Chat Noir jumped forward the second Gabriel's feet left the edge of the roof. He made his staff grow, pushing its tip against a chimney to propel himself, and flew across the roof at the speed of a cannonball. He realised his mistake mid-air, when he heard not nothing , but the sound of feet landing on metal.
There's a roof.
Shit.
He tried to flip himself as he flew past the edge of the roof, so he wouldn't crash face-first while diving at full speed, but he was going too fast. The galvanized iron roof Gabriel had dropped down to was barely six feet underneath. Chat Noir hit the metal with his heels instead of his soles, bounced and fell flat on his back, only to ricochet down the roof like a puppet.
His father caught his arm just as he rolled past the edge, but between Adrien's momentum and his weight, there was no stopping him. Gabriel was merely pulled over the edge as Chat fell.
Adrien managed to hit the wall with his staff and to glue it here. He held on, his own weight and his father's tugging at his shoulder so hard he felt like it would dislocate. They snapped back up by a few inches, then found themselves hanging above the street, two storeys away from the pavement.
Chat Noir tried to heave himself up with the one arm that was holding his staff, praying for Gabriel not to let go of his arm.
Gabriel let go of his arm.
He grabbed the facade of the building they were hanging from, sticking his fingers in a crack between two bricks in what had to be the weaker hold in the history of climbing. From there, he pulled himself against the wall and scaled it to the roof.
He reached down to help his son up. Adrien grabbed his wrist and let himself be pulled to the safety of the roof.
They stared down at the street for an instant, panting. Then Gabriel started yelling.
"WHAT WAS THAT? WHAT WERE YOU DOING ?"
He was shaking and afraid, but Adrien was shaking and afraid too. He shoved him away.
"What. Was. I. Doing." He shoved Gabriel again. "What. Was. I. Doing? WHAT WERE YOU DOING?"
He slammed his balled fist against the man's chest. He wanted to grab him and shake him and shake him and shake him and…
Gabriel's eyes drifted to the street and back. He blanched and pulled Chat Noir to him, cradling him rather than hugging him, like one would hold an injured child.
"You don't have to be worried about that ," he said, voice not frantic but hurried. "That's something you really don't have to be worried about, ever."
Adrien pushed him away, hard.
How am I supposed to know? I don't know what you would do anymore. I have no idea.
"WHAT WERE YOU DOING?" he screamed.
Gabriel's answer was quiet and nonsensical.
"Taking a walk," he said, in a tone meant to be appeasing but that only sent Adrien further into his rage.
" ON THE ROOFS? "
His father opened his mouth, paused just long enough to tap his palate with the tip of his tongue.
"Yes." His tone softened. "I've done it my entire life, Chat Noir. I've been doing it since before you were born. It's nothing to worry about."
"You… looked unsteady on your feet!" Adrien snapped.
That was the moment Gabriel's stomach choose to grumble. Gabriel cleared his throat.
"Low blood sugar," he explained, gesturing at a pizzeria on the other side of the street. He pointed at a fire staircase on the side of the building they were perched on. "I was about to get myself something to eat."
They noticed at the same time that passerby had stopped and were looking up at them. Without a word, Chat and his predecessor climbed to higher ground and hid just out of sight.
Adrien crossed his arms and looked away.
"Do you do this often?" he muttered, so Gabriel would not get to choose a conversation.
"Mmh. Mostly at night, when I can't sleep."
"I never saw you."
"You never knew what to look for, Chat Noir."
He was so very good at sticking with the proper name, even though they were talking as themselves, despite Adrien's mask.
They stood there in silence for a while. Pigeons landed a few feet away, noticed them and flew away.
"I was not expecting to cross your path," Gabriel murmured. "This is nowhere near your patrol routes."
So he was avoiding me, Adrien though.
"We changed our patrol routes. You had figured them out. And I'm not on patrol anyway. I was going to Nino's."
"Oh," his father commented, shifting on his feet and clasping his hands behind his back. He was moving. He didn't stop moving. He was ever so slightly rocking back and forth, with the soles of his sneakers squeaking against the roof. "Does he live nearby?"
"Yes."
Gabriel nodded.
"What are you doing? " Adrien asked. "With your time. With your days."
"Not… much," Gabriel replied, trying to pull his facade up and failing. The cold, impeccable designer and the man with messy hair wearing sportswear just didn't mesh. It didn't seem to fit in Gabriel's mind either, because his expression swayed between ice and pleasantness, then settled on a polite smile and a blank stare. "I'm mostly trying to do some thinking."
"That's it?"
"At the moment. I'd say it's… needed."
"What about work?"
"I don't know. I didn't go, I told them I would be gone for a few weeks. I assume the company is on fire."
Adrien frowned.
"You've been gone for weeks and they managed just fine," he pointed out. "When you were in 'Brazil', or was it 'Syracuse'."
Gabriel ignored the jab at his lies.
"Nathalie had prepared everything. Now… well, I don't think they could do too much damage to your inheritance in a month. At least I hope so."
Adrien snorted.
That anger really wouldn't fade. It kept seeping out of him, yet he never felt like there was less of it. It was like an oozing wound. It festered.
"So it's just thinking, and quiet walks?"
His father closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"At the moment," he repeated. His tongue tapped the roof of his mouth again. He considered his next words. His stomach grumbled again, however. "I'm sorry, but I should really get off this roof and find something to eat right now , otherwise you'll have to carry me down."
Chat Noir stared at him. It sounded like a flimsy excuse but he did look about to pass out.
Adrien huffed.
"We better find another pizzeria," he grumbled. "I'm pretty sure twenty people are waiting on the sidewalk, just to see if we'll show up again."
His father's eyes went wide in surprise.
"There is one two streets north," he said, pleased. "This way."
Ten minutes later, they found themselves sitting in a tiny restaurant with four tables, a counter covered in brochures, and faded posters of italian monuments. Adrien, who had untransformed, was sipping Fanta straight from the can. One foot of his chair was shorter than the three others, and he was nervously tilting the chair from left to right. As for his father, he was waiting for his order. Cheese pizza, of course. What else?
Adrien winced when he came back with his platter, inching away from the cheese. Gabriel sat down, cut the pizza in four slices, then put one of those slices on a napkin and smoothly hid it on the chair next to his, this without the slightest hesitation. Plagg dashed out of his hiding spot under Adrien's jacket and vanished under the table. As for Gabriel, he had started eating, as if nothing had happened.
It spoke of habit.
"Are you sure you don't want a pizza?" Gabriel asked, cutting into his own and stuffing pieces in his mouth at superhuman speed.
"I just ate."
"Oh."
"I cooked."
"Oh?"
"Yes. And also , I hate cheese."
Gabriel swallowed, choked and coughed. He covered his mouth with his hand and cleared his throat.
"I assumed… You kept ordering c… Plagg. I should have known."
There was a chuckle from under the table, quickly followed by munching sounds.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Gabriel said. "I'm sure there's at least a burger joint somewhere close, and I think there's a candy store."
His son shook his can of soda in front of his face.
"I just ate," he reminded him.
"Right."
There was an awkward silence. Gabriel cut a few squares off his pizza.
"Are you drunk?" Adrien asked.
His father frowned.
"I'm sorry?"
"Are you drunk? You are totally out of it."
"I'm not …" Gabriel protested. He breathed in and regained his composure. "I don't drink alone. You know that. It's unseemly."
Adrien crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.
"Well then is it weed?"
" What? "
"It would explain the junk food."
" What? No," Gabriel snapped. "And I don't appreciate-"
Adrien stared him down.
His father sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"It's not weed. I'm just operating on very little sleep."
"How is that different from usual?"
"I don't usually have much time to contemplate how tired I am. Work kept me busy and caffeine did the rest. Turns out I don't do so well when I have nothing to do. Rest is exhausting."
Plagg, underneath the table, burped. Even though they were nearly alone, both Gabriel and Adrien faked burping so people wouldn't wonder where the sound had come from. They rolled their eyes.
"Pizza is not good for him," Adrien commented in hushed tones. "Too greasy."
"But at least it's fresh," Gabriel replied. "Has he pulled the 'let's hide Camembert under the bed to let it age' trick?"
The teenager winced at the idea.
"No. No. " Thank god. "He did that?"
"Twice. Under my bed, then under Alice's, at her mother's, since I was there often. He figured he could get away with it."
"Did he?"
"Your mother cleaned her room every two days. She noticed. Then she had him clean the mess with a toothbrush, with Tikki watching."
Under the table, Plagg snorted.
Adrien chuckled. He loved talking about his mother.
"Really?"
"Oh, yes. The little bastard also used to phase into the fridge and set it to the lowest setting, so the food would rot. I had to have a fridge disassembled and the inside of it coated with gold. Ow. " Gabriel winced and whispered through closed teeth. "Remove your fangs from my knee this instant. Who do you think you are? Vixx?"
A second later, he sighed in relief.
"What's Vixx like?" Adrien asked, glad to be able to have some kind of normal conversation. "I met Volpina, back when she was tracking that hydra down, but she was transformed."
"Vixx is a tiny carnivore who will charm everything you own out of you and bite you if that doesn't work. I prayed for Mona to transform so we could get a reprieve. Vixx wasn't nearly as irritating as Waspp, though."
"What about Waspp?"
They distinctly heard Plagg groan.
Gabriel mulled over the question.
"Waspp is driven. Irritatingly so, as she is powerless on her own and has to nag the humans around her so they can accomplish whatever she decides needs to be done. She has neither patience nor diplomacy and…"
"She's a nightmare," Plagg cut in.
Adrien looked around to check if someone had heard him, but the place was empty and the owner too far to hear them, especially over the ambient music.
"She can't be that bad," he said once reassured.
"Fu tends to pair her with people who can't be bothered doing anything ," Gabriel explained. "Lazy people. Just to counter her need to act . She's not above forcing surprise confrontations with powerful enemies, with no planning and no way out. Fun times."
Adrien blinked.
"Did she do that with, uh…" He started whispering. "You know. Your friend, Queen Bee."
"She tried. But - and it might surprise you - Bee had excellent impulse control when in costume. As herself, less so, hence the recurrent jail visits. But Queen Bee's main strengths were speed and flight. She relied on agility and I relied on stealth, but neither of us could sustain long battles. We had to be careful about how we engaged the enemy."
"So you went about it the Batman way?"
"Mostly. I was a punching ball for months after I got the bloody ring. Ladybug got a shield. A magical shield . She could take blows for hours. I got a sword that I couldn't use. Every six months or so, I got to cut a rope or magical webs, and that was it. I was forced to go hand-to-hand whenever I joined a fight. It didn't go well."
"You told me you were careful," Adrien remarked. "You told me you nearly never ended up in life-threatening situations."
"I lied."
Adrien choked on his soda.
"Of course I lied," his father explained. "You were being careless. I had to drill it into you that it could get you killed. I was not about to tell you enemies used to mop the floor with me."
"They did?"
"Of course they did. For weeks, if not months , I had to be rescued more often than a Disney princess. Your mother ordered me to stay away from the magical enemies. She told me to stick to 'cats in trees'."
Adrien caught himself smiling.
"So. They mopped the floor with you. Do you have examples?"
"Hm."
"Super Maria," Plagg chimed in.
Gabriel groaned. Adrien raised his eyebrows.
"Super Maria?" he prompted.
His father grumbled, avoiding his eyes.
"She was a little girl who got Akumatized because her mother turned her Nintendo off before she could save. She set me on fire. Twice. And she kept jumping on my head."
Adrien giggled, then laughed. It bubbled out of him until he had to wipe tears of mirth of his face. He slowly collected himself, breathing in and calming down until his grin turned to an amused smile.
He sighed. The whole conversation was so bittersweet.
"Why can't you be like this all the time?" he asked. "It's like you become a whole different person when you change clothes."
Gabriel moved back on his chair and looked at his hands, lost in thought. They were stained and scratched, with dirt under his fingernails and dark smudges on his palms and fingertips. They were not callused enough to be a climber's hands, but they had lost the manicured, clean quality that fit 'Gabriel Agreste's' image.
"Don't we both," he murmured. It was not a question. "I don't usually volunteer this side of myself. It's much like lounging at home in one's underwear." He murmured the rest, flipping his hands and picking his fork up. "Disgraceful."
Anger coursed through Adrien. He had to take a deep breath to rein it in, and still ended up chewing the inside of his cheeks in frustration.
"I'm your son ," he snapped. "I wouldn't care if you lounged at home in your underwear! I wouldn't mind if you were human for once."
Gabriel pursed his lips.
"It's… the problem is not what you would think. It's me. I have to behave a certain way. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way I think and feel. And I'm not talking about now, or even the last few years. This is how I have always been."
"Then CHANGE!" Adrien yelled. He paled and looked around. The restaurant owner had frozen at the entrance of the kitchen, and gave him a puzzled look before averting his eyes. The boy turned to his father and tried to regain his composure. "Change ," he pleaded. "Change! I would forgive everything you've done if you would only change. Why can't you try ?"
His father did not just purse his lips, this time: he bit down on his lower lip so hard Adrien thought he'd draw blood. Gabriel closed his eyes, joined his hands in front of his plate and twisted his fingers. The emotion faded from his face, leaving resigned certainty.
"I could drag you through the same hell of promises I put your mother through," he said. "But I know by now that there is no point in that. All of my promises ended up being lies. I could swear I would do my best, and it would last a month. It's better if you don't even hope."
Adrien said nothing. He quietly, slowly crumpled his soda can until the jagged edges of it started hurting his hands. He let go of the can, stood and left.
###
Plagg dragged Adrien's history book to the living room and shoved it under the sofa.
Lying to the boy was becoming an habit, he thought as he returned to Adrien's bedroom. But then again, necessity was the mother of invention. When you could not go that far from the fancy piece of jewelry you called your home, you had to move that piece of jewelry, one way or another.
"Where is it?" Adrien was moaning. He dropped to his knees to look under his bed. "Miss Bustier is going to kill me if I don't do that homework." He lifted the mattress, dropped it and blanched. " Nathalie is going to kill me."
"Are you sure Nathalie didn't forget to pack your book when she got all your things from the house?" Plagg replied, with the smoothness of a thousands years old liar.
"Nathalie never forgets anything."
"It was a busy day. She was tired."
Adrien lifted several of the discarded furniture boxes he had not thrown away yet, then opened his cupboard and checked the compartments of his empty suitcase.
"It's still… Agh. I'll have to get a new one."
"It's Sunday ," Plagg pointed out.
He wanted the kid at the mansion, where Gabriel was. What did he care about bookstores and libraries?
Of course, Adrien did not want to go to the mansion. Adrien wanted space. Adrien wanted to stay as far away from his father as he could. It was only natural, considering Gabriel's words. Then again, Gabriel had a taste for the gloomy and the depressing.
"Maybe I could borrow Nino's book," the boy mused.
Plagg rolled his eyes.
"Nino? On a sunday afternoon? I bet he's only starting to work, if he isn't just procrastinating."
"Hey!"
"It's true! He'll need his book."
The infuriating, stubborn little human sighed.
"Maybe I can find a copy online."
"Adrien. You just need to slip in and out of your room. Your father doesn't even need to see you."
But I need to see your father, so stop being DIFFICULT.
"Alright, alright, alright," the boy conceded at last.
Plagg swallowed a sigh of relief.
You had to be stealthy about some things. For instance, you could not tell the teenage son of a missing woman that a magical being knew full well what had happened to his mother. You couldn't tell him that Bella wanted to exchange that information for Alim Kubdel's freedom. It was a deal Adrien could only refuse, so why give him that choice? If Alice was dead, it would not make any difference. If she was not and ended up being harmed because Bella had not shared her knowledge, Adrien would forever blame himself for not giving in to her demands. It was a white lie, really. A necessary one.
In the same way, you didn't remind him that his father only ever discussed convenient versions of the truth.
Adrien gave the room a last cursory search.
"I guess I don't have a choice. Claws out!"
From there, it was a blur of roofs and streets, seen through the boy's eyes, with more colors than Plagg could see in his own body and a strangely limited field of vision. Thousands of years had come and gone and it still felt strange to him.
Chat Noir entered the mansion through his bathroom window. He untransformed as he landed.
"Let's be quick," he mumbled, opening the door to his bedroom. "The book can't be far."
"I'll stand guard in the hallway," Plagg lied, zipping past the human.
He phased through the door and, instead of stopping there, he sped to Gabriel's office. It was empty, so the Kwami tried the study instead, then the master bedroom, then - after remembering that the master bedroom was being renovated - the guest bedroom Gabriel had elected as his.
That was where he finally found his previous chosen.
Gabriel was standing next to the wardrobe, wearing an unbuttoned shirt and impeccable pants. He smelled of fancy soap and lemon shampoo. He didn't notice Plagg's arrival, so the black cat watched him button his shirt up, smooth it, then put a striped tie on. It was a ritual, really. Plagg had witnessed it a thousand times. Every piece of clothing perfectly tailored and sharply pressed, the collar starched, the cufflinks shiny. The cover did make the book.
Plagg wandered around, looking for the one thing he had come to find.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
He knew Gabriel. Gabriel did not drink alone. Gabriel did not use recreational drugs to take his mind off his problems. Yet, he was drugged. There was only one possible explanation.
Everything in its place.
Plagg dove into the nightstand on Gabriel's preferred side of the bed and opened the first drawer.
Gabriel gasped.
"Ha! I knew it," the Kwami exclaimed when he found two boxes of pills. They looked new. Their cardboard was still crisp. It was neither faded nor crushed. 'Fluoxetine' and 'Alprazolam', the labels said.
"Plagg!" Gabriel snapped. "What are you doing?"
"Why didn't you tell Nathalie you were taking those?" Plagg asked, flying up with one of the boxes in his paws. "She is concerned because you act weird."
Gabriel rolled his eyes and sighed.
"There is no point telling her before I am sure they are effective. They might end up not doing anything."
"Better not to get anyone's hopes up, that's it?"
Gabriel did not answer. He adjusted the buttons of his waistcoat and checked his cufflinks.
Plagg dropped the box on the bed.
"When did you start taking them?"
Gabriel's eyes glazed over. He frowned, trying to focus, but it was clear that he struggled to remember.
"I was at the psychiatrist during Bourgeois' speech. When Adrien called me. I had my GP refer me first thing in the morning."
Plagg snorted. He landed next to the fluoxetine box, opened it and sniffed its contents. Of course, pills wrapped with plastic and aluminum didn't have much of a smell. All he got was a whiff of paper and dust.
"You should tell her. You should tell Adrien. He needs to know that you are willing to change, that you are trying to change. I mean, instead of brooding and sulking like that twat in Alice's favorite book."
Gabriel cringed at the comparison with Heathcliff. He had strong opinions on that book and its characters, which was why Plagg would never stop mentioning it.
"I think you are confusing 'pursuing treatment' and 'changing'. Also, I don't think I'm that sick."
Plagg made a face. Gabriel clicked his tongue.
"While there is clearly something wrong with my mind at the moment - and yes , I am willing to admit that - you all seem to be vastly overestimating the problem. I have done things those last few weeks that seemed to make perfect sense, but were beyond insane, and I can't even fathom how I could for an instant believe t-"
"You are sick," Plagg cut in, matter-of-factly.
"But it does not change the core of who I am, Plagg! I don't feel fundamentally different from the man I was ten years ago, or even twenty years ago. Those pills might stop me from flipping out and getting lost inside my mind, but they won't change who I am. They won't turn me into the father Adrien needs."
"Well it's not like he has another," Plagg drawled, "so what about you make do?"
"That's the last thing Adrien needs," Gabriel retorted, with his usual, aggravating stubbornness. "When Alice was h-"
"Alice was just as messed up in the head as you are. Alice was just as terrified of hurting that boy as you are. But she didn't chicken out."
There was a brief silence.
"She was? "
"Yes, she was. She told me."
Gabriel absorbed that, then shook his head.
"Alice never hurt Adrien. Alice never lashed out at Adrien, she never broke his spirits and she most certainly never hit him. I will 'chicken out' for as long as it takes me to be sure it will never happen again."
Plagg had lived long enough to know how detached from reason humans could get. The Kwami had been a monster himself. He understood only too well how cracks in a mind could divide and erase emotions and beliefs. Parts of him had been wiped and other shoved in. There was a schism between who he had been and who he was now.
Humans could crack and break under pressure. Emotions could shatter them, fear could unravel them, just like anger, just like distress, just like pain. Some would fall apart for no reason at all. The darkness would take them over from the inside, as if they had been born with it.
Gabriel… Gabriel was merely a stubborn man who did not know how to heal.
Alice had helped, and then she hadn't.
"You can change," Plagg pointed out.
Gabriel turned his back to him, facing a mirror to adjust his clothes again. His answer was terse.
"It never worked before."
"Well, I never saw you admit something was wrong with you before," Plagg retorted.
Gabriel glared at him.
The Kwami yawned.
"That's the crux of the matter, isn't-"
They both froze when they heard a long, annoyed 'Plaaaaaaagg' from outside the room. Adrien had given up on looking for his schoolbook. Gabriel didn't say a word. He didn't move. He merely stared at the door, tense and uneasy.
Plagg snorted.
"I'll have to find another trick to get him here," he said. "See you soon."
And, without giving his old chosen a second to answer, he dashed through the door.
###
Adrien looked at his upturned bedroom. He had moved every single piece of furniture, lifted every box, emptied every bag. The book was gone and his homework would never be done, but he was too exhausted to care.
He dropped onto his bed and sighed.
At least, the searching had kept him from thinking about Gabriel. If he could keep himself busy until school the next day, everything would be fine. That wasn't strictly true, of course. Things were entirely too calm on the Hawk Moth front. His identity would be revealed soon enough. Too many people knew who he was.
Adrien sighed and turned to his nightstand to check the time.
His math schoolbook was right next to the alarm clock. Between the pages of said math schoolbook was his history book.
"You've got to be kidding me!" he groaned, sitting up.
He shook his head in frustration and left the room. He would make chocolate milk, offer some to Nathalie, then suggest eating out. Anything to have a quiet evening. It would still be time to work on that history homework at nine.
He found Nathalie in the kitchen, with Plagg, who was talking in a quiet voice.
"... as good as it can get," he was saying. "You can't keep delaying."
"I have looked those up months ago," Nathalie replied. "It will take at least two weeks to see results, and - as a matter of fact - they could make things worse."
"It's not your choice."
"It's-"
Nathalie went silent and turned to Adrien, who looked at the two of them and frowned.
"What is going on?" he asked.
By this point, he was not even expecting an answer. He watched Nathalie hesitate and was surprised to see her breathe in and steel herself.
"There are a few issues that should be discussed," she explained. "About Bella. That being said, it would require involving your father."
Adrien nearly retorted that Gabriel had lost all right to be involved in Miraculous business, then realized that Nathalie would be of the same opinion.
"Is… Is this about mom?" he blurted out, voice uneven and throat clenched.
Nathalie's gaze drifted to Plagg, who rolled his eyes. She composed herself.
"Yes," she replied.
Adrien's legs went weak. He had to stop himself from falling.
"Would it be alright if I had Gabriel come over tonight?" Nathalie asked. "I know I promised you distance, but…" She peeked at Plagg again. "We can't delay handling this particular issue."
That particular issue had been delayed way too long, if you asked Adrien. He did not bother answering, and ran back into his room to call Gabriel himself.
One hour and seven minutes later - the longest sixty-seven minutes of his life - he found himself sitting on the sofa in Nathalie's living room, with Marinette by his side, Tikki and Plagg seated next to him on the armrest, and Gabriel installed in the farthest armchair. Nathalie was walking from one side of the room to the other, collecting her tablet, folders, her laptop and a laser pointer. She dropped all of that on the coffee table, sat next to Gabriel, and cast her tablet's screen on the television. It showed three rows of icons: an email app, office software, world clock widgets and Minesweeper.
Marinette was observing her with a confused expression, regularly turning to Adrien to convey her perplexity. She had been called in but given no explanation save for 'you will be needed to discuss Bella'.
Adrien wanted to explain what little he knew, but he was too nervous to talk. Every time he opened his mouth, his mind was wiped blank.
Nathalie stared at the screen for a moment, lost in thought. She clicked the switch on the laser pointer over and over again, and a bright red dot flickered on Gabriel's knee. She ended up breathing in and standing up.
She straightened her back.
She adjusted her glasses.
"Thank you very much for coming," she started, gaze shifting from Marinette to Adrien's father, then to Tikki. "It has been a few days since the Butterfly Miraculous was recovered and I…" Plagg coughed. She winced. "And things have calmed down enough for us to handle an important problem that was dragged on for too long already."
Marinette reached for Adrien's hand and squeezed it. Gabriel, who was sporting his perfect clothes and his soldered-into-place haircut, shrank and crumbled in that costume. His shoulders sagged. He lowered his head. His skin went from pale to livid.
Nathalie kept her composure.
"We now have everything we need to investigate Alice's - mrs. Agreste - disappearance."
Adrien felt Marinette hesitate. Her hand shifted in his. She was jittery.
"I'm sure you are wondering why I called you, Marinette," Nathalie continued. "I know it sounds like a family matter. Truth to be said, we needed Tikki to be present, and I doubt you would have parted with your Miraculous. And I expect we would have needed to involve you as Ladybug quickly enough anyway."
Adrien frowned.
"What are you planning?" his partner asked. "Are we going to question Bella?"
Nathalie gave a quick shake of the head. Her expression betrayed nothing: it was as empty and cold as usual.
"We have done that already. Bella has no intention to talk to us. She demanded that I create a 'champion' to help Alim Kubel escape custody before telling us what she knows. Both Plagg and Tikki tried to convince her to talk. It didn't work. I believe she is bluffing, Plagg thinks she is not, and - if I'm not mistaken - Tikki isn't sure. Not that it matters, as we will not give Bella what she wants."
Adrien exchanged a tired look with Plagg. The cat's ears drooped.
Marinette leaned forward so she could look at Tikki.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered.
" But ," Nathalie cut in, "we do not need her to talk. Kubdel tried the exact same trick when I talked to him."
"And he doesn't know," Adrien commented. "He told me. He was trying not to get killed ."
He did not look at his father as he said those words, but hoped they would sting. He kept his eyes on Nathalie and saw her falter. She swallowed and sucked her lips in. Her whole posture changed. However, she soldiered through her unease.
"I know." She turned to the television, tapping a slideshow viewer app on her tablet. "But, as I was saying, we do not need them."
They watched a Powerpoint appear on the television screen. It showed a grid of eight photographs, neatly aligned in the middle of their page. The violet and white tones of the second one caught Adrien's eye first: it was a picture of Stormy Weather during her weather forecast. The others were Pharaoh, Dark Blade, Grenadine, Dislocoeur, Nino as the Bubbler, Alya as Lady Wifi, and Alix as Timebreaker.
Marinette's eyes went wide in shock. Tikki seemed surprised too, but Plagg barely reacted. As for Gabriel, he showed no reaction at all.
Nathalie clicked her tongue, staring at the screen.
"As Tikki so helpfully pointed out, Bella's powers are limitless . If we find the right person to channel them, we can do anything."
"NOT ANYTHING!" Plagg and Tikki snapped at the same time. She was frowning. Plagg seemed to have protested out of pure habit.
"Her powers were misused," his sister said. "Every rule ignored. You can't just expect… I know it is tempting to… I… They are limitless but the world itself is kept together by clear lines that should never be crossed."
Her eyes were riveted to the screen and to Timebreaker, just like Adrien's and everyone else's. The teenager peeked at his father, who had leaned forward with a somber look on his face, hands crossed on his knees.
Timebreaker who could change the past. Pharaoh, who had tried to bring a dead woman back to life. Strange how they seemed tailored to deal with Alice's situation. Strange how Kubdel's own children had come the closest to unraveling reality itself.
Adrien idly wondered if Alim cared at all about what he had done to them.
"I don't plan to create a time traveler," Nathalie announced. "I have made my research and I have seen Back to the Future. As tempting as Timebreaker and Contretemps' powers could be, I assume changing the past would only lead to-"
"Split timelines, duplicate people, dead people," Marinette intervened. She squeezed Adrien's hand again and whispered a 'sorry'. Not that he needed an apology. He agreed with her.
"I know," Nathalie replied.
"So what's the plan?" Adrien asked.
He didn't protest about using Bella's powers without her consent, though he felt guilty. Surely, if Plagg and Tikki had not objected yet, they had to know something he didn't. They had to think Nathalie's plans were justified. Or maybe they were egoists too. Maybe they missed his mother just as much as he did.
When Nathalie heard his question, she did not answer him . Instead, she turned to Gabriel, who was staring at her intently. Their eyes met and they looked at each other for a moment, in a silent conversation that was spoken entirely in micro-expressions and body language. Gabriel's features barely moved. He was listening, not with curiosity but with patience. She was hesitant and waited for a sign of approval that Adrien missed, but that she seemed to spot. Then she turned back to the sofa.
"I have collected as much information as I could on Hawk Moth's previous victims and the how and the why they were transformed," she said, looking down at her tablet and pressing Lady Wifi's picture. It opened a slide that showed the picture, a list of her powers and the goals of her transformation. Nathalie kept talking as she swiped from villain to villain. "Figuring out the way Bella's powers function was critical. I could only try them out twice, and not at length. Marinette's transformation answered a lot of questions, however."
Tikki frowned.
"How so?"
She gave Plagg a suspicious side-look. He merely yawned.
"I wanted to determine how the champions' powers and appearances were determined," Nathalie explained. "And, from what I saw, Hawk Moth has to use existing goals and feelings. Using the strongest one is easier. It comes with a set of powers and an appearance that come straight out of the champion's mind. That's how Adrien transformed into Chat Noir when I sent the butterfly. I had to fight against Marinette's will not to let her turn into a Ladybug copy."
Marinette blinked at that.
"I didn't fight you! I wanted to heal Adrien! I was thinking about it as hard as I could!"
The corner of Nathalie's mouth twitched in amusement.
"I don't think you did it consciously," she said. "But I still had to put a lot of effort into focusing on that desire to heal, and then try to build a power set around it. You ended up considerably weaker than if I had let you change into Ladybug. Of course, your healing ability was sufficient, so there was no reason to question your performance."
"Oh. Oh."
"That's pretty much it," Plagg muttered.
Tikki glowered at him.
Adrien took a deep breath to summon some nerve.
"So… you want to find someone who wants to find my mother?" he asked Nathalie. "Someone whose powers would naturally be related to that? Like… a detective Akuma. I mean, I could do i-"
Nathalie silenced him with a soft shake of the head.
"We already know that your 'Chat Noir' persona is stronger than anything else. You wouldn't make a good candidate. I'm sorry."
She didn't sound that sorry, but she still tousled his hair.
"Then who?" he asked.
There was only one candidate he could think of. His gaze drifted to his father, then back to Nathalie when he saw her tense. She had blanched. She was distinctly and unmistakably afraid, despite her best efforts to hide it.
She tried to collect herself and droned on.
"We would need someone who would want the answers, but not to the point that t-they would be consumed by that desire." Behind her, Gabriel frowned. She put her tablet down on the coffee table. "Someone who could assemble and organize hints. Someone with good organisational skills…"
She turned to Gabriel, who was staring at her with growing disbelief and horror. She reached under her jacket to take something from her inner pocket.
Adrien's father shook his head.
Nathalie didn't move. Her hand stayed under her jacket.
"... Who is used to, who enjoys keeping track of time and people..."
"No," Gabriel said, jerking away.
She took the electrum box out of her pocket and held it out to him.
"No," he repeated, breathing so quick and hard his son could hear him.
Nathalie waited, and waited, and waited.
A minute went by.
Gabriel took the box.
###