Anyone looking for the new-born Brendol Hux Jr would not find him in the nursery or in the cradle that had been carefully placed in Alaria's room for his first few days of life. It lay abandoned. Instead, the infant (who was neither big nor small for a child of his age) could be found cuddled up securely to his mother's chest. He was a contented child, didn't cry very often but when he did, he was quickly comforted by Alaria.

Everywhere she went, he did too. Her husband had appointed a number of extra staff, wet nurses and the like but she never used them; she preferred to do that herself. He was her's after all. She'd never felt anything like this before. This love, this devotion, this protectiveness. It all seemed so natural to her. Besides, would he have bonded with her so quickly if she wasn't the one to feed him and tend to him? She doubted it.

Brendol was nearly three months old by the time his father returned from the Academy to see his son for the first time. He had visited while she was still expecting mostly to ensure all was going well. He didn't touch her during that visit. There was no need to. He had what he needed. There was no special treatment as such but she knew better where her husband was concerned. Again, she waited by the landing strip but this time with their son in her arms.

He disembarked as usual and made the trek from the landing strip towards the entrance of the villa where she waited. He stopped a few feet away and surveyed her. Yes. This was what he'd wanted. This was what he'd intended for her. Alaria didn't question her husband stopping so far from her and just staring. She was too compliant for that.

"Perfect." Was all he said, sounding as sincere as he could as he closed the distance between him and his wife. A large gloved hand went to the small of her back to guide her inside.

As Brendol Jr grew, he was never far from his mother's side. He was five now and followed her everywhere. She'd brush her pale fingers affectionately through his thick red strands and tell him how dark it has been when he was born. She would stand at the window with her son in her arms before she set him down to bed and explained the stars to him.

"You're destined for great things, my love. You'll rule every planet in every system in the galaxy if you want to." She wanted him to have everything. To grow strong and self-assured. He would, but not how she imagined.

"Every one of those stars is a year that I'll love you." She told him tenderly, laying a sweet kiss to his cheek as he stared out, fascinated. "Even when you're big and strong and I'm no longer here, as long as there are stars in the sky, you'll know I love you." Every night she told him this.

"And there are billions of stars in the sky, my little fox cub." Her nickname for him. She'd given it for his hair colour but she also knew her son was exceptionally clever. Alaria sat at the side of his bed and waited for him to fall asleep, stroking his hair and listening to his exhausted ramblings. His mother would wake in the very early hours of the morning to movement beside her bed. She would pull her covers back and help the toddler in beside her. He would cuddle in close to her side with her arm tucked around him.

"Darling, you know your father is coming back today." It was uttered with sleep still in her system. Brendol's heart sank.

"Why, mummy?"

"I know, darling. He won't be here long, I promise. He's needed back at the Academy." Brendol's behaviour was always heavily monitored when his father was around. He was ever disapproving, telling him to stand up straight, stop whining and to let go of his mother's hand. Alaria didn't protest this scrutiny but both her husband and son knew she wanted to. He was a child after all; he would only be a child for a short time. What was wrong with him being close to his mother? Alaria nuzzled her son, worn out but still needing to be close to her little one.

"You know you won't be able to come in here until he's gone, darling, don't you?" Brendol sighed and returned his mother's affection.

"I know, mummy."

"Just do as he says my little fox cub. Now, will you sleep?"

"Yes, mummy."

Alaria stood supportively behind her son, both her hands on both his shoulders as he waited with dread for his father later on that day. His mother's cloak moved with the breeze and Brendol, being so slender and light almost moved with it too. The ship appeared and the little boy looked up at his mother. She offered him an encouraging smile but it was strained. Brendol's icy blue eyes (inherited from his father) watched almost fearfully as the tall, imposing figure approached him and his mother.

"Brendol." His father greeted him as he would greet a stranger passing in the street.

"Father." He did as his mother had said. Just do what he expects and everything will be fine. He stood up straight, kept his head up and addressed him as 'father'. Still the Commandant just brushed past him.

"Alaria." He greeted as usual with the routine kiss to her hand and she accepted it with a grimace. When his father's back had turned to enter the villa, Brendol rested his forehead against his mother's skirt and received a brief, comforting stroke to his hair; her other hand giving his a firm squeeze.

"I know, darling." It seemed her attitude had changed towards her husband since the birth of their son. She was still quite submissive but she couldn't abide by him expecting her to treat Brendol like a robot. Or worse, the man he hadn't yet grown to be. He was a child. Her child. He would scold her for coddling him, for being attached and for that sickening nickname among other things. No doubt, she would hear it again tonight.

But no matter how much she tried to argue (which she had never done before Brendol was born) that he was still young, he always restrained himself. He would never raise a hand to her. That kind of behaviour was for men who had no control, no discipline. Commandant Brendol Hux had plenty of both. Mercifully, he was gone within a few days and things could go back to normal.

When Brendol was seven, things started to change. He still spent the same time with his mother in his father's absence, still as attached to her as ever. Sometimes she would feel faint and would need to rest doing things she never had to rest during before. Like playing with Brendol. She would cough quite heavily and it would often take her a significant amount of time to regain herself. Though she did her utmost to hide the bloodstained handkerchief from her son. One day, he wasn't allowed to see her.

"She's feeling unwell." He was told. "You'll see her when she's better." He wasn't allowed to see her the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that. After four days, Brendol was finally allowed to see his mother. He was led into her room, it was dark and stuffy.

Shepherded inside and the door closed behind him, his attention was drawn to the weak, coughing form in the bed. The little redhead's pace picked up until he got to the empty side of the bed and climbed onto , he buried his face in his mother's chest and cuddled her like he'd never cuddled her before.

"I missed you, mummy." He felt the familiar pressure of his mother's gentle hand on the back of his head as she started to stroke him.

"I missed you too, my little fox cub." Her voice was not her usual soft sigh but a fragile sort of rattle. His mother had always been pale but not like now. When he finally looked up, he was almost frightened by what he saw. Alaria's eyes were closed, her breathing was laboured and her beautiful face was gaunt. Still, Brendol cuddled her.

"Are you feeling better, mummy? They said I could see you when you were better."

"Much better since you came in, my love." They stayed there like that for what seemed like hours. He remained snuggled into her while she stroked his hair.

"Brendol?"

"Yes, mummy?"

"You know I love you, don't you, darling? More than anything in the world. In any world, in any galaxy."

"Yes, mummy. I love you too."

"I know, darling." Alaria couldn't open her eyes. If she did, her son would see her cry. "You should go. It's your bedtime. I'll see you tomorrow and remember the stars, my little fox cub."

As per usual, Brendol crept from his own room in the early hours of the morning and along to his mother's room. Her breathing was still light and forced but she was breathing nonetheless. Again, he scrambled up into her bed where he had been the night before he burrowed his way in under the blankets and settled down beside her.

He wiggled his way in under her arm and nuzzled into her securely. In safety, he drifted off again with the thoughts that everything would soon be back to normal. Brendol woke a few hours later with unease. His mother's arm was still draped around him but he was too young to comprehend that it was only warm from his own body heat.

"Mummy…." He sat up and edged his way up towards her ear. No answer.

"Mummy….." Nothing. He put his hand on her shoulder to shake her but found her cold. He shook her anyway as his little calls started to get more desperate and worried.

"Mummy please…." Brendol stared down at the woman he'd known his whole life, the only person who had ever made him feel loved. His bottom lip began to quake and his eyes started to water, barely comprehending.

"Mummy please….! Please wake up….!" Frantic, he did his best to continue to call her, to try and rouse her but to no avail like no child should have to do. Griefsticken, the small redhead descended into desperate little pleas and clung to her, despite her coldness.

"MUMMY!"

His begging sobs alerted her staff until he was removed forcefully and screaming from his mother's room. His words didn't sound like anything anymore, just incoherent whimpers of devastation as he reached back to her when he was carried away. Every step he was moved from his mother's corpse saw him fought harder and grow more frenzied to get back to her. Fists flailing and legs kicking, his howls only intensified in agony. It must have taken a callous human being to pry that lonely little boy from not only his mother but his only friend.

"She's gone, sir."

"Burn her. Bring my son to the Academy."