MAIZE

Where the hell could he be?

Maize was searching around the streets looking for the detective, hoping with the time she had been walking, she would have to run into him eventually. He needed to be made aware that they were on their own from here on out—and while logically she knew it would have been more useful to have Ryder around, her conscience told her she had done the right thing. Besides, it was her and Alec's job, they would handle it.

If only she could find him that was.

When she finally did run into him, it was nearly twenty minutes later, on the corner of some old city hall building that he was coming out of. She crossed her arms as he walked up to her and couldn't disguise the irritated look on her face.

"What're the hell have you been? I've been calling your phone for the past hour," she stated grudgingly as she shot him a pointed stare, waiting for an explanation of why he hadn't bothered to answer. Hell, what if something had been wrong?

"Sorry," Alec said distractedly as he pulled something from his pocket and flipped it once in the air. "You want a Swiss-army knife?"

Maize blinked at the bluntness of the odd question. "Where did you get that?" She asked, knowing he hadn't had it before.

What shocked her next was the brief run through explanation he went through, quickly explaining the encounter he had had with the two odd guys in shades, how they had been seen more than once that day, and how he oh-so-generously took out their tires so that they wouldn't be a problem again.

"Are you alright?" she asked without a thought, not seeing at initial signs of pain from the detective as he stood in front of her, but still, she felt the need to be sure.

"Of course," Alec replied, with a smirkingly satisfied look that irritatingly, made her regret even asking in the first place. She held back the urge to punch that smug expression off his face as she instead focused in on the more serious things. "Who were they?" she asked.

"No idea," he shrugged. "I didn't really stick around to find out."

"You think they could have been more hitmen sent to take us out?"

"Possibly."

She nodded to herself and released a breath. "Then maybe it was better you didn't stay and take your chances alone," she murmured in response.

"You think I can't handle myself?" He questioned with a teasing eyebrow raised at her, both slightly humorous and testing.

"I didn't say that," she replied even as the corners of her lips twitched upwards briefly. "But you're also an idiot," she stated. "Listen, it's back to just us again—so I need you not to get yourself killed."

"Back to us again? What happened to Ryder?" Alec asked with a look of confusion.

Maize answered, "I sent him off. He's helped us enough, I didn't want to drag him into any more trouble."

"Fair enough," Alec sighed.

"He'll be so mad when he finds out the only time you get his name right is when he's not here..."

"That reminds me..." Alec began, completely ignoring her statement though the slight look of entertainment he got in his eye said otherwise, "I found something I think might be worth checking out."

"What?"

"Well I was just doing some research on the town, and there's a few old papers in there of old articles and stuff that describe a few old news stories dating years back—anyway, apparently some construction house nearby went completely bankrupt a few years ago when some lawsuit drove the place down, no one's used that place since. It might be a good place to start looking. There's a lot you can hide in a big old factory, like if you want to store a ton of old metal..."

"...or a double agent looking to hide a captive," Maize finished, catching onto what he was putting down.

"Exactly," Alec nodded and Maize smirked to herself.

"Then let's follow up on that lead, detective."

They did as they said and took a Uber to the site, paying the guy a really good tip—for good karma essentially—before stepping out and walking the rest of the way until they found what they were looking for.

"It's always the old creepy abandoned factories isn't it?" Alec observed with a sigh as he and Maize looked up at the building in question; a deteriorating roof stood a good fifty feet taller than them, the windows on the first floor had been poorly boarded up with planks of what looked like old floor wood, making it nearly impossible to see inside. However windows on the secondary floor held a different story, every single one had been smashed through, as if someone had decided to throw a chair through all of them. Or a person. Maize quickly shouldered the thought away. But one thing was for sure; the warehouse was one hundred percent creepy. Alec was staring up at it with a look of resigned exasperation. "It can't ever be like a nice resort can it?"

"It's just like the movies," Maize commented. "It's either like this for dramatic effect...or..."

"Or?"

"Or it means whatever might happen in there is going to be really bad," she finished with a slight grimace.

Alec blinked once at her and the building before crossing his arms. "Utterly fantastic," he muttered. "After you."

"Gee, how gentlemanly," Maize retorted with a roll of her eyes.

Alec shot her a quick grin. "I told you I was. But seriously, if it looks this bad from the outside I can't imagine what it looks like within...So you ready to check it out?"

"We don't have a warrant for this—and not to mention, you're nowhere near within your jurisdiction to even consider one," she stated out loud, observing the building with an odd look of unease creeping into the pit of her stomach that she shoved down immediately. Now was not the time to get antsy.

The detective merely shrugged. "I learned not to sweat the little details," he replied. "And, for all we know, we might not even find anything here..."

"But we still need to make sure in case we do," Maize finished his thought.

Alec sighed as held his arm out as if he were inviting her somewhere as he said, "So, shall we?"

* * *

ALEC

It was cold when they snuck in through the old back exit that had nearly been rusted shut over all the time and neglect the building had endured over the years since it's abandonment.

Alec felt a chill creep down his back at the utter silence that seemed to greet them the moment they were inside. Eerily quiet, like whatever had snuffed out all the light from the room had also stolen its sound as well. Alec was never one to believe in ghost stories, but if someone had told him this place was haunted, he thought he might have believed them. It seemed impossible that it could be this quiet, even when nothing seemed to be there but them.

"Do you want to split up and cover more ground?" Maize suggested quietly, as she glanced around, the only sources of light coming from the broken windows on a second level with no second floor, but supposedly that was because all the left over equipment that was scattered all over the place wouldn't have fit otherwise.

"Are you being serious? You're never supposed to split up in a horror movie!" Alec hissed. He was rewarded with a flat look in the dim light.

"We're not in a horror movie," Maize retorted with a roll of her eyes, though it was clear she too felt the same eerie unease that he did.

"Keep convincing me," he muttered under his breath.

They walked forward together, weapons at the ready and keeping on high alert and eyes peeled on anything in the shadows, looking for a hint of anything that moved. The last thing they needed were any unexpected surprises jumping out at them through the shadows. At first it did seem as if they were the only living things in there—save for a few critters and rodents who had decided to call this run down old factory a home—but sometimes you couldn't always trust just what you saw with your eyes.

Something small skittered from behind the crate of boxes a little ways away and startled the both of them, but what Alec hadn't realized, was how in that moment, it seemed as though he had instinctually grabbed ahold of Maize's hand in the dark. He felt her stiffen and he froze as well, shock flashed briefly across both of their features as they looked down at their now clasped hands. Her hold seemed just as tight as his.

A moment later they let go at the same time, looking away from one another as if to pretend that that hadn't just happened.

"Sorry..." Alec muttered awkwardly as he looked in the opposite direction as her, not willing to see what kind of reaction she would respond with—or maybe just the sheer embarrassment of his actions.

Surprisingly, she merely responded the same, sounding a little sheepish. Then within a few seconds they had gone back to looking, as if that little moment hadn't happened.

He was leading with his gun barrel aimed at the ready in case anything more than just a sewer rate decided to come out and startle him, but so far he didn't get the sense that anything was around, other than Maize. He briefly turned and glanced over at her where she stood still, about to say something—like maybe he had been wrong about this place after all, when he stopped. Maize's body language was tense, too tense, and the way she was staring forward with a searching look that matched her face but not quite the distant glaze in her eyes, and that's when it dawned at him that she wasn't looking—but listening.

"Maize..." he started to murmured, about ask what she was hearing, when all of a sudden she flashed a glance over at him and with her knives out, ran ahead before he could say anything else.

Goddammit Maize! Alec cursed as he quickly rushed to follow after her, neither seeming to care how loud their footsteps echoed now.

He ran after where she disappeared through an open doorway through to another part of the compound, this part lined with more of the old factory tools and machines that had gone out of work long ago.

One moment he was mentally questioning what the hell had her running off.

The next had him wondering why she so suddenly stopped.

And then he didn't need to ask, because he could see for himself.

The sight before them had them halting in their tracks, and Alec felt both frozen and alarmed by what he saw—something that he couldn't make sense of.

There, a familiar figure was bound to a steel post, their arms out of sight and tied by ropes to keep them trapped to the pole. They looked up, their head raising weakly to regard the two of them with an out of focus gaze. Dark blue eyes were vacant, faded, as they stared forward with a look of shock, relief, and horror at seeing them there.

A moment was frozen in time where Alec's mind went slack, and all he could do was stare—because this wasn't right, this didn't make any sense.

Because who they had found, was not who they had thought they would.

Agent Maria Hill.

What the hell? Alec questioned to himself with turmoiling confusion.

Her upper body was slumped forward weakly, as if it was taking all she had left just to remain standing on two legs. The knees of her pants had been scraped, her clothes were dirtied, and blood was caked into her hair, matting it down in a mix of dust and crimson.

Alec suddenly stiffened as a vision from back in the caves came back to him.

But that would have meant—

Maria's eyes were blinking more rapidly as their appearance seemed to have woken her into a more conscious state, and she was looking between him and Maize, her eyes finally settling to look solely on the bounty hunter before navy orbs widened impossibly further with a look that was near chilling. Her look was almost...alarmed.

"Run..." Her voice was scraped, parched and weak, but the warning within her voice was not lost nor did it cease to send a chill down either of their spines.

"Shit, Alec we need to get her free!" Maize said quickly.

Alec didn't hesitate this time and rushed forward, cutting Maria's ties free. Maize caught the agent as she slumped forward before her body could collapse completely to the ground. It seemed those ties had been the only things keeping her up.

Alec quickly threw the binds away and knelt by the agent's side as Maize set her down and began talking to her urgently.

"Hill—what happened?" Maize questioned, a look of concern on her face as she stared down at the flickering eyes of Maria, the one they had thought had been a traitor to them. "Who did this?!"

Maria's head turned so that she was looking right at Maize.

"You..." Her voice was barely above a ragged whisper, but Maize heard it and her body visibly seemed to stiffened in shock, as did Alec's as Maria rasped. "They want...you..."

They?

"What? Who?" Alec demanded immediately.

Neither he or Maize registered the soft phantom footsteps coming up on their blind side.

Neither sensed the presence with the distraction of the agent.

Agent Hill locked eyes on the figure and a look of immediate loathing and trepidation took over her features, flooding her eyes.

"H-him."

Alec's back jerked straight and within a flash he and Maize had both whipped around, guns and knives drawn ahead, staring at the figure that stood a few meters away from them from another entryway.

Alec was so focused on the new stranger that he didn't notice the way the woman beside him had gone completely still. The way her mouth parted open ever so slightly in a look of pure shock and horror the way she looked at the stranger. Or the way those eyes that he had known so well never to show true fear in the face of danger were now suddenly wavering with wide eyed disbelief.

Alec studied the man with a drawn glare of suspicion. He had never seen him before in his life, and the man didn't seem to be armed—or else he would have approached them with a weapon, no? He didn't seem currently fazed by theirs.

Who was he and why did he suddenly appear here?

He wore simple dark attire, with a suit type that covered by the long black jacket her wore over his shoulders. He looked like he was somewhere between his later twenties, couldn't be any older than early thirties, and with a stance that gave off the appearance of some young billionaire CEO—someone used to a position of upholding power. Ivory light skin and short cut light hair.

Alec looked up to his eyes and that's when the grip on his gun tightened. Azure blue eyes stared back in their direction, icily chilling in a way that reminded you of the last breath of air of victim frozen to death by cold tundras, further more, marred by a long and prominent scar that distinguished across his face. The mark ran a diagonal trail through his right eye, from a point on his forehead to cheekbone, as if someone had slashed a pale line across his flesh. And when chilling eyes flashed briefly at him, he realized that there was a discolouration; the right eye was paler than the other in comparison, sightless. And angry.

Pale lips pulled back to form somewhat of a manifested dry smile, without revealing a hint of teeth, but still drawing enough warmth from the room all the same.

That gaze of his seemed to be withering with hidden malevolence as they stared directly into the face of the stricken woman at Alec's side.

Only now did Alec suddenly realize how cold she had become.

"It's been a long time, bounty hunter."

Alec didn't take his eyes off the man, suddenly fuelled with a whole new reason to be suspicious. He did try to spare a split second glance to see if Maize would catch his eye, show any recognition, show anything—but she wasn't looking at him.

"Surprised?" The man's smile was malicious, wide and wicked, a grin of death.

For the first time since he had known her, Maize's words were trembling as they fell from her mouth in loose tumbles. "I-impossible..." Her voice quavered. "You—"

"Died?" She was cut off with a wider spread grin that didn't quite reach the loathing look within the pale blue. "Is that what you were going to say?"

And then he laughed at the look of utter shock on her face.

"Maize..." Alec's voice was full of weariness and concern as his low voice carried with an edge of helpless confusion as he glared at the opposer with a look of anger. "Maize, what the hell is going on here?"

She opened her mouth, but she couldn't seem to speak, couldn't answer him.

Alec was too focused on her, and the fear and worry that flooded through him for her and that look she wore on her face. He didn't catching the way the scarred eyes glanced behind them for a flicker of a moment—unnoticeably.

Suddenly something snapped down over the back of Alec's head before he even sensed the shadowy presence come up behind him. There was a seize of pain that shot through his skull, before he registered himself falling forward and hitting the ground. And then the last thing he remembered was everything going black.