Possible song theme: The Scientist by Coldplay
Those pf you reading here, if you like imagery I suggest finding the story on Wattpad, as always, there is art you can see there that I can't add here on FF.
Once upon a time, a husband lost his wife...A husband who missed his wife so much that it made him tremble inside. The dead never age, and the same holds true for the people who are left behind. Physically, the world keeps turning. But your inner world—the realm you carry within, your internal life— tends to stop at the moment you lose someone you love.
Gabriel Agreste clenches his fists in frustration as he leans against the cryogenic pod his wife laid inside. Another day, another defeat. It seemed like he was in a never-ending cycle of hope and failure. Ladybug and her team had once again defeated the Akuma he had sent out. And once again, his wife was kept in her preserved state. "I have failed again, Emelie. We should have been reunited long ago. I tried everything to get my hands on the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir. I should have already combined their powers that would have granted me the wish to bring you back!" He cries. "I am not... worthy... of our love!"
There was a time when Gabriel had blamed Emelie. Most people might think it would be impossible to be angry with someone who had died. But Gabriel had discovered that it is entirely possible to be angry with someone who has died. And eventually you begin to hate yourself for being angry with someone who has died.
It is possible to believe that you will die from grief, that somehow your breathing will catch itself up and simply stop. It is possible to believe that you could have stopped the terrible thing that happened at any time, if only you had known.
Slamming his first on the glass, a crack emerges. Gabriel quickly removed himself from the glass and secured the pod and ran to the elevator. He had let his emotions get the better of him, and once again his wife almost suffered the consequences.
Once upstairs he rushed to Nathalie's room. Gabriel slammed his first down on a near by desk, much like he had to the pod down below.
"Ladybug never makes a mistake!" He growled
Nathalie looked at him calmly from her bed. "Neither do you." She explained. That was the harsh reality of life. In some cases, you can do everything right, and still get the short end of the stick. "Ladybug hasn't discovered who you are, she hasn't seized your Miraculous and—" A fit of coughs erupt in her chest, stopping her from finishing her sentence.
"Nathalie!" Gabriel rushes to her side. "You see, I've made at least one mistake."
"It wasn't a mistake." She assured him. "I was the one who decided to use the Peacock Miraculous despite it being damaged. I was fully aware of the risk that I was taking."
And just like that something clicked inside Gabriel's mind.
"A risk... of course! She never makes mistakes, because she never takes any risks!" He shoots up from the bed and rushes out the door, not bothering to explain his plan to Nathalie who can't help but watch him leave with a slight look of concern over her features.
She could see a change in him recently. His constant failure to bring in Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous seemed to be getting to him more and more these days. Nathalie couldn't help but worry just how far he would take things if he had to wait any longer.
In his lair, ShadowMoth called forth his Akuma and listened carefully to the negative emotions that echoed around him. He needed someone who could get Ladybug and Chat Noir to take risks without them realizing it. It was then they were bound to slip up. The sound of a child desiring to prove he didn't need to wear safety gear to ride his bike made for perfect prey. His anger was mild, but still enough for ShadowMoth to manipulate. His Akuma flutters into the stuffed toy frog sitting behind the child on the bike.
"Risk. I am Shadow Moth. I'm giving you the power to make people forget all about their fears. Thanks to you, they will take all the risks, and let you take all the risks that you want also!"
"Oh, will it work on my parents too?"
"Yes. All the daddies, mommies, and children who hear your song will start taking risks without even realizing it. Do we have a deal?" "Yeah! Whoa!" The child grins at his knew outfit. A light green frog-themed onesie, dark green gloves and rain boots, and big yellow goggles that functions as eyes. His bike also more decked out and frog themed
The boys parents finally catch up after chasing their son down. "Where's your helmet?" His father asks. "And your training wheels?"
Risk releases an energy particle from his bike horn, marking both of his parents.
" I'm Froggy, here I come, I'm not afraid of anyone. " The boy sings while riding away. His parents wave him off, suddenly unconcerned.
"Go ahead." His dad calls out. "After all, riding a bicycle's not that risky."
" I'm Froggy, here I come. "
"You and I are going to have a lot of fun Risk, but you have to be discrete! Hide your Froggy toy well, otherwise, Ladybug will come and break it and you'll lose all your powers."
" I'm gonna hide it where she'll never find it. "
As the night goes on Risk petaled away singing his son. " I'm Froggy, here I come, I'm not afraid of anyone. " Eventually marking almost the entire city with a tiny green frog print on the back of their necks. When morning came, everyone would be much keener to taking a bit more risks. Including Ladybug and Chat Noir.
"Ladybug, Chat Noir, whoever you are, wherever you're hiding, you are now bearing the mark of Risk. Of course, I have no idea what mistake you're going to make or how you'll make it, but I do know that the beating of my wings has sown the seeds of recklessness, and now I just have to wait, then harvest your downfall!"
OoOoOoOoO
Adrien awoke the next morning with a stretch, heading towards his computer to see Nathalie video messaging him. Answering, they greeted one another before Nathalie reminded him of his schedule for the day.
"Adrien, remember that you have—"
"School at 8:30, fencing at 1:30, then piano practice and Chinese class. But first and foremost, the breakfast for two that my father has been promising me for months." Adrien spoke happily. His happiness was short lived however, as he took note of the sympathetic look on Nathalie's face.
"Umm, about that."
"What? Awww. He's cancelled, hasn't he?"
"No, no!" Nathalie tried to assure. "You will meet with him... but, for a work session."
A robot comes in. Holding out a pristine white outfit similar to his typical attire.
"Last night, your father had an idea for a new ad campaign. Please put on these clothes before joining him in his study." Nathalie explained before ending the call. Adrien sighed as Plagg floated in front of him.
"Well, I for one would love to have breakfast with you."
Adrien itched the back of his neck as a determined feeling came over him, a determined feeling with underlined resentment and rage.
"I've had it, Plagg! I'm tired of photos and ads! I don't wanna be a model for my father's brand anymore!" Adrien shouted, tossing the shirt aside. "I just wanna be a son and be able to have breakfast with him just once! I'm gonna go talk to him."
Plagg, shocked by Adrien's rash outburst, flies in front of him before he can exit his room. "You do realize that your father will take this very badly, right?"
Adrien glares down at Plagg, though his anger is not directed at the Kwami. "I'm willing to take that risk!"
As he storms downstairs and bursts open his father's office doors, all Adrien's confidence and determination seems to slip away from him almost immediately after demanding to speak to his father.
In the room, Gabriel stood at his Alter with an audience of Lila, Bob Roth, and his photographer Vincent. His father shoots him a stern look demanding he return upstairs and change as he was told to. With his head hung, Adrien listened.
Gabriel shook his head, he expected as much. Being affected by the Akuma was bound to make his son act irrationally. That was the point of this sudden ad campaign anyway. With everyone in Paris, including Ladybug and Chat Noir taking more risks, the city would soon become much more dangerous. To ensure his son's safety, Gabriel had thrown together an idea for a fragrance. This way, Adrien would be forced to leave and be out of danger until Gabriel said otherwise.
"A girl. A boy. They search for each other all over the world, before finally meeting in Paris, at the top of the Eiffel Tower." Gabriel explained once Adrien had returned. He and Lila walked towards one another and embraced in front of a holographic screen.
"This is even more romantic than the Hollywood film I starred in!" Lila spoke into Adrien's ear. Adrien rolled his eyes.
"Lila, we both know that's not true. I may have to work with you, but I don't have to listen to your lies." He shot, making the girl purse her lips in anger.
"Gabriel," Bob spoke from his seat. "All these scenery's gonna cost us a pretty penny and green screens and pasteboard backdrops!"
Gabriel scoffed as he glared at the other man, "There will be no pasteboard backdrops, Bob. I want sincerity! I want truth! This shoot will last several months all over the world. Adrien and Lila are leaving this afternoon."
While Lila looks thrilled, Adrien quickly pulls away from her and gaps at his father.
"What? I can't leave Paris!"
"Is there a problem, Adrien?" Gabriel asks, almost testing.
Lila steps forward and places a hand on Adrien's shoulder. "You're afraid of being away from your friends at school! But when I risked travelling around the world, I always stayed in touch with you all, and it only made us closer." She said, hugging Adrien once more.
So, there's no problem." Gabriel confirmed. "At the end of the ad, using CG, they will melt together to become the perfume bottle. Two souls, one mind, one heart. First Love, the fragrance."
Nathalie soon informed them that the media had arrived outside the Agreste mansion to be given a statement on the up coming campaign. Everyone began to make their way outside. That is, everyone except for Adrien. Gabriel glance over his shoulder, noticing his son's planted feet.
"Come along Adrien." He called, and still Adrien refused to move. Sighing, Gabriel made his way over to his son, looking at him expectantly. "Well then. Come out with it." He spoke.
Adrien's head shot up, the frog print on his neck lighting up as his father waited for him to argue his case.
"I can't leave Paris father. I don't want to."
"Adrien, I know being away from your friends is hard but-"
"It's not just my friends. It's Lucy!" Adrien argued. "I can't leave her!"
"You can and you will." Gabriel commanded evenly. "You both survived this world long before knowing one another, you will both continue to do so long after. Besides," He added. "It's not forever."
"Not forever, but it's still several months!"
"What is it you're so afraid of, Adrien? Don't think she'll wait for your return? Is this love you claim you both have for one another so fragile that it cannot withstand a few mere months of separation?"
Adrien opened his mouth to argue but nothing came out. The truth was...he didn't know. He felt like no matter the distance, Lucy would always be there, waiting for him to come home. And yet, that wasn't really the problem. He could live without Lucy for a few months. He just didn't want to.
"This isn't up for debate, Adrien." His father spoke once more. "After the press interview, you and Lila will go to school for half the day. You can say goodbye to your friends, say goodbye to Lucy, and then you'll be on a train out of the city. You don't have to like it, but it is what will be happening. Now, let's go."
Adrien's father placed a hand on his back, escorting him to the door and outside to the crowd of media awaiting to hear from them.
OoOoOoOOo
"Lucy?" Monica called from the kitchen, her eyes fixated on the TV. Lucy emerged from her bedroom as she adjusted her bag over her shoulder.
"Huh? What's up?" She asked. Monice nodded her head toward the television where the morning news played on the screen revealing Gabriel and Adrien Agreste, Lila, Bob Roth and a few others.
"Gabriel Agreste took the world by storm this morning as he presented his new ad campaign, an ambitious project that will be filmed all over the world as an homage to the universal truth of first love."
"Did you know about that?" Monica asked her daughter who frowned at the TV. Both noting the unhappy expression planted on Adrien's face.
"No." She spoke softly. "No, I did not."
OoOoOOo
Adrien didn't get much of a chance to talk to Lucy. Things with the media causing him to arrive later than normal, the pair had to take their assigned seats before any real conversation could be had between them. It wasn't until P.E that Lucy saw a window of opportunity to approach her boyfriend, only for him to get dragged away by Nino and a few of the other guys.
Lucy let out a frustrated sigh when Marinette popped up beside her in a panic.
"Lucy! Why didn't you tell us Adrien was going away!?"
"Because I didn't know." Lucy said tightly. Marinette blinked at her.
"You...you didn't? Why? Why didn't Adrien say anything?"
"That's what I plan to find out." Lucy said, striding over towards Adrien. When their eyes locked, Adrien shot her an apologetic look.
"Adrien, what the hell?" She asked. Nino frowned and moved between the couple.
"Hey now, Lu, don't be like that! I know you're going to miss him, we all will! But, this is a great opportunity for Adrien. Don't let the fact that you're going to miss him ruin the last bit of time you guys have together." He advised with a smile, taking his hands and rubbing her arms. Lucy shrugged Nino's hands off of her, sending him a stern look.
"Nino, I know you mean well, but kindly fuck off." She told him, shooting a glance at the other boys as well. "All of you." They all sent Adrien a sympathetic glance before leaving the couple to converse semi-privately.
"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" Lucy asked, her angry expression shifting to a more pained one.
"I didn't know until this morning." Adrien explained. "I tried to tell my father I didn't want to but...you know how he is. He doesn't hear me."
"For how long?"
"I don't know." Adrien answered. "A few months according to my father."
"And with Lila?" Lucy grimaced. Adrien rolled his eyes.
"Don't even get me started on that."
"What about...you know...?" Lucy then made a hiss sound while holding up her hands like claws. Adrien couldn't help but snort before shaking his head.
"I don't know. Honestly, I have hardly had a moment to process this. If I keep the Akuma alerts on my phone, I can try to find a way to get here but..." He shrugged. "Ladybug might have to try and manage without me."
"I'm not happy about this..." Once again something seemed to click in Adrien's head.
"I know," Adrien said. "Neither am I." He said, his brows knitting together in anger. He reached for Lucy's hands, taking them in his own. "Listen, Lucy, I-"
"Come on now everyone!" Mr. D'Argencourt called out. "Time split into two teams! We are going to play a version of dodge ball."
Lucy and Adrien, unfortunately, were separated, much to Lila's satisfaction. Because of it, she felt perfectly comfortable sitting this stupid game out and came up with a fun little phobia she had seen not long ago. Sfairesphobia, a fear of balls spherical objects.
The teacher seemed annoyed with the information but didn't object. Lila had thought herself clever till Marinette ran back into the courtyard. Lila hadn't noticed her earlier but glared as their teacher allowed the baker girl to take her place beside Adrien on the team.
Marinette wanted to ask Adrien more about his upcoming trip, but before she could, the boy was smacked square in the chest with a volleyball, knocking him to the ground.
"Jeez Nino!" Lucy scolded, but the darker boy only laughed.
"Oh, come on, Lucy, He can take it. Gotcha buddy!"
"Adrien, to the dungeon!" Mr. D'Argencourt called.
"To the dungeon?"
"The dungeon is located behind the opposing team." The teacher explaines. "Your teammates will have to tag you to get you out."
"Ah, okay." Adrien quickly jogs to the other side, behind the opposing team.
While Marinette is distracted. Alya uses the moment to hit Marinette with a ball, sending her to the dungeon as well. Lucy raised a brow at Alya who lifted her hands in defense. "She left herself wide open."
"Need I remind you that the object of this match is to avoid the ball?" Their teacher clarified as Marinette made her way across.
"Are you really leaving for several months?" She asked. Adrien sighed.
"That's what my father's decided." Irritation coursed through him as he thought on it. "If only you knew how sick I am of all of it, the photos, the film shoots, all these people fawning over me who don't even know me! These ads that don't make any sense? And now I'm expected to just leave my friends and travel to the end of the world for I don't know how long, with Lila?"
Marinette couldn't help but be surprised. It wasn't that she didn't expect Adrien to be a little unhappy. He had mentioned his desire to shift away from the plans his father had set out from him before. And she also knew that he wasn't fond of Lila. Most of all she expected he would be upset because that meant leaving Lucy. But Adrien had never before vented his feeling about his life so strongly before.
"Why don't you tell them all that you don't wanna do this?" She asked, referring to their friends.
"Lucy knows. But as for everyone else...No one would understand my complaining. They all think it's amazing what's happening to me."
"I understand you." She tells him gently.
Adrien offers her a weak smile. "Well, you're one of the very few."
Adrien squeezes Marinette's hand. A sign of affection she returned. It was funny. Had you asked her a few months ago, she would have been jumping for joy at the idea of Adrien holding her hand. But now, although she was happy Adrien sought comfort from her, Marinette knew and fully reciprocated the friendly gesture behind it. Adrien saw her as one of his closest friends, and when it came down to it, he was one of her closest friends too. She wished there was something she could do to help him.
"You've gotta talk to your father, Adrien." She insisted, letting go of his hand.
"I've tried but I can't. I don't know why, but he never really hears me. He's my father, though, I love him! I know he loves me! It's all so... frustrating! Has there ever been something you wanted to tell someone but you just couldn't do it, as if some kind of invisible force was holding you back?"
Marinette smiled sadly at him. "Once or twice."
"Sir!" Lila questioned, popping up between Marinette and Adrien, taking the blonde boy by the arm. "Since class is almost over, do you think we could finish early so Adrien and I can have time to say goodbye to all of our friends?"
The classmates cheered, rushing over.
"You better send me some local music from your trip!" Nino said.
"The photos of all the beaches where you swim!" Kim added.
Rose smiled. "And of the pretty sunsets!"
Much like everyone else, Mr. D'Argencourt was very aware of Adrien's stick limitations outside of his home. He pulled Adrien in for a hug, lifting the boy from the ground.
"You so richly deserve to finally see the beauty of this world!"
"You're right," Adrien smiled. "I am lucky, and I'm gonna miss you all so much." His eyes searched for Lucy, who stood with her arms crossed and a sad look on her face. Marinette shuffled beside her, wrapping her arms around Lucy's arms and resting her head against her shoulder. Lucy smiled a small smile, placing her cheek against the top of Marinette's head.
OoOooOoOoO
When class was over, before everyone went off to lunch, they gathered in the front of the school to see Lila and Adrien off. The pair would go their separate ways to finish packing and meet again at the train station later on.
"We're not leaving alone, friends, we're bringing every single one of you with us in our hearts." Lila told them, an echo of awes coming from the majority of their classmates.
Lucy pushed her way forward, charging towards Adrien with a desperate look on her face. One he was not quite used to seeing on her. Lila narrowed her eyes at the sight, moving her gaze to Chloe who nodded. The two cripple hearted girls had come to an understanding of sorts, and although Chloe still had her reservations about the Italian girl who tried to make a fool of her, she had come to one realization: If you can't beat em' join em'.
Thus Chloe forced her way forward in an attempt to intercept Lucy before she could make it to Adrien. At seeing this, Marinette's frog mark pulsed and before she could second guess herself, she too was rushing forward and jumping on Chloe's back.
"Not today, Satan!" Marinette shouted, gripping Chloe's head with her arms, her legs wrapped tightly around the other girl's waist.
The others watched with wide-eyes, Adrien included. But his attention was quickly distracted by Lucy, as she took hold of his face and pressed her lips against his. Her kiss was hungry, as if long deprived. As if they didn't already spend the night before doing just exactly this, making up for the lost time they were apart while both being busy. Good heavens, he could do this all day. Then he caught himself. No, he couldn't. Not without wanting more. Which is why they need to stop.
Instead, he entwines his hands in her hair, and she teases his lips with her tongue, trying to get him to fully open his mouth to her. He gladly complies. One of her hands moves to his waist, her fingers sneak their way under his shirt, grazing his bare hip, sending a trail of fire to his chest.
"Ahem." His bodyguard cleared his throat from behind them. The pair pulled apart, attempting to catch their breath in the process. Adrien rested his forehead against Lucy's. He knew the time had come. He had to let her go. Even if it wasn't forever, any time away from her felt like time wasted. He thought he was stronger than a word, but he had just discovered that having to say goodbye to Lucy was by far the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.
"Good-" She covered his mouth with her palm before he could even let the words escape. Pulling away slightly. Lucy gave him a weak smile.
"See you late, Alligator."
Her hand slipped from his mouth, and Adrien tried his best to offer her a smile back.
"After a while, Crocodile."
And just like that, Adrien and Lila got into their separate cars and drove away.
OoOoOoOo
At lunch, Lucy pushed around her food, not having the normal appetite she possessed. Nino, and Alya, joined her at the table shortly after with their own meals along with Kim and Rose. Marinette eventually slammed her tray on the table, startling the group.
"We have three hours left to stop Adrien from getting on that train!" Marinette says, placing random food items on the table. "Here's the plan. The potato is Adrien; Alya, you'll be the juice box, Rose the little strawberry, Nino the fork—"
"Hang on!" Nino interrupted. "You wanna stop Adrien from travelling around the world? Adrien who's never allowed outside his house? Adrien who's never seen anything his whole life?"
"It's 'cause Lila's going with him, isn't it?" Alya accused, knowing of Marinette's dislike for the Italian girl.
"You gotta let him go and live his dream!" Rose told her. "If Lucy can do it, you can too Marinette."
Marinette frowned at her friends. "But it's not his dream! Adrien hates the film shoots! The photos, he can't stand it anymore! I'm not trying to save him from Lila, but from his father! He doesn't know how to tell him that he doesn't want to be a model anymore!" "Everybody wants to be a model." Kim argued casually.
Nino folded his arms and gave Marinette a skeptical look. "If he didn't want to model anymore, he would've told me. He's my best bud."
"But he told me himself! Lucy! Come on! Tell them!"
Lucy sighs. "She's not wrong. Adrien has been trying to find a way to get out of modeling for a while now. Honestly, he doesn't know what he wants to do." She explained, earning looks of surprise from her friends while Marinette gave a tight lipped smile and held her palm out towards Lucy as if to say, see?
"He doesn't tell anyone how over it he is because he knows that most people would kill to be given the opportunities he has, and he doesn't want to seem ungrateful."
"Buddy..." Nino spoke sadly, a little broken hearted that his best friend felt the need to hide how he was feeling.
"But-" Lucy said, making Marinette frown. "Adrien's father isn't going to change his mind about this. Not because a bunch of his friends barge in and tell him his son isn't happy. All you're going to get out of him is a "If Adrien had a problem he would have said so." Which isn't to say that Adrien hasn't, but still." Lucy went on.
"Adrien doesn't want to leave and I don't want him to leave either but-"
"So then help me stop it!" Marinette insisted but Lucy only shook her head in frustration.
"How!?" Lucy argued. "Please tell me what your master plan is Marinette!"
"I don' know yet!"
"Well, while you figure it out, I am going to do my best to come to terms with the reality. Adrien is leaving. And as much as that fucking sucks, the silver lining that he doesn't even realize yet is that he will get to do the one thing he has been wanting to do since I have met him and that's get the hell out of Paris." Lucy shot at Marinette who gaped back at her in disbelief.
"So that's it? You're just giving up on him?"
Lucy glared at her friend. "I'm not giving up on anything. He's not leaving forever, Marinette. This isn't an ideal situation. But if you go Rambo on Mr. Agreste, it will only end poorly for you. And if on the off chance you succeed..." Lucy trailed off. "Who knows when he'll have the opportunity to make it out again..."
Alya places a gentle hand on Lucy's shoulder before turning back to Marinette.
"Maybe Lucy is right, Marinette. Maybe the reason Adrien is off to see the world isn't a preferred one. Maybe he is upset that it's all happening on someone else's terms but...If you manage to stop Adrien from getting on that train it might be a very long time before he ever gets on another one."
"But—"
"As your BFF, I refuse to follow along with this plan, for your own good as well as his."
On her neck, Marinette's frog print lit up.
"Fine! I'll save him myself!"
Lucy's neck lit up at her friend's words.
"I get it, Marinette. Why you feel the need to do this for Adrien. It's the same reason I can't."
Marinette didn't say anything, only shaking her head in disappointment before storming off to who knows where. That was the difference between Marinette and Lucy, and how the Akuma's powers affected them.
Marinette was willing to risk the consequences of whatever it took to keep Adrien in Paris.
Lucy was willing to risk the consequences of letting him go.
OoOoOOoO
When Adrien returned to his room to pack, he was met with a rather unpleasant surprise. Felix sat on one of his suitcases, tossing around a basketball.
"Felix?"
"Hi there, my favorite cousin." Felix greeted with a smile.
Adrien narrowed his eyes at his cousin. "How did you get in?"
Felix ruffled his hair to look like Adrien's and mocked his voice. "Oh, Nathalie! There was a problem with the car so I walked home but I forgot my keys!"
"That's not how I talk!"
"You're right," Felix agreed. "you sound even more pathetic." He throws the basketball towards Adrien, who steps aside to dodge it.
Not in the mood for his cousins games, Adrien goes into his bathroom and grabs a stack of clothes to pack away. "Why are you here this time? To mock me or ruin my reputation with my friends? How about to flirt with my girlfriend?"
Felix smiles again. "None of the above. I'm here to save you."
"I'm doing just fine, thank you."
Felix scoffs. "Oh yeah, I can see how happy you look." He reveals his phone which shows Nadja's broadcast that morning, and zooms into Adrien, who looks anything but happy. "You don't expect me to believe that leaving Paris and your super cool, super nice friends and ridiculously hot girlfriend behind is really what you want, do you?"
"I don't know what I want." Adrien admits, throwing his clothes down. Of course, he didn't want to leave. Not like this. Not for this. But at the same time, all he had been doing for what felt like forever was complain about how trapped he felt. He tried to remind himself that it wasn't forever, just like his father had said. Tried telling himself that he should take this opportunity for what it was, an escape.
Sure, he would still be modeling, still have a schedule to keep up with, but he would in between that get to do and see all these amazing things. He wanted to stay and he wanted to go, and it frustrated him to no end that the reality is he couldn't have both.
"I know, and that's why the second I saw your face on TV this morning, I left London to get you out of this mess." Felix said, getting up from his seat and walking over to his cousin. "Freedom is something you make Adrien. For starters, you gotta stop doing everything your father tells you to."
Felix had been a selfish being all his life. As an only son and only child, he was spoilt by his parents, especially his mother. While his father, particularly, allowed, encouraged, almost taught him to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond his own family circle; to think very little of the rest of the world.
It had been written in Felix's code. However, it was this upbringing that made Felix both envy and pity his cousin. Felix understood just how hard it was to be under someone else's control. His father and his uncle were very similar in that sense. But what Adrien would never understand, was that Felix's father was much worse.
"I can't disobey him." Adrien admitted. Though he hated confirming any sense of weakness to his cousin who already seemed to consider him pathetic.
"You can't, but I can." Felix told him. "Remember how we'd pretended to be each other when we were little? We're gonna do the same thing. Because unlike you, I can say no to your father." He smirked.
"I know my father. He'll never give in."
"Or maybe your fear keeps you from seeing a hidden side of him. If I succeed, you get to go back to your school and your super nice friends tomorrow. So? Do you want to take that risk and try it? The worst that can happen is he doesn't comply and you'll have to leave anyway."
Adrien's frog print lights up on his neck. "You're right! But what am I gonna do in the meantime?"
"For once, whatever you want." Felix instructs, handing over his clothes to Adrien. "You only have one life, Adrien."
OoOoOoO
Getting Adrien out was simple enough. Felix distracted the bodyguard while pretending to be Adrien, while Adrien, now disguised as Felix, slipped out the front door.
Felix wondered back upstairs and noticed Nathalie struggling to close her suitcase, her tablet resting on top of the clothes inside. It was now that Felix decided it was time to act on his alternative motives for helping his cousin.
"Hang on, Nathalie! Let me help you." He called out, making his way over to assist.
"Thank you, Adrien." As she turns away to pack another bag, Felix takes Nathalie's tablet from the suitcase before closing it, stuffing it into his own carry-on bag.
"All done!"
"Thank you!"
As he goes to leave, Felix comes face to face with his uncle. Gabriel stares down at him in an unreadable manner, letting him know that he had one last thing to discuss with Nathalie before they left, instructing him to wait outside.
Felix complies and heads down the steps and towards the entrance door, only for him to go back and straight to Gabriel's office.
"I know you've got a secret, uncle." Felix takes out his heat-seeking spy monocle and puts it on. "Nothing will stop me from finding out what you're hiding this time!"
Felix scans closer to Emelie's painting and sees series of finger prints on the edge. Taking hold of it, he pulls a mechanism to see secret safe. The prints on the button reveal the code allowing him to open it. He then proceeds to open the door fully. Inside are what appear to be the butterfly and peacock miraculous. temporarily disable the camera and opens the door
"I knew it... Shadow Moth!"
Felix puts the two items in the bag. He then reactivates the camera and locks the secret compartment again. He's intrigued when he finds yet another hidden switch on the same painting and proceeds to touch the painting hoping to find yet another secret. As his fingers brush the correct areas, the floor below him opens up, and Felix is taken down by an elevator.
Soon, Felix finds himself in...well, he's not entirely sure. It was a secret underground garden of sorts. The question was why? He exited the elevator and proceeded across the long metal bridge to the green covered platform on the other side. There, in the center, Felix found a strange pod like structure. Using his monocle, he spots finger prints at the base and touches it, opening the metal around it to reveal a preserved woman inside.
Felix's eyes widen, it wasn't just any woman. It was his aunt. He didn't understand. His aunt had gone missing a short while before the death of his father. He had watched his mother grieve over the loss of both her sister and her husband in the span of a few short months. Yet, this whole time, she had been here?
Running back to the elevator, Felix slammed his hand against the up button, desperate to get out of the tomb his uncle had made for his aunt. What had really happened to her? And why was she down there? Felix was uncertain about a lot of things when it came to his uncle, but he had never doubted his love for his wife. Even with all he had seen, he still didn't.
But he didn't know what to make of any of it. And before he could think on it any further, as he stepped away from the elevator to Hell, Felix heard his uncle looking for Adrien. Looking for him. Thinking fast, Felix picked up his bag and tossed the monocle to the side as Gabriel opened the door.
"Adrien! What are you doing in here?"
"I..." Felix took a breath. He regained his composure and remembered what he had promised he would do for his cousin. "I wanted to tell you father that...I don't wanna go on this trip!"
"Adrien! I'm your father, and I'm telling you to—" Gabriel couldn't help it. Emelie. Everything about the determined and furious look in his son's eyes reminded him of Emelie.
For the first time, in a long time, it was like she was there, staring back at him. Pushing him the way he had missed. As he looked into his son's eyes, his wife's eyes, Gabriel could hardly...he rubbed his fingers where his family ring should have been. A tick, a reminder as to what this was all for. Only he wasn't wearing it. Nathalie was.
He had given it to her to keep safe. Trusting Nathalie with the only thing besides his son that he had left to remember his wife with. Sometimes the objects we hold dear give away who we are even more than the people we love.
Nathalie knew exactly what was happening, and thus, took the lead. "Adrien, it's time to go."
Well, he supposed no one can say he didn't try. "Uh— Yes, Nathalie." He had what he wanted. He'd figure out how to get away from Nathalie later. If he could succeed with what he wanted, none of this would matter in the long run. He would help his cousin as he promised.
OoOoOoo
Adrien, dressed in his cousin's clothes, sat on a park bench a few blocks from his house, staring down at his phone. Plagg floated out of his pocket, trying to convince the boy to do something, anything, other than sit there.
"C'mon, don't just sit here! For once, you can do whatever you want! Like, buying all the cheese you want, and then eating it all! Camembert, Roquefort, Reblochon!"
"No!" Adrien declined. "Felix is gonna call me any second." A moment later his phone did ring, however, it wasn't Felix who was calling.
"Kagami?" Answering the phone, Kagami didn't bother with pleasantries.
"Adrien!" She spoke, her tone clearly angry. "I saw you on TV this morning, and I know that you don't want to leave. Once again, you let your father decide for you! How long are you going to remain his puppet, Adrien?"
Adrien was caught off guard by Kagami's outburst. "But... my cousin is gonna talk to him, and-"
Kagami lets out a scoff. "This just keeps getting better. You're letting your COUSIN do things for you now? Who's pulling the strings of your life? Your cousin? Your father? Me, when we were together? It's never YOU! You're only good at doing what people tell you to do! Dare to cut your strings, Adrien!" She pauses and lets out a small sigh. "Forgive me if I hurt you."
On the other end of the phone, Kagami puts her phone in her lap. Lucy, who was sitting beside her, titled her head and looked at her with sad eyes. School had ended not long before, and Lucy had found Kagami outside in her car waiting for her.
She had inquired what was happening with Adrien when Lucy explained the situation. Evidently, the Japanese girl had not been pleased.
"What?" Kagami asked, looking to her lap. "You both know I'm right."
"I wasn't going to say anything to judge."
"You don't have to. I can see it in your eyes."
"I'm sorry." Lucy apologized, looking down. Kagami shook her head.
"You aren't going to even try and get him to stay?"
"It wouldn't make a difference, Kags. He knows I'm not happy that he is leaving, he's clearly not happy about it either. Me throwing myself at him and begging him to stay is pointless. His father is the problem and I assure you that man couldn't give less of a crap about what I have to say about the matter."
"Maybe if you did in fact throw yourself at him and beg him to stay, beg him to fight for his own stupid little life, then maybe he would muster up some sliver of courage and put his foot down with his father." Kagami argued.
"Okay," Lucy scoffed. "Lets reverse the rolls shall we? What if it was you? What if your mother called you right now and said pack a bag hunny, you're taking a trip and you'll be back when I say. What would you do then? Put your foot down?"
Kagami's jaw tightened at Lucy's words, and for a moment, Lucy regretted even saying anything about it until Kagami replied.
"You're right." She confirmed somewhat strained. "If it was me, I'm not sure what I would do either. I've stood up to my mother before in small ways. But most of the time I just lie to her in order to do the things I want that I know she won't approve of."
Lucy opened her hand to verbally apologize when Kagami held up her hand to stop her.
"I would hope that I would find it in me to tell my mother what it was I wanted the same way I hope Adrien can too."
"Well, if its any consolation, Marinette plans to-"
"Marinette is not his girlfriend." Kagami countered. "And Adrien is not me. If the rolls were reversed and I couldn't convince my mother otherwise, I would have to accept it too, but the difference between me and Adrien is I can handle the solitude that would come with that. Adrien cannot."
"He won't be alone." Lucy tried to reason.
"Nathalie doesn't count." Kagami barked. "And neither does Lila." She spat Lila's name like it tasted bad in her mouth. "He will go off and see all these wonderful things, and he will be all alone while he does it. And he'll hate it, Lucy. He'll hate it and you know that."
Lucy swallowed hard as she picked at the skin around her nails.
"So what would you have me do, huh? Find Marinette and-"
"Marinette is a solid example of why you shouldn't act on everything your heart says." Kagami stated. She then placed a hand over Lucy's, making the blonde girl look up and meet her stare.
"But that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to it." She finished. "Sometimes your heart is right."
OoOoOoOoO
"Wow, that girl is more character than any cheese I've ever tasted!" Plagg commented once Adrien was off the phone. On the back of his neck, the risk mark glows and another sense of determination hits Adrien.
"Kagami is right! I should have stood up to my father from the very beginning! Felix shouldn't be doing this for me, I need to take my own rightful place, and tell my father what I have to tell him myself!" Adrien goes back onto his phone and finds his cousin's contact, shooting him a quick text message before running off in the direction of his house.
OoOoOo
"Safe travels, Adrien."
"Thank you, father." Felix says, making his way to the car. The sound of his phone going off attracts his attention as he pulls it out of his bag.
Felix, stop everything. I'm on my way.
Felix deleted the text from Adrien and proceeded to get in the car. He couldn't be there when Adrien arrived. Not when he had his uncle's miraculous in his possession. He would go on as planned and get on the train. After they left, he would attempt to use the peacock miraculous and none of it would matter anymore.
Adrien was just around the corner when his bodyguard, Nathalie, and his cousin passed him by in the car. None of them taking note to him as they did. Adrien clenched his fists.
"I should have known...he tricked me again! It's time to end this game." Adrien ran to his home, prepared to confront his father about everything.
However, once he got there, his father was nowhere to be seen. In his office, Adrien noticed something reflect a flash of sunlight on the ground. Walking over, he picked up what looked like a monocle of sorts from the floor. Before he had time to investigate further, the ground thumped around him. Adrien turned and out the window he saw a very large figure that had black-armored body with spikes on its torso, arms, and angles. Its face blank and chrome-like.
"Talking to my father is going to have to wait." Adrien quickly transformed and ran off to take down whatever it was that was threatening the city.
OoOoOoOOo
"Adrien!" Ladybug called out as she landed in the train station. Adrien turned with a look if surprise on his face upon seeing her. "Adrien, you can't leave!" She said, confusing the bystanders around her.
"Ah! What I mean is uh... Paris needs you! Cause you know, Paris without Adrien Agreste is kinda like, Paris without the Eiffel Tower! I saw that in the news, all Parisians said that you're leaving. They're all at risk of being akumatised! Talk to your father and tell him that you can't go away for such a long time!"
"I already talked to him, Ladybug, but he wouldn't listen." Adrien spoke sadly.
"You HAVE to insist! Stand up to him, you have to-"
"Adrien!"
Ladybug was cut off as Lucy suddenly rushed past her and wrapped her arms around Adrien, hugging him tightly. Adrien stumbled back slightly at the force before slowly wrapping his arms around Lucy, returning her hug. Behind him, Nathalie let out a sigh, while looking at her watch.
"Please don't go." Lucy spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. Felix couldn't help but hold her tighter.
"You know I have to."
"Maybe." She replied. "But it didn't seem like too much of a risk to ask anyway." Lucy slowly released him as the Announcer came onto the speaker. The Startrain number 5712 to London is about to depart. Please mind the closing doors. Nathalie patted Adrien's shoulder.
"We have to go, Adrien."
Felix couldn't help it as he brought one of his hands to the nape of Lucy's neck, his thumb lifting her head from her chin to look into his eyes.
"I will come back to you." He told her firmly. "I promise."
Lucy closed the space between them, pressing her lips to his for what she suspected might be the last time for a long time. If Felix was a better man, he might have pulled away or maybe even not kissed back.
But he wasn't a better man. And not kissing Lucy back would only raise suspicion. Adrien would never not kiss his lovely girlfriend back. So, Felix wouldn't either. It was such a real kiss. More real than any other he had even experienced. It might very well be the last real kiss of Felix's life. He would forever cling to that kiss. It was goodbye and I'm sorry.
And then he was gone. The doors closed, and the train went on it's way.
Ladybug looked at Lucy with a frown. The blonde girl shifted her gaze away from the departed train and over to the bug hero, a tear sliding down her cheek.
"What are you doing here, Ladybug?"
Ladybug momentarily froze. After all, she hadn't expected anyone she knew to be here. "Uh...I... A lot of people are upset that Adrien Agreste is leaving. People may get akumatized. I was hoping that perhaps he could talk his father into making his trip shorter."
"Oh." Was all Lucy said, either not caring to ask for further explanation, or too emotionally exhausted to. Ladybug wasn't sure which, but was glad to not be further questioned.
"I'm sorry." Ladybug said, as if Lucy had expected her to be able to change anything. When Lucy gave no response, Ladybug took it as her sign to leave and tossed her yo-yo, leaping up to the roof of the station.
"It's all over, Tikki."
"He'll be back, Marinette. He's just going on a voyage!" Tikki reminded her.
It wasn't enough though. It wasn't about how long he would be away. Adrien shouldn't be leaving at all. If he had been excited about the trip, she would have still been sad to see him go, but she could accept it. That wasn't what this was though. Adrien didn't want to leave. Not for a few months, or a few weeks, or even a few days. He wanted to be here, with his friends, with Lucy.
"Of course, Voyage! Ladybug may have failed, but Pegabug will bring him back! And together we'll go talk to his father!" Marinette thought allowed.
"You wanna use the Miraculous of the horse and teleport yourself, just for that?" Tikki asked, not believing her ears. She couldn't understand why Marinette was being so reckless.
"I'm ready to risk everything to help Adrien! Tikki, spots on!"
Ladybug opens her yo-yo to take the Horse Miraculous, a pair of glasses and wears it upon obtaining it. Kaalki, the horse Kwami appears and looks at the guardian confused.
"Tikki, Kaalki, uni-" The earth began to shake as Ladybug spots a very large spiked creature trudging its way across Paris. She sighs, putting the glasses away.
"Okay, I guess I'll have to deal with this small problem first, but I'll be back to save you soon, Adrien!"
OoOoOoOo
On the train, Felix rests his shin in his palm, looking out the window with a rather annoyed expression. Nathalie, knowing Adrien isn't happy, places a hand on his free on. Felix looks at Nathalie who smiles at him softly.
"Try to make the most out of this trip, Adrien. You're about to discover the world, and then you'll return to all of your friends and your father with fantastic memories to share with them."
Felix smiled. "You're right, Nathalie. You have to seize the opportunity when it presents itself to you."
"And we'll end up being the best friends in the world, since we're going to see it all together." Lila added, smiling as she rested her chin over her folded fingers.
"I hope so with all my heart. Please excuse me for a moment."
Nathalie steps out for a while as Felix walks away from them with his bag at his side. Lila watches him go curiously. Something was off about the younger Agreste, Lila just wasn't quite sure yet what it was.
In the lavatory, Felix opens his bag and equips the Peacock Miraculous, placing it on his shirt. He then finds the Grimoire's written instructions as pictured in Nathalie's tablet.
"Ah, here we go. "Attach the brooch." Okay, that's done. "The kwami comes out of the jewel." Felix narrows his eyes, growing suspicious upon seeing no Kwami in sight. "Say the magic words, 'Duusu, spread my feathers'." Duusu, spread my feathers!"
With no transformation occurring, Felix realizes that there is something suspicious about the jewel. He clenches the Peacock Miraculous in his fist, and it breaks into minuscule pieces and slams his fist on the sink counter. "It's a fake!"
That meant the butterfly broach he had was as well, not that he truly had any need for that one. He only took it so his uncle didn't have it. However, it appeared that good uncle Gabe had been expecting him.
And now this whole thing was a complete waste of time.
OoOoOo
Ladybug and Chat Noir had met up only a few moments ago, both agreeing to try and handle their newest problem as quickly as possible. However, that was easier said than done. For reasons neither of them seemed to understand, civilians were practically throwing themselves into the danger. The villain that they now knew as Strikeback took hold of a nearby Ferris wheel and tossed it away. As it rolled down the streets of Paris, civilians stopped, taking out their phones in an attempt to catch Ladybug and Chat Noir in action. Ladybug quickly threw out her yo-yo, making a tight web to stop the Ferris wheel before it had the chance to roll over the idiots in the street.
"What's wrong with you? It's dangerous to stay here, shoo!" She commanded. The Parisians, although evidently furious, leave, following Ladybug's orders.
"Hey, little buddy old pal! Over here!" Chat said, taunting the villain from building to building. Strikeback punches towards Chat Noir a few times, destroying the surroundings. A few debris fall near Risk, who Ladybug catches and reels back along with his toy wheel.
"Don't stay here, otherwise you risk getting hit by the bad guy!" Risk smiles, happy that Ladybug was yet to realize he was the problem.
I'm Froggy, here I come. I'm not afraid of anyone.
Chat Noir approaches Strikeback, and upon hearing Risk's song, a risk takes effect. His eyes narrow at the villain.
"Come on, no time to waste! Cata—"
But before he could call on his power, Ladybug took ahold of his arm. "What are you doing?" She throws her yo-yo to catch Strikeback
"I'll use my power, you get the Akuma, and bam. We can both go back to what we were doing." Chat explains as he extends his staff, assisting Ladybug in trapping the villain.
"Who knows what your power would do directly on an akumatized person? And if it's a sentimonster, a cataclysm would send it out of control!" Ladybug reels in Strikeback and immediately lets go, making Strikeback trip from the recoil. Strikeback hits a few buildings from the fall.
"Well, brilliant." Chat Noir sasses. "That's control? What's the difference with what I was saying?"
"No way, it's too risky."
"That's the problem with you. You never want to take any risks." Chat argues.
Ladybug glares at her partner. "Of course, I do! I take risks all the time!"
"Oh yeah? Would you risk knowing who I really am behind my mask?" He asks, trying to prove a point.
"You know very well that—"
As soon as they notice a shadow, they look above to see Strikeback punching towards them. Chat Noir grabs Ladybug and jumps off, both landing on the pavements.
"Our identities have to remain secret, I know." Chat says from the ground. Sitting up, Chat still frowns. "So why do you know the identities of the other holders? So why not me?"
"I already told you," Ladybug groaned. "If I knew who you were, ShadowMoth would only need to akumatize me to get to you. I'm doing this to protect you."
Ladybug notices a giant foot about to stomp on them and grabs Chat Noir to swing out to another rooftop. Cat Noir gets up and walks away from Ladybug.
"I don't need you to protect me. We'll never get akumatized!"
But the image of Chat Noir's akumatized as Chat Blanc flashes in Ladybug's mind.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Maybe because you never talk to me about anything! Not till it gets forced out of you from guilt!"
From in Ladybugs ear Rena Furtive calls out. "Ladybug, watch out!"
Ladybug looks up to find Strikeback about to crush them. They both jump out, and Ladybug takes a risk.
"Nice one, Rena."
"Huh? Rena Rouge? Where is she?" Chat asks, looking around.
Ladybug freezes as she relaizes her mistake. "Uh... Rena who?"
Chat Noir gives her a look and Ladybug sighs. "Fine, she's hidden. It's best you don't know where, it's—"
"Risky, yeah, right. I think I get it." Chat Noir says in a bitter tone.
I'm Froggy, here I come. I'm not afraid of anyone.
Ladybug groans in annoyance as she sees the frog boy from earlier. "Oh, come on, not this again!" Quickly she swings away to chase after Risk.
From the streets below, Chat Noir notices the Mayor with a camcorder in his hands. "Finally! Something more exciting than power or money: the magic of cinema!"
Andre is about to get stomped by Strikeback but Chat Noir swiftly saves him a second before Strikeback lands their foot. They take refuge behind a car.
"This is no time for a film shoot, Mr. Mayor! It's pretty risky, okay?" Andre shrugs at Chat Noir's remark. Meanwhile, the reporters' helicopter takes a risk as they fly near the radius of Strikeback.
"Head straight for him! If he attacks us, that'll make for some great footage!"
Strikeback hits the helicopter, sending it flying uncontrollably and about to crash on the streets. Luckily, the helicopter gets saved by Chat Noir's staff. Ladybug and Chat Noir stand beside Risk without any prior knowledge that they are already standing beside the akumatized victim.
"Do you think this villain is the reason why people are acting unusual?" Chat asks.
"Maybe. All I know is that we won't be able to defeat him if we keep having to save people all the time. I'll go for reinforcements. Stall him!"
Chat Noir nods and heads off to distract Stikeback while Ladybug turns to the frog themed child.
"Fighting supervillains isn't fun and games. Go find your parents." She insturcts but as she leaps away ShadowMoth's halo appears over the boys face.
"Keep it up! Taking risks always pays off in the end!"
I'm Froggy, here I come. I'm not afraid of anyone.
Ladybug distributes the respective Miraculous for Nino, Kagami, Juleka, Zoe, Mylene, Marc and Ivan, who transform to their superhero identities. Rena Furtive stays hidden at the rooftop of the Montparnasse Tower while she uses her flute as a telescope to check if everyone is in position. She spots Risk cycling freely on the streets.
"Ladybug, that froggy kid still isn't getting it." Rena informs her.
"Not again! Quick, come with me!" The heroes begin their run. "Vesperia, immobilize the villain!" Ladybug instructs.
Vesperia leaps on top of Strikeback and activates her power. Striking it in the back, she causes the monster to stop moving. Ladybug swings to grab Risk to safety. Unfortunately, Strikeback begins to move again, seemingly unaffected by her sting.
"Huh... it's not working!"
Purple Tigress leaps in the air and activates her power as well and successfully hits Strikeback but the hit only results in it absorbing her powers, too. Strikeback throws her off the streets and Vesperia comes to her rescue.
"Impossible!" Purple Tigress says from the ground. Strikeback is about to hit them with another blow just before Polymouse activates her power in front of Vesperia and Purple Tigress.
"Multitude!" She creates three copies of herself, having the two copies save Vesperia and Purple Tigress from Strikeback. The sentimonster throws its fist toward Polymouse as she multiplies into smaller versions of herself.
"StrikeBack!" It yells and a moment later there are three copies of it, two of which carry Vesperia and Purple Tigress's powers.
"He can copy our powers!" Rena tells Ladybug.
"Don't attack them! Don't hit him anymore!" Ladybug instructs the others. "Or else it'll make him even more powerful! Retreat to city hall now!" She swings away with Risk and meets the others on top of the city hall. Strikeback grabs the Roue de Paris and launches it towards the direction where the heroes are.
Ryuko quickly summons her power "Wind dragon!" and successfully prevents the Roue de Paris from hitting them, but it instead flies to the direction where Rena Furtive is. Carapace panics and calls out to her.
"Rena!" He takes out his shield. "Shell-ter!"
Carapace's superpower successfully prevents the Ferris wheel from hitting Rena Furtive on top of the Tour Montparnasse. But the information of Rena Furtive's active status shocks the heroes, as well as ShadowMoth.
"Rena?!" They all ask.
"She's still active?" ShadowMoth's eyes go wide.
Back on top of the city hall, Ladybug glares at Carapace, who looks down ashamed, and then at Rena Furtive.
"I-I'm sorry. I couldn't keep it from him." Rena apologizes.
"We'll talk about it later." Ladybug dismisses. They had bigger things to worry about. She turns to the little frog boy, kneeling down to his level. "Okay, you, that's enough now. You're putting us all in danger."
I'm Froggy, here I come. I'm not afraid of anyone.
Rena spots the frog mark on Ladybug's nape, as well as on the other heroes' napes as realization dawns over her. Risk dances in front of them as he continues singing.
Come shine or come rain, I ain't scared 'cause you're all lame!
Ladybug growls in annoyance. And Chat Noir puts a hand on the boys shoulder.
"I'm good with kids. I got this." He picks the boy up and leaps away as Rena speaks to Ladybug.
"Ladybug, everyone's got a mark in a shape of a frog's foot on their necks."
"What?"
"You, Chat Noir, the others, all the people of Paris... we've all got that mark!"
Chat Noir is seen flying and gets knocked to the rooftop's edge, which makes Ladybug see the frog mark on his nape. Her eyes widen as she turns to see Risk standing on another rooftop.
When Froggy's near, there's nothing to fear. Risk is my name and you're all so—
"Blind!" Chat states, glaring down at the boy. "We were blind. We're not just dealing with a sentimonster. There's also an akumatized villain!"
"That's why we're being so careless. It's him that's making us taking all these risks!" Ladybug realizes. Risk sticks his tongue out and teases the heroes. From on top of the Eiffle Tower, ShadowMoth laughs.
"Now that Ladybug knows they've all been hit, she will doubt everything! And above all, herself!"
"Chat Noir, you need to de-transform!" Ladybug instructs.
"What?"
"Until I've de-akumatized him, I can't leave you with your cataclysm. It's too risky!" Ladybug explains. "Minotaurox, Purple Tigress, Polymouse, with me! We'll never be able to beat the sentimonsters until we defeat Risk! Everyone else, try to limit the damages."
I'm Froggy, here I come. I'm not afraid of anyone.
The heroes agree with the plan as they all leap away to the rooftops. Ladybug, Purple Tigress, Minotaurox and Polymouse chase after Risk as the other heroes prevent Risk from creating more casualties in the city. Chat Noir is left on the rooftops per Ladybug's order, leaving him shocked and frustrated.
"But I can help..." The frog mark takes effect as he takes the risk of fighting the sentimonsters, not following Ladybug's orders. The four heroes taking care of Risk continue to chase after him. Purple Tigress manages to grapple Risk as Ladybug takes his nun chucks and breaks it, with no Akuma freed from it. Ladybug proceeds to break everything that Risk owns only to find no Akuma flying away.
"Nothing! No Akuma!"
"I tricked you! You'll never find my Akuma 'cause my object's hidden from you!" Risk taunts
Ladybug's eyes widen as she turns to see the three sentimonsters causing havoc around the city. It was clear that their options were limited. They had to find the Akumatized object.
"Okay, let's split up! Keep looking!"
Chat Noir groans as he slammed into a wall, squished between it and a bus. Taking the risk, he activates his power in attempt to get unpinned. Unfortunately, Strikeback touches his ring and mimics his power.
"No!"
"Strikeback!" The sentimonster activates the cataclysm and destroys the Tour Montparnasse. On the rooftops. Ladybug is alerted from the sentimonster's damage.
"Chat Noir! No, I told him!" She groans, holding her head in her hands. "This is a nightmare...Unless...Lucky Charm!"
"A ticket for the Jardin des Plantes? It's from yesterday..." A relaization hits her. "I know! I've gotta put an end to this madness ASAP!" She quickly heads off to the train station her mind racing. What she had in mind was in fact risky, but she wasn't seeing any other way around it.
"Lucy!" She called out, seeing the blonde girl sitting on the steps of the train station, seemingly unfazed by the chaos around her. Lucy looked up at Ladybug as she landed in front of her.
Normally Ladybug would be annoyed at Lucy's carelessness. She should be hiding somewhere safe, not sitting out in the open while buildings collapsed around her. However, Ladybug knew it was Risks fault now, and if she was honest, she was glad Lucy hadn't run off. Ladybug needed her help and didn't have time to play hide and seek to get it.
"Hey, Ladybug." Lucy greeted casually. "Shouldn't you be off taking care of...all that?" She asked rolling her wrist towards the sentimonsters.
"I'm trying, but I need your help."
Lucy's eyes widened. This was it. Things had gone so badly that Ladybug had come to her to alter time in order to fix it.
Lucy's frog print lit up as she stood griping her watch necklace and nodded at Ladybug. The bug hero took hold of Lucy and swung them into a nearby alleyway.
"Fluff." Lucy called out. The rabbit Kwami flew out of her miraculous and tilted her head, looking between Ladybug and her owner.
"Is it time already?" She asked. Fluff spent most of her time in the miraculous as it was. Without being used, her need for substance was minimal.
Occasionally, after Lucy had visited her father, Fluff would appear, and Lucy would attempt to make sense of things by asking the Kwami questions about things her father had said. Unfortunately, Fluff was a bit of an eccentric Kwami who often seemed to struggle when and where she was. Talking to her was a lot of the time like talking to someone who only spoke in riddles, making getting any straight-forward answers out of her nearly impossible.
Because of that, Lucy didn't bother much anymore. It wasn't worth the headache of trying to figure out what she meant in the end.
"Yes, Fluff. It's time. Clockwise!" A brief flash of light surrounded Lucy, much like it did all the other holders, and in a flash, she was Bunnix.
"Okay!" Ladybug spoke. "We need someone who hasn't been hit."
"Hit by what?" Bunnix asks. Ladybug explains the situation with Risk and why everyone has been acting so carelessly. Bunnix rubs the back of her neck uncomfortably as Ladybug thinks.
"Adrien!" She says in an epiphany. "He didn't have the mark!"
Bunnix raises a brow. "If everyone in Paris got hit, why didn't Adrien?" Ladybug shrugs.
"I'm not sure, and I'll have to double check him just in case but we don't have any time to lose." Ladybug pulls out her yo-yo and reaches inside, aquiring the miraculous of the horse and placing them on her face.
"I'll open a portal to get us on the train and find Adrien. There I will lend him the miraculous of the dog. Its power is to find lost things. You will then use your burrow to find Risk right after he got akumatized as that we can find his akumatized object."
"Let's do it." Lucy agreed as Ladybug unified Tikki and Kaalki. "Voyage!" Pegabug shouts, opening a portal. She and Bunnix run through it and end up on the startrain. Luckily for them, just as the entered the train, Adrien was exiting the restroom. His eyes widened at the sight of them.
"Who are you?"
"Oh! It's me, Ladybug. Or rather, Ladybug with a few extra powers. Pegabug! Wait!" Pegabug checks Adrien's neck immediately and sighs in relief.
"You're alright. Adrien, I need your help." Pulling out her yo-yo once more, she retrieves the Dog Miraculous, a small choker. "I have to find an object."
"Y... Your yo-yo gives you direct access to all the Miraculous?" Adrien asks in amazement.
"The ones in my Miracle Box, yes. It's a magic shortcut."
"Wow!"
"Adrien Agreste, here is the Miraculous of the dog which will grant you the power to locate and fetch whatever your ball has touched. You will use it for the greater good, then you will return it to me... Can I trust you?"
Felix weighs his options. Every plan he made today was being rerouted. Perhaps this one could get things back on track.
"If you're doubting yourself, then trying is the only way you can gain the confidence you need." Pegabug insists, holding out the miraculous to him.
Fuck it. Felix thought. Carpe diem, right? He took the miraculous and placed it around his neck. A small ball of light fluttered around him until a small orange and white dog appeared beside him
"Hi, I'm Barkk! The kwami of adoration! I'm so happy to have a new holder, you and I can play ball! All you have to say is, "Barkk, on the hunt"!"
"With pleasure. Barkk, on the hunt!"
His outfit changed to that of an orange suit with white on his torso and arms and dark-grey parts on his shoulders and legs. His weapon, a ball, hangs on his chest. His boots are white with dark grey outsoles. He also wears orange and white dog ears and a mask consisting of the same colors to cover his face.
"Thanks to your superpower, you can locate any object that you've touched before." Pegabug explained.
"Oh! Uh..." Adrien reaches out and touches her yo-yo. "Like this?"
"No! With the ball. A light touch will be enough." Pegabug laughs.
"Okay, I get it. What about the object I'm supposed to find? Where is it?"
"In the past." Pegabug tells him. "That's where Bunnix comes in!"
Felix looks over the blue bunny behind Ladybug. There was something familiar about her, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. The more he tried to think on it, the more it seemed to make head hurt.
"Burrow!" Bunnix called out, opening a portal of her own. The three step through and end up inside the burrow. Felix looks around with wide eyes.
"We have to find the little boy before he was akumatized." Pagabug told Bunnix who nodded, scrolling through the timeline.
"You can travel through time?"
Bunnix paused, almost calling him out on the question. After all, he already knew about all this. But then she remembered that as far as Ladybug was concerned, Adrien didn't know anything about Bunnix, only Chat did. He had to pretend to be surprised.
Yes," She answered. "But it's risky business messing with a time line. You have to be careful, or a butterfly effect of changes could occur.
"Froggy! Come back!" A mans voice called out through one of the many portal screens.
"Found it!" Bunnix announced. "You two go ahead, I'll wait here. The less people to be seen the better." Pegabug nods and the two of them walked through the portal, crouching behind a nearby park bench.
"As soon as we know which object is going to be akumatized, you have to hit it with the ball, but without anyone seeing so you don't interfere with the course of events." Pegabug explains.
The three watch as the Akuma appears and lands on Froggy's stuffed toy. His parents calling out for him to come back in the distance.
While inside the burrow, Bunnix peeks out into the current timeline. Her eyes widen as she watches the sentimonsters destroy Paris. The other heroes scattered, doing their best to minimalize the damages, but not succeeding very well.
I'm Froggy, here I come. I'm not afraid of anyone.
The akumatize villain chants, blowing raspberries as Minotaurox attempts to get a hold of him. A surge of anger pulses through Bunnix as the frog mark on the back of her neck lights up. Returning to the portal that lead to Pegabug and Adrien, Lucy opens it, allowing the two back inside. They dash for the portal on the other end that will lead them back to the current timeline.
"But we don't know where he's going to hide his toy!"
"Thanks to your power, we don't need to."
In their heist, not noticing Bunnix stay behind in her burrow. She calmly walked back over to the portal they had just come from, seeing Froggy leaving his parents behind. Bunnix paused the screen. As her hand lifts to make another movement, she hesitates, as if something inside her was screaming at her to stop. But as the frog print on her neck lit up once more, she ignored the voice and motioned the screen to rewind.
As the boy cycled back, Bunnix watched as he deakumatized and cycled back around the corner. However, the boy wasn't her foucs any longer.
"Follow the butterfly."
OoOoOoOo
"Kaalki, divide!" The horse kwami leaves it's miraculous, and Ladybug is all that's left. She removes her glasses, putting them away. Both her and Felix gasped in shock, seeing the sentimonsters have already caused great chaos in the city. The other heroes are on the pavements; they are exhausted, injured, or unconscious as they look at Strikeback in fear. On the rooftops, Chat Noir continues to take risks as he lures Strikeback to his direction.
"Come on, bring it! I'm not scared of you!" Strikeback throws its fist towards the rooftop where Chat Noir stood but he dodges it.
"Hurry! He won't last long!"
"Fetch!" Taking out off his ball, Felix tosses it. "Fetch!" His ball lights up and flies to where the akumatized object is. As the ball touches the stuffed frog toy, the ball and the akumatized object appear on his hands. Ladybug takes the toy and pulls its arm to break the Akuma free.
"No more evil doing for you, megakuma!" Ladybug says, using her yo-yo to capture it. "Miraculous Ladybug!" The magical ladybugs clear up the marks on their necks and frees them from Risk's effects.
Chat Noir pauses, sense being knocked back into him. "Yeah, uh- actually, how about we continue this later? You guys stay right there, okay?" He flees quickly away from Strikeback who brings yet another blow on where he stood. He proceeds to hide behind a chimney as he sees Ladybug admiring the dog heroes skills.
"Awesome! Well done! You did what's needed to be done on your first try. I knew you were the one I needed! You really are the best, Adri— I mean..."
"Flairmidable. Call me Flairmidable." He announces. Ladybug smiles.
"It really suits you!"
"Pound it!"
As the two heroes leap away, leaving Chat Noir watches with a frown before following them. Ladybug heads over to the small boy, handing him his stuffed frog that now had a charm around it to help protect him from ShadowMoths influence. As the boy heads home, Ladybug instructs the other heroes to go charge their Kwami's so they could then take care of the Sentimonster.
OoOoOo
Bunnix's breath seemed to get caught in her throat. She had watched the Akuma. Watched it flutter backwards through Paris until in ended up right back where it came from. The Agreste Mansion. ShadowMoth appeared before her until he detransformed into none other than Gabriel Agreste.
With another pause, Bunnix glared at the man through the portal. She was tempted to jump through right then and there when a swarm of Ladybug's magic swirled around her, removing the risk mark from her neck.
Realizing how half-baked of a plan jumping through and confronting Gabriel Agreste was, she stopped herself. Bunnix contemplated her next move. She couldn't unsee what she had seen. She now knew the identity of ShadowMoth. A part of her wished she had done so sooner.
"I hope that you never have to use this watch really." Her father's voice rang in her head. "If you do, there is a high chance choices will have to be made. Choices that weigh on you after you have made them."
In her mind, she had two choices. Choice A: Turn back now. Go find Ladybug and Adrien. Tell them what she had found and make a plan to ambush Gabriel Agreste and take his miraculous.
Or, choice B: Dig deeper. They knew ShadowMoth wants the Ladybug and Cat miraculous. They knew he wanted to make a wish, one that would have grave consequences. But they didn't know what the wish was.
Ladybug had once said that in the end, the wish shouldn't matter. That no matter what it was, the cost would be too high. Ladybug knew what she knew, and she was sure about it. But Bunnix was not. Gabriel Agreste wanted something so badly, that he was willing to rewrite the universe in order to have it. Bunnix needed to know what it was. She needed to know for herself. She needed to know for Adrien.
With another swipe of her hand, the rewind started up again.
OoOoOoOo
Ladybug and Fairmidable head to the sewer system and detransform, preparing to charge their Kwamis.
"Thanks again, Adrien. I'll take you back to the train." Marinette says, as she feeds Tikki.
However, Felix has other plans. "I don't wanna get back on that train. I wanna stay and fight with you."
"What about your trip? Are you going to stand up to your father?"
"Yes." He answers, with a mischievous smirk. "You've given me the courage I need, Ladybug. I feel like from now on, nothing can stop me."
OoOoOo
I have failed again, Emelie. We should have been reunited long ago. I tried everything to get my hands on the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir. I should have already combined their powers that would have granted me the wish to bring you back!" He cries. "I am not... worthy... of our love!"
Bunnix watched Gabriel as he slammed his fist on the chamber that held his preserved wife. So that was what he wanted... It's for love, in the end. It is said that a hero will sacrifice the person they love to save the world, but a villain will sacrifice the world to save the person they love. And as Bunnix dug further, she wondered what she might be categorized as. There was still more to this story. And the only way to understand what is, would be to discover what was.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Ladybug lands with Flairmidable on a rooftop where the other heroes have gathered.
"Hey, everyone! Meet Flairmidable, the new holder of the Dog Miraculous."
As the others give a short greeting, Chat Noir climbs up the side and joins them all. Ladybug smiles. "Oh, Chat Noir! Miraculous of the dog, Miraculous of the cat! Dog and cat! Funny isn't it?" She says with a small laugh.
Chat Noir looks at Ladybug and then to the newest team member with a flat expression.
"Hilarious."
"Nice working with you, Chat Noir." Flairmidable greets.
"Come on! Shake paws." Ladybug insists, wanting two important people in her life to be friends. The pair shake, thought, Chat Noir's is somewhat reluctant.
"I knew you two would get along. That's the magic of the Miraculous, even dogs and cats can exist in harmony! You're gonna be spending a lot of time together now that he's joined the team! Ready Miraculous-huh, wait a minute." She paused, looking around at the others. "Where is Bunnix?"
"You needed Bunnix?" Chat asked as Ladybug brought a finger to her chin.
"Yes, I did. Though I suppose we can manage without her now. I just expected her to be here."
Chat couldn't help but fee a slight anxiety course through him. "But if she's not here, then where is she? The city is practically up in flames! She could be-"
"I'm right here." Bunnix announced, coming through her portal. "I had to recharge. Hard to find a safe spot around here." She explained.
"Oh! Good! I was just introducing our newest member to everyone!" Ladybug said. "Flairmidable."
Bunnix smiled at Flairmidable. "Cute." If the boy had any reservations about that comment, he kept it to himself.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug shouted, tossing her yo-yo. A moment later, a pair of sunglasses fell into her hands. It only takes her a moment to figure out just what to do.
"Since we can't attack them, we're gonna trap them. We'll be cunning, no needless risks. Rooster Bold, since you can choose you power, give yourself the power to multiply objects. We'll need more pairs of sunglasses."
"Sublimation!" As everyone watches Rooster Bold multiply the sunglasses, Flairmidable uses that moment to lightly tap Ladybugs yo-yo with his ball. After all, they wont be needing his power anymore. That he was sure of.
"Next, we'll lure all the sentimonsters to the same place." Ladybug explains as Roster Bold passes out the sunglasses. "Carapace, you'll create a shield so that they can't escape, and finally, I'll transform into Pegabug and open a portal that the sentimonsters will fall into."
Flairmidible looks at the glasses, trying to figure out exactly what the point of them was as the others placed them on their faces. "A portal to where?"
"To some place where they can never hurt anyone again."
Hesitently, Flairmidable puts on the glasses.
"It's showtime, guys!" The heroes jump off towards Strikeback for their plan. Flairmidable leapt with them but only as a ruse, landing in the same spot he was a moment before, watching the plan take action from afar.
In the distance, Carapcae activates his power, creating a large shield around the three sentimonsters while the others stand in defensive positions outside of it. Pegabug calls out Voyage and a portal to the sun opens beneath the three sentimonsters, causing them to fall through.
Flairmidable takes off his glasses, dropping them to the ground. He knew that it was all necessary, but it didn't make anything any easier.
"I've always been the protagonist of my own story," The voice of Bunnix startled Flairmidable, making him spin on his heels to look at her.
"But it's interesting to think I could be a villain in somebody else's. Somebody out there has tried to attain or achieve something, and I have stood in their way. To an extent, we're each an encapsulation of both protagonist and antagonist, hero and villain. Isn't that strange?"
"I decided to stay back." He explained. "I was a little nervous. First big sentimonster fight. You understand."
"I understand perfectly, Felix." Flarimidable's eyes widen. He considered lying. Attempting to make the woman in front of him believe she was mistaken. But the cool look in her eyes told him it was pointless. She knew exactly who he was.
"I won't let you stop me." He told her. "I've come to far."
"I understand." Bunnix said again, a sad smile on her lips.
OoOoOo
"How is she?" Gabriel asked quietly. Emelie closed the door and sighed.
"Not good."
Gabriel followed his wife from the guest room across the house to their own room. She slid off her shoes and made her way into the walk-in closet, removing her jewelry and slipping into her silk white silk pjs. Gabriel did the same, meeting Emelie in the bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over with her arms resting on the top of her thighs. Gabriel took a seat beside her, gently rubbing her back.
"She will get through this." He offered, but Emelie shook her head.
"No. She won't. I don't think I would either. You saw how long I was in there with her. She wouldn't stop crying. Colt is absolutely no help." She ranted.
"There isn't much we can do Emelie." Gabriel told her sympathetically. He felt for his sister in-law, he truly did. But there was nothing anyone could do to bring back the dead.
"What if there was...?" Emelie asked quietly. Gabriel's eyes widened.
"Emelie, no."
"How can you be so quick to-"
"We don't know how enough." Gabriel tried to reason. "You're talking about a replication of a whole human being. Emelie..."
"What if it was Adrien?" Emelie snapped. Her teary eyes narrowed at her husband. "What if it was our son? Wouldn't you do everything in your power to-"
"It wouldn't be Felix, Emelie!" Gabriel whispered harshly. "A copy, a fabrication. Our son could never be replaced in such a way, and neither could hers."
"Yes, he could." A quiet voice spoke from the doorway. Emelie and Gabriel's heads snapped the side, tense at the sight of Amelie. Her clothes wrinkled and worn, her hair wild and out of its usual twist. A hazard, one supposed, from tossing and turning in bed restlessly.
"Amelie, you don't know what you're talking about. You're upset." Gabriel voiced.
"Don't talk to me like you have any idea about how I feel Gabriel." Amelie shot coldly. "Don't underestimate what I would do to hold my son again."
"It wouldn't be real, Amelie."
"It would be real to me!"
"We don't even know if it would work."
Emelie got up from the bed and walked over to their dresser, opening the drawer and pulling out the small box that held the jewels in question.
"Emelie, what are you doing?!" Gabriel demanded as he stepped towards her. Emelie didn't answer as she put on the peacock broach. As she did, Duusu came flying out.
"Hello Emelie!" Duusu greeted. Emelie gave the Kwami a small smile.
"Duusu, I have a question about your power."
"Of course! What is it?"
"You said the that the wielder of the peacock's power is manifestation, correct?"
"Correct!" Duusu answer. "All you need is a physical object for the amok to inhabit."
"And you can manifest anything?"
Duusu nodded. "The possibilities are only limited to the imagination of the one creating it!"
"Even a person?" Gabriel asked curtly. Duusu's smile faltered at the question. His eyes moved back to Emelie who watched in anticipation of his answer.
"Yes...and no..." Duusu said slowly. "Sentimonsters can mimic anything you desire, even that of a person. However, although it may look, act, and even think as a human person would, it never truly would be."
"But no one would know the difference, right?" Amelie asked. "It could live and age and grow just like a real person?"
"If the creature wished it to...yes..." Duusu answered.
Emelie looked at Gabriel with an almost pleading look. Gabriel looked away from her and back at the Kwami.
"But could it survive without the holder being constantly active?"
"Yes." Duusu nodded. "A sentimonster will exist regardless of the holder being active, so long as the object used is kept safe and its keeper doesn't release their existence."
"Gabriel...please." Amelie quietly begged.
"I'm doing this with or without you Gabriel." Emelie put in. "But I really want you on our side."
"Miss Emelie..." Duusu spoke. "I'm not sure what it is you have in mind, but I must tell you that the creation of a sentimonster isn't meant for permanent existence. A holder can only create one Sentimonster at a time. To call fourth another, would first require erasing the last."
"Tell us how to do it." Emelie demanded softly.
"All you have to say is Duusu, spread my feathers." Duusu instructed quietly. "Whoever is to create the Sentimonster should be in a neutral if not positive state. The creation thrives off of emotions, and a creator in a negative emotional state could lead to disaster."
"Perhaps we should wait until-"
"I'll do it." Emelie interrupted her husband. "I'll do it for you Amelie."
Gabriel watched as Amelie cut across the room and embraced her sister tightly. His eyes shifted to Duusu, who floated off to the side with an uncertain look on his face. He wanted to protest. He wanted to force Emelie to see reason. To see that her sister could not replace her child with a replica.
As he watched the two sisters together, he knew such objections would fall on deaf ears. Amelie's grief was too fresh. Felix's life had ended less than 12 hours ago. No one outside of Amelie's husband, Emelie, and himself even knew about it.
There would be no way to talk her out of doing anything that gave even the illusion of her son's return. And Emelie...his lovely, kind, wonderful wife. Her soft heart would not voluntarily allow her sister to suffer. Not if there was even the slightest possibility to change it.
And so, that night, Emelie activated the peacock miraculous and with as much will as she could muster, created a perfect replica of the son her sister had lost.
Amelie touched the boy's face, her hand shaking as if she worried he might disappear before her very eyes.
"Felix..."She whispered. "My sweet boy. Mother is here now. I missed you."
Felix looked at her with a tilted head for a moment before smiling. "I missed you too, mother."
Emelie wordlessly placed Amelie's wedding ring in her hands, an unspoken agreement between them. Keep him safe.
It was this act of kindness that had become an act of sacrifice. They had not known about the damage in the miraculous, nor the effect it would have on Emelie's body. As the symptoms grew, so did Gabriel's resentment for his sister-in-law and nephew.
Of course, he had tried his best not to let it show. Amelie was blissfully ignorant to the fact that Emelie had thrown away her life for her. It was why she didn't understand Gabriel's sudden distance from her. After all they had been through...Amelie had grieved her sister, and had even asked Gabriel why he didn't use the miraculous so they could be with her again.
Gabriel had been harsh with her. "I could never replace those I love with a fake." He wouldn't do that to himself, nor would he do that to Adrien.
Amelie didn't bring it up again.
OoOoOo
"I'm sorry." Felix spoke, before rushing off.
"Me too." Bunnix watched him leave. She needed to talk to Adrien and Ladybug, and fast.
OOoOoOoO
Ladybug swung her yo-yo with slight urgency. Adrien had not been in the sewer system they had last met to return his miraculous. She tried not to worry; he had probably gone home. Maybe she hadn't explained that the sewer was to be their rendezvous point. As she leaped in through the window, Adrien emerged from the bathroom making Ladybug sigh in relief.
"Phew! There you are. I'm sorry I thought I told you we were supposed to meet up."
Adrien raised a brow. "Meet up?"
"Yes, so you could give it back to me." Ladybug said with a small laugh.
"Give what back to you?" Adrien asked, still confused.
"Well, the Miraculous of the dog." Ladybug reminded him, her own confusion seeping in.
"But you didn't give me anything." Adrien squinted at her. What was happening right now?
"Of course, I did!" Ladybug insisted. "On the train."
"The train?" Adrien's expression quickly shifts from confusion to that of betrayal. "Felix!"
Ladybugs eyes widen at Adrien's words. And then it happens. The panic. It's slow at first, creeping through the cracks in her thoughts until everything starts to feel heavy. It builds; it becomes something physical that clutches at her insides and squeezes out the air and the blood.
OoOoOoO
Unknown to them, Felix was only a floor below, waiting for his uncle to return while still in his miraculous state. When his uncle had arrived he was on the phone with Nathalie, telling her to call of the trip and bring Adrien home. It was then she told him how Adrien had disappeared.
"Ladybug did in fact make a mistake, uncle."
In his surprise, Gabriel drops the phone. "What do you want, Felix?"
"I want the real Peacock Miraculous. And you're going to give it to me." Flairmidable told him confidently.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Flairmidable rolled his eyes, he didn't have time for this game. "Do you want me to tell Adrien about the secret code on the painting? Then, give me what I ask for and I'll give you something better in exchange."
"Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous?" Gabriel inquired with a raised brow.
Flairmidable smiled. "No. All the other Miraculous. And this." In between his fingers, he help up Emilie's wedding ring. "I won't be needing it anymore. As long as Ladybug hasn't de-transformed, I only have to say one word and her yo-yo, the magic portal to the Miraculous, will be yours. Make up your mind, time is ticking."
Gabriel narrows his eyes at the boy. "How do I know that you won't use the Peacock Miraculous against us?"
"If I wanted to harm you, uncle, I would've done it a long time ago." Fairmidable insists. He places the ring on the table in trade for the Peacock Miraculous.
Gabriel weighs his options for a moment. As much as he didn't trust Felix, this was an opportunity he could not simply throw away. Removing his scarf, Gabriel removes the peacock miraculous. Duusu flies out of the Peacock and beside Gabriel.
"Duusu, I renounce you." When Duusu disappears, he places the Peacock Miraculous on the table. As they both place their jewels to trade on the table, the two glare at one another and eventually swap quickly, so they won't be cheated once again. Gabriel wears the ring and Flairmidable grabs the Peacock Miraculous.
Keeping his end of the deal, Flairmidable calls out, "Fetch!"
His ball flies into Adrien's room, coming in contact with Ladybug's yo-yo and absorbs it. The ball returns to Flairmidable along with the yo-yo. He opens it as Gabriel quickly, and joyfully, takes hold of it.
Gabriel can't help the laugh that erupts from his chest. "Ah! You've lost, Ladybug! FINALLY!"
OoOoOoO
In Adrien's room, Ladybug and Adrien watch as her yo-yo dissapears from sight. "The ball... of the dog... Felix... He has the yo-yo, and that means... he has the miraculous!" Her hands slowly reach her head as she increasingly panics in shocking realization.
Adrien watches her in concern. Watching someone have a panic attack was like looking in the eyes of someone trapped behind glass, drowning right in front of you.
"Adrien! We need to- oh good your both here!" Bunnix said, coming in through the window. Seeing Ladybugs unhinged state, her brows knot together. "What-Shit! Felix!"
"You knew?!" Ladybug asks in hysterics.
"Not until just a bit ago. Ladybug you need to detransform, now!"
"Quick, fide in here!" Adrien said, opening the bathroom door.
"I-I don't know anymore, I— What if this is a trap? What if you're Felix?"
"He's not! Ladybug we don't have time!"
"How can you be sure! You made out with him and couldn't tell the difference!"
"If you're gonna trust me once, please let it be this time!" Adrien insisted, pushing Ladybug into the bathroom and closing the door. He let out a shaky breath before pausing and turning to Bunnix.
"Wait. You made out with Felix?"
Bunnix's eyes widened, her mouth opening and shutting a few times before finally answering, "Made out is a strong word."
Adrien gaped at her. "But you..." He made a kissy face while pinching his finger together in both hands, smashing them together to symbolize two figures kissing.
Bunnix exposed her clenched teeth with scrunching her nose and it was all the answer Adrien needed.
"GAH! NO!"
"I thought he was you!"
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!"
"I'm sorry!"
"There is nothing left!" Ladybugs muffled voice came through the door. "I lost..."
Bunnix and Adrien share a look before deciding to open the door and comfort Ladybug. Except by the time they did, she was gone.
"I didn't get here fast enough." Bunnix spoke. Adrien looked at her with a raised brow.
"You knew this was going to happen?" Bunnix gave a small nod.
"I was trying to follow the rules. I'm not supposed to mess with the timeline. Changing the past, or altering the present to change the future can have a snowball effect that can get out of hand very quickly. I thought at the very least, if I could get to you and Ladybug fast enough, I could warn you about Felix. Ladybug would detransform, stopping him from being able to get her yo-yo and we could go from there. But I wasn't fast enough. Now he has it anyway."
"But what does he want with it?" Adrien asks. "Felix might be a bit of a snake but what does he need all the miraculous for?"
"He doesn't." Bunnix explains. "He's going to give them to ShadowMoth."
"He knows who ShadowMoth is..." Adrien connected. As his eyes looked over Bunnix solemn expression, another realization hit him. "And so do you..."
Bunnix didn't answer him. And she didn't have to. Her silence was loud and clear. "We need to find Ladybug." She instead said, walking back towards the window to prepare to leave. Adrien took ahold of her wrist.
"Who is he?" He asked. Bunnix gave him a longing look, shaking her head.
"Adrien..."
"Who is he?" He asked again, a firmness in his voice.
OoOoOoOo
Bunnix backed away from the portal. She had seen it all. Emilie Agreste, Felix, the rise of HawkMoth to ShadowMoth. It was all over whelming. Trying to steady her breath. Bunnix made her way to another screen, one that showed her more current events. She fast forwarded. Her eyes remained on Felix. She followed him back to the Agreste mansion, watched him negotiate with Gabriel. Watched him steal Ladybugs yo-yo.
What followed was destruction. With the power of all the miraculous, Gabriel Agreste was losing himself more so than he already had. A lot of people were going to get hurt, to die. Everything was- No. She couldn't let this happen. There had to be some way to stop it all.
A hand gripped Bunnix by her shoulder, tossing her away from the portal she was watching and out through another.
She rolled on the ground, groaning lightly from the impact of her body hitting the hard soil. Looking up, her eyes widened.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Infront of Bunnix was...Bunnix. Her hands rested on her hips as she looked down at her with narrowed eyes.
"Wha..."
"Counter clockwise." Lucy, the older version of her, stood with a judgmental stare. She wordlessly handed Fluff a carrot, her eyes not leaving her younger self. "I'll ask one more time. What the hell are you doing?"
Regaining her composure, Bunnix stood and detransformed.
"I'm trying to save lives." Was her response. Her older variant scoffed.
"Sure, you are. And what exactly is your big plan?"
"I don't know." The younger Lucy shrugged. "I haven't got that far yet. But there has to be a way to stop this."
"Not without completely altering the timeline there isn't."
"Maybe the timeline needs to be altered!" Young Lucy argued.
"You don't know what you're talking about." The older Lucy's fists clenched at her sides. "You don't know what you'd be giving up. What I would be giving up."
"To save countless others?" The younger Lucy couldn't understand. The Lucy in front of her was older than her but not by a lot. She couldn't be any older than twenty-five. Yet this woman was looking at her as if her entire livelihood was on the line.
"It is never that simple and you know it."
"What if I just intercept Felix. Stop him from taking Ladybugs yo-yo?" The younger Lucy suggested, trying to find the least detrimental approach.
"Everything still changes!" Her older variant argued, trying her best not to choke out her younger self. "Has everything dad taught us gone right over your head?"
"What are you so afraid of?" The younger Lucy asked. "Things might be different from what you know, sure. But they could be better."
"You don't know that."
"Fine." The younger Lucy held up her hands in defeat. "I won't intercept Felix. I'll just go to Ladybug and Adrien. I'll tell them that ShadowMoth is-"
"No!" Her older self-shouted. "No! Absolutely not!"
"Why not?! Don't you think Adrien deserves to know! If they just know who he is then-"
"It won't work out that way! I have already looked at all the variables Lucy! Adrien will find out about his father, as will Ladybug, when the time is right."
"That's bullshit."
"It's what it is." Older Lucy said curtly. "What do you think will happen? Oh, hey guys, guess what I poked around in the time line and I know who ShadowMoth is! Sorry Adrien, it's your dad! Now let's go get him!"
Younger Lucy dramatically shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know! Maybe!"
"Lucy, you will destroy him. Adrien needs to find out about his dad at his own pace. Trust me when I tell you that his finding out prematurely always ends up badly."
"So, you just live with it?" The younger Lucy asked quietly. "You just went on every day, knowing what we know and keeping it to yourself?"
"Yes." She answered directly. "You can't tell him. And he can never know you knew before him." He'd never forgive you.
OoOoOoO
"Who is he?" Adrien asked again. He needed her to tell him. He needed Lucy to trust that he could handle it. Ladybug constantly kept him in the dark. He couldn't bare the thought of Lucy doing the same. Adrien knew that she would hesitate, not because she wanted to keep it from him, but because she had a responsibility to keep the future on track without interfering. Telling him who ShadowMoth was would probably trigger a snowball of events. But he couldn't help himself.
"Please," He begged. "Just tell me."
OoOoOoO
"What if I went further?" The young Lucy asked. "What if I just...stopped Gabriel from using the miraculous? Warned him, warned Emelie of the damage."
The older Lucy sighed. "The further you go back, the more you end up changing not only for the future, but for your present. Everything you know would be different."
"But I could save his mom..."
"And kill his cousin." The older Lucy pointed.
"The Felix Adrien knows is a sentimonster. Not his cousin. It's not real."
"It's real to him. It's real to his aunt. Felix is... he's another person Adrien cares deeply for. Even after everything."
The younger Lucy groaned in frustration. "They wouldn't even know!"
"Are you really willing to end one life to save another?"
"How does Felix, the real one...how does he die? Maybe I can-"
"You can't!" The older Lucy shouted. "Don't you get it! You can't save everyone!" Where there is death, there is always death. Her father's words played back.
"You have to promise, Lucy." The older Variant demanded. "You have to promise me that you will go back to your present, and you will carry on as if you didn't see any of this."
"I can't..." Young Lucy croaked.
"You can. Because I did. And we're the same."
The younger Lucy was trying so hard to find the single pivotal moment that set her life on this path. The moment that answered the question, 'How did I get here?'
But it's never just one moment. It's a series of them. And your life can branch out from each one in a thousand different ways. Maybe there's a version of your life for all the choices you make and all the choices you don't.
"You'll lose him." The older Lucy spoke, making her younger variant look up from the area on the ground she had been burning holes into.
"I have already been down this road. I've looked at all the angles." The elder explained quietly. "So many versions of the same life. And in almost every single one, he chooses us. You and him, he and I." The older Lucy looked over the skyline view of Paris in an almost dazed state. She brought her eyes back to the younger Lucy, taking her by the chin with her hand.
"Do you think the universe fights for two souls to be together? I mean honestly? Some things are just too strange and strong to be coincidences."
The younger Lucy took hold of her older variants wrist and moved it away from her face. "Almost." She repeated. "You said, almost every single one. There are versions of our life where we aren't together."
A soft nod game from the older Lucy. "Yes. In all the versions where Adrien is not Chat Noir." The statement was like a punch to the younger Lucy's gut.
"So you see..." The older spoke. "You can't stop Gabriel Agreste from being ShadowMoth. Because it you do, you stop Adrien from being Chat Noir. And if Adrien is never Chat Noir-"
"We never meet." The younger Lucy finished. She swallowed hard, her body felt numb. "Are you sure? There isn't even a slight possibility that-"
"There are countless variations of how our life and the lives of those around us go on," Her older variant explained. "It would take as many to see every possible avenue but trust me when I say I wanted everyone to win just as badly as you. I looked. I searched. We almost never even up in Paris, and even when we do, Adrien never crosses our path."
"But there is always a chance." Young Lucy tried to test. Her older Variant's face hardened.
"The odds are not in our favor."
OoOoOoO
"In time, Adrien." Bunnix spoke. "Everything in time. We need to get to Ladybug."
Adrien let go of her wrist. His jaw clenched as he swallowed his anger. He gave Bunnix a curt nod. He had waited this long, he could wait a little longer.
"Plagg, claws out!"
OoOoOOo
Ladybug sat on the rooftops of the Jardins du Trocadéro with her knees to her chest. How could she have been so stupid? Of course, it wasn't all her fault. The influence of Risk is a big part of what caused her to act so careless. However, none of that made her feel any better. She had mistaken Felix for Adrien, and because of it lost all of the miraculous in her Mirical box.
"People of Paris," A voice boomed. Ladybug's head shot up to see a projection of ShadowMoth, much like the one she had faced the very first time she became Ladybug made out of a swarm of Akumas. "Ladybug had promised to protect you? Well, she lied to you! Behold, her defeat! I took all the Miraculous from her! Now I'm more powerful than ever! From now on, I will be attacking you relentlessly. I will be everywhere, probing your thoughts, stealing your dreams, harnessing your deepest fears! Whatever damage I can cause, I will not stop! Unless... someone brings me Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous!"
"I lost everything..." Ladybug muttered.
"You haven't lost us." Ladybug gasps as she turns her head to look at Chat Noir who is already standing beside her. Bunnix stood on her opposite side, offering her a small smile. Ladybug wished she could return it.
"Why don't you just give up on me?" She cried, dropping her head. "I lost ALL the Miraculous, I'm the worst Guardian EVER! I wanted to control everything, I didn't listen to you, I lied to you, I kept you at a distance! Every time you offered me a helping hand, I never took it! I really made a mess of EVERYTHING."
Chat Noir and Bunnix shared a look before Chat extended his hand out to Ladybug "M'lady..."
Ladybug, whose face was flushed and wet from both the weather and her tears, slowly took his hand. Chat Noir picked her up and hugged her. "We're going to figure this out. We'll get them all back, no matter what!"
Ladybug hugged her partner, but she still felt numb. She wanted to believe Chat's words. She really wanted to. But ShadowMoth had all the miraculous outside of Chat's, Her's and...Ladybug pulled from Chat and looked to Bunnix who had a determined look in her eye.
"You have a plan." It wasn't a real question.
"Something like that."
"She knows who ShadowMoth is." Chat tells Ladybug, whose eyes go wide.
"What? How do you...?Bunnix! What did you do!?"
"I took a risk." Was Bunnix explanation. Ladybug sighed.
"What's done is done. We need to get those Miraculous back. So, who is it?"
Bunnix looked between Chat Noir and Ladybug. She had thought this over. Tried to think of a way where everyone could win. But it simply wasn't possible. Sometimes, there aren't any good choices. Sometimes, making the right one is hard... That's what life does. It knocks you down and breaks you and you either get back up again, or you don't. You either do things on your terms, or you don't. You let the bad things win, or you don't.
Lucy was starting to believe that what we get out of life is what we've set ourselves up to get, so there's no such thing as an inconsequential decision. Our destinies are the culmination of all the choices we've made along the way, which is why it's imperative to listen hard to your inner voice when it speaks up.
"I'm going to take care of it."
Chat stepped forward. "What? What do you mean you're going to take care of it?" Bunnix reached forward and caressed Chat's face.
"You know, considering how big the universe is, and the way time works, I consider myself to have been really lucky to have met you."
"Lucy..." Chat didn't bother to use her hero name. His tone held worry and warning.
"I love you." Bunnix told him. "Remember that."
Without any warning, Lucy leapt away from them. Both her Ladybug and Chat Noir shouted after her to no prevail. Bunnix had quickly opened a portal to her burrow, jumping inside and closing it before either of the others could follow.
"What is she going to do?" Ladybug asked, though she knew Chat wouldn't have the answer. Thus, he didn't offer her one.
OoOoOoOoO
History admits no rules; only outcomes. Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house—the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture—must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.
Bunnix watched as Gabriel danced under the starry night with his wife. He and Emilie had gone on a trip to a small city in Bangladesh. Gabriel was searching for new, foreign material for his latest designs, and Emilie had come along for the ride, enjoying the chance to see a new part of the world.
Emilie had stumbled upon the jewels in a market stall only a few hours prior. She had bought them as a gift for her husband for their anniversary the next day.
"No one is exclusively bad, nor is anyone exclusively good. Some are just forced to work harder at suppressing the bad. There is no such thing as bad people. We're all just people who sometimes do bad things."
Bunnix considered getting to the jewels before Emilie, but that would have meant interacting with the merchant. She was about to cause enough rift as it was. So instead she waited. And while the happy couple danced the night away, Bunnix crept into their empty tent, opened Emilie's bag, and stole the miraculous.
OoOoOoOoO
Ladybug and Chat Noir shot up from the ledges they had been sitting on as a portal opened, and Bunnix walked out of it.
"Counter-clockwise." She said, detransforming. "Hey guys," She greeted with a breath.
"Hey guys?" Chat repeated. "You run off like that, and the first thing you say when you get back is hey guys?"
"Lucy, what did you do?" Ladybug asked. It was clear she was trying to be calm but her uneasy nature slipped through in her tone.
"Everything is gonna be okay." Lucy told then evenly.
"I don't get it. ShadowMoth still has all the miraculous. What did you change?" Chat asked, gesturing the Akuma swarm still in the sky.
"Time is like cement," Lucy explained. "Depending on what you change, it takes time to become premiant." She walked over to the nearby ledge and took a seat. It was interesting. Normally her body would be shaking at the sight up the ground so far below her, but at this moment all Lucy felt was...calm.
Ladybug and Chat looked at one another. Neither sure what Lucy had did but both feeling equally uneasy about it all. A day ago, Ladybug would have demanded Lucy hand over her miraculous. After all time traveling at all was dangerous, but with the way Lucy was acting, Ladybug was sure she had done something much more than stop Felix from taking her yo-yo. The further back you go, the bigger the side effects.
But she didn't. How could she? After she just lost all the others...
"Come sit with me guys." Lucy called out. Hesitantly, they complied, each hero sitting on the other side of her.
"So, my guess is we lose, right?" Chat asked, looking down at at the civilians below. "All those people down there, we fail them. That's why you had to do...whatever it was you did."
"Not exactly." Lucy said gently. "I did have to look at what would be to make sure I was making the best possible move. It's not fair to say to you guys don't make a comeback. You do but a lot of people get hurt before that happens."
"Couldn't you just tell us what to do? Take a short cut?" Ladybug asks. If Lucy was going to change anything, why not just let it be the future?
"I made a call. I considered all the variables I could."
The truth was, Lucy had only looked a few months into the future. Just enough to see how big of a problem it would be for Gabriel to have control of all the miraculous. It was bad. Really bad. But Lucy had no intention of giving Ladybug the answers she needed. Because doing so meant telling Adrien that the man he vowed to hunt down was in fact his father.
At first, she hadn't believed her older self when she said Adrien couldn't handle the news, but then she showed her. Chat Blanc, Ephemeral...others...It simply wasn't an option. That wasn't the only reason of course. The other seemingly more selfish. Fear.
Her older variant had seemed so desperate to convince Lucy to stay the path, to let things play out the way they needed to. She hadn't said why. Hadn't given any indication on what it was that she would lose, and for a moment, the younger Lucy thought that perhaps she was simply afraid of losing Adrien. But it had felt like so much more than that. It felt like more and Lucy was terrified that if she knew what it was she might change her mind.
That she might be willing to sacrifice others so that whatever she found so important could exist. She couldn't risk it.
"When will it happen?" Ladybug asked. "When will we know what you changed?"
"I think we already can..." Chat said slowly. "Something feels...different." Chat didn't know how to describe the feeling washing over him. It was almost a static feeling. Like the way your arm might feel when you fall asleep laying on it the wrong way. Except this time the feeling was all over his body.
"Do you feel it LB?"
When Ladybug didn't answer, Chat turned his head and leaned to look around Lucy. However, the space Ladybug had been sitting on the other side of Lucy, was now empty.
"Where did she go?" He whispered. Lucy took his hand and held onto it, offering him a comforting smile.
"Home." She answered.
OoOoOo
An older Lucy's eyes shoot open as she sits up on her couch. Her heart seemed to pound against her chest as if awakening from a nightmare. What had she even been dreaming about?
As she stood, a dizziness took over her. She wanted to blame getting up too fast, but she couldn't deny something felt...off. Taking a deep breath, Lucy attempted to shake it off and made her way into the kitchen of her flat. Pulling out a glass, she filled it with water. Everything was fine. She was fine.
Leaning her backside against the sink, she continued to sip her water. Her eyes scanned the room before landing on a framed photo of her and Adrien on one of the wall shelves. It was an older photo, taken over a year prior. She let out a sigh. She missed him terribly. But with everything that had been happening recently, it was best he kept his distance. It was a reality that pained them both.
A pain shot to her temple sharp enough to make her hiss. Damn it. She needed some aspirin. She placed down her glass and headed out of the kitchen and down the hall to the main bathroom. Something was wrong. She felt wrong.
"Mom?" Lucy stopped at the sound of her child's voice. Passing the bathroom, she pushed forward to his bedroom to see what he had called her for. "Mom?!" His voice rang out again, this time more urgent then the last.
"What? What is it baby, I'm right-" Lucy paused, looking down at her miraculous as it hung around her neck, a glow admitting from it. Her heartbeat picked up again as she raced over to her son's door and swung it open.
She was greeted with silence. Silence and an empty room.
"No..." Her hands shot up to her neck, preparing to transform, but her hands found nothing. Lucy's body crashed backwards against the hallway wall as she fell her knees. "You promised..."
oOoOoO
"Lucy, this whole thing is freaking me out a little."
"I know, I'm sorry. I'm just trying not to cause any more damage than I already have. But maybe it doesn't even matter..."
"Do you believe in fate?" Lucy asked. Chat looked at her with a raised brow.
"I used to...a part of me still does I think but...If you can go back in time a change it all anyway-" He paused. "I guess fates not as set in stone as we might think."
"Maybe not." Lucy agreed. "But even with it all, I hope some things are just that. Set in stone I mean." She leaned against Chat who gripped her hand a little tighter.
"Claws in." Adrien handed the confused looking Plagg a piece of cheese, leaning his cheek on top of Lucy's head.
"Can you imagine a love so strong that it moves through time?"
"Gotta be somethin' special." Nexus then commented. "To have a love that echoes through time and space."
"Yeah," Adrien answered. "I can." Lucy lifted her chin to look at him. She puts her hands on either side of his face, and everything else seems to fall away. Adrien have never gotten so lost in a kiss before. His heart keeps missing beats and his hands cannot bring her close enough to him.
Adrien had loved before, but it didn't feel like this.
He had kissed before, but it didn't burn him alive.
Maybe it lasts a minute, and maybe it's an hour. All he knew was that kiss, and how soft Lucy's skin is when it brushes against his, and that even if he did not know it tomorrow, he had been waiting for Lucy forever.
And then he opened his eyes...
Ohhhhh a cliffhanger! Guys this chapter is over 19,000 words. I almost broke it into two chapters buuuutttt, I didn't. Hope you don't mind.
Lets have a little talk about what we have read. Yes?
So, here we are. Risk/Strikeback. Lets talk about Felix.
If you have not seen all the episodes of season 5 yet, I'm right there with you, however I did watch some of them and one of those episodes is "emotion"
In Risk/Strikback Felix makes it clear that he wants the peacock miraculous, but does not reveal why. When he finds the fakes in the safe, he takes both the fake peacock and butterfly, but it seems clear on the train that the peacock was the main one he cared about, and probably just took the butterfly to get it away from his uncle.
In the episode "emotion" Felix finally returns and reveals that his reason for taking the peacock and now also needing the Ladybug and Cat miraculous is to wish for a "free world" for lack of a better example. He shows that although he gives his cousin a hard time, he does in fact care about him and want to help free Adrien from being under Gabriel's thumb. He even sees Kagami in a similar position and feels like he is helping her as well.
At the end of Srikeback, as Ladybug and the rest of the heroes got to take care of the Amok, Felix apologizes, and when he did, I was under the impression it was directed to Ladybug and the others, but I've come to fine he was actually saying it to the Sentimonster. In "Emotion" he apologizes to the sentimonster he creates as well referring to it as his friend and sister.
Now, Felix has not been confirmed to be a Sentimonster, but his very emotional reaction to them makes me feel like that might be the case, and thus I went with it in this story.
Now Gabriel. In season 5, Gabriel is given the opportunity to warn his past self and save his wife while in the possession of the bunny miraculous. But he ignores this opportunity which Nathalie later gives him a well deserved talking to about it.
The reality, is they couldn't let Gabriel just do the logical thing, because that would solve all his problems and then the story would be over, however, in my version, obviously he doesn't get the bunny miraculous so that wasn't even an option for him this time around.
Also, Miraculous at the end of the day is still a kids show, so how Gabriel goes about using the miraculous is going to be very PG, but for the sake of seriousness in my story, I was approaching it as if that were not the case, because if this were a more young adult-adult themed show, his play would probably be very different. With all the miraculous, Gabriel could very well force Ladybug and Chat Noir to yield if he really was as relentless as he said he would be. After all, they are just kids and they cant be transformed 24/7. So that's how I took it.
If Gabriel Agreste was allowed to go on with all those miraculous, a lot of people would be hurt if not die. The damage would be so constant and so significant that Lucy truly felt that waiting out and trying to regain the miraculous back was not an option.
And seeing how badly Adrien reacts to finding out about his father, Lucy also refrains from simply telling him. Figuring doing so would do more harm then good. Instead, against the plea of her older variant, and the advice of probably her father, Lucy decides to take matters into her own hands and nips it in the butt. From the beginning. Sacrificing whatever future she had with Adrien in order to not only save Paris but give Adrien his mother back.
Some might see this as a flawed plan on Lucy's part, and that's okay. Because Lucy is human, and she did what she thought was best.
The next chapter will be an epilogue of sorts. I juggled two different kinds of endings, and due to my indecisive nature, I will probably publish them both. But how they play out...well...you'll just have to wait and see!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope the actual ending will give you the clarity and satisfaction I am sure you all are wanting.
Please remember to comment and tell me what you think. I love having your feedback and I will try to get the last of this story out ASAP.
Until next time...I'll see you in the next chapter! Chow for Now!
