Epilogue

Hux sat in the right passenger seat of the piece of crap ship whose continued existence had been a constant thorn for both the Empire and the First Order and glared at the others in the cockpit.

There was the girl, of course. She piloted the junk ship with a skill that made no sense for a scrap collector on a backwater planet. Her copilot was the famous wookie who had accompanied that damn smuggler turned general in the death star battles. And behind her, in the other passenger seat, sat Ren, who was completely at ease for some unfathomable reason.

"Why aren't Ren and I in restraints?" Hux asked. They had boarded only a few minutes ago and were now leaving the Star Destroyer hangar. Hux had been imprisoned by the Resistance until that time and only briefly spoke with Ren before being escorted aboard. Ren's words to Hux had been simple: Come with us or go on trial for his role in Starkiller Base. It was an easy choice.

"I trust Kylo, and you're not a threat," the girl answered.

Hux bristled at this dismissal. He had been one of the most powerful men in the First Order, second only to Kylo Ren himself, and yet this nobody girl treated him like nothing. Of course, she always had. He would never forget that mental invasion. What Ren saw in her he could not understand.

The wookie asked a question. At least, Hux supposed he did. Learning that vulgar language was beneath him, and there had always been droids and translators before. He had never suspected he might have need to understand it directly.

"I brought Hux because Kylo asked me to, Chewie," the girl said in an exasperated tone. "And I brought Kylo because I love him. Yes, Kylo, and you should call him Kylo too. I know Ben sounds better, but it's rude to call someone a name they dislike, Chewie! How would you feel if we suddenly started calling you… I don't know!"

Ren smirked next to Hux. "Walking carpet? Flea bag?" Ren suggested. The wookie roared at Ren, but Ren's grin only grew wider. "You don't much like it either, do you?"

"You speak their language?" Hux asked Ren, suddenly suspicious of the man he had spent the last decade working alongside.

"Didn't you know?" the girl said. "Chewie is practically his uncle. Kylo grew up around him."

Chewie fussed at her.

"They're the same person. Chewie. And will you stop baiting him, Kylo? Chewie was really worried about you."

Hux groaned and massaged his temple. He had gone from being one of the most powerful men in history to playing audience to this ridiculous family drama overnight.

"And we're in hyperspace," Rey said as she pulled the lever down and the stars streaked past. "We'll be here a few hours, so get comfortable." She got up and stretched her arms. Even in this traditionally attractive pose, Hux did not see the appeal. The girl was ordinary-looking and bratty. Too young and trusting as well for men of distinguished tastes. Yet Ren was completely enamored by her. Ridiculous.

"I suppose you're not going to tell us where we're going?" Hux asked.

Rey shrugged and scratched her back like some salvage with no respect for decency. "It's not really a secret. We're heading to Tatooine first. Going to pay the Hutts a visit. Actually, Kylo says you'll be really helpful there, since strategy is your thing."

Hux narrowed his eyes at her, wondering if she was mocking him since she knew fully well that his strategy had failed the entire First Order.

"I'm not mocking you! You couldn't have known I could access so much of your forces from a distance. Even I didn't know I could do that. "

Hux cringed. "Stop reading my thoughts!"

"Sorry. They were just… loud." She shrank in on herself. She appeared sheepish, which made no sense for a girl who had bested Kylo Ren in battle, inspired the Supreme Leader's death, and had single-handedly delivered the entire First Order fleet to the Resistance. She was beyond comprehension, just like Ren's infatuation with her.

"She's still new to the force, Hux," Ren said, as if that explained anything. Hux glared at Ren and then settled back in his chair in a huff. Ridiculous. Everything was ridiculous.

Silence filled the air for a moment, and the girl looked at him again. "Well, I know you're here because the alternative was prison, but will you help us figure out how to free the galaxy of corruption and chaos? That is something we all want, right?"

Hux sneered. "You mean after you took away our ability to hold them in check by force? The odds are nigh impossible."

Ren shook his head and smiled. "Never tell me the odds," he said. The wookie chuffed a surprised laugh and the girl beamed at him, as if he had said something monumental. Hux shook his head. He was surrounded by madmen.

"I'm going to bald prematurely if I spend more time on this ship," Hux moaned.

Ren glanced at Rey, and Hux wondered if they were exchanging some secret force message. Did they flirt like that too? He groaned. He had always found force users to be creepy, and now he was stuck on a ship with two of them and no other company but a wookie he couldn't understand. On the other hand, if they flirted through the force, at least he wouldn't have to hear it.

"Hux, come with me for a moment," Ren said. Hux nodded. Anything to have a break from the Resistance miscreants.

Hux followed Ren into a lounge that looked like it might have been designed half a century ago. Everything in there was faded, damaged, and filthy, just like the rest of the ship.

Ren seemed strangely at ease among the filth. He pulled out two beers from some hidden fridge and offered one to Hux. Hux glanced at the label and was surprised to find that this, at least, was quality. Odd, but he would not refuse what little quality could be found in this strange place.

"You've lost your mind, Ren," Hux said. He sat down on a bench and crossed both arms and legs, trying to touch as little as possible while he relaxed. Ren sat down beside him and leaned forward on his elbows. "What is this? How are either of us even alive?"

"Rey saved me. She straight-up told my mother that she was in love with me and would only surrender me over her dead body." Ren shrugged. "My mother recognized there was no winning that battle, so she told Rey to take the Falcon and go."

"So the girl cares for you even though she betrayed you," Hux said, though he had already surmised as much from their circumstances on the Falcon. "And me?"

Ren shrugged, and was that a blush? Hux cringed. Forget it. He didn't need to know.

"I insisted, and then Rey insisted. You're the closest thing I have to a friend besides Rey," Ren said. "You're the only person besides her who isn't afraid to tell me how things are. And I feel like I owe it to you. You helped bring Rey back to me, and you tried to warn me when you saw how deeply I had fallen."

Hux processed this. What he had done resulted in the complete fragmentation of the First Order as the Jedi and her ex-stormtrooper accomplice had infiltrated decades of careful programming in the ranks and ordered a surrender to the Resistance. Hux had even been arrested by his own men. There had been no warning other than the girl's apparent comfort with her imprisonment, as if being there offered her an advantage.

Hux took a deep sip and raised an eyebrow at Ren. "What were you doing when everything fell apart? I expected you to come jumping in with your lightsaber when I set off the alarms. I even tried projecting my thoughts at you, for what little good it might do. Where were you?"

Ren's eyes widened, and a blush spread to his ears.

Hux sighed. Of course, he and the girl had been comfortably preoccupied while Hux had suffered. "You're a terrible friend," Hux said. "Though I suppose I can't fault you. There are worse ways to lose a war than getting laid."

"We do love each other," Ren said.

Hux rolled his eyes and sighed. "I know," he said. It was the most mind-boggling aspect of all of this. Ren and this girl were on opposite sides of the war and had not known the other existed until a few weeks ago. They had each tried to kill each other and tried to take advantage of each other's trust, and yet they still were undeniably happy to be at each other's side. "Aren't you angry with her, Ren?" he asked. "You were as passionate about the First Order's dreams as anyone else."

Ren sighed and nodded. "I am. I'm furious, but I would have done the same thing if our positions were reversed. I'm livid, and yet I admire her more for pulling it off." He ran a hand through his hair. "My mother's plans will put the galaxy back into chaos."

Hux narrowed his eyes at Ren. "So why not stop her? The damage was done by a force user. Can you not undo it? Force things back the way they were? Is your love affair really that important!?"

"It's not!" Ren snapped, and then he took a breath and calmed down. "It's not. I would never betray our dreams for her. Rey and I… we talked about it for a long time last night before we went to speak with the others."

Hux took another long sip from the beer. "Go on."

"The last time the Republic tried to reinvent itself and the senate, it fell right back into its usual corrupt patterns, which is how things got destabilized to begin with. Rey thinks that there's a chance the senate would work if corruption were targeted at its source swiftly and harshly. That's why we're on this ship."

Hux cringed. "We're some kind of anti-corruption policing force?"

Ren nodded. "Essentially. Rey wants to try it, and I can't deny that there's merit to it. Skywalker would never have done something like this. He would have considered it beneath him as a jedi. The jedi of the old republic were the same. They were too comfortable maintaining the status quo to get their hands dirty directly. We're different."

Hux shook his head. "You're forgetting I'm not part of your little force club, Ren. I haven't even engaged in real combat in years."

"You are good at strategy though," Ren said. "Excepting where Rey's concerned, of course."

Hux glowered at Ren for reminding him. Ren smirked.

"And Rey's promised to help us reclaim the might of the First Order if the senate fails again. She has conditions, of course, but she will support us, and then the galaxy will be set right again, and you can go back to what you love best. It could be worse."

Hux frowned, but nodded. They weren't dead. There was one thing he didn't understand though. "If you're really very angry with her, how come the ship isn't covered in lightsaber damage?"

Ren's face turned red again, and Hux groaned.

"At least tell me you two are using contraceptives."

This time, Ren's face turned white. "We did the first time, but afterwards…"

Hux massaged his brow. "Please fix that. I think I can handle playing along on this ridiculous crusade if it restores me to my power, but I absolutely draw the line at babysitting."

Ren's face broke into a nervous smile. "So you agree to stay and help us?"

Hux stared at Ren. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined the two of them would be working with a jedi scrap of a girl and a wookie to save the galaxy in a manner more reminiscent of the rebellions he so despised, but here they were, and he found he didn't mind it as much as he should.

"I guess so."

And that ends it. I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think!

This is not my only reylo fanfic if you want to read more reylo fanfics by me. For those of you who discovered this one after following Cup of Sugar, I do plan to return to that story now that this one's concluded. The break was necessary, but I'm ready to get back to it.

Thank you for checking out my story and may the force be with you always!