Call me Emma, Emma Agreste

Chapter 35: The last preparations

Alya's POV:

"Hang on Mari, ill be one second. Someone's at the door" I was enjoying my time talking to marinette, its been a long time since she was last available this late at night. I guessed it was all the akuma attacks; many of them occurred around her house, they must be really alarming to sit and wait through.

Just before I hung up I heard her comment "who's at your door this early in the morning?". A feeling of guilt emerged in the pit of my stomach, I felt so bad for lying to her.

Drawing the blinds on my window I saw who I expected to see standing there, the dawning sun outlining her suit. "Emma," Opening the curtains a blunette blur hopped onto my floor, arm outstretched towards me. In it lay a pair of silver cuff-links, rounded and bare.

"Alya Cesaire, here is the mirauclous of the tortoise, which grants the power of suspension." She got up and looked around excitedly before pulling me closer by the arm. "Ive always wanted to do that." I stumbled back, unsure of what this all meant.

In my nervousness I began thinking aloud, "Hold on, WHAT? I cant accept this, your not Ladybug, I cant take this. Im not... you're not... its not right!" I took a breath and phrased more words with more clarity. "I can't take this from you Emma. You're not ladybug. Im sor-"

"On the contrary!" Emma pulled her hair away from her ear, gesturing to her earrings. "For the time being I am, which makes you reine tort! And as the saviour of Paris I have a special mission for you that no-one else can know about." She pulled me closer and dropped the cuff-links into my hand, a glowing ball emerging short after. I wish I could slow down for a moment, everything about this is going to fast. I need to ask Emma what is going on.

"Hel-"

"Emma, what is even happening?" I asked with my voice tired and low; interrupting the kwami as I did so. Her faced morphed into surprised, almost as if she were shocked I didn't immediately accept. "All Im saying is..." I paused. I shouldn't be gentle, Im in the right to be confused. After all, I hardly know Emma. So what if she's from the future? I'm here now and I wont blindly trust her or her plans; I'm a reporter and I will find out what her actual plan is.

"You tell me whats going on right now." I raised the fist containing the cuff links and marched to the window. "I wanna know why you're giving me this, I wanna know why you have Ladybugs mirauclous and I wanna know why you're here. The ^real^ Ladybug has always said time is a fragile thing so why are you here and for what achievement!?"

"Ok! Ok I'll tell you everything." Her hands outstretched towards the jewellery. "Just. Be careful, I really shouldn't have these." I calmed myself and gave her back the cuff links. I gestured Emma to sit whilst I remained stood with my arms crossed. "I need your help, you're the only one I can ask to do this."

"Do what?" I enquired.

She exhaled deeply and began pouring out everything. "Ive been sent here to stop lila Rossi getting her hands on the butterfly mirauclous. I need you to take it from the current hawkmoth once me, Ladybug and Chat noir defeat him tomorrow."

"Lila? Why would Lila want the miraculous. She's such a nice perso-"

"She's not." Emma silenced me. Even the mention of her name seemed to rile her up. "She's the most horse-faced, deceitful, self-absorbed, hypocritical, manipulative woman I've ever heard of in my entire life! The last time I ever heard of her was when-" Emma's anger calmed; quick to be replaced with sadness. She wiped the tears beginning to prick her eyes and carried on. "Anyway, you can't trust her. I can't tell you too much for fear of ruining the future more than I already have but that's why this has to be you."

Her hand outstretched slightly, implying the tortoise miraculous could only be entrusted to me. "You know enough so that I don't have to lie to get you to follow my instructions and you've always been a logical mind, that's what my mum says. If anyone can do this it's you."

"Your mum must know me quite well then," I laughed at the implication of Marinette talking me up to her future daughter. I felt at ease now, I could tell there was nothing else she was hiding. Nothing left to share other than her plan. "Ok," I took the cuff-links from her hand. "What's the plan?"

***

Emma's POV:

I had to return home after talking to Alya, after all it was the early hours of the morning and there is no way I was going convince the hawkmoth to fight Ladybug and Chat Noir at 3:00am without preparation or sleep. Unfortunately that meant I had to see Louis again.

We didn't talk the whole night; I mainly slept. Even after I'd woken up Louis was already dressed and out the door. I wanted to talk to him again. I felt awful for yelling that night but this was out chance to get home and I was not about to throw it away.

I met Adrien in the hallway on my way to down Gabriel's Office. We made eye-contact and he smiled at me, I grinned back before entering through the door and finally setting my plan into motion.