Worth: A Star Wars Story (ON TEMP HIATUS)

32. The Prophet

"...ando... Kando!" I finally came to, sitting up right and feeling a stinging pain in my head as Seku helped steady me, her face relaxing upon realizing that I was okay. The last thing I remembered before hitting the ground and getting my head smacked was grabbing her and pulling her into me so that, wherever we ended up, I'd take most of the damage. However far we had fallen mustn't have been enough to kill us, because there we both were.

"Are we alive?" I asked, blinking back the fog in my eyes an looking around the room. I had to admit, the place was impressive enough. The space was illuminated by more of the crystals letting off a gentle white hum of light around the space. There were striated arches made of bronzium around the room, and before us was another ancient statue, only this one was gilded.

"I think so," she shook her head, "but I don't know how." She paused and looked over to me, "Are you alright?"

"Head hurts something fierce, but I'm in one piece. Were we the only ones who fell?"

"I think so," She stood and helped pull me to my feet. 

The world spun a little as she did, but I was able to stand. I pulled my helmet on and found the entirety of the HUD nonresponsive, making the stupid thing pretty much useless in every possible way. I pulled it off with a sigh, tucking it up under my arm as I turned to her. "Even my helmet comms are offline."

Seku nodded and held up her obliterated wrist comm with a sigh. "No use in wasting our breath then. We need to navigate out of here..." her voice trailed off, "...somehow."

I looked around. The layout was at least somewhat similar to the floor above, only now I could see glowing orange-yellow veins streaking through the metal and along the floor. "Hello..." I knelt down and tried to touch them only to find them encased in what seemed like some sort of transperisteel. I paid attention to the way that the liquid was flowing and followed it back to a long, gaping corridor that seemed to stretch on endlessly at the far end of the room. "Crazy theory, but what do you think about following this?"

Seku caught on to what I was saying, "You want to find the source."

"I have a theory. That big sealed door that Halc and you guys found... What do you bet that these streams lead back to that chamber? If we can get back there, we can make it to the entrance."

"So long as it hasn't caved in," Seku nodded, and I could see her starting to agree with me. "Alright. Alright, okay... Well, it's that or die down here. I'll take my chances."

"Agreed," I nodded, and together, we set off down the corridor.

--

We made our way down the hallway together. Seku reached out and took my hand as the tunnel darkened, and I felt her squeeze it as she stepped in closer. I had to admit, I was happy that it was us trapped down there together. I knew that Seku had my back and she trusted me to have hers. That little bit of trust went a long way in situations like these. Her little flashlight didn't do much to light the way forward, but neither did my helmet light. The entire space seemed to stretch onward forever, the blackness ahead never seeming to give way to any form of light. 

I heard her hit something with the toe of her boot, and when she looked down she gasped, seizing my arm and stepping quickly aside. "Kando, look!" she hissed, pointing her light to the floor.

I turned to look and saw the severed head of a B-1 droid rolling around listlessly beside her. The droid was newer judging from the fresh paint, but something had completely severed its head from its body. The real question I had was... where was the rest of it?

"Well," I muttered as I took the light from her and began sweeping the floor in front of us, "that's a little disconcerting..."

"I would ask how you can be so calm about this," I looked over at her and saw her look up at me, "but I think working in Coruscant's lower levels has desensitized you to grim, dark, and strange..."