STAR WARS: possible spoiler warning

[avali]

STAR WARS CALL OUT POST:
STEP 1: pick a muse
STEP 2: leave a comment with their name in the subject line, pictures, words or all of the above
STEP 3: profit

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[hux]

[The very second that Ren pulls his arm away is the moment that Hux knows he's in for a lot of trouble; and not from the planet that was currently collapsing in on itself. He can feel it before it even happens, the air suddenly heavier than it ought to be as if a storm was brewing directly above them. None of this was right, none of it should even be happening and yet here they were, two people struggling for opposite things with the same ultimate result.

The force choke gets an instant reaction, gloved hands reaching for his own neck as if he could pry invisible hands from it. The air that had been heavy before was now non-existent in his lungs and the expression in Hux's eyes is one of confusion. Ren dared?! He actually dared raise a hand in such a way? It was unfathomable and what was worse was the small panic rat of doubt that started to gnaw away at Hux's self control. What if Snoke had expected this all along? No, it couldn't be right, yet even as Hux denies that thought the rat continues to chase it's own tail. What if?]

Ship.... [The single syllable from the young general is choked out with the last of the air in his lungs, a huge feat considering. Hux is not going to back down on orders just because he's about to have the life squeezed out of him. If he was going to die on this crumbling world then it would be following the last orders given to him. Ren needed to understand that physical objects were just that, they never held any power, it was only what the owners gave to it that made them valuable in the end. Hux can see the edges of his vision starting to darken and he knows it's not the trees surrounding them that are currently collapsing that is causing it. The ship..]

[narcissithstic]

[There's no maintaining that force of will for long, even with the heady balm of his own contentment simmering in his veins, it's his body that crumbles to betray him. Stance slipping, muscles going slack from his shoulders down. He wants the glory of his outraged counterparts' suffering, but weariness is far crueler than his enmity, and Kylo Ren again falls short of his own mark: drops to one knee, then the other, wheezing through bared teeth like a beaten dog.

When he speaks (Hux's throat left more than free enough to adequately respond this time) it's raw and coarse, set iron over bloodied pulp.] You...you will send someone for it.

[Snoke clearly wanted him alive after proving his loyalty; he's owed his dues, he's dragging the counterweight attached to their shared survival, and before he takes a single step-- crawled or otherwise-- towards salvation on the horizon, he has to know it'll be done.]

[hux]

[Sending someone to retrieve Ren's goal would be sending someone to their death. Hux knows that much would be true as he drags cold air back into his lungs harshly as if expecting another round. He would be calling someone who was possibly making their way through the evacuation process and sending them back into the storm, unquestioning and loyal until the end.

Hux takes another moment just to be able to start breathing properly again. The ground under his feet is already starting to transition from a dull rumble felt through his boots to jagged, jerky shakes. The pair of them were running out of time, and probably would have if Hux had so much as a conscience about sending someone back. The communicator on his belt is unclipped and held to his mouth and the words he speaks are loud enough for Ren to hear.]

Send some men back to the base to retrieve Kylo Ren's belongings. They will be brought to the western front, location x-42.

[Hux is vague on the number but he knows it'll make no difference in the end. One troop, five troops, they would still all go down with the base. He did not intend to. Had Snoke not given orders he perhaps would have stayed at the helm of the sinking ship like any good captain, resigned to fate like other Generals before him. But no, Hux has orders and those are priority. So is burying his pride long enough to get the pair of them off-planet as he holds a hand out. A simple gesture but one loaded with meaning; a temporary truce at the most.]

Come on, Ren. Or are you going to let your mission end here?

[narcissithstic]

Do not patronize me, Hux. [Spat out to leave ruddy flecks just across the corner of his lip, as informal as he cares to be.

The ground seizes up again, a low, groaning rumble; he thinks, briefly, to personally request the identification numbers of the soldiers that fulfill his request, ignoring the logical unlikeliness of their own survival the way he'd ignored the permanence of his own actions, or the futility in delaying their departure. Effective, he is, but stubborn-- stubborn seems a better adjective to describe him at times.

So he doesn't take that outstretched hand. Instead he clasps the general's wrist with his own tacky fingertips (blood and silt and sap from shattered trees staining what would otherwise be pristine leather) pulling hard with what little strength there is left to give, and leaning more heavily than he'd like on Hux's weight, rather than his own, damaged legs. Every step is a vivid reminder of the mistakes he'd made, like rolling a vid backwards in reverse: his face should have been guarded, if he'd snapped up his wrist she would never have branded his arm, his leg-- the blaster wound-- his father--

He'd done it. He'd succeeded in Snoke's given task. Would it really matter that it came at the cost of so much else?]

[hux]

[Despite the fact that the ground was just about giving way under his feet, Hux still can't cage the exasperated noise as Ren grabs his wrist instead of taking the hand. Typical Kylo Ren; he always had to do things his own way, even when it came to being rescued it seemed. Not that it made too much difference in the end. Ren was on his feet and leaning on him like a boulder and it was now up to Hux to start them back on the path to the shuttle. The other man was heavier than he looked. Hux knew that appearances could be deceiving and all - Ren looked taller when they were almost the same height - but this was just borderline ridiculous.

With each step the ground trembles, pauses and then dips slightly. It's a warning that the infrastructure is collapsing at a faster rate that even Hux would like. The whole thing was taking much longer than he liked, but then the tracking in Kylo's belt had been off as if someone or something had hit it a good few times. Right now they were both running on fumes and sheer luck. There's dirt on his gloves and a part of Hux is aware of it as he keeps pulling Ren towards the shuttle that is now making it's way towards them. He sees it almost with his mind's eye, like some outer body experience ignoring the chaos and the wind around them to click it's tongue at the state of his clothes. Tsk tsk, what would people say?.]

I'm not patronizing you. [The general pauses as the ground gives a single, violent jolt before settling again. The shuttle ramp is only yards away now, idling on standby for a quick exit.] I am telling you how it is for once. You die here you will be an even bigger failure to add to a list of mistakes.

[narcissithstic]

[The guttural growl that slips past set teeth is little more than condensed rage, brought on by Hux's chiding accusations (how dare he--) and in that instant Kylo Ren finds his own feet through the pain: leaning less on Hux's arm to drag him instead, though it doesn't last for more than a good handful of steps. Eventually the ship finds them, its honor guard crossing the distance to ease Hux's burden and escort them both to barely-won freedom. The planet-- or more accurately the shell of it, left intact over the surface of Starkiller's massive facilities-- crumples on itself in an instant; by the time they've cleared the atmosphere enough to leap to lightspeed, there's nothing left but fire.

He's dismissed the medical staff on board, swatting their attempts to help with a feverish intensity, meaning they've taken to fussing over Hux instead. A pair of attendants, seasoned enough to know what's expected of them, though one of them has shaking hands (Ren suspects it's the shock of catastrophic loss, just before his attention drops to some absent middle point, still bristling with anger beneath the ugly, glaring brand that marks his brow).

Snoke will want to speak to them both.]

[hux]

[Hux is not a man of worries or anxieties, always confident in the knowledge that whatever he does is normally always right. Except now he's not feeling quite so cocksure when Ren practically drags him towards the shuttle ramp. Everything around them is now blatantly collapsing and Hux can barely tell if the roaring in his ears is the wind or the sound of the ground and trees finally giving way. It's too close and enough to have the general breaking out into a cold sweat when they finally get on board the shuttle.

Too close.

Even as the shuttle starts on it's trek for the outer rim, Hux can't help but stare at the large sun that now stood where the base once was, disturbed by the idea that had they been a minute later they'd be dead. The general rarely put feet on the ground and now he was almost regretting doing as much. Direct orders.... The medical staff descend upon him after being deflected by Ren and Hux simply ignores them as they quietly fuss. Unlike the other, Hux simply retreats momentarily into his own thoughts, already trying to think up what excuses they can give Snoke that won't result in one or both of them being flattened.

Ren would get it the worst. The force user may think he was untouchable due to his status, but Hux suspects that between the pair of them, Ren is now the expendable one. With the surface of another force user, one stronger without training than the knight, Snoke would be an idiot not to use that. Somehow that thought irks Hux more than the base being destroyed. Were they all so easily cast aside in the name of some mumbo jumbo force bullshit? He hopes he's wrong, but the sinking feeling in his stomach persists.

The medics are finished before Hux even realizes and he eventually tears his gaze away from the sun to glare daggers at Kylo Ren.]

You are ridiculous.

[narcissithstic]

[He hears it. Those anxious, needling fears, burrowing in against the backdrop of a scorched planet. Normally the sight of Hux so unnerved would be a balm, but something about it all runs parallel-- he keeps hearing the echo of Han Solo's words, promising that Snoke would only crush him once he had what he needed-- and there's a bitter, fearful panic in his veins that he might have somehow expedited that truth.

But it doesn't show.

He keeps his stare even, keeps his eyes pressed stubbornly forward against the pain, determined to see out the only path he's ever truly been free to walk-- until Hux speaks up, that is, and his focus snaps across the ship's hull, as hot and livid as the burn-marks he's been branded with:] If you've something to say, General, say it.

[hux]

[Any other day and Hux may have backed down from that burning anger directed his way. But then any other day the general wouldn't have been anywhere near as frazzled, his hair wouldn't be messed and out of place and he certainly wouldn't have been missing a glove. The snow on his boots had melted but they hadn't dried off before the first round of fighting on the shuttle started.]

I just fucking said it. [Hux keeps his tone of voice low and livid, his particular choice of phrasing causing one of the medical assistants to gasp and drop a tray. Both medics quickly excuse themselves and leave, knowing full well it was the safest course of action right now.]

You. Are. Ridiculous. Look at you. Snoke's apprentice and you couldn't stop them from setting explosives on the base. Fifty seconds was all we needed and you couldn't even manage that. [The general is just about hissing, shoulders hunched as he clenches his fists tightly at his side. He knows just how much of the fault is equally his share and yet he can't help but vent it towards the only other person in the vicinity right now.]

[narcissithstic]

[It's as if Starkiller's collapse is still happening lightyears away across the distance: snapped tempers and brittle appearances, shrinking, collapsing down until there's nothing left but bottled heat with too much pressure, until it breaks in a volatile, hateful burst of its own concentrated existence. Ren should be resting his wounds, making sure the uncauterized shot burrowed deep into his side doesn't continue to bleed or preparing himself for his inevitable reunion with the Supreme Leader, but all he hears in Hux's accusation is the pale memory of Han Solo's voice as he begged his would-be son to come home.

The ghost of his grip on his cheek where charred flesh now sits.

And all at once something in him breaks, like the bones of his ribs or the vertebrae of his spine and he feels like his lungs are full of nothing but white-hot rage, flooded and choking, and he's up on his feet again, grim and grotesque for all his scorch marks, his bloodstains. Bolts rattle, metal twists. Medical carts overturn sending instruments clattering across the floor and into nearby walls, closer and closer as Kylo Ren-- apprentice to Supreme Leader Snoke, master of the Knights of Ren-- stalks towards Hux, brimming with hatred. At himself, at his compatriot, at the universe itself and every living thing in it.

He doesn't need the mask this time.] Do you know what I was doing for those fifty seconds, General?

[hux]

[ The second Ren makes a move is the instant that Hux knows he's made a mistake. Giving Ren shit for his actions was always going to be a thing that happened, something that would need to be pointed out to clear the air so to speak. In the general's mind Ren was one of the soldiers and needed to understand they had messed up. Right now Hux can feel his stomach dropping to his feet as Ren advances on him, taking a single step back in his horror before squaring his shoulders.

This was going to hurt. A lot. Yet Hux isn't going to apologize, he won't apologize. Ren needed to understand and this was the only way. The timing was off but all Hux can do is try to stand his ground and walk away from it in one piece afterwards.

Easier said that done when Ren is that close, glaring hard enough that Hux briefly wonders if the other isn't trying to break every bone in his body at once with the Force.]

Tell me what you were doing for those fifty seconds, Kylo Ren. [His voice, amazingly enough, is firm. It doesn't betray him and Hux simply waits to see what the answer is, deciding that taking this step by step will be what lets him survive in one piece.]

[narcissithstic]

[The Force is a wonder, Skywalker used to say. He still carries the memory of it, useless, but no less relevant in terms of how he'd forged his own existence from the creature that was Ben Solo. Years later-- many, many years later-- he understands the truth in it: the Force is a wonder...a terrible, harrowing nightmare from which great misery can be spread with little more than a single, merciless thought. Hux, for all his failings, clearly recognizes the truth of it when he steps back, steeling himself like a cornered animal, but by then it's too late. Ren is too close, gloved fingers outstretched, willing him to be still and complacent, regardless of his own fears.

He sets his hand to the General's temple. Gentle enough that it could almost be kind.] Let me show you.

[It's a painful process, delving deep into someone else's mind and peeling away their thoughts. Discomforting beyond acute transparency or the ache of a struck, exposed nerve, how entirely helpless they become when the Force is so focused, channeled into them like a conduit. Unlike his cruelty with the bold resistance pilot, however, Ren doesn't rip memories loose from their moorings - no, he implants them this time. Bears into Hux the way it felt to be so tormented, the taste of blood on his lips when the blaster fire bore deep into his own flesh, Han Solo slipping away, the base rattling as Chewbacca snapped his hand over the detonator--

Hatred and misery swelling, and the weight of every living, breathing thing as it funnels down into his every waking moment. FN-2187 collapsed pitifully in the snow; the girl refusing Snoke's offer-- his offer-- before she tore into the vulnerable skin of his face.]