bakerstreet | ( picture prompt meme )

"I'm not going to lay around waiting for the Resistance or Republic to find us." Hux wasn't sure how he managed it but he got to his feet however unsteady. "Organa isn't stupid, she's going to want to put an end to the war and ensure I'm either dead or in their custody." He wasn't going to make it easy for her.

"Where? If you're here you can at least be helpful." Ren was a valuable asset despite being self-centered and often unpredictable. They would need him to move forward. "We're also going to need a way off this planet."

"Trust me," Anakin said with a barely repressed snort of laughter, "I am well aware of Leia's intelligence in these situations."

But taking pity on Hux, he reached out an arm for him to steady himself on while jerking with his chin backward toward the sky. "You might not be captured but he likely is. And I, at least, still have my ship."

Well his ship that he 'borrowed' from Hux, anyway.

"Oh wonderful." This day just seemed to be getting better but right now he couldn't think far beyond pain and how the blood was quickly soaking through his uniform.

"We should be able to make it to one of the outposts to rendezvous with some of the fleet." And from there he could figure out where to go. This fight wasn't over just yet- Finalizer was a great loss but the Order had larger, more powerful ships in the fleet the Resistance hadn't yet encountered.

He looked at Anakin for a moment before deciding to simply accept his assistance. It would be easier that way. "I'm going to have to assume the ship is still functioning."

"We should," he agreed vaguely. Whether Anakin actually intended for that to happen was an entirely different matter. "And yes," he waved in the direction he'd come from. "Landed safely and everything. Despite getting briefly chased down here."

Briefly until he shot them down, anyway.

Hux wasn't going to push it further- he wasn't exactly in the position to question Anakin given his condition. He at least tried to support most of his weight so they could move quickly. The more time they spent on the planet the more vulnerable they were.

"I have the coordinates and codes we will need," he said with a grimace. He actually did believe Anakin when he said that ship had landed safely. The one thing that hadn't been able to be fully erased from Anakin's Clone Wars records was the fact that he was one of the best pilots in the galaxy. And during the battle he had seen evidence that those mentions weren't entirely wrong.

"From there we can gather a force to start to get Ren back. Organa won't let him go go so easily but neither will the Supreme Leader."

Not just Anakin, but Vader had been a fair hand at the pilot's yoke too. But he'd rather overshadowed that aspect of his reputation with....the rest of his reputation.

Anakin rolled his eyes slightly as he started leading the way to where the ship was waiting. "You say that like I'd be overly inclined toward liberating him from his mother, too."

"You do realize that Snoke will demand I rescue him." Hux was starting to realize that things would most likely come to a head between Anakin and Snoke and he wasn't going to get in the middle of that.

When they reached the ship he paused, calculating how he would get up into the ship without falling over. His expression was determined nonetheless. "You wouldn't happen to have a cloth or something I can stop the bleeding with?" he asked eventually. He wasn't going to be able to do anything if he bled out.

"Snoke can demand whatever he wants," Anakin said dismissively. "That doesn't mean he'll get it." Not that he expected Hux to tell that poor imitation of Palpatine that.

Anakin then eyed Hux closely for a few moments before he gave a shrug and tugged his sash off.

There was a reason Jedi wore so much extra fabric.

"You want some help with that, general?"

"I'll let the two of you work that out." Hux had already told Anakin his position on that matter. He wasn't sure what he was going to do about Ren personally but suddenly he was too exhausted to think about any details.

"I think the bleeding is slowing at least," he said as he took the sash gratefully. "I'm fairly confident I'll survive this," he said with an odd laugh, swaying on his feet for a moment as he started to climb into the ship. He had never been wounded in the field before so this was a new experience but he liked to think that he was handling this rather well given the circumstances.

"I wasn't a Jedi healer but," he looked speculatively at Hux again, "I might be able to do something about that."

If nothing else, he needed to get Hux sitting down and some fluid in him before everything caught up and he passed out.

Then again, that would make Anakin's job easier. No arguments about where he might take them.

"I didn't Jedi healed as well," Hux said as he flopped down in the co-pilot's seat. Even if he wasn't wounded he wasn't sure how much help he could be as the only flying he had done was in simulations where he had only just barely managed to pass.

"Let me give you the coordinates and codes so we aren't shot down." Now that he was sitting down the adrenaline was starting to wear off and he was feeling heavy. If he passed out they would be out away from the fleet for the Resistance to pick off. He pulled out his datapad, surprised it was still working but with a pale shaking hand he still managed to pull up the information before handing it Anakin.

Anakin snorted, "that's because almost everything anyone knew about Jedi was destroyed." He'd done a fair bit of that destruction himself.

He did give the datapad's information a glance before setting it aside. "Lucky for you, I'm the only living expert on the old Jedi Order." Luke was more of a...journeyman. "So if you're willing, I might be able to help?"

He didn't really agree with quite a lot of what Hux stood for, but he wasn't going to let the guy just die. Besides, all that time being one with the Force had improved his ability to have a defter touch with it than he once had.

"I suppose I can't refuse," Hux said eventually as he lifted the bloody sash. Either he would improve or die, trusting Anakin in this situation made no difference.

A frown did crease his lips though as he watched him. "Why are you doing this?" he asked eventually. "You owe me no loyalty, you aren't a part of the First Order. You had no reason to even return to the planet if you knew your grandson was with the Resistance forces." he pointed out.

"Or is it one of those Jedi things?" he asked eventually. He had heard the tales of how compassionate the Jedi were supposed to be, how they valued life above all, but he still couldn't quite grasp Anakin's motivations.

"You could," Anakin pointed out. "That'd be your choice."

As for the other, he shrugged slightly as he pushed up his sleeves. "If it makes you feel better. I'm not really a Jedi anymore, though."

No, that definitely wasn't a proper answer but he was just going to avoid adding anything to that by stretching out to hold his hands over the worst of Hux's wounds as he let his eyes slide shut. Touching the Force was easy and his lips twisted a little in thought as he looked at the other man through it.

The Force wasn't a magic fix-it button but he could at least ease the pain, encourage healing, and stave off infection.

"That's true. I suppose I should be flattered then?" He decided not to press for more answers while Anakin stretched out his hand.

Hux wasn't sure what to expect as he closed his eyes. He had only seen one side of the Force and it didn't surprise him that there were many more things that he was unaware of. He wondered if Ren was even aware of this. He doubted it.

Slowly he felt- something as the pain loosened its grip on him. He wasn't sure what it was at work, this side of the Force was certainly different than the times when he was certain Ren was snooping through his thoughts or feeling the ground shake beneath his feet when Ren was angry. He didn't resist but let Anakin work, letting out a breath.

Anakin smirked a bit as he opened his eyes and sat back away from Hux, pleased to see the bleeding had stopped. "I don't do this for just anyone. How does it feel?"

It was nice, he thought, to be using the Force for something constructive.

He'd spent so much of his life taking things apart with it, knitting things together was a novelty.

He took a moment to take stock once Anakin finished, glancing down. "I can think much more clearly now without that much pain," he admitted after a moment.

"Saved by Anakin Skywalker himself- I never thought I would ever see the day." He wondered how much blood he lost but he was feeling less like he wanted to keel over. "We should take off now," he said after a moment. He wanted to rest, to just close his eyes and let himself sleep but instead he looked up at Anakin.

"We've been here too long."

"Neither did I. I would have thought that punching you again would have been more satisfying."

"And you should get strapped in," he added, ready to just do it himself if it looked to be a task Hux couldn't yet manage. Though at least he appeared to not be quite so shaky anymore.

"I might have to do some fancy flying to get us out of here." Though the thought of letting the Resistance capture them, too, was tempting.

"There will be time for that later." He reached around to strap himself in, he could manage at least that much.

"Do what you have to. There most likely will be Resistance ships up there still waiting," he commented though he was sure if anyone could avoid them, it would be Anakin. There was the question if Anakin would follow the coordinates but for now he was just going to hold on.

He knew what would happen to him if the Resistance if he were to be captured, something he was prepared for but preferred not to experience if he could help it.

The Resistance, Anakin would point out, would be far kinder to him than he'd be to one of them. Then again, they'd likely still put him on trial for war crimes. At that, Anakin had to wonder suddenly for a moment what they'd do to him. Assuming they actually believe he was the man who had been Darth Vader, anyway, which was hardly a foregone conclusion.

Shaking that thought off, it was moot anyway, Anakin started the ship's engines and took off after a rather perfunctory systems check. He didn't even make it out of atmosphere before the sensors started signaling that they'd been spotted.

"And here I thought this day was going to turn out to be boring," Anakin commented with a sharp grin.

"I have a feeling that you would make it interesting anyway," Hux pointed out. He made no move to touch anything even he saw what the sensors were picking up. If Anakin needed any help he could ask anyway.

Instead he looked at Anakin, waiting to see if he would hail the ships or take evasive action. He knew his life was entirely in Anakin's hands but he remained silent.

"It looks like their reinforcements have arrived," he said eventually as the ships came into view- he could recognize the remains of the Republic fleet.

Anakin laughed and went smoothly into evasive maneuvers. Under other circumstances he might have hailed them except, well....he was flying a First Order ship, carrying one of the most well-known military faces from the First Order, and with absolutely no plausible story for why they should treat him any differently. Again, if Leia were there...maybe. But not here and not now.

So instead he started what amounted to a rather deadly dance instead.

"Funny," he said, "how long have I been here and you've never asked me where the new Resistance base is?"

He had to hold on but didn't complain about how how the ship pitched and rolled at moments. He was used to flying in star destroyers and larger shuttles so he hadn't been prepared for any of this.

"Do you even know?" Then again, Anakin had already demonstrated he could do unexpected things with the Force. "You've been on Finalizer and unless you can sense things that could be potentially across the galaxy, I doubt you know."

It was a challenge but he wanted to see if Anakin could actually name the location. "Besides, even if you did know it and I did ask, Leia Organa is still your daughter and I'm sure you're well aware what would happen when we do know her location."

"I kept an eye on my kids," he said mildly even as he's weaving through one of the larger ship's defenses, using that to his advantage to encourage the other smaller ships not to fire on him lest they hit the Resistance capital ship. "You think it was only Ben I looked in on?"

Being a Force ghost makes one quite a desirable spy. He knows quite a lot about what the Resistance was doing right up until just before his appearance on Finalizer.

And yes, that also implied he knew where Luke was.

Hux looked at Anakin before he was distracted by how close they were getting to the Resistance flagship. He nearly said something about how perhaps they shouldn't be getting closer to the ship but then again, he wasn't exactly an expert pilot.

"You know where Luke is." It wasn't a question. "Not that I'm going to ask, I know you won't say anything. Even if Ren or I didn't go after him, you don't want Snoke finding out." Hux had no illusions about Snoke's abilities to get into the minds of others, including his own.

Hux couldn't resist closing his eyes as the ship weaved around the flagship, not wanting to see how close they were getting. It wasn't from fear but more of the unpleasant lurching in his stomach.

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