That night Rose dreamed of Hays Minor. It all came back so clearly even after all the years. The ground rusted with ice that gleamed with flickers of silver light under the gentle guiding caress of the planet's twin moons. Paige had often pointed the glowing orbs out to her and chuckled fondly that they were sisters forever sharing the bounty of the stars. Rose had loved the folktale of the two sisters hoarding the stars for themselves and had begged to hear how they divided the galaxies between them every night for weeks.
This night however, Rose was on her own as Paige and the rest of the older children had joined their parents in the ore mines. The tribute, or the cruel ultimatum as the elders liked to call it, from the First Order was getting steeper and the village was struggling to meet their demands.
The elders whispered of the horrible things that they feared would be the consequences of failure when they thought she was out of earshot. Children whisked into the night and homes razed to the ground. Alone with the whispers echoing in her Rose bundled herself up in a hand me down coat from Paige and her father's scarf to ventured out into the night to star gaze as she did every night when her fears made their small home seem suffocating. She breathed a small breath of fog into the cool air and looked up at the sister moons and all the stars they shared.
Staring up into the infinite universe made Rose feel small which in turn made all her troubles feel small and insignificant as well. It made them seem conquerable. It made Hays Minor seem escapable. A pained cough startled her away from the universe back to the grim reality of the surface. She whirled and pulled her father's scarf closer over her face as if to ward off whatever waited for her in the shadows. "Who's there?" she called out, her voice just barely above a whisper. In response a shuffle of footsteps pattered haphazardly in the shadows behind the side of the small cabin her family shared. Rose followed the sound. She reached into the pocket of her coat and fingered the small electro-wand her grandfather had left with her as he always did on nights when she watched the home. In case the Stormtroopers came for her. She gulped nervously. Was it a trap? Had they finally come to steal her away?
She pulled out the wand and switched it on. "I'm not afraid of you," She called out into the night her child's voice only slightly betraying her. She was afraid. She wished desperately for Paige. A muffled cry fell from the shadows and with it fell the source out into the light of the cabin window. Rose jumped back and fumbled with the wand with a small cry of her own. Lying unconscious in the ice lay a heap of arms and legs. Rose looked frantically around but no other sounds but the call and echo of the tundra carried over the breeze. She looked down at the jumble of limbs. They belonged to a young boy not yet man. He was pale as a ghost, like an ice spirit from one of Paige's stories and every inch of exposed skin was stained with rich indigo bruising. He looked strikingly young, perhaps a year or two older than Paige. His limbs were lanky and wired with the first promise of manhood. Every inch of him made Rose feel cold except a for the shock of brilliant hair that flickered with what seemed to be its own otherworldly fire in the dim lights of the cabin. Rose sucked in a breath and whimpered into the cold. She wondered bewilderingly if he was dead.
Rose awoke the next morning with the same feeling of dread. The memory evaporated like coolant as the hour of the interview drew nearer but the icy chill of Hays Minor remained, the flakes of memories nagging at her to remember.
...
Rose slapped the pack of cards down on the table. General Hux chewed on the inside of his lip and eyed the stack skeptically. "Let's make a bet." She chirped as she settled herself into the far more comfortable chair she had requested for this second interview. The dream nudged her in the contours of the chair but she ignored them. Old half memories could wait. DJ had worked out the plan with her late into the evening, going through all the ways the game could play out and Rose felt ready. She wasn't a negotiator but she, as DJ had so bluntly put it, was what the General wanted and she was exactly who he was going to get.
"Give him a run for his m-money Rosie," the slicer had grinned, ruffling her hair as they parted ways, "Give h-him hell."
"You ever play Skirmish?" She asked opening the pack of cards. The General folded his hands in front of him on the table, a privilege her own general had been reluctant to grant/a. It had taken Rose some time to convince Poe to let her bring in the cards and to unshackle his hands. Luckily the arguments DJ had composed for her the night before had worked like a charm. Poe had finally conceded her small request and General Hux's hands had been freed the moment she stepped into the room. Rose had to admit she was impressed by the old slicers stutteringly silver tongue.
He scoffed. "The child's game? Of course I have."
"Great," she grinned at him snidely, "then you know the rules." General Hux's face fell a centimeter. He didn't know them. Rose smirked triumphantly. "M-make him feel like he's stupid." DJ had advised her as they worked over scenarios. "Men like him go for anything if they t-think someone is looking d-down on them."
"It's been...quite a while." He finally admitted with a reluctant swallow. Rose shuffled the deck and smiled tightly.
"Then I'll go over it for you." She cut the deck in two and set his portion face down in front of him. All according to plan."You g-gotta take control." DJ had explained as they practiced hands. "That's how you're going to win." "We each take a card off the top like this." She explained brightly, sliding a card off the top and placing it face up on the table. The General took his own card and set it down.
"The one with the higher value wins. You have a three, I have a seven. Looks like it's my win." She reached out and slipped the cards under her deck. She glanced up. The General wore a neutral expression on his face but his eyes remained fixed on the deck of cards in front of them. She drew another card off the top. He followed suit. This time the cards were even, a queen of diamonds to a queen of spades. Hux frowned in confusion.
"Oh look we tied." Rose tapped each of the cards, "looks like it's going to be a Skirmish." She took a card off the top of her deck and set it face down. She motioned for Hux to follow. Then she took another and placed it face up. He followed suit.
"Okay whoever has the higher card now wins the pile." She explained. "Let's see what we've got. Once again it was her win. She had a ten. He had a two. "You seem to have an awful lot of high cards." The General mumbled absently. Rose scooped up both piles and reshuffled. "Maybe I'm just lucky." She held out the deck for him to cut himself. "That was only practice anyway. We keep going till someone has all the cards. We'll start for real now."
He took half the deck for himself and set it on the table. He eyed her coolly. "How exactly do you plan to benefit from this exercise?"
Rose smiled thinly, "That's where the wager comes in General." She took her own cards and set it on the table. "If you win a round, you can ask for whatever you like, and if it's reasonable, I'll do it for you." She leaned in and lowered her voice, not that it mattered, since it was still recorded. "And if I win-" He interrupted her, his lids drooping. "I'll do something for you." Rose frowned and sat back down. She disliked being interrupted, even though that had been something she had planned for. She slid her half closer and feigned a yawn.
"When I win the first thing I want is to speak uninterrupted." She grumbled. The fine corner muscles of her opponent's cheeks twitched taunt with a hint of amusement at the comment before fading back to a pale mineral neutrality/a. Rose wasn't sure if the expression was mocking or if she had struck some secret sense of humor so she filed it away to mull over later.
They began the round. Rose started off badly but soon she was gaining the upper hand. With each Skirmish she stole from him, the General's face fell almost comically in dismay. When she had won and swept up all the cards back into a neat stack his shoulders slumped.
"I suppose I-" He said with a sigh."Actually," Rose cut em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"him/em off this time and reached into the deep pocket of her jumpsuit to pull out a packet of disinfectant wipes accompanied by a tube of bacta gel. "For my first request I'd like you to clean up a bit." She tossed the packet and tube across the table. General Hux caught them reflexively and gaped. The action opened the seam of his lip and a drop of blood pearled on the pulled a handkerchief out of the same pocket and reached over to wipe the drop from his still astonished face. The action felt oddly familiar and she drew back with a frown. He pulled back harshly at the touch and snapped a hand up to halt her wrist. Rose said nothing as he plucked the cloth out of her hand. He eyed her for a moment his ice eyes flashing with suspicion and a hint of something Rose could not place. She filed that away for inspection later as well. After a long moment he released her wrist and set to work patching up the damage to his face.
"I don't understand..." he muttered frowning curiously at her as he applied bacta over a particularly nasty bruise blossoming under his chin. Rose shifted in her seat at the flash of indigo on pale skin. Her mind hummed in the background trying to conjure up fragments of the dream once again from the night before. Rose coughed and cleared her throat, hoping to clear the thoughts with it. She needed to focus. For the Resistance. For the galaxy. For Paige. She couldn't let him win
"He s-sounds like a real jaw clench-er," DJ had grinned during their second practice round as Rose had been lamenting yet again about the failure of the previous day, "Guys like t-that have no c-clue what to do if someone throws them a bone." Rose hoped the slicer was right. She glanced at Hux and let her head rest on her hands as she waited. He certainly looked unsettled. "I'm going to be spending the next few days looking at you." She rolled her eyes for emphasis. "Frankly you look depressing.
General Hux tore open the packet of disinfectant wipes and ran one over his face. As the dirt and sweat fell from his features, a red twinge of flush blossomed on the salt pale ridge of his cheekbones. He caught her watching and the red deepened. He looked away with a quick grimace curling on his lips and scrubbed his face harder. Rose gloated to herself at the discovery of this newfound weakness. The General could feel self-conscious it seemed. She would definitely take full advantage of that later if the opportunity presented he was finished he piled the discarded packets together neatly and set the pile on the corner of the table. Rose split the deck and slid him his portion of the cards.
He cleared his throat and looked up at her. His eyes brimmed with gratitude. The effect softened his features and for a moment Rose felt an odd sensation pricking in the corner of her brain, as if a piece of a long forgotten memory had washed up to the shore of her consciousness. He smiled a small smile that she wondered if she had seen before, somewhere long ago. He collected his portion of the deck. "Thank you."
Rose blinked in surprise. That certainly hadn't been one of the scenarios she had anticipated. A creeping sensation climbed up her back, making her shiver. She quickly recovered and shook her head. "You won't be so thankful when I win next time." He nodded in response and they began the next round. The game progressed more slowly this time. Neither had an advantage from the reshuffle. Rose soon grew restless in the silence. "What's your name General?" She asked placing an ace down on the table. He accepted the sacrifice after drawing a four of his own.
"General Hux." He replied dryly. Rose shook her head as she won the next draw. "No not your sire name or your title. I know those. What is your given name?"
He blinked at her as they drew a Skirmish. He drew his sacrifice card and placed it face down. His hand lingered on corner as his eyes left their scrutiny of the cards to peer at her through downy lashes. "Armitage." He said quietly. He searched her face as if he was looking for some sort of recognition there at the offering. His mouth thinned in disappointment to find none. Rose suddenly felt self-conscious. She wondered nervously if she had made a mistake. If she was missing something. She had expected the General Hux from yesterday. The smug volatile grandstander. Not the quiet, genteel, almost delicate man that sat in front of her, eyeing her shyly. She feigned a smirk and laughed dryly. "Yikes." She chuckled balking at the name in a tone she hoped came across as wry. Plucky perhaps, confident like Poe or Paige. Unaffected.
He drew his play and set the card down on the table. A Jack. A decent hand."It's better than being named after a plant." He muttered.
Rose dropped the second card in surprise. It fell with a flutter as her heart hammered in her chest. A ten. A loss. "W-what did you just say?" She pulled his face into prim neutrality once again. "My mistake. I suppose a flower would be a more accurate description..." he reached to take the cards to add them to his pile. Rose slapped a hand over her cards. There it was. There was the Hux she knew. Her blood boiled. He frowned at her hand covering the cards. "That's not very sportsmanlike Ms. Tico."
She snarled. "How do you know my name?"
He let his hands fall to the table. He gathered himself up and Rose could almost imagine he was standing to attention. "I have my ways. I've known who you were ever since you and the traitor blew up my ship. How do you think I requested you here if not by name?"
Rose stood out of the chair. "Are you going to slap me again?" He asked dryly. She gave him a heavy glare. Her hand curled into a fist. She was tempted, very tempted, but clearly she wasn't the only one who had prepared for this meeting. As much as she would have liked to hit the face in front of her, the idea of swiping the smugness off of it and the secrets behind it had a greater appeal. She sat carefully back down and drew her next hand. She would sort it out once she had won and had the location of a weapon of mass destruction tucked snuggly into her pocket.
"I still have cards left. I finish what I start."
The game continued. Rose remained stubbornly silent for the rest of the round. She didn't dare risk losing the high ground again. The general stole glances at her but she promptly ignored them all. She had been losing but the second half of the pile turned in her favor. She soon won. She started off what she hoped would be a string of victories with a straightforward question. Something easy. "I want to know how many Starkillers are currently out there in total. Complete or incomplete. How many are there?"
The General pulled back. Rose watched as his face contorted with little micro expressions under the surface as he contemplated his answer. Finally he sighed, his shoulders slumping. "There are seven. Four in production, three functional." He said reluctantly.
Rose licked her lips. She hadn't expected him to answer so easily. "Seven?" She asked her voice thick with suspicion.
"Yes." His eyes dipped down following the motion before flicking back up to meet her gaze. "Seven."
Rose rolled her shoulders and tried to shake off the strange warmth that pooled under the surface of her cheeks under the icy attention. She scooped the pile of cards neatly together and shuffled them. Time for another won again and gained the prize of the location of a key component of the four destroyers still under production. Ever the tacticians, the First Order had spread their production across the galaxy. It would take several more rounds to completely dismantle the facilities but it was a promising start. Provided the information was accurate of course. The game had sprawled several hours leaving time for only one more opportunity. The last round progressed slowly, a bitter battle but eventually the General secured the round and Rose slumped back in her chair disappointed."You won…" she sighed scooping the cards back into their box and slipping them into her pocket. "What do you want? Better rations? A different cell?"
His eyelashes fluttered hesitantly at the question. Rose could almost see him humming under the surface with anticipation. In a less arrogant man, like Finn perhaps, she would have found the display of nervous energy endearing. In a man like General Hux however it was only a source of irritation. "Well?" she demanded, "Spit it out."
He kneaded the velvet of his lips between his teeth before thrusting out a hand towards her. Rose flinched at the gesture. He held is palm out to her. "May I see your hands please?" He asked softly, his voice cracking on the no doubt unfamiliarly gentle tone. Rose balked. "No."
He stiffened at the rejection. His face molded itself back into the stony mask of superiority Rose was used to seeing plastered over it. He pulled back his hand and folded his arms defensively against his chest. "If that's your idea of unreasonable then I see no point in continuing…this" he sniffed angrily waving dismissingly between them at the deck of cards.
Rose bit her lip. The game was working. She had gotten twice as much information as Poe ever had with his methods. "If I let you…you won't do anything to them will you?" She asked chewing her lip nervously. The mask fell from Hux face at the question and once again, with its abandonment, he looked younger and more vulnerable. Looking at the red haired man, Rose felt the same strange feeling bubbling up in her stomach as she had that morning just waking from the dream the night before. The struggle to remember something important as it evaporated from memory. "I won't." He said softly, holding his hand out again. The words were a solemn oath.
Rose braced herself and placed her hands palms up into his. The General leaned forward to study them causing a lock of fire red hair to brush loose over his temple. Rose winced as a shard of a quarter memory jabbed at her sharply. What was it about this man that screamed at her to remember? He traced over the lines of her palm with the pad of his thumb as if reading the lines of a holo. His hands swallowed hers in a snowdrift of lanky and surprisingly calloused fingers. His fingertips were ice cold but the pads of his palms burned furnace hot giving his hands a strange pleasantly tingling sensation where they met hers. Rose swallowed and tried not to think about it. "Someone, long ago," He mumbled more to himself, "told me once that you could learn all you needed to know about someone from their hands." He ran his thumb over the long forking line rambling over her left palm. He glanced up at her and Rose's breath caught in her throat. His eyes had softened significantly.
His thumbs trailed down over her pulse and caught over a long forgotten scar. He frowned slightly at the sensation and ran his thumb over it again. Rose pulled back at the touch but he closed long fingers over her wrist and pushed back the hem of her sleeve. There slashed a pinking X of shimmering scarring. His eyes widened at the mark and his grip tightened over her wrist. "Where did you get that?" he almost hissed. The whites of his eyes glittered dangerously down at her wrist. Rose pulled her hand free. "I don't know," she snapped back. That was the truth- or was it? Rose felt an uncomfortable afterburn of doubt bubble in her stomach. She shivered and rose out of her chair. "You're lying." He glared at her wide eyed and almost desperate. Rose stepped back towards the door. "It's the truth." She whispered frostily. General Hux froze under the ice of her tone. He rose from his chair and stood to his full height. If he meant to intimidate her with the motion then it was working. Rose felt suddenly overwhelmed. Under her scarf she could feel the vibrations of panic at the other end of her wire as the officers monitoring chattered frantically among themselves. "Rose stood her ground and did the only things she could think of. She lied.
"And if it isn't, then it's the only one you're going to get out of me tonight. If you care to know so much then you can prove it and win." The General clearly wanted something from her. Whatever it was she would bait him with it until the trial or until she remembered. The dream fluttered through her head once again making her eyes swim along the edges. She felt the promise of tears forming under them. She refused to let him see her cry. He had already shaken her. She would not let him have that final satisfaction. With a shaky breath she turned and reached for the door. There was only one option left in the arsenal she had planned the night before.
"If it all goes s-south Rosie," The slicer had shrugged. "You can't be afraid to throw in the t-towel. There's no shame in r-running if you have to." So she did. Cursing herself, him and it all under her breath she bolted.