– S C O R P I O N –

The shuttle's malfunction was far too convincing.

When I asked Proximo to make the shuttle seemingly malfunction from it's original course to Merridian I did not mean kill us.

The ship shuddered again as it reported one of the thruster failures and tipped our course literally continents off the location Makayla had input minutes earlier.

"I don't understand!" She yelled over the blare of automated warnings and crimson lights. "The computer system has multiple fail safes–"

"Warning. Navigation compromised. System reboot non operational." A content female robot informed us as we dropped out of orbit and into the hungry pull of gravity.

I turned to her calmly and set my hand over her forearm as she frantically tried to right the system location that would not be corrected... Not with Merridian's best hacker coordinating its trajectory as we spoke.

"Makayla."

Her eyes quickly shot to mine with a frown. "I can at least try–"

"Navigation failure. Coordinates unconfirmed. Please prepare for atmospheric entry." The shuttle announced.

"Makayla if you can't control where we land, at least focus on how we do." I told her loudly enough to be heard over the warning alarms.

At this my words got through. She dropped me a brief nod and began running checks on thrust power and landing stabilisers. I leant back against the upright chair as the pressure increased and the shuddering increased.

A thought crossed my mind far too late that Dazz could actually use this opportunity. Claim the error she had run into the ship crashed us into the side of a mountain–I shook it out of my head. She even said herself she didn't want to see her employer die before she got paid. But it probably wouldn't stop that woman from having fun with this. It made me grit my teeth.

"The landing gear and stabilisers are not compromised." Makayla said, with more focus now. "In fact the shuttle's entire integrity is undamaged–this doesn't make any sense." She mused as we hit a much harder shudder and flames enveloped the front visor.

We burned like a comet towards the earth. I had enough of a glimpse to know that it was a northern continent. Gods if she'd dumped us in Naxium mid winter–

"Mesosphere breached. Altitude at 160,000 feet." The shuttle informed us.

"Damn it that's fast." Makayla muttered, as she swiped at the holo and I felt the familiar buzz of G-force in my head. I watched her closely, acutely aware of just how unfamiliar Makayla was with it.

"How are you doing?" I asked her.

She shook some pressure from her head and blinked. "Fine. Just breathless."

"Take air in through your nose slowly." I ordered her and set my hand on her shoulder as the cabin pressure only increased. Falcons sent it through my bones frequently but if you haven't been exposed–

Her head dipped to one side briefly before I shook her.

"Alex." She mumbled as she struggled to stay conscious. "If the landing thrusters fail–you need to–engage the–" The words died on her lips as she fell out of consciousness entirely.

"Makayla!" I shouted, jerking her shoulder.

She remained out. I swore. I'd make that damn hacker loose a few minutes of consciousness when I returned.

The shuttle shook again violently as we cleared the raging flames of the upper atmosphere.

"Stratosphere entered. Altitude at 82,000 feet and declining." It sang above.

I activated the comm on my temple with one person in mind.

"What's your–"

"Shut the hell up and tell your sister to level the damn shuttle now." I all but snarled down the line over the alarms.

"You've entered the stratosphere above Naxium–"

"Thank you for the location update I already know. Slow us down and do it now!" I snapped back at my second.

I heard murmuring over the other end and brief argument. I swear to shit if she allowed this to happen–

"Some thrusters have been compromised. You were initially meant to slow in the outer mesosphere." He puffed in frustration and began shouting orders at his sister which followed by more mindless back and forth.

"Proximo, if you don't stop having a fucking domestic we're both going to be vaporised. Find a way to reconfigure the damn thrusters."

"There's something better but it needs to be timed right." He told me with his lethal calm back in place. I welcomed it back. "The shuttle has a series of emergency chutes. Do not activate them until you reach the last 10,000 feet. The weather conditions will shred them at this sp–"

"Of course. Because your sister sent us to the most hostile place on the planet with pieces of ice in the sky." I shot back with a hand flick.

Red numbers flashed downwards on the main visor and I merely rolled my eyes at the threat in them. What a pathetic way to die.

"I'm not about to be reduced to paste in a metal box because your sister cannot tell a ship to land." I told him simply and heard a snappy retort in the background making me smirk briefly. "Believe me Dazz. When I return you had better hope you're still good at masking your location." I said darkly while Proximo swallowed loudly.

He knew I was not the type to bluff.

"25,000 feet. Please engage landing protocol."

"I would love to, autopilot." I sang back sweetly. "But I am surrounded by more buffoons than you have back up systems."

A snort over the comm. "Is Miss Xavier enjoying her experience?"

"She's out cold. Normal human beings have not been exposed to 7Gs." I told him plainly as I watched Makayla's serenely beautiful face lean against the pilot chair. The things I put this woman through. I sighed through my nose.

"You are approaching altitude. Prepare to engage the chutes, this should be in the top right corner of your holo screen. You want the–"

"One that says emergency land?" I drawled for him.

"Indeed. I will tell you the second to engage."

I took a calm breath as the numbers ticked closer to 10,000.

"Engage landing thrust. Speed critical." The robot continued in merry cheer.

"Fuck off please." I told the ship.

A chuckle in my ear. "Twenty seconds."

My finger hovered over the touch screen. Blood singing in my veins. I had been in worse situations. Ships shot to hell... emergency pods... they were more risky.

"Five, four, three–" I glanced at the beauty of the blonde beside me and took a final breath.

"–two, one. Now."

I pressed the screen.

"Compromised. Please engage landing thrusters." The robot informed me.

I froze into the seat. You've got to be kidding–

"Now. Scorpion do it now!" Proximo said losing his calm in my ear.

"It's as screwed as the rest of this damn ship. Do me a favour and kill her for me when I become nothing more than pink snow." I shouted over the continuous alarms now.

"Fuck–fuck wait."

"There's no waiting we have seconds." I said flatly as I flashed my hands across the screen looking into the most basic backdoor coding methods to override the malfunction.

"Critical proximity. 6,000 feet. Emergency procedures–"

I fazed every sound out of my head. Became the cold and calculating machine I needed to be for this. This ship would not save us. But I could. I hit the central buckle and released myself from the chair. The last hope we had at this.

It took most of my strength to drag me from that chair at the force we hurtled at. I dragged an arm up and hit the white side panel I had checked before we left the damn station. I didn't think I would need the plan C.

I grabbed the parachute and threw it over my back as I heard only a few thousand feet left. I ripped the buckles off Makayla's limp form and dragged us to the exit hatch. There was nothing but calm adrenaline singing in my blood now.

I ignored more alarms and twisted the hatch door. The only thing engineers had been smart enough to make a manual open. As soon as it unlocked the door ripped backwards and white light hit us before the pressure ripped us out of the failing shuttle.

The cold slapped me like a brick to the face. We spun wildly lost in speed. I held one arm tightly against Makayla and took desperate late seconds to yank the chord down and open the chute. Our speed was still high and visibility was less than acceptable in the snow storm. I had to pray to any false god that we weren't in the mountainous range.

The way the snow stung my face told me we were crashing through the air at a lethal speed but slowing quickly. Just give us more distance to the ground...

I wrapped both legs around Makayla so that I could use both my arms to draw the strings tightly against the winds. It cut our course dangerously but we had more stability now I had control. It wasn't until I saw a jagged piece of black rock that I knew we were close to ground.

I tugged sharply on the right and guided us away from the stone, only to be met by an even larger face coming out of the rushing snow. I quickly ripped the left cord sharply and swept us away. The ground was coming in fast and hard now. I dipped us between shards of rock and snow that would have shattered our bones before I made out a clear expanse of white plain.

I aimed us through two more black outcroppings before we had a straight shot onto the white expanse. I pulled sharply down on both the last few feet before landing and we gazed the ground lightly before I let her go slowly with my legs.

The snow broke her fall. When I knew she was clear I dropped quickly out the sky and slid my feet to a run. I detached the chute quickly and dropped the backpack. Our suits were designed for the sub zero temperatures of space but our heads were painfully exposed.

I ran through the knee deep snow. The wind bit hard into my face but I focused on the trail back to her. By the time I waded up to the space she landed she was crouched over her knees dragging in breaths and utterly confused.

"Makayla." I said over the winds.

Her head shot up and she ran the remaining distance to throw her arms over my neck. "I thought this was a crazy dream. But dreams aren't this damn cold." She said in my hear.

I pulled her back and stared her in the face. "Let's do something about that."

I pulled up my wrist holo. "Proximo. We've crash landed." I said over the storm, as if he wasn't already aware and planning our immediate evacuation.

"An astute observation." He said sarcastically, as I heard tapping and conversations on his end. "A craft has already left Kuwellen. It will be with you in fifteen minutes. Your suits will keep you alive." He noted simply.

I nodded, watching Makayla spin on her heal and look for any trace of the shuttle.

"Your currency bar has been updated respectively and you will be dropped at your new accommodation."

"My thanks, I will keep you updated." I terminated the comm.

"Fifteen minutes!" I called to Makayla, who turned to me in shock.

"He found us already?" She called back with a lost look. I cracked a smile over the cold.

"He wouldn't be my second if he took any damn longer!"

Makayla shook her head at a loss. "What the hell happened, Alex?"

I held up a hand and dropped into a crouch to start piling snow instead of answering her. She stood there for a moment staring before she realised what I was doing. Then she dropped beside me and started packing snow densely to one side against the winds.

It took us a few minutes before a dense wall shielded us against the snow.

We dropped into a sit against it breathing slightly heavier. The cold always did sap energy from you like a leech.

"-now–what happened?" She said in a quieter but panting voice.

The snow had caught on her lashes and made her blonde hair go white. I brushed a few flakes from her cheeks before lying back against our snow wall.

"Your Imperial shuttle wasn't so Imperial." I told her as she frowned. "We went through the upper and lower atmosphere at a few thousand metres a second." I stated as her eyes widened. "The thrusters malfunctioned as did the emergency chutes. I had no choice but to take you and pull our own chute... the shuttle is in pieces somewhere off to the north."

She dragged a gloved hand through her hair slowly and pressed her back into the wall, touching my shoulder. I did feel a deep and sinking claw of guilt at the amount of risk I had put us through but she had no idea how much risk there was now in Merridian. How many raged for retribution and a new power under a dead Emperor. She did not need that world. She needed a clear space from threats and the Underworld. A space where she could express the passing of a family member without interference.

Proximo could deal with it for now.

"This is too much–the last thing we need right now."

I took her free hand in the snow and remained watching the blizzard speed over us.

"We're not without resources. Proximo has already arranged accommodation in the nearest city." I assured her.

"Where exactly is that? Where is this?" She gestured to the blanket of white around us.

"We're on Naxium. About 50 miles from Kuwellen."

"Naxium." She repeated in shock. "Possibly the worst place to land midwinter."

"Well, we landed. That hunk of metal more or less disintegrated. At least it won't be traceable."

She turned to me more fully. "I'd be surprised if an air space scanner didn't pick up on that."

I shrugged. "Even if they did there's not much left to find. As will be our strategy for as long as we're here."

"Alex, we can't stay here–"

The sound of a fusion craft rapidly approaching cut her off. Not quite the luxury either of us stepped into but I wasn't about to complain. Kuwellen was by no means a sky tower city...

It landed heavily against the snow. It outer metal plating an ugly and frozen shell against the winds it was used to. I pulled open the heavy door and gestured for her to enter. Her ice blue eyes held mine briefly before she entered the warmth of the craft.

Our enemies wouldn't find us in these frozen cities. For as long as she needed we were off the grid. A part of a frozen wasteland as Merridian burned hot for a new Empire.

– M A K A Y L A –

A lot of things were not adding up. My family had a vast history of making assumptions, but I did not. Things rarely aligned so perfectly or imperfectly all at once. I knew enough to know it wasn't how the world worked. The only reoccurring thought that plagued me was if Alex sensed the same or if she deliberately overlooked it.

I glanced at her. She stared out the window at the frozen expanses that shined bright white light into the craft interior. Our driver didn't even ask questions. We were far from Division 52's reach but not their deep pockets. Credits spoke volumes but surely...

"It's really good that Proximo was able to secure our transport so quickly from Kuwellen." I noted in a murmur beside her, closely watching her burning golden eyes scan the horizon.

She nodded slowly as her eyes continued to watch the white blankets rush by.

"Did he mention how the shuttle malfunctioned in the first place?" I probed, unsure of why I needed to press so much. Alex was the last person to manipulate the truth.

"The landing thrusters did not respond, nor did the emergency chutes." She said slowly turning to face me more fully. Her golden irises appraised me more intently now. Gathering traits of my own curiosity and making her own conclusions.

I cleared my throat.

"I'm just shocked that it could have–"

She suddenly sighed long and loud, pinching the bridge of her nose in the process.

"Fuck it. I can't keep this up." She muttered. Then stared me down. "I ordered Dazz to make the ship malfunction, Makayla."

I froze in my seat and stared at her back. Nothing on her face told me this was a joke. A shame.

"Why on earth would you do that?" I whispered barely able to contain my mixture of confusion and anger.

"Merridian is raging out of control, the rebels–"

"Stop making excuses." I interrupted with a humourless laugh. "Why lie to me? You preach how much you hate it–"

"Because your father is dead." She snapped in lethal coldness. "The fact that you haven't caught up to processing this tells me enough. You're making rushed decisions based on an inability to face the facts."

"I've done no such–"

"Last night?" She demanded with a brow raised. My face heated brightly but I didn't back down. Didn't even throw the driver a glance to check he wasn't picking up on our conversation.

"It's not like you were disagreeing!" I hissed back.

"I know you more than you realise." She said seriously. "It told me you didn't want to put much thought into anything. I can distract you Makayla, but I cannot put off the grief that will follow."

"I'm not asking you to!" I grit out through my teeth. "Stop making decisions for me regardless. You might find that if I started doing the same you'd be pretty pissed off."

She considered this for a moment before leaning back into her chair and setting her arms upon the backs the same way she had when her people had stolen me into her craft that day in Sector 1.

"You want me to stop interfering with your life?" She asked nonchalantly.

I rolled my eyes and turned to face the window. "There's no point in asking when your ego is inflating inside the very craft." I muttered.

To my surprise she snorted. "I'm not trying to parent you, Makayla. I have reasons to be protective."

I sighed and leant back in my own chair, resting my head on the back and letting it dip in her direction. She was still watching me closely but I could tell her words were sincere. She'd almost lost me countless times. I haven't given her many opportunities to prove I'm not a danger to myself.

"We have a rare opportunity now, Scorpion." She frowned at me but I continued. "We're as far from that lethal city as possible and I have the most deadly one at my side. Enough with passing me off to your Second. You. I want you to train me with every single thing you know. I want to become my own protection." Her jaw slackened slightly but she stayed silently appraising me. "I want to return to that city with more ways of surviving than Proximo has knives on his person." I stated flatly.

"It was never about passing you off..." She mused as she considered my words. "I never trained you because I never wanted to hurt you. I would hurt you if you really trained with me, Makayla." She emphasised as she didn't break my gaze. The fire in her eyes seemed to glow. "Proximo never truly gave you what you'd need to hold your own either. How could I let him? Our bodies are built like weapons for a reason. You wouldn't return with bruises–he's broken bones and asked my people to fight back."

"And now you're going to do this for me." I told her without room for negotiation. "Because if you don't, Alex. One way or another you will lose me. Whether it's the rebels, or the new Silver Sun."

This made whatever argument in her head disappear. It made the realisation sink in further. Something she already knew but wasn't prepared to accept just as I was not ready to come to terms with the obliteration of my last known family member.