"We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware – beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one."

― Kent Nerburn



M A K A Y L A



Properly dressed in combat leggings and several degrees of lethality over my hips and arms, I made my way to the mess hall for all of the Division's training grunts.

While Alex and Proximo dealt with the next great threat I wanted to get to know someone with much less power to their name. In body and stature. I scanned the room for him. It was a sea of red and black combat gear, loud conversation and rows of in-training Division 52 agents.

"Oi blondie!"

I tilted my head at the bruised jaw of Dex. A casual smirk graced my lips and I approached his table with my hands on my hips. He set down a fork and gestured across from him. The only free space. I slid into the bench feeling strangely incognito among the Division's ranks.

"I thought Proximo may have killed you by now." I deadpanned.

His grin was wide and he set his hands flat.

"Oh me and Proximo are tight. It's you I was more concerned about..." He snorted. The others returned to their conversations around us uninterested.

"I'm looking for Lee." I answered instead.

He frowned hard and sniffed, "Why?"

I started to get out of the seat. His hand landed on my forearm and I glared at it until he dropped it again with a sigh. "Kid wasn't... adjusting too well. I think some lads have been trying to pressure him out."

I resisted the growl in my throat, "Does Proximo know?"

He grunted and pushed his blonde fringe back from his eyes. "Proximo would call it character building... If he makes it to training tomorrow."

"Where is he?!" I snapped, gaining the attention of several others now. Dex raised an eyebrow before shrugging out of his bench and leaving his food behind. I sighed in frustration.

"I do not need a bodyguard, thank you." I hissed.

"But you need someone who knows where those dickheads hang out. And for someone not here long you sure do have friends in high places..." He drawled, with a smirk. I turned for the exit uninterested in wasting more time. I heard him clamber over the long table and take my side.

"I think you've realised by now that it isn't a good idea to piss me off, Dex."

He nodded easily, flexing his arms in a t-shirt that was a size too small. I snorted thinking about turning a corner and coming face to face with the head and second of the Division like this. He cast me a curious look as we paced through the corridors of the lower ranks.

"Dorms are over this way."

I nodded once and we made our way quickly to the large sleeping rooms of recruits. The doors hissed open. Empty. Row after row of bedding and few personal items in-between. I sighed through my nose.

"What did I say about time wasting?"

"Look–I don't have eyes on every agent in training–" He began.

"But the techies do." I interrupted, thinking ahead.

"I don't have access–"

"Shut up, follow me and don't make eye contact with anyone." I ordered, turning on my heel. He chuckled despite it and kept quiet. "You're going to show me which rooms you all have clearance to."

I stopped before the lift and scanned my wrist. It open quickly and Dex looked around in interest. The many numbers glowed before me and I hit one of the highest floors to the comms and tech floor–one of the highest clearances there was. Dex didn't hide his surprise.

"Who the fuck did you sleep with to get that kind of clearance?" He demanded with a chuckle.

I turned to him quickly and drew one of the many blades from my arm to his neck. His eyes flew wide and the grin disappeared.

"The people on those floors will not be as kind to you as I am. Keep your mouth shut and your thoughts to yourself. Are we clear?" I murmured slowly.

The lift pinged and I retracted the blade as several heavily armoured guards stepped in deep in conversation. Dex shrunk into the corner and I merely returned their nods. I noticed the personal guard uniform on a few along with the weapons. I had to wonder what Scorpion or Proximo required of them.

Our floor arrived and they parted for me with a few fists.

Dex stayed close and wisely kept his head down despite being a head taller than me. Techies now rushed by with nano screens and holograms at every angle. Division central intelligence as it were. I nodded him into a room with a wall of holoscreens.

"Secure room!"

The glass clouded and the lights dimmed.

"So cool." He whispered, before I slapped his head and drew up security feeds.

"Focus. Where would Lee be?" The hologram took form of the floor we had come from at every angle. He pointed out the main hall and the dorms and then several other training facilities. Along with a few bars and tech libraries they had access to.

I flicked through each one, scanning various recruits either waiting for their next task, talking, eating, there–

"Tech library." I confirmed, watching a group of five oversized morons throw Lee's small form around like a toy. His face was already bloody. What was worse was the fact that one of them was dictating something to him with a knife in his hand.

I sighed hard.

"You can go back to your breakfast now."

"Like hell I am. I may not be chummy with the kid but I know when lads need to be brought down a peg or two." He retorted with a hard look. I regarded him, sure he had a good build, strong jaw and a little anger to join the party...

"Tell you what, Dex." I spoke calmly, eyeing the closer they got to breaking Lee in the holo feed. "You help me not only obliterate these men, but dump them in Sector 52 when we're done and I'll get you in Proximo's personal guard training programme."

He nodded with a dark smile and offered me his forearm. I clasped it.

"Sounds like you've got yourself a deal, Makayla." He said low.

When we returned to the lower level I slipped my hand over a dagger and spun it between my fingers. Dex eyed it and shook his head. But before I could tell him exactly how little his opinion meant he spoke.

"If we kill any of them this becomes harder. Believe me none of them know how to really use a blade–we ship them out to 52 and the organ snatchers can handle the rest." He murmured, eyeing my dagger.

I finally conceded with a nod and slipped it into its sheath as we entered the library. They had an impressive collection of first gen paper books as well as holo feeds and data pads. But we ignored most of it pacing down the shelves until the cries of Lee couldn't be mistaken.

"–think this is a fucking holiday camp?" One howled with laughter.

I could smell the alcohol staining the floor now. I grit my teeth as we rounded the corner and made out his prone form. Hands wrapped over his knees tightly. One of them kicked him hard and I lost my restraint.

I moved quickly, kicking the weak point in the first man before dragging him off his feet and landing a boot on his nose harshly. It crunched. The laughter stopped.

Dex was less tactical and more brutal. He threw a fist into the second man's jaw with enough force to send his head into a bookshelf. It broke and scattered books. The other two snarled before one drew his blade on me. I smiled at him sweetly and urged him forward. The next few seconds could have been straight out of my training exercises with Alex. His thoughtless lunges became his undoing. I let his arm swipe a few more time before catching it straight and sending my knee to break.

He howled onto his knees as Dex took two punches to the arms and picked him up by the waist before sending him into the floor and ruthlessly hitting him until the last man stopped moving. He was panting heavily and his hands were covered in blood.

I didn't bother to appraise him more. I dropped to a crouch before Lee and tilted his head up.

"You still alive there?" I smiled ruefully.

One of his eyes was swollen shut and his lip was cut but he swallowed and nodded. He willed some kind of strength into him and got to a stand. Dex came to his side and held his shoulder. Their bodies were miles apart in form but he wasn't too much shorter.

"Four against one didn't seem like such a fair fight–" He turned and kicked one of the groaning men in the head, before dropping to a knee and levelling him. "Want to help us dump them in some crap hole?"

Lee's finally sent the pained expression away and nodded.

"Hell yeah–I do."



* * * * *



When the lift opened with the three of us before the fusion craft hanger we came face to face with Proximo himself.

I ground to a halt and he stood towering before us. His steel eyes scanned Lee's broken face, then Dex's bloody fists and finally... A hover pad usually used for shifting supplies stacked with four semi-conscious recruits.

No one moved a moment.

Then Proximo shrugged and stepped aside.

"Don't leave a mess in the craft." He grunted, before pulling up his wrist holo and resuming his conversation, "–oh and Miss Xavier!"

I spun as the other men took the hover pad away in the direction of an aircraft carrier. Proximo scanned the bodies over my shoulder a moment before meeting my eyes.

"Scorpion wishes you to attend with her to a dressmakers. We have an event to attend in Sector 1 in five days and you must... How did she put it. Look the part." His grinned was wicked as I spluttered out a response.

"Wh–what the hell do you mean Sector 1–Proximo!?" But he was already inside the lift and shutting the doors taking another comm on his holo.

I swore in his general direction before Dex called out behind me.

"Oi blondie! We need clearance!"

"Shut the hell up and get in the damn craft!" I growled back, storming over to the engineer before the recognition hit him and he surrendered, quickly typing into the carrier doors.

One of the heathens came conscious again in the craft hold so Lee took great satisfaction in knocking him the hell out again. The flight was interesting. I had never seen myself being seated with a few Division recruits and a pile of unconscious assholes. But justice was always sweet.

When the fusion carrier finally arrived in Sector 52 the sun was high in the sky and my wrist holo was going off. I stepped away from Dex and Lee as they laughed about how we'd drop them off–and to whom.

"Makayla Xavier." Her smooth voice uttered.

I smiled. "Scorpion. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"Simply curious as to where you've gone with a pile of bodies in a fusion carrier."

"Your engineers are such gossips." I sighed. "I'm returning some trash to Sector 52."

She barked a laugh. "God I couldn't be more attracted to you..."

I stifled a laugh and pressed a hand against the ramp door as we descended to the rooftops of the smog filled outer Sector. It was just as haunting as I remember it being. But I was the one on the other side of the fusion craft now.

"Give me twenty minutes. Then you can help me get into a nice new dress." I drawled, enjoying her slow chuckle in response.

"Seems Proximo is a gossip too. But I like the sound of it." She drawled, "I'll see you soon, Miss Xavier. Don't cause too much trouble in my Sector."

I grinned when the comm died.

Dex had his boot on one of them as we neared the lowest rooftop of a trashed building of metal and plate boarded across it. I strode over to them and grabbed the first man by the collar, dragging him off the hover pad and to the lip of the cargo ramp. The wind whipped across us from the fusion engines and he came to again.

He struggled a moment before I held him over the edge and he stilled with a cry.

"Just wait–for fuck sake–"

"Unfortunately that's not my strong suit." I whispered in his ear, before kicking his back off the edge.

He landed harshly and scrambled on the rooftop looking around. I didn't waste another glance on him. I jutted a thumb to the others and Dex and Lee didn't bother to wake them up before dumping them on the rooftop.

The engines hummed around us.

"Take us back." I said to Dex in a bored tone. He gave me a flashy salute before giving the finger to the men scrambling below the craft and heading for the pilot's chair.

"What–SECTOR IS THIS!" One roared below, whirling around and taking in the vicious buildings and smog. I tilted my head over the lip and shrugged a shoulder. I didn't have the same flare for dramatics that Alex did.

"Guess you'll find out boys!" I called, turning from them as the hatch door sealed behind me.

Lee was staring at me in wonder. I smirked at him before dumping myself in a chair and strapping in for the ride.

"Why did you do that?" He demanded, "You–you don't even know me... and you just handled a bunch of recruits with all that clearance for a nobody–"

"You're not a nobody." I answered, leaning forwards with my forearms on my knees. "You saved Scorpion's life."

"Oh. You heard."

I chuckled leaning back again. I shut my eyes with a small smile.

"Yeah, kid. I heard."