Chapter 8, Son

Their peace is short lived as the resistance arrive.

Kylo reacts quicker than Hux does, moving almost immediately when the alarm begins to sound. He all but falls to the floor from the sofa, scrambling to his feet ungracefully. In the centre of the room, he stands with his head darting around in search of something. Hux follows suit but can't see anything apart from the confusion on Kylo's face.

It's only a glimmer, a glint in the darkness of where the Force would inhabit his mind before it fled his changing body, but it's there. Kylo can sense it. Can feel him there. He lets out a whisper that Hux struggles to hear, but does. It burns them both all the same. "Han Solo."

Hux steps in front of him and offers his hand that Kylo grips onto. His voice is tight and thick with emotions Hux knows he wants to hide, his eyes make it impossible and betray him. "He's here, Hux."

"What do you want to do?" Hux enquires, their next course of action cannot be his decision alone. It's their future, not just his.

"You are still general, despite what we know." Hux squeezes the hand in his own, little comfort he knows. "Snoke can't sense any deceit — you need to lead."

"And you?" Hux asks, dread twisting in the pit of his stomach. To what extent can he lead now?

Kylo sighs, eyes wandering away, unfocused and blurred with unshed tears, "I have questions for my father."

"Kylo," Hux says as the Omega drifts from his hold towards the door, he's no longer listening, "Kylo!"

Turning his head back with tears tracking down his cheeks, he breathes, "Hux. I need answers."

"Not in this condition," Hux argues, reaching to hold Kylo's wrist harder than really necessary. He doesn't want to let him go. "Your heat isn't fully over, the other Alphas will be able to scent you and—"

"And they will only find you on my skin, they will know I am yours." Kylo wanes to a whisper, fingers brushing through Hux's fringe to push it back into place.

Hux pulls him closer and places a hand on Kylo's stomach, "And if Snoke is right?"

Feeling a twinge under Hux's solid palm, Kylo doesn't hesitate. "I will fight until the death to protect him."

Hux can only blink. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Kylo steps into a kiss and Hux lets his eyes close, his other hand joining its fellow on Kylo's flat abdomen, just below his navel; where his child may — will — grow. Pulling away, Kylo makes to leave. He can't look at Hux again, he won't be able to go if he does. His eyes drop as he turns moving towards the door.

"Him?" Hux echoes, his hold empty of Kylo.

He falters in voice and step. "Just a feeling."

"Wait," Hux pleads after a beat. Kylo twists back to him and when the Alpha sees the tense look on his face he adds, "Just a moment."

Kylo does as he asks, nerves fraying as he watches Hux hunt around, ducking under the table he has pushed to the side of the main door. It's not like Kylo uses it. When he does eat, he stands in the kitchen or crashes on the sofa. His leg begins to twitch, though he only notices when Hux stands facing him. Kylo almost breaks upon seeing his helmet in Hux's pale hands; the pointlessness of his life's work reflects back at him. Both pairs of hands shake as the helmet is passed to Kylo.

"It will help hide your scent."

And protect you when I can't, Hux leaves unsaid; Kylo hears it nonetheless.

Kylo kisses his Alpha one last time before turning from him as he puts his helmet on. He doesn't want his mate to see him in it, what it now symbolises is unclean and burning. The tightness encasing his head is familiar but uncomfortable, though he agrees that it will give him the edge he needs to survive. He approaches the door, pausing only to enter the unlock code. Sliding open, the chaos ensuing outside is so overwhelming that Kylo has to take a step back to steady himself. Without looking back, Kylo steels himself before he steps out into the corridor and disappears out of sight.

Hux is left feeling hopeless, bereft when he can no longer see Kylo. His heart aches in a way he never thought possible and a sweat builds on the back of his neck. The separation has been only seconds but he can already feel the effects. It's worse knowing Kylo will feel it thrice as much being a newly mated Omega. He has to trust that Kylo can protect himself because he has work to do now that the Resistance have arrived. He just has to.

Kylo walks through Starkiller Base with purpose, his hand hovers over his lightsaber — fingers twitching when someone gets too close. He keeps his head held high, grateful for the helmet hiding the grimace on his face. His stomach knots, clothes are too tight, his legs are weak making his gait more awkward than normal. No one gives him a second glance, too busy with orders sent down from those second to only Hux in his absence. He tries to feel where the general is, but he can't. Kylo imagines him on the bridge, hard coolness in control, people running around to please him. Hux will survive if Kylo doesn't.

Rounding various corners and twisting hallways, Kylo keeps his composure all the way to the last stretch, his father is somewhere beyond the doors ahead of him. He starts when the doors hiss open unexpectedly, heart racing faster than before. The approaching squad of Stormtroopers fill the width of the corridor and it takes all of his strength not to flinch away. Still Lord Ren to them, they part to let him through unimpeded. The quivering of his hands never cease as he walks through into the almost empty oscillator structure.

Of course the Resistance would strike here; it's like the Death Star all over again.

Stalking up to the rail edging the chasm, he looks to his left and to his right, commanding, with as much conviction as he can, the officers he sees to leave with any remaining troops. Their time is best spent elsewhere. Anywhere away from him as he senses the Alpha in them.

He breathes a sigh of relief when he's left alone, but then he feels it washing over him like a nightmare. Or a dream. Without full use of the Force, it's more difficult to pinpoint exactly where his target is. He follows his gut out onto the catwalk across the abyss, freezing when he hears that voice — that name — from behind him. His heart stops with his legs.

"Ben!"

Kylo turns to see the man he's tried so hard to forget. He looks the same yet so much older. Has it really been that long?

"Han Solo." He can almost hear the hitch in his father's breath despite the distance between them. "I always knew this day would come."

The clanking of feet against the metal catwalk or the opening of a door in the distance isn't enough to distract his eyes from the man approaching him, stopping only a few feet away. "Take off that mask. You don't need it."

He scoffs, it's the only thing short of Hux that he needs in this moment. "What do you think you'll see if I do?"

"The face of my son."

The silence is deathly. All Kylo can hear is the blood pumping in his ears and the wind whipping around him. His hands shake as he lifts them to press the mechanism to open the helmet, the whirling of the servomotors deafening. Pulling the helmet from his head, he can feel a new wave of emotion flowing across the gap. It hits him in the chest and he bites, "Your son is gone."

The emotions change to something harder, tenser, but it's true. The son Han Solo knew is indeed gone, twisted by the dark and engulfed by the truth of his nature.

He knows Solo can immediately sense the difference, can smell the Omega scent emanating from his son. He doesn't have to move forward to know, but he does. "That's what Snoke wants you to believe, but it's not true. My son is alive."

"No." Kylo says, trying not to choke on the words he hopes are more convincing than the doubt in his mind. "The Supreme Leader is wise."

"Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you. You know it's true."

Snoke has everything he wants now; his prophecy, his Omega, his broodmare. "It's too late."

"No, it's not." He's so close, Kylo can see the wrinkles in his skin and the questions running through his mind. But it's the deep sadness in his eyes that strikes harder than anything else. "Leave here with me. Come home. We miss you."

"I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain." Kylo shakes his head, tears coming and his throat constricting. "I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?"

He knows what he's asking and he knows he won't make it off Starkiller alive. Snoke will be in his head, will see the treason and hear these words. But how can Kylo stay knowing Snoke's plan; that there is a child developing in his womb? A child that will be exposed to a torture worse than his own, and he will be powerless to stop it.

Solo takes a step in earnest. "Yes. Anything."

Kylo nearly falls to his knees when he hears his father's words; he holds himself up, only the helmet slipping from his grip. It drops over the edge of the catwalk, disappearing into the depth of smoke and the unknown. It's the final thing, the sign, he needed to concrete his decision. He watches his past tumble away, then turns to Han Solo. To a future. "Anything?"

"Yes." The older man steps directly in front of him and Kylo grasps onto the arm extended to him.

Deep in his lower abdomen, an appreciative flutter stuns him. It's the same thing he felt from before when Hux had touched his belly. His fingers tighten around Han's forearm and he gasps, "Hux."

Kylo could crack at the sight of his father's face contorting into something ugly. "The General?"

It was almost too good to be true. He can see the disgust upon hearing Hux's name. His crimes against the galaxy are infamous, but his own are worse. His father — and his mother — won't be able to truly forgive him, he prays they will at least help him escape the clutches of Starkiller Base. But not without Hux. "I won't — I can't — leave without him."

"Ben," Han begins, however he notes the way his son recoils and changes tact, "Kylo, why?"

"He's my mate."

The father of my son; my everything.

So many emotions unfold on his father's face and if it weren't such a highly-strung situation, he would congratulate him on how well he hides his confusion. His disgust? A new sensation pangs in his heart. Guilt, desperation, shame; he can't even mate without disappointing his family. He closes his eyes, wondering how much easier it would be to throw himself from the catwalk.

He's jolted back to consciousness by a deep, understanding voice. "Where will we find him?"

"Truly?" Kylo whimpers.

And in a moment, with a nod of a head, the light begins to seep in. As they leave the catwalk, to find Hux, he lets it.