There was power in being unassuming. There was power in fading into the background, in remaining unnoticed, underrated, unknown. Against a strategist like Hawk Moth, invisibility gave you the strongest of all advantages: unpredictability.
Alim Kubdel was a schemer. His entire modus operandi hinged on knowledge. He was the devil offering deals to the downtrodden and the victimized and, in order to trick them into accepting his terms, he had to understand them. He had to get into their mind, under their skins. Perceptiveness had to be his major trait. But, like most men of his ilk, he thought himself entirely too smart.
He had observed Gabriel. He had been aware of his identity for five years. And yet, he had minimized the danger his enemy posed, had believed him unable of achieving significant results.
Still, that error in judgement did not mean he could not read Gabriel. They had been adversaries since their teenage years. Kubdel had to be acutely aware of how far, exactly, is enemy was willing to go. He knew how desperate Gabriel was for answers. He had said so himself. He had reason to believe withholding information would protect him. More importantly, he knew Gabriel had once been a hero. Maybe that 'Chat Noir' had been the coldest in millennia, maybe he had been willing to go much farther than a Miraculous Holder should have, but he had been a hero . Kubdel would have understood the difference between killing the enemy who threatened your unborn child and killing a helpless, unarmed prisoner. He would not have been terrified of Gabriel because Gabriel could not go through with his plans. He did not have it in him.
That was why Kubdel was willing to wait for a 'miracle'. The odds of getting one were encouraging.
Nathalie was a wildcard.
He knew nothing of her. Nothing. She was willing to bet he was cursing himself for that, because she had been right under his nose for years, yet he had not paid the slightest attention to her. Why would he have? She was the help. She was a wallflower. She was nothing.
She did not need to be willing to kill him for that threat to scare him. It did not matter if she did not know herself if she would go through with it. Kubdel could not read her. He was blind. His powers had been taken away.
He was a strategist and would mitigate the risks as best as he could with the information at his disposal.
As he had none, he would be cautious.
"Should I talk," he asked, standing up and taking two steps towards the cage's bars, "what can I expect? A short trip to the closest police precinct? To the young heroes? Or, maybe, life in captivity under your watch?"
Nathalie rolled the letter opener between her fingers and saw Kubdel shudder. She put the weapon away and took her phone out of her bag. She looked down at her screen.
"You seem under the impression that this is a negotiation, mister Kubdel," she commented.
She opened Adrien's private Facebook page and browsed his list of friends.
"What would you call this, then?" he replied, tone still polite.
Nathalie did not spare him a glance.
"Doing you a favor."
She could feel his eyes on her face, studying her.
"What do you have to gain from that?" he ended up asking.
It was another way to question her resolve. If she had nothing to gain, then she was not as ready to kill him as she pretended, was she?
She paused at that thought. She considered that question herself, then raised her eyebrows in surprise and turned to him.
"Nothing, as a matter of fact."
He frowned and stared at her some more, considering what answer he could give. His frustration was clear and getting worse by the minute. He pursed his lips, sucked them in and bit on them. He didn't quite pace, but he took a step to the side and kept shifting his balance from one foot to the other.
He was not a patient man. He merely played the part well.
"What can I expect ?" he asked again. "What are the options you suggest me to 'consider'? You can't possibly believe I am going to comply without a clear idea of the outcome of doing so."
Nathalie turned back to her screen and swiped through Jalil Kubdel's facebook pictures.
"Get used to ignorance," she said. "I am not one of the children you preyed upon. I am not interested in your deals. I do not plan to bargain. I will not give you material to do so. So you will have to live with the fact that I can understand you much better than you understand me. It might be a new feeling for you, but you'll grow accustomed to it."
Kubdel's tone dropped to a threatening whisper.
"I highly doubt you understand me, miss Sancoeur. Isn't it a bit presumptuous to assume you know more about me than I do about you, when we are perfect strangers?"
She looked up with her eyebrows raised, just for a second.
"You'd be surprised of how much one can infer from a timeline," she commented, immediately returning to her screen and to the photographs. "Let's see. I can tell your daughter is the same age as Adrien and that your son is older. Yet, right before the girl's birth, you were ready to slaughter an unborn child, which leads me to believe you felt nothing for your own children at that point. A young father would find the idea of such an act difficult to stomach." - She peeked at him and saw him narrow his eyes. - "No, I don't think you wanted to be a father. Then again, you are my age, so Jalil would have been born when you were, mmh, seventeen?"
"An interesting analysis, if off the mark."
"Dates, again. Your profile on the Louvre's website tells me how you started working there right after getting your history degree, eight years ago. Eight, plus four… So, were you a particularly slow student or did you start on that degree years after your daughter's birth? One might wonder about that strange gap between your activities as a magical terrorist and your return to school. I wonder. If I were to look into your health during those years, what would I discover? Were you stuck home, sick and crippled, maybe?"
This was so much easier than figuring out if the cries for help she had to filter every day at work were scams or not. No crying parents here, no dying toddlers, no cancerous little girls and no starving baby boys. Just a twisted, toxic man with a life as transparent as glass.
Kubdel smiled but his jaw trembled with rage. His muscles were twitching under the effort he put into appearing calm.
"I believe you have made your point," he commented with the most saccharine voice.
"Did I? I don't think I have. Should we see what your family pictures say about you, mister Kubdel?"
"That won't be ne-"
"An easy observation is that nowhere, in a collection of photographs spanning a decade, are your hands anywhere near your wife of twenty years. I wonder why that may be." - Nathalie clicked her tongue. - "Interesting also how she is the one attending all of your son's school events and special occasions, when you are both present for everything your daughter does. Do you know what that tells me?"
He scoffed.
Nathalie continued, with perfect detachment.
"It tells me that if I were to threaten to hurt your son, you would be livid with rage, because I would have dared to use your family against you." - She prepared herself for the reaction she would get after her next words. She could not allow herself to be startled. - "If I were to threaten your daughter, however, you would be terrified. "
He lunged against the cage's bars and tried to grab her. The tip of his fingers brushed the top of her phone, and barely, at that. She didn't bat an eyelash. She was just out of reach. She had made sure of that.
She moved away, slipping her phone into her pocket. She removed her watch.
"You have thirty minutes," she announced as she set the chronometer. "Make good use of them."
He watched her place the watch on the floor and leave, but did not comment.
That being said, Nathalie had seen how pale he had turned.
###
Gabriel was waiting right outside the door, with a tablet in his hands and one headphone in his hear. The tablet showed footage of Kubdel's cell, unsurprisingly. Nathalie had not seen the camera, but that there was one inside the basement went without saying. One, or two, or ten.
She nodded at him and followed him upstairs. They locked the door behind them and pushed the shelves that blocked the secret passage back into place. Because why wouldn't Gabriel have installed a secret passage?
"He's just a man," she told him as he pulled away from the shelves and breathed in.
That little demonstration against Kubdel had not been for the lunatic's benefit. There was no point playing power games. The historian was useless. Even if he were to speak - which she doubted would happen - he was likely to lie. The only reason she had dissected him had been to show how ordinary he was. She wanted that evidence to permeate through Gabriel's fears, to bring him some semblance of peace.
"He jumped into bed with an insane deity at the ripe age of twelve," she continued when Gabriel bit his lips without looking at her. "He's just a man. A middle-aged man who thinks himself much smarter and much more dangerous than he actually is."
"That rings a bell," Gabriel murmured, turning to her.
He looked like death warmed over, but he still gave her a faint smile, an exhausted smile of affection mixed with guilt. He actually looked away for a second. Nathalie sighed through her nose, aggravated. Let him feel guilty. Oh, just let him feel guilty.
She stopped at sighing. Despite everything, she was fond of the man.
He corrected his posture, straightening up and raising his chin, then ran a hand through his hair to force it back into place. Not that it worked. It was rumpled and dirty. In places, it fell in limp strands. In others, it stood up on ends. But, to Gabriel, maintaining a perfect facade was of the utmost importance. In a moment like this, he needed to feel like himself.
"You were brilliant," he commented, his tone polite and collected, his voice raw and raspy.
He cleared his throat.
"Have you summoned the Kwami yet?" Nathalie asked.
"No. I figured I would fare better against a centuries old goddess after some rest and some planning."
She acquiesced.
"Indeed. Let's get you back to the mansion."
Gabriel paused, looking at the shelves that blocked the way to the basement. He did not protest.
"Bella is going to bargain for his release," he announced instead, as if Nathalie had not guessed that herself. 'Waiting for a miracle' indeed. "Kwami are exceedingly protective of their chosens."
"I gathered that. I met Plagg," she added as an afterthought.
Gabriel blinked.
"Really? How did that go?"
"He told me I was smart for a human."
That statement was met with a puzzled look and the hint of a happy grin. Of course, Gabriel smothered that. He gave a polite nod.
"That would be high praise."
Peas in a pod, that cat and him.
"As for Bella," Nathalie said, "let her try. I can see a few options to extract information out of the two of them without having to play their games. But we can discuss that later. I am dead on my feet and so are you."
Her companion narrowed his eyes. He could not figure out what she meant, a sure sign that he needed to rest. He was used to functioning on little to no sleep. His inability to think said a lot about his state of exhaustion.
"Let's go," she insisted. "I'll drive you home."
He acquiesced and followed her to her car, in silence. Seeing the state he was in, she half expected him to collapse on the passenger seat and drowse of, but he sat with his back straight and his eyes wide open, pretending he was not trembling with that small effort.
They were ten minutes away from his hideout when he finally spoke.
"Adrien is still at your place, isn't he?"
"Yes, with miss Lenoir."
Gabriel nodded.
"Do you think he is still asleep?"
"No," Nathalie drawled. "I don't think he is still asleep. 'Still' would imply he slept at all since you pulled your disappearing act, Gabriel."
She was not awake enough to take her eyes off the road and keep the car on it. She could not watch the man's reaction, but she hoped he had cringed.
"I'll talk to him," he murmured.
" I will talk to him," Nathalie snapped. "And then we will talk to him. And maybe, maybe, at some point in the future, when I decide you can be trusted to interact with the boy, you will get to spend time alone with him. In the meantime, expect to be supervised by a sensible adult."
"That's hardly-"
" Shut up. "
He went utterly still.
She released the gas pedal, let the car come to a stop, then pulled the handbrake. That early in the morning, there was no traffic to hinder.
"There are so many things you have to fix about yourself that I don't even know where to start," she told him, staring straight ahead at the street with her hands clenched on the wheel. "And what you did , over the last few days… Gabriel, for the rest of your life , every time your parenting proves anything less than excellent , I will rub this in your face so hard that you will feel physical pain."
Silence fell. He shifted in his seat.
"I know," he quietly replied. "And that's fair. It's just… I have to start somewhere."
###
At seven in the morning, after hours waiting for news from Nathalie or his father, Adrien could not summon any other feelings than anger and exhaustion. Gone was the worry, gone was the fear. He just wanted to strangle Gabriel and to talk to Nathalie in a really sharp tone. Even Miss Lenoir's presence (or rather her lack of concern for the situation) exasperated him.
He had retreated to the kitchen with Plagg, who was probably the only person slash creature he felt like spending time with. He was not even sure he wanted to see Marinette, though that was not out of anger, more out of a vague sense of shame. His father had landed them in such an horrific mess that he did not want to show his face. And she had to go to school and hear everything about Alix and her father.
Adrien had gotten texts from both Nino and Alya, asking him if he had heard the news, and he had nearly lost it.
He distracted himself with the history of the Firebird, aka the Peacock, aka Plume, aka - apparently - a million other names. There was not much to be found on the internet, but searching kept him busy.
It was nearly half past seven when Nathalie came back from her 'trip to the pharmacy'. Adrien heard her keys turn in the door and was halfway across the apartment before she could walk in. Plagg, forgetting to be lazy, dashed after him.
She was alone.
"You're back!" the teenager exclaimed, his brain refusing to come up with pertinent questions such as 'has my father murdered Hawk moth?' and 'what should I do now?'.
Nathalie paused when she saw him, startled, then relaxed and gave him a tired sigh.
"I'm back," she said. "I have news."
Adrien heard miss Lenoir drag herself from the sofa to the entrance, though she stayed behind him.
"What kind of news?" the boy snapped. The knot in his stomach did not make it easy to keep a polite facade. He tried to soften his tone. "Did you find my father?"
Nathalie closed the door and joined him. She ran a hand through his hair.
"I found him, and I found mister Kubdel, who is in good health, though he is suffering from a few bruises and a wounded ego."
Adrien heard the words. He could not make sense of them.
"W-what?"
"Alim Kubdel is Hawk Moth," Nathalie clarified. "Gabriel captured him and has him locked up in a secure location. The plan is to interrogate him about your mother, then to deliver him to the police."
It still didn't make sense. At all. Adrien was trying to focus and understand, but his thoughts were foggy. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep that made it hard to process the news, or maybe they were insane.
Plagg landed on his shoulder and leaned closer to Nathalie.
"Your father is home," she continued in a tone laced with exasperation. "I made sure he went to bed and I don't expect him to wake up for the next five hours, preferably more… Then he will be joining us."
It finally clicked. Adrien jumped back, moving away from the hand she had put on his shoulder.
" . In. That. Car? "
Nathalie's smile faded.
"It's a long story and I'm not sure I can explain it without making your father sound insane…" - She ran her hand over her face and murmured to herself. - "Then again, he absolutely is. "
Queen Bee moved closer, pressing herself against Adrien's back and putting both hands on his shoulders.
"So who was in that car?" she asked.
Nathalie groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Gabriel had prepared a... procedure in the event he went missing in the same way Alice did," she announced. "It was meant to, ah, make it easier on everyone involved, by letting no questions go unanswered."
"Holy shit," Anne-Laure gasped.
Plagg's tail twitched.
Nathalie looked like if she was having a tooth pulled. She covered her eyes not to have to look at them.
"The 'procedure' apparently involved making an especially peculiar purchase and promptly setting it on fire so it couldn't be identif… I'm sorry," she blurted out, raising a hand. "Can we just drop this specific topic? I don't believe it's worth discussing."
Adrien stared at her, trying to digest the idea that Gabriel had not only considered faking his own death if he disappeared, but gone as far as figuring out a way to acquire a corpse, pack it into a car and stage a fatal crash. The teenager was not angry anymore. He would have prefered to be, really. As things were, he felt ill .
Gabriel's willingness to kill had been a blow, but there had always been that spark of doubt and hope undern the suspicions, that frail layer of trust that would not break. And revenge was an easy concept to understand. It was commonplace.
This… This was worse than murder plans, somehow. It underlined how far gone Gabriel was.
Adrien let the bleakness of that notion wash over him.
Don't think about it, he told himself. Don't. DON'T.
He heard Anne-Laure mutter a string of profanity, but it barely registered. He grabbed his ring and tried to focus on his duties as Chat Noir.
" This is why you medicate your crippling depression," Bee snapped. "For fuck's sake!"
Don't think about it. It is not your responsibility.
"Where is mister Kubdel?" Adrien cut in, turning to Nathalie. "Did you see him?"
"In a secure location ," she replied. She got her phone out of her bag and opened a video. "I have access to the security cameras, so you can see for yourself that he is very much alive."
She turned the screen to him. The boy looked and recognized Alix's father, who was pacing in a large cage. The man was obviously furious, but in good enough health to try to kick and shake the bars, not to mention roam from one side of the cage to the other.
Adrien clenched his jaw.
Plagg flew up.
"What about Bella?" he asked. "Where is her Miraculous?"
Now that was an important question his chosen wished he had come up with.
"Locked in an electrum box, in a safe at the mansion," she replied. "Gabriel will bring it when he joins us."
That snapped Adrien out of his sullen silence.
"WHAT? You left Hawk Moth's Kwami with him? After all of this? He's never going to resist summoning her!"
"Adrien," Nathalie said, her tone soothing but sharp. "I said it was in a safe. I didn't say Gabriel had its combination. I also made sure to take that letter opener with me, just so he would not get ideas."
The young hero let out an irritated sigh and nodded. Then he just shook his head.
"You know what?" he exclaimed. "I'm done. Just… Just handle this. Whatever. I'll be at school."
He looked down at his clothes, decided they were presentable enough, and went to retrieve his shoes from under the coffee table. Plagg followed him, concerned.
Nathalie took a few steps in the same direction.
"I'll drive you there," she said.
"I can walk."
"Your school is on the other side of town."
"I can 'walk' ," he retorted, raising his hand to show her the ring.
"I will drive you there," Nathalie repeated, in a tone that did not allow for protest.
The teenager bit the inside of his cheeks but nodded.
Ten minutes later, their car was pulling out of its parking spot. They had not exchanged a word, though Adrien had said goodbye to Anne-Laure before leaving. The woman had collected her things and left at the same time as they had, not to stay alone in Nathalie's apartment. They had watched her walk away.
"Have you tried to sleep at least a little after I left?" Nathalie asked him after driving for a few minutes.
"Not after I figured out you lied about that migraine," Adrien commented.
She sighed.
"I'm very sorry," she told him. "I should not have done that. I was not sure what I would find, I did not want you to follow and that was the only idea I came up with."
He turned away, looking at the sidewalk. It was still early, but people were pouring out of their houses to start their days. He watched a mother carry her young son to her car and strap him to his seat.
"What if he does find that's safe's combination?" he asked. "I mean, clearly Father isn't thinking clearly , so what would happen?"
Nathalie shook her head. She fumbled for her purse, which she had dropped between their seats, and put it down on her knees. She did not manage to drive while rummaging through it, however, so she parked. A minute later, she pulled out the now familiar electrum box.
Adrien's eyes went wide.
"I didn't leave the Miraculous where your father could get it," she declared. "I just did not want to say that in front of miss Lenoir."
Plagg snorted from underneath his chosen's shirt.
The boy blinked.
"What? Why not?"
Nathalie clicked her tongue.
"I had a very enlightening conversation with her, a few hours ago," she explained. "She told me how your mother was like a sister to her, how she would have done anything for her."
Memories of a conversation with Ladybug flashed through his mind, of when they had discussed the limits of what they would do for each other. How they knew where to draw the line.
"Are you saying we shouldn't trust her just because she said that?" Adrien protested despite a pang of uneasiness. "She's nice . And she's pretty laid back. She's not mulling over things like father is."
"Just because someone looks nonchalant doesn't mean they are," Nathalie pointed out. "And when someone tells you they would do anything for you, I'd recommend you investigate how serious they are exactly. From some people, it is a very scary prospect. Now, if you start thinking about miss Lenoir, well… I know for a fact that, when your father started dating your mother, Anne-Laure beat him up. I know Gabriel got her out of jail, in various countries, on various occasions, because she had assaulted someone. I know she is still, to this day, taking trips to Pacaás Novos to look for Alice. So, yes, Alim Kubdel is held in an undisclosed secure location, and the Butterfly Miraculous 'is anywhere else than on me'."
Adrien blanched as she spoke. He was aware of every single of those points but had never connected them. Anne-Laure was fun. She was easygoing. She didn't look like the type to hold grudges, more like the type that didn't care enough about anything.
Nathalie looked at him.
"Here is some advice you should remember: when someone shows you who they are, believe… them. Oh damn ," she blurted out, shoving her bag on the backseat and pulling out of the parking spot.
She did a u-turn and sped away from the school's side of town.
###