A/N: Literally had to take breaks. IF this made you take a break and/or cry, feel free to yell at me in the review section. Kind of taking a whack at tragedy with this chapter.

Chapter 12 – Death Toll

Hollow found himself standing in a copse of trees at the war-cemetery where Rage's and his monument had been raised in their names, awaiting their arrival. Well. Only waiting on Hollow now. The monument was two marble statues. One was Rage, fireballs floating above his hands. He was stood on an outcrop. He was standing next to a giant lizard. Hollow's grim face curved slightly at the mouth as he remembered Rage asking the architect to involve his gecko. The newest addition was a large tree, of dark brown wood. The bark was smooth and clean. It almost looked prosthetic. Arya had taken part in the planting and singing herself. Hollow could not. Non-elves were not permitted. He looked to his own. He was sat on a boulder with the hilt of a sword protruding from behind his shoulder. He held a smaller sword that had been plunged into the ground at his feet and his hands rested on the pommel. Hollow sat down on a stone bench while the speech and will that Rage had created for his funeral was being read out, in that order. Hollow was detachedly listening as he put his head in his hands and shuddered.
"And hollow-" he looked up –" Praise the sun."
"Praise the sun indeed…" Hollow muttered into his gloves. He was wearing a white suit, Rage asked him to, for irony's sake. The gloves were also white. Hollow looked down and realised that he had been crying without noticing it. He let the tears flow, now. He felt an arm curl around his shoulder as Arya came to sit beside him
"He didn't deserve this," he muttered. "He. Didn't. Deserve! THIS!" the copse went silent apart from the crows in the trees.
Hollow heard footsteps behind him. "I'm sorry." It was Eragon.
"Why do you care?" Hollow demanded, bitterly.
"I know what it's like to lose someone you love. I lost my father and my uncle. They both died right before my eyes. They were both killed by the same men."
"How did you deal with it?" Hollow asked, more gently.
"I didn't."
"Hmmf. Cliché, much?"
"What?"
"Oh, nothing, it doesn't matter." Hollow stood up and walked next to Rage's grave. Rage looked so peaceful. He was wearing a red suit and had his hands placed over his chest. He took a plushy of Rage's old minecraft skin from a pocket inside his jacket. With a sob he said, "I remember when… When you gave this to me. It was my 30,000th birthday… The look on your face. I want you to keep it with you… I know you don't believe any of this crap but… I hope it helps you, afterwards. Goodbye, Josh, Rage… Friend." And he placed the plushy under Rage's hands and closed the lid of his coffin with a cry of anguish.
"Hey, shh. It's okay. It's okay." Arya turned him around and held him. Just held him. Just for comfort. It helped to an extent but… How could it be okay…? He could feel her heartbeat through her chest. It was like a metronome. Always ticking. Always keeping in time. It was a small comfort.
"How…? How will I get through this?" Hollow asked. Not whining. An actual concern.
"You will. I know you will. It's what you do."

Hollow was stood just outside of the cemetery. Shaking peoples' hands as they muttered their condolences as they left. He was barely listening. He was in a rut. A deep one, at that.
"Come on. We should go." Arya took him by the hand and led him away as he stared, dumbly, at the ground. "Hollow. Please… Aaron." She called his name but he didn't hear. Suddenly his legs fell out from under him and he was on his knees.
He screamed. All his physical and mental pain breaching to the surface of his skin in outburst of power. Thunderclouds grouped up around him and Arya. Lightning struck the ground, not ten meters away. Setting fire to a tree. He bunched up his fists in his hair. He screamed again and another bolt came down. Striking the building to his left. Screams of terror battered his ears but he didn't hear them. All he heard was his own tears hitting the ground.
"Aaron!" Arya cried out in pain.
Hollow was broken apart from the pain as all he thought was, What have I done? He looked toward Arya. A branch from the exploded tree had gone through her leg. He crawled toward her.
"I'll be fine. Come here." She said, beckoning him toward her.
"Why?"
"You need this." As she dragged him the remaining two feat toward her. Hollow lay next to her. Tears pouring across his face. Arya stroked her hand down his cheek. She crawled closer and rested her head on his chest and her palm on his naval.
"I'm losing it, Arya. I'm losing it and I don't know what to do." He said, the knot in his throating making it hard to speak.
"Think of Rage. Think of how he would want you to go on without him." Arya advised. "How he would hate it if you went mad because of him…"
"You're right." He kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you." He quickly healed Arya's wound – it had been developed so it can heal everybody's ailments and not just the undead's – and took her to a car. It was a car that had been left to him in Rage's will. It was (you guessed it) a Lotus.