Summary:
The damage Hawk Moth has done has finally become apparent; Adrien opens up to his father, which makes Gabriel come up with an idea, one that would benefit everyone involved.
Chapter: Culmination
He's upset, angry, frustrated. He blames himself. There's a part of him that wants to blame Ladybug too, but he pushes that away, wanting to hold onto the belief that something happened to her. Which did in fact become more and more apparent as more time went by.
"Adrien.", came his father's voice, a voice that would normally make him excited.
But there was no excitement.
Adrien remained seated on his couch, blankly staring at his large tv, his eyes were glued to the screen but he wasn't paying it any attention.
Footsteps drew closer, "Son?", Gabriel spoke again, drawing near to where his son was. Arms dropping to his sides. "What's the matter?", concern starting to show itself in the man's tone.
"Marinette...broke down in school today.", Adrien said, his tone was slightly detached. "Seeing Chloe could have been what triggered it.", he continued, his hands that rested in his lap balled up tightly into fists, "She's not okay.", he whispered.
Gabriel flinched slightly, shoulders stiffened, he turned to look over his shoulder, meeting Nathalie's concerned gaze, he could see something else too, guilt. He sighed deeply and returned his gaze back to the back of his son's head, he didn't have to see his sons face to know what kind of expression was presently there. "I see.", he said softly, he slowly rounded the couch and sat down beside the boy, they both faced the TV now. "I would like a moment alone with my son.", Gabriel said a little firm.
"Yes sir.", Nathalie and the bodyguard spoke in unison, both left, shutting the door behind then, leaving both Agrestes alone together.
"She's the nicest person I've ever met, probably even the nicest person ever in general. Everyone who meets her just...loves her.", Adrien started talking again, venting, not caring if whether or not his father truly was listening to him, he just wanted to say what he was thinking out loud. "She always helps everyone out, always tries to make everyone happy. She…"
"If it wasn't for Marinette, Chloe would have taken the brunt of that and most likely...would have lost her 'miraculous'.", Gabriel cut in slightly, he knew that had Chloe taken the damage, she would have been immobilized instantly, and taking the bee miraculous would have been child's play, but with Marinette suddenly appearing from seemingly nowhere and saving her, Chloe was able to hide the miraculous somewhere when she de-transformed. Marinette truly was a life saver. But while she was Chloe's and the Bee miraculous's savior, she was his burden. He didn't intend for things to escalate the way they did, he lost control over the akuma, which struck him with surprise. But by the time he started to regain control over it, Chat and Rena had destroyed the akumatized object. He actually felt relief.
"Yeah.", Adrien sucked in a shaky breath, "Marinette threw herself into the fight without a second thought.", he spoke bitterly. He wondered what the girl had been thinking, pondered even. Surely she knew what was going to happen.
Gabriel glanced at his son's whitened knuckles, "a lot of people got caught in the crossfire, She took the most damage out of all of them.", he was aware that people got hurt, he tried to pull the akuma back, but nothing...the man's anger and fury was just too deep seeded, a hatred so strong that the akuma would not retreat. He started to root for the heroes, afraid that his son might get caught up in the situation and get injured when he realized the 'Brutalizer' was closing in on the hotel. He hoped Ladybug would show up to set things right. But she never did, and to this day, still hasn't. He wasn't sure what to make of it. "Ladybug never came."
"Yeah.", Adrien sad weakly, his gaze broke off from the tv finally, he slowly turned to his father, "I can't imagine what her family's going through.", he frowned sadly, "It's not fair to them.", he didn't want to talk about Ladybug, he wanted to keep talking about Marinette.
Gabriel nodded slowly as he met his sons dejected gaze, "I can't either. But I think I understand, as a parent, my worst fear is that something like that would happen to you.", his gaze softened considerably, he only ever allowed his cold mask of emotions to fall when in the presence of his son, not always, but sometimes. He loved his son, he did, and he's sure Marinette's parents love her too. To think he'd cause a parent's worst nightmare.
Adrien fell into silence, he turned away slowly, looking down.
He can't take anything back, he can't fix what happened, but the least he can do is try to help, "Adrien.", he said his son's name softly.
Adrien didn't move, he merely hummed.
"Would you happen to know where this Marinette lives?", Gabriel asked, resolve filled him. In a way that it usually did when he sends an akuma out to retrieve the miraculouses.
The teen nearly jumped, he snapped his head up and turned to his father. "Father?", questions are written all over his face.
"We shouldn't always rely on Ladybug, we should also rely on each other, Adrien.", Gabriel suddenly stood up from the couch, hands behind him.
Adrien gazed at his father's sudden change in demeanor. "What do you mean?", he asked, unsure of what his father meant.
The man turned to his awestruck son, he smiled softly, "People like us can help in situations like these, Adrien.", he paused for a moment observing his sons expression.
"H-How?", Adrien shot up from the couch.
Gabriel brought a hand up, reaching out, he placed his hand over his sons shoulder, "By helping those affected directly, Son.", he gently squeezed the boys shoulder. "Now, do you happen to know where she lives?", her questioned again.
Adrien merely nodded.
"Well then, I have some calls to make, then we can be on our way."
Marinette sighed deeply, she sat at her table, pencil in hand, sketchbook in front of her. She sat silently, trying to think, trying to concentrate on something else, wanting to concentrate on something other than what happened today. She felt trapped, she was desperate for an escape of some sort.
"Marinette?", Tikki spoke softly as she sat herself on the white blank pages of the sketchbook, "You should rest.", the kwami consoled.
Marinette kept her gaze unbroken, focused, ignoring the kwami.
Tikki wore a saddened expression, the kwami took note of Marinette's mood changes, the teen was different, she wasn't the same, and it was only getting worse, Marinette was distancing herself from...her. The teen wasn't actively acknowledging Tikki and if she did, the teen would only reply in short answers or speak in very little words, Marinette didn't even question her whenever she flew off to Master Fu's place. Marinette was shutting Tikki out.
Master Fu had asked about Marinette, and Tikki would dodge the question or...lie to the man.
"I'm not okay.", Marinette whispered softly suddenly, as if she had come to some form of conclusion. Pencil down, the teen put her good hand near Tikki, gently with an index finger, Marinette pressed her finger against the kwami's side, gently poking.
Tikki looked up to find Marinette's watery gaze looking at her.
"I let everyone down.", she whispers.
Tikki looks down and leans into her holder's touch, "You saved Chloe and her miraculous, Marinette."
"I know...but now...everything's all messed up.", the teen sighed deeply again, "I...I think it's time…"
"Time?", Tikki tilted her head to the side in a questioning fashion.
Marinette sighed and stood up suddenly, pulling her hand from Tikki, she gave Tikki a soft tender gaze before her gaze suddenly hardened, "Tikki, I renounce you."
Tikki's eyes grew wide, her face fell, "No! Mari-!", and as quickly as Tikki shot up, she disappeared.
Marinette wore a heavy frown, as she pulled an earring off, she looked around, closing her fist that held the earring. She closed her eyes, she felt her chest tighten, she fell to her knees, crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.", she whimpered softly as she let the earring go, the sound of it hitting the floor echoing in her ears, she slowly reached up to her other ear and removed it as well. Both earrings were resting on the wooden floor.
She felt utterly hopeless, defeated.
"Hm?!", eyes snapped open. "Master! Master!"
Alya nearly fell from her computer chair as her kwami popped up from her backpack, where the kwami just so happened to chose as a sleeping place. "Trixx?!", she whispered harshly, hushing the kwami.
"The Ladybug miraculous-mmmm", The kwami started to speak loudly, which prompted Alya to grab the kwami into her hands to silence the kwami.
"Okay, okay, I hear you, chill out!", Alya whispered, "Quiet down."
The kwami nodded and Alya released the kwami, Trixx sat in his holders hands and started to speak, "The Ladybug miraculous has been removed, I've lost connection to Tikki.", she spoke with worry and sadness, "Tikki...I can't feel the connection anymore.", the kwami frowned deeply.
Alya was baffled, "Tikki, that's the Ladybug Kwami's name?"
"Yes and she's gone.", Trixx looked away.
"What does that mean?", Alya asked.
"The miraculous has been removed." Trixx once again looked up to meet her holder's concerned gaze, "We don't have a Ladybug anymore."
Alya's jaw nearly dropped, her lips parted like a fish out of water, she didn't know what to say, They've officially lost Ladybug. It was over.
Marinette sat on her bed, she gave her drawer a sad look. She had placed her earrings back into that wooden box and she had placed the box within the drawer. She felt terrible, locking Tikki away like that, so suddenly, but it was for the better good of her sanity, at least for now. She had been reluctant since the first day she wore those earrings, she just wanted to live a normal life, have normal friendships, be a normal daughter. But then all this 'Miraculous' stuff happened and she got dragged into it. Sure she fell into it, she made do and held out, but enough is enough, she's reached the end of her rope, it was time to let go.
So she did.
Why hold onto a rope that hurts your hands as it drags you down? It's better to just let it go, after all there's only so much rope.
Marinette winced slightly, her arm and shoulder were aching. She sucked in a shaky breath, she was going to turn in for the day, figured she might as well. She stood up and was going to walk to her closet to get some clothes but just as she did, a knock came at her trap door. The teen stilled, she sighed again for what must have been the thousandth time today. She turned to the door and spoke, "Come up."
And just as Marinette said that, the door was pushed up and someone she never expected to see in her room in a million years, popped up.
"Pardon the intrusion.", the man spoke as he slowly came up into the room, Adrien followed on up standing beside his father, both her parents and another woman came into her room as well.
Marinette tensed heavily, "Uh! M-Mr. Agreste?", her eyes flickered to Adrien.
The blonde haired boy smiled softly and waved.
Both Tom and Sabine wore light smiles.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you won one of the competitions I held not to long ago.", Gabriel spoke, he stepped more into the space, looking around, "You've got quite the style of design, I wish that we could have became acquainted under better circumstances.", the man smiled gently, "From what I've heard Audrey had and still has her sights set on you. I can see why."
Adrien looked on, he couldn't help but feel happy inside, glad even. His father decided to take an active role in helping the people that were affected by the akuma event, he even set up an interview with Nadja, wanting other people of wealth to part take in helping. Which he knew would be a success, he had heard his father personally speaking with Chloe's mother and father, it'd been so long since he's seen them together in their home, with the Mayor on board, no doubt everything will work out.
Marinette merely nodded, unsure of what else to do or even say.
Gabriel took note of the awe the teenage girl was struck with, he gave her another smile, "You may be wondering why I'm here."
Marinette nodded her head slowly.
"Well, myself and the Bourgeois family would like to see to it personally, that you get the best care possible, we understand that you've been through quite an ordeal.", Gabriel started, "Medical bills are quite costly and recovery from incidents like yours can be quite long, not just the physical aspect, but also...your state of being.", he grew slightly serious.
The ravenette's lips parted, but words failed to escape.
"Ladybug usually sets things right, but she's nowhere to be seen. I figured why sit around and wait for her? Why rely on her so much when we also have each other.", the man stepped closer to the teen, he reached out and placed a hand over Marinette's good shoulder, "I want to help you, and so does the Bourgeois family. You helped and saved Queen Bee, and got injured, let us help you."
The teen was at a loss for words, she felt tears welling up in her eyes, her lips quivered.
Everyone in the room felt touched.
Adrien finally stepped towards the two, "Everything's gonna be okay, Mari.", the boy smiled as he reached the teary teen and his father.
Marinette broke her gaze away from Gabriel's own and turned to Adrien, tears freely rolled down her rosy cheeks, she beamed.
Welp, here's another update.
Feel free to drop comments/critiques/questions.
