Chapter 13: Ossus Part 1.
Author's note: This chapter calls back to an interesting 'Age of Resistance' comic which talks about Hux's abusive past and the relationship dynamic between Hux and Ren. There are some call-backs to this, but I've kept it light. There is also canon divergence from the life forms on Ossus. Purely a change for plot. Also, a note on Hux's behaviour in this chapter: While this might be 'romantic' in context for two people in the First Order, these behaviours in real life are massive red flags. Finally, there is mention of fur products (which I don't support) and a very vague description of killing an animal for food.
It had been a month since the pleasure excursion and Hux's outburst. Colonel Gorki had been promptly assigned to another ship. There were many rumours that the shuttle he was on didn't make it to the sister vessel, but Avin chose to completely ignore this information out of self-preservation more than anything else. Tensions were running high as they chased a lead that might give them a map to the old Jedi Skywalker. Ren had gone back to pretending she didn't exist outside of meetings, which suited her fine, even if that night had scratched a surprisingly definite itch she had. They all had serious work to do, Avin told herself frequently. There had been war counsels since then about the Starkiller Project, but Avin had been unable to focus, simply going through the motions for her work.
However, this was about to change. Avin had some serious decisions to make about her own position on the ship. Power was everything in the First Order and the more knowledge Avin had, the more power she wielded. This had been what spurned her to discuss an ancient Jedi library on the planet Ossus with the Supreme Leader. The surface building of the Great Jedi Library had been moved to Coruscant centuries ago. However, Avin had recently unearthed a series of maps of complicated substructures underneath the planet's surface which had survived bombardment from a Sith Lord attack. She had hopes that they would find hidden holocrons in this ancient site. Snoke had told her he needed to discuss this with his apprentice first and she had been waiting impatiently for an update.
She watched as Ren stormed out of their current meeting before she could speak to him, leaving her staring into the face of a very intense General Hux who was smiling widely at her. Clearly done with ignoring her, Hux had completely changed tactics. He was now doggedly trying to get what he wanted. Now at meetings Hux sat with full polite attention. Any moment alone usually coincided with a sharp calculating glare from him and then a slow drift into her personal space. It had started very subtly after Ryloth by Hux standing just too close to her in the Officer's elevator. No one else had noticed but Avin had. Then it had been non-committal appreciation for her work during their meetings, followed by overt if deserved praise for a detailed risk assessment of mining conditions on Mandalore. The messages had started soon after. All professional. All polite. All calculated to get him what he wanted. He had now started to hover when she spoke to other men, clearly on the offensive against possible romantic rivals. This behaviour was driving her crazy.
Their meeting finished; the group normally disbanded. Ren usually stalked away to training while the others returned to the bridge. Avin alone ate after this meeting and now preferred to eat in her rooms. It felt less lonely to choose solitude, she had decided.
"Lieutenant Mitaka, please report back to the bridge with these course corrections." Hux ordered. Mitaka looked confused for a moment, as Hux was always insistent on important movements being relayed by senior staff. Mitaka nodded deferentially and turned past the lift to return to his station.
Avin and Hux entered the lift together, alone. She had worn her hair up today as it had been particularly unruly and only a few errant curls lay free on her neck. Hux stood even closer still, which she tried to ignore. She felt a very gentle touch against the side of her neck, his finger running gently down her smooth skin which was replaced by something even softer. His breath on her skin let her know that he was very softly, very gently kissing her neck on the sensitive spot behind her ear.
"General Hux?"
"Yes?" he said against her skin.
"I'd like to report a member of your staff for sexual harassment. This goes against protocol 5.4.2b of the Finalizer's Code of Conduct." She said, deadpan, refusing to react to his attention. Her heart was thudding in her chest.
"Noted." He said breezily, stepping closer to press into her. Thankfully, the door opened on the next floor and a Lieutenant stepped in, saluting to the General before turning to face the same way. Hux had stepped back immediately into a usual respectful distance. They stepped off the lift at the same time, their quarters being only a few corridors apart, and walked in silence.
"I have something for you in my chambers Avin."
"Is it more sexual harassment, General?" she said sweetly, not taken in for a minute. He smirked and put his hands behind his back. At the cross-section between their corridors, he stopped and stood, waiting for her to walk with him.
"Follow me." He instructed in that pompous manner he had since he was a little boy, gesturing towards his doorway.
"I'm not going to your rooms." She said shortly.
"Very well." He said offhandedly, as if his great plan had not been foiled. "I'll send them to your quarters today."
Halfway through her meal her entrance door signalled someone outside. She opened the door to find stormtroopers bringing in multiple crates and stacking them on top of each other by her small dining area. They left without a word and Avin, brimming with curiosity, immediately opened one. Inside, under delicate wrapping, were a large jumble of objects from Daxam IV and Naboo.
Her preferred brand of stylus and art supplies were tucked away in a canvas wrap. She opened another crate to find a cream blanket made from Athut fur, one of the softest in the galaxy. She had one just like it during university and used to curl under to take calls with Hux during the Naboo Winter. In another was a dark heavy fur lined coat in sable black, she supposed a nod to their imminent move to Starkiller Base which was an extremely cold planet. One item was rustling against the inside of the crate, and she dipped her hand through packaging to find a large bag of Naboo sweets, her favourite sour pastilles.
The final crate contained her copy of Xingotl's Confessions, one of her most prized possessions, she had tearfully left on Daxam IV. She looked around at the mess of stuff on her table and floor. He had sourced and acquired all her favourite things in the galaxy. An alert let her know that a personal communication had just been received and she leaned over the screen to read it:
Reconsider. H.
That manipulative asshole, she thought, and laughed.
With caff in hand, she enjoyed reviewing messages and ship information in the morning before her work in the archives started. A familiar one appeared on her viewer first.
I will be having breakfast at 0600, join me. H
She snorted with laughter. As if she was getting up before 0800. Her next message, however, was an odd internal communique she didn't recognise.
The Supreme Leader has agreed to the expedition.
Nothing else, no sign off. She had to assumed it was Ren with his usual charming personality. She had never spoken to any of the Knights of Ren, who seemed to follow Ren around like ghosts. Perhaps they did his admin, she thought, and giggled to herself. Another message flashed on her screen.
I will be having lunch at 1200, join me. H
She thought about it and decided she would actually meet him, considering the news about the expedition. On a wholly professional level she would have to do some handover work if she would be trekking to a strange planet for a week or two.
Fine. Where?
My rooms. H
Absolutely not.
The Senior Officer's Mess. H
See you then.
After a few hours of work in the pale blue lights of the archive she signalled to her assistant Matō that she was leaving for lunch and made her way to the Mess. She made her way along the shining black corridors that had become familiar to her and stepped into the mess. The mess was completely empty apart from the tall black form of the General waiting for her by a table laid out for dining.
"Avin." He said fondly, dipping his head down to look at her.
"General Hux." She said shortly, quirking an eyebrow.
"Please sit." He said winsomely and pulled out her chair. She sat down awkwardly and waited for him to sit back down.
"The last time we had a meal together was your graduation Avin." He said, completely dropping the unspoken rule they had to not acknowledge their past. Avin couldn't quite understand this version of Hux, who seemed downright chatty like when they were younger in their nightly calls.
"Eh, yes." She said awkwardly. A droid placed plates in front of them, steaming nutritionally dense and utterly tasteless food.
"Do you remember those dumplings at the restaurant? They were your favourite, if I remember correctly." He said breezily as he cut through the 'protein' portion of his plate.
"Hux." Avin said. "Are… are you okay?"
"What?"
"Are you dying?" She asked, semi-serious.
"I don't know what you're taking about Avin, do eat your food." He said dismissively, sounding exactly like Maratelle Hux.
"Armitage, why are you being nice?" He brightened at the use of his first name and bristled at the question. There was a long pause. Avin could see the cogs whirling in Hux's head as he thought of how to approach her.
"Because I'm having lunch with a beautiful woman." He said indulgently and scooted closer her. She turned back to her food and began to eat. She was so annoyed that she needed a minute to order her thoughts.
"Well, this beautiful woman feels like she has no idea what is going on."
"What are you trying to say Avin?" he said, with a light frown which he was clearly trying to control.
"You made it very clear you had no feelings for me until it looked like I was interested in someone else." She said through clenched teeth. "What is happening here?"
"I've asked for the Supreme Leader's blessing for our marriage." He said, as if picking up a conversation they had been having for hours. She choked on her drink and needed a few moments to recover from a coughing fit.
"You didn't." she said, flatly, a red-hot blush growing from her head to her toes. Supreme Leader Snoke should have absolutely no interaction with her love life. Just the idea of Snoke contemplating the concept of marriage was gag worthy. The Sith Lord, who embodied the dark side of the force, who wielded ultimate power of the First Order talking about weddings. What the hell was he thinking? She immediately told herself to deal with this after the mission. It was too messy to address now.
"I was just with Snoke, and he made no mention of it." She said haughtily, very aware she was losing control of the situation.
"And why were you with Snoke?" he said, turning to her completely, professional interest piqued.
"Lord Ren and I are going to the planet Ossus. We're looking for more archival resources and a possible link to the Skywalker location."
"You are forbidden from going on a mission with Ren." He snapped, slamming his knife and fork down on the table.
"Who are you to forbid me from doing something?" Avin snapped back, glaring at him.
"I am the General of this ship, Avin I- "
"Fine then." Avin interrupted him, holding her hand up. "You can lead the mission. This could lead us to Skywalker's location after all."
He huffed and fell silent. They finished their meal quietly and left.
Avin had never been on a mission before, and she was very excited by the possibility of adventure. Apart from basic fitness, she had no training in weapons or fighting. Due to this the expedition had expanded to include Ren, Hux, Phasma and a small troop of Stormtroopers. The shuttle had two compartments, one crowded space for the Stormtroopers and a spacious area for senior officers to sit. While most of her group's faces were hidden, she could tell by their body language that they were all exceptionally bored.
"The Jedi Archives are on this plateau." She said, pointing out a topographic map on a holoprojector to them all. There were vague grunts of acknowledgement.
"Would anyone like to hear more about the two convergent cognate species on this planet?" she said excitedly.
"No." was the chorus around the shuttle. Avin understood Hux and Phasma being bored of this type of mission, but Ren was usually champing at the bit to raid Jedi archives and find Sith material. He seemed to have an extreme aversion to the planet of Ossus which she couldn't understand. She was trying to think of reasons why this might be when a sudden ringing change in the air alerted her that something was wrong, and she saw Ren snap his neck in the same direction she was looking just as the explosion happened. There was sudden heat and noise all around her as the ship engines were destroyed and the ship went into freefall to the planet. She was thrown against the side of the ship hull. All around her warning sounds were shrilling and Stormtroopers were yelling. She lurched again and the rest was black.
Avin woke up to the smell of burning. She pulled herself up to find herself stumbling from the burning metal all around her. She was okay, with nothing broken somehow. Bodies of stormtroopers littered the soft mossy ground of what looked like a forest floor. Phasma was pulling the heavy figure of Ren out of the ship, away from the crash site. The acrid smoke was choking Avin, and she gagged, crawling out of the flaming wreck to fall beside them both.
"Is he still alive?" Avin shouted to Phasma, as Phasma ripped off her helmet, her hair plastered with sweat across her face.
"I don't know." Phasma shouted back and clicked an internal mechanism to remove Ren's helmet. "Sir!" Phasma shouted forcefully, trying to rouse him but his eyes were closed. Avin was too shell-shocked to even consider his face, leaning over with Phasma to see if Ren was dead. There was blood plastered to his dark hair on the right temple and the man underneath the mask looked deathly pale. Phasma quickly worked to check pulse and staunch the bleeding. Hux came up behind them quickly and looked down at the unconscious form of Kylo Ren.
"Not again." Hux said.
Phasma was carrying the hulking form of an unconscious Ren on her back and was still moving faster than Avin through the wild undergrowth of the planet's forest. Huge towering trees with cracked black bark scattered the land but there was an eerie silence here so unlike the forests of Naboo and Phelarion. She was panting heavily as they trekked, relying completely on Hux and Phasma for direction. Suddenly, they stopped just as Avin felt she couldn't go on anymore. They stood in a clearing which bordered a small stream.
She was so thirsty. She moved towards the stream and an iron grip took her upper arm.
"Do NOT drink that water unfiltered Avin." Hux said.
"We will need to plan well to survive." He said, looking around the clearing, his face sharp with calculation. "There will be a few days before we are found."
Phasma and Hux set to camp like this was something they did every week, passing material along to make a campfire and some kind of shelter efficiently with very few words. Hux had picked up a metal flask from the crash and they all glared at it as river water slowly started to boil over a makeshift fire pit. Once they had proportioned out the cooled water Hux immediately filled it again and set it to boil.
"How do you know how to do all of this?" she said to him as he sat crouched over the small firepit. Hux simply quirked an eyebrow at her and continued to monitor the fire.
"I didn't attend a military academy for singing lessons Avin." He said drily, looking over her shoulder to speak to Phasma, "Once the site is contained you will need to go back and salvage what you can, Captain."
"Yes sir." Phasma said, ripping another large leaf pad for more shelter over Ren's form. "We will need to consider food as well. I do not know how long we will last without sustenance."
Hux snorted. "Avin has never missed a meal in her life." He said disdainfully.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she snapped, already sore and tired from the forest walk.
"It means that you have already slowed us down and you will slow us down even more when you grow hungry." He said slowly, as if explaining to a child. She bit back a sharp retort. He was right.
"I will hunt. The ship should be safe to salvage once I have secured food." Phasma said, non-plussed and promptly left the camp.
Two hours later Phasma threw a hog-like animal down at her feet. She was clearly exhausted from the hunt and the high humidity of the air. She had discarded her Chrome uniform upon return and Avin could see huge sweat patches all over her body.
"Skin this." Phasma said, curtly. Avin looked down at the fresh kill. She had absolutely no idea what to do and was keen to not touch the still warm flesh.
"Give me that." Hux snapped and dragged the body towards him, flipping it over and deftly cutting into the smooth brown skin of the underbelly. Avin thought she was going to be sick, and she quickly stood up away. Trying to keep busy she attended to Ren and tried to rouse him gently to dribble water in his mouth. He had an oddly sweet face in repose, she thought. She had expected something gnarled and scarred like Snoke, having only seen a flash of pale face on Daxam IV. She had at least expected the yellow eyes of a Sith Lord, not the sultry brown ones fluttering under his eyelids now. She checked on the wound and felt her stomach flip again as she saw what a deep gouge it made into his hairline. An ordinary human would have been dead, she thought.
"You're in charge of cooking." Hux said shortly to her as he walked past, hands and forearms covered in gore. She got up. She could do that at least.
The night had been extremely uncomfortable. Hux had lain on her right side, and she had twitched and flinched through the night due to various bug bites and sounds in the distance. She woke up exhausted. Phasma had salvaged very little from the crash apart from additional blasters for Hux and Avin. When Avin had asked how they would communicate with the Finalizer Hux tapped on a slim black strap around his slender wrist.
"This has happened before. My men will check this tracker if we do not return in three days. It will then be obvious there has been an accident."
They had been walking through the silent eerie forest for a few hours before the smell started to make an appearance. Avin noticed that the springy forest floor was slowly getting wetter and wetter until finally they came to the edge of a mud pit which spanned in all directions.
"I'm not walking in that." She said disdainfully as she stared at the oozing greasy mud. In the back of mind Avin could see that she was being a brat, but she was so tired and hungry she didn't care.
"Move." Phasma said and pushed her into the muck. It squelched all the way up to her knees. She pushed through the mud with lurid sucking noises with every step. She could see the slight figure of Hux slowly pushing through the mud ahead of her.
"Sir." Phasma said, out of breath from the mud and the heavy body of Ren, "I have lost my bearings, this forest seems… I cannot track the archives anymore."
"Are we in trouble because of that?" Avin asked., automatically looking at Hux for direction.
"No, we are in trouble because we have a Sith Lord with a headwound and an untrained pampered princess in tow on a dangerous, unknown planet." Hux said coldly as he pushed himself through the mud towards the other side of the pit.
"Pampered Princess!" she exclaimed, trying to wade through the stinking mud and failing. She couldn't seem to move her right foot and was slowly sinking where she stood struggling. A gloved hand appeared in her vision, and she grabbed Hux's arm to pull herself out of the squelching muck to a slightly drier edge, relying on the hard muscles of his arm to guide her out. She looked up into his hard face as she stepped out of the pit. Here was the practical, ruthless Hux she had expected to meet on the Finalizer months ago.
They were so busy bickering they didn't notice that Phasma had stopped, Ren still propped over her shoulder. Once they caught up, they realised they were at the edge of a village.