"You're like the phantom greeting me,

We plot in the shadows, hang out in the gallows,

Stuck in a loop for eternity."

– S C O R P I O N –

Electro bass blared over the packed, dimly lit Crypt.

Here I'd find Dazz. The final piece to kick off our trip to the Emperor's tower. I pulled a dark hood lower and kept a shawl drawn over my face. My eyes were coated in black coal. Only burning gold eyes took in the Underworld around me.

Proximo shouldered a drunk out the way. The man whirled in anger and took a swing. My second dropped him in the time it took for me to pull my cloak aside. My hips swayed with a pair of titanium daggers.

I slipped quickly between bodies taking us deeper into the shadows and swell of bodies and dancers. Lounge chairs lined the edges of the room.

I caught sight of a lone figure leaning on her elbow, nursing a glass of Junak under purple light.

I tapped Proximo's shoulder before he could dismantle a group of swaying morons begging for a fight. His eyes flashed to mine in the dark and I jutted my head left. He followed and we made our way over to Dazz.

A man caught my waist before I took my seat with a lazy grin. I wiped it off him as soon as I had a blade angled at his throat. He dropped his hand like it burned and stumbled back into Proximo. He only grinned savagely down at the weedy man before aiming a gloved thumb off into the crowds. The man darted away into the noise.

"Still such a charmer." Dazz bit out over the music.

I slid into the booth and Proximo took a seat beside me. I leant back into the seat and eyed her unimpressed. I was not here for words only observation. The moment I saw those grey eyes flicker with doubt–with ulterior motive–I would be gone and we'd be finding another to gain us security clearance. I pulled the shawl down to my neck.

"Sister." Proximo said flatly. Her eyes remained trained on me and I did not flinch from them. "We're here for one reason–"

"Making her pockets deeper." She snapped, and raised her eyebrow back at her brother. Her assumptions were normally correct, but not tonight...

She laughed bitterly when I remained silent. Flicking aside her blue plaited hair and throwing back her drink. She raised a hand to her wrist and placed an order for another bottle. She had a VIP table and service–it made me wonder what work for the Crypt she had dabbled in.

"Let's make this quick and simple then. I'm aware you're not willing to work for Division 52, so think of it as a personal favour to me." Proximo said slowly over the music.

Her eyes raced with an anger I found tiresome and marginally boring. It came from nothing other than mislead ideas of true revolution or injustice. It came from a child.

"Say what you're thinking, Scorpion." She sneered at me. "I can practically see the self glorious disgust dripping off you."

I gave her a cool look and smirked. She slapped a fist against the table. The immature actions of the child I expected. This was the kind of thing I had no room for in this operation.

"500,000 credits." Proximo said flatly and my head snapped to him. That was not what we had agreed. But when Dazz realised this from my reaction she finally grinned and set her elbows on the table.

"What was that Prox? You'll set 500 large aside for a hack?"

I glared death at my Second and his sister was lapping it up. At the shift in my cool and control. But Proximo remained watching her with a serious expression. He was taking a gamble, one I hadn't ask him to make. But it was her reaction he was betting on–the bold figure that I clearly had no consent in setting.

"There's a lot riding on this. There is no room for fucking up." He stated.

"That's why you ask me." She dismissed, eyeing the crowd as a heavy set man pushed through the crowds and set down a large bottle of glowing blue Junak. Dazz winked at him and slid him a metal credit square.

He swiped it away and slid back into the dancers.

"Our last man had anti-air down in Sector 1 for less than 30 seconds when he promised us longer. It cost us heavily." He growled the last part.

Dazz snorted loudly and filled her glass. "Amateur. Did your man hack corner shops for a living?" She smiled sweetly.

"I'm asking you this as your brother." He said simply.

"What about her?" She said over her glass cutting her eyes to me before squinting at her brother. "What is she asking me as?"

"Scorpion–"

She laughed loudly. "You may as well use her real name. I know more about Alex than any of your pets in Division 52 do." Proximo didn't flinch at this but he did glare more openly.

I remained calm. There was nothing to be gained by giving her the reactions she wanted. I knew she had done her homework on me well before this point. I had a long digital footprint in every corner of Merridian. So I cut the past the bullshit.

"I will wire you 500,000 credits to break into the Emperor's security system when I ask you." I deadpanned, and her attention flashed to me in an instant. "You freeze all communications, live feeds and door locks when and where I ask of you and I will never ask of your services again. Do it where ever you choose–preferably leagues away from myself and do it without issue and I will owe you."

Now she wasn't glaring. Now she was grinning. She leaned forward, far too close for my barely concealed rage. The flood of red that had been threatening to leave my grasp ever since Makayla was taken from me.

"You. Will. Owe me." She tested the phrase and nodded slowly. "I like that. It leaves room for creativity." I remained watching her in silence, waiting for her to cross me wrong.

"You must really be desperate." She told me, setting her drink down and shaking her head. "After what I pulled on you last time..."

"I don't remember asking for a trip down memory lane." I said flatly, resting a hand on the hilt of my dagger. Proximo did not miss the action.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of setting foot in that tower." She said in mockery.

"Your concern for my safety is fascinating and redundant."

"It's my concern when my employer can't be alive to pay me."

"Why don't you let your sweet brother worry about accounts while I worry about the direction my blade goes in." I let a growl enter my voice in the last few words.

"There she is. The monster below the surface. Just want to be sure I'm still working for the same piece of sh–"

"Dazz." Proximo snapped.

"I'm not interested in swapping insults to entertain your mundane life." I uttered, placing my hands in a bridge and gazing at her over them, watching her eyes burn hotter. "500,000. Give me your word or stop wasting my time."

Despite everything. Despite her pride sitting starkly on the table before us. She threw back the remains of her glass and levelled me with a cold look.

"Deal."

I stood the moment she said the words. Proximo wisely didn't linger and slid out the booth. I turned when I was on the threshold of the crowds and pulled my hood lower.

"Proximo will contact you. Do not give me a reason to regret this."

Her gaze darkened and a similar burning anger and challenge lit her eyes. I turned my back on her and let the music consume my thoughts for a moment. It would not be long before I could unleash every last piece of that darkness on Sector 1.

* * * * *

Diego stared back at me unflinchingly.

There would be no torture, no extreme measures to pry answers out of one of my personal guard on the mere word from Hades. Proximo ran his eyes over the intricate blueprints mapping of an underground ship hold below the Emperor's tower.

"Tunnels, hatch entrances, registration details–throughout sector 1. Discreet and lightly guarded by a system of computer scans and vehicle recognition. In other words..." Proximo grunted, leaning back in the chair of our temporary safe house office, "–if this information proves true we have multiple entry points to begin. Our disguises less likely to be scrutinised." He summarised bridging his fingers together and pinned his gaze on Diego.

"It really does make me wonder why they have been affiliated to you." I murmured, turning slowly to the man that had guarded me for two years. Who was hand selected. His blonde hair was swept back and he gave my Second a glance before shaking his head to me.

"I appreciate you not throwing me straight into a cell and hearing me defend myself first." He spoke in a clear voice.

"I trust the source less that I do one of my guard. Throwing you into the fire would be careless." I stated simply watching his shoulders relax slightly.

Proximo remained glued to the holo screen. His half tattooed face was painted a cold blue in the light. I saw those analytical eyes picking up on details, information, on damning evidence–likely in Diego's direction–but I kept my expression neutral.

"Can I ask who is accusing me?" He said to the room quietly.

I turned to him and watched his eyes. His skin showed no trace of sweat and his limbs did not twitch. He has been trained well by my own people but the eyes... such a gateway. His pupils dilated leaving only a sliver of his irises behind. Fear was the only cause.

I had seen it too many times to bother counting.

I walked slowly to his seated position and dropped into a crouch before him. The flinch was almost imperceptible. The action subconscious. I did not need Proximo to tell me the rest.

I drew up in half a thought and kicked the centre of his chair back off its legs. He crashed to the floor and gasped sharply, but I was not going to waste time. The Imperials had taken that luxury from us.

I flicked a hidden blade from my forearm and it shot into his shoulder. He howled in pain before he grit his teeth and clenched his arm. He did not dare defend himself–not given the two people in the room. He drew in thick breaths before his eyes flashed to my own.

There it was. Painted much more starkly than before with the pain clouding his defences.

I heard Proximo move to stand beside me as I looked down at him.

"Tell me I am wrong." I said to him.

"I don't work for him–"

Another blade glinted in the air before it found its mark deep within his ribcage. I paced before him slowly like a wildcat. He snapped his jaw shut and screamed into it. His blood did not satisfy me.

"Proximo, tell me I should stop this madness. Tell me I should trust one of my own." I said, still staring down the creature dragging in oxygen on the floor.

"That would be a mistake." Proximo said quietly. Sealing his fate.

I clicked my tongue once. "Liars really piss me off."

"Don't–JUST liste–"

The next flash of titanium went through his neck, shutting off his words entirely.

I turned to Proximo and nodded. "How bad?"

"I traced an Imperial ID number to his alias. The Emperor has been using him since the day you found Makayla in 48."

I froze and turned to look down on the body that grew colder by the second. It should have lasted longer. "He set up Makayla." I uttered quietly.

"The Emperor practically dropped his daughter into your lap. It's very possible bio-scans of her return negative because she is not of Imperial blood at all." He murmured thoughtful. "This explains the need for the Emperor to be rid of her. A dirty secret. Ammunition for political unrest."

I whirled on my Second now. "How deep does this go?" I growled. "She doesn't–" I sucked in a breath and dragged my hand across my dark waves of hair. "Makayla knows nothing of this does she?"

Proximo watched me silently.

"She is not who we thought her to be that much is clear. How much she is keeping hidden from us is not... How much do you really know of Makayla Xavier, Scorpion?"

This gave me pause. This made me hesitate. The girl with the wide blue innocent eyes... was it possible that they held more within them? An infiltrator to the Imperial family? A mere pawn in some elaborate game of classes? Perhaps she knew nothing of her origins at all.

"Enough to know she is worth getting out of that tower. If the Emperor really does want her gone badly enough then we need to make this happen. Her background can wait."

Proximo nodded and snapped a few knuckles against his fist. "The problem is how much the Emperor knows of our inner workings. Our weapons, strategy, locations... I did wonder how Hades pin pointed our previous base of operations."

"The signal jammers." I stated, coming to the same relisation Proximo already had. The damn mission. The reason I had lost Makayla had been for nothing–she had been taken because of this piece of SHIT–

A plasma gun was in my hand before my thoughts finished and I sent half a burning cartridge into Diego's limp body. Burning holes smoked as I turned my back on that waste of carbon.

"Box that body and send it to the Imperial tower. Stick a fucking ribbon on it." I snarled.

"You always were one for a good birthday gift." Proximo muttered behind me.

I did not laugh. There was nothing funny about betrayal and no end to what I would do to rectify it. "Get your damn sister in here in one hour. I want every one of my guard checked before we infiltrate. Whatever the cost, find everything."

"Consider it done." He said simply.

I turned back to him before I reached the doors.

"It's about time we stopped being two steps behind the Emperor. If it's dirty secrets and face he wants to save, that is exactly what I will take from him. Fuck the underground entrances. We go in looking like golden-faced liars. Like friends, like those from his pure blood Sector 1 before we tear the masks off and tear his world from him. Ask the faceless to get us some new skins. And get us a god damn event to attend."

Proximo now looked at me with a new level of savagery in his smile.