Author's Note:

Dearest friends and readers,

I am thrilled to launch this conclusion to my Season 4 head canon fanfic, "Adventurer." Adventurer began as a one-shot, that turned into a epic multi-chapter action fic. I loved writing Adventurer and sharing it with you all. But the story wasn't finished! After some time and distance and thinking through things a lot, I've decided it's time to write a conclusion and maybe even... *hold your breath* give you all a reveal.

I hope you will read Adventurer before this story, because I reference things frequently. If you've already read Adventurer, I feel I must warn you: "Unlocked" is darker and deeper. I touch triggering subjects. I feel that this is the logical conclusion to a show that has placed the main villain as one of the main hero's parents, but that doesn't make it easier to bear. I will try to give you ample warning of triggers. I promise it will have a happy ending!

Thank you so much for visiting! And at last, I bring you... "Unlocked."

Here is a link to Adventurer, in case you want to start there:

s/13429218/1/Adventurer

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Chapter 1

Lila Rossi was seated in a chair by a window, through which the autumn-leaf-filtered light was streaming. Her shoulders were slumped, and her eyes were vacant—just like they always were nowadays.

"Oh look honey, your friend Marinette left you a beautiful drawing, isn't that nice?" her mother was saying. Lila blinked slowly but didn't move. She never moved.

Her mother insisted on coming to her room every day, reading her stories, watching television with her, holding her hand, brushing her hair, and doing whatever else she could to still feel somewhat like a mother. It assuaged her guilt, if only slightly.

There was a terse knock on the door before it opened without consent. Nathalie Sancoeur, flanked by an austere lawyer in a grey suit, swept in. The sight of the woman made Lila's mother want to vomit.

"You!" she managed, scrambling to her feet and holding her arms out to shield her shell of a daughter from Nathalie, "You did this! You stole my daughter from me!"

Nathalie pursed her lips as she looked the woman up and down. "Ms. Rossi, I'm not here to validate your accusations. You had no objection to your daughter signing on as a Gabriel brand employee, and as I recall, were quite eager to grant us guardianship for the duration of the tour. The fact that she, of her own volition, breached that contract, stole thousands of euros, destroyed property, and…" Nathalie's voice drifted off expertly, allowing the poor woman to dissolve into shaking sobs of grief and anger. "But like I said, that is not why I'm here. You've made your case in a court of law. I'm here to offer you a settlement."

Lila's mother's face contorted in confusion. "A settlement? Why would I want to settle? You… you lost me my daughter!"

Nathalie thumbed through some things on her tablet and started ticking off her evidence. "Your daughter? The one you cared for so deeply that you didn't even notice when she was truant for nearly four months? Or the one you loved so desperately that you signed over your parental rights for… what was the figure…"

"That's enough," Lila's mother hissed, tears welling in her eyes.

Nathalie took a step toward her, "I know you're feeling guilty about the way you neglected your daughter. I know this lawsuit is just a way to save face; to make you appear that you actually cared. I know you secretly wish she'd just died and spared you from a lifetime of this—" Nathalie gestured toward the walking vegetable that was Lila— "and I know that secret wish is eating you alive. I'm offering you a way out."

Lila's mother sunk back to the edge of the bed and dropped her face in to her hands. "What did you have in mind?" she whispered desperately.

Nathalie dismissed the lawyer with a nod. When the two women were safely alone, Nathalie sat down beside Lila's mother. "Let me make all your problems go away. You drop the lawsuit, we will reward you handsomely. We're even prepared to clear all the negligence charges the on your record. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for Lila's performance in England or the, er, fiasco here in Paris afterword, but considering her current state, we will assure that those charges are dismissed as well."

Ms. Rossi was not a stupid woman. She was driven, career-oriented, and the day she'd discovered she was pregnant she'd felt like her whole life was over. She'd never felt that maternal bond with her daughter that people talked about. Was she a bad mother? Probably. Was she negligent? Even she had to admit that was also true. But was she stupid? Definitely not. She knew Nathalie's offer was too good to be true.

"What's the catch?"

Nathalie swallowed and very careful spoke, so every syllable was crystal clear: "Relinquish your daughter."

Her eyebrows knit together, and her eyes bulged. "What?"

"Give her to us. We will assume full responsibility for her boarding and care. I assure you; she will be given every comfort."
"There's still got to be a catch."

Nathalie's eyes narrowed slightly, "You will never be able to see her again."

The silence in the room was thick and stagnant. Lila's mother would recall this moment, in later years, with a distinctive memory of the stench of it: the foul odorous mist of silence wrapping around her and chilling her to her core. It would be a memory that would return in the dark hours of the night and cocoon her again and again, and elicit the quaking screams that pierced every thought and every action and eventually found her begging for relief from the bottom of a bottle, until, at last, twelve years later, she would be relieved from the burden of it all through the assistance of a trigger that was far too easy to pull.

But as the memory was being created, all she could do was feel the silence weigh on her as she pondered Nathalie's words. Here, today, she couldn't see how Lila remaining in the care of the State would help her at all. And the financial drain of keeping Lila here was already destroying her.

If she'd known how much she would one day regret these words, she never would have spoken them. But today, it was a simple solution to what she regarded as her biggest problem. "Alright, you've got a deal."