– S C O R P I O N –

Instead of facing the woman I loved and tearing out her heart, I decided to delay. Who could blame me for wanting to prolong the inevitable for one more evening? It's all I seemed capable of doing these past few weeks...

I splashed through questionable puddles in Sector 38 as I walked. I didn't have the classic swagger in my step, the trademark crimson cloak on my shoulders or even the general appearance of lethality. I was entirely mundane and mistakable.

I had exited my keep from the hidden underground tunnel and now just wandered aimlessly beneath a black hood.

People knocked my shoulders as I went but I didn't even cast it half a thought.

I was reliving memories. I thought of Makayla's stare. The first time I had beheld those crystalline blue eyes and saw nothing short of light and innocence. My comm link sounded in my ear, but I didn't even note what the robotic voice said.

I thought of her lips, the way they smiled when I let my armour fall away and she could see me for who I truly was. I thought of the way they turned into a snarl and her eyes had filled with that rare darkness. Twice I had seen it. Once when I had abandoned her in Sector 52. Again when she finally accepted my own darkness and had attacked me in the training rooms.

I smirked and shook my head. Such fire beneath the innocent face. I was glad I had lived to see it while I had time with her.

My feet had continued carrying me further than I had realised because I was suddenly staring at the face of the Crypt. My old friend.

Many a time I had come here to drink myself into oblivion, find contacts for business or just fight in the pits for as long as my anger lasted.

One of the bouncers saw my approach and dropped a nod. He didn't know my true identity but I was always in similar attire when I visited.

The stench of sweat and alcohol greeted me like an unbearable relative. I pushed through the packed crowds and couldn't care less what drinks splashed onto me as I went.

The music was almost deafening and the bass was not allowing me to think for more than a moment. Ideal.

"Oooo!" The crowds jeered as one of the fighters in the pit took an uppercut to the jaw. I paused briefly to watch a beefy bald man stubble into the fighting wall feet below and spit out blood. He grinned insanely through a broken and crimson smile.

"Finish it!" Someone roared nearby.

In that moment the bloodied fighter drew a hidden knife and prepared to stab the approaching fighter. I rolled my eyes and turned towards the fighter's bookie.

I didn't need to see that worthless grunt win like that.

The crowd exploded in a mix of outrage and joy when what I assumed was a win for the cheater. It wasn't like I had the cleanest history in fights so who was I to judge? I grabbed a nearby bottle and downed the contents. I didn't even wince as the fire tore down my throat. I tossed it into the crowd behind me as I walked.

Finally I stopped before him. I slapped fifty thousand credits down on the table in front of the skinny dark skinned man. He eyes it greedily and tipped a thinly brined hat at me.

"Good ta' hav ya back, Red." He said in a raspy voice.

I nodded and turned towards the back room. In minutes I had a red bandanna wrapped closely over half my face and a black hood on top. I coated dark black powder under both eyes and left my weapons and armour discarded and didn't look back.

The crowds exploded when they saw me and cash started flying in hands. Clearly the bookie didn't waste any time in announcing my arrival.

"Sectoooor 38! Do we have a show for you today!" The comments roared over the mic. "Our champioooon has RETURNED!" Roars filled the air and even the music paused. "Who will step into the ring with Red?! Who is willing to face the savage—"

A massive body dropped into the pit in a thud and puff of dust from the chalked floor.

The room stilled and a shirtless man that had more tattooed skin than normal skin glared in a slow circle above him.

"Enough of this shit." He spat. "Winner takes all when I knock the life out of this fake ass wannabe." He growled.

"My money's on him lasting 15 seconds!" One of the crowd screamed. Suddenly other members rushed to shout in bets and the buzz built to boiling point.

I sighed and walked through the rest of the gawking crowd. I dropped into the pit in a crouch. He immediately levelled me with a venomous glare.

But it wasn't because of who I was or the training I'd had burned into me from birth that kept the fear away... it was the complete hollowness I now felt. Because I hadn't placed fifty thousand credits on myself to win. I had done it to lose.

He launched himself at me with two wild haymakers to my stomach. I blocked one and took the other full force. My breath left me and I stubbled back a step.

He grinned savagely. "I knew it was all talk." He spat. The crowds gasped and shouted in outrage at a fix. I couldn't give less of a shit.

He threw a jab and then a quick side kick into my leg. I grit my teeth as I dropped to a knee. Before I had time to look up, he threw me off my feet entirely with a straight punch to the face.

I drew in a ragged breath from the ground and felt the blood pouring down my nose.

"The fuck are you doing!" One man roared from above me. I made out his shadowed face and stared at him for a moment. What was I doing?

Letting my body take the beating my mind had taken. I needed to feel something other than bottomless emptiness or I would—

A fist grabbed my hair that had fallen from my hood and dragged me to my feet.

"Ain't got no fight now?" He punched my stomach. "Don't give a fuck?" Another punch, I started coughing out blood. "You think this will change anything?" He said with mockery and a cruel smile.

Suddenly he had the emperors face. I blinked rapidly but it remained.

"You don't deserve her and you never have. The only reason she stayed was because she grew bored of Sector 1. You were nothing more than a game!" He cackled joyfully.

I lost my emptiness. In fact I lost all sense of the world entirely but for absolute rage and hatred. My vision went red.

I twisted under his grip rapidly and wrapped a leg behind and shoved. But I didn't stop. I took his arm before he even realised he was falling and pulled it straight. In the same moment I kicked sharply into his ribcage. His arm dislocated instantly.

A cry of pure pain screamed out of him. The crowd suddenly came alive too. But they were nothing.

I would destroy him. I jumped behind him and kicked his knee sideways. I heard the tear of muscles but it wasn't enough. The man fell to his knees but I was too far gone. I wrapped an arm behind his neck and squeezed.

The crowd started to grow quieter as they watched him claw at my unbreakable hold. He was dying now.

Shouts started going around me. In the back of my mind I knew the fight was long over but I needed to feel the life die from the emperor—

Hands grabbed me from behind. I acted on instinct alone. I grabbed the hand and twisted it. The man shouted and drew his hand back with a pained look.

"The fights' over asshole!" He shouted.

It was all too much. Too much red, too much hate... I ran at the pit wall and activated my boot thrusters in the last second. I launched myself out and landed before the shocked crowds.

"Move!" I snarled at them, more like a demon than anything.

They didn't hesitate and scrambled away from me like the petrified sheep they were. When I blew the doors open out of that festering shit hole I let out a shout of pure rage.

The bouncer jumped slightly before turning on me with a glare.

"Move along." He said gruffly.

I turned to him slowly and ripped my red bandanna off. The black was still under my eyes and the hood over my head, I probably looked like a monster. But I still too lost in my hate to even care.

I strode up to him rapidly and he then drew a fusion pistol. I didn't pause. He cursed loudly and aimed it at my head.

"You fucking try—"

He didn't finish. I lunged, disarmed him in half a second and turned it on him instantly. His eyes widened and he stared like a lost boy at my darkness.

"Why are—" I wrapped my finger around the trigger.

"SCORPION!" A voice tore through the air. I froze and continued to glare at the terrified man in front of me.

Footsteps sounded behind me and I spun to level the pistol at Proximo. He shook his head as he approached.

"This is not what you do." He growled. "You protect your people. You do not kill without reason." He snapped.

I heard frantic footsteps disappear into the building behind me. I didn't tear my focus from my second in command.

"Maybe I should change that." I spat. "I feel I need more fear running through this city's veins."

"Respect. Scorpion. Not fear. That is something you and I know are very different lines to cross. Both with very different results." He tilted his head with a frown. "Or have you forgotten the difference?"

"I DO NOT NEED A LECTURE FROM YOU!" I shouted at him. I tossed the fusion pistol across the ground and strode forward to get in his face.

He didn't move an inch and regarded me with that infuriatingly cool demeanour. I glared at his half tattooed face.

"What do you want from me?! I'm not the perfect leader you think! You should never have put me in that place! Never have let me take that God's damned emperor's daughter!" I threw my hands above me in desperation.

"What has it done for us other than weaken me? I am a shadow of my former self and it is pathetic, Proximo!" I finished in a growl.

He silently watched me before speaking. "Is that what it is? Because I was under the impression that you have never been stronger." He said quietly.

I shoved past him and towards the nearest parked fusion craft. He caught up easily and stopped me. "Come."

I followed silently as he lead us to my waiting craft. When we both were seated inside the dimly lit interior he spoke again.

"I never should have left such ideas in your mind with no solution." He murmured. "But I have a solution for you."

I continued glaring out of the window as we flew through the sky. Nothing was a solution when I wasn't by Makayla's side. Nothing would even matter when I was separated from her and she went to live her life with some prick—

"You will stay together." He finally said.

I stiffened and turned to him. Surely I had misheard. "There is no universe where Makayla and I stay together and alive." I deadpanned.

"No..." Proximo agreed with a smirk. "But not unless the universe thinks she's dead."

The man has lost his mind. Or he has just saved my own with his damn genius.