Lost Kitten

Chapter 18: Nearing the End

Gabriel Agreste had finally returned from Shanghai yesterday, bringing along an akuma as a gift. Marinette had fought it alone as usual so that he wouldn’t know that Chat Noir had come out of hiding, they still wanted the element of surprise. Today they would be sending Alya into the belly of the beast, wearing her Miraculous of course. With the power of her Miraculous, she could create illusions, which meant, she could make herself invisible.

Alya jumped in through Adrien’s open window, “Hey Adrien!” she slightly whispered as she landed softly on her toes, “so what’s the plan?”

“Hey Alya. So I’m going to walk down and ask my dad a question that scares him into thinking I might find out. Knowing him, he’ll immediately retreat to wherever his ‘lair’ is. I want you to get over by him while I’m talking so you can easily watch what he does to get to his lair. Don’t go down there though, I don’t want your Miraculous to run out of time while you’re alone with him. Just learn how to get there. Here,” Adrien said, walking over to his desk and picking up a small notepad and pen from his desk, “take these and write down exactly what he does and where he’s going. We have to know as much as possible before we confront my father. You’ve got this Als, we all believe in you. We’re going to defeat my father, this’ll all be over soon.”

“We’ve got this Adrien, let’s do this!” Alya grabbed her flute and yelled, “MIRAGE!”

All at once, there was a flash and Adrien couldn’t see Alya anymore. He walked forward and out his door, holding it open for a short amount of time for Alya. His hands felt a bit clammy, he didn’t like talking to his father anymore. He only called him father because they were related biologically, the only parent he really would ever truly love anymore was his mother, and he didn’t even have her. It was okay though, he had Marinette, his sweet, ever-caring bugaboo. He was absolutely in love with her, he couldn’t imagine his life without her. Everything would be perfect when they defeated his father. He approached the large wooden doors and opened them, allowing Alya a split second to get in the room before walking in himself.

“Hello father.” Adrien said dully.

“Adrien, did you need something?” His father asked in the same tone, not even looking up from his sketching.

“Father, I feel like you’ve been hiding something from me these past few years. You didn’t used to be so cold towards me, then, four years ago, you basically stopped paying attention to me all together. You are hiding something, and I will find out what it is if you aren’t going to tell me!” Adrien stormed out with the dramatic Chat Noir flare that his partners knew and had come to love, leaving the door open for Alya.

Gabriel Agreste pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He slowly turned around and walked towards the portrait of his wife, placing his hands on it, Alya was right next to him taking extensive notes of what he was doing. She had noticed how he had strategically placed his hands and wrote the positions as he pressed harder on the picture. Alya watched and wrote as his fingers sunk into the portrait and the floor under him started to sink. Alya’s eyes widened as Gabriel Agreste sank into the floor. After finishing her notes she ran to Adrien’s room, he had again left the door open, she slowly closed it as her transformation wore off. 

“Hey, What did you find out?” Adrien asked as he handed Plagg a piece of Camembert.

“It’s your mother’s portrait Adrien! It’s the key! You have to place your hands just right, and there is an escalator type thing in the floor that must lead down to his lair. We need to get him out of the house so we can scope it out. We’re so close.” Alya sighed with relief.

“I can’t believe he would do that with my mom’s portrait. He had it commissioned for her for their anniversary, it was her favorite present. Now, he’s tarnished it and it’s memory. What else can I expect from such a vile man. At least we know where his lair is. And you’re right Alya, we’re nearing the end of our fight. Soon, my father and his cohorts will be behind bars. That man is as much my father, as Lila is honest.” Adrien spat, his anger clearly rising more and more as they spoke. “Let’s go tell the others, they’ll be waiting for us.” Alya tossed Trixx a mini dark chocolate-orange macaron from her bag, and quickly transformed into Rena Rouge. Adrien walked over to Alya, and she grabbed a hold of him, jumping out of the window.

It always felt different jumping over the city of love and romance when he wasn’t transformed, the wind seemed to blow a bit differently when he wasn’t leather-clad. They flew past the Eiffel Tower and were soon on Marinette’s balcony, where the others were waiting.

“Hey guys, we have news.” Alya said as she set Adrien down and looked around to check if the coast was clear before detransforming.

“What’d you learn? How do we get to his lair?” Marinette said frantically.

“It’s all here in these notes, it’s actually pretty simple.” Alya said, passing Marinette the small notepad.

“I remember that portrait, I can’t believe he would do that to it. How are we going to get him out of the house long enough to sneak in? He barely leaves the house unless it’s for work.” Marinette stated, knowingly, she had done her research.

Marinette walked over to Adrien, and almost instantly, as if she knew how upset he was, wrapped her arms around him. He openly accepted the gesture and wrapped her in his own embrace, silently sobbing into her shoulder. Adrien always tried to put on a brave face, but on the inside he was chipped and broken. He had been through so much, and yet he usually would find the bright side of things. Marinette knew that Adrien would reach a breaking point with all of this stuff with his father coming to light. For Adrien’s sake, they had to defeat his father as soon as possible.