The Amulet
"Do it again,"
"Olivia-"
"You did it wrong try again."
Axel looks at his amulet, balanced perfectly on the pedestal as light shone brightly through. "Olivia I did it right. See? Our stones are lit up."
"But not the others, try again," She presses.
This was wrong, usually he was the one who was pushy, and yet….
"Axel…..please."
He takes the amulet off, and shuts off all of the light switches. Then with unsteady hands, he resets the pedestal before placing the amulet back on. He checks twice, then thrice, to make sure it sits right.
He flicks the first two light switches.
Green and red beams shoot from their respective crystals on the amulet. Hitting the giant map right where the New Order house is, right where they should be.
Axel flicks the third.
The blue gem - Petra's - moves around the map for a moment, then goes out.
Olivia makes a soft noise, a pained broken sound.
Axel hits the next and he can practically hear Lukas say, 'Why am I the purple one?"
The beam from that gem barely flickers, before it too goes out.
He reaches for the last lever.
"Axel. I can't - I -"
The lever clicks and the last gem. The one right in the middle of it all. The white one.
Jesse's.
It doesn't light up at all.
"No!" Olivia hits the switches, and the only two beams go out, "We're doing it wrong!"
"Olivia there is no lights!" Axel urges he doesn't want this either, but someone has to say it , "You saw so yourself we-"
"No! They have to be out there somewhere! It has to be broken! Because if they're not on the map, they're-" Olivia's voice cracks, "They're- It means….."
Axel stares at the engineer, his friend. She's shaking, unable to say the words they both fear.
So Axel silently resets the mechanism, and tries again.