I'm on a roll! I'm really trying to give as many quick updates as I can to make up for the year without any.

It was amazing what rest, food, and decent clothes could do for a person. Physically, Alex really was a cute girl. She was extremely conservative, but cute nonetheless. Despite everything Rinslet brought for her, he had yet to see her in anything other than sweatpants and fitted t-shirts. She claimed that she liked things that didn't restrict her movement, but Sven was willing to put his money on her still trying to blend in as much as possible. To a random stranger, it would probably have worked, but they never saw her sitting on the ground helping Robin with a math problem or catch her smiling as Robin pronounced a new word. If they did, anyone would have a hard time taking their eyes off of her.

"Whoever said crime didn't pay were liars." Alex's sudden comment broke the silence that had settled over the car for quite some time, and Sven nodded in agreement.

If the DA was as bad as Alex (more precisely, the Professor) claimed, he must have been extremely good at it. To say the gated neighborhood was upscale would have been an understatement. Through the bars and trees, he could catch glimpses of brick and stone houses that were all at least two stories tall with pools and fountains everywhere. He was willing to put money on each of the houses coming with a shiny, new sports car too. If they stayed with the vehicle, the three of them were going to stick out like sore thumbs. He wasn't fond of leaving the car at a shopping plaza about three blocks away, but it was the only choice they had. On the brighter side, the extra time it took him to park gave them the chance to hear that the bounty for Langston's murderer was set at 10 million. With that kind of money, they would be able to actually make a dent in their debts for once.

As soon as he was out of the car, his cigarette and lighter were in his hand. "First, we have to find a way inside and decide which house is his. Eve, you can go on ahead. Stay out of sight and keep me updated on anything that seems off."

Before he could take his first inhale, Alex grabbed his wrist to check his watch. "1:30 a.m.? Look for a house that's completely dark. If they're really going after him tonight, they've probably already cut the lights. Usually it takes a good thirty minutes before an electrician comes. Within that time, they'll have carried out the job and gotten the lights back on." She explained once she let him go.

Damn. They really were in a race against time. At the most, they probably had fifteen minutes to spare. "Right. We're counting on you Eve. We won't be far behind."

"Got it." Sven was sure Eve smiled to reassure him before her angel wings sprouted from her back and she took off to the sky.

That left him and Alex to decide how they were going to get past the fence. "Can you think of anything else that might be helpful?" He asked as he walked around to the trunk to get his case, but Alex didn't respond. He quickly closed to trunk to make sure something hadn't managed to go wrong during the ten seconds he took his eyes off of her, but she was only staring up at what remained of Eve. One day if she decided to be open with him, maybe he would ask Eve to better explain her powers. "Alex? Alex!"

She may have nodded, but she was still completely fascinated by Eve's transformation. Even when she reached in the car to grab her black hooded jacket, she kept looking back to the sky until there wasn't a trace of Eve left. When her distraction was gone, her no nonsense attitude returned, and she was on the move. "You're going dressed like that?"

"What's wrong with what I have?" He asked looking down as he fell into step beside her. It was one of his normal suits and nothing seemed out of place.

"Just seems impractical for what we're about to do." To make him feel worse, she even had the nerve to pull out a pair of black, leather gloves.

"A gentleman is never seen without a tie."

"And a smart lady is never seen without a gun." Fair enough.

By the time they managed to find what he hoped were the security cameras' blind spots, Eve found a house exactly as Alex described. With a few yards sprint, Alex easily grabbed the top rail and pulled herself up. Sven was right behind her, but he wasn't nearly as graceful considering he had his case in one hand. Apparently, he wasn't as fast either. Alex consistently stayed one house ahead of him, and she did it almost silently. She was not at Train's level, but she was definitely faster than a normal person.

Once again his phone began vibrating. "What do you see?"

"A man just came out with a flashlight. I think he's checking his breaker box."

"Alright. Then we still have time. Keep your eye on him, Eve."

Alex must have heard his part of the conversation because she slowed just enough for him to catch up. "Do we have a plan from this point?"

"Is the DA the type to listen to reason?"

"Hell no."

Of course he wasn't. "Then we'll have to stop whoever's after him in his tracks. If we're lucky, the DA won't even know his life is in danger."

"Tsk. He needs to sweat a bit."

"Alex..." She really was going to have to work on getting out of the organization's mentality, but baby steps were still steps forward.

"I know. I know. Do the right thing. We should split. You take the front, and I'll cover the back. What we don't see, Eve will catch." With that said, she sprinted off again.

The closest spot he could find to the house was in the bed of a pickup truck parked in the garage that was likely just for show. The minutes ticked by, and he was beginning to think that Alex's predictions were mere coincidences. That is until he heard leaves crunching. As quietly as he could, he checked his phone, but there was not a call from Eve which meant that she hadn't seen whatever it was approaching. He gradually lifted himself up to scope out the area, but there was not a person or thing in sight even though he could still clearly hear footsteps. It wasn't until the steps died away that his phone finally flashed and Eve's named popped up.

"Sven! The side garage door opened on its own."

Crap. Crap. Crap. How did they get past him? Sven jumped out of the truck and rushed through the open door, and sure enough the door to the main house was partially cracked. The killer was in the house. "Eve make sure no one gets out." He whispered as he raced up the spiral staircase.

At nearly 2 in the morning, everyone would more than likely be asleep which meant he had to find the master bedroom. He had no idea of the layout of the home, but he assumed that the bedrooms were on the second floor. However, after opening every door on that floor, he didn't find a single person which meant that they had to be on the first floor somewhere.

"AHHHHH SON OF A BITCH!"

All thoughts of stealth left his mind when a male voice screamed out. It definitely came from the first floor, but what he found made his heart dropped. A middle age, balding man with a gut that had one too many beers, was clutching his bleeding leg on the floor, but he was more concerned with Alex standing in front of him with her gun drawn. "You lied to us? You brought us here to take him out."

She raised her gun from the DA to his chest. "Shut up, Sven."

"What about everything you said about wanting a normal life for Robin."

"What part of shut up don't you understand?" She hissed, but Sven began to inch his finger towards the button his attaché that would release his net.

"The part that involves you making a fool out of me."

In unison, he raised his case, and she grabbed a vase with her free hand and flung it at his head. He sidestepped to the right to avoid the projectile, but rather than shattering, the vase split in half as though it had been cut. Had he moved a second later, it would have been his head on the ground rather than broken pieces. Alex fired three quick shots, first to the right, then the left, then back at the center. The right and left bullet bounced harmlessly against the wall in front of her, but the third exploded mid air.

A body began to materialize out of thin air starting with where he guessed the bullet would have hit. Sven could not tell if it was a man or woman, but it was covered from head to toe in black leather including a ski mask with a black visor. Even the lethal blade he or she carried was black and freshly sharpened. This had to be the same person who murdered Langston, and he owed Alex an apology. He accused her of coming to kill when in fact she really did come to save lives. However, he had no idea that it would turn out to be his.

"So you're my replacement? They didn't teach you that the suit isn't soundproof?" Alex asked with her gun trained on their mystery assassin. So that explained why she needed him to be quiet.

"I have no business with you." The assassin was obviously speaking through a machine which gave no clue as to the gender. "You have a few days left to live, but he," the assassin nodded in Sven's direction, "dies here. There can be no witnesses."

Interesting...They had a chance to take Alex, but they were willing to let her go? Maybe Robin really was their target. "Sorry, but I made a few promises to her that I intend on keeping before I die."

"The choice of living is no longer in your hands. Initiate back up." Once again, the assassin vanished into thin air, but this time Sven was ready.

"Alex. Make sure that guy stays out of the way." He said as he snatched off his eye patch. Now that he knew for sure that everything Alex told him so far was the truth, it was time to prove that she could rely on him enough to tell him everything else including how the hell people were disappearing.