"Go through it again. I want to hear it again," Cid ordered, having stared impassively out of the tall floor-to-ceiling windows that expanded the entire office. The view blared in the lights of the academy from below them, and the warm glow was like a mini sea of nightlife that early evening.

Calming as it was, their world was far from it.

Matthew had been sitting in the Headmaster's chair for the past hour. He had been typing away at the computers with the latest influx of reports from surrounding academies and teams on the ground from the refuge sites. All hands were on deck since the palace's destruction on the moon, yet his thoughts were anywhere but on what Cid had wanted.

Tablets in hand and positively quiet, Toni, Richie and Jesse had been sitting on the other side of the desk. Like Cid, the four of them appeared like train wrecks to anyone that saw them at that moment, having been on site until only a few hours ago.

Their Headmaster had been watching over their survivors very closely, one in particular that had remained unconscious. He had been hoping that her account of events would give them any insight into the whereabouts of the Princess and the events that managed to wipe out the court.

The other survivors from the moon didn't anticipate what had happened, nor could they provide an account of what happened. Their concurrent story had been that the reapers tore through the moon, and the next thing they knew, hellfire was raining down from above them.

"Twenty-five million dead," Toni looked up from the tablet, first to Matthew typing away profusely and then to Cid, who turned to him from the glass windows.

"Thirty-one hundred of the court are officially confirmed deceased. We also lost a further sixty-four civilians last night from injuries alone," Toni flicked the tablet off, finishing a report.

"Ryder confirmed that he located another thirteen emergency shuttles that are sprawled across the northern districts and southern, as far as the ice poles. The statements of those they could communicate with all recount the same thing. It was a blindside attack in the dead of night."

"The official autopsy for the Queen," Jesse was next, "concluded that her body suffered internal bleeding, which is suspected due to the explosion at the palace. We do not have any report or body sighting on the Princess.

The court's high and middle advisors were killed when the first three shuttles took off in the attacks. The Artes team only cleared 13% of the palace at this stage. The foundations are making it harder to recover survivors without the cause of collapse while they are inside."

"Richie," Cid shifted his attention over his shoulder.

"We just ran through this. I don't get why I need to repeat it."

"Can you humour him before he has a heart attack," Matthew peered up from the computer, nodding to Richie towards Cid.

"Fucken pointless."

"Language! I have warned the lot of you about my tolerance for your foul mouths!"

Jesse, Toni and Richie smirked at Matthew, that tried to suppress his smirk; even at their age, the Headmaster still scolded them.

"Fine, as I stated, if not five minutes ago. We have whispers from the resistance teams on Isadora's ground that they are planning a counterstrike again, Ezra. Our soldiers have tried to contact the local mercenaries, but they are unwilling to compromise in their stands.

The ground civilians are trying to take this war into their own hands, and no matter the interference we run with them, they have slipped past Treller's Academy and into the forest, last seen heading into the Eastern Border."

"They'll be dead by morning if they aren't already," Jesse rolled her eyes, "we've warned them countless times that the barrier fries them; it nearly fries us when we've tried."

"Get the Ramsey base to relocate to Treller's," Matthew ordered temporarily.

"Ramsey is looking after the Efail coastline," Cid was confused why his Commander offered that solution.

"Ezra won't attack from the mid-south coast," Matthew shook his head, "she'll come at us in a blindside attack if she ever tried."

"We should consider more ground troops in Isadora," Toni offered, "imagine the mayhem if we don't find the Princess. Their now future Queen. I don't believe anything is going to settle them. We're going to have the whole city ready to head into war. Pointless suicidal war."

"It's going to happen with the trajectory of all of this," Matthew finally popped his head up from the screens before him.

"We won't be able to stop the retaliation that's coming. We can't tell them how they managed to get past the defences and wipe out the entire court and residents on the moon. If they haven't pieced it together, they're about to understand how fucken defenceless they are."

"That is another entirely different conversation we need to have," Cid only exhaled as his shoulders dropped. He moved from the windows to his desk as all four heads stared at the man.

"What else?" he pressed them to continue to speak.

"Okay, well," Jesse offered, "we have forty-five ships scouting the area. When the occupants boarded the emergency escape pods, it seemed they were all emergency programmed for vicinities in Isadora. A lot of them malfunctioned.

"We counted as many as forty-one pods unaccounted for, the other five thousand that were targeted and destroyed first."

"Though," Richie offered, "having located twenty-one of the pods, we have started to move them to the smaller academies and bases that will handle their numbers. At this current state, we are overly populated with cadets that have been brought here to the front line. We cannot take any further survivors."

Matthew exhaled, leaning into the chair, devising some form of a plan for the next few days. He knew where they should be heading next. The Headmaster had stood close to him, having watched now the same live footage that Matthew had been observing. The crew was still on the moon; most were clearing the debris slowly.

"The Princess could be anywhere, from the twenty-one unlocated pods, the remaining sites, or transferred to a base during all the chaos. I think it is safe to assume she isn't on the moon any further. We picked up on no pulses when the scan swept the palace."

Jesse readjusted in her chair, explaining her thoughts as her legs stretched from the discomfort of not having moved the past few hours.

"Which means we move on until the Zulu recovery team can tell us differently," Toni finished off Jesse's train of thought.

"Well then, should we talk about potential kidnapping at this stage?" Richie turned his head from Matthew to Cid.

"But the question would be why if that were an option," Cid didn't want to go down that path either.

"The only reason we know yet is that Ezra wants them both dead. Why would they want to kidnap her?" Toni couldn't see its logic, and it seemed no one could when all heads nodded in agreement. It just didn't seem plausible.

"Let's rule out kidnapping with no motive for the moment. We agree there is nothing to be gained from it," Matthew rolled his head into the seat, staring up at the ceiling as his mind continued to turn over.

"Then we need some kind of miracle to happen, either that she is on one of those surviving pods or at a site," Jesse offered.

This time she fidgeted as she brought her hand to her mouth, yawning at the lack of sleep she's had over the past three days, "there are several close-by sites we can physically search tomorrow, and it leaves four scattered ones in the far northern region and two down south past Boreal. If we want to be on the ground with this"

"Bro, we just got back," Richie complained, "literally three hours ago. I need a fucken shower."

"Richie, one more time!" Cid threatened the man.

The man grinned as he raised his hands in defence to show he would keep his swearing in check. However, their conversation was halted without a definite answer as tiny bells were alerted from the giant screens covering the Headmaster's wall in front of Matthew.

Flicking his attention from the ceiling to the screens before him, he watched as Cid leaned across the table, clicking the screens on. The image blared, and a shorter bob-haired female of Asian descent appeared on the screens.

"Khloe?" Cid nodded to the General practitioner for the Emergency ward.

"Headmaster Cid, your survivor, had awoken," nodding curtly, "Hildy had attended to her when she awoke."

"She's alert? Conscious?" Matthew's interest is piqued.

"Yes, she had also asked to see you, Skarsgard."

Cid looked to Matthew, who nodded, "told you she knows something, Cid."

"Khloe," Cid acknowledged Matthew's comment, "he'll be down shortly."

The nurse nodded to the command, and the screens switched off, leaving them alone again in their thoughts.

"Go," Cid nodded to Matthew, even if the man had already swung the chair from its position and left the desk.

"Toni, Richie," Matthew ordered, "prep the cadets for tomorrow. Find me the bases we can hit."

They nodded, acknowledging the plan and that they were already two steps ahead.

"Jesse, get into touch with Ergot's base and see if he'll take the next influx. If not, then try Greg's."

"Easy," she said, attention immediately back on her tablet.

"Cid," Matthew turned back briefly, "do me a favour and stress less. You're losing too much fucken hair as it is!"

"Out!" he couldn't believe his audacity, "you and your foul mouths! Get out!"

Toni, Jesse and Richie tried to hold in their laughter. Cid's temper flared at Matthew and his cockiness. He, however, shifted and directed his attention to the three of them.

His temper had peaked that day, and they hustled out of the Headmaster's office before he murdered them all.

Well, l if you don't want to be murdered as well... drop a comment and hit the vote button!Otherwise, you'll be getting a scolding from old mate!