The guards and one maid lay dead, the autumn cottage’s door broken into, and the masked men advanced upon the Emperor. They clamoured for justice, they chased after revenge. The fires of a dead sun a burning rage in their grieving hearts.
The collared plaything huddling on a cot at the end of the Emperor’s bed was completely ignored.
RN-0000 panicked. If the Emperor was gone, who would feed him? Take him for walks? Play Dejarik with him? Read him novels while providing him a lap to lay his head on? Give him permission to dig into the ever interesting minds of all those people during the day? Pet his hair and call him a good boy before sleep at night? Discipline him when he was bad? The Emperor was the fairest and most engaging keeper 0000’s ever had! RN-0000 wanted the Emperor to be his keeper forever.
He threw an ornamental vase at the men (it was given to Hux by his mother, but the Lady did not mind the vase’s final use at all, at all), and forced the shattered shards deep into exposed skin, un-armored joints, fined glass grinded into pixie dust glittering through clogged bloodstreams.
He collapsed on the floor in fear, when he realized one of the shards had left a bleeding cut on the Emperor’s arm. He was not supposed to damage his keeper. He had made the Emperor, the highest authority for light years around, bleed. He would be punished most severely for sure.
But Emperor Hux pulled him up by the arm, ushered him into the refresher suites, pulled the vase shards from RN-0000’s feet and legs (when did they got there?), and carefully bandaged RN-0000 before seeing to himself.
And then Hux did something no one had done to RN-0000 for a long time. He hugged him (the last person who hugged him was the technician with her sad smile. So she was dead. The dark ate her. But Hux’s bathroom was well lit, his red hair bright, his life force pulsing strongly).
“Thank you, Ben,” said and thought Hux.
Hmm, no one’d ever said that to him in full sincerity before either. Not as far as he could remember.
**
“Am I Ben?”
“If you want to be.”
“I thought I was Ren?”
“No.”
“Ok I am Ben then.”
**
Hux’s head of security was reprimanded and demoted.
Ben was not to be blamed for being caught unaware. He did his best, with how erratic his powers could be, controlled by a fractured mind. The Force was a fickle thing, and instead of relying on Force users, those blessed/cursed with it should be treated as an extra edge in a much grander arsenal, an arsenal built and controlled by ordinary men.
Hux would make his Empire into a well-oiled machine yet.
**
Emperor Hux was nervous when his lady mother asked to meet ‘that pet of yours’.
But Ben liked Lady Hux’s food, remained his almost childlike and mild self, and was on his best behaviour.
And Lady Hux petted Ben’s hair, called him a dear child, and told him to be ‘a good boy for my darling Hux’.
“She smelled nice and felt a bit like you, the sense of her mind. So why should I be nervous?” Ben later asked the Emperor.
Many Cuckoos in the Nest [4]
The guards and one maid lay dead, the autumn cottage’s door broken into, and the masked men advanced upon the Emperor. They clamoured for justice, they chased after revenge. The fires of a dead sun a burning rage in their grieving hearts.
The collared plaything huddling on a cot at the end of the Emperor’s bed was completely ignored.
RN-0000 panicked. If the Emperor was gone, who would feed him? Take him for walks? Play Dejarik with him? Read him novels while providing him a lap to lay his head on? Give him permission to dig into the ever interesting minds of all those people during the day? Pet his hair and call him a good boy before sleep at night? Discipline him when he was bad? The Emperor was the fairest and most engaging keeper 0000’s ever had! RN-0000 wanted the Emperor to be his keeper forever.
He threw an ornamental vase at the men (it was given to Hux by his mother, but the Lady did not mind the vase’s final use at all, at all), and forced the shattered shards deep into exposed skin, un-armored joints, fined glass grinded into pixie dust glittering through clogged bloodstreams.
He collapsed on the floor in fear, when he realized one of the shards had left a bleeding cut on the Emperor’s arm. He was not supposed to damage his keeper. He had made the Emperor, the highest authority for light years around, bleed. He would be punished most severely for sure.
But Emperor Hux pulled him up by the arm, ushered him into the refresher suites, pulled the vase shards from RN-0000’s feet and legs (when did they got there?), and carefully bandaged RN-0000 before seeing to himself.
And then Hux did something no one had done to RN-0000 for a long time. He hugged him (the last person who hugged him was the technician with her sad smile. So she was dead. The dark ate her. But Hux’s bathroom was well lit, his red hair bright, his life force pulsing strongly).
“Thank you, Ben,” said and thought Hux.
Hmm, no one’d ever said that to him in full sincerity before either. Not as far as he could remember.
**
“Am I Ben?”
“If you want to be.”
“I thought I was Ren?”
“No.”
“Ok I am Ben then.”
**
Hux’s head of security was reprimanded and demoted.
Ben was not to be blamed for being caught unaware. He did his best, with how erratic his powers could be, controlled by a fractured mind. The Force was a fickle thing, and instead of relying on Force users, those blessed/cursed with it should be treated as an extra edge in a much grander arsenal, an arsenal built and controlled by ordinary men.
Hux would make his Empire into a well-oiled machine yet.
**
Emperor Hux was nervous when his lady mother asked to meet ‘that pet of yours’.
But Ben liked Lady Hux’s food, remained his almost childlike and mild self, and was on his best behaviour.
And Lady Hux petted Ben’s hair, called him a dear child, and told him to be ‘a good boy for my darling Hux’.
“She smelled nice and felt a bit like you, the sense of her mind. So why should I be nervous?” Ben later asked the Emperor.
**