So...

As some of you have noticed, it's been a while.
Things have happened and the medication that has been keeping me afloat has stifled my creativity and preventing me from putting out any content.
I'm happy to say that this has somewhat abated and slowly but surely, the juices are flowing again. I hope you'll keep in mind when reading that this may be below your standard and shorter than most chapters but bear with me as I get back into my stride.
Thank you so much for your patience and maybe you WILL enjoy this!

HHS.

As Orion closed in on the Supreme Leader's quarters (a path untread for the redhead), the noise that had alerted the staff became more apparent with each infuriated step.

CRASHES and BANGS erupted through the hallway, paired with reverberating howls of pure antagonization but ever the steadfast one, Orion Hux persevered towards them. With little more than a few feet between him and the chamber door, he internally debated whether bringing a blaster would have been a good idea or not. After all, if Ren had the intention of killing him, Orion would be powerless to stop him; blaster or no blaster.

Before he could take another step towards potential ruin, something stopped him stock-still in his tracks.

"Grand Marshal!"

The call did not immediately ring as familiar but upon turning on his heel to investigate, Orion found the hurrying form of Leia Organa trundling towards him. Interaction between the two had been scarce at best, both before and after Leia's arrival at the palace, which only intensified his curiosity now.

"Why don't you let me deal with this?" The General offered her opposing counterpart benevolently as she sealed the distance left between them; much to Orion's suspicion. "I'm sure the Empress is already upset enough as it is, it wouldn't do for you to get hurt as well. Return to her, let her know the situation is in hand and let me handle… Ren." To use her son's birth name had been automatic but smothered just in time.

"Very kind of you, General." Came the offhanded (and somewhat suspicious) rebuttal. "But I assured my wife that I would attend to Ren and one of his trademark tantrums. After all, it was my forte ever before either of you had to deal with it."

Naturally, Leia had to hold her tongue.

"All the same-" The Princess "prisoner" pressed, her insistence unyielding in skirting around Orion to keep him from the door. "I don't think I could look Her Grace in the eye if something happened to you. The Empress needs her husband and the children need their father so please… let me see to this." Come on, you stubborn Imperial! Go back to bed! "You, of all people, can attest to his unpredictability, Grand Marshal. As you rightly said: Your experience with him far outstrips mine."

The redhead took a moment to openly scrutinize the older woman. This felt awfully strange. What, in the deepest depths of the Undercity, did Leia know about Ren?

As much as it may have irked him, Leia had never really been known to undermine her enemies and so, years of opposing the First Order would have led to a wealth of accumulated knowledge about its resident Force-wielding psychopath. That much made sense to Orion. It also made sense that if she went in blind to one of Ren's waste-laying outbursts that he might innocently find a former Princess no longer wandering the halls.

Either way: Win-win.

"As you wish, General." The Grand Marshal conceded in a drawl, once more distinguishing his foe by her rank as any good military man would; rules of engagement, so to speak. Having weighed up his (malicious) options, Orion did not feel the need to concern himself any further. "I shall return to the Empress and inform her of your good deed. No doubt it will shine in your favour." If you make it out.

With a bite of relief but a small after-sting of apprehension, Leia watched her own way unfurl in the form of a retreating (but devious) redhead; back along the corridor and disappearing around a corner.

"What the Hell, Ben?!" Erupted the frustrated hiss against the backdrop of continuing ruckus beyond the door; keying the privacy code to admit herself and be swallowed into the belly of the beast.

But maybe Leia should have ensured herself to be fully alone before she did so.

The carnage went uninterrupted by Leia's (seemingly) unnoticed arrival.

Still panting, Kylo Ren stood amongst the ruins of his living chamber, the room seemingly conquered with lightsaber still unsheathed and humming, he found his frustrations continued to be unsatiated.

"MY DAUGHTER!" He snarled, taking another swing at a smouldering chair; an inanimate object that had committed no crime only being the single closest thing to him.

"Ben!"

"MY BABY!" The dining table, already in pieces, seemed prime for another attack; which he gave it with a shove of his booted foot. Either deaf to his mother's snip or so embroiled in sheer savagery that to pay her any notice would diminish the energy his tirade needed.

"WHO THE FUCK DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?! SHUTTING ME OUT LIKE THIS?! SHE WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE THEM IF IT WASN'T FOR ME!"

"BEN!"

The second bark seemed to carve some small indent into his furious cocoon, enough for her to press herself inside and (maybe) bring some sense along with her.

Still panting and lightsaber still humming, Ben Solo turned and finally acknowledged the imposing presence. From the glimpses she had seen before, Leia recognised that anguish, that pain. In one fluid movement, the cross-saber clattered to the ground, deactivated, shortly followed by the knees of its distraught master.

"I know." The most natural thing on any world, in any species, is for a mother to comfort her young and so, the General heeded that instinct. Arms closed about his neck and nose lowered to his bowed head, Leia jolted with the wracking sobs of a little boy who just needed his mother. "I know, Ben."

"It's not fair…"

"It's not but… None of it was fair. Any of it."

"I just want what's mine…"

"You can't. Not with the way things are now. Those children… It's not like they're just children. They are going to have a massive part to play in this galaxy and for that, they need to be part of a certain structure. Their mother is head of the people and their father is head of the military, that is-"

"But he's not their father! I am! Lilia is mine! This baby is mine! He didn't even want to know about Lilia when she was born!"

"We can't account for stupidity, Ben. Your own intentions weren't exactly pure."

With love and sentimental understanding, Leia stroked the dark tresses that her son had passed onto the daughter that now plagued him so. His breathing had quietened; save for the soft, oxygen-starved hitches such sobs would leave behind.

"What do I do?" Ben asked after a moment of solace-soaked squeezes and the occasional kiss to his head. "Do I leave? Do I stay? I don't know if I can bear to stay. Not like this."

"Could you bear to leave?" Leia queried softly, disheartened by another miserable sigh. "Don't make my mistake, Ben. Even of you can't be with them fully, protect them from the shadows. My biggest regret was that I wasn't there when you needed me. The only thing I can do is prevent you from making the same mistake." Indulging in another overdue embrace, the Princess-turned-General opted to add one more truth.

"And I don't want to lose you again. I can't."

What. The. Fuck.

Eavesdropping, while a thrilling and forbidden past time, can often illicit reactions like the stunned, dumbfounded, sickened and incensed one above.

The wide-eyed Grand Marshal, ear still pressed to the door, felt all those and more. More than he knew what to do with. Not when so many revelations had come pouring out of one brief sitting.

What. The. Fuck.

Suddenly released from the grasp of his ill-gotten information, Orion stumbled from the door and did all in his power not to empty his stomach all over the pristine tiles. Dazed and reeling, his slippered feet scarcely gathered enough traction to make his escape.

Wherever the Grand Marshal went, it would not be back to bed.