"What is the definition of insanity?" Teddy leaned into his grey armchair lounge, tablet poised with his pen. His thoughts had been interrupted by the man rambling for the past twenty minutes.

"Doing the same thing," Matthew stopped in his tracks with his thought process upon Teddy's question, "over and over and over..."

"and expecting a different result, perhaps?"

The Commander rolls his eyes "that wasn't where I was going with this."

"You were repeating your day in circles. You met with the high officials; Eric attended, the very same Elder that you have quite a bizarre relationship with-"

"-working friendship but continue."

"The same that knows that you hold a crystal with extraordinary powers."

"Did you not hear me just say working friendship, just the same as the friendship I hold with you."

"Psychologists do not hold friendships, Commander."

Matthew smirked, "keep telling yourself that, Teddy."

Teddy resumes in perfect mannerisms, "I believe from your ramblings that there was an hour of Headmaster Cid pacing that got on your nerves."

"He slouches; it's a trait that annoys me. As does the incessant clicking with his tongue." Matthew imitated the man with a bad posture.

"You also mentioned that a year from the funeral, we will see a New Queen or King become elected by the heads of state, thus introduced into power."

Matthew straightened himself in the tiny white and minimalist office that Teddy resides in, watching as the man shook his sandy hair at him before he returned to the tablet jotting down notes from the session.

"Did I mention the funeral is in four days?"

"You have, and I sense hesitation."

Curiously, cocking his head, Matthew studied the man briefly before he took on the habit that his notorious Headmaster had developed and began pacing.

"What hesitation is that?"

"Naturally, as stated from your last session, Cid is more inclined to launch full force at the Eastern borders, he wants the barriers broken, and that can be done with yourself and your team's certain use of skills."

"Killing spree, you can say it, Teddy. Killing. Spree."

"I do not condone that," brown eyes peer up from the tablet, almost ready to scold the soldier, "cause and effect, remember that."

Matthew moved the conversation along, "back to the whole 'hesitation' you picked up on," waving his hand in front of him to elaborate on his point. "We do not know enough. If we let one of them slip away, if Ezra escapes, then we will have a war unlike anything else, and that will be our fault. Cause and effect."

"So, we wait."

"Which is what I recommended; we have waited all these years; what are a few more months of getting our ducks in a row."

"Your issue?" Teddy paused briefly, peering over the oversized black brim glasses that adorned his oval face. Matthew paused from pacing between the simple black leather couch and the coffee table, his mind was indulging in something that he wasn't sharing.

Teddy waited a moment, and with no answer, he returned to the tablet, momentarily allowing Matthew to speak.

"He wasn't having a bar of it. Your mate was going into a fit." That caught Teddy's attention swiftly, raising it to meet Matthew's smirk, who was ready for the scolding.

"Headmaster Cid, Matthew. Use your vocabulary in a professional manner, your education deserves a better testament."

He knew how to push the older man's buttons, folding his arms; Matthew leaned against the cabinet that held Teddy's photographs that he kept dear to him. Black and white frames for the minimalist that Teddy was, a grandson in one photo, and a picture of his parents in another.

Like everyone, they all lost people they loved that day, no one could escape the aftermath he found, everyone he met was affected in one way or another, psychologists included.

"After all the back and forwards, we agreed that we would take a stroll out along the borders, and he would speak to the servants."

"To which it piqued your interest?"

"Naturally," Matthew grinned.

Teddy remarked the man again, his brows furrow knowing why it had.

"Do I truly want to go into this conversation with you?"

"You're the shrink Teddy, not me, as mandated," he shrugged, "you asked about my day, and I tell you during our fun little sessions together."

"Your opinion has been noted, Matthew. I do not need it reiterated every lesson."

Again, he shrugged, and curiously Teddy leaned into the grey armchair.

"Explain the conversation, your session; you've led it here. Evidently, there is something you want to discuss amongst all your ramblings?"

"Not as dumb as he looks, folks." Matthew addressed an invisible room of people around him, which caused Teddy to roll his eyes as he set his pen down on the tablet to entertain whatever it was that Matthew had wanted to express.

The Commander clapped his hands together, "...so."

--- ---

"As requested, if Eko prolongs her stay after the funeral, I will need to arrange living requirements. Eric wants to speak with the gi-"

"-you've already spoken to them." Matthew quickly cut Cid off; the slouching Headmaster stopped abruptly from pacing in the aircraft en route back to base.

Eric, in Matthew's eyesight, grinned. For he like that of the comrades with them today; Toni, Richie, and Jesse all exchanged looks and leers between themselves.

"Yes," Eric agreed, directing the Commander's attention back to him, "however, there are certain aspects of a funeral that I am sure they will want to be incorporated. Certain traditions, nonetheless. Though I do not care for such human ways, I understand that it is important for your culture to have these events to grieve. It would be beneficial for Isadora if certain aspects remained the same."

"Eloquently put," Jesse nodded at Eric, knowing how far the man had come in his notion of human culture. An ambassador for the Elders and a bridge between his kind and theirs.

"Okay," Matthew shook his head with an immediately scrunched face, "why can't you get that information anywhere else."

"Matthew, please do not get involved in this," Cid interjected. He knew explicitly from the reports how much time his second in charge was investing in the dealings of the servants.

And the last thing Cid needed was for Matthew to be preoccupied with such matters. He needed his mind focused on the upcoming debacles with Ezra and her forces.

"I didn't say anything," Matthew quipped at Cid's annoyance, raising his hands as though implying he wasn't doing any such thing.

"You filed the paperwork for her," Cid explained, "which means I need to speak to her about staying. As servants of the crown, there are different matters at hand, even if her skills are the exception to the rule during this war."

Toni nudged Richie, which suppressed his laughter, while Jesse face palmed herself; what was this kid doing?

Matthew stood confidently, smiling brilliantly as he did best when he pulled the adoring mask of the Commander's facade forward. He realised that the five occupants could see his keen interest in her.

"You can blame Jesse." Matthew proposed, pointing to the poised ginger-haired woman across from him, who suddenly was now a deer in headlights.

"W-wait, what?" pointing to herself.

"Yes, you," he cocked his head, "you're the one that kept telling me how good of a fighter she was and would be an asset to the academy. Then you scolded me not to fuck her."

Cid and Eric look at Jesse, her face half fell with a laugh. "That. I. Did." she offered, emphasising each word slowly.

"So, I applied for her registration as you wanted."

---- ----

"You were deflecting," Teddy interjected.

"Deflecting is a word for it, not the one I would have implied."

"-Knowing this would buy you some time with her."

Matthew shrugged with a knowing smile.

"I find it curious that you did not own up to it."

"There's nothing to own up to, Teddy."

"You want to keep your feelings a secret?" Teddy pressed forward, studying the little mannerisms of the man.

Matthew scoffed, "we're playing a delightful little game. What's wrong with that?"

"Why the dating aspects of this generation had certainly evolved to when I had first dated, and nor do I condone the way you ...are promiscuous in the way you take your affairs with such women."

Matthew chuckled at the way Teddy tried to align his words.

"I believe the game you are playing is far different to the one you are used to."

"And what game is that?" He was genuinely curious.

"You play with fire, and you'll be burned by it one day." Teddy offered cryptically.

"Do you want me to finish the story?"

"By all means, this is your session."

---- ----

"Don't go telling people that this was about me," Jesse, in a rage of fit, was now on her feet. Hell hath no fury like that of the red-haired before him.

"You have ulterior motives here. This whole thing is just another way for her to stay longer so you can fuck her!"

"Leave!" Cid commanded upon the petty arguing, "go. For the love of-"

"-what ulterior motives could I possibly have Jess-"

"Jesse, Matthew!" Cid's voice grew louder between the two arguing soldiers.

"Your ulterior motive is to get into that poor girl's pants to satisfy your fucked up needs. You need to be neutered like a dog!"

"Neutered!" Matthew howled, "Jesseeeee!"

"You think this is funny!" her fist struck him in the shoulder, forcing Matthew to burst into hysterical laughter.

Toni and Richie eventually followed suit in their howls of uncontrolled laughter, forcing Eric to shake his head at the children's antics, amusing regardless as it was to him.

"Jesse! Matthew!" Cid roared again, snapping their attention to him. The elder man now exhaled in frustration, and his tongue clicking at the root of his mouth was evidence of his wearing patience.

"How many times do I need to tell you lot to control your manners and your incessant foul mouths!"

His temper forces the soldiers on the aircraft to turn to their Headmaster.

"Jezzz," Jesse steps back on her heel, eyebrows furrowing at being scolded like that, "relax." Her powers pulled, and a spark of holy light surrounded her, taking her away from the company before her.

"Likewise," Matthew was just as annoyed as the red-haired had been, "you'll give yourself a heart attack. Toni. Richie."

Nodding in that command, with a snap of power, he disappeared, following Jesse to the outskirts of the Eastern region where Ezra had kept her forces.

-— ——

"Morale of this story?"

Taking a seat on the lounge now, he comfortably leaned back into it, arms spread across the back of the lounge, grinning at the man that was waiting for the whole point of this.

"Besides Cid's rather skittish behaviour, which I've placed on a high-priority watch list, absolutely nothing Teddy, but it completes my bullshit thirty minutes with you."

"Hmmm," he returned to his tablet, jotting down notes.

"Well, as always, our talks are thrilling and inspirational, to say the least. Loads to think about."

"Deflecting nonetheless."

"What could I possibly be deflecting this time? Sure Eko, is one thing, but this?"

"That is a perfect question to explore." Teddy humoured, looking back to the Commander in his black t-shirt nonchalantly as he did. His hands in his pockets, waiting plainly for an explanation, "let me leave you with something for your week ahead."

"Go for it; I know you love your little pep talks."

"While you are very open about vulnerable topics, is that the very same as being vulnerable?"

"Tomayto, tomahto," the man shrugged.

Teddy sat forward, tablet neatly on his lap, his leg draping across his knee as he studied the Commander "some people use a certain type of honesty as a weapon of distraction. Some people talk very openly and honestly about sex for an instant so that you feel as though the person is being open with you when, actually, they're completely hiding themselves by doing it."

"Some people the operative word here."

"They're distracting you from a completely different side of them, which is the side that is traumatised and in pain. I think being honest to a 'T' about one aspect of your life, can give an illusion that you are confiding in somebody. You're using it to be dishonest; you're using it to hide."

Matthew crossed his arms "what could I possibly be hiding, Teddy? I'm an open book here."

"That is something you need to ask yourself," the authoritative tone is replaced from his philosophical one, "I am only here to ask the questions and to listen."

"You're a pain in my ass."

Teddy smiled, "same time next week; bring your mannerisms with you next time. I grow tiresome of your foul mouth as well."

Smirking, Matthew nodded to the man, and with that, he made his exit from the monochrome room. There were places to be that he needed to disappear away to, places that called for the warrior he was. Looking both ways briefly, with the coast clear, he vanished from the academy, an itch for the blood of the monsters that roam his lands.

VOTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE or someone dies..