Daylight

12. I'm Not Broken

Third POV


Amara walked among the dunes that covered the part of the planet Jakku searching for the one person she had been itching to kill. Feeling through the force, she could sense many things all at once until she could focus on two different things. One was the current location her ex-lover, and bounty hunter Bex Toth was sending her. The other, far off into the distance sitting high atop a plateau, was Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle. Far off in the distance, the shuttle looked like a large winged creature as it towered over the desert region and herself. Enraged by the fact they were here made Amara believe Bex Toth was behind his presence, knowing the First Order ship couldn't have jumped to hyperspeed with her the day before. The very thought of Bex Toth dealing with the First Order made Amara believe he had become a part of the order as she tried to keep herself calm amongst the desert wind that clouded the air with sand and dust. With her lightsaber hidden away in her right boot, the sand crunched beneath her feet, and when she glanced back to see her footprints, they had vanished in seconds.

Gazing out into the desert, she couldn't understand why he had chosen such a region to hide in, or in fact, fight against her in. Could it be he wanted to remind her of Pasaana? The place she was born in and once called home? Could it be that he wasn't alone like she and had an army waiting for her? Did he do it to gain an advantage with a terrain she didn't know how to adapt to, though she could? And what about the First Order? Would they come closer to interfere with her fight? Were they truly working together, or was it something else? Amara had so many questions lingering in her mind as the most important one bothered her the most. Could Kylo Ren have found her through the force? It was a factor that couldn't be erased from her mind so easily as it started to become the main reason why they were in the distance, sitting there. But what were they waiting for?

Stopping for a brief minute, the overwhelming feeling of the Dark Force erupted all around her, causing her to take a deep breath as if being drowned underwater, and she broke the surface to breathe. The sudden wave of the darkness came without warning, but she could control her mind, emotions, and everything that was connecting her to it. She could feel Toth coming towards her along with someone else, but also, she could feel a magnetic pull coming from the location of where the First Order Command Shuttle sat, knowing it was Kylo Ren. Why was he making the force pull her towards him? Did he know what she was up against? Or was it something else entirely? Breaking away from the pull towards Kylo Ren, she snapped the link in half like cutting it with a knife as she summoned her lightsaber to her hand and ignited it the second she turned on her heel to face her ex-lover.

It was like looking in a mirror from years ago, as the time between them hadn't stopped once. He looked the same, but he wasn't. He dressed the same but was still different. The smile she once thought was romantic now made her see the demon he truly was as he peered down at her through green eyes. He looked like he matured a tiny bit, but Amara knew differently. She knew what he was now capable of, especially since he was a trained Jedi too before being imprisoned by her. He looked her over as she, too, continued to watch his movements, looking for anything out of place.

"You've changed." His voice struck a nerve in her heart as she tried very hard not to kill him on the spot. Searching his body, he wasn't armed like she was; the uneasy feeling of something else going on was slowly creeping into her mind.

"For the better, too, no thanks to you." Amara clapped back as she raised her lightsaber to his chest now. He squinted his eyes at the sudden motion but kept smiling.

"Something else had made you changed, though. Years ago, I heard about how you moved on from me, and boy did that sting. But what intrigued me was that the reason you changed so drastically in a short period was that you lost a few loved ones, correct?" She didn't want to answer his question as he began to laugh before stepping away. Amara didn't dare to move.

"With all you've lost, one thing still doesn't make sense. You're still in the middle of everything. I can feel your emotions, Amara; any force-user can. The dark Side surrounds you like gravity, pulling and pushing you every which way until you break. And you're letting it instead of picking a side, as I did-"

"So what, you're on the Dark Side now? That goes to show me I really shouldn't be on that side now!" Amara yelled as Bex kept backing away from her as the sudden pull to Kylo Ren erupted again from behind her, but she refused to wrap her mind around it, to let her in.

"But it shows you how much you still want to kill me? I get it, Amara, I do, but what if that wasn't the case at all. I'll let you in on a little secret, and between you and me, it'll be worth it." He spoke as he flailed his arms out from his side as he pulled his smile down before turning serious. He was plenty of feet away from her, and it confused Amara more as he leaned over his knees.

"I'm here to persuade you to join the Dark Side."

"That's not happening."

"It's not? You've already felt the power that comes from it, I know you have, and guess what, it's the only reason why I'm letting you live. Because in my mind, I was the reason it broke through in the first place, and now, I'm going to break you down even more until you let all of it in." Nodding a little from his hurtful words, Amara looked back towards the distance of where the Command ship was before turning back to see Bex with a weird look in his eyes.

"I'm not broken."

"Don't lie to yourself."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes, you are. You've been broken. Broken since your parents died, since you became a Jedi since you were separated from Ben Solo. Everything that's happened to you up until now has made you-" Amara couldn't let him finish his words as she just lost it.

Amara screamed with pure anger and hatred towards her ex-partner as she used the force to send him flying up into the sky before slamming him down onto the desert ground. The sudden impact shook the ground as he landed hard against the surface, but it wasn't enough to kill him just yet as she swung her saber in her hands before racing towards him with momentum. Dodging a fatal blow to his body, Bex slid as far from her as he could to deflect her saber's plasma blade before pulling out his own saber to try and use it against her.