An eerie stillness settles over me as I stare at the boy. Aurix. I remember his name. And I remember how his face felt against my knuckles when I humiliated him uptown, then again that night in the University district.

Seems he hasn’t forgotten, either. Thick, taped-up fingers knead prideful fists at his hips, like a panther who just had a rabbit thrown in its cage. Nothing but murder on the mind.

When I first saw him, he was just another face to forget. I didn’t have the time or care to notice the similarities he shares with the statues on the Kingswalk or the spray painted murals around the Vents. Prodded now by Valance’s psionic grip, those similarities are the only things I can see. He’s younger and stockier than the man those murals portray, stern face chiseled by anger. Got someone else’s small nose, and her eyebrows too. But the sharp angles of his cheekbones, that heavy brow and eyes raging with tempestuous color. The burnt mix of orange-red colors that flow through his cometlike mane. Individually, the pieces would mean nothing to me. Together?

It’s like I’m staring down the surly, spitting image of Dad in his college years.

Seems Aurix has found some more fitting company since the last time I saw him. He wears black now. A fitting shade striped with Gami’s particular shade of platinum, not the tri-color ensemble of a university student. His proud shoulders are dusted with snowflakes like a brick wall in winter; plain white shirt just waiting for fresh bloodstains.

“Worse than that, I assure you,” Valance says, shifting aside while Aurix jostles his way into the train. His eyes only briefly flick at her. Some sort of mental link between the two that lets them communicate telepathically while she steps out onto the station platform. “I’m glad you recognize him. Saves us all a lot of time.”

Her control over my body manhandles me out of my chair and forces me down onto my knees like gravity’s suddenly tripled. My legs buckle without a fight, leaving me heaving for breath as my body rebels against the extreme amount of outside influence. Skin flushed red from strain. Sweat streaks down my jaw. My shoulders shudder as I force my gaze up to Aurix.

“Came all this way for a rematch? I’m honored.”

Elemental fire flickers around his fingers, tapping against his leg. Outside, the departure tone rings out into the hollow station. He glances back at Valance. “She’s all mine?”

“I’ll be keeping her on a tight leash. Have your fun. But don’t rush- she might change her mind yet.” Valance glances down at her JOY as she fires up a projector screen. “The others are already intercepting Jolie’s escort. I’ll hop the southbound line and meet them midroute. Keep an ear out in the event we need more backup.”

I can’t even look high enough to see if we’re back near the arena. Can only fight my head far enough over to stare Valance dead-on in her pink eyes, watching the mockingly apologetic look she tosses my way. Her lips remain truculently still as she speaks directly into my head.

Honestly, I don’t quite understand the appeal of beating a helpless opponent until her brains are painting the deck a very boring shade of grey, but that’s what Aurix wanted in exchange for his aid. And who am I to deny a spurned brother his rightful reunion? Another chime echoes through the station, stealing her attention for a moment. Agree to serve with me as an equal, and I’ll call him off.

I chuckle darkly. “If you think he’s going to listen to you, you’re dead wrong.”

All the more reason for you to consider an alliance. But if you don’t wish to entertain my offer? She shrugs. My master isn’t quite as diplomatic as I am.

The doors hiss shut. A light impact echoes through the roof. The station slides to the left and falls away to the darkened metropolis beyond, though the walls in my head remain. I’m still a prisoner in my own body. Alone with the brute of a boy who reminds me so eerily of a younger, angrier version of my father.

Twenty years of pent-up resentment boil in those dark, oceanic eyes. I learned the long way that there’s no sandbag in the world that can salve that kind of anger. But unlike me, the world hasn’t forced Aurix to overcome his rage. He’s been handed a reason to focus it. Something that he can finally break, something that can give a point to those lost years.

I’d pity him, if he weren’t so clearly thinking about how slowly he’s going to kill me.

He keeps tapping one middle finger against his leg. Tap-tap, tap-tap, like a countdown clock. Angry even in his patience. Counting out the slights I’ve given him, both real and imagined.

“So you’re the reason I grew up without a father,” he growls. “My replacement.”

“I don’t even know who you are.” I snort in contempt. “In case it wasn’t clear the last time I sent you to a hospital, you’re no brother of mine.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“Then you’ve sunk real far just to be disappointed.”

“I came to see if you were really more worth raising than I was.” His knuckles crack one by one. “Seeing how this whole city wants a piece of you, I guess you must have been.”

“Whatever Thane or Valance told you about me, it was only half the story.” Pinned in place by the Psi’s distant control, I barely can manage a shrug. “Not that you’re gonna care. You’re just here to sandbag out those daddy issues.”

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“And you’re just another slap in the face from dear father.” Aurix straightens slowly, right arm winding slowly, so terrifyingly similar to my father in silhouette as we pass a lit-up skyscraper. The neon fades. “I thought it’d hurt worse, honestly. Seeing the bitch that Pops picked over me. You’re not even really his kid, not like me,” he almost laughs, shaking his head. “You’re just some runt with a birth defect. He probably brought you home out of pity. And yet he ended up picking you over me anyways. That’s some irony.”

“And here I was thinking there was nothing we could agree on.”

He hits me in the face.

Stars explode though my vision as my head hits into the floor. A rough hand grabs my collar and hauls me back up. Vaguely, I hear a slushy version of Aurix’s voice ask in a dead cold tone, “Still think you’re better than me?”

The metro is blurry and swimming from side to side as my eyes crack open. A brain-deep ache swells under my eye, already bruising. Blood oozes from one nostril. I can almost feel the knuckle imprint as I look back up with a pained sneer on my face. It’s only going to bring more of those hits, but I can’t stop myself from snorting a glob of blood from my nose. “You hit like a bitch.”

His fingers work. “That the best you got?”

“I’d say ask your dad, but-”

He punches me again, holding nothing back. My blood spurts over Dad’s jacket. My ribs creak. Insides groaning around the punch as I crack into the floor. I slump over the pain in silence, curling around it, still trapped in my own body. My next cough brings a mouthful of red, small dribbles spilling from the fresh split in my lips to roll across the deck.

“Dad didn’t pick me over you,” I spit out. “He left me behind, too.”

“And you idolize him like a dog for it.”

The insult strikes deeper than the punches. I snap back in a cold fury, head fighting back up to stare death at him. “He was the best father he could be. He was a good man. A hero. Ever taken a look outside? Seen those statues, seen the graffiti, asked anyone what the name Mars Mons means to them?” I hiss out a callous note of laughter. “And you… you have the audacity to think you deserve to criticize Dad just because you look like him in the mirror?” I glare through a mop of glowing white bangs. “You’re not his son. You’re just an ignorant prick who’s too dense to realize he’s playing games he doesn’t understand against people he can’t match.”

Aurix strikes like a snake in the grass. Plants a knee on the floor and wraps one killing hand around my throat, forcing me down against the deck. Anger twisting his face. “You don’t know a thing about me.”

“Sure,” I hiss back. “But I know plenty about Dad. And I know exactly what he’d say if he saw a bully like you.”

I stare coldly up at Aurix, watching my words wound him to the core. In some small way, I wish I’d known him before now. I shouldn’t want to fight him. Staring at him is like staring at a part of my past I’ll never see again. But then his face hardens, and I know that pity would be wasted on him.

“Dad.” Aurix breathes out a heavy sigh. “Isn’t that just rich.”

He squeezes. Everything in me spasms except my voice. I jerk against Valance’s psionic grip, but my body sits statue-still as he starts choking me to death. My animal mind tumbles in primal panic. First goes the air, pinched off between thick fingers. My breaths fade from panting to squeaks to nothing at all. Then the muscles of my neck begin to bruise. Cartilage crinkles as it’s made to bend inward. A void grows in my lungs. Like an industrial vice, Aurix doesn’t relent, only tightens further. Wringing me out like an empty bottle.

I stare up at him, eyes wide, unwavering like iron.

If this is how I go, this bastard isn’t going to have the pleasure of watching me squirm.

With the last of my breath, I wheeze, “I don’t want to fight you.”

His eyes flash in surprise as the doors cut open behind him. Another voice answers for him.

“Yeah. Well. I do.”

My glow vanishes. The walls in my head evaporate. All ten fingers uncurl from my throat. Aurix’s hand flashes up to intercept a blur of platinum that slashes for his jugular, catching the incoming blade with his palm right as it cleaves past his neck. A blur of black crashes into him with so much momentum that she hangs in midair, golden eyes dead cold.

“Get your filthy hands,” the blade pushes in, “off my girlfriend.”

Aurix gags, eyes wild, nano-edged metal sawn a quarter of the way through his shoulder. Blood sprays as Cal’s blade redirects and rips down his chest. His reply is ice-shock fast, a thunderous punch that skitters off her ribcage as she twists and throws herself to the floor, sliding between his legs to reach my side. Her blade whips in a backwards arc at his calves. A crimson arc slaps the deck. His hand snaps back like serpent fangs as he tries to snatch her by the ponytail.

He realizes the mistake one second after he takes his hands off me.

I explode off the floor. No aura, but I don’t need it. My shoulder drives into his stomach with the force of a ballistic sledge, hurtling him towards the door connecting us to the next car forward. I lunge after him. A powerful kick sweeps for my midsection as I dive into his range. My prosthetic arm nearly breaks his ankle when I block barehand. I spring off my feet with a kick of my own already chambered, heel snapping at his throat. A hand flashes up to slap my shin aside, but even if he’s as fast as me without a JOY, he can’t stop the right hook that follows.

Three of his knuckles shatter against my damascene fist. Aurix crashes into the door hard enough to leave a dent in the metal. We’re face to face. Orange against gold. And I’m in my element. Left jab, left jab, let him throw a panicked punch that whistles through my hair when I lean back, then whip a right hook into his skull faster than he can blink. A full-body swivel into three-sixty snap kick ends the combo, jackhammering him into the door so hard the auto-failsafes kick in and open the way, letting his body plows into the empty car on the other side.

Far enough from Cal that my glow has returned, ki swirls back into my body. My legs sing with the influx of energy. I burst after him. Still tumbling, Aurix hits expertly off the ground and somehow manages to flip up on a knee. Those Martial Artist instincts. Roiling Elemental flames reactivate and wreathe his forearms. He slaps a hand to his collar to cauterize the wound. Friction marks score the deck as he wheels back to his feet, head snapping up as I smash to a meteoric stop ten feet away from him. Burning with aura, I sway upright and cock my chin in the universal challenge.

His eyes are wide. One hand halfway raised in instinctive defense as he sees the gulf that separates someone like him from someone like me. Against the roiling, twisting nova of energy that pours from me, Aurix’s flames are like matches held to the sun.

He’s paralyzed by it.

We’re both panting as we stare off. My skin burns, lit up like a halogen bulb. Fingers itching to let it out. Invisible to my kinetic sense, Cal strides up beside me, blade smearing its bloody coating off against the windows. Before she can strike, the chime of an incoming JOY call erupts from Aurix’s belt and Valance’s penthouse accent cuts through the maelstrom.

“-complications escalating. We’re on the primary target. Aurix, get out of there now. You’re outmatched. Kalavakus is incoming for aerial pickup. Director Mons is the new priority.”