Secrets

Part 24: I have to.

"No. No,... Simply, no!!" Purple Tigress said.
"Aunty Juleka, pleeease," Gabriel said.
"You're crazy if you think I'm going to stay behind while you go to battle," Purple Tigress insisted.
"The rabbit miraculous needs to be left guarded by someone. You are by far the strongest one of all of us here," Bernadette said.

Tom was crouching on the ground in front of where the time portal had been, he had his arms at both side of his head. He wasn't hiding his dragon tail at that moment and it was curled around his feet. Alyssa could faintly hear him sobbing.
She stroked her friend's back to try to comfort him.
They had discussed using the miraculous again to bring back Eva, but their parents needed as much help as they could get and they believed they would be able to find and rescue Eva in the present.
Purple Tigress covered her eyes with both of there hands and sighted. She knew they were right.

"I'll go get Uncle Luka's miraculous," Bernadette said.

"There, there," Alyssa told Tom. "Let's stay positive. Maybe she's not in danger. Maybe there's another reason why things didn't change," she added, not really believing her words.

Slowly Tom looked up and nodded. His eyes were red from crying. He whipped away the tears and stood up.
"Let's go," Tom said in a low voice.

Before leaving the past, Bernadette had touched the cat miraculous which granted her the power to create darkness. She had been right in thinking they were going to need it. Now, as they followed a path of heavy destruction that their enemies had left, she was extinguishing most of the lights of several streets around and ahead of them to provide some cover.

"Aren't we 'announcing' ourselves with this darkness?" Alyssa whispered worried.
"That is why I am not taking out all the lights and working several streets ahead: to try to not make it that obvious," Bernadette whispered back.

Alyssa gulped nervously when Gabriel suddenly stopped. She saw him looking at the trees around them. They were walking besides Parc Monceau when he thought he had heard a twig snapping. Then, for a moment he wasn't sure if he had seen something in the darkness, but everything seemed still. Tom stopped and looked at him. Then Bernadette.
Gabriel became aware of this. He took Alyssa's hand and kissed it.

"Must have been a squirrel," he said to everyone. Alyssa smiled and they kept walking.
"Meanwhile, we need to be extra careful when we face Kraftsauger," Bernadette said.
"Why 'extra careful'?" Gabriel asked.
"Uncle Luka didn't have his miraculous," Bernadette said.
"Whaaat?" Gabriel said.

"I did not want to say anything before. Aunt Juleka would not had let us go if I had mentioned this earlier," Bernadette said.
"Kraftsauger is being strategic. First he located the way to make himself stronger. Then he built his army and now he's taking down those who could stop him," Tom said.

"What's next?" Alyssa asked worried.
Tom sighed, "Maybe he's after a power more complicated to get,... Eternal life. Or maybe he's after world domination,... Who knows?"

They all stopped when they heard a distant explosion.
"That sounded in the direction of Arc de Triomphe," Tom said.
"Come on. Let's make sure it will be our triumph and not theirs," Bernadette said.

They hadn't ran for many minutes when a wall suddenly materialized in front of them. Knowing it had to be an illusion made by Rena Rouge they looked around.

"Mom!" Alyssa whispered when she spotted her running towards them.
They hugged.

"I was so worried," Rena exhaled heavily. "I'm so glad to see you-" she stopped when she noticed Eva missing. "Where's Eva?"

"You haven't seen her? She didn't show up to try to warn the team of the attack?" Gabriel asked worried.
Rena shook her head, "no one came to warn us."