Review. I own nothing not even this computer.
"Thanks for letting me tag along girls." Alya says glancing between the two young and inexperienced 'detectives'. They were walking up the front steps to the Agreste manor. Marinette looking nervous, and Kagami looking steadfast. The fencer pauses to glance at the grass and flower garden.
"Their gardener has not been working here for a long time. Unusual." Kagami speaks bluntly as she glances back to the front door. It was only because Kagami had knocked that they had been given entrance. Which was lucky for the three of them. Alya could tell that going here was a good idea, and would probably help the two girls find a break in the case that they were so desperate to close.
Alya had more selfish reasons for joining in.
"Of course Alya! I mean it's your mom right? How could we refuse?" Marinette said with a smile as she touches her friends shoulder and squeezing. Alya smiled gratefully before nodding. It had been a few days since Alya had seen her mom, and everyone at home was worried. Otis had been trying to keep the kids calm, but Alya could see that her father was nearing his breaking point. If it wasn't for the phone calls that Otis had with Marlena (Quick tense ones at two in the morning that only lasted a few minutes) then he would be down by the gates pounding and demanding to be let in.
"I just can't believe that he won't let her leave! Isn't that slavery or something?" Alya said as they waited for the door to be answered. Marinette bites her lips in concern. She had not told her friends that she had come there earlier under a different identity. That would have been impossible to explain...
"I wonder where their gardener went. Normally Mr. Agreste is in complete control of his surroundings and does not accept it to look filthy around here." The young woman said as she turned back to the door. The three turned to each other and shrugged in confusion, it had never taken this long before...
Marinette leans forwards and tries the handle, to her surprise it clicks.
"It's open!" She states the obvious as they push open the front door and step inside. Marinette wrinkles her nose in disgust, the entire house smelt stuffy as if the windows had not been open for a long time. She could not believe that all of this had happened just because Adrien was missing. It was crazy! Insane!
"Oh wow." Alya says waving a hand in front of her face in amazement. "Yeah this place has seen better days. I can't believe that Gabriel Agreste would-"
"What Mr. Agreste does and doesn't do holds no concern for you." Nathalie said stepping down the staircase and adjusting her suit jacket while combing her hair back. She looked frazzled and exhausted with deep bags under her eyes and a colder expression on then usual. She glances between the three girls as if they grime beneath her fingernails. Kagami looks taken aback by this.
Or as taken aback as Kagami can ever look, after all Natalie had always treated her with nothing but overwhelming respect and good favor. So to have the older woman gaze down at her as if she had just walked in and spat in her face was a strange feeling.
"And you two are not permitted in here. I let Miss Kagami in out of good will. But I do not recall you two." She says glancing between Alya and Marinette.
"We were...sort...of...Hidiing behind her?Hehehe." Marinette chuckles out nervously rubbing the back of her head as she glances everywhere. The house had gotten dirtier since she last saw it as Ladybug. Which was incredible since it was only two people living here. Did they just have no sense of self preservation? No idea how to pick up after themselves? At all?
Marinette straightens her back as she notices Alya start to speak. Marinette quickly cut her bestie off. Not to be rude but because they had to get to the bottom of this fast.
"Please! We just need to look at Adrien's room. It's very important to us! We think that we might be able to-"
"Is this some sort of Nancy Drew situation? Where you three solve the big mystery and save the day and catch the bad guy?" Natalie said rolling her eyes before gesturing upwards towards Adrien's room. "Because I can promise you that those do not happen in real life, but since you are here and the police have come through. I doubt that there is any harm in you three going into Adrien's room. Just make sure not to touch anything. Or take anything."
Alya glances at the secretary in surprise. Before looking at Kagami and Marinette, she felt like the be-spectactled woman was gazing directly at her. Alya frowned as she followed after the others.
Marinette came up short as they entered the room. She glances back and notices that Nathalie had not followed them in. Kagami breathes in deeply before shaking her head in disugst.
"USeless. This was a waste of time." She snaps. Marinette pushes in behind Kagami and forces back a swear at what she saw. The room was clean. Perfectly spotless. Not a single piece of furniture out of place. The window pane had been repaired, the bed straightened and the sheets changed. Everything looked like it belonged in the front window of a store as a model.
"This...this isn't right...no...no it was all..."Marinette glances at Kagami as the fencer walked in and kicked at one of Adrien's pinball games. Kagami's face was set, her eyes grim, her mouth tightening. Marinette could hear the girls teeth grinding.
"Hey. Kagami. It's okay." Marinette said walking over and placing a hand on Kagami's shoulder. The Japanese girl shrugged her off and marched over to Adrien's computer. She booted it up and then turned it off when the home screen came up. It was completely wiped.
"It's like he was never even here. It's like a fancy hotel room." Marinette said in amazement. Kagami's eyes close and she sighs and begins to breath calmly. Marinette goes to the top level of Adrien's room and tries to take a book off of the shelf. She pulls away a piece of paper wrapped around cardboard. It is as fake as the rest of the room.
"They must have replaced everything? But why?" Marinette said in confusion. She would have thought that a father would want to keep every last bit of his son. She couldn't imagine tossing out or replacing anything that her parents owned if they were just gone one day.
"It is all fake. A charade. He doesn't want a son. And he doesn't want this room to remind him of his son. He wants a place to pretend he has a son. He wants a place to pretend that he still has feelings. It's all just a show for people like us to come through." Kagami says as she stands up and walks out of the room. Marinette follows after her. Even if she did want something, which she didn't, she doubted that it was still there. Everything that Adrien owned had been replaced, and so soon after he disappeared. Marinette gulps nervously, it is nearly inhuman.
Nathalie is standing beside the front door and ushers the two girls out and down the steep marble steps. Kagami calls the car to her using her phone and the two get into the backseat. Kagami turns to face the window. Her frown deepening.
"What now? Where are we going?" Marinette asks. She can feel Tikki stirring in her purse, the Kwamii was napping to save some energy. Marinette had been moonlighting as Ladybug more and more often ever since Chat Noir had decided to go awol.
"Back to your house I assume. I am sorry for wasting your time." Kagami says formally as she holds her hands folded on her lap. Marinette blinks and glances back at the house.
"No. I mean...What is our plan with the case? How are we going to find Adrien now?"
"We probably are not. And it was foolish of us to ever think that two young girls could ever solve a mystery like this. It is foolish, I was foolish, and I am sorry for wasting your time. We should leave this to the professionals. I am sorry for wasting the last few days to weeks of your life and I wish you the best of luck in moving on from Adrien. The car will take us home now." Kagami said reaching forwards to press a few buttons on her cars screen.
"Whoa! Wait! What! Kagami no!" Marinette shouts leaning forwards and grabbing the other girls wrists. So soft and delicate, yet strong with a fire behind them.
"We can't quit now! We are so close!" Marinette said desperately, her mind racing for anything, any given clue. Kagami shook her head, Marinette just then realized how tired she looked. There were bags under her eyes, her hair while neat had a few small strands hanging up, and her clothes had the slightest hint of being recycled over and over again.
"Kagami? When was the last time you slept?" Marinette asks as delicately as she can. Kagami shakes her head in response. "Kagami...Have you been obsessing over this ever since Adrien was taken?"
Marinette asks as gently as she can, the car sat parked and running in front of the house. Nathalie frowns as she watches before turning on her phone.
"Sir, you might want to come down and see this." She spoke into it and wished that she had supersonic hearing.
"Kagami. This isn't healthy, you've been pushing yourself too much...You need a break. I'm sure that something will come to you, just relax your mind and give yourself some time off. It will all be okay if you just take it easy...in fact..." Marinette said with a grin. Kagami raises one perfect eyebrow before a bit of realization sets in.
"Wait before you finish that thought...Where is your friend Alya?"
Alya snuck down another corridor, she hugged the side of the wall and looked around quickly, she frowns and really wishes that there was a map of this place hanging up on the wall. The mansion had a lot more hallways then she expected, which made navigating the place much harder then anticipated.
"Mom?" Alya called out as she turned another corner, wondering where the heck the woman was. This was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!
"God I'm starting to think like Chloe! Bleh!" Alya said gagging at the thought as she turned another corner and paused. She must have gone back a few hallways. Or backtracked. Because she was now inside of Gabriel's office. She glances around and notices his computer is up and running.
"I know I shouldn't...But he might have a map..." Alya said walking over and touching the screen. It remained dark for a few seconds. She glances down and sees the mouse. "Wow. Old School."
She boots the computer up and starts scrolling, the first thing that came up were files. The first file open had a picture of Nino on it.
"What the? Easily manipulated, too empathetic, cares about Adrien...What is this?" She said her heart dropping as she gulps nervously. This was creepy. She clicks on another file that showed Alix. The picture was from the pink headed girls photo day. Alya could tell, she recognized Alix's hairstyle, photo day was one of the few days that Alix actually bothered to clean up for her dad.
"Low empathy, highly concentrated near emotionally vulnerable people, cares about justice." Alya mumbles out before she feels her heart beat rising. She thumbs through some more, there were files about every member of the class, and photos taken from their yearbooks. Detailed summaries about when they were akumatized and how that affected them. Even which ones had gone to therapy for it.
"Ivan, Mylene, Nathaniel, Sabrina..."Alya reads out trying to be careful about keeping all of the files in the right order. She finds another file directly behind them. This one had pictures of superheros on it. Old school ones that looked to be from ancient China or Egypt.
"Ladybug? Chat Noir...HAWKMOTH!" Alya gasps out covering her mouth. Why would Gabriel Agreste have copies of this sort of stuff? Unless...
"Do you have some sort of connection to them?" She said, all thoughts of her mother out of her mind, her reporter/detective brain was in full mode, trying to make connections and finding what was going on. She heard a clicking coming from behind her. Alya turned and yelped as the floor fell away in a neat hole. She quickly ran to the nearest doorway, in every comic book whenever the floor opened up it was wise to hide. She scoots down and peeks through the cracked doorway.
Hawkmoth stepped from the hole, glances down and growls.
"I need to get more sleep, this is getting ridiculous." He said as he detransformed.
"Utterly ridiculous." Gabriel Agreste said as he hid his miraculous underneath his scarf and marched out of the room. Luckily through a different door. Alya stood up. Numb. Terrified. She walked out of the house, holding her forehead in confusion trying to make sense of all of the information.
The limo was outside. She walked down the steps and opened the door before climbing in. Still in shock.
"Oh good! We were just about to go looking for you." Marinette smiled at her best friend before wrapping her arms around Alya's shoulders. "I invited Kagami on the field trip tomorrow. Do you think Madame Bustier will mind? I think that it should be okay. Hey? Is everything alright? Did you find your mom?"
Marinette looks at Alya in concern. Alya's face was pale and her hands were shaking. She glances up at Marinette in confusion and blinks a few times.
"Hmm? Oh...Yes. Everything...Is...just fine..."Alya trails off before turning to the window and putting her forehead against it. Smudging the glass. Her mind going a mile a minute.
In the kitchen Marlena sleeps in a chair. Her hair wild, her face smudged with spices and her hands numb from working all day. She only got a few hour breaks all day. And she normally slept through them.
Review. I own nothing not even this computer.