MAIZE

"This is it," Maize said as she opened the aged creaky wood door.

The old rusted key—which she had pulled from under one of the loose floorboards—was retracted from the lock after she pushed the door ajar. We're as the casino was large, clean and modern, this apartment-sized house was nothing like that. The space inside was shadowed by the lack of proper light filtering in through the shudder closed windows. It made it hard to make out the prices of furniture covered with white sheets in their path as they walked further inside—such, resulting in a thud and a mumbled curse from Kishan behind her. Dust covered the ledges of the window cills. Clearly, this place had not been used for a long time.

"Watch out," Maize warned as she moved around a cloth-covered table.

"Can we get some light in here?" Kishan muttered.

"Certainly." A voice that was neither of their own answered, a moment before the lights flickered on and illuminated the small room.

"Holy hell—!" Kishan exclaimed as his body jerked in a fit of surprise, but the words were cut short as he let out a hiss of pain at the open wound in his shoulder. He had been applying heavy pressure on it, but the sudden startled movement appeared to cause him pain.

Maize glanced at him once before she turned her attention balantely to the casino owner herself, the bounty hunter rolling her eyes at the dramatics.

Cassandra seemed to have appeared out of thin air. And Maize was certain she hadn't announced her presence purposefully, wanting to come in with a grand entrance as always.

Though while that may have been what caught Kishan by surprise, the thing that caught Maize off guard was not the surprise entrance of her friend. It had more to do with the unconscious man she had tied to the wooden chair next to her.

At least she assumed he was unconscious.

"C, glad to see you're alright," Maize greeted, nodding in acknowledgement to her friend before she ever so obviously gazed past her to the man in the chair. His arms were bound with rope behind the back of the chair. Maize then added with a knowing look, "Seems you've been busy."

Cassandra gracefully brushed a wave of locks over her shoulder and grinned down at her captive. "Well, while the three of you were out running the streets trying not to die, I figured I might as well do a little work of my own."

"Interrogation?"

"My way, yes. I'm sure by now you can guess why."

"I can. Care to explain anyway?"

"Simple, I wanted to know who was indirectly responsible for the assault on my casino. Also, I believe a 'thank you' is in order, seeing how I've saved you the trouble of having to do it yourself, Blades."

"Sweet."

Cassandra smiled and glanced over at Kishan, then back at Maize, and she frowned with concern. "Is Testy One not with you?" she asked, eyeing Maize's expression.

"We got split up," she answered curtly, looking down.

Cassandra raised her head, "I see..."

"He said he'd meet us here, later," Kishan said when Maize didn't say anything after that. The truth was, she was worried. She had been the one who convinced Kishan that he would be alright, but now, she couldn't stop the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach asking what if he wasn't...

They quickly gave Cassandra a run-down of the events that had occurred after they went through the underground tunnels, the surprise attack, Kishan's wound, followed by what Alec had done and his agreement to meet up with them when he could, all the way up to when they arrived here. Cassandra listened, finishing with a rather grim look.

"My, my..." she sighed and commented, "Rough night."

"No kidding," Maize nodded in agreement. "What do you have here in terms of medical supplies? Kishan's shoulder needs to be taken care of, and he might need a stitch or two."

"I'm fine," Kishan muttered.

"If that's what you think then you're delusional," Maize snapped. "You've lost a pint of blood, maybe more."

"Alright fine—but I'm not delusional!" the FBI agent protested and Maize rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah."

"I had a kit out and ready. I figured at least one of you might need it..." Cassandra said as she walked over and ushered Kishan to take a seat as she sat beside him, opening the kit on her lap and pulling out the necessary equipment to tend to Kishan's shoulder. Cassandra was rather good at tending to wounds—better than Maize ever could anyway. So she didn't disturb as the casino owner calmly went to work.

A few minutes after cleaning the blood, Cassandra was preparing the needle to stitch up Kishan's shoulder.

"Ever been afraid of needles?"

"I'd say with everything I've seen, it takes more than a tiny pin to scare me."

"Even so, keep talking. This will sting so it's best you distract yourself."

Kishan hesitated for a moment before glancing to the man in the chair which neither woman had made a move to address since they lay the topic to rest earlier. "How about, while you do this and while we wait for Alec, you explain the story behind that guy," Kishan gestured to the man. "Who is he?"

Cassandra glanced over her shoulder at Maize briefly. "I'm sure you can answer that for me Blades. You recognize him no?"

Maize clenched her jaw slightly. "Yes."

Kishan was still staring across at the stranger. "He's still alive, right?"

"For now," Cassandra answered calmly. "But whether or not he stays alive or not is up to the two of you—and your detective, once he returns. Jack Martinez, if you recall," she said to Maize.

She did. In fact, the moment she saw his face she recognized him as the gambling man she had attempted to subdue as per a part of Cassandra's request to get information. She didn't expect to see him here, now, though.

"After you gave me his name I sent some of my men to find him late that night, but conveniently enough, he had gone and disappeared. Seems he knew something was coming and didn't want to be caught up in the mess. You see, Mr. Martinez here is actually somewhat of a chivato."

"A what?"

"A snitch, if you will. He deals underground information to injustice groups like the ones after you. He's the reason my casino was targeted and you three were sought after."

"That guy?" Kishan asked with a hint of skepticism in his voice as he glanced once again to the pathetic looking man tied to the chair.

"Indeed. Apparently, he's quite the giver of information, if you know how to match his price. I caught him quite close to my casino actually, watching the entire scene from afar."

Maize glared at the man and wondered out loud, "I wonder how much he'd give to keep all his current bones intact..."

"Grand idea," Cassandra answered. "Why don't we find out?"

Once Cassandra had finished with the last stitch on Kishan's shoulder, she rose from her seat and strode past Maize to where Martinez sat. She grabbed a bucket of water from the floor that Maize hadn't seen before, and she watched without expression as the casino owner dumped the contents over the man's head.

Upon the impact of the freezing cold liquid, Martinez's eyes flew open in shock before he began sputtering and coughing up water. Once done, and his initial shock had been neutralized, he fell back against the restraints of his seat and regarded the three in the room with opposing and slightly fearful eyes.

Cassandra stalked up close to him and leaned in close. "Someone has been quite talkative as of late..." she began slowly, staring eye to eye with Martinez.

His sudden expression read it all. Once those words were said, and he glanced once at Kishan and then at Maize, the exact situation seemed to register in his mind and he paled slightly. Maize could see the beads of sweat that had begun to dot across his forehead. His lips formed a grim line.

Maize smirked. "Oh don't get all tight-lipped on us now," she said from behind. "We haven't even had ourselves a proper introduction yet. For starters, the name isn't 'Sasha' but I think you know that by now, don't you?" Maize stated, watching as Martinez swallowed thickly.

"What the hell do you want?" he snarled lowly, glancing between Kishan, Maize and Cassandra. But it was clear that in this case, the two women were the more prominent threat.

"It's like she said, an introduction," Casandra purred in response. "Hola, I'm the woman who will promise to break every bone in your body if you do not comply with what I want. So...let's start off nice and simple...who did you tell about my friends here?"

Martinez immediately got nervous and Maize could see his jaw work tight. She smiled.

This was about to be a long night for him.

* * *

ALEC

He stared forward at the stranger. She gazed back evenly. The weight of her last words hung in the air between them.

"Impossible," Alec stated with a shake of his head, a harder look then falling across his face, "Kishan's partner didn't make it. He told us so himself."

"I'm sure he did, because I'm sure that's what he believed too, but it's not true, I'm alive," she responded. "Our mission went south one night and Kishan was discovered. I tried to get him out before they could kill him, but while I succeeded in getting him out, I couldn't do the same for myself. In my mind, I still had a mission to fulfil. It was a miracle that my cover hadn't been blown along with Kishan's, they didn't suspect me anyway, so I was able to maintain my cover with the gang."

Alec narrowed his eyes and stared dead at her. "That's got to be the biggest lie I've ever heard," he said.

"I assure you, it isn't."

"And so what? You expect me to trust you just like that? If you want me to believe a word you just said, then I need proof. I won't risk just taking your word on it."

"I suppose I would feel worried if you did," she replied solemnly. She then gave him a look, a hint of something like desperation in her eyes that hadn't been there before. "And I promise I will explain everything, but for now, we're too exposed out here. You have to see that. We should go to your friends. I know it was a lie when you told that man you didn't know where they went, so I'm looking for you to lead the way. Kishan will be able to verify whether or not I am who I say I am, since you obviously do not believe me..."

But the detective was still hesitant to let her go. If she really was Kishan's partner, then seeing her would be able to verify if she was lying or not. But if she wasn't, and she was lying, he would be leading her straight to her target. Plus her story was questionable—anyone could have made something like that up on the spot, if they knew the right facts.

"You need to make up your mind sooner rather than later," she said to him pointedly, as if she could see his internal debate.

Alec hesitantly for a few moments longer, struggling about his decision before he finally gave the woman a hard look, and dropped his arm from her throat. He took a step back as she rubbed across her collar bone where the pressure had been, but she did not show pain. She regarded him evenly with an approving look in her eye at his choice.

Alec only hoped it was the right one.