"Lucky charm!"
You could rely on Lucky Charm. You could. You could rely on Tikki. You could rely on luck, except when you couldn't, because luck was not going to help you and what could Lucky Charm do against a gaping abdominal injury, anyway? You couldn't trick a bleeding wound, you could not outwit it. Ladybug's miracles did not include the healing of injuries inflicted out of an Akuma's range of influence.
Red gauze fell from the sky, straight into Marinette's hands. It was soaked wet and warm, and she stared at it with wide eyes for the second it took Plagg to react.
"Bleeding," he told her. "Control the bleeding."
Bleeding, control the bleeding.
Ladybug ran to miss Lenoir, crouching the exact same spot Adrien had just vanished from.
Adrien.
Adrien .
What would Kubdel do to him? He would kill him, wouldn't he? He would. He had tried for months now.
She fumbled with the gauze, trying to see how to apply it. How did she not know how to do that? She had read everything she could find about first aid! She had rescued mugging and assault victims. She had read about abdomen wounds and how to handle them, so why could she not remember?
"Open her shirt," Plagg said.
Marinette had to gently pry Anne-Laure's hands away from her belly. The woman mumbled that she had seen 'worse', though her skin was pale and clammy. She was also trembling.
The wound itself was small but jagged, and it oozed blood. Ladybug stared at the wet gauze she was holding then pressed it against Anne-Laure's belly to stop the bleeding.
"Lie down," she said, putting an arm around the woman's shoulder to help her lean back.
Plagg's eyes were riveted to the red gauze with black polka dots. It was rapidly turning dark brown.
"I'll be right back," he announced, zipping away at a surprising speed considering his state of exhaustion.
"Plagg, what do I do ?" Ladybug shrieked.
But he was gone.
She opened her communicator and called an ambulance, only to be told one was on the way. She begged miss Lenoir to hold on. With one hand on the gauze, she used the communicator to look up first aid for abdominal injuries. She prayed.
She jumped out of her bones when Plagg appeared and spoke.
"Put the ring on," he told her.
Marinette whirled to him, heart thumping. He was sitting on the floor, next to his Miraculous. He was holding the rotten remains of a ham sandwich, with bread covered in spots of green mold and ham that had long turned brownish.
"Put the ring on," the Kwami repeated. "Adrien dropped it before they teleported. You'll have to use it."
That got miss Lenoir to shift and try to sit. Ladybug had to force her to stay down.
"She's not trained !" the blonde protested in a croaky voice.
"She'll do fine," Plagg replied. "You won't."
Anne-Laure opened her mouth to argue but she was too weak to talk.
"Trained?" Marinette asked.
Plagg shrugged and bit down on a moldy corner of the sandwich.
"You… can eat that?" Marinette said, cringing. She would have turned greener than that mold if she didn't have more pressing matters on her hands. She was still babbling. "I thought you only ate camembert! Won't it make you-"
"I don't get sick from food," he said, gulping down a larger piece of bread. "Get the ring."
She did, slipping it on her gloved finger.
"What now?"
"Now? You say 'claws out'."
###
Something had gone wrong.
Something had gone horribly wrong.
Nathalie had not even needed to park near Garfield Packaging to figure that out. Driving into the street had been enough. There was an ambulance in front of the building, but that was not the dead giveaway.
The ladybugs were. There were thousands of them, covering the lampposts, crawling on the buildings' walls, flying around. When Nathalie stopped next to the factory and got out of her car, she crushed a dozen in one footstep. A dozen more landed on her face and hair. She brushed them away, shuddering. Red ladybugs with black spots, black ladybugs with red spots, yellow ladybugs with black spots, red ladybugs with no spots at all, jet black ladybugs.
She started running towards the building, just in time to see a gurney be pushed out by two EMTs. At first, she blanched, spotting blond hair, but it was 'only' Anne-Laure Lenoir. Nathalie stopped to let them run to the ambulance.
The next person to walk out of the building was Ladybug. Except she was not entirely Ladybug. She was different. She was more.
Her eyes had turned a luminous shade of green - the same as Plagg's, Natalie noted - and the outline of her was… not blurry , but… multiplied. Trying to look at her was painful. It was like staring at three different images fusing and separating at once. Three silhouettes shimmered around what was, objectively, Ladybug's shape, though there was no way to focus on one of them at once.
Nathalie had to squeeze her eyes shut to stop them from aching.
"Hawk Moth escaped and took Chat Noir with him," Ladybug announced.
A second, deeper female voice spoke in tongues as she did.
A thousand other voices echoed that voice's words in distant whispers.
"What?" Nathalie gasped, her eyes snapping open.
"I didn't get there in time. All I know is that he stabbed miss Lenoir and used her candy cane to teleport." - There was buzzing around them, as if someone was talking. - "Miss Lenoir will live. I repaired most of the damage she sustained." - More buzzing. - "I am going to transform back and I won't remember any of this. It's likely I will be unconscious for several hours. Please help Adrien."
The heroine ran to the ambulance and exchanged a few words with a dazzled EMT who covered his eyes. The man replied, then closed the van's doors. It drove away with its sirens blaring.
It turned the corner. The sound of the sirens faded, leaving an eerie silence only disturbed by the buzzing of thousands of insect wings and recognizable beeps.
Ladybug raised her hand and stared at the black ring on her finger.
Red and yellow lightning washed over her, taking her costume away to reveal Marinette Dupain-Cheng in a girly pink and grey outfit. The teenager collapsed. Plagg and a red Kwami dropped to the ground. Nathalie ran and kneeled by the child's side, pulling her up so her head would rest on her thighs. Marinette was out cold.
The red Kwami moaned and bobbed up and down, crashing to the ground again. Plagg groaned and rolled in the dirt, sending dozens of ladybugs flying.
"We need to find Adrien," he said. "Can you use your phone like you did for…" - He flickered and cringed. - "Like you did to track this place down and where is Bella? "
The red Kwami zipped up and dropped on Marinette. She raised pleading eyes towards Nathalie.
"You need to contact Gabriel and tell him to hide !" she exclaimed. "Hawk Moth is going to think he kept the Butterfly Miraculous."
Nathalie thought of Gabriel, whom she had put to bed with a sleeping pill and two glasses of the strongest liquor she had managed to find at the mansion. She had wanted him out cold, unable to cause more trouble.
What she had actually managed was to render him unable to defend himself from a teleporting enemy who could pop in and out of the house at will.
She got her phone out and dialed his number, put the phone on speaker, then stood and tried to lift Marinette from the ground. They couldn't stay there like sitting ducks either. She had to get the girl in the car and drive away as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, as lithe and small as the girl was, she weighed as much as a horse.
"Wakup," Nathalie mumbled, wrapping her arms around Marinette's waist and heaving her up.
She was dragging her to the car when Gabriel replied. She heard a muffled 'Nathalie?' from her phone, that was buried against miss Dupain-Cheng's stomach. She twisted her hand so the microphone would work.
"YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!" she shouted. "HAWK MOTH ESCAPED!"
"I know, am… two streets away," he replied, his voice slurring. "Wait for me."
"What?"
"Jus… wait."
Nathalie would have asked more questions - she had millions running through her mind - but he hung up on her. She winced and dragged Marinette towards her car, hoping the girl's heels would recover from the scraping they were enduring. She made it halfway to the car when Gabriel's Mercedes arrived.
It was swaying. One of the front headlights was broken. There was a nasty crease in the passenger door. It still looked much better than Gabriel himself. He stumbled out of the car and made his way to Nathalie in cautious, wobbly steps. The sleeping pill and the drinks had not worn off.
Of course, he still attempted to assume control of the situation.
"Here," he said, pulling Marinette out of Nathalie's arms.
As out of it as he was, he still lifted her up effortlessly and, while he had some difficulties getting to Nathalie's car without falling, it was in no way due to the teenager's weight. He laid her down on the backseat, then leaned against the car's door and slipped to the ground.
Nathalie joined him.
"He took Adrien," she announced, crouching down a little and extending a hand that Gabriel ignored.
"I k-know. The place is fu… filled with cameras. The silent alarm went off the moment Anne-Laure broke in. I w-watched everything."
His hand hovered in the air, closing around an invisible blade and twisting , just as he had done when he had talked about the scar on Alice's belly.
Nathalie made no comments on his driving under the influence of drugs.
"Can you track his phone too?" he asked.
"As long as it is turned on and he has it on him," she replied.
She hoped Kudbel would not realize the boy could be located through the device, because they had no other leads.
"Alright," Gabriel murmured. "Alright." - He took a deep breath and grabbed the car door handle to heave himself up, climbing the side of the car to get up. - "Ladybug out. Bee out." - He ran his hands over his face. - "Damn it."
"I'm not sure what happened to miss Dupain-Cheng," Nathalie replied, putting her hands on his shoulders to soothe him. "Maybe the Kwami could…"
She frowned and looked around. The two creatures had vanished.
"Plagg and Tikki can't show themselves to me," Gabriel explained. "They are sealed. It was to protect them from me, in case I tried to corrupt them." - He took a deep breath. - "We are going to need Bella. Where is her Miraculous?"
"I… In a storm drain a block away," she replied. "Get in the car."
###
Adrien's eyes did not adjust to the darkness quickly enough for him to realize where he had been transported to, but he did not need to see to know where Hawk Moth was standing. He kicked. He hit a leg, then Kubdel released him and teleported away.
Adrien stumbled back, spreading his arms to try to locate a wall, a piece of furniture, anything. He hit something that fell and crashed to the floor with a noise of shattered porcelain. Shards landed on his sneakers and he crushed some when he stepped back.
Then a light turned on. It was faint. It was blue. It did not come from a lamp, but from the pocket watch mister Kubdel was holding in his hand. The man was standing at the opposite end of the room, which seemed to be twenty feet on twenty feet large and filled with historical artefacts.
The hologram that had flown out of the watch was a blue bird with beating wings. It didn't look like the one in Alix's watch: Marinette had described it as a woman holding a clock. They had been wrong, Adrien realized. Alix did not have a magic-tracking watch. Her father did. His targeted the peacock Kwami.
The teenager watched him open what looked like a box - it was hard to say, with such a weak light - then put something inside it and close the door. It was only when Adrien heard the latch turning that he realized Hawk Moth had just locked the candy cane into a safe.
There was a door behind Kubdel. It had a keypad.
Adrien blanched and looked around as best as he could. This was a vault. There was only one way out, and he did not have the code.
Call for help. You have a phone. Call. For. Help.
Ladybug was with Anne-Laure. If the woman was still alive, she would be taken care of. The only thing Adrien could do was make his own way out. He would have to fight Hawk Moth, sure, but how hard could it be? Bee had done quite a lot of damage. Even if Kubdel was a grown man, he would not be much of a challenge in the state he was in, would he?
The teenager grabbed a statuette and took a careful step back.
The room was filled to the brim with things . Boxes, furniture, antiques. He recognized a sarcophagus next to the door. A lot of the statues he could distinguish looked Egyptian.
"Don't," mister Kubdel said. "Don't even try to fight. Your father is not the only one who collects magical weaponry."
To underline his words, he moved two steps to the left. His watch's light revealed a weapon rack that Adrien had not noticed before. Kubdek grabbed a khopesh. As soon as he lifted it, its blade started shining, filling the entire vault with a bright golden glow.
"Being the partner of a deity comes with perks," Hawk Moth said as Adrien raised an arm to protect his eyes. "Bella saw the pyramids being built. She was there when Pompei burned. Plagg and her watched a third of Rome's population grow sick and die when the Chat Noir of the times used cataclysm on his girlfriend's masters and let the plague spread. Go with her anywhere - and I mean anywhere - and she will tell you 'oh, I think I remember Mellusa stashed some weaponry in that cave!'. Or, you know, 'Alim, Alim! Those archaeologists are digging a mile too far to the north!'. It proves… convenient, in my line of business."
Adrien moved back until he hit a wall and looked for weapons he could use. The statuette he was holding would be a good projectile, but he needed range. He needed a staff, maybe a sword, especially if his enemy had a khopesh. With some luck, Kubdel was not trained to use it, though. Adrien had a few years of fencing behind him, and his experience as Chat Noir on top of that. Maybe that would be enough.
Of course, it could only be enough if he found a weapon. The more he looked, the more it became evident that the only weapon rack was behind Hawk Moth.
Alix's father followed his eyes.
"Don't," he said. "I would rather not kill you if I can avoid it, but if you attack me, I won't hesitate."
"Killing me is all you've tried to do for the last year," Adrien snapped. "And you just stabbed someone, so excuse me if I have trouble believing you."
Kubdel clicked his tongue.
"You are more valuable to me alive. I need to rescue Bella, and trading you against her seems like the obvious choice."
Adrien took a step to the left, then kept moving, hoping that a new position would allow him to spot weapons or tools hidden behind the assorted antiques.
He frowned at Hawk Moth's words.
"Rescue. Rescue? "
Mister Kubdel inspected the luminous blade of his sword, brushing it with the flat of his hand.
"Of course, rescue. Wouldn't you help Plagg if he was captured by people intent on enslaving him?"
" Yeah. If he was being enslaved . Not that it's the case for Bella. She's an evil deity . So what if we clip her wings? She needs to be controlled!"
"Says who?"
"Says common sense. "
Irritation flashed on Hawk Moth's face. His features did not quite return to the quiet expression he had displayed an instant before. He snorted.
"Give me your phone, boy," he said, taking a few steps towards Adrien. "I'll call your father, arrange for an exchange, and we'll both go on our merry way."
The teenager jumped over an engraved stone bench and climbed on a greek statue. He perched himself on the shoulders of (as far as he could tell) Zeus. Kubdel pushed the bench away and walked to the statue, looking up at Adrien. It was only then that the boy saw the dried blood on the man's hands. Anne-Laure's blood. Adrien's stomach lurched.
"Our merry way," he repeated in a dead voice.
Kubdel stared into the distance. It took him a few seconds to talk again.
"Your father values his family and I value mine," he said. "I am sure we can come to an arrangement where I spare you and get to walk away with my children." - He turned the khopesh in his hands. - "And Bella, of course."
Adrien was starting to slip. He tried to hold on, grabbing Zeus' stone curls.
Hawk Moth wanted it all. He wanted his family, intact. He wanted his Kwami and the powers that came with her. He wanted things to revert to what they had been before Gabriel had come crashing into his life.
Which means he wanted his secrets to remain just that.
"You are going to kill us all," Adrien commented. "You can't let anyone know who you are. You want to be Hawk Moth but your children wouldn't forgive you."
Bella's powers had strict requirements but, when those were met, she could provide powers of any kind. Flight, teleportation, mind-control, time-travel. She was scarier than Tikki and Plagg put together.
If they let Hawk Moth get away with his crimes, he would be powerful enough to take them down. His Akuma would be after them forever.
"Get down," Kubdel said.
Adrien stayed right where he was.
One sweep of the khopesh later, the statue had fallen to pieces. The teenager slipped as it crumbled and hit the floor hard. He tried to roll away but the shining blade was already pressed to his throat.
He stared at Kubdel, panting. The man's expression was inscrutable.
"My daughter likes you," he ended up declaring to a baffled Adrien.
"W-"
"Of course, it's Alix we are talking about. She wouldn't say that in so many words. But her skater friends gave her hell when they heard that Adrien Agreste, 'the supermodel', was in her class. You know how teenagers are. Understandably, they thought you were a spoiled brat. The money, the fame, the looks. She called them jackasses and told them you were 'sickeningly nice'."
Adrien tried to shift to the side so the blade would not be so closely pressed to his throat. He could not even swallow. It would get him a nasty cut.
Hawk Moth followed his motion, groaning in pain when he had to lean closer. The khopesh trembled and left a cut under Adrien's Adam apple. If the blade had not been hooked, the teenager would have kicked his opponent and rolled away. As things were, he would have risked slicing his own throat. He ran through his possible moves through his mind.
He needed to push that hook away from him.
"Now where is your phone, boy?" Hawk Moth asked, patting his pockets.
Adrien waited for him to lean closer, grabbed his arm at the wrist and above the elbow, then rolled with both arms extended. Kubdel dropped on him - he was much heavier than expected - and the young hero had to put all of his strength in staying in motion. He managed to both keep the khopesh away from his throat and to roll over his enemy. Unfortunately, Kubdel had not let go of the weapon.
He gave a wide slice that Adrien dodged by an hairsbreadth.
The boy rolled away and jumped over a sarcophagus to get to the weapon rack.
"DAMNIT, BOY!" Hawk Moth screamed. "Are you trying to get killed?"
"Pretty sure I'm trying not to be," the blond chimed back, grabbing a blade from the rack. "Oh! Look! A faltaca!"
"Falcata," Kubdel corrected in the heavily rehearsed tone of someone used to lecture people on historical facts. He clicked his tongue and winced when he realized how pointless correcting his nemesis was. "What is it that you hope to accomplish with a centuries-old piece of rusty iron, Adrien?"
"Well, I'm on the fence. I need to slice a few options off my list. But I'm a good fencer, so if you fancy a little duel…"
Hawk Moth hit another statue with his glowing khopesh. The marble shattered.
"I wouldn't tempt my luck if I were you," he said. "Magic trumps steel."
"Nah, it's not so cut and dry. You're old. No offense. You're injured." - Adrien grinned. - "You weren't trained by my dad ."
Kubdel wrinkled his nose in distaste.
Adrien assumed a defensive stance.
Neither of them attacked.
They moved, of course. The teenager stepped to the left. Hawk Moth did the same. They took in the space around them, the obstacles, the projectiles they could use. They still wouldn't make the first move.
"I get a feeling you would try not to hurt me even if I attacked," Adrien ended up commenting.
It was ridiculous, because he had seen the man gut Anne-Laure. But all of that talking, that story about Alix, the way he had targeted the statue with his blade when he could have cut Adrien himself to pieces…
"What do you want , anyway?" the boy blurted out.
"Well, I wanted the ring , but since you managed to get rid of it before we teleported, I'll have to settle for trading you against Bella. But you knew that."
Adrien shook his head.
"No. I mean. In general. What do you want ? You have been after the Miraculous for more than half your life. You've stopped at nothing. Why? What will you do with them?"
Kubdel rolled his eyes and sighed, with the hint of a resigned smile. There was a tiredness to him.
"I hardly think it matters," he replied.
"Of course it matters. You've terrorized the city for two decades, you have threatened, you have blackmailed, you have murdered for them. Yet the more I look at you, the more I think you're not that eager to do all of that. You don't act like the Hawk Moth Queen Bee described."
The teenager cringed as he said that, remembering the way Anne-Laure had crumpled around her bleeding wound. When Hawk Moth had stabbed her, he had been every bit the monster Gabriel and his ex-teammate had told Chat about. Yet, now that Kubdel was alone with Adrien, his aura was entirely different. The feeling of menace had all but vanished. He didn't feel that threatening, and that cognitive dissonance left Adrien unsettled. The man still had blood on his hands.
"Queen Bee seems to be under the impression that since she never changed, nobody can," Kubdel commented, rubbing the bruised side of his face.
Adrien nearly defended Anne-Laure, but it would have meant losing an opportunity to learn more on his enemy. Instead of retorting, he investigated.
"I didn't get the impression that your mothus operandi was that different," he said. "Send supervillain out, tear the city apart, bully teenagers into handing over their jewelry…"
"There's a reason your father is afraid of me and you are not, boy," Kubdel pointed out. "At your age, I was… angry. I wanted the world to burn." - He shrugged. - "Now I'm old. I don't have the energy."
"You still try. Emphasis on 'try'. You kind of suck at this, no offense."
Something mean flickered on Hawk Moth's face.
"And here I had hoped you would be less obnoxious with the mask off. Alix describes you as quiet and polite, you know?"
"That's with the mask on."
Mister Kubdel snorted in annoyance.
"Give me your phone, brat."
"There's no point. I seem to be getting a poor reception here," Adrien retorted, gesturing at the fiery khopesh.
Hawk Moth cringed.
"I see you take after your father," he commented. "At least Ladybug kept the wordplay to a minimum."
Adrien blanched.
He had not expected the mention of Alice. It felt like a blow to the gut. He clenched his teeth.
"You don't get to talk about her," he growled. "You don't get to kill her and then talk about her. YOU DON'T!"
Kubdel froze.
He looked pained for a second. His mouth opened and closed. He bit his lower lip. His expression settled on pity.
Adrien went paler still. He would have expected gloating. He would have expected taunting and disdain. But Kubdel was not gloating, was he? He looked sorry .
"Boy," he said. "I know it is an easy assumption, but I did not kill her. I have no idea what happened to her. I was on a dig in Bangladesh when Bella felt Contretemps resurface. It took us two weeks to get to Brazil. Your mother was long gone."
The teenager stared at him. His legs felt weak. His stomach lurched. It was like the ground had been swiped from under his feet.
"W-what?" he murmured.
Kubdel closed his eyes.
"I could hardly tell your father that. His belief that I had information was the only thing keeping me alive. But I was not in Brazil back then and that's easily verifiable. Whatever happened, I had no hand in it."
Adrien felt like he was suffocating.
"You're lying."
"I'd have nothing to gain," Hawk Moth said, quietly walking towards him. "You know I am a murderer. That's not going to change because the list of my victims gets shorter by one name."
He was nearly within arm's reach when his proximity registered. Adrien jumped away, sword at the ready. His enemy tried to lunge but doubled over, clutching his stomach.
So he was hurt.
The boy bit the inside of his cheeks.
"You know what? You should sit down in case you're bleeding internally or something nasty like that," he spat.
Even if Kubdel was, he would still be in better shape than Queen Bee. A murderer indeed.
The tired pleasantness on the man's face faded as pain flooded him. Then, the grimace of pain was replaced by rage. Adrien whirled away just as Kubdel slashed at him. The shining blade left a gash on the side of his throat.
Damn .
He had to dodge again - pirouette to the left, don't leave your side exposed - then jump away, then hop over a sarcophagus, all of that to stay out of reach of a series of slashes. Everything Kubdel hit fell to pieces. A marble statue crumbled. A wooden cabinet fell apart. A porcelain vase shattered. One by one, every obstacle was destroyed, until there was nothing else Adrien could hide behind. He kept dodging, trying not to trip over the debris of what had to be a priceless collection of antiques. His luck failed him, however: his foot landed on a fragment of metal that slipped on the floor. Adrien fell and landed flat on his back.
He did not get a chance to roll away.
"Enough… pleasantries," Hawk Moth panted, pushing the tip of his weapon against Adrien's chest.
He was foaming at the mouth. The hand that held the khopesh was twitching. His skin was sweaty and ghastly pale in the golden glow of the magical blade.
"You might be a sweet kid and you might be my daughter's friend, but there's only so much that can do to protect you. I don't need you alive. Your father just cost me my family . I can't go home. I have nothing left but Bella. So I'd be delighted to send you back to Gabriel in tiny, bloody chunks, as payback."
Adrien shrunk away. The tip of the khopesh had not pierced through his clothes yet, but it was pushed hard enough against his flesh to cause a sharp pain.
"Now give me your phone," Hawk Moth snapped.
###
Marinette woke up in a room she did not recognize, with a headache and a queasy stomach. She felt ill, she felt confused, and she felt…
She rolled to the side of the sofa she was resting on and vomited on a beaten up tunisian carpet. She was still heaving when Nathalie Sancoeur appeared with a glass of water, tissues and a vase that still had a flower in it. The teenager grabbed the vase and leaned over it until the nausea receded, then looked up.
"Thanks," she mumbled. She winced and ran a hand over her forehead. "T-thanks."
"Don't exert yourself," miss Sancoeur advised. "You'll need more than half an hour of sleep to recover."
Marinette looked around. They were in an hotel room. The cheap kind, but not the bad kind. The furniture was old and tasteless but it was clean. There were two beds in the room, a small CRT television, a table with two chairs and the sofa Marinette was sitting on. The bathroom door was opened and Marinette heard mister Agreste's voice coming from it.
"Where… what…"
She blanched.
Mister Kubdel had stabbed Chloé's mom. He had taken Adrien.
"Where's miss Lenoir?" she gasped. "Adrien is-"
Miss Sancoeur pressed her hand to Marinette's lips to shut her up. The woman gestured at the bathroom door.
"I don't have it on me," Gabriel was drawling. "It is locked up well away from my home. I will need time to retrieve it." - There was a pause. - "Two hours. Yes. I will make her swear to release my son, do you hear me?" - Something slammed. - "Yes. Two hours. Fine."
Then he swore.
A second later, he walked out of the bathroom, staring at his phone.
"Miss Dupain-Cheng," he said. "What is your last memory?"
She cringed.
"I-uh, ah…" - She looked down at her hands and saw that Chat Noir's ring was still there. "I… Miss Lenoir was injured. Mister Kubdel had teleported with Adrien."
"Good," Gabriel mused. He saw the confusion on her face - nothing was good about their situation - so he explained himself. "You combined Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers. Human minds are ill-equipped to process the full consciousness of ancient deities, and it took a toll on you. It's good that you remember the events that preceded the transformation, however. Alice lost a month's worth of memories the one time she had to pull that trick."
"Oh. Oh." - Marinette scowled and scanned their surroundings. - "Where are Tikki and Plagg?"
"Around but immaterial, I assume. They are sealed. They cannot show themselves to me."
The teenager nodded, taking the glass of water Nathalie was pushing into her hands.
"Do you have news? About Adrien? About miss Lenoir?"
"You saved Anne-Laure. She's in the hospital, she'll live. As for Adrien, I just bargained for a two hours delay with mister Kubdel, who expects me to release Bella along with her Miraculous."
He stumbled, caught himself, then made his way to one of the beds, swaying all the while. After sitting on the edge of the mattress, he ran his hands over his face. He looked drugged, or maybe just severely exhausted.
Then again, Marinette did not have much empathy to spare for him. He had caused the mess they were in. Adrien was in danger because of him.
She did pity Nathalie, however. The woman was haggard, with unkempt hair and rumpled clothes. There was not a trace of the expertly applied makeup she wore every day. Her face was pale and her eyes puffy.
Marinette tried to wrap Ladybug's persona around herself.
"Alright. We'll need the Butterfly Miraculous," she exclaimed. "And food for Tikki and Plagg. I assume if we release Bella, Plagg can follow her and lead me to Hawk Moth. What were the instructions he gave you? Did he tell you not to contact me, nor the cops? Any other conditions?"
Mister Agreste sighed and massaged his temples.
"We will not be following his instructions," he announced, getting a golden box out of his pocket. "The one good thing we got out of this mess is that Bella is no longer running wild. She has been caught. Fu will give her to a suitable master who will work hard to undo the corruption she is suffering from. We are not unleashing her upon the world again."
"What choice do we have ?" Marinette yelled. She wished her head did not feel like it was made of lead. She wished Tikki could appear to give her advice. "What is going to happen if the butterfly Kwami is not free in two hours."
"Nad… Natha… lie…" -Mister Agreste rubbed his eyes and blinked. - "Nathalie can track Adrien's phone. We've a rough idea of the area he's in. You'll need to get there and…" - He breathed in and squeezed his eyelids shut, then forced them open. - "And… And to figure out where Kubdel is holding him. A… After that, you should have no issues rescuing him. Hawk Moth is powerless."
"Gabriel," his assistant cut in. " Rest . I will wake you up."
"I can hardly rest now ," he retorted. "We have to-"
Nathalie stood. She was imposing. Her mannerisms were copied straight from Gabriel's, Marinette mused. When miss Sancoeur stood and towered over you, you shut up.
Mister Agreste shut up. He watched her cross the room to join him, then put her hands on his shoulders.
Marinette turned away, embarrassed. For such a cold, heartless bastard, mister Agreste could sure look smitten.
"There is no point fighting the sleeping pills," Nathalie told the man. " Rest , and in the meantime I will make sure both Kwami are fed. Actually, if you slept, they would be able to show themselves, which would be a vast improvement over our current situation."
There was a short silence, then mister Agreste clicked his tongue, wincing.
"I am an idiot."
He opened the metal box he was still holding and shook it above his palm until the Butterfly Miraculous dropped out. A pink shape dashed out of the box and spiraled around Gabriel, who pinned the brooch to his collar. He looked up at the butterfly Kwami, who had stilled at arm's distance.
She was a scary thing. Marinette had seen Tikki angry, but even furious, Tikki remained adorable. It was uncanny to see a creature with such a similar appearance look so cold. Bella was the same size and the same shape. She was pink. She had delicate little wings. Yet she had none of Tikki's soft warmth, nor of Plagg's mischievousness.
The difference was not in her looks, yet she looked her age.
She stared at mister Agreste with cold rage, face blank, body tense and still. Adrien's father glared back.
"If you hurt Alim," the Kwami said in a soft, melodious voice, "I will destroy you."
Mister Agreste stood, fighting to keep his balance, but ignored the threat. Instead, he turned away, joining Marinette. He made sure to avoid the spot of soiled carpet near the teenager.
Bella watched him move, her eyes drilling holes into him.
"There's three of you," Gabriel said, looking down at Chat Noir's ring, that was still on Marinette's finger. "Tikki. Bella. You are to unseal Plagg. Plagg, Bella, you are to unseal Tikki. Fetch me when it's done," he finished, leaving the hotel room.
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