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pendragonfics · 7 years

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Oh No, Set Me Free

My Soul’s Freezing: Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three

Paring: Armitage Hux/Reader

Tags: female reader, reader is a princess, arranged marriage AU, married couple, sharing a bed, canon compliant, set after Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Hux-centric, reader-centric, angst, canon-typical violence, fluff, uneasy allies

Summary: Reader is the illegitimate firstborn to a King, a false princess. Her father signs a treaty with the First Order, who in turn for peace for her home planet, offers a marriage between General Armitage Hux and Reader. Little do they know of her bloodlines, and of the General himself.

Life is all fine and well, but you are lonely, you are restless, and, you are homesick. Your husband Armitage takes pity on it, and allows something he'd never thought possible: a week to return home.

Word Count: 5,002

Posting Date: 2017-02-01

Current Date: 2017-06-08

READER

But as far as adopting cats and consummation, life went on, and that's what happened. Didn't it always happen? In all the stories you had read, there was no such thing as a happily ever after. The heroine succumed to the sands of time, and was buried upon the hill her blood came from. The stars faded, new ones bore themselves across time and space, exploding, bearing bright colours, bright lives. You took up the Datapad, and took to the pad with the words which broke your mind into pieces, islands that floated so far away from what you thought you knew your own self.

Kylo Ren did not come back into the apartment, as did the other people who came in to clean and cook when you weren't in the mood to, or too tired to. The only face you saw was just like before you burst, shouting words to your husband; exactly him. He'd ask about your day, and you would respond. But it just felt fake. Like you would wake up, and be back on your home planet, surrounded by your half-sisters and the courtiers, and the evil woman who made you feel like a second-rate citizen, your step-mother.

But it was no dream. You were aboard the Finaliser, alone for most of your time in the rooms your husband and General had privilege of. But after a week, a brightly clad trooper by the name of Phasma entered. You knew at once what she was, and followed her as she led you out, and escorted you to a room in which filled you with awe.

"I know what it's like being stuck in the one place for ages," she grunted through the helmet, arms beside her sides at attention, as per military regulation. Before you, was a training room. It was otherwise derelict, containing equipment which seemed out of regulation, out of date, considering the amount of dust in the air. "Before joining, the First Order I came from the same world as you, where women were to be pretty, seen and unheard. The stories had the woman stolen by a dragon, or left waiting for a prince to save her from the castle. But I was my own dragon, my own prince. I saved myself." She turns to you, motioning to the gym equipment. "The General doesn't know I've brought you here, and as far it goes, never will. Understand?"

You nod. It has been ages since you last walked outside of the confines of your room, and longer still from the last time you had been to the place where you could expel the excess energy from yourself.

"Understood."

---

HUX

Kylo Ren smirks upon entering the bridge of the Finaliser. Not that Armtiage knows that he is smirking, but there's a certain quality to the black-clad knight of Ren which makes him suspect that he's being smug, and being quite childish about something for one reason or another against the better interest of Ben Solo.

"What is it this time?" He growls, eyes ahead on his task, listening to Lieutenant Dopheld Mitaka rattling off the names and tasks for the day ahead. If Armitage didn't know any different, the officer was almost an assistant to him, always coming between the conflict of interest between both Commander and General of the First Order. "If this is about that machine you placed on my chair, I am not impressed."

Kylo Ren stood there, arms crossed. A moment passed, and then a chuckle. "No, it wasn't about that, although, that was funny." He laughed once more, and added in a darker tone, "I felt a disturbance in the force this morning during meditation. Something is to happen, and it is to happen soon."

Armitage waved a hand toward his second. "You and your feelings. There's always a disturbance, this way and that in the galaxies. Perhaps you need medical attention, or a psyche assessment, Ren?" He suggested.

"Kriff you," he muttered, stalking off.

---

READER

On a Thursday, the person who enters the door to yours and your husbands rooms is not your husband, or Phasma leading you to an hour away from the walls you seem to hate closing in around you while alone. It is the maiden who aided you to dressbefore the wedding , to feel like you were a human being surrounded by a place where you could breathe, and not an single cell alone in the world.

Anwen.

"Highness?" She asked, cautious.

At once, you dropped your Datapad, and fled to where she stood, wrapping your arms around her frame. It wasn't that you were touch-starved, you lay beside a man who held you close when he came in to rest, and you felt that after breaking ice, it felt more natural than not. But she was here, and she reminded you of the days from before the marriage, when you were still a free woman, a single woman.

"Oh! Are you all right, m'lady?" She wondered, words bewildered.

You nod, reluctantly removing yourself from the woman who had proclaimed herself upon meeting you your servant. She was just as she was the day you left her, to become married. "I'm ever so sorry, Anwen, I - I haven't been around people who I could...I miss my family." You confess to her.

She gathers your hands in her own, leading you to the sofa where you had rushed to her from, and once seated, she opened the curtains, spreading the sight of the stars and the galaxies visible from the open space of the Finaliser windows. "Have you asked the General if you are allowed at all to visit your family? Last time, you spoke sad about being more than a guest...was there another person in your life?" she wondered.

You shook your head. "No, there wasn't. There were just my sisters; it was a rarity to not wake laughing from pleasant dreams, to not hear their voices at all in the castle. I'd always loved them, even if their mother didn't love me..." you trail off, remembering. Your bed was apart from their own, but without trying, your younger siblings had always allowed you to share with one of them, to be apart of their lives. You were the first of the nine daughters, and it would seem all eight cherished you as one of their own. "...I wish, sometimes, deep in my heart that I could go back, and visit them. Just one more time, if I could. Sometimes, when I'm dreaming, I'm with them, in the rooms, playing the games they played on each other, but when I wake, I'm," your throat is thick, eyes threatening tears. "I'm here."

---

HUX

Armitage Hux wakes in the night with the sound of tears, and turning in the sheets, sees in the pale moonlight of a passing planet where it comes from. Beside him, lays his wife, curled inward, near foetal like a newborn babe, hair tousled by the touch of sleep. Curled in her arms is the small ginger cat, a pretty feline named Millicent. Her eyes have the stuff of the stars falling from them, leaving a bright silvery trail down her cheeks.

"________?" he whispers into the darkness, shifting in the bed slightly. He hasn't had much time to know the language of princesses, or at least, pleasantries, and clumsily, they spill from his lips, "Love, are you feeling well?"

She shifts in the sheets, eyes blinking apart, bearing the colour he loves so much. Another tear falls, and Millicent writhes against her form, seeking warmth, a steady heartbeat. Affection. "It's nothing, go back to sleep, Armitage," she murmurs, wiping the tears with the back of her wrist off, and away. He shakes his head, leaning close as to touch her face with his own. "Please, it's silly."

"Nothing is silly if you cry when you think I can't hear," he frowns, inspecting her face. "Tell me, was it a dream? Are you unwell - I can have a droid here to examine you -," he is interrupted by a laugh, but it is mirthless, sad.

"I'm only homesick," Armitage hears her utter, turning her face as to not meet his gaze, to face his dismay at the weakness of containing feelings. But to the contrary; it was until his wife appeared in his life he was a lifeless statue, awoken by the presence of someone who knew the troubles of living the way he did, following a path as he did. "I miss my sisters, all of them...the birds, as they sang," her lip wobbles, and his breath caught. "I dream of it, and wake sad. I write about it, but words are empty, useless things. Oh, Armitage, my words are meaningless, and float around and they're not real. It's just words, they aren't where I love." her voice chokes up, more tears falling.

"Would you forgive me," he suggests, slowly, like a jailer offering a plea bargain to a wench in his care, "if I issued a ship to you, and an appropriate guard, to return home? For - a week?" he asks his wife, the woman he holds the highest in his life, his icy heart. The words barely leave his lips when he regrets them; what if she never returned? What if she was used against the First Order? What if -

Her tears catch, and for a fleeting moment, they pause. "You aren't just saying things, are you?" she asks hesitantly, searching his eyes for answers beyond his own words. "You really mean this?" she wonders.

He nods, almost regretting doing so. "I love you, for all who you are, and all of your life to come," he reminds her, thinking back to the day he vowed to do so, to protect and serve her as he did his position in the First Order. Their souls were bound, for all the end of time, and for reasons he knew not, he wanted to honour it. Maybe it was his dignity, but a small voice behind his mind's eye whispered love. "I'll have you out by dawn. One week."

She nods, eyes bright, smile faint in the moonlight. "One week," she echoes.

---

READER

In the morning, your bag is filled, eyes puffy from the escapade between the sheets, but awake, alive. It's like you can breathe again, like you were a balloon held beneath the tides, left unwittingly to drown. True to his word, you are aboard at dawn, with four troupers on board. The parting gift he gives you is a lingering kiss, and a small box, in which he tells you to open once you are in the territory of your father, King Hyperion, once alone.

The last thing you see of the Finaliser is his hands. It sounds strange, but for the first time, they are not at attention while standing in parade in public; his left hand is raised, swaying as the door lifts to a close. He is waving. A small pang hits your chest; it's almost like he is not the same man as he was when you met him, that over time, your presence, you have somehow changed the beast that the General of the First Order was famed to be.

Off in your mind with these thoughts, you almost miss the captain of the vessel telling you that the atmosphere had been reached for your home planet, that the castle was only a mere set of moments away, not light-years. You felt a giggle rise from your chest, bursting the serene appearance you held. Like a child, you laughed.

In moments, as promised, the ship descended, and you were stepping foot once more upon soil, and entering the castle in which you grew up within. The halls were as you remembered; the colour of the earth, deep and rich, dark and warm. Before you knew it, there was a scream, and your sight was engulfed by the ones who you had missed so much.

"It's _________! She's back!" the youngest sister Adora cried, running toward you, jumping up to grasp you in a hug around your neck, legs wrapped around your waist. Her dark hair fell from the style, gap-toothed smile wide. Sylvie and Januaria came next, wrapping their arms around you, tight as you remembered their burning sisterly love to be, followed suite by Medea, holding hands with the second-youngest princess, Erendia. At once, the rest came; Eleri, Raine, and last, Isolte. All of them were overjoyed, talking at once, touching your hair, basking in your presence.

But it was not long for their mother to appear.

Queen Phebe was just as you remembered; an eagle-winged parasite in which she kept those she treasured close, and destroyed those she didn't with a slash of her proverbial talons. Her dark hair flew around her like a ring of ebony fire, eyes narrowed in anger.

"And the false child dares show her face here again," she sneered, pushing her daughters from around you, eyeing everything about you. "I thought that you were to be gone from us the moment you married the General." She crossed her arms, defiant at your appearance upon the lands she ruled with your father. "Or have you ran from him? Shameful girl, you put us all in bad appearance from your intolerance."

You shake your head, and at once, you raise your chin. All of your life before becoming a part of the Finaliser, you had cowered at the queen of your country, kept quiet, kept your head down. But you were ________ Hux, and you had more than you could count behind you. For the one who holds the heart of the one with an army, holds the army too.

"He allowed me to visit," you reply, not backing down. "I'm to be here for a week, Queen Phebe, and if you do not allow me to step foot on my own homeland's soil, you shall have the First Order to answer to. The Knight of Ren, Kylo Ren would not react well to know he is insulted, as would my husband."

She recoils, eyes widening at the boldness of your tone. "A week. No more."

---

HUX

Armitage cannot sleep that night, as the bed is too cold, and Millicent mews, crying for the one that she misses too. It has only been twelve hours, and it feels untrue; like the whole affair had been concocted by his maddening mind, and that he was just a man, the General of the First Order, destined to lie alone, awake at night, live alone for the rest of his years. But he knows _______ will return. There is still a small voice which tells him otherwise, but he ignores it; ignorance is bliss, and yet, he is less than blissful without the princess beside him, to greet him, to help unwind him from the day he spends organising the new Empire to rise, to remind him that with filth and grit and hard work, there is reward with her beauty, her words, her presence.

And yet, he cannot sleep.

The second night, he tries to ignore the sleeplessness, furrowing his head into her pillows to inhale her scent, but alas. It would seem her smell had gone, evaporated into the air, gone. He tries not to seem like he is saddened by it, but Armitage feels a tug in his chest. Emotions. It's been so long since he was a young boy, gangling limbs, with red hair and scars over his knees from playing outside too much, afire with hormones, with life, with passion.

With a huff, he turns out of the bed, and donning a robe, grabs his Datapad and takes to the living area of his rooms, trying to sort the emails, the tasks, the jobs to complete that he hadn't, and had retreated to sleep without finishing. But as he delves to do so, a glint of glass winkling in the flickering lights distracts him. Glancing to his right, his eyes set on his wife's own Datapad, half hidden behind a plush cushion the colour of a vibrant ray of sunshine. Armitage's heart sinks once more. The feeling is almost like she has died, and all he can do is wallow in the presence she had left behind.

The next morning upon the bridge, Kylo Ren hands him a vial the colour of coral, and folds it into his gloved fingers. The Knight of Ren is solemn, that he can tell, but before he can ask why he's being given pharmaceuticals from his co-worker, the other man explains.

"It's not to poison you," he assures him, and heaving a sigh, turns to see the sight out of the main window. "Trouble sleeping comes with them leaving. It's from when I..." he does not finish that sentence, nor does Armitage need him to. He knows. "Take it. One at night."

His fingers curl around the pill bottle. "Thank you, Ren."

---

READER

The week flies faster than you had thought a week possible to do; time passed so slowly aboard the Finaliser, and now, there was the news you had to spread, that it was time for you to return to your husband. Every one of your sisters had tears in their eyes, sparkling. Your mind was dancing with their words, and their stories, the things that had happened since you were gone, the things that would happen after you left again. You told them a countless array of times that they could come to visit you, but to always ask in advance, as your husband was a busy man, in the war business.

It was when it was time to hug the last, the eldest sister, Isolte, when you saw her jaw quivering. Upon accepting her hug, you heard her voice in your ear, breath hot, tone low as to not catch suspicion from the rest. "I heard words shared in father's office, between officers, _______ - they have plans to overthrow the First Order, to murder your husband, General Hux." Her voice quivers. "You have to go now."

You break away at once, searching her eyes for it to be a joke, an untruth. But you do not see it in her eyes; you only see the fear of a seventeen year old girl, the next queen in line for the planet her parents rule. But she is brave, holding her chin high, like you taught her.

"Thank you, I shall miss you too," she speaks, hiding her fear behind the perfect princess smile you were all to do. "May your travel be speedy."

At once, you fled to the ship, ignoring the cries of your sisters, the snarky protest of your stepmother as she tried to quell them, to still her daughter's moans. Your feet carried you as fast as you could to the ship, to find the guards on board down - all down. They seemed to be asleep, as was the pilot. For a moment, your heart stilled, silence by fear. But then you remembered what you had learned from the time in the abandoned gym Captain Phasma had brought you to. There had been many books hidden in the walls, from romance novels, to manuals. You had read a tome on piloting on one occasion.

"I have to try," you spoke aloud, taking all your strength to shift the sleeping pilot from the main chair, to access the buttons. "I'm no better than my father if I don't try. I can do anything I think of. I am a princess - no. I am the wife of General Armitage Hux." you steel yourself, turning the ship on, pressing the buttons and coordinates into the computer. The door closed, the engines burst to life. And you were on your way to the man you swore to love, and protect.

---

HUX

"There are warships approaching, sir!" Lieutenant Mitaka shouted, his voice echoing up the halls where Armitage stood. His lips parted, eyes wide. Whatever could have attracted their attention? They had their cloaking devices on, their treaties signed to be in the current airspace; he could not understand - until he figured it out. "Sir, General," Mitaka was breathless, face red from running, "There are five on radar. Computer suggests resistance forces."

He shakes his head, glancing to his hands. He places his cup of Caf down, and marches alongside his Lieutenant to the bridge, to the monitors. Sure enough, there are five dots upon the screen, each closer than the other. From the signal, he knows their code, where they came from. Call it a quirk, but he never forgets a planet's armada's code.

"Hyperion," he frowns.

Mitaka beside him, makes no sound or movement as to suggest that he too knows what that name means. He can only guess that this has been that King's power-play - to trade off his daughter, and then destroy the greatest war fleet in the history of time in space.

"Rouse Kylo Ren, to report to the bridge immediately. I need him, the Captain and all available Storm Troopers to report to the weapons bay." he snaps, eyes narrow. From his waist, he releases the blaster attached for emergencies, and turns toward the approaching ships outside. "This is no resistance, this is war."

---

READER

As fast as you can, you hurtle through space, hoping that the engines and the thrusters would hold the momentum enough for the hyperdrive to kick. They must have stolen the coordinates from the home location of the ship you were in, to get to the Finaliser; a ship as large as it was, and as fast as it was was surely hard to track. Oh, why hadn't you known; you were a naive to trust your father, to return? It had felt nice to see them once more, yes, but there was the fact that you were married to Armitage Hux, the officer who you'd seen melt into a man, who had waved you off.

You had a duty now. Not to your planet. Not to blood. But to the man you loved.

The hyperdrive stuttered, falling out of the jump, and just as well. You were on the outside ring of the warships, all with markings from your home planet. You recognised the main one; it housed the leader, your father, and the men of his guard. The box Armitage had given you was still unopened, and sat beside you in the copilot's seat. All of the week, you had been without a moment spare to breathe by yourself, always surrounded by your beloved sisters. Without a moment to think, you ripped the lid from the box, and gasped.

A blaster. It was big enough to have a twin barrel, but small enough to fit perfectly in your hands. Engraved on the handle, in block letter, read HUX. It had to be a dual weapon, one of a private collection, the second blaster in the Hux collection. It was your weapon; your gift from him.

At once, you set the ship to autopilot, and gathering yourself and the blaster rushed to the escape pod, and clambered inside. It was the only way to get there fast, not when the ship was injured from the journey across space itself. Inside, you programmed the pod, and squeezing your eyes, felt every fibre and atom in your body being flung across the empty darkness of the stars towards the Finaliser.

You had to save him.

Because sometimes, rarely, in the stories you had read as a child, there were princesses who had set out to quest, to save the day: to save the soldiers.

---

HUX

The ships had docked. The soldiers were falling. Kylo Ren had been shot, strategically in the place where he had been before by the Wookie when Starkiller had fallen. The opposing force were advancing, gradually coming to where he stood. If this had been a year ago, he would have been fearless. Shooting down anything in his way. But there was no way of knowing if ________ had been behind this, or if they had her hostage on board the main ships, and Armitage cursed himself for the weakness of love.

On screen, there showed the footage of the troopers going down, the enemy advancing. How had it come to this? Was this the end of the First Order? The -

From the corner of his eye, he saw a missile, something outside the window which looked very unusual. It looked like one of his ships' escape pods; it was round, and hurtling toward the ship, too fast to make a safe docking.

"Everyone at alert!" He shouted, flagging the leader of the combatant troops' attention to the escape pod. At once, everyone's attention was on it, their blasters raised into position.

"Activate the oxygen masks, and prepare for company!" The trooper shouted. Armitage grabbed one from a fallen trooper, and luckily so, because if he had placed it on a second later, he'd be dead. The pod smashed through the glass, skidding into the furthest reach of the room. Quickly, Armitage cocked both his gun, and hand toward a control panel to seal the breach, to add the protective layer where the glass had been. It was no good fighting an enemy if there was a chance of being sucked out to your death into the stars. "Blasters at the ready!"

The pod opened, and toppling from inside, was -

"_________!" He shouted, his voice strange through the modulator of the trooper helmet. At once, he tossed the helmet from his shoulders. He didn't care if there was enough oxygen in the air to breathe, or if he ever breathed again. He was under attack, and there was a surefire possibility he could die. But his wife, his _________ was before him. It would be okay to see her again.

Just as she righted herself, the doors were opened; and Armitage was faced with King Hyperion. The father of his wife looked just as he did the last time he had met him; tall and strong, the scruff on his face fleshing slowly to become a beard. He had thought of the King to be a man who was benevolent, had integrity. But he could only see a man who had gone back on his word for the accords, who used power to corrupt power.

"Genereal Hux, it would seem that we meet once more," the king raised his blaster. "We will also meet again in death."

There was a click, and at once, there was a light trained onto the forehead of the king. "If you shoot, then so shall I, and I will be an orphan and a widow on the same day." Armitage had never heard such conviction from you; it felt like a contradiction to the princess you were raised to be. But he and you were not true as your titles suggested. And characteristics for such titles could go straight to the trash compactor. "I have enough rounds in my blaster to take out all of you in moments. Don't think my training has gone to waste over the years, and don't think I will hesitate to shoot."

Her father narrowed his eyes. "You're not my daughter, you're a lovechild. A fake!" He cries.

Armitage nods. "I know. It makes her disassociation from you and your petty kingdom's attempt at resistance even more squalid, I should think. Now, King Hyperion, do take in consideration of the threat my wife has issued. It seems feasible payment for what your own wife has caused grief for her life." He raises his blaster, as do the troopers behind him.

"Call off the invasion, now." _______'s voice does not waver. Her eyes bore through the enemies, but she is still as beautiful as the day they were married as she threatens to paint the walls red with their blood. "Or I will."

---

READER

In the rooms, you sit, the medi kit before you, patching up the wounds of a crash landing. Armitage had to sort out the administration and damage control from the invasion from your father, and the grand entrance you had made into the atrium of the ship. The Finaliser wasn't immortal; it needed major repairs. But thanks to what courage you had, you'd saved the lives of the First Order, and ended the plans of that scheming father of yours.

The door to the room opened. Without glancing, you knew the figure entering was a lithe man, tall, slender, with a head of ginger hair atop his head, ruffled from the battle, ruffled for the first time you'd ever seen in your life. You knew it was him, by the way his arms folded around your neck, his scent filling your nose, his hands stilling the stitching of stitches you were completing.

"We have medical droids for that, ________," he reminded you, voice low. Emotional.

You shrug his hand, and finish the last in the row. "I'll be looked at in the morning. For now, I want to not bleed on you as we look at each other," you snip the thread, and turn to take in your general, your husband. You lived your whole life thinking one decision could be made by you. Just one. And today, you had made a decision, one which had changed you, which made a future possible for the two of you with no strings attached to the past you had come from. "Armitage..."

"I've missed you," he murmurs, his face fitted in the dip of your neck, warm, calming.

You can't help but laugh, "It's been only a week. And rest assured, I'll never return to where my father breathes, my step-mother's wretched home. I belong here. I belong with you." You turn to face him, lowering your head to meet his lips with your own. "I came in bonds, and being with you - being with you has set me free."

la fin

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