Between Generations

Chapter 23

Lise didn't know how long she sat there, processing everything.

This couldn't be right. This was just a dream, something made up in her mind in her hallucinations by whatever pricked her back on the streets of Paris.

But another part of her mind told her that this was real. That this was a memory. Not hers, but something else that had put this event so deep into her mind that even she couldn't reach it. So she could find out someday.

As much as Lise tried to deny it, she knew in her heart.

It explained everything.

Why she was so unlike her parents. Why all her life she always felt like something was missing. Why she was always so unsure of herself. Why she never really knew who she was.

Because Kim and Alix are not my parents.

Lise exhaled, then gulped in a breath, not realizing that she had been holding it. She gazed down the stairs where her parents had gone, then behind her.

My real parents are back there.

She stood up slowly, looking down the hallway to the door where they were. Her hands shook.

This is my chance. My chance to find out who they really are.

But a blinding flash erupted from the dark hallway, and screams erupted. Suddenly, the whiteness sped down the hallway towards her. She reached up with her hands to cover her face--

The world turned black.

-----

"Wow, this guy's a little hard to beat," Chat Noir called out to Ladybug. She cartwheeled to the right to avoid another dart from the Memorializer.

They were fighting the Memorializer atop some residential buildings further away from the heart of the city. She swung her yoyo into a circle to create a shield. "That's a little bit of an understatement," she said. "We need to destroy her dart gun. That must be where the akuma is."

"Eh, I don't think so." Chat Noir spun his staff into a shield as well. The Memorializer's darts were coming too fast to dodge. "Look at how she favors her left leg. It's like she's trying to protect it."

Ladybug narrowed her eyes at the Memorializer's left leg. A thin line was neatly tied around the ankle, with a few beads strung into it. "A bracelet!" she exclaimed. "Lucky charm!" She thrust up her yoyo. Magic sprung out of it and materialized into a large photograph of a rather handsome man.

"Wow, that guy's rather claw-some," Chat Noir joked.

"I think this guy has something to do with why this woman was akumatized." Ladybug glanced around at her surroundings.

Below her in the alley, Ladybug saw a discarded copy machine, a fan, and an electric cable. "I know what I have to do! Chat Noir, hold her off!" she called out, and leaped down to the electric cable. She used fire escapes to do wall jumps before landing softly onto the cement ground.

Ladybug plugged in the electric cable to an outdoor outlet, then attaching it to the copy machine. She placed the photograph into the glass tray, and pressed one hundred copies. She then plugged in the fan to the outlet.

Once the photos were done, Ladybug set the large pile in front of the roaring fan. She watched as the numerous photographs of the handsome man holding the rose flew up into the air, where she was certain that the Memorializer would see it.

She leaped up to join Chat Noir. As she had expected. Memorializer was distracted by the photos, and shot her darts at each of them in anger. Taking advantage of the distraction, Ladybug ran and then slid between the woman's legs. She grasped hold of the bracelet, and yanked it off. A purple butterfly slipped out.

"No more evil-doing for you, little akuma." Ladybug opened her yo-yo until it was bright white. She swung it at the dark butterfly, and it was swiftly captured. "Gotcha."

When the butterfly had been cleansed, Ladybug let it go. "Bye-bye, little butterfly." After she tossed the original photograph into the air, everything had been returned to normal.

"Pound it!" she cried out to Chat Noir as they fist-bumped. "I'm gonna go and check on Li--er, the girl we found before. She seemed pretty traumatized. See ya!" She threw her yoyo, and flew away from the admiring black cat.

-----

Soft fabric was all Lise could feel as she woke up. Her eyes felt heavy, as if she hadn't slept at all.

Which I somehow haven't. It didn't feel like a dream.

It felt real.

Lise slowly could feel the rest of her limbs, the numbness fading like clouds after a heavy storm. Strength poured into her body, until she was fully conscious. She opened her eyes.

Rays of sunlight shone on her eyes from a balcony door across the room. She squinted, and lifted her hand to block it. Lise then examined her surroundings.

Chinese furniture was around the room, with a large soft mattress dominating the center of the small space. Lise was on a cheap couch near the doorway, just across from an antique cabinet. It was dark red with amber sliding doors. Brown plant designs swept along the edges of the doors, seeming to hug whatever lay inside.

But what caught Lise's eye when she sat up, was a large megaphone at the other side of the room. She glanced around. No one was here.

She walked over to the megaphone, still feeling a little unsteady on her legs. There was a sense of familiarity wafting from the object, and she felt compelled to run her hands among it.

I feel like I've seen this before...she thought, turning the megaphone to the right. Wasn't there a button...?

There was. Lise let her fingers linger over the small oval button.

She hesitated.

There was still no one around.

She pushed it in.

Suddenly, the horn turned to the right sharply, and it popped open. A midnight hexagonal box rose from the gap, covered in red Chinese markings.

The Miraculous box.

"That's not a good idea."

Lise's stomach plummeted when the voice rang out from behind her. "I'm sorry, I--"

"You're just like your mother. Too curious for your own good." A small Chinese man in a red Hawaiian shirt pushed between her and the box. He swiftly closed the megaphone without a word. He turned to face her, his slanted eyes taking her in. "But you have the honesty and the charming looks of your father."

Lise opened her mouth to say, "But Kim and Alix aren't like that at all! And Kim isn't always honest. Alix knows when to not be so nosy--" but stopped.

For somehow, she knew that she wasn't related to them at all.

"I had a dre--a vision. My...my parents were there. But they...they took me away from my real parents. Do you know what happened?"

The old man smiled thinly. "Yes. And more. But now is not the time for you to know. Ladybug and Chat Noir have defeated the villain, and from what you already know, you know too much."

"What do I--" But Lise realized what she had done just seconds before. "Oh."

"I must apologize. This is most unkind of me. But I am expecting visitors, and it is most crucial for you to not know who they are. I must ask you to leave."

Lise was struck with an uncomfortable feeling. Her brain tried to register what just happened. Her heart pounded. She had no idea, absolutely no idea why, but something about this man made her palms sweat.

She backed away slowly. "Thank you. I will go now," she said flatly. The Chinese man smiled. An uneasy feeling dominated her stomach. "Goodbye."

Lise tried to act natural as she hastily walked out the door and down the stairs. When she exited the building, she broke out into a run.

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