P R O X I M O



I saw so much of us between a matter of seconds on a ballroom floor on the hundredth floor of a sky tower. Art stared up at me with a mixture of surprise and amusement. The rest of the chaos around us was muted.



"Come now, little second can't we be civil?" He drawled against the dingy bar.

It was one for Lazuras' guards not arrogant contractors. It was also blown to shit with bodies littering the floor and half of it falling apart but that was just a minor detail. It always was when we were involved. Chaos to each other.

"Why is it that you keep getting in the way of my work?" I growled, setting down the broken glass and drawing my gun onto the table with a slap.

"Some men overcompensate with their weapons. I don't think you do–"

I drew it and pressed the barrel to his head. His grin was insane.

"You like games? Here's one." I murmured.

Some of the roof collapsed near us and I flinched. It was all the time he needed to slap my gun aside and force it from my grip to turn on my own head.

"I like challenges. You are one." He answered without missing a beat.

We watched each other over the barrel before I sighed and went for my drink. I took a sip under his aim and he snorted, lowering it.

"Work with me."

"No."

"You might like it."

"No."

"What makes Lazuras so desirable?"

"Clearly the lumps of fat he calls his ass." I retorted dryly. His smile forced one from me. He shouldn't smile like that. I tore my eyes off his jaw.

"Work with me." He repeated.

"No." I stated, sounding more like I was trying to convince myself.

"The credits are good."

"I don't want your credits!" I spat.

"What do you want, Proximo Dartega?"

I watched him under my drink. I want nothing from you. I don't want your smile. That dark stare. I don't want you dragging me from the rubble and offering me promotions on a platter. I don't want to question myself and work. I don't want to think about you–

"I want nothing from you, Artella Maxim."

"I like it when you say my name."

I choked on my drink and he rose from the chair turning his back on me. The heat that flashed me was from the flames, nothing else. He started whistling an off tune song as he kicked a burning chair out of his path. I stared at his back a moment before growling and tossing my drink aside to follow him.

"One more time. For a big number." I said to his back.

"So much bravado, Proximo." He murmured, walking through a collapsed door. "You and I could be very good at what we do–"

"I'm already very good at what I do."

He stopped suddenly and whirled, kicking out my leg so I dropped to a knee. The next kick came to my chest but I caught it and twisted. He spun from my hold and sent a punch for my neck. I had to drop my hold to stop it but I couldn't stop him from taking me off my feet all together with his weight. He watched me simply.

"Then why do I always get the drop on you?"

Because you distract me. Because I'm too busy making sense of you to watch your limbs.

"Because I have bigger things to worry about than an insufferably, arrogant contractor."

He drew my dagger from my hip and slammed it through my sleeve.

"What's bigger than your own ego, Proximo?"

He slammed another dagger near my head. I snarled and he matched the fury.

"You're undisciplined, easily distracted and morbidly out of your depth. But you already know that don't you?"

"I know that if you don't get the fuck off me I'm going to make it my life's work to end you!" I snarled back.

That dark gaze was only a foot away and I could make out the flecks of brown in his eyes.

"Now that sounds like a challenge." He murmured.



Those same eyes scanned my face as I brought him back from the brink of death. As if I would ever let him go without me.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I growled, fully aware that my weight still pinned him on the floor.

"That you needed a better date tonight."

"You had the antidote. How did you know?" I answered instead of dwelling on that very dangerous answer.

Scorpion's voice raised above the rest before he could answer the insanity.

I turned and saw her storm towards Makayla–who had the woman I just danced with pinned on the ground. I rose off Art slowly but offered him my hand when he took in another breath.

"I think you–better stop your leader from–blowing a hole through your woman." He grunted, rising unsteadily to his feet. I held his shoulder as he took another breath and met his dark eyes.

"She deserves the hell she's about to get for what she did to you."

The shock was clear on his face. But it shouldn't have been. I nodded to a few personal guards behind. "Take him back. Get him to the medical bay–"

He gripped my shirt and my blood ran hotter.

"I'm not leaving you here–"

"You've done enough." I answered slowly, "–as you always do."

Our standoff felt like a lifetime. I let the guards slip an arm under his shoulders and he didn't resist as they took him away. When I finally knew he was safe I turned all of my rage back to the woman responsible. Scorpion already had her in grip and the very blade she used near her throat.

"–perhaps you'd like to taste what vantafish venom really does."

"Enough." I stated, watching Scorpion lower the blade an inch.

She half turned to me and snapped her fingers. Several guards took Florence's arms and secured her so she could face me fully. "She tried to kill you. With my. Blade."

"Yes." I answered, walking to her slowly. "But she almost killed Artella instead." I finished, devoid of emotion.

Scorpion seemed to follow the track of my emotion. She stepped aside and sheathed the very lethal black glinting blade and took Makayla's arm with her. I stopped before her watching with a dark emotion I hadn't seen before in her eyes. There was no apology in them.

"The dinner is off! So is our alliance!" Scorpion called, drawing in ranks of Division guards with fully automatic fusion weapons.

"This is not Dawn Guard acting!" The Empress shouted over the new voices. "I wouldn't invite you here to start a war!"

"Then maybe you should have thought of that before one of your zealots ruined the party." Scorpion snarled behind me.

The guards already drew away in numbers up the steps but the guards at Florence's arms didn't dare move without my say. I stared into her eyes coated with black for a moment before I made my choice. All I could see was Art's eyes as he stared lifelessly at me and accepted his fate. Stepped in front of that blade and caught it before it could find me.

Even after all this time. After all the words said between us.

I nodded the guards off her.

Scorpion took Makayla's hand and had her other at her comm relaying orders. She met my eyes.

"You good?"

"Go." I answered, devoid of emotion.

She gave me a grim nod and shouted at the rest of her guard to summon fusion jets.

The rest of the room was melting away around us as bodies fled for the stairs and guards left. She had a wild look like a trapped animal and in a final attempt she lashed for my face. I caught her hand and spun her body so my hands were behind her neck. The room was all but empty now. Like the look in my eyes.

"You very nearly took something more important to me than anyone in this room." I spoke with lover like softness at her ear.

Before I snapped her neck.



* * * * *



The Empress stopped me before I could enter the lift.

I had half a mind to draw a gun on her but she was alone. And there was something on her expression that was just as angry as a Division member would be.

"Don't throw this all away for one person's intention to drive a wedge between inner and outer sectors–"

"I don't respond well to orders that don't come from Scorpion." I said dryly, continuing my walk to the lift.

The Empress shook her head and wisely kept her hands in front of her. "You know this wouldn't make sense for us. Keep that in mind. You may be the only person that can convince her this will work for the good of Merridian."

I stopped the lift door before it shut between us and strode rapidly forward to tower down on her inches away. She clenched her fists but held my gaze well enough.

"Perhaps when I see anything less than death in these halls we'll be able to have a little chat again–" A hope sparked in her eyes and I crushed it quickly with my glare. "–If we see each other again, Empress, it will be you not Scorpion that visits. A show of good faith is the only way Scorpion will dare to think of you and your alliance again."

She swallowed and the thought of the outer sectors flooded her in discomfort.

I snorted and nodded to myself.

Then the doors closed between us and I raced down to the fusion carrier bay.

Art was already long gone and confirmed back at base. It still didn't satisfy me. I stared at my reflection in the glass and his words hit me again.

"It means you're still trusting the wrong people and I'm going to fix that for you–again."

I punched the glass until my face was fractured.

How many betrayals would it take for me to lose faith in humanity altogether.

Art's knowing smirk however in my mind and I sighed through my nose as the doors opened. As long as that bastard kept cleaning up the messes around me without my permission the dance would go on. I hadn't even thanked him for saving my life.

But when did I ever...

We had a wordless sort of understanding him and I. When the world went to hell we went with it. And when he had found me one night after another crazed scheme under Lazarus a line was crossed that I didn't think we would ever cross... only once. Only something brief and sudden like taking the wind out of your lungs but it was there. It lingered in every knowing look he gave me. Daring me to respond.

Artella Maxim never made his intentions clear until he was right in front of you.

But I was still running in circles around it tonight. I should have lingered on what it felt like when Florence's body fell limply from my hands. I should have thought about the last thing she said–but I thought of where Art was inside our base. I wanted to know that venom was out of his blood forever.

The fusion craft wasn't fast enough on return.

Scorpion was already long gone but made herself known in the comms. Made it clear that Dawn Guard was on the blacklist. The Empress's words to me could wait.

I found him impatiently sat on a medical bed glaring down a small nurse that checked his pulse.

When he saw me in the doorway his expression evaporated.

"Proximo."

The nurse flinched and pressed a fist to her chest. I waved her off and we were alone in the sterile room full of first class equipment. I avoided his gaze and leant against a device meant to restart the heart. Irony.

"What happened to..." He trailed off, his voice still hoarse from the poison. I flexed a fist in my tux and skimmed over his own tailored jacket lying on the bed.

"I dealt with her."

He moved to slide off the bed but I glared him down. "Don't be a moron–"

He ignored me and closed the space until he was right before me. Still taller.

"I didn't mean for her to die."

"But you knew something wasn't right." I growled, meeting his dark gaze. "You knew to have an anti-venom inside your jacket. Left. Pocket." I repeated slowly.

He nodded slowly.

"I warned you didn't I? That you didn't know who to trust–"

"But how did you know it was her?!" I demanded, "She was just one of Kuzo's!"

He tilted his head at me sympathetically and crossed his arms.

"Does it matter?"

"It does to me." I murmured, staring at his arms instead.

"I followed her when she left." My eyes snapped to his but he paced back to sit back against the bed as he spoke. I felt the distance between us stronger than before. "–after that little drama I had to. It was all too sweet. And I'm never one not to notice details..." Our eyes met before he shrugged. "She was still working with Kuzo."

I froze.

"All I know is that the little story of running away and joining your side did not align. When she arrived back here that dress wasn't the only thing she was wearing."

"Scorpion keeps those blades secure."

"And how secure is anything here, truly?" He drawled, flexing his jaw. "I got in with a single word to Dex."

I sighed through my nose and leant back against the wall pressing my head on it and shutting my eyes a moment.

"You need my help."

My eyes flashed open.

"She's dead now, there's nothing else you can do." I said coldly.

He met my cold with his own.

"Kuzo controls the night. It would be a bit unfortunate if he had another reason to send in little assassins in tight clothing."

"You almost got yourself killed tonight and you want round two?" I demanded, pushing off the wall.

"If it keeps you breathing, maybe."

"Why does it matter to you?" I asked slowly.

That insufferable smirk took over once more. He remained silent. I glared.

Scorpion stood in the doorway.

"Gentlemen."

Art's smirk turned to her and he dropped a fist to his chest.

"Nice work today, contractor. I could use a few more with your... diligence."

"The pleasure was all mine, Scorpion."

"I'm sure it was." She muttered.

I rolled my eyes out of my head and Art remained wisely silent.

"If you're finished dying a gruesome death I'd like to steal my second a moment."

"He's all yours." Art drawled, leaning back in the bed.

I scanned his open white shirt a moment longer before meeting Scorpion's burning gaze and nodding her forward.

"Have you got anyone else lurking in the closet I need to know about?"

"Well considering she's lying dead in that tower, I would say no." I deadpanned.

Scorpion didn't hide her surprise as we walked the halls. "I wish you had the balls to do it to your sister."

"She'll be out of the picture on a new continent soon enough."

Makayla was waiting for us with her heels propped carelessly on the glass table of a holo screen sat in Scorpion's chair. The square fire pit was lit and sending gold shards everywhere in the office space. She watched me closely as I took a seat opposite and Scorpion joined me.

"Secure room!" Makayla called as soon as the door shut.

The glass clouded around us and the fire glowed more.

"I've blacklisted Dawn Guard."

"And I've invited the Empress here."

Scorpion stared at me over the flames.

"That would be a risk from her."

"A show of faith." I agreed, noticing the unimpressed look Makayla wore at the news.

"You shouldn't trust any of them." She murmured.

Scorpion leant back and casually ran a hand along her bare calf exposed beneath the gold before watching the fire. "Which is why I'm finished going to them. If they want to join our world they can come to it."

I nodded distracted.

"Art is a good dancer by the way." Makayla blurted. Scorpion smirked. I glared.

"You both deserve each other." I muttered, getting up from my seat. But pausing before the door. "Oh, and Scorpion. You should watch out for Kuzo. Apparently those dancers are more than just that these days..."

"Why do you think I welcomed her like one?" She called at my back.

I snorted. Of course she knew. She had spent some time around them before royalty with blue eyes came waltzing in front of her path.