Ember hadn't thought her brief stay with the Waynes would become such a massive turning point in her life. With their help and her determination, she was finally uncovering the truths connected to her, her parents, Evan, and the two deadly rival families.

A lot had changed in her life as she found herself starting to see the Waynes as something close to a family and a trustworthy support system. The fact that they were standing with her in her war against the crime families meant a lot to her.

However, that wasn't the only thing that had changed in her otherwise lonely life where she always had to walk her path alone.

Now she had someone who had promised to always be there for her whenever she wanted him to be with her.

And that person was Damian Wayne.

In that quest of pursuing the hidden truths, Damian and Ember had come much closer to each other than earlier. There was an unspoken bond of trust between them and to the rest of the Waynes, it was endearing that Damian was finally letting someone get close to him.

Damian had never willingly shown that sort of care and concern for anyone other than his family, even with his few friends, he was always very reserved. But he somehow went the extra mile for Ember, helping her out whenever he could. He had proved to be a trustworthy support for her even in her investigation of the crime families.

The only problem was that the closer Ember got to discovering anything related to the Blackwoods and the Ranaldinis, the more danger she got exposed to.

In that case, it was necessary for her to stay on guard and be able to protect herself even if she was on her own. For that, it was necessary to train her to a certain extent that she would be able to defend herself in case things went south.

Ember had some basic training, an aftermath of surviving in Gotham by herself. But she would be easy to take down in a fight as they had observed when she had almost gotten abducted at the gates of Aparo Park.

So it was decided that Jason and Stephanie would train her to ensure that she was capable of standing her ground against her opponents.

Every evening, Ember would attend those training sessions and as time passed, she started to get better at defending herself. 

At first, the training sessions were grueling, pushing Ember to her physical and mental limits. But as she persevered, she began to see progress. Her movements became more fluid, her reflexes sharper, and she gained more confidence in herself.

She was no longer the same woman who had arrived at Wayne Manor weeks ago. She was stronger, more resilient, and ready to face whatever obstacles lay ahead. 

She was more prepared than ever to take on the troubles that await ahead of her. And while it could be her strength to be surrounded with such a strong support system, it could also be the greatest obstacle in her path to pursuing the truth.

But she didn't know just yet, she was about to find that out firsthand.

***

Richard couldn't shake off an instinctive feeling that something was off about Evan Sinclair.

He had been under strict watch and the GCPD was keeping him in a safehouse with an officer or two on guard over him at all times. So far nothing about his routine was out of the ordinary. But still, Richard felt dubious about his motives as there was still no logical answer to his involvement in Ember's case.

There must be a reason why Evan cared so strongly for Ember and was ready to give himself up even if it kept her safe. However, that apparent devotion contradicted with the fact that he had once almost gotten her abducted by the same gang pursuing her if not for Damian's timely involvement.

There was no explanation to why Richard couldn't find anything about his past back when he had gone missing. That man was an enigma and Richard knew from experience that such secrecy came with a heavy price.

So he had asked Jason to dig out any information he could on the possible link between Evan and the crime families. Right then, he was in study, carefully going through the collection of old case files, newspapers, public sightings and other material that Jay had given him.

Needless to say, Jason had gotten into quite some trouble to procure everything but he was confident that they would find at least some answers to their questions regarding the complex case that entangled them.

With Jay's work being done, Richard was connecting the dots, the board on front of him displaying a confusing array of information that only he could make sense of.

He added a picture right underneath that of Mathias Blackwood, the current crime boss leading the Blackwoods' gang. With his red pen, h connected the two pictures, jotting down his latest discovery; the name of that young boy he had just linked to one of the most dangerous men in Gotham.

Name: Lorenzo Blackwood.
Status: Deceased eight years ago.
Cause of death: Encounter between the Blackwoods and Ranaldinis at the former family's hideout.

It felt like a clue and he stared for long at the pictures of the three Blackwood men. Lorenzo, the young boy who died in the encounter. Mathias, his father and also the crime boss who was still terrorizing the city. And last but not least, Emanuel, the man who was supposedly Ember's father and secretly married to Krista Ranaldini.

Something significant was still amiss. So Richard stepped back, picking up his coffee cup to take a short break and then look at his board again with a refreshed mind.

However, as he was drinking coffee, his gaze traveled to the copies of the pictures he had pasted when he had just started investigation. Evan's picture was up there along with the details of what was found on him when he was retrieved from his abductors.

He recalled that there was a picture in his wallet in which a boy was standing with Krista and Ember, a boy he had refused to give any details about.

Something clicked and he left the cup, frantically searching for the copy of that picture.

He found it at last and unpinned it, bringing it close to the pictures pasted of the Blackwoods.

And it was then things began to set into his perspective after so many hours of speculation.

The real reason why there was no history of Evan Sinclair in Gotham was that he had another name that wasn't known to many.

Before meeting Ember at their university, he was part of an entirely different life, under a different identity.

As Richard pondered over the absurd coincidence, he realized one splitting fact.

Evan Sinclair was none other than Lorenzo Blackwood, the apparently deceased son of the Blackwood patriarch.

He was presumed dead in an encounter on the crime family's hideout years ago but that could have been a lie to keep his survival a secret. Ember's father, Emanuel Blackwood, had been killed in that raid too.

But now that the hidden puzzle piece had found its place in Richard's mind, everything was slowly starting to make sense.

He could see the similarities between the boy in that years old picture and the only picture they had of Lorenzo Blackwood. Both that young boy and Lorenzo had red hair, characteristic of the feared Blackwood family. But Evan Sinclair's hair were a deep brown, although it could have been dyed to that shade to conceal his identity.

Contrary to what they assumed previously, Ember was not only the heir caught up in the deadly conspiracies.

Evan, or rather Lorenzo, was an equal factor contributing to that complex case. Being Mathias Blackwood's son, he was her cousin and connected to Krista Ranaldini as well.

The only question that was still unanswered and could possibly be the most crucial of them all was where his loyalties lay; with the Blackwoods, the Ranaldinis, or with Ember and the Bat vigilantes.

***