Champion
A/N: **Originally posted on July 1st, 2017 on AO3** Another work cross-posted from Archive of Our Own! I swear this was meant to be serious at first, and then it devolved into a crack fic somewhere along the way. *sigh* Inspired by the song by Fall Out Boy… for some reason… Really by the chorus. Because Mitaka has his moments and was an underappreciated minor character.
It had been a very, very, extremely long week aboard the Finalizer. Lieutenant Dopheld Mitaka was at the end of his rope. Really, it had been a long week for everyone. Phasma and the stormtroopers, paired with Kylo Ren and General Hux, who'd been inseparable the last few missions they'd been on together, were exhausted and short tempered. Mitaka and the general, for the most part, had kept themselves in check amidst the tense atmosphere that threatened to devolve into angry chaos.
"Lieutenant!" Hux called from his usual spot on the bridge, beckoning him over. Mitaka went to his side without hesitation, quickly. He observed the dark circles under the general's eyes and how his eyes weren't as bright as they usually were. They were not reassuring.
"Sir?"
"I…" He lowered his voice so as not to be overheard by the rest of the bridge crew. "I want to tell you how much I appreciate your calm presence here." That startled the Lieutenant, had him stammering nonsense until he heard Hux chuckle softly. "Your levelheadedness is probably one of the only things keeping me sane right now." A genuine smile appeared on his face. Mitaka returned it with a nervous one.
"It's nothing, sir, really." He couldn't look the man in the eyes, as if the praise might disappear upon eye contact with his superior.
"But it isn't. All the other officers are snappish and irritable. Even Phasma, with her usual devil may care attitude, is more on edge and cold than usual. Kylo… Well, we all know how Kylo gets in times like these." Mitaka dared to laugh weakly, relieved when the general joined in quietly.
"It's my job, sir. I know I'm not the most…" he trailed off, normal demeanor returning. He looked down and away. "I'm not your average, that is to say, I'm… not the officer I should be, but…" He stopped when he felt a hand land on his shoulder, head whipping up to look at it and then the general.
"You are a much more important member of this crew than you give yourself credit for, Dopheld." The warmth in his voice was replaced by his usual strict, cold tone as he retracted his hand. "Dismissed." Mitaka, with a nod, went back to his station, overseeing his fellow bridge crew members' progress on their tasks. After a time, he was flicking through messages on his datapad pertaining to the various meetings and mission briefings he was to attend, as well as messages from various officers voicing their complaints about the various troubles that the week had had no shortage of. He blew out a frustrated breath, rolling his eyes. First, there were the numerous scuffles between stormtroopers that only led to occupied rooms in the medbay and a furious Phasma, who was being downright ruthless with the current conditioning and training. Then, there were the many malfunctions on board, including: several power outages, malfunctioning consoles, downed communications, and a lockdown of several decks and, eventually, the entire ship that lasted three cycles too many. The general had all but murdered half the crew with glares and short, clipped orders to, in his most recent words, "For phassk's sake, fix my kriffing ship or so help me, I will personally riddle each of you with blaster shots and throw you all out of an airlock!" And that was him when he was annoyed. Then there was the matter of Kylo Ren. Since he and the general had gotten together, there weren't any more reports of destroyed consoles or rooms, and there were less crew members walking around being terrified (as terrified as normal anyway). Well, they'd be needing a new rec center on one of the middle decks, but it was going to be replaced soon anyway.
He startled when the lights flickered off and the ship shook briefly. Over the intercom, it was announced that there was an outage and electrical malfunction on the upper decks and a lockdown on the lower decks. The crew all erupted in a panic, filling the bridge with noise of worried, outraged voices. Hux audibly groaned, gloved hands resting as tightly clenched fists at his side. The doors to the bridge slid shut with a click in the darkened room. Mitaka could make out the general with both hands out in front of him, facing the doors. Glaring, he slowly pushed his hands apart, as if pulling open a pair of curtains. The Lieutenant watched in awe as the doors were wrenched open, Hux letting out a harsh breath from effort as he marched through them into the rest of the ship. The rest of the crew was too preoccupied to notice the general's absence, and Mitaka put a hand over his face in exasperation. He plucked his comm link from his pocket and contacted Phasma.
With a sigh, he told her, "The general is on his way down… again." Though she was just as agitated as everyone else, her voice held amusement as she responded.
"He's probably going to go check on Lord Ren before throttling our technicians. How many times has this happened today?"
"Too many," he replied tiredly. "He has the most patience out of everyone here, but you have to wonder when he'll reach his breaking point."
"Please don't jinx it, Mitaka. Take it from me. As a close, personal friend of his, I've seen on a number of occasions what he's like when he just loses it. If you think Lord Ren is a terror to be around when he's angry, do not stick around when Armi blows a fuse. It'll haunt you." Mitaka gulped, hands twitching nervously. He would take her word on that.
"Duly noted." He turned back to the bridge crew, who were still bickering about the outage. It took him a while, but he finally managed to calm them down enough to be able once again halfway hear himself think.
XxX
It was the next day when all Hell broke loose. Mitaka had snapped at several officers when they approached him, whether it be to ask about a task or complain some more. Everyone noticed, giving him questioning glances when they thought he wasn't looking. Hux looked on in concern, though his tenser than normal body language told him he was just as fed up with everything going on. Mitaka and Phasma were going over a report Hux had completed the previous night on weapon and supply shipments when Kylo Ren, with a bruise on his jaw, came stomping onto the bridge, headed straight for Hux, hood and cowl not hiding the pure look of rage etched in his features. It was so palpable that everyone sucked in a huge breath at his presence, before he was even in the area. Hux's back had straightened and he'd become as stiff as a board a few seconds before that, turning towards the bridge doors with a frown. Kylo looked like a bull about to charge, breathing heavily and form even larger and more intimidating than usual. His lightsaber was tightly clutched in his hand, deactivated. He met Hux's calm icy blue-green eyes with a glower. Mitaka was torn between backing himself into the farthest corner of the room or staying put and hoping the situation didn't get worse. Somehow, the latter part of his brain won that argument, and he stayed standing just feet away from the pair.
"Kylo," Hux addressed the knight carefully. "I'm sure whatever you're here to complain about is something myself or the crew have already had enough of as well." Mitaka marveled at the man's ability to stay calm when he was staring down that. Hux looked like he was talking in a normal conversation.
"All week, Hux! All week! First, it was a huge brawl between stormtroopers in the mess hall that left more people covered in bruises than all of the food thrown. Then, there's your crew incapability to properly wire anything! We've all either been walking around in total darkness or been locked into rooms that I've had to carve my way out of with my saber! We've been dead in space far too many times to be comfortable and I can't even make a simple comm call when the communications go out every. Five. Minutes! And, apparently, we can't go on a simple reconnaissance mission without getting into a firefight because your men would rather shoot first and ask questions later! Even I know better than to blindly strike out at the first sign of danger! And then THIS!" he roared pointing to the yellowish purple bruise on his jaw. "In their carelessness and anger during some disagreement with a lower officer, one of your stormtroopers. PUNCHED. ME." Hux dug his nails into the palms of his hands at that. If Kylo hadn't already dealt with them, he would after this. "I am tired of all of this-!" Mitaka flinched as Kylo's voice rose with every sentence, face now red from shouting.
"And what do you suppose I do?" Hux growled, interrupting him and trying to keep his volume down, but struggling to do so. He was not in the mood to deal with one of Kylo's verbal tantrums right now. "Do you think you're the only one experiencing these things? We've all had to live through these issues all week. You losing your temper isn't going to solve anything." He grit his teeth and willed himself not to lose his head.
"Then tell those bumbling oafs you call a crew to-!"
"You think I haven't already?!" Hux yelled at him, finally snapping. "You think I haven't already threatened to kick them off this ship if they don't stop fooling around? What do you want me to do about it?!" Phasma paled behind her helmet the longer the conversation went on. If they came to blows… It wouldn't be pretty. "You have come to me every day about something or the other, as if I can just snap my fingers and fix things! You have whined and bitched about every. Little. Thing. You say you're tired of all this? You have no idea about the last three sleepless nights I've been up, doing paperwork, tracking people down, trying to find all of the problems going on!"
"What should we do?" Mitaka whispered to her carefully. "We can't just let them keep going like this."
"Stay back and hope they work something out, unless you want to get sent to the medbay in a bodybag." She wouldn't dare try to break something like this up. She knew those two. Nothing good would come of someone interfering. Mitaka refused to believe her words. Sitting back would most definitely not be the best option here! Someone had to do something, anything! He refocused on the conversation/shouting match between his two commanders.
"… stop just standing there or sitting on your ass in your quarters and do something useful for once!" he heard Kylo shout. Hux was fuming, face slowly turning a shade to match his hair. He narrowed his eyes.
"I have done more for this ship, my crew, the First Order, than you ever have! You want to talk to me about doing something useful for once?! Maybe, if you stopped acting like a good for nothing child who thinks he can do whatever he wants without repercussions-" Too angry to finish the thought, he brandished his lightsaber, igniting the white blade and pointing it at Kylo threateningly.
"I will make you eat those words, Hux," he snarled, igniting his crossguard and taking a swing at the ginger. Everyone watched in horror and fascination as the general matched the knight blow for blow, air buzzing with energy. Kylo swung hard and fast, whirling strikes from several directions aimed with the intent of breaking Hux's defense. Hux parried and deflected the blows, dishing out more precise and measured strikes as Kylo blocked everything thrown at him. The two were light and quick on their feet, sabers no more than blurs. Sparks shot across the bridge with each hit.
"This is insanity!" Mitaka exclaimed quietly. Phasma nodded.
"Be lucky they haven't thrown anything or choked anyone." He looked at her strangely.
"Has this happened before?"
"Not that I know of, but it's been a long time coming from the looks of it. They won't try and kill each other, despite what it looks like." Mitaka tore his gaze away and looked back at the fight unfolding before him. The two leading figures aboard the ship were reduced to this when they should be trying to- Mitaka growled in frustration. Honestly, was there anyone remotely mature here? Phasma gave him a look, shocked to find him glaring at the scene before them. "What-?" she began before he snatched the blaster off of her belt. "Lieutenant!"
"I. Have had. Enough!" He had been running around all week, arguing with the crew, helping to file reports, sitting through pointless meetings, trying to defuse every situation that came up, having to bear witness to everything that went wrong, including the fights. He couldn't take another second of this. Making sure the blaster was set to stun, he fired two shots in the air, effectively silencing the crew, but not drawing the attention of Kylo and Hux, who were caught in a deadlock. He fired two more shots, directed towards them, and watched in satisfaction as they froze in midair, caught by Kylo. Hux went wide eyed, drawing back and deactivating his saber. He looked to Mitaka, surprised by how… unhinged he seemed. The knight turned his enraged gaze on him, blinking, stupefied to find Mitaka glaring right back. Mitaka thrust the blaster into Phasma's hands as he walked forward confidently.
"You-" Kylo began with a growl before he was interrupted.
"Save your threats. I'm sure you have enough hate and anger for all of us," the Lieutenant spat. The ravenette looked taken aback, but the glare returned when he found Mitaka, a full half foot perhaps, shorter than him, in his face. "I think the general's right when he says that your temper tantrums will only make things worse. If anything, perhaps you could try and intimidate the crew members responsible for all this chaos instead of shrieking your head off here. I'm sure your Force powers would be put to better use then." He'd been on the receiving end of them once before. He swore he felt a ghost of that touch around his neck at that very moment, but he ignored it while his courage was still holding out. He really hoped he wouldn't find himself impaled in the next few seconds. The crackling heat of the saber at his side, still being clutched tightly by Kylo, didn't help his morale on that though. He continued. "Perhaps the general is right in saying you're acting more like a child than a commander. All I know is that I have technicians to to speak with about our problems this week and stormtroopers to send to reconditioning, so if you'll excuse me, Lord Ren." They all watched him shoulder check the black clad warrior as he walked through the doors and off the bridge. Kylo felt dumbfounded, saber deactivating and being clipped back to his belt as he turned and looked at Mitaka's retreating form.
"What… just happened?" he asked. Phasma came from behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder, hoping the gesture would be calming. Hux sighed, coming over to wrap an arm around Kylo's waist, whispering an apology into his ear that was returned and accepted with a kiss. The three left the bridge, fully intent on ignoring the galaxy for a few hours, sharing a smile as the bridge crew shouted in alarm at the two blaster bolts hitting the wall. Mitaka kept walking. He typed out a message on his datapad to the medbay staff about the 'troopers still there before angrily telling every technician on a lower mid-deck that they were about five minutes away from a painful death as both Kylo Ren and the general were headed their way. He watched in satisfaction as they scrambled around, observing their progress on restoring the Finalizer to its normal, perfect condition. When he was certain there would be no more problems, he let his feet carry him back to his quarters, taking a route that held no other crew members to get there. He promptly collapsed on his bed just as his door slid shut, unconscious as soon as he closed his eyes. Upon waking the next day, with the beginnings of a headache, he let his actions from yesterday sink in and register. He groaned in horror when he really let it sink in. Kylo Ren would have his head for sure for that. For some reason though, he just couldn't bring himself to completely worry about it, and that's what scared him the most.
Closing A/N: Um… I feel like that ended weirdly. But… Well, there's that. You try to write something serious, and you get something like this. What even is my writing?