Heyyyy lovely people...obviously I've been gone a while, sorry about that hehe. The truth is I got super caught up in a relationship which was wonderful for a few weeks and then ended suddenly. Took up a lot more time than I expected and literally had no time for writing between that and work and trainings and other random stuff.
The good-? news? is that I'm single again so I have plenty more time to write now XD So, I hope y'all enjoy this chapter and the next ones to follow! As always thank you for the support, reviews always welcome!
(::)
Chapter 14
(::)
"Where are we going?" Kagami hugged Felix's neck as he was transformed and flew off across the Paris rooftops, away from the College Franscois Dupont. "Are you really going to do exactly as Ladybug says?"
He smirked at her. "You know me too well, ma reine."
Her eyes narrowed. "Mind clueing me in, then?"
Felix stopped, hovering elegantly on the edge of a railing overlooking the Agreste mansion.
Yet she never felt the slightest bit like they were falling.
"I have an idea of how to defeat my uncle," he explained with a smug smile. "Neither he nor your mother will allow us to be together, but as long as Alliance continues to project whatever fantasies they come up with, you will never truly be free."
Kagami pursed her lips. "So you think we should shut down Alliance? My mother's security protocols are far too strong for that. Unless...could you create an amok that would hack into it?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," he nodded. "But I'm not sure if my powers are quite that strong. We can always try, but we need a backup plan. Besides, I think we should do more than just shut Alliance down. We should send a message to the world that dispels the lies they've been fed. Something that tells them the truth about you, about Adrien, about us."
Kagami's heart jumped. "You want to tell everyone about us? Felix, I don't want the world to know the truth about us."
His eyebrows creased.
"I've had my entire life paraded on a screen in front of hundreds of thousands of people! As much as I hate the lies, I never wanted to be famous or recognizable in the first place. I wanted to stand on my own achievements, not those my mother forced on me."
Felix looked hurt, as she scrambled down from his arms, wobbling slightly on the railing before he caught her. "I don't understand. If our love is as important to you as you say, wouldn't you want to shout it from the rooftops? Why shouldn't everyone know?"
"Why should anyone know our private business?" she exclaimed, becoming frustrated. "Telling people about our relationship who don't even know about us, don't even care? It would only give them the opportunity to use our love against us!"
"You see our love as a weakness?!" Felix stumbled back with a gasp.
Tears began spilling over Kagami's amber eyes. "Yes! It makes me afraid that I will lose you, if not to my mother's than to someone else's greedy and power-hungry schemes! Like it or not, my image now has influence that people will want, and do wicked things to obtain!"
Felix, fighting back tears of his own, crossed his arms over his chest. "So in the name of 'protection', it's okay for the world to think you're in love with Adrien, but not with ME?"
"If that's what it takes to keep you safe, then YES!"
"I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself safe. I thought you had more respect for me than that, Kagami."
"More respect than you had for me, kidnapping me and keeping secrets from me, as though I couldn't defend myself against my own mother?"
"You were okay with that!" He exclaimed, grinding his teeth. "If I hadn't rescued you, you'd still be under her thumb and we never would have fallen in love in the first place!"
Kagami growled in frustration. "How can it be that I love you so much and yet you infuriate me!?"
She effortlessly hopped down from the railing, even as Felix cringed at the drop, with the grace she'd obtained from years of athleticism.
Frowning, he jumped and landed on the cobblestone pavement beside her, detransforming quickly in case the Agreste mansion had security cameras at all angles.
The two of them stood side by side in their respective 'disguises', avoiding eye contact with each other.
Felix let out a pained breath. "So what now-?" he muttered.
"I thought you were the one with the master plan here," she bit back.
"Which you apparently hate."
"I never said that! Stop making assumptions about me. We've only known each other a few weeks!"
"Speak for yourself," he frowned. "They were some of the best weeks of my life. It's nice to know you don't feel the same way."
"I never said THAT, either!"
Both of them jumped as the gate, with a creak, suddenly swung open. Felix tried to grab and pull her back behind a column, to which she glowered at him and pulled away, hiding behind a different one. He ground his teeth in frustration.
They were interrupted by the sound of a car engine, as a sleek, black limousine rolled through the gates, followed closely by a nondescript white one.
Kagami strained to see around Felix, who was in the way of her line of sight. The black limo was M. Agreste's, but the white one? That wasn't her mother's limousine, so who was in it?
Before she could stop him, Felix moved forward and slipped around inside the gate.
She scowled. He was so reckless! At least now she could see her mother's red limousine was already inside the park, now joined by the other two. She must be inside.
Angling herself so she could peer through the bars of the gate, she watched the black limo's door swing open and the imposing, white-suited figure of M. Agreste exit the vehicle. The sun glinted eerily off the frames of his glasses, even though she couldn't see his face from her angle. A black-suited figure with a mask over his face exited the white limo, followed by a second person dressed in the same manner. As Gabriel looked on, the two masked men opened the back of the white limo, reaching inside and pulling out-
Kagami couldn't hold back a gasp.
"Unhand me, you terrorist monsters!" a familiar voice started yelling, as familiar white converse kicked futilely at the two thugs, who grabbed him by the arms and hauled him from the vehicle.
Max Kante's face came into view, his glasses cracked and hanging halfway off his face, as he continued to wrestle and kick his scrawny limbs at the bigger thugs.
"You will hear from the President of France about this!" he yelled at them. "I'll contact the United Nations, the International Space Force! I will never reveal my knowledge of artificial intelligence to the likes of you!"
"We'll see about that," Gabriel replied smoothly, hands folded behind his back as he calmly peered at the boy he'd kidnapped.
Max stared up at him in shock, before looking around, suddenly realizing where he was. "Monsieur Agreste!? Even I thought you were above domestic terrorism and kidnapping of scientists! Adrien would be so ashamed of you!"
"Adrien will become the face of my rule across the entire world in the next few hours," Gabriel replied smugly, "And it will be thanks to you. Take him inside," he instructed the thugs. Turning, he startled upon seeing something in the corner of his yard. "Adrien!?"
Kagami felt her heart drop. Felix, you idiot!
As she watched in horror, a police bot rolled up to M. Agreste, dragging her boyfriend, his hair mussed to resemble Adrien's, behind it. "Intruder located and neutralized, sir," the police bot stated in a robotic voice.
"That's my son, you mindless machine," Gabriel seethed, finding his voice after a moment of shock. He blinked a few times, clearly not knowing what to do with the situation. "Take him inside. Don't let him run off again."
"Yes, Sir."
Kagami breathed slowly, hardly daring to make even that sound. She had to do something! Just as she moved to sneak inside, however, she froze.
Her eyes wide, she realized something strange-she COULDN'T move. Her eyes darted to the side.
"Intruder neutralized," another robotic voice sounded, this time inches away.
NO!
Her whole body trembled, then collapsed to the sidewalk, her muscles refusing to cooperate. What had the police bots done to her and Felix!?
She felt a tug at her leg, the police bot dragging her inside the gate, then into the mansion.
"Well, well."
Kagami's heart jumped at the female voice that greeted them, once inside.
The heavy doors of the Agreste mansion slammed shut, as she lay paralyzed against the cool marble floor, her skin stinging from scraping along the walkway.
Two boots clicked against the floor as they came just into view, under a pair of wide red pants.
Kagami panted. She didn't need to look up to know it was her mother.
"Turns out Gabriel-San was right, for once, about you and Adrien coming back to us. Daughter," the last word was spoken in a sneering tone. "But lest you run off again..."
Her heart pounded in her chest. Her mother bent over, tracing her shoulder down to her right hand, and fingering the ring with their family crest.
"I had hoped I would never need to use this," Tsurugi murmured contemplatively. She slipped the ring off Kagami's hand, placing it on her own as she stood once again. "But if you refuse to let me teach you obedience, you will force me to resort to other methods. Kagami," her voice took on a warning edge, "I will break you if I have to, to watch you succeed."
Call me a big meanie but I so wanted to write Kagami and Felix fighting ever since they went from enemies to lovers in 0.25 seconds XD
I still think they're super cute together, but let's be honest, they have a lot of differences to work through!