Kylo had grown tired of searching through endless holofeed, finding nothing but lazy 'Troopers, or off-duty officers following their mundane schedules, drinking their bland caf, listening blindly to orders like the mindless little things they were.

A hand reached for the hilt of his 'saber, which Hux caught swiftly. "A blaster bolt would be much more efficient, if you insist on ruining my equipment."

"I am growing tired of fruitless searching."

"Half the problems you have in this life could be solved by extending your patience a little further, Ren. Now, be quiet while I look. There seems to be a pattern."

"Of the Ghost leading us to dead end after dead end, General. They are toying with us."

"Nobody can be perfect," Hux said, twirling Kylo's lightsaber idly in his fingers. "They'll slip up eventually, and I'll be there to find them when they do."

Kylo twitched. Action, they needed action. He needed to leave the confines of the comm centre and scour the ship properly. "Did your parents never teach you not to take what isn't yours?"

"Oh, no." And Hux smiled a very pleasant smile that unsettled Kylo in its believability. "They taught me that everything was mine already." But Hux dropped the hilt into Kylo's open hand, and went back to searching, eyes narrowed in on the flickering lights like breadcrumbs that had led them only hours before to the emptiest, most useless places on the ship.

"Do you plan to find any meaning in that?"

"If you'd allow me to focus, yes."

Kylo was impatient. And Hux wasn't listening to him. But, different approaches, same goals, he thought, and tried with all his might not to slash the nearest console. "Tell me when you are ready to be productive," Kylo said, and Hux snorted.

"I'm the only one in this room who's doing anything productive at this moment, Ren." A sigh. "Yes, I will tell you. Go, do whatever it is you do."

"No, I think I'd rather stay." You're more interesting than the rest of this ship, he didn't say. Hux surely couldn't hear him, but part of Kylo wished he could. If only that Hux would preen at the thought and attempt to do something more impressive than shuffle through holos.

"I'm not here to entertain you, Ren," Hux replied, shortly, and Kylo blinked. Had he heard? No, of course he hadn't. The General had the strange ability to read people without their knowing, only by looking them over with his usual disdain, and he was using it now.

"They aren't, either." He dragged a gloved finger over the face of an officer on his lunchbreak.

"Don't-" Hux sneered. "How like you, to expect everyone bend to your will. Do something useful and help me search, if you want something to occupy your mind."

"They bend to my will because I deserve no less, and because I am right."

"Are you right about the location of this Ghost, I wonder?" But Hux's eyes were still on the feed.

They would see.

"There," Hux said, mouth curved up in a victorious grin. "There, see, I found it, as I knew-"

Kylo blinked his eyes open from beneath the mask. "Yes?"

"Why are you sleeping on the job, Ren?" Hux stared with something other than hatred, and more like utter shock. "I asked you to help!"

"I was meditating."

"While we work," Hux continued, and instead of anger, his face flushed bright with laughter. "Hells, Ren, the nerve of you is unbelievable, I can't even comprehend the level of disregard you must have for this ship's natural hierarchy, if you would meditate while we attempt to weasel out a possible intruder."

"Definite. Definite intruder," Kylo corrected.

"Oh, even better!" Hux threw up his hands, greatcoat flaring out behind him. "Well, lucky for you, I seem to have found something."

"What?"

"Shadows."

Kylo stared, though Hux couldn't clearly see it. "What about them, General?"

"The Ghost can't hide their shadow, it's quite entertaining, really. You can see, here," at this, he swept a hand over the image of the leftmost corridor wall, "that they actually stand and wait for us to reach the passageway end before moving forward. You were right to say they were toying with us."

"They still are. Leading us like dogs," Kylo began, spitting.

"Oh, have patience, my friend, playing along might get us more information. Useful information."

Since when were they friends? But Kylo let go of that thought, and moved swiftly onto the next. "You want to allow the Ghost to bait us?"

"And, at the same time, we bait them." Hux smiled. "Turnabout's fair play, don't you think?"

Reluctantly, he did. "We follow the shadow, then, correct?"

"Or shadows. They may have backup, if they have any sense at all."

"Which they don't," Kylo snapped. "Coming here."

"You'll be surprised at how much feigned strength a group can offer. Though, working alone, maybe you'll never have the displeasure."

"I'm not working alone now," Kylo said, stupidly. But Hux was wrong, and strength was in numbers, provided they were the right ones. He would not share breath with incompetent children. Hux, for all his grating superiority, was still deserving of his rank. Others did not share such a distinction.

"No, I suppose you aren't. The Supreme Leader will be pleased to see you stretching such unused muscles, hmm? Teamwork, Lord Ren? What next?"

"The Ghost's neck in my hands."

"You do get to the point, don't you?"

The hallway was cold, that was the first thing to come to his attention. The Finalizer was always cold, but never below viable temperatures. This felt as if it were chewing away at his skin. Hux sniffed.

"We're on the right path, it seems. At the very least, we have that."

"This isn't much, General."

Hux huffed, looking, despite their size, somehow down at him with distaste. "Better than we were a few hours ago."

"You don't approve of my attitude?" Kylo asked, absentmindedly. His attention was on the shadow, flitting about, eagerly pacing at the end of the corridor. "I'm only being realistic, you understand." And it was realism. Following a playful abscence of light around the ship like younglings was no more fit for people of their calibre than a spot begging on the streets of some Outer Rim hovel.

"While I approve of your will to be productive, for once, I think you'll find this far more beneficial than you believe."

"Chasing shadows?"

"Tracking shadows," Hux corrected, and walked on.

The Ghost had long since moved to the next corridor, but Hux and he already knew their movements. Erratic, yes, but there were only so many dead ends on the ship. For the first time, Kylo considered if this could possibly be worth all the effort.

"Don't give up so quickly." Hux had stopped, now, looking left and right between the intersection they'd been led to. He slipped a glove off one hand, and held it out to test the air. "Colder on the right. Deeper into the heart of the ship? Honestly, they could try a little harder to mask their presence, don't you think? You would know about these things, wouldn't you, Lord Ren?"

"It may not be their intention to hide themselves from us," Kylo offered, feeling absurdly obligated to offer some useful advice in the face of Hux's taunts. He had no need to prove himself. And yet Hux made him want to.

"That's looking more and more like the case," Hux said, and rubbed a hand over his forehead, fingers trailing down to pinch the bridge of his nose. Kylo could sense a headache developing. The cold air, perhaps. Or the sheer monotony. "Why on my ship of all karking places?" He said it to himself, barely a whisper, but Kylo caught it regardless. He gave a soft frown.

"If it's any consolation, General, I'm beginning to suspect the Ghost is here for me and me alone."

"Trust that you would hear that. Have you considered that might be a little self-centred? You're not the only important individual on this ship, Ren."

"No," Kylo replied, and peered down the intersection they'd been led to. "But I am the only one who has any talent in the Force."

Hux twitched. "Very well. We'll have to see when we get there. But don't expect it to feed your ego, Lord Ren, I think you'll find yourself sorely disappointed."

For all Kylo talked, a sense of great, rising dread washed over him the farther and farther he strayed away from his quarters. Every step into the ship's heart made him feel as if he were walking into a trap that would cripple him forever.

Of course, that wasn't the case. That would never be the case. A mere Force Ghost couldn't pose a threat to someone with his training, but that they could, even at a subconscious level, suggest he should believe this... Kylo was not sure they were dealing with a simple haunting any longer.

Hux kept flashing him concerned looks, until finally, he stopped in a corridor and threw up his hands. "This would go a lot faster if you stopped cowering away, ceased your ridiculous trembling, and realised that a Ghost could never hurt you. For all in the nine karking hells, I can't figure out why you would even begin to believe that in the first place, but here we are."

"I am not trembling," Kylo spat. "I am - rightfully - wary. This creature has power."

"It's dead."

Kylo tilted his head, and fell back, into a sort of mocking that came naturally. "Surely you've come to think outside that sorrowfully narrow box they instilled within you during training, General Hux?"

"Oh, yes, very good impression." Hux sighed. "If only you would focus your efforts into something productive, instead of..." When he didn't finish, Kylo motioned for him to continue. "You want me to follow this line of thought, Ren, really?"

"The silence is... unsettling."

"And the sound of my voice is less so?"

"Compared to the threat we are facing; yes."

"You think this is truly serious," Hux said. It wasn't a question any longer.

"There is something wrong with it. I feel as if it knows me."

"And you're sure that's not your martyr complex, that it's not a way for you to project your myriad of other issues onto others? It's presumptuous to assume-"

"Not just me. The ship. Our ways. It knows everything."

"Our ways?"

"The way we conduct ourselves."

"Oh, so you think it has us pieced together."

"I know it to be true."

Hux stopped. "That's what has you so concerned?"

Kylo stared, without any hint of his usual anger and resentment and annoyance, and said, "Do you think we are very easy men to piece together, General?"

They were not very easy men to piece together, and that was what worried him the most. A Ghost was enough of a threat all alone, but armed with knowledge, about the First Order, about their movements, their leaders - that was beyond dangerous. Allowing such a thing to continue would be borderline treason, even in eyes other than Snoke's own.

He wanted it to.

By all the gods, he wanted it to. Never had he been so intrigued - so engaged - in his entire life; and Hux felt it too, he knew. He could see it in the way his eyes glittered in the dim light, the eager, determined set of his mouth, just bridging on a smirk. Slight, but to Kylo, it couldn't have shone brighter.

This was what he joined the Knights for. Learning about the Force, encountering the rare and the unexpected, not sitting aboard a ship, twiddling his thumbs and terrorising mindless village sheep.

"What has you so excited?" asked Hux.

"A break from this droll bureaucracy."

"'Droll bureaucracy?'" Hux snorted. "You're quite something, Knight Ren."

"I aim to be."

"Certainly you do," Hux said, dry, but in the Force he was pleased. Kylo couldn't imagine why. That he would play up to the General's vision of his overdone theatrics? That he would display any emotion aside from his usual empty stoicism? If they were to work together, on a case such as this especially, then Hux would soon have to find out that Kylo Ren was not a hollowed-out tin can. Beneath his robes, he bled. Perhaps that was what pleased him; finding a weakness.

"Relax, that was a compliment, for once." Hux waved a hand. "Your intrigue is refreshing. This ship is filled to the brim with boring little followers. Sometimes I seek a little entertainment, and this Ghost has brought it."

"And if it, too, turns out to be a 'boring little follower?'"

"Then this was worth the shot. It might keep us from going insane - well, it might keep me from going insane. Of course, it's too late in your case."

And suddenly it didn't get under Kylo's skin at all. Suddenly this was such an escape from the endless sameness of the Finalizer. "I'm flattered."

"Of course you would be."

The Ghost led them and led them and Kylo was beginning to protest being forced to put one foot after the other like some repentant child, when he saw the door to his own quarters. Hux's were across the way, untouched. The Ghost's shadow lay only across his door, a shadowy hand playing at the intercomm beside it.

"Well, perhaps your self-centred thinking has gotten us somewhere, after all," said Hux. "Back to your own living quarters. Truly, what a journey, and for such an important cause."

"It might be."

Hux stared.

"It could be."

"What possible reason does it have to come here, Ren? Your quarters are filled with absolutely nothing."

"Many ancient Sith artefacts lie here."

"And they wouldn't have shown themselves sooner?"

"Perhaps not."

"There's only one way to find out," Hux began. "But this doesn't excuse your complete recklessness. Proceed with caution."

"You underestimate me," Kylo said, and stepped forward.

It was cold. The dust blew in gusts around his bedsheets, despite the internal thermostat's position pointing firmly to off, despite the complete lack of draft on a vacuum-sealed ship in the darkness of space. The Ghost had a flair for the dramatic. They were not the only one.

Hux had no subtlety in these matters. "Show yourself!"

Kylo motioned for him to quiet, lessen the risk of provoking the Ghost, but he simply shook his head. "They deserve what's coming to them after what a show they've put on."

"You're not wrong." But Kylo itched to leave, suddenly. There was a sick feeling rising in his chest, like ice in his veins and bile in his throat, and he knew there was a presence here of even greater power than the Supreme Leader. He wanted to run, he wanted to fight, he wanted to know and understand.

Hux's breath came in sharp pants, each exhale painting the air in little gusts. He pulled his gloves tighter on each hand. "You know, in all the years I've spent in command, I've come to learn to trust any and all instincts. And do you know what they're telling me right now, Ren?"

"To leave, if you have any sense. To challenge, if you're like me. To talk, if you're worse."

"All three at the same time, I imagine."

"Something we can agree on."

Wisps of cold air blew through his quarters and into his meditation room. Kylo could see as his breath made its way towards the door and out of sight. "Shall we follow it?" Hux asked, and then he walked forward without waiting for a response.

Kylo swallowed down apprehension and let caution stay. Only caution, no fear, no challenge, no curiosity. He followed until he hit Hux in the back, smashing his nose into the thick greatcoat. Hux stood to the side, to allow Kylo some sight. A figure stood at the final resting place of what was left of Darth Vader's battle armour. Kylo could only see his hands, and a strand of hair, perhaps, beneath the thick robes. It knelt to fasten its boots, as if it needed them, and then plucked the helmet from its stand with ease, for something so lacking in weight or form.

"A shame its lost its shine in its old age," said the Ghost, cradling the helmet in translucent hands. The voice was quiet, but Kylo felt it like a physical force. He found no air left in his lungs. "Grandson." Anakin Skywalker's - Darth Vader's - apparition tilted its head. "The duty to teach you lies now on my shoulders."

"My Grandfather, my Master. It is an honour."

A hint of humour in a young face with old eyes. "Believe me, the pleasure's mine."

Hux's hands fell to his sides, then rose again to point accusingly at Grandfather's shimmering figure. "What the hell is this?"

Kylo felt, for the first time in many years, that he might be a little impressed. "You can see him?"

Hux only snorted, blissfully unaware of the unlocked world he'd left untouched for so long. "What, do you think this is another of your paranoid delusions, Ren, or are you suggesting your madness is spreading?"

Vader considered them. "You have a great many things to learn." A huff, like a laugh. "To forget the power of the Light, I know. To forget to recognise the Force in others?" And then, Kylo watched in terror as Darth Vader smirked. "Well, colour me surprised. So, 'Kylo' Ren, Ben Solo," and the unspoken quotes around his name made him blink, "tell me, how does being a little less clueless sound?"

Author's Note: Vader acts like Anakin to piss Kylo off let's be real. No but seriously 'kylo?' like how pretentious are you gonna get man? that's almost as pretentious as 'vader' itself. darth ren would've been more acceptable for chrissakes. you're trying to get taken seriously right buddy? you think kylo's gonna get you that? look at this asshole piece of trash. i love him.

Fuckery aside, sorry it took me such a long time to update. You ever have a crisis about where you want to go with a story? Yeah, that's me, but every day. I have less clues than Ben goddamn Solo, it's fantastic, and it certainly makes for a coherent story with a coherent narrative and a coherent tone. This fic contains complete and consistent coherency, you can trust in me.