A/N:

Warning: Suicide. Also, Hux voices a harsh point of view regarding suicide victims. This is not an authorial point of view, although it goes basically uncontested in the narrative so I want to clarify: not my personal point of view. The character has been established even in the time of Happily Ever After as being unsympathetic on this subject and having empathy issues in general.

The knight is Kylo Ren, although as you may gather from the story, Hux has not been introduced or provided names. He only knows this one is taller than the first one he saw and the shorter of the two who went to Lebeka, and not a female like he suspected the taller one was who went to Lebeka.

In Star Wars canon materials, the Napkin Bombing, Amaxine warrior attack, subsequent destruction of Rinnrivin Di's cartel, and the formation of the Resistance happened a little more than a year before the setting for this chapter. These are events from Claudia Smith's novel, Bloodlines. Which puts it only a little before the Burning of the Temple as it is placed in my series' timeline and near simultaneous with Snoke's appearance in the First Order. The setting for this chapter is about a year later.

From Grey and Complicated, chapter "Light Seduction":

"Snoke vented his frustrations by abusing his subordinates when they displeased him, which was frequently."

From Happily Ever After, chapter "Gem Crystals":

Hux frowned. "I would tell you the story of Admiral Halcor. He was witness to Snoke venting his frustrations – he killed one person, injured another – for a mission failed due to poor intelligence and a bad response to changing conditions. But not actual incompetence. As Halcor told me when we left – any of us could have made that mistake. I told him, 'You are right. All we can do is be thankful we did not.'"

Hux exhaled heavily. "I suppose I should have been more empathetic. I found him dead by his own blaster the next morning. I had Lt. Sharhel with me, because one doesn't go barging into another's quarters without a witness. She suggested I conceal it." Hux laughed bitterly. "No. We concealed it from the general run, of course, but someone had to explain to Snoke that one of his admirals had made the 'choice' not to continue with his duty, due possibly to my callous last words to him.

"What Halcor did was treason. It was also a personal betrayal. Halcor knew someone would have to make a report and he'd already seen what happened to those who delivered news Snoke was not inclined to hear. He knew it would be me. The honorable, the required, thing to do is to continue to serve as best one is able, until relieved by one's superior. The Rebellion, the Resistance? It's a short-sighted, fundamentally selfish act.

Hux was the lowest-ranked person in the room. Probably. In a combat situation or a matter of command, the military always outranked technicians. So in that context, he was higher than Drewmill. But they were in a meeting, where it was more important that she was at the top of her bracket as an operations manager. She really ought to be a director, but in either case she was above a relatively new colonel. Figuring out his standing was the first thing Hux tended to do when he walked in a room of people.

Then there was the Knight of Ren. Hux would have assumed him to be no higher than a captain, but here the knight was, attending along with him. Since there were not assigned places, Hux put himself next to the black-clad enforcer, in the larger-than-necessary gap between the knight and Admiral Halcor. Hux knew the admiral from his father's days when he had been an antagonist (and lower ranked), but never enough of one to warrant the attention of Armitage and his gang. Halcor gave him a sharp look like he would have been happier with the knight next to him. Hux ignored it.

Snoke was the highest-ranking present. That much was obvious. Just in case anyone was unclear on this, he was comfortably seated on something new that looked suspiciously like a throne. The rest of them were on their feet, having arrayed themselves around a projection of the galactic map as the foremost general present gave an overview of their current military operations and posture.

None of the High Command were here, as the attendee list had shown. Hux decided to take this as a statement of faith in the High Command and a commentary on Snoke's priorities for the Order, as Cheskar had insisted. It was a healthier point of view than the alternative, which he drove from his mind by staying focused on the various reports.

They started with an overview of current action (none at the moment), a recap of recent action (Snoke looked bored; he'd obviously heard this before which was fitting and meant he was on top of developments), and then current resources and resource allocation. After that, it was turned over to sector commanders for detail. Hux noted the absence of discussion on objectives. He assumed this was because these things were no longer up for debate under Snoke's leadership. How he felt about that was another thing to guide his thoughts away from.

After a few sectors had been covered, attention turned to General Allinine, who said, "Establishment of the refinery complex in the Pressylla system continues as planned, despite the unexpected diversion of the Avenger to function as a cargo vessel. This constitutes the third time Colonel Hux has used your name in an abuse of his authority to divert resources to his project, unnecessary diversions caused by a failure of oversight on his part."

Those were very direct words, every one of them intended as a barb. Hux understood now. This must be why he'd been included in the meeting – to receive a dressing down for exceeding the limits of his rank. He stood taller and raised his chin. It was not news to him that a number of people in the Order objected strongly to his use of the new ships for transporting materials or harvesting refugees, or that it was considered grossly impudent for someone of his age and relatively low rank to be requisitioning capital ships like they were shuttles available for his beck and call.

It was surprising she'd bring it up in open meeting like this. It indicated a level of disrespect he might need to do something about. He made a mental note to hunt down Tritt Opan, one of his father's assassins. They went way back. Tritt had always had a sort of macabre fondness for Armitage. Not that he was considering assassinating a general for making remarks about him, but it was always good to have options and allies. He might need them.

Snoke looked over at Hux inquiringly. "Colonel Hux? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I followed your orders, sir, as I understood them." He'd done what he had to do in two of those cases, and the third with Lebeka? Well. He'd do it again if he ever had the opportunity.

"You understood them correctly." Snoke turned back to the general. "He has the authority to make these diversions. If his rank unsettles you, I can advance it above yours."

Even Hux's brows jumped at that. Admiral Halcor shot Hux an outraged look as though Hux was responsible for the idea. Allinine coughed. "No, no sir. That's not what I was suggesting."

"His purpose here is to understand how these might impact our larger operations so his future allocations will be done with more care. I remain pleased with progress on the megaweapon."

Hux had to frown severely to keep from smirking, because it looked like he was going to get away with it on top of Snoke publicly upbraiding a general on his behalf. That was a more ringing endorsement than any he would have expected to hear from Snoke's twisted little mouth.

It was true that both of the times he'd used the destroyers for cargo had been absolutely necessary for keeping to the schedule and then inching ahead of it. They were the fastest ships in the galaxy large enough to carry what he needed and plow through pirate-infested space without pause. But using them as freighters was inherently offensive to the older, hidebound holdovers of the Empire. It wasn't the sort of maneuver that would even occur to their generation.

Allinine was not quite done, showing a foolhardy but admirable persistence on the matter. "But sir, this is beneath the dignity of the vessels. It is not the purpose of warships, I-"

"The purpose of your ship is whatever I say it is," Snoke snapped at her. "Should I choose to make the entire thing a luxury yacht for the Hutts and your crew as the servants thereupon, you would do well to master the new skill set required, no matter how 'beneath your dignity' you think it would be."

Allinine blinked at him in surprise, as did most present. Was Snoke actually suggesting that selling a ship and crew into sex slavery was not entirely out of the question? It was rhetorical, sure, but Hux had not to date noticed that Snoke had a sense of humor. It felt more like a warning of the lengths to which Snoke was willing to degrade the Order and the members of it to succeed.

At the silence, Snoke asked, "Did you have any incursions during the Avenger's absence?"

"No sir." They could have, though. Every ship Hux pulled from somewhere was doing something at that location. Snoke was right to make sure he had a better grasp of what he was disrupting when he made such requisitions.

"Then it is immaterial," Snoke said dismissively. "Continue."

"… of the three remaining Amaxine holdouts we identified, two were eliminated. The last fled into Rylothian space."

Snoke lifted his head from where he'd been resting it on his fist, elbow on the arm of his throne. He directed his attention to Vice Admiral Pabril who had been speaking. "And?"

"And they … escaped, sir." Snoke was staring at him. It was enough to unsettle anyone. "Aboard a ship called the Trifling Pride, sir."

"The name is irrelevant. You include it to conceal the lie. You were seen." Each of Snoke's short, choppy sentences had a snap to them like a whip. Hux's posture changed into a slight crouch. The knight's helmeted head turned toward him and Halcor looked at that, then at Hux, but Hux didn't take his eyes off Snoke. He didn't understand why everyone else in the room wasn't hearing what he had just heard. It was plain as day.

"Rylothian space is contested, sir," Pabril said. "Our intelligence was that the New Republic wasn't there."

"Then the intelligence was wrong!" Snoke straightened in his seat. "Did I not inform this assembly at our first meeting of the importance of not being seen by the New Republic fleet?"

"I-" Pabril reached for his throat, then looked in alarm to his right and left. General Allinine was on one side. Colonel Arnoeze was on the other. Neither of them did anything aside from looking from Pabril to Snoke.

Snoke stood, seeming taller than Hux knew him to be. It was an illusion, he assumed. Some manner of Force-trick to look more impressive than he was. He gestured expansively as he spoke. "I know the future. The First Order will reign across the galaxy. The New Republic will be reduced to ashes, forgotten in the annals of history as nothing but a brief, pointless rebellion."

Pabril fell to his knees, clutching desperately at his neck as though he might find some hidden combination of pressure that would allow him to breathe.

Snoke continued, "But between now and then, every sighting the New Republic makes of us builds the resistance we will eventually face. The cost of our victory will be calculated from these missteps. Success is assured! Survival – is not!"

Pabril gave up on his throat and pulled his blaster with a wavering hand. The two guards closest to Snoke moved forward, but Allinine was quicker. She disarmed him immediately. Colonel Arnoeze didn't twitch. Snoke made an offhand motion and Pabril slid across the floor to the feet of one of the guards. He gasped noisily, suddenly able to breathe.

Everyone at the meeting relaxed except Hux. He knew it wasn't over. Pabril had drawn a weapon. There had to be a payment for that. Hux knew this personally. He was unsurprised when Snoke said, "End him."

The guard's vibro-voulge flashed on and down, taking just enough time for all of them to turn to see as it cut off the man's head and bit into the floor beneath him.

"No!" General Allinine said, raising both hands in a startled, frustrated gesture. One of them still held Pabril's blaster, but she wisely had it by the top of the gun, not the grip. She put her hands down and turned to face Snoke for her unseemly outburst. The Empire and the First Order shared this in common: extreme stoicism was the norm. Any deviation from it was a failing.

Next to Hux, the knight heaved several deep breaths – either aroused or sick, Hux didn't know, given the man's helmet. On the other side of him, Halcor was fidgeting. "He didn't- He let him- What-?"

"Shut up," Hux hissed to him.

Snoke stared at Allinine, who dropped her eyes to the floor. She was struck with some telekinetic blow of the Force anyway. She staggered backward but didn't fall. She also didn't fight or move aside from keeping her footing. Snoke told her, "You disarmed him in an attempt to save his life. Not mine." He looked around the group. "I know your thoughts. I know when you conspire against me. I know when you pathetically attempt to deceive me. I will eliminate this cancer of disorder from your ranks one individual at a time until only the pure and obedient remain! Am I understood?"

"Yes sir." It came out as a near-simultaneous chant after a beat of hesitation for them to determine this was a question meant to be answered.

"Good." Snoke sat back down. The guard turned off the vibro-voulge, the hilt of it thunking to the deck like emphasis to Snoke's word. "The remaining reports will be submitted to me in writing. You are dismissed."

"You knew that was going to happen," Admiral Halcor said accusingly after they were alone in the lift.

"Of course I did. The man drew a weapon on his commanding officer." Hux wasn't happy about being trapped in here with someone his father had labeled as an enemy of their interests. It was startling that such a person had become an admiral, but perhaps that was something recent. Snoke had certainly been thinning the ranks at the top of the organization, and he'd been at it for a full year now. Many things were changing.

"He was being strangled by the Force!"

Hux shrugged. "That doesn't change anything. You do not draw a weapon on your commanding officer. Certainly not intentionally."

Halcor fumed at the truth of that. "All he did was pursue a ship into Rylothian space. It's a contested area. How could he know the New Republic would have ships there? He had to have broken off pursuit as soon as he saw them! That's the only way the Amaxines could have gotten away!"

Hux looked at the older man askance. "What do you want me to say?"

"Any of us could have made that mistake!"

Hux gave him a puzzled look, even more confused as to what the man was asking of him. "You're right. All we can do is be thankful we did not."

"You're not going to do anything about it." He sounded disbelieving. The doors opened.

Hux was disappointed to find they were both getting off on the same floor. "There's nothing to be done, Admiral. You heard him. He knows about any conspiracies against him. How do you think he-" Hux shook his head. "No. I can't talk about this. I can't even think about it. Do your work. Follow your orders."

"But that doesn't protect us."

"It never did." Hux stopped to give him an incredulous look. What sort of privileged lifestyle had the man had where he was insulated against the whims of those in power? Had he literally never had someone like Brendol or Snoke over him, prone to contradictory, impossible orders and unrestrained sadism? Brendol had hammered it into him that this was how everyone was when they had power. Snoke followed the pattern to a T. Hux didn't understand why everyone else was so dense about it. He snorted.

"You and your father made this organization what it is today." Halcor leaned in, teeth bared. "Everyone knows it, if they're old enough to have seen what it was like before. Snoke is the result of Brendol's twenty-year campaign to get rid of anyone who was willing to take a stand, and replace them with a generation of children who follow orders they don't even understand! Now that there's an invader among us, you're on your knees in front of him."

He could deny it, but the truth was a sharper blade. "As are you. Where were you when this 'time to take a stand' came?"

The admiral stiffened. "We'll see how much of a favorite you are when you're the one delivering bad news."

"I'm not going to fail."

Halcor sneered at him like he knew something Hux didn't. "No. Of course you won't." He walked to the next door down and checked the room number over the entry pad, then opened it. Apparently, he was doing the same as Hux – staying the night on the Eclipse rather than immediately returning to his own ship. In Hux's case, he'd scheduled several other pieces of business for the following day, as it was an efficient use of his time. It was annoying to see Halcor had done the same.

Hux shook his head and walked off, pacing half the hall before he realized his assigned room was directly next to the admiral's. It was another spot of annoyance. He consoled himself that Halcor didn't know where Hux was bunking. He toyed with the idea of changing rooms anyway, but dismissed it as paranoia rather than prudence.

Hux woke with a start and a ringing noise of a blaster discharge in his ears, like it had been right here in the room with him. He had his knife in his hand when he signaled the lights, but the place was empty except for himself. He went to the comm system. He asked to be patched through to Halcor's room without even thinking about why. There was no answer.

After a quick search of his room, he sank into the chair next to the desk, laying his knife on the surface. He ran his fingers lightly over the handle as he thought about what he'd heard. Was it a nightmare? He'd been having a dream before he woke – one where he was Halcor, pacing, fuming, dwelling. He was a boring man, really. Or at least Hux's imagined version of him was. Halcor was a coward – he knew what had to be done, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. And then the blaster …

Hux grimaced and put his knife back into the sheath, taking care not to cut himself. He'd stabbed himself in the forearm several times in his life. One would think once would have been enough. It was a tricky little thing, so sharp it didn't even hurt at first. There was no way he was going to get back to sleep – not until this mystery was solved.

He dressed and sought out the floor officer, who was Lt. Sharhel. "I need to speak with Admiral Halcor on an urgent matter about yesterday's review meeting."

The lieutenant looked through her records. "Admiral Halcor is … booked in a guest room on this floor. Shall I comm him?"

"Yes, fine." Hux knew it wouldn't go through and was unsurprised when it didn't.

"He's not answering, sir. Perhaps he's deactivated the comm system or left early?"

"Can you see which room his transponder is in?" He knew perfectly well what room Halcor had walked into, but he needed to lead Sharhel down a path that ended with her opening the door to it. He was becoming more certain of what they'd find.

"I can't do that, sir. He's an admiral." She looked at him pointedly. She could do it, perfectly well, but she couldn't disclose the location to him. Halcor outranked him and wasn't even in Hux's chain of command.

Hux tried a slightly different tack. "Can you tell me if he's left the ship?"

She looked at him steadily and pressed her lips together. She wasn't supposed to tell him where Halcor was exactly, but 'is he on board this ship' was a valid question. She consulted her terminal, checking the transponder location as Hux knew she had to in order to answer. "He's still aboard, sir."

Hux nodded. "Good. I have reason to believe he is in urgent need of medical assistance. Please dispatch aid to him immediately."

"Sir … that … I'm not going to call a medical team so you can follow them to where he is. That is an abuse of the regulations."

"Let me answer for that. You are required to send assistance to him."

"Only if I believe the claim is credible."

"He didn't answer his comm and you know he's in his quarters." He gestured at the terminal she'd looked at earlier.

She didn't deny it. "Perhaps he doesn't wish to be disturbed. Why do you think he might need medical assistance?"

"Yesterday, we were both in a meeting with Leader Snoke." Calmly and with emphasis, he repeated again, "I believe Admiral Halcor is in urgent need of medical attention." Those two facts shouldn't have any connection at all, but as he could see from her face, they did.

She was silent. She looked away, seeming to think about the matter more deeply and at a greater length than would have been necessary pre-Snoke. "I will do a welfare check," she said.

"Thank you." That was exactly the outcome Hux had been hoping for, but if he'd asked for it, she wouldn't have taken him seriously.

"You're coming with me."

"Well … alright." Despite the differential in rank, as a security officer, she had the authority to order him to accompany her. It was rare for someone to use it unless they expected trouble. Hux followed along without argument. It would address his morbid curiosity at any rate.

Lt. Sharhel buzzed the door five times before shooting an uneasy look at Hux and using her override. Inside, Halcor was dead on the floor, having shot his own brains out with his service blaster. His datapad sat nearby, text blinking on it. The two of them stood fixed in the doorway until some junior officer turned the corner at the end of the hall. Hux took the lieutenant by the shoulder and pulled her into the room, letting the door whisk shut behind them.

"Don't tell me you've never seen anyone dead before," Hux said. She wasn't a technician. She ought to know better.

Her hand was over her mouth. "No, I have. Just not … like this." It was messy. Halcor had obviously overcharged his blaster to make absolutely sure it was a lethal shot. It showed some basic competence. Hux assumed that was why he'd heard it through the wall and a sound sleep. She asked, "He killed himself, didn't he?"

"Yes. Obviously." Despite the overwhelming evidence, Hux still looked around the room and the attached refresher carefully in case there were signs of foul play. Years of staging assassinations gave him a pretty good idea of what to look for, yet found nothing suspicious.

Sharhel had picked up the datapad and was reading it. "General Brendol Hux," she said slowly. "That's your father, isn't it?"

"What? Yes, it is." He approached her, stopping on the other side of the body. "Let me see that."

"He blames you."

Hux reached out and took the datapad away from her since she wasn't offering it. She made an objecting noise, but he ignored it. He skimmed over the text. His father was mentioned, names were named – even some of the other children in Armitage's gang. Hux grimaced at the screen. "Lies." They were not.

He scrolled down rapidly to the end, reading the last paragraph or two. Thankfully, they had nothing to do with the Hux name. Hux snorted. "He says he celebrated when the Death Stars were destroyed. Quietly, in his room! Pah! He's a traitor. Good riddance to him. How did a man like this become an admiral?" he scoffed.

"I need that back," Sharhel insisted. But it wasn't an order, which technically she could do in the course of her duties. She was, after all, the floor officer and this wasn't Hux's ship where he could automatically override her. Floor officers were usually petty officers or even stormtroopers, but Snoke's guests apparently rated someone higher up and better trained. Probably because of things like this.

"Why?"

"It's evidence."

"Of what? His treason?"

"Treason? He's an admiral!"

"That doesn't matter. He's not allowed to kill himself. There's no way out of this! This is pointless defiance!"

"Defiance? He's dead! I need that back." She extended her hand for the datapad, which he ignored.

"This is not public knowledge." This was what Halcor had meant with that last, cryptic threat, he realized. If Hux hadn't been here, the information would have been recorded as evidence, transmitted around, an investigation opened, and an arrest order issued before Hux even knew he was in danger. What would Snoke do then? He might defy the Order's judicial system for his own power, but Hux doubted he'd do it for Hux's benefit. He didn't even know how much Halcor had on him, but what he'd seen was enough to suspect the man's rank had come from keeping the right secrets.

"How did you know he died?" she challenged him, putting both hands on her hips. It was an inch or two above her blaster.

Hux pointed. "Because that is the wall that adjoins my room! I heard the shot. What, do you think I snuck in here, murdered him, then left a deranged screed implicating myself before I snuck back out and made sure you found the scene?"

"Oh," she said quietly. Him, as a suspect of the admiral's death, made no sense at all. It was the dozen or so others further in the past Hux was concerned about at the moment.

Hux lifted the datapad. "He's angry because we argued last night, about my father whom we both knew and obviously, he harbored some paranoid delusions about. I'm taking this to Leader Snoke." He wheeled and made his escape before she could collect herself.

He stewed in the lift, reading the rest of the suicide note. It was infuriating. Halcor had joined the military back when it was the Old Republic. He'd served in the Empire, then been unlucky enough to be on one of the ships that retreated to the Unknown Regions and eventually formed the First Order. Unlucky for him, because he didn't support the organization he was part of.

It was infuriating to read because despite feeling this way – scheming against the Empire and then the Order, celebrating the victories of their enemies, quietly thwarting their own success – Halcor had never taken a public stand. But he'd been there in the background sabotaging things the whole time. Somehow he'd even managed to get promoted. As far as Hux could tell, the suicide wasn't about the direction the Order was going in or any kind of honorable, principled objection. It was about a certainty he would be exposed if he continued work under a telepath.

He was a liar. He was a traitor. He was a coward.

There was something about the man's life, laid out here in yellow and black on the datapad, that enraged Hux. His heart hammered and his breath came fast. He felt a sweat break out over himself. He wanted to go back to the man's quarters and kick the corpse until he wrenched his hip. It was wrong. Halcor was wrong. His life was wrong. It wasn't how things were done. But he was dead and it was frustrating and there was nothing Hux could do to harm the man further. He smashed the electronic device to flinders instead, scooping up most of the shattered remains and dumping them down three separate disposal chutes.

He still felt cheated. Halcor would never have to answer for his dereliction of duty, his misplaced loyalties, or his repugnant pretense of being a good officer while harboring sentiments like this. It made Hux feel like his own life was a sham, like his slavish devotion to duty, the lengths of his obedience, or his devotion to the cause, were somehow a pointless waste of time if someone could simply get away with rebellion over so many years, right in their midst. Here Halcor was insisting there was a moral uprightness to subterfuge and sabotage and Hux wasn't getting to so much as argue with him!

Snoke was laughing when Hux came to Veska's desk to ask about his availability. It was still shift three. He should have been asleep. But maybe he didn't sleep. Hux didn't much either, these days. Being awakened by blaster shots and suicides didn't help.

"Leader Snoke," Hux said. "I did not expect to find you here." He tried to compose his thoughts from the seething mess they'd become.

"Ah, my faithful dog, a fanatic to the core, anxious to savage those who lurk in the shadows. Admiral Halcor is no longer with us." He was cheerful.

"You knew?" He wondered if Snoke had caused it somehow. But no – Snoke might have been able to turn the blaster and activate the mechanism, but he wouldn't have been able to write the note. Hux politely ignored the rest of Snoke's condescending ramble.

"Of course I knew. As you did. Your words pushed him to it. And the realization that a generation of people you have trained are rising that he would be powerless to poison against me. You were right. We are better off rid of him."

"Of course, sir." And so he knew Snoke had seen and heard his exchange with Lt. Sharhel, despite it being across the ship and not in Hux's thoughts until Snoke had mentioned it. There was no escape except the one Halcor had taken. Hux would not lower himself to that. He would not abandon the Order and the people in it – his people.

"One individual at a time," Snoke said musingly.