Ladybug could only gape at her former partner in shock and betrayal.
"What's wrong, ladybug? No witty comeback." Hawkmoth sneered. Chat Noir at his side wearing a self satisfied smirked. "No, that has always been more of my thing than hers."
"W-why?" Ladybug weakly asked, water in her eyes.
"There are a lot of those mililady." Chat Noir mocked. "Why did I betray you? Why do I want your miraculous so badly? Why have I joined forces with my father?"
Ladybug thought the only shock she would receive is Chat Noir doing the inconceivable double crossing her but the realization that Adrien's father is Hawkmoth
"He-I-What…" She was at a complete loss for words
Chat Noir got down on one knee and stared into ladybug's eyes. "You know I always wondered if that stuttering was an act to throw off anyone who might get a little too close to discovering your true identity Marienette Dupian-Cheng."
Ladybug's eyes widened causing Chat Noir to scoff. "Don't act so surprised. I would like to say I discovered it on my own but that would be a lie."
Ladybug frowned and her mind immediately went to Alya who she knew would never betray her unless her family's lives were at stake.
Chat Noir shook his head. "No it wasn't your trusted partner Rena Rouge." He emphasized making Ladybug flinch. "Oh don't feel bad you're the guardian and what you say goes while the rest of us are your good little troops expected to follow your commands at the whim."
Ladybug sobbed all of this was too much for her. How did it ever come to this? What happened to the flirtatious and carefree Chat Noir? "Chat I-"
"You are sorry that you broke my heart and lied to me, I know." He concluded with a sneer. "I've heard the empty promises before."
Ladybug sobbed silently. She had always thought the Chat Blanc timeline coming to fruition was her worst nightmare but this was so much worse. She would take every nightmare she'd ever had to escape this horrifying new reality.
"It hurts doesn't it?" Chat stated condescendingly. "The feeling of your heart constricting, cutting off oxygen flow in the blood making it hard to breathe. I want you to know after I take your so-called Ladybug miraculous and get my wish that every waking moment of your life will be filled with that pain that'll never go away. There is no practice that makes perfect, Ladybug. The beating of your heart that you need in order to live will only hurt more each time the heart beats."
"Chat you can't there is-"
"A price." Chat cut off. "Yes I am already aware of it. I'm sure a brave and noble hero such as yourself is willing to pay for it."
"Chat, it doesn't work like that for every action there is a reaction in the universe." Ladybug tried to explain. "Whatever it is you wish for, someone else will pay the price."
"Not if the universe is remade to whatever I desired it to be." Chat pointed out.
Ladybug paled at the implications. "You can't!"
"Why not?" Chat Noir retorted with a smug smirk. "Powers of creation and destruction united together give me the power to manipulate reality as I see fit. The universe can't have such reactions if it is a universe that answers only to my will."
"But if you do that everyone here will..will." Ladybug gulped, unable to finish her sentence.
"Die." Chat Noir finished coldly. "A small price to pay to create the perfect world where everyone will get to live in peace."
"Hawkmoth, I know he's your son but if you let him go through with this he'll become a mass murder." She attempted to reason.
"Adrien won't be a mass murder." He corrects, intentionally or unintentionally revealing his son's secret identity or he simply doesn't care enough anymore since this universe will be remade soon. "When he informed me of the consequences of the wishes I had almost lost hope that we'd never be reunited with Emile again but when he told me of the possible loophole that could be exploited I had a similar reaction as you did until I realized it might be our only chance to ever be whole again."
Chat Noir removed Ladybug's earrings causing her to detransform who could only look at her crush in horror who betrayed her.
No, she betrayed him, not her.
Tikki appeared from the earrings attempting in a last ditch effort to stop Adrien from doing what he set out to do.
"Chat Noir please I know you're in pain but this isn't the answer." Tikki reasoned.
"Is it not?" He coldly retorted, putting the earrings on. "With this I can end all of the world's problems. Imagine a perfect world where everyone is happy, poverty, famine, disease eradicated. No war, no more violence. There will only be everlasting peace."
Tikki gave a sad smile. "That sounds like a beautiful world, Adrien but you can't just take away all of the pain and suffering; it is what allows you to be human."
"What do you know about being human?!" Chat hissed. "You still have your friends, all of your fellow kiawams are alive! You have never lost someone in your life."
"WRONG?!" Tikki shouted, catching Marinette the most off guard. Her Kwami had always been so calm and supportive she had never heard such anger and righteous fury in her before.
"I have lost holders before Marinette! I loved each and every one of them! Losing them hurt me even the ones that decided to use me for ill intentions!" Tikki passionately stated.
Marinette for a brief moment thought she could see a flash of remorse in Chat's eye but then it was gone.
"Can you believe this Marinette?" Chat rhetorically asked with an eye roll. "A Kwami talking about love when she's never been in love before."
"You're right." Tikki freely admitted. "Kwami's don't fall in love at least not in the romantic sense but I love Marinette as my own kin. I know she hurt you and she is sorry that is why I am begging you. Adrien, please don't do this."
"You're too late." Chat hissed. "Plagg already tried to convince me not to do , Plagg, unify."
Chat transformed into a mix of Ladybug and Chat Noir. As soon as the transformation was complete the sky turned red and Chat Bug pulsed with red energy crackling off his body.
"What's happening?" Marinette asked, a tremor in her voice.
"He's rewriting reality." Hawkmoth answered, voice graveyard grim. He couldn't help but look upon Marinette with an expression of pity. She looked so broken he didn't even feel the urge to gloat at her in this state. All these months of fighting her he never expected it would end like this.
Oh don't get him wrong he definitely expected one day to get her Miraculous and standing triumphant in his victory. He just never expected his son to be Chat Noir and to turn against Ladybug so easily.
An argument could be made that his son simply wanted his mother back and for them to be reunited as a family again but he knew better.
If that were true he would have discussed things with Ladybug and get her to understand the situation but he didn't. Instead he did the opposite. He came to him as Chat Noir revealed who he was and declared he wanted to help him.
Normally he wasn't the type to look a gift horse in the mouth but Gabriel knew there was more to it than simply wanting to save his mother. Part of his ability to akumatized people is being an empath allowing him to sense the emotions of other people. The emotions he was sensing from Adrien almost overwhelmed him from being in such close proximity.
The feelings of betrayal, anger, and hatred were so intense he had to remind himself that this was his son to resist the sudden instinct to akumatize him.
Gabriel did not need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that this was a lot more personal to Adrien than it was for him.
Those were the last thoughts of Gabriel Agrest as the universe was remade.
AN: Three words, I hate Ephemeral. I will give them this: the episode certainly didn't turn out the way I expected to or wanted it to be. This fanfic is basically my rewritten version of what I think should've happened. I think it would be a far more interesting storyline if Chat Noir wasn't akumatized but joined forces with Hawkmoth willingly. You can clearly see through quite a bit of season 4 Ladybug and Chat Noir relationship is becoming increasingly strained. I think we can all agree Marinette's continued actions to cut Chat Noir out of the loop will come back to bite her. Honestly I think an alternate timeline where Chat Noir worked together with his dad out of his own freewill is a lot more scary than the Chat Blanc timeline.