『An Eternal Empire』

After boarding, the white armor plated shuttle launched itself at a steep angle at an escape vector from the planet surface. Massive amounts of turbulence caused the shuttle to shake violently and buckle due to the current ongoing storm.

Soon enough, everything else became still. The shuttle had breached the atmosphere of the planet devoid of life and the force itself, then immediately jumped into hyperspace once it was clear of the naturally occuring gravity well.

Seated by the door to the cockpit, Vaylin rested her head against the cold metallic wall of the shuttle's interior. Her eyes were gazing downward, blankly, holding her hood over her head with both hands. She kept herself occupied with the hum of the hyperdrive.

Standing beside her, between Vaylin and her mother Senya, was Ento. His gaze was resting on her just as hers were looking at the floor.

"Knight-Captain, what are your orders?" One of the Knights in white armor and black bodyglove, removed her helmet, revealing dark toned skin and frilly hair.

"Zera, we are heading back to Zakuul." Senya eyes narrowed on the woman who then nodded.

Ento raised a brow at this, but said nothing as he turned his head to look towards the girl beside him. He was curious of the world she had grown up on. How the people were, how they lived.

"Now," Senya who was now identified as the Knight-Captain, turned her attention to Ento. "Who are you exactly? What is your relationship with my daughter?" She didn't have her hand by her saber. Instead, she had her arms crossed over her chest.

The boy in somewhat conservative attire raised the brow even more at the confrontation.

"MOM! Leave Ento alone!" Vaylin peered up from the floor, narrowing her blue hues on her mother, the interior of the shuttle shaking unnaturally for a split second.

Senya's eyes softened at the sight of this, sensing her daughter's emotions. It was the first time she had saw or felt her daughter being protective towards anyone. Even if she was just trying to learn about the boy's origins pertaining to her daughter.

She then moved her gaze towards the lightsabers which were now on Ento's belt. "And what are you going to do with all of those young one?" Senya seemed a bit more friendly in tone now, and less like an overprotective parent.

The last thing anyone would want is for the ship to decompress in the middle of hyperspace, let alone outside an planetary atmosphere.

Vaylin slowly looked back to the floor, mumbling inaudibly to herself.

"My name is Ento, Ento Rhade." With a quick scan with the force, he could tell everyone in the shuttle was force sensitive, mostly the Knights in particular. "I am..."

"He's my friend, so can you leave him alone?" Vaylin butted in, this time a little calmer, her eyes deadset on her mother with a pseudo-emotionless gaze from under her hood.

Zera looked over the two teens, placing a left hand on her hip and holding her helmet under her right arm. It wasn't her place to say anything to the Knight-Captain's children, especially as she was one of Senya's most devoted subordinates.

Senya let out a drawn out sigh hearing her daughter trying to stop her from forming a conversation with the young male. "Alright," she said with a plain smile across her lips.

Vaylin's eyes then went to the six lightsaber hilts, "What are you using those for anyway?"

Her mother narrowed her eyes upon the daughter, having already asked this question.

Chuckling at the events transpiring around him, Ento closed his eyes partially. "I want to experiment with telekinetic combat. When I saw Dooku kill those two Sunguards with his saber, I thought... What would happen if I had multiple lightsabers I could use as projectiles."

"Like the way you used the debris from before?" Vaylin recalled the use of stones and debris back on Nathema, how he had used a variant of telekinesis to blanket two of the Zealots.

"That would definitely trash the lightsabers, but in a way, yes." Ento tilted his head to the side as he was already visualizing what he wanted to do with them, as if preparing his mind. "If anything, lightsabers also make excellent grenades... I blew of a Sith Lord's arm with his own saber before at close quarters," a sinister gleam appeared in his eye for a second before it mellowed out.

Senya and most of the Knights took a little less than a step back at the thought of him using their weapons against them, let alone turning them into glorified grenades.

Parting her lips, Vaylin never heard of this. "When did you do that...?"

"A few minutes before meeting you?" His head cocked to the side.

She rolled her jaw, "So did you blew yourself up in the process?"

"Almost," Ento narrowed his eyes on the sealed outer door of the shuttle, having spoken as if it meant nothing to him that he had done as such.

All of their eyes were on Ento, the fact that he reacted so nonchalantly to the question of blowing himself up, they were dumbfounded. It was as if they couldn't comprehend how that was his only reaction to the question...

"How likely do you think it is that the man from before will follow us?"

Vaylin shifted, hugging her knees to her chest, "That was my father..."

Ento turned his head towards her for a few seconds, then back towards her mother Senya. "We're going to the Throne World.... Which he is most definitely going to return to?"

"I hate felt her pain from Zakuul... If she was treated that way under Valkorion, I can only assume what he will put my other children through..." She was speaking of her twins, Thexan and Arcann. Now that she had her daughter with her, she could only assume her boys would follow suit and join her.

Ento stared at the woman, though the people in this shuttle were all devoted to her, it was doubtful other Knights would allow her to get away with this. Even if she was their mother, this sounded as if Senya was ready to commit treason.

This would paint a target on their heads...

"Thexan will come... I know it," Vaylin curled in her upper lip as she thought of her older brothers. Thexan was the twin that cared for her more than Arcann did, at least so she believed, as he visited her on the planet of Nathema on occasion.

Hearing her daughter's assurance of this, Senya seemed content.

+ + +

The rest of the trip was just hours of silence other than the hum of the starship's engines as it transversed through hyperspace to the Throne World of the Eternal Empire.

The shuttle under the control of the Knights in Senya's command popped out of a hyperspace vector between the Home Fleet and the Planet itself. "We are home free, Knight-Captain!" The pilot reported from the cabin as the ship began to shake during reentry.

Holding onto one of the handles hanging from the ceiling in order to secure her footing, Senya gave her order. "Begin your approach vector, it doesn't seem like they're expecting us."

"Yes Ma'am!" The pilot and co-pilots gave an instantaneous reply, their loyalties clear.

Ento moved to sit on the ground, wrapping an arm around Vaylin as she was resting her head on her knees. He then lightly pulled her over so she could lean into his side.

Not going in at such a heavy angle, the ship didn't shake as violently as before. With ease it moved through the atmosphere of the ship traffic heavy planet.

Once they reached a safe altitude, the side door opened revealing a massive urbanized city that lined all horizons. There were massive pillar like buildings that housed thousands of people, if not millions. It was similar to Coruscant in that respect, but it didn't scout the entire planet.

It was a magnificent sight, it almost drew Ento to breathlessness.

"Welcome to Zakuul, Ento." Senya gestured towards the city, "You may as well be the first from the Greater Galaxy to witness such a place."

He turned his head from Vaylin and over towards the girl's mother, nodding slowly. "So we're in the unknown regions I take it?" He was close, but not entirely correct.

"Wild Space," an area of space between the Unknown Regions and the Known Galaxy. In a sense, it also counted extra-galactic star systems like Kamino. It was mostly found in the Southern and Western Galactic areas of the Galaxy.

"South West of Tatooine?" Ento was curious of this planet's location, wondering how it fared after this time period as it was never mentioned by his father or pilots in the cantinas.

Senya nodded, which left a large amount of space for him to explore should he chose to when he returned to his timeline. If it was even his timeline when he returned.

As the shuttle began to slow down to a hover, his eyes locked onto a suspended private docking area attached to one of the buildings.

As Vaylin went to stand, he too joined her. As they walked towards the blast door with Senya leading in front, the shuttle would fly off behind them in order to remain ambiguous. This was mostly in case it needed to make a speedy getaway rather than be left out in the open to be shot down by loyalist forces.