24. Chapter 24

"Another arson attack occurred at Palais Garnier around..." the newscaster began. "...firefighters were able to respond, however, just like the other four cases, the fire spread in less than a minute and consumed the entire building. No deaths or injuries were reported yet, but the authorities still plastered some safety warnings to the public. So far, there were ten reported incidents related to property damages happened solely in Paris, and fifteen of its nearby departments. The Parisian Mayor, Mayor Bourgeois, released a statement about these consecutive attacks, announcing that the suspect was still at large, and finally declared it as something related to an Akuma. No statement has been made from Ladybug and Chat Noir..."

"I messed up." Marinette continuously chanted, even after she was ushered into the room silently by Adrien and their kwamis. Once he closed the door behind them, she broke.

"I fucking messed things up."

"Mari-"

"Don't." she raised her hand, stopping her partner when he attempted to hug her. "Don't lie to me. Please don't lie to me and tell me that everything's in control even though it's not."

He stood straightly and gaped at her ridiculousness. "What shall we do then - blame each other because we happened to have a life outside the mask?"

"That's not what - "

"Is this something we'll going to fight over later on?" he said without any madness or hints of frustrations. "A strain on our relationship? A crack on our solid foundation? Marinette -"

"No." she shuddered, shaking her head. "God, no - no, Adrien. I'm sorry..."

She welcomed his heat when he pulled and drawn her into an embrace. It pained him to see her cry.

He wiped the stray tears with his thumb, then kissed the tip of her nose. "Do you trust me when I said that everything will be alright?"

"As If I have a choice." she croaked with a smile. "I'm sorry. I tend to overreact to things."

"Don't worry - there's nothing unbeatable for a calm and collected Ladybug."

She nestled her head in the crook of his neck. "You're reminding me of Stoneheart again. Comforting me with your own ways despite my carelessness."

"You're just responsible."

"I'm not. I even removed my Miraculous and secretly slipped them on Alya's, only to take them back when she got trapped by two destroyed cars," she muttered. "So I think you're the best of the bunch."

He sighed on her head. "Let me tell you how I jumped on the situation without debriefing myself about the Miraculous origins because I'm too excited to escape from my dull, meaningless life."

"We're both ignorant doofus."

"That's why we're made for each other."

"What shall we do, Adrien?" she asked, drawing them back to the reality.

"I think." he answered, "We need a plan."

Formulating a plan wasn't easy even with four brains combined - considering that kwamis have that particular organ, though Adrien refused to concur on Plagg - which probably due to exhaustion and limited access.

"It says here that the 'attack' started around eight," Adrien said as he read a random news post after spending minutes waiting for a page to load on a mobile browser.

"We're en-route to Gare Saint-Lazare that time." Marinette pondered. "But why is it we haven't heard anything about it?"

"We sorta have - or maybe, I have," he answered as he looked at her grimly. "Before they flashed the news about the train fiasco, a clip about some property damages caused by an unidentified source was reported. It was so brief I didn't make any importance on it. "

"Property damages. Dad mentioned something like that during their call. Alya also mentioned that too, but she cut me off before I could ask further." she brushed her face with her hands. "And both mentioned Ladybug."

"There's an ongoing road construction near south that caused some reroutes on public vehicles according to Sean. It can be a landslide but...you think there might be a connection?"

She was tempted to go and visit the site, but that would mean asking people about it, which likely raise some suspicions. To them, they were only tourists who didn't snoop unless guilty, and not superheroes investigating a possible Akuma attack.

They could also leave discreetly and transform, in which they could freely ask any townsfolk, but it might end up a town away or two. Or probably in a different region.

Besides, their bodies were screaming 'rest' it was purely miraculous they were able to sit and think after all the troubles they've encountered physically and mentally in less than a day.

"Regardless of its connection to an Akuma, we still need to go back to Paris."

"Which I don't think you must do it right now," Tikki interjected as she floated towards her charger. "Not only you guys have to wait for the first trip, your bodies need a good night sleep. Exhausted superheroes would only lead to disaster."

"Can't argue with that." the blond hummed. "You know...there's something on this Akuma that makes everything weird."

"How so?"

He scratched his chin. "First is the media. It's not peculiar for Papillion to send more than one Akuma in a day - take Vanisher and Antibug for example - but they didn't connect the incidents until later on. Maybe they thought it was a terrorist attack? Dunno. Second is the Akuma's identity. There's no reported 'appearance' but it left several 'damages' as an evidence. The third is the reported time of 'attack'. Like any Miraculous holders, Papillion needs to recharge before he can use his powers again. So if he sent another after Twidle Doom, then that won't match the reports - unless the Miraculous Cure failed."

"Or Papillion summoned it with Twidle Doom simultaneously," Plagg responded nonchalantly, earning a jaw-slacked expression from the two. "C'mon, there's no way the Miraculous Cure failed, or else Sweet Tooth here will inform us. And her kid was able to capture and purified the Akuma, so having it multiplied like what happened with Stoneheart is out of the list. Besides, the Butterfly Miraculous can grant a group of Champions if they're attuned to each other. Collective thinking, I may say."

"Tha - that's a strange feat."

"It's not, Adrien. The Butterfly Miraculous was once held by a Pythia and used it to possess the Greeks in winning battles." the red kwami explained. "A Champion doesn't mean a single person. It can be a superior group that has a common goal overwhelmed by a shared emotion and depending on the scenario, they can be combined as one entity or they'll have correlated abilities as individuals."

Marinette couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you telling me that Twiddle Doom has a partner?"

"Or partners, we don't know." Adrien cringed, then looked at his munching kwami. "If that's the case, then how come we haven't encountered it?"

"He either chickened out or refused Papillion's call."

This raised his brow. "Is that possible?"

"Of course, kid. But you need to have a strong conviction or a motivation. Fear, for example." he explained, pawing another wheel of Camembert. "A Champion has an option to obey or reject its call, but there will be a toll on the person both physically and mentally. Sometimes they would lose their control, worse it'd burst out their bodies and bam! Bye-bye, little butterfly."

"Wow. Your euphemism never failed to astound me."

"Just like Evillustrator. Nath was able to keep his emotions at bay." the girl commented. "There's this instance wherein he stiffed and barely controlled his hand."

As if forcing a girl on a date can be considered as something who keeps his emotions at bay, Adrien wanted to grumble but didn't.

"So let's just say this Akuma was trying to reject Papillion - which seems plausible since there were no direct threats or calls towards Ladybug and Chat Noir - then why property damages? Arson, demolition, stolen objects...these weird phenomena that are happening inside and outside Paris are what, a result of his uncontrollable power?"

"The Akuma might want to change something," he concluded. "Whatever that is, and if Plagg is correct, it must be something related to Twiddle Doom."

"There's nothing as dangerous as an Akuma on a loose." the red kwami quoted. "And only Ladybug can free them from evil."

Her charger cradled her head. "Urgh, I wanna go home now."

"Don't fur-et, My Lady. Be-claws I, your Knight in shining leather, will deli-fur you to your sweet Haven safe and sound." the blond told her. "But before that, we need to plan our sleeping arrangement."

The teenagers roamed their eyes around their assigned room with a blush.

The only furniture aside from the single bed was a stool, which would be a damn hard sleeping material. They once heard from Celia that all guest rooms were occupied, so they couldn't simply ask for another one.

If the duvet will be laid on the floor, and with spare pillows, one could...

"Oh, geez. Why don't you two share the bed? That way it'll be easier." Plagg suggested. "As if you're both innocent and never once dreamed of sleeping together."

Two heads lashed towards the snickering kwami with a burning face.

"PLAGG!"

.

.

.

.

Somewhere in Paris, a figure was looming around the dark corners of Avenue des Ternes. Wearing a pink-and-black striped jumper suit, the person wobbled on the pavements as he cradled his head.

A purple mask illuminated his eyes, followed by a piercing scream.

"Leave me alone!" he yelled to an empty space. "Please, let me go!"

The voice told him no.

A building behind him collapsed, which jolted him from his bearings. He knew that in a few moments, the police would arrive and investigate the scene. He hurriedly left the place, but the voice inside his head didn't.

The brothers made a mistake.

They knew that Joseph Howards was in Paris with an objective to approach the Agrestes, but before they let him reach the mansion, they intercepted him for a negotiation. Said bastard accepted it and made a discussion on a nearby park.

They wanted to retrieve the property that was used as a collateral on a business they later on learned as illegal.

It was an act of good faith why they signed a partnership contract with him, but because of their naivety, they were conned. They were forced to believe that everything was okay, until such time they found out about the contraband and other hidden paraphernalia inside the warehouse, and that they will be used as a scapegoat if things went south.

They wanted to cancel the agreement.

Howards told them no.

So when a voice offered them a power to change everything, they immediately accepted it.

How wrong they were.

He witnessed how his brother was defeated and saved by two vigilant heroes.

The voice inside his head told him to fight, but the sight of his brother being cleansed told him otherwise.

They were born and raised in a family of faith, so they were aware that resentments would bear nothing but emptiness.

They might've made a mistake, but it was up to him to correct it. If only he knew how.

If only Twiddle Gain knew how.

"Please help me..." the Akuma pleaded as the pain shot him again, knocking him out unconscious. "Ladybug."