Gabriel watched the two teens in awe. So young and powerful, and clearly not even at the height of their power yet. Such potential... And his son...he could kick himself for not seeing it in him sooner. Adeline had been a force and Adrien was clearly his mother's child.

When his son threw the metaphorical first punch, he grinned wider. Perhaps he'd inherited a bit from his father too.

The melee continued, the two seeming to discover that by attacking each other, it kept the room from attacking them. At least they were quicker than most dueling pairs to come to that conclusion. That private school education his son insisted on hadn't all been for naught. It was mesmerizing really. While his son's aim left something to be desired, Adrien was only newly activated and far more powerful than anything he'd ever seen. Allowances must be made for his lack of skill in the presence of such obvious potential.

It was curious, really. The girl was undeniably miraculous. She was a protector after all and had no doubt been training for some time at honing her powers. And, of course, there was the added detail that she had the benefit of all seven pithoi. Gabriel's métamorphes, with only the indirect influence of the pithoi he'd absorbed, tended to be...less. They were powerful in their own way, but they never grew, they never achieved more. It had been a sore spot ever since he realized what was happening. Protectors gained their initial powers immediately, but over the course of one or two years, they came into their true potential. His métamorphes were all protectors in their own way, his power not only forcing their activation whether their gene would have surfaced or not, but also partially enacting the ancient ritual of the protectors. For that reason, all of his métamorphes were extraordinary, possessing some extra ability, but they were nothing like the girl. Gabriel wasn't too proud to admit where his experiments fell short.

Without the powers of all the pithoi involved in the activation, the raw power he'd only begun to see from the girl was impossible. Years of study and experimentation, and Gabriel had been unable to replicate it, all his métamorphes stagnating where they began. No matter what he tried, there was some hidden element he couldn't figure out. It had grated on him for the last ten years.

But watching Adrien now, he wondered if it had more to do with the person that with his process. Protectors must be selected meticulously for various qualities. While Gabriel had come into his powers through...less conventional means, Adeline had not. Adrien was more like his mother than Gabriel ever wanted to admit, but if that was what made him more powerful, that elusive je ne sais quoi that Gabriel had been hunting for for a decade, this could be the start of a breakthrough. It wasn't the process...it was the person. His mouth spread into an even wider grin at the imaginings of how much more powerful his army could be with soldiers like his son.

Gabriel turned his eyes back to the scene in from of him, watching in glee as his son broke down barrier after barrier that the girl threw up. She was playing defense, but when Adrien sent a shot straight through the bars, knocking her out of the air, Adrien made it clear he was playing offense.

The girl fell the the ground, shifting into her human form, a faint glow surrounding her as power seemed to seep from every pore of her body. His son shifted as well and stood motionless. For a moment, Gabriel doubted. Why was he hesitating? They knew each other, but surely it was clear that she was the enemy. A statique-lover. A traitor to her own kind. Perhaps the boy was too much like his mother. This sentimentality…

Then Adrien lifted his hands, his powers seeming even more potent despite his human form and Gabriel felt giddy at the clear display of his superiority. Adrien screamed, a gutteral sound ripping from deep within him, and with a flash of light, all the monitors in the observation room went black.

"Wha-Nathalie!" Gabriel yelled shrilly and the woman jumped to start murmuring with the computer technician who spun around the room in a flurry trying to find the root of the problem. A few minutes passed before the younger man reluctantly turned to face Gabriel

"The electronics-They're fried sir."

Gabriel turned on him, vehemence in his eyes.

"Do you mean to tell me that I spent billions of dollars retrofitting this establishment and a simple burst of energy had completely dismantled it."

"I'd say it was more than a burst of energy sir," the man laughed nervously, but Gabriel continued to glare at him.

"Open the doors then," he commanded.

"Well, when I say fried, I mean everything," The man hedged with a wince and Gabriel turned the full fire of his glare on him, not speaking a word. Nathalie stepped in, grabbing the man by the collar.

"Fix. It." She hissed, and the man nodded.

"Mainframe. Downstairs. 5 minutes." He choked out and was sprinting away the second Nathalie released him.

Gabriel turned, and glared at the wall, a slow smile spreading over his face when no one could see him.

More than a burst of energy, indeed.

Marinette tentatively opened her eyes, taking in the destruction around her in shock just as she realized that she'd been completely spared from the hell Adrien had unleashed. She looked over at him, a cat again with his head cocked to the side in concentration, before he nodded and shifted back.

"Good, I fried it all. They can't hear us now."

"How-" she started shaking her head but gasped at pain that flared in her shoulder from the previous hit. Adrien winced too, his face in clear agony and started to move to her side but stopped, clearly unsure if it was where he belonged anymore. She couldn't tell him if it was. She wasn't sure herself. Everything about this was confusing to her. His appearance. His behavior. His motives.

Looking into his eyes, she saw her Adrien. The boy she started to let herself fall for, despite her best efforts to deny all that was between them. But then she remembered his face when they last met, and her heart was wary to make the same mistake twice. Did he just not want to believe her? She could understand the impulse to protect your family, even if in his case "family" happened to be a psychopathic serial killer. If his reaction had been simply a gut impulse to protect the only family he had left, she could start to understand that, but then why was he here? Did he finally realize that she was right and his father was Hawkmoth or had he known all along? What was he playing at?

"Mari," his voice called her back to the present as he glanced around the still dark room and took a few steps closer to her. "I don't know how much time we ha-"

"Why are you here, Adrien?" She hated the way her voice sounded. Hoarse from not speaking in almost a week and cold as she tried to protect her heart from racing back to him. He just stared at her. Even in the dimmed room, she could see the surprise in his eyes, the drop of his jaw.

"Bugaboo-"

"Are you just here to do Daddy's dirty work?" She started to curl into herself, tucking her legs under her so she could jump into a crouched position at a moment's notice. "Here to try and make me let me guard down?"

"M'Lady-"

"Because it won't work," she informed him, trying to think past the feeling of his presence as he took another step towards her. Like finding a summer oasis in an eternal winter. "Because I refuse to be some damn pawn in this game. I am not some bargaining chip Fu will make a trade for."

That made Adrien pause.

"So that's his plan," he whispered, his eyes flicking down as his mind started to churn through theories.

"Of course that's his plan. But I'm sure you already know that," she scoffed and his eyes shot back up to meet hers.

"No, Bug-"

"Stop," she hissed, feeling tears start to threaten at the corner of her eyes. As much as her head told her to fight it, she'd started to lower her walls. Everything in her yearned for him to be closer; felt safer just by his proximity. She wanted to trust him so badly, even as her head reminded her of what had happened last time. "Don't call me that," she finished lamely, trying to keep her voice hard, but failing miserably.

He paused for a moment, regarding her with infinitely sad eyes before taking the last few steps to her and kneeling before her.

"Marinette," he whispered her name, his own voice hoarse, but she suspected for a very different reason. "I can imagine what this looks like. After last time I saw you," he closed his eyes and shook his head. His lips pursed and when he looked at her again, his gaze was watery. "I reacted poorly, to say the least. I was surprised and so used to having to protect my family's name against the world...but that's not the point. There is no excuse for what I said and there was no excuse for how I reacted."

His body started to lean forward, and she could see how his hands balled into fists, gripping his pant legs. As if that was the only thing keeping him from holding her like he wanted.

"You came to me. You trusted me and you needed your partner, and I let you down. I will never-" his voice cracked and he took a second to clear his throat. "I will never forgive myself for that. But you have to know. Surely, you know why I-Mari," he finally seemed to find the words. "I'm here for you."

She blinked at him slowly, trying to find the truth in his eyes, but knowing there was only one way to be sure. Reaching out a hand, she laid it gently along the curve of his right cheek. He sat immobile at first, as if trying not to startle her away, but when he gave in and leaned into her hand, his eyes closing in relief, she felt the tears run down her face freely, because she knew. With the simple contact, she felt all that was Adrien just as she imagined he felt all that was her. All his fear and anger and anxiety of the last week melded into her terror and homesickness and paranoia, but in the end it flooded out as relief.

"You're telling the truth," she announced, as if needing to say it to truly believe it.

He nodded against her palm, a small smile gracing his handsome face as his eyes opened to look at her once more.

"This is all my fault, Mari. I should have believed you the first time, but I am going to get you out of here, I promise."

"It wasn't your fault," she returned automatically and he just gave her a sarcastic look. She felt her lips crack into a smile for the first time in a week. "Okay," she amended. "You didn't exactly help."

He seemed to light up at her smile and she tried to make it wider if only for his sake.

"So, you're what? Undercover? A double-agent?"

"Something like that," he leaned back and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I have a feeling it's just going to be one test after another, and God-knows I haven't ever been great at surpassing my father's expectations."

He laughed nervously, but Marinette heard more than a self-deprecating joke in his statement. She heard years of emotional abuse at the hand of his father. Sixteen years of manipulation. Adrien was strong and had learned to work the system to his own benefit at times, but she could still glimpse the part of him that was a boy just wanting to make his father proud. Even knowing what he was, Marinette couldn't help but fear that given time...if Adrien stayed too long, he might fall victim to Gabriel again.

He was here for her, but they both needed to get out as soon as possible.

"So he needs to trust you," Marinette nodded, looking around them for what she needed. "You were supposed to attack me, right?"

"Yeah," he answered hesitantly, but her attention was distracted, exclaiming in triumph when she found what she was looking for.

"Well, let's make it believable then," she held up a stray arrow in triumph and his eyes turned decidedly wary.

"Bug, what are you doing?"

"Making it believable," she responded again, and then quickly lifted the arrow and dragged it across her eyebrow, wincing as the gash opened up and started to pour blood over her eye.

"Marinette!" Adrien screeched, lunging towards her and pinning her arms to her side.

"Kitty, it's fine. They have a healer here and I'm too valuable alive for Gabriel to leave me hurt."

"Can we not take that chance?"

"Chaton," she looked up at him with a small smile. "We need him to trust you, right? Not just for me, but for the hundreds of others he has under his control. "

"You noticed that too?"

"Of course," she scoffed. "You think I've just been on vacation, lounging around for the last week?"

"Never," he smiled back. "Not my lady."

"We need him to trust you," she repeated and he sighed, lifting his hands to frame her jaw and letting his letting his forehead fall to hers. He closed his eyes and she followed, drinking in the smell of him like home.

"I can't stand to see you hurt," he whispered back, and she traced her hand along her stomach. Finding a spot a few inches above her hip bone and placing the arrowhead facing outward, in a direction she prayed will all her shoddy anatomy knowledge wouldn't hit anything vital, she responded.

"Then don't look."

Adrien opened his eyes as she shoved the point through her flesh. Her gasp mingled with his shout, his hands immediately moving to the arrow, as if to dislodge it, but he froze, not wanting to do more damage that she had already.

She heard the telltale click of the hidden doors, and knew their time was up. Her head already spinning from the blood loss and pain, she desperately clung to consciousness to finish the scene. She needed to make this worth it. Make it believable.

Sorry, her mouth moved, but she dare not speak the word even as he shook his head, eyes watching her in disbelief.

Then the lights flicked back on and the door swished open. With the last of her strength, Marinette summoned her power and blasted Adrien against the opposite wall before the darkness took her completely.