The villain was a huge robot, previously a child who had been upset when his similar-looking toy was taken away by another spoiled child.
Its heavy metal foot comes down quickly, Mayura doesn't know what possesses her but she pushes the hero out of the way.
"Mayura!" Chat gasps, he had almost accepted that he would be crushed but now the blue villain had saved him.
"How could you?" Hawkmoth yells at Mayura as she stands up and brushes some dirt from her dress.
"We can't kill a teenager!" Mayura argues.
"We could have taken his miraculous!" Hawkmoth fights back.
The heroes, Chat Noir who was now back on his feet ready to try and steal Mayura's miraculous, and Ladybug who thought she could tie up Hawkmoth to get his miraculous, took a step back as they listened to the bickering reminiscent of an old married couple.
"We aren't killing him!" Mayura screams.
"He wasn't going to die!"
"You don't know that!"
"Whose side are you on?" Hawkmoth questions her.
"Why would you ask that? I'm clearly on your side!"
"Are you Mayura? Are you really?" Hawkmoth asks, stepping into her personal space.
"How can you even ask this? I have risked so much for you and it's like you don't appreciate one thing I do!"
Hawkmoth snaps, he's tired of this, of the conversation, of the constant pain, of missing his wife, he's exhausted and everything finally hits him. Instead of letting that sink in, he hits Mayura.
Mayura hits the far away ground hard, but instead of even trying to fight back, they hear her laughing. It feels sadistic for the woman to be laughing now.
"Pathetic!" Mayura says, "you could have done better than that!"
"Excuse me?" Hawkmoth is genuinely confused and the heroes still standing by are shocked by her comment as well.
"You heard me, I barely went anywhere, I know you can hit harder than that!"
"You want me to hit you harder?"
"If you're going to hit me, you might as well do it right!" Mayura argues.
"Come on," Hawkmoth rolls his eyes, "we're going back, you're not even in the right mind to do this."
"I'm not the one obsessing over his dead wife!" Mayura points out.
"Damn it, Mayura," he really didn't want to put up with this today. He walks over and throws her over his shoulder despite her complaints. He starts his way off back to the manor.
"Should we follow them?" Chat Noir asks the heroine beside him.
"No, we should let them sort out their thing first," Ladybug decides.
Chat Noir nods, that sounds like a smart move, "see you later then, Bugaboo."
"What do you think you're doing?" Mayura complains and shouts, "Put me down!"
He doesn't bother responding. Even as she pounds her fist against his back, he doesn't let her go until they are back in the Agreste mansion.
"That would have been easier if you weren't struggling the whole way here," Hawkmoth says as he sets her down.
Mayura rolls her eyes and attempts to walk off. Hawkmoth is quick to grab her by the wrist.
"Where do you think you're going?" Hawkmoth demands to know an answer.
"Doesn't concern you," Mayura shrugs.
"What is going on with you today? You've been acting insane all day."
"Really? I'm the insane one?" Mayura's laugh scares him now, "I guess they did say love makes someone do crazy things, I just always thought you were worse than me."
"What are you even talking about? Tell me what is going on in your head, I can't read your mind but there is something you clearly need to talk about."
"You are worse than I thought. I've risked it all for you and you still need me to spell it all out for you! Put some pieces together in that thick skull of yours."
"Don't forget your place Mayura," Hawkmoth warns.
Mayura rolls her eyes, "I knew I shouldn't have dared to love you."
"Excuse me?" Hawkmoth asks, but it almost makes sense in his mind, he thought it was odd an assistant would go through all of this.
He had been caught up in his own mind that he hadn't realized her walking away from him. His grip, which was already loose before, had loosened with her part confession.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Hawkmoth calls after her.
"Look around!" Mayura screams, "we are standing in a room full of butterflies, you have a whole garden for your almost dead wife underneath us, it's clear you don't want anyone else in your life, and I wasn't going to interfere with that until you insisted to know why I was going mad."
"You know that's not true, I need you," Hawkmoth says before he truly processes what comes out of his mouth.
"But you need her too, and the way you need me isn't in the way you need her, and it never will be. I would be stupid to think otherwise, but pardon me if I'm exhausted from trying to keep that hidden."
"I can't just give up on her, I love her, I made a promise to bring her back, and-"
"You think I don't know all this? It's why I hadn't mentioned it before, save me the time, and don't mention it later."
"You-" Hawkmoth tries, but he doesn't know what else to say, Mayura has every right to be upset and he couldn't imagine what uncomfortable positions she had been forced into simply because she liked him.
"You're pathetic," Mayura finally walks away, rolling her eyes. This time she meant it as an insult, she was done, she was going to allow herself to be fooled by one more of her fantasies, or one more word that came out of the lying man's mouth.
He just watches as Mayura walks away, he doesn't know what to do because part of him feels like he should chase over him, but he knows she doesn't want to see him.
It's been a few hours when Gabriel goes looking for his assistant. Instead of finding her in the room where she had been working from bed, the bed is neatly made and the peacock brooch lays next to a sealed envelope with his name on it. He opens the letter, 'good luck without me' is all it reads.
Gabriel knows the woman used to have an apartment of her own, she hadn't been there in months, did she still have it? Where else would she have gone? Was it wrong to go after her? Eventually, he decides he can't, but he keeps the letter close to him, a reminder of another woman that he has lost.
He wants to seize Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous, Gabriel's goal hasn't changed, he wants his wife back, but he needs a lot more than luck to make that happen. It seemed that Nathalie had done more than he had expected. Not only that but now Gabriel was constantly behind on deadlines and had a million emails that he couldn't keep track of. The thought of hiring a new PA crossed his mind but, not wanting to risk his secret identity he decided against the idea, even if without an assistant he was so busy that Hawkmoth hadn't made an appearance for a year now.
Now, Hawkmoth knocks on the sliding door of Nathalie's balcony. At least, he hopes it's still her balcony, it used to be. Then she comes walking into view, putting her glasses on her face, and tucking some of the hair that had come loose from the messy bun she had worn to bed. She turns around after she sees him and heads back to her room. She isn't dealing with this, especially at the current hour. The knocking persists until Nathalie has finally had enough and lets him in.
"What do you want that couldn't wait until morning?" Nathalie asks, visibly irritated.
"I needed to talk to you."
"You still have my phone number, call me tomorrow morning," Nathalie says, just wanting to get back to bed.
"Please, Nathalie, I can't live my double life without you."
Nathalie glares at him, even now, it's all still about him, he's so selfish, he wants her back so he can start his double life again.
"Leave," Nathalie demands, "I can't, I refuse, to go back to that life I was living. I'm different, and you can't expect me to drop everything I have now to go back to you and- no, you shouldn't even need an explanation just leave."
"Nathalie," Hawkmoth tries, he steps closer and brings a hand to her face, "please."
Nathalie wants to cry, she's stronger than that, she had trained herself to be.
Lifting an arm, she brushes his hand before slapping him across the face.
"I said no," she tells him.
His hand goes to where she had slapped him. He wants to argue that he doesn't deserve it, even after this time, he probably still does. He can't blame her if she had allowed her rage to build inside her for the man.
"You were right," Hawkmoth says, when he realizes that Nathalie hadn't moved, "I couldn't have done any of it without you, I still can't. I don't expect you to change your mind, but I guess you deserve to know."
Hawkmoth leaves, there isn't anything else he could do. The woman who would once do anything for him wasn't the same, he shouldn't have expected her to be. Why had he even come here a year later? He felt like a fool now.
Nathalie still stands there, looking at where the villain had previously stood. She feels pathetic about even considering his offer, he doesn't want her, he wants his double life back, he wants Emilie back.
"No," Nathalie tells herself, she knows better, "I'm not going back."
This doesn't stop her from stepping onto the balcony and watching as he disappears over the horizon.
"Nath, baby," her boyfriend's arms wrap around her, "what's going on? I swear I heard you talking to someone."
"No, I thought I heard something on the balcony but it must have been the wind," Nathalie lies, explaining how a man you used to love had ended up on your balcony was complicated enough without explaining that it was Hawkmoth and all of her past that went along with that story that she hadn't bothered to tell him before.
"Then come back to bed," he tells her, "you'll catch a cold standing out here."
Nathalie turns around and places a quick peck on his lips, "I love you."
Nathalie did love him, she just wished she didn't miss Gabriel. She wished that some part of her didn't still feel connected to him because that felt pathetic to her.