Hey, guys...I live. So sorry this has taken so long to get out! I was very bsy the last several weeks getting my Mandalorian costume ready for a con. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!

The room we dropped into was large, filled with pillars with holes on each side.

"It's just a cistern, kid," Sully said, looking around skeptically. "You sure this is the right place."

Nate nodded. "Yeah… it's gotta be."

"So Sir Francis really came all the way out here to find the 'Atlantis of the Sands'?" Elena asked. Nate glanced back at me and I shrugged.

"You said to explain everything," I reminded him.

"Actually, it's in the middle of the Rub' al Khali desert," Nate answered.

"This place just tells you how to find it," Sully added. "Supposedly." I looked around for any clues. Suddenly, something clicked.

"Hey, Nate, let me see Drake's map." Nate pulled out the map and handed it to me.

"Whatcha got?" He asked as I unfolded the map. I turned it over and on the back was a sketch of the room we were in.

"Bingo," I grinned. Nate placed a hand on my waist and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

"Good job. Francis Drake must've made these notes when he was down here."

"Does it tell us how to find the entrance?" Elena asked.

I shook my head. "Of course not. That would be too easy and honestly no fun." I pointed out the holes on the pillars. "Those must be the key."

"Guess we just have to find the right one," Nate said.

"How are we gonna do that? There are a lot of those holes in this room," Sully pointed out.

"Look around, there's always another clue," I said. I tapped some symbols below the sketch of the pillars. "Maybe something to do with these other symbols." It turned out I was right about the other symbols. Sully found some Enochian script on the wall that led to a crescent moon symbol carved onto the ground. Nate held up the map and found the sketch lined up with three of the pillars. He instructed Elena and Sully to pull their levers while he pulled his. Grinding sounded through the room and a door opened into a corridor.

"What'd I tell ya?" Nate grinned as we jogged into the corridor. It was amazingly well constructed, having held up for all these centuries. I admired the statues of soldiers posted in each archway as we passed.

"Okay, so why the big secret all the centuries? What did Elizabeth expect Drake to find?" Elena asked.

Nate shrugged. "We don't know exactly. Treasure I guess."

"What else?" Elena bit sarcastically.

"The buried riches of a lost civilization," Sully added.

"Course it's never that simple, is it?"

"With words of wisdom like that, makes it sound like you've been on a few of these," I mused with a slightly teasing smile. Elena was not amused.

"And those assholes in the black suits - they're looking for the same thing, I suppose?"

Sully nodded. "Yep, they're Marlowe's men." We reached the end of the corridor and entered a larger open room. The door at the end closed and the two massive statues on either side of it placed their spears in front of the door.

"Guess we have to earn that one," Nate said. A door on either side opened.

"Pick your poison." We chose the one on the left first. There were a bunch of gears of various sizes and symbols scattered all over the ground. The door slammed shut behind us.

"Puzzle number one," I mumbled.

"Well, let's hope we figure it out," Elena said, glancing at the closed door nervously. "I think we're trapped here until we do.

I cracked my knuckles. "Let's get to work." A few minutes later, Nate and I had solved the puzzle, reopening the door. Back in the main room, one of the spears had been removed from the middle door as water flowed through one of the channels on the floor. "What's behind door number two?" The next room was filled with metal floating body parts.

"Okay, all the floating body parts? This is giving me the creeps," Elena commented and I hummed in agreement.

"This one's all you," I told Nate with a pat to the shoulder.

"Thanks, hun," he replied sarcastically. He jogged down the stairs to a staff of some kind. "Sully, throw me your lighter." Sully tossed Nate his lighter and he lit the lamp on the staff. He lifted the staff from its setting, causing the stairs to slide back. "Ah, crap." After a few minutes of moving around, Nate finally solved the puzzle, with some side commentary from me. The shadow created by the light from the staff and the body parts formed a man stabbing another. The scene played through and water poured through the 'wound'. The door reopened and the stairs slid back out. "See… and you were worried." We went back to the first room to see both spears had been removed from the first door.

"And on we go," I said, walking through the now open door and into the cavern beyond.

"Okay, so, Nate, did Francis Drake ever find that lost city he was looking for?" Elena asked.

"Don't think so… Seems like he only came this far, then turned back and headed home," Nate answered.

"And concealed everything about this little detour?"

"Yeah…" Nate said, not seeing what Elena was getting at.

"Have you stopped to ask yourself why?"

Nate frowned curiously. "What do you mean?"

Elena shrugged, not quite sure how to phrase her words. "I don't know… this whole place just seems like some kind of a… a warning to me, that's all." She was cautious, I couldn't blame her for that. I had been wondering much the same thing, I just didn't want to admit it out loud. Besides, this meant so much to Nate and I didn't want to take it away from him, not when he was finally this close to getting some closure. We finally reached the end. In the middle of the room was a round bronze ball.

"Huh, looks like some kind of ornate brazier," Nate commented.

"We really need to start bringing our own matches," I commented as I grabbed a nearby torch and lit the brazier. All the rings moved and when they stopped, the light shone through them, creating a starry sky above us.

"Well I'll be go to hell…" Sully gasped.

"As above, so below," Nate quoted. "Sully, this is some kind of celestial map."

Sully nodded. "That makes sense. The Arabs used the stars to navigate the desert, just like sailors on the ocean."

"So, you could use these constellations to find the site of the lost city?"

"If I had a sextant sure," Sully replied. "I didn't do all that time in the Navy for nothing, 'y'know."

"And here I thought you spent the whole time looking for that basket act," Nate teased.

"The what?" Elena asked.

"Don't ask," I told her as Nate chuckled.

"Hey, you think you could remember this?" Nate asked Sully.

"Well, yeah, but we oughta copy it down, don'tcha think?"

Nate shook his head. "No, I really don't recommend that."

"Talbot would probably just steal that too," I said.

"Hey guys, look at this…" Elena called. We turned to find her looking at some carvings on the wall of people dying.

"Huh. Well, that's uh… cheery," Nate commented. Just then, I heard a very familiar sound, a sound that made my heart stop and blood freeze with fear.

"Wait - what is that?" Elena asked.

"Get away from the walls," Nate ordered, dragging her closer to the brazier. I quickly backed away towards the relative safety of the brazier light, clutching my shotgun tightly.

"Hold onto that torch, kid," Sully advised. Spiders poured from the walls. Somewhere in the back of my fear ridden mind, I knew I should be shooting at the spiders, but I just couldn't make my body move. I was frozen.

"Alex, switch with me," Nate said urgently. He gently yet swiftly pried the shotgun from my hand and gave me the torch. He placed a firm hand on my cheek to force me to look at him. "I know you're scared, but I need you to help get us out of here, okay?" I flinched as Sully shot a round. "Can you do that for me?" I nodded shakily, clutching the torch tightly. "Okay, you got this, love. Stay close!" With the three of them depending on me to guide them out, I did my best to set my fear aside. Trembling, I began to move towards the exit, sweeping the torch at any spiders that came too close. I was grateful that Nate stuck as close as he could to me, firing round after round from his shotgun. I led us back the way we came, unfortunately, the door had closed most of the way, leaving only a small crack at the bottom.

"We gotta get this door open," Sully said.

"Maybe I can open it from the other side," Elena suggested. She crawled under the door.

"Alex, go help Elena!" Nate told me. I nodded and quickly scooted under the door. After much struggling, we managed to get the door open. Sully and Nate scrambled in and the door closed behind them. Once we were safe, Nate immediately came over to me. I trembled as he wrapped his arms around me, whispering soothing words in Italian to calm me down. He cupped my cheek with one hand, running his thumb over my cheek. "You okay?"

"I never want to see another spider again," I whimpered.

"I know," Nate replied. He placed a soft kiss on my forehead. He lifted his head and frowned at something behind me. I turned and saw what had caught his attention. There was writing all along the walls. Nate took my hand and moved closer to investigate. "Hey - look at this…" He called to Elena and Sully. "'Let not the world deceive thee with its beauty', 'It is the dream of a dreamer, a mirage of the desert.'"

"'The cup of death will be filled for thee'. Lovely," Sully said sarcastically.

"It's all in English," I noted.

"It must've been Drake," Nate realized excitedly.

"Okay, so let me get this straight - Drake sails thousands of miles for this 'Atlantis of the Sands', and when he gets this far - what he finds here is enough to make him turn around, sail home, and hide all evidence of his voyage," Elena said, he gaze directed at Nate.

"Right…" Nate said slowly, not understanding where she was going.

"But you - you're going to keep going, aren't you?"

Nate scoffed with a small smile. "Uh, yeah." I squeezed his hand and he glanced at me with a confused look.

"For what? For 'treasure'?" Elena demanded incredulously. "Sully, he listens to you. Please make him stop."

"Yes, Sully, please, tackle me," Nate said with a grin, holding out the arm that wasn't holding my hand. Sully chuckled. Normally the display would've been funny, but not under today's circumstances.

Elena shook her head in disbelief. "What is wrong with you two? Alex, maybe you can get them to listen." Nate turned to me with raised brows, clearly interested in what I had to say on the matter.

I took a deep breath and squeezed Nate's hand. "I think Elena's got a point. Why would Drake get this far only to hide all evidence of his voyage? Something about this hunt has felt off from the beginning." I held up a hand when Nate tried to protest. "That being said, I'm not about to abandon you. I know that no matter what anyone says, you'll see this through, and I'll be there the whole way." I gave a slight smile. "Besides, someones gotta make sure you don't get yourself killed, right?" Nate smiled fondly at me. I heard Elena huff angrily.

"Elena…" Nate attempted to placate.

Elena rounded on him. "Listen - you've won, okay? You've outsmarted her. You know where to find the city, and Marlowe doesn't. Why can't that be enough?" She turned around and walked out, leaving the three of us to exchange glances. Sully heads off after Elena and I go to follow, but Nate's grip on my hand stopped me. I gave him a questioning look.

"Did you really mean it when you said you'll stay with me?" He inquired. My gaze softened and I stepped closer.

"Nate, I've been by your side for twenty years, I'm not about to abandon you now, no matter how scared I might be." I cupped his cheek and he closed his eyes briefly as he leaned into my touch. "I love you, Nate. I plan to be by your side for the rest of our lives. Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me." Nate chuckled quietly, a soft smile on his face.

"Ti amo," (I love you) he told me. He leaned down to capture my lips in a tender kiss.

I pulled away. "C'mon, let's not keep the other two waiting." I intertwined our fingers and followed Sully and Elena back to the cistern. Back in the main area, I noticed ropes hanging down. "Um… we didn't bring ropes."

"Take cover, it's an ambush!" Sully shouted as a smoke bomb was dropped in.

The smoke made it difficult, but we managed to take out all of Marlowe's men. We quickly climbed back out of the cistern and tossed our guns in, seeing how we couldn't take them with us.

"Okay, I think we're clear," Sully announced, poking his head out the door. "We gotta make ourselves scarce, before any more of 'em show up." We walked back through the streets as casually as we could. I was surprised none of the people had heard all the gunshots, or maybe they had and just knew to mind their business.

"All right, up here," Elena said, leading the way up a set of stairs. I heard Nate grunt in pain and turned to check on him.

"Everything o-" I stopped short as I noticed the little dart Nate was holding between his fingers. He looked at me with such a terrified look.

"Run -"

"Oh, no," Sully said. "All right, easy, kid." Sully tried to help Nate who was swaying on his feet now.

"Stay away," Nate warned, shoving the elder away.

I held up my hands placatingly. "Calmati, Nate." (Take it easy.)

"What's wrong with him?" Elena asked in concern.

"They drugged him," Sully informed her, showing her the dart Nate had dropped.

"We have to get him out of here," I said urgently. Sully and I tried to help Nate, but he pushed us away, shouting not to touch him. He ran for it. "Nate! Nate!" I called after him. I tried to follow, but Sully grabbed my arm and dragged me back.

"We can't do anything for him right now. We have to get out of here." Reluctantly, I followed, all the while worrying about my wayward boyfriend.