Part 6

Word Count: 4382

"Adrien, what are you talking about?" Nathalie asked politely. 

"Let him speak, Nathalie," Gabriel then said, being genuinely interested in his sons questions. 

"As I said, I need to know your intentions of why you do what you do," Adrien said fondly, yet strictly. "I know you are Hawk Moth, so don't even try to deny it." 

Gabriel bobbed his head lightly as he had realised Adrien really did know of it all. 

"I want to bring back your mother," he said with a straight face. 

Adrien threw his head back in annoyance, groaning, taking a deep breath before he would call out his own father for the very first time in his life. 

"You are a freaking psychopath, you know that?" Adrien confronted his father. 

"Mother passed away eight years ago. Her body should be nothing but broken, disgusting, left over bones at this point. She is dead, and bringing her back is sick," he said in the most polite, yet impolite way possible. 

"I have kept her in the basement all this time. Her body is in its best shape. I just need Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous and everything will be as it should be," Gabriel said. 

"That's a goddamn lie, father. She clearly was supposed to die. It was hard on all of us, but we learned to live with it! I've lost my very own mother, she meant everything to me, she cared for me, she raised me, taught me everything I needed to know, and yet I managed to move on and live without her, and I didn't even have a father that actually cared for me!" Adrien yelled. 

"I always cared about you, Adrien," Gabriel felt offended by such ridiculous confrontation. 

"The fuck you did. You locked me up, controlled me, kept my friends from me, that's what you did!" Adrien grew angrier with everything Gabriel would say. 

"I just tried to protect you." 

"Merging the Miraculous together will result into something just as fatal. You bring back someone, another person will die. It could be someone you don't know, but I truly believe it will be another person close to you, if not yourself. I can't let you do that, father," Adrien said, slimming his eyes as he only got angrier. 

"What would you know about merging Miraculous?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. 

"More than you do, apparently," Adrien took another deep breath, fighting the tears in his eyes as he continued to stay strict and dominant with his father. 

"You have had eight years to move on, father, eight whole years. You are torturing mother's soul by keeping her, what, alive? In some weird box coffin thing? She's not alive in any way possible, and you've been keeping her to rest the way she deserved it for way too long." 

Nathalie was bobbing her head slightly as she had to admit that Adrien had a point.

"And Nathalie, she had been there for you for all this time, even willing to be Mayura, for you, risking her own life, for you, and you never see her. The both of you are so sick, doing what you do. It's sick to be wanting to bring someone back to life after all this time, nothing but sick."

"Everyone wishes that one specific person back into their life, Adrien," Nathalie tried to defend their actions. 

"Mhm, but wishing it because you are missing them, and actually trying to bring them back to life are two different things. One's because of love, the other one it just being sick," Adrien talked back.

"I'm giving you two choices," Adrien began, "Number one, I'll call the police and have you arrested for the cruel things you've done, or number two, you will hand me over your Miraculous, give mother the funeral she had deserved years ago and I will forget everything that had happened, without reporting it to Ladybug." 

Gabriel and Nathalie's eyes shot open as they realised why and how Adrien reacted the way he did, why he knew so much about the Miraculous, and not only because of simple disgust from their actions. He was Chat Noir.

"To Ladybug, huh? Your little girlfriend, what would she say if she found out her precious Chat Noir went to confront Hawk Moth without her?" Gabriel said with an evil smile on his lips. 

"I'm sure you wouldn't want anything to happen to her, right? Just hand over your Miraculous, son, and I'm sure we can still forget all of this has happened," Gabriel tried to threaten Adrien into handing over his Miraculous. 

"I've my reasons why I haven't brought her with me. For one, no one knows her identity, you won't find her to threaten me with her," Adrien was harsh, now feeling his legs shake. 

He knew his father would use Ladybug against him. Whenever Gabriel needed something from Adrien, but Adrien wouldn't cooperate, Gabriel would always threaten taking away Adrien's favourite things. Yet, even though Adrien was scared shitless that Gabriel would do anything to hurt Marinette, he stayed strong. 

"Your Miraculous or prison, it's your choice," Adrien said as he walked closer to his father, reaching his hand out as he was waiting for the Butterfly Miraculous to be handed over.

Gabriel looked at Adrien's hand, the ring he'd once seen was gone, meaning Adrien was smart enough to take off his Miraculous before even confronting his own father. 

Of course he was smart enough for that. Adrien knew if he had shown the ring to his father, it would be gone faster than Adrien would have been able to blink.

"You're not going to hurt me whatever I do, but I will hurt you and your image if you don't do as I say," Adrien said with such anger in his voice no one had ever heard. 

"I am willing to let you of the hook, forget the games you've played, the pain you've caused over Parisians, the destructions, everything. I will kindly forget it all happened, but you will have to give me your Miraculous, now," he demanded, still holding his hand out to his father. 

"Wouldn't your like to see your mother again? Hold her tight, speak to her again?" Gabriel tried to bribe Adrien with his mother, but Adrien was over it. 

"She's in my past. I'll always love her, she still means the world to me, but no, I don't. My mother died years ago and I am over her death, finally being able to breathe without her, finally able to be happy again, and I won't let you destroy that. The woman you would bring back would never even be her," Adrien said.

Gabriel looked around the room, thinking about what to do. He could fight Adrien, fight his own son, but he knew it would be useless. Adrien had always found a way to get what he wanted, and with Ladybug by his side, Gabriel knew it was game over for him. 

But Ladybug wasn't here.

"I'm sorry, son, but you won't get my Miraculous without a fight."

-♡-

Ladybug arrived at the Agreste Mansion only seconds after she had read Chat Noir's message. 

"I am at the Agreste Mansion. I had found a clue that connected Hawk Moth to the Agreste's, so I went to investigate. I spoke to Gabriel Agreste, Hawk Moths lair is in their observatory. I don't have much time, I'm currently hiding from Hawk Moth, I don't know how long it will take until he finds me. I am so sorry I haven't told you earlier, but I didn't want to worry you.

If anything were to happen to me, please know, I'll love you until eternity and way beyond. I'll see you soon." 

Marinette thought she would be arriving there, seeing a destroyed house, finding Chat Noir fighting against Hawk Moth on his own, which would have been one of the worst cases, but that was when she didn't know worse than worse could happen. 

The house was indeed destroyed, it truly looked like they had put up a fight. Nothing but wrecks were left, only single walls still standing as the rest of the building would be fallen in, but that was no problem, Ladybug could easily fix that.

But there was no Chat Noir in sight, nor Hawk Moth. The only person she had seen was Gabriel Agreste, kneeling in front of the wrecks of his house, with his hands in his face, hiding his sadness. 

"Mister Agreste," Ladybug approached him, speaking in a soft voice as she would try to calm him down.

Ladybug wasn't sure if Gabriel was Hawk Moth, and she really did not care at this point. Seeing the destruction she could feel something worse had happened. 

She had truly suspected Gabriel to be Hawk Moth at first, but then she also knew him personally. She knew he was a cold-hearted asshole most of the time, but she didn't think he could be Hawk Moth, he would not have done that to Adrien, right?

"Your house will be as good as new, I promise," she said, "I am so sorry for what Hawk Moth had caused upon you and your family." 

If only Marinette knew the truth..

"You wouldn't happen to know where Chat Noir is at, would you?" Ladybug asked, earning nothing but a few sobs coming from Gabriel. 

After a short while Gabriel had managed to point his finger towards the wrecks of the house, indicating that Chat Noir was somewhere in there. 

Ladybug's eyes widened in horror as she was now counting with the worst. 

She ran inside the smouldering wrecks of the house, tears starting to fill her eyes, blurring her vision as she threw pieces of walls around like the weight nothing. 

"CHAT!" She screamed from the top of her lungs, her voice breaking. 

She felt as if her heart had been stabbed with a million knifes, unknown of what kind of pain was still to come. 

Blood started to appear on some of the wreck pieces, growing more the deeper she made her way through the destroyed house. 

"CHAT!" Her voice shaking, filled with an unimaginable pain. 

Then she found a hand, his hand, buried underneath a wall-piece. 

Her heart sank into the ground, screaming the word 'no' in such a horrifying tone as he wouldn't even move when she threw that piece of wall far away. 

She dropped down to the floor, caging her own chest with her arms as she felt her lungs tighten, burning, keeping her from breathing steadily as she would have to watch the love of her life slowly fade away. 

"No, please," she begged, crying, pressing her hand onto his wound, hoping it would somehow stop the bleeding. 

"Stay with me!" She cried, cupping his face with her hands, forcing him to look into her eyes. "Open your eyes!"

He smiled at her weakly, a teardrop rolling down the side of his face as he would fight to lift his hand to remove the ones on hers. 

"Chat please, you can't leave me!" She cried. 

"I love you, Marinette," Chat Noir fought to say, giving her yet another really weak smile. "I'll always be with you," he said quietly, as his eyes began to close again, slowly. 

"I love you, too," she managed to say between sobs, leaning down as she hugged him tightly for the last time. 

Chat Noir held out his other hand as they'd pull away from the hug, holding up the Butterfly Miraculous.

"He got away, but we won, Milady," Chat Noir mumbled as it grew harder for him to speak. 

His breathing became more unsteady with every breath he took, his lungs aching, burning from the pain as he would force himself to continue to breathe. 

"Oh, Chat," Ladybug whispered, her eyes burning red from all of the tears, her head throbbing in pain. 

From all the crying she had totally forgotten that she had still one thing left, her powers. She had never tried to use her powers of creation without her Lucky Charm, yet it was her only chance to, eventually, better something. 

She looked at Chat Noir, gave him a weak smile, placing a kiss onto his lips as she whispered 'I love you' one more time, then proceeded to wipe away her tears before she stood up, her legs shaking.

She took a deep breath, looked up at the dark sky as she extended her arms, collecting all of her strength, focusing to create. 

"I got this," she whispered to herself as she began to feel the power inside her increase, growing stronger with every passing second. 

She had never felt her powers quite this strong, to the point where it would physically hurt her, feeling relieved as she'd finally release all of her power over Paris. 

Ladybugs magic began to repair all of the damages all over Paris in only seconds, even ones that weren't caused by dark magic, yet needed fixing. Paris looked like it's just been rebuild completely, not a single scratch on any building was to be found.

She was weakened by such power release, yet after a moment, she'd finally manage to breath normally again as her natural strong self was back as its fines. 

She turned around, looking at the ground, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as Chat Noir was no longer laying on the ground, nor was he even in sight. 

She was too shocked to cry, yet in too much pain not to. The love of her life just appeared to be vanished into thin air.

Ladybug looked around herself in panic, praying Chat Noir was back on his feet and just doing what he'd always do, being his silly self, but he was nowhere to be found. 

Her heartbeat increased, tears of pain running down her face as she started to remember what Master Fu has always warned her from. 

"Kwamis cannot be harmed, unless something really bad happened. They will vanish, disappear from this world and never return. If their owner is transformed, along with the Kwami themselves,  so will their owner disappear, forever." 

Chat Noir was gone, and he would never return, not as Chat Noir, nor as his civilian self. He was gone, forever. 

Ladybug fell down to the floor, releasing a horrifying scream from her throat, hitting the ground with her hands over and over again, praying all this was just a really, really bad and fucked up dream. 

Her heart was aching, her lungs burning, her eyes red as fire. She could not even cry anymore.

"Ladybug," she heard a male voice say from behind her, but she ignored it. 

"I swear I will find him, kitty," Ladybug mumbled in anger, swearing that from this day on, she would do anything to find Hawk Moth and make the rest of his miserable life a living hell.

Gabriel, who happened to still understand what Ladybug had mumbled underneath her breath, widened his eyes, being sure that Ladybug will eventually haunt him down. Yet he also knew if he moved too suddenly, she would definitely figure it out sooner than later, he had to hide, but not make it obvious. After all, he had not even had his Miraculous anymore, so it should have been pretty easy for him to hide. 

"Ladybug," Gabriel repeated, now tapping onto her shoulder, making her flinch at his sudden touch. 

For a split moment she had hoped it was Chat Noir, but it wasn't, because he was dead, or at least lost somewhere between universes, with no chance to ever escape. 

Ladybug took a deep breath before standing back up onto her feet. She turned around, facing Gabriel Agreste. 

"He wanted me to give you this in case something like, well, this, would happen," Gabriel said, handing Ladybug an envelope. 

Ladybug smiled weakly, taking the envelope into her hands after wiping away her already semi-dried tears. 

Just when Gabriel handed her the envelope, Ladybug crossed the thought of Gabriel Agreste being Hawk Moth off of her 'he could be Hawk Moth'-list, since she'd assume Hawk Moth would have never given her anything from Chat Noir, especially not since he'd known Chat Noir disappeared with his Miraculous.

"Thank you," she thanked, "do you happen to know who Hawk Moth was?"

Gabriel shook his head. 

"I have never known of any of this. I'm assuming one of the staff, couldn't imagine anyone else, after all he hid at my house, apparently, without me ever noticing," Gabriel lied with a straight, yet pitying face.

"Okay," she said quickly as she made her way towards the exit of the now rebuild house, "if he ever comes back, please find a way to contact me, Mister Agreste, I need to find that fucker." 

Gabriel's breath hitched, knowing she was definitely going to end his life if she ever found out he was Hawk Moth. 

"I will, Ladybug," Gabriel said with a straight face. 

Just when Ladybug had exit the Mansion another thought popped up into her head, it was so bizarre, so stupid, and so unimaginable that it was also possible. 

"Adrien," she mumbled to herself. 

She had seriously assumed Hawk Moth being her Adrien, the guy that couldn't even hurt a worm if he had to. 

Luckily that thought left her mind as quickly as it came. 

"Adrien could never," she thought. 

Of course he could have never been Hawk Moth. But her only thought why not was mainly because she'd seen him. 

She'd seen him at school when someone had gotten akumatised a couple years back. She'd seen him hide from the villains, figure out plans how to escape, act like he was Chat Noir when he was making up plans, trying to help everyone hide.

Act like he was Chat Noir.

Marinette looked at the envelope in her hands, gave off a weak smile before carefully shoving it inside her yoyo to keep it safe as she would run off.

She started running, swinging with her yoyo, towards her home, fearing she had lost her very best friend as well.

It made sense. 

The day Chat Noir figured out who Ladybug was beneath her mask, Adrien suddenly acted a lot like Chat Noir did as he was moving closer with his face to Marinette's, looking at her as if he was deeply in love with her. 

He had been looking up and down her upper body, as if he was analysing the shirt she wore, which would have been his if he was Chat Noir, and the tie, the Agreste-brand tie Chat Noir had tied around Marinette's neck. 

He even seemed to be way more interested in that one very dress that other night, when he still didn't know Ladybug's identity. 

There were way more things to count that connected Chat Noir to Adrien, and as much as Marinette always wished for Chat Noir to be Adrien, right at this moment, she prayed it wasn't him. 

Cause if it was him, she would have lost him, too, and she could not have possibly taken another loss. Well, it technically still would have just been one lost.

She kept repeating the words 'please be at home', tears rolling down her face as she successfully arrived at the boutique.

She swung her yoyo up towards an opened window, swinging right inside the apartment.

"Adrien!" She yelled through the rooms, entering and exiting every single room, searching for him, pleading he was still here. 

She broke the door open to his bedroom, granting herself access, walking inside, saying his name with no more energy left in her. 

"Adrien," he voice was weak, teary, shaky, barely hearable anymore. 

It was the last room left, and to her horror, it was another empty one. He wasn't there. 

She took a few steps inside before she would break down onto his bed, her knees hitting the ground as her upper body fell right onto his bed, her head resting on her arms.

Crying hurt. It would hurt to the point where Marinette would cry because of the pain from crying. She couldn't take this anymore. 

Her head was throbbing in pain, her heart was broken into a billion pieces, her body aching, and it never seemed to stop. 

With all her left over strength she had managed to pull herself onto Adrien's bed, grabbing one of his pillows, pulling it down to rest her head onto it.

She let out a scream right into the pillow, screaming her entire frustration out of her, her pain, her anger, sadness. It was a scream so painful, anyone who would have heard it could have thought someone was getting murdered. 

After a good moment of just screaming into Adrien's pillow, she finally had the strength to sit herself up, taking out her yoyo as she remembered the envelope. 

She opened up her yoyo, reaching inside, taking out the envelope. 

Ladybug would just stare at it for a moment, smiling weakly before finally opening it. 

She carefully ripped it open, revealing a letter, which she'd unfold with care.

She took a deep breath as she began to read.

"Hey, Milady, 

if you're reading this, this means something paw-ful-" Ladybug chuckled with tears in her eyes.

"-must have happened to me, cause I only asked Gabriel Agreste to give this to you in that very scenario. 

Anyway, I'm writing this letter to you as a good-bye, so you can get closure, eventually. Obviously I haven no idea what had happened to me the second I'm writing this, but whatever did happen, I'm sorry, Marinette." 

More tears began to build up, dropping down onto the handwritten letter.

"I am sorry I have not told you about my findings, but I simply could not deal with the thought of losing you. Hawk Moth knows me personally, and he would have used you against me, because you are making me weak." 

Marinette furrowed her eyebrows. "What kind of- Chat.." 

"This is meant in the best way possible. I care for you so much that I would rather me being gone than you. You're the kindest, smartest, prettiest, most amazing young woman I know, and you were just that from the first day on. A world without Marinette would be nothing, but a world without Chat Noir, me, doesn't change much, because you're the true hero, Marinette." 

She began to cry even more.

"All of the people around you adore you so very much, you're just paw-some. You are so much more needed than I am." 

"But I need you!" Marinette cried.

"I know you don't believe that, but it's the truth. 

You know, since the first day we met, I've never thought of anyone else but you. I knew my life would never be complete if I didn't have you, but I do have you. You've completed me, and although I wished we could have gone farther, become our own little family, and extend it with mini duplicates of us, you were there until the end of my life. I will forever be thankful for that."

Marinette had to put the letter away for a moment, imagining a cute little toddler with blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in a mini Chat Noir costume running around the house, blasting cat pun after cat pun. 

She chuckled at the thought, yet it was more than painful. 

"You showed me what love should feel like and gave me all of the warmth and love I've haven't gotten from anyone in a really long time. Whenever I was with you, you made me feel alive, and I've to thank you for that. We've spent so much time together, most of the time without knowing it, and yet even then I felt as if I meant more than just being someone's son." 

Marinette furrowed her eyebrows once again. Thinking Chat Noir was Adrien, her beloved Adrien, it didn't make much sense to her. She knew Gabriel wasn't the best father, but she never knew Adrien felt that way, felt as if he meant nothing. 

"I'm not sure if you have figured out my identity yet, but I also can't tell you this if you haven't, because things are not as they seem to be, Buginette. 

I promised I'd always be with you, and I'm keeping this promise. I will always be there, even if that means sending some help from above down to you. 

Okay, this was the worst letter I've ever written, but yeah, you did need some explanation for my disappearance."

"Disappearance?!" Marinette questioned, "he died, right in front of me. That is not just 'disappearing'." 

"I will always love you, Marinette. I always did, and I always will. And I promise, the day you'll open, or close, your eyes you will realise I've never been far gone, because I am always with you. 

You have to promise me one thing though, do not cry too much about me, and eat one extra croissant of your dad's for me every day, they're paw-some.

I will love you fur-ever, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Thank you for everything.

Ps: I've got a little.. something.. in your room for you, in case you need a little cheering up ;)" 

She finished the letter, crying more than she had ever cried in her life before, begging for an answer why he had done what he did. 

Yeah, he said it was to protect her, but she needed more answers. Marinette could have helped to defeat Hawk Moth, they could have fought side by side as they always did, if they would have won this time or not yet, but at least he'd still be alive.

And that was when Marinette realised, there, in fact, was more to the story than just that. She couldn't possibly just give up on him, she had to find him, no matter how long it took, no matter what hurdles she had to jump over in order to find him.