bakerstreet | OH BABY, IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

He felt Rey on his heels, and what he once thought was untrained raw talent reaching out to seize him. It stopped just as suddenly, and Kylo glanced over his shoulder to find Skywalker turning on his new student. It was as if he knew, as if he'd always known, and had used her just as fiercely as she believed she was using him.

He didn't have time to ponder the treachery though, just take advantage of it. And the fact that the last knight was too much of a coward to come after him. (Hux, though, the weaker masked warrior thought he could eliminate with ease.)

"Kylo Ren!" The Supreme Leader bellowed. "You continue to disappoint me."

"Not for much longer!" He growled.

"No. Not for much longer indeed." The ancient being narrowed his eyes, staring into the mind of the failure-turned-traitor. Kylo tried to keep him out, engaging in a battle of willpower as each step became increasingly forced. What happened around him was inconsequential compared to what was happening just below the surface. "Kura Ren, kill Skywalker and the poor excuse for a General. It appears Kylo Ren is insistent upon dying by my hands alone."

Kylo's screams echoed in the chamber, but he had yet to fall this time.

Hux hadn't had much training, nothing formal at least, but what he had gotten was sufficient, and the fact that not only the remaining Knight and Kura Ren, but Snoke himself saw him as the lowest threat in the room was going to be their downfall, especially in the face of Kylo's fury.

It wasn't going to be easy, and Hux knew it, knew that even being underestimated, even with Skywalker's unexpected help, they would be lucky to get out of this unscathed.

Even despite the lack of lightsaber of his own, he was relentless in going against that last Knight, getting in under the arcing swings time and again until finally felling it with a vibroblade up under the jaw, not slitting its throat, but plunged into soft tissue and twisted mercilessly, following the body to the ground before ripping the blade free.

Kura, still fixated on Skywalker didn't seem to realize that Hux still survived, which was something else he was going to use to his advantage, just collapsing against the body of the Knight he'd felled, bringing his focus around to bear on Kylo instead. There wasn't much he could do to help, already racking his mind for anything he could do, finally just sending tendrils of his own ability across the raw scores Snoke had left in Kylo's mind. Not mending them, he didn't have that sort of power, but covering them over, a shield of sorts, not unlike the way he usually masked his own abilities, keeping anyone else from getting in.

A shield was just what Kylo Ren needed, and exactly what Snoke was not expecting. Hux was a master at hiding his own abilities, perhaps even better than Emperor Palpatine had once been. Having access to even a part of that gave Kylo an edge.

No longer paralyzed by Snoke's mental attack, he lunged forward. His lightsaber would have cleaved his master in half were it not for a force field that sprang to life around the Supreme Leader. Snoke simply laughed.

"Impressive." he cackled. "But a fruitless attempt."

Kylo stretched out his hand, tapping into all of his anger to pull apart the force field, but it wouldn't budge. Snoke didn't lift a finger in his own defense.

In the back of his mind, Hux could hear Kylo grunt, Is there a power source somewhere? Depending on how strong Hux's mental protection was, the other Force users in the room may or may not have heard it too.

If the increased shield was backed up by mechanical means and they could short that out, they might have a shot at weakening Snoke's defense enough for Kylo to break it.

Following the flow of energy was definitely something that Hux could do, and even with a heated duel going on to one side of him, and Kylo's simmering anger on the other, he could still map out the room by where the energy went and where it was coming from, he just needed a moment to concentrate, one that he wasn't sure he was actually going to get.

Which was why it was a surprise to have the quiet brush of Skywalker's voice against the back of his mind: 'She thinks you're downed, stay where you are and whatever you're doing, keep doing it, I'll keep her occupied.'

Hux was beginning to re-think his opinion of the Jedi Master's abilities, but stop holding himself quite so rigidly, if the girl thought he was dead, and Snoke was preoccupied mocking Kylo, they had a chance, even though Hux's own energy was nearly at its limit. He did, however, manage to find what he was fairly certain was the power source, practically right at Kylo's feet, humming away beneath the floor. He imprinted the location of it the same way Kylo had imprinted the Citadel's layout to his mind earlier.

Hux realized, dimly, that the throbbing pain behind his eye that had started with having to hide himself from so many active minds was back, and was worse, and only barely registered that his nose was bleeding before he passed out even despite his determination to see this through to the end.

Kylo felt the vague impression float through his mind, and then nothing. Silence. Naked vulnerability. The Supreme Leader didn't get the message, but he sensed Kylo's sudden shock.

"Hux!!"

Heartbeats felt like eternities. Lightsabers clashed behind him and one went flying. Kylo screamed as he shoved his own weapon through the floor as far as it could go before Snoke's taunt rang in his head. "Gone so soon?" And suddenly, just as abruptly, that mental shielding was back - but it wasn't coming from Hux. It was actually coming from Luke Skywalker.

"You shall not interfere!" Snoke actually rose from his throne, intent on destroying the Jedi master himself.

But Kylo was there, seeing only red. Passionate rage fueled every muscle in hs body. His saber tore through stone and back out again, piercing Snoke's defenses and cleaving him apart.

Hux was still alive, just utterly burned out. While he'd been very well taught to do one thing with his powers -hide them- he hadn't really been taught anything else, and while he had the ability to do everything he'd done, he didn't have the training to know how to properly cycle the power he'd been using and had ended up blowing himself out like a fuse in a power surge.

He'd be fine, or fine enough, as long as he got a chance to recover.

Kylo would be unbelievably thankful for that. But at the moment, what he preceived as the death of his comrade just fueled his rage. No sooner had the Supreme Leader's body fallen from that throne, Kylo turned to face the others.

Luke was kneeling beside Hux's body. Kura Ren was going after her fallen lightsaber. Kylo shoved both of them into the stone wall so hard that it actually cracked.

"Don't touch him!!" He screamed at Skywalker, but kept his attention primarily on the woman he met as Rey. "And you... You tricked the wrong Knight!!"

Luke's abilities only went towards cushioning himself so that no bones broke upon impact, and he managed that much, though the pressure was still enough to knock the wind out of him.

Kura, on the other hand, hadn't even managed that, too focused on getting ahold of her weapon again, and something, more than one something by the sound of it, crunched when she hit the wall, though that didn't stop her from snarling at him like a feral animal, spitting blood a moment later as she replied: "But it was so easy to do."

"I should have killed you on Starkiller!" He growled, closing the distance between them in large angry strides. "But I won't be making THAT mistake here!!"

Hand outstretched, he gripped her body with the Force. Hux was laying there dead. She deserved no mercy, nor the ability to even move to defend herself.

"You should have." She spat back, vicious and sharp even despite the fact that her breath was just panting, shallow and wet, blood staining her mouth and dripping from her chin.

She seemed unconcerned about her imminent demise, and quite likely she was, given as how she'd always known one of them would kill the other, this was how things were destined to turn out, her smile was a cruel twist of a thing as she added: "Should have done before we broke your toy." Glancing at where Hux was still sprawled over the other Knight he'd felled.

She still thought he was dead, and Luke was doing what he could to maintain that illusion, not letting her notice the slow pull of Hux's breath, nor the fact that there was still more than just a flicker of living Force where there would have been nothing if he were actually dead.

Those were last words that did not sit well with Kylo Ren. Waves of angry Force energy shook the cavernous room. It was hard to tell what finally did the other knight in - his Force hold might have crushed her before his lightsaber tore her in two.

Still enraged, he turned on Skywalker.

"Ben, he's alive." The Jedi master let every illusion fade.

"Don't toy with me!!"

"Your friend is alive! Search the Force. I know you can feel him..."

The shock on Kylo's face was proof enough, as was the hesitation that followed. One enemy remained, but it was the enemy who protected Hux and shielded him from both the Supreme Leader and Kura Ren.

"Get out of here." He grunted at Skywalker. It was a momentary truce. A life for a life. "Leave. Before I change my mind."

He waited, watching Skywalker go. And then, he immediately ran to Hux's side.

"Hux... Hux, we did it..."

Luke didn't want to just leave them there, but at the same time he understood the offer for what it was, and so he nodded, slipping away, making good on his exit while he still could.

Hux, for his part, was still out cold, but Kylo's presence, the beacon that it was, even for as unsettled as he still was, was enough to draw him at least a little closer to the surface, and his breathing shifted to something shallower, more alert, though he didn't stir just yet, didn't actually wake though some sort of expression drifted across his face all the same, like he was dreaming restlessly.

"Hux..."

Kylo Ren was no stranger to Force fatigue, having been put through his paces long and hard enough by Snoke to reach the state Hux was now in. He knew that what Hux needed most was simply rest.

He carefully gathered the General into his arms and stood.

With the Supreme Leader dead, there was no danger in staying here, but something about it just felt... wrong. Ultimately, he decided it was best to take refuge in his shuttle. It was comfortable enough for Hux to recover, and he could make a speedy getaway if Skywalker was ridiculous enough to come back with reinforcements.

It was another hour and a half, almost two hours before Hux stirred, though when he did it was with a groan, pressing the heel of his hand to his brow where the headache blossomed anew now that he was conscious.

He took a moment to settle his breathing, taking in his surroundings, recognizing the shuttle and realizing that there was no thrum of engines, which meant that either they'd arrived at their destination while he'd been unconscious, or they hadn't yet left.

It was the latter. And soon after Hux came to, he would find a familiar shade of black fill his vision.

"It's done." He reported. The fact that they were alive and not in chains rotting in a cell somewhere was a fantastic clue to how things turned out, but Kylo said it anyway. "Supreme Leader Snoke is dead. All of the Knights that stood with him are dead, including the girl."

He said nothing of Skywalker, or his act of mercy on Hux's behalf.

Kylo knelt down next to the bunk.

"The First Order... It's yours..."

"Ours." Was the automatic reply, finally lifting his hand away from his face so that he could actually study Kylo, the headache still throbbing away, but not as blinding as it had first been.

"At least I should hope you aren't going to leave me to rule without an enforcer." The framework was already in place, all those separate, disparate threads just had to be brought together and he was poised to do just that. He had to believe that the Supreme Leader had known about at least some of it, but not enough to put together and view it as an actual threat, which had been the idea, after all.

With the Supreme Leader, there was a constant struggle for position and rank. Neither the rivalry he once shared with Hux nor the fierce competition between the Knights of Ren actually benefitted the First Order. It served Snoke, of course, in so much as to prevent challenge to his rule. But Hux, Kylo confidently believed, would not stoop to such a level.

The speed at which Hux corrected him bolstered that opinion even more.

"Order cannot be brought about through words and promises alone. Otherwise General Organa's attempt at a new government after the fall of the Empire might have actually worked." He scoffed. He grew up in that crumbling house of cards, and had no intention of ever returning to it. "I will glady be your enforcer."

He nodded at the statement, "Far easier to rule with a kind word and a lightsaber than with a kind word alone." Not that Hux had ever been particularly kind. But the meaning was clear enough, give people a promise backed up with a threat and they were more likely to cooperate than on the promise alone.

Hux was of the opinion that the Knights had been frightening, certainly, but in a vague, formless way that didn't really help Snoke's position, and the fact that they were often at odds with each other certainly didn't do anything to assuage that impression.

He would do things differently. They would do things differently, better, they could actually bring about the peace and order that the galaxy had so long been lacking.

To the galaxy at large, Darth Vader had been a legend. He was the stuff of nightmares for all who dared to oppose the peace and security of the Empire. The Knights of Ren didn't even come close. They were still very much an unknown entity, a dark cult or gang of miscreants if anything. But alone, and with the right hand guiding him, Kylo Ren could be every bit the enforcer that his grandfather was.

But first, a confession.

"You should know... Skywalker got away." he sighed, guilty now for his moment of compassion. It was what brought down Darth Vader in the end, a mistake Kylo shouldn't have made.

He knew how Snoke would handle such a misstep, and it was instinct that caused him to flinch at the slightest movement.

"The Resistance will likely know of Snoke's defeat soon, if they don't already. What we do next, we should probably do quickly."

Considering that Hux would have done the same, he couldn't exactly find fault. It was less about compassion and more about being the honorable thing to do. The man had helped them, and more than he'd needed to, it was only fair that he live to regret it.

"Let them learn." He replied, settling back again, taking a deep breath, willing the headache to at least stop throbbing quite so badly as he continued, "They don't have anything to fill the void. We do."

He finally levered himself into a sitting position, paling a moment at the wave of queasiness that swept over him due to the increased pain for those few brief moments. He did find his voice again after a moment, "If we haven't yet left the Citadel there are two things I want. Snoke's head, and the girl's saber." He was serious about the demand, though whether it was some kind of delirium from the pain and the Force-fatigue was anyone's guess.

Kylo moved to support Hux when his face blanched. "Easy..."

It was as if Kylo expected the order, or at least something like it. When he stood, brushing back his tattered cowl, there was a second lightsaber clipped to his belt.

"It was mine." He reminded Hux. It was the blade that belonged to his grandfather, and one he'd been trying to get his hands on for years. "It was always mine."

Snoke's head wasn't as readily available to display, but he revealed that he'd taken it. There was likely a wealth of other information here that could be put to good use. However, Kylo did not want to leave Hux's side to do it. They'd just survived a coup together. He wasn't about to allow another one.

He hummed softly at the revelation of the saber, the sound quiet and pleased, reaching out as if to touch, fingers stopping just shy of the metal, nodding once, "Good, it's your birthright." He'd been planning on returning it to its rightful owner anyway, and was pleased that Kylo had at least taken that initiative.

He was equally pleased by the foresight to collect Snoke's head as well, he'd have it preserved later, so that it could be put on display somewhere, not prominently, but visible, a warning to those who thought they could control him, seize his power.

Realization struck him a moment later, and he straightened, "We don't have to leave here. The shuttle's communications array is strong enough to start the dominoes cascading, the threads were always going to be pulled taut from Starkiller, there's no reason that they can't be pulled together from here. Reclaim it as our own."

He'd taken the heads of more than just Snoke. In his fury, he'd made certain every last Knight of Ren in the battle had been decapitated as well. Kura Ren first. There would be no mistakes, and no second chances.

"There are only a handful alive in our own ranks who know of this location." He reminded Hux. There were two knights on missions elsewhere. One would likely be killed as a precaution, but the other he intended to take as his apprentice as he rebuilt his order of Knights. "Fewer than our enemies. Soon, if they don't already. Is it wise?"

This site was a treasure trove of dark side knowledge. But could they defend it? How quickly would the rest of the First Order fall in line? How quickly would Skywalker divluge the truth?

"Phasma knows to expect a summons, she can be here with a cadre of our best troops in a matter of hours." It wouldn't prevent an aerial assault, certainly, but the citadel could be defended. It was one of the things he liked about Phasma, the two of them had met at the academy and had recognized a shared ambition, and while Hux hadn't been instrumental in getting her for the troop commander position, he had at least recommended her for it and had been pleased when she'd accepted.

"And with her here, the fleet will soon fall in line." There were, of course, some upper-ranking officers who would be slow to recognize Hux's authority, who would likely not deign to join them in the Citadel, and that was fine, as far as Hux was concerned, that group were outliers and would soon be dealt with under his new order.

"Then summon her." Kylo did not doubt his abilities or Hux's, but he would not be as willfully arrogant as Snoke had been. Battling his master took a considerable amount of mental stamina and Force energy, and now he was battling fatigue. He knew that Hux had gone well beyond his limits. "I will rest far easier with backup."

As far as the logistics of assuming command, he would defer to Hux. He was a protector, a guard and an enforcer. But he was no emperor.

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