The Agreste Internship - Book 2

Chapter 23: Too Late to Say Sorry

The sky was still red.

Ghosts still roamed the world.

The veil was tearing and even normal people could see the ghosts.

But Nino could only think of one thing. "Alya," Nino said as looked at all of his friends, then at the love of his life. With Alya, he felt like anything was possible. He got down on one knee. "I know this is terrible timing..."

"It's the end of the world, Nino." Alya pointed out. "What are you doing?"

"I have been trying to think of the perfect way to say these things to you, Babe, but it was never the perfect time. I thought I'd wait until after I got a good job so that I could afford to treat you like my Queen. But the DJ jobs are barely coming in and I was worried that I never would be able to give you everything. But today I realized that when I'm with you, I can do anything. Together we can make our dreams come true."

He reached into his pocket and got out a box. When he opened it up and showed her a beautiful diamond ring, Alya gasped and covered her mouth. For once in her life, Alya was speechless.

"Will you marry me?" Nino asked and immediately afterward Alya lept into his arms.

"Yes, yes, yes!" She said between kisses.

Everyone clapped and cheered, reminding the two that they were not alone. Nino put the engagement ring on Alya's finger and she proudly displayed it to everyone. 

Max had watched the whole thing on his computer from the live feed that Markov was streaming. Wanting to join in the celebration with his friends, he tried to stand up and shout, but when he tried to get up from his wheelchair he realized that he still couldn't stand. The miraculous ladybugs should have fixed everything. They should have fixed all of the damage done by that specific akuma, including the damage done when Lila was akumatized. That meant that Lila hadn't been akumatized when she had hurt Max. Which meant the damage that was done was permanent. 

He didn't know how she had done it. The doctors were baffled and had many different explainations. It was either caused by an injury, neurotoxin, or a third option which he never considered. Lila had taken the miraculous off of him while he was still wearing it, and it had damaged him. Permanently. Not even magic could fix that. 

Max couldn't help it. He broke down in tears.

It wasn't fair. He didn't deserve this. He still had so much stuff left to do that he'd never get a chance to do. And now he'd never get the chance. He tried not to let the information break him down and he tried to focus on what he could still do. The world was still ending and his friends were relying on him. He wiped away his tears, squared his shoulders, and turned his attention back to his computer screen that had multiple live streams displaying on the screen. His drones were back, fixed after the miraculous ladybugs, so he had them sweep Paris looking for some answers. They needed to find Shadowmoth and fast.

Time was running out. 

*****A few hours earlier*****

Emillie Agreste woke up hungry. Her eyes felt like lead, and, when she finally managed to open them, the light seemed to burn them. She reached out her hand and collided with glass. Her green eyes focused slowly and noted that she was in an enclosed box. She looked around for a latch or a handle, and found a keypad. After entering her security code, the box opened with a loud woosh and Emillie emerged.

She was in the center of a large garden, this was the indoor garden that they had created for their son so he could finally go outside without fear of dangerous pathogens. But much of the garden had grown. On the far side of the secret basement was Adrien's old room with the hospital bed and medical equipment. It was now abandoned and looked like it hadn't been used for years. This fact brought comfort to her and she smiled inwardly to herself.