"Thithíws," Felix asked as his Sparrow suit vanished momentarily, "where will it go?"
"It will leave the miraculous and escape wherever you are trapped."
Felix gazed at the horizon through the treeline and watched the sky lighten to a beautiful blue. "I need to wake up and find the others. Someone is abusing the butterfly miraculous."
"Go now", he smiled, "I will always be here when you need me."
With a nod Felix was off, racing through the forest as a strange heaviness he had not noticed until then was lifted from his shoulders. Everything around him blurred.
Am I waking up?
"Felix!"
He stopped in time for Cheep to bump into his chest. He wrapped his feathers around him and began to cry. "I though I would never escape!"
Felix pat the Quantic on the head and tried his best not to give into a grin. "Well I certainly can't have my partner trying to get me to turn to the dark side, now can I?"
After a moment Cheep snuffled and wiped his eyes. "They forced me out and put an akuma in," he shivered, "my beak. It was horrible!"
"How did they force you out?"
"You were unconscious. It was only a matter of time before I came out to check on you…guess I should have just waited, huh?"
"But you didn't," Felix spoke quietly, "and I appreciate that. Now, how about we wake up and get back to saving Paris?"
"You got it!"
Felix shut his eyes and let the final wisps of exhaustion rise from his body. As he began to feel a familiar weight his mind wandered to his previous encounter. "Cheep?"
"Yeah?"
"You once told me you couldn't remember the name of your first partner."
"I still can't. Thithíws is all I know…and I think he's okay with just that."
"You haven't asked him?"
"Asking him what his name is feels so…final."
"Well," Felix finally let a small grin slip, "at least he'll always be here to ask."
"Naturally, Felix…Felix…Felix…"
Once again under the control of gravity, Sparrow woke up in the hallway outside the office doors to find the only light coming from Melodie's energy sword, laid out at her side.
Lyra…you can't give in. Not you.
The rest of his friends were still on the floor, fighting the akuma inside and leaving him to wait. He didn't dare enter the office alone. If Thithíws has taught him anything, it was that none of them were ever alone.
In the best sense, not the creepy sense.
It took a while, and he was about to de-transform just to have someone to talk to, but finally he heard somebody on the stairs. He stood and prepared a dart in case it was one of the heroes who had already given into an akuma.
"I come with claws in the air."
Oh, thank goodness.
Sparrow stood as Chat Noir appeared in the light. "Oh, Sparrow," he grinned, "I knew you would never give into…no," he gawked at the others by his feet, "Ladybug!"
Feeling the love, Adrien.
Chat knelt by Ladybug and placed her head on his lap. "She has the most luck out of all of us. I know she can come through."
Sparrow was about to assure him when she began to stir. Chat leaned in. "M'lady? It's okay," he brushed a loose strand of hair from her forehead, "you can wake up. I'm here."
Really feeling the love, Adrien.
Ladybug's eyes fluttered open. She gave the boys one of her best smiles. "You two. Of course, you two made it out alright," she smirked, "what with you being their favourites."
"Believe me," Sparrow said, "it's not by choice."
"I should have known," she whispered into Chat's ear, "that you two…would be the hardest to break."
Deep voice-?!
WHAM!
He had no time to react to his brother being thrown into his face, toppling them to the floor. As they helped each other up Ladybug flipped to her own feet and sneered at them. Chat Noir was shaking. "M-M'lady?"
"Silly kitty," Ladybug swung her yo-yo round and round, smacking it against the floor, "you think you can fight it?"
"No," he rasped, "not you. You would never give in!"
"How rude, Chat Noir," a voice spoke up behind her, "thinking so little of us."
Sparrow bit back a terrible word as Melodie stood up alongside Ladybug and swung her sword around in a threatening gesture. "You expected the rest of us to fall so easily?"
"Well, I was proven right, wasn't I?!"
One by one the other heroes joined the girls, eyes full of mischief and weapons at the ready. Chat Noir grabbed at his cat ears. "No, no, no, no, no-"
"Chat."
He glanced at Sparrow. "Got a plan?"
"One that involves running to the office and locking them out."
"Fine by me!"
Sparrow aimed his dart at the floor in front of the group and fired. "LIGHT!"
FLASH!
Sparrow took his brother by the hand and dragged him towards the office as Melodie and the rest called out in alarm, momentarily blinded. They reached the doors, threw them open, and ran into the dark room. Chat pulled the doors shut and slid his baton through the handles. "And now…?"
Now we breath.
Sparrow looked around the office. It was just as he had last seen it, covered in artwork and filled with cluttered tables. And there, in the back corner, was the portrait of his mother in her blue gown, surrounded by black roses and giving him a warm smile that almost made up for the evil going on right above.
"Father is right above us, isn't he?"
Sparrow turned back to Chat Noir. "There's an elevator behind the portrait. We take that up to his secret butterfly room. Le Paon is bound to be there, as well."
"…Why didn't we give in like the others?"
Slowly he returned his gaze to the portrait. "I suppose…the answer to that lies with HawkMoth. Time for a long overdue family meeting."
