AN: The last few days have NOT been any good for getting writing done! It's been awful busy and the site wouldn't let me so much as log in! On the bright side, I finally saw the city of ember movie and I thought it was really good. I mean, personally, I think they rushed the plot a bit but other than that, it was a great flim!

"Well now," Mayor Cole's tone suddenly became almost conversational. "Do close the door behind yourself, won't you?" He shook his head at Peter and chuckled. "You're letting in a draft."

"Yeah, you're letting in a draft." Looper repeated putting completely unnecessary emphasis on 'draft'.

Mayor Cole crinkled his forehead and looked at Looper the same way a parent looks at a child they never liked when they realize he or she is even stupider than they'd thought. "Shut up."

Looper nodded. "Yes, sir."

"No." Peter said suddenly.

"No what?" the mayor seemed confused.

"No, I wont shut the door." Peter explained. "If you don't let Susan go right now, I'll shove it all the way open and scream so that everyone comes in here and sees her like this."

"Will you?" The Mayor took a threatening step towards him.

"Yes, I will." Peter glanced over at Susan before fixing his firm glare back on Mayor Cole.

"Looper," Mayor Cole said so casually it seemed nearly a yawn. "Untie Miss Pevensie from the chair."

"Huh?" Looper blinked at him in confusion.

"Just do it." The mayor hissed, taking another step closer to Peter who started backing towards the door.

"We're doing what you want, don't scream." Mayor Cole told him.

"Why?" Peter knew he had to be up to something.

"You'll see."

"I'll scream." Peter corrected him.

Looper pulled a small knife out of his pocket and put it to Susan's neck. "You do and you'll regret it." Susan whimpered and blinked back the tears forming in her eyes.

"Where did you get that knife?" Mayor Cole slid his eyes off of Peter and over to Looper for a half-second.

"Store room." Looper shrugged. "I gave you one too, remember?"

"Yours is bigger." Mayor Cole practically whined.

"Well I'm doing all the work." Looper blurted out.

"Are not!" The Mayor looked furious with his assistant for a moment before his plaid expression returned and he added, "But we'll deal with that later." in a flash he quickly leapt behind Peter who had thought he was aiming for him and jumped out of the way only to discover that it was the door the mayor was lunging himself at; to close it. It was a heavy door and no one on the other side could hear them now. It shut with a thud.

Susan was now completely untied and was jerked up onto her feet but still couldn't move much because Looper had her arms pinned behind her back. His one-handed grip was so tight it made her whole upper-body ache; she felt black and blue all over. Worse, she felt completely hopeless. She and Peter were both trapped.

"What do you want from me?" Peter asked them, never allowing his eyes to leave Susan who still had the misfortune of having Looper's knife pressed to her throat.

"You know a way out of Ember." Mayor Cole's voice was way passed patronizing; it was almost sing-songy now. "Tell us and we wont hurt her."

"There is no way out." Peter lied just as Susan had before.

Looper pushed his knife inwards. Susan let out a squeal of terror and yelped in a choked up voice, "Peter!"

Peter took a step forward, ignoring the Mayor's flabby body pushing it's way in front of him. As soon as he got close enough to attempt to grab onto Susan, Looper dug his knife so that it started to break skin. A single drop of blood escaped and rolled down into her collar.

"Let go of her!" Peter demanded, reaching to rip the knife out of Looper's hand before the Mayor grabbed into his shoulders and pulled him back.

"None of that!" the Mayor said sharply, shaking him roughly. "You'll only make things worse both for you and her if you don't tell me now."

"I'll tell you." Peter gave in unable to hide the emotions stirring up inside him. He couldn't let them do this to Susan. "Just don't hurt her."

"That's more like it." Mayor Cole said with a pleased smile. He looked triumphantly over at Looper and said, "Loosen the space on that knife to her skin, she wont be of any use to us if she's dead."

"The way out is in-" Peter started.

Susan couldn't take this anymore. Peter couldn't tell the mayor the way out! All would be lost. "No! Peter, don't tell him anything!"

"Suddenly there's something to tell..." Mayor Cole hummed pensively. "Funny, didn't you tell me there was nothing beyond Ember, Miss Pevensie? Lying isn't a nice quality in a pretty young lady." As he spoke, he ran his fingers along the chain that went across his chest and into his pocket. Everyone always assumed it was a pocket watch but now as he started to drag it out along his chest up to his yellowed teeth, Susan could see that it was actually a small key made out of a metal that looked like fool's gold. He used the groves at the end of it as a tooth pick; causing a teeny piece of what could have been stewed cabbage to drop from his mouth onto the office rug. Susan found eyes locked with the key, keeping her pupils perfectly in line with it. It was somehow important, that much she figured even though she hadn't the slightest idea what it was meant to open.

"Leave her alone." Peter insisted tearfully. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know, just let her go."

"Tell us first." Mayor Cole said. "Then she's all yours."

"How do I know you wont hurt her once I tell you?" Peter asked.

"You'll have to trust me." Mayor Cole shrugged.

That was the wrong thing to say, Peter would never-could never-trust a man like this mayor. No one as hard and bitter and heartless would do the right thing.

"No, let her go first." Peter said sternly-his former kingly voice nearly echoing through.

Looper shook his head no.

Just then, the lights started flickering rapidly over and over again. Knowing what was about to happen, Peter kicked the mayor onto the floor and swung his hand back at Looper, knocking the knife out of his hand. The lights went out completely.

"Susan, where are you? follow my voice." Peter called to her stretching out his hand. "Talk to me so I know it's you."

"Peter..." Susan started feeling around in the dark. "I'm over here..."

Once Peter got the general sense where Susan was, he knew that the person trying to grab him from behind must be either Looper or the Mayor. It couldn't be the Mayor because he wouldn't be so stupid as to try and move around during a black out. He kicked his foot behind him, hitting Looper in the crotch.

"Ow." Muttered Looper, falling to the ground in the silent darkness of the black out, clutching onto his injured private parts.

Next, Peter started feeling around for Susan again. "Susan?"

Susan was heading towards Peter when she remembered the key on Mayor Cole's chain. This might be her only chance to take it from him. The last place she had seen the mayor before the blackout had been on the left side of his desk on the floor, where Peter had kicked him down. She jumped for it in the darkness and felt around, moving her fingers quicker than lightning as she searched. Finally, her hands came in contact with the chain and she pulled. The Mayor reached out to grab her hand but wasn't quick enough. She had the faux-gold key long before he realized what was happening.

"Peter?" She felt a hand on the side of her arm (not the hurt one) and wanted to make sure it was him.

"Yes." Peter slid his hand down her arm until he reached her hand then he started pulling her along to the door.

It was a long blackout. Maybe longer than all of the other ones they'd had recently. For once, they were thankful for the sudden power-failure. It meant they could escape. They heard the mayor calling after them and Looper muttering curse words under his breath as he sank deeper into the carpet but it was distant. They were well on the other side of the room.

"Which way do we go?" Susan whispered once they were out of the office and in the lobby hallway which was just as dark.

Peter heard a creaking sound. He wasn't sure if that meant that the lights were trying to come back on or if someone was following them. "Come on," He pulled her to the left.

"Are you sure that's the way out?" Susan asked.

"No." Peter admitted. "I can't remember and it's too dark to tell."

"But we can't just stand here, either." Susan understood, following him.

Peter felt rough wood bang his knee caps. "Stairs."

"Up or down?" Susan wanted to know.

"Up." He told her, beginning to climb up them himself.

"How long have the lights been out this time?" Susan asked as she climbed, her tone becoming rather timid now.

"I wasn't counting." Peter shrugged his shoulders as continued to drag her up the stairs with him. "But my guess is at least ten minutes if not more."

"Ember's dying." Susan whispered. "We have to get out of here."

"I think we're outside." Peter said suddenly coming to a stop.

"How did we..." Susan stopped speaking when she saw the lights starting to flicker on again.

It seemed as if they didn't want to come back as the flickering was starting to last as long as the shorter blackouts had before. Finally they came back on and Susan and Peter could see they were on the roof of the building the mayor's office was in.

"Are you alright?" Peter asked when he saw Susan in the light again.

Susan nodded as Peter pulled her into a tight hug. He pressed too closely into her hurt arm and she shuddered in pain.

He looked down to see what was wrong and noticed the crusty-blood covered gash. "Oh, Su, what happened?"

"It was from when I came out of the darkness back to Ember." Susan explained. "I fell and hurt myself."

Peter now glanced up at the part of her neck Looper had pressed his knife into. There was still a little bit of blood there. "I'm going to kill him."

"We don't have time for that now." Susan said shortly, grabbing onto Peter's hand again. "We have to get off of this roof before-"

Three guards burst up onto the roof from the building below and took a few steps towards them.

"-that happens." Susan finished.

"Stay right where you are." One of the guards ordered.

Although there seemed to be no escape from the roof, Peter noticed that the prison room building was only a little way's off. With a short jump he could make it over there and work his way down to all of the lower buildings. Susan could easily follow. It wasn't a hard jump; Lucy could have made it with ease. Unfortunately, that meant the guards could do so too.

Just as they jumped to the prison room roof and started aiming for the way down into the crowded streets of Ember, there was another black out. It kept the guards stopped at the first roof unable to move without fear of falling. By the time the lights started flickering on again, there was only one short jump left to the ground.

"They've never been this close together." Susan said worriedly, glancing at the dim floodlights ahead of her as she and Peter started running through the streets, heading back to where they'd left Edmund and Lucy.

"The blackouts?" Peter asked to be sure that's what she was talking about.

"Yes." Susan gulped.

"At least these were good for something." Peter said in pretend-cheerfulness.

"For us, yes." Susan agreed. "But everyone else...they must have been so frightened."

"But what could we do about that?" Peter reminded her.

"Nothing." Susan sighed.

When they finally reached the edge of the city, Susan showed Peter the chained key she had stolen from the mayor during the first black out.

"What's that for?" Peter crinkled his forehead at the shinny little object in Susan's hand.

"I don't know." Susan admitted, waving it around as she spoke. "But it must be important, it's strapped to his person at all times. I simply thought it was a pocket watch until now."

"So did I." Peter confessed. "but I doubt it'll help us. It's probably just the key to the room where he hides all of his stolen food, the pig!"

"But doesn't the mayor have a key that opens every single lock in Ember in case of an emergency?" Susan asked, trying to remember one of the state government lessons she'd had back in school.

"You don't think..." Peter looked down at the key again and couldn't help but wonder if Susan was right. It did seem important. Maybe it could help them somehow. He paused for a moment. "Wait, how did you get it anyway?"

"I pulled it off of the mayor during the black out." Susan confessed with a weak smile.

"Are you insane?" Peter couldn't keep a straight face and started to laugh while he spoke. "You could have been-"

"Well I wasn't." Susan laughed in pretend-curtness. "Now let's get Edmund and Lucy and get out of here as fast as we can."

AN: PLease review!