The full moon did not rise gently.
It tore itself into the sky, swollen and bright, dragging the tide with it like a wound reopening.
Zanya stood at the edge of the Moon Pool, water lapping around her - mermaid magic humming under her skin, Tidemaker resonance coiled tight, Voltron quintessence burning like a quiet star in her chest.
The Dragon was awake.
She exhaled slowly and let the transformation to take place. Her tail surfaced in a wash of silver-blue light, the water responding instantly—currents bending inward, gravity thickening, moonlight refracting into sharp, prismatic lines.
"This is just the first one," she whispered. "I won't rush you. I won't rush this."
She slipped beneath the surface.
The seal lay deeper than before, revealed only under full lunar alignment. It was not a door, not a wall—but a concept, etched into reality itself. Runes of Atlantean design spiraled through the water, layered with pressure, light, and command.
Containment through harmony.
Cruel in its elegance.
Zanya hovered before it, heart hammering.
Mermaid magic flared first—currents answering her tail, water thickening into a controlled field around the seal.
Then Tidemaker surged.
The water pulled.
Not forcefully. Inevitably. Like gravity deciding which way was down.
The runes resisted, glowing brighter, pressing back.
And then she released the quintessence.
Voltron light threaded through the water, luminous and structural, not destructive. It aligned her power—water, light, will—into a single vector.
"Now," she breathed.
She sang.
Tolkien song-magic slid into the seams of the seal, not breaking it—but unraveling it, note by note. The runes shuddered, their meaning loosening, their authority slipping.
For one suspended heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then—
The seal snapped.
Not shattered.
Released.
The ocean screamed.
A sound so vast it wasn't sound at all—pressure, force, recognition detonating upward from the deep. The Moon Pool convulsed above, water surging violently as a roar tore through the sea itself.
Zanya didn't have time to brace.
The Dragon's roar slammed into her like a tidal wave of power, ancient and unrestrained, rolling straight through her soul.
Her vision went white.
And then—
Nothing.
---
She dreamed.
Not of water.
Of waiting.
She stood in a vast, endless dark, moonlight filtering down like memory. Before her, the Dragon's presence coalesced—not fully free, not fully bound, but closer than ever before.
His voice was no longer distant.
It was beside her.
"I have waited centuries for you…"
The weight of those words crushed and steadied her all at once.
"I know," she whispered.
Silver eyes opened in the dark—brighter now, clearer, filled with something dangerously close to devotion.
"You came when the sea could not call.
You broke what even time respected."
Tears burned behind her eyes.
"You were never meant to be alone," she said, and she really believed it. Deep within her soul she felt she was always meant to eventually be by his side.
She spoke his name.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't ceremonial.
It fit.
"Malik."
It meant ocean and king, fitting for the great sea beast locked within Atlantis.
The Dragon stilled completely at the sound of it—something vast and ancient anchoring to the truth of being seen, named, known.
The dream-water warmed.
"Say it again," he murmured—not a demand. A plea.
She did.
The bond sealed—not as ownership, not as submission—with recognition.
---
Zanya woke coughing seawater onto stone around the Moon Pool, moonlight blazing overhead. The Moon Pool churned violently before settling into an unnatural stillness.
Her body shook.
Her head rang.
Her heart felt like it had been cracked open and reforged.
The System manifested instantly, brighter than it had ever been.
[SYSTEM ALERT — SEAL STATUS CHANGE DETECTED]
[Atlantean Seal: 1/?? — RELEASED]
Then, heavier text scrolled into view.
[FINAL STAGE INITIATED]
[Warning:
Remaining progression will permanently alter world-state.]
[No rollback available.]
Zanya pushed herself upright, dripping and exhausted, staring down into the depths where something ancient had shifted its weight for the first time in millennia.
She was terrified.
And yet she was resolute.
She smiled faintly through the ache.
"…Okay," she whispered. "Let's finish this."
Far below, the Dragon answered with a promise more felt than said, full of devotion and longing.
And Atlantis, long dormant beneath Mako, stirred.