Back to Back 2

Mission

"Amelie?" Gabriel repeated, surprised by the name.

Chat Noir nodded as his eyes glazed over in thought. "It has to be her. I mean, if it's not you, she's the only other possibility."

"Amelie is not the type of person who would do something like that."

"Well, I used to think the same thing about you. Yet here we are."

Gabriel clenched his jaw. "Out of all the people who know Marinette's identity, I would assume that it would be Felix. You know how deceitful he can be."

"It's not Felix. He already has his own Miraculous. Why would he need a second one?"

The man stayed silent in his response.

"It has to be Amelie," Chat Noir continued. "You just said that you can't get in touch with her. Why else wouldn't she be answering your calls?"

"I don't know, but Emilie has spoken with her. They talked yesterday, and Amelie told her that she'd be back by tonight."

It felt like someone punched him right in the gut. "Tonight?"

"That's what Emilie told me."

He couldn't breathe again. "So, that means that it's going to happen today. Amelie is going to attack at any moment."

"I'm still not convinced that it's her," Gabriel said. "Why would she wait so long? She's been gone since before I arrived here."

"She's probably been watching us the whole time, and that's how she figured out that Marinette had the Butterfly Miraculous on her. It just took a while to find it."

He didn't respond for a moment. The whole idea didn't make much sense to him, but Adrien seemed convinced. It's too bad Emilie wasn't there to give her opinion. She had left for the market just minutes ago. "So what do we do now?"

"We?" Chat Noir replied incredulously. "There's no 'we.' I am going to go find Marinette and tell her about Amelie. You stay out of the way."

Gabriel stared down at him. Then he nodded.

With urgency in his step, Chat Noir spun around and left the room.

After hearing the front door open and close, Gabriel sighed and pinched his nose again. Why would Amelie do this? Why would she want the Butterfly Miraculous? Did she just want any Miraculous, or was she after Chat Noir's ring and Ladybug's earrings to make an ultimate wish?

It didn't make sense. If it was really Amelie, why would she tell Emilie that she would return that night? Why would she give everyone a warning of when the attack would be?

Whatever the explanation was, he was going to find out. Amelie might not be responding to his calls, but she had been responding to Emilie's in the past.

He left the study and went directly upstairs to his old bedroom. After opening the top drawer on the dresser, he pushed things around until he found Emilie's phone. Then he quickly turned it on.

The screen lit up, and a moment later, a notification chimed. Gabriel already knew the code so he easily unlocked it, then he saw all of the notifications. There was an entire list of missed calls, missed texts, and voice-mails. He sighed, disappointed that Emilie hadn't taken his advice and checked her messages.

Closing them out, he went to the contact list and pressed on Amelie's number. He put the phone to his ear just in time to hear her voice-mail answer the call.

Frustrated, he disconnected. Her phone was going straight to voice-mail, just like every time that he had tried calling. He had to admit, it did seem a little strange that she always had her phone off. And she never even called him back. That's not the Amelie he knew.