After a long year, Ash's adventure as a G.R.A.Y spy finally comes to an end. But she won't let it end so easily. Without any help from G.R.A.Y, she decides to sneak off once again on one last self-mission. But when Nate finds out, he's determined to get her back home alive before everyone has to go their separate ways. But, of course, this adventure has a twist like every other, the end of the world. Can Ash save it? Or is it really the end of everything?
CHAPTER 51: My Story Pt2
I began walking through. Everything under was stone. Everything was stone. There was no blue sky above, just clouds and more clouds. Around everywhere were people, but in different clothing than ours. Like Indians but, somewhat modernly. But the only color of the cloth they were were white.
"Okay...." I said.
Suddenly people in huge masks ran at us with spears. They seemed to be speaking some other language, one I've never known before. Aiden and I jumped back, obviously surprised and scared.
"Ash what's happening?" Aiden whispered.
I smirked. "Hold on tight." I jumped over all of these mysterious people and started running. One of them shouted something and commanded the rest to chase after me. I ran through the ancient looking city, people gasping at my speed.
"Ah geez why'd I have to sleep on the plane?!" Aiden shouted, regretting this crazy fieldtrip
"Now this is the life!" I grinned, running my fastest until I hit a palm tree, making me fall down. Figures. Aiden and I sat back up holding our heads, until we had spears at our necks with our hands raised.
"Kibosh ra shkotwa. Ki jalopan hiesro. Koba qiga yoshar!" said one of them. Now you could understand why I didn't follow.
"Um.... we come in peace?" I said, not really knowing what to say.
"Ke shol nogtor ki lotra Mana," another said, pointing their spear at my key. I winced, thinking they were trying to poke my head off.
"They're interested in your key," Aiden realised.
"A lot of people been," I said. They backed up as one came forward, taking off their mask.
"Your language is English, yes?" said the man.
"Um, yes," I answered. I didn't know whether to be happy or not they spoke English.
"Come with us," he said.
Aiden and I stood up, our hands still in the air. We followed them through the city, like prisoners about to be sacrificed to a volcano.
We went through this giant stone wall. Corridors were there that let us pass through, the two guards stepping back and letting us go. The rest of the guards behind stopped as the one who spoke to us kept going forward, us following. And inside past the wall, was a strange palace-like setting. But, there were no walls. Just more historic looking plants and a throne, where a girl was. Everyone's hair was black that I noticed.
But the girl on the throne had some kind of white marking under her left eye, and some white tattoos on her arm. Her clothing was simple cloth hanging around, also white. Everyone looked alike really.
"Donam to joko," she said, sitting up and glaring.
"Shol Rugnomto, ki gotoel," the man said, kneeling on one knee. Aiden and I followed the suit instantly, not wanting to get into any more trouble than we already were.
"Dotan," she said, making the man bow his head and stand, walking back. The girl stood and jumped off her throne, jumping over the stones on the water. Her throne was surrounded by a small moat. Aiden and I stood up as the giant stone doors shut, sealing us here with this girl. She landed in front of us.
"You speak English, no?" she asked with some sort of accent.
"Yeah?" I said with a suspicious look. "Who are you? Where are we?"
She circled me, as if inspecting me. "You've got that key."
"Do you know what it is?" I asked. "Because I sure don't."
"She looked up at me and into my eyes. "What is your name?"
"Ashley," I answered. "And this is my friend, Aiden."
"Ashley you say," she said with a finger to her chin. "My name is Anaysis, Princess of Atlantis. We share the same father."
"Who share the what where now?" I repeated as Aiden's eyes grew wide. "I mean I can get past the princess part and the Atlantis part but we what?!"
"D-Did you say Atlantis?" Aiden asked.
"You're obviously form the surface," Anaysis said, looking us up and down. "But you, Ashley, you are true Atlantean blood."
"Hold on, you said we share the same father," I said, trying to follow. "D-Do you mean we're-"
"Ash!" shouted a familiar voice. I turned and saw a woman from the sidelines. She had dark curly hair and her hands covering her mouth.
That's where it hit me.
"Diane Gray," I said in a whisper.
She ran to me and hugged me, almost crying. "Oh my gosh I can't believe it! You've grown so much."
"Mom?" Aiden asked. I was surprised. Even though he was so young when she left, he still recognized her.
"Aiden," she said, hugging him too. Aiden smiled and hugging her back.
Anaysis smiled at this touching moment. "You know these people, Diane?"
"Yes, this is my son and good friend," Diane said, standing up. "I can't believe you two are here. H-How'd you find this place-"
I took out a leter from my pocket. "You made this didn't you."
Diane looked at the letter then at me. "You found it."
I nodded. "Yeah. I, decided to follow it and find you, for the guys."
Anaysis smiled, walking to the doors. "I see you have much catching up to do. Diane I will leave you with them, but when you are done, I must speak with my sister."
"Thank you," Diane said as Anaysis went through the door.
"Sis huh," I repeated, the doors closing. "Now I definitely know I'm way in over my head."
--NATE'S POV--
"I still don't get how we're going to find her," Shane said as the three of us drove in Kevin's car.
"Well we know that she took a G.R.A.Y plane," I said. "We just have to get to the G.R.A.Y Transportation HQ and track where her plane crashed. It might give us a better clue of where she went."
"But how are we even going to get into the Transportation Headquarters?" Jason said, driving.
"We just have to think like Ash. We'll find a way in," I said sternly. "We'll crawl through the vents and try to stay out of sight. And once we got to the control room there we'll have you go onto the computer, replay a security tape to find out which plane Ash took, and track it down."
"Now you're really thinking like Ash," Shane remarked.
"Because I really have to find her. I'm not losing her like we did Mom," I said. "I'm not giving up that easily."
Jason smiled. "Alright then. So we track her down. How are we going to get to her?"
"Fly there ourselves," I said. "If Ash can sneak off a plane on her own with Aiden, can't be that hard for us. We'll steal a plane, too."
"You're thinking so much like Ash it's scaring me," Shane repeated with a now nervous look.
"Don't you think that's a little extreme?" Jason asked.
"And you do realize we might not come back," Shane said. "If Ash is risking her neck to go so far, so are we."
"I know that," I said, starring out the window.
"But now it's Ember I'm worried about too," Shane added, looking out the window. "Ember's stubborn like Ash. She'll follow us. I'm telling you Ash is a bad influence. First Nate and them Ember!"
"Says the guy who keeps pre-leathal weapons in his underwear drawer," Nate replied with a smug look.
"I know," Shane said as if he though he were the smartest guy in the car. "I taught her too well."
"Besides Ember can't follow. It's impossible," Jason said, getting back to the original subject.
"She would though," Shane defended."And she will. That wasn't the last we've seen of Ember.
"Tell me if I'm wrong but it's almost like you hoping Ember will follow," I said smirking. "And how do you know?"
"'Cause Shane wants to make out with Ember before he dies," Jason said laughing, making Shane turn his head around.
"Oh it's on," Shane said before attacking Jason, making the car spin go left and right with the horn honking. I had to try and break them up while trying to stop the car.
"Argh!!!" HOOONK
"Shane stop trying to strangle Jason!"
"Strangler!!!" HOONK
"No get over here!"
"Quit it!"
"You're all heavy!"
"HOOONNKKK!!!"
--
"We're following them!" Ember shouted.
"Don't you think that'd be a bit out of line?" Mysti asked, drinking coffee.
"I didn't come all the way here just to hear that," Ember said stubbornly. "Don't you know that Nate, Shane, Jason, and Ash may not ever come back?"
"They resigned," Mysti said.
"Yes I know that but-"
"They resigned," Mysti repeated. "And yet they're still doing their work. They no longer consider this a spy mission, they consider it their mission. So if anything, they'll be more determined than ever. They'll be fine."
Ember softened her face. "I guess."
Mysti smirked, putting down her coffee. "But, boys are still idiots. They could use help like us."
"But how though?" Ember asked confused. "That's where I'm stuck at. I don't know where they're at anymore. I'm not a spy."
"But I was," Mysti said, walking over to a phone on her wall. She pressed a button on it. "Yes, this is Ashley Drame, G.R.A.Y Agent, Team 1."
Ember's eyes widened. "You're impersonating Ash?"
"The Grays' dad never resigned her name yet," Mysti whispered. "It takes time to terminate a spy's ID code from the computer. I know."
"Wow," Ember said impressed, watching Mysti.
"I would like to talk to agent Tristan Felwar stationed in Maimi, Florida, Brington Heights for boys."
"Isn't that the guy that Ash met when she went there for a mission?" Ember asked.
Mysti nodded. "He's the one. According to Ash, he's a genius. We could use his help."
"Hello?" Tristian asked on speaker. "Ash that you? Long time since I've heard from you."
"It's not Ash," Mysti said in her same tone. "This is Mystique Lostrin, Ash's friend."
"Oh, uh, hello," Tristan said awkwardly.
"Listen, I'm a former agent so you don't have to be beating around the bush with me," Mysti told. "We need your help."
"Depends, what kind of help?" he asked.
"Ash and the Grays resigned," Ember said, Mysti letting her speak. "But Ash snuck out of the country on a G.R.A.Y plane. The guys are trying to find her."
"Knowing Ash that doesn't really surprised me."
"Get in line. You're not the only one who's ever thought that," Ember said. "Anyway, we need your help tracking all of them. None of them has their gadgets since they've resigned. And we've got to hurry and find them before something happens."
"You guys are in Wyckoff right?"
"Yes," Mysti and Ember answered.
"I'll be right over. Time to repay Ash's debt," Tristan said, hanging up.
"Good plan," Ember said at Mysti.
"A good spy knows when to call for help," Mysti smiled with a hand on Ember's shoulder. "And a good friend knows when to call for help for their idiotic friends."
--ASH'S POV--
"So, they're that successful," Diane said, the three of us talking.
"Yup," I said, smiling a little. "I was really going to miss them once I moved. But, since I'm stuck here, I have no idea what's going to happen."
"Well know that everything happens for a reason," Diane smiled.
"That's what Nate, Shane, and Jason always tells us," Aiden said, hugging his mom.
"Yeah," I said, the small wind blowing against my hat.
"You know," Diane said. "You should really talk to Nate about your little crush on him."
No surprise that Diane would know that. "I don't know. ....Wait what?"
"Ash you were too young for me to say this to you all those years ago, but I remember one night with my husband when we thought about grandkids. And our minds went straight to you and Nate."
My eyes widened and my face heated up red as Aiden laughed.
"You never know unless you try," she said. "You and Nate have been best friends longer than anyone I've ever known."
"But," I said, remembering my first date with Timothy and what he said to me. "It's just a crush. In the end we're just going to get hurt."
She smiled and sighed. "Ash, I can tell that how you feel towards my son isn't just a child's crush. It never was."
"So, it's... it's uh..." I noticed Diane and Aiden starring at me, waiting for me to complete that last dreaded word. "A um..... super crush?"
"Ash!" Aiden laughed.
"Oh love!!.... Wait what?!" I jumped.
"Only you can figure it out, Ash. But it's not a crush," Diane repeated.
I groaned, trying not to believe this. "I think I get it."
Aiden starred at me. "So you admit you liked Nate?"
My face turned towards him with a deadly icy stare, making him laugh nervously, knowing to keep quiet.
"Are you all finished?" Anaysis asked, coming through the stone doors.
"Pretty much," Diane said, standing up. "Come on, Aiden. I'll take you around while Ash and Anaysis talk."
"Goodluck," Aiden said waving as he and Diane left.
I sighed, standing up too. "So, what's there to tell me? That, I've had a long lost sister? Or, that my parents have been keeping this secret from me? Or maybe that this legend of a place really exists!"
"Ashley I know this is all a shock to you," Anaysis said, calming me down. "But believe it, it was all for the best."
She sat us down on the stone, our bare feet in the water.
"It's true, that we share the same father," she said. "Our father was a prince of Atlantis."
"So he was royalty," I said.
Anaysis nodded. "Yes. He and his brother were in line for the throne. Every oldest son in the royal Atlantean family has a special gift, a magic, a power so great.... a power that was to be used to rule Atlantis in peace."
"My father was supposed to be king," I said in realization.
"But he did not want to," he said. "But he didn't want for his brother, our uncle, to be ruler. Our uncle is evil, jealous of our father for the magic he had. So, years ago, a decade, our father turned our uncle to stone."
I gasped, trying to keep my shock in. My Dad would do that to his own brother? He was able to do that?
"It was for the good of the Atlantean people," Anaysis said. "I was his daughter then. I'm nothing but a mere 7 years older than you," she told me. "Father sealed away his powers into a key."
"They Key of Power," I said, touching my necklace.
"Yes," Anaysis said, looking at it. "He sealed away his magic, and kept it some place where it would never reach the hands of mankind, a place no one could get to it." She sighed. "But, only a true Blood Atlantean Royal, can reach it. And you found it, Ashley."
"So that why," I said.
"You must have found some way to overcome it's powerful magic, some way to harnest it into slumber," she said, taking my hands. "You are our new ruler to be."
"What?" I gasped, stood up. "N-No way. I-I'm not even past my first year of high school! And, I'm still trying to get through stupid guy troubles, I can't rule a country that I barely knew, let alone know that existed! No way, nuh-uh. Not happening. Sorry."
"I understand your shock, Ashley," Anaysis said, being the kind of understanding sister I've always wanted. "You're just like Dad, not wanting to rule. You'd have to go through an arraged marriage. Dad already went through that and had me, hoping to have had a son who could have the power and rule in his place. But, women of Atlantis can not gain that power from birth."
I starred at her, listening.
"But for the mean time, you must protect that key, Ashley," she said, standing up too. "It's what keeps Atlantis and the surface at peace. If it was to ever fall into the wrong hands, it would cause the end of the world."
".... That's a nice burden to hold over a 15-year old's shoulders," I said sarcastically with a nod.
"Diane has been studying Atlantis from the surface," Anaysis stated, looking up at the cloudy sky. "She then came here, and has been stranded here since. But, she's done many things for our people. She's cured our sick, taught our unwise, taught us the truth of our religion.... She taught us about her love for her lost family above us."
"She still cared about her sons," I smiled.
"And you," Anyasis said. "I've always wanted to meet my younger sister," she laughed.
"Has she ever tried to get back up to the surface?" I asked.
"Yes, we've all tried to help her," Anaysis told. "But, we could not find the technology possible. Before, Atlantis had used it's King's power for it's source of energy."
"Well I have it now," I said, looking back at my key. "I just don't know how to use it. If I could, I could probably return back to the surface."
"Or you could stay and help rebuild our lost city," Anaysis said. "Atlantis is dying. We've been striving for years on our oceans and plants and civilians."
"And you think me becoming queen can solve all this," I said with a face.
"Yes!" she said naievely.
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. "I wish I had my friends here."
"You mean the Grays," she said. "Tell me about, the normal teenage life if which I've heard so much about. What is it like to, how you say, have a crush."
I laughed. "A crush isn't really something that's the same amongst everyone like how an arrange marriage is," I started. It was odd, the younger 15-year old sister telling her 21-year old sister advice on guys. But, I could manage. "In my case I think I have a crush on-"
"Nathaniel," she said. "Yes, everybody in Atlantis knows it."
"Y-you do?" I blinked.
"Why of course! Diane has told us so much about it!"
I blinked with a face. "Please don't let any one talk about it."
"Done and done," she said, jumping up on some stones and rocks. I found it amazing how she could do that. I followed her and made it to the top of the wall. She grabbed this huge hammer thing and banged it on a giant gong, making my ears bleed. She then took this horn-like object. "People of Atlantis! A new law has been made! Do not talk, about Ashley Drame and Nathaniel Gray's love!"
I slapped my forehead. "This makes detention with Ms. Autumn seem like heaven."
--NATE'S POV--
I jumped down from the vent and looked left and right, seeing no one in the room. "Alright guys come on."
Jason jumped down from the vent, followed by Shane. Shane went over to the door to keep watch as Jason sat on the chair, typing into the computer. I was behind him, looking at everything.
"Alright, so you know what to do?" I asked.
"Yes you've explained the plan to us 12 times. I think you got your message through," Jason said sounding annoyed. "Play back."
We saw all of the mini monitors acting as security watch blank out and turn into one big screen. It showed a couple hours back. Ash was there, sneaking around to the flight panel, where all the planes were. We watched as she easily got onto one and took took it out. I guessed Aiden was already inside.
"That easy," I said to myself.
"Her plane number is 68," Jason said, typing into the keyboard again. It showed a map of the globe and narrowed down to near Greenland where the blinking red light is. "That's where she crashed," Jason said. "According to here, the plane's long gone by now, exploded and sunk."
"No doubt she probably go out of that mess," I said. "I know she's alive. She's somewhere."
"We'll use what we can and fly over there," Jason said, taking a GPS from the place. "Alright, we've got her location set. We just have to get something that can go underwater, fly, and plow through snow and stone."
"Does this place even have something like that?"
"There's always the U.F.V," Shane said from the door.
"The you've? I repeated.
"No, U-F-V. Underwater Flying Vehicle," Shane explained.
"How do you even know something like that," I asked surprised. "You know where it is?"
"In Wing 23," Shane said, looking out the door. "We know how to get there through the vents. Come on."
"Almost hard to believe Aiden made a map of the entire G.R.A.Y Transportation HQ's air ducts," Jason said to me.
After following Shane, we entered a guarded room, the guards outside. We jumped down and found the thing. It looked almost like some kind of over sized car or sub. "The things we do for Ash," Shane said.
