In a three-part special, Ash comes home and finds that Nate has lost his memory, and disappears to join the enemy. With Ember, Jason, and Shane, can Ash bring herself to bring back her best friend? In a side story, Ash tries to write her very first song, and is having a terribly hard time with it too.

Chapter 21: SPECIAL- Gone Away Pt.2

I was in science class, outlining the next lesson. Boredly by the way, seeing as I still had Nick on my mind. I thought I'd be better by now. I mean, I know Nate. He's a strong guy. He can take care of himself.... if he had his memory. Out of frustration I banged my head into my textbookok. Why does my mind have to be so, so, confusing?

All of a sudden, I heard my watch beeping. Yes, mission time! Something for me to get my mind off Nate.... I hope. "Bathroom!"

After getting out of class I sped down the hallway. I made a turn and saw Jason and Shane coming down their paths, Shane rushing down another hall and Jasonn sliding down the staircase. We ran out of the school building and sneaked out, heading back to the Gray's fire house. There we made it to the living room where Mr. Gray was already.

"Whats the mission this time?" Jason asked, jumping over the couch.

"Robbery, in the town's mall," he said, pressing the button on his remote and the TV screen showing a panic going on in our local mall, there showing those ninjas and their leader, Natsuke.

Shane glared at the screen. "Hey those are the same stupid ninjas that knocked Nate off the roof!"

I looked at him then back at the screen. "Them?"

"Oh yeah," Jason nodded, answering my question.

I stood up. "Well then, let's go. I have a bone to pick with them."

Shane smirked. "Ooh, mad girl. They're in for it now now."

I pulled Shane's ear, walking to the door with a vein on my forehead. "Yeah, including you if you keep up those comments."

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow!" Shane whined as I dragged his ear.

Jason stood up too. "Uh, I better go, keep Ash's temper under control." And with that he ran out following me and Shane to the door. We were gonna have Jason drive us to the mall. I mean, we weren't gonna take a jet to go a few blocks.

--

We arrived there, in our normals clothes. Didn't need our spy outfits here.

"Now what?" Shane asked, looking around all the chaos.

"Just split up, try and stop as many as possible," Jason said. "I'lltake the top floor, Ash the second, Shane here." The three of us went our separate ways and went around, pounding on the ninjas and protecting the people. These guys were easy, but it was the number that was the problem. No wonder the guys must have had a hard time on that mission yesterday.

"Hiyya!" I shouted, jumping off a small staircase and knocking out two ninjas. I ran into a store, seeing one of the ninjas running in there. I smirked and ran after him. I'm not leaving any of these guys out. I ran into the clothing store. It was like a maze, since there were so many sections and that it was empty, no people except me and the ninja. You're probably wondering, why am I chasing all around this giant clothing store for this one ninja? Well don't look at me because I don't know either.

"Aha!" I shouted, jumping out of one of the dressing rooms and taking him down to the ground. I wrestled with him for a while, each of us trying to pin the other down to win. Eventually I pulled of his mask and found Nate's face. I froze and dropped the mask from shock. "Nate-"

He caught me off guard and pinned me down. "Ha, not so tough now, huh spy?"

I blinked, him on my back as I lifted my head from the floor. "What the-" All of a sudden a bunch more ninjas appeared, surrounding me. "Oh now what?"

I saw that Natsuke guy come in, smirking with his arms crossed. "Oh, what do we have here. A llittle miss trouble maker I see."

I growled. "I am not little. OW!" I felt something sharp hit my arm.

My eyes looked back up and I saw Nate with the needle in my arm, smirking. "Goodnight."

"Ugh, what is it with me and needles?" Eventually I felt my eyes drift downwards as my head fell back down. All feeling went away. The needle, Nate on my back, the cold floor, everything. But one thing was for sure, I was definitely confused.

--SHANE'S POV--

"We lost Ash," Jason said.

Our dad looked at us like we had two heads, as Ember's and Aiden's mouths dropped open.

"You lost her?" Aiden repeated.

"I-It's not as bad as it seems!" I said, trying to defend ourselves.

"You call loosing Ash not as bad as it seems?!" Ember snapped, grabbing my shirt. She was flaring all her anger at me, as usual. "If I didn't know better I'd say it was those stupid ninjas who took Nate in the first place!"

"We know, that's what we were thinking too," Jason said, breaking me and Ember up. "Ash still has her watch and earrings so we can use that to track her down. Surely if the ninjas have her, wherever she is, sure enough Nate is too."

"So you'll bring them back?" Aiden asked with a smile.

"And not in hysterics?" I added. "If Ash is with Nate right now who, let me remind you, doesn't remember zip, she could be all emotional and be balling her eyes out right now."

Ember looked at me. "Are you calling girls overly emotional?"

"Well duh. Of course all girls are overly emotional. They're all into love dramas and sentimental romances. One little thing and they flip into crying panic mode."

Ember and I began arguing again while Aiden sighed. Dad turned to Jason. "I trust you'll be in charge of things."

"What other choice do you have at this point?" Jason said, watching me and Ember still bickering.

--ASH'S POV--

I groaned and opened my eyes, seeing darkness. My last memory processed through my mind and I shot up straight. "Oh my gosh what just happened?" I whispered to myself. I looked around and saw I was in some sort of cellar. "Jason!..... Shane!..... Please don't tell me we're in jail because we were speeding or something!.... Hello!..." I guess it really was those ninja who took me. Great.

I stood up and looked around. It was like half the size of my bedroom, all made of stone. No light. Everything was walls except one wall that was metal iron bars, like those old type jail cells. I don't know if they're still like that considering I've never been to a jail. I went to the iron bars and looked out. It was a hallway, along with many other metal bar cells. And unfortunately, I was the only one here, in the dark. Wow don't I feel safe.

I tried to bend the metal bars. Yeah no luck. I looked at my wrist and found they took my watch. "Shoot."

"Hey," said a voice, coming down the stairs at the end of the hallway.

I looked up. "What? Who's there?" Once I saw his face I saw Nate there. I didn't change my face though, but I was somewhat relieved it was only him. But, what was he doing here? "Nate please tell me your undercover on the enemy's side."

He stopped in front of me. "How do you know my name?"

I gave him a look. "Say what now?"

Nate shook his head. "How do you know my name?!"

I placed a finger in my ear. "Geez, no need to shout. It's just the two of us in here anyway."

"I know. That's why I snuck down here. You know my name and yet I've never met you before."

Wait, memory loss. Ugh why does thing have to be complicated for me? "Nate, forget that right now. What is the last thing you remember?"

"What?"

"You heard me. Two days ago, when you woke up, what do you remember?"

He gave me a strange look as he placed his hands on the iron bars. "Who are you anyway? How do you know all this about me?"

I slid my hands down the bars so I touched his. "Nate it's me, Ash, your teammate. Don't you remember?"

"All I remember is that I'm part of Natsuke's group. I'm not a G.R.A.Y spy."

I chuckled. "Well you seem too nice for the job of a ninja. If you were a real ninja, you would have killed me back at that mall instead of just pinning me down and knocking me out."

He blushed. "Well, I, just wanted to figure out why you knew my name. And it wouldn't help if I killed you."

I rolled my eyes. "Even if you can't remember anything, nice cover."

"Can't remember what?!"

I sighed "Nate, you have to remember. You are a spy. You are on our side. And you are my best friend. Nate if you can't remember anything else you have to at least remember me."

He shook his head and backed away, me loosing touch of his hands under mine. "No, forget this. Forget I even came down here. It was a mistake."

I watched him run off and back up the stairs. I watched sadly, my best friend running away from me. "Nate." Though he doesn't remember anything, he's still stubborn. I went to the corner of mycell and sat down, trying to think. I remembered that the guys told me that Nate fell off the roof when the ninjas came on their last mission. I remembered that Nate ended up in the hospital with memory loss. I remember he escaped through the window.... Or maybe, it was those ninjas. Maybe they took Nate here before he woke up and somehow persuaded him he was on their side. I shot my head up with a bewildered expression on my face. "Talk about your soap dramas." And I was right. Nothing beats a teenage undercover spy who's best friend/teammate lost their memory and went to the dark side. Well, all's good. I still have Shane and Jason to rely on..... Ok I have Jason to rely on.

--SHANE'S POV--

"Remind me again why I'm coming?" Ember said as we drove in Jason's car.

"Because I need someone serious to help keep Shane in check. And since we don't have either Nate or Ash, you were my only choice."

Shane rolled his eyes. "Anyway, how much farther? We're already in the woods."

"Well I'd call this a good hiding spot for a bunch of ninjas," Jason said as we drove through the dark. "And besides, this is where Ash is, according to our tracking device."

"I hope so," I said, looking out the window.

--ASH'S POV--

I was asleep in my corner, sitting up with one knee up and my arm draped over it. Suddenly I heard a sound and opened one of my eyes. There I saw Nate again, outside my cellar. "Yes, stranger?"

"Thought you'd want something to drink," Nate said, holding a water bottle.

I sighed and brought myself up, dusting myself off. "Sure it's not another poison thing like that needle you stuck in my arm?"

"Sorry, sorry. Geez, no wonder we don't have any girl ninja around here."

I gave him a weird glare as I took the water bottle through the bars. I drank down half of it, Nate watching me the whole time.

"Boy are you thirsty."

"Well duh. I haven't had anything since yesterday. Of course I'd be thirsty."

We both laughed a bit and looked away, feeling a bit awkward. Especially about yesterday. Suddenly I felt something fall out of my pocket and saw my small notepad and pen fall onto the ground. I quickly scrambled to the floor to pick it up.

"What's that?" Nate asked. "Or is that another thing that I don't remember?"

I chuckled. "Don't worry, pretend you never saw this before."

"But seriously. What is that anyway? You got stuff written down."

"Just, some song I'm writing, that's all," I said nervously. I worked on it some more last night.

"Can I see it?"

"I don't show anything to the enemy. Let alone songs that I write," I said with a smug look on my face.

He laughed. "But you said that we're best friends."

"Yeah but you don't remember it," I muttered, sitting down on the floor with my back against the bars

"Well, I want to remember now," Nate said, kneeling down behind me.

I turned around. "Why now?"

He smiled. "If you were that determined yesterday, I guess you must have some reason. Maybe I do have memory loss or something."

"What about Natsuke or any other ninjas lurking around wherever this place is?"

He laughed. "Don't worry about them. They're out right now. That's why I decided to come down now."

I smirked. "I thought you came down to give me water."

He rolled my eyes. "You want me here or not?"

I laughed and punched his shoulder through the metal bars.

"Ow, what was that for?"

I laughed. "Nothing. Does it ring a bell though because I did that a lot."

"Nothing except that sore sport there."

"Then I guess my previous punches haven't worn off yet."

We laughed together, just like we always would. I knew Nate was too nice to be on the bad side. But geez what is taking Jason and Shane so long?

--

Nate and I sat here, taking all day long. It was kinda fun as I remembered a lot of memories with him, even though he wouldn't remember them anyway. But he says he wishes he could remember, since they sound like fun memories. And believe me, they were.

"And then the vacuum cleaner exploded and a bunch of syrup landed everywhere," I said, trying to speak straight.

Nate laughed. "Wow, then what did you guys do?"

"Haha, we had to try and clean it all before your dad came back."

"Well did you?"

"Yes," I answered. "But then Shane came down the stairs covered in syrup and blew our cover."

"Wow, that sounds like a crazy Thanksgiving."

I shrugged. "At least we still had the extra turkey my mom made." We heard noise upstairs, making us both look up. "What was that?"

"Natsuke must be back," Nate whispered.

"Let go of me!" Ember shouted from upstairs, making my eyes widen.

"Where's Ash! Give her back!" I heard Jason yell.

"Ash! Ash where are you! Yell if they killed you!" Shane shouted, only making me heard a thud.

"You moron. How could she yell if she was dead?" I heard Ember scold.

"Not like she'd really be dead!" Shane shouted back.

"We're in the middle of nowhere in a giant Japanese tower filled with ninjas and swords and you say it's not a possibility she'd be dead?" Ember asked.

I banged my forehead against the bars. "Again, I only have Jason to rely on."

"Ash, you stay down here," Nate said, pulling his mask up over his face.

"But-" he was gone. I pouted and slid my arms down..... Ah forget this! Just because Nate says to stay down here I'm gonna do that? Geez whats wrong with me lately?

I back up and ran at the bars, giving them my strongest kick. I managed to bend it a bit and smirked. I repeated the process, resulting with large, loud bangs of metal. Eventually I broke though it and jumped out, blowing some hair out of my face. "Finally." I ran down the small hallway and up the stone stairs. I arrived at the top of the staircase and saw a giant old styled mansion, with the dark tiles, red carpet, dusty chandelier, your typical haunted mansion. Except there were ninjas everywhere. There I saw Jason fighting. Shane was on the other side of the room fighting too, protecting Ember.

"Hey guys!" I called over waving.

Shane looked up and grinned. "Ash you're alright!-" A ninja knocked him out, making him land on the ground with a thud.

Ember looked down then glared at all of the ninjas, cracking her knuckles. "No one knocks Shane out except me! Argh!"

I watched in amazement as Ember started fighting all of the ninjas by punching them out. Oh well, as long as they're ok. Suddenly a ninja came at me and I ducked, dodging a swing of his sword. My hands landed on the floor behind me, one strange of my hair cut off. "Ok, if I were doing limbo, I'd win." I did a flip and continued dodging attacks. I can't do anything with this guy's twin swords, unless I wanted to become sushi.

Just before he could attack again he was tackled to the ground by another ninja. "Stay away from her!"

I smiled. "Nate."

He smirked from the ground and pulled down his mask. "We may be on different sides at the moment, but I still want answers you know."

I smiled warmly at him, but then the 'moment' was ruined when the ninja turned over and tackled him too, making another fight. I glared and joined in on the cat fight, helping ate beat this one stubborn dude. After we finally knocked him out, more ninjas surrounded us, all after me.

"Well, are you gonna need help with these guys?" Nate asked, standing up beside me.

I gave him a look. "You sure you want to fight along side a G.R.A.Y spy?"

"No, but I'm willing to fight alongside my best friend."

I smiled and we both went into battle mode. Eventually I found that Natsuke guy sneaking away. I glared and jumped, doing flips over everyone to get too him. "Hey! Get back here!"

I gained up on him and appeared in front of him at a dead end. "Alright, why'd you take Nate?"

Natsuke laughed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I walked up to him and grab his shirt. "You know what I'm talking about. Now talk."

He smiled, eyes closed. "So what if we kidnapped one of your teammates. You've got a lot where they came from."

I pulled him closer, still as mad as ever. "You just don't understand, don't you." I've finally found some fear in his eyes. "You mess with any of our spies again, you'll get a lot more than just a knock out." I hit him against the wall and knocked him out. After that I ran back to the main room and saw a bunch of ninjas on the ground unconscious. "Wow you guys did a pretty good job."

"Ash!" Ember said,giving me a hug. Then Jason gave me one.

"You're ok," he said, hugging me.

I smiled. "Of course." I let go of him. "Where's Nate?"

"Right here," Nate said next to a still unconscious Shane. "Is this the same Shane you've been telling me about?"

I laughed. "Come on, let's call for these guys, get back home, get some rest. It's gonna be morning pretty soon," I said, looking out the window and seeing the moon.