AB: Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all have had a great week! If you remember, last chapter Francis and Epsilon appeared, and things got crazy from there.
Zak: Why did Epsilon and Francis come? You never did explain that, AB.
AB: Why would they not come? Besides, I seem to remember you and Francis trying to kill each other. (Zak smiles sheepishly as Drew gives him the look.) Well, I am going to go ahead and start the chapter while Dr. Drew Saturday deals with Zak. Trigger warning: Sexual violence mentioned in second part; look for the bold sentences to know where to skip to. Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays belongs to Jay Stephens (unless ownership changed) and, I think, Cartoon Network. Here is Chapter 22: The Stories She Will Tell
(3rd Person POV)
In order for Mashdaria to overcome her broken heart, she began to keep a garden. She grew food for herself, and she even had a couple date trees. She poured her heart and soul into succeeding where she previously had failed Ningirama, keeping something alive.
Months passed, and soon Mashdaria was ready to give birth to her and Nirgirama's child. The baby was indeed a girl with evident powers of her own and her father's, but alas it was stillborn. Mashdaria, having lost her people, her husband, and her daughter, killed herself, but before she did, she received the powers Nanshe told her long ago she would receive. The powers of the baby, the powers of Nirgirama, and the powers of Mashdaria left their dead hosts, and, finding no other living hosts, filled the date tree closest to them. Time went on, and without anyone to tell the legend, it disappeared from history.
Millennia later, Doctors Solomon Saturday and Drew Blackwell Saturday were resting after a long day of searching for the Kur Stone. One of their native guides told them that the dates on the trees were safe to eat. They each ate one before going into their tent to rest before that night's dig.
That night, the expecting couple found the Kur Stone, but an explosion took place when they did. Unbeknownst to them, Kur's essence had found a new host during that time. However, what they didn't realize was that the dates they ate came from a direct line from the tree that held Nirgirama, Mashdaria, and their stillborn baby's powers. Those powers too found a host in a woman's womb.
(Iris's POV)
A loud beeping draws me back into this world. I open my eyes to find seven heads staring down at me; I almost scream. Mom apologizes for accidentally scaring me, and I tell her it was nothing and ask what happened. Mom tells me the whole story of how Komodo discovered I was gone and had been replaced and how they tracked down an anonymous phone call that told them where to find me; she also said that I was dead asleep when they found me, so they put me in the medical bay to make sure I was alive, and I woke up there. Then she makes sure I am okay before sending me out of the medical bay.
Dr. Saturday is once again trying to tutor me, and he is once again failing. I just cannot seem to grasp how any of this is true. I am thirteen years old! This should be nothing to me! I learned this when I was seven, so why can I not do it now?! A hard lump forms in my throat as I battle with the tears.
"Iris, please calm down. It's not worth getting upset over," Dr. Saturday says.
"Yeah. Look at how easy it is," Zak says as he quickly does the problem. I immediately lose the battle with my tears. "Sorry."
"I think you had better go now, Zak," Dr. Saturday says sternly. Zak, Fisk, and the others all leave the room. Dr. Saturday lets me cry for a long time, but when I start blaming myself for everything that has happened to me over these past six years, he stops me. He tells me those are not healthy or safe thoughts and that they are not true, but I know they are true.
A knock at the door demands attention. Dr. Saturday calls to Zak in the other room."Zak, will you get that? I'm working with Lily- I mean Iris!" Who the heck is Lily? Zak opens the door and invites the person inside. It is Dr. Grey.
"Doc, Drew, I found something." Mom, Dr. Saturday, and Dr. Grey all disappear into the conference room. Zak and I creep over to the conference room door and eavesdrop. "I've found the potential for time travel. If I can work with it a little longer, I might be able to turn into something humans can use."
"Miranda, please be careful with this. If you do succeed, you will hold the fates of everyone on Earth in your hands," Mom says. Dr. Saturday leaves the room; Zak and I scatter, but I go back to eavesdropping.
"Drew, may I stay with you all for a couple of days?" Mom says yes.
That night, Dr. Grey comes in to says that she knows I do not trust her. She then asks that I listen to a story before I judge her completely.
"Once upon a time in a kingdom far away lived a young woman named Charlotte. One day, Charlotte met a man from another country named George, and they fell in love, but George was in the military, so they had to wait to get married. When George was discharged, he returned to the kingdom to marry Charlotte. They settled in the kingdom and had three children, Shantay, Selma, and Manning. Shantay had suffered a birth injury to her left arm, but it healed itself.
"Shantay loved physics and chemistry, Selma was a history buff, and Manning was a robotics expert. George and Charlotte were so proud of their children, and each one had their own area of the house to study in. But one day, a fire broke out in the house, and everything was lost. Shantay, the eldest at age twelve, was able to get everyone safely out of the house. However, Shantay did not escape without an injury; debris fell in front of the door to the room she was in, blocking her way out. As a result, she had to climb out a window onto the roof and jump. The jump broke her left humerus in three places.
"After the fire, George and Charlotte divorced, and Shantay and Manning moved with George back to his home country, while Selma and Charlotte stayed in the kingdom. Manning built a robot to help Shantay while her arm was in a cast and sling. Shantay would later make that robot her assistant.
"Years passed, and ties between the two families disappeared." Dr. Grey abruptly concludes that she will finish the story tomorrow; then she says goodnight and leaves the room.
Trigger warning: Sexual violence mentioned! Skip to next part to avoid.
The next night, Dr. Grey enters my room and gently sits on the corner of my bed.
"Shantay and Manning continued their studying their passions; Shantay got an internship in California the summer between her senior year of high school and her freshman year of college. But two days before she was set to fly out, Shantay was involved in a car accident that left her left arm in a cast. When Shantay arrived at the airport in California, she met a man named Barrett.
"Two weeks away from finishing the internship, Shantay was raped, and she knew who the man was. Shantay left at the end of the week. After the summer was over, she went to college, made friends, and got to see her younger brother graduate with a PhD in robotics by the time she was a sophomore.
"By the time Shantay was twenty-two, she was a senior and about to finish her bachelor's degree in particle physics. That was the year her college decided to put students of different years in the same dorms, so Shantay and her roommate named Kelly met their freshman roommate, Hayden. What was hard for Shantay was that Hayden was her raper's sister, but Shantay never said a word about it.
"Shantay and Kelly went on to room with Hayden during their years of attaining master's degrees. Throughout this time, Kelly had been dating, but there were two boyfriends Shantay despised; their names were Leonardo and Samuel. Of the two, Shantay hated Leonardo more, until Samuel got Kelly pregnant, so they moved out and got married before leaving on a huge adventure to find a lost artifact.
"The night they found it, a thief stole it, so Samuel and Kelly organized a team a fifty, all members of their own company, to go in and retrieve the artifact. Of the fifty that went in, only seven came out; Shantay even lost her brother. However, Kelly went into labor. When Shantay returned to the dorm early the next morning, Hayden asked why Shantay was crying, and Shantay explained her brother's death. Hayden said she was going out and told Shantay to get some rest. Later that day, Shantay got a call that Hayden had been found in a river, dead.
"Kelly and Shantay both received their doctorates, and Kelly also earned her M.D.. After that, Shantay disappeared into the icy depths of the Antarctic and did not emerge until many months had passed. Then someone important came back into her life, and they became good friends. Shantay soon began dating him and even got to meet his family.
"Shortly thereafter, her friend's children left the house; Shantay and her friend married a year later. Five years later, her husband died in a shooting. Widowed and now unemployed, Shantay went back to work for her former employer, the one Manning died under, but her boss was different. Her new boss was the one who tried to kill her godson, the one she betrayed to save the world. Within weeks of going back to work, Shantay had to save her friends again, but her employer found out. Her employer was the man who had raped her all those years ago, and he did the same to her after he found out. It was only after Shantay woke up did she realize the secret they had all been keeping. And Shantay learned shortly afterwards that Hayden and Manning were engaged; Shantay blamed and hated herself for the rest of her life." Dr. Grey stands up to leave, promising the other parts tomorrow.
"Are you Shantay, Dr. Grey?"
"Yes, I am."
"Why did you never tell?"
"Because I was told it was my fault. I only told my therapist the story, and she told me that I shouldn't have been in the lab alone at night. She blamed me for what happened when I was unconscious. And I always thought it was my fault until I met him again."
"What was he like?" I ask.
"That, Iris, is another story for another day." Then she bids me goodnight and leaves the room. I cannot sleep, so I stay awake and listen to the sounds of Mom, Dr. Saturday, and Dr. Grey talking. If she finds a way to time travel, will she go back and save her husband? Will she be willing to save Father?
My mind wanders so deeply into thoughts that I fall asleep. My sleep is neither restful nor deep; I toss and turn all night.
Resume reading here if you skipped the previous part.
Dr. Saturday spends majority of the next day trying to tutor me. I can understand all the other subjects really well, but I just cannot seem to grasp math at all. Zak comes in and out of the room every now and then, and he solves the problems with no effort. Each time he does that, I want to go hide in a hole and cry. Clearly annoyed with Zak, Dr. Saturday eventually bans Zak from the room while we are working. It helps not having Zak, but it does not make the math any easier.
Dr. Grey enters at some point during a round of tears and offers to help. At first Dr. Saturday rejects her offer, but he changes his mind once he sees how upset I am. He leaves the room as Dr. Grey sits down next to me. She promises me that I am okay; then she talks to me about every topic under the sun except math. Little by little, I calm down. When I calm down completely, Dr. Grey pulls some bobby pins from her pocket and sets them on the table.
"Iris," she says as she splits the bobby pins into two piles, "if this pile has four pins and this one five, how many total?"
"Nine?" Dr. Grey nods and smiles.
"And if this pile has five and this one four, how many are there?"
"Nine."
"Exactly. So if I write it out, it looks like this: 4+5=9, and 5+4=9. So, if I rewrite this, I get 4+5=5+4. Does that makes sense?" I nod; it is starting to make a bit more sense. She keeps teaching me using the bobby pin piles until I understand that it applies to all numbers. Dr. Grey then explains that she was a lot like me in school; she taught herself math using bobby pins and other household items.
Dr. Grey comes in after I climb in bed that night. She gives me a notice that she knows a lot about me and that I will have to piece the information together. Then she begins.
"The same day Zak Saturday was born, you were too. If I recall correctly, you were born a mere three minutes before he was. The two of you were born in the same hospital room; I was present for both. Your mother passed out just following the delivery, as did Drew. I distinctly remember your biological father holding you at the same time Doc was holding Zak. Meanwhile, the nurses revived both your mother and Drew.
"I sat with Drew for a while before she dozed off; your mother dozed off too. The doctors had already taken you and Zak back. While your mother slept, I watched your father approach the doctor and say that he and your mother decided long ago to put you up for adoption. The doctor said it was not his concern but the adoption agency's. Your father then called the agency and told them you had been born; the matter was finalized, and your adoptive father was contacted.
"When your mother woke up the next morning, she asked for you, but your father said you had died suddenly. Drew, who heard the entire conversation started crying with your mother. Later that day, they were both discharged; the Saturdays left with Zak, but your parents left childless. I never forgot about you, Iris. I thought about you every day."
"Dr. Grey," I start, "what did my parents name me?"
"Lilianna Rose."
"Why did my name change? Why did my parents not want me?"
Dr. Grey sighs and thinks for a moment. "I don't know. Your father never mentioned your name into the phone, so I guess Leonidas named you without knowing your real name. But I can't say for sure. As for your parents putting you up, I think they did want you, but they weren't ready for a daughter." Then Dr. Grey stands up, says goodnight, and walks out.
I dream of how different my life would be if my birth parents had kept me. A lot of the dream is completely my imagination because I just do not know the details. I wonder what they looked like, what they sounded like. I wonder if I look anything like either of them. I wonder if I have anymore siblings. I wonder if they remember me. Do I cross their minds? Do they regret their decision? I will never know.
Morning rolls around again, so Dr. Grey continues to help tutor me. I greatly appreciate her help, and I will be sad when she has to leave. I wish she could stay longer, but I understand that she has work to do.
"Miranda," Dr. Saturday asks, "what happened to your matter transporter?" Dr. Grey seems shocked by the question.
"What makes you think anything happened to it?"
"You always have it with you, but you don't have it this time, and it wasn't with you the last time."
"Perhaps I lent it to someone."
"Miranda, you would never do that. It's too dangerous; you've said so yourself," Mom says. Dr. Grey's shoulders drop.
"You're right. Arthur broke the blasted thing, and I destroyed any evidence it ever existed, especially the building instructions." Mom and Dr. Saturday both gasp.
"You destroyed the only building instructions for the world's ONLY matter transporter?!" Dr. Saturday stammers. Dr. Grey nods confidently. "What else have you destroyed, Miranda?" Dr. Saturday sounds like a wounded kitten.
"Everything. Every discovery, every invention, Deadbolt's blueprints, even my history at the research station."
"WHY?!"
"Because of Arthur. If he got a hold of any of that information, you and the rest of the world would be done for. There's nothing more to it." Mom and Dr. Saturday are still in mental states of shock, not that anyone can blame them.
That night, Dr. Grey comes in and to finish telling me about my history. She sits down on the side of the bed and looks at me. She asks if I know about the destroying evidence; I nod. She sighs and explains that she has to do it if anyone is going to survive Dr. Beeman. Then she collects herself and begins the rest of my history.
"I did not hear anything about you for three years. I spent all my time working in Antarctica until the Secret Scientists finally made me leave. I did not have a place of my own, but I had family in Orono, Maine, so I went there. I got a part-time job and supported myself as best as I could. Then I was invited to a family friend's wedding in Scotland. It just so happened that your father was attending the same wedding, and we bumped into each other.
"After the wedding, we both returned to Orono, where we caught up. We both had changed so much over the years since college. Then I met you, and I loved you instantly. I often visited and babysat you. Then I had to go back to Antarctica, but your father and I kept in touch.
"I happened to be in Orono for your last six months with your father. I was there when you two parted. After that, I stayed in Orono for another year before returning to Antarctica, where I stayed until you and Zak were about twelve. When he learned what Zak was, Arthur threatened to hurt the Saturdays, so I teamed up with Arthur to appease him and protect those closest to me.
"A month before your father's death, I vanished and returned to Orono, where I stayed and helped your struggling father as best as I could. When he died, and Drew and I found you, I was certain I was going to take you in, but then you went to the Saturdays. I've been keeping tabs on you since then; I owe it to your father." Dr. Grey takes a deep breath and looks at the opposite wall. "You're special, Iris. Anyone can see that, but you're hurting and losing an uphill battle. If you want to talk, -"
"I miss him so much, Dr. Grey. I never even got to say goodbye, and now I know I have PTSD. And, Dr. Grey, I have these riddles to solve in order to break the curse on Kur and Zak."
"Will you tell them to me?" I tell Dr. Grey the two riddles and how frustrated I am that my searches yield nothing. Dr. Grey thinks for a moment. "If I remember correctly, the ancient Greeks had a goddess of the rainbow, though her name escapes me." I hug Dr. Grey in a burst of pure joy. Now I have something to search. "As for the second riddle, could it be a date?"
"Of course!" I pause for a moment and quite down. "I'm sorry I did not trust you."
"I forgive you." Dr. Grey pauses. Iris, I know who found the second will."
Iris: Is that a plot twist or answer, I can't tell.
Dr. Grey: Why would I tell my life story to a teenage girl who doesn't trust me?
AB: You will see, both of you.
Dr. Grey: Who else knows my story?
AB: Only those you have told.
Dr. Grey: And they are . . .?
AB: Not mentioned. That is all I am going to say. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Sorry I put a trigger warning in, but I do want all my readers to be comfortable and safe when reading. I know that I have triggers and how hard it is to read and not know if something will set them off. Don't forget to follow, review, and favorite! Have a great week, and I love you all!