CHAPTER 16 – TIME TO PLAN

Félix woke up early in an excellent mood. Fate and, ironically enough, Gabriel Agreste's own actions had placed him in an ideal position to destroy the Agrestes. He smiled as he ran through his diabolical plan in his head. The key to get to Gabriel was to get to Adrien.

Félix had always intended to imitate Adrien with a view to harming his relationships with others. That task had just been made much easier with Adrien out of the picture for the next few days – there would be no second Adrien to have to factor in when spinning a tale.

Félix savoured the thought of destroying Adrien's friendships. Start off nice, bind them to him and then, destroy the relationship. By the time Adrien woke up it would be too late, with the exception of Gabriel, Adrien's relationship with everyone he held dear would be over.

Then Félix would turn Adrien against his own father, destroying both father and son in one foul swoop.

Félix smiled evilly to himself as he held up the box of mini-cameras his father had got him last Christmas. With these it would be easy enough to gather proof of Gabriel's poisoning of his own son.

He could picture it all in his mind. Adrien storming in to confront him, finding nothing but a flash drive and a note on his bad saying "I'm so sorry coz, watch this."

The drive would start off with footage of Gabriel and Nathalie poisoning a drink, scheming and hatching nefarious plans. The it would flick to Félix crying. He could picture it in his mind's eye:

"I'm so sorry to do this to you Adrien. I've been acting strangely for days now, unable to control myself, driven by a strange urge to harm your friends. I could not understand it, and was looking for clues as to what had come over me. I had set up these cameras days ago for a film project and I decided to review them. I almost wish I hadn't – it is too terrible to contemplate.

I think both of us have been poisoned – one poison reducing the victim to a state of immense illness, the other driving them to harm others. I think the doses somehow got mixed up. I don't know why I would be poisoned, but it looks like your father is trying to drive a wedge between you and your friends.

I hate doing this to you, I know how much it must hurt, but you need to know the truth.

I love you, my brother, but I cannot stand what I have done to you, even if my actions were beyond my control. Please forgive me."

Félix smiled. Adrien would never forgive his father. His rejection would destroy Gabriel and would also leave Adrien without a friend in the world. The Agrestes would be finished.

It was still early. Félix set off to place his mini-cameras before the household awoke.

-000-

Plagg had spent the night thinking about his plan to chat to Tikki at school. The difficulty was that Marinette couldn't be told anything without giving away Cat Noir's identity, even with Tikki's intervention.

He could picture Tikki speaking to Marinette now:

"Marinette, that's not Adrien, it's Félix."

"Don't be silly Tikki, how could you say such a thing?"

"Plagg saw his switching places one night"

"Whaaat? Hang on. Why was Plagg watching Adrien?"

The penny would drop and the proverbial cat would be out the bag.

Plagg shook his head. Perhaps the best course of action would be to keep an eye on Félix, learn what he was up to and then chat to Tikki. He just didn't have enough information to know what to do.

Plagg sighed. He flew downstairs and hid in Adrien's satchel. He hated leaving Adrien, but hopefully Félix wouldn't look inside and, even if he did, Plagg could pretend to be some sort of doll. Not much of a plan, but it was better than nothing.

-000-

Gabriel Agreste looked up from his desk at his assistant.

"Well, did it work?" he asked.

"I just checked on him now sir. Out like a light. Completely unresponsive, just like his mother."

Gabriel leaned back in his chair. "This potion is quite miraculous. What time are you expecting him to come to?"

"Around about four o'clock today sir. He should be disorientated, unable to speak and tired."

"Excellent. I'll need to be checking in on my dear nephew when he comes to. Please arrange my schedule accordingly. What about the television programme on the curse?"

"The documentary has already been airing for several days sir, we can make arrangements for it to air again at say 16h30? Just in time for Félix to watch it?"

"Excellent. I know how my nephew loves history, he won't want to miss that."

"Then we should have an article in "History Magazine" coming out tomorrow."

"I'll be sure to buy my poor ailing nephew a copy." Gabriel smirked. "I want him to feel completely helpless, with nothing to think about but the curse and his guilty conscience. I want at least a full day of him shut up with his thoughts. Can the potion make that happen?"

"That should not be a problem as long as we are careful. I'll check the dose. If he was to start feeling well-enough to talk by say, four o'clock tomorrow would that be in order?"

"Excellent. Anything else?"

"Here is Adrien's latest report sir. His grades in mathematics have dropped to an "A" from an A+. He has his monthly physical later today."

"Gabriel pursed his lips. I'll chat to him once I have the results of the physical, but I am not impressed with his academics slipping. This whole public school thing was a bad idea from the word go and I'm sure he's picked up some weight. Probably his friends handing him snacks again. I must reconsider my generosity in allowing him this little indulgence, those "friends" of his are nothing but a bad influence. Please schedule a meeting this evening."

"Of course sir. Anything else?"

"No, that's it. You had better break the news about Félix to Adrien."

Nathalie turned to go. Neither she nor Gabriel noticed the small camera on Gabriel's bookshelf which had recorded the entire exchange. Similar cameras in Félix's and Amelia's rooms also went unnoticed, but faithfully recorded Nathalie injecting the potion into Adrien and Amelia's drips later that day.