MAIZE

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Maize ignored the warning as she stretched her arm forward, reaching for the next tree branch in front of her to pull herself higher.

She looked over her shoulder to throw a smug look at the detective left behind on the ground a few meters below with his arms crossed as he observed her assent with a dubious expression.

"Remind me again why you even bothered to follow me out here if all you planned on doing was nagging me the whole time?" she called down in response, turning away to focus on her course ahead as she heard his answer. Trees surrounded every which way they turned, and Maize could feel the rough bark of the large old tree under her fingertips as she balanced on its larger branches.

"Because when you left you gave off the feeling that you were going to go out and do something stupid that warranted for supervision," he replied snappily just as Maize stepped on a not so stable branch that sent a clump of chipped aged bark skittering dangerously away before it fell to the ground. "And oh gee look at that, I was right."

Maize rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn't see her from as high as she was. "I don't need your supervision...or your annoying input for that matter," she retorted.

She could hear a rumble of muttered words from the detective below, but she allowed the sound to flow onto deaf ears as she continued to climb.

A silent yearning she had kept inside since they had come here; she had been waiting for the chance to get a few moments to herself, find a worthy tree that soared higher than she could see, and climb. She wanted to experience the adrenaline of ascending up a perch so that she would be able to turn around and look at the world from a viewpoint higher than she could ever be on her own. To look out at the spectacle around her and feel at ease, just looking, just seeing.

Her mentor had always taught her that the most beautiful thing you could ever see was what you chose to view around you. And now, she chose to look not down but forward, ahead, reminding herself that there was always more, so much more.

The world was unconquerable, no matter who you were and what you tried. The earth and sky would always be a wild expansion beyond anyone's control. And she revelled in that, accepted that with ease, like a calming peace of thought that eased her mind.

"Did you fall asleep up there or something? Don't tell me you got caught daydreaming," the detective's voice called out to her when she hadn't moved for several moments, breaking her from her thoughts and her brief moment of serenity.

Suddenly annoyed, Maize spun on her heel with one hand still gripping onto the branch above her and turned with the intention of giving the detective a sharp piece of her mind. But she hadn't been expecting the sudden strong gust of wind that blew into her face and rocked the branches upon which she clung to for balance.

In her haste to try and grab onto another branch with her other hand, her footing underneath her fumbled, and suddenly, Maize lost her grip entirely.

She was falling, but luckily, it wasn't as if she had been thirty feet in the air. She knew from the distance she had climbed, the most server thing she could expect to suffer from was maybe a few scratches from the twigs below, a sore body part, a bruise at most. She could live with a bruise. She had survived much worse before.

One thing she didn't count on feeling as an effect of the fall however; was embarrassment.

That, and being caught in the arms of one smug as hell detective.

How he managed to stay on his own feet while the entire weight of her body crashed into him was beyond her, but the asshole somehow managed to do it anyway.

He smiled like the cheeky devil he was known to be. "Gee, falling for me already, Maizey?"

She looked up and stared at him with a mixture of shock and appall. "You did not just say that..." she furrowed her gaze pointedly.

"Yes, I did."

The eye-roll she gave him in response did not do justice to the annoyance she had laced within the gesture.

Fucking West, she thought with disarray as she quickly and quite unsubtly, scrambled around in his arms to the point he nearly dropped her before she could get out.

Only when she stood and rose firmly on her own two feet did she release the breath she had been holding—and action that had nothing whatsoever to do with the near fall to the ground.

"See," Alec started once she was sure her expression was lax enough to meet his grindingly teasing one, "I told you I had gentlemanly courtesy."

She distractedly took the chance to mentally steer herself away from the embarrassing predicament she had just landed herself in—almost quite literally. "I thought it was supposed to be 'gentlemanly charm'," she responded, gaining her composure back. She then narrowed her eyes into a pointed look. "And I doubt that since it was your distracting commentary that caused me to fall anyway," she blamed.

The detective merely rolled his eyes."Says the one who was too busy daydreaming at the clouds to hold on right," he claimed as he crossed his arms amusedly.

"I was enjoying the scenery," she retaliated.

"Yeah?" Alec then chuckled with something like teasing in his eyes. "Well, scenery didn't seem to like you that much...seeing how it just booted you out of the tree."

Maize rolled her eyes at his remark and crossed her arms, mirroring his position as she smirked. "I think Mother Nature was just pissed off because I made an activity of stabbing the trees yesterday," she said.

"Yes, I'm sure that's it," Alec returned with a laughing sideways grin at her.

The laughter was cut short when Alec's demeanour suddenly stiffened and the light look that had been playing in his gaze hardened into something else.

She froze as she noticed the air around them fall into an eerily still.

"Something's wrong..." Alec stated slowly.

Maize turned her head to look in the direction his gaze followed, searching for whatever it was that had caused his demeanour to sober and his eyes to grow wide with alarm.

She looked above the trees and felt a descent of cold dread plunge into the pit of her stomach like a steel knife as her eyes fell rest to the thickening cloud of black smoke rising up from within the forest. She knew exactly where it was coming from.

She and Alec flashed each other one shared look of alarm.

"Something tells me this isn't Ryker's doing..." he murmured worriedly.

She didn't bother correcting him. Within split seconds they were already racing back towards the house.

As the familiar clearing began to come into view, so did the colossal of mutilating flakes of fire and ash.

They skirted to a halting stop in their tracks, momentarily frozen in shock and horror at the sight before them. The house was burning. Black smoke and vicious flames tearing across the structure and roaring like an oven from inside.

Without thinking Maize moved to run ahead towards the burning house, fear clawing her insides, but a solid grip grabbed hold of her arm just before she could break through the barrier of trees, holding her back even as she cursed and tried to yank her arm free, the detective's grip on her bicep never faltered.

"What are you doing, Alec?! Let go of me!" she exclaimed. The others inside, her mind thought. And that's when she began to struggle furiously.

"So you can do what? Run blindly into a burning inferno?! No, I won't let you," Alec asserted.

"Since when do you start thinking logically in these situations?!"

"Since it means the difference between your life and death!" There was a pause. "Listen, we don't know that the others are in there—" he started to say.

"We don't know that they aren't either," she cut him off as she violently tore her arm from his grip, stumbling back a few steps from the amount of force she had needed to use to free herself.

"Really? We're doing this? Now?!" the detective exclaimed in a fit of desperate anger and vexation at the look of defiance she threw at him. He angrily tried to reason with her. "Running headfirst into a blazing inferno and getting yourself killed won't help anything!"

Maize knew he was right, but she couldn't help but snap at him. Her mind was whirling desperately with shock and fear, meant not for herself but for the others that, for all she knew, were trapped inside that blazing inferno. Or worse, that she and Alec were already too late to do anything to save them.

How had such a fire even started without the two of them noticing any sooner? What was going on? Those were questions that she would have to answer, later, as only one held first priority in her mind; were the others even still alive?

"We have a job—" Maize had begun to say to the detective, her fists clenched at her sides and her body prepared to turn back and run forward anyway, no matter what else he tried to say to stop her.

Alec's eyes flashed to something behind her. Suddenly, before she could act, he had grabbed a hold of her arm and in a quick flash, dragged both her and himself behind the nearest tree thick enough to hide their forms as her back fell flush against the front of his chest.

When she opened her mouth in a clear move to yell at him, he quickly slapped a hand over her mouth before she could lay out her protests at being yanked around like a rag doll and shot her a look that quickly silenced her.

She fell still, her eyes still blazing at him. But the look of newfound unease within her gaze flushed out the former conviction of anger that burned her insides as it slowly turned into apprehensive trepidation.

With their bodies pressed so close together and his arms still wrapped around her to keep her still, Maize could feel every muscle of his upper body coil with unease as the pressure of his grip on her arm tightened in what seemed like an involuntary reaction to the physical tension racking his body as he looked through the branches.

Once Maize slapped his hand that was covering her mouth away and moved enough in his arms to look where he was looking, she finally understood why he had pulled them so suddenly out of view.

Her body went slack as her eyes widened with disbelief. Neither had noticed at first, as the initial shock of the sight of the monstrous fire roaring from within the fortress took root, but now she could see, almost too clearly; the forms of gunmen running past and behind the columns of searing smoke.

They were yelling to each other, their voices carrying incoherently as they ran into different parts of the woods, purposefully. They were searching.

More followed the perimeter of the clearing, barking incoherent orders left and right.

Maize could only stare in blank horror. The members of Zmeya had found them.

How?

This wasn't supposed to have happened. It shouldn't even have been even remotely possible.

How had they known? Where were the others? The gang couldn't have found them yet right? They wouldn't still be searching then unless...

Maize suddenly stopped.

Unless she and Alec were the only ones left to find.

The Zmeya members could have already found they others. Killed them even, though the thought sent a cold pang through her. Then they could have set the fire maybe as a means to lure her and Alec back.

Which it had. They were here.

As the two continued to stare into the chaotic fray before them, they didn't notice the approaching footsteps coming from the left, didn't pick up on the shallow breaths that were being released as the pair of figures with tattoos on their arms and guns in their hands creep under the shadow of the forest towards them. They didn't feel the malicious intent of their stalkers until a moment too late.

The two unidentified forms jumped out from behind the trees and took aim at the detective and bounty hunter before either even had the chance to whip out their weapons in defence.

The two froze as the watched fingers itch on the triggers.

Two shots fired.

But neither belonging to neither of the two gang members. Who suddenly fell face down into a limp heap on the ground from the new punctured holes that had struck them from behind. A long-distance shot.

Alec gasped. "What was that? A sniper?"

"Sniper..." Maize repeated with a distant frown before her eyes widened a fraction and the realization hit her.

Ryder.

A sudden rustling from the nearest grove of ferns startled them before a large black nose broke through, followed by the rest of the form of the familiar black shepherd. Kota barked at them once and ran back in the direction he had come. Maize didn't hesitate to follow, and Alec had no choice but to not question anything as he did the same. If Kota was leading them somewhere, it had to be a good sign she thought as she ran as fast as she could to keep up with the racing canine.

They were led to a particularly large oak tree, and before Maize could even think to question why, Ryder descended down from above the branches and landed solidly on his feet right in front of them, adjusting the strap of Timberwolf sniper rifle over his back as they skidded to a halt and he regarded the two of them with a grim look woven across his features.

"Ryder—!" Maize just barely managed to say his name in a gasp of relief to see that he was alright.

"You're late," he muttered.

"The two agents, are they with you?" She asked quickly, glancing around but she didn't catch any hint that they were with him.

"I sent them off," Ryder stated.

"You did what? It's a little difficult to be the protection detail of someone we don't currently know the exact whereabouts of," Alec exclaimed pointedly.

Ryder shot him a look. "They don't know the terrain like I do. They would have just been in the way if I had kept them around otherwise, while I had to waste my time trying to locate the two of you," he sneered. "Besides, I thought the whole point was that you wanted me to keep them alive."

"How did they escape?" Maize asked quickly.

"Tunnels," Ryder answered, before his gaze flickered behind them and his eyes took on a more serious look. "Also, if you don't plan on dying today, I suggest we all start running. Like, now."

They didn't have to be told twice.

As they fled, bullets followed. The gunfire was loud, an unnatural sound that was just as much an invader to the forest as those who shot them.

It drew attention to their location like a beacon meant to alert the rest of the members; their targets were on the run.

Racing ahead of the bullets that followed in the wake of their pursuers and making sure to keep a pace that matched a distance they could not be caught in the line of a clear shot, it was an unspoken agreement decided the moment they took off that Ryder was in the lead. The forest of trees and uneven terrain was more difficult to maneuver through, but that meant it also made it more difficult for those behind them as well. The tree trunks prevented the members of Zmeya to get a clear shot, so long as Maize and her group stayed ahead. This was Ryder and Kota's domain, they knew the area, every nook and cranny. And she hoped that that knowledge would not fail them.

"What the hell happened to the house?" Maize dared to ask from a few steps behind Ryder's left, never losing pace as she and Alec kept up with him. Kota was a mere black shadow racing through the woods, bounding forward without hesitation as the conviction of an animal that knew exactly where he was supposed to go. "How did you guys manage to get out in time before the gang torched it?"

"Because they didn't torch it. I did."

"What?" Maize quickly caught herself of her initial shock as she stared at Ryder. "Why?"

"Because, once I realized they were coming, this place's location was compromised and done for anyway. Better the place go up in flames than them getting their hands on the stuff inside. Besides—" Ryder subtly tightened his grip on the strap of his rifle over his shoulder he held as he ran. "—I got what I needed."

"I'm sorry—" Maize shut her eyes as she started to apologize with guilt, but Ryder cut her off roughly.

"Forget about it. You guys showing up made me realize that I need a change in scenery anyway," he muttered forcefully. "A house is just a house."

Anything more either he or Maize was about to say on the matter was quickly silenced and forgotten as the echo of gunshots behind them continued to penetrate the air.

"Ok, how about, more pressing question; what the hell the gang is doing showing up all the way out here?" Alec snapped with irksome as Maize sparingly caught a moment to see a flash of the glaring look over his shoulder.

Ryder made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scoff as they ran. "Oh I don't know, why don't you stop and go ask them? I'm sure they'll be nice and explain everything to you in perfect detail if you ask politely," he retorted with dripping sarcasm.

"Fuck off, Riley," Alec snapped.

"It's Ryder!" he managed to shout.

That shout was cut off a mere second later, as an iron bullet whizzed just over Ryder's head from the left and struck the wood of a nearby tree, earning a loud, startled swear from the man.

"Shit, the bastards are closing in!" Alec growled.

"Oh really? Funny, I hadn't noticed!" Ryder snapped sarcastically.

"Shut it smart-ass!" Alec yelled at him.

"Both of you shut it! For god's sake, we are currently busy running for our lives in case neither of you cared to notice! Now is the wrong time to be bickering like idiots and the right time to get a little perspective!" Maize snapped with frustration.

She could almost feel the both of them open their mouth at the same time in preparation to retort, when suddenly a burst of gunshots came from their direct right.

Maize threw herself to the ground just in time to avoid one going into her head, and when she jumped back to her feet, Alec and Ryder were already returning fire in that direction with Ryder's rifle and Alec sidearm that he always seemed to have on him.

It was hard to make out the numbers coming at them, but that didn't matter. The fire power was enough to dictate; they were hopelessly outnumbered.

She banked in the opposite direction, Alec following as they escaped.

"No wait—Don't go that way!" Ryder called urgently.

But Maize didn't hear him over the haze of bullets firing at them.

She was racing, finding herself running more downhill than before as the soil beneath her boots turned to rock. She was so focused on watching out for what might come up from behind that she wasn't paying attention to what was ahead.

Ryder had caught up and suddenly stopped beside Kota.

"What is it?" she questioned. There was no way they could stop here.

Ryder seemed hesitant to answer.

"Uh...don't look now, but we hit a dead end."

"What?" Maize stopped where he stopped and suddenly it dawned on her why the rocky terrain had begun to look slightly familiar though at first, she hadn't been able to place why.

It was because the first time she had seen it, it had been from a completely different perspective. They were standing at the edge of the fangtooth cliff, the same once that she had seen on their trek up the mountain.

Ryder's form was halted at a skittering stop just near the edge of the rock, right before the cliff plummeted downwards.

Alec cursed. "Dammit, I thought you knew where you were going!" he said to Ryder.

"I did!"

"Oh, so what? You planned on leading us to our deaths?" Alec snapped in retaliation.

"Hey—it ain't my fault! I tried to warn you not to go this way!" Ryder roared in defence.

"Obviously you didn't try hard enough!"

Maize stiffened as she heard voices pick up from close behind.

"Hold it!"

"We've got them!"

She stared down the cliff at the water below and quickly weighed her options.

"We need to jump."

Her declaration was met with two quite similar looks of matching like they thought she was joking. She had to be joking, right?

Ryder blinked. "We need to what?"

Alec looked down where her gaze followed and frowned. "Uh, Maize, I know we got to get out of this somehow but I don't think suicide is the way to go..."

"For once I think I actually agree with the asshole," Ryder said quickly.

"Fine then, tell me how it goes with the angry gunmen," Maize snapped impatiently. Then before either of them could stop her, she jumped over the rock edge towards the freezing pool below.

"Maize!" Alec shouted as he watched her go over. "Jesus Christ!"

He then jumped back as a bullet nearly pierced jutted rock next to his side.

"I'm starting to see her point..." Ryder muttered as he quickly flashed a look to the men with the guns nearly upon them. Then in a moment of finalization, he made sure his canine was close by his side and wore an irritated glare on his face as he secured the strap of his rifle across his back so that it would not fall loose.

"Shit, we're really doing this aren't we?" Alec sighed.

"I don't see any other choice," Ryder retorted with about just as much excitement at the thought of jumping off a cliff as the detective.

"Well, see ya down there then, Riley."

"I told you it's Ryder!"

Then, just as the first few gang members came upon them, the two followed Maize and jumped over the edge of the cliff into the misty waters below.

Two Zmeya members that had currently been chasing the closest of their tail skittered to a nervous stop as they neared the edge of the cliff.

"Holy shit, they actually went over!" The one of the right exclamation with disbelief.

The one on the left hesitated. "Do we do that?"

They both fell silent as their gazes travelled downwards towards the frigid pool of misty water below.

"I ain't doing it..." the one on the right muttered.

For a moment neither of them said anything else, until the other came to a conclusion. "...We never saw them and we go around?"

A quick nod of agreement sealed the deal.