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Marinette had never liked Nathalie. The woman was the walking picture of indifference and boredom. It was hard to guess her thoughts or emotions. Just like there was not an inch of her skin not covered in paint, her feelings were concealed and her thoughts wrapped up in lies. If she had ethics, she hid them well.
She was just as cold to Adrien as his father was and, while her job was to keep the boy safe, Ladybug had seen more than once that she paid no attention to him in dangerous situations. None whatsoever.
The woman also copied mister Agreste's mannerisms and behavior. Chin up, hands behind her back, shoulders squared. It was uncanny and it made Marinette tenser than she should have been.
"Talk about what?" the heroine asked, keeping her expression neutral behind her mask.
"Gabriel," Nathalie replied, who looked to the windows of the fake office with a puzzled frown. "I didn't know the two of you stayed in touch with him."
What did she know about her employer's secret life? Was she aware of what he was planning? Did she know who he was? Ladybug could not just start discussing his activities. She would have to tiptoe around the topic to figure out what information miss Sancoeur was privy to.
"We are," the girl replied. "Can I help you?"
Miss Sancoeur stared at her, tilting her head to the side.
"You can't be more than fifteen," she murmured. "I knew you were a child, but I had never realized exactly how young you were."
Ladybug scowled. People only ever saw what they expected. They met her and could not believe a teenager had what it took to be the hero they had heard about. No fifteen year old could have been out there fighting supervillains and monsters, and winning. So they saw what they expected to see: a young woman, lithe and short but definitely past the age of eighteen.
She smiled.
"Can I help you, miss Sancoeur?" she repeated, ignoring the comment.
The woman stared at her some more, considering her next move. Clearly, she had something in mind when she had called Ladybug, but she was having doubts. She saw Marinette as a child, and those who focused on her age tended to disregard her aptitudes.
In the end, Nathalie decided Ladybug could not be trusted. She still spoke, but Marinette could tell there was a great deal she kept to herself.
"I am… worried about mister Agreste," the assistant said. "I'd like you to keep an eye on him. I think he might have put himself in a dangerous situation. Do you know what he is doing in there?"
"I do," Marinette replied. "We have been 'keeping an eye on him' for a while, now. We are handling it. Do you know what he is doing?"
Miss Sancoeur looked down, the blue of her eyes vanishing under mascara-laden eyelashes and heavy eyelids. She pursed her lips.
"I can't say he took me into his confidence. What I know is that his behaviour and absences are getting suspicious. As I told you, I think he might be at risk. I just want to make sure nothing will happen to him."
They were going to dance around the topic for hours. Neither of them wanted to divulge secrets the other was not aware of. Nathalie would not have said anything incriminating about her employer and lover, and Ladybug could not discuss quantic business with random strangers.
"We know about the watch," the girl announced, "and we know who he is looking for."
Miss Sancoeur's shoulders relaxed and she breathed out in relief. She immediately collected herself.
"You cannot let him find Hawk Moth," she replied. "He would die."
Who that 'he' pertained to was unclear, and maybe it was no accident.
"A step ahead of you there, miss Sancoeur. We are on it. Saving people is what we do. Anything else you can tell me? We could use some help, and you obviously know mister Agreste better than we do."
Nathalie considered her answer.
"I do. Are there any adults in your team? I assume Chat Noir is as young as you."
"None we can reach at the moment. But that doesn't mean you can't trust us," Marinette replied, with fake confidence. "We know what we are doing."
"I am sure you do, as far as fighting evil is concerned."
As expected from Nathalie Sancoeur, her tone betrayed nothing of her thoughts. It was polite, neutral, even.
"We can handle this," Ladybug insisted.
Gabriel's assistant sighed, resigned, then shook her head.
"You are a straightforward girl, aren't you?"
"I... suppose I am?"
Miss Sancoeur pursed her painted lips in annoyance.
"Don't be," she said. Then, as Marinette frowned, she explained herself. "You asked for tips. 'Don't be straightforward'. Not with him. Do not confront him, do not attempt to change his mind and, for the love of God, do notargue with him."
"I won't," Ladybug replied, realizing too late she had crossed her arms as she replied.
That reaction got Nathalie to sigh again.
"I think it would be best if you limited your interactions to rescuing him if he puts himself in harm's way," she stated. "Don't get me wrong, I am sure you are a fantastic hero, but handling Gabriel requires… a different skillset."
Maybe that skillset required the patience to deal with a would-be murderer. Marinette did not have that. She had no idea what to do about him. Chat Noir believed the man's mind could be changed, however. Maybe he had what it took to sway Agreste and to dissuade him from pursuing his plans. Maybe threatening to warn Adrien would work, if everything else failed.
Maybe miss Sancoeur's advice could help Chat.
"Mister Agreste does not want to talk to me anyway," the teenager said. "He likes Chat Noir, however. And… I might be a bit headstrong, but Chat is patient and subtle when needed, much more than I'll ever be. If someone can get through to your boss, it's him."
Nathalie considered those words. She pursed her lips for an instant, looked to the left, looked to the right, as she sorted through her thoughts.
"The important thing to understand about Gabriel is that he is not entirely himself right now," she ended up saying. "He is not well, and his judgement is severely impaired. I… I am not sure a teenager like you can fully apprehend the damage his wife's disappearance did. Let's just say he has been in a dark place ever since. He is finally emerging, and moving forward… and the goal he has set for himself might not make sense to you but - as far as he can see - it is all he has to hold onto."
"He has a son ," Ladybug snapped. "A son who loves him."
" As far as he can see ," Miss Sancoeur repeated. "Gabriel is not one to allow himself to find comfort in others. He needs a sense of progress and accomplishment to carry on, and he is prone to trying to handle his problems on his own. And the more he isolates himself, the more he believes he is right to do so. He cannot be talked out of that behavior, he cannot be pushed, he cannot be dragged. Think of it as trying to tame a feral cat. You leave food out, and you wait for it to realize it is starving."
"So no matter how terrible his plans are, we should stand by and hope he will, what, reconsider?"
" Yes . Leave the convincing to the people who know him, or at least understand him. I'm here for that. I'm not about to let him go through with whatever asinine plan he is working on. However, if he feels like you are standing in his way, I can guarantee you will only push him to act faster. So please don't," Nathalie finished, her voice rawer and more worried than Marinette had ever heard it.
She cared.
Marinette had known she was Gabriel's girlfriend, or something like that. Still, it was a secret relationship, and Nathalie had never shown the slightest sign of attachment, even when Ladybug had spied on the two of them.
"Has he told you what he is doing?" the girl asked, concerned.
"Bits and parts. I know he is looking for his wife. I know Hawk Moth is a solid lead."
"Did he tell you why ?"
"It's irrelevant," miss Sancoeur commented. "I don't care. I just want to prevent him from doing something he will regret, and that can be accomplished without shedding light on all of his secrets. I know enough . I have been by his side for fifteen years, that's all I need to reach him."
"You don't care ? What if he wants to do something really horrible?"
"Of course he wants to do something 'really horrible', miss. He has reasons to believe Hawk Moth murdered his wife. In his place, I would entertain dark fantasies of my own. But I know him. He is more than just that."
Ladybug hesitated, Tikki's words running through her mind over and over again. 'It was the way he did it'. 'He thought about it'. Why was Chat so willing to forgive? Why did Tikki insist on saying Gabriel was not evil? Why did miss Sancoeur care?
There was a line .
"A-are you sure you know him that well?" Marinette asked. "What if you are wrong about him?"
"If you don't trust my judgement, miss, trust Alice's. Fifteen years wearing polka dots should give her opinion of him some credibility. Now, do I have your word you won't do more than save his life if need be?"
"No," Ladybug replied. "But I'll wait and see if your approach works. Is that enough for you?"
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Bellum, bella, belli, bellorum, bello, bellis, bellum, bella, bello, bellis, bellum, bella.
Bella.
When they heard the name of Plagg's sister, most people believed it meant 'beauty'. Humans were naive that way. And Bella was pretty - the butterfly - all fluttering wings and smiles, all pinkness and softness and joy. Or so they thought.
The wiser humans, if they knew their Latin and if they knew her, would say "Does your name come from bellum? The word for war?". They rarely realized that quantic gods had walked the earth well before Romulus and Remus had found a she-wolf to feed them, and were much older than Latin itself.
Bella had not taken her name from anything or anyone. The Romans had named wars after her.
And Plagg… Plagg? Plaga . Millenia had gone by and new languages had been born of the ashes of the ancient ones, but he still heard fragments of his name when humans discussed illnesses and wounds.
Ancient Rome. They had made history . Bella and Plagg had settled there for a few decades, and their visit would forever be remembered. The 'Plague of Galen', the humans called it. Plagg could still picture Lucius and Mellusa dancing on the roofs and laughing as the city died. Thousands of corpses were rotting in the streets, but Bella's chosen was a spiteful little creature born of pain and abuse, and she wanted revenge. She had broken her chains, and her masters, and their world. As for Plagg's chosen… Lucius loved Mellusa, and watching the collapse of a civilization was entertaining.
Lucius had never met his Ladybug. Plagg had not allowed it. It would have meant the end of the fun and the games.
Lucius would have loved her too.
It was always the same story. Chat Noir loved Ladybug and Ladybug loved Chat Noir. It was not necessarily romantic love. It could be friendly, or sisterly, or fatherly, or any other sort of love. The label you put on it did not matter: no one ever mattered more to Tikki and Plagg's chosens than their partners. Out of the thousands, millions of other humans out there, their Kwamis gave them one who matched them in every way. It was as good as finding one's soulmate (though Plagg could have told you those did not exist).
To a creature who had no concept of romantic love, the longing and passion felt a little pointless. Plagg could understand familial love, however. He had siblings. He had Tikki. Sure, he liked some better than the others, and no one shone as bright as his twin, but he cared for them. In a way. Even as a corrupted god, he had cared.
There was some favoritism at play between them all, of course. Kappa and Tikki were peas in a pod, being the patient ones. Bella liked Zharr best, the butterfly and the firebird, the moth and the flame. Other than that, Plagg adored Bella and vice-versa. On the other hand, he couldn't stand Vixx, but the little fox could cuddle against Zharr for days. No one liked Waspp, but she got things done.
Tikki and Plagg… Tikki and Plagg, well, they were twins. They could still bicker like children. They argued and ranted at each other and teased each other and got on each other's nerves. They missed each other when apart, though they would not have admitted it. Though Plagg would not have admitted it.
The years they had spent together under Gabriel and Alice's roof had been nice, until Alice had ruined it all by confiscating the ring.
Plagg had never been as angry at anyone as he had been at Alice that day, and he had spent three thousand years as an evil deity of misfortune.
And Fu and Kappa. Oh, Fu and Kappa, and Waspp, and their insistence that he had to be kept away from Gabriel. Not only that: sealed, sealed , not to return to his chosen, not to talk to him again, ever . "Too risky", Fu had said. "He is a bad influence on you".
Waspp and Kappa had agreed wholeheartedly. Zharr had been gone. Bella was still evil (and hopefully not too vexed by that Cataclysm against her chosen. All was fair in love and war, she said so herself). Vixx had sided with the others.
"Don't you remember what you were like back then?" she had asked. "If Gabriel had not failed, you would be gone . Do you realize? He would have wiped out every single good thing in you. You would have ended up like Bella again, insane and twisted and evil."
"I WAS BORN EVIL!" Plagg had shouted. "DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY BEING GONE? I AM GONE. You made me shades of grey, and you made Tikki shades of grey, but neither of us is the god we were meant to be."
By the end of that tirade, he had been growling, tail whipping the air, magic oozing out of him in dark tendrils.
"Plagg," Tikki had murmured.
And that had been it.
For all his moaning and ranting, Plagg listened to Tikki. He had let her bring him back to the light, slowly, steadily, by picking heroes too dark for her so he would chose his cats warmer and kinder than they could have been. He never cheated, not at that game. Tikki found Ladybug and he gave her the best Chat Noir, always. And so, as the centuries had gone by, his sister had gained shadows and he had gained sparks of brightness.
At some point, he had been declared 'redeemed'.
They thought Gabriel had compromised that. They were wrong, and Plagg had told them all. To corrupt, you needed intent. To Gabriel, killing Hawk Moth had been a calculated choice, not an act of evil. He had taken no pleasure in it.
He had just wanted the world to be a safer place for his unborn son.
Bella did not have a Tikki to lure her to the light. Zharr could have done it, if he had bothered with his wayward sister, but he had been missing for decades. She would shed her darkness on a whim, for a handful of years, but she hid her Miraculous from the other Kwamis and gave it to whomever caught her fancy. And, as a dark deity, she always made sure her chosen walked free once she left them.
It had been going on since Bella had first been corrupted. There was no end in sight.
Plagg still believed Gabriel had been the only one willing to take the hard decisions. Sometimes, two wrongs did make a right.
His Kwami knew the difference between malevolence and dedication. No one was a better judge than him.
They had still sealed him.
They had made him solemnly swear to never show himself to Gabriel again. They had made him swear to never talk to him again. They had made him swear to keep his secrets. And the Kwami could not break his vows. If his previous chosen as much as looked his way, Plagg vanished. If Adrien questioned him about his father, the spirit's tongue froze in his mouth.
He had given his word, and his stupid, idiotic siblings were nowhere to be found now that he needed to discuss Gabriel. His previous Chat was in pain, and the kitten was miserable, and there was nothing Plagg could do for them.
He would never make a promise again.
He made sure to let Tikki know how he felt.
"I will NEVER give my word again, do you hear me?" he growled, pacing in Marinette's pink bedroom, as his twin tried to calm him down. "This has gone on for long enough and it is only getting worse, and your Ladybug isnot HELPING !"
"Plagg, please. Her parents will hear you," Tikki pointed out. "We have sent more messages to Fu, and Volpina can't travel to France right now. She is trying to get in touch with him too."
"Where is he anyway?"
"I assume Kappa is looking for Waspp. It has been a long time, her absence is becoming worrying."
"Well, I sure hope he'll do better than when he tried to find Zharr. I'm still waiting to see the stupid bird again."
"Plagg, please."
"And your chosen is an imbecile. Worse than Christine. Worse than Oscar, even."
"I am still extremely fond of both Christine and Oscar, I'll let you know. They were good heroes."
"They were judgemental idiots and so is your newest pastry dispenser. She is hurting my chosen."
"She does not mean to, Plagg. You know that. She wants to protect Adrien, and even you have to admit that Gabriel is not even trying to parent the poor boy."
Plagg was not about to admit anything and could not have if he had tried. He had given his word.
"She is-"
The trapdoor opened, and Marinette climbed into the room, blinking as she noticed the black cat hovering above her desk.
"Plagg?" she exclaimed, slamming the trapdoor closed.
The Kwami felt a growl rumble in his throat. He swallowed it and flew to the girl, stopping in front of her face.
"You are going to stop acting like an idiot. You are to stay away from..."
He could not say it.
He took a deep breath and turned to Tikki. His sister sighed.
"What Plagg is trying to say is that you should stay away from Gabriel," she explained to her chosen. "As for 'acting like an idiot', he is going to take that back. He did not mean it."
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