Daylight

87. Epiphany

A's/N: This is the end of The Rise of Skywalker. I'll be having a few chapters leading up to the actual ending to cover Hope's happy ending. These chapters will fall under a storyline I'm naming Afterglow. 

Afterglow is a song by Taylor Swift off her Lover Album.

Thank you for reading this far :)

 All lyrics that are Italic are from the song Epiphany by Taylor Swift. 

THIRD POV

Rey hadn't hoped Amara would go through with the plan she created hours ago. With too much on her mind, Rey almost didn't hear Amara's thoughts. With various barriers against Ben, to Rey, Amara's mind was wide open for her. she guessed Amara only cared about what Ben would think of her after this, imagining him to hate her for a while. But now, as Amara stood next to her, defending her with her own life, Rey understood. She had so much on the line now. A bond through the force. A man who loved her too much. A daughter that gave her more than hope itself. And to think, she was willing to lose it all to save another Jedi like her, if Rey saw herself that way now. 

Before her, Rey didn't just see another Jedi Master. She saw a friend, a teacher, a comrade, and now thanks to the girl with red hair and blue eyes, she saw Amara as a mother. Rey didn't believe that Ben could hate her the way Amara thinks he would. Not after witnessing something like this. Before her, Amara was truly another sight to see, something of a goddess. The true power in the force. A real balance of both Light and Dark. Rey now held more respect for the woman next to her as both ignited their sabers, ready for the final attack. Both women could now feel his hostility towards Amara rise into the air, like a mountain of magma erupting from a volcano of hate. Revenge was all they could feel now radiating off the man before them as it made Amara smile genuinely. Good, we ruined his plan, she thought. 

But now, as both women stood before the Emperor, they felt they weren't alone. Unable to feel her parents and the lost family Rey wanted to have, they could feel...others standing behind them, beside them, and all around them. Jedi Masters of old. Friends that once protected Amara's family for generations. An army of all the Jedi before them as Palpatine shot his force lightning at the woman who dared to destroy everything he worked for. With the help of Rey defended alongside her, Rey used Skywalker's lightsaber to absorb the lightning as Amara held out a hand to siphon the power coming towards her. She knew too much would kill her, but it needed to be enough to make sure Rey lived. 

With the power too great to handle alone, Amara felt pure power standing next to Rey as she reached out through the force to connect with the Jedi of the past. It was something Amara never imagined anyone could do as she only reached so far to her family. She felt as if she would only bring disappointment to the great Masters before her, and with it, refused to ask for help. All these years, she'd been wrong. She had tossed out the knowledge she should've respected. Burned the old Jedi texts because she was too stubborn about needing anything else to survive. She tried so hard to erase the Jedi from her life as she ran for her life. Instead, she regretted not running towards what she was destined for. Unlike Rey, she had too many mistakes left to fix as most were now unfixable. But not this time. Rey was more important now. Ben, Hope, the Resistance-every life was more important than hers. 

Forcing her away from Amara, Rey went sent backward with a strong lightning force, but not enough to kill her as Amara turned her attention to Rey. With the small distraction, Palpatine raised another hand towards Amara and increased his full power against hers. She slid easily as she now tried to block with the usage of her igniting saber. The hum of her plasma blade keep her alert, but the light was too bright to see past. She could no longer physically see the Emperor. Amara could no longer find a niche to hold against the vast power meant to kill her in an instant. Rey screamed for her to be released, but it was too late. Palpatine needed the Gray Jedi to be destroyed for his plan to be fulfilled. To him, Amara was just a pebble in the road, irrelevant to life itself.