(Written for AU YEAH AUgust - 10 - Secret Agent)

In My Sights

Adrien stood before his father, filled with hope.

And fear.

It was his greatest wish to please this man. To be useful. To be loved. But ever since Gabriel Agreste had taken on the mantle of Hawkmoth, the leader of the Akuma Organization, he'd noticed his son less and less. So, that son had devised a way to get and keep his father's attention.

Join the organization.

And not just join. Be the best.

So, he'd trained. He'd studied. He'd learned how to use just about every weapon on the planet; and how to drive practically anything. He'd lost count of how many ways he'd learned to kill somebody.

And, while he didn't exactly like the idea of being part of a terrorist group….

His father set his application down on the desk and regarded him with a frown. Adrien instinctively straightened, even if his poise was already perfect.

"Your mother would kill me for even considering putting you in harm's way," Gabriel said.

Adrien felt himself deflate a bit.

"But…"

Adrien perked up again.

"I cannot deny you have talent. And your list of specialties would make you one of my most valuable assets in this game. Still…." Gabriel hesitated, obviously torn between his organization and honoring his late wife's memory.

He nodded to himself. "A test, then. Those Miraculous pests have been especially irritating lately. Particularly the one they call Ladybug. Take one out—or even better, capture them alive—and I will grant you a place in Akuma. Bring me Ladybug, and you'll be at my side. Where you belong."

"Yes, sir!" Adrien said enthusiastically.

"I give you the name Chat Noir. May you bring bad luck to our enemies."

Adrien beamed with pride.

Marinette peered through the telescopic sight of her sniper rifle. Her target was just up ahead. She adjusted her aim for distance.

Mime, Hawkmoth had called this one, and he'd been attacking famous actors and actresses in the theatre district.

Well, no more.

THERE!

She breathed out… and squeezed the trigger.

BAM!

Mime went down, never even knowing what hit him. Marinette smirked and reached up to the comm in her earring.

"Bye-bye, little butterfly," she murmured. Her own special code for taking out her target.

"Good job, Ladybug," Tikki's voice sounded in her ear. "Return to base. Carapace and Rena Rouge will take care of clean up."

"Roger that."

Marinette moved to erase any signs that she'd been on the rooftop before finally allowing herself one last glance at the scene below. To her surprise, her fellow Miraculous Agents weren't there. Instead, there was only a young man with shockingly blond hair, dressed all in black. Marinette froze as she realized he was calmly inspecting the body.

He looked up, instantly making eye contact with her.

She felt her heart skip a beat.

He was wearing a mask.

He took off running towards her building, drawing some sort of silver weapon as he did so. Marinette quickly retreated. She kicked open the door to the stairwell, but didn't go down the stairs. Let him think she'd escaped into the building somewhere. She had better places to be.

Slinging her rifle onto her shoulder, she grabbed her yoyo, which was actually a cleverly-disguised rappel hook, and dove off the rooftop.

Moments later, she was in an alleyway, shoving her rifle into a dumpster. (It was a drop spot for Miraculous. Someone would collect it for her in a few minutes.)

"Spots off," she muttered into her comm, letting Tikki know she'd been spotted and was going dark. The comm went dead. Now, even if they caught her, Akuma wouldn't find anything that led back to the rest of Miraculous. She quickly peeled off the red and black-spotted mask that Tikki insisted she wear and threw it in the garbage bin with her gun.

Then, no longer looking like any sort of assassin, she sprinted towards the main road. If she could just find a crowd to mingle with—

BAM!

A silver rod buried itself in the wall right in front of her face. She yelped, but didn't even have time to turn before a large body slammed her back into the wall as well. She instantly brought her arms up to fight him, but he caught one and pushed it up against the wall as well. She froze when she felt a blade press against her ribs.

Damn.

"Well, well," a voice purred in her ear. "Look at what I caught. A cute little bug. How are you this evening, my lady?"

She huffed in laughter. "You give that line to all the girls you're about to kill?"

"Probably why I'm single, huh?"

"Probably," she laughed, enjoying his easy humor. Ah well, at least he wasn't a total ass who'd try to molest her before taking her out. Still… he had one hand pinning her arm against the wall, and one hand holding his blade against her ribs.

Stupid of him, not to disable her other arm….

She whipped out her sidearm, pressing it under his chin with a smirk. Now it was his turn to freeze.

"Of course, it'll be even harder to ask girls out if you have an extra hole in your head," she said sweetly.

She heard him curse under his breath and slowly pull back from her. Just a bit. Not enough to give up his advantage with the knife, but enough so she could properly see his face.

Oh, damn. He was hot.

No, Marinette, no! she screamed at herself. Now is not the time! Focus!

"So, Mexican standoff, huh?" he drawled, his green eyes calculating. They were especially bright against his own black domino mask. Hawkmoth must be copying Miraculous again. She saw his eyes shift downwards, trying to look at her gun.

"Did you really just look to see if I had the safety still on?" she asked incredulously.

"A guy can hope," he grinned.

"Wow."

"I gotta say, I think I'm gonna end up the winner here, Bugaboo," the blond continued. "I'd much rather die from an instant headshot than a gut wound." He shifted his knife to emphasize his words. "It's not a pretty end."

Marinette rolled her eyes at his attempt to intimidate her. "I'm sure I'll make a miraculous recovery," she smirked at him.

Before he could reply, Carapace hit him over the head with his shield.

"Pardon me, miss," her friend grinned. "Was this guy harassing you?"

"My hero," Marinette mock-gushed, giving Nino a quick kiss on the cheek. "Let's take him in. I think Tikki'll want this one alive."

Adrien woke up, cold and in pain, on an unfamiliar floor. Better yet, there was a horrible smell just under his nose.

"Wakey, wakey, little kitty cat," he heard a male voice call. "Gotta say, I love the fake ears in your hair."

As his eyes focused, he realized that a dark-haired man was crouching above him, holding a piece of stinky cheese. He groaned and pushed it away, reaching for his weapons.

He was only a little surprised to find they weren't there.

That was right. Ladybug. The knife. The gun. Laughter. The brightness in her eyes as she smirked back at him, even though he had her tiny, soft body already pressed against the wall—

Hold up, Adrien! he scolded himself. That is not what you should be thinking about right now! You've been captured! Focus! You've got to get back to your father!

"Sorry, tom cat," the dark-haired man drawled, sneering when Adrien tried to find his weapons. "I'm afraid you've been declawed."

Adrien met the man's nonchalance with his own smirk. "If you think I need a weapon to get out of here, think again."

The other man threw his head back and laughed. "You wouldn't need a weapon, kid. You'd need a miracle!"

Looking around, Adrien was beginning to agree. Cameras everywhere. No windows. The guards could all see each other and were relaxed and alert at their posts…

Not to mention he had no idea where he was….

"So… name?" the dark-haired man asked, pulling out a clipboard.

"Chat Noir."

The man snorted. "Damn. I owe Trixx a drink. I was sure it was gonna be one of Hawkmoth's weird puns like Cat-tastrophy or something lame like that."

"Hmm, maybe I'll go with Cataclysm," Adrien joked.

"Even worse."

"And what's your name?" Adrien shot back, thinking he might as well try to gather some intelligence while he was here.

The man shot him a wry grin. "Plagg."

Adrien snorted. "And you made fun of my name?" he teased.

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm a kwami-level assassin!" Plagg protested. "You ever get out of here, you ask your boss if he's heard of me. I'll bet he turns white at just the sound of my name!"

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Doubt it." His father? His father wasn't afraid of anything.

The next moment, he was flat on his back with no idea how he'd gotten there. Plagg was straddling him, pinning Adrien's arms to his side with his feet and smiling as he casually wrapped a hand around the blond's neck.

"You should never doubt a kwami," he suggested lightly.

Adrien gulped, suddenly very much aware that this was the way he would die...

"Plagg, I told you not to kill him!" a high, female voice shrieked. Plagg jumped, quickly releasing Adrien.

"Sorry, Tikki," he laughed nervously. "Just havin' a little fun."

"Go eat your cheese somewhere I can't smell you."

Plagg quickly obeyed. Adrien sat up to see him smile apologetically at a tiny-looking redhead before handing his clipboard off too… Ladybug. Adrien's eyes narrowed.

Both women were smaller than him, but he had no doubt that either of them would be more than a match for him right now. He knew about Ladybug's skills first-hand, and the one called Tikki… his eyes drifted over to the redhead, who was also sizing him up in return. He was pretty sure he'd heard Nooroo mention her a couple times, always in hushed tones. Kwami level.

Despite her innocent looks, this was no one to be trifled with.

She, in turn, raised an eyebrow at whatever she saw in him.

"So, Ladybug," Tikki said, turning to her companion. "You're the one who fought him before. Whatcha think?"

"He has skills," Ladybug said slowly. Adrien smirked at her. She shook her head. "But he's still green and making rookie mistakes."

Adrien scowled. So, she wasn't gonna let that go, huh? He'd been so excited at having caught her, so eager to bring her in for his father, he'd made one little mistake.

One mistake will get you killed, his old fighting master's voice reminded him. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth. Master Fu had been right. And now Adrien was as good as dead.

"You think he's on his trial run?" Tikki asked.

Adrien froze. How did they know about the trial?

"Probably," Ladybug hummed. Adrien slowly raised his head to stare at her. She was looking at the clipboard Plagg had given her. "Chat Noir, huh. Unlucky indeed, getting caught your first time out."

"Wait a minute," he rasped, suddenly unable to breathe. "You mean other people from Akuma have gotten trials too?"

But he—his father had made it sound like—

Ladybug scoffed at him. "All members of Akuma have a trial run. It's kinda Hawkmoth's thing. A way to weed out whoever won't be useful to him. Why? Did you think you were special or something?"

I did, Adrien thought, feeling sick. I really did. I thought my father trusted me with a big job, but in truth… he just wanted me out of the way?

Tikki must've seen the look on his face, because she nudged her companion in the ribs. Ladybug immediately shut up. Tikki squatted down so she was eye-level with Adrien.

"A lot of organizations have a trial period," she said gently. "But it's how they manage them that makes the difference. In Miraculous, our new members are sent out with at least one other experienced person, to show them the ropes and help them get out if something goes wrong."

Adrien's mind whirled. That did make more sense. Why hadn't his father done that? If he was so special… why throw him to the wind, all alone and against an enemy with more experience?

"You seem… kind," Tikki added, cocking her head as she tied to figure him out. "What are doing in an organization like Akuma?"

Trying to make my father proud.

"I know Hawkmoth holds people's loved ones hostage so they'll do as he says. If you could just give us a description of your hostage, maybe we could find them—"

"He does WHAT?" Adrien rasped, his gut churning. No! No, his father had said that everyone was a volunteer! But… that didn't explain the hateful looks he'd seen on the members' faces whenever he'd passed them in the hall….

"If you don't have a hostage, why are you working for him?" Ladybug asked.

He felt sick. He'd hated the idea of joining Akuma from the start, and now that he knew all this….

He lashed out, aiming his foot at Tikki. She dodged it, flying up into the air with almost inhuman grace. Then, before he'd quite realized what had happened, pain blossomed in his gut, his thigh, and just about every pressure point on both his arms. He gasped, his mind flying as he realized his limbs weren't responding. Tikki landed beside him, looking just as calm as before.

Ok, lesson learned, he thought, his mind whirling through all the pain. Never attack Tikki.

And then Ladybug was at his throat, holding a blade against it.

"Say the word, Tikki," she hissed, glaring at Adrien.

"Hold," Tikki said, unaffected. "I have a few more questions."

"Just kill me now," Adrien spat. "I'm not telling you anything."

It wouldn't matter anyway, he thought, closing his eyes and relaxing. I've known it from the start. My father doesn't care about me. He never will. My whole life is worthless.

At least Ladybug will make it quick. Even now, her knife was kind. Just enough pressure to make him aware of it, without actually biting into his skin. He'd seen enough jerks draw blood, just to make their captives panic.

"You don't have a hostage. You don't know anything about how Akuma works, but you've looked uncomfortable whenever we talk about what they've done," Tikki recited, studying him again. "You seem far too kind to want to attack innocent civilians, so you're not doing this of your own free will. But you've obviously trained at least somewhat for your mission…." She looked down at him sadly. "You've got a family member in Akuma, don't you. One you look up to?"

"Please just kill me," Adrien whispered, unwanted tears welling up in eyes. Dammit, no! He would not cry! He would not appear weak in front of these women! He was an Agreste! His father was THE major crime lord in Paris! He was strong! He was cold!

"I am a weapon," he whispered to himself, trying to remember his meditation. "All I can do is destroy in the name of my master."

The knife at his throat drew away.

"Only if you choose to be," Tikki murmured. He opened his eyes to see her smiling down at him, more kindness in her eyes than his father had ever had in his whole lifetime. "What the weapon does depends on the master it chooses.

"Chat Noir. Wouldn't you rather be a protector, instead? Would you like to join Miraculous?"

End.