"Plagg?" Adrien whispered as he extricated himself from the curtains. "I- I didn't just hear that. That didn't mean what I thought it meant. Right?"

"Kid…"

"We- we cleared him. The Collector, remember? So- so he CAN'T be Hawkmoth. He CAN'T BE!"

Plagg flew up to Adrien, putting a paw on his mouth. "Shhh! Do you want him to hear you?!" He whispered.

Adrien just started laughing hysterically. "There- there must be a reasonable explanation! Maybe Father just really likes secret hideaways. A-and that whole speech he gave… it must just be bad wording that makes it sound like him failing means our success! Or maybe it does, but for totally innocent reasons. He can't- he can't-"

"Kid, he CAN," Plagg told him softly. "We know Hawkmoth has an accomplice. He could have had her akumatize him to throw us off."

Adrien just gaped at him a moment before closing his mouth, a resolute look upon his face. "Plagg, I think we need to know where that secret passage leads."

For once, Plagg didn't complain about working. He quickly darted into the floor.

A few seconds later he resurfaced. "There's an elevator down there. I don't know where it leads, but I doubt it's good."

"Can you get it to work?"

"Get a measly little elevator working? Pfft. Are you joking. I'm the god of destruction, remember? No way something like THAT'S gonna stand in my way."

Plagg darted into the floor again, causing the floor to open up and the elevator to descend. Adrien looked down the hole. "Uh, Plagg? I don't fancy jumping."

"Oh. Right." Plagg looked a little sheepish. He brought the elevator back up. "Just stand where the floor opens up. The elevator will lower you down. After that… I don't know."

Adrien closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. When he opened his eyes, all trace of doubt in his expression had been erased. "Ok. Let's do this. One way or another, we find out what my Father is hiding today. Find out whether my worst enemy was my father all along."

He stood on the floor elevator as Plagg dived down and activated. As he descended he absent-mindedly stroked Ladybug. She purred comfortingly. It was all she could do.

The elevator descended. Adrien gasped as a huge underground chamber unfolded beneath him. "This… this was under my house?! How the hell did this get built without me noticing? Has it ALWAYS been here? What- What's going ON?!"

He shouted his final word, "on" echoing throughout the chamber.

As Adrien walked down the center walkway, lights gradually came on until the whole room was illuminated. Hesitantly he walked forwards, towards the pod at the end, dread filling his stomach. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to know. He just wanted to go back to bed and pretend that this was some bad dream, that everything would be back to normal in the morning. Ladybug would be human, Gabriel wouldn't have a massive secret underground chamber, and at the end of this walkway…

Adrien stared at his feet as he got closer, hesitant to look up, to see just WHAT was in the pod. Maybe- maybe if he didn't look, then it would just be a fashion mannequin showcasing some old clothing style! And- and this underground chamber would just be some special meditation chamber that his father retreated to in order to come up with new designs! Yeah! And that speech earlier was just father trying to put himself in Hawkmoth's head, because he wanted to know how the supervillain thought so that he could make akuma-esque clothing designs. That made sense, right? Right?!

Ladycat bopped him on the nose. Belatedly he realized that he was hyperventilating, on the verge of a full anxiety attack. she meowed at him worriedly.

She wasn't the only one. Plagg snuggled against his neck. "Kid, I'm here, Ladybug's here, YOU'RE NOT ALONE. Whatever happens, we'll BE here. BOTH of us will be. I won't say it's okay. It's not. But we're in this together, no matter what happens."

Adrien sank to the ground, cuddling Ladybug like his life depended on it. Gradually his breathing slowed down to something approaching his normal rate.

He stood back up, took a deep breath, and walked forwards, eyes still on his shoes, until he was just a few feet away from the pod. He opened his eyes.

A woman lay in the pod. For all the world she seemed to be sleeping peacefully, as if she might wake up at any moment and greet Adrien with a brilliant smile and ruffle his hair.

But Adrien knew better.

His throat closed up. He backed away slightly, shaking his head, unable to speak. Only Ladybug's purring and nuzzling against his chest kept him grounded.

She was here. His Lady was here. Maybe she wasn't herself at the moment, but she hadn't left him. WOULDN'T leave him.

Plagg flew forwards, through the pod's casing, examining Emilie directly. A moment later, he spoke. "She's not dead. It's some sort of enchanted sleep. I wish I could tell you more, but this really isn't my department. It's more Tikki's sort of thing, or Master Fu's. They're the ones who keep track of all the magic stuff, I just keep track of cheese."

Adrien's heart felt like it was about to burst. Mom… alive?! And here, right in front of him.

She hadn't abandoned him. Hadn't left him. Not of her own volition, anyway.

"Why… why didn't he tell me?" he whispered, squeezing Ladybug tightly. She made a slight 'mmrrr" noise, but otherwise didn't respond.

"I don't know kid, I don't know," Plagg told him comfortingly as he stroked Adrien's hair. Adrien leaned into the familiar affection, a reminder of when his mom used to do the same for him.

They stayed there for a moment, Plagg stroking Adrien's head, Ladybug purring, and Adrien trying not to disintegrate.

Something flew across Adrien's vision. He looked up, startled by the sudden movement.

A white butterfly flitted across his sight, accompanied by another, and another, emerging from the cocoons in the bushes around his mother's pod.

Numbly he held out his finger. One of the butterflies landed on it, crawling down it. Adrien dropped his hand and the butterfly flew off. "Bye-bye, little butterfly," he said dazedly.

"Well he's definitely Hawkmoth," Plagg muttered. Adrien didn't reply. What did you even SAY to that? Especially since- since it was true. His father was Hawkmoth. Okay.

Well, NOT okay, but whether or not it was okay wouldn't change anything. He'd have to deal with reality, one way or another.

He heard a whirring noise in the distance. Crap. That sounded a lot like the elevator.

He was NOT ready to face his father yet. Really he wasn't sure he would ever be ready, but especially not now!

"Plagg, is there a way out of here?" he hissed.

Plagg quickly fazed through the floor. "There's another elevator here, leading someplace else. Just stand on this patch of floor and I'll activate it!"

Adrien shot his kwami a quick, grateful smile. "Thanks Plagg."

He hurried over to the patch of floor. Adrien sank out of sight just before Gabriel came into view.

As they traveled, Adrien wondered. "Where could this lead? How many secret rooms could my house possibly have?"

Then the elevator went sideways, then up. Adrien startled. "Wait, seriously? What kind of weird elevator IS this?"

Adrien rose up out of the floor. This new room was pitch black. Adrien panicked for a moment. How big was this room. Was- was it really small? Was he trapped?!

Then the lights turned on. Turned out the room was pretty large. That was the good news.

The BAD news was that the light was red, blaring "INTRUSION. INTRUSION. ELIMINATION MODE ACTIVATED."

Missiles launched out of the walls, heading for Adrien and Ladybug.

Ladybug wiggled free, dodging the missiles on her own. Adrien dodged and weaved. "Plagg! Claws out!"

A moment later (and several hasty dodges during his transformation sequence), Chat Noir ran to one of the walls of the dome. "CATACLYSM!"

The entire dome turned brown and brittle as his destruction spread, weapons breaking as the corruption reached them.

The whole thing cracked and disintegrated, leaving a massive hole in the mansion.

He snatched Ladybug up, carrying her with him as they made their escape.

He gave one long, last look at his childhood home, at the massive hole his Cataclysm had torn in the walls, and the white butterflies fluttering out into the wider world.

He turned around and vaulted off into the distance. He didn't look back again.