"I need to speak with you." The beat in between hummed with urgency, even if the General barely turned his head in acknowledgement. "Now."
"If it is about Lucilla, Ren, I'm not interested." Hux imparted curtly, taking off on one of his overseeing strides that the Knight automatically followed; if the redhead thought he would not be followed, his darker counterpart proved him wrong. "I am absolutely disgusted with her, putting herself and Lilia in danger the way she did. And believe me, I have every intention of sleeping in the spare bedroom tonight."
There was no chance that private and personal comment had not been overheard; not when the bridge was alive with officers, Stormtroopers and droids. But the General (and Ren, to a lesser degree but he would come to appreciate the importance of it with this new turn of events) took great pride in the discipline and loyalty of his officers; therefore, he trusted them entirely not to eavesdrop.
"It concerns something else." Ren replied evenly, keeping step with his new subordinate (as opposed to his equal) effortlessly on a parading lap of the bridge. Hands clasped behind his back with the utmost military propriety, the redhead stopped and turned on the toe of his boot; even though Ren was bigger in every way, Orion showed no sign of intimidation.
"What else?"
"It is not safe to speak here." The Knight uttered, that thrum of urgency returning once his eyes had flickered around their immediate vicinity for a new reconditioning victim that might use the information against them. It would not be, after all, the first time First Order stock would have betrayed them. Or perhaps Ren was simply paranoid, still running on free-flowing adrenaline after what he had just done. "Your office. Ten minutes, General."
"You did WHAT?!" A good thing he was sitting down. And really, what else could Ren have expected?
"This is a trick!" Hux spat, attempting to inject some reason into his tone; but whether Ren was riling him or telling the truth, he was already too far gone from reason. "I know that if I go to the throne room, I will find my master alive and well!"
"You can visit the throne room if you wish, General." Ren replied smoothly, watching the unhealthy pace of the redhead's breathing and the manic pulse of the vein in his neck; if stress was going to kill him on any given day, it would be this one. "But you won't find him alive. You certainly won't find him well."
"What…" Hux seethed through gritted teeth, the full implications of it still not registering; even if he was slowly coming around to the idea of Ren telling the truth. "Possessed you… To do something… So remarkably… STUPID?!"
"Lucilla."
The answer was a brief, simple, one-worded one that made the General's stomach drop and his eyes bulge. The casual nature of its delivery did not help matters. Naturally, it was greeted with dumbfounded silence; the disbelief thick in the room. Until…
"You're telling me..." The redhead began, fighting to keep his tone and his nerve steady, after what felt like an age. "That my wife... made you kill… our master?" Before the Knight could interject with a technicality, Hux went on in mocking flippancy; belittling the sentiment enough for Ren's nostrils to flare. "So, first, she petitions you to kill my father, then our master and… what now, Ren?! Am I next?! Is that why you asked me here?! Because I scolded her?! Which I had every right to do?!"
"She didn't ask me to kill Snoke." Kylo Ren (on this rare occasion) reminded himself of patience and wrestled himself internally to the same level of diplomatic stability as the General. "She didn't demand it and she didn't petition it. She knew nothing of it. I did it on her behalf. To protect her and Lilia."
And that, Hux decided, was the last straw in all this lunacy.
"The Supreme Leader has always doted on Lucilla!" Hux barked, indignant as he sprang to his feet from the plush comfort for his office chair. "He welcomed her aboard Supremacy himself! He assembled her medical team himself! He implored her to come to him should she require anything more! But… You felt it prudent to slaughter him to protect her?! I don't know who is more reckless, you or Lucilla!" Flustered and panting with frustration, the redhead found himself seated again. To look at it from that perspective, no doubt, made Ren's impulsive actions seem pointless, futile and downright damaging to the First Order.
"Merely show, General." Ren countered smoothly, passive and relaxed while he remained justified in his own actions. "Snoke summoned me to berate me for rescuing Lucilla and Lilia. He was willing to sacrifice them - yes, he used that word-" A clarification that made the General's lip twitch. "If it meant securing a location on the Resistance. But, neither he nor you wanted to listen when you were told that the Resistance had nothing to do with the abduction. That's why I killed him."
He let that damning statement sink in, and judging by the begrudging, semi-permanent snarl imprinted on the redhead's pasty face, it made all too much sense; more sense than Hux would have liked to admit, therefore justifying Ren's impertinent deed. Something else struck though, something Hux had taken care to notice since this insane conversation started: the way Ren referred to their master. He no longer granted him his proper title of Supreme Leader and that proved to be something, of all the absurdity to occur that day, that would strike Orion the hardest.
"So, what happens now?" The older of the two males challenged the youngest with undertones of hostility; leaning, rigid, forward on his desk and glaring up at his darker counterpart. He already feared it, he just needed to hear it.
"I assume the mantle of Supreme Leader." Yes, Orion had dreaded it but strangely, Ren did not gloat, nor did he flaunt the fact. Sombre and composed, the Knight gave Orion the curtesy of a few moments grace to come to terms with the new monumental shift. "And there are going to be changes, General. Or should I say… Grand Marshal."
In all the things Orion expected Ren to do as his first act as Supreme Leader (if he had ever conjured such an eventuality in all his life), it was not bestowing on him both a rank and title that Snoke had continually refused him. Then again, the new Supreme Leader seemed to know the value in such allies. Especially with his second act close on the heels of the first.
"The changes will not be instantaneous…" Ren was saying as he and his newly appointed Grand Marshal of the First Order strode side by side, retracing steps from earlier that day. "But nothing good comes easily. I have a plan; we just have to secure one more piece before we can set everything in motion. After that, all will click into place and the galaxy will rest fully within the grasp of the First Order."
"I admit, Ren, I was dubious." The fresh Grand Marshal (and he relished that new title) confessed fairly, keeping stride, boot for boot. "But your logic and your planning are meticulous; even if your initial reaction was rash." Trust Hux to come back with a double-edged compliment; enough for Ren's eyes to roll in their sockets. "One would think you had already planned to murder the Supreme Leader, but you were simply short of an excuse." Maybe that wasn't the most inaccurate explanation but the newest in a short line of Supreme Leaders would neither confirm nor deny it.
Lucilla had no appetite but not only was the small meal she prepared to benefit Lilia, it also served as a distraction. If she could focus on it for a measly few minutes, it was a measly few minutes less of reflecting on her utter failure in motherhood; something she cherished beyond her wildest dreams, in all the material possessions she owned.
Free-range Endorian chicken (only the best, of course), boiled rice and a spicy sauce (admittedly from a foil pouch from one of her last planetside excursions) would suffice for that evening when she had a sneaking suspicion Orion would not be joining her for dinner. Perhaps, that suspicion was somewhat premature. Particularly when he arrived before expected (if she had expected him at all) with Kylo Ren in tow.
This can't be good… She thought anxiously, bowl in hand but her heed on it had evaporated with the arrival of those two silent males. Oh Gods, I'm in trouble, aren't I…?
"Is Lilia asleep?" Orion questioned offhandedly, stripping off his coat and hanging it from its designated hook; mammoth overhaul in the Order (for the better from what he could see) and promotion aside, Lucilla's misdemeanour still irked him.
"Yes…?" Uncertainly, Lucilla's incomparable sapphires flitted to Ren lumbering around the kitchenette; his piqued attention centring on the leftover portion of spicy, sticky chicken and rice. "I wanted to eat while she was asleep…" Feeling the gaze, the solid shadow gestured subtly to the portion; a wordless inquiry that Lucilla gave her blessing to. After all, is it not the least she could do? Feed her and her daughter's rescuer?
"Lucilla, there has been a development." Orion began stiffly, much to his younger wife's dreading curiosity. Before he could be summoned, Ren appeared at his fairer counterpart's side, modest meal in hand, to aid the explanation. "Supreme Leader Snoke is dead."
If it was possible, the already-pale little darling drained of colour another shade. Supreme Leader? Dead? The all-powerful, all-knowing thing that had instructed her to make Supremacy her home? How?
"But… He… How…?"
"I did what I had to do." Ren cut in, his impromptu and accidental meal forgotten but only for a moment. "He was willing to let you and Lilia be used as bait for the Resistance and I could not allow that." Lucilla, like Orion, felt this information to be out of place and for the same reason. Snoke had welcomed her and treated her with benevolence but… it seemed he would not think twice of using her or her young daughter as a pawn when it suited him. And again, Ren had swung in to protect them; albeit in the severest of ways.
Lucilla, knowing her husband's dedication to the First Order and therefore his master, searched the familiar redhead's face for something that might indicate betrayal, discomfort, fear or fury but passive nonchalance resided where they should have been. That… That couldn't be right. And being so tolerant of Ren all of a sudden? She had to beg the same question as Orion.
"But… If the Supreme Leader is gone…" The two recently promoted males exchanged a look, predicting the question. "What happens-?" It was Ren's doing so he took the liberty of answering.
"I'm the Supreme Leader now." Yes, he had expected those endearing features to melt into bewildered concern, her meal now long forgotten about. "I have watched for far too long, watched Snoke make the same mistakes and miss opportunities. I have already started to make changes." Chocolate eyes slid sideways to where the former General stood proud; he would start designing his new uniform at the first chance; the rank of Grand Marshal previously uninhabited in the history of the Order. "Snoke refused to grant your husband a rank he has deserved for quite some time-"
"Grand Marshal…"
"I have done that. I will put assets, resources and funds at his disposal that he could previously have only dreamed of." Ren's bowl met Lucilla's on the table; the two ceramic pots lay by the wayside as history was made in the little apartment, a functional family home. It enabled him to take a knee in front of the blue-eyed beauty and focus his gaze on hers on her own level; she returned it, but still found herself wary.
"That just leaves you." He implored softly, dropping his voice for intimacy and privacy; Orion allowed it. "We're going to tell everyone what happened today, or what almost happened. When they see that the Resistance had a hand in attempting to kidnap an unarmed woman, a darling of the galaxy, and her child… The masses will turn from them and turn towards us; to shield them from the tyranny of an X-Wing, when they see them for what they really are. And when that happens, you'll guide them with that trademark gentility of yours. As Imperial Empress under the First Order flag."