Work Text:
eldritch: adjective; weird and sinister or ghostly
Something had changed about Kylo Ren.
Following Snoke's command to deliver his apprentice to a set of coordinates in the farthest reaches of space, General Hux had then been instructed to search for and prepare a planet to host a second Starkiller. The technology, Snoke explained, should not be wasted. He demanded that the blueprints be revised, the thermal oscillator more secure, and the morale of what maintained of the First Order to be improved. Shocked that Snoke wished to start from scratch with nearly half of their engineers and troops dissolved within the planet's collapse, Hux almost tried to offer an alternative course of action. Almost. He instead gracefully accepted orders and began mentally preparing what planets had poor defenses and could easily be raided of their human children.
Before Hux knew he was to be dismissed, he asked with as much professionalism as such a question required, "Supreme Leader, may I inquire where Lord Ren shall be during his training?" Snoke had only curled his lip in a humorless smile.
"Do not worry, General. He will return soon."
If Snoke suspected that Hux was curious about Kylo Ren beyond the parameters of co-commandership, he said nothing. Hux, after all, tried to keep those feelings well hidden even, and especially from, himself.
The general forced himself to push the slow-burning concern for Ren to the back of his mind. There was what seemed like an unending amount of work expected of him, to begin immediately, so Hux tried to repress feelings he wasn't ready to accept yet for his co-commander.
The following weeks entailed heavy workloads and double shifts that left the general dozing off on his feet. If he had been sleep deprived before, now he was practically a sleepless droid. Whenever he would feel slumber begin to steal his consciousness, when his body no longer was physically able to remain awake, he swore he could hear a distant voice whispering into his mind, Please go to sleep.
And when Hux would awaken, he felt the uncanny sensation that he had been told something extremely important in his dreams, but he could never remember what. Hux tried not to linger on it.
Rebuilding the First Order went as well as it could in their strenuous position. Captain Phasma lead pillages that saw newborns and toddlers taken from the arms of their sometimes alive or sometimes dead parents. Slinking around the edges of the galaxy, engineers still loyal to the First Order were recruited and tasked with construction of Starkiller II. Crews from other fleets were reassigned to the Finalizer. Regiments were reinstated and strictly enforced, attempting to return order and structure to his ship.
The only non-standard happenings occurred in Hux's private quarters at night, when he began to feel certain that a faraway entity whispered his name as he fell asleep. He wanted to believe it was Ren's voice just as much as he tried to dismiss the idea of actually hearing disembodied utterances altogether. They're only auditory hallucinations, Hux told himself sternly. I've been under an incredible amount of stress lately. Had he actually thought they were hallucinations, though, he would've visited the medbay. He didn't visit the medbay.
whisperwhisper
Don't ask questions whose answers you aren't prepared for.
whisperwhisper
Plans were unfolding precisely as they should have been when, many weeks later, Supreme Leader Snoke informed Hux that Kylo Ren would be returning within the next few cycles.
Hux tried very hard to ignore the pressure in his chest upon receiving this news. Instead, the rest of the meeting with Snoke he focused on progress reports and soliciting Snoke's instructions for further reconstruction.
Before he ended the meeting, Snoke's voice shifted to the cryptic edge it held when he spoke of Force related matters. "General. When Kylo Ren returns I wish for you to oversee his progress."
Hux was confused what context "oversee" held, but he replied, "Yes, Supreme Leader. Is there anything specific I should anticipate?"
A grin slithered across Snoke's twisted face. "Just monitor him a bit more closely."
And then, Hux was dismissed. He stood in the cold conference room, staring ahead blankly where the hologram of Snoke's throne had been moments before, fervently compartmentalizing his thoughts that had slowly, inevitably, begun to fray.
Are we alone?
If we knew what is lurking out there, would we prefer solitude?
Ren arrived the next day, announced to Hux by Lieutenant Mitaka who handed him a datapad that required Hux to provide clearance for the ship. He did so without hesitation and began his way to the hangars, consciously walking slower than he actually wanted to.
He arrived just after the craft landed and just before Kylo emerged, masked and menacing as ever. Hux stood as stoically as he could as Kylo approached him.
"Welcome, Lord Ren," he said with just enough professional amicability.
"General." Ren's head nodded minutely.
"Your quarters should be exactly as you left them," Hux continued, suddenly feeling the need to fill the oppressive quiet between them. Something about Ren was different, but naturally under all of those layers, Hux had little information to draw a conclusion from. Really, all he needed was for the damned helmet to come off so he could see that expressive, boyish face with its perfect dispersion of beauty marks--
Is that so, General? a heavy voice drawled into his mind.
Hux stiffened, wondering when he would ever become accustomed to the fact that Ren was an adept mindreader.
Your feelings for me are so loud. I heard them across the universe.
Before Hux could begin flushing like he knew he would any second, he replied aloud, "Lord Ren, shall we convene in my quarters to discuss the progress of Starkiller II?"
"Lead the way, General."
They walked shoulder to shoulder, paces matched, to Hux's rooms. The entire time, Hux's suspicions confirmed themselves; there was something fundamentally changed about Kylo Ren that nagged at the forefront of his brain. He didn't need the Force to feel a heavy energy swirling like miasma around Ren's towering form. Whatever it was, it made every hair on Hux's body stand on end. He would admit that sometimes his strange co-commander made him uneasy with his unpredictability and proclivity for violence, but this was something else entirely. This presence did not feel like Ren, not entirely, at least.
They reached Hux's quarters and he lead them inside, heart beginning to thump wildly for a plethora of reasons. Hux sank immediately onto his bed, savoring the few moments off of his feet. Ren stood in the center of the room, seeming as if he were unsure what to do. He had only been in Hux's room a few times to play hologames and drink brandy.
"Sit anywhere you like," Hux said, waving his hand vaguely. Ren sat next to him on the edge of the bed.
"Reconstruction is going well," Hux continued, feeling the need to cover the silence. "We've already found a suitable planet to host Starkiller II and our numbers are almost what they were pre-destruction--"
"General."
Hux swallowed nervously, unsure of himself. He was never unsure. Only around Kylo Ren could he doubt himself.
"Yes, Ren?"
"Perfectly dispersed beauty marks?" he jabbed in what Hux knew to be teasing banter, but even the vocoder couldn't mask how tired he sounded.
Hux cleared his throat. "Yes, well, you look quite unlike what I've been lead to believe a Sith usually looks like."
A small half-hearted laugh. "I'm not a Sith, Hux. But I'll take that as a compliment."
Hux felt the heat he had been trying to stave off creep into his cheeks, silent.
"How much of my thoughts do you hear?" he finally asked.
"Hm. A good bit," Kylo answered, adding quickly, "I don't even try to."
Hux nodded, unsure how to feel about that. He decided to change the subject.
"Training went well, I presume?"
Ren stiffened, and Hux felt the energy radiating from him begin to churn stormily.
"Yes," he replied, but Hux did not believe him.
"Ren," he frowned. "If there's something I should know, something that could compromise how this ship is run, you should tell me--"
"You don't need to be concerned," he cut off, voice short.
Hux nodded slowly, unconvinced. "Take your helmet off?" he prompted quietly.
Ren stood abruptly. "I should go. I've things to do."
He made his way to the door but Hux gently grabbed his wrist, realizing too late his action and feeling just as shocked as Ren.
"Keep your helmet on, then. Stay for a round of Dejarik."
Ren seemed to consider Hux's offer. Nervously Hux licked his lips, feeling his mouth go dry.
"Thank you. But I can't." Hux sensed he was reluctant to leave, that he genuinely wished to stay and share the evening with him. Hux only nodded tersely, feeling an unfamiliar emptiness spread in his chest as he watched Ren leave silently.
They hear you. Can you hear them?
Hux ran through the corridors of the Finalizer, barefoot and dressed only in the standard issue tank top and sweatpants that he used for sleeping in, heart racing. Every hallway of the Finalizer blurred into one another, all the doors absent along the walls, but all he focused on was the voice calling his name. If he had to describe it, it was how he imagined sunlight to sound. When he reached the only door he had encountered so far, one that lead to a recreational room for officers with a transparisteel view to the galaxy beyond, he realized he was dreaming.
Kylo stood staring at the glittering stars with his back to Hux. He was unmasked, dark wavy locks resting on his shoulders.
"Ren?" he asked quietly, but his voice echoed around the room anyways. He stepped forward slowly, becoming aware of his own heartbeat that seemed too loud, too incriminating.
"I've been calling out to you for weeks. Could you hear me?"
Hux remembered the voices he had sworn he heard floating hazily around his room at night when he lingered between wakefulness and slumber.
"Yes. I heard you."
"You were all I thought of out there," he admitted softly. Hux edged forward again.
"Don't come closer." Ren's voice was strained; he was not ordering Hux, he was pleading. His voice sounded uncharacteristically small. This unnerved Hux more than anything that had transpired in this dream so far.
"What happened, Kylo?"
"The less you know, General Hux, the better off you'll be."
"Look," Hux began, feeling the first coils of anger rising in him. "I can't ignore all your Force shenanigans, alright? I don't know how it happened, but you've already pulled me into this."
"I know," breathed Kylo quietly, trembling visibly even from the distance Hux stood. "And I don't want to pull you in any farther."
"...What if I want to be pulled in?"
Kylo inhaled sharply, as if he touched something he hadn't expected to be hot.
"You don't know what you're saying."
Hux padded forward slowly, hoping Kylo knew he wasn't trying to sneak up on him. How do you sneak up on a Force user in their Force dream anyways? Assuming that's what this was.
Hux gingerly wrapped his arms around Kylo's torso, feeling an invisible repulsion pushing away at him, as if their bodies were the same polar ends of a magnet. Kylo began to laugh, a harsh sound that quickly devolved into sobs that sent tremors throughout his entire body. Tears fell onto Hux's hands where they clasped around his chest.
"What happened to you?" Hux whispered against the nape of Kylo's neck, nuzzling into his luscious hair. It smelled like ice, void, starlight. To Hux, it was more intoxicating than an infinite amount of brandy.
"If I show you, Hux, you can never go back to how you were before. I can never go back to how I was before."
"I don't understand," Hux murmured.
"Neither do I. Not entirely. It was not meant to be seen or understood by such impermanent beings as we."
They stood quietly, gazing out into the galaxy beyond the transparisteel, Hux's arms still woven around Kylo.
"I never took you for the poetic type," Hux laughed softly. All of this was so surreal, and he began to wonder if perhaps he actually was awake, hugging Kylo in an officer's recreation room in the middle of the night cycle, letting himself fall into what he had so long tried to avoid. It was as if Kylo was a black hole, and Hux was light caught in its parameters.
"Are you sure you want this?"
Hux knew he meant more than just learning of what it was Snoke had forced him to endure. The part of him that repressed attachments sternly told him in his father's voice that this was a bad idea, to force himself awake and pretend this had never happened. But the part of him that felt heated flutters in his chest from simply thinking about Kylo won.
"Whatever it is, I want to be a part of it," Hux said with firm resolution. Hux did not take half measures. If he was going to do this, he would do it with as much dedication as he did everything else. He owed that much to himself.
Kylo inhaled slowly, deeply. He gently pried Hux's arms from his torso, and then began to face Hux.
At first, Hux thought that Ren's irises had become transparent and the galaxy was showing through from behind him. His voice hitched in his throat when he realized that Kylo's eyes weren't transparent. The bands of his irises were swirling, glittering galaxies of colors he didn't even know could exist. It was without a doubt the most mystical and beautiful thing Hux had ever seen. Before he could even attempt to try and express his shock or admiration, however, he felt as if Kylo's eyes had formed their own gravitational pull, and he was being sucked into them. Either Kylo's eyes got bigger, or Hux got smaller, and soon he had traversed Kylo's irises and was floating in the shimmering and prismatic universe that existed behind his eyes.
Hux did not understand what was happening, even as his gaze caught shadowy tendrils caressing the edges of the galaxy, in equal measures of loving and vicious. It moved with unnatural finesse, morphing endlessly and infinitesimally. With equal parts horror and awe, Hux watched as the strange abyssal shadows swallowed any stars, comets, or planetary bodies that it touched. It devoured entire constellations, plucked all meteors and comets from their trajectory.
Before Hux could react, the eldritch monstrosity began slithering its inky endless tentacles towards Hux. When he realized that this sentient darkness was opening its blackhole maw, he screamed in terror, flailing helplessly in the suspended antigravity of the space behind Kylo's eyes.
With a pain that felt like having his very being shorn from within him, he found himself kneeling on the floor of the recreation room, cold with sweat, and seizing. Kylo had dropped to the floor beside him, staring worriedly with those nebulous eyes as Hux finally regained control of himself.
"What in total hell was....that?" Hux gasped, regaining as much consciousness as one can inside a dream.
Kylo tenderly brushed sweaty copper hair out of Hux's bloodless face, and met his gaze firmly.
"The thing that changed my eyes."
What do you believe in? Is it more powerful than what you don't believe in?
Hux awoke with a start so vicious that Millicent, curled at the foot of the bed, was catapulted across the room, landing with a thump and indignant yowl.
Chest heaving, Hux looked around frantically as if expecting to still be within the dream he had shared with Kylo the previous night, but sighed loudly with relief when the only thing he saw was his tidy room and an angry Millicent thrashing her tail.
As Hux began his daily routine, he found himself wondering if what Kylo had shown him last night was real.
Very real, General, Hux felt a warm voice in his head, slathering slow and sweet like honey across his synapses.
'Tell me about it, Kylo.'
A few moments went by while Kylo pondered a response and Hux slicked his hair into its usual primness, trying for all the world to look like a man who wasn't having a telepathic conversation about eldritch horrors that lurked in the most isolated and ancient vestiges of space.
Snoke...he says They have existed since before the creation of this universe. That They cannot die because They are not alive. Anything that gazes upon Them succumbs to madness or succumbs to Them, becoming as They are. Before you freak out, you didn't actually see one last night, so you won't be affected, like I have been. I only showed you the parts I knew wouldn't damage your mind. Seeing Them, as They truly are, is...traumatic.
'It must have been hellish.'
It was. But, once I resisted my sanity being fucked up beyond repair, it became...exhilarating. To feel that much raw power awakened something in me. I...still don't know what will happen, really. There's not much precedent for a situation like this.
'I'd imagine. Did it, you know, hurt?'
It was agony that I never could have felt before.
'Kylo? Can I see you with your helmet off?'
Tonight. Hux? Please don't be afraid of what I might turn into.
'Psh, don't flatter yourself.' Hux smirked to himself as he finished a quick breakfast. Which meant three large cups of caf. And a multivitamin. 'I've not been deterred from your presence yet, have I?'
Kylo's laughter tickled the insides of his skull. It was a very odd sensation, but not unpleasant.
You need to eat better.
'Okay, exactly how open is my life to you?'
Very. I filter the more...personal things.
'Don't want to watch me shower, Ren?'
I'm not a creep! That's...for you to show me on your terms. Not mine.
'Never knew you could be such a gentleman, Lord Ren.' Hux snickered to himself, gathering the various technological devices he needed to perform his job. This felt almost alarmingly comfortable, as if they had been having such amiable conversations for years, as if for a large portion of their career they hadn't clashed innumerable times.
He didn't know how Ren had suddenly become to feel like an old friend, but there were a lot of things about Ren and his feelings for him that he didn't understand yet.
'I have to run a ship, Ren. Are you going to hang around? I'm sure you'd find it incredibly dull to watch me give orders and attend meetings.'
Depends. Do you want me to?
Hux thought about the stresses of his position, how he had very little suitable company, how mind numbingly boring meetings could be if they got derailed badly enough, how hearing Kylo's harmonious voice between his ears made his chest become very warm, and how it reminded him of late summer afternoons.
'I think I'd like it very much.'
Do you recognize that voice?
Well.
It recognizes you.
The Finalizer was alive with activity, everyone performing their respective duties to repair their lost superweapon and damaged pride. Everyone moved about in perfect choreography, like cells that had begun the process of healing a nasty wound. Hux bantered almost incessantly with Kylo all day through endless construction reports, freshly drawn up files for the newly "adopted" baby Stormtroopers, blueprint revision after blueprint revision, and when his shift finally ended, he melted into his desk chair all while daydreaming about seeing Kylo Ren unmasked.
Hux was working up until Ren had been admitted into Hux's room, finally pushing his datapad aside when Ren sank onto the bed. Hux followed, sat in front of Ren, and reached to undo the clasps of the helmet. It hissed open, and he lifted the heavy thing from his head, watching immaculate hair tumble out, framing a face that housed two eyes blinking through space itself.
Hux didn't think. Before he registered that he had kissed Kylo, their lips were pressed and rolling softly against each other. Someone's tongue prodded into the opposite mouth, and Kylo gasped.
'You sound like you've never been kissed before,' goaded Hux, slipping his tongue obscenely around Kylo's, drawing more breathy moans from his panting lungs.
Maybe I haven't.
Hux lost track of how long they had been making out on his bed and with embarrassment felt like he was a teenage boy again. It felt too good to hear Kylo sigh with a newfound pleasure into his mouth, so on it went until Hux needed air, as humans are wont to do.
'Dejarik?' offered Hux, beginning to realize he quite enjoyed speaking nonverbally with Kylo. 'If I win you have to be my boyfriend.'
Deal. You know how bad I am at this game.
Wookies, Ren scoffed to himself.
Are you foolhardy or brave? Perhaps they are the same thing. Or, perhaps you should not bring to light what thrives in darkness.
Hux was mesmerized by Kylo's new eyes. They were the most captivating things Hux had the honor to gaze upon, until one night Kylo removed his helmet and starshine gleamed within the perfect whorls and curls of his nocturne hair. When he would move his head, the stars would shift and brighten as if they were reflecting light. Even in pure darkness, the twinkling never dimmed.
Millicent would stare at Kylo for hours when he visited Hux's quarters, before sleeping curled around his feet, on the nights he stayed over. Hux joked his head was too bright and dynamic for Millicent to fall asleep near. Kylo said he was probably right.
Early one morning, hours before Hux was expected on the bridge, the two of them realized they had woken up simultaneously. Lazily twirling Kylo's hair, which was the softest and sleekest texture he had ever felt in his life, Hux murmured, "The Supreme Leader asked me to monitor you."
"Did he say why?"
"No, not at all. Do you think he suspects something?"
Kylo rolled onto his side to tuck himself against Hux. "Just between you and me, I think he doesn't know what to expect. No precedent."
In a hushed voice, Hux asked, "Do you think you will become more powerful than Supreme Leader Snoke?"
Kylo's eyes shone magnificently in the dark, meteors shooting through the galaxies as he answered with a scarcely contained thrill in his voice, "Oh, I'm sure."
Hux kissed the top of Ren's head. His hair left the taste of cool atmosphere on Hux's lips. Hux wondered if this was how stars tasted.
"You've dreamed about being emperor since you were a boy."
"That I have."
"What if I told you I could help you achieve anything you could ever desire?"
Hux's breath caught in his throat, the weight of these implications essentially muting him.
"What about Supreme Leader Snoke?"
Kylo's eyes glinted with crimson nebulae. "What about him?"
"You wouldn't really...challenge your own Master?"
"I've done it before," purred Kylo, sending shivers down Hux's spine, remembering how officers and troopers alike whispered 'Jedi Killer' in his presence. If Ren was offering himself as a weapon to Hux, he would be more than willing to wield him with the honor and respect such finely honed destruction deserved. There could be no knight more powerful than a man imbibed with the might of eldritch beings.
There being no precedent, Hux concluded that anyone who may have attempted to see these monstrous elders in the past did not survive. Tenderly, as if his boyfriend was not slowly transforming into something beyond either of their comprehension, he hugged the expanse of Kylo that was still human. Hux was unsure how long Kylo would be made of the same matter as he was.
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
Do you understand, yet?
By the time Starkiller base had been constructed, Kylo Ren's physiology had dissipated and been recreated again. Before, his elegant steps left behind a trail of stardust, mesmerizing everyone who laid eyes on this mystical being. Now, he all but floated down corridors of the Finalizer and above the corpses in low profile settlements that hadn't avoided the First Order's wrath, his spindly tentacles, darker than night itself, thrumming about him.
When Ren had simply been Snoke's Force wielding apprentice, the entire First Order deferred to him out of fear. Now, they practically cowered as his robes fluttered softly where the tentacles erupted into fruition.
General Hux noticed that his officers and engineers worked at optimal efficiency and with renewed fervor, as it was impossible for them to not notice that Hux patrolled the Finalizer and Starkiller II's base in equal footing, or floating, with Kylo Ren. He began to wonder whether the First Order feared Kylo Ren or Supreme Leader Snoke more.
Kylo instantly picked up on this thought and replied to Hux, They are mortified of me. I am tangible and ever-changing, while Snoke to them is but a disengaged hologram.
'Tell me, love,' Hux pressed affectionately into Kylo's mind, knowing that without a doubt he was blushing under that ungainly helmet, 'what is stopping us from turning Starkiller's crosshairs on Snoke?'
Normally, Hux would be apprehensive about blatantly thinking such treacherous thoughts, should Snoke somehow manage to invade his mind and decide to poke around. Kylo reassured him that he had erected many barriers to protect both of their minds, but Hux's especially.
Your delicate consciousness doesn't seem at all attuned to the Force, so obviously it's my responsibility to protect your glorious brain. It had the cadence of goading, but Ren would ruffle the General's hair afterwards as a sign of goodwill. Hux couldn't find himself to be offended by such flattering, and true, praises.
If Kylo enjoyed becoming an impenetrable shield in addition to a fatal conglomerate of raw power exclusively for Hux's benefit, he would not stop him.
With the entirety of the First Order quaking in terror every time they saw either the General or Kylo Ren, Hux knew it wouldn't be long before all of that manpower and resources could be snatched out from underneath Snoke. All he had to do was bide his time.
One night, as Hux absently stroked one of Kylo's smooth, cold tentacles, he asked, 'Would you really kill Snoke for me? You would go that far? For me?'
Another tentacle wound gently like a python around Hux's shoulders, settling itself like a heavy necklace. Despite how surreal the tentacles looked, much less the concept of Kylo having them at all, they offered a tactile pleasure so great that Hux had made a habit of stimming with them, and very soon he became enthralled with the new wiggling protrusions.
Yes. I see in you something far greater than Snoke could ever hope to dream of. I see how your people watch you, in awe that you and only you can command me to do your bidding exclusively.
Hux lightly scratched his short nails along the strange rubber of those blessed tentacles. He hummed approval in his throat. For the first time since the original Starkiller base was decimated, Hux believed with a passion bordering on fanaticism that he would soon be able to rise to emperor and watch as galaxy after galaxy succumbed to his entourage.
You believe in your convictions so strongly. It's refreshing to feel your searing passions, Kylo says approvingly.
'What do you hope to attain from all of this?'
In all honesty, I only want your love. You're the only human worth placing such sentiments into.
Hux pursed his lips and said aloud, "I thought your goal was to erase all sentimentality?"
Kylo followed suit and replied aloud, "Per Snoke's instruction, that is. The end result would be to transcend humanity, to render myself immune to human weaknesses. But now..." A tentacle writhed in front of Hux. "I am no longer human. I needn't worry ever again of such silly maintenances of power." Ren chuckled deeply and it reverberated richly in Hux's chest. It made him think of impossibly huge mahogany trees.
"After you look at the Elder Gods and walk away in one piece, there is no greater power anywhere else in the universe. Snoke is useless to me, now, and thus are most of his teachings."
Hux nodded slowly. "I understand. That makes your loyalty that much sweeter."
Kylo's tentacles carefully pulled Hux against his chest, and he kissed the back of his head, delighting in how the red tresses felt on his lips.
"Fuck the Jedi. Fuck Snoke. Fuck their stupid rules."
Why are things the way they are? Who makes decisions on the universe's behalf? Does anybody? Nobody? Which frightens you the most?
Silence. The thousands of troopers and officers of all ranks stood like hyperrealistic statues as Hux ascended the platform, Kylo levitating several inches off the ground behind him. His tentacles spread themselves menacingly as he stood proudly behind his General. Nobody moved. Nobody dared.
"This weapon which you have worked to build...!" Hux's voice echoed with familiar authority. Every trooper stood with rapt attention, no shuffling or coughing or whispering or anything to insinuate inattention. Even Captain Phasma, the loyal chrome powerhouse she was, remained unmoving. Whether she was genuinely afraid of her co-commanders now, or was trying to set a standard for her troops to follow, was unclear. Hux felt himself hoping it was the latter. He would love to extend her the opportunity to ensure his future empire would run smoothly and with impeccable order. Someone would have to command his armies.
"...today will be the last day that the Supreme Leader demonstrates his obsolescence! As he hides in obscurity, we toil and sacrifice for a withering ruler who acquiesces to disorder and irresponsibility! Who stands upon this stage, addressing every person gathered here, with the respect they have dutifully earned by giving every shred of man and brain power they possess? It is not Snoke! He has not earned the right to the spoils of victory!"
The crowd erupted into cheers, and Hux let the raucous pride swell to its peak before lapsing back into attentive silence. Fear is a strong motivator, Hux had always known, but to show appreciation for one's subjects garnered their devotion, not just their labor. Devotion was important, too, when it came time to pick sides.
Is it time, General? Kylo loomed behind Hux like an ungodly, doting octopus. Hux had never felt more powerful, and therefor elated, in his entire life than he did at this moment.
'Yes.'
Hux smirked when he heard a low, snarling laughter vibrate gorgeously between his eardrums.
"FIRE!"
They know what you did. They know what you did. They know.
Why did you do it?
The First Order watched with bated breath as Starkiller II discharged sinister crimson beyond the snow speckled sky. Kylo lowered himself so his human feet touched the platform and grasped Hux's hand. Nobody would dare say anything about this display. They called the shots now. Every single one.
The brilliant red illuminated Kylo's writhing tendrils, the light catching on the rubbery hide, gleaming as if they were slick with blood. Metaphorically, Hux thought, it's true.
Starkiller II had a faster refractory period and could now discharge an additional three apocalyptic lasers. Eight in total. Previously, Kylo had probed whatever energies necessary to locate Snoke's coordinates, and that was where the first trajectory struck.
Two star systems were decimated within an instant. One simply to serve as an example for those who might be foolhardy enough to challenge the First Order--to challenge General Hux--and the other targeted system contained several planets that hosted the backbone of the Resistance.
Hux glared solemnly as he watched each beam slash through the galaxy.
Beside him, Ren stiffened as Hux undoubtedly knew he could feel every last member of his biological family perish in hellish destruction.
Abruptly, in a surge of blind rage, Kylo Ren ascended into the air with his mass of tentacles furiously swirling amongst themselves, until to the horror of everyone but Hux, he conjured an abyssal charge of his own.
The sinister energy exploded from thrashing shadowy tendrils, bypassing Starkiller II's detonation and swallowing all planetary debris into a ravenous black hole. He wanted there to be no remnants of his family left, even if it was only as dust hanging pathetically in space.
Hux knew everyone on base wished to flee at this spectacle. He was proud that not a single person broke stance. Quite a few were shaking, though he couldn't fault them for mortal terror.
Ren descended to his position beside the General. Starkiller II had completed its function with utter perfection. Ren stepped forward, and in a voice that even Hux did not recognize entirely declared, "I sense it through the Force. Supreme Leader Snoke is dead."
And his family, Hux adds silently to himself. But Kylo had done it, because Hux desired it. Hux knew with unbreakable confidence that he loved Kylo Ren. He was the most exquisite monster to ever stare into the chasm, and he had returned with a murderous resolve that even Snoke struggled to awaken in him. Hux asked Kylo to slaughter his mother, his uncles and cousin and his once-upon-a-time friends, and the walking nightmare acquiesced with a craving for blood on his tongue.
'You are so gorgeous, Kylo Ren. I love you.'
One hand reached for Ren's human hand and the other squeezed affectionately his lover's abominable appendages.
You hope someone hears your prayers at night, scared and weighed down with self-doubt. But what if They are the only ones who your prayers reach? Do you want Them to know so much about you? If you're lucky, They won't rip you apart carelessly the way that you squeeze that ant's head just so between your fingers.
It had been child's play to force every galaxy in their path to succumb to General Hux's new empire. Word had spread quickly of a man who murdered stars and had married an ancient and malevolent power that would never think twice about fulfilling the Emperor's wishes, no matter how ungodly or gruesome.
Some had seen the billowing robes of the Eldritch Husband, knowing that beneath those shrouds was a thing unparalleled by any being in their plane of reality.
Every ounce of power and control Emperor Hux had longed for since he was a young boy was cherished endlessly as he ascended his rightful place on the throne.
Kylo Ren, Jedi Killer, Master of the Knights of Ren, The Maw That Devours Planets, the Eldritch Husband, was the single most exalted being in Hux's life, and his love only grew deeper with each passing day.
Thus, at night within the Emperor's elegant sheets, he would praise Kylo lovingly, savoring that the only creature in this whole damned dimension of existence that could inspire within him tenderness and warmth, was a monstrous nebula that glitched between Hux's world and a world that only Kylo could see.
'How did it happen? How did They change you?' Hux asked one night, stroking Millicent slowly, sipping a particularly fruity vintage wine. He turned to face his Eldritch Husband, gazing deeply into the swirling vortex of stars that had become his face. Ren's human face had been nothing short of gorgeous, but now he was ethereal.
A single soft tentacle touched Hux's forehead, and Ren replied, All those weeks of my training were spent drifting in a world that does not have the same laws as this one. They were that world. I resisted their breach of my sanity for weeks straight. It felt like eons. Maybe, to Them, it was. It was unbridled and unforgiving agony. But every time they pressed into me, I saw you, and my resolution would be reaffirmed. You didn't know it, but you made it possible for me to see that nightmare to its blissful ending.
'And that is why you yield only to me?'
That is part of it. A familiar rumble of laughter, like an ion storm compressed into a regal ballad. But mostly, it's because I love you. I have for a while now.
Do you ever wonder if, somehow, in a different reality, you might have made a better choice? Let sleeping gods lie. Or, do you think you are fated to repeat your mistake in every life you will ever live?
I hope you can live with yourself.
As Kylo Ren evolved into the Eldritch God he was destined to be, Emperor Hux grew old and frail, and the loving monster did not think of departing from his position as Hux's right and left hands for a nanosecond.
One day, so many decades after their glorious triumph over their known universe, Kylo cradled Emperor Hux's weathered and gray face with palpable caution for his fragile bones and weak skin in his wispy tendrils. There was barely any copper tone left in his hair, and his pale green eyes had become almost translucent.
I can feel your death approaching. It is not far.
'It is to expected,' the Emperor replies, grateful now more than ever that he does not have to use his failing lungs to convey his thoughts. 'I hope you won't miss me too much,' the wizened man smiles wryly.
Now that's funny you say such a thing, because I have a proposition, Your Excellency.
'Tell me, Lord Ren.'
Join me in Eternity. Take your rightful place amongst the Eldritch Gods. We will never be separated until time ceases to exist.
'Will it hurt?' asked the man ravaged by time's linear progression.
Kylo arranges his facial nebula into a reassuring grin.
Only at first. But I will be there to see you through the transformation. And after that...I get to see your glorious starry eyes.
'And then after that?' Tired eyes closed peacefully, dreaming of an endless future.
An Eternity of strange aeons, where death itself goes to die.
Don't worry. You're still here. You'll always still be here. Except when you're not.
That night, when the physicians arrived to perform their daily checkup on Emperor Hux, he was gone. Neither him nor Kylo Ren were ever to be found again, but somehow, everyone already knew what had become of him.