Back again, once again, with the Reylux garbage. (That I wrote in a pre-finals panic/post-finals haze)
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. This is just for my own (twisted) amusement and not for profit.
Chapter 3: Premonitions
Hux was not entirely sure where he was. The room was windowless with durasteel walls. The artificial lights were harsh and bright. Dreamlike and blurry. Clearly a dream.
Unbidden, he stepped forward, his footfall muted, to the table that sat in the center of the room, a black shape sat atop it.
He recognized the piece immediately: his personal hand pistol, the one he bought himself the day after he graduated from the Academy. It was illegally modified, but no one ever had the courage to demand he turn it over. It never left his side, not even in sleep.
"Pick up the blaster, Brendol!" The voice, disembodied and sounding a bit like a drill sergeant and an awful lot like his father, bellowed the words in his ear.
In most circumstances, Hux would have ignored that voice, ignored it purely out of spite. His father was long dead, good riddance. Hux need not obey him after years of being firmly under the man's thumb.
But something was wrong, a sense of urgency and ominousness that he could not shake no matter how hard he tried. It was not just from the tone of the voice, but a heaviness, a feeling being watched.
He needed to pick up the weapon in front of him and use it. For something important. For someone important.
Hux raised his arm, his movement sluggish, as though his arm was weighed down.
The blaster passed through his hand as if he was made of mist.
"No…" he breathed.
Hux clutched at it, trying to get it to stay in his grip, each frantic gesture making his arm feel heavier and heavier. But it would not move, just sitting there.
"He is going to die, if you do not pick it up!" the voice screamed.
Pain seared through him and everything disappeared.
Hux did not open his eyes immediately as reality returned.
Someone was breathing and moving around. No one was there when he went to sleep that night, so that meant only one thing: an intruder, an assassin.
His hand reached for the sidearm, the pistol that would not come to him in his dream, that was tucked under his mattress. A painful pins-and-needles sensation radiated from his chest outwards, stretching into his fingertips, and a fuzzy, drowsy feeling clung to his mind.
The wrongness of the whole situation did not escape him. He was in pain, something very real, not a dream, and for some reason his weapon was not where it was supposed to be.
"Chancellor, he is awake," a woman's voice, a strange woman's voice, sounded.
Wait. Why was the Chancellor…why was Kylo here?
Memories returned in a rush. A threat to the Chancellor's life. And then…pain. Nothing.
His hand groped at his chest, feeling a bacta patch slapped almost directly over his heart. And he was sure that there was a matching one on his back, covering an uglier wound. Sniper fire. Of course. But he only heard one shot before everything went dark.
The woman was referring to Kylo, so that meant that he was not hit. Kylo was alive, so the sniper was not trying to kill him.
There was only one shot and it hit Hux.
He was treated for his wounds, so that meant he was in a hospital. But it did not explain the woman's voice, unless she was a doctor of some sort.
"Come on, Hux. Quit pretending to be asleep," Kylo's voice sounded, almost teasing, but mostly impatient.
Finally, Hux turned his head toward the sound, opening his eyes. A dimly lit room and two figures were the first things he saw.
His eyes found Kylo first, instinctive. The taller man looked fine, if not tired and stressed. Then again, he almost always was tried and stressed.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Hux," Kylo deadpanned.
He would have made a snarky comeback, but Hux wanted to know who the woman was, the first voice he heard when he woke up. He turned to her next, looking her over.
The tan robes, the brown cloak around her shoulders, the lightsaber. A Jedi.
"Who are you?" Hux asked, trying to sound as accusatory and intimidating as possible, despite his weakened position and scratchy voice. He needed to find a glass of water.
It clearly did not work, because she only crossed her arms, her back straightening, not even slightly put-off by his tone.
"I am Rey of the Jedi Temple. I have been assigned to protect the Chancellor," she said, a simple statement of facts.
Hux sat up to properly glare at this Jedi, refusing to wince in pain as he put weight on his arms.
"Indeed?" he drawled, looking to Kylo for answers.
This was out-of-character for Kylo to ask for the Jedi, anyone, for help, much less protection. Surely the extensive security by Stormtroopers was sufficient?
"It wasn't my idea," Kylo said, holding up his hands in surrender.
Not his idea, huh? So the Jedi just came here, without prompting, in a strange sense of duty to the head of the Republic? Unlikely.
"Who's was it, then?" he asked.
Kylo's face suddenly twisted in anger and disgust.
"Master Skywalker, apparently."
Hux knew the name, how could he not? One of Kylo's favorite things was to complain about Skywalker, especially after all of the questions he had to field about the Jedi, about his family, while he was trying to get elected.
A Jedi was to be protecting Chancellor Kylo Ren now? It only made sense, now that he, his head of security and unofficial bodyguard, was compromised.
He could feel himself shaking, either from anger from fatigue. He did not feel like parsing out which it was specifically.
Hux almost wished that he had actually taken the hit for Kylo and died. It would have been more honorable. But no, it had been meant for him. So close to getting him through the heart, but enough to cause nerve damage in his arm.
Someone took the time and effort to kill him, right in the Chancellor's office, but the sniper was not even competent enough to get the kill.
What a joke.
…
Rey already knew that this was going to be a disaster. Not only did the Chancellor seem to hate her for whatever reason, his right-hand man hated her and they had known each other for a few moments. She could feel their distaste for her, palpable through the Force.
She liked to think that she had a thick skin and could weather whatever these men could throw at her. But if they were going to be uncooperative, it was going to be difficult for her to complete her mission.
How could she be a protector if when she said 'go right', they were going to insist to 'go left'? In a life-or-death situation, they would not have time to argue.
"Master Luke wants to make sure that all precautions are taken," Rey said.
She was not sure why she needed to justify herself. She was a Jedi, that was enough justification in and of itself. But, it would make her life a lot easier if she knew that they would take her seriously.
"I doubt Master Luke really cares about the Chancellor's life," Hux sneered.
Rey would not hit anyone, especially not someone seriously injured, but she really wanted to hit the redhead.
"Of course he does. Believe it or not, the Jedi do not wish harm on the Chancellor or any—," Rey spat, only to trail off.
There was movement outside, she could sense it. A change of the guard. Her body shifted towards the door, reaching out with the Force, searching for danger.
Rey felt the men's eyes on her as her hand slowly drifted over her lightsaber.
Something was wrong. But the source was not directly outside the door. It was bigger, heavier. It was further away, but it seemed to close over her ears. Something unlike she ever felt before, something evil.
But as soon as it came, it left. The thread of tension in the Force ebbed away. She could not feel the threat anymore.
"False alarm?" the Chancellor said. His voice was even, but she could feel his nervousness.
Rey forced out the words, "False alarm."
She needed to tell Master Luke. There was something big on the horizon, she knew it. Unless it was paranoia getting to the better of her, making something out of nothing.
"When can we all leave this place?" she asked aloud, not sure if she was going to get an answer. The building was too big, too many people, too closed in and too open. She wanted to go back to the Temple. Things made more sense there.
Hux muttered, "I want out of here as soon as possible."
Rey hoped that he would stay in bed for a long time. But the medical droid said that he would be healed within a few days.
But since it was clear the Chancellor was not going to leave until Hux was able to leave, she was stuck there.
Maybe she could get a droid to bring some food. Or she could take the time to meditate. Better than either taking verbal abuse from the two men or staring at the wall until the medical droid gave them the all-clear.
…
"We have a problem," Kylo spoke up, breaking the silence.
Hux sighed. "There always is with you."
He was sounding like himself again, snarky and deadpan.
"The Senate convenes in two days," Kylo sighed.
Hux groaned aloud and Rey turned to face him fully, fire in her eyes.
"I am going to be by your side, Chancellor. Whether you like it or not."
Kylo bristled. The idea of having this Jedi with him on the Chancellor's pod when he spoke to the Senate was disgusting. His distaste for the Jedi was not a mystery, and he would be seen as a hypocrite by all if a Jedi was to protect him publicly.
It was not necessary. They could screen everyone who enters the Senate building, have Stormtroopers at every entrance and on each Senate pod. Rey did not need to be anywhere near him.
"I hate to admit it, but she is right," Hux huffed, "We do not know who we can trust in the Senate. For all we know, some of them conspired to have you assassinated."
Kylo arched his brow, not just because the two actually agreed on something after it was made clear they did not like each other.
Hux must have known that the sniper meant to hit him, not Kylo. It made no sense for the assassin to go through all of that trouble to get into position, only to make a near-killshot to the wrong person. The hit was on Hux and both of them knew that.
So, why was he not owning up to that?
"What enemies could you possibly have in the Senate?" Rey asked, almost incredulously, interrupting his train of thought.
It took every ounce of Kylo's being not to sigh, laugh, or yell at this obviously naïve Jedi. Hux had less restraint, rolling his eyes.
"I have plenty of enemies," Kylo said slowly. "You don't get to be my rank without making enemies."
All of the smear campaigns, the inflammatory rhetoric, nit-picking at his past. It was all fresh in his mind, since Kylo's campaign for Chancellor ended only a few weeks earlier.
It could go further back than his most recent endeavors. He had enemies the instant he started existing, a fact that was practically guaranteed with the family that he was born into.
Rey nodded in understanding. "So whoever is responsible is likely a political enemy. Maybe one of the people who ran against you when you were running for office?"
Kylo could think of a more than a few people who did not hide their distaste for him, a menagerie of figures: senators, diplomats, lobbyists, businesspeople. Some of them he knew the names of, some of them he did not. The unknown factor was what worried him.
"Maybe. It could be anyone."
Many thanks to Juulna for beta-ing this (and complaining about me updating)!
Feedback is much appreciated!
Cheers!
~Tiara of Sapphires
PS, was Hux's injury a subtle reference to the Clone Wars? Maybe.