Not Alone: A Miraculous Ladybug Story

Chapter 41

 Adrien felt antsy and useless all week. He an Marinette were rarely apart, and usually with Alya and Nino as well. None of them intentionally planned to do this, but in the back of all of their minds was the idea that being together would make it easier to react as quickly as possible. While they sat uselessly, Chloé was spending her evenings in the middle of the viper's nest. The rest of them being together would cut down the time to assemble should she send up a metaphorical "bat signal". So they waited.

Chloé was more than capable of taking care of herself, and Adrien knew her too well to worry that Germain would manipulate her through the biological connection they had. Adrien knew that. Chloé knew that. Germain didn't know that, and that was what they were all counting on. Hopefully Chloé would be able to gain his trust enough to find out where his mom was being held.

Now Friday night, they all were getting anxious. Two nights ago, Chloé had stopped by Marinette's where they all were to give a quick update even though she looked exhausted.

"I'm getting close," she said through a yawn. "He lets me wander around the building without an escort now and will send me to get people for him. I know the lay of the place, so Marinette, I'll go through that with you tomorrow and we can create some mock blueprints in case Adela is actually somewhere in the building." She paused to yawn again as Marinette nodded at her. "I found a few locked rooms, so we'll mark those too. I don't think Adela's being kept there though. It's not guarded and I've heard him get calls and talk briefly about a woman; so, I think she's being held elsewhere, even though that video your dad got was definitely from this headquarters." She shivered, and looked over at Adrien.

Adrien had a chill go through him too. The rest of them had not seen the entirety of the video, but Chloé had requested to. She had wanted to take in any detail that might be useful and to remind herself of who this man was, if ever she felt the sway of his influence. She had told Adrien privately that Gabriel's description of Germain as charismatic was an understatement.

"I would never admit this to the others, because the last thing they need is any reason to doubt me, but I can see how he's amassed such a following. When he talks, you just want to believe him." She laughed mirthlessly. "If I didn't know better I'd say he had some sort of superpower himself. No wonder he wanted to capture Adela's miraculous. With her added power over emotion, they would have been unstoppable." They had looked at each other, fear evident in their eyes at the prospect of that outcome.

He sighed. He was resolving himself the dashed hope of rescuing his mother this week. It was too much to ask that Chloé figure it all out in less than 5 days. She was good, but surely Germain wasn't stupid enough to give up the information that they needed to someone who was basically a stranger to him, even if they shared the same blood.

He looked across the room, and saw Nino with his headphones on, music blasting and oblivious to the world, and Alya typing away at his computer, no doubt using some of her "insider's knowledge" to update the Ladyblog. He looked down at Marinette next to him dozing lightly on the couch and smiled reaching down and pushing her bangs back from her eyes. She was only taking up half the couch, so He curled up in the opposite direction and layed down on the pillow she was using, his forehead just touching the back of her head. Reaching up, he grasped one of her hands that was tucked under the pillow, and her fingers gripped his as he fell asleep.

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The smack of metal and the dull reverberation of glass startled Marinette from her nap and she was awake and standing in the matter of seconds. She started to yell fo Tikki to transform, when she caught sight of Queen Bee who was standing up from her hasty, and probably less than graceful, entrance. Marinette was sorry she had missed her tumbling entrance, but then she saw Queen Bee's face. It wasn't the forlorn expression she had worn the last few nights when she had come to give them a debrief. Instead it was a panic-tinged excitement overlaying something that looked like hope. Without looking, she nudged Adrien's head, amazed at that boy's ability to sleep through anything and waved her arms in the direction of Alya and Nino, who were both wearing noise canceling headphones and caught completely unawares.