"Have you taken leave of your senses," Kagami spat, clearly caught off-guard by this turn of events.
Adrien remained assertive. "I have. Sit down over there."
He gestured with his head to a nearby bench where he wanted Kagami to go.
Kagami hesitated, then slowly began stepping toward Adrien, her palms raised by her shoulders.
"Put that gun away," Kagami instructed in a calm voice, not retreating as Adrien wanted.
Adrien didn't back down. "Kagami, I wouldn't like to shoot you. But I will if you take one more step."
Kagami stopped for a moment and studied Adrien before yielding.
"Under the circumstances, I will sit down."
Adrien closely followed her with his weapon as she sat down on the bench, and noticed her hand drifting to her pocket.
"Keep your hands where I can see them," he barked.
Kagami's mouth formed an "O" as she pulled a look of mock-innocence, and pulled out a cigarette case.
"I suppose you know what you are doing," Kagami said, "but I wonder if you realize what this means?"
"I do," Adrien assured her. "We'll have plenty of time to discuss that later."
Kagami lit her cigarette as she gave him a reproachful glare. "Call off your watch-dogs, you said!"
Adrien took a deep breath. There was no turning back now.
"Tell Kaalki to bring your miraculous to me," Adrien ordered, not breaking eye contact with Kagami. "And remember, I've got this gun pointed right at your heart."
Kagami huffed as she opened her purse. "That is my least vulnerable spot."
Adrien watched as a tiny kwami peeked out from the opening of the purse.
"Well, you heard him Kaalki," Kagami stated matter-of-factly. "Go ahead."
Kaalki squeaked with surprise, but quickly took the opportunity, flying straight into Adrien's hands, her magical sunglasses in tow.
"The miraculous is still damaged," Kagami reminded him. "Kaalki's portals can only transport two people."
"And I have exactly two visas right here," Adrien replied, reaching into his jacket pocket to retrieve the passport sticker visas he had arranged for yesterday afternoon.
Keeping the gun trained on Kagami, he passed her the visas.
"Why don't you sign the authorization line?" Adrien told her. "Your Hanzi handwriting is better than mine."
"You're asking me to forge documents?" she asked incredulously.
"I'm asking you to not get yourself shot."
Kagami glanced at the documents, and her eyebrows raised in surprise. "The names are Marinette-Dupain Cheng, and Luka Couffaine?"
Even from his peripheral vision, Adrien could see that Marinette was shocked.
"But why my name, Adrien?" Marinette questioned.
Adrien kept his eyes trained on Kagami, not trusting himself to let her out of his focus for even a moment.
"Because you and Luka are going through the portal," Adrien told her.
"But I don't understand. What about you?"
"I'm staying here with her, until you get safely away."
"No Adrien, No! What's happened to you? Last night we said—"
"Last night we said a lot of things." Adrien interrupted. "You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then and it all adds up to one thing. You're going through that portal with Luka where you belong."
Marinette didn't seem to want to accept his decision, continuing to protest, "But Adrien, no I—"
"Now you've got to listen to me." Adrien cut in again. "Do you have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stay here? Nine times out of ten we'd both end up like Max, isn't that true Kagami?"
"After this stunt?" she asked with a smirk. "I'm afraid Tomoe would insist."
"You're saying this only to make me go," Marinette argued.
"I'm saying this because it's true," Adrien argued back. "Deep down we both know you belong with Luka. You're part of his work. The thing that keeps him going. If he goes through that portal and you're not with him, you'll regret it."
"No." Marinette stated.
"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life," Adrien pressed.
For a moment Marinette pauses, either unable or unwilling to refute him.
"But what about us?" she finally asks.
"We'll always have Paris," Adrien promised. "We didn't have it, we'd lost it, until you came back. We got it back last night."
"And I promised I wouldn't leave you!" Marinette choked out, holding back tears.
"And you never will," he replied, gripping the pistol tighter as he shored up his resolve. "But we've both got jobs to do. Where you're going I can't follow. What you've got to do, I can't be a part of. I'm not good at being noble, Marinette, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to anything in this world. Someday you'll understand that."
Luka stepped forward, taking Marinette's hand in comfort.
"There's something you should know before you leave," Adrien now addressed Luka directly.
"Adrien, I do not need you to explain anything," Luka said in an understanding tone.
A surge of anger welled up inside him, but he repressed it, trying to remain focused. Adrien's greatest enemy was running away with the love of his life, and Luka didn't even have the decency to be angry with him.
"I'm going to explain anyway, because it may make a difference to you later on." Adrien pressed on. "You said you knew about Marinette and me."
"Yes," Luka calmly replied, seemingly unfazed.
"But you didn't know that she was at my place last night when you were. She came there for the dossier. Isn't that true Marinette?"
"Yes," Marinette shakily answered.
"She tried everything to get them," Adrien explained, his tone harsh with effort to hide his emotion. "But nothing else worked. She did her best to convince me she was still in love with me, but that was all over long ago. For your sake she pretended it wasn't and I let her pretend."
"I understand," Luka said again.
That was all Adrien had to say. It was all he could say, now. With his free hand, Adrien held out the horse miraculous and visas for Luka to take.
"Thank you," Luka told him with genuine sincerity as he took the items. "And welcome to the fight. This time I know our side will win." Luka clipped the glasses on his nose, and then turned to his wife.
"Are you ready, Marinette?"
Marinette looked at Adrien with a heartbreaking smile, for the last time, before answering.
"Yes, I'm ready."
"Kaalki," Luka addressed the kwami. "Are you ready?"
The magical being zipped up to eye level, bubbling with excitement as she proclaimed. "Say the magic words!"
"Kaaliki, Full-Gallop!" Luka's confident voice rang out in the cold morning air.
A wave of silver light washed over the group and rippled across the wet grass. When it faded there now stood a superhero dressed in a muted brown suit where Luka had just been.
Marinette turned back to Adrien one last time.
"Goodbye Adrien."
"You'd better hurry, I'm not sure how long Kaalki can keep you transformed," Adrien told Luka.
"Voyage!" Luka called to summon a portal. But no portal appeared.
A glint caught Adrien's eye from the far end of the Champ de Mars. Marinette gasped as she saw it as well. Adrien turned his head a fraction to confirm what he already suspected. The portal had appeared, but not directly in front of them, as Luka had intended.
Kagami finished a long inhale from her cigarette and smiled.
"I may have forgotten to mention a few other side effects," she muttered.
Before Adrien could respond, a bright red car rounded the corner of the nearby street and plowed into the garden, leaving muddy rivets as the tires cut through the soft ground. As the car came to a stop, Adrien recognized it as Tatsu, the personal transport for Madame Tomoe Tsurugi herself.
Tomoe exited the vehicle immediately, her white cane gripped like a weapon. Luka and Marinette wasted no time, immediately taking off running down the park towards the misplaced portal.
"Kagami, what is going on, why did you activate your panic button?" Tomoe demanded. "Why have you not transformed?"
"I don't have my miraculous anymore, you can ask Adrien why," Kagami replied in a dry tone, in stark contrast with her mother's concerned voice.
Tomoe looked surprised, and Adrien adjusted his aim to point at her instead, pulling back the hammer so he was ready to fire.
Tomoe heard the click of the gun cocking and her expression darkened. "Kagami, tell me what is going on."
"Adrien has taken my miraculous and given it to Mr. Couffaine and his companion," Kagami answered with little enthusiasm, as if she were reading her mother the morning weather report and not describing an active heist.
Tome gripped her cane tighter and raised her chin in a defiant expression.
"I would advise you not to interfere with our business, Adrien," she announced. "Your father's protection does not go as far as you think."
"I was willing to shoot Kagami, and I'm willing to shoot you," Adrien answered, not backing down.
Tomoe paused, then tilted her head a fraction to the side as if listening closely. Adrien listened as well, and in the quiet morning the only sound that stood out was the splashes of two people sprinting across wet ground in the soft rain. Tomoe's eyes might not have been able to see, but their expression plainly displayed her thoughts to Adrien as she realized her targets were close at hand.
"Long! bring the—"
"—don't!" Adrien shouted, interrupting Tomoe's transformation phrase. "I don't know if a bullet is faster than a transformation, do you want to test that out today?"
Clearly Tomoe didn't, as she chose to address her daughter next instead.
"Kagami. Take his weapon," she ordered.
Kagami sprung from the bench and lunged unnaturally toward Adrien. He tried to dodge the unexpected attack, flailing his arms as Kagmi attempted to retrieve the gun.
Adrien jerked his right hand away from her grasp, and in the excitement the gun fired, the bullet barely missing Tomoe.
The older woman ducked out of the way at the sound of a gunshot, but Kagami's unrelenting pursuit of the weapon sent Adrien tumbling directly into her mother and all three of them were knocked to the ground.
Pinned underneath Kagami, Adrien couldn't stop her from prying the gun out of his right hand, but he was no longer interested in keeping it. Instead his focus was on Tomoe, who was still dazed from the fall.
In a swift movement, Adrien's left hand struck at Tomoe's collar, ripping the clay bead choker off of her neck. Kagami was startled by the sudden movement and attempted to grab the stolen miraculous from Adrien, but he pulled his knee close to his and kicked, his boot connecting hard with Kagami's torso.
The attack sent Kagami falling away from Adrien, but also managed to knock her Special Task Force service weapon off of her hip and onto the ground, where Adrien was quick to retrieve it. He scrambled to his feet, putting space between him and Tomoe.
Kagami regained her balance and managed to stand up, but paused as if unsure what to do next. Tomoe was more alert, but remained propped up on the ground, unable to lift herself out of the mud.
Realizing she had lost her miraculous and was in no position to attack, Tomoe shouted another command.
"Kagami, shoot the girl!"
Without hesitating, Kagami raised Adrien's gun to aim at Marinette and Luka. Adrien followed her line of sight and saw the pair were not even 50 meters down the mall yet, well within Kagami's range.
Adrien immediately reacted, pointing Kagami's own gun back at her.
"Kagami don't you dare," Adrien threatened.
Kagami didn't respond, and only stared ahead at her target. Adrien realized she had not yet fired because her shaking hands were preventing her from getting the proper aim.
"Kagami!" Tomoe shouted, her voice cold and assertive. "Shoot n–"
As Tomoe spoke to her daughter, Adrien felt a wave of déjà-vu wash over him. The world felt like it was moving in slow motion, and like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, the truth clicked into place in his mind.
Adrien shifted his aim.
He pulled the trigger.
Tomoe crumpled to the ground, her last words never finished.
Kagami slowly lowered the gun in her hands, turning back to Adrien. They exchanged a brief look of understanding, before Kagami quickly moved to her mother's side and knelt beside her.
Adrien watched her inspect the unresponsive woman, and he saw that his bullet had struck her directly through the heart.
"Kagami, I'm so sorry," Adrien whispered.
She was silent for a moment, before finally replying.
"Don't be," she said in an even tone. She looked across the green and gestured for Adrien to look as well. "They made it to the portal."
Adrien watched as the two silhouettes disappeared into the circular portal, and it closed into a point of light. He turned back to see Kagami adjusting her mother's clothes, and noticed she slipped something into her own pocket. He couldn't make out what the item was, but he was fairly certain he knew its purpose.
"Well,I was right," Kagami announced as she stood up. "You are a sentimentalist."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Adrien admitted.
"What you just did for Luka," Kagami replied, as if the answer was obvious. "And that fairy tale you invented to send Marinette away with him. Adrien, I know a little about women. She went, but she knew you were lying."
"Well then," Adrien replied, still shaken from how the event had played out. "Thanks for helping me out."
Kagam looked briefly back at her mother's body before answering, "I could say the same to you."
"I suppose you know this is not going to be pleasant for either of us… especially for you," Kagami reminded him.
Adrien knew how thoroughly he had messed up his own situation with this endeavor. He had tried not to think about it beforehand, but now reality was quickly catching up with him.
"She– They got away, that's all that matters," Adrien told Kagami.
Kagami didn't reply. They both stood in silence for a moment, until a group of three unmarked police cars pulled up to the park, their flashing lights basking the park in pulses of pale blue.
Several task force officers exited the vehicles and ran to Kagami, and Adrien realized they must have been close by this entire time.
"Captain Tsurugi!" one addressed her by her official title. "What happened? We heard gunshots."
Kagami maintained a calm and professional demeanor, uncharacteristic of a girl who had just been orphaned only moments ago.
"Madam Tsurugi has been shot," She stated. For a moment she looked at Adrien, the murder weapons still in his hand, and then continued. "Round up the usual suspects."
The officer looked caught off-guard by her composure, but had clearly learned while working for a shady pseudo-private police force not to ask too many questions.
Kagami placed a hand on Adrien's shoulder and guided them away from the body as the task force officers secured the area.
"Well Adrien," she whispered under her breath. You're not only a sentimentalist, but you've become a bit of a rebel."
"Maybe," Adrien admitted with a smirk. "But it seemed like as good a time as any to start."
"I think perhaps you're right," Kagami agreed. "It might be best for you to disappear from Paris for a while. There's certainly a lot of trouble coming for you here. And I understand there may be some monks you'd like to interview abroad?"
Kagami opened her palm to reveal a small thumb drive in her palm.
"You had a copy this whole time?" Adrien asked, astonished.
"How do you think the resistance knew where to look in the first place?" Kagami asked facetiously, a coy grin spreading across her face.
"I could use a trip," Adrien agreed, "but it doesn't make any difference about our bet, you still owe me the two thousand euros."
"And that two thousand euros will go toward our expenses," Kagmi replied.
Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Our expenses?"
"Of course," she confirmed while glancing back at where Tomoe had fallen. "My schedule has in fact opened up considerably."
Adrien smiled.
"Kagami, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."