Chapter 2 : The Woman With Bunny Ears

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If being awake was painful, sleeping is unbearable. Whenever I doze off, the picture of my father's body buried somewhere in some random ditch will haunt me. I've been awake for the past fifteen minutes after waking up because of some endless nightmares.

  I glanced at the clock to see that it was only a half past three. Phixx suddenly appeared next to me. She smiled at me, but it was a sad smile. I guess she can understand my pain.

"I need some air."

I transformed into Blaze and went out. The air was chilly, but I didn't mind. I reached the Eiffel Tower and sat down on the cold metal. I was on the top of the Eiffel Tower, with one hell of an amazing view. Especially at night.

  I stared into nothingness again, memories of my childhood start to flood my head. Though I have to admit, the memories with my parents during my childhood years were so little it was as if I never spent time with them at all.

  But above all, my parents are still my parents. They may have not been there for me all this time, they still play an important role in my life.

  I start to hear footsteps and immediately turned around. It was Chat Noir. He smiled at me.

"Adrien," I say. How weird it is to call his real name when he's in Chat Noir form. But I had the sudden urge to call him Adrien for some odd reason.

"I heard what happened. I feel your pain."

"Something is telling me that you didn't just come here to say that."

He looked at me and sighed. "After I heard what happened, I kept getting nightmares about my mother. How she just left without a word haunts me."

There was a moment of silence. Then he put his hand on top of my shoulder.

"I went through that alone. I'm not gonna let that happen to you, too."

I was sort of shocked, probably because he used to be the Chat Noir who threatened to hurt me just because he thought I was working for Hawk moth. I didn't know why I relived that moment though, it was ages ago.

"Thanks, Adrien. I appreciate it."

"No problem."

Suddenly, a thought came to mind.I wrinkled my nose, "But it's weird though."

"What's weird?"

"My father's body was taken away by someone. My mother told me the guy with the gun aimed exactly at my parents, but she missed."

"What?"

"I know it's crazy, I don't know what happened too. But something tells me that my mother and father didn't just come to Paris to surprise me. I know my parents too well to suspect that something must have happened at home. My hunch is that maybe my parents has someone who holds a very huge grudge on him?"

"Like an enemy?"

"Like...they're on the run or something. I don't know. My father has many people spying on him for his achievements as a successor and that also means he must have had an enemy. But when I was 12, I heard my father argue with this one man, I think he owns like a fashion company?"

I know my hunch was weird. But my father was shot, meaning that this could be from someone who wants him gone more than ever. It could be one of his enemies. This is a murder case, so..his enemies must be the first suspects.

Adrien detransformed and he looks like he's thinking, working all the gears in his brain.

"What makes you think that maybe the man is the one who..you know what I mean."

I try to remember what I heard when I was hiding behind the door two years ago. There were shouting, threats involving people getting hurt. All because my parents were successors ..?

Wait, maybe that's not the reason. Their argument was different. It wasn't about money or anything. I look up, making eye contact with Adrien's eyes. He shoots me a questioning look.

"Because their argument was worse than the other people he got into trouble with. It wasn't about money or anything."

"Then what?"

"It was about someone."

————————————-
"Cherice..?"

I was brought down back to Earth as soon as I heard Nathanael's voice. I turned to him and smiled. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"Okay is not a word to explain what I'm feeling right now but I'll say that."

"Hey, if there's anything wrong..tell me okay?"

I nodded and paid attention back to class. It was the last class of the day, so as soon as the bell rang, I packed all my stuff. Nathanael approached me again. I can tell he was about to ask me if I was okay or not so I cut him off by saying, "I'm okay. I'm just in a rush, gotta go see my mother."

I left him without saying another word. I know it's wrong, but I just need to be alone for the time being. I wasn't lying about going to see my mother, though.

I was only a few blocks from the hospital when I felt a hand grab my arm. I turn to see Master Fu looking at me with a serious look. "Master? What is it?" I ask.
"Something bad is going to happen soon."

"What?"

"I must do a memory wipeout of what happened from the day Laura attacked until she left."

"What do you mean?"

That's when a woman came out from some portal and stood next to Master Fu. "You will understand when you see this." She pulled me into her portal. Inside, there were many other portals. The weird thing is each of the portals were things that happened from the past.

And the future.

  She brought me to a portal that shows a figure with white cat ears and bodysuit. It took me a while to recognize him.

It was Chat Noir. Akumatized.

"What? How? How did this happen?" I ask. "Let's just say it all started when Marinette and Adrien found out each other's identity."

"Whoa, this is way too fast. I can't....I can't handle this right now, I'm not emotionally stable.."

"You have to! Look, I'm sorry for your loss but as the guardian of Ladybug and Chat Noir, you have to agree to this wipeout right now!"

"Why me? Why not anyone else? Ladybug? Chat? And me being the guardian?! No one said Ladybug and Chat needs a babysitter, and I'm not fit enough to be their guardian!"

She put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry this is shocking, but this is the way it is.

Suddenly, I remember what Nathanael and I have now. If they wipe his memory, he will think of me as his friend and nothing more. I will lose what we have now.

"So, basically, everything that happened when Laura came until she left..no one will remember that?"

"Except for you."

"What? Why?"

"You have to prevent Ladybug and Chat from ever discovering each other's identities!"

"But why? Isn't that what brought them together?! Aren't you happy they're together? They're soulmates right? So why are you doing this?"

I have to admit, I wasn't just thinking about Marinette and Adrien's relationship. I was thinking about mine too.

"Looks like we're never agreeing to any of this aren't we?" She said, her expression turned dark.

She looks at me in the eye. "I'm very sorry, Cherice Revere. You will understand all of this soon. I'm sorry we have to do this right after your father's death."

"What? I don't understand, I-I don't get anything at all!"

"I'm sorry..."

The last thing I remember was her swinging her bright blue umbrella to my head.

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