Butterfly Delivery - Adrinette

Stealth Mode

"Please put your seats back in their original upright position, we are preparing for landing."

"We're going to be hearing that a lot now - aren't we?"

"Hmm, I guess so. What about all the school we're missing?"

"We might have to go back to being homeschooled. Well, it would be going back for me; how would you feel about that, Marinette?"

"I'd probably miss our class. I've gone to school with some of them most of my life. But, if that's what we have to do for your mère, then I'll do it with you."

When Adrien didn't answer her within the time Marinette would have expected, she looked over at him only to find he was staring at her fondly. "What would I do without you?" he asked once her eyes met his.

"You'd manage... but you know you wouldn't be complete without me," she teased.

"True, and I'm glad you know that too."

--

"A place changes a lot in 1,000 years," Plagg noted. "There are way more buildings than there were last time."

"This doesn't seem like very many buildings to me."

"That's because you two were raised in the big city of today. I remember when Paris looked more or less like this, and it was considered urban even then."

"I couldn't believe how much it had grown when I saw it again," Tikki agreed. "It didn't seem like the same place."

"Before we met, how long had it been since you were last in France?" Marinette asked.

"It's hard to tell," Tikki shrugged. "It doesn't seem as long when I've been dormant for parts of it, but I'm guessing it was about 500 years."

--

"What's wrong?"

Spott, the jaguar kwami, flicked his ears.  He tried to catch on to a fleeting sound, then sighed in defeat. "I keep thinking I sense other kwami, then the feeling goes away again. It's on fairly regular intervals too. I feel it for only a few seconds, maybe once every 10 minutes. Then it's gone again."

"What would other kwami be doing around here?"

"Nothing, unless they were looking for us. My only guess is that their current humans are after one of our stones."

"So we should prepare to be attacked?"

"Maybe... well, yes. Being prepared is always good, but there's a chance these people could be friends. Let's go find them, but until we know who they are - let's not let them find us."

"Spott, engage stealth mode."

--

"I recognize that house!"

"Really? Even after 1,000 years?"

"No, I recognize it from 10 minutes ago. We're walking in circles."

The rest of their group stopped and took note of their surroundings. Tikki was right;they weren't making any forward progress.

"This is pointless," Plagg grumbled. "We might as well go find somewhere to eat. I think I might like to try some Requeijão, I've heard it tastes similar to Camembert."

"Plagg, can't you think of anything but food?"

"Maybe stopping for food wouldn't be a bad idea. If you could find someone who shares a common language you could -"

"Shh..." Wayzz stopped the other kwamies. "Can you feel something?"

"It feels like a nearby kwami has released a burst of magic," Tikki mused thoughtfully, "but that doesn't make sense; none of us are transformed."

"Unless it's the jaguar kwami. It's possible we've been near him this whole time and can't distinguish his presence from one another's."

"If that's true, then he would have become aware of our presence hours ago. That would explain why he's moving now."

"Sure, he's probably looking for us. Perhaps it would be wise to stay in one place and wait for him to track us down."

--

"Freeze! State your name and business!"

This was the jaguar superhero confronting them, watching them steadily even while his voice slightly betrayed fear. He was, after all, outnumbered three to one by other miraculous users. And his words, no doubt Portuguese, swished teasingly in their ears - familiar, but not something they could quite grasp. The former dialects of Latin were that close, but were also that far apart.

Master Fu raised both hands in a sign of peace. Adrien and Marinette, each holding a child, raised one hand apiece. It's hard to look threatening while holding a baby. Tikki flew out of Marinette's bag and hovered in full view, giving Marinette the urge to shoo her into hiding before she realized there was no need. "I'm going to try to talk to him."

"You can speak Portuguese?"

"I used to. It's been years, but I can probably get something out. I want to talk with Spott... please."

The holder looked hesitant, but dropped his transformation anyway. "Spott, disengage stealth mode."

"Tikki?" Spott asked, then as the other kwami emerged from hiding. "Plagg? Wayzz?"

--

Through a patchwork of languages, the kwami got it across to one another where they had been in the past years, and what they'd been up to. Some modern languages were mixed together with ancient tongues, long extinct.

"Spott said it's okay if we follow his owner home, but we'll have to wait there when they go to their secret place and fetch the stone. Only the stone guardian is allowed to know where the secret hiding spot is."

"The order of the guardians sure does go to lengths to make sure no one person has access to too much power by himself. Oh, all right."

--

"It's getting dark. Shouldn't they be back already?

"Maybe, but we don't know how far they have to travel to get to where they hid them. Guarding ancient relics is a sensitive process, you know; they've got to be close enough to check on them at least once every few days, but they also have to be far enough that intruders can't find them simply by finding where the guardian lives."

"Is that them coming up the road now? - ohp, false alarm, that's one of the neighbors. Why does this stone have to remain hidden anyway? Is being able to repair a miraculous really such a dangerous power?"

"No, but think of these stones as the key that unlocks the miraculous. The stone is needed to put more power in, but it could also be used to drain power out. In the wrong hands, one of these stones could make its corresponding miraculous worthless."

"I'm back." The jaguar miraculous holder crept up behind them. "Did you miss me?"

"What just happened?! We've been watching the door the whole time; how'd you get in?"

"I'm the kwami of stealth," Spott explained. "When my holder says 'vanish', we can't be detected by any of the five senses for five minutes. We squeezed in right between you, and you never knew we were there. Be glad we're on your side."

A/n - I personally feel this chapter was kind of boring, sorry about that. I'd rather that than nothing. I still have plans for this story, and I'm trying not to let it die out.