'Inform the Supreme Leader we have found the spy.' Allegiant General Pryde announced, his voice laced with disgust, not unlike someone who has just cleared a rather persistent nest of maggots.

Distasteful but necessary.

The man discarded the still fuming blaster without a second thought, dismissing the general as the pest he thought he was. It took a couple more seconds for the rest of the bridge to unfreeze from its stilted stupor. A pair of troopers swiftly approached the body to remove it, efficient and unbothered by the officers' shock.

According to procedure. Mitaka though belatedly.

The odd thought shook the young lieutenant brain back on track from its closed loop of horror-denial-confusion, and Mitaka paced briskly the length of the bridge to the sprawled form of General Hux. His mind stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that their general, this fiery man that had led them through so many life-or-death situations, and victories, by his sharp mind and competence alone could have been snuffed out so easily by one of the old remanent of the Empire he so fiercely despised. Before the two footmen could grab the body, the young lieutenant crouched by its side, hoping against all hope. General Hux could not die now, the Order would not get through without him. They needed their general, whatever disgrace the self-appointed Supreme Leader could come up with to torment his former co-commander.

Mitaka dismissed the bitter thought and pressed a shaking hand to the man's pulse point and waited. His breath hitched when the telling throb of life pulsed faintly against the pad of his fingers. Repeatedly. But blood was pumping from the general's shoulder as well, soaking through the thick fabric of his uniform. Wherever Pryde had meant to miss anything vital or not, the bolt had torn through bone and flesh but failed to kill Hux on the spot. It would soon tough, if nothing was done to quench the flow.

This realisation was overshadowed by the looming form of the Allegiant General, that had moved to stand behind him, scrutinising him with cold eyes and contempt.

'Take him to an interrogation room lieutenant and see that he is in shape to talk by the time of Lord Ren's return,' Pryde stated coldly before turning on his heels and toward the viewport.

'His shoulder needs to be treated sir or he won't last that long,' Mitaka called after the man.

'I don't care about the details lieutenant,' Pryde snapped coldly, 'clean him up as you see fit and throw him in a high security cell.'

'Yes sir.' Mitaka answered in a practiced, automated way.

This was all the leeway he needed, and the lieutenant quickly gestured to the two troopers to start carrying the bleeding General away. The fastest he could take General Hux away from Pyre the better. On his way out he commed the med bay to send a stretcher ahead to meet them and to prepare for their arrival.

Hux needed to survive this. They all needed him to.

An official high priority message informing Ren about General Hux treason had, of course, been send right away. It had nonetheless taken a while to come to the Supreme Leader's knowledge. The thick shrouding protecting Exegol cut out all unmonitored communication, but there was also the fact that Kylo could not be bothered with anything much for a good half cycle after he had learned about his whole life being the result of the manipulation of a decaying corpse rotting halfway across the galaxy that had singled him out from infancy to be his plaything.

The implications of this, as disturbing as they were, would need to be dealt with later. Things were now in motions that were out of his control, and he was running out of time to rein them in. Everything was agitated and shrouded to his gaze, like muddy water in the night, and the Force was providing him no guidance.

When at last back on the Steadfast, he read the notification informing him of Hux betrayal and could not quite believe it. That Hux would lay his pride so low as to leak information from his beloved Order to the Resistance… Had Kylo underestimated his bitterness? Or had he been missing something bigger? Within the privacy of his quarters, Kylo allowed a frown to show on his face, betraying his doubt. He had been harsh to Hux, the man proving hard to keep under his thumb as he snarled and fought him every step of the way. Hux was above all about self-preservation, but there seemed to be something about Kylo that sent him highwire.

Kylo had thought about getting rid of him at first, but it had rapidly become apparent why Snoke bothered with the cur in the first place. A surprisingly sizable portion of the first Order held an uncanny loyalty to the man, and Ren suspected Hux had rigged the trooper conditioning in his favour. Cunning. Ruthless. Indispensable. Hux had shrewdly made himself a cornerstone of the Order and removing him without excellent reason would have provoked more chaos than the organisation could handle after Snoke retirement. Appointing Pryde Allegiant General was supposed to circumvent the issue. Someone to keep Hux in check and reinstall some humility in the general.

Another notification, flagged this time, got his attention. From the med bay, informing him Hux was in a critical condition.

Something got him shouldering his cloak and helmet once more and moving to the med bay. A barely noticeable tug. Morbid curiosity perhaps, to see the last moment of the man whose pettiness had crossed him at every turn. The bleeding thorn in his side that had never failed to dig deeper into the flesh at every painful occasion. Perhaps he wanted to indulge in a last chance to tear into the brilliant and twisted mind of his once co-commander. Kylo had secretly revelled in skimming the depth of those thoughts, amazed at Hux focus and peculiar brand of madness. Hux believed in his vision of a ruling First Order and was shrewd enough to have decided his survival was key to its accomplishment. And it probably would have been. Not that Kylo would ever admit so.

He made it to the med bay few minutes later and was dimly aware of some unrest through the crew. His light skimming of the passing thought of every other personnel on his was revealed a newly blown tension. The world of Hux demise had probably torn through the crew already, part of which was re-affected from the Finalizer. He would have to monitor things closely to make sure no misplaced loyalty undermined them from the inside.

A defecting stormtrooper was one thing. A traitorous General another. Just one more thing making this whole situation impossible.

The door from the med bay opened upon his arrival. A medic that had probably been waiting for him surged forward to make his report with undisguised nervousness. From the corner of his eyes, Kylo caught the presence of an officer in the room. Little shy thing, devoted bootlicker of Hux… What was his name again?

'Supreme Leader, Sir. The Gen… Former General Hux is in critical condition,' the medic stammered as fast as possible. 'We have received orders not to put him in a bacta tank and in his state, he will die any moment now.'

'Why the restriction?' Ren asked simply in a low voice.

'So as to not waste resources on a traitor to the Order,' she answered professionally.

Ren gave her a blank look. She disapproved of the order, on the basis she was a medic and there was absolutely no shortage of supply presently.

'Get him treated,' he stated flatly. The lingering officer perked up slightly from his mourning position.

'It may be too late now.' He heard the medic thought clearly.

'I'll get the tank ready, Supreme Leader!' She said aloud, saluting briskly before being off at speed.

When he found Hux, he was alone, both medics having dashed out to help the moment they got the all-clear for the bacta treatment, leaving only a droid to monitor the bleeding man's condition. He looked pathetic, Ren thought. The fiery general of the First Order, left to bleed out by his own people to save a little bacta. It was ridiculous. Hux's eyelids were closed, fluttering slightly against his pale skin, his hair in disarray and framing his face in red strands. He was shining with sweat, and his breathing was ragged.

They had barred his torso in case the go for an emergency immersion in a bacta tank was given. Kylo trailed his hand lightly above the man's chest, feeling his wavering consciousness, blinking in and out of existence, holding on to a fluttering pulse working madly on too little blood.

A flash of his childhood passed in front of Kylo's eyes, recalled by the same feeling of a heart beating madly for survival. A soft, broken bird, fallen from its nest. He had brought the little thing to his mother, who had been seating a little way under the shade of another tree weaving grass and flowers into a hairband. She had taken the bird into her hand, before shaking her head sadly and giving it back to him.

'All living things must go back to the force Ben.'

'Why can't the force come to them instead Mom?'

And before Leia had the chance to breath out the first syllable of an answer, an idea had come into his little mind, bloomed and been put into action without a care or a thought for consequences.

The little bird had left his hand flying and gone on singing, perched a nearby branch until they left. Luke had called it force healing. A power he had come across several manuscript but could never quite manage himself. And all he could get from little Ben had been that it felt like…

A spark.

He had acted upon an unconscious reflex. Feeling the thinning life bond of Hux to his body on the brink of vanishing. Upon the last beat of his heart, the Force had cracked from the tip of his fingers to spark life into the sickly body of his once co-commander. Like he did all those years ago. Mildly surprised with himself, Kylo began withdrawing his hand to watch the process of Hux dying once again.

What had been enough to a little bird was just a sustaining drop to a grown man.

A crushing calm seemed to suddenly echo all around Kylo. Like the universe itself had just let out a booming beat of silence in the Force. It was disorientating and confusing, his own heartbeat ringing in his ear. But before Kylo could hone on the origin of the disturbance, it all came rushing back to him and reality snapped senselessly.

It felt like the Force leashed around his core, and dragged him forward, forcing him brutally toward the body in front of him. Kylo caught himself onto the bedframe, locking his muscles not to crash onto Hux as he was driven to his knees by the relentless pull. A whirlwind tugged at every part of him, sending every object in the room flying outward and crashing against the walls. But not Kylo. He was in the heart of the storm, and it seeped into him, into his very flesh and mind and started draining him. It felt like a huge parasitic maw closing around him that started to sap him of his strength, siphoning the force out of him in a relentless drag and onto the focal point of the force well.

Hux.

Kylo tried to break the hold but soon found out he was absolutely powerless to do so. Powerless and even more so with every passing moment, pinned still by the draining gravity. He slowly crawled away from Hux but even this soon proved impossible. When his consciousness started flickering, white and black dots darkening his vision, he gathered the Force around him for a last, desperate try. To reach out to Hux slumbering mind.

'HUX!' He hammered.

The tugging snapped, releasing him and the Force. The whirlwind recessed into nothingness in a blink, leaving only the desolation of the room as a proof of what had just happened. Kylo scrambled madly as far as possible from the bed until he hit a wall. He shakenly pulled himself up.

Hux's breathing had evened out.

'How very interesting.' An old, loathed voice cracked in his mind.