A/N: Post Rise of Skywalker AU :)

"Hux."

General Armitage Hux held his breath, but just for a moment. Any fear would be taken as cowardice, any hesitation as insubordination. He feigned ease and comfort as passionately as he could muster as he marched toward the Sith throne.

The Final Order's operations were located on Exegol. Everything about the temple sent chills up and down Hux's neck. The screeching bolts of Sith power gave him great anxiety, though he had never seen them strike a soldier. Even worse than the atmosphere was the mood. The Supreme Leader had been in an especially horrible one. Whether it was the boredom following the end of the war or the loss of friends in the resistance, there was no smile on those lips.

Hux saluted briefly before standing at perfect attention. "Yes, Supreme Leader."

Rey cocked her head and leaned forward on her throne. "Not happy to see me?"

Others might mistake her posture and tone as amusement, but Hux knew far better. The girl from Jakku had evolved into something sinister and unpredictable. He was often shocked to find himself longing for Kylo Ren's reign. Now his heart tripped over itself in fear. "Perfectly happy, Supreme Leader."

"I hope you can make me happy." Rey took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, some of the hardness of her face had gone away. "Report on the mission?"

Exactly what he had hoped she wouldn't ask. Hux cleared his throat. There was no sugar coating it, and Rey hated anything but direct answers. "The mission was not successful," he replied. It took some willpower to keep himself from cringing.

Rey stood abruptly. Guards in dark robes on either side of her flinched. "They failed?" she shouted. "Again?"

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Hux didn't dare think about the fangs that sometimes seemed to appear when she snarled in rage. "I promise you I'm as disappointed as you ar-"

She waved her hand and cut him off. "Do I have to do everything myself?" Rey stormed down the steps to the throne and breezed past him. "Come."

Hux nodded curtly and turned to follow after her. "It would seem so, Supreme Leader."

She sighed and glanced over her shoulder as she walked through the temple, Hux following. "How did you become a general?" she asked. "You're so young. What did you do?"

He remained a pace and a half behind her. "Unspeakable things," he replied to the back of her head.

"Good. You can help me find what the worthless Knights apparently can't." Rey smiled back at him. Her buns bobbed merrily as she stalked out of the temple and toward her old freighter. Why she couldn't take up a new ship, Hux had no idea. He didn't dare ask.

"Of course, Supreme Leader. What, may I ask, have these missions been seeking to find? Sith artifacts, Jedi memorabilia, but to what purpose?" Hux raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps if I knew the big picture, I could-"

"You of all people won't approve." Rey paused at the ramp of the Falcon. She turned and beamed at him. The expression bordered on maniacal and Hux had never feared her more. "I'm going to bring him back," she blurted.

Hux didn't have to ask who him was. If she was successful, he'd be plagued by not only Rey, but Kylo Ren. The thought turned his stomach. He'd likely not survive that dual reign. "Your nemesis?" he asked as disinterestedly as he could. "Why?"

The mania left her features and left a soft smile that turned to anguish. "Nemesis, maybe. Ben was the other part of my soul." Rey spoke the words like they cut her to the very bone. "He'd do the same for me."

"Kylo Ren is dead," Hux said carefully. "You said it yourself."

"Right. I killed him," Rey said lightly. "But Ben Solo is alive. At least, he will be." She turned and stalked up the ramp. "He's going to hate what I've done to the ship, but I'm excited for him to fly it. I don't think he'll mind once he's made a few runs in it."

Hux watched her disappear onto the ship. She was unbalanced. Supreme Leader Rey was utterly unhinged. Her swing from barking orders to casual conversation and absolute rage to pleasant casualty made her all the more dangerous.

The search raged on. Barren planets, populated cities, forests, swamps. Hux hadn't packed properly (or at all) and the search for artifacts and texts of which importance Rey still wouldn't let him in on was slow, but steadily succeeding. At some point Hux assumed she would collect the final piece to her puzzle. And then? Who could be sure. Force users, he snarled to himself as often as he breathed.

On what Hux figured to be the ninth day on the hunt, a hurricane force storm swept across them suddenly, stranding him and Rey away from the Falcon. They sought shelter in the same cave that had yielded a deep red jewel that sparkled unnaturally, something Rey had been thrilled by.

Hux quickly built a fire. His fingers fumbled with the dry brush he gathered from the mouth of the cave. It had been some time since he was the lowest ranking officer in the room, but now with Rey, he was naught more than a peon. After a few tries, he got a small blaze started.

Rey was peeling off her long black robes. Each piece of fabric landed on the cave floor with a soft squelch. Taking the cue from her, he stripped off his great coat and draped it over a boulder. He didn't dare remove anything else. Not when Rey was so unpredictable. He stole a glance at her. Stripped down to her leggings and a black tank top, she was such a small thing. Her buns sagged and dripped down her back. Her nose was running.

If Kylo Ren, Ben Solo, whoever, was truly brought back to life, would the former Supreme Leader gut him for spending so much with with Rey? Hux pursed his lips. It was no use wondering whether Rey could really bring someone back from the dead. It wasn't like he could stop her.

A crack of thunder rumbled outside the cave. Rey jumped. Hux almost felt sorry for her. Rey looked more like sad little girl than a Force user that could rule the Final Order, the Sith, and wipe out any Force user in her path. He reminded himself that she had helped kill Snoke, Kylo Ren, Palpatine… a little thunder was nothing.

Rey sat down cross-legged next to the fire and sighed. "I hate the cold. I hate storms."

"I've scanned the cave. We'll be safe here." Hux pursed his lips. It was going to be a long night. He pulled off his gloves and tossed them by the fire.

"You don't have to be afraid of me." Rey pulled her knees closer into her chest. "Relax. You're safe here, Armitage."

Hux looked up in surprise. "Of course, Supreme Leader."

"Just Rey." She stared out at the lightning. "I'm just Rey." Thunder loud enough to make even Hux jump shook them and Rey whimpered and flew to Hux's side at once.

He hesitantly let his instincts kick in. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. She immediately nestled into his embrace. "There, there," he forced. "It's only a storm."

"I have to bring him back," she whispered. Her voice was nothing more than a breath. "I'm not supposed to be alone again."

Hux sighed into her wet hair. "Why do you think you owe Kylo Ren?"

"I killed Kylo Ren." Ren sat up and looked into his eyes. Her proximity was alarming, but he didn't shy away from her. "I ran him through with his own light saber."

Hux held his breath. He'd long awaited this story, and if he was ever to hear it, this seemed like the night. "Do go on."

There was nothing of the Supreme Leader in her face now. Rey was every bit the girl Kylo Ren had dragged onto the ship and unsuccessfully duelled on Starkiller Base. As she told the story of how she died and Ben Solo traded his life for hers, Hux stared in wonder.

"A different side to the man," Hux mumbled. As much as Kylo Ren's wavering dedication and conflicted loyalty drove a stake right into the heart of Hux's irritation center, he couldn't help but admire the way he was willing to do what he thought was right in the moment. The man Hux had worked with dying for someone? Unlikely. Perhaps he truly was dead and it was Ben Solo who had remained on Exegol.

The fire crackled softly, merrily filling the silence between explosions of thunder. Rey was staring into the orange glow. She shivered in spite of the warmth. Hux considered offering his coat, but it was still soaked.

"I can't be alone again," Rey whispered after some time.

A thought struck Hux with the force of a freight train. "What are these artifacts for?" He stared at her impatiently. "Some Sith ritual, I assume? How many are there left to collect?"

"Seven." Rey looked exhausted by the thought. "I read in a Sith text that if you collect certain elements, you can open a portal-"

Hux interrupted. "We can go to the World Between Worlds."

Rey stared. "The what?"

Hux's stomach flopped. The hours and hours of research done in his younger days all lead to this moment. When Supreme Leader Snoke first began his obsession with the young Skywalker, Hux's curiosity piqued. Was he Force sensitive himself? Is that why Snoke so eagerly promoted him? It turned out that no, Armitage Hux didn't have an iota of the Force. That didn't mean he didn't try to learn it. Sith, Jedi, it didn't matter. He read everything he could get his hands on, hoping to at least understand the ultimate weapon he was not privileged enough to possess.

"The World Between Worlds." Hux's heart was hammering by now. "All you'd have to do is snatch Ren from the past. No rituals. No elements. Just a temple that only a Jedi can open."

Rey collapsed into herself, her knees drawn into her chest and face buried in her hands. Her shoulders bobbed up and down. Whether she was crying or laughing, he couldn't tell.

"Supreme Leader, I-"

Laughter echoed through the cave when Rey tossed her head back, cackling. "You're saying if I would have told you this, I could have saved myself all this hunting?"

Hux's face screwed into a grimace. "I suppose so." He thought back on everything he'd read. Blank nothingness, spirit guides, flashes of the past. Hadn't some Jedi pulled another from the cluthes of Darth Vader himself? Yes, this was certainly possible. He wondered whether Kylo Ren would be annoyed to be disturbed in the afterlife. Most likely.

"Then let me tell you a secret," Rey said, a pleasant smile upon her face. "Since you've just done me a massive favor."

He waited cautiously. The whole evening had been a wild ride. Hell, life since the Emperor was killed on Exegol had been utterly unfathomable. Whatever shew as about to tell him was surely just another bizarre twist on the road his life was traveling upon.

Rey cleared her throat and poked at the fire. "Well. I don't care about the Final Order. I needed resources. Ships. The Knights. Bodies. Or I thought I did," she added jokingly. "I didn't know I just needed you." She giggled like a student who had gotten away with a prank on the teacher. "It doesn't matter to me what happens to any of them. Sith loyalists, First Order officers. I don't care."

This was bad news. Very bad news. Hux pursed his lips. The Final Order couldn't survive being abandoned and left leaderless – again. Three times in less than a year? Sheer insanity. The general silently prayed Rey didn't mean what she was saying, but he knew she did entirely. "Should you bring back Ben Solo, what becomes of the Order?" he asked.

Rey shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it. I guess you can have it. As long as you don't hurt anyone. You're as capable as anyone else. And you've helped me tremendously."

Hux's ears began to ring, a high pitched whine that cut through the howling wind outside. "Say that again?"

"You can be in charge. You be supreme leader." Rey was beaming now. "I don't want it. I just want to go live on a green planet with Ben." The thunder didn't appear to be frightening her anymore. "Now. Tell me more about the World Beyond Worlds."

Just like that, Armitage Hux had made himself indisposable to the Supreme Leader and secured himself the most lethal fighting force in the galaxy. All it really took was a moment of kindness to someone who he perhaps thought didn't deserve it.

Something stirred in him. Kindness. That was all it really took? Flashes of his struggle to the top made his chest hurt. Manipulation. Patricide. Sleepless nights. Murder. Cunning. Cruelty. Glares across board rooms. It got him far, but it was assisting a sad woman that got him to the top.

Now Rey was sitting behind him, warming herself by the fire, content to be stuck in a cave with him, most likely dreaming about their future adventure to save Ben Solo. He Hux kept to himself, she would have been miserable and leader of the Final Order for years to come as her fruitless search dragged on.

Hux nearly snorted at his bizarre luck. Everything he had endured would finally be worth it. There would be no one left to kick him around. No one would tell Armitage Hux what to do ever again.

With this feeling settling over him – he suddenly understood why Rey kept calling him Ben Solo. Perhaps people could change. It only took one moment, he supposed, and Rey seemed to be quite good at orchestrating them. Whether she knew it or not, the Supreme Leader was a powerful pull to the light.

Life was strange indeed.