A low pained moan brought him back to reality.

He cranked his head to the side.

Ladybug lay in a heap near the bridge. From his angle it was hard to tell whether she was clutching her stomach or tearing at her hair. Maybe both.

At the edge of the 'island', his legs still submerged in water, lay Hawkmoth. Gabriel Agreste. His father.

He looked back at his mother, who looked just as lifeless as his father. His feet stuck to the floor.

Another low moan from his lady spurred him into action.

He crouched down by his father, searching for a pulse. There was none. Or maybe he hadn't felt correctly.

He stared at his chest for a hard minute. Didn't seem like it was rising.

A polka-dotted compact lay next to him.

Turning it in his hands, he found it broken. A small fragment from the mirror already missing.

He looked at himself in it.

When had he detransformed?

"Plagg," He called out uselessly.

The fuzz in his head was starting to wear off, as he looked at where they were.

His mother, lay in a glass coffin. His father lay dead at his feet.

He looked down, realizing his father's neck lay in an unnatural shape.

His father lay dead at his feet.

He stumbled back.

His father lay dead at his feet!

He searched his pockets. He had to get help!

The emergency operator answered calmly.

How was she so calm?!

"My father!" he looked around, "And my mother, they."

He breathed heavily. The fuzziness creeping back.

Someone told him to breathe.

Right. The operator. He needed to get help.

He tried breathing, but his lungs were stone. Nonetheless he tried again. And once more. Until the fuzziness had crept back far enough.

"Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste. Ladybug and Chat Noir fought him. I think… He needs help. Fast."

He gave her his address and hung up. Not listening to her next words. He glanced at his lady; there were more important matters.

He kneeled next to her, hesitantly calling her name.

"Ladybug?"

She paused her heavy breaths.

"Chat?" She whimpered.

Slowly, she turned to look at him.

Upon eye contact she shied away from his touch. Leaning against the railing of the bridge.

"Adrien," she hissed.

Her eyes flicked to his father, and back at him.

"I've called for help," he whispered, inching towards her.

"No! Get away!" she shrieked.

Pushing herself farther into the railing.

He backed away; hands raised.

"I killed him." She whispered, eyes unfocused.

"I killed him," she repeated, her tensed shoulders lowering.

"I killed him," she sobbed, dry heaving.

Her eyes snapped back at his. Where the once were filled with warmth and reminded him of

"I killed him Adrien! I killed your father!" She screamed.

Her words reverberated, before sinking into silence.

The small beeping of her earrings reminded them both of her time limit.

Sirens that rang at a distance, slowly grew louder.

Ladybug shot up, surprising him.

Hands fisted, she backed away from him, until she reached her yoyo on the ground.

And in a flash she was gone. Only the broken skylight remained.

Where her yo-yo had once been, lay the miraculous of the black cat.

X

He met the authorities as Chat Noir.

An officer tried coaxing the answers out of him. He could only watch as they loaded not only his father, but his mother as well onto stretchers.

They had found a pulse. However small, a small seed of hope couldn't help but be planted in his stomach as they rushed her upstairs.

An even larger seed of anger grew. It creeped from his stomach and tangled in his heart. Where it then settled in his throat in the form of nausea. He, had hidden her from him all these years. And together, they had mourned her for four years. And this whole time, she had laid beneath their feet. Breathing silently, her heart beating softer than anyone's ever should. Her body and soul trapped in a glass prison, placed by the one person she should have trust the most.

They placed a white sheet over his body.

Part of him pitied him, and another part felt an immense joy. A small part did mourn him. He had still been his father after all. Not recently of course. Certainly not in the past couple of years. But a long time ago–so long it felt like just a dream–Adrien was sure he had been proud to call that man 'father'. But now. Now he was nothing more than an empty shell that once housed a pitiful excuse of a man.

And as they wheeled him out, and he followed silently behind, he dare not look back for fear that he may not be able to hold his tears no longer.

X

The flashes blinded him, until he saw nothing but the microphones in his face. Covering his eyes with his arm, he spoke.

"Hawkmoth has been defeated. And he will never be a threat to Paris again."

"What of the two people carried in the ambulances!" Someone yelled.

"Did someone die?"

"Where is Ladybug!"

"Are you and Ladybug, no longer going to serve as heroes?"

"What happened in the fight!"

He had enough, and with his baton, he took to the skies.

A beam from the famed tower brought him solace. Away from everything.

distance held the Agreste mansion, with all the screams and commotion, and the flashing lights and sirens. And the stupid questioning policeman.

Here there was nothing but the solace of his own company. And an empty nest, tucked into a corner.

Briefly his lady crossed his mind.

And then he cried.

Next Update: 09/04/2021