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Mayura could hardly comprehend as the sword cane flicked, diagonally grazing the entirety of the brunette child’s chest, shoulder to waist. The tripartite instantly split apart, cries of pain, gasps of shock, and a smug laugh simultaneously echoing in the manor’s hidden lair. A startling line of red bled through the girl’s red jacket as she stumbled backward into a feathery grasp.
“It’ll be okay, Lila,” Nathalia whispered, holding her close and defensively, yet comfortably and reassuringly.
Lila could barely manage beyond a gurgled whimper. She merely nodded. She promptly collapsed, ceasing movement to rely on the peacock villainess’s support. Despite the cough, and buckling knees, Mayura did not hesitate. Holding the girl in one arm on the shoulder, she whipped out her fan in the other. A sharp zing sounded.
“So,” Hawk Moth growled, “You betray me too, Nathalie?”
“You’re insane, Gabriel!” she yelled in retort. She stepped back a few steps, but he stepped forward in response. “She’s a child!”
His fingers started treading the grip of the quivering cane. “She was blackmailing us just ten seconds ago! That makes her a threat, and henceforth necessary for permanent riddance!”
Nathalie bore a darkened gaze. “Do you really only care that much about yourself and gaining power?”
“No, I’m doing this for Emilie,” he snapped back. “When I make the wish-”
“At what cost?” Nathalie bit in return. “We’ve been lucky so far that Ladybug’s magic works as it does. New York, what was the plan then?”
“I-”
“No, no more from you!” The fan thinned and re-spread in a sharp split of a second. “I was going to try and peacefully talk you out of this, but no, no…” She initiated walking backward toward the elevator, carefully. Lila’s eyes shot with pain, the bleeding slow to coagulate. “This girl may be a liar, perhaps a complete psychopath-”
Hawk Moth snarled, approaching them at an equal, cautiously measured pace. “She’s a monster to everyone in her life.”
The elevator felt so near, yet so far. “But we are complicit in that, Gabriel. Unlike you, she still has the chance to redeem herself.”
“You disgrace Emile and everything she stands for!”
“This is not what she would have wanted!”
He flashed a step forward, whipping the cane into the air. “You never truly knew her-”
“Attack again and I release Adrien!” Nathalie shouted in panic.
Hawk Moth stopped, hand and weapon frozen halfway through the striking maneuver. An eerie aura of silence suddenly enveloped. Body quaking, they lowered. A subtle uncertainness shone regardless of his futile attempts to mask them by appearing unfazed. Blackness swirled in his eyes, the tiniest pinprick of a heart flying like a spark from a fire.
“You wouldn’t dare.” The tiniest fraction of fear inhabited his words.
“Try me, Gabriel, try me.” She held her fingers ready, poised to snap.
The weakness and fatigue of using the peacock Miraculous threatened to take Nathalie to the deep wells of the dreamscape. With all her might, she resisted the magic’s urging call. Step by step, away from the garden and across the walkway. Hawk Moth stood there. A minute later, they reached the elevator. As they went up, his hard stare followed until they were out of sight.
Lila shivered, fear of her own emanating, clouding the colors of her eyes. Nathalie tried to express apology and warmth as they rode up. Though, she did not know what effect it had. Soon enough, the painting gave way to the office. Nathalie boomeranged her fan to smash a window and jumped out.
“This will be a bumpy flight, Lila, but I’m getting you to safety and care.” The flat roof helped steady them. “Do you understand?”
The girl weakly nodded, hands holding tighter in response. Mistrust still flared. Nonetheless, she accepted it was her only option.
Tears escaped. “I’m sorry about everything. For all of this.” Nathalie had broken the dam. “But I assure you,” she croaked. “He will pay, and I will correct my mistake.”
Lila hacked, as Mayura swept her into a bridal carry and leaped off the roof to the next building, landing hard. She winced, the running commencing. Her hands were cold.
“Somehow,” Nathalie said, “Despite everything, I find myself caring for you, Lila. I don’t ask for forgiveness. Just know I will be atoning. And, if you ever need me, I will be at your side in an instant.”
Lila opted to stay silent and hold onto tight–literally for her life. With Hawk Moth now out of sight, and far behind, there was no telling when an ugly akuma would rear its head. Quickly, she spread her fan out on the edges of her fingers. It sandwiched between the girl and her palm. At her will, a video call began, the feathers acting as a screen.
In less than five seconds, Ladybug came to. The uncertainty of answering an enemy’s summons rapidly unfolded to absolute confusion of what she saw. Before any words were exchanged, Nathalie panned the fan to Lila. Then to Hospital Saint-Antoine Ap-Hp in the distance. The huffing between her strained coughing, she hoped, would help convince.
“This is my surrender,” she announced before the bug hero could speak. “I do not know how catastrophic the incoming battle will be-”
The heroine’s expression solidified, other kwamis floating into view.
“I have an injured civilian caught in our now broken partnership. Meet me as where shown, and I will assist before giving up my Miraculous.”
Ladybug nodded.
“After all-” Nathalie gazed softly at Lila, the spirit of a warrior flowing in her veins, “-one shouldn’t mess with a mother bird’s rage.”