– S C O R P I O N –

I could do nothing as the very man I had to end strode through the parting crowds. There were too many eyes in the room. Too many bodies, too many guards on the wrong side. I silently clenched my teeth as he lavishly walked the marble floor with an unconcealed smile. The kind a viper showed before its fangs sank into your neck.

"My darling daughter. Finally we have a moment to reconvene." He said practically dripping irony.

The shiver that passed Makayla was almost unnoticeable and I almost drew a vanta glass blade on him there and then. But I still held face.

"Father." She swallowed. "Please. You remember the foreign relations affiliate Miss Kelsey?"

His cold, dark eyes did not leave hers as a thousand unsaid things raged beyond the black pools.

"I do, a pleasure." He returned curtly still staring her down.

I took the moment and cut in. "Emperor Xavier, such a pleasure to see you again. A shame on such unfortunate circumstances." I finished boldly.

His eyes cut to me quickly. The immediate threat suddenly dragged away from her.

"Whatever do you mean by that?" He offered nothing on his face but promise of a career end with the wrong words said. Fortunately I didn't give a single shit.

"Well our continent does not give time to rebels and criminal factions the way Merridian indulges them. It's practically humanitarian." I uttered, trying to incapsulate the pompous woman and backhand him in the same move.

It worked. His demeanour entirely shifted to that of a man with too much power. His smile turned more dark and he appraised me closely. Too closely.

"Yes I suppose so, Miss Kelsey. What was it you gave time to when your people revolted last decade in a military coup?"

I could see Makayla shifting uncomfortably beside me but still not daring to jump in. Not with the knowledge she had now. What needed to be done. But I'd done my homework on the woman's home ground.

"We executed all affiliates and bribed the leaders of the group." I said with a bored look. Acting like the leadership didn't disgust me through and through from the pair of them.

The Emperor only grew more amused.

"Yes a leader must rule with an iron first. Wouldn't you agree?" He drew slightly closer to me and I fought the urge to palm a dagger. "A leader must know when to use all the pieces at their disposal." The look on his face chilled me in a way it shouldn't have. In a way that said I was steps behind even behind the face of one of the pigs in power.

He drew in inches closer and I held my ground and my gaze, only a foot apart.

"Did you really think I would let you walk out of my tower a second time, Scorpion?" He whispered to me. Making the world fall away around me. Everything sounded far away.

He watched me with a cool look that told me he really was ahead of the game. That he had always known. Makayla couldn't move either. Our standoff lasted seconds as we took each other in. But the Emperor was never more at ease. He called over a waiter with a hand flick and took a glass slowly watching us.

He took a long sip and set it back down.

"I won't kill you here." He said with a false smile as a familiar face dropped him a bow and continued to chat in the crowds so close to us. The man did everything to save face after all.

"You will walk with me to the top of those stairs and you will do so with smiles." He told us, stepping back slowly and patting down the side of his black suit.

I set my tongue between my teeth and bit down hard. He waited for me to counter, to sign our deaths and act now. When I moved he smiled. We walked a slow walk. At this point Makayla wove her arm through mine and held it tightly like an anchor to this world. It was mine too.

He turned his back on us, entirely at ease and the crowds moved. Like puppets he owned every single one of them. If he knew everything he could have tapped the comms. It's the only way. Another mole? If Dazz had betrayed us...

I saw Proximo move in the corner of my eye. His cane in hand he walked with Octavius. Both wearing the faces of the rich and powerful–they tailed us casually and only stopped when Imperial guards stood at either side of the doors at the top of the stairs.

We ascended and they did not.

No matter how much lift access we had, they wouldn't be getting past the guards in this room unless they wanted to blow what little cover remained of the rest of my people. It came to my attention that he only identified me because of my proximity to Makayla. An easy play.

"Alex." Makayla whispered panicked. "If he gets us into that lift it's over no matter where it goes." She told me quickly under her breath. "Every floor is–"

I pushed my fingers through her making her words stop as we moved up the last of the stairs. When we passed four guards now stationed at them I spoke quietly.

"I will not let him harm you."

She caught my eye then and it was now more for fear of what that entailed. When I said these words it normally meant I was about to do something mad. Daring. Something the leader of Division 52 would do.

The doors closed heavily behind us and ten guards drew towards us. Two more waiting at the end of the hallway by the glass lift. One of which–one who would not follow those orders. The first two guards seized our arms and moved to bind them behind our backs.

The moment I felt my hands touch I kicked out a concealed blade from my leather shoe and impaled it in the guard's shin. His scream set the room alive.

I threw Makayla behind me, grabbed his neck and yanked his body in front of mine as I ripped a pistol from the screaming guard's holster. Plasma sang across the lobby and lit up his torso in seconds as the Emperor's personal guard moved to eliminate the threat. A threat he had not calculated for at all.

I shot the two closest guards in the head before the first round of plasma could even smoke in the body I held. The blood splashed across Makayla but she didn't hesitate to throw herself onto one of their bodies, grappling for a weapon in a cocktail dress.

My inside man suddenly turned from the group of guards and shot the nearest guard next to him in the back. Only now did the Emperor look briefly shocked as he was quickly closed ranks on by his personal guard. They were shooting and moving–ushering him back to the lift. I threw the human shield off me and rolled away from fire.

Now a fully automatic fusion gun was in my hands and I ended the remaining guards in moments. My vanguard armour briefly flashed black and dismissed a few fusion rounds meant for my heart. By the time the last man dropped I had my sights on the Imperial group piling into the lift. I shot off a quick burst as I ran for them.

Rounds found their marks in a neck and back. They fell to their knees as they took the kill shots not meant for them. The glass slid shut and the rounds smashed into the panel but did not penetrate it. I snarled as he watched me calmly beyond the impact glass, dripping with lines of red blood from his own people.

He merely shook his head before the lift flew upwards.

I turned swiftly and saw Makayla lower her gun. She was crouched over one of my personal guard dressed as an Imperial. He had taken a hit to the leg and bled profusely. I jogged over them as I had a hand to my comm.

"Proximo, Kartuga is down. We're blown. Get to the lobby by whatever means and secure the floor. Get Dazz to freeze all roof access."

"Moving now." He returned calmly. "We're still proceeding?"

"I'll kill him myself." I growled as I ended the comm.

I dropped the gun and ripped the suit jacket off. I swiftly cut off the white shirt arms and my vanguard armour now showed its intricate deep black plating over my torso. It's camouflage compromised. I pulled a dagger off my upper arm holster and held a plasma pistol over it covering the doors as Makayla wrapped one of my shirt sleeves around Kartuga's leg.

"He needs a nano salve in the next twenty minutes or he will bleed out." Makayla said breathing heavily.

I nodded as I trained my gun on the main doors to the room full of oblivious dancers beyond. When the doors finally opened Proximo and Octavius had their own faces and more guns on show than weapons dealers.

"The guards?"

"We did it quietly. But the bodies will be noticed soon enough and the lobby will be swarmed." Proximo said calmly as he stepped over bodies with his gun trained. When he was satisfied he turned and moved a long lounge chair from the wall with Octavius and barricaded the heavy doors.

"Get Kartuga out through the ground–" I began.

"The ground is compromised. They were waiting. The underground entrance was a set up–a final parting gift from Hades." Proximo growled as he wedged another chair against the door.

"Fuck." I spat as I lowered my gun and clenched my dagger tightly. "We need an exit strategy."

"Dazz has anti-air down already and clearance in Sector 1 airspace but that is exactly what the Emperor is doing right now." He said with an edge in his voice.

My head snapped to him. "That craft does not leave the roof. I don't care what you do."

He nodded grimly already speaking with his sister as he held one hand on his gun. Octavius was a quiet and lethal presence watching blind spots and bodies for threats.

"Alex."

I turned to see Makayla's bright blue eyes watching mine as she held two hands over Kartuga's leg. Her arms were the colour of her dress now. I dropped my gun and knelt beside her.

"He's not going for a craft. He's going for a pod."

I frowned as I stared at her in shock. "What do you mean?"

"There's a space station for emergencies, that pod launches from the roof and it can't be intercepted like a fusion craft. I'm telling you this–because you can stop him–" Her eyes cut quickly between mine. "–It's a manual override in his office on the 250th floor. But that floor... there's so many guards I–"

I placed two hands on her shoulders cutting off her hesitation. "Makayla I promised I'd keep you safe. This is how I keep that promise."

"Alex." She pleaded desperately but I was already standing. She made to move and Kartuga groaned in pain and her hands flashed back down. "Keeping your promise also means coming back alive from this."

"That's why I'm going with her." Proximo said flatly as he strode past both of us towards the lift. "Guard her with your life." He ordered Octavius as he paced past. The new guard merely nodded and kept his gun on the main door. His dark suit fit him like a glove and the heavy rifle promised a much finer cut.

Proximo had a hand to his ear, a silent conversation with his sister and access to the building. I turned back to Makayla and rested a hand against her cheek. She briefly closed her eyes against it.

"Come back to me."

"Always." I told her.

I rose and followed my second to the end of the hall to finish what we started.