A Snap in Time

Chapter 15 (Adrien)

"I look stupid!" Adrien claimed, looking at himself in the mirror.

"You've looked worse."

Adrien was staring at his current look in the mirror, noticing that in Trixx's attempt to make him look like a relative of Master Fu, he instead looked like a rip off Bruce Lee impersonator.

He had his red tee and black over shirt on, plus red sneakers and black jeans. From the chin down he looked stylish, but the prominent nose and jet black hair did not suit him, especially as his eyes were still their vibrant, glowing green.

Plagg was eating it up, adding in his own thoughts and ideas for how Adrien should 'look', the amusement evident in his eyes with each slight adaptation.

"What's my name again?" Adrien asked, moving towards the bag he'd packed with random supplies. Luckily, Fu had a rather large stock of food, notepads and pens. Unfortunately though, his fancy top of the range tablet was no more.

"Lee Fu. You've flown here from Shanghai to study. Your parents are a mixture of French and Chinese, which is why you're fluent in both." Adrien nodded, and looked at himself one last time. It was so strange to see him with something other than blonde hair.

"And I need to recharge Trixx every three hours?" Adrien asked.

"Yes, just remember to give Trixx the upgrade food to prolong the transformation, any issues just transform with Plagg, get out of there, and head back here. It's best you're not seen."

He can't be seen? Adrien had one big question about this. Why? Adrien turned his head to look at his old master, only to watch the wince in his face. He was quite sure Fu said something he shouldn't have.

"Am I alive here? Like do I exist?" Adrien hadn't asked much over the past day or so; he'd been there, more willing to ignore and push the situation to one side than deal with it head on. Just another one of his personality traits that played against him.

Fu looked towards Plagg who shrugged before turning to Adrien.

"Come on, kid. We'll get a newspaper on the way to collège."

Double checking everything one last time, Adrien stepped out behind Fu and onto the streets. The sun was blinding and it made him feel a little queasy. He took a couple of steps forward, only to fumble into a wall, bracing himself with one arm to hold him up.

"Don't touch him!"

"I don't need to touch him to get what I want, a slight snap of my fingers and you'll be begging for me to take it."

"Marinette!" Adrien's attention turned towards the direction of collège and he began to move at speed, his long legs making it hard for Fu to keep up.

"Adrien, stop!"

"Marinette, she's not safe!"

"Adrien!" Plagg was in front of his holder's face, encouraging him to slow down and stop. "Adrien, stop! She's fine! Marinette is fine."

"How do you know?" The word spat out of his mouth a little more aggressively than he would have liked, and he berated himself for speaking to his kwami that way. Plagg was good, Plagg was keeping him sane, he didn't deserve that. Adrien sighed and looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, you should be." Plagg's icy tone pulled Adrien's eyes to meet his, but there was a slight dance of amusement floating around in them. The kwami couldn't stay mad at his holder for long.

Out of breath, Fu finally caught up with the superhero team brandishing a newspaper in his hand.

"Adrien, does this mean anything to you?"

Adrien took the newspaper from the eldery mans hand and read the headline.

The body of Gabriel Agreste found

"Who's Gabriel Agreste?" Adrien looked between Fu and Plagg hoping either of them could fill him in with the answer. "He's got the same last name as me, so could he be a relative?"

Plagg looked at Adrien perplexed. "You do know your jokes aren't funny, right?"

"I'm not making a joke," Adrien claimed, "I don't know who this man is! I've never seen him before in my life. Am I meant to know him?"

Plagg moved away sheepishly, looking everywhere but at Adrien.

"Plagg?" His voice was more stern, demanding for the kwami to answer him.

"Listen, kid, now's not the time! You have enough going on in that pretty messed up head of yours and there's a lot of unanswered questions."

"Just tell me. Do I know this man?"

Plagg looked at Fu for any indication of what he can and can't say. Plagg and Fu had stayed up well into the night devising plans for what Adrien should and should not know. It seemed Plagg had a lot more memories than his holder, and the last thing they wanted to do was cause Adrien a cognitive overload. Fu nodded allowing Plagg to continue.

"Yes, he's your father!"

Adrien let out a held breath and collapsed his back against the wall. He held up the paper again and looked at the picture. This was not his father. It just wasn't. His father didn't look like that, but thinking about it now, he wasn't sure how his father did look. Was Gabriel Agreste his father? Lifting up the page he scanned through the article.

Found in the basement of the Agreste Mansion. Odd? He'd only been there two days ago. He looked for the date when they stated Gabriel's body had been found.

Two days ago.

Seems to be some sort of coma.

Still no signs of his son, his son? What about his son? Adrien continued looking through the article, trying to find out any information about Gabriel Agreste's son, but all there was no more than the passing comment. Had something happened to him, or this universe's him? Maybe, he was this universe's him? All he knew was his head was beginning to throb with intense pain. He closed his eyes, steading himself on his breathing, breathing in counting slowly, and releasing. This was not good.

He rubbed his forehead, a stress headache building. What was this? Where was he? Nothing was making sense, nothing seemed real or factual. Everything seemed ... fake.

Adrien pinched his arm, hoping to wake him from this weird dream, but alas, he was still very much there.

"We'll piece it together, Adrien. Maybe it's time you start training under the guardian. We'll look at the Grimoire tonight and see if we can figure something out."

"Why are you letting me go to school?" Adrien asked, staring the old man down. Fu looked sheepish as he shrugged.

"We need the black cat near the bug. The balance is out."

Adrien sighed, leaving the wall and continuing his walk to collège. He'd quiz this more later, as for now, his brain was on the verge of malfunction. As they made it to the lower steps, Adrien stopped.

"I met you here for the first time. You fell down and I helped you up."

"That was kind of you, young man."

"That wasn't all though. I feel like I had to make a choice that day, and I chose to help you instead of doing something else."

"A black cat always puts the needs of others in front of themselves. You must serve as a great protection to our bug." Fu spoke wisely as himself and Adrien made it up the stairway and into the school.

"She's everything to me. It's the only thing I'm certain of."

Master Fu led 'Lee Fu' up the stairway and towards the principal's office, but not without Adrien getting a glance at the one person he needed. The one person he would do anything for.