Marinette approached the tall grizzled man, a look of panic in her eyes but years of experience in dangerous situations forced her to stay calm. "Plagg, I need to talk to you." She said while practically dragging him away from Tikki and out of the command center by the arm. She brought the giant of a man into the white room and locked the door behind them.
"Marinette?" Plagg asked, utterly confused as to the girl's erratic behavior. "What's going on?' Marinette was pacing around the white table, and frankly, was making Plagg dizzy. She was mumbling quietly to herself, trying to make sense of her situation. The grim figure had to grab her by the shoulders to prohibit her from taking another lap around the table. "Mari." He said sternly. "What is it?"
She pulled herself together and rummaged through the mess of thoughts and questioned piling up in her mind like sand at the bottom of an hourglass. But before she was able to voice her story to Plagg, he noticed the blood splatters on her shirt and hands.
"Are you hurt? What happened?" He asked while moving her hair and looking over her arms for injuries but Marinette just shook her head.
"It isn't my blood," Marinette explained and Plagg froze.
"Who's blood is it?" He asked, concern evident in his tone.
"Mullo's." She answered, her head dropping a bit at the memory of the girl's lifeless body lying limp on the sidewalk.
"The private detective? Where is she?" Marinette shook her head at the dark-haired man.
"She's dead," Marinette responded with a harsh bitterness toward the unknown killer lining her words. "I asked her to look into an unsolved missing person case and when I went to meet her she was shot in front of me."
"I'm so sorry Mari." Plagg knew all too well that watching a comrade die with your own eyes is never easy. "What missing person was she looking into?" He asked, trying to take her mind off the death shed she had just witnessed. Marinette bit her lip, not sure whether or not she could trust him to keep it a secret. But this was Plagg and she knew he was worthy of her trust.
"Felix Noir." She answered.
"Adrien's twin?" The grim figure asked.
"You know Adrien had a twin?"
"I know everything... And we may have run a background check on him." Plagg explained with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Now why were you looking for Felix? It's been over a decade, the boy is probably dead." He said rather morbidly. He wasn't trying to be insensitive, but he needed to be realistic, most abducted children don't survive the first 24 hours let alone years.
"Adrien told me about it and I just got curious," Marinette responded, thinking over what she had read about the child's disappearance. "Emilie went to pick up Adrien and Felix from school and he just vanished from the campus. No one saw him leave and the school cameras didn't show anything. He just disappeared. It doesn't make sense."
"A lot of things in this world don't make sense." He reasoned. "The Bermuda triangle, area 51, the zodiac killer, Jack the Ripper, etc, etc." Marinette rolled her eyes at his last statement.
"This is serious." The blue-eyed girl scolded then her voice softened. "You don't think Felix's disappearance had anything to do with her death? Do you think it's my fault for getting her involved?" Plagg shook his head.
"No," He reassured. "Mullo had a habit of digging up secrets that should have stayed buried. There are plenty of powerful people who would want her dead. I highly doubt an old missing persons case had anything to do with it." Marinette nodded, he was probably right, maybe her death was a complete coincidence.
The next few weeks were pretty easy. Marinette had pushed out the memory of Mullo and Felix and only focused on her day-to-day. Adrien was almost completely healed and had been cleared to start training again but to hold off on afternoon sessions and let him rest, even though Adrien said he was fine the doctors demanded he not overwork himself. So Marinette and Adrien now spend their afternoons in the wreck room where Plagg always beat Marinette at the pool and as it would turn out, Plagg wasn't the only one who could best Marinette at the game. Usually, she would get bored of playing the same thing over and over, but she's stubborn and was determined to play until she beat Adrien at least once.
"Are you sure you want to play again?" Adrien asked. "I'm getting tired of winning." Marinette caught him smiling to himself as he chalked his cue and she shook her head.
"Shut up and break." She remarked and Adrien sent the organized balls flying around the green felt-lined table and unsurprisingly, Marinette lost and she gave up on trying to win and just started swapping stories with Adrien while throwing darts, a game Marinette and Adrien were frailty matched in.
As they flung needles at the target hung up on the wall, Adrien couldn't help but be reminded of the metal darts that nearly killed Marinette and threatened his life as well. But he distracted himself by talking to the blue-eyed girl.
Marinette learned about how Adrien was only modeling to please his parents and how he was only going to college because he got a scholarship and didn't think it was wise to give up an opportunity like that. At some point, they got to the topic of camping and how Adrien and his parents would spend the weekend at the lake when he was younger.
Marinette had spent quite a bit of time in tents, sometimes for missions, other times for recreation.
"One time I pitched a tent in the oak forest and Alya-" Marinette began to tell the story of how she once spent the night out in the woods surrounding GUARD to keep an eye out for an orphaned bear cub that had been spotted in the area.
Marinette was assigned to track the cub, tranquilize it, and bring it to an animal sanctuary where it would be able to survive without its mother. She was a little confused by it because Alya was the master tracker amongst the group and also the most stealthy. The amber-eyed girl's powers allowed her to move without being seen but she was also an expert in silence. She could walk over broken glass and not be heard so tracking came naturally to her. Apparently, when you are able to move without being noticed, you tend to see where others have not been so graceful.
But Marinette took the assignment anyway not knowing it was Alya pulling the strings behind it.
She took the opportunity to sneak up on Marinette while following the bear track and scared her so badly she let out a small yelp. She nearly used her powers to throw a rock at her head before she saw Alya buckled over, laughing hysterically.
But now that Marinette told the story, she stopped mid-sentence remembering that the tale involved her dead friend. "Never mind." She said, trying to keep him from asking questions but it didn't work.
"Who's Alya?" Adrien questioned.
"Someone who I used to be close to." She responded vaguely. She didn't want to touch on the subject but Adrien's overwhelming curiosity needed answers.
"What happened to her?" Marinette sighed trying to push out the memory of her death.
"She sacrificed herself for me... They all did." She answered with the hollow stare that accompanied her sorrowful thoughts and memories. But before Adrien's tongue had the chance to form another question, Trixx contacted Marinette over her commlink.
"Siren?" She asked.
"What is it Trixx?' Marinette said into the thin black bracelet, the blank and empty stare disappearing from her eyes with work to distract her from whatever it was that was weighing on her mind.
"Tikki has an assignment for you and Adrien. She needs you to make an appearance in the mission report room." She answered.
"Me and Adrien?" Marinette asked. "Tikki is letting him come on a mission?"
"Mhm," Trixx responded. "She said something about it being a 'very low risk' assignment but she'll fill you in on the details when she gives you the mission report."
"Okay, thanks Trixx." Marinette turned to Adrien, one of her rarely seen smiles on her face and Adrien shared the same expression. "Come on blondie," She said. "Time for your first real assignment."
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Word count- 1432 (Not counting this)
Well, would you look at that, blondie finally has a safe mission he can go on. How is this going to go?
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