Lori didn't want to open the cockpit door.
But she wanted to leave Mitaka alone with Brixie even less. There was no telling what the nervous former lieutenant might say in a moment of panic, and Lori would rather not have to deal with it.
Double checking the autopilot, Lori made sure that their path to Kijimi was clear before scooping up Ardis and turning to the door.
When it slid to the side with a groan, Lori was left to face an empty room. The freighters weren't too large, but they did have a dedicated crew compartment for longer flights.
Taking a short journey down a hall, Lori came upon the other two passengers in a rear break room.
Brixie sat at a small table, holding a pack of ice to the side of her head. Mitaka stood opposite the table, and was half way through a stuttered and contradictory explanation of what he thought was going on.
Mitaka stopped speaking as soon as he saw Lori step into the doorway. The sudden stop and obvious flicker of surprise over his features left Brixie to shuffle around and look towards the door.
"Lori," Brixie adjusted the ice pack, "what's going on?"
"Sorry, Brixie." Lori had been thinking through the exact lie she was going to tell the medic. She wasn't sure how long it would fool the other woman; it didn't need to work for long, just until she reached Armitage. After that she would have to go back to improvising. "I know this doesn't look good, and I'm really sorry. But I just had to get off of Ajan Kloss."
"So you stole a ship?" That question was the closest thing to an accusation that Lori had ever heard from Brixie.
At the sound of it, Lori shot a sharp look toward Mitaka. He startled slightly, ready to defend himself. He might be nervous and more than a little afraid, but he hadn't told Brixie anything about Lori's true motives.
Sure that whatever Mitaka had to say wouldn't be helpful, Lori spoke before he got the chance, "Well… Yes. But I feel bad about it. Look, Brix, Ajan Kloss isn't safe. Poe wasn't going to let me leave, and I don't think anyone else would have either. If we fail and the emperor wins, then he's going to find them, and he won't give them the chance to escape.
Though the possibility weighed heavily on everyone's mind, no one dared mention that the resistance might fail. Even speaking the words aloud made the possibility seem too real, and hearing Lori say it now made Brixie shirk back. Still, she tried to cling to a small thread of hope as she said, "the emperor isn't going to win. We'll stop him, we have to."
"We don't know that," Lori pushed back, "and I can't risk Ardis' life on that big of a gamble. If everything turns out fine, I'll go back and apologize. But until I know it's going to be okay, I'm not going anywhere near the Resistance."
These worries were the same ones that Lori had shared with her months ago, and Brixie understood where Lori was coming from. The need to keep Ardis safe was a reasonable one, and Brixie knew that she would feel something similar if she were in Lori's place.
But stealing a ship like this still felt wrong.
"I… Fine. But we will go back, and you'll have a lot of explaining to do."
Lori knew she was making promises she had no intention of keeping. For the first time in a long time, she did genuinely regret her lies. Brixie had been a genuine friend, and part of Lori almost thought that she deserved the truth.
"Thank you. And I'll make it up, I swear."
"Uh-huh." Brixie moved the ice pack before feeling the small welt on her head. She'd gotten pretty banged up from when Lori took the ship out of the atmosphere. While the damage wasn't severe, it was tender to the touch, "What are we doing in the meantime?"
Lori shrugged, as if she were speaking off the cuff, "Staying in space. I don't want to be on any planet if Palpatine's troops come rolling in."
Brixie still flinched at hearing the possibility voiced aloud, "I guess. But as soon as it looks clear, we need to go back to Ajan Kloss."
"We will," Lori reassured her before using Brixie's small wound as a convenient excuse to chance the topic, "is there anything I can get you for your head?"
"No, I'm fine." The medic waved Lori away, "if it's a concussion, it's a minor one. I just need a little rest and I should be fine."
"Okay. We'll get out of your hair then." Lori spoke for herself and for Mitaka, "If you need anything, just holler for us."
"Will do." Brixie slowly rose to standing before turning for one of the bunks in an adjacent room.
As the medic left, Lori looked to Mitaka and gestured towards the hall with a small nod of the head. Getting the message, Mitaka left for the cockpit. Not long after, Lori joined him.
"What did you tell her?" Lori didn't waste time on a soft lead-in to the conversation.
"N-nothing. Er… Nothing of value," Mitaka was quick to reply, "She asked what was going on, so I played dumb."
Lori watched the lieutenant's body language as he spoke. She didn't think that he was lying, and Brixie hadn't reacted in a way that would suggest that she knew Lori's real motives.
"What were your exact words?" She pressed, knowing that she shouldn't contradict his story.
"All I said was that I saw you sneak aboard this ship, and that I followed you to try and figure out what was going on. Of course, she saw me run onto the ship, and followed me for the same reason."
"Was that all?"
"Yes," Mitaka assured her, "Of course. I'm almost afraid to ask, but… do we have a plan? Past this, I mean. Motive for mentioning it aside, you're not wrong in pointing out that Palpatine is dangerous. Are you sure that returning to the-"
Lori held up a hand for him to stop, "Look. I'm making it up as I go at this point. You go do whatever you want, just stay out of my way."
While Mitaka wasn't calmed by Lori's words, he was reasonably sure that she wouldn't go out of her way to put him in danger, "Alright, alright. I won't ask where we're going, though I suspect I already know the answer."
Lori didn't appreciate the little bit of a spine that the lieutenant was growing, but she knew he wouldn't do anything to contradict her story. Not that it really mattered as this point. Letting the younger man wander off on his own volition, Lori set Ardis down in the co-pilot's seat. Slumping into the pilots seat herself, Lori looked to the navigation screen.
It wouldn't be long until they reached Kijimi.
It wouldn't be long until this was all over. One way or another.
.***.***.***.***.
The Finalizer had been hovering above Kijimi for less than two hours when the ship went on high alert.
While that should have been shocking news, it didn't even rattle General Hux. The entire order seemed to be coming apart at the seams as Palpatine's deadline drew near, there was no reason to believe that their security was somehow doing a better job at keeping it together than any other department.
Luckily, the disturbance was short lived. Scarcely fifteen minutes after the first alarm had sounded, a second alert had been sent out to the ship's personnel: Two notorious rebels had been apprehended in the prison wards. Due to suspicions about a third intruder, the ship would remain on high alert until a comprehensive search had been completed.
With Pryde and Griss still commanding the bridge, Hux had been left with nothing official to do during the alert. And now that it was mostly over, he'd been sent off like an errand boy. Fairly certain that the intruders had come in search of Chewbacca, Pryde sent Hux to deal with the situation. The wookiee was technically under Hux's supervision, and Pryde decided that overseeing his and the two other rebel's executions was a job so simple that not even Hux could screw it up.
Well aware that he was being relegated to a minor task that Pryde thought he was too good for, Hux stood with his back to the doorway.
The interrogation wards seemed so much more sinister than he remembered, with their black durasteel walls and harsh white lighting. Hux wondered how long it would be before he would end up trapped in one of these rooms.
The rebels who were about to die seemed unconcerned with their fate. Bickering about some trivial matter that Hux didn't bother listening to.
The general wasn't worried for their lives. What were they to him? If anything besides long standing obstacles to his life's plans.
They're a nuisance, is what they are. A traitorous stormtrooper and his pathetic pilot friend. Their narrow escape over Jakku caused all of this. All of this, including the attack on the Supremacy.
Hux watched the stormtroopers train their blasters on the rebel's backs.
They took everything from me. All of it. Every single blasted thing in the damned galaxy. Lori and Ardis would still be alive if it weren't for them.
"Actually," So caught up in his own thoughts, Hux felt removed from his own words, "I'd like to do this myself."
Taken off guard, the troopers looked between each other. Ultimately following orders, the sergeant handed his blaster to Hux.
The machine felt heavy in his hands. It had been years since he'd had to shoot anyone.
They take, and they take. And they destroy everything they touch. He watched as the rebels squabbled amongst themselves.
The display filled him with contempt. Seeing such a flippant disregard from the people that had ruined him filled Hux with a blinding rage. Everything he had ever held dear was gone. Destroyed, either in the blink of an eye or after months of deteriorating away into nothing. And here these rebels were, chattering away like they weren't at all concerned with the blaster aimed at their backs.
It had been years since Hux had shot anyone, and he decided he might as well start again by killing those that had wronged him the most.
Hux's cause had abandoned him, had turned into the same chaotic squall that it had been created to destroy. Years of his life, gone to the First Order. This ship was supposed to be his. These troopers were supposed to be loyal to him. He had been on the verge of creating an empire and in a blink, it had been stollen. Everything had. He had toiled away day and night for the First Order, and it had betrayed him.
Which is why he shot the troopers in their backs.
A thin and barely coherent thought rolled through Hux's head as the armored bodies hit the floor. I'm already done. I may as well let the rebels ruin Kylo Ren's life too.
The rebels very suddenly went silent, only to turn around with heavy looks of confusion. Alone in what might very quickly turn into a dangerous situation, Hux watched Poe's eyes flick down to the now unguarded blaster by one of the dead trooper's side.
But Hux doubted that the rebels would shoot, not after he had saved their miserable little lives. Knowing that they couldn't linger there for much longer, lest they be discovered, Hux let himself have a hint of some vindictive pleasure at their confusion as he announced, "I'm the spy."
"What!?" Poe looked up from the weapons on the floor, immediately taken off guard by the situation.
"You?!" Finn had seen many strange and unbelievable things, but even he wasn't willing to accept this turn of events.
Enjoying the power he didn't really have, Hux uttered a short comment before turning to leave the room, "We don't have much time."
The rebels looked to each other before scooping up the dead guards' blasters and hurrying along after the general.
"I knew it," Poe looked to Finn and tried to pretend that he wasn't taken completely off guard.
Finn didn't fall for the act, "No, you didn't."
Poe looked back, this time saying nothing as the group turned down twisting halls. He knew nothing about the layout of the large First Order ship, and for a moment he suspected that Hux might be leading them into another trap.
Finn was equally as shocked and distrusting of the turn of events, but he knew enough about the Finalizer to recognize that they were heading towards the hangars. In a pleasant surprise, he even spotted BB-8 lurking down a side hall as they neared the end of their journey.
"BB-8, come on!" Finn yelled in a whisper down the side hall.
Hux tried not to jump at the unexpected voice and overly loud whirring of a BB unit. He tried not to consider the full ramifications of what he was doing either. Part of him still wanted to shoot the rebels. They couldn't begin to understand how much they had cost him.
But I can't bring my family back, can I? My life is gone, and these idiots might be my only hope at destroying Ren and Palpatine.
The group came to a halt at one of the observation decks, overlooking one of the ship's many hangars. Made abandoned by the search for the one rebel that was still on the loose, Hux was met with no resistance as he approached a control terminal.
"I'll shut down the impeders. You've got seconds." He told the men around him as he worked.
While he toiled away at his only hope to foil Ren's plans, a commotion came from the bay below. The white clad scavenger ran through a hail of blaster fire, quickly followed by a squadron of troopers and Kylo Ren himself.
Hux shirked back slightly, hiding himself from view as Poe made a far too calm comment, "There she is. She's a survivor."
The rebels were a second away from taking their leave before Hux made a final request, "Wait. Wait. Blast me in the arm. Quickly!"
Even more confused by the general's odd behavior, Finn and Poe both gave him a questioning look.
"What?" Finn even asked for clarification.
Bracing himself, Hux tapped an arm before grumbling a shortened explanation, "Or they'll know I helped you."
There was a chance that he had just been spotted by one of the troopers below. He could claim that he had been taken hostage by the invaders, but the story wouldn't be believable if they just let him go without a struggle.
Finn looked at Poe before turning back to the general.
He had wanted to shoot the First Order's commanders for a very long time now. And as much as he personally hated Hux, Finn almost felt bad for how strung out the other man looked.
But that little bit of guilt didn't stop him from shooting the general in the leg.
Hux crumbled in on himself. He thought he'd been mentally prepared, but the searing pain of plasma ripping through his leg and grazing the bone tore a choked scream from his throat. Grasping at the agonizing wound, Hux barely noticed that Finn was asking him another question.
"Why are you helping us?" He asked, blaster leveled at Hux in case he didn't like the answer.
Hux fought to reign his ragged breathing under control. Even when he was half certain the rebels might still shoot him dead, he didn't hesitate as he spat out a venomous explanation, "I don't care if you win. I need Kylo Ren to lose."