Author's Note: As the title suggests, this is the final chapter for Act 1 of Star Wars The Force Unleashed. After this chapter, we enter the 2nd Act of the story, which gets really interesting. But first things first, before we get ahead of ourselves....we have to close off Act 1 before we may proceed onwards to the next Act....

Fair warning, there are some slight changes to this chapter in certain parts to it than the original novel - though then again that goes for the entire story as a whole really - but I feel they are necessary changes and are needed to make sense of some things, but I promise they make sense. 

But please, enjoy the final chapter of Act 1, as well as one of the game credits theme I chose for the end of Act 1 that you can listen to if you'd like to as a way to end Act 1 in Star Wars fashion for you. Please let me know what you all think of this chapter and Act 1 as a whole after this chapter, and I will see you in Act 2. Enjoy!

Starkiller seemed cautiously ecstatic on his return to the Rogue Shadow, even though he looked as though he had been mauled by a Rancor. His combat uniform was rent in a dozen new places, and blood leaked from as many small wounds. But his eyes were alive with a light Chloe had never seen before. 

After Rahm Kota, he had been introspective and closed. Kazdan Paratus had left him moody. Now, he was...not exactly triumphant, but on the brink of triumphant. He was about to do something important - and she could guess what it was...

While he had been gone and PROXY had been outside on the pretext of checking her work on the faulty shield, she had found a way to slice into the ship's small meditation chamber. When they were safely under way, and he had retreated there with his droid: she put her comm headset over her ears and carefully spied on him.

Starkiller knelt on the floor with his head bowed and his head folded in front of him. PROXY stood over him, his holographic generators flickering in the gloom. They flared to life as a HoloNet transmission reached the ship. Eerily, the droid grew taller and more substantial until he had assumed the caped form of Darth Vader!

"Report." came the hollow tones of the Emperor's most trusted servant.

"My mission is complete, Master."

The domed head nodded once. "Then you are ready to stand with me against the Emperor. Return to the Executor at once! We will at last control the galaxy!"

Vader's ominous form flickered and shrank, becoming PROXY once more. The droid seemed uneasy and out of sorts again, but at the same time jerky with pride.

"Congratulations, Master! It seems you are about to achieve your primary programming."

"Yes." Starkiller rose as he put a hand on each of his droid's shoulders, steadying him. "Finally."

PROXY's photoreceptors glowed. "Well, don't worry, master. I'll still keep trying to kill you."

Starkiller smiled fondly. "I know, PROXY. I know."

The two of them turned to come back to the cockpit, and Chloe hastily killed the bug. By the time they were standing behind her, she was leaning over the controls, feigning an adjustment to the hyperdrive.

"Everything okay?" Starkiller asked her with a raised eyebrow.

She felt his gaze boring into her form where he stood right behind her. Could he tell what she was up to just by looking at her? Could he read her mind like a book? 

"I'm just wondering..." she said, "where do we go from here? Shaak Ti was unique. Your job might seem routine from here on out."

"Killing Jedi is never routine..." he said solemnly. "But I doubt I'll be doing this kind of thing much longer."

She could hear the smile in his voice. "And what about me? Will I return to standard bombing runs when you're finished with me?"

"Don't worry. I'll be sure to give you the highest possible recommendation." 

Well, thanks, she thought. "We form a strong team. It's unfortunate we can't keep on as we are." The worry in her voice was real. It's a shame you're planning to defy the Emperor - forcing me to decide where my loyalties lie...

He put a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't tell if he meant to reassure her or simply silence her.

The latter she could image easily enough, although her jaw ached from keeping her concerns to herself.

When he returned to his meditation suite to clean himself up, leaving PROXY to help her with the ship, it wasn't relief she felt...but emptiness...

That feeling remained when the Rogue Shadow emerged from hyperspace in the Scarl system, where the Executor lurked in its state of partial completion.

Chloe had decided nothing during the long journey. Should she remain loyal to her immediate superiors? Or try to warn the Emperor of their treachery? The question made her guts roil, but the answer alluded her. She needed more information, either way.

Starkiller and PROXY disembarked, obviously heading to debrief their Dark Lord. Chloe's anxiety levels rose as soon as he was out of her sight. When he was with her, at least she could keep an eye on him. Who knew what could go down while he was gone - perhaps dragging her down with him?

Remembering the strange feed that she had managed to slice into while looking for psychological profile, she shut the ship's external hatches and feigned a hull integrity check. Patching the ship's systems into the hanger's gave her access to everything in the flagship's data banks. Immediately she began searching.

It wasn't easy. There was no use trying to follow the same route she had used the other night, since that appeared to have naturally cauterized itself. There had to be numerous ways into Vader's secret chamber; the trick lay in finding one that was open at the moment, a signal she could piggyback on as far as security feed. And then, hopefully, she would be able to hear more of the pair's plans.

She found the route via telemetry. Vader appeared to be closely monitoring the area around the fat red sun, although for a moment she couldn't tell why....

Then a series of hyperspace signatures rippled through the vacuum, and she began to understand. Three Star Destroyers and a dozen smaller vessels were arriving from elsewhere, flashing into realspace with disconcerting swiftness.

A cold feeling spread across Chloe's chest, enveloping her heart.

With shaking fingers, she canceled the view and sliced as fast as she could into the security system.

The apprentice stood in front of the massive bulkhead leading to his Master's chamber for a long moment, gathering his self-control and centering himself within the Force. Ambition stirred in him: he pictured himself at his Master's side, the two of them striking the Emperor down together, as he had imagined many times down the years.

He saw himself in regal attire as Lord Vader became Emperor Vader and assumed the mantle of Coruscant and all the other jewel-like worlds in the galactic crown. What sights awaited them in the Imperial court! What new challenges and aspirations!

But his training demanded a careful balance between the lust for power and self-denial. Control was paramount, as in all things. He wanted to present the best face possible to his Dark Lord, lest once again the attainment of his dreams be denied.

"Is anything the matter, master?" asked PROXY from the droid's familiar position at his shoulder.

"Nothing at all." he answered confidently.

Straightening his shoulders, he waved a hand, and the massive door slid open. Suppressing a smile, the apprentice strode confidently into Darth Vader's inner sanctum.

His boots rang out on the metal floor, echoing through the familiar chamber. The red sun glared through the broad viewport, but there was something new in the vista: a fleet of Star Destroyers and support ships clustering around his Master's flagship like carrion.

Darth Vader didn't turn. "The Emperor's fleet has arrived." was all he said...

The apprentice felt a quickening in his throat. Moving in front of his Master to get a look out of the viewport, he pressed his palm against the transparisteel and smiled. Destiny!

"You have lured him here to us." He could hear the excitement in his voice. "When do we strike?"

"I did not summon him."

There was no warning in his Master's deep voice, no hint at all of what was to come! With an unexpected snap-hiss, Darth Vader's lightsaber was active, reflecting in the viewport beside the baleful orb of the sun.

The apprentice opened his mouth in surprise to protest, but he had barely begun to turn when his Master's potent blade stabbed through his back!

https://youtu.be/6A9Ia9kkzcg

Starkiller's eyes widened in shock at the sight of the lightsaber protruding from his stomach. The pain was unbearable, much worse then he had ever imagined it would be!

"His spies followed you here!"

The lightsaber's fiery blade disappeared as Darth Vader deactivated his weapon.

With a choked scream, the apprentice fell to his knees! Darkness threatened to spread across his vision, but he resisted it with all his strength! Despair likewise! This had to be a terrible mistake! It couldn't be happening!

His Master loomed over him, studying him impassively from behind his black mask. Without turning, he gestured to PROXY.

"Begin the transmission!"

"Yes, Lord Vader."

PROXY, standing slightly behind their dark Master, transformed by sinister stages into the Emperor, hooded and enshrouded in shadows! The two Sith Lords looked down at the apprentice, who gasped helplessly at their feet.

[Fun Fact: Sam Witwer, who both voiced and was the face for Starkiller in The Force Unleashed games, revealed in interviews prior to The Force Unleashed II and I believe in interviews afterwards that he played the voice for Emperor Palpatine in the game itself].

"What is thy bidding, my Master?" Darth Vader asked.

"You have forgotten your place, Lord Vader! By taking this...boy as your apprentice...you have betrayed me!" The Emperor's tone was at the same time harsh and hypnotic. One claw-like hand reached out from the sleeve of his voluminous cloak. "Now you will kill him, or I will destroy you both!"

The apprentice watched as his Master, pain twisting his features into a rictus. There was nothing he could do to stop this terrible reversal! He could not lift a hand against his Master, who had raised him and taught him all of his life...but he would not die silent.

"Don't, Master!" he gasped, struggling to stand but failing, the darkness encroaching further. "We can defeat him together!"

"Do it now, Lord Vader!" insisted the Emperor. "Strike him down and prove your loyalty to me!"

Vader looked from the Emperor and Starkiller, as though weighing up two very heavy alternatives....

Then he lashed out with the Force, unleashing a mighty telekinetic surge that sent the apprentice crashing into one of the transparisteel viewports behind him. With a piercing sound, it cracked!

"Yes, Lord Vader!" The Emperor crowed with a sinister cackle. "Kill him! Kill him!"

The apprentice was gripped tightly in his Master's will and pulled away from the viewport. For a faint instant, Starkiller had thought his Master had changed his mind and decided to defy the Emperor after all...

...But then he was hurled back at the transparisteel with all the force of a small meteor! The viewport shattered outward in a huge explosion, sucking him into the cold vacuum of space!

His final cry was unheard...Darkness and despair closed in again, and he no longer tried to fight them...There was no point...It was over.....

Chloe watched in horror from the cockpit of the Rogue Shadow, her mouth hanging open and her fingers limp on the controls of the ship. Perhaps she should have been readying the ship for flight, or at least cutting the signal of her illicit data feed. Later she would wish that she had, but at the moment all she could do was stare.

Klaxons began to sound in the Dark Lord's inner sanctum, sounding a strident vent alarm. Lights strobed painfully across the metal walls. Vader grabbed hold of the nearest stanchion to avoid being sucked out into space himself, but the maelstrom was short-lived. 

Within seconds - though it seemed like a small eternity - a large metal grate had slid down and sealed the shattered viewport shut.

Air poured back into the room. The rasp of Vader's respirator eased.

With one black-gloved hand at his throat, he turned back to the Emperor's hologram and straightened to his full height.

"It is done." he said in a cold, leaden tone.

"You are the apprentice, Lord Vader!", the Emperor snarled. "You are my servant, my enforcer. Never forget your place again!"

Vader's domed head bowed. "Yes, my Master."

The Emperor's hologram flickered and dissolved. PROXY returned to normal, looking stunned and shaken. Vader ignored the droid and walked to one of the intact viewports. He stood looking out into space, where the apprentice's limp body tumbled lifelessly through vacuum, surrounded by a cloud of fragmented transparisteel.

Chloe's hand had risen to her mouth without her knowing it. Starkiller had done nothing but obey orders, just as she had on Callos! And what was his reward? He had been betrayed, literally stabbed in the back by the one he had trusted most! It wasn't fair!

The sound of a door clanging open in the hanger was followed by the sound of booted feet running towards the ship. Too late she closed the feed and focused on her own problems. A squad of troopers from the Emperor's ship had broken the seal of the Rogue Shadow's secret nest! They could only be coming for her!

Her heart hammered in her chest. Standing, Chloe smoothed down her black uniform and made sure her cap was straight. When she was sure her pistol was well out of reach, she opened the ramp. Taking a deep, calming breath, she went out to meet her fate.....

End of Act 1...!

https://youtu.be/i1uoX3Rovg8