[Junior Jedi Knights] - 01(17)

He had once asked his mother why she had chosen to name him after Vader.

“You weren’t named after Darth Vader,” Leia had explained. “You were named after my father. He was Anakin Skywalker, not Vader. And before he died your grandfather did turn away from the dark side. He died saving your uncle Luke’s life.” Leia had told Anakin that it was important to remember that the power of the Force could turn even a good man to the dark side. “Anakin, to me your name reminds me of hope,” Leia had explained. “Hope that even when a Jedi uses the Force for the dark side he can choose to turn back to the light. Just as my father Anakin Skywalker did.”

Right now Anakin didn’t need any reminders about the dark side-it was all around him. It coated the walls of the stairway in sticky darkness. Anakin could feel it trying to cover him. It tugged at the sleeves of his. jumpsuit and swirled around his head. He pushed it aside with his mind and followed his friend down the spiral stairway. Whatever was down there, he and Tahiri would meet it together.

“I am going to get kicked out of the Jedi academy for this,” Anakin said under his breath as he climbed down the stairway. “Not only that, I’m probably going to run into that Dark Lord of the Sith and end up in even bigger trouble.”

Anakin could hardly see Tahiri’s back in the darkness as the two climbed down the stairs. And he could barely hear Artoo beeping in the distance. The stairway was too broken and winding for the droid to manage, so Artoo had stayed behind. Anakin was sure that the droid was telling them both to come back.

“Tahiri, will you please wait for me? I can’t see anything,” Anakin called out. Without Artoo’s light, which had been lost right after the stairway turned away from the crumbling wall, it was almost impossible to see. At least if Tahiri was right in front of him, he said to himself, he would be able to tell where to walk.

“I can’t see any better than you can,” Tahiri called back. “This is quite an adventure, isn’t it, Anakin,” she began to chatter. “We’d probably just be looking at holographs if we were back at the Temple right now. Instead we’re-yipes!”

Anakin had heard his friend begin to fall before she’d cried out, and now there was a quiet rumble as the stone she was on gave way.

“Tahiri, are you okay?” he called as he tried to move quickly down the stairs. He could barely see her when he bent down.

“Yeah, I think so,” she said. “Serves me right for talking so much instead of concentrating on where I was going.”

Anakin smiled in the darkness. He moved to help Tahiri to her feet.

She gave a small yelp.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“My foot is caught under something,” Tahiri explained.

Anakin searched the darkness around Tahiri’s foot with his hand.

“Your foot is wedged under a heavy stone,” Anakin groaned as he tried to move the rock.

“Let’s do this together,” Tahiri suggested. They concentrated on using the Force. Slowly the stone rose and then fell to one side. Tahiri pulled her foot out of a small hole.

“Is it broken or cut?” Anakin asked.

Tahiri bent down to feel her bare foot. “Not a scratch,” she said in amazement. A moment later her hand brushed against something. Something that was not another rock.

“What is this?” Tahiri muttered as she lifted up the object by her foot. She ran her hands over the thing. It was strangely smooth and thin.

“Let me feel it,” Anakin said. Tahiri handed it to him. He ran his fingers along it until he reached what felt like two wide bumps. There were four thin, short objects coming out of the bumps. Each of them was about five centimeters long. They were all bent in several places. Anakin closed his eyes. He knew what this was.

“Let’s keep going,” he said in a weak voice.

“What is it, Anakin?” Tahiri asked. She could tell her friend knew exactly what the object was.

“You don’t want to know,” Anakin told her.

“Yes I do,” she replied stubbornly.

“All right. I’m pretty sure that it’s an old bone.”

“A bone from what?” Tahiri asked.

“I think it’s the arm and hand bone of one of the ancient Massassi,” Anakin explained. “What’s more, I think it was a child’s.”

Tahiri was silent.

“Do you want to turn back?” Anakin gently asked his friend.

“No,” Tahiri replied. “We have to go on.”

“Okay. But since you won’t turn back, at least let’s do this together, ” Anakin said. They joined hands and slowly walked downward. The stone staircase was much longer than Anakin had imagined. It wound in a tight spiral deep into the surface of the planet. At certain spots the stairway was so narrow that Anakin could touch the stone walls on both sides of it. The walls felt sticky.