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Sometimes when he and Ren stood side by side, Hux could smell that he was mated. He never asked, and Ren discouraged all personal talk, so Hux simply assumed he was mated to Snoke and left it at that.
He had no reason to think otherwise until he got a message from the infirmary. He was informed when Ren ended up in Medical as a matter of course but never had reason to visit him. Why would he? Ren was a grown adult, either he would be fine or he wouldn’t. But this was the first time in awhile that Ren had been submerged in bacta and Snoke was worried about him for some fucking reason, so Hux went to pay him a visit.
"We're about ready to release Lord Ren, sir," the corporal at reception said, glancing at his datapad. "Are you taking responsibility for him? We normally remand him to his own custody."
"No," Hux said offhand. "I'm here to check on him."
"You can go ahead in, then. He’s in the command suite." He pointed down the hall, to a secluded room that Hux had never been unfortunate enough to need.
Hux let himself into the room without knocking or announcing himself. He closed the door in time to see Ren step shakily out of a drained bacta tank. He put an arm out and a sergeant wrapped a towel around his shoulders. “Grab the bar, sir, you know the drill,” she said. When Ren actually did what he was told, she started to dry him off.
Ren accepted her help with an air of detached indifference, lifting his arms or spreading his legs as needed. Maker, Hux thought, he was massive. He would be massive even for an alpha and Snoke’s favorite pet was an omega. He had to be taking some kind of illegal supplements.
Ren tilted his head so the sergeant could towel off his hair, exposing a long strip of white skin and two--no, fuck, three--claim marks. Then he tilted his head the other way and Hux could see three more what the fuck.
Hux had never been particularly good at keeping disdain off his face and made no attempt to do so now. How in the actual fuck had Ren been claimed that many times? He couldn’t be unlucky enough to be widowed that often. Did the Republic practice forced marriage and his alphas kept mysteriously dying? Did Snoke mate him off and murder was the only way Ren would rebel against him?
Ren glanced up at Hux under the wet curls of his bangs, eyes narrowing. “Caslon, I need a private moment with my co-commander.”
“Sure thing, sir, I’ve got charting to do anyway.” With one final run through his hair, the sergeant threw the towel into a hamper and let herself out.
Ren turned slowly to a table, where his clothes were neatly folded by his helmet, and started dressing. Even a few days in the bacta tank hadn’t quite fixed everything--Hux could see the minute shake in his hands as he pulled on his leggings.
Without turning around to look at him, Ren said flatly, "Go ahead."
For the first time in his life, Hux’s mouth worked faster than his brain, and he blurted out, “Have you killed five alphas or six?”
Despite his injuries, Ren's hands opened with the motion of drawing his lightsaber. Then he took a deep breath said offhand, "They're all still alive."
"All of them?" That was so much worse. It shouldn't be possible, Hux had never heard of an omega even being claimed by two alphas, and Ren had six scars.
The faintest smile flickered across Ren’s lips, cold and mirthless. "Do you want to know how it happened?"
*
The other padawans are arguing, no one is quite sure what happened or what's going on, but now that they’re not in active danger they need to decide what to do. Before anyone can stop him, Ben tucks himself into a corner and pulls his knees up to his chest.
The ship rattles alarmingly through hyperspace but it's not like they had time to get anything else. A freighter was the best they could do.
He was flash blinded and his vision hasn’t recovered yet. There’s a black cross in his vision, staticky at the edges, the shape of his own lightsaber cracking against Luke’s. He can still feel the tremor that went down his arm, the debris and shrapnel that struck him as he pulled down the temple, the sick terror of waking up only seconds before his own death.
His robes smell like smoke-terror-ozone and each breath makes him feel worse. He lifts his head just enough to try to smell something, anything different. Underneath the smell of the ship, oils and rubber and burnt wires, there’s something else.
He had never thought about it, it was never relevant, but he’s the only omega here. The recirculated air is so thick it feels like he’s drowning, and his nose fills with what he thinks is a deep musk.
Brokri finds him, and he’s furious that Ben disappeared. He grabs Ben by his robes and pulls him toward the rest of the group. Brokri sometimes glances over his shoulder to yell at Ben but Ben can’t understand what he’s saying.
He looks down and sees that Ebec is shaking him. “Ben, what happened?” Ebec demands.
“Luke, it was Luke, he tried--tried--” His voice breaks and he goes silent. His chest hurts, he doesn’t understand why, but if he says anything else then something inside him is going to break and swallow him alive.
“Luke what?” Grace demands.
She steps too close to grab him and her robes reek of ozone, the sharp electrical stench of lightsabers, and he snaps.
He lunges away from her but gets tangled in his own robes and goes down hard. He doesn’t feel it. The black thing in his chest opens up and the Force flows into him and through him but he can’t control it, can’t even touch it. The Force is magnified through the conduit of his own body. There’s a horrible metal screech that send the other padawans running, the Force lashing out against the hull of the ship to twist and distort it. Ben tries to stop it but he can’t, he’s nothing in the face of this.
All he can feel is a sharp, bright kind of terror as the Force pulls at the ship hull, peeling wires off the walls and ripping up panels. He realizes too late that his terror feeds his own powers, he’s caught in a loop of fear and more fear, he’ll never be able to escape it. The Force pulses out again, throwing Grace painfully across the cabin and the other padawans off their feet.
An alarm blares, deafeningly loud in the confined space, and Ebec launches himself into the pilot’s seat and pulls them out of hyperspace. It’s too fast and the ship lurches horribly, but by sheer luck they’re near a planet.
By the time Ebec hits atmosphere the ship is already stretched to its limits. Power pulses out of Ben uncontrollably, punching dents in the hull and looping electricity from the ship to Ben to the ship again. A panel explodes in a shower of sparks and molten metal pours out of the ceiling only inches away from Ebec. The wing bursts off above the treetop but Ebec holds them steady enough to get them to the ground. The ship crashes down, throwing them all off their feet, but they're all alive.
The ship hasn't even stopped moving before Ben is out, running blindly away, as if he can leave his powers behind, but it isn't working. Trees tear themselves out of the ground around him, animals die as he passes, and he runs until he's tackled from behind. The Force thrashes out ahead of him, scouring two pits the black and red dirt. He lashes out instinctively but Grace grabs his hands and turns them away, and the Force splits a boulder in half instead of her skull.
She’s screaming his name but he can't understand her, can't make sense of anything. She raises her hand and he flinches away, throws an arm over his head. She's going to kill him, she's finishing what Luke started but why would she help him escape, why did she help him run? Instead she puts a hand behind his neck and hauls him up, hugs him crushingly tight against her.
"Ben," she says, "Ben, you have to stop, Ben, I’m here, let me help you, let me in--"
"It hurts," he hears himself say, "it hurts, it hurts, it hurts--"
He doesn't know if pain is even what he's feeling. There's too much going on. The Force is flowing, cutting through him, fraying him like a torn edge of cloth. He burns under the weight of it all, his skin prickles with electricity that scorches his nerves until it discharges in flickering bursts out of his fingertips. His heart and his stomach and somewhere deep in his pelvis are focal points for some kind of horrible power and it feels like they're going to collapse into a black hole.
"Ben!" Grace screams.
"Make it stop," he begs, but she doesn't know how and neither does he. Luke doesn't have to find him, no one will, it won't matter, he's going to die here in the vortex of his own cursed powers. He blinks away tears but his vision is still soft and liquid.
He can’t move his arms to hug her back but he's plastered against her, her arms wrapped tight around him. He can smell the sharp metallic scent of her fear but underneath is a rich, feral earthiness that mingles with her hyped adrenaline. Something comes up from the pits of his subconscious and he whispers alpha into her neck.
She scrambles back away from him, horrified, and he falls flat on his back. He claws at the ground around him, wanting to vent the Force out of his skin before it destroys him, but he can’t, he isn’t strong enough. She comes back and he pulls her on top of him. The realization comes to him seconds before it comes to her--there might be a way to make this stop.
He's still crying when she rips off his clothes and doesn’t stop as she presses first her fingers and then her cock inside him but it's a relief, such a relief. The Force whips around him and pours into her through the connection of their bodies, and though it starts to settle it’s not enough. He needs something else but doesnt know what it is, and Grace pulls his anguish out of his head before he can stop her. "Ben--" she says, wild-eyed and scared, and he nods. He doesn't know what she’s asking but whatever it is, if it will make all this stop, he wants it. She sinks her teeth into his neck until he hears the pop of tearing skin and smells blood. The Force flows through him into her, arcing along her wet mouth and crackling into her hands where they’re clutching his hips. Some of the pain stops as she thrusts raggedly into him, but he’s still out of control.
Her knot pops unexpectedly and he panics again, struggles away from her until she pins him down. She screams, low and primal and pained, her lips pulled so far back that Ben can see how his blood is staining her teeth, and yanks her cock out of him. She forced her knot down somehow, to help him, even though it hurt her.
She had kept the Force contained and taken some of its power from him but it still swirls around him like a hurricane, out of his control, and he's sure again that he's going to die. Grace turns around and screams, calling the others over the noise of destruction. Ebec is on him at once, his lekku slapping against the front of Ben's ruined shirt as he thrusts into Ben. His dick is weird and ribbed but Ben is so far gone he doesn't notice, doesn't care. He wraps his legs around Ebec’s waist and lays back, turns his head to show the other side of his neck. Twi'lek don't mark, they don't bond like humans do, but he knows what Ben is asking and bites down.
There is blood running down Ben's neck and his shirt and his back, and he can smell so much of it that it's making him sick. Off to one side he hears vomiting and when he looks it’s Grace, on her hands and knees with frothy pink bile dripping from her lips.
Ebec’s hips stutter and Ben is distantly aware that something is happening. Warmth blooms through his pelvis, flowing up into his core and the black, hungry part of him. Ebec puts his hand over Ben's heart and pulls the Force out of him in brittle, snapping tendrils.
There are hands under his shoulders pulling him up. He couldn't help or hinder even if he wanted so he lets himself be pulled into someone's lap and onto their dick. Brokri does not wait or ask, just bites down on a fresh spot on Ben's trapezius, his arms around Ben's middle to hold him steady. The Force twists horribly around Ben's heart, compressing his lungs until he suffocates. Brokri runs his tongue along the new wound and the heat of his mouth suffuses through Ben’s body. It gives Ben the strength to grab a handful of the Force and feed it through himself, through his blood, to ground in Brokri.
He falls forward as soon as Brokri loosens his hold and is caught before he lands. His eyes flutter open--Vansic is too close for Ben to see him clearly but he can, at least, see the blank determination on Vansic's face. Ben lets him pull his leg up and around his hips, lets Vansic pull him against his chest as Ben sinks down onto his cock.
It's difficult to fuck face-to-face. Ben is barely able to hold up his own weight, and Vansic can do little more than thrust shallowly, but as soon as Vansic bites him it stops mattering. Ben grabs him and clings to him as he feels Vansic reach into him. Heat drains out of Ben, leaving him shivering in its wake, until Vansic feels feverishly hot instead. Vansic lets go of him and slams a hand on the ground, digs his fingers down into the dirt until the earth itself cracks and fissures.
There are more hands on Ben, moving him and supporting him until he's passed into another pair of arms. Ellyr bears him to the ground, her fingers tangled in his hair, and with a sharp pain that sends chills down his spine, yanks his head back so she can bite him too. He reaches out and touches her face, and when his fingertips brush her tattoos he sends the Force through her. Her ink glow like lightning, so bright he has to turn away, and she screams in pain but doesn’t make him stop. Electricity arcs off the crown of her horns into where her tattoos start at her neck and flows down into the earth.
A shiver runs down her spine, shaking her like a wet dog, and she discharges the last of Ben’s power into the ground. “One more,” Ellyr says, cupping his chin, “is that enough, can you do it?”
He doesn’t know, not for sure, but they've siphoned enough of the Force out of him that he can see where it ends.
Rowen takes his place between Ben's spread legs and gets in close so Ben can cling to him. He nips gently at Ben's neck, finds an open place. Ben sobs as his skin rolls under Rowen's teeth but the bite itself is welcome. He takes hold of the Force again and Rowen meets him halfway. They pass the raw power between them like a baton, and Rowen raises a hand to the air and discharges the Force in a bolt of lightning.
Ben collapses under the weight of his own body, tired to his bones and too numb to feel anything. There's an empty place where the Force consumed him but there's warmth too, diffusing down his neck into the rest of his body. He’s wet everywhere, his shirt soaked in blood and ejaculate slick on the inside of his thighs.
Grace is crying so hard she can’t breathe. As he looks over at her, she doubles over and vomits again, wipes blood and bile off her lips. He tries to get up but is held down, can't understand why. She took too much of his burden, that's why she's like this, he has to take it back.
"Ben, no," she says, but he hadn't spoken, how has she heard him? She stumbles over to him and drops down to her knees in front of him, takes his face in her hands. "I didn't mean to, I couldn't stop--"
Without thinking, he slips into her head. Her hysteria is so acute that he can't hear anything over it, and in an instant he knows that she regrets everything, he isn't enough for her, she doesn't want him and never will.
The surge he feels around him isn't just from Grace, it's from all the padawans. Each of them feel different but they're similar, harmonious, protection and possession and even some kind of love. He is, at least, wanted.
Ellyr grabs him by the face and kisses him. It’s the first time he’s ever been kissed. Her lips are soft and she tastes metallic, her mouth filled with the copper of his own blood. “Mine,” she says, and he hears it echoed in all of their voices.
*
By the time Snoke's personnel find them, it's too late to sever their bond.
*
“What happened after that?” Hux asked.
“I miscarried,” Ren said.
That hadn’t been what Hux had actually meant to ask, but he had certainly been curious. He couldn’t imagine a pregnancy taking under such stressful circumstances. He cleared his throat and asked, “What happened with your--with the claims, I mean.”
Ren glanced over at Hux and rubbed the side of his neck thoughtlessly. His fingers stopped only briefly each time they passed over the rippled scars. “They healed. All of them. Then we found out that we had connected permanently, with me as the center. Connected by the Force.”
“The Knights,” Hux said. Ren nodded.
He looked off in the distance, as if he could see past the infirmary walls. For all Hux knew, he could. Slowly, he returned to dressing himself. When he slid the leather collar over his neck, Hux could see the most minute shiver run down his body.
"That was my first heat," Ren said, setting his helmet over his head. "Looking back on it, I think Luke knew it was going to happen. I would go into a heat and he wouldn't be able to control me, and if the Dark hadn't taken me yet, it would then."
With a pneumatic hiss, the mask settled over his face, shielding him under the black metal.
"Well. I suppose he was right."