Chapter 4: Visitation
Lila was sitting beside the comatose Nathalie's bed at the hospital. She had been permitted to sit and watch over Nathalie until Gabriel arrived, and he wasn't due for at least an hour. She had plenty of time to get her laptop out of the bag she had brought into the room, and do some work.
Lila opened her VPN to communicate with her robot. Max was more inventive with AI, but he was no match for her at hacking. She had stolen the design and the software for Markov without getting caught. It was much easier to keep track of all her lies with his help.
"Machiavelli, report on my mothers," she texted.
Machiavelli texted back from the secret base in the Catacombs. "Maria is at the embassy, doing her secretarial work. Eudora was badly injured by Strikeback on her way home from seeing you off at the station, but she was restored to health by magical ladybugs. Grace is working at the deaf education center at usual. Stella is shopping, and Inga is still out of town on travel."
Through database hacking Lila had discovered women living in Paris who had given up children for adoption that would now be about her age. They were all single, and Eudora was in a lesbian relationship; Lila had no wish for another abusive stepfather. She contacted them by email and spun them stories so that each would take her in. Now that her face was everywhere as a popular fashion model, she had told Eudora and Grace that "Lila Rossi" was a stage name. She had other two other fall-back identities, in disguise so nobody would recognize her.
"Now I need a detailed report on what happened in Paris."
Machiavelli reported how Shadowmoth, now Monarch, had stolen the Ladybug Miraculous and several others. Based on sightings of the other heroes in Paris, he deduced that the hero team now had only the Cat, Bee, Tiger, Mouse, Rooster, Dog, Ox, and Fox Miraculous. Monarch had the Ladybug, Butterfly, Peacock, Rabbit, Snake, Monkey, Pig, Goat, and Horse.
Lila was delighted. Gabriel had gotten the Ladybug earrings, and all she needed now was to get them from him and also to get Chat Noire's ring and she would have what Shadow Moth had been seeking for so long, something that must be very powerful. Not only that, but Ladybug had been totally defeated and humiliated!
"Keep processing the images I sent you from the train," Lila texted.
After Nathalie's collapse, Lila had looked in the nearest bathroom on the train and found that Félix had left behind the tablet he stole from Nathalie (open to images from the Miraculous Grimoire that Lila had seen before). Lila copied the Grimoire images, along with their translations, into her own laptop, transmitted them to her lair, and replaced the tablet in Nathalie's luggage.
"I could have broken the code alone," said Machiavelli, "but having a second translation was helpful. The details about how to obtain a wish are 99.95% certain. As you anticipated, one must have both the Cat and Ladybug Miraculous. There is a sacrifice to be paid for a wish, but it is possible to put the consequences on others."
"Excellent," said Lila. "I will get the details from you in person later." She signed off and put the laptop away.
Gabriel and Adrian entered the hospital room.
Adrian rushed to the bedside. "Nathalie! How could we have let this happen? You were too ill to try to do a long trip like this!"
"Thank heavens you're here!" said Lila. "I had to call for help when Nathalie collapsed. Adrian, where did you go? I looked for you all over the train."
"I was never there," said Adrian. "That was my identical cousin, Félix. He tricked me and went on the train in my place."
"Oh no, why would he do that?" Lila asked, feigning surprise.
"Never mind that for now," said Gabriel. He walked to the bedside and lifted up Nathalie's left hand. "Do you know what happened to any jewelry that she was wearing? "
"I didn't notice anything," said Lila. "But the hospital took charge of all her things."
Gabriel made a call and quickly determined that the ring could not be found in Nathalie's property locker.
Lila knew they wouldn't find it – she had taken the ring herself and stuck it to her back with duck tape.
"Félix likes to pickpocket things. He's pretty good at sleight-of-hand." said Adrian. He said this with a surprising amount of anger in his voice.
"I know only too well," said Gabriel. He too seemed very angry.
"What's going to happen now?" asked Lila. "Are we still doing the promotional tour for First Love perfume? Can you get another chaperon for us? "
"The tour is canceled," Said Gabriel. "For one thing, it would be most embarrassing if Félix revealed what he did. I'm going to have Natalie transported back to Paris for treatment, and I will buy you a return train ticket to Paris, Lila."
"Very well, Mr Agreste," said Lila. "I'll be on call whenever you need."
After making arrangements with the hospital, the three of them went back to the train station and bought a ticket for Lila.
"You will be hearing from me very soon," said Gabriel to Lila. He turned to his son and said, "Now, Adrian, we need to visit your Aunt Amelie and see if she has been in touch with Félix."
"Yes father," said Adrian.
"Bye, Adrian. See you soon," said Lila, winking at him.
"Bye," said Adrian coldly. He turned and walked away with his father.
Lila smirked when his back was turned. If she was right about the properties of the ring, she was going to be able to have a lot of fun with Adrian, and hurt Marinette. She just had to be careful to keep it from Gabriel.
Lila hadn't really hated Marinette at first. But being thwarted by her again and again had put the girl on her enemies list.
Before she ran away from home, Lila had learned about events in Paris, about a supervillain named Hawkmoth who had the magical power to grant superpowers to others. He was opposed by two heroes with cat and ladybug costumes, and he wanted the magical jewels that gave them their powers. That could be Lila's shortcut to her own ultimate power.
She noticed that the "akuma victims" mainly seemed to come from a certain school in Paris. Ladybug and Chat Noir might also be at that school, or another school close by. (She estimated their age by their appearance and behavior).
Lila had hacked into the texts and emails of the students at the different schools before she enrolled, in order to learn their interests so that she could lie and ingratiate herself. (She created a few fake emails and images on her cell phone in order to make her lies convincing). While she was reading the texts, she learned about the situation of Marinette, a girl who lacked the confidence to confess to her crush, the famous model Adrian Agreste.
Pursuing Adrian had seemed like a good opportunity to stir up some drama and maybe cause the akumatization of Marinette, so she could observe the heroes close up. It turned out to be an amazing lucky break when she found out Adrian had a book that contained information about the very heroes she was pursuing. Adrian's father, Gabriel Agreste, became her number one suspect for Hawkmoth from that moment.
But Ladybug had confronted Lila over her lies about being her best friend, so Lila became akumatized herself. That didn't gain her any information because she forgot everything. She had ended up withdrawing for a while from that school, observing and plotting how she could get in good with Gabriel. It had worked out very well; she was now his trusted agent against Marinette, and the model for his brands.
Lila had half an hour to wait for the train, so she found an isolated corner in a nearby coffee shop where she could consider her plans.
She opened her laptop and looked at the background wallpaper, the image of a spy composed of random characters. Random, except for a few letters that she had changed by hand to form the word "pandoxy." Her deepest shame, which she kept as a reminder to drive her to her goal.
Her real name was Pandora Vasilou, and she was born in Greece. When she was thirteen her father had died and a year later her mother had remarried a man from England. Her stepfather had groomed her and seduced her. For a while he seemed wonderful. He called her "my little Pandoxy." She thought it was cute until her budding genius led her to study on the internet and learn English. She found out "doxy" was a rude name for the mistress of a married man. She was filled with rage and humiliation; her latent sociopathy exploded.
Pandora decided to run away and build a new life for herself. She built up her skills in computer hacking and amassed a small fortune from cyber crime, but she wanted much more. She would show the world she was not to be used and despised.
Once Pandora was ready, she left her parents one final parting gift: a bomb.
Now that she could get a wish, there were no limits to her ambitions. She could create a whole new world, one where she would be worshiped, where she could torment her enemies forever. Sacrificing the old world would be a small price to pay.