DIVISION 52 - BOOK II

CHAPTER L

A L E X

Proximo wasn't answering. Makayla was on the dark path to self destruction. And me?

I was trying to figure out how it had all gone to shit in the blink of an eye. I stared at my hands. They rippled briefly before I touched the side of my face and the stranger with red hair faded away. I kicked my feet out over the edge. Sitting on the lip of a landing pad looking down at fusion crafts racing between towers. Strands of my hair brushed my cheeks.

We both wanted an easy fix. Some action to bring it all back together. In her eyes that was taking it out on the woman who sat on Sector 1's throne. But I had kept her out of my world for as long as I could for a reason... I'd sooner take her father's place than let her become like that.

If I could see my future self I would have laughed bitterly at the state of me now...

You're stronger than this. You're better. Yet here you sit shrouded in self pity like some common Merridian nobody. Underworld rulers do not have time to wallow. They take what they want and if it doesn't work they change it themselves. You wouldn't survive Hades if he were still alive.

I chuckled humourless into the wind.

Lazuras. Hades. Emperor. Empress. Does it matter who takes aim at me next?

I pushed off my hands and leaned my elbows over my knees looking down. You couldn't see street level from this height. Just many floors, vendors, crafts and smog below. I wonder what she saw every morning from that sky tower. Was it hopeful? Did the clouds look nice hiding the city below?

She should have stayed there. Where you only needed to see a line of soft white and nothing else. Sector 1 was good at that. They would have kept her safe forever. She would never have had to see the wrong side of a barrel in her entire existence of ballroom dancing and false smiles. Maybe she could have gotten used to the notion that it was all there was. Maybe Velron would have done right by her.

The sound of fusion thrusters burst behind me. I didn't take my eyes off the drop below as something heavy landed on the pad behind me and boots hit the ground.

He whistled low and carefree before dumping himself right beside me on the lip of the edge.

"Long way down. Would you like a push?" Proximo inquired.

"Not today." I answered empty. "Maybe tomorrow."

He rolled his eyes.

"Must I pull you from your own mind yet again, Scorpion."

"That's not my title anymore–"

"Yes it is. And you know it." He rumbled.

I sighed and tore my eyes off the abyss. I stared into the depths of his steel grey eyes instead. The same ones that watched me with that level calm as I took a poisoned blade and ran it along my own palm rather than fight him unfairly.

"Do I look like I can run a fucking empire, Proximo?" I demanded over the winds. "Do I look like I can fight for the Underworld when I can't even for her?!" My voice broke and I sank my teeth into the side of my mouth avoiding his all seeing stare.

He rolled his neck and leant back on his arms appraising the city beyond us.

"My answer was yes in the beginning and it is yes now. No one else could have walked through what you have and come out alive on the other side." He said loud enough to be heard. "Your self hatred has nothing to do with your leadership ability. But I am not here as your Second. I am here as your closest friend, Alex."