Quarter of a Century Later

The tall woman with the pale face and bright eyes sneered in the general's face. "Ah, Hux. If only you weren't so old, perhaps I'd make you a play thing." The general made no move except for a slight uptick of a brow. After a moment the woman licked her lips. "Or maybe age is only a number, after all. What do you say?" She wrinkled her nose playfully and winked, taking care to stretch so that her cleavage was displayed prominently.

General Armitage Hux's cheeks burned scarlet. "I'm only as old as your father."

Smirking, the woman flipped her long braid over her shoulder before crawling onto his desk on all fours. Her long limbs covered the entire surface and the general leaned back to avoid touching her. "You know I like to toe the line. Our games are so fun, Hux." She flipped onto her back and kicked her legs up in the air.

"You're an abomination." His lip curled as he watched her writhe before him. "Don't you have something to do?"

The woman shrugged. "Aren't you tired of the foreplay? Come. I'm bored. I command you to entertain me." She arched her back and moaned slightly. "Don't fight it, Hux."

Hux sighed and settled back in his chair, pushing back to put more space between them. "Fight what? I'm trying to work and you barge in day after day, making your noises and flaunting yourself like a brood mare! Your juvenile games are so amusing to you, aren't they? At your age I was well on my way to being a general, if I wasn't already. And I don't need to tell you all your parents achieved." He leaned on an arm rest and sighed. "Run along. Your sister will be here with a project any minute."

"Hux," the woman scoffed. "I'm twenty four. And I don't have to do shit." She rolled her eyes. "Mommy and Daddy aren't going anywhere and you know that. All I have to do is be around when they die." She thought a moment, then leaned in. "I'm not convinced Daddy's really going to ever let mom die. Not after Rylah was born and Mom was bloodying up the medical bay. Do you remember how crazy he was? Kriff. If one of them goes, both of them will." She yawned. "C'mon, Hux. Enough family history. Let's play." She reached out toward him but he slapped her hand away.

"Don't be so crass," Hux hissed. "You'll not speak ill of the Supreme Leader and Empress in my presence."

"All I'm saying is that I can do whatever I want. Or whoever. Like a ginger general. Who's going to be mad about it?" She shrugged. "The anticipation is only making me want this more." She blinked up at him.

Hux leaned forward so he was mere inches from her. "Get off my desk."

"It's treason to disobey a command from a princess. I could execute you."

With a nonchalant shrug, Hux nodded. "Then it's treason. If you want to have sex with an older man, go find General Dameron."

Anya sneered. "Uncle Poe? Stop."

"He's not your biological uncle, you twit. Fuck him if you want." Hux regretted the words as soon as he spoke them. A dark shadow loomed in the doorway, obviously observing the raunchy conversation and the way Anya was laying provocatively across his desk. "Ah. Supreme Leader. Good. I was trying to prepare for our meeting but one of your children saw fit to bother me."

"Hi, Daddy." Anya rolled over and hastily shrugged her breasts back into her tunic. "Way to knock."

"If you're going to try to fuck the general, be more discrete." Kylo Ren frowned at her. His gaze flickered from his daughter to Hux. "Your sister could have walked in at any minute. What would your mother think about that? Rylah already told your mother about you and Commander Finn."

Shocked at the airing of her dirty laundry, Anya gasped and quickly looked to Hux. "That was just a one time thing." Then she rolled her eyes. "Daddy. Please. You're the one interrupting here, and that's your apology? Besides, Mom obviously doesn't give a shit what people think if she married you."

The Supreme Leader's lip curled. "I see you don't believe I'll send you to Naboo."

Hux sat back and figured he'd enjoy the show. Blow-ups between Kylo Ren and Anya Solo were almost daily, even hourly sometimes. His eldest daughter was similar to him in not only appearance, but power and temper. The Empress found her charming, but that was only because Anya put on her best show for her mother. Her worst she reserved for her father.

Fearless, Anya strode toward Kylo Ren and matched his gaze. She was only an inch or so shorter than him. "You can't do anything to me. The people would riot of they found out you banished a princess. Try it, I dare you."

Ren stepped closer, his eyes darkening. Now he loomed over her, seeming to grow taller as his voice grew softer and more lethal. "I'm not in want of an heir. You forget I have two other daughters. Try me."

When the air around the pair began to sizzle, Hux cleared his throat. "Might we deescalate this? I'm expected at the Empress's council in an hour and we have matters to discuss, Ren."

Kylo swallowed and stepped back, not tearing his glare away from his daughter's face.

Anya's expression twisted into a smug pout. "What can I say? It's in my blood. It's the Solo charm, isn't that what your father used to say?" A cruel smile came to her lips as Kylo's face fell. "Or did you block that from memory like his face when you killed him?"

That was quite enough. Kylo Ren stood either stunned or restraining himself, Hux wasn't sure, but the atmosphere smelled like the Force and he wouldn't have a sloppy argument destroying his office or potentially killing him. "Get out," Hux roared, jumping to his feet and storming around the desk. He snatched the girl by the bicep and practically threw her across the room toward the door. "I've dealt with irrational, manipulative Solos for long enough! Come back when you've grown up." He made a fist and smashed the panel by the door. When it whirred shut, locking Anya in the corridor, he took a breath and steadied himself before turning back to Ren. "She couldn't understand. She's a child." Flashes of his own father's assassination at his hand passed his mind. Hux had no children of his own but could almost imagine the feeling of an heir throwing such a horrid story in his face.

Ren sank into a chair and ran his hands through his hair, sighing.

Hux frowned. "For what it's worth, I can assure you her seduction is for naught. I'd never-"

"I don't care," Ren interrupted. "She can handle herself. She'll eat you alive. There's not a person alive who can tell her what to do and I keep waiting for you to rub my face in it." He pointed at the door. "I deserve her and you know it. She'll strike me down some day. I got what I deserved and she'll have that smile on her face when she kills me like I killed my father." The last words came out softly, as if they physically hurt to speak.

"Please," Hux snorted. "She's not you, you're not Han Solo, there's no Snoke, there's no war." He settled back into his desk and took a few more deep breaths to calm his pounding heart. "She's a child seeking thrill and adventure. She grew up on stories of what we did at her age and now that there's peace, what's she to do? Annoying, yes, but she's only trying to make a name for herself somehow. She's Kylo Ren's daughter, Darth Vader's descendent. She's grasping at a connotation what barely exists anymore."

Grunting his agreement, Kylo pulled his saber from his belt and studied it for a moment before dropping it on the desk. "Rey wanted an easy life for them. Look what happened. Anya. She's a beast in a cage."

Hux shook his head. "It's not that you deserve Anya. It's Gemma and Rylah you don't deserve." Finally he smiled at his old friend and won a smile in return. Chuckling, Hux reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of liquor and slid it along with a glass toward the man in black. "One of them had to be like you."

"I know." Ren rubbed his brow. "How is she doing, anyway? Gem?"

"Swimmingly," he explained as Ren took a long drink. "Gemma is a perfect apprentice. Rylah stopped by and expressed interest as well, but in battle planning and strategy, not negotiations."

Ren nodded. "Thanks."

"For?"

He shook his head and motioned vaguely toward the rest of the base. "This. All of it. Everything. The girls." He sighed. "They love you."

"Me?" Hux scoffed. "They love Dameron. They love Finn. They report to me."

"No," Ren replied. "Gem's in negotiations. Why would she be learning from you? And Rylah would fit better with Dameron. But they chose you." A lopsided smile came to his face, upsetting the long scar at his cheek. "And Anya. Well. You handle her well. Thanks for that."

"Did Finn really? I know he's a dolt, but fucking your daughter?"

Ren's face twitched. "I don't want to talk about it."

Stroking his chin, Hux gritted his teeth. "Traitor," he hissed through his teeth. "So like him. He was there when she was born. Disgraceful."

"Hux."

"If you haven't taken him out behind the weapons shed, I don't see why you wouldn't! Can you imagine-" A blast from the Force cut him off. No, some things never changed.