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Adrien walked face-first into a spider web.
The teen jumped in fright, quickly tearing off the sticky, silky string. He knows he'll have to get a shower later to get the rest off. His only problem with it is not knowing if the spider is home or not. He prays it's not crawling on his head right now and continues down the hallway.
Adrien has been walking for about five minutes already, wondering where the other end of the path is. How much longer until something appears instead of this endless, dark corridor?
With every step, his anxiety rises. The more it grew quiet, the louder his racing heartbeat could be heard. Every little sound made him paranoid. Especially, the ones in his head. The figments of his imagination. Anything moving kicked his adrenaline into overdrive. His body urging him to run at any possible thing ready to jump out at him.
Yet, Adrien shoved all those feelings of fear and terror aside. The blonde pushed on. His curiosity outweighed everything, mind ordering his body to keep going forward.
Adrien stopped in his tracks when spotting something shiny up ahead.
"What the..." he said, head tilting to the side. In mere seconds, nearly every possible bad thing popped up in his mind if he continued. He ignored those paranoid thoughts and inched closer to the shiny object. The flashlight's beam of light caught a medium-sized, brown thing.
Quickly, the object registered inside Adrien's mind. Emerald orbs glared heatedly at the bottle. He moved over to it and kneeled, picking up the glass liquid containment. He inspected the bottle, seeing it's empty and the outer surface covered in dirt.
"This must have been here for some time," Adrien theorized, placing it back on the ground, "This emergency exit must have been used for more than just emergencies...and exits."
A tunnel used to sneak people in and out without being seen by the house staff. Adrien hates to admit how ingenious to use the hidden emergency door as a way to sell illegal drugs and medicines. Yet, he finds it disgusting too. A way to protect him from danger. An emergency evacuation used to help people was also used for committing years of crimes.
Adrien wonders how all this went down under his nose without him noticing. Wouldn't he have seen someone walking through the emergency door at some point?
"No..." the blonde thought, knowing his father better than that, "it would've been all planned out at a perfect time when nobody would notice."
His father had all the schedules of the house staff. He could've even changed their agendas if he wanted too.
Adrien growled in anger and tightly clenched his flashlight. He resumed walking, not too long later finding a staircase leading up. The teen is glad to see it, happy to get out of this hallway. Yet, he is terrified, getting closer to finding out the last thing his father is hiding.
One last family secret.
He went up a couple of steps until unlatching a lock to open a trapdoor above his head. Adrien pushed it open, surprised at how easy it is.
"I thought a carpet would've been...oh," Adrien spotted the said carpet folded to the side, "The police must have found this."
Adrien looked around his father's room, seeing everything surprisingly look the same as it did when he left. The entrance to the secret lair is even still open (much to his luck since he wouldn't have known how to open it without the peacock pin).
Adrien shut the trapdoor behind him, hoping the police are already done investigating it and won't find any fingerprints.
"I should've brought some gloves or something," he thought before walking over to the secret lair's entrance. The blonde paused, casting the flashlight's beam down into the eerie depths. Adrien felt a shiver run up and down his spine. This isn't just Hawkmoth's lair, filled with many disturbing things such as dissected animal corpses and illegal serums with unknown abilities.
This was also his mother's resting place. Down those steps and in that back room was her grave. Luckily, authorities have scheduled to have a proper burial at the cemetery after the morgue does some research on her body. Even if it hurts, Adrien wants to know how his mother died.
For now, he has to keep himself in check and figure out this secret. The teen can't let his emotions run amuck when he's getting closer to finding something important.
Adrien took his first step.
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Shan sighed, placing his phone inside his pocket. He stared at his office's door, having a hard time believing that both of Slade's kids are sitting in Shan's office right now. Shan obviously knew the elder child, knowing of her existence since birth.
Yet, the younger one he's never met or seen before. Shan never knew the young redheaded girl or her mother, only knowing of their existence through Slade's crime records.
In simpler words, Shan felt very uncomfortable around the two.
He knows they're nothing like their father, raised under good authority figures. Although, a fourteen and seven-year-old running off to Italy by themselves did make him skeptical. He wonders why Sabine let it happen and not come after the children.
"She probably isn't in a good state of mind with what she told me happened," Shan thought, still knowing it's not a good excuse on her part. Shan knows Sabine would've taken the first flight to Italy to bring the children home so someone must have convinced her not to do it.
"But why?" Shan questioned in his head. His answers lie beyond this door. The uncomfortable man let's out another sigh, shaking off whatever negative feelings towards Slade he's trying not to see in two of the criminal's kids.
Shan opened the door, finding Marinette and Tikki playing rock, paper, and scissors across from each other. They're none-the-wiser of Shan's presence, infatuated by their game.
"Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!" The two girls said in sync. Marinette displayed "paper" while Tikki chose "rock," causing the redhead to frown.
"How do you keep winning?" Tikki grumbled.
Marinette raised an eyebrow, questioning if Tikki knew how to play this game, "You keep picking rock."
Shan cleared his throat, gaining the girls' attention.
"So..." Shan awkwardly began, returning to his desk and sat down, "...I assume you have many questions."
Marinette turned toward the man claiming to be their uncle. It is weird meeting another uncle she never knew existed until two hours ago. Of course, she didn't know the man she's been calling "dad" for the entirety of her life was actually her uncle.
"It's going to be really weird going back home knowing all of this," the bluenette thought, pursing her lips.
"Well," she began, "is there anything else that we don't know yet?"
"I still don't know anything," Tikki pipped in, grumbling. Marinette reassured her sister that she'll explain everything on the way back home, earning a nod from the redhead. Shan sighed, recalling everything Sabine told him over the phone.
"I'm going to get straight to the point without sugarcoating anything," Shan warned ahead of time, "After you were born and your mother died, something in Slade instantly broke. I didn't catch onto it since I was emotional at the time and placed on the blame on him. He knew the consequences but still went along with it."
Shan glanced between the two for a moment before looking straight at Marinette, continuing, "He tried to kill you but was unsuccessful and ran away. Sabine and Tom took you in since they were unable to have a child of their own."
Marinette frowned at that, feeling slightly guilty for her aunt and uncle. She's seen how much Sabine loves children through the years. Now that Marinette recalls it a bit more, she might have caught some longing looks from the woman.
Maybe...not everything has to be so black and white. Yet, it doesn't mean that everything is okay. Marinette can at least try a look past some things but not everything. It's hard to forgive but she's willing to try understanding within Sabine's shoes.
The officer resumed, "After I was hired to do police work here in Italy, I found out Slade was here too. He would pop up every once in a while doing illegal stuff here and in Paris with Hawkmoth. At some point in time, he killed your grandparents in a car wreck because he blamed them for Mei's death too. He also killed my older brother—your other uncle—with lethal drugs. We finally caught him when his wife called."
"Wait! He killed who?" Marinette questioned in disbelief, "I can't believe I thought it couldn't get any worse. Not only did he attempt at murdering me, but he managed to kill three people who weren't even involved with it."
"Well...they did influence it in a way," Shan said.
"Influence it how?" Tikki asked.
"My parents and brother were very strict and stubborn people. Mei was a rebel at heart, always going against their rules or orders. They didn't like Slade but that didn't stop Mei from dating him. In fact, it gave her more of a reason to rebel but I think she actually did love him too," Shan explained, words bitter in his mouth.
Marinette grimaced, not sure how to respond to that. Shan practically soaked every word in venom, deeply scarred by the aftermath of past events. Marinette can't say she knows the feeling but understands it's been a rough life for this man. His entire family is practically dead. His sister. His brother. His parents.
What makes it worse, the main cause for those deaths are all by one person—his best friend.
Marinette suddenly stood up, catching Tikki and Shan off-guard. The bluenette smiled at Shan and tiredly spoke, "Thank you for telling us but I think it's time for us to go home. I owe Tikki an explanation and I need a really long nap."
Shan didn't say anything, reluctantly nodding in agreement. He's glad they didn't show him any pity. He's already seen enough of it every day from his colleagues and has grown tired of it. Shan just wants to be treated like an equal, not some raggedy and seemingly depressed doormat.
Shan stood up from his seat, saying, "Let's get you girls home. I'm sure your...guardians are very worried about you."
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