She gasped with the snap of the winch; the air left her lungs as anger gripped her senses. Eko quickly lost sight of her world; the only thing she could hear over the cracking thunderstorm around her was the now splintering roar of destruction that forced her chest to cave in under the realization of what had now happened, of the person she couldn't grab hold of to save.

No, no, no, no.

The ship jerks to the right, instantly avoiding the debris and chaos; Jesse, in complete control, quickly flung the aircraft around, forcing both Toni and Eko to roll across the floor, hitting the other side of the metal wall with a resounding crunch.

To barely avoid the wing collapse, Jesse straightened out the aircraft, allowing respite for both Eko and Toni, who were staring up at the ceiling, dazed from the jerking movements; with enough time to catch their breath, the aircraft rolled again.

"The hell!" Richie snapped, grasping the side of a railing to keep himself standing. Jasmine was at the front of the ship yelling over the top of Jesse's screams, both equally as incoherent to the rest of them.

Alerting Eko back to her world, sky blue blinked open, rolling to her side; she felt Toni already gripping her waist, trying to get her to stand, hauling her to her feet. He pushed forwards towards the open doors, but they snapped shut before him to protect the passengers from falling out.

Unbuckling herself from the harness as fast as humanly possible, Eko found Toni bolting ahead of her towards the front of the aircraft. None of the windows was giving him the view he needed. Richie followed suit, swearing as the ship rolled side to side.

Kicking off the tangled buckles and harness lines entirely, stumbling briefly when her legs were caught, Eko managed to free herself from her own panic and bolted forward. She made her way to the front of the aircraft, where there was a continued screaming match between Jasmine, Toni, Richie and Jesse, all but feeling the craft moving and circling the palace as they slowly started to descend.

---- ----

Matthew retreated rapidly to the balcony doors and inside Seraphina's room. He watched in enough time as the balcony gave way and collapsed before him.

The rain is relentless, a hurricane of water coming at him thanks to the aircraft's propellers pushing it his way as his friends above tried to avoid any falling debris.

"M-att...hew?" he barely heard the crackle of Jesse's frantic voice in his communication device on the side of his wrist.

"I'm here," he confirmed, steel eyes searching around him. The palace again trembled; without hesitation, Matthew bolted towards the doors that led back to the main palace; he had to get out of there.

"The buildings are collapsing." Jesse repeated in urgency, watching the monitors and scans of the flash in red predicting the imminent collapse.

"I know, I'll be fine. I'll meet you on the ground."

"You sure?" the red-haired expressed again, eyes scanning the system updates and now the timing of the breakdown of the palace, yet all she could hear was Matthew's laughter.

"Am I sure?" honestly, it was comical. Jesse could already hear him smashing through some of the rubble and walls if she had to guess from the noise.

She smiled and relaxed as Jasmine rushed back to the cockpit beside her.

"Get out safe. The system predicts that the palace will completely crumble in about three minutes."

"Piece of cake."

Toni entered the cabin first, followed by Richie, both men watching as parts of the palace collapsed again and fell around them onto the ground.

"Where is he?" Toni's first panicky question came, leaning on the panel, and the hologram recalibrated again. Eko was next in the cabin, their bodies crammed in together.

"Making his way down." Jesse smiled, turning to the man beside her, nearly breathing down her shoulder, "he'll be ok."

"Of course!" Richie snorted, folding his arms. He knew, like Toni and Jesse both had, that the four of them had been in more dire situations than this before.

Returning to the control panel, Jesse continued to lower the ship further down to the grounds, shifting the aircraft away from the palace and the remaining debris.

Five sets of eyes continuously scanned the fallen area before them, scouring for anything that was him.

"This is not how I thought our night would go," Toni muttered, shaking his head and watching the torrent of water drown out a lot of the system's senses. Then, the aircraft picked up Matthew's vital signs, tracking him as he almost jumped across the screen, descending the building rapidly.

Relief flooded the systems of the three soldiers knowing that he was more than capable of dealing with it. The only issue it presented was knowing if their training had been enough, fast enough, and strong enough to escape a collapsing palace that stretched for hundreds of meters in diameter.

Matthew made it down levels upon levels nearing the exit, and they knew in a minute or so he would be free from the palace before it completely had fallen to pieces. That was until a loud echoing boom broke through their senses, and the palace gave way down the middle, splitting and disintegrating outwards as it collapsed.

"Matthew! Matthew?" Jesse screamed anxiously into the computer, punching at different codes to find the man. "Matthew!"

Toni leaned over Jesse as she focused on the communication device to reach him. He pulled the controls towards him, jerking the aircraft backwards suddenly from the falling rubble crumbling everywhere around them, pulling it right back until the computer declared they were out of the disaster zone.

The four wings of the palace collapsed outwards and away from the main building. The sheer noise overpowered the raging thunderstorm above them. As they continued descending, they circled the palace slowly, the floodlights expanding as much light across the rubble.

Eko's heart was pummelling against her chest; she liked this guy, she really, really had liked him, and he was there, he was right there and if she just fucken reached out further to his hand.

Jesus! This was not how it ended. No way! No, No, No!

The system alerted them again of a vital sign, blinking precariously up at them, indicating that the life sign was on the ground floor, slowly moving along the chaos.

"Vital signs found," the system voices began. "Male. Age 25-30. Height 6'1. Condition. Alive. Commander Skarsgard located."

"See, I told you I had a bad feeling about all of this!" Richie commented without realizing it, forcing the group to turn on him with loathsome stares.

Jesse, however, nearly lunged over the controls, ready to deck the man beside her; Jasmine, quickly in the middle of the two of them, tried to stop the red-haired woman from going at the man. Toni regripped the controls, slowly allowing the ship to finally land at the anticipated spot where Matthew should pop out from amongst the ruins.

Eko, even if the screams of the soldiers were drowning her thoughts out, knew right there and then there weren't going to be any more games. Good people were getting wrapped up in this, and it wasn't what she wanted; this was not how it was meant to happen. The sooner she got out of there, the better she understood how to get beyond the eastern border; the faster it would mean tearing Ezra apart.

---- ----

Matthew walked away from the carnage without a scratch; if anything, it was a real test to watch the raining debris around him efficiently managing to outmanoeuvred the carnage. The faster he got with pushing his powers, the easier it was to anticipate where he had to go next.

These were the times he loved the crystal, and he loved the powers that came with it; it showed him what he could exceed as a normal human being and what he was capable of given the right situation.

He grinned, turning briefly to the wreckage before him, the rain soaking him down to his bones, and only when the floodlights of the aircraft caught him, it continued to circle the palace, had his communication device begin to pick up the distorted chatter. They were arguing that was very clear, and most likely, it was Jesse at one of the guys.

Speaking Jesse, his mind mused, she was most likely going to throttle him the most from all of this.

Casually walking forwards and out towards a clearing, Matthew again stopped, turning back to stare at everything that was now gone. Realizing that their world was going to be extremely different come morning light.

The Princess is dead.

The Queen is dead.

The civilians were targets, and ninety-five per cent of the servants had been all but killed.

His world had turned so dramatically in a week that he barely recognized what his future would look like, but he knew this was only the beginning. He admitted that was more of a heart-gripping moment of knowledge to accept than anything else that had just happened.

Everything before this was almost the calm before the storm, and everything they were heading into would be the eye of it.

Where it leaves them after this will be the question of what comes after.

What becomes of their life when this is all said and done with?

The blaring light pulled him from his thoughts, watching as the ship landed momentarily and the doors slid open. Matthew turned on his heel and walked away from the palace's destruction and towards the soldiers staring at him.

Toni leaned against the door, and with Jasmine waving beside him, he could see Jesse and Richie in the cockpit, calculating the following coordinates back home.

And Eko, she was beside Jasmine, with that cocky smile of hers that he couldn't get enough of.

Jogging forward, the relentless rain consumed him, and as he boarded the aircraft, the group backed up, and the doors closed behind him instantly.

"Let's go!" Toni barked back along the halls instructing Jesse to take them home.

Matthew grinned at his best friend, winking as he grabbed hold of the railings above him as Jasmine, Toni and Eko had done, and they ascended into the air.

"Jaz, contact Cid." Matthew ordered, "let him know we found the Princess. He will want to perform an autopsy and address the high officials. Ask Jesse also for the reports on any further signs of life. I don't want to leave here if someone still needs help."

"On it." Jasmine acknowledged, heading towards the cockpit with that order.

"Toni, contact Miguel to station some of his best soldiers along the borders near Ezra. I want to know when there is any change or shift. We'll need to be ready for when she strikes again."

His best mate nodded, winked at him, and left the pair alone in the hangar as he moved up front to make some phone calls.

Matthew watched as Eko moved towards the deceased Princess's body and the guards they had found earlier. Toni and Richie had managed to get them aboard to further ID them.

Brushing his wet hair back, he leant against the door, folding his arms, curious over her pensive state.

"You don't think this is it either, do you?" She dared to ask.

"It's only the beginning," a truth he wouldn't admit to many people, but a truth he knew that she understood far more than anyone. "The moment we announce we found the Princess, and she's indeed dead –the anarchy will begin."

"How are we going to stop it?"

Pushing off from the door, Matthew came to her side before crouching down so that he was at eye-to-eye level with her.

"You don't have to do anything. It's not your job to take care of everyone."

Sky blue eyes furrowed at the man, "and it's your job to take care of everyone?"

"Kinda what I signed up for," Matthew smirked, allowing Eko to give him a slight nod; she wasn't ready to argue that point tonight.

"Do you have any guesses on whose heartbeat it was?"

"Perhaps a soldier that survived, maybe a civilian, most likely scavengers, to be quite honest," Matthew offered, "we're not really going to know. They're most likely dead with the last collapse of the palace."

They felt the ship pull forward out of the atmosphere of the moon, and Jasmine appeared back into the hangar.

"We're heading home. There weren't any signals of life."

Turning his head over his shoulder, Matthew nodded to Jasmine, who smiled before disappearing again. It left Eko a moment to study the profile of this man beside her, the water droplets still evident on his tanned skin. She admitted she loved how his shirt clung to every definition and muscle on his body.

The man turned back to Eko, who quickly snapped back to the battered woman's body before her. She didn't need him knowing that she was perving on him at this moment.

"What are you thinking?"

"I suppose. What's going to happen next." Eko offered, moving the conversation along.

"With what part?"

"Seraphina is dead, Matthew," she peered back up at him. "What does that mean, really?"

"War," he acknowledged, "what has happened here won't be tolerated lightly; Ezra has declared the next round of war on us. It was always coming for us. I need to figure out the next best tactical move against her."

"You?" Eko pulled back a fraction with that statement.

"Who else is going to do it?" Matthew scoffed, "it's what we built the academies for at the end of the day."

"Good," he watched her harden with that statement, "good." Eko rose beside him, nodding to herself if anything, as she stared down at the three bodies before her.

Matthew rose from the ground, knowing that look, the same look his soldiers gave him when they were lost on what to do next, lost on what their world looked like.

Eko was the same; right now, she needed time to deal with the grief of a home that she had truly lost and a future that didn't look exactly how anyone thought it would look even a week ago.

Matthew knew from experience that it does things to people, and it will come down to how well she will respond to it, how she will take this in her stride and what she determines to do next with it.

But that's on her. What he needed to do was get the academies into place, mobile and ready for the war that came next.