Chapter 35)

Emilie, slightly diaphanous, stared on Gabriel, whose eyes were full of tears.

"Gabriel, my love, my husband…" her voice was close to what Adrien was used to hear. "I'm sad to leave you. I have only a short moment to say goodbye. But you MUST continue living… Doing what you did was WRONG! You simply MUSTN'T become a villain! And that devilish laughter, that was so not cool, you know… You still have your chance for forgiving, but you must DO right things for that from now. Be that man I fell in love with and whom I married. Be that man for Adrien and be that man for Nathalie. My death wasn't your solo fault, I was in it too. Yes, I'd wish to be with you again, but not for price like life of my only son. Be happy again, I bless you. Gabriel, we can meet, later, not now…"

"Emilie!" Gabriel started to cry even more bitterly. Ghost of his wife tried to hug and kiss him, but it naturally did not work…

Emilie turned to Adrien.

"My perfect Adrien, my so goodhearted son," ghost's face made loving smile. "I'm so proud of you. You showed some weaknesses, but nobody is really perfectly mistake-less. You're clever, brave, and finally also handsome. I believe Marinette could be happy with you. I'm sad I could never hug my grandchildren, but take care to have some. Be blessed, one day we'll meet again, but do not hurry with that."

She did same attempt to hug and kiss her son with same failure like with Gabriel.

"Marinette," she turned to her son's girlfriend. "You're so gifted. I'm glad my son chose you to be his female partner for life. In future it many times maybe could be uneasy, but remember, you're worth of anything and Adrien is also worth of anything. Be blessed."

"Chloé," this moment Emilie made a bit apologizing, sad smile, like remembering something. "Years ago I promised you Adrien as your future husband. It was a mistake, I was wrong. I know it now. I'm sorry for that. But you're not child anymore. Please find somebody you could be happy with and be blessed for your help to my son and finally to my husband too."

"Mrs. Agreste, how is it in Heaven?" asked Chloé.

"Sorry girl, I was forbidden to say anything concerning that," answered ghost.

She moved to Tigresse, who made a deep bow, however she was unable to leave her chair.

"Kagami Tsurugi. So proud, so clever, and also so beautiful. Trust me, I'd be happy, if my son chose you as his partner. But it'll not happen. My family, including me, is indebted to you for your bravery and kindheartedness. Your family should be really proud of you. Be blessed."

Emilie made a small bow, what Tigresse repeated.

"Alya Cesaire," she smiled on Rena Rouge. "You'll have a hard time now. You'll have to construct a believable lie, concerning today's events. Not an easy assignment for a journalist…"

"If I write, what really happened, Adrien would be who loses most. Even more, that his father. And who would believe, ghost of Emilie Agreste appeared here?"

"You're right, be blessed for being so kind."

Carapace looked on Adrien's mother with fear, but not in terror.

"Nice to meet you, du… madam."

"Nino Lahiffe, first friend of my son in his new school. Thank you for that and thank you for your help. Be blessed."

Now she moved to Queen Monkey and Beauceron.

"Sabine Cheng, Tom Dupain, you both should be really proud of your daughter. You raised her really well. I'm glad to get the possibility meet you now, however only this way… Be both blessed. Please look for Adrien a little bit. He never really lived in real world, but he's not really dumb, just unexperienced."

"Sure way, madam!" Beauceron felt strange feelings. "Marinette loves him, that's most important for me."

Emilie moved to Nathalie.

"I know, you loved Gabriel even before my death, Nathalie."

Nathalie, probably for a first time Adrien remembered, looked being ashamed and lowered her eyes.

"As it wasn't mutual that time and as you didn't overstep the line, I did nothing with that. Now I'm gone. Please, be nice to both Gabriel and Adrien. Gabriel maybe will need more time, than Adrien gave him, so be helpful a bit, but don't let him become lazy. Please, keep him busy, so he couldn't start with villainy again. Be blessed."

"Thank you, Emilie," was only Nathalie was able to say.

"Etienne, thank you for taking care for my family," Emilie moved to Gorilla, who only nodded. "You'll have not easy time in near future, but I hope, you'll keep your loyalty. Be blessed, my friend."

Then she moved to kwamis, speking also to those, who were locked in transformations:

"Duusu, I know, your magic didn't kill me by intentionally. I hope, you'll get good wielder in future, same I hope for your friends. Nooroo, thank you for forgiving Gabriel. Tikki, Plagg, Trixx, Pollen, Wayzz, Roaar, Chuppu and Barkk, you were so helpful during downing Hawkmoth. I can't thank you enough, just be all of you blessed."

To common surprise, all free-flying kwamis bowed to Emilie.

"And last, but not least, here we have Weng Fu, alias Master Guardian," said ghost of Emilie Agreste surprisingly hard tone. "Well, you won, or I should rather say, heroes chosen partially by you won. So here usual excuse comes – ends justified means. That goes also for you Gabriel, by the way. Recruiting children warriors is considered a crime by International Court of Justice in Hague. I know, you're going to say, you needed somebody pure-hearted. But however I know the truth, that if Betrayal and Backstabbing would be Olympic sports, France would obtain golden medal, I simply do NOT trust, you couldn't find somebody adult for that job. As nobody died, your actions could be forgiven. But if my son died, trust me, I'd find the way to make you suffer for that. Remember, you owe all of these heroes. You owe them really much. But on the other hand, I owe you my blessing for helping Adrien. Maybe it could help you in future to be better Guardian."

Master Fu stared on ghost of Emilie Agreste, who vanished few seconds after that her last proclamation…

XXXXXXX

"How did you find I'm Chat Noir?" asked Adrien.

"I used FBI Face-Identification Software," answered his father.

"So it's eleven fifteen," said Nathalie, after brief look on her wristwatch. "At about twelve we could be at place, if you stop wasting time by talking. My car isn't big enough for all of you. Could some of you just follow the car as superheroes?"

"Well, I and Marinette will go with you in car," said Adrien. "I believe, the others could follow us."

"I guess so," nodded Tigresse. "Don't drive too fast."

"It's Paris here," said Nathalie. "HOW would you drive too fast in such a traffic jam?"

They moved to garage. Adrien examined key obtained from miraculous ladybugs.

"What purpose could it have?" asked Marinette.

"I believe, it's a key to my room, so I could lock myself, to prevent Black Cat Miraculous to be stolen," answered Adrien. "I'll check it later. Now we have a lot of work to do. Nathalie, I need two new memory sticks, ideally without fingerprints or DNA traces."

"For what?" asked Gabriel slightly confused.

"I think, he wants to make video about catching Hawkmoth and pass it to police and TV," said Nathalie. "Am I right?"

"Exactly," nodded Adrien.

"Fine, give me a minute," said Nathalie and ran to her office.

In few moments, a bit later, than just one minute, she returned with two new memory sticks in original sealed package.

"Open it not dropping your transformation and hide the wrappings, superhero suit prevents contamination by fingerprints or DNA traces," she said, passing both memory sticks to Carapace.

"Marinette, once you transform, place the Peacock Miraculous into your yo-yo," said Master Guardian. "Power of Creation should restore it, hard to say, in what time…"

He turned to Queen Monkey and Beauceron.

"You did good job. Could I invite myself for lunch to your place? I guess, they should end with all their games about two in afternoon. Still not that much late for celebration lunch for heroes, I believe…"

"Sure, you all are invited," said Beauceron.

"Am I invited too?" asked Queen Bee shyly.

"Sure, why not?" asked Marinette and Sabine simultaneously.

"I was often cruel to Marinette…" Queen Bee looked sad.

"I can forgive you," said Marinette. "We'll discuss things later, during lunch, I suppose."

"Well," smirked Adrien, looking for his father and Nathalie. "You two should go together to an fancy restaurant, should be seen by some paparazzi and also buy a good lunch for Etienne. If newshounds ask, you may say, you were secretly together for longer time and you decide to go public once you've learned about my girlfriend. It's believable story…"

"He's right," said Nathalie. "In fact, we can use his relationship with Miss Dupain-Cheng for our brand PR. People do love Cinderella-like stories."

"So, we'll go to that place you chose, start arson and go to restaurant?" asked Gabriel. "Sounds a bit complicated."

"In fact it must be even MORE complicated," explained Adrien. "In moment, when WE start arson, you should be with limo in that restaurant. All records showing another car leaving our garage should be deleted. So if anybody would investigate it in future, you were in restaurant, where plenty people observed you and well, I was at Marinette's place together with a lot of my friends, all having good time together. Identity of costumed villains and heroes should stay unexplained, mysterious…"

"Good plans, works for me," said Tigresse.

XXXXXXX

During their travel, they were silent in car. Adrien first of all removed handgun from glove compartment and placed it into his pocket. The Gorilla, well, Etienne, was next to driver seat, where Nathalie placed herself. Gabriel was on middle back seat, halfway guarded by Marinette and Adrien, each on one side of car. Nathalie's old Peugeot was pale blue and slightly battered. They changed plates three times, before they came to abandoned factory.

"They know the car," said Nathalie. "They know, they shouldn't observe, once I'm here. I taught them, well, hard way."

Adrien opened car window on his side:

"Tigresse!" he shouted.

Superheroine appeared in a moment.

"Could you please check the place, so nobody would observe us?"

"Sure," she nodded.

Before she could run away, Nathalie opened her car window and passed a cheap phone to Tigresse.

"I use it to contact mobsters, it was purchased out of Paris, paid cash. You could place a message on Ladyblog about this place and after that remove battery from phone. So if anybody would later check communication, they would think, it was Mayura's setup trap."

Tigresse nodded, placed phone somehow into suddenly appearing pocket and ran away.

"Coast is clear," she said, when she returned in less, than two minutes. "No eyes here."

"Good," said Adrien and left car.

"Tikki! Spots on!" Marinette left car as Ladybug.

Other superheroes appeared there and Plagg together with Nooroo both left their hiding place under Adrien's shirt.

"Nooroo, how long could you keep me transformed that enhanced way I asked you?"

"I'm not sure, Ma… Adrien. At least five minutes, but hardly longer, than one hour."

"Fine, that means, I'll transform just before action. Let's go."

Nathalie worn gloves and showed them quite a complicated way. Door was closed with old-fashioned mechanical numerical lock, like old treasures used.

"Code is four to left, five to the right, one to the right, two to the left and seven to the right," said Nathalie and showed, how she opened the door. "I better used this system, as it's independent on illegal electric supply mobsters arranged for me."

She switched the light on, so they can observe quite a lot akuma butterflies being everywhere. They were all only white, but with light they started flying in circles around lightbulbs.

"Quite a spooky place," said Carapace. "It's like Orfanik's laboratory, I like it."

Nathalie moved to old table, where two computers, still with cathode-ray tubes, instead of flat LCDs, were placed.

"Here, here, and here," showed Nathalie three buttons. "The button closest to you, when you sit on this chair, initiate only firebombs close to this place. The second button initiates everything. Third button could initiate firebombs more close to intruders. But I planned to have some video taken by you, I hoped you'll put it life online and I planned explosion near to secret passage. And here's the fake Moth Miraculous," she added, giving him the anciently looking brooch.

"OK," nodded Adrien. "I hope there's no trick. Now go change for a lunch. We'll start in half of an hour."

Gorilla, well, Etienne, nodded and pushed both Gabriel and Nathalie back to the car.

On the way back to Agreste Manor Nathalie and Gabriel were both on back seats and their bodyguard made all necessary trick to avoid being recorded with true plates.

"What restaurant would you prefer?" asked Gabriel.

"Surprise me!" said Nathalie. "Finally, you're to be gentleman here, so chose one, sir."

"Well, Nathalie, I'll chose one, once you remember to name me Gabriel, finally we're supposed to get married soon."

XXXXXXX

Adrien with friends examined hidden pathway. It was not straight, there were three curves of tunnel, before it ended with fake wall, the proper place was almost invisible, if observed from outside. On the place after second curve Adrien left the fake brooch.

"Here should investigators find that crap. I'll say, I lost orientation in flames just after first curve," explained Adrien.

"Fine," agreed Tigresse. "I'll place a note about Hawkmoth being here on Ladyblog. Kitsune, you'll remove that note in five minutes."

"Why?" asked Rena Rouge.

"We don't want too many rubberneckers being here."

"OK," said Carapace. "I need to try, how will I shoot our coming here."

"Nooroo, how is your catchphrase?" asked Adrien.

"Nooroo! Dark wings rise and dark wings fall," explained kwami. "I need more honey, please, can I have it?"

Queen Bee wordlessly passed him a dose with honey.

"OK, Nooroo! Dark wings rise!" ordered Adrien.

He was taller now and when other heroes checked him, they recognized blue eyes.

Adrien, Hawkmoth now, sat on his chair. The other heroes left the place. Once they were closed to entry, Rena Rouge removed note about Hawkmoth being on this address and said: "Mirage!"

Five Chats Noir and four Ladybugs appeared.

"Find the Path!" said Tigresse and opened the numerical lock.

Carapace made video-shooting like being mad.

Adrien was surprised by presence of alien cerebration inside his own head. He recognized Lila's voice:

"Hawkmoth, where are you?"

"Lila, that's lovely to hear you again!" said Adrien aka Hawkmoth with evil smile, when he observed Carapace filming that…

TO BE CONTINUED…