A L E X

We were far from perfect. But this was better than being sectors apart with no communication. I mostly remained silent while Makayla probed Proximo's personal life and Artella diverted them around in circles.

But she sent me looks I recognised. Silent answers that held more warmth in them than the ice cold blue I had seen in the Crypt not so long ago. I never wanted to see it in her again.

I was seeing a distant future again. Us on another continent far from Merridian's clutches and ever present claws dragging us deeper into the Underworld. One in the far south. Where you were cloaked in warmth and the food was sweeter. Where sky rainforests existed and vertical farming had long ago been mastered. The air must be so pure–

Suddenly those blue eyes landed on my own as she actively ignored what my second said.

Makayla minutely angled her head outside and I was on my feet before she even had to speak.

"We'll see you back at base." I stated, flatly looking down at Artella. He smiled slowly and rose with the dramatic sweep of his hand.

"An honour... Scorpion." He drawled, allowing space for me to exit.

I walked past him and didn't bother to meet Proximo's smirk as I strode for the doors. A few patrons stumbled back from my path and a mug clattered to the floor as I seized the door in a glove and held it. Waiting.

She murmured something to them both and Proximo clasped her forearm before she turned to face me. I kept my face calm but my pulse jumped my entire body like a live wire. Her walk was steady and her eyes were ahead as she passed through the open door. The sweet fragrance of her highly plaited hair slapped me in the face. 

I blinked and let the door close behind us.

The dusty orange streets opened up beyond. She glanced on high above at the many rusted homes stacked on top of each other. I followed her gaze as the shards of midday ran through in multiple streams of golden light.

"I want to see yours." She blurted.

I snapped my eyes back down. She still turned in place taking in every metal plate and window and doorway.

"It's... probably gone or occupied." I murmured, watching her closely.

She finally met my eyes and shrugged, "So take me there."

I frowned.

"Makayla... it's nothing–it's like these." I gestured around us blandly, "–there's nothing to see."

"I disagree." She answered, unbothered. "Lead the way."

I clenched my fingers briefly. I worked so hard to build a new identity. To escape this rusted hell–now she wanted to see every ugly crack and forgotten shell left behind. Makayla walked through Imperial towers and pure luxury. In comparison this made me... pale in comparison. I had met her as a queen with a keep and guard to match–this was not the image I wanted her to hold of my past.

"Alex."

I flinched and realised my hands were tight at my sides. She slid her hands off the railing and approached me slowly. I avoided her eyes and stared at the blades on her arms instead. 

"There's nothing you can show me that will scare me anymore." She murmured, stopping a foot away. I let out a humourless laugh.

"I know that. It's just... not worth seeing." I exhaled, meeting her gaze.

"I don't care if it's a hole in the ground. It's your past and I want it." She answered without pausing, taking my hand and threading her fingers through my own. I hadn't felt such complete warmth since I was back in the med bay. I tightened our fingers and dropped her a nod.

"Don't expect a sky tower."

She smirked, "You really think it matters to me? I chose to love the ruler of the Underworld. I think I can stand to see it."

I pulled her hand close to my side if only to feel that heat drift into my bones as I walked us through a familiar path burned into my memories. I kept so much of it far away. The broken family. The violent beginnings. The death I dealt to my own far too young.

A few burning barrels lit the shadows more as we ventured deeper into the mazes of misshaped homes. Many of the thin metal stairs were broken in places but they held well enough. Most of the workers here were constructors. They welded repairs in their sleep. But I had no issue pulling her closer or taking her weight entirely to dodge a missing step on the way. I felt her eyes on me as I set her down for the third time and was dying to meet them. But that wouldn't be giving her respectful space. That was taking steps too fast and I wasn't about to risk falling so far from her again.

We climbed higher as the minutes passed and Makayla often paused just to take in the sprawling vast circle of metal homes stacked perilously close to each other to form this mega structure.

When we finally arrived on the level I used to climb every day I stopped and checked back. She stood close, scanning the distance back to the smoky neon sign of the cafe below. I had to wonder if Proximo and Artella had bothered to leave.

"This is really something." She breathed, staring at the new colours that painted the place more starkly in the midday light.

"Sure. If you like poorly built stairways and death."

She scowled at me and nodded across the vast circle of metals beyond. You could just about make out the other side though the smog.

"It has its own beauty. Those rugs are individuals–personalities." She answered staring at the faded colours over windows.

"Those aren't rugs." I drawled, "But I get what you mean, Miss Xavier."

She frowned more.

"I never would have seen this if I didn't meet you."

"Is that such a bad thing..." I muttered, not waiting for her answer and turning down the worn walkway. "Come on, it's not far."

She didn't argue my point but I saw the stubborn set of her jaw before I turned. Perhaps I would finally get to hear everything she had wanted to say to me. I would be ready. She was already getting a front row seat to the darkest, most grim part of my life so what's a few more pointed words with the rest...

I stopped unceremoniously before the haphazard structure.

I wouldn't give this piece of faded metal I once knew as home any ceremony. It had deserved none then and it deserved none now.

"This. Was home." I said flatly, flicking a hand forward at the slumping plates of metal forming a door and two windows between identical homes above and below. "May we leave now?"

Makayla ignored my words and trailed up to it carefully as if it were alive. I held my tongue and shifted my weight onto my other foot. I should have Proximo clear the building and level it with a Falcon jet. Then it would at least have a glorious end for its shitty existence.

"This is where you grew up?" She probed, turning back for confirmation.

I gave a stiff nod and buried my hands in my pockets scanning the walkways for threats. For once I hoped a rogue gang would attack so I would have something else to do.

But of course Xavier took great interest and stepped forward to scan the abandoned windows. She brushed a hand against the coarse, torn red fabric that had survived all this time.

It was the same colour as my cloak once.

She didn't fail to notice.

Her fingers ran across it attentively as she scanned the material and glanced back at my cloak.

"You've always worn a piece of you."

I stilled and stared at her, realising the way her words sliced into the meaning behind it so simply. I didn't have an answer for her but she didn't want one. Instead she placed a palm slowly against the metal door and looked back to me.

"May I?"

I stared at her hand and finally lifted my shoulders, "No one else will stop you."

"Just... tell me it's alright." She insisted with a serious look.

I cracked a smile and shook my head. "Makayla Xavier, asking me permission to do something. I truly have seen it all." She still waited despite my jest, so I rolled my eyes and gestured a hand forward. "By all means. See it all."

The door didn't budge.

She frowned and attempted to push it a little harsher whilst still being comically respectful of the crap heap. I sighed and took her shoulders drawing her behind me.

I drew my gun and shot both hinges.

It groaned before falling back with a heavy clang and puff of rusty dust. 

"I was trying to be careful." She grumbled behind me.

"You can't damage what's already trash." I stated indifferently.

I lit my wrist holo and the space within glowed to blue life under it. This place would not even be a target for scavengers so it was still... Just as I had left it. No glass crunched. No discarded pieces of valuables or anything else littered the floor because there was none of that in the first place.

Yet that did not stop Makayla from being fascinated.

To me there was nothing other than disappointing four walls. A simple bed. A washroom separated only by a curtain and... a chest. She appraised the dark sheets coated in dust first. Then the bed stand beside it. The carvings into the metal box. A tally of days and weeks. A broken holo frame that once held images of destinations in Merridian I was told I would never visit.

I kicked a torn pillow away from a seam in the floor. Makayla watched me crouch and pull up a square of metal that could have been easily missed.

I shone my wrist light into it and an old metal box shone back. Of course it survived. Why did I expect anything less? You couldn't rely on scavengers to do decent jobs anymore... Not when it all looked like this.

"Don't worry. It's not my family remains." I said dryly.

"Alex." She hissed, despite it. 

I smirked, jamming my knife into the lock and popping it open. A ring made of a metal that scarcely existed now gleamed back. I pulled it out with the thin rope it was attached to. She sucked in a breath looking at the faded gold shine I drew against my palm.

"Is that–is that what my dress..."

"Yes." I confirmed, staring at the gleaming thing. "It's gold."

"Why would you leave this behind?" She whispered, crouching beside me and staring into my palm. I watched it with her until I closed my fingers around it and met her eyes.

"Because the owner was the only one in the family that did not turn into a monster. I decided it should stay with her." I shrugged with an emotionless look. "Better than around my neck."

"Alex, I'm not going to tell you what you are right now..." She said in a low voice, dropping her hand on top of my own. "But what I will do is take that with me if you don't."

"You're stealing from my dead family?"

"You are–" She cut herself off entirely at my lazy smile and ripped the ring necklace from my hand. "If you won't save yourself I guess I'm going to." She growled.

I watched her tuck it carefully into her front pocket before shooting me a harsh glare.

"What?" I asked, innocently. "We both know you suit gold..."

"I'm not–I'm keeping this until we unpack some things. I'm not letting you leave what might be the last piece of your family in this hole."

"Well that was rude." I quipped.

"I meant that hole in the floor, Alex." I scoffed. 

I kicked the metal floor plate back into place and set my hands on my hips looking around me in disgust. "God, I want to level this place..."

"I know your past wasn't good here. But it makes you–you. Please don't destroy that." She spoke softly. 

I turned to her slowly and walked forward until I could hear the slight intake of her breath at my proximity. I placed my finger directly onto the pocket over her heart with the ring.

"Are you sure you want to keep that so close to your heart?" I murmured, staring intently into the shadows of her eyes between us.

Unblinking she drew it out of her pocket and let it catch the blue light for a moment. It swayed in her grip like a hypnotising piece of forgotten me. Then she drew it over her neck and tucked it beneath her armour. I stared at the dark cord around her neck before she turned around and left the dark room.

Yes. Yes she wants to keep it.