Chapter Text
Three years ago
“Why can’t I go to school anymore? And why can’t I play with Chloe?”
Emilie and Gabriel Agreste exchanged looks. They had been snatching a moment to themselves when Adrien politely knocked on the door of their sitting room, looking dejected. Emilie scooted over and patted the sofa cushion between them. Adrien came and sat down.
“You know that sometimes people are born with magic, and that it can show up any time after they turn 10, right?”
“Yes…”
“And you know that Maman and Papa both have magic…”
“I know.”
“We think that you have magic, too, son,” Gabriel spoke up. “Only it’s not like mine or your mother’s. We both use a catalyst- a vehicle- to carry our magic and make it into something else. Yours is conveyed through direct touch and… it might be a little scary for others, and possibly for you, to learn to control it.”
“W-what kind of magic do I have?” Adrien asked in a small voice.
“Remember yesterday, when you woke up and there was that black dust in your bed?”
Adrien nodded. “Yeah… Plagg was missing. I couldn’t find him anywhere, and none of the maids know what happened to him, either.”
Emilie and Gabriel exchanged another look. Plagg was- had been- a little stuffed black cat that Adrien had picked out in a toy store as a toddler. He’d slept with it almost every night since then.
“We think,” Emilie said slowly, “that your magic might have turned Plagg into that little pile of dust. We think you must have done it in your sleep without realizing.”
“I… destroyed him?” Adrien asked, in a tone both awed and horrified.
“Essentially, yes,” Emilie admitted, wondering how her incredibly optimistic and cheerful little boy would react to the news that he could destroy anything at will- or at least, that was what they were assuming until they knew more.
Adrien sat thinking about that for a minute, frowning a little. At least he’s not breaking down in tears over losing Plagg, Emilie thought.
“Adrien, we want you to know that neither maman nor I are scared of your magic, because we know you would never hurt anyone or anything on purpose,” Gabriel said.
“And we don’t want you to be scared of it, either, because it’s not the power itself that is good or bad, but only how it’s used,” Emilie added. “You know that already from all those comic books you like to read! But uncontrolled power can be dangerous no matter what it is, so we can’t let you go back to school until you’ve mastered it. You’ll do school work here at home with me until then.”
Adrien’s concern melted into a resigned smile. “Okay. But what about Chloe?”
“Chloe…,” Emilie trailed off, not quite sure how to explain that situation. “Well, she has magic too, and she won’t be in school for a while, either,” she finally said, deciding that was the most politic way to say that she was a court case waiting to happen. Considering how dysfunctional her parents were, it wasn’t likely she was going to get the right- or even any- guidance in the proper use of her magic. In fact, Audrey Bourgeois had called her specifically to boast that her little girl could literally command anyone’s attention now.
Adrien sighed, then looked up. “Will you help me with school too, Papa?”
Gabriel hummed noncommittally. “I suspect it will mostly be your maman or Nathalie, to be honest. But I will be happy to help you understand things as much as I can.” Then he leaned down a little and lowered his voice, as if he was relating a secret, “Unless it’s science. I was never very good at science.”
Adrien giggled at that, but quickly sobered again. “How long do you think it’ll take me to master my magic?”
“We don’t know for sure,” Emilie said. “Every child is different, you know. Some gain control fairly easily, but it’s been known to take years-”
Adrien’s expression fell further.
“I’m sure it won't take you that long,” Gabriel said, patting his knee sympathetically. “After all, you’re quite talented already, and you have a level of self-control that other children your age simply don’t have.”
“Really?” Adrien smiled, surprise and just a hint of pride gleaming in his eye.
“Really, really,” Emilie assured him, giving him a hug.
----
Unfortunately, Adrien took longer to master his magic than anyone anticipated. The magic resisted his attempts to control it, especially at first. It would surge unpredictably, sometimes manifesting as a little ball of black energy and usually destroying things at random. It was relatively harmless, though, if inconvenient- like dusting all of his left shoes (never the right ones), the remote control to the tv, or one of the mid-season dvds from his favorite anime. Once it even destroyed his homework before Nathalie could check it! But other times…
Adrien voluntarily barred himself from the atelier after he accidentally destroyed Gabriel’s computer monitor. And he never went up to the attic to visit the butterflies and doves, after several of them met an untimely demise just by landing on his finger...
He knew his father had been planning to debut him as a model for the brand’s new teen line, but that was out of the question until these accidents stopped occurring. Replacing something personal was one thing; they couldn’t take the chance that he would accidentally destroy a piece of expensive equipment, or equally expensive couture outfits.
Adrien understood- he really did! He had never yet come close to killing anyone, thank god, but they all knew the possibility was there, because the butterflies and birds had died.
Adrien knew that Chloe had gone back to school after only a few months of isolation because the news had covered the event- it was just a mention, but she was the Mayor’s daughter after all, and it had been a slow news day. She was a minor, so they hadn’t mentioned what her powers actually were, they just focused on how rapidly she mastered them. He wasn’t jealous, but it definitely spurred him to find a way to control his own powers.
His father made superhero suits for the whole family, to boost Adrien’s confidence while practicing. They spent many hours on the sofa after dinner talking about the design details and what Adrien wanted vs. what was actually feasible.
“My infused butterflies can enhance someone’s abilities, or even grant them if their will is strong enough, but they have absolutely no effect on material!” Gabriel cautioned an enthusiastic and entirely too ambitious Adrien. “If you want magic cloth that appears out of thin air, can absorb a ridiculous amount of kinetic force, and is virtually indestructible, talk to your mother. She’s the one who can create something out of nothing with her little feathers.”
Adrien had turned expectantly to his mother, but Emilie just laughed and ruffled his hair. “I can’t do that anymore than your father can, my little minou,” she said. “My powers can only create semi-sentient little helpers, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want your costume to have a mind of its own.”
Adrien’s costume ended up being made of black leather, and was cat themed- partly because he had recently discovered the joy of puns. He thought shouting “Cataclysm!” every time he used his power would be hilarious, but only if he looked like a cat while doing it. Gabriel had reluctantly agreed, but only after Emilie pointed out how much of a challenge it would be to make a cat-themed costume look cool instead of silly.
It was a fluke that they discovered a correlation between controlling his powers and eating cheese, of all things. After a little experimentation, they decided to include cheese at every meal, even if only as part of another dish that was served. Luckily, being French, a fruit and cheese platter to round off a meal was expected anyway, so he wouldn’t have a problem eating other places than home.
It took about a year, but eventually Adrien had full control over his powers. He even convinced his parents to let him learn parkour, and go running over the rooftops with him just to get out of the house. But even after they discovered the cheese hack and the accidents stopped, Adrien was wary of returning to school. Despite reassurances, he had a healthy respect for what his powers could do, and he didn’t want to make enemies by accidentally destroying his future classmates’ belongings.
So Adrien continued to homeschool for another six months. When he did go back to school he would have been gone for two years, which was a nice round number.
----
One year ago
Wang Fu studied the ancient tome once more before carefully combining the meteorite dust with gold dust and pouring both into a tiny crucible. He placed the crucible into the kiln, turned it on, and set the timer- now he could check the molds he had prepared and put the rubies he intended to turn into a pair of cuff-links into the tumbler to start polishing. He’d already had to discard two sets of matched rubies because he’d discovered a flaw that only the highest level of polishing had revealed within the stones. Hopefully this pair would prove to actually be flawless.
In the meantime, he was going to make a pair of glasses- so innocuous. He smiled to think that he’d be able to wear these in plain sight without anyone suspecting they contained stolen power. He’d made the lenses from obsidian, so they would just look like a pair of sunglasses to anyone else. He’d already created a sapphire peacock pin, an enamel necklace in the shape of a fox-tail, and an old-fashioned hair comb with a bee decoration in onyx and citrine, but those were things he couldn’t wear openly without calling attention to himself.
He had a whole list of possible jewelry to create, but the ingredients were hard to come by, so it was going slowly. Still, once he had imbued at least a few of them with stolen powers… well, obtaining more ingredients would become a lot easier.
Fu had never been content with his own inborn magic- the creation of impenetrable force fields was useful, and had saved his life and the lives of people he cared for many times, but it didn’t have much offensive capability. If there was one thing he’d learned in life, it was that people who stood back and let others attack them seldom got very far. The way he saw it, his own magic was literally holding him back. It had always frustrated him, and he had spent years researching magic and where it came from, in hopes of finding a better way.
On one of the few research expeditions he’d been able to afford, he stumbled on an ancient tome- quite small, and half-buried in the ruin of an old temple in Tibet. When no one else from the tour was looking, he’d unearthed the small book and flipped through it. After all, it could have been nothing more than some long-dead monk’s personal diary, which wouldn’t be useful to him at all.
As it turned out, though it was written in a dialect he couldn’t read, there were diagrams- fascinating diagrams that he suspected depicted taking power from someone and transferring it into something else. Fu had pocketed the small volume- it was easy to bring home, all he had to do was hide it among other souvenirs.
The knowledge that he had stolen something that could have furthered humanity’s understanding of magic itself- not to mention being intrinsically important to Tibet’s native historians- had never bothered him. If they had really cared, they would have found the book a long time ago and kept it safe. Since they had failed to do so, he felt entirely justified in taking it for himself.
It took him years to translate the small volume, but eventually he understood that the monks of that temple had discovered how to remove a person’s magic and seal it away in a specially created piece of jewelry, which could then be used by the monks themselves. They had used this method to remove magic from dangerous criminals under their care, but Fu had a different plan in mind.
In Paris alone there were thousands of people who had gifts either considered useless, or used ineffectively. But if those powers were harvested by someone who could appreciate and use them...
Fu had paid for anonymous online backdoor access into the FRMR- the French Register of Magical Resources- years ago, and still checked it at least once a year. It probably wasn’t complete, since there would always be people who refused to register their information, but it was complete enough for Fu’s purposes.
The Register only contained a detailed description of the powers, and the year and age at which the person manifested magic. Names and addresses were held in separate databases, ones he hadn’t been able to access. But it was organized by province and city, so he knew which powers to look for locally, and knowing the age of the person whose power he wanted to steal narrowed the search considerably.
His short-term plan was to target the youth of Paris, first. They were young, inexperienced, and highly vulnerable. According to the Register, many children had powers he considered quite useful. The power of spontaneous destruction, for example. But he was going to wait to target that one until he had more powers himself to draw on; powers like illusion and subjection and portal making, so he could sneak up on and quickly overpower his target.
He did know the name and location of one target: Chloe Bourgeois was the Mayor’s daughter. She could hardly be described as either humble or discreet, and she’d made no secret of her ability to control people with a single touch. By all accounts, she treated the staff at her father’s hotel like slaves, and routinely used her powers against complete strangers as well. A brat like that didn’t deserve a power as useful as the one she’d been given- Fu considered he was doing everyone a favor by relieving her of it.
Still, due to France’s policies of non-discrimination, Chloe Bourgeois was still allowed to attend public school. Fu genuinely felt for the faculty and student body of that school... The only reason he hadn’t already taken her powers was because she was a catalyst for discovering more powers among her fellow students. They occasionally retaliated against her tyranny, so he planned to leave her alone long enough to pinpoint who else around her had powers he wanted to steal. Once he had that information, all he had to do was to follow the children to their homes, and then make his plans.
Of course, before he attacked anyone at all, he needed at least one power other than his own. Fortunately, he didn’t think he’d have to look very far to find it.
It had been a fluke, really. He’d been up in the attic putting together a disguise to wear on his pending expeditions, when he heard several rapid thumps on the roof above him. Curious and somewhat paranoid, Fu stuck his head out of the small dormer window and tried to peer around the side of it to see what was going on. He just caught sight of a skinny boy in black with something tied around his waist jumping over a chimney wall onto the next roof.
Fu had grumbled to himself, about to pull his head back in when something else, something long and lean with four legs that vaguely resembled a greyhound and was bright purple, went bounding over the wall in pursuit. From the other side came the sound of loud yapping and laughter. Another loud thump on his own roof made him bang his head on the window frame, but he saw a woman in a peacock themed dress easily vault over the same wall. Fu kept watching to see if they would come back, but instead he heard laughing voices which moved off until he couldn’t hear them anymore.
Suspicions began to grow in his mind. It could have been a random parkour group, one that liked to dress up, perhaps... but that purple thing had to be made of magic.
He set up a recording device in his attic set to start recording one hour before, until one hour after the time when Fu had first seen them. On the eighth day he was rewarded. The recorded thumps- three different sets, as before- had happened around the same time in the late afternoon.
He continued the recordings, and slowly established a pattern. Eventually, he could fairly accurately predict the time they would cross his roof. He thought setting out a camera would be too obvious and might scare them off, but he did go up to look out the window again a few times just to make sure. It was always the boy in black being chased- first by a creature of some kind, then by the woman in the peacock dress. One of them had to have created the creature, and odds were it was the woman, since the boy was always running from it. Probably some form of extreme magical hide and seek, meant to help the boy learn to control his own powers.
Fu frowned at the blatant misuse of such power… but also smiled grimly, because soon enough that power would be his.
----
The summer before going back to school, Adrien spent a lot of time with his mother. He couldn’t remember her being sad when he’d initially entered maternelle- in fact, she’d told him it had been something of a relief for her- but now it was obvious she was going to miss him dreadfully.
“But what’s the difference?” Adrien asked, with a cheeky grin.
Emilie laughed. “You’re so much older now! You may still depend on me for some things, but you don’t depend on me for everything anymore. Besides, I’m used to spending most of the day with you, and helping you with your school work has kept me on my mental toes. There’s a variety there that just doesn’t exist in helping your father and Nathalie with the brand, and I haven’t had an acting role in what feels like forever.”
So he indulged her by playing a lot of duets on the piano, fencing with her, and pitting their magical skills against each other. The last one was the most fun, though he enjoyed both piano and fencing, and was finally competent enough at both of them that he could have fun with what he was doing, instead of just focusing on building his skill level.
One day, just a few days before he officially went back to school, Adrien convinced her to play parkour hide and seek. She agreed, but with a few conditions.
“Rooftops only, no hanging off the sides of buildings, we keep it within a two-block area around the mansion, and we ask your father to enhance us.”
Adrien grinned. Her conditions were standard, but he was used to them, and honestly, being enhanced made it so much more fun.
Ten minutes later, he was crouched behind the chimney wall of a row of houses when he caught sight of his mother, bounding almost weightlessly over the tiles. He had already destroyed the senti-tracker she had created to find him, but he was sure she knew where it had been when he destroyed it- she was too clever not to build that into its make-up- and had immediately hopped a couple of roofs away.
She was two rows over, about to leap over a gap between buildings, and Adrien got ready to slide around to the other side of the chimney as she came level with him. He saw her leap… and a green-tinted geometric sphere materialized around her mid-air. It remained there for a bare instant before it dropped straight down into the alley. Heart in his throat, Adrien ran to help, cursing the circuitous route he was forced to use because the streets were too wide to jump, even with his father’s enhancements. By the time he got there, there was no sign of the sphere, but as he scanned the alley, he caught a glimpse of his mother’s blue shoes sticking out from the other side of a dumpster.
Adrien slid down the side of the building at breakneck speed, heedless of his own safety in his hurry to get to her. He almost missed the small figure in green at the end of the alley as he reached the bottom and ran towards Emilie, but it drew his attention by stepping out of shadow into the sunlight.
Despite his instincts, or maybe because of them, he skidded to a stop and the two looked at each other. All Adrien could see was a shadowed face under the brim of a very wide, bowl-like hat that had a turtle-shell pattern painted on it. The clothing the figure wore would have been normal for a feudal era manga or anime, aside from the bright green color scheme- in a modern day Paris alley it looked odd, but that wasn’t what caused a shiver to run down Adrien’s back.
He couldn’t see the person’s eyes under that wide hat, but he could feel them, and what he felt was… cold. He gulped, suddenly very glad that his costume had a mask, because he was suddenly sure that person meant him and his mother no good at all. He swallowed again and took the extendable baton from the small of his back in preparation for a fight he might not win, determined to protect his mother regardless… but the person called up another sphere around himself. Before Adrien could do or say anything, the sphere shot up into the air and sped off toward the westering sun.
Adrien sprinted for his mother’s side before it was even out of sight. Emilie was slumped up against the wall, arms and legs limp, eyes closed and mouth hanging open… but breathing.
“Maman,” Adrien said, crouching beside her and gently shaking her shoulder. “Maman, wake up!”
He took her left hand and rubbed it, noticing a long, shallow scratch on her wrist, between the end of her sleeve and her glove. It wasn’t deep enough to be harmful, but small droplets of blood beaded at points along its length. She began to stir, her head lolling against the rough brick of the building behind her.
Adrien sighed in relief as she blinked her eyes open. He rubbed at his own eyes, brushing away nascent tears, and pushing his mask up onto his forehead.
“Adrien?” she said weakly. “... what happened?”
Adrien sucked in a breath, controlling the urge to cry. “I don’t know, Maman,” he whispered. That was all he could manage through a tight throat. He swallowed hard and tried again.
“I saw you fall, only you didn’t fall, there was this… sphere,” he said, his voice breaking and dropping down a register, “and it just zipped you away. I followed as fast as I could, but by the time I got here… I don’t know what they did to you, but they’re gone now.”
Emilie blinked, looking at him without seeing him. “Oh.” Her eyes flitted around the alley somewhat aimlessly. “Where are we? What are we doing here?”
Adrien bit his lip. “We were on the roofs, playing hide and seek. I was hiding, and you were looking for me, and I’d already taken care of your little helper when it happened.”
“The roofs? But that’s dangerous, I would never have let you do that!”
“It’s okay! Father enhanced us before we left. Remember, he made us promise to let him enhance us before we went climbing around on roofs?”
Emilie frowned. “I don’t understand.” She struggled up into a sitting position. Adrien tried to help, but he didn’t know what to do, or how to support her to make it easier. She finally got herself upright, and looked at him, saw him for the first time since waking up.
“Adrien, what on earth are you wearing?” She looked down at herself. “What am I wearing? I.. how could your father let us out of the house like this?! Oh dear...” She put one hand to her head, encountering her veil. She reeled a little. Adrien caught her arm and held her steady.
“Maman? Are you okay? I… I’m going to call father, alright? He… he’ll send a car.”
“Yes…” Emilie said, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes. “Yes, I think that would be best.”
Adrien bit his lip again, but there was nothing he could do for her except get help. He pulled out his phone and called his father.