Notes:I received this anonymous prompt on a href=" post/139645168287/you-asked-for-prompts-how-about-ren-and-hux"tumblr/a. I'm always accepting prompts and they will be posted both here and on my blog.
It would not stop crying.
No matter where they went, Kylo Ren could hear its wailing. Whether the sounds came from the ruins of the smouldering city or from inside his own head, Ren did not know. It seemed that the further they walked, the louder the screams became.
"Hux?" The General did not slow his pace or acknowledge Ren. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what, Ren?" Hux snapped.
"That… that noise. A child — a baby. It's crying."
"That's what infants do, Ren." Hux continued to walk.
"So you can hear it, then," Ren murmured, more to himself than to Hux; the General was already several long paces in front of him. Ren stopped. "Hux, I'm going this way," Ren called, not caring whether Hux heard him or not.
Deciding to concentrate on the noise rather than try to block it out, Ren traced the source to a heap of rubble, the remains of what he guessed was a crude shelter. From what he could tell, the inhabitants had prepared for an airstrike to the best of their abilities. They knew what we were looking for, Ren thought.
Kneeling down beside the heap, Kylo Ren used the Force to shift the uppermost rocks to reveal a pitiful sight: a shrivelled pink thing, covered in a thick layer of dust, and wrapped in a blanket grey with filth and spattered with bloodstains.
Ren wondered how the child was still breathing, let alone screaming, with all the dust and the stench of death in the air. Carefully, he took the baby in his large gloved hands and instinctively unwrapped the blanket to check for injuries.
He saw a large, open gash across the baby's stomach, deep, but not unrecoverable. There were bruises already beginning to form on its small body. Kylo Ren leaned closer to inspect the wound. Perhaps he could use the Force to —
"Ren, what are you doing?" Ren turned to find the figure of General Hux standing over him.
"Hux. It's healthy. Injured, but salvageable," Ren said, lifting it so that Hux could see. Hux coughed and recoiled from the bundle.
"I don't have time for this. We don't have time for this. Come on, Ren. We have to keep going."
"But Hux, I —"
"What do you propose to do with it?"
Ren was silent. I don't know, he thought. But leaving it here… the idea unsettled him, and he didn't know why. Perhaps it was because the screams of the infant blurred into those of the students he had slaughtered at the temple, or the wails of the families in their hundreds that he had cut down over the years. Or maybe it was the shrieking that interrupted his rest at night.
Ren shook his head in an attempt to clear it. The pull to the light. It makes you weak, he told himself.
"I'm not waiting any longer, Ren. Get a move on. I don't care what you do with it, as long as it doesn't interfere with our mission." Hux strode off once again.
Kylo Ren looked at the baby, still shaking with screams. Tenderly, he re-wrapped it in its blanket and replaced it where he found it. His lips twitching slightly, Kylo Ren extended his hand towards the pathetic life form, which ceased its crying almost immediately. Instead, it emitted a faint gurgling noise as the air was squeezed from its tiny lungs.
Ren withdrew his hand, and the infant went limp. He felt calmer now that the screams had stopped, but as he rose to follow General Hux, he wondered whether he had acted mercifully.
End Notes:
This was quite a challenge! I sat for a good few minutes wondering what to do with this prompt and I decided to just put one word after the other and see what happened.
I know that it's an unpopular headcanon, but I can't imagine General Hux and Kylo Ren being any good with children, much less wanting to keep and raise one. Ren's problem is that he feels helpless in this situation: he wants to save it, but doesn't have any idea how to do so and what to do with it after. In the end, it's impractical and he can't keep it, but he can't leave it to suffer and die alone.