S C O R P I O N



My head was still heavy. The pain was an annoyance constantly demanding attention I wasn't bothered to give. Who knew how long I had been out for. I let out a slow breath and reached for her across the sheets. They were empty.

My eyes flashed open in the darkened room.

My sigh turned in a groan that turned into a growl.

"Comm link, Makayla." I muttered, rising slowly and feeling my head spin. My feet sunk into the carpet and I took another breath to control it.

"Unavailable." A cheery voice informed me.

"Again." I grit out.

The line went like this many more times as I found the painkillers in the draw.

"Unavailable." She told me again.

"Makayla..." I murmured, shaking my head. I threw two pills in my mouth and went to the bathroom to sink them with water. I slapped my face with the cold refreshing droplets then levelled my eyes ahead at the mirror. Golden irises glared back.

The swelling was all but gone. The medics in this place needed another raise. I cut my jaw to the side and stared at the dark bruising before snorting and pushing back from it. My looks were only ever a weapon to me anyway.

"You have fifteen missed comm requests and a priority video feed." The joyous robot sang. "Personal guard reference numbers–"

"Show me the video link."

The hologram filled the dark room as I sat on the bed slowly taking in a woman in the Crypt. A woman that didn't conceal her face. One that looked calmly up at opponent after opponent as they entered and left either unconscious or broken.

Makayla Xavier. Fought the dirtiest fighters in the outer sectors hand to hand. If I wasn't so damn angry at her I would have appreciated how she held herself. Her training. How she moved. The lethal efficiency in her strikes–it was almost like watching myself fight.

But every time she didn't complete a block or was attacked in any way it set my mind on fire. Every hit and danger to her life was unacceptable. She was everything and these creatures were nothing.

I commed her line again and left a voice message that was far calmer than anything close to what I felt. The video was timed at less than an hour ago. So she was still there.

I watched the holo video for the tenth time doing rounds in the Division's inner circle before I stood up. I strode over to the book shelf. I palmed a sculpture between the books and they slid apart. The cool blue floor lights illuminated everything I needed for a day in Merridian.

I shrugged out of my clothes and slipped into dark combat trousers, a skin tight long sleeve compression top and then a Vanguard. Daggers. Knives. Ammo clips. Fusion pistols.

Then I stared at the blood red crimson. The cloak that said more than needed in these streets. I ripped it off the wall and drew it over my head. The ruler of the Underworld was paying that shit hole a visit and they had better hope to hell no one was laying a hand on Makayla by the time I reached them.

"Get my personal guard–all of them." I told Octavius.

He confirmed quickly and had them assembled by the time I emerged onto the flight bay. Armed to the teeth and quickly coming to attention when the death incarnate cloak came into view. Fists went to chests and I nodded at the fusion craft already humming before us.

"Where do we need to be?" Kartuga probed with a wicked glint in his eye.

"Somewhere that needs reminding of who we are." I stated, striding past with my cloak billowing behind. The others fell into step behind me without a word.

It had been months since we had been together like this and there was a tangible buzz in the craft. I sat up front with the pilot who had started visibly sweating beside me. Every breath that left me made him stiffen. I resisted a smirk as the craft rose from the roof hatch and he punched it forward.

"Would you–like roof access to the Crypt, Scorpion?" He cleared his throat and averted his eyes to the skies in the flight helmet. The falcon was hardly necessary but I was here to make a scene.

"Land it on the road." I ordered simply.

He acknowledged quickly.

"Scorpion!" A female called behind.

I cast a bored look behind at all my guard loading and checking weapons in the cargo hold.

"Are we silent or loud?"

I watched Mackenzie for a moment with a dark smile. "Whatever you see fit. Let's cause a scene."

Appreciative smirks and murmurs filled behind me as I turned back to the pilot who readjusted himself more upright in his seat.

"Relax." I told him, kicking my feat onto the flight panel. "My anger isn't for you tonight."

He nodded curtly and increased our speed in the skies. The towers blurred past us as we crossed miles of city in moments. Our location was near already in the speed of Falcon jet. The altitude dropped quickly and skilfully as the pilot dropped us between buildings and daringly right out onto the street.

People already dashed clear and stared above. Only two powers in the city would dare such a thing. One of them no longer had a leader.

The hatch dropped and my men poured out onto the streets and took formation. I strode down the ramp with red cloak billowing behind and a crowd of onlookers either trying to quickly escape my notice of outright gawk.

I flicked a hand up and the Falcon ramp retreated quickly as he pulled it back into the air. When the fusion thrusters were finally clear and the winds died I strode forward with my guard and they parted for us before the Crypt like a sea. This was about so much more than reminding people who the real power was here and exactly why you didn't cross it.

It was to get that spineless, cartoon-looking motherfucker Hades to realise it too.

Makayla was another matter entirely. But one thing at a time.



* * * * *



"Where is she?" I murmured simply.

The music had been cut out with the snap of my finger and the appearance of my personal guard throwing the crowds out of our path.

The usual bookie stared at me in a mixture of awe and terror.

"Scor–Scorp–such an honour–"

"I don't need to threaten you to tell you you're wasting my time do I?" I interrupted in the same lethal calm, placing my gun on the desk between us.

He shook his hands before me quickly. "If you could just be a touch more specific–"

I lunged forward rapidly and yanked his collar towards me. "Makayla. Xavier. Blonde. Blue eyed woman. Cannot be hard to miss in a festering shit hole like this." I snarled losing the patience I had and watching his fear spike.

My guards shifted beside me and he glanced at them quickly.

"If you think they are intimidating you have your priorities wrong." I told him sweetly.

"She was here. She was–she was winning n causing stirs for the regulars–"

I laughed humourless and released him. "I don't care about the fucking money. Where is she now?" I snarled.

"A craft!" He blurted suddenly, eyes going far away as he watched something. I seized his wrist and infiltrated whatever feed he watched. I watched her walk all of three steps before a craft dropped quickly and Proximo stormed out in a rage and tasered her. I cannot have seen this correctly.

I threw him off me and pulled the gun on his head.

"Verify this feed before I paint your floors a new colour." I said calmly.

He frantically typed into his wrist pulling dates, times, verification and confirming the camera feeds were not false. That my second in command had just shocked Makayla and thrown her into his craft.

"What the fuck is going on–"

A comm link from the man himself made my gun freeze. The bookie still stared at it wide eyed and slowly edged out of my line of sight until he ran for the back.

"Accept." I snarled.

"Scorpion we need a rapid–"

"Who the fuck are you to make demands like this when you attack Makayla–"

"There's no time now!" He shouted back over beating music, panting under the weight of something.

"I should let you face your own bullshit after what you did tonight." I growled.

"Makayla is with me–we need extraction from a rebel stronghold now." He cut in flatly.

My eyes went out of focus for a moment as his words started to make sense. Disappearing. Flat comms. There was only one true reason he would be in that place at all. Finishing the job I had failed to in the first place. That traitorous snake. His sister.

Then the savage protective instinct moved faster. I turned to my guard and snapped a hand to the door. They moved quickly and I was behind them.

"Coordinates."

"Sent."

"Falcon and full personal guard there in 8 minutes." I stated briskly, instantly a leader again.

His surprise was obvious, "–that was efficient."

"Don't even start with me. I almost want to kill you as much as I do Makayla. If something happens to her because of this–"

"I have it under control." He responded in that mad calm.

"I'm not going to ask why the hell you dragged her into this. Keep yourselves alive. Then I'll kill you myself."

"Sounds reasonable." He agreed as if we discussed paint colours. "See you soon–oh and Scorpion?"

"Yes?" I asked, distracted as the Falcon dropped out of the sky again in less than a few seconds and the winds tore around us.

"Dazz is with us. Don't shoot on site."

My hand clenched the gun in my fist.

"Proximo I swear to god–"

The line went dead as whatever madness he had thrown himself and the love of my life into erupted. There had been music. Booming like a Kuzo club. I practically ran up the hatch as the craft started moving again.

"Get us to those coordinates now. I'd make it fast." I uttered down to the pilot as he nodded quickly and set the engines humming.