Kylo vs. Kylo
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- Infant Kiss by Kate Bush
Kylo Ren smirks beneath his mask as he walks down his ship's ramp. The openly gaping face of Lieutenant Mitaka, the slight shake of her chrome helmet by Captain Phasma, and the wide blue eyes of General Hux are well worth the disastrous failure of his mission.
"Lord Ren…who is this child?" General Hux asks, while his officers stare at the disastrous failure.
"Me." His vocoder reverberates with pride, while the child shrinks at the loud judgements Hux's crew are making.
"Him? As a child!"
"Oh, Maker, time and space are going to collapse!"
"Another Darth Tantrum!"
But only silence comes from Hux's mind.
"This was not part of your mission's objectives." Oh, look at him struggling to save his face before his officers! Master never tells him what my missions are about unless they concern him! And he doesn't even know that I failed the mission! All I got was this child.
The child looks down at his bare feet with tears in his eyes.
"The Stormtroopers I lent you." There's the familiar flicker of self-righteous anger that Hux projects.
"All dead." Phasma tightens her grip on her chrome Sonn-Blas F-11D blaster rifle.
"I see." He can feel the tenseness in the air, the build-up to one of Hux's infamous chew-outs.
But Hux then gets on his knees before the child.
"Hello, I'm Armitage Hux, what's your name?" Hux asks with a smile sucker punching Kylo in the gut.
"I'm….Kylo." The child mumbles, expecting to be made fun of. Hux's eyes change from blue to green.
"Well, Kylo, since you're new here, it would be my honor to give you the grand tour of the Finalizer." The child's brown eyes widen in disbelief. "But only if you want to."
"…I would like that very much." The child detaches himself from Kylo's side and reattaches himself to Hux's.
Kylo watches as the child and Hux leave him behind.
Kylo reports to his Master in the privacy of his quarters. He takes a knee before his Master like his grandfather did for Sidious.
"Apprentince, I see that you have returned without the holocron." There is no wrathful sharpness in his words, but mere curiosity.
"Master, when I touched the holocron, there was a flash of red and then blackness. When I came to, I saw myself as a child standing over me. Naked." His Master hums like Hux was informing him of a minor setback to Starkiller's construction.
"It would appear Dark Lady Lumiya laid a very specific spell on that holocron. Most likely to dissuade anyone from finding the real one. But why a child?"
"Master?"
"She was known for her skill in sowing wars, but a child cannot wage a war." Kylo nearly snorts recalling how the child kept crying until Kylo threw a spare tunic at him. The child then spent the remaining flight to the Finalizer sniffling in his shirt-dress.
"If I recall, Master, her skills in Sith sorcery were limited due to her cybernetics."
"It is quite possible she botched the spell.".
"What will you do with the child?"
"The child is you, but he's far too weak to be any use to me. Perhaps, you can keep him around and use him for spare parts." Kylo feels his heart flutter that his Master won't betray him for the child.
"General Hux has taken a liking to him."
"Then, let the General take care of the child. He was always weak in the knees for children." Kylo hears his Master's face twist, like a snake scrapping its dead skin off on a rock, into a disdainful sneer.
"Understood, my Master."
Kylo watches as Hux's weakness grows:
Hux buys clothes for the child.
Hux eats with the child.
Hux educates the child.
Hux spars with the child.
Hux watches holos with the child.
Hux brings the child to political balls.
Hux redecorates his quarters for the child.
Hux grows his hair out for the child.
Hux laughs with the child.
Hux smiles for the child.
Hux hugs the child.
Hux says "I love you" to the child.
"I love you." Hux tells the child when they reunite. Hux and Kylo had to meet with Supreme Leader Snoke on Supremacy. On the way there and back, Hux only thought of the child.
Was he doing his homework? Was he drawing with his new colored pencils? Was he sewing clothes for his dolls? Was he having a tea party? Was he happy?
Whenever he thought about the child, Hux's eyes would turn green like summer moss. His thin lips would soften into a wistful smile. He would gaze out into the stars of hyperspace. The light of those stars would veil his red hair in white. And when Hux would turn his head, the tips of his red locks would fan across his shoulder blades like the plumage of a starbird.
Kylo should not find Hux beautiful.
He should not want Hux to hold him.
He should not want Hux to rub his back.
He should not want Hux to whisper in his ear—
"Ben."
Hux is on the bridge when Kylo decides to do what needs to be done.
He disables the security feed to Hux's hall.
He enters Hux's access codes.
He silences himself with the Force.
There are no doors inside Hux's quarters. He hates being locked out. There is no blue couch. He hates being uncomfortable. There is no empty space on the walls. His art deserves to be seen!
He hears the child setting down a porcelain teacup in the next room over.
"And so, Queen Amidala that is why you should be Queen for life!"
He sees the child wave an impassioned fist in the air with his back to Kylo. He sees the dolls at the table in their royal regalia: Queen Amidala, Princess Leia, and Duchess Satine. The dolls will be his witnesses.
His unpowered lightsaber shakes. He decides to put it on a table where there is a vase of gingerbells.
He walks into the room where the child is still staring into the dead eyes of his grandmother. He stops right behind the child's chair. He puts his hands around the child's throat.
He squeezes.
The child gasps.
He squeezes.
The child struggles.
He squeezes.
The child cries.
He squeezes—
Kylo wakes up with a burning pain to the left side of his ribs. The blood is peeling from the slash on his right eye. But he can still see.
He sees that Hux's greatcoat is covering him like a blanket.
He sees that his lightsaber is on top of the coat like flowers.
He sees that his Kyber crystal is shattered.
Ben and Hux are gone.
Author's Comments- No links this time.
I believe this is the first time in a one-shot where I haven't rewarded Kylo for lying to Hux or doing something completely horrible to Hux. This one-shot is my attempt at sticking to the New Canon, but also sticking it to it by having Hux be secretly nice. At least to children. Even though he had Gallius Rax's child soldiers beat each other at his command. Yeah, I'm excluding that fact from this one-shot because of course 5-year-old Armitage Hux would be a mini-Ramsay Snow in New Canon. Force, New Canon tries unnecessarily too hard to make the audience hate the FO as much as possible, which renders most of these characters uninteresting in their original packaging.
Back to the one-shot's ending, I was tempted to make this into a series until I realized that I would have to adhere to New Canon. No Hux having loving parents. No Hux having Triclops/Rama being his father, while Brendol is the sire. No Hux being secretly the grandson of Palpatine. No Hux having Uncle Den Siva. No Hux having burns. No Hux having a sword. No Hux having friends. No Hux being the Pardoner. Hux could only be interesting through his interactions with Ben in this universe.
However, I'd like to imagine that Hux and Ben make it to New Alderaan before that bitch from Arkanis spilled the beans on Leia's true parentage. Ben is reunited with his mother, while Hux smiles with tears in his eyes because he figures this is goodbye. He turns to leave, but Ben stops him with one tug on his hand and these words: "I love you."
Hux tells all of the secrets of the FO to Leia and the Republic in exchange for full citizenship and redemption, Hosnian Prime gets to continue existing, Leia remains Senator, and Ben remains Ben.
And Kylo is alone.