IMPORTANT: this chapter is a work in progress, but I wanted to get out what I had because it's been too long. hope you come back for the finished work soon :)
He knew this was the right thing to do. He had always known it to be right, for both himself and Adrien. For Emily. A hundred times over, he would do it all again for her.
The negative emotions that had once plagued him shortly after his wife fell ill now brought a thrill to his veins, a burst of hope to his senses. Young or old, explosive or tame, it didn't matter. As long as they had it—as long as they had a negative emotion lingering in their heart—they could be of use to him.
"Adrien, I'm just not feeling well enough. You'll have to represent me."
Gabriel could feel his son turn towards him in the limousine, his sadness palpable. If only he could understand, if only he knew that this was all for him. That everything Gabriel had been doing and planning for the past few months had all been to bring his mother back.
"But, father, you're launching your hundredth collection tonight. You're the one the journals want to interview, not me," said Adrien.
Gabriel turned his wedding band around on his finger. For her, he reminded himself. "Adrien, I am your father, and I'm giving you the responsibility to attend this press conference. Under no circumstances will you leave that room until it is finished."
He could feel Adrien hesitate, still unsure.
"All I'm asking is that you honor my work and the memory of your mother. Do we have an agreement?"
With no room for compromise, Adrien had no choice but to agree. "Yes, father."
Soon, soon he would know. It was all for him, all for their family.
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Marinette had, on many occasions, wondered what Shadow Moth was like in his personal life. If he had a family, what he did when out of his Miraculous form.
But never once before had she imagined him to be a blacksmith.
Now, however, it seemed to be a very good guess as to what his everyday job was as Marinette, along with almost every other Miraculous holder, attempted to break into the solid-gold vault that housed Shadow Moth's latest vile creation.
How in the hell was there not even a scratch on its surface? They had been chasing it around Paris for almost ten minutes now, trying every technique possible to get inside of the vault. It seemed to laugh at them with its indestructibility as it turned Parisian citizens into—gold coins?
Leading Kagami, Rose, and Zoe across rooftops and storefronts, Marinette glanced over at the other Miraculous holders she had no other choice but to recruit for this battle: Nino, Max, Kim, and Luka, all running across adjacent buildings.
She could see fatigue clouding their eyes as she was sure it did her own. It only reminded her again of why this battle was going on for so long, why none of them could figure out a way to get to the Akuma.
Because Chat Noir was not there.
He was missing, late again for the fourth time this month. She knew that they all needed him. Sure, Marinette was the Guardian, but Noir was still her partner, her equal. They were two halves of a whole, never truly able to thrive without the other.
"You'll never be able to get your hands on my lucky coin!" the Akumatized—Moolak, what a terrible choice of name—bellowed from his safe.
God, if this situation weren't so serious, Marinette would be laughing her ass off. It was all so ridiculous—a floating safe, turning people into gold coins, droning on and on about its immense power. And she, a highly trained Miraculous holder, along with almost every other Miraculous holder in Paris, was chasing after it, unable to figure out what to do without her kitty partner.
"We have to get to Moolak if we're gonna defeat him," Marinette breathed to no one in particular, her heart rate rising as she began to panic a bit.
"Pegasus, use your power now!" she shouted over to Max, desperate for anything to work.
Max—Pegasus, Marinette reminded herself—waved his arm in a circle, leaving a line of powdery-blue light in its wake. The ends of the line connected, completing his Voyage and opening a portal into the safe.
Marinette kept her eyes trained on him as he leapt forward into the portal, only to bound back onto the hard rooftop.
He shook his head as he stood, shouting, "I can't teleport. The safe is so filled up with coins there's no room!"
From behind her, Marinette heard Zoe yell, "Maybe it would be simpler just to Cataclysm the whole safe?"
God, where was that cat?
"I know," she shouted back to Zoe. "I've already left I don't know how many messages for Chat Noir."
Another few minutes passed filled with frenetic chasing and calling Noir's phone, only to have to listen to his absolutely intolerable voicemail over and over again, always hanging up before the last meow.
Nothing was working, Noir wasn't answering, and more and more citizens were turning into godforsaken gold coins. Marinette almost began to miss the days of Mr. Ramier turning into Mr. Pigeon, only needing herself and Noir to be taken down.
She had to use it, she told herself. There was no other choice.
"Lucky Charm!"
A pink flash of glaring light blinded her vision for a couple seconds as it always did, dissipating only to leave a... wait, what the hell was that?
Only Luka's yell from her right reminded Marinette to get out of the way as a full-sized fire truck fell from the sky, landing only inches from her feet. It bore her signature Ladybug pattern, the black spots seeming to mock her with the secrets they held.
Still, she knew the responsibility of figuring out what to do fell on her, it always did. Marinette scoped out the people and objects that could be helpful in defeating Moolak, each one lighting up in her mind.
"Got it," she relayed to her team.
It all happened so fast, as it always did. One after another, each Miraculous holder played their part in the battle as Marinette told them to. First, it was her own turn. With her yo-yo, she held the vault in mid-air, stopping it from traveling any further around Paris.
Mylene was next, jumping towards the vault as she transformed into hundreds of smaller versions of herself, almost all of which were immediately turned into gold coins by the Akumatized. Then Zoe took her chance, diving for the safe with her Venom ready to be used. Riding on the fire truck earlier produced by Marinette's Lucky Charm, Nino used his Shield to protect Zoe from the Akumatized. At the last second, he took away the protection, allowing her to drop onto the vault and use her Venom.
And... nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. It was unbelievable how strong the Akumatized was, worrying almost. Shadow Moth's latest creations had become not only more powerful, but more confusing, as well.
This one fit the mold, certainly. It was a puzzle for her to figure out, except nothing she tried got her closer to figuring out how to solve it—how to get to the Akuma. Everything only tired her and the others out more, decreasing morale and increasing pessimistic thoughts.
Marinette's eyes scanned around the area again, their rapid movements mirroring her high heart rate and uncontrolled breathing.
"Viperion," she finally got out to Luka as she pointed to the combination lock on the safe, "Try every possible combination."
Luka jumped up to the safe, pounding in numbers at a frantic pace. After just a second, the door swung open.
"Jackpot," he breathed. "And it only took me a hundred tries."
Without the time to ponder how long that must have taken him, Marinette used her yo-yo to grab the Akumatized object out from the pile of gold coins that fell out of the safe. To the chorus of the Akumatized's protests, she broke the giant gold coin, releasing the Akuma, purifying it, and resetting the damage done to the city with her magical ladybugs.
A man appeared on the ground in the place of the large pile of gold coins, his greed still displayed across his face. Though he was no longer a villain to be controlled, he was still a dangerous man. Marinette, after looking in the face of countless Akumatized citizens, had come to recognize the differences between a person who had simply let their anger get the best of them, and a person who truly had bad intentions.
This man was an example of the latter.
Nevertheless, Marinette knew she simply had to give him a protective charm that, she now knew, did not always work against Shadow Moth's influence. Releasing people like him back into Paris always made her feel uneasy. Despite how much of herself she dedicated to being Ladybug, she always felt like there was more she could do for her city. She felt somewhat useless, as if she never quite lived up to anyone's expectations of Ladybug.
Still, she plastered on a smile for her fellow Miraculous holders and congratulated them on their win.
-----
They really had to stop meeting in the sewers.
The stench of the water made Marinette, still in her Miraculous form, gag as Luka transformed and handed her back the Snake Miraculous.
She reached out for it. "Thanks Luk—"
A large hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her from getting the Miraculous. It was constrictive in its grasp, seeming to command respect and exude arrogance all at once.
"This really takes the cake," an oily voice sneered.
Marinette looked up, knowing that voice all too well. "Grand Master Su-Han?"
"Nine!" he exploded, rage written into the lines of his face. "You used nine Miraculouses to defeat one villain. Chat Noir could've just used his Cataclysm!"
She tried to reason with him, aware of the power he had over her. One misstep, one wrong word and he could ruin her role as the Guardian. "I had to, Chat Noir was missing."
Noir was so going to pay for this.
"What do you mean missing? You can't just let the holder of one of the most powerful Miraculouses go about as he pleases!"
Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette saw Luka look between herself and Su-Han. He looked pensive, as if he was considering Su-Han's rant.
Su-Han continued on. "What if he started making his own decisions or acted out, like Shadow Moth?"
She bit back a burst of bitter laughter. Noir was her partner, her equal. What would Su-Han think if he knew that Marinette had full faith in him to make his own decisions? He wasn't a child that she watched over; he was part of her team. He was her friend. He was a teenager, just as she was, who had learned to fill his role as a protector of Paris better than she could have ever hoped.
She had watched him, over the time they had known each other, turn into a force to be reckoned with. He was responsible and considerate and damn her if she would ever let someone who had only shown up a few months ago bad-mouth the one person she truly trusted in this world.
She tilted her head up to look him directly in the eye. "Chat Noir, act like Shadow Moth? Wow. Aren't you blowing this out of proportion just a little?"
"Not at all," he responded, clearly ready to put up a fight. "In fact, you should find out who Chat Noir really is, so you can have better control over him."
Find out... what?
The demand shocked her more than she wanted to admit. The veil of safety that staying anonymous gave herself and Noir was comfortable; she felt safe in knowing that both of them only knew each other as Ladybug and Chat Noir, superheroes that were nearly unbeatable.
Even in only knowing his identity, that would shatter the routine she had built with him. It would change things, perhaps for the worse.
She just wasn't ready for that, not now. And perhaps not ever.
Pushing away her emotions, she fought back with logic. "What? No way. We can't know our true identities. It would be too dangerous if Shadow Moth got a hold of one of us."
Su-Han breathed out in annoyance. "I. Don't. Care. Deal with this problem quickly. Otherwise, I'll take back his Miraculous as soon as he shows a whisker, and I'll choose the new Chat Noir myself."
She was taken aback by his sheer audacity. To suggest the mere idea that she could have a new partner was infuriating.
"Okay, okay, alright. What if you knew who he was? Would that work?" she ventured, a plan already formulating in her mind.
His eyes darkened for a moment in consideration. "I... I suppose so. But I'm warning you, if you don't succeed—"
"I get it," Marinette cut in, done listening to his lecture, "Chat Noir will be replaced."
His eyes cut between her and Luka before he turned, bounding away down the sewer until he turned a corner and was out of her sight. She felt Luka turn to face her.
"Are you really going to do as he asked?" Luka murmured, clearly as in shock of the request as Marinette was.
"Do I really have a choice in the matter?" she whispered back, a wave of defeat seeping into her veins. "I can't fight the Celestial Guardian, and I don't want to take the risk of losing our Chat Noir." She turned until she was parallel to him, making sure she looked him in the eyes as she began to divulge her plan. "I'm going to need both of you."
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