Partners by Chance

Chapter 23 - Wanna play 'Cat n Moth'?

Gabriel

Gabriel's eyes were frozen looking at the akuma in Li- I mean, Eagle Moth's hands. Her cold look was like nothing he ever seen.

"Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize him!" she shouted.

The akuma flew in his direction. He was panicking. What could he do? He had nothing to defend himself and he would need to fight not one but two miraculous wielders.

The butterfly landed in his mask. Suddenly, he felt his body becoming dormant and he started hearing Lila's voice inside his head.

"Vindicator, I'm Eagle Moth. I demand you to explain your past statement. Why do you think we're not leaving this house with the miraculous?" she asked.

Gabriel struggled. He tried to fight the influence. He knew how persuasive that influence could be, but he knew he was aware.

"I-I... I'll never tell you..." he stuttered.

Lila's look got colder. She was obviously angry with the answer. She rose her cane and pointed it to Gabriel.

"I said: why do you think we won't leave this house?" she repeated with a stronger and angrier voice.

And suddenly, his body stopped being dormant. He recovered his senses for a second, before falling in the extreme opposite: pain. More pain than he ever felt in his whole life. It looked like his bones were on fire and his flesh as about to melt. His head was going to explode and his eyes were going to fall from his face. His column was surely about to crack, but he wanted it. At least he wouldn't feel more pain... He would die...

"I'LL NEVER TELL YOU!!!" he screamed in pain.

He didn't see, but Master Peacock stopped Eagle Moth from torturing him. It was his time. He knew exactly what would break him.

He picked up a pen from Gabriel's desk and pulled a feather out of his fan. He then closed the hand holding the feather and an amok, the peacock miraculous' equivalent of a an akuma, appeared. Félix then blew the dark feather and it landed in the pen. In front of him, a woman figure appeared in front of him. She had long blond hair and deep green eyes. The sentimonster, a creature created by the peacock miraculous wielder, looked like Emilie Agreste.

"Gabriel..." it said in Emilie's voice.

Gabriel rose his eyes, trying to catch his breath. The sentimonster knelled to be closer to him, caressing his face.

"Emilie..." he said in a weak voice.

"I need you to trust them... They want what is best for you, for Adrien, and for me." it continued.

 Gabriel touched its hand, not thinking straight, the poor man kissed the sentimonster, giving up his fight and succumbing to Eagle Moth's control. Master Peacock released the pen and the amok left , returning to his hand.

"Vindicator, I'm not going to ask again. Why do you think we're not going to leave the house with the miraculous?" asked Eagle Moth again.

"Ladybug is here and I have reasons to believe Chat Noir, Carapace and Rena Rouge might be close too." he answered.

"And how do you know that?" questioned Lila.

Gabriel fought the influence as much as he could, tried to make a lie. It come something like:

"I... I... I-I felt their p-presence..." 

Which was enough to make Lila and Félix wonder what to do next.

Marinette and Luka

The conversation with Gabriel made Marinette doubt everything. She had now the possibility to save Adrien's mom. Would she take it? She had to talk to Adrien.