Dark Wings Have Fallen

Darkness had fallen. As soon as he regained his awareness, he knew something had gone horribly wrong. The first thing he had noticed was that he was on the floor. The last thing he remembered was that he was standing in the sanctum, watching his akuma battle Paris' heroic duo, Ladybug and Chat Noir. He vaguely remembered the Volpina look-a-like hero was involved, but his exceptional memory was unusually hazy. He picked himself up from the floor and retrieved his cane as he stood. He scoffed at the undignified position he had found himself in. He once again stood at his full height and glared through the circular window. Sensing nothing he angrily stuck the floor with the end of his cane.

"They must have defeated the akuma while I was unconscious," he mumbled to himself. What had happened? He closed his eyes and pictured what had happened. The akuma was yet another fear-based creature except this one could fire solid beams of concentrated fear. Anyone hit with said beam would then see their worst fears brought to life, as in real life, and that other people could see it as well. Instead of each individual whimpering on the ground in the fetal position experiencing their own personal Hell, their fears manifested in the real world and went after that person, but would be able to attack anyone else in the vicinity. This was supposed to be the start of a much larger plan, but getting knocked out really threw him off.

Oh, right, he had also tried a new tactic during the battle as well. Instead of letting the akuma do their own thing, he was directly controlling it. Things were actually going in his favor when Ladybug used her Lucky Charm. He knew that he had to destroy it before it even formed. He had the akuma fire at the charm as it formed, and then…the floor? There must've been a serious feedback from all the magic being thrown around for that to come back to him. Well, lesson learned. No more direct control when attacking the charm itself. He would have to check that amazingly useful Ladyblog to see what the result was from today's attack. Apparently the attack had worked to some effect, but what exactly happened?

Holding his head he decided to go back to his office, but something caught his attention. His elevator was coming up. He hadn't summoned his elevator, yet. It couldn't be Nathalie. She knew better then to come up here. He stood tall, cane held firm as the floor opened and the elevator revealed three colorful figures standing back-to-back.

"So," said the black-clad boy wearing leather and a cheeky grin, "this is where you've been keeping your butterfly garden." He face quickly lost the grin as he glared at him. "You'll pay for using this place as your base."

"You're days of terrorizing Paris are done, Hawkmoth," claimed the red with black polka-dot tights. "This ends today."

He stood still as the three heroes stepped from the elevator and slowly began to surround him.

"So," he said, doing his best to keep calm, "how did you find me?"

"We'll explain that after you give us that butterfly," said the foxy lady.

He rested his cane on his shoulder as he chuckled to himself. "I don't think so."

"Eh, it was worth a shot," she shrugged.

Rena Rouge, as he finally remembered her name, struck first. He cleanly ducked the swing of her flute and thrust his cane upward into her stomach as she flew over him, launching her into the air. Chat Noir followed up before he could take the fox down and blocked the cat's staff with his cane. He faintly heard that accursed yo-yo whirl and saw the fox reeled back to the bug. He focused on the cat before him, somewhat impressed with the boy's strength. He would have to keep an eye on this one after he takes his miraculous. He would make a fine akuma. The cat and butterfly exchanged several testing blows, each gauging the other's strength and skill. He found an opening in the cat's defense and struck, or at least he was when his cane was wrapped up in the string of the yo-yo. The red bug pulled with all her might as the fox went in for another attack. He smirked. The cane's casing slipped off without resistance, causing the bug to fall painfully onto the floor and hit the wall behind her with her back, knocking the wind out of her. The fox, now seeing a deadly sword still in his hand, paused just enough for him to send a side kick square in the face. In a brief moment he saw her eyes roll up as she was flung backward into another wall. The cat, shocked at how their plan had failed so completely, barely managed to block the sword strike, but at the cost of his staff. Three dodges later found him backed against the wall with the point of the sword to his throat, just barely drawing blood. The bug had finally recovered herself and froze.

"I will admit that you have done well in finding me and putting up a decent fight, but it's over, Ladybug." He took a half-step to the side to show her that he had her precious partner at his mercy. He chuckled to himself once again. Mercy. "You friend is down and your partner is defeated. If you value his life you will remove your miraculous and give it to me."

She glanced about frantically as he'd seen her do so many times in battle and he tensed. He knew from experience how keen that tactical mind was. There was a reason why he didn't keep anything here in the sanctum.

"And if you dare to summon your Lucky Charm, Chat Noir will not live long enough to see what it is." Her eyes burned with fury as he applied just enough pressure to draw enough blood to let it trickle down. He noticed that he was lucky that he did, as the cat was just about to make a move to escape. He grinned as her shoulders slumped. His victory was assured. He held out his hand as he kept an eye on the cat. "Now, you're Miraculous, if you will."

The bug slowly took a step forward, then another, desperately trying to come up with a plan, but none came. He glanced between the heroes and motioned with his free hand. He did feel some regret that he was threatening children, but this was for a far greater good then the safety of these three. The bug covered her face with her arm as she took off her earrings, causing her transformation to fall. Clever girl. All he knew of her now was that she was a bluenette with twin pigtails. She did look familiar, but thought nothing else about it as she placed her miraculous into his waiting hand.

"Very good," Hawkmoth said as he glanced at the cat once again. The previous look of anger had been replaced with rage, but he still dared not move with the sword still pressing on his Adam's apple. "Now, step away and stand next to the elevator." The girl obeyed, and now she was no longer a threat. She was finally far enough that she couldn't do more then maybe distract him if he let her. He didn't plan on letting that happen.

"Now for you, Chat Noir," he spat his name. "Remove your ring and slid it to me."

The cat shook with barely contained rage, but complied nonetheless. They had lost.

His eyes widened as the cat's transformation fell. The boy didn't bother to hide his identity, and at this point the older man wished he had. Hawkmoth took a step back, shaking his head. "What? Adrien?" He couldn't believe it. His son stood before him with his sword to his neck, drawing blood. His son's blood! "It can't be!"

He was in too much shock to notice the movement behind him until it was too late. Large brown eyes filled his vision for a brief moment before his own transformation fell. He vaguely noticed the fox girl's unconscious body on the other side of the room had disappeared. Adrien, still possessing his ring, slipped it back on and transformed as he threw a vicious punch to his gut, staggering him back away from the former bug. Said girl raced to the now dropped earrings as the fox stood between them. Soon the three heroes stood side-by-side, the girls flanking the boy, as they stared shocked at the form of Gabriel Agreste on the floor, catching his breath after it had been knocked out of him. The cat's arms hung limply as his mind processed the situation.

"Father?" Gabriel glanced up at his heroic son, and he flinched. He had taken such pleasure in the pain that he had dealt that troublesome cat until he discovered who he really was. As for his son, his face wore so many emotions that it was impossible to know what he was feeling until it settled on devastated. "Why?"

Gabriel hung his head slightly before raising his head once more. "I wanted to fix our family, Adrien."

"How?"

"With yours' and Ladybug's Miraculous, I would have had the power to bring back your mother, and we could have been a family again."

Adrien's body began to tremble. "You mean that you terrorized the entire city, devastated families, destroyed people's lives, almost killed me and my friends, all to bring back mom?"

"You don't understand, son. I could've fixed everything once I got your mother back. Everything would've been perfect!"

"PERFECT?!" yelled Adrien. "I've lived in your 'perfect' world where every second of my day is decided for me. It never mattered what I wanted, or even needed. All you cared about was what made you or your company look good. Let me tell you, it was a living Hell trying to please you, trying every day to make you proud. I did everything I could, everything you asked me to do, but it was never enough for you, was it, father. If you really wanted our family to be whole again, you didn't need magic. You only needed to love and treat me as a person."

"I couldn't, Adrien. After your mother disappeared my heart disappeared with her. I needed her to come back, no matter the cost."

"That's too high a cost for me, father," he spat. "You need to be brought to justice, and it'll be by my hand. CATACLYSM!"

Everything slowed down as Chat leapt at his father, reaching for his face. He knew he wouldn't be able to get out of the way, and seeing as his own son was Absolutely Livid at what he had tried to do, he was almost glad to have everything done and over with. He saw the two girls shocked still, unable to react as their friend was about to murder his own father. He couldn't blame them, however. He had played his hand, and he had lost. He was surprised at how well he was handling this, actually. Death was only a couple of meters away and coming fast. He had almost closed his eyes when he saw the hand of death stop just short of his face. He saw a blue-clad hand holding Chat's wrist. All eyes went to the owner of the hand to find a blue and teal clad woman. The blue gloves stopped just before the elbow, finding the teal outfit closing the top of the woman's body. The bottom half of her outfit was the same blue as her gloves, with teal boots. She held a fan in her other hand that she held to cover the bottom of her face. Only Gabriel recognized her. "La Paon?"

"There's no need for that, Adrien," said the warm voice of the woman.

"Who are you?" Chat growled, still unable to move his hand. He was surprised when the woman dropped her transformation. Chat's body flinched as his eyes widened, while still barely keeping control of his right hand of destruction. "Mom?"

"Mom?" Rena asked the gasping Ladybug.

"Don't do this, son," said the woman as she glared at Gabriel. "Not without me, that is."

"But, Emilie," he pleaded. "I was doing this for us!"

"And you thought we could be happy with what you've done?" Gabriel realized that he had no good answer for her. He lowered his head in shame. "That's what I thought."

She gently guided Chat's hand of death and placed it on Gabriel's forehead. Then there was only darkness.

(B-D)

Darkness had fallen. As soon as he regained his awareness, he knew something had gone horribly wrong. The first thing he had noticed was that he was on the floor. Last thing he remembered was his wife and son giving him a Cataclysm to the face. He shook his head and gathered his surroundings. He was still in his sanctum, alone. That was good. He also had his Miraculous and was in his transformed state. Even better. He got to his feet again for the first time and tried to reconnect with his akuma. This time he was able to connect to his akuma, but only just in time to watch as it was purified and sent home. He had no words this time. No speech on how he would get them next time. He clearly remembered everything up to the point where he attacked the Lucky Charm directly while controlling the fear akuma. As far as he could figure, he must've gotten some serious feedback from that attack, and caused him to experience a lower form of the akuma's power. And yes, he remembered his painful experience vividly. He couldn't remember any details about Ladybug's face as she had covered it, but Chat Noir as Adrien? That had stuck to him. He knew it couldn't be, though, as they were both practically side-by-side when he had akumatized his son's bodyguard and Chat had ordered Adrien to hide. Still, there was something off about that scene to the point where he couldn't stop thinking about it again. He had a lot to think about after that experience with the fear feedback he had managed to survive. He released his transformation and made his way to the elevator, his kwami floating silently in the room. He didn't even have it in him to look at the creature. Once in his office he asked Nathalie to cancel his appointments for the rest of the day and tomorrow. He was forced to finally admit that it was time to ponder his life's choices.

"If you really wanted our family to be whole again, you didn't need magic. You only needed to love and treat me as a person," he heard his dream son in his head. He paged Nathalie again and had her clear Adrien's schedule for the week except for Saturday, when he could invite his friends over to his room for a few hours. It would be a start. With business with the outside world complete, he went to his room.

It would be a long while before the next akuma would show up in Paris.

(B-D)

End

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed my first fanfic in this fandom and a rare one-shot. My kids wanted me to write something for MLB after my last story, and this was one of the ideas that came to mind. As a father, I can understand and even kinda relate to what Gabriel is doing (if this is what his actual goal is). I'm not sure if this was done before, but this is my basic take on it. Seriously, though, I can't believe they haven't thought of attacking that Lucky Charm before it becomes a thing. Anyway, R&R, and I may have another story coming for MLB if time allows.