Saving Gabriel

Emilie part three

Nathalie punched in the code to access the hidden elevator in the wall and started to descend down the wall to the lower levels of the house. She tried her best to quiet her breathing as she descended into the silent darkness. The elevator stopped at the bottom but it was so dark in this corner of the room that she didn't know she was at the bottom of the floor until she heard the faint ding of the elevator, notifying her that she had reached the last level of the house. The ding of the elevator, which had always seemed so unusually quiet to her now seemed to echo across the room as loudly as possible. 

Nathalie clamped a sweaty hand over her mouth to quiet herself and looked wildly with wide eyes around the pitch black room. After a few minutes she walked quietly out into the room in her black Nikes she managed to slip on during her ride down in the elevator. 

She crept out of the darkness, then quickly retreated back into the safety of her corner when she saw the brightness in the center of the room. She peeked over the edge of the elevator box and could make out Gabriel standing before the open casket, and Adrien and Marinette slumped, motionless, against the far wall behind Gabriel. 

She turned back to the darkness, leaning against the delicately flowered ivy tangling the brick box around the elevator. Squeezing her eyes shut, she sank down to sit against the brick. She pulled her knees to her chest and started to devise a plan of how she might be able to get to the kids on the far wall of the room. There was a chance Gabriel wouldn't notice her. Or maybe, say he did notice her? Maybe there was a chance he wouldn't hurt her. Closing her eyes against the darkness surrounding her, Adrien's motionless body kept coming back to her and the hope that she could get to Adrien without being harmed herself became very slim.

Opening her eyes to the sound of the rising and falling tones in Gabriel's voice, she decided she may have to just improvise on her way over.  Nathalie is known for always having some sort of plan when she does her things, whether it's schedules, agendas, or intricate plans for hawkmoth's more daring akumas. She didn't like it, but it was necessary, she needed to act now. 

Gathering a few stifling breaths, she forced herself off of the floor and turned the corner, determination running through her veins. She took a few steps forward, her eyes never leaving the side of Gabriel's body standing before the open casket. Small soft steps, turned to larger slightly louder steps as the anxiety of what may happen if she were caught started to kick in. 

Moving swiftly, she made her way as fast as she could to the opposite corner of the room. In a few more swift moments she made it to the kids and released a breath she didn't know she was holding. 

Stealing frequent glances at Gabriel across the room, she carefully knelt down next to Adrien and felt around his body checking for signs of major injury. She wasn't sure what had happened but he was out cold. His pulse seemed to be at a normal pace and he was breathing all right so she moved over to his partner.

That's when it dawned on her for the first time. His partner was...

Marinette

This whole time, the strong female hero of the city had been the shy girl from Adrien's school. A small smile played on Natalie's lips. She liked Marinette, from what she could tell she was a sweet, kind girl and she was a good student. She always hoped she would sometime see her during an internship for her passion for fashion through Gabriel Agreste and maybe, when this was all over, that dream may still be possible. Although, the chances of any of them going back to a decently normal life after this were growing slimmer by the minute.

She moved closer to Marinette trying her best to feel around her body for major injuries but her sense of touch seemed to be deceiving her, and her mind played tricks on her senses with every deceitful fold of her clothing. In the dim light of the room anything could be falsely accused as a major injury, bringing a new onslaught of panic to her mind. 

It was hard to check Marinette fully, Adrien had quite a firm wrap around the fragile girl making it near impossible to check the rest of her small body. She moved to the pulse on her wrist and panicked when she couldn't seem to find one. When she did, relief washed over her but it was short lived. Marinette's pulse was slow, and small, hard to find. Checking her breathing gave her a small sense of hope for how long Marinette would be able to hold out. She shuffled along the kids making sure their positions were safe enough until she found a way to get them out safely. 

"Nathalie"

She froze, slowly looking up to the other side of the room she saw him. Gabriel standing there, the miraculous in his open palm. 

He had dropped his suit and she could make out Nooroo hovering beside his shoulder. She started to stand up slowly, eyes fixed on him, not quite aware of what was happening. 

She started to walk closer to him, trying her best to ensure her movements were as smooth as possible to reject the notion of her horror from his eyes. 

She was about 6 feet away from him when she realized that in the dim light behind him, Emilie was still asleep. She looked from the casket to his tear streaked face and watched as he looked from her to the miraculous in his trembling palm. Utter shock placed upon his features he sank to his knees in front of her, sobbing.

"Emilie...." He said between sobs 

Natalie was confused, why? why is she still there? In that glass prison, beautiful as ever when she should be here beside them, comforting her husband, her son and ensuring them it was going to be okay?

Why?