Author's Note: there will be some blood and death in this chapter, fair warning.

Agent Two was huddled under his desk, texting his girlfriend, and trying to explain to her why he was going to be late for their date. She wasn't supposed to know about BOWCA—she believed he was an accountant—and he was terrible at making up excuses, but he couldn't exactly tell the truth: sorry I won't be able to make it to dinner, my building is shaking and there's an unnatural wind in the air, trapping me and everyone else in the office.

Yeah, she's totally going to buy that.

Eventually, he settled for telling her that there was an emergency at work. Which, he decided, was technically not wrong.

"Daddy!" screeched a voice.

He turned to see a little girl with her blonde hair in two plaits come running blindly into the office, her gingham dress flapping about madly in the wind.

"Rosie! I thought I told you to stay in reception!"

The six-year-old girl tightly hugged him round his waist. "I was scared, Daddy!"

He picked her up just as the wind died down. He seized this opportunity to run out of his office but he immediately ran into someone. "James!"

"Stephen, are you okay?" James asked.

"Yeah, we're fine. You?"

"I was heading to the hospital wing to find Esther and Zero," said James worriedly. "But I decided to make sure there was nobody around here who was in trouble."

Another tremor shook the building, this one more forceful than the ones before. James and Stephen were knocked off their feet. Stephen curled himself around his daughter to protect her as they both landed.

"What's Inspector Initials doing about this?" demanded Stephen. "Are we evacuating or trying to find the source or what?"

"Inspector Initials isn't in the building," James answered. "Nobody has any idea where she is."

"Great!" snapped Stephen sarcastically. "So we have a missing leader and no orders!"

"A couple of agents I bumped into told me they're trying to find whatever's causing the tremors."

"Okay, are they tremors or is the building shaking?"

"What's the difference?"

"If it's a tremor, then that means it's originating from the ground. If the building's shaking, then that means something outside is shaking the building."

"Oh, well, in that case, nobody knows."

"That's really helpful."

The wind picked back up again, stronger than before. "It's getting worse!" bellowed James above the noise of the wind. "I'm going to start an evacuation before the building comes down on our heads!"

"Can you take Rosie to safety?" Stephen asked. "I'm going to find the source of the wind."

James nodded. Stephen handed his daughter to James, telling her, "Be good for my friend, okay?"

"Okay Daddy," said Rosie, terrified.

Just as James ran off with Rosie, a man in a grey suit ran round the corner on the other side of the office.

"I need all available agents!" he coughed.

"I'm going to find out what's causing the wind," Stephen shouted back over the wind. "What's happened?"

"The hospital wing's ceiling collapsed!"

Zero became acutely aware of the pounding in his head just moments after he woke up. He was lying on the floor of the hospital wing; he had run back into the ward to protect Esther when the wind picked up. He tried to sit up but he found a large piece of stone over his chest. It wasn't actually touching him, so he was in no danger of being crushed, but it was prohibiting him from moving. He shoved at it for a full minute, but with no give. His legs scrabbled as he pushed at the stone with all his strength but it was too heavy.

He twisted his head around to try and catch sight of anybody else. A little way off, lying under a large slab of stone, was Connie Cutler. There was a large pool of blood under her head. To Zero's shock and dismay, she was dead.

Trying to put his grief aside in order to escape, Zero had another go at trying to get the stone off him but once again his effort was fruitless. This time it was because his distress at Connie's death and his panic that he might not get out alive overwhelmed him and all he could do was flap his limbs around and scream for help.

He started to hyperventilate as his attempts to escape became wilder. His desperate need to find Esther was all that drove him now. If Connie had been able to get out of the way of something falling and yet had still died, Esther, who had been lying in a bed with almost zero mobility, was in serious danger.

His head moved wildly as he tried desperately to seek Esther's position. He tried calling her name but there was no reply. Either she was knocked out, unable to respond for some other reason…or worse…

Zero firmly pushed the thought out of his mind. Esther had to be okay. He wouldn't be able to bear losing her. Many people had teased him over the years for having a crush on BOWCA's best agent. He had denied the rumours, but now he realised he may actually have feelings for Esther. After all, how else would he explain the fact that he wouldn't be able to live if she died? Maybe those were romantic feelings he had for her after all.

Does anyone else ship Esther/Zero? Why is Esther not answering? Is she dead? Probably not, but with me, you never know! I:}