It's been said that every time you think about an adverse event from your past, your body produces the exact same chemicals in the body as when it happened.

That meant when Eko stood there with the soldiers scourging through their sixth search site by the afternoon break. She had relived the experience a hundred times over with the stories told on the faces of those who survived the massacre.

What she had found from them was that those that managed to escape. They had made a run for it the moment the pods crashed down to Isadora, refusing to stay in case Ezra had hunted them, while the remaining survivors had remained in hopes of a search and rescue.

It made the job easier, for the ones that had made the break from the crash sites had found their way to nearby academies that took them in. The ones that remained had been accommodating in their version of events, and luckily, Eko relaxed, that none could provide any accounts of their Princess's movements.

Six hours it had taken the soldiers to power through the pre-planned sites, and with plenty of daylight left, the current teams were wrapping up things at the seventh site that they had managed to get to.

Eko stood in the chaos that was the upheaved bushland. The site had been different from the previous ones, and the pods had sustained critical damage from the attacks. Due to their state of them upon entering the atmosphere, they had burnt up upon arrival, which meant that there was a wreckage of metal that were fireballs falling upon the skies at one moment.

No survivors had been the verdict. That was incredibly clear as the brunette watched the soldiers pull the unrecognizable bodies out into the open. She watched as they tagged them for when another fleet from another academy would arrive to transport them back to their base. The soldiers told her that they would identify them and then bury them.

"Your welcome to return with the Ventura, they're heading back home."

It was his voice that she found that broke her from her thoughts. Matthew's ease of a simple statement had produced a comfort that she didn't know entirely existed at this point. With that, Eko turned her head over her shoulder to greet the Commander.

His presence had been one among a few that she didn't mind having in this particular situation.

"Who would have thought, standing where we are now, that we would have survived what we had, only to be standing on the brink of another war."

Matthew placed his hands behind his back and allowed the brunette to continue speaking. She had needed to get whatever was in her maelstrom head out; her constricted body language spoke volumes more of her state of mind than anything else.

"We all swore as children that we would never let it happen again, and yet here we are."

Two sets of eyes continued to watch as more bodies were pulled from the escape pods, and Matthew completely understood what she had been saying right there and then.

"This is our life. Some people don't care to make that easier. They just want to watch the world burn simply for their selfish needs, never considering the victims in their wake, nor might I add the consequences of this said war coming,"

"Those people shouldn't be living in this world then."

"That's what we think, but we can't just become savages and kill people, Eko. There's been too much of that in our lives. We don't need more."

"Savages? Skarsgard. It's ironic, isn't it? Our upbringing has taught us those same qualities that we detest."

"Hmm," he nodded, "qualities that I also do not tolerate in this academy. Instead, we must teach different qualities than what we were bred from and teach them to the younger cadets. We do not want them to be governed by our experiences. We do not want them to become the monsters that tainted us."

"Monsters that tainted us," Eko looked up at him, eyebrow raised, "you have an interesting choice of vocabulary there."

"I'm a smart man," the blonde cockily replied, "but that comes from Teddy in this instance."

"Teddy?"

He nodded, "onsite Psych. Someone that you should talk to in the coming days."

"Why would I need to talk to a psychologist?"

"Why do half the people here need to speak to him? To get the grief out, instead of letting it fester within you."

Settling back on her heel, she turned a fraction to take in the Commander, that had been staring at her intently with that comment, "I'll consider it. Not that I need it."

"That's what they all say."

"Anyway." Eko rolled her eyes before waving at him up and down, "was there a reason you were lurking?"

The man laughed in response, "inquiring about something you said."

"Which is?"

"You are under the belief that you, well being you. That will be the difference in the princess coming forward? Care to elaborate?"

"I'll let you in on a little secret," the change of attitude was evident as the girl before him smirked. "I've known her since I was a kid. So, I think I have a good reason to believe she'll come forward with me."

"I'm pretty sure half the staff has known her since she was a kid. Your odds aren't any different."

"Not when you're her guard," winking at that piece of information she decided to hand over, completing her cover story and the setup of her new double life.

"After the first war, we were all relocated to the moon once the King and Sera's brother passed away. As mentioned, I trained and became her guard, and we have been immensely close friends since."

"Not convinced," the man raised an eyebrow studying Eko further.

"Look," hands have now moved to her hips to prove her point, "when she recognizes that it's me, I have faith she'll come forth, and then we can protect her. Piece of cake!"

"And after she reassumes the throne, you will return, and the courts will be re-established?"

"I assume that would happen. I'm not on that side of things, but we could go with the reestablishment theory, I suppose."

Who was she kidding? She knew exactly what was going to happen. She was going to ensure that they believed the princess was dead, and it would ensure that she had a real shot at freedom. That's, of course, after she butchered Ezra for everything she had taken from her.

"Irrespective of all of that," Eko turned her attention back to the crash site, "once she is found, I have decided that I am not returning."

Her response piqued Matthew's interest again, waiting for her to continue her speech that she had been thinking about far too much.

"I'm going to fight back, and yes, I am willing to risk where that leads me." Eko watched as there had been another body pulled from the site, and with the vile in her throat, she peered back at the man, "I am sick of playing the victim. Victims play the part where they wait and have their lives destroyed. We've done enough waiting."

He acknowledged that, "the waiting is a silent killer."

"I am sick of waiting, Matthew. A lot of people are sick of this fear, having their families torn apart, and without ever knowing the real reason."

"Your parents are gone too I assume from that statement?"

Nodding, "yours?"

"Yes, both parents in the first invasion. I, however, am lucky compared to most. Right now, my family is the people I work with. While you speak of people sick of this fear, the academies instil hope that we will put an end to this one day. It's how humanity works. We hurt, we break, we love, and we grieve.

Through tragedies, we rebuild ourselves. As I tell the cadets when they first come here from onboarding, hold onto hope, and have some faith that we'll get through this, and one day in our future, everything might not seem so bad anymore."

"You know this isn't some Disney classic fairy tale we're going through. Despite your optimism," was this guy genuinely serious? Her thought process translated when she raised her eyebrow sceptically and yet, for some reason, wildly in awe of the untainted man.

A man that wasn't destroyed with this life of theirs.

Someone she hadn't met in such a very long time flickered the flame within her.

"You need to be in this type of life. Everyone is facing life and death every day. For me, I've learned to move past that. You can't let it consume you, and you can't let it harden you. It drowns you if you let it."

"It drowns you if you let it. I assume Teddy from that inspirational talk?"

Matthew shook his head, "contrary to belief. I am full of wisdom."

Eko laughed, the kind where it had caught her off guard at his confident nature.

"And you'll learn just how smart as well," there was that cocky smile that came through, and instantly, it raised her heart rate.

"Assuming I'll be around that long to know you."

"I think we'll know each other for a long time to come if I have anything to say about it."

The cockiness of the man again blew her mind, and how he smiled at her immediately caused her to burst into a laugh of amusement.

"Confident?"

"Another fantastic trait I have you'll learn."

Then surprisingly, Eko found that her laughter was louder than she could ever remember. Gasping for air, she held her stomach. She couldn't believe the arrogance he had. She couldn't believe he had made her laugh like this.

"You're so egotistical."

Ready to hit back at some remark, Jesse had called his name from the opening doors of the Osiris Ace.

"We're ready to go. We can hit the eighth site by five."

Matthew nodded, raising his arm above his head. He had signalled to the rest of the soldiers that they were now leaving.

"That's our cue then."

"I suppose it is." Eko smiled as he led her back to the ship, "so, will we be staying at this site, or potentially we'll make it to the ninth site?"

"All depends. If there are survivors at this site, we might end up staying. We could proceed to site nine if it was deserted like site three."

"Well, there's always hope right at the other Academies. She could be there."

"Exactly, have a little faith," he bumped his shoulder into her own as they ascended the ramp to the entrance.

"Faith," she grinned "side note, thank you."

Matthew looked at her curiously, "for what?" his tone was surprised. If anything, she noticed, and they stopped when they reached the aircraft's top.

"For saving me."

"You don't have to thank me for that. I just pulled you out of the rubble. You survived yourself through it."

"Still. You were there, so thank you."

"Well, I guess if you really want, you can just owe me later," and he winked as his cocky side would always be with a woman he wanted to sleep with.

"Owe you?" she snickered, "for what again was that? Mr. I didn't do anything," Eko tilted her head, biting her bottom lip.

"For saving you as you said," that dashing smile flushed her cheeks. How had her world and all the horrible things melted away when Matthew just spoke to her?

"Oh Matthew," she grinned like an idiot, "what am I going to do with you?"

If he was being honest, the sound of his name on her lips was something he could very much get used to.

"Many things Eko, it just depends on what those thoughts are?"

Engaging in this perilous move, Eko showed him a side of her that stopped him in his tracks, "dangerous, predatorial thoughts, Matthew," she winked and continued inside, leaving the man merely perplexed as he gripped onto the reality of what she had just said.

"Which are?" he called back all too eagerly for the answer to that question.

Eko only continued to shake her head, hiding the smile he brought out of her more and more.

How was he possibly having this effect on her? Sure she had a crush on him for all these years, but there was war, and she was thinking about sleeping with him.

She needed to sort out her priorities clearly.