It was supposed to be a quick stop over in Paris...but secretly assembling their lives to allow them to jet off to Shanghai to track Merlin was no easy task!
Marrinette was pinching the bridge of her nose, sighing under her breath as she was getting lectured over the phone from her mentor at Style Queen. The team had been called in over the weekend, and Audrey Bourgeois was demanding that each team had to present a brand new pitch for the fall clothing line on Monday! The Style Queen herself had flippantly decided to switch gears when some of their designs had been poached for a competitor company in New York, Milan, and another in London!
"I need you here Marrinette! We've got to get a colour pallet, fabric samples, track down suppliers, get some initial sketches done..." the list went on...
"Send me what you've got so far on my phone, and I will have everything ready tomorrow morning!" Marinette responded back. "No, I'm sorry, I've got a...a "family" emergency and will be out of town...but yes, yes, I will have a pitch as soon as I get back!" she committed herself way over her head (which was not so unusual!)
"How are you going to get your project complete while we're on the road?" Chat Noir whispered concerned.
"I'll think of something," Ladybug supplied a half-hearted smile. "But Merlin has already got a huge head start, and I haven't been able to get a hold of Fei yet to warn her. We can wait any longer!"
Alya had already been sent on a fact-finding mission to discover all she could about Merlin, traces of Galahad's final battle, and any hints about a mosquito kwami's past cross-crosses throughout the past. She had already recruited Alex to help her with research at the Louvre.
Nino had been called home to cover babysitting his little brother Chris. Lila had originally agreed to watch him, but she had called his parents a couple hours earlier to say that she had injured herself rescuing a bus of school children, and she couldn't make it. (Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged a not-so-discreet glance of disbelief when they heard the story. They didn't say anything more though, since they didn't want to make a scene in front of the others...plus they couldn't help feeling relieved Lila would miss out on the chance to influence Nino's impressionable little brother).
Chloe was much more occupied in tracking down her elusive boyfriend, Komar, (rather than a mystical "Old Guy" weilder from the past). She didn't want to let Ladybug down, and said if they absolutely needed Queen Bee she would come, but Ladybug assured her they would reconnect after they found out more information about Merlin's whereabouts. She absentmindedly polished the beads of her pearl bracelet he had given her against her shirt, redialing Komar's number. Waving to the others, she contacted her personal chauffeur, and set off toward the hotel.
"I guess it is just you and I Mi'lady," Chat Noir steeped in closer beside her, and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Achem," Lady Justice cleared her throat, with an unimpressed Phoenix kwami floating beside her.
"I mean the four of us," Chat Noir shrugged with a good natured smile. "Of course, we're all going," he sighed.
Ember just rolled his eyes, and Ladybug sprung up on her tip toes to kiss him. Then she popped on Kaalki's glasses. "Five of us!" Kalaki pipped up indignantly. "It's not like any of you are going anywhere without me!"
"We are very much indebted to you Kalaki, you have been absolutely wonderful," Ladybug assured the horse kwami.
Kalaki nodded, and proudly took the sugar cube Ladybug held out.
There is nothing quite like Paris," sighed Marinette, looking over her shoulder wistfully toward her family's bakery. She was half wishing that she could just stick around home to catch her breath after all their travels.
"Shanghai is known as "The Pearl of Asia" and "The Paris of the East," Ember said in typical tour guide form. "We had better get going! Strike while the iron is hot and all that!"
"Shanghi is one of the largest cities in the world!" Chat Noir raised his hands up, "How are we going to find just one man?"
"You were able to find one clueless girl last time!" Ladybug elbowed Chat Noir playfully.
Chat Noir shook his head, "by the time I found you, you had already found quite the collection of new friends... and of course managed to land yourself right in the middle of Hawkmoth's plans, as usual! You must have thought Chat Noir was pretty crazy coming all the way to China to look for a lost civilian."
"Actually, my whole trip, under the guise of retracing my roots, was initially to follow you," Ladybug blushed. "Your father made the plans so last minute, and I couldn't bear the thought of spending the whole summer away from you!"
"Aww Lovebug! So you're saying you're an even bigger stalker than your Kitty!" he smiled teasingly, lifting her up off the ground.
"You really still have no idea!" Marinette muttered under her breath, hoping he wouldn't pick at that thread.
The curious cat that he was he was not about to drop the fact that the woman of his dreams had followed him halfway around the world before they had even got together. Unfortunately, further inquiry would have to wait.
Marrinette merged the powers of Tiki and Kalaki and called "voyage!" channeling another portal.
Ooooo
Lady Justice signaled them to quiet down, as her heightened miraculous senses picked up a familiar...but long-absent aura. Across the series of ancient bridges they scanned the area in the Ancient Water Town of Wuzhen, in Zhejiang Province. Stacked homes with neatly sectioned courtyards perching on matchstick-like supports, and tilted rooftops were divided by waterways of the local people channeling boats two and fro as they had done for thousands of years. There was a Indigo fabric workshop display it's traditional works of art in the open air. Outside of the workshop was a large courtyard with the iconic blue and white fabric hanging; long elaborately decorated lengths of fabric billowing in the wind like sails!
"He is here. I know it!" Lady Justice said confidently, moving in the shadows. Ladybug and Chat Noir followed her lead, while Ember and Kaalki returned to their miraculous to wait for the weilders to call on them.
"Why would he come to this outskirt of Shanghai? It is pretty far from the sacred cave where the prodigious was hidden," Chat Noir looked around the small densely packed residences, which were quite the contrast to the skyscrapers and ultra modern skyline of the waterfront of Shanghai.
"He is looking for the key," Justice responded under her breath. If he hasn't already got to it, we might stand a chance at confronting him.
Before either of the younger weilders could ask they saw a flash of movement, and Justice reacted instantly, based on instinct. She spun around, and pointed to where a man in a stark robe had just rounded the corner. "It is him! don't loose him, and I'll cut him off!" Justice disappeared stealthily into the shadows.
Chat Noir and Ladybug jumped after Merlin, and propelled themselves in hot pursuit. With the miraculous' they were quickly on his heals, but they did not know the maze of the water town like he did, and they found themselves being led through a labyrinth of channels. The area really hadn't changed for hundreds of years, and Merlin was making the most of each switchback and dead end. Merlin chuckled ahead of them, only to be cut short by a pole in his path. Lady Justice pulled her weapon back. He bowled over towards, the ground, but was surprisingly nimble for an old man. He tucked his shoulder in, and rolled himself over his shoulder, and land crouched on his feet.
"Nimue, my darling," he greeted Lady Justice with a silver tongue. "You must have missed me dreadfully!" He winked a her with a smirk.
"Dispute my better judgement, and at the risk of inflating your ego to unfathomable heights, I have," Lady Justice looked back at him with unseeing eyes.
Chat Noir and Ladybug stepped back. The tension between the two ancients was palpable. It was if at any second they would either collide in a passionate embrace or tear each other to shreds. It wasn't entirely clear which route the two might take.
"Come with us," Lady Justice said tensely.
"You know I can't do that," Merlin raised himself to his full height.
"If Chaos has returned, we must stand together," she urged. "You must have us find the Remeberil miraculous!
"You know as well as I do some things are better left forgotten. Isn't that the very reason you banished me to generations of sleep within the grasp of Puzzelwood?!" he accused bitterly.
"You would have these mere children endure the fate of Galahad?!" the blind woman's voice broke as she gestured to the lingering weilders behind her.
"They're young! The've got their whole lives ahead of them to fill with memories, memories freed from the darkness to come! It will be as simple as waking from a dream for them," Merlin brushed her concerns off dismissively.
"Was it so easy for Galahad? The memories might be erased, by they claw at a man's subconscious and he is forever haunted by the past...miraculous inducing amnesia...more of a nightmare than a dream."
"I can't loose her!" Chat Noir broke out of their silence and stepped forward. "Forgetting, would mean being separated again. I can't! I can't start all over! Please help us!" Chat Noir pleaded desperately.
Merlin looked as if he might be moved enough by Chat Noir's petition to change his mind, but he looked at Lady Justice instead and shook his head. Looking back at Chat Noir, he sighed, "Sorry kid. You've got your life tied up in this kwami-craziness. You may be a weilder, but really you're just a vessel, a blunt instrument to maintain balance in the world. Love is a powerful thing, but even for love the cost is too great. A weilder must make the sacrifice...who would you ask to lay down their life in your place? No one can make that call but you."
Chat Noir grew silent, and his shoulders dropped. Ladybug threw her arms around him protectively, "No! We will find another way!" She glared a Merlin. "You could help us...that's your call isn't it! Tell us where the lost Dolphin miraculous was cast!" Ladybug challenged the man before them.
"The dolphin kwami, and her miraculous?! You really want to open that Pandora's box?! She exiled herself for the good of mankind in the warmest and saltiest seawater in all the seven seas. The Sea of Hercules himself! Erythra Thalassa swallowed up her secrets, but she will never forget. You really want all to be revealed?!" Merlin scoffed. "Your head will swim when she opens your eyes!"
The weilders blinked back at him blankly.
"Enough of this Merlin! I know you well enough to know you're stalling," Lady Justice raised her staff. "Now are you going to come with us willingly, or..."
But her threat was never uttered. The old wizard spun on his heel, and his disappearing trick consisted of pulling down a stack of crates filled with blue printed cloth behind him.
Ladybug raised an eyebrow. "Is he serious?!" he knows we have miraculous' right?! He really thinks he can out run us?!"
"Don't underestimate him!" Lady Justice urged, throwing a sweeping piece of fabric off her shoulder, and nimbly jumping up over the crates in their path.
"Common' Chat!" Ladybug said pulling at Chat Noir's unresponsive arm. "Kitty!" she said louder, jolting him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah! Yeah!" Chat Noir said distantly, following Ladybug's lead, clambering over bolts of cloth. "Let's go get him."
Ladybug shot him a look of concern, but they couldn't stop. Both Merlin and Lady Justice were already out of sight.
As they rounded the corner they crossed another of the numerous ancient bridges spanning the little canals. Across the cheeky bubbling streams, around small rivers shaded by willow trees, and through houses with meticulously tended courtyards they weaved. They dodged the pieces of fabric displayed, but somehow he stayed just out of reach, until he vanished between the fluttering panels altogether.
"Where did he go?!" Ladybug asked breathlessly.
Just then dozens of the poles on which the fabric hung fell crashing down upon them. Ladybug dove over Lady Justice to protect her from the unseen danger, and Chat Noir dove over Ladybug. In the end they were no worse for wear, but just lay tangled up under the strips of cloth awkwardly.
Ladybug's eyes widened, seeing the tightly wound sweeping blue and white fabrics tangled around Chat Noir's suit.
"What? Are you okay?" Chat Noir quirked his head to one side.
"I think I just got my inspiration for my pitch!" Ladybug let the cloth slip through her fingers as they untangled themselves.
Chat Noir and Ladybug dipped down to help Justice.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Lady Justice brushed off their attempts to help her up. "Do either of you have eyes on Merlin?!"
They glanced around and Chat Noir pointed down toward the road leading out of town. Merlin was smirking at them, and gave a salute from the back of a fast moving delivery truck he had stowed away on.
"We can still catch him!" Chat Noir grasped his baton ready to pounce.
"No need," Justice placed a steadying hand on his baton. "If he's leaving he's already got the key. And if he has the key, I know where he's going."
"Where?" Ladybug asked.
"He's gone to open the Dragon Gate Stone," she replied gravely.