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Emilie had always loved traveling. The world was such a fascinating place, and she wanted to see it all.

Which was why, when Aubrey asked her to star in her latest movie, she couldn't say no. The movie was being shot in a few different countries, and she would have time to explore along the way.

She'd done drama back in lycée, so she wasn't completely inexperienced, but she'd never been in a movie, let alone starred in one, so she couldn't imagine what had posessed Aubrey to suggest her for the role.

Emilie wasn't especially close with Aubrey (she found the other woman's snooty personality rather grating), but as their husbands were on good terms (being two of the wealthiest men in Paris at such young ages) they'd often been thrown together at social events, and Aubrey had apparently decided that Emilie would be perfect for the role.

Emilie wasn't sure it was such a good idea to travel while Adrien was still so young, but Gabriel insisted. After all, Aubrey was bringing her newborn, so why shouldn't Emilie be able to do the same? Anyway, Gabriel was coming along (he wanted to do some research for his latest line), so it wasn't as though she'd be handling Adrien alone.

Adrien aside, this was shaping up to be one of her most exciting trips yet. She'd often accompanied Gabriel on his trips, and she'd done the whole "backpacking across Europe" thing back in université, but there was something exhilarating about travelling for her work. Besides, several of the scenes were going to be shot in Beijing, and Emilie had always loved China. It was so… gorgeous.

It was while she was in China that she found… them.

She'd just walked out of one of the most famous restaurants in that area-- the owner and head chef had created a new dish in honor of the birth of his great-niece or something-- and was exploring the area when she stopped to check out an alleyway. She carefully walked over to an old crate near the back and gingerly opened it. Inside lay an ancient book and a small box. Interesting.

Emilie felt a drop of water hit her face. Quickly, she opened her umbrella and stuck the book and box in her bag.

"How was your day?" Gabriel asked her later that night.

"I went to that restaurant they told us about," she said. "I'm telling you, that it's only a matter of time before that Wang Cheng is named World's Greatest Chef." She didn't mention the book or the box-- for now, she wanted to keep those her secret.

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"Many centuries ago, magic jewels bestowing extraordinary powers were created. These were… the Miraculous. Throughout history, heroes have used these jewels for the good of the human race. Two of these Miraculous are more powerful than the others-- the Earrings of the Ladybug, which provide the power of creation, and the Ring of the Black Cat, which grants the power of destruction. According to legend, whoever controls both of these jewels at the same time will achieve absolute power."

Emilie blinked at the small purple creature floating in the air in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she said, more than a little confused. "I didn't catch your name-"

"Noo-roo!" A little blue creature materialized next to the purple one. "You can't just say that to every wielder who picks up our Miraculous! It's bad enough that we might end up with someone who'll abuse our powers, we don't need anyone going after Plagg and Tikki, too."

"I'm afraid I'm a little lost-- who are you two, and what exactly are these… er… Miraculous?"

Emilie had waited until they'd returned to Paris to look at the mysterious box. When she'd opened the lid, she'd found a tiny peacock-feather fan and a purple brooch with four white petals extending outwards. The next thing she knew, that purple creature-- Nooroo, if she'd heard the blue one right-- had appeared and stared jabbering on about magic jewels.

"My apologies, ma'am," said the blue creature, bowing slightly. "I'm Duusu, the peacock kwami, and this is Nooroo, the moth [butterfly] kwami."

"Emilie Agreste," she replied, smiling. "And this is-" The baby in her arms giggled, reaching out one arms to try and grab at the kwamis. "-my son Adrien. I'm so sorry!" Duusu flew out of the way and smiled indulgently.

"It's nice to meet you!" Nooroo said, giggling. "It's been a long time since we met anyone!"

"So you two are kwamis-- what does that mean, exactly?"

"We guard are the source of the power of the Miraculous," explained Duusu. "We watch over our Chosen."

"Chosen?"

"Those who have been chosen by the Guardians to wield our powers. Unfortunately, we were separated from the Order of the Guardians many years ago, along with the spellbook-"

"This?" Emilie raised the book she'd found with them.

"The book!" The kwamis flew over to study the cover. "We thought this was lost forever!"

"Now, what's this about an Order of Guardians?"

The kwamis explained about the Order, the Miraculous, the spellbook, and how they'd been separated.

"I see," said Emilie, frowning. "That sounds terrible! There's only one thing for me to do."

"What's that?" Nooroo seemed nervous and hesitant to ask.

"I'll have to locate this 'Order' and return you two. You want to be reunited with your friends, right?"

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Of course, Emilie couldn't do anything that day. Gabriel was having a show in just a few hours, and she had to get ready.  And the next couple days were taken over with shooting the last few scenes of Aubrey's movie.

But finally, a week after she first met the kwamis, she started researching. Or, at least, she tried to. It was a little hard, considering that she had absolutely no leads.

"Tell me everything you can about what you remember about the location of the Order," she asked the kwamis for the tenth time that day. Nooroo was really trying to be helpful, she knew, but he was just so flighty and nervous that she found it hard to follow what he was saying.

"Well, I actually don't remember where it is," Duusu said, fizzing into existence again. The peacock miraculous was apparently damaged, which meant that Duusu had a hard time materializing for long periods of time. "I know it was a monastery of some sort, but we kwamis never paid much attention to the precise location. I think it was somewhere in the mountains?"

A monastery, huh? Now there was a lead she could actually follow…

…or so she'd thought. Five years later, and was still no closer to finding the Order. She'd visited practically every mountain range in Europe, trying to figure out which of them had housed monasteries, but even combined with all the library and internet research she'd done, it wasn't enough. She found no evidence anywhere of a secret monastery known as the Order of the Guardians.

By now, Gabriel was rather suspicious. She hadn't told him about the kwamis and Miraculous-- much as she loved and trusted her husband, she respected the kwamis' wish to remain a secret from other humans. Besides, she knew her husband well enough to aknowledge that Gabriel might be more concerned with the potential of the Miraculous' powers than returning the kwamis to their friends.

She'd told Gabriel that she'd developed a fascination with medieval European architecture, but she wasn't sure how much of that he actually believed. And as for Adrien…

"Maman, do you have to go?" Adrien was hugging her as she tried to drag her suitcase out the door.

"I'll be back before you know it, honey-- but Chloé will play with you!"

By all rights, he should have been starting school this year, but Gabriel was concerned with his safety and preferred that he be educated at home. Never mind that Aubrey's daughter had started school already. Emilie sighed.

"Someday, when you're older, I'll take you with me on one of these trips, alright, honey?" Adrien smiled.

She sighed again as she climbed into the car. She missed him so much when she was away, but she couldn't exactly take him mountaineering across Europe with her.

Two years later, and she'd hit a dead end.

"Duusu, are you sure it was a monastery?" Duusu's face scrunched up, but then the tiny kwami disappeared again. Nooroo started mumbling in… was that Mandarin? "Wait a second, Nooroo… are you guys from China?!?!"

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"Are you telling me that all this time I've been searching through Christian monasteries, you guys were from a Buddhist monastery?" Emilie was exasperated. Seven years down the drain, and she'd been searching the wrong continent!

Duusuu looked at her a bit curiously.

"I'm afraid that I don't fully grasp the differences between human faiths," the blue kwami explained. Emilie sighed. Of course. Back to square one…

Adrien was ten years old the next time he asked to join his mother on one of her trips.

"It's so lonely when you're gone," he said, and she felt a pang in her heart. When had her baby boy gotten so big? She'd been trying to limit the number of trips to Asia she made to no more than eight a year, but she knew she was still missing so much of her son's life. He was too old for her to just send him to play with Chloé.

"I'll take you with me when you're fourteen," she said. And she really did mean it.

That trip proved as futile as the rest. She'd visited mountain ranges all over Asia, to no avail.

She consulted with the kwamis when she got home (she never brought them along, as she was worried about losing them), and, with their hearty approval, decided to spend the next year at home. No trips abroad, other than those they made as a family. And it was heaven.

She got to spend as much time with Adrien as she wanted, listening to how well his piano playing had improved, going on picnics, and just generally having fun.

"Hey, Mom," he asked one day in the garden as they folded up the picnic blanket. "Do they speak French in those places you go on your trips?"

"No," she said, giggling a bit. "They speak a few different languages, but the one I use the most is Mandarin Chinese."

"Can you teach me to say something in Mandarin?" She taught him a few basic phrases, and he didn't mention it again. But six months later, after she'd left on another trip, he went over to his father and asked if he could get a Mandarin teacher.

She cut back her trips again-- only five a year. She followed a couple false leads, but no luck. It was when Adrien was almost thirteen that she finally found something even remotely related to the Order. Unfortunately, it wasn't good…

Chapter Text

In one of her latest trips-- this time to the Himalayas-- Emilie had discovered an ancient and abandoned monastery teeming with archaeologists. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you viewed it), it didn't take long to realize that it was not the home of the Order of Guardians-- or, at least, not the home of the main branch. By studying some of the documents the archaeologists had uncovered, which made references to "miracles in Tibet" and "the Order's greatest secret," Emilie was able to pinpoint the Order's true location to a particular mountain in Tibet.

She flew home, her thoughts in a panic. Finally, thirteen years into her search, she might have found the right place-- the location of Duusu and Nooroo's friends. But considering the state of that Himalayan monastery, she realized that the Order's home might actually be nothing but ruins. And if not? They'd been hiding themselves very well for the past century or two.

Emilie realized that her next trip was one she was going to have to make totally alone. She couldn't risk tour guides or fellow hikers who might reveal the Order's location to the outside world.

She stayed home for four months, mournful but resigned. She'd made this choice, and she would stand by it. She spent every moment she could with Adrien, memorizing the lines of his face-- and the loneliness in his eyes.  She fought with Gabriel over that-- their first real fight in over a dozen years.

"It's not right, Gabriel! A boy his age should be going to school and spending time with friends, not moping around the house!"

"What's wrong with this house? It's enough that you clearly can't bear to stay here-- now you're saying Adrien should leave too?"

"When did I ever say that I hate it? Is that what you think?"

"How could I not? You're never here longer than five minutes before jet-setting of into the sunset!"

"This is about Adrien! Don't make this about me!"

And back. And forth. For hours.

In the predawn hours of the morning, she was found, sobbing her eyes out in the garden. It was Gabriel's secretary who found her, the one with the red streaks in her hair.

"Are you alright, ma'am?"

"Yes, thank you, Nathalie." She wiped her eyes and returned to her room. He wasn't there, of course-- he was already busy working. She quickly packed her bags and walked back to the hallway. She tiptoed into Adrien's room and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead.

"I love you, she whispered. "I'm so sorry. If I don't come back…" She left her sentence unfinished.

When Gabriel returned home a few hours later, she was already gone, the webpage she'd printed her flight ticket from still open.

The message was written on the inside cover of a Tibetan guidebook, which, along with a hotel receipt and a few changes of clothing, had been shipped to him from the hotel Emilie had been staying at after she hadn't returned to hotel for over a month.

Gabriel went to where Emilie had directed him and found the box containing the book and jewelry box. He flipped through the pages, not understanding what Emilie wanted him to do with a book of fantastically costumed heroes, written in some nonsensical language.

Then

Gabriel opened the jewelry box.

And Hawkmoth was born.