To Rose Tiger: Unfortunately, he may not be the only one in this story.
To Anon: Sadly, that was only the beginning of the "Tragedy."
Max stifled a yawn. He and Chloe had been in New Atlantis for a full day now, and he had yet to adjust to the time difference. Their meeting with the New Atlantis Council had been intended to only take a couple hours in the Paris evening – a little after breakfast in New Atlantis – so they could return home well before bedtime. But that couple hours had dragged on to lunch. Then before they had known it, Max and Chloe had realized that they had been up for the equivalent of an entire night, and the Council had called a recess to break for dinner. He and Chloe had been given lodgings in the guest quarters on the upper floor of the Council House, and he had passed out on his bed almost before he could finish sending Sabrina a quick message. In spite of the sleep, Max still felt confused and exhausted in a way that simple caffeine could never solve. But he didn't have time for that today. They had been at it for three hours already, and still they appeared no closer to a resolution.
The miscommunication in Japan had turned everything on its head.
Sitting beside him, Chloe took a slow, deep breath, and let it out. Turning to face Joanna, the Guardian-leader of the Council, in a measured tone she asked her, "You do recall our discussion last year, correct?"
Joanna nodded. "Of course I do," she agreed. "We have always sought to uphold our end of that agreement."
"We were happy to provide space for the Spaceport," added Cissy, inclining her head to Max. "That is something that none of the other temples could have provided. I've only been to a couple of the other temples, but their space is pretty limited, while our city has an entire island to use."
Max frowned. Marinette or Adrien really should have been here with Chloe for this meeting – he was a scientist, after all, not a diplomat. What did he know about the intricacies of this sort of negotiation? But Adrien and Marinette were back in Paris, watching over Adrien's mother, which left him to make this trip with Chloe. His jaw clenched. "That is true," he conceded. "However, we were under the impression that this was a separate issue."
Chloe folded her arms, her mouth set in a thin line. "We agreed to share any information we found about the Atlantean Miraculous," she reminded them.
Joanna raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly. We agreed to share any information we find," she corrected her. "We had already found the Pliosaur Miraculous; we did not think it relevant."
"'Not relevant'?" Chloe repeated. "It's an Atlantean Miraculous!"
Jack raised his hand, and Joanna leaned back in her chair, staring transfixed at Chloe. "My predecessor ripped that miraculous from the throat of a Japanese ninja back during World War II. On bringing it home she realized that it had to have come from a different set – more confirmation that there were other miraculous sets, even beyond Scarlet Serpent's run-in with the Jade Turtle nearly a century earlier. Nevertheless, Jo-e added the Pliosaur to our own set, and we used it as one of our own. It has been more than three-quarters of a century since that event; it did not seem important to divulge last year."
"And when we mentioned the Atlantean Miraculous that we had discovered, you did not think it pertinent?" asked Chloe, arching her eyebrow dubiously.
Jack's mouth set in a thin line. "No."
"We had agreed that the Atlantean Miraculous were a subject of concern for all of us," Chloe argued, frowning.
Max examined the faces of the New Atlantis Council members sitting across from them around the conference table. The leaders of their other intervention teams – William and Noel – sat quietly, watching the back-and-forth. Miranda, the Chief Sorcerer, was staring at him, her eyes narrowed. Joanna's lips were pursed in a look of distaste. Only Cissy wore a regretful look, appearing more and more torn as their discussion continued. Quickly Max sent a message to Markov, who beeped. "Were you concerned that we would ask you to give up the Pliosaur Miraculous?" Max asked, examining Joanna's face carefully for her reaction.
Jack gave Max a serious look. "Can you say that you wouldn't have eventually made that request?"
Chloe scoffed. "Have we ever stepped in and told anyone what to do?" she demanded rhetorically.
"Not yet…"
Joanna frowned. "The fact remains that you are seeking to reform the Atlantean Miraculous Set, with its own Guardians," she pointed out. "You have said yourself that you intend to train and appoint one of your own as the primary Guardian for all the Atlantean Miraculous. Is that not the case?"
"That is a long term plan, but it's not a decision we would undertake lightly," Chloe told her. "And it is not something we would do without consultation – and agreement – from the rest of the Orders of Guardians. After all, at this point all of the Guardian groups have at least one Atlantean Miraculous under their care. If we reconstituted the Atlantean Set, that decision would affect everyone, so everyone would have a say. Adrien and Marinette are not the type to just make a decision without input from those the decision would affect. You are our friends. We want to do these sorts of things together." Chloe huffed. "If you had just asked…"
Joanna sighed, giving Jack a look. He nodded slowly, frowning, and she told them, "We were… not thinking." She let out a breath. "We probably should have told you and the others about the Pliosaur."
"To be fair, we probably should have told you up front about what we were trying to do with the Atlantean Miraculous," Chloe allowed. "We shouldn't even have risked the possibility of misunderstandings on that front."
Jack gave a small smile. "I hope that we can continue working together in the future," he observed. "Especially with these Monsters descending on Paris."
Pushing away a jolt of anxiety at the reminder of the five Beasts set to meet in Paris, Max let out a relieved breath as Chloe smiled in triumph and nodded firmly, holding out a hand to Jack. After over a day of effort–
The conference room door suddenly slammed open. Max spun around to find Marinette standing in the doorway, tears on her cheeks, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
Chloe jumped to her feet, eyes wide, and moved toward the door. "Mar? What–?" She gasped, eyes going wide. "Is it Tante Em–?"
"Master Fu is dead," Marinette interrupted, her lower lip trembling. She swallowed and continued, clearer, "Not thirty minutes ago… Marianne passed, too, only a few minutes after he did. Both of them. In a single night."
Chloe started to put a hand on Marinette's shoulder, but she brushed her away, glaring at Chloe until she moved back. Marinette folded her arms in front of her chest.
"I'm… so sorry to hear that, my dear," Joanna began, a sympathetic look in her eyes. She rose to her feet. "Wang was such a dear friend of my family – grandmother spoke very highly of him until the day of her death, always looking forward to his letters." She sighed sadly. "I had expected him to outlive me, for my grandson to continue that correspondence soon enough. If there is anything–"
Marinette's eyes narrowed. Without seeing Joanna she turned on Jack. "You can explain to me one thing: why?"
Jack cocked his head in confusion. "Why what?"
"Why were you so interested in Japan?" Marinette clarified. "Why were you worrying about Japan instead of doing more to stop this illness? You have all the sorcery – as you keep reminding the rest of us. Max was working on the illness, but he had to deal with figuring out where the Beasts came from and where they were going, too. You could have worked on the illness while we focused on these Beasts – the way we had been for the last month! But instead, the illness had run rampant through my city – it claimed two more lives tonight, and Emilie–" Her voice cracked and she paused for a moment to collect herself. "So… why?"
Max gulped surreptitiously, watching Chloe out of the corner of his eye. Chloe pursed her lips and shrugged.
"Now, Mar, I think–" Chloe began before Marinette cut her off.
"Japan was our responsibility – my teammate's cousin. So why?"
Jack's eyes narrowed and he rose to his feet. "You think that Japan is your responsibility?" he demanded, placing his hands on the table and leaning forward.
"Yes!" Marinette's eyes flashed. "Last I checked, Asia is our responsibility, and Japan is in Asia!"
Jack scoffed. "Japan is in Asia, but Paris is not," he retorted. "You are the 'Heroes of Paris' and of Europe, not of Asia. As far as we've been aware, in recent memory your team has only ever cared about events in Europe!"
"That seems a bit unfair," Cissy began, before Marinette interrupted her.
"We are the 'Asian Order of the Guardians', with the 'Asian Miraculous Set,'" Marinette shot back at Jack, gritting her teeth. "Do you think I don't take that responsibility seriously? I take all my responsibilities seriously!"
"And when did the 'Asian Order of the Guardians' last take an interest in Asia?" Jack folded his arms, glaring at her. "For the better part of two centuries it has fallen to us to watch over Asia, ever since we learned of Wang Fu and his miraculous."
"Don't you dare speak of Master Fu," Marinette seethed, eyes narrowing.
"Now, Jack," warned Joanna, but Jack waved her away.
"Who intervened to preserve the innocent during the Meiji Rebellion?" Jack asked Marinette. "When Japan went to war with Russia? When two world wars came to Asia? When the Japanese began deploying warriors with mystical powers, who stopped them? When the Allies detonated an atomic bomb in Asia – twice – where were you?" He leaned forward. "While the Asian Guardians have been off running all over the world and worrying about things in Europe and America and Africa, New Atlantis has been doing your job. We were interested in the Yakuza and their activities, long before you."
Marinette's mouth set in a thin line. "It was my responsibility," she hissed. "It's all been my responsibility. When all the Miraculous temples were off doing their own thing, we were the ones who brought everyone to the table to work together – where were you? Why weren't you trying to find the other Miraculous Guardians, if you had all the information?"
Jack folded his arms. "We had our own concerns to deal with – including troubles around Asia."
Marinette jutted out her jaw. "You should have told me the truth. You lied. If I can't trust you to tell me the truth, then I don't think I can work with you." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.
Jack stared after her, breathing heavily, and finally sank back into his chair next to Joanna, who blinked rapidly, her eyes shifting nervously between the door and Max and Chloe. Cissy stared at Max, a nauseous look on her face.
Still frozen in his chair, Max turned to Chloe with openmouthed shock. Reacting before anyone else, Chloe raced after Marinette, with Max following them at a slower pace. With a last look behind him, Max left the New Atlantis Council sitting in stunned silence in their conference room to find Chloe with her hand on Marinette's shoulder, trying to hold her back. Marinette tried to brush her hand off, but Chloe gripped her tightly.
"Seriously, Mar: what the hell did you just do?" Chloe demanded, staring her in the face.
Marinette glared, her mouth set in a thin line. "They haven't been honest with us from the start, and now Master Fu is dead – him and so many others. And Emilie could have died while I was in Japan – for no reason! They lied. You more than anyone else should know that I hate liars."