Confidential

Vaylin stood up, offered her hand to the man who sat there below her. Looking up at her as if she had been an angel cascading down from the heavens, and landing into Valad's palm. His hand took hold of hers, their hands calloused from training with their sabers. Yet still very soft to the touch, like the patting of a kitten's paw.

Flexing and taking a step back, Vaylin pulled her wayward lover off the ground and into her arms. A smile coating her lips, her hands moving onto his wrists for a few moments until she turned away. Still holding onto one of his hands and leading him out of the Gymnasium.

Ahsoka Tano who had been training with what looked like a weighted three-foot long staff, paused and watched the two leaving. She tilted her head curiously, "Master Katsure is leaving." She made a verbal observation which grasped the attention of the others within her Clan.

Looking over towards Vaylin and Valad whom were leaving the room, hand in hand, the older ones chuckled. They had a general idea of what was going on, or at least made some lewd assumptions.

Tano and the younger ones were left in the dark. No matter how much they whined at the other ones to let them in on the 'secret' they were laughing at, they wouldn't dare speak it aloud.

"Mah.." Tano groaned as she looked to the ceiling as she was continuously denied. She was only four years old, but she was more curious of the things around herself. She wanted to know things that normal persons at her age were known to simply dismiss.

It was cute, and a bit scary to see how perceptive she had become.

Valad and Vaylin walked silently through the corridor, heading for the residential section of the Dreadnought.

Valad's eyes were focused on their hands, how they were grasping at each other's wrists as she was essentially dragging him through the hall. A smile formed over his lips, though it looked meek and introverted. It was his true colors, he was never socially outgoing. He was overly critical of others and himself.

Their footsteps were in sync, he could feel her pulse through their hold. It was quickened, heavy. She was excited, curious and concerned. She wanted to know about him, but she also had a bit of fear to learn his past.

He knew all about her, yet she barely knew anything about him.

What made him act the way he was? Why did he always wear that sad undertone in his eyes? The way he looked at her before they had made love, it was as if he was looking at someone else. Did she remind him of someone else?

Vaylin grit her teeth together, her thoughts bashing their way through her brain. It felt as if all her thoughts were about to riot. She sucked in her lower lip, calming down as they came closer and closer to his room.

The large sliding pocket door to his bedroom opened with a otherworldly woosh sound. The two of them stumbled inside and the door closed silently behind them. Magnetically locking to avoid anyone else from entering. The keypad beside the door turning red, as if in a do not disturb mode.

This was the doing of Valad, as he was capable of using the force to manipulate the electronics around him. This ship, all of it could be manipulated by him, simply by controlling the flow of energy in components.

Vaylin looked over at him with a coy smile across her face as she lead him over to the bed, letting go as she sat down on the edge. Unlike the bed which had been in the conference room of the Coreship, it seemed this one was with all white sheets and gold trim.

It was a circular water mattress, it had a vintage dark wood frame surrounding it. It looked more of a modern design than one that would be seen in Star Wars for the most part. The room's walls were much like the rest of the ship, an off-black with a blue undertone and elongated ovular lighting emplacements. The floor however had a dark grey-blue carpet.

Valad sat there silently beside Vaylin, who had taken his hand against and rested it in her lap. His expression had become blank, thinking of how he was going to 'reintroduce' himself to her. Was he going to tell her about his previous life? How he came from a world without the knowledge of the force? Without Midichlorians?

His eyes darted about with his thoughts, eventually making it seem like he was now staring at the wall matching off-black ceiling. He could feel his nerves bouncing about, he was regressing to how he was before he tried putting on that extrovert shell.

He was alone, there was no need to show off to the masses, no reason to impress a Queen. Even with a Princess sitting right beside him, he felt wrecked. He closed his eyes and slowly let out a sigh, bringing a smile back across his face.

"My name isn't Valad Katsure," He stated as his eyes gazed over towards the girl situated beside him on the edge of the bed. "My name is Vlad Markus, I come from a world known as 'Terra,' within a universe devoid of the force."

Vaylin remained smiling, watching him as he spoke. Her eyes widened a little in surprise, but they only seemed to shine as he introduced himself to her. A universe without the force? She could only imagine how close her family could've been if the universe was devoid of it.

Would her father still had viewed her as a tool? As a threat? Her eyes remained on Valad, this was his story to tell, not for her to fantasize.

"It's a typical boy meets girl story, we fell in love. Or at least I did, she was everything." He smiled brightly at the memory, "But she was my sister's best friend." His smile morphed, it wasn't a frown, yet it appeared rather morose and angry. "She caught us together and dedicated herself to destroying my life, because I was 'stealing' her friend from her. I became a social outcast. My parents betrayed me, my friends betrayed me. She used her words to warp the world's view of me. Torment in the open, behind doors, my parents locked me away."

Vaylin froze hearing his words, the similarity of their lives were extreme. He was abandoned by his parents, betrayed by everyone. He was locked away, tormented and isolated. He only had fear, anger and silence.

"Then how did you...?"

Valad looked over at her as she asked how he had come to be in this reality, a different dimension entirely from his own. "I died," He made a toothy grin as her eyes emotionally dilated hearing his answer and his own expression.

He died and was rebirthed? Was this the reason why he was so insanely strong? Why he could do things no one else could ever imagine? She stared at him, she couldn't understand. If one became a singular entity amongst the force, then how was he rebirthed?

Vaylin's mind tingled as she thought about this, it almost tickled. Her head involuntary jocked a bit, and she laughed to herself, shaking her head. "You died?"

He slowly nodded, "I've only been here for a few months by the time you arrived."

Vaylin blinked a few times hearing this, he wasn't rebirthed. It was as if he was just placed into another world all together. She centered her gaze on his face, he was still grinning a bit. "How did you die?"

Valad shrugged lightly, "Wrong place... Wrong time." His eyes slowly began to lower towards the floor of the room. "The love of my life had been moved out of my reach. I was forced to get a 'corporate' job. I just happened to walk into a robbery, and I died before I even hit the ground."

Died before he got to hit the ground. That line echoed in her mind as she seemed to be mesmerised by this. He was shot, killed, but he died from the shock of intense pain. Either that, or he had a heart condition and he had an instant shutdown of his cardiac system. Instead Death Syndrome, cardiac arrest.

"At least it wasn't that painful..." She seemed to laugh weakly, he knew she wasn't laughing at him. He could tell it was a nerve-related reaction. "But how did you get so powerful in the force so quickly?"

Valad would make his blaster carbine appear in his hand and place it on the bed. The F-11D was black and white, similar to the E-11 which would be made for the late Galactic Republic and later the Galactic Empire.

"The fighters on board, in the hangar. The 'eyeballs,' those are from over a hundred years into the future from now. Those Star Destroyers you saw appear outside our vessel a few days ago, were from about eighty years from now, used by the Chiss Ascendancy and the averted Empire of the Hand."

Nodding slowly, Vaylin began to understand. The world he now resided in, the reason why he knew so much, was because this world was nothing more than a story. She came to this conclusion quickly. He hadn't used time travel, he didn't use flow-walking. He already knew everything that would happen in an partially unchanged timeline.

"So you're the reason why I'm the me, now... Huh..." Vaylin would lean against his shoulder, grasping his hand tighter in her hands. Her gaze was glued at the door.

"Yeah... Otherwise you'd just kill your own soldiers for the sake of having an even number of them." This made Vaylin's eye twitch hearing this from Valad. "You had some serious OCD problems and daddy issues."

Vaylin glanced over at him, turning her head and looking at him as he was watching their hands in her lap. Leaning in, she bite his ear lobe teasingly without warning.

Quickly he yanked away, a shocked expression on Valad's face. "Ow... What the hell was that for?" He said in a somewhat offended expression, seeing her somewhat cross expression on her face.

"What'd I do now?" Valad began to chuckled a bit, seemingly a bit brighter after sharing something he had been keeping to himself since he arrived.

"Let me call you by your real name, for now on." Vaylin demanded with a giggle, "Or I'll take the lobe next time," she was giving him empty threats which sounded more like a tease than anything else.

Valad gave her a long stare before shrugging lightly, "Sure."