersea territory, unarmed.

Hahli regrouped with the other Toa and informed them of the situation. Matoro sent "Maxilos" (really the Makuta of Metru Nui in disguise) and his Energy Hound Spinax to track down Hydraxon, while the Toa Mahri informed the Barraki of Mantax's meeting.

After doing so, they regrouped to inform the Mahri Nui Matoran, Defilak in particular, that they would need to head up the Stone Cord and return to Voya Nui, where they came from, to be safe from the battle the Toa Mahri were about to mount against the Barraki. Reluctantly, Defilak agreed. The Mahri Nui Matoran were gathered and the Toa began to lead them up the cord.

On their way, they encountered their old nemeses, the Piraka. They had been severely mutated by the Pit's mutagen, and now resembled gigantic eels. However, their ally on Voya Nui, Axonn came to the rescue and "took care of" the Piraka. Whether or not Axonn killed them remains to be seen.

Axonn led the Toa Mahri to a giant Rahi modified to be a vehicle, called the Toa Terrain Crawler. They rode it back to the Pit while Axonn led the Mahri Nui Matoran the rest of the way up the cord. The Matoran took shelter underground, for Axonn knew that the Toa would soon need to sever the cord, causing Voya Nui to sink underwater and smash Mahri Nui.

Meanwhile, Maxilos and Spinax finally caught up to Hydraxon, who was going after Mantax and the Mask of Life. They battled for a short period of time, and Hydraxon ended the battle by shooting part of a mountain and causing an avalanche, burying Maxilos.

Shortly before then, the Barraki's meeting had begun. Mantax presented a tablet of transit from the Brotherhood of Makuta--a tablet that would prevent the Brotherhood from harming anyone who held it. He informed them that one of the Barraki had planned to betray the others 80,000 years ago, have all of the others executed by the Brotherhood and then taken all of the territory of the League of Six Kingdoms for himself. He demanded that someone confess, or he would destroy the Mask of Life. Before anyone could confess, Hydraxon's avalanche swept over the Razor Whale's Teeth. In the chaos, Takadox attacked Mantax, revealing himself as the traitor.

As Mantax fled, Takadox followed, and chasing him was an enlarged Gadunka, chasing them out of what it thought was its territory.

At that time, the Toa Mahri had just returned to the Pit. They split up--one team to keep the Barraki busy, one team to retrieve the Mask of Life from Mantax, and Hewkii to fight Gadunka. Hewkii decided to take the hard way and did not use the power of his Garai to defeat Gadunka. In the end, Hahli and Nuparu, who were harassing the Barraki, had to come to his aid.

Meanwhile, Jaller and Matoro were sent after the Mask of Life and Mantax. After a brief struggle by Mantax and Takadox, which Takadox lost, Jaller attacked Mantax with his elemental power, boiling the water around him.

Nearby, Maxilos pulled himself out of the rubble of the avalanche. Takadox, paralyzed by Mantax's head spikes, attempted to hypnotize him to kill Mantax, but he was not affected. Matoro interrupted and froze Maxilos solid.

But Jaller, struggling to keep Hydraxon away from the Mask of Life, created a wall of fire that thawed out Maxilos. Maxilos ordered Spinax to attack Hydraxon, and Jaller threw the mask to Matoro. The two swam away, heading for Mahri Nui where the other Toa were already waiting. On the way, Matoro finally revealed that Maxilos was in fact Makuta, and Jaller told Matoro that Kongu had discovered during their fight as Toa Inika with Vezon that Matoro was the destined bearer of the Mask of Life, the only being able to touch the mask without being cursed.

Meanwhile, the Barraki were attempting to regain the Mask of Life from the Toa Mahri. But Makuta, who needed the Toa to use the mask to heal Mata Nui, prevented them from doing so, easily defeating them. However, they sent their armies against him. Apparently, he left the Maxilos armor after it became too battered, and went to places unknown.

At the deserted Mahri Nui, the Toa Mahri made their final preparations before destroying the cord. While doing so, however, Gadunka appeared. Noticing the Mask of Life in Matoro's hands, it realized that it was the same "glowing rock" that had given it so much power, and Gadunka thought the mask should belong to it. Joining Gadunka was a giant, 300-foot long venom eel that the Mask of Life had created as a guardian before the Toa Mahri had even arrived in the Pit, and a huge prehistoric whale that Kongu's Kanohi Zatth had summoned in an earlier battle.

Jaller quickly formed a battle plan. Kongu and Hahli fought the whale, Hewkii would take care of the venom eel, and Nuparu, Jaller and Matoro fought Gadunka.

Kongu used his mask to summon a Rahi to his aid, but he ended up summoning a few glowing fish, which the Rahi quickly engulfed. Hahli had the idea to mimic their ability to glow with her Kanohi Faxon, and the whale began to chase her, believing her to be more food. Hahli swam under a large rock, which Kongu destroyed with his Cordak blaster, trapping the whale beneath it. Hewkii struggled with the eel for a brief period of time, and then used his Garai to lower its personal gravity so much that it was carried away by a weak current. Gadunka stunned Jaller and Matoro, and Nuparu tried defending them. Then Gadunka grabbed the Mask of Life, and it undid the giant Rahi's transformation, causing it to shrink to its original size.

That battle won, Hydraxon next confronted the Toa Mahri. Matoro managed to convince him that they needed the Mask of Life to save the universe, and Hydraxon seemed to have a change of heart, reluctantly leaving the Toa alone. Finally, they cut the cord, and Voya Nui began to sink underwater, smashing Mahri Nui on its way down. It headed for the southern continent where it originated from, and the Toa were forced to follow it, ignoring the absurdity that they were racing an island.

But the Barraki and their armies were not far behind. The Toa followed Voya Nui for as far as they could, but they were too late. The Great Spirit died. Matoro thought that there must have been some way to bring him back to life, so the other Toa Mahri stayed behind to fight the Barraki, just to buy Matoro time to save Mata Nui.

Matoro followed Voya Nui all the way to the southern continent. At the last moment, he passed it, getting into the Universe Core that lay directly below it. In a giant waterfall, Matoro slowly fell down into the Universe Core. A flying creature, presumably a Phantoka Makuta, passed by beneath him. It was then that he heard a voice in his mind telling him to put on the Kanohi Ignika. He did so, and it transformed him into energy, killing him in the process but using his energy to resurrect Mata Nui. His last conscious act was to make the Mask of lIfe transport the Toa Mahri back to Metru Nui, giving them the ability to breathe air once more.

On Metru Nui, the Toa Mahri realized that Mata Nui was alive and well again, and that the universe was not going to end after all. But they also realized that Matoro was gone, and Turaga Vakama informed them that he had seen Matoro's death in a vision. He ended his speech with the words: "Come, my friends. Let us go and celebrate a Ko-Matoran who became a Toa, and a Toa who saved the universe."

It was there that Hahli ended her story to Kopeke. But the book continues, showing that even Nuju grieved over Matoro's death, as he was one of Nuju's closest friends. In the Pit, Hydraxon found the destroyed, empty Maxilos robot and decided to fix it, never learning that he had once been called Dekar, and that his lifelong friends were starting a new life on the southern continent.

The book goes on to say that Mata Nui was vaguely aware of the events that had been going on during his slumber, and he somehow sensed that a Toa had come to save him from his death. The book says that after being resurrected by Matoro, Mata Nui began to dream in his sleep. He had terrible nightmares, however, and could only hope that one day he would awaken and find that all of it had just been a dream.

And finally, in Artakha, the Toa Nuva arrived as the final item on their scroll of preparations for awakening Mata Nui. Artakha spoke to them, although he did not show himself. He gave them special adaptive armor that would change to suit their environment. And then he teleported them to the southern continent. When they arrived, they were in mid-air, but their armor had adapted to keep them afloat. They were above a Matoran settlement, and they witnessed a gigantic battle going on in the sky.

Ending the book, Artakha commanded them: "Go, Toa Nuva. Go and find your destiny at last!"

Characters

 * Barraki - Carapar, Takadox, Ehlek, Kalmah, Mantax, Pridak
 * Toa Mahri - Jaller, Hahli, Kongu, Matoro, Nuparu, Hewkii
 * Gadunka
 * Maxilos and Spinax
 * Hydraxon
 * Nocturn
 * Piraka - Zaktan, Hakann, Vezok, Thok, Avak, Reidak
 * Toa Nuva - Tahu, Lewa, Onua, Kopaka, Pohatu, Gali
 * Kopeke
 * Metru Nui's Turaga