He knew her kind. He knew her kind inside and out, personally, intimately. He knew her kind well enough to pinpoint them at the first lull in conversation, the first words past a formal greeting. Sometimes, he could tell from the way they held themselves.
She was no exception, not in the sense of the signs. From the moment she limped onto the Finalizer with Kylo Ren, jaw set, eyes dark and screaming murder, with scars littering her face and at least one hand always on a weapon, he knew that she had been twisted, broken, and healed crooked long, long ago. The consequences of a savage curiosity. Experiments rarely survive, and the ones that do rarely have the strength to rampage through the entire laboratory and slaughter every living inside, scientist, victim, or neither.
"General Hux," he introduced himself.
Her eyes flickered over his pale features and flaming hair, everything stark against his black overcoat and uniform. She gave him a nod and Ren answered for her, "General, meet my new apprentice, Zero."
The unmitigated carnage from the laboratory had caught Snoke's attention. After a brief mission of investigation led by Kylo Ren and an even briefer report to the Sith Lord, the Knight of Ren sought to bring her aboard for proper training. This experiment was special indeed—Patient 00-03 had an inclination to the Force.
"I trust you will find the First Order much more fitting to your ambitions," Hux greeted. He held out his hand. After a few moments of tense silence, she took his hand and crushed it. Barely withholding a wince, he inclined his head and stepped back, trying to ignore the twinge below his belt.
Raw power flowed off of her, entirely different to Ren's. Kylo Ren felt as if no matter how you moved against him, he would always be one step ahead of you, always able to stop you with some clever trick. She felt like she could crack a man's skull with a single blow. Twisted, powerful. Save for her limp.
She caught him looking. "Try anything," she hissed, leaving the threat open.
He swallowed. "I would never consider harming one of our own," he informed her, the words both the truth and a terrified tumble of panic. Too late he realized the implications in his words. Should he say something to show that he didn't mean she had turned on her own?
She narrowed her eyes at him. Ren stepped in, saving the General's skin for another day. "We should go. I wish to assess you before I report again to Supreme Leader Snoke." The pair moved deeper into the ship. Hux let out a shuddering breath and returned to his duties aboard the Star Destroyer. He thought resuming his routine would help.
When she refused to leave his head, he dug for her file amidst the ruins of the Hoth database.
He thinks about the file, a nimiety of imagined images, even when he moves slick and hard inside her, matching his breath with hers and forcing himself to keep eye contact with those burning black eyes. Her fingers clutch at his arms, those same fingers that went through blood test after blood test. In the dim light of his quarters the scar on her face, from jaw to eyebrow, shines a ghostly white. With a grunt he falls to his elbows. He reaches to her face, thumb stroking the scar from her brow, down along her nose, and then parting ways with the ghost line to touch her lips. She bites his thumb.
He lets out a moan. "Fuck," he shudders. His skin oozes a spot of blood, but she sucks it away, tongue curling around the digit. "Z-zero," he pants, eyes dark.
She lifts her head and smashes their lips together. He shoves his tongue into her mouth, tasting his own blood. One hand fists in her hair and the other continues supporting his weight over her. A whimper rewards him when he pulls her short hair.
He always wonders what pure pain sounds like from her. Did the scientists enjoy causing the patients pain? A silly question—if they thought about their 'patients' as anything more than organisms and experiments, they would not have made very good scientists in their field. No, when it came to disease development in an enhanced organism, the hardest part was finding willing and healthy participants.
She growls and digs her fingers into his pale flesh. With a grunt she flips them, the hiccup in pace making Hux gasp. Then she's sliding on top of him. He licks his lips, watching her breasts move, loving how she bites her lip and keeps her lusting gaze on his face, determined to give him everything. He slips his hands to her waist, gripping hard.
Maybe he was wrong about that last part.
She shoves his hands back down to the bed, holding them there and slowing her pace. Hux presses his head into the pillow, sucking in a deep breath. "Zero, I'm so close," he groans.
"Not until I am," she bites back.
He smirks, cheeks bright red and sweat beading on his forehead. "Start fucking touching yourself," he snaps back. Before she can move his hands grab hers. "Or let me?" A simple shake of her head and he releases her hands, balling his fists into the sheets of his bed. A few earlier trysts taught him that she expected him to be obedient whether his hands were bound or not. As a reward for his obedience, her fingers graze herself. A curse forms on his lips only to morph into a sharp exhale—she's so hot, tight, perfectly wrapped around him.
Twisted, broken, crookedly healed. He knows it well. He recognizes it in himself during the darkest parts of the night, when it used to only be his heart thumping in the darkness. Alone against the night. He had to become everything. He had to become larger than death itself if he truly wanted to rule the galaxy. He wants that.
And he wants to touch her, ground himself into to her, tie himself to her. But she's so close. She's beginning that quivering, the quivering that milks his self-restraint for all that it's worth: Damn near nothing, he always realizes. "Fuck!" he grits.
"Hux," she moans, and then she's coming on top of him, back arching and eyes rolling back, screwing shut. Of their own accord, his hands snap up and he grips her, slamming her back down on him as he thrusts upwards. His eyelids clamp down and then he's coming hot inside of her. She rocks on his throbbing cock a little while longer before coming to a standstill. He sits up, still inside of her, and kisses her. Soft lips on soft lips, his fingers gliding over the bumps and pockmarks across her skin.
"You're amazing," he whispers.
She slides off him, earning a sharp intake of breath from him, and lowers herself beside him. "Love you," she replies before kissing him again. Her calloused hands rub up and down his spine, and sleep presses at his eyes even as he gazes at her. She'll leave him, he knows. Whether from the just-tangible fear leaking from her soul or from the shame that she's using Hux to figure out her own self, she'll walk out that door while he's fast asleep. And then she'll give him the cold shoulder tomorrow.
"Good morning, Zero," he greeted, drawing up to stand beside her, shoulders brushing. Memories flash across his mind, her mouth sucking and licking his cock, his fingers curling deep inside her as he pressed his tongue to her clit, her humming a soft tune as he fell asleep. Waking up at midnight to find half the bed freezing.
"General," she replied. She moved away, just enough to put an arm's length of distance between them. Hux blinked and stared after her, confusion touching his sharp, pale features. "Have you the details on the mounted canons?"
He swallowed and pulled out his datapad. "Yes. Here," he answered, handing her the screen. She glanced it over, nodded, and handed it back. Hux glanced around and then dropped his voice, daring to close the gap. He touched her leg with finger. "Is everything alright?"
"Thank you, General. I'll begin work straightaway."
And then she exited the bridge. He stared after her, hand still outstretched, stomach clenching. Then he shook his head and whipped around. "Back to work!" he shouted at all of the staring personnel. "If the energy source doesn't have a viable hypothesis by the end of the day there will be a movement among ranks," he threatened. Everyone's head whipped back to their screens, and the subtle, normal murmuring and arguing fill the space once again.
"Love you, too," he finally manages for the first time, throat tight. A slight pause. Then she continues rubbing his back, and he loves that stupid grin she has on her face. A grin that only Hux can pull from her. With a sigh he leans his forehead to hers. "When must you get up?"
"Whenever Ren decides it's time for him to torture me," she answers.
Hux groans. "So you'll be leaving in a few hours, like you always do?" He opens his eyes to bore into hers.
She can't maintain eye contact. "Yeah, probably."
He confronted her about it once.
"Zero," he called. She and Ren turned, the pair damn near inseparable. How Ren could have an apprentice when he hadn't even finished his own training, Hux didn't know. "Might I have a word in private?" he requested.
She glanced to Ren. "Meet me in the training room when you are done," he ordered.
"Yes, Master." He exited and Zero turned on her heels to approach the general. Hux beckoned her into a quieter section of the hall. People that passed hurried their pace upon seeing General Hux and Zero, terrified that they'd either receive a punishment for staring or find out that Kylo's apprentice had inherited his nasty temper.
His throat bobbed. Then he asked, "Why do you always leave?"
Shame lit her face and she looked at the floor. "I must."
Anger hardened his tone. "No, you need not. Why do you feel that way?"
She frowned. "Because…" She shrugged.
He let out a sigh. "Zero, you know I've been open with you. I've never…" He cleared his throat and shook his head. "I don't need to tell you that you're special to me. If I am doing something wrong, please inform me so that I may change it." Heat grazed his cheeks, ears, and throat. Damn his pale skin.
She let out a sigh, a pained expression written on her face. "It isn't anything you're doing wrong," she confessed. "It's… I don't know how to…" She gestured between them. "I was always an experiment. This… I feel human, and I don't know what that makes me. After you fall asleep I just feel like I'm using you for my own gain. You're… a crutch."
Hux's breathing picked up, and he grabbed her hand to press to his chest. "Let me help you," he urged, closing the distance between their bodies. "I have no idea what we're doing, either. But I want to figure it out together."
The passionate kiss that followed practically set all the personnel on Starkiller Base on fire with their frantic running to spread sultry rumors and wild gossip. And it, of course, set Hux and Zero up for endless teasing on the part of Kylo Ren.
His hand finds hers and their fingers intertwine. "Stay with me?" he begs. She shifts away from him. For a second he bites his lips, convinced this is too much, too soon for her. Are Sith supposed to even fool around with night jaunts such as these? Maybe not meaningful ones, he thinks. He swallows and prepares himself for her to leave, just like she's done every other time. Somehow, he knows Kylo hasn't called impromptu sparring sessions every time. Every damn time.
Instead she flips so she's facing away and presses her back to his chest. A wide and rare smile graces the General's face. He hides it in her hair. His arm slips around her waist, pulling her flush against him, and then he rubs her upper thigh. "Are you alright?" he asks, eyes soft. Too often he imagines the burning coming from her muscles in that leg, manipulated into a weak, overstrung, half-together mass. It sucks at her soul. He remembers the medical officer disclosing that Zero takes heavy duty, addicting, knock-out, date-rape pills once every two weeks to ensure a sleep long enough to literally save her sanity.
"Who authorized them?" he demanded.
"Kylo Ren, sir," the officer replied evenly.
"Does he know the long-term affect of these?" he growled.
"I know them, sir. I suggested them, not Kylo Ren. The sleeping benefits outweigh the detriments. Plus, Zero refuses to take them until necessary—she does not enjoy needing them." That silenced Hux. "Put some faith in her and Ren, sir."
"I'm fine," she assures him, her hand covering his.
He draws circles on her bare skin with his thumbs. "Just want to be sure," he says. "Has Ren suggested anything you can do?"
She scoffs. "He suggested cutting it off."
He snorted. "He'd cut off all of his own limbs if it meant he could be Vader."
She bursts out laughing. He smirks and nuzzles her neck. A kiss to the back of her head has her turning to press their lips together again. Cupping her face, he moans lightly into the kiss. He feels her smile. "Sleep now," he urges between pecks. "Relax."
Soon, her breathing falls flat, and her hand loosens its hold on his. He props himself up on his elbow and gazes at her, the long scar glowering at him from the dark. How did it happen? Somehow he landed himself with someone as crooked and fucked up as him, someone who understood ambition when it strung out humans past humanity. Despite their difference in the day, the stark differences that no one can see past, she makes him feel as if he's worth more than the First Order.
His eyes fall on her pockmarks. She's scarred, he's unmarked. He was born and bred for his position, she murdered her way into hers completely by accident. One of them has a plan for everything, a plan to rule the entire galaxy, and the other only cares about ensuring their own health for the next day. Hux had only his own wits to rely upon, now. Zero had Ren to lead her through the messiest time in the galaxy. Perhaps the most important difference: he kills for purpose. She kills because she can't stop.
She's a fucking monster, and he loves her. He can't imagine the future without her somewhere in there, even if it's just her as a Knight of Ren, a constant ally to the First Order. One thing he's never shown anyone else, and no one knows he has it, is the security footage to the carnage in the Hoth laboratory. He watched her beat men to death, tear out their eyes with her fingers, bite their throats with her sharpened teeth, and stab glass shards into the artery in their leg. He saw the wild thrill in her eyes. He saw the moment Kylo Ren had to stab her shoulder with his volatile saber when the Force failed to stop her from leaping on him. She almost made Kylo Ren bleed.
If Hoth had never claimed her, what would she be like? Would the Force have been as strong a calling? He did not pretend to understand the Force, but he did recognize that her pain played a large part in utilizing the Dark Side. For a good chunk of her life, she was nothing but the essence of the Dark: pain, fear, hate.
Perhaps she would be a Jedi. Perhaps they would be enemies.
She shifts in her sleep, opening an eye to see him watching her. "Fuckin' creep," she mumbles before drawing the sheets tighter over her shoulders. He chuckles and kisses her cheek.
"Love you, too."
The smile is a tiny reward compared to waking up at ten hundred hours with her still next to him. She's awake but still here. He reaches out and touches her shoulder, catching her attention. When she tilts her head towards him he captures her lips, one hand finding her cheek and the other wrapping around her shoulders and dragging her closer. "Morning," he finally greets once they break apart.
She grins. "Morning."
"You stayed." She shrugs. "Did you sleep well?"
She sighs and sits up. "I need to go to medbay," she tells him.
He pulls her back. "Just a little longer? You can't take them until tonight, anyways," he whispers against her neck.
She shivers from his ghosting breath. "You know?"
"I don't think you understand how much you dominate me and my thoughts," he answers. "Will you stay here again tonight? Ren and I will clear your duties until late in the day. Plus, you'll be safer in here with someone to check on you."
"Speaking of duties, don't you have somewhere to be?"
"I'm the fucking General. They'll wait for me." Stop sidestepping my every sentence, he growls to himself.
She chuckles and turns to face him, setting her head on his chest. He wraps his arms around her shoulders. "When should I come in tonight?" she asks. No doubt she can hear how his heart picks up.
"Perhaps I'll find you later today and let you know? I'd prefer to have supper waiting for you before we go to bed." Would she allow this? Would she acknowledge him in public today without some heartfelt conversation to generate passion?
She nods and smiles once more. "Sounds like a plan."