Author's Note: I'm sorry for the long delay between this chapter and Chapter 4. I took some time off due to a hectic work schedule, a pretty nasty cold, and me and my family having a run-in with Covid. I'm really sorry for the delay. But now I am going to try to be a bit more consistent with the story (I hope), but I can't promise that I will be able to update it every week as I did for Act 1. Though I will try. 

I hope you all enjoy this post Empirical escape chapter, and please let me know what you think of the chapter, and if you are excited for what happens next in this journey. Enjoy!

Through the viewports of the Rogue Shadow, Chloe watched as the Empirical fell behind them. Tumbling and turning, the modified cruiser's orbit had decayed beyond all hope of arresting its plunge into the sun.

Barely had the Rogue Shadow detached than its outer shielding spontaneously ignited, sending waves of yellow lines creeping across the blackened hull. Without air to fuel the flames, for the moment, only metal and plastic were burning! The moment one of the viewports popped, however, the combustion began in earnest!

Her prison for the last six months was little more than a dark dot against the face of the sun when it suddenly flared and died. The explosion was almost anticlimactic, but it was sufficient. She unfolded her legs from beneath her, gratified to be rid of the place...

Starkiller and PROXY were in the copilot's and pilot's seats, respectively. She was sitting behind them in the jump seat with a makeshift bandage around her wrist like some helpless piece of cargo. Like a passenger...

She had been hanging up like a forgotten nerf carcass for too long. It was time to take control of her life again.

"Out of my seat.", she told the droid who had argued for abandoning her and letting her die with the Empirical. She felt no hard feelings for him, knowing that he had only been following his primary programming, but that didn't mean she had to like him.

"Yes, Captain Moretz." He moved back into the seat had vacated, clicking and humming to himself.

Touching the controls made her fingers tingle. She had dreamed of this moment for weeks and never dared believe it might actually come!

"What's our destination?" she asked Starkiller.

"Away from here..."

"That'll do it." She keyed a jump in a random direction and leaned back into her seat. The familiar streaks of hyperspace almost made her choke. She smiled through the wave of emotions and let the ship carry them to safety...

Two jumps later, it was finally time to talk.

"No sign of any pursuit." She put aside her scan of the surrounding space through the Rogue Shadow's superior sensors with relief. "We're light-years away from any Imperial forces..."

Starkiller looked up from tending a wound on his right forearm. Blood leaked from the gash. Weirdly, Chloe was relieved to see it. Thinking of the injuries he must have suffered at the hands of his former Master made her stomach feel light...Part of him had to be synthetic now, but it was impossible to tell by looking at him. Unless the new getup he had on now hid more than it suggested...

[Note: This is the getup in question, for those that may have forgotten from Act 2 Chapter 2].

"Then what's wrong?" Jack asked her.

She flushed, still hoping that he couldn't read her mind. Putting aside one concern for another, she said, "No one knows we exist, or what we've done...We have the entire galaxy in front of us...So why, for the first time in my life...do I have no idea where to go...?"

Her throat closed to her words. The reality of her betrayal and desertion still sinking in.

Jack studied her, his eyes flickering. She would never be able to read his mind. 

"I hope you have a plan..." Chloe said, clutching at her only straw.

He nodded, and then said slowly, as though sounding her out: "There are two things I want, and I can't get them on my own. The first is revenge! To get that we need to rally the Emperor's enemies behind us."

Chloe nodded, thinking of Callos and her father. After witnessing the way Starkiller had killed the troopers on the Empirical, she had no doubt of his sincerity - or his ability to deliver. "Go on."

"The second thing I want is to learn all the things that Vader couldn't - or wouldn't - teach me of the Force."

She leaned on her elbow on the arm of her flight chair and rested her chain on that hand. "If we're not careful, we might end up in our old job again: hunting Jedi."

He seemed to be aware of the irony of their situation, even briefly cracking a small smirk for the briefest of moments. "And I think I know of one who might still be alive...PROXY, show us the file of our first target."

They turned to face the droid, who flickered and transformed once more into the likeness of General Rahm Kota!

Chloe frowned. "I thought you killed him."

"When I fought him in the TIE Fighter factory, he said he could see my future. He said he was part of it."

She could see a thousand holes in his reasoning, but had nothing better to offer. "Back to Nar Shaddaa, then?" 

Starkiller simply nodded. "Back to Nar Shaddaa."

Starkiller tended to his injuries while Chloe worked on the nav computer. When they made the jump to hyperspace, he didn't even look up.

She took that as a sign of trust....