Missing Piece

19. Pyramid

We were walking away from the market, towards the burning, hot desert.
Me, who wasn't used to the heat of the desert, was panting.
I looked at Matt, who didn't seem to mind the warmth. "Is... it...very...far?"
Matt answered, "just on the other side of this sand hill." He turned his head towards me. "Maybe you should, ehm... take your uniform jacket off."
I took my jacket off. The black t-shirt I wore underneath was now visible.
The little amount of present wind cooled my arms, I sighed in relief. "That's indeed better. The First Order doesn't mind, right? Rather a living, maybe not appropriate dressed Head Technician, than a dead one." I wore my jacket over my arm.

I struggled over the last hill, seeing no damn thing on the other side. "Matt? Is there something wrong with my eyes? Because I don't see anything."
We walked down the hill, and stopped on an open sandy plain.
"Of course there's nothing wrong with your eyes. It's just hidden. Close your eyes and promise me that whatever happens, you don't open them. Trust me."
I sighed and closed my eyes.
This better not be some kind of stupid joke.
Suddenly I heard a loud rumble, coming from the ground in front of us. But I kept my promise, and my eyes closed.
I didn't know that if I opened them, I would see Matt directing his arm at the ground in front of us, making some kind of stone structure rise from the sand.
The rumbling stopped.
"You can open your eyes."
My mouth dropped open.
Where just seconds ago was an open plain, now stood a gigantic pyramid.
"H-how?"
Matt sent me a smile, beats of sweat still on his forehead. "Apparently, the god of prosperity is with us today."
I shook my head in disbelief. "This is amazing." I let my hand slide over the statue in front of the entrance, an Anubis wielding a lightsaber.
"Are you ready to go inside?"
I made a sharp turn in Matt's direction. "You're really planning to go inside?!"
Matt nodded. "Why else would we have gone through the effort, just to see it?" He scoffed teasingly.
My excitement grew with the second.
"I-I've never been on a real... expedition."
Matt headed towards the entrance, motioning for me to join him with a movement of his hand. "Well, let's change that."
I hung my jacket on the top of the statue's lightsaber. "Guard this for me, will you?" I scurried after Matt, towards the closed, sandstone doors.

Matt was examining the door, seeking for a way to get through. "I don't see how we get in." He sounded slightly frustrated, his hand resting on something underneath his technician-kit.
I looked at the big doors, when I'd narrow my eyes I could see something carved in it, figures?
"Look Matt, these are numbers. They seem to form a sentence... I have seen this before. Yes, I know it! When I had to help with programming some droids. The numbers indicate letters."
Matt's fingers slid over the carved numbers.
1.23.1.4.21. 1.12.4.21.11.8.21.12.
I read it out loud, "awadu aldukhul?"
The door started to move upwards, making it possible to enter the pyramid.
I smirked at Matt. "Told you."
Matt's head turned away, to hide the fact that he rolled his eyes, but I noticed it anyway. Pride spread through my chest.
"What does it even mean?" I asked him.
"It's the language of the Aki-Aki. It means 'I would like to enter.'"
I couldn't suppress the feeling of admiration towards the radar technician's knowledge.

Once we stepped inside the tunnel, it was immediately cooler, which was nice for a change.
A row of torches lit up the moment we entered.
There was only one way ahead of us, which meant that this was the only way in or out.
The wind blew against the old walls, it sounded almost like a voice. It gave me goosebumps all over my body.
Matt noticed it. "Nothing can happen to you, I'm with you. No force can change that."
  I don't know why the words of the clumsy technician worked, but they did.
My composure relaxed, I hadn't even realised the tension before.
We walked through the endless tunnel, it hadn't seen the light of days in ages.
I examined the strange inscriptions and drawings on the walls. Figures with sabers and those without. They seemed to tell a story, a story about an ancient war.
The tunnel led to a majestic room.
Just one beam of light was allowed in the chamber, focused on some kind of pedestal.
But I couldn't see what was placed on top of it. "What's next?" I asked Matt.
Matt examined the room before answering, "we need to be very careful, this place is probably full of boobytraps."
I nodded and followed him inside.
  Despite Matt's warning, I couldn't stop looking around and admire the artworks on the walls.
Until I heard a *click*.
It came from Matt's direction.
"Watch out!" I yelled.
Everything after that moment happened very fast.
Matt jumped towards me and pushed me against the cold floor, lying on top of me. His body protecting mine.
Just a millisecond later, I heard darts whizzing above us, inches away from where we just stood.
I felt Matt's chest, on top of mine, rise and fall as he breathed fast. His face was only centimeters from from mine.
"This is dangerous," I almost whispered.
"Very dangerous," he agreed softly, his breath fluttering against my bare neck.
A moment later he stood up again, holding out his hand to help me up.
I walked, carefully, towards the wall where the darts were now stuck in. I plucked one from it and looked at the purple liquid on the top of it. "Poison."
I threw it away.
"I wished I could use the Force, that would be much easier and saver." I heard Matt mumble softly to himself.
"It would, but we don't have the Force. We need to survive with what we have," I replied to the comment that was only meant for himself.
Matt returned back to reality, or that was my interpretation.
As we neared the pedestal, I could finally see what it was, a crystal.
Divided in two, one side was black, the other white. When you looked straight at the white part, the gem would seem gray because of the black on the other side, and the other way around.
My eyes widened. "Is-is that?"
Matt simply nodded. "The missing piece."
I jumped at him, my arms around his neck and I gave him a kiss on his cheek. "You sneaky bastard, you knew that all along! You asked Kylo for this mission to retrieve the gem, didn't you?"
Matt placed his arms around my back and made a spin with me in his arms before putting me back down. "Maybe..." His eyes sparkled mischievous and a smile adorned his face.
  I jokingly gave him a soft slap on his arm.
"Take it, you deserve it." Matt's voice sounded soft, something that wasn't very usual.
I stepped towards the pedestal, my hands went towards the gem I had searched for, for so long.
The second I removed it from it's pedestal, everything started to shake.
Sand started to fill the room.
"We need to get out of here!" Matt took my hand and dragged me away.
  The light of the entrance was already visible at the end of the tunnel...
But a hatch in the floor opened.
Matt fell.
With one hand I held Matt, bungling above a deep hole, with the other I held the gem.
I felt Matt's hand slowly sliding out of mine. "Hold on Matt, I'll get you out of here."
But it was hard to keep my promise as Matt started to slip away, more and more.
I couldn't save him.
Not with one hand.
I dropped the gem in the hole and took Matt's other hand, pulling him up.
I quickly dragged him up and we ran out of the collapsing pyramid.
We dove beneath the door, which started to close.
I quickly fetched my jacket from the statue before the whole pyramid disappeared into the sand again.
"The-the gem..." Matt exclaimed exhausted.
"The price for the gem was your life, a price I was not willing to pay..." I dropped myself on the soft bed of sand, like Matt had done. My eyes closed in tiresome, and before I knew it, I blacked out.