Raising his wrist to his mouth, his voice heightened, control of the situation consumed him, and Eko watched as he began talking into the communication device attached to his suit.

"Jesse scans up now," it was too quiet. There was too much humming in the air, as though something was on the cusp, and if experience taught him anything, he knew they weren't alone.

With his free hand grasping Eko's hand, fingers slip into his own without hesitation, they turn again, either had walked too far from the site, or something was pecking off people.

Regardless their view was empty, with endless greenery of snow in the distance and an approaching storm threatening to swallow them while.

"Where the fuck is Jesse," he snapped into the comms again, "Toni, Richie?"

"I do not like this," Eko hissed, double backing their way across the field. Her hand safely in his own, her grip tightened further.

An uneasy feeling coursed through her bones, and right on cue, a deafeningly shrill cackle pierced the deathly silence, encircling them. The sound caused both of them to freeze in their tracks.

In perfect unison, they pivoted, backs against each other, as the sound of a sinister laughter echoed louder and louder.

The unnerving noise left the pair on edge, and they scanned their surroundings, their sharp gazes of steel and sky-blue eyes on high alert. Their senses were heightened, taking in every detail of the fields around them.

"Antlers?"

"Kitara's, I think. Can you hear the whistle sound at the end of that weird laugh they make?"

"Hmm," Eko nodded to that assessment.

"Matthew, if you can hear me, herds are forming," Jesse's voice broke in and out, "their scans are showing packs towards the site, Matt-..."

"Somethings interfering with the comms," Eko snapped her head over her shoulder, pointing to his wrist, "is that normal?"

"It's not. Toni, Richie?"

"We got you mate, we're already on it," their voices are immediately in response, having heard both Matthew and Jesse.

"Where are you?" Toni began. He was running from the sounds of it.

"Outskirts," Matthew acknowledged, "Eko is with me, no survivors in sight, doubling back. Load everyone up. Mya, Jasmine, acknowledge?"

"Confirmed on that," the girls responded one after the other in confirmation.

"Sawyer?"

"They're breaching; I can see them, Crowds of twenty."

Another soldier radioed in, Josh, "containment met."

"Perimeter met," another voice echoed, Luke, "we're backtracking back to the ship with tango three."

While listening to the responses, Eko stepped behind Matthew, grasping her hand onto the black sword in his double-back sword holster.

Pulling it forward, she is now back beside him, and the weapon gripped securely in her hand. These monsters would be heading straight for them.

Ezra was behind this; she knew it in her bones. She wanted to finish the job with any remaining survivors.

"Eko. Run."

"Run? Where do fucken you suggest?"

"Back to the ship," he hissed "where do you think?"

But that was all she heard, the eclipsing noise of violence ahead of them, around them, behind them. It was everywhere.

They were rampaging at the pair; they were going for blood with the survivors in the far distance, their screams compounding by the second.

Drawing his sword from his back, he raised it before him; Eko beside him was ready for what came. Next, her enemies would learn that she was not the kind of princess that needed saving.

She doesn't think of herself as a princess at all.

Anyone could be a gallant knight; she has met far too many. But they should of all learned that she was not a damsel in distress.

She was no longer a trapped girl. If anything at all, she was a dragon, and if they kept getting too close, she would burn everything to the ground.

"You know how to use that?" he needed to know if he had a cause of concern, steel eyes ready for the critters that came at them.

Eko was already in the midst of beheading the critters at their legs and making sure in some sick and sheer delight that she was killing everything she could get her hands on.

"Piece of cake," she smirked, followed by a burst of maniacal laughter that was music to his ears.

She could defend herself, one less worry he had to deal with now.

Feet first, they swung and parried, trying to stop the monsters from passing them.

---- ----

Screams vibrated everywhere in their senses.

Running bodies were an eclipse of an illusion. There were too many bodies to count.

"This way, now!" Richie roared in rage at the survivors, and like a saving grace to them, the survivors thankfully had diverted their escape attempt to then towards the ship.

----- ----

Matthew plunged his sword into the head of a passing youma, before violently decapitating it and pulling back. He locked eyes with the woman once more, observing in awe as she effortlessly annihilated the wild beasts with ease.

Dodging in and out of the throng of enemies that attempted to grab hold of her and tear her apart, her nimble figure and cascading locks of brunette hair glided through the field, almost as if she were performing a graceful ballet.

Slicing through their foes with lethal precision, he moved swiftly to her side, their backs now pressed against each other's. Together, they defended themselves and destroyed the monsters with a ferocity that bordered on the animalistic.

"Eko, weapons. Switch," he commanded, "take the lighter one."

Moments passed, and she turned as though she had spun from him. She pummelled the sword into the heart of a monster, lingering for a moment; she turned on her heel, and Matthew chucked Eko the sword.

The Commander, however, stepped forward with slick and judging eyes. Hands-on his own weapon. Grip firm beneath it.

Pulling the monster, his foot drives itself into its chest, and he booted it away from him with a forceful hit.

He was truly in his element now, the sword he favoured, with its perfect weight. Matthew's agility was out beating her own; he moved around her as though he were walking on air.

There was a kick that she blocked and a tentacle whip from a rampaging monster that he dodged; her foot found the monster's stomach, and his yell was so familiar, even to her own senses.

He caught the side of the attack as she launched her sword into the falling monster, but the next three missed his own – then the monsters were behind him, and he was abruptly slammed into the ground.

More screams echoed as she realized the monster with the tentacles had him down, but with strength, she couldn't fathom that he actually had, with a loud scream of annoyance. Eko watched as his sword suddenly appeared upwards through the monster, sticking out from its back.

Matthew kicked it off him, the heavy body tumbling and rolling beside him, lifeless and crippled. The blood from the monster's throat had rained down upon his body, soaking his attire, neck, and face almost.

"Fucken disgusting," spitting out the blood from his mouth.

Eko's foot re-sinks into the earth, rocks rippling aside like paper.

Bloodied, Matthew jumped into the air, and she followed, moving forth and dancing around the monsters' attacks – he ducked below an incoming strike as he rammed up into the creature before him.

Cutting behind the monsters on the ground, she spun from an attack as they became back-to-back against them again.

Eko's own are ready fists and a steady sword. Breath is heavy. The air

is thin. She loved her world at this moment.

"Not bad," He mocked. She could tell he was impressed; hell, she was impressed with him. It's what made him, so God damn attractive.

"Told you I've got this," the mockery of sheer arrogance replied to him.

Eko's stance, as his own was ready for the next wave of rotten monsters; she was just as confident in her abilities as he was of his own skills.

---- ----

"Sawyer, where are they?" Toni drove his sword into one of the passing monsters running towards the survivors.

They had lost causalities already, and they were trying to minimalize numbers.

"They were up ahead," Jesse called back as she snapped one of the necks of the monsters beneath her grip.

"Sir, they're six hundred metres out; we tracked his location. Keep pushing forward," Sawyer yelled over the immense screaming of the hysterical survivors, making sure they were boarding the ship safely.

"Cameron! Stark!" Richie ordered, catching up to Toni and Jesse as they were on his heel.

Mya followed with Jasmine, weapons filled with blood from their enemies.

"Start the ship; the engines can burn them from the back," Mya ordered, and Jasmine nodded, racing inside as she pushed past the survivors.

"Oi!" Richie snapped back at Mya, who only shook her head, annoyed.

"Don't fucken oi me. Just do your own job!" eyes narrowed in frustration; the truth was they chose never to spend time with one another on the field like this, not in this proximity.

Richie nearly flipped her the bird, turning his attention back on the soldiers looking at him; she grated on his nerves as much as these youmas had.

"Clear them; we'll meet up with Matthew."

Sawyer, Cameron, and Stark rounded the ship as the remaining soldiers followed suit, and shortly they had the vessel protected. The survivors were crowded near the overpopulated aircraft, standing in fear on the open docks and on the field, watching the monsters relentlessly around them.

Parents gripping their children to their bodies, and others were trying to push their way still onboard the ship, not wanting to meet their death this way.

"Safe to say. They're here for the survivors," Toni hissed as he took off sprinting towards the outfield where Matthew and Eko had been.

"Ezra," Richie shouted, taking off the heads of monsters still lurking about, "the fuck is any of this!"

Soon they are in view of their Commander, and the sight before them shocked them; it wasn't something they were used to.

They had never seen him like this before.

There they both were, as though lost in their own world.

Laughing?

"They're laughing?" Jesse is all but confused, coming to a stop in bewilderment.

Weapons lowered, and the three stood baffled at the pair almost pirouetting around the field.

The monsters were dropping at their feet.

They would kill a charging monster, behead it and then almost switch positions to cover one another.

Richie dug his sword into the ground, leaning forward, taking in the show that they had been performing for them.

"We're both seeing this, right?" Toni murmured.

Jesse laughed, "I think we found someone who can actually keep up with him."

"I get this tiny-insy feeling she just wasn't a servant, or whatever she said she was," Toni watched, impressed by their tactics together.

"They're completely flawless together?" The last monster fell at their feet just as the words were out of Jesse's mouth.

Eko swung the sword around her arm before she dug it into the ground, complete and utter pride of what she had accomplished.

"Piece of cake," she began, pleased with herself.

"Piece of cake," he smiled, a dazzling, unguarded, natural, all-teeth-showing, glorious smile, unaware that they were being watched by his company before them.

dammmmnnnnn...... who's ready for some kissing moments..... come on guys... keep voting to make it happen!