Ember had returned to her office at the Gotham Daily, resuming her job as an article writer for the Observer section of the paper. But there was a lot weighing down on her mind regarding the entire matter of Evan's abduction and her own involvement with the article she had abandoned on the crime families.

In all that had happened ever since she had written that article, she was standing at a critical point in her life, not knowing who to trust and who to be wary of.

At first, she had thought she could trust Evan completely but she wasn't so sure about that anymore. So far the only one she could count on was herself and perhaps the Bat vigilantes as they were surprisingly proving to be very helpful in regard to that case.

Still, she had decided to get to the bottom of the case on her own, only taking the vigilantes' help if it was extremely necessary.

From all she had been able to gather through her informant till then, Evan was working for the Blackwood family.

That would explain why he had kept his resignation from the Gazette a secret from her and encouraged her to post the article as it was more derogatory to the Ranaldinis. But she was still confused why he had to stage his whole abduction when he had everything she had investigated and there was no need for him to get it through her.

That wasn't the only confusing thing about Evan.

The last words he had said to her right as he crushed the comm didn't make any sense to her whatsoever. He had said she would meet a similar fate as her mother but how would Evan know her mother when she didn't herself struck her as strange.

Ember grew up as an orphan taken into the city's foster care system when she was about four or five years old. But she had not faced the rough conditions other orphans had to go through due to a generous donor who had been looking after her educational and other expenses.

Once every year she would pen down a letter to the donor who had not even revealed her or his name, thanking them for supporting her. She never got a reply back and by the time she was eighteen and got accepted into a well-reputed university, she stopped writing those letters.

From then onwards, she had thought she was forging her own path in the world from her own effort without any other external help. But after getting involved in that case against the two crime families, she felt there was still a lot in her life that was not in her own control.

She had stopped overtime to complete all her pending work. Linda had left an hour ago too so there was a high chance that Ember was the only person in the building aside from the watchman at the gate.

The clock was ticking as she forced herself to type out an article that was due early the next morning, her eyes straining from having to work at a screen the entire day. She had only a paragraph left when the power disconnected and the screen went blank.

"Now of all times," she mumbled in irritation as she stood up, switching on the flashlight on her phone.

A power breakdown at that hour wasn't something she had faced earlier so she didn't know whether the office had any backup supply or not. So gathering up her stuff and her bag, she decided to leave and inform the watchman at the gate to check the power supply.

The empty office building seemed even spookier in the dark as she lit her way up only with that flashlight, traipsing down the many flights of stairs carefully.

She had reached the first floor when the sound of a door opening made her halt.

"Hello? Is someone there?" She asked, trying to see if there was another worker staying overtime too.

Silence met her and it seemed as if that sound was just a coincidence. Shrugging off the instinctive warning that had settled in her heart, she continued going down to the ground floor so she could exit.

Reaching the ground floor at last, she saw that it was empty too, even the watchman wasn't anywhere around.

That was strange. The watchman was on duty for the night shift and he should have been there. 

"Hello?" She called out again but got no response.

However, the sound of something striking close to her but missing the target took her by alarm. Ember spun around, realizing that she wasn't alone, unlike her initial assumption.

It was dark so she couldn't see clearly but that much was clear to her that someone was there to hurt her. She scrambled back from the place where she had sensed the other person as she tried to escape, knowing she couldn't afford to get caught by whoever the opponent was.

It could be a member of the Blackwood or Ranaldini family's gang. Or it could be a third party altogether, trying to get rid of her to pin the blame on the two families.

Whoever the opponent was allied to, she knew it was bad news for her if she didn't defend herself.

She swung her bag hard at the attacker and the buckle must have hit him square in the eye. He stumbled back, clutching the wounded area while Ember scrambled away, breaking out in a run to escape from him.

She knew that just one person couldn't have shown up there to attack her. There was a high chance that he had backup and they could catch her if she stepped out that instant.

So instead of making a run for the exit, she took refuge in the staff toilets, bolting the doors as she kept very silent inside.

There was still a chance that the man who had pounced on her hadn't been able to see where exactly she had gone.

But she couldn't keep waiting there on her own. Doors could be broken down easily too and right then, she needed help.

Her hands fumbled as she typed in the digits to the comm link Robin had provided her once before. She hoped the link hadn't changed as she held the phone close to her, praying for him to pick up.

"Who is this?" Robin's serious tone sounded and she edged further in a corner so that anyone standing outside wouldn't be able to hear her.

"I need help... Please..." She whispered, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Miss Sullivan?" The surprise in his tone indicated that he hadn't been expecting her to call. But then he quickly asked, registering the urgency of the situation. "Where are you?"

"Gotham Daily's office, ground floor," she whispered but the sound of something hard colliding against the toilet door shook her, "please hurry..."

The link disconnected and Ember had no idea whether the vigilantes would be able to get to her on time or not.

***