Saga - ST The General's Wife (AU): Hux, OC (drama)

Gorgeous and heart-felt. Blue speaks wisely and encouragingly. I know his words eased a lot of Breha's burden; there are definitely a lot of what-ifs. I am struck by the "when" not "if"; she seems certain Hux will find them.
I have the utmost confidence that Blue and Breha will have the courage and resilience to face whatever comes.

The continuing silence about her daughter is worrying, as if there is nothing to find. Not even a whisper of a clue.

I have loved H/L for long and long, and Blue's reflections about the strengths and flaws of their relationship are very thought-provoking. It's as if they rushed into something without building a strong foundation first.

 

Blue does her good.

Yet I agree with Ny that no news of a missing child is sometimes worse than an answer. Even though it´s one that is sad.

 

Thank you for reading! Breha lives with a lot of doubts, and she's fortunate that Blue is there to give her a reasoned perspective on everything. She knows that her parents' marriage was a flawed thing, something that even love couldn't fix. Naturally she is going to worry that her own relationships will go the same way, especially since her first marriage was such an abusive disaster. But Blue assures her that he loves her and will always be there. They will work on this together. They will grow together.
She's also convinced that this wonderful life she has created with Blue and Prestor is all an illusion and that she's living on borrowed time, and that no matter how strenuously she works to protect them, Hux will find her. A man who would destroy an entire system full of living beings without even a backward glance would have no inclination toward mercy to the wife who betrayed him. Hux is obsessed with reputation; with erasing his embarrassing origins and establishing a more respectable line -- that is why he married her in the first place -- so to be abandoned by the very wife he wanted to use to establish his legitimacy is an unforgivable act in his eyes.

Thank you! You are so attuned to little children. You must be an amazing kindergarten teacher! It's true, there is nothing worse than not knowing where your child is. The lack of progress about Marielle is killing Breha. Half of her heart is out there somewhere and she has no idea where the girl is.

Thank you for reading, and don't worry about the tardiness. It's a crazy time of year. I'm appreciative of your comments any time!

Breha's present is always colored by her past. She has two points of reference: her life with her parents, and her life as the general's wife. Breha's pragmatic, but she still knows what it's like to love and to be compassionate. It's important that Dorsay apologized to her; she recognizes that he is sincere. She doesn't say it's Okay or gloss over what he did but she accepts his apology and they agree to move on. And as always, her lost daughter is never far from her thoughts.

LOL- I had to get them back together at some point, and that part stumped me for literally months. But I think it worked out ok, maybe a little forced, but hey, it's fiction. Blue is truly "the one, just the one" to set things right here. Again in my backstory head canon, Blue was getting so distracted by not having Breha around that his boss, Dr. H, decided maybe he would be a better asset to the resistance working on the medical pipeline with her than working as a trauma medic away from her, and she put in a request to Poe to transfer him. Yes, the marriage was quick - but I know people in real life who have been together for less time and have been married for decades. When it's right, you know it.
Breha does have hesitancy about it. She's barely lived as her own person. First she was her parent's daughter, then she was Hux's wife. She hasn't spent much time just being Breha Solo. And again, she is loathe to drag Blue into something that could be wildly dangerous for him. But she also recognizes how much this would mean to him, for him to be secure in the knowledge that she truly loves him, and she's willing to gift that to him.
As for the Chekov's gun...

It's about six months later. Prestor is standing and beginning to walk, starting to talk a little. Blue obviously loves the kid to pieces, and they've found a home. Things are looking good. But as you notice, there is still the constant precautions: making sure no trace of Prestor's DNA is available to be entered into a database, Blue being solely responsible for the child's health so that his information is never reported, the implication that they will keep Prestor out of schools and other institutions where someone might pick up on him.
Blue knows just how to address and soothe Breha's anxieties, and she knows how to keep him from his addictions. They are meant to be togheher. They understand each other in ways that no one else possibly could. As for the tattoo, I'll have to draw that.

 

Part 26

Breha stirred the soup briskly, stopping occasionally to taste her creation and add spices if necessary. She paused, then closed her eyes contentedly as she leaned in to inhale the meal’s fragrant warmth. She had just put the spoon on the counter when a tug at her skirt drew her attention downward. A small child, his red hair pulled back into a short tail, looked up at her with his dark brown eyes. He reached up to her, a battered Twi’lek doll clutched in one hand. “Momma? Up?” the youngling pleaded.

Breha turned around and placed her body between the hot stove and the child. “Blue!” she called into the next room. “Come take Prestor. He’s getting in my way.”

A moment later, Blue entered the kitchen and swooped the child up. The boy’s squeal of delight in the motion quickly gave way to a frown when he realized he was not getting what he desired. “Momma!” he said indignantly.

“Oh, you want Momma?” Blue asked. He turned toward Breha and nuzzled her neck as Prestor reached to try to put his little fingers into the braided crown of her hair. “I want Momma, too, kid,” Blue said with a grin. “Wait your turn.”

Breha laughed and waved her hand in a shooing motion. “Both of you. Out of my kitchen.”

Blue made an exaggerated sigh and then glanced at the timepiece on the wall. “Just as well. It’s time to set the perimeter alarms anyway.” He looked again at the little boy on his hip, who was playing with the strap to his jacket. “Do you want to go with Papa and set the alarms?”

The boy beamed. “I go Papa,” he declared.

“Then it’s settled,” Blue said. “Prestor and I will be back in a few minutes.”

“Be careful,” Breha warned.

He kissed her cheek. “Always, love.” Blue gently placed the child on the floor and walked toward the door. He opened the lock on the gunbox on the wall, removed his weapon, and then gestured to the youngling. Prestor waddled over and Blue bent down to pick him up again. With the boy securely perched on his hip, Blue turned to Breha and smiled as he walked out of the small home’s back door.

Breha paused in her work to look out of the window and watched the two of them proceed down the narrow dirt path that led to the forest that surrounded their home. She smiled, then turned her attention back to the evening meal. A few minutes later, she had just cut some fresh bread and was placing it on a serving board when she felt a slight trembling. She shot a look at the table and saw the water she had poured into three glasses vibrate, making larger circles as the trembling grew louder. The serving board of bread fell from her hands onto the floor.

She raced over and palmed open the gunlock, grabbed a blaster, then ran through the door as the rumbling grew to a roar. She looked up to see a First Order Upsilon-class command shuttle cast an ominous dark shadow over the house as it flew slowly overhead, followed by a smaller transport vessel. Her stomach lurched and her blood ran cold.

“Blue!” she screamed. She raced down the pathway, pushing aside brush with her free hand as she held the blaster in the other. The black shuttle hovered close to the ground, and trees cracked and snapped as it cleared a landing area. The black wings pulled into a vertical configuration, giving it the appearance of a menacing bird. The blowback from the pair of landing ships forced her to raise her hands to protect her eyes as she staggered forward, praying to every god she had learned about that somehow Prestor and Blue had managed to escape this.

She had almost reached the first perimeter alarm when she rounded a corner and came to a stop as abruptly as if she had run into a barricade. Prestor’s beloved Twi’lek doll lay trampled in the pathway. She bent down and picked it up, tucking it inside her apron pocket.

Cautiously, her blaster drawn and pointed in a defensive stance, she rounded the curve in the path. Her heart lurched. There, two stormtroopers stood at attention while a third stood behind Blue, gripping Blue’s arm tightly. Blue’s face was pale, and she could make out the blaster that the stormtrooper held to the back of his head. Behind the stormtroopers, almost invisible in the tree line, lurked the dark figure of Kylo Ren, her brother’s face hidden behind a mask of black and silver punctuated by rivulets of blood red. In the center of all of them, in between Blue and Breha, stood a tall, red-headed man in a crisp black uniform. He turned around slowly to face her, taking his time and making her wait for him. Prestor whined and squirmed uncomfortably in his arms.

A small, mocking smile quirked his lips and his cold green eyes met her brown ones. “Hello again, Breha,” Armitage said.

 

EEK EEK EEK! Oh that is soooooooooo much putting me on the edge of my SEAT!

 

Yay he’s back(just don’t kill him off too quickly)!

 

Thanks for commenting! Yes, things have definitely taken a turn for the catastrophic.

He's back! And he is not happy. Thanks for the comments!

Thank you for replying. They are a very loving family and they've been very happy, so naturally that has to end. Poor Breha lives in constant fear of losing her second child the way her first was stolen from her, and now things look very grim. Hux is remorseless and lacks any kind of empathy, so he is truly capable of doing anything.

This is true- she has changed quite a bit. She's still afraid of him, but she has friends now and she's rebuilt her confidence, so she can stand up for herself against his cruelty.

 

TW- Violence


Part 27.

Breha redirected her blaster toward her former husband. “I wouldn’t do that, darling,” Armitage said, gesturing with a nod toward the two stormtroopers who had trained their blasters on her. “Well, you could, I suppose, but do you really want Brendol to see his mother butchered before his eyes?”

She felt faint. The blaster shook in her hand, but she slowly lowered it. At a slight head nod from Armitage, one of the stormtroopers came to her side and yanked it away from her. The stormtrooper held her arm tightly with one hand while aiming his blaster at her head with the other. “His name is Prestor,” she said, her voice unsteady. “He’s named for my grandfather, Bail Prestor Organa.”

Armitage laughed coldly. “Don’t be stupid. His name is Brendol. He’s named after my father.” Armitage turned to the child, who pulled away from him. He let the boy’s hair slide through his gloved fingers. “First thing we’ll do is cut this mess off. Then give him some decent clothing.” He turned back to Breha. “Tell him goodbye, now, mother.”

Breha stared at them in silent horror. Exasperated, Armitage glared at the stormtrooper who stood behind Blue. The stormtrooper tightened his grip on Blue’s arm, yanking him backward, and pushed the muzzle of the blaster roughly against Blue’s temple. “Don’t make this messy, darling. You know how this will end, regardless. What do you want him to remember of you, if anything?” Armitage said. “Come now. Say it. And do use the boy’s proper name.”

Breha’s breath came out in pants but she managed to find her voice. “Goodbye, Brendol,” she said finally. The words felt like a punch to her gut.

Armitage smiled, a thin line that lacked any mirth or comfort. The third stormtrooper came over and Armitage handed the boy over to the soldier, with orders to remain in the shuttle until further notice. He turned his attention back to Breha. “There. Good girl. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked. Breha stared at the soldier carrying Prestor as the two made their way into the woods toward the ship, but Armitage kept his cold gaze on her. Prestor’s fearful wails grew quieter as the stormtrooper disappeared from sight.

Kylo Ren continued to stand silently off to the side, a menacing shadow in the corner of Breha’s eye. Armitage sauntered over to Breha and grabbed her roughly by the arm, then glanced at the stormtrooper who stood beside her and gestured to the binders that hung from the soldier’s utility belt. He took the stormtrooper’s binders and pulled Breha’s arms behind her, effectively immobilizing her, then ordered the stormtrooper to position himself on the other side of Blue. In the process of restraining her, her arm caught his attention, and Armitage ripped back the sleeve of her dress to examine the exposed tattoo. “What is this?” he scowled.

Armitage turned and looked at Blue. “Show me his arm,” he commanded. The stormtrooper brusquely pulled up Blue’s sleeve, revealing a matching tattoo. Armitage turned his attention back to Breha. “Interesting,” he said, rubbing her arm roughly. “Well, I can have that removed. I’ll carve it off your flesh myself.”

He walked behind her, lifted his hands to her hair, and undid the braids, letting her hair fall freely. “I always preferred your hair down,” he said. “Remember?” He arranged her hair across her shoulders, then, with a quick motion, he grabbed a handful of her loose hair and pulled her head back, forcing her to look up at him. She staggered, momentarily off balance, and he pulled her hair to bring her closer to him so that her back was flush with his chest. He traced his finger across her cheek as she squeezed her eyes shut, her expression one of revulsion at his touch. “I’ve missed you, darling. I have an idea. Let’s spend tonight getting... reacquainted,” he said quietly, leaning close enough to her for her to feel his breath on her cheek. “Then, tomorrow morning, we’ll have your trial and execution, you traitorous shutta.”

Armitage looked over at Blue. “First, though, we have the issue of this … person,” he announced. “You’ll never believe what Brendol said when we found them. My son called this person ‘Papa.’ Can you imagine the insolence?” Armitage shook his head. He gestured and the first stormtrooper punched Blue in the abdomen, then followed with a vicious blow to his face from the second stormtrooper. Blood began to flow from a cut above his eye, and Blue crumpled to the ground. Breha cried out but Armitage, still standing behind her, gripped her shoulders and held her in place. “Don’t you dare look away,” he hissed as he grabbed her chin and held it tightly in his gloved hand. “You brought this on. You’re going to watch this.”

Blue struggled to get back on his feet when the second stormtrooper struck him again in the back with the butt of his blaster rifle. He fell to his knees. “Breha…” he gasped. “I will bring your … love with me to the next world.”

“I will bring your love with me to the next world, Ryoki,” she sobbed. Tears began to slide down her face.

Armitage laughed shortly and shook his head. He leaned close to her so that his lips were next to her ear. “That’s so sweet. But you must remember, regardless of all your adultery, you are my still my wife.” His hand traveled down from her chin to her throat, and Armitage squeezed his fingers. Breha began to sputter and cough as Armitage slowly choked her.

“Don’t hurt her!” Blue shouted. Still on his knees, he stretched out a hand as if to prevent Armitage from touching Breha again. Blood continued to drip down his face. The two stormtroopers moved quickly to hold him in place, but Blue kept shouting. “She did nothing. It’s my fault. If you need to hurt someone then hurt me. Leave her alone.”

Armitage kept his hand on Breha’s throat but loosened his grip, and she gasped for air. He cast an annoyed look at Blue. “Oh, don’t worry; hurting you is first on my list.” He spoke to the stormtrooper who stood on Blue’s right side. “Use the electroshock. Low voltage. Make it hurt. Take your time.” The trooper nodded, then he went to a supply bag and retrieved a device that looked like a blaster with a larger charger unit attached. He stepped back and aimed it at Blue at the same time that the second trooper released him. A blue-white arc burst from the blaster and struck Blue, weaving around him in brilliant, chaotic bands, and he convulsed and screamed. Armitage spoke quietly, but Breha recognized the undercurrent of rage in his voice. “I am so disappointed in you, Breha, running away from me like this. Now you’re going to have to watch him die, and it’s all your fault. You brought this on.”

An acrid smell of burning skin and ozone wafted toward Breha and she cringed. A few minutes later, once the convulsions stopped, the stormtrooper blasted Blue again and he cried out in pain again.

Breha’s eyes turned to Kylo, who stood silently as witness. “Ben,” she cried out. “Please. I loved you, Ben. And I know you loved me. Remember? We would play games together. We used to swim together at the lake on Naboo. We took walks together, and you always were so excited to teach me about all the little animals you found.”

Kylo Ren turned his masked face slowly toward her. “Please,” Breha begged. The discharge from the electroshock generator crackled a third time and Blue’s scream rent the air again, although his cry was noticeably weaker than his last one. Her voice dropped to a sob. “Please, Ben. Out of respect for the love you had for me once, do this for me. Don’t let him torture us. Kill us. Kill us now.”

Despite her plea, Kylo stood motionless. Breha’s head dropped in despair as Armitage clutched her face tighter. Blue was lying prone on the ground, his breathing erratic. “Blast him again,” Armitage ordered. “Make sure he’s still conscious. I want him to feel every volt.”

The stormtrooper shot another white arc of electricity into Blue, whose body rose with the blast and convulsed yet again. He had stopped screaming.

Breha mentally willed her spirit to leave this place, to remove herself from the nightmare she had found herself in. Her mind was far away when she heard a lightsaber ignite.

 

Breha’s breath came out in pants but she managed to find her voice. “Goodbye, Brendol,” she said finally. The words felt like a punch to her gut.

!!!!

“I’ve missed you, darling. I have an idea. Let’s spend tonight getting... reacquainted,” he said quietly, leaning close enough to her for her to feel his breath on her cheek. “Then, tomorrow morning, we’ll have your trial and execution, you traitorous shutta.”
A brilliantly written and stark contrast to the genuine, ineffably tender love expressions she heard from Blue. I can JUST IMAGINE it makes her feel filthy just hearing such sacharine words before an unveiled threat!

“I will bring your … love with me to the next world.”
“I will bring your love with me to the next world, Ryoki,” she sobbed. Tears began to slide down her face.
HOW I ADORE THESE TWO!

“Please. I loved you, Ben. And I know you loved me. Remember? We would play games together. We used to swim together at the lake on Naboo. We took walks together, and you always were so excited to teach me about all the little animals you found.”
This earnest, sincere plea would melt a stone!

Breha mentally willed her spirit to leave this place, to remove herself from the nightmare she had found herself in. Her mind was far away when she heard a lightsaber ignite.
Magnificent - as we do not know whose lightsaber was ignited Kylo's and whom he will attack or some other unbeknownst rescuer!

 

Legit me right now.

 

Thank you so much for your comments. First of all, yes, the idea that Breha is forced to call her son by the name Hux has chosen for him is a deliberate attempt by Hux to reassert his control over her. And it works. She has no choice but to give Prestor up and go along with the added insult of renaming him. Otherwise Hux will make the boy watch as he kills Breha and/or Blue, and she doesn't want that to be the last memory Prestor has of her.

The relationship between Blue and Breha is lightyears away from the relationship she had with Armitage. Her marriage to Armitage was one of possession and control. Of course, the ultimate domination is what Hux threatens her with here: she is powerless, she literally belongs to him, and he can do whatever he wants with her. This is a thousand times removed from Blue, who bases everything he does on equality and consent. Blue understands that he is probably going to die here. His last wish is to send his love to her, and Breha honors him in return by using his real name to send her love back to him.

That's kind of a call-back to the Jacen of Legends. In my Fanon, young Ben Solo was very much like young Jacen Solo: gentle, curious, with a true love of living things. I also figured that there would have been great love and closeness between the siblings, as there was between Jacen and Jaina.

As for the lightsaber, it's deliberately vague. Breha hears it but she's already prepared to die, so it's as if it's happening to someone else. She observes the events as if from a distance. She's learned through her marriage how to mentally preserve herself through disassociation.

Thank you for your comments and your continued support for this story!

Oh no! Things are definitely looking bleak for Blue and Breha. Hang in there!
Thanks for commenting!

Thank you for your comments. You're right, this chapter is a complete reflection of his behavior with her back in the first chapter: the lies, the deceptive withholding of important facts, the gaslighting by getting her to take on the guilt of what is happening when it is not her fault at all but his. And the violence. Oh, the violence. Armitage Hux is a violent man and he enjoys dominating others, especially Breha. And besides, Blue is nobody to him, just some random, dehumanized person, so what does Armitage care if he gets tortured? Hux has done worse. The point is not so much to torture Blue but to make Breha suffer by watching it. He takes her love for Blue, weaponizes it, and turns it against her. Again, Blue proves that he is the opposite of Armitage -- instead of begging for his life or trying to avoid the inevitable, he tries to protect Breha, and when that becomes futile, he tells her with his last words that he loves her. Armitage doesn't understand that kind of love.

Breha has detached herself mentally here, and she did it quickly. She's experienced in disassociation. She did it at the end of Bad Romance, when she mentally removed herself from the scene of Armitage's amorous advances. She has learned to separate her body from her mind as a mental survival technique, one fairly common to people who live in abusive situations.

 

Part 28.

She was vaguely aware of Kylo approaching. Only the increasing loudness of the sizzle of his lightsaber informed her of his presence. Armitage still restrained her tightly, and she stared at Blue’s motionless body, seeing but not seeing, here but not here.

The stormtrooper stepped aside as Kylo walked over to where Blue lay and stared down at him. Sparks of red plasma spat from the exhaust vents on the side of his lightsaber and fell onto the grass, where they smoldered then spit out. The red glow reflected in the stormtrooper’s shiny white armor. Breha watched with detachment. She and Blue were simultaneously alive but dead. Strike us now or later. It didn’t matter.

Her brother raised his lightsaber--

-- and struck down the stormtrooper who stood poised to inflict the next blow to Blue’s tortured body. The man fell to the ground. With the next breath the second trooper was lying motionless beside his comrade.

In the span of a second, Kylo hitched his deactivated lightsaber to a clip at his waist, turned toward Breha and Armitage, and extended his black-gloved hand, his fingers splayed. Breha felt the binders loosen, then with a click they opened. Armitage let go of Breha and stepped away from her. The sudden freedom overwhelmed her and she fell to her knees.

“Call back the boy,” Kylo commanded. His voice reverberated as if it were a living thing.

Armitage raised his comm and activated it. “Shuttle two. Return the child to me.”

Breha knelt motionless on the ground, one hand on her bruised throat, too afraid to move. Trembling, little by little, she began to return mentally to the scene. She looked up at Kylo, who offered her his hand. She took it and he helped her stand.

She stood next to her brother and stared up at him, rubbing her sore wrists where the binders had cut into her, as he unlocked the mask and raised it off of his head. Curls of thick black hair tumbled around his face, mirroring the dark waves that framed her own. A scar cut an angry path across the right side of his face. She couldn’t read his eyes -- they were not cruel, but they were not kind, either. Breha longed to touch that face, the face of her brother that she had not seen in over a decade, but fear kept her frozen in place.

“Your son is coming back to you,” Ben said, his voice deep and expressionless. “Hux will remember nothing of what is happening right now. He will think that you died here, along with this man.”

Breha closed her eyes and began to breathe heavily as the impact of his words sank in. My son is coming back, she repeated silently to herself. Prestor is coming back to me. “Thank you for helping me,” she whispered to him.

“It’s not for you,” Ben stated. “General Hux has been obsessed with tracking you down since you disappeared last year. He’s wasted valuable time and resources on this hunt, and it has to stop. I need him to focus on the war, so I led him to you. The fact that this works in your favor is coincidental.”

“You led…?” she stammered. “You knew where we were?”

“Of course. I’ve always known. It wasn’t in my interest to tell Hux until now.”

Breha’s mind whirled. “Then…you know about Mom.”

Ben paused before answering. “Yes. And I know that you were with her at her death, and you performed the necessary burial rites. As I knew you would.”

A few minutes later, the stormtrooper from the shuttle reappeared, carrying Prestor. The child’s face was wet with tears, and he reached frantically for his mother. Breha ran to the stormtrooper and took the child from him. She clutched the boy tightly and kissed his head as he buried his face in her neck.

“Go back to your ship. Prepare to return to the Ruthless,” Ben ordered the stormtrooper. The soldier turned around and returned into the forest.

Breha glanced at Blue, but he had not yet moved. The bodies of the dead stormtroopers lay on either side of him. Was he still alive? She dared not go to him -- too much was still unsettled.

At last the sound of the shuttle’s ascension rumbled through the woods. Ben looked at Armitage, and Armitage slowly turned his head to stare at the shuttle as it began to rise above the treeline and ascend toward the atmosphere. “Your son is on that ship,” Ben said to him.

Suddenly the ship exploded. Breha gasped in shock and instinctively covered her child with her arms to protect him. Armitage’s face twisted in rage. “My son....” he said, his breath ragged.

Ben continued to direct his speech to Armitage, who stared at the place where the shuttle had been. “You killed your wife and the man she was with. Go to the command shuttle. The second shuttle was fired upon by the locals. Wait for me and we will do what must be done.” Armitage did not even glance at them as he stalked away, his fists balled in rage.

She turned to stare at Armitage as he advanced into the clearing, toward the shuttle. To her relief, he never turned around. Breha felt the presence of her brother standing beside her, tall and foreboding. Once Armitage was gone, Breha turned her attention back to Ben. “You’ll kill the townspeople?” she asked accusingly as she approached him. “They’re innocent. They did nothing.”

“And if they live, they will be able to testify that they saw you and your son alive when you’re both supposed to be dead,” he countered.

The enormity of the deception began to become clear to her. “Ben, what about my girl?” she asked, her voice cracking with emotion. “What about Marielle? Can you get her back for me?”

“Hux thinks you’re dead now. If you try to get your daughter, he’ll know this was a lie and that you’re alive. He’ll come for you and the boy again, and this time there will be nothing I can do to save you. Although he will forget what happened here, he will recognize a Force trance if I attempt one on him again. Hux is a very strong-willed man -- it will not work on him twice. Your only chance for survival is to give up on seeing her again. Let her go.”

“But--”

“Choose. You can have your son and, if he survives, this man. Or you can keep trying to recover Marielle and have nothing.”

She clung to Prestor, and tears welled in her eyes. “I love her. She’s my daughter. I can’t let her go. Please -- I’ve tried for so long to get her back, Ben.”

Ben turned his face away for a moment, then gazed at Breha. “Poe didn’t tell you, did he,” he said flatly, more a statement than a question.

“Tell me what?”

Her brother shook his head. “There was a kidnapping attempt on Marielle about five months ago. An extraction team from the Resistance was caught trying to break into her dormitory. Three of the five members were killed during the capture. The other two were tortured for information, then executed the next day. General Hux shot them personally. Then he moved his daughter to a facility so secure it isn’t even on any reference maps.”

Breha paled. She winced and closed her eyes as she choked back a sob.

“So Poe did hide it from you,” Ben said. “All this time he’s let you believe that an extraction was possible. He’s probably even gotten you to do some kind of sabotage or espionage for him in exchange for it. But I’m telling you the truth, Bree: General Dameron will not be sending any more people to their deaths over your one missing child.”

Ben looked at her without emotion. “Choose, Bree. Every moment you waste is another moment this man doesn’t get the medical attention that he desperately needs. Choose. This or nothing.”

Breha glanced at Blue, who lay unmoving on the ground. Her heart pounded and her knees seemed incapable of holding her up. Finally she found her voice and made the only decision she could. “This,” she whispered. Then the tears overfilled her eyes and slipped down her cheeks. Her legs gave out and she dropped to her knees, sobbing bitter tears, still clutching the child in her arms.

Ben watched her impassively for a moment. Then he placed the helmet back on his head, turned on his heels, and strode away from her without another glance back. Within a few moments Kylo Ren had retreated into the forest, headed in the direction of the shuttle.

 

What a devastating choice Breha has to make but of course Ben is right... the trick on Hux convincing him Breha and Blue are dead would be shattered if she attempted to find Marielle. I do not know how much stock to put in his claim that the extraction failed. The only hope is that somehow Marielle can be recovered by some 'coincidence'.

 

This, but if Bree it's reunited with Marielle, it will likely be the will of the Force. I've heard that the Force doesn't do coincidences.

 

Is Hux gone for good???

 

*delurks* Okay! I think I am all caught up to this AU now--Really engaging story you got here! Great characterization of Hux--such a nasty piece of work here, concerned only about personal gain and power.
I love how you convey emotion between all your characters and how we can feel what they're feeling, in a way--love, anger, sorrow, etc--they feel like real people we can connect to and understand, especially Breha who has already gone through so much.
And just when things seemed positive for her with Blue, she has yet another conflict and difficult decision to make here. Nice to see Ben help out his sister--now lets hope he turns to the light!

 

Please please do a Hux POV soon - I loved watching his screwed up thought process in Bad Romance!

 

Kylo Ren aka Benny Bunny always good for a surprise. But I do not think that love for his sister, his nephew and his niece has anything to do with it. At least Hux has found a master in deceit and cruelty.

 

Thank you for your reply! Breha definitely has a devastating choice. There are no good endings here. The deception is delicate and Hux is by nature a suspicious person, so if Breha wants to live, she has to disappear. But Breha is a mother and she'll never give up hope that her daughter can come home someday.

Thank you for your reply! Hux has got Marielle pretty well hid. Not that he wants to lose her, but that he doesn't want Breha to have her, at this point. Neither Breha nor Marielle is Force-sensitive so they don't get any advantages in that department.

As long as Breha doesn't make him question her "death," he won't bother looking for her anymore. Thank you for your comments!

Thanks for delurking and commenting! I'm glad you're liking this. This story is based on the initial interpretation of Hux from TFA - A zealot who believes deeply in the First Order, a man who is obsessed with power and status. Breha is an emotional person who has had to suppress her emotions for so long. And she's had so many emotional crises, one after the other -- losing Marielle, then her father, then her mom; the stress of her pregnancy; learning to trust and eventually love again. I'm so glad these emotions come across as real.
Ben's a complicated guy - he says he helps her only because it's in his best interest, but really, it would have been the same result (getting Hux's fixation on her resolved) if he had simply let Hux kill her and Blue. But he save them. Maybe there's hope for him after all.

Thanks for your comment. I don't know if that is something I have in the plans, but I will consider it!

Thank you for your comments. I always appreciate them! Ben is unpredictable, that's for sure. He saves his sister and nephew, but he is also getting something out of it. Still, Hux wins in the sadistic monster category, as he is clearly enjoying watching her anguish and Blue's torture. It reassures him of his power over Breha.

Thank you so much for this very thoughtful reply. It means a lot!
Ben does save her (and Prestor and Blue), but it's on his terms and on his own sweet time. Blue is tortured senseless before Ben acts. However, like I mentioned above, if what Ben wanted was for Hux to get this whole chase over with, then Ben could have just let Hux kill them and gotten the same result, It's as if Ben is also exerting his power here, getting an advantage over Hux by deceiving him into thinking he had actually murdered Breha and Blue.

Nothing goes right with Marielle. Now Breha has the guilt of those deaths on her, and it backfired so dramatically that nobody really knows where her daughter is now. Poe is a general now, and he learned his lesson from Leia's anger at him (TLJ) at his reckless disregard for the lives of those under his command. In the scheme of things, saving one little girl is a very low priority when it comes to rebuilding the Resistance. Marielle is just not his priority. Breha is going to have to resolve this with him.

Breha's looking at a classic "Sophie's choice" scenario - neither choice is at all acceptable. Give up her daughter, or die (with Blue) and condemn Prestor to a life of horror. She has to save what she can, and deal with the pain of the loss later. Thank you for your comments and your compliments! Always appreciated.

 

Part 29

Breha turned her back and covered Prestor from the blowback of the rising Upsilon shuttle. She stayed in that position, curled around her son, as a moment later she heard the whine of laser fire and the explosions. She closed her eyes and fought to block out the faces of her friends, neighbors, co-workers -- the people being obliterated in Armitage’s vicious revenge for the crime that they did not commit; the crime that never actually happened.

Her tears dampened Prestor’s cheeks as she pressed the child against her. Her world had stopped. There was just too much to process, and all she knew to do right then was to shut her eyes and clutch her son to her as tightly as she could. A few minutes later the sound of the distant attack fell silent. Slowly she raised her head to see the faint trail of smoke drifting into the sky.

A low moan caught her attention. Breha turned toward Blue, who still lay on the ground between the two slain stormtroopers. Prestor raised his head from the crook of her neck at the sound and stared at Blue. “Papa ouch,” the child said solemnly.

“Yes. Papa’s hurt. Momma is going to help him,” Breha answered. Prestor’s right. Mourn later. Act now, she thought.

An image of Leia flashed in her memory, and Breha bit her lip, the unconscious nervous habit re-emerging under the stress of the situation. Mom would focus on what had to be done next. Take care of the immediate need. There’s time to deal with the rest of the pain later.

Breha stood unsteadily, then staggered over to sit beside Blue. She put Prestor down, and he clung to her side, whimpering. With an effort, Breha moved Blue so that his upper body lay across her lap. He gasped at the motion. She cradled his head in her arms and pushed the blood-soaked hair out of his face. The left side of his face was swollen and his left eye was closed under the gash where the stormtrooper had struck him. Gently, she leaned in and kissed his forehead, and his blood stained her shirt. “Don’t leave me, Blue,” she whispered. “I can’t have you leave me.”

At her touch, Blue’s eyelids flickered and he opened his right eye, his other eye swollen shut. “Breha,” he whispered. Blue raised his trembling hand and Breha caught it in hers.

She drew him closer to her. “Shh. It’s alright. We’re going to get out of this.”

“Where’s our son?” he asked, his voice frail.

She managed a small, reassuring smile. “He’s right here. He’s safe.”

“Wait. Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine,” she answered. “They’re gone.” Blue sighed in relief. How like him to lie here bleeding and ask if I’m okay, she thought. “How can I help you? What do you need?” she asked him.

“Get my med bag,” he said quietly. “And some blankets. Hurry.”

He groaned as she moved him to place him gently back on the ground. She then picked Prestor back up and balanced the child on her hip. “I’ll be right back,” she promised him. Blue nodded slightly in response, his face contorted in pain.

Breha let out a deep breath and turned toward the pathway toward the house. As soon as she got inside she placed Prestor safely in his enclosed play area. The child immediately began to wail, his little hands outstretched for her. She looked at him sympathetically. “Momma’s coming right back. I promise,” she said. She ignored his increasing panic as she ran to the bedroom. She flung open a drawer in a cabinet, reached deep into the back of the drawer, snapped open a secret panel, and withdrew a datastick.

With trembling hands she inserted the datastick into the secured line of her computer. Prestor’s distressed cries were increasing, and she glanced toward his direction while she waited for the comm line to crackle and coalesce into a blurred human figure. “What is it?” the distorted voice asked.

Breha turned back to the computer and willed her voice to be strong. “Fulcrum, this is Solara. We need evac for three people immediately. One medical. We’ve been compromised.”

The blurry figure nodded, and she could see him leaning to his right to manipulate a set of controls. “I’m sending you coordinates. Be there in two hours. End transmission.” The image disappeared.

Breha removed the datastick and put it in her pocket. She pulled a blanket from the bed, then went to the main room of the house. She paused as her gaze fell upon the now-cold supper that she had laid out for the little family. What was it, an hour ago? Two hours ago? A lifetime ago? With an effort she redirected herself back to the task at hand and retrieved Prestor, who grappled to her, face tear-stained. It was a short walk to the family’s speeder, and she was grateful that Blue had always insisted that they kept the vehicle fully charged. Once Prestor was strapped into his safety seat, she went back into the house and retrieved the blanket from the chair where she had dropped it and Blue’s med bag from its place on the wall. She threw both items in the speeder and drove down the narrow road to the spot closest to where Blue was waiting for her.

Breha stopped the vehicle and jumped out, casting a worried glance to the darkening sky. It was dusk now, and nighttime brought out the predatory beasts that made a security system necessary. It struck her that Blue had probably never set the perimeter alarm before they had been captured. Anxiously, Breha made her way through the wooded area toward the clearing where Blue lay. Prestor began crying again as soon as she was out of his sight, but she ignored his shrieks and focused on taking care of Blue first.

She heard the flap of leathery wings before she got to the clearing and her heart thudded. When she made it to where Blue lay, helpless between the bodies of the two stormtroopers, a pair of vulture-bats a couple of meters away turned to glare at her. The scavengers, attracted by the smell of the dead men, hissed at her, but she knelt beside the fallen stormtrooper and grabbed his blaster. She sent out a shot toward the vulture-bat, nicking the wing of one of them. At once the two creatures flapped their wings, the wingspan as long as her own arm’s reach, and flew off, only to glare at her from a nearby tree. Where there are two, there are more, she thought.

She kept a wary eye on the beasts hanging upside down on the nearby tree as she put the blaster down and knelt beside Blue. He slowly turned toward her, trembling at the effort. Pain etched lines along his forehead.

“What do I do?” she asked him. “How do I help you?”

“Take my boots off. My foot is swelling,” Blue whispered.

Breha pulled the left boot off easily. The right boot, however, was stuck, and Blue cried out sharply as she pulled at it. “Cut it off,” he gasped. “There’s a vibro blade in my bag.”

She flung the medbag open and after a quick search, located the vibro scalpel. Carefully she cut the leather of the boot away. Blue’s foot slid out, and she gasped as she saw the swelling and discoloration. She turned and stared at him. “It’s an electrical burn,” he muttered. “The durasteel rod implant from the crash when I was twenty.”

Gently, she placed the injured limb back on the ground. She grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around his trembling body, then placed a bacta patch on the cut above his eye. Breha glanced at the vulture-bats and put her hand on his chest. “My love, we need to move. Tell me what to give you for the pain.”

Blue shook his head. “No narcotics. I can’t. You’re going to have to sedate me. Daralizine. One dose.” He took a ragged breath and raised his hand to squeeze her arm in support. “I’m so sorry. I can’t do it myself,” he whispered.

Breha searched the med bag for the medication, then slid the dosage cartridge into a hypospray and injected it into his upper arm. Blue’s eyes closed and a few moments later his body went limp.

She swung the med bag back across her shoulders, then, with an effort, she pulled the unconscious Blue back to the side of the speeder and struggled to haul him into the passenger seat. She was just about to enter the driver’s side of the speeder when a loud rustling sound came from the clearing. In the growing darkness, she could make out the two vulture-bats, which had left the trees and had slowly approached the bodies of the stormtroopers, pecking at the hard white armour. A third beast landed with a thud beside them. They hissed and chittered at her as they continued to pry at the bodies. Breha shuddered in disgust and quickly got back into the speeder.

She turned the vehicle back to the house and, again ignoring Prestor’s frantic cries, packed basic necessities for them, then hurriedly threw the bags into the speeder. Blue sat slouched over in the front passenger seat, and Prestor watched her, sniffling back tears. She paused in her rushed packing to enter the rear passenger seat and sit beside him.

“It’s going to be okay, Prestor,” she reassured him. She handed him a slice of bread and a child’s cup of milk that she had prepared for him -- the last thing she would ever do in that house that had once been their home. Prestor stopped sobbing for a moment, took the food eagerly, and stared at her over the rim of his cup. “We’re going to be fine,” she repeated, brushing his red hair back out of his eyes. “Momma’s here. Papa’s going to get better. The bad men are gone and they aren’t coming back.”


***

Breha hit the speeder accelerator and prayed that their contact had not left. It was going to be close, and she knew that the pick-up would not wait more than five minutes for her. The coordinates led her to an open field and she could make out a small vessel in the darkness. The ramp was down and a light illuminated a single figure standing just outside the vehicle. She gunned the speeder, then braked to a sudden stop.

The figure approached and Breha’s eyes widened as she recognized the man. “Nice. You got here in one piece,” Dorsay said as he jogged over to help her.

She got out of the landspeeder and ran around to the passenger side. “He’s hurt. Help him,” she said to Dorsay as she unfastened Blue’s safety straps. He collapsed in her arms and she staggered under the dead weight. Dorsay quickly came up behind her and took Blue’s weight off of her, lifting the unconscious man easily as Breha began to unstrap Prestor, who had fallen fast asleep.

“How’s the baby?” Dorsay asked over his shoulder.

Breha followed Dorsay up the ramp, the slumbering boy in her arms. “He’s terrified and traumatized. Other than that, he’s okay. Stormtroopers are notoriously impatient with children, but I don’t think that they dared hurt Prestor.”

It had only taken a few more minutes to secure Blue into a reclining seat in the crew section of the small ship, place Prestor in his seat, and stow the few bags and supplies Breha had taken with her. Breha strapped herself into the co-pilot’s seat in the cockpit while Dorsay began the lift-off procedures. “Thank you for getting here so fast,” she said.

“Hey, I owed you one,” he replied. He hit the fire switch and the twin engines vibrated and began to glow with power. “Now let’s get you people out of here.”

In less than a minute, the liftoff routines were completed, the engines roared to life, and she watched the ground slip away as the ship rose. Then the ship slid into the darkness of night, and within a minute the gentle curve of the planet became visible. A minute after that they were spacebound, headed for a secret hyperdrive ring that would take them back to the Resistance.

 

Great extraction from a place no longer safe. Breha kept her poise superbly!!