Eko fell back to sleep for a few more hours in the luxurious bed of the Commanders, which reminded her too much of what a real bed was meant to feel like.

The brunette knew by midday that most of the soldiers would either be in class or at training, which meant the chances of getting caught were incredibly low, and her most opportune moment to leave would be now.

Escaping unnoticed from the senior dormitory levels, she placed her palm over the control panel, allowing the elevator to meet her on her level; doors slid open with a soft swoosh, and she stepped inside, allowing them to close behind her.

With no one around, her powers took her from the academy and out onto the Isadorian lands to destroy any creatures, beasts, and monsters she could find to her heart's content.

No one would notice her missing during this interim, and if she were lucky, she wouldn't run into the asshole of the other crystal warriors that she despised as much as she had of Ezra.

---- ----

A little after two in the afternoon, Eko finally returned to the infirmary where everyone had been held up. Looking forward desperately to a shower, there were only so much blood, gore, and guts she could wash off herself at a nearby lake she found, barely smelling like a decent human being, knowing it would have to do until she returned.

With her head down, Eko managed to creep into her room; unaware of her surroundings, her cousin had suddenly accosted her. The same raven-haired woman that was arm crossed, tapping her foot, and highly, highly annoyed at her.

"Where in god's name have you been since last night?" Eyeing the woman up and down before stepping forward and sniffing her, "you smell absolutely abhorrent!"

"Training." Eko barely offered, wanting to step past her, only to be blocked.

"We were meant to leave this morning!"

Eko was wide-eyed, having completely forgotten what Madison had said last night. No, those memories were washed away with the heightened sound of the peak of pleasure, and the night she held with him.

Then the fragments were ridden altogether when she stood staring at the mid-afternoon sun and the Eastern Border. She contemplated the scale of the probability of what it would take to finally break through Ezra's barrier, storm the continent, and obliterate them all.

While she doesn't care for the consequences that might just come from that reaction, it would finally bring this war to its heel on her say so and not anyone else's.

The only problem, as it always had been these past fifteen years, was penetrating that barrier and anticipating what she was walking into, knowing Ezra's long, destructive history.

"How am I meant to get us to safety if you will not listen to reason!"

Ignoring the back chatter, Eko brushed past Madison, heading to the drawer where spare underwear and another laundered training outfit were.

The brunette shuffled the clothing to the side when she found her size; grabbing what she needed, Eko attempted to make her way to the communal bathrooms adjacent to their rooms, and Madison once again stepped in her way from leaving.

"Tonight," she gestured. "I will not ask this of you again. I have a security pass that I took from one of the younger cadets, it is still active, but I won't know for how much longer. They disable ones quite quickly once they are missing."

"Mads-" Eko was mortified at the lengths she had gone to.

"When everyone is asleep, we will depart. Mein will be a journey, but we will get there."

"Mad's were not." Eko began, "look, I've thought about it, and look, this will be hard to understand, but I'm done."

"Done?" Madison's voice heightened, "what exactly are you referring to? Done-"'

"-done." Eko pressed again, "with returning to the throne. Done with being a Princess or the Queen. I am done with a life that dictates what I need to be rather than what I want to be."

"You do not get to be done!" Madison hissed, "this is absurd! Preposterous!"

"Preposterous or not, it does not change the fact of the matter." Eko offered shortly, trying to step past her cousin again. Madison, this time, grabbed her wrist, forcing her to stand before her.

"No." Her cousin's tone instantly changed to that of a command Eko noticed. "We've discussed and agreed that you would remain hidden here only until we saw fit to continue moving. Now for some reason that I cannot fathom, you decide to allow these people to believe that Sophie was you!"

"Shut. Up!" Eko mouthed, looking around the empty room, hoping that no one was hiding or eavesdropping from the hallways.

"You will not be using the high officials as a diversion as you stay here in this barbaric place at the front of a war!"

"I do not want to go back. We have a year at least; the throne isn't going anywhere!" Eko's voice peaked as her anger took control, taking her wrist back from her cousin. "Now let me God damn well shower!"

"This conversation isn't over!" Madison roared. This time Eko was met with the raven-haired woman that turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, disappearing to wherever she took off during the day when she was in training.

Eko exhaled once more; she did not have the brain capacity to deal with this, not when she needed a simple shower and a few more hours of sleep.

---- ----

Lights fluttered around her, and Eko found herself mindlessly void of anything after her shower. Her nap was exactly what she needed, and with it drawing to the late evening, now would be the best time to search for Madison, now that she was in a better frame of mind to take on her cousin and her insanities.

Turning down another hallway that took her into the main academy, she instantly knocked into another body that had mindlessly been looking around for someone, and that someone seemed to be the direct person in front of him.

"Eric!" Eko gasped; his arms had grasped her shoulders before she had fallen to the ground. Bright blue eyes were staring warmly at the taller, broader man that seemed as elated as she had been to see her.

"Your highn-"

"SH!!" Eko jumped forward along the deserted hallways grasping her hand over the Elder's mouth.

"No, no, no," she repeated frantically, "no, no, no."

He squinted and then nodded obligingly at her command, to which she released her hand from his mouth, thus allowing him to speak.

"That solves that question."

Eko cocked her head, sky blue narrowed suspiciously, "and what question was that?"

"Not only have I had the pleasant and rather unfortunate conversation with your cousin."

"Ah, I imagine what Madison would have said," she scoffed.

"As I explained to her, your hig-"

"Eko," she educated him with a rise of her chin to indicate the identity she wished to go by, and again the Elder nodded.

"As I explained to your cousin. I assisted the doctors here at the academy with the autopsy of a certain someone, and I found it highly curious that the deceased had been wearing the enchantment ring I made. Sophie's specific one."

"I can take this two ways, Eric," stepping back, she leered at him. "You have betrayed the secret I set into place, and this current academy is searching for the Princess, namely me. Or, which, if you wish to have your body parts remain intact, you covered for me?"

The Elder smiled at her tenacity for violence. "I figured this was something you may have planned, considering you were the one that came back with the soldiers last night. Eko is a very clever alias; there are not that many know that the Princess's middle name is Ekovanelina."

"Only two now that everyone is dead." Eko nodded, "I would prefer if we kept it like that."

"Your secret will die with me if that is your choosing. As always, I am at your service."

"Good! Now Eric, a question for yourself." Eko straightened herself, calmer in her response to him, "will the enhancement fade with Sophie no longer being alive?"

He shook his head, "only if the ring is removed. She will be buried with your mother four days from now."

"The date is set then. Is that why you are here?"

"Yes, I sought yourselves out to ask simply of funeral directions. I am sure you would want your mother to be buried with certain customs."

"I am sure Madison has given you all of that."

Again, Eric nodded, allowing Eko to linger in her feelings, if only for that moment. A funeral was going to take place, where she said goodbye to her mother, friends, and a life she was leaving behind.

All she loved was now lost, and the only way forward was to end the woman who came after her, not as the Princess and not as their future Queen.

But as the fierce, cunning mother fucking warrior that she was known to be.

"What will you do next?" Eric knew more was to be done now that Eko chose to be free from her titles.

"I'm going to kill her." Eko answered, determined if nothing else. "I will make her suffer, beyond words, beyond reason."

"That I understand." Eric offered, "what I do not know is what are you doing here in the interim?"

"Regrouping." Eko peered up at the Elder with sharper eyes than usual. "I will wait out the funeral, fit in with the soldiers. Eventually, they will strike her down, and when the opportune time comes, I will slit her throat."

"And what of the throne?"

"What of it?" Eko's voice dropped when she watched the soldiers make their way along the halls in the distance.

"Do not be daft with me."

Her stare turned from the soldiers to the Elder, "I'm out."

"And Madison?"

"Taking a bit of time to come to grips with the reality of that decision."

"Sera-"

"-Eko," she sternly cut him off, arms folded, and her resolve set. "I am done. I am out. I will protect Isadora in other forms, not by sitting on a throne protected behind the palace's walls."

"As Queen-"

"-I. Do. Not. Care," she pronounced each word more harshly than Eric had ever heard. "There are more important things in this world than that fucken throne. When I am finished burying my mother, I will put Ezra into the ground and figure out what my life looks like from there. That's my story; that's how I want this to go."

Eric, without further rebuttal, nodded to his Queen.

"There is nothing else that can be said, it seems."

"No, Eric, there isn't. Please do not get involved in this decision. When I say, I am done. It means I am done."

"It will be hard to return to the throne once the year has passed. If you change your mind."

Sky blue took in the Elder's grey, and she nodded, "I have thought about this for far too long for it to be a snap decision."

"If I know anything about you, Eko," the Elder nodded on his fond memories, having known her since she was a little girl. "You do not do anything lightly without cause and reason. You never have in all your years."

Eko smiled softly, "you have been a dear friend to me, a confidant when I needed it the most after my father and brother died. I appreciate the concern from the bottom of my heart, but this is what I want. It is what I need. I know what I am doing; I have trained for this."

"It grieves me, Eko; it truly does. Alas, I will not speak a word as long as you promise me to remain one step ahead of this game you are playing. Do not take any actions that are not necessary."

"When have you known me not to?" And with the approaching soldiers, she nodded courteously to Eric. She stepped on her heel and left him to his thoughts, grey eyes watching as the masquerading Queen-to-be undoubtedly marched forward to track down a particular cousin of hers.

--- ---

Eko, on a newfound mission, continued on her way; one thought had now been put to rest with the aid of the Elder. No one will ever know the truth that she had not died that day.

No one will ever be the wiser that their future Queen stood with them on the front of the battle lines, doing more for her worlds than anything else she could have done from the throne.

After all, that was the vital part of all of this; she needed to be where she was now. Something in her bones told her that her destiny lay there at the academy, and being there with Madison, if she saw reason, would mean that Ezra wouldn't be able to get her mangy paws on anyone else she loved in this world.

Allegiant was far too protected; she learnt that the most of all of this.

Turning the last corner that would take her into the main halls, to her relief, there her cousin had been, stalking towards her.

Eyes locked with Madison's own, and only then, staring at one of the last remaining pieces of her family that she held, did an unfathomable fear consume her. It forced Eko to stop in her tracks.

Madison knew the look too well; she knew the way that her cousin tightened her fists that she was drowning in unease, and without caution, Madison approached her.

Arms wrapped their way onto Eko's shoulders, holding her tight to her body. "The funeral is in four days," the softest whisper began.

"I know," Eko offered, clutching Madison, knowing that she needed comfort far more than she had that afternoon. She knew how terrified she had been, how her arms shook, how her nails dug into her shoulders, almost clutching her for dear life.

"Breathe." Eko cooed, "right now, please, let us get past the funeral. We will figure out what we need to do next."

"I can't lose you as well."

"Oh..." Eko smiled, lighter with her trepidation, knowing Madison's walls were breaking. "I know. Hey, I know. I'm not going anywhere, okay? We're safe, and I'll keep us safe."

"I can't lose anyone else," the raven-haired wept into the younger girl's shoulder, forcing her to tighten her grasp around her cousin. She understood how fast she was breaking, at what the world was doing to her.

Madison was built entirely differently from her; she wasn't as resilient, she didn't trust easily, and she couldn't come back from the brokenness in the way Eko was trying to rebuild herself from.

"Come," Eko offered again, "let's get back to the infirmary. Okay, we can just talk. There's a lot to discuss with the funeral for Mama."

"O-okay," Madison sniffled, "okay," allowing her body to be led back to the only safe haven in her life now.

With her cousin by her side, even if fear was eating into her bones and ripping apart her sanity. It truly had been destroying the prospect of a future she thought they might all of had once upon a time.

Eko knew she had to be the strong one at that point; Madison couldn't ever know how terrified she had been feeling as well. No one could.

Can we just vote so I don't have to threaten anyone for at least two chapters?