Blake Belladonna left the book store.

She had come down here tonight to grab a book she'd wanted to read for a few days, but the whole time she'd spent out here in Vale, she had a feeling she was being watched.

Blake felt that here more than ever. She looked to her left, spotting someone with a scroll to his ear. He wasn't looking at her, but she was still suspicious of him.

She made a right turn, and turned into an alleyway. She was well aware of how dangerous an alley in Vale was, and that was the point. If she was, indeed, being watched, she could draw out her stalkers in here.

A man was walking in her direction, and he wasn't stepping aside for her. She was certain he was a stalker, but she stepped aside for him just in case. As expected, he grabbed her arm, and pulled her into a headlock. In front of her, she saw the man who'd been on that scroll call. She knew he was suspicious.

She struggled against the man's grip, but the days he spent without rest made it hard to focus, and difficult to fight back.

She slammed an elbow into the man holding her, and kicked the man in front of her. She spun around, drawing her weapon: Gambol Shroud, a combination of a gun, a katana, and a sickle.

"I'm only going to warn you once!" she said, not noticing the man staring behind her in horror. "Back off!"

The man turned around, running away as quickly as he could.

Blake sighed. "That's what I thought."

She turned around to face the man behind her, only to make eye contact with what had really scared the man who'd run off.

Batman stared at a startled Blake, standing tall before her, his cape blowing with the wind, and one of the thugs unconscious beneath him. She raised her weapon, firing it at his chest. But it only bounced off.

Blake gazed at Batman in disbelief, waiting for him to make a move, and keeping her weapon trained on him.

"Torchwick sent them to kill you," Batman said.

That was all she needed to hear to know this costumed bat-man wasn't going to hurt her. But she was still confused.

"Why?"

"You rattled his cage."

Batman reached for his utility belt, hidden underneath his cape, and tossed a file onto the ground.

Blake looked down at the file, and back up to Batman. "What's this?"

"Leverage."

"For what?"

"To get things moving."

"Who are you?"

Batman stayed silent for a moment. "Someone like you. Someone who rattled the cages."

Blake knelt down, keeping her weapon trained on Batman. She looked down for a moment to pick up the files, and inside she saw Judge Faden. Her amber eyes widened in shock. This was the leverage needed to bring Torchwick in.

She looked back up to say something, but where Batman once stood, there was nothing but the unconscious thug who had attempted to kill her.

She didn't let Batman's disappearance stop her for a moment. She reached into her pocket, and pulled out her scroll, dialing Ruby's number.

"Hello?"

"Ruby!" an excited Blake said, running to get back to the academy. "I have great news!"

"Blake, it's late," Ruby groaned. "Where even are you?"

"That doesn't matter! I have the leverage we need to put Roman Torchwick in jail for good!"

There was a silence from Ruby's end. No response to what Blake had told her.

"Ruby?"

"I'll call you back . . ."

Ruby hung up the scroll, and climbed off of her bed to look out the window. From Vale, she could see a light shining into the clouds. A light with the silhouette of a bat.

It wouldn't be until the next morning when she found out that the light came from the docks, where Roman Torchwick's men was left cuffed on the ground, and Torchwick himself was chained to a searchlight to form the bat emblem in the sky.

But she didn't need to know that to realize what the signal meant.

"'Watch for my sign' . . ."

Meanwhile, in the rooftops of Vale, Batman stood tall, staring down at the streets below, as a group of police vehicles made their way to the docks, where he'd left a gift for them.

The sun was rising in the horizon, and Batman's work was done.

He reached for his neck, feeling for the bite mark left behind all those years ago. But the suit kept him from feeling it.

It felt great . . .