2004 - Legends of Metru Nui

As the Matoran prepare for the journey back to Metru Nui, the Turaga reveal age-old tales of how they themselves were once Toa 1,000 years ago in the last days of the city's golden age. 

Floating in a dome beneath the island of Mata Nui, Metru Nui was a busy city metropolis boasting state-of-the-art buildings and technology in which the Matoran worked and lived in peace under the leadership of Turaga Dume. However, the city's Toa guardians started to mysteriously disappear, leaving team leader Lhikan as its sole protector. 

Knowing there was danger, Lhikan sacrificed his Toa power into six Toa stones and handed them out to six Matoran from each Metru district - Vakama, Nokama, Matau, Whenua, Onewa and Nuju - before mercenaries known as The Dark Hunters captured him. The chosen Matoran headed to the Great Temple in Ga-Metru, where using the stones, transformed into the Toa Metru. 

Guided by strange visions from Vakama, the Toa gathered six Great Kanoka discs that could be used to defeat the Morbuzakh plant menace. However, when the Toa proclaimed their victory, Turaga Dume discredited them as criminals. Whenua, Onewa and Nuju were imprisoned, while Vakama, Nokama and Matau escaped as fugitives. After being chased across Metru Nui by two Dark Hunters and Vahki law enforcers, the Toa found each other again as well as Lhikan - now a Turaga as a result of his sacrifice - and the true Turaga Dume, asleep in a stasis pod. 

The Toa learnt that the Teridax, leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta, had been posing as Dume as part of his diabolical plan to overthrow the Great Spirit Mata Nui and become the Matoran's new leader. At the Coliseum, the Toa Metru confronted Teridax, who had already placed the Matoran in stasis pods and erased their memories. He subsequently cast Mata Nui into a deep slumber, triggering an event known as the Great Cataclysm that damaged much of the Matoran Universe. 

The Toa fled with as many Matoran pods as they could carry and headed towards a bright light coming from a crack in Metru Nui's dome created by the cataclysm. Teridax confronted them with the intention of obtaining the Mask of Time that Vakama had recently forged out of the Kanoka discs. The Toa of Fire clashed with the Makuta in a battle that ended with the loss of the mask and Lhikan's death. The Toa Metru eventually combined their elemental powers to seal Teridax in a prison of crystallized protodermis, before continuing on their journey.

The Toa Metru encountered new dangers in the Maze of Shadows before arriving on a mysterious tropical island that they saw fit as the Matoran's new home. After preparing it, they began the journey back to Metru Nui to collect the rest of the Matoran, who all remained in a deep sleep.