And here it is...the penultimate chapter. Took me a little while to figure out the mission, but hopefully it will help with the final chapter-the most important chapter of the lot. Look forward to that, once I've finished it. It may take a few days, as I really want to get it right.

Again, this is setting things up for the final chapter. But the end is in sight...

THE EMPEROR'S SHADOW:

TOTAL SUBMISSION

CHAPTER ELEVEN: DEGENERATION

Months passed as I was forced to act as the Emperor's personal secret agent.

I policed Imperial figures who thought they were untouchable and eluding the Emperor's notice, I sought out potential Rebel activists-both pacifist and military. I assisted the Inquisition with the task of hunting down some Jedi who had been lucky enough to escape the purge known as 'Order 66'. I carried out any depraved and sadistic order that the Emperor ordered of me. My conditioning ensured that I helplessly obeyed, following my well-programmed commands to the letter.

But it wasn't for a number of months that I realised just how far I had fallen…

I was aboard my ship, flying through hyperspace to Naboo.

My homeworld. The location of my greatest shame since being transformed into the Shadow.

The planet that I had subjugated as the Black Queen during a six-year reign of terror.

My niece Pooja Naberrie', indoctrinated by Imperial propaganda, had been named Queen as the successor to the Black Queen, who was believed assassinated by resistance forces as part of a fake death scheme to bring me back to the Emperor's side when I had shown a sign of resisting my conditioning. Her reign had lasted just under two years so far, and doubtless much had changed over time. Pooja had shown her ruthlessness and loyalty to the Empire by sentencing her own sister Ryoo to Stormtrooper conscription…the memory of that deed haunted me for months afterwards.

Queen Pooja had requested aid in dealing with a delicate matter. So the Emperor had sent me along. What would I find on the homeworld that I had dragged down into Imperial dominion?

I landed my ship in a hidden hanger for covert Imperial operations, using the transponder of an Imperial agent for another department-no need to scare the rank and file by letting them know that I was actually at the beck and call of the Emperor himself. I did use a holographic image to pass myself off as an Imperial officer, complete with tied back hair and leather gloves complementing a crisp black uniform.

As expected, an escort detail of Stormtroopers were waiting for me.

"Her Majesty is expecting you in her private chambers. Follow us…"

That one statement from the Stormtrooper commander-who sounded like a woman-told me that this was a matter that the Queen wanted to be kept very much on the quiet. Doubtless why I was landing in the secret hanger used for Covert ops on the planet by Imperial forces. This led me to suspect that what I was about to do on this planet was very much immoral…

Not that I cared anymore…my emotions were very much dead inside me still.

What I wouldn't give to feel SOMETHING again…

The stormtroopers led me through a series of passages that connected the hanger with Theed city. Once I was in the city itself, the troopers split up so as not to arouse suspicions, leaving only the Commander as my escort. I looked like any random Imperial officer, accompanied by a Stormtrooper bodyguard. There was no reason to suspect anything was amiss if you happened to be out on the street. As it was, nobody was out in the night air-I suspected a rigidly enforced curfew.

Finally, I entered the Queen's private chambers. Once occupied by me, now Pooja Amidala (the Naberrie' name having been expurged from history in light of Ryoo's 'assassination' of the Black Queen) called these rooms home. The commander walked in with me.

I looked around the room, to find the ever-present handmaidens. They wore hooded robes, but I knew that they were also doubling as bodyguards for Pooja-one of these girls was likely her double. The room was also flanked by a group of women in sinister black armour-this was a secret special forces squad known as the 'Shadow Angels'. All of these women were former handmaidens of mine who had been captured and brainwashed, twisted into Imperial assassins-ice cold killers who obeyed any order without question. One of these women, my former best friend Sabe' (a woman that I had thought dead by my own hand at one time) stood next to Queen Pooja, clad in her armour as the Royal Inquisitor-a position that I had held in a double identity as well as that of the Black Queen.

Pooja stood looking over me, wearing a black dress and makeup that disguised her appearance but made it easier for her to switch with her double should it be necessary, though I doubted how often this would be now that she had the protection of the Imperial military. She was now sixteen, and carried herself with a regal grace but also an air of fanaticism. Upon seeing her, I switched my device off, revealing my true appearance to the young Queen.

"I have need of you, loyal agent of the Empire. Ever since the death of the Black Queen I have been cracking down on resistance elements, attempting to bring this planet to heel so that it can become the jewel in the Imperial crown that we deserve to be. However, there are still resistance fighters on the planet. While the Shadow Angels have diligently located their last remaining hidden base, I need to set an example for all to follow that will aptly demonstrate the price of defiance."

The Emperor was once again invading my thoughts from his Coruscant throne.

"Looks like Naboo is doing well under its new Queen…loyal and disciplined."

For my part, my conditioning spoke for me.

"It will be done, Queen Pooja."

My mission was not to be carried out alone-the Shadow Angels and the Royal Inquisitor would be accompanying me. Their role was simply to seal off all exits and prevent any escapees, as well as to ensure that nobody could discover the top secret operation. That informed me that the propaganda machine was still very much in place, brainwashing the population-as Pooja herself had been. However, the fact that this mission was taking place also alluded to an undercurrent of terror and repression, but kept just beyond the realms of plausible deniability-enough to spread rumours, but no unsubstantiated facts. These would be easier to manipulate…

Naboo was still very much the nightmare that I had left it as.

None of the Shadow Angels, or the Royal Inquisitor, spoke of anything other than the mission. The lack of casual conversation would have been more discernible were I not as emotionally dead as they were. Still, even in my dehumanised state, I could tell that there was little left of the women that I had known-all that remained were a group of Imperial agents.

Finally, we arrived at the Compound.

"Angels, Attack Plan Zygma. Execute." The Royal Inquisitor, Sabe', ordered. They obeyed without question, an example of ruthless efficiency and fanatical loyalty to the Imperialist monarch.

I took my own cue, and found my own entrance. Taking on a holographic disguise, I was able to masquerade as a random spacer hoping to gain recruitment. One solitary resistance fighter met me-It was the work of moments to draw my Vibroblade, slit her throat, hide her body and holographically assume her identity. She was a woman in her forties-old enough to remember the Trade Federation occupation all those years ago…

Infiltrating the compound, I took on the covert approach, not revealing myself and slaying the resistance fighters as they turned their backs. It was too easy-they did not expect death to come at the hands of one of their own (even though she was already dead anyway). Concealing their bodies, I had thinned their numbers significantly by the time I was ready to make my presence known. I knew that the Shadow Angels had already sealed off the exits, so if there were escapees they would not be able to make it very far.

I walked slowly into the main gathering area for the Resistance cell.

As I approached, I couldn't help but notice that the vast majority of these people were of the older generation that had been young adults during the Invasion of Naboo, and had lived through the Clone Wars-those who remembered how things had been before the rise of the Empire. There were few youths here. This pointed to several conclusions. One option was that youth indoctrination had increased to an almost unthinkable degree. Another was that they had been conscripting for Stormtroopers even more than I had done as the Black Queen. The third was the simple fact that the youths of the Resistance had been executed or killed in battle, and these elders were all that remained.

I switched off the holographic image device and went into battle…

By the time that I was finished, everybody in the compound was dead. No survivors….

And how did it make me feel? No remorse…but what of other emotions?

It took me a while to realise it, but I had actually felt something during the fighting…a small flicker of emotion. I had actually felt joy while fighting…only while I was fighting and carrying out my mission, however. I had felt a flicker of emotion…though it had come while I was committing barbaric and evil acts in the name of the Emperor. I reflected on this as I took my ship back to Coruscant.

I had encountered my niece (one of my few remaining living relatives), only to discover that she had indeed become the Imperialist dictator that I had once feared she might grow into. I had seen the fate of Naboo in the wake of the Black Queen's "death", a dystopian nightmare completely enthralled by propaganda and rumoured stories of disappearances and executions in the dead of night. I had encountered the Shadow Angels, only to discover that the women that I had known as handmaidens-close personal friends-were soulless killers, no better than when I had known them during my reign of terror as the Black Queen. I had been commended by the Queen following the successful completion of my mission, before she had dismissed me to return to the Emperor.

And yet, I felt no emotion…except when I was carrying out the will of the Emperor.

I should have been disturbed by this turn of events…but I felt joy when I carried out my mission.

I should have seen this as a sign of how far I had truly fallen…but after all this time craving emotion and being utterly dead to such feelings, to find a way to experience them again after such emptiness…

I wanted more. I craved more…I needed more.

I realised that I would need to follow the Emperor's will wholeheartedly if I was to experience such feelings again…