Possessions

Nathalie stared at the woman in the blue suit. The woman was assigned to represent her by the embassy, she was not an employee of the Gabriel Agreste Fashion industry. She did not have a lawyer? Or rather, she had a lawyer, but it was this person assigned to her, not some high profile lawyer with a trail of success in high profile cases and an attitude of a great white shark. She explained to the woman that she lost her memory and she was trying to recover them by reading the information stored on her tablet and in her diary. The lawyer expressed concern for her health and offered medical assistance but Nathalie refused. She offered a psychologist but Nathalie refused that too. She had read her diary and she could not understand herself without doubting some kind of coercion took place, she did not want to be a victim. Besides, the evidence that she was a villain was rather overwhelming.

"Look, if you do not want any medical assistance it is time to face the music." The lawyer had a weak smile. It was more to encourage herself than her client. She was representing Mayura after all.

Then she was explained her legal status in China. There was no permanent damage, save the lost time, and no injuries, save the emotional hurt. But Nathalie had disrupted the governmental operation and that was a serious crime. On the other hand, the magical nature of her crimes were rather difficult to treat legally so there was a chance that she would be released to be prosecuted by France.

The lawyer was brief and to the point. She would not be released, she would be extradited, at best, to face the accusations in France. Hawk Moth was her boss, it was easy to suggest she was somehow coerced to do it. But Nathalie was unwilling to do that. Then the lawyer showed her a photo of a fight in the temple and explained that she was probably akumatized and under Hawk Moth's control during the attack which meant she was free from any responsibility.

Nathalie listened to all that while she stared at the photo on her tablet. It was a photo of Emilie in the sarcophagus. She could not believe what she was hearing. She was in prison, she was prosecuted, she was considered a criminal by two countries, because she stupidly assisted her boss to revive his wife. Because, apparently, she was in love with him. She was so in love with him that she assisted him in his madness. Only for him to get his wife back, she would never get him for herself.

Was she really so stupid to do all that because of some ridiculous crush on her boss? What did she expect to gain? Why was she doing that? She was selfless, she often sacrificed her time and effort to help Gabriel and her colleagues. But this was ridiculous. This was selfless on an entirely different level. She always did things to make Gabriel happy, if only she could see a twitch of his lips. He had his restrained way of showing affection, some days it was limited to the absence of his abusive attitude. But she appreciated it.

"However, we could turn this into your favour. Since Gabriel Agreste is your boss and is now known to be a criminal who controlled other people's minds, we could form your defence as if he made you help him. Did he make you do it?" The lawyer insisted.

Nathalie stared back at the screen.

"I do not remember." She whispered. It was the best she could answer. She had no notes that she received threats from him. From her point of view, her help was her own doing. She did not want to lie just to save herself and throw Gabriel to the sharks to fend for himself alone. That still seemed wrong to her.

"Oh yes of course." The lawyer bit her lower lip as she examined her notes where she developed the defence further.

"But I know why he did what he did." Nathalie added after a long silence. "It was to bring back his wife." She turned the screen towards the lawyer. The woman took the tablet and looked at the screen. Nathalie explained to the lawyer what she was looking at. She told her everything as much as she understood from her diary. She wanted out of it, she wanted to be free, from jail and from Gabriel, in whatever order and priority.

"I do not know how I got myself into this." Nathalie whispered in the end. And that was the truth.

"I can only get you as far as France." The lawyer told her. "But you should get yourself a defence lawyer to represent you there."

Nathalie sighed and looked back at the screen. She said goodbye to her lawyer and returned to her bed. She flipped back to the photo of her as Mayura. She looked good. She wondered how it felt to be transformed to have magical powers and be stronger than anyone else. She searched for videos of battles where she was tagged. She admired her own moves, she looked good in that dress, she liked it. But then she stumbled upon the video of the final battle. She looked good, but she was fighting mere civilians, she attacked a girl, a student and few monks. She stopped the video as her own actions made her feel sick. She did not pay too much attention to the spoken words, the sound was of poor quality and she did not want to increase the volume.

Finally, she called for Duusu and searched for the brooch, but she found nothing. Then she remembered a note from her diary that Gabriel took the brooch from her several times, that lead her to a conclusion that it was not permanently hers.

Then she forced herself to watch the video until the end. That girl took her brooch. She read the piece of news attached to the video. Her name was Marinette Dupain Cheng. But then she noticed the name of the boy. The boy who stripped the pin from Hawk Moth was Adrien Agreste. Gabriel fought his own son.

At that moment she knew what she wanted to do. She was going to walk away from this. No, she was going to run away from this by any means possible.

Gabriel stared at the photo of Emilie in the sarcophagus. She was his inspiration, she was his muse, she looked so perfect in that suit, he must have designed it for her. Her hair was arranged perfectly. She looked older than he remembered her. But he also noted she still had that million dollar look, even while she was laid in a glass sarcophagus with no visible signs of life in her. And those flowers, she really looked as if she was in an open casket. His mind was suddenly filled with questions of why and how and so on.

Then he studied the text, it was about preserving her body and how to bring her back. He had to get the two miraculous, a ring and a pair of earrings, from Chat Noir and Ladybug, and then he had to make a wish. And Emilie would be alive again.

Was that why he was chasing after the two miraculous? Did he want make a wish and bring Emilie back? Apparently he did, he just wanted his wife back? The information that he could get two miraculous from Ladybug and Chat Noir and make a wish that would alter reality way very useful information from his point of view. He wondered if he could make more than one wish. Those would definitely be handy to get him out of this mess. Perhaps he should consult the notes and continue where he left off.

He read his notes on each akuma fight. The strengths, the weaknesses, the way he chose each akuma and how he sometimes akumatized any random person who had sufficiently negative emotions. Few akumas were carefully planned and initiated by carefully orchestrated events. Most of them were desperate random attempts. There were many notes on how Nathalie helped him, she was akumatized into Catalyst. She wielded the peacock miraculous and became Mayura. And her health deteriorated but she persisted.

Oh, Nathalie, dear Nathalie, my faithful Nathalie who always went above and beyond to help me. He smiled at the photo of Mayura. She suffered and sacrificed her health to help him. He had to admire her devotion. She was definitely the person he wanted on his side. Besides, she knew what he was doing and remained by his side.

Finally he searched for video's of the akuma battles, particularly those that he estimated were carefully planned. He cringed at the sight of his own creations. He was not very proud of how they looked, where was that elegance he was famous for? Well he was a villain and hid his identity, perhaps the absence of elegance and few ridiculous akumas here and there were a way to disguise his identity. He searched for a video where he akumatized himself. It was from the security cameras in his own mansion, but he did not see much of the fight, apparently it took place in some blind corner of the mansion or even outside.

He had time so he searched the internet for more videos of the fights. The most viewed one was marked as the 'final battle, Hawk Moth defeated' so he quickly opened the link.

He fought with a boy. The boy called him father. But that boy was a disgrace. He was wearing a silly childish piece of clothing, it was wide, it was fluffy black material. His hair was a mess and he was dirty. The boy showed excellent fighting skills, bravery and persistence. He had to give him credit for that. But he resented the style, that wild and unbounded look, no guard, no restraint, the boy showed all his feelings on his face.

Why did the boy fight him if he was about to bring his mother back? That made no sense to the man. Perhaps the boy wanted something else and not his mother? Teenage boys can be so demanding. He knew a few colleagues and associates with financial means who managed to raise spoiled brats. He remembered how he swore to himself how he would never allow for something like that to happen to him. His child would never be a spoiled brat, he would suppress any free will an mould the child according to his will. Yes, that was what he would do.

He looked at the video and concluded he obviously failed. Because the boy fought him. The boy fought him and took the ping off from his torso and that was when he detransformed and the world learned that Hawk Moth was in fact Gabriel Agreste.

It was his own son who took his pin? What was the boy going to do with it. That was his property, Gabriel's property, and the boy took it away from him, there was a video evidence for the theft. He knew what he had to do. He had to get his property back. His lawyer was going to see to that. And he had the next meeting with his lawyer in the morning.

"You want me to do what, again?" The lawyer adjusted the glasses and stared at Gabriel.

Gabriel hated people with nervous ticks. This man was obviously adjusting glasses because he did not want to take up the assignment.

"I want you to retrieve the pin that was stolen from me." Gabriel pointed his index finger towards the tablet. The screen showed frozen scene from the video of the fight, the moment when Adrien ripped the pin off from his magical suit. "If he is no longer my son, if my parental rights are taken from me then I want my property back."

The lawyer blinked at his client and tried to remember how to breathe. The ability to form coherent words was temporarily gone. He came prepared. He prepared the case for extradition request, he prepared the defence for the crimes committed in China. He planned to offer a deal and buy his client out, the charges were disruption of a governmental operation, but the only damage that could be proven was a loss of time, if he offered substantial financial compensation for that, there was a chance of them reaching a deal. France was a different problem, but he was about to deal with that once they get there.

He faced an entirely different demand.

"Sir you are in no position to demand anything like that." The lawyer replied rather bluntly. He struggled to keep his calm and composed manners.

"I am in a position to demand anything I want from you. How much do I pay you?" Gabriel snarled back.

The lawyer took a step back.

"And get the brooch back to Nathalie from that girl while you are at it." Gabriel added with a resentful tone. She was useful so far, he wanted to keep her by his side in his further endeavours.

"I will place a request with the authorities." The lawyer replied flatly and made a note. If his client demanded that, he was about to do just that. That was a matter of filling out a few forms. "I can't guarantee you will get them back any time soon." He added just for a good measure.

"I am sure that I am not known as a patient man." Gabriel replied as he towered above the lawyer.

"I can assure you that I will place the request as soon as I leave this meeting, sir." The lawyer was very careful about what to promise.

"Good." Gabriel finally stopped looking so threatening.

"Could we discuss the options of making a deal with the Chinese government?" The lawyer began with a question but rushed and explained his plan in few brief notes.

"You want me to offer how much?" Gabriel snarled once he heard the sum.

"I am aware you lost your memory sir, but I should warn you there was an inflation and ..." The lawyer explained how much money lost its value.

"You can't be serious, you are wasting our time with this, you could have placed the request for the pin and the brooch already." Gabriel snarled.

"I do not represent Ms Nathalie Sancoeur. I can't request for the brooch." The lawyer replied quietly.

"I am certain the brooch is mine." Gabriel said with confidence. "I have all the evidence for that right here." He pointed to the tablet again.

The lawyer sighed. He was going to place the request for both items. He was paid by the hour.

Gabriel knew he had little chance to get the pin and the brooch this way, but couldn't hurt to try. If he knew for certain, no if he could prove, because he was certain that his son and that girlfriend of his also took the miraculous of Chat Noir and Ladybug off from him at one point, he would have asked to get them back too. According to his notes, once he had the ring and the earrings he was able to change reality according to his wishes. It did not matter how and what he did to get them, but once he had those jewels he would be able to mould the world according to his wishes.