Destruction of the Innocent (Anakin Skywalker)

~46~

        Our bodies plummet through the sapphire waves.  The light of the clones weapons hit the surface of the water as they search for us and I hug the rocks beside me to stay out of view.

A flash of azure light catches my attention, I turn to see him. With one last glare at the enemy above, I point below us and push off the rocks , tugging his arm to guide him as we dive deeper. 

 Frantically, I search everywhere for an entrance but was beginning to worry because we were'nt finding anything. Not to mention air. But I had to keep looking, because going back at this point was not an option. 

   But then we began seeing a trail of broken statues around us. This was a good sign, right?
We follow it and end up before a monument with an enormous 3 headed dog statue that sit atop of the chamber- Cerberus; the guard of the underworld.


 His light reflects off the water just right, and I capture a glimpse of some Greek carvings in the slab below us. My eyes furrow in curiosity, and I swim closer, squinting through the water. He swims closer as I trace each symbol with my finger, then my eyes widen.

 I feel a faint smirk pull at the corner of my lips.


    I send him a look, then propel myself forward. Passing the chipped, broken pillars and old forgotten willow moss covered statues, we ascend to the top of the staircase and break the surface.

Sputtering and coughing, we crawl up the steps and breath in the stale air of the tunnel.
Standing, I slow my breathing and unclip my lightsaber from my belt.

"Is this it?", he asks.

"I hope so. Unless this happens to have a decoy", I roll my eyes. He rolls his eyes back.




     "Agreed", he nods."Now what?"

"I'm not sure", I shrug. He sends me a look.

"Your not sure? You mean, we came down here on good faith-"

"It's my first time treasure hunting. Excuse me!", I grit my teeth."This type of thing does'nt exactly just come with written instructions!"



       He glares at me, shakes his head and turns away with a scoff. My eyebrows scrunch together in thought.

"Wait", I mutter, and he turns back. I reach forward and grab the book from his side pocket. The pages are thankfully still dry due his water proof zip pocket on the inside of his cloak.

I begin flipping through the pages, walk over to a nearby stone slab to set the old book down. 

He stands beside me and holds his lightsaber above us to illuminate the pages.

"Just out of curiosity...w-what did those symbols mean exactly?", he asks.




"Time has brought you here
Only the true two know the fate that lay before them
For it is destiny you are where I lead you
The only judgement is that of how you choose to wield your truth
May the strife and conflict end
May you gain the wisdom, let it be just
May the enemy fall, and the glory rise
Let it be the end of all their excellence 
The truth lay with you"

"Is that all?", he scoffs as I continue flipping through the pages.


"We did not come down here for nothing", I assure him. I feel like I was trying to assure myself at this point that this wasn't just some folklore tail and I brought us to our death down here. "There has to be a-a code or, something."

"Right, just move this rock and switch sides with this one", he scoffs. I slam the book closed and turn to him.

"Look here, I would'nt get so snarky with me seeing as I may be your only way out of here. Don't think I won't leave you here to figure it out for yourself either", I growled."If you have ANY suggestions or ideas-please! By all means! Until then, I don't want to hear it!"




       I walk away and open it again. My eyes are scanning the floor, which land upon more symbols carved into the floor. 

"Bravery."

"Savior of Mankind."

"Destiny".

I roll my eyes,  scoff and move my foot off away from this particular one but continue walking.




        When all of a sudden, I accidently kick a rock with my foot and wince, watching it roll away into the dark.  It hits a wall somewhere in front of me and I stopped dead in my tracks.

As I stop, he walks to stand beside me. The light from the saber illuminates the wall before us and I lower the book in shock. 

There before us was a wall, carved in it-two people: a man and a woman. Our height, it seemed. They held hands. Their backs were turned to us, hoods over their heads. Chaos seemed to be erupting before them. Each one held what looked like a weapon.  No, lightsabers.


Our lightsabers.



 And in between them, a string hangs from their intertwined hands.

"No...", I mutter.

 I close the book and hand it to him. He takes it from me.  My thumb ignites my saber and a glow of purple joins the space around us.

"What is it?", he asks, but I do not answer. "Hello?"

      Ignoring him, I step forward and stare in disbelief of what lay etched in the wall before me. My hand reaches forward, a finger skims over the symbol in the hieroglyphics in the sandstone wall before it finds the necklace that sit upon my chest. I pick it up, my eyes flash back and forth between it and the wall.

It was my necklace.

But how would they have known all those years ago if-?

I shake my head in disbelief again but come to terms with it.

       "This is it", I whisper. I nod. I close my eyes and press my hand to the wall. Visions of the cursed artifact flash through my mind and I rip my hand away. My eyes flutter open and I step back. Hands finding my necklace again, I backup to stand beside him. "The ring...it's inside."

"How do you know?", he asks.

"I feel it", I retort. I look up to him. We nod before turning back to the wall.

"Well...what now?", he asked. 

I take a breath in. He watches me as I carefully remove the necklace from around my neck and wrapping it around my palm tightly. Then I extend my hand out to his.

"Take it", I usher, "Don't you see it won't work if you don't. And I can't do this alone."




      He turns to me, scanning my face for any sign of fear, but I show none and dispatch a look of determination back.

With a sharp intake of breath, he furrows his brows and grabs ahold of my hand.

A low vibration followed by an all too familiar tingle makes it's way up our arms. It's when a dull violet glow begins to emit between us and grow brighter with every second that we send each other a look of unsureness, but we hold on regardless.

"Focus", I mutter, placing all my concentration on the wall before us. He follows my lead as we bow our heads.




             Rubble and broken pieces of wall begin to shake before us as the hieroglyphic slab slides up and away, but we never let go of each other.


 I squeeze his hand harder and he mimics it. It only brings the wall up further-and faster at that. It was obvious that our strength together meant a great deal to the cause, so I held onto just that.



          After what seemed like a lifetime, the cave around us rumbles to a stop. I cover my mouth and eyes with the sleeve of my dress. All is silent once again. 

We turn to each other, a quick flash of fear is exchanged between us silently-and the question is clear- 'what happens if we let go?'.

         But we slip our fingers away from one another's hand smooth as possible. I rub the center of my palm in wonder, but he takes this as a bad thing.

"I did'nt hurt you, did I?", he asks. I shake my head and my gaze snaps to lock with his.

"The vibration, it's...addictive?", I say, but it comes as more of a question. He almost nods in agreement, but is distracted. He turns and I follow his gaze.



        The dust settles and we peer through the cloud into the cave before us.

There in the dark, in a purple quartz pillar stalagmite- lay the entrancing sapphire stoned ring which started this all.

"Hurry. I sense trouble", he whispers in my ear. He turns away to keep watch, swinging his weapon around and getting into stance to take on the oncoming threat.


 
            I swallow hard but step through the arch of the new doorway before us. Careful steps lead me to the pillar. The pulsing purple light illuminates every step as I reach a hand out.




           My fingers barely touch the ring before I yank it out of the rock with force. The light dies out completely as bits of rubble sprinkle the floor below me. The chain breaks and falls to my feet on the stone floor.

It was here. Right in my palm, once again. I could'nt believe it.

The cave begins to shake once again and grabs my attention. He looks back and I make a break for the door. I spring for a tuck and roll, but it was'nt enough- as he grabbed my hand and pulled me the rest of the way-the stone wall nearly closing on my feet.





          A single crack makes it way between the two figures etched in the door.

Something about this made my stomach sour at the sight as he pulled me to my feet. But I chose to ignore it at the time...how very dumb and stupid of me -as I thought I was in love.


"Go, go! Their bombing the cave! They found us!", he yelled and started pushing me the other way. I turned and grabbed the book on the ground before running after him, barely escaping the oncoming lights that flooding down the tunnel behind us.