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

It did work both ways. With a little guidance, he could feel the Force moving just as Hux described it.

Kylo kept a tight grip on Hux's Force signature to ground him as he opened himself to the current. It flowed through him instead of just around him, and for a few moments he could touch infinity. He felt the call of a galaxy beyond their own. He felt stars being born and then dying. Beneath him, though, he felt a dark presence growing. It was familiar. Too familiar...

Immediately, he pulled back - almost breaking Hux's hand in the process.

"Snoke..." he gasped, staring down at the floor and then back at Hux. It was hard to explain - he'd killed the Supreme Leader, and yet he could feel the same energy reaching back out of the abyss. He wondered if Hux felt it too.

Hux had felt it, which was why -even despite the ferocity of Kylo's grip- he had kept hold of his Knight's hand, using that hold as leverage to pull him away from the circle, as if drawing him out of the way physically would keep him from being noticed by that deeply malevolent presence.

If it had been any other threat, at any other time, he would have advised waiting until they'd both had a chance to recover some of their energy from the earlier battle. But that particular threat, especially when it should already have been gone, that was something that needed to be dealt with immediately.

"Whatever it is we'll find it." He said, quiet and sure, "And we'll destroy it."

It should have already been gone... But Kylo knew what he felt.

A seemingly overconfident leader, infighting among pawns, the interference of the Jedi... was this all simply the means to another end? Had that whole confrontation simply been too easy? Had Snoke known of their plans all along and orchestrated this entire ruse to draw them out and bring them here? For what purpose?

He stumbled as the other man pulled him out of the circle. Hux was calm and stable, even now, and Kylo could feel his presence pushing back against the power swelling beneath them.

"I could feel Snoke. There was something almost... parasitic about his Force signature." he shivered, making eye contact with Hux. Were the other man not there, he had the feeling he wouldn't have been leaving that circle under his own power. "He wants to be found."

"Then we'll find him." He replied, his voice having taken on a decidedly dangerous edge, something thin and cold and sharp as a razor, "And we'll show him, again, what we're capable of."

Though they didn't have Skywalker to assist this time, and Hux himself was still very nearly woozy from his previous overextension, he'd just had years -even decades- of practice at hiding that sort of thing. Because also knew that neither of them would rest easily -if at all- knowing that some fragment of Snoke yet lived.

Kylo nodded, but put a concerned hand on Hux's shoulder. Neither of them had much time to rest after the first battle. It was a state Kylo was used to fighting in, unfortunately, but he knew it wasn't the same for Hux. At least, not where the Force was concerned.

"Keep close to me, Hux." He warned. He had a duty to protect his new emperor, of course. But just as importantly, Hux could cloak himself, perhaps even Kylo as well, without dipping to deeply into his reserves. "For your safety and mine."

He turned to the Stormtrooper unit, ordering them to flank the pair of them on all sides.

"We're going back the way we came. Keep an eye out for traps, hidden passageways, anything that seems out of the ordinary."

He nodded once at the request, having been about to make the same one himself, because much the same way he could use Kylo as an amplifier of his own abilities, being able to track the ebb and flow of the Force as he had done, the contact would also allow his reflexive shielding -something that was holding even now- to mask Kylo's presence as well.

Keeping that shield up even when he was deeply unconscious was one of the first things Hux had learned, and it was one of the things that was still holding even despite nearly exhausting himself earlier.

He was also putting together a map in his head, surprised to find that unless his measurements were off, the spire was not directly over the throne as he'd thought, but somewhere midway through the throne room, and he knew that what he had simply felt as a malevolent presence and Kylo had registered as Snoke was on a lower level even than the throne room.

"How deep do you think it is? In the ...detention levels or just below the throne room?" He wasn't entirely sure what to call the lower levels of the Citadel, referring to them as detention levels because that's what they would have been on a ship.

"When you've disappointed the Supreme Leader, every level is the detention level." he muttered darkly. He did, however, know what Hux meant, and soon added, "I think it's lower."

As they'd both determined during the first battle, the level directly below the throne room had much of the machines that kept the citadel operational as a base - many things Kylo had taken for granted to the point that he didn't even know they were there. It was possible that kind of energy was just being used as cover, but he envisioned it more like a shield - protecting whatever was growing beneath it.

As they descended the spiraling stairs, the stormtroopers checked the walls for anything suspicious. Weathered rock gave away no secrets and no hidden passageways. When they reached the throne room, they were back where they started, footsteps echoing in the large, empty chamber.

To let Hux get his bearings, they walked the length of it reaching out through the Force. Aware of the spire and the funnel of energy being pulled downward, he looked upon their field of battle in an entirely different light.

"This is where Snoke expected us to kneel." he noted about that exact spot. But he was no longer sure whether it was to receive energy or to have it taken away. Either way, it was a place he didn't want to linger. "What do you sense?"

"Lord Enforcer. There are three doors along the perimeter." a trooper soon reported. "All locked."

Tracking the flow of the Force was different than tracking air or electrical currents, both of which tended to have fairly linear progressions, electrical currents especially.

The ebb and flow of the Force was more like trying to pin down the flow of water, it all went roughly the same direction, but there were unexpected whorls and eddies and even undercurrents going in an opposing direction. This, however, the way the Citadel was situated and the way the spire drew energy in and dispersed it was easier, it had a point and a purpose though he wasn't sure he wanted to find out what it was.

He stood at the edge of where he knew the circle of runes above was, unsurprised to find a similar circular pattern in the floor tiles, only without the runes from the chamber above, "It does pool here, gather, but it still drains away again." It would, he imagined, have made those kneeling there feel stronger, at least briefly, likely long enough for that power to be passed off as a gift bestowed by their master, and if they lingered they would likely begin to feel weaker as even their own reserves were pulled down and away along with the rest, following the almost-liquid flow of the Force there already.

He did blink up at the report, taking a half step back from the edge of that circle, "Locks aren't going to be a problem." He arched a brow over at Kylo, "Where do you suggest we start?"

As many times as Kylo kneeled before his master in the spire's path, he could corroborate Hux's observations. The feelings of receiving power as a reward and having it taken away as punishment did often amount to different lengths of time. Kylo never once stopped to think about such a pattern, though. At the time, it was enough to know that the longer you were forced to wait, the more severe a transgression you still had to atone for.

Kylo moved away from the circle.

"The door on the left aide goes to a meditation chamber. I've been there." he replied. "It's completely self-contained."

The other two doors, however, led to places he had not been. Given their placement, there was a high probability that the door on the right also led to a self-contained chamber. He suggested to Hux that the one in the middle likely led onward and possibly downward. But when he focused on the Force, the result surprised him.

"There's something behind door number three." he announced. "It's not Snoke, but it is dark. It feels... hungry."

He nodded once, "Then that's where we're going first, we'll check the other two for secret passageways later." Anything that was still a potential threat had to be dealt with immediately, further searching could be done later, once they knew they weren't going to be ambushed or even openly attacked.

"Stay close." He reminded, striding for the door in question. He was surprised, briefly, to find that it was an ancient pin-and-tumbler lock and not an electronic or magnetic one, which meant that it was going to take him a little more time than expected -but not overmuch- to pick it. Skills that he hadn't used in a decade, nearly two. Truthfully he didn't like that hungry feeling emanating from behind the door, either, but if whatever was there was a threat, it was better to put it down immediately than to hope it would stay where it was.

There was a flicker of a smile, narrow, grim satisfaction when he felt the lock grind, twisting it open. He placed one hand against the door, brow arching at Kylo, "Ready?"

Kylo prepared himself, reaching deep into the Force. He could feel the unusual presence, but couldn't place it. It was less of a mind and more of a feeling of something left behind. He took a small step away from the door and dropped into a more offensive stance.

"Ready." he nodded at Hux.

"Ready sir." multiple troopers had their blasters up, just in case.

When the door opened, a frozen burst of air shot past Hux. Kylo's hands jerked. His lightsaber fell. A wraith-like spirit lunged and it took considerable effort just to hold it at bay. A remnant of an ancient presence here, released by something (likely Snoke) and left to starve - it was more than eager to devour his soul from the inside out. And were Kylo Ren any less skilled in telekenesis, it would have already done so.

The troopers looked blankly at each other as the Lord Enforcer struggled with something they couldn't even see.

"A trap..." Kylo growled, "Can't... I can't tear it apart!"

And at the moment, he couldn't risk taking his mind off of this one to determine if anything else was coming through that door.

Truthfully, Hux himself could only barely make the thing out, seeing it as some sort of heat-haze shimmer from some angles and some kind of shadow from others, and the disconnect between the two was giving him a headache again.

He did, however, have enough presence of mind to yank the door shut again, jamming the lock just in case there were others, though he doubted it or they would have made a break for it as well. Even as he did so he was running through risk-reward analysis over a half dozen plans without even thinking about it, it was reflex to do so, and to do so quickly.

Any plan had a high risk ratio, and trying to relay orders increased that risk while reducing any potential reward, which was why he simply charged past Kylo, all but throwing himself at the energy well beneath the spire, dropping his usual masking as he did so, knowing that he'd present a more tempting target and hoping that Kylo would have the presence of mind to be able to rip the thing apart once he was no longer distracted just by holding it off.

"Hux! No!" Kylo roared as his comrade dashed, uncloaked, into the ring. If there was one constant in this citadel, it was power. The funnel of Force energy poured over Hux, and the newfound surge made him quite the sttractive target indeed.

Kylo's struggle to hold onto the malevolent entity was matched only with his need to protect the only man who ever did the same for him.

"Hux!" He shouted again, frantic eyes pleading for him to just get out of there.

When those pleas were ignored, panic led to anger. Fury only deepened Kylo's own connection with the Force, giving him exactly what he needed to crush the specter. Perhaps that had been Hux's plan all along...

He was mostly trying to catch his breath, that wellspring of energy had hit him like too-strong caf on an empty stomach, making him itch, feeling more than a little jittery, as if his pulse was going just too fast and his skin was just too tight.

He also realized, belatedly as he stepped away from the circle, that his nose was bleeding again and he just swiped at it with the back of his hand, "It would have taken too long to explain." He said, "Would have distracted you." Both of which, he was sure, would have led to Kylo's demise, and as much as Kylo wanted -needed- to keep him alive, the same went for Hux, he wasn't about to let Kylo go easily, and definitely wasn't going to be the direct cause of his death that way.

It was a clever strategy, one that banked on how well Hux could read Kylo Ren and anticipate his actions. While a part of him was angry that his emperor would risk himself against a creature that he certainly could not fight off, he couldn't ignore the fact that Hux was absolutely right.

Distracting him instead of the wraith would have let it slip inside of him - and from what he knew of Sith lore, his mind would no longer be his own.

"There may be more of them in the citadel. Remnants of enemies, prisoners..." While holding onto the wraith, he got a vague impression of memories in his mind. "...Former Knights of Ren who failed live up to Snoke's standards while they were alive."

Another quick swipe at his nose, mostly just to make sure that the flow of blood was slowing again -it was- and also to clean the smear already there away as best he could, "Well now that we know what they feel like, we know what to look out for."

He doubted that there were any more of them in the same chamber, he couldn't be sure, of course, but he instinctively felt that they wouldn't be able to stand each other's company, sort of like audio frequencies that were at odds with each other and ended up cancelling each other out.

Kylo glanced the other way as Hux wiped any remaining blood from under his nose. He retrieved his lightsaber and ignited it again, inspecting the door and the space behind it for anything suspicious. Hux's instinct would prove correct.

"Let's go."

The hallway behind the door was short, leading to a dark stairwell. Kylo's lightsaber bathed everything in a sinister red glow. It paired well with the faint stench of death, which only seemed to get stronger as they made their way down the spiraling steps.

When they reached the bottom, it appeared Hux had been right about something else as well. The citadel did have a detention level, so to speak, that Kylo Ren didn't know about. It took the form of a long hallway with many doors. All but one was tightly shut, and the vast majority of them had that hungry presence crying out on the other side. The one they encountered earlier must have escaped, and Kylo secretly hoped it wasn't something the others were capable of. There were far too many here to fend off at once.

The fact that, had their attack on Snoke gone differently, this would have likely been their fate as well, was not lost on Kylo Ren. But he couldn't afford to dwell on it - especially not here.

"We'll have to go through." he pointed to the doorway at the other end of the long hall with his lightsaber. "But if those doors swing open, we're as good as dead."

"Then we'll have to make sure that there's nothing on this side of the door that they want." He replied, tone level, not as clipped and not as cold as it sometimes was, but careful, controlled, keeping his own unease down.

"Hold still a moment." He steadied himself with three slow breaths, not so much masking their presence in the Force as actually dimming it, finding that the veritable power surge he'd subjected himself to upstairs was good for that at least, even despite the way it was still making him jittery.

He knew that he was probably going to be as good as comatose for at least eight hours once they knew they were safe enough to rest, but for the moment he likewise knew that they had to push on if they were going to get to that point. He nodded finally, voice having dipped, little more than a murmur so as not to draw attention, "Go, I'm right behind you."

It was moments like this where Kylo Ren was in awe of Hux's natural talent with the Force. His sense of Hux and even of himself, started to fade, but that of the vengeful wraiths remained strong. After a few moments, that too started to diminish. They were actually losing interest!

Kylo nodded when Hux gave the okay, and carefully made his way into the hallway.

When this was over, he swore to himself, he would return and selectively tear each spirit apart.

The whole corridor was a glorified oubliette, and Hux could appreciate the design and the simplicity of it, he could also acknowledge the fact that had things gone differently he would be well on his way to joining the rest of the shapeless starving things behind their doors.

He could acknowledge it, yes, but he wasn't going to think about it too hard, either, as if doing so might yet pull that fate down on them.

The fact that even their footfalls seemed too quiet in the rough-hewn stone of the corridor put him a little on edge, but he was keeping control of that reaction as well if only through a singleminded determination of focus in keeping them both essentially invisible.

Kylo walked slowly and intentionally, making sure Hux was directly behind him at all times. The closer he was, the better the illusion that there was nothing worth devouring on the outside.

It was a blessing that when they reached the far end of the hallway, nothing had happened. Kylo was just about to let out a sigh of relief when he felt a stone give way under his foot. His head jerked up in just enough time to spot a large stone rattling in the doorway. Instinctively, he seized Hux by the arm.

"Door!!"

By the time the word left his lips, he was ducking and sliding under the quickly falling slab of stone, violently pulling Hux with him.

Stormtroopers without such Force-enhanced reflexes were on their own.

Hux dove, rolling easily after Kylo, letting his partner's instinct and momentum carry them both through. He ended up in an awkward sprawl on the stone floor, but picked himself up after a moment, making sure everything was still intact.

The fact that none of the troopers were on this side of the slab was something that probably should have concerned him, at least a little, but he couldn't quite muster the actual concern.

"Well." It was all he really had to say on the matter, they'd have to find another way back, but he was sure that they would, one way or another.

Kylo, meanwhile, skidded to a stop on his knees. His right hand was outstretched, keeping the lightsaber pointed into the darkness. It was a graceful landing, considering the circumstances.

Behind the door, he could make out the sound of blaster fire and muffled shouting. They were either trying to get through, or were suddenly forced to defend themsleves. He hoped it was the former, but he couldn't hide the sudden chill that ran up his spine.

"Well, indeed." Kylo echoed, climbing to his feet. "We're on our own."

He glanced around, both at the room itself and at the floor. It was small, but spacious. Broken pieces of shelves lined one of the walls. Although it had clearly been empty for quite some time, it was likely once a storage area. A stairwell could be seen on the other side.

"Phasma's going to be quite upset if we've lost another squad." He added, rolling easily to his feet. He could hope that the noise was simply an attempt at a rescue, but he didn't truly believe that it was.

He also couldn't quite bring himself to care, either he was too tired -which was likely- or he knew that new troopers, even for one of Phasma's elite squads, would be easy enough to train, likely there were already some in process.

He gave the room a once-over himself, nose wrinkled just a little, mostly just to see if any small detail stood out to him, even as he asked: "Do you see anything else that's likely to try killing us if we go any further? I have to say I don't think my reflexes are up to another surprise like this last one."

This was a part of the citadel, Kylo reminded Hux, that was completely off-limits to him during his training with Snoke. Whatever was down here was forbidden for a reason, and would no doubt be strongly protected by more than just the Supreme Leader's orders.

"Keep part of your mind attuned to the Force." He warned as much as he encouraged. "Your reflexes will thank you."

The sounds of battle raged behind the stone, but Kylo pressed forward. His steps were light, even cautious, but thankfully, there were no more traps to spring in an empty storeroom. He glanced back at Hux, waiting for a nod of agreement, before venturing even farther into the depths.

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