Adrien clutched his broken hand to his chest, staring up at Hawkmoth in terror.
The villain loomed over him, weapon raised to strike again. He'd already broken Adrien's hand. He'd already broken Adrien's baton.
He'd already broken his heart.
He'd already killed Ladybug.
Hawkmoth laughed, and brought the cane down on Adrien's head, and the world went black with pain.
Plagg sighed in resignation as he watched Adrien's unconcious body jolt with the shock of the reset, the fifth one in just this hour alone. He was still in the meditative position, sitting with his legs crossed, but the only reason for that was the magical field dampening the signals from his brain to his body.
For all intents and purposes, he was dreaming, and it wouldn't end well if he started sleepwalking and acting out whatever was going on in the dream.
"Again?" Wayzz asked, trying to sound sympathetic.
"Again." Plagg replied, long since past the point of caring. He'd used up all his emotional energy when it came to hoping that Adrien would learn from his mistakes.
"Well," Remm put in from her cushion in the window, "It could be worse."
"Yeah, we know." Plagg snapped, "You don't need to remind me. I was there, remember?"
"Oh, you're right. Sorry, I can't remember Vyyper's alterations that well." She looked genuinely apologetic, and Plagg deflated, some of his anger evaporating.
"No, I'm sorry for snapping. It's not your fault this human is just..." He gestured towards Adrien's meditating form, unable to come up with any words that could do Adrien Agreste justice. "...like this."
Adrien jolted upright, a gasp of horror in his throat, his hands flying up instinctively to shield his head from-
-nothing.
He was in his room, sitting in his bed, alone.
Again.
The time loop had reset.
Again.
He buried his face in one hand, clutching the other one-the one Hawkmoth had broken-protectively to his chest. He could almost swear it still hurt, but his fingers moved with ease, and aside from the slowly fading anxiety, his mind was unclouded.
He'd lost track of how many times he'd gone through this timeloop. There was a program on his computer that would tell him, but he'd long since stopped looking. He'd checked it a few times, and some of the numbers stuck in his mind, landmarks in the time loop that marked particularly lucky or bad attempts.
2,085. The first time he had died.
3,120. The first time he'd successfully kissed Ladybug-Marinette-on the lips, without either of them immediately dying afterward.
49,519. The entire planet had been destroyed.
As long as he stayed in his room, he was safe. That hadn't changed yet, in the thousands of times he'd done this. He could stay here as long as he wanted, could even go to sleep as long as he wanted, and he would be safe. Nothing and no one would hurt him. And he wouldn't go hungry either, he had the pantry and attached kitchen to go to for food.
As long as he stayed in his room, he would be safe.
But he couldn't stay in his room forever. Even knowing what lay beyond didn't alleviate the boredom that eventually set in after too long of playing it safe. He couldn't see Ladybug if he stayed in his room.
He would miss his chance to ask her out if he stayed in his room.
He knew her secret identity now, and he needed to use that to his advantage. Ladybug was none other than his classmate, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The girl who was madly in love with him, and just kept playing hard to get while she was transformed. She didn't know what was good for her. She already loved him, she just refused to admit it.
He needed to convince her, to trick her into admitting her true feelings. He needed to get her to start dating him as Adrien so that she wouldn't have any excuse to say no.
But he couldn't bring her to his room, his father never allowed it, no matter how hard he tried to convince him, no matter what he did, even when he tried to get her to sneak in. It always failed, always ended in disaster one way or another.
He flopped back onto the pillows, and just lay there for a few minutes, contemplating the ceiling three storeys up, wondering what he should try first this time.
Everyone else's actions hinged on his. This wasn't like with the Snake Miraculous, where things were randomized each time. As soon as he left his room, the same thing would happen by default, and they would only start to change if he did different things.
He could get through the "day" with no problem if he followed certain path's he'd already tested, but he didn't want to get through the day. He wanted to win Ladybug's heart.
He wanted her to admit, for once and for all, that it was him that she loved. That she'd loved him since the first day they'd met, that she'd just been playing hard to get. He wanted her to confess her love to him and stop pretending she didn't enjoy his advances.
He'd seen her die over thirty thousand times now, and he wouldn't stop trying until she was his. Until he got his happy ending. Until she admitted that she loved him.
But first, he thought to himself, sitting up and eyeing the theater-sized TV and reactive chair, I'm going to watch a movie.
"Any changes?" Suun asked curiously, running a claw over tis face as te groomed tisself. Te'd just come in from hunting, and had a tiny cloth sack over one shoulder.
Plagg rolled his eyes, and didn't bother to reply.
"No, Adrien's still in his room." Tikki supplied helpfully, darting over to Suun so she could take the sack from tis. She opened it immediately, reached a clawed hand inside, and shoved the captured aphids into her mouth gleefully.
"There's a zebra finch out there for you." Suun said to Plagg, who sat up immediately, ears perking up, "I didn't bring it inside because Marinette said last time that they carry mites, and she doesn't want them getting everywhere. You don't have to save the feathers if you don't want to."
"Oh," Plagg laughed, leaping into the air and zooming for the window, "I want to!"
Suun watched him go, twichting tis mandibles thoughtfully. "Is he really going to use more the feathers on Adrien?" Te asked.
"Probably." Tikki said, glancing at the human in question, who was already surrounded by a pile of feathers like a salt circle. There were even a few carefully balanced on the top of his head and shoulders. "He knows it's not going to do anything, he just thinks it's funny."
Suun looked at the human, still in his meditative trance, his eyes moving under his eyelids every now and then, his breathing steady. Sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat, surrounded by feathers.
"Well," Te admitted, "It is pretty funny." A thought occurred to tis. Te turned back to Tikki, tiling tis head to the side. "Has Marinette seen this yet?"
Tikki laughed as she folded the now-empty sack into a neat triangle, imagining the look on Marinette's face when she saw that Plagg-and by extension, everyone else who had watched it happen-had covered Adrien in feathers. She knew his identity now, she knew he was Chat Noir, and all that entailed. She smiled. "Nope!"
Adrien sat in his five-thousand-dollar gaming chair, spinning idly in circles with his foot, tapping his fingers against his chin, trying to decide which movie he wanted to watch.
He'd already spent what was, by his estimate, three or four days in his room, playing video games, watching TV, watching movies, rock-climbing, bowling, swimming, and reading.
"Plagg, what do you think I should watch?" He asked, spinning so he could look up at the library balcony where Plagg was stretched out on the railing.
He'd made sure to be polite and respectful to Plagg this time around so he wouldn't be stuck in his room with a grouchy, whining kwami. So Plagg was in a good mood, a better mood than he usually was. Instead of ignoring Adrien or making some snarky comment, he sat up, and spiraled down through the air so he could perch on the chair next to Adrien's face, peering at the collection of DVDs Adrien had pulled off the shelf to narrow the options.
He pointed at Holes. "What's that one about?"
Adrien pursed his lips. "Uh..." How did you describe the movie Holes to someone who had never seen it? "How about I just put it on and you can see for yourself?"
"Deal!"
The carefully balanced pile of feathers scattered and floated through the air as Adrien suddenly jerked violently as the trial reset once again.
A sigh swept through the room, from kwami to kwami to human.
"Again?" Marinette asked in despair.
"Again." Came the sullen reply from half a dozen kwami at once.
"Is this even worth continuing?" Nino asked the question they were all thinking, leaning over with his head buried in his hands.
The counter was at 51,208,518,938.
That was fifty-one billion, two hundred eight million, five hundred eighteen thousand, nine hundred thirty-eight.
Fifty one billion times. Fifty one billion chances. Fifty one billion chances to do the right thing, and still Adrien hadn't done the ring thing.
All he had to do was not be a horrible person to everyone around him.
And with over fifty one billion chances he still couldn't manage it.
With over fifty one billion chances, Adrien Agreste couldn't manage something as simple as being a good person.
They all knew he was capable of it. The problem wasn't that it was an impossible task. The problem was that Adrien didn't care. He was more than capable of being polite and respectful and putting on a show of being compassionate. But they all knew who he was now, they all knew that he was-he had been Chat Noir.
They knew just how false his charade of kindness had been. The second there hadn't been consequences for him to face, he showed his true colors in the most heinous way possible.
He sexually harassed and assaulted Marinette. He abused her and manipulated her and went out of his way to torment her. He put everyone around him in danger on purpose. There was no way to tell how many people he'd gotten killed because some of them had been killed dozens of times.
Nino himself had been killed six times.
People weren't meant to die more than once in their entire lifetime. At the end of their lifetime.
Nino would never forgive him. Because it wasn't even just that he had allowed Nino to die, and that was traumatizing enough. No, no, it was worse than that. Adrien had allowed Nino to kill.
Nino had been Akumatized, and Adrien hadn't done anything about it. Even though it was literally Adrien's job to do something about it. It was the responsibility he had accepted with glee. And he hadn't done anything to stop it. It wasn't even just that he stood by. He actively profited from it. Nino got Akumatized and his best friend didn't care, because as long as Nino was an Akuma, it meant that he got to have a party.
And he didn't care that the party was attended by hostages who were there under threat of violence. Under threat of death.
And Adrien didn't care. He didn't do anything to stop it. He happily danced at the party and celebrated without a care for anyone but himself.
Nino would never, ever forgive him, and he didn't see the point of this whole exercise.
"What makes him so special?" He finally burst out, jabbing a finger towards Adrien, unable to contain his anger any longer, "Why does he get the chance, over and over and over again, to prove himself? He's had enough chances! He was Chat Noir for over four years, and he only got worse. Why are we letting him put us through this? Why are we wasting our time and energy helping him become a better person, huh? Why does he get a second and third and fifth and literal billionth chance when the people he killed don't? Why does Adrien Agreste, the spoiled fucking billionaire predator, get the chance to redeem himself, but no one else does? What about his victims? What about you, what about me, what about all the people who drowned when he fucking sat there and watched?"
This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation. It wasn't even an argument, because for it to be an argument would require that someone disagree with him. And no one did. They all thought the same thing, it was just his turn to say them out loud.
Sometimes it was Marinette shouting her rage and beating her hands against the floor.
Sometimes it was Plagg, Cataclysming concepts themselves while he shrieked and snarled and threw things at Adrien that were blocked by the same barrier that held him in place, and protected him from the feathers he was allergic to.
Sometimes it was Alya, glaring and raging and crying with her frustrated anger, clutching her phone so tightly she could break it.
Sometimes it was Tikki, vibrating in silent threat as she struggled to contain her emotions, and when she couldn't keep it contained any longer, she screamed, shouting at Adrien's unhearing ears all the things he'd done that he would never apologize for.
This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation, the first time they'd vented and shouted their feelings, their desperation, their betrayal.
Because that's what this felt like. This felt like betrayal.
They were helping Adrien. They were helping Chat Noir. The one who had done all of this to all of them. The one who had lied to them and manipulated them and abused them and harassed them and let them die and let them kill.
The one who had stood by and watched as the city drowned.
"Don't answer that." He said, exhausted.
He knew the answer.
He knew why they were doing this.
"Alright, Plagg, you ready?"
Adrien looked at his kwami, who floated just a foot away.
"As I'll ever be." Plagg kept his voice dry and unamused, but the glint in his eye was steely and determined, and his tail was lashing excitedly. He was rhythmically sheathing and unsheathing his claws in the air.
Adrien grinned at the sight, feeling his own confidence bolstered. He lifted the hand that bore the Miraculous, "Alright! Plagg-claws out!"
Plagg leapt towards him with a toothy grin, willingly fusing with the Ring in a rush of increased power, a sharp contrast to the shrieking and scrambling to escape that Adrien had gotten used to.
It was a wonder, the difference that simply treating someone like a person could make.
The transformation washed over him, sending his heart crashing for a few seconds before it adjusted to the sudden boost in strength and stamina and leveled back out to a new normal.
For a moment, he felt a second's sadness that Plagg wasn't there, but then he sheathed and unsheathed his claws and flicked his tail, reminding himself that even though he couldn't hear him, Plagg was still there, seeing and hearing and feeling everything Adrien was seeing and hearing and feeling.
Adrien wasn't alone in this, even if he couldn't see it.
He bared his teeth in a hiss of determination, then with a single super-powered kick, broke the door out of its frame and sent it flying down the hallway to crash into splinters that embeded themselves in the carpet a hundred feet away.
He leapt out barely even a heart beat after it began moving, bounding on all fours off the wall and floor so that he could launch himself bodily over the railing that led to the foyer, twisting in mid-air so that when he landed, he would be facing the doorway of his father's office, where his father would be rushing from in five...four...three...two...
One.
They'd pulled the curtains and turned the lights off, watching in tense silence as the TV mounted on the wall showed them exactly what Adrien was seeing.
This wasn't the first time this had happened, and this part in and of itself didn't even matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. The intention was what mattered, and they wouldn't learn what that intention was until this deed was already done, one way or another.
And no matter which way it ended, it was going to end.
Nino hadn't needed to wait for an answer to his angry, rhetorical questions.
They all knew the answer.
They were giving Adrien this many chances because this was his last chance.
If he didn't do the right thing this time, he would die, and they would be able to move on with their lives, and the pain he had brought into the universe would be lessened, if only a little.
It didn't matter that Adrien was attempting to kill his father.
What mattered was why he was doing it.
His father got a single chance to cry out in alarm before Adrien was on him, slamming him to the tiled ground with enough force that his shout cut off abruptly as all the air was driven from his lungs. Adrien felt and heard several cracks, but he didn't care.
He grabbed his father's tie with one hand and ripped it straight in half from the sheer level of force he used. The only thing keeping Gabriel from dying then and there was that, for a moment there, he'd still been wearing the Butterfly Miraculous.
Now that Adrien had it, there was nothing stopping him from from killing his father.
He ripped his throat open with his teeth, and snarled in his face as he gasped for air, putting all the hatred he had ever felt into the sound so that in his dying breath, he would know that he would never be forgiven, even if he didn't know that it was his son killing him.
But he didn't have time to waste. He had the Butterfly Miraculous now, but Nathalie still had the damaged Peacock Miraculous, and, hearing the commotion, she would be stumbling around the corner right about-
Now!
He lunged, silent as the grave, and she didn't even get a chance to see what lay on the floor behind him before all she could see was a flash of black as the ceiling reared up above her. His teeth shattered her skull before she could so much as cough out any pathetic last words.
He ripped the broken Peacock Miraculous off her jacket, then leapt away to perch on the banister of the stairs, so he could shove both Miraculouses into separate pockets. He had gotten blood on them, and the banister, and the stairs, but he didn't care.
He dug his claws into the stone, trying to force himself to calm down, trying to transfer some of his rage and adrenaline outward before he transformed back. If he didn't, Plagg would get all of it dumped into his tiny body, and would be on edge and aggressive for hours, and Adrien didn't want to do that to him.
It was funny, in a sad way. Before this time loop began, he would have transformed back without sparing a single thought for the consequences that action would have for Plagg. He wouldn't have cared.
He sat there on the railing, breathing in and out through his nose, smelling the coppery scent of blood, trying to bring his heart rate back down from the predator's high the rush of combat had set it to.
He turned to survey the foyer, and was glad his father had fired the servants months before the time loop started. They didn't get paid enough to begin with, but they definitely didn't get paid enough to walk into the scene of a double murder.
The room looked like a scene right out of a horror movie, with his father and Nathalie lying lifeless and surrounded by pools of blood, but Adrien probably would have been more horrified if he hadn't spent four years seeing worse in nearly every Akuma battle.
If his father wanted him to be horrified by the sight of his death, then maybe he shouldn't have spent four years murdering everyone in Paris several times over.
And Adrien was partly responsible for all of those deaths. He'd never taken the fights seriously. He'd never thought any of it mattered. They would all be brought back anyways, no harm done, so why the hell should he care what happens to them? The only thing he had ever cared about was 'winning' Marinette's 'heart'.
He was sickened to admit that it had never been about winning her heart. It had always, always been about controlling her, owning her, dominating her. Tormenting her had been the highlight of his day. It never got old. For four years he crossed every line she set, going further and further each time, trying to see exactly what it would take to finally push her over the edge, trying to see how far he could go before she finally snapped and broke.
He hadn't wanted her to love him back, because he'd never loved her in the first place. All she was to him was a toy to play with, to bat around and torment before he finally deigned to swoop in for the kill. His only goal had been to dominate her and own her, mind, body, and soul, and get as much fun out of her before that as he could.
He was getting angry again, and abruptly, probably stupidly, he decided that he wouldn't transform back. He wasn't going to follow the original plan.
He had already killed his father. He had already killed Nathalie.
He jumped down from the banister, and crossed the room in a single leap, and stood to pull the door open with a blood-caked hand.
He'd already killed his father. He'd already killed Nathalie.
He might as well kill any chance he had of being forgiven while he was at it.
He might as well come clean about everything.
It was time he went and found Ladybug.
It was time he went and apologized to Marinette.
And she would be only the first in the long line of his victims he would have to apologize to.
And if he had to play out this exact scenario a hundred thousand times and never escaped the time loop?
Then he would apologize a hundred thousand times. He would give up his games, his books, his room his house, his allowance, his inheritance, his pride, his power.
He would give it all up if it meant he could help lessen even a single shred of the harm he had caused.
Because it was the right thing to do.
And he had finally learned to care about that.
Marinette left the room, visibly struggling to hold back tears, once it became clear what the outcome would be, and Tikki and Plagg went with her. After a minute or two, Henri came in, sent up by Marinette, and Alya and Nino went down to join her.
Most of the other kwami stayed.
They'd been trapped in the Miracle Box during the events of Gabriel and Adrien's reign of terror, and weren't as affected by the events as the people who had actually lived through them. They could stand to be in the same room as an awake and conscious Adrien Agreste now that everything about his crimes was out in the open, but only just.
Henri looked at the feathers piled on top of and around Adrien, but didn't make an issue of it or scold anyone. He just went over to brush them off and sweep them away to a corner of the room. It was still his job to keep Adrien safe as long as he was allowed to remain alive.
Only after the feathers were a safe distance away did he turn to greet the gathered kwami, signing with his hands, "Do you know how long it will be until he wakes up?"
"Any minute now." Scott replied reassuringly.
The trial was over. The test was done. Adrien had passed by the skin of his teeth, but he had done it. If he died today, it wouldn't be from the magic of the trial.
Sure enough, Adrien twitched just a few seconds later, and the barrier of magic surrounding him began to weaken, slowly allowing him to move again, slowly allowing his body to function normally again. While he was in the trance, he hadn't needed to eat or use the bathroom, all of his body's processes put on hold. As far as his body was concerned, no time at all had passed since he had begun the trial.
Which meant that he was now a month younger than he should have been, but that wouldn't matter in the long run, and wouldn't have any negative side effects.
The gathered kwami and bodyguard watched as his eyes struggled to open, as he lifted a hand to shield them as though the room were too bright. It would take a few seconds for his brain to adjust back to the normal reality.
He looked around the room in confusion, and spoke before anyone else could, not that anyone else particularly wanted to.
"Where did Marinette go? Where's Plagg?"
That was not the question he should have been starting out with if he wanted any kind of goodwill. The kwami collectively tensed, and Henri, after a moment, signed, "They don't want to see you."
Scott kept his eyes on Adrien, wanting to see exactly how he would react to this blunt statement.
To their relief, he just nodded, still looking confused. "What-"
"How much do you remember?" Scott interrupted, "From before the time loop. Do you remember coming here?"
Adrien stared up at him. "I don't even know where here is. But I mean-I remember being Chat Noir, and all the horrible things I did, but-no I don't remember coming here. The last thing I remember before the time loop started was the fight with Mr. Pigeon, and then going to bed. Then when I woke up, I was trapped in the time loop. I don't remember coming here." He looked at the kwami again, scanning through their ranks, searching for- "Are-"
He turned his head, as though the check no one else was hiding in the room. "Are Nooroo and Duusuu still with Marinette? Are they okay?"
"They're fine." Suun said, before Scott could. "Do you remember how the time loop ended?" Te'd been the one that had studied the book more rigorously than anyone else. Te knew all the questions they were supposed to ask to make sure everything was going smoothly. "What happened right before you opened your eyes and found yourself here?"
They all already knew the answer, they'd watched it happen. But they needed to make sure all of Adrien's memories were intact. The time loop had reset over fifty billion times, and most of those currents lasted 'hours' if not 'days' or 'weeks'. But in the normal world, only a single month had passed, twenty seven days to be exact.
Time inside the loop was compressed, like a dream, and so were the memories. They should all still be intact, still exist, but they shouldn't overwhelm the rest of his mind, shouldn't take up any more space than a single day's worth of new information. Even though he'd been in there for what, from his perspective, amounted to several million years, he should be able to remember everything from before it just as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.
Adrien said, "I killed my father and Nathalie, and gave the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses to Ladybug, then detransformed in front of her so I could hand over Plagg's ring and apologize."
And it had only taken him fifty one billion tries to finally get it right, at the last possible second. It had been a spur of the moment decision, they'd all seen the moment he discarded his original plan and decided to make it up as he went along.
It was only by the barest thread of luck that he had finally figured out the bare minimum level of human decency required for the trial not to kill him at the very last opportunity he had to get it right.
Scott resisted the urge to sigh.
Making one good decision didn't make you a good person. The trial had been set up to prove whether or not Adrien could do the bare minimum. And it had taken him over fifty one billion tries to even do that much.
But, at least this wasn't going to be their problem for much longer. They'd fulfilled their end of the bargain.
API would be arriving in an hour to take Adrien into custody.
Marinette sat in the branches of the pine tree, with Tikki, Plagg, Duusuu, and Nooroo all in a kwami-pile on her lap. None of them were even remotely interested in seeing Adrien off. The sooner API swept him away to the other side of the planet, the better.
Actually, it would be better if they took him to the other side of the universe, or the other side of life, but...
"Someone remind me again why we can't just kill him and be done with the whole thing?" Marinette asked the cuddling kwami, "Just one good reason."
None of the kwami responded, because they were all asking themselves the same question.
Marinette looked down at her watch, checking the time.
They still had thirty minutes before API was supposed to arrive.
She sat in the tree, knowing she was getting pine sap on her pants and the back of her shirt, thinking to herself,
A lot could happen in thirty minutes...