You Were Nicer Last Time

"All of you, freeze!"

The trio did exactly that, all of them too stunned to immediately process what was happening. Helena had never seen a gun in person in her life, and now she was faced with half a dozen of them, all being toted by people who didn't look the slightest bit afraid of using them.

One of them gestured to Adrien with their weapon, and Helena's breath caught in his chest.

"What the hell is this?" he asked. "She didn't tell us anything about a kid."

Kid. That was Adrien, wasn't it? He was the kid. Now would that be good or bad for him?

"Typical," another of the men sighed. "You know what we've got to do." He raised his gun and fired at Adrien.

Helena didn't know how, but she moved faster, jumping between the two. "STOP!" she yelled, throwing her hand out.

The bullet collided with a wall of energy midair, sending both sides to the floor, shattering anything in the room made of glass, and knocking paintings off the walls.

The world shifted. It was like she had been standing on a hill for so long that now, even though she was on flat land, everything felt askew.

She sat up slowly, wincing but otherwise unharmed. Thought after thought, memory after memory crashed through her mind, all coming to focus on one thing: Adrien. She scrambled over to him, looking him over for injuries. "Oh my God," she breathed. She pulled his limp form into her arms and held him close. "Adrien?" she whispered. "Adrien, kitten, please, wake up." She laid a hand on his cheek.

Adrien groaned, eyes fluttering open. "Mom?"

"I'm here," she replied. "Mommy's here."

That woke Adrien up completely, his eyes going wide and life breathing back into him. "Mom? Is that- is it- is it really you?"

Emilie nodded. "It's me, kitten," she told him. She looked him over, and almost immediately tears came to her eyes. "You look so grown up."

"It's you. It was really you this whole time- I knew it!"

"At least you got a nice little reunion before you died."

Emilie and Adrien turned back to the gunmen, one of whom recovering faster than the others, enough to get up and point his gun at Adrien again.

Emilie stood up, letting the man level his weapon at her chest. "I'll go peacefully if you leave him alone and undo the spell you put on Gabriel," she declared. "Adrien doesn't have my powers, and if they haven't manifested by now, they never will." A lie, of course, but it was her only chance to keep her son safe now.

"Mom, no, you can't go with them!" Adrien yelled. "They'll kill you!"

Emilie turned back to look at him, a soft but sad smile on her face. "They can't kill me, Adrien," she said calmly. "No one can. It's impossible. That's why they wipe my memories and relocate me until I've regained enough energy to revert back to my other form and go into my miraculous."

Adrien's jaw dropped. "Your… your what?" She could see the gears turning in his head.

"I'm a kwami, Adrien." She took a deep breath and glanced at the gunman, then back to Adrien. "Your father will tell you about them once I'm gone."

"If you think…" Emilie gasped and turned to her husband as he pushed himself up to sit on one of the steps. "For one second… I'm gonna let you asshole Guardians take my wife again, you've got another thing coming."

Another gunman, halfway to his feet, paused, clearly confused by Gabriel's statement. "The apathy spell didn't work."

Emilie shook her head and pursed her lips. It was bad enough they cast the spell, but it was made even worse because they didn't verify the damn thing with her. "No, it did," she replied solemnly, struggling to hide the rage in her voice. "It just backfired. The magical relationship between a kwami and a chosen is too strong for an apathy spell to break, so instead, he stopped caring about everything but me." She looked to the first gunman again, easily singling him out as the leader. "Please," she begged. "Spare my son and let him have the father he deserves. They've committed no crime."

The man hesitated, then asked, "And you'll come willingly? No funny business?"

"None," Emilie promised.

After another pause, the man nodded and snapped his fingers. One of the other guardians pulled out a small, leather-bound journal and started reading from it. "Ous edroc tsetop irinevni mauqnun, tiresima diuq tics non mine cis, suie meroma eredrep, eraruc non omoh douq caf."

Emilie looked over as Gabriel lurched, eyes going wide in horror. He looked up at Adrien, then at the men trying to take Emilie. Without a second thought, he jumped up and put himself between Adrien and everyone else, a hand back to keep their child behind them.

Emilie let out a sigh of relief.

"Leave my house now and never come back," he demanded, glaring at the Guardians. He looked to Emilie, and she gave him a small smile. "How do you know they won't just go back on their word?" he asked her. "They're going to hurt our son!"

Emilie shook her head. "I would never let them," she promised. "And neither would the others. If they have to, Tikki and Plagg will make Ladybug and Chat Noir guard this place 24/7. It's safest for him this way." Tears shone in her eyes, and she took a deep breath before turning back to the Guardians. "I'm ready to go."

"No," Adrien said after a moment said. "No, not again! You can't leave again!" She heard a brief scuffle behind her, presumably Adrien trying to run over to her and Gabriel stopping him.

"No, Adrien!" he snapped. "Your mother knows what she's doing; this is to protect you."

Emilie looked back one more time and smiled at them. "I love you both so much," she said. She sniffed and turned back. "Please, don't make this any harder on them than it already is. No more spells, no more stalking. Just leave them alone."

"You have our word," the leader said, then grabbed her arm and started leading her out of the building. Emilie went silently, unable to stop the tears that fell down her cheeks at the sound of her son's crying behind her.

She got into the van, one eerily similar to the previous one she'd been forced into. "Sorry about your guys." There was no sympathy in her voice.

One of the Guardians sneered at her. "Don't make us go back for the kid," he snapped.

"This wasn't what we made the Order for. What we made the old rules for."

The man who had been in charge of the operation scoffed at her. "I may not be as old as you are, but I've been around long enough to know what happens when one of you sticks around for too long. If it were up to me, we'd just shove you back in that damn pin already."

A wry smile worked its way onto Emilie's face. "But it doesn't work that way," she drawled. "Have fun never accessing my power again if you ever tried it."

"You were nicer last time."

"What can I say? Helena's got a bit of a bite to her. I can see why you chose her." She didn't mention that she'd gotten in contact with Helena's parents and that she was well on her way to figuring out who she was on that alone. With any luck, the Order would be sloppy again and she'd sneak under the radar back to her family.

She turned her head, looking out the window to watch the city as it passed by. Each location held meaning to her, but Paris would definitely hold a special place in her heart forever.

"Hey!"

Emilie jerked her attention to the man who had spoken. "Yeah?"

"No looking," he said gruffly. "Don't want you memorizing routes."

"And doing what with them exactly?" Emilie asked. "Emilie Agreste and Helena Oxley are both gonna be gone before I get the chance to see these roads again."

The leader looked her over, eyes squinting as he analyzed her. "You're calling yourself Emilie again. Did that last time, too. What's up with that? It's not your real name."

Emilie rolled her eyes. "I am Emilie. Just because it's not my birth name doesn't mean it's not my real name. I had all my memories the entire time I've been Emilie; there's no reason not to refer to myself as such."

The leader huffed and shook his head, grumbling something about "kwamis are weird" under his breath.

"So are humans," Emilie replied, not missing a beat. "You steal, kill, harm others… and for what? Your lives would be so much better if you were just kind to each other."

One of the other men scoffed. "Like you're one to talk," he sneered. "Just because the temple was destroyed doesn't mean the Guardians have forgotten what you've done. You're no better than us; you just can't get off your high horse long enough to admit it."

"Leave it, Aramis."

Emilie raised an eyebrow at the name, then snorted. "Really?" she asked. "Musketeers code names? God, how lame could you be?"

The leader looked her over momentarily, then turned away. "You're right; Helena is a bitch."

A dry laugh escaped her, and she sat forward in her seat. "I'm gonna outlive you," she whispered. "And when you die, I will laugh. I want you to know that."

"At least it'll be after a life of stopping you kwamis from fucking up the world."

The van jerked to a halt, and the door was opened by a woman in her twenties in the same tactical gear as the other Guardians. "This is her?"

Emilie smirked. "This is her."

Hey, we've finally got some answers! Not all of them, but we're getting there!