potboy

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sunangelflowers:

When you find out whump fairies and they grant your wishes - part of a long lineage of great writers who know what they are doing!

thekeywordisbalance:

How We Treat Our Prisoners

A/N: So riffing of the idea from Little Talks about how the Ristance maybe isn’t full of good guys, here’s how Poe confronts what he believes is the right thing when General Hux is captured and mistreated by the resistance. When the good guys aren’t always good guys. Thanks to sunangelflowers for the prompt and if people are into it, I’ll keep it going.

Paperwork. Never ending paperwork. Poe knew that a promotion meant less flight time but he never dreamed it would mean so much paperwork. Sitting at his desk, his eyelids felt heavy as he read the same sentence on the data pad over and over not really absorbing any information. A whoosh of the door drew his attention upward as an out of breath Snap peered in, hanging on the door frame. “General Dameron. I need you to come with me.”

Poe put down the datapad and rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand. “Why? What’s up?”

“Poe. You’re not gonna believe me if I tell you.”

————-

Poe silently followed Snap down the hall at a brisk pace. He wasn’t sure were they were going and he wasn’t even sure if he’d been to this part of the base. They were underground so everything seems dank and dingy but wherever Snap was taking him seemed ever danker and dingier than he was used to. “Snap, just tell me where we’re going!”

Snap looked at him wide eyed and kept walking, “Blue squadron just got back from their mission.” He stopped abruptly and let his hand hover over the door lock. “They brought something… unexpected back.” He punched in a code and the door slid open. The room was dark but Snap gave Poe a head nod assuring him it was safe to go in. With cautious steps, Poe entered the dimly lit room. Three members of blue squadron were all huddled, looking at something on the floor. As they watched Poe approach, they moved out of the way to expose what they had been staring at.

It took him a moment to recognize this man, yet when he did his eyes went wide. It was General Hux of the First Order but not as he was used to seeing him on the Holonet. The clean, pressed and uptight General was now on his knees, hands tied behind his back, blindfolded and dirty before him. Poe did a quick once over of the man, still in shock. Hux was barefoot and it looked as though he’d been made to walk miles as such. His pants were crusted in dirt and blood and his jacket had been removed allowing Poe to see the myriad of cuts and bruises on his chest and back. His hands had been tied so tight there was a blue hue to his hands and the ropes were soaked in blood from the burns on his wrists. The blindfold covering his eyes was knotted in the back of his messy hair and was being held in place by a stream of dried blood flowing from a head wound that looked awfully similar in shape to that of the butt of a blaster.

Poe’s eyes landed on the leader of Blue Squadron. “Did you do this to him?”

The broad man smirked, “No, he came like this.” This quip drew smirks from his men but only served to enrage Poe further.

“Commander, this is not how we treat prisoners! I’m ordering you and your men to be suspended until further disciplinary action can be determined.” Poe seethed as he looked the commander dead in the eye.

“General, we-“

“You are dismissed, Commander!” Poe pointed at the door and the three men hung their heads and left the room. Poe immediately shifted his attention to Snap. “Go to medical, get a team down here.”

“You got it, sir.” Snap nodded and ran out of the room.

Kneeling down in front of a still and silent Hux, Poe let out a sigh and shook his head. “I’m sorry, General Hux. This isn’t how the resistance treats prisoners.” Hux didn’t respond or move other than the involuntary shudder of his body caused by breathing in the frigid air. “I’m going to take off this blindfold now, okay?” Still no response. Poe worked at the knot, finally getting it undone and carefully removing it from Hux’s eyes. This proved to be difficult when getting to the part of the fabric which had crusted to his skin. He slowly peeled the fabric until Hux winced and hissed trying to pull his head away. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Poe put a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from falling over before finishing the job and freeing him from the fabric. Hux didn’t say anything, but slowly and hesitantly allowed his eyes to flutter open. As his vision began to focus, he could start to see the blur of Poe. “Okay. Um.. I’m gonna go cut your hands free.” Poe stood and moved to the backside of Hux, shaking his head again at the mosaic of damage done to his skin and pulled a blade from his pocket. “I’m going to cut through this rope with a knife so for both our sakes please keep still.” Poe sighed and began cutting through the ropes. Hux was pulling, despite the pain, to give Poe the best access to the ropes so when the final strand was broken, Hux’s arms pulled apart and he immediately brought them round to his front and clutched them to his chest. Poe put the knife back in his pocket and went back around to kneel down in front of Hux. “Do you want to get off your knees?” Hux looked Poe in the eye, his vision had fully returned now and he gave Poe a small nod. “Okay. Um…” Poe stood to think of the best way to shift Hux not knowing how injured he was but before Poe could come up with a plan, Hux leaned forward intending to catch himself on his hands. He didn’t anticipate the loss of feeling in his hands and damage of his wrists as he started to fall towards the ground, shoulder first. Poe lunged down and caught the man before he hit the ground and lifted him up while turning him allowing his legs to kick out. Hux let out strangled moans of pain as Poe scooted him back so he could lean against the wall. Hux’s breathing was rapid as Poe watched him fight through the pain. “I’m so sorry.” Poe crouched down next to him. “We don’t treat our prisoners this way.” Hux turned his head to look Poe in the eye. “So you said.” Poe is taken back when Hux finally speaks. He opens his mouth but a sudden flurry of commotion enters the room as Dr Kalonia and two members of her staff enter with a stretcher. Poe stands, “Doctor Kalonia, this is General Hux of the First Order. He is a prisoner of the resistance and under our care. I insist he is given the best treatment.” Kalonia gives a small smile to Poe and nods knowing he was saying that for Hux’s benefit more that actual instructions. She steps forward and kneels beside him with a whisper asking, “can you stand?” He looks at her and gives a small nod. “Okay.” She smiles at him and stands as they all watch him start to try to do the same. As soon as he moved a foot to push against the ground he cries out in pain and Poe grabs around his upper arm to keep him from falling. Without a moments hesitation, the other men go to Hux and aid him in getting into a stand just long enough to get him onto the stretcher. Poe can tell the cries of pain from Hux escape his lips with great opposition. He’s in bad shape but fighting to save face. As the medical team rushes out the door, Poe hangs his head and lets out a sigh noticing the bloodied blindfold fabric laying on the ground.

————

“Really?!”

Poe threw his hands in the air as he stood in front of Leia’s desk. She rolled her eyes and leaned back in the chair. “Yes really. The fact is these men did what they thought was necessary to capture a known enemy. We will review our expectations of the treatment of prisoners with them and they will return to duty.”

“That’s bullshit, General and you know it.” Poe put his hands on his hips.

“He’s a First Order General, Poe-“

“HE’S A HUMAN BEING, LEIA!” Poe’s hands went up again and she huffed and leaned forward. “Keep your voice down! I know he’s a human being but this is war, GENERAL. You were captured by them and tortured-“

“You don’t need to remind me!” Poe took a step in and leaned down with his hands on her desk, “but if your excuse for this is, they did it first, then what the kriff are we fighting for?” Poe turned and started walking out of the room. “Poe. POE!” Leia called after him but he headed out of her office and towards the medbay.

—————

Walking in, Poe was greeted by a young nurse. “Everything all right, General?”

Poe smiled at her, “Yeah, I uh, I’m looking for the First Order prisoner.” She gave him a nod and directed him down the hall. Entering the room, he saw Doctor Kalonia tending to the General’s head wound and another nurse noticed Poe and began walking over to him. Hux looked asleep but was being held down on the bed with binders. “General. Can I help you?” The nurse walked over and Poe crossed his arms. “Just checking on the prisoner. Did he get violent?” The nurse shook his head and looked over to the bed where Hux lay. “No. Standard practice when dealing with prisoners of war.” Poe’s brow furrowed. “He asleep?”

“The doc sedated him.”

“So he’s completely unconscious and yet we’re threatened enough to tie him down?” Poe looked over at the nurse. “We were just following protocol, sir… I-“

Poe sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose as he scrunches his eyes. “So how’s it lookin?” He quickly shifts the subject, noticing how flustered the nurse was.

“Top to toes? Not great. Minor skull fracture, head laceration, couple broken ribs, dozen cuts to his chest and back, deep rope burn on the wrists, some infection there as well, his feet are a mess. Dozens of little fractures and some really deep wounds on the soles-“

Poe’s heart raced at the list went on, “Why isn’t he in bacta right now?” Poe interrupted and the nurse gave a small shrug. “You’ll have to ask Doctor Kalonia.”

———

Poe waited outside in a chair until Kalonia was finished. She sighed as she exited the room and came to sit down next to Poe. “What a day.”

“Tell me about it. How’s he doing?” Poe shifted in his chair to turn her way. “He’ll be okay in time. I heard nurse Kren gave you the run down.” She gave him a sad smile. “He did. Why isn’t he floating in bacta right now, doc?” She bit the side of her cheek and sighed. “He ought to be. The treatment I was able to give him will get him back on his feet in, I dunno, six months. But it won’t be back to normal. He’ll probably always have a limp if his feet work at all and those wrists are certain to scar. With bacta though,” she gave a little shrug, “three days. Five tops. Good as new.”

“So what’s the issue?”

“Bureaucracy, General.” Kalonia rolls her eyes and sighs, “Filling a tank is expensive and we only have about three tanks worth. Tanks aren’t reusable so we can theoretically treat three people. Prisoners of war are not approved for bacta treatment. Somewhere along the way someone decided that it wasn’t worth it. I sent a request to Council to approve an out of protocol exception and was denied.”

Poe’s blood boiled. “So we’re saying that their lives aren’t worth as much as ours.” Kalonia raised her eyebrows and nodded. “I suppose that’s what we’re saying.” Poe wiped a hand down his face in frustration. “I gotta get him out of here. Maybe if I can get him to an off world medcenter, I dunno.”

Kalonia raise an eyebrow and leaned in. “Poe. You’re talking about abducting a prisoner of the resistance. Look, I want him to get proper treatment and I hear rumors that our men may have been responsible for this which is awful but what you’re talking about… it’s treason, Poe.”

Poe thought for a moment. “Are you going to turn me in?” Kalonia shook her head. “Good. I’ll need your help getting him out and onto a ship.”

“Well I do have access to that imperial medical transport. It’s old but it flies and it’ll have the life support systems you’ll need just in case.” Kalonia squinted as she thought, “plus, I don’t think anyone keeps track of that thing.”

“Okay. I’m going to go pack a bag. You get him ready and then,” Poe stood up and gave Kalonia a little shrug, “let’s commit treason!”