Chapter 18: Desperada(Adrien's POV)
Adrien huffs, being out of breath, luckily his suit is keeping him warm, despite the winter conditions. Gathering up courage, he walks through the snowy pathway to Master Fu's place. It's just, well. Their last conversation, which was about Marmora and last night, didn't go so well.
Master Fu closed his eyes, "Yes, those are some strange things for him to say. But I'm afraid I can't do anything about it."
"You mean you can't find out why he said those things?"
"No. I am not close to him, besides he doesn't even remember fighting Oblivio. So he will most likely deny having said any of the words or phrases you have mentioned to me."
"But…." Adrien trailed off.
"Look Adrien, I understand your curiosity but perhaps it would be best to wait for Marmora to eventually explain those things to you, instead of you confronting him."
Adrien sighed and thought he did not want to wait that long, but he switched the subject anyway.
"I remember you talking about a person who knew where Ladybug disappeared to. Any chance that you have spoken to…"
"I have not. I have been busy, mentoring you, which is a pleasure, and running my massage service." Master Fu said, cutting him off.
"Really?! Ladybug could be in trouble and we could help her! What if she needs to be saved or…"
"Ladybug can handle herself. I trust her, just like I trust you."
Adrien bridled his anger that was bubbling up inside him. Knowing he couldn't convince his mentor to talk, he had excused himself and went home.
He still feels angry towards Master Fu, but it isn't his fault Ladybug is missing, and he was, well, is right that it would be best to let Marmora eventually confess about those strange things, even if it takes forever.
Adrien knocks, taking deep breaths trying to calm himself down, again.
The door opens to reveal Master Fu, "Ah," he says, "Chat Noir come in and tell me what's bothering you."
Adrien releases a breath he did not know he was holding a moment ago. Also the tension in his shoulders disappears.
Walking with Master Fu, he quickly explains the current situation.
"Sounds like you could use the Snake Miraculous." Master Fu replies after having heard what has happened so far.
"The one that allows the user to have a second chance if they can do a certain motion before five minutes is up?"
Master Fu nods, "Yes. This akuma sounds like her golden shots are quick and hard to evade. So you will need to discover how that works, or find a strategy to successfully capture the akuma, so having the snake miraculous on standby is not a bad thing."
Adrien nods, the logic makes sense.
Besides, his teammates might be trapped wherever those golden shots take the akuma's prisoners.
Which would not be good.
Best not to think/worry about it.
He leads Adrien to his living room where a Gramophone is. He already knows that it holds the miraculous jewels, and he has only seen it open up twice, one for getting the fox miraculous and one for getting the dragon miraculous.
Master Fu grabs the Gramophone and sets it down. The top part goes back while compartments holding miraculous pop out.
Master Fu then grabs a bracelet, a blue bracelet with a snake head that has yellow eyes and a yellow tongue sticking out, and hands it to Adrien.
"Thank you."
"Do you have an idea of who should wear it?"
He nods, of course he does. Keith! He has been out of akumas fights recently, but Keith always has his back, whether when he's Chat Noir or his regular civilian self.
Keith's POV
Keith flips through a book about famous pianists, Chloe is hanging out with her dad, which is good they need to get a good relationship back together(he is totally not jealous at all. Also he does miss hanging out with her, since it always helps him to not miss Shiro and the other paladins of Voltron as much. Same with hanging out with Adrien and being a part of Team Miraculous. Though he misses hanging out with Chloe more because she understands him, that and they haven't had a date in a while.) and Adrien is at that Christmas party that's being held at some boat.
It is an interesting read though, to learn about the techniques and styles of the 1970's and the time frames below that. And he doesn't mind being alone, and it does do Adrien some good to get out of the house, even if he sorta lied about the reason to Gabriel.
He is into The Early Methodology section, when he hears a tap at the window.
Looking up from his book, or rather Adrien's book, from the couch in front of the T.V to his surprise he sees Chat Noir. Now what could the feline hero want?
Cautiously he goes to the window and opens it. He gets out of the way as the feline hero jumps down.
The hero looks around, maybe scanning for danger or something.
"Gabriel's at work, Adrien is out with a friend, I have no idea what Nathlie is doing or Gorilla, but it's safe," Keith says to reassure Chat Noir.
Sitting back on the couch, Keith asks, "So what did you come here for? I assume it's not because you want to hang out."
Chat Noir nods, and takes a deep breath. Snow falls gently outside, and Keith begins to feel uneasy as Chat Noir works up the courage to say whatever he's going to say.(He might have a little trauma from someone else in a black suit, maybe asking him two times to be the leader of Voltron in case anything happens to him. Maybe, just maybe.)
"Keith Kogane, I bestow upon you the Snake Miraculous which gives its user the power of second chance, should you accept I expect that you will use it to fight in this war against Hawkmoth…"
"Hold on, you want to give me the Snake Miraculous for a long time. Doesn't that seem like a bad idea? After all, you shouldn't use the power second chance everytime something goes wrong ..." Keith trails off.
We have been doing fine without it, besides how else is someone supposed to learn if there's just a reset button to try again and again and thus having the upper hand. Because how is one supposed to learn how to impoversie, to make the most out of a bad situation, if they can keep trying their plan over and over again?
"Well…I guess you're right. But this time it certainly needs to be used, since this akuma is crazy fast and the Snake's weapon is a lyre, and this akuma also fights with instruments…"
"Let me think about this for a second."
Chat Noir nods heastianly, obviously nervous. But he ignores it. Going up the stairs and into his room, he sighs. That wasn't what he had expected Chat to ask.
"Hey Roaar?" Keith whispers. His kwamis immediately flies into him, and almost starts yelling, but he cuts her off, whispering, "Chat Noir is here."
"So that's why you whispered, so why is Chat here?"
"He wants me to use the snake miraculous, the thing is, what if he needs Marmora's help as well to defend this akuma off.."
"I think you should say yes. After all you won't know until you try, right? That Chat needs Marmora.."
Keith sighs, "I guess, but I don't like the idea of using the snake. It might make Chat Noir's confidence in himself waver, since he has been struggling with his confidence in leading Team Miraculous. As it seems like he thinks his plans to beat this akuma will always fail."
"He chose you, so he has confidence in you. And he chose the Snake Miraculous which means he knows what he is getting into."
"Fair enough," I just hope all goes well, Keith thinks as he opens the door as his kwami flies into his jogger pants pant pocket at the front.
Walking down the stairs, he can see that Chat Noir had begun pacing, though because of his cat ears Cat Noir stops and looks at him as he descends.
"So?"
"I accept."
Chat Noir then opens his folded hand, revealing a bracelet.
Keith picks up the bracelet and puts it on his left hand, since he doesn't want to take off his pangea bracelet, just in case the whole thing doesn't work out.
A teal blue blur appears and then disperses revealing a teal cobra snake kwami. The kwami has a serpentine tail, and on the tail he has dark green diamond patterns and has a large dark green diamond on his hood.
"I am Sass, the kwami of Second Chances. You have the power, once you say the activation phrase to mark any time and go back to that time endlessly. But for youths there is a five minute time limit, so when you go past that you will detransform. To activate my power all you need to do is say Sass Scales Slither!"
Keith nods, "Sass Scales Slither!"
Adrien's POV
Adrien breathes a sigh of relief when he hears Keith say the words, "Sass Scales Slither."
He couldn't imagine having to find another holder in a short time if Keith had refused. As every minute they waste is another second the Akuma turns people into stickers.
Once the transformation is complete, Keith now has a teal hoodie over his black hair like a cobra that has dark green diamonds with a hollow middle(which is teal) on it that is attached to a jacket that goes down to about above his waist. The jacket also has dark green diamonds with hollow centres on the side of the sleeves that get smaller and stop before a certain point and the jacket is unzipped and there are two diamonds that have parted because of it. Keith's jumpsuit is a lighter teal and he has a belt(which is very dark teal and has a green diamond with a hollow centre as the buckle) where the lyre is(which is like Viperions lyre from where Luka has the snake miraculous) and he has boots that look like the style of Marmora's expect they have dark teal rims, a light teal middle with a dark green diamond in the centre and dark teal(not as dark as the rims) and it has yellow surrounding the bottom where the teal and dark teal end(basically like Keith's boots from Voltron, which is still at the Marmora base along with his other outfit, which is also the style of Marmora's boots, expect different colours). His mask is just teal, but his violet eyes now have pupils that are now slits(like a cat or a snake's eye) and surrounded by yellow, instead of white.
"So, do you know where the akuma is now?" asks Keith.
"No, but we can look." Adrien replies.
Keith shrugs and follows Adrien out the window. Landing on the newly shovelled sidewalk, Adrien scans the area. Now where would the akuma be? Suddenly screaming can be heard coming from down the road.
Rushing to the scene, he sees Desparda flying about and shooting her golden streaks of something at random civilians, some are slipping on ice and falling, and some are successfully running away but some still get it, all the while screaming.
Shouldn't Paris be used to this by now? Akumas attacks happen almost daily, and some target them. But then again no one probably expects that an akuma attack would happen when Christmas is clearly in full swing.
But from his shows, magas and books most Villains do not take breaks until they get what they want, even if there's something festive going on. In fact most villains..
"So what now? Do you want to activate me to activate the Snake Miraculous's power now or do you want me to wait?" Keith asks, breaking Adrien out of his thoughts.
"You can activate it now. As those blasts are coming in fast."
Keith's POV
Keith nods. Marking the time with his bracelet, that now looks kinda like an Ouroboros dragon, except more snake-like.
So he has five minutes to figure out what to do, before he detransforms. No pressure. At all. None whatsoever.
Looking at the akuma, it seems most of her attacks are thanks to her guitar, strumming the melody. But how are we going to counteract it? Someone has to be the distraction, whilst another commences a sneak attack, and that might require help. The only thing he can see using the snake miraculous for is if Chat Noir gets hit to reset the timeline.
Which shouldn't happen, if it's Chat who sneaks up on the akuma and he is successful in getting the akuma distracted not to notice.
"Alright here's the plan I've got," Keith starts, whispering, "You go up behind the akuma while I distract her, hopefully I'll take her by surprise and make her land. When she is distracted then you can tackle her and take away her guitar."
Chat nods, "Sounds good. Are you sure this'll work, uhhh?"
"Oh,ah Sarcelle Serpent, you can call me Sarcelle Serpent," Keith says, "And of course it will work", and it should. If not he can always reset the timeline(which he still thinks is like cheating) and make sure it goes right the next time.
Here goes. Stepping out behind the snowbank he was hiding behind with Chat, he approaches the akuma.
'Hey,"
The akuma looks at him, "Have you come to give me your so I am pleasantly surprised I won this easily Hawkmoth should be pleased."
Gabriel's POV
What is this Snake Heroes angle? Is it a trap? It might be. But the heroes aren't that smart, are they? They have managed to beat him so far, never losing.
Which irritates him, how can young superheroes win against an older gentleman?
He should be smarter and his plans should not be shot down in ten minutes(an exaggeration, it probably takes more than ten minutes, but he is still easily beaten as it takes the heroes less than an hour to beat his akumas).
Heroes Day was the only time, the only time, he probably had the heroes on their toes. But that was because he had that schoolgirl, and Natalie by his side.
Perhaps he should make his assistant have a more active role, then just managing his company, Adrien and that boy Keith. But….That would endanger Natalie, besides recovering Emile doesn't concern her at all.
Going back to seeing the situation through his akumas eyes, he discovers that the mangy black cat hero, Chat Noir, has Desperada pinned. Gabriel grinds his teeth in frustration. Yet another battle lost in this war on his side. How is Team Miraculous managing to beat him at every step? He thinks he has a way to end the war, but then Team Miraculous comes in and saves Chat Noir.
The Black Cat miraculous is all he needs, until Ladybug comes back. But Chat Noir isn't on his own anymore and hasn't been for months.
Should he just give up? Gabriel thinks, slumping to his knees, staring at his white butterflies in his darkened layer as the window is now covered up.
Natalie's POV
She steps into Gabriel's Hawkmoth lair. It pains her heart to see him so hopeless. Yet he keeps, somehow, losing against clearly young superheroes, and his plans aren't always smart..
Making her wonder why she fell for the hardworking man. Natalie knows what he is doing is wrong, but he's doing it for his family, albeit ignoring Adrien his son and Keith his 'cousin'(Because isn't really related to the Agreste's, Gabriel just had her make it look that way to anyone who wanted proof of the connection between the Koganes and the Agrestes families, after learning about Keith's true origins).
She nearly, nearly, shudders looking back at how cold Gabriel's voice had sounded issuing the command. Like he didn't care but was doing it for his son, because Adrien liked Keith.
Normally it would take much more convincing for Gabriel to do anything for his son(that his son actually wanted), but an oath from Keith was all it took.
That and Gabriel probably, the schemer, decided having Keith in the house would distract Adrien from trying to drag him away from recovering Emile.
She sighs, her heart is so conflicted, one part of her loves Gabriel for doing all of this so he can have his family back, but the other part hates him for leaving it up to her and Keith and Adrien's friends to be there for Adrien and support him.
But she asks her question anyway, "Don't you think it's about time you used the Peacock Miraculous?" After saying it, her heart feels heavier. But this is her boss, and Gabriel has told her to inspire him with ideas.
Even if it means to prolong this terrible idea.
Gabriel looks at her, with his Hawkmoth disguise, or is it the other way around? Hawkmoth being Gabriel's true nature while his Gabriel personality is just a front.
"Maybe. I vowed not to use it after you got hurt, but perhaps…"
Natalie sighs, she knows where he's going with that thought.
"But if you get Keith sick, Adrien will be more sad and mopey. You want him to be happy right? So I'll use the Peacock Miraculous."
Because the other option other than her or Keith is invlign Adrien, which no, just no. Not happening. Neither is getting Keith involved. Because they are kids for God's sake and should not be forced into this war that an adult man started because he misses his wife(who died or is in a coma, she's not sure which since Gabriel didn't specify Emile's condition).
Hawkmoth springs forward, "No! You're my assistant Natalie.."
"Which is exactly why I should start using the Peacock Miraculous. My job is to assist you, and that means if I have to wear a magical jewel to do so be it."
"I guess." Hawkmoth says, unsure.
"It's my decision. You didn't force me." Natalie replies with an air of finality. She then walks away, not allowing Hawkmoth to make any more arguments against the idea.
Author's Note: Alright so the reason I didn't have Keith use the snake miraculous even though he was given it, is because Keith often has dealt with a lot of improvisation when it comes to plans(The freeing of the Balmerains for instance) to not really need the power of the Snake. And the only reason Adrien gave it to Keith, is one, he doesn't really trust anyone else(only just reconnecting with Nino) and he doesn't know that Keith is Marmora. And yes I'm exploring Natalie's love for Gabriel, as in the show it just kind of popped up and the only real action we got from it was in Evolution Natalie told Gabriel to f**** off(which I am very proud of cannon Natalie for doing, Like yes girl! Finally). Also I want to explore more of the reason why she chose to wield the Peacock miraculous, instead, just, you know, loving Hawkmoth/Gabriel. Also I do believe she has conflicting emotions instead of just she's fully blindsided by her love for him. Since telling him to f**** off in Evolution certainly means she was aware of his actions and how dumb he is and finally said enough. So yea those are my reasons. Anyway long tangent aside I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter:)