Please enjoy this fucking behemoth of a chapter. Please. Enjoy it.


The light hurt.

Even with his eyes screwed up, the sudden brightness stung and brought an ache to his brow. Someone had flipped the switch in his room. Someone was in his room. He fumbled for his blaster.

'Hux, it's me.' Just as his fingers hit his weapon, Kylo's low register made him relax. Slightly.

'What? Kylo- what are you doing in my room?' Hux tried to prise his eyes open to glare at him. 'Lights to twenty percent.' Aah. That was better. It no longer hurt to think.

'We don't have much time. You can fight, right? I saw you on Hesperidium with that blaster.'

'I can fight. I don't see what that has to do with you waking me in the middle of the night.' With the lights lower it was much easier for Hux to level Kylo with a filthy look.

'I need your help with a mission.' Kylo sighed. 'Look. I've got a situation. Snoke finally gave me some sensible direction but my knights are… otherwise occupied.'

'Your relationship with your Master seems to vacillate by the day.' Kylo rolled his eyes. 'Can't the mission wait until they aren't 'otherwise occupied'? And what does that even mean?'

'I wish it could. Snoke wants me to report back in 12 standard hours – the madman - and they're all throwing up this gross black stuff.' Kylo grimaced. 'Their room smells disgusting.'

Why six-sevenths of one of the Order's most essential taskforces were allowed to share such close quarters – and, evidently, diseases – was something Hux was ready to argue about, but all thought fled from his head as Kylo leant close to him.

'I need someone I trust to have my back in this,' he breathed. 'I need you, Hux.'

Who was he to argue with that?

It was only when he was sitting in Kylo's yacht that he realised he had no idea what the mission even was. He wove his way through the empty craft to the control panel where Kylo stood, and asked him.

'It's this Sith fortress- real tiny. I think Snoke is the only other living being who knows of its existence. There's an artefact there that Snoke wants.'

'And where is this fortress?' Kylo shot a mischievous grin over his shoulder at Hux.

'You'll like this.'

'Where?'

'On an asteroid.' As if he'd timed his words perfectly (and he probably had, the melodramatic bastard) he turned the ship sharply to avoid the first few chunks of rock hurtling towards them as they entered the belt. 'I would sit down if I were you!'

By the time they'd landed on the tiny asteroid – passing through the ancient-looking false atmo (Hux looked warily at the generator, which was rusted over and creaked alarmingly) – Hux was feeling decidedly nauseous. That feeling only grew when he saw the looming fortress at the edge of the clearing Kylo had parked in. It was completely derelict, dark brown stone crumbling everywhere Hux looked. It didn't look fit for vermin to enter, let alone humans.

'Doesn't look too fun, right?' Kylo exclaimed, alarmingly cheerful. He'd forgone his robes, dressed instead in sensible reinforced trousers and a leather jacket. He had a holdall slung across his chest.

'Is it even safe to enter?'

'I wouldn't say safe, no, but the Emperor apparently used to use it as a kind of storage room. If it's stayed upright for that, I'm sure it'll stay upright for us just going in and coming out again.'

'I've got a bad feeling about this.' Kylo elbowed him gently.

'Don't say that! You sound like my old man used to.'

'Compare me to Han Solo again and it'll be the last thing you do.' Kylo burst into laughter.

'C'mon. Let's go.'

Despite how fragile the building looked, the heavy stone doors looked as impassable as a rock face.
Kylo held out his hand for a second, and the doors creaked open of their own accord. 'It opens for Force signatures.' Kylo explained, already walking into the darkness beyond the doors. Without stopping, he unzipped his holdall, pulled out two torches, and threw one to Hux. 'You'll need this.'

There was a thick layer of dust and grime on everything the light hit. The silence was unnerving. Every so often, the narrow hallway they walked through would open into a small chamber, in which a small plinth with some ancient relic sat. Some were so covered with dust that they were unrecognisable. They passed what felt like hundreds of the chambers until Kylo finally stopped to look at one.

'Is this what Snoke wanted?' Hux couldn't see much difference between this chamber and any of the others.

'…no.' Kylo looked frustrated. 'Look at the markings on this.' Kylo traced a line in the air near the side of the – amulet? – with his pinky. Hux took a look. This one wasn't quite as dusty as the others, and Hux could quite clearly read the Aurebesh for 'Vader' on it.

'And if that wasn't proof, I can feel his Force on it.' Kylo closed his eyes for a second. 'But Snoke will punish me if I take anything else.' He sounded as sad as he looked.

It felt like another hundred or so loops of chamber to hallway to chamber, until they stepped out into a vast room. The glow of their torches didn't hit the ceiling, even when Hux lifted his above his head. It was oppressively dark, a still and airless blackness barely touched for centuries. Hux curled his arms around himself. It was so cold. Perhaps this was what being lost in space felt like – an endlessly empty void with the promise of nothing but death.

Kylo stepped forward into the room, boots echoing on the stone floor. Hux followed, unwilling to be engulfed in the darkness alone.

It felt like eons before they reached the other side of the room. There was a massive pair of doors set into the wall. A small device sat in the crack between them.

Kylo once again held out his hand to the door. This time Hux imagined he could feel the swell of the Force, the revelation of Kylo's Self.

Nothing happened.

Twitching, Kylo tried again.

Still, nothing.

'It's okay. It's okay. It could have a code. Snoke told me what the code was likely to be.' Kylo fumbled in his layers, pulling out a crumpled piece of flimsi with a heavy scrawl on it. Carefully he entered the code.

Nothing happened.
Kylo stood still for a long moment, barely moving.

'Try it again, Kylo. I for one know it sometimes takes two or three times for a code to take.' They'd come too far into this derelict ruin for a tantrum now.

Entering the code again did nothing. Entering it a third time got the same result. Kylo kicked at the door, swearing. Hux heard small pebbles on the floor start to rattle on the floor.

'Hang on.' The scraps of an idea were coming to Hux's mind. '-you said the Emperor hid some stuff here?' Kylo whipped back round, his mouth still curled in a snarl.

'Yeah. But what does that have to do with anything, now?! Do you really have to have your Imperial history lessons right now? Force. I'm so screwed.'

'The Emperor was rather egotistical-'

'Do you think I care?! Look, we're-we're going to have to go back-'

'Let me finish.' Hux's tone was a more acidic one than he'd used with Kylo for- well, for about a day or so. But not for weeks before that. Kylo snapped his jaw shut. 'Don't you think he might have changed the lock himself? Changed that code from data any old fool with a history holo could pick up to something more personal?' Kylo furrowed his brows.

'That's… that's possible. But we're still stuck here unless we can somehow guess what code he changed it to.'

'I suggest we start with dates or ciphers. Maybe try his year of ascension?' Hux was almost certain Palpatine wouldn't have chosen something so simple, but it gave him time to think about a more likely answer.

'Was that the same year as Lord Vader's creation?'

'Yes! How do you not know when the Emperor came to power?'

'You know it, right? It doesn't matter if I do.'

'…anyway, it was… 981.' Hux typed it in as he spoke.

Nothing happened.

'Useless! We're stuck here.'

'Calm down, Kylo. Let me think.' Hux chewed his lip. 'Wasn't there… wasn't there that Sith Legend the Emperor was obsessed with? The one he built a statue of? I saw it once in a painting at the Academy.'

'Darth Plagueis? Yeah, but that's a name. Not a number.'

'It could be a really basic code, Kylo. Aurek is the first letter of Aurebesh, right? So that's 1. Besh is the second. That's 2. And so on.'

Kylo's eyes lit up.

'That could work! So… what would the code be…' The room lapsed back into the silence it had occupied for eons. Kylo thought out loud. 'Sixteen… twelve…one…seven….'

'Twenty-one, five, nine, nineteen.'

'So the code could be 161217215919? Bit of a mouthful to remember…'

'You can't deny that would be the Emperor's style, though.' Hux plugged it in.

There was a click. He tried the door. Ever so slowly, it creaked open.

'You…' Kylo had an odd look on his face. Hux tensed, ready to swerve if the other man swung at him. 'You're amazing.'

Before Hux could stop him, Kylo had swept him up into a bone-crushing hug. They were pressed cheek to cheek, Kylo's hand intimately firm on his lower back.

'Thank you.' Kylo turned his face. Hux could feel the brush of Kylo's lips on his cheek and corner of his mouth as he spoke, breath hot on his skin. The press of Kylo's lightsaber hilt at his waist reminded him they should be focusing on other things, but he couldn't shatter this.

The moment hung in the air, the almost-kiss teetering on the brink of something more. Hux could feel the threads of his resolve stretch to breaking. It would be so easy to press himself against Kylo, to ride the waves of his feelings, to go boneless and malleable to his every whim…

Kylo took a long, deep breath. Hux could feel his lungs expand.

'Artefact. Right. Let's. Let's go.' Kylo strode off, his gait tight, leaving Hux to slump against the doorjamb and catch his breath.

What the karking hell had happened to his brain? Whenever Kylo got close he could almost feel his grey matter dribbling out of his ears. 'Ride the waves of his feelings', what utter bantha shite. Hux barely suppressed the urge to ram his head against the stone walls, and hurried after Kylo.

Compared to the previous room, this chamber was tiny. It was still double the size of Hux's quarters – and the other chambers they'd passed through – but at least he could see all four walls and the ceiling.

In the centre of the room sat a nondescript stone plinth, with a rusty-looking gauntlet carefully centred on it. Kylo had cocked his head, curious in the torchlight.

'It's not as impressive as I thought it would be.'

'…No.' What could the Supreme Leader want with that?

'Okay, I'll just…' As Kylo pulled the gauntlet from the plinth and stowed it in his satchel, a foreboding rumble echoed around them. 'Uh. That wasn't a good sound.'

The rumble came again. A fine spray of dust and gravel rained down on them. The sound of rock moving and crumbling was unmistakeable now.

Kylo grabbed Hux's hand.

'Run!'

Hux didn't have the chance to protest – either being told to run (no, thanks, Kylo, I'll stay here if that's alright with you, I quite like my showers with a helping of boulders didn't you know) or that Kylo had grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go. The corridors flew by, obliterated to rubble only steps behind them.

Hux recognised the entrance to Vader's amulet room, and without a forward thought he flung his free arm out, catching the amulet off its setting and shoving it into his jacket.

A flash of white hot burning pain, hotter than any he'd ever known, crawled over his arms and legs. Another trap! He opened his mouth to scream, but was silenced as a large rock fell from the ceiling and hit his head.

Everything went black.

He woke to silence.

The durasteel roof of the shuttle was only dimly lit. He looked over and saw Kylo hunched near him, his face hidden by a curtain of rubble-grey hair.

'You're awake.' Kylo's voice was raspy, parched with dust and salt.

Hux tried to reply, but could only manage a weak croak. The back of his skull was blossoming with pain, but it was the only thing that hurt.

'A rock hit your head. You were knocked out. Something – something cut the atmo off then as well. I only just got us both back on the shuttle.' Kylo picked one of Hux's hands up in both his own. 'I thought you were dead.'

'I'm…not though.' He forced a smile. It twinged to leave Kylo upset.

'No,' Kylo smiled back at him. Hux winced at how red Kylo's eyes were. 'No, you're not.'

Kylo carefully pulled Hux up into a sitting position. It made Hux's head spin, and a fresh burst of warmth spread over the back of his head.

'Oh- your head. It's bleeding again.' Kylo's fingers moved deftly over the bandages. 'I can fix it now you're awake, though. It's always a bit risky to try that while someone's unconscious or asleep.'

Before Hux could ask what he meant by 'fix it' he felt a different kind of heat soothe his head. It felt restorative, easing the pain until it was barely there, until it vanished altogether. Kylo's hands dropped as Hux's raised. There was no injury left on the back of his head. At all.

'You…'

'I, uh. I fixed it.'

Hux hauled himself up to sit by Kylo.

'Thank you.'

Kylo turned to him, his whole body responding and welcoming Hux's presence. Those large (destroying, healing) hands cupped his cheeks. There was nowhere to escape Kylo's intense gaze, his intense heat. Hux found himself leaning towards Kylo as Kylo was leaning towards him, closer and closer and closer together until-

The comm sputtered.

'Kylo Ren? General Hux? Hangar 3 is open for landing.' Kylo wrenched away reluctantly.

'Received. Landing sequences prepared.' Kylo started collecting his things, checking his satchel for the artefact, tidying away the first aid box.

Hux was breathless.

Before Kylo could disappear off into the Finalizer, Hux called a question to him.

'Kylo?'

'Yes?'

'Why did you bring me? It wasn't like there was anything you needed to fight off. Surely you could have handled it on your own.' Kylo smiled.

'I would have got stuck at that door, though. I'd never have made the connection to the Emperor, let alone Darth Plagueis. And anyway, I didn't know what could have been there. I don't have a weapon at the moment. There's only so many people you can take out with the Force at once, you know. Having a someone handy with a blaster around is useful, barbaric as they are.' Kylo nodded a goodbye, and headed off – presumably to speak with Snoke.

Wait.

No weapon?

But- Hux had sworn he felt Kylo's lightsaber hilt. If it hadn't been a weapon, what had that-

Oh.

Oh.

Hux blushed to himself and had to wait five minutes for it to fade before he could hurry back to his quarters.

In his room, Hux finally had the chance to pull out the amulet and look at it properly. There it was, still pressed between his jacket and his undershirt.

Neatly snapped into two pieces.

It was a sick sense of dread that overwhelmed him now. His last chance to get something for Kylo. Ruined. Even worse, he'd destroyed something of emotional value to Kylo through his own ignorance. He could feel frustrated tears sting in the corners of his eyes.

When he pulled his jacket off, he nearly shouted out in shock. The burning flash he'd felt when he pulled the amulet off the plinth had left its mark in angry pink whorls looping his limbs. They didn't hurt, but they were slightly raised and deep in the skin. He had a horrible feeling they were permanent. Shocked, he turned from his small mirror and wrapped himself in his duvet. It was barely time for his final meal of the day, but he was exhausted.

Before he let himself sleep, he set an alarm for the middle of the night. He'd have to sneak off to a station nearby to find something – anything – for Kylo.


Amazingly, trying to reformat this bloody chapter was almost as painful as landscape survey...