this story was inspired by meridianpony's story Esprit De Corps
The ghosts have been around for a few months now, ever since FN-2187 arrived at this base he's seen them. He doesn't know how he knows what to call them but he does. They are wearing armor, similar to the white armor the older troopers wear except most of the ghosts armor have colors painted on them. There are many different colors Red, Blue, and Grey's.
FN-2187 usually ignores them, not wanting to be taken away. He's only ten ( at least that's what his trainers tell him) but he knows what could happen to him if he told people what he sees. He doesn't think that the ghost's know that he can see them, he usually does his best to ignore them.
There's many of them, they hang around in groups. He can almost always hear them talking to eachother and it makes it hard for young FN-2187 to ignore them.
Their looks switch around sometime's, there's a blond one that flickers every once in a while; showing an old bald man with a fluffy white beard.
A few other ghost's do this, but not many. It seems that they can't always control what they look like. There's another one that switches between orange armor that's like all the other ghost's, and white stormtrooper armor that FN-2187 has only seen in holo's.
Right now FN-2187 is sitting in the barracks where all the other troopers his age stay, they won't be separated into batches for another few years, so there's quite a few of them staying in here. He's alone right now while two of the ghosts are arguing over something, it's getting annoying and hard to ignore but he doesn't say anything as usual.
The one has a mark of the number 5 on his forehead with a little bit of hair on his chin while the other has what looks like a blue upside down triangle.
"Come on Dogma, stop being such a stickler for rules, they're meant to be broken."
"Fives, rules are not meant to be broken. We're supposed to be in a meeting with the rest of our brothers now." This goes on for a while, with FN-2187 getting even more frustrated by the minute when he finally can't take it any more.
"Please stop." He whimpers, he's afraid of being caught, so it's no louder than a whisper; but the two ghosts seem to hear him just the same as they turn to look at him with open mouths.
"T-thats impossible, he can't see us. Right Fives." The one, seemingly known as Fives flies over to FN-2187, who's quivering in fear.
"Can you see us?" FN-2187 just nods his head, still to scared to speak. The ghosts eyes go even wider and a large smile is on his face.
"We have to go tell the Captain."
"For once I agree with you Dogma." They phase out of existence, leaving young FN-2187 to calm himself down before training starts. He doesn't understand what just happened and is scared out of his mind, when the rest of the young troopers come back FN-2187 makes sure that no one knows what happened.
He doesn't see any ghosts at all for the next few days, FN-2187 is starting to get worried, maybe the first order finally could see them and took them away, like they did to FN-1323. He was able to do things that the other troopers couldn't do so he was taken away, FN-2187 never saw him again.
FN-2187 keeps an eye out for the ghosts during his training but still doesn't see any, he's doing his best during training but the trainers are making them go up against troopers that are two to three years older than him and the others.
The older trooper he's going against throws him against the floor and holds him down, winning the sparring match for the second time today.
"FN-2187! Get up! Stormtroopers are strong and will get up no matter what." FN-2187 groans as he does his best to get up, he knows that he's going to hit the floor many more times today.
The training goes on and FN-2187 does his best to work through it till he can't anymore and collapses; thankfully the trainers give them mercy today and send him and the others back to there barracks.
They are still cruel in the way they don't give FN-2187 pain killers, saying that it was his punishment for being weak during training. They give him a tiny bit of bacta but not enough to cover all his bruises.
He's not the only one going without painkillers and with very little bacta, theirs a few others that go without as well. The victors and strongest of them are in a different room, getting more treatment than them for being stronger.
FN-2187 is in so much pain, all he can do is lay on his bunk curled up in a fetal position. He can hear whispers above him, he listens and realizes it's the ghosts talking. They're back.
"What are we suppose to do, the youngling's in pain."
"Maybe we can try to grab some painkiller's out of the medbay." FN-2187 is listening intently, trying to figure out which ghosts these are.
"We can't do that, Waxer. The first order would notice and then find it in the youngling's system, we don't want him to get punished. Besides our hands will just go right through it anyway." FN-2187 here's the ghost sigh, he doesn't understand why the ghosts want to help him.
"Waxers right, there's got to be something we can do Cody, did you see those bruises. He must be in so much pain." FN-2187 doesn't know who this ghost is, he's not in the mood to even look so he just keeps listening.
"I don-" FN-2187 can't hold back his whimper of pain and the ghosts go quiet, there's silence for a few moments when FN-2187 feels something on his back, it pulls back immediately and he hears a short gasp but after only a few seconds the feeling returns.
It's going up and down along his spine, the feeling is light and airy but it's something nice. It's unlike anything he's felt before and it's making his back stop aching some. He decides to turn around to see what it is, being careful not to hurt himself.
It surprises him to see one of the ghosts sitting there, rubbing his back with his hand softly.
"Shhh, lay down and relax lil'un, I won't hurt you; and neither will my Vod. We're going to protect you." It's the blond one with blue armor, he's not flickering right know like he sometimes does. For some reason the ghost makes FN-2187 feel safe and warm, feeling's that he's never felt before in his life.
FN-2187 looks around and can see the other 3 ghost's sitting on the other bunks across from them. The one with the 5 on his forehead from before waves at him, smiling.
FN-2187 can feel his eyelids grow heavy and he tries to fight his sleep off, scared of the nightmares that he sometimes has.
"Don't worry, we won't let anything hurt you. Just sleep, okay vod'ika." The ghost starts humming and FN-2187 feels his eyes start to droop as his body relax's, and he drifts off. Letting the ghosts humming lull him to sleep.