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"Think you can handle this?" I egged on, knowing full well he couldn't turn down a challenge.

Not even this wooden monstrosity of twists and turns. This is going to be awesome.

"...Steve?"

He was standing next to me just a second ago.

"Steve?! Where'd you go?"

Not a single head of blond hair at his height in the throng of people that surrounded me.

"Steve!"

"I can do this all day."

"Damn it, Stevie. Not this again."

I could hear my heart pounding at my ears while I raced towards his voice. Almost missed the clattering of hollow metal on hollow metal.

"Hey!" I yelled out, my fingers dug into a jacket. "Get the hell out of here! Or get your ass kicked."

I threw the stranger into the garbage can.

"I had him on the ropes, Punk."

"We're still going on the Cycl – "

A blow to the side of my head knocked me to the ground.

Jerked me out of sleep.

The surroundings dim, lit up only by the headlights of the sedan. Stone walls laced with black holes sped away.

"Hey, hey. We're safe here."

"Valeriy?" I called out, craning my stiff neck to the back of the car.

She was driving into darkness. At thirty kilometers an hour.

'Are we... in a... tunnel system...?'

"Val! There's a wall!"

I dropped the dart revolver in favor for the wheel and the emergency brakes only to have her arm blindly flail about to stop me.

"Bucky, no," she chided. "And do not jump out of the car."

"There's a wall!!"

I tried to hide behind my arm. Even the metal one. But I couldn't tear my eyes away from the wall we were headed straight for.

"Don't worry about the wall."

"We're going to crash!! Val!!! What happened to the – There's another wall!!!"

"If it'll make you feel better, you can just close your eyes," the crazy woman suggested lightly, calmly switching gears, flinging the front end of the car and flooring the gas. All to make a tight turn while changing the direction she was driving.

"No! It wouldn't! I would not feel better!"

"If you slept for the hour I told you to – "

"Val!!!"

"I feel that I'm going to lose my hearing before we get to – "

"Why are there so many fucking walls!?!"

All I got was more laughter, which didn't ease my nerves in the least. I couldn't shoot the walls away. But somehow this wall was dodged with the floor suddenly dropping down into another tunnel with another wall.

"But seriously, if I mess up... would be very bad. And it's been some years since I last did this... So maybe don't fight me for the wheel?""

"Where the hell are we?!"

"Canada?" she tried. Spinning the wheel completely turning the car to the right into a tunnel that I barely even saw.

The car continued to the right, up a long spiralling ramp. Turn offs at inconsistent intervals. Some even showing up as we drove by.

"Don't just speed up at the moving wall!!!"

There was no pattern to the wall chomping across the tunnel. Erratically speeding up and slowing down. We were either going to crash right into it or the car was going to be cut in half.

"Nah. Formula says I have to go at this speed."

"Formula? We... We made it... through...?"

Barely.

"As long as we follow the formula, we'll be fine. The security on this mountain is childish overkill but it's one of the safest places I know. The mountain isn't connected to our name or company. Nobody will look for either of us here.

"Best part is, Eve's has a bunch of restrictions here, which means that whoever she's scared of accessing her files won't be able find this place. Short of massive explosives, they won't be able to get to the location. That is if they can even find it."

"She's not going to be here either?"

"Eve? She'll be here. One of the places she loves. But she's not in charge of scrambling this maze or mountain security. Only hope of trying to mess with it is at the location, and one has to get through all this crazy ass shit to get there."

'...I... give up....'

I tried closing my eyes. Three seconds in, the nerves got to me. If we were going to crash, I wanted to see it coming.

I desperately wanted to grab the wheel. Or pull the emergency brake. Something to end this madness.

It looked like she knew what she was doing. The car hadn't crashed. Yet. Even with all the near misses.

'I should have just stayed sleeping....'

"How much longer of this?"

"Shouldn't be more than another ten minutes? I just follow the formula until we get there. It's basically never the same doing this."

She sent me a grin, gunning straight at another wall. But we didn't crash. We just went right through it. Into a curving room of polished black floors and high ceilings.

"Huh. I guess this time it worked out to be shorter?" Valeriy commented, slowing the car to a far more sensible speed. 21 kilometers.

A row of cars lined the smaller curve. 15 in total. Cars of all types and colors. One with the bumper barely hanging on. The other side had 5 motorcycles, 3 snowmobiles and 31 things I didn't know the names of or recognize. One of which almost looked like a car.

Valeriy didn't bother to park the car in line with the others. Just followed the curving ramping room to the end. 11 meters away from a set of doors sliding open.

"Welcome to the Soteria, Bucky. Here on out, we're safe."

"...We made it," I repeated.

The stress of Hydra finding me. The stress of Jekyll grabbing Valeriy. The stress of that damn maze. All of it washed away with a soft exhale.

"...Yeah. We built this to get away from the insanity of the world. Somewhere where image and names don't matter.... Anyways, feel free to poke around here for a bit. I need a few minutes up top. All the keys are tucked... somewhere. Eve knows. Just ask her."

With that, she opened the door and exited the car.

"Congratulations. I see that you're both alive and well," the A.I. ghost's familiar voice echoing throughout the massive room.

"Eve. I hate to admit it, but I did miss you."

"I'm not entirely sure if the feeling is mutual. I had to fix a washing machine and replace a set of overpriced plates. I'm certain that's not Mr. Barnes' doing."

"Oops? Sorry. I tried wash some stuff... on my own?"

As the elevator doors hid her from view, Valeriy gave a happy wave of her hand.

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Author's Note:

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