A mass of black was hardly an unusual sight at a First Order gathering.
However, when that gathering doubled as a funeral for a high-standing official, even the usual token patches of colour in the ladies' dresses became swallowed by black uniformity. And none more so than one of the chief mourners: The Admiral's daughter in law.
Escorted on her husband's arm, and with her own daughter nowhere to be seen (normally unheard of, but Lucilla had taken the advice grudgingly), the propaganda holocams took special interest in her. Despite the sheerness of the black veil, her exquisite features were hardly hidden and that was very much done on purpose; hence the focus of the holocams.
Whether it was the revelation of the Dreadnought, Empire Day celebrations or now, her father in law's funeral, the new poster girl for the First Order tended to be on display quite a lot. Why? She was an example; a perfect specimen. Beautiful, stylish, ladylike, dignified, and all while acting as a support mechanism for her husband; she was the ideal wife, what an Imperial wife should be. She knew it too, so she carried it to a tee.
She put him first now and was seen to be doing so. Silently and nobly, with her chin inclined to convey the utmost decorum, she held his arm, her hand curled back to hold his in spousal solidarity.
The entire ceremony had been geared towards a demonstration of power and numbers; it only made sense for the First Order to honour their dead in such a spectacular and ostentatious way. All other priorities and missions had been dropped to accommodate this pageantry; this show of military might with thousands of Stormtroopers standing to salute like toy soldiers. Unlike the unveiling of the Dreadnought, the Resistance watched the funeral from an official source; one of the many hotspots for First Order propaganda on the holonet.
The moment Leia's com had chimed to inform her of some ground-breaking news, the Resistance elite went into an information-gathering frenzy. Poe had been the first to be deployed and, typical of his record, he was successful. Or so he claimed. Leaning forward towards the projection table, arms crossed over his chest, Poe began to divulge his grapevine findings.
"They're saying it was an inside job."
"That makes no sense." Leia disagreed solemnly, but at a loss for anything else. "He was one of their best. A blustering, bawling elitist, but one of their best. The First Order aren't going to revert to internal, military assassinations when their power is at this height; unity is everything. Especially long-standing, gifted officers; an officer that's partially responsible for putting them where they are now. Even more to the point: The General's father. You said he was due to start a mission to the Outer Rim?"
"That's what my contact said. It wasn't just a run of the mill excursion, either. Probably funding or surveying potential new sites for something."
"Then it makes even less sense." It wasn't unusual for Leia to be called from her bed to oversee something like this, but it never made it any easier. "Unless he was starting to turn but we would've heard something before they did to take him out."
"Doubt it." Finn chipped in, someone with more experience with the First Order than any of the others; having been raised and programmed within it from earlier than he could remember. He knew the big players, and Admiral Hux was one of them. "He was die-hard like the General. The Empire came first, then the First Order. His son didn't even come close."
"Maybe that's why." Poe shrugged, while Leia watched the unfolding of the glaringly over-the-top display; only half-listening to the conversation. "Hux got tired of coming second."
"Hux don't give a flyin' fuck 'bout his father. I'm su'prised at you, boy." Came the gruff, off-the-cuff input from the side; much to the curiosity of everyone else in the room. "They loathe each other. His father was never family, and Hux is all 'bout family now. Or so he says."
"I thought you were being uncharacteristically quiet, alright." Leia said soberly, lifting her heed from the projection to cast a bleary eye over the grizzled smuggler in the corner. "This, Rey…" The General half-turned on her elbow to address the particularly blaring intrigue of one young Force sensitive in the room. "Is Keir Bey. General Hux's father in law. Your daughter is beautiful, by the way, Keir." Leia meant it, even if it only sounded half-hearted. Rather, the sigh was born of dejectedness and the gaze on the projection table, doleful when Lucilla was found by the holocams once more.
"I detest the bastard as much as the rest'a you. Jus' for the record. I can't account for my daughter's taste." He clarified, prompted by the clear strike of scandalized surprise in the younger woman's expression; like a slap to the face of having someone so close to the enemy in their tightest ranks. "But Poe's right. It was an inside job. And I reckon I know who did it."
"Wanna share that with us? Along with the reasoning? It makes no sense for it to be an inside job, Keir."
Keir, like Leia, let his paling eyes linger on the livestreamed hologram of his daughter's face; someone he felt like he didn't know anymore. Still, he'd garnered enough information on his last few (strained) visits to Supremacy and com calls to his little girl.
"Watch 'em." Came the rough instruction and led by example, the others followed. The room observed a muted conversation between the General and his wife (that had been hushed from those around them anyway) among the mourners, complete with a reverent kiss to her silk-wrapped hand. "He worships the ground she walks on, might'a made stupid mistakes 'long the way, but he'd die for her. I've seen it, she's told me herself and I've every reason to believe it."
There was no disputing that, despite how the most trusted of the Resistance scrutinized every move the couple made.
"Go on, Keir." Leia pressed, cupping her chin in her palm and supporting her elbow on the projection table.
"Lucilla and the Admiral, for a number of reasons that I ain't goin' into, didn't get on; and all the more since Lilia was born." In spite of the heavy steel-toe caps, Keir was almost silent in the way he stalked the full circle of the projection table, and never taking his eyes from it. "They don't look too put out 'bout their beloved Admiral kickin' it, do they?"
Again, no argument there. As it happened, one could even be forgiven for thinking that the Admiral's nearest and dearest couldn't have looked less distressed or interested in the proceedings. Keir took his comrade's silence as having given them plenty to observe and more to think about. The expected disdain and borderline loathing in the average (and arranged) Imperial couple was nowhere to be found. Rather, the couple in the projection radiated a clear and mutual devotion; an overhaul of the typical Imperial marriage model.
"Like I said, he'd die for her. And I know for a fact he's a'ready killed for her, directly or indirectly don't matter."
At that, Leia leaned off her palm and straightened, ageing air creased in dawning comprehension; or… at least she thought she understood. She wasn't the only one. Poe and Finn regarded each other grimly; whether it was good news that the Order was killing off its own members was either really good news, or really bad.
"You're saying Hux killed his father because of Lucilla?" As if on cue, as if her name had summoned her, the breath-taking porcelain features of the same name re-appeared on the projection. Did the holodroid operator find himself so enamoured with the General's wife that he ensured the holocams kept revisiting her?
"Tha' spineless bollocks?!" Keir scoffed, with a harsh bark of laughter to boot; enough to make Rey flinch. "You really should le' me finish b'fore you go jumpin' to conclusions, General." Keir's skulk of the projection platform made a second round and, like the first, his eyes never left hologram. "No, he's fuckin' useless. He wouldn't take on somethin' like tha' in case it came back to bite him."
"If he didn't do it, then who did?!" Leia began to get testy, her impatience fuelled by tiredness and frustration. "You said you knew!"
"And I do." As if there was pleasure to be drawn from Leia's volatility, Keir sat back against an empty workbench and aimlessly watched as the holocams conducted a sweep of the sheer expanse of the funeral and its attendees.
"Somethin' else she told me durin' one of my visits… Somethin' I wasn't sure what to make of then but the more I think 'bout it, the more its fittin' in-"
"Keir!"
"I think the Admiral was collateral damage." Right or wrong, Keir was sure he was the former but maybe he wasn't too far off the mark, despite being the latter. "I think he found out somethin' he wasn't meant to know. Somethin' Hux and Lucilla didn't want him to know."
"On my last visit, Lucilla told me somethin'… somethin' disturbin'. Somethin', I gotta say, I wasn't expectin'-"
"Keir." The end of Leia's tether was not only in sight but was quickly beginning to fray; as suggested by the peeved curve of her lip under the almost amused surveillance of Poe and Finn. "Get. On. With. It." The smuggler had already disclaimed that he couldn't account for his daughter's taste and this particular revelation was no exception; if it was even true, of course. The explanation had been farfetched and unsatisfactory but, now faced with two Force sensitives, anything was possible where that bunch were concerned.
Grounding himself and clicking his tongue in contemplation of how to drop such a bomb, perhaps he focused a little too closely and pointedly on General Leia Organa; fixating on her face for a reaction.
"Kylo Ren's made a claim as the baby's father."
Naturally, Leia's face whitened and any tension it held dropped immediately in favour of pure stupefaction. The aggression and impertinence melted into near-helpless incomprehension; much to the sympathetic, stunned and awkward grimaces of others in the room, depending on what they knew.
"Wouldn't do for the Admiral to know tha', now would it?" Keir went on, sparing Leia a response (that it didn't look like she could have formulated anyway), and resuming his careless saunter. "Humiliate him and his son, so it would; doesn't matter a shit it it's true or not. It's another reason to destroy her. So… Only makes sense to strike first, don't it? Before he can do anythin' 'bout it?"
Lucilla was only partially visible when Keir's heed returned to the projection but the longer and harder he looked, the closer it seemed to zoom on her; as if answering when her father silently called her.
"My lil girl was taken from me at six years old." Faraway and hollow, Keir's voice wasn't meant for anyone as such; if he even realized he spoke aloud at all, but Rey felt an internal jolt at it regardless. "She was put through the worst things a human can go through. But she survived, because she made herself survive. She's a survivor, and she'll do what it takes…"
Blinking, then re-immersing himself in reality from the staring daydream, it was a harsh truth (or so he believed) but when the circumstances had been so cruelly out of both their control (she had been a child: a helpless, innocent child), had it been easier to believe her dead? If he had had the twisted imagination to even conceive the things she might have been going through? And not too far from where Keir searched tirelessly for her?
"There." The smuggler jabbed, overcome, at the hologram of his daughter's perfect but oblivious face. "There's your killer."