It was dark out when Leo had finally finished telling his entire story. Of course, Vanessa was stunned, and her mind was racing a mile a minute. ‘What the hell was this? What fiancé? Was Cadet Jones insane?’

She couldn’t believe the fact that, far from being their first real conversation, Leo and Vanessa had allegedly been together for years, and furthermore, it was Vanessa who had initiated their relationship!

Vanessa decided that this had to be another world, an alternate reality, perhaps. Maybe she had slipped into the dimension when she was sleeping, as that seemed a far more likely scenario than the alternative.

Vanessa could, however, actually believe General Armando would go on a power trip. The United Nations had placed several guards with the scientist due to distrust between the two parties, and that number of guards increased dramatically after Armando’s wife died.

It was an ongoing bet inside the government between whether Armando would go insane and try to take over the world first, or commit suicide because of one of his experiments going rogue first.

It was a little disconcerting to hear that this world’s version of Armando had succeeded, but Vanessa wasn’t too concerned. It wasn't her problem in the first place. She needed to get back to Earth, and continue her fight against the Dimension Eaters with her true platoon, and the real Leo. A nice, quiet boy who kept to himself for the most part.

Looking over to the only other person in the room, Vanessa had to admit that perhaps she might have to give Leo’s theory a bit more thought than the outright dismissal she would have immediately given it.

The woman Cadet Jones referred to as ‘Hazeel’ had brown skin, and dark marks on her arms. She even had silver hair. However, the strangest part about the woman was her extremely thin and long-tipped ears.

Vanessa had never been one to believe in fantasy, much less even entertain thoughts of the existence of mythological creatures, but she would be hard pressed to call the being in front of her anything else but an elf.

‘Although…’ Vanessa looked the woman up and down. ‘Her proportions are certainly mythological, in a sense.’

She returned her gaze back to Cadet Jones, and found him staring back. Realizing that he was waiting for a response to a question she hadn’t heard, she felt her cheeks start to redden.

“Sorry, Cadet Jones, but I didn’t quite hear you. Could you repeat that for me?” Leo grinned knowingly, a gesture that somehow caused Vanessa’s blush to spread farther.

“Vanessa, I asked what your thoughts were on my story.” Vanessa straightened up in her seat, and looked Leo dead in the eyes.

“Honestly, I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. Just because I can’t sense earth’s photons doesn’t mean that we’re on another planet. You could be using some dampener. Plus, what proof do you even have that we’re not on earth anymore?”

Vanessa finished speaking with a cocksure smile on her face, an expression which immediately fell though upon seeing the same look on Leo. “What!? What’s so funny!” She shouted.

Leo just grinned even wider, and Hazeel spoke up from behind her. “You don’t even notice it, do you?”

Vanessa turned and shot her an unappreciative glare. “Get what? Out with it you fake elf!”

Hazeel’s brows twitched and a wicked glare appeared on her face as she stood up to defend her honor, but once again Leo got in between the two women before they could start a fight.

“Come on now, you can’t rise to her provocations every time.” Leo spoke softly to her, and Hazeel’s anger melted like butter in a microwave.

“Leo, tell Vanessa to stop egging me on, and please tell her what she’s so desperate to know.” The self-proclaimed elf stuck her tongue out at Vanessa, causing the Japanese woman to scowl in frustration.

“Yes, Cadet Jones.” Vanessa spoke, turning her frustration to her subordinate. “Please tell me what proof of this scenario is so obvious that it’s laughable that I haven’t noticed it yet.”

“You haven’t even realized that you’re not speaking any language you know. You’re speaking Azurian. It’s good to know that our mental link is still working, even if you’ve shut me out of there at the moment.”

Vanessa’s eyes widened, and she spoke to Leo, making sure to keep her attention on the words she was forming, and her heart fell as she realized that Leo was right. She had no idea what words she was using, but the language was being transferred as if through an automatic process.

“How is this possible!?” Vanessa smiled despite herself, a smile which immediately petered out into a frown. “Wait, mental link?”

The pieces connected in Vanessa’s head, and she started looking all over her body. Unable to find what she had been looking for, she sent an accusatory stare towards Leo. “We didn’t perform the Ceremony of Man and Blade, did we!?”

Leo nodded, and the pit of Vanessa’s stomach sank. “Where is the mark!? Who performed the ceremony!?”

Vanessa was shaking Leo at this point, and the man in question gave her a sad look. “Do you remember where you said you got your first tattoo?”

“So my dad wouldn’t find out…” Vanessa whispered, and immediately kicked off her boots. Sure enough, she found the symbolic tattoo of her clan, complete with her father’s own signature markings.

Tears started to flow down Vanessa’s face in long, warm, uncontrolled streams. She looked up at Leo with a tear-stained face after putting her boots back on.

Leo smiled, and ran his fingers through Vanessa’s hair. This caused the woman to flinch, and Leo frowned, quickly retracting his hand away. “Sorry… it… I was just… it’s a habit. It always calmed you down when you were annoyed or stressed out.”

Vanessa just stood there, mouth agape, and looked at Leo. Finally, Hazeel gave her a small pinch on the cheek, and Vanessa started to function again.

“Cadet Leo Jones! How dare you treat your commanding officer like a pet!” Vanessa was fuming, which Leo apparently found cute as he was smiling goofily.

Hazeel snickered beside Vanessa, and whispered into her ear, “From what Leo’s told me about your relationship, you were domesticated often enough.”

That set Vanessa off, and she reached for Hazeel’s throat while the elf did the same opposite her. Hazeel reached for her buster sword with her off hand, and Vanessa did the same with the gun on her hip.

Vanessa suddenly felt a familiar sensation of vertigo as she landed on a mountainous path, with Hazeel standing ten feet away from her. The two women turned to look at the cause of the mischief, Leo, standing off to the left of them.

“Listen ladies. You clearly have some things to work through. I’ll be making dinner, just don’t kill each other. If either of you get seriously injured, I’ll know. Both through Hazeel’s contract, and the ritual mark on Vanessa. See you in a bit.”

Leo winked out of existence, and Vanessa marveled at how well he could control his photons. From what she remembered, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that before.

No sooner had she finished the thought then she was jumping back from Hazeel’s frontal assault. The elf slashed a wide arc through the air, cutting off some of Vanessa’s hair in the back.

Hazeel smirked at her handiwork, but Vanessa decided not to rise to her blatant provocation. “Ah, thanks, Ms. Fake Elf. This climate’s heat was actually starting to bother me. I daresay you did me a favor.”

Hazeel frowned, and made long strides towards Vanessa. Vanessa put on her war face and reacted instantly, running ahead to intercept the tall woman. Vanessa danced around Hazeel’s slashes, and got a few jabs in on her opponent.

Hazeel grunted, and made another wide swing with the buster sword. Vanessa jumped over it, and caught a well-placed boot to her sternum.

The wind was knocked out of Vanessa’s lungs as she sailed backwards, coming to a stop about ten feet from where she was initially kicked. However, Hazeel didn’t let up after the blow, and was already upon Vanessa before she could recover.

Hazeel sat on top of Vanessa, pinning her down under her weight. Vanessa tried to escape by teleporting, but found that she couldn’t manipulate photons while under the massive woman.

“What did you do to me?” Vanessa asked calmly, but internally she was nervous. She knew Hazeel didn’t like her, and was pretty sure she’d receive at least a punch or two from the woman before being able to talk any sense into her.

However, much to Vanessa’s surprise, Hazeel just smiled down at her. “It was a technique that Leo taught me. He was afraid that there would be someone who could manipulate photons like he could, so as a piece of his property he wanted to make sure I was protected. The way he explained it was pretty insightful as well.”

Vanessa didn’t even need to hear the words to know what they would be. It was something she tried to teach all of her subordinates in order to ensure maximum survival. “If you can do something, assume that your opponent can do it twice as well.”

Hazeel nodded, and looked down with worry in her eyes. “Have you recovered any of your memories yet?”

Vanessa shook her head. “No, that's just some wisdom I impart onto my subordinates.” She took a moment before her mind backtracked to a certain thing that Hazeel had said.

“Wait a moment, did you just say that you were Leo’s property?” Hazeel grinned widely and nodded.

“Yeah! Granted, he didn’t want me at first, but my persistence won him over! Haha! You should have seen his reaction when I just showed up with a slave crest on me using his blood. He totally freaked out!”

The emotions that went through Vanessa’s face in a matter of seconds were: confusion, intrigue, and disgust. “A slave crest? He actually agreed to that!?”

“Well, he didn’t have too much choice in the matter. Oh, let me give you a thanks for how you trained him in the bedroom, by the way. That man isn’t a natural sadist, but he fulfills the role quite well.”

Vanessa was confused once more as she tried to process the words that Hazeel told her. “Wait, are you saying Leo and I have slept together before?”

“Yep.” Hazeel leaned in closer. “And you molded him into someone who took care of your every desire, you closet masochist.” Vanessa blushed, and fought to get out of Hazeel’s grip, but the elf held on tightly.

“Calm down, both Leo and I know. Besides, as sister wives I want to get along well with you. Of course, you’ll be the first wife and I’m the second, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re both beloved by and love the same person.”

Vanessa struggled some more, with the same amount of success as before. “No, no, no! I don’t love him! I barely know him!”

Hazeel gave Vanessa a sad smile. “It’s ok, I know that it’s going to be tough for you, but I need you to be considerate of Leo as well. Remember that while this version of you hasn’t loved him yet, the version he knew has died, and he might never get his lover back.”

That shut Vanessa up, and she stopped struggling against Hazeel’s brute force. “I still don’t know what’s real.” Vanessa mumbled, and she was helped up to her feet by the wood elf.

“That’s ok. I’ll be here, but especially Leo. I’m pretty sure he wanted to have this talk with you, but it would hurt him too much to see you react with disgust to his every touch or assertion.”

Hazeel stared at the ground, but was interrupted in her thoughts as Hazeel put an arm around her. “Come on, let’s go get some dinner. Plus, we need to talk to Leo about the favor Shar wanted him to do. Of course, you’ll be helping with that as well.”