The Algorithm

Chapter twenty - The Siren Without a Voice

Plagg left him alone and the blonde decided after some time to bring her more food, she had skipped meals for the past week or two and the little food she had eaten in the white room was not enough to get her strength back.

He stopped by the cafeteria, the workers had gotten used to Adrien taking two plates, once for himself and one for the bluenette no one had seen in some time. None of the employees stopped him from taking double the rations, Marinette was a familiar face and they knew the green-eyed boy would pass the food off to her.

He dropped it off the tray at her doorstep, fully expecting to see it sitting where he left it in the morning. But he didn't.

She took the food, he thought, that's good.

Since Marinette locked herself away, Adrien had been practicing old skills he had learned in training, but today Tikki was waiting for him outside his dorm.

"I'm sure you have questions." She said.

"Am I going to get answers?" He remarked and the tall redhead smiled.

Without another word, she started down the hall to the lifts. She contacted security over her comlink and asked them to open the trap door leading to the surface. Adrien climbed out of the hole in the ground and before he could close the path leading to the ladder, Tikki was making her way past the old oak that marked the entrance and into the forest.

The blond followed close behind as they threaded through the undergrowth. After about half an hour of silent walking, they found a clearing.

A graveyard, Adrien released. Black marble slabs sticking out of the earth like stone flowers. Perfectly symmetrical rows filled over half the clearing. It was a small space and he guessed there were roughly twenty to thirty graves.

"When an agent dies," Tikki began. "We usually send the body to the family. But every so often we come across one who doesn't have anyone outside GUARD to claim their remains. So, we lay them to rest here."

They walked through the rows, passing graves with names Adrien didn't recognize.

One specific tomb caught his eye. It had been dug recently, grass and plants were only now starting to take root on the earth again. Much like the other headstones, he did not know the name, but he knew the owner of the burial.

The woman in white who died at the auction.

Adrien could still see her falling to the floor in a pool of blood as the bullet ran through her, she was dead before she hit the ground. Even though he never knew her, it still hurt to think there wasn't anyone outside of this place who could take claim to her remains. There was wilted primrose resting against the cold black marble stone and that gave Adrien a little peace knowing that she did have someone somewhere.

Tikki weaved through the stone slabs until she stopped in front of one.

Luka was written into the marble and Adrien recognized the name as the one Marinette had said before Plagg asked him to leave.

Unlike all the other graves, this one only had the first name, and sitting to the left were two others with only a first name to mark them. Chloe and Alya.

"Who's Luka?" Adrien asked.

"Marinette wasn't the only Akuma experiment we rescued." Tikki knelt down and gathered the wilted daisies and roses that laid on the earth in front of the graves. "Marinette hasn't been here in a while." The redhead said while watching a dried rose petal crumble at her touch. "That figures."

"So, Marinette wasn't the only one who could move objects with her mind?" Adrien asked and Tikki shook her head in answer.

"No, they all had different abilities. Alya could turn invisible, Chloe could emit this yellow mist from her hands." That sounds familiar, Adrien thought. "And Luka could control sparks of electricity. They were a team that we called The Guardians, that's how GUARD got its name. For over two years they fought Akuma together but then on one mission, Marinette was the only one to come home."

"What happened?"

"Don't know, Marinette was the last one to see them alive and she doesn't talk about it..."

--------------------------------------------------

Word count- 4239 (not counting this)

This poor girl has been through enough, SHE NEEDS LOVE!!!!!!!!

What were your thoughts on this chapter?

Don't forget to vote and comment.