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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[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.]