S C O R P I O N 

I couldn't find her anywhere.

When the sun started dropping below the sky towers I knew she wasn't on our base. I tried her line for the tenth time and the comm came up flat.

Let me handle this my way.

Was her way making me want to rip up every inch of this city to make sure she was safe? I sighed through my nose and took a falcon jet myself. The engines hummed as the thrusters came alive and the roof hatch opened.

"Makayla. Just tell me where you are." I spoke into the comm as it left it on her own. "I know you have... mixed feelings about who sits on that throne since your father. But I need to talk to you about something more important."

I left it like that. There was nothing else to say. I needed to say it to her face.

I commed my inner circle and put out a discreet search for her. Several confirmed the message and it didn't take long for a reply to come from my second himself.

"Artella knows where she is."

I gripped the stick a little tighter and dropped the engine speed.

"How would he know that?"

"Because he's getting blind drunk with her."

I swore loudly. Rapidly typing back into the wrist holo. I didn't even need to know more than that I just had the smallest relief someone as lethal as Artella Maxim was with her. At least contractors were loyal to their pay checks.

"Where?"

"Crypt. Enjoy."

"You and I need to discuss our communication later." I responded, spinning the wheel and punching the thrusters. It forced me back into my seat as the jet sailed through miles of city towers and buildings.

"Scorpion. It is because we don't talk a lot that we are so effective."

I ignored the message and sent the falcon faster through the skies. The sector came in fast and I dropped from the clouds pulling it sharply around and lowering the altitude. It sent a number of fusion crafts darting from my path. A military grade craft like this would just knock them out the sky either way.

It hit the rooftop of a nearby building heavily. I jumped from ramp before it started securing itself behind me and drew my gun from my hip. I shot the rooftop door lock. The door groaned open and I flung myself over the edge of the railing. Four, five, six floors dropped before I activated the boot thrusters and landed in a crouch.

A drunk stared at me from the floor.

I sheathed my gun and drew my hood over my face. He flinched back as I passed and kicked the entrance doors open. Thick and smokey air in 48 slapped my face. The bystanders didn't fail to notice the cloak. I walked through crowds like I burned. They folded away.

The last word of Hades already doing rounds in gossip and news. Dead at the hands of the Division. Another failed leader. They knew a real one when they saw her.

The Crypt was still a festering shit hole.

But I rarely went dressed as myself. The doors were already open to me before I had crossed the street. Bouncers communicating to those within. I ignored a bar tender trying to offer me a drink and shoved anyone from my path that got too close.

Proximo didn't think it was worth mentioning that his... whatever he was–had chosen this night to take Makayla off base and drink for god knew how long.

My eyes landed on them.

Makayla pinning her forearms on the table with a lazy grin and a pile of empty junak bottles between them. I was caught for a moment between the crowds. Her face was totally relaxed before him. Nothing to the glare and something darker that burned in that room when she left me with the Empress.

The music beat around me as I made my decision.

Dropping my hood I flicked over the bar tender I had dismissed before. He rushed to my side with a fresh bottle of much better booze and I took it with a nod. Dodging a few patrons before I dumped it on their table.

She reacted slow and turned that grin towards me before she saw my face and it darkened.

"Where is the Empress?" She said over the music with a small slur.

I ignored her and took a seat beside her. Artella offered me a fresh glass and I shook my head. He shrugged with a grunt and sunk it himself. Makayla shoved my shoulder with a glare.

"I told you I would handle this myself!"

I threw her a flat look. "And you can carry on drinking yourself into oblivion tonight. While I make sure you don't end up in the wrong place."

"I have Art with me." She argued, pulling her glass forward and taking a deep drink with a wince. I hadn't seen her this gone since the first time she had stepped outside Sector 10. "So you can go and find that Empress and discuss your mutual–undying love for power with each other." She giggled making my body flash hot with anger.

"I'm not going to bother having this discussion when you're this wasted, Makayla." I spoke slowly, willing the cool calm back into me.

"You see what I mean?" She grinned at Art. "They have so much in common."

I tapped the table with my fingers and flexed my jaw.

"Hardly. That Empress wears white." He smirked, refilling his glass. A contractor had no real obligation not to piss me off either way. I knew he always spoke his mind. "Your leader... Favours a bit of red." He said noting my cloak.

"Do you think she's attractive?" She blurted, leaning forward to watch Art with serious expression. I stiffened beside her but she was too drunk to take notice.

Art gave her an emotionless look.

"I don't find women attractive, Makayla."

They both started laughing. That was until those blue eyes turned to me and she propped her hand against her cheek. "What about you Scorpion? Do you find her attractive?"

I watched her back steadily.

The look she gave me tried to paint herself as amused but I could see beneath it. So I pulled her glass off her and set it on the table.

"I think the pain of your father's demise is coming back to you because of her and you are using me as a way to express it." I growled, releasing her hand.

"You can't even answer." She laughed humourlessly before picking up the glass again and downing the rest.

I told myself these biting words didn't matter. I could handle Makayla Xavier at her worst and then some. I couldn't handle leaving her here and not knowing she was safe.

"You can hurl as many insults as you like, Makayla. I'm not leaving until you're on a jet."

This answer seemed to disappoint her. She turned back to Art with a slow smirk.

"So no women?"

"Absolutely not."

"Don't you want to try?"

I growled under my breath but she ignored me. 

"Don't tell me there isn't something about a woman that you find... interesting."

Art did consider this as he rolled a cube of ice in his drink.

"They are too soft for my taste."

"I've been told I was soft too." She answered with a giggle. I pinched the bridge of my nose and wanted to put a fusion round through that bottle between them. "Proximo isn't soft." She added taking a slow sip from a glass he refilled.

The calculation in his eyes had vanished and the booze had made him less careful. He smiled wistfully and nodded. "Proximo is many things. Most of which you won't see." He said toasting her glass.

"It's funny how the people we love seem to become different people around us."

I stared at Makayla openly now. She twisted her lips and leant back in her chair casting me a casual look. "She told me she would give up the title for me... I'm not so sure anymore."

Art stilled on the other side of the table as I gripped it tight enough to break through the other side. 

"If you've got something to say. You can go ahead." I stated slowly.

She nodded sinking the rest of the glass and levelling me with an unsteady expression.

"I want you Scorpion... To leave me and my drink and this hired gun alone." She stated with no slur in a voice anymore. No flicker of emotion as her sharp words hit me again straight to the chest. Ones a Vanguard couldn't stop.

"No."

"I'm serious–"

"I'm telling you no–"

"Fucking–GO!" She shouted throwing her hands at my chest this time. I caught one before she ripped her hand back and slapped me across the face. I stared at her for a breath as she slowly started to recognise her actions.

Then I let her go and stood from the table.

"Alex!"

I was already steps away through the crowd when her voice hit my back. She wanted to be alone. Fine. She wanted to attack me for coming to her that was fine. But not when I was going to tell her what I was prepared to do tonight. That I was one conversation away from giving the title of Scorpion away entirely just to get the Empress out of our lives.

She could go to god damn hell.

I shrugged my hood back over my eyes and walked through the exit as the ruler of the Underworld should. As someone powerful and respected should.

I was faster getting to the jet this time. I wanted no chance of anyone stopping me. I slipped into the pilot chair and pushed the thrusters harshly driving the jet clear into the sky. The night was around me already and I flew past sky towers and smaller crafts, bolting for the higher edge of the atmosphere.

Further. Faster it shot through the clouds and into the darkest part of the night. Higher and higher away from the millions of lights below.

Until I could finally see the stars above.

The moonlight in all its stark glory. I levelled the ship when it warned me I was nearing the edge of the upper atmosphere. Here even the comm lines died. Here I finally had some silence.

I left the jet on autopilot flying aimlessly above Merridian and turned out the chair to go for the supply cupboard. I gripped a hand around the amber colour bottle. Proximo always had good taste and a backup supply whenever and where ever. I silently saluted him for this. Tore the cork off and slipped back into the chair kicking my feet up on the dash.

A million stars glowed above and below me.

Two views of endless space. One with so much pain and trouble and another with endless promise. I drank deeply and stared above. The clouds moved slowly beneath my height as the jet sailed high above.

I had no direction in mind.

As long as it kept me up here and lasted long enough to consume the contents of this whiskey.