We are not haunted by the dead.

We are haunted by the living and the graveyard of memories they leave in our heads.

"Be safe little one, don't go giving your mother a hard time," were the last words she had ever heard him say. Her father's voice was embedded into her mind, and while she had been barely seven at the time, she was also a fragment of the person she was about to become.

"Papa," young Sera reached her father, "give me a big, bigggggg hug!"

"My little ladybug," he offered, chuckling, and wrapping his strong arms around her tiny body, he kissed her one last time on her forehead.

---- ----

Eko rolled over in her sleep; eyebrows furrowed as sweat poured across her forehead.

The funeral had left her reeling, she had not dreamt of her father in years, yet the memories were as vivid as she thought a memory could be.

It also spiralled her next memory, the night she remembered when her father's body returned home to them with her brother.

Young Eko followed the trailing desperate form of her mother that burst into the grand halls.

She watched as her mother's trembling body fell desperately to her knees, elicited by a long wrenching cry that echoed through the palace walls. She had then thrown herself over the bodies of a burnt and disfigured man and child that had been brought back home to them.

A servant caught her and covered her sight, but she could hear her mother's cry. She could hear the cries long after she was torn from the sight of her father and brothers' unrecognizable bodies.

---- ----

Beaded with sweat and anxiety gripping her heart, Eko snapped awake as the room's darkness consumed her. Looking down at the small gadget of a bracelet around her wrist, she flicked over the command on the object, and her brunette now replaced her blonde hair.

It sat across her chest as she delicately picked up some of the strands and twirled her golden locks around her fingers in deep thought.

Madison stirred, and it caused Eko to flip the gadget back to its setting; instantly, her brunette hair consumed her once again. Getting up, she stretched from the bed and knew the best way to fight this feeling of nostalgia was to train and have her mind focus on something else rather than those memories.

She looked over to the clock; it was just after four in the morning, and it would be deathly quiet at this time for training. Grabbing her clothes and changing, Eko headed out of the infirmary and made her way along the quietness of the world of Allegiant towards the Training arena.

Upon arriving at the level, she was immersed in her thoughts; and didn't expect to run into the one person that made her forget her entire world existed.

"And what are you doing up so early?" Matthew's voice echoed around her, causing Eko to snap up to the man with a magnetic smile plastered on his face.

Knowing that no one was around, he stepped towards the woman; grabbing her hand, he pulled her in as he brushed her chin with the pad of his thumb. "Can't sleep?"

Eko shook her head, "bad dream," she offered the truth, and to her surprise, she felt his hand cup her cheek now. The other pushed back a strand of hair behind her ear, and his steel eyes studied her features, noticing that she relaxed with him.

"Can I ask you something?" she was more serious this time; his attention bounced between his own as he nodded. "How did your parents die?"

It wasn't the question Matthew thought she would ask, but he obliged nonetheless with his answer. "Burnt alive in our home. Ezra and her forces burnt it to the ground. Most of the people were in the area where we lived. You?"

"Papa and my brother were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Mother?"

"Should have died that day," Eko shook her head, unfazed.

"Older or younger brother?"

"Older."

Knowing the burden, Matthew ran his hands from her face down to her shoulders before pulling her hands before his own, and he tugged her to follow him back to the elevators.

"You think it's a bit harsh to wish she died in the attack," Eko acknowledged of how he acted, "you think that it makes me a bad person?"

Matthew again shook his head and tapped on the elevator control panel that glided open before them. Offering her to step in, she obliged without refusal, and he followed suit.

Eko watched as he selected the dormitories before placing his back against the glass and staring at her, contemplating how he would go about this conversation.

"I've seen cadets experience the same thing in their home life," the man began without even patronizing her, something Eko was entirely thankful for at that point. "A parent's life is lost, and the other parent runs themselves off the rails. It is why a lot of them come to one of the academies. We take them in, knowing they can no longer care for a family member, and being with them as they self-destruct, is just as painful for them as leaving. It's why I lowered the age bracket to Eight years old for the kids to apply to the academies. Not so that they can fight, so I can get the funding to protect them."

"Is that why?" Eko was taken aback, watching as the man grinned.

"You really actually think I would let eight years fight? Fuck off, Eko, come on. You know me."

"I do," she mused warmly, "so, you get it?" Folding her arms.

"I do, babe, more than anyone else."

"Good. It helps to know that I'm not the only person in the world that thinks it would have been easier if I lost everyone at once."

Matthew chuckled, "you're not alone in that. There are a lot of people I have met that felt the same. Acknowledging it is tricky for some of them. Guilt sets in, which is hard to overcome for them."

"Madison doesn't understand." Eko exhaled, the elevators pinged, and the doors glided open. Matthew retook her hand as he stepped off the railing, leading her forward.

"And she might never, " he continued. "She, like many people with what they had been through, might never understand how you feel. Just as you won't of her, you have all lost your whole lives on the moon. Some people won't be able to deal with that, to deal with adapting to a new life again. There's only so much humans can take, and everyone has different coping mechanisms."

Eko scoffed, "let me put it to you, she doesn't deal with change at all. Like- she has an absolute meltdown with it."

Matthew smiled softly, "give her time; she'll come around. I mean, what's the alternative?"

"Alternative?" the tug on his hand forced him to stop outside his room.

"Yes," he offered, "alternative."

"I don't understand?"

"Ask Madison if she tries again with this negative attitude what's the alternative, what's her plan? Maybe she's acting out because she doesn't know where her life is going, and that scares a lot of people."

"Doesn't scare me." Eko took her hand back from him and folded her arms indignantly, making a statement in that alone.

"You aren't like most people," he smirked. "You can adapt to change; unfortunately, you are dealing with someone that cannot process that. You need to treat them differently."

"Is that what you do with people around you?" Eyebrow raised at the man.

"I like to think that my experiences inspire others. I ensure that the younger cadets understand that not all dark times last and that we can rebuild again. It might not be the vision we once had, but it can be built again."

Eko cocked her head to him, biting her lip as she studied him, "I might try that speech on her." Looking him up and down, Eko persisted. "What else you got?"

Matthew laughed, "it's going to cost you." For it was the kind of laugh that told Eko she had caught him off guard.

She leaned up to the man, hands grabbing his uniform as she pulled him forward, "I'm prepared to accept the costs." Then he was enraptured with her lips as she moaned slightly into his mouth, the call of a siren, and he found that he was lost in the moment.

Eko tasted every bit good as she looked, and Matthew could not begin to fathom that she would be leaving him in a few hours, the paperwork was processed and her departure time was mid-morning. He brought his hand forward, wrapping it around the back of her head as his free hand snaked around her waist.

He held her against him, kissing her now, really kissing her, exploring her mouth with his tongue. Eko wanted to be swept away in the feeling; she wanted it to consume her because, for some reason, amongst all the pain and the chaos, she might have just found somebody that has all the goodness from this war swept inside of him. Selfishly she wanted to devour all of it for herself.

Selfishly, all so selfishly, Eko wanted to consume the unbrokenness that he held in his bones; she wanted to swallow it alive and allow it to mend her bones and stitch up her broken heart.

Leaning out from the kiss, he didn't know where that came from, but he knew one thing for sure, staring down at the temptress, "whatever possessed you to do that should possess you more often."

She giggled as though the sun had finally begun to rise amongst the darkness of her fragile world.

"God, it's a lovely sound," Matthew kissed her again, backing up to his room and running his hand over the control panel; they went inside.

With the doors closing, Eko then felt her body roughly pushed up against a wall, her head hit it, and her eyes flashed to meet his ravenous ones.

The kind that held a look of desire in his eyes that caused her stomach to flutter with excitement, for this sensation was enough to make every nerve ending in her body come alive.

-------Authors Note -------

awwwww.......... i think you need to vote to see where this is going .... ;)

JOKES there's smut on the next chapter, go ahead and read you cheeky smut loving readers!