There was only darkness. They surrounded him from all sides, no way to get rid of him... He was trying to escape but hands, cold and emaciated, held him prisoner. The multiple hands forced him to hold his arms backwards. He was helpless, like a prisoner of a hungry sarlac. He was screaming, struggling violently. Footsteps resounded, and in front of him a man came forward. The same red hair, a little grey on the sides, the face marked by time: His father, he was here.
The boy was wiggling his legs against the frozen ground in an attempt to get rid of the grip. It was useless, he was just slipping clumsily across the floor. When he dared to turn his head he saw several stormtroopers, animated despite death, which prevented him from moving. All had smoking blaster impacts on their opalescent armor. He recognized the victims of his madness. He was terrified.
At the very moment he turned his head he heard Brendol's chilling laughter, as he moved inexorably in his direction.
- Pathetic. Whatever you do, you'll always be weak!
- I'm not! He screamed with all the strength of his lungs
- Oh, yeah? Explain to me why you shot your allies? Unable to control you, is that it?
The man's palm fell on his cheek. His head turned to the right under the violence inflicted.
- I should have left you here with your mother. You're no better than her after all.
Hatred roared in the young man's heart. An anger so viscerally rooted in him that he had learned to live with it. But today, he no longer knew how to channel it. It had to stop, the pain was too much. He had to free himself from all this. With a sudden and brutal gesture he stood up, waltzed the soldiers behind him and jumped on his father. His hands clapped randomly on his progenitor's face, hurting him mortally. The punishment seemed derisory for all these years of suffering... it was no less salvific. He was hitting harder and harder.
With his fist up, he was about to break his opponent's jaw, but the pain of his injury bent him in half. He screamed as he put his knees on the ground. Shortness of breath, he felt as if he was bleeding to death. It wasn't just an impression. A pool of hemoglobin had formed around him. He was shaking from the cold. His bare palms rested on the icy ground. The cold burn was almost as unsustainable as his fatal wound.... But at least his pain was directed elsewhere.
- You'll be joining her soon. If you're not brave enough to resist. Brendol Hux confessed darkly with a sigh.
For a moment the offer seemed to him to be an ideal compromise... Let go, just let go and get swallowed up by nothingness. It was easy, he just had to close his eyes.
He felt unbalanced by an unknown force. He turned back. After a strangely long fall his back hit a liquid surface. His body was sinking into the icy depths of water. He was cold, he felt the air gradually leaving his lungs... Without oxygen to replace the fleeing molecules, he gradually lost his bearings. His heart was beating less and less fast. He was afraid to die like that.
He opened his eyes. A human figure was standing on the shore, a few centimetres from him. His hand plunged below the surface of the clear water. Without even trying to understand if it was a trap, he grabbed the unknown hand. Her skin was of a reassuring warmth despite the temperature of the water. This one brought him to the surface without any difficulty. The young boy was now kneeling on the ground, his clothes dripping with icy water. He was coughing to flush out the water that had insidiously crept into his lungs. His breathing was wheezing, his whole body was shivering, transit of cold. He kept his eyelids closed, his face riveted to the ground while waiting to return to a more stable state.
- Thank.. Thank you. Did he manage to articulate despite his shaky jaw
When he looked up, still kneeling on the cold ground, there was no one left. He was alone in front of the vastness of the place. Surprisingly, when he straightened up, he felt no pain. His bloody wound was still there but he was no longer in pain. He took a few steps, the thick layer of ice cracked, but did not crack, under his sole. The place was safe, he felt it in his heart. There was a certain fullness.
He walked slowly through the room, looking for traces of the person who had pulled him out of the water. But there was nothing, no clues and no footprints in the thin snow layer.
- Is anyone there? He asked, overwhelmed with apprehension.
His voice echoed against the thick walls of ice all around him. He got no answer. He didn't want to be alone in this place.... So he continued his research for many minutes. They seemed to last for hours. He was beginning to feel anguish when he realized that there was no one here. No one to help him. Her body was tired and the pain of his injury had awakened. He staggered, put his hand against the ice wall and sat down. He brought his legs back to his chest and waited. He was shaking from the cold, his water-impregnated clothes did little to improve the situation. He was struggling to keep his eyes open.
- No.... I wouldn't die like that... he murmured to give himself courage. He huddled further, trying to keep the slightest heat from his body. His forehead rested on his knees. He didn't want to die, but fate seemed to have decided otherwise. The teenager was crying hot tears. He felt vulnerable, scared and in pain. Serenity had given way to terrible anguish. An anxiety so strong that it seemed to compress her lungs.
- Armi...
The voice made him jump so much that the crying stopped immediately. He drove the tears out of his cheeks by straightening his head, unable to believe what he saw:
- Mom...?
Jaessa nodded gently, a sad smile lit up her round face. She was watching her child who had grown up very well during her absence. She reached out to him to help him get up. As he was getting back on his feet, the boy asked, still in shock:
- Was it you? Did you help me out of the water?
She gave him a new, slightly more cheerful smile before putting her hands on her son's cheeks. This contact warmed the young man, his clothes were miraculously dry. He did not try to understand. It was all so strange. She approached him gently to put her lips on his forehead. Armitage naturally closed his eyelids, welcoming this sign of love with kindness. Tears rolled down his cheeks, reddened by the cold.
- How big you are... my handsome boy. She whispered tenderly as she gently released a red wick from her face.
To hear his voice after so many years was an indescribable experience. So many emotions were jostling in his heart that he had difficulty apprehending them. Tears were running down his cheeks. His throat was tied by the grief and joy of this unexpected reunion. He couldn't open his mouth.
- I'm so glad to see you. Added his mother by slipping her hand into her child's hand. She gently squeezed her fingers between her own.
Armitage felt something fall into his palm. When Jaessa let go of his hand he could see what she had hidden in it. Her necklace adorned with a kyber crystal, sparkling with bluish reflections. He grabbed the shoelace between two fingers and lifted the jewelry to observe it more closely.
- Armi.... You don't belong here.
- I don't want to leave you, Mom. He whispered as he grabbed Jaessa's hand in a desperate gesture.
- I know that. But you still have a lot to do. You have to stay alive. Do it for me.
- It's too hard... That's hurting... I couldn't do it, Mom. I need you...
- I'm here. I've been looking after you all this years. But you can't stay here, it's a dangerous place.
Armitage was not moving, absorbed by his mother's presence. She couldn't leave him like that... He had been waiting for her for so long. Other tears rolled down his cheeks as he confessed:
- I'm sorry, if you knew what I did...
- I know, sweetheart. But I could never blame you. The human being is imperfect, we all have our weaknesses. Whatever happens, I'll always be proud of you. I will always love you, my son.
- Me too, Mom.
They exchanged a tender hug. The young man hugged his mother as if his life depended on it. He had never been so peaceful in years.
- It's time to go, be strong. Prove them wrong by underestimating you.
Jaessa smiled melancholyly at her child. She gently placed her hand at the level of her son's bloody wound. She kept her face hidden behind her long brown hair, so as not to impose her sadness on him. She whispered and cried:
- It will be painful... Forgive me.
____-_____--____--_______------_______-----
The teenager woke up with a scream of excruciating pain. He carried his hand to his wound, as a reflex, and noticed that she had been treated. Yet he was in agony. He observed his environment, looking for his mother with his eyes. She was gone.... The medical droids had rushed at him from the moment he opened his eyes.
- Tell General Hux that his son is out of coma. Ordered the doctor's robotic voice to one of his mechanical colleagues.
- No! I don't want to see him! Protesting Armitage trying to straighten up. However, he could barely move, two infusions of bacta were planted in each of his arms. As if that wasn't enough, he was strapped to his bed by a hindrance in his stomach. Just below his wound.
- Don't move, your wound isn't quite healed yet. Explained the droid while adjusting his patient's anti-pain dose to the maximum level.
It took a few seconds for the product to work, and when it did, the young man's head fell heavily on his pillow. He sighed with relief before sinking again.
A few long hours later he slowly opened his eyes. He experienced a strange feeling, he felt like he was swimming in a cotton field. He couldn't even hear the constant beeps of the medical bay machines. His head seemed terribly heavy, so much so that he wondered if he would be able to live without having to hold it constantly in his hands. The positive point was that he no longer felt any pain, the bacta... What a fabulous invention he thought, smiling a little foolishly.
- Ah finally. I see you're awake.
He turned his head gently towards the voice he had just heard, the sound was so weak that he felt like he was trapped inside a bubble filled with water. He looked up at his father.
- You almost died...
For the first time, Brendol Hux, seemed concerned about her son. His face was worried and his forehead wrinkled. A droid took care of unravelling the shackles holding the young man nailed to the mattress, before slipping away.
After he sat at the edge of the bed, Brendol gently tapped Armitage's back. This triggered a vomiting reflex in the boy, still completely high on pain medication. He closed his eyes to recover, his head was turning a little too much to his liking.
Seeing his son's reaction, Brendol said in a dry voice:
- All right. Now that you're well, get dressed. I need to introduce you to someone.
- I'm not in condition, Father.... He stammered
- I don't think I gave you a choice. Get up and put on your clothes. Quickly. I'll be waiting for you outside the door.
Before leaving, he added in a dismissive voice:
- And fix your face. Looks like you got into a fight with a bantha!
The door slammed. Armitage sighed deeply as he plunged his face into his hands. Just before his forehead reached his palm he frowned. Her mother's jewellery was there. He had kept it tight in the palm of his hand since his stay in Arkanis. A melancholic smile lit up his face as he watched the sparkling crystal.
He quickly got dressed and slipped the necklace into his pocket. Keeping his father waiting was not his usual practice and he preferred not to have an altercation with him today. To demolish his portrait in his mind was a sufficiently satisfying image. He carefully combed his fire hair before taking a look at today's date, indicated in red numbers and projected against a wall. He had been asleep for two weeks! When he realized he was panicked. Who was the person his father absolutely wanted to introduce him to? Was he going to be tried for the murder of the troopers? By the way, was his father aware of the situation? Did Sloane inform him? Where was Sloane?
Whatever it was, he wasn't ready to face it.
Yet it had to be done. Brendol Hux couldn't stand the delay. The young Armitage appeared before his father, properly dressed and impeccably combed. The straight and elegant posture, worthy of an imperial. He was ready. His father waved to him to follow him. They walked for several minutes before arriving at a large door.
- Before you come in, let me warn you. Don't talk unless he asks you to, stay respectful and don't lie to him.
- What the hell are you talking about, Father?
- You'll understand soon. Go ahead now.
Armitage stepped towards the door. It opened automatically to let it move forward. The room he entered was plunged into semi-darkness; it was so vast that the sound of his footsteps echoed in all four corners of the place. As he had almost reached the bottom of the room, a blue glow appeared a few metres from his position.
A huge hologram was gradually taking on human form. Or almost. Armitage would not have known how to describe the person in front of him. What species did this character belong to? Who was he? Questions that for the moment remained unanswered. The young man stood there, not knowing if he should say or do anything. The person sitting in a seat was the most deformed alien he had ever seen. His face looked terribly damaged. What had happened to him? The rocky voice that rose from the hologram's mouth made him stumble... He had never heard anything so terrifying.
- Ah.... The young Hux, perfect.
Armitage tried to stay dignified, straight in front of the silhouette. He still didn't know if he should act in any way. His hands were shaking as he did his best to confront the imposing blue silhouette. Seeing that he was not reacting, the man stood up sharply, and commanded with a loud voice.
- On your knees, in front of your Supreme Leader.