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Hux grunted as he was tugged forward by his elbow, stumbling over uneven ground. If the brutes that had captured him would simply let him walk on his own they could be moving much faster. Unfortunately they had insisted on blindfolding him, despite Hux pointing out he wouldn’t be able to retrace his steps even if he weren’t blindfolded. The planet they were on was heavily forested and Hux had never been the best at navigating unaided.
A particularly sharp twig stuck Hux in the leg and he jerked his elbow in an effort to dislodge the hand gripping him. No such luck. Instead he was yanked harshly forwards. He fell briefly to his knees, and scraped one open on what felt like a rock, before being tugged back to almost standing and stumbling blindly forward after his captors.
The brief look Hux had gotten at the men who now held him captive had been enough to tell him they weren’t Resistance. Besides, he expected the Resistance wouldn’t have blindfolded him, and would have cuffed him rather than crudely tying his wrists together. No these men were mercenaries at best, and locals with a grudge at worst. Hux just had to hope someone else on his team had sent out a distress signal.
It was supposed to have been a diplomatic meeting. A simple matter of bullying the small planet’s ruler into signing a treaty and granting the First Order access to the admittedly meager amount of weapons the planet manufactured. Still, better the First Order have them than the Resistance. Unfortunately, all had not gone as planned.
Everything would have been fine if Ren had just escorted him like Hux wanted, but no. Of course Ren had better things to do than help secure the future of the First Order. He’d said he couldn’t be bothered to make the trip, and that he’d be on the Supremacy anyway if things went wrong. Of course, where was he now that things had gone wrong? Too far away to help!
It had been a trap, because of course it had been. The docking platform they’d been instructed to land on had been rigged with explosives. The bombs went off and chaos erupted. Hux had barely picked himself up from the rubble when he’d been grabbed by the men who were now marching him through the forest that had surrounded the landing pad. He had no idea who, if anyone, had survived and had very little hope a distress signal had been sent to the Supremacy.
So now here Hux was, being marched blindly through the forest, probably to his death. He had no idea if the attack had been organized by Jado Alon, the man he was currently supposed to be intimidating into a truce, or if this was a random group with a vengeance. He couldn’t reach his concealed blade, and one of the men periodically jabbed what was definitely the barrel of a blaster into Hux’s back if he slowed down too much. All Hux could really do was hope for an unlikely rescue.
After a painfully long amount of walking, the men stopped. Hux did not immediately realise this, and had his arm wrenched painfully backwards by the man holding him. He couldn’t help the gasp of pain that escaped him, and when the pain didn’t leave he worried it had been dislocated.
“On your knees, scum.” The voice that spoke was distinctly female, so they weren’t all men after all. Apparently, Hux should have chosen to focus on the woman’s words and not how she sounded saying them, because someone cracked a blaster over his head and he fell face first to the ground. Hux sputtered and spat a leaf from his mouth as he struggled to right himself with his hands tied behind him. It proved difficult, but not impossible, and he was able to rise to a kneeling position. The position alone would have been humiliating but the blindfold just added insult to injury, still, Hux was determined to not give his captors the satisfaction of seeing him affected.
Hux could hear his captors moving around, but knew better than to try and make a run for it. Instead he sat and listened to the noises his captors made, trying to guess what they were doing. After a few minutes he was fairly sure that they were digging a hole. A grave for him, maybe? That probably wasn’t good, though he had to admit, he hadn’t expected his captors to have the decency to bury his body, so points to them.
Hux waited in silence, all while holding on to the hope that Kylo might come and save him at the last second. But why would he? A little voice in Hux’s head that sounded annoyingly like Brendol whispered gleefully. He doesn’t care for you Armitage. They’ll send a party to look for you, of course, but without him they’ll never find you in time. Hux silently told his personal demons to shut up.
By the time his captors finished digging, Hux’s knees had gone numb. The cut he was certain he had on one of them had been pressed into the dirt and stung horribly. To his surprise, his blindfold was removed, and he squinted against the light. It seemed to be late afternoon, judging solely by the amount of sunlight, but Hux had no way to be sure. They’d arrived on the planet around mid morning, so the Supremacy was bound to know something had gone wrong by now. They had a check in system for a reason.
“So.” The woman who’d spoken before walked into Hux’s view. “Here we have the great General Starkiller.” Oh, so that’s what they were mad about. “I have to admit, I’m rather disappointed. You barely even put up a fight.” Hux had to grant her that, even he was a little embarrassed by how easily he’d been captured. “Pathetic.” The woman spat in Hux’s face, and his features curled in disgust. Still, he could take it. The longer she talked, the more time his troops had to locate him.
“So this is revenge then?” Hux kept his voice even, despite how dry his throat was. He hadn’t noticed it until he spoke but the hours he’d gone without water had taken their toll. “Starkiller base could have brought order to a galaxy ruled by chaos. Look at the state of things, this can’t really be what you want.”
The woman laughed. “Don’t pretend to know what we want. The chaos suits me and my crew just fine. But some of us had family on those planets. Family you killed, you loathsome coward!” She backhanded Hux and tasted blood where his lip hit his teeth.
Keep her talking. He could do this. “What part of designing a super weapon the likes of which the galaxy has never seen makes me a coward, exactly?”
“There is nothing brave about hiding behind a big red button.” The woman glared down at him. “If you were half the general you’d like everyone to think you were you’d be leading your troops into battle, not sitting safe up in your star destroyer listening to them die.” Hux didn’t think explaining that it was not the role of generals to lead the charge would get him anywhere.
“And what makes you so different. An ambush and the abduction of a half stunned enemy doesn’t seem very brave to me.” Hux was prepared for the hit this time when it came, and moved his head with it to lessen the blow.
The woman scowled down at him. “I’ve had enough. Break his leg and throw him in.” Hux barely had time to process her words before he was being grabbed by the shoulders and pulled backwards so his legs lay out on the ground before him. One of his other captors, a bulky looking blue skinned male, raised a mallet over his head and brought it crashing down on Hux’s knee. He couldn’t contain his cry of pain as he felt the bone shatter.
While Hux was gasping and trying to recover, he was dimly aware of hands lifting him slightly and shoving him forward and over the side of the small pit they had dug. While it was nowhere near six feet deep, it was still likely deeper than two, and Hux felt the first flair of panic in his chest. Surely, they were going to kill him before they buried him. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to be the case. A shovel full of dirt rained down on his face and he sputtered, trying to get the dirt out of his mouth while breathing through the pain in his knee.
More shovels of dirt landed on him as Hux struggled to get to his feet, but between his shattered knee and bound hands he could barely raise himself. More dirt landed on him and soon Hux’s vision was impeded. He took in a lungful of air and felt dirt fall into his mouth. Spitting it out expelled the air from his lungs and he was forced to breath again and spit out even more dirt. His world pinpointed to that vicious cycle of breathing in air and spitting out dirt, and soon his whole body was completely covered. Hux could feel the weight of the dirt starting to press in on him, and his breathing sped up.
Everything was dark, and the weight on his chest was making it very difficult to breath. Hux was also starting to panic. In his panic he began hyperventilating, and although he sternly reminded himself that hyperventilating would only kill him sooner, his lungs refused to cooperate. Hux could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness. He couldn’t do that. Once he stopped fighting to escape, it was over. No one was coming, and even if they were, they’d never find him in time.
Hux wasn’t positive, since everything was pitch black as it was, but he thought his vision was fading at the edges. He struggled for breath, but the air was running out and the weight on his ribs was growing heavier by the second, forcing him to take shallow, unfulfilling breaths. He was going to die here. That was Hux’s last coherent thought before unconsciousness mercifully claimed him.
--
The light was too bright. Hux squeezed his eyes shut. He was being jostled, and could dimly feel streaks of pain from his leg, though he had no idea why. Everything was still too bright, so Hux turned his head as much as he could, burying it in whatever the soft dark thing he was pressed against was. He felt as well as heard a soft rumble that might have sounded like his name if he were more coherent, but there was definitely a hand in his hair. Pleased with the warmth and darkness provided to him, Hux fell unconscious once more.
--
The solid beeping noise was what woke Hux next. He grimaced as it came to his attention and pulled him from the peaceful dream he’d been having. Something about being held and feeling safe. So much better than being buried- Hux’s eyes snapped open and he shot up. Buried alive! He wasn’t safe, he needed to breathe!
“Hux!” There was a hand on his shoulder, a gentle pressure shaking him lightly. “Hux it’s alright. You’re safe.” Hux gasped and took in his surroundings, listening again to the rhythmic beeping. A medbay. The Supremacy. He was safe. Hux let out a breath of relief, turning to see who was shaking him.
“Hux?” It was Kylo. Of course it was Kylo. “Hux I’m so sorry!” Kylo had always been overly emotional but Hux thought the tears he could see in Kylo’s eyes were a bit much, even for the volatile man.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for Ren, I’m alive and well.” Hux dismissed Kylo’s apology, hoping to be able to leave the medbay and get briefed on what exactly had happened on the planet’s surface.
“What?” Kylo stared at him incredulously. “Hux if I’d just gone with you like you’d asked, none of this would have happened. This is my fault! Hux you almost died!”
“Well I didn’t. Now let go of me, I need to get back to work.” If Hux let a little extra snippiness slip into his tone, it wasn’t anything Kylo didn’t deserve. Afterall, he was right. If he’d just accompanied Hux they could have avoided this whole mess.
“You can’t leave yet.” Kylo shook his head at him. “Your leg is broken. And they need to monitor your vitals to make sure there aren’t going to be any long term effects from the lack of oxygen. They were very serious about it.”
Hux groaned inwardly. “How did I survive?” He settled back into the pillows on the bed. He might as well be comfortable if he wasn’t going anywhere. He’d have someone bring him a datapad soon so he could get up to speed.
“I found you.” Kylo didn’t sound like he was going to elaborate so Hux raised an eyebrow and nodded his head in a gesture that said, go on. “You called out to me Hux. I- I felt your fear. You were terrified and dying and it was my fault. So I followed your call. There were a few people standing over the place you were buried, but I killed them. And then I lifted you out with the force and carried you back to the search party.”
“You carried me?” Hux was horrified to think of someone else seeing him being carried, especially by Ren.
“Hux.” Ren actually looked hurt by Hux’s tone. “After we’d learned something was wrong, when I couldn’t find you-.” His voice broke and Hux felt a twinge of guilt. “I was terrified I was going to lose you. I don’t want to lose you Hux.”
“You won’t.” Hux didn’t know what moved him to say it, but it felt right. This kind of affection was uncommon from Ren. Hux reached up and cupped Kylo’s cheek with his hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Kylo brought a hand up to cover Hux’s. “I know.”
Hux wasn’t sure exactly what this was, just that it might be the start of something good.