Three weeks passed in a blur of training, briefings, and the constant search for the Prime Shard. Josh's team—they'd started calling themselves the Vanguard, which Stevens insisted sounded like a superhero team name—had grown from eight to twelve members. The new recruits were still learning to control their powers, but they were eager and committed.
Josh was in the training room working with their newest member, a shy woman from Canada named Emma who could manipulate light, when his earpiece crackled with Dr. Walsh's urgent voice.
"Josh, drop what you're doing and get to the research lab. Now. We found something."
Josh excused himself and jogged through the DDI facility, his mind racing. In the three weeks since the gateway battle, they'd had dozens of false leads about the Prime Shard. Ancient texts that turned out to be forgeries. Energy signatures that disappeared when investigated. Dead ends everywhere.
The research lab was packed when he arrived. Dr. Walsh stood at the center, surrounded by holographic displays showing what looked like ancient hieroglyphics mixed with dimensional mathematics.
"Tell me this is real," Josh said, studying the symbols. Some of them looked familiar from the Egyptian temple.
"It's real. And it's big." Dr. Walsh pulled up a satellite image of a location Josh didn't recognize. Dense jungle, mountains in the distance, no visible structures. "Two days ago, we detected unusual dimensional energy readings from the Amazon rainforest. Remote area, barely explored. At first, we thought it was another Council operation. But the energy signature is different. Older."
Dr. El-Sayed appeared on a video screen, calling in from Egypt. "The symbols you're seeing match the ones from the sealed chamber in Cairo. Same language, same mathematical patterns. But these are more complex. More... complete."
"Complete how?" Josh asked.
"The Egyptian temple was a warning. A memorial. These symbols tell a story—the complete history of the Shards, including the Prime." El-Sayed's excitement was palpable even through the screen. "Josh, we think we've found the original temple. The place where the Prime Shard was first contained after it fell to Earth."
The room went silent. The Prime Shard. The source of all dimensional power. Hidden for thousands of years in the Amazon jungle.
Admiral Russo's face appeared on another screen. "Reeves, I'm assembling a team. You, Dr. Walsh, Dr. El-Sayed, plus a full tactical unit. We leave in six hours. This stays classified—if the Council learns what we've found, they'll mobilize everything they have."
"What about my team?" Josh asked. "The Vanguard should be part of this."
"Too risky. If the Prime Shard is as powerful as we believe, I'm not exposing all our Shard-users at once. You're coming because we need your dimensional sensitivity to navigate the temple. But the others stay here." Russo's tone left no room for argument. "Six hours, Reeves. Be ready."
After the call ended, Josh found Kyla in the armory, checking equipment. "You heard?"
"Yeah. Amazon jungle, ancient temple, potentially world-ending artifact. Just another Tuesday." Kyla loaded magazines into a tactical vest. "You worried?"
"Terrified. If the Prime Shard is real, if it's really in that temple—Kyla, whoever finds it controls all Shard-users. Including me. Including our whole team."
"Then we make sure we find it first." Kyla zipped up the vest. "And we figure out how to keep it safe. Destroy it if we have to."
"Dr. Walsh says the Shards can't be destroyed."
"Then we hide it better than whoever hid it the first time." Kyla grabbed her weapons. "Come on. We've got six hours to prep, and I want to make sure we're ready for whatever's waiting in that jungle."
The flight to Brazil took eleven hours with a refueling stop in Miami. Josh spent most of the flight studying the symbols Dr. El-Sayed had sent him, trying to understand the story they told. The translation was rough, but the general narrative was clear:
Long ago, something fell from the stars. Not a meteor—a weapon. A tool of destruction used by beings who fought wars across dimensions. The weapon shattered on impact, scattering fragments across the world. The largest piece—the Prime Shard—remained at the impact site, corrupting everything around it.
The ancient people who found it realized what it was and what it could do. They couldn't destroy it, couldn't send it away. So they built a prison. A temple deep in the jungle, warded with dimensional mathematics so complex that only someone who understood both ancient knowledge and modern science could hope to open it.
Then they sealed the temple and erased all records of its location. Scattered themselves across the world to prevent the knowledge from being gathered in one place.
Until now.
"It's a warning and a map," Dr. El-Sayed explained through a video call during the flight. "The Egyptians preserved the warning. The temple in the Amazon holds the map—the final pieces needed to reach the Prime Shard."
"What if we're not meant to reach it?" Josh asked. "What if the ancients sealed it away for a good reason?"
"Then we'll reseal it after confirming it's secure. But Josh, we need to know. The Council is searching too. If they find it before we do..."
"I know. We can't let that happen."
They landed at a small airstrip near Manaus and transferred to helicopters for the final leg. The jungle was dense, nearly impenetrable from the air. Dr. Walsh directed them using her dimensional energy scanner, following the signature deeper into uncharted territory.
"There!" The pilot pointed to a clearing ahead. "Looks man-made."
The temple emerged from the jungle like a sleeping giant. Massive stone structures covered in vines and moss, barely visible after thousands of years of growth. But even from the air, Josh could feel it—dimensional energy so old and powerful it made his Shard resonate uncomfortably.
They landed in the clearing and set up a base camp. The tactical team, led by Captain Rodriguez who'd insisted on coming, established a perimeter. Dr. Walsh immediately began taking readings while Dr. El-Sayed examined the exterior symbols with barely contained excitement.
"This is incredible," El-Sayed breathed, running his hands over carved stone. "These symbols predate the Egyptian temple by at least a thousand years. This is the source. The original."
"Can you read them?" Josh asked, studying the carvings. Some of them made his head hurt to look at—dimensional mathematics that his Shard-enhanced mind could almost understand but not quite.
"Some of it. It's warning us. Saying that what lies within is not meant for mortal hands. That the power inside corrupts all who seek it." El-Sayed traced one particular symbol. "But this one here—this is interesting. It says 'the worthy may pass, but the worthy must sacrifice.'"
"Sacrifice what?" Kyla asked.
"It doesn't say. But based on the Egyptian guardian's words about great sacrifice being required..." El-Sayed looked at Josh meaningfully. "I suspect it's related to the Shard bond."
Josh felt ice run through his veins. "You think to claim the Prime Shard, you have to give up your powers?"
"Or perhaps to even enter the inner chamber. The ancients would have wanted to ensure only someone willing to give up power could access more power. It's a paradox—a lock that only opens for those who don't want what's inside."
"That's one way to keep it safe," Rodriguez observed. "Nobody power-hungry could get through."
They spent the rest of the day mapping the temple exterior and looking for an entrance. The structure was massive—at least as large as the Egyptian temple, but built into the side of a mountain. Finally, as the sun set through the jungle canopy, Dr. Walsh's scanner detected a hollow space behind a section of wall.
"Here," she announced. "The entrance is behind this panel. But I'm detecting a locking mechanism similar to the one in Egypt. Dimensional energy in a specific pattern."
Josh approached the wall, placing his hands on the symbols. Immediately, he felt the pull—the lock reaching out, testing him, measuring his Shard energy. But this time, he knew what to do. He'd learned from Egypt.
He created the pattern—ice, fire, and something else. Something neutral. He drew on the energy around him, the life force of the jungle, the dimensional energy of Earth itself. Not from the Shard, but from the world.
The symbols blazed to life. The wall section slid aside, revealing a passage leading down into darkness.
"It worked," Josh said, surprised.
"Of course it did," Dr. Walsh said, already preparing her equipment. "You're the dual-natured one. You have access to opposing forces. That makes you uniquely qualified to open locks designed for balance."
They entered the temple in teams of four. Josh, Kyla, Dr. Walsh, and Rodriguez in the first group. Dr. El-Sayed and three tactical operators in the second. The rest stayed topside to guard the entrance.
The passage spiraled downward, lit only by their flashlights and the faint glow of symbols on the walls. The dimensional energy grew stronger with each step, pressing against Josh's senses like a physical weight.
"The Prime Shard is close," he said. "I can feel it. It's like... it's calling to me."
"Calling how?" Kyla asked, concerned.
"Promising power. Knowledge. The ability to control everything. It knows what I want—to protect people, to stop the Council, to save the team. And it's showing me how it could give me all of that." Josh shook his head, trying to clear it. "But it's lying. Or at least not telling the whole truth."
"That's the corruption," Dr. Walsh said, taking readings. "The Prime Shard is the source—the original corrupting influence. It'll be stronger than any fragment. You need to be careful, Josh."
They reached a large chamber, and Josh's breath caught. The walls were covered in murals similar to the Egyptian temple, but these showed the full story. The dimensional war. The beings of light and darkness fighting across realities. The Prime Shard being used as a weapon, destroying entire dimensions with its power.
Then the weapon falling to Earth. Shattering. The fragments spreading. The Prime remaining, buried, waiting.
And the final mural showed something that made Josh's blood run cold—a figure standing before the Prime Shard, being consumed by its power, transforming into something neither human nor entirely dimensional. A hybrid. A bridge between worlds.
"That's what happens to whoever claims it," Josh realized. "They become like Azazel. Maybe worse."
"Not just like Azazel," Dr. El-Sayed corrected, examining the mural closely. "They become the Prime. The Shard doesn't bond with them—it consumes them. Uses their body as a vessel while maintaining their consciousness. Trapped, aware, but no longer in control."
"So it's not a weapon," Kyla said. "It's a prison. For whoever's stupid enough to claim it."
"And a weapon," Rodriguez added. "Because whoever controls the Prime controls all Shard-users. Remotely. Absolutely."
They moved deeper into the temple, following the energy signature. Finally, they reached the inner sanctum—a circular chamber with a domed ceiling covered in more symbols. And in the center, on a pedestal of black stone, sat something that made all their dimensional energy scanners scream warnings.
The Prime Shard.
It was larger than the other Shards—about the size of a basketball—and it didn't glow. Instead, it seemed to absorb light, creating a zone of darkness around it. And it was definitely calling to Josh, whispering promises of power and control.
"Nobody touch it," Dr. Walsh ordered, though no one needed the warning. "I'm getting readings I've never seen before. The dimensional energy output is off every scale I have."
"Can we move it?" Rodriguez asked. "Take it back to DDI, study it in a secure facility?"
"I don't think moving it is an option," Dr. El-Sayed said, pointing to symbols on the pedestal. "These wards—they're not just keeping people out. They're keeping it contained. If we remove the Prime from this chamber, we might break the containment."
"Then we leave it here," Kyla said. "Seal the temple, post guards, make sure the Council never finds it."
"The Council already knows," a familiar voice said.
Yuki stepped out of the shadows, wind swirling around her. Behind her were Ezra and at least a dozen other Council members, all looking ready for a fight.
"How did you find this place?" Josh demanded, powers flaring to life.
"We followed you, of course. You've been so focused on your little recruitment drive that you didn't notice Council observers watching your every move." Yuki smiled coldly. "Thank you for finding the Prime for us. We'll take it from here."
"Not happening," Josh said, stepping between Yuki and the Prime Shard.
"You can't stop all of us. Even with your impressive dual nature." Yuki's eyes glowed white. "Step aside, aberration. The Council claims the Prime in the name of proper dimensional order."
"Over my dead body."
"That can be arranged." Yuki raised her hands, and the wind in the chamber picked up to dangerous levels.
Josh knew they were outnumbered and outgunned. But he also knew that letting the Council claim the Prime Shard meant game over for humanity. For all Shard-users. For everything.
So he made a choice.
He reached for his earpiece, switching to the emergency channel that connected to all DDI facilities. "This is Reeves. The Council has found the Prime Shard location. All Vanguard members, I need you here now. Coordinates transmitting. This is not a drill."
"Josh, they're twelve hours away at minimum!" Kyla protested.
"Then we hold for twelve hours." Josh's eyes blazed with ice and fire. "Nobody gets the Prime. Not the Council. Not us. Not anyone. We destroy this temple if we have to, bury it so deep nobody ever finds it again."
Yuki laughed. "Destroy it? You can't even touch it without being consumed."
"Then I guess we're at a stalemate." Josh created walls of ice and fire, barriers between the Council and the Prime. "Because I'm not moving. And I'm not letting you through."
"We'll see how long that determination lasts." Yuki gestured to her forces. "Subdue them. Non-lethally if possible. The Council wants the dual-natured one alive."
The battle began in the confined space of the temple chamber, with the Prime Shard pulsing at the center, waiting for someone to claim it.
And Josh knew—one way or another, this was going to end today.
The question was how.
End of Chapter 39