Leia reaches out for help instead of sending 10yo Ben away to Luke, and Snoke's hold on Ben weakens. Desperate for his plans to not be entirely derailed, Snoke arranges a kidnapping, snatching Ben up and sending him to the Outer Rim. Ben's smuggled aboard a transport moving cadets to an Academy ship. The ship comes under attack, and in the confusion Ben and Hux end up together alone in the same shuttle, managing to land it on some backwater station/planet/whatever. Hux doesn't know who Ben is, and Ben doesn't exactly trust Hux, but they end up sticking together for lack of better options to survive.

- Ben boasts about his force mastery but isn't really skilled yet

- Hux tries to act cool and in command but flounders with his lack of experience/incomplete training.

- Ben's still an emotionally unstable brat as the damage has been done, but more conflicted with his impulses. He struggles to be calm like Luke with the force, but he's shit at it, and defaults back to drawing on his anger.

- Hux kills someone and expects to feel nothing but is actually shaken, represses it

- reluctantly impressed with each other

- The fledgling Resistance finds them first and scoops them up. Hux is livid, fully indoctrinated, and refuses to cooperate. Leia tries to use him as leverage against his father but papa Hux doesn't even consider it. Now they're stuck with him.

- Inadvertently Hux helps Ben keep Snoke out/helps him cope.