Sirena, Mimmi and I were hanging out in the Grotto when Ondina and Zac enter.

"Watching over my shoulder for you guys is really getting really old, so what are we going to do about it?" he says.

"We came here to deal with a threat, mainly you. What do you expect us to do, sit around planting seaweed?" Ondina says

"I have never seen you plant seaweed." Mimmi jokes.

"Zac hasn't done anything-"

"Hello."

We turn to see an older woman enter the Grotto. 'This must be Rita,' I thought.

"You must be the new mermaids Sirena told me about." she says

"I'm Manoa, she's Ondina, this is Mimmi." I say.

"I'm Rita. Welcome to my home, which I'm happy for you to visit so long as you respect my property." she says, taking a box from Mimmi. "How long are you here for?"

"Till we've dealt with this merman," Ondina says, "then I can get rid of these ridiculous legs."

"I've told them Zac's a friend." Sirena says.

"The Seventh Cycle of the Moon is underway. The boy's powers will grow. There's no telling what he'll be like after the next full moon."

Zac stands up and looks at Sirena's Moon Ring. "Then why don't we have a preview." he suggests.

"Of course, we can create the effect of a full moon with a Moon Ring." I add.

"You can't be serious." Ondina says

"Or we can wait until the real full moon," Sirena says, "How many days away is that? You'll be so attached to your legs by then you won't want to get rid of them."

"Alright, fine, go ahead."

"Are you certain you want to do this?" Rita asks.

"I need to know what's going to happen on the next full moon," Zac responds, "if it really will make me a danger to you all."

"What if the Moon Ring makes you a danger right now?" Ondina asks.

"Then we stop," Mimmi says, "that's the beauty of using the Moon Ring."

"I still don't like it."

"You ready?" Sirena asks.

"Do it." Zac says, closing his eyes.

Sirena uses her moon ring on him and he moves a bit.

"Zac?" she asks.

"It's okay," he responds, "I can see Mako. I can feel it. It's dark. I'm in a dark place, maybe a cave. I'm seeing rocks, with carvings, they're symbols. One of them looks like a trident."

"The Trident is a merman weapon." Ondina points out.

"Zac destroyed it." Sirena says. 

Mimmi quietly gasps, as if in the trance herself, and I look at her. "Mimmi?"

"Zac?" Sirena asks, "What's happening? Talk to me."

"There's something here." he says.

"What?" Ondina asks.

"There's...something."

"What is it? Tell us!"

"Powerful."

"Enough!" Ondina moves Sirena's arm down, breaking the Moon Ring's effect.

"Are you okay?" Sirena asks.

"Why did you do that? We're supposed to be stopping his connection to Mako, not making it stronger."

"Do you understand what Zac was seeing?" I ask Rita.

"There are more mysteries on that island than even the Mermaid Council knows." she answers. 

"I'm going to Mako, I need to see if this is real," Zac says

"Not without us!" Ondina states.

"Did you hear an invitation?"

"We're not letting you loose on Mako by yourself. Deal with it."

The five of us quickly torpedoed to Mako and dried off on the beach.

"Mermaids aren't supposed to walk on Mako," Ondina says.

"It was your idea to come here," Mimmi reminds her, "You were right."

"I was?"

"If we're gonna break Zac's connection to the island, first, we need to understand how it works."

"Of course. That's exactly what I had in mind."

"I think it's this way," Zac says.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"I can feel it."

"You can feel it?"

"Yes, I can feel it."

We continued walking through the trees and plants, following Zac.

"You still haven't said where you're taking us." Mimmi says, clearly starting to get frustrated.

"That's because he doesn't know," Ondina adds, "or he does know, and this is all an elaborate trap. This is crazy, I'm not taking another step."

"That's fine," Zac says, "I didn't ask you to come."

"Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you. Just leave me here then."

We continued until we found a large rock, and Zac stopped.

"It's a dead end, let's go." I say.

"There's something in here." Zac states.

"We can't walk through solid rock."

"Sirena?"

She uses her moon ring on the rock and a cave opens. "I'll stay and keep it open," she says.

Zac led the way into the cave, followed by Mimmi, myself, and Ondina.

"Do you want to tell us where we are?" Ondina asks

"We're still on Mako," Mimmi says, "right?"

"Sure," Zac answers, though he sounded like he didn't know, "just nowhere on the map. We have to go through there." he adds, pointing ahead of us to the pitch black tunnel.

"No, absolutely not." I say, pulling him back.

"Maybe Manoa's right," Mimmi adds, "We don't know anything about this place."

"I'm going through," Zac says, and continues onward.

I go next, followed by Ondina and Mimmi until we enter a place that's completely dark, except for a stone area in the middle, surrounded by blue lights. There was a trident symbol on the floor, and what appeared to be a pedestal in front of the trident's middle point.

"This is the place," Zac says, "the place in my vision. Hello?" 

"If anyone's around, you just told them we're here." Ondina states.

"Someone built this place."

We reached the stone platform, walking around the trident symbol.

"Can you feel it?" he asks.

"What?" I ask.

"There's power here."

The girls and I stayed where we were while Zac approached the pedestal.

"What's that?" Mimmi asks.

"No idea," Zac responds. As he reaches out for it, it starts humming and something glows.

"Don't touch it." I say, worried it might set something off. "I don't like this."

"There's something seriously merman happening." Ondina adds.

"It's okay," Zac says, "I'll be careful."

Again, he slowly reaches out, and the pedestal humms again. The light was dimmer this time, but that still made me uneasy. I moved to stop him, stepping on the trident symbol. 

"Stop. Get back-"

Then everything went black.

~Mimmi's POV~

"Manoa!"

Zac moved away as Ondina advanced.

"What have you done with her?" she asked accusingly.

"Nothing." he answered.

"Then where is she?"

"Manoa!" we start, yelling, "Manoa!" No reponse.

"She's gone." I say.

"It wasn't me." Zac states.

"Well, something made her disappear." Ondina points out, "she was walking this way and then-"

"Stop!" Zac warns before she stepped on the trident symbol. "I don't want you disappearing too."

"Where could she have gone?" I ask.

Zac pauses for a moment before he realizes something. "This is a merman place. Maybe it doesn't want mermaids inside. We should get out of here." He immediately takes off out of the cave, Ondina and I following.

"Where's Manoa?" Sirena asked.

"She disappeared," Zac tells her, "have you seen her?"

"No." she responds, closing the cave.

"Manoa!" I call out.

"Maybe she's further away," Zac says, "let's split up and look."

With that, the four of us ran off, calling for Manoa.

I don't know how long we searched before we met up at the cave.

"She's not here,"  I say.

"There's still plenty of island to search," Sirena points out.

"What's the point?" Ondina asks, "What you did in there could have sent her anywhere."

"What if I do it again?" Zac suggests, "It might bring her back."

The girls and I looked at each other before looking back at Zac.

"Look at it this way, it can't make things any worse."

Sirena opened the cave and we ran back inside

"Do what you did before," I remind him, "nothing else."

We watch as he approaches the pedestal, reached out, then hesitates.

"What if I disappear us, too?" he asks.

"Just do it." Ondina says.

~Manoa's POV~

When I woke up, I was back in the jungle. Wasn't I just in the cave with the others? What even happened back there? My thoughts were interrupted by a male voice

"Are you okay?"

"How did I get here?" I ask quietly.

"Don't you know?"

I look over and I see that it's the guy from the cafe. Oh my Neptune, keep cool, Manoa. When he tried to reach behind me, I got a little nervous. "What are you doing?" I ask.

"I was just making sure you're alright."

"I'm okay, but thanks," I say, getting up.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

"I could ask you the same thing....Exploring."

"Same. I'm new, so I thought I'd scope the place out. Seen anything...interesting?"

"No. I should really get going though, thanks again." I say before walking into a tree. "okay, that was there."

"You sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, really. I'll um, see you around..."

"Erik. My name's Erik."

"Manoa." 

I turned and left, trying to find the cave entrance, after a few minutes, I found it and the others, and Sirena was the first to notice.

"Manoa!"

The others turned to see me, then Mimmi and Ondina both hugged me.

"Where were you?" Mimmi asks

"Asleep in the jungle, apparently," I respond, "That new guy from the cafe found me."

"Erik?" Zac asks.

"Yeah."

"You lied to us," Ondina says

"You said you didn't know what that place was," I add.

"I don't," Zac insists, "What happened to you was an accident."

"Sure," Ondina says.

"It really was," Mimmi says, "we should go."

"We should, and don't you think about coming back." Ondina glared at Zac on that last part, and we all left, Zac going back to his home, and the rest of us to the Grotto.

"Mako is a mermaid island," Mimmi states, "so how come it has a place that belongs to mermen?"

"Mako didn't always belong to us," Rita says, "during the war between the mermaids and the mermen, it passed into their control. So, that place must be a relic of those times."

"And now Zac's presence has activated it," Ondina adds. "I told you using the Moon Ring was a bad idea."

"We've made his connection to Mako stronger." I add as well.

"Then we have to keep a close watch on him," Mimmi says, "If Zac's presence brings that place to life..."

"We need to make sure he never does it again. Ever."