The Commissar wishes to know
Adrien and Marinette got back to the large sleeping room so tired they fell asleep before any of them remembered to zip up their sleeping bag. It was Ling who found the two kids huddled together for warmth. She first took a picture (of course) and then woke up Ye to help her zip up the sleeping bag. When they finally managed to do that they turned around and faced the government guide who stood there with her head high, her shoulders squared and her arms crossed before her chest.
"Nice job, you two." the guide said after she wished them good morning with a raised eyebrow. "Have they slept like that all night?" She inquired further.
"Um, I don't know?" Ling answered reluctantly.
"I don't have a clue, she woke me up to help her." Ye jawed in the middle of his answer.
The guide huffed as she looked at the two teens. Then she approached closer and touched the foreheads on the two sleeping teens.
"They seem okay, no hypothermia and no fever yet. We'll see." She turned around to walk away and made a few steps before she stopped abruptly and looked at Ling again. "Please let me know when they wake up."
Ling and Ye looked at each other and nodded.
Then the guide looked at them once more and put her hands on her hips. She changed her mind again.
"And I might talk to you first." The lady spoke with a smug grin on her face.
Both students nodded and followed the guide to a small side room.
"Can you tell me what happened yesterday?" The guide asked as she put a recorder on and started to make notes with a pen on paper.
"Um, there was this villain." Ye started.
"Actually it was two of them." Ling cut in.
"Yes, they were two." The guide looked at them questioningly.
"They produced all those monsters in the last few days." Ye spoke slowly and waited for the guide to write down the notes.
"How do you know that?" The guide asked further.
"We talked to Alya, she runs the Ladyblog … " Ling spoke enthusiastically about the akuma and sentimonsters and Ladybug and Chat Noir. It was difficult to interrupt her or even direct her speech.
When she was finished, the guide already switched off the recorder as she rolled her eyes.
"Okay, I believe you." the guide confirmed.
"There are photos all over the internet, all the students took photos." Ye nodded as he spoke. "You can put that down, we did not go nuts."
"I agree with you, I saw the monsters myself." The guide replied flatly. "I was here the whole time."
"Now, those two villains from yesterday." The guide raised her eyebrows. "How did they get here?"
Both students shrugged.
"Why did they get here?" she asked the next question on her list.
"Um, they wanted some magic stones?" Ling answered as she looked at Ye.
"Yes that is what everyone else knows." The guide confirmed as she scribbled a short note.
"And now, you fought them along with those two foreign kids." The guide continued and looked very calm and composed which put slight note of anxiety in the two students.
"Um they are not ..." Ye started talking drawling out each word.
"Don't" the guide waved her hand. "I know. The recorder is off. I am not writing anything. Tell me the truth."
"She is our cousin." Ling admitted. "Her mother is Chinese. She lives in Paris." Then she said Marinette's real name and age and how they got there.
"Okay." The guide sighed nervously. She did not make a single note. "Now I will write down their names and age as they wrote in their application, but you will continue to tell me the truth."
"Adrien is French, but he was learning Chinese for years and wanted to get some practice." Ye continued, but then he explained how the boy travelled and how he was hiding from his father.
The guide had her eyebrows so high that they got partially hidden in her hair.
"It turns out that villains we fought were his father and his assistant." Ling finally added.
The guide now had her mouth opened.
"And they fought them and we helped, along with two monks from this temple." Ye continued.
"Well, he fought, I was mostly just live streaming to Alya." Ling said proudly. "It took a long time for Ladybug and Chat Noir to get here."
"Okay, so you have the fight on video?" the guide inquired with a raised eyebrow.
Ling already produced her phone and pressed play.
The guide watched intently, sometimes she winced, sometimes she moved her head or the whole body as if it was her right there in the middle of the fight and she evaded blows inflicted by Hawk Moth and Mayura.
"Okay, I will look for these monks now." The guide said after she returned the phone and thanked Ling. "I know already that the old guy is not going to speak with me."
The two students escaped to the bathroom and checked the two young teens who were still asleep.
Pema knew what to answer, she was vague, she used old words and she described the fight in every detail that she could remember. But, she never gave a single hint of knowledge from where the magic powers were coming from.
Dorje was even briefer as he preferred to give answers formed as single words. The government guide was slightly annoyed by not getting any new information, but she knew what was waiting for her when those two kids wake up was pure gold. If only she was able to put it into her report.
Adrien woke up first. Ye was shaking him awake.
"You two should better go to the bathrooms and fetch some breakfast before that guide finds you." The boy warned.
Adrien stroked Marinette's face gently. He felt guilty to stir her from her well deserved rest and sleep.
"Just few more minutes, please." She begged and all three teens laughed.
Adrien sat up and got her to sit, But Marinette kept her eyes closed.
"Come on, let's go." Adrien spoke quietly as he leaned into her space and shook her gently.
Ling and Ye got to their feet and Adrien used the opportunity to whisper.
"You want to be fully awake before that government official catches you and starts with questions." Adrien warned teasingly.
Marinette's eyes flung open, she looked fully awake now. Except it was pure panic in her eyes and not a trace of awareness.
Adrien got on his feet and felt Plagg as a dead weight in his pocket. Right, the kwami of destruction preferred to sleep in the mornings and usually only asked for food.
Marinette got to her wobbly legs and walked along Adrien.
"We just spoke to her. She knows." Ling said casually.
Marinette stiffened.
Adrien looked at her in panic.
"She already knew you were foreigners and under age." Ye said lazily. "But she will write in the report what we put in your application."
Adrien sighed, he visibly relaxed after he heard those words.
Marinette continued to walk and just stared before her.
"Okay then." she whispered. And the two students described the whole interview they had on the way to the bathroom and later on their way to the breakfast.
They were eating together when the guide appeared, took her food and sat beside the two teens.
"Great job you two, for notifying me when your cousins woke up." The guide scolded. She sounded serious, but the small satisfied smile on her face was telling she was not mad.
"So, Marinette, right?" she said as he eyed the girl. Marinette nodded in response.
"And Adrien." The guide turned around towards the boy who respectfully nodded back.
"Care to tell me your version of the story?" The guide asked casually and put one spoon of the food in her mouth.
Adrien did most of the speaking. Marinette pressed out a sentence or two in Chinese, but it mostly prompted stifled laughter from her cousins, and then Adrien would correct her with a soft smile on his face and explain to the guide what the girl wanted to say. And more often than not it was also used by the boy to hide their identities as Ladybug and Chat Noir. Because the only filter Marinette had was what was lost in translation, and even more was gained apparently.
"So, the guy under the mask was in fact your father?" The guide inquired.
"Yeah, I had no idea." Adrien replied with a tone of regret in his words. It was true regret, if he only discovered that earlier, he thought they could have beaten the two villains long time ago.
"When did you found out?" The guide asked slowly and observed the teen carefully, she watched each move on his face.
"Um, at one point during the attack, he teleported few of us to get the body of his wife. It was the body of my mother." Adrien spoke slowly. "I thought she went missing or died or something, father always kept such things from me as some kind of a secret."
The guide nodded in understanding. She did not want to press the boy with more questions regarding his family situation, it was obvious to her that further inquiry in that direction would have only caused more pain.
"So I considered it my duty to fight him and protect the other students and the monks and everyone here." The boy concluded the speech.
"I saw the fight. You took many hits." The guide nodded. She was determined to protect these two kids from further questioning. It would protect the two teens, it would prevent them exposing their cheating to other government officials and the guide also protected herself that way, because it was her who let them on the bus in the first place.
"Do you need any medical assistance. They have a doctor in that camp below the cliff." The official offered. "You haven't asked for any medical help last night and the fight looked really gruesome."
"That is because the Ladybug and Chat Noir did come in the end and fixed everything, our injuries included, so we were just a bit tired, that's all." Adrien explained with his signature model smile.
"You can't fool me with that smile any more, young boy." The government guide scolded. "I know you can't be okay, but if that magical girl fixed your injuries, I am not going to complain."
Adrien was relieved, he preferred to avoid any further examination, including the medical one. He explained the problem to Marinette and she approved.
"If you agree, I will put in my reports that four brave Chinese students and two monks defended the group from the villains and their names should not be exposed for their privacy." The guide offered a deal.
Adrien nodded enthusiastically. Of course he would agree to such an offer, it was a deal made in heaven for him. Then he explained the deal to Marinette who was not sure if she understood what the guide offered (she did but she could not believe her luck) and the girl confirmed the deal too.
"It is just, if French media release the video of that fight, they would know our true identities, at least mine, for sure." Adrien spoke quietly as he pointed to the flaw in the plan.
"Don't worry about that. It can always be filed under what you call the tabloids." The guide reassured them. "It is a word of the government official who was here against some foreign media who were never here." The guide had an audacity to wink. "Besides, according to the data we have, here we have four students and two monks. I am merely leaving out a few details that will be masked with the privacy reasons. You are under age, I am not allowed to release your data."
Adrien nodded and smiled. It started to make sense. Everyone knew he studied Chinese, he merely went to practice the language. It would work both ways.
"And now, do you want to know what happened to your father and his assistant?" The guide asked carefully.
Adrien shrugged.
"I never knew my father was still so hooked up by my mother, I mean, I thought he was with Nathalie, actually I knew he was with Nathalie, I just thought they were waiting for something to make it official, to make it public." The boy rambled. "Now, I am not sure if I want to know, you know?" Adrien looked at the guide with a helpless expression on his face.
"Well, they both claim they do not remember anything about the fight." The guide answered flatly.
Adrien shrunk, of course, that was the only solution. They both knew too much. Then the boy nodded in response.
"And they mostly answer with no comment." The guide continued. "They have requested legal representation. They will be transferred to Lhasa for further inquiry."
Marinette looked at Adrien with a small smile. She took his hand and squeezed it. He smiled back and squeezed the hand back. He was going to be okay.
"Now, about how you entered the country." The guide continued.
"My bodyguard has papers that basically grant him guardianship over me in the absence of my father. That was the only way for my father to leave France without me." Adrien smiled. The single paper that allowed his father to abandon him also allowed Adrien to get a visa and travel with his bodyguard.
The government guide laughed at that fact, she waved her head in disbelief as she understood the trick that the boy did to actually travel to China at all.
"And then her parents and your bodyguard let you travel with those two." The guide pointed towards Ling and Ye.
"Well it was an organized excursion." Adrien replied. "Something like a school trip."
"Yeah, a school trip. All right." The guide smiled.
The woman seemed satisfied with everything she got. She knew she was about to skip a few facts. She was sorry she was going to omit the fact that the boy stood against his own father to protect his fellow comrades. But she knew she had to. She patted the boy shoulder and took her leave.