Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

Stranger in Town

The Madness of Love's Flame: Chapter 4

Secrets, Painful and Otherwise

Atop the building where the heroes had gathered: Adriel was standing, perfectly still, hands clasped in front of her, in an attitude of prayer. This, she'd told them, was the most efficient way to communicate with the Powers that ruled the Heaven universe. "And I must send some detailed information. This way is more, I suppose you'd call it, 'broadband' than others." Even so, it seemed to be taking her a long time.

But finally, she reached a conclusion in her messaging, and looked up. Turned to them. "My people are sending three hundred fifty Ascendant Rescue Carriers. Perhaps they won't be needed, but they will be an option, if all else fails."

"Ascendant Rescue Carriers?" asked Chloe. "What are those?"

"Astral transports designed to carry large numbers of a population to a safer locale. Each one can hold millions of humans, as well as a similar number of animals and plants. There are few suitable worlds anywhere close by. However, we've several superhabitable worlds in mind, all of them on the opposite side of this galaxy's central black hole, in its 'shadow,' I suppose you'd say, to ensure that, should the worse come to worst, they'll be shielded from Akane's blast radius…but we must first make sure such worlds are truly acceptable. Sometimes seemingly perfect worlds contain microorganisms that effectively render them uninhabitable. Spores, disease germs, viri…that sort of thing." She paused. "The ARCs may not hold the entire population of the planet, plus a sufficient amount of flora and fauna, for a proper 'restart,' but it's the best we can do at this point."

"And as for our reinforcements," spoke up Morax, "I'm told they're on their way." But even as he spoke, several pentagrams of fire formed in their midst, with shadonai rising up out of them. The newcomers were led by one distinguished looking demon, taller than Morax, and to whom Morax deferred. "Report, Honored One?" he asked, bowing slightly to Morax in respect.

Morax returned the bow and gestured with his trident, towards the burning sections of the city. "You see, Exalted One. The fire has caught, and is spreading. Of course, it goes without saying that the humans are powerless to stop it."

"Hm," said the leader, "The problem is, so are we. As long as Akane is within this 'brane, and alive, that fire will continue to burn…unless something unimaginable happens..." But just as he said that, the flames seemed to abate slightly, like a candle almost blown out by a giant's breath, then came back full-force. "Now what happened there, I wonder?"

But before anyone could answer, or even speculate, Cat Noir suddenly sat down on a nearby ledge, and put his face in his hands. Only Morax was close enough to him to hear him whisper, "Father…" He'd felt something happen, there, in the direction of the Agreste mansion. He had no inkling as to what it could have been. All the others saw was Cat Noir becoming unusually distressed over…something? But what? Ladybug looked at him with concern. What was going on?

In the back of her mind, a suspicion she couldn't even put a name to occurred to her…but she immediately dismissed it. Even though she couldn't have said what it was, she unthought it almost immediately.

No. No way.

Surely not.

The Leader of the newly-arrived shadonai addressed the group. "I've summoned seven legions of devils, largely for damage control, as well as more demons. I've a hunch they'll all be needed." He turned to Ladybug, Rena Rouge, Cat Noir, and Red Wasp. "I've given them orders to obey you, as you have a better grasp of the situation than any of us. Each of you will command a legion apiece; Deanna, Morax, and I will be in command of 3 legions of our own

"They are quite powerful, physically; and utterly dedicated, so employ them wisely.

"Meanwhile, let us remand to Damien's abode, and plan our next move."

Adriel went over to Cat Noir. "Cat? I need you to come with me. There is a matter arising which only you can deal with."

….

They materialized in a dark alley, far from the burning sections of Paris. Even so, they could see the reflections of the strangely-coloured fire reflecting off the high clouds. "What are we doing here?" asked Cat Noir.

"Something very important, that will change your life forever. I don't know how doable it'll be, and it certainly won't be easy, but it must be done." She put two fingers to her left temple, closed her eyes, and Thought.

An angel can think, or an angel can Think. If the latter, those Thoughts can travel the aether, at an instantaneous speed, a speed beyond speed, the ultimate communications net. Whatever she did, it didn't take long. Then she settled down. "Now we wait."

"Wait for what?"

"For what must be."

Something occurred to him…or rather, something had been on his mind for quite some time, but he'd never found the right time to bring it up. "Uh, Miss Adriel? What about Kagami?"

She quirked a smile. It was no wonder why, to her, the Japanese girl's well-being was of such concern to him. "More reinforcements have arrived, and I've alerted Morax-and Exalted Darian, he who led the first group-of her plight. Reinforcements of my own people are due to arrive shortly, and I've already alerted them, too. But for now, you need to revert to your civilian identity…Adrien."

"Whu-what?" He was flustered, years of having to keep a secret ID kicking in. "I, I don't know what you're talking abou-*"

"Adrien. It is impossible to keep such secrets from one such as myself. If it's any consolation, the shadonai are also fully aware of Ladybug's secret identity as well as your own. But someone is coming who does not know them and who does not need to know them. Now, hurry. She's not far away."

He reached for his ring, then thought. "Will…will you, all of you, keep Kagami safe? I mean…"

Again a smile. Young love. Kagami might have broken up with him, but that didn't necessarily mean his own feelings had changed appreciably. "As we would our own. Now, hurry."

Well, Adriel knew his secret anyway. He raised his hand. "Plagg, claws in!" And once more, Adrien Agreste stood before her.

Not a moment too soon. "Adrien?" It was Nathalie's voice, coming from the sidewalk, just outside. "Adrien! Are you in there?"

"I'm here, Nathalie!" He waved his arms over his head. In the low visibility, it was possible she might not be able to spot him.

She rushed over to him, and did something totally out of character for her: after only a brief hesitation, she drew him to a full-fledged hug. To say that he was shocked would have been an understatement; his father had hugged him, but only a couple of times in his memory. Nathalie… But she released him, and held him at arm's length. Oddly, she didn't seem to notice the glowing angel sitting on a dumpster mere feet away. "Something…something told me I'd find you here.

"Adrien…I have some…bad news for you."

"Father's dead, isn't he?"

She blinked. "I…was hoping to find a less painful way of putting it, but…yes, I'm afraid he is. But how did you know?"

He looked away. The lights of the blazing city were becoming visible, in the distance, and every so often, they could hear a crackle of the immense flame. "I don't know. I…just had this feeling, like I can't describe. I just knew he was dead." He looked up at her. "How did he die?"

"I don't know, but, right now, that isn't important. I have some more news for you, and I doubt you'll be able to take this as easily as the other." She turned to Mr. Placide, standing silently nearby, who was holding a peculiar-looking designer box. Still neither of them seemed to notice the angel over by the wall.

Not take this new information as well as that of his father's death? What felt like a growing sickness, a nausea, began to form in the pit of his stomach.

"Your father ordered me to get you to Damien's apartment, calling it the safest place in Paris. But he also told me to tell you two things: One, that he loves you very much, and two…" here she drew a deep breath, "...two, he was sorry. For everything. Those were his exact words." She paused a moment, watching his face. "I think you'll see why in a moment."

At his silence, as he tried to digest that (What could Father have been talking about?), she continued, rapidly, it seemed to him. "Your father was Monarch."

It was as if a sonic boom had gone off inside his skull, temporarily erasing all conscious thought. Then his wetware subsystems came back online. "Nathalie, that isn't funny," he snapped. "It's bad enough Father's dead, you don't have to make jokes about-*"

She held up the largish box and opened it, facing him. Inside were the MIraculous's, along with the controllers.

All of them.

"He wanted you to have these. I don't know if they'll do any good against this threat, but, one way or another, they are now yours.

"I think it was his hope you'd be able to make better use of them than he did, especially during this crisis." She held the box out to him. "Take them, Adrien. They're yours, now.

"Use them well."

….

Back at Damien's apartment: Ayla would be heard to say, later, that it looked like Adrien had been slammed into a wall of feather pillows. Repeatedly.

Marinette, meanwhile, was having conflicting feelings. On the one hand, she was happy beyond measure that Adrien had joined them. Whatever plan the angels and shadonai had cooked up / were cooking up would now certainly involve him, the love of her life. Surely, at the center of whatever they were going to do, she'd be able to keep him safe. On the other, he'd been brought here by none other than Nathalie and his bodyguard, neither of whom were exactly on her Christmas card list.

But upon hearing, from a stumbling Adrien, that his father was dead, her sympathy gene almost popped, and she rushed to him…only to be stopped by Deanna. "Hold on, 'bug. There's something else bothering the home out of him. Let me talk to him." And with that, she led Adrien into the bedroom. Closed the door and sat him down on the side of the bed, and sat beside him. She noticed the box he had a death-grip on, and her sight-beyond-sight told her what it was, what it contained. That, she knew, could only mean one thing. "C'mon, Adrien," she said, rubbing a hand over his back, "What's going on? C'mon, talk to me."

"It…it…Deanna, I, I'm not sure where to start.

"Father's dead. I don't know the particulars. But Nathalie said one of his last orders to her was to get me here, to Damien's.

"But then she…she lowers a major boom on me." He turned to her, eyes wide. "Deanna, she's telling me Father was Monarch!" He turned to the box, opened it for her to see. "A-and she must be telling the truth. Otherwise, how did he get…all these?"

Goooood question, thought Deanna. "Adrien, that's…bad, I know. Do-do you know how he died?"

"No. I don't think Nathalie knows. He, he apparently ordered her to bring me here before…whatever happened, happened. And, and gave her these, to give to me." With that, he fell silent.

She could sense his churning thoughts, and could understand. His father, not just dead, but also a supervillain? How could that be worse? "So…what will you do now? I know you already hold the kwami of destruction, Plagg-oh, don't look so shocked! It's kinda hard to keep such a secret from beings like us. Don't sweat it."

He turned and looked at her. "Did you know Father was Monarch?"

"I never met your father," she prevaricated, "and so I couldn't say. But I did meet you. But you didn't answer my question."

He sat forward, rubbing his face in his hands. "I...I don't know. What will I do? Give them back to Ladybug, I guess…I mean, that's what I ought to do, isn't it? They were stolen from her, now she'll have them back.

"I know for a fact I don't wanna be the Guardian! That's too much like work!" He even managed a weak smile. A very weak smile.

"And your father being Monarch? What will you do about that?"

"Deanna, I guess the only thing I can do is to come clean. Let everybody know I'm the son of a monster. I mean, that's the only honest thing to do, isn't it? They'll all hate me, of course, but-*"

"Now don't start that! These are your friends, Adrien. If they're true friends, they'll understand. And, and Adrien: your father was not a monster, and neither are you. I've known monsters, real monsters, and he wasn't one of them. Even though we never met, I could sense that. He was a man, driven by who knows what to do what he did. Now come here. Just come over here." He was sitting right beside her, their hips touching. She drew his head down to her shoulder, held him in her embrace. "Now cry, Adrien. Just cry."

Adrien cried.

….

Afterward: her empathic senses told her he'd reached equilibrium. It had taken a while; she could understand that. Here, his father, whom he'd almost idolized, whose good approval he'd always sought, was not only dead, but his legacy tainted. It really didn't get much worse than this. "You're gonna need to tell the others, you know. Ladybug, in particular."

"No!" He jerked his head up, tears still in his eyes. "Deanna! I can't tell Ladybug, of all people, that my own father, whom we both fought all these years was, was Hawk Moth! There's no-*"

"Can you not tell her?" she asked softly.

His objections trailed off. Yeah, she was right. He had to give the Miraculous's back to Ladybug and how would he explain how he came by them? Even supposing he made up some convincing lie, which went against his nature, still, sooner or later, the truth would come out. What then?

He loved Ladybug. Now she'd see him for what he really was. In spite of Deanna's words, he had no doubt how she'd react.

Break a leg, and the pain eventually passes. But the pain of a broken heart lasts forever.

Deanna went to the doorway. The others looked up, and she motioned to Ladybug to step into the bedroom.

Once inside, Deanna positioned Ladybug to sit down next to Adrien. "No, sit closer. Closer still," she instructed a blushing Ladybug. "There. That oughtta do it." Both of the humans' faces were quite red. Deanna, herself, sat on the other side. This prevented Adrien, still holding the box he'd received from Nathalie, from hitching over, away from his love. How could he stand to look at her, knowing now what he did? How could she stand to look at him? "Go ahead, Adrien. Tell her what you told me."

Adrien tried, but it was like his voice was paralyzed. What would she think of him? Right now, he didn't think very highly of himself.

But finally, he managed to let slip that his father was dead. "Oh, no! Adrien! That's awful!" Ladybug wrapped her arms around him. "Did…did he die in the fire?"

"I, I don't know. But there's more." Here comes the hard part. "Apparently, Father was…Monarch." There. He'd said it. Now would come the suspicion, the antipathy, the hate…and rightly deserved, too.

"W-what? Adrien…what are you saying? If this is some kind of joke, it's in very poor taste."

In response, he simply opened the box Nathalie had given him, showing her the Miraculous's, each one nestled in a custom designed receptacle. She gasped. There was no denying the evidence of her senses.

"I'm not the Guardian, Ladybug. You are. So here. I haven't counted them, to see if they're all here or not, but…well, here." And he shoved the box into her hands.

The box felt warm to her touch. She had a moment to reflect that, had it been anyone other than Adrien, she and Cat Noir would have simply exchanged one villain for another, maybe a worse one. Again, she wrapped her arms around him, but this time less impulsively. This time it was a very deliberate expression on her part. How did I ever get this lucky? My….

…friend…

…was offered what amounts to unlimited power, and, in spite of his suffering from the death of his father, was still honest enough to return that power to me?

Would anybody else, on the face of the entire Earth, do that? She kissed him on the cheek. "Adrien, 'thank you' isn't nearly enough, but it's all I've got. Thank you, Adrien Agreste."

From the very back of her mind, a gleeful something thought: Actually, technically, it isn't all you've got.

Even before all this, you couldn't think of anyone you'd rather Give It to, than him. Now you sure can't.

If only Deanna wasn't in here with us…

If only that door had a nice, stout lock…

…and was soundproofed…

Deanna was rolling her eyes. If only these two would just Do It, already!

"Look, Adrien, I have to tell Rena Rouge, okay? Now, don't look like that!" It would have been so easy, she thought, for him to just have kept the Miraculous's, become Monarch 2.0. She'd once been afraid he was Hawk Moth. The relief she'd felt when she learned otherwise… "C'mon! You did the right thing as soon as you could! What more could anyone ask?"

"Ladybug, it's just that I feel…tainted or something. I mean, I've just learned my father was an international supervillain, was directly responsible for who knows how much misery. How am I supposed to feel?"

"You feel," she said sternly, "like a guy who's been deceived. We all were." But in the back of her mind, she wondered, she truly wondered, how she'd take it if, God forbid, it should turn out that her own parents had been leading a double life. As criminals, yet. Would it be so easy to adjust to? Was she maybe being a little too flip? "But you know what? As much trouble as Hawk Moth, or Monarch, ever gave us, I never got the impression that it was something he did just because he was evil. Rather, all that he did…it was just something he felt like he had to do, for some reason. I mean, he wasn't in it for the money, or anything…"

"Yeah," said Adrien, "That's kinda what Deanna was just saying."

Oh was she now? Ladybug-Marinette-cast a jealous glance at the demon girl. She couldn't help but remember that demons, historically, seemed to have no moral qualms about bedding mortals. You better not try to have your way with this mortal.

'Cause that's my job.

Deanna pretended not to notice.

….

Deanna went to the door and motioned to Rena Rouge, who was sitting, poised and ready, on the other side of the room from Nathalie and Adrien's bodyguard. Although Mr. Placide had seemed like a good enough sort in the past, she trusted Nathalie as far as she could throw her. Under Jupiter's gravity.

She was also thinking it rather odd that she hadn't seen any sign of Damien since they returned to his apartment. Could he have gone somewhere? But none of the other shadonai seemed to find his absence peculiar…

Now Deanna was motioning her to come into the bedroom. Once there, she couldn't help but notice Adrien and Ladybug sitting so very close together. Well, it's about time!

Gonna be a challenge to get the covers turned down with those two still sitting on them, though.

Hmmm…turn the lights out and somehow sneak / snake / snuck Marinette's earrings off of her…

She'd have to take it from there, though. I am not undressing her.

Or him.

"Okay, I'm here. What's the news?" And wouldn't you rather have a little privacy? But Deanna was here. Unless they were into threesomes-make that foursomes, with her there-but no, she just didn't see it. Had to be something else.

Ladybug nudged Adrien, who had a "trapped" look in his eye. He clearly would've liked to have been somewhere else. Then he sighed. "I've just had my nose rubbed in two very unpleasant facts, Rena Rouge. First, my father is dead."

"WHAT?! Adrien, that's awful! Was it the fire?"

"No one seems to know, but…" He hesitated, then suddenly blurted out, "He was also Monarch."

Dead silence.

Rena Rouge reached over and placed the back of her hand against his forehead. "You don't have a fever." She checked his eyes. "Pupils aren't dilated…"

"He's telling the truth, Rena," said Ladybug softly. "Look." And she opened the box, showing her the Miraculous's, snugly nestled in their compartments. "Adrien did the right thing and returned these to me."

Rena Rouge-Ayla Cesaire-felt as though she'd been punched in the gut. In her civilian identity, she'd met with Gabriel Agreste on more than one occasion, and, while he always seemed cold and distant, she'd just figured that was his way.

But this!

Well, actually, it explained quite a lot.

"But…but he was the Collector, wasn't he? I mean, akumatized, but…" But she trailed off as she realized how a skillful Miraculous user (particularly one as adept as Hawk Moth) could so easily misdirect people. After all, there was nothing any of them knew that said a Miraculous holder couldn't be akumatized, himself, now, was there? Perhaps deliberately so? What better false trail?

Damn. This was bad.

But Adrien was their friend. She bent down and pulled him into a hug. "Well, look. Yeah, I won't say I know what you're going through, 'cause that would be a lie, and you'd know it. But, but…I mean, don't go thinking what I can tell you're thinking.

"Yes, it will make a difference in the way we think about you." Everyone looked at her in surprise. She pulled back and looked her future brother-in-law in the face. "We-at least I-think better of you now. How could we not? I mean, here you are, at the lowest point of your life, and you still had the sheer virtue to do the right thing. Do you know how many other people would've failed that test, I mean, like, catastrophically? Kept the Miraculous's for themselves? I'm honestly not sure how I would've reacted to that. Why, when Cat Noir gets back-*"

Adrien and Deanna exchanged the briefest of glances. Your call, Adrien.

Yeah, he thought, I guess now's as good a time as any. He sighed. "Ladybug? Rena Rouge? There's still something else I feel like I have to tell you."

"What's that?"

"You don't have to wait for Cat Noir to return.

"That's because he's already here." He held up his ring. "Plagg! Claws out!"

To be continued…

…..