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These are the scars that silence carved

On me

This the same place

No, not the same place

This is the same place, love

No, not the same place we've been before

Lucilla felt it. She didn't know what it was or why it pulled at her but the sensation was there all the same. It lead her out of the bedroom and into the living area where she looked around nervously. The atmosphere had tensed; she wasn't sure how, she'd only been out there a few minutes previous and everything was fine. The foreboding heightened and poor Lucilla (dressed in something more than a slip) waited for it to manifest itself as if powerless to do anything else.

Maybe two or three slow minutes after Lucilla left the bedroom, the main door slid from its closed position and there was something banal about it before she was thrust into sudden panic. The first thing her blue grazed was the excess of blood dripping and oozing from seemingly every pore above the black along with the agonized shuffle as he gripped the doorframe and forced himself over the threshold with determination. Lucilla simply stood there and watched with sheer terror, both hands tented over her mouth and nose; eyes uncomprehending.

"What happened to you?!"

"I was in something of a disagreement, little dove."

"A disagreement?!" Lucilla repeated in a petrified squeak, utterly horrified from behind her hands before lowering them so he could take in her ashen face. "Is that your blood?!"

"Not all of it, some of it is Ren's." Lucilla's stomach jolted at the name. In all the scenarios conjured in her head (that she couldn't process because of the external situation), not one of them matched what had actually happened. The General had pulled himself against the wall and stood there panting lightly at the effort of such a small task. How he made it back to his quarters by himself, he still wasn't sure. The adrenaline from the fight had long since left him.

However, he did know he was proud of his officers; he had passed several of them on his way back to Lucilla and each and every one of them stopped to try and persuade him to allow them to take him to the med bay. He simply told them he needed to get back to her, not that he specified who her was and they nodded curiously to obey. That kind of loyalty was the kind he strove for in the First Order, from the top earning officers right down to the sanitation Stormtroopers.

Mitaka had already been commed and instructed to send a medic to his quarters, he quite clearly needed medical attention but Lucilla was more important. He needed her to see what he was willing to do for her; not only to spill his own blood but Ren's as well. It was a rather barbaric and graphic display, he couldn't deny that but it was truth, dedication. It may have been too much for her but she still stood there with obvious worry ironed into her angelic features.

The medic arrived and even while he worked and the General was being cleaned up, they never took their eyes off each other. Silently one regarded the other; Lucilla by the fireplace and Hux being tended to on the sofa. Advised that there was no internal bleeding or broken bones, he was prescribed pain medication which he could get dispensed down in the med bay. It seemed to be all surface tissue damage, the usual from a brawl. They were soon left alone.

The flames suckling on an imported log were the only breaks in a tense, pained silence. She was easier to read now than she ever had been. Her verbal reactions aside; the way her eyes swept each wound, watched the prodding examination for nerve damage and her stature tightened as his ribs were checked for bruising. Admittedly, she'd looked away when his lip was being stitched. It all told him what he needed to know.

"Why?"

"He wanted another night." Lucilla's eyes flickered sideways and her jaw gave an involuntary twitch. One of his eyes might have been swollen but he saw it all. He found that the combination of voicing his feelings and watching her unravel drove him into an emotional state of his own; mostly cracking desperation for her to understand and accept what he'd done. "I couldn't let it happen, little dove. I couldn't let him do that again. I had to do something. Anything."

"You could've gotten yourself killed."

"I know. But I did it for you. To protect you. To keep him away from you. You need to understand that, little dove."

Before Hux knew it, Lucilla had crossed the room and carefully climbed in her General's lap, the less injured side of his face was cupped and her forehead was placed against his.

"Don't you ever do something so reckless again!" His dark haired darling crumbled into soft whimpers and immediately; a calloused, ungloved hand lifted to her cheek to swipe away her tears.

"I won't, little dove. I promise I won't."

Hux never thought he'd feel such relief and comfort again as having Lucilla back in their bed where she belonged. His little dove slept with her General's head resting on her chest and her delicate arms holding him close but he remained wakeful. What if he hadn't won? What if Ren had succeeded in cheating? He wouldn't have stood a chance if he hadn't caught him in time. Neither would Lucilla. Ren probably wouldn't have killed him but he certainly would have made his existence unbearable.

When the pair met in the training room, Hux opted to keep his gloves on and just let primal instincts take over; the raw drive to fight for his mate. The redhead didn't even take any notice of the rare sight of Kylo Ren without his helmet; it was immaterial, just more of him to attack. Blaster and lightsaber were laid to the side and excess clothing such as Ren's cloak and Hux's greatcoat were set aside.

Then, out of nowhere; they clashed. Hux waited, circling the taller male with those icy eyes unwavering. He had training, Ren didn't. Ren relied on the Force while the General used pure intimidation in their day to day and now Hux would use that intimidation to get the Knight to strike him first. He did. Hux took it into the jaw, it was hard but Ren's stance was off. He clearly had no idea how this worked. He'd let him keep going, tire himself out.

Maybe it was the weight of Ren's robes that restricted him; then again Hux's uniform was hardly light. Regardless, Ren took the General's boot hard into the back of the knee, causing him to collapse onto it with an anguished roar. With his head bent back to scream, the redhead mercilessly collided his elbow hard into the drop out Jedi's face, forcing him down onto the training mat, straining the damaged knee even further.

Hux was haunted by the marks on his little dove's body, the way she looked at him with absolute betrayal in those unmistakable eyes; it burned him all over again and Ren was going to feel it. By now, Kylo Ren panted on the floor on his back. The General bled profusely, his injuries exaggerated by his own exertion. Flooded with agony and adrenaline; the redhead continued to circle like a shark, high on his own gore.

"Do you concede?" Hux asked with a calmness that didn't quite match his savage demeanour. "Do you concede to leave Lucilla to me, never to bother her again?" The Knight turned over sluggishly onto his stomach, wincing as he did so and coughed on the floor; he too spat crimson with his wounds far more accentuated than the General's. However, Kylo Ren was not known for bowing out graciously.

"No…" The dark haired male responded weakly, bringing up another mouthful of blood onto the training mat. Some sanitation Troopers would delight in the gossip of how the blood got there but not so much in cleaning it up. Whether or not one of them would guess it was their superior officers skirmishing over a woman (the most beautiful woman in the galaxy with the nature and face of an angel if General Hux was consulted on the matter) would be impossible to tell. They would listen for the whispers.

"Very well." Only then did Hux notice Ren's outstretched hand, the light snickering of shuddering metal snapped his eyes to the lightsaber on the side-lines, inching towards its master. Needless to say, the older of the two males wasn't going to tolerate that. Ren didn't quite know what happened; all he remembered was looking down in absolute revulsion and physical torment as his wrist was sandwiched between the mat and the General's heavy boot, severing the connection between him and the saber.

Hux had revelled in the sickest was possible at the crunch that met his ears. The medic would later diagnose that as Ren's wrist being broken in three places, the bones almost crushed. The General grabbed him by the raven hair and hauled him up a few inches, just enough to exert power. The Knight's wrist flopped, useless and rubbery with the force he was yanked with; the alpha was pleased.

"Are you going to continue this floundering, pathetic display of stubbornness? I will ask you one more time. Do you concede? Are you going to let Lucilla and I to our business without interfering with your vile, carnal urges?" Kylo Ren looked up into that pallid face with more hatred than usual; Lucilla was his first and always would be. Did the General know that by now? Maybe. Something sentimental in the Knight wanted him to keep the creature that had spoiled him, however unwillingly. This wasn't over.

"Fine! Yes! I concede! Keep your whore!" The words left his mouth and Ren was released with another swift, brutal lash of a uniform boot to the side of the face resulting in a dumb grunt.

"I told you not to call her that."

The General was disturbed from his recollection by the pressing of soft lips against random patches of unharmed skin on his face. Lucilla was awake.

"You should be resting." She informed him tiredly before resuming her adoring pecks. He was far better now that he had been cleaned up and stitched but he still looked worse for wear.

"The adrenaline is still in me, little dove; I'll drift eventually." That wasn't necessarily true. The adrenaline had dissipated some time ago but he didn't think she'd approve of him re-living the fight. He certainly couldn't tell her the true reason for Ren's participation and it wasn't just one more night.

"I can't kiss you properly."

"It would be unpleasant for both of us." Her General agreed, lacing her fingers with his and resuming his head on her chest. Another tender peck to the forehead drew out a small grimace of a smile from the comfortable male.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Was it worth it?"

"Darling, I'd do it again right now if you asked me to."

"I won't do that to you just yet. How will you face him tomorrow?"

"Proud and with every injury and stich on display that my uniform will allow. Proof that I fought for my little dove."

"Your other officers won't know that. Wake me before you leave for the bridge."

Lucilla dozed, hesitant to sleep properly in case her General needed her. After all, he still had to command the bridge in the morning while she could sleep until lunch time if she chose. But something prickled at her General; something she'd said to him, something that (at the time) made no sense but the more he thought about it, there seemed to be an unclear implication behind it.

"Lucilla?"

"Mmm?"

"When you were in the bath, you said I handed you over like a cantina whore, what did you mean?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. What did you mean?"

She wasn't averse to using that kind of language in the throes of passion or just for his benefit when they were in the heat of it. So it struck him as odd that she'd use it when she was broken and deceived in a bath of cold water, when her mind wasn't on anything at all. It probably wasn't something Ren said to her, he doubted it. Maybe…..

"Did you never wonder how I came to you a virgin but was almost completely competent in doing the things a virgin shouldn't know how to do?" He'd never really thought about it. He just assumed…. He didn't know what he assumed. She did her duty well so he didn't question it. At least not at the time.

"I…. I can't say I did…." Hux easily removed himself from Lucilla's arms and sat up with a strained groan. His companion's eyes only started to open now. Perhaps he was in for another bout of harrowing and disturbing revelations of her past, from before he could protect her. "Lucilla, tell me."

"We were brought to cantinas; the back rooms, the private rooms, the undergrounds. Maybe four or five of us at a time; dressed in normal enough clothes, inconspicuous. Always on different parts of different planets. Never the same one twice." The General had a sinking feeling by the way she passed her hand through her hair and her voice had hollowed, like she was trying to remove herself from it.

"We had to watch the returned ones-"

"Returned ones?"

"The ones that were deflowered by their masters and returned to the compound. They were sent to cantinas for patrons to use. Their earnings were given to the ones who kept us. That's how we learned what we needed to know, what our masters would want us to know."

Hux, as gently as he could (for both himself and Lucilla) eased her back against his chest and laid his cheek against the top of her head. She'd told him about her origins, the basis on which she'd been chosen by his father but never the ins and outs of what she'd endured before that happened.

"They used it as a scare tactic. If you don't behave, that's what you'll become. And it worked. For the ones who survived." Her master wasn't sure how she kept herself even; it would traumatize even him. Lucilla was held across her stomach, her master's fractured nose lightly poised against her cheek in a vain attempt to comfort her.

"Suicide was high. Nearly every week or two. I told you about Aleen? The girl I used to live with, the one whose master branded her? She slit her wrists in the bath with a shaving razor. I've never seen so much blood…."

"Little dove." He held her face in one hand and cradled her waist with the other. The little cool drops onto his skin should have told him she'd cracked. He wanted to kiss her but the stiches in his lip would unnerve her. "You're safe. You will never endure that again, I won't allow it." It seemed Lucilla, in all her hardship, had been lucky.

"They herded them in front of a crowd and bid on them like cattle."

"Not you?"

"No. I was too valuable for that. My price range was higher. Highest, in fact. I was an advertisement, only open for negotiations for units like your father had. That said, I was sometimes put into line-ups for variety inside the compound, not outside. Only serious clients were allowed inside."

"I was the one chosen for your father's inspection based on his list. A few others were brought in for it, to make me stand out and he chose the right one." The cold rumbling of "That one" would always stay with her.

"Think of it as fate, little dove." Her master tightened his grip comfortingly on her waist while his other hand stroked the still damp silk of her cheek. "Or don't think of it at all. But you're here now, none of that is ever going to happen to you again. Neither is Kylo Ren. Go to sleep, little dove."

"Goodnight, General."

"Lieutenant." Mitaka jumped to attention. The General was nearly fully healed as he strode the platform of the bridge towards the darker haired officer, posture and uniform pristine as always. "At ease." A datapad was thrust into the Lieutenant's chest and he scrambled to catch it.

"I have an off-vessel task for you. You leave tomorrow. Open the file."

"Sir?" He did as he was commanded, his eyes flickering over the brief and the image.

"Your costs will be covered, however long it takes. That image is exactly what I need, the cost is irrelevant and I want you to contact me when you find something."

"General, this is-"

"I'm aware. Don't come back without it, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir." He could be confused when the General was gone.