It was easy to track down your errant general. You could feel his satisfaction at sowing the seeds of unrest. You thought he was an arrogant little prick for continuing with an unhealthy pattern. Snoke apparently had indulged it, or even encouraged it, but you were no Snoke.
You didn't know how you would make Hux see that working together with Ren could make the galaxy shudder under their combined power. You felt it when they were together. A thrum of something always slithered up your spine when you thought about them.
You got to the command deck and were permitted inside the bridge. As the blaster doors irised closed behind you, you took in the surroundings. The bridge was hushed, but busy. Every crew member had something to do and was very much occupied with that something.
No one stopped you as you walked to one of the sunken stations that flanked the gangway at the center of the bridge. You stepped up to the edge of the deck and looked down into the pit to see Hux, with datapad in hand, conferring with an officer. You waited silently until he turned in your direction. You mentally urged him to look up and see you.
He glanced up and abruptly did a double-take. He walked past the seated crew at their stations and came to you.
"What brings you to the bridge, my lady?" he asked as if he didn't know.
"I need a minute of your time, General."
He nodded and disappeared under the gangway. You backed away to stand by one of the exposed support beams. Hux appeared in a doorway across from you. His face was impassive as ever, but you could feel his pale eyes study you as he approached.
"I would prefer privacy," you requested.
He nodded in assent and led you down one level to his quarters. Once the doors were closed behind you both, you got in his personal space. He wasn't cowed yet, but it would take nothing from you to have him on his knees. You felt the temptation to hurt him in your annoyance. Not yet, not yet.
You recognized that voice now--Sidious.
"You know why I'm here," you began the conversation.
"I can guess."
"Why did you do it?"
Hux lifted a shoulder. "He needed to know."
You snorted at the weak excuse. "Eventually, I do agree." You put a hand on his chest. "You made a lot of promises today, though, Hux. And each one had plenty of strings attached."
"Which string are you protesting?" he asked.
You knew he was expecting one particular answer, but it was the wrong one.
"None of them, actually," you replied.
One of Hux's eyebrows raised in interest.
"I don't think you understand me, or my relationship with Lord Ren."
"Please enlighten me, then."
You played with the placket covering the snaps of Hux's uniform. "Ren and I have a connection, and it is strong. And I think you're playing a game which you don't have the rules for."
You could see the muscles of Hux's jaw tighten.
"I don't know why you want to play the game at all, really," you went on. "I don't understand why you don't want us together. And I don't know what you think you'll gain if you break us apart." Your fingers trailed down the placket until you reached the leather of his belt. "Together we can be remarkable." Unstoppable.
You pushed into his mind--uncaring if it was uncomfortable for him--to see Starkiller Base explode. Starkiller was part of the motivation. You could feel the muddled slurry of his emotions--pyretic fury, bitter melancholy, and gelid fear. He thought he had done everything right. He had learned from the Empire's arrogance. He had built in failsafes that had been all for naught in the face of the underfunded Resistance.
He blamed Ren. Ren had not stopped the destruction of the thermal oscillator. Ren had allowed it to be bombed. Ren had been too distracted with the Resistance soldiers in the forest to keep them from destroying five years of Hux's planning and work.
You yanked Hux against you by his belt and said to him, "You're better than kriffing revenge."
Hux didn't dignify your statement with a reply. You two stared at each other for so long that any retort would sound disjointed.
"Hux... What is it that you want?" You studied his symmetrically proportioned face. His blue eyes practically glowed in the dimness of his quarters.
"Many, many things," he finally said as he unhooked your fingers from his belt and walked farther into the room.
You turned as he passed you. You watched his lean frame as he placed his datapad on his desk and went to the port-windows. You slowly came up beside him and said:
"Please, I am your consort. You put me next to you for a reason." Beyond lustful curiosity, you thought.
"You're beside Ren as well."
"Along with the Knights," you pointed out.
"How do I know you won't further distract Ren, and I'll have another Starkiller on my hands?"
Starkiller was a blight on his pristine record. You understood that. Any more mistakes, and it would look like he couldn't lead. He could be assassinated, like he had done to Snoke, just as easily because of it.
"Then why put me in such a position? Why not take Lord Ren as your consort?" you asked.
He sighed. "I had considered it. However, his reputation is less than desirable."
"And I have no reputation."
"I wouldn't say that, but I can work with yours," came his wry retort.
You hummed to yourself, amused, as you thought of the stormtroopers' gossip. Blind, fearless, and powerful you supposedly were. It was bantha fodder. However, you could see where Hux might like that sort of mystique around his consort.
After a pause, he spoke. "As my consort, I need an assurance from you." He turned to you, and you nodded for him to continue. "You will keep Ren in line. I don't mind the romantic connection you two have, but I will have order."
"In return, I need one from you."
"Go on."
"No manipulations. If we are together, we can't have in-fighting. We have to be united to look strong."
Hux stated, "I will not withdraw the marriage stipulation."
"That's fine. It's of no interest to me right now."
"Then you two are open..."
"Nothing has changed since last night, I assure you." You stepped up to him. "We still want you. Even though you fucked up."
His gloved hand ran down your arm to encircle your wrist. "Will you give me your word that Ren won't be a problem for me?"
"Has he been one lately?" you asked.
Hux conceded, "Surprisingly, no."
"How about you? Will you give up trying to manipulate Lord Ren? Blaming him for Starkiller?"
He looked displeased and glanced out the port-windows. The light cut across his sharp cheekbones. You studied his elegant profile, the slope of his jaw, the way his ginger hair was smoothed back from his perfect face.
You softly added, "He wasn't the only one on that base, sir."
Hux's mouth tightened for a second and then he breathed out. He gave your wrist a gentle squeeze. "You're right. It won't get us anywhere."
"You have my forgiveness, but you'll have to seek it out from Lord Ren."
He looked at you, and you smiled with a small shrug. "It might not be so bad, if you're into that sort of thing."
"Debase myself in front of Ren--I think not."
"I did it for you."
"Last night was not-- You did not cheapen yourself." He thought for a moment. "You gave me a gift."
"I'm glad it was appreciated."
Hux reached up with his free hand and lightly dragged the black leather of his gloved finger over your lips. "I have thought of many pleasures with you both."
You didn't think all the pleasures were pure pleasure. Hux might like the thought of Ren fucking him, but he was no submissive. Then again, neither exactly were you. The future was going to get real interesting real fast with Hux at your and Ren's side.
"Come to us whenever you like," you murmured against warm leather.
He tilted your chin up and bent down to kiss you. You kept it soft like a promise. There was no need to give it all up yet. However, he pulled back before you thought he would.
"I have to get back to the bridge," he explained.
"Of course, sir."
Hux escorted you out of his quarters, and you parted ways with a brief nod to each other. When you got back to your suite, you found Ren gone. You checked your datapad, but he hadn't sent you a message. You could feel him out amongst the minds in the Finalizer, but it didn't seem worth it. He was probably in the training center, anyway, you figured.
You took off your shoes, picked up your datapad, and sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. You stretched your upper body over the mattress and called up the holonet browser on the datapad.
You wanted to do a little research to keep yourself occupied. You hadn't ever used the holonet before, but it was easy to figure out with the First Order's clean interface. You typed in any spelling you could think of for Sidious. Nothing came up.
Something Snoke had said, made you think Sidious was a person. What if Sidious was a Sith, like Darth Vader? You typed in Darth Sidious, but still came up with nothing. You checked to make sure there weren't limiters on the interface, but there weren't.
It was like Sidious had never existed.
You asked yourself if the Sith would actually advertise who they were. They had supposedly worked in secret, manipulating all sorts of situations from the shadows. How could they do that if everyone knew their Sith names?
You sighed and thought that it was pointless to try to find someone by their super secret evil identity, patent pending.
You decided to type in Palpatine. Kin Al had accused Hux of wanting to be like Palpatine. The Empire, and its emperor, were before your time. You had heard bad things about Imperial rule from your parents and later Lor San Tekka, but some people hadn't seen much change from one administration to the other. You only knew the Empire through their crashed ships on Jakku.
The results of your search brought up mostly impartial information. You read the facts of Palpatine's rule, his rise to power. There were conflicting stories about his death, though. The main theory was that he was killed when the final incarnation of the Death Star had been destroyed. There were some who believed he had been taken down before the Rebellion blew up the space station. With that theory, the question of who actually killed Palpatine remained.
With a sigh, you pushed the datapad away and pillowed your head on your arm. You stared at the dark walls of the suite and thought that Hux didn't sound like Palpatine. Their methods were different. Hux wasn't trying to rule through pure political maneuvering, he wanted to rule through strength and persuasion and discipline.
Palpatine's rule had only been for twenty years. It was impressive, but not a lifetime. The Clone Wars had destroyed much of the faith that had once been in the Republic. It was hard to get the galaxy on a government's side when said government had to force them there.
Wouldn't it be better to offer citizens a better way?
At every step, Hux had been speaking with authority and passion. None of the crew seemed to question what he offered. The Knights had, but you weren't surprised by that. They were loyal to Kylo Ren, and Ren had seemed to butt heads with Hux in the past enough. And Snoke had liked it that way.
But since you weren't Snoke, you didn't like it. Together, Ren and Hux could claim the galaxy as theirs. The emperor and his hand--his executor.
You didn't know when you fell asleep, but you woke with a little start. You turned over and were about to ask if it was Ren who had woke you when you saw a black-shrouded stranger. You sat up and tried to back away over the mattress when you were stopped with the Force.
Because the black-caped man in the room was definitely not Ren. Your heart sped up to double-time when it you recognized the man as Darth Vader. His black helmet was shiny and perfect. He had a lit, square panel on his chest and black armor across his shoulders. He was so tall--taller than Ren. He towered over you and dominated the room.
You tried to catch your breath, and not whimper like a child, as you stared up at the visor of his helmet. What did he want? Why had come to you and not Ren?
"The hand cannot live without the emperor," Vader said, his voice distorted through his vocoder. You could hear him breathe. "And a hand is all the hand will ever have."
Before you could say anything, your eyes snapped open again. You quickly flipped onto your back to see nothing out of the ordinary. You let out a shaky breath and flopped back onto the mattress.