(no subject)

[clan_techie]

Techie, honestly, had no idea why he'd been spared when a squad of elite stormtroopers and the First Order's boogeyman himself had arrived and dismantled MaMa's clan with a sort of brutal efficiency. Definitely cleaner than when MaMa had initially taken over that corner of the galaxy.

But there he was, cuffed in the back of a troop transport, and he wasn't sure if that was better than dead or not. He tilted his head so that he could rub at the corner of his eye with the knuckle of his index finger. The augmentations had been badly installed and never really properly maintained, and now, out of range of MaMa's mainframe, he felt a little blind. He could still see, sure, and had infrared and x-ray and a handful of other spectrum scans, but he could only see what he was looking at, no longer connected to the entire compound's security cameras.

Essentially he was back to being just a single person when he'd gotten used to being an entire compound.

It was something that made him feel very small and very, very alone.

He also had no way of knowing that the raid had been specifically to rescue him, and that was because he had no idea just how important he actually was. Certainly he knew about his resemblance to the First Order's General, but MaMa had always said that the only reason anyone would come for him was if said General needed a decoy, which was what he was chiefly concerned about at the moment, gnawing on a thumbnail.

Comments

a little inspired by our other scene, at least in terms of hux and kylo getting along.

[umbraeternam]

She didn't do this for him. Absolutely, most certainly, not. Kylo Ren didn't do things for other people, that might imply generosity, and generosity was letting people keep their lives when they didn't necessarily deserve them. She did things for herself, for her own motivations, because there was some benefit to her. Just as one would expect from the commander of the First Order.

The clan was a threat, one Snoke hadn't cared about because there were no offshoots of the Resistance to be found in that particular area of the galaxy. (Kylo would have pushed to investigate the peculiarity of that but she'd been a little preoccupied with her singular quest at the time.) With the remnants of the Resistance temporarily in the wind, it was as good a time as any to attend to other threats. Some action would also help keep the troops focused.

There were plenty of reasons and justifications for why MaMa's clan had finally been targeted.

...Okay, maybe she had given the mission priority because of General Hux's personal connection. Not that he had asked, or she had offered. At least not in so many words.

When the ships returned to the dreadnought -- not the Finalizer, as Kylo needed Hux to remain with the rest of the fleet in her stead, and he was far too close to the mission besides (the logic of which he couldn't argue when she was willing to point to her own ill-advised actions on Crait as an example) -- she disembarked her shuttle quickly and made a beeline for the transport. As the stormtroopers filed off the transport she gestured for their guest to be left alone, and she slowly boarded the transport as it emptied out.

It wasn't any less strange to look upon the young man now than it had been when she first laid eyes on him in the compound. Not a spitting image of Hux, no, but there was resemblance enough. She wondered if he had any idea of the truth. The anxiety and uncertainty that radiated from him suggested no. "Do you know why you're here?" she gently inquired, although the words sounded more harsh than intended given she still wore her helmet.

makes sense!

[clan_techie]

[Though I can see it now: "Happy birthday, here's the clone your father had made in case you turned out to be a failure."]

His head lifted at Kylo's approach, the left eye focusing and re-focusing slowly, having to resist the urge for an x-ray or solid-matter scan to see what was under the helmet, realizing that he didn't really want to know.

His brow creased at that question, mostly because it was one that he'd been asking himself -not in so many words- since he'd first been hauled out of his lair at the center of the compound. He finally shook his head, picking at the hem of his sleeve with narrow fingers. Hux's hands were much the same, but the nervous movements of Techie's fingers made them look all the more spindly, "No." And then, brow creasing again, almost a nervous twitch all on its own: "The General needs a decoy." It was almost a question but not quite, "It won't work. Maybe from a distance, but not up close."

There weren't many who would contradict Kylo, and Techie was, in fact, still terrified of doing so, but considering that most of his life had been a baseline level of fear, this was only barely a spike on that graph.

He had no idea of his heritage, the lost twin to Armitage Hux, kidnapped shortly after the family's arrival on Arkanis as an attempt to get a ransom for him. A plan that clearly hadn't worked.

also feel free to smack my hand if I make any wrong assumptions

[umbraeternam]

[ LOL! That does sound like a very Kylo thing to do. Or "See, I'm serious about wanting us to not try and kill each other, I did a nice thing for you when I didn't have to." also "Let's keep this between us so it doesn't spoil my image, kthx." ]

The cybernetics were an interesting touch, to be certain. It was clear enough by looking at him that there hadn't been much care involved, which made her curious about the how and why. Questions that no doubt would be resolved easily enough by the data that had been taken from the compound. Naturally information on the man before her was few and far between. It had to be or else she imagined Snoke would have desired to get his filthy hands on the General's twin if for no other reason than to have someone to use against Hux. That, or he might have sent her to kill the young man so there was one more point of contention between herself and Hux.

Kylo observed quietly as she stood before Techie, taking note of everything. Absently, she wondered at how Hux would react. She knew if she had a twin that she'd never been given a chance to know, who had suffered such clear mistreatment...

The initial reunion would happen privately. Yes, she would make certain of that. However Hux might react, there was no need for an audience, and in private there would be no worry about the image he worked so hard to uphold around his fellow officers.

A brow arched at the half statement, half question Techie gave in response. Interesting. So the likeness had been addressed and a plausible reason for it given.

"No, it wouldn't work very well at all." she replied in calm agreement. After a moment she crouched down, putting herself closer to his level as she regarded him. "You've been at that compound a while, haven't you? But not willingly I would imagine."

Of course! Please do the same if I do a dumb

[clan_techie]

He wasn't sure if having that towering figure now closer to eye-level was better or not, feeling mostly like it just compounded the issue of intimidation, though not really in a way he could quantify.

The response to that question was automatic, something that had basically been drilled into him until it was a rote statement, something he believed only because of how often he'd said it and how often it had been said to him: "MaMa saved my life." He squinted briefly, blinking again and tilting his head so that he could scrub at the corner of one eye with a curled knuckle once more, adding: "Made me better." Presumably indicating the implants with that statement.

And maybe she had, in a way, but she'd also branded him as property. The tattoo above his temple was one the clan had used to mark belongings, not members.

One of many things Kylo would find in the data that had been taken from the compound was that MaMa had indeed given Techie the implants, but even then it was years after she'd originally taken his eyes in the first place, and they hadn't been taken at the same time, the first had been sent to Brendol as verifiable genetic proof that she had his child. The other had been taken a few weeks later, apparently in a fit of pique because the initial ploy hadn't worked.

The implants hadn't been made for him in the first place, and inexpertly installed, on top of not being properly maintained, which would definitely explain the near-constant irritation. But he'd gotten used to that, at least.

[umbraeternam]

Kylo hummed a thoughtful noise, mostly to herself. "Oh yes, so I can see." she remarked dryly, bordering on sarcasm. Monsters loved to pose themselves as saviors. A tale as old as time, no doubt. Did she fall into that category? No, she didn't think so. Perhaps her reasons weren't altruistic but they weren't exactly self-serving either. Her primary motivation, regardless of her denial of it, was for another rather than herself.

Much was told to her without a word, and without the Force. Behavior had a way of speaking loudly if a person were simply willing to listen. She could already guess at what the medical staff would report back to her but she wanted a workup done all the same. If nothing else, at least something could be done about the comfort level. Past that, well, they would just have to see.

"I suspect you wouldn't be keen to go back. If anything had been left to go back to." Regarding him a few moments more, Kylo straightened. "Come with me. It's clear you could stand to have a little medical attention." The words were mostly for his benefit, so his mind didn't start to run with worry that he would shortly be interrogated or worse. For now the cuffs remained, more for his own safety than anything else. He wasn't a prisoner but she knew how fear and worry had a way of making people mildly unpredictable if given a sliver of freedom.

[clan_techie]

He'd been about to mention that it wasn't as if he had anywhere else to go except the now razed compound, but then she was telling him what was going to happen next, and he decided that was better, that was what he was used to, and it was as easy as anything to fall back on that now.

He didn't have any real reason to question it, if she wanted him taken to medical, that was where he'd go.

Likewise he wouldn't know what to do if the binders were removed, most likely he'd continue on as he had been, though the way anxiousness -if not actual fear- was still rolling off of him in waves it was really anyone's guess.

He did, however, relax just a little at the realization that medical here really meant that, someplace clean and tidy and not at all what it had been at the compound which was basically a hack-shop.

The reports were as to be expected, probably, his body in a constant state of trying to reject the implants, which could be fixed, but only after the malnutrition was taken care of. He wasn't dangerously malnourished, but definitely lacking in a few key minerals and definitely underweight. Not to mention the fact that he was littered with scars, his arms mostly, but a fair few along his torso, the softer parts, none of them were more than an inch or two long, and the wounds that had caused them hadn't necessarily been deep, likely enough to scare him some, shake him back in line.

[umbraeternam]

It was a quiet walk to the medical bay and once they arrived Kylo hung back to stay out of the way while the staff checked him over. She had no intention of leaving though. At one point an officer came by to speak with her and she stepped away to relay orders. They were on their way back to the fleet, and she wanted the General informed that the mission was successful. Nothing more, nothing less. Details could come in person and in private.

She also gave instructions to have a presently unoccupied officer's room made ready. Their guest would not be spending any time in a cell. The room would be guarded, but it would be for the young man's own good. No one need bother him, and she had a feeling this world would be quite a change. Particularly once the truth was revealed.

After the medical staff was finished she listened to the reports, glad that at least there were no hidden unpleasant surprises. The scars were concerning, but not surprising. It sounded like there was nothing that couldn't be healed with time and the proper attention.

Satisfied, she bid the staff to leave them, wishing to speak with him privately, although she did pass along an order to have a proper meal brought to the room. Kylo looked him over, quietly debating with herself a moment, and then she reached up to remove her helmet. There was no need for it here. She set it on a vacant bed before resting her eyes upon him. "I know you are afraid, but no harm is going to come to you. If that were the intent, it would have happened already."

[clan_techie]

Even while the medics worked, and he answered their questions as best he could, though as often as not the answer was a cautious 'I don't know', his gaze kept returning to her. She was his new constant, and while he was definitely still afraid of her on some level, the anxiety had spiked upon arrival in medical even despite the fact that it wasn't what he'd been expecting.

Even when she bade the staff leave the underlying fear was still there, though it had been all along and it was unlikely that it was going to ease anytime soon, though his own room and regular meals were a good start.

He was surprised when the helmet came off, and moreso by her actual face. Enough so in fact that he hadn't actually processed what she was saying right away, which was in turn why it took him a moment to reply, brow furrowing again and finally asking: "If I'm not going to be a decoy, why am I here? I don't know anything. I wasn't in charge of anything. MaMa let me have access to the compound's feeds, the internal holonet, but I always knew where I wasn't allowed to watch."

[umbraeternam]

When Kylo felt his surprise she wondered what he had expected. Not enough to ask but enough that she was curious. It also idly made her wonder what stories and rumors about her might be drifting through the galaxy. She knew that with each passing day there were fewer who knew her true origins, and those who knew the name she was born with were either forbidden to speak of it or didn't care to.

"Just because a person isn't allowed to do something doesn't mean they actually refrain from doing it." she remarked, more of a general statement than anything else.

To be honest, she wasn't certain of the best way to go about answering his questions, or how much she should divulge. Should Hux be the one to reveal the truth? Would he want to, or would he rather some of the truth be shared before they saw each other? Ultimately, did it matter?

"Perhaps I'm just curious about you." she began, which was in and of itself a truth. "Need the leader of the First Order have a deeper reason for doing something?" Slightly tilting her head, she regarded him for a moment. "Tell me your story. Where did you come from before that compound was made your home?" It seemed better to figure out what he knew or recalled of his early life than to start throwing unexpected information at him.

[clan_techie]

He was torn between wanting to protest that he wouldn't do any such thing and not wanting to contradict her, even if the initial comment had merely been idle observation.

Luckily he was saved from having to make a decision when she actually answered his question and asked one of her own, though it didn't lessen his puzzlement any, rubbing at the corner of an eye again, apparently a nervous tic as much as it was an attempt to alleviate the irritation of the implants, "She bought me off of some slavers." He replied, "I'd already lost one eye, blow to the head they think, and the other one wasn't far behind, some kind of infection."

It was the story he'd been told often enough that he'd accepted it as the truth, didn't remember any other version of it, occasionally there were flickers of memory, nightmares of pain and fear with no real source that he could tell, and he had no recollection of the fact that MaMa and her people had been responsible for both the blow to the head and the loss of his actual eyes, or the fact that those two things were ultimately unrelated.

[umbraeternam]

Kylo quietly hummed a thoughtful noise as she listened. What he told her was simple, very simple. The kind of simplicity that was close enough to be a true possibility that some wouldn't question it.

Not that she thought he was lying. Quite the opposite. She doubted he would lie to her, especially after coming from the sort of environment he had. Lies earned punishment in those sorts of worlds and while that might not be exactly what earned those scars he had, she recognized conditioning when she saw it, even if it was of the crude variety. No, she imagined what he was telling her was his truth, what he believed and had been led to. She could find out what he did actually remember of his early years -- if he remembered anything -- but in this instance peering into another's mind felt like it would be a dash of cruelty and clearly the young man had been through enough. Aside from the fact she could just imagine how Hux would react if she put those particular abilities of hers to use, even if she was kind about it.

"Interesting." Which it was, to an extent, and her tone certainly wasn't patronizing. "So you were quite young then, I imagine. If you don't really recall much of what came before you were at the compound."

[clan_techie]

He made a quiet sound of agreement, nodding, "Yeah, I was always small, but I was definitely young, not even six or seven yet, I don't think." Depending on whether MaMa's band had captured him themselves or if there were actually slavers in the mix beforehand, he would have been four or five, six at the oldest.

"Sometimes I think I remember..." He shook his head then, one sharp movement, almost a twitch in and of itself, as if shaking off that line of thought, "Sometimes I think I was somewhere else, but if I was just somebody's debt being paid it doesn't matter." There was something like resignation in his tone. That, too, was something he'd been told often enough, that before MaMa he wouldn't have amounted to anything, since he'd been used to pay off someone's debt.