The Peacock's Revenge

~Chapter Four: The Threat~

Marinette was tired, tired of being responsible for everyone even when she couldn't transform, tired of having to devise ways to win all on her own, tired of feeling like any moment might be the start of the end. Her big defeat against Hawkmoth was not long ago, and her next big battle may be around the corner. It was a lot to think about and feel responsible for, Tikki recommended that Marinette just take a rest and do something enjoyable. Since Mayura hadn't done anything yet, it seemed safe to assume Paris would be safe for a little longer, so Marinette wanted to enjoy this period of calmness in case it was soon disrupted by another villainous threat. Besides, they didn't even know for sure if Mayura was still evil. With Hawkmoth gone, the villainess may have just quit, in which case there was nothing for Marinette to worry about. Still, she wanted to be on her guard until the Peacock Miraculous was safely secured back into the miracle box.

With the mindset that she was safe, Marinette curled onto her couch, pulled out her notebook, and began designing to sooth her nerves, with Tikki comfortably lying on her head. But that mindset was erroneous, and her safety was about to once again be in question. After only a minute Marinette heard the door downstairs open. Since it was an open bakery Marinette thought nothing of it since customers came all the time, it wasn't until her mother called her that Marinette's nerves piqued.

"Marinette! Someone's here to see you!" Sabine called from downstairs. Marinette was a little worried, if it had been one of her friends her mother would have just sent them up, so this had to be someone else.

Marinette signaled to Tikki to stay put and walked down hoping to find a friendly face, but was greeted by the last person she wanted to see.

"Hello Marinette!" Said Nathalie in an awkwardly friendly voice, not wanting to sound suspicious. Both of them knew what was really about to go down, and they were just holding the act while Marinette's parents were still there. Even though Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng knew Marinette was Ladybug, Marinette still tried to keep them out of any danger whenever possible.

"uh, hey Ms. Sancoeur! Is there something you need?" Marinette replied, equally awkward. Although she wanted to say something awful to Nathalie, Marinette didn't want her parents to get suspicious. Plus she didn't know that Nathalie knew her secret identity, maybe Nathalie was here for something else?

"Please Marinette, you can call me Nathalie." She said with a smile, trying to make it seem like there was nothing sinister going on.

"Marinette, Nathalie says she needs to talk to you, it's about Adrien." Sabine chimed in, Marinette's parents were both excited for what this could mean, they knew how much their daughter liked Adrien.

Nathalie nodded in agreement, "Yes! Since I'm now in charge of Adrien, I want to make sure he's surrounded by good examples and such, would you mind talking to me for a moment?" She said in her more honest and calming voice.

Marinette knew by now what this was really about, and she was not going to let another villain come and threaten her, or threaten Adrien because of her. "Actually I- '' Marinette started as she began to come up with an excuse, but she was interrupted by her father who was also standing around.

"You guys can go upstairs for a moment, we have some customers to deal with and that way you won't be interrupted."

It was hard for Marinette to avoid revealing how much she just wanted to run away, so she wouldn't have to hear the words of someone else trying to hurt her friends and family. Yet, she was determined to not let her parents in this time on what was happening, so she couldn't make it obvious. "I'm actually really busy in my room right now papa, could we do this later?" She said, hoping maybe it was a good enough excuse to get out of whatever Nathalie wanted to say to her. But it wasn't good enough,