Breaking the Mask (Book Three)

Chapter 17

Adrien hugged his wife's body close to his chest while tears ran endlessly down his face. If only this was one of those fantasy stories where the tears of a lover can bring back a deceased person.

It should have been him. He should have been the one getting stabbed by a replica of his own alter ego and bleeding to death. He said he was going to protect her, but he failed to do so. Now she was lying dead in his arms.

The kids. How was he supposed to go back home and tell them that their mother was dead? How was he going to live with the burden of not being able to save the girl he's been in love with since they were teenagers?

The girl who saved him. Who stopped him from taking his own life. The one who dragged him out of the darkness and showed him the brighter side of life.

Most of all, how will the rest of Paris react when they hear about this tragic news?

Adrien looked up from his wife's body when a pair of jet black boots stepped directly in front of him. His tear-filled eyes grew red with rage at the sight of his wife's killer standing above them. He held Marinette closer and bared his teeth at his evil cousin.

"Stay away!" Adrien shouted through tears, "Don't come any closer!"

Before Chat Noir could even raise his staff, a large green portal appeared behind him. Adrien and Chat Noir drew their attention to the strange light that shined in the middle of the room.

Three kids jumped out of the portal. More specifically, Adrien's sons and daughter wearing miraculouses.

"Emma? Louis? Hugo? What are you kids doing here?" Adrien asked frantically, "Go back to Paris! It's not safe here!"

Adrien didn't bother asking how they found out about him and Marinette's secret identities. That was the least of his worries at the moment.

Emma, who was wearing the dragon miraculous, gasped when she saw her father holding what looked like her mother's lifeless body. Her younger brothers mimicked her action when they, too, saw their mother's fate.

"Louis, we need to go back!" Emma demanded, "Use your Second Chance! We need to arrive earlier next time!"

"Hey, looks like you didn't waste it when you used it before I teleported us here," Hugo snickered.

Louis rolled his eyes, "Second Chance"

~•~

"You should have taken my miraculous right there when you had me," Chat Noir said.

Adrien's legs kicked violently as he struggled against his cousin's grasp around his throat. He gagged as Chat Noir tightened his grip, cutting off his airway. Adrien's head spun in circles and his legs stopped kicking while he tried desperately to catch a breath.

Before he knew it, a bright green flash shined inside the room. Adrien, Chat Noir, and Ladybug all turned their attention to the portal that had, no doubt, appeared from the usage of the horse miraculous. Ladybug's face lit up at the sight.

However, her smile faded when a little girl with blonde hair and the red suit of the dragon miraculous jumped out of the portal.

"Wind dragon!"

A compelling gust of wind pummeled into Chat Noir, blowing him right off of Adrien. Chat Noir grunted as his back crashed into a nearby wall. Adrien sat up, taking deep breaths to regain his oxygen levels. Louis and Hugo joined Emma outside the portal shortly afterwards.