P R O X I M O



I kept my hood low and her arm even closer.

The music hummed in my mind. The stench of booze and sweat thick in my nose. She didn't try to slip me. Either she was aware of how that would end or she truly wanted my trust one more time.

Her blue hair was tucked under her own hood and her hands buried in trademark black cargoes.

She didn't even ask questions.

The Underworld melted away when they caught my tattoos and the murmurs started spreading. Cheers still roared and blood still flowed below in the pit. But my sister was no stranger to any of it. As much as I was when we once used our talent together to make our way.

A fusion craft was prepped to take Dazz off continent in the morning if this didn't play out after all...

I tightened my grip around her forearm and threw a drunk out of our path as I strode for the bookies at the tables. She was a pool of night and day. Rage and calm. Humour and stoic silence. I supposed that was both of our temperament before I pumped my blood full of combat serum to kill that part. But Artella had complicated that lately...

"I'm not much of a fighter hand to hand." Dazz drawled near my ear as I shouldered another patron out of our path.

I shot her a glare that told her I was aware of her bullshit. Hades had taught her better.

She smirked and I tore my gaze away to throw a woman from our path that desired credits for a form of her affection. Dazz blew the woman a kiss regardless. I yanked her forward and slammed a fist into the fingerprint scanner. It glared red until the retina scan confirmed my ID. The doors slid open and we walked into a cold hallway away from the noise behind us.

"Well, this is much less fun." She noted dryly.

"You're a rebel sympathiser you don't get a vote." I grunted.

"You realise I could infiltrate upper Merridian faster than you could jerk one out over that mercenary–"

I whirled on her and pinned her throat to the wall with my forearm. To my expectation she merely breathlessly met my gaze with a smile.

"You're making it easier for me to send you off continent by the second." I growled.

"What's–stopping you?" She got out.

"Makayla Xavier."

She frowned between trying to get air in.

I released her and she dragged in a broken breath with her hands on her knees. I let her compose herself a moment longer until she pushed her hair back over her head and appraised me evenly.

"Why would Xavier want me on squad now? Was that Virtu that much of a kick?"

I sniffed and crossed my arms leaning into the wall.

"I have no idea into her motivations. Scorpion wants you dead. But Makayla is Sector 1 born... She knows how to make friends better than Scorpion ever has." I mused, tilting my head.

Dazz remained quiet as she considered this. I shrugged and nodded my head down the hallway again. She followed.

I took the stairs down to a darkened level with red floor to ceiling lights to guide us and questionable stains on the walls. I slammed a fist on the final door and it slid open to me. A bearded man pressed a fist to his chest and nodded us in. The conversations were muted and the lighting low. More weapons and high profile deals traversed these walls than even inner Merridian saw.

We walked through the throng of shady dealings and glowing drinks. Dancers strutted between the groups and business flowed.

"Proximo!" A voice boomed. "What have you brought me tonight!?"

I rolled my shoulders and offered my forearm which he took in a beefy arm with a toothy grin.

"Henry."

"Stop. You embarrass me." He spat, toasting his drink higher. "Shade."

"I am not calling you that." I said simply.

He took my word as law and nodded. Then his eyes cut to my sister prominently. Despite it all I stepped in front of her and glared him down. He raised his hands to me in placation and offered me a drink. I took it in one motion and downed the amber liquid.

"I want information."

His eyebrows pinched before he became amused.

"You know I would always–"

"Cut the shit. I need everything you have on a top profile contract killer."

He shifted his suit and waved over a serving girl. She rushed him with a bottle and glasses. He proceeded to swipe it and offer me one that I glared down. After two slurps he answered me.

"Proximo, you know I have always served you and Scorpion faithfully. But contract killers work with levels of security not even I have bypassed–"

"That is why she is here." I stated, without room for negotiation gesturing at my sister. He paused and appraised her for the first time.

"I thought she was here for other means..."

I released my fusion pistol from its holster and aimed it at his forehead.

"Now, now brother dear..." Dazz murmured behind me, dripping humour despite the insult. "He is merely a buffoon."

I flexed my hand as the bearded man started trembling before the barrel of my gun. I let the fusion round hum louder a moment longer. Then I lowered it and nodded behind him.

"Show me what I want before my patience runs out."

"Right this way, Proximo." He answered without another beat of hesitation.

Dazz was quicker on the uptake and was sure to swipe at an offered drink before following the Underworld Virtu coder. One that wasn't even half of what my sister was. One that I would use as collateral. One that would have Artella's history or a fusion round through the head. The truth was that my sister could lie to me either way. I didn't trust her as far as I could launch her from a fusion craft. Yet I wanted her here.

And I hated myself for that weakness.

Where was combat serum when you needed it most....



* * * * *





M A K A Y L A



I had a real taste for Junak.

An Underworld drink through and through. A blue glow and a shameless presence among the dimly lit bars of the Crypt. It also went smoothly down and lingered on the lips the same way a good kiss did.

Speaking of...

I watched a pair of golden eyes under my hood.

The ruler of the Underworld watched me back–but you would never know it.

Her second walked past with her sister close in tow. I nodded to the beat of the infectious beat of the music. This place truly did have its place. As Alex once told me, it was the most honest group of low lives you would ever meet. Shameless in their dealings, lethal in their trade and utterly inevitable in their pursuit of business.

"You ladies look like you need a few drags of Ember." I low voice uttered with two hands landing on the table.

Alex glanced at me in offer.

I took it.

I slowly took the fusion pistol out of my holster and placed it between us on the table. It took him all of two seconds to consider his options and less time to take his hands off our table.

"Apologies..." He muttered, melting back into the dancing crowds.

Alex leant back in the booth and smirked.

"That's my girl."

"Girl?" I drawled, "I'd give half your personal guard a run for their credits."

"Now that. Is something I would like to watch." She answered, entirely serious.

I smirked and remained watching Proximo's back before he disappeared with Dazz beyond a metal door. I nodded in its direction. "He's in."

Alex didn't glance their way and simply sipped her drink.

"He will have his answers soon enough."

"Do you really think Dazz is still dark?"

"She is the furthest thing from loyal I can imagine... so yes."

I sighed and took her drink before finishing it. Alex had a new bottle on the table before I set the glass down. I fought a smile before answering.

"She did give me a damn good Virtu the other day–"

"What in hells do you know of Virtus Xavier?" She demanded, sitting up in her chair.

I grinned enjoying her anxiety.

"Relax. Scorpion. Nothing sinister."

"What did you ask Proximo's sister to design?" She pressed, leaning her forearms closer to my side of the table. I knew where her fears came from. Virtus were entirely an Underworld affair. Blackmarket realities created for users to engage in profane and unsavoury designs for pleasure. Yet she didn't know the Upper sectors were educated in their use for educational means.

I glanced at her arms and traced a finger across the muscle before answering. It made her relax an inch but not enough to change the hardness in her eyes.

"Makayla."

I met those burning golden eyes.

"Killing Empress Ryko."

She stared at me for another beat before leaning back into the booth and groaning.

"It's not like you haven't been planning that from the beginning–"

"You're giving your weakness away to anyone that will use it." She stated, levelling those burning eyes on me. That made me pause. Because it was mostly true.

"She is being held in a cell, Alex..."

"When I tell you not to trust her. I'm not joking, Makayla. She did her best to send our space shuttle into a mountain. She sided with Hades. She is not your friend."

"She is Proximo's sister." I reminded her.

That made Alex's hard expression break a touch. She sighed and dragged a hand over the back of her head.

"I know."

"So, what now?"

She shrugged pointedly and glanced at the bottle between us.

"We enjoy a drink before it all goes to shit?"

I grinned and toasted my glass to that. I was long gone before the point of expecting normality in our life. The gold ring on my finger only reminded me more of that. Scorpion did not fail to notice it.

She raised her own glass to mine and met my eyes.

"I love you and hate all the rest."

"You don't mean that." I scoffed.

She levelled me with a flat look.

I winked.

Her expression cracked.

"I exclude a maximum of two from that statement. The rest can rot."

"I'll take that." I stated, hitting our glasses together and drinking the glowing liquid. Then I rolled the glass in my hand and appraised her. "What if you can trust Dazz again?"

She scoffed and set down her glass.

"Why the interest? She betrayed me before you even knew her name."

"Because I stopped you from killing her once. She is important to Proximo."

"Proximo and Dazz used to work well. Then she paid more attention to those holo screens than she did to the world around her..." Alex mused, tilting the rest of her drink. "Proximo moved on and she didn't."

"She could be an asset to the Division."

Alex watched me more closely. I watched her right back despite the lack of light and thrum of bass in the air.

"That's what we're here to find out." She stated. "Otherwise she'd already be in another continent."

"I do love how you listen to me these days..." I mused, sipping my drink in answer.

Alex shook her head with a smirk.

"We'll see, Xavier." She tossed back the rest of her drink and levelled me with a look that made me want to talk of things a little darker than business. A waiter had a fresh bottle on the table before she could ask but her eyes remained on me. I let them scan my face.

If my judgment was wrong about this then Proximo's sister would be gone by morning. But if I was right... We would have a woman that could bypass Imperial security like she could order her morning coffee. That was an ally we could use when the Queen of the Underworld wanted to dismantle the entire empire. That was an asset we would need when the time came to come face to face with Empress Ryko.