Chapter Text
The Resistance’s medbay, Hux found, was mostly a very quiet place. Their sorties, as best he could tell, were infrequent, and because of the nature of starship combat there were few injuries. Mostly, people came back whole or did not come back at all.
Ben had been moved to a more private room after two weeks of remaining comatose, and no one had questioned that Hux was, effectively, living there too. In theory he was a prisoner, while the Resistance determined exactly what to do with the repentant General who had claimed public credit for the destruction of the Hosnian System, but in practice he was mostly given free rein as long as he stayed out of any areas associated specifically with planning the war effort against the First Order. An understandable restriction, one he would have put in place himself in General Organa’s place.
Besides, he was mostly only interested in being at Ben’s side and, occasionally, getting a meal at the canteen. He never actually ate there, or spent much time in more populated areas of the base. The pall of obvious suspicion that surrounded him was too thick to be comfortable. For understandable reason, much of the Resistance was deeply uncomfortable with his presence, even as his hair and beard grew out and he looked less and less like the terrifying General he had been, the angry man in the holo who ordered the death of five planets with pomp and circumstance and certainty, and so he made an active effort to be present as little as possible.
Still, all the idle time he was left with was driving him mad. Hux was used to constant action, to always planning the next assault or the next negotiation or the next weapon. There was only so much time he could spend on the holos in the Resistance library, and going there was as uncomfortable as going anywhere else on base. He slept, more than he had on the Finalizer, and on occasion he and Rey practiced lightsaber skills, but even then there was something missing.
Two somethings, he supposed.
Ben was so far gone in his comatose state that Hux could not even reach him mind-to-mind through their Force bond, and when he tried, it felt like falling into a deep and infinite well of black water, with no end in sight. Rey had tried, too, and found the same thing - she hoped that Luke might be able to help, when he and Finn, the former Stormtrooper, apparently a Force-sensitive and training with Skywalker off-planet, returned to the base from wherever Skywalker had taken them off to very shortly after the defector group’s arrival, but Hux wasn’t entirely sure he trusted Ben’s old master to know how to save him from his new one.
Mostly, though, Hux was going mad without a sense of purpose. He could do nothing to help Ben, he had accepts that - whatever internal battle his lover was doing against Snoke was his and his alone. The Resistance refused his help, and he had passed on all the information he had long ago. He was adrift, useless, and he had never felt so afraid in his life. Some of it, he knew, was because of the remnants of his First Order training - to have no use was to be dead weight wa to be disposable - but some, he supposed, was just because he hated to be idle.
He needed to do something, needed to have a project. It itches at him to have nothing.
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Luke Skywalker’s return, to Hux’s mild consternation, was unplanned and unexpected. It happened while he was mid-dejarik game with General Organa - Leia was Ben’s most frequent visitor besides Hux, and Hux was almost surprised how easily he got on with the brilliant Resistance General. She was practically desperate for stories of her son, even if they were about his time in the First Order, and Hux was all too happy to tell them. She was also a clever player, and Hux deeply enjoyed occupying his mind with efforts to beat her.
An aide gently pushed open the door to Ben’s room, and Hux did not need the Force to read the mistrust practically rolling of her when she saw the Resistance General engaged in a friendly game with a former enemy.
“General?” She said. Leia looked up, and the she blinked, and suddenly she was smiling broadly.
“It’s Luke, isn’t it?” She asked. The aide nodded.
“Master Skywalker and Finn have just returned from their excursion. He’s eager to see you, ma’am.” The woman said. Leia stood, and beckoned for Hux to come with her.
“Luke will want to meet you, too,” she said, “he’ll be fascinated to find a Forceuser just coming into their powers at your age.” Hux frowned, briefly, but decided it was likely she meant nothing more by it than that Jedi were traditionally trained as children.
Though, in truth, Hux did not consider himself a Jedi, lightsaber or not.
“If you think it best, General,” he deferred, standing to follow her. It was years of conditioning that had him moving into a more military posture, and he felt a moment of embarrassment when he realized that both Organa and her aide were regarding him rather strangely. Still, it felt oddly comfortable, and so he walked next to the much shorter Resistance General with his back straight and his hands folded behind him.
“Are you entirely sure this is a good idea?” He asked, when they were closer to the hangar, trying to suppress a nervous tremble. “I doubt Finn will be pleased to see me, so soon.” To the former ‘trooper, Hux could only assume he was the menacing face of the Order’s propaganda - and if Finn blamed him for everything the Order had put him through, it would not be entirely unfair. Hux’s father had developed the program, but Hux himself had continued it when he could have stopped, turned to volunteers instead of conditioned children when the Order’s territory expanded. He could make all the excuses he liked; he was still responsible.
Some days, the Resistance and the Republic’s official forgiveness for his crimes did not sit well with him. This was one of those days.
“Finn is tough,” Leia said, tone soothing, “and in some ways the two of you aren’t that different - you both broke away from the Order, despite a lifetime telling you that you couldn’t.”
“I doubt he will see it that way,” Hux said, shaking his head slowly, remembering the way Finn had glared at him for the few hours he had been on base when Hux first arrived, “but I appreciate your confidence, General.” They came to a stop at the hangar, and Hux snapped into parade rest, head tipped up slightly. He dug his nails into his palms to suppress his tremors, a somewhat more effective - or perhaps just painful - practice now that he no longer regularly wore thick gloves. He still insistently wore a pair, because it was comforting, but the soft brown cloth was nowhere near as thick as his old leather ones.
He tried to pretend not to notice General Organa shooting him something approaching a concerned look.
He could see Finn and Luke striding over to meet them, and Finn looked genuinely happy to be back - several of the other pilots clapped him on the back companionably, and he paused to talk, which meant Luke reached them first.
“Luke,” Leia pulled her brother into a hug, “I’m so glad you’re back - it feels like as soon as you left things went strange.”
“I’m glad to be back,” Luke admitted. He pulled out of the hug and straightened, regarding Hux. “Who is this? One of the Order defectors?” He asked. “I don’t think we had the chance to meet before I left. Luke Skywalker.”
“Alexandros Hux,” he introduced himself, though he did not extend a hand, not keen on revealing his damaged palms, “though mostly just Hux, these days.” He could feel Finn’s eyes on him, now that the man had broken away from the pilots and come over. He was regarding Hux with a deep and abiding mistrust.
“Are you sure it’s safe to let him run around, General?” Finn asked, and Hux dug his nails in deeper, now very forcibly ignoring the blood pooling in his palms.
“Yes,” Leia said, surprisingly firmly. “Luke, Hux was the First Order’s General, but he defected, and brought a large amount of intelligence - and Ben.”
Luke was regarding him very seriously, and Hux felt, somehow, smaller under that intense blue gaze, even though Skywalker was several inches shorter than him (and Hux wondered, not for the first time, where Ben had gotten his height and muscle mass, when the rest of his family seemed so much smaller.)
“You brought Ben back to the Light,” Luke said, and there was something edging on wonder in his voice. “I didn’t think it could be done, after what happened with his father, but you did it.”
“I helped him realize that Snoke was not the infallible master he believed him to be. The rest was by his choice,” he said. “But it was my idea to come here. I thought he would have the best chance of...recovering from Snoke’s manipulations, surrounded by people who understood the Light side of the Force.” He swallowed, feeling deeply nervous. “Although I underestimated the depths of Snoke’s influence - I believe he attempted some form of takeover of Ben, and failed only because Ben drew both of them into some deep, inaccessible part of his mind.”
“I see,” Luke said, and then, “bring me to see Ben.” He was speaking directly to Hux, and the former General nodded, turning on his heel with practiced precision. “You should join us, Finn, it may be beneficial for your Force training.” Finn looked slightly wary, but he nodded.
“I should go back to work, let the three of you busy yourselves with Force work,” Leia said. “Dejarik another time, Hux?”
“Whenever you’re free, General,” Hux said, inclining his head to her.
“Send Rey to meet us in medbay, please?” Luke requested, and Leia nodded, before bustling off into the base. “I have an idea, a way to wake Ben up. But it’s going to take all of us.”
Hux held Luke’s gaze for a long moment.
“Tell me what you require, and I will do it.” Anything to wake Ben up, to have him back, to maybe purge Snoke’s influence from his beloved forever.
Once, Hux had told Ben that he would burn the galaxy to the ground to keep him safe. It was not an exaggeration. Luke seemed to sense his determination, because he nodded firmly.
“Good.”