AN: Hello again, and happy Thursday. Pretty sure I've already mentioned it (I cross post to AO3 and occasionally forget what I mention where), but in case I didn't I plan on having 34 chapters for Red. Be aware, the end is nigh.
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It only took Lori a couple of hours to find someone willing to buy the nearly overflowing cabinets of blasters. She was pretty sure that the pantoran that had come to drop off the credits and pick up the blasters was on his way to do something very illegal, but she wasn't interested in whatever questionable things might be happening on Bracca.
Her main concern was keeping Armitage from being recognized.
Using the cash she had gotten from the arms sale, Lori had been able to get a hotel room and still have more than enough left over to buy a few nondescript clothes. After Armitage had changed, Lori threw his old uniform in a bag and then tossed it into the muck below the landing pads. It wasn't the best solution, but anything was better than being found with a general's uniform on the ship, or in their luggage.
After the wardrobe change, the next ordeal was actually moving to the hotel. Their progress had been slow, with Armitage barely able to move on his own. Lori had tried to help, but Armitage insisted that she carry Ardis instead. Not being in a life or death situation, Brixie didn't offer to help.
Actually getting into the hotel room was a particularly slow process, as Lori checked and double checked that their path was clear of other guests or staff. Doing so in a way that didn't look suspicious took even longer, to the point that Armitage was exhausted to collapse by the time he finally stepped into the private room.
As Armitage staggered to one of the two beds in the room, Lori followed close behind him. Once he had ungracefully fallen onto the bed, she gently sat Ardis next to him.
"Still in one piece?" Lori gently asked as she turned slightly to face Armitage.
He knew that she was trying not to draw attention to the fact that he had been left gasping from less than a quarter mile of walking. As much as he appreciated her concern, he hated that he looked in need of it.
"Yes," was all he managed to huff out.
Lori could see the irritation that was left unsaid. She decided that it would be better for him not to linger on it. Keeping her voice low, she changed the topic to that of their escape.
"Good. Be ready to move again, soon."
Armitage shuddered slightly and suppressed a cough as he tried to rein his breathing in, "Do you have a plan?"
"Do I ever?" she answered with a light tone and a small, almost pitiful, shrug.
He looked at her, knowing that she was trying to lighten the moment, but unable to smile for it.
Lori wanted to try to hide behind a clever comment from the grim reality they found themselves in, but she also knew that they needed to talk seriously. Splitting the difference, she tried again, "I'm working on it, but for now we're going to have to improvise."
Making it up as he went along wasn't Armitage's preferred way of doing things, but if he had to choose one person to trust his fate to, it would be Lori.
"I'm thinking that we settle down," she went on, looking towards Ardis as she did, "find a quiet planet to disappear on."
Thinking ahead to a better time to come felt foolhardy, but having the opportunity to hope was addicting. Having Lori by his side, and the chance at a life with her and their daughter had been a dream returned from the dead.
"The simple life," Armitage added on, following Lori's gaze towards Ardis.
A small pressure settled around Armitage's hand.
"I know it's not what you wanted," Lori spoke in a hush.
A sad and fragile smile whispered its way across Armitage's lips. She was right: he hadn't wanted any of this, he hadn't known he would. But Lori' had changed his life, Ardis even more so.
He wasn't the man he was anymore.
He might still be cruel and massively petty. He might still be dismissive and judgmental. He might still hate the New Republic and all that it stood for. But he decided that he wasn't the man to change the galaxy. He'd had his chance, it wasn't just that he had failed, it was that he had nearly torn himself apart in the process. Losing the First Order was a debilitating blow, but loosing Lori and Ardis had nearly killed him.
"But I want it now," he told Lori as he looked back at her.
She looked down at her hand on his before meeting his gaze, "Then I'll give it to you."
Heavy with that promise, Lori releases Armitage's hand and backed away from the bed.
As she did, Brixie lingered in the doorway, searing resentment harshly covering what was an otherwise quiet moment.
General Hux sat on the edge of a bed, breathing heavily from the long walk. Lori lingered next to him, saying something just hushed enough that Brixie couldn't hear. Whatever it had been drew a small and almost pitiful smile from Hux. Compared to the dour face that Brixie had seen on him in holograms and the spiteful expressions she'd seen in the last few days, the smile seemed sickeningly out of place.
Brixie stewed over the fact that Hux had been reunited with a loving family that he had no right to have.
How many other families got torn apart because of him? Bitter thoughts rolled through Brixie's mind, How many other people have wished for that? How many of them will never get it?
The medic wished that she was ashamed of herself for the disgust she felt at the scene. She wished that she still had a family to go back to; that her adopted band of mercenaries hadn't been whittled down to two or three people; that her own homeland hadn't been swept up by an imperial remnant and then invaded by the First Order.
Are Lex and Dak even still alive? Can I trust Dak? And what about the Imperial Remnants? Are they back? A few persistent worries picked at Brixie. There were a thousand problems to worry about in the galaxy, but none of them seemed to affect the people that caused them.
"I'll sleep on the couch." Mitaka's voice from her side caught Brixie off guard.
"Hmm?" she looked over towards him before taking in the details of the room as a further distraction from the cathartic reunion that filled her with something dark and heavy.
It was a simple thing, with two full sized beds placed along the wall to the left, while a couch and lamp sat opposite of them. A holoprojector occupied the far corner of the room. Beside it and facing towards the door was a window, it's curtain drawn and blocking the view of the street outside. In all, it was probably less living space than the ship they had just been on.
"Oh, no it's okay. You can take the bed." Brixie offered without thinking.
Mitaka had only suggested as much out of politeness and didn't try to turn down the offer. He was on the verge of thanking Brixie, but was interrupted by Lori.
"Don't get too comfortable," she said, "Mitaka, you're coming with me. We still need to find a buyer for the ship."
"I- err…" Mitaka looked back towards Brixie. He knew that she had no authority either, but he was reluctant to scramble for a reason why he didn't want to be alone with Lori, though staying with the general and his daughter wasn't that much better of an alternative.
Lori didn't necessarily want to bring either Brixie or Mitaka with her, but she wasn't about to leave Armitage alone and outnumbered by them either.
"Unless you want to come along instead," Lori looked to Brixie.
The medic didn't want to let Lori out of her sight, being fairly certain that she was planning something that would let general Hux escape the punishment he deserved. After thinking on it for a moment, Brixie admitted to herself that she probably wouldn't be able to keep Lori from doing anything in particular. Hux, on the other hand, was mostly bedridden and she was sure that she could keep him from leaving the hotel room.
Holding onto the closest thing to defiance that she was capable of Brixie looked back at Lori, "I'll stay here, actually."
From the expression on Brixie's face it was obvious to Lori that she was suspicious. The distrust from a formerly close friend stung a little, but Lori forced herself not to be affected by it.
Giving nothing more than a shrug, Lori turned back to Mitaka, "Looks like you're coming with me then."
Mitaka began to protest, but felt as though the chance had passed him by as Lori stepped towards the hall. Casting an imploring look back at Brixie, he sheepishly followed after Lori.
The room settled into an uneasy silence as the door closed behind them.
Brixie wasted no time in turning back to watch Hux, wanting to be sure that there was as much distance between them as possible. To her relief and annoyance, he was still sitting on the bed where Lori had left him, Ardis playing with a makeshift toy at the edge of the mattress.
"Whatever you're planning isn't going to work." She bluntly told Armitage.
"I haven't been planning anything." He replied without looking at the medic.
Armitage was being far more truthful than he would have liked. Lori had made it clear to him that she was improvising, and beyond the fact that he had to be ready to leave at a moment's notice, he didn't know what might happen.
"Right." Brixie made her doubts obvious, "and guess you didn't destroy Hosnian Prime either."
Not wanting to dignify the medic with a response, Armitage picked up the dangling set of metal that Ardis had been playing with before tossing it to the other edge of the bed.
Brixie wasn't dropping the conversation, "Scared I'll just walk out the door and tell someone that General Hux of the First Order is in this room?"
Hux doubted that the rebel would be that brazen, but he did see an opportunity to quash any ideas that she had, "I'm sure that would end well for you."
"We both saw how that duros looked at you. You're a wanted man."
"And you've been one of my accomplices for the last week." he sharply commented.
His words silenced Brixie for a moment.
Deliberately trying to frighten Brixie out of her idea Hux spoke again, "As far as the Resistance knows, you even helped Lori steal their freighter."
"That's not what happened."
"But that's what it looks like." Armitage still hadn't looked up at Brixie, instead watching his daughter frolic at the end of the bed, "I'd expect you of all people to know the power of appearances."
Brixie bit her tongue, knowing that Hux was just saying whatever he thought would hurt her the most. Even worse was the fact that it was working.
Brixie had nowhere to go, and no one to talk to.
.***.***.***.***.
Finding someone willing to pay full price for an obviously stolen ship was a difficult task.
Finding someone to buy untraceable spaceship components was very easy.
After just a half a day of talking, Lori had successfully sold the hyperdrive, the nav computer, the weapons systems, the shield generators, and landing gear. By this time tomorrow, the stolen Hutt ship wouldn't be anything more than a durasteel frame sitting on a landing pad.
At the moment, Lori sat in a diner across a small table from Mitaka, their last customer having just left from a short meeting. With their customer gone, the two of them were left to sit in silence, Mitaka purposefully avoiding eye contact by intently looking at his long-cold cup of caf.
Lori was still searching for a way to permanently get rid of the young man. He had been even more nervous than usual. Lori had seen him come to terms with being on the run during their year with the Resistance, so the only thing she could imagine to be bothering him was Armitage's presence. She had held onto the blaster pistol she'd pulled off of the duros, but she didn't want to use it on Mitaka. She didn't want to use it on anyone.
Searching for some opening, Lori went on the offensive and told Mitaka, "Alright, just say what's on your mind."
"Oh… N-nothing. I'm just tired is all."
Lori picked up her own cup of caf, only to find that it was empty. Waving over the only service droid in the place, she waited for her mug to be refiled and for the droid to leave before speaking on what she assumed Mitaka was thinking.
"You can just go, you know. There's nothing keeping you here."
Mitaka didn't want to be having this conversation, he wasn't sure what he wanted at all. He'd seen something of the galaxy away from the First Order, but even that had been in the confines of a guarded camp. Not having a system or group to rely on seemed impossible, yet liberating. Tempting, but just as terrifying as remaining in the situation he was now.
"I can't."
Creating room between them and hoping that it would counter any imagined imprisonment from Mitaka's mind, Lori leaned back with her mug in hand, "You could just walk out that door.
"There's nowhere for me to go."
"Every corner of the galaxy wants a good blaster repair man on hand. Hell, you could probably eek out a decent living here as an appraiser."
"That's not what I meant…" Mitaka spoke softly before drifting into silence.
I don't know how to live like this. He admitted to himself, I can't stay with them, but I can't just leave.
Not wanting him to have too long to think, Lori reached for one of the pouches on her belt. Pulling the one that had been payment for the shield generator, Lori wasted no time in tossing it onto the table. It landed with a soft thud and a slight jingle of credits.
"Take that. It's not enough to live on, but it's enough to disappear with."
Mitaka considered the bundle of credits. Timidly, he reached out for it.
"I think we both know how this is going to end," Lori said after a sip of caf.
"What about Brixie?" Mitaka asked, obvious worry painting his words.
Lori let a little bit of the guilt from her betrayal of the medic show on her features, "What about her? I think it's time we all went our separate ways. Whether she likes it or not."
Mitaka heard the underlying message in Lori's words.
No matter what he decided to do, he knew that Lori would find a way to run off, Ardis and Hux in tow. He knew better than to think that she would spare a second thought for him and Brixie, the fact that she had given him some credits to try and live off of was no doubt some sort of ploy. Part of him couldn't help but wonder if this was an attempt to play him and Brixie against each other; if Lori showing him kindness would be used to somehow convince Brixie not to trust him.
Lori watched Mitaka think. She would have liked to know exactly what thoughts were running through his head, but she didn't think she could get him to talk in a way that did more good than harm.
Lori took another deep drink of her caf to finish it off.
She did have one way to get rid of Mitaka. If worse came to worse, Lori could out him for his past First Order affiliations. It wasn't ideal, and she would much rather just have Mitaka look the other way, but ensuing confusion might be just enough to create an opportunity for her to slip away with Armitage and Ardis in tow.
But that's still wishful thinking, Lori admitted to herself.
Running off in the midst of confusion would hinge on Armitage's ability to walk, and that was something that she couldn't rush.
No, life would be much more convenient if Mitaka left on his own accord.
"Just think about it," Lori gently urged before setting the mug down, "You've got options now."
