Partners in Crime (Miraculous Ladybug)

• C h a p t e r T w e l v e •

GABRIEL!" Miss Fortune practically screamed as she raced into the mansion, her unconscious boyfriend limp in her arms.

Nathalie poked her head out of Gabriel's office, and Emilie hurried down the stairs from her room. "What's—" Then she saw her son, and gasped. "What happened?!"

"I don't know!" Miss Fortune exclaimed as she rushed for the nearest chair and carefully set him into it. "We were talking on the roof . . . We needed to talk to Gabriel . . . and he . . . He's sick or something. Gabriel needs to release us!"

Emilie looked puzzled as well as alarmed. "Release?"

"Of our akumas!" The former villainess began pacing anxiously around the room. "The miraculous. To heal you. Where is your husband?!"

"What's all this noise?!" Gabriel finally emerged from his office, and for a moment stared in shock at Chat Blanc, who was still slumped on the sofa chair, his head lolling and his eyes closed, not in simple sleep. "What's happened to him?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" she exploded. "Something's wrong! He's sick. You've gotta release us!"

"Why would you want that?" Gabriel questioned in confusion as he knelt down at his son's side and studied his face. "They strengthen your powers."

"They've ruined us!" Miss Fortune cried. "They've corrupted our minds, and people are dead and dying because of it. But I-I think it might not be too late! If I lose the akuma, use Lucky Charm for something random, then use Miraculous Ladybug, maybe it could revert everything!"

Gabriel stiffened, then rose back to his full height. "Would that include Emilie's recovery?" he challenged.

"Do you want your son to die?!" she demanded in response, her voice shaking. "It's never reverted anything positive before. I can't predict it!"

"Gabriel, what is she talking about?" Emilie's voice was thick with suspicion. "What have you done?"

"Nothing wrong!" Gabriel protested, fire flashing in his blue eyes. "I only made things right. I fixed our mistake."

Suddenly, Miss Fortune fell to her knees in shock. "Oh, no," she breathed, a sudden memory filling her mind. She'd once upon a time sat with Master Fu shortly after defeating the uncanny villain Robostus. She'd asked what would happen if someone were to get both Ladybug's and Cat Noir's miraculous. The reply had been that the person would achieve absolute power and be granted any one wish. She'd been amazed, and had asked why they didn't use that power to end wars and poverty. Master Fu had warned her: every gift came with a price. He'd used the example of Max's robot friend, stating that if Markov had gotten his wish to become human, someone else in the world would've lost their humanity in return.

No gift without a price . . .

Now . . . Gabriel had used that absolute power to revive his wife . . . which was the gift . . . but the price was his son. Chat was dying the same way his mother had.

And if she didn't revert everything, he would end up just like Emilie had, but in a much less natural way. This was a curse.

"You fixed your mistake," she breathed to Gabriel, "and made another in the process." She fixed the older man with an intense stare. "If you don't release us, your son will die."

Emilie had been looking back and forth between her husband and Miss Fortune, her green eyes alight with shock and horror. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?" she burst out at last. "Gabriel, what are you all talking about?! What do you mean, you fixed our mistake?"

Her husband stared back at her for a moment. "Our mistake," he repeated quietly. "Of using the Peacock miraculous when it was broken, and it leading to your endless sleep. I used the ultimate power to bring you back. Our home was never the same when you left us. Adrien was depressed all the time . . . All the warmth was gone!"

"And now if you don't release us and let me fix everything, he's going to die just like she did!" Miss Fortune snapped. "Do you love your son or not?!"

Gabriel's eyes flashed. "Of course I do."

"I still don't fully understand what's happening, but you have to do as she says," Emilie ventured, a distant look shadowing her expression. "I can't let anything happen to Adrien."

He glanced back and forth between the two women, and at last took a deep breath and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the violet bubbles of their akumatized suits swept back over both her and Chat, leaving them once again as Ladybug and Chat Noir. The loss of power briefly made her feel faint and little dizzy, but she managed to shake it off. Still slumped unconscious in the chair, Chat groaned in his sleep and flinched.

Almost immediately, Ladybug whipped out her yo-yo, tossed the head into the air, and shouted, "Lucky Charm!" The bright flashes of her magic formed a teapot, which she quickly caught as it fell towards her.

The look of it stirred a strong memory of a cozy room with candles and harp music playing quietly on an old record, the scent of spices and herbs gentle in the air. Master Fu. The Lucky Charm was telling her to go see the Master.

"In a sec, Tikki," she murmured, then flung the teapot back into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

The old familiar swirls of pink and red magic flew out of the room, and she waited anxiously for them to touch her beloved partner and heal him, but none of them came back. Emilie continued to stand there, looking faintly confused and worried.

"Why didn't they heal him?" she fretted anxiously.

Ladybug shook her head, pushing away her worries. "I don't know, but I have a Plan B. We've got a Guardian to visit."