Miraculous:
Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir
Chapter Seven: Dark Intentions
Adrien awoke long before his alarm, staring up at the ceiling just thinking about the night before. While most of it seemed like something out of his dreams, the last part seemed more like from his nightmares. His bodyguard had been unable to explain why both his car and his watch had been set an hour behind, but he promise it would never happen again. He hadn't even realized he was late until Adrien called.
If a couple lowlifes had decided to hit them up for money, that would be one thing, but six? He knew gangs weren't uncommon in Paris, but he'd still never seen that many in one place before. Maybe I'm more sheltered than I thought. Regardless, he was just happy nothing had happened to Marinette. Marinette…my girlfriend… The thought made him smile.
"If you stare at the ceiling making googly eyes any longer, I'm gonna puke." Plagg came flying over. "Geez, once you two got together, I thought all this stuff would be over. Now it's just getting worse."
Adrien laughed and threw off the covers. "Yeah, sorry bud, it's kind of hard to think when every time I see Marinette I also know she's the red tight-suited ladybug…" He started staring off into the distance again.
Plagg just groaned.
Marinette had been up early as well, staring at all of her father's baked goods.
"Come on, Marinette! It's just lunch. The decision can't be that hard."
"Oh, it's hard Tikki. See, Adrien already knows I'm the daughter of a baker, so now he must have high expectations of anything I make. I know he loves macaroons; I already made a batch of almond flavor." Marinette looked at the croissants, but immediately dismissed the idea. Too small. This has to give him energy to last through Chinese and fencing practice. I could make pizza but then he'd get cold pizza for lunch. Remembering it was late winter, soup was always the best thing to fight off the cold and it was always healthy for you too. "That's it! I know what to do!"
"That's my Marinette!" Tikki gave her a high five and together they got to work.
When Marinette entered class, she about keeled over with surprise. Alya was sitting up front with Nino and Adrien was sitting next to… "W-wh-wha…" she tried unsuccessfully.
Alya waved at her and pulled her by the arm to whisper in her ear. "You better consider me the bestest best friend ever 'cause I just got your seat next to Adrien for the entire semester!"
"How? Why?"
"What do you mean? This way I get to sit next to my boyfriend and you get to sit next to your boyfriend." Alya winked and went back to her seat. "And you owe me deets on last night's date. You never called me!"
"Heh, yeah sorry. I was so tired, I fell right asleep," she lied.
Adrien, having seen Marinette walk in, stood up to wave her over. "Can I help you with your things?"
She looked quickly over and saw Chloe talking to Sabrina as if she didn't notice Marinette walk in and Lila wasn't even bothering to hide her venomous glare at all. "Um, that's okay. I got it." She dropped her head and lowered into her seat.
"Is everything okay?" Adrien asked, worriedly.
"Yeah, everything's fine. I can just feel the metaphorical daggers being shot at me," she replied.
He put his hand on her back and rubbed in small circles. "Don't focus on them. Just focus on me."
She snorted but looked at him with a smirk. "Yeah, because that'll get me good grades the rest of the year."
He shrugged. "Hey, that just means you have an excuse to come over so I can tutor you."
Marinette laughed and started taking out her tablet. "You have a silver lining to everything, don't you?"
"I learn from the best." He winked at her and noticed her extra bag on the floor by her feet. "What's that?"
She blushed and felt her face heat up. "Oh that, it's nothing. I just thought I'd make lunch for soup."
"Heh, you mean soup for lunch?" He shoulder-bumped her as she hid her face in her hands in embarrassment. "That sounds delicious. Can't wait."
It's gonna be a long day…
Adrien took the opportunity during class to hold Marinette's hand under the table, making her blush. He was satisfied when she didn't stop him or pull away. He decided he liked the feel of her soft skin against his. He unconsciously ran small circles with his thumb over the back of her hand. I wonder if the rest of her skin is just as soft. He felt his face heat up enough that Marinette leaned over worriedly and put a hand on his forehead.
"Are you feeling okay?" she whispered during history.
"Y-yeah yeah, I'm fine," he laughed nervously.
Later when he came out of the boy's P.E. locker room after class, he found Lila leaning against the wall outside the door. "Lila, what are you doing here?"
"I was just wondering where the sudden change came from?" Her voice sounded bright before her glare lowered it, "I thought we had an understanding."
"Oh, we do," he patted her on the back. "I'm going to do what I like and if you make any move against me or my friends, you're going to regret it," he replied just as cheerfully.
She gasped and pulled away. "What!? Where has my sweet, clueless Adrien gone? The one who knew better than to challenge me?"
"Oh, he's still here only now," he moved passed her and spoke low enough for only her to hear, "I have someone I love and want to protect. Don't make the mistake of trying to mess that up."
He didn't like confrontation, it's true, but he did get something out of the completely dumbfounded expression on Lila's face as he walked away. Since it was lunch time, he went to find Marinette in the cafeteria. She was sitting at a table with Nino and Alya chatting away. He always loved how animated she got when she was excited about something. "Hey guys," he greeted.
"Hey, Adrien." Alya waved. "Marinette was telling us how you scored that basket against Kim in P.E. I was too busy beating the snot out of Nino when we broke into one-on-one teams."
"I let you win, don't forget," Nino crossed his arms in mock hurt.
"Of course you did, sweetie." She took off his cap and ruffled his hair before replacing it.
Adrien glanced over at Marinette. "So, what'd ya bring?" He had been looking forward to it all morning.
Alya and Nino were confused but eventually Marinette dug into her second bag, obviously nervous to do so because she practically juggled the two round pieces of bread she took out first. After placing one in front of Adrien and one in front of herself, she brought up a thermos. The bread had been somewhat hollowed out making a bread bowl and when she poured the thermos, hot vegetable soup filled its center making Adrien's mouth drool.
"Oh wow, Marinette! That looks amazing!" he exclaimed.
"Dude, I am so jealous!" Nino commented. "Where's my lunch?" he asked of his girlfriend.
She punched him in the arm. "See if I buy you a latte after school."
"No no, I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" he begged.
Marinette laughed while Adrien tried some of the soup. It had a robust flavor but not overbearing. He could taste the vegetables, they weren't soggy, still had a bit of crunch to them, and it perfectly complimented the bread she chose. "You've definitely gotten your father's skill for cooking. I doubt our chef could do better at home!" He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, accidently getting a spot of soup on her. "Oops, hang on." He took out his handkerchief and carefully wiped her cheek clean.
Marinette looked down at her lap with a smile and a blush. "T-thanks. I'm glad you like it."
"Chances are I'll love anything you make because you make it with love."
"Awww…" Alya and Nino swooned.
"Shut up," Marinette pouted her lips.
Yet another cute thing I love about her… Somewhere behind her, in the corner of the cafeteria, Adrien spotted a guy casting dark glares in their direction. It was one of the school janitors. He stood there mopping some kid's spilled milk. There was something about the guy he didn't like. And I swear I've seen him before but where…? Adrien kept watched all during lunch and he was almost positive he was solely focused on Marinette. I've got a bad feeling about this.
"Everything okay?" Marinette asked.
Blinking out of his glaring match, Adrien covered it up with a quick smile. "Yep! The only thing that would make this better are macaroons!" When she presented him with his favorite almond macaroons, he went over the moon and happily crunch on one. "I'm so in heaven…"
After school Marinette and Adrien walked out the front of the school holding hands. Nino and Alya were behind them. Marinette had made plans to study at the coffee shop with them while Adrien went to his usually practices.
"It's no fair," Adrien whined. "I wanna go with you guys."
Marinette smiled. "You don't need the help studying. You basically know everything anyways. We, on the other hand, have to work for our grade."
"But I could help you study."
The way he said it reminded Marinette of her little kitty and she could just see his ears droop over on top of his head. "More like distract me." She went in for a quick peck on the cheek but he turned and caught her unaware, covering her lips with his. She heard Nino and Alya making swooning noises, but she was lost in the sea of Adrien before her. "I'll call…I'll see…tomorrow you come?"
"Just great." Alya pulled her friend away. "Good job, Adrien. Now you broke her brain. I doubt she'll be able to get anything productive done now."
Adrien laughed and started walking over to his car. "Sorry. I had to give myself a boost to make it through until tomorrow, too. See ya later guys!" He waved to his friends and winked with a two-finger salute at Marinette.
Marinette was still stammering incoherent words when Alya dragged her along to their destination. It was several minutes later when she shook her head and snapped out of it. "Wait, what happened? Where'd Adrien go?"
"Home, girl. He left you on cloud 9 so you didn't even notice." Alya picked a table and sat down.
Marinette followed suit and took off her backpack. That was when she got a weird foreboding sense that she was being watched. She looked around, almost like she was trying to sense an akuma, but didn't see anything. It helped that she knew Tikki was safely tucked away in her pocket. When she'd told the kwami about the attack last night, Tikki felt terrible she hadn't been there to help. She can sense akumas but normal everyday bad behavior wasn't something kwami's specialized in. Now she insisted on sticking to Marinette in case she needed to transform. Marinette had asked if that was a misuse of her powers but Tikki insisted she knew it would only be used when Marinette couldn't get out of the situation in any other way on her own, so it was fine.
"Hey, you gonna sit down or what?" Alya asked.
"Yeah, sorry. I just had a creepy feeling we were being watched." While the feeling didn't go away while they worked, it did abate so she dismissed it and tried to focus on schoolwork.
When they were finally done, Marinette waved goodbye outside the shop and started the short walk home. Plagg sat on the roof nearby, wishing he was eating cheese. Adrien had sent him to make sure Marinette made it home, but the kids had been studying for three hours and he was beyond bored. "Ugh, just because Tikki said she could find Marinette as the guardian anytime anywhere doesn't mean I wanna be able to find Adrien anytime anywhere. I'm a free spirit after all!"
He blinked when he saw a man looking kinda shady walking towards Marinette. He bumped into her and the kwami was about to write it off when the man spun and moved her into a nearby alley and the two disappeared. What worried Plagg even more was he didn't see Tikki come out and try to do anything.
"Aaaaaaaddddrrriieeeennn!" Plagg zoomed towards his owner's fencing class where hopefully he was in the locker room. He flew in from the sky and when he saw all the students still hidden behind their masks in the quad, he couldn't tell which one was Adrien at first.
Upon seeing him though, Adrien stopped fencing and lifted up his mask. He saw Plagg had returned, made some excuse to his partner, then quickly went into the locker room. Plagg flew through the walls to meet him there and hurriedly spat out what he had seen.
"I guess it's a good thing I had you watch her then. Let's go!" Adrien would have transformed except then Plagg would be able to tell him where to go. He stretched out his senses, trying to pick up Marinette the way he did the akumas and could basically follow where Plagg was taking him to. It was in the industrial part of Paris and eventually they ended up at a big, abandoned building.
"They're somewhere in there!" Plagg pointed.
"Okay, good job. Now it's my turn. Plagg, claws out!"
Marinette moaned and tried to center her vision. Everything was fuzzy. The last thing she remembered was leaving the coffee shop and then a peculiar feeling popped up before that man bumped into her. Her eyes snapped open then and she immediately didn't recognize where she was. "Tikki! Tikki, where are you!?"
"Here Marinette!" her tiny voice squeaked.
Marinette looked up to the right and saw a small golden birdcage that currently housed her kwami. "Tikki, spots on!" However, the little kwami shook her head and her lack of transformation confused Marinette. "What's going on?"
"I can't get out. It's just like with kwami-buster. This cage was made using magic specifically to trap kwamis! And until I get out, you can't transform, either!"
"Then it's time I—" Marinette took one step towards the only door in the room and was instantly slammed back against the wall by an invisible force. The air was knocked clear of her lungs and somehow she was stuck spread eagle a couple feet off the ground.
"Tsk tsk tsk, it's not time for you to be leaving just yet." A man entered and Marinette immediately saw a dark energy surrounding his form. It was the same as when a person was possessed by an akuma. "Not until I've had my fun with you."
It took Marinette a few precious seconds to realize who it was. "The thief from last night! The one in the alleyway!"
"That's right. You got the rest of my gang locked up, but you forgot about little 'ol me." He sauntered up and, upon noticing Tikki, gave her cage a little punch with his knuckles.
"Leave her alone!" Marinette snapped.
He turned his attention back to his main prey and licked his lips. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not interested in her at all. I just didn't want her to ruin our fun." When he got closer, Marinette felt her body tremble. Demons she could handle, monsters she could defeat, but what this man wanted was so vile, the girl in her quivered with fear. She couldn't move to fight back or get away. He raised a hand up to move her chin up, allowing him access to her neck. She closed her eyes in anguish, tears squeezing out the sides when he sniffed and then licked up her neck.
"N-No, please don't." Her voice wavered and she hated herself for being so weak.
He chuckled and pulled back, putting a hand to his chin in a seemingly out of personality manner. "I don't even need to do anything to you, really. I just need to make it look like I did. Then Adrien, even he must have standards, won't want sloppy seconds." He laughed and slammed Marinette's head back, causing stars to dance before her eyes. Her head slumped against her chest.
Then he flicked a finger from his position four feet in front of her and she felt the top button of her shirt go flying. Another flick, another button. Now her bra was showing. A third flick and…
A great shout was heard and Cat Noir came bursting through the window. He spun with his pole so hard that he blasted the man through the open door and far down the hall beyond. "Keep your filthy hands off of her!" The man hit the wall at the end of the hallway and still had enough momentum to shoot through it. Without his power actively holding her up, Marinette started to fall down where she collapsed into Cat Noir's awaiting arms. "Marinette, I'm here. I'm here."
Marinette didn't know if that was to assure her or to assure him or both. It was just when she felt those strong arms encircle her that she held on with pure abandon, frightened and relieved out of her mind that he was there when he was. She couldn't form any words through her cries and hiccups. Cat Noir pulled her to her feet and prepared to carry her but she shook her head and pushed away. "T-Tikki. I need you to free Tikki." Her shaking hands came up to close her shirt once more.
"What?" He looked up in surprise and saw the poor kwami was still locked in her cage. "Cataclysm." He touched the cage with his power and it crumbled into nothing but dust. "How was he able to do that?"
Tikki zoomed over and nuzzled Marinette gratefully. "I don't know but he has a strange power that's very similar to an akuma. He threw me and controlled me with telekinesis and he was able to see and trap Tikki but I can't figure out how yet."
"He can't have gone far. I think I can track him now with my status as guardian but we gotta make it quick. I have five minutes." He looked at her with worry in his cat eyes. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
She looked at him with uncertainty. "No, but what choice do I have? Tikki, spots on!"
Once transformed, once she had her armor on, Ladybug narrowed her eyes at where the man had been blasted away and unhooked her yoyo. "Time to put this pervert in his place."
Cat Noir gave his staff a spin and ground, "Gladly."
They ran down the hallway and jumped through the hole in the wall he had made. On the other side was an old factory that made heaven knows what. There were conveyor belts and cranes with hooks and other odd machinery.
"Hahaha, now the kitty has come to play! The more the merrier I say!" the man's voice echoed throughout the building.
"You might not find it so fun when I take my staff and shove it down your disgusting throat!" Cat Noir countered.
"Cat Noir," Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder, getting him to turn to her. "You're upset. I get that. I'm upset, too. But this is his playground. If we go in blinded by anger, we've already lost."
He sighed and covered her hand with his clawed one. "I know, Bugaboo. But he touched my favorite little bug and I find that tends to make me not play well with others."
She smiled gratefully. "We'll talk about that later. For now, I'm gonna need your help to figure this new case out."
He bowed dramatically and seemed to be back to mostly his old self. "At your service, Milady."
Ladybug spun her yoyo and went into the center of the room, her kitty right behind her. "You got us here, now tell us what you want!" she baited. She had to get the person to talk again so Cat Noir could narrow down where they went.
"I want you to suffer! I want the promise of happiness to remain just out of your grasp until I completely rip it away!"
Cat Noir flicked his head to the left and she nodded.
"That sounds kind of harsh! What did I ever do to you!? Stop you from stealing? Send your friends to jail? I barely know you!" She stretched out her senses knowing that they only had four minutes left before Cat Noir transformed back. They entered a narrow area between machines. Cat Noir went left and she was about to go right when the man appeared and grabbed her in a bear hug, locking her arms down to her sides. She felt herself yanked back just as Cat Noir heard the scuffle and spun around.
"Ladybug!" he immediately took chase. When he came out from between the machines, the man released an arm around Ladybug to telepathically slam Cat Noir up into the air and to the right. Cat Noir went flying until his head hit one of the metal claws and he tumbled back towards the ground.
Ladybug raised her arms to get some breathing room then raised a fist and harshly punched down behind her into the man's privates. He doubled over and she quickly got out of his hold and went over to help Cat Noir to his feet. "I hate to say it when we don't know the full situation, but I think we need a little more luck on our side to combat his telepathy. Lucky charm!" Her powers manifested and created a purse. It was a large shoulder bag, reminding her of Mary Poppin's carpet bag. She glanced around and immediately formulated a plan. "Cat Noir, listen up."
The man recovered with a growl and looked around but couldn't see Ladybug. What he did see was a large purse and the thief in him couldn't help but wonder. He reached forward and opened the bag. Reaching inside he found a rather random… "Hacky sack?"
Ladybug came out then and used her yoyo to hit the hacky sack. After so many years untouched, dust exploded upon her hit and flew into the man's mouth, nose, and eyes. He stumbled back coughing and cursing which gave her the opportunity to take a lost baseball cap and slam it over his head and eyes. "Now!"
Cat Noir pushed some buttons on one of the machines and the big metal hooks came down, catching the man by the shirt and lifting him up into the air. "He's all yours, Milady."
Knowing they didn't have a lot of time left, Ladybug looked at him and could still see the dark aura surrounding his body. However, he didn't have an object on him that could have been akumatized. What am I missing? she wondered. Normally when there's an akuma, I catch them in my yoyo and they come out purified. She looked at her yoyo and saw the center button, the one she usually used to release the akuma, glowing. She tapped it and a bright light shot out reaching all the way to the ceiling. When the light touched the man, his skin sizzled and it seemed to cause him pain. Time to test out my theory.
"Time to exorcise!" She held her yoyo in both hands in front of her and shot the beam up at the man. The darkness around him began to separate, as if his shadow were Peter Pan's and was trying to leave. The darkness pulled and pulled until it broke off with a snap and was dissolved by the light.
The man moaned and looked physically weaker than before. Ladybug nodded and Cat Noir lowered him back to the ground, then came over to join her. "So, he was possessed?"
"Yeah, I guess…" she unhooked him and he lowered to the floor, seemingly asleep. She saw a strange symbol on his chest appear for a moment before it faded away. She heard Cat Noir's ring start beeping so she left the rest to figure out later. "Anyways, come on. Let's go." She spun her yoyo and the two left the abandoned warehouse behind.
When the two got back to Marinette's rooftop, she stopped and said, "Tikki, spots off."
"Plagg, claws in."
Immediately once they shed their forms, Adrien and Marinette rushed into each other's arms. Adrien held on as tightly as he dared and Marinette let the tears come that she'd been holding back during the battle. "How? How did you know where to find me? That I was even in trouble? If you hadn't come…" She buried her face in his chest.
"Shh, shh, I know. I don't even want to think about it." Adrien soothed her by stroking her hair. "I had my suspicions. There was this janitor at school giving me bad vibes so I had Plagg keep an eye on you at the café. I'm so glad that I did."
Tikki hugged Plagg and while he wasn't a big hugger, he let her this time. "Thank you, Plagg. You were so selfless and brave this time."
"Yeah, don't get used to it," he brushed off.
Marinette dried her eyes and looked up at their kwami. "What was that? That wasn't because of an akuma. That was something else."
Tikki looked worried and tried to find the right words. "That was an ancient spell of possession."
"That aura, those words, it was like they weren't his own," Adrien thought back. "Who was controlling him? And why?"
"First, what you should know is because you were able to exorcise him it means you've gotten stronger," Tikki explained. "Normally you needed to catch the akuma in your yoyo in order to purify them. That power is the very basis of what it means to be Ladybug. The power of exorcism. You were able to manifest that power outside of the yoyo. The yoyo is just a tool and eventually, you will be able to purify evil without it, based on your very own power."
"Who is the one causing the possession though, Tikki? It's not Hawkmoth anymore, right?" Marinette asked.
"No, and I'm afraid it's someone much darker than that. She—"
"Can we please talk over dinner? I'm starving!" Plagg complained.
Adrien shrugged and since his father knew about his alter ego, he didn't really have to lie about it. He called up his father and explained the situation and surprisingly his father thought Marinette should come over instead of Adrien staying there. Confused, Adrien got off the phone. "My dad's sending the car over."
"Oh, uh okay. Let me talk to my folks. You take the fire escape down and I'll meet you out front."
Adrien had always imagined the table full of people with lots of conversations filling the air, but he'd never imagined people and kwami chatting over a warm meal and everyone being so calm about it. His father sat speaking to Nathalie on one end of the table while he and Marinette sat on the opposite. A full plate of cookies and cheese had been presented for the kwami and they currently stuffed themselves in the middle of the table.
This new side of his dad was welcomed but still unnerving. He spoke with a gentle voice, drinking wine by a glass and Nathalie laughed at something he said. She wore her hair down and had switched to contacts and he had to admit she never looked so beautiful. It was like she was able to be more herself now that she wasn't just his secretary. Adrien was honestly happy for both of them.
Gabriel cleared his throat, causing various conversations die down. "Now I feel inclined to impart with honesty that I do not condone my son risking his life playing superhero on the streets of Paris late at night or at any time for that matter."
"Father!"
"However," he pushed his glasses higher up on his nose. "After trying personally to defeat this particular pair of vigilantes, I know for a fact that you are more than capable of handling anything that is thrown your way."
Adrien's mouth dropped open before he practically beamed at his father, words leaving him.
"Now that the air's been cleared about that," he folded his hands in front of his chin and looked seriously at the pair. "Explain to me exactly what happened with this…thief."
"I can think of a few better choice words to call him," Nathalie muttered under her breath, covering it up with a drink of wine.
"Indeed," Gabriel agreed. "We are glad nothing came to pass with Ms. Dupain-Cheng."
Marinette and Adrien took turns explaining what had happened from recognizing the man from the night before to having Marinette abducted to his eventual exorcism.
Tikki looked up then and met Gabriel's gaze. "It was Etain, I'm sure of it."
"Etain?" Adrien echoed.
Gabriel sighed and brought up the grimoire which was still in his possession. "The creation of akumas was essentially the possession of butterflies which were already within the control of the miraculous of the butterfly. The skill of gathering dark energy and imbuing it into one, or a feather as Miyura did, was something we discovered through the history of the miraculous in the grimoire. The technique, it states, was originally created by a witch centuries ago, named Etain."
"A witch that's still around?" Adrien gaped.
"No," Tikki shook her head. "She must be acting from her current time through another person in this time."
"Lila, or Chloe maybe?" Marinette guessed.
"Chloe may not like you, but I can't see her will being taken over by a witch so easily," Adrien defended.
Marinette made a face. "She was akumatized, that's enough evidence for me." Her shoulders drooped. "But I think you're right. Besides, I saw Lila glaring at me earlier when I sat down next to you."
"There is one difference between an akuma and spiritual possession," Gabriel explained. "Where my akumas were able to take people over even if they had been akumaitzed before, once a person is purified with Ladybug's light, they become immune to possession. Their souls are sealed off from negative influences forever."
"I think I saw that on our nameless thief," Marinette snapped her fingers. "I saw a weird symbol show up over their heart and then it vanished."
Adrien despaired, "But if one person, or a gang of people, were able to be possessed through this indirect means, then Etain has an entire city of possible victims."
"Not necessarily," his father countered. "A connection has to be made of some sort to one of you with negative feelings strong enough that a proper possession can come about. It's similar to my akumas, again. The darkness in people's hearts makes them vulnerable to suggestion. Their beef with you, as you would say, is what focuses their anger enough that Etain can convince them that her directions is what they, in fact, truly want."
"What's her motive though? Why target Cat Noir and Ladybug?" Marinette asked.
"The grimoire doesn't say, I'm afraid. Just that she was a formidable opponent to the Cat Noir and Ladybug of her time."
Adrien reached over and grabbed hold of Marinette's hand. "If we're both being targeted, then we need to take extra precautions."
"Your father has already made the same assumptions," Nathalie spoke for the first time since talk of Etain began. "Marinette will be given her own bodyguard to ensure that she gets to and from school every day."
"Now hold on, I can walk her home just as easily," Adrien suggested.
Gabriel shook his head. "That wouldn't work with your current schedule being as it is."
"Then she stays with me until I'm done with Chinese and fencing practice. My bodyguard can take her home first," Adrien offered as an alternative. "I won't be satisfied unless I can see that she's safe."
"Now hold on a second," Marinette jumped to her feet. "I'm not some damsel in distress that needs to be protected. Either by a third party," she looked at Garbiel, "Or by my boyfriend," she looked pointedly at Adrien. "If you recall, I'm the guardian of the miraculous and I've faced worse than an ancient witch with some grudge against me."
"But Marinette, Etain is stronger than you think. Don't underestimate her simply because you've managed to defeat Hawk Moth," Tikki warned.
Feeling penned in from both sides, Marinette pushed back her chair and exited the room.
"Marinette!" Adrien got up to follow her while both kwamis knowingly stayed behind to give them some space.
Adrien caught hold of Marinette's hand just as she entered the foyer. "Marinette, please don't go."
She pulled her hand away. "You all are treating me like I'm some helpless 14-year-old when I have proven multiple times that I can take care of myself."
"I know you can but after today…after what almost happened," Adrien closed his eyes in anguish. "I can't even think about it. Who knows what this Etain might try next? I feel like I just got you and…"
Marinette sighed and hugged her arms. "I know. I get it. But going overboard with the protection measures and forced schedules is just…"
"Difficult, trust me I know." Adrien stuck his hands in his pockets. "It's all I've known for a while now and I understand how suffocating it can be. I wouldn't wish that on anybody."
"Look, I'll go to your practices for the rest of this week and you can take me home afterwards but only until we figure something else out. I won't be babied more than necessary." Adrien rushed forward and hugged her, which she reluctantly returned. "I'll ask my bodyguard to bring the car around."
On the way home, Marinette got a call on her phone. It was Gabriel Agreste. "Mr. Agreste?"
"I wanted to offer you a proposal. I agree that Ms. Chloe is most likely not our witch by proxy. It is most likely Lila. Therefore, the optimal plan is the bait her with you so that you will be able to trace how she is able to connect with Etain and severe the connection. If nothing else, exorcise Lila and the witch will no longer be able to use her to affect this time period."
Marinette admitted it sounded like a good plan. "I doubt Adrien would agree with such a plan."
"Which is why we won't be telling my son."
Marinette despaired. She didn't like the idea of not telling Adrien something, but he was going to be over possessive with her safety. She could handle this, and she didn't need to bother him with the details if it solved this whole mess so things went back to normal. "I'm listening…"