The Wanderer

The Temple

"Don't you see we have a situation?" The bean sprout asked. I glared, "Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon." I growled. The bean sprout tensed at my harsh tone. "This is a very serious issue and I will not allow us to just ignore it."

~~~

We arrived in the basement and I watched from afar as Zane started to explain. "I have spend the past few days catching up on everything that I missed when I went offline during the Merge. Especially the Mergequakes like we saw yesterday. They threaten to destroy everything and are increasing in frequency and intensity."

"Zane, we know the Mergequakes are getting worse." Lloyd said, "Did you and Asteria just bring us down here for that because I have plants to water."

Zane turned to Lloyd, "I do not believe you understand the severity of the data."

I walked over and pushed buttons on the computer, pulling up the map. Zane continued, "The Mergequakes are not simply getting worse, their frequency is about to hit a tipping point. Right now, they are appearing one at a time."

My eyes narrowed, "Soon, they'll engulf all the lands. Until everything is gone."

The fire ninja frowned "Then...What's the solution?" He asked. I turned to him and everyone else, "There is no solution. We found nothing."

It was quiet until Nya spoke, "Zane, can you roll back? Zoom in."

I watched as Zane zoomed in. "Stop there" Nya said while walking over, "Up a bit...Um...Over to the left. There. Stop right there. I knew I had seen this before."

Nadine tilts her head "What do you mean?" She asks her Mum. Nya smiled "When I was researching Mergequakes in the Cloud Kingdom, I found an old text referring to a coalescence."

I raised an eyebrow "Is it a Merge?"

She shrugs "It's what I thought too. A coalescence was once prophesied to happen, but didn't. It was stopped."

Sora walked over "How?" She asks. I watched as Nya held the scroll up, "By an ancient power kept here. The Temple of the Dragon cores. But I had no context for this image until now." She turned to the computer.

"Zane's data revealed where the temple is. If something here prevented a Merge before then it's our best bet at stopping Mergequakes now before it's too late." She turns to Lloyd and I looked.

He nods, agreeing "Watering plants can wait."

~~~

I flew next to the others while in my Dragon form, everyone sitting on the other Dragons. Kai spoke, "These trees are the size of skyscrapers" he gasped.

"They are the world trees" Zane explained. Nya looked at her scroll "According to the map, the temple should be right around here."

There was an opening in a tree ahead so we flew in, landing and the others jumped off the Dragons while I sat down, my wings flexing a bit.

It was a long flight.

I watched the others approach the door, Sora spoke "Looks like the whole door is one big puzzle lock. Maybe if we try..."

She was cut off by Kai and I rolled my eyes, "Uh, let us handle this one." He walked to the door and pulled the middle lever. It glowed, "I made it do a thing. I deserve a break." He smirked.

I turned human as I stood, stretching and walking over to everyone. Nya crossed her arms and I turned to Sora, "What porcupine is trying to say is we have a lot of experience getting into temples like these."

"Hey!"

Lloyd tilts his head, "There's probably a combination of movements that unlocks it."

"I can run all possible scenarios" Zane smiled and walked to the door. I mumbled, "This will take a while..."

~~~

I sat on the ground, my back against Heatwave as Nadine had fallen asleep on my shoulder. I perked up when I heard Zane, I shook Nadine awake gently.

"I have processed all possible combinations and none of them resulted in the positive outcome" Zane said, "We must have missed something."

Arin jumped down and walked to the door with Sora and Nadine, "Three Dragon cores and levers..."

"So it could be designed so that no single person can enter alone" Sora replied. Nadine smiled, "Oh, I see where you're going with this."

The three grab the three levers and pull them. I watch as the symbols on the door lit up and it opened. Lloyd smiled, "Okay. Let's head in."

I spoke, "I'll stay our here with the Dragons. Someone needs to keep watch in case something happens..."

~~~

I heard loud fighting from in the temple. "...They're probably fine." I mumbled and leaned against Heatwave.

I pulled out my album out from my bag, looking through it as I found pictures of Jay, Junior, Skales, Selma...

And Zariya. I caressed my thumb against the picture. I was a bit puzzled...Was she a human? Also, how could I ever get these Dragon powers if none of my parents have them?

I sighed.