Chapter Text
Something that Hux had to repeatedly remind himself of was that he didn’t regret anything.
He’s been with the Resistance for quite some time now, and it’s treated him better than the First Order ever had. He’s met a couple of people that he could actually call friends, retained his position as a general and therefore his power as well, and on top of it all, his relationship with Ben was stronger than ever. He had finally found a place where his importance was genuine and not only based on military status.
The only thing he occasionally missed was being on the winning side.
That isn’t to say that he didn’t remember defeats while being in the First Order. This was a war, after all, and they hadn’t been so lucky as to win every battle they had engaged in. However, they had had far more victories. They did have more resources in every area, after all. The Resistance was not so lucky. They had always been the ragtag team whose main asset was its heart. Sentimental, sure, but not good against an army capable of planet destroying machinery.
Hux looked worriedly over the shoulder of one of the Resistance members, Rose, as she was listening in on transmissions and rapidly jotting down notes. From what he could read of the sloppy words, things were looking dire. It didn’t help that the mission was a risky one to begin with. The Resistance was running dangerously low on supplies, whilst a new shipment of exactly what they needed was heading for a First Order delivery. If the Resistance succeeded, not only would they be perfectly replenished, but it’d be a blow for the Order as well.
Because of how tricky this mission would be, they couldn’t afford to allow many people to go on it. Only two members had been sent out, and though they had a reliable track record, Hux couldn’t help but worry more than ever.
Rose abruptly stopped writing, furthering Hux’s alarm. She looked over at him, almost tentatively as if she knew that whatever she was about to say would upset the general. “The communication was suddenly cut.”
Ah, and now he was upset. “What?! Is there any way to regain it?” he demanded.
Rose flinched, still not used to how harsh he can be sometimes. “It’s not our end that’s cut.”
Of course it wasn’t, that would make things more easy if it was. He was about to snap out again, but something stopped him from doing so. A calming feeling was pushing into his mind. Though weak, it was unmistakably a sign from Ben, trying to reassure him. Their minds have been linked for quite some time now, both of them feeling much better when they feel the other’s presence. It’s been so constant that its strengthened enough to be felt from impossibly far distances.
Hux hadn’t been trying to make an open effort to reach out to Ben beforehand; his frustration must have just been that powerful (which honestly wasn’t a surprise). If Ben had the time to send comfort his way, the Hux chose to assume it meant he had time to cover his own ass. He was sure that if something was majorly wrong, he’d feel it. “You keep doing what you’re doing,” he told Rose. “I’m going to update General Organa on the situation.”
“Good luck with that,” Rose said under her breath, and had Hux not felt like he was in a hurry he definitely would have remarked on the unnecessary snark. But he supposed he couldn’t blame her; everyone was under a lot of stress, and the last thing anyone would want to do would be to tell the head general that her son was in danger.
She had a strange intuition as well, though (or the Force, whatever). So, like Hux, she’d know that Ben wasn’t having his life threatened exactly. Therefore, telling her about the cut communication line should just be a simple update, nothing more. He let out a deep breath before making his way towards her. It was fine. Ben was fine. This should be nothing.
***
Oh, this wasn’t fine.
Ben tried to flash his signature grin. “You sure we don’t look like cargo inspectors? Because I think we could pull it off-”
He was immediately met with the end of blaster to the face, making him fall back on bound hands. Poe Dameron groaned, and would have added his own quip if he didn’t already have a blaster pressing against his own head. Admittedly, that wouldn’t usually stop him, but Ben was already hogging up all of the obnoxious energy; if Poe added to that, the trooper behind him probably wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
The supply ship was supposed to be a subtle one that didn’t have stormtroopers on it. That’s what was supposed to make it inconspicuous. That’s why the Resistance all felt so proud that they even found out this was the right ship in the first place. But of course there were stormtroopers here. One might even say this was a trap, but it would make sense for the First Order to have some sort of precaution. They weren’t stupid, no matter how much Ben thought it.
“These two are the rebels that got away from us a while back, aren’t they?” the trooper behind Poe asked.
The other trooper harshly grabbed Ben by the hair and pulled him back up into a sitting position. “The very same. The Resistance’s star pilot and Leia Organa’s son.”
Ben pouted. “I’m a pretty good pilot too, y’know.”
“Oh my god,” Poe muttered to himself.
The troopers decided to ignore anything the two had to say unless it was integral. In the meantime, they started to make preparations to take them in as official prisoners of war. Ben squinted up at the troopers, displeased at being ignored but deciding to take this to his advantage. He looked over at one of the crates he and Poe had opened earlier just to ensure they got the correct ship. In that particular one, there were several First Order-issued blasters organized very neatly.
He stretched out his fingers, testing out to see if he could get a grip on one of them through the Force. Slowly but surely, he saw a blaster slowly begin to rise up from the crate. He glanced back at the troopers, who were still talking amongst themselves, though still with their own blasters trained on them. This was going to be a little tricky. He glanced over at Poe, who had noticed what Ben was trying to do, but not letting his expression give it away. Good for him.
One of the troopers took out a communicator and tried to call over to base, but they realized something was off. "The communication is jammed."
"What?" The other trooper took out his own communicator, and Ben took this as the perfect opening. He pulled on the blaster so it now flew across the room, while turning his back on the troopers. Before the troopers could process what was happening, Ben had the blaster in his hand and shot at them both, letting the Force guide his aim.
He still looked over his shoulder to double check that he actually shot them. When he saw that he was successful, he mentally patted himself on the back before shifting over to Poe so they were back to back. "All right, neat, now let's get out of these and take what we can back already."
Poe groaned as he and Ben began to blindly undo each other's bonds (thank god the troopers only had rope on hand). "Y'know, I still don't know why I keep agreeing to go on missions with you, I feel like I'll die every time," he remarked.
Ben laughed. "You're just upset that I get to be the fun one when it's us two."
"You mean the 'insufferable' one?" Poe asked, before feeling Ben pinch his hand and letting out a small yelp.
Once they were free, Poe stood up with a stretch. "Well, lucky that they had faulty equipment at least. Dunno what would've happened if they got in touch with the Order."
"Oh yeah. About that…"
Poe clearly didn't like the sounds of that, slowly turning to Ben. "What did you do?"
"Saved our asses, for one," Ben started defensively. "I messed with the communication, but I uh, don't know how to do it with specific targets, so… I kinda had to just do an entire radius to malfunction it."
"Entire radius?" It took a moment for him to process what that meant, but when he did, he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "Jesus. Don't tell me that includes ours too."
"Okay, I won't." Ben began to see which crates he should grab first, but he accidentally caught onto something in Poe's mind, a thought so loud he didn't have time to ignore.
/God, why couldn't they send me with Rey instead? At least she knows what she's doing./
Ben's grip tightened on the crate. This wasn't new, him being compared to Rey. She was the perfect one, after all. The one with all the training, the one who made friends easily, the prodigy, the one Uncle Luke trusted. Literally everything Ben wasn't, she was. Even if he did something good, it was never good enough compared to her. His failures were the things that stood out more than anything.
He tried to shake the thought off and pay attention to the mission at hand. However, as he began to pick up the crate, he felt something else, and not a normal one in the slightest. He slowly put the crate back down and tried to focus on the feeling, letting it slowly guide him.
He stopped abruptly when he reached the far end of the supply ship. Upon first glance, it was just more crates. He tilted his head curiously, and raised his hand in front of him. Instinctively, it placed itself on a box that was smaller than the rest. Small enough to easily fit in one hand, really. What the hell was in this, and why did he feel such a strong pull to it?
"Ben!" Poe called after him. "We don't have all day."
Ben paused for a few more moments, before hastily putting the box in his satchel. "Yeah, I'm coming."