Daylight

51. The Hollow

A's/N: The First Order has caught up with the Resistance ship. Amara is not aware that Ben and Rey are connected through the force too. Bex Toth is hiding in Canto Bight, awaiting for Amara to turn, thanks to the Hollow. But Bex is not the only one watching over Amara.

I could feel Ben as I stayed hidden among the shadows. Canto Bight was much bigger than I had realized as I stayed within the alleyways, stalking the streets as if a creature of the night. Something must've happened the moment he got back from Sylas. Anger, darkness, hatred, rage, all negative emotions clouded his mind, heart, and aura. It's felt like something had been snuffed out, destroyed. My guess was by Snoke. It's been two full days since our time on Sylas, two full days since we last spoke with one another. Two long days since Hope and I last connected. Anyone could guess I was worried about both and not about myself. Grabbing the fabric that flew across my face, I tucked it behind my ear to secure it as I hid the bottom portion better and pulled my hood further down my head to shield my eyes. I didn't want anyone from either Resistance or First Order to recognize me. Stefan had sent word to Leia about my plans, hoping no one would interfere. Ben already knew a portion of it as I hid the will to kill Snoke from him and everyone else well.

My mind was now a fortress; my emotions sealed away. I heightened my senses within the force and siphoned power as I walked through the city. I could see and feel where light and dark met, separated, and became one. With neutral territories, it was easy to feel the force like this, especially for me. Blending into the darkness hidden from lights, I shrank against a covered spot among the brick buildings as Stormtroopers belonging to the First Order snuck past me. Thinking about my ability led me to think of Hope for a minute. Was she okay? I hadn't felt our connection since I left Sylas and hoped to the stars she was still alive. She seemed to like my old self: tough, strong, and somewhat kind—her innocence a cover-up for something much darker hidden beneath the surface. I couldn't imagine what her life was like if it turned dark or anything. I began to think more towards Skywalker as I crept through the shadows and towards the abandoned building I had been looking for. What purpose does Hope serve Luke? What did he see her as? A pawn? A victim? And why connect us? Because we share the same ability, he couldn't help me with?

"What do you want with her, Luke?" I couldn't help but say to a brick wall as I looked left and right before crossing over to the abandoned and dark building.

This side of the city was in total darkness, compared to its counter half. It humored me as all I could siphon the dark side of the force. The power was strong enough for dark veins to appear as snakes on my skin. Folding down the sleeves of my jacket, I hid them as I climbed over the piles of bricks and cement structures into the building. Like all abandoned buildings, the building was filled with an eerie silence, enough to cut through walls. In the distance, I could feel happiness, drunkenness, see the bright lights twinkling in the night, fireworks going off. From here in the darkness, it looked like a dream as I made my way through the building on floors that would support my weight, hoping it was all of them. Fortunate for me, I didn't need to go up. I searched for it down below the surface, on the bottom floor of this old building. The oldest in Canto Bight yet somehow still left standing. No one knew why but for me.

The Hollow was something ancient, long before the Jedi were created, long before anyone knew how to use the force was skill, control, and patience. It was the darkest creator of the force and the only one that came naturally from the ground. My father once spoke about it when teaching me the lesson of my own ability. It was nature's way of siphoning the darkest of power and harnessing it as the sun does with light and heat. The Hollow is cold and dark yet powerful when absorbed correctly. But the absorption of power came with a great cost: death. But with power comes rebirth. My father's words echoed in my brain, and with how quiet it was in this place, it sounded like he was talking to me, using the shadows as a doorway to the living. The dark veins on my skin became agonizing to feel as the dark aura grew stronger the closer I got to the center of the building, and with it, I could sense them—my old Masters.

Walking down the decrepit steps that weathered with time, I slowly reached the end of the stairwell and felt very old, very dark power in the air. It was hard to breathe as darkened images raced through my head. People I've killed with loss of control, the little girl I killed violently years ago, the village I once called home after the death of my parents. The dark veins blackened with each image replaying in my memory as I got closer to the source, making it all happen again as I saw them, sitting around a large water vat, filled with water as black as Snoke's soul. In seconds of coming down here, I didn't want to be here as I accidentally kicked a glass bottle, which made both masters stand up from their spots on the ground, alert and alarmed from the sight of me. Their eyes, even in darkness with little light, looked different. Sleep-deprived and dead. The facial features didn't look the way they used to. Sagging skin, dark circles under their lifeless eyes, they looked like Snoke when I first met him, darkness surrounding them if the switch to the Dark Side killed their images on the outer layer of being human. No, not human anymore.

"So, you've survived after all?" Suran spoke up, but he didn't sound like the all-knowing man he used to be.

"How wonderful. Still pretty." Mina was the worst. Her once calming and beautiful voice was thrilled and weak. She sounded like an evil witch from a haunting story of my younger years.

"Hm, if this is what happens when you turn to the Dark Side, then I really don't want to join anytime soon. You both look horrible." I insulted but spoke the truth as I watched them slowly stand to a point as they both hobbled closer to me. Just with one look, I knew I could shatter their bones with one swing of my lightsaber, but I refrained. They must've known why I was here or sensed it from me through the force as Suran stopped just a few feet beyond me. Pulling my saber from behind my right leg, I showed them I was armed.

"You sent yourself. No one knows you're here." Okay, he was still just as intelligent as he used to be. Nodding my head once, Mina smiled, but it was something of wickedness.

"Why seek something beyond your control? Beyond your greatest fear?" Mina questioned as she got too close for comfort on my right side as I stepped away from her. She laughed at my sudden discomfort, which made Suran smile like a creep.

"I wish to kill Bex Toth out of revenge."

"Revenge is not the Jedi way-" Suran mocked me with the old rules as I scoffed and spat back at him.

"Those rules don't apply to me anymore. This isn't the old world of the Jedi. Luke failed at making a new order, but my parents taught me better than that. It's time something new came to the Jedi." I wanted to be different than the old ways of the Jedi. My parents knew this when I trained in Sylas; it's why they started new pieces of training. It's what Luke tried to do and failed.

"This darkness will kill the Jedi you are, turn you into something darker than Snoke-" Mina started as she began to circle me as I lighted my saber. They both flinched away from the violet hue and the hum of the plasma blade. It looks like they haven't seen the light of day in years.

"If it kills both him and Bex Toth, then so be it. I know deep down I'm not strong enough to kill them both, especially not one after the other. This was my last resort, and I'm taking it. Now, the question is: will my old Masters stop me?"

They laughed, wickedly but something made them stop abruptly. And I could feel it. Two invisible strings pulling at me, one going left and one going right. I knew they felt it too as I looked behind me to see nothing but total darkness, but in a way, I felt Ben. Looking up towards the staircase, I felt something warm and caring, a ray of light. I felt Hope.

"Which will she choose?" Mina sang in a weird tone as she danced like a child but to no music. It was eerie. This place had turned them into something unknown to me, creatures of the night. Like their humanities had been snuffed out by the very darkness they now served. So, this was the power of the Hollow then? Thinking of who I wanted to see, the invisible string connecting me to Hope fell apart as I felt her retaliate from my actions. I didn't want her to feel anything coming from me. I didn't want her to see the darkness I'll take on. Hell, I didn't want Ben to see it either as I stalked away from the evil place as both masters laughed but stayed where they were.

I knew Ben could feel something from me. Otherwise, why reach out to me in my time of need? I knew he couldn't see into my mind, much less break down my barriers surrounding it. I made sure every force-sensitive being couldn't feel my true emotions about my decision; oddly, though, Hope could. Knowing I have yet to understand my connection with Hope, I let myself go. I let Ben pull me towards him like he was pulling the string. I was far away enough to where my old masters couldn't hear us if they tried to as the projection of Ben came into view. I couldn't see his surroundings, much like my connection with Hope. But I could feel his emotions. Something troubled him, and it wasn't just about me. Hair dropped in front of my face as I angled my head down a little to see his gloves didn't cover his hands. His uniform was tidy and clean. In my time of fear, he looked perfect, like a god that couldn't save me now. Looking to where he looked, my lightsaber was still ignited as I thought about explaining my appearance. I didn't think I could as I deactivated it for just this moment as I peered back to look at his face. The face I missed touching and seeing. 

"Where are you, Amara?" His tone was hard, commanding but broken. He sounded tired.

"Someplace dark and cold. It...has no name." I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth as I knew my tone sounded off, distant. Could he sense my fear?

"Have you found Toth? Has the deed been dealt with?" Shaking my head at his question, I tried not to think as I knew he would try to break my barriers down, and this is what he did. I felt his fingers in my mind, pushing, pulling at the walls blocking him out. His face twisted in ways that showed he was putting in the effort to get through to me as he sighed out, giving in.

"Why do you wait? I need you here with me, and yet, you lie in wait to destroy him!? How is it that difficult for you, Amara!? I can kill him without blinking my eyes, and yet you-" He screamed at me, which felt like an eternity, but the moment I felt water in my eyes as the tears rolled down my face, he went silent. I waited so that I could have help. I lie in wait because I'm scared to death. It's difficult because it would be the most painful way to gain power. I didn't want to tell him I was scared to die. Because that was the Hollow's purpose, to gain power, you must lose yourself and give in to the dark power. The cycle of death and rebirth. Walking towards me at a quick pace, I felt him like the sun's heat was just inches from me.

"Something's wrong. I can feel your absolute fear. Forget everything I've said. Amara, tell me where you are." He commanded as everything he wanted from me was out the window. I couldn't let him know. I wouldn't. Like Hope, I didn't want him to see me suffer in the worst way. Bringing his hands up like it was second nature, I felt his hands though he was just a projection through the force. It was hot, like a fire burning against my skin. It was heavy, like the weight of his fear of losing me weighing me down.

"You have to let go, Ben," I whispered as my voice cracked under pressure. This was me at my weakest, always in front of him, always in places so dark, I can barely breathe.

"Mara"

"I can do what I can to make sure you don't feel anything through the force, but you have to let me go." I could hear the faint sing-song voice of Mina calling out my name as I broke away from Ben's hold on my face, our connection barely hanging by the gold thread. He looked around the area I stood as his features became darker, the softness of his expression hardening like stone.

"Who is that? Where are you, Amara?" His cold voice was back again as the dark side of him haunted my memory, the mask he once wore popping up in my mind. He no longer looked like Ben Solo, the man I loved. But a predator stalking its victim.

"I'm sorry, Ben. They were wrong about me. All of you were wrong. I was never strong enough to kill Bex. This was the last resort I had to take. But I can't let you in. It already hurts to breathe, stand, and feel alive the longer I stay, and I can't...I can't let you watch or feel me. Please forgive me, Ben." With more tears running down my face, I felt Mina's arms strick around me like a snake's body as she tore me away from my connection with Ben as he fought to keep it going, his screams of my name filling the force between us. As if he was actually here with me.

"Give me your location, damn it! Amara!" He screamed at me as I felt like I was being dragged into something wet as I suddenly became frozen in place, a force pulling me down as I was now only a head above the dark water's surface. The projection started to hum in and out, his image beginning to fade with each breath I took before I couldn't. My face felt hot as tears settled in my eyes. Suran and Mina were waiting for something; I could feel it.

"Drown the Jedi."

"What!? No!" My eyes widened from the words as I knew Ben wasn't the only one that heard them as my vision of him became blurred, and he vanished from my sight. Unable to take a breath fast enough, my head was plunged under the dark water. I was unable to move. Unable to breathe as I thrashed around chaotically for air, for help. This wasn't the way I thought I would go as I reached for help. 

I received nothing as I was pulled deeper into the depths of the darkened water vat, a gurgled scream escaping my lips.