(A/N) Thanks to CutenessOverload for betaing!
Gabriel had always assumed that if he was going to be taken down (a possibility he scoffed at and dismissed as swiftly as he could), it would be due to that rotten little cat and that nasty little girl's efforts. Those two thorns in his side… he'd almost had them on Heroes Day. If their friends hadn't recovered, he'd have their Miraculous by now!
He glowered at his tablet. He hadn't needed to tune into any particular news channel, every news network in Paris had its cameras trained on the Cesaire's apartment, where Nathalie Sancoeur, accomplice to the dreaded Hawkmoth, was being taken into custody.
One particularly pushy reporter fought their way to the girl responsible for kicking off everything. "Alya Cesaire, as a fellow reporter and creator of the esteemed Ladyblog, could you tell us how you uncovered the identities of Paris's supervillains? How was Mayura taken down? What can you tell us about Ladybug and Chat Noir's upcoming fight with Hawkmoth?"
"Well, I-"
He stopped the livestream.
That tends to happen when you break the computer you're watching it on in half.
That little reporter girl - this was all her fault. She could've just done her job and tried to go after Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous, but no. She had to be concerned about how he acted towards Adrien, towards his own son! He was Adrien's father, HE knew what Adrien needed, not this random "friend" he knew from school. Probably just a hangers-on, trying to get in early so she could press him for interviews and favors later on. She was a reporter, networking was part of her job. He'd admire her ambition and gall if it hadn't resulted in the utter annihilation of all his plans.
The Butterfly Miraculous was gone. Nathalie was arrested, the Peacock Miraculous out of her hands. Ladybug and Chat Noir were on their way, and without any Miraculous remaining in his possession, even he didn't have a prayer of escape, much less taking their Miraculous.
All because he'd been so foolish as to let Adrien go to school, to have friends. And now Emilie would never awaken because of his leniency. If there was one glimmer of solace he could take from this, from his final hour of freedom, it was Adrien seeing exactly what his defiance and desire to be with other kids had led to.
He took a sharp intake of breath. "That's it…"
Scrambling, he ran for Adrien's room. "You are dismissed," he told his son's bodyguard curtly. "I have no need of your services any longer." The man stared at him, eyes wide. "I said GO! YOU ARE NO LONGER WELCOME IN THIS HOUSE!"
The former-bodyguard glared at him, but left, lingering only a moment to stare at his charge's door.
He paid him no mind. With himself in prison, no one would be able to pay the bodyguard's wages anyway.
"ADRIEN!" he shouted, looking around the room. Where was that boy? He hadn't approved any time with his friends, it wasn't time for school, and he was pretty sure nothing was on his schedule - Nathalie and the bodyguard had both been here, he wouldn't have had anyone to drive him.
A cool breeze kissed his cheeks.
Adrien had left a window open.
It was far too high for Adrien to get out without some sort of ladder, and there would be a long drop to the ground even if he did exit out the window. He couldn't have left that way. Unless…
His blood ran cold.
The heroes must have already come here. Already taken Adrien away so they could go all-out, just waiting for the best opportunity to strike.
They were toying with him.
"How dare they?! I'll-"
No. No, getting angry and yelling at them wouldn't do any good. They expected it. It wouldn't change things.
But he could show them why he was doing this. What fate they were dooming his wife to. That all along, he'd been trying to make things better, that stopping him was a mistake, just like he'd told them on Heroes Day.
He rushed down the hall to his atelier, stopping in front of Emilie's portrait, pressing the buttons to activate the secret elevator to her resting place.
Adrien would find out what happened to his mother. That Gabriel had been looking out for him all along, been looking out for their family. He doubted that the superheroes would - or even could - cover up discovering Emilie's life support pod.
He would resent the heroes. Oh, Gabriel knew his son had a soft spot for them at the moment - he wasn't blind to his devotion to Ladybug in particular.
Which would make the betrayal hit all the harder. That his idols, his crush even, would refuse to do the one thing that would save his mother, would tear away his only remaining parent in the process - the despair and anger he would feel! Oh, if only he still had his Miraculous, his son would become the most powerful akuma he had ever created!
With a clunk, the elevator arrived at its final destination. Confidently, he strode towards the end of the walkway, the island of greenery where the most important person in his life rested.
He didn't have the Butterfly Miraculous anymore… but perhaps his son would acquire it?
His lips curled into a malicious smile. Timetagger had said that there was a Hawkmoth in the future, a Hawkmoth who wasn't him. He hadn't known what to make of the akuma's assertion at first. But now everything was falling into place.
Adrien would be the Future Hawkmoth.
Somehow he'd get his hands on the Butterfly - how, he could do nothing but speculate. Perhaps Ladybug would be so foolish as to think that letting Adrien use the Butterfly would help pay him back for destroying his family. Maybe Adrien would become a master thief and detective, figuring out where Ladybug would stash the Butterfly and stealing it back. Either way, Hawkmoth's reign would begin anew, Emilie's awakening once more a possibility.
All he needed to do was wait. Those foolish children thought they'd won. All they'd done was destroy a poor boy's life, forging him into a villain of their own creation.
He rested his hand on Emilie's pod. "Soon, my love," he murmured. "I may go down, I may be taken to prison, but our son will avenge us. We will be together again. It will just take a little longer than I thought."
"HAWKMOTH!"
He turned his head back slightly, just enough to get a glimpse of his nemeses, his hands clasped behind his back. They didn't deserve his full attention. "So. This is how it ends, I take it? With you two dragging me to prison and everyone living happily ever after?"
"How...?- HOW COULD YOU?!" the boy screamed. "Your- your son- WHY?! What could DRIVE YOU TO THIS?!"
He hissed, finally deigning to turn around. "You know nothing about my son. This- this is all for him. For us. For our family. And you've destroyed it all."
Not even looking, he performed the well-practiced sequence to open the pod.
Ladybug's kitty sidekick's eyes shrank to pinpricks. "No…"
"Now you see what you've done! The Wish could awaken her, restore her - yet you've insisted on defying me." He pointed a finger at the two of them. "You may call yourself the heroes, but all you've done is doom my son to a life as an orphan, and an innocent woman to eternal slumber!"
"You- you terrorized all of Paris for almost a year - you kept m- your wife's condition secret from anyone who could help her - and you're blaming US?!" The boy roared. "CATACLYSM!" he rushed forward.
Gabriel stopped breathing. This wasn't in his plans. How had he miscalculated? Nothing suggested that these children would be willing to kill!
"CHAT! DON'T!"
The boy halted, an inch away from touching Gabriel's chest. Slowly, he straightened up, not looking at Gabriel any more. "Let's go, Milady," he said curtly. "The police will be here soon. They'll take care of him."
Ladybug shot Chat a worried look, but threw her yo-yo, wrapping Gabriel tightly in its thread. She picked him up. "I'd suggest keeping your mouth shut," she told him coldly. "I may not have my partner's destructive power, but that doesn't mean I have to be gentle."
He kept his mouth shut throughout the ride, until he was safely in the police's hands, and away from that loose cannon of a sidekick Ladybug had. Only then did he permit himself a smirk. "Soon, Ladybug, Chat Noir," he whispered to himself. "Soon, Adrien will find out what you've wrought on his mother. Soon, he'll come to visit me. He'll see my side, my wisdom. And you two- you'll learn why you never underestimate an Agreste. Enjoy your victory while it lasts. It will be your undoing!"
(A/N) There are only so many ways Gabriel could be taken down, at least without getting ridiculous or having a very weird setup. But I've read enough ML fanfics that I wanted to cover the same ground in a slightly different way, so I decided to look at what might be going through Gabriel's head in such a scenario. To be clear, Adrien won't become Hawkmoth or help Gabriel. That's just what Gabriel thinks - or hopes - will happen. Those prison visits aren't going to go the way Gabriel wants them to.