The Wolves in the Woods

Forsee the Unforseen

Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.

— Victor Hugo

***

The heroes and their allies discuss and recap what they've learned.

***

            "Alright..." Marinette said, taking a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. "Let's all start from the beginning."

In her room sitting in a circle were Luka, Tikki, and Ms. Diamandis. Luka was quite surprised to learn her homeroom teacher already knew her secret identity. For some odd reason, he felt more at ease knowing it was Ms. Diamandis and not Ms. Bustier who knew. After that was settled Ms. Diamandis bought some cookies from the bakery for Tikki to snack on. Luka would have brought Juleka over but Marinette's insistence on keeping secrets threw a monkey wrench into that idea. Ms. Diamandis pointed out that, with how close the Couffaine siblings were now, it was only a matter of time before Juleka found out. Either on her own or someone telling her. The questions now were when and/or how.

"To start," Marinette began, clapping her hands together and pursing her lips. "The Fae know who Chat Noir and I are." Three heads nodded. "The new heroes are from another Miraculous Order in Spain." The Iberian Order, Idon had told them. "Our new neighbors aren't entirely human." As their meeting the other day had shown. "There's a new bad guy wandering around Paris. Who is both a werewolf and he has followers." Upping the need to find new teammates soon. "And lastly..." Marinette took a deep breath, folding her hands in front of her.

"Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth."

A heavy silence fell over the group, ruminating over her words. In hindsight, it should have been obvious. The strange book on Miraculous Adrien had found, the weird insistence on being as rude as possible to everyone he meets, the complete withdrawal from human society. He practically had the words I'M HAWK MOTH written in huge, red letters on his forehead. Marinette groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"How did I not see that..." she asked. It was fortunate she remembered to ask Mireya if they'd found out Hawk Moth's civilian identity. To her frustration, Mireya couldn't tell her directly thanks to some treaty or something. But with the clues and hard evidence the fairy presented, there was only one conclusion they could draw on that matter.

To say Marinette felt sick would be a severe understatement.

"... well," Luka said. "At least we know Adrien isn't in league." Which Marinette agreed but it didn't make her feel any better. "If he was, we'd be in huge trouble."

"No kidding," Marinette grumbled. "Still, that explains a lot."

Having a supervillain for a father that doubled as a neglectful parent did wonders in warping someone's morality. Part of her wanted to say it wasn't his fault. He had no idea about what his father was doing when no one was looking. The other part of her reminded herself he still chose to neglect his duties as a superhero and a Miraculous Holder. All in favor of scoring his idea of a girlfriend. Inexplicably, Marinette felt bile rising in her throat.

"Easy," Ms. Diamandis said, handing her the wastebasket. Luka got up to retrieve the tissues and a water bottle, for which Marinette was grateful. "Do you remember how you found that book?" Marinette's face went blank.

"... I'd rather not talk about it," she said. Ms. Diamandis raised an eyebrow in confusion but, seeing she wasn't willing to talk, let it slide.