Tarnished Angels by Domoviye

Paris, France
Early morning
December 24th, 1988

Teleportation with a side-effect of nausea for passengers, ouch. Déménageur doesn't seem like a trustworthy ally to me. Gruber, the Stasi, just what kind of trouble did Mille get into? Marionette is the other passenger, and over 5 thousand pounds in 1988, that is extortion! Takes them for all their money, even the hidden emergency cash, and says they still owe him a favor, mercenary, not an ally at all.

Marionette wearing a wig that long, I'm itching just hearing about it. John is back in the city he spent a few years as a teen, I wonder how much it has changed since he was gone. Oof, no wonder Gruber and the Stasi are after them. Jean Durand now, just how many identities does he have? Brunhilda Fisher, how could you choose a name like that for her! Katherine is a soon-to-be wife and future mother to his son at this point.

Okay, never make Katherine angry, by suggesting stealing or scamming on Christmas, yikes. The small box in the lining of his coat, is an engagement ring, isn't it? Her old career, I wonder what it was.

Card tricks and sleight of hand, are not bad ways to earn money. People love entertainment. Not Christmas without presents, Katherine still has her child-like wonder for Christmas it seems. Ah, when you find a person you wish to spend the rest of your life with, John is lucky right now. Already planning ahead, if only his dream life could have lasted.

A camera to take pictures with is a nice way to save memories. Christmas in Paris, they may be in hiding, but what a way to have a holiday.

Christmas Market, Trocadéro Gardens

Ah, the old hoops game, I remember those from fairs. Banned from Versailles and from Katherine's reaction I know why, you naughty kids. And still not up to proposing, when is the right time, John?

Christmas Market, Notre Dame Cathedral
Evening

Pretending to be a priest and nun to avoid getting shot, oh boy. Midnight mass at Notre Dame sounds intriguing. Crud, a kid on the run, and two armed men after them. Katherine convinces John to help out the poor kid, and go to help the kid escape the MCO agents.

A third eye in the middle of her forehead, no wonder the girl is on the run. They draw weapons on a scared teenager, these MCO agents are scum! John acting drunk and singing in French, bwahaha, a nice distraction. Nice way to trip up the MCO goons. Pickpocketing them, MCO after a teen mutant is exempt from the being nice rule on Christmas. Nice job by John and Katherine, now to find out this girl's story.

New clothes for the girl and food to eat for everyone, Magali knows them as Mille and Mary. Thrown out by her parents when she started to change, then they are not true parents imo. She stole some food and because she is a mutant they have been after her all night, that is ridiculous! So her third eye allows her infrared vision, sounds like x-ray vision, and some other things as well, interesting.

Con artists, heh. Ugh, her parents have made it impossible to go to any extended family, great. Whateley, so glad that Mille had that idea. Doing all that for Magali, they say they aren't heroes but they act more heroic than some heroes we have seen.

A picture to remember their first meal together and the MCO goons walk past the window, uh oh. How did the creeps track them here? Asking him questions, saying she robbed a store, calling her a dangerous mutant, lie after lie. The MCO seem to abuse their power even more in France than in America, acting like they are the law when mutants are involved.

Nice act by Mille, but the one agent says he is faking it, creep. The short agent goes off after Mary and Magali, leaving his partner with Mille, no heart at all. Nice headbutt by John, too bad that short agent is after him now. The MCO agent has never dealt with a shapeshifter like Mille before, and never had a chance to catch him.

Shakespeare and Company English Book Store
Near Notre Dame Cathedral

Nice signals to each other, glad they meet up again so quickly. Even Magali disguised, I hope it works against these MCO agents, something is off with how they tracked them. Magali going by Maddy for now, but with those options for how they are being tracked gone it is still a mystery.

Good to see Magali calm down and start to smile, a girl her age shouldn't be terrorized by MCO creeps like this. Ouch, having to keep moving around to avoid the MCO, this shouldn't happen especially at Christmas time. Gah! That is a sad story of a start of a life of crime, British food. *shudders* It isn't paranoia when someone is actually out to get you, we still don't know how those MCO agents tracked Magali.

Christmas Day
Sunday, December 25th

And they wake up to the MCO demanding they open up, either one of those agents is a traitor mutant who can track other mutants or they have an experimental mutant tracking gadget or devise. Agent Monet and Agent Balland, don't like these two.

Bwahaha, how to embarrass these two creeps and throw them off the trail. Magic, if they are using magic to track Magali that is an evil use. No killing the agents, that might change later on depending on the agents' actions. Time to flee once again, darn it.

Musee Carnavalet
Mid-Morning

John as an 11-year-old girl, Katherine as the mother, and Magali as the surly teen daughter, if they track them this time I want to know how, it is driving me nuts. Nice museum to visit. The MCO agents are at the same museum, I want to know how they are tracking Magali already, this is nuts. Nice playing up the little girl act, Agent Monet fell for it completely.

MCO is saying Magali hurt her parents, her parents would go so far as to lie about her, true scum. La Prophétesse, so either a baseline psychic or a mutant traitor working for a corrupt MCO. Follows them around, figures out how they are tracking them, and goes back to the little girl disguise while in the men's room, and Balland figures out Mille is a shifter.

Crying rapists and getting help from a father who has his own little girl, he doesn't believe the MCO agent, but Agent Monet grabs Mille in his little girl form, creep. Having to bite Monet after escaping his grasp, only to be slammed into a wall.

Yikes, pushed his limits to shrink so small to escape and now his whole body is in pain. Kévin risking so much to help them, his wife, Cayenne, sounds more than a little unhinged if she would turn him to ash for wanting a divorce. Good, the MCO doesn't know who they are at least.

“That's the son of the former Paris MCO Director."

So the bigot couldn't handle having a mutant along with a changling in their family so put a hit out on their own kid, sickening. Take somewhere to examine means disappear to study a mutant, monsters.

“Not much. If I knew anything useful, I'd have already told certain parties that want to make an example of her. She appeared in the last month or two, helping the MCO. She only talks to them by phone, and she is only contacted from their office using an unlisted and apparently untraceable number. One person tried to track her down, he was found a week later dead in the Seine, with a bullet in the back of his head.”

So self-hating mutant, baseline psychic, or something else, whoever she is needs to be stopped. Super-villain couples, complicated feelings sometimes.

Poor Magali is afraid of all those things, all because of how her own parents reacted to her manifesting. Dang, so that is why they need their IDs, no bank account access until they do. Nice, acting like a couple out with their daughter as tourists, MCO walks right past them. Why did the subway comment get the MCO agent to come back?

All that chatting, the story adds up and the agent asks to see "their daughter's" forehead, great. John is fast grabbing that agent's gun and gets him to be quiet before he has time to react. Broke the spine of an MCO agent before they tried to take her away, what part of new to her powers and doesn't have full control over them don't they get.

“Before. She's the directors child, do you think we'd make her disappear? That he'd allow that?”

You kept drawing your guns upon seeing her or getting near her, what did you think it would appear to be?

Great, they know he is Mille, about some of his past jobs. Coldcocks the MCO agent with the gun and runs for it, at least no one has died yet, except that one agent mentioned.

Tour Maine-Montparnasse
Late Afternoon

Tallest skyscraper and ugliest building in Paris, who designed it? Called her a murderer, and with that reaction, it is obviously a lie, what else are they lying about? Ooo, what kind of idea does Katherine have that gets her and John grinning like that?

Latin Quarter, Paris
Morning, December 26th

Staying in crowds and on the move, will this help with the zealot agents. I can't believe he invites Monet and Balland over for coffee. A photo of Balland in bed with an obviously young teenage girl, pedo claim was right! And Agent Monet sees mutant prostitutes it seems.

Blackmailing the MCO, either this or he starts playing for keeps, you don't want that. The only real option is for them to leave our group alone and let them leave Paris in peace. I'm so glad this worked out, though I would have kept copies of the pictures in case of future trouble with these corrupt agents.

Boston, Massachusetts,
December 31st, 1988

Yes, in Boston and away from those MCO creeps in Paris. Wine, and juice for Magali of course. And he finally proposes to Katherine and she says yes, glad this story has a happy ending. Though I would love to know what happened to Magali in the future.

A great story showing a happier time in John and Katherine's lives, even if they started out on the run and ended up on the run again throughout the story. They are so cute together, Katherine's cheer and wonder are contagious. Gaining all those things for themselves with such little money, and not having to resort to crime, but the entertainment was great to see.

Magali, the clothes she was in seemed off from the start. Poor girl being pursued by the MCO, the whole story took time to add up. Son turned daughter of the former MCO director of Paris, but the lies the MCO kept telling about her made no sense, especially saying she killed someone with her eye's power. I'm glad she is with John and Katherine now but wonder if she ever went to Whateley.

So many things left to wonder about, such as how did Mille get his life into such a mess he had to leave Katherine and his son, did the MCO in Paris ever get caught for their various individual crimes, did Magali go to Whateley or did she stay with John and Katherine and something happen to her? I hope we learn more in the future.

Teleportation with a side-effect of nausea for passengers, ouch. Déménageur doesn't seem like a trustworthy ally to me. Gruber, the Stasi, just what kind of trouble did Mille get into? Marionette is the other passenger, and over 5 thousand pounds in 1988, that is extortion! Takes them for all their money, even the hidden emergency cash, and says they still owe him a favor, mercenary, not an ally at all.

Déménageur is not a nice guy, and he had John and Katherine over a barrel of piranha's.
I also needed a reason for the pair to be broke at Christmas.

Katherine is a soon-to-be wife and future mother to his son at this point.

Yep. Katherine wasn't just Mille's moral compass, but a willing partner in crime. It was the only way he could respect someone enough to be with them, and he deeply loved and respected her.

Her old career, I wonder what it was.

We'll learn more about her career, before and after Mille, in a future Just Me winter vacation story.

Not Christmas without presents, Katherine still has her child-like wonder for Christmas it seems. Ah, when you find a person you wish to spend the rest of your life with, John is lucky right now. Already planning ahead, if only his dream life could have lasted.

This was a bittersweet story for me, because of the choices Mille made later in life trying to protect his family.

Pretending to be a priest and nun to avoid getting shot, oh boy.

It was fun dropping in these little anecdotes, it made them seem more alive.

Con artists, heh. Ugh, her parents have made it impossible to go to any extended family, great. Whateley, so glad that Mille had that idea. Doing all that for Magali, they say they aren't heroes but they act more heroic than some heroes we have seen.

I was imagining Imp listening in and getting annoyed at Mille's comment about thieves and how con artists are superior.
They wouldn't call themselves heroes, they're just helping someone who is in a bad situation. Which definitely makes them heroes.

Nice act by Mille, but the one agent says he is faking it, creep. The short agent goes off after Mary and Magali, leaving his partner with Mille, no heart at all. Nice headbutt by John, too bad that short agent is after him now. The MCO agent has never dealt with a shapeshifter like Mille before, and never had a chance to catch him.

Thinking of ways for Mille to keep the MCO guessing, while letting Katherine get Magali out of danger was really fun. Couldn't make it just automatically work, so I needed to get clever a few times.

Nice signals to each other, glad they meet up again so quickly. Even Magali disguised, I hope it works against these MCO agents, something is off with how they tracked them.

In the previous scene John said, they "might be meeting some friends to discuss Shakespeare soon." It was a quick signal for where to meet up. They always have back up places to meet, just in case they have to split up.

Good to see Magali calm down and start to smile, a girl her age shouldn't be terrorized by MCO creeps like this. Ouch, having to keep moving around to avoid the MCO, this shouldn't happen especially at Christmas time. Gah! That is a sad story of a start of a life of crime, British food. *shudders*

If this was a Christmas movie, this would be the fun, warmhearted montage part.
I really want to do a vignette showing how Mille and Katherine meet up. Her picking his pocket, him tracking her down. He offers her a way to make up tossing his expensive fake ID by teaching him how to improve his sleight of hand and pick pocketing, and they become partners in crime.

Bwahaha, how to embarrass these two creeps and throw them off the trail. Magic, if they are using magic to track Magali that is an evil use. No killing the agents, that might change later on depending on the agents' actions. Time to flee once again, darn it.

I had fun coming up with that scene. Had to rewrite it a bit, at first I was going to have John as a woman and Katherine actively making out in front of them, to throw them off, while Magali hid, then I realized it's a hotel room, where could she hide?
So it became a shower scene.
And having Mille make the offer of killing them, was a good hint that he has a darkness in him that is being kept in check by Katherine.

John as an 11-year-old girl, Katherine as the mother, and Magali as the surly teen daughter, if they track them this time I want to know how, it is driving me nuts. Nice museum to visit. The MCO agents are at the same museum, I want to know how they are tracking Magali already, this is nuts. Nice playing up the little girl act, Agent Monet fell for it completely.

Mille being a little girl was thrown in there purely because of his later turning into Jane.
And the museum is beautiful. Never been there, or to Europe, but looking it up online it has some amazing artwork.

Follows them around, figures out how they are tracking them, and goes back to the little girl disguise while in the men's room, and Balland figures out Mille is a shifter.

Mille got cocky, and underestimated his pursuers. Never a good thing to do. Seeing a big guy enter a bathroom, and a young girl leave, and no one is in the bathroom anymore, easy to do the math if you're paying attention.

Yikes, pushed his limits to shrink so small to escape and now his whole body is in pain. Kévin risking so much to help them, his wife, Cayenne, sounds more than a little unhinged if she would turn him to ash for wanting a divorce. Good, the MCO doesn't know who they are at least. ... Super-villain couples, complicated feelings sometimes.

If I ever did write Cayenne and Kevin, it would be a couple who complain and yell at each other a lot, but when they work together on a job, are a perfect team. And if they're attacked they turn on the poor sod and rip them apart. Dysfunctional but it works for them.
And originally Magali wasn't going to be a changeling. But as I was writing her it just seemed like a natural fit.

Dang, so that is why they need their IDs, no bank account access until they do. Nice, acting like a couple out with their daughter as tourists, MCO walks right past them. Why did the subway comment get the MCO agent to come back?

I needed a reason for them to stick around Paris. Every bank needs ID to access things in person, and they couldn't just do it all by computer or bank machines. The 1980's sucked.
The subway comment didn't tip the MCO agent off, he just realized that there were 3 people matching the profile of the suspects. Bad luck that he was observant.

All that chatting, the story adds up and the agent asks to see "their daughter's" forehead, great. John is fast grabbing that agent's gun and gets him to be quiet before he has time to react. ...
Great, they know he is Mille, about some of his past jobs. Coldcocks the MCO agent with the gun and runs for it, at least no one has died yet, except that one agent mentioned.

I was thinking of the scene in Sins of the Father Part 2, where Jane threatens Thud, while writing this scene.
The fast, unexpected manoeuvre, getting the upper hand before the person even realizes what's happening, mention of playing for keeps, dominating the entire situation with the threat of violence. He's a nice guy overall, but the seed of who he will become was there from the start.

Tallest skyscraper and ugliest building in Paris, who designed it? Called her a murderer, and with that reaction, it is obviously a lie, what else are they lying about? Ooo, what kind of idea does Katherine have that gets her and John grinning like that?

The building is so ugly, Paris made a law afterwards that no building can be taller than 7 stories, to prevent such an eyesore in the future.
Katherine's idea made the story possible, and was the entire reason I made sure to emphasize them buying the Polaroid camera at the start.

Staying in crowds and on the move, will this help with the zealot agents. I can't believe he invites Monet and Balland over for coffee. A photo of Balland in bed with an obviously young teenage girl, pedo claim was right! And Agent Monet sees mutant prostitutes it seems.

Blackmailing the MCO, either this or he starts playing for keeps, you don't want that. The only real option is for them to leave our group alone and let them leave Paris in peace. I'm so glad this worked out, though I would have kept copies of the pictures in case of future trouble with these corrupt agents.

The photo's are all fakes. Every single one.
The photo of Balland and the girl, was Mille and Magali. It's why they still had their underwear on, didn't want to traumatize the poor girl.
Monet and the purple skinned mutant, Mille and Katherine with a lot of purple lipstick.
A shapeshifter and a camera are a dangerous thing.
And that's why they destroyed the pictures. IF they needed something like that in the future, they could just make new ones, with a few days of planning, they could make a whole movie destroying one of the MCO's lives. But they prefer not to play that way. So they kept to their agreement to avoid someone finding them and leaking them, which would make Mille and Katherine a target for the MCO.

Yes, in Boston and away from those MCO creeps in Paris. Wine, and juice for Magali of course. And he finally proposes to Katherine and she says yes, glad this story has a happy ending. Though I would love to know what happened to Magali in the future.

Mention of her may come up in the future.

A great story showing a happier time in John and Katherine's lives, even if they started out on the run and ended up on the run again throughout the story. They are so cute together, Katherine's cheer and wonder are contagious. Gaining all those things for themselves with such little money, and not having to resort to crime, but the entertainment was great to see.

Thank you!

Magali, the clothes she was in seemed off from the start. Poor girl being pursued by the MCO, the whole story took time to add up. Son turned daughter of the former MCO director of Paris, but the lies the MCO kept telling about her made no sense, especially saying she killed someone with her eye's power. I'm glad she is with John and Katherine now but wonder if she ever went to Whateley.

The stories were told to, they assumed, different individuals, they just needed a legitimate reason to be hunting her down.
The murder story was a bit of a desperation move, trying to throw Mille off enough that the agent could attempt to do something while having a pistol jammed into his side. It didn't work, but it was worth a try.

So many things left to wonder about, such as how did Mille get his life into such a mess he had to leave Katherine and his son, did the MCO in Paris ever get caught for their various individual crimes, did Magali go to Whateley or did she stay with John and Katherine and something happen to her? I hope we learn more in the future.

Mille and Katherine pushed some people too far, so they tried to retire. Mille found out he was being tracked, and trying to protect his family, made himself a target for all their enemies.
Without her to keep his bad side in check, he went off the rails. The crimes he committed, which included murdering anyone who was close to finding Katherine and Shaun in the first year or two, ate away him, tearing apart the fun loving and caring side of him. By the time he realized he'd gone too far, he thought he was too much of a monster to ever return to Katherine or their child.
A bit of the helpful side survived, Jane shows it with how she tries to help her friends, but it's a dim shadow of what he had once been.
Ultimately, Mille is a story of a flawed man going down a dark path because of good intentions. Now we've seen him at his best and his worst, the question for the future is, can Jane find a way to overcome her past and put her many demons to rest, so she can find peace.