P R O X I M O



The fusion craft was a dark blur.

Fusion rifles glinted around us. Personal guards armed to the teeth. A flash of blue hair between it all and a grim line on her lips. She knew me enough to know I was at my limit–

I was compromised.

I flicked a hand and a guard had my gun in my fist. I flipped it stock first and pressed the side of the metal to open the concealed vials inside it. I took three glowing red tubes out while the inside of the craft remained deathly silent. Stronger than the last batch.

My sister couldn't help herself.

She snatched one from my grip before I could ingest all three. She drained the contents herself before leaning back with an emotionless expression.

"Three could stop your heart." She shrugged, eyeing the guns around her. "Two should only make you more of a prick–"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" I stated in an empty voice as I drank the other two.

She bounced a leg before leaning against an uncomfortable personal guard deliberately.

"No one else can keep you alive around here." She drawled, running a hand up the guards armoured arm.

I was already uninterested.

My focus sharpened ten fold and the world around me became sharper still. I breathed in slowly through my nose and then drew up four different feeds into my comm scanning them all. I ran security feeds and moved Division units into aggressive formations around the edges of upper Merridian. Then with half my attention I started telling my sister what we needed.

"Artella has gone dark." I stated flatly, gaining her attention even more intently. She shrugged off the guard and pressed her forearms on her knees.

"When?"

"Shut the fuck up. And listen."

Her expression didn't change. She cared for Artella. But such emotions weren't useful to us now.

"His brother, Dex, has been killed by the Empress. No body. But Artella knows it–"

"How–"

I levelled my rifle at her and she rolled her eyes at the barrel. She instead leant her god damn chin on it and repeated the question. "How, please?"

"He didn't meet in their usual spot. His comm is dead and there was blood."

"Could have him–"

I shook my head and lowered my gun. "Artella doesn't make mistakes. He certainly doesn't when it comes to this boy. He's dead."

She blew out a long breath.

"Get me a holoscreen and five minutes. I'll have that woman in the ground by nightfall."

"Not so simple. She has faceless tech."

Dazz's expression remained unchanged. Unbothered. She had a point of focus now and a friend in the crosshairs. Our family always did become more lethal when things got personal...

"If Artella wants her dead there isn't much she can do but hide behind faces either way." She shrugged, scanning her dark nails.

"You think I don't know that?" I growled impatiently. "It's what happens when he does kill her that I care about, Dazz."

"He's a smart boy, he has more up his sleeve than you have ego–"

"If he's captured by them–if they take his face I don't know who I'm pulling the trigger at." I stated, making her eyes lift. Despite two entire vials of combat serum the burning anger and despair was creeping far too close to the surface. It was my sister that remained unfazed.

"Get me. A holoscreen. And stop slobbering all over me so I can do something about it."

I tightened my fists around my gun and finally dropped her a nod.

"Where's the criminal darling and her side hoe?"

My glare hardened on her smirk.

"Getting an army together and some jets while they're at it."

"So this is it? You're all going to make your big play now?"

I leant back in my seat and threw my weapon into another guard's hands.

"She needs to go. It all does. Artella just accelerated the process–"

"Oh Proxi... let's not lie now. He's more important than this overthrow. If came down to him and that silver seated bitch I know which trigger wouldn't get pulled to see this city right."

"Don't act like you have the moral superiority here Dazz–"

She rose out of her seat to meet my face a foot away.

"No brother, I don't. And that's exactly what I'm saying. We're only human." She smiled without humour. "I could have had that purple eyed moron dead a long time ago... Yet things get a little more complex when my little brother gets in the way."

I snorted and leant back to scan the buildings beyond us. We were nearing the base.

"You could have had many more dead too... The cold act works as well as your warm and cuddly one. You forget I still know you're no wall flower."

It only made her grin widen.

"Why else do you think I keep you around? No one else gets me."

That much was the truest thing she'd said all month.

"Just wait until the Empress is dead and Artella is still breathing. Then feel free to betray us whenever you like." I drawled, finding the sweet emotionless focus I had been craving fill me up.

At this she kept her smile and ran her boot along my gun.

"Sounds like a plan." She winked. Then she nodded at the guard beside her. "Can I keep this one? The whole stoic silent type is a turn on–"

"Dazz."

She paused running her eyes over the frozen personal guard that looked ready to test the height limits of his combat boots.

"Shut the fuck up."

She gave me a snappy salute and kicked a boot onto my side.

"After. Got it."

Artella was better off without siblings honestly.



* * * * *



"Oh, look. My favourite Dartega in the flesh." Scorpion drawled, leaning against a weapons crate as the fusion craft ramp descended.

My sister answered before I could even meet her eyes.

"Where's that Sector 1 princess? Could you get her to dance for me like one of Kuzo's–"

A fusion round hit the bottom of the ramp making Dazz pause and consider her next play. I rolled my eyes and waved a hand at the guards that poured out around us.

"Settle your differences out of my sight." I stated.

"Or we could settle them right now." Dazz said lightly, eyeing Scorpion's trademark red hood up and down. "I always knew the stories exaggerated..."

"Care to find out?" She answered with a dark smile.

Makayla took my cue and ignored them both coming to my side with a holo screen and one of her own. For once it was the Imperial I could rely on for common sense.

"I wish I had better news but I don't think it will surprise you that we can't find him." She murmured, as we made our way to the lifts amongst the bustle of military grade crafts arming themselves. We would need it all and more when the moment came for us to make our stand.

The lift hissed open before us and Makayla and I stepped inside without issue. It was the Underworld ruler and my ever draining sister that made it fight.

"Buffoons first." Scorpion drawled with an arm outstretched.

"I'll fit your opinion in nice and safely beside the zero shits I give for your existence–"

"My fusion gun would fit nice and safely up your ass–"

"Alex." Makayla hissed, jutting her chin beside her. "Can you do this later?"

Despite it all Scorpion held my sister's amused gaze a moment longer before rolling her shoulders and returning the smile slowly.

"You're right. I can take the trash out any time."

Dazz lost her calm despite the combat serum and lunged for her. Scorpion dismissed her with less than half a thought and twisted her arm behind her. I took the opportunity to press the touch screen and send us to the right floor before we were here all evening.

Dazz's cheek was currently being mashed against the glass as Scorpion spoke casually as if we were planning dinner in sector 30.

"Check Imperial credit use in our sectors and then Dawn Guard presence and overflows."

"That's what I've been doing." I grunted, eyeing the rage escalating in my sister as she struggled under Scorpion's unbreakable hold. I sighed and met those entertained gold eyes.

Scorpion rolled them and finally released my sister.

"You fucking–"

"Enough." I finished, stepping before her and crossing my arms.

She glared.

Makayla swiped at a holo.

Scorpion smirked.

The lift pinged.

"Finally." Makayla muttered, as we piled out in one piece... For now. "We have got unusual movement here..." She continued, drawing up a holo so we could all see the Sector in the air. It glowed with far too many red dots among blue rectangles. "But this could easily be a play by her Highness to draw us in... You know focus over here while–"

"The killing happens over there." I finished pointing at a much smaller cluster in a much less defensible district in sector 10.

Makayla frowned at the same moment Scorpion shook her head.

"She'd never leave herself so open. If she knows half the man Artella is she'll know she needs an army to keep him at bay now..."

"Or something of more value to him." I stated simply.

This made even Dazz pause and watch me.

"She has faceless tech. Artella won't know who she will pretend to be when he takes aim." I said emotionless. "Me, you, Dex." I shrugged, "Anything that will make him pause will make him vulnerable. He was the best at what he did because he never had to worry about who he killed... Now he does."

This made Scorpion spin a throwing knife in her hand as she contemplated this.

"And we have no contact?"

"He burned all his comms as soon as he found out Dex was dead." I answered, staring at the red dots once more.

"He will need backup regardless of the outcome. We need to press on with the operation to end the Imperials. That entire sky tower if I could help it..." Scorpion muttered, spinning the blade faster.

"If only you knew someone who has access and knows her way around a satellite weapon network better than anyone in the city. Oh wait. You do." Dazz sighed, making us all turn to her in unison.

"We have jammers on them–"

"I'm afraid you don't." She pouted back as Scorpion's expression darkened.

"You had sabotaged our equipment this entire time? I lost Makayla to the Imperials that night you god damn waste of air!" She snarled, turning the blade on my sister. I subconsciously stepped within range of her next move.

"And now you can use them for what they were designed for honey cakes." She returned sweetly, pushing her hair to one side.

I stopped the blade in her hand from going through Dazz's neck. Though it was a slow attempt by Scorpion's standards... She met my calm look and relaxed the weapon.

"Great. So it's agreed."

"She'll probably use them on us." Scorpion growled to me, unbothered that she could hear every word. Makayla was distant from us. Not just physically but it was written all over her face.

"You think we're like him if we do this..." I ventured, looking directly at those blue eyes.

She flinched coming back into the room. Then met my eyes and started scanning the screen in her hands again.

"Do whatever you think is best." She answered detached.

It made Scorpion pause out of her death stare with my sister and appraise her more fully.

"You know what this means when it's over, Makayla..."

"Whatever you think." She repeated slowly, keeping her eyes firmly on the screen.

The tech room seemed to hold its breath in a brief and rare silence for once as the potential and end of a war before it begun loomed.

"Well, I think the side hoe is right."

This time Scorpion didn't hold back her speed as she tackled Dazz off her feet and pressed the knife into her jugular. For once I didn't have a taste for this. I turned from them both and approached Makayla as they grappled on the floor.

"Speak your mind, Xavier."

Her eyes flashed up to mine briefly, also entirely unbothered by the women tangled in a death match on the floor.

"You don't want my mind on this–trust me."

"I want all the information in the room before acting. It's what made me so good at this for so long." I retorted simply, crossing my arms.

She finally focused on my eyes more intently.

"This is the familiar, Proximo. Which means you're on it again."

I stiffened as she realised so easily that the combat serum ran in my blood now. But then again that's all she had known of me before recently... I relaxed my shoulders and dropped her a curt nod.

"Artella needs the sharpest version of me on this. Even if he doesn't know it yet."

She snorted at this.

"If only I could become that for her when she needed it." She muttered, nodding at Scorpion who had now drawn up out of her crouch and resorted to throwing insults at my sister like listing off ingredients in a cake.

"You and Scorpion are a different beast to Artella and I."

This made her smirk intently.

"Yes, quite the complex beast you two are–"

"We're getting off topic, Xavier." I reminded her curtly.

"Indeed." She muttered, tapping the screen off and matching my stance with crossed arms. "Here it is." She sighed, drawing her thoughts into one place. "The moment you use those Sector killer satellite weapons is the moment you lose yourselves and everything you believe keeps you apart from men like my father. From women like the Empress. You're only as good as your best intentions and when they get lost to the senseless lengths Sector 1 was willing to go to... Well we may as well leave them on the throne. You're both two sides of a coin Proximo and someone will always take that place for you whether or not you burn it all to hell."

My mouth dried and I raised an eyebrow in shock.

She smiled faintly and watched the empty hallways beyond us.

"Not just a pretty face..." She muttered, "The wrongs are easier to spot when you've played both sides."

That realisation slammed me hard in the chest. As I stared at the blue eyed Imperial I realised she was the only one here or anywhere in this city that had played both sides quite like she had. The highest floors of Sector 1 to the lowest degenerates of Sector 52.

"Makayla..." I ventured, losing my train of thought.

She shook her head and left a hand against my arm. I stared at it and the calm on her face. "Take more time to calculate the depth of what you're about to do. Artella is one thing and I will do whatever I can to get him back... But do not indiscriminately punish an entire city for it."

My mind was in a haze. It should have been as sharp as a Vanta blade. It should have been lethal. But now it was dancing dangerous lines between right and wrong that we didn't stop to look at for too long before... As I watched the now lethal blonde make her way over to the ruler of the Division I saw so much more than just that. More than that doe eyed girl that made demands and frivolous emotional displays. More than a woman that stole the criminal Underworld ruler's mind and heart.

I saw a leader. One that perhaps should have been on the Imperial throne all along.