Emilie
The night was calm, quiet and peaceful. And cold. The students huddled close to each other and were grateful that there were so many people sleeping in the same room as they kept each other warm. Ling was woken up because she felt cold and her body shivered. She quickly took more socks and a jacket from her backpack to put on and keep herself warm.
"It is no use, we are so cols because we are too tires." Ye whispered. He showed his arm and revealed the sleeve of his jacket. They shuffled closer in their sleeping bag to try to keep each other warm. Ling looked towards Adrien and Marinette in the darkness.
"Don't worry, they are fine, they are sleeping quietly." Ye whispered with a hint of jealousy in his voice. Not that he was really jealous, more like he wanted to feel as warm as the two young teens did. He was awake for some time already. But the additional jacket and socks did help as they managed to fall asleep again.
It was still dark when Dorje walked in the large room and gently woke up Adrien and Marinette. The monk first looked at them in the darkness for a minute and listened to their calm breathing. He sighed, he was relieved because that meant they did not suffer from nightmares. They were sleeping so peacefully that the monk felt guilty to rise from their sleep. They were watched during the whole night. But the nightmares did not come. That was a good sign. But had to wake them up, he had to do it before everyone else started to open their eyes. This had to be done in secret. When he finally crouched and shook their shoulders it was clear to him that these two kids really had a lot of wight on their shoulders and he was about to put even more.
Adrien opened his eyes to see only darkness. Only after Dorje called his name did the boy understand what woke him up. It already became a habit so he already wandered if that was an akuma, a sentimonster, a whole hoard of them. Then he remembered they have beaten his father and Nathalie and took their miracoulous. Did they escape from the authorities. Was there some other monster roaming around that went unnoticed so far? He stiffened, but the monk instantly said everything was okay, just the elderly teachers wanted to speak to them before everyone wakes up.
Marinette woke up only when she felt Adrien stiffen. She was sleeping the way he held her close, with her head on his shoulder. That meant her face and head were partially covered by the sleeping bag . She instantly rose her head and looked around, but there was only darkness to see. She heard Dorje whispered a few words. She concentrated, hard, as she tried to recognize his words. What was the danger this time? Have Gabriel and Nathalie managed to create more monsters? Where is the danger, what was she supposed to fight this time?
"It is okay, they just want to speak to us." Adrien whispered and patted her shoulder. Her shoulders slumped down as she exhaled the breath she was holding in alarm. That was the good news. Well, she should have expected this. There were too many loose ends left to tie. Marinette felt her kwami stir in her pocket and she saw a pair of green eyes phased back into Adrien's onesie.
They got up quickly and silently in already practised way and followed the large young monk through the narrow corridors. Although it was pitch dark and they did not see where they were going, they simply felt the walls with their hands and their feet already knew the way. They ran or sneaked around the same corridors so many times in the last few days it was the same as if they were going to the toilet in the middle of the night. They followed dorje along the corridors and passages and up the stairs and more corridors through the darkness of the night. But they felt calm and safe the whole way.
Then they reached a small room lit by a single candle. Marinette recognized it as the room where she had her interview with the old lady monk. Dolma was sitting on the same pillow beside the wall. Tenzin was facing something along the opposite wall and Pema was there by his side checking the contents of a cloth bag. The last one looked tired and sleepy, but she attentively helped out the old monk by passing him different objects as he asked for them.
Adrien recognized the body of his mother. Tenzin hovered over her as he was obviously trying to do something with her, he was trying to help her somehow, or to at least estimate the damage. The boy was not sure what was going on, but he trusted the old teacher that whatever he was doing was not going to hurt his mother further. But the sight of his mother overwhelmed him, he did not expect to face her in that time of the night. He was probably taken even more than when he first saw her in Hawk Moth's lair. He stood in the spot and stared in the direction of her face with no expression on his face. He looked frozen in time.
Marinette nodded to the old woman in greeting and she nodded back. Then the girl turned towards the others and saw what was going on. She instinctively touched Adrien's hand and offered her support, but the boy was unresponsive. Pema noticed the move, looked at Marinette and nodded approvingly. Marinette was not sure if she should od it, if she should just go for Adrien's hand without his explicit approval. In the end it was Plagg who hovered over to their hands and connected them with considerable help from Tikki. Both kwami were silent and looked at the Emilie's body with concern.
"You can come closer if you want, but please do not touch anything." Tenzin spoke and Pema motioned with her hand for the two teens to come closer. Both teens took few tentative steps towards Tenzin as if they were careful not to disturb the air they moved through. The single candle did not provide too much light, but they were able to recognize her features as well as her clothes.
"Is she?" Adrien asked barely above a breath. He motioned with his hand towards the body of his mother. He let the expression on his face finish the question as he trailed off.
"She is not alive." Tenzin spoke calmly. "But, she is not dead as normal people are, at least not yet." The old teacher did not reveal any negativity in his statement, he was trying to keep the boy calm and composed, but the monk was also not the on who would lie about such situation just to make someone feel better. There was no fear of akumatization so they decided to expose the boy to the truth as soon as possible. Not that the monks were completely certain what the truth was.
"She is … " Pema started speaking tentatively and looked at the old teacher waiting for his approval, the old teacher nodded so she continued as she watched Adrien carefully. "You know when the bodies of certain people are preserved after they die and that is considered as a divine miracle?" She whispered slowly.
Adrien's eyes went wide, that was very strange to hear. Marinette stared and nodded. Both teens heard of such events, and these were mostly treated as mere stories or folk's tales and many religions based their saints or divine creatures on such legends. But to have such an example just before their eyes, and it was the body of Adrien's mother, and they were just explained that this was one such case. That was just overwhelming.
"Well, her body is preserved, that is probably why your father wanted to bring her back." Pema continued. And one look at her body made it seem possible. Because she looked as if she was sleeping. She even did not look ill. Her skin was pale, but her cheeks were normal, there were no black circles around her eyes. Her hair was so perfectly done and in a way she wore it so often. Her suit was a perfect fit and from the most recent Agreste line. Adrien felt a bit sick in his stomach, did his father keep her appearance that way? He had to. Everything was an appearance.
"Can she be brought back?" Adrien asked hopefully and instantly felt guilt about what he asked for. It was what his father wanted, it was the reason he turned into a villain, it was a reason for so much suffering of so many people. It somehow made it feel wrong to ask for his mother back.
"Not right now, not for sure." Tenzin replied calmly. "But she can't exactly die either." The old teacher understood the boy before him. Of course the boy wanted his mother back, he was still a child.
"But we don't have to." Adrien added quickly because of the feeling of guilt that washed over him. Gabriel did stress that he was doing all that for Adrien although nobody bothered to ask the boy if that was something he really wanted. So Adrien wanted to stress the difference. "I mean, nobody should suffer for her to return."
"Her life is tied to the sentimonster she created." Dolma spoke coldly from behind their backs.
Adrien felt cold sweat and shivers down his spine. Did he really want his mother back? He remembered how he never went to public school while she was around. Would she let him continue going to the public school?
"Um, I feel as if I never really knew her." Adrien spoke quietly. "She created a sentimonster. I did not go to school. Perhaps I idolized her." he finished with barely a whisper, but he spoke the words anyway. But then a different pang of guilt struck him, was he allowed to wish her not to come back just because he wanted to keep his freedoms, because he wanted to go to school, because he wanted a normal life and he was scared he would not have that again with his mother around.
"She wielded a miraculous she was not chosen to." Adrien spoke quietly and looked at Tenzin.
"But she found it, it was her who found both of the miraculous and the book. Perhaps she was supposed to find them?" Marinette asked quietly. She knew that Nooroo and Duusu should know the answers but decided to wait with pursuing that option.
"Are we supposed to fight Felix?" Marinette whispered the words out loud. Because she was not sure if he was indeed a monster that should be removed. What if Emilie was supposed to make him?
Tenzin looked at the girl and read all the emotions that washed over her eyes and face and finally nodded.
Pema just looked at the girl with her eyes full of something that might be mistaken for pity, but it was mixed with admiration and kindness.
"Yes, you are." Dolma answered solemnly after Pema translated the question.
Marinette lowered her gaze to her feet. So it was decided then, that Emilie was not a chosen wielder ad the girl wanted her to be.
Adrien took a shaky breath. The boy considered Felix was his cousin. He had his flaws, he was not a nice person, but in the absence of a brother, Felix was the closest to a sibling that Adrien ever had (save for perhaps Chloe). It was difficult to think of his cousin as a sentimonster. As something he was expected to fight and defeat and essentially remove from existence. Besides, what about his aunt Amelie? She obviously loved Felix as her own son. Her only child. It was monstrous to even think about depriving the woman from her child, even if Felix was not a real child.
"We can't" Marinette replied quietly as she watched all the emotions that washed over Adrien's face. It was strange to see so many emotions on his face because he completely abandoned his model posture and the absence of showing his emotions and various facial expressions.
"Do we have to?" She whispered next. Because the sense of duty drove her further. Because if Felix was a sentimonster, then he should be fought and won, right? But they usually fought the sentimonsters that were causing damage, hurting people and going after their miraculous. Felix was different. Felix was like a person. Amelie saw him as her son. Just like Max saw Markov as his friend.
"What if Emilie was supposed to do that, what if Dusuu suggested for her to do that?" Marinette tried desperately to find some explanation, some excuse not to force Adrien to destroy someone he considered his cousin and produce more sadness to his aunt.
Plagg was sitting on Adrien's shoulder and kept quiet.
Tikki hovered over Emilie's body.
It was as if nobody wanted to cackle the subject. And the girl did not understand why.
"Her energy is tied and transferred to the sentimonster she created." Tenzin spoke quietly. "Once the sentimonster stops draining her energy, she could start to recover." the old teacher whispered.
Adrien hitched a breath. That was even worse. Now he felt forced to chose between his mother and his cousin. Because he still saw Felix as his cousin, as alive and breathing being with emotions and a family and a mother who loved him. But, Marinette was more focused on the problem before her. She was supposed to find an infected object and release the amok.
"We could find the object that holds the amok and decide if it is evil or not?" she proposed tentatively and Tenzin nodded his head.
"I am not able to sense the object that is hosting amok." Tikki chirped quietly.
Tenzin added one more colourful stone to the small pile on the body of the woman.
"It is not on her body." Tenzin replied quietly as he spread his arms over her body. He hummed a slow melody for a minute while everyone watched silently.
"He said something about the rings." Adrien whispered once Tenzin stopped humming.
"So it must be the object where the amok is." Marinette added absent mindedly. She was still unsure about the whole thing. Were they really going to do this.
Adrien looked down at his mother's body.
"Is she going to come back if we destroy Felix?" Adrien asked quietly. He wanted to make sure he was doing the right thing, and what the right thing really was, and what to expect, there were too many unknowns.
Tenzin raised his head and looked at the boy. He studied Adrien's features, the expression on his face, the relaxed arms and open hands. Finally, as if satisfied with what he saw, the old teacher turned back to Emilie and sighed.
"That is not the question to be asked. She is going to be free from the bond with the sentimonster." Tenzin spoke quietly.
"There is no way of telling what is going to happen to her once the sentimonster is destroyed." Pema added.
"So we should fight Felix and defeat him only to … " That sounded crazy to Adrien.
"He is a sentimonster." Dolma replied flatly. She knew, one had to do what one had to do. "He is a creature created from someone's emotions, probably the negative emotions." The old guardian knew there were slim chances that the emotions used to create the copy were positive.
"She probably used the sorrow and despair her sister felt upon loosing her child to create your cousin." Dolma continued solemnly, she watched the boy and sighed. "She might have used her own positive emotions when she got you, but then the object holding the amok should be on her body." the old guardian added more for the sake of the argument, it was clear from the tone of her voice she did not believe that was the case.
"But he is my cousin." Adrien argued. But the same moment he pronounced those words he understood. Felix was not his cousin, he was a sentimonster created by his mother.
"Aunt Amelie, she loves him so much. I used to be jealous for him. I used to be jealous that he had a mother and she did not become distant when uncle died." Adrien rambled further about his aunt and uncle and Felix, but he refused to call Felix a sentimonster in his whole speech.
"If he is not hurting anyone, can we keep him?" Adrien continued. "We will hurt aunt Amelie if we destroy him."
"He hurt you Adrien." Marinette reminded him. "And he hurt your friends."
"He hurt you." the boy replied. Suddenly it started to make sense. "He is hurting people." And then he sunk deep into his thoughts. "But he was not like that, not as far as I can remember. He was always a master of pranks, but it was a joke, it was not intended to be hurtful. Of course, my father was angry when we tricked him. But that was just a joke."
And he had so much fun with Felix whenever he came. Because the lonely boy, that Adrien was, was happy to have any company his own age, and that included friends like Chloe and cousins like Felix.