#seemingly leaving behind the other turaga as ghostly visions

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Yes, and then Piraka transforming into the GSB makes everything worse! Leading to Ignika somehow being dropped in Lake Naho. Maybe even out of sight, leaving the toa and turaga without information where she is, because the Piraka refuse to say.

I remembered suggesting Vakama in that previous ask because of the parallels between him and Matoro in canon. There's hints that the writers patterned part of Matoro's arc after Vakama's journey in Time Trap and adapted specific plot points. It feels thematically fitting for the AU that Vakama's near-death parallels Mata Nui's death and resuscitation, and whatever happens to Matoro when he revive the latter with the Ignika.

If Tien helps in the fight with the Golden-Skinned Being as we've been speculating, that means the fusion happened a relatively short time before Vakama's vision. The mental link is even stronger than usual - so the already huge, hurting emptiness where he should be becomes a tear cutting into the other five turaga's very being. They're heightened like in an echo chamber. Maybe they even experience, like a vision, the moment his heart stops.

I've remembered a plot point I suggested - how the toa and turaga learn that the Toa Inika (somehow) must dive into Lake Naho to the Ignika.

This has shifted significantly with the brainstorming we've done since then, but I think Vakama still could have that lethal vision containing significant information. (And his heart stopping because Mata Nui dies temporarily and the feedback plus the terror is so strong that Vakama experiences the same thing as Mata Nui.)

Also. Tien is a thing now. They add another complication because of their physical, metaphysical, and emotional connection to the turaga.

This is at least a few months old sorry Shauni

I think definitely that can still be how they figure out that Mata Nui is dying! Ignika doesn't really have a full memory, and his Swiss cheese brain is struggling to fill in the gaps. On top of that, it's not until a little ways in that the gang actually meets up with Ignika, so they might not be in the picture yet and even if they are they'd be a fairly faulty source of information.

And yessss the addition of Tien really makes this hurt. There's almost an emotional feedback loop of shock/grief/pain/anger going around all five of them, and then relief/joy/anger (but different this time) when Hahli and Kongu revive him.