'Twas the Night
Main Theme- Catch You Catch Me by GUMI
The chronometer strikes twelve when Armitage slips out of the room. His little feet are snug in the gualama slippers and remind him to keep quiet. He moves sneakily down the Selonian marble stairs and then barrels down the hall to the nursery. He wants to see if the Wisties took the snowdrops. He and his father grew them together, and then sire fashioned them into wands. Late at night on Life Day Eve, the Wisties come and magick up the Life Day presents, but such kindness always cost them their wands. And so to repay their kindness, Armitage would make new wands for them every year. And Armitage always tries to catch a glimpse of them.
Unfortunately, he's never seen them, but he won't give up!
He tiptoes, not wanting to spook the Wisties, and finds the snowdrop wands being perused. By a man in black. From the view of his back, the man has shoulder-length, black hair and a gray cowl that needed to be washed.
"You're not a Wistie." Armitage says and startles the man into jumping. The man spins on his booted heels. The man has a strangely-shaped face with big ears and brown eyes. Armitage wants to boop his nose.
"You're…a toddler." The man says.
"I'll have you know that I turned four, so I'm a child!" Armitage crosses his arms like Maratelle when he leaves a book on the floor.
"What's your name, youngling?"
"Armitage."
The man freezes up like someone drenched with a bucket of cold water.
"Armitage. As in Armitage Hux?"
"Hux is my sire's last name."
"He wouldn't even let you have the surname. What a bastard!" The strange man is presumably talking about his sire, Commandant Brendol Hux.
"Of course, he is." Armitage blinks at the man's dramatic huff at the truth.
"Of course, you have no idea what I meant. You take everything seriously, even as a kid."
"Are you from the future?"
The man loses color in his face.
"So you are! What are you doing here? Are you here to kill me?"
"No! I don't hate you that much."
Armitage pouts and hangs his head.
"But you hate me."
"Not you! Just adult you."
"Then, why did you time-travel?"
"I didn't! Well, not on purpose. I thought it was a holocron!"
"So where is it?"
"…..It's somewhere in this room."
"It's playing hide and seek?"
"Sure." The man sighs through his large nose.
"I'll play, but only if you tell me your name."
"Kylo."
"Kylo, I'm the best finder in the house. Once, I found my best friend in a vent; he's a magical-talking skeleton!" Armitage beams. Kylo looks at him with shock and dismay.
"…..There's a lot there to unpack." He mutters and then concedes. "But I really have no choice."
"So what does your holo-thingy look like?"
"The holocron isn't a holocron anymore. It's something in this room."
"Oh, it's a shape-shifter like Mystic! Is there a way to find it? Like through noise or a smell?"
"The hells I know!" Kylo sighs through his nose again and resumes the game. Armitage starts like he always does when playing hide-and-seek by thinking.
Now, where would I hide if I was holo-thingy? Maybe I'd be a decoration on a tree, but there's no tree here because all the trees are too wet to be inside. It wouldn't be a present because there aren't any. And Kylo already checked the wands. Hmm, maybe the vents?
First, he heads over to the door and looks up at the ceiling vent; all he gets is hot air. He then goes over to the floor vent right by his toy box and sees nothing down. He frowns and leans against his toy box, wracking his brain for some new ideas.
My toy box. Could it really be in my toy box? That seems so obvious, but sire said that most solutions are if you look at it from another view.
Armitage flips open the lid and peers into the box. His tin knights form a legion in front of the stuffed baby dragon. Kermit holds his banjo, while a doll with razor teeth hides in his log. His puzzles lay untouched in their little corner. His wooden shield lays on top of the wooden cutlass. He lifts the shield up a bit, causing some of the knights to fall, and finds something missing.
The Keyblade! I put it away before bed like all my toys because father trusts me to be responsible. Then, where is it? Wait, did the holo-thingy steal it? How can it do that? Holos don't have real hands. Unless it uses its mind powers like Phoenix! I still don't know where it is, and Kylo did say it was hiding in this very room. I gotta tell him about the Keyblade!
Armitage closes the lid and then turns to run across the mat. Unfortunately, he trips as soon as his feet make contact with the foam. He lands on the Futhark symbol for O.
"You okay?" Kylo rushes over from his side of the room.
"Yeah." Armitage mumbles and gets up without needing help. He looks at what tripped him and sees a key-shaped impression under the mat. He peels back the mat and finds his Keyblade. His sire fashioned the Keyblade from cedar and painted it. The Keyblade's light-green blade curls slightly into itself like the pink bluebells have weight. The guard is white and gold like a royal crown with a sapphire-blue grip.
He touches the blade and feels metal.
"It's real." He whispers and then picks it up. It feels light like it was still wood, but when he swings it, he feels the weight of the metal.
"Force, tell me it's not in there."
"What do you mean?"
"The Sith artifact. It's in your toy."
"It's not a toy anymore." But does it work like a real Keyblade? Armitage wonder and then points it at the door. A dark light streams out of the key and bathes the door in it.
"What just happened?" Kylo's face scrunches up in confusion.
"I unlocked it!"
"It was already unlocked."
"I mean we can go to other worlds and maybe find Kingdom Hearts!" Armitage grins and sprints to the door. It opens and sucks him into a monochromatic void.
Armitage wakes to suffocation. He's certain that someone's trying to shove a Heartless down his throat. Really, it's just a big gloved hand on his mouth. He tries biting but his baby teeth are far too weak for the hard, muscular hand. He then resorts to licking it a lot like a blue akk dog.
"Open your eyes!" He hears Kylo whisper loudly into his ear. Armitage opens and finds himself in a very large closet filled with clothes. Most of the clothes are somber blacks and blues, but a few are an eye-catching red or an emerald green. There's only one white robe which would look great on a saintly king.
"Where are we?" Armitage asks in his quiet voice.
"The walk-in closet of the second greatest Sith Lord in the galaxy." Kylo finally puts him down, and Armitage tugs on the white robe. It feels softer than the shimmersilk bathrobe that his father liked to wear in the summer.
"How'd you know?"
"Because I looked through the keyhole and saw him and my grandfather, the greatest Sith Lord of them all."
"I wanna see!" Armitage scrambles to the door before Kylo can stop him. He finds the keyhole far above his head, and even going on his tiptoes doesn't give him the height to see, so Armitage decides to jump in place like a rabbit hopped up on space carrots.
I see a giant in dark armor and a mask kneeling before a man wearing a blue robe. Why does he wear a hood if they're inside? Is he that cold? It feels cold now—
The door swings open, and Armitage feels himself being pulled forward by the scruff of his frilly collar. He falls at the feet of the giant.
"A child?" The giant's voice reminds him of a lion's roar. Armitage lifts his head up and sees the hooded man's face. It's craggy like old castles, and Armitage is fairly certain that smiling would add more cracks to the face. His eyes are like spun gold, while his thin lips are a mischievous twist. His nose is familiar. Very familiar.
"My father has your nose." Armitage states bluntly and then blushes when he realizes how weird it must sound to this complete stranger.
"WHAT IS WITH YOU AND NOSES!?" Kylo's callous remark from the closet causes Armitage's face to flush further into scarlet embarrassment. The hooded man crooks a spidery finger, and Kylo is dragged out by an invisible pull and lands gracelessly at the hooded man's feet.
"Kylo, are you okay?"
"Don't use my name!" Kylo nearly hisses.
"Oh no, is it because if you know the name, then you own that person?"
"What!?"
"Sire told me about it once; he got it from a book, but I don't know which book…"
"Hux! Poodoo, I mean Armitage!" Kylo smacks a gloved hand over his own mouth.
"Oh no! They know my name too!" Armitage nearly panics, but the giant places a massive hand on his shoulder.
"We are not slavers." The giant booms.
"That's good, but I was talking about magic."
"Magic's not real." Kylo grouses.
"The Force is real and it's just as confusing as magic. And I know the Sith can cast spells, my father said so!"
"And who is your father, dear boy?" There's something to the hooded man's voice, almost hypnotic like a theater vampire. Perhaps, if he was just a regular boy, then he would've fallen for this serpent's charms.
"Not telling, stranger!" Armitage smiles and rests his pointer finger on his lips, mimicking his father. The hooded man's eyes widen ever so slightly before returning to their usual state.
"He is the Emperor." The giant declares.
"The God-Emperor of Dune?" But he isn't a giant worm with a human face! Armitage nearly says, but the aggravation on Kylo's face keeps his tongue still. For now.
"No, I am afraid that I'm a very human man, young Armitage." The Emperor-That-Is-Not-A-Maker replies with his serpentine voice.
"Can Kylo stand up? He's been on his knees for a long time." With a gesture of his hand, Kylo stands up like a puppet being pulled by his strings. Kylo grits his teeth as though he were trying to break those invisible strings.
"And what of the giant? He's been kneeling way before we got here."
"Lord Vader, you may rise." The giant rises with a whirl of mechanical clicks.
"Vader? Darth Vader? Dark Father? I just realize something." Armitage then smiles at Vader. "You're like a giant Heartless!"
"...I have a heart."
"Are you sure the Emperor didn't steal it? You are very shadowy." Armitage waits for Vader's answer, but he doesn't say anything after a moment of silence.
"Force, I never wanted to know!" Kylo groans, but the two Sith Lords don't seem to notice him. Or really care for that matter.
"Where's my Keyblade?"
"It was in your hand when you decided to jump into the time vortex."
"It must be hiding again!" Armitage looks excitedly around. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
"Your Keyblade allows for time-travel and it likes to hide? It sounds like one of Darth Kalara's creations." The Emperor puts a pause on the game, but Armitage will allow it for a story.
"Darth Kalara?" Vader sounds confused.
"I haven't taught about her, my Apprentince, for she's merely a footnote in Sith history. She considered herself a sorceress, but her creations were mostly failures. The Amulet of Kalara was her most successful in the sense that it did exactly what it was designed to do, which was to render the user invisible in the Force. However, any Force-user can do that if they have the talent to do so."
"I guess my Keyblade was one of her failures."
"And if I have to make an educated guess to the nature of this failure, it would be that has a will of its own and a sense of humor." The Emperor's smirk reminds Armitage of a Skesis finding the secret to eternal youth; it sends shivers down his spine.
"Kylo told me it likes to hide, and I found it under my alphabet mat, so it must be hiding somewhere in this room. The only thing we can do is play hide-and-seek!" Armitage grins and waves his hands like a flashy holo-show host.
"Then, you should play."
"I can't do this by myself. The room is so huge; it's bigger than my nursery. I need Kylo's help! Will you please let Kylo play?"
"But of course." With a twirl of his gnarled hand, Kylo is released and barely saves himself from face-planting onto the hard floor. The Emperor's golden eyes return to Vader.
"Lord Vader, why don't you participate in this game?" It sounded like a suggestion, but Armitage can tell it's actually an order. He frowns.
It's no fun when someone is forced to play!
Vader puts his hand on Armitage's thin shoulder.
"I want to play."
"Okay, but you can quit whenever you want." Armitage swears with the most serious expression on his face. Then, it falls apart a second later as the game resumes.
Kylo cannot believe his luck. All he wanted was to meet his grandfather in the flesh. He wanted more than just a disembodied voice from a broken helmet. You always want more. Han once remarked after Ben complained about only getting one robe for his life day, and the smuggler was a 100% correct. Ambition has brought him so far in the First Order, and the Dark Side rewarded ambition, or so his grandfather said.
And what was more ambitious than finding a Sith artifact to take him to the time of his grandfather?
Well, trying to get Hux not to hate him, but that's for another time.
He found the artifact on the night before Life Day in a forgotten Sith temple deep into the Unknown Regions. It took him an entire month to find it while balancing his duties to his Master. Hux and the rest of the Force-nulls were happy that he wasn't there on the ship or on Starkiller Base. A month without property damage must've been a Life Day miracle to them.
The artifact was like a living slime that spoke only Ancient Sith. It hid from him, and it took him hours to find the damn, slippery thing. It finally activated and brought him back into the past. But not to his grandfather's fortress or his meditation chamber. Instead, he was in a nursery.
It was a nursery fit for a Naboo royal trapped on a waterlogged world like Arkanis. The fairytale romance of Set and Veré was painted in pastel pinks and reds across the four walls. White, lace curtains dressed the lattice windows adorned with red Life Day bows. A portion of the red carpeted of the floor are foam mats with both Futhork and Futhark alphabets inscribed on them. There was a small bookshelf perfectly accessible for a small child with a small table nearby. It was there that he found three sticks with snowdrops wrapped around them. He thought it was some weird Arkanisian Life Day tradition.
Four-year-old Armitage crept on him like a quiet pittin and disproved his long-held belief that Hux was an abused child who parents never loved him. He had a mop of long, red hair and wore frilly, pink pajamas with roses all over them. To add to the Nabooian cuteness, he wore gualama slippers.
The little boy was bubbly and had no shame about staring at his nose. He smiled a lot and just wanted to play a game with him. He also had no fear being around someone who uses the Dark Side. He was a far cry from his thirty-two-year-old-self.
Then, things got weird and monochromatic. But Kylo got what he wanted. Just not in the way he wanted.
This is so unfair! Vader wants nothing to do with me and would rather be Armitage's buddy than be near me. Then again, he has no idea who I am, and Sidious made me look like such a fool in front of him! No wonder he would rather hang out with a child!
"Still sulking I see." The Emperor returns with two flutes of blossom wine from his royal wine cellar. Kylo would kill for some of that wine, but Sidious would Force-lightning if he so much had a drop.
"I'm looking for the Keyblade, Your Majesty." Kylo manages to keep his Solo-like sarcasm at bay if only for self-preservation.
"The bathtub is so huge! You can fit a Hutt!" They both hear Armitage's wonderment echo through the door, and Sidious has a bemused smile.
He's strangely warm to Armitage like he's legitimately trying to gain his trust. But he's Darth Sidious and probably knows something about the stupid artifact that I don't. Like maybe the artifact is tied to Armitage now since it took possession of his favorite toy. To gain control of the artifact, he needs Armitage. Until he doesn't.
"Careful, my boy, you wouldn't want to give yourself an aneurysm from overexerting your mental faculties." He takes a seat on the bed's bench, a red cushion built for two. He places the extra flute down right by him.
"How thoughtful." Kylo finally lets the Solo-sarcasm out.
"Considering the artifact's time-travel capabilities, you must've sought it out to meet my Apprentince. You're not one of his Inquisitors or one of my Acolytes, but you are a Dark Sider. Are you from one of the exiled Grays? Or, perhaps, you're apprenticed to one of my Acolytes in the future. Yes, it would explain the gaps in your knowledge."
"I know how you feel about your underlings having apprentices. You ordered Dooku to get rid of Ventress, even though she was competent at what she did. What did you foresee? Her overthrowing you?" Kylo lets his anger out with the sarcasm, a very dangerous combo, willing to risk his life if only to get a reaction out of the old serpent. The Emperor merely drinks from his flute and savors the richness of his royal vintage.
Vader and Armitage exit the refresher with bubbles following after them. Clearly, Armitage decided to turn the bath into a bubbly one.
"I made the bath better." Armitage announces.
"How thoughtful, you deserve a reward." He plucks the ignored flute and holds it out for the child. Armitage goes and takes it. He takes a sip of it, and Kylo half-expects him to collapse onto the floor because of the poison.
"This is really good."
"Blossom wine usually is, even ones from not so good years like this one."
"Was there a drought?"
"Rebels set fire to my vineyard."
Kylo remembers hearing that story from Han, but he always thought it was bantha poodoo. He almost wants to smile, but the visible distress on Armitage's face makes him curious to why the child looks ready to cry from the stress of it all.
"I heard about them. They made my father cry." Kylo knows of the little trauma that children experience when they see a parent cry and believe they caused it. You believe it's your fault because the world revolves around you. In Armitage's case, it wasn't. In Ben's case, it was. He broke the chalcedony waves, one of the few necklaces that Leia had of Breha's, in a fit of rage. He doesn't remember what he was so angry about, but the necklace was there and became his victim. Leia walked in moments later and stepped on the broken necklace. She picked it up, stared at the remnants her hand, and then silently walked to the 'fresher. He almost didn't hear her crying at first, but then he used the Force to enhance his hearing and heard her muffled sobs. He felt like a monster that deserved a fate worse than death.
"When was this?" The Emperor asks ever so gently, and Kylo realizes the true purpose of the question.
Armitage, don't say anything! Kylo wants to say, but he feels pressure around his throat. He sees Vader holding his hand out, far above Armitage's notice, and realizes that Vader is in on this ploy too.
"The eighth standard month." Armitage's cheeks turn into a frustrated maroon. "One second he was laughing and then it turned into crying. I couldn't do anything but get sire and hope he can help him."
"And you couldn't bear to touch him." The Emperor goads the guilt in Armitage.
"I'm not supposed to when he's like that! He had pain like that before, and he taught me to get sire and not to touch him. Most of the time, sire helps him."
"And some of the time?"
"They're there for each other. Always." Armitage's guilt is turned into a burning faith for his parents; the love and hope outshines the darkness. Vader relinquishes his invisible grip on Kylo's throat, and Kylo massages his neck immediately.
That was horrible. Force, now I know how that mousy lieutenant feels.
"Have you given up the game?"
"No! It's just we're running out of decent places to look. It's rude to go through someone's underthings." Armitage looks away in embarrassment.
"It is." The Emperor looks pointedly at Vader, and Kylo suppresses the urge to gag. "But there are still decent places to look."
Armitage sips at his wine and looks intently for hiding places. A few seconds later, his eyes go wide at the bed.
"I'm such a goof!" Armitage puts his flute in the Emperor's empty hand and climbs the bench. He leaps onto the bed like a pittin and remains on all fours. He feels the scarlet sheets and finds just smoothness. He reaches the wine-red pillows and lifts the right one; he finds nothing. Then, he lifts the red and finds his Keyblade. He lifts into the air like a magic sword of legend.
And Sidious has what he wants. Now, what will he do with it?
Sidious swivels himself on the bench so he faces Armitage and obscures Kylo's view of his ruined face. Armitage looks owlishly at the elderly man.
"Don't you wish your father can be here? To see this little miracle that you have wrought."
Wait, why would he care about the father?
"He would find it all interesting."
Unless.
"Do what you did before. Perform another little miracle."
NO!
Armitage points at the door and light streams from the end of the key. It hits the keyhole and envelops the entire door. With a wave of his empty flute, Sidious opens the door.
And they are all sucked into the monochrome void.
On the night before Life Day, Triclops poisoned the Prophets of the Dark Side and then danced to his heart's content. The scene before him is a snowy wonderland that glitters under the full moon's light. His pointed steps bring a snowflake into being. He ushers in the snowfall with every pirouette. His final leap brings forth the gale winds. He ends with a majestic bow before his season. The Lord of Wintertime performs his natural duties with all his inherited grace.
And then the wardrobe opens up.
A young man with a pasty face and a smattering of dark moles lands on his face with all the grace of a drunken nerf. Next comes a ginger-haired child that tumbles onto the man's back, earning a painful oomph from the brunette. The child rubs his back apologetically.
The Lords of the Sith stride forth from the monochrome void.
Lord Vader comes forward like the specter of Death himself. A skeleton's face rendered in the blackest of metals looms before them all. It would've sent a chill down his spine if not for his father. Happiness bubbles in Triclops for he normally sees his father only once a year and on his life day. In private, they are father and son, but before all they are merely Emperor and Prophet.
The Lord of Wintertime genuflects before them and keeps his eyes down.
"Why are you doing that? Your cape is way prettier than his." The child says without an ounce of fear. Triclops isn't certain if the child is foolish or brave, but the line has always been thin between the two.
"You may rise, Prophet." His father prefers to use the title rather than the name given to him by the senior Prophets. Triclops longs for the day his father gives him a real name. He rises without a word and keeps his eyes downcast.
"Master, I thought the Prophets dressed more modestly." Lord Vader's voice rumbles like thunder, but it holds no vehemence.
"Perhaps, our Prophet can explain himself."
"My Lord, I was dancing." He looks up at Vader and sees the human eyes beneath the cyborg's helm.
"As the Snow Queen?" The pasty man snorts.
"Kylo, he's from the ballet."
"Which one?"
"The White Slippers. He's one of the Four Times that dance before the Wistie Court and Mara."
"Oh yeah, that's the one with the kid brother that cuts up his sister's slippers because their creepy uncle didn't get him a pair. Or something."
"Yup!"
"The little brother is always redheaded. Even the nonhuman productions put a wig on the brat's actor."
"I don't get why all evil little boys have red hair." The child pouts.
"The original choreographer based the little brother on her own brother that she hated, and he happened to have red hair." Triclops explains to the child. The child beams like a little ray of sunshine. His green eyes, how strangely like his own, are hyper-focused on the costume. Triclops knows that the blue fabric he got for Empire Day was a cheap material, so he beautified it by stitching in sequins and false rhinestones to make it glimmer under light. It took him months to make the costume presentable, but he still feels very self-conscious wearing it before his father and Lord Vader.
Of course, a child would be dazzled by it and not see all of the messy seams or how some of the threads are different colors. And my pointe shoes do not match at all with this outfit! It's a Hoth white against a summer's blue! Father must see that too, and Lord Vader probably hates the cape; I made it from old netting and veils.
"All you need is a crown." Kylo says with a hint of sarcasm. Triclops keep his eyes on Lord Vader and refuses to roll his eyes at the rude man.
"He can make one out of ice!" The child doesn't pick up on his partner's jest, but Triclops expects that this child doesn't even know the dangers surrounding him.
"I'm not that gifted."
"But you will be!" The child insists with the certainty of a Jedi Seer. Kylo rolls his dark eyes, but then looks at the floor.
"There's frost on the floor."
"Cryokinesis. I thought it was a myth, my Master."
"As our Order once was, my Apprentince." His father's voice brims with unconcealed pride. Triclops feels warmth pool in his soul at earning his approval.
"Maybe my Keyblade is under the frost!" The child finally jumps off Kylo's broad back and looks down at the floor.
"Keyblade?" Triclops tilts his head at such a strange word.
"Darth Kalara created an artifact for time-traveling, but it's imperfect." His father explains succinctly.
"Yes, her creations had quirks." And I guess this one likes to hide since the little boy is looking for it. But there's not many places to hide. There's the wardrobe, the supply closet, and the bookshelf, but I don't see a "Keyblade" anywhere on the bookshelf. Wait, what if it can hide in a book?
"Go and join this game." His father orders playfully. Triclops has never played hide-and-seek before since he's the only child left in the Prophets of the Dark Side, and it wasn't like the other Prophets were willing to indulge a child. However, he understands the mechanics of the game thanks to his Force ability to see into the distant past. He's seen hundreds of children playing the game together in his visions.
Triclops heads to the bookshelf, while Kylo gets off his belly and heads for the supply closet at the other end of the room. The bookshelf is just a plank of wood hammered into the stony wall with books dedicated to classical dancing. Personally, he never found those books as informative as his visions.
He picks the oldest and longest book on the shelf. It smells musty like the ancient catacombs beneath the Temple. He flips the pages, being on the outlook for a key-shaped blade, and finds nothing but the intricacies of Sith Imperial court dancing. The next book is a general history of galactic ballet and, once again, he finds nothing. The final book is wrapped in blue velveteen. It's a book of fairytales revolving around dancing. He skims until he reaches the story of Shiraya's dance with Chaos. There's something wrong with the picture; Shiraya is supposed to be holding a blossom, not a giant key.
"I found it!" Triclops announces. The child runs like an overly energetic bantha to him, while Kylo stalks like a sullen teenager. His father and Lord Vader stay where they are. Triclops bends his knees, so the child can see the picture.
"Why is the giant lady trying to break the smaller man's back?"
"Shiraya's making Chaos submit to her, Armitage."
"Actually, Shiraya is helping Chaos to perform a fish dive; it's a move in a dance for two." Kylo shoots him a questionable look, but Armitage nods and then taps on the giant key decorated with flowers and leaves.
"That's my Keyblade, but how do we get it out?"
"I would say cut it out of the page, but I doubt that'll make the key physical."
"Perhaps, a spell?"
"Why don't we just perform the dance?" Armitage suggests to Triclops.
"I've never danced with an actual person before." And he's quite small. I'm afraid he'll trip up on my limbs.
"What a polite excuse. Now, I know where he gets it from." Kylo mutters the last part, but Triclops heard him quite well. He shakes his head at the grown man's childishness.
"How about Kylo? He's tall, but he wouldn't trip like I would." Armitage sounds so sad.
"I would rather have you as my dance partner." Triclops offer his hand, and Armitage looks at it for a second and then takes it with a smile. He leads the child to the center of the room. His father watches them intently like he does with new performers in his favorite operas.
He will not disappoint him.
"I'm really sorry if I step on your feet." Armitage whispers.
"Don't worry, I'm just going to lift you and you just need to bend like Chaos. You can do this." Triclops assures and feels almost like an older brother helping his little brother.
The music from the player starts on its own, most likely due to one of the Force-users.
Triclops gets en pointe, while Armitage gets on his tippy-toes. The little ginger mimics him very much like a duckling trying to follow his mother's example. They pirouette, or spin like an unbalanced tap in Armitage's case, and then Triclops raises him up. Armitage's face nearly splits from his smile, and he manages to pose like the picture in the book.
A green glow emanates from the book and becomes the hilt of the Keyblade. Triclops gently puts the child down, and Armitage scrambles to touch the hilt and pull the item out.
"Seriously, when will this end? I just want to go….back." Home was clearly dancing on Kylo's tongue, but he changed it at the last second. Triclops can feel the conflict roiling around Kylo's Force-signature. Armitage must've heard for the little boy has his eyes on Kylo for a moment. And then he points the Keyblade at the door.
A light, nearly an emerald green, shoots from it and hits the door. And then a blue and white void consumes them.
General Armitage Hux is a spoon away from the figgy pudding that he's been waiting all day to eat. He even has the viewscreen programmed to play all of his favorite Muppet movies. But then he hears crashing coming from his closet.
Please, let it be mutant womp-rats that escaped the labs. Again. Maybe I should've used the slush fund into bribing some animal sanctuary to take them in. But Mitaka did need it to get that Zeltron bartender, and he and the bartender were quite happy with that.
Armed with a plate of piping hot figgy pudding, Hux braves his room and finds himself. Or, rather, a self when he was just a youngling with long hair and gualama slippers.
"If we touch, will the world end?" This is exactly what his child-self would say if met with another version of his self.
"I don't know, but I'm pretty certain that our universe operates on multiverse since I don't remember any of this. Unless someone wiped my mind of it."
"That would be impossible because nothing can break father's shields!" His child-self huffs with all the indignation of a spoilt noble. Hux chuckles.
Then, Ren comes out of the closet and falls face-first into the metal floor. Hux notices the red-orange juices of mashed topatoes on his boots' soles.
"Ren, do you need help?" The topatoes were readied to be harvested; I was going to have topato soap for lunch tomorrow.
"I'm fine." Ren pushes himself up with his hands and then stands up.
"You've had quite an adventure."
"I swear I didn't wreck your garden. The void did that. I did step on some plants, but it wasn't on purpose! And the Emperor's trying to save them."
"The Emperor? Oh, yes, he was an avid gardener, which is ironic considering all the deaths he masterminded." Hux says the last bit in a lower voice, but his child-self doesn't seem to care about that and is more interested in the figgy pudding.
"Figgy pudding?" He offers up the plate to his child-self. Of course, the kid goes for it and takes the spoon.
And then Lord Vader walks out of the closet with mint leaves stuck to the tops of his boots.
"Do not go in there." He warns.
"Your boots smell like toothpaste."
"Armitage!" Kylo scolds.
"He's not wrong." Hux comes to Armitage's defense. The child shrugs and then puts the spoon in his mouth.
"How is it?"
"It tastes like Corellian brandy and it's dense as a brick."
"It is my first time baking something this complex."
"What about the Nabooian meat pies?"
"Did we really bake those though? I distinctly remember smashing Shiraya's face with the rolling pin."
"What?" Both Ren and Vader exclaim at the sacrilege.
"Father told me, us, Shiraya doesn't listen to prayers from our family." Armitage informs matter-of-factly with the wave of his spoon. Ren just sighs and shakes his head, while Vader just breathes heavily.
And then another time-traveler walks out of the closet. This time it's his father, but not yet. He's maybe twelve or thirteen, completely unaware of his future enslavement and the murder of his first love. He's just a tiny slip of a boy dressed like the Lord of Wintertime.
"The Emperor has saved the bloodflowers, but the rest is—" His father said that he didn't receive a real name until Kendalina helped him. Before that, he was always called Triclops. But to Hux, he was always Father.
"Hux, you're crying. Silently." Kylo states without his usual derision.
"What is with you two looking at me like I'm the most precious thing in the galaxy?" His father whispers softly, but Hux can read lips. He wipes the tears away with the sleeve of his sleeping robe.
"O Lord of Wintertime, your grace has brought tears to mine eyes." Hux recites one of the few lines from the ballet. And then he gives a bow worthy of a royal. His father flushes and looks away.
"You are such a silly man."
And then the Emperor emerges from the closet. Caf-brown dirt cakes his spidery fingers, but there's not a speck on his shaak-leather boots. He wears a civil smile.
"Ah, you must be the owner of this ingenious greenhouse."
"Pleased to meet you, Your Majesty. I'm General Hux." He kneels out of old Imperial protocol; his bows are reserved for those that matter to him.
"I've never seen a general dressed like you before."
"We all can't wear dark tabards and leather." Hux glances at Vader. Kylo smothers a snort.
"Nor would they devote a portion of their living quarters to greenery."
"Is there any greenery left, My Lord?"
"The flowers will live. The produce has not."
"A miracle nonetheless."
The Emperor finally gestures for him to get off the floor, and Hux is all too happy to do.
"I should give you a tour of the ship, but I'm afraid that might break time itself."
"Time is not so hopelessly fragile." He gestures at the cadre around them.
"For now. It'd be best to send you all home."
"We'd need my Keyblade." Armitage pipes in as he pauses in the figgy pudding.
"And it's somewhere in my room." Hux says, and Armitage nods and continues eating.
"We need to search your room." Kylo looks slightly guilty at his pronouncement. The Emperor rifles through his clothes with displeasure, his father goes through his datapads and books, and the deadly duo of Kylo and Vader use the Force to move objects out of their proper place and damage several storage cubes. Armitage continues eating the figgy pudding, while Hux tries to focus on listening to the caroling of Muppets in the other room.
In the end, Armitage finds it in the figgy pudding and sends them on their merry way, except for Kylo.
"I'm sorry about the state of your room now." Kylo looks ashamed of the mess; he's looking down at his boots like a guilty child.
"At least, nothing got destroyed."
"Except your produce."
"It's okay. I'm trained to handle cafeteria food, Life Day makes the food taste better!"
"Look, I have a chicken pot pie that I made myself and froze before my…quest. I also can make space waffles."
"With whip cream and syrup?"
"And strawberries after I rehydrate them."
"You know I've never had strawberries before."
"….You're serious."
"It's not like the Unknown Regions is a one for one translation of the galaxy's foodstuffs."
"But you're a general! You can import whatever you want!"
"I have to consider the costs of said importation, and it's usually not worth it."
"Well, I'm going to prove you wrong."
"Fine, I also expect some Life Day treat."
"How about I make you some chocolate pudding. It's a proper pudding."
"That sounds wonderful."
They both smile.
Brendol Hux finds Armitage curled up on the foam mats with his wooden Keyblade. He quietly puts the presents on the table and pockets the wands. He then scoops up the snoozing child and returns him to Rama.
"He was trying to watch the Wisties work again?"
"Yeah, but he fell asleep."
"I'll just tell him that the Wisties magicked him asleep."
"I wonder how long he'll believe in the Wisties."
"I don't know, but I will enjoy this for as long as possible. Just like his childhood."
They both smile at their sleeping child.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is an image of the Pixie Petal Keyblade, which is one of the Keyblades that Aqua obtains in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Since Armitage loves gardening and magic, it's fitting that this Keyblade would be his favorite: a href=" images/d/d0/Pixie_Petal_ "Link/a
Here is an image of Elsa from Frozen who inspired Triclops's costume though it's more a jumpsuit and a lighter shade of blue: a href=" wikipedia/en/5/5e/Elsa_from_Disney_ "Link/a
Triclops's and Armitage's dance is very truncated version of Princess Tutu's Rue and Duck dance: a href=" /hRCxygJGs5w?t=34"Link/a
I figured if the Jedi had a time-travel device, the green crystal key (that is the device's name in the holiday special and in the Wookie), then there should be a Sith equivalent. Granted, the Sith version has a lot more bugs because Sith artifacts are like spider-monkey paws. Also, the wand stuff for Wisties is totally made up by me, or, rather, by Rama and Brendol. Think of it like Santa Claus but with the SW fairies and more magic. The Amulet of Kalara does exist in Legends/EU and I did use it in Mark the Trails of Moths, though I didn't give Kalara a background story in that.
Oh, and Palpatine has a fine arts problem coupled with a crippling addiction to gardening, so he'd freak out a bit after the void destroyed Hux's closet garden. Vader and Kylo just make things worse because Skywalkers are Human Disasters, so they get the boot out of there. I'm planning a pseudo-sequel to this, but it wouldn't exactly be necessary for this to be read; it'll be all about Palps and Vader finding Armitage and Rama.
Happy Holidays and Merry Life Day!