Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Rose - last chance!" Finn called out as he strode towards her through a tangle of vines. The jungle planet the rebel base had been settled on was so beautiful at this time of day, she had ventured outside to get some much-needed fresh air.

"General Organa asked me to study the specs of old destroyers, so we can find a way to stop the fleet if you find it," she replied.

"If we find it?" he said with a grin. She gave him a measured look in return.

"When you find it, of course. Finn, be careful out there. Please just take care of yourself, wont you?"

Rose Tico watched his nod of reply and hoped he would take her words seriously. Ever since their kiss, there was an unsaid element between them but he was such a natural friend to her, they had carried on as if nothing had happened. She could tell now his romantic interests leaned to a certain charismatic pilot.

After saying their farewells, she headed to the canteen to pick up a cup of Caf. She was going need some strong stuff to look over the documents she had been given. It would likely keep her up into the small hours of the morning.

The info she was working from had been obtained by resistance spies located on Kuat, the ship building planet. The Empire had constructed its largest ships from there; a vast man-made ring encircled the planet for this purpose. Beneath the ship yards lay a vast archive of blueprints, from which the spies had managed to locate the files and transmit them back to base. Unfortunately, reports say, their identities had been compromised and they were executed by the first order.

A chill ran down her spine as she thought of their sacrifice. She understood that some things were worth dying for but she had to put it out of her mind.

After studying the blueprints for several hours, she began to form an idea of the various weak spots and faults in the designs. She was glad to put her experience as a mechanic to use in this mission but despite her skills, she couldn't seem to get to the underlying features in these schematics. No matter how long she flicked the pages back and forth on her Holo display, there seemed to be a factor she was overlooking.

"What am I missing TR5?" she asked her service droid. A series of beeps came back in return. She looked at the plans again.

"How did I not notice that before? You’re right, it is missing some pages, here. We have decks 3-6 then it skips to 9-12. Where are decks 7 and 8? It looks as though it has been removed from the documents."

TR5 rolled back and forth and beeped in agreement.

"I must speak to Leia."

Thirty minutes later, she left the General's office, trailing behind her.

"But General, they won’t know what they are looking for. It would be a needle in a hey stack. I am the best person for the job."

"Rose, it will be very dangerous on Kuat, it has been fully taken over by the First Order these days."

"I did the training, I’m ready."

After some thought, Leia said, "Very well, but I’m sending Lieutenant Sonya with you."

Sonya was a Rodian female, known for her skills with a weapon. Her reptile like appearance made her difficult to understand when she spoke but she was nice enough, a good fighter and experienced in the field.

The plan was decided and after preparations had been made, Rose set off with Lt. Sonya in a confiscated enemy shuttle craft. Ready to go under cover as ship engineers on Kuat.

The mission was pretty simple. Use the code the resistance had obtained to get through security posing as maintenance engineers. Once inside they would carry out their duties, then slip away to search the library of archives for the missing pages. They changed into their workers overalls and got their tools. On approach the ground crew hailed them for security clearance.

"Delta578 - Alpha890" Rose relayed back to them. A tense few seconds passed before they were told to proceed. Landing in the hanger they were greeted by two stormtroopers.

"This is who they sent?" said one to the other, his laser rifle slackly pointed toward them. The massive room was filled with every type of space ship you could imagine.

"I guess they are finding it hard to get decent staff. Come on, this way," said the other, "Move."

Trying not to feel insulted by their appraisal, Rose did as she was told. They were there to fix the heating and cooling systems. A pipe had burst on one of the decks and freezing vapours were pouring out into the corridor. As such the surrounding area had turned frosty white. Everywhere in this part of the factory was below freezing temperatures. They set to work. She had worked on a similar problem with a cargo ship cooling system on numerous occasions. After a while the stormtroopers grew restless and one set of for the canteen, promising to bring the other something. At the proper moment, Sonya lay a sleeper hold on the remaining trooper and they abandoned the piping for the archives.

Located 4 floors below the factory were the archives, a long corridor with a series of rooms numbered 1-18. Rose knew the files had come from room 11, as it was stated on the cover page. Picking the lock, they slowly opened the door and looked inside; all was quiet. It resembled a library but with rows and rows of locked cabinets containing documents. Slipping inside, she counted the rows to her left.

"Here - number 11467," whispered Rose to Sonya. Sonya was an expert lock picker. Sonya set to work and a series of clicks later the cabinet pulled open with a loud woosh. At that moment they heard a shuffling of feet from behind the next row. Rifling through the files quickly she found the spot where the file should be but it was empty. Footsteps approached quickly and they turned to run.

"Rose?"

She turned to see a face she knew from the encounter all those months ago, when he had ordered her and her friends to be executed. A face she had hoped never to see again.

Armitage Hux.

His appearance had not changed much. The short red hair and pale complexion. His skinny shoulders were hunched in his stiff black First Order overcoat. His green eyes were fixed on hers as if he had seen a ghost. Indeed, he was staring at her with such intensity it almost made her knees buckle. He seemed to grow an even paler shade of white as he stepped forward.

"How are you here?" he breathed quietly.

What an odd question, she thought. She was completely stumped on what to answer that.

"How did you get in here?" he continued and then, "you must leave."

He moved towards the door but at that moment another officer entered.

"Hux, I believe they were keeping it in room 9…" he trailed off as he saw the two spies in overalls, "What is this?"

For a minute Rose thought their overalls might fool the guard but it was clear that even repairmen hired directly by the First Order would have no reason to be in the restricted archives.

"I believe security may have been breached Officer Niven," said Hux slowly and for a second, she saw that his expression looked disappointed, sad almost. With a sigh he reached to grab her and chaos ensued. As she defended herself, the officer reached the back wall and hit the alarm panel, noise peeling and Sonya raised her weapon and opened fire. Then Hux rushed Rose, pushing her back and pinned her against a set of shelves. The breath came out of her lungs as she hit it and she went still as she became aware of how close he was. He looked at her face, inches away, his mouth moved to say something…

Just then several stormtroopers burst through the door, guns blasting. Hux yelled for them to stop but few moments later Sonya was struck with a stray shot and fell to the floor, still.

"Hold your fire!" commanded Hux and the soldiers obeyed. Standing tall, he pulled her along, arms behind her back. "This is Rose Tico," Hux explained, "She is an important member of the resistance and could be a useful hostage. Have her restrained and transported to General Pryde for questioning."

With that Rose had cuffs put on her and was marched away.

Chapter Text

After being captured on Kuat, things had unfolded swiftly. Rose had been handcuffed and immediately escorted from the archives and onto a skipper bound for the First Order’s main flagship. After she had attempted to struggle free at the loading bay she must have been stunned unconscious by a stormtrooper because the next thing she knew she was alone in a holding cell, with four grey walls and a small bunk to lay on. She had presumed she had been transferred as instructed to General Pryde’s star destroyer, The Steadfast.

Hux had visited her cell shortly after she became conscious again. He walked in and the door slid shut behind him, leaving them alone. He was silent as he regarded her for a moment before he glanced at the corner of the ceiling and she noticed a surveillance camera there.

“Rose Tico, you have been arrested under section 289 of the First Order code, for your involvement with the resistance and personal association with General Leia Organa. You will be moved shortly into an interrogation booth for questioning.”

She said nothing to him and he did not immediately leave but stood still in the centre of the cell. Previously she had resisted looking at him but she glanced at his face then and saw an emotion she could not interpret. As she caught his eye, he quickly turned and left without another word.

After spending two days without seeing a single person, save for the hand of a stormtrooper passing her food through a slot in the door, she wallowed depressed and nearly mad with fear as she tried not to picture the scenario where someone marched in suddenly and shot her in cold blood. It was in this mood that she heard weapons firing nearby and sat bolt upright on the bed.

Listening intently, she thought she heard footsteps, the beeps of buttons outside the door and a whoosh as it slid open. A few seconds passed in anticipation as she waited but nobody appeared at the door. Moving towards it tentatively, she peeked outside. The hallway was empty and quiet. Had the door malfunctioned?

She hadn’t hesitated to grab her things and frantically exit her cell but rounding the corner, she paused as she heard a familiar voice say, “hey fallas.” It was Poe Dameron! Had it been Poe who had let her out of the cell? She was relieved to learn her friends were on the ship too.

“Shut up scum,” was the reply Poe received from one of a host of stormtroopers surrounding them with their guns pointed menacingly. Poe had been shot in the arm and lay on the ground. Finn stood beside him, slowly laying his weapon down as Chewbacca let out a wail of frustration.

They were marched at gunpoint into the execution room and she tried to follow them at a safe distance, contemplating a plan of rescue. Making battle plans wasn’t really her thing, sorting out technical issues were her forte. She worked herself up into a frensy, racking her brain about what to do. The stress was building as the scene that would decide their fates unfolded before her….

“Actually, I’d like to do this myself.” Hux’s voice was filled with distain as he spoke.

They were in a cavernous room with a large walkway crossing the middle of the space. Below it a shaft plummeted beyond view. On the far side of the platform were a set of three enormous round viewing windows, looking out on the First Order fleet and the planet below. The three companions; Poe Dameron, Finn and Chewie awaited their fate nervously looking out on the scene. To reach where they were, Rose would have to enter the room and cross the bridge platform. She would be fully exposed and have no cover if shot at. She hesitated, debating how to reach them without being seen.

“What did you want to say to Rey before?” muttered Poe as they were lined up, backs turned, the suspense building to their last vital moment.

“You still on that?” replied Finn with irritation.

“Oh, I’m sorry, is this a bad time?” said Poe in his usual ironic tone.

“It sort of is yeah-”

Two blaster shots rang out. Rose flinched and turned away shocked but opening her eyes she saw they were unharmed. The three turned to see Hux holding the blaster, as he suddenly announced dramatically.   

“I’m the spy!”

Rose’s mouth fell open.

‘What?’ said Finn and Poe simultaneously.  

“We don’t have much time…” Hux began to say.

“- I knew it!” declared Poe.

“No, you did not,” admonished Finn as they continue to bicker like an old couple.

Overhearing from the other side of the walkway, Rose was frozen by this revelation from Hux. Then she came to her senses. It was so completely unbelievable that she didn’t buy it for one minute. Could it be some kind of trick to lure her out as well? Was he aware she had gotten out of the holding cell and was trying to give her a false sense of security so she would reveal herself? She had better be on her guard.

Right now, she needed to catch up to Finn, Poe and Chewie and make them aware of her presence here, then they could all escape together. Even as she stepped forward it, they were rushing out of sight with Hux through a door to their left. She headed across the bridge in their wake.

Stepping through the door she could see no sign of her friends. A corridor passed on either side of her, she had to decide whether to go left or right. Choosing her left lead her to a doorway but after heading inside without thinking, she was confronted with a dead end and a room with eight stormtroopers working at computer stations. They reached for their weapons on seeing her and she turned and ran in the opposite direction. Her heart was threatening to burst from her chest in panic so she pulled open a wall panel and hid inside an air vent. She could hear the guards searching for her in the corridor and as she waited for them to move away, one of them stationed himself right outside the panel where she had entered. Perhaps there was another way out of the vent. She crawled along the shaft, searching for any sign of her crewmates.

As she continued down the vent, rounding a corner she heard voices coming from the other side of the wall. One of them she recognised as Hux. She crouched and peered through a grill trying to see what they were doing. From this vantage she could only see the legs of people walking past.

“It was a co-ordinated effort,” Hux was walking with a crutch now, explaining to General Pryde. “They overpowered me and coerced me into giving them access…”

Pryde grabbed the blaster from the stormtrooper next to him and fired Hux squarely in the chest. The force sent Hux sliding down the walk way on his back. He came to a stop yards away from where Rose was hiding.

“Inform intelligence, we've located the spy,” said Pryde.

Rose looked at Hux. The shot took him out instantly and he lay still where he had landed. The crew went about their business as if it was not worth their attention, with the exception of one or two men in his immediate proximity who spared him a brief unfeeling glace.

Rose contemplated Hux’s lifeless form. What a strange thing, to have your life snuffed out so quickly and not one person to care. Despite her negative encounters with Hux in the past, he had helped them today. Perhaps he was not the person she had once thought. Why had he run such a risk to help them? They were strangers to him. He had paid the ultimate price for it. There he lay, dead and alone. She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for his fate. A dull emptiness filled her chest, as if she had misplaced something important. The thought made her uneasy.

The stormtrooper whose blaster had done the deed, walked up and ordered for a clean-up team. A convoy of droids swept into the room and put Hux’s body onto a stretcher. Tearing her eyes from the scene Rose crept away and down the ventilation shaft in search of the others.

Reaching an opening, she exited the vent into a room with a viewing window just in time to see the Millennium Falcon sweeping past, flying off into the stars.

Rose looked out in dismay, she had failed, they had left without her, unaware she had even been here. She would have to find a way out of this all on her own. Reaching a ship and piloting it out alone was going to prove difficult without being spotted by a patrol or shot out of the sky.

Stormtroopers were marching below the window. She backed up before she could be seen and entered a room on her right. From the tools and equipment, she soon realised it was the medical bay. Inside was empty except for the body on the slab. She turned around and froze. The body on the slab. A chill ran through her. Moving toward the centre of the room she peered down to see Hux’s white face, his eyes closed.

She took a few moments of contemplation and a thought came to her. Could Hux be her saviour? She pressed a few buttons and he was lowered into a compartment in the floor, a lid closing over him. Another slab rotated into position and she lay down upon it in his place, pressing some buttons to enclose a lid above her. Just then she heard droids approaching. The droids immediately began loading the slab she was on into a transport capsule, thinking she was Hux.

Thirty minutes later, she finally broke the seal on what would have been Hux’s coffin and climbed out. She gasped for air and space. What an unpleasant and claustrophobic trip. It took her a while to calm down and surmise that she was aboard a garbage ship on the way to a dump on the surface of the planet Kijimi.

A garbage ship! she thought. That was how the First Order treated the body of a fallen officer. I suppose he was seen as a traitor now.

It was a C class trash pod and, since they are auto-piloted from the main computer on the destroyer, she had no ship’s crew to contend with. Despite the fact it was made for simple trash disposal, it was still a ship. Could she override the piloting and commandeer it to take her home? She pulled out the panel at the helm and started pulling out leads. Hot wiring a trash pod, how hard could it be? Looking at the chronometer, it read 12-3-35ABY. She had left the rebel base only 3 days before? It felt like so much longer. She re-routed the access coil so that it tripped the system and by-passed the security by cutting the red, green and blue wires simultaneously.

“Auto-pilot disabled,” said the computer. Success, thought Rose and she sat down at the controls to lay in a course back home. Grabbing the lever, she nudged it forward and the ship revved up in speed. She manoeuvred it to the right, away from their old course. In the distance she was vaguely aware of a bright light but she was preoccupied by charting a route on the nav comm.

An alarm began to sound. “Warning – anomaly in spacetime continuum detected ahead,” said the computer.

She looked up to see a bright cloud of dust surrounding what looked like a hole. In the centre all light ceased and the surrounding light seemed warped and pulled in on itself.

The ship's velocity continued increasing and she was headed right into the centre of this event. She realised it could not be avoided as the force pulled her vessel in, there was no way break free. She thought of her mother and sister and wished she could be reunited with them as the ship passed through and into the other side.

As it did, she held her breath as her body felt stretched and flattened at the same time. Passing through she felt upside down and inside out. It was the most unpleasant sensation of her life. Soon it passed, however, and she saw she had come out and was looking back at the hole behind her now.  Glancing at the controls, the chrono now read 19-10-34 ABY. Was she mistaken? That was the date three months before.

“Warning - hull pressure at critical” announced the ship’s computer. At that moment an explosion ripped apart the rear of the ship. Alarms sounded, the air pressure was disrupted and the vessel began to plummet to the surface of the planet Kijimi, caught in its gravity.

Down, down it fell and she strapped in for a crash landing. It hit the surface and bounced several times before finally skidding to a halt. Smoke billowed out of a large rip in the ship's hull. She scrambled to remove her belt to free herself from the wreckage but as she lifted her leg she could feel she had hurt her ankle, a sprain perhaps. She tested it on the ground and a bolt of pain shot up her leg. It was getting harder to breath inside so she dragged herself out of the hole in the side of the ship. She stumbled out onto the surface of Kijimi and turned her head to take in her surroundings.

She had landed on a vast plain of flat land, covered in snow, with nothing for miles in every direction. In the distance she could make out a cluster of buildings, possibly a settlement of some kind. As she stared, a small spec of black moved on the horizon. It zipped left to right and then stayed steady but grew in size. It was heading towards her. As it grew larger, she could make out it was a large speeder carrying four men dressed in white. No, not men…stormtroopers! She contemplated running but she couldn’t put weight on her leg. Where could she go? On all sides of her was nothing but open flat space. No cover in sight.

“Halt!” one of the men ordered as they pulled up. He relayed the scene to his superior on comms.

“Sir, she seems to be alone”, she heard him say. He seemed to confer with someone on the line about what to do. After a moment he said, “Affirmative, sir, we will transport her back to base for questioning,” before addressing her....

… “Come with us, you are under arrest by order of General Hux!”

Chapter Text

Hux stared into the bathroom mirror. The circles under his eyes were growing darker. Not that he cared much about his looks, it probably only helped him look more threatening. He found it difficult to get more than two hours sleep at a time these days. He had more important matters to contend with.

His biggest problem being rebel bandits and local gangs hounding the base and trying to break in. They had been at it for weeks, looking for weapons and scrap to sell on the black market.

Ensuring morale stayed good so the troops in his charge did not mutiny was another problem. This base was a bleak and boring location to be stationed as a trooper and its remoteness made it vulnerable, inside and out.

His most pressing problem was cementing his position in the First Order ranks so that he could find a way, any way at all, to get Kylo Ren out of the picture for good. Ever since Snoke had taken him as his apprentice, Ren had proved to be Hux’s rival in every measure. Now that Snoke was dead there was nothing keeping the new Supreme Leader from amassing ultimate power. It was no secret that Ren hated him and now Hux had to defer to him and indulge his every impulse, lest it led to a quick death by force choke.

It was second nature to Hux to be on edge. He couldn’t remember a time when he had not been under constant treat of being disposed of, in his career or personal life. If he could even call it a career. He had never been given an alternative, being conscripted as a boy by his father. Ever since then, it was simply a matter of kill or be killed and Hux was a survivor.

After the events of Snoke’s death and the battle on Craite, he had volunteered to be sent to this remote outpost for inspections. He needed to get away from everything for a while and reassess. Seeing how Ren had killed the former leader and destroyed Snoke’s throne room had shaken him. The unchecked power he possessed meant that Ren could be as much as a tyrant as he liked. There wasn’t a person strong enough to stop him, except for maybe that scavenger girl he was obsessed with. Hux’s ‘General’ ranking had been questioned after that and another ranking officer had been recommended in his place, a man named Pryde. His status was beginning to slip and from his knowledge of the First Order this generally led his career in only one direction; a trip to the morgue.

He wet his hands and ran them through his fair red hair, combing it back in an attempt to make himself look stiff; held together. If anyone became aware of the cracks in his façade, he was done. It was imperative now that they saw him as this persona he had created, General Hux. The man who lived by the creed of the First Order, who marched and gave rallying speeches to hordes of troops.

He exited the bathroom and, grabbing his jacket from the bed, he left his sleeping quarters for the command centre. Troopers were bustling about as he walked in and he was immediately approached by one who halted in salute.

"Sir, we have just picked up an unidentified vessel that crashed nearby. I have dispatched a recognisance crew to inspect the scene and search for passengers."

“Acknowledged trooper, keep me informed,” was his reply.

He could sense the boys’ fear of him and it calmed him. Fear was a motivator, something he trusted that demanded respect. He knew they all hated him and he was glad for it. The alternative was something he didn’t understand. He had never felt friendship or understanding from anyone. Loyalty through respect was something that didn't work in his opinion. The only thing he was sure of was fear, hatred was useful and he encouraged it.

The outpost he commanded was on the small side, only 30 troopers and 5 senior officers under him. It had been established to create a First Order presence on the lawless planet. A century ago, Kijimi had been a peaceful planet with monasteries scattered across the mountainous terrain, all following the local and mysterious religion. When the Empire rose to power it had been taken over and many mining facilities were placed here looking for rare minerals. The local settlements had been chipped away at, taken over and many captured to be used as forced labour. The once rich culture of the Kijimi people had been lost.

Then the Empire had fallen and the planet had been left in disarray. The old mines were abandoned, some of their locations unknown and many were unstable and often collapsed. The only settlers here now were bandits and outlaws, just desperate enough to brave the harsh weather and rough terrain. Many of the ruling gangs operated out of Kijimi City, the local spaceport. The First Order had an unofficial agreement with them of sorts, if they kept out of each other’s way then there wouldn't be trouble, for now at least.

“Sir, the team is about to arrive with the sole passenger of the craft. They are just coming through the gate now,” said Trooper QR2567.

Hux made his way down the metal stairs and approached the speeder idling into the yard. At first glance, he was surprised to see the captive was a woman. He drew closer, taking in her appearance. Black chopped hair, short and curvy in stature with lightly tanned skin. There was something familiar about her. She turned to look in his direction and caught his gaze. Something flickered there in her dark eyes. Was it surprise? Fear? It took him a moment to realise it was recognition. They had met before, he knew it too, but where? She was wearing First Order maintenance operative overalls but they were not up to standard. It looked like she had been in them for days, weeks maybe. Had he seen her on one of the ships, fixing broken parts?

Reaching the speeder, her expression changed from acknowledgment to confusion as she announced, “Hux!”

He recalled her voice then along with flashes of her biting down on his finger. She was that resistance fighter he had encountered with FN2187 on Snoke’s ship. A chill ran through him. The Otomok scum. He knew that fire, that rage in her eyes. She had drawn blood that day, his finger ached at the thought and anger welled up in him at how he had been humiliated in front of his men. Well, now he had the opportunity to give her a taste of his vengeance.

But something did not add up. She had been betrayed by that arms dealer and he had ordered her shot. Following that the ship had been torn apart by the hyperspace crash. How on earth had she survived all that to find herself here now? Why was she out here alone? There were no resistance bases in this system as far as he knew. She must be spying for information or trying to distract them while her team of rebels carried out a mission nearby. Perhaps she was here to get her revenge on him.

“I suppose you don’t remember me,” she said, ‘what terrible luck is this?”

“How could I forget your filthy manners, the dirty appearance of an Otomok grifter,” he replied flatly, looking her over.

“I must have left an impression,” she said with a laugh and sneer, nodding towards his hands.

A bead of sweat ran down his neck. He struggled for words momentarily, but recovering he said, “I was going to simply order for your quick execution but seeing how we are acquaintances already, I suppose we should spend a little more time making sure you get the full service of First Order hospitality. Take her to solitary confinement until she is ready for interrogation. Let’s drag it out of her slowly.”

With that she was hauled away to the detention huts, kicking and screaming.

Hux felt sudden fatigue after that and excused himself to his quarters. Entering the small shack, he sat down on the bed and stared at the opposite wall. She was just like the rest of them, cruel and violent. Ever since his encounter as a boy on Hays Minor, he had hated those people. Being the son of a First Order commander had meant his life could be threatened at any time. He had been guarded 24 hours a day but somehow a group of Otomok mercenaries had managed to kidnap him. They demanded no money in return but rather that their people be freed from labour in the mines. His father had refused. Not worth risking for a bastard son of a kitchen maid in his father’s house. Hux had never known her but her low status hung over him always. The kidnappers had locked him up in a dark room and starved him for weeks. As they grew more desperate, they resorted to draining vials of his blood and even cutting off his little toe to send back to his father. Still his father refused. Eventually their hiding place had been found and destroyed by the commanders’ troops.

Hux had staggered from those smoking ruins that day and he had shut out the boy in him. Inadequacy, loneliness and grief were feelings that made him weak. He had put them away. He put everything he had into getting stronger and not letting anyone have a chance to challenge him ever again. Even his father, he had made sure the man had no power over him by putting an end to him himself. He was ruthless, he had to be so that he would never feel like that again. Once he had felt strong, almost invincible in the position as Snoke’s follower but now doubts were starting to creep in. His rank was slipping and he felt the twinge of something like fear, dread with a pinch of despair.

He sighed and lay on his back on the bed. Of course he had felt moments of uncertainty like this before. Firing the weapon at Starkiller base had been like that. A person can’t be involved in the death of millions and not feel something. Snoke had been the instigator but he had been involved in the plans, he had followed the command. Refusal in carrying out that order would have meant death. It had been an officer following his orders but he did find it hard to sleep ever since then. It weighed on his mind for some reason.

Staring at the ceiling, he pictured a flash of dark eyes and jumped up. Looking out the window, it was getting dark outside. Would the rebel sleep tonight? That cell had no windows, no furniture, nothing. Just four walls of thick concrete, cold and hard. There was something wrong, he wasn't sure why he felt it. She made him curious. 

Leaving his room, he stepped out into the barracks. A few men passed on patrol but most of them were in the mess hall at dinner. The wind was whipping around wildly, making it difficult to hear. Would there be more snow tonight? He looked at the grey sky apprehensively. He decided to do a check over of the main outpost areas. Five sentries on patrol along the wall – check, two guards at the main gate - check, gunner droids operating at optimum – check. He climbed the wall and looked out over the vast plain ahead. In the dim light he thought he saw the glint of something in the distance.

“Scan the horizon for threats,” he instructed the watchman. The trooper made several checks on the console but nothing was found to be suspicious.

Heading over to the prison block, he observed the guard at the door. The trooper stood to attention in salute as Hux approached.

“Sir!”

“At ease, HT3344,” said Hux.

“Thank you, sir,” said 3344, relaxing slightly.

“I’ve come to check the prisoner is secure.”

“Not a sound from her, Sir. Not since we put her in there, she thrashed around a little at first but then she went silent.”

“Are you sure?” he said, feeling uneasy. “She is very cunning; I had better set eyes on her to be sure.”

With that he rushed past the trooper and instructed him to unlock the cell. Typing in the passcode, the door slid open but a blue forcefield still providing them with protection. He peered inside but what little light the doorway provided did nothing to illuminate the dark hole. He ordered the trooper to go bring a torch from the supply store and he was left alone.

“Come to gloat, have you?” said her voice in the dark.

He felt a strange relief at hearing it. She had not escaped.

"You might think about holding your tongue lest you lose it, rebel."

"My name is Rose," she replied.

"Come tomorrow, you will curse the day you made an enemy of me."

He turned to activate the door again but as he did, he heard a shout and the sound of commotion from outside. Seconds later an explosion ripped through the wall behind him, deactivating the forcefield and he was flung forward into the cell. They were under attack!

The roof shook and cracked above and great chunks of masonry fell down, hitting the floor below as more explosions bombarded the walls. The force of which triggered a rumbling from under the ground and the floor opened up into a deep crevasse. Hux scrambled to grab on to something but the smooth concrete offered no purchase and he slid below, falling down, down into the darkness until he bumped his head and saw no more.

Chapter Text

Rose opened her eyes but saw nothing but black. She blinked and opened again – nothing. Trying not to panic, she lay there on her back and stared until a vague image of a few objects appeared. A blob here, an edge there, not anything to get too excited about but it was a start. She could cling to the knowledge that she had not gone blind but it was, in fact, just really dark. Shuffling her body about, she felt a sharp bolt of pain in her ankle and remembered her sprain from the crash. She could feel a lot of aches and pains in her back from the fall but nothing serious.

Where am I? she thought. A few breaths ago she was speaking terse words with Hux at the door of her prison cell and then a lot of noise, rocks and falling later she had landed here in blackness. It was pretty disorientating. Although her cell had been nasty and dark, ‘The Hole’ they called it, she was beginning to miss it already.

She had been wondering morbidly where someone might go to the toilet in ‘The Hole’, when Hux had appeared at the door. She was still reeling from the fact he was even here on this planet. Hadn’t she just seen him die on The Steadfast not three hours before? Another curious thing she had become aware of was that this version of Hux seemed different from the person she’d seen on the ship. Steadfast Hux had admitted he was the spy and then taken the hit for them, effectively redeeming himself. This Hux had immediately insulted her race and shown a cruelness in wanting to torture her that was so quintessentially First Order. He was full of viciousness and pompous pride. How could that be the same person, did he have a twin? This Hux was more like the person she remembered from that fateful mission aboard Snoke’s destroyer. She wished he could bite his finger all over again, maybe even rip out some of his neatly combed hair.

This inconsistency in Hux only backed up this ridiculous notion she had that somehow the wormhole had been related to time travel and that she had travelled backwards 3 months like it had stated on the ship’s chronometer. No - that was crazy, time travel was like a story her mother might have told her when she was young. She had never heard of any system in the galaxy capable of tech that could make you travel through time.

Anyhow, she would ponder that more later, she had more pressing matters to worry about, like where in Hays had she ended up now? This mission was proving to be much more dangerous than she had anticipated, perhaps Leia was right to be hesitant. She attempted to feel her way around the space she was in. Crawling across the rubble on the floor on all fours to save her leg, she searched among the rocks as she went. It was bumpy and she kept bashing her knees on the jagged edges of rubble.

Eventually she came up against a wall. Standing up, she ran her hands across the surface. After a while her fingers snagged on a square shaped object. Examining it she ascertained it was a switch of some kind; she grabbed the handle and pulled it down. The flash of light made her shield her eyes for a second. It was a light box. It cast a warm glow on the surrounding area.

Adjusting to seeing again, she could make out that she was in a partially collapsed room, full of machinery. It looked like they were used for sorting of some kind, with a long conveyer and robotic arms that were covered in layers of dust. The arms looked like they were from a bygone era, very old tech. She had seen pictures in a historic holo-reader. There were large carts full of material to be sorted, rocks containing metal bands. She ascertained in was a mining facility of some sort.

Going over to the doorway, she looked up. She could see that the ceiling above had caved in. Is that where she had fallen from? Was this located beneath the camp? The hole above was no longer open to the outside though. The concrete roof of her cell had fallen in to cover it, effectively trapping her down here. There was also no way of getting back up there.

She wondered if she would be able to hear stormtroopers above, maybe they were searching for her. She listened for a moment, she couldn’t hear anything and then in the distance a faint boom could be heard of gun fire or another explosion. It wasn’t close though. How far down had she fallen? This worried her.

“Hello! Help, help me! Can anyone hear me?” she called out. Her voice echoed in this rocky place. “Is there anyone out there?”

As she called out that last time she heard a sound, not from above but from near where she had landed. It was the sound of a moan, not in the room with her but coming through the doorway to her left. She suddenly became afraid it could be some kind of cave creature. She didn’t know the animals on Kijimi, it was a mysterious planet because most people avoided coming here for fear of meeting the criminal gangs who had reign of it these days. She stood stock still and waited. She heard it again; a voice in the dark. A least it was a person and not a predator but then she reminded herself humans could be monstrous too. Very quietly she heard it again, more distinctly this time, “Help… me.”

“Hello, who’s there?” she called out, following the sound. No reply came immediately. “Hello?” She said again.

“Hell…o” came the voice, it was strained and a bit muffled.

“I am coming to help you. Where are you?” she said.

“Here,” came the reply in the direction ahead.

Passing the doorway, all she could see was black. She looked around and spotted a torch on the workbench. Amazingly, she flicked in on and it still worked. Carrying it with her she pointed it in the direction of the sound. On the other side of the door was another room but this one was full of boulders and large slabs of fallen concrete.

“Where are you?”

“He…. here,” came the faint reply, it was coming from a crack in the slab to her right. She shone the torch through the gap and peered in. She could see a person on the other side and scanning with the torch it took no time to identify that tuft of red hair on top. Hux.

“You,” she muttered to herself.

He had fallen and landed on his front, face down among the rocks. His turned his head to look in her direction and let out a moan, he seemed to have blood running down his face. He recognised it was her, “You.”

As he said it, any hope that may have stirred up at seeing someone come to his rescue appeared to deflate in him. He lay his face back down on the rock, defeated. Or perhaps he is losing consciousness, she thought. Panic stirred up in her but then she scolded herself. Why should she care? If she helped him, he would just thank her then order her execution tomorrow. It was General Hux after all, let him rot in the rubble.

She turned to walk away but couldn’t take a step. She looked around the dark pit. Where could she go? Rose was just as lost and trapped as he. Did he know about this place? Perhaps she should ask him what he knew. She sighed and turned, searching around the edges of the wall separating them. A little further along she could see a wider opening in the rock, small enough to crawl through but it was tight. She got on her hands and knees and pulled herself through. On the other side she scrambled over scraps of debris and approached his still body.

“Hux?” she called out as she came closer. No response.

Now she could see him better, she observed that he had a slab of concrete covering his upper torso, pinning him to the ground. He had been partially buried by more rocks and they were pressing down on his back, making it difficult for him to get air into his lungs. She would need to get it off him or he would surely stop breathing soon, if he hadn’t already. She scanned the space for something she could use as a lever.

This room seemed to be a changing room for the people who had worked here. There were rows of lockers on one wall, the metal bent and twisted with damage. The remains of a bench in the middle, to sit and put your work boots on. Against the wall was a broom for cleaning. She grabbed that and inserted the long wooden handle into the area between to slab and the floor and angled it up to hopefully move it off him. As it moved off him, he sucked in a breath and opened his eyes, looking her way. Just as he did the handle snapped under the weight and the slab suddenly came down on him again. He let out a scream of pain as it hit.

“Oh kriff! I’m so sorry,’ she said, lamely holding the broken piece of wood in her hands.

She threw it down and looked for a better tool for the job. Meanwhile, Hux had begun making a wheezing sound, which grew fainter as the time passed, the intervals between each breath became longer until he was silent again. She tried pushing the slab off him with her hands but it was too heavy and she was concerned it would cause more damage to Hux if it was moved that way. She searched frantically in all the rooms until she noticed an ancient medic droid unit encased in a protective cover in the wall. They used to be activated in emergency at worksites in the old days. It must have been near to a hundred years old but they ran on power that was meant to last indefinitely. Maybe it would still be operational. She smashed the access panel at its base and pushed the red button inside. An alarm began ringing, the encasement opened and the droid’s lights came on as it activated. It flexed its two robotic arms but as it pushed itself away from the wall and slid forward, she noticed it had rollers instead of legs, its dusty silver head swivelling from side to side as it assessed the scene.

“Unit 665 Emergency Activation; please identify the hazard,” it said in its metallic voice.

“Human casualty this way,” she replied leading the way until they reached the crack in the wall. It was too big to fit through.

“He’s through there,” she said pointing to the room beyond.

The droid lifted it metallic arm so it was parallel to it face and after pausing for a moment, thrust its arm forward, breaking the wall above the hole she had crawled into. The gap increased. He did it a few more times and then they were inside. The droid used its arms to clear the rocks in its path as it slid inside and reaching the body of Hux. It scanned for 5 seconds before lifting the slab away from Hux and placing it on the other side of the room.

Rose ran over to see how Hux was. Kneeling down beside him she could see deep cuts in his back and his arm looked bruised. The droid continued inspecting him for injuries, reading off a list.

“Patient has lacerations to back and partial collapse of one lung, injuries to one arm and a concussion due to head trauma. Recommend immediate evac to medical bay for treatment.”

“The med bay has been closed for a while now 655,” said Rose, more to herself as she knew this droid was too primitive to be capable of holding a conversation.

“Can you perform any procedures to help him?” she asked the droid.

“Affirmative, proceeding with cauterization of wounds and lung repair, unable to resuscitate.”

“Resuscitate? He’s not breathing?” she said moving closer.

The droid performed its tasks quickly and lifted Hux onto his back on the bench.

“Immediate emergency resuscitation required. Apply breather to patient now.” Said the droid. It waited but since they had no breather, nothing happened.

“Preparing to administer shock, stand back. Five, four, three, two, one. Do not touch the patient. Administering now.”

655 put its two hands on either side of Hux's torso and a blast of volts forced his chest to ride off the bench and fall back down. He lay still after.

“Clear…waiting…no response…repeat. Apply breather to patient now.” The droid stood and waited again.

Then she had an idea, a terrible idea. She had seen something like this before on her home planet, Hays Minor. At the factory where her father had been forced to work, someone had fallen and stopped breathing like this and they had performed emergency protocol similar to this. On Hays Minor people were poor and they didn’t have a medic droid to help. Usually when they were injured the First Order left them to die. When the man had been hurt, she had watched her father lean over the man and breath air into his lungs to bring him back. After a few attempts, the man had woken and after recovery he had returned to work a few weeks later.

The droid was going through round 2 of shocks as she deliberated this. The colour in Hux’s face had gone completely now. She knew he was going to die. When that happened, she would be trapped here alone with a dead man and an ancient droid. It was the worst idea but she didn’t have a better one. She just had to get on with it because if she waited any longer, she would lose her nerve and he would be dead.

“Apply breather now,” said the droid.

“Ok fine,” she said.

She strode forward, with purpose in her step, and kneeling down at his side she positioned herself above him. She reminded herself, she would probably need his help to get out of here alive and in the future he needed to save Poe, Finn and Chewie. She was believing the time travel thing now?

Hux wasn't moving at all. He looked so fragile compared to when she had seen him before, barking orders or marching with his chin in the air. His body was broken and vulnerable now like any other man. She leaned down, put her hands on each of his cheeks and pulling his mouth open she placed her mouth over his. She breathed deep, five breaths in and out and then she felt a flicker of movement from him. Pulling away she looked down at his face. His eyes opened briefly, his brow frowning in confusion. He took one deep breath on his own, the sound so loud in this quiet tomb, before closing his eyes as he slumped down again.

                                                                                    “Patient revived successfully,” said the droid.

Chapter Text

Hux woke with a rush of anxiety to terrible pains all over his body, particularly in his chest. His head was pounding and he desperately needed a drink of water. His bunk felt so hard to him this morning. He wondered why camp was so eerily quiet around him. He couldn’t figure it out but something was different. Looking at the ceiling above as he opened his eyes, it slowly dawned on him that he was not in his quarters at all. He tried to sit up but was hit with an excruciating stabbing pain in his back, it felt like the flesh was being torn there. He then realized he was laying on a piece of broken wood with fallen rocks and dust all around him. It was dark but he could see the glow of a torch nearby, illuminating a room that looked like a bomb had hit it. Then he remembered the explosion outside the holding cell. The rebel, he thought, but glancing around he seemed to be alone.

He lay back down and closed his eyes, winching in pain as he did. He tried to imagine that he was back on a First Order destroyer ship, the closest thing he knew as home. It was never this silent there, there was always the constant hum of machinery, the whoosh of ships taking off from the hanger or the sound of troops moving about on duty. Here there was not a whisper, not even the distant buzz of power cells. All was silent and still.

Ok ...Fine, he thought he heard a voice whisper, was it in his mind? A tangle of discomfort fell into the pit of his stomach. It was some emotion he could not identify; it had been a long time since he felt things like that. Was it from a dream? He had nightmares most nights, triggered from various events in his life. Nothing new there, sleep wasn’t easy for him most of the time. He often woke in a cold sweat, unsure what had woken him. He pushed to recall those images but as his mind began to wake up and become more alert, the impression faded away until he forgot what he was trying to remember.

He turned onto his side and attempted to get up that way, awkwardly rolling his way off the bench and onto his feet. As they hit the ground and he stood straight, his head swam and he swayed.

“You shouldn’t try to stand just yet,” said a voice from across the room.

He startled on seeing the rebel approaching from the doorway and was instantly on guard, looking around for something to defend himself with.

“Stay back!” he warned her, grabbing a rock and brandishing it in one hand.

She looked surprised by his reaction and froze in her approach. They stood on opposite sides of the room as seconds ticked by, regarding each other. He observed that she was a little banged up too but not nearly as bad as he felt. She then put her hand on her hip as her expression dropped, full of attitude.

“Look Hux, there are a few things you need filling in on before you go all First Order on me-” she began.

“-What is going on? Where am I?” he cut her off. He was irritated by the calm and casual way she spoke to him.

“Good question, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that but it seems that we ended up here after a cave-in caused by some attack on the outpost.”

“Cave-in?... attack?” An alarm set off in his brain. He looked around the area they were in. A cave-in would explain all the fallen debris in here but not where they were.  She seemed to follow his reasoning.

“I’ve been looking around a bit. This seems to be an old mining facility, possibly Empire built. My guess is we are underneath the camp.”

“Underneath,” he repeated blankly; something was off. Why hadn’t she used the distraction of the attack to escape the camp. Why was she still here…with him?

“Yeah, that’s just it. After we fell, this area was blocked off by falling rocks. I can’t find any way out. We are trapped here underground. I’ve been searching now for two days.”

She kept using that word we. He looked at her nonplussed. “Two days?”

“You’ve been unconscious for that time. That’s why I said you should probably be careful, sit down maybe.”

The concern in her eyes was jarring. Sit down. What did she care if he needed to sit down? She was acting very strange, perhaps this was a ruse to catch him off guard and overpower him. He thought of the mini pistol he always kept in his overcoat. He needed to get to it. Scanned the room for his signature uniform, he spotted a patch of dark fabric on top of a mound of bricks. But, how to get to it without tipping her off to his intentions? He lowered the rock to the floor in a feigned gesture of goodwill and sat down cautiously, watching her every move.

“The medic droid said you might need a bac injection but there is nothing like that here. Maybe there is something in the camp medi-bay.”

“There are no medic droids at the outpost…,” he trailed off as he spotted the droid in question rolling into the room. The shock at seeing such archaic mechanics must have shown on his face.

“He’s a bit of an old model.”

“Must be over 70 years old, most defiantly left over from the Empire’s occupation of this planet,” he said inspecting the insignia on its breastplate.

“Unit 655, what is your emergency?” it said as it approached. After a pause it scanned him, diagnosing, “Partial concussion and perforated lung in recovery. Rest and fluids needed, ABAC shot recommended.”

His lung, that’s why his chest hurt so much. He was lucky this droid had been here or he would surely be dead now. Pondered this, his gaze shifted back to the girl. Perhaps she was biding her time, waiting for an opportunity to finish the job. He was not good at confrontation; combat training had been his lowest skill at the First Order academy. His skinny and tall physique made him clumsy and a target for the boys who liked to prove their mettle, that is until they found out who his father was. Then they wouldn’t dare to touch him.

Despite being female, if it came to an altercation between them, he was at a definite disadvantage in his injured state. He needed a weapon.

“Hux, do you know anything about this facility?”

Why did she keep saying his name like that, as if they were familiar to each other. He couldn’t even recall her name. The hierarchy needed to be made clear.

“No,” was his simple reply.

She breathed a sigh of frustration and turned away. He used that break in focus to edge toward his coat and rifle through the inner pocket. Enclosing his hand on the pistol’s handle, he smiled to himself. Nothing made more sense to him than this, the advantage of power over others.

“Don’t move!” He pointed the gun at the back of her head.

She turned and, taking in the sight of the weapon, she faced him down the barrel. Her expression was a look of pure defiance. A look he had seen before. A small amount of fear rose in him, thinking of the way she had bitten him fiercely. Did nothing scare this woman? He had no idea how to deal with such a person.

“Well get on with it then,” she stated nonchalantly, “I knew I was going to regret it.”

“Hands in the air…don’t move!” he said, since he couldn’t think of what else to say.

Lazily, she slowly complied, raising them in the air with a deadpan expression that said, I cannot be bothered with this. It was infuriating. He moved forward a step at a time; weapon trained on her. “Kneel down.”

“You can’t be serious,” she retorted.

“Kneel! You are a prisoner of the First Order. You will pay for your crimes.”

“Crimes,” she huffed under her breath but got down on her knees in the dust. He edged closer. He needed to restrain her somehow but there were no ropes or cuffs. He unbuckled the belt from his waist and slid it out with one hand but as he did, he flinched in pain. Looking down he noticed the bruises on his left arm.

This hesitation was all she needed to rush towards him and shoved him backwards, knocking him off his feet. At the same time, the rebel kicked the gun from his hand and it slid across the floor. They dashed for it simultaneously but, the time it took for him to get back to his feet was all she needed. She raised the gun to his forehead. He closed his eyes and braced for the shot.

“Enough,” she said. His eyes slid from the floor to hold her gaze. “If you are going to be like this then fine.”

The way she said fine echoed in his ears.

“I will leave you here then to lord it over this place alone. Stay and rot in the dark for all I care.” With that she backed away, gun aimed at him until she exited the door backwards and disappeared out of sight. She took the torch on her way out leaving him in semi-darkness. Only a faint glow could be seen coming from outside the doorway.

Hux was stunned and remained in the spot where she had left him, pondering how things had turned out so wrong. He was unused to doing things on his own. He spent his time alone in private, yes, but always with a contingent of troops or servants nearby to command at will.

There was a sound of crunching debris as the medic droid began rolling back toward its port in the wall to charge.

“Unit 655 - halt,” instructed Hux. The droid complied. “Escort me out of this complex.”

“Unable to comply.”

“Explain.”

“Main door access blocked”

He had suspected it might be the case but felt disappointed all the same. “Alternative exit?”

“Blocked.”

Of course, but perhaps this droid could still be useful in clearing a path. He saw the way it moved rocks in its way. He was sure it would be able to move whatever was blocking the exit.

“Lead me to the exit,” asked Hux.

655 turned on its front light to illuminate its path and slid over to the door, leading the way. Hux followed, his stride a little uneven as he walked from all the bruises on his body.

After a little way down the passageway outside, the droid turned a corner. Rounding it, Hux noticed at the end of the corridor the frame of a large metal door buried behind a mountain of fallen rocks. It would take an age to clear it.

“Alternative exit?” He asked.

Hux was then led in the other direction, into a large cavern hewn from the rock. The droid came to a halt at the edge of ravine spanning the length of the room. There had once been a bridge across the gap but it had fallen down into the depths long ago. The droid's lamp light only lit up a small surrounding area. Looking down Hux could not see the bottom. There was no way to get across. On the other side he could see another metal door.

He wondered what the girl had tried to do to escape while he’d been asleep. If she had already tried to use the droid and failed then there was no point going through it again.

“655 recite history of action over the last two days.”

“Affirmative. 22:00 - Activation. 22:05 – Human casualty located. 22:10 - Obstruction cleared. 22:15 - Human casualty scanned. 22:17 - Diagnosis: head trauma with concussion, partial lung collapse, bruising to left arm. 22:23 – Confirmation of action: Lung surgery initiated. 22:35 – Surgery completed: patient unresponsive. 22:40 - resuscitation initiated: breather not applied. 22:42 – shock administered: no response, breather not applied. 22:44 – shock administered: medical assistance performed by human female. 22:46 - Patient stabilised. 22:53…

“Stop.” Hux stared blankly at the droid. “Repeat 22:44.”

“22:44 – shock administered: medical assistance performed by human female”

“What does that mean? Medical assistance,” he asked but was afraid of what the answer would be.

“Human performed resuscitation of breathing” answered the droid.

Hux felt like the floor was unstable beneath him. At first, he thought it was his reaction to what he had just heard but soon he began to notice it was the rumblings of another cave-in. He quickly ducked for the cover of the doorway but the droid was not as fast and toppled over the edge of the ravine, clattering its way down and falling into darkness.

Hux sat on the floor, staring at the spot the droid had been standing a moment before, while boulders rained down all around him. It took him a while to come to his senses and then he backed away from the edge into the hallway. After a time, the shaking stabilized and he was able to retrace his steps back to the room he had awoken in. On entering, his gaze went straight to the bench in the middle of the room where he had been laying.

She had revived him herself? He pictured himself there with her leaning down above him and shuddered. He quickly brushed off the thought. He just could not believe it. It made no sense to him for her to do that for a man who had sentenced her to execution earlier that very same day. Wouldn’t she have been free if he had died? She could have escaped and regaled the resistance of her heroic triumph over a First Order General.

Solemnly, he sat down on a rock. It went against all the principles he had ever known. Survival was dependant on your usefulness. He was only useful to her dead. That would be a win against her enemy.

Sensible thought began to return to him. She must need something from him first. Information, security access, maybe she just needed him to help her get out of here and then she would finally finish him off.

It puzzled him so much that he paced the room in deep thought, back and forth he went until he couldn’t take it any longer. He marched toward the door urgently.

The only way to know for sure would be to ask her himself. He set off in search of the rebel who had saved his life.

Chapter Text

Earlier the same day…

Rose focused on his lips, observing their shape and colour. When he was relaxed like this in sleep, Hux looked so different. No harsh look in his eye, no tense shoulders and set mouth. He always looked so stern, so pulled tight and immaculate in his uniform. Laying there now, his face could only be described as serene. His hair was a ruffled mess and his fringe hung partially over one brow. Its warm colour glowed in the dim light. There was a small amount of stubble starting to grow on his chin. He had a dark streak of dirt on one cheek that stood out against his pale skin and his clothes were ripped in a few spots.

He's a First Order fanatic who has killed countless people, she reminded herself.

She pondered if she had ever seen him look this informal or relaxed. The stress that came with the job of a General, she supposed. All the same, it was sort of fascinating to see him undisturbed like this. It’s a shame it took a near death experience for him to be this way. Her eyes lingered on his mouth a little too long and she turned away quickly, busying herself with tying the makeshift bandage on her ankle.

Hux had been asleep now for nearly 48 hours. If he didn’t wake up soon, she was going to have to find a way out to get help and alert the troopers of his location. She had managed to find some water from an underground stream, a trickle of water that came from a crack in the rock. After testing it, it seemed to be drinkable. So that solved one problem but she still had not found any food, since anything left down here had expired about 60 years ago. There were a few mushrooms growing in various places but she was unsure how edible they were. She didn’t like the idea of hallucinations followed by an excruciating death by poisoning.

She glanced over at him again, no change. His chest rose and fell slightly in his sleep so she knew he was stable. It was driving her a bit mad being stuck here alone with someone unconscious. She had little else to look at in this stone cage than his body in the middle of the room. It was hard to look anywhere else. Like staring into a fire. She needed to go and find some space, it was starting to feel claustrophobic in here.

Rose headed out to explore the many tunnels surrounding the area and soon discovered two blocked doors. Rose hoped they were not the only escape routes as they were totally inaccessible. She continued searching each doorway and passage until she came to a room that looked like it housed what might be the overseer’s office. There was an upstairs room with a large glass window, looking out. A metal staircase lead up to it but as she began climbing the stairs it immediately began snapping as the rusted metal collapsed under foot. The whole staircase pulled away from the wall and fell to the ground where it lay on its side. Dismayed, she looked up at the doorway above.

“Kriff, what now?” she said to herself.

If she could find a rope and climb up there it might have the missing info she needed. There might be a map of the mining facility or even some access codes for doors. She set about finding something strong and long enough to throw up there. She was still struggling to walk with her sore leg, so that slowed her progress. Maybe there was something she could use in one of the lockers in the room with Hux. She headed back to check.

Coming close to the room, she heard shuffling inside. She sped up to see what it was but stopped in the doorway on spotting a familiar flash of red hair. Hux was swaying on the spot, having just got up from the bed.

“You shouldn’t try to stand just yet,” she said, sauntering in.

He jumped and rushed to grab a rock, swinging it at her. “Stay back!”

Oh, for god’s sake, she thought. “Look Hux, there are a few things you need filling in on before you go all First Order on me-”

“-What is going on? Where am I?”

If he might let her finish, she would tell him. What an annoying man.

“Good question, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that but it seems that we ended up here after a cave-in caused by some attack on the outpost.”

“Cave-in?... attack?”

He looked like his head might explode with an overload of information; he clasped his forehead in pain for a moment. Oh shab, was he going to collapse on her again? Why doesn’t he just sit down.

“I’ve been looking around a bit. This seems to be an old mining facility, possibly Empire built. My guess is we are underneath the camp.”

“Underneath?”

“Yeah, after we fell this area was blocked off by falling rocks. I can’t find any way out. We are trapped here underground. I’ve been searching now for two days.”

Would he take that fact well or not?

“Two days?”

No, not well. He had only just come around from his coma-like state. It was all probably all a bit overwhelming.

“You’ve been unconscious for that time,” she explained gently, “that’s why I said you should probably be careful, sit down maybe.”

He clearly did not like being commanded to do something. She went on to explain to him what the medic droid had done to him, Hux was a bit surprised to see the old model of robot.

She was beginning to feel like all of this conjecture was a pointless waste of time if he knew the way out of here.

“Hux, do you know anything about this facility?” she asked.

“No.”

God, this man was difficult to talk to. His curt reply irritated her. He obviously wasn’t going to offer any help. She would just have to find a way out of here on her own. She turned towards the lockers so she could search them for something to help her climb.

“Don’t move!” she heard from behind her a second later. Her heart dropped into her stomach. He wouldn’t.

But, turning to see a gun pointed in her face proved that he would. After what she had been forced to do for him, this was the thanks she got. It was turning out exactly as she had predicted. She could be so naïve sometimes. Hux was an evil bastard, born that way and he would die that way too.

“Well get on with it then,” she said, as her hope in humanity slipped away, “I knew I was going to regret it.”

“Hands in the air…don’t move!” he demanded.

She couldn’t believe this was happening now, after being trapped with no food or drink for two days with this asshole.

“Kneel down,” he said. She was going to kill him. “Kneel! You are a prisoner of the First Order. You will pay for your crimes.”

“Crimes,” what a joke. He had committed more crimes in his lifetime than she could ever imagine. She just needed a second, one lapse in his concentration and she would overpower him. She could see he was a weak mess right now. No threat at all. She soon got her chance as he took off his belt. He looked down for a second and she floored him. Remembering her training, she swiftly disarmed him and seized the gun. That wiped the smile from his face. As she raised the gun and threatened to shoot, he closed his eyes as if accepting his fate willingly. How pathetic.

“Enough,” she said. “If you are going to be like this then fine. I will leave you here to lord it over this place alone. Stay and rot in the dark for all I care”

She backed away with the gun still pointed at him and grabbed the torch on her way out. As she got out of range, she turned and tried to get as much distance from him as she could.

Where else could she find climbing apparatus? Perhaps in the first room she had come to when she fell. She set off to investigate…

After pulling that room apart for near an hour, she had obtained the metal claw of a robot arm and a couple of lengths of cable that she ripped from a panel in the wall. Hopefully it would be long enough to reach the top if she tied them together. She used the strongest knot she knew to attach them all into a rudimentary grappling hook. She wound it all into a loop and slung it over her shoulder, carrying it to the overseer’s office.

She passed close to the locker room on the way there and sent a silent curse to its occupant.

Reaching her destination, Rose stood at the bottom and tried to calculate the throw so that the hook would latch on strong enough to hold her weight. She didn’t want to contemplate the consequences if it did not. This was her only glimmer of hope right now. She did a test throw, swinging it in circles around her head. It bounced off the ledge without purchase and clattered to the floor. She did her best to avoid being hit by it on the way back. The end was pretty sharp. She tried again, swinging it up. It missed again but on the third try it snagged successfully on the lip of metal jutting out from where the stair had been. Pulling against it, it held on solidly. She began to climb, using the remnants of rusted metal in the wall to brace her feet on.

She got about half way up when there was a serious of bangs overhead and she felt the wall begin to shake with tremors. One particularly violent rumbling dislodged the hook from it grip and she plummeted to the floor, large chunks of rocks falling with her. Miraculously, her back landed on a pile of dirt which was just soft enough for her to be ok, despite having the breath knocked out of her. She attempted to get to her feet but as she did the dirt gave way beneath her and she fell down into a sink hole in the floor. She was semi buried in the dirt that fell in with her. Finally, the shaking came to a stop.

While trying to climb out, she found that the dirt made her slide back down. She struggled against it but her feet could not get a purchase to lift her out. After a while she was exhausted and slumped to the floor, defeated. She sat there for some time before she heard steps approaching.

“Hux? Is that you?”

A few tense moments passed and then his face appeared at the mouth of the hole. She was actually happy to see him.

“What are you doing in there?” he said, regarding her with a detached look.

“I’m having a party,” she replied sarcastically. He didn’t look impressed. “I got trapped when the floor caved-in. Can you throw me the rope?”

He disappeared for a time and on returning, he turned her makeshift rope over in his hands.

“Did you make this?” her said inspecting her workmanship.

“Yeah, from cables I found in the wall. Just throw it down here …please”

He contemplated for a moment, looking down, a cold expression on his face. Eventually he lowered it down to her, holding onto one end firmly. She grabbed it and began to climb. He struggled to hold on with his injured arm. With his good arm gripping as well as he could, he took one step back at a time as she held on, slowly pulling her out of the hole.

She reached the edge but her foot slipped and she stumbled backwards. Hux reached out to grab her, pulling her toward him and falling down together on the ground. She landed on top of him, arms legs and all. They remained there for a beat, chest to chest, their faces close to each other. She could feel his breath on her lips from the exertion of pulling her up.

Instant panic made her thrust a hand into him and push herself away across the floor. She was so disconcerted by what had just happened, she dared not look at him for a few seconds. Rose concluded it was her disgust at being so near to him. Quickly she broke the silence.

“Uh- I was trying to get up there,” she said, standing up and pointing to the office above.

He brushed the dust from his black uniform trousers and followed her gaze. He coughed a few times, perhaps from all the particles in the air.

“Is that the control room?” he said, as he got his breath back.

“I’m hoping it will have the solution we need.”

He nodded and collected the rope from the floor. He handed it to her but his hand lingered as he passed it, looking at her like he wanted to say something. She waiting but he appeared to change his mind.

“Affirmative, rebel,” he said finally. “I will assist, if I can.

“My name is Rose. Rose Tico”

After a pause he said, “Acknowledged Tico.”

“Just call me Rose.”

He didn’t say anything and looked uncomfortable with this discourse so she turned her back on him and threw the line up. It latched on first time and she began her accent. It was a slog but she finally reached the top and dragged herself through the opening. Standing up, she brushed herself off and looked around the office.

Her gaze immediately went to a panel on the wall.

“Hux, you have got to get up here!” She called down to him.

She turned to the control panel and pushed the button marked E. A series of lights came on as the sound of machinery came to life, the cogs began to whirr. She went to the edge of the doorway and smiled down at him and grabbing the makeshift rope. Rose threw it down for him to climb up.

“This is the overseer’s office and it has its own…working…elevator.”

Chapter Text

“…it has its own…working…elevator.”

Hux heard her words and breathed a massive sigh of relief. They were getting out of this dark pit! He could return his normal, structured routine. After living all those years in military service, doing the same things day in and day out, all this chaos was pure panic inducing. Having no structured plan to follow and only an adversary to confer with. It was fair to say that this was something he may have imagined this in his sleep and woken in a cold sweat. Only, it was actually happening.

This girl might still decide to abandon him here or shoot him if he got in the way of her escape. He was aware that she still had his pistol hidden on her and could use it at any time. He stared up at the overseer’s office, feeling at her mercy. He loathed the sense of helplessness. She appeared in the doorway and looked down at him.

“The only problem is the door won’t open.”

And just like that he was back to feeling depressed. He’s knees buckled and he felt unsteady on his feet.

 “I think the hinges must have rusted,’ she continued. ‘We are going to need to find something to pry the doors open with.”

“Great,” he replied with a croaky voice, his vision was becoming unfocused as he fixated on her silhouette above.

“Hux, what is it?” he heard her words as if they were at other ends of a tunnel. “Are you ok?”

What little light there was seemed to dim, slowly fading into nothing, as his body went limp…

He awoke gradually, blinking in and out of consciousness. He could hear shuffling footsteps on sand, the tinny scrape of something metal unscrewing. Under half closed eyelids he saw the girl crouched next to him holding a bottle in her hands. He had a sudden flash of a similar image from before; her mouth close to his.

“Here,” she said, putting the bottle to his lips. The water hit his mouth and the sensation washed over his whole body. He drank deep gulps, quenching his desperate thirst.

“I found a source of water not far from here, it seems to be safe, found the bottle in one of the lockers” she informed him. “I’m sorry for not sharing it sooner. I completely forgot you haven’t drunk anything for two days.”

She was apologizing to him? What a strange person.

“You should rest,” she went on, “I will go and search for a tool to fix the door. I won’t be gone long – here,” she placed the bottle in his hands and got up to leave.

“Why are you helping me?” he said to her, studying her reaction. Perhaps now he would figure out what her plan was.

“What do you mean? You are hurt. I can’t leave you here to die on your own.”

“Why not?” Seemed logical to him in such a situation.

“Is that what you would do, Hux?”

He thought for a moment. “Probably.”

“Unbelievable, well it’s a good thing I’m not you then.”

His patience gave out. “What is it that you are after? There must be a reason why you happen to be here on this planet. What’s your mission? To infiltrate this outpost? There are no important documents or secrets here. It’s completely boring and remote. That’s why I came here. To get away from you rebels and all the conflict.”

“How’s that working out for you?” she said with a smirk.

He looked at her blankly.

“Look when we get out of here it’s back to reality,” she went on, “you can go back to hunting me down and I will go back to resisting your Order’s regime. If it were my choice to be stuck here with someone it would certainly never be you but while we're here, you’re all I’ve got. If we don’t work together then we won’t make it out at all. If you hadn’t pulled me out of that pit, I have no idea what I would have done. So, lets just put aside our differences for now, shall we?”

With that she left the room. He sat and sipped the water, pondering all the things she had said. He was still none the wiser to the reason for her presence here but from the sounds of it she craved a mutual alliance based on necessity.  He didn’t see that he had much of a choice in the matter. They were almost out of the mines and then he would never have to see her again.

He lay down and closed his eyes, aching and exhausted. He must have slept for a while because opening his eyes again, he saw that she had returned carrying a sack full of items. She crossed to the rope and attached the bag to end, then began to climb up it. Reaching the top, she hauled the bag up behind her. There was a series of clanging sounds as she tried out the different metal implements she had collected on the door. Eventually there was a sound like something snapped and a hiss.

“Yes!” she cried out, “that’s it. I’ve done it, come on.”

He gathered what things he had and set about following her up there but it was no simple task climbing up the rope with a bad arm. After the first few tries, Hux fell to the ground and concluded he was done for.

He had expected then that Rose would get onto the elevator and disappear, never to be seen again. Instead, she looked down and seeing his predicament, came up with an ingenious solution.

“I have an idea,” she called down to him, “can you tie the rope around your waist?”

He did so, then after a few minutes he heard the sound of gears turning and he was slowly lifted up. Rose leaned down and pulled him inside the office as he drew close. On closer inspection, Rose had rigged the rope to lift him up using the elevator pully system. She shut off the motor and detaching the rope as he arrived, readying the elevator again for their ascent. He looked at her curiously.

“What? I’m an engineer, that’s my job. This sort of mechanism is child’s play.”

He couldn’t help but be a little impressed. Perhaps she was a useful person to have around. Shortly after that, the elevator doors were fully opened and they had got in, trusting that the decayed and rusted gears would hold long enough to transport them to the surface.

He still hadn’t mentioned the resuscitation. Hux wasn’t exactly sure how to bring it up. Rose had been in the sinkhole and then after he pulled her out, their proximity had made him forget about it. There was a moment after that where he thought to discuss it but he had no idea what to say. It baffled him that she could have performed such a service for a stranger, someone she considered an enemy of war. Now, as they rode the elevator side by side, it seemed like the window of opportunity had passed. It was too awkward, here in the forced companionship of the ride upward.

He cleared his throat. His lips were still so dry from two days of dehydration. There was an irritation building there in his chest. He was trying not to dwell on it but a voice in his mind said it was something to do with the emergency procedure he’d undergone. Perhaps he was going to need that bac injection but since his experience as a child, he had a fear of needles. It brought back images of the kidnappers draining his blood. He saw a needle as something that could drain his life away. He hoped he could avoid an injection if possible. When they got back to camp, he would take the next shuttle to The Steadfast and visit the doctor. Now they were getting out of the mines, his prospects were optimistic. He couldn’t wait to have a proper drink and something to eat, a shower. He was covered in dust and sweat. The mines had a consistently warm and stuffy temperature. He smelled like mold and dirt.

The walls shuddered as they continued upward. Great screeching noises could be heard as metal ground against metal. Despite this, it seemed incredibly quiet as neither of them said a word. He glanced at her briefly, only to catch her looking back at him and they both turned to look in the other direction. Were they strangers? Enemies? He knew very little about her but these titles didn’t seem to fit anymore for some reason. It seemed like the longest journey although it merely took a few minutes.

Eventually the elevator came to a stop. There was a long pause before the large doors ground open, excruciatingly slowly. The sudden inpouring of light made them both cover their faces. It was late in the day and the sun was low in the sky, shining right at them. Adjusting to the brightness, they could soon make out that the had come out on top of a hill. Looking down they could see the outpost below them. Hux walked out and started down toward the camp. A few steps in he halted and looked back.

Rose remained where she was. It took him an instant to realized that she was, of course, worried about her status as a captive. He thought about it. Should he let her go? This planet was no place to venture off alone. She would surely be dead without supplies for a journey in the cold climate of Kijimi. Not to mention she had been trapped for two days already with no food. But going back to the outpost would seem like she was surrendering, he supposed.

She looked at him with a contemplative expression for a while, perhaps wondering if he would try to detain her again and then said simply, “Well then, Hux… farewell.”

She began to walk in the other direction.

“Hang on a minute,” he called out.

He stumbled over rocks in her wake. She continued on without stopping.

“Wait! You can’t go out there on foot alone,” he said pointing to the vast plain of land ahead. “It’s suicide.”

She stopped and turned back to glare at him with an accusatory look on her face.

“It’s either that or a swift execution as a resistance sympathizer, isn’t it?”

She was part of the resistance. If she went back there it was his duty to find out what information she knew and then ensure she no longer posed a threat to their cause. If he did not it would be deemed suspicious and his own loyalty would be called into question. She was correct to try to leave but it seemed wrong somehow to send her away like this when she had played such an important role in his own survival. He owed her a debt. He couldn’t recall being in debt to anyone in his life. His survival had always been due to his own strong will and tenacity. No one had ever helped him, not his family or colleagues, in fact they were often the ones he had to look out for. He was here now despite them not because of them. He was here now, he supposed, because she had helped him. He did not know what to do with that.

“Stay here and wait,” he said, “I will come back with supplies for you.”

She looked surprised at this for a moment, then her face fell.

“…plus a contingent of troops?”

“No, I will tell them you escaped in the mines.”

“Why?”

He did not answer straight away. “That way, you and I will be even.”

Looking into his eyes, she said nothing. An unspoken understanding passed between them and Rose looked down at her feet as she said, “I didn’t do anything,” but he thought he saw a hint of a blush on her cheeks.

“Wait here until sunset and I will return.” With that Hux set off in the direction of the outpost.

Chapter Text

Rose waited on the brow of the hill for Hux to return. Darkness was descending quickly and with it the temperature. Here on the surface of Kijimi it was cold during the day but at night it was dangerously freezing. Without a shelter or fire, she would be in trouble fast. How long was she expected to wait for him? She moved around, shifting her body to try and keep warm, pacing back and forth, looking for any glimpse of a ginger head in the distance. She was an absolute fool for believing him.

She looked back at the elevator. At least it was a sort of shelter from the wind, three walls with the doors open. She could send it back down into the mines but she was concerned it might not make it back up again in one piece. Maybe she should gather some fire wood or any kind of provisions she could scrounge from the surrounding area. She was beginning to think Hux had been right, Kijimi was no place to wander off alone unprepared. She was also beginning to think Hux wasn’t coming back.

There wasn’t a lot to scavenge as she looked around. It was very rocky and there were no trees, probably due to the strong winds coming across the hills. Returning to the elevator, she searched around the front of the building and found some broken pieces of what looked like an old wooden barrel. She took them to the elevator and placed them inside. Its large doors remained open but just in case, she disconnected the power behind a panel on the wall. 

She wished she had her electro-shock prod right now. It was such a handy tool to have and she could use it for any number of things, including sparking a fire. Her tools had all been confiscated by the First Order when they had arrested her on Kuat. She felt lost without them. She was going to have to make a fire the old-fashioned way. The wood she had found was ok but she was going to need some kindling or it would never take.

Rose walked to the point where Hux had left her and scanned the horizon on all sides. No sign of him. He must have been gone for over an hour, maybe two. Why was she even still here? She should have left in search of shelter long ago. He wasn’t to be trusted.

He had taken her off guard with what he had said, with that look he had given her. Why was she so gullible? She had always been like that, overly eager to see the best in others. Her sister Paige had chastised her for it, worried she would get hurt one day. Now she was no longer in this world to warn Rose about the worst parts of her personality. She missed her sister so badly right now. She wished for a friendly face, an ally, somewhere to feel safe. She felt so very far from that here, lost on this miserable dive of a planet.

It’s not like Hux was someone like that, he didn’t have a shred of decency in him. She was well aware that he was completely brainwashed and indoctrinated with the First Order’s propaganda, all that bullshit about the legacy of the Empire. Until Snoke’s demise, he had been entirely devoted to impressing him. She had no way of relating to such a person. All he cared about was working his way up the ranks and taking out anyone who got in his way. She knew him as a pompous, cruel and devious sort of person. Thinking back to his behaviour aboard The Finalizer, she scowled.

Given all that, why had he told her to wait for him here? It seemed like the most bizarre thing to do. It was an oddly inefficient way of killing a person, just leaving her out here to freeze to death.

Had he somehow found out that she had shared her breath with him? Before he had set off, it seemed like that’s what he was talking about. It had been an emergency situation, nothing more. Just move on and forget all about it. Really.

She glanced down into the valley on the opposite side from the direction of the outpost. It was dark but she could make out a few shapes that looked like trees. There might be some good wood for a fire or somewhere better to shelter. She took out the torch from her pocket and turned it on. She pointed it in all directions in one last search for Hux and set off into the valley.

The rocks slipped from beneath her feet and she fell onto her bottom on the way down. It was a pretty steep descent. She sat down and crawled in a sitting position for fear of falling all the way. Her ankle was still a little tender and the hunger made her feel dizzy. Eventually she reached the valley floor and she stayed sitting for a moment, turning the torch around in the dark surroundings.

Why did she still feel the pull to return to the top of the hill? She did not owe Hux anything. It must be the hope that he had brought food with him. That’s it. He won’t be there, she said to herself.

There were a few good twigs and branches here and there on the valley floor. She held them in one arm and scanned for anything useful. As she moved the beam of light away, she caught sight of a twinkle among the trees. Fixating on it, she moved closer to its source. It grew larger, a yellow glow of light in the night. Then another joined it. This new light was smaller and moved from side to side; it had a reddish colour to it. She followed it with her eyes, transfixed by its beauty. Was it a fire fly? It became larger as she got nearer. She could just about make out its shape and as it dawned on her what it was, she froze.  

It was the sighting on a rifle, aimed in her direction. She quickly turned off the torch. Looking beyond the light, she could see the yellow glow was actually a fire burning in the centre of a ring of tents, a camp of some sort. She was unsure whether to be terrified or relived. Were they friendly? Her knowledge of this planet’s lawlessness made her think otherwise.  

I must return to the hill, she thought to herself, backing away slowly.

A twig snapped underfoot and there was the sound of hurried footsteps. She heard gruff voices yelling in a Kijimi dialect, she didn’t understand what they were saying and suddenly she was surrounded by six hooded figures. Were they men? They were dressed like men but inside their cloaks they had an insect like appearance and no faces at all. Instead of eyes, nose or mouth, they had segmented plates of chitin. Their bodies were humanoid, with five fingers, two arms and two legs but they wore breathers, with tubes that fed from the side of their face to a pack on their chest.

One of them stepped forward and spoke in Kijimi.

“I don’t understand,” she replied to him.

“Human? You First Order?” he asked gruffly.

“No,” she scoffed, “I am not.” He didn’t look convinced. Well, from what she could tell from his featureless face, it was more in the body language.

“You - First Order. How you escape?” he said in stunted speech. His knowledge of her language must be poor.

“From the mines? We used the overseer’s elevator.”

“We?” he took a step toward her.

Shab. Maybe she shouldn’t have embroiled Hux in this.

“I was trapped in the mines. Perhaps you can help me. I haven’t eaten anything for days.” It was worth a try.

The questioner did not seem like he was in a generous mood. The other five crowded in on her. I have a bad feeling about this, she thought to herself.

“On second thoughts, you know, I just remembered that I was supposed to meet someone. I had better be going…” She backed away and turned ready to run but immediately felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Outpost" said the leader, barking orders at the others and picked her straight up and threw her over his shoulder. She screamed and swung her arms and legs to break free but his grip was firm and unyielding. He hauled her into the back of a covered speeder and closed the doors shut, caging her in.

“Oh no!” she muttered to herself, “did he say outpost?" Were these creatures involved in what had happened there two days ago? She had finally escaped and now she was being driven back there you relive it all again. She banged on the walls in desperation. She could hear them speaking to each other but it was in the other language. Soon the vehicle began to move.

What had happened back at the camp? She looked around. The trailer she had been put in was full of First Order weapons and other items she doubted had been bartered for; they must be stolen.

She took visual stock of what there was and it dawned on her that there might be food in here. Rifling through the packs, she found a pack of six ration bars. Rose immediately tore one open and devoured it. It contained simple protein and artificial flavour but it was the best thing she had ever tasted. The weapons were locked away in metal chests but she could stuff her pockets full of provisions. She found a can of pixa fruit, a bit sour for her liking but it would do. A pack of dried Orsian noodles. She didn’t have a pack when she had been taken captive, but she found a discarded sack and stuffed the things inside in case there was a moment she could run.

The speeder trundled along for only about ten minutes before it came to a stop. She heard shouting from a few more of the creatures as they arrived and greeted each other.

Maybe there was another reason Hux hadn’t returned to where she was. Had he been held captive or tortured or worse? She was worrying about him now? They had formed some sort of alliance which meant that they would help each other until this ordeal was over. My enemy’s enemy is my friend, she thought. There seemed to be a striking lack of people for a fool to trust in this part of the galaxy.

Looking through the bars in her cage she could make out a few of the same creatures walking away from a grey stone wall with a symbol of a hexagon with a black sun inside of it. The mark of the First Order. She was indeed, back at the outpost.

The doors were flung open and large arms pulled her from the back of the speeder. They grabbed the back of her jacket and dragged her through the mud, carelessly. Rose dropped the sack of provisions along the way.

She was brought before a line of these creatures, these men, standing in a row among the ashen remains of what had been the camp. Most of the buildings were destroyed, there were the bodies of stormtroopers littering the floor around her. Flood lights lit up the central courtyard. There were no First Order men to be seen here now, either they were dead or they had fled. In the middle of the devastation stood one of the invaders dressed in armour tinged with gold, he stood out from the rest. He wore an elaborate helmet with a crest upon it. She did not recognise the emblem.

Her captor shoved her forward so she fell on her knees before him. Then he bowed himself to the figure in armour.

“Q’u Ashiga.” He said in salute to his leader and said something in their native language.

Ashiga - where had she heard that name? It was familiar but she couldn’t recall who they were. Some sort of powerful force, this man seemed to command a decent number of ruthless warriors. These men looked fast and skilled with a weapon, they carried a long blade at their belt and a blaster rifle each. They were built for combat, with strong physiques and an intense energy that scared her. She needed to get away from here fast.

“Who are you?” addressed the leader to Rose.

She was reluctant to answer but the man who brought her dealt a blow to her back, knocking the breath from her lungs. She quickly answered.

“Rose Tico, I’m with the resistance.”

Was it wise to divulge that information, she thought a second too late. She knew that the First Order were their enemy but that did not mean they were aligned with her cause. They seemed to have their own ruthless agenda.

“Resistance!” they shouted. Not her allies then. The leader made a signal to her captor and he stood and grabbed her by the hair, forcing her face down until she was lying in the mud. She sputtered to get in a breath.

It was then that she recalled the name, Ashiga. In her research into this part of the quadrant she had come across it. The Ashiga Clan were a dynasty of outlaws who had ruled Kijimi with an iron fist for centuries but when the Empire came into power Queen Ashiga had aligned with them. This caused fractures in the clan and she had been betrayed and killed by her own daughter. The crime syndicate  called The Crimson Dawn had become the ruling class after that. There must be some powerful Ashiga clan members still operating here.

“Sarco!” called Q’u Ashiga and said something in Kijimi. Was that her torturer’s name? Sarco pulled her face from the mud and forced her to look at the leader. Q’u made a sweeping gesture with his hand that had an obvious message. Kill her.

Rose wracked her brain to think of a plan of escape but nothing came to her. She was forced to her feet by Sarco, who marched her to the wall. He pushed her against it and leaned down to spit words in her ear.

“Don’t move or I make you die very slowly,” he hissed. She trembled and dared not move an inch. He drew back from her and reached for the sword at his belt.

Many thoughts came to her then, of all the events that had led her here, of her disastrous mission, of her friends and Leia. She had failed them. All that effort she had put in to keep herself alive in the mines to die now like this! It was a cruel fate. She thought of her trip through the wormhole to get here. What had it all meant? She would never know if she had truly travelled into the past or not. It didn’t matter right now.

One thought stood out strongest in her mind, where was Hux during all of this?

Chapter Text

“If it were my choice to be stuck here with someone it would, certainly, never be you but while we're here… you’re all I’ve got.”

Hux pondered what Rose had said before and realised she had a point. Instead of staying with her he had stupidly returned here thinking things would be the same, that the outpost would have crushed any attack and be waiting for him. Walking back through the gates the reality had hit him suddenly. The outpost was abandoned, not a trooper to be seen. There were dead men on the ground everywhere and no sign of the culprits. General Pryde must have ordered a retreat of the rest of the men. No search party had been sent to find him. He had been left for dead.

The invaders had taken most of the important provisions; weapons, food, water, anything they could steal. The outpost had been raised to the ground. There was very little left. His quarters had been destroyed, the prison was rubble and the mess hall was a smouldering pile of rocks. He took some personal effects from what remained of his bedroom. In the mostly intact barracks block, he found a sink, washed his face and cleaned his injuries. He found some warmer clothes inside a locker and changed into them. He also found a Medi-pack. Under the rubble of the mess hall kitchen, he had found a few cans of food, a bottle and a small knife. He grabbed a bag and stuffed it with all the items and also a blanket.

After that he decided to climb up the guard tower searching for any weapons that had not been pilfered. He knew there was a gunner point up here, fitted with a KL9 rapid-fire blaster. There was a control panel to operate some of the defence droids if any of them remained operational. It seemed like the safest place to be. In there he had also found some night vision binoculars, a screwdriver and a lighter to add to his provisions.

He brought up a map of the surrounding landscape up on the console and tried to plan a route of escape. Behind them was a vast and treacherous mountain range, no one but the local nomads dare traverse it. In front lay the Arkibi plain. A wide expanse of ice stretching into the distance. On the far side of it he could just make out distant maintains and Hux knew that there was a local settlement there, the only place for miles in any direction. If he could make it there somehow, he might arrange transport back to the spaceport at Kijimi city.

Looking down from this high vantage point he had spotted a small group of bandits returning to the base. He looked towards the metal ladder he had climbed up the side of the building. Kriff! Being up here also meant he was trapped. If he tried to leave now, he would certainly be spotted by them and shot. He was stuck here, on his own with no plan and Rose was waiting for him. She was out there alone, equally vulnerable and there were clearly lots of these men still hanging around the area.

Looking down, he studied the attackers. They appeared to be Melitto bandits. The race of insectile Melitto were blind but their other senses made up for a lack of sight. They had keen hearing and a strong sense of smell. They had feelers that assisted them to navigate their surroundings without the need to see. They had a disconcerting appearance, having a head with no face. He had met a few of their kind before in the bar at Kijimi city. A nasty lot, the top dogs of the underworld. They were ruthless, fast and highly skilled with a weapon. The Melitto usually belonged to a hive and served a strict hierarchy, following the orders of their Queen.

As the sun began to set, the last light of day glinted off the gold on the armour of the tallest warrior. He strode through the middle of them and shouted orders to the others. He must be the leader, thought Hux. The Melitto warrior wore a helmet with the symbol of three broken circles, encompassing a solid gold orb. Like feelers reaching toward the sun. The emblem of the Ashiga Clan. 

The Ashiga were the second ruling class on Kijimi, after Crimson Dawn. He had heard that back in the day they had been uncontested in this part of the galaxy. A force to be feared, most definitely. 

Hux hadn’t been stationed at the outpost for long but he had been briefed on most of the outpost’s hidden areas and passageways. He knew there was a tunnel that could be accessed from below this tower that took you under the wall. If he could get to it without being seen he could sneak out undetected. He just had to wait until they moved away, at the moment they were gathered directly in front of the tower. Unless there was some sort of distraction he would not be able to leave without them seeing him. He waited for cover of darkness and weighed up his options as to what direction to travel in.

She would be waiting for him, he knew, but he was no good to her dead. After about an hour, the light had all but faded and Hux was about to make his break for it when he saw headlights approaching from the East. A speeder! If only he could use it to get out of here but they would kill him before he even got it started. He watched as it came to a stop and six hooded figures emerged dragging along a smaller person.

Hux stared in horror as he saw Rose dragged along the ground and into the camp, to be presented to their leader. He watched as her captor hit her on the back and pushed her face down into the mud. Then the asshole wound her hair around his fist, pulling her face up to show his master. It was hard to watch the man handle her so roughly. The leader responded by slashing an imaginary blade across his neck, his order to execute.

As Rose was marched across the yard it took Hux mere seconds to jump into the controls and power up the KL9 blaster. He swivelled the gun to aim at the man holding her but he pondered if he could not be sure of its accuracy at this range. He didn’t want to hit Rose as well. Then he saw the glint of the man’s blade being raised in the air to strike. No time to hesitate. He pulled the trigger.

A series of blasts range out, peppering the grey wall with shots and crumbling the plaster. The smoke cleared to reveal an unharmed Rose but he had also failed to hit her attacker. However, the distraction was enough for her to break free and run. Seeing that she was clear, he fired again. He moved the gun and aimed it into the centre of the courtyard and rained down shots at the main contingent of bandits. They scattered in all directions. They had been taken off guard and retreated to regroup.

Hux hit the activation button on the defence droids. There were six listed on the panel but only two of them lit up. Better than nothing. He immediately heard gunfire from the northern side of the camp. Staring out the window he also saw the droid stationed at the main gate marching into position, blocking the entrance which was also the bandits means of escape. Grabbed his bag, he quickly descended the ladder to the ground in search of Rose.

As his feet hit the sludge below a shot narrowly missed his face and peeled off the wall, showering his ear with dust and shrapnel. He felt the drip of blood on that side of his face and heard a ringing sound in his ear. He ducked down and moved through an open door nearby for cover.

He was in one of the stormtrooper sleeping huts. The one he had used to get changed earlier. It had largely survived the first attack, with only a small hole in the roof. The long cabin had doors at either end and rows of beds on both sides. He moved down the centre aisle and poked his head out of the far door.

On the other side he spotted Rose. She was bending down to pick something up out of the mud, a bag of some kind. With her back to him, she froze, raising her hands in surrender to someone. Hux could not see who it was as she was blocking them from view.

As he exited the door his foot hit something.  Looking down, he saw he had stood on the hand of a dead storm trooper. He jumped back in disgust and noticed that in the hand was a blaster. He grabbed it and quickly wiped the dirt from the trigger just as Rose’s assailant came into view. The bandit leader had his long blade pointed at her chest and was quickly moving forward. Hux let out a shot, hitting him squarely in the chest. Amazingly, the Ashiga stumbled but did not immediately fall down. He swung his blade around wildly and Hux hit him again, this time in the forehead. He fell backwards and lay still on his back.

“Hux!” Rose called out, panting loudly. She looked at him as if she might burst into tears.

“Come on,” he pointed ahead of her, “this way.

He led her to the wall and punched in a few numbers on keypad. The keypad clicked open to reveal the contents inside, he reached in and pulled out a key. Leading her a little way along the wall he brushed aside a tuft of grass to reveal a trapdoor in the floor. He inserted the key and pulled it open. They climbed down a ladder and into a passage below. He closed the trapdoor cover. The quietness amplified their frantic breathing but they were safe for now. This tunnel would lead them beyond the wall a few metres.

“Where were you?” Rose whispered to him.

“I got stuck in the guard tower, I couldn’t get out without them seeing.”

“That was you firing that machine gun at me?”

“I thought you could use a diversion,” she looked like she might throttle him, “it worked, didn’t it?”

“Thanks, I suppose,” she managed, then she added “and thanks for stopping that Q’u guy before something bad happened.”

“Q’u?” he replied with a frown. He knew that name. “Did you say Q’u?”

“Yeah, that Sarco bastard called him that, think he was the leader.”

Kriff! kriff! kriff !kriff!

“What is it?” Rose asked seeing his reaction.

“Q’u Ashiga, he’s the Queen’s son.” The leader of the Ashiga crime syndicate. He had just killed the heir to the clan. That means he was now enemy number one. “If they catch me, they will do far worse things than kill me.”

Out here, alone, the First Order offered him no protection at all. These thugs didn’t care if he was a commander or ex-general. He was now faced with trying to escape this hell-hole of a planet without getting caught by their tyrannical rulers. Even if he somehow managed it, they would never stop hunting him down.

“We should rest here for a while, they don’t know where we are. I found some food.” He slumped down the wall in exhaustion.

“So did I, it’s not much but I’m really not fussy right now.” She began tearing open the packets she had in the bag.

They shared the food together and took some time to replenish their strength. They didn’t say much to each other as they had to be careful not to make any noise to give away their location. It was still dark and quiet outside now so they decided to take the time to take it in turns to sleep. Hux volunteered to take the first watch so she could have a rest.

He looked at her. She looked thinner already and she was shivering in her sleep. It concerned him. She had so much spirit usually, where was that fiery defiance she had shown him when they first met? Her encounter with that man had shaken her, he could see it. She looked smaller now, huddled in the corner. He wanted to rip that bandit's featureless face off. 

After a couple of hours, they crept down the tunnel to the exit. The trapdoor was hidden behind a boulder at the other end. They climbed out and he used the binoculars to scan the horizon. The first light of sunrise could be seen in the sky. It must be around 3:30 in the morning. The outpost was quiet. Scanning the gate, he spotted the speeder parked out front. In all the commotion, they had abandoned it. It was their only hope of escape across the icy expanse ahead.

Crouching low they rushed across the open space to reach it and Rose used the screwdriver to remove the panel and hotwire the controls while Hux kept watch. Blaster poised, he panned the viewer across and spotted the droid at the gate was spitting sparks on the floor in pieces. His view moved to reveal the bandit beside it, the one who had been ordered to kill Rose. He was staring them down and raising his blaster, preparing to fire.

“We need to get out of here, now!”

Rose started up the engine and they both jumped in, moving forward as voices called out and shots flew past from behind them. Rose put her foot down.

“Hurry, come on, go faster,” said Hux.

“I’ve got it at full speed.”

They were speeding across the wide snow plain now with no obstacles in the way for miles all around, putting a good deal of distance between them and the outpost. It didn’t matter; they had no way of following them anyway.

He sat in the passenger seat and checked the bandit’s movements through the binoculars.

“Looks like they’ve gone to get a bigger gun,” he suddenly noticed. It took him a minuter to realise what was. “Oh shab, is that a pop blaster?”

As he said it, a shot rang out and landed metres away, exploding on impact. If they were hit by that the speeder would be blown into smithereens. Rose swerved in an attempt at evasive manoeuvres. A blast narrowly missed their left side. She swerved the other way but they were caught on the back end and the force tipped the speeder forwards into a dive. Its front end hit the floor and was ground away, slicing into the engine and cutting their momentum. They continued on for a way, spinning around as they slowed down and bounced violently along the floor. Eventually it ground to a halt.

Sparks instantly burst from the engine and smoke began to pour out. They grabbed what they could from the back and got away clear of the vehicle just as it set on fire and after about a minute it exploded.

Hux and Rose collapsed to the ground, exhausted. They were far ahead of the bandits but if they stayed here, they could reach where they were in a few hours on foot. A few shots still rang out but they had abandoned the pop blaster after shooting them down.

Hux stood up and looked towards the far horizon. This area, the Arkibi plain, had once been an inland sea but it was now completely frozen so you could walk across. It wouldn’t be easy. There were many myths and stories surrounding this place. The local tribes claimed that ghosts wandered here. He didn’t put much stock in that. It was considered a sacred ground and the constant low temperatures and storms made it a notoriously difficult place to navigate. Not to mention it was at least a two day walk on foot to the other side.

“We’ve got to keep going,” he said, reaching out his hand to her. Rose looked at it for a moment then grasped it firmly and he helped pull her to her feet.

Looking back, they could see the outpost in the distance, a smoking ruin now. There was nothing to go back to. They had to keep going forward and maybe somehow, they could make it out of this alive.

They both took one last look back and then began the long walk across the frozen sea.

Chapter Text

They had been walking non-stop for hours in the cold temperatures, trying to make the most of the daylight warmth. Her feet were killing her but Rose knew if she didn’t keep going the cold would get too much and then the bandits would catch up. She was afraid of that scenario, now that Hux had killed their leader she didn’t think they would be listening to excuses.

It was well past midday when they spotted her crashed ship. They decided to head there to see if anything was salvageable. Even though they saw it clearly across the ice, it seemed to take an age to reach it as a strong wind was picking up and they were walking against it. It soon sapped them of energy and by the time they reached the ship, they fell to the floor inside from exhaustion. Half of the fuselage had been burnt out but the other side was mostly intact, making it a decent place for a rest.

Rose thanked the stars she had grabbed one of the Melitto cloaks from the back of the speeder before it had blown up. Otherwise, she was not sure if she would have made it this far. It was bitingly cold and her hands and feet were numb despite her heavy work boots; they weren’t made to trek across a frozen sea.

As she relaxed a little, she tried not to recall the sensation of her face being pushed down into the mud; the pain of her hair being twisted and pulled, but the cruelty of those bandits kept bringing the memory back to her. What really terrified her was their complete lack of humanity. There was no reasoning with such aliens, she was not one of their kind and therefore her life was worthless to them. If Hux had not fired at them she knew she would not be here now. She tried not to picture the kind of slow and gruesome death that sword could have brought to her. Twice she had been faced with the shine of its blade and both times Hux had been there. Psychologically, she knew she was not dealing well with the aftermath. The encounter had shaken her and she did not want to meet them again.

She glanced across at Hux. He was sat on the floor, his lips set in a dour line, his eyes were tired but his face held the expression of pure determination. He was a confusing person. She knew he was considered a tyrant in the First Order. His main hobbies were conquering and destroying. He was ruthless with his enemies, a true killer and his ambition meant he could not be trusted. Yet here she was travelling alongside him, sharing food, trusting each other, believing that they had some unspoken agreement. He could have let her die multiple times; he could have gone along that tunnel and abandoned her. But he hadn’t, he’d even put himself at risk and become a target by killing their leader, for her.

Despite having been made reluctant travelling companions, they still had no idea how to converse with each other. The silence stretched on as they sat opposite.  

“Where are we going?” she said finally.

He pondered for a second. “I know there is some sort of settlement in the mountains there, in the distance,” he said, pointing out of the door to a tiny collection of black lumps. “I’m hoping we can reach it and get a transport back to reality. I’m getting pretty sick of this planet.”

“What do you know about the settlement?”

“Not much, it is a simple tribal camp, I think, but hopefully they have some links back to civilization.”

“Civilization? You mean the First Order? I’d hardly call it that.” Rose jeered.

He frowned in response. “Well, it’s certainly more civilized than your resistance,’ then he said quietly under his breath, “hiding in the woods like wild animals,”

“The resistance has only been forced to hide its location due to fear of destruction from your so-called masters, because Kylo Ren is such a patient and reasonable negotiator.”

“He is not my master.”

“I thought he was the supreme leader now that Snoke is gone?”

“So he claims, yes.”

He seemed to be speaking the truth but he looked pretty irked. He clearly did not like Kylo Ren. This was surprising to her from what she knew about him. She thought he would just agree with whoever the leader was from sheer loyalty to the First Order.

“You don’t recognise his authority?” she queried.

“Of course I do, otherwise would certainly mean death,” he said but his eyes revealed his frustration. Kylo was a dictator, not even the men in his command were happy about the way he had taken over. Hux started to cough and after taking a drink, he added, “nothing has been right since Ren killed Snoke.”

“I heard about that. He must be very powerful to take on such a person as Snoke.”

“He’s a raving lunatic. A complete emotional and chaotic mess. That sort of person is our new venerable leader.”

“Why don’t you challenge him then? Isn’t that what you lot do? The apprentice kills the master”

“I not a Sith and I’m not the cutthroat you think I am. Yes, I’ve done things, I have gained somewhat of a reputation but without force powers I don’t think I’d last very long against the supreme leader’s lightsabre.”

So, he didn’t plan to go up against Ren but he also didn’t believe in his leadership. How could he remain part of the First Order with doubts like that? Her picture of him as this uniformed fanatic was fading slightly from her perception. If he was not General Hux, commander of the First Order, working his way up the ranks, who was he?

“You should be careful with opinions like that, sounds like descension in the ranks to me.”

“I never speak my opinions out loud,’ he said to her absently.

“But you just told me.”

He looked up at her, shocked. They both stared at each other. Then he changed the subject.

“Perhaps this is the best place to make camp for the night,” he said busying himself searching the shelves, “that wind is too strong.”

So they unpacked what provisions they had left and took inventory of whatever they could find left on the ship. Since it was a garbage ship there wasn’t much to find. No food as there wasn’t normally passengers on this craft, just scraps of rotten peelings from the kitchens. They did find some broken bits of wood and a battered old pot. They set to work making a fire using the lighter Hux had found. Rose filled the pot with fresh snow and melted it on the fire to make hot water.

She noticed Hux was coughing at regular intervals. It had been steadily getting worse over the past few days but now he was struggling to go for a couple of minutes without having a fit of choaking. He’d had that lung surgery three days ago, perhaps he was developing an infection. The freezing temperatures probably didn’t help.

The heat from the fire felt fantastic and she soon began to feel normal again, her fingers regaining their warmth. They rationed the food and ate a protein bar each. She opened the tin of pixa fruit and dropped it into the hot water. It had a bitter taste and would make an alternative to Caf. She tried some before offering it to Hux.

“Oh, what is that?” his face scrunched up in response to the bitterness.

“Pixa, we used to drink it on Hays Minor when we couldn’t afford caf. It’s an acquired taste.”

“I would prefer some tea.”

“Beggers can’t be choosers right now. The steam will help your cough.”

“I’m fine,” responded Hux a little too quickly.

“You don’t sound fine. Perhaps I should get the bac shot from the Medi-kit…”

“Not necessary. I will recover in a day or so.”

“Just to be on the safe side, you might as well…”

“Don’t make an issue of it.”

“The droid said…”

“NO!” Hux was on his feet with clenched fists at his sides.

She put her hands up in surrender, she clearly better drop it as a subject. “Okay- okay.”

“Meddlesome rebel, always the hero,” he muttered as he stalked outside, leaving her alone.

What was his problem? Did he have to keep calling her a rebel like that, with such distain in his voice. What was so wrong about being a rebel. Better than a stuffy idiotic asshole. They were supposed to be acting civil these days. She supposed it was too hard for a person like Hux to keep going.

She drank the rest of the pixa water and lay down by the fire, laying her cloak over herself. It was getting dark outside and this was going to have to be her bed for the night. She had gathered as much wood as she could from the stores and piled it up. They would need to keep the fire going to stop themselves from freezing to death during the night. Hux hadn’t returned yet. Should she go and look for him?

After what seemed like an hour, she heard him come through the door. She wasn’t sure why but she pretended to be asleep while he shuffled around the space. Rose heard him settle down on the floor on the other side of the fire but she was so tired from the last few days she must have fallen asleep shortly after that…

Rose awoke shivering violently. The fire was out and they were left in the pitch black. Searching around for some wood to relight it, she realised they must have used it all up. There was no sign of the sun rise outside the open door, it was still the middle of the night. She tried to move her body around and piled the cloak on top to try and trap in any warmth but nothing helped. It was freezing cold and the temperature kept dropping. Her teeth were chattering madly; the icy feeling was pure agony.

In the dim light she could see Hux’s form on the floor opposite, tossing and turning and muttering in his sleep. He seemed to be suffering just as much as she was.

Rose remained an hour or so in this hell, shifting around and jostling for any little bit of heat. There were some embers from the fire still, so she huddled close to it but as time went on, they died away. The wind whipped through the door and chilled her to the bone. She tried standing up and jumping around but she was too weak and fell down, defeated. Laying on the ground once again she automatically crept closer to Hux, spurred on by the urge to survive by any means necessary.

About a foot away from him she could feel some warmth coming from his body. She ached to move closer but hesitated for fear he might wake up and be upset. Back-to-back, the space between them slowly decreased until their bodies made contact. Just the smallest touch but it made all the difference. The tingle of sensation spread from that point across her torso. A soothing and natural warmth that radiated from two human beings. Instinctively, Rose huddled in closer.

A gently masculine scent filled her nose amid the comforting calm of morning sleepiness. It smelled…nice. She dosed, in and out of wakefulness, absently aware of the other person. Rose was almost aware that that person was the reason she felt so dreamily content this morning. She was almost ready to open her eyes but she was reluctant to let the feeling go so she resisted reality for a little while longer. Then she heard the quiet cough of a male voice from behind her and she was fully awake in an instant.

Looking down, she caught sight of Hux arm draped across her waist. What was that doing there! How could she get it off? Don’t panic, she told herself. It had been necessary to huddle to survive. She turned her head slightly to look behind. She didn’t think he had woken up yet. Hux seemed to be dreaming, he was muttering and twitching in his sleep. She still had a chance to extract herself from this situation before he became aware. Wriggling her body down, she tried to slip under his arm to get free. As her neck became parallel with his arm, he suddenly lifted it away muttering to himself and rolling over. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickly got up, rushing to her side of the room.

Shortly after that Hux woke and they packed up their things to continue on their journey. However, as they marched on side by side, a sense of something unsaid lingered between them.

“Did you manage to sleep?” Hux enquired, “the cold was something else last night.”

She cleared her throat. “Yes thanks, you?”

“I was out. Pretty beat from the last few days.”

They didn’t say much else after that and continued walking on. They soon got into a good stride, picking up the pace but Hux still seemed tired and a little out of sorts. They didn’t mention his outburst when she had tried to offer him help.

The icy surface they were walking on resembled glass in the morning sun. There were white lines scored across it in different directions, cracks in the ice, but they didn’t widen or make noise as they passed over them since the frozen surface was too thick. For miles in every direction there was nothing. Just flat expanse with the occasional tuft of unmelted snow drift. Here and there in the distance, she could see the odd bump or rock sticking up. The mountains were still very far ahead of them; they remained a barely visible strip to the north. She wondered what might be beneath their feet in the depths below. Apart from the wind, there was no noises, no birds overhead, nothing. It was both beautiful and eerie to be this exposed out in the open.

Soon fog began to creep over the ice, the sun faded and clouds loomed darkly overhead. Within thirty minutes the visibility was becoming poor and they could no longer see the direction to the mountains. They continued on, trying to distinguish anything to orientate themselves.

“What did you say?” said Hux stopping and looking at her.

“Nothing,” she replied.

“I could have sworn I heard a woman’s voice.”

Just then, Rose caught sight of a shape in the corner of her eye, a dark shape in the fog, but looking that way she saw nothing. They continued on and it happened again to her right. She turned to Hux but found he had disappeared. Panicking, she circled around but could not find him anywhere.

“Hux!”

Just then she heard an inaudible whisper very close to her ear and jumped, moving her body from side to side in search of the voice.

“Hux, is that you?” she called out. There was no response.

Rose could not see him anywhere. She started walking erratically in all directions without any knowledge of where she was going. Then she heard it again; the voice sounded different this time but she still could not make out what it was saying. She quickened her pace forward and suddenly bumped into a stone pillar, rebounding off it and landing on her bottom in the snow.

Looking up she noticed it was a marker of some kind, there were unfamiliar runes carved upon it. On inspection, it was pointed at the apex like an obelisk, the base of which stretched deep under the ice. Looking further ahead, she saw another one just like it. Approaching it she spotted another. She followed the line of pillars until she saw the landscape rise up in front. It was an island in the sea of ice! Not large, just a steep hump rising up and then dropping back down again. She could see a path winding up the middle of the hill to the top and at the very peak sat a small building of stone. She noticed the fog did not seem to effect the island, the air there was clear. It seemed like a safe place.

“Get away!” she heard Hux’s voice echoing far away in the fog.

“I’m over here!” she called to him. She heard his voice again and spotted a shape in the fog ahead. As it came forward, however, she felt a deep sense of foreboding and the overwhelming urge to run and hide. She heard Hux’s voice to her left again. Looking to her right she saw another shadow approaching. Something inside her screamed to escape.

“Hux?”

“Wait!” screamed Hux, then she saw him rushing out of the fog. She grabbed hold of his arm to steady him.

“There you are. Something is weird about this fog. Let’s go inside there to get out of it,” she said gesturing to the stone building, “I really don’t like this.”

She looked at him but he seemed confused and upset. His eyes were wide and darting back and forth. There were beads of sweat on his brow.

“Are you ok? Let’s get inside, you need a Bac injection from the Medi-kit, come on.” She said reaching pulling him up the hill.

He slapped her hand away and backed up. “No, get away from me!” he shouted again.

“Hux - what the hell?”

“You’re all the same, you scum. No – No! My father doesn’t care. He won’t meet your demands. It doesn’t matter what you do to me.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

She was offended by his comment for a moment but noticed he wasn’t saying it to her, he seemed to be addressing someone in the distance. She followed his gaze and saw a shadow approaching them. As it drew closer, she saw flames licking at its outline. The flames did not seem to affect it. It had the shape of a man but she could not see its face or any defining features. All of a sudden, she knew that this man was not living.

“You hear me! I’m a bastard,” Hux was explaining to the shadow, “he won’t care if you kill me. In fact, he’d probably be relieved.”

He seemed to be having a conversation with it, completely oblivious to her presence. They needed to get out of this fog and away from that thing. She grabbed Hux by the arm and pulled him towards the temple but he began thrashing about, trying to get free. He seemed to be living out something distressing scene inside his own mind. Perhaps he was delirious from fever, a sure sign he had an infection.

“You need to snap out of it,” she said to him, “whatever is going on we need to get you somewhere safe, away from these things.”

She pulled at his arm but he would not move. He looked more distressed now and was looking off into the fog like he might lose himself there again. She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her.

“You are safe. Nobody is going to harm you. Come with me and we will be ok.”

He looked into her eyes and something seemed to clear in his mind. The pupils of his eyes sharpened.

“Rose?”

“Yes, its ok. We need to go up there. Now.” She said and he nodded, following her like a man possessed. They climbed the hill to the top.

Looking down, she could see that the fog stopped at the base of the hill. More shadows crowded the edge but they did not come beyond the boundary. As they stepped forward, Hux stumbled as if he might fall so she propped him up underneath his arm. They hobbled inside to investigate this strange place and find some way to treat what was ailing Hux. The building appeared to be an ancient temple, stone motifs and runes were carved upon the stone doorway. Above the door was a circular symbol, it reminded her of something. It took her a while to realize it looked like the wormhole she had passed through on her way here, the wormhole that had transported her through time.

Chapter Text

The boy was paralysed for fear of drawing the kidnapper’s attention to him. They were busy with something at the other end of the room for now. Peering around the dank warehouse, his small body shivered in the cold air and his breath came out in a visible plume. It had been four days since he had been taken away and held hostage in this strange place. He saw the state of himself reflected in bits of broken glass. His hands were tied with a rough rope to a pipe on the wall and his feet were bound together. He had eaten very little and slept hardly at all.

A group of three men had brought him here, snatching him from in front of his home and stuffing him into a large sack. Two of the men were nasty and mean but the third seemed different. His voice was gentler and his eyes were sad. He always spoke to the boy with a smile and made sure he was comfortable. However, most of the time that man wasn’t around, the boy thought he didn’t like seeing him tied up. He was unobserved for the moment so the boy strained against his restraints attempting to loosen them.

“None of that wriggling!” yelled the fat one with no neck from across the room. The boy thought of him as Fatso.  “There is no getting out of here boy, nothing for miles around.”

“What’s he doing?” he heard the one with a beard say. This man had a cruel stare and the boy had named him Wolf in his mind, as he resembled an animal hunting its pray. Of course, they never said their real names to each other but Wolf seemed right because he looked like he enjoyed hurting people.

“Nothing to worry about,” said Fatso, tightening his ropes and giving the boys leg a hard kick as he left. The pain brought a tear to his eye but he tried not to cry out loud.

“Make sure he’s secure or were done for!” barked Wolf.

The boy didn’t know why this was happening to him but he was mature enough to understand that this was a life-or-death situation. But his father could not be trusted for much help. Since he had been born, Brendol Hux had made it clear that he was unplanned and unwanted, he had never shown the smallest interest in his son. The boy tried to keep out of his father’s way.

Just then, Wolf stalked quickly across the warehouse floor in his direction, carrying a needle in his hand.

“Get away,” cried the boy, squirming to get free.

“Help me with this will you?” said Wolf to the other man, ignoring the boy’s plea.

“How much longer is this going to take?” asked Fatso.

“As long as it needs to,” replied Wolf.

“Is that really necessary?” said the third man, approaching. This man didn’t seem to enjoy being a kidnapper. Putting his hope in this man might be his only means of escaping alive. The man had short black hair and the Hays Minor tanned skin, a local. The other men referred to him as H so the boy had imagined his name might be Hugh.

“Wait,” said the boy as the needle was brought to his arm. “No - get away from me!”

“Shut up you stuck up First Order brat” barked Fatso. He pinned his arm to the floor as he held the boy steady, crushing it painfully. Hugh grabbed his other arm as Wolf scraped the needle in and extracted a vial of blood. It was terrifying being held by strangers.

“Otomok,” the boy spat bravely. He had heard his father say that before. He knew it was a bad word.

Fatso slapped him hard across the face. It stung like fire. Wolf kicked him in the ribs before jabbing him with the needle again. This time he was injected with something that made him feel dizzy and made the room spin. He blinked and suddenly he was surrounded by thick fog.

“Hux - what the hell?” he heard a woman’s voice echoing far away.

He looked down and saw that his restraints had disappeared. He was standing now, walking across an icy surface. Looking ahead he saw nothing but grey fog. Then Hugh loomed out of the haze but he looked strange. He stood completely still and stared, expressionless.

“No. My father doesn’t care.” Hux said to him, backing away. “He won’t meet your demands. It doesn’t matter what you do to me.” His voice sounded deeper somehow.

“I’m not doing anything.” 

“You hear me! I’m a bastard,’ he continued to yell at the man, “he won’t care if you kill me. In fact, he’d probably be relieved.”

Hugh stared back at him like a zombie. Suddenly Hux knew why. Instantly a feeling of terror dropped into his stomach. He must to get away from the apparition before him. Flames burning Hugh’s body and Hux’s eyes went wide, he was paralysed with fear at the realization that Hugh was dead.

“You are safe,” said the woman’s voice and two hands lightly cupped his face, turning him away. He blinked and his eyes came into focus.

“Nobody is going to harm you,” said Rose gently, “Come with me and we will be ok.” Her soothing tone calmed him and his heartrate dropped. Her hands felt warm on his cheeks.

“Rose,” he whispered. She pulled him by the arm and he followed.

He blinked but, all of a sudden, they were on top of the hill looking down. When had they climbed up? He couldn’t remember. Was he blacking out and missing things? He felt unwell, his head was pounding and there was a searing, pulsing pain in his back. Beads of sweat fell down his forehead and he panted to catch his breath. Looking behind him, he could see they had reached a small building with an ornately carved doorway. Rose pulled him through it, into cold darkness.

“Open your eyes.”

He did as he was told and was met with the sight of Hugh holding out a ration bar out to him. He opened his mouth and Hugh fed it to him.

The boy was back in the warehouse, tied to the pipes. It was late at night and the lights were dim now. Looking down at himself, he felt weak, thinner. His small wrists and ankles were covered in sores where the rope had rubbed against his skin. His arms were pale and covered in red dots, points where a needle had been put in to extract his blood. Hugh caught him looking at his injuries.

“Here,” he said, gently applying a salve to the chaffed skin, soothing it instantly. Hugh fed him some water but not enough. His mouth was dry and his lips cracked.

The boy leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, exhausted and miserable. He wasn’t sure how long it had been now but he just wanted the pain to end.

“Did you ever hear the story about the prince with no voice?”

He opened his eyes and looked at Hugh, surprised by this change in tone.

“There once was a Prince born without a voice. When he opened his mouth, no sound came out. The King and Queen were disgusted by this and never tried to communicate with him, they gave him no love and were ashamed of him. As he grew older, they deemed him defective due to his inability to rule without a voice and cast him out to live outside the palace so that people would forget he existed. He lived in a cottage in the countryside, with only his faithful manservant for company. As the days passed, the prince spent much of his time in silence, just listening. He sat in the garden and listened to the trees, the grass, the wind. Over time he began to hear a faint kind of music in the sounds. He felt it moving through his body and around him. It travelled into his mind and he came to understand it. As he did this, he tried to reach out and affect it, to change it. We know now the thing he was feeling was The Force and he had a special power to manipulate it.

He worked on this skill and was determined to return to the palace to show the King and Queen his ability. But they mocked him and threw him out again, saying he still wasn’t fit to be King. Despite this, he never gave up. One day the palace was attacked by a Sith Lord. The man approached the throne and struck the King with force lightening. Rushed to defend them, the prince fought the intruders fiercely. He overpowered the Sith lord and killed him. His actions had saved the kingdom and the Queen’s life but in the end the King died from his injuries. When the prince was crowned King, the people loved and respected him for protecting them. Eventually he gained the ability to force project his voice and overcome his setback. He ruled for many long years and was considered one of the greatest and wisest kings in history.”

“Is that a true story?” asked the boy after a pause.

“As far as I know,” replied Hugh, “my father used to tell it to me if I ever wanted to give up on something.”

“Sounds like you had a good father,” said the boy sadly, Hugh nodded. The boy did not. Brendol Hux had never said a kind word to him and beaten him any chance he got. The boy was afraid of him and tried to stay out of his way. The pressure of a prince having to live up to his father’s expectations was relatable to him.

“Anyway, goodnight,” said Hugh, getting up to leave.

“Why did you tell me that story?”

Hugh regarded him for a moment.

“You’re just a kid, not much older than my own.” The compassion on his face confused the boy. “This won’t go on forever. One way or another it will end.” Hugh said and then he turned and walked into the darkness. The boy felt lonely as he watched him go but his eyes soon dropped closed in tiredness.

Hux awoke to see a needle being pushed into his arm. Realizing he was untied, he reacting instinctively. Flinging his body forward, he knocked the person administering it backwards and pinning them to the ground, one hand enclosing around their throat. He was panting rapidly as he looked into the face of his attacker. Dark eyes stared back in terror.

“What they hell did you put in me?” his deep voice roared, grip tightening.

As realization dawned, he still could not shake off his surging anger. He would not let himself be tortured a second time.

“It’s …a BAC… injection,” the choked response came.  “You have a fever and infection.”

His mind fought to gain rationality over the onslaught of emotion. His fingers twitched and, slowly, he loosened his grip.

Rose sucked in a breath immediately. As soon as he released her neck, she shrank away from him and moved to the other side of the room.

“What will it do to me?” he asked, bracing for the dizziness, the nausea.

“Make you better,” replied Rose, bitterly. He was dumbfounded by her response. Was this really supposed to help him? Up until now he had started to believe that Rose could be trusted but what she had done had put that in jeopardy.

Only now he was feeling less threatened, could he take in the surroundings. They were in some sort of place of worship; a temple but to what religion he could not tell. A long aisle stretched the length of the room leading to an alter carved from the rock. An artifact sat on top of the alter, he could just make out an orb that glowed faintly white, floating in mid-air. Rows of stone benches faced it, stretching to where they were sitting at the very back. He was laid out on one of these.

He turned to look at Rose. She was rubbing her neck where he had held on to her. What motive would she possibly have for killing him now? After everything that had happened so far. He knew it was completely insane to be suspicious of her but he was still struggling to get his anger in check. He must be very unwell; his feverish temperature and consistent pain were evidence of that.

But needles represented sadness, pain and loss to him. They were the catalyst to danger and those past events had changed him into a different person. Into Hux, son of a general, a cruel leader, a first order bully. He cared nothing for other people. Relationships were weakness. Connections meant death. After anyone met him, they never lasted long. So, he had made sure he would never need anyone’s help. That time in the warehouse had left him numb inside; no doubt a response to overwhelming stress and grief. Since then, he was conscious of the emotion he should be feeling in a situation but he was no longer bothered by the sensation. As such he had walked through life as an observer, set apart. It had helped him do the necessary things to get where he is now.

Until recently something had shifted. That day he had woken up to find himself at the mercy of one girl. He had expected that to be it. Mistakes were not something people lived through in his line of work but rather than take her revenge, she had helped him. She had saved his life. Why? If the situation were reversed, he was ashamed to admit he would not have shown her the same mercy.

Those walls he’d built were being torn apart, day by day, and those emotions were threatening to ruin everything all over again.

He sighed and lay down on his side, watching Rose. She was rummaging in her bag on the other side of the room, looking for something. Her eyes flicked to look at him and she paused, holding his gaze. He was transfixed by the crease of her brow as she frowned at him, by her long eyelashes and her slender arms with the sleeves rolled up. He noticed the mark that was appearing on the delicate golden skin of her neck, made by him.

She must hate him now.

There was a tight sensation in his chest. He closed his eyes and drifted into a restless sleep.

The boy sat bolt upright and winced at the tearing of the rope at his skin. He had been woken by some sort of commotion was happening outside. He could hear bangs and voices shouting.

Footsteps approached rapidly and Hugh came into view. The boy perked up. He had started to look forward to seeing him. Each time he had visited over the past few days, he told the boy a story to make him feel better. The boys own father had never done this. He had never known his mother. It was nice. It made him feel less bored and alone. Hugh had children of his own. Is this what family did?

 Crouching down by his side, Hugh grabbing the rope at his wrists. To the boy’s amazement, he began to cut them.

“Time to leave boy. We must move quickly.”

Once free he attempted to stand but fell back down again since his legs were weakened by sitting in the same position for so long. Hugh put his arm around his shoulders and assisted him to walk. They hobbled toward the door but as they reached it, it swung open to reveal several men holding rifles. The boy recognised their uniforms as his father’s guards.

“Where is he?” came the familiar voice as Brendol Hux’s commanding presence filled the doorway. “Well look who it is,” he addressed Hugh.

“Brendol,” said Hugh, with a resigned nod.

The boy was amazed to realise they knew each other. He had a sick feeling in his gut. Where were Fatso and Wolf? Was Hugh trying to take him somewhere else? Was that bad?

“Did you think I would not find you?” Brendol raised a muscular arm to point a hand blaster at them. He did not display any concern that a shot might accidentally hit his own son. He was strong and tall, towering over them.

“This was a mistake, Hux, I admit it.” Hugh let go of the boy and backed away.

“Did you think you could influence me, manipulate me into meeting your demands? Foolish notion. You should have used better leverage than this.” He scowled down his nose at the boy.

“I will be punished in the next life for trading one precious life for another but desperation makes a man do foolish things. My wife, Hux, where is she? We demand all the captives be returned.”

“How should I know? She probably toiling away in one of the Order’s facilities with the rest of the slaves.”

Hugh took a step forward but Brendol clicked the safety on his weapon to ready it and called to the boy. He kept his eyes on Hugh.

“It’s time to leave, Armitage.”

The boy did not move. He looked at Hugh and back at his father. What he could tell about this situation was that his father was a bad man and that what he had done to Hugh was wrong. Hugh was also a bad man but he loved his family. What did that mean, to be loved? He wished he knew. He wished that Hugh was his father instead. He didn’t want to go anywhere with Brendol Hux.

His father reached to grab him but he backed up. Brendol raised his hand to hit him and he ducked. This only made Brendol angrier and he backed his son into a corner, his red face almost matching the colour of his hair. Brendol clipped the boy across the head with the handle of his gun. He felt a searing pain and warm blood trickled down his forehead.

“Stop!” cried Hugh, putting himself between them.

The boy sighed relief just as a shot rang out. He heard the sound of a body fall and then silence. He turned his head to see Hugh laying on the ground below, his eyes unseeing. A stream of red poured from his forehead and pooled on the floor beneath. That was the moment it stopped. That was the moment he could feel no more. After that the numbness set in and became his new normal.

"Set the place on fire." Brendols guards did as they were told. The boy watched the flames cover the body, burning away the clothes, blackening the flesh.

“Come boy.” Was the last thing he heard before his father dragged him from the room.

Chapter Text

Rose sat on the ground and contemplated what had just passed between them. Hux had just passed out again after his overblown reaction to seeing the needle in his arm. For sure, he had been feverish and delusional but she wasn’t convinced it warranted being pinned down by the throat. She rubbed the spot where his hand had been not so long ago. She didn’t think it would bruise. It was more startling than painful. His whole body had been on top of her, bearing down as his arm held her firmly in place. The sensation of his bare hand on her skin lingered. It occurred to her that she had never seen him take his gloves off before now, even when she had bitten him at their first meeting. Perhaps it was something to do with the First Order’s uniform policy.

She had removed the gloves shortly after they had arrived due to the fact he was sweating so much, along with his overcoat and jacket, leaving him clad in a thin grey shirt. His heavy perspiration had saturated that, rendering it virtually see-through. She rolled-up his clothes to prop his head up. It soon dawned on her that he must be suffering from a severe infection in his wound, hopefully it wasn’t turning to sepsis. He was writhing from side to side in agony, the pain in his back making him wince in his semi-unconscious state. She had no medical knowledge but she decided to do the only helpful thing and administer the anti-bac shot. It had to be directly injected to have the quickest effect so she rolled up the sleeve of his shirt to find a vein. His white forearm was dusted with freckles and fine blonde hairs. She couldn’t help but notice since it was so different from her own olive skin. Slapping the skin of his inner elbow, she primed the needle and slid it into the flesh, pressed down the pump to release the medication. It had been much easier than she had thought.

A moment later, his eyes flew open wide. Everything that followed happened so fast. The next second he was on top of her, one hand pressed firmly to her neck, one knee pushing into her thigh as he straddled her, his other hand holding her wrist to the floor. He had her completely immobilized and the look in his eyes was blind rage.

“What the hell did you put in me?” he roared.

She struggled to reply, overwhelmed by his forcefulness and the suddenness of the situation. “It’s a BAC injection. You have a fever and infection.”

He snapped back to reality, focusing on her face with a horrified look. It took him a few more seconds to assess the position they were in and get control of his temper, his heavy breathing disturbed the hair around her face. His hand felt searing hot on her neck. She felt a jolt in her stomach as his grip slowly loosened and his hips shifted against her, as if she had been electrified. As soon as she was released, she dashed away across the room.

He slumped back down after that, remaining conscious only for a few minutes before closing his eyes once more.

Now she sat there, back against the wall, wondering how that had all occurred. Her heart was still pounding in her chest. It was fear she felt, right? He was motionless now, a strained expression on his face, his chest rising and falling steadily. He was stronger than she would have imagined for such a skinny man. All she could do now was wait for him to sleep it off. She went outside to gather some snow for drinking water and get some air.

Through the stone doorway the sun was low on the horizon, it would soon be dark. She noticed the fog had cleared. At the base of the hill the ice sparkled in the sunlight, empty and vast. There were no shadows lingering at the islands edge anymore. Perhaps she had imagined them but she still did not feel eager to step foot on the lake’s frozen surface again. They would have to leave once Hux had recovered. Looking into the distance she could see they had made good progress towards the mountains, it seemed not much further now. Maybe a day’s trek. The hope of reaching them lifted her spirits.

Walking around the edge of the temple she noticed a patch of plants that seemed to have been tended recently. She spotted quentus roots growing and quickly knelt down to pull the green stalks up, revealing the purple vegetable root beneath. She loved them! They were delicious boiled but could be eaten raw. Looking the left of them in the same patch was a bush of tampas, a juicy savoury fruit. Behind that was a small tree full of plump dago fruit. She picked as much as she could carry, stuffing in morsels as he went. They had been down to their last two cans of fish. This would fill up their bellies and help Hux recover. She was amazed that they could grow on such a cold planet. Come to think of it, looking around she noticed the hill was completely devoid of snow. It was lush green grass like a spring day and the temperature seemed warmer. How could that be?

She walked down the slope to the point where the land met the ice. On the other side of the frozen shoreline the air seemed bleak and cold, a strong wind seemed to be blowing the snow there, but she felt warm and the air was still on this side.

She took a tentative step across the line onto the ice and it felt as if she had walked into a fridge. The wind battered against her, snow fell on her face and a fog began to gather once more. She rushed back over to the island side and was met with warm stillness. This experience astonished her so much that she rushed straight back up the hill and stumbled through the stone door.

“I see you have discovered our secret,” said a voice as she entered.

Frantically panting for breath, she looked up to see a hooded figure silhouetted in the light of the glowing orb. She glanced down to where she had left Hux. He lay there still sleeping.

“Be not afraid. I will not harm you.” Said the figure.

“Who are you?” she replied.

“The keeper of this temple.”

“I did not see you here before,” she was sure they had been alone.

“I was below.” He moved down the aisle towards them, as he came closer, she could make out that he was a human male, middle aged with pale skin. He reached up and pulled back the hood revealing light brown hair tied into a knot on top of his head. He had a small beard on his chin. She immediately thought he looked like a Jedi master. “My name is Kalan Voris, master of the Dai Bendu temple.”

“Rose Tico,” she replied with a nod in greeting. "Oh and that's Hux."

Dai Bendu, she had heard that name before. Her father had told her stories of a precursor order to the Jedi who went by that name but they had been gone for thousands of years. They were mysterious warriors skilled in the ways of the Force. This made no sense since they were part of ancient history, extinct now. Her confusion must have been evident on her face.

“We exist only on this island, within the temple now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am the last of my kind. This island is special; it was frozen in a specific moment in time. In fact, time has not passed at all here for thousands of years. When the space anomaly appeared overhead, this small area was affected. The orb, which the Dai Bendu formed from a Kyber crystal, concentrates the force and amplifies its effect. I was chosen to remain here and ensure its preservation. In turn, it has stopped me from aging and kept me alive for an unnaturally long time.”

“You mean time doesn’t pass here?” she said, gazing out of the doorway at the setting sun.

“Yes, but only within the vicinity of the orb. Beyond the threshold, time is passing like normal.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” she said. She didn’t understand how time could stop here if it kept going outside. 

“Time here has come to a halt; it is frozen in a Kijimi summer that took place 3950 years ago. The proof is in the orbit of this planet. Kijimi only has a full orbit once every one hundred years. Outside it is currently it in the middle of a fifty year long winter but the temple remains as it was during that warm day long ago. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time passing, nothing grows here. The crops in the garden remain the same as the day I came here. It does not matter since my body clock has also stopped, meaning I do not need to eat. “

So, the food she had picked and eaten were thousands of years old, they had tasted okay. She felt bad about picking them after hearing that. Nothing would grow there again as long as time was frozen.

“Wait - does that mean that his body clock has also stopped?” she said, pointing to Hux. The monk nodded in reply.

“His wounds will not kill him but he will also never recover if he remains here. His body cannot heal and he will remain in his feverish tormented state never aging or dying until he passes back across the lake’s shoreline once more and his body clock restarts.”

Oh shiz, well that was a problem. They had come here to rest and recover. Looking at Hux, she couldn’t think of anything worse than the hell of being trapped in perpetual nightmares and pain.

“What were the shadows we saw in the fog?” she asked Kalan.

“They are imprints of your memories given form by the temporal power coming from the temple. The temple draws its power from the wormhole directly above us, it is called the Shadow Pass. If you travel through the Shadow Pass, it is possible to manipulate time to your will. Here the wormhole is always visible above, frozen in this moment in time but outside the temples limits the wormhole only appears every so often, very erratically. It is impossible to predict when and it is usually only there for a short while. Many have tried to travel through and been stuck on the inside, lost in darkness and trapped forever.”

Rose was lucky then; she had passed through unharmed and seemingly bent time to her will. She had no idea how she had achieved it but she felt like it was pretty impressive.

She needed to sit down, she was feeling so fatigued and overwhelmed by all of this that she swayed on the spot.

“You must rest now; this is all a lot to take in.” Kalan said and gestured toward one of the other benches next to Hux.

He moved away and exited through a side door near the alter, returning minutes later with a blanket and laying it down for her. Did she trust this man enough to fall asleep in his presence? The sudden onset of sleepiness made her lay back for a moment of relief and before she knew it, she was asleep.

Rose slept for a few hours but woke feeling just as tired. This whole time-stopping thing would be fine if she wasn’t stuck feeling eternally hungry and unable to digest any food. She sat up on hearing the sound of dogs barking outside. Turning to the bench where Hux lay, she noticed his eyes were open.

“What is that noise?” he said weakly.

“I’m not sure. I’ll go and take a look.”

On passing through the doorway, she could immediately see the source of the sound. A few feet away from the base of the hill was a campfire surrounded by tents. The same ones she recognised at the camp from her encounter in the woods. She rushed back inside hastily.

“Hux! We need to move, they’ve found us. We need to get out of here now!”

The monk appeared at the doorway and gazed down at their pursuers. “Not necessary, they are unaware the temple is here,” he said.

“What do you mean? They are right there, they’ve found us.” Rose continued to stuff the food and blanket into her bag. “Can I take this?”

“Of course, but those people will not enter the temple, you may be assured. They are not of The Chosen.”

She looked at him dumbfounded, “The Chosen?”

“Only someone who has passed through the anomaly, been touched by its power and altered by time, has the ability to see this temple. They must have tracked you here using their dogs and know you are close but those men can see nothing but fog and mist. Over time the shadows will drive them mad if they remain there.”

“Who is this person?” said Hux in a raspy voice. He had been listening but obviously it was difficult for him to understand what they were talking about out of context.

She tried her best to get him up to speed. After she had finished telling him everything he looked back and forth between her and the monk like they were both mad. Kalan moved off down the central aisle and busied himself with moving some items around the altar.

“I find it as hard to believe as you do but it strangely makes sense,” she whispered to Hux.

"How come I can see the temple when I didn't go through the wormhole?"

"You were guided here by Miss Tico," replied Kalan. "Once inside the temple comes into focus.

“And if I stay here, I will never heal but if I do leave those men outside will tear me into pieces as soon as I cross the temple boundary?” He had propped himself up on his elbows to talk but that seemed to deflate him back down and he lay on his back staring at the ceiling.

She went to move closer to him but hesitated. Better to keep her distance after what had happened. “The situation is not ideal,” she admitted.

“You should leave,” he said abruptly.

She stared at him, confused.

“I’m a liability to you in this condition,” he went on, “I will only cause you further harm, that is what I do. I’m beyond help now.”

So, he wanted her to leave him to die. They had got this far but now he was giving up. “I don’t believe anyone is beyond help.”

“It shouldn’t concern you. We are strangers. I have caused you harm,” he said, raising a hand to point at her throat, “it would be wise to go our separate ways now.”

“I admit you can be a real dick at times but you were not in your right mind. You were delirious with pain, having nightmares and were afraid of the needle.”

He looked uncomfortable. “I thought you were attacking me.”

“Why would I do that? We’ve come all this way, we’ve reached shelter, we’ve almost made it across the ice. I could go at any time and you would just die here if I left you alone anyway.”

“Have you forgotten I’m First Order? You are Resistance. I am your enemy.”

“Not anymore,” she looked him straight in the eye as she said, “something changed. You saved my life from that Ashiga warrior. I owe you a debt. We’ve only made it this far because we’ve cooperated. I will continue to help you and we will find a way out of this, together.”

He said nothing for a while but then repeated, “You should leave.”

“Didn’t you hear anything I just said?”

“People around me end up dead,” he replied simply.

“Is that a threat?”

“No, well, it is if it will make you leave.”

She paused for an instant. “I need you to lead me across the ice.” It was the best excuse she could think of right now.

“Just keep going forward, you’ll get there,” he said in a depressed voice.

“Hux!” she strode over to him and grabbing his shirt, she heaved him up into a sitting position, his back against the wall. She balled his shirt in her fists as she held onto him and shook. “Come on. Do not give up!” she scolded him.

He was totally shocked and quickly brushed her hands away saying, “okay, okay.”

She held on, “Promise me you will not give up now. It has taken a lot to get us here and we can’t give up now.”

He looked into her eyes for a while and then nodded his agreement.

“Right, since that’s settled. Shall we have a drink?”