Hello Miraculers ! I want to wish you a very good season four ! I suppose that you all are really excited, just like me !
Have a good reading, and don't forget to leave me a little comment if you enjoyed the chapter. Your opinion is really important to me.
CHAPTER 6 : Revelations
3 weeks after Adrien/Chat Noir disappeared... In the Sentiworld:
Adrien turned in his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.
How the hell was he going to steal the peacock brooch from his father?
He had watched his father for over a week, every time he had the chance to, and the man never parted from the jewel pinned securely under his striped tie.
The night before, he had ventured into the grim corridors of the Manor to reach Gabriel's bedroom, with the only purpose of stealing the brooch while he was sleeping. Unfortunately, he had locked the door. No doubt he was suspicious and therefore took precautions.
The only conceivable solution was to fight his father, but he quickly pushed the thought out of his mind: the fight would have been unequal knowing that Gabriel would have transformed immediately, leaving Adrien no chance. His father was an experienced man and a good fighter. In the many scenarios he had done, the outcome was always the same. He didn't have time to steal the brooch before Hawkmoth's transformation and he found himself in a weak position. Finishing in all cases: defeated.
Then, a final feasible solution fell upon him. A solution, which he had disapproved of several times, but which was now his last and only hope. The only hope of finding his Lady, his friends, his life.
He finally came to the conclusion that the only way to escape out of here was to make his father hear reason. To convince him that this whole thing was pure madness, and that they couldn't spend their lives trapped in this bubble. In this alternative world cut off from reality.
Gabriel Agreste was not the type of man to give up an idea when it was deeply anchored in his mind, and reasoning him was an almost lost mission. Yet, even if it were to prove to be a long road full of obstacles. A path through a tunnel that he was not sure would end one day. It was a way through a tunnel that he had to try to cross if he wanted to see the daylight again. He was ready to try. Ready to fight against the urge to give up. Ready to fight hearts and soul to keep a glimmer of hope, no matter how small it was.
Adrien's alarm rang suddenly, causing him to jump abruptly. He had decided to keep his morning alarm to continue to have a time frame and to hang on to the reality of the real world. He could not rely on the warm and soft rays of the sun to wake him up, since there was nothing but a dark abyss surrounding the four walls of the Manor. He could not even count on Nathalie bursting into his room to pull him out of his bed, since she was still unconscious since the moment they arrived here.
Was it the same state of unconsciousness as his mother?
His father had explained to him that Emilie had used the Peacock Miraculous when it was defective, and that it had gradually weakened his mother, until she was immersed in a deep mysterious and magical coma.
However, Gabriel had also revealed to him that the Miraculous had been repaired just in time before Nathalie's condition deteriorated, narrowly avoiding that she too would find herself plunged into this irreversible sleep.
By the time he arrived here, Adrien had vaguely heard Duusu say that Nathalie was not strong enough, and that the creation of the portal had asked her for too much energy. But now that the Sentiworld was created, and the portal was closed: why was Nathalie still unconscious and in a worrying state? If the peacock's brooch was intact again, and possessed its full powers, there was no reason why she should not recover. What could his father try to hide from him about it? Was he fully aware of what was happening to Nathalie? Or was he in total confusion about the health of his assistant?
Adrien suddenly stood up from his bed, firmly resolved to find an answer to his different questions. And perhaps at the same time, it would also be the first step to opening the dialog with his father.
He went out of his room, crossing the hallways and walking fast to reach another room, the one where Nathalie was resting.
Once in front of the door, he pushed it slowly and without making any noise, then entered the room and closed it behind him.
Slowly, he approached the King-size bed and the woman who lay there. He looked at her and felt his breathing become heavy and fast. He was divided between anger and worry while looking at Nathalie's face. He took a long and deep breath, and after a moment's hesitation, he finally sat at the edge of the mattress.
He frowned and began to detail her face meticulously. Her features were dug and her complexion, very pale, almost livid. He even seems to him that in some places her carnation turned purple, as if the finesse of her skin left the blood veins beneath visible.
With delicacy, he put his hand on hers and felt an intense cold spread to the palms of his. Nathalie's skin was freezing. Immediately, overwhelmed by panic, he put two fingers on her pulse and found that her heart rate was quite normal and regular. He let out a long sigh of relief and the anguish he felt was instantly dissipated.
"You scared me, Nathalie..." he whispered, squeezing her hand gently.
He stopped talking, his eyes falling on her face again. Nathalie's condition was nothing like his mother's. Emilie had a fresh, slightly tanned complexion, her features were relaxed and her skin was soft and lukewarm.
Definitely, the reasons why Nathalie was in a coma were not the same.
"I don't understand, Nathalie. You knew my mother, you were friends. You know very well that she would never have accepted that father tyrannized innocent people. If he could have saved her, if she were here... she could never forgive his gesture... Neither of you…"
He paused and shook his head with disappointment and sadness.
"You who are so pragmatic and rational. How could you have supported all this madness? How could you help father do something so foolish? If it doesn't surprise me coming from the cold and impulsive Gabriel Agreste... it surprises me coming from you…and… "
He paused, hearing the door of the room suddenly open. He turned and found himself facing two eyes as gray and hard as the marble.
"Adrien, what are you doing here?" asked Gabriel sternly. He stood facing his son, with his back straight, his hands joined behind his back. The expression on his face, grave and inflexible.
It was a relentless authoritarian attitude to which Adrien was now used to but which always made him very uncomfortable.
"I wanted to see how Nathalie was doing," he replied simply. Then he added, "I was a little worried about her condition."
Gabriel frowned and took a step towards his son. "It's none of your business, Adrien! Get out of this room! Nathalie needs calm and rest!" He shouted.
"Since we are both locked up here and condemned to live together, I believe that it is as much my business as yours, Father!" Adrien answered with a loud voice.
Gabriel widened his eyes, surprised by the aggressive tone his son took to talk to him.
"Calm down, Adrien! I forbid you to disrespect me!"
"Disrespect? This, coming from the man who kidnapped and locked his son against his own will, who dares to talk to me about respect!?" screamed Adrien, clenching his fists firmly.
"I am saving what is left of our family! But you are too selfish to understand it!"
"You are destroying what is left of it, starting with Nathalie! Look at her! You're killing her slowly! If there's a selfish person here, it's YOU!" He screamed again, advancing dangerously closer to his father.
"Nathalie is not dying! On the contrary, she gives life to this place! She provides the energy needed for the Amok to keep the Sentiworld viable and livable!"
He paused and approached the bed where his assistant was resting, taking her hand gently into his, before speaking again without even looking at Adrien.
"And I'm sure she's happy to do that for us, for our family!" He said.
Adrien froze suddenly when he heard his father's words. His jaw clenched as hard as his fists, and he shot the man standing in front of him with his eyes.
"She didn't know... You... you deliberately hid from her what would happen once she created this place, didn't you? You used her!"
His father turned to him and the long silence he addressed to him brought Adrien more meaning than words. This silence brought him the answer he feared.
"And here he is! the great and famous Gabriel Agreste in all his splendor! You disgust me! You are nothing but a liar, a coward, a psychopath, a monster!" He shouted, without any control of himself.
The anger that he felt invading him at that moment consumed him faster and stronger than a forest fire.
Gabriel advanced towards him, Adrien saw his hand stretch out and the next moment it burst against his cheek. His father had just slapped him violently.
Adrien stayed completely still after taking the hit. He felt the flame burning in him turn into a gigantic and uncontrollable fire, while in front of him Gabriel Agreste, wary, took his precautions and called his transformation.
Adrien was now facing Hawkmoth.
The young man always had his jaw and fists firmly clenched. If a glance had the possibility of killing, the one he was now putting on his father, or rather on this repugnant individual, would have skinned him alive in less than a second.
Adrien stepped back, spat at his father's feet, then turned his back to him.
"You are no longer my father. Consider us strangers!" He shouted, slamming the door.
Adrien immediately reached his room, locking the door behind him and then ran into the bathroom. He undressed quickly, walked in the shower and opened the water. A cold shower was what he needed to cool down the anger that was boiling the blood in his veins and giving him warm sweats.
As he presumed, an Amok was connected to the Sentiworld. And just as he had supposed, the key to getting out of here was the Peacock's Miraculous. However, one thing was quite the opposite of what he had imagined: Dialogue and reasoning with Gabriel Agreste was an impossible mission.
In the meantime in Lhassa, Tibet :
Ladybug divided from the Horse Miraculous and safely put it in her yo-yo. Then she followed Dà wèishì Shifu, the Grand Gardien, into a large room with wooden floors and on which lay about twenty round straw mattresses manufactured with rice straw and reeds.
The straw carpets were arranged in a circle around an imposing oak wood trunk, which seemed to serve as a bench seat for the Great Master, since he had just settled on it with assurance. He then identified a carpet that was in front of him and invited Ladybug to settle there. Immediately, she agreed and, sitting in a tailor's seat, faced her host.
A slight smell of wood fire mixed with a musky fragrance, probably incense, tickled the heroine's nose. The crackling fire in an old little chimney diffused a soft and pleasant warmth in the room.
We brought her an infusion made of Rooibos, goji berries, pomegranate and ginseng roots. Carefully, she delicately laid her lips on the edge of the cup and drank a small sip of the hot liquid rich in exotic flavor.
Dà wèishì Shifu did the same with his herbal infusion, then he cleared his throat and spoke.
"What is the honor of your visit, young guardian?" He asked in a serene voice.
"Something serious happened, great Shifu," she replied in a shaking voice.
She lowered her eyes on the cup she held in her hands to hide the emerging emotion on her face.
"I listen to you, Ladybug," he replied in a soft and calm voice.
She shook her head, inhaled and exhaled slowly and then lifted her eyes to the Grand Gardien. For about ten minutes, she told him everything about what had happened three weeks before.
In front of her, Dà wèishì Shifu kept an impassioned expression and listened to her explanations with the utmost care.
When she finished telling him about the events, he drank a new sip of liquid, now at a decent temperature, and then he remained silent for a moment.
"I see," he finally replied, before turning his eyes to his kwami and giving him a little nodd.
The black and white tiger-like kwami, who until now had remained silent and motionless on the shoulder of his holder, flew to an adjacent room.
He came back a few minutes later with what seemed like parchment between his paws. He brought it to the old man who took it delicately and slowly unrolled it.
"This is information concerning all the Miraculous that are contained in your Miracle Box. As you know, there are the twelve allies of the Black Cat and the Ladybug. Then come five jewels that are more powerful and more closely related to your Miraculous, as well as that of your partner. These are your five protectors: the Fox, the Turtle, the Bee, the Butterfly and the Peacock," he said, holding her the parchment made of lambskin.
Ladybug grabbed it carefully, attentively contemplating the different illustrations and calligraphies. Meanwhile, the Great Master continued his explanation.
"The one that interests us today is the peacock. Like all the other Miraculous the latter had a power granted by a kwami. Duusu is the kwami of Emotion. With the help of an Amok, the holder of the Peacock, can create a Sentimonster that emotionally embodies the desires of the amokatized person. This Sentimonster is controlled by the person to whom the amokatized object belongs, the holder of the peacock, nevertheless keeps the possibility to remove the Amok from its object and to destroy or purify it."
Ladybug nodded, this is some information she had already been in possession of since her apprenticeship with Master Fu. She knew each of the kwamis as well as the ability they had inherited.
"However, each power has one or more variations, and unless I am mistaken, it seems to me that this is information that you do not know, young guardian?"
Embarrassed, she pinched her lips and nodded again, quietly approving her lack of knowledge about this information.
"An Amok can create Sentimonsters, but it can also create bigger and more powerful things than that. It takes a lot of energy for the holder. It can even be dangerous if he is not strong enough, physically, but also mentally. However, I think that is what Mayura has done, I am even sure of it."
Ladybug was hanging on the Shifu's lips, trying to anticipate the answers she might finally have on the mysterious disappearance of Adrien, as well as Hawkmoth and his assistant.
"Your power, for example, its primary role is to repair the damage created by Miraculous magic. But taken to the extreme, it can also heal the deepest wounds of body and soul, as long as they were caused by a Miraculous. However, this is extremely powerful and dangerous. It is better not to use it."
Ladybug widened her eyes to such a revelation, knowing that she possessed one of the most powerful Miraculous in the world, if not the most powerful of all. Knowing that she also possessed such power scared her. Nevertheless, she would certainly ask the Grand Gardien to teach her what there was to know about this ability. But that was a question for another day. Her priority today was to get information to find Adrien.
Dà wèishì Shifu, clarified his throat and explained:
"The ultimate power of each holder is that which Mayura has used: An Amok can also be absorbed by its holder. In this way, they can open a portal and create not a Sentimonster, but a Sentiworld. It is a parallel universe, created according to the criteria of the one who uses this power. But... this world to survive sustainably, must be constantly fed. It is very likely that Mayura is feeding this world, in which your enemies and your partner are."
The heroine froze at the revelation of this information. Her hands clasped tightly on the cup she was holding, and it broke between her fingers. The sound of broken porcelain took her out of her stupor.
"How... How can I get into this Sentiworld and de-amokatize Mayura?" she asked, in a weak and shaken voice.
"Unfortunately, there is no way to cross this supernatural gate, unless Mayura expels the Amok of her own will... or…"
"Or?" repeated Ladybug, confused and anxious.
"Or if the Amok gains power and completely surpasses the strength of her body and mind," he replied, contrite.
"You... you... you mean she could... die?" she said with surprise.
"She could. Yes."
Ladybug suddenly straightened up on her legs, nervous, she started pacing the room.
"I refuse to let anyone die! Enemy or not enemy, criminal or not criminal! It goes against my principles! I have to find a way to destroy the Sentiworld before such a thing happens!" she shouted.
The Grand Gardien looked comprehensively at the young Guardian. He had rarely seen so much devotion, integrity, respect, strength, courage and determination in a young heroine of just 18.
Suddenly, the little white tiger kwami, Báihuu of his little name, moved nervously on the shoulder of his holder.
"There is another solution," he whispered in the ear of his holder.
"But it is dangerous Báihuu, besides she does not own the Black Cat ring," he answered aloud.
"I have it!" she exclaimed, her heart swollen with hope.
The Great Guardian bit his lip, seriously looking at the young woman in front of him. Devotion, integrity, respect, strength, courage and determination. Could she be one of these rare Ladybugs, with the purest heart and intentions? Even if she was, even if she could minimize, by her purity, the impact and consequences of this ultimate solution, there would still be a price to pay.
He tilted his head on one side, then on the other, immersed in his reflection and finally got up to face Ladybug.
"There may be a solution. But I doubt that you will agree to use it, because it is just as dangerous as the one chosen by your enemies to escape," he said seriously.
To be continued...
NB: Dà wèishì means Great Guardian in traditional Chinese. It is for this reason that I chose this name for the Shifu (Master)
Next week in chapter 7, "The Breach":
"I have no orders to receive from a teenager! No one will get out of here!"
"I want to get out of here," he whispered, sobbing. "M'Lady, Marinette, don't abandon me..."
"Luka, I... I'm sorry... we... we've already tried you and me... You know perfectly well that I love Adrien and that, the two of us... It can't work..."