Reunion
As they stood on the narrow path on the cliff, Adrien put a hand on his aunt's shoulder and smiled reassuringly, it did not help much, she kept staring into the abyss below them. Soon they heard strong and heavy steps from the path.
"Dorje." Adrien called with a huge grin as soon as he saw the familiar shape of the man. He felt like he spent half his lifetime with the man although it was only a week.
"Adrien." The huge man dressed in the robes of a Tibetan monk beamed at the boy and pulled him into a crushing hug.
"This is my aunt Amelie, she is the sister of my mother and she wished to see her, so um, Ladybug and Peagasus, the temporary wielder of the horse miraculous, they gave us a ride and we're here." He explained in Chinese while he observed his aunt and tried to determine if she understood.
"Is she scared of heights?" Dorje grinned.
"Yeah, she refuses to move from there, she's petrified." Adrien replied quietly.
"I'll take care of her." The large monk smiled.
"Aunt Amelie?" Adrien called. "This is Dorje, he is a monk in the local temple, he will help you along this path, okay?"
Amelie nodded and before she was able to comprehend what was going on, she was grabbed and put onto his shoulders. She screamed and her scream echoed around the valley.
They walked the narrow path quickly and reached the side door to the temple, but Dorje passed by and muttered that Adrien can enter there, but he is taking the guest to the main entrance.
Without further ado, Adrien passed through the familiar side entrance and into the narrow corridor. Pema almost jumped on him. Familiar place, familiar faces and warm greetings, the boy thought how he would not mind coming back regularly.
"Adrien? How is Marinette? We have to find some means to communicate, those students, they had those devices, we'd like to get one or … a dozen? And learn how to use them, it seems everyone who comes from the outside world has one." The woman rambled.
She lead him quickly through narrow corridors and up the stairs. Adrien quickly explained where Ladybug was and with whom. He knew he was lead to the old master Tenzin, and possibly Dolma, if she saw fit to get up and face the guest.
"Good morning young guardian, what brings you here?" Tenzin greeted in a small room. Adrien greeted and the two of them both looked through the window, the sun just peeked over a mountain top and the first rays of sunshine shone over the temple and illuminated the small room.
"My aunt, my mother's sister, she wishes to see my mother … or what's left of her." The boy spoke as calmly as he could. "She doesn't know about … me and the miraculous." He added more quietly. He wondered if he should have warned Dorje and Pema about that.
"Did you need anything else?" Tenzin asked the boy next. Marinette and Adrien were released as fully trained wielders and guardians, but the old man knew they were going to find problems they did not know solutions for, not that the teacher knew them too, it was always something new.
"It is about Nooroo and Duusu." Adrien replied. "Tikki and Plagg were so worried about them they wanted to phase into the miracle box. Then we tried to get them out from the jewels and heal them, but it was such a huge effort and … "
"The kwami are sometimes impatient, which is odd for beings as old as they are, and they are very concerned for their own kind, they celebrate their own versions of birthdays and they are magically connected to each other, they make it difficult to be a guardian." The old man smiled.
"Yes they do." Adrien giggled. The old man giggled too and stroke his beard. They watched each other quietly, both happy to be reunited and both studied the other, as much as the boy felt how the teachers eyes pierced through him, he also saw concern and satisfaction in him.
"I am the teacher, not the guardian, so I'd tell you to take your time, it takes time to heal, it takes time for you to heal from everything that happened to you, dear boy, and kwami take time too." The old man stroke his beard and looked through the window.
"It takes time, I get it, and we have time, or at least we thought so, but then Bunnix, the holder of the rabbit miraculous came and picked us up and we had to fix some future and then make sure that it never happened." Adrien spoke quickly.
"That future is probably not related to Nooroo and Duusu but some other event." Tenzin stroke his beard. "However the fact that Plagg and Tikki were ready to go into the miracle box right at that moment is what worries me."
"Right, well, we forbid them to do that." The boy nodded lost in his thoughts. What if he told the guardian about that future, that Emilie was the one in the sarcophagus, that Felix was the sentimonster and that Lila and him wielded ladybug and black cat miraculous.
"Excellent, they should listen to you, you are their master and guardian. Now, about Emilie, I'm sure she was taken to the room downstairs and your aunt …?" Tenzin stopped talking and looked at the boy expectantly. He saw the memories flashed across boy's face.
"Amelie, my aunt's name is Amelie." The boy clarified. "Ahem, in that future, we found her in the sarcophagus with the butterfly pin and peacock brooch, but the kwami were dead, and … ugh … and other two wielders of the miraculous who were actually bad ..."
"Right, Amelie caught the same fate as your mother and there were other two wielders to abuse their powers, thank you for telling me." He smiled. "But you fixed it and now you're here and still worried about it. Old brain." He put his index finger onto his head.
Adrien took Tenzin and they slowly descended the stairs and went into another small room where they found Amelie hunched over Emilie's body. But Tenzin motioned for the two of them to stay just outside of the room and stay quiet.
"I'm so sorry Emilie, I did not want you to do that for me … no, that is a lie, I wanted it and I needed it and you did it, you made him for me, but not at this price, I did not want a son if it cost me my sister, if your dear boy Adrien has to grow up without a parent." She sniffed.
Adrien felt the tears roll down his face too.
"I haven't seen you for more than a year. You really look so alive, as if you have fallen asleep in this suit and with make up on. Why haven't they changed you? I know how much you liked to be stylish how much you cared for clothes, but this? While in a coma? Too much!" Amelie continued.
Adrien almost chuckled to that, it was definitely something his mother loved to wear but it was also something she would never sleep in and her sister knew her so well.
"And it irritates me to see you dressed up like this. People do it for a funeral, they dress up their loved ones to bury them, not when they are expecting them to recover, to get healthy again, not when there is still hope … " She trailed off and hitched a breath.
The boy nodded while he listened to his aunt's rant, he had to agree with that.
"I was looking for the ring, the other ring, the one you used for Felix, I think, but I see it is not in your hands. I need that ring Emilie, I need to try and continue to do what you have been doing, I need to help him grow and make sure he doesn't hurt anyone." The woman spoke gently.
Adrien clenched his fists.
"He hurt Adrien's friends last time we came over for a visit, Gabriel wouldn't give me back the rings, but Felix took one straight from his ring finger." She chuckled. "He is pulling pranks constantly, but he is only jealous of Adrien and his popularity, I think … "
The boy inhaled slowly. He should not be eavesdropping, but he should not interrupt her for what she came there and it wasn't like he was able to just walk away.
"Your stuck up husband terrorized Paris to get the miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir to make a wish and bring you back. Stupid man! If he did that, he was about to lose someone else. And he gave your miraculous to Nathalie." She whispered.
Adrien hardly breathed, he needed to know if his aunt knew his father was Hawk Moth the whole time.
"I had no idea, I mean, I should have known, but Daniel fell ill and died, we were in London, these akuma things appeared in Paris and it was not as if I knew what kind of a stupid nickname would Gabriel invent for himself." She chuckled.
There was an answer he needed.
"But I understand him, if I was able to make a wish, to bring you back, to bring Daniel back, to fix Felix … to make him … he is real to me, you know he is real to me, he is a real boy, you really did a remarkable job, the doctors do not notice anything. He's real." She sounded really persuasive.
And Adrien knew she lied to herself and she knew she was lying.
"So, I have spoken to these Ladybug and Chat Noir, they are just kids, you know? And they might bring you back using the magic. I just wish I knew why you ended up this way, that stuck up Gabriel is surely responsible but would not admit it even to himself." She took in a shaky breath.
The boy that listened was not sure if he was angry, sad, desperate or what.
"I wish … I wish you never found that stupid brooch and that stupid pin and why did you share that with Gabriel? You weren't so close! Is it just because Daniel popped over and I left you … I left you alone did I? I dropped everything for Daniel when he came over to our photos shoot here and you were left alone and cold in the night and you had nobody but Gabriel." She sniffled.
Adrien knew what he read from the diary, he considered his mother and Gabriel 'close' at that moment, but he was only fourteen and he did not know what the woman of forty meant by that.
"Adrien is here, I wish he came over and stopped my rambling, but I have so much to tell you. I've decided to move to Paris and take over what was left of the business after your husband made a promotional move of the century and became a supervillain." She laughed softly.
The boy was ready to step in he was just behind the tapestry that hid the entrance.
"I just wish I knew what he was doing with that miraculous of his all these years. I know you told me he used it on you and you did not remember what happened but he explained it was for the fashion … well I doubt that now, I want to know." She insisted.
He wanted to step in but he also wanted to hear if she had anything more to say.
"Adrien, if you are behind the door you can come in now." Amelie called and the boy moved the tapestry to the side and entered slowly, his head low to hide his expression, he had been eavesdropping and he was caught. "Please, don't mind me, you can talk to your mother."
"Hi mum." He greeted. It was about ten days ago when he said goodbye and he was back. She was exactly as he remembered, the same suit and the hair, the monks set several colourful stones around her, probably for some prayers or a little magic, she was laid on several cushions.
"Um, aunt Amelie asked for a visit from Ladybug and they brought me too. I … um … I live with my friend Nino now, he has a little brother, we play video games and listen to the music and talk. His parents are nice." He glanced towards his aunt who smiled encouragingly.
"Marinette and her parents have been nice to me too, I spend a lot of time with her." He smiled dreamily and blushed. He knew he had to be carefully what he said at that moment, he wasn't able to just pour out his heart and soul.
"Father is in prison." He inhaled sharply. "I'm back in school and I love it. Felix goes to my class now. He likes to dress up as me … well he dresses up as I used to. He's quite a ladies man. And well, Marinette makes me happy, it is going to be okay, I'm going to be okay."
He felt Amelie put her hands on his shoulders from the back and he appreciated the contact, it was comforting. They stood in silence for some time before Dorje returned and motioned for them to say goodbyes and leave.
"You know, I was hoping that you and Felix and me might be a family one day. But I still hope that that miraculous cure might bring Emilie back." She took in a shaky breath. "And it is okay if you don't want that and would rather live with your friend, I'm fine with that if we stay close."
Adrien nodded although he was still not certain what she meant by close.
"And there was a ring, a wedding ring, your father and your mother used to wear them. I have one, but it is imperative that I get the other ring, it is really important for me Adrien, I can't explain it right now and I'm afraid that your father has it." She continued.
Adrien winced. The memory from the night before flushed before his eyes, his clawed black clad hand over his father's mouth, his father's hand on his wrist and there was a ring on that hand. It was right there before his eyes and close to his fingers, and he did not take it.
They found Ladybug, Pema and Peagasus in deep conversation. Amelie soon joined the conversation and thanked them for bringing her there. It meant a lot to her to see the state of her sister for herself, to know to feel it real.
They talked a little more about what could have happened to Emilie without revealing much, each side very careful because they had too much to lose if they admitted to everything they knew. Amelie did not know about the diaries, and she did not want to tell about Felix.
"I have an idea." Amelie smiled. "When Ladybug and Chat Noir offered to take me to this temple I was … " She opened her bag and produced a phone. "I'd like you to send me any updates on my sister using this device." She offered the phone to Pema who looked at Ladybug who nodded.
"It is just some basic set up, you have my number memorized, I hope you learn how to use it." She smiled. "In any case, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to call me, just press the button next to my picture in the call book."
Peagasus created a portal and the two heroes and two civilians passed through the orange portal and returned to Adrien's room. Ladybug told Peagasus to go back home and that Chat Noir was going to pick up the horse miraculous from him.
"See you later." The red hero with black spots greeted Adrien and took Amelie back to the hotel. The woman expressed her gratitude and hope that there was a way to bring her sister back. She felt guilty for not telling the hero the whole truth, she wanted to, but not at the price of her son.