"Yes, You will rise from the ashes, But the burning comes first. For this part, Darling, You must be brave."

― Kalen Dion



M A K A Y L A



"Art, I've told you–we need an armoury I want to do this now–where are we going?!" I demanded, trying to rip my hand from his giant grasp. It was like fighting a statue.

He barely cast me a look as we moved deeper into the streets of 52. I wanted lethal weapons and a lethal contractor yes but I didn't sign up to be carted around the furthest sector without a word. What could he possibly need from here–

He released my hand suddenly and I stumbled before a rusted pile of welded metals stacked on top of each other. Flats. Homes. Lives. All in a crowded heap of collected metal and cloth. Desperate faces passed us by in blurs and others tried to make the most out of their meek existence. Even in organ snatcher territory I hadn't seen such desperate circumstances.

Only now did I notice Artella was gone.

I spun on my heel scanning the darkened alleys and chaos of material and smell. What the hell–why was he doing this now when we needed to act–to end the one thing keeping me from...

"Makayla."

That voice shot through me like a charge to the chest. Electrified, I turned to it.

There she was.

Half cloaked in warm orange light and that crimson cloak. Her gold eyes burned like the makeshift fires the locals made from metal barrels. She was always as beautiful as she was lethal.

It had felt like a century since we had spoken directly. Yet it was only days.

I inhaled the air of sector 52 slowly before I raised my head to her. The leader of the Division watched me back making no moves forward. She was painful to look at. So painfully like the woman I fell in love with.

"What are you doing here, Alex." I stated flatly, desperately trying to control the raging pulse in my veins.

She appraised my combat clothing. Then my weapons. Finally my eyes.

"I know I said I would give you space..." She returned, calmly watching me. Half her face was painted in shadow, but the half I could see was tense with anticipation. I waited.

"I know why you went to Artella and what you plan on doing–"

I puffed out in exasperation.

"There's nothing you can say to change my mind. It's not like you acted any different with Velron."

"I didn't kill him." She answered quietly. "It wouldn't have changed anything if I did."

"So you'd like the Empress alive?" I drawled with lethal calm.

She shrugged off the wall in frustration and stepped out of the rusted metals. I appraised her more closely now. She was more herself than ever before. Cloaked. Armed. Unbroken and prepared to take action into her hands. I smiled bitterly back.

Now you show yourself when I'm ready to fix things. When I'm prepared to end her.

"Listen to me–"

"I'll pass." I snorted, stepping out of her reach. The pain in her eyes made me falter but I couldn't stop now. Merridian didn't need a female version of my father on the throne.

"You think revenge is some sweet release?" She demanded in more of a growl this time. "It's not. It is worthless and it will only drive your feelings further from your control."

"Don't talk to me about feelings." I whispered.

"Why?" She raised an eyebrow and appraised me more closely. Slowly walking a circle near me like I was a fusion bomb ready to explode. "What do you feel, Makayla?"

"Don't fucking patronise me–"

"I'm trying to understand you." She answered simply, tucking her hands behind her. It only made me angrier. Her calm. Her lack of feeling.

"If I told you, Scorpion. You wouldn't be so calm."

"You can tell me anything in the world, Xavier. I'm not going anywhere." She said flatly.

It carved a new line of fire through my heart but I stifled it. I broke away from the stand off and stepped into her path. My breathing was ragged and my thoughts were further from my grip. Her eyes flickered between mine taking in every inch of me. It had been so long since I had felt her heat near me and it was costing me so much energy to maintain this anger–this space between us was a god damn black hole.

"You want it all? No holding back?" I growled, moments before her face. She dropped me the smallest nod.

"You broke us. You did it with the one person I was most fearful of and you did it on your own turf. You chose in that second that she was worth it over us and there is no amount of lies I can tell myself to work around it." I murmured, closer to her face. Watching that cool mask of hers crack before me. I pressed my finger slowly against her chest. "You did that. Now that I want to give us a chance and end this woman and you want to stop that too... So tell me, Scorpion. What exactly should I be feeling for you right now? Because you are not giving me many options other than to despise you entirely."

You can tell me anything in the world. Was she expecting that?

"Yes."

What.

"You're not wrong. How could you be? I swore to protect you and make you happy. I've betrayed you and for someone that means so little to me. I won't waste excuses on you like I wouldn't waste your time bringing you out here for no reason..." She paused and scanned the harsh edges and mixed metal rooftops around us. I hated that the pain from my words tore across her face. I wanted to be satisfied that it was returned but I couldn't.

Her pain was always my own.

"Why here?" I got out, trying to distract myself from the emptiness in her own eyes now. It ripped my heart apart all over again. Alex was indestructible not vulnerable–I never wanted to see her so wounded again.

"You asked me for my history a long time ago." She murmured, tucking her hands away and scanning the ground. "My beginning was here."

The realisation dropped and I spun my head looking around us in new light. All the memories came back to me of that distant conversation. If you knew it all you would run. The lost family. The painful conditions in Sector 52. The fighting for every day of life and the slow but sure development into the most lethal woman in Merridian. All here.

She brushed a gloved hand against a worn railing that could have served many purposes before it rusted into oblivion. Then she cast her eyes down the street and stared at something I didn't recognise.

"I know you've made your choice, Makayla. But would you join me anyway?" She whispered, unable to meet my gaze. Maybe fearing for the moment I said no. I bit down on my lip and let the breath go through my nose.

"For now."

Her shoulders relaxed minutely and she walked down the uneven street. The warm glow of fires roasting meats and smog wrapped itself around us. I trailed in her wake. Acutely aware of the murmuring that came as a result of that cloak. The watchful eyes on power. It reminded me.

"I thought Proximo was interim leader?"

She turned her plaited head to the side and answered, "He was. Then he asked me to do something. It's a long story..." The distance in her expression was vast. The words masked.

I decided right there in that moment that I hated this.

I hated that I didn't know everything going on in her existence. I hated that moment when she became Scorpion and I became part of the background among soldiers watching our lives pass by us. That Proximo went to her and I went to Artella. That I didn't lie in bed next to her in the early hours of the morning and brush her skin, letting her know how perfect every inch of her was. What bothered me. What bothered her.

"Enough." I stated.

She froze ahead of me and turned to take in my face with all the sadness lining her own.

"I can't stand being a stranger to you for another minute." I continued, watching the sadness shift to careful wariness. I sighed and turned my head down the streets. "Is there somewhere we can go without assassins or fights... just. Coffee?" I finished lamely.

Alex's entire guarded expression dropped for a moment and I glimpsed what she was to me when she wasn't destroying empires and being attacked from all sides. It was the Alex that wrapped me up in her arms and said stupid things before kissing me under the sheets.

"Yes–we were poor but not savages." She muttered frowning.

I covered my smile with a hand and turned down the street being sure to keep it from my voice. This woman didn't even know when she made the simplest things the most ironic.

"Let's go."

She led the path through the darkened streets despite it being daylight. It was a different world. Her world. And I grew tired of walking behind her. I took her side and she kept her eyes ahead as we walked through tight paths and alleys. At one point she needed to slide a piece of plated metal aside for me to pass. I couldn't find it in me to care the longer we walked.

It was strange to be so deep in the outer part of the city like this but it was also very quiet in its own way. Warm from the fires. Close knit from the community. A bond through shared struggle. Alex appeared as relaxed as she was walking through her own base of operations–if not more so. I'd catch her eyes land on something. A statue. A bench. A shop selling wares from a passage way and I knew she was living through another life.

The people kept their eyes off her but they knew her. How could they not.

The one that rose from here. The occasional whisper then a smile. A wandering story of someone that finally got out of sector 52.

"Here we are..." She said unceremoniously. Then her face became hesitant. "We can go back to somewhere in 40–"

"We're here now." I interrupted, shaking my head. "And despite everything. I want to talk to you, Alex."

The smallest curve cracked her lips and she nodded ahead.

"I used to get lunch after shifts around here." She murmured, appreciating the tilted neon sign above an aged cafe. The metal structure held well enough and the holo screens were still in working order within. It had the same warm dusty glow all the building had.

"Shifts?" I asked, following her lead to the doors.

She held one open for me and leaning against it.

"Before I was a killer I served tables." She answered simply.

The thought alone sent my mind running away with the different image of her. A juvenile running night shifts trying to cover her expenses didn't really match up with the ruler of the Underworld.

"You never told me that." I finally answered, taking in every inch of the diner within.

"It was hardly worth it." She muttered, stepping in behind me and scanning the booths filled with locals nursing mugs and a low playing holo box that filled the room with only century music.

It was wonderful.

Totally alien and reminiscent of another century all together. Even the interior design felt centuries off... Maybe its why Alex liked older interior designs so much.

She slipped a hand behind my back without fully registering the action and faltered. But I didn't want her to relinquish that distance again. I didn't want to lose that warm feeling her touch gave me. I spoke before she could step back.

"Stop acting like this is your first date."

It got the reaction I wanted. She fought the smirk for a few seconds before it stole her face. She pressed her hand against the small of my back and led us further down the diner near to the windowed edge. It was incredible to me. And dangerously distracting–I was starting to forget my original purpose today. All the demanding thoughts.

I sank into the opposite seat over the table and bridged my hands beneath my chin.

Alex slid into her own seat and mirrored my pose. We watched each other like this for a few seconds trying to read the infinite number of emotions that flew between us. Then the uninvited image of Alex as a waitress entered my mind and I couldn't chase it out. She caught the twitch of my lips and that was it. Cold, hard purpose had left the building–

"Say it."

"You were a waitress." I deadpanned.

"So?"

"I can't unsee it."

Her smile was threatening to win again.

"You overthrow empires. You laugh in the faces of the most powerful people in the city. You killed all five previous rulers... and served coffee. In a diner."

"Maybe I killed the previous rulers with my coffee."

I had to look out the window to avoid laughing. She wasn't allowed to make me laugh. At a time like this? When I was throwing around ideas like assassinating the Empress?

I turned back and saw the same smirk and lost the will. I sighed heavily and pressed my face into my hands groaning. "Why is hating you so fucking hard?"

"Just try harder. I'm sure you'll get there." She answered, unbothered.

"This doesn't mean I forgive you." I warned, glaring past my hands at those warm gold eyes. She shrugged in return and waved down a waitress. The outfit alone made me see her in a new light and the window became my new favourite escape as she ordered.

This was all far too domestic for Scorpion. Impossible and a side no one ever saw–and lived to talk about it.

Two steaming cups were returned to us rapidly and I raised an eyebrow before it. It smelled very good. Rich and smooth. Alex placed a hand against the table and drummed her fingers slowly watching me. She didn't drink until I did. After I set it down I leaned back and resumed trying to wipe the image of that waitress outfit from my mind.

"I'm going to kill her." I said, without needing to elaborate on who.

"Mhmm." She mused, taking a deep drink and relaxing back into the chair.

"Artella will be there only because he is the best at this."

She nodded like I discussed next week's weather forecast. It was throwing me off. I set my hands down heavily and glared across at her. "Why aren't you fighting me on this?"

"You want the truth?" She asked lightly.

I scanned her easy expression with a frown. "Always."

"I'm just happy to sit here. With you. In this shit hole. It's been a while since I've been able to just sit down and appreciate what's in front of me." She said deliberately.

Then it suddenly clicked.

So less is more. Appreciate what's in front of you.

"That was you?" I demanded, "At the fountain?"

"If I say yes will you leave?" She asked carefully.

I pushed my hair over the top of my hair and shook my head. Was I even surprised at this point. Probably not. "You can't even help yourself can you?"

"Not when it comes to you." She said flatly.

I levelled her gaze. A calm silence passed as the voices and life in the diner continued on around us. Her answer still managed to warm me to my core. Make me feel like the most important person in the room. She always did. Her actions always followed a similar pattern. Near when I thought she was far.

"I missed you."

She let a breath go heavily and her shoulders slumped hearing me say it. I realised that she thought those words were not what she expected and a surprised warmth entered her eyes.

"You have no idea how much I agree with you." She murmured.



* * * * *



I sipped coffee opposite a golden eyed woman that told me every detail of the space around us. And I collected all of it unable to help myself with the curiosity. While I was running around taking etiquette lessons in glass towers she was taking orders and credits and making a living in these streets without any family whatsoever.

"–that was the table where I poured coffee over one of our best patrons." She said pointing with an indifferent look at the table in question.

I frowned.

"And you still kept your job?"

She snorted and looked at me in disbelief. "Makayla in sector 52 you'd have to either permanently scar or kill a customer to lose your job. But that's not the point–"

"Other than for your own amusement?" I drawled, seeing the hot headed leader lose patience with such mundane work. She smirked but continued.

"He was an asshole."

"Naturally..."

"He was interested in more than the coffee I was serving." She deadpanned.

"Suddenly I'd be okay with you losing your job for that." I retorted cooly.

She chuckled and shook her head, "I didn't have the training for that kind of confrontation back then. Shifts here were paying for the real sessions I could get–and that was before I started fighting in the Crypt..." She ventured, thinking wistfully back.

But it caught my attention either way. Of course you wouldn't get a free pass into that life. You had to become that lethal for a price. Clearly a hefty one–

"So the money you made here was for training–"

A heavy body dumped itself into my seat before I could finish and it grunted heavily.

"This place is still an insult to shit holes but the coffee is good." Proximo grumbled. I stared at him in exasperation before I watched Artella pile in beside Alex. Her glare could have melted his skin but the contractor's attention was on the menu.

Our table suddenly seemed very small.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I snapped, slapping my hand on the table.

Proximo smiled and left his arm over the back of the booth behind me. He appreciated Scorpion with a knowing look and she rolled her eyes.

"I grew tired of being a security detail for your little date."

"This isn't–"

"Isn't this adorable." Alex answered with a lazy smile regardless. "A double date in our old territory."

Artella plucked a holo menu off the table and obscured his face in it. Proximo ignored her and took my cup to take a deep sip. I stared at him for a moment before pushing my palm into my face with a deeper sigh.

"Why isn't this black coffee?" He rumbled, eyeing it in disgust.

"Why don't you put my coffee down before I shoot you under the table?" I asked him slowly.

Artella grinned before his hologram and Alex tilted her head at him. A waitress appeared again before death threats could start being made more prominently. She stared at the stark red sleeve of the second's trench coat and then at the crimson cloak adorning Scorpion and her hands started shaking.

Proximo's smile turned wolfish in her fear and Artella cleared his throat and spoke for him.

"Good afternoon," He drawled, with a warm smile. It did nothing for the tension freezing her body before the Division's leader and her second. "–If we could please get two refills and two black coffees that would be wonderful."

She nodded woodenly and swiped at a holo pad on her wrist.

Proximo leaned back further and scanned her uniform. Amusement threatened in his eyes.

"I must ask... Do you still serve the Nebula cake here? It was the best." He emphasised with a dark smile.

"Ye–yes we do–sir." She stuttered, busying herself with her holo again.

"I will have one of those. That will be all." He finished in a low voice. Artella watched him with an edge of irritation. Alex was unbothered by the show and stared at my hand. I twitched my fingers and she seemed to rip herself out of her own thoughts. I met her eyes and a silent conversation seemed to pass between us.

Are we okay? Are you okay?

We will be.

She edged her hand forward for a moment, I thought to take my own before she grabbed a salt pot and spun it under a finger. Proximo's gun slapped the table as he scanned it for imperfections. A nearby table got up and moved to the other side of the room altogether at the sight of it all.

"Can you not be civil? We are in a diner." Art growled, yanking Proximo's gun away under the table.

"I was cleaning that." He answered simply.

"This is why you don't have any friends–"

"I don't need friends–"

Alex pinched the bridge of her nose and finally growled. "Both of you shut the fuck up. I didn't come here to discuss either of your issues."

The waitress reappeared with a tray before the table and carefully. Very carefully. Refilled our cups before setting down two more for our new guests. Then a rather decadent plate with a dark drizzle around a mound of brown cake was set before Proximo Dartega. I doubt anyone in this sleepy diner had ever put so much effort into one dessert before.

He made a show of thanking her graciously which only made her shake more. He pulled a credit bar free and she refused, but he insisted. I didn't watch the figure pass to her tip bar but I knew it was a considerable amount of money for cake. She stumbled out a thanks and collected the tray grateful to rush away from the table.

"So, you both used to meet here?" I asked, unable to help myself.

Proximo nodded before attacking his cake with great force. He sunk a mouthful and smiled slowly making his tattoos more menacing. Art watched him over the edge of his cup.

"I met this buffoon long after when I started toppling Underworld leaders as you know... But he insisted on meetings held here. For the cake." Alex deadpanned, looking ready to slap the plate into his face.

For some reason this was even more insane than picturing Alex as a waitress.

"Of course he did. Look at him. He's softer than the inside of that confectionary–" Art smirked.

The table shifted as Proximo's boot connected with Artella's shin. He growled under his breath as Proximo moved for his coffee with an easy expression.

"There are very few things in this world worth living for..." Proximo said in a low, lethal voice. "The sound of a fully charged 50 calibre fusion rifle. And this fucking cake." He finished, jerking his thumb down and scraping the remains of the sauce away.

"Now that we've agreed my second is a moron can we get back to our... conversation. Please." Alex said staring back at him pointedly. Proximo glanced at me innocently before slinging his arm over my shoulders and smiling darkly at Alex. I heard something that was dangerously similar to a safety clicking off under the table.

"I'm going to finish my coffee, Scorpion. Then you may have your conversation." He answered calmly, glancing alongside at me. "–Makayla doesn't mind."

"Don't I?" I shot back, flicking my eyes to his hand slung casually over the other side of my shoulder. Closeness with Proximo was both terrifying and confusing.

"Take your arm off her." Alex retorted with false sweetness.

"Take your gun off my crotch." He grunted, taking another sip.

I heard another click under the table and his arm retracted from me. I rolled my eyes and took a long hit of caffeine. Art said something low across the table but my eyes were on Alex's. She watched me back. Her hand toyed with the edge of her cup but didn't touch the drink within. If I had to guess, I'd say she had only had half her mind on their interactions the moment her second dropped in. The rest of her was trying to solve a different problem and it was sat before her.

I wanted to know just what was in her head. I would find out tonight.

The Empress could wait.